I’m a sucker for punishment, and we had another Splendor session last night. This time I won the first game. Got annihilated on the second. For the third game our 8 yo daughter joined us. It ended on a very tight score where my daughter snatched the win with 16, and I ended one diamond away from a 17 score…
2 Likes
Played another 2 player of Beyond the Sun.
Until I claimed it, I had not noticed, we had a new achievement in the game: complete one automation track. Luckily, I did not go for “every level 2 tech”. And then I had a grandiose plan of claiming both a 4th colony to end the game and in my final turn a level 4 tech only to discover that–since I was the only one to research level 3 tech (mine Mitspieler went full on Empire)–we had not uncovered any slot that could research level 4.
I still won but with a smaller margin than in our first game. I expect her to beat me next Sunday 
5 Likes
We’ve been playing a learning game of 1862: railway mania in the eastern counties this afternoon. We’ve just stopped after 4 hrs:
Neither of us have the foggiest idea what we’re doing, but my husband has declared it “probably the best game we own” (and he insists that this is not just because he bought it)
16 Likes
That is living the dream!
4 Likes
Not quite ready to go this far yet:
Even if it is in my delightful(?) home town.
5 Likes
Errr… aborted or finished?
Yes. Very foggy game.
3 Likes
Met some friends I havent seen since before the pandemic. We mostly chilled and chatted but the switch to Just One and Wavelength felt natural.
Wavelength worked beautifully because we are just a group of friends who hanged out together and comfortably chatting at one another. In contrast, I struggled playing this on a public games night. Im now contemplating of owning this.
3 Likes
Last night, my wife, her brother, and I played another game of Everdell. Much fun was had. This time, my engine really did come together, getting the Courthouse and Judge relatively early, had numerous Production cards come Autumn, and a lucky pull after completing a special event got me a King as well.
My wife struggled a bit again, but was grasping the game better. She had an interpretation error on the Doctor card, thinking she could spend all the berries she wanted for VP at an exchange of 3 to 1, rather than the up to 3 berries for 1 VP each. This means she spent a few actions getting berries she did not need, so she probably would have scored a bit better. Her brother did well again.
However, my engine rocked, so I won with 65 points. Funny enough, both of them scored the exact same as their previous game: 53 for him and 41 for her. Really liking how combos work in this game and it is cute as hell.
Then today, my wife and I did the play along from home of Welcome to with the AwShux stream. We decided to just compete with each other as far as the goal cards, rather than the stream as a whole. I am glad I already knew how to play, though, because I think Matt was too brain fried to explain the rules well by that point (though he seemed to do Decrypto pretty well in the next stream).
My wife got goal 3 first (1, 2, and 6 lot estates), and soon after I got goal 1 (six 1 lot estates). The stream and chat had finished both before us. I went heavy on pools trying to get goal 2 (all pools or parks on two streets), but also did a bunch of parks on the second street. Managed all pools on the third street early and then finished off the parks on the middle street (before the stream, and I did not see anyone in chat say they had it, but I could have missed it). Finally got my 6 size estate to get goal 3 and end our game, before the stream by a turn or two.
I had 93 and my wife had 71. Having 7 size 1 estates at 3 points each, full parks on the middle street, and 5 pools really helped with that score. Lots of fun, wish I could have stayed in to play Decrypto, but had other things to do.
4 Likes
Played a couple learning games of The King is Dead and had a decent time. I’m not normally a “let’s just start playing and figure it out” kind of guy, but this seems like that kind of game. My wife is strictly a “Let’s read the rulebook cover to cover and discuss edge cases before we start playing” kind of gal, and it was a struggle. We both saw the potential, and agreed that NPI’s streak of recommending solid games continues.
4 Likes
Paused for now 
3 Likes
There’s a copy or two with local gamers so I can try it first. But having read a little it certainly seems more like my kind of 18XX
2 Likes
Are You Dumber Than A Box of Rocks , just for fun
Project Elite , won, mostly thru the efforts of the other players
Lost Ruins of Arnak , I finished in my usual position (last), but was still fun
Cthulhu: Death May Die , episode four from Season 1, where we had to overload gates by collecting artifacts and avoiding guards. The gates would only overload when the Elder One advanced, so there was a bit of timing involved. For our Elder One, we chose a new one, Yog Sothsoth, which we hadn’t played before. We thought it was going to be a quick loss at first, with the first room you move into containing a Shoggoth, who had a decent amount of health (10), and rolling tentacles (either attacking or being attacked) counting for two sanity. Before I knew it i was halfway along the insanity track. I picked up a pistol which gave me two bonus dice (the only penalty was having to move guards closer to you, but since I didn’t have any artifacts, guards didn’t bother me. Unfortunately I had Obsessive Disorder (which makes you have an even number of objects on each side of your board), so I lost the pistol. Yog came out on the board before we disrupted the ritual, so we couldn’t hurt him. But it all worked out. On my last turn I ran for Yog, dragging five cultists, Wilbur Whateley, and the Shoggoth along with me, and smashed Yog for the win. So close to going mad. It was intense.
The Crew , had two attempts at mission 40 and failed both. First time was my fault, thought we had the second (expecting another player not to follow suit, giving me the trick, but his last two cards were rockets).
Project Elite , it was our first win (with this group). On the last round we had accomplished all the objectives, so it was a matter of ignoring any aliens and just running for the start area. I made it with ten seconds left on the clock. Felt so good.
Magic Maze , only on the fifth scenario, and failed. Just couldn’t get our heads around it.
Are You Dumber Than a Box of Rocks , and the rocks won.
Silver and Gold , to finish up. And I won, which I haven’t done at this game for quite a while. Had some nice card bonuses that helped me along quite a bit.
6 Likes
I also played along with the stream. I played against the people on camera but not the chat for bonuses. I got the 6/2/1 before anyone on camera did then finished the 6x1’s after. Never did get a second street of pools or parks to complete that. I tied your wife at 71.
The decrypto game was funny to watch but not a well played game largely because Quinns thought Matt’s written out words for his team had a mistake so was cluing and guessing assuming one word was meant to be “cannon” while Tom was doing so using “canon” as it was written. Hard to pass codes back and forth while using a different guide word.
1 Like
This is a huge issue with the game - we had similar a while back with Knight/Night. The (French) designers said they purposefully chose words without homophones to avoid this issue, but this obviously was lost in translation.
I’m not sure whether to exclude these words from play or strenuously iterate the rules for clues every game.
4 Likes
Total play time ~8hrs
7 Likes
I had a long afternoon evening of games yesterday, as we had the ANZAC day public holiday moved to Monday from the 25th.
Started with a funnier than expected Hare and Tortoise between 5. I did so badly, came in last, arrived towards the end with way to many carrots after being blocked twice to get rid of my last lettuce.
Then moved on to a game between 4 of Eminent Domain. It gave me very much a Race for the Galaxy vibe, and I did poorly at it, as I expected. Quite meh, if you ask me. Another space card game. I don’t think it does anything better than Roll or Race or many others do.
We moved on to Shipyard, a frustratingly enjoyable euro. Frustrating because on the main rondel you are more often than not blocked by the other players for what you want to do, and I completely messed up the final objectives. I enjoyed the theme and all of the other rondels, otherwise. After a really good start with two boats that gave me a good lead, my second half of the game was a shambles, and fell from first to last quickly. I’d prefer a clearer final objective cards system, to be honest.
Finally, we played the same 4 Age of Industry, by Martin Williams. The board we used was in New England, and I found it too similar to Brass: Lancashire (or Birmingham, although I have not played it yet) yet to dissimilar to actually confuse me a few times. Another game where I started well expanding my network early, but I got landlocked towards the end without cards to manage to build any ports to open up new markets for my factories. I think it is a bit too dependant on your luck with your hand of cards, hence why it is much lower in the lists than its Brass relatives.
Still a good night, if I think I ended last on all games but the one I liked the least.
5 Likes
Played Quacks of Q (just the base game with starter recipes). It was neck and neck until the final two rounds, when my partner shot into the lead. We both had explosions a couple of times, and had a fun first game working out that the black and purple chips are actually very important.
Would be absolutely brilliant with 3-4 slightly drunk players shouting a lot.
6 Likes
@Whistle_Pig took time out of 18xx to absolutely school us at Through The Desert. It’s such a good game and another that I’m rubbish at - there is too much going on at once for my brain. The rules are so simple. Love it
6 Likes
Played Herbaceous (Pocket) for the first time, with my partner. I used to go easy on her to make sure she had fun, now she’s just winning everything.
I got an early collection of 7 of the same, but waited one turn too long to grab what I needed from the community garden for my pairs pot, so lost all of them when she promptly did that instead.
Lovely game, small amounts of tactics when you can see what your opponent needs next but generally just very chill.
5 Likes