Octopus Overlords

hentzau wrote:Le Havre is a classic.

Yeah like I said I've been wanting to play it for a while, and it certainly did not disappoint.

More High Frontier 3rd Edition under my belt now. I played a solo learning game using supports this time. I still have not used all of the advanced modules, next up is freighters and colonists, then the game after that I think I am going the full blown game.

I played solo with no particular endpoint, just seeing what I could do to get 2 factories on the board. It was very different using the advanced game, but I really enjoyed it. I went for the Jovian Trojans this time to get things started. I thought using a raygun robonaut I could quickly prospect most of the asteroids over the series of a couple of turns and find some asteroids to claim and build a factory on. Well doing all this, and finally building a factory took me almost 50 game years! It was incredibly difficult, and eventually I did it by building a monstrosity of a tug that slowly worked it's way to the cluster and then proceeded to prospect. Of all of the cluster of asteroids I found that all of them but one were worthless. I had to make two trips including leaving a ten year refueling stop. Yep. Ten years. Not to mention having to restart once by failing a crash obstacle and blowing up. Whoops, that couldn't be good for morale.

Horribly inefficient play at the beginning, but I had no other way to get back! So there I was, refueling until I could make it back. Finally after I was able to industrialize I built a ISRU 0 raygun (advanced) and a high end thruster that was extremely cost effective. Once I had a factory and things set up I was easily able to make it to Titan and set up a second site with relative ease.

I love this game, but it sure is a brain burner. Careful planning all along the way is needed to set things up. That and a little bit of good luck.


Failed prospecting sites abound, but two factories managed to be built.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who is interested in space flight.

I like it enough I think I need to upgrade my ships, there are a few options I am looking at. I'll post some pictures once I get it figured out, probably won't get to play it for a few more weeks. By then maybe I'll have pretty ships to go along with the beautiful board too.

Played Clank and Runewars minis today. Hepcat may have trampled my archers in Runewars, but my leader killed those knights at the last turn of the game. Lost on points from failing to attack his spell slinging leader right away. Movement seemed constrained, but it played quickly in a small space.

Clank was pretty tight, with hepcat escaping first to get the timer started. I had been healing so I felt pretty good stating in the depths, then ended up mauled by the dragon. Drawing my magic carpet, reckless dash and teleport wand let me escape the turn before I would have died. I tied Hepcat, with the win going to him for the highest value loot.

Another great game of Paranoia. Wrote waaay too much material (again) but made it work well ok on the third go. Broncobots ended up being turned into a marauding robotic air force, and The Notorious B.O.B. was finally brought to justice. The team knocked a kung-fu Putin-Y-NNE out of the train then blew him off the side with a RPG, let Biden-B-JOE steal their tickets and used the bomb on the train to steal valuable computer equipment. Tump-Y-DON and Al-Y-WRD both lost their hair/hats in pretty cool free-for-all fights.

Ended the day with Kobolds Ate My Baby Torgapalooza. King Torg wanted a Birthday Party, so we Kobolds went adventuring. We created a Baby Spice Girl soufflé with bits of Giant, flavored with divinely created sour cream for the potato and, of course, kobold. For dessert, we had Troll shanks and the finest Dragon Egg for dessert. For entertainment, we recruited Vampire Weekend and a Kobold variety show. Knife catching bouncing Kobolds, a kobold necromancer doing the funky chicken, accompanied by a phantasmal chicken, followed by a sexy burlesque kobold stalactite show accompanied by a Torg-spearean actor talking in the original Kobold. Most importantly, we had a Kobold choir who literally SLAYED the Troll audience. It was to be amazing, held in the dead Giant's kitchen where much food was stored in case of boredom. But the Kobolds bringeth, and our angry God Vor taketh away. Thou shalt not say King Torg's name in vain, for he is not a mere Lord. For Vor is a vengeful God and smote our every kobold before our invitations were delivered.

Very much fun, even though our speaker of party achievements brought down doom with a misspoken word. Such is the life of a kobold. Scraped my knees up jumping around, acting out death defying knife catching and literally throwing myself at the feet of a friendly Mayor (GM) for bootlicking. We ended the game by rushing another Mayor at her table and giving her stern glares. Oh, and one player brought a damn megaphone. We had been obnoxious (as expected), and loved it. If you ever get a chance to play Kobold Midnight Madness at Origins, play and have silly fun. Bring ear plugs.

Letters from Whitechapel + Dear Boss

I managed a win as Jack. Played with the new police powers, and the suspect cards. I managed to muck up one restriction on the suspect cards, but otherwise held to it and still won, despite being closely hounded on night one, and giving up my advantage at the start of night 3.

Cyclades + Hades

Four players, everyone ended up with a metropolis before one player took away my university to get his second. I enjoyed the game, will probably be able to plan better in the future.

Dungeon Lords

After an hour of explanation for my first play, we got underway. There's a lot of moving bits. I managed to get lucky, ended up trap-heavy, and lowest evilness for most of the game, managed to 'capture' all of the adventurers that entered my dungeon, and come out with a 12-point 2nd-place finish. The lady that ended up getting imp-pimp was hamstrung by a 12-pt hole from the inability to pay her taxes.

All in all, an enjoyable evening with some good players and some good games.

Not that I would likely ever have time to learn it or play it, but it is a huge shame that High Frontiers 3rd Edition is in such short supply.

baelthazar wrote:Not that I would likely ever have time to learn it or play it, but it is a huge shame that High Frontiers 3rd Edition is in such short supply.

The basic game is actually very easy to pick up and learn. But yeah it's crazy how hard this is to find already. I'm really glad I jumped on it when I did, it might be my favorite game of the last year.

Played The Great Dalmuti, which is a card game without an end - how you do in a round just determines the seating order for the next round (until everyone just tires of the game). It's also structured so that the people winning will tend to stay ahead (the person doing least well has to give two of their best cards to the person doing the best, and so on). It's an ok time waster, but mostly a good time waster, since it can last as many rounds as you want. Also learned Shadow Hunters, which is a simple social deduction games with three sides (two teams trying to kill each other, and then neutral characters with individual goals). Well, more like thrown in the deep end since I wasn't given instructions before the game began.

Chrisoc13 wrote:
Also played an absolutely brutal game of Food Chain Magnate. Prices dropped to $0. Yes that's right, $0. It was a few turns of multiple corporations just bleeding out. In the end a huge marketing push by 2 players broke the stalemate and suddenly prices rose to $40 per item with luxury managers with gardens attached to houses. The game ended in one huge turn then. It was insane. I love this game, it's just brutal fun.

This is one of the games I want to play, since I've heard good things.

Isgrimnur wrote:Dungeon Lords

After an hour of explanation for my first play, we got underway. There's a lot of moving bits. I managed to get lucky, ended up trap-heavy, and lowest evilness for most of the game, managed to 'capture' all of the adventurers that entered my dungeon, and come out with a 12-point 2nd-place finish. The lady that ended up getting imp-pimp was hamstrung by a 12-pt hole from the inability to pay her taxes.

I liked it enough. It was at least an interesting proof of concept in competitive resource management. I can't remember if I liked Dungeon Pets better or worse. The game was a no go for our gaming group though. When you are lucky to get four people together anymore, all it takes is for one person to not like the dynamic for the game to considered a thumbs down. And one of us had no interest in it. I forget who.

Defiant wrote:

Chrisoc13 wrote:
Also played an absolutely brutal game of Food Chain Magnate. Prices dropped to $0. Yes that's right, $0. It was a few turns of multiple corporations just bleeding out. In the end a huge marketing push by 2 players broke the stalemate and suddenly prices rose to $40 per item with luxury managers with gardens attached to houses. The game ended in one huge turn then. It was insane. I love this game, it's just brutal fun.

This is one of the games I want to play, since I've heard good things.

Jeepers - that is one expensive game! I thought the pieces would be gold plated, but no - simple cardboard and poorly designed by some of the reviews. Wow.

stessier wrote:Jeepers - that is one expensive game! I thought the pieces would be gold plated, but no - simple cardboard and poorly designed by some of the reviews. Wow.

Good lord I'm old. From what I could see that wasn't the quality of 1970s $7 Parker Bros game and it retails for $125? As far as I can tell that's not a price gouge out of print price. Now I get small time makers mark up and the times have changed, but that is foreign to me as a lifelong board gamer. I'm thinking worse case scenario that an independent production they gaf you $60 for.

LordMortis wrote:

stessier wrote:Jeepers - that is one expensive game! I thought the pieces would be gold plated, but no - simple cardboard and poorly designed by some of the reviews. Wow.

Good lord I'm old. From what I could see that wasn't the quality of 1970s $7 Parker Bros game and it retails for $125? As far as I can tell that's not a price gouge out of price. Now I get small time makers mark up and the times have changed, but that is foreign to me as a lifelong board gamer. I'm thinking worse case scenario that an independent production they gaf you $60 for.

I did research and it is a game from the Netherlands where they charge 79 Euro (VAT included). That gets bumped up to 98 Euro to ship it here which at the current exchange rate is $110. But the next printing won't be out until next year sometime, so you're left with local gaming shops. Given currency fluctuations and overhead, the $135 price isn't crazy. It's the base price that is.

stessier wrote:

LordMortis wrote:

stessier wrote:Jeepers - that is one expensive game! I thought the pieces would be gold plated, but no - simple cardboard and poorly designed by some of the reviews. Wow.

Good lord I'm old. From what I could see that wasn't the quality of 1970s $7 Parker Bros game and it retails for $125? As far as I can tell that's not a price gouge out of price. Now I get small time makers mark up and the times have changed, but that is foreign to me as a lifelong board gamer. I'm thinking worse case scenario that an independent production they gaf you $60 for.

I did research and it is a game from the Netherlands where they charge 79 Euro (VAT included). That gets bumped up to 98 Euro to ship it here which at the current exchange rate is $110. But the next printing won't be out until next year sometime, so you're left with local gaming shops. Given currency fluctuations and overhead, the $135 price isn't crazy. It's the base price that is.

I waited until it went on sale and got it for $75. Great game, and there is a lot in the box. The helper guides are fantastic and reminiscent of the old school Fallout style.

Food chain magnate is not a box of plastic you pay for and if looking at the components alone it certainly might not seem worth it. The components are not poorly designed though, I disagree with that. Nice cardboard pieces and wooden bits. But... The price you pay is for a splotter designed game. The 50's style might throw some people off but I think it is really great looking.

Splotter is not your typical game publisher. They make very few games, generally one game every few years. Traditionally they reprint games only every five or six years and they sell out extremely quick. Last year they reprinted the great Zimbabwe and Indonesia. That was a huge change of policy for them. Anyways they self publish everything themselves and do very limited print runs, it's not cheap.

What their games lack in plastic and shiny they make up for in excellent design. Their games are extremely tight and innovative. They don't copy whatever is hot now and don't mimic other games. They have a few misses early in their history, but a huge percentage of their games are seen as classics, and once they are out of print drive very high prices to get ahold of. I've managed to have most of their games in my collection but I'm still missing 3 that I really need (1 of which is up for pre-order thankfully).

Food chain magnate is their biggest hit yet, and honestly might just be the very best game I have ever played. If not the best, then in the top three. It's really good. Due to its success they have kept it generally in print the last couple of years which is not the norm.

I'm biased in that I put splotter up as one of my favorite designers, and food chain magnate my favorite of their products. It may cost twice as much as some games but it is the tightest design I have ever seen with immense strategy choices and nearly endless possibilities.

In a nutshell- it's about the game, not the pieces.

I don't begrudge them a living. It's just hard for me warrant $125. That's real money to me, so the price point for rights to use their intellectual property is just too high. Fancy things do help sell me intellectual property. For instance, I don't find myself every paying $10 or $12 for an MP3 "album" but I pay upwards of $15 for a CD at a show. It's a thing and that thing is a reminder of the concert, much how TShirts were when I was younger.

I know that I am not a sample size to extrapolate to other people, but I am what I am.

The same week I took a week's vacation to rip out three yews, my neighbor paid a tree removal service to cut down a tree. It was a crew of six guys and took them about two hours. Assuming six guys make only $15 an hour doing hard labor, that's $180 before taxes and insurance and equipment and the owner and admin getting paid. I figure that had to easily cost $600 and nobody was getting rich at $600. And I simply can't warrant paying $600 to pay someone to rip down a tree.

It's more a matter of economics of volume. They do very small print runs, which means expensive games. And I mean small print runs.

Anyways their target audience isn't the main stream gaming crowd, nor even main stream bgg crowd. They have a strong loyal following though. There was a time when I would have balked at their prices but now I must say I actively seek out their incredibly tight designs.

Best course of action is to find a friend who likes then so you can play them for free

Got a two player game of Great Western Trail in last night, and as expected, absolutely loved it. Game took us almost 3.5 hours because we were learning at the same time as we were playing, but I can see it being quite a bit faster once you get the rules down. We made a couple of mistakes that I have now figured out, but they didn't affect the game outcome too much. There were only 4 points separating us at the end, but my buddy won with a mostly building strategy while I was going with a mostly cattle strategy.

Solid, solid game. Need to get this on the table now with 3 or 4 players.

As part of my great wargamer transformation, played Combat Commander the other night to try and learn the basics -- what a fantastic system. I understand why hardcore war gamers might not like it - there are random elements (simulated die rolling, random bad/good things) that must drive true strategists insane, but for me, it makes it all much more interesting and less like playing a game of chess with solider chits. Anyway, I absolutely love how it plays and the narrative that develops as you're flipping cards and moving around. So much so that I'm now part of the p500 order (granddaddy of the KS system) to get a reprint of Combat Commander Pacific.

Update on the missing Predator cards/Upper Deck situation. Terry contacted Upper Deck and they said they offer a one-time courtesy replacement for folks with no receipt/outside the return window. They sent him a very nice card list and he was able to identify the 100 missing cards. They said it will be anywhere from 2-10 weeks for replacement, but it didn't cost him anything.

Moral of the story - check your games when you get them!

I played LOST CITIES with my (almost) 8-year old daughter last night. Even though it's a classic, it was my first time playing. We both really enjoyed it, and she wanted to play again immediately. While she didn't totally grasp the subtleties of when to play a higher numbered card and when to hold off, she still came pretty close to beating me. This is one I'll definitely be teaching my wife, as it's simple and quick enough that she'd be willing to try it, but would really appeal to her competitive nature.

Also thanks for the Great Western Trail impressions. That one's high on my want list, though I've held off since it's not cooperative. As much as I'd like to play, it's really hard to get competitive games into my weekly gaming group.

Not this last weekend, but some games I've played and enjoyed recently (that were new to me) are:

Nuns on the Run - You are nuns sneaking out of your quarters at night. The Abbott and Mother Superior (think "guards")walk around the place trying to make sure you're all obediently staying in your rooms. Mechanics: You can see the two guards and can see their scheduled paths. They can't see you (you write your moves down). If they hear you, they start looking actively in your direction. If you're in their line of sight they can head directly to you. If they land on you they order you back to your room.
Some players are the nuns, two are the "guards".

Burgle Bros. - A cooperative game in which the players are a group of burglars who have to search a heavily trapped three-story building, find the safe (one on each floor), find (and roll) the combination. Each floor has a guard who walks the hallways, always moving toward a random location. If you're in the guard's line of sight he will head directly toward you. You can "hide" up to three times. If any player uses up his/her three hides, the whole group loses. To win, you have to successfully burgle the three safes and get the loot to the roof.
This game is overpriced on Amazon but you can get it for a decent price from the developer.

Roll for the Galaxy - A sort of resource management game in which each player tries to build settlements and/or develop technologies and/or ship goods. You do this by rolling special game dice and allocating them to various actions (explore, settle, develop, produce, ship). Players play simultaneously, hiding their dice behind a screen, then revealing simultaneously.
This game confused the hell out of me the first two times I played it. Now that I sort of know how to play I really like it.

Bad Demographic wrote:Roll for the Galaxy - A sort of resource management game in which each player tries to build settlements and/or develop technologies and/or ship goods. You do this by rolling special game dice and allocating them to various actions (explore, settle, develop, produce, ship). Players play simultaneously, hiding their dice behind a screen, then revealing simultaneously.
This game confused the hell out of me the first two times I played it. Now that I sort of know how to play I really like it.

One way to quickly increase your familiarity may be to download Keldon's Race for the Galaxy AI. This is basically a completely free PC version of Race for the Galaxy which allows you to play against AI opponents. Granted, Race for the Galaxy is generally thought to have a steeper learning curve than Roll, but if you watch Wei-Hwa Huang's tutorial videos (or this one), it's really not that difficult to grasp the basics. The main bone of contention for new players with the card-based RftG tends to be its iconography, but that's easily remedied with this PDF player aid. In playing Keldon's AI, you'll likely get your ass handed to you on a regular basis over your first few dozen games, as the AI unquestionably provides for strong, aggressive opponents, but that also provides some tremendously useful insight into skillful strategic play (particularly if you review your games afterwards, and pay attention to the AI's gameplay choices). Anyway, if you're able to learn how to play Race for the Galaxy, it'll almost certainly ease your experience with Roll.

There is also an app for Race for the Galaxy. It's not as crazy smart as Keldon's but it's decent.

Zarathud wrote:There is also an app for Race for the Galaxy. It's not as crazy smart as Keldon's but it's decent.

Good point. The mobile app also includes some interactive minigame tutorials that help walk through the basics, though the tutorial videos I linked above are more comprehensive. Personally, I prefer the interface of Keldon's AI over the mobile RftG app, and the price cannot be beaten.

Actually though, I'm talking about Roll for the Galaxy - different game.

I know. Roll for the Galaxy took the theme of Race for the Galaxy and turned in into a dice game to (1) more it more accessible and (2) help gamers get comfortable with the iconography. Dice vs. Cards. Roll does a good job of imitating Race, but Race is one of my Favorite Card Games.

Bad Demographic wrote:Actually though, I'm talking about Roll for the Galaxy - different game.

I do understand that you were originally referring to Roll for the Galaxy; in fact, I specifically mentioned Roll a few times in my reply to you. But I do apologise if that wasn't sufficiently clear, and for causing any confusion. My point was simply that learning to play Race for the Galaxy (which can be done completely free and gratis by way of Keldon's RftG AI and the linked tutorial vids above), will almost certainly ease your experience with Roll for the Galaxy. As Zarathud points out, while the mechanics obviously differ (cards vs. dice), thematically the games do have a lot in common.

Bad Demographic wrote:Burgle Bros. - A cooperative game in which the players are a group of burglars who have to search a heavily trapped three-story building, find the safe (one on each floor), find (and roll) the combination. Each floor has a guard who walks the hallways, always moving toward a random location. If you're in the guard's line of sight he will head directly toward you. You can "hide" up to three times. If any player uses up his/her three hides, the whole group loses. To win, you have to successfully burgle the three safes and get the loot to the roof.

If you're in the guard's line of sight he will head directly toward you.

I am pretty sure that is not a rule in the game. The guards destination is set by the cards and overridden by alarms, but never by line of sight. There are certain conditions where he can see you without being in the same room, but he still doesn't move toward you specifically.

If any player uses up his/her three hides, the whole group loses.

If a player ever needs to use a stealth token and they don't have one, the team loses. So it's the 4th time you are found, not the third.

Sorry, this is one of my favorites and it sounds like your group is making it harder than it should be.

just finished our first game of Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition about an hour ago..
Had a lot of fun, especially the puzzles and we ended up beating the game... although there is a high likelihood that we screwed up some of the rules...
So question to the group...
when told to draw a damage or horror card is it always face down unless told by the app or is it always face up unless told by the app?
I had another question but forgot it..

coopasonic wrote:

Bad Demographic wrote:Burgle Bros. - A cooperative game in which the players are a group of burglars who have to search a heavily trapped three-story building, find the safe (one on each floor), find (and roll) the combination. Each floor has a guard who walks the hallways, always moving toward a random location. If you're in the guard's line of sight he will head directly toward you. You can "hide" up to three times. If any player uses up his/her three hides, the whole group loses. To win, you have to successfully burgle the three safes and get the loot to the roof.

If you're in the guard's line of sight he will head directly toward you.

I am pretty sure that is not a rule in the game. The guards destination is set by the cards and overridden by alarms, but never by line of sight. There are certain conditions where he can see you without being in the same room, but he still doesn't move toward you specifically.

If any player uses up his/her three hides, the whole group loses.

If a player ever needs to use a stealth token and they don't have one, the team loses. So it's the 4th time you are found, not the third.

Sorry, this is one of my favorites and it sounds like your group is making it harder than it should be.

I probably just remember wrong - only played it the one time.

Got in another game of Great Western Trail last night, a three player with one guy that had not played before. Not including rules explanation this one took about 3 hours. This session just cemented my love for this game. It's just great. The third player slowed down the movement with so many buildings coming out. I won this one fairly decisively, 98 to 67 to 64. Good cattle management and proper delivery locations helped seal the game for me.

Highly recommended (again).



(Pic from about 1/3 of the way through the game. )

Such a pretty looking game. I want to play. Does it have railroads and investing as well as gun slinging and cattle ranching?

LordMortis wrote:Such a pretty looking game. I want to play. Does it have railroads and investing as well as gun slinging and cattle ranching?

Yes, there are railroads. You use them to move your cattle to distant towns once you get them to Kansas City. You improve railroad stations along the way to gain benefits and VPs.

There is no investing, other than investing by building new properties along the trail.

And hate to tell you...no gunslinging. These here are peaceful ranchers.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

LordMortis wrote:Such a pretty looking game. I want to play. Does it have railroads and investing as well as gun slinging and cattle ranching?

That sounds more like Carson city. Which is also a fantastic game. I really love great Western trail. I got some covers for the individual player boards that are really nice. I really like it. Maybe my favorite game from last year.


The covers for the player boards.

The same person makes some for terraforming mars, so I picked those up too. Really nice, although a little pricey.

Where did you get those?

I played GWT without covers and it was fine. It was pretty useful in TM, though.

Zarathud wrote:Where did you get those?

Etsy.

And yes completely unnecessary. But nice... I'm a fan of them.

Started the D&D Starter Campaign yesterday... Very rough start since nobody ever played an RPG before and I haven't DMed in over 27 years (nor played). Had them watch some video's to get an idea of what's expected... Once we actually started to move things got better. Only got through the very first encounter/combat than had to call it since it got late.

Question for any DMs out there.

What are some good map programs that I can use in a dual monitor setup? I have my laptop hooked up to a TV and right now I am using Photoshop layers where the end result is on the TV and I control it from my laptop. It works, but is clunky.
I'm looking for something where the players see what they need to and I see everything. I'd like to be able to have them slowly see the map, so for example if they are in a dungeon, they see the 1st room and whatever exits there are. If they go North, I can have that room pop up/fade in, but not the other rooms.

I signed up for roll20, but haven't delved into it yet, but it looks like that is more for a situation where everyone needs a computer and not a dual screen setup like I have. (I am thinking about going to my basement and pulling some old laptops and see if they are good enough and get them running. Just don't think I will have enough good ones. (4 PC's right now)

So really what you need is a secondary screen that just shows the player map on the second screen and allows you to manipulate it on your primary screen, right? Interesting. I wonder if Fantasy Grounds could handle that? I don't have any experience, just mumbling outloud here. I'll do some research, because the idea is intriguing.

A quote from the Fantasy Grounds forums:

This is the whole reason I bought FG when it first came out. I ran it off my laptop and had a small 15" monitor hooked up to the laptop and placed opposite of the laptop screen. It let me display art, combat maps, and use the great combat tracking tools as I hosted the game. I highly recommend it!

I'm going to watch some of their DM tutorials and see if they talk about this.

Zarathud wrote:Where did you get those?

Found the store on Etsy. They aren't cheap if you get the ones that click on. But they aren't bad if you just get the ones that overlie them.
Great Western Trail board covers.
Terraforming Mars

Century Spice Road is a nice, casual strategy game. There are four different colored resources (with some worth more than others). You have (or get) cards that allow you to either get more resources, upgrade resources or trade resources for other types of resources. Each time you play a card, you put it face up on the table. You can spend a turn to pick up the cards you put down. In addition, you can acquire new cards, or you can purchase victory point cards (that require certain combinations of resources).

If you've ever studied context free grammars in Linguistics or Computer Science, the game may remind you of that, as the cards are very similar to the production rules from that.

It would probably be a very good gateway game, and turns go by quickly, which is nice.

Defiant wrote:Century Spice Road is a nice, casual strategy game. There are four different colored resources (with some worth more than others). You have (or get) cards that allow you to either get more resources, upgrade resources or trade resources for other types of resources. Each time you play a card, you put it face up on the table. You can spend a turn to pick up the cards you put down. In addition, you can acquire new cards, or you can purchase victory point cards (that require certain combinations of resources).

If you've ever studied context free grammars in Linguistics or Computer Science, the game may remind you of that, as the cards are very similar to the production rules from that.

It would probably be a very good gateway game, and turns go by quickly, which is nice.

Looking very seriously at this one. I like simple engine builders and also like Splendor which has some similarities. I also am intrigued that this is part one of a three part game series that will eventually allow you to combine them all into one game.