Somehow I wanted you to have a bad experience. Darn it!
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After 10 plays, I finally did not die in Eiyo. I havenāt won yet, but Iām setting it aside for a week of Arkham Horror LCG and maybe some painting.
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Heheh, happily Iām reporting the opposite. I just finished up my game and it was a really tight race between two of the ships to nail the final (10th) FP. The one ship had it in its clutches, but flubbed an attack on the scoundrel (a sitting duck with 3HP), missing out on that fame point, then rolled a catastrophic amount of ice damage while mining and blew up at the end of its turn. All the other ship needed to do was to mine a little cargo and then cash it in right next door, but it rolled a natural 20 on the mine attempt and took it on luck instead!
Iām going to digest the solo rules immediately and take it for a spin.
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Monday Night Games last night, so I played two very social deduction/bluffing heavy games.
First Reigns: The Council, which one of the members received recently from Kickstarter. Reminded me a lot of to The Kingās Dilemma, but without the legacy aspect. You pick cards and have a secret objective, but the king role rotates so everybody has a go at kingship. If you get 12 points as king, you gain them and nobody else fulfill their objectives (cards) proposed by the councilors. I really enjoyed the ārole playingā aspect of it, but I found that the scores are really tight. At +/- 5 on any of the 4 aspects of the reign, the king gets deposed (or killed) and the scores are counted for the councilors regarding their hidden objectives. None of the 5 kings made the 12 (max was me with 9). Ended last with 22 points, the winner had 40. Still very enjoyable with the right kind of players, but I think it is too heavy on the luck from the card you receive as a secret objective to get scores up.
Then we played Sheriff of Nottingham, again with 5. Really enjoyed the vibe of the game, although I did terrible at it. As it was my first time against old veterans of the game, I played it safe with no contraband for a long time, and it weighed on my final score. Finished last with 141, the winner had 209. Still, I did enjoy it quite a lot. Would consider it buying it to play with friends.
On the other hand, lately I am considering how often I lose or finish last at games. There might be something I am not doing well. Although I am still enjoying it, I think I have to review my tactics/strategy. I try to avoid AP as much as I can, perhaps I have to be easier on myself on that aspectā¦
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I think itās interesting to contrast this, where as you say you need to get contraband through to win, with something like Coup, which you can do quite well at by never telling a lie or misleading people in any way. (Just as long as they donāt realise thatās what youāre doing.)
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I think this could be a good tactic, if too dependent on having many cards that are similar. I did struggle to get many of the same, the only product I led on was Cheese, and just by 2 on the very end. With five players, on the market phase I saw many times stuff I wanted getting well buried in the discards.
I guess the art of the game resides on knowing when to bluff, and when to be safe. I am good at playing fake culprit, but maybe not so good at the opposite.
Oh man. The 2017 edition is just miles better than the old 1994 edition. As it is Womenās Day today, full credits to Jacqui Davis (who have also done other works in this hobby) for the art and illustrations
Edit: game is called Manhattan by Andreas Seyfarth.
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Jacqui has 77 artist credits on BGG.
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What game is this?
Whoops. Sorry. The game is called Manhattan by Andreas Seyfarth
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Played a few more scenarios of Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth andā¦ I still canāt tell if itās actually good.
The difficulty varies WILDLY between missions, the pace is too frantic to allow thematic exploration.
Iām going to continue until I finish the first run-through with 2 heroes, and then try 3 on the easy family mode.
Gorgeous. Probably not something Iād play, Iām guessing. But great table presence.
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Cyclades with @Whistle_Pig - the perfect TTS experience. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I play it again? Yes. Would I buy it? No. Itās a very good, semi scripted mod of a new game to us; which is in the series with Kemet and Inis. There is a really clever auction of god powers, which determine what you can do on your turn and the turn order. Picking first can be a disadvantage because the auctions cascade down and you can get bumped from multiple spaces. We didnāt fight anywhere near as much as I thought we would - often plans were hampered by either the right God not being available or being outbid. Iāve enjoyed all 3 games in the series and would play them all again happily, probably more aggressively. IMO Inis is the best of them.
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3 players? I believe that does leave 2 gods out for a round, yes. 
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4 players. The God shuffling could have done with being scripted
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My goodness, I actually won a game of the patience-style variant (i.e. the one where winning actually seemed like it would be possible : )
The scoring started out with such a hiss and a roar that for a while I actually thought Iād romp home, and then I had a moment of panic near the end when I feared that I wasnāt going to make it. It came down to the wire, but a final score of 63 gave me a win by two points!
I wish Iād had a camera with me so I could have taken a photo to show off.
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I am on a losing streak, my partner beat me at Azul and Sub Terra beat me on its own and Sprawlopolis decided to give me a goal I have not seen in ages, which I misunderstood (Go Green counts blocks not groups) and I promplty lost that one, too.
Hmm what to play next?
Ps all typos owned by my tablet
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Talking about losing streaks, I finished mine with the person I less wanted to, my eldest daughter. Played two games of Love Letter with her, and won both, even though I was losing 4-2 on the first one at one point. I had 3 or 4 really wild guesses with my guard cards that tipped the game to my favour, at least she took it well.
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Been playing a wee bit of Sleeping Gods - still havenāt got the rules clear and slick enough in my head to see if my wife would fancy dropping in. There are a few things that are fiddly-er than sheād enjoy, so Iād want to be able to mitigate that a bit first.
Been waiting to give SG a good try before I start up another curse in 7th continent.
And both of these games on the epic play-time scale have arrived at a time when Iām genuinely enjoying painting up some models for the first time in a while.
Itās a good thing weāre locked down now and canāt meet friends and family, eh? Stretched thin on the gaming front as it is 
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I have really enjoyed my time so far with Sleeping Gods - itās a long meander though (not a criticism!)
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