5 year old āHow do you play that?ā
Me āWellā¦ā
Poor dude lost 58-45.
As a bonus got a new drawstring bag for it so my 9 year old could practice on her new sewing machine.
10 Likes
Monday we had a long day of games at my Games Guild, and played two new games for me.
Kemet: Blood and Sand at 5. Interesting game, but I believe 5 is not the best number. I did well to start with, but that painted a big target on me, so I got trounced and finished last. I think it is a bit too chaotic for my liking. Next time I play I know what I am going for, a good engine to build prayer reloads with a good white pyramid. Thatās what the winner went for, and he trounced us at the end.
Then we split, and I played Viticulture at 2. What a jewel. I did noyt have the best teach in the world, so I was pulling what I could on the go from my memory from watching it played once on Youtube and asking my opponent here and there. I caught up towards the end and was on top for a bit, but my final orders were mainly rose and bubbly, which did not suit me very well on my set up. Lost 30 something to 20 many.
In return, I taught my opponent with my copy of Architects of the West Kingdom. Given that he won, I think we can establish who is the better teacherā¦ He went early for the Cathedral strategy, and I donāt know how at the end he topped it up with a couple more buildings that gave him the edge. My low virtue was the difference in the end, I ran out of time to clean up my name.
5 Likes
Aaah, I must play more Viticulture!
2 Likes
Games Night!
Played
Brian Boru - This is a good game. Easy to teach and you never feel lime youāve truly lost if you lose the trick. The end round scoring is no worse than other games that do similar.
Jerusalem - build a tower in Jerusalem through the power of prestige is the theme I guess? Forgettable area control game. Won by hogging a collection of spots that got me four build points (to build an increasingly expensive tower) for 8 money, and then they generated 8 money.
Coloretto - always a laugh
5 Likes
Right I managed to squeeze in two more games of Troyes. First game I comfortably won ( for the first time) having managed to set up a neat little economy with the whites and yellows. The second game I got trounced as punishment.
Itās definitely been my new to me game of the year.
3 Likes
Played a fair bit of Isle of Cats. A really fun game imo. Weāve only played the Family variant so far as the main game (at least to me) looks overly fussy and Iām not quite sure what kind of game that is.
The family game fits almost exactly in the same space as Azul with a little bit more variety and rules. Thereās a collective pool of tiles to draft and both players will pick something that can just about fudge into a coherent plan and āaccidentallyā screw up the other person.
There are secret objectives for a player which can really swing a game (I think this is a good idea - often secret objectives are very token contributions to a score, I like this better I think). I quite like them here as they seem strong enough to drive strategy but if you ignore them I think you can still win if you play well.
Iām not sure Iām ever going to try the ārealā game because thereās so many layers to it but it sort of seems to obfuscate a really cool puzzle in its plainest form. Sort of like if Tetris had an auction phase or something. I donāt know Iām sure there are people who dig what looks like a fairly meaty game but I canāt quite see where the high point of enjoyment might be.
9 Likes
I rather nervously tackled a two-handed solo game of Eclipse to learn the ropes, and it went so smoothly, and it was so much fun that I might even do it again just for kicks. I stuck to human factions just to keep the asymmetry from breaking me right off the bat, and while I really do see the value of playing āvanillaā on a first go, nothing was too hard to wrangle, even late-game. I am just gobsmacked by how much fun I had and will be making it a priority to table with opponents ASAP.
I also got a chance to teach my partner Kabuto Sumo, where I lost by exhaustion after a tricky match. I got a good run with my power mid-game, but we lost a large brown disc permanently early on, which really hampered me and forced me to go hard after a KO. Unfortunately that meant I needed to move boldly and I lost by token depletion against my partnerās horde of small greenies.
2 Likes
I taught myself Unmatched and Horrified today, playing two- or three-handers solo (Horrified is 1-5 player co-op, but it seemed much more interesting to have multiple characters).
For Unmatched: Cobble & Fog, I played Dracula vs Sherlock Holmes twice (badly), but Iām starting to get the idea. Iām not confident about getting this to the table with my partner (although I can never be sure), but I have a friend who I think will really enjoy it ā if I actually manage to see them any time soon. In the meantime I think Iāll have a play with more of the characters on my own to get more of a feel for the variations.
(Edit: Bruce Lee just annihilated the Invisible Man after catching up to him and unleashing a chain of three Jeet Kune Do cards while using a Nunchuka.)
For Horrified, I went with the recommended starter game against Dracula (again!) and The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and I donāt recommend that at all ā only two monsters was dullsville and very underwhelming, such that I was feeling quite disheartened by the purchase by the end of my first game. I could only hope that a difficulty bump would turn it around. The normal game has three monsters, and on first impressions I couldnāt recommend ever playing with fewer than that (four is āhardā). In my second game I went with three monsters (Wolfman, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man) and three player characters, and losing that game was much more enjoyable than effortlessly winning the first one.
Iād heard this compared to Pandemic in terms of gameplay, and I can see that; but for all the overtly thematic elements, I didnāt feel that the theme comes through in the game mechanics the way it does so smoothly in Pandemic, so in some ways Horrified weirdly felt more abstract to me than Pandemic does. It tries hard, and the production values are lovely, but itās fiddly, and Iām not convinced yet. I did like how at first I wanted villagers to appear so that I could save them and get bonuses, and then as the game went on every new villager elicited a groan because I couldnāt afford to let them be eaten, but didnāt have time to save them either (I ran out of time in that game with only 2/3 of the monsters defeated, and a frenzied Invisible Man occupying all of my characters because the terror track was maxed out).
I havenāt played with the Bride of/Frankenstein pairing yet, though (which I think was listed as the most difficult opponent), and I do have a soft spot for the overall theme, so Iām going to give it opportunities to grow on me more ā I really wanted to like it, and maybe in the end I will. I have Pandemic: Fall of Rome waiting for me as well (I almost played that today instead of Horrified), so itās going to be interesting to find out what I think of that by comparison.
7 Likes
Unmatched is one of my favorites, which unfortunately I cannot say the same for my wife. Just so you are aware, Sherlock is considered one of the top fighters, so if it feels like you played badly against him, it might just be that aspect. Hope you get to play it for real soon.
3 Likes
Played Underwater Cities with my youngest. Itās a very euro worker placement, resource conversion engine builder type thing. Iād played it once on Yucata and I really enjoyed it; it feels quite like Terraforming Mars which is a good thing imo.
Keen to play this again soon. Knowing what to do will be most helpful!
7 Likes
My line manager has that same t-shirt, and has been known to wear it on whole-company video meetingsā¦
4 Likes
I woke up early enough this morning to sneak in a game of Hard City, making a second attempt at scenario 4 (Bloody Sunrise). As with my first go at it, the bad Doctor Zero successfully threw his mutant boat party and my officers were not invited.
This time went quite a bit differently than the last as I was able to use my opening cutscene to great effect, and by the end of the first rounds I had little in the way of threats on the board. That said, what was there had been super effective and I had two cops on deathās door already. With Jenny on the docks and two hurt cops rescuing civilians, she planted herself awaiting her chance to heal her companions and keeping the docks clear. After a few more rounds I had most of the horde well behind us, had the scarier wounds healed up, had airlifted two civilians with another two in position for a rescue, and had just leveled up!
And then it all fizzled out. The bot went on an absolute rampage, while I defied all odds spending dozens of activations on catastrophically bad rolls. My luck in avoiding the episode special cards finally ran out and I drew two ārush the boatā specials in a single turn. The doc had already managed to abduct a civilian so with two rushes at 3 mutants (VP in this case) each, my game was over just like that.
I had it in my grasp! I didnāt even need to roll particularly well to keep things under control, but blank after blank, the numbers kept piling up and there was just no stopping them when he sounded the horn.
I had this idea that Iād beat the game by tomorrow, clearing all 5 episodes in 2021 but I think Iāll settle for a new year beat. 
3 Likes
So much Mario Labyrinth
5 year old loves it, Iām not hating it
4 Likes
Played Coatl with my father (77) and my nephew B (almost 10).
Omg. B grasped the game quickly, while my dad struggled. B has been super-hyped since we arrived as we rarely visit and so heās having a hard time concentrating on such trivialities as doing a turn in a game. He was running away from the table and playing with toys on the side. However, whenever I said āB your turnā he immediately took his turn without thinking much. My dad took forever with each turn because B distracted him and I had to help my dad a couple of times. B got bored when he had to wait and ran away again. And so onā¦
B finished a really great first Coatl (you get to make a maximum of 3 in a game) that he could score 4 cards for. But then he didnāt have any score cards and when I told him he could pick more than one new one on his turn, he declined. Instead he chose to finish his next 2 Coatl quickly, ending the game before my dad or I could get even close to finishing a third one.
Putting on tempo is a good strategy in general, forcing others to score less. And that was clearly Bās plan. He had just neglected to score points on his 2nd and 3rd Coatl mostly because neither matched his Temple card which would have given him an additional 14 points. And because of that my dad ended up winning with 1 point ahead of me. He was quite surprised about that and a bit mollified because he had been grumpy the whole time because he never quite grasped the strategy enough.
How it plays: You build Coatl from heads, segments and tails that are drafted from a central board. The parts come in 5 colors. Everyone has a Temple card that gives general scoring conditions for all their Coatl. Everyone also has a hand of prophecy cards that have scoring conditions for a single Coatl. You can only finish a Coatl if you have played 1-4 fulfilled prophecy cards on it. On your turn you either draft parts, prophecy cards or build your Coatl. When a player finishes their 3rd Coatl the game ends.
Edit: my impression is probably colored by the weird experience of this today. I have rarely had such a stressful gameplay. I have little patience with AP at the best of times but managing a hyper-active kid and a grumpy dad taking forever with each turn at one table was almost enough for me to stop midway through. Would play again despite that. I think itās a nice set collection game with just enough complexity for me to play it half a dozen times before getting bored of it. 7/10
8 Likes
Finally got in my first games of Railroad Ink Blue Edition over Xmas despite receiving all of them in the Kickstarter some time at the start of this year.
Well received by my folks (who couldnāt remember playing Welcome Toā¦ when I used it as a comparison) even though they found it a bit tricky. They asked if Iād leave it behind for them to play.
I won all three games, so maybe I should have gone a bit easier?
They did however beat me in the few games of Yahtzee we also played.
4 Likes
Bought the family MonsDRAWcity for Christmas and weāve been having a lot of fun with it.
Weāve also played numerous rounds of Dixit and Codenames. For the latter, my favourite was a āGuns for 4ā clue that linked Shot, Irons, Fire and America!
10 Likes
BTW, I love the sculpture for the Invisible Man in Cobble & Fog. How great is that? (n.b. painted by someone else, but it shows it off well.)
8 Likes
Got a quick-ish game of Men at Work played this evening before dinner with my nephew and his folks. His mum has some physical challenges so it was really nice to see her join in and laugh along. Anyway I kept things loose and left out the colour rule for workers to make things a tad easier, but it really dragged the game out. This wasnāt an entirely bad thing since my nephew wanted our structure to keep growing so he could smash it at the end, but it was almost 40 minutes before we called it. There was enough mayhem to keep him entertained, but it resulted in a bit of a stilted three-way sudden death scenario that was more messing around than really playing. Good for the kid, not so much for us. I regret nothing.
That said, it was clear he didnāt need any help jumping in so next time weāll play with the full rules. This game is always, always a big hit.
7 Likes
Some games in and around New Years:
Three Sisters
Fugitive - really like this one as a very unique 2 player, asymmetric card game. Caught as the fugitive, on a 33% gamble on the final stage of the manhunt. Would flee the authorities again.
Quacks of Quedlinburg, man I couldnāt catch a break in this one - I fell behind early and then kept busting in an effort to catch back up 
Jaipur
Schotten Totten, couple of games of this, like it a lot.
Morels, kind of fell into a bunch of chantrelles mid mushroom hunt that sealed a solid victory.
Fresco, Iāve been wondering if I should sell this one, as it had been ages. Having played it again now, I think Iāll hold onto it - itās a lot of fun.
Super Big Boggle, busted this one out with my wife for the first time in awhile and as usual played a bunch of games.
Truffle Shuffle, my wife actually requested this one specifically, I think itās grown on her.
Love Letter, by request we played without the new characters from the 2019 re-release. Easy enough to do and, yeah, Iām not sure theyāre a great addition at 2 players.
Patchwork, solid win of this one - neither of us quite managed the 7x7 goal though, which I donāt think Iāve seen happen before.
Ohanami, highest score ever this time around - just shy of 200! Things fell in my favor, and my opponent didnāt fight me enough on the cherry blossoms.
6 Likes