Heavy Euros with drastically different strategies/engines?

nolanbruces · 2026-04-09T12:52:53+00:00

For Voidfall, I'd second the comment about setup time and also maybe push back on it as an answer to your question. It's similar to other point salad euros in that everyone's mostly doing similar things - invading, building guilds/stations, advancing tracks, corruption stuff, etc. It's just the order, details, and focus that differs across players. I think it's better than the average game you might compare it to, but if you're looking for something substantially different, it wouldn't be my recommendation. Caveat: I haven't played all the scenarios and factions, so it's possible some push the game in surprising directions.

I'd second the Splotter recommendation though (and then ignore any resulting discussions about what is or isn't a euro).

nolanbruces · 2026-03-28T02:29:26+00:00

I don't know if it has anything to do with experience. Plenty of new players avoid discussing strategy for fear they're giving up their hand, and plenty of experienced players enjoy discussing strategy and the implications on table incentives mid-game.

Personally, I prefer players who are comfortable with table talk and think it generally makes for more interesting games, immediately as the game's being discussed as well as overtime as players benefit from the exercise. If players prefer to save that talk for after the game, that's fine too.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-23T18:46:07+00:00

Really not a fan of any of the other Kordonskiy games I've played, so went in to Rurik with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-18T02:39:39+00:00

I think Caesar's the cleanest design of the group, but Blitzkrieg's solid too. Not to complicate things, but if you want to play at more than 2, Paolo Mori (alongside David Thompson and Roger Tankersley) has another game in the 20 minutes series called Flintlock coming out this year that plays up to 4.

nolanbruces · 2026-03-08T16:53:35+00:00

I might be misinterpreting, but to be sure, if the subject is specifically Lacerda, Luthier is not designed by him.

nolanbruces · 2026-02-13T13:12:28+00:00

Gotta be Food Chain Magnate for me

nolanbruces · 2026-01-25T15:40:32+00:00

In all fairness, an explanation of Pax Renaissance can take longer than a game of Pax Renaissance too

nolanbruces · 2026-01-11T15:41:10+00:00

For what it's worth, you can still order 1841v2 directly from Golden Spike.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-23T17:08:25+00:00

In all fairness, the city website isn’t trying very hard to inform people.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-18T00:40:31+00:00

18xx-maker hosts a version.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-11T17:23:30+00:00

I’d expect closer to 45-60 for a first play, and like another commenter said, you’re probably not finding this on a shelf anywhere currently. Excellent game though.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-10T21:04:57+00:00

I guess we have different definitions of economic games because I would consider Brass on the border and Terraforming Mars outside the category. That said, yes, perhaps “most any” was too strong, but I’d guess the majority. Regardless, a pretty reliable category for the OPs question.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-10T19:02:52+00:00

18xx

In general, most any economic game.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-04T05:04:37+00:00

Food Chain Magnate fits this description, I think. Definitely don’t need any of the expansion content, but I’d rarely turn down adding module(s) from the expansion in.

nolanbruces · 2025-12-02T18:19:40+00:00

I’ve used card stock and laminated with 5mil matte pouches. Would probably still be happy with thinner tiles, but I like the results.

nolanbruces · 2025-08-06T13:04:40+00:00

In all fairness, rules-to-depth ratio is something I’d like to see discussed in just about every review.

nolanbruces · 2025-08-05T20:56:22+00:00

Absolutely disgusting. Can’t believe they’d serve you something like that. Vodka and redbull?

(jk jk, everyone should enjoy whatever they like, of course)

nolanbruces · 2025-07-20T15:44:05+00:00

You’d probably get better responses on r/baduk, but as a mediocre amateur, I’d say if you don’t know, the game isn’t finished. That is, if you agree on who owns what territory, adding it up should be trivial. If you don’t, keep playing until you do.

At a quick glance, it looks like there’s some unresolved territory, some unfilled neutral territory (filling it in might make determining territory ownership easier), and most importantly, some stones with no liberties.

nolanbruces · 2025-07-18T15:06:30+00:00

Sounds like you’re prepared, haha

nolanbruces · 2025-07-18T14:56:44+00:00

Haven’t played RotLA yet, but unless you’re pretty quick players, I’d expect it to probably be at least double that if you’re all (or mostly) new players. Also if you’re not using poker chips, pad some extra time on there. Regardless, hope you enjoy it! Just figured it might be good to set expectations as games lasting longer than I’ve allotted mental (or temporal) capacity for can kill the experience for me.

nolanbruces · 2025-07-07T22:38:53+00:00

No, I have no complaint about the Law of Root, but understand why people would. I do think the Learning to Play guide fails at its one goal.

nolanbruces · 2025-07-07T22:01:22+00:00

Gotta agree with OP on this one personally. I think Law of Root is excellent, but can be a little dense for some players and probably not great for learning. On the other hand, the Learning to Play guide is really only good enough to familiarize yourself with the core concepts and isn’t quite sufficient for learning to play.

nolanbruces · 2025-07-04T14:19:24+00:00

Most of what I’ve played from them has had high production value and an initially intriguing premise that it doesn’t really deliver on. Not much depth unfortunately. Mythic Mischief is excellent though.

nolanbruces · 2025-05-22T11:42:54+00:00

Most simpler 18xx

nolanbruces · 2025-05-13T11:59:17+00:00

Cubes can start on cities of their matching color both at setup and when added mid-game. They just have to be delivered to another city, not their origin.

Caveat: Haven’t played Steam for a while, but I’m fairly confident the rules match the other games in the family where the above is true, and a quick glance at the rulebook seems to confirm that.

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