The Game – Lands of Galzyr

Let’s tackle maybe the more controversial part of Lands of Galzyr. Or really the controversial part of any board game, the app or website. And let me say, I’m not here to sway your mind on if you want technology at the table. I understand that some people want it to be complete analog and a way to decouple from a phone, tablet, or computer completely. I want that as well, sometimes.

But let’s instead tackle if Lands of Galzyr is that possible without a computer. Is it reasonable to assume that you could, with a book, get in all of this text and all of these options? It’s possible, yes, but it is reasonable? I tend to think the answer to that question is no. And while you might think you’d be fine reading that much, you still do, would you be fine at the speed it would work?

The Downside of Physical

For some games, like Roll Player Adventures, there is some story. And each part of that story might branch, but it might branch a little. I make two choices and those are my branching paths. In Lands of Galzyr, I have seen a check occur and that branches into 3 paths, or 5 paths and that can lead to additional story as well. So, the branching in Lands of Galzyr is much more extensive.

What does that mean for game play? Well, it means that if it were just a book, and it could be, that you’d be finding different passages very often. And you would need to understand how it branches, which is why the app can handle it so well. What an app or website can do that a book can’t is provide the logic to instantly pull up the next section. The story is loaded into the memory of your device and you can access that very quickly.

On the flip side, all puns intended, you’d be flipping through pages trying to find the next passage constantly. And that branching structure would become very hard to follow. I think, and you might disagree, Lands of Galzyr would be considerably less favorably reviewed if it didn’t have the website. Mainly because I play an hour and a half game, and that would become two and a half hours or more with a book.

Upcoming Streams

So, next Wednesday at 8 PM central time, I will be back streaming more Lands of Galzyr. And I should have the game sleeved and a playmat instead of the board by that point in time. I am excited to get that to add to the game. Just know that it is totally not needed if you get the game, but I wanted to add in that little extra bit.

Before that on Monday, I am going to be streaming a new game. For those of you who don’t like roll and write games, I’m sorry. It is likely going to be 18 Holes Course Architect that I am playing. 18 Holes Course Architect is a game about building a golf course, and of course, done through a roll and write. It does make me want to play the regular 18 Holes board game as well. But I don’t own that one, yet.

And as always, if you want to know when I go live, you can subscribe and click the notification bell.

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This first category is going to be for that person who is just a little bit too competitive when it comes to gaming and must win at all costs. Playing to win is good, needing to win is not quite as good. So I’m looking at two different types of games here, games that are cooperative and games that are relaxed. And with cooperative games, I do want to try and find games that are going to be harder for them to be an alpha player (someone who controls other players and their own turns, thinks they always know what is best).

The Lost Expedition

One of my favorite games, this cooperative card playing game is going to give that Alpha Gamer a chance to be a little bit of a Alpha Gamer, but not spend the whole game making everyone’s decisions. In this game you are trying to traverse to the Lost City of Z. You hike very morning and evening, the trick to this is that before you go down the path, you are creating that. To do that you are playing event cards that go in a row from your hand. But you can’t really talk about what you might be playing. This means that each player gets to make a real decision for themselves in the game. During the morning, the cards are slotted in numerical order before you traverse them, in the evening, the order that they are played in, and each player will play all of their cards on a given day. Then as a group you talk through how you want to traverse the cards, what of the optional actions you want to take on the cards, are there any cards that allow you to rearrange, what resources to spend. The game is pretty simple and small, but is a good cooperative game.

Cross Clues

Another cooperative game, this one is a party game where you are trying to give one word clues to get people to guess a cross section between two words. Think of it as a spreadsheet where you have columns and rows, each row and column has a word. So it might be something like “Witch” and “Stick”, if you have the coordinates for that intersection you would give a clue like “Broom”, but the trick is sometimes you might have another word that will make that harder for people to guess. So something like “Clean”. If that is in the place axis, row or column, as “Witch” now is “Broom” a word for a “Clean Stick” or a “Witch Stick” so you have to be clever about the clues. But when someone gives a clue, everyone else partakes in guessing. This one also works well via Zoom. It plays fast and offers some chances to be clever, which a competitive gamer will probably like, but everyone else will enjoy as well.

Just One

Another party game as well. This one is also about giving one word clues, but in this one you are comparing clues, And if two, or more, clues match, those clues are not allowed to be shared. That means that you might have six clues at the start, but end up with only two valid ones to show the person who is it. They are trying to guess a one word answer from those clues. I like this one because it is impressive when someone gets something from a very tricky set of clues, or when you think you are being clever and someone else is being clever in the same way. For example, I’ve seen someone guess “Karate” just from the words “Style” and “Discipline”. I’ve also seen someone not get cookie, because two of the people cancelled out each other by giving the clue “Snickerdoodle”. It’s a fun game, again one that can be played via Zoom really easily.

The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine

This one is interesting because it’s a cooperative trick taking game. In this game you are trying to play out cards in certain ways so that people know what cards you do or don’t have so that you can set it up that certain cards will take tricks or certain players. It makes it really interesting as you play not through just hand after hand of the same thing, but you can try missions. The further in you get, the tougher the challenges are going to get, and the nice thing is what this game plays with a pretty wide number of players, though, some player counts are easier than others. It’s been a very popular one this year as it can play at the two player count.

Second Chance

Second Chance is not a cooperative game. This is one of the relaxing games that I’ve been talking about. This is a little roll and write game where you are filling in squares on a grid to see who can fill in the most. The trick is that you have two shapes to choose from but if you can’t use either of them, you get a single second chance card. If you can use that second chance card you are still in the game but if you can’t you’re out and you count up all your open spots. What works so nicely in this game is that it really encourages you to doodle in the shape you’re filling in. So while competitive, everyone is going at once, and everyone has access to everything in the game.

Welcome To…

In a similar line as Second Chance, Welcome To… is a competitive roll and write game (flip and write). In this one you are making your perfect neighborhood. Each turn you place in a house number and take the corresponding action with it, it might be building a pool or a park, putting in a fence, doing advertising, or using workers or creating a bisecting house (term to be explained later). The great thing is what everyone picks one to use at the same time, it doesn’t matter if someone else is using it. And everyone goes at the same time. That means there is nothing that is “better” for one person to take or not, because everyone always have access to everything and is dealing with the same card flips. Games like that are going to limit how much someone can try and decide what everyone else should do.

These are just some fun options that work with a more competitive or alpha gamer who might not always be the best to play with. Some of them are going to be more likely to bring out the sore loser, but with the competitive ones that I did pick, I picked ones where everyone was dealing with the same set-up of things instead of dealing with someone “stealing” what they needed for their strategy or taking a less than optimal turn. And one nice thing is none of these games are too expensive either, so get them two.

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Join me as I take on the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game. I take a crack at the first scenario, Storm Front, based off of the Dresden Files book by Jim Butcher of the same name. This game is a cooperative game that plays well solo and plays quickly. It’s a challenging game that often can come down to some luck, but if you are smart about it, you can set yourself up to succeed in the end.

If you are enjoying these videos please consider subscribing to the Youtube Channel and following me on Twitch. I plan on getting back to streaming soon after some business of family visiting, so I thank you for your patience waiting between episodes.

Bottoms up.

After a week off, I was back at it with Pandemic Legacy Season 1. How did I fair this time as I tried to save the world from diseases and drink a beer? Spoiler, the beer was drank.

Pandemic is a game where you are trying to cure the world of various diseases. However, in the Legacy version of the game, things are turned on their head, and you have to deal with even more problems. You can find out more of a description in the first Pandemic Legacy video on Malts and Meeples, or over on Board Game Geek.

Yesterday’s beer was from Destihl Brewery out of Normal Illinois. It was a blonde ale with a lot of fruits called Hawaii Five Ale. It’s a solid beer, but the peach in there is the most prominent fruit flavor and the others are kind of lost in there. I wish the flavors would be more distinct, or that the peach was balanced better with the rest of the flavors, or maybe not even there.

Bottoms up!

I’m back again with game 14 of Pandemic Legacy Season 1. If you know how Pandemic Legacy works, you know that I’ve had at least a couple of losses in there. But join me to see how the game has been going overall.

Pandemic Legacy is a cooperative game that I’m playing solo where you are trying to cure various diseases that are popping up all over the board. However, in the legacy version of the game, you have rules that change, and the board changes as time goes on. So are you able to save the world? More information can be found on Board Game Geek.

My malt was Splendid Moose from Insight Brewing. Insight is local to Minneapolis, and one of my favorite breweries for their branding, their tap room, and their beer. Splendid Moose is a hazy IPA with really nice citrus flavors. You can find more about their beers on their website, linked here.

Bottoms up!

“There’s so much on the planet, all this money to be made.”

“What about the giant bugs?”

“Hire some good security for the mines.”

“And the scary looking brain scorpions?”

“More security.”

“And the hydras?”

“Alright, mechanical armored security.”

That’s how I imagine it went as they set off for this unknown planet. And I don’t know how anything could go wrong as you fend off wave after wave of monsters as they throw themselves against your base. Xenoshyft: Onslaught is a cooperative deck building game where players upgrade troops and equipment while trying to keep the base working through nine rounds of creatures attacking. The feel of this game is somewhere between Alien and Starship Troopers. Definitely not as silly as Starship Troopers, but you are still fighting off waves of bugs for at least part of it.

Xenoshyft works really well as a deck builder as compared to something like Dominion, it has more game to it and feels much more thematically involved. As compared to another heavier deck builder, it doesn’t run into the situation of Marvel Legendary where you can just get stuck at times with the combinations and with money. The fact that each hand you get to add in a dollar for the first wave, three for the second, and six for the third means that you always can make a purchase. That along with being able to use the wave one troops to discount future troops makes the game scale a whole lot better.

And that’s a good thing, because this is a very tough game. Even without getting the wave bosses at opportune times, such as early in the wave, this game is really tough to beat. For each player the base gets an extra 15 hit points, but possible, early in the game, you can get down to half the points before you’ve gotten into wave two. You can often right the ship and push through wave two, but then wave three hits and now you’re dealing with a whole new level of creature. Maybe we should have just stayed on earth, but there was so much money to be made.

Another fun thing in this game is that you can help other people when they might not be getting what they need. Some of them are using abilities of your troops to help them fight the creatures. However, when you play a troop, weapon, or gear that the troop wears on the other players side of the defense, that card then goes into their deck for good. It makes for an interesting tool, because you want to empty your hand as much as possible each turn so helping other people can do that. I also like it because with the cooperative nature of the game, if one person wasn’t drawing well, it could come down to their side of the base that caused you to lose, but with trading weaponry, troops, and helping the other players out, it’s definitely more of a team game.

Finally, one of the biggest unique things is the idea of the combat lanes. When I say each side of the base (or mine), I mean that each player has a small player board where they can have four troops. These troops can then be outfitted with armor and weaponry. Then four enemies are dealt onto another player board, face down, and you face off against them one at a time. The monster attacking the first troop in your player board, figuring out damage, and then repeating as need be until that monster is killed or until the monster has killed all of your troops. Then, if you have no troops left, any monsters left end up doing damage to the base. But having these unknown monsters means that you have to guess when you might want a stronger troop, because you might not want them right at the front. Or you have to decide, do you want to use an item to help you troop stay alive longer or do you need to save that because a worse monster is coming?

Overall, this is a very fun game. I have only one once, and that was because we cheated slightly in our advantage. The other four times I’ve played, we’ve always made it to the third wave of creatures, there are three difficulty levels/waves, and in each wave, you face off against them three times. But it’s a game that you want to reset and play right away, and in some ways, it feels better to make it further, and it’s less about winning the game, because it might be a while until I can win the game again. Components of this game are okay, the cards are very nice, but when I called them player boards, it’s more like player cardstock, so that part of the game feels a little bit cheap. The plastic health and shield tokens also feel a little bit chintzy. If you’re a person who wants all the components to be amazing, this game might not be for you, though the game play is very good. Or if you’re someone who doesn’t like cooperative games where you lose more often than not, this game is definitely not for you.

Overall: A
Casual Grade: C+
Gamer Grade: B+

How do you get an A out of those grades? I really like this game, I’d play it whenever anyone would want to play it. However, I think that there might be a touch much going on for a more casual player, and with the grittier artwork and look of it, it might be a bit little going on for someone who thinks they are a heavy gamer and wants a lot of conflict. But for me, it’s really enjoyable.

Have you played this game before? Have you beat it before? If so, what has worked well for you in this game?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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