The Jon Yonce

🎺 Ska_Baron around the internets 🎲 Board Game Designer 🐅Calvin & Hobbes Scholar ☮️ Enneagram 9w1 (he/him)

[Clint Warren-Davey @Clint_Davey1]

I like this little bit of advice in the rules for Triumph and Tragedy.

It's a block game with hidden units. The game tells you to assume that your opponent is honestly following the rules when they move their units.

If you can't assume this honesty, you're playing "the wrong game with the wrong person."

[Clint Warren-Davey @Clint_Davey1]

In my opinion, Twilight Imperium is the best board game in the world.

Why?

For me, it delivers the most fun per unit of time invested and the most peak gaming experiences.

Here are some of the things that make it so good:

-Epic scale, but playable within a day. 5 to 6 hours is enough to play to completion. Within those 5-6 hours you will have a ton of battles, maneuvering, trash-talking, negotiating, threats, etc. Several players will look like they're winning and then get betrayed by an ally, all the awesome roller-coaster of emotions you should get from a multi-player strategy game.

-The inter-faction dynamics are just complicated enough to make you think while still being simple enough for new players to pick up. Trade and Commodities are a great example. You have Commodities that are useless to you but flip over into valuable Trade tokens when you send them to another player. Gives you a strong and obvious reason to interact with other players. In our group, we set up trade deals where we regularly swap Commodities each round and keep ships parked next to each other's planets to facilitate this. Then one partner in the trade deal inevitably defects when the timing is right!

-Battle system is buckets of dice but resolves reasonably quickly. The relationships between units are cool and reminiscent of WW2 Pacific theatre naval warfare. Tons of fighters is the most efficient combat power, but you need carriers to transport them and Destroyers can still shred them. Those Carriers in turn are weak and take up spots in your precious fleet stacking limit. The stacking limit means expensive, powerful ships like Dreadnoughts or Cruisers are still extremely useful. You might send a single fast Cruiser to secure a planet or trade with another player, or a single Dreadnought with an Infantry to take a planet. Every unit has a use.

-Lots of factions, each with lots of unique abilities. It's not completely asymmetric like Root (different sets of rules for each faction) but the unique technologies, abilities and units keep it spicy. My favourite faction ability is the Brotherhood of Yin flagship, which blows up everything in the same space when it's destroyed. So it's a giant kamikaze battleship. Cool.

-The victory conditions are quick to explain and force you to pursue lots of different strategies. You just need 10 victory points, a nice round number that's easy to remember. You get these from secret objectives and public objectives. These relate to combat, area control, technology, having specific kinds of planets and many other aspects of the game. So, you don't win just by fighting battles and it's possible for a player to come from behind at the end of the game and catch up by pursuing their secret objectives.

-The action economy, partially inspired by the classic euro game Puerto Rico, encourages a lot of player interaction. You choose a strategy card, use the primary action then every other player can use the secondary action. You're always jumping in on someone else's turn. Cuts out a lot of downtime.

There's much more to the game than this - you really need to play it to understand the appeal. It remains my number 1 game and I haven't found another game that gives the same experience.

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@Justin_Gary Really great episode! Been wrestling with a lot of this over the last 5 years, so it was great to hear about your journey. 🤘

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@Clint_Davey1 Any other games to look into that use contested areas well?

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@MoreGamesPls As someone who works in non-gaming digital marketing, I’m curious what buckets your work falls into.

[Millington @Millingtweets]

Ska.
Pass it on

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@Clint_Davey1 Runewars and Game of Thrones give similar vibes, I’d say. I’ve only played them both once though.

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@Clint_Davey1 Would love to get some of your recommendations for book games you’ve seen/enjoyed!

[The Unpublished Games Network @TheUnpub]

Here it is, hot off the interweb presses!

Come get all your info for Unpub @ PAX Unplugged!

https://t.co/C8EgUDlLoZ

Don't forget to bring Blüdle a cheesesteak!

✂️🎲

[Secretary Pete Buttigieg @SecretaryPete]

We're working on the future of America's passenger rail system—funding high-speed rail projects in the West and expanding service for communities across the country. Get your ticket to ride!

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@logodaedalus Yes - with reading, music and playing games.

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@WinsmithGames Hope you have a fun and productive time!

[VisualPine @TheVisualPine]

Me ma and my best friend put up some donations this morning!
So close to the goal I can taste it.
How much can we raise for these kids before Friday?

[Geoff Engelstein @gengelstein]

Geoff’s Law: Your game is more complicated than you think, even when you take into account Geoff’s Law.

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

Things are getting… playtesty 😮

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

Getting things ready for this coming Saturdaaaaay!

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

Looking forward to getting in as much playtesting in as possible for not 1, not 2, but 3 designs! 😮

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@ZintisMay Sadly won’t be making it to the big UnPub this time around. But we ARE hosting another small one down in VA in April if you’re so inclined! 😄

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@Dinasaidso1 @stuffByBez @ReinerKnizia @thunderworksgam King of Tokyo! …if they’re cool with player elimination that is

[The Jon Yonce @jonyonce]

@MoreGamesPls I keep trying to find an answer that isn’t Twilight Imperium. But I can’t. And that’s okay.