Actualol Newsletter - October 2019 (Patreon)

Hello Octobernauts, and a big welcome to the new Patrons that have arrived recently!

Actual Life

It’s been a quiet month for me, as I was so laser-focused on getting my Essen video finished I didn’t do much else. But, something did happen to me that was noteworthy, which was a TV show called Halt and Catch Fire. Over October, we ravenously tore through the last three seasons of it, and I feel changed by it - like I’ve had a religious experience.

It’s a drama series that starts in the computer industry of the 1980s, and follows five characters and their lives through the decade, and into the 90s with the rise of the Internet. But to say it’s about technology is to do a disservice to the incredible character drama at the heart of the show.

It tells stories that we can all relate to - the heartache of chasing your dreams, of dealing with failure, of balancing your work and your home life. It’s nothing new for television, but the way it tells them is with such finely-judged realism. I’ve never felt so attached to a set of characters before - willing for them to succeed, or to open up to each other.

I could talk about it at length - about the fascinating, shifting relationship of Gordon and Joe, about how it puts strong female characters at the heart of the show, about its brilliant depiction of marriage, grief and aging. It is utterly brilliant - it gets better with every episode, and it’s now one of my favourite TV dramas of all time. Give it a watch!

Ten more anticipated Essen Games

As promised in my Top 10 Anticipated Essen games video, I have ten more games that were at Essen which I’m excited to play:

10. Pappy Winchester is a family weight auction game from Blue Orange. You’re all heirs of Pappy Winchester and you’re competing to get the best bits of his estate. I like the theme of this one, I tend to like auction games - so I hope it can bring some twists to the usual auction formula.

9. Imagineers is a light strategy game about building an amusement park. The customers are walking around the park, and you’re trying to build attractions they will enjoy to score points. It has some delightful artwork that gives it a Days of Wonder vibe.

8. Western Legends: Ante Up is an expansion to one of my favourite games of last year, a sandbox game about being a wild-west hero that lets you choose between being a good sheriff or a bad outlaw. What you want in a sandbox is just more stuff to do - and this adds Faro, a new gambling mini-game, as well as a train that runs around the board which you can stick up! 

7. Q.E. is an auction game that’s been getting a lot of buzz. The exciting twist with this one is that you can bid any amount of money you want. But if you spent the most money over the course of the game, you can’t win. Just like in Reiner Knizia’s classic, High Society. I love that game, so I’m excited and wary to see whether Q.E. can do enough that’s different to stand out on its own.

6. Spies and Lies: A Stratego Story is a two player game that is inspired by Stratego, but played with cards. You play cards face down that represent your troops, so there’s some bluffing and trying to attack your opponent in the right places. It looks like it might play a lot like Thunder and Lightning (aka Hera and Zeus). It’s got some lovely artwork and is designed by Don Eskridge, he of The Resistance fame,

5. Paris: La Cité de la Lumière is a two player game that I’m hoping I can enjoy with Serena. It plays in two phases - in the first one, you’re placing Tetris tiles to create the streets of Paris, and determine where the street lights are. In the second phase you’re placing your buildings as close to street lights as possible. I’m always a little wary of abstract games in two phases, because I question how much I can realistically think that far ahead. But with some gorgeous art and short play time, I’m hoping it clicks for us.

4. La Cour Des Miracles has some striking artwork - you play as a guild of beggars in 16th century Paris trying to take over the city. The rules are lean, and the gameplay has you placing your tokens face down into neighbourhoods on the board to take actions. Each token has a power, and when they’re revealed you’ll see who wins that region. It sounds like there’s a good amount of deception and trying to get in your rivals heads. 

3. Nova Luna is a tile laying game from Uwe Rosenberg (Patchwork, Spring Meadow) and Corné van Moorsel (Habitats, Factory Fun). Apparently it borrows from Corné’s popular tile game Habitats, and also feels a bit like Patchwork. Plus, it comes from Spielwiese who have a great track record with lighter games. All that pedigree means it’s probably great.

2. The Mind: Extreme is a new, harder version of The Mind. You’re still trying to read each other’s minds and play your numbered cards in order. But now there are two discard piles, one that goes in ascending order and one in descending order. And, the game insists you play some rounds “blind”, with you playing cards face down - not knowing what numbers people are playing. Simplicity might end up being best in this case, but it’s definitely worth a try!

1. Offshore is a push your luck game from Aporta Games (Avenue, Santa Maria). You’re building oil rigs in the North Sea and drilling for oil. The interesting twist is that you can open oil fields with other players - it’s a competitive game with the occasional bit of collaboration. And drilling for oil is where the push your luck comes in. This one was a mainstay on the Essen BGG hotness list - and I’m interested to see how it differs from Deep Blue.

Been Playing

As usual, here are my thoughts on some games that I’ve been playing recently:

Dungeon Academy is a sort of roll and write game. You roll 16 dice into a dice tray, and they represent a 4x4 grid dungeon. 

Your job is to draw a line on your sheet that takes you through the dungeon, gaining glory by killing monsters, but without dying in the process.

You have two health tracks, hearts and mana. Killing a red monster loses you hearts, a blue takes mana. To regain health you'll need to walk through red or blue potions. You’re playing against a timer and trying to be quicker than everyone else to get the better choice of loot.

It's pretty good fun and easy to grasp, but it felt a bit too shallow for me - the challenge a little too basic. And I prefer Jetpack Joyride which feels similar, but has more going on. 

Miyabi is a tile-laying game from Michael Kiesling the designer of Azul. You're building Japanese gardens, by taking tiles and placing them on you board. Each tile has a feature on it which must be placed in the matching row. You score points for the number of the features on the tile multiplied by the 3D level it's on.

You're trying to build upwards as much as possible, but it's hard to create a structure that allows for it. And you also want to keep features visible to compete for end game points.

There’s no doubt a challenging puzzle within Miyabi, but I found the gameplay to be too dry. There's no significant interaction between the players, and the solitary gameplay wasn’t exciting enough to make up for it.

Clipcut Parks is a roll and cut game. You each have a piece of paper, a grid of coloured squares and a pair of scissors. The die is rolled and tells you how many cuts in your paper to make and how long they should be. Such as 1, 1, 2. 

You're trying to cut off sections of paper, to use as shapes to fill up your goal cards, by placing them on top. The cards will demand certain colours in certain places, or for sections to be a continuous strip of paper, rather than cut into bits.

The game is surprisingly thinky, and I found myself getting caught up with AP a lot. The busy artwork made it hard to find the shapes I was looking for at a glance. It's a clever design, that uses the cutting gimmick as well as you could imagine. But I'd ultimately rather play any of the many roll and write games that encourage you to take risks, like Railroad Ink, On Tour or Avenue.

What’s next

Next on the schedule is my first Patreon pledge drive after launching 2 years ago. My hope is to encourage new patrons to join, so that I can move away from the fear of demise and towards growth by working with people to make better videos, more often. I’ve got a number of different, new videos planned for the drive - so make sure to click the bell on YouTube to be notified when they’re live.

Games I've been enjoying lately

- PARKS

- Potemkin Empire

- ShipShape

Games that have just arrived

- Robin of Locksley

- Q.E.

- Mental Blocks

Song of the month - Maren Morris - The Feels

Video of the month -  Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie To You

The days are getting colder and darker, but this is when board games come into their own! Happy Halloween everyone!

Actually yours,

Jon