All the Meeples of the Rainbow.

A photographic journey through board games...
Recommend
64 
 Thumb up
0.05
 tip
 Hide

You need to Lawyer Up before the Vienna Connection finds Shards of Infinity in their Distillery

Steph Hodge
United States
Tennessee
flag msg tools
badge
Well, it's no Ginkgopolis...
Avatar
Microbadge: Robin Williams fanMicrobadge: Picture of the Year - 1st placeMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: Great Big Sea fanMicrobadge: Peter Lik fan
Slap a like for deserving posts

From gallery of punkin312



Hia Everyone!

Now on Kickstarter!! Thanks for the support!

From gallery of punkin312


Join me Wednesday at 5 pm CST for more fun games! https://Twitch.tv/boardgamersteph!


Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog



All around FB and Instagram I was seeing the new game called Distilled and when Dave put out a call for reviewers, I knew I wanted to check it out. New to me!

I am a big fan of alcohol-making games like Viticulture/Tuscany and Brew Crafters and Distilled looked a bit like those with regards to hefty decision making.

As you can probably guess from the name, Distilled is a game about the distilling process used to form alcoholic beverages. You will a bunch of sugars and some yeast and water to form various labels. you will also need a barrel and some glasses for the final product.

Distilled is played over 7 rounds and each round you will get to distill up to 1 label. Players will take turns buying cards from the market in preparation for the distilling process. There are upgrade cards that will be either equipment or assistants to help give you special abilities. There are ingredient cards, and also an item row of barrels and bottles.

There is also the basic market board where players can grab up to 2 cards from there each round. They are generally much cheaper and help you move your distilling process right along.

Once the market phase is complete, each player will get to distill a product. For each sugar card added to the mix, one alcohol card is also added. You can have as many yeast and water cards as you want and as many sugars. But each label requires specific types of sugars and if you don't need that exactly then you will likely have to make straight-up vodka instead. Vodka and moonshine are the basic labels that everyone can create and don't offer many points, but will still give you the chance to sell your product at the end of the round.

The craziest part about distilling is that you will remove the top and bottom card of the mix and put it back into your pantry. There is a bit of push-you-luck when it comes to making the label you are shooting for. If you remove your signature ingredient then it seems like you aren't making your signature label... you are making vodka. I actually really like this mechanic. It leaves you a little bit nervous about how the mix will turn out. Of course, you can try to avoid any issue by adding EXTRA ingredients to ensure that you will pull cards that don't matter to the mix. Now, the alcohol cards are supposed to help mitigate that luck a bit, but even still, I have been busted a few times in the games I have played.

If you make a label and the actual label token is available you grab it and if you choose to sell your product you can take a sweet bouns from your player board. In addition, you add up all the coins gained from the cards used and the points on them as well. You need the barrel and bottle too.

Some of the labels will need to age before selling them so you will need a special barrel to age in and then you can't sell it the turn you make it, you have to save it for another round.

Money is super tight so if you need to age your label then you want to be sure you are ready for the next round with no money from the sales of the previous round. Very tight game and if anything goes sideways or doesn't fall into place then you can be crippled in the next round. There is an action to take if you don't sell and you basically can lose up to 4 points to gain $4 and that can DEFINITELY come in handy when planning for the next round for what you might need.

So after 7 rounds, the player with the most points will win.

There are hidden goals and public goals to work towards as well and that is always a blast!

In both of the games I played, it was super tight until the very end. Michael was actively trying to stop everything I was doing. My hidden goals generally line up with the common goals so Michael was shooting for them and ultimately blocking my goals!

In the first game, I was the pirate and he loved making the Rum and collecting bottles. I worked on a bottle collection and ended up scoring a bunch of points for the bottles.

In the game we played the Livestream, I was the girl who had the discount on ingredients. I was getting all sorts of cool discounts. Because of that, I was very focused on getting upgraded ingredients and getting a bunch of points from that. I was also trying to do DIFFERENT labels from Michael even at the cost of the common goals. I did manage to get my hidden goals in that game.

From the first play, I learned I could probably attempt to distill something each round so in the second game I worked on making sure I was ready to distill each round for max income and points. Even if it was a simple Vodka label.

In the first game, I won with 101 points and Michael was just behind with 98. The second game was also super close where I won with 109 and Michael was at 104.

I have to say I had a lot of fun playing this one. Tough choices and super-tight through the whole game. The only thing that was bothersome was the limiting label tokens. In each game, I missed out on gaining a label token because they were all done. I didn't like that at all. With more players, I anticipate the labels not running out as fast. I was told I would probably like it better as a 3 player game or even as the solo experience.

This is a well-designed game that is super balanced and even had a great rulebook. Not many prototypes can pull that off! Distilled is now on Kickstarter for a few more days so I hope you get to check it out. It is super thematic and deep. Definitely recommend it!


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312




Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog




It was time to get serious so Michael and I tried out the new game called Lawyer Up. New to me!

Thankfully, in Lawyer Up, you don't need to know anything about the law or how a trial is run, but if you do know about that stuff, you will definitely have a thematic feeling when playing the game.

There are different cases to check out and variations on the different cases to play. Once you settle on the case you will know how long the game will run. The more key witnesses there are, the longer the game will be since each witness will have to be called to the stand.

During the game, the witnesses will be called to the stand and each player will take turns playing cards to help their side of the case. Some cards will be played as arguments, evidence, or procedures.

The way you can play cards depends on the biases the Witness has an association with. Basically, you can only play cards where the symbols line up with the previous card played to the argument on your side.

Ultimately you will want to win the argument with any given witness. You will win the chance to influence the jury. It all comes down to having the majority of the votes from the jury.

It took one round before we got the hang of what was going on. There is definitely a way to go about playing your cards to ideally set yourself up for future cards, but also leaving yourself open with the possible abilities on the cards that might trigger.

During my game, I was just trying to win the judge's favor so I could use my tokens and activate actions. I just wanted to win each witness card, and I did fine in the first few rounds. Once we got a bit into the game Michael started throwing some punches and took my key witness away for a surprise witness and my whole round was busted. It was a rough surprise!

It really came down to the wire. The final round is where it counted. Michael could win the round and win the game or I could win the round and win the game. It was a nail-biter for sure. Thankfully, I had the cards to pull it out and take the jury's vote in the end for the win.

I have seen a lot of comments on the Geek saying that they think the final round is just too important in being the deciding factor for who wins the game. As I have only played the game once, I don't have a good idea if that is what happens the majority of the time. Regardless, I had a fun time playing out the courtroom drama.

This is definitely a game I will want to play on the Livestream to show it off a bit. I think it is a really nice game with a lot to offer. If you are in the market for a pretty thinky 2-player card game this could fit the bill. One to check out if you play 2-player games at all. There is also a solo mode that could be fun too!


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog



When we went to Ohio to visit with Jon and Lainie, I was excited that we could learn Shards of Infinity. Since then I have gotten the game and the new expansion called Shards of Infinity: Into the Horizon. New to me Expansion!

If you are unfamiliar with Shards of Infinity, it is a deck-building game where you are attacking the other players, and the person left standing will win the game. There are a bunch of cards that will help you gain hit points, and life, and possibly shields to help you block incoming damage. You will want to increase your mastery level so you can gain better abilities and possibly trigger the almighty Shard of Infinity for its auto-win attack.

Now, the new expansion Into the Horizon adds in a bunch of new cards and abilities that just get mixed into the main deck of cards. There are new villains that will pop up and wreak havoc that we can attack and gain small rewards. There are also Destiny cards that are new. These Destiny cards are claimed when a player hits 5 mastery and one of the cards is chosen. These cards have unique abilities for the rest of the game. The faster you can claim them, the better since some can really help you right away.

It was easy to incorporate these cards into the game when Michael and I decided to try it out.

I wasn't finding my combos at all. Michael seemed to always be one step ahead of me. I think that was because one of the Villian cards came out sooooo early and once defeated, that player would gain a destiny card. Michael was able to pull off the defeat and then had 2 destiny cards for the rest of the game. It was super powerful. I wasn't gaining any really good attack cards so I was just a sitting duck. It was literally a matter of time before would kill me.

Every time I did manage to give him some damage, he would gain it all right back with his healing combo cards. He was unstoppable. Not only that he was right at the 30 mastery level and could have defeated me that way in another few rounds.

I was toast!

I didn't mind losing though. I always like the challenge of trying to gain combos and just deck-build my deck as best as possible. I really enjoy this game so look forward to finding the other expansions and seeing what they have to offer as well. Nice addition.

From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312




Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog



I figured it was time to check out another case game from Portal Games called Vienna Connection. New to me!

Vienna Connection is a new release and has a similar vibe to that of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game.

Like in Detective, you will be using the internet Antaresdatabase to submit answers and find clues that you are given from the case you are unfolding.

We found it pretty easy to get into it since we are familiar with these types of games, and you really just need to let the cards direct you in the way to go.

So in Vienna Connection, there is a mechanic where you are finding puzzle clues and you will keep track of these clues in the database. If you find all the clues you need and you run out of time, you will then have to do the final report and answer some questions. I actually really liked that we had clues to find while we were uncovering the hidden story.

The game starts you off with the goal of finding the coded card that has disappeared. We know someone has died who had it last and it is our job to track it down.

We followed the leads and found files/reports that gave us answers. There are A LOT of files in the folder so there is still so much to uncover in the different cases.

This was actually the first time that did fairly well on a mission. Michael was on the trace and put together a lot of the clues. Our instincts were on point this time around. We had a totally Mission Complete!

We found all of the codes we needed to and a lot that has to do with the overall game that we will need in the later missions.

The game has 4 missions that run about 2 hours each.

Michael expressed that he enjoys this type of crime/case-solving game best. He likes how you work through the evidence and follow leads in this game vs others. I had a pretty good time. I wasn't really interested in the STORY as much as I was interested in the process and the choices you get to make.

I had a good time playing this one and I would like to finish out the missions to see how we do overall. It was nice that we actually accomplished something. I don't think we accomplished much in the detective games that we have played so far. So this would be the game I would want to continue first before the others. I still have them all so I hope we can work through them all at some point.


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312


Spoiler (click to reveal)
From gallery of punkin312


From gallery of punkin312



Microbadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blogMicrobadge: All the Meeples of the Rainbow blog






In case you missed it here is Steph's Hodgepodge of Gaming from Friday!





New to the Collection: I was a bit behind...
Almanac Crystal Peaks (proto)
Stronghold Undead
Crack the code
Distilled Proto
Cat Lady Kittens
City BUilder Ancient World
Sheepy Time
Ecos New Horizon
Almanac Dragon Road
Dirty Money
Castle Party (dupe)
Sky Tower





Thanks for following along!

Happy Gaming!!!



-Steph


External image
External image
External image
External image





All images in this post are copyrighted, owned, and controlled by Steph Hodge Photography, unless otherwise noted.
Please contact me if you would like to purchase or use my images in any way.
Disclaimer: I am a contract Employee of BGG. I often review games that are provided by the publisher. I am not compensated for my blog content.
Thank you.
Twitter Facebook
12 Comments
Subscribe sub options Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:55 pm
Post Rolls
  • [+] Dice rolls
Loading... | Locked Hide Show Unlock Lock Comment     View Previous {{limitCount(numprevitems_calculated,commentParams.showcount)}} 1 « Pg. {{commentParams.pageid}} » {{data.config.endpage}}
{{error.message}}
{{comment.error.message}}
    View More Comments {{limitCount(numnextitems_calculated,commentParams.showcount)}} / {{numnextitems_calculated}} 1 « Pg. {{commentParams.pageid}} » {{data.config.endpage}}

Subscribe

Contributors