I have been playing a lot of Race for the Galaxy on the iPad lately. I play against AI's, and they are decent. I often lose to them. Play is quick. There is no need to shuffle cards, which can be tedious since I play with all three expansions in the first story arc. Scoring is much more convenient too, since the app does it for you. Naturally when I take screenshots, it is usually when I win. Both these screenshots are when I win with more than 100VP.
The third expansion adds the prestige mechanism. This is a special type of victory point, represented by purple circles. Sometimes I call them cherries. With prestige in play, you are constantly under pressure to compete. The player leading in prestige scores an extra point every single round, and this can be a huge advantage. The AI's often try to score prestige within the first few rounds. Not many cards give prestige, so you are dependent on luck. Even when you have a card that gives prestige, you may hesitate to play it because it may not be aligned with your overall strategy. Is that 1 point of prestige worth it?
In this particular game I scored 112 because of my three large 6-cost development cards. The Merchant Guild gave me 18VP!
I think players who are not familiar with Race for the Galaxy will find these screenshots puzzling and intimidating. There are so many different icons, colours and shapes. They all mean something. Being familiar with the game, they all make perfect sense to me and I love how the developers are able to squeeze so much information onto the screen.
In this game I had five large developments! I could have 14 cards in my tableau instead of the usual 12 because the Hidden Fortress gave me this power. I was a militaristic superpower this time. My military strength was 14. The Hidden Fortress contributed a lot to this too, giving me 6 strength.
It's a shame no one created the Blue Moon app on the iPad. There is a free program for the PC. Its AI was developed by Keldon too. I can boot up my laptop to play, but that's less convenient than playing on the iPad. Also the PC version is quite spartan. Functional but not exactly pretty.
This is probably the most expensive card in Star Realms. Feels great to be able to afford it. Certainly when I drew it and used it, it dealt a powerful blow to my opponent. I can't remember which expansion this is in though. Must be one of the more recent ones.
Ascension released some new content. I immediately bought the latest expansion available on iOS. I have played Ascension so much and enjoyed it for so long that I would feel guilty if I don't support them. I had played the same combination of expansions for quite some time, and took the opportunity to switch things up a little. I have now removed the Temples mechanism, the Dreamscape mechanism and the Champions mechanism. I never quite liked Dreamscape. Temples are just a minor novelty. Champions are so-so for me. So they are all like distractions. Now I'm putting Treasures back into the mix.
The screenshot above shows some new art. They made some new art for their 10th anniversary. I like the new art. The original art is in quite a unique style, which I like too. The new art is in a very different style.
The basic Apprentice card is pretty.
My wife Michelle wanted to play At the Gates of Loyang on Wesak Day (26 May 2021). It was a public holiday in the middle of the week. Loyang is a 2009 game from Uwe Rosenberg, published shortly after Agricola (2007) and Le Havre (2008), It was not as popular as the other two earlier games.
The most attractive part of the game is probably the vegetables. In this game you only plant and harvest vegetables. No slaughtering of boars or cows. Only vegan options available.
We were both a little rusty and made some mistakes. Unfortunately for Michelle, she made mistakes which disadvantaged her, while I made mistakes which helped me. The most painful mistake for Michelle was she forgot that at the end of each round, the first step on the prosperity track only cost a flat $1. Only the second step onwards cost the full price. She paid the full price for a number of rounds before she realised the mistake. In Loyang, it is best to always keep at least $1 for the end of the round, so that you make at least one step of progress. The mistake I made was related to harvesting. I think I harvested more than I should have. By the time I realised it, it was too hard to undo and I couldn't remember what exactly I had done. So we just pressed on.
In one particular round I had this many vegetables! Some were leftovers from the previous sound, but most were harvested in the current round. This helper card contributed towards this, allowing me harvest double at some fields.
By the end of the game, I managed to hit prosperity 20, the max. I think this was the first time I ever managed this. Unfortunately this game didn't count, due to my rule mistake earlier in the game. Also I had taken one loan, so I had to deduct my prosperity level by 1, to 19.
This helper, the messenger boy, helped me greatly. In this round he let me deliver double the goods to one customer. See that regular customer on the right. One of the rows has vegetables delivered twice.
Player interaction in Loyang is limited. You are mostly managing your own fields, vegetables and customers. It's the kind of game I am willing to play but do not suggest to play. It feels a bit like work to me. On one hand you have to produce us much as possible. One the other, you have to find as many customers as possible who want your produce. Your job is to bridge supply and demand, manipulating both to best fit each other.
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