LogFAQs > #942730930

17. Millennium Blades

• played this once and kind of found it overwhelming and not that fun. Love the theme and concept though.

I have commented on this one before and it really is better than the sum of its parts. The actual card game that you play in the 3 tournaments (over the course of the full game) by itself isn't that exciting and can be determined completely randomly by the cards you collect in the planning phase. But the game is about so much more than the tournaments. Getting overall points for Collecting cards, selling cards, throwing actual wads of cash around and even getting rewarded for the friends you make along the way!

Millennium Blades really does an amazing job of capturing the feeling of spending a year or two being involved in a CCG/LCG and wraps it up in 2-4 hours. I'm sorry it didn't grab you as much as me. You're right that with so many moving parts it can be overwhelming, so it does make a big difference to have someone experienced to teach the game. I also can't imagine this game being nearly as fun with only two or three people.

18. Voyages of Marco Polo

• want to play, but to be fair, nothing sticks out enough about it for me to consider buying it as a another midweight euro.

Naye is right. I was a little skeptical on this one at first, but it really grew on me. The character abilities are so different that each one affects the way you approach the game depending on your character, you can focus on moving around the map or collecting contracts or a balance between the two. The game also makes clever use of the dice. It's a very interactive euro that is easy to teach, has a lot of replayability and has multiple paths to victory. It's just a really well designed game that is fun to play.

20. Fuse
- never even heard of this one! It sounds awesome. Do you find that its player count and its weight are counteractive at all? It sounds like a party game, but seems to work best at 4?

I wouldn't quite call Fuse a party game, but it is a huge hit with casual and non-gamers. So I guess it is sort of a party game. It's a quick, chaotic, fun filler game. Since it's a real time co-op game, it's very difficult for an alpha gamer to play the game for everyone. Nearly everyone I have played with (including non-gamers) pick up on figuring out what they need pretty quickly and start demanding the dice they need along with everyone else, so everyone stays engaged.

The whole game works solely because of the timed aspect. If you Take away the timer and make it turn based, then most of my gamer friends would get bored of it pretty quickly. The pressure of having only 10 minutes gives the game it's frantic nature that is a lot of fun - similar to Captain Sonar. The turn based version of Captain Sonar is okay. But once you start the timer, everyone is full steam ahead and the game becomes great. Fuse is very similar, just in 10 minute bursts - which is almost the perfect amount of time to keep up a frantic pace. It still works at 2 and 3 players, but I have had more fun with this one with more people at 4 or 5 players.

21. Anachrony

• have two plays of this, so it would now rank somewhere - probably not super-high, as I don't necessarily regard it as better than other games in its genre - but I do like the asymmetric powers and the two-tiered worker system. I haven't experienced a ton of its breadth; I did not take a single research action in the two games I played.

- I will admit that I only played Anachrony twice, so maybe my ranking is a bit skewed. As you can tell, I do love worker placement games, but for me, what sets it apart from most other worker placement is the uniqueness of how the theme ties in with the gameplay. There comes a certain point where the world is about to end and the goal of the game completely changes which can be at a different point in different games. I love the way the game builds up with more options opening up each round until the meteor starts crashing down and your options suddenly become more and more limited. It's just got such a great story arc that you don't see very often in Euro games. It also helps that the two-tiered worker system is very satisfying to work with. Even though it is kind of a long game, I constantly think about Anachrony and would really love to play it again.

23. Star Wars: the Queen's Gambit

• Heard this is really neat; almost certain I'll never play it, though. Know almost nothing about it, and isn't it out of print?

Yes, this game is very out of print and since it was tied in to Star Wars Episode I, it has a 0.00001% chance of ever being reprinted. Star Wars Risk was loosely based on Queen's Gambit, but it's nowhere near as good. This is another game I have only played twice both times at gaming conventions. I loved it so much that I would consider this my grail game the most expensive and hard to find game that I would love to add to my collection.

Basically, the game simulates the climax of Star Wars Episode 1 by having you play four different games at the same time. It sounds weird, but all four sub-games interlock together and it works really well. One side plays the Trade Federation (Dark Side) and the other plays Naboo (Light Side). On one map, you have the battle on the plain between the Gungan forces and the droid army, which connects to ---- A 3 tiered palace where you have the attempt by Naboo forces, led by Queen Amidala, to storm the palace and capture the Trade Federation viceroys, which is also connected to - the fight between Darth Maul and the two Jedi Knights on a power reactor map. Off to the side, you also have the space battle where Anakin's starfighter is trying to destroy the Droid Control Ship.

I am not usually impressed by a lot of miniatures, but this game is a real sight to behold when it's set up with miniatures across three separate boards, including that totally awesome multi-level palace. The action is driven by two decks of cards for each side. Each turn, each side simultaneously chooses four action cards from a hand of ten, and places them in order. The actions are then carried out one at a time, alternating sides. Combat is resolved using special attack and defense dice. Each side needs to carefully weigh which of the four battles is more important based on the cards you have in your hand. The different battles can affect each other, too. For example, If Anakin makes it through the final space battle location, he shuts down the battle droids, making it easier for the Gungans to win their battle. Or the winner of the Darth Maul/ Jedi duel joins the palace battle and can use their special moves there.
I've never played anything quite like this game. It's unbelievable that Hasbro went through the trouble of releasing a game this intricate as a movie tie in. I really wish I had heard of it before it was long out of print since it's now almost impossible to find for under $200. If you ever get a chance to play this game somewhere, do yourself a favor and at least try it once. It's meant to be just a two player game and The card draws and dice can be fickle at times, but it's still a great experience.


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Yay - azuarc is the guru champion of awesomeness.