A very slow start to the month. But from previous posts regular readers will know of the new family member arriving and the need to help him settle in.
Not Twin Suns but I did get to play a couple of games with Nathan using the Homeworlds spotlight decks. There does seem to be an imbalance between the two decks. The Tarkin deck is slower and lost every game we played. The chewie decks is much faster and has some good ewok synergy. I think this is another one of those spotlight releases where it’s not fun to play against each other if you have the weaker deck.
Excalibur: a shared win between Marcin and myself. It should have been just Marcin claiming the win. However I had the squires sword which said I shared the win if the Excalibur player was on my left. And Marcin was. So I got to steal, sorry share in his glory!
New York Slice: I split you choose such an underrated and under used mechanic. I think I might have less than a handful of games that use it. The theme is reinforced with the packaging (yes the box looks and opens like a pizza box) and art feels strong. A nice entry level game for newer gamers, but still fun for the more experienced ones.
Tidal Blades Banner Festival: I think I enjoyed the game! Its trick taking kind of with a simultaneous reveal, and no must follow suit. It’s more play card and the winner/loser is decided on card colour rank (changes depending on board position) then value. It throws in some area majority for scoring as well. At times it felt frustrating. Juries still out on this one.
Root: war comes to the forest once more. This time we used a lot of the new Homeland expansion stuff. To start with the Gorge side of the Homeland map board was used. We used the new Squires and Disciples deck. Using the advanced setup rules I put out the three new faction cards plus two random ones. Colin played the new Twilight Council, Dave chose the new Knaves of the Deepwood, Jeff played the Lizard Cult, and I chose the new Lilypad Diaspora. So it was warm blooded against cold blooded! After a slow start (it took us a couple of turns to get to grips with our factions) turns took on a flow. In the end it came down to Jeff possibly getting a points victory or myself getting a Frog Dominance victory. Dave and Colin were way way behind on the victory track. Although Dave did get a too little too late, late surge. The last three rounds were basically Dave and Colin trying to deny me and Jeff our victories. Mine was probably the easier of the two to deny, and so it was. Jeff managed to snatch victory.
New Arrivals
- San Juan (Second Edition)
- Compile Main 2 playmat
- Netrunner Q1-Q3 2026 game night kits plus H2 Casual kit and Run together 2026 pack
- New York Slice
- Namiji
- Braided Skies
- Wingspan Americas/Oceana player board pack
- Stonemaier Games magazine
- Red Rising (new smaller box edition)
- Braided Skies and Namiji Rolling Realms packs