Waiting for Duviri: The Tenth Tacticals

And now for a set of games that require planning (and maybe one that doesn't)!

Chess Ultra

Regular readers will know I'm bad at this game, but luckily there's a setting to make the AI so dumb that I can win. LOL. Obviously the opposite is true too as it is grand master approved and obviously there's the PvP option as well as spectating(?). I should probably use the tutorials provided to see if it can help my game. Visuals wise: the room, board and pieces can be customized and look really nice. That won't help you win though!

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game - Digital Edition

This competitive game has players running one of the Westeros Houses and are trying to dominate the map by either holding 7 castles for an instant win or the most castles after 10 rounds. Battles are simple where you just add up the unit values and add whatever your chosen leader card does (7 to pick from, can't reuse same one until you've used all the others). Alas, the rest of the game isn't simple: It's a mess. Boats act both as units and bridges, you need to spend a phase giving "orders" which are limited to 3 of the same, there's a phase where you just pull random events that can add or remove units or lock order types at a whim, and some houses have better starting spots than others. Not recommended.

Yellow and Yangtze (Digital)

This competitive area control game has players putting tiles down in one of five different colors. If you place a red tile on a connected tile set with your red tile leader, you get a red point. If its someone elses red leader, they get a red point. If there is no red leader then you look for the black (king) leader in the region and they get the point. Once there are no more tiles to draw the game ends and you score your LOWEST color of points.

If you try put your red leader in a set that already has a red leader, you must spend the appropriate tiles from your hand to try win your revolt and likewise if two tile sets join which would result in two leaders of the same color being in the joined state, then a war breaks out. Defenders win ties.

Super simple, but also super challenging! I was interested in getting the precursor to this, Tigris and Euphrates until I learned Yellow and Yangtze refined that game a bit. Now that I've tried the digital version - I'm probably not going to get the physical one because I am terrible at it. LOL!

Terraforming Mars (Digital)

Another competitive victory point collecting game where each player runs a company that is terraforming mars, with each company having different themes on what special things that they can do. You will mostly be dictated on options based on the random cards you draw which might be a deal breaker for you, however if you can roll with whatever comes your way you this might be for you. You also need to keep your eyes open on the first come first serve rewards you can nab, as well as the awards that you can fund (in hopes to award yourself) as those are a lot of victory points!

Turns get longer as the game goes by because everyone will have more resources later and turns only end when the player all players pass. On the flip side, if you warm the planet enough, put enough oceans and forests and basically terraform Mars, as per the title - you can activate an immediate game end sequence if you are confident you've got the points lined up to win. Pretty cool.

Warhammer 40K: Gladius - Relics of War

A strategy game where you can play as one of the various factions in the Warhammer 40k universe, where you must build a base and send your units to destroy the enemy bases, much like ye olde Dune and Warcraft / Starcraft, EXCEPT it is all turn based. And boy that makes it supremely boring. The poor tutorial doesn't help either. Skip it.

Evil Dead: the Game

The only non-board game based offering in this set - this four player co-op versus one monster player where in the four players (who most likely will be playing various incarnations of Ash Williams) need to locate the necronomicon and a magic knife to seal the evil portal within a time limit to win. The maps are pretty big, the fighting is quite decent, and having cars people can hop into together is great. The enemy player has interesting mechanics too, as they are usually just mist and must run around gaining power to be able to deploy traps, spawn bad guys and possibly possess said bad guys (or good guys, if they don't stay near the light).

As a bonus, there are AI modes that range from one player and every one else is AI, only the bad guys is AI so it's pure co-op, and single player missions to unlock stuff. Pretty cool game and one that I was ready to buy for my gaming group until I learned this is currently only available on Epic Games, which has NO METHOD OF GIFTING GAMES TO OTHERS. Pity, because that means I purchased something else (x3) instead from Steam.

Gloomhaven (Digital)

This is the cooperative "something else" I purchased (x3) for my gaming group instead of the Evil Dead, and I am pleased to say it plays very much like my physical copy of Jaws of the Lion where I've already covered most of the mechanics. Even better, this digital edition means you don't need to spend time setting up or running the monsters and just get straight into the action. We've only started the original campaign and its already pretty good, with the ability to have players drop in and out mid mission (host controls any unassigned mercs). Very good so far and recommended if you like thinking games!