Lesezeit: 11 Minuten Tsukuyumi Special – Marc. All good things come in threes. After Marco and Uwe were at the start, we continue with Marc, the crazy clowns and seven sisters. Off to the moon.

May I introduce: Tsukuyumi Special – Marc

Brett & Pad: Hello Marc, old heavy metal freak – you have some pretty great hobbies. Tell us a bit about the private Marc and his passion for board games, whisky and heavy metal.

Marc: I got into heavy metal through my sister’s boyfriend. He once recorded a cassette of ballads for me. From then on, I started looking at covers, buying LPs or having friends record them onto cassettes. Now it ranges from soft to heavy.

There was a phase when everyone somehow only drank wine, preferably red wine. So I thought to myself: You do something different. Off I went to the department store and bought two bottles of whisky. A Laphroaig 10 and a Glenfiddich 15 as well as a book about whisky. Anyone who has tasted these two whiskies knows how wide the range of tastes can be.

Then I discovered that the VHS Trier offers whisky tastings and took part a few times. I was then „lost“ by a mysterious advertisement in our newspaper. There was a cell phone number and a note that it was a whisky get-together and that you could find out the time and place by calling. It turned out to be less mysterious than expected. Since then, I’ve been a regular at the „Trier Whisky Stammtisch“. Unfortunately, my collection has also expanded considerably as a result.

A passion for board games: Well, I half suffer from fomo. If I wanted something, I had to go all-in, of course. That says something about the board game „suffering“, because at least the account is complaining. But luckily I’ve „calmed down“ and only rarely go for it. Ok, I can never get past Awaken Realms, but you have to be a fan.

Brett & Pad: You are still relatively new to this round of players. What do you like about this round and the constellation?

Marc: Yes and no. I know Marco, Uwe and Michael from before. Marco and Uwe from Magic times. We used to meet up from time to time to play board games, but that kind of fell asleep, probably because it was a bit difficult for me at the time. Then I bumped into them by chance. They then added me to a What’s App group, with the result that I now sit around with them more often and regularly fight for the last place.

What I like are the very different characters, but they have one great thing in common when it comes to board games. Every evening is always a party. You look forward to meeting up with the others. Not only to talk about buying board games, but also to talk about everyday things. Simply switching off from reality for a few hours and, of course, looking forward to playing. Which game is being played? Is it something new that nobody knows yet? A smash hit? A flop? Even a not-so-good game is bearable in this round, at least once.

Brett & Pad: Ok, if you have to list your 5 favorite games and say why in two sentences, what’s your ranking?

Marc: It looks like this.

• The Great Wall – simply a great semi-cooperative non-standard worker placement game, which in my opinion implements the theme very well and is also simply top quality.
• Brass Lancashire – simply very pleasant to play, not really difficult, but still complex.
• The Edge: Dawnfall – a simply great skirmisher. Plays fast and fluffy and still has a strategic depth. If you are more experienced, you can vary your deck quite a bit. Plus different factions and a campaign. Really big. In the truest sense of the word. Check out the box if you can find it.
• Pax Pamir – Just a pax game. And from Cole Wehrle. In my opinion, he makes very unique games, not always for everyone, but mostly for me. A card-driven area control game with a closed economy and so on.
• Scarface 1920 – Mafia, prohibition, alcohol. Fits. The game is so thematically good that I think it’s hard to beat. It’s great fun for me, but the randomeffect of some cards is too blatant for someone in the group.

Brett & Pad: Do you also like to play solo? That makes you an absolute exotic in our group? Why do you like playing solo? What is your top solo title?

Marc: That was bound to happen. My wife likes to play, but not often. I only joined our group late and then it doesn’t always work out for me. But I just like to play. So I’m probably the odd one out in our group, even though there are very few solo games, thanks to you. The advantage of playing solo: you basically have all the time in the world to think about your move.  I like to play Imperium : Classic or Legends, great in solo mode too. For budding solo players: check out what David Turczi, Rick Royal and the Automa Factory are doing on BGG, they can solo! Or listen to the Solo Manolo podcast

Tsukuyumi

Brett & Pad: Let’s move on to the theme special – Tsukuyumi. Why do you like this type of game?

Marc: It has an incredibly high replay value. The playing field looks different every time, there are dozens of factions that are so different, events are drawn, basically every player can control the oni (unless Markus is playing – somehow he always gets to control the oni and/or decide for them). In short: it’s totally variable, not predictable. Every game really does tell its own epic story.

Brett & Pad: What challenges you the most in Tsukuyumi? Where is the secret of the game hidden?

Marc: You always have to be aware of what your opponents can do. You must also not rush forward too much so that you don’t become the target of everyone else. It’s also challenging that the game can become confusing at times. Depending on the faction, there really are an incredible number of Standees on the playing field. It can be very difficult to keep track of who is represented where and with which units and stats. It’s easy for at least one unit to hide behind a larger Standee version of another unit. The symbols and numbers are also printed in small print and the „selection“ of symbols and their meaning is somewhat unfortunate. The secret of the game is short and simple: it is always completely different, even if everyone chooses the same factions again.

Sisters of Seven & Moon Circus

Brett & Pad: You have now been assigned two factions: The Sisters of Seven and the Moon Circus.Please give us a brief introduction to your two factions and describe what you noticed while playing, what special features and/or difficulties they bring with them?

Marc: You should always read the faction card carefully! The first time I played the Sisters of Seven, I overlooked a damn powerful ability. As defenders, the Sisters can displace one enemy or Oni unit in an adjacent area for each of their own units in the combat area before attacking; the attacker can then only attack with the rest.This is already a powerful feature and brutally slows down opponents.They are simply forced to march in with more units. The Cybear unit is also quite strong, as it restricts options or negates faction effects. And not just in the unit’s territory, but also in adjacent territories. This is a powerful tactical weapon.

The Moon Circus can invade the game from the edge. From anywhere! Wherever they want. This makes them quite unpredictable and causes chaos. The Überclowns are very strong within the Moon Circus.They have two attacks.You have to be careful here, however, as they have to be removed at the end of the round.You have to start a functioning engine here, as it is important that you have enough production points in time to bring them back into play. If there are no overclowns, the Moon Circus will very quickly lose momentum and effectiveness.

Brett & Pad: Marc, we need to go into more depth for a moment. What was your tactic with the Sisters of Seven? How did you try to play to their strength? What is their weak point? And how do you protect yourself against it?

Marc: That’s not so easy to answer with the Sisters. First of all, the basic tactic depends on which faction objective you choose: the printed one (destroy Oni by fighting with Cybear) or the alternative objective (control 5 adjacent alluvial lands at the end of the round). As there are few points to be gained in Tsukuyumi, it is important to fulfill your faction objective.

In the first case you have to use Cybear aggressively, he has to move quite a lot, but his special attack only works against the Onis. If you choose the alluvial target, you can use Cybear defensively and then his powerful trait „technological override“ blossoms completely, driving every other faction to despair. Why? The area with Cybear and all adjacent areas are immune to opposing faction effects, Onis cannot conquer there and „once per turn/game“ cards cannot be played. This brutally slows down many factions. I find the Cybear much stronger as a defensive threatening unit than the Oni-shredding unit.

If someone does manage to fight in the Cybear’s territory, the counters come into play. The Sisters can displace one enemy unit for each of their own units as a defense order before the battle and the attack can then only be carried out with the remaining units. So you can see that the Sisters of Seven are a defensive faction that is difficult to deal with.

For victory points, I try to work with the alluvial land objective. My faction effect allows me to exchange other territories adjacent to an alluvial land I control or to my home territory for my own alluvial lands. I have a set of alluvial lands of my own. So I rely on defensive strength, expansion and laying alluvial land. The best way to do this is for the Cybear to be centrally located and surrounded by alluvial land. This naturally attracts opponents, as this is also the weakness of the Sisters.

I have to move to another area, trigger my faction effect and then be able to control it. So this is relatively slow. At the same time, my units aren’t really strong in combat, so if the defense is breached, the Sisters are relatively helpless. They do little damage and can’t take much. What’s more, my attack cards usually require the presence of certain of my own units in order to be played.

It’s tempting to rush across the board with the Sisters, as they can all fly apart from Cybear and have at least +1 movement, and they can also use this additional movement after the Jumpsuit Attack card.

I try to get around this weakness of the Sisters by spreading out slowly and defensively and always having the Cybear close by. However, if I’m too slow, I won’t achieve my faction objective. Tricky.

Brett & Pad: The Moon Circus is generally regarded as very strong in the forums? How did you win with it? What was your tactic?

Marc: The Moon Circus – Mad Max: Fury Road on Speed. The fairground troupe is dangerous, yes. They seem overpowered at first. They have no home territory and always enter the map from the edge and can be placed in any territory. Without restriction. Then you start the game with almost all the units available to you. That’s 22 units on the game board. That makes for stunned faces. I then distribute these starting units to 6 outlying areas. It doesn’t matter whether you are at the front of the initiative track or at the back. If I’m at the front, most people don’t want to attack the 6 areas because there’s a legion of units there. If I’m at the back, it’s okay, because I can suddenly place my armada in already occupied territories and the balance of power there changes immediately.

Plus the Überclowns: They all have an extra combat action in the red phase, even if my action card does not have a red phase. But: At the end of the round, every Überclown must be removed and you are left without them for the next round. This limits the super units somewhat.

I won because I managed to keep up the pressure. You have to create real stress with them. As the units always come into play from the edge, no player can settle down in their corner and be safe. It’s important for the pressure that you get the Überclowns back into the game. Alluvial lands are not so important, as the Circus can quickly conquer free territories. However, it is important to occupy the production lands. You need powerful production so that you can keep sending Überclowns into the world to cause chaos.

Brett & Pad: If you were to play against the Moon Circus… Which faction would you like to play with? And how do you fight against the Moon Circus?

Marc: Hm, I’ve only played three factions myself so far. The best way to fight the Moon Circus is to defeat the „normal“ clowns. These can be replaced by an Überclown for one production instead of producing an Überclown twice as expensive. So it’s best to eliminate the countless small clowns. Also make sure that the circus does not receive any production lands. The action cards should contain as few production points as possible. You can pass on attacks, as the little clowns are not a real threat. And after an attack, no further movements are possible.

I always find the Chronomasters unpleasant as opponents, as they do what they want in their turn. They don’t care about the phase and this can lead to some unpleasant surprises. The Reef shouldn’t be underestimated either, as it can appear anywhere and also has the burrow ability.

Sisters aren’t too bad either. The Empress has the Nailgun and can shoot at all other areas in a straight line from her location area, dealing 10 damage in each area for each faction. That’s not really a lot, but as the clowns are usually all over the place quickly, they are vulnerable victims with only 10 health points. So if they are not protected by stronger units that can absorb the damage, they are out of the window in no time. So if you take out the normal clowns, firstly the production of the Überclowns becomes more expensive and secondly they can’t appear in the middle of the game through a swap. Otherwise: Grit your teeth on the clowns too! Who wants them again, who hasn’t yet?

Brett & Pad: And which is your favorite faction?

Marc: Always the one I’m not playing at the moment and which is being raged across the board by an opponent. At the start of the game – when introducing the factions – I find myself thinking: „Shit, the others are all overpowered, how am I supposed to stand a chance?“ Every turn I’m gripped by: „What? Can he really do that?“ But I’ve grown fond of the crazy clowns. It’s always wonderful to come into the game from the outside, then race wildly across the playing field with the clown vehicles and then launch two attacks with the Überclowns. Of course, the whole thing is always accompanied by whistling some funny tunes.

Conclusion

Brett & Pad: In the various games of the special – what was your absolute highlight?

Marc: Actually, the absolute highlight is how everyone who seems to be in the lead tries to distract from it. The other players are made out to be so much more dangerous with the tongues of angels. Marco is particularly good at that. Apart from that, it’s always a pleasure when you can use your faction event cards to make things happen on the board. Sometimes everything that others have previously built up is overturned.

Brett & Pad: We’ve now played four to five games of Tsukuyumi in different constellations over several weeks? How was your personal learning curve and how was the group’s learning curve?

Marc: I think the game has a steep learning curve. Not that it is a game that is particularly overloaded with thousands of rules. The curve lies more in the fact that you really have to try to read your faction carefully and then play it accordingly. I only got a „feel“ for how to play my respective factions after playing them twice. Depending on the starting line-up and which factions are represented, you should think carefully about whether you want to enter into an eternal duel with a faction or whether you’d rather take a step back. There are also factions that can downright neutralize others. You should then stay as far away from them as possible.

Brett & Pad: Do you actually enjoy working so hard on a game? Why do you think Tsukuyumi is particularly suitable for this?

Marc: As I’m a player who only „understands“ a game after a few games, I really enjoy working hard at games so that I can maybe finally win. In my opinion, Tsukuyumi is perfect for this. The fact that the factions are so different in terms of how they play means that there’s something for everyone. „I can’t cope with this game“ is not a statement that applies to Tsukuyumi. Provided you like area control. And especially if you’ve already played a few games, it’s possible that a rather unloved faction is suddenly not so bad after all. It’s worth trying factions again several times after different periods and discovering new things.