Apparently I don’t think too much these days, since it’s been almost two months since the last one of these.
May 15, 2012 – July 6, 2012
1) Why did the Mantis get “Kaigen’s Island” at the end of the War of Fire and Thunder again? They battled the Phoenix to a draw, then had to team up with the Phoenix to stop their own Corrupted forces (wherein the Master of Earth shows why the Phoenix probably could have just trashed the Mantis at any point in that conflict, if the Isawa had actually bothered to participate), then just stick a thumb in the Phoenix’s eye by seizing the island that the Phoenix had just created.
2) Broken Wave City doesn’t make a lot of logistical sense either, if you check our Strongholds of the Empire.
3) When was Toshi Ranbo actually invaded? The flavor background talks about the Lion and Crane fighting over it for centuries, but as far as I can tell there aren’t really any conflicts detailed between the year 600 and the year 1100. That’s a pretty big drought for a city that’s supposed to be constantly changing hands.
4) Tough to get those 10K cards, eh?
5) The Lion Tactician stronghold is Eternal Victory Dojo. The Lion recently began studying the military techniques of the Yodotai Empire, who are pseudo-Romans/Byzantines. Eternal Victory was a slogan of the Romans. Coincidence?
6) I read Chicago by Night, Second Edition, and it was better than I expected. Then later I read Chicago by Night, First Edition, and I found it painful. As I was reading it, I thought maybe there were some differences that I could go back and find and explain the discrepancy. But, no, the Methuselahs were just as over-the-top and omnipresent. The art’s better in the second edition, but I’m pretty sure that’s not it. Should I chalk it up to having read them too close to each other, or is there something more objective at work?
7) Yeah, I still think The Blessed Mantle of the Greensnakes is that dumb a card. It’s just that it’s overpowered – it’s hard to get power levels exactly right. But something as simple as “Limited: Draw a card” is so obviously overpowered that I can only presume that the DT was well aware of this, and yet chose to print it anyway. Bad call, Reese.
8) Avatars for Nightfall were awesome. Avatars for Thunderstone were kind of lame. Thunderstone, please go have a chat with Nightfall and steal their Avatars.
9) My wife is apparently fond of Reiner Knizia games. I received Lost Cities (hint: no cities, nothing lost, just playing cards with numbers) for Father’s Day (it was on my Amazon wish list specifically because it’s a two-player game I thought I might be able to play with Katie), and she definitely likes it (especially when she’s winning, which she’s been doing most of the time). I think it’s good, but nothing too exciting. Kind of like Colossal Arena.
10) Today’s update was going to be a review of Quarriors! A rather biting review. So much so that I’m not sure if it should be toned down. We definitely didn’t like the game, but I felt a little mean after reading over the review again. It’ll probably just go up as is after I give it some more thought, but let me know what you think when you read it.
Why did the Mantis get Kaigen’s Island? Because the Mantis were willing to keep fighting and the Phoenix weren’t. And I think Nakamuro was a bit embarrassed that the Phoenix had started the war in the first place.
or more precisely, because the mantis where willing to die but Nakamuro didn’t want to kill them. So he surender.
Sometimes pacifism really sound like idiocy.
has Akiko lived, she would have ridden us of this upstart clan 🙂
Don’t worry Quariors deserving some constructive criticism. Its not a good game, but I really wanted it to be a good game so it was quite the let down.