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The Master (The Gameshouse, #3)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The third story The Master ties the other two together in the ultimate game. The final game, the Great Game. A great player, known only by the name Silver, challenges the Gamesmaster, the woman all in white behind a veil, who is in charge of the Gameshouse. The doors of the Gameshouse shut and both players use every piece they have to play a giant game of chess with the world. The winner will have the rights to the Gameshouse. The loser dies. But Silver is not a normal player. Silver has a different goal for the outcome. And when the last move comes to play, he has to make a choice. And so he leaves that choice up to the one thing he doesn’t have control over. Luck. And the world goes on.

Read my full review of the series here: http://haleymathiot.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-gameshouse.html
  
Gaia Project
Gaia Project
2017 | Civilization, Economic, Science Fiction, Territory Building
Gaia Project is one of the pillars of the Euro-style games. It's an iteration/retheming of Terra Mystica, changing from fantasy to sci-fi. Every player takes a faction that follows the basic rules, but each have different preferred planets, starting bonuses, and abilities. GP follows the standard tropes of Euros in there is no take-that player interaction. You can block people off, use a once-per-round action before them. But you won't be able to directly attack them of course.

Every game is different. The Round staring bonus, round scoring bonus, layout of technologies to research, and even the map differ from game to game, an improvement upon Terra mystica.

This is a game that rewards multiple playthroughs, by understanding your factions strengths, you can focus on a multitude of ways to score, ensuring that Evey path to victory is a little bit different.
  
    Drop It

    Drop It

    8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

    Tabletop Game

    Circles, triangles, squares and diamonds: Drop It is about letting go, with the pieces you drop...

Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars
2016 | Business / Industrial, Economic, Environmental, Science Fiction, Territory Building
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.