#siderealconfluence

Strategy board game fun #siderealconfluence #saltcon #gamenights #gamenightfun #strategygame #tradingcards #boardgamegeek #boardgamesnight #geeklife #geekweekend #biddingwars (at Salt Lake City, Utah) https://www.instagram.com/p/CSA5Wsyj55R/?utm_medium=tumblr

My favorite recent crazy-over-the-top game, Sidereal Confluence. So much to like here, plus it’s actually a clean, tight design despite the sprawling footprint. That’s not to say it’s easy to tackle; it’s not. But it’s challenging because you have a ton of options, not because the rules are hard to learn or the systems difficult to grasp. At 6 turns the game length is perfect and the fact that 80+% of the game is trading phases everyone is engaged pretty much all the time. My top tip on this is that you have to be really mindful of building up your production infrastructure. A lot will depend on which species are in play and what the trading metagame is (how willing players are to engage in trading that is mutually beneficial but maybe significantly more so for one side), but all the species need a solid base of production, and getting that going over the first couple turns is really vital. Resources are really tight early, and you don’t want to make big tech investments early unless they’re helping to upgrade your converters; the early points from tech are large, but you can’t win on a few big early tech bonuses if they cripple your economy. Anyway, really fun game which I always enjoy the heck out of but am also terrible at and since I can only get a game in every 6-9 months I rarely remember what I learned last time I played 😄 Joins Millennium Blades and Argent: The Consortium as my favorite great, bonkers games. #bgg #boardgames #boardgamegeek #wizkids #siderealconfluence https://www.instagram.com/p/BvYcib6DFQ8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qk07ks0u6kau

Sidereal Confluence with six players was an amazing quantity of top-class entertainment. Best game of 2017 so far. #boardgame #boardgames #siderealconfluence (paikassa Lautapelikahvila Taverna)

Playing the Caylion Plutocracy in Sidereal Confluence. Such a fun game. We played with the Zeth Anocracy for the first time - the guys who steal from people - and it made for a rather different game. I liked how it changed things up, but they were not universally well-received. Certainly if Zeth is not played responsibly, they have the ability to really mess people around in a way that is un-fun. They do really have to be aggressive in running their protection racket, but the less often they have to actually break anyone’s legs, the better for everone I think. I think you want to be careful with who you let play them; our game was fine but the Zeth can make a mess of things in a way the other species just can’t. I enjoy trading and deal-making games, this is the best of that genre to come out in a long time, and I totally enjoy it even as I continue to try to figure out how to do well 😄 As you can tell from the photo, there is a ton going on in this game and a lot of nuance and you really have to be attentive, but the real-time nature of the trading phase doesn’t give you a lot of analysis time. In our games, the Faderan have done consistently well and may be the easiest faction to play given their cool artifact deck, but YMMV depending on your meta. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #wizkids #siderealconfluence

Sidereal Confluence with five players, this time I had time to take a picture. What a hectic game! #siderealconfluence #boardgame #boardgames (paikassa Lautapelikahvila Taverna)

More Sidereal Confluence; I both love this game and am terrible at it (which is maybe somewhat surprising since I’m a pretty good trader in Civ?). Kim crushed us this time with a record score of 65, so she’s obviously learning something I’m not (I had 31, which I thought was decent by my historical standards but might have been last in this game). We played 7 players this time, and that felt pretty good - the game definitely benefits from more players and a slightly better pace of tech introduction, and doesn’t slow done much, which is nice (9 might be pushing it though). I continue to really enjoy this, it’s one of my favorite recent games in no small part because it explores an underdeveloped gaming niche. It does reward some repeat play though, the game is meaty despite fairly straightforward rules and the first time through seems like mostly exploring the gamespace (which I find fun in and of itself, of course). #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #siderealconfluence #wizkids

A 7-player game of Sidereal Confluence. Tough learning curve on this one, but super-interesting, and it plays big numbers of players very well. I had the Im’dril this time, and they’re interesting tough - they really need to focus on improving their economy before they do any research, as they’re pretty fragile. The 9 very different species really make the game interesting. Anyway, I hope this can continue to get some play. If you like trading games, definitely check it out. #bgg #boardgames #boardgamegeek #siderealconfluence

Sidereal Confluence. Still loving this. The first time out is pretty overwhelming, but it's worth sticking to it; a lot of good stuff going on, and once you get your head around what it's doing it's actually pretty elegant. We played 5, which was good, but the more the merrier on this. 9 might be a little crazy, but I imagine around 7 is ideal. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #siderealconfluence (at Los Altos Library)