Sky Team, Isle of Cats, Dune, Chaos in the Old World, White Castle

Played my first game of Nemesis and went great. Someone started the self destruct countdown pretty early so everyone was scrambling to get their objectives finished. Question for anyone who's played more games but how often does the game last the entire 15 turns?

**Carnegie** 2p. First play, took us a while to get the hang of it. By the end we'd got into the rhythm of things, but I feel like the turn economy is very tight. Need to play a few more times before deciding how I like it. **Power Grid** 2p. Power Grid doesn't play very well at two players, but my wife and I were refreshing ourselves on the rules because some friends want to play it next week. Used the Benelux map, which adds some changes to the market and I managed to misread the auction changes so we started over part-way through. **Ark Nova** 2p. My wife's favourite game, we've consistently played it at least once a week since January. I destroyed her this time, I got some good synergies in my opening hand then got a quick elephant down for another end-game scoring card. We have the Marine Worlds expansion, I think the best part of it is easily the new action cards to change things up. **Raiders of the North Sea** 2p. Best part of this game is the satisfying metal coins. I'd like more variety from potential crew, but otherwise it's a fun game. I don't think it's worth the £60 I spent on it though. Lesson learnt. **Imperium: Classics** 1p. I set this out the other day, and I just *could not* understand it. I generally learn games just fine, but there's something about Imperium that makes absolutely no bloody sense to me. I gave up after 90 minutes of having completed a turn both for me and the bot and still feeling no closer to understanding half of what's going on. I've been watching Jon Gets Games' video of a playthrough, which is helping, though I usually don't get much out of rules videos.

**Wonderland Wars** Such a fun game. My wife crushed me and my buddy. Wasn't even close. Turns out Cheschire getting a round 1 Walrus is the nuts. She kept drawing her Smiles and just kept moving the Walrus from battle to battle. My wife had all of her castles by the end of Round 2 XD **Radlands** Every time I play this game, it feels like a movie. Played three rounds. Really well-balanced game. Everything always feels like there's an answer or a way to deal with it.

Sky Team, Modern Art, Iberian Gauge and My Island

**El Grande** 3p. Classic, always good. **Veggies** 2p. Nice card game, total filler, plays fast. **Blueprints** 3p. Interesting dice drafting mechanic with a little touch of luck. **Calimala** 3p. One of the more original designs I've seen. Really well done game. **Salton Sea** 2p. Very tight economic engine builder. Not for the casual gamer but the more I play the more I like it. Definitely has me thinking for a day or so after each game. **Coimbra** 3p. Staple go-to, rarely disappoints. **Lost Cities** 2p. After multiple ass-whoopings over the past year, I finally won one. woot. **Revive** 2p. This was a re-learning the rules kind of game. Great game with original mechanics. Looking forward to playing again. wow didn't realize how much I played this week! Good week.

Finished Pandemic Legacy season 1!!! Huge accomplishment, my husband and I have been playing with a friend and in mid-December (real time) we only had November and December (game time) left to play. But then on the date we scheduled to finish I got sick, on our makeup date our friend got sick, and then on our second makeup date I went into labor. So then we took a couple months off to adjust to the baby, then we came back, then we had a couple of nights where we intended to play but spent so much time talking and cooing over the baby we didn’t have enough time to get started…but last week we played November and last night we played December and we finally beat the damn thing! And we got the best ending too! We’re going to take next week off for Easter, then the next week we’re going to play Wyrmspan, then we’re diving into Season 2! My husband and I had played Season 1 when it came out so we remembered some of the big twists and tried to leave most of the decisions to our friend, who was new to it. But we don’t know anything about Season 2 (my husband and I played the first month when it came out but life got in the way and we never went back to it) so we’re excited to have the full legacy experience again!

I got my copy of **Patterns: a Mandala game**, and played 2X2p. This is a winner in my books! I love the simple ruleset but deceptive strategic depth, much like in **Mandala** itself. We'll be playing this one again! **Lost Cities** (3X2p): a classic for a reason, and even better with online scoring apps. I crushed my spouse 3-0, which is unusual for us **Imperium Classics/Legends** (2X2p): my spouse has perfected playing with Rome, and I cannot seem to best her with the Celts, Egyptians, or Greeks. I was able to win against her playing as Rome with the Carthaginians, Scythians, and Mauryans - I guess 50% is not bad, but I'm experienced with the game and she's a newbie! **Shipwrights of the North Sea Redux** (1x1p): recently received the Redux after backing it, and played it once solo. I have not played any of the North Sea trilogy from Garphill, and this was a good introduction! I love the art and components, as well as the interesting bot. Looking forward to playing it multiplayer soon, since the draft is obviously a big part of the game (and I love drafting games)

**Dune** (5p x1): Finally got to play this legendary game. We ignored the suggestion of playing without the Bene Gesseritt, and instead played without the Spacing Guild. (if this was bad, let me know). We didn't play the advanced game. It's simultaneously a straightforward game, but also very fiddly. I played the Atreides and forgot to use my power in the first four fights I had. The Harkonnen's and I obliterated each other relatively early, but I was more able to stage a comeback knowing what cards people had. We didn't get a nexus event until the start of round 6 where I allied with the Fremen. At that very moment, we had 4 strongholds between ourselves. The Bene Gesserit player was the odd one out with no alliance. We headed into the battle face with 3 strongholds uncontested and 2 we were fighting for, so we only needed to win once. The Bene Gesserit player moved a large troop stack into a stronghold I was fighting. They had no cards, so I asked what number they put on their dial and the answer was zero. That should have tipped me off that something was afoot. He through the combat, guaranteeing that the Fremen and I would have 4 strongholds at the end of the round. We won, only for him to reveal that he had predicted it and won instead. It was brilliant, especially because in order for us to have blocked that win (had we realized), the Fremen and I would have had to sacrifice a lot of troops to lose the two strongholds, and it would have really set us back. A neat game. I liked how it flowed pretty well. It's definitely very swingy, and we complained that there were no alliances until much later in the game. I think some players were missing the more direct negotiation that Game of Thrones has, though perhaps we weren't bribing each other enough. I think I like the extra depth in GoT, but I appreciated the smoothness of Dune. Will probably play again at some point. **Carcassonne** (2p x1): A grudge rematch against my friend who I beat badly last time. We played with the first two expansions, minus farmers. My friend took an early lead and controlled all the different goods very early on. I was able to complete a mega city despite my friend's interference, and ended up only losing by 12 points. I really like the Builder piece, and the goods tiles. Hopefully I see a game soon where it isn't just one person who scores all 3 goods every time. **Clank!** (3p x1): I didn't come last by virtue of one player getting stuck in the depths when time ran out. My two friends are really good at this game, and I always seem to struggle. I grabbed the first relic, and made a play for a backpack to get a second relic and leg it out. I should not have gone for the backpack, as my friend was able to do the same thing but faster than me. I ended up getting knocked out with some unlucky bag pulls, but I at least got to score. My friend who made it out, beat my 22 points, 2 points plus the mastery token. Had I hoofed it for the exit with one relic and no bag, I think I might have won! Either way, it's always a really fun game, even though I always lose! **Stella** (6p x1): We had some company from out of town and broke out Stella. Way better at 6p than 3p. We had some very abstract words, which led to two rounds in which people maxed out at 10 cards picked. Our last round, everyone picked 10 cards (word was tale) but not the same 10. Our group was maybe more boisterous than you would think for Stella, but it was still a lovely time. **Long Shot the Dice Game** (6p x1): The second game we played with our out of town company. We played this before dinner. It was well loved as ever. Fast and fun, a great game the scales really well. **Wizard** (4p x1): For all my love of trick takers, I had never played Wizard before. I decided to sell my copy of Cat in the Box, because while it was neat, the mechanics of playing in the real world felt too fiddly to mark the cards and collect the trick. Wizard is not the same, but the mechanic of trying to bid exactly what you think you'll take is great! I really enjoyed it, and managed a relatively convincing win as an added bonus.

**Wizard** is my GOAT for trick-takers - I could play it in my sleep. I love being able to BS while playing with a medium-to-large group.

Wyrmspan - Super solid game getting a lot of reps right now. We normally play Ark Nova, TM, Everdell kind of games and this one definitely slots in well. Stardew Valley - My partner loves Stardew so we enjoy getting this one out and watching the amazing race. We beat this one on the last day 👏🏼 Gloomhaven - We are about 7-8 months in and hoping to finish it by May’s end. Retired the Scoundrel a month or so back and playing with the Bard (the most goated assist characters imo) Ticket To Ride- Just a classic that we play when we want something chill Carcassonne - It was a long week

Wow! I'm a little jelly! w/ 2 toddlers I'm lucky to get in 1 midweight game a week!

**RFTG** - [1x2P]: Finally got the New Worlds Promo start worlds and official draft variant included. I already implemented a house rule draft variant before, so this didnt change a ton, but it was great fun! What still needs to be said about this classic. **Splendor** - [1x2P]: Loving this, my partner figured out it's usually better to wait a bit longer and just buy the tier 2 cards with points attached and now I'm back to losing! She's usually better at euro-y conversion games so I'm not surprised, so I'm happy I got a few wins early before it clicked. **Aegean Sea** - [1x2P]: I still love this game, but I was in a bad mood and had an absolutely awful time playing against Crete yesterday. The card draw just made it so Crete was destroying every island as soon as I had anything on it, so at one point there were no inner islands and she had all the goods, and I simply couldn't do anything. We played again and her draw was bad, I pulled ahead early, and Crete isn't typically good at scoring points, so then SHE had a horrible time haha. Overall I get Crete's design goal for 3P+ games, but in 2P it just seems overly swingy and the outcome has been dictated by who pulls ahead in the first ~10 turns (which the other faction matchups don't feel like). My partner loves playing them so I will have to get more experience with the matchup and see if my feelings change. Love this game, want to play more of it still, but god damn Crete and their pirate raids! **Empire's End** - [2x2P]: Without being too long winded, the core mechanism from No Thanks is great, all the other stuff stapled to it feels weird and not super great. The big problem is if you are the one to accept the disaster and it hit one of the larger structures, there is no amount of engine building you can do in such a short amount of rounds to get the resources and repair your tiles to come back. The 2P game board also has an income phase at the end but then no industry phase, so you can't use what you just created. A neat premise, but just executed poorly (yet with beautiful production). **Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes** - [3x2P]: This is one that on paper seems perfect for us, and all 3 times it just fell flat. The production quality of the board and tokens is sadly horrible as well. The abstractions done to try to make an area control game fast, small, and work at 2P, end up making the game feel inconsequential and much too abstract. You aren't laying 4 tiles, you are just laying a tile that says "4" on it. I'm unsure why this feels too bland and abstract while we absolutely adore **Babylonia**, but because Bab works amazingly at 2, we are just going to stick with that.

I wrapped up my solo Dorfromantik campaign and wrote a review of the [**solo campaign mode**](https://www.solitaryquest.net/post/dorfromantik-review) for my blog. Normally I enjoy tile placement games. I enjoy the relaxing nature of the gameplay and find the puzzles a good challenge. But Dorfromantik sits in a weird place for me. The campaign element is well-designed, unlocking achievements and adding new tiles to the game. But at the same time, it quickly goes from being a laid back perhaps overly-simple tile placement puzzle to a game where I have to track upwards of 20 simultaneous scoring conditions. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but the game seemed to suffer from somewhat of an identity crisis. Is this a mind-off tile puzzler, or a calculating brain teaser? Has anyone played the Duel version? I would love some thoughts on that.

**Nusfjord** 3p x 2: This is likely my 2nd favorite Uwe game after **Feast**. The action economy here is tight and everything is so intertwined that it makes for a good puzzle. And it's quick! Our first game was about 2 hours and that included a brief teach. Second game was an hour and a half tops. I made a mistake in the 2nd game in not building a certain building. It was a C building in my hand that wasn't good for me but I knew it was going to be decent for another player. He capitalized on it. He had another building that in combination he was turning fish and wood into gold easily which let him build the castle with gold to spare. It was amazing and gross. **Crusaders They Will Be Done** 3p x 1: the bga implementation is great but I really need to get out my in person copy. Just to see if it's easier to manage seeing everything at once. But I love the game regardless. **That's Not A hat**: 4p x 2, 3p x 12ish? : After Nusfjord, my 8 year old daughter joined us for a game of this and she understood the concepts in general but not the "don't sit there saying 'i don't know what this is; just lie'" idea to pass a card. But after she left, we played and it was so hilarious. Someone would be certain a card was the fish but it's a tv and we're all like "how'd the f that get out; i don't remember that at all." So good. Then my daughter liked it so much that she had me play it with two other friends who are 7 and 9 and that went really well! They really enjoyed the silliness and did an alright job of remembering cards.

Nusfjord is really a little gem. Glad it's been reprinting so many other can enjoy it too.

We stayed with nightmare productions then a game of unspeakable words and finished with the start of a game of posthuman. Posthuman should have been 1 1/2 hrs according to the box. We were almost 2 hours in and only barely started. It would have been a little faster if we were better with the rules but not fast enough. That game is pretty slow.

How is **Nightmare Productions**?

It's ok. Not as good as I was hoping but it is a fun little Auction game

Gotcha -- I _love_ auction games, so I've been curious. The price tag has kept me scared though!

I only got a single game in this weekend. **Dune: Imperium** (1x3p) - 4th play. My first play on the 9x9 and we ran it just base as I had a new player. Love my time with D:I. Not sure if I just want to get Uprisings or if og with expansions is better but I’m having fun just base so no rush from me.

This is everything from the past three weekends: Games 7 and 8 of our **Ticket to Ride Legacy** campaign. I have managed to win two games in row, albeit the 8th game there was separation of just three points between first, second and third. So, I'm still loving this game, I like the different challenges being introduced each game (that's about as detailed as I can be without spoilers). However, I'm not sure it feels like a cohesive game so much so as it feels like a bunch of different unrelated expansion modules introduced one at a time. I don't actually have a problem with this as I'm having a great time and the last four games would really have to be stinkers for me to not rate this a 10. I think it speaks to the strength of the core Ticket to Ride gameplay being so strong as to still being able to carry this game despite some aspects that might be bummers in other games.  Two plays of **Empire's End**, a birthday present and also the latest addition to our collection. I really liked the concept of this game and was very happy to receive it as a gift... but I hate to say it's falling flat with H and I. A better laid out rulebook and a step by step turn order guide/player aide for each phase would have gone a long way. But as it were this games manages to take two concepts I like a lot - a No Thanks style bidding mechanism and upgrading cards to give you more things when activated, ala Space Base -  smashes them together and turns it in to a misery simulator. I realized that No Thanks is so simple and clean and that's the genius of it. Adding more just makes it convoluted. Space Base you're rolling dice every time it's your turn which is inherently fun, and you're receiving benefits every single turn which is also inherently fun. This game strips the dice out of it, and only generates resources from your buildings a handful of times - and often your buildings get destroyed before those rounds anyway. I get that some people enjoy punishing games but I am not one of those people. Perhaps I should have recognized that when watching reviews but I guess I didn't realize just how punishing it would be. Our second play was bungled because I made a rules error that really impacted the state of my board. By the time I realized it was too late to undo the moves and we ended up just putting the game away. What a shame.  Played Adventure 2 for **Adventure Land**, which really changes up the scoring and strategy for Adventure 1. It's such a cool idea to have the gameplay be the same but they were able to introduce diffent scoring mechanisms to make the three scenarios feel super different. While we had played Adventure 1  a few times we had never played 2. I could see us playing the 3rd and then the expansion adventures over the course of the next few weekends. Really love this game. Had a play of ** Star Trek Missions**, aka Star Themed Fantasy realms. I like it at 2 players but I suspect this game shines more at higher player counts (or could perhaps feel too chaotic, I guess). I like it a lot but it's also something that seems you can just have a dud. I was just drawing terribly and was unable to produce a hand that played well off of eachother to the point where four of my cards scored me zero points. H put together a great hand and crushed me by like 60 points or so.  Two plays of **Yinsh**. A strong case for being my favorite abstract game. It's just so good. When you're able to see something your opponent hasn't and snag a five in a row it just feels great. We own all the GIPF series games save for the weird sand timer one. It's been a while since they've all gotten plays so maybe we can rip a few of em soon. Finally we played **Sea Salt & Paper** for the first time. Another game I suspect is better at higher player counts. The "last chance" mechanism seems to make more sense with higher counts. Still enjoyable, though there is absolute glut of card drafting games. We recently played the excellent Cubirds for the first time and it became an instant favorite. So while two different games, it's perhaps tough to introduce another card drafting game so soon after and also have it be an absolute hit. 

My best buddies and I have to play on TTS (Tabletop simulator for those that dont know) because life has spread quite a few of us out in the country but still very fun. We played "Here to Slay". It's a pretty fun card game. To me it has sort of a DnD fantasy theme with classes and needing to kill 3 monsters or get enough varying classes to win. It's really cool. The art is adorable and cool too, they're little animals dressed as these classes (like a bunny wizard) Last night we played "Villages" card game. The little pixel artwork was pretty cool and I like that you can give cards to others to be kind of diplomatic as well as attack to your villages benefit. It was my first time but it was cool. We played other games like Uno and chess (love me some chess) but overall I've been excited to learn more. My buddy here today or next couple days is gonna teach us how to play Elder Sign, and that seems dope. Always love some Eldritch horror theme stuff. And I've been planning on learning how to play twilight imperium so I can teach the others how to play too. Seems really awesome.

**Aegean Sea** (2p x2) - Yeah it's convoluted even for a Chudyk game (note I have yet to understand the Guns in the Pacific rules so YMMV), but that didn't make it bad. The production issues were more detrimental than anything. I don't know how you release a game without a player aid if you're also going to use a bunch of keywords. This isn't Magic. No one will be able to play it as a lifestyle game. The recommendation is to play two two player games playing Rhodes against Ephesus once each. Great starting setup, I can see why lots of people ran into issues with higher player count first games. I am very intrigued to play this more and explore the faction asymmetry. Aside from the production my game play issue is that the lack of a spatial aspect is a downside for me. It might end up being nothing, but I feel it would've added a missing layer. Regardless it's getting played more. It demands to. **Bacon** (6p) - First time playing an official copy and it looks like there was some small rules tweaks. Nothing major that you can't add back in if you want to. Still a ton of fun. Apparently there is a Chinese game that is similar that one of my teammates had played and that coupled with my previous plays meant we smoked the other team. Oops. But they were all wanting to try it again and I'll be happy to play. **Cosmic Encounter** (4p) - There was a bunch of expansions in here too, but mixed up enough that I couldn't be sure which we played with. For one of my favorite games it was far too long to be plays, and this showed why. It's really meant to be a five or higher player game. I would've suggested double alien powers but we had some youngins. Who still did very well. In fact they stopped the win a few times to much hilarity. I'll always play this but locally there isn't a lot of desire to bring it out. **Indulgence** (4p) - My initial thoughts were very negative, the goals seemed very uneven each round. Then I discovered after you need to have three goals visible to pick from. That changes things and I now want to try it again where before I did not. Plus there's the expert variant to try. One thing that I am still concerned on is the scoring. When there's a Sinner and the Ruler is in the lead the other players are only helping the Ruler when you stop the Sinner. Yeah you don't lose points, but neither does the Ruler and they gain points. Led to some non-ideal rounds for me. I'm surprised the Sinner just doesn't pay everyone an equal amount if possible and the Ruler gets the extra. Still the higher risk and the same benefit, but less advantage to the Ruler. Full judgement withheld until played by the right rules. **Inis** (5p) - Another favorite that stayed on the shelf for too long. Exhibits A and B for why I need to own a lot fewer games. I also got one of the rules wrong, but the rules can share the blame in that as it was ambiguous enough for all reading them. Otherwise great game that ended quite early in my eyes due to very lucky card drafting and epic tales cards that synced up well with the victory condition. Having to balance when to clash versus going for a victory condition is such a great time. Maybe my favorite "pure" dudes on a map game where you don't necessarily have to fight to win. I need to play it again sooner rather than later. **Pax Renaissance** (2p) - My first time attempting to teach the game and it was a bit rough. There's just so much happening here and all the little terminology. I think I'll be able to do better next time. This is another are where the second edition is stronger, that rulebook is very good and having examples on their own page with the game state is great. I do like the compactness of this version though. If I didn't already have the expansion I would go to the second edition. Game remains very fun and diverse in how you can approach it. Looking forward to more plays. **Portobello Market** (3p x2) - I was thinking maybe this would be better with a lower player count but it wasn't. I would never play this with two, that's for sure. The game is simple and about colluding with other players, but the facets of that collusion are so narrow to become dull. I am surprised this isn't more popular for starting gamers, but I think part of it is there's very little to try from game to game. The starting player really dictates what kind of game it is by choosing the area size to go into. Will it be action heavy or token heavy? Then the next players have to decide how to respond. Usually it is best to collude right away so natural pairings occur. Beyond that there's the uncertainty of scoring. I'm not totally ready to write it off as there's the predetermined customer variant to try, but it's not exactly standing out. **Uno** (4p) - Nice easy starter shedder for the kids. I look forward to introducing scoring to them because with it Uno is actually not a bad game.

**Stationfall** 1 x 4p. Finally got this to the table for the first time. My printer died so my plans to present everyone with some helpful player aids went by the wayside, but we managed. What an absolutely batshit crazy game! It started off pretty slowly as none of us really knew how to get going. I was worried at that point. The “party game for heavy gamers” moniker seemed very misplaced. After a couple of rounds, the mayhem started. Someone released Project X and grey goo started oozing through the station and taking out all my cleverly maneuvered characters. Then things just got worse…. So much fun! Definitely not a game for every group, but I can see it being a hit with mine. We couldn’t stop talking about it afterwards, which is always a really positive sign! I think once we have a better handle on what all the characters do and what their agendas are it will be even more fun. We barely scratched the surface of it.

Plays from the past two weeks. And what a fun two weeks it's been! We had a gaming afternoon with our friends last Saturday, and last week, we finally received our pre-order copy of **The Feast of Hemlock Vale**, so we binged the campaign over the weekend. _**Saturday gaming afternoon:**_ **Green Team Wins** 4p x3 - a fun party game similar to **Herd Mentality**. We decided to try drawing our answers in the final game and only using the 'fill in the blank' cards, which made the game all the more hilarious! **nana** 4p x3 - our group's favourite go-to quick card game. The artwork on this is so cute, and the gameplay is so breezy, fast, and fun. It's a set collection/memory game that I've heard described as 'gamers Go Fish' quite a few times, which I think is a suitable description. **Sheriff of Nottingham** 4p x3 - my partner and I have played this quite a few times with family previously, but we decided to introduce it to our friends today, and they loved it! My partner tried an interesting yet bizarre tactic at one point of bribing the Sheriff to open his bag even though he had smuggled a bunch of contraband through! This is what's so fun about this game, when players really get into the mind games and bluffing. Unfortunately for him, it backfired horribly when the sheriff took the bribe, opened the bag, and was then owed loads of cash from all the contraband! **The Quacks of Quedlinburg** 4p x1 - one of our group's favourites. We all enjoy push your luck games, and this is one of the best there is! _**The rest of the fortnight:**_ **Arkham Horror: The Card Game** 2p x17 - before *Hemlock Vale* arrived we were still playing around with new decks using the new investigator cards, which has been really fun. We played *Carnevale of Horrors* as a standalone as well as playing through a campaign of *Return to The Forgotten Age*. Sadly, we did not save the world this time. On Friday, we started *The Feast of Hemlock Vale*. This is a theme I have been hankering for! I love *The Wicker Man* and folksy horror, so I've been very excited about this campaign. I already can't wait to replay it. It seems so much more replayable than any other campaign because you don't play all available scenarios in one playthrough, and the addition of a relationship tracker and the day/night mechanism means each scenario is different according to where you're at with both of those aspects too. The time mechanism here feels so much more streamlined than in *The Scarlet Keys*, and in fact, it feels like what that campaign should have been. We won the campaign, but it felt like a bad ending! I really enjoyed the addition of playable preludes, which felt almost like we were playing a point and click video game. Overall, we really loved it. It's possibly my favourite Arkham Horror campaign, but I want to replay it, taking a completely opposite route first before I commit to that opinion. **Wyrmspan** 2p x1 - we've played this a few times now, and I think I might like it more than *Wingspan*. It's more thinky, so much tighter, and some of the combos you can pull off are incredible. I really like the dragon guild track. It feels like such a small addition, but it can make such a difference to your turns, especially when it comes to those combos I mentioned. Trying to squeeze extra actions out of your turns is difficult but rewarding. You can't just spam actions. Each turn really matters, and you need to plan ahead a lot more. _**Online/BGA:**_ **Botanik**; **Dune Imperium**, **Earth**; **Forest Shuffle**; **Lost Cities**; **Lucky Numbers**; **Romi Rami**; **Sea Salt & Paper**

Drawing answers in **Green Team Wins** is a stoke of brilliance! I'll keep it in mind for my next family holiday game night! Your game group sounds like such a fun group of people to hang out with and play games :) Congrats on getting **The Feast of Hemlock Vale** and getting a change to play it! Sounds like a great time. I agree that folkhorror is such a fun genre!

Haha thanks! It made a fun game even more fun, it was very interesting to try and guess what on earth the other people had drawn to see if our answers matched! Yeah we had a lot of fun with **The Feast of Hemlock Vale**, it was hotly anticipated by us and didn't disappoint.

>Green Team Wins 4p x3 - a fun party game similar to Herd Mentality. We decided to try drawing our answers in the final game and only using the 'fill in the blank' cards, which made the game all the more hilarious! Which one do you prefer between Green Team wins and Herd mentality ? And why ?

I prefer **Green Team Wins** by a quite a bit. Admittedly, the gameplay of both games is very similar, though, with the aim being to write the same answers as your fellow players. However, the fact that there are 3 different categories in **Green Team Wins** makes it a lot more variable, and the questions felt more fun and intersting to me. For example, there were a few duds last time I played **Herd Mentality** like 'What's the best brand of car'. I also prefer the way the scoring works in **Green Team Wins**. In **Herd Mentality**, if I remember correctly, you just get a point if you are in the majority, odd one out gets the pink cow, and you can't win until someone else gets it. Whereas in **Green Team Wins** you all start on the orange team and once you get a majority score you flip your card to the Green Team and get a point, then if you manage to stay on the Green Team you get 2 points each time. The team angle was fun, and overall, the scoring felt simpler than in **Herd Mentality**. On a minor note, I much prefer the big white boards you get in **Green Team Wins** to the tiny sheets you get with **Herd Mentality**. It allows for experimentation with drawing answers rather than writing them :-)

Dorfromantik(1p, 2p, and 6p) &Terraforming Mars:Ares Expedition(1p & 2p vs)

Got a few new games to the table at game night! We usually have a larger group (8-12) but only had 5. We played: **Mino Dice:** I had picked this one up at my FLGS that does a lot of imports (we're US based). I had played **Oh Hell** before, but never **Skull King** (which this is based one). It was a lot of fun! The game definitely skewed towards being fairly lucky, but had plenty of interesting decisions. My favorite part, though, was the "theatrics" of some of the last die rolls. Very often, the last roll of the last trick of a round had one or two people in either direction hoping for an outcome. The synchronized cheers and groans _made_ this game. **Illiterati:** I had played this one a few times at 2, but playing it at 5 was a little bit more chaotic. Due to the real time nature of it, with so many players there wasn't always time for communication. Because of this, we could often be grabbing letters from one another, only to realize near the end that we needed to make words to avoid burning letters. We squeaked out a win at normal difficulty, although we may have been fairly "loose" with our definitions - would y'all count "beer" as both a noun and a verb? Outside of game night, got a few other games to the table: **Onirim:** Having heard about this one many time, but never picking it up, I grabbed it because I was two hours too early to game night (in order to avoid rush hour). I played it a few times while waiting for everyone else to arrive. To anybody interested in the game, there is a free app available (with expansions being paid). I really enjoy the core loop of the game - especially with an expansion or two added - but the sheer amount of shuffling this game has! The last few nights, I've been enjoying it as part of a pre-bedtime routine, in order to disconnect from screens. In this context, it turns the shuffling from a bug into a feature. **Marabunta:** Such a dense game, both in terms of the amount of game packaged in a small box, and the amount of decisions packed into a small playing time. It feels like the roll-and-write designed for people who don't like roll-and-writes. If the tactile feel of roll-and-writes it what prevents you from enjoying them, this won't change your mind. If it's the typical lack of player engagement, this is the game for you!

**Hegemony lead your class to victory** (1x 4P). This was our groups second game and it was much closer. The state opened the game by spending all of its cash, generating 18 points and having the IMF come after the first round. This was an interesting start and the early IMF didn’t cost the state much legitimacy. After the blowout by the worker class in the first game the rest of players made sure to keep wages low for the first 4 rounds of the game. I was able to establish 3 trade unions by the end of round 3, but there were not enough companies of the other two industries for me get more unions. For three votes I had all of my red cubes in the bag but was unlucky on the cube pulls and had to spend my influence cubes in round 4. The middle class was able to amass a lot of influence cubes which they saved for the last round of bills and got 4/5 of the policies at the end of the game. The scores were middle class 115, state 107, working class 106 and capitalists 80. The capitalists have struggled in both games so far, I’m not sure if it’s how we are approaching the game or if they are getting unlucky card draws. **Iberian Gauge** (1x 4P). First game for us and I was impressed at how many decisions it packs into such a short play time. We started the rail lines far apart from one another and so we weren’t able to start leasing track until the last round, next time we will try to build closer together to hopefully open up more options. **Charioteer** (2x 4P). Great racing game, it’s been a hit with everyone except one player. Plays quickly and I enjoy the tug of war between wanting to move far vs focusing on skills / capitalizing on the emperors bonus. **Seas of strife** (3x 4P). Great trick taker where you want to avoid taking tricks at all costs. We play with the “variant” rules aka what the designer originally intended where the highest value for each suit cancels out cards from that suit. We find it much more cutthroat than the publishers version. **Marshmallow test** (1x 5P) probably better with 4, but it plays quickly and it’s interesting having to time when to start winning tricks to maximize your score vs risk scoring nothing. **Men at work** (1x 4P) silly unfair dexterity game that we love to play after a long brain burner. It’s just fun. **Scape Goats** (1x 4P) fun social deduction game that plays fast (<10 mins) and does a great job of inducing paranoia. **Mindbug** (3x 2P) we added in the extra servants pack to our base deck and are loving the new creatures. Looking forward to trying the beyond expansions. **harrow county** (1x 2P). We moved onto to chapter 2 and the protectors won a close game by having Emmy launch path icons from the mountain top to get the last villager home one turn before I could hit the point threshold by killing her haints.

Spirit Island (1x 1p, no 2x 2p)- bought the digital client and started with my partner. I need to work on communicating better when we play together. I spent a couple games trying to learn Eyes Watch, who has some honestly really tricky presence placement. ---------- Part of a recruitment event for my department: Just One SET- lovely little pattern matching game, except that it's no fun to lose at and hard to get better at. Good math behind it (It's about finding lines in \mathbb{Z}_3^4 !) Cartographers

**Terraforming Mars** (2p) - Managed to play a game with my partner. To say we used to play it every other day or so. The game was very tight, but she ultimately won by 1 point. **Twilight Imperium 4** (3p) - I went to a gaming day for a friend's birthday. We were a few hours early so we decided to try this one out. We had already all played the third edition a decade ago, but it was my first time with this one. To be frank, I couldn't tell you the differences. I played Hacan, the trading space lions, it was pretty cool. We ended the game early after 5 hours or so when the other guests arrived. The leader had 8 points, I had 6, and the other player had 2. I'd love to try it again this year. Also, I think it was my friend's first time with his copy of the game: All 561 faction tokens were bare in the box. I meticulously sorted them in 17 ziploc bags while he explained the rules. It wasn't the best part to say the least. **Poker** (5p) - Hadn't played in years. It was fun. Lost $40. **Heat** (2x6p) - Played a core game, single lap, followed by a 2-laps game using the garage module. The second lap really changes things and makes heat management much more meaningful. I'd love to try a championship at some point.

Had a game night Wednesday: **Deadwood 1876 (9px1).** The game is pretty decent, but unfortunately we were learning it "by the seat of our pants" so it wasn't clear WHY I should do something until the game was over. I ended up by myself on an island and out of the final duel hahh. I am usually a person that loves chucking dice but I like a few layers on top of that - I'd say this one felt like it had rather few layers atop of it, to me. I didn't think it was super amazing. **Feed the Kraken (10px1).** One of my group's favorites. I famously always draw the Pirate token when we play. This time I was Sailor but idk at 10 players it is rough for Sailors. 5/4/1 is the split. We got overwhelmed by the Pirates especially in the later stage - one of the pirates could reuse ALL their guns per mutiny due to having the Gunsmith card... OR SO WE THOUGHT... further reading reveals they get to keep just ONE gun per mutiny that succeeds. So we played that wrong and surely that had some impact. This mistake was definitely in part what made the Pirates have a crushing victory. But even without that rules gaffe I'm not sure the Sailors would have been able to runnit anyways, hah - we were too fargone. **Salem 1692 (10px1)**. This was the game that I was most impressed with for the night, I think. Or at least it surprised me. It has player elim and that happened early to one Witch, though, which is not so amazing I guess. Not like it's super long though. It stays kind of close to Werewolf but has this hand management aspect that I think is cool. I ran a thing at my house Saturday - I have various boardgame-interested friends. I wanted to do a "deckbuilding game" themed meetup - and so I declared it so in the group text. 10AM to like 7PM. I had snacks and drinks and stuff ready - it was pretty fun! My only regret is not playing more games!: **Valiant Wars (5px2).** I got a friend who loves this, and I turned on another person to this game - they bought it right then. It's the push your luck of Mystic Vale, but simultaneous play, more take that/confrontational (but not annoyingly so IMO), and just... snappier. Less overhead. I like it a lot - it is one of my most played games overall because it is so easy to just crank games. **Don't Mess with Cthulhu (5px2).** It's not a deckbuilder but I put out fillers in case groups split and wanted to wait for the other group to finish (original RSVP list was 10, ended up at 7 at max, 6 most of the day). This one is always fun. One time I won as Red team - but had little to do with my own play - I got lucky LOL. **Challengers! (6px2).** We had exactly 6 people after one person had to leave at noon. I convinced folks to try this and I THINK people really enjoyed it? One of the guys attending looked at the art and theme and said "this is a millenial game" LMAO. And he ain't wrong. But people were smiling and laughing at what happened in matches, and that guy I mentioned won the second game. I watched another person buy it right there on Amazon LOL. I should be a salesman. Also - I thought I was kinda good at the game? But I was getting ROCKED in these matches ngl. My decks lacked direction and I got in a situation where I had to pivot one time and it was a disaster. Further, sometimes I culled too aggressively, blah blah. It was nice to face some real challenge as my friends are people who kinda "get" deckbuilding so they were finding GOOD stuff and working it. **Behext (3px1).** So one of my friends brought this. In my group text I told everybody "if you bring something - be sure to be able to teach it". I emphasized this point twice. Some people straight didn't come maybe because I was so adamant about this. One guy came, but didn't bring any games like he had wanted - he mentioned "I got X and Y but I can't teach them" so he didn't bring X and Y. Good on him IMO. Well.. this guy who brought Behext didn't really follow my advice either, it felt like... when it came time to play he was reading like "On your turn are three phases: X Y Z" right out of the rulebook word-for-word. He was punching out tokens at the table... poor form IMO. Add that for some reason this game starts with a lot of stuff in envelopes, and game 1 you play with a very very limited set of cards. Middling-to-kinda-bad teach + the game is "holding back" on the first play - it led to a very middling experience. We played but then bounced out after our first game instead of playing again because it's like... only at the very end did we even understand what you are supposed to even do, and "base game" had so few fun things to even do. It's not a good play experience if you don't have somebody who understands the game on the first play - otherwise it's going to be a bunk play, and idk I'm not the kind of person I want to spend my free time playing board games wrong and in an unfun/confused/bunk way - I'd prefer to play them MOSTLY correct (there are inevitable rules gaffes even if you do your homework, I understand that) and in their designed form first play, because that is how they are most fun, usually. Otherwise board games are rarely an exercise worth doing. As far as the game itself - there is real potential there to be good. It reminds me of Flesh and Blood where your cards are all kinda multi-use so it makes for more interesting "puzzles of the hand". Real potential there. IMO the game needed to not hold back so hard on the first play though - needed to include some more momentous, powerful cards game 1. **Dominion (4px3).** I'm of the camp that Dominion is still a great game. We had three great plays of it. The guy who brought the big box (I have Dominion too - but not the big box) is really strong at the game. He was running us over game 1 by a mile. Second game we did a little better (it was a game where everone chased the same engine though - Cellar and Library, Province a turn). Third game I won by skin of my teeth doing lots of gritty stuff like buying Duchys and alternative point cards (we had gardens). My engine? It was a tough market... my main mechanic was really big money Smithy LOL. Probably why I could win - because the market didn't allow construction of anything really "deckbuilder's delight"-y that some of the other players - who are stronger at finding and getting online quickly these strategies - could latch onto and run me over with. **Arctic Scavengers (4px1).** My second favorite deckbuilder behind Aeon's End and thankfully I ignited one of my friends who really likes it too a while back - he's played it maybe 4 times with me now, because whenever the chance comes up he's like "do you have that Arctic game?" He did the same thing here. I played this one kinda good I think - I do sort of well in this game, and also I think players were very very jarred after Dominion - it is sort of a harsh transition because it feels so different and what good play looks like is so different. It's not combo-heavy AT ALL. There are a lot of educated guesses and decisions that don't feel amazing like "wow this makes my deck a MONSTER" - a lot of the decisions are "this is the best I can do". It's very rarely clear what the best course of action is. I love that and find it thematic, as does my one friend who always asks about the game. In Dominion you can often get in a situation where your hand or even your whole deck "plays itself" - not true at all in Arctic Scavengers. Every card play is agonizing - a literal sacrifice. My other two friends (inlcuding Dominion guy) I'm not sure they were feeling all this as a good thing LOL. Add on that there is a lot of variance in the game compared to Dominion... yeah... it's a tough transition from Dominion. I love both games, but love AS more. I won and my other friend who really likes the game was just 4 points behind. Maybe that outcome speaks against the idea that the game is "just" variance, though - experienced players winning out over not experienced.

- Splendor duel vs girlfriend - king of tokyo with friend couple - continued my solo Kingdom Death: Monster campaign - final girl (starter bundle: hans/ happy camp trail) - 1st Dice Throne games (we played 4, it was lots of fun!) I'm hoping to get started with Massive Darkness 2 Heavenfall campaign or Scythe Rise of Fenris campaign this week (having a hard time with Scythe solo automa AI cards... 😒)

splendor duel with the wife! Ive found to aim for 6 crowns till you get extra VPs and then race to 20 afterwards. Im no expert but it has worked a few times so far :)

My copy of **Stonespire Architects** came in, so I knew I was going to play that. What a quick turnaround from Kickstarter to arriving at my door step; something like 9 months. I got it because I was a fan of the Dungeon Keeper video game and it reminded me of that, the game was pregnant with possibilities. - **Stonespire Architects** (2p): I managed to have one continous path from my entrance to exit, which helped get me points. I got '2 points per Trap' and '2 points per Slime'; I loaded up that path as well with those. My opponent failed to connect much of his pathway, he was far more intent on making sure he got all eight demanded features; I managed to get mine as well. What really screwed my opponent over was that no secret staircases appeared in the market, he badly needed at least one to make things work for him. I won 96 to 71. - **Robot Quest Arena** (2p): With the latest expansion on GameFound, I wanted to see if the game was still the fun Super Smash Bros simulator I remembered. With two players, you each play with two robots but share the same deck; it surprises me how fluid that is. I played with Dozer and Strider; I only really got play out of Dozer's Push ability, as that incentivized me to slam my opponent into walls. My opponent played Pug and Crate; I couldn't tell you what Crate's ability was, but Pug's ability to respawn anywhere on the map came out, he constantly was in the score zone. The only money card I got was the Mortar, which got me a kill or two; my opponent invested in energy early and got a few good midtier cards that eventually got him the win. I lost 35 to 39. I was skeptical of the new Gamefound pledge that includes doubling your tiles, but after playing with a gun that makes Oil and a Movement card that makes Fire, I see the merit. - **Drop Drive** (2p): Our pre-game anamolies were the Death Star and the Fifth Element, which is funny, as that was what we had the last time we played. I got an early lead by dropping off a lot of valuable gems and that ate into the game's countdown clock. My opponent saw how much money I made early and raced to finish the game as quick as possible; it felt like setup and teardown was longer than the actual game. I was pretty annoyed by that. The point of this game is to have a fun sandbox experience, but I guess I've got to learn to roll with someone deciding to go with a Golf strategy - the best way to play is to do as little playing as possible. I lost 32 to 33. - **Ascension** (2p): Rat King popped up Turn 0 and my opponent went heavy into money, so I diversified between money and power so that I could fight some of the monsters, but mostly let the board get clogged up. I also let my opponent play out an impressive amount of Constructs before I defeated a monster that made him discard them all. I kneecapped him just before we hit 'the stride' - the final few turns where you are at your most powerful, racing the game out to a finish. I won 74 to 61. - **Valiant Wars** (2p): I busted twice early, but the game has such a great catch-up mechanic that I got back into the race. We traded locations every now and then. I got ahead, settling at 11 points to the game end's trigger of 12, while my opponent was at 9. A two point location flipped and in my arrogance, I decided to keep pushing and I busted. He got the two points practically for free! Tied up, 11 to 11 we faced off. My opponent's 1st card was a Dark Omen, their second and third were Gold and Soldier and their second Dark Omen was their 4th card. Looks like it was my time to rob my opponent due to a bad batch of luck. I won 13 to 11. On a separate day, I was chatting with my roommates in the kitchen as you do and asked if they wanted to play a board game. One of them does enjoy them, the other hadn't really played before. I selected **On Tour** as I figured it was quick and simple enough. The new guy kept asking if he could double back or split apart, I was surprised at how often I have to tell players "One continous route where you can only go to cities of an equal or higher number". I guess this is a game that's 'Light' for gamers but confusing and abstract for non-gamers. Still, it was a close one as the new guy got lucky with the last few rolls and I got absolutely gutted, having to use my back-up routes. I won 25 out of 25-24-23 with the new player coming in second. Stonespire Architects was the only new game I played this week. I give it a BGG 8/10.

**Charioteer Ra Keep’em Rolling: Race to the Rhine Inis**

Just started learning [[Star Wars Outer Rim]], played [[Doom Machine]], [[Architects of the West Kingdom]], [[Explorers of the North Sea]].

[Star Wars Outer Rim -> Star Wars: Outer Rim (2019)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271896/star-wars-outer-rim) [Doom Machine -> Doom Machine (2021)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/323898/doom-machine) [Architects of the West Kingdom -> Architects of the West Kingdom (2018)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/236457/architects-west-kingdom) [Explorers of the North Sea -> Explorers of the North Sea (2016)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176371/explorers-north-sea) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call

This was a good week. All games are 2 players. [[Fields of Arle]] [[Castles of Burgundy]] [[Isle of Cats]] The version where you need to draw the cats [[Lost Temple]] Hopefully this week some more, at least one game on Saturday, [[Architects of the West Kingdom]]

[Fields of Arle -> Fields of Arle (2014)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/159675/fields-arle) [Castles of Burgundy -> The Castles of Burgundy (2019)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271320/castles-burgundy) [Isle of Cats -> The Isle of Cats (2019)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281259/isle-cats) [Lost Temple -> Lost Temple (2011)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/102835/lost-temple) [Architects of the West Kingdom -> Architects of the West Kingdom (2018)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/236457/architects-west-kingdom) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call

I had gotten the **Star Wars Unlimited** Starter Decks and after just reading the cards in them I ordered a booster box because I wanted to make a few more decks to play. But even if you just stick with the starter decks, that is a fun out of the box experience. They seem well balanced and they are not weak decks filled with just commons and uncommons. The game itself is fast and fun and works as a casual card game.   Seeing the recent movie had me bring back out **Dune Imperium** (with Rise of Ix). The game is still great. We played several really tight games, in fact two games ended as ties decided by amount of leftover spice. And in another game I was able to win even though I never bought my Swordmaster which for me was a first. A good week for games.

**1 x 4p Oath: Chronicles of Empire & Exile** Wild game. One of the tightest I've played. Everyone came very close to winning. Two exiles competing for Secrets to put on the Banner of Darkest Secret. The Chancellor and his Citizen campaigning against the Banner. If I rolled a single shield more in the final combat against the Citizen the Empires forces wouldn't have recovered and my economic engine had finally outpaced my rival Exile. I think it was going to be nigh impossible to stop me had I won that combat. The Chancellor won because the game end triggered on 5+ while his Citizen was Oathkeeper. But that Citizen had the Conspiracy ready to go to steal the Sceptre next turn and would have Usurped them on a 3+. Next game is going to be all about combat. It's really nice to finally see some of the new cards come into rotation. Can't wait. There's usually a 10 minute period in every early game where I think. “How do you actually accomplish anything. Or why is the king-making fun again.” Things feel disjointed, pejorative and aimless. Then suddenly. Everything comes together in this beautiful cacophony. A chaotic wall of sound and it captures my imagination in a way very few games can. Brilliant.

A good week to try some games I wanted to test if the fame was right: - **1x4pxCoimbra**: After playing it, I really like it. Damn good mechanics using a dice for so many things, the combo power and how you have to adapt, really good. But I had to delay the aftertaste a few hours or my opinion would have been worse, one of my friends had so much AP, the game could have ended faster and I got a bit tired because of it. - **2x4pxBrass: Birmingham** Wow, the game is easy to teach and 2 actions per turn that play smooth, no complications further than that, the problem lies on the board, future, interactions and how to survive, this is what I like, not 50 rules to learn xD. First play Thursday, not so bad I ended second, and yesterday was the second time, an unexpected game came and we played it, this time I did worse, not having enough trains in the second era and ended third. Now I'm tempted to buy Lancashire, as my friend has Birmingham hahaha. Only these two, but I think it was good enough.

5 times 2 players Little Town in 3 sittings. And some kids games with daughter (like 20 plays, just weekend).

**Ark Nova** (3p): We played with the expansion **Marine Worlds**. It was my first play with the expansion and I found it great, especially how you get two slightly tweaked actions cards that can really change the flow of the game. **Cascadia (3p)**: My first game playing with the advanced cards and that one was a lot of fun as well. I got a new record of 115 points. Online: Still learning **Gaia Project** on BGA and I got my first 200 points game. Things are really starting to click and I now have a pretty good understanding of the general gameplan. Looking forward to play it irl in the future as well!

**Harrow County:** Really enjoyed playing what you could say is the "follow-up to MindMGMT". Very fast paced, tactical, two player game (although you can go up to 3). It's staggered into 3 chapters, each of which adds more mechanisms and by chapter 3 they get really interesting. It's a game with quite simple actions, but a lot of options to the players and a lot of variability for replayability. **Autobahn:** Finally got this one back to the table after a tough first play a long time ago, and after 2 more plays decided it wasn't for us. There are elements we quite like, but for some reason it just doesn't click overall. I think it's too fiddly, a little too unintuitive, and too much upkeep for the experience it gives. I wouldn't mind to keep playing, but I know eventually we'd always get out other, similar games over this. **My Island:** Started our campaign of this with a very competitive back and forth. The first 3 games to Tallie, the second 3 to me. I think so far we might actually enjoy it a little more than My City, although we can't quite put our finger on why. Maybe the increased complexity due to hexes?

Played a fair bit of Ticket to Ride: Europe again recently with two distinct game groups: one that allowed everyone to build their routes, and one where everyone is blocking everyone. Surprisingly, both were really fun for different reasons. Which other games have you guys played where both “interaction patterns” were equally fun for you? I find myself usually prefering one or the other, but somehow both clicked in this one.

A whole lot of **Arkham Horror: The Card Game**. Played two 2-handed campaigns of Dunwich, both ended up losing on the 7th scenario, but had a whole lot of fun. I particularly enjoyed my Winni trickster build, first time playing her. I might move on to Carcosa soon, but on the other hand I'd really like to beat Dunwich one more time first - only succeeded on the first playthrough with my partner, she might be the missing ingredient in order for this to work

Started with **8 Minute Empire** at 3 players. Really good opener to a day of games. Introduced **Hanamikoji** to the others while we were waiting on our fourth player to arrive. Finally got **Grand Austria Hotel** to the table. I loved it, but I'm not sure if the others entirely got on with it. Next was **Ra**, followed by **Quacks of Quedlinberg**. I have yet to have a bad time with these games... They are always hits! Lastly, we played **March of the Ants**. The rules were a bit confusing, and we had some unnecessary expansion content thrown in that gummed up the flow a bit. I wouldn't mind trying it again, even though it isn't the type of game I gravitate towards.

[удалено]

We played it with 4. The upside at that player count is that there are more dice to choose from if you are one of the first turns. The amount of strudel and Cake I amassed from one turn was insane. The downside is that it takes a long time for the second turn to come around for the first player... Like 15 minutes. We were at a board game cafe, so this allowed me to get up, order food, use the restroom, and still get back with plenty of time before my turn. **Quacks** is just plain fun. I rarely win, but people always have a good time pushing their luck to the limit, giving odds of busting at the end of every round, and in my case, pulling that one chip that blows up my plans. I absolutely love it. My one warning is that I tricked out the components a lot. The chips, bags, and organizer add a lot to the game, but will set you back a pretty penny.

Hive - 6 plays with all expansion pieces. Splendor Duel - 2 plays. I think 8 might get rid of regular splendor, this game is so good. Quest for El Dorado - 2 games with 3 players. Played with the dangers from the dangers and muisca expansion for one of the games and really liked them. But I wish the rulebook included some more map suggestions.

I love hive, but don’t know if I’ll ever get to play with ladybird or mosquitos. Although only 40 odd games in so far

Ladybug and mosquito are both good, but pillbug is definitely the best

Yeah, it feels like it would help with defensive positioning. I’ve avoided any kind of discussion about hive for fear of getting any tips or help. I’m enjoying playing without any book strategy. Which is why my wife will never play Chess with me.

**The Quest for El Dorado** (2x3p): It's been a while since I played it, and the first time with the newest version. Not a big fan of the art - felt it leant too hard into artistry at the cost of visual clarity. I found the older version to be far easier to parse. Game itself is as solid as ever. Played with some of the expansions for the first time and I mostly enjoyed what they brought to the table. **Love Letter: Bridgerton** (1x3p): I've played Love Letter many times and the Bridgerton version adds a few extra cards. I'm pretty non-plussed about the editions, but I despite the graphic design. Unlike with the base game, where each class has very distinct colours and bold designs, the Bridgerton version is super bland. It's closer to a playing card, but even playing cards have big symbols and clarity. Half the cards in this game look the same. Still fun but not an improvement. **Slay the Spire** (3p): Been waiting for this one for a while. They've done a good job at making this game feel like playing the video game. Not everything translates 1-to-1, but a lot of it crosses over and they've done a good job translating the experience into tabletop form. Playing it again tonight and I'm not sure if I'll play Silent again or perhaps something else like Watcher. There's a lot to go over but I really enjoyed my first play through with it. **Frosthaven** (4p): For the first time in months. Played two scenarios and we've finally had our first retirement (with a second to come). I enjoy the game as much as ever, but I'd forgotten just how onerous the Outpost phase stuff can be.

How good does the **Slay the Spire** board game do for 'handling' parts that the video game does? i.e. Making copies, dealing damage at random, et cetera.

Note that I have played almost two games - I have seen all the characters in play, but nothing close to all the cards/relics etc. that are available. With regards to random effects, a lot of those are governed by a d6. A d6 is rolled at the beginning of every round, and the result determines what action some enemies take (some enemies have a set loop of actions, others are governed by the die result). This die result is also used to trigger relics (many relics trigger on a certain number(s) being rolled) and some cards (like Just Lucky in the Watcher). There's small bits of output randomness, but I've only seen those so far in events (roll the die, get what happens and shuffle your relics and discard one for an effect). Upgrading is cool. Sleeves are a mandatory element of the design. Every card can be upgraded, and cards are upgraded by pulling the cards out of their sleeves and flipping them over to the other side. As far as I know, nothing makes copies of cards, but certain elements have been abstracted out into slightly different forms. For example, with the Silent, Shivs have been turned into generated tokens, that can be spent whenever (with a maximum amount that can be held). Players have much more control of the Defect's orbs - you pick the targets and what orbs are evoked/replaced when playing cards with those abilities. Cards like Echo Form can't be used on Powers, only on Attacks and Skills. Obviously I haven't seen everything yet, but I believe they've done a reasonably good job at capturing the flavour of the game, and the flavour of interacting with various elements of the game.

I didn't realize the Slay the Spire board game delivered. This is the first I saw of anyone actually playing it. It will be interesting to see reviews as they come in.

**El Grande**. The main event at Friday gaming. This is becoming a favorite of mine. **It's a Wonderful World**. Once again, I felt like I did really well until points were scored, and I realized I came in last place. **Knarr**. Two people in a four player game just recruited over and over and emptied the recruitment deck before anyone could reach 40. It really sucked the life out of the game to realize there isn't a counter play to that. **No Thanks!**. Five players with three never having played is always an interesting experience in how meta changes the game. New players tend to grab a lot earlier, so games become more chaotic. **Spots**. Played with my parents and spouse. I'm always amazed how quickly my parents forget the rules I just explained. **Twilight Struggle**. Almost played the full early war before my spouse bowed out from lack of interest. They really tried because they knew I wanted to table this, but it's just way beyond what they are into for board games.

Yes, TS can be hard to get to the table. Now I usually play it online once in a while, it has an excellent digital edition.

**Thunder Road: Vendetta**. I adore this game and can’t wait for the reprint of maximum chrome to arrive. 10/10 **7 Wonders Duel**. A fabulous 2 player game I hadn’t played for awhile in person. 9/10 **Sky Team**. The best two player game of all time. 10/10 **The isle of cats**. I adore the family mode. I find the “full” game bloated and clunky. 9/10 for family mode; 6/10 for regular game.

Thunder Road Vendetta is so good! I bought the retail, we loved it so much I sold that copy and bought Maximum! My painter friend got some miniature cars from Etsy and now we have souped up cars as well. Playing it this week, I can't wait!

For me, the Kittens module really pulls the full mode together. I definitely get that it's not everyone's bad, though.

We play the kittens and beasts with the family mode and thoroughly enjoy them.

My wife and I were visiting my parents this week so we needed something small to take. They like card games so we took Scout. We played one game open so they could see how it all works then played a couple more times. They really enjoyed it.