Brief thoughts on new games

The TaoLing won Inventions: Evolution of Ideas as a door prize from HeavyCon. I opened the box, started reading the rules. After two minutes I put them back and closed the box. A few days later I thought “Maybe this once I’ll watch a video on it.”

I lasted several minutes before I got bored and closed the video. The TaoLing also seems to have no desire to play it, so I have an unplayed copy for trade or sale.

I bought a copy of The Seventh Continent during the Jack Vasel Memorial Fund auction and it arrived last week. I actually read the rules and might play it. I think it will be a noble failure, but I can live with that.

Sea Salt and Paper is an innocuous filler and I bought a copy for an extended family vacation. Honestly this game is over-rated because of the truly excellent aesthetic, but that seems like a sin to encourage.

I played Last Light, because it was compared to Race for the Galaxy meets a 4x game. A much more accurate (IMO) comparison would be to Eminent Domain gets a bunch of chrome. What did I learn while playing? A simultaneous action game where nobody is sure if everyone is ready to go to the next turn reduces the speed advantage considerably. (And the “Has everyone played this critical card which triggers scoring” also reduces it). I’m not going to call it avoid, but I’d rather just play Race or a 4x and not combine them. Avoid.