Great news ! Can't wait to view and listen to your comments on my favorite game.

Your favorite game? Ack, the pressure. Hope you like the video!

-Colin

When you asked us which game we would like reviewed/taught, I asked for this one so thank you very much.

I just watched it, it is amazingly well done. I'm glad I was playing the game correctly. Next time I have new gamers over I will just play your video to teach people how to play! You are so correct about how important it is to pull this game out for the correct people, I had a really bad experience with this.

Thanks again, greatly appreciated,
Nick

I really liked the review part - I think you were spot-on about the good & bad points of the game.

The rule discussion made me recall what I felt like when someone explained this game to me the first time. I'm just not sure there is a good way to cover the entirety of the rules in one shot. It just takes too damn long to cover everything (most of which will be misunderstood or forgotten), and then immediately launch into a two hour game. It was my single most unpleasant gaming experience ever. Luckily my stubborn masochistic nature dictated that feeling stupid for 2+ hours must be followed up by downloading the rules on the geek and playing the geek online version - I now adore T&E.

So, as I wait for Mayfair to release the new Pegasus version (I agree, the current Mayfair board is just awful), I'm trying to figure out if there is any reasonable way to ease a couple of family members into this game. One thing for sure, I will treat the first session or two as lessons, with exposed cubes & tiles, and and maybe not finish the games to completion. I think a lot of in-game play-by-play narration and re-explanation of rules is key.

Thanks Colin, I think I finally must pony up with a donation. I love your reviews!

Regarding your gripe about the tile bag, what was that thing you created for Ingenious to address this? I couldn't quite understand what you called it in the review.

Sounded like he said he made some kind of "LEGO contraption".. I'm guessing maybe like a tile chute?

I did in fact make a Lego Contraption. You can see it in my video review of Ingenious. In addition, I wrote an article about it for my site that has pictures. Here is a link: http://obsessedwithgaming.com/index.php?option=com_content&t...

Side note: so far no one has corrected any errors in the rules. Woot!

-Colin

Wow! That is definitely a LEGO Contraption if I've ever seen one. Way off from what I had pictured..

I feel like I should have the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother holding a gom jabbar to my neck while sticking my hand in that thing!

Now that you mention it...
In your example of the internal conflict you showed two green leaders duking it out. I believe the winner of such a conflict would get a GREEN cube, instead of a RED cube as you showed.

On errors, you keep referring to the Monuments as Temples.

You are wrong: The winner of an internal conflict gets a red cube, regardless of the color of the leaders.

Nice review. I get a rush whenever I play this game, and your description of what is good about the game captured my sentiments exactly. I think, though, you devoted a bit too much time criticizing the components. The mechanics of this game are so inspired, the gameplay so absorbing and exciting, that as long as the components are functional (which they are) it is very hard (for me at least) to be distracted by them or for them to diminish the experience of the game. That said, though, I certainly wouldn't argue with the claim that the Mayfair components could be improved (which is why I am holding out for the Pegasus edition). I like the Hans im Gluck board though.

Yeah, that was the only thing that got on my nerves in an otherwise excellent review.

Keep up the great work, Colin!

I felt he laboured a little too much on the components; one reference to them would have sufficed. Maybe a direct comparison with how they compare to the other versions of T&E would have been helpful. I have the Pegasus version so it's hard to see how these would compare to the Mayfair edition. We've generally found them to be fit for purpose, although perhaps my only slight criticism would be the colour of the catastrophe tile. We also found the screens large enough to hide tiles and cubes.

Otherwise, nice review.

Not sure why but despite specifying the video_id in the link, it redirects to the most recent video review in the Obsessed Board Gamers series instead. The "permalink" for the review is Episode 26: Tigris & Euphrates.

So how do you solve the large wooden cubes problem? Buy 100 small cubes of each color instead?