Insta-Impressions are a series of raw initial observations about games over on our Instagram account. Not intended to be highly complex or nearly as comprehensive as our standard reviews, these offer up visually fun and timely feedback of games hitting our table that may take months to get reviewed in full, if ever.
Happy Friday! September has been really challenging to get games to the table – as we had feared – due to busy day jobs and a new internship. Still, we’ve stole some time when we can to try out some out. We’ve amassed our assortment of Instagram-based mini observations of games played over the last week to share with you here. You can see more of these and other photos on Instagram.
Stockpile: Continuing Corruption
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKjKollh90i
Ryan: I have to second Erin. Stockpile does a decent job being a Gateway-level economic game about the stock market, but the expansion modules deepen the experience by adding some mild complexity and variability. The dice module makes the market more swingy, forcing players to sell more often, while the bonds give you some long term planning potential.
The commodities are also a nice touch, giving you more to fight over when picking stocks. Continuing Corruption really seems to flesh the game out nicely without complicating or diluting the game’s original selling point. Hard to see how you’d play without it going forward, really.
Inis
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKl2Z1iBdhl
Ryan: I really enjoyed my first full playthrough of Inis. I only got a short version at Gen Con previously, but I like what it does. The combination of (mostly) easy to follow rules keeps the understanding of it light, and using card drafting to determine your actions for the round is both highly strategic and offers dynamic decision-making. I also personally really appreciate the 80’s style RPG artwork and Celtic themes depicted, making this area control game quite endearing from a mechanical and flavor standpoint.
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