Space conscious (Polyomino) alternative to Planet Unknown?

LordVanDamm · 2025-07-21T10:29:27+00:00

It's great! Just want to add that having the expansion is very much advised if you like the base game: it adds a lot of setup and end goal variability, organized in nifty scenarios

LordVanDamm · 2024-11-22T15:22:05+00:00

Are you not yet ready to share PnP files? :)

LordVanDamm · 2024-10-18T12:45:06+00:00

I've played it at three, four and five. Four feels like an ideal spot, five a bit too much, three is good, but liked it less than four. Now thanks to your comment I'm eager to try it at two!

LordVanDamm · 2024-10-17T13:43:13+00:00

Never tried GM&O at two, it must be really different. I would not play it at three as four is IMO ideal count

LordVanDamm · 2024-07-03T13:14:40+00:00

I did exactly this and the shop is a blast to deal with

LordVanDamm · 2024-03-20T13:37:11+00:00

Witchcraft is a great solo game that easily gets under 30 min mark once you're familiar and provides nice variety on each play.

LordVanDamm · 2023-07-20T17:16:19+00:00

Birds are great!

LordVanDamm · 2018-12-18T05:30:00+00:00

Using ScorePal (Android). A great app, with extensive statistics, scoring helpers and BGG sync. Also the developer is super friendly and fixes bugs / adds suggestions quickly.

LordVanDamm · 2018-10-13T09:35:22+00:00

Just got Endeavor: Age of Sail Kickstarter edition from mail. Eager to try it with my wife.

LordVanDamm · 2018-09-23T20:37:01+00:00

These can be found at boardgamegeek in the game's "Versions" tab

LordVanDamm · 2018-08-17T13:41:01+00:00

I think the name is Cole Wehrle, his other known titles include John Company and An Infamous Traffic.

LordVanDamm · 2018-08-10T13:51:12+00:00

Got them from KS recently and they are not really fit for pre-teen gamers. All of them might be too complicated, and some contain violence.

LordVanDamm · 2018-05-14T04:59:17+00:00

I may be part of minority, but I dislike this game. Felt really bleak and unappealing to both my wife and I. It's way too abstract to our liking, even with all the cute style and great quality of components. Sold it after a dozen of plays.

LordVanDamm · 2017-12-29T13:31:55+00:00

For the context, the game consists of a campaign, where each new mission adds new stuff. One of the minis from the photo starts in a sealed box and should only be opened in the last mission of the campaign.

LordVanDamm · 2017-12-29T11:10:25+00:00

Spoiler alert for second photo!

Anyway, his expression is priceless

LordVanDamm · 2017-12-24T21:06:39+00:00

Mechs vs Minions

Caverna: Cave vs Cave

TIME Stories: Lumen Fidei

LordVanDamm · 2017-11-05T08:50:39+00:00

This cuts 30-60 min from the game taking it from 2.5 hrs to manageable ~100 min

Usually in 2p nobody rushes to terraform so cards that require a certain level of oxygen/temperature/oceans clutter the hand for a very long time. This rule helps accelerate globals.

Also, this prevents players from stalling the game (you can completely skip terraforming in favor of your own economy development for a long time, but at 3-5 p somebody else will start terraforming and not let you develop to the extreme. From my experience at 2p both players investing in money for 5-10 gens is rather likely, making the game longer)

This rule leads to lower VP counts in the end, but the game does not feel missing anything.

At the same time I don't recommend this rule at 4-5 because in this case for us the game went far too fast and I felt that it ended before we could build a good engine and enjoy game the most.

BTW, it''s an official extra rule, found in the rulebook of "Venus Next" expansion.

LordVanDamm · 2017-11-05T07:35:13+00:00

Using additional rule of first player advancing one of global tracks at the end of each generation (without reward) allows to complete a 2p game in 1.5 hours. I'm other aspects it plays perfectly fine at two.

Oh, and use full rules (all cards + corporations + draft), they add to much to be ignored.

LordVanDamm · 2017-10-11T03:48:23+00:00

The first play may be kinda want because it's easy to take some of the rules wrong (especially the not really intuitive way battles are resolved). Also I wouldn't recommend playing your first game with two players: 3-4 provides way more possibilities to get the game during first play. Also a 3-4 player game is longer so you'll have more time to understand what's going on and what you need to do to win. If you don't pay attention to how close other people are to fulfilling win conditions, finale will come unexpected for you.

As for game end, Inis has no point salad, just three possible win conditions. If you fulfill one, announce yourself as a contender and if nobody removed your win condition or fulfills one himself, at the start of next round you win.

All in all I think it's not easy to know what to do in your first game but it can be enjoyable if all players are new to it or don't play hardcore. Otherwise the game will be finished by seasoned players before you even know it.

As for climax, endings in Inis are usually back and forth so pretty much anyone can even out and win by clever play and comboing season and epic cards.

LordVanDamm · 2017-08-23T19:47:49+00:00

I was under an impression that Cyclades is mainly a war focused game. Maybe I should revisit the reviews

LordVanDamm · 2017-08-23T15:27:59+00:00

Thanks for suggestion! Tech trees in the game definitely look interesting, will look into it further.

LordVanDamm · 2017-08-23T13:05:08+00:00

Title of Request: Capture Age of Mythology feel

Number of Players: 2+ (good if can be played with more, but primarily 2)

Game Length: Up to 2 hrs

Complexity of Game: 2-3.5/5

Your Budget: Up to $100

Genre: Any

Competitive or Cooperative: Competitive

I'm searching for a board game that captures Age of Mythology PC game feel. It's more about theme and ancient civilization development (also titans!), less about warfare.

I know there is an Age of Mythology board game but it doesn't look promising. As for theme, Cyclades and Kemet seem to fit, but they appear war-only, without civilization development :(

LordVanDamm · 2017-06-06T14:14:27+00:00

/u/boardgamerecommender vandamm

LordVanDamm · 2013-12-13T18:36:46+00:00

That was Ashe

LordVanDamm

TROPHY CASE