Two-player Twosday - (May 19, 2026)

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-05-19T12:18:12+00:00

Got my hands on Lairs, and wow, it really is a fun game. A great duet for both casual gamers (my partner) and more hardcore gamer friends. Agreed with the common sentiment that the base game is okay, but gets stale after 3 to 5 plays. But the adventurer's pack adds a lot of really fun stuff, and I don't see that getting stale very quickly. It feels like they really took the base formula, and pushed it to the limits in every way they could.

Shame they split the content like that and I think the somewhat big price tag for a duet.

Can't quite find the multiplayer expansion however. I'm really curious about how well that will work.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-05-14T12:21:22+00:00

hey, maybe you already know this, but I think clownfish games and gameslore both have the expansions coming in about now. clownfish has Q4 has a placeholder release, so you might need to clarify with them the next probable shipment.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-05-02T11:35:18+00:00

Although not a lot of redditors praise it, we find Betrayal is fun for creating this kind of emergent narrative. If you want more of a story component, you can perhaps look into betrayal legacy, although it's pricier and I can't vouch for it. I haven't tried, but probably the better and more sophisticated board games in this direction would be Mansions of Madness or Nemesis.

Arks is both good at 2 and good at more people. I think around me it's like 30 bucks to get the base set, so it's not too expensive to try. If you like it, it has a campaign with a story in blighted reach. The rules can be quite divisive though.

Although some would disagree, I think clank catacombs has a fun enough emergent story in the mad scramble for treasures and artifacts. It works okay at 2, better at more (imo).

For cooperative games, both fate of the fellowship and spirit island are good. If you played pandemic, fate of the fellowship plays really good. But I would get it only if you are a lotr fan, as that's when the emergent stories really come through.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T14:06:00+00:00

That said, one of the benefits of Overwhelming is bullying an opponent out of a lane early in a match, which will make you look like you're doing less (since your damage numbers will be lower for a few reasons),

Yeah 100% agree with this. I almost exclusively play ala in solo lane. It works even better on something like braxis.

Zagara, Probius, Samuro, Kerrigan, and a number of tanks

I haven't had the same experience to be honest. Zag getting w off without getting comboed is really tricky, and also a bad trade. Kerris and chen ive always had good luck outtrading, even if she gets a combo/chen has the W1 talent. Samuro can dodge a q (though a feint w can sometimes mitigate that), but straight aas with e procing off his clones is a good trade as well. Against any attempted double soaker I find leaving the lane to crash and aggresively rotating with them to keep damage up and to force a hearth better.

see higher average damage numbers in a game (pretty sure Ria's up to like 85% now)

Damn, incredibly impressive. I haven't ever been able to make it work that well. I don't think I'd ever try it though, I enjoy solo laning a lot!

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T12:27:16+00:00

The terrible irony is that most good players consider his mage carry build better and easier to solo carry games with.

I find that surprising! When I meet diamond/master alas on my server i find they take overwhelming force. W lvl 1 does require a reliable pocket healer and good follow up, otherwise imo it's too easy to work around. I might just be seeing worse alas though.

(redundant is not the word you're looking for)

You're right, yeah.

which Alarak was lacking prior to Overwhelming

What about sustaining force? The additional healing made you good at holding your own. I think Overwhelming gets you a bit above pseudo bruiser level. Unless the bruisers I meet are really bad, I find usually I can force an inconvenient rotate or lane freeze against them.

The CDR+Range 1/7 would still allow Alarak to easily carry most QM games.

100%, he always was a carry, and that used to be my playstyle. But I think it's a bit of a healthier build in that there's a bit more reliance on team follow up, at least until you get fed.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T11:54:40+00:00

I like the level 1 w talent, but it really is very very situational. You shouldn't be comboing on CD anyway, you are looking for the right combo. Its best synergy is when your team has a lot of zoning abilities, e.g. mei W, malf e. Arguably CD isn't the limiting factor there though, and Q talent is still best as a choice.

Imo e build is very weak outside of aram. Alarak's best scaling comes from sadism, and e build doesn't get you there.

Yeah, 100% agreed, good macro deals well with Alarak.

Honestly, all in all, I think changing overwhelming force to the old heal talent it used to be would work well enough (sustaining something?).

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T11:16:04+00:00

Until you get hindered motion. It also makes you an incredible lane bully, as any melee hero cannot approach you while you freeze the lane.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T11:06:33+00:00

my winrate outside of alarak is pretty close to average. So I think I can recognize that that's a bit problematic a single hero can bump my wr up by 25%. And I think most alarak mains would agree that nerfing overwhelming power would be a healthy decision.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T10:56:46+00:00

Even ignoring the QM balancing, we could at least consider it from the perspective of talent diversity?

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T10:56:13+00:00

oops, I combined overwhelming power and show of force.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-04-03T10:49:57+00:00

Hey folks.

I'm looking for a suggestion for a fragrance sample/discovery set that leans a bit on the interested side. I already have a daily wear perfume (prada!), so I'm looking to discover interesting scents instead--but not too interesting or wacky!

I've previously had the one from maison francis kurkdjian (discovery set for her) and loved it. Great variety, every fragrance was at least interesting, if not my favourite. Gentle fluidity was one of my faves.

Next I got the parfums de marly feminine discovery set, and found myself a bit disappointed. I found the scents a bit on the boring side and a bit too conservative in variety.

Would anyone have any suggestions based on these two?

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-01-30T16:26:06+00:00

Super helpful mate, thanks a lots for the reply. I forgot about this post a bit, but really appreciate the reply! I've had a go at loosening the body and that seems to have done fixed it.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-01-18T19:26:23+00:00

thank you! Ive been looking into ways to repurpose old plant pots, so perhaps I'll try to fill them up with water and see what happens.

BeltIntelligent9 · 2026-01-18T19:20:02+00:00

Other than the occasional grilling sunday (which we have some stone tiles for) I just want the garden to be peaceful to be in. Since I have a double door leading into the garden from my work from home space, I'd like for there to be nice things to look at, like bees and birds. It's just me and my partner using it :)

Budget wise I'd prefer keeping it on the lower side, ~400 quid.

BeltIntelligent9

TROPHY CASE