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Monday Brews 4-14-14
Happy Monday everyone. I hope all of you that attended PAX East of the Gathering of Friends had a great time. I attended neither, babysat Saturday evening, and played one game all weekend. But that’s okay.
Today is Monday so I present you with me recap of the Boards & Barley I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
BARLEY SPOTLIGHT: Wisconsin Brewing Co. Porter
I enjoyed this Porter at a dinner on Sunday evening with my wife for her birthday. The Porter is from the still new Wisconsin Brewing Co. I found it to be a very nice porter with characteristics one would expect from a porter. I would drink it again as it was easy to drink and enjoyable to taste.
They recently brewed a coffee porter that is only available on tap. I would definitely like to try it since I enjoy coffee flavored/infused brews.
- NEW! Founder’s Porter – I enjoyed this porter during Board Game Night. Not too much to say about it. It was decent.
- NEW! Saint Francis Gluttony – From a Milwaukee brewery that names their beers after the seven deadly sins. This was their Maibock. It was okay. I found it a little too sweet and not “Spring” enough.
- NEW! Penn Pilsner – It’s been a while since I had a straight up pilsner. This tasted like a pilsner, smelled like a pilsner, and was pilsner through and through. Yet I enjoyed it.
- Central Waters Mudpuppy Porter
- New Glarus Spotted Cow
The Boards:
US (Awesome) and German (Ugh) box covers.
BOARDS SPOTLIGHT: Eminent Domain
Eminent Domain has become my favorite deck builder. That’s probably due to the deck building portion being subtle. There are planets to colonize or attack. There are new planets to survey. There are new for of research to develop. There are so many awesome elements in Eminent Domain that the deck building portion is somewhat of a side thought. But that’s not to say you don’t need to consider how you build your deck.
For those who are sick of Dominion and don’t like the theme of Trains, I highly recommend Eminent Domain!
- Unpublished Prototype
- Dungeon Roll
Designer’s Corner:
The only design efforts I completed last week were from the Design Me article where I designed a new tile placement via dexterity game called ManHunt.
This week I hope to compile and balance the abilities in Brooklyn Bridge as well as make some modifications to how the Tower is built. These will make the game more “Euro” in style, which I am fine with.
I also have the necessary components to prototype Manhunt, which I just might do.
So those are the Boards, Barley, and Design Efforts I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Eminent Domain: Escalation on Kickstarter
Publishers of Awesomeness!
One of my favorite game publishing companies is Tasty Minstrel Games. Why are they one of my favorites? I have two reasons:
- They publish awesome games including Homesteaders, Kings of Air and Steam, Ground Floor, Village, Noblemen, Belfort, and the topic of this post: Eminent Domain.
- They are very open and engaging about their business and they share a lot of awesome information about the board game publishing side of things. Check out Michael Mindes’ “BizOfPlay” Podcast on Soundcloud.com.
For those reasons I don’t hesitate when they launch a new project on Kickstarter. I know that their game developer, Seth Jaffee, will have done an amazing job making sure the game is refined and awesome. But most importantly, TMG’s games are fun to play!
So today I wanted to inform you about their latest Kickstarter campaign which is currently live. It is for the expansion for Eminent Domain. It is called Eminent Domain: Escalation (ED:E). It is the first expansion for the hit game.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the game here is a little background. Eminent Domain is a deck-building game with a space-based theme. Players are trying to settle the most planets, research the most technology, and gain the most influence. Each turn you choose a card from your hand and do the action listed. These actions are things like Gain a Fighter, Colonize a Planet, Survey New Planets, and Research Technology. After performing the action the player will take a card from one of the piles on the table. They then perform the Role of that card. These roles allow the player whose turn it is to reap some benefit. Then all the other players can “follow” by doing the role or “dissent” by drawing a card into their hand. That’s basically how a turn works. To learn more check out Tom Vasel’s review of the game:
I really enjoy this game. I first played it last year in the GenCon library. This expansion looks like it will really add to the game. It adds the capability for a 5th player. It allows for direct conflict. It adds new technology cards. And it will add different starting scenarios, which adds a lot of flavor and replayability.
I highly recommend backing the game on Kickstarter. You can back the game and expansion for $50 or if you already own the game you can back the expansion for $25. Please let me know if you have any questions about the game or TMG. If I can’t answer them I’ll point you in the right direction. You can pledge on the Kickstarter project page!
Boards and Barley 