I think this one relies on quick play to be fun. It;'s my turn, I’ll dispose of that, next. This is probably the lightest game I’ve met that suffers from this; I usually see it more with something like Suburbia. One chap I know wanted to work out the cost/reward of every tile in the market, and basically I’ll never play it with him again.
(Haven’t heard of Stew. I’ll give it a try if I see it.)
Played Splendor: duel and Botanicus yesterday.
I liked Splendor: duel, although since I have regular Splendor, I wouldn’t bother to buy it. It is in a much more sensibly-sized box than its predecessor.
Botanicus is an action selection point salad about creating a garden. Fairly inoffensive - I preferred Unconscious Mind but Botanicus would be easier to teach.
Awesome night at pub meetup because I got to play my new copy of Courtisans (great at 5 players) and then a new guy brought HOT STREAK!!
NOOO DANGLE YOU STUPID FISH WHYYY
(I will be buying Hot Streak the very second it becomes available in the UK in September)
I introduced some of my colleagues to That’s Not a Hat at lunchtime today. We found that at 5 it was a little too easy, but at 6 everything started to fall apart 
Last night was a 5 player game of Eclipse 2nd Dawn where I played the Hydrean (Scientists) and did exceptionally badly.
I got an awful Tier 2 tile (2VPs and an Exploration tile), but the Orion werr knocking at my door so I had to take it before they did. The game was razor tight for 3 players (final scores 37 - 36 - 34 - 17 - 16), with me at the bottom.
Still had fun. Great game, and not super long.
We then dived into a dozen rounds of The Gang, which continues to impress. The second round we lost…
That is Justin taking the 5-star (strongest) chip with a High Card 5.
After that I managed to gwt a 3 player Brass Birmingham. Gods, what a banger of a game. And at 3am, no less! Good times.
My wife bought Slay the Spire because she loves the video game and we gave it a try tonight! I was the Silent, who seems to be about deck control (lots of cards to draw cards), free attacks, and poison, although I didn’t get much in the way of the last two. I was also big on potions because that’s just my personality (I love potions).
It was a really good time! We died to an Elite enemy in Act 2. My wife says it’s a really good adaptation of the video game to a medium where you have to keep track of your own upkeep, and we’re both excited to play it again. I’m not the biggest deckbuilding fan (understatement), but only in the rarest of circumstances will you have a hand of cards that are completely useless, and even playing three 1-damage attacks is a good chunk of an enemy’s health and feels good to do. Plus it’s really cool how each character can have different builds - maybe next time I’ll get more poison cards near the beginning and lean heavily into that.
Another game of Vantage this week, and we managed the win (but not the epic win). If you succeed in your mission it’s a win, and if you also complete one or more destinies its an epic win. Our mission was to collect money, which we thought was going to be a big problem, since we only ever had 1 coin during last weeks game. We had a few items with a coin value, we just needed to be able to sell them. We found an easier version of our mission, where we only needed 10 coins. And eventually one of our players found a sentient who we could sell to, job done!
Dorfromantik: Sakura, a new high score! (ok, it’s only our third game). Things went fairly well overall.
9 Lives, a tricktaker where you make bids (with cats!) and attempt to win that many tricks.
Gudetama: The Tricky Egg Card Game, very simple trick taker. On your turn, you either play a card higher than (or equal to) the highest played card, or you play your lowest. On the last trick in a round, if you win you take your scoring card as points. Points are bad. The game continues until someone goes over 21 points, and the winner is whoever had the least points. The winner was not me.
