I still own KOT but haven’t played it in years. The player elimination sometimes seemed like an issue, but I did really enjoy the thematic elements of the card powers. It’s one I’ve often thought I should get rid of but haven’t ever convinced myself to actually do. Maybe if I find the right group for it…
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I hope you enjoy it. It is fine, but I think it adds a layer of fiddliness over the original that just isn’t what I am looking for in Kaiju Yahtzee. It is on my tentative sell pile, but that fiddliness might be right up your alley.
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In a bit of horse trading in the classic pillbox style, I managed to pick up Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 2nd Extension, Clinic: Deluxe Edition – 3rd Extension, Clinic: Deluxe Edition – Campaign Book by way of buying a bundle of the base game with the first 3 extensions + campaign book with plans to list the duplicate content for sale to recoup the costs; the whole bundle cost about as much as one of the extensions (before shipping). Unfortunately, the 1st Extension arrived without the Urban Design cards, so after a bit of messaging with the seller, I think a replacement is on my way direct from Monsieur Viard, directly from France – time will tell, I suppose.
Additionally, my retail order from February finally arrived! It had been held up by…
Grand Austria Hotel: Let’s Waltz!
I received Grand Austria Hotel over three years ago but I’ve never played it because I don’t want to subject my partner to a learning game of it, and I’ve not been able to wrap my head around the fan-made solo modes, so I’m glad to finally have the official solo mode in-hand, along with some interesting-looking expansion modules!
Also contained in the bundle of cardboard, retail joy:
Sidereal Confluence: Bifurcation
I have no business owning this expansion because I’ve never even played the base game. I’ve never come close to playing the base game. But I want to… and I want to have the expansion in case, in the future, I do play it and find a group that loves it and the expansion is harder to come by. There’s no excuse: I shouldn’t own this (but I do).
AuZtralia: TaZmania
I was very impressed by AuZtralia and heard that the TaZmania expansion leans into the solo game. Admittedly, a lot of it is just a solo campaign…series-of-permutations-on-setup…campaign, but there’s two new maps for 1-2 players (which should make things quite a bit tighter, yeah?)
Maracaibo
After waiting for the hype to die down, I finally was able to read some well-formed opinions on the game. I suspect that the “best solo experience” is actually locked away in one of the expansions, I think I can dip my toe in with the base game. I avoided it for a long time because of the GWT-fanbase-hype making it hard to get a good read, but, thankfully, with the new editions of GWT coming around, that fanbase’s attention is, likely, elsewhere, and this one is still getting good chatter (albeit, in magnitudes smaller quantities).
Carnegie
I mentioned in my last post that Ginkgopolis had been in my cart but got pushed out for another game; I did not mention that they were by the same designer! I have my doubts about Carnegie being much more than a optimization-Euro, but it gets extra points for having Kansas City as on the of cities on the map (that’s legit reasoning, right?)
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Shoot. I need this.
GAH has a Yucata implementation which is where I learned it. It is one of those games that may actually be better asynch as you only have 14 actions but most of them have massive combo chaining and repercussions. Even in a 2p game GAH has meaningful downtime. Most people say never to play at 4. I’m always happy for a Yucata round.
I love Troyes. Then I loved Ginkgopolis more. It was after I owned both that I realized they were both Xavier Georges. Carnegie, I’m hoping to play on BGA and not buy. However, years ago, I was agonizing over Lancaster vs. Carson City for “fighty worker placement.” I got Lancaster, which I’ve played a few times, and it’s serviceable. Definitely a game that shines as everyone masters the game - you need a strategy from the start and to stick with it throughout the game, and you need to see what strategy others are playing from the start of the game to meaningfully interact with them at the end of the game… It’s destined for sale (but not until I get a few more games out of it.) However, now that I know what a Boss X. Georges is, I really wish I’d gotten Carson City all those years ago. (Un)fortunately for me, a Carson City reprint is dropping on Gamefound next week…
In other news, kind of a final check in, I had a goal of not buying any games this year. Honestly, I have enough and most anything I buy now will duplicate something I already have. Barring that, I wanted to sell at least as many as I bought. However, the damage from this year:
- Radlands - Just this genre of PvP with a deck still owns me from the Magic days.
- Tzolk’in - It’s so good. And in this new market, the old stock is so affordable. I haven’t played Praga Caput Regni yet but I don’t think that will stick around and this was a better “rotating heavy euro.”
- Scout - cheap and a must have. Lighter Tichu with a more flexible player count.
- MindMGMT - I already have Jaws, Whitehall, and Nuns on the Run. I didn’t get this for a long time. I’m not sure what pushed me over, I think just periodic affirmations that it is best in class, along with a sale price?
- 51st State - I spent YEARS not buying this. Thanks, Tekeli. You did this. It’s finally in stock and should be on the way soon.
- Lords of Vegas - This is a $50 game being reprinted for over $100 and this campaign was a failure of business operations and so much else. As I posted earlier today, it’s been a rough quarter and I just didn’t want to worry about it so I bought it to get it off my mind. I DO really want this, just wish Lone Shark ran a tighter ship.
- Galactic Renaissance - Inis 2, but not Inis. I have such confidence in the designer and publisher.
- Curious Cargo - another one I didn’t need and didn’t buy for a long time. But it was a rough day and it was selling sub-$20, and there was a Reddit conversation on it that day. Good chance I’ll never play this one.
- Teotihuacan - I told @EnterTheWyvern and @Whistle_Pig I wasn’t going to buy it and then did. Good prices these days with the overpriced deluxe kickstarter online. Another entry in the “heavy rotating euro” category to replace Praga Caput Regni, which I haven’t actually sold yet? I can see this one has some life to it even though it feels redundant with Tzolk’in on a lot of levels, not just theme.
- Iberian Gauge - I had a coupon and a there were lot of games out of stock. This one wasn’t. Shot in the dark, I have no idea if I’ll like it?? I still need to wrap my head around Irish Gauge, as the shared incentive genre fascinates me but I haven’t spent a lot of time exploring it.
- Carson City - going to back it next week. This will up my “fighty worker placement” count to 5 - Argent, Keyflower, Lancaster, Wise Guys, and Carson City. That niche is overcrowded, something to take care of in a future year.
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Curious cargo is a gem, though I’m yet to find an opponent who loved it as much as me.
Iberian gauge is also great. Much better than Irish.
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Ah yes, the oft floated goal of “not buying games” that gets broken by us all so easily. 
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I thought this time was different.
I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT!
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Carnival of Monsters cos it was really cheap (23 AUD, including shipping)
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My parents gave my husband a voucher for Zatu Games for his birthday, which he spent on:
- Nova Luna
- Good Puppers
- Micro Dojo
I was a bit surprised by the choices, to be honest! None of them seem like his usual type of game, although Micro Dojo does have the sort of theme he likes. That’s a pocket-sized tactical Euro, Good Puppers is set collection + cute dogs, and Nova Luna is abstract tableau building. Thinking about it, he is responsible for both of our copies of Azul, so perhaps that last one isn’t so surprising.
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Nova Luna is an excellent abstract, my group loves it
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I made the mistake of googling deduction games, so I ended up buying a game I’d never even heard of: Belratti. Probably hadn’t heard of it because I don’t think it’s been released in English yet.
I think I see a pattern in my buying. I come home from my weekly game day, and stay up too late looking at board games.
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- After seeing Pollen come in stock, I could not resist. It is a re-implementation of Samurai the Card Game (yes, the Knizia Samurai game) and I saw a review a few weeks back and immediately put it on my wishlist. I’ve been waiting for some modernized version of Samurai and if this is it I am getting it. Also it is All-Play and I like their productions so far.
- I missed out one even just playing The Wolves at SPIEL last year … then proceeded to talk myself out of wanting it and now saw a few comments that 2 is a good player count and it is so pretty and ticks quite a few of my boxes that I decided to give a chance.
- More Just One is better than less Just One so the “expansion” went into the basket as well
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Only available in German, it looks like?
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Yeah definitely needs to be an English version. Although it surely wouldn’t be hard to make some up
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it also has material for 2 more players… afaik.
no idea why that was never made available in other languages
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£4 is pretty cheap for ‘Childrens Non Hanging’.
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Uh oh!
As well as the beyond the sun expansion I also accidentally ordered some 40% off goodness.
Challengers! (For upcoming 8p warm up at mini con) and Puzzle strike 2 because it looks ridiculous and will sell for more than I paid.
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Challengers is getting some buzz on a discord I’m in. Is it actually good?
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I’ll check back in with you once we’ve given it a spin in a week or so. At 40% off it seemed worth a go. The rules look pleasingly simple so I’m hopeful.