Search
Large Deviations and Asymptotic Methods in Finance
Peter K. Friz, Jim Gatheral, Archil Gulisashvili and Antoine Jacquier
Book
Topics covered in this volume (large deviations, differential geometry, asymptotic expansions,...
Hive Carbon
7.5
Rate It
Tabletop Game
Hive is a highly addictive strategic game for two players that is not restricted by a board and can...
Peter Shephard (2821 KP) rated Terraforming Mars in Tabletop Games
May 28, 2019
Quite simply, my favourite game. Being able to play from solo, to five players, with hundreds of different technologies and businesses, means you will never have the same game twice. If I go away with work, I pack this before my clothes.
While the game can be a little difficult to play in the first game, the second, third etc games will be played much quicker, easier, and more enjoyable. Every one will be different, too. It typically takes about 90mins to 2h to play, in our experience, but there have been longer games - there is an element of luck with both the cards drawn, and what everyone else does! Holding on to a card because it needs the Temperature below -8 degrees, then seeing everyone else pumping the temperature from -12 to -6 means the card is (probably) worthless.
The science is obviously science-fiction but is based heavily in reality, albeit simplified, and very interesting on it's own right.
Expansions do add further flavours and variations, but the base game is absolutely able to stand on it's own two feet.
While the game can be a little difficult to play in the first game, the second, third etc games will be played much quicker, easier, and more enjoyable. Every one will be different, too. It typically takes about 90mins to 2h to play, in our experience, but there have been longer games - there is an element of luck with both the cards drawn, and what everyone else does! Holding on to a card because it needs the Temperature below -8 degrees, then seeing everyone else pumping the temperature from -12 to -6 means the card is (probably) worthless.
The science is obviously science-fiction but is based heavily in reality, albeit simplified, and very interesting on it's own right.
Expansions do add further flavours and variations, but the base game is absolutely able to stand on it's own two feet.
Divergent Series, Summability and Resurgence II: Simple and Multiple Summability: 2016: II
Book
Addressing the question how to "sum" a power series in one variable when it diverges, that is, how...
Accidental Dictionary: The Surprising Twists and Turns of English Words
Book
How well do you know your words?; Buxom used to mean obedient; A cloud was a rock; Raunchy...
iMaschine 2
Music
App
MAKE MUSIC ANYWHERE Produce tracks on the go with iMASCHINE 2 and share your creations with the...
Peter Russell (61 KP) rated Scythe in Tabletop Games
Mar 13, 2019
The best mix of many board games
This game has so much going for it and by far is my favorite game on my shelf right now. First off, just looking at and opening the box, the artwork is fantastic. I bought the artbook for the game just because I wanted more of the art. Next, mechanics of the game. Each player has a choice of what unique pair of actions they will take in a turn. A turn consists of:
1) Choosing a block of actions that said player had not chosen last turn
2) Choosing a top level action from chosen block
3) choosing a bottom level action of chosen block.
These action range from creating and placing workers, mechs or buildings, resource generation, or doing something that would initiate combat (usually moving). There are many different strategies to win, whether through ecnomics or military domination. Each play through is unique.
I highly recommend getting all expansions for uncreased play variety as well as the Broken Token organizer, which reduces setup time for 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Other items that really enhance the gameplay are metal coins as well as realistic resources from stonemaier games
1) Choosing a block of actions that said player had not chosen last turn
2) Choosing a top level action from chosen block
3) choosing a bottom level action of chosen block.
These action range from creating and placing workers, mechs or buildings, resource generation, or doing something that would initiate combat (usually moving). There are many different strategies to win, whether through ecnomics or military domination. Each play through is unique.
I highly recommend getting all expansions for uncreased play variety as well as the Broken Token organizer, which reduces setup time for 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Other items that really enhance the gameplay are metal coins as well as realistic resources from stonemaier games
Peter Shephard (2821 KP) rated Catan in Tabletop Games
May 26, 2019
Classic family friendly game
I do enjoy Catan, my wife and family enjoys Catan. It is a nice and easy enough game to play. It is challenging enough without being difficult, and I would go as far as to suggest the age bracket is slightly lower than the suggested. It's one of the games we turn to when there isn't enough time left for Agricola or Terrforming Mars or a similar, long length game.
The game itself is varied each time you play, and although there is a lot of commonality between games, it only takes a couple if minor changes (even as random as a particularly lucky or unlucky roll) and the game can take a drastically different direction. Playing a Road card, instead of saving for a settlement, can come back to haunt you when the resource you *nearly* got would have been vital.
Having played the base game for a good few years, we are looking for the expansions, but they are either/both difficult to get hold of, or quite expensive. The base game is a staple which should be in most collections, especially for casual gamers.
The game itself is varied each time you play, and although there is a lot of commonality between games, it only takes a couple if minor changes (even as random as a particularly lucky or unlucky roll) and the game can take a drastically different direction. Playing a Road card, instead of saving for a settlement, can come back to haunt you when the resource you *nearly* got would have been vital.
Having played the base game for a good few years, we are looking for the expansions, but they are either/both difficult to get hold of, or quite expensive. The base game is a staple which should be in most collections, especially for casual gamers.
Red Otter (340 KP) rated Terraforming Mars in Tabletop Games
Jun 1, 2019
Terraforming Mars is one of the current hallmarks of today's tabletop gaming. It's based around building an engine to turn Mars into a livable land using cards. As a sci-fi lover, its theme is fantastic. Its art.... Is mostly stock pictures, which doesn't bother me too much, but could be a nitpick for other folks. It's component quality is okay, but the player boards, thanks to the squares that are your primary tokens/markers, can easily be bumped and ruin your board. I highly recommend getting 3rd party player boards that have recesses to solve this problem.
Every turn, every player draws cards and decides which ones they want to keep. Then use resources to either terraform mars or improve their engine using cards. The game length can be highly dependent on group. I've talked to people who have games last up to four hours as people focus solely on engines versus terraforming Mars actually. My personal meta has it around 1.5 hours (with expansions). The early game can be very slow and sometimes you just never draw the cards you need for your planned engines.
Still though, I love this game for its heavy emphasis on theme and on how good a powerful engine can be.
Every turn, every player draws cards and decides which ones they want to keep. Then use resources to either terraform mars or improve their engine using cards. The game length can be highly dependent on group. I've talked to people who have games last up to four hours as people focus solely on engines versus terraforming Mars actually. My personal meta has it around 1.5 hours (with expansions). The early game can be very slow and sometimes you just never draw the cards you need for your planned engines.
Still though, I love this game for its heavy emphasis on theme and on how good a powerful engine can be.
Steph (468 KP) rated Eldritch Horror in Tabletop Games
Jul 10, 2018
One of my all-time favorites!
Eldritch Horror is a difficult, horror-themed, co-operative board game. You and your fellow teammates play as characters with different abilities and, together, you are trying to stop an elder monster from awakening and destroying the world. If you'd played Arkham Horror, Eldritch is a streamlined version of it. There are TONS of expansions (I have all of them) that really add to the game through different characters, mechanics, bad guys, etc.
I wouldn't say this game was friendly to people who don't usually play board games because of all of the different rules and elements, though because of it's co-operative nature, it's not too hard to teach to people who do usually play board games.
This game has GREAT re-playability. It scales fairly well for different numbers of players, but does not play as well with odd numbers (the difficulty is the same as the even number one higher, but you have fewer turns). Because it's co-operative, you can have some players control more than one character. This is what we usually do if we play with odd numbers. It's challenging to do this, though, if everyone is new to the game.
I wouldn't say this game was friendly to people who don't usually play board games because of all of the different rules and elements, though because of it's co-operative nature, it's not too hard to teach to people who do usually play board games.
This game has GREAT re-playability. It scales fairly well for different numbers of players, but does not play as well with odd numbers (the difficulty is the same as the even number one higher, but you have fewer turns). Because it's co-operative, you can have some players control more than one character. This is what we usually do if we play with odd numbers. It's challenging to do this, though, if everyone is new to the game.
