Thanks for the write-up! It sounds really great!
We just finished a game of Tzolk’in. I lost, and rather miserably at that, but what a great game. Surprisingly straightforward (though the manual does a great job of making it seem way more obtuse), but the decision space is just so huge! Definitely top five all-time for me.
John Company - WHAT A WILD RIDE. 3 player learning game (for 2 of us) and I can see a lot of potential here. We started with the standard scenario with 3 concessions in Madras, Bengal, and Bombay. One was the company chairman with few positions inside the company, so he end up asking for a share of our profit for our roles to be effective. Player 2 dominates the Company military Therefore, he makes money through conquering and looting. I occupy 2 of the presidencies of the concessions, making profit through trade.
I have 3 take-aways from our first game, feel free to add or respond if you see any:
1.) You score by using the Company as a means to an end. Get money, and then convert that money into points. Once you understood this, it’s easier to internalise things as I’m sure a lot of you here played Euros that follows this formula - resources>>resources>>VPs.
2.) You won’t get far in this game without making deals that will benefit other players along with you. This is very good. Sticking to only luxuries and/or workshops to score outside of Company means is too expensive.
3.) JoCo has this concept that reminds me of Duck Dealer where if one player thinks that they are in a winning position, if the Company crashes, then crashing the Company makes sense to them. While players who think they are losers (aka not 1st place) will be keen on saving the company. The requirement here though is for players to be skilled enough with this game to properly read the board state.
Super keen on playing more. This is easily one of the best new-to-me games I have played this year.
Rear Window - our director (equivalent of the ghost in Mysterium) is sh** and so I was highly suspecting that there is a murder in this game, but apparently not lol
Some games over the last week or so:
Point Salad x3, it continues to be impossible to play just one game of this one. Most of my plays have been with lower playercounts (mostly 2, a bit of 3), and I suspect that is when it works best - there’d be too much chaos in higher playercounts to plan ahead.
Love Letter, couple of rounds of this one - I’m coming around to the new additions too.
Spring Meadow x2, another frequently requested by mum. I really like it too though, my favourite polyomino placement game.
Azul: Summer Pavilion, took this one out with mum and she really liked it. I do remember teaching her the original Azul, but she struggled with the scoring (as I also do) - this one was much smoother - she even told me off for not suggesting it earlier 
Hadrian’s Wall, scored 81 in this solo game, which is pretty good for me. Apart from focusing on the wall and the fort and resource production, I put a fair bit of effort into market (had some bad luck but it still turned out okay) - did very well on my path cards this run too!
Hanamikoji x3, new one to the collection - this one is even better than I thought it would be. While the rules are simple, trying to understand how to play it well continues to be super engaging. My opponent enjoyed it also.
Blitz Bowl, my buddy brought this game with him and I was pleased to give it a whirl, as I’ve quite enjoyed playing Blood Bowl’s digital implementations in the past. Really fun - snappy and a good dose of random but nails the feel of Blood Bowl in a simpler package. As a one off game I may like it even more than Blood Bowl. In the end we had no touchdowns and he won by 1 point (after my thrower botched his third throw in a row 
) so room for improvement for sure! I’d love a copy myself if it were available and I didn’t have to assemble miniatures… Ah well, looking forward to another game already.
Super Big Boggle x3 a few games of this with my wife - she beat me 2 to 1. Tracking individual games of this on BGG has made this my most played game. Maybe I should just track sessions? Eh, no big deal and I do like it a lot even after 50+ plays.
My wife and I played Isle of Skye this evening. I managed to squeak out a win in the endgame points, 77 - 75, as she had been in the lead for the whole game. There is a caveat though: I forgot to remind her of the double scoring of scrolls if they are within a completed terrain until a little over halfway through the game. Considering I won by just two points, this could have made a difference.
Formosa Tea!
Still find this hugely pleasant. Yes, it’s a somewhat unremarkable euro design. But it’s a good euro, just the right weight where you could play it most anytime and be interested but not exhausted. And it’s riddled with clever little points of interaction, maybe a little like Architects, that keep it fresh and social.
And it’s a good excuse to drink tea.
Also, a first play of Blitzkrieg! Good little game. I especially liked how the rules, which I knew in principle, took on so much muscle once we actually started playing. I did not anticipate an entire subgame around managing your and your opponent’s handsize. Yes, I knew there were ways to grow and shrink hand sizes, but it took on so much life once the reality set in that there were a limited number of spaces available and a few different factors playing into who would get them first. A solid little duel.
Wait. What? TIL
The double-yolked eggs of the Isle of Skye
Yeah, I’ve played a few times and I don’t think I ever noticed this.
That’s why the scoreboard has an outlined scroll with x2 on it, but it is easy to miss. I only remembered last night when I enclosed one, which is when I reminded my wife about it.
Played Food Chain Magnate with @EnterTheWyvern .
I went for “trainer >> coach” early strategy and also nabbed the waitress and discount milestones. Using my coach I tried to hire both a burger chef and pizza chef which will spam the board with burgers and pizzas.
Alas, my biggest weakness was the lack of drinks boys, and so my opponents have marketed drinks. At that point, I lost momentum and lost the game (we only had a few more rounds to go, so not much time for me to rebound).
It was a quick summary of my end as there’s so much development happening in that game. Great fun! This is the Euro for me that quells any need for me to play 99.9% of Euro games - with the exception of a selected few like Terra Mystica
Is it even really a euro?
I should have expected that taxonomy question. It has the vibes, for me. Antiquity sits easily in that contemporary Euro category.
Yep, your drinks weakness was preyed upon. Mercilessly. Mwhahahahahaha!
Enjoyed this play of Food Chain Magnate. I managed to drag myself away from a familiar pattern. It’s nice to think I’m able to be flexible with my thinking and making a choice based on a situation rather than falling in to a pattern regardless.
This game was heavy on the price wars. Another reason for the drinks heavy marketing was having the extra 5 dollars on drinks milestone. Some real cut and thrust saw a few turns of hairy trying to scrape enough money for wages to get my engine up off the ground.
We actually called the game due to time. I was quite ahead so most probably would have won. However have been pondering what the possible counter moves to what I was doing was and how I could respond. It’s quite broad innit. So many things could have been done and many things I could have done. Worth playing again.
Economic games where players can get effectively eliminated through poor play don’t scream “euro” to me, but it’s easy to conflate euro design with family-friendly German design and maybe not even a mistake to do so.
FCM certainly features a high level of player control and competition, which is all some people need to define a euro.
It does not make any effort at approachability, player engagement through balancing of victory odds, or conflict avoidance, which are sometimes referred to as features of German games, but are also thought of as features of as euros by others.
Personally, I have “Splotters” in their own category =)
I feel basically the same way.
Also to report was a game of Clans of Caledonia. Mainly of note was it was a first game with someone new. Nice guy, enjoyed the game and will be seeing them again for games. Awkward timing with having less rime for games with work, uni and married life but always good to expand the circle.
Still really like the game. Sure it has some reasonably evident flaws but there’s so much I like. The money management for turns and resources, building up the board position and the market, I have a ton of fun plotting it all out and balancing the demands. Having to adjust to as other people mess stuff up. All sorts of satisfying.
Then we played a cheeky little Love Letter.
Noctiluca, first play. According to google, Noctiluca are a marine species of dinoflagellate that can exist in a green or red form, depending on the pigmentation in its vacuoles. So, there you go, it’s not just a madeup word. So you’re diving to collect these thingys, in order to fill objective cards. You place one of your tokens, and then take all the dice of a specified number in a straight line. Very easy to learn. There’s no real penalty if you take a die you can’t use, except that the other players may get it. Nice little filler. Could cause some AP as you go through all the options.
Vagrantsong, first play. This sounds kind of weird. It’s a cooperative, story driven game of defeating ghosts on a supernatural ghost train. You start with a couple of skills (I had a dog!), and some basic ones. You have three coins, and on your turn you place those coins on an action. Skills have a value you have to roll, and usually (but not always) adding coins increases the number of dice you roll. After your turn, the ghost has a turn by drawing a tile from the bag, which determines the ghosts action. It can seem a bit random, we found that after some careful positioning, the ghost would suddenly move across the board to the farthest player. Everyone (players and ghosts) have a humanity level. For the players this is their life, if you get to zero you lose a skill. For the ghost, they start on zero and you are always trying to add to their humanity to save them. But we won, without too much trouble. This was the starting scenario, each scenario has it’s own ghosts and rules for what they can do, no idea what the future scenarios will be like. It’s a proper campaign game, you get to add new skills and equipment after a game. It was a fun game, bit rough because it was our first go, I don’t think my mate actually planned to play it (wasn’t even punched out), but we wanted to give it a go.
Hot Lead, first play. The first of two new KS Knizia games. Pretty easy to learn and play. You have a deck of investigator cards, and a deck of evidence cards. Evidence cards have one of five different criminal activities, with various values. Three evidence cards are laid out (for a 3p game), all players play an investigator card simultaneously. The highest card takes the first evidence card, next highest takes the next card, and so on. As well as the values on the card, you get bonus points for having three cards of the same criminal activity. But if you get a fourth card of the same activity, you go bust and lose all those cards. Very quick game to learn and play.
Pumafiosi. first play. The second new Knizia game. This ones a bit meaner. You have nine hierarchy cards, from values from 10 down to -3. You have a deck of player cards with values from 1 through 55. You each play a card in turn, and the winner is the player with the second highest card. The winner places their card against any hierarchy card. But, if you place a second card, the lower of the two drops down one level. And on that level there could now be two cards, and another card drops again, and this could happen until cards hit the lowest level (where you get negative points). Each time one of your cards drops, you get a penalty point. Makes you think a bit about where you place your card. Good fun, I think I liked this better than Hot Lead, although they are both good.
Village Rails, my second game of this, but first play for the other players. It’s a fairly easy game to teach. You take a track, optionally a trip for more points. You will complete seven train lines in total, you will put down twelve track cards. We got thrashed by one player, who often wins our games. He got 24 points in one line from control points – I guess that’s on us for not stopping him getting those cards. I thought, ok, at least I’ll get some points from sidings at the end of the game. But the winner had five of those (I had three…), so he smashed us there too. Still like the game, although I don’t think one of the other players liked it. Scores were 90-odd, then 68 and 58. And I didn’t get 68…
One of my take-aways from reviews I have watched was that the theme is rooted in some specific US-American historic/cultural environment and I am not sure that this one would work for us because we lack the background and language references?
There is a German translation in the Spieleschmiede crowdfunding right now and I am hesitant to back it despite the glowing reviews I saw. The good thing is that if it turns out to be a hit in German, it will be reprinted after the crowdfunding I am sure. So no FOMO.
We have now played a total of 4 games from the 2 player campaign of Decorum. I forgot to take pictures each time. I first heard SVWAG talk about this and got curious but it was out of stock for the most part. So when I saw it in Essen, I had to get a copy.
The game is subtitled „A Game of Passive Aggressive Cohabitation“ which is really perfect because I used to live in a Wohngemeinschaft/WG during my uni years and passive-aggressive behavior is what happens even when you live with friends. For example, all three of us were convinced we were doing the most cleaning in the apartment.
In any case. I would describe this as the cooperative version of Cryptid. Like Cryptid the scenarios you play are pre-calculated to „work out“ (by now there is a scenario generator online apparently) and the game contains a 20 game 2 player campaign and a bunch of 3 and 4 player scenarios.
Every scenario contains a card to setup the initial state of the house and then each player gets a card with the conditions they want to have „fulfilled“ (and a little text about the person they are playing which for us was just weird gibberish as we lack the cultural frame of reference. I admit this is a case where a translation would do a world of good to introduce German WG clichés but as far as I know this game is quite niche and may never get translated.)
You have 30 alternating turns to make the house look like you want it. On your turn, you can add/remove/replace one object in a room or paint a room. There are 4 rooms, 4 colors, 3 types of objects (lamps, pictures and curios) and 4 styles of objects. Conditions range from very specific „this room must be painted blue“ to „downstairs rooms may not contain modern (style) objects“.
When you have taken your turn your housemates can passive-aggressively let you know if you improved the house. Obviously, they are not allowed to be specific just things like „That‘s good.“ or „I hate it“ or „Meh, don‘t care“. Here it becomes difficult because after the first game you realize that giving good feedback re:your conditions is not trivial. A change may help one of yours or make another worse and especially „neutral“ feedback is difficult to determine. The game doesn‘t quite define how to do it either.
On turn 15, 20 and 25 you can have a house meeting where conditions are revealed to make it more likely that you can achieve fulfillment for everyone. You can skip the meetings if you feel like it but so far we have only managed to fulfill all conditions on game 1 and game 4 because especially at 2 player with 4 conditions each, you can easily maneuver yourself into a slightly wrong state. Because there is just a single solution and on game 3 we knew two turns before the end there was no way to fulfill 2 of our conditions in the remaining time.
It is really quite difficult to „win“ but it is really fun and easy to play. I am looking forward to playing this with more people as well because I hear the dynamic is quite different. This is definitely different from all my other cooperative games and for cooperative deduction this one wins over Paint the Roses for me (disclaimer: I have only played the base game of this once).
That sounds awesome
