Monday, February 18, 2019

Recent gaming -- online

In the past, I've spent a little time playing online versions of board games, from Puerto Rico on Brettspielwelt.de to Vinci on boiteajeux.net, to Magic: the Gathering on MTG online, but I usually lose interest after a while. I much prefer irl board gaming, face to face with real people.

I recently posted that my game Eminent Domain is available for free online play at BoardGameArena.com, and that I'd been exploring some of online boardgames that site has to offer:

Well, I've been continuing to play games online -- my current makes that much more viable than getting to a live game night. I mostly play 2p games late at night with my friend Steve. I like 2p best, since otherwise it can take a frustratingly long time for my turn to roll around, and I will have forgotten what was going on in the game.

Games I've been playing since my last post include:
  • Caylus - an old favorite, still a great game, but not a very modern feeling one
  • Hawaii - a neat game I'd played once before, a long time ago
  • In the Year of the Dragon - one of my all time favorite games. 2p is weird because turn order can be such a big deal
  • Penny Press - a neat auction sort of game, but feels a bit one dimensional (after only 1 play)
  • Ponte de Diavolo - an abstract game that it turns out I'd played before, but forgotten. Not my type of game
  • Race for the Galaxy - I haven't played much RftG irl since EmDo became a thing. It's a solid game, and I like 2p better than multiplayer because I feel like playing 2 cards at a time gives me more agency and feels more fun
  • Seasons - a decent card combo-y game, but one I got a little bored with after a handful of plays
  • Signorie - a "heavy"-ish game that got good buzz. It's OK, I guess, but I really didn't feel like there were different approaches like there appeared to be
  • Takenoko - a very nice, very fun game by Antoine Bauza. Works well with 2, and didn't really seem to get old
  • Tokaido - another very pleasant, very good game by Antoine Bauza. 2p has a neutral pawn that the player farthest ahead gets to control, which is a really neat aspect. The game is great, but many of the player powers seem lackluster (at least in 2p) because they're so narrow and easily blocked. Still a great game though!
  • Tash Kalar - a largely abstract game, which is usually not my thing, but this one is pretty interesting. Cool how the scoring goals (Tasks) are what's important more than simply placing pieces and taking opposing pieces (Nexus Ops had some of that going on, and I guess Twilight Imperium did too)
And I've started a game of The Castles of Burgundy on boiteajeux.net with Steve. I like that game, but when I play it in real life I feel like it takes too long. I'd REALLY like the game if it only took an hour, but it consistently takes 2 hours when playing with 4 players. So maybe it's better online? So far, yes and no. It's nice to log in, think about your turn, and do it... but it's real easy for me to ignore my opponent and play solitaire that way, which has hurt me in this game. Also, just like irl, the game has the dice luck that can really be annoying sometimes.

I'm having a lot of fun playing these games online, though it'll never be as good as playing in real life. It's especially fun to play and chat in real time, though with my schedule I can never commit to actual real time games, just turn based ones where we take our turns in quick succession for a while.

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