I respect Stan Kordonskiy, but I have yet to play a game of his that I like. I literally got upset after I played Endless Winter because I took a step back and just saw a combination of disparate "mini-games" that are themeless in nature. They do provide the crunchy decisions you have to make to accomplish the end goal, but they were distracting me from the real life theme of the mini-games' purpose. Minos still intrigued me, but not enough to pull the trigger. Can I ask if you have a ranking of Kordonskiy games? Maybe there's a different one I should try to see if I'm wrong about how I've pegged Stan's style?
So to my knowledge he has a pretty wide range unlike a lot of designers (but a shorter list of titles to his name) - Endless Winter definitely has that mini game feel but I feel that's more Jonny Pac's style of design. This game is definitely a heavy mechanical euro but the only thing I'd relate to mini game in nature is the fact that it has area control after dice drafting. The rest of the game involves moving up tracks, playing and gathering cards and storing them to improve your engine. The main aspects to Minos are controlling locals and acquiring the resources to build on your tableau to improve your engine and gain points. I enjoyed Rurik: Dawn of Kieve, Old West Empresario - heard good things about Dice Hospital (but likely a little more of a family game). Otherwise I don't really have a ranking for his games. I'd say the two games I named are definitely different than this one by a mile though.
@@UnfilteredGamer Thanks for explaining that. Not putting Minos on my radar yet. You might be right about Jonny Pac's touches on EW. Rurik is another example, though, of the "mini-game" being the game. The one I'm exploring right now is Nova Roma. I probably would have bought it a long time ago, but the Kordonskiy name stopped me. I think he's talented, but his games just might not be for me . . . until I find one that is.
@@jacobjslee Oddly enough I've got Nova Roma on my table as we speak! Yeah I'd suggest giving a playthrough of this game a watch or at least a round since it is rather long - it should tell you the type of game and mechanical aspects to expect. It doesn't have any easily spotted inherent flaws but you might find it to have a bit of a mini game feel, I'm pretty used to games like Jonny Pacs which are littered with mini games (Sierra West, Merchants Cove, Endless Winter) or have portions of mechanics surrounding each action that collimates to a specific function. This ones definitely on the lighter side of that kind of thing but not completely without it.
17:45 is where the review begins
I respect Stan Kordonskiy, but I have yet to play a game of his that I like. I literally got upset after I played Endless Winter because I took a step back and just saw a combination of disparate "mini-games" that are themeless in nature. They do provide the crunchy decisions you have to make to accomplish the end goal, but they were distracting me from the real life theme of the mini-games' purpose. Minos still intrigued me, but not enough to pull the trigger. Can I ask if you have a ranking of Kordonskiy games? Maybe there's a different one I should try to see if I'm wrong about how I've pegged Stan's style?
So to my knowledge he has a pretty wide range unlike a lot of designers (but a shorter list of titles to his name) - Endless Winter definitely has that mini game feel but I feel that's more Jonny Pac's style of design. This game is definitely a heavy mechanical euro but the only thing I'd relate to mini game in nature is the fact that it has area control after dice drafting. The rest of the game involves moving up tracks, playing and gathering cards and storing them to improve your engine. The main aspects to Minos are controlling locals and acquiring the resources to build on your tableau to improve your engine and gain points. I enjoyed Rurik: Dawn of Kieve, Old West Empresario - heard good things about Dice Hospital (but likely a little more of a family game). Otherwise I don't really have a ranking for his games. I'd say the two games I named are definitely different than this one by a mile though.
@@UnfilteredGamer Thanks for explaining that. Not putting Minos on my radar yet. You might be right about Jonny Pac's touches on EW. Rurik is another example, though, of the "mini-game" being the game. The one I'm exploring right now is Nova Roma. I probably would have bought it a long time ago, but the Kordonskiy name stopped me. I think he's talented, but his games just might not be for me . . . until I find one that is.
@@jacobjslee Oddly enough I've got Nova Roma on my table as we speak! Yeah I'd suggest giving a playthrough of this game a watch or at least a round since it is rather long - it should tell you the type of game and mechanical aspects to expect. It doesn't have any easily spotted inherent flaws but you might find it to have a bit of a mini game feel, I'm pretty used to games like Jonny Pacs which are littered with mini games (Sierra West, Merchants Cove, Endless Winter) or have portions of mechanics surrounding each action that collimates to a specific function. This ones definitely on the lighter side of that kind of thing but not completely without it.
@@UnfilteredGamer Funny timing! Thanks for tip. If you end up reviewing I will definitely watch it.