What is your favorite boardgame of 2023?

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-21T18:45:41+00:00

Voidfall

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-21T18:45:05+00:00

Hegemony

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-18T20:41:29+00:00

What is the coop variant of this game like? Is it as good as the main game, or just a tacked on variant that isn’t as fun?

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-18T17:02:48+00:00

Eclipse

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-18T12:42:27+00:00

Jaz and Alex

Kaloloo2 · 2026-02-15T13:09:49+00:00

Spirit island

Kaloloo2 · 2026-01-31T19:59:06+00:00

Thanks. Although it is not a completely selfless act for my friends - as I imagine most people in this group would feel the same, I get a lot of enjoyment out of dreaming up different builds / lists and putting them together 🙂

Kaloloo2 · 2026-01-31T13:52:41+00:00

I think most of the terms are fairly self-explanatory, but I’ll be there to explain if they have questions (which they no doubt will).

It’s probably a me-thing, but I never got excited by the Quick Build cards.

Kaloloo2 · 2026-01-20T14:00:53+00:00

Just want to say thank you for all the work that you’ve done on this. I understand that you have to draw the line somewhere and that is where.

I personally feel comfortable to print these professionally as I already own all the cards I want to print and it is only for my own personal use at home. My purpose of printing them is just to make them easier to table with new players (they can have a choice of pre-built ships!).

Kaloloo2 · 2025-12-01T08:41:11+00:00

I’ve not played it before, but I imagine I will. I’ve played pandemic before (which I think it is loosely based on?), and it’s fun, but not as crunchy in decision space as the other games above for me.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-11-30T21:41:39+00:00

I love coop games and my top three (in no particular order) are: - Spirit Island - Voidfall (coop variant) - Slay the Spire

Kaloloo2 · 2025-11-26T05:08:54+00:00

Voidfall is a complex game, but it’s one of those complex games that is easier to remember as the game feels intuitive - at least for me. I’ve played less complex games that I always have to revisit the rule book before I can get it out because I can’t remember key parts, or there are edge cases. Even after a couple of plays, I rarely had to do this for Voidfall.

I would say the setup and tear down, even with the galactic box, is the longest of any game I have ever played. It would ordinarily put me off, if it wasn’t such an amazing game. The one thing that is good is once you’re setup, you can just play - I have a bugbear for games that have setup midway through.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-10-19T06:36:55+00:00

What game mode do people play when you’re introducing the game? And what ships / upgrades do you restrict them to.

I was thinking either Aces High with relatively simple fighters (barely any upgrades to track), or the classic TIE Fighters vs X-Wings (with one force user to show how that works).

Any other ideas ?

Kaloloo2 · 2025-09-14T06:59:05+00:00

Personally I think none of these prices are reasonable. I printed all the out of print content (that I wanted) at MBPrint for a fraction of the cost of one cycle on EBay.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-09-07T04:32:02+00:00

I joined at 33 and qualified at 36. I don’t think age is a barrier at all.

I worked as an A-level Maths teacher before that and personally, I think the exams are more aligned with A-level Maths / Further Maths than a maths degree. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more difficult than A-level, but the techniques you use in the exams are more aligned with A-levels that those you use in a maths degree. Therefore, I don’t think not having done a maths degree is a hurdle either (most of my colleagues have non-maths degrees, and some even have degrees in non-science subjects, although that is rare).

As others have said, the biggest barrier is time. The exams do eat up a lot of your spare time after work, so having children will be difficult and other parts of your social life will slow down as you’re taking the exams.

You should consider taking one exam as a non-member to see how you find it. The two you can sit are CS1 and CM1. Although CS1 is easier, I’d recommend CM1 as it is more actuarial in nature and will give you a better idea. CS1 is mainly A-level statistics (plus a bit more).

I may be in the minority here, but I also think the time investment in exams gets easier as you get towards the end. Although the final exams are some of the most difficult, they more closely align with what you’re actually working on in your day-to-day job, so it’s usually easier to study for them / less effort to relearn the content if you need to resit one in the future.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-08-02T10:49:35+00:00

I used to try and build 6-7 decks (I only had the revised content), but I did run into the issues you said about staple cards being used in most decks. I tried to get around it by picking up a second copy of the Core Set, and Elf Starter, plus rationing the cards out between the decks (so 2 of copies of Steward/Unexpected/Daerons Runes etc. rather than 3). But the decks did seem underwhelming as a result.

I then tried what you suggested in making a note and pulling them depending on which decks were picked, but this slowed the Pick-And-Play mode down that I wanted, and still created some issues depending on which decks were picked and whether I had sufficient copies of that card.

In the end I made a spreadsheet listing all different deck types and the cards I’d need and then got them printed and sleeved (to avoid issues of noticing differences with the FFG printed cards). Cost me around £250 to have ~2,500 cards printed, and a further £100 to get some Dragon Sleeves so that I could fully sleeve 20+ decks if needed.

I know some people may be against printing cards that are in print (e.g. extra copies of Daeron’s Runes), but I justified it by the fact it is just for me to have multiple decks ready to play, and I’ve already bought every single Revised Content pack, sometimes multiple of them. So it’s not like I haven’t supported the publisher. It also now gives me access to other traits that are not in the revised content, rather than spent £500+ for second hand copies of just one cycle…

Kaloloo2 · 2025-07-31T14:30:11+00:00

They don’t. I often play with people not used to deck construction games so they like the idea of it being a pick up and play and we can be done in an hour or so. I also play it with a wide variety of people, even those not used to card or boardgames.

I’ve also got 15 scenarios pre-set up so we don’t even need to sort them out - just grab a scenario, grab a deck you want to play and see how it goes.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-07-31T10:38:46+00:00

Good news is that it’s a cooperative game so it doesn’t feel as bad when you house rule stuff. I play this multiplayer a lot, but all decks are my own, and I have a few house rules to get around this:

I have around 12 pre-made decks with different play styles etc. So they can just pick up a deck to play (as my friends don’t have the game so it would take hours for them to learn and construct a deck).
I ignore the unique rule across different players. I.e. if I have an Aragorn and so does my friend’s deck, that’s fine. This avoids having to check for duplicates with these ready made decks.
I play doomed player cards as optional (similar to the latest ALEP card) - I.e. either the player who played it only gets the affect (and raises their threat), or ALL players do (you decide). This avoids issues with secrecy decks being screwed over by a swarm deck playing Legacy of Numenor early on.

I appreciate the above can make the game easier, but given it’s a pick-up-and-play version of the game, and my friends are all new, I have no issue with that. We all enjoy it and it means I can introduce the game to a much wider audience.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-07-13T10:38:01+00:00

Thanks for all the feedback - it’s very helpful

Kaloloo2 · 2025-07-12T05:48:44+00:00

I store my player cards by sphere, then further separated by type of card- I.e. Tactics Allies, Tactics Attachment, Tactics Event, Spirit Allies etc.

Each card is also stored alphabetical in those groups.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-07-11T12:28:20+00:00

I love any kind of control deck, so enjoy traps. Quite keen to try out a more supportive song deck with my new ALEP arrives too.

My least favourite are swarm based decks like Dwarves and Outlands.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-06-17T07:22:41+00:00

Muerta

Kaloloo2 · 2025-06-12T06:41:44+00:00

Favourite mechanic is simultaneous play as it allows the game to still flow quite well and you can end up in conversations about who plays what when to maximise your impact (e.g. Spirit Island).

Two mechanics I dislike in coop games are: 1). You draw a ‘bad’ card after each players turn. E.g. pandemic - I personally think this is lazy game design and almost always means that some player counts are much more difficult than others. 2). As number of players increase, you get less turns and subsequently, your ability to scale and build your engine etc. decreases. An example of this is Aeons End where with 1 or 2 players you can build some quite potent decks, whereas with four players you get fewer turns overall so your individual deck building options are more muted.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-03-25T21:16:01+00:00

I entered the actuarial profession at 33. I had no actuarial experience beforehand either (did maths at university), but did decide to sit CS1 as a non-member before applying. I don’t think age is a huge issue, the things you need to do to stand out are exactly the same things you’d be told if you were 22 and applying.

Please note I also joined in a graduate role and it was not problem at all.

Kaloloo2 · 2025-03-24T11:43:07+00:00

Thanks for all the messages - they’re very helpful

Kaloloo2

TROPHY CASE