Bought the family MonsDRAWcity for Christmas and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it.
We’ve also played numerous rounds of Dixit and Codenames. For the latter, my favourite was a “Guns for 4” clue that linked Shot, Irons, Fire and America!
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BTW, I love the sculpture for the Invisible Man in Cobble & Fog. How great is that? (n.b. painted by someone else, but it shows it off well.)
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Got a quick-ish game of Men at Work played this evening before dinner with my nephew and his folks. His mum has some physical challenges so it was really nice to see her join in and laugh along. Anyway I kept things loose and left out the colour rule for workers to make things a tad easier, but it really dragged the game out. This wasn’t an entirely bad thing since my nephew wanted our structure to keep growing so he could smash it at the end, but it was almost 40 minutes before we called it. There was enough mayhem to keep him entertained, but it resulted in a bit of a stilted three-way sudden death scenario that was more messing around than really playing. Good for the kid, not so much for us. 
I regret nothing.
That said, it was clear he didn’t need any help jumping in so next time we’ll play with the full rules. This game is always, always a big hit.
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Some games in and around New Years:
Three Sisters
Fugitive - really like this one as a very unique 2 player, asymmetric card game. Caught as the fugitive, on a 33% gamble on the final stage of the manhunt. Would flee the authorities again.
Quacks of Quedlinburg, man I couldn’t catch a break in this one - I fell behind early and then kept busting in an effort to catch back up 
Jaipur
Schotten Totten, couple of games of this, like it a lot.
Morels, kind of fell into a bunch of chantrelles mid mushroom hunt that sealed a solid victory.
Fresco, I’ve been wondering if I should sell this one, as it had been ages. Having played it again now, I think I’ll hold onto it - it’s a lot of fun.
Super Big Boggle, busted this one out with my wife for the first time in awhile and as usual played a bunch of games.
Truffle Shuffle, my wife actually requested this one specifically, I think it’s grown on her.
Love Letter, by request we played without the new characters from the 2019 re-release. Easy enough to do and, yeah, I’m not sure they’re a great addition at 2 players.
Patchwork, solid win of this one - neither of us quite managed the 7x7 goal though, which I don’t think I’ve seen happen before.
Ohanami, highest score ever this time around - just shy of 200! Things fell in my favor, and my opponent didn’t fight me enough on the cherry blossoms.
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Back at my parents’ for Christmas so brought along a few games. High Society went down very well, with one win to each of them, and while they found Spring Garden a bit tricky they still enjoyed it.
Also played a game of Confident via Zoom, after hearing about it on the SUSD podcast, which was very fun. Usually I’m not a fan of trivia games but the “guess a range” mechanic means that everyone has a chance to get points each round. I’ve ordered the Personal questions expansion which shifts the focus from trivia to questions about the players and should be silly fun.
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So saw in the bells with the following:
Search for Planet X: it’s a really good game, but fell a bit flat due to the limited interaction. Also me winning always puts everyone in a bad mood.
6Nimmt: following Planet X something lighter and more fun seemed in order and it didn’t let me down. Also me losing a 30 point lead to come in last place was much appreciated by all.
Condotierre: it’s one of my faves and played as well as it always does.
This morning I played a game of cat & mouthwhich someone had gotten the eldest monster. It’s brilliant. Was really surprised at how good it is. Has a real loopin Louie vibe of light gameplay but just plain old fun. The clever packaging helps too.
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Played a few games on BGA on NYE with some friends.
Go Nuts for Donuts was mostly played just to see if the video/BGA setup would work (it did). I did extremely poorly… my one buddy continually guessed the same donut as me and so we both got basically nothing while my partner swept up everything. An interesting game.
6Nimmt, which I won by a landslide after a very weak start. Took a little bit for me to remember how to play, but it went well. It’s way more satisfying in person, though…
Sushi Go, which was fine. I continue to believe it is a great gateway game, and my friends enjoyed it. Too light for my tastes, but what can ya do. Was fun.
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A catch-up of the last few days of gaming as part of my 12 Gamedays of Christmas challenge.
Day 4 (December 28th) saw another solo stab at Ghost Stories. I got this in late autumn but only had the chance to play it a couple of times and I knew I got some rules wrong then. This time I went for another solo four-hander - and got my first proper win at it. The Yellow and Blue monks were stars of the game, staying healthy and rolling well whereas the Red and Green monks had little success with their rolls but managed to stay alive somehow. The early stages seemed quite manageable and then I hit a run of big monsters coming out so the healthy monks had to make a few visits to the Sorcerer to dispel the strongest of the phantoms. The main ghost proved to be the Dark Mistress - but Red took their chance to shine and took her out quickly to gain the win. Never expected to win though but still a fun game even in defeat.
Day 5 (December 29th) was a really busy day with an early start, late finish and lots of work errands and rushing around so had next to no time to play. I did manage to try Sprawlopolis and played two quick games of it just before bedtime. Safe to say that I haven’t figured out a good approach to solving its puzzle though, losing both games by a handful of points each. I love the look, idea and speed of it but must try to play it more to get a better strategy otherwise I doubt it will come out often.
Day 6 (December 30th) was another busy day finishing up work things for the year, but older favourite Nusfjord got an outing in the evening and a welcome return to my table. Another solo game and not my highest score for a while as I am a bit rusty but I felt happy with 30 points, although I would have liked a better choice of buildings to come out even from the initial Herring deck. Still good fun though and pretty quick to play.
Day 7 (December 31st) saw a New Year’s Eve dinner with close friends so a chance to play a few party games with them. Sadly their first two choices were Rapidough (which I was rubbish at last night) and Cards against Humanity (which I was clearly excellent at from the cards I dealt and played). Gaming pedigree was restored with a match of Codenames to finish the night, although our team lost 3-2 after being 2-1 ahead but we somehow found the Assassin twice in the last two games. As an aside, I am definitely considering Decrypto and Monikers as other party game options for those friends for future nights with them, and maybe a dexterity game or two as well.
Day 8 (January 1st) gave me a largely quiet day in but taking things easy lead to a quick solo run through Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft with Kat the Rogue trying to escape from Count Strahd. A tense but ultimately straightforward escape for the rogue this time, with the Count not waking up until pretty late in the game and being able to use my daily and utility powers to defeat and avoid most of the more dangerous foes. A relatively early advance to 2nd level helped too so I feel ready to move on to try the adventures with a greater Hero count next time.
Four days to go and I know at least three of the titles I want to get played solo during the remainer of the challenge, and have several options for the fourth title depending on time too.
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Oh baby, it’s new year’s day. The big teach. Yule never walk alone. I’ve got Hogs-many rules to teach. Hey, I just met you, but this is crazy, so here’s my number, so Calan me maybe.
We played some games of Crokinole, which reaffirmed my 71-year-old father’s role as secret god of flicking games. UNTIL, of course we realised the grandchild was being awoken by the cacophonous noise of elderly dominance so the tournament had to be cut short (no we have to dad, shut up).
As a replacement, we played Men at Work at the suggestion of my partner. My family did really well apart from my 3 year old niece who insisted on forming a team with me. It’s sad when you realise someone who doesn’t truly understand the rules is carrying you because she hasn’t inherited the family tremor.
Then we played Welsh-language Confident? (aka Hyderus?) and it was a really good time. Top marks to the SU&SD folks - it is an excellent recommendation as a family game. It’s accessible, it produces conversations, it allows anyone to get involved. Although balancing is an issue - you can’t ask the question ‘Who was the oldest ever Welsh person?’ without my parents knowing who she is. Also knowing who her parents were. And mentioning a family tragedy that befell them. Still good though.
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First play of Lost Cities Roll and Write.
Interestingly different to the card game, you don’t have the pre-information to make the double bets on, and you’re not guaranteed of every combination showing up in the game since it’s dice, but there are other tactics instead.
I went cautiously, starting every column with low numbers. My partner concentrated on getting max in a few columns fast to get the bonus, but also ran up to the last scoring ‘pass’ space before she’d be busted… and stayed there.
Totalling the scores (including a double for me on blue) we got 375 to… 375. Our sheets looked nothing alike. Going to have to play again 
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How does this even happen?! Hahaha
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Played a few games over the last couple of days:
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one solo and one two-player game of Rallyman GT. I know the rules now, but I think it needs more than two players. Any thoughts on the optimal player count?
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Praetor, which was excruciating. Two of us managed to back ourselves into a corner of only having enough workers/resource every turn to earn the money needed to pay said workers… And nothing else. That meant that the game was way longer than it should have been, and incredibly dull/frustrating.
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Cryptid (from my Secret Santa). A nice, breezy deduction game. Could definitely take it to a work games night
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Five Tribes: I didn’t win, but I was surprisingly close to the winner given that I only had one camel on the board at the end of the game!
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Probably about 4, more if you have no players prone to AP. If you’re using the tracks in the core book, be aware that you can flip them over to switch them between 3-lane and 2-lane (except tiles 119-120) - generally I use 2-lane up to about 4 players, 3-lane for 4-6. I do have the Team Challenge expansion to allow up to 12-player games, but I suspect I may never actually use it.
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The Teams and GT4/5 expansions can still be pretty good value if you expect 2P to be the most common count, and you don’t want to run bots.
With the GT4 and GT5 expansions you can run a true mixed class race with GT6. Let the GT4 cars race a round, then launch the GT5’s and finally the GT6’s and poof!, instant traffic. Similarly you can just double up with the teams expansion and run a 4 car race.
[EDIT] Nothing keeps you from running teams of two (or three!) colours each. 
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Played a number of games over the holiday weekend so far.
My wife and I have gotten in two games of Concordia, which I won, two games of Ethnos, which each of us got a win, and two games of Chinatown with her brother joining us, and she won both, though I at least improved between the two plays and was just behind her in the second game.
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I caught a lucky win in my first solo mission of HeroQuest. The app definitely isn’t without its faults, with horrendous pathfinding and an insatiable thirst for battery juice, but all in all it felt good and nostalgic. I never owned this myself as a kid, but a friend did and it had its place as a springboard into roleplaying. Critically, it still feels like a viable experience. At least from memory this new version is pretty much identical in gameplay, and I think that’s actually a good thing! It’s a very simple game, but that makes it relatively unique in the space these days, and the core experience had so much room for creativity, house rules, scenarios, whole new campaigns, etc. that I’m not too surprised it holds up in its own way.
I’ll need to contend with traps and secrets from here on out, which really puts a huge wrinkle in tempo control (again, from memory), so I’ll look forward to that! Meanwhile I’m hoping to teach my partner how to play soon so she can join in and help my nephews, and give me a chance to get my feet wet as Zargon.
Victory pose! A critical wall-walk paired with a few truly devastating rolls made short work of the Gargoyle, and kept two Dread Knights out of the mix
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The best thing about Heroquest are the solo missions!
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Played Mind MGMT for the first time. I think we’re going to play it a few more times.
We have it so my partner is the secret movement person and I’m the controlling four people person.
I think my partner appreciated the “first game” mode as it really split the main concept of the game and some niche details. I got hammered both times which I think is about right. Ideally you’d have two or three balancing the load of four powers.
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The Loop , first play. This is a cooperative game, where you are trying to save the world from the villainous Dr Faux, who has built a time machine and is adding his clones through out time. The board is divided into seven different time zones, from the Dawn of Time through to the End of Times. They all have their own colour and symbol, so you don’t have to remember the names. At the beginning of each players turn, you turn over a new Dr Faux card, which tells you the zone that Dr Faux is going to attack this turn, and add red cubes. There is a little dice tower which has three chutes. You put the middle slot over Dr Fauxs zone, and then drop the red cubes in. The cubes could end up in the actual zone, or on each of the adjacent zones. As red cubes are added to a zone, they are added to the rift slots, which can hold three cubes. When a fourth should be added, the zone is destroyed. Clones are added each turn as well, these are copies of Dr Faux, and they cause extra red cubes to be added. Each clone has a paradox era, and it is destroyed if it moves to that era.
And obviously, you have to save the world. There are five different heroes to use, each with their own deck of starting cards. On your turn, you can use energy to move, and use cards to do various things (like removing the red cubes, or moving clones around). Each era has it’s own random mission for you to complete. Complete four missions and you win. If the same era is destroyed twice, or four eras in total are destroyed, then you lose. You can also lose by going thru the Dr Faux deck three times. The deck contains seven cards, one for each era. So, as cards are used, you can see which eras are more likely to come out. Of course, the dice tower adds a bit of confusion there and you can still get red cubes added to an adjacent era.
As you play cards, they are tapped so you can’t use them again. But, you can spend an energy to untap all the cards of a certain type (there are four types, but one can’t be reused). And you can continue to replay cards by playing two energy, then three, etc. This is called a Loop, and it’s pretty useful.
Well, we lost, managed to complete one mission out of the four. We lost because the same era was destroyed twice. But we really enjoyed the game, wouldn’t want it to be too easy.
Hansa Teutonica , one of the Euro-y Euro games you’ll find. Although, it does have quite a bit of player interaction, more so than most Euros. This is the Big Box edition, which has three maps and two mini expansion. The idea is easy enough, connect trade routes (with cubes) , and occupy cities (again, with cubes). There are only five actions possible -move cubes from your general stock to your personal supply, place a cube on a trade route, displace an opponents cube, move an existing cube on the board, and finally, create a trade route (if you have one of your cubes on every position on a route). Simple, right?
So Clover! , great game!
Sneaks and Snitches , first play. One of Vlaada Chvátils early games. It’s pretty simple, there are loot cards laid out, and you play two cards. One card is a sneak, trying to steal the loot, and the other card is your snitch, which will protect a loot card from theft. If a loot card is guarded, or more than one sneak is on it, you don’t get the loot. It’s a quick filler game.
Sheepy Time
The Key: Murder at the Oakdale Club , just one game of this. We had one new player, who just doesn’t seem to get thee game. Just not his kind of game, I guess.
Art Robbery , more fun with 4p.
Walk the Plank! , hadn’t played this game for a while. Good light fun.
Fantasy Realms X 2. Used the extra cards and cursed cards from the expansion (Cursed Hoard). It’s the same game, but you get dealt a random curse card at the start of the game. You can use the curse card, which usually gives you a special ability, but you will take negative points at the end. I was losing, so used my curse card, which allowed me to discard my hand and draw again, but the new hand wasn’t any better, so I still lost.
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