Anxious for more content...? Dont think that's going to happen for a long time, if ever.

I think either can be a viable strategy depending on what you're going for/what cards come up. The randomness ensures it isn't as formulaic as 'this strategy always wins'

Is that really fair? It certainly might give other people a chance to buy the game from the 'new' company, but those that helped bring it into existence, will in all likeliness not get a copy.

YES!!! I'm glad someone else gets this 😊

The facts are not lying: what you are saying is not right. A die with a value 6 is always better than the one with a 1, because there is no action on the board that gives you a better benefit with a lower than a higher value. That means that it can be very useful to pick a die with a 6 from somebody else, but why should I do that with a 1? And if it was difficult to get those expeditions tokens than you are right with saying that the color is important, but all these rounds it depends on the dice that were coming from the bag and the experts and animal cards. And you can get those tokens enough in the game. And it also had nothing to do with strategy, because I have no idea what is coming the next turn. That means that it is a tactical game that creates a lot of AP and with a dice system that suggested that you have think very hard about the choices: "Shall I take that yellow 6 and give her 3 points?". Come on: in a 200+ point-game that isn't a reasonable choice.

thanks for the KS alert 😮

You did not just put this above Ark Nova...... 👿

@@TheBrokenMeeple Just hoping the set collection stuff gets resolved in Ark Nova with the expansion and I'll be extremely happy with it. As it is - yah 8 is about right for it too.

Same here, GAH is much more fun to me personally. This one fell pretty flat for me sadly.

I love Encyclopedia but I'll have to look into GAH if it does things better.

@@roseability86 GAH is SO good!

I'm a big fan of GAH personally.

No, most of the time 3 or 4. But there is also a difference speaking about the more classic ones and the more multiplayer solitaire ones that comes out these days.

Just scroll till you see the scores pop up on the bottom of the screen. That’s what I do

@@uplift-yourdailypickup6424 yep I know that

No, this isn't going to happen, sorry. I already think people put too much faith in a number. You should listen to our thoughts WITH the score. Sure, you can scroll to just the number if you want, but I'm not going to make it easy for you. :)

@@thedicetower that’s fine I’ll fast forward when I need to. Btw I don’t watch for the number (don’t really care) but I like the short summaries at the end when I don’t have a lot of time.

@thedicetower I agree with this thinking. Numbers mean different things to different people. Some people think 5s are average. Others think 7 is. Some people think 10s represent the best games out there. Others think 10s mean perfection and so will never use them. And on, and on. It's a decent barometer to show whether a game is good, mediocre, poor, whatever, but as you say, your comments are far more valuable

Also, it's the same "issue" in Troyes/Black Angel - but perhaps he doesn't like those either. I remember needing to flip one of my dice in BA in order to complete a mission, but then another player took it - and you cannot flip the dice you "steal" so I could not use one of his dice to do the same.

@@TorIverWilhelmsen I haven't played BA, but Troyes is one of my favorites. I've played Encyclopedia 3 times and I agree with the general thought that the dice "stealing" in this game is inconsequential. The similarity of being able to take another player's dice with Troyes ends there. In Troyes, your dice pool varies based upon the number of citizens you have. The ability to take more than 1 dice, with each one being more expensive if from another player, leads to more tension in the game and has greater effect. There is also the ability to pass early hoping to collect more money and/or deny your opponent the money. Tom's way to change how this mechanic works in Encyclopedia would streamline Encyclopedia but if implemented with Troyes, would destroy the soul of Troyes.

@@TorIverWilhelmsen Sorry, but that conclusion is absolutely not right. In Troyes you can win with less dice than your opponent for example and the dices with a lower value can be very useful to kick someone out of a row to have a die more in the next round. In this game there is no place on the board that gives a 1 a better effort than a 6! Better said: there are 2 place that otherwise a 6 is absolutely more useful than a lower value. And another very important thing: if you take a die in Troyes from someone else, you have to paid more if it's your second or third one of the group. And that mathematic Delta by paying money that you loose and the other one gets is very well balanced. In Encyclopedia you can get 3 points in a 200+ points game: that's not really a reasonable choice. Also the character cards are very important to make that you can win or lose the game.

What do you mean different sets mean nothing? I don't understand what you're trying to say there tbh.

@@roseability86 as in the symbols you score points for, it doesn't matter what ones you pick, just don't diversify

@@TheBrokenMeeple It does! In my 4th game, I decided to try to get the largest sets for end game scoring. I went for low scoring ones but tons of them and lost the game against 3(!) other players - two of whom had never played. I got tons of points at the end but I'd lost out on the larger points for researching and publishing because I focused on matching continent (blue) and food or something. It wasn't enough to make back all the points other people had collected in game by researching and publishing fewer larger scoring. Granted 3 of us scored closely together but my husband won with 50 more points than me. I have beaten him comfortably in other games of Encyclopedia. Maybe this holds true if you collect sets of the larger scoring research and publication symbols (habitat I think?), but that may not be possible depending on cards and that's why it's tricky to become an expert in something and the end game scoring rewards you for it. TL;DR: the symbols collected definitely mattered a great deal in our 4 player game.

50 points is nothing in a game where the score counter goes over 300-400. But the main issue with the generic sets is that each game is literally "pick one or two sets and a colour and spam it". Preferably a low and a high one. Each one functions the same other than its score value.

So anyone who doesn't like the game is unreasonable? 🤔 Let's not insult others for having differing tastes please.

Wholeheartedly agree!

@@thecuriousboardgamer But it's so fun to argue about games and stuff!

I don't think Tom meant, "just take other's dice for the sake of taking it." Rather take the best die available because the benefit to the other player is small and eventually it gets neutered by someone else having to take your die anyways. Sure, you "pay" others but they will likely "pay" you back. It's a poor attempt at introducing player interaction resulting in unnecessary AP that could have been streamlined in a way he suggested. Also, let's not trivialize it to "it's a matching game." The publication action is not a simple match to the reference animal and be done: 1) The value of the die determines what types you can publish. 2) You don't need to match completely but if you can and decide to publish at least one type to remove a cube from a card then the other cubes are removed. 3) If you decide to publish the matching Type 0 (Continent), then that can be part of your set collection. However, if you "match" a cube in 2) but don't match Type 0, then you can't collect the card. Yes, there's matching. But I would say the scoring and collection part is convoluted. At least in my group, the publication action trips people the most on. On the positive side, you really only need to do it 1-2 times the entire game to do well. Actually, I would argue you should only do it 1-2 times.

All four of us, who had different opinions?

I totally disagree with you. A 6 is always better in this game than a 1 and you need those higher numbers especially for the 2 more difficult actions lower on the board.

@@hansharleman590 Not always. Unless you can/want to use a token to change the colour of a die, then expedition actions, taking an animal from the matching continent, and possibly even publication actions (haven't played for a while but think that's correct) are not possible unless you use the correct coloured die. Furthermore, you get a bonus free expert for using a matching colour die. In ALL of those instances, there is incentive to choose a lower die of the correct colour than a 6 of the wrong one. Besides, you can use any die to get 5 coins from the bank.

@@roseability86YES ALWAYS! Because there is no place on the board that gives you a higher benefit when you put there a die of a lower value. And otherwise there are 4 places where a 6 gives more and the other 2 doesn´t matter, but if I take your die you don´t have the opportunity to do the other 4 options. So the conclusion is: a 6 is always better than a 1! I take your 6 and go to the embassy and get 3 expeditions tokens: colour problem solved! And the bonuses that you get if someone else takes your die is also not so interesting if you were thinking at first sight. 3 Points in a game with more than 200 points is not something you have to think about very hard. The only real interesting thing in this game is your track, but that's it. Conclusion: 99 out of 100 in a round everyone is first using the dice with a higer value for the actions 4, 5 and 6 and those with a lower value for the actions 1, 2 and 3. Alex of Talking Shelf Space did a great and interesting review of the game.

@@hansharleman590 thats not true. color matters so much. I sometime rather take a 1 than using my 6, bc the one is the color i need. So you dont need expedition tokens to change that. Coins for changing the value is much easier to get. That was the point Tom was so wrong when he said, the higher value the better. Thats false. We played this game like 25 times since we got it in November and there has been no game where we only drafted the high values. Also we never put the dice from lowest to highest on our board, you really should think what the other players may want or need. Im starting to feel that Tom, Mike and Wendy didnt play it right or didnt see the nuances in this game mechanism.

@@MarkBuschhausYes, ofcourse it´s the true otherwise I don´t write it down overhere. Color isn´t so much important as I wrote above, because it depends on the dice in play. I played this game with 3 and with 4 and the color issue wasn't there at all for the players. But it took both times more than 4 hours to end the game, because of the AP-created way they make it even as it looks an easy game. And Tom is not wrong saying the higher value is always better: I explain it above. None of the 6 actions on the board give your a better effort with a lower value die than a higer value die! It has absolutely not the class and depth like dice games as Troyes, Grand Austria Hotel, La Granja, Golem, Marco Polo and Coimbra for example.