I’ve shared the months stats with you already. So you know what I’ve played but now it’s time to share some brief thoughts on those games.

Star Wars Battle of Hoth: I’ve played a couple of scenarios plus the epic scenario and this game is a blast. Our epic game was so close down to one victory medal between us in the end. Yes it uses the command and colours engine, so it has the same heart as Memoir 44, Battle Cry, etc. However they have tweaked the rules, shrunk the map (I think to keep costs down). But it captures the Empire Strikes Back and Hoth so well. Plus there is a couple of campaigns to work through too. Great value.

Rebel Princess: this is just a fantastic trick taker. We have such a blast playing the game.

War: I wish this game by my friend Byron would be picked up by a bigger publisher. It deserves much more love. It’s just a great pick up and play anywhere skirmish/war game.

Jungo: Another of Marcin’s card games. In Jungo you are basically racing the other players to get rid of the cards in your hand. It has that Scout thing where you can’t change the order of cards in your hand. Mix that in with a poker like mechanic where you are trying to beat the hand played by the previous player. It was fun. Did it blow me away? No.

Wyrmspan: Probably my favourite of the Wingspan family. Mainly because it’s a bit more aimed at gamers that noobs. This was a pre-expansion play of the game.

Lockup Breakout: worker placement and majority. It was ok but didn’t blow me away.

Ethnos: an interesting area control game mixed with set collection. Another it was fine game.

Compile Main 1: This two player game didn’t disappoint. Before playing it wasn’t really obvious why you’d want to switch programs around. But once you start playing it soon becomes apparent that this is pretty powerful. Not only as a way to compile your own programs quicker but also to thwart your opponent from doing the same. I’m looking forward to when the reprint of the expansion finally arrives.

Don Quixote The Ingenious Hidalgo: An interesting theme, that has set collection, and a changing market that determines the final scoring of the sets. Each turn players vote with a card from their hand whether a mission is successful or not. The result of this vote alters the market. However the card you played goes in front of you to join a set or start a new one. So voting takes on a complication that isn’t apparent. Do you play the card to strengthen a set you have, but playing it means the vote pushes up the value of a set you don’t have if it wins ? Or do you play a card that isn’t part of a set you want but helps push up market value of a set you have if it wins? It gets very tactical. One of the better examples of this genre of game.

Yeah a really catchy click bait post title I know. But it’s accurate.

This post should have come out earlier. But old age I’ve been too tired to finish it off.

Mind MGMT: A really fun hidden movement with a “campaign”?! At the end of a game the losing side gets to open one of seven mysterious packages for their side that is meant to help balance things out for that side in the next game. It does give the game a campaign feel. At the end once all of these packages have been opened you can either mix and match the ones you use in a game, or reset and start the “campaign”. I managed to get my hands on the deluxe edition and the production is gorgeous. The closest we’ve come to catching the “recruiter” as the hunters was our very first learning game. The two games we’ve played as part of the “campaign” as hunters we’ve not gotten close. But it’s great fun.

Twilight Imperium 3: I’m not going to write much about this epic game. Mainly because it’s already been written about in a recent post.

Moon Colony Bloodbath: it looked an interesting concept in the reviews, an engine builder that has you destroying your engine! This game can be won on points. However it’s last man standing. I love the theme of building your moon colony and then this utopia turns into a nightmare as the robots malfunction and start killing your colonists. This really is a game of making hay while the sun shines (the engine building bit) but that doesn’t last long before things start going wrong and you are having to destroy buildings in your engine. It’s a blast.

Wroth: Marcin has the deluxe version of this area majority game. It’s fun, I was left unchallenged in a couple of areas allowing me rack up the points. By the time they decided to try and do something about it, it was too late. I triggered the end of the game and easily won. I’m not sure the game is worth the price folks would have paid for the deluxe version originally. It’s not a £100 plus game. I think Marcin paid the upper limit I think it’s worth. Which was considerably less than its original price.

A Place for All My Books: a non-gamer, casual worker placement game! It was fun, fairly light. Obviously a little competitive in our game with us all being gamers. It was an enjoyable experience.

And that’s it for the later half of August. There are some new arrivals I really would love to get to the table. Hopefully September will see them getting the attention they deserve.

It’s back to the ol’ cardboard and plastic posts. Specifically just quickly going over what’s hit the table recently.

51st State Ultimate Edition: I finally got my hands on a gamefound edition of 51st State. I can’t believe the person I bought it from didn’t get the extra faction board add on.

Rebirth: Not going to say much about this because I have nothing new to say about this great game.

Raising Robots: After playing this engine builder that Marcin billed as similar/like Wingspan a bit disappointed, even frustrated. Yes it has a Wingspan like element to it but that seems minor. The engine you build is basically your opening hand. Getting new cards was frustrating and apart from an action that had you discard cards to get new ones, no other opportunities came to get them (although some robot cards allowed you to). Playing cards to your board other than your opening hand seemed less of the game. I felt the game was over complicated and not as fun as any of the Wingspan family.

Planet Unknown: an interesting game where you are placing tetronomes on your game board. Well basically that’s its core mechanic. Very Uwe Rosenberg like. It’s interesting.

Citizens of the Spark: nothing to add to what I’ve said previously. It’s fun.

Rebel Princess: our go to trick taker. Colin set a new record for most points gained in a round of 26 beating the previous record held by Marcin.

Rail Road Tiles: a newly arrived kickstarter, which looks really nice. This tile drafting/placement game is fun. We played a basic game as recommended by the rule book for the first game. Mechanically it’s not complicated. But with the objectives and expansions to still be added in the decision making of where to place tiles should get more interesting.

Gift of Tulips: not a bad area majority, market manipulation game. Along with post apocalyptic themed games this type of filler card game seems to be a favourite of Marcin’s. He has one or two of them. It was a fun game. Didn’t blow me away.

And that’s it for August so far.

I’m liking these semi-regular round ups of the games I’ve played. I may do a longer post on a particular game from time to time but that’s going to depend on how lazy I feel and whether I think the game warrants it, and I have lots to say about it.

This round up seems to be all new to me games or in the case of SWU decks.

Let’s get on with it.

Star Wars Unlimited: with the new set Legends of the Force being released came two new spotlight decks. The leaders for these two new decks are Darth Maul and Qui-Gon Jinn. Like previous spotlight decks they are meant to showcase new mechanics in the latest set. I really liked the first spotlight decks of Han Solo and Boba Fett. They seemed evenly matched. Something I felt these two decks were not. I was playing the Qui-Gon Jinn deck, while Dave was playing Maul. I got my butt kicked by the Maul deck. We played five games. It wasn’t even close. I wanted to play multiple games to rule out poor card draw, bad decisions etc. I’d love to see the play test data for these two decks, and how they even thought these were evenly matched.

Vantage: the latest Stonemaier Games release. A game eight years in the making by Jamey Stegmaier. You can certainly see the influences on this game from rogue likes, to choose your own adventures, and games like 7th Continent. The game plays 1 to 6 players. But I don’t think I’d want to play it at the higher player counts. Marcin and I played this together using my pimped out copy (upgraded tokens, coins, and player boards). We had a blast playing the game. Yes in reality it’s a solo game with minimal player interaction. But I liked the shared story telling experience, the other player reading out from the storybooks, describing what you see on the bit of the planet you are on. It almost had a ttrpg feel. A shared story where you get snippets of information. The hype is real (if you like this style of game) folks.

Galactic Cruise: this game did seem to get a lot of buzz upon release. Worker placement, hand management. I liked when playing you can combo cards that you play.

Citizens of the Spark: card drafting with the strength of an action you take determined by the number of that card you have. I like that you are able to follow other players actions if you have that card, a bit Eminent Domain like. Well that’s the first game I thought of with that mechanic. This a nice quick game with a bit of take that. Well if you select the right cards during setup. Which reminds me you can tailor the type of game you want during setup. Which is very cool, and reminded me of the Sushi Go Party setup.

Innovation Ultimate: a civilisation card game. A game I really enjoyed that had plenty of player interaction and a bit of take that. We played the recommended first game, ie no expansions. This is definitely a game I want to play more.

Money: a quick bidding, set collection game. It was an enjoyable experience where I hadn’t really cottoned on to the scoring. That cost me in the end. But still very tactical on the bidding.

That’s it for this round up that technically should have been posted about a week ago. But work, tired. You know the story.

A bit of a mouthful but the posts title says it all really.

Since the last round up just over a week ago I have managed to play some games. Not many granted but still some games have hit the table.

Much of the gaming I briefly talk about below were played because we ended up with six players at this weeks club night.

Rebel Princess: Probably my favourite trick taking game at the moment. I just love the variable player powers. Granted some more useful than others. I love the changing rules each round. These two factors help keep the game fresh. Add in the first expansion that adds in more of both, and the variety increases.

Celestia: Push your luck with a very light theme. Ok if you are the captain you have to keep going until you crash the airship or make it to the end (which early on is nigh on impossible). But as a passenger you have to decide if you stay on the airship or jump off. Obviously the longer you stay on the higher the points are when you get off. However if the airship crashes with you on it you get nowt. A nice intro game.

The Flow of History: It has been a very very long minute since this last hit the table. Seven years to be precise. I do like this civ themed game. I like the semi auction mechanic used to reserve a card you want. Throw in a bit of engine building and you have a nice light civ like game.

Faraway: The game that plays with your brain! Yeah I like Faraway, and I’m glad a few of us at the club feel the same way making it easier to get to the table.

That folks is all the gaming I’ve managed since the last update.

I thought it was time to talk once more about stuff that has hit the table since the previous update.

Star Wars Unlimited: I’m not going to spend much time about this first game. We know how I feel about. I will briefly say that the two spotlight decks are great fun to play and really play into their mechanics. I like that. Great examples of deck building for new players.

Hegemony: aka class war! Archie played the working class, I was the middle class, Charlene was the capitalists, and Marcin the state.

Each of those classes play differently, have different objectives etc. Each player trying to play to their classes strengths.

Yes it’s a longish game (ours was about four and half hours) that could be longer if playing with those inflicted with analysis paralysis. But like TI4 time flies by and doesn’t seem that long.

I can see why people like this game. I enjoyed playing the game. Would most definitely play again.

Sadly the deep state ran riot and easily won.

Emberleaf: I enjoyed this cute looking game. I particularly like the card element building an engine and the sliding of cards to get a benefit (possibly) and return them to hand. You also have a touch of hand management.

Add in the other elements such as tile placement, card drafting to strengthen your hand. You get a fun enjoyable game.

Fate of the Fellowship: the latest (delayed) hotness. Ok this wasn’t a perfect play. There were one or two rules misplays. But hey it was a first play.

But boy does it have a great table presence. From the incredibly impressive dice tower (a pain to put together) to the nasgul and wooden printed character meeples.

I think this is probably the most complex pandemic based game I’ve played so far. Which probably makes it the least new player friendly.

Obviously I love the theme. And I think they’ve done a great job of capturing the essence of the books. From trying to destroy the rings, to creating distractions to help Frodo and Sam get to Mordor.

Obviously being a pandemic game Sauron aka the game won.

Wondrous Creatures: a three player game. I loved the greater competitiveness over spots on the board. However this admittedly being only my second game I don’t get how people think this is overly long. That’s not been our experience at all so far.

Forests of Pangai: with art work that brings to mind the Studio Ghibli classic Princess Mononoke.

An interesting game that has an element of area control, resource gathering, pattern matching. In some ways it’s similar to the bastard panda game (as my departed and missed friend Ben used to call it) aka Takenoko.

I love the table presence of the game.

Now I have to debate if I try and get a copy.

Machi Koro 2: I had previously owned Machi Koro plus its first expansion. Had even tracked down the promo cards and paid over the odds for the play mat. In the end I traded it away to Gavin. Over the last couple of years I had toyed with the idea of getting the game again. But in the intervening years there had been another expansion, anniversary edition, and second edition. With all the choice my indecision about what to buy got in the way.

However on an impulse I picked up the second edition at this years expo.

There basic game play hasn’t changed. But there are a couple of rule changes that if I had the early editions I’d house rule. The first is the trade rows. They must contain five unique buildings. If duplicates are drawn they go on top of the other copy. You then draw again, repeating until there are five unique buildings.

The second rule change is right from the git go you decide whether you roll one or two dice on your turn, instead of having to unlock the second die.

It’s a nice, fairly quick entry level game. Depending on the buildings you buy there can be some take that. In my game with Marcin there was a bit of me taking regular amounts of money off of him.

War: yeah still a favourite quick two player skirmish game. I just love how quick it is to teach and play.

And that’s my most recent gaming and some brief thoughts on the games.

In the previous still alive post where I think I had con crud I promised to write a post about the recent games I had played.

Well here is that post.

I’m not going to write lots for each game, and will try and keep everything brief.

I did write about this demo game of Star Wars Unlimited that I played at the expo in the UKGE post I wrote.

It really wasn’t a fair match up, especially giving me the Han deck.

I knew both decks, and more importantly their strengths.

That knowledge gave me the edge. I knew to mulligan to try and get a Falcon. I knew that there were no even cards. So using card abilities looking at the top card of the deck looking for odd value costs was more than likely to succeed.

But the other player enjoyed the game. We both got the promo card. So win win.

I like, no love this game by Byron.

As long as you have a flat surface you can play the game. Plus being very portable, it’s easy to keep in the bag ready to play. In this sense it reminds me of the convince of Hive.

I just wish there was a bgg page for it so my Bgstats could sync up.

I have to admit when I was at the expo and we hit the publisher stand selling Tacta I wasn’t really that interested. Ben was very excited and was ready to throw money at them. He was only prevented from doing so by a system outage stopping retailers taking card payments.

They were also handing out a 2 player promo pack of the game for free that could also be used with the full game. Which I did grab a couple of copies of.

I was still indifferent to the game when I bought it later at the same time as Ben.

Truthfully I still can’t tell you why I took the free promo pack or even bought the game. But I’m glad I did.

Marcin, Dave, and myself played a game of it, and it was really good fun.

Now this game was bought solely on its theme alone!

However it’s a fun little card game, and surprisingly tactical. You can’t just focus on your own ramen bowl, you have to be aware of your opponents bowls. Place your card in the wrong bowl and you could be setting them up for a big score.

This is a nice quick filler game.

This was one of the games I had to collect at the expo for Marcin.

It’s a drafting, market manipulation game.

The cards you draft score depending on their position in the market. The lowest two suits in the market score negative points. Whilst the remaining three suits generate a positive score.

A fun, quick filler as well.

Another Marcin game.

I got Kanagawa vibes playing this game.

It’s a very pretty drafting game.

Light, reasonably quick.

I liked that each round you got a new additional objective that could just match up instantly with what you are doing, or force you to pivot mid game.

Another one of the games I collected for Marcin.

This game I don’t remember too much about. But I do remember it being fun.

It really is sad the game doesn’t stand out in my memory as much as the other games I’ve played this month. Is that a reflection on the game or me?

This was the game no one seemed to be selling at the expo.

So I had to order it online.

It was definitely worth the effort of getting a copy.

I loved the open drafting, stock market manipulation. That last part reminded me of Seasons with its last remaining die moving the season marker, but with a card.

There is also a chaotic element to it with that stock market manipulation where you can’t quite guarantee the markets you want to change will. Plus you have to hope the markets you are aiming to score don’t bust and reset.

Simple, but fun.

We played Charlene’s copy of Faraway with the “expansion”. But it would be more accurate to call the “expansion” a mini expansion. Because it is just a handful of cards.

But the game is a really nice game.

Naturally I have since getting back ordered the mini expansion.

Colin bought the Spartan edition of the core game at the expo.

So we met up on a Saturday afternoon to play a learning game (for Colin).

I threw together a team of Spartans that looked cool. I had no idea how they’d work.

Colin played all four Spartans from the learning game setup.

The two squads were fairly evenly balanced. For the first half of the game I was rolling really badly.

But in the end I managed to snatch victory.

This game was amazing value for a fiver. I bought it at the expo as damaged. The only damage was to the box.

It was also a nice quick game.

Also a game that I want to play with Jeff knowing his weakness for push your luck games and having to push his luck. Play the player, not the game!

We played Diego’s copy of the game.

It looked like Oink games have updated the game. It’s familiar yet different!

There are now three dice and a boost mechanism that runs down the oxygen even quicker.

But even taking into account these changes Deep Sea Adventure is still a great little push your luck game.

After six years we finally got round to playing Bohemian Villages for who will win the trophy Jonathan had made.

Being the reigning champ I had to defend my title.

Sadly my defence of the title failed, with it being stolen by Diego.