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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 3rd, 2023

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  • As usual, it depends:

    Splendor pros:

    • Plays 2-4 (vs strictly 2 for Duel)
    • Simpler rules, easier to teach
    • Larger chips, better tactility
    • Expansion available

    Splendor Duel pros:

    • Rules and components optimized for 2p
    • Nicer card art (subjective)
    • More decisions, more interesting draft, multiple win conditions
    • Much smaller box, reasonably sized for the game (unlike the original)

    If you plan on playing with more than 2 then original Splendor is the obvious choice. It’s still a decent choice even if you will only ever play at 2 but value the simplicity and purity of the original design.

    Duel is a more interesting game thanks to the new draft and multiple win conditions. “More” and “more interesting” is not automatically better under all circumstances though.

    Personally I am keeping both even though we almost always play at 2. We play Duel more but sometimes I just want to play regular Splendor and Duel is not a 1-1 replacement.

    The Duel box conveniently fits inside the original’s box (insert tossed). I am no longer planning to get the Cities of Splendor expansion thoguh, Duel is filling the “Splendor with more stuff” space nicely.

    For 7 Wonders it’s more clear cut, Duel is a much better option for 2p.

    For Agricola the two games are almost too different to compare. All Creatures (big box) is great in its own way but doesn’t feel like a replacement for the original.




  • donio@beehaw.orgtoboardgames@feddit.deRecap Monday - Week 23
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    1 year ago

    We tried the 2-player variant of Cat in the Box. It works fine but it left me feeling that a better 2p variant should be possible. Seems too easy to tie the tricks and avoid paradoxes. Might be our lack of experience with the game, maybe it’s different with a more aggressive playstyle? I have some ideas for tweaking it but I want to play it more first to better understand the game.

    Would love to hear other experiences, especially about the 2p variant.

    Also learned Challengers, online only on BGA so far but thinking about picking it up. Love it when a game doubles down on a core idea and makes it work. In this case it’s focusing entirely on the deckbuilding portion of deckbuilders with with the round playing out mostly automatically, sort of like in auto-battler video games. It also reminded me of some other games I like: Tea for 2 and Baseball Highlights: 2045.