Hi, everyone.
My big discovery has been Ozymandias, a short-form strategy game from 2022 about building empires in the Bronze Age. It richly deserves a post of its own: it keeps dragging my attention away from much bigger and more elaborate games. It helps that it’s short and simple enough to play when I’m tired after work: I can finish a map in less than an hour. But simple is not easy; it strikes me as “a minute to learn, lifetime to master”.
In digital board game news, I’ve begun playing Terraforming Mars, an “engine builder” game. The goal is simple (raise Mars’s temperature and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere; set up oceans), but money is tight, especially early on. As the game progresses, resources roll in; points tick up; and more cards become playable. This is one game that really benefits from an interest in the theme: when I see a card called “Convoy from Europa” (a moon with an icy surface and a liquid water ocean underneath) that lets me place an ocean tile, I can imagine exactly what is going on.
I also took advantage of the recent Steam sale to pick up 007: First Light. So far, so atmospheric; I look forward to playing more.
New releases: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Endless Legend 2 full release
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is now out for Switch 2 to glowing reviews. I loved (and still need to finish…) Three Houses so have high hopes for this. Planning to get it on the first sale…
Meanwhile, Endless Legend 2 has now reached 1.0 and left Early Access. I’m 110-120 turns into my first game, so still learning. I will say, so far I have found it a little visually busy: compared to Civ VII (or even other Amplitude games like Humankind), it’s much harder for me to look at the map and understand what’s going on. My preview impressions, from an early 2025 build, are here.
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