Second Wind Games

by Ben M

Youtube Video

This week on Game Brain we discussed, for lack of a better term, second wind games. These are titles that we wrote off at some point and then revisited much later only to find that they had more value than we originally had given them credit for. Here's the rundown:

00:00 - Intro
00:06 - Legacies
26:11 - Avalon
29:14 - El Grande
34:14 - Franchise
39:31 - TOPIC: Second Wind Games
41:51 - Modern Art
46:26 - Imperium Horizons
54:37 - Dune Imperium
01:02:22 - Android: Netrunner
01:08:42 - Black Angel
01:14:26 - A Feat for Odin
01:17:49 - Gold West
01:19:55 - Boonlake
01:22:06 - Great Western Trail: Argentina
01:30:40 - Skymines
01:39:48 - City of the Big Shoulders


Here's some elaboration on a few second wind games I mentioned on the podcast.

Black Angel
This is not an amazing game, but it's also not a bad game. I think the crush of "Troyes-in-space" hype really cobbled Black Angel's chances for being viewed on its own terms. The game is messy, convoluted, and overstuffed with systems. But also... pretty fun! There's a lot of stuff to try out, and I theoretically would like to pull all the levers. I'm just not sure there's anyone to do it with me. And, quite frankly, there are other games with more interesting levers I'd like to pull first. Nevertheless, Black Angel is better than I remembered and might just crawl its way into my heart. We'll see.

Boonlake
I missed the initial Boonlake window with my group. Before I had gotten a chance to send my boat down the river, my friends had all played it and shrugged it off. I chalked it up to them not being big Pfister fans. After all, how could this game be a dud? It has everything I could want: tableau building, engine building, shared incentives, light Roads & Boats elements. But when I finally played it, I begrudgingly agreed. My first two plays - both at 2 players - lacked some sort of X-factor. I couldn't put my finger on it.

But maybe that x-factor was simply more people. I finally got a 4 player game in (with the Artifacts expansion), and the game truly came alive for me. It at last gave me all the Pfister feels - tough decisions, exciting combos, fascinating interaction. Happy that this turned around for me.

Great Western Trail: Argentina
Spoiler: this is the second of three Pfister games on this list. I suppose some of his games are late bloomers for me. Anyway, the first few times I played Argentina, I enjoyed it, but I felt the added systems of boats and grain and deliveries all felt nonintuitive and fussy. They detracted from the core joys of GWT with their finicky rules (it truly is a nightmare describing which boat leaves when and getting people to remember the rules about exhaustion cards). Recently, however, I played Argentina, and it was like all the hinky rules and messiness finally just gelled in my brain. I could play the game rather than navigate the rules, and this made the experience wildly fun. I do still believe Argentina suffers from its fiddly rules, but I no longer think it's merely an okay game. Sometimes concepts just need to percolate, and that's what happened for me here.

Skymines
I never quite connected with Mombasa. It's a game that I appreciated (minus its problematic theme) and even enjoyed, but I never felt the "tingles" - that warming sensation that what your playing is actually the most fun thing you could be doing in the world at that moment. Still, the game was good enough that I upgraded to Skymines and gave it another shot.

Holy crap how was I sleeping on this game??! I ADORE Skymines. I want to play it all the time now. I don't know how or why these systems never popped for me because they certainly do now. Maybe it's the subtle tweaks in Skymines: the integration of the Cooked Books expansion. the less restrictive rules about discard piles, the new asteroid map? Or maybe I've grown as a player. I can say one thing: it's definitely not the art which is bland at best and actually an impediment at worst (the graphic design on the cards - why? WHY??). Anyway, I'm not here to take jabs at the presentation. I'm thrilled that this beloved game has finally sync'd up with my brain.

Franchise
I bought Franchise in 2018 or so, and I played it once. It was fine. I enjoyed the decisions in this streamlined area control game, but I wouldn't say the game really blew me away. Six years later, with space on my shelves at a premium, I decided I may need to toss Franchise. But it didn't feel fair to chuck it after one play; so I brought it to the Game Brain crew to give it one last whirl, and I am *so* glad I did. This game will probably never leave my collection. Franchise may have simple rules, but the decision tree it presents is thick and delightful. It's perfect for new gamers and seasoned ones alike. Can't wait to keep bringing this to the table.

Dune Imperium
People love this game. I do not. But also I had a terrible teach from a very nice person who just didn't seem to actually understand the rules. The result: a herky jerky session that was brutally unfun. It's not fair to judge a game by one play, especially if we weren't even using the right rules. But I was so miserable that I just never wanted to go near the game again. I still haven't. Now there's talk that Uprising is actually fantastic; so I think I'm ready to purge the old memory and dive into this one. Will it be a second wind game? I'm not sure. But for the sake of personal growth, I hope so!

What are soem games you wrote off that you later came to really enjoy?