sounds like you need a brutal adversary to get your counter move strategies on point though, when played at maximum efficiency, where every move you make intentionally advances your strategy, or interferes with your opponent, the games become much more complex. sure your opponent might go for a big fat hut drop, but if they cant get their towers or temples out, and run out of huts, they lose. you just cant get so focussed on your own building strategy that you forget about countering your opponents strategy. even the direction the lava flows can alter gameplay, or take an avantage your opponent was hoping to gain away and shift it to your advantage instead. the game is one of my favorites for that reason, it is easy to get people into, and once you find someone that really gets it, the mission becomes a back and forth duel where the winner is always the one with the strategy the other player didnt notice, or hadn't figured out a counter for.

I am still recording on that same table too, but you can't tell due to the tablecloth :)

I thought about it, though I just don't have much interest in getting this game out anymore so it's probably not worth the money to me. 5 players sounds kind of interesting, but I worry that it would be too much happening between turns to really control a strategy. If you don't own the game already, i think you should totally go for the deluxe, a big part of the allure to this game is how it looks on the table :)

deluxe is awesome, taluva is awesome, deluxe taluva is compounded awesome.

I cover this at the 9:55 mark

very much hoping you have found a buddy to play with. i would say you could have a decent time playing it by yourself, but i always found that the game is more compelling with two people (especially when both players are really into figuring out new strategies) its not so much that you wouldnt be able to come up with a bunch of stategies on your own, but having an opponent that comes up with things you hadnt thought of yet tends to really help get you thinking outside of the box with the rules of the game. whenever i describe taluva to someone i say it is a game with a handful of rules that mostly indicate what you are not allowed to do. it is then your job to figure out what you ARE allowed to do, and how to use those legal moves to your advantage. which is already a fairly abstract enough that coming up with one or two strategic moves that arent mentioned in the game manual feels awesome, but doing that against someone who is thinking about other methods of bending the game mechanics to their will just adds a level of zest that i dont think would be possible in solo play.

Unfortunately I played Java so long ago that I don't remember enough to give you a comparison.

+Kjelstad Awesome, I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for commenting, it led me to re-watch this video (which was my first ever). Interesting to see how things have changed over the last 2 years.

A long time ago!