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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I have already talked about my love of promos. Promos
I have over a hundred. It’s a strange addiction. I think for me it’s two things I love about them. Firstly they sort of customise your game, if you have a couple of promo cards. Secondly it’s so much fun chasing them down.
I really enjoy scouring ebay looking for promos or buying them on BGG. Since my last post I’ve obtained quite a few.
My most recent is the new mini expansion for Carcassonne The Peasants Revolt which I have just ordered. I have also picked up the Carcassonne Essen tile for 2020./pic5861376.jpg)
Also recently bought a promo for High Rise which was four new tenants. I am still really enjoying this time track game. You go round the time track two or three times depending on the length of game you want. I like the tenants and the special abilities they give you.:strip_icc()/pic5861335.jpg)
It’s weird but the next game I bought after this one New York Zoo uses a time track in almost the same way. But this time you are picking up polyominos and animals. It’s nice to have two games released this year with my favourite mechanism. New York Zoo is very light but charming game. I have only played it solo so far. Alas it has no promos but I feel there is plenty of scope.:strip_icc()/pic5860962.jpg)
I also like Christmas promos and picked up one for Lowlands: Brettspiel Adventskalender 2018 Promo. I haven’t been able to get the second lot of promos for Rajas of the Ganges. Actually I am not too bothered as none of them look particularly interesting. But I do like the concept of bundling them together in a goodie box. My favourite is Rajas of the Ganges: Mango Village from the promos I have.:strip_icc()/pic5860963.jpg)
The Brettspiels advent calendar is a good source of promos as is the Dice Tower Kickstarter. The best source is the BGG store.
I got the extra buildings for Architects of the West Kingdom I really like Grave yard building whereby you can remove one of your apprentices and um ... bury him.:strip_icc()/pic4035701.png)
The thing about promos is that makes your profile look like you have got lots of games when really you haven’t. Most of mine are just one tile.
My favourite type of promos are ones with Easter eggs or inside references. Last time I talked about the promos for Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig. The promo tile Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Dice Tower Room Promo Tile mentions rooms that refer to Stonemaier Games other games. Of course we can add the Tapestry room to that now. I really like the art in this game. It’s so detailed. I am really excited about the expansion that coming for this game.:strip_icc()/pic5860947.jpg)
I have also acquired the Dice Tower Promo for Fields of Green/pic4975406.jpg)
Sometime promos can cost more than the actual base game itself. Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King – Brettspiel Adventskalender 2015 Promo Tiles is on the geek market for $33 whereas the base game costs £27.
Publishers not tend to issue promos when the game fairly new so they are often produced in fairly low numbers and therefore are quite rare. Unlike other things like Kickstarters, it’s quite hard to find what promos are available other than checking out the individual game pages.
I really like promos that are actually new meeples. One of the best is the Keyflower: Keymelequin which introduced two multicoloured meeples.:strip_icc()/pic3142536.jpg)
Another example was the Referee Camel for Camel Up which is also the Caravan promo for Istanbul.:strip_icc()/pic5860953.jpg)
I am looking forward to getting the raccoon meeple for PARKS which will be on my Dice Tower kickstarter. I’ve not done this before and hoping to be able to sell and swop some I don’t need. It all started getting really complicated on the swop and sell thread so I am just going to put the majority of mine on the geek market and try and pick up the one for Everdell. In any event I backed the Kickstarter to promote Dice Tower as I watch a lot of their content.
I always think I’ll get the promo and it will make the base game easier to sell but then often I end up selling them separately as you get more if you separate them. The great thing is you don’t have to faff around finding a box for promos just a stiff envelope is normally adequate.
I wish there was a promo for Wingspan. I’d like extinct birds or mythical birds.
The Dyslexic Gamer
A blog about Euro’s with wonderful art and components
Archive for Promos
17
Comments
Fri Dec 18, 2020 6:09 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I really like snowy games or winter editions of games. The Carcassonne: Winter Edition is the most beautiful version of Carcassonne. The artwork is stunning. There are little animals included within the artwork. They don’t add anything to the game play, although there is a file that gives the animals functions. Recently Hans im Glück also produced an edition with the river available through German retailer Muller.
:strip_icc()/pic2915737.jpg)
The Stone Age: Anniversary edition has a double sided board and a igloos promo.:strip_icc()/pic5161548.jpg)
K2 is a game with loads of snow. In this game only one player can reach the top of the mountain. Which is a neat little mechanic also used Architects of the West Kingdom when building the cathedral. I haven’t got this game because of the player elimination (basically you can die in this game) but in terms of the mechanics linking to the theme it seems excellent. I would like to try it.:strip_icc()/pic5546280.jpg)
Snow Tails is another interesting game about racing dod sleds. Again I have never played this but it seems like a snowie version of Flamme Rouge. It also has a cool paws token for AP prone players.:strip_icc()/pic2740251.jpg)
Around this time of year Brettspiel used produce an advent calendar which has over the years had some great Christmas promos including:
Keyflower: Delivery Man is a nice Christmasy promo for Keyflower:strip_icc()/pic5805055.jpg)
Quadropolis has a nice Christmas promo. A lot of the promos are not shown as expansions on the games page so it’s difficult to know about them. This one’s available from the BGG store.:strip_icc()/pic5233475.jpg)
Zooloretto has quite a few including the reindeer promo Zooloretto: The Reindeer/pic2293574.jpg)
And the one I bought most recently Lowlands: Brettspiel Adventskalender 2018 Promo
And there is nothing to stop you turning your games into an advent scene. There is even a annual nerd-tivity contest.:strip_icc()/pic3868485.png)
Or dress up your Everdell:strip_icc()/pic5797245.jpg)
Or Photosynthesis: Blue Christmas Tree fir tree./pic4048998.jpg)
This year I am doing the 2020 Advent challenge, playing 24 games during December. It’s going to be a struggle but it worked well when I did a similar challenge in May.
I do have a geek list for Snowy games so please feel free to add your favourites Let it snow!
Sun Nov 22, 2020 4:55 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I love promos. There is nothing I like doing better than scouring ebay for promo tiles to add to games. I like promos because often they are just one card or tile and you can add them to the game. Also they are quite cheap usually although rare and sought after promos can command a premium.
If you look in my user collection it looks like I’ve got lots of games, over two hundred but many of them are just a single tile or card. Being a completionist I often try and get every promo for a game.
The game that started this off was of course Carcassonne. I really like collecting the Spiel promo tiles for the different years. I once paid £25 for one tile. Crazy.:strip_icc()/pic2710868.jpg)
Promos often come from Spiel Magazine which is now available in English. Also Dice Tower does huge promo packs as part of their Kickstarter campaign. The Brettspiel advent calendar is another great source of promos and of course there is the Board Game Geek store.
Often to be honest, promos are pretty useless. However they often have great art and little Easter Eggs.
I have all the promos for Keyflower. My favourite is the bee keeper./pic2246940.png)
One of my favourite is the double barrel tile in Isle of skye which celebrated its win of the Kennerspiel. I also like the set of six tiles celebrating other games designed by Tony Boydell including Caverna and Snowdonia.:strip_icc()/pic3218643.jpg)
A couple I haven’t been able to track down but would like to includes the Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King – Brettspiel Adventskalender 2015 Promo Tiles and the promo for Tokaido: Eriku and the Caverna: Christmas Chamber./pic1872384.jpg)
Recently acquired promos include the Graveyard for Architects of the West Kingdom, where you get to bury an apprentice for 12 points. Obviously your virtue goes down one. Also recently got Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Saxophone Room Promo Tile. The rarest I own is Agricola: Glonnacker which is a field that gives pumpkins and wheat.
I really like that if you write a review for Fields of Green they send you a promo called cabbages. Fields of Green is one of my favourite games so here is part of my review::strip_icc()/pic5231548.jpg)
Each player builds their own farm. You start with a silo (with one food) and a water tower (with three water) and 15 coins. I really like the card drafting as it allows you to select six cards from the different piles. This means you can concentrate on fields and livestock in the first rounds which convert water to food and food to money. In later rounds you can build more construction and building cards which give victory points and end game scoring opportunities. There are plenty of opportunities to combo cards together and there are adjacency bonuses and cards which have immediate effects.
Some cards allow you to build equipment tiles much give an individual card a special ability, more flexibility or end game scoring. Fields much be fed by a water tower which is within two spaces.:strip_icc()/pic5231552.jpg)
Instead of adding a card to your farm you can discard a card for two money. You can also discard food for money. The can discard a card and replace it with a water tower (with three water) or a silo (for extra food storage) Excess food produced which can’t be stored is discarded.The card laying is good. You have to really think where you place your cards and equipment. The game plays quickly in about an hour. Due to the simultaneous card selection it is easy for players to get out of step. I find I have to be very disciplined with my group insisting every player has finished before we move on.
At the end of each round you run your engine. This is the most satisfying part of the game. If you can’t run a particular card, by paying food or water, the card is flipped. You can unflip a card by discarding a card. This gives some tricky decisions. You want to burn a card to flip it back as you have payed for the card but there is no point unless you can run the card in the next round. Money is tight, especially in the opening rounds. You have to have money to buy a card otherwise you are forced to discard it for two money. There are immediate effect cards which generate cash, food or water.:strip_icc()/pic5231551.jpg)
By round three you should have a bit of an engine going and the number of activations will increase so there is a nice sense of escalation.
This game reminds me of Terraforming Mars but it’s more streamlined. I like the easy rule set and the quick playing time. However, the best bit is running you engine. This is a pure engine builder and the player with the most efficient engine is going to win. I like that you get to run your engine more than once.
Sun Jul 5, 2020 3:39 pm
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