Scout - OOOHHH YEAH. New Oink game and this is a very fun shedding card game. One of my faves of this year, no doubt.
Imperial 2030 - China dominated significantly in this game as every other powers balanced each other, and China was left mostly untouched as there are 3 out of 6 players (which includes myself) who are reluctant on damaging its position. I unwisely gambled big on Russia that exploded outwards rapidly, but the game was closing too fast for Russia to advance further. While one of the players took control of China from me and raked up shares, which won him the game. It sounds unwise to do that move, but I thought I want to give it a try.
Go Nuts for Donuts - set collecting card game like Sushi Go, but relies on second guessing other people on the public drafting, instead of the rather solitaire-ish drafting. Players all choose which of the cards available they want to take secretly and at the same time. And the players who chose the same donut won’t have it and it goes to the discard. I prefer this one to Sushi Go because of this. Very similar to Crossing, which SUSD reviewed aeons ago.
Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers and Carcassonne: Amazonas - yep. It plays like Carcassonne. I don’t think they replace my copy of the base game, especially when I have the first 2 expansions as well.
Glux - simple abstract game, but wasn’t as compelling as I thought. Blokus is still my fave 2 and 4 player abstract game
Elfenroads - so we tried all the modes: Elfenlands, Elfengold, and Elfensea. This is typical “travelling salesman: the board game” from Alan Moon and it’s fun. The rules are slightly heavier here in Elfenroads. I still enjoy playing Ticket to Ride, especially the wilder variants of it like Rails and Sails or whatever, but I really prefer this one. The requirement to create routes are not static and are determined by players. So, if your elf wants to travel on a forest route, players can determine the mode of transportation required to move through. Which you then play that transport card to proceed. If a route doesn’t have a transport assigned, you cannot use any of your cards to move through.
This is significant. There’s strong incentives for people to start working together by assigning transports on routes, and good luck if you’re going solo. Elfengold adds in auctions which adds tension on which transport type can be picked up. But the problem here is that alliances and the breaking of alliances tend to happen by coincidence. Player B and I moved north because we have dragon tiles which are perfect for mountain routes. Then, we split ways because I have unicorn cards for the desert routes.
Still glad to play it. Airlines Europe is still my fave Alan Moon route building as it combines this and area majority.