I seem to be on a retro gaming kick at the moment. I’d like to blame this on my friend Gavin and his hunt for a cheap copy of Acquire. Speaking honestly none of these games I played as a kid or teenager. So they are new to me. What’s surprising to me is how well the ones I’ve managed to get to the table so far have held up.
Take Stratego. I saw a video on YouTube of a game being played using an app (which I now have installed). It looked fun. So I’ve been playing the app a little. Loved the game play. And would you know it a 1982 copy of the game popped up on the Facebook group, dirt cheap. It’s now on its way to me.
Let’s look at what I’ve played so far this month.
The new set Homeworlds has dropped. And after scavengingcards from the Tarkin spotlight deck, it’s imperial after all. I updated my All the Vaders deck to a Varder/Tarkin deck. The fortify mechanic is interesting. It’sbasically upgrades for bases.
Tenby: a four player game. Yeah I like this game. It works so well. I love the choice you have to make between the number of actions (and what they are) and turn order. Going early means you can do less but have more choice, but vice versa going later means you do more but have less choice!
Into The Machine: a worker placement game of sorts where you are manipulating your position on a track. The theme is paper thin. You upgrade workers to access more powerful actions. There is a race along a track which you manipulate with the actions. It’s good, not great.
Splendor Duel: played with the new Counterfeiters expansion. I like the new expansion. It adds literally no overhead to the game play. But the powers you are able to tap into with the counterfeit cards can be pretty powerful.
Hanami: I actually liked it as a two player game. It worked really well.
Innovation: what can I say I love this as a two player game.
New Arrivals
Comic Hunters
Alien Evolved RPG Colonial Marines Operations Manual and Building Better Worlds
The month continues with more games being played than expected.
I still can’t help feel the format needs some tweaks. But will need to reassess after the next set Homeworlds, and the base upgrades. Which I believe we are less than a week away from.
It was nice to get a handful of games in this month. Although it seems the latest shiny CCG Cyberpunk has diverted the attention of one or two players. So at the moment and possibly for the foreseeable future games might once more become hard to get.
Acquire 60th Anniversary edition: so I’ve played a board game older than me! And it still holds up. It just works at four and five players. I did buy 6 wooden scrabble tile holders to use with the game. It makes holding the game tiles easier. I think it’s the only thing this anniversary edition is missing. The poker chips have a nice weight to them. I think I’ve become a big Sid Sackson fan.
Hanami: I think this is a very pretty game. It does play nicely at three and four players. Plus it’s become a hit with those I’ve played it with. One club night saw us play it three times in a row! It’s also deceptively cut throat. Plus it’s not a high scoring game. You are in the end competing for three points! Each point decided by who has a majority in that token. I lost two games on the tie breakers.
Innovation: another two player game, which it really works well for. This is a very take that game. Which I love but get that this style of game is not for everyone. Sadly they are missing a great game.
The Thing Board Game: we managed to get a 4 player organised. On the day we managed to play 2 games. It was fun but better with the higher player counts. I managed to be on the winning side both times.
National Economy: a great card based worker placement game. And so far everyone who’s played it likes it. Sadly it needs a western publisher to make it more easily accessible.
Sakana Stack: jury is still out on this. It was enjoyable but I need a game or two more I think.
Catan on the Road: Catan in less than 15 minutes? I’m not sure our game was that quick. But still it was mostly a Catan like experience. I say mostly because there was very little trading going on. But it was fun.
New Arrivals
More Mayday premium card sleeves
A Gamut of Games by Sid Sackson
6 wooden scrabble tile holders
Villagers Shifting Seasons
Halo Flashpoint Zeta all in
Root 2nd edition clearing markers and frog clearing markers
Like August September has gotten off to an amazing start.
Some great games and old favourites have made it to the table.
I got to be on the receiving end of my All the Vaders deck (it was being played by Dave) and it wasn’t fun. I won’t make that mistake again. I have started putting together an All the Lukes deck which should be ready in a couple of weeks.
I had my fastest loss, a first turn net damage death by a Jinteki deck. Later I was two cards from milling them. I’m going to play the runner side maybe a couple more times then I’m going to build a new runner. In the meantime I’m fairly happy with the NBN deck. I might look at some tweaks to the deck.
Excalibur: do I need to really tell you how much fun this game is?
Scout: yeah just a great little fun card game.
Sushi Go: what can I say a classic drafting game as far as I’m concerned. Should be in every game bag.
Perudo/Liars Dice: played a new edition I got where the case folds out to form a board to track bids. Plus it’s a bit more portable and easier to keep in the game bag. Still great fun was had.
Harmonies: I like this game. I like the drafting of tiles, the trying to complete animal cards you draft, and the end game scoring. It’s a bit of a puzzle as you try and balance completing the animal cards for points while also trying to meet the end game scoring criteria. Yes this does feel a bit solo ish. With the main interaction being the drafting of tiles and animal cards. Between turns you hope no one drafts what you want. Sometimes, ok a lot of the time they do. Then you are praying the replacements are even better for you. Often they are not. Yeah a great little game.
Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains: is this the best version of Forest Shuffle? I love the rivers. It has the caves also. The art is beautiful. I bet it gets an expansion just like Dartmoor did. But is it the GOAT of Forest Shuffle? Maybe?
Brass Birmingham: the number one game on bgg. It’s good, but number one? Mind you I looked at the top ten on bgg and thought some good games but not top ten worthy. And that includes both versions of Dune Imperium. I enjoyed it. Would definitely play it again.
Cubed Next Level Dominoes: a long over due return to the table.
Rebel Princess: ‘nuff said.
Gunsen The Battle for Toshi Ranbo: a three player game. We knocked out two games in about two and a half hours. So it plays quick. Gunsen the battle for toshi ranbo is a great game and you can definitely see the influence of games like Scythe and Kemet. Which ticked a lot of boxes for me before playing. Scythe is my favourite game of all time game, and I love Kemet. Combat flows nicely. Card stock damages easily so needs sleeving but that’s my only criticism. Other components are good especially the hard plastic minis for your forces. Unlike Inis this game is good enough to stay in the collection and even getting me to think about possibly letting either Kemet or Cry Havoc go! Which is a bloody hard decision if I have to make it. At the moment my heart says we have room for all four games.
The later half of the month despite it being holiday season and heatwaves has continued to see a lot of gaming.
Not sure about what’s different but this year has seen a lot more gaming happening for the time of year.
So let’s look at what’s hit the table in the later half of August.
The group at The Angles is growing and great fun to play with. We are having some great games, banter, politics, in game moments. Just a fun evenings of multiplayer Star Wars Unlimited. I even got my new Mandalorian deck to the table, and got to experience my All the Vaders deck from the other side (not fun).
Scythe: despite a recent strong challenge by Glory to Rome, Scythe is still my favourite game of all time. We played with the Duel of Meloch stuff mixed in. So that’s the new faction, new combat card deck, new encounter and factory cards. No airships, used the modular board, the Land Rush resolution tile (6 stars or controlling 10+ territories trigger the end of the game), and the structure bonus tile was for the number of structures built on farms and tundra.
Here is how the factions worked out:
Fenris (one of my favourite factions) /Patriotic: Josh
Constantinople (new Duel of Meloch faction)/Engineering: me
Crimean Khanate/Militant: Dave
I have to say I like the new Duel of Meloch faction. I think particularly with the modular board it can be quite powerful. With the random setup it is possible to be resource screwed for your faction finding a way out to the rest of the board. Being able to discard a star to get a resource can mean within two turns being able to riverwalk, use mines, or warp. Although that later ability passed me by until much later in the game.
I did trigger the end of the game with the territory controlled condition. I had to. If I had let the game go on I’d have lost, and my calculations gave me a slim chance at best when I did trigger it. Luckily that was a good call.
Panda Panda: jury still out on how I feel on this. But at the moment I’m leaning towards meh!
Mistwind: not a bad pick up and deliver, with a kind of ticket to ride route building element. Plus a rather nice mechanic that forces you to decide which actions you want to take and which group you can’t on that round. Add in a limited number of rounds that decision of what you can’t do becomes even more important. It also stops the game dragging on beyond its welcome.
Mottainai: the spiritual successor to Glory to Rome. It has an awful lot of the dna of the former game. However this is in print, and more importantly much much cheaper. The later point being important. A single copy of the game plays two or three players. So if you want to play with up to five players you need a second copy.
Tenby: probably one of the “hottest” games of the last year. Love the included tuck boxes for organising the cards. Like Villagers this aids the setup and tear down greatly. The choice between turn order and actions you want to take can be a difficult decision to make. It’s hard to hate draft in this, you almost have to just concentrate on your own streets. The reason it’s hard is because anything on the card could be scoring. Keeping track of other players needs is nigh on impossible. But it’s a fun game. Love it.
Villagers: a learning game with a major misplay. Which we did correct. I still lost. But I like it. The drafting limited by amount of food and an upper limit. The building also similarly limited. I like the chaining of cards, and also the locking/unlocking mechanism. The organisation within the box allows for quick setup and tear down. Which is very nice.
Innovation: despite having the ultimate edition I still went ahead and bought a copy of Innovation. Mainly because I can throw this small box in my game bag and have it live there. Yes the ultimate edition will still be used but in a planned manor with one or two of the expansions in play. This small box edition is for impromptu games or to take to UKGE. That sort of thing. Still it was in the bag when I was at Jeff’s so we played a game that had a little of the take that, but not as much as there can be. Still very fun.
Excalibur: everyone lost in the first play. Then in the second game through skill and subterfuge I won. Always a crowd pleaser.
Tenpenny Parks: one of Marcin’s better games. Worker placement, tetronomes, theme park theme, limited number of rounds. I think the sum of the whole for this game really works. You can see some Uwe Rosenberg influence.
Memoir 44 Overlord: Jeff’s birthday gaming day was an 8 player game. It was meant to be the Sword of Stalingrad map, but Jeff only realised it wasn’t at the end of the day when he packed the map away and noticed the correct one on the opposite side to the one we were playing on! Doh! Still it didn’t detract from the fun we had. Both games we played were pretty close. We played the scenario twice swapping sides in between. As usual this was a great day celebrating Jeff’s birthday with a great game.
Sushi Go: a great fun drafting game. I do like the rules tweak they made about the dessert cards. This is always in my game bag. So nice to get it to the table for once.
Captain Flip: a light fun family game. A little luck based with the tile draw but you get to mitigate it a little by being able to flip the tile. It was ok.
7 Wonders: long overdue a return to the table. It’s considered a classic for a reason. Next time I’m going to introduce the leaders expansion.
Rauha: an interesting game. Drafting tiles, deciding where to place them on your board before activating your current row/column. This also falls into the category of “one of Marcin’s better games”.
Wonderous Creatures: We played with the new Winterfall expansion. The game did seem to drag on because it seemed that Marcin had been zapped with a bad case of analyse paralysis and retaining information. In reality the new expansion apart from increasing the table space needed doesn’t add hardly any extra overhead to playing the game. Still it’s a lovely game and I won! I really leant into my captains power in a big way.
Crimson Company: think compile but simpler, shared deck, auction mechanic, and a fantasy theme. It also plays quickly. Nice two player filler. But it’s not Compile.
New Arrivals
Villagers plus kickstarter expansion, coin box, playmat
Tenby
Venger’s guide to Mastering Chaos at the table
Three Sisters Harvest Edition
Fliptoons season 2
Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains
Innovation 4th edition
Marvel Champions Fear No Evil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage hero packs
Splendor Duel The Counterfeiters expansion
Star Wars Unlimited singles for a Twin Suns deck
Alice’s Garden
Liars Dice
Quarriors! Qultimate Quedition
Catan On The Road
Harmonies
7 Wonders second edition plus Leaders, Cities, and Armada expansions
Another strong start to the month, especially considering it’s the height of holiday season.
Star Wars Unlimited Twin Suns: starting the month off in style. Teaching new players that hopefully will become regulars. There was even a game that ended in a draw! A new Twin Suns deck is in the works. Which reminds me I need to put up my All the Vaders deck.
Glory to Rome: wow! I love this game. I love the multi use cards, and boy are some of the buildings completely over powered. It scales well. The game flow is quite simple really. I love the lead follow mechanic. This game is so good it is challenging Scythe as my favourite game! It’s that good in my eyes. It’s definitely my game of the year.
Duel of Meloch: I’m still playing the Expeditions side. But it’s still great fun.
Ashes Ascendancy: we played using the two phoenixborn from the Ascendancy starter. This game does not get the love it deserves. Like Netrunner I need to get this to the table regularly.
Expeditions: so glad to get this back to the table after such a long time away. I had the Duel of Meloch stuff mixed in. It was a two player game but still pretty close.
Zombie Princess: I like it, and currently it’s in the bag instead of Rebel Princess. Does that mean I like it more? No. It’s still early days. I think it’s different enough (based on hearts, and can play as teams) that you can have both in the collection.
National Economy: we played with the Mecenat deck this time. Loved the arts theme, and what the buildings added. Synergy is the key to this one. Lots more high valued buildings. Victory points become a thing. Get a set of three and they score you ten points, otherwise they are worth a single point.
A great end to the second half of the month. Introduced some games to new players and also we got to play a new game or two.
Star Wars Unlimited Twin Suns: despite what I perceive as weakness in the format compared to say Commander in MtG. This is still a good, fun multiplayer game for SWU. I think it helps that I found a great fun group to play with. I also ordered a digital device to track life aka damage to the base called a life puck. One or two of the other players have them, and I suppose I caved to peer pressure. Nice thing is it’s not game specific so could easily be used with other games.
Battletech Alpha Strike: it was great getting this to the table again. We played with two 300 point teams I built. Each team was basically two lances. I should do a post about the two teams I built. We were playing a King of the Hill scenario. Which ended up being a comprehensive victory for me. I was leading 3-0 by round eight and that was when the killing blow was delivered whipping out Diego’s forces.
I do need a better way to transport the minis A rarity these days photos from a gaming session
Finspan: we played with the reefs and sharks expansion. I liked what it added. Especially the reef tokens. Although I like Finspan, if I had to rank the games in the span family this would be last without a doubt.
National Economy: I loving this game. I think next time I play it’s onto the next box on the game to see new cards and mechanics.
Streets: a tile laying game owned by Marcin. Which is funny because he isn’t a fan of tile laying games! I guess this is the exception to the rule!! It was fun.
Wingspan Pocket: this game is soooo quick to teach. Literally 5 minutes max. And that was to two not really gamers (their jam is more SWU/Pokemon). I do think your first turn has to be to play a bird so that first activation of your flock gets you some value. I also think birds with a green power (on going ability) are great opening hand or early birds to play. But the later on unless they are a high point bird not worth playing. But you are building a mini engine where synergy with other cards is important. I got a get egg, discard egg for cards combo going, then a copy brown ability bird, followed by a discard egg for resources combo going. I did win but the scores were tighter than I had expected. Even at four players it’s a relatively quick game, although you are getting through the deck piles quicker.
West Story A Town Building Game: a four player game. It played great at this player count. Competition for town spots was a lot more competitive.
Duel of Meloch: managed to play this with Dave. I played the Expeditions side. I managed to snatch the win apparently just in time. Dave was going to be doing a power move the next round to get his final two stars out. It was interesting playing basically a different game to the other player in a race to get four stars out. But it works! We were both rusty on our respective game rules. But that’s due to it being so long since either has hit the table. Love the new combat cards.
Zombie Princess: the follow up to Rebel Princess. This time the trick taking is based on Hearts. So at the start of each round you are bidding on the number of tricks you think you will win. Unlike Rebel Princess highest scores wins. You score for meeting your bid and you also collecting zombie tokens. It still has the changing rules each round, and the passing of cards to your opponents. You still have the Princess powers. The Frog Prince is helpful in this game and if you win a trick with him in it at the end of the round you are able to decide if the trick counts towards your total, making it “easier” to make your bid. Scoring at the end of the round is a bit more fiddly. But it’s still fun. More so than Rebel Princess? The jury is still out on that one.
Pilgrims Curious Adventures: there is no player interaction in this game. It was ok. It’s played over four rounds, you get three actions per round. So it’s an efficiency of action game. It was an ok game. The others seemed more enamoured with it.
Star Wars Unlimited Twin Suns: still fine tuning the All the Vaders deck. Giving some serious thought to the inclusion of the high cost cards. However I did get to take part in an Ashes of the Empire prerelease. Which I wasn’t expecting. Despite not starting on time and only getting to play two rounds of the swiss (I went 1-1) I had a great time. Plus got some useful pulls that will go in the Twin Suns decks.
West Story A Town Building Game: a three player game, and it played just the same as the two player. Love the game.
Pili Pili: yep. ‘Nuff said.
Slambo!: great fun and so easy to teach to new players.
National Economy: what a great game. So glad I watched that Rahdo video and went to the trouble of importing it from Japan via eBay.
World Order: the follow up to Hegemony. It’s a nice deck builder with some area control thrown in. I played China and won. But the deckbuilding element was nice, with the purchased cards going to the top of your deck. So you are playing them straight away on the next round. I like that.
Marvel Skirmish! In New York: had a two player evening with Dave and it was great to get this two player to the table.
Tokaido Duo: a great two player version of the game. Was a little rusty but a couple turns in and you get the game.
Norsewind: an interesting game. You are kinda engine building. It gave me some Imperial Settlers vibes but that’s all. But still a nice game. I liked that when you place your card in one of five rows you get a bonus of some sort. Some of those bonuses are based on the number of a specific card type in the other rows. Which is something you have to balance out, when deciding where to place the card.
Fearless: an interesting trick taker. You are not just trying to win the trick, but also trying to track the running total of the values of the cards. You want to win with a score as close to zero as possible. You have to win a trick other wise at the end of the round you get an automatic 15 points. Lowest score at the end wins.
New Arrivals
Sniper Elite Operation Kraken expansion, storage box, and Escalation mini expansion
Some cracking titles hit the table this later half of the month.
Star Wars Unlimited Twin Suns: I have to tip my hat to FFG their Twin Suns precons are fun to play. Is it really a surprise when their spotlight and starter decks have also been fun to play? I finally built a new deck. I call it All the Vaders. I think the title describes it best. It’s very thematic. I have got to play it at a Twin Suns night, and it was fun to play. The Twin Suns playmat is gorgeous. Larger than expected. But amazing value.
West Story A Town Building Game: a 2 player learning game. Which means we went all in and used the expansion stuff as well! Plus the advanced rules!! Ok they added little to no extra overhead to the game. I can see the Machi Koro similarities in the building your town and activating it. However that score track mechanic is something else. Having the zones on the board only accessible based on where you are on the score track, genius. Making victory points optional inspired. Definitely need to get this to the table at higher player counts.
Pili Pili: chaotic fun as usual.
Ginkgopolis: I think my experience of the game was ruined a little by a key rule not being explained properly. Need to possibly play again.
Tropichaos: becoming a go to filler.
Magical Athlete: great light fun asymmetrical racing gaming. That’s a bit of a mouthful but it sums up the game really well. Love the asymmetrical powers, and the drafting.
Bolomaze: this game doesn’t even have a bgg page yet! So the tactic of gathering cards and waiting for the right moment to play them was the winning strategy. So I stayed at the start, got a swap places with another player card, two cancel cards, and move cards. Waited until an opponent got to the top. Swapped places, countered the counter, and moved on to the finish to win. It was an ok game.
Slambo!: wow! Anthony and I played a couple of games while waiting for Marcin. We also played a three player game later. It’s a very quick, fun filler. You are trying to not bust the running total by either going below zero or over ten. Each turn you play a card that even adds or subtracts its value from the running total. First person to collect three cards of shame looses. Quick to teach. Simple quick fun.
Big Shot: a nice auction area control game. It was over due a return to the table. It gets very tactical about where you place the cubes you win in an auction.
Skyrise: an auction area control game that has been over produced. But does look good on the table. It is an interesting game. Definitely would play again.
Big Top: a small auction game. Plays fairly quickly. A nice light auction game.
Not only has the month gotten off to an amazing start in the number of games played. But some of the gaming was Netrunner and SWU. With the later being played weekly, and the former possibly becoming a monthly thing. Things are looking up for these two games for me. Now if I can get a regular Ashes thing going.
Netrunner: in the aftermath of UKGE and trying to capitalise on the flurry of interest of those that did a demo of the game on the NSG stand, a Netrunner session was setup at “local” game store Angle in Peterborough. I got a chance to playtest my two decks a bit more. The corp deck needs more testing because it had mixed results out of two games. The first I just wasn’t getting ice to secure my servers. Naturally I lost that game. The second game with the corp deck it won. Servers were iced up. I was getting additional advances, scoring agendas, stole an agenda back, tagging the runner, getting value from the tags. It worked. It also helped that the runner was not finding their ice breakers. Now the runner deck needs tweaking. Some of its milling and recursion worked. The main idea works. But I need to look at the economy and ice breakers. Overall it was a fun evening at a new location. Can’t wait until the next Netrunner evening.
Star Wars Unlimited Twin Suns: I attended my first SWU TS evening at the Angles and got to play a couple of three player games using the new Master and Apprentice, Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress precon TS deck. Which I have to say was pretty fun to play. Especially the spamming out of droids. I must build my All the Vaders deck idea.
Shallow Regrets: I carried this with me everyday at the expo, but never got a chance to play it. This is a very fun light micro game that gives the feels of its much bigger brother. Plus it plays much quicker! I like that there is a little take that. With the micro expansion you get on going abilities as well. Which I think almost makes it a must include.
Agueda City of Umbrellas: Nice production. The game is ok. Not amazing. But also not a bad game. It’s fairly quick to play, and doesn’t over stay its welcome.
Las Vegas: the new edition plays up to six players, but the publisher Ravensburger did drop the quality of the components, and tweaked the rules. So I’ve decided to stay with the previous version and include the new 5 or 6 player variant when playing at 5 players. It’s disappointing really that they dropped the quality. The rules tweaks? I don’t think having a larger die worth 2 points is that great a change. I’d rather have the larger dice of the previous version.
Beasty Bar: this was surprisingly fun. Lots of take that trying to manipulate the board with the card you play. Everyone has the same cards, it just down to you trying to second guess the cards you think your opponents are going to play, and remembering what they have played. Very much similar to the first round of Libertalia. That is the game really. Why didn’t I think of that until now? Still fun.
Tropichaos: loved this. There is so much component wise for being in such a small box, tile holders, tiles, tokens, season track, bag. But this is a nice tile drafting game that plays quickly as well. Nice tactical element as well having to decide when you score tiles. Miss the season the tile scores its maximum and you could be looking at zero points. Like Deep Sea Adventure, simple, quick, and fun.
Kobayakawa: I saw this described as Love Letter with betting/bluffing. At three players it was fun. However I think this is amazing at the higher player counts. As you can see below in the new arrivals I did buy a copy of the previous version just to get the metal coins!
Railroad Tiles: I like Railroad Ink, well the app version. The roll and write is too “arty” to play physically. More so than Cartographers. So a couple of years back when the publisher did Railroad Tiles as a kickstarter I backed it all in. I have played this once. And it was fun. Charlene requested to play this. So who am I to disappoint?
Seti Search for Extraterrestrial Life: I’ve wanted to play this. Massive game, can be a bit overwhelming when you see everything set up. However I really liked it. Like the asymmetrical player powers. Really like it. Would love it in my collection. But can’t justify another game that’d rarely hit the table.
Pixies: like Rebel Princess this has become a staple of a club night.
3 Chapters: at six players this played very well. Yeah still a very nice trick taker with its twists of drafting your hand, and scoring.
Excalibur: was great fun at six players. However this game is over priced for what it is. What the deluxe version goes for you can get much bigger games.
Duck & Cover: this was ok. It’s light, quick. Not a game I’d ask to play.
Dune Imperium Uprising: played with the bloodlines expansion. I love how this expansion adds to the game but not in a massive way. You get a couple new elements and more of the good stuff. It doesn’t feel as big a change as previous expansions. I really must get this great game to the table more often.
Yonder: FINALLY! After two years almost to the day from playing the demo at UKGE, and crowdfunding delays Yonder finally dropped through the letter box. Playing was just as fun as I remember. I like the Stone Age inspired having to feed your workers at the end of each round. Fail to feed them and it costs you points. As does failing to fulfill a contract in front of you. Love that you have different worker types that all act the same. However each has a special ability to make them feel unique. Yeah this was worth the wait.
Star Wars Unlimited: Dave and I got to play two player Twin Suns using the newly released precon decks. Twin Suns isn’t really meant for two players, at best it can be described as being equivalent to the MtG Highlander format. The decks were fun. However some of the cards were definitely aimed at more than two players and the political side.
Netrunner: At last a chance to play test my decks using my custom made poker chip tokens. Which felt awesome to play with. Not cheap to get made. However even if the Neon Static deluxe ceramic poker chip tokens were available the cost including the shipping and taxes would be more expensive, and fewer in number (74 I think, 60 in the non ceramic version). For the amount I paid I got 118 poker chips that replicate the NSG token set you can buy (and I own). So enough for two players. My observations from the game we played were that while I was hitting the virus cards to weaken ice, I wasn’t hitting my ice breakers. So I really need to get rid of the nine cards over the 45. And get the balance right. I need to add the extra Sure Gamble also. The corp deck I need to play because I’m not sure Dave’s inexperience playing the game didn’t come into play.
Cat and the Tower: very pretty and one of the better tower building dexterity games.
Whispering Woods: An interesting tile drafting, route building game. It can be frustrating as you wait for a tile you need to come out, only for it to be taken by another player. Which happened to me more than once. At the moment I’m border line adding this to the collection.
