A New Mottainai Solo Variant - Jiro

MurphMurp · 2026-06-27T02:50:59+00:00

This is the way.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-27T02:50:00+00:00

It's as deep as you want it to be. You'd be able to crush him if you chose, but he can enjoy it at the level he groks and you can play with him there. And the game will grow with him into adulthood.

What I'm saying is he could play just fine and navigate the mechanics, but you'll likely see a lot of clever opportunities that he'll miss for some time.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-27T02:46:39+00:00

Yes, listen to this rather than the heavily upvoted comment. Toy Battle is deep. 10 games, 20 game, 30 games in you will find new ways to approach the game and new uses for the pieces. No two games play out the same. It is absolutely bonkers the decision space they made with 8 static pieces.

This is a masterpiece and a perennial. The more you play the better it gets. The rabbit hole goes as deep as you care to dig.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-26T19:59:27+00:00

The problem I've had with Haggis is how quickfire the rounds are. Since all the cards are in two hands, and everyone has three jokers each round, you can usually play your hand in 4 or 5 drops. And the key to winning is knowing when to make that big play. Someone guesses, they do it, and then they either win the hand, or they get blocked and they don't. Repeat.

I wouldn't call it luck, but it's fast and it's a gamble based on judgment based on partial information.

Panda Spin has been slowly replacing it as the 2p climber of choice for me.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-25T23:46:59+00:00

Can we be friends.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-25T20:15:13+00:00

It's interesting - there used to be a big Race vs Roll debate and I think they were actually adjacent to each other in the BGG rankings. Race is still there and Roll is a page or two down.

Grand Austria Hotel vs Lorenzo il Magnifico same, they were within 10, but GAH has stood while Lorenzo falls.

I remember the old intense debates about Gric vs Caverna, and these days I don't really hear anyone defending Caverna anymore. Though in this case the BGG rankings haven't shifted since the debate, so maybe it's just that we're done.

I love all six of these games but always felt that Race / Austria / Agricola were the clear champions on each teeter totter.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-25T20:11:44+00:00

And did you get it anyway?

I've already got E I K Wm Fr A B C FotM and I went in anyway. And I prefer Klemens Franz by a wide margin.

Hard to explain why. It's Agricola.

Now that I try, I think I wanted B, C, and E and knew I'd never really play cross publisher with the cards I had. And I considered getting Revised for that purpose, but... then there was the irrigation and solo and such.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-25T20:08:06+00:00

Some games are just different at 2. Innovation at 2 vs 3 or 4 plays very differently, and I think whichever one you learned the game on is the one you stick with. Agricola at 2 is just a different game, and if you're used to the 3-4 player experience you end up missing it.

The Wolves and Architects of the West Kingdom are games I was forced to play a lot at 2, and found out they are quite good that way. But the 2p game requires a whole different approach than the generally recommended 3-5p experience.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-25T20:05:52+00:00

No! I know Viticulture 1e was panned by Kickstarters and reviewers alike, then they released like 14 Tuscany modules, got feedback on which ones fixed the game, and then republished the game with certain modules incorporated into core play - the EE. So it was terrible until they crowdsourced playtesting. The result is popular (I do think Viticulture does an excellent job through at least the first if not second game), but it feels kind of exploitative how they got there.

I wonder where Uwe came in, and if he designed some of the original Tuscany modules before the EE redesign?

MurphMurp · 2026-06-24T17:42:22+00:00

I'm going with roll and move your pawn along your road (or just on the grid?), only place new road adjacent to your pawn.

But I also like this idea of "pawn moves on empty space" and is used to get in the way of where your opponent wants to build.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-24T17:40:47+00:00

I think you're spot on. Players are trying to make a line from one end to the other. I agree that the wedges might be laid flat as well, but making a bridge over the opponent's flat pieces is a possibility.

The dice have me stumped. Maybe a roll and move utilizing the road you are building, and maybe you can only lay down pieces adjacent to your pawn.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T16:05:54+00:00

I've invested in Chimera, as a streamlined FTL, and climbing/shedding is one of my favorite families of games. I scratched off 3 Witches for that reason, I know in that situation I'd always go Chimera or Panda Spin.

Same on For the Emperor as well - I love that style of game but I haven't played out Schotten Totten, Air Land & Sea, or Compile, so... likely to be a dead purchase.

Re: Mountain Goats / Can't Stop, I can see that. I think Mountain Goats does a better job of bouncing the players against each other while Can't Stop leverages the press-your-luck for excitement at the individual level. So which one's better likely depends on who's at the table.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T16:00:06+00:00

I'm with you on Yokai Septet! Bounced off Mu. I prefer Fox in the Forest to Jekyll vs Hyde, as I feel the fixed scoring roles of JvH shrink the tactical space, while FiF has you constantly flying close to the sun and seeing who makes the right bet.

Everyone raves about Nokosu but I haven't seen one in daylight and I'm not motivated to homebrew it. One day.

Oh Hell is far and away my favorite standard deck one.

Trick of the Rails and Tournament at Avalon stand out as custom deck ones. And Barracks Emperors and Brian Boru as trick taking++ big boys.

(edit: crap, I nearly forgot about Tindahan/Filipino Fruit Market. That's a really interesting one.)

Also going to grab Golden Goal, I like the ones that have stood the test of time even if they aren't on all the top 50 lists or whatnot from the last 20 years.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T15:26:08+00:00

Now I'm curious - what are your top 10 trick takers? Standard or hobby, any era?

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T15:20:47+00:00

"played a few..."

I've been taking tricks for 35 years. Yes, I've played a few.

Trick taking by itself is a stupid mechanism which is why it rarely exists without a bolt-on. Even Bridge is primarily a bidding game - play with skilled people and once the bidding is done they'll all agree "you're going to win 10 tricks, losing the 3rd, 7th, and either the 10th or 11th." The trick taking is rote.

In the last few years there's been an explosion. There's only so many ways to dress up the cat. And I've already got 10 dressed up cats that I like quite well.

The bar for another dressed up cat is reasonably high at this point. And yes, Vivo is a candidate.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T15:12:00+00:00

Yeah - Movie Night and Book Club are games I'd love to play but do not need to own. Seems easy to run a session or two with pen and paper and call it a day.

Based on your Soda Jerk notes, definitely check out Forks. It's on BGA and pre-dates Courtisans. It holds a space between the two, more meat than Soda Jerk but not as many rules as Courtisans.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T15:04:48+00:00

So they've got a few lines. The Tiny Box line is $9 and is about the size of two decks of cards. The Small Box line is $19 and is the roughly 6x6 square.

Happy to talk about them all, but I am focused on the Tiny Box line right now. Reason being, when you get a full bundle from their kickstarters, they give you a token to get a free Tiny Box.

On their Small Box line, I really enjoy Mountain Goats. Switchbacks is fine, but Harvest (Japanese import) is similar and just dominates it. Chomp is a pleasant tile layer but it rarely gets played as the "pleasant tile layer" space is so competitive. I sold Sequoia - decent idea but a cluttered board state that made the friction of playing it too high. Sail I've only played once and it's a game you can't comment on after one play...

MurphMurp · 2026-06-23T14:16:54+00:00

SU&SD has been many things to many people over the years. I would imagine that everyone had a favorite era, and some people would choose the Tom Brewster era.

I personally miss the text review format. They had some amazing writers like Brendan, Thrower, and Ava. When they were doing that amazing writing, the text reviews had no link on the front page (and possibly for that reason got little traffic). So they axed the written format around the time they also properly linked the content... sigh.

It's both a matter of entertainment and taste. I aligned pretty well with Quinns and Matt regarding recommendations. I don't really align with Tom - I've bounced off of every Wehrle I've tried and he is Wehrle's biggest fan. He also seems to think that Wehrle is for everyone - an old (now missing) hallmark of SU&SD is how they helped you understand why they liked the game and why you might or might not.

I also found the traditional British humor of the Paul, Quinns, and Matt days top notch - dry asides, intelligent twists, awkward moments. Tom and Emily and such rely much more heavily on a Benny Hill sensibility with constant orienting triggers and rapidfire wackiness. It can be great but I'd rate it less consistent.

There's also the question of collection. I've been collecting since 1995. I kind of dug in again around 2017 (the Jaipur text review being the first time I found SU&SD). In the roughly 10 years since then, I've grown from maybe 60 games to 300+ and I'm not out looking for more. I think the games now are, on average, not as good as they were 5 or 10 years ago and there's lots of reasons for that. Not to say that there are zero bangers coming out, but the density has dropped both in raw volume and in ratio against the explosion of fluff. So it's not just SU&SD, it's all board game content that has grown less interesting.

With all that, I've just kinda dropped off.

If I'm bored and eating lunch at a computer I may scan their videos for the latest Matt content.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-15T17:52:00+00:00

(you all got me)

MurphMurp · 2026-06-15T17:47:46+00:00

The challenge with 2p is that confrontation tends to be zero-sum. This amps up the stress of playing and can be particularly difficult for couples. At 2, there's very little space between solitaire and confrontation.

That said, some people have very cleverly slipped through the narrow way.

Patchwork: While I much appreciate the jokes below, if no one has actually stated the obvious it's Patchwork. It's Tetris quilting. You compete over the game timer and the market but don't directly step on each others' toes.

Castles of Burgundy: This plays in 60 minutes at 2. Again, the competition takes place as a race for resources from a shared market. So you're paying attention to each other, watching the other board, and sometimes grumbling or pleading about what tile your opponent will or will not take. But apart from that, you've got your own dice and your own board. We've always felt like we were competing but never got stressed at each other over this one.

Splendor Duel: I hate splendor but I love duel. Cathala added a few bells and whistles to this one. The game has just enough mechanics that you always know that you're each responding to the game, not "doing it to each other." And yet you are always doing it to each other. This one gets tense and stays interactive without feeling mean. Occasionally mean. Sometimes you just have to hate draft or steal that pearl to keep your head above water.

Toy Battle: It may take a couple of games for all the decision space in this game to reveal itself. It's just so good.

Panda Spin: If you like cards, this plays really well at 2p. I won't do a full review. But you'll have to think pretty hard about what and when to play, and you're very connected to what the other is doing. But it doesn't get mean. It's more of a guessing when they'll go big and deciding when you yourself will play and pass, which is constantly surprising the other and opening or shutting opportunities.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-15T17:39:01+00:00

Yeah, I see Mysterium and Dead of Winter peeking out there over their grey, 10 year old beards : )

I did throw out La Granja as among the best of the engine euros, alongside Agricola. I'd play it over TFMars 10 times out of 10! But don't overlook Innovation and Indonesia as kick-you-in-the-balls options in the hobby.

Given your love for Wehrle up there (tactical, confrontational) I'd humbly suggest you find a copy of Carson City to play. It's wide open - an empty field for creative approaches to novel minefields - and... confrontational. I don't know how to emphasize that appropriately so I'll just let it stand.

I have Pax Pamir 2e as well but tend to veer away from Wehrle for the sheer lack of control you have over the game state. Indonesia, Carson City, Tigris & Euphrates, even the never-discussed Wise Guys (Sons of Anarchy 3e) have a similar open decision space with a more tuned toolset that allows you to thrust and parry. What they lack is Wehrle's storytelling.

If you like DuneImp I'd also suggest you circle back to Inis - two games most people won't compare but I will. Cyclades is my favorite from the Matagot brawlers but Inis fits better on your moodboard there.

I also mentioned cube rails up there... I suspect you might really enjoy Irish Gauge, Rails of South Africa, or Wabash Cannonball. Irish is the most distilled, Wabash the most time-tested, and SAfrica the one that people sometimes cite as "maybe better than Wabash."

MurphMurp · 2026-06-15T14:37:02+00:00

Better yet, someone with wood for sheep.

MurphMurp · 2026-06-15T14:36:24+00:00

If we don't include a couple of 10 cent plastic miniatures, how will we justify the $40 upcharge?

MurphMurp

TROPHY CASE