UnderQuest. I became disastrously lost in a labyrinth. By the time I found my way out, my rations had been drained to the point where Ziggy, despondent at the lack of treats, abandoned me in search of other food. Lacking Ziggy’s boisterous powers of distraction, and having also made a tactical decision to use a weaker primary weapon in exchange for a greatly-reduced chance of ever missing in combat, I was feeling more nervous about the prospect of battle. I entered level 5 in a reasonable state (save for the escalating poisons in my system), and with almost all the information I was looking for, but was immediately faced with a Vile Shade of Jawl, a diabolical foe which inflicted an additional 4 bonus damage, 1 poison, and 1 curse to every successful hit against me. This grim encounter was followed by the appearance of a Shadow Serpent with yet more poisonous attacks, which might have finished me off, but thankfully I possessed an amulet of stealth which enabled me to slip away from the fight undetected. I finally knew how to find my ultimate foe, and availed myself of every option at my disposal to try to heal, but I was near to exhaustion, and the debilitating toxins in my body remained unchecked. I feared I would not be up to the task, but maybe the explosive black powder I had found would make the difference? I stepped over the threshold . The Death Warden was horrifying. I fought furiously, but it was difficult to make headway against the creature and, as the curses I had suffered finally caught up to me, a mental fog started to slip over me. The black powder was the ace up my sleeve, and its explosion struck my enemy with tremendous force, but it was not enough. I was out of grit and out of options. The Death Warden struck a final blow and the poisons surging through my veins did the rest; a collection of “what-ifs” consuming the final thoughts of my defeated Kroling. Maybe next time will be different…
Edit: I much enjoyed this first game of UnderQuest, and look forward to my next one. The game manages to be thematic without being complicated, taking a very streamlined approach to most things, and I think it generally works really well. It provides variety and depth by having a lot of different elements, but none of them are difficult to get to grips with, and they combine in nice ways. If you’re looking for a low/medium weight solo dungeon crawl, this really is worth a look. The Gamecrafter pricing is by far the biggest negative; I think the best value option would be to wait for the crowd sale for the first expansion, and then join other folks who are picking up the base game at that point.
Was really taken by the whole concept behind Keyforge when it originally appeared, with the fixed decks and mysetry behind buying a pack and discovering how good it might be. Had a few games and found it quite fun but was never hugely drawn into its’ world and just drifted away from it.
Have recently picked up a copy of the first edition (and sorry best edition ) of Ethnos. Had a couple of games now and it really is rather good. I knew it would be given the numerous very positive reviews from a variety of channels but it’s just a joy to play, lovely decisions scattered throughout and turns just whip round. Love it. I think my love for this edition is that it appeared very much during what was a golden era of gaming, for me anyway.
Also played Jackpot : Set the Reel which is an interesting hand manipulation game that shares a Scout-esque feel of having cards in a locked state in your hand and having to play sets to get other cards together. It’s nice, only had one game so more required to form a proper opinion.
Dnup - grabbed this at UKGE and have just put it in front of everyone since. Very good stuff, everyone likes it and just says ‘not sure if I like this or Scout more??’. I like them both.
Ethnos is so good and yet such a hard sell because of how it looks. But I’ve had friends say after a game of it “Remind me that I like this game next time”.
I think the gameplay is fun. The strategic choice on which house you activate for this turn only is pretty cool. When to attack. When to reap. What I didnt like is that we search bgg multiple times for the entire game which should have lasted 20 - 30 mins for our first time
Race for the Galaxy with the kitchen sink. So Xeno: Invasion, Frontier Worlds and Xeno: Counterstrike.
It’s an experience, we ended on a conquered home worlds, 18 and 20 card tableaus. It’s all military and I worry that the only way to keep up is to go all in. Fantastic experience though.
Just played two games of Everdell + Bellfaire + Newleaf back to back.
The first game was an inversion of our previous one, where Maryse got all of 2 Production cards the whole game while I was drowning in them. She’d won anyway. Now the shoe was on the other foot and I could show I was actually good at this! Right? Right?!?
Well, no. She DEMOLISHED me, danced on my grave, learned necromancy so she could raise my carcass up and then killed me again. She won 159-86.This is the highest point differential we’ve ever had. Ouch, my health and well-being!
Second game was more balanced and I lost 102-87, which is at least an honorable score.
I love this game, it’s my favourite, but man, things just did NOT go my way!
Nippon Zaibatsu: I struggled to get enough influence out on the board, so lagged behind quite significantly. Keen to play again to do better though!
Brian Boru: Again, struggled to get my towns out on the board - at this point I’m blaming the heat for my slow brain
Kabuto Sumo: Still a silly game. We played in teams with the extra chair pieces, which got a lot of use.
Taluva: This is not a complicated game, but for some reason people always seem to default to “you must put your pieces on the tile you just placed” and are then outraged when you win by putting your piece on a tile that they placed
Petrichor: A very close game - 1st, 2nd, and 3rd all within 1 point of each other. It was the wheat majority that won it for me in the end! We had quite a discussion about why it’s rated so low on BGG (6.9, so not actually very low but under 7) and my hypothesis is that people find the contrast between the calm nature theme and the vicious area control mechanism a bit jarring.
Xylotar: I’m winning quite a few converts for this game. The theme is utterly bonkers, but once people have played it a couple of times they start talking about how clever and interesting it is.
This weekend’s gaming session was a run through of Final Girl using the Frightmare on Maple Lane box for the first time with heroine Nancy battling against Dr. Fright. A frustratingly strange game this time - as I find many dice-chuckers can be - with Nancy rolling terribly when it came to moving around the board, but rolling tremendously when it came to almost everything else. Nancy managed somehow to rescue two victims with minimal movement before her boyfriend became the first casualty. Then the game state changed irreversibly as an event card put Nancy to sleep for the rest of the game and Dr Fright closed in. Luckily nancy had found a bow by then, and the remainder of the game quickly turned into an cycle of Nancy doing very little during her turn but staying still, focusing, buying attacks, guard and retaliate cards while Dr Fright moved on to her space and a few turns of “combat” until Dr Fright was defeated, with Nancy taking hardly any damage in the process.
I was left rather underwhelmed by this result and this scenario for the game on that initial playthrough. I do like the Happy Trails Camp and Hans scenario a lot more, and may have enjoyed this more with more reliable/achievable movement and not being forced into the dream realm so early. A further go may be required if I get time, and removing that forced sleep card to at least experience more of this scenario.
Was supposed to play our next session of Earthborne Rangers, but due to work eating up too many hours, we switched to playing a few lighter games instead.
First was Moon Colony Bloodbath for the first time, and it was pretty good! The speed at which people start to die is a little shocking, but the rules were pretty easy and everything is very well explained in the manual. I managed a narrow victory mostly due to an early “Cloning Chamber” play that helped fuel my colony to success.
Then we played Archeaology, which is great, even though I did very badly (I kept holding out for more Pharoah’s Masks, and they were stuck inside the Great Pyramid).
And then we finished with a bunch of plays of The Gang, which I think worked out very well, all things considered! We lost the first set in a nailbiter 2-3, but then won the second set very handily. I continue to be impressed by how clean and elegant the game is. Really satisfying.
Oh, and I got a game of Fleet The Dice Game in a day later, which was a lot of fun. Right on the edge of “Too Many Choices,” but not overwhelming and a good sense of your decisions mattering, even at 2 players. It may be only the second time I’ve ever played Fleet… maybe next time I’ll finally crack open the expansions!
Slowly but with a grim inevitability we died, well apart from Ant and Richard who were infected and went to sleep in the cold awaiting the next lot of doomed players.
At the end of the game, the Ringbearers with 10 Corruption took the last step, and drew a 3. A Victory for the Shadow forces, but barely.
War of the Ring 2nd Ed, in case anyone was uncertain.
4 hours of gameplay. The Free Folk dug in but good… by the end of the game I had managed to FINALLY take Minas Tirith, but it cost me the Witch King and at least 30 troops (Elite and Regular), Lorien was mine, and Helms Deep was surrounded but probably too strong for Orthanc to take.
) of Ethnos. Had a couple of games now and it really is rather good. I knew it would be given the numerous very positive reviews from a variety of channels but it’s just a joy to play, lovely decisions scattered throughout and turns just whip round. Love it. I think my love for this edition is that it appeared very much during what was a golden era of gaming, for me anyway.
It is harsh
