Mombasa - not a fan of Pfister but this is his most interesting game. Not sure whats up with 3 players but there isnt much fighting on the map
Good game, but there’s other Euros I would rather play.
Heckmeck Deluxe
Bastille - as usual with Queen: fun light weight games in big boxes. A bit forgettable
The solo mat for Imperium: Classics/Legends/Horizons arrived at our old address before our vacation. We picked it up this week. It is a bit larger than I expected. I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to reach across but it made the game surprisingly comfy? Everything has its assigned spot and the game is just that large as a solo. I usually try to limit the space my solos take up: but why?
I took the Abbasids (I think I played them before) for a city building victory over the Minoans.
It is a loooong game with lots of setup. But the factions and cards are so unique I enjoy myself every time I play.
Clearly this game needs a new edition as Sidereal Confluence Mini Version.
I want to play Harvest so bad…lucky for me, it arrived today from Amazon Japan! It looks so cute!
Today
Carcassonne with my son. River and Crop Circle included. Won handily. Son upset
Race for the Galaxy with Xeno Invasion with my son. Wow, this is great for people who have played it loads. There’s a whole extra thing to keep tabs on. Son won. Great.
For Sale both kids. Daughter won. Son upset.
Haggis with son. Another bust as I destroyed him on 30 point wagers. After the bust on holiday with my wife. I’m not sure this will see much play.
Also Marabunta Knizia 2 player roll and write
Yup, beat my son.
He’s eight years old and I’ve reduced him to tears 4 times over games. It’s great he cares so much about winning but I’m going to have to throw a few games to get back on track.
Got in most of a 3 player game of 18West. Really enjoyed this one. It’s a fairly normal mergers game but it’s got something of the 1846 about it. Most of the chrome is about streamlining but there are tough decisions to make at many points throughout the game and it’s quite clean. The map is weird but in a way that makes it cool as the cut and thrust is in a tight area so it’s a naughty bun fight for late game moneys. Top notch.
This made me laugh
Race for the Galaxy x2
Innovation x3
Modern Art x2
Minecraft: Builders & Biomes: fairly boring Euro, but the theme drew in the kids. Twins bailed quickly, but eldest enjoyed it until the end, so I’m calling that a win.
UKGE Plays
Quartermaster General 1914 - 2 player and it was fun playing as the Central Powers. Manage to capture Paris and nearly knocked France out of the war, but failed. Serbia was knocked out and dominated the Balkans. The u-boat warfare was successful. And pretty much ran away with it.
18GB - strong decisions on early game allowed me to have a strong lead by at the time we reach the permanent trains.
Had a try with Arcs - I like the basics enough that I want to buy and try the full game and explore it more.
A demo of Knizia’s Rebirth. Really enjoyed it, but I don’t think I can put it in my shelf (and therefore, have to eject an existing game.
Cubitos - we played with the basic setup and it is fun. It’s dice building. Though my fear is that it will overstay its welcome if we go for the more advance setups.
Sumo - 2 player trick taker. I found the game too tight that it end up with a serious flaw where the game can be an auto-win just by looking at your hand of cards, and there’s nothing that the other player can really do.
I’m concern now that with more plays, there’s not much decision in this game, and you’ll be on auto-pilot.
I finally tried Simonsson’s Pax Penning, which is pretty much a Pax game, despite the lack of a card market. Pax Penning has the same tension where players are deciding if they want the Jarls (the players) to remain dominant or to pledge their support to the King. The game could end either way: the most dominant Jarl (player) will win, or the King wins and the player with the most support will win. There’s also shared incentives on the board on where you want to placed your rune stones.
Big Top - Taiki Shinzawa that isn’t a trick taker. Instead, it’s an auction game
Blood on the Clocktower - still one of the best
Cabanga!
Courtisans - game of the con!
Pass the Pigs - the most hilarious part of this game is that the outcome of your rolls have their own terms.
I have this problem with my son too - I generally won’t play games with him because he just loses it when it looks like he’s losing or does in fact lose. Wish I knew a good way to ‘toughen’ him up a bit
I think it’s hard to be honest. It took me maybe 30 years to get out of a “I need to win” brain. Itll possibly just click one day when something exceptionally hilarious/sad happens outside the win/loss of the game such that winning or losing is a side story of that game.
My son is 20 and brought him up the hard way. Given he routinely beats me at most games now, should have been more forgiving…
According to the popular documentary film “300”, the ancient Spartans had some helpful parenting techniques. (You may want to run the ideas past your local child services centre before implementing them, just in case anything has changed in the interim.)
If you decide not to opt for the Spartan methods, perhaps playing a lot of rounds of a quickfire lightweight game might help? Something like Love Letter. If you play 2-player, a round takes a couple of minutes. So even when he loses a round, it’s straight on to the next, and he’ll probably win about as many as you overall.
Don’t keep track of how many anybody’s won, because the whole point is to learn that winning (or, more specifically, losing), isn’t all that important.
Always a risk that it’ll backfire if you end up winning the first six rounds of it, but I’m sure you’d be capable of making some less than optimal plays to prevent that!
Ok, this was one I haven’t played for a bit, so the first couple of rounds were very much re-learning.
The Romans, by the Ragnar Brothers. Solo, playing to remind myself how it works, as hoping to get this played against an actual human soon!
Lost, of course (it’s me playing a solo board game after all), by 149-115. But have remembered (a) how to play it and (b) that I really rather like it!
Games over the last week or so:
Silver and Gold, I am hotly anticipating getting my hands on the sequel to this but this is one of my favourite ‘light’ roll and writes.
Splendor Duel, I actually won this one! I’m still way worse at this than regular Splendor, though I still like this one more.
Ohanami, one day I’ll have to try this with 3 or 4 as I’ve currently only played it with 2. There’s not a lot to it but it’s an enjoyable, low-effort game, which kind of fits the theme.
Jaipur
Patchwork, great game of this, nearly filled my board! Closest I’ve been to that for sure.
Archeos Society, still a terrific game - have now tried it at a few player counts and it seems to scale quite well.
Chimera, not a full game of this on this occasion but it remains an excellent 3 player ladder climbing game.
Thebes, our winner had a very profitable mid-game dig in Egypt and attended a bunch of conferences which gave him the game in the end!
Spots, played too conservatively and missed out on my last dog by one turn 
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I played Pax Penning with @mistercrayon and others last night.
A weird little thing by the designer of Turncoats
The game ends in 2 ways - either a royal victory, or a people’s victory. You’re making a decision on which to go for because one means you can’t do the other.
You have coins which do a different thing depending on which side up they are, and what you get to do more of on your turn is dependant on that. One side gets you more dice. Rolling doubles gives you the ability to flip characters. The other side gives you more buying power in the market.
However, your “village” is secret, and if you place too much influence on the board and lose control of your home, you can have victory stolen from you.
I’m always sceptical of games that I win (but Joe who taught it always loses as well!), but I thought this was good.
Games in the pub last night:
Railroad Ink (blue). Just the basic game with several new players. Lots of head scratching and cursing the dices 
Potion explosion: I got some really lucky combinations this time, much to my opponents’ chagrin!
Need to play this more. I feel like the direct interaction is my jam (to borrow this week’s topic phrase)
