Darth Y'all

This week, we were able to discuss Revenge of the Sith fully, which natuarally lead to a couple of rounds of Star Wars: Epic Duels! Also on tap were a giant pizza from Pizzaville, and two rounds of Löwenherz - I don't believe either of those were related to Lucasfilm, but I can't be positive about it, either.

We started out with a round of Epic Duels, playing teams of two against two - Easy and I played the dark side, while Kozure and Luch were the light side. Everyone selects their characters, which come in sets of two or three, and have (in theory?) been balanced. A setting also needs to be selected - there are several included in the game, which represent locations from the Star Wars films, and are gridded off into squares. Each major character has a pre-designated starting spot on each board - secondary characters must be placed in immediate proximity to their major character. From here, the goal is simply to destroy the other side of the force.

Movement around the board is achieved by rolling a custom dice, which allows you to move either one of your characters, or all, depending on the outcome of the roll. After movement, a player may play cards from their character's custom deck, usually to harm another player's character, which would be allowed to play a card to defend. Some characters use close range attacks; others are line-of-sight. Characters attuned to "The Force" can sometimes attack in other ways, as well. Damage is counted on special cards that come with the game - some characters can withstand more than others.

I've probably played this game a five or six times now, but Wednesday was the first time that it has 'clicked' for me. I think the key to keeping this one fun is to keep gameplay quick, make sure you are fully awake, and don't take any losses too personally. Gaining some familiarity with the various characters helps things out as well, since all have different "special" cards that can affect your play tactics. I had a lot of fun with the first round and also a later one, where Luch and I were the dark side against Kozure and Easy's light side.

The experience of playing Löwenherz was quite interesting - it seemed that players' opinions shifted over the course of the night. We had played this game once previously, but had unfortunately made some errors, undermining our attempt to get a real feel for what it is all about. This night was a triumph for us in one respect - I think that we managed to play Löwenherz by the actual rules, a first in our experience with both it and it's cousin, Domaine.

The first game was a narrow victory for me, while Easy destroyed the field in our second round by pursuing a strategy for monopolizing silver mines - I personally don't think that strategy would work with the same group a second time, but who knows, really? I think that we started out the evening preferring Domaine, after one game preferred Löwenherz, and by the end of the evening preferred Domaine again - if that recollection isn't correct, I'm sure we'll all read about it in the comments!

Luch felt that Domaine plays quicker, with fewer options to consider. I'm not so sure about that, but thought it was interesting to see how two games with such similar concepts and rules can be changed by a mechanical tweak - in this case, replacing the auction of Löwenherz with the purchase mechanic of Domaine. All in all, I found the evening to very interesting, revealing new aspects of some games that we have played before.

A great success!