I read on BGG and it seems like they pre empted this by including a variant where you remove lots of tiles.
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Medici is still an excellent pure auction game.
No Thanks! 2x - fun filler. Simple but canât stop playing it. And I always lose as I end up not making sets to shave off a lot of points (which is bad).
Ethnos - itâs fine. I donât adore it any more as it lacks enough decision space. Han/Iwari which we played next went way easier as the rules are easier to internalise and tactical decisions here are tasty.
Q.E. - we had a âcamel humpâ this time. Steady prices in early game, then it spiked up, and then went down again at the last auctions as people are careful not to spent too much. The more I play this, the more I find High Society lacking the dynamism Q.E. provides.
Bottle Imp very fun trick taking. The rule of bidding higher or lower than the bottle impâs number is very tense and also very thematic and clever. I went to BGG and traded for a copy!
The Speicherstad - funny auction game. One of the better Feld games. I donât see it to be as good as Kniziaâs auction games though. Relies too much on deck mastery to do well. Your first games are mostly âwait, what am I doing?â
Firenze - build towers and take-thats. Still like it. Take-thats work here because you can see whatâs going to happen from a mile away as the card shop shuffles down.
Played 3 player Agra with Wyvern. Still fantastic and fun. I still like what I like about it: focused scoring (with the elephant as exception) and the worker placement means you have to rely on other people kicking you out off an action space so you can take it again (and kick them out in return). A bit too heavy Euro for me, but itâs something Iâm fine with overall.
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Last night: BGA live Rallyman GT (there is one person who insists on using an outdated and insecure browser so canât do Jitsi, so we used BGAâs own voice system which has no volume control). Half-way through the second lap we had four cars out of five in a block.
And Air, Land & Sea where the artwork is weirdly wrong (e.g. itâs sort of like a Spitfire but not quite) but the game is still great fun.
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This is becoming a rarer occurence, but I played a game! [EDIT] Iâm not being totally fair about this, we played one game of Break the Code a couple weeks back (fun! Great, quick stand-in for Awkward Guests at 2P)), and have been chucking Martian Dice for giggles when we have a few minutes, but those hardly felt worth posting about.
Rather unexpectedly, we gave Fort a shot already and itâs a total peach. Read, set up, taught in 30 minutes, played a little under 90 minutes, with my best guess around the 30-45 min. mark after some familiarity. It is thinky but immediate; we were playing fairly competitively just a few turns in, if slowly. It also has a delicious use-it-or-lose-it decision space that fires off my pleasure receptors the same way multi-use cards do.
All in all, a fantastic first impression from me and my partner, and one weâre both eager to revisit.
Optimist: Excellent first impression and easy to table. Beautiful!
Pessimist: Small deck has wide options, but for how long?
Cynic/Realist: Sure is curious, that extra empty space the size of a deck of cards.
[More edits!] @Derelicte - obviously this is after a single game, but if you told me this was â2-4â player deckbuilder, Iâd say great! A 2P game that supports more and which nobody will play at. My guess is that Fort probably does open up at the 3 and 4 player counts simply due to the wider availability of the cards in The Yard (hoping youâre loosely familiar but basically the card market includes most of the other playersâ cards left unused from their last hand, open to steal). In the 2P game we did blind draw more often than we figure we might have with other players, but we also hadnât sussed out the tempo of the game yet, made grievous beginner mistakes, etc.
Long story short, if you told me it was just a 2P game I wouldnât really question that at all. Lovely first game. But a first game.
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Played some games online with my Mum after the usual technical difficulties of my mum operating online.
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Video calling me, my sister (On holiday) and my nephew in a group call.
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Forgetting her BGA password.
Anyway, the games
1 x Sushi Go, won by me by taking puddings. Very hate drafty at two and I like it.
2 x Kingdomino. Won one lost one. Lost on an âall the mines strategyâ and getting dumped four forest squares with no crowns. Excellent 15 minute game I should own.
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We got a game of Carcassonne. Run by a friend over Zoom. I think Iâve only played this twice before, once drunk and once mid afternoon at a convention when it was our 4th or 5th game of the day.
Itâs really good. I think Iâd had a bad first impression so have been avoiding it since, but I can see why itâs a classic.
The Big Box (Italian edition) is an excellent price on Amazon UK at the moment so weâve picked it up. Hopefully itâs another game for playing with non gamers or a light work night game.
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Had anoyher game of Whispery War, this time with my mum.
The final score was either 39-35 to me, or 39-10 to me. She got her highest and lowest empire mixed up, so we scored as of they were the way around she thought they were.
Would I have done that if it meant she won? Iâm sure I would, but that wasnât the case so we never ever have to think about or question that ever again. 
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Another solo game of Architects of the West Kingdom late tonight, with Rudolph facing Helena. Seemed really quick and close throughout but a win for Rudolph by 40 points to 34, courtesy of five buildings worth 36 points between them as I didnât work much on the Cathedral. Great work from my apprentices, with the Thief and Pickpocket twinning nicely at the Tax Stand saving me one Virtue and adding one Gold each visit, plus I was careful to keep my workers out of prison so the Squire could earn me some marble at each Black Market reset.
My favourite game at the moment - and I have the Age of Artisans expansion to try next time too.
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I just played my first solo with artisans against the easy bot today. I havenât played in a while⌠and I think I kept forgetting to place workers for certain bot actions. Overall I like the additions Artisans makes Especially the big worker and some of the new apprentices. Also the new double layer guildhall is just nice 
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Played a good few games yesterday:
Cyclades: felt a bit slow, but probably due to it being our first game. Undecided whether I prefer this or Kemet - needs a few more plays.
Tiny Epic Dinosaurs: I really like the setting, and I think itâs a nice little worker placement game. Added bonus of being tiny!
Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms: This is fine. It reminds me a lot of Eight Minute Empire, but I think this is better. Would like to try out a few more combinations of the factions - we had Orcs, Centaurs, and Lizardfolk.
Wingspan: Another one for my 10x10. I was especially pleased with my owl sanctuary.
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Played scenarios 3&4 of Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion. Itâs really good.
These scenarios pretty much finalised the rules by introducing long rests, the elements and objects to be destroyed. Weâre learning how our characters work as a team; the wizard character can use other players (or even enemies) to attack which is really cool.
Scenario 4 was hard (having flown through 1-3). I got killed by a Golem, the eldest ran out of cards but was able to make an awesome sacrifice play with his final action. My wife and the youngest just about clung on. It was a meaty 90+ minute battle as well.
I find this so accessible - big box GH is an imposing beast with everything to learn from the first turn. JOTL guides you in with rules and adding/ substituting cards in your hand - weâre at the full deck now. Iâd recommend this very highly if you havenât got the base game (or are struggling to get into it).
Also a third play of The Field of the Cloth of Gold. Probably counts as a first play because we got a rule very wrong. This is a tense, no good decision 2 player game that plays in about 30 minutes. Every action you take means you give your opponent a gift. Youâre picking the best action for you, but is it worth the gift you pass on and youâre also opening up action slots for your opponent. Really clever
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Played our first game of Kanagawa, and loved it.
Itâs an easy to understand set collecting, but the drafting of cards (and being able to grab them at any time but forfeit getting any more that round) makes being first player and denying your opponent really important. Surprisingly ruthless as a two player, would really like to try it with four.
BEAUTIFUL components, tense choices, pleasing âhave a diploma for being good at artâ rewards.
Absolutely perfect gateway game too, anyone will understand it and the table presence is gorgeous. Really happy to have got this.
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and itâs a beautiful little box too itâs pretty good with four and still not too long either. it should see our table more often than it does.
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Definitely a great game. My only complaint is I got the expansion and itâs got some good stuff but it is one of those that requires removing some base game stuff to add some of the expansion stuff so you have to pick what to play with every game. More of a hassle to setup now. Iâm more of a get everything, mix it all together, and always play with everything kind of person.
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Went to a party and played a couple of games with lots of people. We played Mysterium with 7 people, went pretty well. It was a bit crowded, and hard to see the cards, but everyone seemed to have a good time. We lostâŚbut the birthday boy actually got the final cards correct, it just wasnât the majority.
Then we had a couple of rounds of Fake Artist Goes to New York , one of my favourite drawing/traitor games. We had 7p again, which was probably too many, the drawing pad gets pretty crowded by the end. Still, itâs a great game.
Sunday, we played
My City , came second in one episode, and that was the best I did. As usual, empty spaces (which give negative points) killed me. Weâre about halfway thru the game I believe, and its been pretty interesting so far. The extra rules as we go on arent really complicating things too much, its all easy to remember.
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion , did scenario 3, where we cleared out an area of nasty zealots and snakes. Iâm settling into my role as a ranged damage dealer. Still fairly easy, we only just started gaining xp. Its well done, as it slowly introduces ideas to beginning players. As veterans of the full game, we could obviously handle the full rules, but its fine.
Quirky Circuits , we played the mission we lost last time, Seed Mixup. Its a bit tricky, because you have to pickup a seed token, which will then tell you where you have to take it. A few missteps, but we handled it ok. Those special cards (that get added into the normal deck for particular missions) are a bugger sometimes, because you have to play them first. This is really a good game.
The Search for Planet X , went pretty well. One of the players from last week was a bit discouraged and was struggling. But this week she was first to identify Planet X, so she enjoyed it a bit more, Still didnât win, out of two games played, the first player to find the planet hasnât won, Itâs so vital to get theories out early, thatâs what wins games. I tried to do this, wasnât entirely successful (came second). I had to guess, so chose to add theories for asteroids, since there are multiples (so if I get it wrong, I donât lose my only token). Somewhere, not sure where, I stuffed up, I realised I had everything (even planet X) crossed out in one sector, which obviously is wrong â every sector has to contain something. I did a target action on the sector, which told me it was empty, which means it could be truly empty, or could be Planet X. I made a guess on Planet X at the end (after it was already discovered), had a 50-50, and guessed correctly. You could examine your moves and starting information, and redo everything, but its a bit hard when youâve already written on your sheet.
Pictures , I think weâve been thru the entire deck now, so weâre not seeing anything new anymore. The problem with playing this with the same group all the time is that you get to know how people think. Our games are always really close, usually only a point between. Still fun, but Iâd love to see an expansion.
Ghost Stories , the classic cooperative game. Took us a little while to get into it, having to explain player board powers, and then the tiles, and then how the ghosts work. This game is known for being very hard, and we struggled. After a few turns it was clear we were going to lose, but it was still fun. Love those haunter ghost figures! I think what makes this game so hard is that you can make some good moves, get rid of some ghosts, but then youâll slip, and suddenly youâre up against it and fighting for survival, and its hard to pull back from that. I still love this game, its actually quite easy to play (just not to win). The rulebook isnât great, going on about Yin and Yang phases and whatnot. Might give this a go next week as well, now we have the rules down.
Silver and Gold
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It definitely looks great. I am debating myself if I should buy it at such a great price, or wait for Frosthaven, which is going to be another monster the size of the base Gloomhaven game.
Regarding Gloomhaven, I have to admit that mostly I have played it solo, because all the setting up kind of puts me off from giving it a go with friends that are not that into games, but Jaws could be a nice patch up for that, and a good way to introduce newbies to it.
In all fairness, my head says Jaws, and my heart says wait for Frosthaven. Iâm 60% for following my logical side⌠Hmmm, decisions, decisionsâŚ
Yup, Jaws could be a good intro to Gloomhaven, your friends may love it, and then youâve got a Gloomhaven group!
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We squeezed another game of Fort in this evening, and I eked out another win, in large part thanks to my partner thinking she took my made-up rule card (1VP per book suit). She did not, and it all became clear why we kept swiping blue cards off one another all game. A shame on one hand, as she played brilliantly (I have real concerns about getting outclassed by her on this one), but too funny to feel all that sore about it.
Anyway, this is a definite keeper already. Something about the combos and the race to victory (not to mention following other players) offers a similar pace and excitement level as Space Base, but in a wholly different package. Itâs a hit with my partner and we have found ourselves talking about the game since our first play Friday night. I have a good feeling weâll be finding out first hand what kind of legs this game has.
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Itâs been a very long time since I played Kana Gawa, but I think I might have another go this week. Itâs really very nice. The sushi rolling mat it comes with is a really nice little play area, too.
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Yesterday, my wife and I played a game of Jaipur, with relatively few interruptions. The first round was really close, but she managed to beat me by 4 points. The next round I managed to screw up right near the end, doing a move which I thought would end the round, but I was mistaken. So I lost that one too, by 7. I still probably would have lost anyway, but the margin would have been narrower. Funnt that both games would have swung my way if I had managed to get the camel bonus.
Tonight we played Istanbul, adding her brother to the mix. We set up the market using the small green numbers, meaning longer paths, which we have never done before. It was close, but I eked out the win thanks to a lucky card draw and good timing of someone returning my family member to the police station. Very close game.
6 Likes