Only a few rules and caveats about this post. None of these games (that I know of) are way out of print. They may be between printings but they’re largely available.
The Masters of Renaissance: Lorenzo Il Magnifico – the Card Game – That was a mouthful. As soon as I saw this game in action, I knew I wanted to play it. The puzzle of which marble to pull to get the optimum resources vaguely reminisces Potion Explosion. The big difference between the two is the card engines you build from those resources. I do find it funny that they dub this “The Card Game” when the actual board game contains more cards!
Keyflower – I owned this when I FIRST got into the hobby. I bought it because it looked like a meatier Catan. After reading the rules I realized my family would never play it (I hadn’t discovered my local game group yet) so I eventually sold it. Now I want to finally play this gem to see if it’s something I should own (again).
Clash of Cultures – I LOVE civ games. It’s too bad it’s so hard to get people to play them. I would already own this one if my shelf of opportunity weren’t already littered with similar titles. The main draws of this one are the intuitive sounding tech tree and the fact that there is an actual, physical board to explore (unlike Nations or Through the Ages).
Prodigal’s Club – Suchy designed two of my Top 10 games of all time (Underwater Cities and Pulsar 2849). That alone makes me want to play all of his games. The theme of trying to spend all your money or influence sounds super unique. This one promises to do some things a little different from your standard Euro.
At the Gates of Loyang – My desire to play this one lies almost entirely in the recommendation from a fellow gamer whose tastes align almost exactly with mine. She taught me Russian Railroads last year at a local con and it quickly became one of my favorites. That and the designer (Uwe Rosenberg) crates well loved and respected designs. I’ve done very little research into the actual gameplay of this game, but I rarely hate mid-weight Euros of any kind.
Trickerion – I love a good heavy Euro. I don’t own this one yet because of the complexity. I actually owned another of their games (Cerebria) and sold it thanks to the lack of prospective players. The art oozes theme. Essentially playing out the movie, The Prestige, sounds like a lot of fun.. I know this game has some detractors in the community, but I still want to give it a go.
Argent:The Consortium – Grown-up Harry Potter? Yes please. I’m not entirely sure about the whole “deducing what the scoring conditions are” things in this one but the theme and gameplay sound fantastic. I can’t wait to vie for the position of headmaster at a magical academy!
Dice Hospital – This one makes the list because it might be a meatier game my wife would play. Games centered around the medical field maker her more interested to play. That and I LOVE dice placement games.
Agricola – Agricola is one of those games I feel like I have to play at some point just because its such a classic. Nothing about the game overly excites me. I’m not always a huge fan of punishing games and farming games are a dime a dozen. But enough people love this game that I feel obligated to get it to the table at some point.
Star Wars:Outer Rim – Another theme I love. I’ve heard this is sort of like Wasteland Express Delivery Service with a Star Wars theme. I can’t wait to get the Millenium Falcon and tear up the galaxy with my loyal Wookie by my side!
Welcome to the first blog review from Meepletown Games! These reviews are going to roughly follow the format that Dean and Jon chose for the podcast. To be difficult, and because I can, I’ve decided I’m going to give letter grads for the different parts of the game I’m reviewing. Then at the end I will share what rating I’ve given the game on the BGG scale.
Overview:
The game starts with you, a wretch, washed up on the shore of a mysterious island. Looks like you’ve been a baaad boy (imagine Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street) and the people you’ve screwed over decided to leave you for dead in the icy sea. Surviving the ordeal gives you new lease on life. You explore the island, meet interesting people, fight monsters, and figure out exactly who you are in an attempt to make up for who you were.
The gameplay works around an action selection system. You must perform three separate actions on your turn (Activate, Move, and Visit a Region or Rest). You can perform a multitude of other, secondary actions on your turn as well, but you MUST perform the first three.
Activate means either using your character or a companion to gain some sort of resource (3 basic: Strength, Knowledge, Inspiration and 3 upgraded: Courage, Wisdom, and Vision) and possibly an ability from the card. These abilities range from end game scoring to temporary actions to augmenting other actions you might take that round.
Move works like it sounds. You start with two movement but can upgrade all the way up to five. One of the unique things about this game is the way the movement works on the board. Instead of moving across hexes that sit flush against each other, each hex is separated by a triangle. You move through these triangle spaces, staying adjacent to the hexes or locations. One of the third options lets you visit on of these adjacent regions.
The third action you must take can be one of two things. Visiting a region means you use the ability of one of the hexes your player piece touches. This is extremely important because you can control the region you visit if you have enough Conviction. Controlling regions gives you points at the end of the game as well as any time a rival player visits that region. If you don’t want to visit a region (or can’t because you can’t pay the cost) then you can rest. To explain rest, I need to explain the action selection resources in this game.
On your path to vindication you must improve your character. You do this by manipulating cubes on a player mat that includes three different attribute pools: Potential, Influence, and Conviction. The cubes in Potential cannot be spent. Resting (explained above) lets you move one cube between Potential and Influence or Influence and Conviction. Getting all of your cubes out of potential has two benefits: 1. It’s one of the requirements for becoming vindicated, which scores you points and gives you access to a more powerful character ability and 2. It gives you more action selection resources to perform other actions. You use Influence either to activate companions (you place these on the card) or to place on one of the six resource spots on the board to act as those resources. You’re limited in the number of actions you can perform or resources you can obtain by the number of Influence cubes you possess. Conviction has several uses, but it’s mainly used to gain control of areas you visit. Managing your action selection resources wisely is the main crux of this game. Overextend yourself and you’ll waste precious actions and fall behind in scoring points. Play too conservatively and risk another player Running away with the lead.
The last thing I’ll touch on in the overview portion of this review is how to score points. Vindication feels like an exploration/adventure game. This clever ruse disguises the games true nature – point salady goodness! Scoring points comes from a plethora of sources and this leads to multiple paths to victory. You score points every time you gain a card through an action, whether it be a companion, relic, trait, defeating a monster, or adding a cute little pet to your party. You can score points off abilities on these cards themselves. You score points for controlling areas. You score points when someone uses a location you control. You score points for reaching your personal objectives. You score points for becoming vindicated or upgrading your movement. Literally everything scores you points. And then, at the end of the game, you score points for having the most of each different type (six in total) of card. This is all before adding expansion modules which only increase the ways to score!
That’s Vindication in a nutshell. There’s about a thousand other actions you can perform and quite a few modular expansions to explore but I don’t have the time or space to go over them all. The game ends when someone reaches on of the End-Game Trigger cards which change from game to game. You tally up your points and see who wins!
Art and Components:
Caveat time: I own the Kickstarter edition of Vindication. I’m not sure what differences exist between it and the retail edition so this review will focus on the fancy edition I own.
Heavy and large, Vindication’s box impresses right out of the gate. I’ll confess that upon initial review I thought the large, monolithic ring in the center of the game box was a long-neck dinosaur. Still, the beautiful art conjures the feeling of the upcoming adventure on which your character will embark. The Game Trayz insert inside is one of the best I’ve seen. The individual player containers come right out of the box read to play. Everything about the tray decreases set up time so you can focus on what really matters: Playing the game. The beautiful miniatures add to the game’s aesthetic even if non-essential to the gameplay. The art on the cards is varied and beautiful. Everything is really top-notch.
The board is interesting. When I first got this game, I thought it would be a gigantic table-hog. However, keeping the players’ resources in shared pools around the board and placing the card piles on the board left plenty of room in front of each player for their own personal tableau. The board itself makes setup easier, with one side even showing faint outlines of where everything goes. My only gripe about the board? It’s dull. I get the decision as it’s only a placeholder for the hexagonal location tiles but… I feel like they missed the opportunity for even more evocative art.
The cards. Boy the cards. I HATE when companies use non-standard card sizes. I’m a habitual sleever. I know it’s a problem and I know not everyone cares about that. However, the decision to cut the cards in a funky shape with lots of corners floors me. I imagine after repeated plays that those sharp little cut-out edges would get pretty beat up. And on top of that, no standard sleeves out there fit the cards extremely well. I ended up going with the FFG blue sleeves that leave a few millimeters on either side. Still, this one issue irks me.
Art and Components Conclusion: A-
If it weren’t for the funky cards this would likely rate an A+. Orange Nebula hit it out of the park with nearly every aspect of this game’s ascetic design, including ease of setup. I’ll definitely keep an eye on any future projects this company produces.
Gameplay:
I’m gonna be honest – I backed this kickstarter largely off the broad idea of the game. I never read the rulebook or paid much attention to the campaign after clicking back. So, when I opened the game up and started reading the rulebook I didn’t know too much about what to expect. Sometimes I like doing this because my natural tendency of overpreparing and overanalyzing everything before diving in can lead to disappointment once I play the game. If I knew how Feldian the scoring system would be my expectations would have been through the roof. Uninspiring scoring systems are one of the fastest ways to turn me off a game I might otherwise enjoy. I need to feel like I’m gaining an advantage over my opponents with every move. Otherwise, why do any specific action at all?
I normally don’t love games with strict action selection rules. You MUST do all three actions? That feels too restrictive. However, Vindication lets you mix the three mandatory actions up in any order you wish. Add to that the myriad optional actions and you feel more in control than many games with similarly structured action selection. The added layer of complexity that managing your Potential-Influence-Conviction makes every decision feel meater than what it might otherwise. Because everything you do in this game is simple. The game derives its complexity from a breadth of options and decisions laid out before you, not from the depth of any particular path to points.
A side note about gameplay: While I’ve played this game several times already, I’ve not really scratched the surface of all its potential. Adding all the expansions and modules in will take many, many more plays, and that’s not even to speak about the full box expansion I own. One module in particular piques my interest. In it you all fight a central monster together, giving players rewards. Once defeated, it changes the board state and some of the rules of the game. This mode appears very thematic and I like the idea of the game pivoting in the middle with slightly different circumstances. Very cool idea. Unfortunately, that’s a mode that will wait until I teach enough people the basic game to field an experienced play group.
Gameplay Conclusion: B+
Final Thoughts:
Vindication stands right on the precipice of greatness without taking the leap. I leave every game satisfied but always thinking there could be more. I wish the actions felt more thematic. I wish the act of Vindicating yourself felt more central, revelatory, and impactful instead of an afterthought. Don’t take this as a negative review. I only feel this way because Vindication is so close to amazing. Still, it’s a game I really enjoy and one I’m sure I’ll revisit again. I only wish it were good enough to be in heavy rotation.
Vasel’s law states that any truly good game will eventually come back into print. For the most part I subscribe to this law. See: Snowdonia and Rococo. There are a few notable exceptions. In this article I’m going to explore the five out of print games I most want to try. I’m not including out of print games I’ve already played and love, even if I haven’t found a reasonably priced copy yet (Ginkgopolis I’m looking at you). I’m also not including games like the aforementioned Rococo what are currently out of print but have upcoming re-releases. These games are out of print for various reasons – from rights issues to bad juju surrounding the games release. Lets get it on!
Bruges: I love me some Stefan Feld. Castles of Burgundy is still my favorite of his, but I love games like Trajan, Oracles of Delphi, Carpe Diem etc. etc. as well. Several of Feld’s games are criminally out of print but Bruges is easily the one I’m most interested in. I love pretty much any form of multi-use cards and the way in which your action cards interact with the board state in this one seems super interesting. Other than Ginkgopolis this is the game I most want to see reprinted.
Star Wars: Queen’s Gambit: I’m a HUGE Star Wars nerd. As in I’ve read almost the entirety of the EU (now Legends). So naturally I want to track down and play pretty much every Star Wars game out there. While Episode I is definitely not my favorite, a game packed with Star Wars miniatures is going to grab my attention. I’m really interested in the segmented nature of the battles where you have to fight on two fronts – both above and on the planet of Naboo. It’s only two players. It’s long winded. It’s incredibly expensive. But I don’t care. Give me the Star Wars!
Glory to Rome: No out of print game list would be complete without the elusive Glory to Rome. There’s been entire books dedicated to this so I’m not going to go too far into the back story and why this will never, ever see a reprint. You can still easily find it’s less heralded cousin, Mottainai, but I want to play the original! Deep small box games are hard to find and this one promises plenty of swingy, overpowered, strategic fun with its wildly different cards and short play time. While I really want to play Glory to Rome, a part of me is scared I’ll like it so much I have to (over)pay for a copy.
Forbidden Stars: While I’m more of a Eurogamer at heart, this game speaks to me in the same way Twilight Imperium did. It promises a fun space themed romp with good strategy and tons of player interaction. I spent endless hours playing Starcraft as a kid and the gameplay here reminds me of a slowed down version of an RTS. Any good RTS blends the long-term strategy of how to upgrade your forces to take over the battlefield with short-term tactical decisions about troop placement/deployment and how to best counter act your opponent’s moves. I’m still searching for a board game that can give me those same feels and I think Forbidden Stars may be it.
Palace of Carrara: A Kiesling and Kramer game that was already out of print by the time I really got into the hobby, The Palaces of Carrara looks like the type of mid-weight Euro that promises good depth of played balanced with accessibility for maximum playability. I love city building game and games with a good economy and this appears to have both. It doesn’t appear to suffer from the multiplayer solitaire that some Euro games do thanks to the way you can lock other players out of scoring in particular cities based on your actions. The Palace of Carrara looks like a really solid little Euro and one I’d love to check out some day!
Welcome residents of Meepletown! Our wise leaders, Dean and Jon, appointed me scribe of our little village. Boy did they screw up! There’s a reason they don’t let me on the podcast and videos; its either because they’re afraid of people comparing my dashing good looks to theirs or because they’re concerned about keeping the family friendly moniker. It’s definitely one or the other.
But since they’ve already made the grievous mistake of appointing me to this illustrious position of power, I might as well introduce myself. My name is Jonathan Mullins and I’m a geek. Or a nerd? A dork perhaps? I struggle with the difference and it’s possible I’m all three. I grew up playing games of all sorts. If you didn’t see me on the field (baseball) or a court (basketball) then chances are you’d find me camped out in front of the TV playing the latest, greatest video game or reading another Star Wars book. Dad bought us our first console (NES) used sometime around my fifth birthday. Dad and I spent hour after hour trying to beat a brutal top scrolling tank game called Iron Tank. Some of my fondest childhood memories center around us playing games together. Games like Super Mario RPG, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball, Battleship SNES, Mega Man X, Star Wars: Rebellion, Star Craft, Twisted Metal, all the Final Fantasy Games, and eventually every FPS (especially the Halo series) had a profound effect on my life. The RPG games (and Starcraft) especially set me up for my future as a board gamer.
My family played card games, particularly the trick taking variety, like it was going out of style. I can’t tell you how many games of Spades, Hearts, Canasta, Progressive Rummy, Nertz, Presidents, Bid, etc. I’ve played over the years (though I’d love to have those numbers!). We also played the gamut of mass market board games that existed. I especially liked Life and Pay Day (and secretly Mall Madness – though if you tell anyone about that I may have to pound on you a little bit). At some point we also played a long-standing game family game of poker where we kept little bags of pennies as a running chip count. Our family had (correction: has) a reputation for being overly competitive and I’m the worst one. Winning!
So how did I land such a lucrative position here in Meepletown? Nepotism of course! I’ve known Dean for what feels like an eternity. I want to say sometime around 2002 or so but I could be completely wrong about that. I know I was in high school at the time and we all know how kiddos struggle with a self-centered lack of perception. I believe Dean was finishing up college at the time – he old – and I met him through my sister. Jon and I met in 2018. He took over as preacher at the church where I grew up and I had to listen to my dad talk about how awesome he was for what felt like an eternity before finally meeting him. My addiction to board gaming started largely thanks to Deans influence in the first place. He’s personally cost me a lot of money over the years! But for that story we’ll need to hop in my time machine back to somewhere around 2012.
2012. What a weird time. The Mayan calendar ran out, but the world kept on ticking. Scientists in China discovered a species of turtle that urinates from the mouth. Venus crossed our path for the last time until 2117 and “Gangnum Style” became the most watched video in internet history. And finally, Jonathan Mullins played Catan. For years I heard a select few friends talk about a game called Settlers of Catan. My dad and I actively avoided playing it because it sounded like a giant snooze fest to us. Despite my best attempts Catan finally caught up with us. I played for the first time with some friends of ours and my wife. My wife won and promptly retired as undefeated champion. Literally. But I was hooked. My dad bought it for my family as a family Christmas gift that year and an addiction was born. We rarely played all those classic card games anymore (at least when it was just our family). Instead we hammered away at Catan. Over the next three years we played Catan hundreds of times. We played every variety, every expansion, every home brewed ruleset we could find. I even dipped my toes into the design world (and keep in mind that we were blissfully ignorant that any other modern board games existed) by designing an expansion for Catan myself. It didn’t go over well, but that’s a story for another time.
I should amend a previous statement about not knowing other modern games existed. We also played A Ticket to Ride, which I hate, and Carcassonne, which I’m strongly indifferent towards. But Catan made up 90 percent of our play time. Dean tried and failed a couple time to hook my family into the hobby around 2015. We played 7 Wonders, which I liked but my dad hated. Then he taught us Sheriff of Nottingham which I liked, but my bro-in-law hated. Then he had us play Puerto Rico, which we all hated (I’d probably like this now but wasn’t ready for it at the time). Every attempt to get us further into the hobby failed. Then one day Dean brought over a little game called Blood Rage, and the rest is history.
Blood Rage hooked us like no other game before. The strategy was deep. The miniatures, especially his painted ones, were beautiful. The production drew us in and the gameplay kept us coming back for more. From there I opened my BGG account and started researching board games like a man possessed. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent watching Miami Dice that first few months. I dove into the deep end and basked in all it’s glory, soaking up the combined knowledge present on BGG and trembling before the mountain of games suddenly at my fingertips. The long journey of playing Catan quickly morphed into an obsession with the latest and greatest. We spent a lot of time with certain games (Marvel: Legendary) but for the most part I burnt my family out by forcing them to play new game after new game. I would eventually find several groups of other people to play with, start going to conventions, etc. but that first year in the hobby was a complete whirlwind. I can’t imagine starting now, just a few years later, after the avalanche of new games hammering the hobby each year. But that’s where Meepletown comes in.
That’s my background in a nutshell. I still love Blood Rage, but the last few years refined and altered my tastes quite a bit. I still consider myself an omni-gamer, but I do lean more towards mid-heavy euros. I’ll play almost anything though. Almost. The only games that really don’t do it for me are the ones with heavy doses of social deduction, lots of push your luck, or dice rolling sans mitigation. I still love dice, I just prefer them to be draftable or placeable instead of deterministic results of combat.
Let me pause to answer the question burning in all your minds: What will you see from my future blog entries for the Meepletown website? The actual content I provide will largely be subject to change at the whims of my masters, but for now I plan to focus on written game reviews and the ever popular Top 10 lists. Even though I’ve played hundreds of modern board games to this point, I still consider myself to be in the exploratory phase of the hobby. My appetite for new to me, not necessarily newly produced, games hasn’t waned.
I would love to interact with the community and am open to any and all suggestions for things you’d like to see from future posts. I’ll try and cover as many new games as my #dadlife allows, but I’ll also explore older games that I love and looking for hidden gems. If anyone out there sees a game they’d love reviewed, new or old, I’d love to hear about it and see if it’s something I’d find interest in covering. Hopefully this website and everything we post on it will increase your enjoyment of this awesome hobby we all love. I look forward to meeting each of you and thanks for coming down to Meepletown!
