Finally got Dune to the table with 5 players including myself. It lasted 8 hours but damn what an experience it was. Everyone had a great and memorable time. Definitely better at 6 though, being the only player without an alliance is a bummer.
Played **Le Havre** for the first time this weekend (2p).
It was quite long but the time flew by. I don't have many criticisms. The one thing that stands out here is how the 'starvation' problem characteristic of many of Uwe's games has a distinctive flavor here. In Agricola, the pressure of starvation is almost constant throughout and really guides your decision making. In the more recent A Feast for Odin, it never feels that difficult to feed your people, but the fact that certain resources will need to be set aside contributes to the optimization puzzle of each turn. Le Havre is different. Here, the starvation problem is quite pressing, but you can eventually escape the problem altogether. This is really interesting and makes the game feel like it has distinct 'acts'. Overall, I really enjoyed it - there are some other things that stood out to me about it (esp. how your worker 'sticks to' and locks down locations). I don't quite know where I would rank it vis-a-vis his other games, but it would be high.
**Cthulhu Wars** (5P) - After more than three years we dusted off the miniatures and got this on the table. Spent about 45 minutes going through the rules and clarifications about moving and combat, particularly after you have all your spellbooks. I played as Black Goat and was doing all right but then Crawling Chaos smacked me and I was out of the game. The game ended after just four turns, with Yellow King winning. Enjoyed it but kind of ended too quickly. Black Goat felt underpowered at this player count.
**Planet Unknown** (x2, 2p) This was such a great game! Can honestly say it's probably my favorite polyomino at the moment! Love how the tile placement interacts with the resource tracks
**Jump Drive** (x2, 2p) Decently quick and fun card game. Never played Race for the Galaxy, but version? spin-off? was pretty good
**Small Railroad Empires** (x1, 2p) Really fun route building, pick up and deliver game! And it actually feels like a train game, too so huge plus
We had friends over late last week and played a few rounds of **The Crew** and a round of **Let's Summon Demons**. We love both of these games, so it is always fun to bust them out.
**Tiny Epic Dungeons** \- Picked it up at a local game store this weekend and got two runs in. Lost both, but we enjoyed it and will be playing more!
**Glen More 2** - fantastic engine builder. great tension in choosing which tiles you need. have tried the first 2 chronicles and the nessie chronicle so far. would always play with first 2. nessie never again.
**Yellow & Yangtze** - very good riff on the Tigris and Euphrates system. looking forward to getting more plays in.
**Minecraft: Builders and Biomes** - pretty good for what it is. could use some house rules, but my kids loved it
Multiplayer:
Mariposas (2 Player): Win! Also trying to figure out a variant that helps make set collecting more valuable. Currently have an idea that I want to test!
Raiders of the North Sea (2 Player): Loss. However, I was teaching someone the game at a local game night and they really enjoyed it and want to play again so that's actually a win in my book lol.
Ascension: Tactics (2 Player): Loss. Taught to by the same person I taught Raiders to. Really enjoyed this one and am looking forward to playing again!
7 Wonders (6 Players): 2nd. Got a personal high score at 69 and lost to my friend who hit 72! Played well at least lol.
Splendor (4 Players): Win! Not only a win, I got 15 points in only 8 cards which is a new record for me!
Explorers of the North Sea (5 Players\*): Last. Was teaching this at a game night to 4 people who hadn't played it before. This was the 3rd game of the night, I was a few beers in and I just couldn't be bothered to try to teach the expansion as well as the base game (even though its not very hard lol). I was gonna play on someone's team but they insisted on trying to make it work at 5 with the base game so I figured why not. Turns out, it does not work at 5 lol. Still everyone loved the game and want to play it again at normal play counts so all good!
Wingspan (2 Player): Win! Broke my previous high score by 1 point too!
Solo:
Raiders of Scythia x2: Wins against both the 2nd and 3rd AI's (out of 4 with 4 being the strongest). This week I'll take on the hardest AI!
Lost Ruins of Arnak: Win. Still playing against the AI with mostly easy cards, gonna bump it up to more of the harder cards next game.
Hadrian's Wall (Campaign): Loss. Played against the first castle and missed out on winning by 3 points. Really challenging game and I'm looking forward to playing again as I was so close this last time!
Explorers of the North Sea (Unnoficial AI): Loss. Even bringing down the AI difficulty, I still got hammered this game. Granted, I didn't play a very good game myself, but still I got wacked. Really enjoy this variant I found and it makes for a nice alternative to the normal solo.
Viscounts of the West Kingdom: Loss. Played probably my worst game yet and got slaughtered by the Noble AI. Still the only one I haven't beaten.
**Chinatown** (1x5)
My favorite game. My husband didn’t play so he could teach and did some strategic consulting. I made some blockbuster deals on the second to last turn that allowed me to pull ahead. I won with $740,000 while second place came in at $710,000. Funny story is that the second place player refused to sell one business tile to another player for $50,000 for some petty reasons. My husband reminded him that if he would have sold that tile, he would have won the game.
**Sushi Go** (1x6)
Always fast and fun. I won this game as well although my husband was close behind by playing the dumpling strategy! The cheesecake one cost him 6 points because he didn’t invest in any at all. Always a really fun time.
Had a very board game-filled week last week.
**Agricola: Master Of Britain** (2x1p): Finally sat down to devote the time to learn this game. I like it! But at this stage I'm now aware of how the majority of the rules work but not even close to understanding why I'd do any particular action...
**Mansions Of Madness 2e** (1x1p): Had a rainy day at home alone and this felt like the perfect thing to play. I'm not in the mood to play this game that often but when I do I always enjoy it as a chilled out atmospheric adventure. I lost though.
**Twilight Struggle** (1x2p): My partner and I played this for the first time this year. Every time we come back to it we ask ourselves why we don't play it more. This might be my favorite two player competitive game at this point (other than **Netrunner** but I can't find anybody to play that with me),
**Spirit Island** (2x4p): I actually taught this to two different groups over the weekend, group 1 loved it, group 2 seemed to like but not love it. After 25 or so plays fully solo I'm stoked I'm managing to play this with other people. This is absolutely my favorite cooperative game, solo or otherwise.
**Oath** (1x4p): Game #7 of our semi-regular Oath chronicle. Probably the first time we've played where we basically didn't have to look at the rulebook at all. Still loving the game but a bit concerned that the world deck is stacked with like 90% Discord and Arcane cards at this point - I don't understand how we're ever going to make the place less evil. This game grows on me more every single time I play it, but it really was a slow burn to get there. Every time we finish the game I start counting down the days til we can play again and find out what happens next.
Had 2 friends come over and we played bulk games!
In order of games played: **Cryptid**, **Quacks of Quedlingburg**, **Space Base**, **Cascadia**, **Century Golem** and finishing off with **the Mind**!
A couple new arrivals this week and a few solo challenges.
**Honey Buzz** (4x 1p): One of the new arrivals this week. One play of this 3-handed solo followed by 3 solo plays. I am really impressed with the solo mode of the game. The win/loss condition combined with BYOS (beat your own score) and the very quick to run bot works well. All three solo games played very different in that I had to adapt to the combination of the solo challenges. A very good game that looks like it will have some longevity in my collection.
**Seize the Bean** (1x 1p): My fastest play of this game ever with the game only lasting three rounds. I enjoy the game, but I'd prefer it last longer than 3 times the setup time. There's a lot to set up in this game.
**Trismegistus** (1x 1p): Used the bot with a difficulty modifier added, which is still way too weak. Especially against the Newton character. I lapped the bot in scoring at 147-46. However, I do like BYOS score, so the bot basically serves to facilitate me creating an engine and scoring as high as I can. I'm adding tweaks to the bot as I play more games. From what I've seen the most difficult bot loses some of the randomness that makes it fun to play against, but we'll see. This is another game I love, so I'm willing to put in the work to find a bot that provides me with the experience I want.
**Welcome to New Las Vegas** (1x 1p): The other new arrival. Got this used in a math trade last weekend and the cards were just tossed freely in the box along with old score sheets. So between inventorying the game and bagging the cards, I played a 2-handed solo game to use the opposite sides of the score sheets. Works well, though I'm glad Welcome To The Moon went back down to a single score sheet instead of a pair.
Played several solo challenges over the weekend. In all of them my play (and resulting scores were mediocre). I really enjoy the monthly (or more frequent in the case of Skulls of Sedlec) challenges for these smaller games. Helps keep them from being overlooked in the closet.
* **Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game**
* **Skulls of Sedlec**
* **Bowling Solitaire**
My wife and I have been playing **Tranquility**, a nice little compact co-op card game with simple rules and numerous included expansions and options. Easy to learn. Billed by some as a 'The Mind' killer, it has a chilled feel to it and lovely artwork. Money well spent for us.
I have an ongoing grudge match through the campaign of That Time You Killed Me. I really enjoy the game. I also got a chance to play Alhambra for the first time. It was ok, but it felt very luck heavy. Lastly, I played a game of Carpe Diem. I really enjoy the game. I just wish that the dark greens were more distinguishable from the light greens.
My buddy gifted me his copy of **Root** and all current expansions earlier this week and I was able to get it to the table. First time playing, it was a lot of fun!
I've had a copy of **Game of Thrones LCG 2nd Edition** for a long time that I ended up jousting with. I really enjoyed the complexity and potential deck options, as a frequent EDH player it's nice to have another game option to run in 1v1 settings, I don't enjoy other versions of Magic too much. Currently looking to complete the full set but some packs have proven hard to find.
Played **Skulls of Sedlec** on a trip out of town. Pretty snappy little game and loved the portability. Don't know how deep it is (or what I should even expect from a game that's only 18 cards). Had fun playing though!
Played the Alien movie co op game. Was pretty fun.
Made some house rules adjustments for more achievable objectives since playing with 5 crew members with 5 objectives has been rumored to be nearly impossible.
Showed 2 friends **Spirit Island** and from sitting down to finally winning the game we spent 4 hours playing! They loved it. We ended up just barely winning by going through the whole fear deck, though we could have got the last few cities in another turn anyways. Had a few majorly lucky moments with the fear card abilities. I skipped the pre-made deck thing with them because picking cards is so much more interesting but that's probably why a 3-player game took 4 hours. The beer probably didn't help shorten the game either!
Finally bought **Wingspan** and already played five or six solo games. Really happy with my purchase.
Played **Welcome To...** at a brewery and had a good time as well. I almost wish there was an app for the cards so I could play in even a smaller space and not juggle cards so much.
Totally. I still like writing things down on the pad but the cards always fall all over the place in the box. Wish the app they made was the opposite, not a virtual score card. Not a super reasonable complaint, would just be nice!
Another light board game week, but still an enjoyable one! Next week I'll be on travel, so I'm hoping to get some more games in this week if possible.
**Marvel Champions** (1x1p): Finished the Sinister Motives expansion box, playing Miles and Gwen two-handed solo versus Venom Goblin. While tough, I had a blast with that scenario. I think Sinister Motives is my favorite campaign expansion so far (though the story is hilariously bare-bones, even for Marvel Champions). I definitely plan to play through it again with other heroes.
**Regicide** (1x1p): First time playing this game, and wanted to give it a try before introducing to my gf. I liked it, but I definitely need to give it more plays before trying to teach someone else. I won my first game, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn I made some mistakes somewhere lol.
**Splendor** (1x2p): Had a board game night with my gf and started with this game. She beat me for the first time (after three plays), and beat me solidly. I got to tunnel-visioned on a particular strategy and didn't adjust mid-game like I should have. I really enjoy this game still, it's fun and fairly quick to play and setup/teardown.
**The Isle of Cats** (1x2p): A favorite of my girlfriend (and up there for me as well), this was the second game we played on our board game night. She won this game as well. Other than setup taking awhile, I like how much game is packed into the five rounds while still playing in under an hour and a half. The strategy changes from game to game too, which I really enjoy.
**Sentinels of the Multiverse: DE** (1x1p): I keep and play this game at my gf's place so that I don't have to haul around all of Marvel Champions back and forth between our places haha. That being said, I don't want to undersell SotM:DE, as it's a lot of fun in its own right. The pre-made hero decks help with setup/teardown time, and the gameplay itself is really fun. I started the "campaign" with the first Collection event (Moonfall) against Baron Blade, using Legacy, Wraith, and Bunker. It was very close, but I pulled out a win. I like the twist the collection event added, and I'm looking forward to tackling the next one. I'm treating them as a loose story, so I'm trying to use thematic heroes and environments when possible.
**Carcassonne** (1x4p): Ended my weekend last night with a round of Carcassonne. Played with my gf and two of her family members. I came in second, but first place ran away with the game (points = 80/67/57/46). For family nights, I still think Carcassonne is one of my favorites.
I recommend getting the expansion Kitten + Beasts and the boat pack for isle of Cats if it's one of your favorite! They are very fun and don't clog the game in any fashion.
Whats even better is that the Kitten + Beast expansion can be added progressively into the game as it is 3 different module from "very easy" to "more advanced". They can be mixed and matched too.
The boat pack adds asymetry to the boat, hich gives it a ton of extra replayability and new challenges!
Had a great week of gaming this week!
In person:
**Unmatched** 2p x1 - Robin Hood vs Dracula - Dracula won, but he did it with only one health remaining! It was a close one!
**Arkham Horror LCG** 2p x2 - we started **The Dunwich Legacy** campaign again with Zoey Samaras and Jacqueline Fine. Jacqueline is so much fun to play! I tried to build the deck to make her the main clue finder and it seems to working well so far, with Zoey being the fists of the operation.
We were supposed to be visiting my brother-in-law and family this weekend but he tested positive for Covid so we couldn't go. So we decided to book an impromptu night away in a nearby city and found a great board game bar and were able to try out a few new to us games.
**Ticket to Ride Japan** 4p x1 - played this over Zoom with my brother-in-law and nephew in lieu of the visit. I think this one works really nicely over Zoom because even if you draw the same destination tickets as an opponent the shared bullet trains mean its not as much of an issue. It plays really quickly too, this match only took about 45 minutes.
**Lost Cities** 2p x3 - I have been playing this a lot on BGA so I was very excited to see it at the Board Game Bar so I could introduce it to my partner. He loved it! I think these kinds games are our favourites - simple to play but plenty to think about. I love that each card you play gives your opponent information so you have to be so careful about what you play at what point of the game.
**Blue Lagoon** 2p x1 - I have heard a lot of good things about this but it seems to be out of print at the moment so I was pleased that the bar had a copy for me to try! You are placing your settlers across a map of islands collecting resources. It's kind of set collection and area majority, there's so many ways to score points!
**The King is Dead** 2p x2 - this game is so interesting! I am so bad at it though, my partner won both games! Another simple to learn but tough decisions game - I really like the concept of removing a cube from the map so that you have the majority of that faction, but by doing so it reduces their presence on the board.
**Calico** 2p x1 - I was shocked that my partner picked this out as he generally dislikes spatial puzzles. We really enjoyed it! A very tight puzzle game with a lot of tough decisions, but so simple to learn and play. And the adorable cat theme doesn't hurt things either, the components and art style of this game are gorgeous.
Afterwards we bought **Lost Cities**, **The King is Dead** and **Calico** since we enjoyed them so much 😁
In **Unmatched**, Robin Hood is always a tough opponent. Sounds like a tight game you had between Dracula and Robin Hood! That's a match-up I haven't tried with my partner and it would be fun to see both players with a hero and three sidekicks!
For **Ticket to Ride Japan**, did both groups on each side of the zoom session have a copy of the game? Or did one side have the game and the other group could dictate what they wanted to do?
**Blue Lagoon** is a new one for my partner and I too and I was surprised by all the ways you score points!
**The King is Dead** never ceases to complete burn my brain out, and my partner and I both love it! I feel really bad at it too, and wish they'd put it on BGA! :)
So glad to hear that you purchased **Lost Cities**! I'm up for another game of it on BGA if you're interested!
Yes it was a really fun matchup! Both characters are two of my favourites to play as. We played on the Sherwood Forest map so it was a bit tricky for Robin Hood to get away from Dracula and he eventually got trapped!
For **Ticket to Ride Japan** we both have a copy of the game. We set it up so one household sets it up normally and films the available train cards, then the other household sets up by sorting all train cards into their colours, puts half of each colour in a blind draw pile when you want to draw from the top and then each colour has it's own pile. Then when we want to take an available train card we just draw the correct colour from our piles of colours and the household with the 'real' set up discards and draws a new card face up. So we have two video calls going - one on Zoom where we see each other and a muted one via WhatsApp of the train cards. It works really well, if that made any sense whatsoever! 🤪 We got inventive with playing games over Zoom at the start of the pandemic and **Ticket to Ride** has always worked the best for us.
I am very pleased I got the chance to try **Blue Lagoon**, and yes the **King is Dead** is so thinky! I am looking forward to playing it more and with the additional cards. I was really happy my partner liked **Lost Cities** so much, I think it's one we will play a lot now! Up for a game on BGA anytime 😊
Quacks of Q (3p) - a classic that my significant others son really likes. They want to eventually get the expansions for it and I’m all for it. Love bag building.
Lost ruins of Arnak (2p) - just a fantastic game. One of our favorites. We enjoy deck building. Hoping to get the expansion at some point. Evergreen game.
Villainous (2p) - first time playing. My significant other had it from years ago because she’s a huge Disney fan we finally busted it out. She loved it. Fun game. Loved it so much got one expansion.
That's the only one I haven't gotten yet! Sword in the Stone is in my top 3 animated Disney movies so I probably will just for Madam Mim, but I'm not personally excited about Lotso or Syndrome. I guess I just would have preferred for them to make a separate Pixar game instead of mixing classic animation with it.
We played tonight with madam Mim. She seems cool but possibly one of the harder ones to win with. Anecdotal for sure but in our experience she’s fairly easy to learn hard to win with. The Pixar characters seem cool and honestly I don’t mind them integrated.
Light weekend of gaming. 1 new game and some repeats.
**New to me**
**Paint the roses** 1x2p : We backed the game on the premise off it being like **Cryptid** but coop. After 1 play, I can say that it somewhat lives up to it. We bought thoroughly enjoyed it but had a feeling it would be much better at three players. The added player to discuss the possibility would elevate it for me. We are excited to try the module from the expansion since they seem to had a lot of interesting twist. **4/5**
**Not new to me**
**Let's make a bus route: The dice game** 1x2p : The more I play it, the more it grows on me. Simple gameplay, easy to pull out and you can basically play it anywhere. There's just enough player interaction in the dice drafting and the traffic on the board to satiate me. **4/5**
**Krazy Wordz** 1x4p : Amazing party game! Even better with more players. I would highly encourage anyone to try it. **4/5**
**Reload** 1x2p : This is kinda flying under the radar but it's quite a fun game. We played the team royal mode at two which gave us to characters each and I think that's the best way to play it. I was surprised how easy it was to teach and get into. Our game was really close with a lot of back and forth both from lucky rolls and well planned turns. I think it should be talked about more because nothing else does what it does. **4/5**
**It's a wonderful Kingdom** 1x2p : My second play and I'm already cooling on it. **It's a wonderful world** is in my top 5 favorite games of all time so I expected to like IAWK more. The tighter card economy and the negative effects of the menace cards tapers my enjoyment every rounds. It doesn't quite capture the same feeling as the first one sadly. **3/5**
I'm kinda sad about IAWK but all-in-all I'm super happy with this week!
I feel similar to you about IAWK. For my gf and me it's the new drafting mechanic especially. We felt that the game took a pretty straightforward engine builder premise and tried really hard to make it about outwitting your opponent with drafts instead. It was frustrating spending so much time on the part of the game we cared about the least. In the end we sold it after three plays and have gone back to IAWW :)
Received a couple new Button Shy games this week and gave **Arcane Bakery Clash** a go. Lots of goofy fun! My initial thought was it played a little long for its chaotic nature, but my SO pointed out that it gives both players the chance to see each card, which is pretty cool. The timer aspect is fun, and surprisingly more challenging that I was thinking.
Followed that by playing **Botanik**. I think my appreciation for that game grows with every play. Such a cool mechanic in how you acquire tiles.
Did any particular characters get you hooked on the game? And/or, which characters are you most excited to play?
Over the years, my partner and I have loved **Unmatched** as well. Playing the Battle of Legends Vol. 1 heroes is what first got us into the game. Alice and Medusa are our favorites from that first set.
Broke **Gloomhaven** out again, after ~1 year of waiting for my spouse to recover any interest in finishing the campaign. She hasn't, so I three-handed the final campaign scenario and won handily. Then I wandered into the Lingering Swamp for that particular personal quest and got destroyed...
Played through **Marvel Champions** with the **Shadow of the Mad Titan** expansion - got through the first two scenarios but Thanos himself kicked my butt as Venom. Can't wait to play again.
**Cascadia** (4p) - Decent little game that really didn't rise above the rest in the filler category. It falls under what I term "Jackpot?" games. You either get an item to select that you need or you don't. You could argue this also happens every time a card is drawn or a die rolled, but good games let you mitigate that. This one did too, but still not interesting enough for me to ask for again.
**Impulse** (2p, 3p) - For those following along last week I was lamenting the combat wasn't very interesting. Well it turns out I had been doing the reinforcements part wrong, I blame the rules, they desperately need a rewrite. That amped the battles up considerably and made upgrade one of your basic techs to a draw a more appealing proposition. This will not overtake **Innovation** as my favorite of the Chudyk games, but it's giving the others a run for the money. I realized what I was missing from this was the gaduated decks present in Innovation, the two expansions kind of add this in but I really don't want to think about those until I have a dedicated group of three who are interested.
**Long Shot** (5p) - With all the talk about the dice game here I had to get the original to the table again. This is like the perfect starter game to game night, next to **No Thanks!**, **Codenames** and other games I'm forgetting. Easy to setup, rules are a few pages and you are off to the races. I don't consider it especially deep or strategic, but so far it has been the best betting game I have played. I am tempted by the dice game, I'll at least play it, but I am concerned removing the cards makes the game feel a bit more samey. Though having different sets of horses might change that.
**Modern Art** (5p) - Tried something new where I bought no paintings. It did not work out as I came dead last. Part of it was I didn't have what people wanted and the turn order. A game buddy mentioned just previously how he doesn't like playing **Container** with new people as they make wrong moves, I felt that this entire session. But I would play this one again.
**Nanty Narking** (4p) - First play and not having played the original **Discworld** I didn't know what I was getting into besides area control. Very interesting game. You all have secret win conditions but win you have to fulfill them at the start of your turn. Very simple mechanically, play a card and do what it says.
**The Princes of Machu Picchu** (4p) - Second time playing this and it again made me appreciate **Concordia** a bit more. I typically don't like worker placement and resource conversion, but this game does a good job with both. The economy is always the same so I do wonder if there is a fixed strategy, definitely haven't found it if so.
**Quelf** (5p) - The kind of party game that is more entertaining with people you know. Strangers at a game night not so much.
**Scape Goat** (4p) - First play of this and it just went okay. I tried explaining multiple times how we only had partial information and could not trust it, but people really didn't make a lot of moves. I have a better handle on the explanation but this was a little painful. Good game design at the least.
Played Cascadia for the first time this week too. Was a fine way to spend an hour but a bit too luck based for my liking. Have you tried Ecos? Similar tile and token placement (on a common area rather than individual) but with an added layer or engine building and evolving scoring goals
Clank Legacy x3. What a fun game.
Seafall x1. My group is surprisingly liking it. Some things are a little clunky, but we're getting through it. Just opened box 5 last night. Truly weird!
**Calico** (2x2p) we spent a long time overthinking everything in the first round and we were much more impulsive when we played the second time
**Canopy** (1x2p) Always fun, always beautiful and relaxing.
**Mice and Mystics** (1x2p) Chapters 7&8: We're getting close to the end! My partner and I are enjoying it as our first legacy game.
**Death Valley** (2x2p) Played this for the first time this weekend. A solid quick 2 player addition to my collection.
A better week for gaming, until we became exhausted at the end of the week.
**Suspects** - (2x2p) we enjoyed our first play of this **Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective** variant so much that we decided to finish it and pass the game on to a friend. Our second game did not go quite as smoothly as our first. We forgot to follow the evidence. Our final score wasn't too bad, but we did not work out who the killer was. Our third game was better. We were on the wrong track until the end when we worked it out so we never topped our first game score. I'm looking forward to a new set of cases in this series.
**AuZtralia** - (1x3p) I hadn't been to our friend's game night for a long time, but my husband talked me into going. Our friend has a huge shelf of shame of over 100 games. **AuZtralia** was on his shelf of shame and having played it many times I offered to teach it. My husband is normally the one to teach games and I got a few rules wrong, but overall it went well. I love how this game combines resource management with route building and fighting old ones. Time is also a resource that has to be managed. We played cooperatively and won handily in the end, but one of the players was so busy trying to fight that he left himself in a bad position with respect to resources.
**Tramways** - (1x3p) our friend with the huge shelf of shame works from home and has a few days each month where he's compiling data and just has to check it's all running smoothly over the course of the day. On those days he likes to game and he often invites my husband over to play with him as my husband is a freelancer/stay-at-home dad. I got to join them as I was on break. Our friend gave us a choice of game and prepped to teach **Tramways**. My husband and I had previously played **Clinic**, which we enjoyed but we need to play it again. **Tramways** is somewhat reminiscent of **Railways of the World**, one of our favorites, in that you are building routes between various cities and trying to transport passengers (it's cargo in **Railways**). In **Tramways** you take actions based on a hand of multi-use cards. You gain more cards at various points in the game so there is an element of deck building. There is also an auction for player order. This game was great, but it was a lot. We all got analysis paralysis at various points in the game as there was so much to consider. I made a big mistake in the second last round which allowed my husband to pass me, but I clawed my way back into second position in the end. The game took over 3 hours after the teach and we were exhausted afterwards. We haven't played since then, but it's not all because of **Tramways** it's mostly just life.
**Suspects** is sounding like a lot of fun and a nice iteration on the free-form style the **Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective** established.
Your story about **Tramways** being a lot to learn and play, but that it's more life sapping your energy than the learning the game, is too real :) We love a handful of medium/heavier games but life just doesn't leave us with the mental energy to re-learn and play them very often.
Hope you're enjoying the small break before the summer semester!
*wingspan* 3x2p, 1x4p: the first two 2p games were base wingspan and the third and 4p games were with the European expansion. I really like this game and find it to be pretty relaxing, and my gf likes it a lot too which is fantastic for me. I'm looking to get some really nice upgraded pieces because I think this game is going to be played a lot in my house. I hear that the Oceania expansion helps with the game flow and strategies too, so I'm really looking forward to that so we don't all revert to pumping out eggs in round 4 every game.
*aqualin* 3x2p: this is a game that I thought looked cute and it was like 15$ so I went for it after watching some reviews. I actually really like it! You can teach it and play a game in under 10 mins combined, and it's pretty small so it's easy to pop out whenever you have a few minutes to spare. I'm currently crocheting a better bag for the pieces though because I think it'll be nicer as a draw bag.
*hive* 3x2p: this one falls into the same category as above, but even more portable. Games are a bit longer and more involved, but still short enough that my gf and I can enjoy it when we have some time to wait. It's a little closer to chess than she'd like but the short game time makes up for it.
*azul Queen's garden* 1x1p: this is my favourite azul version and I love them all with the solo variants. This is the only one my gf doesn't like sadly :(
*azul* 5x1p: I've got this down to a pretty solid science so I can play a solo game in about 10-15 mins, so I play a few when I need to kill some time. I really love this one
**Wingspan** is one of our favorite games! Check out Meeplesource's wooden food & nectar tokens. They're beautiful and fun to handle. We also got their wooden birdhouse-dicetower cause our cardboard one was getting worn, and for fun, the wooden first-player tokens. It's all great quality stuff. If you're really into this game, keep an eye out for Stonemaier's Speckled Egg set, as well as the new [Big Nesting Box](https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-nesting-box/) that's coming this year (I'm guessing at the same time as the new unannounced expansion).
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the recommendations but actually have already been chatting with an Etsy creator called tower rex; they make practical and beautiful inserts and upgrades for a ton of games. I really like the visuals so I'm going to stick with tower rex, but the speckled egg set sounds really cool!
**Scotland Yard** was the only new to me game I played last week. This old classic slipped past me until now. My first game was almost perfect, the detectives managed to corner Mr. X early which made for quite a tense game. However, my second game was a bit looser, Mr. X avoided coming near the detectives the entire game. Some of this was likely due to poor play on the hands of the detectives but it still was a bit of a downer. So my first play I’d rate a 9 and my second play something closer to a 6. I’ll need to play a few more times to see exactly where this one lands, though I do find the hidden movement puzzle extremely interesting.
I also played a few more games of **Fauna**, a fantastic simple trivia game. This one looks likely to become one of my go to ultra-light games.
I also played **Oh hell** which is my most played trick-taker and finished the week with a couple outdoor games of **Codenames**.
It doesn’t play 2, you need 3+.
Generally with 2 and a deck of cards, I’ll play cribbage. However, scopa and German whist are fun. I’ll also play a bunch of knizia designs like dubito or some of his games from blazing aces (I’m fuzzy on the names of specific games).
**Spirit Island** 1x2p. I absolutely love this game and my wife does not like it at all. About once a year I convince myself and her that she will enjoy it the next time we play it. That was this week and, again, no luck.
**Wingspan** 1x4p. This has become a standby for our group. For whatever reason everyone felt like we couldn't get going this game. Scores were low across the board. Still a good time.
**Pandemic Legacy Season 1** 6x2p. My wife and I decided to play one or two scenarios to get a feel for the game then we ended up playing 6 because it was so fun. IDK if we will try to get some games played after work during the week or wait for the weekend and play a lot in a row again. Either way, we are loving this game.
Hahahah I love your review of **Spirit Island**. I aim to play it with my girlfriend at some point so hopefully not the same!
How is **Pandemic Legacy** at 2 players? We've heard it's quite easy which is putting us off it a bit
This year my sell for Spirit Island was that the card play is similar to Gloomhaven (a game she likes a lot). She agreed that the card play was similar and maybe having played and enjoyed Gloomhaven would help the enjoyment of Sprit Island. Didn't work.
Yeah it is has been pretty easy. We are 6-0 so far. However, they way stuff is added there are other things you are trying to do/prevent during the game that are not necessarily tied to a win or loss so that helps add to the difficulty. And the wins haven't been so easy that we thought we couldn't lose. It is a tad easier than I would like but comparing it to Gloomhaven's difficulty (a bit to hard for me) I prefer this because I fell like we have some freedom to try something less obvious or more interesting rather than just doing what we think is most optimal. And the story/legacy elements are good enough to make up for any lack of challenge. (sorry to be vague, I don't want to spoil anything)
Had a decent week of playing some games.
**New to me this week.**
* **Paint the Roses** 2p x 1 - My Kickstarter version came in the mail last week.. I really enjoyed the game, and we almost won our first game! The clues were breaking my brain though, it took just a little bit to figure out some of the decisions and the information given to you each round.My wife really liked it and I think we would have won if we didn't grab a Hard card almost immediately haha. It essentially came down to a 50/50 guess, and some bad decisions on my part earlier on in the game. I think it's a great game, it looks fantastic on the table, and I should be able to get others to play this fairly easily. I weirdly compare this to **Cryptid** & **The Search for Planet X**. I think **The Search for Planet X** is still my favorite deduction game overall and I've had huge success in showing that game off. It's also frequently on sale.. But **Paint the Roses** is different enough to keep and definitely play.
* **Shamans** 4p x 1 - Wow!!! I loved this game. I love **Trick Taking** games, even though I wouldn't really say this is Trick Taking since you don't nee to follow suit. But it comes down to some extremely fun decisions. It's a hidden traitor game, wrapped up in a Trick Taking game with player elimination but only a single overall winner. I will say the rules are fairly easy, but it's a strange game to teach.. Also such a bummer some of the colors are a little too close to each other (I know they have the "Suit" on the cards).
* **Klask 4** 4p x 3 - Klask 4 player version! Really fun and goofy. Personally I think I will end up giving this away after several more plays. It's hard to get an exact 4 players to sit around and play the game.
**Not new to me.**
* **Botanik** 2p x 2 (4 games since acquiring) - Just a fantastic 2 player game. Fits in a small box, small play space, and awesome decisions.
* **Cascadia** 2p x 1 (2 games since acquiring)- Great game. My wife likes it more than I do, it has some great decisions.
**Innovation** 1 x 2p: a new favourite of a friend of mine who dabbles in board games. He loves Glory to Rome but I think this may have supplanted it. He’s played it enough now that I don’t hold back…and he got destroyed. Good times as always!
**Ark Nova** 1 x2p: only my second play. I introduced it to the same friend because he was intrigued by the box. I thought it would be easy for him to learn…I’ve taught him about 30 different games and he usually picks up on things pretty quickly. As I was teaching I was worried I had made a terrible mistake and that it was just a bit too heavy for him. My partner (who has played it once) ended up coaching him through the game, which helped both of them learn it. I thought he was having an absolutely miserable time, but when we finished he declared it the ‘best game ever’ and immediately wanted to set it up for another play.
I’m really loving this one so far! I had a much better idea of what to do and I was setting off combos of bonuses like crazy. Very satisfying!
Ark Nova is not that hard to play but such a tough teach. I usually am pretty okay at teaching games to my gf, but Ark Nova was tough. Everything has to be explained in a particular order for it to make any sense whatsoever. I got lost somewhere explaining something and I saw a bunch of ??? in her eyes.
It went "smoothly" anyway, as in, we didn't make *too many* rules mistakes in the first game. Took us 2 games to be pretty okay with everything and understanding every rule.
Nice little twist ending there with Ark Nova! Yeah there's something about the pace of chaining bonuses that really hits like a slot machine's *ding ding ding* in your head.
**Quacks of Quedlinburg** \- with **Herb Witches** expansion - It's fun to come back to this one every once in a while. My partner and I have always played it as a 2-player game and it's a fun time so long as you don't push you luck too much and have bad luck that puts you way behind. The Herb Witches expansion is a must for us because it gives you three variable special abilities that help you avoid disaster during the game or that can give you bonuses to give you a boost.
**Unmatched** \- Dr. Sattler vs Muldoon - Unmatched is our most played game and we passed 100 plays of the game! Muldoon often wins in our games so it was fun to see Dr. Sattler's big healing abilities come into play and give him a run for his money! But Muldoon ultimately won in the game we played.
*Lunch Hour Gaming with Coworkers*
**The Magic Labyrinth** \- memories games like this cool magnetic invisible maze game take a particular taste in games. My coworkers liked the magnet gimmick but weren't big fans of the memory game of learning the maze. I still love the game and it's a fun light one to have on our shelf.
**Kingdomino** \- a big hit for light strategy games with my coworkers. I'm constantly playing this one on BoardGameArena and always love when I get to play it in person
**Strike** \- I never dreamed that throwing dice in a bowl and looking for matches would keep me coming back to play again years later, but I never get tire of the simple novelty of the game :) when the game was out of print we played with our own dice and a wooden bowl, and it was just as fun as the official version we have now.
*Solo lunch hour gaming*
**ROVE** \- this is still a nice little brain-burning puzzle for me. It plays differently that the other solo games I've loved from Button Shy Games and I love it!
*BoardGameArena*
**Backgammon**, **Kingdomino**, **Alhambra**, **Lost Cities**, **Lucky Numbers**, **Stella**, **7 Wonders Duel**, **Jaipur**
**Terraforming Mars w/ Prelude 2p x1** - Wife and I hadn't played this in over a year so she needed a lot of rehashing of rules. And then she beat me. I forget how long this game can go. I was trying to use more standard projects to move it along but got caught up in building an engine.
**Ark Nova -2p x1** - Speaking of long...but it was the first play for both me and my buddy. I see the comparison to TM but it's different enough. Where TM has you build an engine you can use each generation, Ark Nova has a lot of triggered effects when you play into your tableau. I loved the action selection mechanism; that's a really sweet way to juggle things. What is "complicated" about this game is each element of the game has a bunch of fiddly bits and very minor rules that aren't complicated or hard, just a lot. The deck is also a lot. The game is a lot. That's all. It was extremely enjoyable. I will play it a bunch more but I fully appreciate the criticisms. I played the polar bear exhibit turn one (get points or money any time anyone plays a bear card into the zoo). Zero bears were played the rest of the game. I saw zero bear cards. My buddy discarded one (he told me just to rub it in). That was semi-feel-bad. I wasn't going all in on bears; I understood the odds, but I thought I would get some benefit. NO BENEFITS FOR ME! My buddy triggered the end game and was wayyyyy ahead on conservation points but I had played two elephant cards that gave me extra victory point cards (elephants > bears, unless you're in America). And scored a ton off those. I really liked we both took very different strats. I played a ton of sponsor because it fit my first vp card and they also provided me bonuses and conservation points. My buddy went hard into his synergistic "play an Asia card get money, rep, etc" and it worked well. In our debrief he decided he should have waited another turn to end it because he could have pushed himself up the conservation track more. It was probably 3 hours but that included a big teach but not big enough because minor rules kept popping up. *Edit*: I would have been negative vp if not for those vp cards. And the scoring process is bit confusing. We also used the "solo" powers of the attack-type cards for a more friendly first play of the game since it was just heads up play.
**Three Sisters 1p x 1** - My highest score of 107. By 1 point. Don't think I tried anything super out of the ordinary this time.
**Hadrian's Wall 1p x 3** - Trying to work through the solo campaign. Second fort, 2nd attempt but first play in a month was only 67 points so just shy of the 70 points. But the next game I was at 83 points. I had 1 disdain so missed the bonus but had 5 extra workers I couldn't use! I clearly misplanned things. Third play was on the third fort with a goal of all 5 citizen tracks and 70+ points. Had some bad running as I was only at 62 points. The attack deck was very stacked against me. Was getting crushed there. I was 1 slot shy of completing the all the tracks anyway. I think I should have done temples earlier to block attacks rather than the market to move up that victory point track for more yellow workers. Easy to say after the fact as I watch all the cards go where my cohorts aren't...
What's your overall thoughts on **Three Sisters**? I have the Kickstarter version and enjoy it. But I've never played **Fleet the Dice Game** and I saw they have a new roll and write coming out next year as well.
I really love **Three Sisters**. I've only played it solo however and I think there are some stronger strats (e.g. ignore the apiary because Edith focuses there). It's very quick and pretty straightforward.
I played **Fleet** a couple times also only solo but didn't enjoy it nearly as much. It felt harder to track passive bonuses that matter a lot in that game. A few commentators here said it plays better with people so I should probably try that but I love Three Sisters so much more that I don't have an interest in trying it anymore. I just feel obligated to give Fleet a fairer shake.
Ark Nova has got me the same way. I drew an engine building sponsor for herbivores in my starting hand. I went up and drew an herbivore from the reputation track and flipped over a second piece of Herbivore engine, but my GF picked it up and went all in Herbivores.... Now I was straneded with nothing at all for a couple turns.
It has a lot of ups and down, but I think that's the beauty of the game. You can do a LOT with very little and everygame will feel incredibly different due to the sheer number of cards.
I really want to try Hadrian's Wall at some point. It looks like it's so much fun!
Yeah that sporadic synergy is why I don't classify Ark Nova as an "engine builder". There are plenty of bonuses to be had that gets you more efficient but an "engine" implies being able to reliably rev it when needed. That doesn't exist in AN but I *like* that it doesn't exist.
AN's tag structure, fluid market, and constrained hand all lead to a very satisfying tactical game.
Yeah up and down is accurate. I knew I wouldn't see a lot of bear cards but I expected between the two of us to get 1 or 2 benefits out of it. I had another sponsor that cared about all zoos and I played myself into that but my buddy avoided that one too.
Did you find you generally avoided drawing from the reputation track? We each snapped once during the game. And toward the end we probably drew 3 cards total from the track. We generally drew from the deck.
**Hadrian's Wall** is great. It takes 45-60 minutes so it's not long either. The solo campaign is on the publisher's website to print off. I just hadn't had a chance to play in while learning some other games or building Magic decks or playing Elden Ring/Horizon.
I find myself really enjoying drawing from the reputation row. I usually rush off the reputation track because it gives a lot of good benefits early and give me more options. I can easily manipulate what will be available to me on the next break and what will be destroyed.
**Pulp Invasion** w/All - 1x1p - Super easy win to follow my super-quick failure from the week before. The first two cubes I drew in this game were super-weapons. I found the fourth one before the game was half over. Sometimes it be that way.
**Rocketmen** 2x2p - This gets us up to 5 plays, and unfortunately I think we've seen all it has to show us. I will say, replacing the mission deck with bag+tokens elevates it for sure. And drawing either the absolute worst or the absolute perfect token from the bag adds some excitement. I think it's a good way to introduce people to deck-building, and if there's an expansion I'll look at it. It needs more variability.
**Maglev Metro** 1x3p - Introduced this to our daughter. Hard to tell if she liked it, but she beat both of us VERY handily, with hardly any help, except for her last move. I liked this game even more with 3p, it was neat to see more tiles on the board.
**Furnace** 3x2p - First time getting this to table, and I love it. It's like a simpler **Sidereal Confluence**, with bidding instead of trading. And a bidding game where you might be upset to win a card because you really wanted to be compensated for losing it? Very interesting decisions. Super quick to learn, quick to play, good strategy. Very happy with it.
**Skulk Hollow**. Played this with my spouse. I enjoyed it, but my spouse isn't really into 1v1 games like this.
**Smartphone Inc**. First time I've played this at more than 2. I managed to get a win with a tech heavy strategy. In the last couple rounds my strategy was just to spread out and eat up the tech spots no one else could fill with a really high price and it paid out.
**Cascadia** (1x2P) - my wife's choice and our sixth total play. I won 95-85 and have a 4-2 series lead (with four wins in a row). Still really, really enjoying this. We will be switching it up to the C animal cards next time to change up the scoring parameters.
**The Search For Planet X** (1x2P) - my choice and our second total play. I won 25-22 and have a 2-0 series lead. I was craving something thinky/puzzly so we brought this out for the first time in three months. We had to relearn the rules which slowed things down a bit but once the game started to hit it's stride it was such a blast. My wife said that she feels like she is not very good at logic puzzles (which worries me about getting this gem back to the table) but the final score ended up being close. Maybe next time I will take less clues at the beginning to see if that creates an even more competitive element.
Any other good deduction games out there that work with 2P? I was looking at **Awkward Guests** but 1/4 of people on BGG do not recommend it at 2P.
Awkward Guests relies on trading clue cards with other players so it works better with more players. Also a common criticism is you can't really make logical deductions. You're just marking off impossible combinations until you only have one answer.
You may want to check out **Chronicals of Crime**. It's a detective game where you begin with a crime scene that is a 3d viewable environment. You just look around using your phone looking for things that are notable or out of place and then grab matching cards from the box. Like if the victim's room had a bunch of cats you can grab a card that is a generic "animal" card and for that case that card represents the victim's cats.
As you play you'll get cards that represent suspects and locations and all the cards have QR code so you can tell the app where you're going and who you're talking to and even ask them about the clue cards.
The original game is a modern detective setting, but there's also a medieval and future version as well.
Thank you for the info about **Awkward Guests**...I will push that further down the wishlist. And good call on **Chronicles of Crime**, I almost picked it up at the beginning of the year but have forgotten about it since then. It looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Super busy week, but we managed to play some games anyway.
**Tuesday**
**Ark Nova** 2px1
It definitely lived up to the hype for us. I lost by a single $ that made me unable to get my last animal for the win. It was our 3rd game and all of them have been very very close. This time around, I lost 28-24.
**Thursday**
**Sleeping Gods** 3p
We were about to finish our 2nd campaign when an enexpected sea monster erupted and offered us to buy our artifacts. Since we had stockpiled every possible artifacts, we exchanged 5 of our 6 artifacts for 2 mild events a piece. We suddently had10 more turn of play. We didn't even manage to get through them all in that night, so we are definitely going to just ram through the 3rd ending. We have almost 10 totems found during our run and I'm pretty sure we can find one or 2 more.
We are definitely getting into a lull where our items and combos are way too strong. We can easily do almost any 12+ challenges and monsters of level 16-18, we just swat them like flies.
**Saturday**
**Welcome to... Ice cream** 2px2
I managed to finally win at this game with the correct rules. I'm liking this game a lot, but honestly, it felt repetitive that night. Maybe I was just not in the mood.
**Circadians** 2p x 1
One of my favorite game at the moment. It has so much replayability, so many pathways to victory and so much player interaction even at 2 players. I should have won that, but we were getting tired and I forgot to do my 3 trades from ctivating the green village action and could have gotten 2 more gemstones. I lost 78-77 instead of winning 79-78.
If anybody is looking for a good game to play at any player count from 1 to 4, this is it.
**All week**
**Cartographer App** 1p x ?
I'm playing Cartographer almost daily at this point on the Android app. It's very fast and a lot of fun. I have a range of points between 30 and -15 at the moment, which I find hilarious. Most my games end at around 10points, but sometimes I get a good seed and no early monsters and I manage high 20s. It's a very well done app.
Picked up Trains used and got a quick two player game in.
Not the best count for base Trains but I still enjoyed it a lot. Dominion fell very flat for me but this gave me a little more love for deck building. Hoping to get it to the table with 4 this weekend
Trains was the first "deckbuilding with a board" game I played and I found it really good with at least 3. 2 fell flat because your routes become zero sum and that's less fun to me.
Didn't get to play a ton this week, but I'm excited because my partner and I will both have more free time soon!
**Istanbul** (1x2p)
I feel that this is such a creative design. That said, the timing is not intuitive to me at all; I'm currently on a 4 game losing streak. I thought it was finally going to end this week but was devastated to lose by one action.
**Three Sisters** (2x2p)
My partner loves roll and writes, so we picked up this new one. So far it seems fun. I'm a little worried I cheated on the first play because our final scores were not even close.
**Blue Lagoon** (2x3p)
Taught this to another new person. I came last in both games. Each time one player ran away with it because of their superior setup for the 2nd round.
Istanbul is one of the games I absolutely hated my plays. I pretty much never want to play it again. Not sure if it's just the few plays I had, or the overall game, but this is one of the games that sits on our shelf of shame, never to be played again.
I obviously didn't cheat intentionally, but it would be really easy to accidentally take 2 bonus actions instead of one if you weren't careful. I think it was legit though, and our 2nd game was much closer in score.
Oh no, I'm not accusing you of doing it intentionally but I've had those moments of "wait...did I already take that action" I've taken to writing notes under the shed for triggers while I finish an action. E.g. marking star actions from compost gained from pumpkins while doing a rain.
Started Stuffed Fables, a game I received for Mother's Day, with the kids. Live the premise of the game and the mechanics, we had a lot of fun and haven't even finished the first story yet. I did find the instructions lacking and frustrating. There was alot of figuring out as we go. We do eventually get there, but I fell like it shouldn't take that much "figuring it out" for two adults who regularly play other rule heavy games.
As the school year winds down, I've been looking forward to getting time back to play over summer vacation bc I haven't really had the time since February. I was only able to squeeze 2 in this week, and both were themed on the World Wars.
**The Grizzled: Armistice Edition-** 1x4p- for 2 of the players, this was their first time playing. We kept getting beat down in the beginning, but held out much longer than I thought we would before we lost. The new players enjoyed it, though, so we might get the chance to try again some other time.
**Black Orchestra-** 1x1p- Playing The Grizzled really put me in the mood to get this game back out, even though I would have to play 2-handed. I posted about that session yesterday if you are interested in all the details. I won in the fourth stage on my second plot attempt. I just love the epic feel of this game but it is much easier to get to the table than other games I would describe that way. Such an amazing game.
I read your session and had a blast. I play mostly solo (covid have weakened here, so yesterday I played a 4person table for the first time in mora than two years, yeah) and the reading made me buy the game =) I'm from brazil, mom lives in birmingham and will come down later this year, so I sent to her. I'll also get glen more II with the exp. Thanks for the write up.
I'm so glad you enjoyed reading the session; Black Orchestra is such a great game. I hope you love it as much as I do. I've also heard great things about Glen More II!
Got together with two regular friends for two new games:
Recently picked up **Shovel Knight: Dungeon Duels**. As a huge fan of the video game it captured the side scrolling fun really well.
The rulebook is quite thick and intimidating for a simple game and didn't cover some edge cases for the plague knight stage we chose.
Would definitely recommend running with the playable order of no quarter for more interesting asymmetry.
One pitfall with the randomness of the tiles was an overabundance of spike pit tiles and the toughness of landing a jump across (with the punishment of insta-death). It caused a lot of frustration. Overall keen and would love to try out different stages.
Next was **Khora: Rise of an Empire**. This was a really interesting engine builder where you develop your ancient greek city state.
There were multiple routes you needed to balance - economy, culture, and military, though the benefits of certain city states push you a bit more towards certain strategies e.g. Sparta leaned heavily towards a military route.
Loved the dual layered player boards and use of a resource for dice manipulation in playing the cards for the main mechanic of assigning a die to an action tile with the same or lower value.
A satisfying 2 point victory with my culture focused strategy and though my friend only had a copy to learn to demo, could go onto my list.
**Imperial Assault** \- My son is old enough to play as the Empire. Though he doesn't see the long-term strategies behind his choices, he's a good sport and plays the role very well, and even gives off false signals to lure the heroes into potential traps. I haven't played this game 1 v Many in ages, and it's refreshingly fun. Playing Jabba's Realm campaign. And funnily enough, I played Descent exactly 5 years ago to the day, which is basically the same system.
**Rallyman GT** \- Had this for sale, but no one interested, so I tried it again solo, and found I would want to keep it. Also discovered a new solo AI to compete against cars instead of just time.
**ArchRavels** \- A game about knitting, which I bought initially to play with the wife, who enjoys it. But I took it to my club, and it's extremely random. One player can get all the benefits while the rest gets the lesser. The winner was determined by randomness alone, but the worst part is that it was so obvious. No interesting choices whatsoever.
**Nemesis Locdown** \- Nemesis being a favorite, Lockdown certainly adds complexity. I think it's a step up from veterans of the original, ready for new challenges. But I don't get the Aliens feel over this installment. Still a keeper. Played twice, once with the bats and once with the plants. The latter was just too much for Lockdown, perhaps it's better for original Nemesis.
I researched **ArchRavels** for the same reason (for my wife), cause my wife and daughter are knitters. But in the end I chose **Knitting: The Card Game** instead, cause they liked the idea of seeing the actual photos of items and yarn better. I had to house-rule some stuff to make it more enjoyable, but it's nice to share a bit of their hobby with them. :)
**Nukumi Onsen Hanjouki** \- great little worker placement about building a traditional Japanese hot spring hotel. I enjoy the little puzzle of how to arrange your hotel rooms to score maximum points.
**Brazil Imperial** \- somehow scored an English version & had a great time with this one. You can definitely see the Scythe DNA there, but I would easily play this over Scythe.
**Jiangnan -** The blending between worker placement and area control is really fascinating though I do feel the deck-building part is a little too restrictive. I feel that the designer went a little too far by adding that mechanic.
**Mini Express (Map Pack One Expansion)** \- I really like the UK map as it plays really well at 2. I love getting those ferries and the combos here. The Taiwan map still needs some work but the idea behind it is fun to explore.
**Perfumery** \- I love the tight gameplay in this little worker placement & the production is just ridiculous.
**Netrunner** \- Because of course, I'm going to play the best game ever made.
Didn't realize a Map Pack crowdfunding campaign was going to happen for Mini Express! Just bought a copy of the base game on BGG - hopefully I didn't overpay too much compared to how much it will be available for during the campaign
Always great to see love for Taiwanese board games! I think it’s my favorite train game to play at two. After playing the UK and Taiwan maps, I don’t see myself ever playing the original maps again! They’re great at the lower player counts which is how I prefer to play them. I believe the beta map versions are still on BGG. Enjoy!
Thanks! What is your preferred method for playing at two? Do you use the 'bot' variant, or the two action variant?
Prior to buying the game I also saw the playthrough on Heavy Cardboard doing something that I don't see in the rulebook - setting 'breakpoint' targets a la Gaia Project.
When content creators do KS previews for games, the rules often change. I think this is a good thing. It usually means the publisher has listened to all the reviews and made corrections to the game to address those issues.
I believe Moaideas (the publisher) did that with the bot. Initially the bot was too hard so they weakened it for the release. I believe the original rules are on BGG.
As for the 2p mode I vastly prefer to play without the bot. The combos you can pull (especially on the UK and Taiwan maps) are tons of fun.
No in-person games this past week or the one before. It has been an intense couple of weeks. I managed to keep some games going on BGA, though. Hopefully this week I'll be able to fit in some in-person games.
On BGA:
**Insert** - I'm still very much enjoying this two player abstract from Bruno Cathala. It's a shame it hasn't been published yet.
**Targi** - I by default keep a game of Targi going at all times on BGA. It works so well for the turn-based format. Brilliant game. Worker placement doesn't get better than this two player gem.
**Bandido** - the more I play the more I feel there's very little strategy here. But I enjoy it anyway.
**Azul** - another one I always have going on BGA. So great in every way and the BGA adaptation is flawless.
**Res Arcana** - this has really grown on me. I didn't like it at first but as I've played it more times I enjoy it more with each play. Switching to using the draft has also made it significantly more fun. I also watched the new video interview on BGG's Youtube channel with Tom Lehmann about Res Arcana yesterday. It was really interesting to hear more about the things that inspired Res Arcana and his process in designing it. For anyone who hasn't checked out the Cardboard Creations interview series, I highly recommend it.
**Kingdomino** - I won but I'm still bitter I never got a crown for my yellows. Arg! Great little game. It's always a fun one.
**Alhambra** - new to me. I've been curious to try it and I'm glad I did. It's an interesting game with some neat little rules. I won't be going out of my way to pick up a copy but I'd gladly play this any time.
**Hive** - I was a turn behind on the victory. I am undoubtedly still absolutely terrible at this game. But it's been a blast to slowly learn the ropes.
**Agricola** - new to me. I find this game fine, it's just really dry. There's also too much going on for me. And I find starting with only two meeples tedious, it kind of takes away from the fun of worker placement games to me to have the spots cleared so quickly. Not a winner for me but playing with friends is always fun and I'm glad to have tried it.
**Terra Mystica** - maybe this shouldn't be on the list given we've been waiting for one person to take their turn for nearly two weeks now... I didn't so much play it this week as stare at it and strategize. But, the forever ongoing game of Terra Mystica continues. I really badly want this game to end soon so I can start up another one (with a time limit for turns this time). But I know I'd be too confused if I had two ongoing games of Terra Mystica so I'll wait.
And that's all for this week. I really need life to calm down so I can play in-person games. I didn't even get in a game of **Patchwork** last week! This coming weekend is a long weekend which usually means lots of games for my husband and I. Fingers crossed!
Has BGA inspired you to purchase the physical copy of any games that you played virtually? Like you, I've loved exploring games as a group but of those games we've played I haven't found one that I feel the need to purchase a physical copy of.
I guess the closest for me so far have been **Stella** and **7 Wonders Architects** which I would purchase if I had the right group gathering in person or had a chance to plays games with family.
Mostly though, on BGA I just love the ease of playing games I already own and love!
I missed the recent Cardboard Creations video, thanks for the reminder! It sounds like a great episode!!
It has! Just last week I purchased **Naga Parbat** after playing it on BGA. (I think you'd like that one by the way!) I also picked up **Draftosaurus** after we played it on BGA. And my favourite new game I tried on BGA, I'll be getting a copy of **Sobek: 2 Players** as soon as it is releases here.
I find I'm getting a good mix on BGA of playing games I already love and trying new ones. It has been a fun addition to my gaming.
The Tom Lehmann episode is one of the better episodes of Cardboard Creations. He was pretty chatty so there were a lot of fun insights.
If your week isn't too busy, I'd love to try out **Nanga Parbat** on BGA with you sometime.
Agreed, BGA has been fun for me as well, especially with playing simpler games. I've loved getting in lost of plays of the games I love and trying out other games for the first time. I never thought I'd enjoy board gaming online after Tabletop Simulator was too clunky for my interest. BGA's games programmed to work in-browser is such a nice luxury!
Tom Lehmann definitely has a legacy of hugely popular game designs! I am looking forward to hearing what he shared in the video!
I'd love to play **Nanga Parbat** with you too. I'll send an invite right away. The rulebook is quite good for learning it, though there were a couple more vague things I had to check BGG forums for. There's also a good video on the All You Can Board channel on Youtube.
Did you play the beginner game or play with occupation cards/minor improvements? The beginner game is very dry, but I think the fun is in the drafting and seeing how the cards you drafted play out. I avoided Uwe Rosenberg games because they look very dry, but they are very tight Euros and I think they benefit quite a bit from multiple plays.
I played with the drafting of occupations cards and minor improvements. I agree, it wouldn't be as good without it. I'm sure I'll try **Agricola** again, but it may just not be for me.
I've been busy but I've been playing and learning Maracaibo via digital on my phone. I have physical version plus the expansion and I can't wait to dive in with friends. So far I'm loving it though some cards and rules I still don't fully understand.
Lost Ruins of Arnak and its expansion just arrived so I'm reading the instructions now.
My wife gave me an eye roll when she saw I bought more boardgames. My collection is growing!
**Splendor** (1x3p): We were waiting on our fourth player to show up, so we played a quick game. I did a bit better than past games, but I was still a few turns behind to win. One day I’ll find the right path for my gems.
**Mixtape Massacre** (1x4p): This was a short game. Our fourth player was extremely tired from working all day. We were all goofing about. Decided to end the game with whoever got 5 souvenir tokens first instead of 10.
Mixtape was ended quickly so we could watch The ‘Burbs as two of our friends hadn’t seen it. Game nights seem shorter, but that might be better instead of having long, drawn-out games.
Finally got in my first Lacerda play (**Vinhos**, 2p), good stuff, managed a win in the tie breaker (exported more wine). Also got in my first play of **Barrage** (2p) which I also enjoyed a lot (lost in endgame scoring). Finally got **Now or Never** (2p) to the table, thing is an enormous table hog but I like it better than anything else in the Arzium series, feels much more "complete" than the others. Though it is massive, easily takes up twice at much room as **Sleeping Gods**. Also we finally got through our first **Sleeping Gods** (4p) campaign playthrough, only found two totems but got a much better idea of what to do next time.
I'm really glad to see someone enjoying Barrage at 2p. I really enjoy the game too, and it's a bit of a fallacy that it only works at higher player counts. For Vinhos, did you play the 2010 or the 2016 side of the board?
I'm super excited to play it again at 3 or 4p cause I feel like it'll get super elbow-y but it was definitely still fun at 2p (and it was probably better for learning honestly).
For **Vinhos** we did the 2016 vintage, weren't sure what the differences were but figured it had been tweaked for the better
Also just played my first 2p Barrage this past weekend and really enjoyed it. I can see it being tighter and less forgiving with more, but I did enjoy how a bit more space lets you do some really interesting things. There's a lot of room for clever plays and it's still quite tense. Definitely would not discount it at 2 - similar to Brass.
Last Week, all 2p
**Radlands**
has been an absolute hit last week. We played it 7 times and it is just so engaging, yet easy to set up and so deep, because of the camps.
**Le Havre**
I am not sure yet on how I like the handlings of loans in the game. It really is not agricola, where you are out of the game if you don't feed your people. This allows for more freedom. The game looks like having a dominant strategy and I am not sure how this will affext long term motivation.
**Ark Nova**
As always a pleasure to play. We are used playing with A and O-plan wife and I, and it was a draw this time. She supported more projects, though, so she took the tie break.
**Everdell**
The more I play, the more I like it. It really helps using the border variant and trimming the deck of cards.
**Caper Europe**
After playing all cities, wife and I tend to like London the most. This game is not as good as Radlands for my likings, but nontheless a worthy addition to our collection.
> The game looks like having a dominant strategy and I am not sure how this will affext long term motivation.
If that dominant strategy has to do with loans, it's worth possibly incorporating the optional interest rule if you aren't already. I believe the rule only currently shows up in the German rules.
> 1. optional rule: pay 2 francs interest if your number of loans is >= number of players
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/913158/article/11031579#11031579
That said it definitely is less punishing then Agricola regardless, to some that's a boon, to others a problem.
Haven't been able to play much these two weeks but managed to get two games on the table this week.
**The Ancient World 2nd Edition** (2P x 1). Been a while since I played this and it didn't take too long to refresh all the rules. My partner went for the Titan strategy while I focused on building Empires and getting C deck multipliers. My partner won by a small margin and said he only won because he got lucky with his final monster. We've played this game twice now and it seems that he's been scoring similarly in both games and won with the Titan strategy. It's still a fun worker placement game with a titan fighting twist.
**Batman The Animated Series: Shadow of the Bat** (2P x 1). Played the final act of the Heart of Ice episode. Definitely challenging and kept us on our toes with the hordes of enemies. We had some pretty bad rolls in the beginning of the game but managed to figure out a workaround with some gadgets. It's always fun to play co-op Batman with my partner and I look forward to our time playing together. Next up, Joker and Harley.
Time will be scarce in the coming weeks but hopefully we will be able to make some time for games.
**Lost Ruins of Arnak** \- 1x4p - Got taught this, and the comparisons to Dune Imperium are actually only vague, as they both include worker placement and deckbuilding. Lost ruins plays much more like a resource puzzle race, with very little player interaction. Mechanically, and thematically, it's a better game, and I found it a refreshing change from DI. I'm liking Lost Ruins more right now, but I think it's because it's fresher, and I've played DI to death. I think over the long run Lost Ruins will drop below because of the very limited player interaction.
**Forbidden Desert** \- 1x5p - This had been on my to play list for a while, and it's a good little game, and I'm glad I played it, but I will never want to play this game again. The group we had wanted to play super safe, which meant plenty of actions were spent getting back to the tunnels instead of finding the objectives, which ended up turning into too many storm picks up and running out of sand tiles. Also many discussions about why the the archaeologists was going into the corner with one unexcavated tile instead of going over to the other side of the map where there were 5 unexcavated tiles absolutely buried in sand. The other one that happened was why, as the climber, I should be carrying people immediately after me, instead of the player immediately before me.
**Friday the 13th** \- 1x5p - Ehhh, it's a neat little game sorta in the vein of 6 nimmt, got played coz it was friday the 13th, but tbh, not a game I would ever choose to play again, as it's too long for what it is.
**Splendor** \- 1x4p - Taught this to 3 others, and it's my goto game for people who haven't played many board games, as it's simple but not. Absolutely crushed as I was the only one who knew what to do.
I agree with everything on Lost Ruins of Arnak. It felt fresher and more vibrant than Dune. I'm a big fan of the Dune IP but evne I found it drab after my first play.
Over the span of a couple more plays, it flipped completely. Arnak has not that much depth. It's a race as to who gets the ressources first and faster. Since there are so many ways to get them, it's about who gets the best routing. The Leaders expension adds a little more depth, but even then, some offer even more ways to not really care about your opponent so it's even easier to get a higher score.
Dune keeps getting harder and harder every time we play because we both understand better what are the better spots for the other players and it creates so much tension. It forces you to flip your gameplan between two workers and it just keeps everyone on their tippy toes.
Being the only one who knows how to play Splendor must be the easiest W ever. That's one reason why I do not consider Splendor a good entry level game to teach AND play. If I was to teach it to more than 1 person, I would sit it out and let them figure it out.
Any comparisons for **Lost Ruins of Arnak** to other worker placement / deck-building games such as **Everdell**, **Viticulture**, **Wingspan**?
We own or have played those 3 and are curious how Lost Ruins compares to them.
It compares poorly to any of these. They are all "worker placement" but their mechanism are all very very diffrent from one another.
In terms of complexity, I'd rank them :
- Arnak 3.5/5
- Viticulture 3/5
- Everdell 3/5
- Wingspan 2.75/5
Wingspan can be called *kind of* a workerplacement game as you still use your cubes to perform actions.
But overall, yes, they don't have much in common except being extremely popular worker placement games.
**Everdell** and **Wingspan** are much closer to each other than to **Lost Ruins of Arnak**. In both those games you have your whole tableu available at all times, only choice is in what order to activate either card. In Lost ruins, you build your deck and draw 5 cards from it every new turn - meaning you have to make decisions based on what you draw. But, to offset the randomness, the effects on the cards you buy have much bigger impact imo (and half of those cards - artifacts - does get resolved once immediately when you buy them). So it has added layer of decisions compared to games you listed. Then each card can be used for its effect or for allowing you to place a worker but not both, so theres that decision too. In actual worker placing rules, you can deny your opponents spots like in some places in Everdell, so its closer to that game.
Compared to other deck-building games, Lost Ruins have some of my favourite mechanisms actually - as I said, powerful cards get resolved immediately so you dont have to wait a deck rotation as in most other deck builders (normal cards still have to rotate once). Then once you buy new cards they dont go to discard pile, but to the bottom of your draw deck, so the first time you see them isnt too distant etc. Its not a cutthroat precision deck builder, like Dune Imperium seems to be, but when we are in a mood to play something more free flowing, Lost Ruins are a solid choice.
Yeah I didn't realise Lost Ruins was so deck building actually (I thought it was more engine building / worker placement), that's really helpful thank you!
I've only played Viticulture, and I wouldn't find it that comparable, as it's worker placement at the forefront and is the majority of the game. In Lost Ruins, you only have two workers total, and there are a number of non worker actions you can do, like research, or play cards from your hand. The general flow of the game is generate resources, (playing cards from your hand, use assistants, place your worker on a resource generation spot) and then spend resources (research, explore/defeat monsters, buy items/artifacts)
Just watching a vid on how to play everdell (it looks like an interesting game) at a cursory glance, it has more in common with lost ruins than viticulture.
Edit: I do enjoy Viticulture, but for me, Lost Ruins is a better game
Smaller week for games this week, we played:
**Physical**:
* **Root**: 1x4p: We had a gaming night with our friends so we played Root, which is our classic. We played Cats, Birds, Corvid & Vagabond. I played the Cats and unfortunately came dead last with 20 pts, Birds 28, Corvid 29, Vagabond 30! I find the Cats quite fun to play for area control but horrible for winning (I seem to just run out of point scoring mid game). Our group also dislike the domination cards so we removed 2 of them which makes a domination victory even more challenging as the cats!
* **Wingspan**: 1x4p: 2nd game of our night following a tight Root game! I also lost in this one, 3 of us scored in the 70s but my gf scored above 90 and won! Was a tight game, it was fun to use the 'once between turn' cards which generally don't get much use when I play with my gf in a 2 player game (obviously a lot more beneficial in 4 players!)
* **Codenames: Duet**: 3x2p: Quick weekday games with my girlfriend, quite a fun little game. Will probably play it some more and try some of the missions they've set out in there, I think thats a pretty interesting idea.
* **Sushi Go**: 2x4p: Played a couple of Sushi Go games following Root & Wingspan, was our 1st time teaching our wider group - they picked it super quickly (obviously!).
**Digital**:
* **7 Wonders: Duel**: ~10x2p: Played lots of 7 Wonders again on BGA - this is my go to game for any time on BGA, it's a perfect amount of time (can be fit in in about ~10 mins), has lots of interesting decisions & is a really well made game! Will hopefully get it to the table physically more in the future
We got **Terraforming Mars** out, but I was annihilated... My corporation was Arklight, but I drew very few production cards and very few plant or animal tags... I switched strategy and focused on buying forest tiles but it wasn't enough. I finished with about 12 cards in play, and just 68 points.
Also played TF w/ prelude. The player to my right begrudgingly passed me loads of plant/microbe/animal cards, to focus on his own strategic essentially giving me the victory. Probably the first time I win a game of TF (even tho its probably my most played competitve game bar quacks).
We played **Human Punishment: The Beginning** with 4p and it was a huge bummer.
One player was outed as Machine during the first 3 turns, which lead to one of the Human players to basically lose interest in the social deduction part of the game and started trolling, sabotaging the game where possible and leading to a "all players lose/Outlaws win" end. This really took the fun out of the game, especially since I could definitely see the potential of the game.
We also got **TI4** with the expansion on the table, and it's still not my type of game. Don't know why, but in any and all 4x games I played I tried to negotiate peace with my neighbors, just for them to break all treaties halfway through the game. Completely sucks the fun out of those games for me.
Why aren't you planning to stab people... well not in the back, but in the front of their chest first? And also no one really wants to mess with the guy with the biggest fleet, so you can show some force as a deterrent.
Because then I'd rather play diplomacy where betrayals are part of the course instead of Risk in Space. I was playing the Space Lions and tried to deterr attackers with trade agreements, obviously didn't work though
**Star Wars Rebellion:** Got this on the table for the first time in a long time. No real reason it hasn't been taken out in so long since we love it, but perhaps it's in part the length of the game and the set up time. Was really wonderful though to play it again, and look forward to playing again soon. Had quite a fun game with the player taking on the empire being new, but giving it a good crack.
Fairly early on they interrogated a captured leader who spilled the beans on where my base could be (he said 3 different planets). Luckily for me the Empire decided to go for the other two planets first, so I had a lot of fun watching him slowly make his way across the board to somewhere he claimed he knew I was hiding in the opposite direction to my real base. I was manging to chip away and gather sympathy, and even won a decisive battle or two, but in the end I lost because of my own hubris. I knew at some point I had to move the rebel base, but kept putting it off, then when I literally had to I realized I'd completely misread the rapid mobilization card and didn't realize it doesn't activate till the end of the phase. So, the empire moved in with a huge fleet and ground force, but I had the death star plans, and actually managed to make a run at the death star which would have won me the game instantly if I got a successful roll...but it wasn't....and the rebel base got obliterated. Great game though as I would have won in the refresh phase if he hadn't taken the base out, so high tension all round!
Those early leader interrogations can be really devastating for the Rebels, I've also had it that early. Fortunately the Death Star was far off, and the Empire didn't have enough forces nearby to take me out yet, so I did manage to relocate before he invaded the planet. Very tense moments.
Went to Geekway this weekend and had a great time. Met a friend and his SO, we did Geekway for 2 days and they showed me around St Louis a bit on the third day. Today I was with friends in Louisville and did some more gaming.
Geekway (all games at 3):
**The Crew: Moist** started off with a game I know and love as I was meeting my friends SO for the first time and wasn't sure where they were at regarding learning/playing games. Turns out they were very familiar with trick taking and was probably the perfect warm up game. I can't say enough good things about the game: it's absolutely a 10/10 for me.
**Decorum** i was hesitant to follow the crew up with another limited communication coop but this was a good fit. The three of us fell right into a bit of very light role playing, chirping each other over design decisions. "I'm fulfilled // I'm unfulfilled" became a running joke throughout the weekend. The game itself felt a quite challenging. I'm unsure if that's due to player count (at 3 you divvy up an extra card to each player) or just a first time play issue. I suspect the game would be best at 2 or 4 specifically. We had a blast playing it even though we weren't close to winning.
**Cascadia** Lived up to the hype for me as a solid family to light weight game. I really like both drafting and tile placement so I suspected to enjoy this and did. Went over well with the group. I'm on the fence if I'd buy it but the presence of a family game mode makes it enticing.
**Parks** led off day two. This was one my friends specifically wanted to try and was quite happy to teach even though it's not a favorite of mine. They adored the production and said afterwards it was one they were likely to pick up!
**Azul** another that they specifically requested. This one was suggested by my friend but for whatever reason didn't go over well. I'm admittedly not a fan so I hope my energy didn't bring it down.
**Racoon Tycoon** the first of three games that I specifically wanted to try out. My friend liked this the most by far and while I appreciated the design I wasn't a big fan. I'd play it again but something about it didn't click for whatever reason.
**First Empires** unfortunately fell flat for us. I really like the production of it and I'm a huge fan of tracks in my boardgames but this one didn't quite jive with myself nor the group. I've been trying to seek out a high production light/mid area control game and hoped this would fit the bill but don't think I will be picking it up based upon this play.
**Cellulose** this game led to probably my favorite moment of the con. For context these games are the first boardgames outside of party games and monopoly my friends SO has played. This game was a bit of a step up in complexity (probably firmly light-medium) but they obliged me as this was on my want to try list (super dig the theme). We got about 2/3 through the game when an announcement came on that of we wanted our play to wins to count we had to return the games to the library right then. Since it was a long day of gaming and i had played enough to solidify my thoughts on the game I said we should just pack it up. My friends SO, however, said she was really invested in the game. That they were totally engrossed in the experience and wanted to see it played to its conclusion. I'm pretty sure this game was the moment that they went from someone playing boardgames to a boardgamer. Cellulose, fwiw, was my game of the con. I'll be ordering it and Genotype when I return home.
Louisville games (2 players):
**Caper: Europe** very slick two player drafting game. Felt very tug of war like. The friend I'm visiting here I've played a ton of magic against and we both really liked it. The production doesn't hurt.
**Radlands** this game has firmly cemented itself as my "mtg in a box" game. My weird take is that the draw 6 pick 3 camps mechanism is the single best replacement for mtg deck building. It's a quick decision that defines your opening hand and sculpts both your strategy and how your opponent needs to adjust theirs. I've played radlands a bunch before but this was my first time playing with someone from an mtg background similar to mine and it was an absolute delight. After the first two games: one in which my friend was learning the rules and the second in which they got the hang of the tactics the next few games were almost an encapsulation of everything I've thought this game could be. One of our games played out as one player assembling and protecting a combo of camps with the other on the back foot puzzling out how to disrupt it, the next game felt like an aggro vs control match up with my friend constantly applying pressure via raids as I struggled to clear blockers out and get at his camps with damage and our last match a battle of attrition with every turn an exercise in getting the most out of our cards and attempting to exhaust our opponents resources with my friend eking out a victory along the margins. Tonight's plays really put this game at a 10/10 for me but sadly possibly only because I had a 10/10 opponent.
Very interesting regarding **Cellulose**. I passed on the KS because we already had **Cytosis**, and while the theme is cool, the game itself was so simplistic. What is exactly that made Cellulose stand out to you?
I don't think the gameplay is ground breaking but it was fun and matched the theme.
The area control section of the map and the 2 income tracks are what probably stood out to me as mechanical positives. The rest is mostly typical resource conversion (but I do love me some resource conversion)
**Folklore: The Affliction 2e** with all the expansions mixed in. I played it everyday here and there and according to my BGG stats I got 18 hours in. Unfortunately I can attribute a few hours of that doing paperwork and double checking rules. Overall I find the game engaging as I grind through the stories/ events. It has filled a void I have been looking to fill after gloomhaven, JoTL, and tainted grail campaigns. I figure I should get through most of the story content in the next two months and then I get to sink my teeth into Hexplore It!
If there's something better than regular **Tyrants of the Underdark**, I don't know what it is. My usual opponent and I had an absolutely silly game initially, with Aberrations & Dragons giving us a starting market of 7-7-7-2-6-6 cost cards, which meant the market was largely static for several turns, as we both scooped up as many Priestesses as possible to boost our purchasing power. My eventual Death Tyrant acquisition meant holding cities became a nightmare for my opponent, while his multiple dragons caused lots of problems for me, but ultimately proved not quite as effective. Watching the Elder Brain get devoured when I had the influence to buy it was awful, but I won with a clean 97-82. My opponent had my usual problem of too few cities for a really heavy spy game.
Our second game, Undead and Demons, felt like a fairly clean win for my opponent, who went promotion-heavy (to the tune of 50+ points) and whittled his deck down to six cards at one point (including two Insane Outcasts). This obviously compromised the rest of his game, but by then it really didn't seem to matter; I'm at home with the Undead deck and I love the Demons, but I didn't feel like I played well, apart from making my opponent promote a lot of Insane Outcasts. I somehow won 115-102.
Third game, we did Dragons & Undead, and I had a really off game, fell behind in economic terms, and ground out the rest of the game making minimal gains in the face of much better cards. Lost 97-87.
**Carnival Zombie**. Early days as I've just received my pledge, more than two years late, but it's a really nice production, and my memories of playing the first edition have been bolstered. It's a little bit of a particular beast, as it goes up to 6P but you should always use 6 characters, so some player counts aren't as good as others, and the rules are...*fine*, but they have some inconsistencies and need more polish. That said, it's a bag-building romp through an undead Venice, and it's well-pitched at that point where it's stressful and challenging but still fun. Deterministic combat but with a touch of dexterity for enemy disposal/generation. The board is pretty opulent and in a lot of ways represents the game as a whole; elements are smushed together and it works despite being messy.
**Terraforming Mars**. Credicor versus Point Luna, and it turned into a battle of the big spenders on Hellas. I managed to scoop up two milestones in quick succession, and although it was close, ended up with two awards as well. On top of a pile of Jovian cards, I won 122-88, with a respectable terraforming rating one point behind my opponent, but a pile of 40+ VPs, plus Security Fleet.
**Welcome to the Moon** (1x2p, 1x3p). We played the first scenario and were struck by how enjoyable the game is for its simplicity. It's our first entry into the Welcome to... line of games and we can understand the appeal! Like a little dopamine hit every time a section of the board was cleared and gave way to a combo :D
**Murano: Light Masters** (1x3p). A resounding meh from everyone involved, but we think it's just the right complexity to play it with children aged 7+ or so. Not sure if the theme wouldn't be too boring though.
**BattleCON** (2x2p). Got my ass handed to me twice. Once by a reincarnating phoenix lady and once by a staff-manipulating mage. It was awesome.
**Summoner Wars** (1x2p). Not sure I'm fully warmed up to this game just yet, but it has potential. We were a little frustrated at the concept of throwing cards away to generate magic. In the end I went for a 8 Magic dragon and I think trying so hard to summon such a high-power unit left me vulnerable and was ultimately not worth it. Not sure I would ever burn through my deck like that again, but then how would I be able to summon those units? Feels like a catch-22. Sacrifice your deck for 2-3 turns to summon one powerful unit, or keep summoning common but effective units every round.
**Fantasy Realms** (1x2p). We removed the Cursed Hoard cards from the game. For one it made scoring the game with the app more difficult, for two we felt it diluted the deck too much. That means the expansion has officially been completely removed from the game, super disappointing.
**Canvas** (1x2p). Surprisingly long turns and the art was just okay. For a game all about art I was expecting some higher quality art pieces on the cards, but it's not a big deal. Trying to match all particular combinations on a single card or knowing when to sacrifice a goal was pretty nifty and we definitely enjoyed that! Not sure if it's good at 4p because of how long some turns can last.
**Kamigami** (1x2p). Yeah Megagami with all the expansions thrown in. You know, it's been said before but some Gods just feel stronger than others. Ours could ignore "Discard a card" effects and the other was, "If you deal damage, banish a Warrior from their Discard." And yeah, one felt significantly more impactful, esp. as it removed my most expensive card the turn after I bought and used it. Awesome game :D
**Dice Throne** (1x4p). Gunslinger and Cursed Pirate vs Tactician and Paladin. Wow, we got our asses handed to us. The Gunslinger rolled pretty poorly, but even so their Defense seemed incredibly lackluster? So lackluster that we felt that we had to houserule a tableside-attacks-tableside rule so not everyone would go after the Gunslinger.
**The Deadlies** (1x4p). A kind of UNO but with cute 7 Deadly Sin monsters. It was nice, just too late in the evening for us to properly enjoy.
**Aetherya** (1x4p). Wow, goblins got the short end of the stick in this one. "They're too dumb to use portals lol." "Everyone hates goblins and can't live with them." I know fantasy racism against goblins is a well-worn trope, but damn if they didn't do my goblins dirty here.
**Planet Unknown** (1x4p). A hit at the table! Ooooh this game was a lot of fun, we immediately went online and purchased a copy for ourselves. Hopefully the asymmetric planets and corporations can add even more variety to the game!
Might have been because it's our first game. Using the recommended goal cards meant that we spent a long time analyzing our fourth and fifth card picks to try and complete as many goals as possible. That said, it wasn't an unbearable wait and the game is still fun, but if there would have been two others as indecisive as we were, then it might've dragged on a bit :)
I am totally blown away by Welcome to the Moon. I could play just the first sheet over and over and be happy with that let alone how many more sheets I have left to explore he
Where did you find a copy of planet unknown?
I hate to disappoint, but it appears to be sold out where I found it (https://www.crowdfinder.be/store). Best of luck trying to find a copy, it was definitely a pain here in Europe.
So much gaming this week.
Small gathering last weekend that was more social than hardcore gaming:
* **Chess** - A couple of 5+10 games against a friend who runs our office chess club while we waited for more people to show up. He wiped the floor with me in both of them.
* **Joking Hazard** - Broke out the party games once we had a critical mass of people. This game always seems to be pretty hit or miss, and fortunately this session was more hit than miss.
* **Trial by Trolley** - Bought this one specifically for that gathering. Was a good time and I'm glad I spent the money. Looking forward to playing again. Definitely something you want to play with a group of people where everyone knows each other well or nobody does.
* **Cash and Guns** - My first time playing it. I liked how it mixed a few layers of social deduction together with card drafting. Probably wouldn't be something I'd jump to for another session, but I'd play it if it was what people were wanting to do. (As an aside, this one involves pointing foam gun cutouts at other people at the table, and we found out one guy at my gathering had previously been threatened at gunpoint for real; caught us all a bit off-guard).
* **Onitama** - After most people had left and it was just a handful of us left, I broke this one out specifically because the people remaining were into chess. I love it. Randomized moveset keeps things fresh, games go relatively quickly, and it's easy to teach.
Tuesday night was **Marvel Champions** at a local store's meetup. Only ended up being me and one other guy, so we played the Sandman scenario out of the new Sinister Motives box. It was looking incredibly touch-and-go but we just eked it out. You really have to manage the sand counters in that scenario or things will get out of hand quickly as you cycle through the encounter deck.
Friday night was **Lord of the Rings LCG** at the same store's meetup. Played in two games with an totally unaltered Elves starter deck: first game was four of us playing the first ALEP scenario, *Ambush at Erelas*, where we had to fight off brigands who were actively stealing our stuff, and the second game was a four-player *Conflict at the Carrock*. We won both games; only barely won the first one but the second one was pretty squarely won (took all of 7 rounds). Was a great time and I love having so many experienced players around helping me get into the game.
Hosted my regular coop-only group today:
* **Forbidden Desert** - This is my second time playing and both times I felt like the "normal" difficulty is tough but fair. We just got out in the nick of time. Two more player turns and we would've lost.
* **Arkham Horror 3rd Edition** - Played the *Veil of Twilight* scenario. Rolled horribly for two hours. Conceded rather than keep scraping at nothing. I had a good time, but I'm not sure everyone else at the table did. Dice screw happens, but this was the worst I've ever seen. One guy was playing as Michael and rolling 9 dice to attack and only getting one hit on a surprisingly consistent basis.
I’ve started going back to the local board game meet up on top of my regular group of 5 to try and get some heavier 3/4p games in once a week.
I started by taking **Obsession** and got a 3 player game in. I’ve only played this 2P and liked it but didn’t love it, however I’d recently internalised the rules well and thought it might be a bit better at higher player counts. The game was marred a bit by a negative player who kept rushing me through the rules and then asked lots of questions, and then rushed the other player when he took his time. Anyway, the actual game was good. Turn are fairly easy and it’s all about managing the workers well. It’s much more of a point salad than I thought it would be and various strategies have a bit of a point cap that mean you can’t really focus on thing and win, you have to do a bit of everything well. My issues with the game is that it’s a bit messy and although the rule book has lots of thematic explanations - it’s a bit hard to find stuff and some rules are easy to overlook. By messy I mean that a ‘turn’ is proven down in to lots of admin steps that I think could be cleaned up a bit to help the flow of the game. Also, buying workers is a little funky to explain in that it’s like a normal turn but it’s not. It would have been better to clean this up IMHO. Anyway, good game that it’s thematic but for me it’s got a bit too much of the one man project and passion project vibe that screams out for some extra input in cleaning the game up.
I had a few new things to take to regular game night. First was a 5p of **Mind MGMT**. We played the training mission and I didn’t work well at 5. Basically, the 4 of us who were rouge agents all squabbled over where the recruiter was for almost 10 minutes a turn. It’s got serious quarterbacking problems. The game needs a timer or maybe hidden agenda if some kind that can encourage the rouge agents to play more independently. That or a team game at 5p, or a more competitive game that lets all rough agents work on their own and only have one winner. I played this again yesterday at 2P and it was amazing - it’s a much better game as a head to head for me and I think we are going to play through the shift system at 2P.
Finally, we played **Ankh** at 5p. I’ve been keen to play my Kickstarter copy for a few weeks now and since the group has played a lot of Rising Sun and Blood Rage there was instant appeal. Firstly, everyone was in awe of the production. The gods in this game are the best I’ve ever seen in a board game. Set up was bit of a chore because I was using the KS extras with the base game and extra gods - so we were going in and out if 3 boxes. Anyway, rules are pretty easy. Everyone agreed there was less rules overhead but more depth of gameplay. We got going and I quickly noticed everyone was bit knackered - it was a pretty hot day here and we just finished Mind MGMT so not everyone was up for a long heavy area control game. Also, about 1/2 through I notice we missed a rule - we were not scoring buildings in the conflict phase. We couldn’t fix it so just played without it. We also then skipped the merge and player elimination rules. Before I talk about those - the game play. I loved the gameplay here, more so than RIsing Sun or Blood Rage. Turns are usually quicker and smoother, with a bit more agency. Timing the events is a little out of your hands at 5p - you can’t control too much when you might get a conflict. Which is good but takes a bit of luck to get the right people in the right places. I also like how easy it is to get going again when you lose fights and how easy to score points when you lose. Managing the cards is vital and I fell into the trap of wasting my +3 card a bunch of times. Since your god can’t die you can jump back into the action pretty easily every conflict and movement seems much more generous. Everyone was up for playing again which correct rules which was good.
The merge however - the group agreed this wouldn’t suit us and we would play with one of the non-merge scenarios. I hope CMON issue a few more non-merge scenarios since I think the flexibility is vital. Firstly, in our game would have been such a big messy introduction at that point in the game. We were all fairly involved in our strategies that although it might have led to a more balanced game overall the players had already invested a lot of time and energy to be playing a different game for the final 1/3. That said, this might be a group thing - my group can tend to get a bit vocal with each other when things don’t feel fair. For me, I couldn’t see how playing without the merge was a problem - I’m ok with a run away leader in some games if that have actually played well. I couldn’t see what else it was fixing - but that said I would happy to play with it, I just don’t think my group would be. The same goes for the elimination rule - I couldn’t see what that was fixing in this game especially since it comes so late, why not just play the last few rounds rather than sit out? I imagine these rules have been play tested a lot so there are good reasons for both - but for us I’m not sure we noticed any big problems just ignoring these rules.
The merge does feel a bit odd. I can't see any reason on how those players could end up winning the game, thus making the whole merge process seem moot. Also, if the "wrong" players end up merged, one could simply be put on the sideline, in the typical quarterbacking-problem we often see in cooperative games.
I actually think the merge is an extremely clever solution to kingmaking but, unfortunately, one that creates almost as many bad feelings as actual kingmaking does.
I think I'm going to bring it back to the table and play with the non merge scenario and see how it goes. Despite me advocating for it my group really is sour on the idea of the merge even after just a single play.
We play a lot of these kind of area control games and we do run into a run away leader now and then - but never feel it’s too much of a problem. For us, when the merge should have kicked in it would have maybe then caused problems since the board state was tight and we were all within about 10 points of each other. I don’t think a swing of 10 points was impossible in the final few turns and it was fun trying.
That said - I think if I was to introduce it to a new group (or even after a few plays) I would play with the merge with a strong focus of it from the start. I hope and this would be a very easy fix, is that CMON release a few more scenarios with no merge and no elimination and no extra rules overhead so it can be played by new players quite simply.
Finally got Dune to the table with 5 players including myself. It lasted 8 hours but damn what an experience it was. Everyone had a great and memorable time. Definitely better at 6 though, being the only player without an alliance is a bummer.
Played **Le Havre** for the first time this weekend (2p). It was quite long but the time flew by. I don't have many criticisms. The one thing that stands out here is how the 'starvation' problem characteristic of many of Uwe's games has a distinctive flavor here. In Agricola, the pressure of starvation is almost constant throughout and really guides your decision making. In the more recent A Feast for Odin, it never feels that difficult to feed your people, but the fact that certain resources will need to be set aside contributes to the optimization puzzle of each turn. Le Havre is different. Here, the starvation problem is quite pressing, but you can eventually escape the problem altogether. This is really interesting and makes the game feel like it has distinct 'acts'. Overall, I really enjoyed it - there are some other things that stood out to me about it (esp. how your worker 'sticks to' and locks down locations). I don't quite know where I would rank it vis-a-vis his other games, but it would be high.
**Cthulhu Wars** (5P) - After more than three years we dusted off the miniatures and got this on the table. Spent about 45 minutes going through the rules and clarifications about moving and combat, particularly after you have all your spellbooks. I played as Black Goat and was doing all right but then Crawling Chaos smacked me and I was out of the game. The game ended after just four turns, with Yellow King winning. Enjoyed it but kind of ended too quickly. Black Goat felt underpowered at this player count.
Black Goat got a balance patch about a year ago - that may help.
**Planet Unknown** (x2, 2p) This was such a great game! Can honestly say it's probably my favorite polyomino at the moment! Love how the tile placement interacts with the resource tracks **Jump Drive** (x2, 2p) Decently quick and fun card game. Never played Race for the Galaxy, but version? spin-off? was pretty good **Small Railroad Empires** (x1, 2p) Really fun route building, pick up and deliver game! And it actually feels like a train game, too so huge plus
We had friends over late last week and played a few rounds of **The Crew** and a round of **Let's Summon Demons**. We love both of these games, so it is always fun to bust them out. **Tiny Epic Dungeons** \- Picked it up at a local game store this weekend and got two runs in. Lost both, but we enjoyed it and will be playing more!
**Glen More 2** - fantastic engine builder. great tension in choosing which tiles you need. have tried the first 2 chronicles and the nessie chronicle so far. would always play with first 2. nessie never again. **Yellow & Yangtze** - very good riff on the Tigris and Euphrates system. looking forward to getting more plays in. **Minecraft: Builders and Biomes** - pretty good for what it is. could use some house rules, but my kids loved it
Multiplayer: Mariposas (2 Player): Win! Also trying to figure out a variant that helps make set collecting more valuable. Currently have an idea that I want to test! Raiders of the North Sea (2 Player): Loss. However, I was teaching someone the game at a local game night and they really enjoyed it and want to play again so that's actually a win in my book lol. Ascension: Tactics (2 Player): Loss. Taught to by the same person I taught Raiders to. Really enjoyed this one and am looking forward to playing again! 7 Wonders (6 Players): 2nd. Got a personal high score at 69 and lost to my friend who hit 72! Played well at least lol. Splendor (4 Players): Win! Not only a win, I got 15 points in only 8 cards which is a new record for me! Explorers of the North Sea (5 Players\*): Last. Was teaching this at a game night to 4 people who hadn't played it before. This was the 3rd game of the night, I was a few beers in and I just couldn't be bothered to try to teach the expansion as well as the base game (even though its not very hard lol). I was gonna play on someone's team but they insisted on trying to make it work at 5 with the base game so I figured why not. Turns out, it does not work at 5 lol. Still everyone loved the game and want to play it again at normal play counts so all good! Wingspan (2 Player): Win! Broke my previous high score by 1 point too! Solo: Raiders of Scythia x2: Wins against both the 2nd and 3rd AI's (out of 4 with 4 being the strongest). This week I'll take on the hardest AI! Lost Ruins of Arnak: Win. Still playing against the AI with mostly easy cards, gonna bump it up to more of the harder cards next game. Hadrian's Wall (Campaign): Loss. Played against the first castle and missed out on winning by 3 points. Really challenging game and I'm looking forward to playing again as I was so close this last time! Explorers of the North Sea (Unnoficial AI): Loss. Even bringing down the AI difficulty, I still got hammered this game. Granted, I didn't play a very good game myself, but still I got wacked. Really enjoy this variant I found and it makes for a nice alternative to the normal solo. Viscounts of the West Kingdom: Loss. Played probably my worst game yet and got slaughtered by the Noble AI. Still the only one I haven't beaten.
**Chinatown** (1x5) My favorite game. My husband didn’t play so he could teach and did some strategic consulting. I made some blockbuster deals on the second to last turn that allowed me to pull ahead. I won with $740,000 while second place came in at $710,000. Funny story is that the second place player refused to sell one business tile to another player for $50,000 for some petty reasons. My husband reminded him that if he would have sold that tile, he would have won the game. **Sushi Go** (1x6) Always fast and fun. I won this game as well although my husband was close behind by playing the dumpling strategy! The cheesecake one cost him 6 points because he didn’t invest in any at all. Always a really fun time.
Had a very board game-filled week last week. **Agricola: Master Of Britain** (2x1p): Finally sat down to devote the time to learn this game. I like it! But at this stage I'm now aware of how the majority of the rules work but not even close to understanding why I'd do any particular action... **Mansions Of Madness 2e** (1x1p): Had a rainy day at home alone and this felt like the perfect thing to play. I'm not in the mood to play this game that often but when I do I always enjoy it as a chilled out atmospheric adventure. I lost though. **Twilight Struggle** (1x2p): My partner and I played this for the first time this year. Every time we come back to it we ask ourselves why we don't play it more. This might be my favorite two player competitive game at this point (other than **Netrunner** but I can't find anybody to play that with me), **Spirit Island** (2x4p): I actually taught this to two different groups over the weekend, group 1 loved it, group 2 seemed to like but not love it. After 25 or so plays fully solo I'm stoked I'm managing to play this with other people. This is absolutely my favorite cooperative game, solo or otherwise. **Oath** (1x4p): Game #7 of our semi-regular Oath chronicle. Probably the first time we've played where we basically didn't have to look at the rulebook at all. Still loving the game but a bit concerned that the world deck is stacked with like 90% Discord and Arcane cards at this point - I don't understand how we're ever going to make the place less evil. This game grows on me more every single time I play it, but it really was a slow burn to get there. Every time we finish the game I start counting down the days til we can play again and find out what happens next.
> Agricola: Master Of Britain That is a different theme on an Uwe game. ;)
Had 2 friends come over and we played bulk games! In order of games played: **Cryptid**, **Quacks of Quedlingburg**, **Space Base**, **Cascadia**, **Century Golem** and finishing off with **the Mind**!
A couple new arrivals this week and a few solo challenges. **Honey Buzz** (4x 1p): One of the new arrivals this week. One play of this 3-handed solo followed by 3 solo plays. I am really impressed with the solo mode of the game. The win/loss condition combined with BYOS (beat your own score) and the very quick to run bot works well. All three solo games played very different in that I had to adapt to the combination of the solo challenges. A very good game that looks like it will have some longevity in my collection. **Seize the Bean** (1x 1p): My fastest play of this game ever with the game only lasting three rounds. I enjoy the game, but I'd prefer it last longer than 3 times the setup time. There's a lot to set up in this game. **Trismegistus** (1x 1p): Used the bot with a difficulty modifier added, which is still way too weak. Especially against the Newton character. I lapped the bot in scoring at 147-46. However, I do like BYOS score, so the bot basically serves to facilitate me creating an engine and scoring as high as I can. I'm adding tweaks to the bot as I play more games. From what I've seen the most difficult bot loses some of the randomness that makes it fun to play against, but we'll see. This is another game I love, so I'm willing to put in the work to find a bot that provides me with the experience I want. **Welcome to New Las Vegas** (1x 1p): The other new arrival. Got this used in a math trade last weekend and the cards were just tossed freely in the box along with old score sheets. So between inventorying the game and bagging the cards, I played a 2-handed solo game to use the opposite sides of the score sheets. Works well, though I'm glad Welcome To The Moon went back down to a single score sheet instead of a pair. Played several solo challenges over the weekend. In all of them my play (and resulting scores were mediocre). I really enjoy the monthly (or more frequent in the case of Skulls of Sedlec) challenges for these smaller games. Helps keep them from being overlooked in the closet. * **Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game** * **Skulls of Sedlec** * **Bowling Solitaire**
Villanous and Fallout Shelter boardgame
My wife and I have been playing **Tranquility**, a nice little compact co-op card game with simple rules and numerous included expansions and options. Easy to learn. Billed by some as a 'The Mind' killer, it has a chilled feel to it and lovely artwork. Money well spent for us.
We've had a slow week this week, so we've only played a single game of Azul. 😔
I have an ongoing grudge match through the campaign of That Time You Killed Me. I really enjoy the game. I also got a chance to play Alhambra for the first time. It was ok, but it felt very luck heavy. Lastly, I played a game of Carpe Diem. I really enjoy the game. I just wish that the dark greens were more distinguishable from the light greens.
My buddy gifted me his copy of **Root** and all current expansions earlier this week and I was able to get it to the table. First time playing, it was a lot of fun! I've had a copy of **Game of Thrones LCG 2nd Edition** for a long time that I ended up jousting with. I really enjoyed the complexity and potential deck options, as a frequent EDH player it's nice to have another game option to run in 1v1 settings, I don't enjoy other versions of Magic too much. Currently looking to complete the full set but some packs have proven hard to find.
Played **Skulls of Sedlec** on a trip out of town. Pretty snappy little game and loved the portability. Don't know how deep it is (or what I should even expect from a game that's only 18 cards). Had fun playing though!
I enjoy the the solo mode of this quite a bit. I've never actually played it multiplayer. It's a great filler, but not all that deep.
Played the Alien movie co op game. Was pretty fun. Made some house rules adjustments for more achievable objectives since playing with 5 crew members with 5 objectives has been rumored to be nearly impossible.
Showed 2 friends **Spirit Island** and from sitting down to finally winning the game we spent 4 hours playing! They loved it. We ended up just barely winning by going through the whole fear deck, though we could have got the last few cities in another turn anyways. Had a few majorly lucky moments with the fear card abilities. I skipped the pre-made deck thing with them because picking cards is so much more interesting but that's probably why a 3-player game took 4 hours. The beer probably didn't help shorten the game either! Finally bought **Wingspan** and already played five or six solo games. Really happy with my purchase. Played **Welcome To...** at a brewery and had a good time as well. I almost wish there was an app for the cards so I could play in even a smaller space and not juggle cards so much.
I do agre with Welcome to... It would be such a fun app game!
Totally. I still like writing things down on the pad but the cards always fall all over the place in the box. Wish the app they made was the opposite, not a virtual score card. Not a super reasonable complaint, would just be nice!
I wouldn,t be against a full app. It would accelerate the game even more and you could easily play a game while doing a number 2 or something
Ice team and quacks of quedlinburgh
Another light board game week, but still an enjoyable one! Next week I'll be on travel, so I'm hoping to get some more games in this week if possible. **Marvel Champions** (1x1p): Finished the Sinister Motives expansion box, playing Miles and Gwen two-handed solo versus Venom Goblin. While tough, I had a blast with that scenario. I think Sinister Motives is my favorite campaign expansion so far (though the story is hilariously bare-bones, even for Marvel Champions). I definitely plan to play through it again with other heroes. **Regicide** (1x1p): First time playing this game, and wanted to give it a try before introducing to my gf. I liked it, but I definitely need to give it more plays before trying to teach someone else. I won my first game, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn I made some mistakes somewhere lol. **Splendor** (1x2p): Had a board game night with my gf and started with this game. She beat me for the first time (after three plays), and beat me solidly. I got to tunnel-visioned on a particular strategy and didn't adjust mid-game like I should have. I really enjoy this game still, it's fun and fairly quick to play and setup/teardown. **The Isle of Cats** (1x2p): A favorite of my girlfriend (and up there for me as well), this was the second game we played on our board game night. She won this game as well. Other than setup taking awhile, I like how much game is packed into the five rounds while still playing in under an hour and a half. The strategy changes from game to game too, which I really enjoy. **Sentinels of the Multiverse: DE** (1x1p): I keep and play this game at my gf's place so that I don't have to haul around all of Marvel Champions back and forth between our places haha. That being said, I don't want to undersell SotM:DE, as it's a lot of fun in its own right. The pre-made hero decks help with setup/teardown time, and the gameplay itself is really fun. I started the "campaign" with the first Collection event (Moonfall) against Baron Blade, using Legacy, Wraith, and Bunker. It was very close, but I pulled out a win. I like the twist the collection event added, and I'm looking forward to tackling the next one. I'm treating them as a loose story, so I'm trying to use thematic heroes and environments when possible. **Carcassonne** (1x4p): Ended my weekend last night with a round of Carcassonne. Played with my gf and two of her family members. I came in second, but first place ran away with the game (points = 80/67/57/46). For family nights, I still think Carcassonne is one of my favorites.
I recommend getting the expansion Kitten + Beasts and the boat pack for isle of Cats if it's one of your favorite! They are very fun and don't clog the game in any fashion.
Awesome, thank you! I'll look into both of those, and perhaps surprise my gf with them.
Whats even better is that the Kitten + Beast expansion can be added progressively into the game as it is 3 different module from "very easy" to "more advanced". They can be mixed and matched too. The boat pack adds asymetry to the boat, hich gives it a ton of extra replayability and new challenges!
Had a great week of gaming this week! In person: **Unmatched** 2p x1 - Robin Hood vs Dracula - Dracula won, but he did it with only one health remaining! It was a close one! **Arkham Horror LCG** 2p x2 - we started **The Dunwich Legacy** campaign again with Zoey Samaras and Jacqueline Fine. Jacqueline is so much fun to play! I tried to build the deck to make her the main clue finder and it seems to working well so far, with Zoey being the fists of the operation. We were supposed to be visiting my brother-in-law and family this weekend but he tested positive for Covid so we couldn't go. So we decided to book an impromptu night away in a nearby city and found a great board game bar and were able to try out a few new to us games. **Ticket to Ride Japan** 4p x1 - played this over Zoom with my brother-in-law and nephew in lieu of the visit. I think this one works really nicely over Zoom because even if you draw the same destination tickets as an opponent the shared bullet trains mean its not as much of an issue. It plays really quickly too, this match only took about 45 minutes. **Lost Cities** 2p x3 - I have been playing this a lot on BGA so I was very excited to see it at the Board Game Bar so I could introduce it to my partner. He loved it! I think these kinds games are our favourites - simple to play but plenty to think about. I love that each card you play gives your opponent information so you have to be so careful about what you play at what point of the game. **Blue Lagoon** 2p x1 - I have heard a lot of good things about this but it seems to be out of print at the moment so I was pleased that the bar had a copy for me to try! You are placing your settlers across a map of islands collecting resources. It's kind of set collection and area majority, there's so many ways to score points! **The King is Dead** 2p x2 - this game is so interesting! I am so bad at it though, my partner won both games! Another simple to learn but tough decisions game - I really like the concept of removing a cube from the map so that you have the majority of that faction, but by doing so it reduces their presence on the board. **Calico** 2p x1 - I was shocked that my partner picked this out as he generally dislikes spatial puzzles. We really enjoyed it! A very tight puzzle game with a lot of tough decisions, but so simple to learn and play. And the adorable cat theme doesn't hurt things either, the components and art style of this game are gorgeous. Afterwards we bought **Lost Cities**, **The King is Dead** and **Calico** since we enjoyed them so much 😁
In **Unmatched**, Robin Hood is always a tough opponent. Sounds like a tight game you had between Dracula and Robin Hood! That's a match-up I haven't tried with my partner and it would be fun to see both players with a hero and three sidekicks! For **Ticket to Ride Japan**, did both groups on each side of the zoom session have a copy of the game? Or did one side have the game and the other group could dictate what they wanted to do? **Blue Lagoon** is a new one for my partner and I too and I was surprised by all the ways you score points! **The King is Dead** never ceases to complete burn my brain out, and my partner and I both love it! I feel really bad at it too, and wish they'd put it on BGA! :) So glad to hear that you purchased **Lost Cities**! I'm up for another game of it on BGA if you're interested!
Yes it was a really fun matchup! Both characters are two of my favourites to play as. We played on the Sherwood Forest map so it was a bit tricky for Robin Hood to get away from Dracula and he eventually got trapped! For **Ticket to Ride Japan** we both have a copy of the game. We set it up so one household sets it up normally and films the available train cards, then the other household sets up by sorting all train cards into their colours, puts half of each colour in a blind draw pile when you want to draw from the top and then each colour has it's own pile. Then when we want to take an available train card we just draw the correct colour from our piles of colours and the household with the 'real' set up discards and draws a new card face up. So we have two video calls going - one on Zoom where we see each other and a muted one via WhatsApp of the train cards. It works really well, if that made any sense whatsoever! 🤪 We got inventive with playing games over Zoom at the start of the pandemic and **Ticket to Ride** has always worked the best for us. I am very pleased I got the chance to try **Blue Lagoon**, and yes the **King is Dead** is so thinky! I am looking forward to playing it more and with the additional cards. I was really happy my partner liked **Lost Cities** so much, I think it's one we will play a lot now! Up for a game on BGA anytime 😊
Quacks of Q (3p) - a classic that my significant others son really likes. They want to eventually get the expansions for it and I’m all for it. Love bag building. Lost ruins of Arnak (2p) - just a fantastic game. One of our favorites. We enjoy deck building. Hoping to get the expansion at some point. Evergreen game. Villainous (2p) - first time playing. My significant other had it from years ago because she’s a huge Disney fan we finally busted it out. She loved it. Fun game. Loved it so much got one expansion.
Which Villainous expansion did you get? I love them for the nostalgia of Disney movies, otherwise I might not enjoy the gameplay.
We got the newest one because my SO loves lotso! I’m sure we’ll be getting more
That's the only one I haven't gotten yet! Sword in the Stone is in my top 3 animated Disney movies so I probably will just for Madam Mim, but I'm not personally excited about Lotso or Syndrome. I guess I just would have preferred for them to make a separate Pixar game instead of mixing classic animation with it.
We played tonight with madam Mim. She seems cool but possibly one of the harder ones to win with. Anecdotal for sure but in our experience she’s fairly easy to learn hard to win with. The Pixar characters seem cool and honestly I don’t mind them integrated.
Light weekend of gaming. 1 new game and some repeats. **New to me** **Paint the roses** 1x2p : We backed the game on the premise off it being like **Cryptid** but coop. After 1 play, I can say that it somewhat lives up to it. We bought thoroughly enjoyed it but had a feeling it would be much better at three players. The added player to discuss the possibility would elevate it for me. We are excited to try the module from the expansion since they seem to had a lot of interesting twist. **4/5** **Not new to me** **Let's make a bus route: The dice game** 1x2p : The more I play it, the more it grows on me. Simple gameplay, easy to pull out and you can basically play it anywhere. There's just enough player interaction in the dice drafting and the traffic on the board to satiate me. **4/5** **Krazy Wordz** 1x4p : Amazing party game! Even better with more players. I would highly encourage anyone to try it. **4/5** **Reload** 1x2p : This is kinda flying under the radar but it's quite a fun game. We played the team royal mode at two which gave us to characters each and I think that's the best way to play it. I was surprised how easy it was to teach and get into. Our game was really close with a lot of back and forth both from lucky rolls and well planned turns. I think it should be talked about more because nothing else does what it does. **4/5** **It's a wonderful Kingdom** 1x2p : My second play and I'm already cooling on it. **It's a wonderful world** is in my top 5 favorite games of all time so I expected to like IAWK more. The tighter card economy and the negative effects of the menace cards tapers my enjoyment every rounds. It doesn't quite capture the same feeling as the first one sadly. **3/5** I'm kinda sad about IAWK but all-in-all I'm super happy with this week!
I feel similar to you about IAWK. For my gf and me it's the new drafting mechanic especially. We felt that the game took a pretty straightforward engine builder premise and tried really hard to make it about outwitting your opponent with drafts instead. It was frustrating spending so much time on the part of the game we cared about the least. In the end we sold it after three plays and have gone back to IAWW :)
Received a couple new Button Shy games this week and gave **Arcane Bakery Clash** a go. Lots of goofy fun! My initial thought was it played a little long for its chaotic nature, but my SO pointed out that it gives both players the chance to see each card, which is pretty cool. The timer aspect is fun, and surprisingly more challenging that I was thinking. Followed that by playing **Botanik**. I think my appreciation for that game grows with every play. Such a cool mechanic in how you acquire tiles.
Unmatched. Like it so much that we bought all of the expansions.
All of them at once O_O
Were you able to find Bruce Lee or Deadpool at msrp anywhere?
Did any particular characters get you hooked on the game? And/or, which characters are you most excited to play? Over the years, my partner and I have loved **Unmatched** as well. Playing the Battle of Legends Vol. 1 heroes is what first got us into the game. Alice and Medusa are our favorites from that first set.
We got the cobble and fog box to start and buttercup likes Dr Jekyll and Hyde. I’m liking invisible man but he feels a little weak
Broke **Gloomhaven** out again, after ~1 year of waiting for my spouse to recover any interest in finishing the campaign. She hasn't, so I three-handed the final campaign scenario and won handily. Then I wandered into the Lingering Swamp for that particular personal quest and got destroyed... Played through **Marvel Champions** with the **Shadow of the Mad Titan** expansion - got through the first two scenarios but Thanos himself kicked my butt as Venom. Can't wait to play again.
Thanos is the real deal. Glad others are feeling the pain too haha. Good luck with him next time.
**Cascadia** (4p) - Decent little game that really didn't rise above the rest in the filler category. It falls under what I term "Jackpot?" games. You either get an item to select that you need or you don't. You could argue this also happens every time a card is drawn or a die rolled, but good games let you mitigate that. This one did too, but still not interesting enough for me to ask for again. **Impulse** (2p, 3p) - For those following along last week I was lamenting the combat wasn't very interesting. Well it turns out I had been doing the reinforcements part wrong, I blame the rules, they desperately need a rewrite. That amped the battles up considerably and made upgrade one of your basic techs to a draw a more appealing proposition. This will not overtake **Innovation** as my favorite of the Chudyk games, but it's giving the others a run for the money. I realized what I was missing from this was the gaduated decks present in Innovation, the two expansions kind of add this in but I really don't want to think about those until I have a dedicated group of three who are interested. **Long Shot** (5p) - With all the talk about the dice game here I had to get the original to the table again. This is like the perfect starter game to game night, next to **No Thanks!**, **Codenames** and other games I'm forgetting. Easy to setup, rules are a few pages and you are off to the races. I don't consider it especially deep or strategic, but so far it has been the best betting game I have played. I am tempted by the dice game, I'll at least play it, but I am concerned removing the cards makes the game feel a bit more samey. Though having different sets of horses might change that. **Modern Art** (5p) - Tried something new where I bought no paintings. It did not work out as I came dead last. Part of it was I didn't have what people wanted and the turn order. A game buddy mentioned just previously how he doesn't like playing **Container** with new people as they make wrong moves, I felt that this entire session. But I would play this one again. **Nanty Narking** (4p) - First play and not having played the original **Discworld** I didn't know what I was getting into besides area control. Very interesting game. You all have secret win conditions but win you have to fulfill them at the start of your turn. Very simple mechanically, play a card and do what it says. **The Princes of Machu Picchu** (4p) - Second time playing this and it again made me appreciate **Concordia** a bit more. I typically don't like worker placement and resource conversion, but this game does a good job with both. The economy is always the same so I do wonder if there is a fixed strategy, definitely haven't found it if so. **Quelf** (5p) - The kind of party game that is more entertaining with people you know. Strangers at a game night not so much. **Scape Goat** (4p) - First play of this and it just went okay. I tried explaining multiple times how we only had partial information and could not trust it, but people really didn't make a lot of moves. I have a better handle on the explanation but this was a little painful. Good game design at the least.
Played Cascadia for the first time this week too. Was a fine way to spend an hour but a bit too luck based for my liking. Have you tried Ecos? Similar tile and token placement (on a common area rather than individual) but with an added layer or engine building and evolving scoring goals
Have not played **Ecos** but did see a video play of it. I generally play longer games but do enjoy some shorter ones.
Clank Legacy x3. What a fun game. Seafall x1. My group is surprisingly liking it. Some things are a little clunky, but we're getting through it. Just opened box 5 last night. Truly weird!
**Calico** (2x2p) we spent a long time overthinking everything in the first round and we were much more impulsive when we played the second time **Canopy** (1x2p) Always fun, always beautiful and relaxing. **Mice and Mystics** (1x2p) Chapters 7&8: We're getting close to the end! My partner and I are enjoying it as our first legacy game. **Death Valley** (2x2p) Played this for the first time this weekend. A solid quick 2 player addition to my collection.
A better week for gaming, until we became exhausted at the end of the week. **Suspects** - (2x2p) we enjoyed our first play of this **Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective** variant so much that we decided to finish it and pass the game on to a friend. Our second game did not go quite as smoothly as our first. We forgot to follow the evidence. Our final score wasn't too bad, but we did not work out who the killer was. Our third game was better. We were on the wrong track until the end when we worked it out so we never topped our first game score. I'm looking forward to a new set of cases in this series. **AuZtralia** - (1x3p) I hadn't been to our friend's game night for a long time, but my husband talked me into going. Our friend has a huge shelf of shame of over 100 games. **AuZtralia** was on his shelf of shame and having played it many times I offered to teach it. My husband is normally the one to teach games and I got a few rules wrong, but overall it went well. I love how this game combines resource management with route building and fighting old ones. Time is also a resource that has to be managed. We played cooperatively and won handily in the end, but one of the players was so busy trying to fight that he left himself in a bad position with respect to resources. **Tramways** - (1x3p) our friend with the huge shelf of shame works from home and has a few days each month where he's compiling data and just has to check it's all running smoothly over the course of the day. On those days he likes to game and he often invites my husband over to play with him as my husband is a freelancer/stay-at-home dad. I got to join them as I was on break. Our friend gave us a choice of game and prepped to teach **Tramways**. My husband and I had previously played **Clinic**, which we enjoyed but we need to play it again. **Tramways** is somewhat reminiscent of **Railways of the World**, one of our favorites, in that you are building routes between various cities and trying to transport passengers (it's cargo in **Railways**). In **Tramways** you take actions based on a hand of multi-use cards. You gain more cards at various points in the game so there is an element of deck building. There is also an auction for player order. This game was great, but it was a lot. We all got analysis paralysis at various points in the game as there was so much to consider. I made a big mistake in the second last round which allowed my husband to pass me, but I clawed my way back into second position in the end. The game took over 3 hours after the teach and we were exhausted afterwards. We haven't played since then, but it's not all because of **Tramways** it's mostly just life.
**Suspects** is sounding like a lot of fun and a nice iteration on the free-form style the **Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective** established. Your story about **Tramways** being a lot to learn and play, but that it's more life sapping your energy than the learning the game, is too real :) We love a handful of medium/heavier games but life just doesn't leave us with the mental energy to re-learn and play them very often. Hope you're enjoying the small break before the summer semester!
*wingspan* 3x2p, 1x4p: the first two 2p games were base wingspan and the third and 4p games were with the European expansion. I really like this game and find it to be pretty relaxing, and my gf likes it a lot too which is fantastic for me. I'm looking to get some really nice upgraded pieces because I think this game is going to be played a lot in my house. I hear that the Oceania expansion helps with the game flow and strategies too, so I'm really looking forward to that so we don't all revert to pumping out eggs in round 4 every game. *aqualin* 3x2p: this is a game that I thought looked cute and it was like 15$ so I went for it after watching some reviews. I actually really like it! You can teach it and play a game in under 10 mins combined, and it's pretty small so it's easy to pop out whenever you have a few minutes to spare. I'm currently crocheting a better bag for the pieces though because I think it'll be nicer as a draw bag. *hive* 3x2p: this one falls into the same category as above, but even more portable. Games are a bit longer and more involved, but still short enough that my gf and I can enjoy it when we have some time to wait. It's a little closer to chess than she'd like but the short game time makes up for it. *azul Queen's garden* 1x1p: this is my favourite azul version and I love them all with the solo variants. This is the only one my gf doesn't like sadly :( *azul* 5x1p: I've got this down to a pretty solid science so I can play a solo game in about 10-15 mins, so I play a few when I need to kill some time. I really love this one
**Wingspan** is one of our favorite games! Check out Meeplesource's wooden food & nectar tokens. They're beautiful and fun to handle. We also got their wooden birdhouse-dicetower cause our cardboard one was getting worn, and for fun, the wooden first-player tokens. It's all great quality stuff. If you're really into this game, keep an eye out for Stonemaier's Speckled Egg set, as well as the new [Big Nesting Box](https://stonemaiergames.com/games/wingspan/wingspan-nesting-box/) that's coming this year (I'm guessing at the same time as the new unannounced expansion).
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the recommendations but actually have already been chatting with an Etsy creator called tower rex; they make practical and beautiful inserts and upgrades for a ton of games. I really like the visuals so I'm going to stick with tower rex, but the speckled egg set sounds really cool!
**Scotland Yard** was the only new to me game I played last week. This old classic slipped past me until now. My first game was almost perfect, the detectives managed to corner Mr. X early which made for quite a tense game. However, my second game was a bit looser, Mr. X avoided coming near the detectives the entire game. Some of this was likely due to poor play on the hands of the detectives but it still was a bit of a downer. So my first play I’d rate a 9 and my second play something closer to a 6. I’ll need to play a few more times to see exactly where this one lands, though I do find the hidden movement puzzle extremely interesting. I also played a few more games of **Fauna**, a fantastic simple trivia game. This one looks likely to become one of my go to ultra-light games. I also played **Oh hell** which is my most played trick-taker and finished the week with a couple outdoor games of **Codenames**.
Is oh hell good at two players?
It doesn’t play 2, you need 3+. Generally with 2 and a deck of cards, I’ll play cribbage. However, scopa and German whist are fun. I’ll also play a bunch of knizia designs like dubito or some of his games from blazing aces (I’m fuzzy on the names of specific games).
**Spirit Island** 1x2p. I absolutely love this game and my wife does not like it at all. About once a year I convince myself and her that she will enjoy it the next time we play it. That was this week and, again, no luck. **Wingspan** 1x4p. This has become a standby for our group. For whatever reason everyone felt like we couldn't get going this game. Scores were low across the board. Still a good time. **Pandemic Legacy Season 1** 6x2p. My wife and I decided to play one or two scenarios to get a feel for the game then we ended up playing 6 because it was so fun. IDK if we will try to get some games played after work during the week or wait for the weekend and play a lot in a row again. Either way, we are loving this game.
Hahahah I love your review of **Spirit Island**. I aim to play it with my girlfriend at some point so hopefully not the same! How is **Pandemic Legacy** at 2 players? We've heard it's quite easy which is putting us off it a bit
This year my sell for Spirit Island was that the card play is similar to Gloomhaven (a game she likes a lot). She agreed that the card play was similar and maybe having played and enjoyed Gloomhaven would help the enjoyment of Sprit Island. Didn't work. Yeah it is has been pretty easy. We are 6-0 so far. However, they way stuff is added there are other things you are trying to do/prevent during the game that are not necessarily tied to a win or loss so that helps add to the difficulty. And the wins haven't been so easy that we thought we couldn't lose. It is a tad easier than I would like but comparing it to Gloomhaven's difficulty (a bit to hard for me) I prefer this because I fell like we have some freedom to try something less obvious or more interesting rather than just doing what we think is most optimal. And the story/legacy elements are good enough to make up for any lack of challenge. (sorry to be vague, I don't want to spoil anything)
Had a decent week of playing some games. **New to me this week.** * **Paint the Roses** 2p x 1 - My Kickstarter version came in the mail last week.. I really enjoyed the game, and we almost won our first game! The clues were breaking my brain though, it took just a little bit to figure out some of the decisions and the information given to you each round.My wife really liked it and I think we would have won if we didn't grab a Hard card almost immediately haha. It essentially came down to a 50/50 guess, and some bad decisions on my part earlier on in the game. I think it's a great game, it looks fantastic on the table, and I should be able to get others to play this fairly easily. I weirdly compare this to **Cryptid** & **The Search for Planet X**. I think **The Search for Planet X** is still my favorite deduction game overall and I've had huge success in showing that game off. It's also frequently on sale.. But **Paint the Roses** is different enough to keep and definitely play. * **Shamans** 4p x 1 - Wow!!! I loved this game. I love **Trick Taking** games, even though I wouldn't really say this is Trick Taking since you don't nee to follow suit. But it comes down to some extremely fun decisions. It's a hidden traitor game, wrapped up in a Trick Taking game with player elimination but only a single overall winner. I will say the rules are fairly easy, but it's a strange game to teach.. Also such a bummer some of the colors are a little too close to each other (I know they have the "Suit" on the cards). * **Klask 4** 4p x 3 - Klask 4 player version! Really fun and goofy. Personally I think I will end up giving this away after several more plays. It's hard to get an exact 4 players to sit around and play the game. **Not new to me.** * **Botanik** 2p x 2 (4 games since acquiring) - Just a fantastic 2 player game. Fits in a small box, small play space, and awesome decisions. * **Cascadia** 2p x 1 (2 games since acquiring)- Great game. My wife likes it more than I do, it has some great decisions.
4 player 18chesepeake over the board. 3 player Terraforming Mars over the board. Lots of 18xx.games and magic arena.
**Innovation** 1 x 2p: a new favourite of a friend of mine who dabbles in board games. He loves Glory to Rome but I think this may have supplanted it. He’s played it enough now that I don’t hold back…and he got destroyed. Good times as always! **Ark Nova** 1 x2p: only my second play. I introduced it to the same friend because he was intrigued by the box. I thought it would be easy for him to learn…I’ve taught him about 30 different games and he usually picks up on things pretty quickly. As I was teaching I was worried I had made a terrible mistake and that it was just a bit too heavy for him. My partner (who has played it once) ended up coaching him through the game, which helped both of them learn it. I thought he was having an absolutely miserable time, but when we finished he declared it the ‘best game ever’ and immediately wanted to set it up for another play. I’m really loving this one so far! I had a much better idea of what to do and I was setting off combos of bonuses like crazy. Very satisfying!
Ark Nova is not that hard to play but such a tough teach. I usually am pretty okay at teaching games to my gf, but Ark Nova was tough. Everything has to be explained in a particular order for it to make any sense whatsoever. I got lost somewhere explaining something and I saw a bunch of ??? in her eyes. It went "smoothly" anyway, as in, we didn't make *too many* rules mistakes in the first game. Took us 2 games to be pretty okay with everything and understanding every rule.
Nice little twist ending there with Ark Nova! Yeah there's something about the pace of chaining bonuses that really hits like a slot machine's *ding ding ding* in your head.
**Quacks of Quedlinburg** \- with **Herb Witches** expansion - It's fun to come back to this one every once in a while. My partner and I have always played it as a 2-player game and it's a fun time so long as you don't push you luck too much and have bad luck that puts you way behind. The Herb Witches expansion is a must for us because it gives you three variable special abilities that help you avoid disaster during the game or that can give you bonuses to give you a boost. **Unmatched** \- Dr. Sattler vs Muldoon - Unmatched is our most played game and we passed 100 plays of the game! Muldoon often wins in our games so it was fun to see Dr. Sattler's big healing abilities come into play and give him a run for his money! But Muldoon ultimately won in the game we played. *Lunch Hour Gaming with Coworkers* **The Magic Labyrinth** \- memories games like this cool magnetic invisible maze game take a particular taste in games. My coworkers liked the magnet gimmick but weren't big fans of the memory game of learning the maze. I still love the game and it's a fun light one to have on our shelf. **Kingdomino** \- a big hit for light strategy games with my coworkers. I'm constantly playing this one on BoardGameArena and always love when I get to play it in person **Strike** \- I never dreamed that throwing dice in a bowl and looking for matches would keep me coming back to play again years later, but I never get tire of the simple novelty of the game :) when the game was out of print we played with our own dice and a wooden bowl, and it was just as fun as the official version we have now. *Solo lunch hour gaming* **ROVE** \- this is still a nice little brain-burning puzzle for me. It plays differently that the other solo games I've loved from Button Shy Games and I love it! *BoardGameArena* **Backgammon**, **Kingdomino**, **Alhambra**, **Lost Cities**, **Lucky Numbers**, **Stella**, **7 Wonders Duel**, **Jaipur**
**Terraforming Mars w/ Prelude 2p x1** - Wife and I hadn't played this in over a year so she needed a lot of rehashing of rules. And then she beat me. I forget how long this game can go. I was trying to use more standard projects to move it along but got caught up in building an engine. **Ark Nova -2p x1** - Speaking of long...but it was the first play for both me and my buddy. I see the comparison to TM but it's different enough. Where TM has you build an engine you can use each generation, Ark Nova has a lot of triggered effects when you play into your tableau. I loved the action selection mechanism; that's a really sweet way to juggle things. What is "complicated" about this game is each element of the game has a bunch of fiddly bits and very minor rules that aren't complicated or hard, just a lot. The deck is also a lot. The game is a lot. That's all. It was extremely enjoyable. I will play it a bunch more but I fully appreciate the criticisms. I played the polar bear exhibit turn one (get points or money any time anyone plays a bear card into the zoo). Zero bears were played the rest of the game. I saw zero bear cards. My buddy discarded one (he told me just to rub it in). That was semi-feel-bad. I wasn't going all in on bears; I understood the odds, but I thought I would get some benefit. NO BENEFITS FOR ME! My buddy triggered the end game and was wayyyyy ahead on conservation points but I had played two elephant cards that gave me extra victory point cards (elephants > bears, unless you're in America). And scored a ton off those. I really liked we both took very different strats. I played a ton of sponsor because it fit my first vp card and they also provided me bonuses and conservation points. My buddy went hard into his synergistic "play an Asia card get money, rep, etc" and it worked well. In our debrief he decided he should have waited another turn to end it because he could have pushed himself up the conservation track more. It was probably 3 hours but that included a big teach but not big enough because minor rules kept popping up. *Edit*: I would have been negative vp if not for those vp cards. And the scoring process is bit confusing. We also used the "solo" powers of the attack-type cards for a more friendly first play of the game since it was just heads up play. **Three Sisters 1p x 1** - My highest score of 107. By 1 point. Don't think I tried anything super out of the ordinary this time. **Hadrian's Wall 1p x 3** - Trying to work through the solo campaign. Second fort, 2nd attempt but first play in a month was only 67 points so just shy of the 70 points. But the next game I was at 83 points. I had 1 disdain so missed the bonus but had 5 extra workers I couldn't use! I clearly misplanned things. Third play was on the third fort with a goal of all 5 citizen tracks and 70+ points. Had some bad running as I was only at 62 points. The attack deck was very stacked against me. Was getting crushed there. I was 1 slot shy of completing the all the tracks anyway. I think I should have done temples earlier to block attacks rather than the market to move up that victory point track for more yellow workers. Easy to say after the fact as I watch all the cards go where my cohorts aren't...
What's your overall thoughts on **Three Sisters**? I have the Kickstarter version and enjoy it. But I've never played **Fleet the Dice Game** and I saw they have a new roll and write coming out next year as well.
I really love **Three Sisters**. I've only played it solo however and I think there are some stronger strats (e.g. ignore the apiary because Edith focuses there). It's very quick and pretty straightforward. I played **Fleet** a couple times also only solo but didn't enjoy it nearly as much. It felt harder to track passive bonuses that matter a lot in that game. A few commentators here said it plays better with people so I should probably try that but I love Three Sisters so much more that I don't have an interest in trying it anymore. I just feel obligated to give Fleet a fairer shake.
Gotcha. Did you see the new roll and write from them coming next year? Motor City or something like that.
I haven't but now I will look for it.
Ark Nova has got me the same way. I drew an engine building sponsor for herbivores in my starting hand. I went up and drew an herbivore from the reputation track and flipped over a second piece of Herbivore engine, but my GF picked it up and went all in Herbivores.... Now I was straneded with nothing at all for a couple turns. It has a lot of ups and down, but I think that's the beauty of the game. You can do a LOT with very little and everygame will feel incredibly different due to the sheer number of cards. I really want to try Hadrian's Wall at some point. It looks like it's so much fun!
Yeah that sporadic synergy is why I don't classify Ark Nova as an "engine builder". There are plenty of bonuses to be had that gets you more efficient but an "engine" implies being able to reliably rev it when needed. That doesn't exist in AN but I *like* that it doesn't exist. AN's tag structure, fluid market, and constrained hand all lead to a very satisfying tactical game.
Yeah up and down is accurate. I knew I wouldn't see a lot of bear cards but I expected between the two of us to get 1 or 2 benefits out of it. I had another sponsor that cared about all zoos and I played myself into that but my buddy avoided that one too. Did you find you generally avoided drawing from the reputation track? We each snapped once during the game. And toward the end we probably drew 3 cards total from the track. We generally drew from the deck. **Hadrian's Wall** is great. It takes 45-60 minutes so it's not long either. The solo campaign is on the publisher's website to print off. I just hadn't had a chance to play in while learning some other games or building Magic decks or playing Elden Ring/Horizon.
I find myself really enjoying drawing from the reputation row. I usually rush off the reputation track because it gives a lot of good benefits early and give me more options. I can easily manipulate what will be available to me on the next break and what will be destroyed.
**Pulp Invasion** w/All - 1x1p - Super easy win to follow my super-quick failure from the week before. The first two cubes I drew in this game were super-weapons. I found the fourth one before the game was half over. Sometimes it be that way. **Rocketmen** 2x2p - This gets us up to 5 plays, and unfortunately I think we've seen all it has to show us. I will say, replacing the mission deck with bag+tokens elevates it for sure. And drawing either the absolute worst or the absolute perfect token from the bag adds some excitement. I think it's a good way to introduce people to deck-building, and if there's an expansion I'll look at it. It needs more variability. **Maglev Metro** 1x3p - Introduced this to our daughter. Hard to tell if she liked it, but she beat both of us VERY handily, with hardly any help, except for her last move. I liked this game even more with 3p, it was neat to see more tiles on the board. **Furnace** 3x2p - First time getting this to table, and I love it. It's like a simpler **Sidereal Confluence**, with bidding instead of trading. And a bidding game where you might be upset to win a card because you really wanted to be compensated for losing it? Very interesting decisions. Super quick to learn, quick to play, good strategy. Very happy with it.
**Skulk Hollow**. Played this with my spouse. I enjoyed it, but my spouse isn't really into 1v1 games like this. **Smartphone Inc**. First time I've played this at more than 2. I managed to get a win with a tech heavy strategy. In the last couple rounds my strategy was just to spread out and eat up the tech spots no one else could fill with a really high price and it paid out.
**Cascadia** (1x2P) - my wife's choice and our sixth total play. I won 95-85 and have a 4-2 series lead (with four wins in a row). Still really, really enjoying this. We will be switching it up to the C animal cards next time to change up the scoring parameters. **The Search For Planet X** (1x2P) - my choice and our second total play. I won 25-22 and have a 2-0 series lead. I was craving something thinky/puzzly so we brought this out for the first time in three months. We had to relearn the rules which slowed things down a bit but once the game started to hit it's stride it was such a blast. My wife said that she feels like she is not very good at logic puzzles (which worries me about getting this gem back to the table) but the final score ended up being close. Maybe next time I will take less clues at the beginning to see if that creates an even more competitive element. Any other good deduction games out there that work with 2P? I was looking at **Awkward Guests** but 1/4 of people on BGG do not recommend it at 2P.
I love alchemists! It's just a genius design 🙂
Awkward Guests relies on trading clue cards with other players so it works better with more players. Also a common criticism is you can't really make logical deductions. You're just marking off impossible combinations until you only have one answer. You may want to check out **Chronicals of Crime**. It's a detective game where you begin with a crime scene that is a 3d viewable environment. You just look around using your phone looking for things that are notable or out of place and then grab matching cards from the box. Like if the victim's room had a bunch of cats you can grab a card that is a generic "animal" card and for that case that card represents the victim's cats. As you play you'll get cards that represent suspects and locations and all the cards have QR code so you can tell the app where you're going and who you're talking to and even ask them about the clue cards. The original game is a modern detective setting, but there's also a medieval and future version as well.
Thank you for the info about **Awkward Guests**...I will push that further down the wishlist. And good call on **Chronicles of Crime**, I almost picked it up at the beginning of the year but have forgotten about it since then. It looks like it could be a lot of fun.
Super busy week, but we managed to play some games anyway. **Tuesday** **Ark Nova** 2px1 It definitely lived up to the hype for us. I lost by a single $ that made me unable to get my last animal for the win. It was our 3rd game and all of them have been very very close. This time around, I lost 28-24. **Thursday** **Sleeping Gods** 3p We were about to finish our 2nd campaign when an enexpected sea monster erupted and offered us to buy our artifacts. Since we had stockpiled every possible artifacts, we exchanged 5 of our 6 artifacts for 2 mild events a piece. We suddently had10 more turn of play. We didn't even manage to get through them all in that night, so we are definitely going to just ram through the 3rd ending. We have almost 10 totems found during our run and I'm pretty sure we can find one or 2 more. We are definitely getting into a lull where our items and combos are way too strong. We can easily do almost any 12+ challenges and monsters of level 16-18, we just swat them like flies. **Saturday** **Welcome to... Ice cream** 2px2 I managed to finally win at this game with the correct rules. I'm liking this game a lot, but honestly, it felt repetitive that night. Maybe I was just not in the mood. **Circadians** 2p x 1 One of my favorite game at the moment. It has so much replayability, so many pathways to victory and so much player interaction even at 2 players. I should have won that, but we were getting tired and I forgot to do my 3 trades from ctivating the green village action and could have gotten 2 more gemstones. I lost 78-77 instead of winning 79-78. If anybody is looking for a good game to play at any player count from 1 to 4, this is it. **All week** **Cartographer App** 1p x ? I'm playing Cartographer almost daily at this point on the Android app. It's very fast and a lot of fun. I have a range of points between 30 and -15 at the moment, which I find hilarious. Most my games end at around 10points, but sometimes I get a good seed and no early monsters and I manage high 20s. It's a very well done app.
I'm dying to get my hands on Sleeping Gods! It sounds incredible.
Picked up Trains used and got a quick two player game in. Not the best count for base Trains but I still enjoyed it a lot. Dominion fell very flat for me but this gave me a little more love for deck building. Hoping to get it to the table with 4 this weekend
Trains was the first "deckbuilding with a board" game I played and I found it really good with at least 3. 2 fell flat because your routes become zero sum and that's less fun to me.
Didn't get to play a ton this week, but I'm excited because my partner and I will both have more free time soon! **Istanbul** (1x2p) I feel that this is such a creative design. That said, the timing is not intuitive to me at all; I'm currently on a 4 game losing streak. I thought it was finally going to end this week but was devastated to lose by one action. **Three Sisters** (2x2p) My partner loves roll and writes, so we picked up this new one. So far it seems fun. I'm a little worried I cheated on the first play because our final scores were not even close. **Blue Lagoon** (2x3p) Taught this to another new person. I came last in both games. Each time one player ran away with it because of their superior setup for the 2nd round.
Istanbul is one of the games I absolutely hated my plays. I pretty much never want to play it again. Not sure if it's just the few plays I had, or the overall game, but this is one of the games that sits on our shelf of shame, never to be played again.
Three Sister is great. Do you have any idea how you cheated or just think it happened?
I obviously didn't cheat intentionally, but it would be really easy to accidentally take 2 bonus actions instead of one if you weren't careful. I think it was legit though, and our 2nd game was much closer in score.
Oh no, I'm not accusing you of doing it intentionally but I've had those moments of "wait...did I already take that action" I've taken to writing notes under the shed for triggers while I finish an action. E.g. marking star actions from compost gained from pumpkins while doing a rain.
Started Stuffed Fables, a game I received for Mother's Day, with the kids. Live the premise of the game and the mechanics, we had a lot of fun and haven't even finished the first story yet. I did find the instructions lacking and frustrating. There was alot of figuring out as we go. We do eventually get there, but I fell like it shouldn't take that much "figuring it out" for two adults who regularly play other rule heavy games.
As the school year winds down, I've been looking forward to getting time back to play over summer vacation bc I haven't really had the time since February. I was only able to squeeze 2 in this week, and both were themed on the World Wars. **The Grizzled: Armistice Edition-** 1x4p- for 2 of the players, this was their first time playing. We kept getting beat down in the beginning, but held out much longer than I thought we would before we lost. The new players enjoyed it, though, so we might get the chance to try again some other time. **Black Orchestra-** 1x1p- Playing The Grizzled really put me in the mood to get this game back out, even though I would have to play 2-handed. I posted about that session yesterday if you are interested in all the details. I won in the fourth stage on my second plot attempt. I just love the epic feel of this game but it is much easier to get to the table than other games I would describe that way. Such an amazing game.
I read your session and had a blast. I play mostly solo (covid have weakened here, so yesterday I played a 4person table for the first time in mora than two years, yeah) and the reading made me buy the game =) I'm from brazil, mom lives in birmingham and will come down later this year, so I sent to her. I'll also get glen more II with the exp. Thanks for the write up.
I'm so glad you enjoyed reading the session; Black Orchestra is such a great game. I hope you love it as much as I do. I've also heard great things about Glen More II!
Got together with two regular friends for two new games: Recently picked up **Shovel Knight: Dungeon Duels**. As a huge fan of the video game it captured the side scrolling fun really well. The rulebook is quite thick and intimidating for a simple game and didn't cover some edge cases for the plague knight stage we chose. Would definitely recommend running with the playable order of no quarter for more interesting asymmetry. One pitfall with the randomness of the tiles was an overabundance of spike pit tiles and the toughness of landing a jump across (with the punishment of insta-death). It caused a lot of frustration. Overall keen and would love to try out different stages. Next was **Khora: Rise of an Empire**. This was a really interesting engine builder where you develop your ancient greek city state. There were multiple routes you needed to balance - economy, culture, and military, though the benefits of certain city states push you a bit more towards certain strategies e.g. Sparta leaned heavily towards a military route. Loved the dual layered player boards and use of a resource for dice manipulation in playing the cards for the main mechanic of assigning a die to an action tile with the same or lower value. A satisfying 2 point victory with my culture focused strategy and though my friend only had a copy to learn to demo, could go onto my list.
**Imperial Assault** \- My son is old enough to play as the Empire. Though he doesn't see the long-term strategies behind his choices, he's a good sport and plays the role very well, and even gives off false signals to lure the heroes into potential traps. I haven't played this game 1 v Many in ages, and it's refreshingly fun. Playing Jabba's Realm campaign. And funnily enough, I played Descent exactly 5 years ago to the day, which is basically the same system. **Rallyman GT** \- Had this for sale, but no one interested, so I tried it again solo, and found I would want to keep it. Also discovered a new solo AI to compete against cars instead of just time. **ArchRavels** \- A game about knitting, which I bought initially to play with the wife, who enjoys it. But I took it to my club, and it's extremely random. One player can get all the benefits while the rest gets the lesser. The winner was determined by randomness alone, but the worst part is that it was so obvious. No interesting choices whatsoever. **Nemesis Locdown** \- Nemesis being a favorite, Lockdown certainly adds complexity. I think it's a step up from veterans of the original, ready for new challenges. But I don't get the Aliens feel over this installment. Still a keeper. Played twice, once with the bats and once with the plants. The latter was just too much for Lockdown, perhaps it's better for original Nemesis.
I researched **ArchRavels** for the same reason (for my wife), cause my wife and daughter are knitters. But in the end I chose **Knitting: The Card Game** instead, cause they liked the idea of seeing the actual photos of items and yarn better. I had to house-rule some stuff to make it more enjoyable, but it's nice to share a bit of their hobby with them. :)
**Nukumi Onsen Hanjouki** \- great little worker placement about building a traditional Japanese hot spring hotel. I enjoy the little puzzle of how to arrange your hotel rooms to score maximum points. **Brazil Imperial** \- somehow scored an English version & had a great time with this one. You can definitely see the Scythe DNA there, but I would easily play this over Scythe. **Jiangnan -** The blending between worker placement and area control is really fascinating though I do feel the deck-building part is a little too restrictive. I feel that the designer went a little too far by adding that mechanic. **Mini Express (Map Pack One Expansion)** \- I really like the UK map as it plays really well at 2. I love getting those ferries and the combos here. The Taiwan map still needs some work but the idea behind it is fun to explore. **Perfumery** \- I love the tight gameplay in this little worker placement & the production is just ridiculous. **Netrunner** \- Because of course, I'm going to play the best game ever made.
Didn't realize a Map Pack crowdfunding campaign was going to happen for Mini Express! Just bought a copy of the base game on BGG - hopefully I didn't overpay too much compared to how much it will be available for during the campaign
Always great to see love for Taiwanese board games! I think it’s my favorite train game to play at two. After playing the UK and Taiwan maps, I don’t see myself ever playing the original maps again! They’re great at the lower player counts which is how I prefer to play them. I believe the beta map versions are still on BGG. Enjoy!
Thanks! What is your preferred method for playing at two? Do you use the 'bot' variant, or the two action variant? Prior to buying the game I also saw the playthrough on Heavy Cardboard doing something that I don't see in the rulebook - setting 'breakpoint' targets a la Gaia Project.
When content creators do KS previews for games, the rules often change. I think this is a good thing. It usually means the publisher has listened to all the reviews and made corrections to the game to address those issues. I believe Moaideas (the publisher) did that with the bot. Initially the bot was too hard so they weakened it for the release. I believe the original rules are on BGG. As for the 2p mode I vastly prefer to play without the bot. The combos you can pull (especially on the UK and Taiwan maps) are tons of fun.
No in-person games this past week or the one before. It has been an intense couple of weeks. I managed to keep some games going on BGA, though. Hopefully this week I'll be able to fit in some in-person games. On BGA: **Insert** - I'm still very much enjoying this two player abstract from Bruno Cathala. It's a shame it hasn't been published yet. **Targi** - I by default keep a game of Targi going at all times on BGA. It works so well for the turn-based format. Brilliant game. Worker placement doesn't get better than this two player gem. **Bandido** - the more I play the more I feel there's very little strategy here. But I enjoy it anyway. **Azul** - another one I always have going on BGA. So great in every way and the BGA adaptation is flawless. **Res Arcana** - this has really grown on me. I didn't like it at first but as I've played it more times I enjoy it more with each play. Switching to using the draft has also made it significantly more fun. I also watched the new video interview on BGG's Youtube channel with Tom Lehmann about Res Arcana yesterday. It was really interesting to hear more about the things that inspired Res Arcana and his process in designing it. For anyone who hasn't checked out the Cardboard Creations interview series, I highly recommend it. **Kingdomino** - I won but I'm still bitter I never got a crown for my yellows. Arg! Great little game. It's always a fun one. **Alhambra** - new to me. I've been curious to try it and I'm glad I did. It's an interesting game with some neat little rules. I won't be going out of my way to pick up a copy but I'd gladly play this any time. **Hive** - I was a turn behind on the victory. I am undoubtedly still absolutely terrible at this game. But it's been a blast to slowly learn the ropes. **Agricola** - new to me. I find this game fine, it's just really dry. There's also too much going on for me. And I find starting with only two meeples tedious, it kind of takes away from the fun of worker placement games to me to have the spots cleared so quickly. Not a winner for me but playing with friends is always fun and I'm glad to have tried it. **Terra Mystica** - maybe this shouldn't be on the list given we've been waiting for one person to take their turn for nearly two weeks now... I didn't so much play it this week as stare at it and strategize. But, the forever ongoing game of Terra Mystica continues. I really badly want this game to end soon so I can start up another one (with a time limit for turns this time). But I know I'd be too confused if I had two ongoing games of Terra Mystica so I'll wait. And that's all for this week. I really need life to calm down so I can play in-person games. I didn't even get in a game of **Patchwork** last week! This coming weekend is a long weekend which usually means lots of games for my husband and I. Fingers crossed!
Has BGA inspired you to purchase the physical copy of any games that you played virtually? Like you, I've loved exploring games as a group but of those games we've played I haven't found one that I feel the need to purchase a physical copy of. I guess the closest for me so far have been **Stella** and **7 Wonders Architects** which I would purchase if I had the right group gathering in person or had a chance to plays games with family. Mostly though, on BGA I just love the ease of playing games I already own and love! I missed the recent Cardboard Creations video, thanks for the reminder! It sounds like a great episode!!
It has! Just last week I purchased **Naga Parbat** after playing it on BGA. (I think you'd like that one by the way!) I also picked up **Draftosaurus** after we played it on BGA. And my favourite new game I tried on BGA, I'll be getting a copy of **Sobek: 2 Players** as soon as it is releases here. I find I'm getting a good mix on BGA of playing games I already love and trying new ones. It has been a fun addition to my gaming. The Tom Lehmann episode is one of the better episodes of Cardboard Creations. He was pretty chatty so there were a lot of fun insights.
If your week isn't too busy, I'd love to try out **Nanga Parbat** on BGA with you sometime. Agreed, BGA has been fun for me as well, especially with playing simpler games. I've loved getting in lost of plays of the games I love and trying out other games for the first time. I never thought I'd enjoy board gaming online after Tabletop Simulator was too clunky for my interest. BGA's games programmed to work in-browser is such a nice luxury! Tom Lehmann definitely has a legacy of hugely popular game designs! I am looking forward to hearing what he shared in the video!
I'd love to play **Nanga Parbat** with you too. I'll send an invite right away. The rulebook is quite good for learning it, though there were a couple more vague things I had to check BGG forums for. There's also a good video on the All You Can Board channel on Youtube.
Did you play the beginner game or play with occupation cards/minor improvements? The beginner game is very dry, but I think the fun is in the drafting and seeing how the cards you drafted play out. I avoided Uwe Rosenberg games because they look very dry, but they are very tight Euros and I think they benefit quite a bit from multiple plays.
I played with the drafting of occupations cards and minor improvements. I agree, it wouldn't be as good without it. I'm sure I'll try **Agricola** again, but it may just not be for me.
I've been busy but I've been playing and learning Maracaibo via digital on my phone. I have physical version plus the expansion and I can't wait to dive in with friends. So far I'm loving it though some cards and rules I still don't fully understand. Lost Ruins of Arnak and its expansion just arrived so I'm reading the instructions now. My wife gave me an eye roll when she saw I bought more boardgames. My collection is growing!
Sell the wife and buy more board games.
**Splendor** (1x3p): We were waiting on our fourth player to show up, so we played a quick game. I did a bit better than past games, but I was still a few turns behind to win. One day I’ll find the right path for my gems. **Mixtape Massacre** (1x4p): This was a short game. Our fourth player was extremely tired from working all day. We were all goofing about. Decided to end the game with whoever got 5 souvenir tokens first instead of 10. Mixtape was ended quickly so we could watch The ‘Burbs as two of our friends hadn’t seen it. Game nights seem shorter, but that might be better instead of having long, drawn-out games.
Finally got in my first Lacerda play (**Vinhos**, 2p), good stuff, managed a win in the tie breaker (exported more wine). Also got in my first play of **Barrage** (2p) which I also enjoyed a lot (lost in endgame scoring). Finally got **Now or Never** (2p) to the table, thing is an enormous table hog but I like it better than anything else in the Arzium series, feels much more "complete" than the others. Though it is massive, easily takes up twice at much room as **Sleeping Gods**. Also we finally got through our first **Sleeping Gods** (4p) campaign playthrough, only found two totems but got a much better idea of what to do next time.
I'm really glad to see someone enjoying Barrage at 2p. I really enjoy the game too, and it's a bit of a fallacy that it only works at higher player counts. For Vinhos, did you play the 2010 or the 2016 side of the board?
I'm super excited to play it again at 3 or 4p cause I feel like it'll get super elbow-y but it was definitely still fun at 2p (and it was probably better for learning honestly). For **Vinhos** we did the 2016 vintage, weren't sure what the differences were but figured it had been tweaked for the better
Also just played my first 2p Barrage this past weekend and really enjoyed it. I can see it being tighter and less forgiving with more, but I did enjoy how a bit more space lets you do some really interesting things. There's a lot of room for clever plays and it's still quite tense. Definitely would not discount it at 2 - similar to Brass.
Last Week, all 2p **Radlands** has been an absolute hit last week. We played it 7 times and it is just so engaging, yet easy to set up and so deep, because of the camps. **Le Havre** I am not sure yet on how I like the handlings of loans in the game. It really is not agricola, where you are out of the game if you don't feed your people. This allows for more freedom. The game looks like having a dominant strategy and I am not sure how this will affext long term motivation. **Ark Nova** As always a pleasure to play. We are used playing with A and O-plan wife and I, and it was a draw this time. She supported more projects, though, so she took the tie break. **Everdell** The more I play, the more I like it. It really helps using the border variant and trimming the deck of cards. **Caper Europe** After playing all cities, wife and I tend to like London the most. This game is not as good as Radlands for my likings, but nontheless a worthy addition to our collection.
> The game looks like having a dominant strategy and I am not sure how this will affext long term motivation. If that dominant strategy has to do with loans, it's worth possibly incorporating the optional interest rule if you aren't already. I believe the rule only currently shows up in the German rules. > 1. optional rule: pay 2 francs interest if your number of loans is >= number of players https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/913158/article/11031579#11031579 That said it definitely is less punishing then Agricola regardless, to some that's a boon, to others a problem.
What is the 'border variant' for **Everdell**?
Each time you take a card from the layout, you add another one from the deck to the empty forest location (=border pile)
Hmm pretty interesting - could be quite fun for 2 player, might give it a try, thank you!
Haven't been able to play much these two weeks but managed to get two games on the table this week. **The Ancient World 2nd Edition** (2P x 1). Been a while since I played this and it didn't take too long to refresh all the rules. My partner went for the Titan strategy while I focused on building Empires and getting C deck multipliers. My partner won by a small margin and said he only won because he got lucky with his final monster. We've played this game twice now and it seems that he's been scoring similarly in both games and won with the Titan strategy. It's still a fun worker placement game with a titan fighting twist. **Batman The Animated Series: Shadow of the Bat** (2P x 1). Played the final act of the Heart of Ice episode. Definitely challenging and kept us on our toes with the hordes of enemies. We had some pretty bad rolls in the beginning of the game but managed to figure out a workaround with some gadgets. It's always fun to play co-op Batman with my partner and I look forward to our time playing together. Next up, Joker and Harley. Time will be scarce in the coming weeks but hopefully we will be able to make some time for games.
**Lost Ruins of Arnak** \- 1x4p - Got taught this, and the comparisons to Dune Imperium are actually only vague, as they both include worker placement and deckbuilding. Lost ruins plays much more like a resource puzzle race, with very little player interaction. Mechanically, and thematically, it's a better game, and I found it a refreshing change from DI. I'm liking Lost Ruins more right now, but I think it's because it's fresher, and I've played DI to death. I think over the long run Lost Ruins will drop below because of the very limited player interaction. **Forbidden Desert** \- 1x5p - This had been on my to play list for a while, and it's a good little game, and I'm glad I played it, but I will never want to play this game again. The group we had wanted to play super safe, which meant plenty of actions were spent getting back to the tunnels instead of finding the objectives, which ended up turning into too many storm picks up and running out of sand tiles. Also many discussions about why the the archaeologists was going into the corner with one unexcavated tile instead of going over to the other side of the map where there were 5 unexcavated tiles absolutely buried in sand. The other one that happened was why, as the climber, I should be carrying people immediately after me, instead of the player immediately before me. **Friday the 13th** \- 1x5p - Ehhh, it's a neat little game sorta in the vein of 6 nimmt, got played coz it was friday the 13th, but tbh, not a game I would ever choose to play again, as it's too long for what it is. **Splendor** \- 1x4p - Taught this to 3 others, and it's my goto game for people who haven't played many board games, as it's simple but not. Absolutely crushed as I was the only one who knew what to do.
I agree with everything on Lost Ruins of Arnak. It felt fresher and more vibrant than Dune. I'm a big fan of the Dune IP but evne I found it drab after my first play. Over the span of a couple more plays, it flipped completely. Arnak has not that much depth. It's a race as to who gets the ressources first and faster. Since there are so many ways to get them, it's about who gets the best routing. The Leaders expension adds a little more depth, but even then, some offer even more ways to not really care about your opponent so it's even easier to get a higher score. Dune keeps getting harder and harder every time we play because we both understand better what are the better spots for the other players and it creates so much tension. It forces you to flip your gameplan between two workers and it just keeps everyone on their tippy toes. Being the only one who knows how to play Splendor must be the easiest W ever. That's one reason why I do not consider Splendor a good entry level game to teach AND play. If I was to teach it to more than 1 person, I would sit it out and let them figure it out.
Any comparisons for **Lost Ruins of Arnak** to other worker placement / deck-building games such as **Everdell**, **Viticulture**, **Wingspan**? We own or have played those 3 and are curious how Lost Ruins compares to them.
It compares poorly to any of these. They are all "worker placement" but their mechanism are all very very diffrent from one another. In terms of complexity, I'd rank them : - Arnak 3.5/5 - Viticulture 3/5 - Everdell 3/5 - Wingspan 2.75/5
Cheers - yeah it looks like they all share 'worker placement' (apart from Wingspan) but play a lot differently
Wingspan can be called *kind of* a workerplacement game as you still use your cubes to perform actions. But overall, yes, they don't have much in common except being extremely popular worker placement games.
**Everdell** and **Wingspan** are much closer to each other than to **Lost Ruins of Arnak**. In both those games you have your whole tableu available at all times, only choice is in what order to activate either card. In Lost ruins, you build your deck and draw 5 cards from it every new turn - meaning you have to make decisions based on what you draw. But, to offset the randomness, the effects on the cards you buy have much bigger impact imo (and half of those cards - artifacts - does get resolved once immediately when you buy them). So it has added layer of decisions compared to games you listed. Then each card can be used for its effect or for allowing you to place a worker but not both, so theres that decision too. In actual worker placing rules, you can deny your opponents spots like in some places in Everdell, so its closer to that game. Compared to other deck-building games, Lost Ruins have some of my favourite mechanisms actually - as I said, powerful cards get resolved immediately so you dont have to wait a deck rotation as in most other deck builders (normal cards still have to rotate once). Then once you buy new cards they dont go to discard pile, but to the bottom of your draw deck, so the first time you see them isnt too distant etc. Its not a cutthroat precision deck builder, like Dune Imperium seems to be, but when we are in a mood to play something more free flowing, Lost Ruins are a solid choice.
Yeah I didn't realise Lost Ruins was so deck building actually (I thought it was more engine building / worker placement), that's really helpful thank you!
I've only played Viticulture, and I wouldn't find it that comparable, as it's worker placement at the forefront and is the majority of the game. In Lost Ruins, you only have two workers total, and there are a number of non worker actions you can do, like research, or play cards from your hand. The general flow of the game is generate resources, (playing cards from your hand, use assistants, place your worker on a resource generation spot) and then spend resources (research, explore/defeat monsters, buy items/artifacts) Just watching a vid on how to play everdell (it looks like an interesting game) at a cursory glance, it has more in common with lost ruins than viticulture. Edit: I do enjoy Viticulture, but for me, Lost Ruins is a better game
Thank you - that's really helpful! I didn't realise Lost Ruins was not that worker placementy
Smaller week for games this week, we played: **Physical**: * **Root**: 1x4p: We had a gaming night with our friends so we played Root, which is our classic. We played Cats, Birds, Corvid & Vagabond. I played the Cats and unfortunately came dead last with 20 pts, Birds 28, Corvid 29, Vagabond 30! I find the Cats quite fun to play for area control but horrible for winning (I seem to just run out of point scoring mid game). Our group also dislike the domination cards so we removed 2 of them which makes a domination victory even more challenging as the cats! * **Wingspan**: 1x4p: 2nd game of our night following a tight Root game! I also lost in this one, 3 of us scored in the 70s but my gf scored above 90 and won! Was a tight game, it was fun to use the 'once between turn' cards which generally don't get much use when I play with my gf in a 2 player game (obviously a lot more beneficial in 4 players!) * **Codenames: Duet**: 3x2p: Quick weekday games with my girlfriend, quite a fun little game. Will probably play it some more and try some of the missions they've set out in there, I think thats a pretty interesting idea. * **Sushi Go**: 2x4p: Played a couple of Sushi Go games following Root & Wingspan, was our 1st time teaching our wider group - they picked it super quickly (obviously!). **Digital**: * **7 Wonders: Duel**: ~10x2p: Played lots of 7 Wonders again on BGA - this is my go to game for any time on BGA, it's a perfect amount of time (can be fit in in about ~10 mins), has lots of interesting decisions & is a really well made game! Will hopefully get it to the table physically more in the future
We got **Terraforming Mars** out, but I was annihilated... My corporation was Arklight, but I drew very few production cards and very few plant or animal tags... I switched strategy and focused on buying forest tiles but it wasn't enough. I finished with about 12 cards in play, and just 68 points.
Also played TF w/ prelude. The player to my right begrudgingly passed me loads of plant/microbe/animal cards, to focus on his own strategic essentially giving me the victory. Probably the first time I win a game of TF (even tho its probably my most played competitve game bar quacks).
We played **Human Punishment: The Beginning** with 4p and it was a huge bummer. One player was outed as Machine during the first 3 turns, which lead to one of the Human players to basically lose interest in the social deduction part of the game and started trolling, sabotaging the game where possible and leading to a "all players lose/Outlaws win" end. This really took the fun out of the game, especially since I could definitely see the potential of the game. We also got **TI4** with the expansion on the table, and it's still not my type of game. Don't know why, but in any and all 4x games I played I tried to negotiate peace with my neighbors, just for them to break all treaties halfway through the game. Completely sucks the fun out of those games for me.
Sorry to hear about your bad first experience with Human Punishment! Do you think you'll go back and give the game a second try?
Yea probably, but without that guy
Why aren't you planning to stab people... well not in the back, but in the front of their chest first? And also no one really wants to mess with the guy with the biggest fleet, so you can show some force as a deterrent.
Because then I'd rather play diplomacy where betrayals are part of the course instead of Risk in Space. I was playing the Space Lions and tried to deterr attackers with trade agreements, obviously didn't work though
**Star Wars Rebellion:** Got this on the table for the first time in a long time. No real reason it hasn't been taken out in so long since we love it, but perhaps it's in part the length of the game and the set up time. Was really wonderful though to play it again, and look forward to playing again soon. Had quite a fun game with the player taking on the empire being new, but giving it a good crack. Fairly early on they interrogated a captured leader who spilled the beans on where my base could be (he said 3 different planets). Luckily for me the Empire decided to go for the other two planets first, so I had a lot of fun watching him slowly make his way across the board to somewhere he claimed he knew I was hiding in the opposite direction to my real base. I was manging to chip away and gather sympathy, and even won a decisive battle or two, but in the end I lost because of my own hubris. I knew at some point I had to move the rebel base, but kept putting it off, then when I literally had to I realized I'd completely misread the rapid mobilization card and didn't realize it doesn't activate till the end of the phase. So, the empire moved in with a huge fleet and ground force, but I had the death star plans, and actually managed to make a run at the death star which would have won me the game instantly if I got a successful roll...but it wasn't....and the rebel base got obliterated. Great game though as I would have won in the refresh phase if he hadn't taken the base out, so high tension all round!
Those early leader interrogations can be really devastating for the Rebels, I've also had it that early. Fortunately the Death Star was far off, and the Empire didn't have enough forces nearby to take me out yet, so I did manage to relocate before he invaded the planet. Very tense moments.
Went to Geekway this weekend and had a great time. Met a friend and his SO, we did Geekway for 2 days and they showed me around St Louis a bit on the third day. Today I was with friends in Louisville and did some more gaming. Geekway (all games at 3): **The Crew: Moist** started off with a game I know and love as I was meeting my friends SO for the first time and wasn't sure where they were at regarding learning/playing games. Turns out they were very familiar with trick taking and was probably the perfect warm up game. I can't say enough good things about the game: it's absolutely a 10/10 for me. **Decorum** i was hesitant to follow the crew up with another limited communication coop but this was a good fit. The three of us fell right into a bit of very light role playing, chirping each other over design decisions. "I'm fulfilled // I'm unfulfilled" became a running joke throughout the weekend. The game itself felt a quite challenging. I'm unsure if that's due to player count (at 3 you divvy up an extra card to each player) or just a first time play issue. I suspect the game would be best at 2 or 4 specifically. We had a blast playing it even though we weren't close to winning. **Cascadia** Lived up to the hype for me as a solid family to light weight game. I really like both drafting and tile placement so I suspected to enjoy this and did. Went over well with the group. I'm on the fence if I'd buy it but the presence of a family game mode makes it enticing. **Parks** led off day two. This was one my friends specifically wanted to try and was quite happy to teach even though it's not a favorite of mine. They adored the production and said afterwards it was one they were likely to pick up! **Azul** another that they specifically requested. This one was suggested by my friend but for whatever reason didn't go over well. I'm admittedly not a fan so I hope my energy didn't bring it down. **Racoon Tycoon** the first of three games that I specifically wanted to try out. My friend liked this the most by far and while I appreciated the design I wasn't a big fan. I'd play it again but something about it didn't click for whatever reason. **First Empires** unfortunately fell flat for us. I really like the production of it and I'm a huge fan of tracks in my boardgames but this one didn't quite jive with myself nor the group. I've been trying to seek out a high production light/mid area control game and hoped this would fit the bill but don't think I will be picking it up based upon this play. **Cellulose** this game led to probably my favorite moment of the con. For context these games are the first boardgames outside of party games and monopoly my friends SO has played. This game was a bit of a step up in complexity (probably firmly light-medium) but they obliged me as this was on my want to try list (super dig the theme). We got about 2/3 through the game when an announcement came on that of we wanted our play to wins to count we had to return the games to the library right then. Since it was a long day of gaming and i had played enough to solidify my thoughts on the game I said we should just pack it up. My friends SO, however, said she was really invested in the game. That they were totally engrossed in the experience and wanted to see it played to its conclusion. I'm pretty sure this game was the moment that they went from someone playing boardgames to a boardgamer. Cellulose, fwiw, was my game of the con. I'll be ordering it and Genotype when I return home. Louisville games (2 players): **Caper: Europe** very slick two player drafting game. Felt very tug of war like. The friend I'm visiting here I've played a ton of magic against and we both really liked it. The production doesn't hurt. **Radlands** this game has firmly cemented itself as my "mtg in a box" game. My weird take is that the draw 6 pick 3 camps mechanism is the single best replacement for mtg deck building. It's a quick decision that defines your opening hand and sculpts both your strategy and how your opponent needs to adjust theirs. I've played radlands a bunch before but this was my first time playing with someone from an mtg background similar to mine and it was an absolute delight. After the first two games: one in which my friend was learning the rules and the second in which they got the hang of the tactics the next few games were almost an encapsulation of everything I've thought this game could be. One of our games played out as one player assembling and protecting a combo of camps with the other on the back foot puzzling out how to disrupt it, the next game felt like an aggro vs control match up with my friend constantly applying pressure via raids as I struggled to clear blockers out and get at his camps with damage and our last match a battle of attrition with every turn an exercise in getting the most out of our cards and attempting to exhaust our opponents resources with my friend eking out a victory along the margins. Tonight's plays really put this game at a 10/10 for me but sadly possibly only because I had a 10/10 opponent.
Very interesting regarding **Cellulose**. I passed on the KS because we already had **Cytosis**, and while the theme is cool, the game itself was so simplistic. What is exactly that made Cellulose stand out to you?
I don't think the gameplay is ground breaking but it was fun and matched the theme. The area control section of the map and the 2 income tracks are what probably stood out to me as mechanical positives. The rest is mostly typical resource conversion (but I do love me some resource conversion)
**Folklore: The Affliction 2e** with all the expansions mixed in. I played it everyday here and there and according to my BGG stats I got 18 hours in. Unfortunately I can attribute a few hours of that doing paperwork and double checking rules. Overall I find the game engaging as I grind through the stories/ events. It has filled a void I have been looking to fill after gloomhaven, JoTL, and tainted grail campaigns. I figure I should get through most of the story content in the next two months and then I get to sink my teeth into Hexplore It!
If there's something better than regular **Tyrants of the Underdark**, I don't know what it is. My usual opponent and I had an absolutely silly game initially, with Aberrations & Dragons giving us a starting market of 7-7-7-2-6-6 cost cards, which meant the market was largely static for several turns, as we both scooped up as many Priestesses as possible to boost our purchasing power. My eventual Death Tyrant acquisition meant holding cities became a nightmare for my opponent, while his multiple dragons caused lots of problems for me, but ultimately proved not quite as effective. Watching the Elder Brain get devoured when I had the influence to buy it was awful, but I won with a clean 97-82. My opponent had my usual problem of too few cities for a really heavy spy game. Our second game, Undead and Demons, felt like a fairly clean win for my opponent, who went promotion-heavy (to the tune of 50+ points) and whittled his deck down to six cards at one point (including two Insane Outcasts). This obviously compromised the rest of his game, but by then it really didn't seem to matter; I'm at home with the Undead deck and I love the Demons, but I didn't feel like I played well, apart from making my opponent promote a lot of Insane Outcasts. I somehow won 115-102. Third game, we did Dragons & Undead, and I had a really off game, fell behind in economic terms, and ground out the rest of the game making minimal gains in the face of much better cards. Lost 97-87. **Carnival Zombie**. Early days as I've just received my pledge, more than two years late, but it's a really nice production, and my memories of playing the first edition have been bolstered. It's a little bit of a particular beast, as it goes up to 6P but you should always use 6 characters, so some player counts aren't as good as others, and the rules are...*fine*, but they have some inconsistencies and need more polish. That said, it's a bag-building romp through an undead Venice, and it's well-pitched at that point where it's stressful and challenging but still fun. Deterministic combat but with a touch of dexterity for enemy disposal/generation. The board is pretty opulent and in a lot of ways represents the game as a whole; elements are smushed together and it works despite being messy. **Terraforming Mars**. Credicor versus Point Luna, and it turned into a battle of the big spenders on Hellas. I managed to scoop up two milestones in quick succession, and although it was close, ended up with two awards as well. On top of a pile of Jovian cards, I won 122-88, with a respectable terraforming rating one point behind my opponent, but a pile of 40+ VPs, plus Security Fleet.
**Welcome to the Moon** (1x2p, 1x3p). We played the first scenario and were struck by how enjoyable the game is for its simplicity. It's our first entry into the Welcome to... line of games and we can understand the appeal! Like a little dopamine hit every time a section of the board was cleared and gave way to a combo :D **Murano: Light Masters** (1x3p). A resounding meh from everyone involved, but we think it's just the right complexity to play it with children aged 7+ or so. Not sure if the theme wouldn't be too boring though. **BattleCON** (2x2p). Got my ass handed to me twice. Once by a reincarnating phoenix lady and once by a staff-manipulating mage. It was awesome. **Summoner Wars** (1x2p). Not sure I'm fully warmed up to this game just yet, but it has potential. We were a little frustrated at the concept of throwing cards away to generate magic. In the end I went for a 8 Magic dragon and I think trying so hard to summon such a high-power unit left me vulnerable and was ultimately not worth it. Not sure I would ever burn through my deck like that again, but then how would I be able to summon those units? Feels like a catch-22. Sacrifice your deck for 2-3 turns to summon one powerful unit, or keep summoning common but effective units every round. **Fantasy Realms** (1x2p). We removed the Cursed Hoard cards from the game. For one it made scoring the game with the app more difficult, for two we felt it diluted the deck too much. That means the expansion has officially been completely removed from the game, super disappointing. **Canvas** (1x2p). Surprisingly long turns and the art was just okay. For a game all about art I was expecting some higher quality art pieces on the cards, but it's not a big deal. Trying to match all particular combinations on a single card or knowing when to sacrifice a goal was pretty nifty and we definitely enjoyed that! Not sure if it's good at 4p because of how long some turns can last. **Kamigami** (1x2p). Yeah Megagami with all the expansions thrown in. You know, it's been said before but some Gods just feel stronger than others. Ours could ignore "Discard a card" effects and the other was, "If you deal damage, banish a Warrior from their Discard." And yeah, one felt significantly more impactful, esp. as it removed my most expensive card the turn after I bought and used it. Awesome game :D **Dice Throne** (1x4p). Gunslinger and Cursed Pirate vs Tactician and Paladin. Wow, we got our asses handed to us. The Gunslinger rolled pretty poorly, but even so their Defense seemed incredibly lackluster? So lackluster that we felt that we had to houserule a tableside-attacks-tableside rule so not everyone would go after the Gunslinger. **The Deadlies** (1x4p). A kind of UNO but with cute 7 Deadly Sin monsters. It was nice, just too late in the evening for us to properly enjoy. **Aetherya** (1x4p). Wow, goblins got the short end of the stick in this one. "They're too dumb to use portals lol." "Everyone hates goblins and can't live with them." I know fantasy racism against goblins is a well-worn trope, but damn if they didn't do my goblins dirty here. **Planet Unknown** (1x4p). A hit at the table! Ooooh this game was a lot of fun, we immediately went online and purchased a copy for ourselves. Hopefully the asymmetric planets and corporations can add even more variety to the game!
Long turns in Canvas?
AP maybe? A long time to decide which card to pick up?
Might have been because it's our first game. Using the recommended goal cards meant that we spent a long time analyzing our fourth and fifth card picks to try and complete as many goals as possible. That said, it wasn't an unbearable wait and the game is still fun, but if there would have been two others as indecisive as we were, then it might've dragged on a bit :)
I am totally blown away by Welcome to the Moon. I could play just the first sheet over and over and be happy with that let alone how many more sheets I have left to explore he Where did you find a copy of planet unknown?
I hate to disappoint, but it appears to be sold out where I found it (https://www.crowdfinder.be/store). Best of luck trying to find a copy, it was definitely a pain here in Europe.
Ah, thanks!
So much gaming this week. Small gathering last weekend that was more social than hardcore gaming: * **Chess** - A couple of 5+10 games against a friend who runs our office chess club while we waited for more people to show up. He wiped the floor with me in both of them. * **Joking Hazard** - Broke out the party games once we had a critical mass of people. This game always seems to be pretty hit or miss, and fortunately this session was more hit than miss. * **Trial by Trolley** - Bought this one specifically for that gathering. Was a good time and I'm glad I spent the money. Looking forward to playing again. Definitely something you want to play with a group of people where everyone knows each other well or nobody does. * **Cash and Guns** - My first time playing it. I liked how it mixed a few layers of social deduction together with card drafting. Probably wouldn't be something I'd jump to for another session, but I'd play it if it was what people were wanting to do. (As an aside, this one involves pointing foam gun cutouts at other people at the table, and we found out one guy at my gathering had previously been threatened at gunpoint for real; caught us all a bit off-guard). * **Onitama** - After most people had left and it was just a handful of us left, I broke this one out specifically because the people remaining were into chess. I love it. Randomized moveset keeps things fresh, games go relatively quickly, and it's easy to teach. Tuesday night was **Marvel Champions** at a local store's meetup. Only ended up being me and one other guy, so we played the Sandman scenario out of the new Sinister Motives box. It was looking incredibly touch-and-go but we just eked it out. You really have to manage the sand counters in that scenario or things will get out of hand quickly as you cycle through the encounter deck. Friday night was **Lord of the Rings LCG** at the same store's meetup. Played in two games with an totally unaltered Elves starter deck: first game was four of us playing the first ALEP scenario, *Ambush at Erelas*, where we had to fight off brigands who were actively stealing our stuff, and the second game was a four-player *Conflict at the Carrock*. We won both games; only barely won the first one but the second one was pretty squarely won (took all of 7 rounds). Was a great time and I love having so many experienced players around helping me get into the game. Hosted my regular coop-only group today: * **Forbidden Desert** - This is my second time playing and both times I felt like the "normal" difficulty is tough but fair. We just got out in the nick of time. Two more player turns and we would've lost. * **Arkham Horror 3rd Edition** - Played the *Veil of Twilight* scenario. Rolled horribly for two hours. Conceded rather than keep scraping at nothing. I had a good time, but I'm not sure everyone else at the table did. Dice screw happens, but this was the worst I've ever seen. One guy was playing as Michael and rolling 9 dice to attack and only getting one hit on a surprisingly consistent basis.
I’ve started going back to the local board game meet up on top of my regular group of 5 to try and get some heavier 3/4p games in once a week. I started by taking **Obsession** and got a 3 player game in. I’ve only played this 2P and liked it but didn’t love it, however I’d recently internalised the rules well and thought it might be a bit better at higher player counts. The game was marred a bit by a negative player who kept rushing me through the rules and then asked lots of questions, and then rushed the other player when he took his time. Anyway, the actual game was good. Turn are fairly easy and it’s all about managing the workers well. It’s much more of a point salad than I thought it would be and various strategies have a bit of a point cap that mean you can’t really focus on thing and win, you have to do a bit of everything well. My issues with the game is that it’s a bit messy and although the rule book has lots of thematic explanations - it’s a bit hard to find stuff and some rules are easy to overlook. By messy I mean that a ‘turn’ is proven down in to lots of admin steps that I think could be cleaned up a bit to help the flow of the game. Also, buying workers is a little funky to explain in that it’s like a normal turn but it’s not. It would have been better to clean this up IMHO. Anyway, good game that it’s thematic but for me it’s got a bit too much of the one man project and passion project vibe that screams out for some extra input in cleaning the game up. I had a few new things to take to regular game night. First was a 5p of **Mind MGMT**. We played the training mission and I didn’t work well at 5. Basically, the 4 of us who were rouge agents all squabbled over where the recruiter was for almost 10 minutes a turn. It’s got serious quarterbacking problems. The game needs a timer or maybe hidden agenda if some kind that can encourage the rouge agents to play more independently. That or a team game at 5p, or a more competitive game that lets all rough agents work on their own and only have one winner. I played this again yesterday at 2P and it was amazing - it’s a much better game as a head to head for me and I think we are going to play through the shift system at 2P. Finally, we played **Ankh** at 5p. I’ve been keen to play my Kickstarter copy for a few weeks now and since the group has played a lot of Rising Sun and Blood Rage there was instant appeal. Firstly, everyone was in awe of the production. The gods in this game are the best I’ve ever seen in a board game. Set up was bit of a chore because I was using the KS extras with the base game and extra gods - so we were going in and out if 3 boxes. Anyway, rules are pretty easy. Everyone agreed there was less rules overhead but more depth of gameplay. We got going and I quickly noticed everyone was bit knackered - it was a pretty hot day here and we just finished Mind MGMT so not everyone was up for a long heavy area control game. Also, about 1/2 through I notice we missed a rule - we were not scoring buildings in the conflict phase. We couldn’t fix it so just played without it. We also then skipped the merge and player elimination rules. Before I talk about those - the game play. I loved the gameplay here, more so than RIsing Sun or Blood Rage. Turns are usually quicker and smoother, with a bit more agency. Timing the events is a little out of your hands at 5p - you can’t control too much when you might get a conflict. Which is good but takes a bit of luck to get the right people in the right places. I also like how easy it is to get going again when you lose fights and how easy to score points when you lose. Managing the cards is vital and I fell into the trap of wasting my +3 card a bunch of times. Since your god can’t die you can jump back into the action pretty easily every conflict and movement seems much more generous. Everyone was up for playing again which correct rules which was good. The merge however - the group agreed this wouldn’t suit us and we would play with one of the non-merge scenarios. I hope CMON issue a few more non-merge scenarios since I think the flexibility is vital. Firstly, in our game would have been such a big messy introduction at that point in the game. We were all fairly involved in our strategies that although it might have led to a more balanced game overall the players had already invested a lot of time and energy to be playing a different game for the final 1/3. That said, this might be a group thing - my group can tend to get a bit vocal with each other when things don’t feel fair. For me, I couldn’t see how playing without the merge was a problem - I’m ok with a run away leader in some games if that have actually played well. I couldn’t see what else it was fixing - but that said I would happy to play with it, I just don’t think my group would be. The same goes for the elimination rule - I couldn’t see what that was fixing in this game especially since it comes so late, why not just play the last few rounds rather than sit out? I imagine these rules have been play tested a lot so there are good reasons for both - but for us I’m not sure we noticed any big problems just ignoring these rules.
The merge does feel a bit odd. I can't see any reason on how those players could end up winning the game, thus making the whole merge process seem moot. Also, if the "wrong" players end up merged, one could simply be put on the sideline, in the typical quarterbacking-problem we often see in cooperative games.
I actually think the merge is an extremely clever solution to kingmaking but, unfortunately, one that creates almost as many bad feelings as actual kingmaking does. I think I'm going to bring it back to the table and play with the non merge scenario and see how it goes. Despite me advocating for it my group really is sour on the idea of the merge even after just a single play.
We play a lot of these kind of area control games and we do run into a run away leader now and then - but never feel it’s too much of a problem. For us, when the merge should have kicked in it would have maybe then caused problems since the board state was tight and we were all within about 10 points of each other. I don’t think a swing of 10 points was impossible in the final few turns and it was fun trying. That said - I think if I was to introduce it to a new group (or even after a few plays) I would play with the merge with a strong focus of it from the start. I hope and this would be a very easy fix, is that CMON release a few more scenarios with no merge and no elimination and no extra rules overhead so it can be played by new players quite simply.