Yes. Cats and birds are the main factions (the ones that focus on board control) others are opportunistic (takes situational benefits). 4 players is the best (2 area control faction + 2 others). 3 is cool too but could looks the same because you need the 2 area control factions at minimum.
If your group is 3 only. I recommend, if you had budget, to get one expansion that have another area control faction, for more variety.
Playing 3 with one single area control faction is less fun, IMHO.
Root is complex, so you need to have someone to really know the rules. But as soon everyone understand what its faction is supposed to do to win, it’s pure pleasure!
Testing goes stabler and stabler with time. Then testing move to release and the previous untesting (sid) move to testing. It’s a that moment that you can have surprise. This is the moment where I often wait one month or two, apply the updates and check my os is working as before, meaning running my day to day applications and game and see if things work. The only problem I had once was shader cache. I removed few things in .cache and I was good.
I don’t use Sid, but testing, it’s working almost flawlessly. Each release (once every 2 years, I guess), I take few hours to check everything work; remove shader cache, etc.
My setup, right now (dirty, for authenticity) :
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ testing-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://security.debian.org/debian-security/ testing-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
# bullseye-updates, to get updates before a point release is made;
# see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
# add by me
deb https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb-src https://deb.debian.org/debian/ testing-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*
deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/graphics:/darktable/Debian_Testing/ /
deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/lutris.gpg] https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/strycore/Debian_Testing/ ./
# Uncomment these lines to try the beta version of the Steam launcher
#deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ beta steam
#deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ beta steam
deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
deb-src [arch=amd64,i386] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
# Uncomment these lines to try the beta version of the Steam launcher
# deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ beta steam
# deb-src [arch=amd64,i386] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ beta steam
deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
deb [ signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg ] https://download.vscodium.com/debs/ vscodium main
I play a lot, we just played Grounded with friend yesterday.
Hope this helps.
I just buy Sea Salt & Paper. My 9yo girl win the first (2 players) game and love it.
It’s surprisingly addictive.
I don’t play that much this WE. I paint trolls from War of the Ring.
Despite the huge respect I have for Reiner, I found many of his games have one single tiny mechanic that is often boring after the first play.
Bruno cathala. I don’t remember any game that totally puts me off. Most of them can be played with kids.
What I liked with SSB 3DS is its been designed with solo in mind. It had events, but also Smash Run which had some rogue lite vibes that I would have loved to have in Ultimate. Adventure mode of the later doesn’t have much replayability.
Sony will send him a cease and desist.
Same. I’m not a fan of CoD and this game seems to really recreate a CoD feeling. So it looks like a really good CoD game, but I’m not sure if there are many people that would want to actually play this table top game.
I had great hopes for King of Tokyo but realize it’s one of those rated because of the production + reach the masses.
You should not expect more from KoT than a funny and visually appealing confrontation game. The more players you have the funnier it is.
Munchkin was my first modern card game (lets call it like that) and for this particular reason, I loved it. As a young adult (had the version without colors, just draws), I was such impressed, at that time, by how intense feels and interactions you could get by just playing a game. It truly creates a story around.
But depicts all the love I had for it, I realize the biggest selling point for me (active cooperation-but-go-in-hell!) was what tired gamers the most. Some wants to play game, and not discussing/fighting for everything happening on the table.
Now I’m definitely an adult and having play to many games, the intensity of a Munchkin game is just too much for me. Would love to play with young adult/teenagers because I know how fun they can get from it, but it’s definitely not a game for… (let’s say) Gamers.
as a result I got better at the game
Reminds me Pokemon Stadium and Star Realms. The fast pace of digital versions improve your skills very quickly and gives new perspectives to the games. Maybe Wingspan is simply to slow paced for me.
Being a fan of engine/tableau builder, Wingspan really disappointed me. It’s not a bad game. It a very nice game, but the flow is average, at most.
Depicts some interesting ideas that push me to buy it with it’s first expansion (goal board, mix of engine and tableau building) it’s hugely luck based and the fact this game is rated 8+ on BGG, that tends to rate games mostly on advanced mechanisms and long run, is still a mystery to me.
I give it 5 plays with different peoples. Yet, I had no fun at all (I mean, zero… Watching flies around was the funniest part of my last game, sadly)… Then I played 51st State, which is a very good (yet not awesome) engine builder and have instant fun from start to end. The feeling of controlling things.
There are some highly rated games on BGG, and while I like some better than others, the ratings never seems off to me. Like “mmh, OK, I see why peoples like it”. But this offset has never been so huge with Wingspan.
So yes, I have it on my shelf, I watch its wonderful box like a disturbing mirror of my gaming tastes, knowing it’s praised by many, but I could almost try to find another table just when someone come up with the idea, while I usually really force myself to play games with different peoples because I know you will make peoples happy.
First time in my 20y of gaming, and it makes me feel so weird.
Thanks for reading me.
I and a friend are on the same boat. I think if you really can’t try the game you have to be open and consider a time to ‘catch’ it yourself. We buy and and play games that looks good. Most of them are. Few aren’t, but you have to be prepared that a given mechanic didnt catch with you, even games considered awesome.
It doesn’t work all the time. Troy dices is a wonderful game, yet I have watch many reviews and had to read the rules many times before understanding what the game was expecting from me. And it’s only at the end of the game that things clack and I instantly wanted to play another round.
I’m as happy as you all, but having a teenager that starts to mod games, I realize the whole modding ecosystem of many popular games is Windows only.
Many peoples say you should play on pc because of modding. I would say from a Linux perspective, having the modding community switching to Linux is the next big step.
Star Realms
Did it sold well?
I buy Terraforming Mars (never tried yet) and CloudAge on sale to give it a luck (the universe look cool).
I tested CloudAge in solo, just to get the flow. Took me 1h to finish the first scenario. Not all mechanisms are given on first scenario which (of course) feels kinda flat, but it’s perfect to learn rules slowly. The game is cool, but what seems even better is the tiny campaign that slowly adds mechanisms and card in a story driven way. The campaign is supposed to take 7 plays and I will definitely do it.