Recent Boardgames (Your Last Played Game Volume 2)

[COMaestro]

Actually had our friends over for some gaming for the first time since June.

We started off with 5-player Chinatown. Game was really close, with my wife winning with $870k, me at $850k, our friend at $840k, his wife at $750k, and my brother-in-law at $740k. However, my brother-in-law had slipped me and my wife $10k each in the last round just for fun, and I later learned had given her $60k earlier in the game, which is totally fine by the rules, but will always be a caveat to this game in my mind.

After, her brother bowed out, and with our kids driving us nuts during most of the previous game (and likely to continue), we opted for simpler fare. Brought out Spicy, which had me get down to my last card most often, but overall lost with just 9 points, while our friend made excellent calls and won with 18. My wife was just behind at 16, and his wife at 12.

Finished off the day with Sushi Go, which we hadn’t played in forever. Our friend won yet again with 48 points, followed by me with 40, my wife at 39, and his wife at 25 (she had no puddings).

Would have been a great day of gaming if the kids hadn’t been so annoying, but it was still fun overall.

[bort]

Wonderland’s War, led for most of the game, lost in a tiebreak. Not even the first tiebreak, but the second. Might have spread myself a little thin at the end, maybe I should have concentrated on just one battle. Had one terrible battle, I think my first four draws were madness. Still, it was a good game, and our first with the Deluxe version.

Alchemists, very little went right for me. Made some stupid mistakes (like testing the same two ingredients twice, and forgetting that publishing a theory requires money). Can’t win the game without publishing a theory, and I failed to get even one.

Lancaster, always a fun game. I love the laws that are voted on each round. I realised too late that the other players were amassing the noblemen from the town (they each ended up with 20 odd points from that). I got the end game points for biggest army and most extensions, so that helped a bit, but I still finished last.

[Whistle_Pig]

It feels like ages since I’ve reported any games!

Yesterday we had a rare 4-player games afternoon, being joined by our regular gaming buddy’s brother.

Carpe Diem: my husband bought the new version at UKGE, and it got it’s first outing yesterday. It’s a tile-laying point salady game of building in ancient Rome. I completely kneecapped myself by building two uncompletable villas, which should have been a good chunk of my score . I played this game a lot online at the beginning of the pandemic and got a bit bored of it, but I enjoyed revisiting it IRL. As we were packing up I said that it seemed like the publisher had tried to make the new version look as boring as possible, and my husband protested that he’d bought it because he liked the box. This is genuinely how we end up with a wide variety of games - he buys games with art that makes me go , and then the game grows on me (and vice versa).

A War of Whispers: first time playing with four and it was very crowded! We had two people switch allegiances halfway through as we all agreed that green was doomed. I had the red and brown factions as my main point scorers. The switch in allegiances let me leave bolstering the reds to everyone else and get on with spreading out brown on the other side of the board. By the time anyone else noticed I had manoeuvred myself into having control of the last action of the last two factions to move and it was too late to do anything about it *Machiavellian cackling*

Through the Desert (AKA Camel Go): narrowly beaten (again) by my husband, who managed to wall off a tiny corner while the rest of us were scrapping on the other side of the board. He plays a lot of actual Go, which I am convinced gives him an advantage.

Wingspan: played with all the wingspansions. Do I need more bird cards? No. Am I going to buy the new Asia expansion? Probably .
This was a very tight game with victory claimed by a last minute Kākāpō play. I can never resist the kākāpō, but sadly it was not mine this time

[SteveB_uk]

@Whistle_Pig

A War of Whispers

I’m going to have to buy this one. I’ve been looking at it since release, and I just love the concept.

[COMaestro]

@Whistle_Pig

The switch in allegiances let me leave bolstering the reds to everyone else and get on with spreading out brown on the other side of the board. By the time anyone else noticed I had manoeuvred myself into having control of the last action of the last two factions to move and it was too late to do anything about it Machiavellian cackling

Despite only playing this once so far, the ability to do things like this makes me love the game!

[Whistle_Pig]

We also play with the variant that ensures that nobody has the exact same distribution of allegiances at the start, and the one that lets you put down up to two “personal cities”.

It’s our friend’s copy so I don’t need to own it, but if he moved away I’d probably buy it!

[RogerBW]

My tekelilicon:

• Rush n’ Crush - a relatively new favourite, see the PBF game here for how it goes. I still hold Rallyman GT as my favourite racing game, but I do have a lot of fun with this.
• Colt Express - I should make some effort to play this more often now that large groups are happening again. (It’s a bit rubbish with 3.)
• Unfathomable - I’ve played BG the game once, and thought it was OK but didn’t grab me, so I don’t have the emotional attachment to it that Space-Biff did. This seemed at once both much more slick and strangely bathetic – are we in a struggle for our lives, or are we pretending that everything is fine so it really matters that the first class passengers have comfy chairs? (Also, if we arrive in Boston with great big beasties in tow, won’t they just eat Boston?) Definitely had its moments, and I’d play again, but I don’t see myself buying it.
• Lemminge - always a favourite, light but crunchy and doesn’t outstay its welcome.
• A Game of Cat & Mouth - fast silly frantic fun.
• The Climbers - goodness I am very bad at this.
• Shamans - and this. (But I always look for games that are fun to play while losing: with four players, there’ll be three losers, and even if I win everything I want my friends to be having a good time.)
• Rip Off - gnnnnnnn must not destroy compoents, have to destroy components.
• Concept - with “street” rules so you can end the game whenever people are getting bored, worked well to start the day.
• RoadZters - once upon a time I had some dexterity.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition - love it, love it, that perfect progression from “I’ve lost how many hit points” to “we’ve won”. Bonus points to @Lordof1’s amazing girlfriend [sic], first time playing, with Fanatic, who dived straight for that 10HP bonus damage zone and clung on.
• Coldwater Crown - a lightly-themed Euro that Roger likes, and I wish I could work out why.
• Tobago (with Volcano) - I’ll still usually play first games without the volcano, but this was great fun.
• Onitama - sure I used to be better at this too. Still really like it.

[Chewy77]

Heaps to report, my Friday night D&D fell through due to hostess sickness, so I went to the Hastings Friday night games instead. First played Shushi Go! Party, which I really enjoyed. Nice and easy crowd pleaser. Then I felt really treated when one of the seniors in the group said that he had brought Thunderbirds, which I said I wanted to try straight away, and we nearly scolded him for not bringing it before.

We had a good time, but gosh, is that game hard to win. We played 4 times and lost every time. The first one we rolled 2 hoods on our rolls, and we could not prevent the first event to happen, and that was hardly 10 mins after the teach finished. The following games were a lot closer, but we still failed, mainly through rolls. I have a feeling that if there is something I would change, is getting rid of one of the hood signs on the dice. It feels a tad too random when you lose because of it. Still, what a great experience. It is a shame it is so hard to find in NZ.

Then we finished the night with what I found out is more torture than a game, Killer Rabbits. It makes Munchkin look good. The hostess loves the game (she has a few expansions even) and we were only four left by the time we finished Thunderbirds, so I conceded (even though I had heard bad things about it). It is probably the most random game I have ever played, and with the caveat that if you don’t have a rabbit to display, you cannot do anything in your turn (apart from trading cards with the deck). Towards the end of the game somebody killed my rabbits, took 3 of my 5 carrots, and I spent 6 or 7 turns unable to play. And the hostess played a card that extended the game longer by returning carrots to the deck (the game ends when all carrots are taken). I got a rabbit, which was killed in one turn, and spent another 3 or 4 turns trading cards. All to finish with a lottery to see whose carrot (numbered from 1 to 20) is the lucky one. That was one to learn. Never again.

Saturday morning we had an event in the Library where we hosted games 10.30 to 15.30. I got 3 plays of Flipology (nasty little game, love it as a filler) one game of Arboretum that I lost by 2 points, Architects of the West Kingdom, Century Golem Edition and Longshot: The Dice Game, all of which I finished second at. I did really enjoy Longshot, we played it between six and it was a lot of fun, even though the theme is a bit meh to me, I did get into it by the end. Specially when my number 8 horse ended tied 2nd with number 4.

We finished the day with a play of Cascadia, which I did really enjoy as well, I can see how it has won so many awards, it is easy to play and teach and very straight forward. My elk strategy did not pay off, and I finished 3rd out of 4.

[VictorViper]

I played a couple of learning games of Forgotten Depths last night and this morning, both of which were riddled with rules errors but I got there in the end. I tried a lone wolf run using the Thief initially, and lost pretty decisively early on. Things felt a bit wonky using a single hero (in hindsight this is certainly due to my own errors), but I liked what I had seen so I set right back up with two heroes—Wizard and Fighter this time—with an eye on getting things right.

I was absolutely certain I had bitten off more than I could chew in terms of actually surviving the run, but some good fortune near the end let me recover a little HP which, as it turned out, was just enough to let me survive the final encounter. I technically cleared the first floor on this attempt, but I didn’t really get a good grip on how combat was supposed to work until about mid-way through the game, so I packed up without saving.

It’s pretty rough around the edges, the manual has a fairly substantial errata and FAQ (which thankfully exist), and the box and insert are absolutely ludicrous but I was really starting to have a pretty great time with it by the end.

The big “G” game element is quite strong for a dungeon crawler of this type. It’s got the usual conceptual tropes (explore a dungeon and level up to reach and defeat the big bad who will destroy us all), but at its heart is a light yet thoughtful tile laying puzzle bolstered by a combat system that might best be described as a surprisingly compelling iteration of War (the card game). Tied into the tile laying puzzle is a simple “node” system, whereby arranging certain map tiles into prescribed patterns gains access to the game’s Legendary locations (setpiece encounters and the primary source of lore for the settings).

It’s really something nice and different! I’m eager to play with one hero again now that I’ve got the rules nailed down; wrangling two isn’t unmanageable but it’s definitely not ideal when learning. Early rules mistakes aside, I’ve learned the game definitely lets you bite off way more than you can chew if you’re greedy or stupid.

Thumbs up so far on the novelty, at least, but I’m liking the structure of the game in terms of high hopes for decent replayability.

[COMaestro]

My wife, her brother, and I played Taverns of Tiefenthal today. Still didn’t add the bards or white cube guests, as I wanted us to have a playthrough without errors before adding more rules, but I think they will get included next game (and maybe the guest book the game after that).

My wife had a lousy first round, drawing none of her initial upgrade cards, while her brother and I drew all of them. She came back strong, though, in later rounds, and was definitely ahead until the last round. Then, I drew 3 brewers and 3 barbacks, and managed to get 5 dice for the brewer! All told, I was able to get three nobles and a 4 VP guest with all my beer. Then, I was able to upgrade three areas of my tavern using the three tables and three dishwashers for two freebies, and 12 coins and one brewer to upgrade that to get three more nobles!

I won with 114 to my wife’s 92, followed by her brother’s 82. Just an amazing last turn!

[VictorViper]

My partner and I got our first (complete) game of Super Fantasy Brawl under our belts tonight, and I took the win in a hard-fought scrum. We both did a good job contesting the scoring zones (or a bad job depending on how you want to spin it!), so all of our points actually ended up coming from knockouts.

We’re both excited to explore this further. It’s got a great decision space for the weight, and the tempo is fantastic. I primed all the models today in anticipation of paint. This one’s a definite keeper.

[EDIT] Snuck in another game this afternoon. I eked out another win, but there’s no glory here; any points won were through mistakes and shenanigans, and that will likely be true for a while. That said, aside from a brutal opening salvo from me where I knocked out one of my partner’s heroes before she had a turn, most of the game centered around objectives this time and KO points were more incidental to the action therein.

I’m liking this more and more. It’s definitely a wild game but everything is tuned for that, so it feels more bombastic than chaotic. Deck cycling is tense and exciting as you wait for signature moves to “cool down” and return to your hand. Ignoring Draw and Plan (place a card in hand on top of your draw deck) abilities has very quickly been identified as folly. There’s an amazing ebb and flow to the objective contests forcing strategic retreats and dangerous blitzes. Lots to chew on here, but in the lightest, most pleasingly crunchy way.

I know we have fans of Unmatched here, and I’ve gotta put it out there: if you have any room for another light, card-based scrapper in your life, this one’s really worth a look. The core box has a ton of content to explore (6 heroes and of course everything else needed to play).

[Lordof1]

Games night with an old friend. I know I it’s unfashionable to like it nowadays, but we introduced my girlfriend to Terraforming Mars - my friend has the deluxe version with all the nobs and balls, as the kids say. She got the hang of it very quickly and utterly trounced us both.

I know it has problems, not least with the artwork, but I’m utterly in love with the theme and I continue to greatly enjoy the game. Maybe if I played it more often and really wanted to win I might be frustrated with some of the mechanics, but it does feel likes there’s some skill, judgement and interesting choices to make. We all had fun anyway, although it goes without saying that despite my technical last place, I very much won the moral victory.

We also tried Horrified, but a misreading of the rules meant we won almost before we started, and Bureau of Investigation, the Lovecraftian version of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Chap. We remained utterly clueless for the whole game and were perplexed by the solution which was a vigintillion miles from what we thought, but we have fun anyway.

[VictorViper]

I played a true-solo round of Forgotten Depths this morning (Ava the Thief), and it was much more enjoyable this time around. There have still been a few oddities here and there (some events calling for a luck draw between heroes to divvy out good/bad results as an example), but for the most part they’ve been easy enough to modify for the purpose.

In spite of the minor fuzziness that can occur, I’m enjoying things a lot more without a second hero. Things aren’t especially difficult to track and manage, but running two characters in combat is cumbersome.

I cleared the first floor but missed the level 4 legendary location, and got frighteningly close to a KO a few times. I found some items that could only be equipped by a Wizard, so at least had some spare XP to spend on healing. Happily, I did manage to find and loot both chests on the floor, earning me a couple of nice blades, an armour boost and a very nice adjustment to my combat deck.

I’ve saved things up for now and will return to tackle the caverns next. I’m anticipating a pretty major bump in challenge but I guess we’ll see.

Here’s the final layout of the Ruins level. I love the TTRPG-style maps this produces.

[Dustin]

I got introduced to Neuroshima Hex over the weekend by an old friend, and I quite liked it. I played Moloch vs his Hegemony, and we ended up with a tie game, but only because he had some very poor luck with the first few tile draws.

Replayability seems high - I expect we’ll trot it out again when TTRPG options are out because of busy players.

[COMaestro]

Last night my wife and I played Ethnos. While I managed to be ahead by the end of the 2nd age, and after tallying our points for bands, she passed me by with winning most of the region bonuses. Final scores were 79 - 68.

Then, after the kids went to bed, we tried out Men at Work. Wow, those bricks are just evil, barely staying on the construction meeples arms, and usually falling off if trying to add a second (at least, they did every time we tried). We played two games, and my wife won both due to me losing my third safety certificate, though she was down to 2 in the first game and only 1 in the second. Fun, but I think it needs more players to really shine.

[InkyBloc]

New York Slice: One friend ate every slice he got and got a few specials that gave him extra points for eating and blew everyone else out of the water.

Letter Jam: Some great clues. My best was Mississippi although I tried to convince people to let me give eeniemeenieminiemoe as a clue.

FUSE: Sailed to an easy win with 5 on standard difficulty - although not many points (but who cares?)

[mistercrayon]

Ha, I feel like the default win condition of five highest pieces (at 2p) is just an insane amount of optimism.

[lalunaverde]

Pax Renaissance x2 - someone won early with the Imperial Victory. Second one was Renaissance Victory.

The Estates - still one of the best auction games. I am now preferring this over Medici. I’m still keeping the latter though.

Condottiere

Modern Art - same as the Estates above.

K2 - at this point, I think this one is “solved”, in the sense that there’s one path to victory. Nearly got the perfect score of 20 pts, so I have to settle for 17 pts.

Age of Industry - the Japan map is also fun. So far, I have played Germany, New England, and Japan.

Remember Our Trip - Very keen on any Saashi & Saashi titles like this one, as they were ones who published Let’s Make a Bus Route and they are hard to find. This one is pretty much a roll & write adjacent. Rather boring. Bus Route is still the best.

Tussie Mussie - filler drafting game. It’s okay.

Tempel des Schreckens

[raged_norm]

@lalunaverde

K2 - at this point, I think this one is “solved”, in the sense that there’s one path to victory. Nearly got the perfect score of 20 pts, so I have to settle for 17 pts.

Agreed, I won this every time playing the same way. I only played the first mountain so I don’t know if the expansions change the way you need to play

[lalunaverde]

I think the only exp I tried was broad peaks (unlikely, it was Lhotse) Doesnt change it unfortunately