After a whopping miss on everything last week, I felt a bit discouraged. But it also took some crazy end game antics and Deshaun Watson having one of his worst games as a pro, so hopefully my luck evens out a bit this week. Trying something a bit new this week as well, plots of the expected scoring distributions. I'm going to mess with some of the axes a bit for next season, but for now each game is binned into rough 5 points. Its a bit large so I put them after the jump.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
NBA Power Rankings Jan 9th 2019
The Bucks remain atop the rankings, but things are starting to close up a bit here as the Celtics find a rhythm and the Raptors just keep winning. Everyone seems to be pretty well clustered together in the West, making some Teams like the Jazz stand out nearer the top than their 9 seed currently place them, but they've played a tough schedule and play every game tight.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Game Review: Unearth!
Our game group is rolling again now that the holidays are finished, and we started off the year with a gem of a game from Brotherwise Games, Unearth Its difficult to classify the type of game, because it contains a little bit of everything in it. Working placement, dice rolling, set collection and hand building. The theme of the game though is clear. You're in charge of a team of delvers, as they excavate ruins to help build your civilization.
Game play is fairly straight forward. Each turn, you will be able to play one of your special Delver cards (examined more a bit later) and then pick a Ruins to excavate and roll one die on it. Each Ruins card has a score that needs to be matched or exceeded before the winner can claim the ruin, and the player with the highest die on the RUins gets to claim it. Other players who have a die on the card when it gets scored get to draw a Delver card for each die they have on the card.
This might sound like having the high roll is all that matters, but its not. Each Ruins also starts out with a number of stones tokens on them, which a player can claim if they a 1, 2, or a 3. These stones can then be arranged to build monuments, which either offer some special ability (like being able to draw delver cards even if you don't have a die at a finished Ruins) or victory points. Players will need 6 stones to complete a monument, with some having specific requirements (like 4 Red stones). You build off your hex of stones as well, so placement of stones together can help you finish more monuments,
The Delver cards give you extra abilities during your turn. Some will let you re-roll die on a card, while others let you roll extra die or increase a die face. These cards really do add variety to the game, and allow the players some real strategic spots to be able to possibly win a Ruins they were trailing on or steal some stones they need to finish a particular monument.
The game gets scored via set collection. The more ruins of the same color you're able to collect, the better the pont value for that set. There are some bonuses for getting one ruins of each color as well.
Overall this game was a huge hit with our group. Its deep enough that you will be challenged to find optimal plays and to track whats going on, but not so complex as to cause a lot of analysis paralysis. Our turns went quickly and noone felt like they had to sit and think too hard, since most of it came down to planning to finish a Ruins or shooting to roll low to get a key stone. The different monuments and overall mechanics of the dice rolling also lend to each game being pretty fresh, since its unlikely you'll get certain combinations time and time again. The Delver cards really help to insure players can be on an even footing as well, so the game does not snowball as I've seen too many set collecting games do. And the hex stones for the monuments add in a bit of spatial reasoning to the game, so there really is something for everyone. A definite good purchase if you can find it.
Game play is fairly straight forward. Each turn, you will be able to play one of your special Delver cards (examined more a bit later) and then pick a Ruins to excavate and roll one die on it. Each Ruins card has a score that needs to be matched or exceeded before the winner can claim the ruin, and the player with the highest die on the RUins gets to claim it. Other players who have a die on the card when it gets scored get to draw a Delver card for each die they have on the card.
This might sound like having the high roll is all that matters, but its not. Each Ruins also starts out with a number of stones tokens on them, which a player can claim if they a 1, 2, or a 3. These stones can then be arranged to build monuments, which either offer some special ability (like being able to draw delver cards even if you don't have a die at a finished Ruins) or victory points. Players will need 6 stones to complete a monument, with some having specific requirements (like 4 Red stones). You build off your hex of stones as well, so placement of stones together can help you finish more monuments,
The Delver cards give you extra abilities during your turn. Some will let you re-roll die on a card, while others let you roll extra die or increase a die face. These cards really do add variety to the game, and allow the players some real strategic spots to be able to possibly win a Ruins they were trailing on or steal some stones they need to finish a particular monument.
The game gets scored via set collection. The more ruins of the same color you're able to collect, the better the pont value for that set. There are some bonuses for getting one ruins of each color as well.
 |
| Ruins with dice and our monument choices |
Monday, January 7, 2019
NBA Predictions Jan 7 to Jan 13th 2019
This week features some great games, with sadly the bets game in the West coming the same night as the College Football championship with the Nuggets traveling to Houston. The East also has an early week match up to watch as the Pacers visit the Celtics.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
NFL Wild Card Weekend Picks 2019
Here we are at Wildcard weekend. All of the matchups shoudl be fun, with the home teams all reasonably favored. The Cowboys are in the most trouble, and I think Id rather pick the Seahawks to advance here.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
NFL Power Rankings End of the Regular Season 2018-2019
We've hit the end of the regular season and its time now for a final look at how everyone stacked up. The Steelers are the ebst team to have missed the playoffs, after just a frustrating finish to their season. A team that seemed to well poised to be at the top just squandered too many opportunities. The Cowboys won the NFC East but will likely be home dogs to the Seahawks as the program makes its picks.
NBA Predictions Jan 2nd to Jan 6th 2019
New Year, new predictions. Not really so new, but updated for this week after having to rearrange some travel dates due to the weather. A surprisingly good Kings team looks to dethrone the Nuggets on Thursday, while the Warriors and Rockets square off. Friday has a game with the Bucks and Hawks that should be excellent blowout potential, but also has a very close game with the THunder and Blazers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)