Some games over the last week and a bit:
Jaipur
Patchwork
Incan Gold - this one was weird - my wife got an early score on the first round and then 3 of the following rounds saw no one getting any gems, cementing her solid lead. It’s games like this that leave me a bit cooler on the game than others - it doesn’t always give good meaningful choices on top of the randomness. Quacks (though longer and more complex) offers a much better sense of a wild out of control game but with enough real choices where you don’t feel entirely beholden to luck.
Skull x2, this game continues to grow on me - it’s largely a faster less mathsy Perudo. It doesn’t have the tactile thrill of the dice cups in that one, but the nice thick cards/coasters give it’s own appeal. Lots of fun.
Whitehall Mystery, we detectives did awfully - we failed to pick up the murderer’s trail at all on a few of the rounds! The end was close but in the end some sneaky back tracking and careful planning secured the win for our murderer.
Arboretum x2, taught this to a new gaming bud, he struggled to grasp the scoring in the first game so we had a rematch. It was much closer, I missed out by virtue of having one fewer point in a key suit in my final hand.
Splendor, great game of this one, super tight, and the winner just edged over the line before the others could.
Silver and Gold, another excellent game of this, nabbing two high scoring trophies won it for me, in the end.
Great Western Trail, terrific game of this with a bud I hadn’t seen in awhile. I continue to prove that if I can get cowboys consistently, I can normally at least put myself in contention to win, but I’m much weaker at builder and train strategies, so if I’m forced into a hybrid strat or completely into something else, I tend to do terribly. This game I got my cowboys so I won solidly with like 40+ points for cows, and great points on deliveries. My opponent simultaneously made the mistake of not buying better cows early enough and wavering between a builder and train strategy. I look forward to playing it again with him soon - he enjoyed it a great deal, and is the kind of systems thinker that will probably wipe the floor with me with another game or two under his belt.