I have a physical copy now.
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Well when/if I move down south⌠
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That is on my list of owned but yet to play. Hoping to rectify that before the end of the year.
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That is a rather pretty map!
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Itâs lovely isnât it? The circular board is actually part of the mechanics as well because the actions trigger round the outside
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Played half a game of After the Empire - itâs a bit like Galaxy Trucker bolted onto Champions/Reavers of Midgard
As a thing to play I quite like it- I think the idea of setting up a thing and seeing it fall or fly based on randomness is a really good idea for a game. I feel like too often the the gods are given a raw deal in their influence by an overbearing amount of âluck mitigationâ. But thereâs a chunk of fiddliness. Your board may contain maybe thirty little bits to tweeze around with and sometimes you spend ages plopping this tweezer lego together only for it to be deleted on a card draw - okay it may sound like Iâm saying âgive me that mitigationâ but really this is a complaint about the luck ruining the dexterity puzzle you created.
The worker placement bit is good and I think the same standard as reavers of Midgard. But I think that will tell you if you really want the game.
I kind of also really dig this âitâs better to hide your money awayâ thread in the game. Sometimes doing best is the way to win. Here you can try and actively sabotage youâre score (the amount of gold you have) to hide your castle from attack (nobody wants to rob the poorman) but like real life if you squirrel your money away the right way you can hide your wealth from the taxman (invaders) and theyâll ignore you.
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I have been playing solo Under Falling Skies, three lose scenarios and started a campaign this morning. Managed to win all games, some of them easily, I think I am growing now how the game plays. First scenario was in Roswell, on the second go after a defeat you get some bonus, so that helped.
Managed to defend Montreal this morning, without using the character ability (I had the pilot). I wonder if not having used it I can flip the card the next time I get himâŚ.
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Snuck in some more boardgaming in the last week before entering Covid lockdown number five 
:
Klask, still great.
Love Letter, quite a few games of this with my wife throughout the week - she likes the simplicity and smoothness of play, despite it being a game with a lot of luck. Kind of our UNO at this point.
Super Skill Pinball, we had a crack at the Cyberhack table, and I managed my first really successful game of it - broke 200 easily with some very profitable runs. A couple of us were quite close in score but I pulled ahead in the end.
Perudo, this game is still lots of fun and manages to be simple but with space for great plays.
Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks, a friend brought his preordered copy of this for a play. It was decent but not amazing. A bit easy on the easiest setting and itâs very dice heavy for a co-op. Heâs a big WH40K fan so I think the theme is what sold this one for him 
Patchwork, played with my wife - super close, won off the back of the 7x7 bonus (which sheâd forgotten we were racing for, rather than just aiming to get it done by the end. So we may need a rematch this week.)
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My wife arranged a belated birthday party for me, so we had some friends over today for food and games.
Got to finally play Condottiere which seemed to go over well. There was a little confusion over the discarding of your hand and when you re-drew cards at first, but it got sorted out. Most of us had a really bad hand or two, but everyone at least got on the board. Game ended in a bit of king making, when one person played a Turncoat to end the round while his partner was in the lead, giving her control of three adjacent regions and the win. Definitely some interesting timing involved in playing your cards out, and when to pass. Hope to play more.
That couple had to leave afterward, so the remaining three of us played Vampire the Masquerade: Vendetta. My wife played the Toreador again, our friend tried out Ventrue, and I played the Gangrel.
The Toreador have cards that get them more victims in their Alliance, getting them more blood at the beginning of the round and also powering up some of their other cards. Ventrue are a real pain as well, with cards that make you pay them blood from your pool or take blood deployed at a location for themselves. I kept feeling like I could not deploy much blood of my own or I would be Frenzied most of the time.
Scores ended up being very close. Our friend won, his first time playing, with 29. My wife and I tied at 27. Stupid Ventrue, mumble grumbleâŚ
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A few games yesterday (it was too hot and we were feeling sluggish):
Coimbra: I made the same mistake as last time, by claiming and end game scoring card that I couldnât fulfil 
Fields of Green: This is Among the Stars on a farm instead of a space station. I think I prefer the space station theme, but otherwise itâs fine. Not bad for 1/3 of a tenner 
Taverns of Tiefenthal: we played with one of the modules (the one that adds schnapps and entertainers). It only changed the game a little. Does anyone have an opinion on the best module(s) to play with?
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With Taverns, Iâd say all the modules. The staggered introduction each module feels more like a way to learn the game gradually, but the game is at its best with everything thrown in. Itâs how itâs meant to be played imo.
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I find this to be a trend I too dislike. Iâm all for âno luckâ strategy games, sometimes luck mitigation can be a fun part of a game but so too can dealing with luck. The constant cries of âneeds luck mitigationâ are an over burdening strain on game design. Luck in games can lead to 2 things that are desirable. 1 assessing chance/stats and navigating that effectively and repeatedly is a skill in itself. 2 reacting to the unexpected can create feelings/experiences. From the jackpot push your luck vibes of Quacks to the simulationist wargames giving you a generalâs experience of managing risk/reward.
Sometimes the game not being won by the most âskilfulâ player isnât a bad thing also.
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For the game in question (After the Empire) the card draw is equally applied to everyone so it doesnât feel that unfair.
When I played it, I got hammered on one side from being the money leader in one round that the leader got extra attacks applied to them.
Had I upgraded that side of castle Iâd have been fine. Unfair, maybe. Fun, certainly and Iâd take this over strategy anytime.
Secondary rant about how boardgamers have forgotten fun is part of the whole gaming experience
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I played Nemesis yesterday (more later, guests are still here) and I felt that the event cards did much more to mess me about than the actual aliens did.
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Cthulhu: Death May Die , finished off the last episode of the core box with a successful win. We house ruled that you get two insanity cards and get to pick one. Both of mine sucked (Psychotic Outbreak and Pyromania), and I had bad memories of setting my fellow investigators on fire from Pyromania, so chose Psychotic Outbreak, which didnât go well either. When it activates, you move to the nearest space with at least one figure (figures can either be enemies or other investigators), and does two damage to each figure. It was great for clearing out cultists (who only have two health), not so good for the friend I kept on damaging. Oops. I killed off the second stage of Cthulhu, but then went insane. Damn Râlyeh spaces â put down by Cthulhu. When his mate Starspawn attacks or is attacked in a space with a Râlyeh token, you get two extra tentacles. I went up the insanity track way too fast. Lots of bonus dice, so that was good, but it couldnât last long. It seems that everytime I play a character with the Marksman skill (can attack from adjacent space), I end up with enemies in my space â so I donât get my bonus dice. And without Stealth, you canât get away from them. Sometimes another character will draw them away. Anyway, we won.
Perfect Alibi , first play. This is a deduction game, which we enjoy (We love Awkward Guests, Search for Planet X). There has been a murder onboard a cruise ship, and you have to find the killer. There are sixteen cards, with four different guests, each showing a time and a place on the ship. One of these cards is selected randomly and placed under the board â this is the murderer. On your turn, you take a token, which will have a player colour and shows either a watch or a ships wheel. If itâs the stopwatch, you have to ask a question about the times shown on cards held by that player. If itâs a wheel, you can ask about a location instead.
You can ask about as many things as you like (eg how many cards do you have in the bar or restaurant). If the answer is more than one, they have to also show you one of the cards. So you slowly eliminate the possibilities, and whatever is left is the murderer. There are also character cards that give you special powers, these are the Journalist (can ask any question, doesnât need to take a token), the Captain (you get to see a card that someone else shows), Psychiatrist (never shows cards), Priest (when asking questions, only you get to hear the answer), and the Cook (you get to see a random card from another player).
IâŚwasnât so good at this game. Need to have another go I think. I thought it would be relatively straightforward.
MicroMacro: Crime City , the cases are getting trickier, but of course we were equal to the task.
Pan Am , first play. This is a worker placement game, with auction spaces. The board is a map of five different regions and their cities. The regions are Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Pacific. Cities are connected by routes with a distance from one thru four. You will claim routes by placing your planes according to the range. You have four possible aircraft, the range one Trimotor, range two Clipper, range three Cruiser, and the range four Jet. Cruisers and Jets are only available in rounds three and six, respectively. There are seven rounds to the game. The object of the game is to have the most stocks, which are bought at the end of each round. The stock price can vary as well, according to the event card drawn at the start of each round.
Your workers (engineers) can be placed in five areas on the board, A thru E. Area A allows you to place an airport, and while this is good, itâs not the only way to expand across the map. Area B shows four face up destination cards, each of which can be bid on. Area C is for buying new planes, which, unsurprisingly, is fairly important for claiming routes. Area D allows you to claims routes by using your airport, destination cards, and planes. And finally, area E lets you pickup Directive cards, which give you a special one off ability, usually very useful (like being able to claim a route for free). Areas A, B, and C have auction tracks, and there can be only one worker there. Areas D and E can have multiple workers.
Most of the time youâll be figuring out how to add your planes to a route between two cities. You need to have landing rights in both cities on a route. There are four ways to get landing rights at a city. If you have an airport there, or you have that cities destination card, or you can discard a card from the same region, or discard two cards of another region. Then you can place a plane with the required range, increasing your income track.
After all workers have been placed, you resolve each area in turn. Then Pan Am expands, using a dice showing which path it will expand along, starting in Miami. You cannot claim a route if Pan Am has already expanded there, and if you already have a plane there, the route is sold to Pan Am (you donât get a choice). This could be a good thing, since the object of the game is not to have the most planes, or routes, but the most stock.
After Pan Am expands, you get your income, and then buy as much stock as you like, at the current stock price. Do this for seven rounds, and thatâs the game. Itâs pretty interactive, as you jostle for position to get what you need. Destination cards are face up (we missed this), so you can always see what people can do. Just having an airport does not mean someone else canât just use cards to claim a route from it. It was pretty good fun. The box says an hour, took a bit longer than that.
Dealt! , first play. I have the foreign version of this, called Carro Combo, but itâs the same game. Itâs a pretty light ladder climbing game, with some special cards, and a rule that you canât change the order of your cards. You are dealt ten cards, and two reserve cards face up in front of you. In order, the possible plays are: single card, two card straight, pair, three card straight, and three of a kind. Someone plays, you have to beat their play with a higher one. If you cannot, you take one of your extra cards and add it to your hand. If you have no reserve cards left, you lose one of two chips. If you have to take a chip and you have none â you lose. Itâs a pretty simple game, without many decisions to make. You either have the right cards or you donât. Thereâs also a few special cards: the X card (which is a wild), Stop card (immediately ends the turn), and the very annoying redraw card (if you win the hand, you have to draw more cards).
Sunday gaming;
Pan Am , another play, with another group. And it took forever! Too much chatter I guess. The winner seemed to collect Directive cards as much as he could. There are no bad Directive cards, they will all benefit you in some way. He collected extra money, put down free routes, and had three copies of a card which gave him an extra stock at the end. Three extra stock in a game where he won with twenty one stock.
Marshmallow Test , a great game, so easy to teach.
Hats , end of the day, Iâm not sure anyone listened to my rules explanation (which wasnât even that long, itâs not a difficult game). One player admitted he was just trying to do what I was doing. So, fairly easy win to me.
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Another one to look into would be Kiitos. I have a copy of this but havenât yet played, so youâll need to do your own research; but I bought it because I simply donât have another word game that plays like thisâŚ
The essence of the gameplay is that the first player plays a card from their hand and announces a target word beginning with that letter (and at least 4 letters long), and then play moves around the table with each player doing one of the following:
- Playing the next letter in the target word (which they must do if they have it in their hand).
- Changing the target word (which must still start with the letters played so far) and playing the next letter of that word.
- If they cannot do either, they take all of the played cards as negative points, and a new word is started.
If the current target word is completed, then the player who chose that word takes all the letters as positive points. The words you choose must have at least two letters remaining to play (i.e. you may not change the word and complete it yourself as you announce the change); so you want to pick words that you think other players will have the letters to complete, as well as words that you think they will be unlikely to convert to anything else if they canât continue it. Any announced word might constitute hints as to the cards held by that player, but thereâs nothing preventing a player from announcing a word that they wouldnât be able to continue if it came back around to them (and inevitably players will be doing exactly that just so long as they can avoid taking penalty points by playing a card).
There are some additional (but optional) rules for spicing things up beyond the base game (most complicated being the ability to play cards at either end, and consequently choose words which merely contain the sequence of letters on the table, rather than starting with them), so you can change things up a bit from game to game.
Kiitos was being demoâd at the last games con I attended, and Iâd seen it at the table next to me near the end of the day, but the box looked very dull and on that account I didnât even look to see what sort of a game it was, and was then kinda gutted when I looked afterwards and found (a) it was a word game, and (b) it was now too late to try it. The description sounded neat to me, though, so I picked it up, and then gave it away as a gift before Iâd even opened it : ) I picked up another copy for myself just recently, but still havenât played it (this must surely be the only game Iâve ever bought twice having never even played it once).
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A family weekend away saw a few games of, the newly acquired for the purpose, Dinosaur Tea Party. It was excellent fun and fortunately actually requested by the kid.
The art is stellar, rules easy to teach and fun enough for gamers and families. Well done restoration games. A hefty slice of luck with good space for decent play.
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@Lordof1 and some other friends came to visit (all duly tested, and given the weather we didnât have any choice about ventilated rooms).
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Gaslands: Refuelled felt very like an attempt to make an âX-Wing Killerâ: same templatey movement and firing. Alternating activations feels frankly antiquated, and produces some very odd results (such as the slower car getting in front of the faster one if they pick the right moment, or crossing someoneâs firing arc without them getting a chance to shoot), but it was still good fun and I really like the DIY ethic.
We checked the rules. Your car does not have to be drivable when it crosses the line in order to count as a win. - Riftforce is the game Lordof1 and I had demoed at the last in-person UK Games Expo. Two-player lane-based duelling, with weird powers. I like it rather a lot.
- Ominoes is still a bit random to be ideal, but nobody got left behind.
- Dice Miner is, well, sort of there. Pretty bits, nothing objectionable, but nothing to draw me back to play it again either.
- The Big Book of Madness: my second game, and like the first it all seemed to be going well until everything collapsed in a spiral of horribleness.
- Nemesis: I think the SU&SD review is spot on. If you want to get together with some friends and screw each other over, fine! If you want a serious game that youâll care about winning or losing, go elsewhere. Also outstayed its welcome a bit, but it was the first game for 4/5 of us.
- Star Realms: Frontiers: Iâm still rubbish at deckbuilding apparently.
- Letter Jam: it all went horribly wrong. But 2P worked better than I expected.
- Castellan: you canât buy this any more, but I remember when I was demoing it at Essen⌠still enjoyable.
- Illimat: once one gets the hang of the obscurantism itâs a highly enjoyable game.
- Whitehall Mystery: maybe every play is similar, but I still enjoy it.
- Air, Land, & Sea: doesnât try to be more than it is, and does that very well.
- Rhino Hero: a great game to end the weekend with.
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Yesterday, my wife and I played a few games, and she won them all.
First up was Patchwork. Seemed pretty close at first. I may have played slightly sub-optimally to get the 7x7 bonus before she could, not certain, but in any case she had almost her entire board covered at the end while I lost 18 or so points. Final score 17 - 12.
We followed that with a game of Jaipur. I won the first round pretty handily, getting all 5 rubies helped. She took the second round, though our scores were pretty close. Third round she won, with a slightly larger point spread than my first win.
Then she went on to win at Mario Party on the Switch, too. Not my day.
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Back in February of 2020, before (our) world changed, my partner signed us up for early-bird tickets to a local tabletop gaming convention scheduled for July of 2020. Due to COVID, they cancelled the 2020 event and automatically rolled all pre-registration tickets to 2021. I think we probably could have asked them to push our tickets to 2022 (maybe? Maybe not)
My partnerâs sister and said-sisterâs partner were founding members of the convention (and hosted it at their house the first year it was a thing); it started as a âwe canât go to GenCon, so weâll make our ownâ sort of thing. My sister-in-law still volunteers, like she always has, to run the raffle/prize booth. I know many of the people who run the convention by way of my sister- and brother-in-law, but I wouldnât really consider them friends; at least, not close friends.
Our youngest just turned 2 and both of them are independent enough to be away from my partner for hours at a time (theoretically, days at a time; and it would be harder on me and my partner than it would be on the kids), so we checked to see if my in-laws (i.e. grandma and grandpa) would be willing to look after our kids while we went to the convention.
The convention had a masks-are-mandatory policy and were very good at enforcing it. The convention was held in a local convention center and the hall was enormous, large enough that they could space out tables very well; the large round tables, that in normal circumstances could seat 12, were restricted to 8 so that there was a good amount of space between each person (though, not 6 feet). We were very happy with the COVID precautions⌠even though the Delta variant is a steadily-rising concern in our area. We didnât sit down with any strangers and only interacted closely with my sister-in-law, whom we trust and have had playdates at our house with her daughter (our niece).
We had 3-day passes (Fri, Sat, Sun), but only went Saturday, and only for about 4 hours. We setup at a table near the prize/raffle booth so that my partner could keep her sister company, and we got a few games played!
We started off by breaking out the Ticket to Ride Map Collection 1 â Team Asia and Legendary Asia
This is the last of the expansion maps that my partner has received as a gift lately (I still have Japan/Italy hidden away as a future gift, so that one doesnât count).
Obviously, we played the Legendary Asia map as we didnât have enough people for the Team game. The Legendary Asia map allows you to claim Mountain routes that force you to give up additional train cars, but at 2-points-per-car; I did the math and realized it was very much worthwhile to lose pieces to that because thatâs the same points-per-car as a 5-length route. My partner missed that fact and spent the game trying to avoid the mountains â I quickly triggered the end of the game and her aversion to the mountains meant she had more circuitous routes that slowed down her completion of tickets. Final scores (my) 134 to (her) 109. I beat her out by 1 for the âmost connected locationsâ 10-point bonus â and she had 10 or so remaining cars; she could have easily won by embracing the mountain routes.
Definitely one we need to revisit to give her a chance for redemption. I felt the map was pretty open for 2-players and it would probably be best at 4⌠even 3 may be too loose.
We took a break for lunch, ate outside in a stunning change of weather; the morning had been hot and humid, the afternoon looked to have a storm blowing in, but we happened to get back from grabbing lunch when the incoming front had blown away the humidity and we had a lovely outdoor meal in 75F, low-humidity weather in the courtyard of the convention center.
When we got back into the convention hall, my sister-in-law appeared to have a lull in her prize/raffle duties, so we set up a game at the prize booth (on a spare table that was used to help enclose the off-limits, staff-only space): Zendo
This was a first play for everyone, but since I had read the rulebook as well as read a little about the game when putting it on my wishlist, I was the moderator. The âEASYâ rule drawn was âmust contain 1 or more (
wedge| cheesecake ) piecesâ. It was the 9th round before I had to broach the subject of the difference between different âlaying downâ orientations for the wedge pieces. Iâm not sure I would ever include that particular rule as a âfirst playâ rule⌠and Iâm a little miffed that it was drawn.Still, my partner and her sister seemed to enjoy it and talked about wanting to play again, as both a moderator and also as a competitor again.
After Zendo, we returned to our table and get another game out; another gift I had given my partner but one we hadnât played yet: Mysterium Park
Mysterium is one of my partnerâs absolute favorite games; she loves being the ghost and giving clues. Sheâs quite good at it in the original game (I chalk it up to her incredible emotional intelligence (that she doesnât think she has)). She was very frustrated with the vision cards she had available to her; we struggled through the first round, me failing to guess the âPersonâ correctly with either of my Psychics until Turn 5, at which point we just threw in the towel and set up the game for a do-over.
The second game went much better. Both Psychics got their âPersonâ in Turn 1 and we were in the final round by Turn 4. My partner, I think, discovered that the Vision cards in MP are significantly different than those in Mysteriumâ˛; she found much better results giving single-card visions than her typical 2- or 3-card visions she has nearly perfected in the earlier game.
I love the borrowed-from-Codenames mechanism, but the cards in Mysterium Park are all too similar in design and it makes differentiating between the suspects/locations extremely difficult â possibly to the point that itâs just not worthwhile.
I am tempted, however, to just mudge the two games together and use the Mysterium Park board and story cards with the first game, especially considering how quick and tidy the second game is to play.
After Mysterium Park, we didnât have a lot of time left before needing to go pick up the kids and figure out dinner. I had packed a number of games to bring with us, and sadly Aeonâs End, The Networks, Wingspan, and Dragon & Flagon were all just a bit too long (at best). So, we got out another of the gifts-Iâve-bought-for-my-partner-but-we-havenât-played yet games: Ticket to Ride â Amsterdam
We really liked Ticket to Ride â New York, and then even more so Ticket to Ride â London, so I was looking forward to Amsterdam. Despite the small map, we never really got into an elbows-only space. The get-a-bonus-card-when-you-place certain routes only really mattered at the very end. I tried to maneuver to tie up our bonuses but my partner was able to grab one at the very end to win the 4-point-differential. Honestly, Amsterdam was pretty flat and I think I still prefer London for the small-box-Ticket-to-Ride genre. My partner won 45 to my 34.
Thatâs all we had time to play; it was a great day well spent.
While I was walking around, looking at what boardgames were being played, I witnessed âTiny Epic Tacticsâ and my only thought on that subject was:
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