Yes. It’s the same as OG Azul
3 Likes
Hot Streak (5p) – some of my family had played it once, others not at all. Great game. Just what was needed. I gleefully doubled-down on a risky bet for Dangle to go 3-for-3 by winning the final race, and then sabotaged myself for larks by secretly adding in a Dangle fall-over card. We were all laughing when Dangle swerved off the track two steps from the finish line, with Hurley (who’d had ONE CARD in the initial showing) breaking the tape to take gold.
I seeded the deck with a random selection of the eight “turn around” and “fall over” cards. Two of them went into the initial showing, and a third went amongst the secret cards given to each player. The remaining turn/fall cards were shuffled back into the main deck before dealing everything else, so that some of those may also end up in the game as usual.
7 Likes
It’s not entirely fair to say that Onirim is shuffling practice with an incidental game, but it can feel that way sometimes.
8 Likes
And if it is for you, just keep the app, don’t bother getting the physical game.
4 Likes
So today, a year or so after our last game, we finally played Game 5 of our Clank! Legacy 2 campaign. We finished the first legacy campaign much quicker. Somehow this one stalled out a year ago.
One of the resons was that we had started playing 1 character each and neglected the other two and by game 4 we regretted that. So today we spent about an hour catching up the remaining 2 characters, reading their stories and “simulating” their participation in the campaign.
Another reason is that the game barely fits our really large table and we cannot keep it on our dining table for weeks on end. We still don’t have a gaming room with a large enough table. My current gaming room is more of a gaming nook really.
The last reason we didn’t keep playing is this:
- I spent about 30 minutes setting up the game
- The hour spent modifying the 2 characters is a one time thing…
- We spent another 30-ish minutes at the start of the game getting everything for this particular game ready. Since there was a major rules twist (Game 5–those who played it will probably remember) … lots and lots of stickers and changes.
- We probably spent about 3 to 3.5 hours actually playing the game–which is slow because so many turns include so many details like reading more story, fetching more cards… and this was a game with a very short questline. But …
- And then another 30 minutes denouement, reading the epilogue and cleaning up the game.
I can say, we spent most of our Sunday playing a single game. One time.
We also cooked something really nice and watched a couple of episodes of One Piece. It’s okay for a Sunday where the weather outside asks you–not very nicely–to stay inside and where you don’t have to do taxes or anything.
The game was good. While we each got a lot of points, we were too slow on finishing up and so we now have 3 companions still encased in ice and fell behind on our quarterly revenues with the relevant “card” consequences. But it felt impossible to do better on the Acquisitions track.
I am glad we added the other 2 characters. But it does not make the game quicker.
My partner was very motivated though by today’s game and so we might make it through this campaign after all.
We have played A LOT more games together this year. I think we have already far surpassed our number of games played as a couple from last year. And February is not even over. He’s been indulging me 
10 Likes
Last year I played Lost Ruins of Arnak for the first time, concentrated on the expeditions, and did quite badly. (@Lordof1 may remember whether I actually took last place, but if not it was close.)
I’ve just finished a BGA game with some Mastodon friends, and this time I completely ignored the expeditions above the bottom row; everything I did was focused on getting up the right-side track. And I won with nearly double the score of the next player.
I’m not sure a game with “Lost Ruins” in the title should be winnable by having nothing to do with the actual lost ruins.
5 Likes
The temple is a ruin, too. It’s basically Indy 2😇
3 Likes
My 5th play of Limes this year during lunch break today. It’s growing on me. Apparently these very simple quick solos like A Gentle Rain need more plays to convince me.
8 Likes
This weekend’s gaming time proved tighter than expected, so plans to play something longer and complicated were changed to play a simpler title I am more familiar with, for a return of Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks, albeit a shortened version with just one Doctor against the Dalek forces.
I started with the Second Doctor - a much maligned regeneration who I don’t think I had played with before - accompanied by Jamie McCrimmon wielding Ace’s Bat. The adventure started with a trip to the Moon in the far future, mostly chosen to work with Zoe Heriot, to face the Reconnaissance Dalek. A quick success due to a lucky first roll and one die face change, and we were off back to present day Earth to confront the Invasion of the Dinosaurs, with assistance from Donna Noble. Another relatively easy successful roll and adjustment completed the dilemma, although I chose not to keep Donna this time.
Onward to the Psychic Circus in the far future, and an encounter with Leela against Kronos, who was also easily defeated and I choose for Leela to join the Tardis crew … but sadly not for long, as the Dalek mothership reached its first Time Anomoly stage, drawing The Parting of the Ways. I choose to dismiss Leela and then face that new tougher dilemma as the next encounter. Drawing River Song to assist was a bonus, but the dice rolls were not helpful at first, but some manipulation from player abilities lead to a success but at a cost, with Second Doctor regenerating into the Third Doctor.
I chose to dismiss Zoe and travel back to present day Earth to recruit Jo Grant, in a battle against the Deadly Assassin. Another good first roll of the dice pool lead to a quick success, and I decided to stay in place, dismiss Jamie and recruit the Brigadier before facing the Kandyman. Initially it looked like one of the easier dilemmas to face but the rolls were not kind, but some rerolls finally scrapped through for a success. Good thing too as the next Time Anomoly card brought on The Chase, speeding up the Dalek mothership’s advance to Gallifrey. Fortunately, the Tardis was not far from Gallifrey itself, and after dismissing River, the crew travelled to Shada in the past for confront the Ice Warriors, with some assistance from Susan. Another successful first roll gave the final success needed to reach Gallifrey before the Daleks, and a win.
It has never proved to be a difficult game for me, even with the luck of the dice rolls and manipulations, but I’ve never played it for the challenge but for the combinations of stories and ideas. Good fun, and hopefully the following weekends will give more time for longer heavier games.
6 Likes
I have a vision of Donna running to the tardis with dinosaurs in hot pursuit, and the Doctor looking faux-apologetic as he pretends he can’t find the button to stop the doors from closing before she gets there…
(The tardis door being hinged and manually-operated only makes this funnier :).
3 Likes
Diegetically this is clearly a claymore, but it’s not exactly a high-resolution game. 
3 Likes
My partner and I are racing through “cosy sticker ville”. It’s very gentle to play and good fun in a kind of “I’m watching a tv episode” kind of way. I don’t feel as tired after a game and set up and pack away is really quick.
I’d recommend it as a co-op for people who don’t really like co-ops (which partner does not)
5 Likes
Tonight I reminded myself that Flourish is a very nice cozy solo set collection game that is far more interesting then Floriferous and almost as pretty. It also includes the only solo drafting mechanism I care to remember because it works really well:
- 12 cards to the bot. 6 cards to you.
- Play a card into your tableau
- Play the top card of the bot deck in the bot tableau.
- Pass 2 cards to the bot
- Take the top 2 cards from the bot deck and draw one more from the maindeck to get your hand back to 6 cards
- Shuffle your passed cards into the deck.
- Keep doing this until you have played 3 rounds of 3 cards each. On the final round don’t draw from the main deck. Score each round as it happens
- Play the final 3 cards from the 5 you have at once
- Play the remaining 3 cards from the bot deck to the bot
- Score the final round
- Score any end game bonusses.
So simple, so elegant.
This game also plays up to 7 and we’ve done that and it worked just as well as 7 Wonders and the like. The BGG rating of 6.7 looks kind of meh for a game that brings so much to the table including variants and a cooperative mode. It is simpler than 7 Wonders like Sushi Go and may have less replay value. But serving playercounts of 6+ with fare other than party games is not easy.
Despite enjoying it way back when, I had not played this in 5 years … I blame my collection size.
Afterwards I played a solo of Planet Unknown which remains my favorite boardgame tetris. I may have won this one or not. The rules for setting up the event deck with Supermoon are unclear. Because you are supposed to use 20 event cards exactly and yet now with Supermoon there is an additional line that allows for 21+ cards of the same type … but nowhere in the manual for Supermoon is any mention of changes to the event deck except for the added line. I suppose a visit to the BGG forums is in order.
I am not really trying to play through my collection this year. That seems quite impossible. But I am having fun trying so many different games. Relearning the rules and getting back to games I enjoyed years ago. Often I am playing them several times in a row…
8 Likes
A dear friend of mine, Chris, was in the area for the local book fair. He lives in New-Brunswick, he’s a published poet, rather big in the Acadian scene, and so he was a guest. He’s also a massive board gamer, so he was QUITE keen to play with me and Maryse while he was here. Specifically, he wanted to play Ark Nova.
And so we did. Our first time at three players, and oh boy, it was quite the epic game. I surged ahead on the conservation track due to a lucky pull of coral marine animals that got me a few points and let me upgrade some cards quick. But Maryse started catching up to me quickly. She stole a max level conservation project from me, then I stole a different one right back (and in fact, that very move wound up winning me the game, since it gave me the extra point I needed). Chris was quite rusty, so he made some bad plays early but managed to find his legs again.
Final score was 2 for me, 1 for Maryse and -2 for Chris. Absurdly close. We were exhausted by the end. So good.
11 Likes
Chimera Station - just another Euro.
Glory to Rome - 3 players. One of the players said he owns the Black Box edition but it is unopened. He’s happy he finally get to play GTR.
8 Likes
This could never happen to me.
Nothing remains in shrink for longer than 5 minutes once it has entered the house 
9 Likes
That could be a topic of the week. I had Mansions of Madness and its expansion The Call of the Wild in shrink wrap for over a decade :). Although that’s because I tended to have parcels delivered to my office at the time, and my intention had been to play it with my work colleagues, and so it went straight into the game shelf at work, where it sat for all that time (initially just because I’d failed to put the effort into learning it, and subsequently because that games group dissipated and (until recently) I had no one to play it with even if I knew the rules!)
4 Likes
Another couple of games of R.A.V.E.L. (both healthy wins, so it’s probably time to introduce some of the harder cards), and another game of Pathfinder: Dice Conquest (also a win, but right down to the wire, with neither of my characters being able to take another hit).
This time it was the Witch and the Swashbuckler taking on (via random selection)… Nuldranog the Vile again (which I didn’t know until I flipped that final card). It got very hairy towards the end, but fortunately the initial rolls in my final turn were good enough to finish the job (as that was going to be the last turn one way or another!).
5 Likes
Sounds like a good idea. Next Monday then…
(And I may have lied. I have some things still in shrink… Monday)
5 Likes
Played 6 nimmt! and Flip 7 with many players. Both very popular.
Also played 1999’s Hard Line, I kind of Connect 4 using black and white dice, which is much more about forcing your opponent to place a viable 3rd dice so that you get the winning 4th. Nicely thinky. Possible to draw like noughts and crosses / tic tac toe, but you’ll spend 3/4 of the game convinced you’re about to lose before then. I think it’s rare / out of print, but is literally a board you could draw on paper and (16?) d6s.
6 Likes