Interested to know how you fair. I’m torn on s2 as it had some great twists on the formula but became overly convoluted imho. Although the long term decision making seemed more impactful.
In about another years time I may be ready for s0
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I was going to play my new copy of Cubitos. But it is missing the rulebook. At first I was fascinated that it seemed to come with just one sheet of rules. But the longer I tried to grasp the game the more obvious is became that something was wrong. And me having the German version meant I then went looking at Pegasus who do not have a download. There is only a Dutch translation of the quick overview I have at BGG… by the time I remembered to look at the AEG website I was tired and annoyed and had discovered one of the boards is damaged… so tomorrow I will see how good customer service is at Pegasus.
But the dice are indeed smallish but quite nice to roll.
The cardboard boxes to keep them in will need replacing I have already started ripping off the lids because they close so tightly they are almost impossible to open.
ps tomorrow is Karfreitag and Monday is also a national holiday so Tuesday…
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I sense an exciting foamcore montage is coming soon
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Just played Primal The Awakening’s TTS demo. It was really fun, so much so I’m relieved that backing wasn’t a bad idea.
The combos were satisfying to pull off because they weren’t too excessive and kinda difficult to set going. Overall difficult was well above cake walk so hopefully there’ll be some longevity. Also looking forward to painting the cool big toys 
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Cthulhu: Death May Die , tackled a new episode that involved trying to find sorcerers among dancers. Sorted out the sorcerers at about the same time as Cthulhu was revealed. One player was already advanced on his sanity track, I thought that was probably going to be trouble (since Cthulhu causes insanity). But we beat down 2 stages of him, doing better than we thought. It all came down to me, just needed to hit Cthulhu in his final stage. So I moved to his location, picking up five cultists and four Deep Ones as I went, and managed to get half of his health down in my first attack. Attacked again, and came up one success short, and had no rerolls. And this is where I played incorrectly. I had to take 2 sanity hits from Cthulhu, but it should have stopped at the last threshold. So, not only would I have not have gone mad, my insanity card should have triggered, and it was Catatonia, which would have left me safe from attacks (from the nine enemies and the big C himself). So I would have had another round to do just a single damage, and we would have won. I thought about this on the drive home, I think I missed a golden opportunity to be the hero. So I probably had the perfect insanity card to deal with the situation. Bummer.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg , bit of random fun. I was in the game until the last round, where I blew up and fell back. Still fun.
The Manhattan Project , hadn’t played this for years, thought it might be fun. And it was, but it was also a bit slow, takes a while to get the right buildings together, and all your little scientists, before you can start making bombs. We called it early.
5211 , had another go at this. And still don’t really know what I’m doing, it all seems pretty random.
The Crew
Oriflamme , which I enjoy. And I thought the others liked it as well, until they actually said they hated it, because I always win. Ok, i did have an easy win this week. Umm, and last week. I can’t remember who won before (I don’t log it). I was a bit surprised to find they didn’t like it. They dont mind playing, and this is like a 10/15 minute game, but still. I dont want people to play a game they really don’t like.
Still annoyed about Cthulhu…
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Tuesday my regular group fell through (like it’s done every Tuesday (or, occasionally, Wednesday) this year - it’s driving me nuts) but I rounded up some folks on the TTS Club discord and we played Spirit Island, against the level 1 Habsburgs. Came pretty close to the wire - we were in stage 3 invader cards, but we got a couple big major powers off and were able to both win by fear and clear all remaining cities all but simultaneously. It was the first time I’d played against the Habsburgs (who migrate towns around in a very annoying manner) and the first time I’d played Vengeance as a Burning Plague, which is a very different playstyle than I’m used to. Every time previously I’ve been all about harm mitigation - move stuff before it can build or sometimes before it can ravage, nuke on fast if I can, pair defense and dahan or slow damage to kill invaders without damaging the land, etc. Vengeance just doesn’t really do that. It’s Vengeance, you know? You need disease in play. One of the ways you get disease in play is having your presence blown up (it turns into disease automatically). Also, you treat blight as badlands tokens, so every bit of blight that hits is more damage from all your powers. And you have a zero cost power that trades removal of the spirit’s blown up presence for fear + a damage on any spirit’s lands. Including your blight-is-badlands effect even if it’s another spirit’s land and presence removal. So, yeah. Get hit, wreck shit. You do also get the ability to prevent ravages where there’s disease with another starting power, so I did a bit of that. But mostly, I did big blight and disease based nukes, and I got Blood Draws Predators and Vengeance of the Dead, so killing invaders meant more damage still.
Then last night, got one of the few Thursday groups that hasn’t completely fallen through so far this year (we were still down a player, as we have been every time things have gotten off the ground - in this case a migraine) and continued our Dice Throne Adventures campaign into Scenario 3. I was convinced we were gonna lose since we came in with all of one healing salve after a brutal, very very very close battle against the Fallen Barbarian and Scenario 3’s portal crawl involves significantly more level III and IV minions than Scenario 1 did. But, fingers crossed, we seem to be on the precipice of victory, having cleared the entire map except for the portal itself before my GF asked to call it as she was too tired to continue. It helps that my Vampire Lord’s blood power tokens allow for some spectacular self-heals. That said…
- we’re pretty beat up and only have a couple of salves left. So we’ll see. Level IV minions are tough. Even if we lose, though, I personally have just piles of loot, including a legendary. So the next run will be better armed.
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We played our first 2 player game of nidavelir. It had some nice strategy and timing elements and the mild suction tension is fun. I think our biggest issue is that the game has a fair bit of arithmetic at the end (take this card and it loses me 40 points but I’ll make 60 points or take this card and it only scored 25 points but stops you getting 20 points so it’s net 45 points).
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This is a family forum!
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Food Chain Magnate!!!
That is all.
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Did you win or were you crushed by capitalism???
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My independent coffee chain was crushed by the in-game equivalent of McDonald’s, but I did improve considerably on my previous best score (of $0)
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That McCafe is really steamrolling the industry.
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Maybe you can only win if you’ve been crushed by capitalism.
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I am waiting to play with more players. Two player is nice but I think more players will be better 
The end can be a bit prone to AP when you want to make the most points out of those final auctions.
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Boardgame night was easy tonight. We played a few rounds of Montagsmaler (aka skribbl.io) and 6 nimmt on BGA. Which is always a hilarious tumble through loud cackling and incredulity when someone takes a row.
This afternoon we had our first 2 races of Cubitos. First I played 2 handed and then my partner and I played with the 1st Race setup recommended in the English rulebook on the AEG website (I had to guess the card names though and I am reasonably sure I guessed wrong on the orange dice).
Anyway, the dice are small but nice. Definitely recommend some kind of dice rolling container thing so you won’t have dice all over the floor. My fears of it being more like Zombie Dice and Quarriors than its own thing were unfounded.
- There is more mitigation to the bad rolls in there than Zombie Dice, I only busted my roll about three times in the second race which is fine and I nearly caught up to my partner by taking a few risky rolls later
- The symbols are less complex than Quarriors and so it is easier to see at a glance what was rolled. There is only 1 unique symbol per dice color and there are only 8 of those. The rest of the symbols are either coins (for buying dice) or feet (for moving) and that’s it.
It was definitely a fun race with a lot of each turn happening in parallel and interesting choices to make which new dice you want and which bonusses or route to go for. I liked that this map particularly allowed for getting rid of unwanted dice easily…
With 4 maps and so many different combinations of dice effects there seems to be a lot of variety and after 2 races I would definitely change it up for the next one. We both enjoyed the push your luck element more than in Quacks of which neither of us is a huge fan (we tolerate it because our friends like it) . So I am guessing we’ll play again sometime this week-end
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It’s very gentle. The zero feels like it has more value because you almost always get a choice and you get the bonus coins. The middle value coins seem to lose there value a bit too. I suspect the margins for good play are much finer in multiplayer.
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Today I played my 10th game of Calico. I do not always think too long about tile placement and I don’t always do well and I am still playing with the starting setup. It’s enough of a puzzle to last me at least another 10 games. I just enjoy the placing of the hex tiles and it is partly (not entirely) due to the lovely design and the awesome playerboards. It just feels nice. The puzzle is nice too and I can try to wrap my head around it or just go with the flow. Both are fun.
Also of note: As mentioned elsewhere my spare copy of Spirit Island found a new home with my cousin and he played for the first time yesterday with his partner and… they played 3 games in a row. I think they like it. He initially asked me if I thought the game might be too heavy and I gave my answer based on the fact he played Leaving Earth with my partner for a whole night during a large family outing some time back.
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What’s great about old games is that they are easy to introduce to non-gamers. So I manage to play some games in my flat outside of my usual gaming group.
Wildlife. Fun Dominant Species lite by Wolfgang Kramer where you reproduce (magically) and attack other animals in an area majority game. There are special cards you can get from the communal supply or steal from other players, which grants special abilities. Very fun but I was very unsure. Also, a bit more chrome than I’d want. I need to play more as it feels a bit unsatisfying enough (mechanism-wise), but it was a bit too heavy for my group.
Northern Pacific has two rules and one way to score. And it’s mean and tight. But the decisions are tight that you seem to rely on turn order here more than on other Cube Rails. I still prefer Irish Gauge as my Cube Rail from Amabel Russell. But this is good fun. Still need to try out Trans Siberian Railroad and Iberian Gauge.
Pueblo - very tactile tetris-y game, but it didn’t satisfy enough, unlike their Renature, Mask Trilogy, Torres. I guess I want more drama than what Pueblo offers.
Fuzzies - I love it! Good fun. Defo more good looking than Rhino Hero and probably as difficult.
Merchants of the Middle Age - such an old school German looking game with a title that makes the crowd wild. Designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich - aka the “El Grande Duo”. Way more player interaction here as there’s negotiation (I will always include the Negotiator Variant from here on!) and some clever plays here. I’ve been told online that the old rules from the Hans Im Gluck edition is better than the English Z-Man rules (how did this happen??).
I want to play more of it to get a better grip on it, as it is a unique game.
Orongo - spatial connection game from Knizia. Random landmarks appears on the map and players auction for placing player tokens on the map to make their connections. If you connect a temple landmark with a religious item (I forgot what it was) then you make a pair and you can build a Moai on a coastal hex with a connection to those pair.
The bidding is a hidden bid and you reveal at the same time. If you have the most, you put the shells on the atoll by the corner and you can play 3 player tokens. 2nd most is 2nd but keeps their bid and place 2 tokens, and everyone else who bid returns theirs too with only 1 token to place. The player(s) who didn’t bid get the winner’s bid from the atoll! Multiple zero-bidders share the shells equally with remainder staying in the atoll.
So, Orongo is a closed economy a la Dream Factory/Hollywood Golden Age or The Estates. But this closed economy keeps getting smaller. If you have a valid pair, you put a shell on each of those used hexes to indicate that they are used to build a Moai. Since there’s no new influx of shells, the money supply keeps getting smaller.
I easily became enamoured with Orongo, with the connections bit reminding me of Blue Lagoon, Through the Desert, and Babylonia. But with a fun auction of blind bidding with zero bidders as scavengers in a closed economy.
Minotaur/Scarab Lords - 2 player Knizia that feels like a cross between Schotten Totten/Battle Line and Blue Moon. Which I would love more if there’s more factions. So far, with the combined Minotaur and Scarab, I have 4 factions which is sufficient. Unfortunately, FFG didn’t expanded this. Keeping this.
Spectaculum - another Knizia because obviously his games are the only ones I have. This one is a commodity speculation of buy low and sell high. But with a traveling circuses theme. There are 4 circuses and players guide them to villages which adds/reduces the value of circus performers (based on which circus they belong). Some village have plagues which you have to pay money to take care of your sick performers. Some does the opposite. It was simple enough for my group, but we had a good time playing it. Im keeping it. I feel that it’s better than Mini Rails
Casa Grande - this one is a fun 3D game that isn’t a dexterity game. You build supports on the board, and if you form a pattern, then you can put a tetris piece on top as a platform. Any opposing piece caught under this tetris piece of yours are now useless. Mwahaaha! Then, players can proceed to build higher and higher - creating patterns again (the ones that are still available in their personal supply) and the score is multiplied by the level: 1st level is x1, 2nd level is 2x, and so on.
Poison aka Friday the 13th - I got the edition with big cardboard cauldrons. It’s a card game, so it’s really larger than it should be due to those cauldrons but they feel indulgent. So there are 3 suits of cards. Play a card and that suit’s value increases by the value of the cards. e.g. Red 4 will increase the red cauldron by 4. If a suit reaches 13 or more, then the cauldron explodes and the player takes all the cards in the cauldron.
HOWEVER, at the end of the round, if you have the most cards of that suit, then you discard that suit a la Z-Man’s Parade. But there are poison cards, all worth 4. You can play them on any cauldron, but they cannot be removed.
I tried looking for IELLO’s Friday the 13th but I prefer Poison’s art and theme. So I’m keep the cauldrons!
Reiner Knizia’s Amazing Flea Circus - it was bad. But the art on the flea cards and the puppy and kitty miniatures are nice.
Beowulf: the Legend - wooo! Another Knizia! Didn’t worked with me. The group was cool with it. Maybe because there’s no tempo in thegame. What you’re doing in the first bidding is the same as the last one. Unlike Modern Art or Orongo. The bidding is similar to Taj MahaI but I prefer the latter.
Africa - Another RK game. A lot better than Knizia’s Aristocracy, for me. But I didn’t like the theme of “A bunch of brave explorers enters the unknown Dark Continent to find animals, tribes people, artifacts, and GOLD”. And the game was alright. I want tension between players in the game.
Renature - a cutesy domino game with cutesy animals! But it’s MEAN. And I love it! The tiebreaker rule and the neutral bits are just fun. I never loved a K&K game since the Mask Trilogy. I liked Porta Nigra and Palaces of Carrara but I wasn’t wowed by them. I’m obviously keeping it.
Aztlan - another Colovini game. Clever game and can be mean if you want to, but I never found myself wanting it as much as the ones in my shelf.
Nova Luna - cool game, but not my style. I can see Patchwork’s influence in this game.
Kanaloa - 4 player version of Kahuna. Fun and interactive. The card art is a bit lame. You have the name of the island, but the illustration is hard to read to see where the island is on the board.
Masons - another Colovini. Colourful and tactile but wasn’t wowed by it. Purely tactical, but doesn’t allow me to intentionally screw or help other people.
Ilos - found this one on a bargain bin online. I liked Zee Garcia’s review so I gave it a shot. It has undertones of colonialism under the cute cartoon art of different culture art on different players. In fact, it felt like a super stripped down version of Archipelago. All that remains are the hexes and occupying resource spots. But here, you have cards to do actions by playing with other cards in your hand. There’s enough interaction (check) and there’s commodity speculation too (check) where you can increase the value of a resource, and they score that amount. Light and simple. Not sure if I’m keeping it, but it can stay for now.
Knizia’s take on Ameritrash: Clash of the Gladiators - didn’t like it. Which is a surprise because I like both simple dice rolling Ameritrash and Knizia. Oh well. I prefer Matt Leacock’s Chariot Race if I want some trashy fun of Mario Kart in Roman times.
GPS - lame. No player interaction
Mountain Goats - oohhh I like it more than Cant Stop. And it looks pwetty.
Sequioa - dice rolling area control (@yashima 
) with a lame tiebreaker rule - you keep playing at the end of the game until the tiebreaker is resolve, while everyone watches. I decided to import the Renature tiebreaker rule here to get rid of that nonsense.
Trias - area majority game with dinosaurs. You start with a Pangaea, then you score area majority when a continent is fully detached from either the South Pole or other continents. You can pull the proverbial carpet underneath someone’s dinos by moving a hex to another place further away from the South Pole - thematically, this is the moving tectonic plates. Poor dinos have to swim to shore or they’ll drown! 
Very fun! Glad I have this.
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Got to play a 2 player Unicornus Knights today. Got this in the last Maths Trade. It was really good fun. Sort of coop wargame with a bunch of logistics/resource considerations. Seriously puzzley but with loads of random bits to make it all risk/reward calculations and unexpected wrenches in your plans so it’s tense often.
It’s weight, length and trickiness of the puzzle puts me in mind of Spirit Island despite the differences, which are many and significant. Probably won’t have the longevity of SI but that won’t stop me enjoying my plays of it until it falls off the cliff.
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Just finished a basic game of Sentinels of the Multiverse on TTS.
Yeah, gonna be kickstarting the new edition, especially having read the conversion document where they’ve done the sort of rules cleanups that I like (e.g. turning “at the start of your turn” to “in your start phase, in the order the cards were originally played”).
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