My City Roll and Build | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:38:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png My City Roll and Build | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Top 5 Office Lunch Board Games https://nerdologists.com/2024/04/top-5-office-lunch-board-games/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/04/top-5-office-lunch-board-games/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 11:36:58 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8854 What board games work well over a work lunch? This isn't an exhaustive list, but here are five that you might find work well.

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I think it might come as a shock to no one that I like playing board games. And one thing that I like to do is find the people at my work who like games. As I get to know people, I’ll recommend some gaming over lunch hours once and a while, so let’s what board games make sense as solid games to play over lunch. Some of them you’ll need an hour, but all of them are going to be short. And it is going to include teaching the game.

Top 5 Office Lunch Board Games

5. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

This one is iffy to have on the list. But I want some bigger board games on the list as well, because most lunch sized games are smaller. Heat: Pedal to the Metal is iffy mainly because the first game with teach might push that hour time frame. And the number of players, which this one can play more, is going to push that time frame as well.

Heat is a hand and deck management game as you try and get around the race course as fast as possible. However, if you push your car to hard you create undo stress and cause the engine to heat up, possibly overheating. So you need to balance that within the game so it’s not just go fast but knowing when to push around the corners.

This one works, because, as I said, when you know the game it goes fast. Actions are simultaneous for picking your cards and getting into gear. So some of the game just runs at the same time. And then moving cars, this is where the first game can take longer, it goes fast, once you know the system.

Marvel Dice Throne
Image Source: Roxley Games

4. Dice Throne

Dice Throne is another one of those board games that maybe could take longer. If you play with more than two people. I think a three person game could get done in under an hour, but under that it’s less likely, even with the rules for King of the Hill rules for the game.

Dice Throne is mainly considered to be a head to head dice battling game. Where you take one character into battle against your opponents to see who can outlast the other. I think this one works well if you don’t have the battle chests. I do, so that makes it trickier, but you can get character boxes which aren’t big and are therefore easy to move around and transport.

But one of the benefits is that you can swap out characters as well. If you own a big box, you can change up who you play easily without learning massive amounts of new rules. So a box like the Marvel four character box which has been available at Target and other retailers might be the best fit. It gives you some options, gives you a familiar theme, and isn’t as big as the big chests to carry around.

3. Floriferous

Next up is a much smaller game. Floriferous is just going to be a small box with cards but it packs a lot of game. It’s a card drafting game with set collection and variable scoring to it. I like that it goes a lot in that little box without it becoming too bogged down or too slow.

This one I think you could probably get a 4 player game of done in an hour, but that’d be tight. As a three or two player game, you can for sure. And I think with work lunches that a lot of the time you are just playing with two, not with more.

In Floriferous, you draft cards from a center tableau. The twist is that you draft from a column at a time. And how high in that column, that determines when you’ll pick in the next column. So you might think, go high and get an early pick next time, but you also need to pick scoring cards which are at the bottom. It’s a fun puzzle of a game with a flower theme many will like.

2. My City Roll and Build

My City: Roll and Build is different from the rest of the board games here. This one is a campaign game. That means that you need a consistent group. But it is also a fast game. And it is a game where everyone does their actions at once.

In this roll and write style game, you try and build a town. Each chapter of the game is having your build the town in a sightly different way. And generally, some rules are being added to how you build it. Each player is building it on their own grid in an attempt to get the best score for that particular game and scenario.

This one I know works well as I’ve played it at lunch. And I know it works with more than two players. Again, as I mentioned with Heat, when you play at the same time, it helps it fit into a lunch hour better. And My City: Roll and Build leans into that. So it’s great for lunch that way.

1. Star Wars Unlimited

Finally, this could be a lot of TCG’s. I’d say that Magic the Gathering, Lorcana, or One Piece all work here. It’s more of a pick your flavor for what you want to do. I went with Star Wars Unlimited as my game as that is the one that I’ve been enjoying the most lately.

Star Wars Unlimited
Image Source: Fantasy Flight Games

But any of these games really work well as you can play head to head or in bigger groups and battle it out. I think the nature of these games works well for a lot of people because it’s kind of familiar. And with all the ones coming out now, you can really tailor it to your audience.

I think that Star Wars Unlimited is the sweet spot for me because it is very fast. So is Lorcana and One Piece, but with Lorcana the decision making space is less interesting, to me. And with One Piece, it is a more obscure fandom. But Star Wars, people are going to know that which makes is a great lunch game.

Final Thoughts

There are so many games that I could pick. Faster escape room games, or about 30 different roll and write games. Small card games, simultaneous drafting games. You pick what you like best and play those at work. It’s all about what works best for you.

And I know with people working hybrid or from home now, it’s maybe less of a thing. But when you go into the office, board games can be a great team building thing. It’s a way to bring people together and chat with it being clearly not about work. It’s a chance to build that comradery that maybe has decreased over the past years or needs to be built with the new people who were never in office all the time.

Do you have a go to work lunch game?

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2023 Board Gaming Recap https://nerdologists.com/2024/01/2023-board-gaming-recap/ https://nerdologists.com/2024/01/2023-board-gaming-recap/#respond Tue, 02 Jan 2024 12:28:50 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8625 What did my board gaming look like in 2023? I take a look back at the games I played and which ones I played most.

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Let’s talk about the games that I played in 2023. I won’t go through them all, it would be too much, and when I’m writing this, I still plan on getting another game play in. So I’ll update when I get that last bit of board gaming in. The main reason is that I’ve played 99 different new to me board games. And I am hoping with a little bit of effort I can get one more played and get to 100 different new to me games for my 2023 board gaming. But that’s getting into the numbers. Let’s look at my 2023 board gaming.

2023 Board Gaming

Let’s break down the numbers. Firstly, let’s talk about the big general numbers. I got in 1,062 game plays in 2023. That is a ton, and I suspect that it’ll be my high, though that depends on what new solo board games come in. We’ll get down to individual game numbers here, eventually, but a lot of that is my solo game plays early on in 2023. I was on pace for 2,500 game plays at one point. But 1,062 plays is still a crazy number.

In those plays, I played 134 different games. So that means that some games were played a ton. Others not so much, but a few games see a lot of play and they’ll make up a lot of my board gaming. Some of this comes from solo games that I play between meetings at work and a smaller percentage of the games that I stream on Wednesday nights over on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

Grove
Image Source: Side Room Games

Top Played Games

So let’s look at the top played games, we’re just going to do the Top 5. All of the five are solo games that I play between meetings at work or other times like that. The one with the most plays is Grove followed by Orchard. Two games in the same family that I played 385 and 140 times respectively. I love them because they are very fast games to play.

Next up we have Relics of Rajavihara with 73 plays. This one is a campaign puzzle style game. So that one I won’t be adding more plays to in future years. The next two are Criss Cross, a roll and write game that you can play solo with 58 plays. And then For Northwood! A solo trick taking game.  This is the one that I want to play a bunch more of this next year.

Top Campaign Games

I think it’s also fair to talk about some campaign games, bigger games that I’ve gotten a number of plays of. Then I want to wrap up with my one off board gaming that aren’t solo plays. But what are the top campaign based board gaming experiences for me. Or at least the ones that I play solo fairly often. Though, not all of these are solo.

Tainted Grail and My City Roll and Build top the list. Tainted Grail I wrapped up the final campaign this year with 17 plays. My City Roll and Build I’ve almost played twice through, so that is 21 plays thus far. I need to wrap it up soon. Then a few others made the list, Frosthaven is the new one that I’m playing with a group and that is at 11 plays this year. And it’s going to start strong in January with a weekend day devoted to it coming up quickly. Followed by two that I streamed, Lands of Galzyr and ISS Vanguard. Both of those are at 10 games played.

Frosthaven
Image Source: Board Game Geek

Top Multiplayer Games

So, Tainted Grail and Frosthaven would both be on the list. But I want to touch on some games that I haven’t talked about. What are some one off games that I played mainly multiplayer that I got to the table a bunch? I say that because I did play Criss Cross a few times multiplayer, but it is mainly solo plays.

Birds of a Feather tops the list. This one I did play solo a few times, I think twice, but then six plays where it was with other people. I like it as a fun, light, and filler with push yoiur luck.  Then we have Gasha and Strike both 7 times. Again filler games, but Strike is just so much fun. I really enjoy being able to sit down and play this one with a group of four or five and just play it a few times in a row. The last two rounding it out are Crokinole and Via Magica. Two fun games, and Crokinole isn’t a filler but is more of an evening of light gaming.

Via Magica
Image Source: Hurrican

Final Thoughts

2023 obviously was a great year for me board gaming. I got to try a ton of new games, and I got a ton of plays in. I didn’t go into all the numbers, but I had 28 games that were played over 5 times and 73 total that were played over two. So it’s a lot of gaming and a lot of repeating of games throughout the year. I  hope to do a lot of that again this year. I know that I will be going through Frosthaven a lot here in 2024. And I expect that I’ll be at 30 plays of that, might make into my Top 5.

And I mentioned this in a previous article. You can check that out here for more details. But I want to play through more games on my shelf of opportunity. I love having a ton of games and games to learn and play. But my game room is at critical mass, so I need to sort and get more games ready to be played and learned in 2024. That is going to make for a lot of reviews and a lot of fun board gaming. What is a game that you want to play in 2024?

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1000 Board Game Plays https://nerdologists.com/2023/10/1000-board-game-plays/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/10/1000-board-game-plays/#respond Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:40:48 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8414 Part way through the year it became a goal to get 1000 board game plays. Well, I've hit that number for the year, so let's look at some numbers.

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It wasn’t a goal for me at the beginning of the year. Then after a couple of months I was on track for 2000 plus plays of board games. So I decided to make it a goal, can I hit 1000 board game plays in a year. And, well, last night I hit and went past 1000 plays. So let’s look at the numbers for this year thus far. I expect as we get more into the colder seasons here in Minnesota, I might get another hundred or so plays in. But let’s see the numbers.

Board Game Plays

119 Different Games

You will look at that number and see that it is about 10 plays of each game, on average. Of course that is only an average. So some games are going to get played a whole lot more. Those are the games that I sit down and I play between meetings at work, or sometimes, if I just need to observe, during a meeting at work to help keep me focused. So we’ll see a very high number for one of those coming up.

But I really like the combination of games that I’ve played. It’s some small games, but I also have a number of campaign style games that make the list. Obviously those are going to take longer to play. Which means that I’ve put a lot of time into playing board games this year. We’ll get to that number later.

Relics of Rajavihara Example
Image Source: Crazy like a Box

385 Plays of Grove

So obviously a lot of plays came from Grove, but Grove is one four games that I’ve played over 50 times this year. Grove, Orchard, Relics of Rajavihara, and Criss Cross are all over 50 plays. They count for more than half of my total game plays for the year. And how fast they play, with the exception of Relics of Rajavihara which can take a bit of time to puzzle out a play, is quite fast.

87 New Games

This is a number I am quite happy with. It means, while I buy games faster than I play, still, I have gotten through a lot of games that I haven’t played before. I will say, I think if I dug into the whole list, there would be two or three that might be ones I’ve already played.

Looking at that number, I might try and get it to 100 new to me games, but I’m running out of time. I do have a friend who I teach a lot of new games to. And some of the games, probably enough, I could play solo if I learn them to get to 100. That is now an unofficial goal for the year.

Approximately 348 Hours

That is what the app, Board Game Stats estimates anyways. I’ll tell you, it says 11 hours for My City Roll and Build, that is probably 4 hours total maybe 5. It estimates what it says on the box. Sometimes, as I’ve written about, that is low. Other times, especially if I play it solo, that is very high.

Recently Trailblazers is another example of that. I did play it two player now, and half an hour is right. But solo, I got 3 games done in about 35 minutes. So take that number with a grain of salt, it’s probably under 300 hours with how fast I play some games, especially solo.

Gap Cards
Image Source: iello

Gap

Gap was game number 1000. And turns out how I was taught at Gen Con was actually a bit off. That might have been my comprehending it, versus the teach, but an abstract game is sometimes hard to teach. Still really like the game and I think it’s better with much better strategy now that I’m playing it the right way. But Gap from Arcane Wonders was game play #998 through #1000 for me last n ight.

Final Thoughts

It’s really been an effort or focus to play more games this year. I get in campaign games, like Tainted Grail, every other week with one group. I play another campaign, it was Roll Player Adventures, now it’s Vampire The Masquerade: Chapters with another group. And I’ve played at least three campaign games over the course of the year, at least 7 games of them on Malts and Meeples.

Next year will I push for more? I might. Though, I think that 1100, which I’ll be close to this year, is an amazing number. Let me say this, though, if you play fewer games, it isn’t a big deal. I actually think that I’ll play fewer games next year. At the start of this year I was in a new job in a new role learning a lot in meetings. So I would play Grove between meetings or during meetings to help me focus and maintain focus. So don’t assume that you are slacking behind, that is not the case.

When I put out these goals, I never try and push them out too far. That is why I didn’t make it a goal from day one. I want a bit of a stretch, but I also don’t want to make board games into something that is work. Now it is “work” in that I make a little money from this website. But it isn’t because I’m not beholden to any company, I do it because I like to do it. So if you see this goal and feel like you’re slacking, you aren’t if you are having fun playing board games.

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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 100 through 91 https://nerdologists.com/2023/10/top-100-games-of-all-time-2023-edition-100-through-91/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/10/top-100-games-of-all-time-2023-edition-100-through-91/#comments Thu, 05 Oct 2023 15:13:16 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8398 Join me over on Malts and Meeples for my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. In 100 through 91, what games are new that made the list?

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It’s that time of year again. Time to go through my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. Before we get to the video and the list, let’s talk a bit about what I do to get my Top 100 Games (of all time) put together. Because it’d be a lot of work except for one site.

Creating My Top 100 Games List

And that site is Pub Meeple. It’s a great site because it pulls in your Board Game Geek list and can use that to do a ranking. In the ranking you compare two games against each other. So let’s say Monopoly and Clue. You decide which one you like better, so Clue then Monopoly. Then you might compare Risk and Scrabble and decide on Scrabble. It’d then give you the comparison of Clue and Scrabble and let’s say I pick Scrabble, it’ll then have me compare Clue to Risk to determine which one I like better. If I pick Clue then Risk and Monopoly get compared. But if I pick Risk, then Clue and Monopoly just get slotted after.

Also, it’s worth noting a few other things I mention at the start. That’s how I eliminate some of the games. Each box of Dice Throne doesn’t count as it’s own entry. Every version of Clank, Aeon’s End, and Pandemic aren’t their own entries. Even Frosthaven, Gloomhaven, and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion get lumped together. Why, because otherwise the list would be dominated by a few games.

Finally, last thing is that I do not put games that I’ve only played digitally. There are a couple of games, Rogue Angels being the big one, that will likely end up in my Top 100 Games (of all time) when I can play it physically, but I want to experience it that way as well to verify my feelings.

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition 100 through 91

100. Ship Shape

A new one to the list, this is an interesting little game that is kind of a party style filler. But not a party game in terms of a “haha” game. But it’s a light game of filling out your cargo hold the best that you can. You have three goods, cannons, gold, and contraband. You get points for gold, cannons compared to the person with the fewest, and your contraband, if you don’t have the most.

Plus you are bidding on what tile you get to place into your hold. It might work out well, you win the bid, you get the top one, or you could get the second one. Of course, if you tie, then you don’t get any in order and have to rebid for your one once more a gone. So it’s kind of random, but a lot of fun with simple mechanisms.

Buy Ship Shape

99. Welcome To…

Welcome To has dropped on the list. I think that Welcome To is down on the list because I don’t play it as often because it isn’t my favorite solo roll and write game. But the game is still great as you try and build your favorite Stepford neighborhood. Can you build the best white picket fences, pools, parks, and get those house numbers in the right order?

Plus there is good variety with the different maps. So I likely need to play those more often so that I can get that variety. And one of the better things is that Welcome To is a great game for a larger group. There really is no upper limit, just sheets, as to how many you can play with. So that makes it a fun game to pull out when I want a bigger group game but not a party game.

Buy Welcome To…

98. SCOUT

SCOUT is another new one to the list and this was a big hit from last year in the US. I believe it was out in Japan prior to that, but I started hearing about it a ton last year and a ton at Gen Con in 2022. SCOUT is a card shedding game. That means that you have a handful of cards and you’re trying to get rid of yours the fastest.

To do that you are trying to play out card(s) in sets, runs, or a single card, that beats what the other person played. The trick of the game is that the cards have numbers on the top and bottom. And when you get your hand of cards you can’t rearrange it. So you’re stuck with what you had, that might mean that you can’t beat what someone else played down. Instead you take one of the cards they played and add it to your hand wherever you want.

Buy SCOUT

97. My City (My City: Roll and Build)

Next up is one of those combo of games. My City and My City Roll and Build. This is a game about building out a city in either a campaign or legacy game version. And one is a roll and write the other is a polyomino game.

I like each version. My City, the legacy version, is a good game that’s fast to play and works well with a group of people. My City Roll and Build is able to be played solo. It is still a very fast game, and fewer things carry over, but I like it a lot as a solo game. It is still extremely fast, probably 10 minutes for the roll and write game. The legacy version is probably 20-30 minutes.

Buy My City

96. The Reckoners

Now we’re onto a cooperative game on the list, The Reckoners. This is based off of a series from Brandon Sanderson that I really like. And this is a good cooperative game in that there is little to no downtime in the game.

How do they make that work? The game is in two parts, the first part is rolling dice to determine what actions you will do. And everyone does that at once, it’s kind of Yahtzee style in that you roll multiple times. But not completely because you always are keeping dice. Then everyone is talking as they roll to make sure it gets set-up right, and you go and do all your actions. Again it is done all at once. The only downtime is when you do the epics (super villains) actions to see what goes wrong.

Buy The Reckoners

95. Clever Cubed

Clever Cubed, another roll and write game and part of the Clever series of games with Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever), Doppelt So Clever (Twice as Clever) and a new game, Clever 4Ever. This one I really like how heavily it leans into combos. There are so many combos in the game that it’s just crazy with how things can connect together and how they just chain off of each other. Plus you get really high scores which is fun.

Buy Clever Cubed

94. Project L

A game that almost wasn’t around any more, as the company – Boardcubator almost went out of business. But Project L is a polyomino game where you are using Tetris like pieces to fill in shapes. As you get more pieces to use, you can start to grab in bigger ones and bigger pieces to fill in the shapes faster.

One of the cool elements of the game, besides the insanely high quality, is that there is a master action. It is an action that you can do one time per turn, but it lets you add to each of your shapes. So you can spend turns collecting more cards and then doing master actions to fill them up faster or all at once, so it’s very fun when you get that working well.

Buy Project L

93. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Another roll and write game, Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade is not shockingly about Pinball. I like that you get a lot of tables to play so you change up what you want to play. And it isn’t hard to learn, though there are pretty simple rules for all the ball moves. The ball moves down and rotates clockwise, I believe, or counter clockwise, either way it’s always the same way.

And each table offers something new. I like the cyber hacking one where you can get into a special area of the board and score a ton of points. All of them have something unique and there are four tables in the main box. Plus there is an expansion box, a Star Trek box, and a holiday movie box, so a lot of options.

It is also a roll and write game that I like solo. Multiplayer it’s possible that one person will end much sooner than someone else. That can lead to downtime, and as you saw with The Reckoners, I like it when there is as little downtime as possible.

Buy Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

92. Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

Atlantis Rising is a cooperative race against the clock (figuratively) as the island of Atlantis is sinking. And this is another game where there is little downtime. Everyone is working together and putting out your meeples to the board for collecting items. The further you are out on peninsulas it’s better, but because it’s sinking, you might lose a meeple, for that round.

With what you collect then you’re building up machines. The machines will open a portal that will allow you to escape. And they give you powers as well which might make it smoother to get what you need. Of course, by the time you’re doing that, the island is sinking fast, so it’s a race against time.

Buy Atlantis Rising (Second Edition)

91. Vegetable Stock

Next one is Vegetable Stock. A game that I wouldn’t have known about but for Chris Yi from the Dice Tower who likes this game. This is a small set collection game. And it is also a drafting game. As you draft cards that builds up your collection of card to give you points. And you draft from a pool of one more than there are people.

The card that is leftover affects the stock market. So what you take won’t push it higher, but what is left is going to be push it higher. If it gets too high it’ll bust and drop it down again, so you need to redo that work. Vegetable Stock is a light filler game and really fast. So one that will work well for a lot of groups just as that smaller group game that you can knock out.

Buy Vegetable Stock

Upcoming Streams (Top 100 and Game Plays)

Next Wednesday at 8 PM Central time I’ll be going through 90 through 81 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. So join me then and let me know which are your favorites on that part of the list.

And on Monday I stream around 9 PM central time. Generally it is a solo game, though sometimes a topic or a list or Slay the Spire. But it’ll likely be solo games for a while with the Top 100 List going on. And normally on Wednesdays I stream solo campaign board games. So after I finish up my Top 100 Games I’ll be getting back to that, possibly more of The Isofarian Guard.

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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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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My City Roll and Build – Chapter 3 https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-3/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-3/#respond Tue, 13 Jun 2023 11:42:59 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8070 Chapter 3 is all about the money. Join me as I play through more My City Roll and Build over on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel.

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It’s time for the 3rd chapter in My City Roll and Build. What will this chapter bring? It’s about making money and being the best at it. Join me as I play through Chapter 3 and episode 7 through 9 over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel. And let’s dive into the first part of the game where I can’t score everything because the rules change for solo game play.

My City Roll and Build

We’ve talked about it several times on the stream and in the articles as to how it compares to the main My City game. I will just add, it makes me want to come back to that game and play more. But I own three campaign roll and write games. I have played, counting this one, two of them. It is possibly I will pick the third one for the next thing I stream on Mondays.

But how does My City Roll and Build compare to the other campaign game?

Progression

Let’s start off with the progression that this has. The other game that I’m talking about is Paper Dungeons, which I also played through on Malts and Meeples. But My City Roll and Build is a game with more progression. You unlock things, additional scoring or rules, as you go, so the story and game feels like it progresses. In Paper Dungeons, there is no progression. You start in one place, there is story between things, but you don’t progress.

However, neither has a ton of progression. In both of the games, you play them out and you don’t get better at anything. My City Roll and Build, new things get added, which is progression. But, you play the exact same way, no better or worse, as the game progresses.

Epic Nature

And neither again really leans too much into this. My City Roll and Build is not an epic game. Paper Dungeons tries to be a bit more epic. But because there is no progression, each story runs the same way. You venture into a dungeon, fight monsters, and then repeat with different monsters. That is the epic nature of the game.

But that is overall more epic than My City Roll and Build. There a church is added, okay. Now there is more water than before, also okay. Or you build over forest now. None of these changes really supply that much of a different feel in the game. And you don’t need it to be epic, but for a campaign, I expect more from both, though mainly Paper Dungeons because it can promise more.

Upcoming Streams

Next Monday at 8:30 PM Central time it is going to be playing more My City Roll and Build. I’m enjoying it and I want to know what the next things that are added are. It’s not a legacy game, but it feels like the legacy game it is based off of. So join me for the last chapter next week.

I did not make time for learning Isofarian Guard. I have two days off next week leading up to the stream. There is time set aside in that for me to learn the rules. So next week it will be Isofarian Guard time. That means this week I am going to be playing a different solo game. Possibly Super Mega Lucky Box which I just played again recently. So join me to see what game will hit the table at 8:00 PM Central on Wednesday.

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 4-6 https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-4-6/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/06/my-city-roll-and-build-chapter-4-6/#respond Tue, 06 Jun 2023 11:35:56 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8053 I continue to create and add new rules in My City Roll and Build by Kosmos. What will be added this time? Join me on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

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My City Roll and Build came back for another week to get to the half way point. We were introduced to a new mechanism that changed up how the game was played. And we ran into a surprising situation at the end of game 6. Join me as I play this board game over on Malts and Meeples YouTube. And catch up on last weeks start of the game here.

My City Roll and Build

Let’s talk about that abrupt end to the game. Was that a good thing or not? Because I think for a lot of people it wouldn’t be. For myself, I didn’t mind it too much for one main reasons.

The reason I didn’t mind it is that the game is so fast. When you sit down and play My City Roll and Build, especially solo, it takes about 10-15 minutes per game. And some of that time is learning the new rules. You play extremely fast. I probably lost another 5 to 10 minute of game time because the game ended quickly.

I think My City Roll and Build would not be an issue to finish it an evening. If I were to start playing at 7 PM, I would be done by 10 PM or at most 10:30. And everyone plays at once, so I think multiplayer, you’d maybe add an hour of time overall. The game is really fast, it is very light, but it matches and does what the board game does as well. So to me, that’s interesting to see what it does and if I can get lucky.

And before you say, I got really unlucky and that makes the game poor. Or that the board game would be better. The exact same thing can happen in the board game. You build out and you can’t skip buildings. So it really does match the board game that way. And maybe that randomness wouldn’t be for you. But for me, like I said, the game is so fast that I don’t mind it.

Upcoming Streams

So what’s coming up this week. Wednesday, as I said in the stream, unlikely that I’ll be playing Isofarian Guard. That is the next campaign I’ll be diving into. But I need to learn the game still. So it’ll be playing a smaller game, or I have a box of Pokemon cards that I might be unboxing just to see what I get. I’ll announce that stream closer to when it happens. Either way the stream is at 8 PM Central time.

And next Monday is going to be more My City Roll and Build. I have two more chapters to go, so let’s see if I can build upon what seems to be some average scores and see if I can push my total score higher. Will it work or will I have an abrupt ending again. Monday streams start around 8:30 PM Central time.

And, again, 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 – Games 1-3 https://nerdologists.com/2023/05/my-city-roll-and-build-games-1-3/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/05/my-city-roll-and-build-games-1-3/#comments Tue, 30 May 2023 11:35:58 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=8036 Join me over on Malts and Meeples for a roll and write campaign game. I start playing through My City Roll and Build on this Mondays stream.

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A new roll and write game is hitting the table, or as they call it a roll and build game. This is based off of the popular legacy game, My City. And the roll and build game seems to offer a lot of the same game as I dive into it and learn the rules for each scenario and play through the first chapter. Join me over on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel and play along if you own My City Roll and Build.

My City Roll and Build

This one is interesting for me in how much I like the game, at least right off the bat. Mainly because it’s very similar to My City, a game that I enjoy. The progression of what you are doing seems to be the same order. There is just a bit more randomness to it. I guess it shows the simplicity of the original design which is what I think makes it a fun experience.

My City Roll and Build keeps that design at it’s core, just makes it a bit more random with the rolling of the dice. In My City, it is an even distribution card flip. Here it’s randomized dice roll. So that means you end up with certain building types and shapes repeating more often. Now, the shapes are all simpler, they need to be with two dice. So I don’t think it makes it any more complex to learn and play.

But about the game a little bit. You build up your city trying to cover up stones, leave trees uncovered and cover up as much ground as possible. Open stones or ground give you negative points. Uncovered trees give you positive points. And as you play through chapters, there are 4, and episodes per chapter, there are 3, you learn more rules.

So in my play, first game it was the scoring above. Second game added in grouping house types together. So the bigger the group, more points you got. And third one added in wells. Which if you can surround them with four buildings, you get four points. So nothing is too swingy or complex, but it starts to add in more scoring options.

Upcoming Streams

This Wednesday I plan on wrapping up ISS Vanguard. Do a bit more exploring before launching into the next campaign experience. Still deciding on what that game is going to be. But most likely it is going to be Isofarian Guard. Which I unboxed on the channel a few weeks ago. If you want to join for the last ISS Vanguard play, you can find the upcoming video here. I will stream at 8 PM Central.

And then next Monday, it is more My City Roll and Build. It will be the game I play over the next three weeks to get through the whole experience. See if it’s a game that looks interesting to you. And if you already own it, you can play along with me and let me know your scores.

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