PROFIL
Historia recenzji i ocen użytkownika pszgaspar
Fire & Axe: A Viking Saga
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This is a quite thematic viking game. Players ship around Europe trading, raiding and settling in different cities. It is fast paced, can be quite engaging, components are very pretty, all in all not a bad game. However, the ship miniatures are almost always broken in the newly opened box (very thin plastic parts) and gameplay can be very random at times due to some very weird rune cards (action cards) and dice throws. The publisher IDW is quite nice as they replace broken ships without problems, but they can't really fix bad dice throws. Most of the rune cards are quite ok, it's just a couple of them that seem so weird, e.g. an opposing player got lost in sea, so you can send them back to a hometown. Seems to me that was just put in so you can be mean to other players. Thematically, how would you have any effect on another's ship ability to navigate, especially when you're on the other part of Europe? That one bothered me. They say in the rules that you can take out conflict rune cards, that might help, I haven't tried to be honest. Otherwise, the pick up and deliver mechanism is solid, although can be annoying when an other player snatches up the last part of the quest, but I'd say that's fine, every player should be aware of that. Scoring is quite good too. Be aware, you can get crazy amount of points from settling in the right spots. If you want a viking pick up and deliver game, this is quite good, although if you would drop either of those prerequisites, you have better options.
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This is a quite thematic viking game. Players ship around Europe trading, raiding and settling in different cities. It is fast paced, can be quite engaging, components are very pretty, all in all not a bad game. However, the ship miniatures are almost always broken in the newly opened box (very thin plastic parts) and gameplay can be very random at times due to some very weird rune cards (action cards) and dice throws. The publisher IDW is quite nice as they replace broken ships without problems, but they can't really fix bad dice throws. Most of the rune cards are quite ok, it's just a couple of them that seem so weird, e.g. an opposing player got lost in sea, so you can send them back to a hometown. Seems to me that was just put in so you can be mean to other players. Thematically, how would you have any effect on another's ship ability to navigate, especially when you're on the other part of Europe? That one bothered me. They say in the rules that you can take out conflict rune cards, that might help, I haven't tried to be honest. Otherwise, the pick up and deliver mechanism is solid, although can be annoying when an other player snatches up the last part of the quest, but I'd say that's fine, every player should be aware of that. Scoring is quite good too. Be aware, you can get crazy amount of points from settling in the right spots. If you want a viking pick up and deliver game, this is quite good, although if you would drop either of those prerequisites, you have better options.
Terra Mystica (edycja polska)
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This game is so good, it will keep you up at night. After game, you'll be constantly thinking what could've you done differently, more optimally to do better, score better. You'll be dreaming with pretty colored wooden houses, it's crazy good. It's like Settlers of Catan on steroids. On top of that, there's so much variation in the game, I don't think you can get bored with it. There are 14 races to choose from in the base game, every game has random round scoring tiles and favour tiles. Every race has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses which takes some time to properly discover. The game definitely has a learning curve, it was quite steep for me, but I've seen others get into it instantly. Very much depends on good rules explanation as there is quite a lot of things going on, lot of stuff to keep in mind. Terra Mystica has network building, engine building, resource management and a little flavour of civilization building (although mostly thematic). It's a heavy euro, but no wonder it got so famous. I highly recommend it.
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This game is so good, it will keep you up at night. After game, you'll be constantly thinking what could've you done differently, more optimally to do better, score better. You'll be dreaming with pretty colored wooden houses, it's crazy good. It's like Settlers of Catan on steroids. On top of that, there's so much variation in the game, I don't think you can get bored with it. There are 14 races to choose from in the base game, every game has random round scoring tiles and favour tiles. Every race has different abilities, strengths and weaknesses which takes some time to properly discover. The game definitely has a learning curve, it was quite steep for me, but I've seen others get into it instantly. Very much depends on good rules explanation as there is quite a lot of things going on, lot of stuff to keep in mind. Terra Mystica has network building, engine building, resource management and a little flavour of civilization building (although mostly thematic). It's a heavy euro, but no wonder it got so famous. I highly recommend it.
Great Western Trail
good fast euro,
This is an excellent game with elements of deck building and engine building. The players are entrepreneurs in the wild west collecting and selling cattle, developing railway and building buildings. Improving your business along these 3 major lines will give you points at the end of the game but there are also some other ways to gather points, e.g. objective cards. There are multiple paths to victory that can highly depend on what other players are working towards. This is a fast paced euro with not a lot of downtime and some interaction among players, but not a lot. You have to think a lot but pulling off nice moves can be really satisfying, especially if you can chain together a set of moves with your previously built buildings. The deck building part sometimes feels annoying (you are just not getting the cow you'd really want) but there are ways to mitigate the luck of the draw. The theme comes through nicely. As you move with your cowboy figure towards Kansas city trading cows on the way, hiring new people and expanding your railway, you can really feel the western atmosphere. I highly recommend this game if you like strategic-economic games where you have to find the optimal move to perform better than your opponents.
good fast euro,
This is an excellent game with elements of deck building and engine building. The players are entrepreneurs in the wild west collecting and selling cattle, developing railway and building buildings. Improving your business along these 3 major lines will give you points at the end of the game but there are also some other ways to gather points, e.g. objective cards. There are multiple paths to victory that can highly depend on what other players are working towards. This is a fast paced euro with not a lot of downtime and some interaction among players, but not a lot. You have to think a lot but pulling off nice moves can be really satisfying, especially if you can chain together a set of moves with your previously built buildings. The deck building part sometimes feels annoying (you are just not getting the cow you'd really want) but there are ways to mitigate the luck of the draw. The theme comes through nicely. As you move with your cowboy figure towards Kansas city trading cows on the way, hiring new people and expanding your railway, you can really feel the western atmosphere. I highly recommend this game if you like strategic-economic games where you have to find the optimal move to perform better than your opponents.
DC Dice Masters: Justice League Starter Set
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If you're new to dice masters this is not a bad set to start with, but only if you like the DC characters, especially the members of the Justice League. Dice Masters is a really good two player game, where the two players send their heroes/villains to battle against each other. Whoever damages the other player enough times wins the game. The beauty of the game comes from the special abilities that each character has and how these abilities interact with other characters, not to mention that most of these abilities are somehow reflecting attributes of the character, making the game quite thematic. What you also have to know is that this is only a base set, you will need to buy booster packs with random characters to get a better experience. If you already own a set of dice masters there are a couple of things to consider with this set. A lot of characters have very high fielding costs. There are some in-set specific card text, mostly stuff affecting Justice League characters. Villains are quite good in this set. Not a lot of global abilities on character cards. The basic action cards are not super amazing, although 'Anger Issues' is quite good.
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If you're new to dice masters this is not a bad set to start with, but only if you like the DC characters, especially the members of the Justice League. Dice Masters is a really good two player game, where the two players send their heroes/villains to battle against each other. Whoever damages the other player enough times wins the game. The beauty of the game comes from the special abilities that each character has and how these abilities interact with other characters, not to mention that most of these abilities are somehow reflecting attributes of the character, making the game quite thematic. What you also have to know is that this is only a base set, you will need to buy booster packs with random characters to get a better experience. If you already own a set of dice masters there are a couple of things to consider with this set. A lot of characters have very high fielding costs. There are some in-set specific card text, mostly stuff affecting Justice League characters. Villains are quite good in this set. Not a lot of global abilities on character cards. The basic action cards are not super amazing, although 'Anger Issues' is quite good.
Pojedynek Ninja
easy and fast,
Polish version of Ninja Taison. The art and production is very fine, the gameplay is ok. You lay out a number of terrain cards which will work as the battleground, both players get a set of cards, each resembling a ninja. Your ninjas have a colour (red, blue, green) and a number (1-3). Colours beat each other around in a rock-paper-scissors mechanism, with same colour, the numbers decide. You move your ninjas (max 3 with one move) forward on the battlefield. You win if you either beat all of your opponent's ninjas, or you reach the opponents's village. The whole point of the game is that you can chain combos together and it is very satisfying when you can beat 3 or more ninjas in one move. An annoying rule is that you can only move forward, so if you leave your village defenceless, the opponent can easily slide through your ninjas and secure an easy win. On the other hand, this makes the game very fast. There are some decisions in the game, but a big part of it is based on the luck of the dice, especially later in the game where you have less choices because of your decreased number of ninjas. All in all, it's an ok game, there are much better duelling games, however this is very easy to teach, very fast and does give some satisfaction with the combo chains.
easy and fast,
Polish version of Ninja Taison. The art and production is very fine, the gameplay is ok. You lay out a number of terrain cards which will work as the battleground, both players get a set of cards, each resembling a ninja. Your ninjas have a colour (red, blue, green) and a number (1-3). Colours beat each other around in a rock-paper-scissors mechanism, with same colour, the numbers decide. You move your ninjas (max 3 with one move) forward on the battlefield. You win if you either beat all of your opponent's ninjas, or you reach the opponents's village. The whole point of the game is that you can chain combos together and it is very satisfying when you can beat 3 or more ninjas in one move. An annoying rule is that you can only move forward, so if you leave your village defenceless, the opponent can easily slide through your ninjas and secure an easy win. On the other hand, this makes the game very fast. There are some decisions in the game, but a big part of it is based on the luck of the dice, especially later in the game where you have less choices because of your decreased number of ninjas. All in all, it's an ok game, there are much better duelling games, however this is very easy to teach, very fast and does give some satisfaction with the combo chains.
Gejsze
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This is a very nice 2 player game. It is very similar to Battlelines or Schotten Totten, but in my opinion this one is much better. There are 7 geishas in the middle, both players get a hand of cards that match the geishas. The point of the game is to win over more geishas than your opponent (either number of geishas of value of geishas). Both players have four different actions that they can only take once in a game. These actions also involve the other player, e.g. put down 3 cards from your hand, your opponent chooses one, you get the other 2. This way these decisions are engaging for both players and you get to know more from what's in the other players hand. Compared to Battlelines and Shotten Totten, there are much fewer cards here, so it is much easier to keep track of the game and much easier to make meaningful decisions. Also, the game can easily end in a draw. If this happens, you go into a new round, you reshuffle all the cards and do the exact same thing, but you keep the geishas you've won over in the previous round, which can be won over by your opponent, but if no one puts cards there, you'll win that geisha at the end of the round. This gives an extra layer to the game, which brings in a little area control. The art is beautiful, it is really nice to look at the game. Also, don't be put off by the theme. If you read into it you will find that geishas were highly trained artistic entertainers and the word geisha is not a synonym for courtesan, although there is some overlap in the two worlds.
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This is a very nice 2 player game. It is very similar to Battlelines or Schotten Totten, but in my opinion this one is much better. There are 7 geishas in the middle, both players get a hand of cards that match the geishas. The point of the game is to win over more geishas than your opponent (either number of geishas of value of geishas). Both players have four different actions that they can only take once in a game. These actions also involve the other player, e.g. put down 3 cards from your hand, your opponent chooses one, you get the other 2. This way these decisions are engaging for both players and you get to know more from what's in the other players hand. Compared to Battlelines and Shotten Totten, there are much fewer cards here, so it is much easier to keep track of the game and much easier to make meaningful decisions. Also, the game can easily end in a draw. If this happens, you go into a new round, you reshuffle all the cards and do the exact same thing, but you keep the geishas you've won over in the previous round, which can be won over by your opponent, but if no one puts cards there, you'll win that geisha at the end of the round. This gives an extra layer to the game, which brings in a little area control. The art is beautiful, it is really nice to look at the game. Also, don't be put off by the theme. If you read into it you will find that geishas were highly trained artistic entertainers and the word geisha is not a synonym for courtesan, although there is some overlap in the two worlds.
Meuterer
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For the size and price of it, this game packs so much. It is just a deck of cards but plays like a board game with meaningful decisions and different strategies. Players will be the crew of a merchant ship shipping around, trading goods and changing roles in every turn. This will lead to temporary alliances, negotiations and backstabbing.
You put down 12 island cards in a circle, this will be the map, everyone gets 5 resource cards (things to trade -salt, ruby, silk, corn, vine- or conflict cards) someone starts as the captain and the game begins. Starting from captain everyone is putting down resource cards trying to get to most of a goods type to trade at either the starting location or the destination. However, only the captain knows where the ship will go. If the captain manages to stay in power til the end of the turn he/she gets points based on the destination. But seeing the captain getting so many points, a brave mutineer can try to start a mutiny in secret (or out loud if that's his style) and take the captains role for himself. There are also other roles, like the first mate who's helping the captain, the cabin boy is helping the mutineer, the merchant breaks ties in trading and the loadmaster can have a better choice from resource cards for the next turn.
I really like this game, it offers a thematic atmosphere where leader bashing actually goes hand in hand with the theme so it is not annoying at all and the captain has actual ways to defend his/her position. There is a bit of a luck of the draw but I think it can be mitigated with a good strategy. For such a low price and small size, it is game definitely worth having.
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For the size and price of it, this game packs so much. It is just a deck of cards but plays like a board game with meaningful decisions and different strategies. Players will be the crew of a merchant ship shipping around, trading goods and changing roles in every turn. This will lead to temporary alliances, negotiations and backstabbing.
You put down 12 island cards in a circle, this will be the map, everyone gets 5 resource cards (things to trade -salt, ruby, silk, corn, vine- or conflict cards) someone starts as the captain and the game begins. Starting from captain everyone is putting down resource cards trying to get to most of a goods type to trade at either the starting location or the destination. However, only the captain knows where the ship will go. If the captain manages to stay in power til the end of the turn he/she gets points based on the destination. But seeing the captain getting so many points, a brave mutineer can try to start a mutiny in secret (or out loud if that's his style) and take the captains role for himself. There are also other roles, like the first mate who's helping the captain, the cabin boy is helping the mutineer, the merchant breaks ties in trading and the loadmaster can have a better choice from resource cards for the next turn.
I really like this game, it offers a thematic atmosphere where leader bashing actually goes hand in hand with the theme so it is not annoying at all and the captain has actual ways to defend his/her position. There is a bit of a luck of the draw but I think it can be mitigated with a good strategy. For such a low price and small size, it is game definitely worth having.
DC Comics Dice Masters - Worlds Finest (Starter Set)
Dice masters for Batman and/or Superman fans,
This is the first dice masters set I got. The whole dice masters system is a very enjoyable game system. Two players sit down face to face with a set of characters of their own choosing and try to tear down the other players defences and defeat the opponent. The different sets can be combined so you could have epic DC vs. Marvel, X-men vs. D&D or in this case, Superman vs. Batman fights. This edition was released around the premier of the Batman v Superman film, but thankfully the game has no other ties to that mess of a movie. It is a dice game so luck will be a huge factor, which I usually hate in games but here it's not that annoying and I still really enjoy playing it anytime. This is my go-to 2 player game right now. I read about the game before buying it and others said that if you're a Batman or Superman fan, this is the set you will want. I'm a huge Batman nerd so it was a total win for me. Unfortunately, the starter set does not contain many characters I love (Robin, Nightwing, Alfred, Gordon, all Batman villains), but it does offer a set that is a good start. Now here comes the problem. This game can be a money pit. If you want to have the other characters like I do (e.g. Joker, Mr. Freeze, Robin, Nightwing, etc) you have to start buying the booster packs which is always a blind bet, 'cause you don't know what's in the package you're buying. Be aware of that. I wasn't entirely sure that I will like the game when I bought it because I'm not a fan of dice games, but this game has totally proved me wrong. If you're a Batman fan, get this one, but you can check the Jusitce League version if you'd like those characters more, but you can actually mix and match in any way you want.
Dice masters for Batman and/or Superman fans,
This is the first dice masters set I got. The whole dice masters system is a very enjoyable game system. Two players sit down face to face with a set of characters of their own choosing and try to tear down the other players defences and defeat the opponent. The different sets can be combined so you could have epic DC vs. Marvel, X-men vs. D&D or in this case, Superman vs. Batman fights. This edition was released around the premier of the Batman v Superman film, but thankfully the game has no other ties to that mess of a movie. It is a dice game so luck will be a huge factor, which I usually hate in games but here it's not that annoying and I still really enjoy playing it anytime. This is my go-to 2 player game right now. I read about the game before buying it and others said that if you're a Batman or Superman fan, this is the set you will want. I'm a huge Batman nerd so it was a total win for me. Unfortunately, the starter set does not contain many characters I love (Robin, Nightwing, Alfred, Gordon, all Batman villains), but it does offer a set that is a good start. Now here comes the problem. This game can be a money pit. If you want to have the other characters like I do (e.g. Joker, Mr. Freeze, Robin, Nightwing, etc) you have to start buying the booster packs which is always a blind bet, 'cause you don't know what's in the package you're buying. Be aware of that. I wasn't entirely sure that I will like the game when I bought it because I'm not a fan of dice games, but this game has totally proved me wrong. If you're a Batman fan, get this one, but you can check the Jusitce League version if you'd like those characters more, but you can actually mix and match in any way you want.
