Category Archives: Stonemaier Games

Is it reasonable to expect…?

Game Design, Maths, stats, Stonemaier Games

One of the criticisms by some reviewers about games from Stonemaier Games is that they are unbalanced, not play tested enough.

But how fair a criticism is this?

For this post I’m going to look at Tapestry. Which is a game that has this accusation made against it. And recently had a pack of rebalanced civilisation mats released. I may also use the odd game from their catalog to illustrate a point.

Before I go any further I need to give a disclaimer of some sort. Firstly I have no idea how many play testers, how much play testing was done, or what the play test process is at Stonemaier games. And I’ve made no attempt to find out. I’m also not a mathematician or statistician. So there are likely major flaws in my maths and logic. Please feel free to correct me in the comments. For this post I’m going to ignore solo play testing because I don’t play solo, and I don’t want to look up the solo rules. Oh and I have been accused of being a bit of a Stonemaier Games fanboy.

In Tapestry and it’s three expansions we have 41 civilization mats broken down as follows:

  • Tapestry – 16 civilization mats
  • Plans & Ploys – 10 civilization mats
  • Arts & Architecture – 5 civilization mats
  • Fantasies & Futures – 10 civilization mats

So to look at how feasible and reasonable it is to play test Tapestry and its expansions I will be working out the number of combinations of civilization mats. For this exercise the order doesn’t matter. Hence combinations instead of permutations.

To work out the number of possible combinations of civilization mats I’m using the following Binomial coefficients formula:

Where n is the set size or in our case number of civilization cards, and r is size of sets we are choosing, aka player count for us.

What follows is the number of combinations for Tapestry and its expansions based on player count.

As expected it’s going to be a lot easier to play test all the combinations once at the lower player counts than the higher ones.

But you need to repeatedly play these combinations to make sure that what would appear to be an unbalanced civilization mat is in fact that, and not just appearing to be so due to other factors.

I would argue that at the higher player counts (4 and 5) it’s unreasonable to expect all the combinations to be play tested. Just from a time and number of play testers basis. Let alone any monetary factor. I’m almost tempted to add in 3 players with the expansions to this statement as well.

So how would you even attempt to spot unbalanced or as some like to call them broken or over powered civilization mats?

You could use feedback from the lower player counts to focus in on particular civilization mats. However this over looks the fact that certain civilization mats might be better against others at lower player counts, but when played in higher player counts actually weaker or on par with others. Or that certain civilization mats are better at higher player counts but poor at lower counts.

Plus in all of this we aren’t even factoring in the random elements of the game such as tapestry cards.

In reality play testing will not just focus on one player count but be a mixture of all of them.

I think the big take away from this is it’s just not possible to play test every combination at all player counts. Just on the base game approximately 8000 games that would need playing to do it once.

There has to be a certain point where you say “we’ve tested as much as we can”. Or the game would never get released or be so expensive to cover the increased testing costs it won’t make any money.

It’s only once the game gets out in the wild and in the hands of lots of players that things start to come to light. I do like that Stonemaier capture play data and feedback this into the design and provide updates to the games.

I can see a follow up argument that some of the civilization mats were obviously unbalanced, just too powerful. That I don’t have a response to. I’d need more info about the companies testing and feedback.

What are your thoughts on the feasibility of testing a game?

  • Elwes, R. (2010) Mathematics 1001: absolutely everything that matters in mathematics. London: Quercus.

Bees in Space!

Stonemaier Games

It should hardly come as a surprise that Apiary the latest game published by Stonemaier Games was an instant buy for me.

This worker placement, slash engine builder designed by first time game designer Connie Vogelmann, and art by Kwanchai Moriya looks right up my alley.

For starters I love the two main mechanics. Ok there aren’t many mechanics I don’t like. However worker placement I really do like and it can be combined with others to produce something unique and fun. Take Dune Imperium as an excellent example of combining worker placement with deckbuilding. I think possibly I have one other game in the collection that might be considered as combining the same two mechanics, which would be The Manhattan Project. I love that game, despite it not hitting the table for a long time.

I love the box art by Kwanchai Moriya. For me it has a kind of modern take of 1950’s sci-fi book cover art. Very retro yet modern!

As for component quality I know this will be great before I even get my hands on the game. Stonemaier Games just get this right every time.

The game was announce mid September but only now can it be ordered directly from Stonemaier Games. If you want to support your FLGS it will be available about a month later. It’s why I’m haven’t said anything about Apiary until now.

So in little over a week (or less if I’m super lucky) it should be with me. Then my biggest problem is going to be getting it to the table. But that’s a self inflicted problem.

Friday Night Encounters

Fenland Gamers, game night, Stonemaier Games

Last night was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.

Last night numbers were slightly down. But we had enough for a couple of tables. One table played The Warriors board game. Which if you are under a certain age have no idea it’s based on a 1970s movie. Mind you Jonathan had no idea it was a movie either. I think the only person playing it familiar with the source material was Dave. I’d be interested in giving it a try. I do like the movie.

Our table got to play the latest hotness, the sequel to Stonemaier Games second biggest selling game (it was the top until Wingspan came out) Scythe, Expeditions.

Every copy of Expeditions has an achievements sheet included. One side are the achievements to record names against. The other side is an extract from a captains journal (see below).

It turns out thanks to a really observant individual on the games Facebook group that there are different versions of this journal page. In less than 24 hours the group has managed to identify at least 17 different ones (it may be all of them now).

It’s suspected there are 20 different journal pages. Jamey did say there was a hint to the number in the photo. Which I have zoomed in on below. Which seems to confirm the number 20.

What’s even cooler is that Jamey signed 20 of these sheets and they were randomly placed in copies of the game!

My copy of Expeditions was the iron clad edition, with the add-on metal coins. The difference between the iron clad edition and the standard are the amazing metal mechs instead of plastic ones.

The production of the game is up to the usual gold standard set by Stonemaier Games. The setup of the game is made super easy by the games insert. With a great storage tray that holds the coins, worker meeples, and map tokens. Thus can be taken straight out of the box and used on the table.

The art is just out of this world. Jakub Rozalski is just amazing. I love the whole world he has built with it. That 1920’s alternative history with the mechs. Love it.

Story wise Expeditions takes place after the events in Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion. We shift from Europa to “…Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption.” It’s our job to venture North to investigate this meteorite crash.

There is a darker tone to the plot line and art. I’m trying to think of a way to best describe the theme/tone. I think Scythe meets Cthulhu might best describe it.

There are some Easter eggs within the game. It wouldn’t be a Stonemaier game without them. There are two cards named after other titles in the Stonemaier catalogue (Charterstone and Scythe). Plus Jamey’s two cats feature on a card (see below).

We started off as a five player game, however three quarters of the way through our fifth player had to leave.

This first game took three and a half hours. But at full player count (for the majority of the game), and two players that suffer from analysis paralysis is it any surprise?

Once setup Expeditions is a table hog, and was a very tight fit with five of us round the table.

However the game has a table presence that is made with the large metal mechs.

The base snaps didn’t fit perfectly on one or two of the metal mechs. But I think that might improve over time.

For those thinking this is going to be like Scythe, it is not. There are a couple of similar mechanics, such as not being able to repeat an action twice, the victory track and glory tokens, and there are mechs! This plays completely differently. There is no confrontation/interaction between players apart from blocking another player getting to a space by occupying it yourself.

I love how the card titles help tell the story of the game. But having multi use cards that you have to decide when to stop using them for their ability and turn them into say an upgrade for the mech, a solved mission or meld a piece of meteorite is a cool.

There is also having to know when to do a refresh action to move cards from your activated area back to your hand. It’s a tough decision. It’s all you do on a turn. But the payoff is getting a powerful next turn. Although I did find it more useful doing the refresh action on a tile instead once one was revealed.

Being able to utilise not only your Commander and their animal companions abilities, but also your mechs is really important. I played Olga with Changa, naturally. I also had the highlander mech which meant I could put gained cards straight into my hand.

If Marcin hadn’t triggered the end of the game I would have on my next turn. Marcin also went on to win as well. But the point difference between us was from him having vanquished more corruption than me.

I had a blast playing Expeditions and can’t wait to play it again. I think this will be finding a place in my top 10 games.

A New Campaign A New Beginning

Charterstone, Game day, Stonemaier Games

Literally five years to the day since I last played Charterstone we started a new campaign.

There had been a failed attempt to play the game during the pandemic using the digital version. It’s embarrassing how quickly that fell apart.

This new campaign was with Ben’s copy of the game. The other difference being instead of a four player game we were going to be playing at the full player count of six players.

Sadly life put a scupper on that so it was for this session anyway down to five players.

I really enjoyed returning to the world of Charterstone. My only regret about my previous adventures there are that we didn’t finish the journey. Which has got me thinking I wonder if Jonathan would be interested in returning to finish what we started? I’m pretty sure Diego and Jeff would be up for it.

We managed to get the first two games of the campaign played. And yes games are that quick.

Our first game saw Ben hording assistants and getting ridiculous bonuses when he did stuff. So it wasn’t surprising that Ben won that game. However I did managed to achieve two of the round objectives, plus hit my goal of hitting the thirty point mark. That was important because that meant I could fill in three stars towards getting a reward. You get to fill in one star for each ten points you have. The stars are also worth ten points each at the end of the game. This first game also saw me not build a single building. Although I did open a crate.

Game two saw us carry over everything from game one. So Ben was starting with a massive assistant advantage.

However that didn’t translate into a win this time. That honour went to Jeff. As Charlene and Jeff unlocked minions the rest of us were starting to feel left out. Luckily the crate I opened in game two also gave me a golem minion. Once again I managed to hit the thirty point marker. Plus build three buildings. We all had started developing our charters.

Game three is going to be very interesting. Ben won’t have his big assistant advantage. All of us bar Jeff can carry over an extra item of our choosing (I chose an extra resource). Plus we have more powerful buildings out in our charters. Oh and I nearly forgot peril tokens were unlocked by Charlene.

We finished off the session with a game of Vaalbara.

A very nice card game which I’ll talk about another day. It’s hot and I need to cool down

Despite the heat, it was another great afternoon gaming with great friends. I look forward to our next game (or two) in the campaign.

Which Wingspan Expansion Should I get?

expansions, Stonemaier Games, Wingspan

With the imminent release of the third expansion Wingspan Asia for Wingspan I thought I’d give my ill informed opinion on which of the expansions to get.

Please remember I’m not a reviewer, I don’t get early access. So I’m basically saying I haven’t played Wingspan Asia yet. So my opinion on that at the moment is based on currently released information such as the rulebook.

Also please remember I do not play games solo. So I won’t be making any comment about the Automata. Besides with the app why would I play it solo with the Automata with all that setup?

I’m also not going to mention the Swift expansion as that is included in every copy of Wingspan now. It was only released as a separate expansion for those of us that had an early printing of the game.

My final disclaimer these are not in-depth looks at each expansion, they are brief summaries hopefully justifying why I selected that particular expansion for that particular thing you are looking to add to Wingspan.

I want a great engine builder…

Wingspan the million plus selling hit board game.

Ok technically not an expansion.

I really like this game. I think it’s still Jonathan’s all time favourite game (it’s not it’s in his top two!). I haven’t done my paired comparisons for a while to determine my top ten list, but I’d be surprised if this was outside my top five.

I’ve played the game with all player counts (except solo – see previous comment above about this). I’ll never ever play Wingspan at five players again. There is too much downtime, it takes forever to play. It’s just not an enjoyable experience. The sweet spot is three or four players.

I love how your actions get more powerful but you get less of them as the game progresses.

Great theme, beautiful looking game, easy to teach. Ticks all the boxes.

I just want more of the same…

You have Wingspan and just want more. The European expansion gives you just that.

It adds more birds to the game. European birds naturally, an extra card tray for storage, purple eggs, bonus cards, goal tiles, food tokens, etc.

There are a “variety of new powers, including “round end” powers, powers that increase interaction between players, birds that can cover multiple spaces to make future actions more profitable, and birds that benefit from excess cards/food.” I consider these minor changes to the game. And not nearly as big game changer as my answer to the next bit.

I want to shake things up a little…

With the introduction of the Oceania expansion the core game play hasn’t changed. But we get a new food type nectar, new player boards, new dice, plus the usual more eggs, cards, etc.

This expansion is a much bigger impact on game play, although in my opinion not a massive one, with the nectar.

It changes things up, adds new end gaming scoring opportunities, makes it “easier” to get birds out.

If you had to get only one expansion…

This was a hard one to answer, but in the end I think it has to be the Oceania expansion for the same reasons I gave above.

I only play two player…

You can play Wingspan as a two player game. And it’s perfectly fine as a two player game.

However the new Asia expansion “is a stand-alone game for 1 player or 2 players (Duet mode).” That comes with everything (“1 duet map, 6 goal tiles, 30 duet tokens”, tokens, dice, player mats, etc) for two players.

Obviously I’ve not played it two player yet. But if I only played two player, or the majority of my gaming was two player, then this is the version I’d get. In fact I will be buying this as Nathan’s Christmas present.

I want to play with more than 5 players! Why?

I think we know from previous comments in this post where I stand on playing five player Wingspan.

So imagine my horror to see “A new Flock mode is also included to expand the base game of Wingspan up to 6 or 7 players”.

To support this new mode of play the expansion includes a “1 turn-order dial, 1 round-end goal board”.

Be warned “Plan for a Flock mode game to last about 2 hours on your first try—longer if there are inexperienced players in your group.”

I obviously don’t know how long a “normal” game with experienced players takes in Flock mode, but it does “require 2 simultaneous active players to speed up gameplay…” But I’m guessing it won’t be much under two hours.

I don’t know how this plays naturally. You know I’ll try this once. I’m a sucker for punishment.

However if you want to play Wingspan at the higher player counts this is the way to go.

Or you can…

Just do as I do get them all (obviously not the Asia expansion but it will be added), shuffle all the cards together and play with everything.

Ok the draw decks are massive (especially sleeved)! So I normally select one of the card trays (until the storage box comes out the current available expansions just about fit in the trays sleeved) and that is the one we play with that game.

The big advantage is that with (currently) 356 cards the likely hood of the ravens being a problem is greatly reduced.

For a new expansion I’d get a random 180 cards and mix in the new cards so I get to play with the new cards. I’d only do this once I’ve played a new expansion a couple of times.

I suppose this everything in, including the kitchen sink approach should be given a name. Let’s call it Ultimate Wingspan. Although cluster mode might be appropriate.

Well I hope the above has helped.