Blood Rage might be a little underbalanced on some cards but perhaps that's mitigated with experience. It's hilarious how often a huge Yggsdrasil fight can just wipe out all units leaving no winner. I can see this becoming an exceedingly tight and gritty slugfest when everyone knows the cards backward and forward...which is possible! I'm not going to say no to this game. We had a come from behind Third Age victory when he played an upgrade that doubled all quest points for himself...like I said, possibly a little underbalanced but this might quell SUSD's chief complaint.
Alas, our playthrough of Rex was aborted by our too-quick player who deployed units in three fortress spaces unopposed. Really?
Cyclades is every bit the classic I thought it was going to be. Basing the win condition on dynamic actions instead of another victory point race means the game goes as long as the number of players who are awake. No one's going to let you get away with buying four Philosopher cards if they can help it, for example. In our game, my brother built a metropolis under everyone's noses--suddenly, the game became more tense and swingy, like a good football game. Two more players built their cities, a few battles were fought, and someone won only because I biffed it and missed the city he was about to finish. This could have been avoided if I bid for my god by one less coin! There's a very organic co-op feel that develops as players pile up against more developed opponents. I found myself getting a breath of air once the game snapped to a finish. All this in addition to the ridiculous back and forth fun that is bidding for gods. Must play again.
Only got through a little bit of Kemet before heading out. The goofy Egypt-punk theme lends itself well to the urgent pace set by placing victory points all over the place, particularly by just bull-rushing your opponents. You can defeat your opponent while taking more blows and you can recall all your troops regardless of battle outcome, so you get a lot of scenes that would fit well in a GI Joe/Transformers cartoon. "We'll be baaaaaaack," hisses Megatron Sobek, "Return to my siiiide, miiiinnniiioonnsss!!" Matagot could have just gone with another God of War theme like for Cyclades but they really went over the wall into a really crazy, creative space for this game. The mechanics and the theme are of a piece.