Board Game Streaming | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Fri, 18 Aug 2023 12:57:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Board Game Streaming | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 The Isofarian Guard – Game Play 4 https://nerdologists.com/2023/08/the-isofarian-guard-game-play-4/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/08/the-isofarian-guard-game-play-4/#respond Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:40:07 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8283 That adventure of The Isofarian Guard is back to the table. Join me on Malts and Meeples to see how Grigory and Alek fair in their battles and adventure.

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We’re back for the normal streaming schedule after a few weeks of changing things up with Gen Con. That means that The Isofarian Guard by Sky Kingdom Games is hitting the table again. Grigory and Alek just left a fort last session, so they need to travel down to another fort. How will that adventure go and how far will they get. Join me as I play The Isofarian Guard over on Malts and Meeples on YouTube.

The Isofarian Guard – Story to Grind Ratio

So, one complaint that I’ve heard about The Isofarian Guard is the amount of grind in the game. And this, also from what I’ve heard is a factor of two things. One of the two causing another issue with the game, but that is a player problem, so we’ll touch on that second. Let’s start with talking about last nights session.

Battle Grind

So in last nights session of The Isofarian Guard, I got the same combat twice. Now, I hit different zones, so that changes up what I might be facing. There is also a balancing act of not wanting something to be too hard or having too many monsters or enemies to face. Adding more is a great way to make a big game harder to get to the table. This is already a game that takes up a whole gaming table.

The downside is that I beat up two of the same enemy and due to how those enemies work, it was not that unique. Now, some of this is due to lower leveled characters. Alek is always going to be able to pull of his starting combo. That is always going to make Grigory’s next turn better. So it is a balancing act for the The Isofarian Guard that way.

Is it a bummer to hit the same combat twice. I think so. Right now is it too much of grind for me, definitely not. This is not indicative of the game always being the same. There are just times where you fill be hunted by a certain enemy or pack of them that you need to deal with. That is how it makes sense thematically.

Side Questing

Now, this is where The Isofarian Guard has a player problem. The game comes with side quests and side quests are a great way to get a whole bunch of resources. Then to use those resources to level up armor, weapons, and characters.

There is one major flaw with this, the game is not meant to have you play every side quest. It is meant, when you need a little boost, to give you that little boost. So players are deciding to over power and over level their characters in The Isofarian Guard. But to do that, you end up grinding a lot of side quests and fights to do that. And as you grind, the more it throws off the balance.

So I think this is a player problem. Players, I get it, want to be powerful in the game. But it creates an experience where the grind is more than what it should be. And also, that the game is easier than it should be. Trying to get ahead in the game is causing more issues than solving.

Upcoming Streams

So, as normal, Wednesday is for campaign games. That means for a little bit longer my plan is to play more Isofarian Guard. I like to play around ten sessions, we might play this longer, to show off the game and how it works. So expect on Wednesday’s to see more of The Isofarian Guard. Streaming time is 8 PM Central on Wednesday.

Then on Monday, this is going to be more of a mixed bag. I still plan on streaming every Monday, and Monday streams are at 9 PM Central. But I think I want to start doing more Top 10 Lists again. And as we wrap up the summer that means it is closer to when I start my Top 100 list. That is going to be on the Monday stream to keep the campaign games going on Wednesday. But I play smaller games, put together lists, or discuss topics on Monday’s. Join me then as well.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Grove – Game Play https://nerdologists.com/2023/07/grove-game-play/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/07/grove-game-play/#comments Tue, 18 Jul 2023 11:47:51 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8148 It's time to play a little game, Grove, on Malts and Meeples. How does this game work and what makes it stand out for me?

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Join me as I chat some about Gen Con and other things and play a handful of games of Grove. How do I do with this game. And I’ve played Orchard, how does this compare to Orchard in terms of game play and in terms of challenge? Join me and see how it goes over on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

Grove

This is a great little gaming experience. I know I already wrote a review about it, but it’s worth talking about why I like it so much. There are three main reasons that this is an ideal solo game, especially an ideal game to take as a little travel solo game.

Firstly, the game is compact in two ways. One the box is small and pocket sized. But also when you play the game it only takes up a little bit of space. There are other small solo games, like this, that send up more sprawling. Sprawlopolis for example takes up more table space. Which I prefer the compact nature here.

Next the games are quick. For this type of solo game I want to sit down and play the game in a few minutes. In half an hour while chatting and having a interruption from a kid, I got through five games. Without distractions, in that time, I’d have gotten through at least two more.

I also think that the variety of the game is really good. The game is built off of completing the challenges or at least the challenges setting your target score. So it gives you multiple things to think about. Sometimes, with how the cards come out it isn’t worth it to go for those challenges, other times that can make or break weather you win, which is fun.

Upcoming Streams

It’s going to be a different couple of weeks coming up here. Mondays are still going to be games, but it likely won’t be Welcome to the Moon! like I was thinking about. Leading up to Gen Con it’s going to be busy and I might be taking a break the week after Gen Con at least. I plan on streaming the week leading into Gen Con and that might be more Gen Con specific. That will generally be around 8:30 PM central time.

Then on Wednesdays, Isofarian Guard is going to be paused for three weeks. The reason three weeks is that third week I’ll be at Gen Con, and the two weeks leading it, last year I went through the Board Game Geek Gen Con Preview. This Wednesday at 8 PM central I’ll be going through the games to demo. Next week I plan to look at the games for sale. It won’t be my list of my favorites, but just going through the whole list.

The best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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My City Roll and Build – Chapter 4 https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-4/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-4/#respond Tue, 20 Jun 2023 11:59:04 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8082 It's the final chapter of My City Roll and Build. How will it end up going, how good a builder of the city will I be?

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Join me as I wrap up My City Roll and Build last night on Malts and Meeples. How high a score can I get overall? Will I become the true leader of the town or just some apprentice slaving away? Watch and find out how the last three episodes go.

My City Roll and Build

So final thoughts on the game and what works well for the game. There will be some comparisons to My City, but probably not a ton, I’ll save those for a Board Game Battle. But I think there is plenty to talk about with My City Roll and Build.

Firstly, the speed of play is amazing for this game. Each stream I’ve done, keep in mind learning the rules for each episode as I go, it has been just over half an hour. As a solo game, that means, I play each episode in about 10 minutes. And a chapter takes about half an hour. I’d maybe say 15 minutes and 45 minutes when it comes to playing in a group. But this is a very fast game.

The concern about a fast game is that it might lack meaningful decisions. And I think that My City Roll and Build still offers those. Yes, there is no dice mitigation, unless you want to take negative points. But that is an interesting decision in and of itself. Because there is that tradeoff of the negative points, now you don’t know if you want to skip over it.

I also think that the dice work really well. While every player still gets the same thing, like in the board game. The dice add in variability to that. No longer is everything even and equal. I might roll a lot of solid buildings and my score raised up higher that way. So you can’t plan out as well how things might come up.

And finally, I like that the game doesn’t keep all of the scoring. It’s a small game with a small scoring sheet. So it’s nice to shift the focus on what we’re doing from time to time. And for a game that is so fast, if all of the scoring were to stay around, it’d get bogged down in what you are doing.

Upcoming Streams

So last night’s stream was at an odd time. My apologies for not announcing that sooner. With Father’s Day weekend, some things that happen on Sunday, recording the podcast, got moved to Monday night with adjusted when I streamed. But let’s talk about next Monday. Plan is 8:30 PM on Monday for streaming. And I think I might try and learn Welcome to the Moon.

Tomorrow it is going to be The Isofarian Guard. I am off work today, so I plan on learning the rules and getting it set up. That is what I will play tomorrow and get started on that campaign. So you can join me at 8 PM Central on Wednesday for that.

Finally, with today off, and with my normal Tuesday gaming not happening, I am going to stream opening some Magic the Gathering packs. 4 collectors packs of the Lord of the Rings Magic The Gathering set is my plan. From what I’ve seen the One Ring hasn’t been found yet, so there is a chance, a tiny tiny tiny chance. The plan is around 8 PM Central.

The best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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ISS Vanguard Game Play 4 https://nerdologists.com/2023/04/iss-vanguard-game-play-4/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/04/iss-vanguard-game-play-4/#respond Thu, 20 Apr 2023 11:43:59 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7953 Join me on Malts and Meeples YouTube as I play more ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms. How will planet two go?

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We’re diving back into ISS Vanguard with a more complex planet. I say more complex, but it’s the second planet and one that you always go to, so it’s still not too complex. Which is decent for ramping up, but I was hoping for a little more as I was learning, but let’s dive into the game and the game play.

ISS Vanguard Game Play

Let’s talk about the new things on this planet. The biggest things added were discoveries with leads and supplies. There are some more things, like charges and the lander, but let’s talk about them and see which ones add the most interesting element to the game.

Leads and Discoveries

This one I like quite well. It isn’t the best when it comes to the rules, but it is interesting. And I say the rules aren’t the best, they aren’t bad, but they could be better. It is interesting to see how leads and discoveries work.

What I like about it is how you push for leads. And then when you get it, you get something that you might use right away. So the discoveries can give you immediate benefit, or it it might be something that you add later in for the ship. It’s interesting to see what you can get and I like that aspect because it means you can get more than need or can take with you. This is how the lander influences you.

Supplies

The other big thing is the supplies. You saw h ow I played where I actually was working on the premise that I would need to get back. So I was exerting myself versus resting. That was to make sure I had enough supplies to get back.

Now, this is one of those things where I wish I held my hand less. If I try only to go out and not worry about coming back, I play it differently. Instead I could really have spent a whole lot more to get dice back faster, I could have kept my other character around. But it is a good show how it will affect the game in the future.

Charges

This is the last one we’re going to talk about. The lander influences more in other areas like supplies and discoveries with how much you have. But with charges that comes down to your character. I like that it is determined that way. And I like it as a system to activate powers. The more generic the power is, it had more charges. I didn’t even use the one with three. I could have drawn cards, which I should have done to start.

But then it was an odd situation with the other one where I wanted to spread around discovery tokens. I did like being able to get a mineral discovery, I believe. And that was because I forgot the activate that one location, but also because I needed to spread tokens around. It make for an interesting experience with those, but I can see how some would be really strong or useful.

Upcoming Streams

What I will talk about every time is that for a little while longer at least I’ll be playing ISS Vanguard on Wednesdays. That is at 8 PM Central time. You can always subscribe to know when I go live. But I do have the next video up that you can join and watch. You can find the video link here.

Then on Monday, I plan to stream a solo game. What is that game going to be, probably Planet Unknown. I want to try that one again. But the link will go up when I officially decide the game. So keep an eye out for that on Monday. On Monday I stream at 8:30 PM Central time.

Thank you so much for watching. The easiest way to know if I am streaming is to subscribe and click that notification bell. And you can do that here.

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Stars of Akarios – Game 2 https://nerdologists.com/2022/08/stars-of-akarios-game-2/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/08/stars-of-akarios-game-2/#respond Thu, 18 Aug 2022 13:51:35 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7279 Join me back down at the table as I play the second scenario of the prologue for Stars of Akarios from OOMM Games on Malts and Meeples.

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It was a bit of an odd stream last night. It started late because of a toddler, but still went under an hour. Join me at the table for the second game play of Stars of Akarios. The cadets, Violet Ray and G’iardian, went back to the Sparrow to await further instructions. Of course, things did not go well in the space battle and as we looked to leave the system, we had to go out and fight enemy ships that were showing up. But this time we were a bit better prepared for the battle. Catch up on Stars of Akarios here.

Stars of Akarios Tactical Combat

Thus far we haven’t experienced some of the game, mainly the space exploration has been limited and we haven’t gone down to a planet yet. What we’ve really learned is how space combat works and how to blow up the enemy ships, so let’s talk a little bit about the space combat.

Mainly because the space combat offers a lot of interesting tactical choices. Both with how you activate everything, when you use stress and supplies for that bigger hit. And so much of it is about how you fly around. The hardest part of the puzzle is to get your ships positioned correctly. I want to just rush up and get in their face and blast them. That is what you do in a lot of games.

But for Stars of Akarios you really want to get behind your opponent. That allows you to flip two cards and really decreases the chances you will miss. And at the same time, you want to position yourself so you won’t have ships flying up behind you. The enemy also gets advantage if they get behind you, so you can just fly into an area and not think about what could happen.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday, my plan is going to be streaming a roll and write game. I picked up Trek 12, so my hope is to get that one to the table. Though, Long Shot the Dice Game, Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade, Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw, and Cartographers are all on the short list as well. Same with Sagrada if I don’t want to do a roll and write game.

Then on Wednesday, at 8 PM this time, I will be streaming more Stars of Akarios. I believe that I have one more space mission to get through and then it’ll be to a planet. One question I have for people watching, do you want to see the whole campaign? From what I can tell this is a huge game, you don’t play every scenario but there are a lot. I’d like to get through the prologue at least, but ideally further into the story than that. Let me know how far you’d like to see?

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Malts and Meeples – First 2022 Board Game To Stream https://nerdologists.com/2021/12/malts-and-meeples-first-2022-board-game-to-stream/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/12/malts-and-meeples-first-2022-board-game-to-stream/#respond Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:07:39 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6478 Help me decide what the first board game I should play on Malts and Meeples is for 2022. I have a lot of great options.

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Help me pick out what board game I’m going to be streaming to start 2022 over on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. I have six that I’m trying to decide between and a poll up to help determine which one it is going to be. Last night’s Malts and Meeples stream was to kind of pitch each game and give a reason as to why they are all options that I’m looking for. You can checkout that below.

There are a lot of good games, and I could have pulled more off of my shelf. Reichbusters: Projekt Vril, 7th Continent, and Midarra were all honorable mentions that didn’t get mentioned in the video. And I even own more campaign games I could consider as well. But let’s talk about the ones that I did.

Six Board Game Options

HEXplore It: The Forests of Adrimon

HEXplore It The Forests of Adrimon
Image Source: Mariucci J. Designs

This is an exploration and adventure game. It’s going to let you create a Dungeons and Dragons, in some ways, type character(s) to take through the world. You explore, shop, and fight along the way. This leads to a big battle in the end against the villain of the story. HEXplore It is ore of an adventure game, in some ways, than a true campaign style game. The setting is going to lean into a mechanical world with a Sorceress named Adrimon puppeting them all.

Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies
Image Source: Czech Game Editions

This is a bit of a space invaders style game. There is a campaign to it as you play through some different cities. Each game goes pretty fast for this one. It is going to have less story than all the other games. But Under Falling Skies is going to give you dice manipulation as you try and keep waves of aliens away from you. I also runs off of a comic book(s) that tell you the story for each scenario.

Deep Madness

Deep Madness
Image Source: Diemension Games

Another almost campaign type of game, like HEXplore It. Deep Madness is going to be a horror based game where you play through scenarios. The scenarios are loosely linked together. But in Deep Madness you and your team go down to a deep sea base. Something has happened, you have lost contact with them, and when you get there, things are much worse than expected.

Each scenario has you trying to survive to complete different objectives. They do form together to create a loose story. One time you might be trying to get the coms system up and working or restore life support before it fails fully, or get off the deep sea base. There just isn’t as much story between that ties them all together. This is one that is a bit of a longer game I think might be trickier to stream, but could be doable.

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods
Image Source: Red Raven Games

Sleeping Gods from Red Raven games and Ryan Laukat is a game not set in the same world as his other games, Above and Below, Near and Far, and Now and Never, but still has to same amazing artwork. In this game you are transported to a world that you know nothing about. You aren’t even sure what you are trying to do. Except, you want to find a way home.

Sleeping Gods is a big exploration adventure game where a single play can take 10 hours or 15 hours. You complete quests and look for totems and clues. And there are a lot of different story elements you can find, so much that to win the game, you don’t need to do the same thing every time. That leaves a ton of the game available to explore again and again and again.

Folklore: The Affliction

Folklore the Affliction Fall of the Spire
Image Source: Greenbrier Games

Folklore: The Affliction is the most traditional in terms of a campaign game. This is a world that is full of vampires, werewolves, and other monsters. And as a monster hunter, you want to take them out. That, though, is easier said than done. Folklore is really an RPG board game. It gives you that feeling of rolling dice to see what happens and rolling D20’s even, I believe.

What interests me so much about this one is that RPG feel. You go from story moments and random encounters as you travel across the land. And then it drills down to a tighter picture and you get into combats against monsters. And you can even turn into a monster yourself if you aren’t careful.

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane
Image Source: Mythic Games

Finally, we have Solomon Kane. This is a scenario but kind of campaign game. I say kind of campaign game because each story of Solomon Kane is it’s own campaign. Some of them can be played in a few hours. Some of them are much longer than that. Each scenario is going to have it’s own objective to try and complete.

It’s an interesting game, though, in that you aren’t playing as Solomon Kane. Instead you play as virtues who are aiding him along his way. In the books that the game is based off of, Solomon Kane is a good man with a particular set of skills. But he didn’t always use those skills for good. So the idea of the virtues is to keep him on the path and not fall into the temptations and darkness of his past.

Which Game Should I Play?

Vote and help me decide what game I should play. The voting is going to close on December 21st in the morning. That’s probably going to be one of the last daily articles I do that week. But I’ll dive more into the game then and probably ask some questions about what I should do, if there is anything to determine in the set-up.

But this is what I am going to stream to start the year. Don’t expect anymore streams in 2021 with Christmas and the week leading up to New Years. But for sure no stream next week, maybe one between Christmas and New Years. If that happens, I’ll try and give as much warning as possible.

Thanks everyone for watching and have a great holiday season. I hope that you get lots of great time with family and friends, and a lot of great gaming.

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Aeon’s End Legacy Game 6 https://nerdologists.com/2021/08/aeons-end-legacy-game-6/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/08/aeons-end-legacy-game-6/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:01:24 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6041 Join me at my table over on Malts and Meeples for another game of Aeon's End Legacy from Indie Board and Cards.

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Last nights stream is out there as I tackled Aeon’s End Legacy again. Thus far I’ve really enjoyed the game, with the new mechanic introduced, will it still be interesting to me? And will I be able to keep my winning streak going in the game?

The Game

We continue our playthrough of Aeon’s End Legacy. I have talked about the game a lot at this point. It is a cooperative, legacy, deck building game from Indie Boards and Cards. So today we’re going to talk about if it’s a good legacy game.

I clearly am enjoying the game. I already know that I like Aeon’s End because I like Aeon’s End and Aeon’s End War Eternal, the two versions of the game that came before. That doesn’t, however, automatically make the legacy version of the game good. Especially since I am only looking at the legacy piece.

When looking at a legacy game, I want a few things, evolving mechanics, interesting story, and regular unlocks. I think that two of those things Aeon’s End legacy does well, the third is fine and a hidden fourth is not great.

So the mechanics evolve well throughout the game. If someone was pretty sure that they’d like the game, I’d consider teaching using the legacy game because it brings you along nicely into the full game as you.

It also gives you regular unlocks at the start or end of every game. That’s good, I like that it feels like I’m always getting more. My knock on that, though, is that there are never any surprise unlocks. Pandemic Legacy was good at giving you a few mid game unlocks and while those slow down the game, they are a lot of fun. I wish that Aeon’s End Legacy would do that. I want one big, mid game twist, which I’m pretty sure I won’t get.

And finally, we have the story, the story is just fine. There isn’t that much story really. I’d love to see a little bit more. The legacy deck works well enough to get across story and really Pandemic Legacy has story, but less than you’d think. So this is kind of on par with that. I think that the game could offer a few more story driven choices or just a bit more story. It might be the fact we don’t unlock anything mid game that makes it feel like there is less.

Overall, a solid legacy game, but I’m not sure that it elevates above what the base game already does. The little bits of story are good and I like the unlocks and making my own character, but in terms of a legacy game, I’m not sure it’s my favorite legacy portion of a game. The game play itself might be though.

The Drink

Last nights drink was from Insight Brewing, a brewery very near my place. It was a Raspberry Pineapple Tart Wheat, and I have to say, it was okay at best. I like most of what Insight brews but this one was really lacking on most fronts. The pineapple and raspberry were barely there and while it had a tart initial taste it wasn’t a strong enough lingering flavor. Instead, it was just mainly wheat.

Upcoming Streams

Next two streams will be Monday at 8:30. I’ll do 10 games that I don’t like but you might, or 10 games that aren’t for me. And then at 8 PM on Wednesday I’ll be streaming Game #7 of Aeon’s End Legacy. So join me for those two live. Once I wrap up Aeon’s End Legacy I have a few solo only games to show off.

Be sure to subscribe and click that notification bell for when I go live.

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Malts and Meeples: Metro X https://nerdologists.com/2021/04/malts-and-meeples-metro-x/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/04/malts-and-meeples-metro-x/#respond Thu, 29 Apr 2021 13:08:21 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5610 Grab your beer and join me on another Malts and Meeples. Today I am sipping an IPA from Schells in MN and playing through Metro X.

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The audio didn’t and then did work this week on the stream. Of course, then a webcam started acting up, so that was fun. But we got a whole stream in and I managed to get in three games of Metro X in 45 minutes. If you are curious about this route making roll and write, I’ll talk about it more but you can also see how it is played.

The Game(s)

Only one game this week, but it is a game that I have had a fair number of plays of now solo. And I wanted to highlight it as an interesting roll and write (flip and write technically) game.

Metro X

This game I originally got interested in when I saw Tom Vasel play it on the Dice Tower. It seems like a good puzzle and one that is nice and easy to teach. Now, I haven’t had the opportunity to teach it yet, I’ve only played it solo, but I will say, it is a very enjoyable puzzle of a game.

In this game you have a collection of routes that you are trying to complete on your metro transit system, one side is tubes and the other bus routes. You flip a card from the top of the deck and then fill in that number of spots along one of the routes. That sounds simple, but there are a few small rules that make it interesting for me. Firstly, the routes intersect, so you fill in a spot and it can count for two routes. But because the routes interconnect if you hit an already filled in spot on a route, you stop filling in bubbles.

And then there are also the transit locations. These give you points if you get the card flipped, but they also limit how much you can fill up. Each route can only use a certain number of cards. So while you have to use the transit stops when they are flipped, pretty often you don’t want to because it’ll mean empty spots at the end of the game, and the more empty spots, the more negative points you get.

Overall a fun game and you can see my review here. I will say that while I am enjoying this solo quite a lot, I think it’ll be better with multiple players. There is a lot of randomness from the cards, but when everyone one is getting the same randomness it will be interesting to see how much score vary. In my three games my scores vary a lot, but that is because of the card flips. So it is hard to compare.

The Beer

So last nights beer was a pretty boringly named one Schells IPA. Schells is a Minnesota brewery based out of New Ulm, MN. And I was not a huge fan of their IPA. I talk about the different ways to use hops and how different hops have different profiles. I tend to like the money piney hops and the more citrus hops. This was more in line with tropical fruits. And while that can be okay, it isn’t my preferred. Mainly, the tropical fruit flavor in this was a bit muddied between a number of flavors and the bitterness didn’t match with the flavor set. I tend to want my IPA’s to be more focused on the bitter.

Have you tried Metro X, what do you think of that roll and write?

And if you are a beer drinker, what hop profile do you look for in your IPA’s? Or do you even like IPA’s?

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Malts and Meeples: Marvel United https://nerdologists.com/2021/03/malts-and-meeples-marvel-united/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/03/malts-and-meeples-marvel-united/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:31:52 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5461 On Malts and Meeples I took Marvel United to the table last night. Were Iron Man and Captain Marvel able to beat Red Skull?

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One of the games last year I was most excited for when it was on Kickstarter was Marvel United. Driven by it’s chibi miniatures, it helped sell the game but the light cooperative game play was interesting as well. I was looking for a game that when game nights could happen again it’d be an easy game to full out, a game that plays fast, and one that had a fun theme. I’ve gotten it to the table a few times now, and I show how to play the game two handed in last nights stream. Join me as I take Iron Man and Captain Marvel up against Red Skull.

Plus, I unboxed some more board games. I talked about a lot of them in the Point of Order from this week. But I got to bust them open on stream and take a look at the pieces. There are a number of fun games in there, let’s take a quick look at which ones they were.

Formula D – Tracks

I got two new tracks for the game Formula D. This is a car racing game where you are in charge of a car and taking it around a track, rolling dice to see how well you do. If you go too fast around the curve, bad things can happen, but you need to know when to push your luck, and when the throttle down. These tracks just give more configurations to race in than compared to the base box. Also might be turned into a legacy game or a tournament by myself.

Deep Madness: Devourer of Worlds

Another epic monster, mainly because I swung my my FLGS to drop off a few things to sell. You can find out about that in the Point of Sale article that also went out on Monday. Just another monster to fight against in this cooperative scenario based survival game. As a refresher on the theme, there is a deep sea base, for mining or exploration and research, I forget which, but things start to go wrong. Monsters start to come in from another dimension and the base goes coms silent. You are part of a team sent to checkout what has happened and stop anymore more bad from happening. Needless to say, bad things will happen. Because the epic monster Devourer of Worlds isn’t a nice guy, even with a name like that.

Dice Throne: Season 1 & 2 Painted Minis

Really a highlight for me. These minis are awesome and 100% not needed. The base game comes with standees and the standees just move around the board in Dice Throne Adventures. But the painted minis look so cool on the table and I’m really excited to play with them.

Cthulhu: Death May Die

I love my Lovecraftian games. Mainly because I like Lovecrafts writing in theory, but in all fairness, most of it isn’t that interesting to read. When put into a larger narrative like you get in a game like Arkham Horror (3rd Edition or LCG) or Mansions of Madness you get a better and more interesting story. While this game also has story similar to the mythos that has been created in those games, it’s from a different company, CMON. And this one has a whole lot more dice chucking in it. I kind of like that it is scenario based and it’s going to be easy to get to the table, though there is a fair amount of set-up it seems, and get into the game throwing a lot of dice.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Last one that I opened up on stream. Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the hot games coming out of 2020. In fact, it’s really hard to find. I grabbed a copy from Barnes and Noble online when it basically was impossible to find anywhere else. This game is a Euro style game with worker placement, but it also has deck building. I like the theme with it being a adventure type of theme with Indiana Jones vibes. That isn’t a theme that shows up too often in board games, and I wish it would show up more. I get that adventure can be hard to do well, so I’m curious to play this one that makes it more about the mechanics than possible some story.

The Beer

New Holland Brewing Company was the creator of last nights beer, Dragon’s Milk Solera. Dragon’s Milk is a line of beers from New Holland that are all strong ales. They sit around 10-12% depending on the one. Solera refers to how it was barrel aged. The taste is solid, while regular Dragon’s Milk has more of a caramel flavor to it, this definitely leaned more towards stone fruits like plums or dark cherries. I don’t love that flavor as much, but it is still a solid beer. It definitely makes it a slower sipper with the flavor profile.

That’s everything that I unboxed and played last night on Malts and Meeples. Marvel United was a lot of fun to get to the table. And I’m hoping that maybe at the end of the month or the start of next month I’ll be able to do a bit unboxing for all the expansions when they are delivered.

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Malts and Meeples: 4 Pack Board Game Unboxing https://nerdologists.com/2021/02/malts-and-meeples-4-pack-board-game-unboxing/ https://nerdologists.com/2021/02/malts-and-meeples-4-pack-board-game-unboxing/#respond Thu, 11 Feb 2021 13:27:55 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=5333 Dive under the box covers as Malts and Meeples breaking open four board games to see what's inside.

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Let’s get this show on the road. Last night I did a Malts and Meeples Live Stream over on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. I had recently gotten in a number of new and new to me board games that I needed to get unboxed, and in the case of all of them, I need to get them sorted as well. But I wanted to share with you all the new fun that I picked up.

The Games

The games that got unboxed yesterday varied from new ones that I’d gotten via Kickstarter, ordered from the company, an Amazon purchase and from my FLGS, friendly local game store. So a wide variety of content for the stream.

From Amazon I purchased Adventure Land from Haba. This is a game about collection treasures, fighting monsters, and more. But it’s done in a very abstract way. You move your adventurers down and to the right, never back up or towards the left. That means that you need to figure out when to push forward to get that one treasure or when to hold back an adventurer to move later in the game.

Space Base
Image Source: AEG

At my FLGS, I picked up Space Base from AEG. Some call it a Machi Koro killer, it is all about building that tableau of cards in front of you and them activating. This one seems to have more going on in it than Machi Koro did. I expect that it’ll be less of an introductory game to the genre of engine or tableau building.

Direct from the publisher, Breaking Games, I joined in on the hype for Dwellings of Eldervale. This is a massive worker placement, fighting, exploring game. I almost get a little bit of a Lords of Hellas vibe from how it does a little bit of everything, and I really like Lords of Hellas. It’s a big game, and I love the noise making monster bases.

Finally, from Kickstarter, but really from Roxley Games, we have Dice Throne Adventures. Dice Throne is one of my favorite games. I love the one on one, or king of the hill battling and dice chucking. This makes it cooperative as you explore portals and fight bosses.

Patreon Announcement

I talked about this yesterday, but on my stream I went through my Patreon again. In particular, I ran down all the different levels and why I am doing a Patreon. I’m going to be mentioning this from time to time and I’ll be talking about it briefly probably in every stream that it exists. But if you are enjoying my content and want to help support it getting bigger and better, Patreon, right now, is the only way to do that. Any money that I get through it will go into improving the website, the Malts and Meeples livestreams, and the 10 Minute Marvel podcast. Thank you so much for checking out the content and even considering the Patreon. I know a lot fights for people’s attention and money, and I hope that you enjoy what you are getting from the site, streams, and podcast.

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