8 posts were split to a new topic: Games for the Family (Christmas 2022 edition)
Well, it came up on sale again, so I caved and bought Knight Fall, and since I had to pay flat rate shipping anyway, I added on the X-Wing: Battle for Yavin scenario pack, despite not having played X-Wing in years now.
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Well, I didnāt just buy it - but Darkest Dungeon finally arrived today. All excited to run home and open it andā¦ TADA! OFSTED INSPECTION.
Oh greatā¦
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Oathsworn, the standee version.
Now to make a decision on Cthulhu: Death May Die S3 et al.
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Good luck with Ofsted! A nice reward once the inspection is done.
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Just purchased Jumbo Pirate Stratego for Captain Kori. If you donāt know who that is, please look it up and subscribe to his YouTube channel (Kraken the Box).
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Bought Lost Cities and Dune: House Secrets for our friendās birthday (the 24th) and Christmas gifts, respectively. We saw them today and gave him Lost Cities, only to learn they already owned it.
Oh well, back to the store!
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As a suggestion: Lost Cities is a simplified version of Battleline or Schotten Totten (I like Schotten Totten the best of the three, but only because the artwork is better and itās cheaper). Battleline Medieval is pretty good as well, as is Schotten Totten 2.
You could also go laterally instead of vertically: games like Royal Visit or Lord of the Rings Confrontation are also Knizias, but very different designs. Could be worth a look if youāre looking for a swap.
And then my usual 2 player recommendations: Jaipur, Patchwork, and 7 Wonders Duel. All great.
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I know they have Patchwork and 7WD already, so those are a no go. I never seem to see Royal Visit there, but it is a game I enjoy, at any rate. Have not played Battle Line or any of itās incarnations, despite owning it for years. Maybe LotR:C, as they are fans of the property and own War of the Ring 2nd, if I see it.
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If the criteria is two-player games, then see also:
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Met up with friends for games (Iāll post about those later, as I have another session today) and to exchange gifts.
Very glad I held off on buying myself Splendor Duel in case someone bought it for me 
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Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization Board Game, was half price, and I figured āitās ChvĆ”til, has to be worth a goā. It can be my Xmas present.
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A bit of catching up to do. I havenāt actively bought anything in a while, but I did have some Kickstarter arrivals show up:
John Company: Second Edition
Iām not entirely sure why I pledged for this; it certainly isnāt a game that fits into any of the categories in which Iāve previously expressed a great deal of interest; but looking at the design now and reading through the rulebook, Iām pretty excited. The rulebook is fairly dense so Iāve not tried it out yet, but I do expect to be soloing this soon as a way to explore the pretty impressive design that features a lot of mechanisms combined in interesting ways.
Vinyl w/expansions and Vinyl: Jukebox
Right before this went up on Kickstarter, I had heard about it from a number of different sources as a great family game. Since the Kickstarter funded, Iāve gradually, consistently lost interest in it. About a year before it arrived, I had sent a message through Kickstarter to find out how much I could get by cancelling, but I never actually got a number back, just an acknowledgement of the question.
By the time it arrived on my doorstep, I was prepared to just list it for sale on BGG. But that weekend was busy (a friendās birthday party and some yardwork that needed done, if I recall?) and theyāve all just sat in a pile in my office for nearly two months. At this point, I think Iāll crack open the base game and see if itās worth trying to introduce to my partner; whom was the primary inspiration for pledging in the first place (back before I realized that I already had too many games āwaitingā for her to play with me).
Frostpunk: The Board Game
This was a BGG Contest win; I got the pre-shaded cube tower, but none of the miniatures. The fulfillment is pretty wild when you think about itā¦ Glass Cannon sent all western western hemisphere copies of this game direct from Poland via FedEx air.
When I won the contest, I was pretty happy but had already, while doing the quiz, decided I had very little interest in the game. Shortly before it arrived, I was looking up information on it and thought the mechanisms were pretty interesting, and I started to get excited about it.
But then I watched a solo playthrough of it and realized that itās just too depressing for me to want to put on my table. Iāll give it a try to see if that holds true, but I suspect Iāll be selling this in the next couple of months.
Kabuto Sumo: Total Mayhem, Bites: New Recipes, QE: Commodities w/promos for each base game as well.
Of Kabuto Sumo, Bites, and QE, Iāve only managed to actually play Kabuto Sumo, and that was somewhat disappointing because we played with the āsimpleā rules ā and then realized after a few turns we should have just played the full rules because the game was a slog. Still, itās a fun gimmick and I do think thereās a lot of enjoyment to be had. I think at that point, I had already backed this BoardGameTables (read: Allplay) expansion Kickstarter. The QE expansion has me most excited (but of the games, QE also has me most excited). I donāt grok Bites enough to appreciate what the expansion is adding to the mix.
Regardless, BoardGameTables/Allplay is a local business for me, so I will make an effort to buy just about anything they publish as long as itās at least minimally promising.
Empyreal: Far Corners, BattleCON: Himel Nine, Millennium Blades: Collusion errata, BattleCON v4 errata
This Kickstarter for āEmpyreal: Far Cornersā was mostly a joke. Far Corners is a mini-expansion that came in a (torn) paper envelope and adds very little to the game; and wasnāt a great deal even at $9. But as a MB: Collusion (late pledge) and BattleCON: Devastation of the Indines v4 owner (retail), I did want the printed errata.
This arrived about a month ago, but my gaming table has been covered in a game, unplayed, since then until a few nights ago. I finally played the game and put it away so that I could get this (and Frostpunk above) out on my table and organize everything.
The Himel Nine addon was basically me dipping my toe into the BattleCON solo fighters to see how much interest I should have in tracking down more; the fighter is interesting, but I havenāt touched BattleCON since it arrived and Iām not sure how many 2-player game opportunities Iām going to haveā¦ so I think Iām done with buying BattleCON for the moment ā if at some point in the future I find an opponent (which may be unlikely until my kids are older) and we find BattleCON to be very interesting (which is certainly a possibility, even though I have only a casual interest in 2d fighting games), Iāll look at tracking down a complete v4 set.
Millennium Blades: Collusion, in particular, was overwhelming me when trying to organize while missing some card dividers and other dividers being the wrong symbol or color; in fact, the whole mess had been sitting unorganized in half of the Collusion box since it arrived.
Over the last 2 days, Iāve had a great time finally organizing Millennium Blades. I had forgotten how funny (or, at least, clever) the cards are with their tongue-in-cheek jokes and references to subcultures that have traditionally over the last 20+ years been associated with geekiness and nerdiness. Some of those cards havenāt aged particularly well, but I suppose, if not anything else, itās an indictment of the lampooned material. Iāve finally sorted, organized and inventoried my near-complete MB collection (Iām currently only missing the 2022 Dice Tower promo
). Because such a terrible decision was made by L99, the game box is awful at being a practical organizer; knowing that they designed it to accommodate sleeved cards (which is partially the cause for it being so terrible), I did add the L99 sleeves set to my late pledge, but have not yet sleeved all 2300-ish cards. I think before I do, I want to investigate other storage options, such as building a custom insert for the Collusion (half-)box. I do think it would be thematically appropriate to sleeve the game, as most of the CCG players Iāve ever known would absolutely sleeve their tournament-ready decks.
I anticipate playing a solo game or two of Millennium Blades as soon as I canā¦ and then maybe a solo game or two of Empyreal. And then, maybe, even a solo game of BattleCON: Devastation?
That catches me up for now; I suspect Iāll be back with at least one new entry after Christmas, as ābuy him a boardgameā has become common advice for people asking my partner what to get me for Christmas ā less so now than years past because Iām already out of room and need to re-organize and probably find another shelf or two.
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With Splendor Duel off the table, I put in an order for the Contractors expansion for Red Cathedral (it was on offer - the main reason for the order) and threw in Scout.
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Interested to hear how most of these go down. Particularly sitting with John company right now trying to assemble a willing group.
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I bought Through the Desert today. I didnāt think there were still any copies around locally, but I spotted it in one of the FLGSs in town earlier, and grabbed it. Iāve known for a long time that āsimple rules intersecting in interesting waysā describes many of my favourite games; but itās taken me a long time to realise that this is also a description of a lot of the highly-rated āClassic Kniziaā titles, and that itās clearly a mistake that, in a sizeable games collection, I have almost none of them, as I now have a strong suspicion that Iād really enjoy most of them.
Edit: So mounting the 30 rider pieces onto camels was one of the most aggravating pre-game tasks Iāve encountered for a while ā and even after trying my best, Iām very dubious that they are all going to stay put. I donāt know if itās just the most recent edition which is troublesome, as it looks like every edition has used the same approach, but that is not a great design IMO. I can see how they are intended to click into place, and a few of them did, but there are so many tiny inconsistencies between pieces that, for lots of riders, I would just have to trial-and-error my way through a heap of prospective camel mounts until I found one that seemed like it might stick in place. I donāt want to use glue, but I think I might end up Blu-Tacking them together.
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I got given Skymines, Menara, Turing Machine and a trick taker called Blaze that my wife researched. The pair of us were given The King is Dead and the boys got Cosmic Odyssey and Alliance.
And a fantastic secret Santa gift of Search for Planet X.
I think Menara is as far as weāll go tonight
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Iāve been given Potion Explosion 
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I got the āboyā king of monster island (king of Tokyo is one of his favourites for some unfathomable reason) which went down a treat. The āgirlā got potion explosion.
I got god of war ragnarok for the PlayStation so will be referring to them both as boy and girl for the foreseeable future.
Although Iām gonna cap off a rather frantic Christmas with a how to play great western trail. Thanks again Santa.
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I received Horizons of Spirit Island, Star Wars: the Clone Wars, Heat, and Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd edition for Christmas.
I also gave my wife Sobek 2-player, as it was her favorite game we played at SHUX.
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