I’ve played quite a few games recently with family and one other friend that is ok to meet up with at the moment!
Quacks of Quedlinburg with family. They really enjoyed it, especially since the parents love going to casinos and it just hit that sweet spot for them. It was also super interesting for me actually playing it. I have seen the SUSD review a couple of times, but the arc of the game is really great. At the beginning, I thought getting to 50 points was impossible. By the end, we all scored around 20 points in one round! It has that nice flavor of deckbuilders, but also the hilarity of never seeing the things you bought (I swear I had like 3 mandrakes in my bag and NONE of them came up in the final round). Ended up actually being a tie for points, with another just squeezing it out due to their last potion being the best.
Fox in the Forest with a family member and a friend later. A very nice, light trick taking game. It is quick, but still thinky enough to be interesting.
Onitama with a friend. I will say my friend is not into the whole “chess-like” abstract style of game (he wasn’t a fan of Santorini at all ), so I probably didn’t get the best experience out of it. But it was still a lot of fun! Something I enjoyed way more than chess due to its speed and few decisions, but those decisions being clear in their outcome.
Galaxy Trucker with the same friend. This was super fun, we were both laughing, since we both had major freakouts during ship building. Unfortunately, most of the bad stuff in the galaxy got offloaded onto one person, but fortunately that person was me . I think it would be better with a few more players, so the hate gets spread around a bit more, but was still a fun time.
Unfortunately I have played with the really nice acrylic bits from BGG and now I don’t want to buy the game until I can get them. (And postage will be $LOTS.)
I really don’t get on with chess because it’s completely dependent on skill to the point that you need to match opponents, and at the same time it can take a while. (Well, not in my case because I haven’t played for years, except for one game last year for the 52 game challenge, and I’m utterly out of practice from a not very good starting point.) Onitama has variation in the setup which makes each game a different challenge (“aha, this time we have only one move-directly-forward card in the mix”), and the games are over relatively quickly.
I have been playing this with my wife and we had a lot of fun as well. I think more players would be especially interesting for the ship building phase, just because you have more time pressure and towards the end of the phase less options. We were both building our ships at a leisurely pace which might have been actually too well built for the space phase chaos to really shine?
Galaxy Trucker is great fun with a ton of handicapping and extra difficulty from the expansions, or just at a really fast pace. Whatever your comfort zone is, just play outside it.
I finally put the physical version of Terraforming Mars on the table this morning. I’ve been playing the Steam version for a while to get the hang of things.
Yeah I think he definitely enjoyed it more than he would’ve chess. He is just a person to really overthink things, has a bad case of AP. We got through three games though, even if one ended in a matter of seconds due to a gambit with my master that did not pay off
I think it’s definitely all in how you do it. Definitely flip over that sand timer when you can, that way once someone finishes, the other has to hurry up. But also, some people are just better under pressure. For the life of me I couldn’t find the pieces I would want and would just be looking at a sea of revealed tiles with disappointment and panic. If you are still having an easy time with the normal setup, maybe try shortening the time for shipbuilding in general?
Had another go at Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth. Adventure mode felt easy, so I tried a “Legolas - Hunter” “Berevor - Pathfinder” “Elena - Captain double daggers” team back on “normal” difficulty aaaaand…
Nope. Got destroyed. Too much threat with 3 characters, too many monsters reinforcing so fast that all you can do is fight the next wave of epics instead of moving, nope. The photo above was the first enemies on the board - it quickly filled.
So I’m back to 2-player Adventure mode, I think. Might house rule it to get less inspiration or something. I’m totally up for “optimise your turn!” puzzles, even complex ones, but this is way past fun. It says something when they add a new Easier mode only a few months after a game is released.
Yesterday we got Gloomhaven to the table again. Played one story scenario, and one side scenarios, winning them both. My son’s Cragheart could technically retire, but he wants to play him a bit more. My Spellweaver still needs to put some work it towards he goal.
Today we played a 1-off D&D game. It was an a dungeon below a bar, that was basically a test/spectator sport. My character fell to his “death” on the second level of the dungeon, with one to go. It was my first time actually playing, and it was pretty fun. I’d be up to play again. My son has been wanting to play for ages, and my sister and brother-in-law play a lot, and came over for the game. My brother-in-law GM’d, as he does, and made it pretty fun. My son loved it and is eager to play again!
Later in the day we played a game of **Warhammer Underworlds, and it was fairly even after the 1 round, but my son eliminated most of my Warband in Round 2, and was able to score all 3 of his objective cards, giving him an 8 point lead, and leaving me with basically no way to come back. After he opened Round 3 by taking out my last warrior, I conceded the game to him!
Final game of the night was Men at Work. We didn’t play for poi ta or anything. We both had safety certificates and we “lost” when we ran out. It was quite fun, and led to him nearly falling off his chair in laughter. Though to be fair, I think he was getting tired, lol.
Below is a picture of our best structure, right before the turn in crumble!
I am positively dreaming of the day I get to be daddy-GM. Hope you’ve got the gears turning, if your boy ends up really taking a shine to it you’ll be doing your homework!
Atlantis Rising (2nd Edition), first play. This is a cooperative game where you place workers onto peninsulas, gathering resources and cards. You’re trying to stop Atlantis from being covered by water. The further out you place your worker, the better the rewards, but flooding will start from the outside. Its a constant struggle to avoid the flooding, while gathering resources to build the components you need to allow your people to escape Atlantis. I didnt think we were doing too well, but we pulled out the win, but only just.
Labyrinth
Forgotten Waters, played the second scenario, Witches Heart. Still great fun!
Grind House
Awkward Guests
Heist: One Team, One Mission, we won on the highest difficulty (5), but not a perfect game (which would have unlocked the secret level 6).
Hocus, slightly frustrating experience. Its so hard to get enough cards out to actually put together a decent hand. I won some hands, but got nothing for it, because nothing was added to the pot for that hand. And the spell sets I (and another player) chose, allowed us to spoil the pot by replacing the cards with lower value ones. Again, frustrating and negative play to ruin a pot for the winner. Maybe this game just has too much “take that” for us. Which is a shame, since its a clever game.
Well, it was my first time actually playing a game, so GM’ing Isa bit beyond me right now, lol.
I’m am considering looking into some of of the GM’less options out there though. Could be a fun alternative for us, for when we can’t get.more of us together.
Just remember you heard it here: there is no substitute for a good GM. And it’s totally worth the effort.
[EDIT] PS if your boy likes Goonies or Stranger Things (maybe still too young?) or similar, the Kids on Bikes core book is like 12 pages of actual rules, so it’s a pretty friendly jumping in point for new game masters. Mind you, it’s rules light because it’s built around collaborative storytelling way ahead of its mechanics, so it might not be what you want for that reason (D&D and others are more mechanically satisfying but harder for a GM to jump right into).
Had two real games yesterday, after a long period of just playing PbF here or the Twilight Struggle app, and it was nice to put the board down yesterday morning for a TtR: Europe with my daughter. I managed to win by conecting Lisbon to Danzig and then throwing connections to Marseille in the middle, and my daughter being unlucky connecting through the Turkish tunnels. Still a good morning play.
Last night we met at a friends’ house and we had some fish and chips and a session of Werewords. It was a total hit. Only playing it simple with Seer and Werewolf (we were 6 initially and then one of the kids joined) but there were some jewels that had us all laughing all night.
A good one was when one of my friends was mayor for the first time, and when instructed to tap her secret identity, she started tapping her card. The voice of her husband while we were all with closed eyes saying “On the phone, love” was priceless. Or I didn’t know that the app could hurry you up if undecided about choosing the magic word. “Mayor, people are waiting” had us all tearing up with laughter.
Nothing beats gathering around the table. Pray all you in lockdown come out of it swiftly and safely to experience it once again.
), so I probably didn’t get the best experience out of it. But it was still a lot of fun! Something I enjoyed way more than chess due to its speed and few decisions, but those decisions being clear in their outcome.
. I think it would be better with a few more players, so the hate gets spread around a bit more, but was still a fun time.
