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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Mitropia in Tabletop Games
Apr 21, 2020
Have you ever had a crush on someone and just wanted to surround them with your presence? Too creepy? Okay, have you ever been at odds with your sworn enemies and learned to settle your differences by transporting yourselves to the plane of the gods to engage in a battle of strategic placement and enveloping in order to determine supremacy? Too specific? Well, the latter is the premise for the game Mitropia.
Mitropia is an area majority game that can end in several fashions. To setup your first game, please use the setup instructions in the rule book to form the playing area. However, the more you play, the more you might like to change it up and try out some wacky board formations. Every player receives a player mat featuring a tribe with different special abilities. They will each also receive the matching colored warrior tokens (and bag if present), cards from the two decks according to the setup in the rules. Each player will place their chieftan (two stacked warrior tokens) on the board. The game is ready to be played!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a near-retail prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I know the final components will be a little different from these shown (upgrades!). Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game – and the rules will certainly be tweaked from this version and the rules we used to play it. You are invited to download the rulebook from the publisher’s website, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign running April 16 – May 17, 2020, purchase it from your FLGS, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Game play is relatively simple. Players are attempting to score points by occupying and/or surrounding terrain tiles. Some tiles are worth more points than others depending on tribe abilities and other factors. The game ends once there are no more legal plays, all players have passed, or a chieftan has been captured by an opponent. Points are then tallied and a victor is determined.
On a turn, a player will make a “move,” which is a strange term as the player is actually placing out a warrior token. The placement of the warrior is dependent upon a move pattern card that is showing on the player mat, or one from the player’s hand to be discarded. These move cards show where the warrior can be placed (like Onitama‘s movement cards). Move cards can be combined with special action cards to make interesting warrior placement upon the board. Again, the goal of the game is to encompass as much terrain as possible, and surround your opponents to capture their warrior tokens.
In addition to simply placing out new warriors to claim lands and surround opponents, using terrain types to their fullest is a strategy not to be ignored. Wormholes are teleport locations, and mountains are impassable. Using just these features can wreak havoc on unsuspecting opponents. Mountains can especially be brutal when being used as an obstacle to facilitate surrounding enemies. When you play Mitropia be warned: mind the mountains.
Play continues in turns until a win condition or game end condition has been met. The players tally points to declare a victor, and then setup to play again for the player will definitely want to play another.
Components. Again, this is a near-retail prototype copy, so the components are very close to what will be available and in each box upon a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, these components are amazing! I told the publisher the day after receiving the game that I was very impressed with what was packed in the box. Now, I haven’t been able to Tetris the components back in the box and have the cover fit flush since I opened it, but what is inside the box truly is wonderful. The player discs are all nicely-painted wood bits. The player mats, cards, and terrain tiles are all great quality. The art on everything is super stellar, and I just love playing with everything! You know the feeling when you’re playing a game that just has that perfect tactile quality? That’s Mitropia. And this copy isn’t even upgraded!
So here are my thoughts on this beast. I have never played Go, and I’m not really sure I want to after having Mitropia in my hands. I probably will play Go sometime, but I can only picture myself wishing I had been playing Mitropia. There is just something about having special abilities and slight differences that really improves my enjoyment. I love being able to see my turns several rounds in advance, but then having to switch tactics because an opponent has thwarted my evil plan at the last moment. I love being able to sit and think about my plays. I do not suffer from analysis paralysis, and this is a caveat I have for the game – do NOT play with AP-prone opponents. There is a lot going on here and so many options on a turn. AP sufferers can just stare at the board frightened of playing the wrong move or deciding whether or not to play a special ability card. However, I think this is a fantastic game with an excellent theme overlaid. If you are looking for a thematic game of Go that looks beautiful, is colorful instead of boring, allows players to have special powers and abilities, card play similar to the award-winning Onitama, then you certainly owe it to yourself to give a look at Mitropia. Please head over to the Kickstarter campaign that ends May 17, 2020 and check it out to learn even more and see what others are saying about it. I will be guarding my copy like you wouldn’t believe.
Mitropia is an area majority game that can end in several fashions. To setup your first game, please use the setup instructions in the rule book to form the playing area. However, the more you play, the more you might like to change it up and try out some wacky board formations. Every player receives a player mat featuring a tribe with different special abilities. They will each also receive the matching colored warrior tokens (and bag if present), cards from the two decks according to the setup in the rules. Each player will place their chieftan (two stacked warrior tokens) on the board. The game is ready to be played!
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a near-retail prototype copy of this game for the purposes of this review. These are preview copy components, and I know the final components will be a little different from these shown (upgrades!). Also, it is not my intention to detail every rule in the game – and the rules will certainly be tweaked from this version and the rules we used to play it. You are invited to download the rulebook from the publisher’s website, back the game through the Kickstarter campaign running April 16 – May 17, 2020, purchase it from your FLGS, or through any retailers stocking it after fulfillment. -T
Game play is relatively simple. Players are attempting to score points by occupying and/or surrounding terrain tiles. Some tiles are worth more points than others depending on tribe abilities and other factors. The game ends once there are no more legal plays, all players have passed, or a chieftan has been captured by an opponent. Points are then tallied and a victor is determined.
On a turn, a player will make a “move,” which is a strange term as the player is actually placing out a warrior token. The placement of the warrior is dependent upon a move pattern card that is showing on the player mat, or one from the player’s hand to be discarded. These move cards show where the warrior can be placed (like Onitama‘s movement cards). Move cards can be combined with special action cards to make interesting warrior placement upon the board. Again, the goal of the game is to encompass as much terrain as possible, and surround your opponents to capture their warrior tokens.
In addition to simply placing out new warriors to claim lands and surround opponents, using terrain types to their fullest is a strategy not to be ignored. Wormholes are teleport locations, and mountains are impassable. Using just these features can wreak havoc on unsuspecting opponents. Mountains can especially be brutal when being used as an obstacle to facilitate surrounding enemies. When you play Mitropia be warned: mind the mountains.
Play continues in turns until a win condition or game end condition has been met. The players tally points to declare a victor, and then setup to play again for the player will definitely want to play another.
Components. Again, this is a near-retail prototype copy, so the components are very close to what will be available and in each box upon a successful Kickstarter campaign. That said, these components are amazing! I told the publisher the day after receiving the game that I was very impressed with what was packed in the box. Now, I haven’t been able to Tetris the components back in the box and have the cover fit flush since I opened it, but what is inside the box truly is wonderful. The player discs are all nicely-painted wood bits. The player mats, cards, and terrain tiles are all great quality. The art on everything is super stellar, and I just love playing with everything! You know the feeling when you’re playing a game that just has that perfect tactile quality? That’s Mitropia. And this copy isn’t even upgraded!
So here are my thoughts on this beast. I have never played Go, and I’m not really sure I want to after having Mitropia in my hands. I probably will play Go sometime, but I can only picture myself wishing I had been playing Mitropia. There is just something about having special abilities and slight differences that really improves my enjoyment. I love being able to see my turns several rounds in advance, but then having to switch tactics because an opponent has thwarted my evil plan at the last moment. I love being able to sit and think about my plays. I do not suffer from analysis paralysis, and this is a caveat I have for the game – do NOT play with AP-prone opponents. There is a lot going on here and so many options on a turn. AP sufferers can just stare at the board frightened of playing the wrong move or deciding whether or not to play a special ability card. However, I think this is a fantastic game with an excellent theme overlaid. If you are looking for a thematic game of Go that looks beautiful, is colorful instead of boring, allows players to have special powers and abilities, card play similar to the award-winning Onitama, then you certainly owe it to yourself to give a look at Mitropia. Please head over to the Kickstarter campaign that ends May 17, 2020 and check it out to learn even more and see what others are saying about it. I will be guarding my copy like you wouldn’t believe.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) in Movies
Jan 22, 2021
I swung between wanting to see this and not, had it been a normal world then of course I would have gone regardless, but as it is I wasn't having strong feelings about this one.
Diana's dreams come true at the hands of an ancient artefact that can grant wishes. But as a wish is given something is taken away, and when Maxwell Lord, businessman and entrepreneur, makes a wish, the world is about to learn the lesson of the phrase... "be careful what you wish for".
First off... this absolutely would have been better on the big screen. It's never been so apparent to me that a cinema experience of a film holds so much power, it's making me understand the differences in early reviews and home viewing reviews a lot more these days.
The story of WW84 is really a very simple one. Doodad does magic, people are evil, goodie must make them good again. And that somehow fills a whole 2 hour 31 minutes of film... it doesn't feel like a very satisfying experience. For all that opener, the conclusion seems to be fleeting and dare I say it... not entirely believable. Overall the whole thing doesn't get particularly deep at any point despite there being a lot of opportunities around the wishes, and there are some questionable moments that could fill several blog posts.
There's been a long pause between me writing the first part and continuing here. That pause involved me staring at my notes and contemplating just writing "meh" and finishing the review there. I'm really going to try and elaborate on my feelings though.
For a film with two villains it's not got much proper villainy in it. Barbara Minerva becoming Cheetah is massively underwhelming from what felt like a promising build-up, and Maxwell Lord, despite having the potential, was not big bad material. Neither had the drive in them to be a truly powerful force in the film, and what's the point in a villain if you can't get on board to hate them?
Kristen Wiig did give a great performance as Barbara, it was a smooth and interesting transition as she progressed, and it left me a lot less "meh" than everything else. But did anyone else just keep thinking Catwoman though?
I thought Pedro Pascal had 80's businessman down pretty well, but I found him to be a little lacklustre, and the character's story felt like the reason for that.
As with the first film, Gal Gadot is majestic on screen as Diana and Wonder Woman... but even here I found myself shrugging at what was going on, and cringing at some problematic plot points. I'm trying to work out if the appeal of the first film was partially due to the amusement of Diana discovering the world for the first time. Here she's savvy and elegant (even for the 0s), and she didn't have the same humour. Instead, we've got that role filled by Steve (Chris Pine). His discovery of the 80s world was fairly amusing, but the way in which he came back bugged me.
All in all characters really didn't grab me, out two main newbies felt very much like rip-offs of other things rather than a great recreation of their source material.
Visually the film was amazing, the bright colours, the style, all fit the era and you gotta love some parachute pants. But outside of that it just merged into other films for me.
That CGI... how can you get so many things right but somehow not do the villains? It's Steppenwolf all over again, Cheetah looked bad. Not only that, but it took an immense amount of time for us to even get to that full effect... so why wasn't it on point? How are DC incapable of animating their villains?
Will I watch this again? Probably, but I'm not overly fussed about it being anytime soon. It wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as the first for me, and didn't have enough action to cover up the disappointing story and character work. I really wish I felt strongly one way or the other on this and not having just another sitting on the fence swinging my feet review. I did appreciate some early vaguely Quidditchy vibes at the beginning though.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/01/wonder-woman-1984-movie-review.html
Diana's dreams come true at the hands of an ancient artefact that can grant wishes. But as a wish is given something is taken away, and when Maxwell Lord, businessman and entrepreneur, makes a wish, the world is about to learn the lesson of the phrase... "be careful what you wish for".
First off... this absolutely would have been better on the big screen. It's never been so apparent to me that a cinema experience of a film holds so much power, it's making me understand the differences in early reviews and home viewing reviews a lot more these days.
The story of WW84 is really a very simple one. Doodad does magic, people are evil, goodie must make them good again. And that somehow fills a whole 2 hour 31 minutes of film... it doesn't feel like a very satisfying experience. For all that opener, the conclusion seems to be fleeting and dare I say it... not entirely believable. Overall the whole thing doesn't get particularly deep at any point despite there being a lot of opportunities around the wishes, and there are some questionable moments that could fill several blog posts.
There's been a long pause between me writing the first part and continuing here. That pause involved me staring at my notes and contemplating just writing "meh" and finishing the review there. I'm really going to try and elaborate on my feelings though.
For a film with two villains it's not got much proper villainy in it. Barbara Minerva becoming Cheetah is massively underwhelming from what felt like a promising build-up, and Maxwell Lord, despite having the potential, was not big bad material. Neither had the drive in them to be a truly powerful force in the film, and what's the point in a villain if you can't get on board to hate them?
Kristen Wiig did give a great performance as Barbara, it was a smooth and interesting transition as she progressed, and it left me a lot less "meh" than everything else. But did anyone else just keep thinking Catwoman though?
I thought Pedro Pascal had 80's businessman down pretty well, but I found him to be a little lacklustre, and the character's story felt like the reason for that.
As with the first film, Gal Gadot is majestic on screen as Diana and Wonder Woman... but even here I found myself shrugging at what was going on, and cringing at some problematic plot points. I'm trying to work out if the appeal of the first film was partially due to the amusement of Diana discovering the world for the first time. Here she's savvy and elegant (even for the 0s), and she didn't have the same humour. Instead, we've got that role filled by Steve (Chris Pine). His discovery of the 80s world was fairly amusing, but the way in which he came back bugged me.
All in all characters really didn't grab me, out two main newbies felt very much like rip-offs of other things rather than a great recreation of their source material.
Visually the film was amazing, the bright colours, the style, all fit the era and you gotta love some parachute pants. But outside of that it just merged into other films for me.
That CGI... how can you get so many things right but somehow not do the villains? It's Steppenwolf all over again, Cheetah looked bad. Not only that, but it took an immense amount of time for us to even get to that full effect... so why wasn't it on point? How are DC incapable of animating their villains?
Will I watch this again? Probably, but I'm not overly fussed about it being anytime soon. It wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as the first for me, and didn't have enough action to cover up the disappointing story and character work. I really wish I felt strongly one way or the other on this and not having just another sitting on the fence swinging my feet review. I did appreciate some early vaguely Quidditchy vibes at the beginning though.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/01/wonder-woman-1984-movie-review.html
Laetitia Sadier recommended Rosy Maze by Marker Stalling in Music (curated)
Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated The Secret of Marrowbone (2018) in Movies
May 14, 2019
Keep a secret
#marrowbone #marrowbonemovie is enchanting, tense & bleak psychological drama with a slow pace that ensures you feel the emotion its packed full of. To start with I feel this #film has been marketed completely wrong, its not a horror movie & more of a drama with slight horror elements (these being mainly psychological). This isnt a bad thing at all but for those of you expecting the like of #thenun you may want to avoid this one. Its also a tough movie to review for me as while i loved acts 1 & 2 so incredibly much that once the twist his in act 3 I felt a tad let down & cheated. Thats not saying act 3 is bad it just felt sub par to the rest of the film, rushed, tacked on & far too hand holding for my liking. Shot really creative & with a #gorgeous eye for cinematography at first marrowbone feels almost dreamlike with a sence of mysterious #fairytale edge to it. This doesnt last long however as what follows is an anxiety riddled downward spiral of a tale about the destruction of a family as it slowly falls apart because of its abusive past. Symbolism & metaphors are cleverly inserted everywhere from broken mirrors representing the cracks in family & a stain on the ceiling representing guilt that keeps seeping in. Watching as this #family gradually falls apart is upsetting & uncomfortable with themes of mental instability, deceit, abuse, loss & jealousy really hitting home constantly. Music is awesome too as well as the use of silence yo great pin sharp tension & dread. #anyataylorjoy steals the show here as always not only with her acting but with her beauty too. Over all its a great little film that could of been fantastic if it wasnt for its messy end chapter but its still a very well made deep, smart & well acted piece of work that id encourage film #fans to see at least once. Think #Split meets #itcomesatnight. #odeon #odeonlimitless #screamunseen #drama #horror #jumpy #scary #witch #metalillness #thesecretofmarrowbone #filmbuff #filmcritic #review #haunted #love #murder #gore #blood #mondaymotivation
Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated The Diary of a Young Girl in Books
Jan 25, 2019
The Diary of a Young Girl
We have all heard about or read this book. I remember reading it in high-school as a project. And since I never had written a proper book review, I decided to read it again.
I went to the library, and they only had the short Penguin version, with the most important diary entries of Anne Frank. It is only 65 pages. So, I decided to also grab another book – The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer, so I can write a full overview.
This is a diary of a young girl, and she was writing these stories during two years of hiding. Anne Frank and her family are Jews and they live in The Netherlands. After the Germans invade, many people are captured and go to designated camps. A few manage to escape and go into hiding. Anne’s family hides in her father’s office.
If you are reading this diary, without knowing anything about history – this could be a happy story. These diary entries are filled with love and hope, dreams of a young girl, beliefs, opinions, descriptions of her first crush and planning a future.
But this is not a happy story. This girl doesn’t get the chance to grow up. This girl doesn’t get the chance to experience freedom, and live to get to know her grandchildren. This is a sad story of not just Anne Frank, but all these people that have gone through that painful journey.
While this book deserves to be read by every person, and this history needs to keep being told many years after us, I feel the need to make a proper book review.
This is not a well-written book, with a great plot and amazing description. So based on that, this doesn’t stand up to the standards. But this book has a meaning that makes up for all the amateur writing. After all, this was a teenager writing it, without even knowing this will someday be shared with the world.
To all of you that haven’t read it yet – I highly recommend it. If you don’t want to go with the long version, read the short Penguin one, like I did.
I went to the library, and they only had the short Penguin version, with the most important diary entries of Anne Frank. It is only 65 pages. So, I decided to also grab another book – The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer, so I can write a full overview.
This is a diary of a young girl, and she was writing these stories during two years of hiding. Anne Frank and her family are Jews and they live in The Netherlands. After the Germans invade, many people are captured and go to designated camps. A few manage to escape and go into hiding. Anne’s family hides in her father’s office.
If you are reading this diary, without knowing anything about history – this could be a happy story. These diary entries are filled with love and hope, dreams of a young girl, beliefs, opinions, descriptions of her first crush and planning a future.
But this is not a happy story. This girl doesn’t get the chance to grow up. This girl doesn’t get the chance to experience freedom, and live to get to know her grandchildren. This is a sad story of not just Anne Frank, but all these people that have gone through that painful journey.
While this book deserves to be read by every person, and this history needs to keep being told many years after us, I feel the need to make a proper book review.
This is not a well-written book, with a great plot and amazing description. So based on that, this doesn’t stand up to the standards. But this book has a meaning that makes up for all the amateur writing. After all, this was a teenager writing it, without even knowing this will someday be shared with the world.
To all of you that haven’t read it yet – I highly recommend it. If you don’t want to go with the long version, read the short Penguin one, like I did.
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Rhubarbio (27 KP) rated A Game of Thrones the Board Game (2nd Edition) in Tabletop Games
May 26, 2019
Like Risk, but without die rolls (2 more)
Deeply strategic game
Opportunity, like the books/TV show to make alliances with other house and then...honour them or betray them, often with game changing consequences.
Very long game! Circa 4-5 hours (5 more)
Games explanation takes a long time
Learning curve is high and will dissuade most players, given the time commitment and rules unfamiliarity, which can be exceptionally frustrating.
Need 6 players for game to be properly balanced
Will lead to a lot of analysis paralysis, requiring a bullish player to force players to make a decision
May lose you friends...
A Marmite Experience!
I love this game, but despite owning it for over 3 years, I have only played it 3 times. Each time, rules explanation took an hour and are not completely intuitive. Once explained, I almost guarantee that most players will not be able to remember the number of nuances involved in this game, leading to making a lot of random decisions at the beginning. However, as I explored the game more, I realised it addressed all the deficiencies I see in Risk - there is no chance from the roll of a die here, nor does being the most powerful player mean that things cannot turn, by virtue of the fact that players have a finite number of armies and units they can hold on the board...the more you expand, the thinner your forces and therefore easier for someone to start taking some of your territories. Additionally, the player interaction and forging alliances is interesting, but given the length and cutthroat nature of the game, people may genuinely get upset and not want to play. For GoT fans who are willing to put in the hard slog of learning and then playing the game, this is great. If you're on the fence, I suggest playing it first...it is not an easy game and is a test of one's endurance.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Rocketman (2019) in Movies
Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Sep 25, 2019)
Is it a musical? Is it a biopic? Does anyone actually know? I think one of the descriptions I saw called it a fantasy, and that is true for a couple of moments but it's a bit of a push. I had a good time watching this and there are definitely things about it that work well, I do however feel that this was rather confused. You've got the story parts mixed with the songs, but only occasionally are those songs what I'd call proper musical numbers. The occasional fantasy moments are a little
The costumes design was wonderful, as you'd expect when you're dressing "Elton". Everything looked just right, all the outfits were inspired by originals that he wore on stage. Just one was almost a direct copy, the baseball uniform that Elton wore was made of sequins and the Rocketman version was made of Swarovski crystals. I also loved the way they adapted the devil costume as the story progressed, very imaginative.
There are a few scenes with fantasy elements in them, one didn't feel like it fit into the whole movie, but I liked the way it landed. I did however love the scene where young Reggie conducts an orchestra, it was a beautiful scene that blended in seamlessly with the regular action.
Good on Taron Egerton for doing the singing for Rocketman, it's no small challenge, but it didn't do it for me. Listening to Elton songs gives me a buzz, there's a vibrancy to his voice and I just didn't feel that in the songs.
Overall, in fact, there were only two points where I really felt moved by what was going on. The first was a moment we actually see in the trailer where Eton and his audience take to the air. When that scene happens in the film it gave me goosebumps, it was perfectly timed and... uplifting... sorry. The second scene was during the conclusion which I won't go into because of spoilers.
While the acting was fine in Rocketman I was drawn much more to it artistically. The costumes, the sets, how the elements all flowed well together, absolutely stunning.
I think if I'd connected better with the songs I could have forgiven the fact that they were haphazardly combining genres, but as it was I felt it didn't fully deliver. As an addition to the recent trend of movies based on music I'm not completely sold, but it does take a bold step in portraying gay relationships, and abusive ones, on the screen which I think should be applauded.
What you should do
It's definitely sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, so if those things aren't for you then I'd try something different, but for the sheer spectacle, it was worth watching.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
My own costume designer? But someone with a little less dramatic flare.
The costumes design was wonderful, as you'd expect when you're dressing "Elton". Everything looked just right, all the outfits were inspired by originals that he wore on stage. Just one was almost a direct copy, the baseball uniform that Elton wore was made of sequins and the Rocketman version was made of Swarovski crystals. I also loved the way they adapted the devil costume as the story progressed, very imaginative.
There are a few scenes with fantasy elements in them, one didn't feel like it fit into the whole movie, but I liked the way it landed. I did however love the scene where young Reggie conducts an orchestra, it was a beautiful scene that blended in seamlessly with the regular action.
Good on Taron Egerton for doing the singing for Rocketman, it's no small challenge, but it didn't do it for me. Listening to Elton songs gives me a buzz, there's a vibrancy to his voice and I just didn't feel that in the songs.
Overall, in fact, there were only two points where I really felt moved by what was going on. The first was a moment we actually see in the trailer where Eton and his audience take to the air. When that scene happens in the film it gave me goosebumps, it was perfectly timed and... uplifting... sorry. The second scene was during the conclusion which I won't go into because of spoilers.
While the acting was fine in Rocketman I was drawn much more to it artistically. The costumes, the sets, how the elements all flowed well together, absolutely stunning.
I think if I'd connected better with the songs I could have forgiven the fact that they were haphazardly combining genres, but as it was I felt it didn't fully deliver. As an addition to the recent trend of movies based on music I'm not completely sold, but it does take a bold step in portraying gay relationships, and abusive ones, on the screen which I think should be applauded.
What you should do
It's definitely sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, so if those things aren't for you then I'd try something different, but for the sheer spectacle, it was worth watching.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
My own costume designer? But someone with a little less dramatic flare.
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