Sounds similar to my first impressions of High Frontier. Only, at first I was sure there was a game in there… but the more I understood the more I realised it was more of a sandbox with (IIRC) a boring auction game tagged on. The “game” was very much secondary, and not a very interesting one. For the first X plays, the winner would certainly be the person who could read the inscrutable board better. After that, it seems it would all come down to correct valuation in the auctions and luck. Kind of put me off looking into other Eklund games (well, that and the fact he is an insufferable jerk).
2 Likes
We played our first game of kanban. It was too much of a brain burner for us. You can see the quality the quality and intricacy of the puzzle but the effort doesn’t seem like it’s worth the tiredness afterwards.
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That’s how I felt about it as well, after crashing my whole strategy because I forgot one of the many interlocking rules.
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Played 3 games of Spirit Island today. Having finally cracked England level 6 last time out for some variety we tried out some scenarios. Choose a scenario, generate 2 random spirits and off we went each time. First was Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Lightning Bird did Rituals of the Destroying Flame. Next up Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares with Serpent Slumbers did Rituals of Terror. Finally Oceans Hungry Grasp paired with Vital Strength of the Earth for Powers Long Forgotten.
Scenarios, really good. I’ve played a lot of Spirit Island now and they did a really good job of freshening up the experience. I want to go back and try some more England lvl 6 and hopefully Jagged Earth will turn up and be all new Spirits and Adversaries, but I also now want to start combining scenarios and adversaries. What a well designed game it is.
3 Likes
More Netrunner with @Lordof1 last night. We both made mistakes (such as forgetting that advancing an agenda takes credit as well as a click) but I made one fewer. At one point as the corp I had 40+ credit, but it was down to zero by the end.
We’re still playing with the starter decks on jinteki; unlike most FFG starters, there’s plenty to explore there before we start getting into expansion material.
5 Likes
Got in a few games yesterday evening: Tzolk’in, Wingspan, Battle for Rokugan, and Tybor the Builder.
I’m still undecided on whether I prefer Tzolk’in or Teotihuacan. The latter is my preference for asynchronous online play, but in person I think the cogs might win out…
Wingspan was a delight, as always. I’m looking forward to the Oceania expansion, which is completely unnecessary except for the fact that there are some fabulous antipodean birds…
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I finally played some bloody games again.
Played a few rounds of Coup and a game of Stay Cool. It was good to get to just do things again for fun. 
I’ve especially missed Coup. Such a great game.
7 Likes
The Pillars of the Earth, this is a pretty good worker placement game, based around building a cathedral over 6 rounds. Each round, a new piece of the cathedral is added. A bit pointless, but there you go. Each round, you hire craftsmen, collect resources, and move your workers onto the various spots on the board. The selection of workers is done from a bag. Each time a worker is pulled from the bag, that player has the option to pay and place their worker straightaway, or pass and place them later. As workers are pulled, the cost reduces, until placement is free. Its a pretty cool mechanic. The basic idea is to collect craftsmen that convert resources into victory points. Each round, two craftsmen are available to buy, and two more are placed on the board and can be used by placing your worker on that spot. It was a pretty close game, and the winner was going to be the first player to get the best cards in the last round. Metal (which is a resource but cant be collected or bought like the other resources) is used by craftsmen in the later rounds.
Unfortunately we got a couple of rules wrong (that I only realised when I played the game the following day and checked the rules). You cant stockpile resources, you can only keep 5 for the next round. And when a worker is pulled out of the bag, you can put it back. We played with the rule that it was only a worker of your colour that could be put back. Its actually any colour worker. Oh well.
Western Legends, a fun cowboy romp. We played the short game (to 15 points). We played some poker, arrested some outlaws, it was good fun.
Pictures, where I was criticized for not properly making a cow out of my materials.
Dixit, havent played this for ages, usually dont have the numbers. Its not terrible at 3p (you play 2 cards each so its not too easy).
My City, first play of Reiner Knizias new game. It can be played as a legacy game over 24 episodes (we played the first 3 episodes), or as a “normal” game (by using the other side of the double sided boards). Its pretty easy to play, at least so far. Each player has 24 pieces of variously shaped buildings. You turn over a card, and then everyone places the building on the card. You can pass, but you’ll lose a victory point. You can stop playing in the round, but you’ll get lose points for any buildings you have left over. And you’ll lose points for any spare spaces on your board. And in addition, you’ll lose points for leaving rocks on your board. So – what do you get points for? Trees apparently. The round ends when all the cards are gone thru. Whoever has the most points gets to fill in circles on their player board – I believe this counts for your overall score (after all 24 episodes). Second place gets to fill in just once circle, and third place gets a tree sticker to add to their board. I suck at these sort of games. We played 3 episodes and had the same placings each round (with me coming last each time). I dont feel that there is much to look forward to here, just more sucking, only with more rules for each episode.
Pictures, did better, didnt have to draw a cow
Men at Work, classic dexterity game with cute little worker meeples in hardhats.
The Pillars of the Earth, played with the correct rules this time.
The Crew
Silver and Gold
6 Likes
Today I met @lalunaverde and one other for a game of Roads & Boats. First time for me playing with more than 2. It’s a world of difference playing with 3.
I’m not yet loving it. The start still feels slow and difficult. Overall though enjoyed today’s game. Interested for more plays of this in when Covid abates enough for regular gaming 
Next up La Luna taught me Innovation. Now we’re cooking on gas. I won’t draw any conclusions from one play but this has me excited in wanting to find out some more about it. Looking forward to teaching Mr Verde Mottainai.
2 Likes
Im very keen on playing Mottainai. Didnt got around to reading the rules for that one yet.
Re Roads & Boats: yes. I found the early game slow and solitaire. At least with Antiquity, famine affects everyone right off the bat. Im pleasantly surprised that it’s more interactive than I thought - Player 3 stole all my gold!
So far, not keen on hunting it 2nd hand, but Im eager to play more of it
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Mottainai is great. Don’t want to oversell it, as it’s a very very short game, but in its time bracket there are few 2-player games that can compare.
I used to play on a lunch break at work. Eat lunch for half an hour and then 20 minutes to play a game of Mottainai. There were 2 people I worked with who were/are part of my gaming group so it was ideal. It still gives the brain a proper work out in such a short time. I’m hoping Innovation shares that somewhat.
2 Likes
Oh, I much prefer Innovation, but it’s a longer game so not really comparable. Innovation is also good 3-player and 2 teams of 2.
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Interesting. My impression today wasn’t that Innovation was much longer. I must have lost sense of time with all the roads & all the boats.
I rather like Mottainai at 3. I enjoy the sheer chaos of it and the utter speed. Also when you get to use 2 opponents tasks for more of a 1 turn combo the game feels super charged.
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Oh player 3 
you got you revenge at least! I’m still impressed at your perfectly timed aggression at the paper mill. That was at least 7 spanners in at least 3 of my works 
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Played two games of my new copy of Ticket to Ride London today, our first time playing it. The first game was me, my wife, and her brother. The map is TINY when compared to the base game, so it is really easy to get in each others’ way, either inadvertently or purposefully. My brother-in-law took this one easily, getting 33 points to my wife’s 17 and me trailing at 13.
The second game was just between my wife and I. Taking the lessons learned from the first game, I paid closer attention to her remaining buses (which I had neglected to do the previous game) and worked to ensure I could at least complete my original tickets before her supply got too low, then use remaining turns to try to complete districts or get more tickets, depending on the situation. As it was, I finished my last ticket just a turn or two before she ended the game, one turn before I would have. Thanks to the 4 point bonus district, I won by two points, 36 to 34.
I like how breezy the game feels. Takes just 15 minutes or so to play and has the full feel of TtR in that time span.
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I found it that the shorter TTRs felt over before they started.
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FInally got two of my newly purchased titles to the table for a solo tester session. El Dorado was good quick fun and I can see that becoming a favourite with novice/younger friends if/when I get to play that with them. Memoir '44 was great too: the introductory adventure was quick to play although with my clumsy figures I found the figures a little more fiddly than expected. With the right opponent that will be great too.
If I get time and opportunity tonight or over the weekend, it’ll be time to try Nusfjord and then V-Commandos. With luck I’ll get time for one of them tonight. Still awaiting Architects of the West Kingdom to arrive too.
5 Likes
Not really a board game, but I managed a couple of games of the excellent solo/ co-op tabletop skirmish game Rangers of Shadow Deep. The rules are by Joseph McCullough (who also designed Frostgrave and the games share a lot of the same mechanics). I grabbed the rules for lockdown, but fell foul of no tablespace due to having to set up a home work space.
I still haven’t claimed back any tablespace thanks to remote working, but I managed to go digital and get everything set up on Roll20. And had an absolutely great time. The rules are miniature agnostic and can work with whatever you have (I almost went papercraft, but there was still issues with space). The game is tagental to board games, and I don’t recall anyone mentioning it here, but I think that it would appeal to few of you.
Just finished up the fifth scenario in the Dunwich Legacy for Arkham Horror TCG and was soundly trounced by the insta-fail token (drew it four times out of what only felt like a dozen draws). While I was able to get a clue in the starting location, I never had the opportunity to get another one, so I never was able to progress the act. Meanwhile the agenda plodded on.
Ended up drawing a treachery that cost me 3 horror, which was enough at that point to defeat me. This was after I was Wracked by Nightmares (exhausing all my assets and no letting them get ready again, needs two actions to discard) and Frozen in Fear (first Fight, Evade, or Parley action costs two actions to perform), which being engaged with a creature I could not defeat easily meant I was pretty screwed. Finally got Jenny’s twin 45’s, with 8 tokens on them for use and thought I might have a chance to dig myself out of the hole I was in. Then I got hit by that treachery.
So, 0 xp, nothing accomplished, and I am not feeling too good about my odds for the remaining two scenarios. Guess we will see eventually.
2 Likes