Everdell: Capsule review

 I seem to have lost steam on a lot of gaming fronts lately, but one area that keeps going is my after work boardgaming session each week. My friend and I have been trying to score 400 points in Dorfromantik for an absolute age now (we're nearing our 100th game soon) and we are failing miserably, so we have started playing one game of Dorfromantik and one of another game when we meet. The newest hotness is Everdell, which I have to say is a really fun game, even though I keep losing, and it has a cosy theme that just makes it a delight to look at. Better yet, it has solo options, and a supplement with an alternative solo/co-op mode, which is perfect for me.

Image from BGG

The idea is that you lead a group of critters out to settle a new territory and you have one year to develop the best settlement before winter comes. You do this by placing workers to gain resources and using those resources to play cards into your city. The cards will score you points at the end of the game and some have effects that are triggered during play, such as production cards that give you more resources when you play critters or constructions into your city. However, you also have to manage what you play properly, because you only have fifteen spaces in your city and it is not easy to remove critters or constructions once played. Sending them to the dungeon or to the cemetery are a couple of options there, but that means you need to draw those cards.

Image from BGG

Personally, I keep forgetting the special effects and keep getting lost in the theme of my city, hence why I lose a lot. Still, my cities are always more aesthetically pleasing than my opponents' cities, so I win in my head! The game also makes my head hurt. With loads of options and limited capacity to do them all, there is a lot to think about here, and it makes my head hurt at times.

It may be a negative point for some, but there is little player interaction in the game. There is a card you can play into your opponent's city and some cards that instruct you to give resources or cards to your opponent, but beyond that the biggest point of interaction is whining at your opponent when they take a card you wanted from the common pool of face-up cards. But then the whining is part of game playing. If it's not them stealing the cards you wanted, it's complaining about your dice rolls in other games.

Overall, for me this game is a winner. The aesthetics of the whole thing are great, the theme is cosy, you have meaningful choices to make at every stage, and it makes for a good social and sociable game with my friends that can be played in about 90 minutes (time spent whining and sledging included). If you like worker placement and tableau building with a cute animal theme, then I recommend this to you.

Oh, and it has expansion sets. You can never have too many expansion sets for a game! Or accessories. Accessories are good too.

One Step Beyond (Battletech)

 When Jennie walked into the Lemmings' control room, she found Anna dancing beside her console, headphones on and oblivious to the world.

"Hey, Anna, whatcha doing?"

Jennie had to repeat herself several times before Anna realised she was there.

"It's the new album from Sadness."

"What?"

"You know, Sadness."

IYKYK

"No, I don't know. You know I don't listen to music."

"It's those guys from the Dorkonis Combine. They've got a new album out."

"Wait! What? Dorkonis Combine?" Jennie laughed.

"Yeah, one of the techs called them that and now it has stuck in my brain. So, they have a new album out and it's brilliant. Say what you like about their military chops, they really know how to put together a catchy House-K-pop tune. Here, listen."

Anna switched the feed to the speakers in the control room, and soon both of them were caught up in the music.

I painted up some more mechs for House Kurita, and when I lined them up on the painting table it reminded me of that album cover. Sorry. I do like how the decals from Defiance Industries Wargaming finish the mechs off nicely, but the varnish has given the mechs a slightly satin finish, despite being ostensibly matt, so I shall have to go over that again.

Also, apologies for the very hasty work to remove background shadow.

Catalyst Game Labs plastic mechs from various lance packs and boxed sets

The Battle of Antares (Space Empires 4X)

 Communication to the loyal Bwendi Federation from President-for-Life Colonel Throckmorton P. Gladiolus XCVI:

People of the Bwendi Federation, today we gather to mourn the loss of the citizens of Vortigern and Sheldon. As you know, over a decade ago great alien doomsday machines first appeared from deep space and sought to destroy all life in our sector of the galaxy. The first encounter with one of these machines, which we called Weasels for their remorseless bloodthirstiness, was fought near the planet Essen. Brave battleship crews stood their ground and defended Essen even as we built up our naval capacity to counter this new attack.

We believed that this was a one-off occurrence until a second machine appeared several years later and also sought to destroy Essen. Our capabilities had been built up by then, but the machine had evolved too. We believe that the first machine communicated our capabilities even as our heroic naval crews gave their lives in aid of its destruction. This battle cost us dearly and we mourn every single crewperson lost in both of those battles.

Plenty of unexplored regions in deep space. Who knows what is out there?

We all hoped that this was it, but, as we know, all bad things come in threes, and the following year another Weasel appeared but from a different direction this time. Our scientists are convinced that it had decided to try a new approach because the previous two were destroyed at Essen. Alas for the people of Vortigern, our navy was not in position to stop it. The Weasel destroyed the whole planet and only a few refugees escaped. We mourn the people of Vortigern. Not content with that, the Weasel flew to Sheldon and destroyed that planet too. More escaped because they now had warning, but too many still died. We mourn the people of Sheldon. May the people of Vortigern and Sheldon forever live in our memories.

However, by this time our scouts had ascertained the Weasel's route. It was clear that it was heading for our capital Altair. We do not know why. We do know that we had just enough time to fortify Antares and to build up our fleet reserve there. It cost us half of our fleet, but our heroes fought well and valiantly on that day when they faced the Weasel, and they destroyed it.

The Doomsday Machine (bottom right of pic) has destroyed half the fleet but it has been destroyed

Praise to the heroes of Essen and Antares. To them, both living and dead, we award the Frog Star of Bwendi, the highest military award we have. On this tenth anniversary of the Battle of Antares, we honour those that saved us. We praise and mourn these heroes, and we declare that the Weasel menace is over. Our scouts have searched deep space and report no further signs of Weasels. Our scientists have modelled the behaviour of those that assaulted us and declared that there are unlikely to be more. We shall remain vigilant and maintain our defences, but we declare too that this day shall be a public holiday henceforth to honour our heroes. May the Great Frog bless them all.

The Game

I played the Doomsday Machines solo scenario from Space Empires 4X from GMT on Normal mode. You can make it more difficult by choosing a different level that will see the Doomsday Machines arriving earlier and being stronger. You can also play on Easy mode which does the reverse, giving you more time to prepare.

You start with a few scouts, a shipyard, some colony ships and a mining ship at your homeworld. You know the Doomsday Machines are coming and you have to prepare to defeat them. It's a race to maximise your resources available, build the right stuff to stop the Doomsday Machines and save the people of your galactic federation. Undefended planets in the machine's path will be destroyed.

I was quite lucky that the first two machines both came from the unpopulated side of my federation. It made it easier to meet them, and the proximity of Essen to my homeworld made it easier to reinforce the planet.

My maintenance costs were also conveniently reduced by my scoutships being lost to black holes and other navigation hazards in deep space. They did enough, but I needed those extra points to build cruisers, then battleships, then dreadnoughts.

The third Doomsday Machine came from the top left of the map where there was a straight line of four colonies between it and my homeworld. Rather than assault it with my cruiser flotilla that was in that area, I looked at how quickly the Doomsday Machine would move through and how quickly the rest of my fleet could gather there and chose to make my stand at Antares. That meant that I would lose two of my colonies, but that I would have time to assemble a force that stood a chance against the infernal machine. There was no point sending in my forces piecemeal, because the machine would heal damage with every planet it ate, so I would lose ships while gaining nothing.

The final battle was tough but I got lucky with the dice about halfway through. The Doomsday Machine missed five 50/50 shots in a row. Hurrah! My own troops were barely any better, but they scored the necessary hits and the machine was destroyed.

This was a tense game that I doubt I would have won on a more difficult level without a lot more practice. It was fun though. I probably got rules wrong, despite them being very short and straightforward. Next time I plan to get them all correct. We shall see.