Pax Pamir 2nd Edition Board Game Review

I usually share many of your opinions, but Pax Pamir is incredible. Such a smart and elegant design. My top 5 of all time

I love Pax Pamir 2e. My main critique of it is that I don't feel the connection to history when I play it. Maybe if I read more about this era I would get it. But it kind of feels like an abstract game with a vaguely Afghan skin. And that's despite the extremely thematic historical cards!

Maybe it's just the cloth board that does this. It's really nice aesthetically, but I don't have a good sense of place when I look at it. Why is this white bit of cloth Persia and this other white bit of cloth Punjab? They feel exactly the same.

Loved you in the Transporter movies. Great review!

Phucking brilliant review…as always. I really appreciate the candor. Keep it up!

I love this game but I agree there's a lot of arbitrary rules. I'm here for the honest critiques!

11:32

Can't believe all the people coming out of their caves to defend this game. Blows my mind that all the heavy euros lovers defend this game, but then complain about ameri-thrash games. PP has the most random, bs plays I've ever seen. It's borderline similar to just rolling 2 dice and XZ=AB in terms of randomness.

Appreciate the review. I love this game but the colours have always bothered me. I didn’t even notice the yellow / yellow thing. It was the grey / black that makes zero sense to me. I check in on Etsy from time to time to see if there are any upgrades / alternatives so I don’t have to use the default coloured tribes / wheels in the game

Solid review bud. Played this for the first time tonight. Definitely a lot of rules to think about so it is definitely baptism by fire for new players. The yellow blocks and cylinders was confusing af. Overall still really enjoyed it and would play again.

It's impossible to mistake cylinders of any color for Russian ones – because the 3 factions don't have ANY cylinders.

Sure, at first glance, never having played the game, I can see how somebody might assume that the pieces might belong together. But as soon as you halfway understand how the game works there's really no room to think that a cylinder belongs to any of the 3 factions – because the factions use only blocks on the board.

I don't think the color choices are perfect, but the gray and black player colors are the bigger problem.

The first 3 dominance checks are NOT meaningless. Mostly because any of them can end the game and then the doubling of the 4th will never happen. But also because you don't have to let the player in the last place get all the points during the last dominance check. But it is a good way to keep players engaged in the game and the leading players on their toes. Plus many modern boardgames emphasize escalating endgame points for exactly these reasons (the whole Eric Lang trilogy for example). Otherwise players who didn't score during the first couple of checks would hopelessly go through the motions during the second half of the game where they can't keep up anymore.

Also, the argument that everything one does immediately gets cancelled by an opposing action is kinda ridiculous. If player A directly counters every action player B does, then player A doesn't get anything done for him-/herself either. And if this is not just a 2 player game then player C (and possibly D end E) will happily exploit this.

The fact that a spy can be countered by overflowing the court is not a problem at all. You presumably put a spy there because the card was worrisome – if removed by court overflow the opponent saved you an action and 2 rupies because you didn't even have to play a betray action. Great.

Nobody needs to "remember" that the military suit doubles card market prices – it's printed right there on the "board" next to the suit icon.

You didn't like the game – that's fine. It's not going to be great for everybody. But these arguments didn't make much sense.

Adaptation, momentum, politic and knowledge. If any of those concepts dont excite you, dont play oath or pax pamir.
King makin, take that are concepts creating stories. It is a good thing with the right group, it creates tension.
You dont need to like this kind of game 🙂

Incredible game, good points on the review. Just not a game for you

I strongly disagree with this review but credit where credit is due. The majority of board game channels are far too soft on games to the point of being slightly dishonest. This is perhaps due to the fact that many of them are getting funded by the publishers to review it! I appreciate your straightforward critique and honest negative comments.

I agree with basically everything you said. I played as yellow and I did almost accidentally count my piece as Russian. But most importantly, the rulebook could have been better. A lot of people who rate the game 10 said the rulebook was way improved – which means they must have suffered something horrendous for first edition.

Do you like any of the Pax games?

Score more earlier.

Hmm… I think I'll just piss off …

When I first saw your channel I was thinking, "Who is this over-the-top batshit geezer?" Well, it turns out that in a sea of paid promotion bullshit "reviewers," you're like one of the top 3 in the game. I don't always agree with your opinions or your abrasive style, but you're damn good and I appreciate your reviews. Thanks from some Yank!

Fair play, it's not for everyone. But I think it achieves what it sets out to do very well. It's much more about seizing opportunities and pressing advantages than working steadily towards a goal. It does require one to be in a particularly resilient mood, because a sense of fairness just isn't one of the design goals. If I'm up for applauding the clever move that just viciously kneecapped me, this is the game I reach for. This was my first Pax, and I'd happily try some of the others.

I've rarely seen a game as divisive as this one. I've played it with people that were genuinely mad after playing it, about how much they didn't like it. It definitely has some rules overhead, and it can be pretty difficult to figure out "how to win" on first plays. You have to be able to see certain things coming, like a game of chess. If the double score is going to make the person in last go to first, don't let them. Etc. Definitely not for everyone, and my copy hasn't been played in some time as a result. Personally, I want to try to dedicate the time and effort to learning and playing Pax Renaissance instead — which is even harder, but much faster to play.

So just as well I didn’t waste my petrol (and prob hub caps) driving the car down to Portsmouth then? Shame as it’s still my top game with Ra & Medici. Must put Cotton Club in the car boot then just in case I run out of petrol in your locality 😉.

I love this review. You paid respect to the designer, they effort, the details….but then gave your honest view. I agree the rules are fiddly… its a game I really wanted to love because the mechanisms and look of the game are so unique, but its just a frustrating mess. Thanks, this was great. At least you know you'll get your money back for it.

i really did not get this game, even a dozen plays in. after playing online with experienced players, some cool tricks and plays were made that opened up the game for me. I still found it not worth the effort to get to the table and played, so i also recently got rid of my copy. an interesting game, but extremely hard to find the people willing to play it, so much so that i'd rather just not even bother trying.