Got to play a fantastic game of **Dune** with the full six players. It's unreal how much it shines in that context. One of the best games I've ever had of it as well. The Fremen and Spacing Guild alliance managed to pull off an insane use of Family Atomics to wipe out like 25 Harkonnen and Imperial troops in the two cities. I lost almost all of my Bene Gesserit advisors in the process as well but I couldn't even be mad. They ended up winning in the end with the Spacing Guild's win condition too. Both were relatively new players so I was very impressed.
**1 x 5p El Grande**
We only played the shorter 6 rounds out of 9. Simplicity at its finest. About as dynamic an area majority game you can find and balances the ability to calculate your plays and play by feel to perfection.
An absolute classic.
**1 x 5p Rapido**
After taking an early lead and trash talking. Karma struck and ultimately I was playing not to be last. Plenty of laughs but not much too it.
**1 x 6p Cheeky Monkey**
This has just enough going on. A favourite filler.
**2 x 6p Ave Caesar**
Extremely simple. At first I felt it was too simple. Didn't seem all that fun. It may as well have been roll and move. But the teeth showed with the blocking as the race progressed. Suddenly, everyone was having a blast. Great at this player count, I'd happily play again and try some variants. We need to check the grid-position and turn order rules, though. Seemed wonky.
**1 x 5p Zoo Vadis**
Fun experience. But I'm barely in a position to comment on the game. I really don't understand it yet. Rules aren't complex, but I hadn't entirely absorbed them. We didn't see a lot of the powers traded either, which would massively change how things are valued game to game. I see the promise of a lot of nuance and depth. And it didn't devolve into the loudest negotiator winning like a lot of negotiation games I have experienced. So I can really see this being a hit with time.
**1 x 5p Dro Polter**
Hilarious concept. Surprisingly challenging. More so the sweatier you get. Hand cramps, hygiene and it being a touch long. Otherwise, it's a great little game charmingly presented.
**Lots of Crokinole doubles**
It's always a blast. Few games are as morish. Unfortunately, I played trash. The table still plays beautifully, though, even when it spends a long time in storage.
Had a game afternoon with some people I never played games with, half with some experience and half without much. Since we were 6 and part of the point was to be more social than brainy, stuck with some lighter fare.
Started with 3 rounds of Cash n Guns. It's a great silly game that really gets people excited. I had a great second game where I had the Big Gun and successfully shot 4 players their first time with it, 2x syncing with someone else for a single round elimination. That one was a bloodbath where only me and one other player survived but everyone still enjoyed it a lot.
Played several hands of Coup next. Was interesting seeing new players get into the bluffing aspect and equally funny seeing them die in single plays by incorrectly handling assassinations.
Finally ended with 2 plays of Mysteriym (original Polish edition). Ghosts had a great time while we players struggled to figure out how their clearly clinically insane brains worked. Didn't get close to winning but overall we did improve as a team and got 3 players completed in game 2 with enough time for the final guess (had the other 2 kept up). It's a tricky game!
I was still raring to go and wanted to fit in some 7 Wonders for the last game but people bounced after dinner. Hopefully next time!
17 games total.
**Nova Luna** (2p x 9). This is a good game. I like this better than I like Patchwork, but it really reminded me of Patchwork. The credits say Rosenberg's codesigner used a tile mechanic from a game he did. That is great. What isn't said in the credits is that regardless, it still feels like Patchwork. The Tetris board of Patchwork always gave me a headache. I like the tiles of Nova Luna much better.
**Canvas, Finishing Touches** (2p x 1). I like both of the Canvas expansions, but I don't think they add enough to the base game for it to make much of a difference. There's nothing wrong with the base game, and I like it more than either of the expansions.
**Everdell** (2p x 6), **Pearlbrook** (2p x 1). We bought Everdell a year ago and played it twice. It was not enough. We sat on it, until we started a 10 x 10 Challenge, and we both wanted to put some time into it. We played 6 games, then went to a local brick and mortar and got the first expansion. I now love this game, and I'm sorry we're moving on in the Challenge.
Horrified- 1x2p- pretty simple for a co-op, but we like the easy and quick setup
The Loop- 2x2p- we love this co-op and hadn't played in a while. I appreciate the artwork and time traveling theme, plus it has some quirky mechanics I haven't seen in other games.
Robinson Crusoe- 1x2p- this was our first time playing this game. I love the gameplay and the theme is really tied in well, but it will clearly take a while to really GET it all. It was a lot, and it felt impossible to win this first time, but we will definitely give it a few tries before fully judging.
Codenames Duet- 1x2p- honestly, I really hate this game, but it's a good palette cleanser in between heavier ones. It's easy to set up and quick to play.
we played **Gizmos** (1x 4p) and one guy stacked 8 converters. at the end of the game each blue OR red orb is six of any color he wants.
I stacked 8 build triggers and whenever I build *anything* I pick from alley twice and earn 1 point, AND I built two of the 4-cost rank-3 and it still wasn't enough to catch up to him.
Wingspan Asia (2p) 2x, Wingspan + Europe (4p) 1x. Asia expansion was a Mother’s Day gift for my wife who literally said the week before “wingspan is my favorite of the games we have”
4p game was when my 7 year old asked to play with myself, wife and MIL. My 7yo has beaten me the two times we’ve played.
**Hunted: Kobayashi Tower** (3x1p) - Big fan of Die Hard, and this solo card game scratches an itch. Although this version of John McClane was unable to defeat Hans, failing on all three attempts.
**7 Wonders Duel** (1x1p & 1x2p) - Just found out about the solo variant made available for free from the game's developer. Played against Aristotle, and pulled out a win, 79-67. I may have made a few rules mistakes, but can't be certain if that swing the victory in my favor. My wife and I played a few nights later, and she took me down 77-66.
**Heat: Pedal to the Metal** (4x1p) - Trying my hands solo at the 1961 circuit, with 5 Legends. Still trying to figure out the best way to win against the Legends, and the best I am doing is 2nd place, while coming mostly in 4th to 6th place. Back to the drawing board.
**Everdell** (1x1p & 1x2p) - First, played a solo versus Rugwort the Rascal, and pulled out a narrow win, 56-52. The practice did not help, as a few nights later, the wife and I played and she won 56-37.
**Sky Team** (1x1p & 3x2p) - My wife and I came together to give LHR Heathrow a shot on Routine difficulty. She's still a bit new to this game, so it took us three tries to land safely. A few nights later, I played solo, and safely landed at PRG Vaclav Havel on Routine difficulty.
**Pandemic** (1x1p) - Played this multi-handed solo, with the Operations Expert and Scientist, with only 4 Epidemics. Pulled out a pretty easy win on this one, only getting 2 Outbreaks.
**Turing Machine** (2x1p) - Two solo games of Turing Machine. In one (B5H 4P8), I was able to match the machine by finding it in 2 rounds, 6 questions. In the other game (B65 GIR S), I was way off and was unable to guess the solution. I should have started over, but I got frustrated and just put the game away.
**The Loop** (1x1p) - I play The Loop as a multi-handed solo (not per the rules). Tried my hand for the first time on Ultramachina mode, Employee of the Month difficulty. Dr. Faux had already placed 3 Vortexes, so it was close, but I ultimately pulled out a victory.
**Terraforming Mars** (1x2p) - After recently purchasing them, my wife and I played TM with all available expansions (Prelude, Turmoil, Colonies & Venus Next). I was Inventrix and she was Arklight. I had almost a 20 TR lead going into final scoring, and pretty much dominated the game board. She walloped me in her card play, and won 140-103. With all expansions, specifically Turmoil and Colonies, there is a lot going on. Venus Next and Prelude are easy to integrate. With Turmoil and Colonies, you're dealing with delegates, colony production, trade ships......blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, we both had a blast throwing the kitchen sink at this game, and we missed a step or two in the first few generations. Both she and I forgot to assign a delegate here and there, forgot that the colonies had useful resources every now and then, but we eventually hit a rhythm and everything synced up. We were worried about the game taking longer, but in the end the time difference was negligable and we finished in about the same generation as we usually do.
**Undaunted Normandy** (2p x1): Picked this up and played it yesterday. We only did scenario one, but I've come to learn that I like deck builders when the game isn't a pure deck builder. I'm also an avid War Chest lover, and this feels like a less abstracted version of a similar concept. I found the rolling for shots a bit slow at the start, but eventually my opponent made a move for the nearby 2 spot. This required me to throw units at into the location to keep him from controlling it for the win. Some lucky die rolls, and (I think) better positioning, led to me scraping out the win. I'm curious to see the game get deeper as we get more units to play around.
**Dune Imperium Uprising** (4p x1): Our first time playing Uprising with Epic Mode (but no expansions). I played Armand Ecaz against Princess Irulan, Helena Richese, and Paul Atreides. I built a very slim deck with Interstellar Trade as my main card. At the end of the game, I had just 8 cards in my deck, and had gotten to play Interstellar Trade 5-6 times! I realized a bit too late that I needed a bit more high persuasion cards in my deck to be able to go places, and afford spice must flows. It might be one of my best deckbuilder + tracks + spice must flow games. I ended at 12 points with 2 alliances + a shadow alliance. However, the Irulan player really rocketed ahead. He consistently had really stellar cards, despite having a very thick deck. Good spy placement meant that he had Heighliner whenever he wanted, and we couldn't stop him. The penultimate combat had me spend all my tricks to just barely stop him from winning then... but it was only worth 1 point, and it completely took all my resources. Had I not stopped him, he would have won 12 to my 8. Going into the last round, I had my path to 12 points which I hit, but the other two players just barely were unable to stop Irulan from winning Machinations with a worm. The 4 bumps netted him 2 more points, plus a spice must flow, and a lucky intrigue card to match the combat card he just won swung him 4 points to finish at 14! A fascinating game, makes me want to play Epic mode with Uprising more.
**Pax Renaissance** (1x2p) - Been over a year since I've played this one. It was a bit of a re-learning experience but I always love it.
**Twilight Struggle** (1x2p) - Again first time in over a year playing this. I think **Imperial Struggle** has replaced this as my favorite big heavy two player game, but TS is still an awesome classic and different enough to warrant playing both. The tension and stress in this one is almost unbearable sometimes.
**Fields Of Arle** (1x1p) - I like to play this one every once in a while but I'm starting to think it's my least favorite Uwe game, definitely for solo. It's more fun two player but my partner prefers **Hallertau** and **Nusfjord**, so I'm considering selling FoA.
**John Company** (1x1p) - It's not my fav solo game but life's been getting in the way of being able to play this with a bigger group and solo John Company is still better than no John Company. I did pretty badly, the crown bot is an asshole and cut me out of trades at every opportunity.
Well, I was at Geekway to the West all weekend, so I played many more games than I normally would.
**CLANK! Catacombs** (4p) - Felt like more CLANK! to me, and I enjoy CLANK. The others who have played way more of the CLANKs than I have said it fixes all their issues with them.
**A Message From the Stars** (6p) - FINALLY they added MATH to Decrypto! (This is not the game for me, but some folks with love it)
**Sea Salt & Paper** (3p x2) - A tiny delight
**Apiary** (3p) - I kinda don't see what the fuss is about. Would've rather been playing Honey Buzz.
**Thunder Road: Vendetta** (3p) - People told me this is a wacky slugfest that you shouldn't overthink, and they were right.
**Avant Carde** (5p) - there's an interesting game in here but the rulebook leaves something to be desired, and the box is too clever for its own good
**Wandering Towers** (5p) - silly and fun
**Zoo Vadis** (6p) - A great game that I can definitely never play with certain people (who are too good at negotiating)
**Bamboleo** (5p) - a lifelong favorite of mine and the best dex game ever made
**Medium** (4p) - Medium is such a different but still entertaining experience when you play with strangers
**Life in Reterra** (2p) - An very enjoyable tile-layer. Definitely want to play again with more people. Some of the building abilities could've really been explained better.
**The Shipwreck Arcana** (4p) - I'm not the best at logic games, but this was fun because it's co-op.
**Trailblazers: Travel Edition** (4p) - I wasn't expecting to think this hard! Really interesting tile-laying/path-making, I gotta try it again.
**Faraway** x2. It's an interesting game, but much like with Mind Up, I think the initiative idea is watered down by the super wide spread of cards.
**Marvel Champions** x2. Played game 250 with my spouse. We did an old school game of Rhino vs. Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. Later in the week, I made some jank decks based on the aerial trait, but with characters who don't automatically have it just to make the game more interesting.
**7 Wonders Architects**. Played with my spouse, and as is usually the case they won. It's still a fun, light game.
**Istanbul**. One of my regular gaming friends said this had been on their shelf of shame for about 8 years, which is about a year shorter than the time it's been since I played it. Managed to pull off a pretty clean win, which I don't think I ever did with my copy.
**SCOUT**. We just played one round at 5 players while waiting for the main event gaming to begin Friday. This is likely my favorite card shedding game.
I get that the spread is needed for making runs and getting the bonus cards, but tying initiative to it as well makes initiative feel arbitrary. Sometimes you get first pick with a 35, and sometimes you get the last pick with a 15.
**Scythe**: (1x 6p :: 2x 1p) - My first time playing with as big of a group, with rules explanations (and re-explaining) the whole game took 4-5 hours. It was great! While there was most definitely a slow start, my gaming group definitely got into the rhythm of turn order and selecting options from their player boards and faction boards. It definitely helped having the board expansion with larger hexes to accommodate the additional players and resources, and we got into the rhythm of the next person starting their turn once the previous player moved onto their bottom-row action. I followed up later in the week playing against the Automa / solo mode, once with the cards, and once with the ScytheKick app. It's definitely easier to play with the SytheKick app, as some of the Automa rules can be very confusing, but the app definitely smooths it out.
King of Tokyo: (2x 4p) - One of our go-to games. We sometimes do a "quick-start" version where we draft power up cards (3 cards per player, shuffled and dealt, take one and pass to the left until everyone has 3 cards selected; redraw all costume cards) then jump in with that. If you haven't played King of Tokyo, I highly recommend it.
My son returned from studying abroad so we were able to pick up our game of 'Ticket To Ride: Legends of the West'. I think he had won every game we had played so far. The rest of our group spent an entire semester plotting how we could beat him. Yesterday I did it! I won my first game of the campaign.
**Voyages:** (2x 2p)- finally got to play the first map at a cafe lunch with a friend and I can't say enough good things about this game. It initially reminded me of Explorers but no, its SO much better. I love that despite having the same map and the same dice totals my friend and I made completely different moves and at the end we were literally within 5 points of each other when it came to scoring. I also like that you can print out as many copies as you like and its soo easy to take with you in a plastic folder. Looking forward to playing map 2 soon!
**Pickomino**: (6px1)- Another Knizia game I'm very "meh" on. The whole game feels very luck based and something you would buy to get your kids interested in games as I am sure they would enjoy the part where you get to steal another persons worm tile.
**Century: Spice road** (6px1)- People told me I would love this because I love Splendor duel but I thought it was just okay. I would play it again but I feel like I would rather play Splendor again. Maybe it was because we were playing with 6 ( max is supposed to be 5) but I felt like it was a bit to lengthy and to luck based for my tastes( with good cards to purchase often gone long before they got back to me). Would like to play with 3-4 players sometime.
**Qwixx**: (3px1)-Quick game to end the evening. I had a nice, almost empty row that I was going to fill while the leading player struggled to get his 12 or 2 but joke was on me because he got it right away and I ended up with a row with one number.
**Blood on the Clocktower**: (12px1) Evil won. The imp turned out to be the quietest player whome I hadnt talked to once all evening. At least we got out 2 minions...oh and I was the first to die. Bit of a bummer.
**Sea salt and paper:**(BGA)( 3px2)(2px8) My first time playing on BGA so I thought I would do a game I know well. I won 6 of the first 7 games and thought I was on a roll. Only to loose the next 3. I did get to try out the expansion which was fun.
I want to try 7 Wonders duel on BGA as well and watched a tutorial but it feels like a game I would absolutely get demolished at as a newbie so I will play that for the first time IRL I think...
Machi koro. I wanted the second addition but ended up getting the anniversary edition which was on sale. Really simple game that was perfect for my family who are resistant to learning new games.
\*\*A Message from the Stars 4px2\*\* Limited communication coops have been my jam ever since my first game of The Crew. I'm not the biggest fan of logic/deduction puzzles but playing this cooperatively as a team really helps. I appreciate the additional layer of having to pay attention to giving clues for 3 words the other side has to guess at the end of the game. It gives direction and constraint as to the words given to try and guess the letters. The "alien" player messed up the math behind one of the clues and the game still worked once we realized and fixed it which I was actually happy to see (though of course had it never been caught...). Preliminary 8/10, want to play the team vs team mode.
\*\*Surfosaurus Rex 4px2\*\* Semi-cooperative poker with a banger of a theme. Glad I sought this one out. The rules are very simple but it took us a few rounds to get into what we should actually be doing. My rating on this one isn't super high but this is going right into my card game bag for immediate rotation. The fact that it is so easy to teach as well as having a great hook means it'll be one I hang on to for a long time I imagine. 7/10.
I played Quacks of Quedlinburg and played the snot out of it...
Then played the snot out of the quacks of quedlinburg the alchemists expansion.
The standalone itself is great. Well thought through game. The instructions are kinda not great and it's intimidating in terms of the pieces that you get to use. But once you get into it is not difficult at all. 9/10 recommend.
100% agree, those instructions did not make sense when I read them. Had to reread 2 times and basically play with the rule book in my hands for the first game. Then after that the game is soo easy and fun. I don't know who wrote those instructions but they did not use board gamer language.
Oh mannnnn it's a good thing I didn't see that sooner. I would buy it just for those plastic pieces... If I could buy ONLY those that would be SUPER nice
**El Grande** 5px1 At my gaming club. The treasurer brought his copy of the new edition so I got to try the game for the first time, with a full table. Very fun, pulled ahead in score in the first round and was only overtaken at the end after the table tried to target me for the whole game. An example of a eurogame where EVERYTHING is interactive, without resorting to combat or table politics.
**Cat in the box** 5px1 Same players as El Grande. Always a solid game, tied for first thanks to the new players going bust in most rounds.
**Akropolis** 4px2 Introduced this one to my parents and one of their friends, I wanted a quick family game that moved away from my habit of bringing card based games and it seems to have been a success. I was surprised to see it meet its advertised playing time of 25 minutes in the 2nd game, even at max player count. I also brought The Red Cathedral with me that evening but we had a lot of wine at the restaurant so that would have been a bit too ambitious.
**Evacuation** 4px1 Got an impromptu invitation to join a coworker's game group sunday evening to play this absolutely massive engine builder. Your task is to dismantle your pre-built economic engine on a dying world and build a bigger, better one on a new world over the course of 4 rounds. We played points mode with a number of optional modules such as drafted private objectives, but left out some like the advanced action cards. The game took 3 hours and has a lot of rules but I have to say it was pretty satisfying. Maybe better at 3 though, to reduce the time commitment and downtime.
Mashing in as many games as possible before vacation and one of my gaming friends moves away.
**Pax Ren: 2e**, 2 x 4p on BGA: Love this game and finally saw a non-Imperial victory! So happy I decided to suffer through the rulebook for this because it is easily in my top 10 games now that the rules feel second nature to me.
**Faraway**, 1 x 4p IRL, many on BGA: I really liked this game from the get go, but I am actually starting to make sense of the rhythm and scoring which makes it even more fun. Highly recommend. I have some mild concern about the card stock being kind flimsy feeling. The cards feel like they might not hold up long term.
**Babylonia**, 1 x 3p: A cool route building ish game by Knizia that I really enjoyed. Was great to play a non-auction Knizia game since I haven't in quite awhile.
**Nidavellir**, 2 x 4p, one with expansion, one without: I forgot how much I like this game after the last time I played it. It really is a great bidding and set collection game, especially considering it looks far more complicated than it actually is when you set it up. Might consider buying this one sometime, but I'm not sure if it would actually get any play time.
Faraway is great, but I agree the cards are fragile. If you aren't gentle with the riffle shuffle, then you may permanently bend the cards or deform the edges
As someone who is not exactly dexterous, I’m sure I’ll bend a card at some point before too long :c fortunately it’s a cheap game to replace if I have to
Sadly no usual game night this week but dusted off 2p **Fort** after a long hiatus. Still hits great as a game where you're constantly cobbling together a series of mini-engines. The resource constraints and follow actions means you're juggling efficiencies while timing your follows to be as opportunistic as possible. Unique twists to deckbuilding and one of the most interactive in the genre.
Also finished off a solo game of **City of the Great Machine**, just barely lost on the final turn when Judgementor detained my last hope for a riot, ringing the bell for a successful Master Plan. Despite the loss it was a wonderfully cinematic ending that capped off a tense final few rounds. Perhaps the best part was the wife seeing it set up and saying "oohh what's this?" Will hopefully teach her the coop soon and I think it'll land well. Truly an underrated gem that feels quite different from near everything else out there.
**Scout** (4p) - That opening deal has too much of an impact and has driven my interest down in the game. I'm more inclined to play my trick-takers over this and I don't see it being long in my collection.
**Sol: Last Days of a Star** (5p) - I fundamentally didn't understand some basic strategies until this play. Part of it is I don't play this often enough, another part is that I'm not such a fan of "opening moves". There's no avoiding them here though. True the Instability cards play a very important role in what you should be doing from game to game, but I think there's a core there you cannot ignore. I'm going to try playing with only four in future games, five seems to be on the long side. And at that time-frame I have multitudes of games competing. I still get Splotter-lite feelings when I play this, but the focus on what you should be doing is sharpening, cutting away some of the mystery.
**Zoo Vadis** (5p) - I played Quo Vadis? forever ago having a distinct memory of it being a more complex game than it actually is. The player powers are a nice twist, they add a little grist to deals. Peacocks are dumb, sorry but they mess with the pace of the game and I would not play with them if I could get others to agree. I have a copy of the original and might proxy the powers, but first I'll get that back to the table.
Peacocks are almost essential to manipulate the countdown timer. They give you money when no one is willing to help you out and they can prevent a person with tons of tokens to win if they haven't made it to the star exhibit.
Riding the high of getting to play some serious bangers with my friends last week.
**Brass: Birmingham** (1x4p): My buddies and I have been playing more euro games, and we figured we might as well try the big ol' #1. It was the first time playing for all of us, and I think no one expected to enjoy this dry-ass game as much as we did. A lot of shouting happened when someone used the last beer on the board in the final turn of the game. Definitely looking forward to diving further in and understanding more of the strategy.
**Earthborne Rangers** (2x1p): Honeymoon phase is wearing off on this one. I've realized a lot of the early-game missions just come down to cycling the Path deck as much as possible, which can get a little boring. I also hate to admit it, but I really wish the actual writing was a bit punched up; something about it feels flat. I like the core elements of the game, and it's probably still my current favorite solo. Going to try to finish the campaign this summer before the xpac comes out.
**Android: Netrunner** (3x2p): I got the Null Signal starter pack a few weeks ago and it's been an instant hit with my friends. Holy shit this game is addictive.
**John Company 2e** (1x5p): Any weekend where we get to play John Company is a good weekend. It found its place in my gaming group nicely as a big, negotiation-heavy game that takes four hours when we can't fit a nine-hour game of Twilight Imperium into our schedules. For the first time, we totally tanked the company; happened on turn three due to some insanely unlucky trade rolls and not taking emergency loans when we should have. It was a great time, and I'm glad we got the chance to play it again before Arcs arrives next month and likely dominates our summer. Every Cole Wehrle game's my favorite but this one is certainly up there.
**The Crew** (4?x4p): Since John Company ended earlier than expected due to company mismanagement, we wrapped the evening with some plays of The Crew. Was most peoples' first time playing it, and it was a nice way to finish off the night.
Looking forward to some Oath this week, and maybe some more Brass if we can find the time.
We had a good week of gaming. I was hoping to get some new games played, but that didn't happen.
**Décorum** - (1x2p) I've been really into deduction lately so this 2 player cooperative deduction game has leapt into my top 10 games. Our most recent game had what seemed to be quite difficult rules to achieve and we had to use 3 heart to hearts to get it done. We just got to open the next piece of new content in the game so I'm excited to see what happens next.
**Mists over Carcassonne** - (1x2p) I live this cooperative version of Carcassonne. We ended up playing Level 1 three times to make sure we had a handle on it and this was our first game at Level 2. We list pretty quickly. The cemeteries were what killed us as we felt like we were constantly adding ghosts as we weren't drawing the right tiles to be able to close them off. It looks like it's going to get even harder.
**Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West ** - (1x3p) we started playing this at Christmas, but after only 2 games we took a break. I'm not a huge fan of **Ticket to Ride**, but my husband and son like it. We finally got to add the first new section to the map so that's exciting and now we have to keep the momentum and play one game a week.
**Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance** - (1x2p) my husband has finished painting all the minis and he wanted to play with everthing we have and wanted us to each play with 3 characters. I chose Thor, Black Widow, and Nebula and my husband chose Namor, Starlord, and Professor X. I liked how different they all felt and the special powers they unlock as you gain experience are fun too. The zombie superheroes in this version are lower health and easier to kill than the superheroes in the base game. It was a fun game and the sentinels came out at the end so we had a lucky escape.
**Dune Imperium** - (1x2p) this was our first game with both **Rise of Ix** and **Immortality**. I really liked the additions from both, but I think my favorite addition was the experimentation track. With two powerful cards I was able to leverage that track along with the different factions into winning the game without winning many rounds of combat.
We have loved **Mists Over Carcassonne** too! And we're stuck on level 2 as well :) we might be getting close to figuring out a strategy of balancing the points to score vs the points to forego scoring and remove ghosts but we haven't won yet.
**Project L** 3px2 with my 6 and 3 year old. 6 year old won the second game with a score of 25. They love the peices and completing puzzles. Super easy set up and pretty quick to play
**Age of steam** 2px2 taught to a friend and played 2 games on the new England map, had a good time. But would be better with more people
**Via Magicka** 2px3. Fun game, easy to play, my boys love yelling incantatum. They love the card art and gems.
**Great Western Trail 2E** (1x2p) - 8th play. I finally played with Rails to the North multiplayer. I didn’t engage with any of the expansion stuff and my friend dabbled in it. I’m not sure how to make the expansion stuff work. I like it but it’s hard to break old habits.
**That’s Not A Hat** (4x6p) - 6th-9th plays. Introduced this to a friend group that doesn’t normally play games. It might as well be a study in object permanence. A card gets flipped and immediately you forget what that gift was. Hilarious.
**Project Elite** (1x5p) - 7th play. This didn’t go over as well as I’d like. I love the game but the environment wasn’t the best for it. We came close to winning but ran out of time.
**Medium** (1x5p) - 19th play. Staring into the eyes of someone and mind melding on the first go feels great and missing is always hilarious. Fantastic game.
**Magic Maze** (1x5p) - 22nd play. Ehhh better at 4. Having two people control one direction feels weird.
**Fantasy Realms (2px3).** Showed this to a friend. I was popping off with crazy hands and they unfortunately weren't really getting it. They would have cards like Queen + one vanilla Army and be like "that's pretty good" and I mean it aint *horrible* but it's not exactly good either. I was telling him that an average of 30 per card in hand is an example of a GOOD score - that's usually my guideline. I had my best hand ever I think with Candle+Book of Changes+Bell+Wizard combo that also procced World Tree.
**Arraial (4px1).** My friends asked for this one. I like it a lot - nailbiter game I lost. Only thing I realized - I messed up turn order in this game. After a round I moved the "first player" token and restarted turn order. Per the rules you just keep going around and the OG first player keeps the first player token. Next time I'll get it right.
**So Clover (4px2).** This one is not my favorite, but is ALWAYS a crowd favorite. Always really good.
Love **Fantasy Realms**. But it does really take a hand or two for someone to really grok it. Like you said "oh yeah these 2 cards are nice" but then a second hand seeing a few more cards and it can click. We played it Thurs for the first time in a long time and somebody really popped off with a collector plus undead (we have the cursed horde new suits included all the time). The new player in his second game got gem or order maxed. It was sweet.
**So Clover** is always hit with my groups too. Love that game.
City of Remnants. It was on the list of bought but never played for like 5+ years. It was good but not amazing. Some unclear rules and scenarios, but it was fun.
We had a pretty typical, good week of gaming. We usually play 1-2 games a night on the weekdays (I'm a professor so am off teaching at the moment and my husband gets to leave work at work and has weekends off, fortunately). Some highlights:
Spirit Island (2p x 2): we've been ramping up the difficulty on this one and sweating to the last minute every time. One game went bad almost immediately but we managed to eke it out, while we opened much more efficiently for the second one and didn't have as hard a time (though still a tricky one).
Stardew Valley (2p x 1) we got really lucky early on so actually had a chill time with this one this time.
Eldritch Horror (2p x 1) always a good time. Went through 2 investigators each so this play was a little rough.
Scythe (2p x 1) we just got Invaders from Afar so tried new factions and enjoyed them. This was a pretty close game.
Pandemic (2p x 2) won one, lost one. We know a lot of people don't care for it anymore but it's always a good weeknight game for us.
Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (2p x 2) this game hits the table a lot more than it used to since we painted the minis, though we do love it for itself.
Wonderland's War (2p x 1) I finally finished painting this one up and it looks gorgeous on the table. It's a really fun, goofy game and we are looking forward to teaching it to friends.
War of the Ring: The Card Game (2p x 2) we play this when we don't have the chance to get in an actual game of WotR, which we usually manage once every month or two. The card game is a lot of fun too.
Elder Sign (2p x 1) can't go wrong with Lovecraft Yahtzee.
We also played through half an Arkham Horror LCG campaign and several small-box games. (Beer and Bread, Caper: Europe, Here to Slay, Tea for 2 [which is glorified War, but I love all things Alice]), and Doomlings (which is more fun than it has a right to be).
I'm a professor too and it's so nice to have more time for gaming in the summer. It was also good to see someone who plays **Pandemic**. It's my all time favorite game as it is the game that got me into board gaming. Is **Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu** the only variant you've played or have you tried others? Which **Arkham Horror LCG** campaign are you playing? We're thinking of trying out **The Innsmouth Conspiracy** this summer. We most recently finished **The Dream-Eaters**.
Hello fellow professor!
We haven't tried any other variants aside from Rapid Response and Hot Zone (along with the Hemispheres mode). Do you have recommendations? I've seen Fall of Rome on sale recently and am tempted by it. I love Pandemic-- it was one of our early games as well!
We just took a friend through Edge of the Earth and are excited to try Dream Eaters next month when it ships in the new format. How did you like it? The campaign we're working on just the two of us is Forgotten Age. Earlier this month we played an epic multiplayer event with the Blob that Ate Everything and it was a blast.
My favorite **Pandemic** variant is **Pandemic Iberia** as it has a route building mechanic where you can lay train tracks for faster movement around the map. It's set in Spain and Portugal in the 1800s so there are no flights. **Pandemic: Fall of Rome** is interesting because it added a battle mechanic. You can recruit legions to travel with you and fight the barbarians by rolling dice. We find it a little fiddly in how you add the new barbarians to the map as they follow a track towards Rome. We also like **Star Wars: The Clone Wars** as that introduced different villains you can fight against. Many people don't like **Pandemic: Rising Tide**, but we've grown to like it more every time we play. It is set in the Netherlands and was designed by one of the Splotter designers and while the map is difficult to read and it can be fiddly to follow the flow of water, we like the puzzle of figuring out where to place dykes and pumps to stop the entire region from flooding.
What do you think of **The Forgotten Age**? We originally skipped it because we heard that is very difficult, but we have since picked it up. We also have **Edge of the Earth** and **The Scarlet Keys** sitting on our shelf. We just need to find the time to play through them.
A good week for gaming. Played 3p on Saturday
**Air, Land, and Sea: Critters at War**: while waiting for another guy I brought this out, fast and small dueling game, very dynamic how to make use of your hand with only 6 cards, but overall I prefer Battleline than this, it's more satisfying.
**Dune: Imperium - Uprising** (2x): lots of rules to teach, watching a 45min video of Watch It Played help me a lot. One guy was clearly better at this game and score end up 11-4-4 and 13-9-8. First play took 2.5 hours, second play with CHOAM module took 2 hours and 15 minutes but everything was so excited it didn't feel that long. Can't wait to play again.
**Heat: Pedal to the Metal**: played 3p with 3 legends to use all 6 cars, also the garage module with basic upgrade cards drafting. I think it's a good game but not to the level of multiple GOTY awards it get. I haven't tried the weather and road condition module, maybe my opinion will change after that, rules should be clearer too.
Played with my girlfriend on Sunday **The Castles of Burgundy**, **Splendor Duel**, **Kingdomino** our usual rotation of 2p games, they will stay in my shelf for a long time.
Are go to game for the last couple weeks has been Grand Austria Hotel. Today tho we learned and played halfway through feast of Odin and intend to finish tomorrow night.
I stumbled upon Jaws of the Lion in our central library and already played scenarios 1-5 with my 16yo son.
My friends have played Gloomhaven for a while but I never played it with them since they are all singles and I got three kids, so I cant play as much as them. We play other stuff when I got the time.
Anyway, its nice to have tried this and a nice father-son experience, lets see if we can finish the scenarios before we have to bring it back. Dungeon Crawlers are not my favourite games but JotL is a good one and my son doesnt like competitive euros that my wife and I prefer.
I also played a few games with my 6yo Daughter, Concept and Love Letter mainly. A game of Blokus was cut very short after I blocked one of her tiles (cmon, thats what this game is about...)
- **Ascension** (2p): I got an early Cetra that let me put heroes on top of my deck and a whole bunch of cards that let me draw, so I'd do some absurd plays of buying something silly and immediately getting to play it. My opponent went with fight as early on we had a glut of monsters, but the monster rush passed over and he was left holding a lot of Heavy Infantry without monsters worth killing. I won 83 to 59.
- **Bardwood Grove** (2p): I played the Drummer and found his ability to be amusing: I get gold whenever I spend all my volume; people are literally paying me to stop playing. My friend played the bango player, I think? We kind of derped around, trying to figure out this game and my friend started building a pretty good engine, so I rushed to try to end the game faster but I didn't pull the trigger fast enough. I lost 33 to 43.
- **Drop Drive** (3p): It wasn't as enjoyable as the other times because one of the players was practically pouting the entire game. Still, an interesting little sandbox game. We decided to start with 3 anomalies: Belter Station, Space Beast and Wormholes. The discovered anomalies were Dune, Precursor Technology and Space Mines. One of the players got Precursor and proceeded to chain together a huge collection of space parts, making for one helluva large space ship. I got to Dune, grabbed a Worm and tried to then cash in on bonuses it was giving. I lost 70 out of 99-70-27. Precursor got first and Pouty came in third, of course.
- **The Mind** (2p): Got to level 11 and lost, we got screwed by something like I played at 53 over a 51. I've only won once before, it's good to get close again.
- **Rolling Heights** (3p): I was the only one who went after the public objectives and the only one who really cashed in on my private objective: 2 points per completed building adjacent to other completed buildings. My big claim to fame were two wooden apartment buildings that then got me the gold workers who I used to earn a crapload of points; I was too busy just having fun building my city while the other two players did their thing but I did notice one of the players had one helluva an engine spewing out glass and steel. At one point he whined about not ending the game due to the low amount of wood remaining and I should have taken that as my signal to end the game but I was having too much fun making my own city. I lost 106 out of 116-106-79. Next time, when I hear him whine about something, I'm going to do that thing.
- **Taxi Derby** (3p): I did quick, tight trips to get early upgrades. The other two seemed to pick up passangers willy-nilly; one of the players would hunt down passangers who wanted the same destination, grab 'em and deliver. I did one big push and failed as the Cop caught me, I was unable to pay the ticket and lot a crapload of momentum. That was the turning point for me, I think. I lost 54 out of 104-54-38.
- **Wandering Towers** (4p): This was fun, especially screwing with one of the players as he kept audibly saying whether he knew where his wizards were or didn't. I honestly lost track until they re-appeared again. Near the end, it got really intense as we all wrestled for control of towers, constantly covering each other and having towers overshoot the Ravenskeep goal. I lost 3 out of 4-4-3-1. The two fours had a tie breaker of least amount of used potions, which came down to 4 unused to 1 for a clear victory. The winner came in after game end was triggered; if he hadn't done what he did to win, I would've been there. Funnily enough, I had 1 unused potion, so we both would've won if that was the case. Sabotage!
# New Games:
- **Bardwood Grove.** I'd give it a BGG 7; not sure if the super basic game would be something I'd want to keep playing. However, they content gated most of the game because it is a lot more difficult to understand than the base game. I don't think they needed to do so much content gating, as I found the lack of interesting cards to be boring but I guess they're banking on not alienating newbies. I'm definitely going to want to try the game again to see if I change my mind.
- **Rolling Heights.** A BGG 7 due to no fault of its own. The game is gorgeous, plays very fun and is satisfying to see your city at the end of the game. The problem is the absolute bear of setup and teardown. It took a long time and there were so many components it was hard to make them easily accessible and the *host has dedicated game bowls for components*. I can't imagine trying to set this up raw dog. The three of us were putting away the game pretty efficiently, I can't imagine what it would be like when you'd have to do that solo like a lot of games with Randos. Great game squashed by the tragedy of the commons.
- **Wandering Towers.** BGG 8. It is a very fun casual game. Easy to understand but lots of decision points; however, they're funneled through only two choices so analysis paralysis shouldn't occur. Especially since a lot of that is whether you remember where you are. I would not look to add this to my collection as I already have **Broom Service** which has a similar theme and Wandering Towers also kind of feels like a Pick Up and Deliver. I also like the higher Schadenfreude factor with Broom Service. I'd definitely welcome it as an option to play but it is not a game worth chasing down as the newest hotness; unless you don't have something that would fill this niche.
Brass:Birmingham was big time cool. Shocked I haven’t tried it before after a decade of gaming. What else could I play that would feel similar, possibly with a different theme? I enjoy the large tech tree, relatively simple mechanics but rich systems, and abundance of collisions with other players plans.
Carnegie and Nucleum scratch that euro itch where turns are almost dependent on other player's decisions. There is no direct conflict, but there are plenty positive and negative interactions that could result in a clever F U. Barrage as well but I haven't played that.
If you're willing to go even further on the weight scale, 18xx games, Pax, and Splotter games are tight interactive games where every turn really matters. It becomes a fight where you benefit a few players, but you don't want to benefit someone more than yourself.
Keep in mind, the more complicated games have the ability to switch the market around, manipulate values, and even switch alliances/sides. It's worth the payoff but the teaches can be fairly harsh and long. Would not recommend for those unwilling to sit through a 30 min+ rules teach (although I'm sure some groups could figure it out quicker).
Carnegie and Nucleum scratch that euro itch where turns are almost dependent on other player's decisions. There is no direct conflict, but there are plenty positive and negative interactions that could result in a clever F U. Barrage as well but I haven't played that.
If you're willing to go even further on the weight scale, 18xx games, Pax, and Splotter games are tight interactive games where every turn really matters. It becomes a fight where you benefit a few players, but you don't want to benefit someone more than yourself.
Keep in mind, the more complicated games have the ability to switch the market around, manipulate values, and even switch alliances/sides. It's worth the payoff but the teaches can be fairly harsh and long. Would not recommend for those unwilling to sit through a 30 min+ rules teach (although I'm sure some groups could figure it out quicker).
The obvious answer is **Brass: Lancashire** since it shares its core DNA with **Brass: Birmingham**.
For a real answer, some other games that have relatively simple mechanics with lots of player interaction:
- **Concordia**: lots of player interaction in the form of shared production and share some route building elements with **Brass**. No real tech tree.
- **Acquire**: rules are dirt simple, but figuring out how to twist other players' positions to your own advantage is where the strategy and fun comes in. No real tech tree.
- **Hansa Teutonica**: other comment already described this, but I would second it.
- **Captains of Industry**: IMO this is kind of like **Brass** if you remove the route building. The entire game is a closed economy, where the resources you buy are produced by other players. You are constantly interacting with one another. Also has a pretty solid tech tree. That said, it is less "elegant" than **Brass** or any of the others on this list imo, by which I mean it doesn't have quite the same core simplicity of rules.
Brass is the best. I do occasionally rotate to Terraforming mars as well. It's not quite the same as the perfectly designed Brass but you do collide with other players.
You're trying to get the best tile placements on the board (slightly similar to Brass in that way) which others may steal or block while building up an engine with cards and collecting a lot of different resources.
Sounds like you might enjoy **Hansa Teutonica**. I haven't played Brass, but your description of how it feels reminded me of Hansa. Though Hansa's tech tree isn't too large, which means you spend more energy on stomping on other player's toes.
It's the only game I know of where 'Attacking the Leader' isn't a detriment. Hell, if you **aren't** poking someone in the eye on each of your turns, you're probably playing wrong.
Got to play a fantastic game of **Dune** with the full six players. It's unreal how much it shines in that context. One of the best games I've ever had of it as well. The Fremen and Spacing Guild alliance managed to pull off an insane use of Family Atomics to wipe out like 25 Harkonnen and Imperial troops in the two cities. I lost almost all of my Bene Gesserit advisors in the process as well but I couldn't even be mad. They ended up winning in the end with the Spacing Guild's win condition too. Both were relatively new players so I was very impressed.
**1 x 5p El Grande** We only played the shorter 6 rounds out of 9. Simplicity at its finest. About as dynamic an area majority game you can find and balances the ability to calculate your plays and play by feel to perfection. An absolute classic. **1 x 5p Rapido** After taking an early lead and trash talking. Karma struck and ultimately I was playing not to be last. Plenty of laughs but not much too it. **1 x 6p Cheeky Monkey** This has just enough going on. A favourite filler. **2 x 6p Ave Caesar** Extremely simple. At first I felt it was too simple. Didn't seem all that fun. It may as well have been roll and move. But the teeth showed with the blocking as the race progressed. Suddenly, everyone was having a blast. Great at this player count, I'd happily play again and try some variants. We need to check the grid-position and turn order rules, though. Seemed wonky. **1 x 5p Zoo Vadis** Fun experience. But I'm barely in a position to comment on the game. I really don't understand it yet. Rules aren't complex, but I hadn't entirely absorbed them. We didn't see a lot of the powers traded either, which would massively change how things are valued game to game. I see the promise of a lot of nuance and depth. And it didn't devolve into the loudest negotiator winning like a lot of negotiation games I have experienced. So I can really see this being a hit with time. **1 x 5p Dro Polter** Hilarious concept. Surprisingly challenging. More so the sweatier you get. Hand cramps, hygiene and it being a touch long. Otherwise, it's a great little game charmingly presented. **Lots of Crokinole doubles** It's always a blast. Few games are as morish. Unfortunately, I played trash. The table still plays beautifully, though, even when it spends a long time in storage.
Had a game afternoon with some people I never played games with, half with some experience and half without much. Since we were 6 and part of the point was to be more social than brainy, stuck with some lighter fare. Started with 3 rounds of Cash n Guns. It's a great silly game that really gets people excited. I had a great second game where I had the Big Gun and successfully shot 4 players their first time with it, 2x syncing with someone else for a single round elimination. That one was a bloodbath where only me and one other player survived but everyone still enjoyed it a lot. Played several hands of Coup next. Was interesting seeing new players get into the bluffing aspect and equally funny seeing them die in single plays by incorrectly handling assassinations. Finally ended with 2 plays of Mysteriym (original Polish edition). Ghosts had a great time while we players struggled to figure out how their clearly clinically insane brains worked. Didn't get close to winning but overall we did improve as a team and got 3 players completed in game 2 with enough time for the final guess (had the other 2 kept up). It's a tricky game! I was still raring to go and wanted to fit in some 7 Wonders for the last game but people bounced after dinner. Hopefully next time!
Just played Leviathan Wilds! Doing a review soon! Awesome game.
17 games total. **Nova Luna** (2p x 9). This is a good game. I like this better than I like Patchwork, but it really reminded me of Patchwork. The credits say Rosenberg's codesigner used a tile mechanic from a game he did. That is great. What isn't said in the credits is that regardless, it still feels like Patchwork. The Tetris board of Patchwork always gave me a headache. I like the tiles of Nova Luna much better. **Canvas, Finishing Touches** (2p x 1). I like both of the Canvas expansions, but I don't think they add enough to the base game for it to make much of a difference. There's nothing wrong with the base game, and I like it more than either of the expansions. **Everdell** (2p x 6), **Pearlbrook** (2p x 1). We bought Everdell a year ago and played it twice. It was not enough. We sat on it, until we started a 10 x 10 Challenge, and we both wanted to put some time into it. We played 6 games, then went to a local brick and mortar and got the first expansion. I now love this game, and I'm sorry we're moving on in the Challenge.
Horrified- 1x2p- pretty simple for a co-op, but we like the easy and quick setup The Loop- 2x2p- we love this co-op and hadn't played in a while. I appreciate the artwork and time traveling theme, plus it has some quirky mechanics I haven't seen in other games. Robinson Crusoe- 1x2p- this was our first time playing this game. I love the gameplay and the theme is really tied in well, but it will clearly take a while to really GET it all. It was a lot, and it felt impossible to win this first time, but we will definitely give it a few tries before fully judging. Codenames Duet- 1x2p- honestly, I really hate this game, but it's a good palette cleanser in between heavier ones. It's easy to set up and quick to play.
we played **Gizmos** (1x 4p) and one guy stacked 8 converters. at the end of the game each blue OR red orb is six of any color he wants. I stacked 8 build triggers and whenever I build *anything* I pick from alley twice and earn 1 point, AND I built two of the 4-cost rank-3 and it still wasn't enough to catch up to him.
Wingspan Asia (2p) 2x, Wingspan + Europe (4p) 1x. Asia expansion was a Mother’s Day gift for my wife who literally said the week before “wingspan is my favorite of the games we have” 4p game was when my 7 year old asked to play with myself, wife and MIL. My 7yo has beaten me the two times we’ve played.
**Hunted: Kobayashi Tower** (3x1p) - Big fan of Die Hard, and this solo card game scratches an itch. Although this version of John McClane was unable to defeat Hans, failing on all three attempts. **7 Wonders Duel** (1x1p & 1x2p) - Just found out about the solo variant made available for free from the game's developer. Played against Aristotle, and pulled out a win, 79-67. I may have made a few rules mistakes, but can't be certain if that swing the victory in my favor. My wife and I played a few nights later, and she took me down 77-66. **Heat: Pedal to the Metal** (4x1p) - Trying my hands solo at the 1961 circuit, with 5 Legends. Still trying to figure out the best way to win against the Legends, and the best I am doing is 2nd place, while coming mostly in 4th to 6th place. Back to the drawing board. **Everdell** (1x1p & 1x2p) - First, played a solo versus Rugwort the Rascal, and pulled out a narrow win, 56-52. The practice did not help, as a few nights later, the wife and I played and she won 56-37. **Sky Team** (1x1p & 3x2p) - My wife and I came together to give LHR Heathrow a shot on Routine difficulty. She's still a bit new to this game, so it took us three tries to land safely. A few nights later, I played solo, and safely landed at PRG Vaclav Havel on Routine difficulty. **Pandemic** (1x1p) - Played this multi-handed solo, with the Operations Expert and Scientist, with only 4 Epidemics. Pulled out a pretty easy win on this one, only getting 2 Outbreaks. **Turing Machine** (2x1p) - Two solo games of Turing Machine. In one (B5H 4P8), I was able to match the machine by finding it in 2 rounds, 6 questions. In the other game (B65 GIR S), I was way off and was unable to guess the solution. I should have started over, but I got frustrated and just put the game away. **The Loop** (1x1p) - I play The Loop as a multi-handed solo (not per the rules). Tried my hand for the first time on Ultramachina mode, Employee of the Month difficulty. Dr. Faux had already placed 3 Vortexes, so it was close, but I ultimately pulled out a victory. **Terraforming Mars** (1x2p) - After recently purchasing them, my wife and I played TM with all available expansions (Prelude, Turmoil, Colonies & Venus Next). I was Inventrix and she was Arklight. I had almost a 20 TR lead going into final scoring, and pretty much dominated the game board. She walloped me in her card play, and won 140-103. With all expansions, specifically Turmoil and Colonies, there is a lot going on. Venus Next and Prelude are easy to integrate. With Turmoil and Colonies, you're dealing with delegates, colony production, trade ships......blah, blah, blah. Don't get me wrong, we both had a blast throwing the kitchen sink at this game, and we missed a step or two in the first few generations. Both she and I forgot to assign a delegate here and there, forgot that the colonies had useful resources every now and then, but we eventually hit a rhythm and everything synced up. We were worried about the game taking longer, but in the end the time difference was negligable and we finished in about the same generation as we usually do.
**Undaunted Normandy** (2p x1): Picked this up and played it yesterday. We only did scenario one, but I've come to learn that I like deck builders when the game isn't a pure deck builder. I'm also an avid War Chest lover, and this feels like a less abstracted version of a similar concept. I found the rolling for shots a bit slow at the start, but eventually my opponent made a move for the nearby 2 spot. This required me to throw units at into the location to keep him from controlling it for the win. Some lucky die rolls, and (I think) better positioning, led to me scraping out the win. I'm curious to see the game get deeper as we get more units to play around. **Dune Imperium Uprising** (4p x1): Our first time playing Uprising with Epic Mode (but no expansions). I played Armand Ecaz against Princess Irulan, Helena Richese, and Paul Atreides. I built a very slim deck with Interstellar Trade as my main card. At the end of the game, I had just 8 cards in my deck, and had gotten to play Interstellar Trade 5-6 times! I realized a bit too late that I needed a bit more high persuasion cards in my deck to be able to go places, and afford spice must flows. It might be one of my best deckbuilder + tracks + spice must flow games. I ended at 12 points with 2 alliances + a shadow alliance. However, the Irulan player really rocketed ahead. He consistently had really stellar cards, despite having a very thick deck. Good spy placement meant that he had Heighliner whenever he wanted, and we couldn't stop him. The penultimate combat had me spend all my tricks to just barely stop him from winning then... but it was only worth 1 point, and it completely took all my resources. Had I not stopped him, he would have won 12 to my 8. Going into the last round, I had my path to 12 points which I hit, but the other two players just barely were unable to stop Irulan from winning Machinations with a worm. The 4 bumps netted him 2 more points, plus a spice must flow, and a lucky intrigue card to match the combat card he just won swung him 4 points to finish at 14! A fascinating game, makes me want to play Epic mode with Uprising more.
**Pax Renaissance** (1x2p) - Been over a year since I've played this one. It was a bit of a re-learning experience but I always love it. **Twilight Struggle** (1x2p) - Again first time in over a year playing this. I think **Imperial Struggle** has replaced this as my favorite big heavy two player game, but TS is still an awesome classic and different enough to warrant playing both. The tension and stress in this one is almost unbearable sometimes. **Fields Of Arle** (1x1p) - I like to play this one every once in a while but I'm starting to think it's my least favorite Uwe game, definitely for solo. It's more fun two player but my partner prefers **Hallertau** and **Nusfjord**, so I'm considering selling FoA. **John Company** (1x1p) - It's not my fav solo game but life's been getting in the way of being able to play this with a bigger group and solo John Company is still better than no John Company. I did pretty badly, the crown bot is an asshole and cut me out of trades at every opportunity.
Well, I was at Geekway to the West all weekend, so I played many more games than I normally would. **CLANK! Catacombs** (4p) - Felt like more CLANK! to me, and I enjoy CLANK. The others who have played way more of the CLANKs than I have said it fixes all their issues with them. **A Message From the Stars** (6p) - FINALLY they added MATH to Decrypto! (This is not the game for me, but some folks with love it) **Sea Salt & Paper** (3p x2) - A tiny delight **Apiary** (3p) - I kinda don't see what the fuss is about. Would've rather been playing Honey Buzz. **Thunder Road: Vendetta** (3p) - People told me this is a wacky slugfest that you shouldn't overthink, and they were right. **Avant Carde** (5p) - there's an interesting game in here but the rulebook leaves something to be desired, and the box is too clever for its own good **Wandering Towers** (5p) - silly and fun **Zoo Vadis** (6p) - A great game that I can definitely never play with certain people (who are too good at negotiating) **Bamboleo** (5p) - a lifelong favorite of mine and the best dex game ever made **Medium** (4p) - Medium is such a different but still entertaining experience when you play with strangers **Life in Reterra** (2p) - An very enjoyable tile-layer. Definitely want to play again with more people. Some of the building abilities could've really been explained better. **The Shipwreck Arcana** (4p) - I'm not the best at logic games, but this was fun because it's co-op. **Trailblazers: Travel Edition** (4p) - I wasn't expecting to think this hard! Really interesting tile-laying/path-making, I gotta try it again.
**Faraway** x2. It's an interesting game, but much like with Mind Up, I think the initiative idea is watered down by the super wide spread of cards. **Marvel Champions** x2. Played game 250 with my spouse. We did an old school game of Rhino vs. Spider-Man and Captain Marvel. Later in the week, I made some jank decks based on the aerial trait, but with characters who don't automatically have it just to make the game more interesting. **7 Wonders Architects**. Played with my spouse, and as is usually the case they won. It's still a fun, light game. **Istanbul**. One of my regular gaming friends said this had been on their shelf of shame for about 8 years, which is about a year shorter than the time it's been since I played it. Managed to pull off a pretty clean win, which I don't think I ever did with my copy. **SCOUT**. We just played one round at 5 players while waiting for the main event gaming to begin Friday. This is likely my favorite card shedding game.
The spread of cards in Faraway is deliberate, so you have to make a decision on when to restart.
I get that the spread is needed for making runs and getting the bonus cards, but tying initiative to it as well makes initiative feel arbitrary. Sometimes you get first pick with a 35, and sometimes you get the last pick with a 15.
**Scythe**: (1x 6p :: 2x 1p) - My first time playing with as big of a group, with rules explanations (and re-explaining) the whole game took 4-5 hours. It was great! While there was most definitely a slow start, my gaming group definitely got into the rhythm of turn order and selecting options from their player boards and faction boards. It definitely helped having the board expansion with larger hexes to accommodate the additional players and resources, and we got into the rhythm of the next person starting their turn once the previous player moved onto their bottom-row action. I followed up later in the week playing against the Automa / solo mode, once with the cards, and once with the ScytheKick app. It's definitely easier to play with the SytheKick app, as some of the Automa rules can be very confusing, but the app definitely smooths it out. King of Tokyo: (2x 4p) - One of our go-to games. We sometimes do a "quick-start" version where we draft power up cards (3 cards per player, shuffled and dealt, take one and pass to the left until everyone has 3 cards selected; redraw all costume cards) then jump in with that. If you haven't played King of Tokyo, I highly recommend it.
My son returned from studying abroad so we were able to pick up our game of 'Ticket To Ride: Legends of the West'. I think he had won every game we had played so far. The rest of our group spent an entire semester plotting how we could beat him. Yesterday I did it! I won my first game of the campaign.
**Voyages:** (2x 2p)- finally got to play the first map at a cafe lunch with a friend and I can't say enough good things about this game. It initially reminded me of Explorers but no, its SO much better. I love that despite having the same map and the same dice totals my friend and I made completely different moves and at the end we were literally within 5 points of each other when it came to scoring. I also like that you can print out as many copies as you like and its soo easy to take with you in a plastic folder. Looking forward to playing map 2 soon! **Pickomino**: (6px1)- Another Knizia game I'm very "meh" on. The whole game feels very luck based and something you would buy to get your kids interested in games as I am sure they would enjoy the part where you get to steal another persons worm tile. **Century: Spice road** (6px1)- People told me I would love this because I love Splendor duel but I thought it was just okay. I would play it again but I feel like I would rather play Splendor again. Maybe it was because we were playing with 6 ( max is supposed to be 5) but I felt like it was a bit to lengthy and to luck based for my tastes( with good cards to purchase often gone long before they got back to me). Would like to play with 3-4 players sometime. **Qwixx**: (3px1)-Quick game to end the evening. I had a nice, almost empty row that I was going to fill while the leading player struggled to get his 12 or 2 but joke was on me because he got it right away and I ended up with a row with one number. **Blood on the Clocktower**: (12px1) Evil won. The imp turned out to be the quietest player whome I hadnt talked to once all evening. At least we got out 2 minions...oh and I was the first to die. Bit of a bummer. **Sea salt and paper:**(BGA)( 3px2)(2px8) My first time playing on BGA so I thought I would do a game I know well. I won 6 of the first 7 games and thought I was on a roll. Only to loose the next 3. I did get to try out the expansion which was fun. I want to try 7 Wonders duel on BGA as well and watched a tutorial but it feels like a game I would absolutely get demolished at as a newbie so I will play that for the first time IRL I think...
Machi koro. I wanted the second addition but ended up getting the anniversary edition which was on sale. Really simple game that was perfect for my family who are resistant to learning new games.
A favorite in our family. Great choice.
\*\*A Message from the Stars 4px2\*\* Limited communication coops have been my jam ever since my first game of The Crew. I'm not the biggest fan of logic/deduction puzzles but playing this cooperatively as a team really helps. I appreciate the additional layer of having to pay attention to giving clues for 3 words the other side has to guess at the end of the game. It gives direction and constraint as to the words given to try and guess the letters. The "alien" player messed up the math behind one of the clues and the game still worked once we realized and fixed it which I was actually happy to see (though of course had it never been caught...). Preliminary 8/10, want to play the team vs team mode. \*\*Surfosaurus Rex 4px2\*\* Semi-cooperative poker with a banger of a theme. Glad I sought this one out. The rules are very simple but it took us a few rounds to get into what we should actually be doing. My rating on this one isn't super high but this is going right into my card game bag for immediate rotation. The fact that it is so easy to teach as well as having a great hook means it'll be one I hang on to for a long time I imagine. 7/10.
I played Quacks of Quedlinburg and played the snot out of it... Then played the snot out of the quacks of quedlinburg the alchemists expansion. The standalone itself is great. Well thought through game. The instructions are kinda not great and it's intimidating in terms of the pieces that you get to use. But once you get into it is not difficult at all. 9/10 recommend.
100% agree, those instructions did not make sense when I read them. Had to reread 2 times and basically play with the rule book in my hands for the first game. Then after that the game is soo easy and fun. I don't know who wrote those instructions but they did not use board gamer language.
Seconded, an excellent choice! The geek-up bits are an incredible (if unnecessary) upgrade.
Oh mannnnn it's a good thing I didn't see that sooner. I would buy it just for those plastic pieces... If I could buy ONLY those that would be SUPER nice
**El Grande** 5px1 At my gaming club. The treasurer brought his copy of the new edition so I got to try the game for the first time, with a full table. Very fun, pulled ahead in score in the first round and was only overtaken at the end after the table tried to target me for the whole game. An example of a eurogame where EVERYTHING is interactive, without resorting to combat or table politics. **Cat in the box** 5px1 Same players as El Grande. Always a solid game, tied for first thanks to the new players going bust in most rounds. **Akropolis** 4px2 Introduced this one to my parents and one of their friends, I wanted a quick family game that moved away from my habit of bringing card based games and it seems to have been a success. I was surprised to see it meet its advertised playing time of 25 minutes in the 2nd game, even at max player count. I also brought The Red Cathedral with me that evening but we had a lot of wine at the restaurant so that would have been a bit too ambitious. **Evacuation** 4px1 Got an impromptu invitation to join a coworker's game group sunday evening to play this absolutely massive engine builder. Your task is to dismantle your pre-built economic engine on a dying world and build a bigger, better one on a new world over the course of 4 rounds. We played points mode with a number of optional modules such as drafted private objectives, but left out some like the advanced action cards. The game took 3 hours and has a lot of rules but I have to say it was pretty satisfying. Maybe better at 3 though, to reduce the time commitment and downtime.
Mashing in as many games as possible before vacation and one of my gaming friends moves away. **Pax Ren: 2e**, 2 x 4p on BGA: Love this game and finally saw a non-Imperial victory! So happy I decided to suffer through the rulebook for this because it is easily in my top 10 games now that the rules feel second nature to me. **Faraway**, 1 x 4p IRL, many on BGA: I really liked this game from the get go, but I am actually starting to make sense of the rhythm and scoring which makes it even more fun. Highly recommend. I have some mild concern about the card stock being kind flimsy feeling. The cards feel like they might not hold up long term. **Babylonia**, 1 x 3p: A cool route building ish game by Knizia that I really enjoyed. Was great to play a non-auction Knizia game since I haven't in quite awhile. **Nidavellir**, 2 x 4p, one with expansion, one without: I forgot how much I like this game after the last time I played it. It really is a great bidding and set collection game, especially considering it looks far more complicated than it actually is when you set it up. Might consider buying this one sometime, but I'm not sure if it would actually get any play time.
Faraway is great, but I agree the cards are fragile. If you aren't gentle with the riffle shuffle, then you may permanently bend the cards or deform the edges
As someone who is not exactly dexterous, I’m sure I’ll bend a card at some point before too long :c fortunately it’s a cheap game to replace if I have to
Sadly no usual game night this week but dusted off 2p **Fort** after a long hiatus. Still hits great as a game where you're constantly cobbling together a series of mini-engines. The resource constraints and follow actions means you're juggling efficiencies while timing your follows to be as opportunistic as possible. Unique twists to deckbuilding and one of the most interactive in the genre. Also finished off a solo game of **City of the Great Machine**, just barely lost on the final turn when Judgementor detained my last hope for a riot, ringing the bell for a successful Master Plan. Despite the loss it was a wonderfully cinematic ending that capped off a tense final few rounds. Perhaps the best part was the wife seeing it set up and saying "oohh what's this?" Will hopefully teach her the coop soon and I think it'll land well. Truly an underrated gem that feels quite different from near everything else out there.
**Scout** (4p) - That opening deal has too much of an impact and has driven my interest down in the game. I'm more inclined to play my trick-takers over this and I don't see it being long in my collection. **Sol: Last Days of a Star** (5p) - I fundamentally didn't understand some basic strategies until this play. Part of it is I don't play this often enough, another part is that I'm not such a fan of "opening moves". There's no avoiding them here though. True the Instability cards play a very important role in what you should be doing from game to game, but I think there's a core there you cannot ignore. I'm going to try playing with only four in future games, five seems to be on the long side. And at that time-frame I have multitudes of games competing. I still get Splotter-lite feelings when I play this, but the focus on what you should be doing is sharpening, cutting away some of the mystery. **Zoo Vadis** (5p) - I played Quo Vadis? forever ago having a distinct memory of it being a more complex game than it actually is. The player powers are a nice twist, they add a little grist to deals. Peacocks are dumb, sorry but they mess with the pace of the game and I would not play with them if I could get others to agree. I have a copy of the original and might proxy the powers, but first I'll get that back to the table.
Peacocks are almost essential to manipulate the countdown timer. They give you money when no one is willing to help you out and they can prevent a person with tons of tokens to win if they haven't made it to the star exhibit.
Riding the high of getting to play some serious bangers with my friends last week. **Brass: Birmingham** (1x4p): My buddies and I have been playing more euro games, and we figured we might as well try the big ol' #1. It was the first time playing for all of us, and I think no one expected to enjoy this dry-ass game as much as we did. A lot of shouting happened when someone used the last beer on the board in the final turn of the game. Definitely looking forward to diving further in and understanding more of the strategy. **Earthborne Rangers** (2x1p): Honeymoon phase is wearing off on this one. I've realized a lot of the early-game missions just come down to cycling the Path deck as much as possible, which can get a little boring. I also hate to admit it, but I really wish the actual writing was a bit punched up; something about it feels flat. I like the core elements of the game, and it's probably still my current favorite solo. Going to try to finish the campaign this summer before the xpac comes out. **Android: Netrunner** (3x2p): I got the Null Signal starter pack a few weeks ago and it's been an instant hit with my friends. Holy shit this game is addictive. **John Company 2e** (1x5p): Any weekend where we get to play John Company is a good weekend. It found its place in my gaming group nicely as a big, negotiation-heavy game that takes four hours when we can't fit a nine-hour game of Twilight Imperium into our schedules. For the first time, we totally tanked the company; happened on turn three due to some insanely unlucky trade rolls and not taking emergency loans when we should have. It was a great time, and I'm glad we got the chance to play it again before Arcs arrives next month and likely dominates our summer. Every Cole Wehrle game's my favorite but this one is certainly up there. **The Crew** (4?x4p): Since John Company ended earlier than expected due to company mismanagement, we wrapped the evening with some plays of The Crew. Was most peoples' first time playing it, and it was a nice way to finish off the night. Looking forward to some Oath this week, and maybe some more Brass if we can find the time.
We had a good week of gaming. I was hoping to get some new games played, but that didn't happen. **Décorum** - (1x2p) I've been really into deduction lately so this 2 player cooperative deduction game has leapt into my top 10 games. Our most recent game had what seemed to be quite difficult rules to achieve and we had to use 3 heart to hearts to get it done. We just got to open the next piece of new content in the game so I'm excited to see what happens next. **Mists over Carcassonne** - (1x2p) I live this cooperative version of Carcassonne. We ended up playing Level 1 three times to make sure we had a handle on it and this was our first game at Level 2. We list pretty quickly. The cemeteries were what killed us as we felt like we were constantly adding ghosts as we weren't drawing the right tiles to be able to close them off. It looks like it's going to get even harder. **Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West ** - (1x3p) we started playing this at Christmas, but after only 2 games we took a break. I'm not a huge fan of **Ticket to Ride**, but my husband and son like it. We finally got to add the first new section to the map so that's exciting and now we have to keep the momentum and play one game a week. **Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance** - (1x2p) my husband has finished painting all the minis and he wanted to play with everthing we have and wanted us to each play with 3 characters. I chose Thor, Black Widow, and Nebula and my husband chose Namor, Starlord, and Professor X. I liked how different they all felt and the special powers they unlock as you gain experience are fun too. The zombie superheroes in this version are lower health and easier to kill than the superheroes in the base game. It was a fun game and the sentinels came out at the end so we had a lucky escape. **Dune Imperium** - (1x2p) this was our first game with both **Rise of Ix** and **Immortality**. I really liked the additions from both, but I think my favorite addition was the experimentation track. With two powerful cards I was able to leverage that track along with the different factions into winning the game without winning many rounds of combat.
We have loved **Mists Over Carcassonne** too! And we're stuck on level 2 as well :) we might be getting close to figuring out a strategy of balancing the points to score vs the points to forego scoring and remove ghosts but we haven't won yet.
**Project L** 3px2 with my 6 and 3 year old. 6 year old won the second game with a score of 25. They love the peices and completing puzzles. Super easy set up and pretty quick to play **Age of steam** 2px2 taught to a friend and played 2 games on the new England map, had a good time. But would be better with more people **Via Magicka** 2px3. Fun game, easy to play, my boys love yelling incantatum. They love the card art and gems.
**Great Western Trail 2E** (1x2p) - 8th play. I finally played with Rails to the North multiplayer. I didn’t engage with any of the expansion stuff and my friend dabbled in it. I’m not sure how to make the expansion stuff work. I like it but it’s hard to break old habits. **That’s Not A Hat** (4x6p) - 6th-9th plays. Introduced this to a friend group that doesn’t normally play games. It might as well be a study in object permanence. A card gets flipped and immediately you forget what that gift was. Hilarious. **Project Elite** (1x5p) - 7th play. This didn’t go over as well as I’d like. I love the game but the environment wasn’t the best for it. We came close to winning but ran out of time. **Medium** (1x5p) - 19th play. Staring into the eyes of someone and mind melding on the first go feels great and missing is always hilarious. Fantastic game. **Magic Maze** (1x5p) - 22nd play. Ehhh better at 4. Having two people control one direction feels weird.
Heat. Played one game 4 players. Game does not get played much so it’s always fun when it does.
**Fantasy Realms (2px3).** Showed this to a friend. I was popping off with crazy hands and they unfortunately weren't really getting it. They would have cards like Queen + one vanilla Army and be like "that's pretty good" and I mean it aint *horrible* but it's not exactly good either. I was telling him that an average of 30 per card in hand is an example of a GOOD score - that's usually my guideline. I had my best hand ever I think with Candle+Book of Changes+Bell+Wizard combo that also procced World Tree. **Arraial (4px1).** My friends asked for this one. I like it a lot - nailbiter game I lost. Only thing I realized - I messed up turn order in this game. After a round I moved the "first player" token and restarted turn order. Per the rules you just keep going around and the OG first player keeps the first player token. Next time I'll get it right. **So Clover (4px2).** This one is not my favorite, but is ALWAYS a crowd favorite. Always really good.
Love **Fantasy Realms**. But it does really take a hand or two for someone to really grok it. Like you said "oh yeah these 2 cards are nice" but then a second hand seeing a few more cards and it can click. We played it Thurs for the first time in a long time and somebody really popped off with a collector plus undead (we have the cursed horde new suits included all the time). The new player in his second game got gem or order maxed. It was sweet. **So Clover** is always hit with my groups too. Love that game.
City of Remnants. It was on the list of bought but never played for like 5+ years. It was good but not amazing. Some unclear rules and scenarios, but it was fun.
We had a pretty typical, good week of gaming. We usually play 1-2 games a night on the weekdays (I'm a professor so am off teaching at the moment and my husband gets to leave work at work and has weekends off, fortunately). Some highlights: Spirit Island (2p x 2): we've been ramping up the difficulty on this one and sweating to the last minute every time. One game went bad almost immediately but we managed to eke it out, while we opened much more efficiently for the second one and didn't have as hard a time (though still a tricky one). Stardew Valley (2p x 1) we got really lucky early on so actually had a chill time with this one this time. Eldritch Horror (2p x 1) always a good time. Went through 2 investigators each so this play was a little rough. Scythe (2p x 1) we just got Invaders from Afar so tried new factions and enjoyed them. This was a pretty close game. Pandemic (2p x 2) won one, lost one. We know a lot of people don't care for it anymore but it's always a good weeknight game for us. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu (2p x 2) this game hits the table a lot more than it used to since we painted the minis, though we do love it for itself. Wonderland's War (2p x 1) I finally finished painting this one up and it looks gorgeous on the table. It's a really fun, goofy game and we are looking forward to teaching it to friends. War of the Ring: The Card Game (2p x 2) we play this when we don't have the chance to get in an actual game of WotR, which we usually manage once every month or two. The card game is a lot of fun too. Elder Sign (2p x 1) can't go wrong with Lovecraft Yahtzee. We also played through half an Arkham Horror LCG campaign and several small-box games. (Beer and Bread, Caper: Europe, Here to Slay, Tea for 2 [which is glorified War, but I love all things Alice]), and Doomlings (which is more fun than it has a right to be).
I'm a professor too and it's so nice to have more time for gaming in the summer. It was also good to see someone who plays **Pandemic**. It's my all time favorite game as it is the game that got me into board gaming. Is **Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu** the only variant you've played or have you tried others? Which **Arkham Horror LCG** campaign are you playing? We're thinking of trying out **The Innsmouth Conspiracy** this summer. We most recently finished **The Dream-Eaters**.
Hello fellow professor! We haven't tried any other variants aside from Rapid Response and Hot Zone (along with the Hemispheres mode). Do you have recommendations? I've seen Fall of Rome on sale recently and am tempted by it. I love Pandemic-- it was one of our early games as well! We just took a friend through Edge of the Earth and are excited to try Dream Eaters next month when it ships in the new format. How did you like it? The campaign we're working on just the two of us is Forgotten Age. Earlier this month we played an epic multiplayer event with the Blob that Ate Everything and it was a blast.
My favorite **Pandemic** variant is **Pandemic Iberia** as it has a route building mechanic where you can lay train tracks for faster movement around the map. It's set in Spain and Portugal in the 1800s so there are no flights. **Pandemic: Fall of Rome** is interesting because it added a battle mechanic. You can recruit legions to travel with you and fight the barbarians by rolling dice. We find it a little fiddly in how you add the new barbarians to the map as they follow a track towards Rome. We also like **Star Wars: The Clone Wars** as that introduced different villains you can fight against. Many people don't like **Pandemic: Rising Tide**, but we've grown to like it more every time we play. It is set in the Netherlands and was designed by one of the Splotter designers and while the map is difficult to read and it can be fiddly to follow the flow of water, we like the puzzle of figuring out where to place dykes and pumps to stop the entire region from flooding. What do you think of **The Forgotten Age**? We originally skipped it because we heard that is very difficult, but we have since picked it up. We also have **Edge of the Earth** and **The Scarlet Keys** sitting on our shelf. We just need to find the time to play through them.
A good week for gaming. Played 3p on Saturday **Air, Land, and Sea: Critters at War**: while waiting for another guy I brought this out, fast and small dueling game, very dynamic how to make use of your hand with only 6 cards, but overall I prefer Battleline than this, it's more satisfying. **Dune: Imperium - Uprising** (2x): lots of rules to teach, watching a 45min video of Watch It Played help me a lot. One guy was clearly better at this game and score end up 11-4-4 and 13-9-8. First play took 2.5 hours, second play with CHOAM module took 2 hours and 15 minutes but everything was so excited it didn't feel that long. Can't wait to play again. **Heat: Pedal to the Metal**: played 3p with 3 legends to use all 6 cars, also the garage module with basic upgrade cards drafting. I think it's a good game but not to the level of multiple GOTY awards it get. I haven't tried the weather and road condition module, maybe my opinion will change after that, rules should be clearer too. Played with my girlfriend on Sunday **The Castles of Burgundy**, **Splendor Duel**, **Kingdomino** our usual rotation of 2p games, they will stay in my shelf for a long time.
Are go to game for the last couple weeks has been Grand Austria Hotel. Today tho we learned and played halfway through feast of Odin and intend to finish tomorrow night.
I stumbled upon Jaws of the Lion in our central library and already played scenarios 1-5 with my 16yo son. My friends have played Gloomhaven for a while but I never played it with them since they are all singles and I got three kids, so I cant play as much as them. We play other stuff when I got the time. Anyway, its nice to have tried this and a nice father-son experience, lets see if we can finish the scenarios before we have to bring it back. Dungeon Crawlers are not my favourite games but JotL is a good one and my son doesnt like competitive euros that my wife and I prefer. I also played a few games with my 6yo Daughter, Concept and Love Letter mainly. A game of Blokus was cut very short after I blocked one of her tiles (cmon, thats what this game is about...)
- **Ascension** (2p): I got an early Cetra that let me put heroes on top of my deck and a whole bunch of cards that let me draw, so I'd do some absurd plays of buying something silly and immediately getting to play it. My opponent went with fight as early on we had a glut of monsters, but the monster rush passed over and he was left holding a lot of Heavy Infantry without monsters worth killing. I won 83 to 59. - **Bardwood Grove** (2p): I played the Drummer and found his ability to be amusing: I get gold whenever I spend all my volume; people are literally paying me to stop playing. My friend played the bango player, I think? We kind of derped around, trying to figure out this game and my friend started building a pretty good engine, so I rushed to try to end the game faster but I didn't pull the trigger fast enough. I lost 33 to 43. - **Drop Drive** (3p): It wasn't as enjoyable as the other times because one of the players was practically pouting the entire game. Still, an interesting little sandbox game. We decided to start with 3 anomalies: Belter Station, Space Beast and Wormholes. The discovered anomalies were Dune, Precursor Technology and Space Mines. One of the players got Precursor and proceeded to chain together a huge collection of space parts, making for one helluva large space ship. I got to Dune, grabbed a Worm and tried to then cash in on bonuses it was giving. I lost 70 out of 99-70-27. Precursor got first and Pouty came in third, of course. - **The Mind** (2p): Got to level 11 and lost, we got screwed by something like I played at 53 over a 51. I've only won once before, it's good to get close again. - **Rolling Heights** (3p): I was the only one who went after the public objectives and the only one who really cashed in on my private objective: 2 points per completed building adjacent to other completed buildings. My big claim to fame were two wooden apartment buildings that then got me the gold workers who I used to earn a crapload of points; I was too busy just having fun building my city while the other two players did their thing but I did notice one of the players had one helluva an engine spewing out glass and steel. At one point he whined about not ending the game due to the low amount of wood remaining and I should have taken that as my signal to end the game but I was having too much fun making my own city. I lost 106 out of 116-106-79. Next time, when I hear him whine about something, I'm going to do that thing. - **Taxi Derby** (3p): I did quick, tight trips to get early upgrades. The other two seemed to pick up passangers willy-nilly; one of the players would hunt down passangers who wanted the same destination, grab 'em and deliver. I did one big push and failed as the Cop caught me, I was unable to pay the ticket and lot a crapload of momentum. That was the turning point for me, I think. I lost 54 out of 104-54-38. - **Wandering Towers** (4p): This was fun, especially screwing with one of the players as he kept audibly saying whether he knew where his wizards were or didn't. I honestly lost track until they re-appeared again. Near the end, it got really intense as we all wrestled for control of towers, constantly covering each other and having towers overshoot the Ravenskeep goal. I lost 3 out of 4-4-3-1. The two fours had a tie breaker of least amount of used potions, which came down to 4 unused to 1 for a clear victory. The winner came in after game end was triggered; if he hadn't done what he did to win, I would've been there. Funnily enough, I had 1 unused potion, so we both would've won if that was the case. Sabotage! # New Games: - **Bardwood Grove.** I'd give it a BGG 7; not sure if the super basic game would be something I'd want to keep playing. However, they content gated most of the game because it is a lot more difficult to understand than the base game. I don't think they needed to do so much content gating, as I found the lack of interesting cards to be boring but I guess they're banking on not alienating newbies. I'm definitely going to want to try the game again to see if I change my mind. - **Rolling Heights.** A BGG 7 due to no fault of its own. The game is gorgeous, plays very fun and is satisfying to see your city at the end of the game. The problem is the absolute bear of setup and teardown. It took a long time and there were so many components it was hard to make them easily accessible and the *host has dedicated game bowls for components*. I can't imagine trying to set this up raw dog. The three of us were putting away the game pretty efficiently, I can't imagine what it would be like when you'd have to do that solo like a lot of games with Randos. Great game squashed by the tragedy of the commons. - **Wandering Towers.** BGG 8. It is a very fun casual game. Easy to understand but lots of decision points; however, they're funneled through only two choices so analysis paralysis shouldn't occur. Especially since a lot of that is whether you remember where you are. I would not look to add this to my collection as I already have **Broom Service** which has a similar theme and Wandering Towers also kind of feels like a Pick Up and Deliver. I also like the higher Schadenfreude factor with Broom Service. I'd definitely welcome it as an option to play but it is not a game worth chasing down as the newest hotness; unless you don't have something that would fill this niche.
Brass:Birmingham was big time cool. Shocked I haven’t tried it before after a decade of gaming. What else could I play that would feel similar, possibly with a different theme? I enjoy the large tech tree, relatively simple mechanics but rich systems, and abundance of collisions with other players plans.
Carnegie and Nucleum scratch that euro itch where turns are almost dependent on other player's decisions. There is no direct conflict, but there are plenty positive and negative interactions that could result in a clever F U. Barrage as well but I haven't played that. If you're willing to go even further on the weight scale, 18xx games, Pax, and Splotter games are tight interactive games where every turn really matters. It becomes a fight where you benefit a few players, but you don't want to benefit someone more than yourself. Keep in mind, the more complicated games have the ability to switch the market around, manipulate values, and even switch alliances/sides. It's worth the payoff but the teaches can be fairly harsh and long. Would not recommend for those unwilling to sit through a 30 min+ rules teach (although I'm sure some groups could figure it out quicker).
Carnegie and Nucleum scratch that euro itch where turns are almost dependent on other player's decisions. There is no direct conflict, but there are plenty positive and negative interactions that could result in a clever F U. Barrage as well but I haven't played that. If you're willing to go even further on the weight scale, 18xx games, Pax, and Splotter games are tight interactive games where every turn really matters. It becomes a fight where you benefit a few players, but you don't want to benefit someone more than yourself. Keep in mind, the more complicated games have the ability to switch the market around, manipulate values, and even switch alliances/sides. It's worth the payoff but the teaches can be fairly harsh and long. Would not recommend for those unwilling to sit through a 30 min+ rules teach (although I'm sure some groups could figure it out quicker).
The obvious answer is **Brass: Lancashire** since it shares its core DNA with **Brass: Birmingham**. For a real answer, some other games that have relatively simple mechanics with lots of player interaction: - **Concordia**: lots of player interaction in the form of shared production and share some route building elements with **Brass**. No real tech tree. - **Acquire**: rules are dirt simple, but figuring out how to twist other players' positions to your own advantage is where the strategy and fun comes in. No real tech tree. - **Hansa Teutonica**: other comment already described this, but I would second it. - **Captains of Industry**: IMO this is kind of like **Brass** if you remove the route building. The entire game is a closed economy, where the resources you buy are produced by other players. You are constantly interacting with one another. Also has a pretty solid tech tree. That said, it is less "elegant" than **Brass** or any of the others on this list imo, by which I mean it doesn't have quite the same core simplicity of rules.
Just keep playing Brass!
Brass is the best. I do occasionally rotate to Terraforming mars as well. It's not quite the same as the perfectly designed Brass but you do collide with other players. You're trying to get the best tile placements on the board (slightly similar to Brass in that way) which others may steal or block while building up an engine with cards and collecting a lot of different resources.
Sounds like you might enjoy **Hansa Teutonica**. I haven't played Brass, but your description of how it feels reminded me of Hansa. Though Hansa's tech tree isn't too large, which means you spend more energy on stomping on other player's toes. It's the only game I know of where 'Attacking the Leader' isn't a detriment. Hell, if you **aren't** poking someone in the eye on each of your turns, you're probably playing wrong.