You win or lose by winning or losing 3 times.
4 Likes
Robo Rally with the two new expansions. Included chop shops, repulsor fields, one-way walls, and radioactive waste. Combine the chop shops and the radioactive mutations with my house rule that gets rid of all limits on upgrades and youāve got crazy powerful robots and all kind of nonsense! But in the end what clinched the victory for my friend was having both drifting (when you turn left you can move 1) and power sliding (ditto for turning right). Despite getting like 15 damage in one round, nobody could stop him forever. Fantastic, ridiculous session. Plus everyoneās ready for next time with oil slicks and portals which we didnāt see tonight.
9 Likes
Got in a number of games lately, even if they were mostly the usual suspects.
A couple of days ago we played Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth, which my wife won by getting the Hobbits to Mount Doom, a first Ring track win for either of us.
Yesterday was Star Wars the Deck building Game: Clone Wars edition where my Republic forces crushed the Separatist movement.
That was followed by LotR:DfME, which brought about our first game that got through all the cards, meaning I won by having presence in more regions than she did.
Today we played the original SWtDBG, which I thought I had in the bag, only needing to do 5 or so damage to her last base to win and having a hand of 12+ damage ready to go. Instead she pulled some magic out of a hat to deal the 20 needed to destroy Hoth with a Blockade Runner shielding it. Major upset!
Followed with Lost Cities which I won.
My wife then offered to play Unmatched, which I will always jump at. I broke out the two Witcher sets, I chose Geralt and she chose Yennifer with Trish as the sidekick (you get to pick one as your hero, making the other the sidekick). It had been a while, and these were brand new characters for us and we didnāt look at each otherās decks ahead of time to know what to expect. Therefore she got walloped when Geraltās Steel Sword attacked for 4 damage which then gives you an action as an After Combat effect, 2 actions if the opposing fighter has 8 or more health. So with two more actions I hit her again with a 5 attack and then followed that with another Steel Sword and gained another action which I used to maneuver away. A couple turns later and Dandelion stepped in to finish the job.
Lastly, a game of LotR:DfME, which I managed to win by collecting six symbols.
Good times!
7 Likes
Played my first ever Grand Prix of Heatā¦ or a tournament, or whatever the rules call itā¦ a Championship? Maybe thatās it.
6 players, 1 who had never played before but is a quick study. I set up the 1961 circuit (Great Britain, USA, and then Italy).
Great Britain pulled āSnowyā for our weather, which reduces the heat in your engine by 1 (so everyone had 5), and the āWeather Sectionā was a tiny little 5-space area just before the last turn. By the end of lap 1 (of 2) the race had broken into two sections: Me, Ben, and Mike at the front of the pack, and then a big gap, and then Mark, Katie, and Justin. I managed to pull two of the Sponsorship Breaks (1/2/3/4), and that clinched by first-place finish.
Second track, USA, and it was foggy so no Slipstreaming/Drafting between turns 3 and 4, but then a huge expanse of +1 Slipstream immediately afterwards. Mark got caught on the last lap trying to impress the international press but spinning out of controlā¦ we ruled that since he still went through the corner fast enough, he gained the Sponsorship card.
And then he did it again on the next turn.
And the next turn.
In our headcanon, his driver realized he was too far behind to win, so just did donuts in front of the press gallery while the rest of us finished the race. I came in 3rd due to some amazingly bad pulls during the straightaways, and Ben pulled off the victory.
Final race in Italy, and thereās a Driverās Strike on so only 2 laps (instead of the full 3), but +2 points to whoever comes in first. Iām in first with 13, Ben and Mike both have 10, Justin has 9, Katie has 8, and Mark has 4 Championship points. Itās actually possible for Mark to win (first place is 11, so heād have 15, and then I have to come in last and Mike and Ben canāt be podium finishes), and he has a fistful of Sponsorship cards to blitz around the track with.
And, sure enough, that first lap sees Mark absolutely crushing the rest of us. The first few turns weāre all clumped up in a big block of 6 cars, but as soon as we hit that big 40-space straight, heās way out front.
But one of the corners (the middle one) pulled a -1 Speed, so itās a 1-speed limit corner, which is brutal, and he takes it in too high a gear and spins out. Justin and Mike both rush past, and despite a heroic effort by the rest of us, Justin finishes first, Mike in second by 2 spaces, and then Ben in third. I come in fourth, Katie gets fifth, and Mark limps across the line in last.
Final scores: 20 (Justin), 16 (Mike), 16 (Me), 14 (Ben), 10 (Katie), and Mark with 5ā¦ but again, his first time playing, and he seemed to have a great time.
At the end of the evening (we started around 7:30, finished around midnight), the major feedback was to include the Advanced Upgrades next time, and add a 4th round.
15 Likes
My third game of Hispania, and a decisive victory this time!
Hispania also visible on the left of the Tetrarchia mat underneath.
I realised afterwards that Iād accidentally cheated, having set up the game without referring to the rule book for the first time, and forgetting that the initial revolts in each region vary in quantity (a stack of 1, 2, or 3 tokens), depending on the strength of the rolled city (weaker cities get more tokens). I like to imagine this game would have gone my way regardless, but who knowsā¦ :).
I intend to try introducing this to the game at some point. The simple option is just using the gameās own revolt tokens, which could make things pretty tough given the limited numbers. Another idea I had was to re-introduce Unrest tokens and use those for the Uprisings, along with a rule that each new Revolt also converts adjacent Unrest to Revolt. That gives a bit of leeway, but still with the risk of things getting out of hand rapidly (given that an Army should be present in the region).
(Being co-op/solo, these games are quite good to experiment with ā they have a whole bunch of standard ways to make the game easier or harder, but you can absolutely mess with things outside of those parameters and itāll just be a different but equally valid form of difficulty adjustment.)
Edit: And in case anyone was wondering why the Forks box keeps appearing in my photos of Hispania, itās because Iām using it to hold the wooden meeples. One of @yashimaās generals had lost an arm in transit, so I decided to use something sturdier than a bag to keep mine safe (especially from the bag of metal coins, which is relatively-heavy), and the small Forks box was spare once Iād sleeved its cards.
10 Likes
Fromage, first play. Fun light/medium game about making and acquiring cheese. The game board is split into quarters, each quarter offering a different way of scoring (one is area majority, another scores for filling in adjacent spaces). You can also get resources (fruit, livestock, structures, and order cards). Resources are available as one, two or three quantities. So why not grab three all the time? When you select anything, you add one of your cheese tokens, and then attach a worker to them. The space you put a worker on can be in one of three different directions. The board rotates to the next quarter, and any workers that face towards you can be returned to you. So a place with three resources will take three turns before you can use that worker again. Itās pretty clever, and works well. So some planning is required to be able to place the workers the way you like. Itās a pretty quick game too ā when you place all of your tokens, the end is triggered. And everyone takes their turn at the same time, since each of you have different areas to place workers into. Really enjoyed this, took a few turns to get used to it. Looking forward to playing it again!
Arkham Horror the Card Game, we played the second part of the Night of the Zealot campaign. We just failed to complete it (because we misread an enemy card). We had the worst luck, we drew the instant fail token about 6 times. The chaos bag is a cruel mistress. To be honest, Iām considering dropping our difficulty from standard to easy. It sucks to fail so many skill checks, and thereās not much you can do about it. Took us a while too, felt like a bit of a chore really. I like a lot of things about the game, but not sure I want to spend so much play time on it. Itās only our second game, so weāre still having to go to the manual for some stuff ā I guess that would be reduced if we played every week.
My Favourite Things, first play. This is a trick taker, but you donāt know the values. So, you gather all your cards, which are sleeved, and pass them to the next player, along with a topic. That player then fills in the cards according to their preferences. You use 1-5 (from most to least favourite), and a heartbreak card, which is something you really DONāT like. For example, the topic was movies. My mate filled it out with Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Sound of Music. Than the actual number is covered and he returns the cards to me to use in this round. I guessed (correctly) that Ghostbusters was his number 1. And Sound of Music was his heartbreak card. Usually, the lowest value wins, but if a 1 and a heartbreak card is played, the heartbreak card wins. Well, I liked it, was a cool change from our intense Arkham Horror game. One player wasnāt quite getting it, I donāt think she enjoyed it. Clever game.
Trickadee, first play. This was a pnp copy I printed out. Itās a trick taking game, but youāre also creating a tableau (or flocks) of birds. When a trick is played out, each player takes a card from the trick to add to a new or existing flock. Youāre trying to make flocks of the same rank, suit, bird type, or sequential rank, and at the end of the round you score. But everything needs to be able to score, itās no good have two 5s in a flock with a 10 card, it wonāt score anything. You also collect sunflower seeds ā everyone gets a seed except the winner of the trick, and whoever comes last gets two seeds. Each round has three ability cards, and they cost either one, two or three seeds to use. They do things like drawing more cards, moving birds around, and allowing a card to be a wildcard. Itās a good, fun game, liked it.
11 Likes
Thatās a really attractive board.
4 Likes
Very interested in Fromage - youtube says it was the 3rd most-played game on the Dice Tower Cruise recently, and itās getting good reviews too. Iāve been following Road To Infamy since Canvas.
4 Likes
Well, it failed to grab me at Thirsty Meeples, but as a collection of moderately innovative mechanics I guess itās fine.
6 Likes
Got to meet up with my old board gaming friends for the first time in ages last night.
After some long thinking about what to take, I opted for a chance to play Brian Boru with 5 players for the first time. I then proceeded to focus too much on everything other than area control elements and came joint last. But it was fun 
Closed out the evening with introducing everyone to CDSK, where I did much better - winning by remembering that Star Trek ships are named after space shuttles.
Highlight of the game was when there was a question regarding Brian Mayās astrophysics degree and my friend mentioned his love of badgers. A few questions later, his question card subject was āBadgersā and I joked (without looking) he just had to guess which question would have Brian May as an answer.
He did.
10 Likes
When learning Arkham Horror TCG, this is recommended, and no shame in it. It is an intentionally difficult game and until you really know the cards and strategies well, a bit of a handicap is justified. Plus, games should be fun, and getting brutally crushed isnāt.
5 Likes
Rise & Fall x2 - Iām now adopting ā5 plays or sell itā policy. These are the 5th and 6th plays.
Panda Spin
Glory to Rome - broken broken broken game. Top 20 ever.
Moonlight Market - a new release from Essen SPIEL and itās an old school game from Dirk Henn
Ticket to Ride: Europe x2
7 Likes
Monthly game day meetup yesterday.
Planet Unknown - first play on our copy that arrived the night before. Interesting little polyomino puzzle. Everyone who played enjoyed it and wants to play again. I can see this entering our regular game day rotation. Pretty close game: 59(me) - 56 (my husband) - 54 - 42
Shakespeare - one of my absolute favorite point salad/ euro games. Played with a couple of my favorite people at our big game group. Close game again: 20(me) - 17 - 17
Harmonies - fad game of the moment in my area. I think itās ok but some bits a little fiddly for the level of game it is. Pretty wide point spread: 93 - 81 - 60(me) - 56
Flamecraft - cuter and lighter side of the basic gain resources then spend resources for points type game. 68(me) - 66 - 54 - 53
A couple regulars saw my table finishing Flamecraft and mentioned they really wanted to try it so I played a second game with them. Not really a game I wanted to play back-to-back. Oh well. 74 - 70(me) - 64
My husband played Planet Unknown with me then had a very different game day. He won as Dracula in Fury of Dracula, played a few rounds of Scout, then barely pulled out a money win in Pax Porfiriana.
10 Likes
Bastion 2025
Standouts below
Age of Rail: South Africa Cube Rails are the best
Bebop meh
Space Alert Iām sure this is fun but not at 1.30 am
Power Grid: Outpost Simplifies the resource tracks, but makes the power plant market more complicated, as there are two types of buildings, habitats and power plants.
Fire in the Lake As an experience this is excellent, as a game Iām not sold on COIN
Vinhos (2010) surprisingly enjoyable
Wandering Towers this is chaos in the best way
EDIT: Aand Fairy, so much Fairy
8 Likes
Hah! Cube Rails ruined my enthusiasm for most old school German games. I didnāt backed Bebop for this reason. I have kept some OGs to play with random people in our club with varying taste and skill as they are often safe options. Other than that, Cube Rails are, indeed, the best.
Vinhos (2010) surprisingly enjoyable
Hope you played with the Special Vintage 2016. The older 2010 Reserve is just complexity for the sake of complexity
3 Likes
No, the version that was offered was 2010. The teacher hadnāt played 2016
Bebop was place a tile, place a dice on a tile, score the dice dependent on a symbol and connected colour same colour group. Then see if you score a surrounding area, reduce the points value of the claimed symbol.
Then return to all of that in the end game to score some bonus points.
3 Likes
The Networks 2p this evening, as I plan to take it to neighbourly games tomorrow and havenāt played since 2020. Still fun.
8 Likes
Lost against my wife in Lords of Vegas on Friday, followed by a defeat in Star Wars the Deck Building Game.
Yesterday, she won again in two games of SWtDBG, but Clone Wars edition this time.
We also swapped wins in Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth, both on the Ring track. She was a little bitter at my win because I had the token which gave me another turn after placing a Landmark tile, and in Chapter 3, I proceeded to purchase all three tiles one after the other before she could take a turn. This win prompted the comment in the āThing you heardā thread. 
We also had a game of Lost Cities which she also won.
Then today I managed another Ring track victory in LotR:DfME.
8 Likes
Played 5 games of Ticket To Ride Rails & Sails with our friend Yvan on Saturday. We were pretty breezy, as we played all the games within 6 hours, and there were even breaks involved!
I actually managed to win 2 of the games, with Yvan winning 2 and Maryse the last one.
Fun times!
7 Likes