So I got to play some new games this last weekend.
Baseball Highlights 2045.
Only barely got to play this one, it took longer than expected to get the mechanics down, but by the end i am pretty sure we got it right and in the future it should be a lot faster. It seems like it has good potential.
Roll for the galaxy.
I'd been wanting to play this one since I really enjoy race for the galaxy. Overall it was a solid game, felt like race, but different enough to justify owning both. I will have to pick it up for myself at some point, though I do with the die weren't just printed on.
Dead of Winter a Crossroads game.
Simply put this was a great game. After my wife read the rules once we were able to get it set up and going with ease and while there is a ton of little things to keep track of everything made such logical since that it was very easy to keep track of everything. While it was co op, the secret objectives really help make you feel like an individual as I definitely took a unoptimal turn near the end for the team, but an optimal turn for myself (which let me be one of the winners and caused someone else to lose even though we overall won) I am curious to see how the betrayal objectives work in the game, but even if I dislike them the game has ton of reputability as a co op game.
Alchemy (linked to board game geek as this one isn't clear which one I am talking about)
So this was a kickstarter game a friend backed, and while I didn't dislike it, it felt unpolished and like it was missing a mechanic or two. The unpolished was due to the wording on a lot of cards, as while I am not grammar expert a lot of them still felt very poorly worded. For example my character had an ability along the lines of "When ever an opponent takes a drink of a potion put a counter on this character. You can remove 3 counters from this character to use any of your potions without removing a counter from it." which while it's not horrible the second part really should read "You can remove 3 counters from this character to use any one potion you own without removing a counter from it."
The mechanic part might have partially come from the card that effected the game overall (I don't remember the name of it) but in our scenario it was that after the 3/6/9/12 and 15th potions are made all the other ones left get counters of them for additional doses, which make the later potions made worth a lot more than the early ones. Which this wouldn't be so bad if a number of the potions were better. In the game the doses on the potion equal your final points, so each time you use a potion you lose a point effectively. The issue with this is that most of the potions are not remotely powerful enough to make that worth it. In our entire game a potion was drank exactly once and it was one of the potions that actually had a solid effect of basically making a player lose quite a bit of progress. There were a couple others that were good, but they like some cards were almost to powerful as if used they would have stalled the game out for a number of extra rounds. There were a lot of potions I didn't see which may have been more in line with effects that are powerful and thus useful in situations, but not so powerful that they stall the game out, but of the ones I saw only about 3 out of 15 of the potions really felt that way to me (and one of them was merely a copy a different potion potion)
I understand part of the appeal of the potions is to grab the good ones early and not all of them can be good, but the balance felt off to me and felt like a case of while it's nice they included so many potions in the game, it likely would have been better to include less and have a better curve with them. Though this issue could also be resolved with some other mechanics put in. If you could get points from other ways than just potions, then that could help the potion balance quite a bit. As if your standard goes from it needs to be good enough to lose a point to use, but instead perhaps it will lose you a point in general, but there are goals to work towards that can get you points back for using your potions people would be more willing to use them. I mean I did see a different global card that was drinking potions doesn't reduce doses which would cause people to drink quite a bit more, but while that will make the game quite a bit different, that much variability in a global leads to a lot of balance issues.
Long rant conclusion; while I didn't dislike the game, I can't see myself wanting to play it much. It feels like it has a decent basis for a game, and with some tweaks could actually be a lot of fun, but as it currently is it's just not a very satisfying game to play. Perhaps a future version or future expansion will really help the game.
