If it helps at all beyond the rule book there is no text on the game (other than Italian cities) so if you can locate the rules online you can pick up any language and enjoy the game the same.
1 Like
Oh I love Small World. The time spent assessing the combos at the beginning can be massively tedious but itās such a fun game. I particularly love the decision of when to go into decline, in spite of it being a turn when you essentially ādo nothingā.
3 Likes
I messed up tying on the last turn of the game by picking Amazons (with loads of units) over the power which just gives you seven units. I think the difference was 8 points or something ridiculous.
2 Likes
Had a fun night of games with the club yesterday, with no less than 5 games played.
First, I had two games of Roll for the Galaxy back to back. Interesting game, after having played Race for the Galaxy on Steam, I can solemnly declare, it did not help me much, if anything, it did confuse me even more. I had a few rounds to get more familiar with the motions, and after finishing very, very last on the first game, I had a bit more luck with my dice and tiles on the second go, but somebody had built their 12 tiles by the time I was starting to get something going. I still need to get more familiar with this.
Then had a game of Century Spice Road, which I genuinely enjoyed. It is and it isnāt very similar to Splendor, and I can see it very easily making it into my collection. If anything, because the box has a lot less air. Even though I finished last on a game of three players, the feeling I got was less ācompetitiveā, not having such a big resource limitation does help, I think. Definitely the game that won me over last night.
Finally, two rounds of Coup made for a great night of board games players. Didnāt win a single game, but I had a great experience overall. If only for being able to bluff all the way a Captain in my second game, and to ruin an attempt assassination with a Contessa, it was definitely worth it.
7 Likes
This evening on BGA (plus voice chat) with whatās usually a face-to-face group, plus a guest:
Quantum - which I sold last Essen because I donāt get it to the table often enough, but itās still good fun. One of the few sales I slightly regret. But hey, now I can lose on BGA. 
Incan Gold/Diamant - first play. It feels as if it boils away all the elements of a push-your-luck game that arenāt about pushing your luck, then replaces them with more pushing your luck. I rather like it.
Colorpop - or āCandy Crush the boardgameā, but with some subtlety about whoās doing what that I enjoyed. Will play again.
Canāt Stop - because I havenāt played it to death. And I won!
9 Likes
Lost power for a few hours in a rainstorm today, late afternoon into the evening. Since Iām in Virginia where it was a high of 98 and a heat advisory in place all day because the humidity made the heat index more like 110, it got pretty unpleasant inside with no AC. We rode it out by playing 7 Wonders with lots of expansions. We had the windows cracked and flashlights on once it got dark enough to need them. Two player 7 Wonders with the dummy city is something I quite enjoy as it adds an extra layer of strategy. My husband, Joe, and I have an agreement to play legitimately for the dummy city, making good moves to try to make it win, but if there are close calls, say a couple cards it could legitimately use, then using it to burn a card the other player would want is ideal. Final result was the dummy city as Ephesus (Wonder: Temple of Artemis) with 92 points; Joe as Rome (Wonder: the Coliseum) with 99; and me as Alexandria (Wonder: The Lighthouse) with 105.
5 Likes
We played a first prolog game of Pandemic Legacy Season 2 the other day and lost after four epidemics because we ran out of green cubes. We had built 2 of the 3 buildings we needed to build to win -.-
I already hate London. (Itās a deadend on the mapāat least while the game is in vanilla state)
Weāll be playing another prolog before we start the campaign because I donāt want to ruin the boardstate right at the start.
Also played and won a round of Spirit Island vs Level 2 Sweden with Thunderspeaker and Keeper of Forbidden Wildsāmy two favorites. Fear cards and events were largely unhelpful as usual. My best adversary level to beat was 3 at some point. After reading about @EnterTheWyvernās exploits against level 6 England, I am tempted to go higher in preparation for the imminent expansion (itās in some shipping container somewhere according to KS updates).
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I think we got 3 prologues in before the main campaign. Something about the new mechanics took a while to gel.
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I started with Brandenburg-Prussia, and went until I beat it at level 6, then Sweden and went until I beat it at level 6, then France and finally England. England took so long I donāt think I can remember how to beat the others anymore. Iām impressed at how difficult the adversaries are and how varied. The strategies are really different for each as well. Which all adds to the longevity of the game.
Also Iām really excited for Jagged Earth. With the KS adding 10 more spirits or whatever number it is plus a boat load more powers the sheer dizzying potential of the game is going through the roof. Woop woop!
3 Likes
Last night I tried out the beginner scenario of Marvel Champions usimg the pre-built Spider-Man deck. I ended up losing by taking too much damage when an encounter card unexpectedly gave Rhino a free attack, while I was at 4 HP, and the drawn Boost was just enough to take me out.
I pretended I only went down to 1, as I wanted to get more of a feel for the game.
Allies feel very important, as they help with damaging the villain or minions, or help to thwart the scheme(s), and can take a hit for you if the incoming damage is too severe. I only drew one at the beginning and then it took forever for another one to show up. Meanwhile Spideyās Thwart is low so he cannot really make any progress on his own until some upgrades get drawn and played.
I like the system so far. Since you spend cards from your hand in order to play cards from your hand, it can be a bit agonizing figuring out what you are going to sacrifice in order to play cards, and what you should focus on. The back and forth nature of needing to damage the villain, but also thwart the scheme, while ALSO allowing the villain to scheme when you are in your alter-ego form to recover damage is interesting.
I had to quit playing as it was getting late, defeating just the first stage of Rhino after my mulliganed runthrough, and just as my Nemesis cards appeared and got put in the encounter deck. Eager to try again.
5 Likes
Some games with my wife this evening:
Archaeology - Solid and tense with 2 but feels better with more I daresay. She initially grumbled about re-learning this one but then proceeded to wipe the floor with me (a theme from games tonight)
Bananagrams - A weird puzzle of a wordgame but always enjoyable. This one was at least close (I failed to think of āofā which wouldāve won me the game)
Point Salad - Iām still not really sure how to play this one - when to take scoring cards vs veggies. It may be an unsolvable problem I suspect - as youād generally always like to take both. I won one round of this (we played 3) so she may understand it better than I.
Love Letter - bit of a blast from the past this one. Itās still good fun. I also re-sleeved it afterwards so itās back to looking itās best. itās the only game of mine Iāve ever felt the need to sleeve - though it turned out to be justified after my Adventure Time version ended up with a marked princess after just a couple of plays 
4 Likes
We had a go with printed letters the other day in the club anniversary quiz. I admit several groups ended up including rude words. The profanities!!! 
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Played El Grande once again. Good vibes as usual. Good vibes.
Deep Sea Adventure
Quest for El Dorado - still great. It was very close. Manage to beat the leader as the last player of the round. Tie would be bad for me as he would win tiebreaker easily.
4 Likes
Did a bit more (virtual) Sentinels of the Multiverse, this time with the other three player configuration of my social group as my friend Liz had a migraine. My friend Ed has played in most of the dozens of physical games of Sentinels that Iāve done, so we both picked random Cauldron heroes (Baccarat for Ed, Necro for me), while my girlfriend tried out Stuntman. We went up against Cauldronās Screamachine, a villainous metal band, performing a concert in the Ruins of Atlantis, like you do.
Screamachineās gimmick is pretty interesting - basically, there are four villain characters. A guitarist, who does single target damage by default; a vocalist, who does wider but lesser damage by default; a bassist, who heals the other villains by default; and a drummer who shields the others by default. But unlike almost any other villain in the game, these characters do not, at the start, do their abilities on the basis of start or end of the villain turn (unless theyāre heavily outnumbered). Instead, at the start of the turn, one of the musicians will get an additional powerup card (it is possible for this to be one thatās defeated, but if so theyāll trigger another powerup coming out). If a musician gets all three, they then flip over and have an every turn ability instead of their base power. Meanwhile, each turn thereās still a card played from the villain deck. These will do something themselves (prompt for ongoing/equipment destruction or take damage; amp a villainās damage, protect the villains, etc) and also prompt two of the musicians to do each of their current suite of powers. As they ramp up, things can get pretty hairy. But, conversely, if you take out individual musicians, thatāll potentially reduce the pain substantially. And we got lucky in that the drummer never triggered after she got her powerups. Whole lotta damage reduction in that suite. Ultimately the Ruinsā defenses took them out after weād gotten the last two (vocalist and drummer) down to 1 HP each in a combo between Stuntmanās Hidden Mine and my rituals and undead.
Baccarat I didnāt get too deep a sense of, but he seems to be about recurring Trick cards out of his trash. Necro isā¦interesting, but prone to getting a terrible first hand, as I did. Basically, his default gimmick is that he puts out Ritual ongoings that cause stuff to happen when undead targets die. Then he summons undead who attack the heroes in various ways if they survive to the end of his turn, but they have pretty low health (mostly), more with each ritual thatās out, and he does extra damage to them if he targets them with his own power. The Rituals include one that does toxic damage to all the villain targets, one that does a slightly higher amount of single target infernal damage, one that heals all the heroes for 2 HP a piece, and one that draws a card (and can put undead back into play from the trash as a power). Unfortunatelyā¦you have to draw them. Or a card that searches for them, which he does have. And my opening hand was undead (which do nothing for you on their own), and two cards that pull undead back out of the trash, injured, but also hurt you. I did get Corpse Explosion (the one that does mass damage) the second turn and thenā¦never got another ritual or ritual search all game. But still, detonating zombies, ghouls and imps made for pretty good damage, and the Imp (who instead of attacking, destroys an ongoing or equipment card, but allows a card play when killed) had some silly synergies with Stuntmanās very destructible ongoings and equipment. He also has a character card with a power that swaps the text on all his cards from hero to villain and vice versa. Which means that version doesnāt want rituals (which mostly specify that heroes heal or villains take damage), but can build up an undead army that will automatically wreak havoc on the villains. (Which, TBH, I had assumed was how the character worked before I actually played with him.)
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Got in a 3 player game of Taverns of Tiefentahl, enjoy that game at any player count. Itās been my favourite game for a while but I had lent it out a couple of weeks back - nice to get it to the table again finallyā¦ Even better to win.
A friend had also picked up a copy of Flamme Rouge which was fantastic fun. Iāve not laughed so much at a game in a while, seeing everyoneās best laid plans just crumble when the cards were turned over. One issue though - his copy of the game had a duplicate punchboard and so is missing some of the pieces. Anyone know the best way to sort that issue? I donāt know who the UK contact would be for that game or if heās best to go back to the store he got it from.
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Flamme Rouge licencing is tricky, but if the shop canāt make good they should be able to tell him where to go. Itāll be either lautapelit or Stronghold, and might even say which on the boxā¦
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Iāve played a few solo learning games of Tokyo Metro and Oceans this week, in the hope of playing them tomorrow.
Oceans is (unsurprisingly) a lot like Evolution, with the addition of some extra events and more complex feeding mechanics. The āDeepā deck adds some interesting traits, including this delightful card:
I played three solo games of Tokyo Metro. Itās a nice little puzzle, but probably a lot more interesting with multiple players! The TTS mod looks pretty good, so I may run a PBF if thereās interest.
7 Likes
Started the last Imperial Assault mission, at least for this campaign. Unfortunately the random spawns stayed pretty logical for this one, with the exception of the mission declaring someone sinister had snuck up on us in a hangar aboard a Star Destroyerā¦Emperor Palpatine. Who we promptly dismantled. I declared clearly this was a clone.
We are pretty disgustingly powerful at this point. First turn, we were up against five deployment cards worth of Imperial troops including a story-specific Officer with a unique bullshit power. By the end of the round, there were no more enemies on the board. In fact, no one has so far survived for a second round with us in the room. I suppose thatās why theyāve thrown an immortal Darth Vader against us. In close quarters. With no idea where our objective is. 
5 Likes
Out of curiosity, which heroes are you using? I think that was the mission where I finally had a hero get wounded, playing with just Gaarkhan and Gideon. Happened right at the end, too. But I do feel like I had a tougher time than you are experiencing.
Weāve actually had a hero get wounded probably all three of the early missions, itās just the last one and this one where weāve hit a point where we are ridiculous.
Iām playing Diala Passil - Iāve got a Stun Baton withā¦I forget the name of it, but a mod that lets me add block (though I keep forgetting to use that) and has a surge power for 2 damage, plus Snap Kick and a Combat Knife for two green dice a turn as non-attack damage to adjacent enemies, and Way of the Sarlacc which lets me individually attack every enemy adjacent to me as a 2-strain action. I also have Force Adept, so I can reroll attack dice (mine or others) for a strain a pop, and I have an Adrenal Implant reward and Battle Meditation class card that combo such that whenever I rest (which is constantly because Iām burning so much strain) I focus myself and test Observation to focus someone else. Oh, and I now have an Admiralās Uniform that gives a free once-a-turn partial or full reroll on any roll I or a friendly within three spaces makes (plus 1 more health, woo).
Liz is playing Gaarkahn, with a neat reach Vibro-Ax with the haft that gives pierce if youāve got reach, and ceramic armor. Plus sheās got once-a-mission Concussion Grenades for area damage and Stun (very handy). She picked Rampage, for free damage to adjacent enemies when she charges, plus Brutal Cleave for an additional attack against another enemy in range for a strain every turn, Wookiee Fortitude for healing every turn (again, for strain), and the power that lets her stun an enemy sheās hit hard enough for strain.
My girlfriend Maddy is playing Mak Eshākarey, who I think is probably our least shit-wrecky of characters at the moment, but heās got a pretty strong rifle with a sniper scope and a charge pack, plus extra ammo for a rerolled attack die once a turn. Picked class cards to allow a sniper shot ignoring figures for line of sight, getting an extra action after interacting (so between that and having the best Wrench stat on the team, Mak does most of the hacking and crate grabbing) and a followup attack with Focus if a first attack doesnāt finish the target. Iād say heās probably best for utility and dropping a bunch of damage on a single target at longer range., whereas the rest of us do best with groups.
And Ed is playing Vinto Hreeda, with a powerful blaster and a mod that lets him swap out a die for a red die, plus another one that gives auto-pierce and another surge power. Heās got Shot on the Run, to do damage to a nearby target as he moves, a card that gives him extra range on his various bonus damage powers and more speed, a card that he can exhaust to boost damage on an attack or Shot on the Run or his default extra shot after an attack, and one he can spend strain on once a turn to just shoot every enemy within four spaces and line of sight for one damage. That last one has been cleaning house what with all the side chip damage he can throw out. One turn he managed to kill five people with it.
1 Like