I think that’s really the only way to play it. It’s not particularly fun to lose the game anyway; it’s even less fun to be told “there’s this extra bit you could play, but you just weren’t good enough”.
3 Likes
Another 2 player session. Im glad I can do more of these during the lull days of board gaming because of COVID.
Battle Line
Freedom: Underground Railroad - hard co-op and I really like it. I didnt feel being “gamey” like using other slaves as bait so others will make it to Canada and tried to save every one. Lost but I enjoyed it. I find the theme more evoking as you are saving one person at a time, rather than the entire world.
Command & Colours: Napoleonics - played it again. Still a blast to play.
Tides of Time 2 player drafting game. It was alright. The art is very gorgeous. If theres an artbook for this, I’ll probably get it.
Avignon: Battle of the Popes - 2 player game from Buttonshy. We have a pnp version. Really enjoyed it. Considering Buttonshy is a hit and miss, I consider this one a hit, for now.
3 Likes
Today I managed to convince my husband to play a board game! 
Unfortunately for me, the only two-player game he will agree to play is Go, so I got completely thrashed. I think the final score was something like -4 to 57…
Despite my terrible loss, it was less stressful than my previous experience of trying to learn Go with strangers in a pub 
I also got in one solo scenario of Gloomhaven, which I will have to try again tomorrow due to an overwhelmingly quantity of ooze…
10 Likes
Well, we had a BBQ yesterday and a friend had bought on Trademe (NZ’s ebay) a copy of Cards Against Humanity. I know, I know… But I have heard so much about it from non-gamers, and the dynamic with my friends is relaxed, so I admit I wanted to give it a try.
So we played it with 8, and I tried as much as I could planting really surreal answers, which gave me the first game with 3 points (we were playing without trying to guess who put each card, but points for the better or funniest answer at the discretion of the black card reader)
We played a second game, and I can see how it gets old quick. Past the first few horrible answers that bring giggles to the table, it becomes a bit predictable. A friend won it, and we thought it was enough.
I can see where it has a ‘let’s be silly and joke about horrible stuff’ edge, but it does really wear out quickly. I would definitely not recommend it unless for trying once and then reselling.
2 Likes
Been playing Rallyman GT online. It’s fun, first racing game that feels like I’m racing.
On the lookout for a cheap used copy now.
3 Likes
My wife and I played a quick game of Jaipur today. I say quick because it only took two rounds and she soundly trounced me. 79 - 72 in the first round, then 87 - 64 in the second.
4 Likes
Played the first case of Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (Thames) solo. About two hours in, I had absolutely no clue who had done it but I was frantically going from journal entry to entry in a tense hunt. My page of notes started to look more and more raving.
I really could have done with a crime corkboard and coloured string - HE claimed to have an alibi but the other fellow said he didn’t arrive until 9pm!! No alibi! SHE’S having an affair with that guy, and then there’s that entry in the newspaper which confirms THE THEORY I HAD ALL ALONG! …Probably.
Great fun, very satisfying “I have called you all here…” Sherlock conclusion, can’t wait for the next case. Would be tremendous with 2-3 players all yelling and bouncing ideas off each other. May have to invest in a big crime board and some string.
5 Likes
My wife and I tried out our newly acquired game of Spicy. Being a game that is basically a variant of BS, it is really easy to play and will likely shine better with more players. As it stands, though, it is still a fun little diversion. We both managed to call each other correctly a number of times, but my wife lost on more challenges that she made. I managed to empty my hand once and get a trophy card (get two and you win immediately). Game ended with the World’s End card appearing, and I obviously had the thicker stack of cards for the win, even before factoring in the 10 points for the trophy card.
Fun little game that I could see being used as a light opener or quick breather between heavier games
6 Likes
Despite the heat I managed to convince my partner to play two games with me over the week-end.
On Friday, we won Aeon’s End on easy mode against the easiest opponent (Hatebreed? I have a German game where he is named Hassgeburt–edit: so it’s Rageborne) using Jian and Brama and the proposed composition of cards for the first game. Since I already knew most of how it works from the app learning the game went a bit quicker than it might have otherwise.
My partner didn’t totally hate it. He likes deck building and coop games so I am reasonably sure this will fare better than what we played on Saturday.
On Saturday, he humored me by playing a round of Spirit Island, him using a moderately complex spirit for the first time: Keeper of the Wilds. And I used the other Branch and Claw spirit Sharp Fangs Behind Leaves. They work quite well together. I added in Level 1 Sweden.
Together we’ve only ever played without opponent but one of the major frustrations for my partner is when his abilities fizzle without target because we’re doing too well. We won within six rounds easily (and unsurprisingly) but not without a bit of “ugh I am paralyzed by the choices” and so it’ll be a while until I can get another non-solo of this.
4 Likes
Aeon’s end core set nemeses in English are Rageborne, Carapace Queen, Crooked Mask and Prince of Gluttons.
2 Likes
I picked this up on a bit of a whim while buying something else, and haven’t tried it out yet, but I’m a bit worried that in practice it’s essentially random ?
But so long as it’s really fast, and it’s a bit of a laugh, maybe that’s ok.
(When it comes to bluffing games, I would rather be kicked in the shins than play Poker, but have enjoyed (mostly) some games of The Resistance: Avalon and Coup, so I feel this is at least at the right end of the scale.)
Honestly, I like the name Hatebreed a lot more than Rageborne. 
3 Likes
I think i know why i translated it like that. There is a metal band by the name Hatebreed… Metalcore is not my style of metal but i have seen them on the running order a few times at festivals 
3 Likes
With level 2 back in NZ, there was no Game Night yesterday, so I rather had a couple of games with my daughter, where see squashed me 7-2 at Love Letter (her favourite game) so I humoured her and we had a walk down memory lane with Way of Life, where I won by a slight margin of under $100k (we were both just under 4 million each at the end). It was nite, nite time for her by the time we finished, so I had a go solo at Gloomhaven. I must admit, setting it up and tidying up at the end takes so much time it had put me off for a while from soloing it. I did fail the mission, but got some good XP out of it. Sometimes at level 5 scenarios every enemy becomes a mini-boss, I start to think that I am going to have to house rule a bit here and there to give my characters a better chance.
4 Likes
This evening with the local game group: “I thought things were going well but they ended up bad”.
Kingdomino: my second game, and I’m starting to see some of the tactics, but need to work out more guiding principles.
Race for the Galaxy: went for military again, did a decent job with two 6-? developments (New Galactic Order and Galactic Imperium), but completely neglected the economy to do it.
Twin Tin Bots: I like programming games anyway, and it gradually became apparent how this one ought to work. Definitely want to play more of this (and it’s on Yucata too).
4 Likes
Played a game of 18Chesapeake on https://www.18xx.games/ last night. 4 player.
Really nice implementation of the 18XX experience, as in it’s butt ugly.
Came dead last against two experienced players but didn’t bankrupt. Now the first 2/3s of the game was fun but as soon as all the share portfolios are full and all the track is laid it felt on rails (ahem) for the last 4-5 ORs and I stopped having fun.
2 Likes
Just wrapped up another game of Marvel Champions. Still playing the intro scenarionwith Rhino, but this time I played two-handed with the pre-constructed Spider-Man and Captain Marvel decks. I managed to pull off another win, though Marvel got down to 1 HP a couple of times. Spider-Man was sitting pretty though, as I got Aunt May out rather early, so he could attack one round, get attacked in return, then attack before going to alter-ego and getting healed up, then back to hero mode next turn. Worked great.
I think I am going to mess with some of the other heroes next, and maybe try a different villain. I am enjoying the game a lot!
3 Likes
After around 5 hours (including probably an hour of rules review) playing Leaving Earth (with both expansions) we got to 1964. This was more exciting than I anticipated and we had to stop because it is a week night.
Tomorrow I will sneak downstairs to secretly plan out my Mars landing mission… I have rarely seen my partner so excited about a game that lasts so long.
I have a couple of questionS about Life Support:
- if life support is tested at the end of the year You need to keep 10 bucks… but you loose all money that is left So if it is a failure you waste 5 bucks, right?
- habitats are not capsules but do they check for life support? Couldn’t find anything in the rules?
My space shuttle had an engine failure getting to suborbital space and I have no landing technology… so it was destroyed. If the failure had occurred in orbit I could have used reentry instead?
Anyway, it was a lot of fun and it needs our whole dining table… this is bigger than my average Gloomhaven setup.
6 Likes
Yes to your life support question. You might lose 5 bucks.
As for landing, the hazard is in brackets so you can test for landing, but you don’t have to, so your space shuttle could splash down instead.
(Unless there’s a sub rule for shuttles I don’t know.)
3 Likes
First actual gameplay in a while! I spent bits of free time here and there across a very slow day at work, and managed to get through half of my first expedition into the Blackstone Fortress. I’m a gamer waaaay ahead of a hobbyist, so I got the bare minimum of heroes and enemies assembled (and unpainted) as fast as I could so I could take the game for a spin (solo).
I’m having a blast! It’s a touch on the easy side so far, but I can already see a few spots to pop in simple house rules if I find it doesn’t ramp up to my liking. So far I’ve (fairly crushed) 2/4 combats, took a grievous wound on my Navigator as my very first action in the game, and passed on a lucrative risk/reward challenge on “dice hate me” grounds.
Two more combat rounds to clear (#3 up next, I peeked!), and two more challenges. I’m hoping the challenge cards prove to be wildly varied as there aren’t very many of them in total, and they’re a quick diversion from the combat at best. The first card that just dished out an incurable wound was pretty uninspired (simple booby trap gotcha), but the second one offered a pretty juicy proposition, so I’ll be happy to see more of those.
Hopefully I’ll get the chance to finish my first dive tomorrow so I can spend my hard earned credits!
2 Likes