rollpasa

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There is no experience like Twilight Imperium. Not saying good or bad, just saying there is nothing else like TI4. It is the apex game. Second TI4 game, with Prophecy of Kings in the mix. The first time left me with an itch we never scratched. We didn't finish and the player chemistry kinda wasn't there. It felt more like an experiment than an actual game. This second game though, my goodness. Saying I had a blast is an understatement. I had a nuke. If you are new to it, TI4 is a 4X game. Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate. At its core are 8 strategy cards. Every round you pick one, and that pick shapes what the whole table can do. You pair them with your faction abilities to drive tactical and political plays. TI4 has everything a game can have. Engine building, exploration, combat, politics, negotiation. Reading the table matters as much as rolling dice. Reading people, voting on laws that change everything, that's what makes TI4 so good. The agendas and voting are such a unique mechanic. I can't believe this is just a 10 point game. Game turn isn't that complex, you do an action and it's not like you have to pick from 10s of different actions. Then why 10 plus hours? It is the public objectives releasing round by round. You score 1 public and 1 private objective at most, and even that's hard when six of you share one galaxy. It is a heavy game. Hours of learning, hours of setup. Prepare food, first aid, hydrators, and what not. You are sitting there for 10-14 hours. But trust the process. Give yourself a few turns. Play with someone who knows the game, unless you don't mind teaching it yourself. Everyone should watch a rules runthrough before committing. Talk strategy, don't just solve the puzzle. Joke around, tease, negotiate, be bold, be vulnerable. Take breaks, hydrate, have fun. You'll feel like you're living the game, not playing it. You don't have to love TI. It is okay to hate it. But please experience it once in your gaming life. What's the longest game you have ever finished? @Fantasy Flight Games #twilightimperium #ti4 #boardgames #tabletopgames #heavygames

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Following up on my last post, because I have so much more to say about TI4 and Instagram is greedy with space. Our game was close to 14 hours, and for a group of mostly new players with a full reset in there, that's not bad at all. Now the mechanics, because this is where TI4 gets cool. The activation system turns every turn into a sequencing puzzle. When do you produce, when do you move, and in what order. Then the strategy card draft at the top of each round, and the speaker token matters way more than it looks. People play politics with it. Denying someone a card, negotiating, passing support around to mess with the draft order. Then the agenda phase hits and literally rewrites the rules mid game. New laws, new reality, adapt or fall behind. And the politics feed right back in, because the more planets you hold, the more votes you swing with the influence earned. And the battles have layers. You don't fight for a hex, you fight for a system. You move in, defenses trigger, space battle, PDS fire while your troops drop, then the ground battle, and only then is the system yours. It's deep and it's satisfying. And people can coexist. You can share a system. This game always leaves room for negotiation. That's brilliant. I hope I get my next game in real soon. Thank you to my group for making this one possible. And next time, hopefully with the Thunder's Edge expansion. This game is a beast. It clicks with the right group, and if not, it for sure won't. It's long and it can be very brutal. But I love it. War and politics isn't fair, conflict isn't always fun. Embrace the experience and embrace the brutality. It's one heck of an experience. Have you ever had to restart a whole game because someone got the rules wrong? Thank you @Fantasy Flight Games (purchased) 🫡 #twilightimperium #ti4 #boardgames #tabletopgames #4xgames

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Cozy night with potatoes in Yotei by @Mighty Boards. I love having games like this in my collection. It is not inventing any new mechanics, but it delivers immersion and an experience elegantly. Yotei is a tableau builder from Mighty Boards, and you are building a town at the foot of Mt. Yotei in Hokkaido. There are three tiers of cards in the middle of the table, and potatoes are everything. They are your money, your bids, and your points. You place workers on cards, harvest, and race for the star cards that end the game. Yotei feels like Castle Combo in how you pick cards from the grid, the engine building feels like Splendor, and the race to the top tier feels like Gizmos. I love how simple this mashup is, plus the hidden bidding with potatoes. Placing workers on cards to reserve them sounds simple, but there is so much strategy in it. You can grab a card for your engine, and even if you cannot pay the potatoes you can take a card just to deprive others. This cute little game has real player interaction. There are mind games with potato bids, and you can temporarily juice resource requirements by placing workers face down on cards. These simple ideas stretch the depth beyond just picking a card, and it is so distilled and unbloated. My only complaint is that you might want the deluxe version or upgraded components. The cardboard potatoes are tiny and you have to be careful unpunching them. The cardboard standees might get loose after repeated plays since both the base and the standee are cardboard. I am looking at Etsy upgrades for myself. But this game is only $20, so I also cannot complain too much. A 4 card mini expansion costs $15 and at $20 this is exceptional value. But if you have the option, go for deluxe. Like I said, Yotei does not invent anything new. But when you have similar games on the shelf and you reach for one game, that is it, that is the feature you are after. And the feature is called heart serum that fills your heart with joy and good vibes. Yotei is just that. Review copy provided by the publisher. #yotei #boardgames #tabletopgames #mightyboards #japan