Turns out we were like a turn and a half from finishing that Imperial Assault campaign (you literally just run away). So we discussed other games for a few, then settled on Spirit Island. Two of us had played before, but only a few experimental games, none won under a correct understanding of the rules. Two brand new. And it’s a scripted mod, so there was a little bit of figuring out what exactly does what (numpad based token playing! so cool!), and a lot of figuring out what the heck is even happening with the game. So we’re one turn in, with Shadows, Lightning, River, and Rampant Green (me) against baseline Brandenburg-Prussia. We stopped a few things, but oh, there are so many of them. Gonna try and pick up tomorrow, see what we can see. Probably we’ll lose, but that’s fine. It’s a tough game, with a lot to figure out. The scripting is really helpful, though - scripted setup, buttons for adjusting fear, automatic element tracking, power gaining, etc.
One of two reasons I sold it. The other reason was I found it boring
Thanks, that’s my feeling in it too. It’s a fun game, but takes way too long to set up. Some sort of insert could have reduced set up time significantly. If it doesn’t add that much I’ll look at picking it up.
Yesterday my wife and I played Splendor and Carcassonne. We haven’t played either in some time and I got beaten in most of the games. My wife is definitely better than me at Splendor. She’s much quicker at figuring out an engine. I won the third game of Splendor, only because I finally picked up on copying her strategy and got lucky. I didn’t even realize I’d won when we did it. After Splendor we played an extremely close game of Carcassonne. Neither of us played particularly well, and it was a very friendly game. We did change it up by using the starting Tableau expansion. It’s an oversized tile that makes several starting positions available. I liked the change but I think I prefer the river.
An insert would get it played so much more often. It’s one of those light games we play while just chatting and relaxing, just enjoying the act of fitting our parks together, but when it takes what feels like half as much time to set up as it does to play… it just doesn’t hit the table as much as we’d like. Nine times out of ten when the name comes up EVERYONE says “I just wish it didn’t take so long to set up.”
But those monorails…
I made an insert for the base game. It helps but there is still no space in the box for the expansion.
Played a couple of games of Battle Sheep on BGA tonight. Two player, won both games and knew it on turn two.
Cured my desire to buy it.
Wildlands on TTS. Well, yeah, I guess, but it’s a very Martin Wallace game and for me that’s a bad thing.
What makes a game “very Martin Wallace” other than being designed by him?
Wildlands is actually one of Wallace’s oddball designs, which is kind of the only stuff of his with which I’m familiar… which means I have no frame of reference with respect to his more widely enjoyed designs/associated quirks… which means I’m not making a very helpful comment here. But still, Wildlands is a marvelous design I really wish more people would have jumped on.
[EDIT] We have Unmatched fans here, all of whom should take a good look at it. Similarly delightful/devious multi-use cardplay.
Tonight I played Unmatched with someone I met on the SUSD Discord, on Tabletop Simulator. We initially played on the Sherwood Forest Map. He played as Robin Hood and I was Jekyll and Hyde. Our second game was played at Baskerville Manner and I played as the Invisible Man and he was Dracula. Each of our games was close, but he won both of them. I feel like he had a better grasp of his characters, but I think we were both relatively knew to the ones we were trying. I really enjoyed playing with him, I look forward to playing more Unmatched on TTS. At least until I can convinced my wife to play again, or things go back to normal and I can have some friends over.
I have TTS now. I will have to look into this.
I have managed a game of unmatched outdoors (Good size and not too many components) and felt that as you have your own deck and miniature your turn interaction was pretty safe.
It may be one of the “safest to play with others” games I have right now.
EDIT: probably a forum topic in there. As I don’t see social distancing going anywhere anytime soon.
…Have you ever thought about taking out a loan?
That’s a very good question. There are some recurring mechanics across many of his designs, but to me he is the epitome of “you can’t do that because you haven’t drawn the right card” frustration.
(The one of his I’ve really enjoyed is Exodus: Nouveau Paris which hardly anyone knows.)
Aha, I see you’ve played Brass 
I posted a bit ago about my husband’s middle niece being in town for a week with her grandparents and us having a board game afternoon / evening with her. The oldest niece now had her turn this week and we did a couple hours of board games with her last night. Well, the plan was for US to do it, but my husband got a very upset stomach out of nowhere so I ended up playing games with his niece alone. We played Disney Villainous as her sister had enjoyed it so much when she was here and talked it up to the rest of the family. Her Mother Gothel beat my Cruella de Vil. Then after a break for cake (the s’mores of last time were rained out), we played Bob Ross: Art of the Chill. I won at 30 Chill Points to 27, so close.
Her entire family arrived in town as we were finishing Bob Ross. They stayed the night at my husband’s parents’, then the trade off with the oldest being picked up and leaving with most the family and the youngest niece being left for her week with the grandparents is today. I believe the plan is family breakfast soon then group games before lunch and those leaving will hit the road after lunch, so we’ll see what gets played today.
if you’re looking for a game be sure to hit me up.
The only Martin Wallace game I’m confident I’ve played (there may be something else I didn’t realize was him) is first edition A Study in Emerald. And that game is terrific, if a bit hard to wrap one’s head around initially. Unfortunately, nothing I’ve heard about the changes made for the second edition sounds good to me, and the first edition is never being printed again. (I really hate when people do that with boardgames. I’m probably in a minority, but I like first edition Descent better than (non-app) second edition and I think they’re so different that it’s wrong to replace the latter with the former. And that’s not the only time FFG’s done that.)
PS: I do own AuZtralia, because of the Study in Emerald connection, but we have never played it and at this point that is unlikely to change in the immediately foreseeable future.
I’ve played a fair bit of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set over the past couple days, and I really like it so far. The game is almost entirely skill checks, but I find the mitigation to be ust so fun. It all boils down to “choose the skill you want and which cards you want to spend to add certain dice”, but it’s so much more fluid and fun to manipulate your deck to add dice, then roll a handful of them and scry them like you’re reading tea leaves. I also love the deck construction in this game. You don’t get to freely wheel through your deck because once you run out of cards, you’re dead, and your deck is only 15 cards, so every card matters, and you have to be smart about where to mitigate your luck and where to just hope you get 7 or better on a d8. The slim deck also makes upgrading your deck feel great; you’re swapping out one card, but that’s a significant amount when you have 15 of them, and you also get to boost your character’s stats or abilities, or even give them an additional card in their deck. It all makes your deck feel like your character more than any other deck construction game I’ve played I haven’t finished the adventure path in the core set, but I’m having a blast, and I’m excited to try some of the PDF adventures Paizo has put up online.