Bombbusters: I’m not a big co-op player. I have one or two in the collection but they don’t get to the table that often. There is some very limited information, lots of deduction, and a “campaign”. I like the “tutorial” levels at the start that teach the basics and introduce new mechanics gradually, whilst upping the difficulty. It was basically these that we played through. This was a surprisingly pleasant experience.
Root: Well I definitely enjoyed this two play of the game. I’m looking forward to getting deeper into the game.
Medici: a very nice Reiner Knizia auction game. It’s fairly quick to play even at five players. I like you are bidding with your points. So you have to balance the amount of points you are spending and the amount of points you will gain. Plus this thinking feeds into your bidding if you want to push up a bid for another player. A nice game.
Seasons: I’ve been wanting to get this back to the table for a very long time. We played the base game only, with the suggested starter decks. It’s nice, can’t wait to play again with the expansions.
Furnace: we all know this is a new favourite, dare I say classic. Any excuse will do to get this to the table.
Fields of Green: a welcomed return to the table. The only draw back is it’s a table hog as you build up your farm.
Havalandi: a game that shares some of its dna with Rebirth. Both by Reiner Knizia, with Havalandi being the earlier game. I like the ballooning theme, the rolling dice to move controlling where you can place your balloons can be a little frustrating. It’s a very enjoyable game but I think I prefer Rebirth out of the two.
Machi Koro 2: My worst game ever. I never even got close to purchasing a landmark. Dice rolls and losing money to the others made sure I never got close. Very frustrating.
Rebel Princess: Do I need to say anything about this? We had a blast and introduced a new player to the game.
Well I did get some gaming done in December and the run in to the Christmas holidays.
Ashes: with my all in pledge from the Plaid Hat kickstarter arriving it was only natural that I’d want to get this to the table at the earliest opportunity. Marcin and I played what effectively would be considered the new starter set. Which has a lot going for it. You get two phoenixborn (ie decks), a great intro rule book that takes both players through the first few turns of the game introducing various elements of gameplay, and a comprehensive rule book too. We worked through the intro rule book, and then continued the game. It was great to be playing the game again. Now to slowly work my way through the other 28 phoenixborn and eventually the co-op stuff.
Wyrmspan: played with the Dragon Academy expansion. The fledglings and having to train them was interesting. Luckily having new caves and dragons that allow you to accelerate the training was very handy, and needed. Otherwise I’m not sure how useful or fun these new fledglings would be. Obviously so that we experienced all that the new expansion had we rigged the decks so that we saw the new stuff.
Tokaido: I’m so glad Stonemaier took over this game. It’s bought the game back to the table, and reminded me how much fun it is. Plus it’s been a hit at the club. Glad it’s getting the love it deserves.
Tir na nog: my kickstarter copy with the expansion arrived and it was great getting this to the table. We played just the base game. Which was great fun. Love the drafting mechanic, and the clever way to keep track of how many rounds are left. This was a big hit with Charlene.
Machi Koro 2: what’s to say a great almost filler game. We had some close games where everyone at one point could have won the game. Great light fun.
Splendor Duel: love this two player version of the game. Maybe more so than the full blown game.
Furnace: this worked surprisingly well as a two player game. Love the auction mechanic, and using the gamer variant for running your engine.
Qwirkle Flex: still a fun game now with the tile backgrounds relevant for scoring too.
Take Time: a co-op game in the same vein as The Mind. It was ok.
Stone Age Anniversary Edition: thanks to a fortunate dice roll about three quarters of the way through the game, Ben was able to grab victory without progressing on the farm track. If he had failed on the hunting roll he’d have never recovered. Instead he did amazing and got enough food to see him to the end of the game. He gambled and it paid off.
Rebel Princess: Probably my worst game in a long time. I got 18 points in the final round alone. Needless to say I came last.
In Flanders Field: Jeff’s World War 1 themed push your luck game. Quick, good fun.
Life definitely got in the way of gaming this later half of the month.
However the day before greeting Diogo in the family I got to have a game day with a Ra theme. Charlene, Ben, and myself met at hers to play the three Ra games plus we had time to sneak in another game.
Ra: played with the new Traders expansion. Some new tiles that add another way to score points each round. Adds no overhead to the game.
Ra and Write: a light roll and write version of Ra. Quite enjoyable.
Ratzia: the card version of Ra themed around anamorphic characters and crime. Relatively quick to play that captures the feel of the original.
Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor: I’m glad I got this. It’s a great way to get into Forest Shuffle without buying the original and trying to get the expansions. Plus I love the Dartmoor theming. I love the actual Dartmoor and have fond memories walking and camping on it.
Netrunner: still a classic. We played using the original FFG core set default decks.
Marvel Skirmish in New York: I liked this two player game. The asymmetry of each player having their own decks is nice. It joins the growing list of great two player games in my collection that will sadly not get the love they deserve.
A Study in Emerald: a fun game nearly spoilt by a subpar rule book. Definitely a game I’d play again. But the rule book requires work.
Discworld Ankh-Morpork: this was a big hit with Ben and Charlene despite them not being familiar with the books. They took delight in card names and the art work. They enjoyed it so much we had to reset and play a second game straight away.
Furnace: I picked this up after seeing a video for the impending two player version. Boy am I glad I did. Quick to teach and play. The auction mechanic is simple, fun and very strategic. Then running your engine which can be made more gamer like by a variant. A very nice quick auction engine builder.
Fate of Witches: This was not a great experience. I found the game initially very frustrating. Reflecting on it over night I think this was due to a combination of things. Firstly the teach wasn’t very clear and didn’t explain a couple of key points properly. Some of the scoring hadn’t been explained clearly. Terms used to describe actions did not accurately describe what you did. For example one action you can take is called upkeep. What it actually is, is play a card into your tableau. Very confusing. I also felt that opportunities to get cards into your graveyard were very limited. This needed to be easier. There seemed too much downtime between turns, and the game felt overly long for what it is.
And that was the later half of November.
New arrivals to the collection
Qwirkle Flex
Marvel: Skirmish! In New York
Battletech: Gothic
BattleTech: Inner Sphere Fire Lance
Stone Age Anniversary Edition
Furnace
Both Star Wars Unlimited Secrets of Power Spotlight decks
The month started off really well with something that Charlene, Ben, and myself had been wanting to do for a year or two now. That was to play all four roll and writes by Ben Pinchback, and Matt Riddle.
But after such a great start the rest of the first half of the month has seemed like a struggle to get any gaming in. But I have, and here is what I’ve played so far this month.
The Quadrilogy
Fleet the Dice Game: The one that started it all. It’s fun. It’s definitely not a roll and write aimed at noobs to the genre. I’d say it’s intermediate level. The two sheets each player has might seem a bit intimidating, especially to new players. You can get combos but they are not excessive.
Three Sisters: This is one of the contenders for most complicated roll and writes going. It is so combotastic. It can get so hard to track what’s going on they give you a space on one of the sheets for notes! Granted it’s not a big space but still. Add in the two mini expansions and this game has a lot going on. Eight rounds, five actions per round, plus combos. It’s possible to get some insane turns where you are doing so much because you are comboing off.
Motor City: I felt a bit frustrated with the game. The previous time I played this I’m sure I did better progressing along the various tracks. But it’s still fun to play. It shares a similar draft action selection mechanic with three sisters. It also feels a little less combo focused.
French Quarter: Probably the least combotastic of the four. For me this is probably the weakest of the four. But it’s still fun.
FYI my rankings in order of least to best is, French Quarter, Motor City, Fleet the Dice Game, and at the top of the pile Three Sisters.
The rest of the month
Satori: worker placement but with no locking out locations. Each location can be selected no matter how many times it’s been used in the round. Which is kinda nice. But also removes a pressure and tactic from the game. But it’s a solid game. You can see one or two of its mechanics have been influenced by other games like Dune Imperium. And they have been implemented and integrated well with the rest of the game. This is well worth playing again.
Netrunner: this really is such a great two player game. So glad to be playing it again.
Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth: this was a close game I almost destroyed the one ring. Sadly Saurons forces managed to take over middle earth. We played with the new Allies mini expansion and the two promo tiles. The Allies added a tiny little overhead, but had an even bigger tactical impact. Deciding which ally to use and when can have a major impact on the game. It was Marcin playing a second ally that allowed him to steal victory.
Tokaido Duo: a first play of this two player “version” of Tokaido. I really liked it. The dice drafting mechanic makes for some great decision making. Including having to hate draft despite really needing to take one of the other dice. You really can’t afford to concentrate on one particular path. You need to make in roads on all three with a preference for one of them.
I did manage to get some gaming in during the second half of the month. Surprisingly for me more than I thought I would. What follows below is a summary of what I played.
Netrunner: I think my recent posts say how I feel about this game. I introduced Dave to the game and he enjoyed it. Hopefully once things settle down for him after the new arrival arrives he’ll put together a deck or two using proxies.
The Gang: A co-op card game that uses poker as its main mechanic. Yep you heard that right. There is also a plot twist. You are not allowed to tell the other players what you have in your hand. Instead the only clues you get are via one of four poker chips that you claim to indicate how strong you think your hand is. You do this after each of the four stages of the poker hand. After the last round the aim is to have the hands win in the order indicated by the poker chip front of the player. Get this right three times you beat the game. But fail to do this three times before getting it right three times and the game wins. How much did I enjoy this? I have a copy, ordered when I got home that evening.
Machi Koro 2: Just good beginner gamer friendly fun. It’s light, has a little take that, introduces the concept of engine building, and probabilities. Plus it’s fairly quick to play and teach.
Origin Story: The latest from Stonemaier. A trick taking game with some engine building thrown in. The art work seems to be a bit polarising. However I really love the art work. At the start of the third round (it’s played over five) you turn over the top card of an event deck. This changes the rules in some way for that round. It’s obvious this has been influenced by Rebel Princess. And we all know how I feel about that game. It’s a shame that these events aren’t more frequent. I’m not sure why there is only one. Especially considering the size of the events deck. Did it live up to the hype, especially after the glowing Dice Tower review? I think so.
Rebel Princess: ‘nuff has been said about this classic trick taking game. We love it.
The Hobbit There and Back Again: I wasn’t expecting such a large and heavy box when this landed through the letterbox. Another roll and write or more draw and write that can be played as a campaign or one off adventures telling the major story points of the classic Tolkien book that introduced us to Middle Earth and hobbits, The Hobbit. We played the first two adventures. Covering the unexpected guests at Bagend and the journey to Rivendell and the trolls. Is it my favourite roll and write? No. Is it an enjoyable one? Most definitely.
Civolution: Not a civilisation game! If one of the major criticisms of Tapestry is that it doesn’t feel like a civilisation game (which I don’t agree with) then those haters should also be levelling that same comment about Civolution. For me this game did not feel like a civilisation game. We did play this at the new board game cafe The Dice Box in Kings Lynn. A really nice environment to play although I think the tables may not be ideal size wise for a few games, or even in the case of big games shape wise as well. Civolution is a bit of a table hog and the tables we were on was just big enough, but the oval shape not ideal. Prices were also edging on the expensive side for the food and beverages. The hot dog I had was ok, not great.
Deep Regrets: We played with the mini expansion Lamentable Tenticles. It’s an enjoyable game, but worth all the hype? That I don’t think it lives up to.
Emberheart: A worker placement game with bidding themed around taming dragons. This is another game that is played over a fixed number of rounds. Unlike Zapotec you did feel like you were achieving something each round. It was an enjoyable experience for sure.
Parks: I’m still impressed by the quality of this second edition.
Tokaido: I think this was the first time I’ve played Tokaido at the full player count of five players, and also with the expansions. For this game I also had the newly released play mat. Stonemaier has done a great job with the release of the expansions and mat. Both expansions for the price of one, great value. I love the play mat, who doesn’t love a good play mat? It was a very interesting experience playing at the full player count. A lot more crowded and slower moving along the route. The expansions add to the game experience and give an interesting choice at each spot on the board. Do you go the classic option or the new?
It’s that time once more to look at what games have been hitting the table so far this October. There have been some great games.
Mind MGMT: wow boy are we bad at finding the recruiter in this game. It’s still fun, especially seeing what new “toys” we get to help finally find the recruiter.
Rebel Princess: you know what I, nay the gaming group thinks of this game.
Deep Regrets: I really liked this once we got used to the flow. Yes it is limited to six rounds. But you are getting to do a lot in each round. Or it felt you were. For me a major decision is how long you stay at sea and fish, when you go to port, or even if you go to port. I liked having to think about the number of regrets you collected because this influenced the price of fish you sold and final scoring.
Zapotec: now this is one game that felt was too short. This is a strange game with hand management, drafting, resource management mechanics. The five rounds goes fast. With end of round scoring giving you possibly some focus on what to do that round. It was an ok game.
Discworld Ankh-Morpork: I’m not going to say that this game was a grail game. But it was most definitely one I’ve been curious about over the years. Especially as I have admitted in a previous post to being a Discworld and Pratchett fan. I had sleeved all the cards. A must do with an expensive out of print game. But what about the game? Well it’s good. I like that each player has a unique win condition, and part of the game is trying to work out what the other players objective is and blocking it while trying to achieve your own. I tried to make the others think I had a different objective than I actually had. The game has a little take that in it that is fun. Really glad I got this.
Survive Escape from Atlantis: I still find it hard to believe that this is meant to be a family game. It is sooo mean. But fun too. I didn’t get a single survivor to safety this game. There is a new edition of this game by a different publisher. They dropped the escape from Atlantis bit from the title. Changed the box art (and possibly the tile art), which I’m not a fan of. It looks more childish. Hopefully it will appeal to more families.
Parks (Second Edition): Finally my kickstarter summit edition arrived. I like what has been done to this edition. The player boards are new, and very cool. They make tracking stuff like resources, canteen items, reserved or visited parks much easier. Each player gets a unique objective to achieve that once complete either gives them an end of game bonus or an ongoing bonus.
The game also now includes some quality of life improvements that speed up setting up, and the reset between each season. The camping mechanic has now been included from an expansion (can’t remember which). The photograph mechanic has been replaced with the shutterbug. Plus we have new art work for all 63 US national parks, which still looks amazing.
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.
Star Wars Battle of Hoth epic scenario
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.
War
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.
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.
