Unlike Arboretum, which only has “vicious tree stabbing” mode 
6 Likes
Tried out Fuse for the first time tonight, solo. Just did the Training difficulty, so there were 16 bombs and 6 fuses to get through.
Did really good on my first try, getting the row down to just two bomb cards before I ran out of time. Forgot to score it, but likely would have been in the 50’s somewhere.
Tried again and did terribly, with two cards still in the stack at game end.
Third time was the charm, finishing with 1:02 still on the clock for a total of 67 points
Fun game, not sure how well it would go with my family and friends though, as it is stressful with the time limit. And it can be really aggravating when the dice color or value you need just refuses to come up.
4 Likes
I find it particularly good at conventions when someone says “I have to be at a panel in 15 minutes”… but yeah, generally one play per game session, two at most.
3 Likes
Dorfromantik, went pretty well. We beat our highest score by about 40, so that felt good.
Horrified, hadn’t played for a while. We beat it at normal difficulty (three monsters). Generally things went ok, only two deaths. Not sure if we’re ready for the next difficulty.
The Key: Escape from Strongwall Prison, first play. Received this last week, and was pretty excited to get it played. We have (and love!) the earlier games in the series, and thought we would love this. This is the first (and probably only, since Haba went backrupt) game to be rated 3/3 for difficulty. I figured it wouldn’t be easy, but I was not prepared for the challenge. In short, it broke all of us. We basically shared cards to try and understand the game, and just couldn’t do it. The previous games involved finding a three digit code, based on the suspects, locations, murder weapon etc. The medium difficulty game had a four digit code. For this game, it’s still a three digit code, but with some extra steps. You have to find which suspect used which method to break out of the prison, which laundry cart they used, and where they ended up escaping to. And after working all that out, you have to figure out what gang everyone in the prison belonged to, and this information lets you modify the original three digit code to finally arrive at an answer.
The earlier games used a deck of normal sized cards. Strongwall Prison adds a deck of smaller cards which have the gang cards, and also interrogation cards. Some of the normal cards force you to get an interrogation card and make it public, so all players can use the information. Eventually, after several hours, I had nothing, and the other two players had arrived at a code, but none of them were correct. And you don’t know which part you stuffed up, the first code, or the later rules. All in all, a very frustrating time was had by all, and I’m not sure how to improve the experience.
Courtisans, we wanted something light to finish up with, so this was perfect.
9 Likes
Day one of Handycon yesterday:
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Acquire: a stock trading game from the 1960s centering around when it is most advantageous to merge different hotel chains and making sure that the mergers go the way you want. I think it holds up really well - the rules are not complicated but there’s a lot of tough decisions. Restoration Games have recently done a reprint.
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Senshi: our standard 5 minute filler at cons
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Root: twice in a month!
This time we had cats, birds, lizards, mice, and crows. The birds managed to keep their decree going for the whole game despite our best efforts to disrupt it, so they got a convincing win. -
Chronology: very similar to Timeline but everyone has their own timeline, and the questions are very specific! If you get yours wrong the next person gets a chance to steal it.
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Empires of the Ancient World: area control in the Mediterranean. Scoring points by controlling areas through military or trade. A fairly light ruleset and card driven combat.
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Condottiere: we had an unusually cagey first game, before everything reverted to the usual ridiculous escalation
9 Likes
It was Renegade Games. I have their edition.
3 Likes
We played Arcs again and it was way better than previous game. Everyone had a good time. It was a runaway that the game ended by Chapter 3.
Courtisans - all the cool kids play Courtisans
Mosaic: A Story of a Civilisation - another civilisation-themed game. It was rather okay. Decent.
M.O.R.P.H.O. - it’s ok.
Imhotep - a quick game of this before we close down.
9 Likes
I don’t normally post in this topic, but felt I might as a follow on from our forum games of Blood on the Clocktower - after which I expressed the view that I didn’t get it.
Last night at Worldcon (sorrynotsorry) I played three games in a row in person for the first time and … I still don’t get it. Ah well …
It may have been the groups I played with or the storyteller (who was good I thought), but it is just too complex and frustrating to be a really fun time. It also wasn’t funny. My favourite hidden role game (don’t shoot me I’m the deputy) is Bang the Dice Game - quick, simple, and at least with the family and friends I play with a raucous time. Not so Blood, which seems glacial and poe-faced in comparison.
I would play again if in the situation where it was inevitable but really not a great fit for me.
11 Likes
I’m down 6-5 at the moment. I may well go down (one more defeat and I’ve lost), but if so then at least I’m going down fighting!
I’m liking Legacy of Yu very much indeed. I don’t know if it’s my out and out favourite solo game, but there’s certainly no solo game I like more…
6 Likes
Played a few games yesterday. Started with Lords of Vegas, where this time I reached the instant win space on the Game Over card. My wife got a bit upset at me, or maybe herself, as we had been being pretty nice with each other, giving beneficial trades and not trying to take over each other’s casinos up until the endgame. Then I did attempt a takeover once a couple of tiles she sprawled into became mine. I won the roll off which gave me the win.
Ethnos was next, using Dwarves, Minotaurs, Centaurs, Elves, and Wingfolk. We were just 2 points away from each other after the first age, with me in the lead. Per usual, she dominated in the second age, winning the game 124 to 92.
Followed with Star Wars the Deckbuilding Game, which along with Lost Cities I have mostly stopped reporting in here since we play them so often. I won as the Empire, though it was a very close game.
Speaking of Lost Cities, we finished the day with that, and my wife won 183 - 157.
7 Likes
My friend had an opportunity for us to try the game I got him for his birthday: Dogfight! The new one. The 2-v-2 canine biplane battle card game. And once you get your head around the rules and everything (which is difficult, given the rulebook) it’s pretty fun! You need to coordinate with your teammate but you can’t do it without the other team listening in, and also you only have 20 seconds to plan and play all your cards.
Then we played Azul and it was probably the closest game I’ve ever seen: 67-66-66-63.
Then we played Cockroach Poker Royal where I amassed a very large array of creepy crawlies but kept my inevitable demise at bay with some bold moves.
7 Likes
Games with nearly-neighbours last night:
New acquisition Courtisans which still provided surprisingly complicated decisions out of very simple rules. I continue to enjoy this.
Then on to Raiders of the North Sea, which felt to me like one of those efficiency Euros in which once you get behind the curve all the resources get hoovered up by the players ahead of you and you have no chance of recovering. Which happened to me, as it usually does. Doubtless very enjoyable by people who aren’t me.
8 Likes
It’s going right down to the wire. 6-6, and next game decides the campaign. I’m quietly confident - I’ve got better at the game as the campaign’s progressed - but I know I’m more than capable of messing it up.
I have no idea how long the life of this game will be for me. It may be that one campaign will be enough, and I’ll get bored during a second go. But even if that does happen (it might not), I’ve already had twelve games of it, all of which I’ve enjoyed immensely. So I’d say it’s been a splendid success whatever happens. Highly recommended!
7 Likes
I was confused, because the new one would be Dogfight!: Rule The Skies in 20 Minutes! (2023) which does actually have the exclamation mark in the title, whereas I think you’re referring to the just-slightly-older Dogfight (2022) ?
1 Like
Another game of Eclipse Second Dawn, this time including one of the new races from the Outcasts expansion (the Rho Indri pirates).
Scott played the Pirates, Justin took the Mechima again, Katie played humans, Eric took the Hydran Scientists, I played humans, and Mike tried his hand at the Planta.
As expected, the Planta rushed out to an early lead, exploring and seizing early territory. Katie pumped her research into orbitals early, and Eric slowly researched… well, everything, really. Scott stumbled onto antimatter missiles, making his early interceptors terrifying, but by the midgame I had the tankiest ships I could make (3 hull Interceptors, 5 Cruisers, 7 Dreadnaughts, and 5 Starbases), enough to weather a few missiles and then take out ships as they retreated. Eric pumped everything into computers and flux missiles, allowing him to make even more terrifying barrages… but with nothing to back up the missiles if they didn’t wipe out everything.
Justin sent his fleet into a pair of Ancients three turns in a row, rolling shockingly poorly. Scott managed to take out the Galactic Core, but then lost it to Eric who swept in with his missileboat Cruisers a turn later.
Final scores: Me and Justin with 24, Mike with 25, Scott with 26, Katie with 28, and Eric with 34.
Neat game. I think one more play and then I’ll be good for a while… I really like Eclipse, but it always teases me with how Not-Quite-TI it is, and I think I can manage a TI game or two in the nearish future.
3 Likes
When will we know peace
1905?
4 Likes
Cabanga! - Cabanga!!
Captain Flip - push your luck game. Nothing bad. Nothing impressive.
Seaside - friend introduced this to me in the UK Games Expo and went out and bought it. First play of my copy. Straight forward push-your-luck. This one is just very charming. Hard to dislike it. No asinine points scoring in the end. Yeah, none of that “I got 155 pts. You got 161 pts. And you got 159” bullshit. Just stack all of your discs and the winner is the tallest.
Bites + New Recipes - secret stock-holding game disguising inside a cutesy ant game. A nice stealthy way of introducing these games
Libertalia - glad to play it again. This is the OG version, not the defanged version from Stonemeier. I’m finding this to be meh nowadays.
Council of Verona - nice! It’s been years since I’ve played it. You ALWAYS kill Romeo or Juliet. Preferably both!
Robotrick - brilliant 3 player only trick taker. The problem is that it is only a 3 player only. I am thinking though if it suffers from the problem where a relatively weak hand has a strong advantage. I tend not to like these kind of “imbalanced” hands.
Big Shot - a reprint of an old old game by Playte. A group of player cubes are auctioned off (using pts) and the winner of the auction distributes the cubes on areas for area majority scoring. It follows Renature style scoring where if there’s a tie for 1st place, you ignore them and the 2nd place wins. Great game from 2001 that only goes for 45 mins
Before the Guests Arrive - it was a nice closing game before the pub closes. I couldn’t imagine playing this on any other circumstance.
9 Likes
Its good for a 5 minute break on BGA!
2 Likes
Sounds like a game that plays itself…
2 Likes