This was one of those games that came up three years ago in my research. I think it was out of print then and I haven’t heard it mentioned much since. Is it back around, or is this an old gem in your collection?
It’s an old gem in my collection. I bought it in 2004 or 2005 on it’s first time round. It’s now available as US telegraph with exactly the same rules and gameplay, it’s personal what the setting will do for each individual though I suppose.
3 Likes
Another trip to the mountains with friends provided some game opportunities:
Arboretum was popular with the adults in the group. I still haven’t found a good way to explain the scoring other than laying out a sample tableau and hand and walking through it, which got tedious.
The Fox in the Forest was popular with the 10 to 13 kids, but resulted in some hurt feelings.
Uno served as a suitable vehicle for revenge for any kids that were seeking retaliation.
Welcome To had to be abandoned mid-game due to a gust of wind blowing some of the score sheets into a creek, but Railroad Ink stepped in to save the day.
Hive once again was a huge campsite hit. Pretty sure we sold three other families on the game.
All the little games managed to provide enough child care that the adults pulled off a Cribbage tournament.
We’re entering into a projected 9 day period of record heat here in Idaho, so I’m predicting a glut of AC-fuelled gaming in my near future.
10 Likes
We won the second game of June in our on-going Pandemic Legacy 2 campaign. I wouldn’t say we won easily and we didn’t manage one of our private goals (as opposed to the games official win conditions) which was to perform a search in Johannesburg but we had a population net-gain of 3 and only needed a single resource point to save a city from being wiped off the map post-game. We reached another private goal however because we finally managed to get back to only 6 epidemic cards in the deck with only 43 city cards left and 29 cities in the grid. We’ve been focussing on searches and got a few really nice bonusses which we’ll continue next game.
Our map has become “sprawling” (with the Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia uncovered up to India) but we haven’t broken beyond the “barrier” we can see to the east where we suspect Utopia lies (I am pretty sure it’s totally Utopian and nothing bad ever happens there like in every Utopia I ever read about /s)
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I’ve just finished a game of Railroad Ink Challenge via WhatsApp. We both have a copy of the game so took it in turns to roll the dice. Works very well 
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Myself, I’ve enjoyed Suburbia every time I’ve played it (despite, I think, never winning a game); thought the CoMKL variation introduced some awful changes (despite winning my game of that), and didn’t enjoy Isle of Skye any better (I think I did come last at that one).
I disliked Skye largely on account of the auctions, and I disliked Castles largely on account of the appalling AP-triggering “choose the optimal sequence of these tiles every single turn” which made every turn a drag, sapping most of the enjoyment out of it in my group. By comparison I’ve found Suburbia breezy and fun, every time.
3 Likes
Monday Night Games yesterday, where I played a good bunch of games.
First Hadrian’s Wall between 4, interesting “flip” and write, I think it has been one of the more complex ones I have played. I admit at times I thought I was doing well, but I fell in a few pits. Never mind that, my final score was the worse of the 4 at only 70, with a tie for the win at 93 resolved by the dishonor scale.
After that heavy one, a few simple games followed. First two rounds of The Bark Side. The owners were not sure about this game, and the two plays got it clear for them, they got rid of it. Actually they sold it to the other player for a fiver, I think. He said his children would enjoy it. Good luck.
We moved on to a proper trick taking game, Stick’em. I liked it a bit better than last time, although I still made a mess of the rules on my first round, and ended up with a big deficit in points. I swallowed my pride and did not reply rudely when I heard “But you’ve played before” and actually recovered decently by scoring 11 and 13 points on the two following hands. Still my initial deficit left me last by a couple points, but I got that little moral victory for myself to enjoy.
Then we moved on to MammuZ. Very “meh”. Basically a bluffing game where a few cards broke the game, making it way worse than a normal bluffing game. Playing only between 3 did not help either.
Finally, with about 15 mins left, we played a round of Qwixx. Nice little dice game, reminded me of That’s pretty clever, but way simpler. The winner closed early the green die, so it was tricky to get a high score, but I was glad I finished second on my first game ever.
4 Likes
My partner and I chipped away at our first game of Escape Plan over the last three days; fitting, since it takes place over three days.
It ended in a bit of a trouncing with me earning about 700 to her 550 or so, but the quality of her actions were better than mine, and I think as the teacher I had a pretty distinct advantage on this one. [EDIT] Next game I’ll anticipate a tight race.
We both played relatively cautiously, although I was afforded a little more mobility thanks to early investments into a gang. Neither of us ended with any handcuffs, but she and I lost $50K and $80K respectively due to our notoriety. At the end of the day(s) though, I was a little more savvy with movement and so my volume of end game tiles simply outperformed her quality.
We’re leaving this one set up as it’s a complicated game, but brief at 2P (with a marvelously transparent dummy character that REALLY shakes things up), so it’ll be good to really drill the rules in before packing it up for some time.
Super impressed with this one.
6 Likes
A couple of games this week:
Boomerang: Australia, I’m still yet to play this with 4 players which I think is probably the ideal number. This was a close 2 player game and decided by my complete failure to execute any decent ‘throws’.
Belfort, it’s been awhile since this one has gotten played. We played with 3 players with the assistants expansion and a couple of modules from the latest expansion. Was very tight throughout, final scores were close - I came in second to the only player who had built an expansion. Though in hindsight, I probably could’ve won if I’d used the wizards guild better on the final round. Lots of fun. Still one of my faves. It’s a bit long but never feels long, which is more important really.
4 Likes
3 player day, started with 18Mex @lalunaverde won a very tight game with all players cracking 6k and he was 300 out in front. I had a decent start, had a wobbly bit and sort of stormed back in to contention at the end. So quite pleased with that and also pleased to have in retrospect worked out what went wrong with my first company.
After some fish and chips we played a couple of games of Legend of the Cherry Tree That Blossoms Every Ten Years it’s very silly but a good time was had by all.
Finally we played Trick of the Rails which was excellent. Also massively improved by explaining the rules to someone who could just go with stock and operating rounds. This game was the best of the day because I won <3
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A bit surreal to be running 4 companies at the same time in 18Mex - all had permanent trains. I spent around 240 Pesos out of my pocket money, but the loss was repaid generously by the double diesel trains.
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We played a first physical game of Roll for the Galaxy both barely breaking 30 points. I won with 33 over 31 which is not a significant margin at all. I know from app plays that scores can go much much higher. Neither of us built a 6 development. But this was also learning the game without digital crutches 
I am happy I now have both Race and Roll. My partner seems to enjoy the dice though he seemed to have a bit of bad luck with them at times with his phase selection. Looking forward to more games. It is a good candidate to break into my 10/10 challenge.
3 Likes
Played some fillers: Crash by Chudyk - a trick taking game. Whale Riders: the Card Game and L.L.A.M.A by Knizia. Parade, one of the Z-Man Deluxe Card Games. Spicy and Spyfall.
Colt Super Express - this one is the card game version of the big game. No nice 3D cardboard train, but it whips pretty fast. It did got rid of the bit where you have to pick up stuff and left with moving and shooting each other. Not necessarily better than the board game, but it did condensed it nicely.
Mombasa - remains my preferred mid/heavy Euro from Pfister. Bad theme, but the pseudo stock holding made the game unobvious.
Fallout Shelter: the Board Game - alright. I was expecting an awful game, but it’s a pretty solid worker placement game. Nothing exciting though.
Pictures - slightly irked by the box size, but it does house a bunch of nice tactile stuff. We make “creations of art” (highly contentious claim!) and we laughed. The game seems to end up towards either: people guessing your pictures and everyone is happy because both sides score OR “How could you not guessed this? It’s so obvious. If you can’t guessed this one, you’re just hopeless”. and then laughs were had. Good game.
Mini Express - ah I don’t know. It seems to put a very strong emphasis on not giving the player on your left a cheap share. Very good train game in a small box but that bit is just eh.
Mountain Goats - It’s very similar to Can’t Stop.
4 Likes
You’ll probably struggle to regularly get the 6 developments/planets without the expansions, especially with the smaller VP pool. The little extra manipulation they provide help get to higher dice a lot faster.
1 Like
I considered insta-buying expansions and decided against it, as this one is very much a game that depends on my partner enjoying it as well, I want to introduce it slowly and wait until we feel like … expanding into more content. The expansions are seemingly always available so there is no hurry.
As opposed to A Wonderful World which first of all I can play solo and second I felt after a few games that it could do with more variety.
3 Likes
We played Herd Mentality. It and Wavelength/Just One/Concept/Champion all fit into the unofficial category of “games that provide an excuse to have an interesting conversation” to various degrees; it was a nice way to chat about what the best sauce is, what’s the “toughest” animal and what the best Christmas movie is (and whether or not Die Hard counts)
Works great over Zoom with a visual representation of points, and your enjoyment of the game is proportional to what you put in. Most people had a great time, one person was on their phone for most of the game (only answering questions and avoiding the discussion) so didn’t get on with it at all. They also got frustrated that putting the “right” answer didn’t get them points. But, assuming you’re willing to meet the game’s expectations of you, it’s a great time. Very casual and a good excuse for hanging out online.
5 Likes
It does. And it is.
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Got some games in with the non-gaming bro-in-law.
Sagrada was absolutely unappealing to him until about turn four, when it all clicked. We played two more games of it after that, and I’m pretty sure he bought a copy today to play solo.
In contrast, he was immediately into Tiny Epic Dinosaurs, and wiped the floor with us. Turns out breeding Stegos to feed your T-Rex is a legit strategy.
6 Likes
At minimum, this is a thing which exists:
I played some more Regicide yesterday; won the first game and lost the second – the final king was the King of Diamonds, so I couldn’t draw cards and I’d used both my jokers already. I’d set myself up as well as I could by refilling my hand on my last play of the previous turn, and I had some good cards but zero spades; so I had to eat 20 damage every time and, without any big clubs in hand either, I couldn’t take that and still deal out enough damage in return.
2 Likes
