I 4-handed a game of Lords of Xidit this morning, which is one way to kill the hours of a particularly early morning wake-up. It was enjoyable in its own way, since it’s fun watching everything roll along their little wind up routines, but not something I’m likely to do again just for the fun of it. I played this once when it was relatively new still, so it was good to get a refresher and reconfirm it’s a title I want on my shelf.
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Well, I did list it for sale as soon as we finished it… I think you hit the nail on the head that too much of it was obvious.
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Had a solo quick game of Architects of the West Kingdom last night, on difficult mode. I managed to win, by timing right the black market recycling, so the bot finished the game with 3 debts that were key for my win. With that and managing to scrap a raise of my virtue on the turn before last, I scrapped a tight victory 23 to 19
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My partner took the day off and we got most of a game of Cryo played this afternoon, with our final couple rounds polished off this evening. I won again, but only by three points this time, and it was anyone’s guess at the final tally; I had to struggle hard for this win. I’m still not really sure if my partner is particularly keen about it, but she’s been a sport about trying. She’s also suffering pretty significant analysis paralysis while coming to grips with the games quirks, so hopefully that eases some with another game or two. We play much heavier games than this one, but it’s a TIGHT little knot of a game and the crunch is significant.
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Last night at local game group, with a fairly-new-to-boardgames player:
- 6 Nimmt! - chaos ensues.
- Bang! The Dice Game - I’m still not a huge fan, but it came together all right.
- Deep Sea Adventure - we’re all going to die (but I still think first back to the boat should just turn off the air supply).
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Doesn’t that happen though? The air starts going down as soon as the first player is back.
I feel my big issue with Deep Sea is that it feels too easily optimal to dip your toe in and leave just as quickly - I wonder if it’d help if there was a zero face on the dice.
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I have already sold on Moon Adventure which is the same game just on the moon… it was nice but not the type of game I would put in my regular rotation of coop or solo games. Having too many small games anyway… oink games sell reasonably quick due to lack of general availability here.
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As soon as someone moves with treasure, I think. I’m thinking more “OK, I’m back aboard, I’ll just cut the hose now”.
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I wonder if that’s basically what happens except you have to see the air running out. The first guy in is often the only treasure getter.
That sounds like murder, or at least attempted murder… 
Isn’t it supposed to be a “family” game??
PS: My father was a scuba diver and worked decades underwater. When using an air line from the boat, the supply of air is endless, as it is pumped directly from the atmosphere, but don’t tell the designers 
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But Deep Sea Adventure, per the illustration on the box, has the players diving from a submarine. No atmosphere to work with.
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That’s an interesting premise. Diving from a submarine, with all the pressure chambers and extra cost involved, let alone that it is not possible to dive past 90m deep without grave danger to human health, quite excessive when you can do it from a boat with a bit more extra air line…
Sorry for the tangent… just thinking out loud.
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Had a few training games of our newly received Mind MGMT with my wife, each of us playing each side once. I liked it quite a bit! Obviously it looks great, and as the only other hidden movement game in our collection is Scotland Yard, it’s nice to do a game with such a different feel. I’m excited to try the full game and start adding in the Shift boxes with new components.
Unfortunately my wife was very tired and didn’t grok it all that well so it may not be able to recover from her initial impression, although she too really likes the style and was interested in the Shift system, so we will see! If she ends up cool on it I have other friends I can make it a regular thing with to see what all it has in store.
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Don’t be afraid to play the training mission a few times if it means it might get her onboard. It’s definitely got enough to chew on for a few games in the stripped-down mode. Also of note is that the app can be used to play cooperatively (training only currently) and that really takes off the added pressure of direct competition while grappling with internalizing the logic puzzle. Doing that definitely helped get my partner to dig her heels in and get over that first hump.
[EDIT] It’s a great 2P game so I’ve got my fingers crossed for you!
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Thanks for the advice! This is good to know - I think now that she’s seen both sides another set of training games might yield better results.
If you two have played some full games together, what side did your partner end up choosing?
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Actually, we haven’t yet! We’ve set up twice for it but had to cancel due to kid related interference. Importantly though, she’s as keen to try it as I am now. We ended up playing 4 training rounds (2x each side) with the app, and 2 [EDIT: 3!] against one another. I think things clicked pretty well by our second co-op game, but she wanted to feel truly comfortable before piling on.
Oh and FWIW we have won both as recruiter and rogue agents, and the chase has always been super close.
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We’ve been playing Railroad ink on Boardgamearena
I have no idea how this is such a hit given the form factor it originally released in. I can’t imagine constantly rubbing out and reorienting dice and so on getting everything to fit. It seems like there’d be ink everywhere.
The game feels tough enough on an app where it puts the pieces the right way up for you (why is there a face that is a junction L that goes only one direction?!).
I think two players is barely bearable with how quickly each person can complete. It’s a lot.
I like it’s crunchiness but it suffers a little bit from the high amount of randomness.
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I haven’t noticed any problems playing the original, fwiw. And simultaneous play means player count is not an issue.
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When I was playing with my partner sometimes she finished a lot earlier than me and sometimes she finished later than me. HThat twiddle thumb gap felt noticeable to us. (Have I got time to make a drink?!).
And we both realised we’d never play with someone who gets strong analysis paralysis.
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