September was all about a deadline at work and it shows. Stressful days and a lot of introvert-battery draining meetings.
Resist! (5 plays): I recognise this is an excellent game both in theme and mechanics. But this is also a game not for me. I suspect that people that like Friday will probably like this. It comes down to a numbers game and managing the deck - knowing what cards/abilities are in the hidden deck and timing it so you don’t "reveal" too early or late. Also, the setup draft is where the game is at iso just random making decks. Given that timing games usually frustrate me, it's not a game for me. But again, the theme of loyalists during the Spanish Civil War really comes through, the artwork is wonderful and it's a well designed game.
FUSE (5 plays): It's 10 minutes of real time dice rolling. For solo, the decision is simply which dice locations to prioritise. When I'm in the mood, I like these kind of challenges although I'm not good at it. The iconography is clean, rules are simple, difficulty is adjustable and it's only 10 minutes. I also own Flatline and need to check if this one has more solo meat. For sure Fuse will remain in my collection if a need a real time multiplayer game.
Set a Watch (2 plays): I'm surprised I really like the game this much. My initial play in July was a bit rough given you're required to manage 4 characters each with their set of unique abilities. And then you also have unique enemies. Now that I'm comfortable with the gameplay loop, it's an enjoyable puzzle. My only nitpick is that with 8 rounds the game is a bit long and if you roll bad a few times the game difficulty can spike. Also, the publisher Rock Manor Games makes some customer unfriendly decisions, the rules for the Outriders mini expansions are in the 2nd base game, pushing you to buy it.
Iron Helm (1 play): I did the GameCrafter crowd sale for Deities of Time, the final expansion for
Quest for the Lost Pixel. As ordering from GameCrafter is expensive for EU people, I was tempted to also order Iron Helm as I really like the artwork and the push your luck loop in this game. I made the PnP of the base game and so I played it again to see if I can justify the cost... and it's not. I enjoy the gameplay loop but it's not worth the 120$+ for all content, shipping and customs. I'll keep my well made PnP and craft the PnP files for the expansions and probably pimp it further.
Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game (2 plays): I finally managed to get a copy of the The Spy Who Loved Me. It's the well known Legendary system with everything you'd expect from the James Bond theme. Similar to the Legendary Alien Covenant expansion they cranked up the difficulty level. A good expansion, ie more of the same.
Lux Aeterna (1 play): I already mentioned I like this game and I'm playing around with increasing the difficulty and looking at optional rules.
Silent Victory U.S. Submarines in the Pacific, 1941-45 (5 plays): This is a table based WWII submarine simulator but I prefer to call it a story generator or light RPG game. If you can't get into the theme, you'll only see the placards of boring and luck based tables. However, I can see the submarine preying on a convoy assessing at what range to launch its torpedo and then frantically trying to get away from the escort's depth charges. And ultimately being preyed on by a Japanese sub and getting sunk. Yes, I sometimes have "special" taste in games 😊 This game allowed me to recharge my mental batteries and I'm tankful for it.
I'm not going to predict which games I'll play in October as I just got back from Spiel 😉
I have the PnP for Iron Helm (a second hand copy, crafted by Athena 👍🏻) and agree. It's nice, but would not spend money on it. Sounds like Resist! is more up my alley then. Cool. I ordered it when it was crowdfunding, but it's still at a friend's place in need of pick-up 😬 Something to look forward to then.