Tesla vs. Edison: Developer Diary, Part 2

Developer's Diary, Part 2: 

In part 1, I talked about how I got involved in Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up!, some of Dirk's original design goals in the game, and how we prioritized the balance between "adding new things" and "providing a familiar experience". 

After making the change to HQ cards, Dirk and I felt like the expansion started to hum. We started focusing on balancing the inventors against each other, creating abilities that were both thematically appropriate and powerful enough to be interesting, and tweaking various things to get the game length and experience where we wanted it to be. 

Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up! Developer's Diary, Part 1

Howdy - I'm JR Honeycutt, the developer for Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up!, the expansion to Tesla vs. Edison: War of Currents by Artana. I'm writing this developer's diary to talk about some of the things introduced in TvE: Powering Up! and how I got involved. This is part 1 - parts 2 and 3 will come later in the campaign. 

The expansion is currently on Kickstarter, and I'd love it if you took a moment to click here and check it out! 

In November of last year I was at Rob's place in Massachusetts finishing up dev work on SeaFall. Dirk Knemeyer and Marcus Muller, the folks who run Artana, stopped by for a playtest of one of the early iterations of Chronicles: Stone Age, which I tagged along for since I was already in the room. 

It was a blast, and I noticed right away that I had good chemistry with Dirk and Marcus. They asked me to be involved in demoing the game at BGG.Con, which turned into a lunch conversation with Dirk about developing the Tesla vs. Edison expansion. 

I had never played Tesla vs. Edison when Dirk first offered to let me work on it, and it took me a few weeks to get it the table enough times to start doing real development. One of the criticisms of the base game was that the rulebook was hard to understand, and sure enough the first few times I played I got a fair number of things wrong. That was an early hiccup that Dirk and I worked through by playing together on Tabletop Simulator - an awesome resource for long-distance testing. Huge thanks to Andrew Christopher Enriquez for building the module for us and keeping it updated through the process. 

Board Game Review of Monster City Planners

Monster City Planners by Gary Dahl, published by Sugar Pill Studios

2-4 Players, 20 minutes, ages 12+

TL:DR Version
A genuinely unique city building and destroying microgame of Kaiju proportions.  The hard decisions between actions and points make a think meaty experience despite its smaller box.  Primary Mechanics are Card Drafting, Multipurpose Cards, and Environment Manipulation.

The Pitch
A couple years ago, The Game Crafter hosted a Microgame Design Contest sponsored by All Us Geeks and Father Geek.  Many great games were entered including Monster City Planners, which featured card drafting, city building/destruction, and multiple use cards.  So let’s see how destruction and construction via Kaiju Rampage can work for you.

Board Game Review of Inca Empire

Inca Empire by Alan D. Ernstein, Published by Zman Games

3-4 players, 90-120 minutes

TL:DR Version
Inca Empire is a Euro style classic of expansion, exploitation, and empire building which weighs in heavy on time to play but genuinely feels like you’re building up an empire.  While you’re trying to win, there’s a hint of a cooperative element to see how far the Inca Empire can stretch.  Primary mechanics are Route Building, Empire Building, and Civilization Lite.

The Pitch
They say the Inca Empire wasn’t built in a day but rather two hours.  Two long, excruciating hours where that one jerk won’t stop connecting to all of your cities and garrisons like some Incan Coattail Riding Jerk Face who should just go off and do his own thing.  That jerk who places the gods wrath in your empire while his gets an easy path to glory… that jerk!

Welcome to Inca Empire, one of my favorite board games and that one jerk mentioned in the blurb above?  I’m usually that jerk.  Inca Empire is a game with a ton of bits and a long run up to the end game that feels satisfying every step of the way.  The goal of Inca Empire is, of course, points which is achieved primarily by both building and connecting to the most areas on the board.

Board Game Review of Le Havre: The Inland Port

Le Havre: The Inland Port by Uwe Rosenberg, Published by Zman Games
2 Players, 30-45 Minutes

TL:DR Version
Two player Euros are fairly rare and even more rare when they are actually good. The Inland Port provides all the building purchasing, cube pushing, and resource wheel manipulation you expect in a tidy little box. Primary Mechanics are Empire Building, Resource Management, and Economics.

The Pitch
Playing a good Euro with 3 or more players is fairly easy but with 2 players, many of these games fall apart. Most 2 player games are often directly confrontational and most Euros are, well, not. This is one of the reasons why I was interested in giving Inland Port, a two player Le Havre spinoff designed by Uwe Rosenberg, a shot.

Warhammer Quest Solo vs Other Solo Games

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on BoardGameGeek by JYoder. I've reposted it with permission from the author. 

I've played Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game (WHQ) several times and would like to give some thoughts about it, and how it compares to a few established fantasy games. I'm coming from the perspective of someone who has only played it solo, and has played other solo fantasy adventures, including Lord of the Rings: The Living Card Game (LotR), PathFinder Adventure Card Game (PACG), and Mage Knight (MK).

Right off the bat, I'll say MK is very different from the others, and I'm only including it because it also gives a solo fantasy adventure, which is the main thrust of my review. Most of my comparison will be leveled at LotR, as WHQ seems inspired by that game system.

I approached my review in a Q&A format, with questions I had about the game before I purchased it...

Playing the Top 100: Pandemic Legacy and 7 Wonders: Duel

Hi there, so as we continue our trek across the top 100 games that were pulled from the list in January, I spent much of the last week planning and scheming as I did playing games. The math is easy, if I complete two games a week, I will finish before the end of the year. The execution is a little more difficult due to some scheduling changes in my life. After long discussion with my friends who are not only playing the games with me, but also helping me find the ones that we do not already own, Nerd Night and the larger BGGcon will be used to play catch up. This is all fine and dandy, till you realize that a few of the games take 6+ hours to play, so a little more planning is required. But enough of that nonsense. You came to this page to see me write nonsense about games.