It’s An (Even More) Wonderful World: Expansions and Goodies

Back in the day – after my first play of It’s A Wonderful World at a 2019 post-Essen gathering, here’s what I wrote:

A slightly more gamer-y 7 Wonders-ish card drafting game of civilization building. The major difference is that you’re drafting a set of cards that you then use as resources (discarding them) or construction (building them). We were just over 30 minutes with 2 players… but both Dan & I are “play by the seat of your pants” players. I saw other games with more players that lasted nearly an hour – which indicates that the game proceeds at the pace of the slowest player. Good news: it worked just fine with 2 players “out of the box”.

Now, with 36 more plays in the intervening 18 months, I’d call myself a fan.

Which leads me to all of the ways in which you can expand the Wonderful World…

Corruption and Ascension

Corruption and Ascension is a true-blue expansion to It’s A Wonderful World, including a separate deck of additional development cards as well as extra bits to make the game playable with 6-7 players. Also in the box is a dry erase scoreboard which is a particularly nice add-on… and two new empire cards.

The added deck of 56 cards adds two new types of cards to the game:

• Cards with corruption (that take away the production of a particular resource in exchange for a cheaper price and/or a more lucrative payoff)
• Cards with dual scoring bonuses (that reward the player with points for combinations at the end of the game… for example, 6 points for each pair of Project & Financier)

The Corruption & Ascension deck has a different card back than the base deck… so cards are distributed in new combinations outlined in the rules. Otherwise, the game plays exactly as before – just with new possibilities and challenges to building your country into the powerhouse you knew it should be.

This is the easiest to find of the expansions (to purchase)… and is also the easiest to add to the base game without making the game more difficult to teach to new players. I really like the added variety to the decision-making on what to keep and what to pass on.

The Campaign Boxes

As part of the Corruption & Ascension Kickstarter, La Boite de Jeu also published two campaigns for It’s a Wonderful World. Both are similar in structure – the box contains rules for a campaign of 5 games in which the winner of the final game is the winner of the campaign. There are multiple sealed envelopes and “secret” boxes that are opened as a part of the set-up of each game which introduce a variety of variant situations and limitations as well as new game mechanics and cards.

At the conclusion of each campaign, there are booster packs to open that give you cards to add to your base deck to incorporate the twists of the campaign into your copy of It’s A Wonderful World.

While it sounds like I’ve just described a legacy game, none of the choices made in either campaign are permanent. All cards and game mechanics from the campaigns can be reset in order to replay the campaign or to simply the base game without the extra elements.

Both campaigns can be played with the Corruption & Ascension expansion in play with up to five players… and there are rules for solo play as well.

And now we get to the hard part – trying to describe/review two campaign boxes without spoiling any of the fun hidden inside. (Sigh.)

War or Peace

War or Peace is the less complicated of the two campaigns – while there are some unique challenges in certain scenarios, the overall effect on gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward. Players should have a few games under their belts before attempting this campaign… but that’s primarily so that the new twists won’t overly slow down gameplay.

War or Peace should be played before Leisure and Decadence (both for the “history” of the Wonderful World and to avoid some mild spoilers in the rules and mechanics.)

Solo note: for experienced Wonderful World players, I would set the threshold for a win at 60 points – 50 points is pretty easy to accomplish.

Leisure and Decadence

Leisure & Decadence adds two different new game mechanics that create new challenges for players (and should not be the first experience with the Wonderful World for a new player). 

Warning: the twist introduced in the third scenario does not carry over into the fourth or final scenarios… but I promise it will reappear at some point. (Is that cryptic enough?)

The same solo note applies here – 60 points is a more challenging threshold for solo games.

Note: Lucky Duck Games imprint is on the War or Peace box as well as the Corruption & Ascension box – but not on the Leisure & Decadence box. This may explain why Leisure & Decadence is only available through the La Boite de Jue website.

Kickstarter Goodie Box

I’m not sure the goodie box of Kickstarter extras is worth the hard-earned money I spent on it… but since this is a game we play a good bit, I love how the little plastic bit bowls and chunky wooden round marker make the game a little bit nicer. (Note: the bit bowls are very thin clear plastic – which means it is easy to pour bits out of them back into their baggies… and they don’t interfere with the art on the board.)

Also included in the KS goodies are 12 additional cards for the base deck with new twists and the same gorgeous art style… and five alternate empire cards with two different options.

And, yes, that’s a pretty serious pair of typos on one line in the list of contents.

It’s A Wonderful Kingdom

The newest offering in Wonderful World franchise is a Kickstarter for a two-player fantasy world game, using a similar card/resource structure… but with a really nice twist on the “I cut – you pick” mechanic. The initial player places two cards down – dividing them between a pair of selection areas (or even stacking them together). Then the opposing player chooses one of the selection areas and takes all the cards. Then the roles reverse… and any cards not yet taken remain on the selection areas until a player chooses that area. 

The game has multiple modules – quests, advisors, menaces (and even conquest with the available expansion). As my son & I typically play It’s A Wonderful World as a two-player game, it’s a no-brainer for us to back the whole kit and kaboodle.

Final Thoughts

Interestingly enough, adding all those extra cards to the game doesn’t actually dilute the original mix of card outcomes. I did a pretty detailed analysis of the card decks and the percentages of different card types, recycling bonuses, and cards that produce points all stay very close to the base deck in their mixture. That means that the variety of the deck increases without radically changing the feel of the original game – a triumph of thoughtful design and development.

In another nice touch, all of the expansions have subtle but easy to read symbols to help you sort them out from the base deck. 

If you are just going to pick up one of the boxes, I’d strongly suggest Corruption & Ascension – it adds the most to the original game while still being easy to set aside when teaching new players. (And the extra 3x Financier and General tokens along with the dry-erase board are useful no matter which mix of cards that you use.)

I especially like the solo scenarios in the Corruption & Ascension rulebook – the varied win conditions and “rating” my performance makes for an enjoyable solo experience.

My son and I played through both campaigns as two-player games… and while he emerged victorious (twice!), we both had a fantastic time exploring the twists and turns in the campaign boxes. I also played through the campaigns solo after we finished our two-player adventures… and can recommend them as solo experiences. I will say that more players may make things even more interesting with some of the challenges in Leisure and Decadence – but I’m sure he & I will confirm that with friends sometime in the near future.

A final thought: as is normal for reviews of expansions, these are unlikely to change your mind if you’re not a fan of the original game. But, for fans, they each increase the variety of the playing options as well as expanding the base game in interesting ways.

Play #37 likely coming this weekend!

This review originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

The Myth of the Straight Line

My mom used to talk about her most hated class as a math major in college - Non-Euclidean Geometry. I don't pretend to understand even the smallest bit of the content of the class (I was lucky to escape high school Geometry with a C)... but I remember vividly the phrase that "the shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line." 

That's one of the many things that popped into my head as I finished reading Heather Cox Richardson's book, How The South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continued Fight for the Soul of America.

While I agree with a number of her ideas:

• the use of myths like The Lost Cause and the American Cowboy to perpetuate false narratives and questionable political positions
• the tendency toward elitism and othering to exclude "non-desirable" people groups from having a political voice
• the cynical choices of both political parties in the last 150+ years to ignore and/or reverse deeply held positions in order to maintain political power

I think there is a problem inherent in her book that, sadly, has become common in public discourse. That's the myth of the straight line.

It is profoundly tempting when attempting to make your point - whether it is drawing from historical precedent, religious text, or scientific data - to assert that since A happened, of course B occurred... and that inexorably led to C & D. 

When Drawing the Straight Line Leads You To Crooked Facts

Richardson's research assistants and editors let her down - or, in a less charitable explanation, she simply ignored easily available information - when it came to dealing with the Protestant denomination I grew up in and served as a pastor for nearly 30 years. 

Over the next few paragraphs, I'm going to attempt to explain my frustration with a set of historical circumstances I know well - and in some cases actually lived through - to show the author's tendency toward drawing straight, clean lines of cause & effect that may or may not accurately portray reality.

• Comparing the footnoted story in The Atlantic about a meeting between two powerful SBC leaders to Richardson's text:
• Atlantic article: "In 1967, at New Orleans’s historic Café du Monde, a young seminary student named Paige Patterson and Texas Judge Paul Pressler met over a plate of beignets to hatch a plan to unite conservative Southern Baptists and take over America’s largest Protestant denomination. The two men successfully executed their strategy in the subsequent decades, a movement they labeled the “Conservative Resurgence” and their opponents dubbed the “Fundamentalist Takeover.” Whatever one calls it, the result was a purging of moderates from among denominational ranks, the codifying of literal interpretations of the Bible, and the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention into a powerful ally of the Republican Party."
  
• How The South Won the Civil War: "Some deemed [feminists] such a threat to American society that in 1967 men determined to stop the church from embracing rights for people of color and women launched a takeover of the Southern Baptists, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, to turn the religion away from the new ways and back to fundamentalism."

Let me make a few comments here:

1. The author leaves out the rest of the context of The Atlantic article, which goes into detail about the shunning of Patterson & Pressler in the SBC.
2. "Literal interpretations of the Bible" isn't a full or nuanced view of the debates over inerrancy of Scripture and various interpretations of difficult passages. Even extremely conservative theologians hold that there are various forms of literature in the Bible (poetry, history, apocryphal writings, etc.) that are not all interpreted literally. This is a broad brush "look at how backwards these yokels are" kind of argumentation.
3. "Fundamentalism" has become a curse word - and, in some cases, I completely understand why. But the very elasticity of its meaning makes it distinctly unhelpful when discussing theology and practice in a particular denomination (or, for that matter, any world religion).
4. Southern Baptists have dealt with racism in increasingly clear terms. The first convention resolution with teeth was passed in 1989 (after the Resurgence was well underway). I'd also recommend looking at the resolutions from 1995, 2015, and 2018. (Yes, I understand that resolutions don't always work their way into practice - but they are clear indications of how the most SBC-committed pastors & laypeople are thinking.)

The "Conservative Resurgence"/"Battle for the Bible"/"Fundamentalist Takeover" was a real thing in Southern Baptist life... but the implications that Richardson draws by her truncated description and word choices do not adequately reflect the complicated nature of that period in Baptist history.

• Incorrect information about Pat Robertson
• How The South Won the Civil War: "By 1988 evangelicals had become politically powerful enough to push one of their own ministers, Southern Baptist leader Pat Robertson, for the Republican presidential nomination."
• Problematic facts:
• Pat Robertson resigned as a Baptist minister in 1987 as he prepared for the presidential run.
• Pat Robertson's theology - which includes substantial amounts of charismatic doctrine (including his oft-maligned tendency to prophesy about politics) - is not in the mainstream of Southern Baptist theology or practice.
• Pat Robertson did not have a history of being a denominational leader in the SBC.

So, Richardson chose the technically correct appellation for Pat Robertson that fit her straight line narrative... when "televangelist" might have hewn closer to the truth.

Note: there are serious disagreements roiling the Southern Baptist Convention right now about these very issues - the place of critical race theory as a tool in examining orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the appropriate response to the slave-holding parts of our heritage as a denomination, and the ways in which we platform, support, and encourage brothers & sisters of color. All of that is important work - godly work that requires a clear understanding of our history and a Biblical willingness to renounce sin and embrace truth.

I have a long history serving SBC churches as a member and as a vocational minister. I've seen abject racism (Sunday School teachers who advocate for the pernicious "curse of Ham" heresy, deacons who shut down youth ministry events because they attract students of color, etc.) as well as believers who advocate for civil rights and the truth of Galatians 3:28. I had the privilege of pastoring a church that was mixed with Hispanic and Anglo members... in a Baptist state convention led a person of color. The narrative about racial issues and Southern Baptists is just not that simple.

Note as well that I understand that Heather Cox Richardson wasn't writing a book about the SBC and it's role in supporting the political structures and decisions she is criticizing. On her way to proving her point, however, she drew a straight line through a much thornier and complicated bit of history.

And that makes it more difficult for me to take in the rest of the book - leaving me to wonder where else she elided pesky historical facts or sandpapered down sharp edges from individuals or movements she supports.

One more non-SBC related example from a kid who went to high school & college in the 1980s: another footnoted article from USA Today states that "Because of its violence, Red Dawn became the first film ever to receive a PG-13 rating." Richardson's text reads: "In summer 1984, director John Milius brought to the nation's movie theaters what was, at the time, the most violent film ever made. Red Dawn was..." Those are not the same thing. 

This is Not Just a Problem for "Woke Leftist Socialist Sympathizers"

It's vital to note that straight lines aren't confined to the work of Heather Cox Richardson or the pundits on MSNBC. 

I'll take a recent example: George Rep. Andrew Clyde's description of the incursion of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021: "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures... You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." 

Rep. Clyde is attempting (as has been his wont) to avoid labeling what happened an 'insurrection'. In that process, he's chosen to focus on the video clips from Statuary Hall. 

I had the privilege of taking a U.S. Capitol tour with a congressional staffer (well, two of them, actually) and my family back in the fall of 2015. I do not remember any part of my "normal tourist visit" allowing me to stand on the Senate chamber dais, enter the building through a window, or fight with a Capitol police officer.

Rep. Clyde is drawing a straight line - avoiding the facts that make his life (and politics) more complicated - in favor of a narrative that supports his own prior positions and support of the former President. 

The same is true of David Barton - whose Wallbuilders ministry has doubled down time and time again on America's founding as a Christian nation. That's despite ample historical evidence that shows a myriad of influences in the founding documents of the American experiment - some of which come from Scripture. By the same token, the religious affiliation and level of spiritual practice of the founding fathers varied widely.

There was an excellent article on The Lost Cause published on The Gospel Coalition website this last week that notes the same problem - the roots of this whitewashing (pun intended) of the Civil War are based in the same desire to draw a straight line that argues for a particular point.

Final Thoughts

There is much to like about Heather Cox Richardson's book - she notes some important ways in which the recent actions of "Movement Conservatives" echo the behaviors of some politicians both prior to and following the Civil War. As I wrote earlier in this piece, I see eye to eye with her on some of her main points. 

But just because I agree with someone does not mean I bury my head in the sand when they shade the story to make a point. As an outspoken critic of the former President and his habitual lying and gaslighting, I need to use the same critical eye to analyze the current President (the Georgia voting law has real problems, but it is not "Jim Crow on steroids"). Or any other writer, for that matter.

Unmatched: Buffy, Beowulf, & Little Red

Not quite six months ago, I published a pretty massive review of the Unmatched game system… including a substantial bit of writing about how it compares to Star Wars: Epic Duels, the out-of-print mass market game on which it is based. (Important fact that may summarize that portion of the review: I still am more than willing to sell my lovingly used copy of Epic Duels to finance further Unmatched purchases.)

This time around, I’m going to forgo all the preliminaries and get down to the nitty gritty: just how good are the two new boxes in the Unmatched line? I might also comment a bit near the end about our experiences playtesting the announced Unmatched: Marvel boxes… 

I Mock You with My Monkey Pants

Oz: “The monkey’s the only cookie animal that gets to wear clothes, you know that? (You have the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen.) So, I’m wondering, do the other cookie animals feel sorta ripped? Like, is the hippo going, ‘Hey, man, where are my pants? I have my hippo dignity!’ And you know the monkey’s just, [with a French accent] ‘I mock you with my monkey pants!’ And there’s a big coup in the zoo.”

Willow: “The monkey is French?”

Oz: “All monkeys are French.”

I was a late convert to the Buffyverse… but thanks to a good friend who loaned me the DVD sets and a third shift job as a customer service phone rep for a major department store, I spent a number of nights when I didn’t work staying up late watching Buffy & Angel. (Note: while staying up on your ‘off’ nights does help with keeping a regular schedule, it is no fun.) 

Short detour for Buffy fans:

• Seasons 2-3 of Buffy and seasons 2 & 5 of Angel are the best. 
• Seasons 6-7 of Buffy are let downs… and season 4 of Angel is an unholy mess. 
• Best Buffy episode: Hush
• Best Angel episode: depending on my mood, Smile Time or You’re Welcome

Sadly, there are no monkey pants and no Oz (werewolf form or guitar player form) in the Unmatched: Buffy box. Also, no Cordelia. 

But with those exceptions, Restoration Games did a great job of capturing the characters not only in the graphic elements but also in the design of each deck. The set comes with a double-sided map: Sunnyvale High School on one side, The Bronze on the other. Player can take one of four main characters:

• Buffy (with either Giles or Xander as her sidekick)
• Willow (with Tara)
• Angel (with Faith)
• Spike (with Drusilla)

Angel/Faith is the most straightforward of the decks to play – and probably the best choice for a player new to the Unmatched system. Buffy is also easier to play, thanks to her special power which keeps her from being blocked by enemy figures. On the other hand, both Spike and Willow are slightly trickier decks – but powerful once you begin to suss out their potential. 

My experience with the Buffy characters (I’ve played 11 games with the Buffy set… and my sons have played even more than I have) leads me to the following conclusion: I like them as 1v1 characters, but the set absolutely comes to life when played 2v2. 

Fate Will Unwind As It Must

“And if death does take me, send the hammered mail of my armor to Higlac, return the inheritance I had from Hrethel, and he from Wayland. Fate will unwind as it must!”

My copy of Little Red vs Beowulf arrived just a couple of days before Christmas, so it hasn’t seen as much table time here at the Jackson household. (Again, the boys have played it more than I have.) 

With that, our consensus is that this may be our favorite pair of characters so far.

Little Red has a way to chain special effects on her cards that takes getting used to… but when I figured out how to make it work, it was a delight to play. Beowulf, on the other hand, is a multi-dimensional fighter with a strong sidekick (Higlac) who acts as a shield to wear down the other player. 

In addition to two great characters, the box comes with a new map and a new map feature – doors! This two-player map is double-sided – however, the other side is the same map using the more Tannhauser-like colored rings around spaces that lets more of the artwork shine through. (Personally, I like the solid spaces better… but to each his own.)

This is the Worst Day of My Life

Kamala: “You’re WOLVERINE! My Wolverine-and-Storm-in-space fanfic was the third-most upvoted story on Freaking Awesome last month!”

Logan: “Oh my God.”

Kamala: “I had you guys fighting this giant alien blob that farts wormholes!”

Logan: “Sounds great, kid.”

     [pause]

Logan: “Wait–so what was the MOST upvoted story?”

Kamala: “Umm…Cyclops and Emma Frost’s romantic vacation in Paris?”

Logan: “This is the worst day of my life.”

Getting the invitation to participate in the “double secret probation” playtests for upcoming Unmatched: Marvel boxes was a highlight of 2020 for my sons and I – not the worst day of our lives at all!

It’s really interesting to watch the various iterations of the decks as the team at Restoration tunes them and works to balance not only the numbers but also create those moments of joy when you play certain combos that make Unmatched so much fun. Examples: I managed to re-enact the hallway fight from the Daredevil show on Netflix in one game… and another game allowed me to go full on Embiggen as Kamala Khan (aka Ms. Marvel). And, without spoiling anything, I love me some Squirrel Girl. 

There are new maps, new twists, new deck configurations… and the same incredible attention to detail and playability that has made this game system so successful. I obviously haven’t seen the sculpts for the figures yet (we used Marvel Heroclix as proxies for playtesting) – but Restoration has been great on all the figures up to this point, so I’m ready to welcome the superheroes on my gaming table.

And with that, I’ve got to remember that “Loose Lips Sink Ships” and all that… look for the new boxes this summer.

For Those Who Are Curious…

Here’s how many times we’ve played each set since September 2019…

• Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume One
• Plays: 81
• Unmatched: Robin Hood vs Bigfoot
• Plays: 25
• Unmatched: Cobble & Fog  
• Plays: 21
• Unmatched: Jurassic Park – InGen vs Raptors
• Plays: 17
• Unmatched: Bruce Lee
• Plays: 12
• Unmatched: Buffy
• Plays: 11
• Unmatched: Little Red vs Beowulf
• Plays: 2
• Playtesting
• Plays: 25

Note: I received a review copy of Unmatched: Buffy… the rest of my Unmatched collection was purchased with my hard-earned cash. Which reminds me – anyone want to buy my copy of Epic Duels?

Also: this post originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Dumb, Bankrupt, Wrong... and Sinful

"Recently in some places in the nation, there's been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence... To those individuals who persist in such hateful behavior … you are the ones who are out of step with our society, you are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America, and this country … will not stand for your conduct."

Ronald Reagan, 1981

"If there is anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we're not open to citizens of every race and religion, then let me remind you, tonight this hall belongs to the party of Lincoln and the exits, which are clearly marked, are for you to walk out of as I stand this ground without compromise.”

Bob Dole, 1986

"For our nation, there is no denying the truth that slavery is a blight on our history, and that racism, despite all the progress, still exists today... For my party, there is no escaping that the reality that the party of Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln."

George W. Bush, 2000

"We... unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin; and... we affirm the Bibles teaching that every human life is sacred, and is of equal and immeasurable worth, made in Gods image, regardless of race or ethnicity (Genesis 1:27), and that, with respect to salvation through Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for (we) are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28); and... we lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest, and we recognize that the racism which yet plagues our culture today is inextricably tied to the past; and... we apologize to all African-Americans for condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime; and we genuinely repent of racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously (Psalm 19:13) or unconsciously (Leviticus 4:27); and... we ask forgiveness from our African-American brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our own healing is at stake; and... we hereby commit ourselves to eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry..."

Southern Baptist Convention resolution, 1996

We "decry every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy, as antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and... we denounce and repudiate white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as a scheme of the devil intended to bring suffering and division to our society; and... we acknowledge that we still must make progress in rooting out any remaining forms of intentional or unintentional racism in our midst..."

Southern Baptist Convention resolution, 2017

I have two simple takeaways in light of these clear historical declarations of truth by Republican presidential candidates and Southern Baptist Convention meetings.

ONE
The Republican Party under the continued leadership of twice-impeached Donald Trump are attacking their own members for making similar statements.

"It’s very important, especially for us as Republicans, to make clear that we aren’t the party of white supremacy... You saw the symbols of Holocaust denial, for example, at the Capitol that day; you saw the Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda, and I think we as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that, to stand against insurrection."

Liz Cheney, 2021

TWO
A group of SBC leaders is doing the exact same thing in the name of "protecting the Gospel."

"We should mourn when closet racists and neo-Confederates feel more at home in our churches than do many of our people of color... The reality is that if we in the SBC had shown as much sorrow for the painful legacy that racism and discrimination has left in our country as we have passion to decry CRT, we probably wouldn’t be in this mess."

J.D. Greear, 2021

Those attacks... heck, those "principled stands" - are dumb politically, ethically bankrupt, wrong on a number of levels...

...and absolutely sinful. 

"There is [now no distinction in regard to salvation] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you [who believe] are all one in Christ Jesus [no one can claim a spiritual superiority]."

Galatians 3:28 AMP

 

Under Falling Skies: A Solo Gaming Review

Our story starts back in March of 2020… which, let’s be clear, feels like a decade ago. (In the words of Ned Ryerson, “Am I right or am I right?”) As my family and I chose to self-quarantine, I began searching for print’n’play solo games on BoardGameGeek. One of the highly recommended solo games I stumbled on was Under Falling Skies – the winner of the 2019 9-Card Nanogame Print and Play contest on BGG. 

About the time I found it, Czech Games Editions announced that they were going to publish an upgraded version of the game for Essen 2020… so, after one play (which I enjoyed), I put away my nine-card deck and played other solo games instead. (If you want to know more about my solo game play, check out my Solo Gaming in the Time of Covid post which I just updated to cover all of 2020.)

I wondered if CGE could take Tomáš Uhlíř’s incredibly compact design and expand it without making it too complicated and/or too riddled with unnecessary components and rules… so I was more than pleasantly surprised by the incredible success they packed into the 9 x 7 x 2.75 inch box.

Tale As Old As Time

The setting is familiar to anyone who plunked quarters into a Space Invaders video game or watched the movie Independence Day. (The first one… not, for the love of all that is holy, the sequel.) Giant motherships have appeared over cities around the world and alien fighter craft are diving towards the planet surface. You, our intrepid leader, must work to defend the city, limiting the damage, all while improving our technology and conducting research to figure out how to repel the alien invasion. 

One of the unique features of Under Falling Skies is the way that the board (made out of various small boards) lays out to make a tall yet skinny “map” of the alien invasion. It was tricky to fit on a hotel room desk (I managed, thanks to swapping out parts of the board as needed) but worked just on a coffee table. The design of the board actually enhances the theme – the alien ships (and the mother ship) are moving inexorably towards you and the city you are protecting. 

How It Works

The clever mechanic at the heart of the game is both blindingly simple and perfectly frustrating. The player rolls five six-sided dice… and then chooses to place them in their “underground bunker” to activate various functions. (Yes, it’s a worker placement game… which really didn’t occur to me until I typed out that last sentence.) The strength of each action is determined by the number on the die. There are five columns – and only one die can be placed in each column. 

Also in each column is an alien fighter… which dives toward your city as many spaces as the amount on the face of the die you just placed. So, strong actions encourage faster alien attacks while weak actions slow them down. Certain spaces allow the fighters to slide over into the next column… or trigger the movement of the mothership towards the city. Other spaces make the fighters vulnerable to attack by your jet fighters.

When you begin the game, you don’t have access to all the possible actions you’ll need to finish off the invaders – you’ll have to spend dice to move the excavator piece to grant you the ability to place dice on the lower levels of the bunker. No surprise – the really powerful action squares tend to be at the bottom of the bunker.

Possible actions (in the base game) include:

• fire AA guns at the attacking alien fighters to slow them down
• send out jet fighters to engage & destroy alien fighters
• research how to defeat the aliens
• build robots to power rooms over multiple turns
• generate energy to power other rooms

The campaign (we’ll get to that in a minute) adds new wrinkles on top of those basic actions.

Two of the dice are white – when you place one of those dice, you re-roll all of your remaining dice. Making the decision about the order of dice placement involves balancing this re-roll, the diving fighters, and the need to accomplish a variety of tasks to save your city.

When a fighter reaches the city, you take a damage. Run to the end of your damage track and the city is destroyed – and you lose. Well, humanity loses, which is you.

Impending Doom

At the end of each turn, the mothership moves one step lower in the atmosphere, triggering a variety of effects:

• forcing the excavator backwards (collapsing part of your underground bunker)
• stealing some of your research
• spawning extra alien fighters

Movement by the mothership during dice placement doesn’t trigger those effects – so there are times when it is actually wiser to let them advance to keep something worse from happening.

After the mothership moves, it respawns fighters which you destroyed (plus any extra fighters gained by the mothership)… and the battle continues. If the mothership reaches the atmosphere, say hello to your new alien overlords. And you lose.

The only way to win is to reach the end of the research track prior to the city being destroyed or the mothership landing.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Part of the genius of the CGE production of Under Falling Skies is how much customization they packed into the box:

• You can vary the threat level (difficulty) of the game by flipping one or more of the sky tiles to their more threatening alien-goo splattered side.
• There are a number of possible cities to defend – and each one has both a special power and a specific layout of the underground bunker created by combining bunker tiles in specific combinations.
• If you lose a game, you can consider your city damaged and flip the city tile for a second game… with a more effective version of their special power

And all of that is before you get to the campaign, which strings together a series of approximately 10 games in four chapters, requiring you to defend your cities from an alien onslaught.  Scenarios create new problems for you to tackle… while characters add once per game special powers to deal with particularly thorny problems created by this invasion.

There is enough material in the box to have two completely different campaign experiences… and still you’ve just scratched the surface. (I’ve played – and won – a full campaign, as well as multiple one-off battles… and there’s content I haven’t seen yet.)

With all the content revealed, you can manage the difficulty level of individual games with a simple system to measure just how “epic” your battles are.

Speaking of epic – this is the epic pile of stuff that CGE managed to tuck into this box. (There will be no complaining about wasted shelf space for this game)

It’s Easy to Miss Things

While all of the rules are right there in the rulebook, it’s easy to make assumptions about how to play the game based on other games you’ve played. (If there was a place to look up “I played this wrong ‘cuz I didn’t pay attention to the rules” in an encyclopedia, my picture would be right there.) A couple of key issues I missed in my first couple of games:

• Fighters move as soon as you place a die in their column… which means that fighters that shift columns can be moved a second time and make defending your city even more difficult.
• Remembering to move the mothership down at the end of each turn.

Final Thoughts

2020 was a great year for aliens attacking solo games – with both Warp’s Edge (which I reviewed late last year) and Under Falling Skies using very different systems to create games with solid mechanics, tactical and strategic decisions, and nail-biting “will I be able to pull this off?” moments. 

Under Falling Skies is the meatier of the two games – the decisions are trickier to make than Warp’s Edge. It also has a slightly longer playing time – most of my games run about 35-40 minutes (compared to Warp’s Edge at 20-30 minutes). But I’m glad to have both games – and recommend them both to you if you’re looking for excellent solo gaming experiences.

Note: I received a review copy of Under Falling Skies.

Best New (to me!) Games of 2020

For the last decade or so, I’ve intermittently published my Best New (to me!) Games list each year… and, when I missed a year or two, added the missing lists to the most recent post.

• Best New (to me!) Games of 2011
• Best New (to me!) Games of 2013
• Best New (to me!) Games of 2016
• Includes lists from 2014 and 2015
• Best New (to me!) Games of 2019
• Includes lists from 2017 and 2018

However, before we get properly started with my list for 2020, we need to cover a few games that were excluded from the list for various reasons but still warrant attention being paid to them.

The Grey Area

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the following games – these are all games that I played exactly one time prior to 2020.

Expedition to Newdale

This board game version of Pfister’s Oh My Goods was so enjoyable from my first play at a post-Essen weekend in 2019 that I used some of my Christmas money to pick up Oh My Goods and the Longdale expansion. (And I finally managed to get the Canyon Brook expansion post-Christmas!)

Lots of solo plays of Oh My Goods led to me picking up – no surprise – Expedition to Newdale. I’ve been working my way through the solo campaign and enjoying the blend of careful planning and luck of the draw the characterizes this series.

It’s a Wonderful World

The same post-Essen weekend also involved my first play of It’s A Wonderful World… and this one proved to be a hit with my sons as well as a very good solo game. I like the combination of 7 Wonders-ish drafting and resource management… and I’m really looking forward to the expansions coming out early in 2021. (There’s also a It’s a Wonderful Kingdom on the way… which I know almost nothing about.)

Terraforming Mars

I first played Terraforming Mars nearly three years ago – and while I really liked it, I didn’t think that my sons would enjoy it enough to get it to the table. But I decided to take the plunge in 2020 due to (a) very positive reviews from the solo gaming community, and (b) my boys being older. Success! The game works very well solo and the boys liked it better than I would have imagined. Over the last six months, I’ve picked up the expansions (I think Prelude should have come in the base box), the Broken Token insert set (include player boards with recessed spaces), and, thanks to a gamer friend (hi, Will… remember to feed your people!), a KS pledge for the 3D terrain.

Expansions of Note

Sometimes, I’ve put expansions under #10 on a list as a group… this year, I decided to break them out. Expansions specific to a game on the list (see:) will be dealt with under their entry.

Downforce: Wild Ride

I actually think this second set of maps is better than the first expansion… and that’s not just because we helped playtest the “zoo” map. There is something delightfully chaotic about the island map with the jumps that has delighted almost everyone who has played it.

Marvel Champions: A Whole Bunch of Stuff

I’m not even going to try and list all of the Marvel Champions packs that were released this year… the expanded list of heroes and the greater variety of villains made the game even more playable. I’ve been using some of the deck builds from the online community of Marvel Champions fans… since my enjoyment of the game is not in the tweaking of decks but in the play of the game. 

Roll Player: Fiends & Familiars

This expansion takes the Monsters & Minions expansion one step farther… and in the process, makes a good game even better. It both adds variety to the game but also gives you more options – something the base game was a little weak on. I wasn’t willing to spring for the fancy box in the KS, but the game itself is really enjoyable with 1-3 players.

Unmatched: Cobble & Fog, Buffy, and Little Red & Beowulf

Part of the charm of the Unmatched system is the expandable nature… and there were THREE new boxes this year! All of them can are stand-alone versions of the game as well as playable with the other sets in the series.

Cobble & Fog adds two different British-themed maps and a set of characters that feels like it’s right out of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. This is probably the most “advanced” of the boxes, with 3 of the 4 characters trickier to play than some of the earlier boxes. (I love it – but it wouldn’t be the place I’d suggest players to start.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer does a splendid job of conveying the fighting styles and character quirks of the Buffyverse… while I’m sad that Oz and Cordelia didn’t make it into the box, the new maps and the well-thought-out decks are a lot of fun.

Right before Christmas, Little Red & Beowulf appeared. This two player box has only one map… but it adds doors and two GREAT decks to the system.

Note: my sons and I were playtesters in 2020 for the announced Unmatched: Marvel boxes that are coming this summer. We’re still mostly sworn to secrecy… but I love me some Squirrel Girl. Just sayin’…

Honorable Mentions

A few games that deserves a mention – but that didn’t quite make the top ten cut. They are in alphabetical order.

Little Town

Highly recommended by folks who admire the Euros of the late 90s… and they were spot on. It’s a pretty straightforward “place workers to get resources or build buildings” – but the interaction with other players is really interesting and even the same set of building tiles can generate very different games depending on who’s playing.

Paleo

I don’t need to own this one… but it’s a splendid cooperative design with scads of replayability. The push-your-luck mechanic of choosing based on the backs of the cards gives just enough look-ahead while keeping the players on their toes.

Pan Am

An economic worker placement game that, like Little Town, feels like a modern take on the Euro games of the last 90s. It uses the Evo/Amun Re/Vegas Showdown auctions and combines them with route building and a nice variety of situational events that keep the game fresh.

Red Alert: Space Fleet Combat

Memoir ‘44… in space! My older son got the whole KS set for Christmas and we had a blast playing it. It takes a big table (barely fits on our 6 person gaming table) but it has amazing table presence, even unpainted. (Note: I might have had something to do with him receiving such a gift.)

Stuffed Fables

We have just scratched the surface of this delightful cooperative game of stuffed toys defending their little girl from the evil that lurks under the bed. The storybook format for board and rules works MUCH better here than in The Princess Bride game released this year.

Best New (to me!) Games of 2020

#10: Under Falling Skies

Czech Games Editions did an excellent job of taking a simple 9-card solitaire game and turning it into a very involving solitaire game in a box, complete with a well-thought-out campaign mode. My full review is on the Opinionated Gamers website.

#9: Sanctum

Another CGE game… like their previous hit, Adrenaline, it’s a board game take on a video game genre. In this case, it’s Diablo: The Board Game. Kill monsters to get equipment and experience in order to go after the big bad at the end of the game. There is very little direct interaction (except for which monsters you draft to fight)… but the game is still fascinating. We like it best with 2 players. (This is the first of six games in my top ten that weren’t released in 2020.)

#8: Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Note: I assisted in editing the final rules for this game… so I might be a big prejudiced. Still, it’s a unique roll-n-write that actually feels like pinball. I like the Dragon table best of all, with the Cyberhack table a close second. (WizKids recently announced a new stand-alone second game in the series for 2021.)

#7: Champions of Midgard

Yes, it’s similar to Lords of Waterdeep… but it’s easier to read the board and cards, there seem to be more pathways to victory, and I just had more fun playing it. It’s possible that the plethora of expansions available may have swayed my opinion… that and winning my first game of Midgard. I’m looking to this hitting the table again with a full complement of players (#2 of the games not released in 2020.)

#6: Civilization: A New Dawn

The previous EGG and FFG takes on the Civ video game as a board game left me cold… but this newest attempt by Fantasy Flight gives me the same vibe as their third edition of Runebound. In both cases, they figured out a simple mechanic that enabled the game to be cleaner to teach and play. In A New Dawn, it’s the sliding row of cards that get more powerful the longer you don’t use them… or when you use your technology points to upgrade them to better versions. (#3 of the games not released in 2020.)

#5: Warp’s Edge

My other favorite solitaire space alien fighting game – which I reviewed back in October. This bag builder is smooth as silk – even if you’re getting clobbered by the aliens. (I still haven’t beat a Level 4 mothership.) Note: I sprung for the Kickstarter set of nice chips and a playmat – both of which make it even m
ore enjoyable to play. (And there’s also an expansion which makes a tricky game even harder, if that’s your thing.)

#4: The 7th Continent

We got the “classic” set from Serious Poulp in the middle of quarantine… and promptly spent hours exploring, backtracking, and dying horrible deaths. It’s a clever system that can be overwhelming… but it has a great “save” mechanic that lets you pick up where you left off (sort of) in your adventure. Note: box is bigger than it looks in this picture. (#4 of the games not released in 2020.)

#3: The Taverns of Tiefenthal

My boys both describe this as “gamer Quacks”… and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong. There are trickier decisions here, especially as you add the included expansion modules into the game. The thing that keeps me coming back is the opportunity to chain together clever plays by the order in which you resolve actions. (#5 of the game not released in 2020.)

#2: Silver & Gold

A flip-n-write with cards you write on doesn’t sound like much, but it’s been a hit both with my gamer boys and my non-gamer wife. Can’t ask for much more than that in a game that is truly portable and would make a great “waiting for your food” game (once we can hang out in restaurants again). (The final game not released in 2020.)

#1: Lost Ruins of Arnak

Dripping with theme and gorgeous artwork… filled with Euro-y decisions… no direct conflict but plenty of chances to beat someone to a good location… plays quickly and cleanly… multiple ways to pursue victory… what’s not to love? (Oh, did I mention there’s a second more difficult board on the back of the main board… and a great solo mode?!)

Looking Ahead

I will not be surprised if Return to Dark Tower ends up on this list next year… as well as Dice Realms (which I was hoping would be released last year but am hoping against hope will make it in 2021).

Notes:

• I received review copies of Lost Ruins of Arnak, Super-Skill Pinball, Under Falling Skies, and Unmatched: Buffy.
• This post originally appeared on the Opinionated Gamers website.

Graceland (Classic)

I wrote this 12 years ago... and I'm still kind of amazed about how much it resonates with my heart & life.

There's a great scene in the long-since-defunct dramedy TV series "Sports Night". (Actually, there are a lot of great scenes, but that didn't prevent it from getting cancelled. Sigh.) Dan & Casey, the anchors of the show, are waiting for the show to start, when Dan blurts out:

Dan: Eli's Coming.

Casey: Eli?

Dan: From the Three Dog Night song.

Casey: Yes?

Dan: Eli is something bad, a darkness.

Casey: "Eli's coming. Hide your heart, girl." Eli is a inveterate womanizer. I think you're getting the song wrong.

Dan: I know I'm getting the song wrong. But, when I first heard it, that's what I thought it meant. Things stick with you that way.

OK, I'm the first to admit that the only Three Dog Night songs I knew before seeing this episode were "One (is the Loneliest Number)", "Black & White" and "Joy to the World." (We sang the last a bunch of times in elementary school music class, only without the verse about drinking the bullfrog's mighty fine wine.) Still, I understand what Dan's talking about - how you hear something the first time can lock in meaning & emotion for years to come. 

Sometimes, it's because we get the lyrics wrong. My father-in-law & I spent untold time & energy convincing my bride-to-be (Shari!) that Ariel was NOT singing "pregnant women, sick of swimming" in THE LITTLE MERMAID - I lost count of how many times we rewound the videotape. For the record, the correct lyrics to "Part of Your World" are:

Betcha on land they understand

Bet they don't reprimand their daughters

Bright young women, sick of swimmin'

Ready to stand

Other times, it's because the the song grabs you by the throat because of a particular thematic idea or image. A good friend from college (who shall remain nameless) could hear the first few chords of Chicago's "Hard Habit To Break" and instantly be plunged back into the morass of his break-up with his first long-time girlfriend - so much so that he chose to avoid the album & the song. (He's happily married now... but I have no idea if the Chicago avoidance plan is still in effect.)

And in my case, it's making an assumption about a song based on the lyrical images intertwining with my personal background & theology. Ladies & gentlemen, I give you the title cut from Paul Simon's groundbreaking album, "Graceland":

The Mississippi delta was shining

Like a national guitar

I am following the river

Down the highway

Through the cradle of the Civil War

I'm going to Graceland

Graceland

In Memphis Tennessee

I'm going to Graceland

Poorboys and pilgrims with families

And we are going to Graceland

My traveling companion is nine years old

He is the child of my first marriage

But I've reason to believe

We both will be received

In Graceland

She comes back to tell me she's gone

As if I didn't know that

As if I didn't know my own bed

As if I'd never noticed

The way she brushed her hair from her forehead

And she said losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you're blown apart

Everybody sees the wind blow

And my traveling companions

Are ghosts and empty sockets

I'm looking at ghosts and empties

But I've reason to believe

We all will be received

In Graceland

There is a girl in New York City

Who calls herself the human trampoline

And sometimes when I'm falling, flying

Or tumbling in turmoil I say

Oh, so this is what she means

She means we're bouncing into Graceland

And I see losing love

Is like a window in your heart

Everybody sees you're blown apart

Everybody sees the wind blow

In Graceland, in Graceland

I'm going to Graceland

For reasons I cannot explain

There's some part of me wants to see

Graceland

And I may be obliged to defend

Every love, every ending

Or maybe there's no obligations now

Maybe I've a reason to believe

We all will be received

In Graceland

I know now that Paul was writing about the demise of his marriage and a road trip he took with his son to see Graceland. And, while I'm not a big fan of Elvis, I realize that he's talking about the palatial mansion with the music note gates on the south side of Memphis. Still, I hear lines like "I've reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland" and I hear echoes of biblical truth:

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

(2 Peter 3:8-9, NLT)

And when I think about my the reality of my own life - the struggles with pornography & selfishness & bitterness - the line about "the girl who calls herself the human trampoline" feels like Paul Simon has been watching me with hidden cameras. "Losing love is like a window in your heart... everybody sees you're blown apart" - yep, someone get Garfunkel's buddy out of the spy van and tell him to take the bug out of my telephone.

But all of us are "bouncing into Graceland": those of us who've been human trampolines & those who've jumped on us, the poorboys and pilgrims, the old & young, those who are smarter than a whip or dumber than a post, well-behaved and/or ill-mannered, whoever. Regardless if you've put more miles than years on your life (tip o' the proverbial hat to Indiana Jones) or if you rival the Pharisees for your devotion & self-righteousness, you can be received in the gracious arms of Jesus.

Jesus does not divide the world into moral "good guys" and the immoral "bad guys." He shows us that everyone is dedicated to a project of self-salvation, to using God and others in order to get power and control for themselves. We are just going about it in different ways...

...The gospel (good news) of Jesus is not religion or irreligion, morality or immorality, moralism or relativism, conservatism or liberalism. Nor is it something halfway along a spectrum between two poles -- it is something else altogether.

The gospel is distinct from the other two approaches: In its view, everyone is wrong, everyone is loved, and everyone is called to recognize this and change.

(Tim Keller, The Prodigal God)

I've said it before, I'll say it again: no matter who you are, where you came from or what you have or have not done, Jesus loves you. Graceland is more than just the mansion of a dead pop star.

Bounce His way...