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2020 – –

Julie’s health has been up and down… most recently she’s fighting a fever (between 99 – 100+) that won’t go away and is now in its 4th week… Christmas Eve morning we dropped off the car for repairs from Selena’s accident, her temp was 101.4 and I finally convinced her to call the doctor… they think it’s a really bad sinus infection and are treating it as such but, if the fever persists, it could be a sign that the cancer is spreading again… antibiotics and fingers crossed for now…

To start the new year I decided to drop my ‘Games On My Radar’ page… there are just too many great games coming out for me to keep up with… at one of the giant game conventions held each year there were over 1000 new titles!! If I only liked 1% of them – just 1% – that’s 10 games!! I don’t have the time or money for that many games from just one convention!! It really is a great time to be a modern board gamer… 🙂

Game PLAY wise, my plays have been limited to occasional 2 player jousts with Julie, the even rarer 2 player match with Selena and various games with the local game group if they happen to meet on a night when the band is off (which is also rare)… Christmas Eve I traditionally try to have a game wrapped and ready – something for the girls to open that night… I, for the first time that I can remember, had everything wrapped (usually I’m locked in my room doing a last minute wrapping marathon but this year I wanted to be able to enjoy some family time)…

Unfortunately, Selena came off an extended day of work and was fast asleep… and Julie’s infection meant she couldn’t be around her gram or my Mom… then, as is often the case, her meds wiped her out so we’d miss her Aunt Sally’s huge annual Christmas Eve party for all the kids (though I was able to drop off a box with about 10 pounds of home made Christmas cookies and candy) and they’d miss our traditional Christmas Eve visit to my Mom’s so, since it was just me with no place to go and the girls were sleeping, I took Mom around to see all the Christmas lights in the various neighborhoods then got her home and played Farkle – her favorite – for an hour or so…

Christmas day was a little better… Julie was up about 11:00 – long enough to open presents – then was back in bed… Selena and I headed for Mom’s for Christmas II and dinner which meant Oscar’s ham with my brother and sister-in-law… after we gorged ourselves and cleaned up I drove Selena to her boyfriend’s in Greenwich then came home and started punching cardboard in case Julie was feeling better at some point which unfortunately didn’t happen so I spent Christmas night relaxing, punching out game pieces and packing baggies and reading game rules…

Eventually we’d get some plays in and my Christmas choices for the girls thus far have proven to be spot on to this point… There were a couple that I wasn’t sure were even available or would be in stock but luck was on my side and I was able to get the titles I wanted for them and have them in time to wrap…

So let’s get this party started with…

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Camel Up – this was initially my Christmas Eve pick but after I ordered it I read that it had a 3 player minimum so I panicked and got something else (not knowing if our daughter would be spending Christmas Eve with her boyfriend and his family)…

From BGG: In Camel Up ,up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to suss out which ones will place first and second in a quick race around a pyramid. The earlier you place your bet, the more you can win — should you guess correctly, of course. Camels don’t run neatly, however, sometimes landing on top of another one and being carried toward the finish line. Who’s going to run when? That all depends on how the dice come out of the pyramid dice shaker, which releases one die at a time when players pause from their bets long enough to see who’s actually moving!

This 2018 edition of Camel Up features new artwork, a new game board design, a new pyramid design, engraved dice, and new game modes, including crazy rogue camels that start the race running in the opposite direction! You never know how a race will end!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I wanted it because it looked like it would be fun of course and the new art work looks amazing… and the dice pyramid… As I said earlier, I thought it would be great for Christmas Eve… quick, easy to teach, etc… then I realized Selena might not be home and wasn’t sure how / if it would play with two (turns out it plays fine as a 2 player with some tweaks)…

January 1 Follow-up… Selena and I went to my Mom’s to pack up her Christmas decorations, have a bite and a quick game so I thought we’d try Camel Up… I set it up and ran through the rules (messing up a couple of course being our first play) and we all had a great time!!

January 5 Follow-up… Julie was feeling better and wanted to play this morning so after breakfast I setup the game (she loved the fold out palm trees)… we finished the race, calculated the scores and she reset everything as she quickly verbalized what sounded like one long word, “Can-we-play-again-thank-you”… I think she likes it… 6 games later I was sure of it… 🙂

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The Quacks of Quedlinberg – this was my Christmas Eve replacement (and, if you’ve been following along chronologically, you’ll already know that we didn’t get anything to the table that night)… the more I read or watched the more I was sure we would all would like it…

From BGG: In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!

Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips and add them to their pot. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the swirling pattern. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot explodes!

At the end of each round, players gain victory points and also coins to spend on new ingredients to add to their bags. But players with exploded pots must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The graphics and simplicity of game play drew me in and I seem to like bag builders which is what this is…

Pre-New Years Eve 2019 Follow-up… Julie was feeling a little better – well enough to ask to play a game… I had one picked out (coming up) that I knew she’d like and we played a couple games of that first, then I convinced her to try this… it didn’t take long and I could tell she was hooked!! I didn’t realize there was so much replay-ability in the box… the recipe cards for each chip has 4 powers – each awesome!! Once comfortable with the game, you can pick or randomly mix and match and they’re all very good. As soon as we finished she wanted to play it again… then just once more… and again the next day… I couldn’t wait to get Selena’s reaction to it!!

January 2019 Follow-up… Selena returned home from her boyfriend’s New Years day and we ran to my Mom’s, packed her Christmas decorations and played a game of Camel Up… then we headed home, we settled in and that night I broke out Quacks… and she loved it too!! So much so that even SHE is asking to play it ahead of a couple others that I got her as well (coming later) that I knew she’d really like!! Mission accomplished!! TWICE!! Great choices by me so far… 🙂

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Quacks has become so popular with my girls (and myself) that I had to order the expansion called The Herb Witches that adds a 5th player, another set of recipe cards making for 6 options to mix and match, added chips, a board extensions, etc…

(From BGG): Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg: Die Kräuterhexen allows up to five players to compete at the same time, with this expansion also including more ingredient books, a new “fool’s herb”, and the introduction of herbal witches to add more variety.

I also recently learned of upgraded chips for both the base game AND the expansion that look amazing (that are out of stock currently)… I think these will be must haves as we’re all loving this game!!

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Mid-January follow-up… Quacks is the first thing the girls ask to play!! And (of course) the expansion arrived a few days ago and adds even more fun… there’s just something about this game that hits the right notes with all of us… 🙂

Unfortunately Julie’s fever is in its 5th week so getting this to the table will have to wait…

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Azul: Summer Pavilion – This is the third game in the Azul series… Julie wanted the first one back when it came out – that was a few years ago – but I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy it or not… turned out we loved it!! So when the second one came out that was a no-brainer… and we loved that one too!! Just enough twists in the game play to make it different while still feeling familiar… what could they possibly do for a third version??

(From the publisher): At the turn of the 16th Century, King Manuel I commissioned Portugal’s greatest artisans to construct grandiose buildings. After completing the Palaces of Evora and Sintra, the king sought to build a summer pavilion to honor the most famous members of the royal family. This construction was intended for the most talented artisans — whose skills meet the splendor that the royal family deserves. Sadly, King Manuel I died before construction ever began.

In Azul: Summer Pavilion, players return to Portugal to accomplish the task that never began. As a master artisan, you must use the finest materials to create the summer pavilion while carefully avoiding wasting supplies. Only the best will rise to the challenge to honor the Portuguese royal family.

Azul: Summer Pavilion lasts six rounds, and in each round players draft tiles, then place them on their individual player board to score points. Each of the six colors of tiles is wild during one of the rounds.

At the start of each round, draw tiles at random from the bag to refill each of the five, seven, or nine factories with four tiles each. Draw tiles as needed to refill the ten supply spaces on the central scoring board. Players then take turns drafting tiles. You can choose to take all of the tiles of a non-wild color on a factory and place them next to your board; if any wild tiles are on this factory, you must take one of them. Place all remaining tiles in the center of the table. Alternatively, you can take all tiles of a non-wild color from the center of play; you must also take one wild tile, if present.

After all tiles have been claimed, players then take turns placing tiles on their individual boards. Each board depicts seven stars that would be composed of six tiles; each space on a star shows a number from 1-6, and six of the stars are for tiles of a single color while the seventh will be composed of one tile of each color. To place a tile on the blue 5, for example, you must discard five blue or wild tiles from next to your player board (with at least one blue being required), placing one blue tile in the blue 5 space and the rest in the discard tower. You score 1 point for this tile and 1 point for each tile within this star connected to the newly placed tile.

If you completely surround a pillar, statue, or window on your game board with tiles, you get an immediate bonus, taking 1-3 tiles from the central supply spaces and placing them next to your board. At the end of the round, you can carry over at most four tiles to the next round; discard any others, losing 1 point for each such tile.

After six rounds, you score a bonus for each of the seven stars that you’ve filled completely. Additionally, you score a bonus for having covered all seven spaces of value 1, 2, 3 or 4. You lose 1 point for each remaining tile unused, then whoever has the most points wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Well… it’s Azul… the first two didn’t disappoint and I’m sure if they come out with a fourth we’ll be adding that to our collection as well… The twist in this one is along the lines of costs and penalties, in-game rewards and end-game bonuses… and once again they managed to make a very different Azul experience while keeping the core mechanics the same and familiar… If Julie’s up to it, she’s asking to play this and Quacks!! I haven’t had a chance to teach Selena yet (she also wants to play Quacks)…

January 4th Follow-up… Hot off teaching Julie and playing several games I brought it to a local game group night (I try to bring things I haven’t seen in their library)… it turned out to be a good choice since I’d forgotten that they were trying alphabetic game nights and packed a bunch of games starting with the letter ‘A’… I had a great time playing Alhambra (been years for me… great game) then a couple people spotted my copy of Azul and I had the pleasure of teaching and playing with Sam (short for Samantha), Bo and Alex… We had a great time, they loved the game (I think Sam and Alex plan to buy a copy after our play) and in the end Sam pulled well away for the victory. 🙂

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Jetpack Joyride – Julie spotted this when I was watching one of the recaps of 2019 games and really liked it so of course I had it under the tree…

It’s based on an app I’d seen for years but never played but when they made a mini-board game out of it using Tetris style pieces I knew Julie would like it…

(from the publisher): Jetpack Joyride is a real-time competitive puzzle game adapted from the mobile game of the same name! Players need to fly their way through a lab using a stolen jetpack over a series of three rounds. During each round:

1) Players receive four new lab cards.
2) All players, in real-time and at the same time, grab tiles from the common pool and lay them to trace their way through their lab.
3) Points are scored through mission cards or by collecting coins!
4) The first player to reach the end of their lab triggers the end of the round.
5) Scores are totaled and written down for the round.
6) Players, starting from the one with the lowest score, pick a permanent gadget out of a river of four.
7) A new round begins!

Whoever has the most points at the end of the third round wins!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Tetris… if you know my wife or have read any of the previous page need I say more?? I wasn’t sure if I’d be a fan necessarily but it was fun and we’ve played several games… the bonus cards took a little figuring out as some of the descriptions didn’t make sense until we slowed down and read every word and applied the literal meaning… AAAaaaahhhh… now it’s more challenging and more fun!! Very cool little game!!

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Monopoly: Tropical Tycoon (jump to 44:32 in the video) – this one comes with a story (of course)… growing up I loved playing Monopoly… it was one of the few games we owned after frequently moving and even being homeless and living at a local drive-in theater (where both parents worked) for a year…  as I got older it just took too long and I lost interest… When Julie and I started dating I discovered it was her favorite game… we played a few times but she’s a shark and will not trade or negotiate with anyone so games just became a boring battle of attrition that no one ever won… I tried to rekindle our interest in gaming as Selena was growing up and added the electronic banker version and Monopoly Zapped which used an iPad in the middle of the board but in the end it was still the same sludge of a game and when I discovered modern board games back in 2015 I vowed never to play Monopoly again!!

Then a couple months ago I was watching some Dice Tower end-of-year top 10 videos and they had one on ‘Unsung Games’ – games that they thought were very good but weren’t given much credit or well known at all… this was one of them… all the way up at #3 on Tam Vasel’s list!! I knew I’d have to give it a try but it’s an older game and I wasn’t sure I could even get my hands on a copy… I knew Julie would freak when she saw it so I had to try… I found it, wrapped it and wrote on the card that she should be sitting down and that no – it wasn’t another Disney trip…

From BGG: Tropical Tycoon (jump to 44:32 in the video) is a modified version of Monopoly that incorporates new rules, new pieces, and new winning conditions. It uses a DVD (required) to generate random events.

New additions include:

Players have Jobs that give individual advantages.

In addition to beach houses (houses) and resorts (hotels), properties can be developed with Casinos, Parks, Restaurants, and Piers. The rent for the Casino is pure luck, but sometimes the owner has to pay out to the visitor. Parks don’t garner much rent, and what rent they gather is based on the weather, which can change with every Chance or Community Chest event (the Park’s main benefit is its worth in Fortune Tokens at game end: A Park on Gentle Sands is the equivalent of four million dollars cash at the end of the game). Piers’ rent depends not only on the weather, but also the presence or absence of a cruise ship, which is also affected by the card events. Finally, Restaurants’ rent is dependent upon the neighboring property improvements. There are very few of these developments, though, so the competition for them can be fierce!

Although the basic board layout is the same as a standard Monopoly board, there are no Chance and Community Chest cards; when a player lands on one of those two spots, the DVD determines what happens.

One of the dice has a TV symbol in place of the 1-pip; when the TV is rolled, a News Broadcast is played on the DVD, which triggers a random event (much like Chance or Community Chest).

Players collect Fortune Tokens (and earn them at the end of the game through their cash and property holdings). Play ends when one player goes bankrupt (or, alternately, whenever the players decide to stop). The player with the most Fortune Tokens at the end of the game wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said, Monopoly was Julie’s favorite (I think she would probably drop it down significantly since we all started playing modern board games) but I wanted it because I knew Julie and maybe Selena would be shocked that I got them a Monopoly game knowing how I feel about it so that much would be fun…

January 4 Follow-up… The band has a weekend off, Julie’s up and moving and Selena’s boyfriend is at a concert in Jersey so, with the car in the collision shop after Selena’s minor accident on the snow, I had to pick her up from work after playing with the local game group and we planned for a late evening game night…

We snacked on some hot orange cinnamon rolls while I setup and explained the rules (the REAL rules – not the house rules so many people play with) and loaded the DVD into my computer…

The video elements were pretty cool but I think my computer was struggling with the DVD… VLC Player locked up after the intro each time (and there’s no way to bypass that intro)… Corel DVD did a little better – at least we could play – but at one point there was a screen with instructions that was black except for the starfish that we knew was left of the OK button… we clicked there hoping to get back to the game and the instructions flashed but we couldn’t read them… it happened again but we still couldn’t read fast enough… on subsequent events Selena videoed the flashing message with her phone so we were able to continue…

After about an hour it felt like the same old Monopoly to me… Julie had some of everything and wasn’t dealing so no monopolies were to be had which meant no one got to test out the new developments and the battle of attrition had begun… fortunately (at least for me) the DVD crashed again – this time closing the program altogether!! I got it loaded again, sat through the endless intro and eventually triggered the end game instructions so we could total up and declare a winner (I don’t even remember who won – it was that uneventful)… sadly, it was the same old story BUT, if I can work out the kinks in the DVD, I want to play again because I have a new strategy… I think if Selena and I work together, we can make the necessary trades, build up and take Julie down!!!

What to play next… I thought Selena would be chomping at the bit to play one of the new ones I knew she’d flip for (keep reading – they’re coming) but no – she went right back to Quacks!! Easily the top pick from the Christmas haul so far… I’ve already ordered the expansion and when the blinged-out chips are available again, they’ll be ordered too!!

February follow-up… On Monday 2/10 I discovered the Quacks upgraded chips were available again for both the base game and the Herb Witches expansion… I ordered them that night with 2-3 day shipping thinking they would be the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day (along with the usual cards and candy and such)… now it’s Friday 2/14 and they’ve yet to ship… I printed a decorative sheet explaining the situation and they were still excited… now we all can keep checking the mail… 🙂

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Jaipur – I squeezed this two-player only game into Julie’s stocking (actually she has a huge Mickey stocking – I know… you’re shocked)…

(From BGG): You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, but that’s not enough for you because only the merchant with two “seals of excellence” will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja’s court. You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging, and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.

Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck. On your turn, you can either take or sell cards. If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking one card from the market, or swapping 2-5 cards between the market and your cards.

If you sell cards, you get to sell only one type of good, and you receive as many chips for that good as the number of cards you sold. The chips’ values decrease as the game progresses, so you’d better hurry! On the other hand, you receive increasingly high rewards for selling three, four, or five cards of the same good at a time, so you’d better wait!

You can’t sell camels, but they’re paramount for trading and they’re also worth a little something at the end of the round, enough sometimes to secure the win, so you have to use them smartly.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve heard about this game for years and thought it would be a good one for nights when I’m home but Selena’s working… I was right… Julie and I got it to the table and loved it!! It’s very simple to play but very strategic at the same time… we’ve already played it several times and will be back for sure. Below you’ll find that a few days later I got Selena to try it and she likes it too!!

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Everdell – Where do I start… the artwork, the components, the reviews… all of these things kept bringing me back to this game so I finally snagged it thinking the girls will love the art and cute woodsy characters…

(from BGG): Within the charming valley of Everdell, beneath the boughs of towering trees, among meandering streams and mossy hollows, a civilization of forest critters is thriving and expanding. From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a year have come and gone, but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities established. You will be the leader of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host—you have a busy year ahead of yourself. Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

Everdell is a game of dynamic tableau building and worker placement.

On their turn a player can take one of three actions:

a) Place a Worker: Each player has a collection of Worker pieces. These are placed on the board locations, events, and on Destination cards. Workers perform various actions to further the development of a player’s tableau: gathering resources, drawing cards, and taking other special actions.

b) Play a Card: Each player is building and populating a city; a tableau of up to 15 Construction and Critter cards. There are five types of cards: Travelers, Production, Destination, Governance, and Prosperity. Cards generate resources (twigs, resin, pebbles, and berries), grant abilities, and ultimately score points. The interactions of the cards reveal numerous strategies and a near infinite variety of working cities.

c) Prepare for the next Season: Workers are returned to the players supply and new workers are added. The game is played from Winter through to the onset of the following winter, at which point the player with the city with the most points wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said, the artwork and great reviews, etc…

A mid-week mid-January night off (no band rehearsal) and Julie wants to play so I talk her into ‘figuring it out’ with me… I’d read most of the rules and just finished watching a how-to-play video from Meeple University so I was pretty sure we could get through it… we set everything up – frequently stopping to admire the cards and the board and the resources… I was skimming through the book to make sure I didn’t miss any key points (Julie hates when I just re-read the rules to her) and I got to the End Game and we were both shocked… That’s it?!? That’s the end of the game?!? I double checked and yes – the game ends right after the third season (just before winter thematically so I guess most of the critters would be hibernating)… for us it seemed like it stopped right at the point where it would just be getting interesting… the manual talks about placing cards in your 15 card city of constructions and critters but neither of us thought the game would last long enough for that to be possible…

We played through and ended when it said… I had managed 11 cards while Julie had had 7 yet I only beat her by 2 points… and we loved it!! We went to bed and I pulled up another how to play video and we spotted a couple things we were doing wrong that would have gotten more cards into our city and more points in the end but it all made sense. Then we watched the review of the Pearlbrook expansion… lookout Amazon – I’m headed your way again!! 🙂

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Paranormal Detectives – Here’s the first title I picked out for Selena… no one had it in stock in November but I lucked out at Cool Stuff Inc...  she loves spooky stuff and games like Mysterium, Betrayal At House On the Hill and the like so this was a no brainer…

(from BGG): You open your eyes to discover the most horrible truth of a lifetime… It has just come to an end and you are a ghost, floating in the air! Terrified, you look at your own body. A group of strange individuals have gathered around your mortal remains, watching it closely with sparks of fascination in their eyes. They want to communicate with you to discover how your life ended. You need to talk to them and reveal the truth so the culprit can be judged!

Paranormal Detectives is a deduction party game. One player takes the role of a Ghost. All other players work as Paranormal Detectives and need to discover how the victim died. Using paranormal abilities they will communicate with the Ghost, asking open questions about the details of the crime. The Ghost answers in a variety of ghostly ways – by arranging a hangman’s knot, playing chosen tarot cards, creating a word puzzle on a talking board, drawing by holding the hand of a detective and many more!

At the beginning of the game, the Ghost player receives a story card with a full description of the murder. Each card depicts all the details of the case. Each Detective receives asymmetrical, pre-constructed set of interaction cards, player investigation sheet, and a player screen.

On their turn, each Detective asks the Ghost any open question they want and plays a single interaction card. The card implies the way the Ghost may answer the question. There are 9 different interactions total, most of them giving information to all Detectives. Since Detectives may ask any open questions and interaction cards vary, the game allows for lots of creativity for both the Ghost and Paranormal Detectives.

Detectives may try, twice during the game, to guess what has actually happened to the victim stating who was the killer, where did it happen, what was the motive, how was it done and what was the murder weapon. Then the Ghost writes down secretly on this Detective’s investigation sheet how many of their answers are correct.

The game can end in two ways:
If a Detective gives all correct answers. In this case, they win, together with the Ghost player.
If all Detectives run out of interaction cards. In this case, if no one has guessed everything correctly then, whoever guessed correctly the most information is the sole winner of the game!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We haven’t made it to the table yet between her work, school (and boyfriend) schedule (and her desire to play Quacks every chance she gets) but I’ve read the book and think I’m ready to go (and already have a couple ideas of who will be borrowing it to play next)… 🙂

You’ll find a February follow-up below where the three of us got this to the table and liked it so much we immediately played it again!!

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Mystery House: Adventures in a Box – This was the last of my 2019 Christmas list and the one I was most excited to give to Selena – mostly because of the unique way the game works… the box IS the game… it has slots cut in the top in a grid of rows and columns and each story has you place certain cards in certain slots then everyone peers through the windows on all four sides of the box then tells the app that drives the game what they saw… or thought they saw… and of course it was the hardest to find a copy of but I made it…

(from BGG): This house mysteriously moves through space and time, and no one knows its destination. Will you be brave enough to enter?

Experience the thrill of an escape room in Mystery House: Adventures in a Box, which features a mix of technology and tradition. You are imprisoned in this house, and the only way out is to solve all the riddles you find inside! You must search for clues in the box, which features multiple doorways on all sides. At the beginning of the game, you insert enigma cards in the box top, and these cards will tell a story as they’re revealed and resolved during play. An app drives you through the game and records the progress of your team and your playtime.

The base game includes two adventures: “Family Portrait” and “The Lord of the Labyrinth”. All future expansions will use the same base game box as a game system.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I was totally intrigued with the whole box thing… I’ve never seen anything like this!!

Here are some pictures of the box with the slotted cards at their grid locations and a couple peeks inside a window…

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Note the portrait on the far wall (below)… that’s the type of thing you need to notice… others are more obscure or cryptic…

While it’s true that once you’ve played through an adventure you really can’t play again (OK – maybe after a few years when you’ve forgotten most of the adventure) but I’m sure they’ll be putting out more stories to purchase separately (so we don’t have to purchase the base game again just to play new adventures)… I can’t wait to try it if I can only get Quacks out of her head… 🙂

Mid/Late January Follow-up… Remember when I talked about Everdell and hinted that I’d be heading to Amazon for the Pearlbrook expansion?? I was wrong… my band Funk Evolution’s rhythm section called a special rehearsal after the sad passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart to try to learn one of their tunes the day before our next scheduled performance and we were able to pull together ‘Limelight‘. RIP maestro – you will be missed…

As with most rehearsals that means a quick trip to Flipside Gaming just a few minutes from our rehearsal site… I was browsing the shelves and what do I find?? Everdell: Pearlbrook!! Sorry Amazon… my local shops always get first dibs… Julie was home recovering from a knee procedure – 4 shots this morning – so this will make her smile…

(from the publisher): Explore a new underwater society in Everdell: Pearlbrook, the first expansion for Everdell!

Everdell: Pearlbrook introduces a new side board, the river board, where you’ll send your frog ambassador to gather a new resource: pearls. You’ll also encounter new aquatic critters and constructions! Collect enough pearls and you can construct fabulous wonders and adornments, to make your city the pride of Everdell!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Julie and I so enjoyed our first play that I showed her the expansion review… she loved it so I had to add it. I played the base game solo about a week later to try to iron out some of the mistakes we’d made and want to play that with her again before adding in this expansion.

I poked around some more and found some other interesting titles (as usual) but decided to just snag Pearlbrook and head for practice…

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When I was checking out Mike reminded me to check out the 50% off table… I told him I already had and there was a copy of Black Angel (a new game) – that I passed over because I thought might have been put there by mistake or been a pre-owned copy… nope… someone at the store had ordered a copy and another employee who didn’t know that had ordered a second copy which they felt they ‘didn’t need’ so ‘someone’ is going to get a great deal… yeah – he really had to twist my arm to get me to take home an amazing $80 game for $40!! 🙂  This is a much heavier game than what was in my Christmas haul but Julie and I (and sometimes Selena) love games like the West Kingdom series (Architects and Paladins) and Fury of Dracula and such so I’m confident this will be a hit…at the right time… after I’ve read and reread the rules and developed my teaching methodology…

(from BGG): Humanity, through its irresponsible behavior, has exhausted the natural resources of Earth, making it almost uninhabitable. In a burst of lucidity, pressed by the irreversible degradation of your planet, the great nations are forced to put aside their differences and share their knowledge in order to create the most vast spacecraft ever constructed. Thus, the Black Angel project is launched.

The Black Angel, the first intergalactic frigate in history, must transport the genetic heritage of humanity beyond known worlds, over a journey that is likely to last several thousand years. Her crew will be composed of only robots. Because no nation is willing to trust creation of the AI (artificial intelligence) that will control this crew to any other nation, a compromise is found: The Black Angel will be co-managed by several AIs, and the utility of each decision will be evaluated in VP (Validation Process).

At the completion of this long and perilous voyage, when a new inhabitable planet has been reached, the AI that has earned the most VP will be entrusted with reawakening Humanity, and overseeing its new start….

All the reports are in agreement: The Black Angel is approaching Spes, a planet with the highest probability for habitability by the human species. Take advantage of our approach to maintain the good relations you have gradually woven with the benevolent Alien species populating the galaxy, and watch out for the dreaded Ravagers, who would do anything to prevent you from reaching Spes.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I just remember all the positive talk about gameplay, production, artwork, etc. and at half price the time was right to add it to the collection. Now I just have to learn it and get it to the table…

Mid/Late January… A Saturday snow storm, a cancelled gig and Julie with the flu… Selena’s working a long day but won’t be visiting the boyfriend tonight because the roads suck… good day to get some game manuals read and catch up on some videos and update the website… I guess I can amuse myself for a while…

Selena got home safe and wanted play a game until her boyfriend got on Xbox later… she was leaning towards Mystery House and Paranormal Detectives but, because Julie’s sick and the stories can only be played once, we prefer to save those for when all three of us can play… so what does she pick?? Yep – The Quacks of Quedlinburg of course… We hadn’t had a chance to try it with the Herb Witches expansion so I threw that in… we love what it added – the special witch actions that you can buy but only once in he game… the new pumpkin chip that moves 6 spaces (that’s a ton in this game)… it might make the game longer by a few minutes but we both were getting further in our cauldrons than in just the base games… this is a keeper!!

It was along about this same time I started contemplating a solo attempt at Black Angel… I continued to watch solo playthroughs (Game In A Nutshell by Heroes of Boardgames was most helpful)…

First Week of February… It wasn’t until the end of January that I felt confident enough to give it a go… it’s a fascinating game and no where near as complicated as it looks or reads… there are however a handful of tiny rules that make a huge difference in the gameplay… Hal (the AI opponent for solo mode) kicked my ass by more than 20 points!! I didn’t think I played that poorly but I had questions that were still very much in limbo after reading the rules so I went back and watched this video again and I figured it out…

I was setting up for another solo attempt when Julie came in and felt like playing something ‘easy’… I thought I had it down well enough to teach so I convinced her to try it… I had already given a lot of thought on how to teach it without reading the rulebook aloud though I did use it as a sort of checklist to make sure I didn’t miss anything… we played… we liked it… I came away needing a couple rules clarifications of course… back to the videos…

I watched the Game In a Nutshell video yet again along with some others… one in particular was messing up some of the same rules I had to check… now that I could tell right from wrong I felt it was time to go back and try this beast again!! Maybe the rule book could have made a bigger deal out of these few rules but otherwise it’s extremely well written and helpful.

My second solo mode went better… I lost by about 10 points… had more questions but skipped around a couple of the better videos and went at it again the next night where I beat Hal by 17!! Coming of my victory I was looking forward to trying it again with Julie again but the fever now in  it’s 6th or 7th week was getting the better of her (several doctors and multiple blood draws and still no answers)…

In the midst of taking Julie to all her doctor visits (and my own) I ended up taking a few days off from work which meant I didn’t have to be up at the ass crack of dawn (5:00am) but Selena didn’t know that… she came home from her night class and asked if I wanted to play a game… I had a resounding ‘YES!!’ out before she finished the question… 🙂  I think she may have thought that I’d be heading to bed because of work the next day… too late now – she was playing…

I had Black Angel setup and was about to go solo again but quickly reset for a 2 player game and set out to teach Selena… I was much better this time than with Julie since I now really knew the rules but more importantly some key overall strategies that I could share… When It was all done I had won by only a handful of points so I knew she got the game… she said she liked it but we’ll see if she asks to play it again – then I’ll know for sure…

February 7th… The area is getting clobbered with a two day one-two punch… freezing rain and ice, then 4-6 inches of snow then back to ice and rain on Thursday the 6th (I was able to snow blow before the rain came back and the snow got heavy) then another 4-8 inches of snow the 7th…

The snow on this day didn’t start until around noon… Julie had another early appointment but I got her in and out of and back home but the roads still weren’t great from the previous day… I had a private gig in Saratoga and planned to arrive about 2:30 because the load-in up a 45 degree ramp might be a challenge with all this snow… the 20 minute trip took about an hour!! There were cars and SUV’s and tractor trailers off the road everywhere and several spots on I-87 with trees across the highway – some blocking all 3 lanes!! The worst one looked like something big (like a tractor trailer) had blown through and broke off the smaller limbs making the 3rd lane / shoulder passable… I have a feeling I was lucky I got through before the State Police arrived and shut down the road…

I made it to the City Center (the roads in Saratoga were really bad)… pulled up to the ramp and tested it out with my wardrobe bags… it felt almost dry to my hiking sneakers… they’d shoveled and salted and, other than running out of physical gas pushing my gear up the severe incline I made it in without incident and even managed to park in the un-plowed lot across the street without getting stuck.

I moved everything onto the stage and started setting up when Rocco texted everyone to standby… our sound guy and keys player were coming from the west and all of the roads were closed with accidents!! Then came word that Skidmore had cancelled the event!! Saratoga police had issued a warning that the city was experiencing a high volume of downed trees, unplowed roads, wires down and power outages (our power at home had been off for a couple hours) and were telling everyone to stay out of Saratoga!! So I packed as much as I had already setup and prepared to head home…

In the hour since I had arrived the snow had intensified and the ramp was now a ski trail!! My two biggest cases (stacked) load first so I edged them closer to the ridge and started inching my way down the ramp… I didn’t know I could ski but in a manner of seconds I learned as the cases built momentum with me hanging on behind them and I ‘snowplowed’ (I believe that’s the correct ski term) my way to the bottom of the ramp (left), dragged them through the snow the rest of the way to the van and started loading. I’m proud to announce that I made all 4 trips top-to-bottom without dumping anything OR falling on my ass!! I settled into the van, took a deep breath and set out for home but not before getting stuck once in the loading area and three times trying to turn onto Route 50 by the Old Bryan Inn… the roads were even worse than when I arrived…

The Northway (I-87) was no better (right)… still barely plowed and I encountered several more areas with trees blocking the road – the worst of which was just north of exit 17… I made it to exit 18 and got off to detour around to test the route I planned to send Selena home from work on since it was flat at the intersections and it turned out to be better than many roads I’d already been on so I knew she’d be fine… now to try to snow blow this heavy wet snow to ensure she could get in the driveway…

As I neared home the tops of the mountains turned gold… the sun was starting to come out just before it would set!! I changed into my snow moving gear and by then the outdoors had a beautiful bright pinkish hue…I made my way to our shed, shoveled out the entrance and tried to open the doors but the shed’s doors were frozen shut… perfect… I threw down some snow melt and went to shovel the decks… then it was back to fighting the shed… the doors were starting to loosen up and after about 20 minutes of pushing and pulling and leaning and kicking I got one door open enough that I could get inside and push open the other…

I dragged the snowblower out hoping I could pull start it since the power was still out so I really needed to get as much done as I could because darkness was coming on fast… it turned over on the first pull… at least that’s working… but this snow would be a challenge… if I don’t wrestle the nose down it rides up the top of the wet crap… and the discharge auger isn’t working again… I thought it might be plugged with packed wet snow already but it was clear… it had done this before and after another 10-15 minutes of poking and cleaning I got it to move snow…

My legs were already screaming from dealing with the City Center ramp TWICE and fighting the wet snow was doing a number on my back… I got the driveway and turnaround clear and was about to make my usual dog path around the house when it stopped throwing snow… this time the combination of packed wet snow and whatever it was battling internally (I suspect it tangled with some of the nasty vines on our property) got the better of me… I was done in from the day’s activities and maneuvered it back into the shed in the dark with plans to call Green Management for service in the morning… then I proceeded to damage the bottom of one of the shed doors when I closed it… it must have hung up on the ice that I thought I had cleared in the light of the big snow moon… great… what usually takes about an hour had taken over 2 hours. The good news was that, just as I was trashing the shed door the power came back on, our motion lights brilliantly illuminating the damage I had caused… Now all that was left to do was pound down some soup and wait for Selena to get home… all of which brings me back to the point of the story (finally)…

Julie was awake – maybe she was feeling better or maybe just worrying about Selena on the roads (with school closed there hadn’t been a plow on our road since the previous day)… Selena made it without issue and I took advantage of Julie being up – asking Selena if she wanted to get a game in if Julie was up to it… both agreed so what to play??

A couple years ago I received a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas from a friend and was very pleasantly surprised by their modern board game selection (that seems to have diminished in the last year or so)… I decided on Decrypto… it wasn’t until I got home that I realized that it was meant for 2 TEAMS… uh-oh… how would I ever play this with only 3 people… then I read the rules and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to play this thing… so with that it sat on my shelf for over 2 years…

(From BGG): Players compete in two teams in Decrypto, with each trying to correctly interpret the coded messages presented to them by their teammates while cracking the codes they intercept from the opposing team.

In more detail, each team has their own screen, and in this screen they tuck four cards in pockets numbered 1-4, letting everyone on the same team see the words on these cards while hiding the words from the opposing team. In the first round, each team does the following: One team member takes a code card that shows three of the digits 1-4 in some order, e.g., 4-2-1. They then give a coded message that their teammates must use to guess this code. For example, if the team’s four words are “pig”, “candy”, “tent”, and “son”, then I might say “Sam-striped-pink” and hope that my teammates can correctly map those words to 4-2-1. If they guess correctly, great; if not, we receive a black mark of failure.

Starting in the second round, a member of each team must again give a clue about their words to match a numbered code. If I get 2-4-3, I might now say, “sucker-prince-stake”. The other team then attempts to guess our numbered code. If they’re correct, they receive a white mark of success; if not, then my team must guess the number correctly or take a black mark of failure. (Guessing correctly does nothing except avoid failure and give the opposing team information about what our hidden words might be.)

The rounds continue until a team collects either its second white mark (winning the game) or its second black mark (losing the game). Games typically last between 4-7 rounds. If neither team has won after eight rounds, then each team must attempt to guess the other team’s words; whichever team guesses more words correctly wins.

I recently watched a countdown of the Dice Tower’s Top 100 Games of All Time and there was Decrypto again… 2 years later and they were still loving on it… I read the rules again and watched some more videos and it finally clicked… now to find a way to play it with 3 people… Where else would I turn but the BGG forums… the gaming community is extremely creative and several people had some wonderful suggestions on how to pull off a 3 player game… taking everything I’d read into consideration I decided the simplest way was the best and that would be for 2 of us to compete while the 3rd person acted as decryptor for both of us…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remembered seeing some glowing review videos and absolutely loved the retro artwork…

After convincing the girls to try it I could see that Julie was feeling the confusion and frustration (that I had felt 2 years prior) as I tried to explain the game them… we started the first round and she wasn’t enjoying this at all… at the end of the 2nd round I caught a hint of a smile… then she proceeded to intercept my code in the 3rd AND 4th rounds to win the game… yep – she got it and liked it. I have a feeling we will try this again soon…

I was determined to make this a multi-game game night and talked Julie into (finally) trying Mystery House: Adventures in a Box – my argument was ‘ it’s run by an app and only lasts 60 minutes’… well… that’s almost the truth… we’re supposed to solve the adventure in less than 60 minutes but, failing that, the timer continues and our rating plummets (see above for more info and the full description)…

There are 2 adventures in the box (and more on the way) and we decided to attempt the one named ‘Family Portrait‘…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We’ve played a couple escape-room-in-a-box games and really enjoyed them and this was something along those same lines but with a totally new and fascinating gameplay mechanism…

We got stuck a couple times but the app got us back on course… we went overtime by almost an hour but couldn’t have cared less about our ranking… we solved it and we loved it!!! Hopefully the stars all align (Julie’s health and Selena’s and my work schedules) so we can try the other adventure.

February 9th… After I return from an afternoon Alumni Drumline rehearsal and Selena from work, we grabbed some dinner and she asked if I wanted to play a game (if I ever don’t want to play, keep your distance because I must be coming down with something bad)…

I was going to head to bed early to catch up from the crazy weekend before returning to work the next day so I told her I’d teach her a couple quick ones she hadn’t played before starting with Jetpack Joyride (see above for details)… She was familiar with the game from the app and the board game version has you placing Tetris style pieces for the route you’d be flying in the video game… if she hadn’t struggled in the first round she probably would have clobbered me in the end but she really liked it regardless…

Then I took out Jaipur (see also above for details)… she picked up this one equally as quick though I took the 1st round… she walloped me in the 2nd round so I knew it would be a close game… I won but not by much but more importantly we had a great time and I think these were a couple games she’ll be eager to play again.

February 13th: After running Julie to various doctors appointments during the day she was ready for a game but I let her craft for a while and waited for Selena to get home from her late class so the three of us could play… We settled on our first play of Paranormal Detectives (see above for details)…

I knew when I ordered it that Selena would want to be the ghost… I was right of course… NO SPOILERS going forward…

It’s like a modern version of  ‘Clue’ where you’re allowed to ‘interrogate’ the ghost of the deceased in a manner you chose but can only use each method once… the goal is to get all 5 answers correct (who, why, where, weapon, etc.)… Julie was still getting a feel for it but I thought I had figured it out and got 4 out of 5 correct – only missing the ‘Who’… she made a guess and got 3 of 5… after another round of ghostly communication I made my final guess but still didn’t get the 5th element… Julie however nailed all 5 and started resetting everything for another game and a new story… yep – they like it… The second story was more of a head scratcher… without spoiling anything, should you play this game, remember that the ‘Who’ refers to the person who CAUSED the victim’s death which may not necessarily mean a crime was committed… 🙂

February 19th… After weeks and weeks of waiting the upgraded ‘Quacks of Quidlenberg’ chips became available early last week!! I quickly ordered a set for the base game and the expansion (totaling more than the cost of the games themselves)… they arrived today and are worth every cent!!

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Also (I don’t remember if I mentioned it previously but) a while back Julie shocked me by asking why I hadn’t ordered Wingspan – a beautiful and hugely popular game about birds… I’m honestly not sure why but hearing this I set out to order it but, if you could find a copy on Amazon, it was $110+… guess I’ll have to wait… but today, for whatever reason, I decided to check the CoolStuffInc website and they had it, in stock AND for a regular price (less than $60)… button clicked – surprise for Julie on the way!!

(from the publisher): Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games.

You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:

• Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
• Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
• Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them

The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.

If you enjoy Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, we think this game will take flight at your table.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’m going to hold off on our perspectives until our playthrough below…

February 22nd… After several rescheduled rehearsals (when I had planned to revisit Flipside Gaming of course) I had an alumni drumline exhibition 10 minutes from the store… with a Christmas gift card still ‘burning a hole in my pocket’ as the saying goes so I made the 10 minute detour.

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I took my time up and down the isle in case I missed anything with a couple titles in mind – one of them being Space Base… I recently watched a top 10 games of all time video which reminded me of a lot of games I was interested in and this was one of them…

(from BGG): In Space Base, players assume the roles of Commodores of a small fleet of ships. Ships begin docked at their stations and are then deployed to sectors as new ships are commissioned under your command. Use cargo vessels to engage in trade and commerce; mining vessels to build reoccurring base income; and carriers to spread your influence. Establish new colonies for a new Commodore in a sector to gain even more influence. Gain enough influence and you can be promoted to Admiral!

Space Base is a quick-to-learn, quick-to-play dice game using the core “I roll, everyone gets stuff” mechanism seen in other games. It’s also a strategic engine builder using a player board (your space base) and tableaus of ship cards you can buy and add to your board. The cards you buy and the order you buy them in have interesting implications on your engine beyond just the ability on the card you buy, making for a different type of engine construction than seen in similar games. Players can take their engine in a number of directions: long odds and explosive gains, low luck and steady income, big end-game combos to launch from last to first, or a mix-and-match approach. Ultimately, Space Base is a game you can just start playing and teach everyone how to play in the first round or two and has a satisfying blend of dice-chucking luck and challenging strategic choices.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I was interested in the card play / engine building and it looked like it would be fun and easy to play… when I unboxed it I was a little surprised to find an almost 30 page manual but once I started reading it I realized they are beating readers over the head with the same concepts… maybe the manual could have been 2 or 3 pages but when I was finished with it I knew how to play for sure, taught Julie in no time and it was game on!!

As usual on our initial plays, I was more focused on making sure she got it and was having fun even though my Influence track was steadily climbing and the game is a race to 40 on this track… I worried that she wasn’t focused enough on that as she sat at 0 for the longest time but somewhere along the way (and I totally missed it) she upgraded some ships in her fleet in sectors that were getting frequent die rolls netting her 3 or 6 points on that track each time… by the time I realized what was happening it was too late for me to do anything about it and I had lost he game… Julie was ready to setup for another go round so yes – we both really like it.

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I would still have some gift card leftover so one more time through their selection and I came away with Quirky Circuits…

(from the publisher): Quirky Circuits is a game of robot programming silliness in which each player contributes to the programming of an adorable robo-friend. But be warned — no one knows which commands the other players will be tossing in! Will you be able to help the little robot complete its task, or will you unleash automated mayhem? Be careful for you’ll have to work together before your robot’s battery is drained! With 21 scenarios of increasing intensity, Quirky Circuits is guaranteed to provide hours of brain-bending fun.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): From a recent review I remembered thinking that not being able to talk while playing the cards was similar to Magic Maze – another movement / programming game where we weren’t allowed to communicate in any way that we all enjoyed…

Mid-April… it tool a while but the three of us finally got this to the table and from the laughter, screaming and ‘BEEP-BOOP’-ing I’d have to say we all really enjoyed this!! We only played the first scenario because it was getting late (after playing a couple other games ahead of it) but I’m sure this will get requested frequently… 🙂

March 2nd… Band rehearsal so I can’t pass up a visit to Flipside Gaming… I’ve had something in the back of my mind for a while and thought I remembered seeing it there… sure enough…

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Back in 2017 a game was released called Century: Spice Road… a simple, entry level game that was well received but came with the promise of being part of a trilogy where each successive game could be combined with the previous games or all three together… interesting concept if they can pull it off… and, from what I’ve read and watched, THEY DID!!

On this trip to Flipside Gaming luck was on my side and I used a small part of my hefty tax refund to pick up the whole Century Trilogy!! They are becoming hard to find and finding all three in one spot was difficult to pass up…

(from BGG): Century: Spice Road is the first in a series of games that explores the history of each century with spice-trading as the theme for the first installment. In Century: Spice Road, players are caravan leaders who travel the famed silk road to deliver spices to the far reaches of the continent for fame and glory. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:

– Establish a trade route (by taking a market card)
– Make a trade or harvest spices (by playing a card from hand)
– Fulfill a demand (by meeting a victory point card’s requirements and claiming it)
– Rest (by taking back into your hand all of the cards you’ve played)

The last round is triggered once a player has claimed their fifth victory point card, then whoever has the most victory points wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’d all but forgotten about this game but managed a game night with a local group a few weeks back and Spice Road was the first one we played… it looked fabulous, played as easy as I’d heard and was very enjoyable…

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In 2018 the second game in the trilogy was released – Century: Eastern Wonders…

(from BGG): Centuries ago, the lucrative spice trade compelled the prosperous nations of the world to explore alternate routes to the sources of these precious goods. These nations took to the seas to seek out exotic lands. This led to the discovery of the famed Spice Islands where the most valuable spices of the world were found. This discovery also led to further exploration, competition….and later, war! During this time of prosperity and opportunity, you find yourself traveling on the high seas in search of these exotic wonders. As a merchant and privateer representing your nation, you seek to control this region for glory and profit. Your journey continues in the Far East…

Designed by Emerson Matsuuchi, Century: Eastern Wonders invites fans to return to the exciting world of spice trading as players take to the high seas in the role of merchants seeking to prosper in the exotic Indonesian islands. Century: Eastern Wonders offers new, satisfying game mechanisms that provide infinite replayability and countless strategies.

Century: Eastern Wonders can be combined with Century: Spice Road to create a new gaming experience called Sand To Sea!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I haven’t made it to the table with this just yet but soon hopefully…

Then in 2019 the final entry to the trilogy was released –

Century: A New World…

(from BGG): Century: A New World is the third and final installment of the Century series from designer Emerson Matsuuchi.

Century: A New World sends players to the Americas at the dawn of the 16th century. Braving the wilderness, players are forced to explore new lands, trade with local inhabitants, journal their findings, and hunt/gather to survive! The game integrates the compelling and incredibly fun resource trading mechanisms found in the Century series with a worker placement mechanism with a twist!

Century: A New World may be combined with Century: Spice Road or Century: Eastern Wonders OR BOTH for all new mixable games.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This hasn’t hit the table yet either because I’m a bit anal in that respect and have to play the individual games of the trilogy in order before attempting to mix them… soon with any luck…

As impressive as this was, to make three distinctly different games – each a year apart – that can be combined in various ways to create multiple new games, equally impressive to me was that, when it was all said and done, if you own all three (which I obviously do) when you display them on your shelf side by side, the covers combine…

to make…

ONE…

COMPLETE…

PICTURE!!

Amazing!!

Click the combined image below for The Dice Tower / Tom Vasel’s review of the combined games…

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March 4th… (finally) Wingspan (see above for game details)…

The game arrived a couple weeks ago but Julie’s health has had her in bed for the duration… tonight we finally had a chance to try it out and we love it!!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): For starters, the production is absolutely amazing!! Even the rule book feels more like cloth than paper!! I’d been reading through and thought it would be a quick teach but once we started playing we quickly discovered that the genius in the design makes for a challenging game that is ultra easy to learn… we finished the first game and Julie started packing it up (thinking I’d be going to bed for work the next morning) but I got about as far as ‘don’t you want to…’ and she started setting it up again… having a firm grasp of the rules and mechanics we had a new game setup in no time and finished it in about 30 minutes!! AND it felt totally different from the first game… the game objectives pointed us in different directions, the end of round bonuses were all different and with that many birds (170 of the 914 species in North America) – even after shuffling the last game’s cards into the deck – we rarely saw the same birds again. Even with that, I had to order the European expansion… partly for the added birds but more for the added end of round goals that were much talked about. Otherwise the game doesn’t change at all with the expansion…

And of course, when we like something this much, I have to ‘bling’ it out a little… I ordered the bird houses (at right) to replace the cubes that come with the game AND a couple neoprene playmats – an eagle (above) and a stork but they (5 to choose from) are all gorgeous!! The player boards that come with the game fold up to look like leather field books… they look amazing but didn’t want to lay flat… I applied a little too much pressure to one and it snapped right in half (whoops)… these will make up for that… 🙂

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Mid-March Update… Julie wants to play Wingspan every chance we get!! I’m happy to play anything but we’re really enjoying this game and usually play 2 or 3 times in a row because, once we have everything setup, we can reset and complete another game in around 30 minutes…

One night we played and, rather than jump right into another, I convinced her to try Century: Spice Road (see above) with me… I’d read the rules (both pages) and knew she wouldn’t have any trouble picking it up… we blew through a game of that and we really liked it!! Next time I’ll be ready with Century: Eastern Wonders (see above)…

The next night I got Selena to try Wingspan… she really liked to too!! Enough that, much to my surprise (with my St. Patrick’s gig cancelled by the venue because of virus concerns), before she left for work she asked if we could play when she got home from work that night… oh absolutely!!  🙂

We finally got to play Wingspan with all three of us and it was a blast!! I think it’s safe to say that this is currently our go-to game followed closely by the Quacks of Quedlinberg… which we played right after Wingspan for the first time with the blinged-out chips… what a great night!!

My birthday is in a couple weeks and the girls were game shopping for me and texted me to see which title I’d prefer… I told them we have plenty of games and the best thing they could give me was a game night… and cake of course… 🙂

Mid / Late March Update… The Corona Virus has shut down everything!!! No gigs for the next 6-8 weeks at least and school has me working from home and only coming in 2 days a week (because we have 900+ Chromebooks that need to be cleaned and disinfected before students return which is currently not until 4 /19 but that could get pushed back to who knows when… I’ve been lucky in that I’m an early bird and, though it’s taken multiple stores and attempts, I’ve managed to find all the hard to find items some idiots are hording… last week I watched a man and woman stuff their vehicle with every roll of toilet paper and every tube of Clorox wipes from a local Dollar General THEN have the balls to sit in the parking lot and resell them!! I’m in Upstate New York and this couple had Connecticut plates… it takes all kinds I guess… police could / would do nothing…

Game wise my girls and I have plenty of games to entertain ourselves but everything came to a screeching halt when we had to put down our beloved Ellie… it had been a rough couple of weeks as her health declined… first it was a UTI… when her appetite didn’t return we headed back to the vet where they discovered a mass and her blood work indicated liver cancer… we thought we were going to have to put her down that day and were prepared for the worst but they thought they could treat it and sent her home… that night she did little other than rest, still wasn’t interested in eating anything and I thought her breathing was pretty labored… shortly after I got to work the next day I got a message that the girls were rushing back to the vet as her breathing was much worse… now her heart was enlarged and there were other issues so, sadly, we had to say goodbye. My wife is having the worst time as she and Ellie were inseparable being a service dog… where ever we gamed, Ellie would be there and that’s making it especially difficult for Julie… all in good time…

In happier news, I backed two more Kickstarters…

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The first was a no-brainer – the third in the West Kingdom trilogy – Viscounts (pronounced VI-counts) of the West Kingdom!! I am such a huge fan of Shem Phillip’s designs going back to Raiders of the North Sea… and the artwork is now both unique and iconic in my mind…

(from the publisher): Viscounts of the West Kingdom is set at a time when the King’s reign began to decline, circa 980 AD. Choosing peace over prosperity, our once strong King began offering our enemies gold and land to lay down their axes. But peace is a tenuous affair. As poverty spread, many people lost faith in his ability to lead and sought independence from the crown. Since finding favour in his courts, our future has also become uncertain. As viscounts, we must be wise and decisive. Loyalty is to be upheld, but gaining favour among the people must be our priority, should there be a sudden shift in power.

The aim of Viscounts of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained by constructing buildings, writing manuscripts, working in the castle and acquiring deeds for new land. Players begin with a handful of townsfolk, but should quickly seek out more suitable talents to advance their endeavors. Each turn they will be travelling around the kingdom, looking to increase their influence among the various areas of society. The game ends once the Kingdom reaches poverty or prosperity – or potentially both!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): For all the reasons above and for once again coming up with a new approach to worker placement… Shem Phillips just keeps hitting them out of the park in my opinion… the video links above are to a playthrough by the designer himself!! I commented to him afterwards about how much I love his games and backed his last two and told him if he announced his next game was ‘Whack A Worm With A Wet Noodle’ I would back it!!  🙂

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The second one was something I saw on a paid preview using prototype components but it was still interesting enough to get me to back it and that’s Tumble Town…

(from the publisher): Build the best tiny town in the West in this town and engine building game for 1-4 players that plays in about 45 minutes.

As the mayor of a small community, it’s up to you to construct the best town possible. Choose from a selection of building plans chosen at the last town meeting and get constructing! Each building plan lets you mine a certain type of material and shows what values of materials are needed to build, as each building has different requirements. Buildings can give you different abilities to be used on each of your turns, from manipulating the dice materials to be different values, to being able to transform specific die materials into other materials, to giving you extra points for building certain types of buildings.

Draft Building Plans: Only certain buildings are available each round, so draft the plans that work the best in your town.
Dice Manipulation: Certain buildings can let you manipulate the dice, making it easier to continue building!
Limited Dice: Buildings require certain dice types, so take strategically to make sure you can complete your town.
Spatial Puzzle: Place your constructed buildings along Main Street to create your town! The townspeople want a specific look for the town and if you meet their requirements, you’ll gain even more prestige!

Can you build the best town in the West?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This looks like a fascinating mix of drafting and dice and puzzles… there was just something about that made me want to play it and the only way to do that was to back it… otherwise, by the time it was for sale I would have forgotten all about it…

A couple days later I had to venture out into the COVID shopping madness which included a stop at our closed mall to visit our CVS Pharmacy inside of Target which was still opened for prescriptions for Julie… The co-pay had increased and the pharmacist had recommended some sort of discount card which Julie applied for… the pharmacist took the information and said it would be about 10 minutes and she’d try to put it through using the discount… what to do for 10 minutes… what else – visit the game isle!!

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In addition to the usual Monoply’s, Uno’s and Sorry’s, Target has some modern board games in stock as well… one in particular that I’ve had my eye on for some time was 2019’s Horrified… with our dear Ellie’s vet and cremation costs now sadly behind me, and being thrust into Coronavirus ‘house arrest’, I thought something different might take all our minds off the current health situation and our beloved, missing pet…

(from the publisher): The stakes have been raised. Imagine living in a place so wretched that it’s not plagued by one, two, or even three monsters — but seven of the most horrifying fiends!

In this game, you’ll come face to face with them all as you work together to rid the town of the maniacal or misunderstood creatures…before it’s too late.

Horrified includes high-quality sculpted miniatures (Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon). Its innovative, easy-to-learn, cooperative gameplay has players working together against the monsters with varying levels of difficulty. Just as each monster is unique, they require different strategies and tactics to be defeated.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): If you watch Tom Vasel’s review that I linked to you’ll see his eyes light up when he talked about this game… I grew up in the theaters where my Mom and Dad worked so I was no stranger to the classic Universal Studios monsters (Dracula, the Mummy, Werewolf, Invisible Man, Frankenstein and the Bride and the Creature from the Black Lagoon)…

The girls weren’t quite up to it yet so I decided to give it a solo play… WOW!!! What a slick, quick, thematic, simple and incredibly enjoyable game!! The girls saw me playing through it and wanted to play but were apparently exhausted and fell asleep before I could reset it… it will be hitting the table soon that’s for sure… fantastic!!

A few days later Julie’s still under the weather (nothing serious in comparison to the rest of the world right now but the usual constant pain with severe allergies on top – enough to make a person feel absolutely rotten) but I got Selena to give it a go (I told her I didn’t have to get up in the morning so if she was waiting for me to go to bed tonight I planned on outlasting her)…

As I said earlier, it’s a very easy game for as tactical as it is… and co-op games are always fun – everyone wins or everyone loses…
Tonight, just when it looked like we weren’t going to make it, Selena pulls out some key Perk cards so we were able to teach Frankenstein and the Bride what it means to be human before bringing them together… then we teamed up… one of us set off to smash the 4th of Dracula’s coffins while the other went to his location to defeat him!!
Next time maybe we up the difficulty with more and different monsters… 🙂
This could be a new family favorite but we’ll have to wait until Julie feels better for the final vote…

Last week of March Update… Finally caught Julie in better spirits to test out Horrified with her… Selena joined us which made it even more special… I’ll skip the game details – suffice it to say we were doing pretty well then a couple monster special powers kicked in and thwarted all of our best laid plans… with that Selena went back to a movie and crocheting (her personal relief from her missing pet) but Julie wanted to try it again… we picked some different monsters this time and kicked the game’s butt in short order. It’s now unanimous – we all really like Horrified – but overall, for the three of us, I’d have to call it a 3-way tie with Horrified, Quacks of Quedlinberg and Wingspan  (all listed above if you’d like more information)…

Second week of April Update… The Coronavirus is sadly taking it’s toll in loss of life and jobs nationwide and is starting to hit home…

Mom had to change her residence to the rehab / assisted living facility she went to after having an arthritic hip replaced back in February… the hip was never the problem – she was up and walking and rehabbing within hours of surgery… the second day she was set to go home as long as her two rehab sessions went well but she began vomiting after the first one which continued throughout the day… the nurses attributed it to the strong pain meds and took her off them since she was having no pain other than her throat and following day she rehabbed and was sent home instead of rehab… the hospital told her the insurance doesn’t cover short term rehab (but she really needed a long term rehab in the end)… So they sent her home and I moved in as she couldn’t be alone the first couple days but she wasn’t eating, the throat was still bothering her and she was barely doing the prescribed exercises… by the 5th day she was vomiting again and rushed by ambulance back to the hospital where they admitted her for dehydration and eventually found and treated the damage to her throat… It seems a Celebrex lodged in her throat the night of the surgery and burned a hole in her esophagus!! This time when they discharged her they sent her to rehab… last week she ended up moving to the residence floor… of course the facility now has several confirmed COVID-19 cases since our governor OK’d hospitals to send new patients to rehab facilities to make room for COVID patients… apparently they never tested the rehab patients before shipping them out… everyone in the facility has been tested and we’re waiting for the results… currently they are essentially in lockdown and can’t leave their rooms… we haven’t seen her in a month and it’s been that long since she’s had any fresh air…

Selena has been cut back to limited hours and just 2 days a week at Benson’s… all her college classes are being done remotely and she thankfully is showing no symptoms…

The band has lost 2 months worth of club dates and weddings so far… May and June may be lost next and possibly the entire summer!! That’s a big chunk of income to lose… school also cut me back to just 2 days a week on campus but is keeping me on a 40 hour week pay schedule (which I’m grateful for) because, other than the physical cleaning and repair of devices, I can get as much done via VPN from home as I would if I were there… I’ve had a drippy nose since the band played in the frigid cold outside at Mt. Snow in early March… the post-nasal drip makes me cough occasionally but that’s about it so far… none of the symptoms that they say to be aware of for COVID…

Julie is always in pain (5+ years now) after complications caused by her cancer treatments… she’s had a low grade fever (99-100) since before Thanksgiving (2019)… on Christmas Eve day it went over 101 and she was able to get in our doctor’s office but they had no idea and we spent the next several days having 2 rounds of blood work and visiting all her specialists, 2 cancer centers, an allergist, etc… no one had any idea and she was eventually treated for a severe sinus infection… within a few days her temp was back down to where it had been (99-100)… Her immune system is very weak – putting her at high risk so Selena and I take all sorts of precautions when we go to work or when I brave a store and any groceries (and mail) that come in the house get a thorough sanitizing before getting put away (the bags too)… Then she broke a tooth a few weeks ago… she finally found a dentist that would extract her tooth as long as her temp stayed below 100 but before it could be scheduled it went back over 101… throw in chest heaviness and difficulty breathing and it sounds like COVID-19… ON THE OTHER HAND… she has severe allergies and severe asthma (and it’s allergy season) so we’re hoping all of this combined is causing the symptoms – not the COVID… but we didn’t know for sure…

Doctors are all doing Skype visits and her calls to the Health Department determined that she’s not a severe enough candidate for a test… Fortunately, our COUNTY Health Department where we live just announced that they opened a drive-through testing center and faxed all the doctors in the area a form… told them that if they had someone they felt needed testing to complete and return the form and county health people would schedule a test. Julie has a PA at our doctor’s office that she loves and, after their Skype visits, the PA immediately sent the form back and that afternoon Julie was scheduled for a test first thing the next morning!! Thank you!! Given that, we’re all home in isolation now… both Selena’s and my work have advised us to stay home at least until the results come back…

It took several days but the results were NEGATIVE!! No COVID-19 for Julie!! Now if we can get that tooth out and find ANY doctor that can figure out what’s causing the fever…

What does this have to do with gaming?? Here we are – the three of us… safe at home (now in isolation) with a mountain of board games… but we’re all still reeling a bit from the loss of our beloved dog… on top of that, Selena is (understandably) concerned about her Mom and takes comfort in crocheting while binge watching movies… Julie has had to isolate herself from the rest of us as best we can in our small house and that means she couldn’t be close enough to play anything or even touch the pieces – even if she did feel up to it. In case she feels any better, I’m ready for her…

I stumbled on Tabletopia on Steam a few years ago and it was quite impressive… at the time there weren’t a lot games that interested me that also had solo modes (I was looking for something to play when the girls weren’t interested) but that appears to have changed as their library has grown to over 800 fully licensed digital adaptations of a ton of popular titles – including some that are still on Kickstarter (you can play them before you back a project or even while waiting for the physical copy to be delivered)!! I’ve also been visiting Tabletop Simulator – a slightly less polished production with a lot of user created content and unlicensed versions of games to weed through… Lastly, I created an account on Board Game Arena which has an even smaller library and almost amateurish design… All three have a lot to offer and a decent selection of free games plus some premium offers…

I have a few games picked out on Tabletopia (purchased Wingspan of course) but spent a couple days trying to get them to work between my PC and Julie’s iPad before finally finding a forum post that said that, because of the differences in video and graphics, that type of cross platform play was NOT supported. I had to borrow out daughter’s iPad, login into the Tabletopia website and setup the game there and everything worked fine so we can still play and maintain recommended social distancing…

I’m also getting ready to bring my friend Dave into the game mix… We had started getting together for a game night every week or two and he was really enjoying these modern board games… in return he taught me how to play Cribbage – something I’ve always wanted to learn!! To my surprise, none of the simulators offer Cribbage (well, one does but it’s so bad it’s not worth attempting)…

Something new (well, for me)!! A few years ago I went way out of my comfort zone and GM’d (game mastered) Great Western Trail at a local convention… In the midst of the widespread COVID house arrest condition, many of my musician friends are doing online performances!! Very cool but I’m sure no one wants to tune in to watch me thumping drums for more than a few minutes… My thought?? I’m hoping to be able to figure out how to run a live stream teach and play-along of Avenue (one of Julie’s favorite roll and write games – she might even play) as it seems to lend itself well to the online format since everyone can print their own sheets and the game has certain Bingo qualities… If I can pull it off (and it goes well) I may venture out with a small group for Ganz Shon Clever (which I always describe as Yahtzee on steroids)…  🙂

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Lastly for this update, I backed yet another Kickstarter!! This time it’s Planet Unknown…

(from the publisher): Our planet has run out of resources, and we are forced to move. We have discovered a series of planets and sent our rovers to test their environment with the hope of colonization. Our rovers have confirmed 1-6 viable colonization options. Planet Unknown is a competitive game for 1-6 players where players build and develop the best planet to win!

Each player has a goal of developing the best planet in Planet Unknown. Each round, each player will place one dual resourced tile on their planet, which is a polyomino shape. Each resource represents the infrastructure needed to support life on the planet. Every tile placement is important to cover your planet efficiently and also to build up your planet’s engine. After placing the tile, players do two actions associated with the two infrastructure types on the tile. Be careful because some tile placements will trigger “meteors” that make all planets harder to develop and prevent it from scoring points in its row AND column.

Planet Unknown innovates on the popular polyomino trend by allowing simultaneous yet strategic turn-based play via the Lazy S.U.S.A.N. space station in the center of the table. The game also condenses a 3-hour medium weight game into about 70 minutes for 1-6 players no matter the player count.
Curious how we do it, follow along until launch!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve watched the playthrough and review a couple times now and it looks very interesting… and Julie and I like the Tetris-y style games like Cottage Garden, BarenPark, etc… after my last viewing (and a check of my bank account) I decided it was doable and worth it. Can’t wait to actually play it!!  🙂

Third week of April Update… Very happy to finally have Julie’s negative COVID test results and be back to work – even if it is only a couple days a week… she finally got her doctor’s office and the dentist that has agreed to remove the tooth to exchange information and everything is a go for the middle of this week!!

To celebrate I placed a small order with a small company the specializes in small games called Button Shy Games… I’ve seen a couple of their ‘wallet’ games from a few years ago getting a lot of attention recently and decided to try them out… Each of these games are comprised of 18 cards TOTAL and the cards and rules all fit in a wallet that fits in a shirt pocket!!

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First up is Circle the Wagons…

(from BGG):Each player in Circle the Wagons is fixin’ to build up their own boomtown, but only one’ll build the best in the West!

Blaze a trail by draftin’ cards ’round the circle and placin’ ’em in yer town, tryin’ to connect matchin’ territories to score prosperity points! But don’t forget about them three bonus cards in the center of the circle that can score ya even more points — that is, if ya play yer cards right. With darn near five thousand unique ways to score and millions of draftin’ and placin’ combos, you’ll never build the same town twice!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said earlier, I’ve watched a number of video reviews and playthroughs of these games and I fear Selena may be ‘outgrowing’ family game night at age 19 so Julie and I have been playing games together when she’s up to it but she’s not always up to a full blown lengthy game so these quick and easy games were obvious choices.

Julie and I decided to give this a try the night it arrived… she wasn’t feeling great but wanted to play something and since the game takes about 10 minutes to play I thought it was a good choice… I explained the simple rules in no time and about 10 minutes later she’d crushed me at our first play!! I had a little revenge in our second game… and the third…

What’s most fascinating about this game to me is the brilliant design… 18 cards… on one side a mix of the 6 territory types (4 are shown in the art to the right) with a mix of 6 icons on top so they’re dual purpose depending on what you’re working towards which can be contiguous terrain types OR one of the 3 potential goals for that game… there are 18 available – the flipside of each card is a different goal… Brilliant!!

Oh – and I did get Selena to give it a try and she thought it was ‘really cool’… 🙂

And secondly, I picked up Sprawlopolis…

(from the publisher): Jackhammers chattering, trucks beeping, engines roaring, the sounds of construction are everywhere. Sprawlopolis is growing and YOU are in charge of it all. The last team of planners couldn’t cut it, so the city turned to your team, the best of the best. If anyone can turn this tiny town into a thriving civic center it’s you.

In Sprawlopolis, 1-4 players work together to build a new city from the ground up. Using only 18 cards and a variable scoring system, the game is never the same twice. Each turn, players will play 1 card from their hand to the growing city, trying to score as many points as possible. Players will have to communicate and plan without revealing their own cards in order to most efficiently develop large areas in each of the 4 zone types. Watch out though, the city hates paying for road maintenance so each road will cost you points in the end. When all cards have been placed, the game ends and players see if they have met dynamically generated minimum score for their game. Can you meet the demands of the officials, work with your fellow planners and build the ultimate urban wonder? It’s time to find out!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Again, I’ve watched a number of video reviews and playthroughs and they all seem to agree that both of these games pack a lot of game into an extremely small package. Throw in Selena’s dwindling interest and Julie’s health and I had to try this one because in Tom’s review he mentions that he likes it a lot solo… I should not that I snagged the solo add on for Circle the Wagons too… 🙂

No one has felt like playing so I’ve been doing solo plays and testing out Tabletopia and Steam… I broke this out one quiet night and got hooked right away… over the next several nights I’d get a play or two in before going to bed… so far, I’ve won ONCE out of an estimated 12-14 plays… the beauty of solo plays and games like this is that there is no set time limit for a turn or the entire game… I do much better when I take my time…

After Julie recovered from a long overdue tooth extraction and was starting to feel better I taught this to her… the cooperative nature made it different (we haven’t played many co-ops lately) and fun… the way it card drafts cuts down the potential alpha-gamer (a player who’s always telling everyone what they should do)… in Sprawlopolis the first player starts with 3 cards and everyone else starts with one… player 1 selects one of their 3 cards to play, lays it on the table and passes the remaining 2 cards to the next player in turn order… THEN all players can discuss the possible playing position… it’s a neat idea and works very well. Julie’s already asking to play it again… 🙂

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End of April Update… Self-quarantine and isolation continue and I discover a gift card from my birthday that I haven’t put to good use… I continue to stumble on reviews and playthroughs of Orleans – a highly rated game from a few years back that has always interested me but somehow never made it to my collection… I started shopping online and discovered some great prices at Miniature Market and they were in stock!!

(from BGG): During the medieval goings-on around Orleans, you must assemble a following of farmers, merchants, knights, monks, etc. to gain supremacy through trade, construction and science in medieval France.

In the city of Orléans and the area of the Loire, you can take trade trips to other cities to acquire coveted goods and build trading posts. You need followers and their abilities to expand your dominance by putting them to work as traders, builders, and scientists. Knights expand your scope of action and secure your mercantile expeditions. Craftsmen build trading stations and tools to facilitate work. Scholars make progress in science, and last but not least it cannot hurt to get active in monasteries since with monks on your side you are much less likely to fall prey to fate.

In Orleans, you will always want to take more actions than possible, and there are many paths to victory. The challenge is to combine all elements as best as possible with regard to your strategy.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I was trying to figure out what the attraction might be for this game and realized that it may have been one of the first reviews I ever watched by Tom Vasel of the Dice Tower… after watching it again and several others I think this game is right in our wheelhouse and something we’re sure to enjoy.

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After adding Orleans to my cart I remembered also watching reviews of some expansions – one of which included solo scenarios… I then found Orleans Invasion at a bargain price, added that…

(from BGG): Orleans Invasion, the first large expansion for the award-winning game “Orléans”, contains six scenarios, new buildings, and several new event-cards. The scenarios were designed by Reiner Stockhausen and Inka & Markus Brand:

———-– “Prosperity”: A classic expansion for 2-5 players including new buildings and introducing the carpenter, designed by Inka and Markus Brand.
———-– “Invasion”: A co-operative scenario for 2-5 players in which the players have to fend off an invasion and fulfill personal goals to win, designed by Inka and Markus Brand.
———-– “The Duel”: A scenario for two players in which both opponents have to complete four objectives to win, designed by Reiner Stockhausen.
In addition, Orléans: Invasion contains three solo-challenges by Reiner Stockhausen.

———-– “The Dignitary”: is a solo scenario in which you are an important dignitary trying to gather as many citizens as possible.
———-– “Capital Vierzon”: is another solo scenario challenging you to develop Vierzon to become the capital of its region.
———-– “Travelling Salesman”: the solo player plays the role of a salesman travelling through the country and delivering valuable goods to the farthest of places.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Again, two words, ‘Tom Vasel’… OK, one more word, ‘SOLO’… There isn’t a solo variant in the base game (though I think some people have written and posted them on BGG) and I find myself – especially during these COVID induced days and nights of isolation – playing more solo games because my family isn’t up to it and I can’t visit anyone due to the social distancing restrictions…

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Then I remembered yet another expansion that looked like it would be easy to add and even teach to new players so I threw in the Trade & Intrigue expansion as well (though I’m positive I’ll never play with the cutthroat Intrigue part of it)…

(from BGG): Orléans: Trade & Intrigue is the second large expansion for the award-winning game Orléans.

In addition to new place tiles, this expansion contains a new “beneficial deeds” game board, a new and challenging set of events, and trade contracts. The “Intrigue” introduces ways to hinder your opponents’ progress or even allow you to take over your opponents’ achievements.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Five words this time, ‘Tom Vasel and Jason LeVine’… I’m always a sucker for an expansions that adds interesting elements to any game but doesn’t make you feel like you’re learning a whole new game… it sounds like that’s what the Trade part brings in this one…

Early May update… Julie’s feeling so good (or is just tired of my incessant whining about wanting to play) that she joined me at the table to try Orleans… and we both loved it!!!  If we hadn’t had other things planned around the house we probably would have played again after supper… As it was, she was ready to play again the next afternoon and I added the Trade part of the Trade and Intrigue expansion… and we loved that too!!! The order cards added a new dimension, the new events made it even more interesting!!

We want to try is the Invasion expansion that makes it a total co-op but that will have to wait for now!!

I still had gift card money left and I get free shipping if I exceed $100… what else do they have?? Of course – the Age of Artisans expansion for Architects of the West Kingdom!!

(from the publisher): In Architects of the West Kingdom: Age of Artisans, journeymen have returned to the city as master craftsmen, equipped with knowledge of new crafts and tools. The Guildhall has never been so busy! While some apprentices spend time learning new skills, others adorn the city’s buildings with everything from golden tapestries, to stained glass windows. But don’t let the shimmer of lights and fancy wares deceive you. For not all that glitters is gold.

In addition to including components for an extra player, Age of Artisans adds the new Craft Cards, a dual-layered Guildhall Board, two new Player Boards and a variety of new Apprentices and Buildings.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I am now 100% in the (game designer) Shem Phillips camp!! I told him so in a recent online comment after backing his latest project… actually, what I told him was, “If you announced that your next game was ‘Whack A Worm With A Wet Noodle’ I would back it!!”

This is another one of those expansions that add even more interesting twists to the gameplay yet it’s one I would include when teaching new players…

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And I rounded out the order with something for Julie’s upcoming birthday… a game that she really liked when we watched the review named The Isle of Cats!!

(from the designer): The Isle of Cats is a competitive, medium-weight, card-drafting, polyomino cat-placement board game for 1-4 players (6 with expansions).

You are citizens of Squalls End on a rescue mission to The Isle of Cats and must rescue as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vesh arrives. Each cat is represented by a unique tile and belongs to a family, you must find a way to make them all fit on your boat while keeping families together.

You will also need to manage resources as you:

———-– Explore the island (by drafting cards)
———-– Rescue cats
———-– Find treasures
———-– Befriend Oshax
———-– Study ancient lessons
Each lesson you collect will give you another personal way of scoring points, and there are 38 unique lessons available.

Complete lessons, fill your boat, and keep cat families together to score points, the winner will be the player with the most points after five rounds.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Well we love games with polyomino pieces and we love cats… I think the game should have been called ‘Isle of Cats’ (I Love Cats)… it looks incredible and I’m going to have a tough time waiting another month until her birthday to get it to the table…

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Early May… Selena occasionally is interested in playing a game but she’s been chomping at the bit to play ‘Lord of the Labyrinth‘ – the other scenario included with Mystery House: Adventures in a Box… (see above for more info and the full description)…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said earlier, we’ve played a couple escape-room-in-a-box games and really enjoyed them and this was something along those same lines but with a totally new and fascinating gameplay mechanism…

The last one we played was supposed to be the easiest but we got stuck a couple times and had to rely on the app to get us back on course… this one (supposedly the harder of the two included) was no different and while we did grind to a total halt at one point, we were able to figure out a coupe of the trickier puzzles on our own which, despite going overtime by more than an hour, did leave us with some sense of satisfaction…

It’s obvious we SUCK at these types of games but that doesn’t keep us from looking forward to the first expansion due out later this year (2020)…

Mother’s Day Follow Up…  Deep down you knew I wouldn’t wait… actually a couple factors came into play…

Julie’s stomach / side had been bothering her and she’s been in constant pain which is nothing new but I could tell this new pain was really bringing her down this time – maybe it was compounded with all the COVID stuff… then add on her service dog situation… if you’ve been following along you know we had to put our beloved Ellie down a couple months ago… Julie’s sister has a Lab / Pit mix named ‘Pixie’ that’s about 18 months old and stayed with us for about half of last summer while her sister and kids (who also stayed with us) visited other family… and she’s (the dog – well sis is too) a total sweetheart!! The kids are getting older (teens) and have no interest or desire to entertain / train / clean up after or otherwise interact with the pup so sis thought of us and of course we’d love to have her!! Problem… they’re all in Georgia… and all the people we knew that were visiting the south and heading back north – who offered to bring her up – all bailed for various reasons (I can’t blame them all things considered)… so I think Julie’s general malaise may have been the combined result of these things…

Selena and I had picked out beautiful cards, an assortment of her favorite candies for Mother’s Day and we agreed to include the game as well… we gave it all to her the night before and could immediately see her spirits improve even though she wasn’t quite up to the treats or the game…

The next day (Mother’s Day) however she was more herself and had devised a plan to rescue the (hopefully) future service dog that involved a rental SUV and Julie and Selena splitting the 15 hour drive… they reserved the vehicle online through Hertz but had to go to the Albany airport rental shed in the parking garage – the only one that will let you take a car beyond states that border NY… Hertz had an online special that waived the additional $52 / fee for a driver under 21 or something… they drove an hour down to pick it up – only to be told they couldn’t pay with cash, they couldn’t reserve with a debit card and the only credit card she has (we’ve gotten rid of all but one) had only a base limit… she called the card company, got a live person on a Sunday afternoon (!) and was able to transfer funds to get it to the $600 needed but still couldn’t get it all to work in their system and, after 4 hours, they made the hour drive back sans rental vehicle… The dumbest part of the whole thing was when you bring the car back you can pay cash or with a debit card – they just need to have a hold on a credit card for the entire amount while you’re using their vehicle… but the girls still wanted to play (yes – even Selena) so we ate and I set it up.

The game (finally)… I was fairly well prepared for ‘the teach’ so I skipped most of the actual rules (other the what they actually needed to play and the keys to winning) and focused on the story because the rule book has some entertaining narrative… So, in my best dramatic reading voice (somewhere between James Earl Jones and Goofy), I set the mood and got them ready to set sail for the Isle of Cats… and we all loved it!!! It seems impossible to cover the entire boat… we all struggled to complete many of the rooms (you LOSE 5 points for each of the 7 that aren’t completed)… Selena seemed to go through her fish (money) pretty quick each round and only scored in the 30’s… I managed a couple large families of cats and covered the two Captain’s rooms to complete a lesson card and finish with 67 but Julie finished more rooms, managed to lose fewer points and edged me out with a score of 70. If we hadn’t planned to be up so early the next morning we probably would have done it again… oh yeah – it’s a keeper… back to the dog and Georgia and the next morning…

On the road again… almost… I agreed to drive them down to Albany before heading to work so they wouldn’t have to leave the car there while making the trip… Selena had to go too because, if she was going to be driving, they needed her license too… we arrived before 7:00am… the woman on the counter found the online reservation but couldn’t seem to find any of the details Julie had selected… then she informed us that if Selena was going to be driving SHE had to make the reservation to avoid the additional $53 / day charge!! Selena only has a debit card so there goes that… then add on insurance and roadside assistance and it looks like a done deal and the total?? $610 – $10 over… and they won’t take cash or let you pay with a debit card… fine – take off one of the insurances ($12)… they can’t – you need to cancel it… fine – cancel it!! They can’t – you need to cancel it online… we found a garbage can to use for a table, canceled all this, made a new reservation and went back to the window… the woman had keys in her hand… we’re close… Julie’s card is declined… as near as we can figure the transfer that showed as available when she checked hadn’t actually been made available yet… and the card company isn’t answering now… strike 2 and I brought them home…

They were both on their phones trying to find a solution but by the time we got home I had already decided that, since the van was empty (my gear was all stored at school) I’d let them take it and hope for the best as they headed to a state that reopened from the virus early and developed almost 30,000 new confirmed cases in the first 2 weeks… a state (like many others) where New York plates and their occupants are not welcome as they’re perceived as bringing the infection from the epicenter which was NY City… but my wife, who is highly at risk and needs to take every precaution, who sanitizes every grocery item that comes in the house – including the bags themselves – who refuses to let any of us eat take out from the few remaining places that are open… and our daughter, who was a preemie and also (like Julie) diagnosed with EDS last year and needs to take precautions, have BOTH decided that this is a necessary trip… with any luck, I should see them and my van and our new arrival all in one piece in a few days… fingers crossed… yes – I’m excited to have the new pup but wish there had been a better way…

Yep – I made a friend last summer and she’s a big baby… this is ‘Pixie‘ 🙂

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Back to board games…

A while back I asked a friend at work to let me know if they ever thought I was ‘going off the deep end’… After telling them of my recent purchases they looked at me, paused then calmly said, “Don’t get the bends on the way up!!”  🙂

That said (and I guess to further prove the point) I also pre-ordered something for us all that I already know Julie and I will enjoy and that’s Rush M.D.!!

(from BGG): You are one of the doctors that were just hired for the brand-new, cutting-edge Medical Center. Alongside your colleagues, you have to cooperate well, to admit, diagnose and treat various patients who need your help. Combine your strengths and treat efficiently the patients arriving at hospital, but be careful, because mistakes can be of the highest value in Rush MD!

‘Rush M.D. is an innovative, real-time, cooperative board game that simulates the challenging and high-pressure nature of medical professions. A worker placement mechanism, using hourglasses as workers allows, but also limits, players to perform a multitude of actions. Each player handles 1 Doctor hourglass running around the hospital, admitting patients, providing immediate medical care, performing different kinds of exams as well as performing surgeries. Additionally, there are 4 more Nurse hourglasses, which can be used by all players. Nurses provide medicines to patients, supply all necessary drugs and equipment that you need to carry out all your exams and medical procedures. Any worker placed on an action space may not be used elsewhere before the sand within the hourglass runs out, making each decision important as time is limited.

The game plays from 1-4 players and lasts for 4 rounds of 4 minutes each. That means you only have 16 minutes in total to treat various patients, overcome many difficulties and challenges and manage to cooperate efficiently with your teammates, combine your forces into helping as many of your patients. A highly thematic experience that is equally rewarding for gamers and families, filled with fun, challenges and sharp decision making!

In Rush M.D. pressure is high as human lives are upon your hands! Can you handle the Rush, doctors?!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Real time, cooperative and for us (because we tend not to take games too seriously) ‘hectic’ equals ‘fun’!! I’m sure Selena will get into this because her brain just seems to work so much faster than all of ours now – to the point where we can’t play things like Mondo or Ligretto Dice with her… 🙂

Another May Follow Up… Julie and Selena weathered the 18+ hour return trip from Georgia with our new fur baby (and her step brother – supposedly for just the next few months)… Julie developed a new health issue just before they left and it was no better when they returned 5 days later but she did have a video visit with her doctor and she was going to try some antibiotics… we’ll see if that helps… fingers crossed… again…

In the meantime, Julie really wanted to play the Isle of Cats again… I was setting up for a first try at the solo mode but gladly switched over to a 2 player setup… such a great game!! We finished and I started packing and was ready for bed but Julie really wanted to play again… I just about got it setup and the new pain in her side reared up again – bringing her to tears and sending her to bed while I went back to packing up… she likes the game to the point where she wanted to play through the pain… maybe they should print that on the box… 🙂

Heading-Into-the-Last-Week-of-May Follow Up… Julie’s been in pain and much more nauseated than usual due to the new anti-biotics so Selena’s been handling most of the dog duties which gave me the opportunity for a few solo plays of Isle of Cats… and this thing is a bear!! The best I’ve been able to do in 3 attempts is a TIE and for that I had to go up against just the base solo lessons (I’d been throwing in one advanced solo lesson to ramp it up a notch)… though I will say, in the first try, I misread the rules and thought that I would be scoring for my sister’s (the solo opponent) lessons which I figured out as I started scoring after taking all those point from me and giving them to her… still loving this game!!

A couple days later and Julie is feeling a little better and really wants to play… this time we did get 2 in back-to-back!! She beat me the first game but it was clear that we’re both getting the hang of this game… the second game I took advantage of some perfect lesson cards and managed a personal best 120 point to Julie’s 90… again it was apparent that we’re both catching on as we each had a ton of lesson cards to score – putting my custom designed and laminated score sheet to good use… I could tell she was thinking about a 3rd game – maybe even switching to Orleans – another recent favorite… but in the end she decided to get some rest… but it was fun for me to watch her pulling combos out of her deck… 🙂

Last Week of May… Julie’s in more pain than usual and took a fall and it’s August hot – over 90… odd for May – especially when it snowed a couple weeks ago… With Julie laid up and Selena’s dwindling interest I continue to look for solo opportunities with some of my old favorites and as luck would have it I stumbled on a video that mentioned an app for Clank! that runs a solo mode!! That sounds interesting even though ‘beat your own score’ is not my favorite way to play solo (I prefer going up against an AI opponent… I really prefer playing with my girls)… I discovered I already had the app from Renegade Games (it’s part of the same app I use when playing Fuse – a coop real-time dice game where everyone’s working together to diffuse bombs on a ship)…

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Clank – A Deck Building Adventure – a sort of deck building dungeon crawl /race of sorts…

(from publisher Renegade Games) Burgle your way to adventure in the deck-building board game Clank! Sneak into an angry dragon’s mountain lair to steal precious artifacts. Delve deeper to find more valuable loot. Acquire cards for your deck and watch your thievish abilities grow.

Be quick and be quiet. One false step and CLANK! Each careless sound draws the attention of the dragon, and each artifact stolen increases its rage. You can enjoy your plunder only if you make it out of the depths alive!

So… I setup Clank! and relearned the rules and the minor changes the app adds (like creating a Threat Level)… I made it out of the dungeon the first time and managed 59 points in the process but fell two steps short the second time but really enjoyed the experience – so much so that I begged Selena to give it a try and SHE DID!! THREE TIMES!!! We decided that it would be easier to score with a score sheet and I’ve been having a blast creating modified and / or more graphically interesting sheets for other games so she took a break and I designed a sheet over lunch, printed and laminated it – after which we played the normal version a couple times… I was thrilled!!! She said she had forgotten how much fun that game was and started looking through the shelves of our collection for something else to play… I may have her hooked again… at least for the time being… 🙂

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The next night I pulled out Luxor…

I love the game because of the unique way your hand of cards is used to move around the temple…

(from the publisher): On the hunt for priceless treasures, groups of adventurers explore the legendary temple at Luxor. Their ultimate goal is the tomb of the pharaoh, but many treasures can be collected as they search. As they explore, the challenge unfolds: The player who manages to quickly get their team of adventurers to the tomb, while salvaging as many treasures as possible, will be the winner.

You can find the full description on BGG…

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Next she wants to play Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre…

Here’s the story on that one that’s a little different to say the least (and not quite ‘family friendly’)… 🙂

I always read through the rules and figure things out then re-read the necessary parts of to the girls to teach them… On our first play I was very serious… below is the first paragraph (no offense intended)…

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(from BGG) Did you know that magical wizards are battling to the death … and beyond … right now!? “Why battle?” you might ask. “What have I got to prove, magic man?” Only who’s the most awesomely powerful battle wizard in the entire realm, that’s what! As a Battle Wizard, you’ll put together up to three spell components to craft millions (okay, not really) of spell combos. Your spells might kick ass, or they could totally blow – it’s up to you to master the magic. You will unleash massive damage on the faces of your wizard rivals in a no-holds-barred, all-out burn-down to be the last Battle Wizard standing. And it doesn’t stop there! Powerful magic items bring on a whole new level of bloody carnage as you and your mighty wizard opponents tear each other limb from limb in an orgy of killing! Do you have what it takes to use epic spells in a war at Mt. Skullzfyre? Will YOU be the Ultimate Battle Wizard!?!

Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre is a humorous card game depicting a vicious, over-the-top battle between a variety of comically illustrated wizards. The game focuses primarily on creating three-part spell combos to blast your foes into the afterlife. The unique Dead Wizard cards allow players to stay in the game even after their wizards have been defeated.

We played a best-of-5 game before supper then a best-of-7 after… and had a great time in the process of course… 🙂

I’ve picked out a few others I don’t think she’s played but think she’ll enjoy and plan on taking full advantage of her newfound ‘game mood’… 🙂

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Last Week of May… Julie has been in severe pain, can hardly walk or get any sleep but is trying to rest… Selena’s renewed game interest continues though so I taught her something a little meatier tonight…

When we were in Rochester last year for the girls to see a specialist who confirmed their EDS (Ehlors-Danlos Syndrome) diagnosis, I got to visit Millennium Games… one of the many things I liked there was that, at various places around the store, they had games setup like they would be played. One of those games caught my eye and I almost snagged it but didn’t… a few days later I had to order something of Amazon and it appeared so I thought it was a sign… the game was Hadara.

(from the publisher): Hadara carries you off into the world of cultures and countries of this earth. Over three epochs, you will experience the transformation of your new world from a small settlement to a high culture. You want to populate this world with people who come from different cultures and continents as well as different ages. To bring glory and honor to your world, you should choose the persons and accomplishments skillfully. But you should not ignore agriculture, culture, and military power, otherwise one of your competitors might get bigger and more successful than you. Who will succeed first in creating a new flourishing high culture?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said earlier, this caught my eye in Rochester… a number of the videos I watched later compared it to Splendor  which we all enjoyed… Hadara is bright and colorful and looked like it would be easy to play and teach… it was. And very enjoyable!! I just squeaker by her in the end but she really liked it. 🙂

First Week of June… Julie’s had x-rays and blood work this week… she struggles to walk and it appears the EDS is destroying the ligaments and cartilage in both knees (pretty much bone on bone now) and her spine is degenerating in a couple spots… all together she’s at a high risk for falling now and we sadly need to order a walker for her…

First weekend of June… and still no band work on the horizon… apparently it’s OK to assemble in large groups to protest or riot and loot without social distancing (or in some cases the required face masks) but NOT to have dinner in a restaurant or frequent an entertainment venue… the double standard is costing a lot of people a lot of money, jobs and even businesses… rant over… the point is I’m home for another weekend and Selena still wants to play (Julie just can’t get comfortable or any relief)…

While Selena’s at work I try to pick something I’ll be able to teach her in a hurry that she might enjoy then run through everything while she eats and by the time she’s finished we’re ready to play… on this night it was…

Everdell – Where do I start… the artwork, the components, the reviews… all of these things kept bringing me back to this game so I finally snagged it thinking the girls will love the art and cute woodsy characters…

(from BGG): Within the charming valley of Everdell, beneath the boughs of towering trees, among meandering streams and mossy hollows, a civilization of forest critters is thriving and expanding. From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a year have come and gone, but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities established. You will be the leader of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host—you have a busy year ahead of yourself. Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

Julie and I loved it – even if it took a couple plays with some more tutorial videos in between to get a better grasp of the gameplay… it was the same for Selena… while I was using cards to get cards that triggered more resources for more cards she was blowing through her workers and stuck with nothing left to do and finished the game well before I did… by the time we finished, I had a full 15 card city and Selena had managed to play 8 BUT after watching my final turns it clicked for her and, even though she’s been done for 10 minutes, I still only edged her by 3 points… and she wants to try it again – always a good sign!!

Mid-June… Julie was up for the first time in weeks and want to play some Wingspan and Selena still has the itch to play so all three of us actually sat down for a game!! We’ve all played it so it was more of a refresher than a teach and we jumped right in… 4 rounds goes by in a flash so you really need to work out a plan with whatever cards are available – hopefully with additional powers to trigger so you get some extra actions as the game unfolds… it was a blast of course – especially having both of my girls at the table… 🙂

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Mid / Late June… Julie’s EDS has her using a walker or canes now… knees are shot so she’s been laid up… Selena is working more and I’m back on campus full time though there’s still no band work… we’ve had Spirit Island for a couple years but I’ve struggled to wrap my head around it…

A very interesting concept… in Spirit Island players are the SPIRITS trying to scare off colonists who are trying to inhabit the island!! I knew Selena was going to love it when I got it for her two Christmases ago…

(from BGG): In the most distant reaches of the world, magic still exists, embodied by spirits of the land, of the sky, and of every natural thing. As the great powers of Europe stretch their colonial empires further and further, they will inevitably lay claim to a place where spirits still hold power – and when they do, the land itself will fight back alongside the islanders who live there.

Spirit Island is a complex and thematic cooperative game about defending your island home from colonizing Invaders. Players are different spirits of the land, each with its own unique elemental powers. Every turn, players simultaneously choose which of their power cards to play, paying energy to do so. Using combinations of power cards that match a spirit’s elemental affinities can grant free bonus effects. Faster powers take effect immediately, before the Invaders spread and ravage, but other magics are slower, requiring forethought and planning to use effectively. In the Spirit phase, spirits gain energy, and choose how / whether to Grow: to reclaim used power cards, to seek for new power, or to spread presence into new areas of the island.

In the last couple weeks it’s been mentioned on a number of game channels I watch though many of them tagged it as one of the most difficult games they’ve played… uh-oh… I recently started watching ‘How to’ videos again and am determined to learn and play this beast – so much so that I setup for a solo play…

I was working my way through it when Selena came home from work and started looking at the various spirits and now SHE REALLY wants to play it!! I continued reading and watching and kept the game on the table and over the last couple of nights Selena would ask if I was ready for it so last night we gave it a shot!!

It was a slow go to say the least… LOTS of iconography… LOTS of phases… LOTS of interactive moving parts to keep tracks of… AND it’s COOPERATIVE which I thought would make it easier… it didn’t… After about an hour we had fumbled through a few rounds with me spending most of it with my nose in the lengthy rulebook trying to make sure we were interpreting the icons and the actions correctly – all while Selena trying to get the dogs to settle down… I think we were getting a bead on it but we were both worn out from our days at work and called it a night – both of us wanting to give it another go ASAP but we have family staying with us for a few weeks so it could be a while… but it’s still an amazing beast of a game!! And I was right – Selena loves it… 🙂

First Week of July… Selena and I gave Spirit Island another go but trying to corral 3 dogs now (adding Julie’s sister’s boxer / beagle mix while she and her 2 kids are visiting family to the north) made it a lesson in frustration and we gave up before barely starting the game… However, on this night, Julie was out of bed and saw the game laid out on the table and now she really wants to play too!! One good thing about all the ‘false starts’ is I usually pickup a few things that I want to / need to go back and review / re-read / re-watch in hopes of being better prepared the next time which came sooner than I expected…

With Julie’s sister and kids due to return from visiting other family the next day, we decided to give Spirit Island one more go and Julie was able to play too!! Selena and I had a good feel for it by now so we quickly brought Julie up to speed and by the second round she had it down and we were able to get much further than any of our previous attempts… I think we were even in a good position to WIN!! But it was getting late and we were well over 2 hours into it so we called it a night with the intention of finishing the next day… unfortunately that didn’t happen with the family’s return and Julie’s health issues so it was packed away once again… hopefully we can all remember it fairly quickly whenever we get to try it again…

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Second Week of July… I had a couple fill-in drum gigs at a ‘renegade’ resort atop a mountain (where all guidelines were obeyed) but they’re done and Selena is still in a game mood so I thought I’d mix it up by pulling out one she’d never played but I remember her coming home from work one night when Julie and I were playing it (over a year ago) and she thought it looked really cool and that’s Teothihuacan: City of Gods!!

(from the publisher): Travel back in time to the greatest city in Mesoamerica. Witness the glory and the twilight of the powerful pre-Columbian civilization. Strategize, accrue wealth, gain the favour of the gods, and become the builder of the magnificent Pyramid of the Sun.

In Teotihuacan: City of Gods, each player commands a force of worker dice, which grow in strength with every move. On your turn, you move a worker around a modular board, always choosing one of two areas of the location tile you land on: one offering you an action (and a worker upgrade), the other providing you with a powerful bonus (but without an upgrade).

While managing their workforce and resources, players develop new technologies, climb the steps of the three great temples, build houses for the inhabitants of the city, and raise the legendary and breath-taking Pyramid of the Sun in the centre of the city.

Each game is played in three eras. As the dawn of the Aztecs comes closer, player efforts (and their ability to feed their workforce) are evaluated a total of three times. The player with the most fame is the winner.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said in my original entry last year, this game looked fascinating right from the Kickstarter preview (and watching everyone try to pronounce it was just a fun bonus)… Julie and I played it a few times and really liked it so I gave myself a quick refresher and set it all up thinking I’d give solo mode a run if Selena wasn’t interested… she was… but, as with Spirit Island (see above), trying to teach between scolding dogs, feeding dogs and walking dogs became too much and we had to throw in the towel the first couple of times…

Over the past few months there have been a number of exciting Kickstarter games that I wish I could have backed but the lack of band income means a higher sense of responsibility in my budget… with things appearing to turn around (and only 26 hours left in the campaign) I decided the time was right to back a project that I’ve been hearing about for months and the buzz has been overwhelming and positive… then when I actually visited the Kickstarter page and saw what was included… well, here’s my debit card… 🙂

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This is Merchants of the Dark Road and I cannot wait to get this on my table (even though it will most likely be sometime next year)!!

(from the publisher): After half a year of daylight, we must now prepare for the dark season. The roads will be treacherous but they will still need to be braved by a select few in order to keep our cities thriving. In Merchants of the Dark Road, you are one of these brave few merchants that travel the dangerous paths between cities. While the job is perilous, fame and fortune await.

Discover the capital city where most of your actions will take place using a rondel action system. Collect and produce items to add to your caravan, or sell these items to local heroes and hire them to travel with you. Manipulate the market price of items, visit the back alley sellers, or delve a nearby dungeon for magical items to gain the potential for even more coin and notoriety.

Gather lanterns to ease your passage along the dark roads as you guide your caravan to distant villages. Deliver goods and heroes to the best destinations and gain fame for your bravery! Balance the money you earn with the height of your fame because your final score after a number of game rounds will reflect the lowest of these two values.

After all, what good is a purse full of the coin if the people don’t sing songs about you, and what good is a song with an empty mug of ale?

WOW!!! What a game!!! And while the base game components look fantastic, look at this Deluxe Edition…

That looks amazing but (of course) I had to go with the All-In pledge which includes the PLATED metal coins and more…

I’m starting to feel like Veruca Salt (Willy Wonka), “I want to play Merchants of the Dark Road NOW, Daddy!!”  🙂

Mid-July… Julie had peeked in on one of our attempts at Teotihuacan so when she started asking to play ‘that game – the one she saw us playing’, I naturally assumed she meant Teotihuacan since she had actually played Spirit Island with us… turned out she meant the latter but the 3 of us had a great time almost getting through a full game of Teotihuacan despite constant dog interruptions and exhaustion…

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Third Week of July… I was surprised and excited to learn that one of the Kickstarters I backed in April of 2019 had SHIPPED!! I have no idea why this appeals to me like it does… it’s not a game but (of all things) DICE!!

This company (the first that I’ve ever seen or heard of) is producing DoubleSix Dice – that is to say, 12 sided dice numbered 1 – 6 TWICE!!

Maybe it’s because I always loved rolling the bigger dice in certain games… Whatever the reason I backed it and I can’t wait to try Farkle with Mom using these… bet she loves them too!!  🙂  Unfortunately, Mom has been in assisted living since February and the facility hasn’t allowed visitors since before St. Patrick’s Day so I haven’t seen her in over 4 months… NY has started allowing visitors but not this place… we’re transferring her to another facility as soon as they have an opening which can’t come soon enough. But I digress… back to the dice…

My pledge got me 20 dice (five 4 packs)… My surprise at their eminent arrival stems from one of the updates I received earlier this year that informed us of potential difficulties getting the end product from the factory which happened to be in the heart of the Wuhan district in China where the Coronavirus started!!!  Oh boy do I plan to wash and sterilize the shit out of this package when it arrives…

It was delivered Wednesday 7/22/2020… Selena and I cleaned the package and ourselves OUTSIDE after touching it then went after everything contained therein – including the bags holding the bags containing the actual dice, then each die and the included dice bag itself!! After everything had a chance to sit and dry we were able to check out the dice and they are AMAZING!!!

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In the days prior to the dice arrival Selena had been in my office (where the games are also stored) and was browsing all the titles… out of the blue she asks to play Stone Age!! This is a game we got back in 2015 when we were first discovering the hobby…

(from BGG) The “Stone Age” times were hard indeed. In their roles as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers, our ancestors worked with their legs and backs straining against wooden plows in the stony earth. Of course, progress did not stop with the wooden plow. People always searched for better tools and more productive plants to make their work more effective.

In Stone Age, the players live in this time, just as our ancestors did. They collect wood, break stone and wash their gold from the river. They trade freely, expand their village and so achieve new levels of civilization. With a balance of luck and planning, the players compete for food in this pre-historic time.

Players use up to ten tribe members each in three phases. In the first phase, players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of his staffed areas in whatever sequence he chooses, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations, or they face losing resources or points.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): After seeing the Tabletop episode and almost pissing ourselves from laughing so hard we HAD to have this game!! And it’s such a great game… our first real ‘worker placement’ game and we love it!! It’s fun and challenging and the board is very detailed… a must have game!!

A couple days after we cleaned our new Double Sixes I was home early, mowed, showered, ate and still had enough energy to have the game setup when Selena returned from work… the rules seemed incredibly short and simple as I fondly recalled trying to learn and teach it the first time… and it uses 7 D6 dice (your typical square dice) for resource resolution so what better change to breakout 7 Double Sixes for a test ‘roll’…

Julie wasn’t feeling up to a game so I set everything up for 2 players, reminded myself of the couple of minor rules changes for that player count and started refreshing Selena… who remembered the rules from back when we first played it better than I did – and I’d just re-read them… TWICE… 🙂

We had a great time!! The dogs settled in at our feet (at least until it was time to go potty and eat) and we were able to get a complete game in. As with most of our game nights, it’s not so much who wins that is remembered as the experiences… the game has resources with various costs and at one point Selena bought a building that let her pay with a certain number of resources and she would get points equivalent to the value of the resources she paid with… she got something like 35 points and shot well out in front on the point tracker… it looked like I wasn’t going to catch her as we could see the end game trigger getting close… but, just as we paused to feed and walk the dogs, I pulled off a similar buy – leaning heavily on an abundance of resources I had been saving (gold in particular) and was able to pull ahead by 3 points!! Now the game was on… 🙂

Over the years I’ve learned, as part of my ‘teach’, to always make a point of explaining the end game scoring so players have an idea of what things to go for, what to keep, what to let go of, etc… Selena forgot one of those points and had begun stock piling resources (gold in particular) in anticipation of a big end game score similar to what we both pulled off with the buildings… however, while resources are worth their cost in points when buying building (for instance, each gold has a value of 6), in the end, each resource – regardless of type – is only worth 1 point… As we worked through the scoring and I was well out in front, I think the neighbors must have heard her scream, “Are you shitting me?!?” when she found out her pile of resources gained her about 12 points as opposed to the 50+ she had calculated… after trying to conceal her laughter while calling me ‘jerk’, we both burst out laughing and repeating how much we really like this game. And the Double Sixes were a HUGE hit with both of us!!

Last Week of July… Selena is still willing to game with me on occasion and I keep trying to pull things out that I think she’ll like and hasn’t played but I haven’t accomplished part of that yet… everything I’ve picked she’s liked but insists that she’s played… and she seems to remember a lot about how to play so it must be me… anyway…

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For the last couple of days I’ve had Coimbra on the table and reminding myself of how it went… before I could ask her she asked to play the ‘one on the table’ that looked interesting… fine by me!!  🙂

(from BGG): In the 15th and 16th century, Portugal is thriving under its leading role during the Age of Discovery. Nestled in the heart of Portugal, the city of Coimbra serves as a cultural center of the country. As the head of one of Coimbra’s oldest houses, you seek to earn prestige by deepening relationships with nearby monasteries or funding expeditions of the era. To reach this goal, you must vie for the favors of the city’s most influential citizens, even if you must offer a bit of coin or some protective detail.

Coimbra introduces an innovative new dice mechanism in which the dice players draft each round are used in multiple different ways and have an impact on many aspects of their decision making. While there are many paths to victory, players should always seek to optimize their opportunities with every roll of the dice. Combined with ever-changing synergies of the citizens, expeditions, and monasteries, no two games of Coimbra will ever be the same!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): After watching a number of videos this one had my curiosity piqued – mostly because of the dice mechanic where everyone is drafting dice for each round (taking turns choosing) then in one phase the numbers matter but in a later phase it’s the colors from those same dice… really gets you thinking in two directions… lot’s of fun and not a long game.

Selena wiped the floor with me!! She was slightly ahead and I thought I was in a position to catch her but it wasn’t even close… despite how much is really going on, the game is really pretty easy – there’s just a lot to keep track of… especially once you get any kind of engine built between the cards with people and tracks you’re trying to influence and the monasteries you visit – both of which can give you special powers for the remainder of the game (you just need to remember you have them and take advantage of them)…

As before, win or lose, we both had a great time… 🙂

This recent run of Selena’s interest in gaming got me thinking… I guess Stone Age was really the trigger… I remember reading the rules over and over trying to wrap my head around some of the mechanics and now it all seemed so easy to understand and to teach… now I want to break out some more of those early games that we struggled with and see if they play any smoother since we’ve all learned so much about the hobby in the years that followed… maybe I’ll dig out something like Arcadia Quest again… I spent weeks reading that and still didn’t get it at the time… 🙂

July 29, 2020… I’ve had my eye on a few new games and a couple Kickstarters but without the band work it really wasn’t a good time financially… one game that looks particularly interesting and has me very excited has its’ Kickstarter coming to a close in just a couple days and, as luck would have it, I was given a gift card from a couple people at work as a thank you for an important project I had put together and was able to juggle things around in such a way as to be able to back the project and still be fiscally responsible… now I can’t wait for my copy of Dead Reckoning!!  I should mention that this will probably be my last Kickstarter for the foreseeable future… gigs have disappeared from the calendar at an alarming rate… OK – back to the pirates!!

From the publisher: Dead Reckoning is a game of exploration, piracy, and influence based in a Caribbean-esque setting. Each player commands a ship and crew and seeks to amass the greatest fortune. They do this through pirating, trading, treasure hunting, and (importantly) capturing and maintaining control over the uninhabited but resource-rich islands of the region. During the game, you can:

• Customize your ship: Your ship is represented by a token on the board. The board starts mostly unexplored and will be revealed as you venture into uncharted waters. You also have a ship board where you load cargo and treasure, and you can customize the guns, speed, or holding space of your ship.

• Card-craft your crew: You have a small deck of cards that will drive your actions in the game, with each card representing one of your crew members. This deck functions like one in a deck-building game, but the cards in the deck are sleeved, and rather than add new crew cards to your deck, you improve the skill and abilities of your crew cards by placing transparent “advancement” cards in those sleeves. Aside from the transparent advancements, your crew will also “level up” naturally during the game using a new card-leveling mechanism not seen in other card-crafting games such as Mystic Vale.

• Control the region: The region is filled with many deserted islands. These islands are a major source of treasure, and players will battle for control of these islands.

• Battle via a dynamic cube-tower: You can battle other players’ ships or NPC merchant ships, and these battles are resolved via a new take on what a cube tower can be, with crew cards and ship powers increasing your chances of victory.

• Uncover secrets of the sea: Expansions for Dead Reckoning use a “saga” system in which certain content remains hidden and is discovered and added to the game organically only via playing. Rather than add everything at once, you gradually add it by playing and discovering. Depending on luck and player choice, less or more new content may get added each game.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As with Coimbra, I’d seen a number of videos about this and the gameplay and production look amazing!! There aren’t a lot of card crafting games out there (games where you are creating your character cards by sliding different sections into a sleeve to create a custom character each time) and the ones that came before didn’t quite catch our attention the way this one did… maybe being a pirate game didn’t hurt either… AARRRRRGH… 🙂   Can’t wait!!!

August 2, 2020… Up early on a Sunday with no gig the night before and I’ve been reviewing videos and reading up on the Age of Artisans expansions for Architects of the West Kingdom… I’ve had it off the shelf for a few days hoping Selena might take an interest but no such luck so this morning I showered, ate and and set it all up for a solo run through… and I heard that Helena (my AI opponent) is a real witch!!

After some more video review over breakfast and verifying some rules questions – bouncing between the 3 manuals (Architects, its appendix and Artisans) I finally felt like I was ready to go…

It really was a smooth solo experience… I especially appreciate that they made every effort to keep controlling the AI opponent as unobtrusive as possible so that I could focus on my strategy much like I would have in a multiplayer game… on the dummy opponent’s turn you flip a card and follow the fairly brief instructions – usually go somewhere, do some quick thing and take a reward – then it was right back to me… and, even though the AI cards are random, there were plenty of ‘oh no’ and ‘gotcha’ moments similar to what a human player might do… and the AI adds cards as the game progresses that makes them even stronger… very cool!!

There was one minor disruption in the game as the 850 A.D. equivalent of a furry Godzilla crashed through the game – leaving a trail of destruction that I was able to recover from and continue but not before managing the picture at right…

The game continued and I looked for ways to keep pace with Helena who seemed to know her way around the game pretty well… in the early stages she would regularly round up my workers and throw them in prison where I could retrieve them but later in the game, with my workers spread out all over the boards, she suddenly stopped and I soon found myself down to my last worker with no way to recover them!! I went back through the AI cards to make sure I hadn’t screwed up any instructions… nope… none of the cards had her going to the Town Center… then I remembered an earlier Black Market reset that had me reshuffle the AI deck before it had run out and, as luck would have it, none of the Town Center cards were in the first 10-15 cards in the deck… I can only imagine an experienced player seeing my workers scattered about and just leaving them there knowing the predicament I would soon put myself in… very clever system.

I was able to recover and make some late building replacements for higher end-game points as well as move up a bit on the Cathedral but she triggered the end game before I could make a final move to negate her Cathedral lead and in the end I was happy with my building values but she had a huge pile of marble over there… she lost 2 points for a debt and 3 points for workers in prison at the end and I thought we were close… I had looked at adding some adornments to my buildings but somehow never did… she gets the highest value one every time she works on the Cathedral… crap – she has another 10 points… final score – Helena 39, DJ 42… VICTORY IS MINE!!!!

As I played I was reminded of all the things we liked from the original game and a couple things that were a little frustrating (like when a dud collection of Apprentices were available) but the Age of Artisans expansion solved these things and the addition of the dual purpose (tool and adornment) Artisan cards (some of which make the black market more palatable since you’re not losing virtue at a rate that’s almost impossible to recover from) are a welcome and seamless addition that I will certainly use all the time – even when teaching new players. Well done once again Shem Phillips and S.J. McDonald!!

August 4, 2020… Julie’s sister is staying with us in between trips north to handle some family matters and trips to the city (NYC) to look for a place for her and her new fiancé… (the kids have flown back to Georgia as school starts early down there)… she’s what I would classify at this point as a ‘casual gamer’… the problem is her teenage kids seem to have no interest… she has a copy of Catan and we promised her we would play while she was with us and tonight was the night… AND Selena AND JULIE wanted to play too!!

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Settlers of Catan

(from BGG) Embark on a quest to settle the fair isle of Catan! Guide your brave settlers to victory by using clever trading and development. Use resources (grain, wool, ore, brick, and lumber) to build roads, settlements, and cities, and buy development cards. Acquire your resources through trades or the role of the dice. But beware! You never know when someone might cut off your road or if the robber will appear and steal your precious gains. Are you the best trader, builder, or settler? Will you master Catan?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): (from my original entry in 2015) After seeing it played and reading more and more about I decided that this was a classic that had to be in our collection. As Wil would say, “the joys of trading wood for sheep”!! By this time I’m starting to recognize designer’s names and wondering about what kind of great minds must be behind such games… I guess I just thought they stopped making games after Monopoly…

Back to the present…

I had to brush up on it as it’s been a while since we played it and I was amazed at how simple the rules seemed to be and remembered reading them over and over before our first play while I tried to wrap my head around it… guess I’ve learned a lot in 5 years… 🙂

I was determined to share at least one real game night with her during her stay… Julie had been teasing her before she arrived via Facetime with cards from Wingspan so that was an easy pick for a second game…

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Back in the beginning of the year Julie shocked me by asking why I hadn’t ordered Wingspan – a beautiful and hugely popular game about birds… I’m not sure why but hearing this I set out to order it but, if you could find a copy on Amazon, it was $110+… guess I’ll have to wait… but today, for whatever reason, I decided to check the CoolStuffInc website and they had it, in stock AND for a regular price (less than $60)… button clicked – surprise for Julie on the way!!

(from the publisher): Wingspan is a competitive, medium-weight, card-driven, engine-building board game from Stonemaier Games.

You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth:

——–Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower
——–Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors
——–Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them
The winner is the player with the most points after 4 rounds.

If you enjoy Terraforming Mars and Gizmos, we think this game will take flight at your table.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): After playing this several times this is easily one of Julie’s favorites and one Selena and I also really like…

As we were teaching Julie’s sister, I kept reminding her of one of the aspects of the game that fascinate us and that’s that the game’s 4 rounds go by fast and it seems like, no matter how well we try to plan, at the end of the game we are always wishing there was just one more round to accomplish that last thing we were working on… such a great game!! And Julie’s sister beat us all!! I think she’s a fan too… and maybe more of a gamer than I had initially thought… 🙂

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August 6, 2020… While I was putting Wingspan back on the shelf I kept describing games to Julie’s sister – trying to hit something that would catch her interest… she was browsing my shelves and spotted Lanterns: The Harvest Festival… she’s heading back to the city with her fiancé for a while in a couple days and wanted to get one more game played so this was it…

We’d seen played on Tabletop – Season 4 which may have been sadly the last… It looks like a beautiful and relaxing game…

(from BGG): The harvest is in, and the artisans are hard at work preparing for the upcoming festival. Decorate the palace lake with floating lanterns and compete to become the most honored artisan when the festival begins.

In Lanterns: The Harvest Festival, players have a hand of tiles depicting various color arrangements of floating lanterns, as well as an inventory of individual lantern cards of specific colors. When you place a tile, all players (you and your opponents) receive a lantern card corresponding to the color on the side of the tile facing them. Place carefully to earn cards and other bonuses for yourself, while also looking to deny your opponents. Players gain honor by dedicating sets of lantern cards — three pairs, for example, or all seven colors — and the player with the most honor at the end of the game wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I mentioned earlier, it looked like an elegant, relaxing game which it is… And it’s over before you know it as our daughter discovered on our first play… 🙂 Julie’s sister was on the fence about this one though but said she’d have to try it again… I’m always game… 🙂

August 16, 2020… After I almost succeeded in coaxing Selena to try Architects a few days ago today Julie was up and caved into my begging to play… 🙂

I’m sure she didn’t remember much about the game – it had been that long since we played it – so I gave her a quick refresher and introduced the new things added by the expansion… I’m loving the West Kingdom games and, much like my still all time favorite Great Western Trail, will gladly play or teach the games anytime… Julie on the other hand has to be in just the right mood but, even when it takes some convincing (or begging or pouting on my part), once the games under way, she’s a SHARK!!

We were cruising along and I was loving it though I had a feeling she was kicking my butt but in the end (see what I did there?) it wasn’t even that close. She trounced me soundly!! Yet when I asked her how she liked it altogether she said it was just OK… I was crushed… AGAIN… Maybe she thought if she totally humiliated me in the game I wouldn’t ask her to play again… she doesn’t know me very well does she… 🙂  I’ll give her some time to forget about it… ah Hell – by then Viscounts (the 3rd game in the trilogy) should be here…

September 20… UGH!!! Over a month with no gaming!! Julie’s sister has been back with us for a couple weeks but has focused on laundry and rearranging the kitchen… Selena hasn’t had any interest at all and Julie’s health has been worse… the low grade fever is back… her doctor thinks it’s just her seasonal allergies combined with our firing up the forced-air furnace for the first time this fall BUT they still sent her to be tested and we’re all quarantining again… the curious thing is every testing facility / person tells us ahead of the time that there is a ‘high rate of false positives and false negatives’… wait, WHAT?!? If there’s a high rate of wrong results that pretty much negates the validity of the test in my book… ridiculous… and I’m back to solo gaming just so I can play something… 🙂

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September 21… The beginning of what would turn out to be a short self-imposed quarantine since Julie’s doctor only told HER to quarantine and not the whole family… I’m back to work tomorrow though I did work remotely for much of the day… However, over breakfast I heard about an interesting free ‘print and play’ SOLO game called ‘Raging Bulls‘ and had to check it out…

(from BGG): Whoever thought it was a good idea to put a load of bulls together in one field?
Well, yours is not to reason why. It is, however, your job to keep them apart – to avoid brawling bulls and potential injury (to themselves or anyone else for that matter).

This is my take on a ‘roll and write’ game. A number of bulls are randomly placed in a field. You build fences (draw straight lines) across the field in order to enclose and separate the bulls in it. Possible starting and finishing points (fence posts) are chosen from the dice you roll. As well working out where best to build your fence, you’ll also need to think ahead and plan for the next ones.

There is also an element of push your luck – do you risk losing a life (mallet) by going for that final fence to complete the Field or move on to the next Field and score less points?

The game features 4 fields of increasing difficulty.

There’s just 1 page to print out and 1 page of rules. There’s also a low ink (black) version available.
You’ll also need 3 regular dice, a pen or pencil and something to draw a straight line with.

Raging Bulls was an entry for the 2017 Solitaire PnP Design Contest.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I mentioned previously, I’m suffering from BGW (Board Game Withdrawal) and stumbled on this by accident and it looked interesting so I downloaded their PDF, converted it to graphics (so I could print it a little bigger), laminated it and read the short rules explanation then dove in… and it’s pretty damn clever!! And challenging!! By the end of my first game (going through all 4 fields) I had a pretty good feel for it and was ready for another. I’d love to share it with the girls but if they decide they want to play something I’d probably pull something off the shelf… then again, who am I to deny them some solo enjoyment (ooo – that sounds wrong)… 🙂

I had laminated a copy for each of us though I didn’t think the girls would be terribly interested… I was getting ready for bed and Julie was awake and taking meds so I asked her if she wanted to try something, handed her a sheet and the dice and explained the goals and how it worked… and I couldn’t go to bed until she’d finished running through the entire game a SECOND time!! I guess she liked it… 🙂

I retuned to my office and Selena came home from work so I showed her how it works while she ate… Selena remained in my office but I eventually was able to go to bed so I’m not sure how many games she played as she was still playing when I climbed between the sheets… 

I honestly can’t tell you if it was because it was different or simple or new but all of us are continuing to enjoy it and I’ve shared the link below with several friends who are also enjoying it… go figure… 🙂

Here’s a link to the Raging Bulls website and the free download AND the expansion for the game!!

October 17… Thanks to a co-worker who tested positive for COVID, I (and the entire tech department) have been placed in quarantine since the 9th… if all goes well we can return to work on the 20th… Thankfully none of us have shown any signs of infection and my temp has remained normal…

My girls were free to do whatever they wanted – I was the only one deemed to have possibly had direct exposure so I was the only one under ‘house arrest’ as it were so I spend my days waiting for a call from County Health or the Sheriff’s Department to see how I was feeling and check my temp… then, at some point during the day, a county health person would pull in my driveway, call my cell and I’d have to go wave at them…

It’s been over a week of imprisonment and being isolated from my girls but, with only a couple days left, Julie’s up and feeling pretty good (though her low grade fever is in it’s 11th month) – well enough to want to risk being around me and play a game!! I considered wearing a HazMat suit (or just a mask) but she was convinced that if I had had it, or they were going to get it, they would have done so by now… She pulled several game candidates off the shelf… Welcome To…, Jaipur, Wingspan, Railroad Ink – all great choices… then she took the dogs out (Selena was at work) and left me to select and setup one… As far as I could remember, due to her health at the time, she had never gotten to play the blinged-out Quacks of Quedlinberg with the Herb Witches expansion so I thought this would be a great time for it…

(From BGG): In The Quacks of Quedlinburg, players are charlatans — or quack doctors — each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will spoil the whole mixture!

Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips and add them to their pot. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the swirling pattern. Push your luck as far as you can, but if you add too many cherry bombs, your pot explodes!

At the end of each round, players gain victory points and also coins to spend on new ingredients to add to their bags. But players with exploded pots must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The graphics and simplicity of game play drew me in and I seem to like bag builders which is what this is… I didn’t realize there was so much replay-ability in the box… the recipe cards for each chip has 4 powers – each awesome!! Once comfortable with the game, you can pick or randomly mix and match and they’re all very good. As soon as we finished she wanted to play it again… then just once more… and again the next day… I couldn’t wait to get Selena’s reaction to it… she loved it too!! 

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Quacks has become so popular with my girls (and myself) that I had to order the expansion called The Herb Witches that adds a 5th player, another set of recipe cards making for 6 options to mix and match, added chips, a board extensions, etc…

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(From BGG): Die Quacksalber von Quedlinburg: Die Kräuterhexen allows up to five players to compete at the same time, with this expansion also including more ingredient books, a new “fool’s herb”, and the introduction of herbal witches to add more variety.

By now I had the upgraded chips for both the base game AND the expansion they are amazing…

We had a blast and she soundly trounced me but insisted that she had played this all before but I really think this was her first time with the Herb Witches… and, just to mix it up, I let her choose the recipe cards for each ingredient… I’ll explain… there are several possible ingredients to add to your potion represented by brightly colored chips (at right)… each ingredient came with 4 ‘recipes’ which are the effects the chips will have… some give immediate bonuses while others are for the end of the round and each has multiple levels so better chips, while more expensive, provide better bonuses… the base game came with 4 recipe cards for each ingredient and the expansion added 2 more for each plus a new ingredient… mix all of these things together and the game plays very different every time but is still easy to grasp… it was a great time as always!!

We lit the grill and had some supper – fully intent on another game – but the day’s activities had wiped her out…

Selena returned from work feeling much better than when she left (girl stuff) and I conned her into a short game…

I had started teaching her Railroad Ink a couple weeks ago but she ate and fell asleep so I thought we’d try it again tonight…

(from BGG): In the multiplayer puzzle game Railroad Ink, your goal is to connect as many exits on your board as possible. Each round, a set of dice are rolled in the middle of the table, determining which kind of road and railway routes are available to all players. You have to draw these routes on your erasable boards to create transport lines and connect your exits, trying to optimize the available symbols better than your opponents.

The more exits you connect, the more points you score at the end of the game, but you lose points for each incomplete route, so plan carefully! Will you press your luck and try to stretch your transportation network to the next exit, or will you play it safe and start a new, simpler to manage route?

Railroad Ink comes in two versions, each one including two expansions with additional dice sets that add new special rules to your games. The Deep Blue Edition includes the Rivers and Lakes expansions. Increase the difficulty by adding the River route into the mix, or use the Lakes to connect your networks by ferry. These special rules can spice up things and make each game play and feel different. Each box allows you to play from 1 to 6 players, and if you combine more boxes, you can play with up to 12 players (or more). The only limit to the number of players is the number of boards you have!!

She thought she had played before… it looked familiar… but I ran through the easy rules anyway and threw in the river expansion and the two of us had a great time of course… it was great to get a couple games in with the girls – it’s been too long… 🙂

ALSO… today I received word that one of my Kickstarters has shipped and will be here Friday… the third in the West Kingdom trilogy – Viscounts (pronounced VI-counts) of the West Kingdom!! I am such a huge fan of Shem Phillip’s designs going back to Raiders of the North Sea… and the artwork is now both unique and iconic in my mind… The hardest part about this game will be curbing my excitement and anticipation… you see, this will be my Christmas present that I give the girls to give to me – the same as I did with Great Western Trail a few years back… how am I going to wait 2 more months??  🙂

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(from the publisher): Viscounts of the West Kingdom is set at a time when the King’s reign began to decline, circa 980 AD. Choosing peace over prosperity, our once strong King began offering our enemies gold and land to lay down their axes. But peace is a tenuous affair. As poverty spread, many people lost faith in his ability to lead and sought independence from the crown. Since finding favour in his courts, our future has also become uncertain. As viscounts, we must be wise and decisive. Loyalty is to be upheld, but gaining favour among the people must be our priority, should there be a sudden shift in power.

The aim of Viscounts of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained by constructing buildings, writing manuscripts, working in the castle and acquiring deeds for new land. Players begin with a handful of townsfolk, but should quickly seek out more suitable talents to advance their endeavors. Each turn they will be travelling around the kingdom, looking to increase their influence among the various areas of society. The game ends once the Kingdom reaches poverty or prosperity – or potentially both!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): For all the reasons above and for once again coming up with a new approach to worker placement… Shem Phillips just keeps hitting them out of the park in my opinion… the video links above are to a playthrough by the designer himself!! I commented to him afterwards about how much I love his games and backed his last two and told him if he announced his next game was ‘Whack A Worm With A Wet Noodle’ I would back it!!  🙂

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October 18… only a couple more days left in my quarantine… Julie’s still up and wants to play after all our chores are done… This was an easy call… something we haven’t played in a few months that I know she’ll love… The Isle of Cats

(from the designer): The Isle of Cats is a competitive, medium-weight, card-drafting, polyomino cat-placement board game for 1-4 players (6 with expansions).

You are citizens of Squalls End on a rescue mission to The Isle of Cats and must rescue as many cats as possible before the evil Lord Vesh arrives. Each cat is represented by a unique tile and belongs to a family, you must find a way to make them all fit on your boat while keeping families together.

You will also need to manage resources as you:

———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-– Explore the island (by drafting cards)
———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-– Rescue cats
———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-– Find treasures
———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-– Befriend Oshax
———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-———-– Study ancient lessons

Each lesson you collect will give you another personal way of scoring points, and there are 38 unique lessons available.

Complete lessons, fill your boat, and keep cat families together to score points, the winner will be the player with the most points after five rounds.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Well we love games with polyomino pieces and we love cats… I think the game should have been called ‘Isle of Cats’ (I Love Cats)… 

We needed a quick refresh on the rules but after that it was game on… and she kicked my ass yet again – further proof that I’m no longer as competitive as I once was and now just enjoy playing… 🙂

October 23… my Kickstarter copy of – Viscounts (pronounced VI-counts) of the West Kingdom arrived today!! (see above for details) And that’s the last I’ll see of it until Christmas… this is my present to myself from my girls and they have hidden it to torture me… let the anticipation begin… I’m a kid again… 🙂

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November 18… Julie’s sister had picked up a couple light games and tonight we broke out one of them for the four of us to play… Blockbuster!!

(from the publisher): Blockbuster is a movie game for anyone who has seen a movie, and like all the best films it comes in two parts:

In the Movie Buzzer Battle, both teams are given a topic, such as “Movies with dogs”. You start the 15-second timer, yell out a relevant movie, then whack the buzzer to reset the time. The other team is now in the hot seat and has to do the same. Whoever runs out of time hands the advantage to the other team, which takes control of the next round: Triple Charades Jeopardy.

In this round, teams have to guess the movie, while you act it, use one word, or quote from it. There is all sorts of strategy and stealing, too.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We had a great time playing with Julie and I squaring off against her sister and Selena…

The presentation I found to be pretty clever – you’re creating a Blockbuster parking lot to hold the cards (at right)…

The head-to-head round is fun and the movie round where you have to preselect in what manner you’re going to give clues was interesting… 

I thought the gameplay was fine except trying to answer and collect 8 different genres makes the game a bit too long to me for what it is… it was the Blockbuster equivalent of Trivial Pursuit without the little pies… I’ve seen a couple ‘house rules’ that I may try next time… one sets the winning condition to 5 or 6 instead of 8… another adds a bonus rule where if you collect 3 of the same genre you can use it as a wild…

Overall I’d say this is a great party game FOR MOVIE FANS… if you don’t watch a lot of movies then this probably isn’t the game for you…

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November 23… I’ve been waiting to try out Raiders of the North Sea with BOTH of its expansions as so many have recommended but just never got it to the table… it seems whoever I was playing with always had something else they’d rather play and, without a solo mode, it was relegated to its place on my shelf.

Recently I ran across a solo playthrough with both expansions AND learned of the new iOS solo app… WAIT!! There’s a SOLO APP?!? I’m in!!

After a few plays of the base game on Steam and several reading sessions to make sure I remembered the expansion rules, I felt like I was ready…

(from BGG): Raiders of the North Sea is set in the central years of the Viking Age. As Viking warriors, players seek to impress the Chieftain by raiding unsuspecting settlements. Players will need to assemble a crew, collect provisions and journey north to plunder gold, iron and livestock. There is glory to be found in battle, even at the hands of the Valkyrie. So gather your warriors, it’s raiding season!!

I had a couple ‘false starts’ where I’d set it up and run out of energy but I left it setup – determined to come back to it… then I feared I had misread something in the solo rules regarding how I could earn reputation… I had… I couldn’t figure out how I could get any reputation which required collection a set of three if I could only take two… turns out what it was saying was that I could earn reputation and it still required a set of three BUT I could only collect two TYPES…. AAAaaaaaaahhhhh… let’s try this again…

This time I got a few rounds into the game but couldn’t get a good ‘flow’ going because I had to keep looking up AI actions – afraid I was going to miss something in their results… 

Another day and another quick review and a print out of the solo rules with a graphic to help me remember… this time I got a little more than half way through before deciding to call it a night because work would come early the next morning… but it’s still setup and I plan to reload and take this thing head on over my Thanksgiving holiday. It’s hard to explain but here goes… the mechanics of the game are very simple and the iconography is easy to understand… it’s just that there are a lot of mechanics and a lot of options and a lot of iconography and just a lot of things to keep track of… now that I’ve soaked at least a good part of it in, and had a decent play with that ‘flow’ I was looking for, I was really starting to get into it and enjoy it… Lookout Jarls – I’m coming for you in the next few days!!!  🙂

November 26… Happy COVID Thanksgiving… no traditional gathering of the family at Mom’s but we’re making the best of it and Mom seems to be hanging in there despite none of us being able to see her since March… for the past 10+ years Selena had been going to Mom’s to help with the meal preparation – something she’s always enjoyed since she could pull a chair over to the counter to stand on and help… This year she wanted to do it all on her own… she’s finishing up her Associates degree currently and has chosen to pursue Culinary Arts when college resumes in January… I’ve been saying it for years and am excited now that she’s really going to do it… I took her shopping for the necessary ingredients for her turkey day menu which included many things I’d never heard of and this morning she was up early and ready to go!! I on the other hand was ready to make good on my promise to take on some Jarls so while she mixed and chopped and shaved and ground I became one of the Raiders of the North Sea (details above)…

I watched some more of Mike Dilisio’s solo playthrough the night before and picked up a couple more things that I had been playing incorrectly but was sure I could play or teach it without issue now…

The game was a ‘nail biter’ and my plan to collect quests and reputation bonuses was keeping me close but by the time I realized that the AI or ‘Shem-Bot’ as some have come to call it (named after the game’s designer Shem Phillips) was amassing an impressive collection of offerings to the Chieftain (which ends the game if they run out) and started collecting more of my own, it was too late… As I was going through the AI scoring first, I was almost blown out of my chair when Shem-Bot almost lapped me… TWICE… mostly on the nearly 40 points he had in offerings!! I was correct when I muttered to myself that I’d never catch him… I don’t know as I’d call it a major blowout as I was able to get within 15 points in the end… maybe that was closer than I thought – a minor moral victory – but I can’t imagine using any of their optional methods to increase the difficulty…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t) REVISITED: I must say that the various reviewers were right – and I totally agree – that while the base game was very good, I too will never play or teach the game without both expansions… part of me thinks that this is how the game was intended to be played but, at the time of the original design, someone made the decision to dumb it down for wider appeal… Raiders of the North Sea is a great game but add in the Hall of Heroes and Fields of Fame expansions and it becomes FANTASTIC!!

In reviewing my initial entry on this game, I discovered I’d forgotten playing this with both girls… hopefully I can convince at least one of them to tackle it with me again but a lot of great games have hit our shelves since then… 🙂

November 27… In case anyone missed it, Christmas is now less than a month away… the lack of band work means significantly less ‘play money’ for the holidays but I think I’ve managed a fun holiday for my girls which of course included just a few games that I know they will love and we’ll all enjoy… I won’t be listing them here ahead of time as I fear the girls are wise to me so please check out my Christmas recap later this year… 🙂

December 8… not sure if it’s Mom’s situation in assisted living, my own here at home, or the lingering effects of ‘COVID life’, or a combination of it all but, for the first time since I discovered the hobby, I have no desire to play anything… we won’t be having our annual 1000+ cookie baking and delivery this year and may not even put our tree up due to space limitations because our tiny home is bursting at the seams with a crafting area, crafting equipment and supplies, 3 guests and 3 dogs… I’m in a malaise like nothing I’ve ever experienced… at this moment I don’t care about much of anything… hopefully things will change and I can pull myself out it because this is usually my favorite time of year…

December 20… 5 days until Christmas and I’m still not feeling any of it… fingers crossed… I think I’ve figured out the root of my holiday funk… please read on and know that it will have at least a somewhat happier direction in the end… and there WILL be games involved…

Let’s start with Mom’s situation… she made the decision to have a hip replaced about a year ago and was told that her bad hip was causing her severe knee pain and that this would alleviate it… her knees had to be killing her for her to choose to go under the knife… the short version goes like this:

• Surgery in early February – all went perfectly, walking a few hours after surgery, no pain at all and scheduled to start rehab the next day…
• Day 2 – 2 scheduled rehab stints them home(?) if all went well but she started vomiting after the first round so they kept her another day… and why HOME??  GF hospital says her insurance doesn’t cover short-term rehab… great…
• Day 3 – GF hospital still has no clue about the throat issue but she stopped vomiting so she’s headed home…
• 3 days of my living with her and two by my brother – attempting rehab ourselves but she wasn’t eating due to the feeling like something is still lodged in her throat… and she’s not feeling up to exercises…
• An ambulance ride on the 5th day as the vomiting returned…
• GF Hospital finally figured out that a pain med (Celebrex?) had lodged in her throat back on the very first night and burned into her esophagus!!
• This time she had different doctors and staff and they had the right insurance information and sent her to the Pines in GF for rehab…
• COVID is starting to hit all around us and someone at the Pines tells her she will never go home and should transfer to the residence upstairs because if she goes home and it doesn’t work out she’ll never get back in… Mom panics, has us file the paperwork for residency and Medicaid payments, gives up her vehicle and apartment, gives away all her furniture and most of her clothes and ultimately her total independence…
• After two weeks at the Pines she is told that she doesn’t need the kind of care they provide and should go HOME!! Now she doesn’t have one thanks to someone else there… nice…
• 1st week of March COVID shuts down everything and that’s the last time any of us have been able to see her… 10 months and counting!!

Mom is the glue that holds the family together… we all gather at her place for holiday celebrations so this would especially tough this year and had to be a major contributor to my overall frame of mind… but there was more…

Julie’s sister was going through an ugly divorce in Georgia and, while I know none of the details, I get the feeling she got totally hosed the divorce… Sis’s plan was to return to our area (where she was from originally) and start over which meant leaving her two kids (17 and 14 I think) behind… we already had her three dogs (one of which is supposed to stay with us permanently)… she moved in with us back in June and it’s been difficult at times as our house is small to begin with and we all had settled into our own daily patterns that were already flipped on their heads by COVID…

December 23rd… Sis’s kids flew up from Georgia for the holiday… they were tested before boarding the plane, masked when they arrived but typically quiet… they settled in – the oldest unpacking his Xbox and taking over Selena’s room – rarely to be seen again and I returned to my office ‘cell’…

So, for the first time EVER, I am actually dreading Christmas and especially Christmas morning… I feel bad for the kids because without the added band income I don’t have the extra cash I normally would to get them anything… and I barely know them at all so I’d have no clue what they would like… My bigger fear was thinking there was nothing we could ever do that would be appreciated because their Dad is loaded and they get pretty much whatever they want… given that, I’m not looking to our opening presents in front of them… that will be awkward and uncomfortable to say the least…

But my attitude would soon thankfully improve – at least for a while…

This is Mom at 88 and still smiling despite having a 3rd or 4th bat shit crazy, annoying roommate – the latest one Facetimes her family at full volume throughout the day and lies to them about her condition while the family bitches that they can’t find a good wine since moving up here from Long Island… guess that’s their biggest concern… Sadly many on staff continue to treat Mom like a dementia patient (because most of the residents are)… but it didn’t take her long to figure out who was who in that zoo… it took some emails to the administrators from me but we got most of it straightened out and she even has hotlines (cell numbers) for everyone involved and has been told to use them whenever she has a problem… with that things have gotten marginally better but it has to be tough for someone who was totally independent to now be told she can’t walk by herself even though she has their own paperwork stating that she’s free to walk whenever she likes…

She’s started knitting / crocheting again… I think she’s made scarves and throws for half the staff there… that and her TV and her iPad for email and games are keeping her occupied and still mentally sharp… and she has a cell phone on the plan with my girls… it’s like having a teenager (my bill has doubled) but I’ll never tell her that – just to use it as much as she wants… and she does… 🙂

I talk to her a couple times a day and most evenings, after supper, we get a few games of Farkle in remotely using an iPad app (this is her new favorite from a few years ago – see there is a game tie in to this story)… I’m regularly dropping of boxes with snacks and what have you and for Christmas my brother and I have made sure she had presents to open even though we couldn’t be there with her when she did… yarn and more yarn, her favorite candies, Alex Trebek’s book, more of her favorite mints, comfortable clothing she’s asked for, etc… other friends and family have mailed her boxes as well or contacted me for help… my step sister for instance (who loves Mom and calls her ‘Mom #2’) usually sends a gift card but wasn’t sure what to do this year so we worked it out that she’d send me the card and I’d shop for Mom… I ended up talking Mom through her first Amazon shopping spree… the yarn is still arriving… lookout Amazon… 🙂

Of course there’s one more Christmas story… it seems an area senior citizen center reached out to Mom’s facility and put together large gift bags for the residents… before Mom even opened hers she told the staff to make sure everyone else had also received one because she already had plenty of presents… the others had theirs so she opened it to find hand lotions and such and, what else, more yarn!! It’s a Christmas miracle 🙂

As for me, I went to bed Christmas Eve trying not to think about what the next morning might be like but rather focusing on Julie and Selena and our plans for pancakes and bacon for breakfast…

December 26… First off I have to say that we had a wonderful Christmas and, as the day went on, I was feeling so much better than I had in the days and weeks (months?) leading up to it… it got to be 8:40 and I started hearing dogs and voices… everyone wanted to open first.. 

As the packages were handed out I was a little surprised to see the kids actually had more than I had anticipated and were actually very pleased and appreciative… it was nice to see and I could feel my spirits begin to lift…

I always take care of my girls (beyond board games though there still were a few) and they always do the same for me and this year was no different… in the end it didn’t feel as bad as I had feared which was a relief… as is our tradition, I had a few packages in reserve, specially wrapped and labeled ‘From: Santa’ in an obviously different handwriting from my own (of course I do… one year I even had someone else write the tags – that threw them)… this year I pulled out the box-in-a-box ploy once more for the girls AND Julie’s sister and weighted it down with several packs of glossy photo paper… at least this part felt like a typical Christmas here… without prompting, Julie read her sister’s name on the label and decided to let her open it for the three of them… it was fun to watch as I’d forgotten how many boxes I’d wrapped inside the main one before they actually got to the gift… by now I was thankfully smiling for the first time in a long time… We picked up the debris left by us and the dogs (who, for whatever reason – maybe the chew – love to shred cardboard) then I set out for the kitchen to help Selena with the prep and service of breakfast…

Pancakes and Jimmy Dean Applewood Smoked bacon – my favorite!! We knew everyone was up for pancakes but Julie’s sister is vegan so no bacon there… the kid’s (well their father’s) Middle Eastern religion forbids pork products but I’m told the kids like bacon and their Dad used to eat it all the time so we had a couple pounds ready just in case… Selena handled all the cooking while I prepared plates and juice for service and delivered them to the table… the oldest was the first to try the bacon which got the biggest smile from him I think I’ve ever seen as he told us, “Oh – that IS good!!”  The youngest wasn’t so sure but Julie convinced her to try a piece with the same result… it was great to get an all too infrequent smile out of her too… I started to realize just how much the situation with their Mom and Dad had to be taking a toll… we happily gave them the rest of the bacon we’d prepared as it obviously made them happy… I was starting to feel like myself again finally…

Throughout the day there were a number of tearful and sometimes heated discussions between Julie’s sister and her kids – especially the oldest – and they each learned a lot about what each other had been dealing with… I only saw it in passing but got the feeling that a number of things were coming to light, that their relationships had been rejuvenated and they were now better able to move forward which I believe involves Mom’s return to Georgia to better take care of the kids AND a return to court… hope she nails the SOB this time!!!

And that’s my Christmas story… it’s nothing you’ll see on the Hallmark channel for sure but I made it through and am feeling so much better… now I can go back to worrying about whether or not I’ll be physically able to drum again IF conditions improve to where the band can gig again… 

But I promised there were games (which is the point after all) and so there shall be games… here is our Christmas 2020 game collection!!

Let’s start with what’s becoming another Christmas tradition and that’s me getting a game I really want then giving it to the girls to wrap and give to me… this year’s selection was the third in the West Kingdom trilogy and that’s Viscounts of the West Kingdom!! 

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(from the publisher): Viscounts of the West Kingdom is set at a time when the King’s reign began to decline, circa 980 AD. Choosing peace over prosperity, our once strong King began offering our enemies gold and land to lay down their axes. But peace is a tenuous affair. As poverty spread, many people lost faith in his ability to lead and sought independence from the crown. Since finding favour in his courts, our future has also become uncertain. As viscounts, we must be wise and decisive. Loyalty is to be upheld, but gaining favour among the people must be our priority, should there be a sudden shift in power.

The aim of Viscounts of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained by constructing buildings, writing manuscripts, working in the castle and acquiring deeds for new land. Players begin with a handful of townsfolk, but should quickly seek out more suitable talents to advance their endeavors. Each turn they will be travelling around the kingdom, looking to increase their influence among the various areas of society. The game ends once the Kingdom reaches poverty or prosperity – or potentially both!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): For all the reasons you’ve heard from before if you’ve been following along… once again Shem Philips and S.J. MacDonald have come up with a new approach to worker placement… they just keeps hitting them out of the park in my opinion… the video link above is to a playthrough by one of the designers himself!! I can tell I’m starting to feel more like myself as I’m looking forward to unboxing, punching, sorting and repacking everything – perhaps with a rules read and a solo play in between… 🙂

Next up a tradition that sort of fallen by the wayside since Selena has gotten older…

Selena was never an early riser Christmas morning… my brother and I on the other hand would be up at 4:00am and bugging our parents to get up but Selena has always slept in… many times Julie and I would have to wake her up… as she started to understand what Christmas Eve was and see the presents from us (Santa’s presents would magically appear by the next morning) she’d beg to open something so we agreed to let her open one and I started making it something we would all enjoy that would make the evening go by quicker… a movie or family game, etc… but the last few years Julie’s health has taken her out of the festivities and Selena and I have usually spent the night wrapping unless Julie felt well enough to visit her Aunt and Uncle’s huge annual family gathering… then she’d return to bed and Selena and I would wrap until we couldn’t see straight…

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Anyway, since discovering modern board games, I’ve always had something wrapped and ready just in case… this year that was Meeple Land!! 

(from the publisher): Build the most renowned amusement park of all time in Meeple Land! Buy the most beautiful attractions, offer the best services, and accommodate as many meeples as possible with buses and advertising. Meet the expectations of the meeples, and success will be yours! Do not neglect any of your meeples, however, for the unsatisfied ones will tarnish your reputation…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The first time I saw a preview of this I knew I wanted it and was pretty sure the girls would like it – especially Julie who I think will play anything with polyominoes… 🙂

One of Selena’s favorite games is Betrayal at House on the Hill… she’s also always been a big Scooby Doo fan so you can imagine my excitement when I learned that someone came out with Scooby Doo: Betrayal at Mystery Mansion!!

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(from the publisher): Based on the award-winning Betrayal at House on the Hill board game, Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is the mash-up fans have been clamoring for!

Play as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, or Fred as you explore the mansion and its grounds, finding clues, encountering strange occurrences, and maybe even catching sight of a monster! When you find enough clues to learn what’s really going on, that’s when the haunt starts, and one player will switch sides to play the role of the monster! Will you be able to stop them before they carry out their sinister plan?

Betrayal at Mystery Mansion contains 25 new haunts based on popular episodes and movies from the Scooby-Doo oeuvre, with different monsters, items, events, and locations each time you play.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Two of Selena’s favorites things in one game – how could I pass that up?!?

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Julie surprised me by picking up a game in the Choose Your Own Adventure series for us named House of Danger…

(from the publisher): The classic Choose Your Own Adventure series comes to life in the narrative adventure game Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger.

Will you survive the House of Danger? Gather your friends for a perilous and laughter-filled adventure through the House of Danger itself. Make risky choices, collect items as you explore, and face off against dire challenges. Play again and again to uncover more secrets and different endings!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’m not sure what made her get this but I thought it was a great choice based on the various things I’d seen and I’m excited to try it with everyone.

On the subject of surprises… we had told Julie’s sister that we didn’t want her buying us anything for Christmas and to focus on getting back on her feet and because we wouldn’t be able to do much for her either… Christmas morning she hands me a hefty box containing non-other than the board game Pan Am!!

(from the designer): In Pan Am, players compete with Pan American Airways and others to build an air-travel empire. Outbid rivals for lucrative landing rights, buy planes with longer range to reach the far corners of the world, and use insider connections to advance your interests. As you bump up against the ever-growing Pan Am, you can sell your routes to the company to earn a tidy profit, with you then using that money to invest in other growth or to purchase Pan Am stock for what’s sure to be a big payout down the road.

Pan Am is a game of global strategy that spans four decades of industry-changing historic events.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve looked at this a couple time… I love historical significance as well as the look and design of the game… it makes me think of a next level Ticket To Ride type game… I think Julie will be into… maybe Selena… I know I’m in – thank you, Sis!!

Julie loves sloths (don’t ask me why – I have no clue) so when well-known designer Friedmann Friese releases a games called Fast Sloths and the reviews are good, snagging it for her is a no-brainer…

(from the designer): You are sloths — cuddly, lazy, and, oh well, slothful.

All animals (including humans) like to take vacations, so everyone is together at a country resort. We sloths are sitting around, of course, while all the other animals are running throughout the resort. We want to look around, too, and traveling around the resort to pick up tasty leaves would be great — but running around ourselves is just too tedious. All the other animals are having fun, and we want that, too, but…we are so slothful.

And then we have an idea: We’ll let ourselves be carried around by the other animals, thus getting around nicely. The other animals have so much energy that they’ll even gladly carry us. They aren’t slothful! Which of us sloths will be the first to get through the entire country and be victorious? We are ambitious, but so lazy!

Fast Sloths (a.k.a. “Faultier” in German) is a race game that at its core is a classic pick-up-and-deliver game — except that we ourselves are the cargo being delivered. We are being carried along the whole way and never take a single step on our own!

You always play with six out of twelve different animal species, and you can place the giant game board in four different combinations. On a turn, you draft 2-3 cards of different animal types from the top of their face-up decks, then you play as many animal cards as you like of a single type. Each animal provides a different type of movement or interaction with you, with ants carrying you along in a chain and the elephant throwing you with its trunk.

Fast Sloths is a game free from randomness that evolves only through the interaction between the players, doing so without any “take that” mechanisms — except for you snatching an animal from under the other players’ noses because you need to use it yourself.

Each race offers new challenges for you to get to the different trees faster than the other sloths. Enjoy all 256 different combinations, each with countless starting positions of the animals on the game board…and we are already working on new game boards and more animals for even more fun combinations!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): So far it’s just Julie’s love of the animal and the reviews but this is another I’m anxious to play…

As long as we’re the subject of things Julie likes… we were lying in bed one night and watching board game videos as I sometimes do before I got to sleep… I can’t remember what the list of games was but Julie was half watching when The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game came up… and she began hitting me and screaming “Yes! Yes! Yes!” (I’m sure anyone in the next room must have thought something else was going on)… 

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(from the publisher): Inconceivable! Climb the Cliffs of Insanity, brave the Fire Swamp, and help Buttercup, Westley, Fezzik, and Inigo Montoya survive the dastardly machinations of Prince Humperdinck, Count Rugen, and Vizzini. Follow the incredible story of The Princess Bride through six chapters and work together to keep the plot on course despite Shrieking Eels, kissing, and constant interruptions! Will the forces of evil — or true “wove” — prevail?

In The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game, players work together to advance the plot and tell all six chapters despite interruptions from a sick grandson. Each chapter is represented by a new board within a “book” of game boards. Instead of each player controlling a single character, players cooperate to complete challenges by moving characters and discarding story cards from their hand.

Each chapter has a series of challenges that require characters to be in specific locations and specific story cards to be discarded from a player’s hand. All challenges must be completed before players can advance to the next chapter. A chapter can be interrupted by different story-based conditions or by the grandson. Players have one more chance to complete the story after an interruption, or they lose the game. Special story cards earned as a reward for completing challenges as well as miracle tokens give players more options and help them along the way.

The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game includes paintable miniatures for Westley, Princess Buttercup, Prince Humperdinck, Count Rugen, Vizzini, Inigo Montoya, and Fezzik.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Again, it’s something my wife likes so I think she’ll like the game… Unbeknownst to me prior to this, The Princess Bride is one of her favorite movies!! I’ve seen parts of it but never watched it all but I guess I’ll have to schedule that next so I stand a chance at this game…

I always try to get at least one thing that’s different and a little thinky… the first year that was Carcassone… this year that honor goes to Curious Cargo!!

(from the publisher): I stumbled upon a midnight market. It wasn’t selling flowers or farm goods. It was a more curious sort of cargo: energy capacitors, strange crystalline material, and something green and jiggly. Since then, I’ve been dragged into it, deep into the thick of it.

I paid a stranger more than I should have for manufacturing plans I hardly understood. Worse yet, they sold the same stuff to my best friend. Now, I have to get my supply lines up and running to prepare for shipping my cargo — and if my friend starts shipping some of this curious cargo, I’ll have to intercept their trucks and corner the market that way.

By hook or by crook, I’m going to be the king of curious cargo…

Curious Cargo is a two-player game in which you go head-to-head against your opponent by building up the infrastructure of your facility, calling in trucks at the right moment, all while perfectly timing the shipping and receiving of cargo to score the most points. Connect an interweaving web of lines to your shipping and receiving spaces. Play with two-color conveyor tiles, or step it up for an advanced experience and play with all three colors. Ship your custom-shaped cargo tokens to your opponent to interfere with their logistics plans!

The puzzling nature of Ryan Courtney’s Pipeline comes alive in Curious Cargo! With six unique player boards for each player and two game modes, a skillful challenge awaits even the sharpest competitor.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I love the occasional brain-burner and this, while appearing small and charming, sounds like it could melt my hat… I just have to convince someone else how charming it is to find out…

As much as we love brain burners (probably me more than the girls) I’m always on the lookout for something a little more laid back… this year that was Santa Monica…

(from the publisher): In Santa Monica, you are trying to create the most appealing neighborhood in southern California. Will you choose to create a calm, quiet beach focused on nature, a bustling beach full of tourists, or something in-between to appeal to the locals?

Each turn, you draft a feature card from the display to build up either your beach or your street. These features work together to score you victory points. The player with the most points wins!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The first thing that caught my eye was the lovely pastel artwork… then I saw how that game played and knew this would be a great add for everyone…

And lastly, another Kickstarter that happened to arrive just before Christmas but the girls didn’t wrap it for me (I guess they thought I already had enough) and that’s Tumble Town…

(from the publisher): Build the best tiny town in the West in this town and engine building game for 1-4 players that plays in about 45 minutes.

As the mayor of a small community, it’s up to you to construct the best town possible. Choose from a selection of building plans chosen at the last town meeting and get constructing! Each building plan lets you mine a certain type of material and shows what values of materials are needed to build, as each building has different requirements. Buildings can give you different abilities to be used on each of your turns, from manipulating the dice materials to be different values, to being able to transform specific die materials into other materials, to giving you extra points for building certain types of buildings.

Draft Building Plans: Only certain buildings are available each round, so draft the plans that work the best in your town.
Dice Manipulation: Certain buildings can let you manipulate the dice, making it easier to continue building!
Limited Dice: Buildings require certain dice types, so take strategically to make sure you can complete your town.
Spatial Puzzle: Place your constructed buildings along Main Street to create your town! The townspeople want a specific look for the town and if you meet their requirements, you’ll gain even more prestige!

Can you build the best town in the West?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I saw a Kickstarter preview of these and fell in love… so much so that I backed it to the hilt (a reasonable inexpensive Kickstarter) to where my copy included a very nice neoprene playmat!! I hear the solo mode is excellent too so I may get this to the table before some others…

So that was my Christmas for 2020… it was definitely different and difficult at times but hopefully there are some signs of hope and we certainly have enough games to occupy our time while everything else is getting shutdown by COVID AGAIN… Merry Christmas!!

December 28… well that good feeling was short lived… I returned home from my first day back at work only to learn that there had been an extended screaming argument between Julie’s sister and her son… a ‘cease fire’ was reached when Julie made her way out of bed and screamed at them that it need to stop before I got home… back to my cell and depression…

Click here to see if things improved in 2021