Played a quick game of Lost Cities with my wife. I was winning, but just barely, through the first two rounds, but she was able to jump ahead at the end, winning 75 - 68.
7 Likes
Galaxy Trucker - So much fun as always. My friend pretty much swept up in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. My wife never really caught a break. I was doing ok until the 4th round when I put a piece down in the wrong orientation without noticing it, losing pretty much all of the front of my ship including my purple alien and several guns 
Race for the Galaxy - First (and probably only) time playing this with more than 2. Way different feel. I clinched it with a lot of cheap brown worlds and devs to back them up, and got 2 solid ConsumeX2 phases.
9 Likes
Why āonlyā? (I really like how RtfG scales smoothly)
2 Likes
After playing countless games at 2, the brakes of only being able to choose one phase every round felt interminably slow, especially in cases where an ill-timed consume wastes a just-played windfall. Certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to the tactics each round for choosing phase, since youāre now more beholden to the other playersā choice, but it didnāt feel excitingly different so it just felt like it was dragging.
2 Likes
Oh, yeah. Itās funny, despite playing a lot of double-phase 2p, I still see that as a patch to make 2p better rather than the default.
Having your windfall sniped by an unexpected consume phase is definitely a thing you need to be careful about.
I guess I donāt see picking single phases and playing two rounds as any slower than picking two phases and playing one round. It does make it harder to do exactly what you want (consume+produce, settle+trade) with full efficiency, sure, but I still see that as a neutral or maybe even positive difference.
4 Likes
Dominant Species: Marine - aaaaaarrrggghhh!!! I thought itāll be āI like this, but the OG is marginally betterā or maybe itāll be āah I can see the pros and cons between the twoā. But no. I end up preferring the OG way more than this one. The overhaul of the round structure where you take an action immediately means that moves are way more tactical.
Wanderlust and evolution cards spawns immediately, which gives the classic case of opening a nice move to the next player when the next tile/card of the deck is revealed.
There is a king-of-the-hill aspect here where if you think you will score a lot on the Evolution action row, then dammit, you better do that Evolution action row >> Retrieve action loop until your opponents stop you from dominating on the scoring tiles of that round.
Bloody hell. El Grande have done this for more than 2 decades now! And kinda does it better. Marine has some good ideas like the trait cards, which I would like to have in OG Dominant Species. But this feels like a downgrade.
Rear Window - While Mysterium has the more psychadelic or surrealist art that I really like, Rear Window is just cleaner and more straightforward. I canāt do Mysterium as a ghost now as itās just too much effort to set things up. Rear Window cuts it all down to a reasonable time.
Twin Palms - basically, Oh Hell! style trick taker, but you do pairs instead. You can still play with a non-pair though. Interesting, but keen to see if thereās anything to dig deeper into.
Whistle Mountain - okay. I am getting at the tail end of this game at 4 plays. I still like it. Oh well. Such is the brief shelf life of a Euro.
7 Likes
Well, much to my surprise I already got a chance to play Altar Quest and more surprising still, I am really enjoying it. The rulebook is notoriously poor but itās at least mostly comprehensive so Iām reasonably sure I played mostly correctly, and Iām generally aware of things I forgot for next time. That said, any flubs in my favour werenāt enough to thwart my poor performance and I lost near the finish line.
My quest was to find matching fragments of an artifact, take them to the altar room (placing them on the altar), and then return to the entrance with the newly reformed tool. I was steps from what would have been the altar room, with a clear shot back to the stairs, but got ambushed and starved out at the door. I had been a little too spendy with my supplies on a mission that routinely rotted them into the discard pile. Thinking I had enough in the tank for a mad dash, I failed to consider just how dangerous the bossā putrid influence was and I got chipped out.
More to say about it but my kid developed robot arms and is attacking my groin now.
5 Likes
After we spent 30+ minutes filling out a evaluation form indicating just how behind our younger child is compared to other kids his age and knowing we get to do it again for our older kiddo, my wife suggested we play Unmatched, which I quickly agreed to. I have not played since May!
She was Medusa and I tried out Bloody Mary, and we played on the Baskerville Manor map. Bloody Mary gets three actions on her turn if you start with just three cards in hand, and she has a number of cards that have bonus effects if played on her third action.
I was able to make pretty good use of this ability and actually won the game with 4 health left. My wife probably could have won if she just ran away and tried to exhaust me, as I drew a lot more cards than she did. But, a win is a win, and itās nice to add another to my column, since she is still way ahead.
8 Likes
Three hits:
Following the solo rounds, got a 3p session in for Libertalia: WoG. Itās still good! Repeating myself, but the main benefit over Libertalia 1.0 is the consistency. Over 9 hands/rounds, Iāve only really had one dud and that had more to do with an island full of cursed relics and hooks than a hand full of redundant or useless cards. Really looking forward to the next one. Definitely adjusting the teach, though - despite itās lightness thereās just a lot of systems and information that new players have to take in, and the game shines when everyone knows what they are doing. Iām going to leave less to ādiscovery through playā next time and hustle to to the good stuff.
Fantastic Factories. With its dicey tableauyness, I was eyeing this in the Roll FTG and Tiny Epic Galaxies corner of my shelf, as a possible replacement for the latter. However, in play, it felt a lot more like Res Arcana and Furnace. The way you āactivateā your tableau card by card really sets the tone. Itās good! Itās ok. The problem is, Res Arcana with its tight, small deck of useful and unique cards really sets up interesting engines. Furnace has one of the best auction phases Iāve played. Fantastic Factoriesā¦ itās fine. I mean, play it if you get a chance. Keep it if you have it. Itās up against some tough competition in its space.
Everdell. I long held back from this one, fearing the hype. Reddit is full of conflicted opinions and sentiments that it didnāt age. But I loved it! Itās got some of the same issues as Wingspan - a huge wall of high-text cards that you have to keep track of. And it doesnāt even have Wingspanās benefit of activating those cards in a set order (and yes, I often had to go back to trigger a bonus Iād forgotten). But in its defense, most cards only trigger a handful of times a game, and they are so varied and you are so deliberate in choosing them that you generally remember whatās at your disposal. I was surprised how Arnak-y it felt, with the sparse workers combined with a hand of cards.
Iām a fan, looking forward to the next one.
9 Likes
Played chapter 2 of Expedition to Newdale this evening. Got another win of this but this time only by 5 points. More fun was had this time by all, so thatās good. Same map but mildly different conditions and it was different enough but not by much. Hopefully as the campaign goes on then things will shake up some more. Looking forward to the next play so hopefully soon.
Finished up with 2 hands of Stick āEm which was as fun and inscrutable as all my previous plays. Both hands I ended up sharing pain colour with one of the others so that hd me thinking. Too soon for any conclusions
6 Likes
I got another session of Altar Quest in tonight, using the identical setup from yesterday (āThe Searchā using Frox+Bolx and Quella as my hero) and lostā¦ pretty much at the same point: desperate to find the altar while shedding pints of blood.
I was doing ok, certainly better about hoarding focus and supply tokens (the cause of my demise yesterday), but I was perhaps a little too lax about keeping minions on the field because when The Infamous Croak of Bolx came roaring through the halls, I found myself in trouble real quick. I hadnāt put enough attention on the fact that a Lurker enemy had a brutal attack that tested against my characterās worst stat; when they got a surprise attack on me, I had no choice but to unload my defensive cards. Sadly, this left me open to a ranged attack from a little pipsqueak. Normally I could have outrun the lesser enemy, but I found myself surrounded by traps, so I didnāt have much in the way of movement options.
I took a dart to the back and watched the darkness consume me.
This is an amazing game.
[EDIT] Another session (same basic setup) this morning and finally caught a win. I got a healthy mix of good and bad luck, with things escalating real fast near the end. Thankfully I had looped back around near the stairs while exploring, so when I decided to bravely run away, I didnāt have too far to go. I was one turn away from spawning the boss monster too, so I definitely cut things close.
4 Likes
Played the Arkham Horror card game scenario, The Curse of the Rougarou, using Nathaniel Cho and Daisy Walker, who were pretty effective in The Night of the Zealot campaign.
Not so lucky here. Started off well enough, but once I got past the first Act, things slowed to a crawl. Part of it was my missing a bit of the rules regarding the Rougarou itself (A clue must be spent to engage it, but it can be collectively by the Investigatirs, not just by the one trying to engage it). The other was misremembering how a keyword (Retaliate) works, so I was making decisions based on incorrect info.
Also, Daisy just had a horribly shuffled deck, not getting any of her tomes out for the whole game. When I finally got one in hand, she died. And I kept drawing horribly from the chaos bag (cup) when it mattered. Big, game changing moves would fail, but I would avoid merely inconvenient Treachery cards, or knock out weaker enemies with ease.
I think I will have a much better time of it on my next go, playing with the correct rules.
3 Likes
More Modern Art
Canāt Stop - this is a pretty good dice-chucking push-your-luck game. Good filler
Barenpark
Race for the Galaxy - This is the first time I did a 2 player Race on a table. Fun as always. While I manage to get a copy of Brink of War recently, I kept the GS + RvI setup that @Benkyo prefers. Keen on playing more with the Arc 2 and Arc 3 expansions. Any advice welcome for a newbie with these arcs.
Tindahan / Filipino Fruit Market - Interesting trick taker from Peer Sylvester. You are forced to choose between playing into the trick-taking game or investing in the area majority. I canāt comment with a first-time game with 3 dummies who are just trying to get a grasp of the game.
Ticket to Ride: New York - I hate to say this, but what some people say is right: donāt go for the additional objective cards. The returns on claiming longer routes is just too good. A route of 1 is 1VP but a route of 4 is a 7VP??? Claiming routes also doesnāt have the same risk that holding objectives cards have.
6 Likes
Alien artifacts: without the orb, my preferred default way to play. With the orb, explore becomes a whole mini-game in its own right, which can be too much for some players - it can feel both tacked on and too time-consuming. This gets better with familiarity. The orb can be quite swingy, and can catapult players to high scores.
Xeno invasion: without the invasion, thereās a few too many new keyword cards (xeno and anti-xeno) for it to feel right. The invasion itself merges with the regular game flow much better than the orb does, but also changes the game more than any other expansion does. There are perverse incentives to have the second-best military - to not be on the frontline - but still be able to defend yourself, and to use goods in production. So its still the same old race for VPs, but the incentives are all warped. Some people will hate the feel of these new incentives. The expansion if you have played a ton of race and want to try something different.
3 Likes
Couple of session to report on. I went to the Hastings Games Night on Friday, had a fair few small games:
-Arboretum: got trumped out of my maples and by the time I finished the game my nearly full road of Jacarandas did not cut it and ended up 2nd as I only had the 1 and 8 of maples against the winner, who had the 6 and 7.
-Selfish: Zombie Edition. Forgettable. Nearly regrettable
-Regicide: We played two hands and did not even make it to the first K. It turns out the game is way more dependant on getting good cards that I would like. Shame, I had high hopes on it.
-The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. Really enjoyed it. I think I prefer it to the original. The mission cards are way easier to deal with.
Then on Saturday we had a 10.30 am to 3 pm session in the Library. We had games taught to newcomers. I managed to play:
-Incan Gold: nice and simple family game, we had a few punters on this one and went rather well. I ducked out always one card too early or one card too late. Fun simple push your luck kind of game.
-Spirit Island: I had brought it along to play it with people from the Friday night, but they were late. Somebody else requested it and I could not say no. As I was teaching it to two other persons, we played with the basic set (minus one power I forgot/missed to remove from the branch and claw expansion) and basic invaders. I had Thunderspeaker, the other two had Spread of Rampant Green and Rivers Surge in Daylight. I think I have never seen the game being so back and forwards, I really enjoyed it. We managed well and I think we did not intentionally cheat at all, but there was the rule of getting a new power where you choose between 4 cards that I forgot as they were using preset power decks and I wasnāt.
We managed to wrap it up in about 2.5 hours including a teach, with a win at Terror Level III where we smashed the last two cities with two Invaders cards left on the deck. I still think Rivers is slightly overpowered, but sod those invaders.
-We finished with Fantasy Realms after lunch, where we played 3 games, the last one with 6. I did relatively well on all three of the games at nearly 200 every time, but won none. Enjoyed it more than expected, for being such a simple game, it plays light and at a good pace.
6 Likes
Thatās what we found too, but we werenāt sure if it was just because we were going from the last missions in the original to the first easy missions in this. Plus itās the same group so we have all the experience to bring to bear. But I want to see if the difficulty starts ramping up, because we havenāt yet hit a real stopper of a mission like we did multiple times in the original.
3 Likes
This is by far my favourite push your luck game. The only downside is that itās best with more players.
4 Likes
ScandalOh!, second play, had a bit more of an idea about what I was doing. Myself and another player won, we solved on the same round. I just went with the scandal that has the most circled information. So all you really do in this game is circle or cross off icons. The theme doesnāt really seem to matter much.
Four Humours, first play. The four humours of the title refer to the medieval idea that we have four basic substances, and if any of them are out of balance, we get sick. The four humours are choleric (yellow bile, no much makes you aggressive), sanguine (red blood, too much makes you friendly), melancholic (black bile, makes you moody), and Phlegmatic (white phlegm, makes you patient). Does any of this matter in the game? No, not really.
What you do on your turn is place a potion (one of the four humours) on a citizen in a scene tile, or a party tileā¦ Each place on a scene of party tile allows one of two potions. Potions are placed face down, so you donāt know whatās been played. Four scenes come out each round, the round is over when two of the tiles are filled. Then, you turn over all the potions and resolve each scene, according to the following logic. A single yellow wins, then two or more red, then exactly two blacks, and finally any number of white. Once a colour has won, the scene has resolved, so if you had one yellow and three red, the yellow would win the scene first. And it doesnāt matter who owns the winning potions ā you could have three players all playing red and winning.
The object of the game is to fulfil objective cards. Each scene card corresponds to a location on the main board, which is made up of six tiles. Winning a scene allows you to place your potion at that location. Objectives could be having X number in a region, or X using bridges. As objectives are taken, the party tiles on the right of the location board are resolved, in the same way as a scene tile. Once all the party tiles are resolved, the game is over.
Itās an interesting game, I donāt think Iāve played anything quite like it. Because each placement can be one of two choices, you can try and deduce what another player may have put there. You can even co-operate on a scene, but of course no agreement is binding. Itās been described as the classic prisoners dilemma problem.
This was a new game from Kickstarter, just came in. So had little plastic potions to put the potion pieces in, and some other stuff (bigger tiles, exclusive tile).
Alchemists, this took a while, we had a new player. Who probably felt like he had a ton of information dumped on him at the start. Heās a smart guy, Iām sure he figured it out (he didnāt win). I won, which was a good feeling. Never got a special card, never bought an artifact, never sold a potion. But published three theories, which were all correct and I got maximum points from those (5 + 5 + 3). Although I stuffed up a debunk ā I knew a theory was wrong, but selected the wrong colour to disprove it and failed.
Rolling Realms, this is a lot of fun
6 Likes
We were 5 or 6, so it was a lot of fun. I definitely see why is such a classic.
2 Likes
I finally got a chance to play my copy of Tokyo Sidekick this morning and wow, is it a ruthless affair. Itās high stress from the outset, you really need to manage your deck(s), and itās a lot crunchier and logistical than I anticipated. Iām sick so Iām on tea, but I really needed coffee for this one.
I got licked pretty bad. A red threat card going critical is what did me in, but my damage deck was pretty thin, my destruction track was on 12/15, I had just drawn a third Supervillain onto the board, and if I did manage to knock another one out, the big menace would have spawned. Yeah, itās tight. I think hero/sidekick synergies are going to be super important at 2P (solo in this case. Itās always two-handed).
Considering the experience, I thought it had a good fun factor. Iāll look forward to making another attempt, and might even be able to get my partner on board for this one.
4 Likes