Got my first 2021 game in tonight.
A 2 hour 2 player game of Brass:Birmingham, fastest playtime yet and also probably our highest scoring game. I lost to my partner 127 to 124. First time she’s beaten me out of our 3 previous games.
I know it’s a different beast at two players, and sacrilege to say it, but I do find the lighter weight nature of the 2 player game (with significantly less competing for space and beer) to make for a more laid back and fun game.
Impromptu online games evening with @Lordof1:
Finished off our 7-game series of Baseball Highlights: 2045 (TTS). For me this game is in the good zone for luck vs skill balance: when I win it feels like skill, when I lose it feels like luck. 
Air, Land & Sea (TTS) - I’m sure this mod used to have rulebooks and score counters and things but it doesn’t now. Never mind, the actual cards are still there.
Onitama - I found an online implementation! http://onitama.lannysport.net/ It’s designed for live games but it seems to be privacy-friendly (doesn’t ask for any kind of signup) and it’s a nice simple interface: click on the piece, click on where it’s going, if either of your cards could have got it there click on the one you’re using. (I’ll now go and update the relevant thread.)
First game of the new year was 7 Wonders: Duel. We have not played it in a while, so it took a minute to remember everything, but it came back quickly.
It was kind of funny that all 7 wonders got built in the 2nd age, my wife getting all four of hers first, locking me out of my fourth. It was a very close game, and neither of us had a lot in the way of base resources, so just buying resources was not prohibitively expensive, and we both had a card which let us buy one of the resources for 1 coin each.
Remarkably, all of the science tokens were claimed (well, all 5 in that game), and we had a pretty even split of cards. Final score was 68-65, with @superjaz taking the win. Really close game.
I bought the kids Ticket to Ride: First Journey so we’ve played it a few times (only up to 2-4 tickets rather than the 6 that youre supposed to play to as my youngest (4) struggles to be interested longer than that) but my 6 year old is really getting into it, which is satisfying!
These two are right at the top of my list for 2021! I’m waiting for the new Doctor Who box with 13 as default (some sites say end of Feb for UK)
I just managed to teach myself Calico and play on TTS … hoping for a reprint even more now. Don’t want to hunt it on ebay. Just regular buy it some place. It is just my kind of puzzle. I am sure it will turn up eventually.
Mission 2 (not counting tutorial) of the app led version of Imperial Assault. The occasional hairy moment but currently we’re in control. Our attacks are always causing significant damage which helps. Really enjoying more Star Wars.
Also had a game of Through The Desert. I am sooo bad at this. Our youngest whooped us, he got longest caravan in 3 colours. I fancy this online with our game group on Zoom but I worry that the pastel colours won’t show up.
Off to a fine start so far! Three more games to log:
First was going to be a bunch of Rhino Hero while our daughter was in an observant and bemused state. Murphy’s law though, instead of a handful of quick crashes we played a single, tense game that went 12 storeys before toppling, and was precarious from floor 5. I won the game “by the rules” by floor 8, but who ends a game like that? We bored our little girl to tears but it was awesome.
Next we snuck in another game of Calico and for the first time, we had a hot contest for a tile at the end of the game. We were both desperately waiting for the dark blue tile with the floral pattern to show, and she got the damn thing as I rested my head in my palms for a while. That one tile meant a sacrifice of 11 points for me, while taking her from zero to 7 on her scoring tile… enough to net her a clean win by 3 points. Oof, that was a doozie, I was well on my way to a personal best. 
This morning we got rolling with a game of Space Base, excluding the (typically included) Miners of Shy Pluto module. I delayed in making a necessary mid-game shift in strategy (and knew it) which really put me behind the 8-ball in the points race. I ended up losing 41-34, but one or two dice rolls could have really meant the difference in this one. Hot race with a nail-biter of a finish. That’s Space Base.
Played Flesh & Blood for the first time and loved it. It’s a combat duel in a card game that emulates action in a really fun way.
Cards are used for attacks, defence and resources, and you only get 4 cards in your hand a round, so it’s some really tight choices. You can bank a card in the ‘Arsenal’ between turns, but this card can only be used for its action - not for defence or resources - and the only way to get a card out of the Arsenal is to play it. Store a duff card and you’ll have to waste a turn to play it to free up the slot.
Oh, and you only get 1 action per turn. The more nimble cards will give you a second action, so it gives a completely different feel between the lighter fighters and the big sloggers.
Each card has three types, ranging from 1 to 3 ‘pitch value’ (resource points), with the lowest pitch value’ being the strongest variant. So you want lots of low pitch value cards for their strong effects, but need the weaker cards to use as resources.
And it has a kind of Aeon’s End-ish mechanism where cards used for resources are placed at the bottom of your deck. You’re crafting your hands for the final turns to land the killing blow. If you used lots of weaker 3 pitch cards to pay for everything, your end-game is going to be a load of weaker cards that your opponent can easily block. Getting those last few hits to land really takes some pushing.
The gameplay itself is quite simple, but it all plays to subtle long term strategies. It has a sense of momentum I’ve not seen in a card game before.
Instead of everyone ramping up to power houses, you have stretches of getting into a swing of combos, before being reined in and really struggling to land a hit.
Heard it’s quite common for the first few games to reduce to a crawl with a real slog at the end, so interested to see if we can get the play times down with experience.
I played as a Warrior, whose momentum relies of hitting with her sword every round. If I can keep landing 2 blows each turn, my sword gets stronger and stronger. If I don’t land a sword hit in a turn, that extra strength is lost. My opponent played a Guardian, who has really strong defence and offence, but their cards are so expensive they need to focus on one or the other each turn.
I won by a strong middle stretch! We both made some rookie errors, so will be good to see how we fare next time.
As I’m back working from today, my wife suggested a chilled out board game day at home yesterday for the last day of holidays. We’d put together a 12 games of Christmas list between the three of us so we got stuck into some of those.
Played The Quest for El Dorado, which for the second time running I came dead last, great fun as usual. The more I play this the worse I get and the better the family get
Then we tried Mission: Red Planet, which went over OK. I really like the game but until you’ve gone through a game of it, the optimum time to use each action/character power aren’t obvious. I don’t think this will get a repeat play at home but I’m fine with that as it shines with 4+ players I think anyway, so it’s one that will get played on board game nights of the future.
We started a mini Crokinole tournament while preparing lunch which then continued throughout the day. Whenever one of us wanted a break the other two would play this. This game is so addictive, if it’s setup on a table I defy anyone to walk past and not feel the urge to flick!
Anyway, in the afternoon we played Fresco, which was a first play for my wife and it went over very well, close finish. I can see this getting played more often as long as we follow up with another game or two in the near future, to solidify the rules for everyone.
We took a break after that (and Crokinoled!) and then in the evening had a game of The Castles of Burgundy. I play this a lot online, and love it, but whether it was the late start and the fact that kiddo started to get tired, I felt like a referee AND two players and it was a bit draining. Fun, but not as much as usual.
Anyway, 5 games played and lots of fun had. I can definitely say that I’ve managed to have my fix before going back to the daily grind!
Tonight we managed to finish up the Hoth app campaign for Imperial Assault. I have complained in the past about some of the Hoth missions just seeming to put in events as if to pad the play time, but often just feels like it is dragging out the game. The finale mission, while it did take us about 3 hours, did not feel this way, and I really enjoyed it.
Sure, we all gave the tablet running the app the finger here and there, as it kept spewing out nasty reinforcements, but we all had some heroic moments. Jerrod Kelvin meleeing a tank to death after it wounded Jyn Odan. Jyn blasting the crap out of an AT-DP in three shots, only to do it again a few turns later when another one spawned (and caused us to flip off the app). Verena Talos using her Combat Mastery to stab Dengar, shoot and kill a riot trooper, then use her Close Quarters ability to hit Dengar with the riot trooper’s attack, then finishing him off with another Point-Blank shot from her modified DL-44, letting her use 2 red dice for the attack. The final attack by Jerrod against the main villain, taking him out in one Leaping Slash with a little help from his droid companion. Just a really amazing session, this time only dragged out as I had to keep going out to grab unexpected minis from time to time, like the AT-DP, which I had forgotten was even a thing!
Jabb’s Realm campaign will be up at some point. Hope the missions can all feel like this last one for Hoth.
It’s been a few games since I last posted, so I will make it brief. New year’s Eve and early hours of New Year (till 2 AM) we had a few games of Werewords. Still fun, still funny to see people make mistakes. It has become definitely a favourite of my non-gamers circle. General tiredness stopped me from trying Codenames of Decrypto, but I think they are ready.
Then a couple of games of Stuffed Fables continued on Friday and Saturday evenings. We took the game with us (under promise of doing our best not to lose any pieces while camping, and for my daughter to carry the box in her back pack) and we managed to finish the first story and continue the second one till the second scenario (besides my back ache from sitting on the camping chairs and attracting bugs with our camping lights) .
It is quite a joy of a game. If I was my daughter’s age, I would be loving the game, so I understand her enthusiasm. The only qualm I have is that I think we have one white dice missing. Which is a shame. I will do a recount tonight to rule out any loses.
I played two rounds of Inhuman Conditions virtually with my friend. We used the beginning Small Talk module and each took a turn at the two roles. Our first game, he was the suspect, an amateur wrestler named Pete “The Hog” Gilligan, and I correctly deduced him as human, despite the fact that he would make up an answer and then immediately forget it.
The next game, I was a cannibal named Hannibal Lector (no relation), and I was a patient robot who couldn’t talk about anything that happened before I woke up that morning. Unfortunately for my friend, he didn’t actually ask me anything about my past, so the programming point didn’t come up, I never did the penalty, and he incorrectly marked me as human. He said it felt pretty unsatisfactory that just because he didn’t happen to ask anything that interacted with my programming, there was no indication that I was a robot at all. I think that’s fair; it seems like the kind of game where you could very easily have a dud round, but considering it’s only five minutes, that isn’t that concerning.
I liked it! Way more than I was expecting. It was fun on both sides for me, and I’d like to give it more tries (with someone else, since my friend didn’t really enjoy either side). I’d possibly even purchase the physical copy.
Had a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe with my daughter last night. She did well. 110 to 108 when we had to count the longest route, and I got it only by two wagons distance. So it ended 120-108 on my favour, but she was so close. She was a bit gutted, but she has improved so much, although at one point she asked me to classify her cards, she had way too many.
I’ve just completed my 12 Gamedays of Christmas challenge for 2020/21 - and this festive season it was much more enjoyable than my last attempt.
Day 10 (3rd January) saw me finally attempt to play V-Commandos. I initially totally misunderstood some of the rules though as the first two training missions went fine but I got really bogged down in the third. Taking a short break to watch a couple of playthrough videos helped though so I went back to complete that training mission again. After the weekend I’ll take a stab at probably the quickest main mission Operation Green.
Day 11 (4th January) found me on far more familiar territory, playing a solo two-hander of A Touch Of Evil, playing as the School Teacher and the Inspector against the Spectral Horseman. Possibly my quickest game of it yet and a relatively comfortable victory in the end as the School Teacher was getting loads of Investigation points by defeating the Ghost Soldier minions that kept on appearing. Need to try the Something Wicked expansion with it again before too long.
Day 12 (5th January) was another quick session, playing Architects of the West Kingdom solo against the Constantine bot. A loss though as I mistimed my grab for the final Guildhall space, missing out on that last building which would have given me victory over his hoard of marble. Still, fun to get it out after a few weeks.
Challenge over for another year then but plenty more gaming afternoons and evenings ahead in 2021, starting this weekend with another gathering with friends for my birthday. I must get some other party games that I think they would enjoy too.
FWIW I’m happy to answer V-Commandos rules questions (perhaps on another thread).
I would be really interested in your overall impression of A Touch of Evil (similarly on another thread).
Regarding V-Commandos, I’m going to reread the manual, perhaps retry the third training mission and then Operation Green first. I missed a few fundamental things in the rulebook in my early readthroughs, specifically regarding shooting and how to open locked doors. For some reason, I always found reading that particular rulebook quite exhausting but not quite sure why, so probably wasn’t paying full attention at all in any of those reads. The youtube playthrough for the training missions actually made things much more clear, so when I have the energy and focus I’ll try again.
Regarding A Touch of Evil, it might be worth another thread depending on how specific a review or discussion you were thinking of. I’ve got three Flying Frog titles, also owning Last Night on Earth and Fortune and Glory, and like them all enough to have bought one or more expansions for each of them and play them two or three times a year. A Touch of Evil gets the most game plays though for several reasons, mostly though because Last Night on Earth really needs more than one player (although you can just direct zombie movement to the nearest hero) and while I love the setting, theme and danger/cliffhanger mechanics of Fortune and Glory, it increasingly seems like a chore to set it all up to play.
The “roll to move” mechanic does however hold them all back from being great games - especially considering the likes of Eldritch Horror (which has a lot of other similarities with A Touch Of Evil), or even The Fury of Dracula - but if they resolved that somehow maybe more people would enjoy them. Indeed, I’ve harboured thoughts of Fortune and Glory in Space!: imagining the game set not in the Indiana Jones style of pulp fiction, but the 1930s style Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers pulp setting.
I think that’s the perfect setting for it!
I think A Touch of Evil is also meaningfully compromised by seeming to be fundamentally designed as a PvP game with a shared loss condition, but then bolting full coop on in a way that’s awkward and poorly implemented. And I just don’t like their “cosplaying staff members” approach to artwork but that’s a personal thing.
I will admit that my one try was with six players, some prone to analysis paralysis, so irritating in a way that was not the game’s fault.
I have only played A Touch of Evil and Fortune and Glory solo, effectively co-op with two or four characters, so I didn’t find that a problem. I do think though that 4 players is about the limit for both games, to keep everyone’s focus properly.