Mage Knight…there is definitely a hill to climb to grok it bit it is worth the time. Amazing solo game experience.
Solo Conquest - 12/4/12
Cities of level 5 and level 8
Base fame: 106 pts
Spells: 6
Adv actions: 5
Artifact: 4
Crystals: 2
Leader: 10
Conqueror: 6
Adventurer: 8
Wounds: -26
Conquered City: 35
Dummy cards: 0
TOTAL: 156
I just conquered the first city. Mage Knight is an incredible game. It’s a brain burner but what a rush when you can start taking down these crazy monsters.
Mage Knight First Solo Conquest “Win”. But I did it with 3 less map tiles and the cities on 3 and 5.
Solo Conquest - 1/28/12 Base fame: 76 pts Spells: 2 Adv actions: 4 Artifact: 4 Crystals: 1 Leader: 4 Conqueror: 4 Adventurer: 4 Wounds: -8 Conquered City: 35 Dummy cards: 0 TOTAL: 126
Each week I’ll go through my games played and provide some commentary. Ask me about any of these games for more information.
Ascension 2 games: Still slowing down and still losing. Ugh.
Magic: The Gathering 3 games: These were against an AI program called Magarena. It plays a pretty good game.
Can’t Stop 8 games: I’ve been writing about my iPad app. Can’t Stop is a fantastic dice game up there with Liar’s Dice. Great design and fast and fun to play.
Battleship Galaxies 1 game: Quick write up here. Fun light-er weight space combat game. I’m looking forward to giving it another go with some more of the rules.
Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game 1 game: Finally got this to the table with the board game crowd at work. It went over pretty well. We only got two out of five rounds in at lunch but I think now that we know the rules we could get a full game in. Very fun with a great theme.
Mage Knight Board Game 1 game: My first win in the solo game BUT, I played with a smaller map and easier cities. A fantastic adventure game and I’m learning more about different strategies each time I play.
Monopoly Revolutions 1 game: Cory request and I’ve been wanting to give it another try. Wow is Monopoly a long game. We were playing it straight, auctioning off the properties and no Free Parking bonus. But still an hour-and-a-half later and there were only six houses on the board. We called it a night.
Each week I’ll go through my games played and provide some commentary. Ask me about any of these games for more information.
Ascension 7 games: Uh oh, I’m back to three games under .500.
Mage Knight Board Game 2 plays: I wrote up my first full scenario. What a great game. This could could be a game for a lifetime. It really seems like there is no limit to the exploration of the game.
Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures: War at Sea 1 game: I’m played a small 100 point fleet solo game just to try out the Battleship Yamato I got for Christmas. A brutal battleship duel was won by the IJN.
Ghost Stories 1 game: I spent some time with my iPad this week and broke out Ghost Stories. Man is it a hard game. I’m playing the novice mode and I’m not getting close to winning. I need to got some more practice with it and the iPad makes it very convenient.
Rummikub 1 game: Another iPad game. It’s a fun trying to outthink the AI.
Just played my first full game of the Mage Knight Solo Conquest scenario and it’s just an amazing game and a stunning achievement in game design. I can tell that there is a huge space to explore in the game. But, it is challenging.
The scenario calls for your hero to find and conquer two cities in 6 game rounds (3 day and 3 night). My final play of the last round was conquering just the first city. I had one undiscovered map tile that had the second city. So, obviously I have to get a move on. The map ended up in what seemed to me to be a challenging configuration as by the time I leveled up to be able to get my third follower I was nowhere near any place where I could get one. My final score was 75 so I’ll try to do better next time. I’m ready to give it another go.
Each week I’ll go through my games played and provide some commentary. Ask me about any of these games for more information.
Ascension 10 games: I’m back in my rut losing as many games as I’m winning. Still a very good time. Certainly playing so many games at once is not helping but that is why I like the game so much.
Defenders of the Realm 3 games: I’d been meaning to break this out again for a while after I misinterpreted the rules disastrously the first time I played with my kids. I did a solo play to get the rules under control (and got quickly crushed by a fast moving general) but the game just seems to hard with one hero. Next Cory and I gave it a go and we had a nice long game, killed one general with Cory’s Dwarf reroll ability, but the lost with to many minions on the board. Fun, challenging game.
Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game 1 game: My big Christmas present from my wife finally arrived 6 days late. But I got it punched and set up for the first scenario only to have the mighty Dritzzt get killed on tile away from escaping the Underdark. The rules of this game are so straightforward that in consistently lulls me and I end up dead. One tile away and I die without every using my single use powers is a big strategy problem I need to work on. Super quick dungeon crawl with high quality components.
Mage Knight Board Game 2 games: Certainly the prize of the week is my initial foray into the world of the Mage Knight Board Game. As I wrote up this is a serious hard-core adventure game that is going to take some study but looks like there will be immense solo replayability. Which is a good thing since I’m not sure I can expelling the rules to anyone in any reasonable length of time. I’m really looking forward to playing again this week.
Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game 1 game: This was the last still shrink-wrapped game on my shelf and I finally broke it open. What a fun little card game. I did a solo play with three teams to learn the rules and while it is certainly not an ideal way to play a card game even that was quite fun. The game really has the feel and theme down and looks like a blast. I’m going to be taking this one into work to see if I can get any of the Tichu fanatics to give it a try.
I got to have another game day over at Walkers this week and we got two good games in.
Memoir ‘44 1 game: Walker had never played any of the Command and Colors games so I started with the first scenario. I had a great time and Walker was more subdued about it. War games are a tough sell so I need to avoid in the future.
Puzzle Strike 1 game: After a few plays with the kids and a bunch of online play against bots I finally got a four player game of Puzzle Strike in and it was a pretty big hit. Walker’s family is really big into Dominion so there was not problem with the engine of the game. They had to get used to the particular language of Puzzle Strike and the unique character abilities. As I suspected might happen after the first two players were out (due to not buying nearly enough purple chips) I got into a long slog with the remaining player. With there being so little player elimination in games these days this felt quite weird. In the end they all liked it and wanted to give it another try.
I just finished the introductory scenario of Mage Knight and it is one impressive adventure board game. But it is not for the faint of heart. I can see why comparisons to the immortal Magic Realm are being made. The design is leaps and bounds above the various “fixed” Talisman adventure games published over the last few years.
But there is no doubt it is a complicated first go through the rules. But after a few turns the rules all come together and I was really thinking hard about what best to do each turn with the hand of actions that I had. The initial deck is small enough that you can make educated guesses about what is coming to try to set up for success. It plays very well solo and I wonder if I will be able to actually teach it to anyone (until Cory gets a little older). I’m going to read up on the Geek forums and give it another go soon with the full Solo scenario.
Beginning to grok Mage Knight. It looks like a winner.
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