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2021 – –

Happy 2021!!!

While our game collection got a nice shot in the arm over Christmas, I wonder if my desire to play will return once everyone else gets one (a shot in the arm that is… vaccine reference.. see what I did there?)… 🙂

Julie was actually awake for Christmas for the first time in a few years and has been asking to play but I just haven’t been feeling it so we both know I’m out of sorts because normally I’ll play practically anything at the drop of a hat…

January 2nd… Julie told me yesterday that her sister really wanted to play some games… I really wasn’t feeling the urge yet but figured I would screw on a happy face and give it a go… I thought we were shooting for tonight so I’d been reviewing the rules and watching videos most of the day – preparing to teach Pan Am – the game she got us for Christmas… she put a table up around 8:00pm but it was to work on another project so I went to bed where Julie informed me that the DAUGHTER also really wanted to play with me… that would have been nice to know a week or so ago since the kids fly home in another day… it would be even nicer if she was awake during the day while I’m home… 🙂  Getting my Pan Am ‘teach’ ready actually got me kind of excited at the prospect of playing so not playing was a big letdown… maybe tomorrow night since it would be the last chance with the daughter… 

January 3rd… Julie was determined to get a game in… I was ready to teach Pan Am and was sure the daughter would get it… it’s a 1-4 player game so I didn’t plan on playing so that the 4 of them could play and I would answer questions as they went (acting as ‘game master’) but as I was teaching the daughter bailed – convinced that she wouldn’t understand it – so I ended up playing too… it’s a great game and I really think she could have done it but I would have a better understanding of her reluctance later… so Julie, her sister, Selena and I set out to rule the air in 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): As I mentioned last year, I’d looked at this a couple times… I love the 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 and I thought Julie would be into it… she was as was I AND her sister!! Selena just kind of goes along for the ride unless something really clicks with her but I think she liked it too in her own way… thanks again, Sis!!

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We took a break for supper and everyone wanted to play something after we ate… Julie was really hoping to convince the son to join us… since his arrival he had moved into Selena’s room, setup his Xbox and, other than Christmas morning, we haven’t seen him… Julie tried to convince him once more which turned into a major meltdown… when she walked into Selena’s room she was greeted with, “Oh – here we go… ”  And with that, the fight was on…

I kept reviewing my options – really wanting to make sure the daughter was playing with us… that was, if anyone still felt like playing after the scene earlier… and they did… what to play… what to play…

After 30 minutes of eating, mulling over our game shelves and internal debate, I reached back to 2016 thinking I’d found a winner… Ubongo!!

(from BGG) In Ubongo, players compete to solve individual puzzles as quickly as they can to get first crack at the gems on hand for the taking.

Original edition:
The game board consists of six rows, with twelve gems (of various colors) placed in these rows. At the start of play, each player places his pawn in front of one of those rows. Each player also takes twelve polyominoes — that is, pieces consisting of 2-5 squares in some configuration; players use these pieces each round to try to recreate shapes.

At the start of a round, each player receives a puzzle card that depicts a shape created by some number of squares; one side of this card depicts six rows of 3 pieces, the other side depicts six rows of 4 pieces, for a more difficult puzzle. When everyone is ready, someone rolls a die to determine which row of pieces each player can use to recreate the shape on their individual card. The race is timed by a sand timer, and the outcome of this race determines the action on the main playing board.

Whoever first solves their puzzle in time gets to move their pawn up to three rows left or right, with the second player to finish moving two rows and the third player only one row. Players then collect two gems from the front of the row where their pawn is located, which means that the more rows you can move, the more control you have over which color gems you can collect. After collecting gems, each player receives a new puzzle card, and a new round begins.

After nine rounds, the game ends and whoever has collected the most gems in a single color wins! If players tie, then those players compare who has the most gems in a second color, and so on.

2015 edition:
The puzzle-part of the game remains the same, but the scoring track and system has been greatly changed, to be the same as in Ubongo Extreme. There are no pawns anymore, but instead the winner takes a 3-point gem plus a random gem, the second-place player takes a 1-point gem plus a random gem, and others who finish within time take just a random gem. Whoever scores the most gem-points after nine rounds, wins the game.

I chose this because we enjoyed the simultaneous play and its Tetris element which Julie loves… Selena is blazingly fast BUT you can handicap stronger players by making them play the harder side of each card while novices play the easy side and the game remains competitive…

As I was teaching it we played a practice round and the daughter began insisting that she ‘wasn’t smart enough’ to play it… we all encouraged her to try… we started the real game and she did struggle with the first couple of puzzles, then she got it and by the 5th round she had solved her board ahead of Selena!! She did it again the next round and there was finally a glimpse of a smile… I started to wonder if her thinking she wasn’t smart enough and her reluctance to try Pan Am could have been sort of ‘culture-based’ after all the things I’d read and seen on how Middle Eastern women are mistreated and oppressed… and, sadly, at 14, she is probably living that every day at home with her Dad and brother… but for these few minutes she was a regular girl and, in the end, tied with her Mom for 1st place!! Way to go!!

Selena moved on to feeding dogs and Julie was exhausted and heading for bed but I had one more thing I wanted to pull out with the daughter… something I thought she could enjoy after she returned home and all she needed was the half page of instructions I had printed and 6 standard dice and she could even play it solo… I was going to teach her Farkle!!

Farkle is a simple dice game – reminiscent of Yahtzee – except that, rather than hoping to build to a scoring combination in three rolls, you only score what you roll on each roll (provided you roll something that scores) but you can also push your luck and choose to continue rolling… you need to roll at least one scoring dice (a 1 or a 5) or you Farkle – losing any scoring dice you’ve accumulated that round… BUT, if you mange to score all 6 dice, you can take them all back and continue rolling and adding to your score… but remember, you need to roll at least a 1 or a 5 or you Farkle and lose all those points. Her Mom joined us and we played a full game to 10,000 points with Mom pulling out the victory…

January 4th… When I left for work this morning Mom and daughter were both awake and I shook the daughter’s foot as she lay stretched out on the couch and told her I hoped to see her this summer and there was that big smile again… after Mom had taken them to catch their flight and I returned from work that afternoon, I learned that the daughter had asked for the Farkle instructions… then I knew for sure that she had enjoyed herself… I really wish I’d learned of her desire to play sooner… I certainly have enough games that she would have enjoyed… and maybe give her confidence a much needed boost too… 🙂

Later Julie was stirring and asked about getting a game in… I think I’m feeling more like myself because, despite it being 7:00pm and my having to be up at 5:00am to get ready for work, they didn’t have to ask me twice and I pulled out Pan Am (see above) again for a 3 player setup… it went quick as we all have a pretty good idea of what we’re doing and any lingering questions were answered…

With two rounds left to go Julie doubled over and burst into tears… her Costochondritis had flared up in her chest and she was in agony but insisted on finishing the game… Sis has yet to lose at this game and I’ve yet to win but I still love it!!

It took us 20 minutes to get Julie in to bed – she could barely move… it was another couple of hours after meds and heating pads before she was able to stop crying and even eat something… this is what she’s had to deal with since completing Chemo almost 7 years ago… a rare side affect of the Taxol (part of Chemo) that she was never warned about (the CW Cancer Center where she was treated claimed they’d never heard of it when it was diagnosed by other doctors) and for which there is nothing that can be done but ‘pain management’… and not just aspirin – they have her regularly taking Morpheme and Oxy and even that doesn’t touch it… 7 years and still no one has a handle on managing her pain… very sad and frustrating… this is part of why I keep gaming… as much as I enjoy the hobby, when she’s up to it, I think it provides a welcome distraction for her…

January 10th… tonight was the beginning of a 3 night run of gaming!! Julie’s sister seems interested in just about every style of game we’ve tried thus far and she seems to pick them up quick (and I think she’s won every game)… on this night it was Sis, Selena and myself and I broke out a couple real-time games starting with Escape – Curse of the Temple!!

(from BGG) Escape: The Curse of the Temple is a cooperative game in which players must escape (yes…) from a temple (yes…) which is cursed (yes…) before the temple collapses and kills one or more explorers, thereby causing everyone to lose.

The initial game board consists of a row of three square tiles, each showing a combination of two symbols, say, two green adventurers or one green adventurer and one blue key in one corner of the tile. All of the explorers start in the center tile – the safe room – and each player starts with a hand of five dice. Each die has five symbols:

• A cursed mask – this die is set aside when rolled.
• A golden mask – each such symbol counteracts two cursed masks, either your own or those of another explorer in the same room.
• A red torch or blue key – these are used to enter rooms, access treasure, or activate gems.
• A green adventurer, which appears twice on the die – you need these to move from room to room, and to activate some gems.
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  Escape is played in real-time, with all players rolling dice and taking actions simultaneously. You must roll the right symbols to enter a room, and if you’re at an open doorway, you can roll to reveal the next tile in the stack and add it to that doorway. Some rooms contain combinations of red and blue symbols, and if you (possibly working with other players in the same room) roll enough red or blue symbols, you “discover” magic gems, moving them from a separate gem depot onto that tile.

The real-time aspect is enforced by a soundtrack to be played during the game. At certain points, a countdown starts, and if players aren’t back in the safe room when time is up, they lose one of their dice.

Once the exit tile is revealed, players can attempt to escape the temple by moving to that tile, then rolling a number of blue dice equal to the magic gems that haven’t been removed from the gem depot. Thus, the more gems you find, the easier it is to escape the temple. When a player escapes, he gives one die to a player of his choice. If all players escape before the third countdown, everyone wins; if not, everyone loses, no matter how many players did escape.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): A number of things originally got this on my list… it’s another coop game and another game where the board (in this case the temple) gets created as you go so it’s different each time… the game is timed and only lasts 10 minutes… and there’s an app / soundtrack that serves as the timer!! We thought Pandemic was stressful until we played with this timer… we were chucking dice (the actual gamer’s term for it) like crazy trying to get back to the safe room before things got ugly!! This is easily one of our favorites and the length of game means we usually play 2 or 3 before we need to play something else to ‘relax’…   I recently found alternative soundtrack / timers on YouTube – one of which plays Yakety Sax (or the theme from the Benny Hill Show if you prefer) each time players are scrambling to get back to the safe room… I didn’t tell the girls ahead of time… their expressions were priceless.

Tonight, as usual, we played 3 times and got our asses handed to us every game… I examined every die and there really is only 1 cursed side out of 6 but you couldn’t prove it by the number of times each was totally locked throughout the game… but we still loved it… 🙂

Then, rather than relax, I chose to ‘keep this party going’ and broke out Fuse!!

(from BGG) Intruders have made their way onto your ship, and their goal is total destruction! More than twenty bombs have been detected onboard, and the countdown has begun. Your elite Bomb Defusal Team (BDT) has been called upon to neutralize the threat. Does your team have what it takes to work through the intricacies of the bombs and defuse them all in time?

FUSE is a real-time co-operative game that employs 25 dice and 65 cards. Each game is set to a ten-minute timer, and players must work together in that ten minutes to defuse all of the bombs. Each bomb is represented by a card which needs a certain combination of dice in order to defuse it. A player will draw a number of dice equal to the number of players out of a bag and roll them. Players must then decide who will get which dice, but each player must take one and only one.

It’s a simple task: maximize the potential of your dice among all of the players. The problem is that you have only ten minutes, and there are more than twenty bombs on your ship. You don’t have time to think through every option. You barely have time to yell at Grandma as she reaches for that red die you need. This game will self-destruct in ten minutes…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): A 10 minute game with brightly colored dice… SHINEY THINGS!! And the description had me hooked!! Dice chucking at it’s best!! This is at the same time the most fun and stressful game we’ve played!! And the soundtrack adds a whole new dimension to the pressure… and she’s RUDE!! We love the game but can rarely play more than 2 or 3 times in a row…

On this night Sis, Selena and I had much better luck and were able to win… with 2 seconds to spare!!  🙂

The combination of teaching and playing both games only took about 90 minutes and it was 90 minutes of chaotic, stressful fun!!

January 11th… After our plays of Pan Am I knew Sis was ready for something a little heavier so tonight it was just the two of us and I dug out a classic that has been away from the table too long… Carcassonne!!

(From BGG) Carcassonne is a tile-placement game in which the players draw and place a tile with a piece of southern French landscape on it. The tile might feature a city, a road, a cloister, grassland or some combination thereof, and it must be placed adjacent to tiles that have already been played, in such a way that cities are connected to cities, roads to roads, etc. Having placed a tile, the player can then decide to place one of his meeples (at right – a tiny, usually wooden character matching your chosen color that represents you in the game) on one of the areas on it: on the city as a knight, on the road as a robber, on a cloister as a monk, or on the grass as a farmer. When that area is complete, that meeple scores points for its owner and is returned to them (except farmers that aren’t scored until the end of the game).

During a game of Carcassonne, players are faced with decisions like: “Is it really worth putting my last meeple there?” or “Should I use this tile to expand my city, or should I place it near my opponent instead, giving him a hard time to complete his project and score points?” Since players place only one tile and have the option to place one meeple on it, turns proceed quickly even if it is a game full of options and possibilities.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): A board game without a board – how can that be?!? I had to find out!! This is very different from anything any of us have ever played and once we got the hang of the scoring it was easier to plan strategically and introduce to non-gamers. It’s different every time you play because you’re essentially creating the board as you play… incredible!!

As I was teaching Sis I also told the story of that first board game Christmas and how the girls kept looking at the box… and me… and each other… and how, after I finally had a grasp on the rules so we could learn and play it, I waited anxiously after the final scoring for some sort of reaction in the seemingly never-ending silence… until Julie finally smiled and immediately asked if we could play it again!! WHEW!! It’s been her personal favorite ever since…

I went on to explain how an interesting characteristic of most Euro games was that you never really know who’s going to win until the end and it’s usually pretty close… I would later eat those words as Sis lapped me on the scoring track… when it was all over I’d gotten closer but still lost by almost 20 points… but she got it and she liked it… mission accomplished.

January 12th… Tonight I decided to try something of a light to medium weight but with more moving parts so we ventured back to the Stone Age!!

(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!!

Tonight Julie was up and seemed to be feeling much better so she, her sister and I had a go at it…

As the game went on I could see Sis knew exactly what she was doing and had completed one full set of Civilization cards so we knew she already had at least 64 points in front of her… I wasn’t sure what Julie was working on but I was hoping to collect enough builders (an end-game scoring multiplier) to grab a bunch of points from the buildings I was going after… we all took turns leap-frogging past each other on the score track until Sis pulled out to a substantial and seemingly insurmountable lead… after the Civ deck ran out – triggering the immediate end of the game – we went through the final scoring… Sis was indeed way out in front after her sets of Civ cards were scored but out of nowhere here comes Julie who had scarfed up a ton of buildings late in the game (the ones I was after of course) which translated to a ton of points for her and she blew past her sister to win the game!! Oh yeah… as for me, I had collected a decent number of builders with my Civ cards but could only come away with 3 buildings after Julie repeatedly snagged the ones I’d been eye-balling so I came in a distant 3rd – barely breaking 100 points… BUT… Julie’s come-from-behind victory gave me some sense of vindication for my Euro scoring spiel prior to Carcassonne that failed to play out… call it a minor personal victory for me which may be all I get given my current game prowess… 🙂

We had a great time with it and Sis was ready to play again immediately but I had to get some sleep and be up early for work… As soon as we had it packed, Sis was online looking to order a copy – she loved it that much!! Again… mission accomplished!!

During the game, I had noticed Coffee (the oldest) under the table and he sort of fell over… I thought he was scratching and lost his balance but, unfortunately, he became ill and everyone is sleeping very little – keeping an eye on him – and on edge for fear of losing the old guy (on the left in the picture at left)… 🙁

January 17th… Today Julie’s sister had to make one of the most agonizing decisions any pet owner has to make and that was to have a beloved pet put down…

A little more than a week ago he started stumbling and falling over and having mini seizures… it made me think he might have had a mild stroke… the vet was pretty sure it was Cushing’s disease… something to do with a gland (I think?) and a tumor on the brain which would explain the symptoms… the next step would have been meeting with neurological vets and surgeons but there was no guarantee that it would have helped and would have been extremely costly. and stressful for him.. sadly, she never got to that point as the seizures were getting worse and more frequent and in between were these bursts of energy that made it impossible to get him to relax – even with sedatives… this morning she made the call to our local vet and Selena made him the breakfast of all breakfasts with chicken, veggies and STEAK… quite the send off as we all were in tears and will miss him very much…

I got through the day but had to fight his constant reminders… any time I would snack on a pretzel I swear he could hear me crunching from two rooms away and the next thing I knew he was nudging my elbow… when he first arrived here last year, I had to remind him to leave my fingers behind but he soon learned to be gentle and I’m sure if I’d left an open bag within reach he would have finished it… pretzels are one of the few snacks I’m allowed and I take advantage of that 3 or 4 times a day and I know I will think of him every time…

As the day went on I took care of laundry, finished a computer repair and dropped it off, had a light supper then unboxed, punched and repacked Selena’s Scooby Doo! Betrayal at Mystery Mansion game… I must say that the production quality is pretty poor… it was a struggle to get the large amount of cardboard pieces to come free of their cutouts… when punched, the knobs left behind on each piece were bad enough that I spent the next couple of hours gently removing them with an emery board!! Pretty pathetic Avalon Hill but I guess that’s another way to cut costs for a mass market game for Target stores…

I had been eyeballing our Christmas haul and had the next day off for the Martin Luther King holiday… I really wasn’t ready to go to sleep but was pretty sure none of the girls were in much of a gaming mood yet… I needed something that had a solo mode in case I actually got to the point of starting the game and I myself felt like playing… I backed the Kickstarter for Tumble Town and my copy included promo cards, a dice tower and a playmat which kept attracting my attention… to the table!!

(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 this and fell in love… so much so that I backed it to the hilt (a reasonably inexpensive Kickstarter) to where my copy included a very nice neoprene playmat as I said before… I’d heard the solo mode was excellent too…

I had checked out a few videos on it the last few days and was surprised to unbox it and find my copy looked nothing like the videos – they must have had early runs or prototypes… instead of 2 cards butted together to make the town and a separate card for the storehouse, mine had beautiful double-sided player boards that combined the storehouse and town!! They were double-sided (easy and hard modes) and there was another set for two more play modes… cool!! The game has a ton of solid, chunky dice in brown, grey, black and gold that are easily distinguishable… the iconography is clear and there are reference cards for each player… a superb job by Weird Giraffe Gamss!!

By the time I had it organized then reconstructed and tested the dice tower (I had the two inner shelves backwards and dice wouldn’t go through), I was feeling like giving it a go and familiarized myself with the single page of solo rules… I decided to start on easy mode and see how it all went…

It plays very smooth… the AI rolls 3 dice – one for each row of building plans – and takes the card corresponding to the column of the number rolled… he also takes 3 dice of the color indicated for each row that it takes a building plan from… this is important because the supply of dice is limited and when two colors have 2 or less remaining, the game is over… there are 4 columns so if they roll 5 or 6, nothing happens in those colors… but in easy mode, if all 3 dice are under 5, he gets TWO penalty tokens worth -2 each at the end of the game… that’s the only thing that saved me on this first play… I managed what I considered a respectable 28 points from buildings while my AI opponent racked up 56 and I thought I was toast… however, in the process of collecting all those buildings, he had also earned -14 in penalties… Victory is mine… 56 – 47!! NOW I’m ready for bed but I left it setup for another round tomorrow… it’s everything I thought it would be when I backed it – a great light to medium weight game that plays in 45 minutes to an hour.

I should mention that I loved the neoprene play may included with the Kickstarter and this got me looking once more for alternatives to setting up the big table to hold the folding portable game top I had purchased a few years ago… it worked great but was an enormous pain to setup… my search took me once again to Game Toppers… I LOVE their tables but could never afford one and don’t have the room to commit to a permanent table setup… but they offer mats too!! I need to dig deeper into this…

I had searched for neoprene mats on Amazon and ordered a night sky pattern I thought would be a great background to play on as the games would stand out… however, when it arrived, I was disappointed to discover that it was NOT in fact neoprene but rather a thin, tear-proof sheet meant to recover an existing game table… I processed a return and blamed Amazon’s faulty search for showing me this when I specifically asked for ‘neoprene’ and, once the return processed, I returned to Game Toppers to see if I could afford even a small, high-quality mat…

After over an hour of browsing various patterns and sizes and prices I selected one I thought would be a good size for most of our plays, would offer a nice background for our games… best of all, it was in an affordable price range AND included a free storage bag… I pulled the trigger on Game Toppers’…

Now for the true test of my patience as I awaited its arrival… 🙂

January 21st… After a few unsuccessful attempts at the next level of Tumble Town, I was finally able to claim a victory against the AI last night!! Today I convinced Selena to give it a try… while she wasn’t as taken with the game as I am, she still managed to beat me by 6 points (of course)… I’m hoping to try it out on Julie and/or her sister tonight…

January 24th… Julie’s up and insisting on a game and I decide to teach her and her sister (and Selena jumped in too) Tumble Town because I’m currently familiar with it and all 4 of us sat down to play…

Julie started right off choosing gold building plans and I kept reminding her she’d need the special powers from the lower level but she kept going… I built several small buildings but my bonus icon wasn’t making many appearances in the building plans so my end game scoring was going to take a hit… Selena was building away and Julie’s sister was quietly adding dice to her town mat…

When it was all over, Julie only managed 29 points and was left with a bunch of building plans she couldn’t build (those special powers would have really helped… I managed 59 but didn’t know how much my lack of bonus points would bite me until Selena tallied a score of 64 and Julie’s sister managed 65… other than Julie’s ‘gold’ strategy, it was a pretty close game but I don’t think they were as taken with the game as I was… glad the solo mode is fun… 🙂

January 28th… Julie’s up again and ready to play… I’ve been prepared and chomping at the bit to teach and play one of her Christmas games from well-known designer Friedmann Friese called Fast Sloths so she, her sister and I sat down to give it a go…

(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): This game was a no-brainer given Julie’s love of sloths and the reviews, but after playing through it I must say it’s a very clever design with a ton of variability which equates to lots of replayability as well… even though the board is reminiscent and about as unexciting as say Kingdom Builder (selena was the first to spot the resemblance – what a memory)… 🙂

We played the recommended setup for beginning players and early on it looked like I was going to get my ass handed to me yet again as Julie and her sister scampered around the board adding leaves to their player boards… I made a late game surge but it wasn’t enough and I came up a few short… Julie pulled out the victory with her sister one turn short of tying her… I think she may have won but she forgot the part of my teach about only needing 8 leaves so there would be one extra left on the board and her planned route to get all 9 took her just enough extra moves as to allow Julie to win… I know Julie and I will play again and hopefully Selena will like it… I’m not sure about Julie’s sister – mostly because there are just too many other games in the collection that I’m anxious to share with her before she moves back to Georgia…

January 31st… Julie’s out, her sister is out of town and I’m bored silly… lucky for me I was able to talk Selena into a quick game before she went to work…

I had just played Fast Sloths a few nights ago and was pretty sure I could get her up to speed in short order… after a quick review of the base animals and placing our sloths, we were off to the races…

It seemed like no time and she had 6 of her 8 leaves needed to win the game… I had a plan, had just collected only my 5th and was setting myself up for 6 and 7 when she got her 8th and sat there smiling at me… she REALLY liked this game!! I’m glad… I like it too… it’s pretty easy to setup and plays quick… now that we have all played a game maybe we’ll start exploring the different setups with different animals and the alternative animal placement rules…

I think this may be our first Friedmann Friese game though I’ve seen others but just never picked them up for whatever reason… I may have to keep a closer eye on his titles and go back and review his older ones…

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February 1st… Julie’s been fighting a mild stomach bug but is feeling a little better and is sleeping… her sister is still up north visiting friends and Selena started her new semester of classes then had to go to work…

I’m taking advantage of the quiet house, curling up with the dogs for some game manual review in hopes of getting to break out a new one in the next day or two with the impending storm approaching…

I’ve been itching to try Curious Cargo – another of our Christmas presents…

(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…

On this day I’d set it up and begged Selena to at least try to start a game with me before her virtual class and she did… we didn’t get very far but it was enough for her to ask to play when she got home from work… I already planned to sleep in before cleaning up after the Nor-Easter that was predicted to dump 8-14 inches of snow on us so she got home, got supper and we refreshed the rules and started a new game about 8:30… and the snow that was supposed to start around noon had yet to make an appearance here… I kept checking the radar and it seemed to be pounding everything an hour south and in both directions east and west but it looked like skies were clear north of that…

Selena was all over this game and we both were making connections and catching many of our own mistakes… I kept the quick reference next to me to make sure we didn’t miss anything and continuously reminded us both of various things we could easily forget…

We were very focused on the ‘active connections’ – maybe too much – but eventually started rolling some trucks out… there seemed to be a lot of time where Selena was stuck in moments of AP (analysis paralysis) and I was sitting around with nothing to do (or if I did I didn’t realize it)…

The game ended when we pulled the last conveyor tile from the bag (one of 4 game end triggers)… since none of us had earned any stars (earning a single star ends AND wins the game) I told her we’d have to total all the points we’d earned by shipping and receiving goods… but, before we had added a single point, I realized that I’d already lost… to even be ELIGABLE to win the game, I needed to have shipped a minimum of 2 of each good… sadly, I had only managed 1 of each – handing the game to Selena on a platter as they say…

My disappointment was short lived as Selena announced that she really liked the game… WOW!! I’m 2 for 2 with Selena and we haven’t even played the ones I got specifically for her… I guess I have a pretty good feel for what my girls and I like… 🙂

February 7th… a Sunday at home and I’m contemplating running to school to work on my drums and get some practice in but Julie’s up and moving, made waffles for breakfast and insists that she wants to play a couple games… after breakfast she went to rest and I was sure she would be asleep but it was almost lunch time and she’s still awake and still asking so I put a small table on the bed and topped it with my wonderful new wood grain game topper from Game Toppers… I should explain a little about using the bed…

Julie’s Costochondritis pain is triggered / aggravated whenever she does anything that causes her to raise her arms even with her chest or higher… when we play in the living room she (as with most of us) is sitting very low compared to the table height which can’t be adjusted… this causes her to be constantly reaching up and being in pain before the game is over… my theory is a lower table would help immensely so the next best thing is playing on the bed where everything is technically below her knees… the point is, her arms remain low so we’ll see how that works… now for what to play…

Selena and I recently played Curious Cargo (see above) and I came away with some key points that we ignored in our play that I think will make the game play smoother (try not to focus on so many connections to loading docks and shift to trucking sooner) so I think I’m better prepared to teach it and I’m sure Julie will like it…

Fast forward… she did!! And with my increased knowledge of the game and revised teach, we both played a more balanced game with little frustration, less downtime and a full appreciation of the tools the game puts at your disposal to do well… it was a close game… we were both shipping and receiving cargo on multiple connections and in the end, Julie collected the first star – apparently triggering the end of the game and her victory. BUT WAIT!! I suddenly remembered an end-game trigger I’d forgotten – being the first to ship the indicated number of goods from your factory… in this case, that good that I shipped and subsequent truck I moved to ship another was my 9th which meant that I had won the game before I stupidly moved the truck that pushed a good into her receiving dock giving her a star… regardless, we both really enjoyed this play and the game… and both of us being that close to victory tells me that she ‘got it’… I’m betting she asks to play this again… I may even teach her sister before she returns to Georgia… with all the various game boards included with the game, it might still feel a little ‘samey’ but should still be challenging and interesting… a great brain-burning 2 player game!!

I just learned that a SOLO mode is being developed… that should be interesting… 🙂

After a break for a late lunch, she still wanted to play… Selena was doing homework as one of her college course’s books had just arrived so it was just Julie and me…

I had Meeple Land!! setup before but no one could play… time to set it up again!!

(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… 

I was charmed by the esthetics and, after becoming familiar with the rules, I was sure it would be an east teach and a fun play… and I was right…

After a quick refresh of the rules and some brief demonstrations that I picked up from Rodney Smith’s Watch It Played video, we were off and building!!

The turns fly by as we go back and forth – blowing through our grant money and expanding our individual parks then welcoming visitors and collecting revenue… I screwed up early on by boxing myself in though I was able to purchase attractions with just he right paths to dig my way out to where I could fill out other areas of my board…

I was sure we missed moving the round counter and were heading into the last round but Julie disagreed but impressed me when she thought to count the number of buses that had dropped off visitors which determined that we were indeed playing the final round… When it was all over Julie had beat me by a single point but found a scoring error and that flipped and I had beat her by a single point… we both loved it!! It’s challenging but doesn’t feel punishing in any way… very enjoyable – even when just the right tiles don’t appear (we both waited 3/4s of the game for toilets to appear)… it’s fast, easy, colorful and fun… and as much as I can’t wait to teach Selena, I’m equally anxious to share it with the local board game group as I think this is one that just about anyone will enjoy. Now I just need for the virus numbers to drop and restrictions to be lifted so we can get together again… it’s been almost a full year…

Oh – and that Game Topper play mat?? INCREDIBLE!!! Well worth the price and HIGHLY recommended!!!

February 11th… school has been relatively quiet and Julie had her second knee injection today so I took the day off…

I spent the morning into the afternoon designing, printing, cutting, laminating and cutting the laminated version of my Curious Cargo solo mode cards… hopefully I won’t need them very often but, when I’m in the mood and no one else is, I’ll have this to fall back on…

After a late lunch we headed for Julie’s knee injections but ended up coming right back as three members of the surgical team who do her treatment had to leave for an emergency surgery… so we stopped for groceries then headed home…

By now Julie was awake and anxious to play a game… we had played Meeple Land!! only a few nights ago so that seemed like the obvious candidate and everyone was onboard so we’d have a 4 player game with Julie, her sister, Selena and myself!! After my quick teach, we were able to finish the first round before Selena headed for class early to try to sort out the parking for her culinary classes which are in downtown Glens Falls – near the hospital ER… and at night… and she either parks on the street (which we’re not a big fan of) or she uses the parking garage (which we’re REALLY not a big fan of)… hopefully she gets through the year without issue… Glens Falls is not a terrible place but it will do until something terrible comes along… we’ve spent enough time in the ER to know there’s a seriously seedy underbelly to the area… anyway, the game became a 3 player and we continued on…

One thing about more players is that more tiles come out but the chances of the certain tiles someone is after being their on their turn are drastically reduced… I thought I’d done a pretty good job at filling my board but as the end approached, I realized that I barely had enough unique attractions to even score (you need at least 7)… I had 7 for a whopping 2 points… hopefully the number of meeples in my park would save me… they didn’t… and my final score of 20 seemed paltry when Julie announced she had 39… then her sister chimed in with 40!!! A first time player and she pulls out a 40?!? I wasn’t paying attention to her scoring or playing so I assume she had it all correct… she’s pretty sharp and a bit of a shark I’m starting to learn… I think she’s won every game I’ve pulled out!! Pretty good for someone who hadn’t played a lot of games prior to her moving in here… 🙂

Julie and I really like this game… very quick and relatively easy with not a ton of rules to bog it down… Julie’s sister liked it but I don’t think as much as we do… As for Selena, we’ll have to see if she asks to play again after only playing one round… still, it’s a keeper.

February 15th… a school holiday… Julie’s been telling me her sister has been wanting to play again… I had told her sister to just tell me because I wasn’t going to drive her nuts by constantly asking like I do my wife and daughter but she hadn’t said anything… She was interested in trying Tzolk’in – the Mayan Calendar  so I’d had that out and had been watching videos and re-reading the manual so I was ready to teach it… tonight was the night!!

from (BGG): Tzolkin: The Mayan Calendar presents a new game mechanism: dynamic worker placement. Players representing different Mayan tribes place their workers on giant connected gears, and as the gears rotate they take the workers to different action spots.

During a turn, players can either (a) place one or more workers on the lowest visible spot of the gears or (b) pick up one or more workers. When placing workers, they must pay corn, which is used as a currency in the game. When they pick up a worker, they perform certain actions depending on the position of the worker. Actions located “later” on the gears are more valuable, so it’s wise to let the time work for you – but players cannot skip their turn; if they have all their workers on the gears, they have to pick some up.

The game ends after one full revolution of the central Tzolkin gear. There are many paths to victory. Pleasing the gods by placing crystal skulls in deep caves or building many temples are just two of those many paths…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): OK – the gears!! The game looked fascinating but it was the incorporation of the 6 interlocking gears that made us want to play this and probably what attracted Julie’s sister!!

Below is a picture of the gears with workers placed on the small gears…

It took me over an hour to teach (I haven’t played this in a few years) – all the time referencing the manual to try to ensure that I didn’t miss anything (but I did)… it might have been quicker if I’d just read the manual to her… 🙂

After an hour of teach and a couple hours of gameplay we tallied the final score and I had pulled out a victory (finally)… Sis took a deep breath and proclaimed that the game was very ‘stimulating’ in the it really makes you plan ahead… she said that we definitely had to try that again now that we had a better feel for it… and the couple of things I remembered during the game…

February 16th… a storm that was supposed to drop 3 – 8 inches of snow on us while rain and ice stayed further south instead left a few inches of snow covered in sleet and ice… roads were a bottle and plows and sanders hadn’t been seen since they went by every 45 minutes the night before plowing the dusting of snow we had… as the morning went on, them temps began to rise and it rained on top of it all as temps got into the upper 30’s leaving a slushy mess… I cleared the cars off then, afraid my snowblower would choke on this heavy slop, I shoveled the end of our driveway… thankfully, I remembered to clean out in front of the shed before the doors froze shut… it took some additional chopping but I got it cleared and dug down a little to where it might not flood and freeze… once I finished I headed inside for a shower, some soup and a Tzolk’in rematch!!

Julie was awake and wanted to play too but I knew she wasn’t feeling well… despite her insistence that she knew how to play and would figure it out, she had a bunch of questions so an abbreviated 30 minute teach was in order before we could actually start… we were only a few turns in when she had to bail because of her chest pain so with that she was off to bed… coincidentally, Selena was just getting home from work and I was able to persuade her to take over Julie’s spot and finish the 3 player game we’d setup… as usual, she remembered more about how to play from years ago than I did having read the manual again the day before…

We all seemed to be executing different strategies and making moves and helping each other with options when one of us appeared stuck… some of the combos we were able to achieve were pretty impressive… I was able to build enough farms so I didn’t have to pay to feed my work force which I had increased from 3 to 5 during the game…

As the final rounds approached, Selena made a move to acquire the 1st player token – a bonus of which is being able to advance time TWO years instead of just 1… this totally screwed up Sis’s plan for a 3-way move on her second to last turn… Sis was amused but pissed and Selena was grinning ear-to-ear… typical… 🙂

When it was all over, I had managed to pull out yet another victory!! I don’t remember being this good at this game… maybe it was just that I was more familiar from all my studying… Selena still liked it though I doubt she’ll want to play it again anytime soon… Sis still insists that it’s ‘stimulating’… but exhausting… 🙂  It IS a great, thinky game!!

February 16th… Sis’s last night here for a few weeks as she’s moving in with a sick friend way up north for a while before she stops back here then moves back to Georgia… I have the feeling she enjoys gaming as much as I do and is ready to play again… after 2 mind-melting nights of Tzolk’in I wanted to play something a little lighter and enjoyable… 10+ games were running through my head but I was pretty sure I could remember The Quacks of Quedlinberg enough to teach and play 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… after playing it with my wife and daughter, the expansion and blinged-out recipe chips was a no-brainer as this immediately became one of our favorites…

Sis soaked it in, asked for a few clarifications and we dove in… and she trounced me!! I don’t think her pot blew up once the entire game… she was so far ahead that I was moving my rat stone (a catchup mechanism) 8-10 spaces ahead each of the last 4 or 5 rounds (and there are only 9 rounds)… in the last round she filled her pot AND THE OVERFLOW (I’d rarely seen anyone even reach the handle)… when it was all over, she was approaching 75 points while fell just short of 50… OK – she really IS a shark at these games… and I love it!!  🙂  She would rank this somewhere in the middle of all the games we’ve played – Stone Age still being her favorite followed close behind by Carcassonne, Wingspan and Escape: Curse of the Temple… but this was right in there…

I really hope that when she returns to Georgia her daughter will join her for some games… they both obviously enjoy gaming and I think it would give her daughter’s self-confidence a much needed boost (like I saw over Christmas)… I think her fiancé enjoys games too so I’m happy I’ve had this time to share at least a few of my games and my fledgling knowledge of the hobby with her and hope she’s able to find people to play with when she gets settled again. And I really hope I get at least one more game in with her before she moves back south… for every game I spot on my shelves that I think she’ll like, I think of 5 more… we could play a different game each night for a month and still not get through everything I’ve picked out for her so now I have to figure out, if we only get to play one more, what would it be… Great Western Trail?? Scythe?? Dominion?? Sierra West?? 7 Wonders Dual (or the full game if Julie and/or Selena want to play)?? Meeple Circus?? Raiders of the North Sea?? Any of the West Kingdom trilogy?? Oh this is going to be harder than I thought… 🙂

February 21st… I was getting ready to tackle some solo plays today but Julie wants to play and Selena decided to join us… YAY!!!

I went back to Fast Sloths (see above for details) since we all really enjoyed our initial plays and had talked about trying it with different animals (and the human)… once we had selected the animals for the game, we used a sort of animal draft described in the rule book where we took turns randomly placing animals (of course where we thought they’d be helpful to us once the game was underway)… 🙂  And with that the race was on!!

Everyone seemed to have a strategy in place and also seemed to know just what they were doing so I was able to focus on my own strategy for a change… you need to collect 8 leaves to win and I was quickly ahead with 3 then 4 but before I knew it Julie had caught up and Selena wasn’t too far behind… let me see… if I go here… then… I’ll need these cards… that gets me here for 7 and there for 8… DAMN!! Selena’s got 7 already… I’ll win on my next turn!! NOPE!! Julie grabs her 7th and 8th on a single turn to end the game!! We all laughed… Selena and I were both one turn away… we love the variety and the subtle differences between animals (and the human)… very cool!! We’ll be trying some other combinations very soon I’m sure… 🙂

February 26th… I’ve come close but tonight Julie and I finally got Santa Monica the table!!

(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…

I’d read through the rules and watched several videos so I was ready to go so I got Julie up to speed and we dove in…

It’s a very light and easy game – not punishing at all… it makes it very easy to get most everything you need to be in a position to win other than the luck of the draw as far as which cards are available at a given time…

As play went on we had a couple questions on some of the iconography that I thought I knew the answers to but checked the manual to be sure (and I was right)… I misunderstood it to be a sort of race since the end game is triggered when someone plays their 14th card but the way the game progresses, unless someone plays a card that lets them play TWO cards (it’s in there but we didn’t see that card or cards in our game), everyone will get to 14 on the same turn…

Julie was first player and played her 14th card and I followed on my turn and we set out to score… the only problem we had in the game was figuring out the score sheet… it’s nothing but icons and isn’t covered anywhere in the rule book… there’s a section on scoring but it doesn’t follow along with the score sheet or even reference it in any way… we tallied the scores and I was slightly ahead but, after packing everything up, I had to head to the BGG forums for some clarification… once I learned what I needed to know I redesigned the score sheet – adding text and descriptions to mine so it would be easier next time…

The game is everything I thought it would be from the videos I’d watched before I ordered it… and we loved it!! There are a ton of cards and several starting player tiles with different end game objectives so the replayability is pretty high… I’m sure this will get a lot of plays – probably in the next couple days and maybe even with Selena… definitely a keeper!! 🙂

February 27th… Selena was willing to play so I broke out Santa Monica again… I won but she still likes it – enough said… 🙂  OK – there is a little more… it’s only my second play but even after shuffling the huge deck I was still seeing scoring possibilities I hadn’t seen before… I can easily see this being one of those games that gets 2 or 3 plays in a row once we know it…

February 28th… today Julie had her friend Christy over for some crafting accompanied by her husband John and their two kids ages 6 and 10… back in 2015 when I first discovered this hobby, Julie was working at a day care where the two children were… she mentioned some of the games we had discovered and quickly learned that they too were avid gamers!! It wasn’t long before we were invited over for a game night and learned so much more about all the fabulous games out there and one John and some friends were working named S.U.E.T. – the Card Game… Today was the first time John and I have had a chance to sit down together in a couple years because of our work and my band schedules (and COVID of course)…

We were talking games and what to drag out when both kids checked in to say they wanted to play at which point our conversation turned to what might be a good one for them… John spotted Castle Panic on my shelf and thought that, since it was cooperative he’d be able to coax the younger players through it as necessary… I hadn’t played it in years so he might have to coax me too… 🙂

(from BGG): The forest is filled with all sorts of monsters. They watched and waited as you built your castle and trained your soldiers, but now they’ve gathered their army and are marching out of the woods. Can you work with your friends to defend your castle against the horde, or will the monsters tear down your walls and destroy the precious castle towers? You will all win or lose together, but in the end only one player will be declared the Master Slayer!

Castle Panic is a cooperative, light strategy game for 1 to 6 players ages 10 and up. Players must work together to defend their castle, in the center of the board, from monsters that attack out of the forest at the edges of the board. Players trade cards, hit and slay monsters, and plan strategies together to keep their castle towers intact. The players either win or lose together, but only the player with the most victory points is declared the Master Slayer. Players must balance the survival of the group with their own desire to win.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): It looked like such a great concept that I couldn’t pass it up… Another cooperative game which is a style we’ve come to enjoy – sometimes it’s just more fun to work together rather than compete against each other. And, as the name implies, it’s a PANIC!! Monsters attacking from all sides… a lot of fun!!

We had a blast even though the kids were bored with it by the middle (to be honest, the youngest announced he was bored after his first turn)… I’d forgotten how much fun the game was… and it was another instance where I recalled how I struggled to wrap my head around the rules 6 years ago yet today it seemed so simple… I’ll be the girls would like playing it again too…

With the youngest now content with Selena’s old Nintendo hand held, the oldest wanted to play something else… I poured over my shelves and pulled out another oldie – Mondo!! I barely had it in my hand when the oldest asked if it had animals so I knew she was into to it… John had never seen this one so I was on my own for the teach… now I just needed to remember how to play… 🙂

In Mondo players compete against each other while also racing against the clock. Each player has a small world board with empty spaces on it, and all players simultaneously pick tiles depicting different animals and environments from the middle of the table and place them on their world board, trying to create complete areas of the same environment. A new tile must be placed next to an already placed tile (similar to Carcassone), but the environmental borders don’t have to match… BUT… these ‘misconnections’ will earn negative points when the board is scored.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I think the Carcassonne style tile laying and simultaneous play is what caught my eye initially. This one’s fast and fun (and Selena usually kicks our butts at this too)… This falls into a category (I only recently learned IS a category) of competitive solitaire games – that is to say games where everyone is primarily focused on doing their own thing but competing with others at the same time. And in this game there’s the additional challenge of everyone accessing the same single pool of resources to draw from so it’s very easy to get screwed when someone else takes the one piece you need.

We only made it through 2 of the 3 rounds as the afternoon grew late and dinner approached with school tomorrow but we all enjoyed it – enough so that I think John my try to find a copy… and much like with the previous game, I think the girls would enjoy breaking this out again – especially since we’re all older and wiser as far as games go… 🙂

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March 3rd… today I get my first vaccine shot a little more than a 90 minute drive from home so I’ve got the day off from work… I’ve been reading and reviewing a couple ‘how-to-play’ videos and feel like I’m ready for – Viscounts (pronounced VI-counts) of the West Kingdom – the third and final game in the West Kingdom trilogy!!

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??  —

(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!

Julie’s in bed of course and Selena’s gaming interest has dwindled again recently but I’m setting up to take the (what I hear is excellent) solo mode for a spin… I always ask Selena just in case and can usually gauge her level of actual interest by the tone of her ‘sure’ response and let her off the hook but today she seemed genuinely interested (perhaps driven by guilt as the previous day she called while I was on my way home from work to ask if I would take her pet rat to an emergency vet appointment since she was at work)… to my surprise, her interest didn’t change when she saw the game setup…

Somewhere along the line I stumbled on Peaky Boardgamer’s video on how to play which I really liked and it was under 30 minutes which made it a better teaching tool than myself… and, with the game on the table, I could briefly pause to actually show Selena (and remind myself) where things were… and tend to the dogs who always long for our attention…

This is Pixie with Selena… a pit / lab mix who is no where near as large as my iPhone 11 camera made her appears for whatever reason…

We eventually watched the whole thing then dove in with both feet…

I really like that each players game board has a section which outlines the steps of a turn… follow the steps then it’s on to the next player… simple. Selena was following my lead by reciting each step aloud as she went through them and it wasn’t long before she was in a rhythm, knew what she wanted to do each time and was blowing through actions!! I was starting to get there but, as usual, was still dividing my focus between my strategy and making sure she was following the rules and didn’t have questions or miss options…

We decided to stop for lunch and so I could also prep for my shot excursion… we may have been able to finish the game in another 15-30 minutes (I don’t think the 60-90 minute play time on the box is too far off once you’re familiar with the game) but we decided to stop and score just for fun… well, Selena enjoyed the score anyway as she was out in front by some 15 points at that time… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve become a huge fan of Shem Phillip’s and Sam McDonald’s designs starting with Raiders of the North Sea… with the West Kingdom trilogy they continue to come up with new and interesting games and I’m already anticipating their next series set in the south or east of somewhere… 🙂

BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE!!

Julie had agreed to ride up with me for my shot and had to hold off on her meds in case I developed any side effects that prevented me from driving home which thankfully didn’t happen… A little more than half way home we agreed that I was fine and she was able to take her pain meds… she asked if we could play a game when we got home… she was hoping for something lighter but I pleaded and pouted and convinced her to try Viscounts since I already had it setup…

It wasn’t long before she too was blowing through turns and actions… as it grew later I had to convince her to stop before we finished so we could both get some needed sleep so I think she was enjoying it too… this is surely a keeper and great finish to the trilogy!!

I’m off from work again to day because Julie has doctors appointments and Selena has a class, then goes right to work and then goes right to another class… in between I kicked the tires on the Viscounts of the West Kingdom SOLO mode… WOW!! They couldn’t have made the AI any more straightforward to play (his board and cards are just off camera)… awesome!!

Before I knew it the game end was triggered by the AI and I ran through the scoring and got my ass handed to me of course by about 14 points… but I really enjoyed it – so much so that tonight, if no one wants to try it again with me, I may just take on the AI opponent once more!!

March 5th… Selena has a full work day, Julie’s medicated and sleeping so, after some early morning errands, I’m gearing up to take on the Viscount AI once more… and this time, despite multiple interruptions from dogs, family and school (even though I had the day off) and a trip to the next town for lunch, the outcome was much different…

I randomly select which AI board to use and this time it focused on building as its primary action (and I have to say it again, this AI is the smoothest of any game I’ve played solo) so I decided to focus on manuscripts… this has always attracted me but the AI focused on it last game which would have made it a little harder to compete…

As the game went on I was able to collect a complete set of 4… then another… that’s 32 points right there but would it be enough?? Looking at the AI’s space it has a ton of flipped debts and a goodly amount of flipped deeds – all points at the end of the game… and by the sheer number of cards I knew it had another 12 points for having the most flipped cards regardless of whether the game ended in poverty or prosperity…

When the end game was triggered I tallied the AI’s score… 52… uh-oh… that’s pretty high from what I’ve seen so far… then I tallied mine… twice… yep – 62!! I beat it!!!

I took a break, had supper, Farkled with Mom, chatted with a friend for over an hour and by then Selena was home from work… when I got my lunch I also picked up some double meat subs for the girls… these things are stuffed!! I thought I might be able to use it to ‘bribe’ Selena into playing once more… it must have worked (or she really likes the game too) because it didn’t take any convincing and I proceeded to reset for two players while she gobbled down that huge sandwich…

I wanted to try my manuscript strategy again but, at least early on, it looked like she too would be going after them… I waited a few turns – moving a few workers into the castle – and was going to deviate from my plan when she started throwing gobs of workers into the mix and I returned to manuscripts…

The dogs slept at our feet, turns were flying and I was able to focus on my game because I felt like Selena may have known it better than I did at that point… the next thing I knew she takes the last deed card triggering the end game… I finished my turn, we play one more round and I step us through scoring… I have a lot of people in the castle but can see she has more and in higher tiers including the 5 point Castle Leader bonus… I didn’t get as many manuscripts completed as I wanted but have a few more than she does including 1 complete set good for 16 points… we both have lots of debt and deed cards but it looks like she has more and more of hers are flipped… Selena always likes to know my score first so, after a brief stare down, I toss my score card on the table… 57… “Are you kidding me?!?” she screamed… throwing down her card with a score of… 54. I know I’ve said it before but this is why I like these types of games… because the outcome is rarely obvious and usually close which makes losing more palatable than drawn out boring blowouts…

I’m loving this game!! Now that I know it, it seems very easy and something I would gladly teach… whenever game groups are allowed to gather again… 🙂

March 6th… after an early morning grocery shopping marathon I had some time to kill before the band’s first rehearsal in almost a full year so I’m taking on the AI Viscount for a third time!!

As mentioned previously, I randomly select the AI board (each one has a different primary action that the AI will focus on) and as luck would have it I drew the one where it will focus on building again… that left my manuscript focus open but somehow as the game progressed I found myself putting more and more people in the castle… at one point the AI dropped a pair of workers in a spot already containing two of mine so one was sent packing but that was it for the AI in the castle (I would later send both of his back to him)… I watched as the deed pile kept shrinking as the AI had quite a collection and was regularly flipping them – increasing each’s value from 1 to 3 points in the end… I knew I had to get at least one set of manuscripts but 2 would be better for scoring though I did mange to flood the castle and gain the Castle Leader card worth 5 more points in the end… I knew then end was near and scrambled to add more manuscripts and did manage a cleric bonus for getting 3 blue manuscripts… but it wasn’t long before the AI triggered the end and one more round wasn’t enough for me to scribe further…

When it was all over I could see the handwriting on the wall as the AI had a whopping 27 points in flipped deed card and I knew not having at least 2 full sets of 4 manuscripts would leave me short… I managed 56 – about where I’ve been score wise… but the AI put a hurt on me with a total of 73!! OK – this is staying on the table for at least one more go round tomorrow… 🙂

March 6th… as promised, today I once again took on the AI Viscount!! This time the AI focused on the castle for its primary action while I stuck with the manuscripts…

Early on it looked like the castle was being overrun by AI players and I already had a compete set of manuscripts… hopefully I was at least staying close… I felt like I had built a good working deck and had the silver and resources to keep going while the AI appeared to stall – adding deeds and debts but no resources and subsequently no nobles in the castle… then it picked up again with a move that felt like I spent 10 minutes resolving all the workers in the castles outer ring, then second tier and then third tier to gain the Castle Leader bonus card… about that same time I completed my second complete set of manuscripts and thought the 32 points earned would surely be advantageous and set out to collect Cleric bonuses for 3 of each color… on this day I was the one to draw the deed that triggered the end of the game so how did it come out??

If I had totaled mine first I would have been very optimistic as my 68 points was a personal best… 41 points from the manuscripts alone AND the Prosperity bonus!! But (you probably already know where this is heading)… the AI’s castle-centric game gave it 27 points for nobles in the castle and another 24 for flipped deeds… throw in the other numbers and the AI had pulled out a 10 point victory with 78 points – the highest I’ve seen so far.

I think I’ll still leave it setup – partly out of love of the game and partly because there was one thing about the production the bugged me that I’m rectifying soon… you see, the wood painted gold resource tokens are PUMPKIN ORANGE!! You can see them in the pictures above… they’re shaped like gold bars but that orange construction cone color was bugging me… Julie and I thought we might be able to fix it ourselves since she does a lot of crafting when she’s feeling up to it… I picked up some bright yellow paint from a local craft store that the label said should cover in a single coat and… not even close. Even after three coats we could still see the orange coming through… I tried applying a black base first with the same results… Julie tried stripping one first and discovered that under the bright orange was a layer of PINK… Really?? Pink?!? By this time I had already been online and ordered a replacement set of gold bars from Meeple Source for about the same price that I had paid for the paint… I know – I should have done that in the first place… The bits below will be here Tuesday and maybe inspire me to do better against the AI… 🙂

March 9th… after a day full of doctor appointments with Julie I settled in for another run at the AI (and breaking in the new gold colored gold resources)…

The AI focused on building again leaving my favorite manuscript strategy available for me but somewhere along the line things fell in to place to where I ended up with lots of gold which translated to an unexpected series of nobles heading for the castle… I decided to go with it and snag the Castle Leader bonus as the AI wasn’t doing much of anything in the castle so that was an easy 5 points… then it was back to manuscripts…

The AI built some small buildings, ran out of resources for a while then eventually built the mediums and a couple large ones… I built a couple things but was more focused on the castle and manuscripts…

In the end, my combination was able to overtake the AI’s buildings and I eked out a 2 point victory 63 – 61!!

On the game front… I’m to where I can reset Viscounts in about 15 minutes then play a full solo game in right around an hour… on this night the AI beat me by 7… 51 – 44… 🙂

March 11th… last week (much to our surprise) Julie received a call from the Charles Wood Cancer Center where she had been treated asking if she had gotten a COVID vaccine and if she was interested… she told them she was and they scheduled her for today… first shot in the books!! I’m staying with her the rest of the day in case she has any adverse reaction… once she fell asleep you know what that means – another shot at the Viscount AI!!  🙂

As mentioned previously, I randomly select the AI board which determines which determines their primary focus… I was happy to see it come up with the manuscripts as it would force me to try some other strategies I hadn’t used yet…

The game rolled along nicely and I thought I was doing pretty well despite the AI seeming to snag manuscripts almost at will… when it was all done, just to be different, I tallied my score first… 82!! WOW!! A new personal best!! The AI had… count those… add those.. nothing there… it got that bonus… are you freaking kidding me?!? 104??!!?? Just when I think I’m getting better it teaches me yet another lesson… oh this isn’t getting packed anytime soon… and I’m hoping for at least one game with both my girls because I think it would be a little tighter with more players… now what can I do better next time… 🙂

March 13th… with Selena working and tackling homework (and a potential new boyfriend) and Julie’s fever spiking at over 102, coming down then going back up again, I’m taking on the Viscount AI once more before I switch to something else for a while though I can’t remember the last time a game’s solo play has kept me this interested (I prefer playing with live people)…

The luck of the draw gave the AI manuscripts to once again focus on… I wanted to try a mixed building and noble combination since I enjoyed the bonuses that are revealed when you build in the game and these would help towards both actions… early on though I attempted to grab grey manuscripts as 3 of them would give me an ongoing build icon but, as if the AI knew what I was up to, he snagged the only one available so I abandoned that strategy and went back to my double-edged building and nobles plan…

For a while it looked like the AI would struggle to get even one full set of 4… 2 blues… 2 yellows… it kept trying to put nobles in the castle but never had the necessary icons or resources for that… meanwhile I got a couple key buildings out to get my ‘engine’ going and dropped several workers in the castle – all the time keeping an eye on what the AI had for debts and deeds as I was getting tired of giving up 8 point to it at the end of every game… but I should have known the AI’s manuscript luck would change and before I knew, it had a full set – that’s 16 points… and it seemed like the next turn it completed another set so I was now staring at 32 points from that alone that I’d have to hope to make up somewhere…

The AI acquired the last deed to trigger the end of the game but in the final around the last debt was also collected meaning that this game would indeed have both prosperity and poverty… but would it help??

The AI had 34 point in manuscripts alone PLUS a 3 point Cleric Bonus for collecting 3 of the same color. AND 17 points from constructed buildings.. uh-oh… then I noticed it didn’t have as many flipped deeds as usual… this could help me a bit… and the combined poverty and prosperity ended up being a wash… I had flipped more debts for 12 points to the AI’s 4 but the AI had flipped more deeds for 12 points and giving me for so we both ended up with 16 points from that… 80 points… hmmm… do I have enough to beat that??

Let’s see… 41 points for constructed buildings… I like that… I’d built all but 2 of the available 9 which is another personal best for me… 16 points for nobles in the castle plus the 5 point Castle Leader bonus that I earned on the very last turn… this is looking better all the time… I did it!! 85 points!! That Castle Leader bonus put me over the top otherwise I would have tied with it… CRAP!!! I forget that the AI gets a point for leftover resources at the end of the game… what’s got… 4 ink wells and a stone for 5 points… really?!? A tie at 85?!? OK – it wasn’t a win but it still makes me smile… I said it before but I can’t wait to teach this to a game group… great game!!

March 26th… Even though I had packed everything and put it back on the shelf I had to setup Viscounts for one more battle with the AI…

The AI was going to focus on nobles in the castle which meant I could go back to my manuscript strategy but I had also done well with building and decided to try a combination of the two…

I was able to build to reveal the double merchant icon bonus and the cleric bonus which I really enjoyed using the rest of the game… meanwhile the AI managed to get all 20 workers in the castle – three in the center so I knew it had a boatload of points already so I really started putting sets of manuscripts together… I had 3 blue tiles early for an additional merchant icon from the Cleric card and pulled 2 full sets together so I knew I had at least 32 point there but all the AI’s workers had be concerned…

I tallied everything thinking I’d never get near the AI’s score of 86 but I finished with 79… OK – that strategy wasn’t so bad after all… maybe an earlier shift back to manuscripts would have helped since I ended up with a lot of leftover stone, ink wells and coins that I never got to use… one manuscript had an end game bonus for leftover workers that got me 10 points – other wise it would have been a blowout… and I’m still hooked on this game!!  🙂

March 29th… Selena had an early work day so I was hoping for a game night with both my girls… after supper (and Farkle with Mom) I setup Meeple Land since Selena only played one round before having to leave for work in our only other play…

It’s an easy game to pick up and she remembered most of it from that first go round (of course)… I thought I had a good point strategy working as I was able to build attractions with bonus places and fill them with meeples then I had to take a bus full of new visitors and had no place to put them so I ended up trying to buy attractions to accommodate them…

In the end Julie and I tied at 21 but we caught an addition error on Selena’s card and she finished with 30 and a big grin. 🙂

This is another one that I can’t wait to teach the game group.

As part of their routine, a sample was sent out for testing and that’s when her cancer was discovered… she would later learn that the office the was treating her Endometriosis years prior had noted the presence of cancer cells way back then but never said a word to her (they’ve since gone out of business)…

When the hysterectomy was performed they were unable to remove part of her Cervix because it was fused to her colon so they took as much as they could without requiring an ostomy bag and the 18 weeks of chemo was supposed to take care of the remaining cancer cells which they’ve been monitoring for about 6 years (since her chemo) with no change… today (finally) after 18+ months with a fever, they apparently connected the dots and have ordered tests that our Empire Blue insurance has been declining for years – insisting that they will get them approved… if it’s as they suspect and the remaining cancer is spreading, Julie’s looking at more surgery and possibly more chemo… not a great morning to say the least but the afternoon would be a little better…

I had secretly planned a couple stops after her appointment (since Selena was home with the dogs and we’d be back well before she had to leave)… I promised myself that, once things started to return to normal and I had a few extra bucks again, I would show some support for two of my favorite places…

I hadn’t visited my local board game store – Flipside Gamine – in over a year due to COVID… same goes for the Country Drive-In – one of our favorite eateries but with Mom locked down in assisted living I didn’t have any desire to make the trip… I knew Julie loved their food too and hoped to surprise her on the way home but she thought of it on the way down and went online to see if they were open… after her doctor’s news I thought she might want to just go home but she wanted to stop at both places…

Julie and I probably made a half dozen trips up and down the board game isle at Flipside – each time I’d see something I missed previously that had been on my radar… when it was all done I had avoided the heavier games – instead focusing on lighter games that Julie would like and here’s what we came away with (and with Flipside’s discounts I spent much less than I thought I was)…

The first thing we spotted when we walked through the door was Calico…

(from the publisher): Calico is a puzzly tile-laying game of quilts and cats.

In Calico, players compete to sew the coziest quilt as they collect and place patches of different colors and patterns. Each quilt has a particular pattern that must be followed, and players are also trying to create color and pattern combinations that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also able to attract the cuddliest cats!

Turns are simple. Select a single patch tile from your hand and sew it into your quilt, then draw another patch into your hand from the three available. If you are able to create a color group, you may sew a button onto your quilt. If you are able to create a pattern combination that is attractive to any of the cats, it will come over and curl up on your quilt! At the end of the game, you score points for buttons, cats, and how well you were able to complete your unique quilt pattern.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Let’s start with we’re animal lovers… I still remember when we first saw the preview for The Isle of Cats and knew we had to have it before we even knew if the game was any good (it’s really good by the way)… we’d seen several reviews for and they pretty much agreed that it was easy to get sucked in by the cute artwork and only find out after playing that the game will make your brain burn… still, we wanted it!!

The next thing that caught my eye was another new title – The Lost Ruins of Arnak…

(from the publisher): On an uninhabited island in uncharted seas, explorers have found traces of a great civilization. Now you will lead an expedition to explore the island, find lost artifacts, and face fearsome guardians, all in a quest to learn the island’s secrets.

Lost Ruins of Arnak combines deck-building and worker placement in a game of exploration, resource management, and discovery. In addition to traditional deck-builder effects, cards can also be used to place workers, and new worker actions become available as players explore the island. Some of these actions require resources instead of workers, so building a solid resource base will be essential. You are limited to only one action per turn, so make your choice carefully… what action will benefit you most now? And what can you afford to do later… assuming someone else doesn’t take the action first!?

Decks are small, and randomness in the game is heavily mitigated by the wealth of tactical decisions offered on the game board. With a variety of worker actions, artifacts, and equipment cards, the set-up for each game will be unique, encouraging players to explore new strategies to meet the challenge.

Discover the Lost Ruins of Arnak!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): It seems like every time I turned around on YouTube someone was talking about this game… it looks great and we’re huge Indiana Jones fans so we can’t wait to get it to the table…

Then we spotted Mariposas – the follow up by the same designer of Wingspan which we all totally love…

(from the publisher): Every spring, millions of monarch butterflies leave Mexico to spread out across eastern North America. Every fall, millions fly back to Mexico. However, no single butterfly ever makes the round trip.

Mariposas is a game of movement and set collection that lets players be part of this amazing journey.

Mariposas is played in three seasons. In general, your butterflies try to head north in spring, spread out in summer, and return south in fall. The end of each season brings a scoring round, and at the end of fall, the player with the most successful family of butterflies — i.e., the most victory points — wins the game.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Wingspan… enough said… well, almost…

As I said earlier we love Wingspan… the art, the gameplay, etc. – we love it all… we often hear of someone doing something – not necessarily in board games… music, books, etc… whatever the first they nailed it… then a second project suffers from what’s referred to as a ‘sophomore slump’… coming of the incredible success of Wingspan would Mariposas suffer from such a thing… I’d be very surprised if this was the case here and this was definitely worth taking a chance… when I showed it to Julie she liked the butterflies but when I told her who designed it, it was going home with us without a doubt… 🙂

As I approached the end of the isle I was surprised to find Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade…

(from the publisher): In Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade, Geoff Engelstein brings the arcade classic to the tabletop with art, atmosphere, and roll-and-write mechanisms.

Choose one of the four unique tables and matching backglass for scorekeeping, then roll a shared pair of dice and get the pinballs rolling! You’ll select one of the two die results, then move your pinball to a bumper or spinner, or target one level below with a matching number. Once you reach the lowest level, pick which flipper’s roll to use to send the ball right back to the top. Play well, and you’ll unlock bonuses like multiball, score multipliers, and more to help you get the high score!

The 4-Cade comes with four different tables, each with its own unique art and challenges. In “Carniball”, the intro table, you shoot ducks, pop balloons, and ring the bell in the test of strength! In “Cyberhack”, steal data from an evil corporation and earn Hacks to help you when you activate the RUN mini-game. In “Dance Fever”, return to the 1970s with lots of spinner action as you try to manage the main playfield and a mini-pin at the same time. In “Dragon Slayer”, take on the role of a young wizard and defeat enemies for big bonuses; hit drop targets to level up, and learn new spells that let you manipulate the dice and trigger bonuses like multiball.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We all love roll and writes and we all love pinball… when I first saw the preview for this I thought ‘there’s no way they can make pinball interesting as a roll and write – the action is too fast’… but they did it!! When I saw the first table with the half a chrome ball that looks like a pinball ball I was in… then I learned there were 4 tables (4-Cade) included and it became a must have… but COVID cut my income by about a third so it had to wait… until today that is… I’m hoping to start playing over the weekend!!

As I came upon their small games assortment I had Point Salad in the back of my mind then I spotted The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine… this is another game I keep hearing so many good things about… it’s based on ‘trick taking’ and, while I couldn’t tell you what that was or how it worked, I’ve heard enough to know if I want to learn, this is the game to do it…

(from the publisher): In the co-operative trick-taking game The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, the players set out as astronauts on an uncertain space adventure. What about the rumors about the unknown planet about? The eventful journey through space extends over 50 exciting missions. But this game can only be defeated by meeting common individual tasks of each player. In order to meet the varied challenges, communication is essential in the team. But this is more difficult than expected in space.

With each mission, the game becomes more difficult. After each mission, the game can be paused and continued later. During each mission, it is not the amount of tricks, but the right tricks at the right time that count.

The team completes a mission only if every single player is successful in fulfilling their tasks.

The game comes with 50 missions, with three additional missions published in spielbox 2/2020.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2020 Spiel der Spiele Hit mit Freunden Recommended
• 2020 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Advanced Game Winner
• 2020 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Advanced Game Nominee
• 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner
• 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres Nominee
• 2020 International Gamers Award – General Strategy Nominee
• 2020 Guldbrikken Best Adult Game Winner
• 2020 Guldbrikken Best Adult Game Nominee
• 2020 Goblin Magnifico Nominee
• 2020 Dragon Awards Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game Nominee
• 2020 Deutscher Spiele Preis Best Family/Adult Game Winner
• 2019 Meeples’ Choice Winner
• 2019 Meeples’ Choice Nominee
• 2019 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee
• 2019 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2019 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
• 2019 Golden Geek Best Cooperative Game Winner
• 2019 Golden Geek Best Cooperative Game Nominee
• 2019 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I was deciding whether or not to buy this I kept thinking thinking back to that first Christmas when I wasn’t really sure what the games were that I was ordering or if the girls would like them… then I remembered their faces when they opened Carcassonne and must have thought I was crazy… then I remembered their reactions after our first play (and second and third) and thought that I have a much better idea of what I’m doing now and I think this will be fun… and with all those awards there must be something to the hype… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As our gaming years have gone on we’ve become huge fans of roll and writes… Avenue, Gans Shon Clever, Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade (see above), etc… take that idea and throw a flicking / dexterity element into and we have to try it… 🙂

April 13th Update… Julie’s crashed but Selena was looking over the games so I knew she wanted to play and I asked her to help me figure out Sonora…

I was confused by the 4 sections and matching them to the scoring areas on the included dry erase boards since the graphics weren’t really a good match… then there were the various bonuses to be collected either by a flick or through the scoring sheet… once we had a better grasp of those the game was very cool!! She trounced me of course but we thoroughly enjoyed it… Julie loves roll and write games so I know this will be a hit with her too… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I mentioned earlier in my Mariposas run down (see above), we love Wingspan and already had the European expansion (and some geek bit bird houses and some neoprene playmats because I snapped a player board in half trying to get it to sit flat) and my only reservation with this expansion was that, because of the addition of the wild nectar bits, the boards had to be reprinted so, unless we chose to play the base game only, we could no longer use the fancy neoprene mats… not a huge deal I suppose but it was weighing on my mind… of course if we play with this expansion and really like it I’ll definitely be ordering the NEW upgraded neoprene mats that include this expansion… of course I’ve already ordered the upgraded food and nectar tokens and am waiting for them to arrive before I talk Julie into playing… surprise!! 🙂

April 6th… Today was easily one of the most exciting days that I’ve had in quite some time…

I’ve added macros assigned to key strokes to sort by racer, sort by total points and clear the sheet…

From a future standpoint, I can continue building out bonuses and modifiers to the right of the worksheet – then I just need to incorporate them into the main formula that handles the Total Points calculation… and she’s a beauty if I do say so myself (I just did)… I know there’s probably a much more efficient way to accomplish the same thing – I never claimed to be a spreadsheet ‘expert’ – but I like to be able to go back and SEE just what calculations are taking place in case of an error…

As excited as I was to see my original sheet on the screen in the Season Two opener, I’m even more excited to see this one in action – primarily because it was built to specs and works as requested… this should be fun!!  🙂

Because the resources you gather are determined by what players build, each game evolves differently, resulting in endless replayability. You have to choose between acquiring new abilities and enhancements for your airships and workers or building all sorts of contraptions as quickly as possible in order to achieve victory on Whistle Mountain.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said at the top, we love Whistle Stop and after seeing how this plays we can’t wait to try it!!

In the planning phase, all players simultaneously make decisions for the next year by overlaying (“patching”) their two plan cards and all of their development tiles. The actions they plan on their cards and tiles in this phase will determine what actions they can perform during all of the later phases.

In the pricing phase, players change the price they charge for their smartphones based on their plan. A lower price helps to go earlier and sell more smartphones on the market, but a higher price, while risky, helps players to earn more money.

In production, all players produce smartphones.

In development, players take development tiles, which expand their planning possibilities in future rounds.

In research, players discover new technologies. Each technology not only expands players’ ability to sell smartphones to customers, but also gives them special powers they can use during the game.

In the expansion phase, players open offices in neighbor regions, which allow them to sell in that region and develop their network of offices to more regions in further turns.

In the sale phase, players sell the phones they produced in regions where they have offices. But there is limited space in each region – and if your price is too high, cheaper rivals can block you from selling.

In the profit phase, players get income for their sales. Players gain the sale prices for all of their sold smartphones, and the player who sold the most phones in each region gains a bonus for controlling the accessory market. At the end of this phase all sold smartphones are discarded from the map – and a new round begins.

After five rounds, the richest player wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game has such a clean look to it and a fascinating action selection mechanic… after all the buzz, the time was right…

April 20th Update: Selena’s been very busy with work and school and Julie’s been feeling worse than usual so I’ve started reading up to take on Steve – the AI mode for the game which is pretty slick… what I didn’t realize is that the 1.1 expansion includes modules… the 2-3 player board I’ll probably use the most but the others I’ll have to wait and see how much playtime this gets… I’m hoping lots because I’m really enjoying the look and everything I’ve read and watched… 🙂

April 22nd Update: I always check to see if Julie needs anything before settling in for a solo play – partly so I don’t have to stop just as I start and partly hoping that she feels well enough to want to join me… tonight she wanted to play!!

I hadn’t fully prepared my teach but thought I was prepared enough (and she was happy to hear me say) that I didn’t need the manual… I did have to look up the Technology bonuses but otherwise it went smooth…

I would barely get my shield in place and she’d already have her pads arranged and be ready to start the round… I guess she picked it up OK… about the only thing she missed (and I reminded her during the game and after final scoring) was her phone pricing – she consistently was high giving me priority access right up until the last round when she sold about 13 phones… I won tonight but I’ll bet anything she kills me next time!!  🙂  And we both really like it so I should get my come-upins soon… 🙂

April 23rd Update: Tonight I was still up when Selena got home from work and she was willing to play so I taught her Smartphone Inc...

It didn’t take her long to pick it up and the 8 phases fly by making a 5 round game feel pretty short but it actually feels just right… she was making moves like she’d played the game a hundred times and I, as usual, was focused more on making sure she was doing everything she could do than my own strategy… in the end she beat me by almost 30 points as I failed to break 100… she really liked this one and I’m betting another play is in our future… 🙂

April 25th Update: I’m always thrilled when the planets align and I can catch both girls wanting to play at the same time… tonight was the night!!

Last night’s late start meant only a couple games of Point Salad before I had to head to bed but tonight I was ready so right after supper I setup the big board this time (I’ve been using the 1-3 player board from the expansion for solo and 2 player games) and was ready to go in no time. Everyone picked their colors, put their offices in their assigned home regions (the expansion lets players select a starting location), made sure everyone remembered how it works and we were off.

Everyone appeared to have a strategy in mind and by the third round Selena was blocking both of us in some of our regions – forcing us to recycle a troubling amount of phones we couldn’t sell while she continued to pad what appeared to be a very safe lead…

In the last round Julie got blocked for selling but I could see where she had expanded into some locations with retailers that would net her 45 points in the end… I on the other hand had priced myself competitively – a strategy that paid off because, even though Selena and I were selling for the same price, I was still behind her in the scoring so I would get first crack at selling… it worked and I was able to sell all 13 phones in my last hurrah…

We set about the final scoring… phones first where I made up some ground… dominance in regions where everyone got some points… retailers – here I passed Selena but Julie and her 45 points put her hot on both our tails… and finally, patents… we all had some but would it help… WOW!!! Selena won but I was only 4 points behind her and Julie was only 2 points behind me!! That was a great game!! Both girls are anxious to play it again and I’ll be more than happy to oblige… 🙂

I should add, after a couple two player plays with the expansion board and one 3 player play with the big board, that I’m not feeling the need to use the small board with smaller player counts… I can see where it would make the game tighter but we were still getting in each others way with 3 of us on the big board… maybe 2 people on the big board would be far less exciting… might have to try that… on the plus side of the expansion, if the game continues to hit the table at its current pace the added technology sets and directives modules will be brought into play soon… 🙂

April 17th… The Dice Tower’s Tom Vasel emailed me again… he kept saying he hated to ask but wondered if it would be possible to do a couple things and I gladly jumped back in – this time coming up with something that I believe is future-proof in that I can keep adding various bonuses as requested – then I only need to modify the macros… speaking of which (macros), it was a huge thrill for me to be watching the second race of season two and hear Tom ask if we could see the sheet in order of the points and have Mike reply, “We can now!!”

Here’s the revised version heading into S2R3… we’ve added a new third bonus possibility AND each bonus can be individually activated in any combination for these races!! Also added is a space for a new ‘Lack of Effort’ penalty and the previous winners bonuses have been replaced with a spot to add Random Bonus Points for individual racers at will!! Now I’m even more excited… 🙂

April 28th… Selena had a short Culinary class tonight and was home early enough to test out Whistle Mountain with me (see above)… there is a ton of iconography and we found ourselves frequently referring to the rule book which thankfully has every bonus organized into section making thing very easy to find though the process did extend the game a bit… we were starting to get a grip on them all but it was bed time for me by then… she wants to pickup where we left off tomorrow night so I think she’s liking it… I am as well – I’m just undecided as to how much… 🙂

May 2nd… Selena and I never got to finish Whistle Stop but will try again when time permits… 

Today however Julie’s sister stopped for a couple days on her way back north and wanted to play a game… with Selena working and Julie bed ridden, I gave Sis the crash course in Viscounts of the West Kingdom… 🙂  It’s a lot to take in in a short teach but she was getting it and had all her workers in the castle – 9 in the center and I knew that 27 points would be tough for me to overcome… in the end my favorite manuscript strategy paid off but only barely as I pulled out a 116 to 110 victory…

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, a ton of pieces to keep track of 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… 🙂

May 4th… It’s an odd evening… home from work, trying to relax and not snack… my mind is spinning – thinking about the next few days… blood work first thing in the morning then it’s off to Plattsburgh for Selena’s second shot.. at the same time Julie is driving herself to St. Peters for another exam and her scan results from a couple weeks ago… and I’m shitting bricks about moving gear and playing twice this weekend after the prolonged COVID layoff… how can I take my mind off it all?? How about a solo game of Calico!!

Well I will say it took my mind off everything… don’t be fooled by the cute, cuddly kitties – this game, while to all outward appearances is quite simple (and it really is), but it gets crunchy in a hurry and before you know it there are only a couple spaces left to fill before the game ends and you’re left with your (pathetic if you aren’t paying attention) score… AND I LOVED IT!!!  I know the girls will too… 🙂

May 5th… Selena was looking to play something before I went to bed so I broke out Calico again… I had my ‘teach’ mapped out and and ran through it with her… I must have done OK because she kicked my ass!! And she loved it!! The game that is… well, I guess kicking my ass too… 🙂

May 6th… Julie had seen us playing last night and tonight she wanted to play… I was tired but had taken the next day off to make sure I had everything in order for the band’s first wedding in several months so of course I obliged… I thought my teaching approach worked so I used the same spiel to get Julie up and playing… she didn’t beat me but it was close and of course we had to immediately play it again… 🙂  Julie loves it too!!

I’m beginning to get an even better feel for the types of games that are more in their wheelhouse… crunchy / thinky is fine but shorter is better though I’m glad they will still indulge me in a 90-120 minute game occasionally… 🙂

May 9th… The Dice Tower has a new sponsor called Game Nerdz that I had to check out… of course they had some great deals and a game that seems to be out of stock everywhere else – even Amazon – so I had to support the new sponsor… 🙂

This is a game whose design needed no attention. Years of play and multiple versions have honed it to near perfection. On the contrary, one of the design challenges was figuring which of the many rules modules to incorporate to create the most fun version. Downforce also adds variable player powers to improve replayability. But mostly, it improves the look of the game to make it gorgeous and easy to play. Special attention was paid to the colors, the layout of the cards, the design of the cars, the details on the board, and more.AWARDS & HONORS

• 2018 Origins Awards Best Family Game Nominee
• 2018 Boardgames Australia Awards Best International Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This one was more for me but I’m sure once we play it the girls are going to love it too… it’s a simple racing game with a twist in that you control ALL the cars – not just your own – with a simple card mechanic… simple – yet with just enough under the hood (see what I did there?) to keep it interesting… and the new production is amazing… and I’m already eyeballing a couple of expansions incase this becomes a hit with the girls…

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2019 Spiel der Spiele Hit mit Freunden Recommended
• 2019 Golden Geek Best Party Game Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game is just so damn cute you have to love it… little worker meeples in hard hats, chunky girders, then there’s the whole dexterity element… if Selena can keep from knocking the table she might actually win a game… 🙂

May 22nd UPDATE… Today I was able to get Mom out again… first we ran some errands… bank deposit, drop off some paperwork… drop off something she’d crocheted for a friend whose health puts him at more of a risk so he wouldn’t be visiting… then the stop she was probably most looking forward to – the first time she’d been in a grocery store since shutdown and one-way isles!! She loved being able to shop for the few items she was looking for to restock her mini fridge and snack drawer back in assisted living… then we had lunch and ice cream of course before heading back to the Pines… I don’t know about Mom but, after a short night’s sleep following the wedding and tear down, I was ready for a nap!!

Julie kept asking if we could play a game so, after a short nap, supper, my nightly 30 minute remote Farkle session with Mom and a quick run to Target to pickup a prescription and a new heating pad for Julie’s aching knees, I picked out a couple of easy ones we hadn’t played and setup a small table and my Gametoppers playmat the bed since Julie’s more comfortable there than at a regular table… I had finished setting up Downforce (see above) and started my teach when Selena got home from work… I didn’t think she’d be interested after a full day but she looked at what was setup and grinned, “Have you started yet?” 

With that I did a quick rewind while she grabbed a bite to eat then I ran through the key points and how the game works and we breezed through our first race… we all really liked this and it’s so easy and quick I can see another play on the horizon very soon… and an expansion… 🙂  I honestly don’t remember who won – that’s how much we liked it…

We would have certainly played it again right then but both girls had there eyes on my other selection – Men at Work (see above)!! I had challenged them both on this game as they are both figiters and can’t sit still – often bumping the table… when we use a table… now we’re on a king size bed and both of them are sitting on it to play… this should be interesting… 🙂

I ran through the rules and how the cards work and how we each start with 3 safety certificates… we lose one every turn where we cause an ‘accident’ – making a pieces or pieces fall to the game surface… and the person after the person that caused the accident is responsible for cleaning up the accident prior to taking their turn, etc., etc., etc…

The game was full of tense but humorous moments… Julie and I were both knocked out relatively quickly… how quick?? We never saw the appearance of the foreman Rita who is only a quarter of the way through the deck… 🙂  I could tell Selena was being especially careful and easily won the game… there’s so much more that we didn’t get to experience and this is another that I’m sure will be a frequent request… 🙂

only reshuffling your discards once your draw deck runs out… here though, at the end of the round, you gather up all your played cards and any purchased cards, shuffle them all together and put them on the bottom of whatever remains of your draw deck… this ensures that you will see new cards sooner and frequently played cards more often… great game and well thought out!!

When we finished Arnak she still felt like playing so I ran through Sonora (see above for details) since she loves roll and writes and hadn’t played this one yet which is technically a FLICK and write… she loved this one too!! It was a great mini game night with just the two of us… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): When I first saw it I was hooked by the appearance and gameplay… 4 years later I’m still drawn to it but I ordered it because I’m sure the girls will love it once they’re playing… it looks a little complicated and confusing at first but it’s really a simple worker placement game using the dice as the primary resource… I’m betting I get my ass kicked the first time but I’m also betting this is one we’ll play again immediately after… 🙂

May 31st… Happy Memorial Day!!! Julie hasn’t been feeling great and Selena did something to her arm / shoulder at work when she caught a half case of dog food that was falling, but we worked together to fire up the grill and, despite the cooler than normal weather, broke Mom out of assisted living for a cookout!! That we ate in the van… 🙂  And she loved it – eating more than she’s eaten in some time… leaving room for ice cream of course… 🙂

Later in the afternoon, after we’d all had a chance to unwind a little, Julie was asking to play a game… she was looking over the shelves and started to say, “I want to plaaaaaayyy…” when I cut her off – “Nope!!” I knew what I wanted to play… 🙂

I setup our make-shift game table on the bed as that’s where she’s most comfortable… with our small table (with the legs still folded under) in place and topped with my 5 foot Gametopper play mat, I went back to the collection and returned with my resource trays and Rajas of the Ganges (see above)!! Julie was less than enthused because she had watched one of the videos with me before we went to bed one night and thought it looked confusing… I’ll admit the board could have been less busy but once I started reading and watching some more it all made sense and I knew I could teach it quickly and was pretty sure she would like it…

I set it up and started my ‘teach’ that I had been preparing – stopping only a couple times to check the rule book and make sure what I was saying was accurate… It only took about 10 minutes before we were playing…

Julie likes it when I start so she can see what a turn looks like… then when she goes  continue to explain her options and point out her possibilities to make sure she doesn’t miss anything… it wasn’t long before turns started flying and she was pulling away from me on the Fame track – one of the keys to the game… your fame track goes around the board clockwise and your money track goes counter-clockwise and the first player to bring them together wins the game…

We were a little more than 3/4 of the way through the game and we both had a good feel for it… she was still ahead but I was putting together some plays I thought would make it close… things were starting to get interesting when calamity happened… Selena had just taken the dogs out and they’re always a little excited when they come back in… Pixie jumped up on the bed, spun around and flopped – catching the end of the table and sending game pieces FLYING EVERYWHERE!!! Under the bed… behind furniture,,, EVERYWHERE!!! It took us a good 20 minutes to track everything down and inventory it all to make sure we weren’t missing anything… by then Julie was in enough pain to have to climb back in bed and rest… we would have had to start all over anyway but we now know how to play when she’s feeling better… maybe we’ll make the dogs lay on the floor next time… 🙂 

June 8th… Took today off from work to celebrate Mom’s 89th birthday!! I really wanted to try to make up for last year when the COVID lockdown meant we couldn’t see her or celebrate though we did drop boxes of presents off for her…

This year I broke her out of assisted living in the morning and we started her day with her first ever visit to Michael’s (she needed more yarn of course)… 🙂

I let her decide where she wanted to eat… she loves the Reubens at the Greenwich Village Cafe so we hit there next…

I thought she might get into the Cafe’s home made pies but she asked to visit King’s Dairy for the first time since she’s been able to get out…

She tends to fall back on a small vanilla soft serve but I always like to tempt her with their selection of homemade hard flavors… she stopped me as I read through them at a flavor named ‘Just Take My Money’ – a creamy salted caramel ice cream with praline pecans… it was her first time for this flavor but I’m sure it won’t be the last as she kept saying how amazing it was… she finished the whole dish!! And that was after half a Reuben and coleslaw… 🙂 

Next trip we’ll head for the Racino and her favorite penny slots since this birthday thing actually runs most of the month…

When I returned home later that afternoon Julie was in a lot of pain but wide awake and asking for a game… I’d been reading and watching how-to-play videos for New York Zoo (see above for game details) and felt like I was ready to teach it… I also had a pretty strong feeling that this was one we’d be playing a couple times in a row… 🙂

I set it up and started going through my teach… I thought I’d better reference the manual just to be sure but quickly realized that I could do without it… I was doing fine until Julie interrupted me for a rules clarification… I answered but lost my train of thought which would bite us later as half way through our first play I realized that we were totally screwing up the animal placement and it was making the game twice as long as it should have been… it pretty much affected both of us equally and we finished the game correctly rather than start over… it was very close at the end and we sort of tied but shouldn’t have… I should explain…

There are no points in this game – it’s a race to see who can fill up their piece of land with animal enclosures and park attractions… the rules clearly state that the first person to fill their board wins… BUT… it IS possible for multiple players to finish their boards at the same time but this only happens as a result of animal breeding…

As the game progresses you are filling your enclosures with animals… once an enclosure is filled with animals, the animals go back to the supply and players select a park attraction to add to their board… these pieces are key to totally filling the boards… At various points in the game designated animals will breed (if you have two of the same kind in an enclosure of course)… when breeding is triggered, EVERYONE who has two of the designated animals in an enclosure (or two) adds another animal to those enclosures… they may also add still another animal form their storage houses if it matches the breeding animal… all players do this simultaneously and if multiple players complete their boards in this way it then IS possible for a tie to occur…

However… in most other games, when the end of the game is triggered by an event, other players usually get to finish the round but this game tweaks that a bit… if a player is able to add an animal or animals NOT via breeding, then fills an enclosure or two that allows them to gain the necessary park attraction(s) to complete their board, the game is IMMEDIATELY over – that’s it – and that player wins. I forgot that rule, finished my park then allowed Julie one last turn and she finished her park… when two or more players finish on the same turn (because the first did so by breeding), the tie breaker is the player who has the most animals on their board at that moment… and we tied there too… what should have been a clear win for me ultimately turned into a tie but I was fine with it…

We both really love this game!! As further proof… I had barely finished counting my animals for the botched tie when Julie said, “Play again?!?” I had to stop for supper and my nightly 30 minute remote Farkle thrashing by Mom but as soon as that was done we reviewed the rules corrections and played TWO more times!! We probably would have added a few more plays but after the day’s festivities I was ready for bed but I’m positive we’ll be playing again very soon… 🙂

June 11th… The band’s last weekend off until November… other than getting Mom out for a while, eating, mowing, etc., I really had no plans other than relax and maybe get a game or two in… what I didn’t expect was that I’d have my first game night with anyone other than family in over a year and a half!!

A couple years ago the band was on an overnight for a performance and Justin – FE’s alto sax and rapper – and I roomed together… I always pack a couple small games just in case the opportunity presents itself… Justin and I had had several conversations about gaming over the years and on this particular night we returned to our motel room around midnight and he asked if I had any games with me… I taught him Ganz Schon Clever and we played until about 2:30 in the morning (and he wanted to keep playing)… 🙂 

Ever since that night we’ve talked about getting together for a game night and came close a couple times before the year+ COVID lockdown… a couple days ago he texted me to see if I was interested and available for a game night with him, his wife Christina and a 15 year old Justin was working with from the Big Brothers program who we’ll call ‘J’… of course my brain immediately started sifting through potential games – even before I responded that I would be there and that the hour drive didn’t bother me (I drive at least that every gig)… 

The more I thought about it the more I was convinced that Ticket to Ride was a definite – eventually choosing to start the night with that…

I started explaining as I was unpacking everything and ‘J’ immediately began lining up his 45 trains in neat linear rows… I already like this kid…

We launched into the game and everyone seemed to have a firm grasp on the rules and gameplay and I would constantly remind them of options as we went along… the board started filling up – everyone claiming routes but mostly 2 and 3 space ones but it wasn’t long before Christina started laying down some longer routes which made her score pull away… ‘J’ would soon follow and the two of them would leap frog back and forth… Justin was kind of in the middle – commenting that we were really ‘chugging along’ now while I quietly completed my first route, then my second… I had messed up early – mistaking Toronto with New York from across the board but I was able to get back on track… so to speak… I actually used a turn to grab another couple of Destination cards and Justin followed suit a few turns later as we all watched ‘J’ struggle to get the certain color of train he needed for a route he was eyeballing… he was up to something… before long he claimed some huge route – scoring almost 30 points in 2 turns!! He was pulling away and I wasn’t sure anyone could catch him but you never know how everyone is doing with their secret Destination cards…

The next thing we knew Justin was down to his last 6 trains!! The game ends as soon as someone has 2 or less… this sent everyone scrambling for last minute point grabs… then we noticed that while, for whatever reason, Christina, ‘J’ and I were focused more on the east coast, Justin, other than a single route of Christina’s, had had pretty much free reign of the west coast and parts of the mid-west… so much so that, when he placed his last trains, he wrapped almost all around the perimeter of the board from Seattle into to Texas and back into the south-east… he had passed Christina and was close to ‘J’ on the scoring track… this would be interesting…

We started scoring with the longest route… Early on it looked like ‘J’ would take the 10 point bonus but he failed to connect his two longest routes into one so now it looked like Christina would take it but that west coast route of Justin’s ended up taking that by 7 trains – putting the three of them in close proximity on the scoring track and leaving me to hope that my Destination bonuses would get me close…

We started with Christina as she was the first player… she completed all her Destination card – one worth 21 points – and ended up with over 90 points!! Next was ‘J’… he completed 2 of his 3 routes and passed Christina but lost points on the one he didn’t complete to fall back into 2nd place… As we looked at his failed Destination card we noticed that he had overlooked a couple 1 and 2 train wild routes that he could have used any trains on that would have completed that Destination card AND probably given him the longest route… Then it was my turn and I proudly announced all of my completed routes and watched my score climb in anticipation but I never got out of last place… Justin already scored 10 from the Longest Route bonus so we were all curious to see how he did with his Destination cards… he also had taken an extra Destination card which he completed but he failed on one of his originals…. he passed ‘J’… then he went way past Christina – breaking 100!! But there was that card he couldn’t complete which backed him up all of 6 points so he remained over 100 and 13 points ahead of Christina so the longest route would have meant a 20 point swing and given her the win…

It was a great game for 3 first time players and I’m guessing they may pick up their own copy before the weekend is over… 🙂

For the next game I decided to turn things on their head a little and introduce them to cooperative games with Escape – Curse of the Temple…

Of course, being ever the ‘showman’, I began my teach by telling them that it was just a 10 minute game and was cooperative – meaning we all work together and in the end, everyone wins or everyone loses… I continued that it was a simple game and showed a few of the tiles and where it shows what you need to roll with your 5 dice to discover a new room and enter a room… there were rooms requiring gems to unlock the room and a gem pool where you pull the gems and place them in the rooms… the number of gems remaining in the pool determined how many keys each of us would need to get out the exit and escape the temple before it crashes on top of us… piece of cake, right??

Everyone has 5 identical 6 sided dice with icons depicting a running man, a torch and a key… oh – I should mention that there’s a black mask on one side… if you roll that, that die is LOCKED until you or someone in the same room as you who doesn’t also need it) rolls a gold mask… I warned (and encouraged them to verify) that there indeed really is only 1 black mask on each die but during the game you’ll think that’s all there is because it’s not uncommon to find yourself with all 5 dice locked and waiting for someone to get to your room to roll a gold mask to free you up again… one more thing… as the 10 minute soundtrack plays there will be three times that you’ll hear a gong – once the first time, twice the second time and three times the third time… the first two mean you have 30 seconds to get back to the ‘safe room’ where everyone starts the game… anyone who fails to make it back loses a die for the rest of the game… the last means you have 30 seconds to ESCAPE!! I reminded them that there are no turns – we’re all rolling simultaneously and can talk freely about our plans or if we need help – but I don’t think they were prepared for the chaos that would ensue… 🙂

During the first game I paused the soundtrack after each race back to safety to answer questions and make rules clarifications… needless to say we didn’t make it out or even get close for that matter… it should come as no surprise that Justin was ready to take this one on again… on a side note, I didn’t tell anyone but used an alternative soundtrack that plays ‘Yakety Sax’ while everyone’s trying to race to safety (it’s on YouTube)… that made everyone laugh and probably didn’t help our efforts…

The second game was just as frantic but we had a plan and actually found the exit this time but never got to it… I was ready to switch games given the time frame given but Justin really wanted one more crack at this so I reset and we set off for a third game that was one of the highlights of the evening…

It started out as before – each of us going in an opposite direction and discovering new tiles in hopes of clearing as many gems from the pool as possible AND finding the exit AND not losing any dice by getting back to the safe room… this time we all made it back each time with time to spare even… it wasn’t long before the exit was revealed… looking at the gem pool we only needed 3 keys each to escape and we all began making our way towards the exit knowing that time was running out and the final gong was “GONG – GONG – GONG”… near…

Justin got there and got out followed close behind by Christina… I was just a room behind and made it easily… ‘J’ was 3 rooms from the exit… once a player makes it out they can give one die to a player still trapped inside so we gave one to ‘J’… 2 rooms away… now 1… he’s in the Exit room!!

“ROLL KEYS!! ROLL KEYS!!”

We were all standing… Christina, Justin and I were shouting and cheering him on!!

1 key…

2 keys…

“C’MON – ONE MORE!!”

Roll after roll after roll after roll after roll… and the temple collapsed. And with that we all sat down – seemingly exhausted from our quest – and burst out laughing and high-fiving each other…

This is why I love game nights – especially with new people… Justin and Christina had listened to my long-winded game descriptions in the past and young ‘J’ was into video games and some board games but they had no idea things like this were out there… I think they’re hooked.

I asked if they wanted to try another 10 minute game with a sinister smile… at this point they were up for whatever I might have pulled out of my bag so I pulled out Fuse… As I retrieved it young ‘J’ mentioned that he had been eyeballing it in the bag – my guess is because the cover looks like a video game… 🙂

Fuse a real-time co-operative game that employs a bag of colored dice and various cards… Each game is set to a ten-minute timer, and players must work together in that ten minutes to defuse a number of bombs determined by the chosen level… Each bomb is represented by a card which needs a certain combination of dice in order to defuse it. A player will draw a number of dice equal to the number of players out of a bag and roll them. Players must then decide who will get which dice, but each player must take one and only one. Another piece of cake, right?? I reviewed the various card requirements as some want colors, others numbers, others need to add up or be less than or greater than other while some need to be stacked in a certain order…

I started the timer and we were off!!

No pausing this time!! It was chaotic fun and we failed miserably… 🙂

I knew Justin would want to go again so I immediately started resetting the bomb deck and we were soon off on our second attempt!!

This time the cards (bombs) were kinder to us… several of the fuse cards that are mixed in with the bombs (that cause everyone to lose dice they’ve already place) came out early and had little or no effect… we were down to the last couple bombs… tick-tock, tick-tock… last card… can anyone get to it in time??? YES!!! With all of 14 seconds to spare… 🙂 

This was another hit for the night though Christina said she felt more stress trying to get out of the temple… 🙂

I had one more thing I was anxious to share because I was sure it was something that Justin and Christina would play regularly and maybe even ‘J’ and his Grandmother… that game was Farkle…

Farkle is a dice game that’s been around forever apparently but I had never heard of it… my family learned of it from a Wil Wheaton Tabletop video of a spinoff named Dragon Farkle… I always describe as ‘similar to Yahtzee with a push-your-luck element’… on this night I was surprised that no one around the table had heard of Yahtzee but that didn’t matter… 

In Farkle you roll 6 dice for points… each roll you have to roll something that scores or you ‘Farkle’ and lose any points you’ve accumulated on that turn…

There are a number of scoring variations online but the one at left is the one I’ve settled with… if you have 6 dice, a piece of paper and a pen you can start playing without having to buy anything!! The only other things you need to know are:

– you can only score what you roll on a SINGLE ROLL (see below)
– you set the target point total before starting (usually 10,000 points)
– players need to roll at least 300 before they can count a score
– once a player reaches or exceeds 10,000 points, all players have one more turn to try to beat that player

Unlike Yahtzee, where you roll 3 times in hopes of building a scoring combination, in Farkle, in order to score the various combinations (at left), you need to roll that combination on a SINGLE ROLL!! For example, 3 ones is worth 1000 points BUT you need to roll them all at once – you can’t roll say two ones then reroll any non-scoring dice in hopes of getting a third 1 – this would only count as 300 points… 200 for the first two (100 points each) and 100 for the third one rolled separately… at this point you could bank the 300 points – ending your turn… OR reroll the remaining 3 dice in hopes of rolling at least a 1 or a 5 or you’d Farkle – losing the 300 points and ending your turn.

Should you roll a scoring die or combination, you can continue to roll until you bank the points, Farkle OR have scored ALL 6 DICE… in that case you could then reroll all 6 dice and continue adding to your total for that turn… BUT, if you fail to roll at least a 1 or a 5, you again would Farkle and forfeit everything you had to that point!! I think this push-your-luck element is what makes the game more interesting and exciting than Yahtzee in my opinion…

It’s easy to explain as you play so we set the target score at 5000 points as it was getting late and ‘J’ volunteered to go first…

Throughout the game I’d talk everyone through their options – reminding them of their score and what they needed to avoid a Farkle which meant they’d lose whatever they had… at one point, ‘J’ rolled 3 ones and a five… I told him that that was 1050 point and he could take the score or push his luck and roll the remining two dice – needing a 1 or a 5 to avoid losing the 1050… he got this big grin and rolled that two dice… he rolled a 5 then banked the 1100 points with that big grin again… 🙂 

Later Christina rolled a straight – the first really big combination of the night!! When I told her that was 1500 points her eyes got big and she pushed the dice to the next player… When I told her she could now reroll all 6 dice her eyes got even bigger at the prospect of an even bigger score… I reminded her that it is possible to Farkle even when rolling all 6 dice but after some consideration she decided to reroll and added 200 (2 ones) before banking the 1700 points…

The game went back and forth between Christina, Justin and ‘J’ as I was rolling typically abysmally… Christina soon topped 5000 points but in Farkle, everyone has one last turn to try to overtake the potential winner… ‘J’ almost caught her but Farkled… I think I Farkled on my first roll and that left Justin needing 2200 points to tie… he rolled 3 ones right off the bat for 1000… he rerolled the remining three and got 2 ones bringing him to 1200… one die left… he rolled a 5 – 1250 and he’s still alive!! Since he’d scored all 6 dice he could reroll all 6… 3 ones – are you kidding me?? 1000 point brings him to 2250 and he snatched the win from Christina!! Once again we all screamed and laughed… 🙂  We played one more game that Justin won running away and that capped off a great game night!! With that it was time to get young ‘J’ home to his Grandmother’s – a little later than planned but he was safe and he was having a healthy kind of fun that I think we’re all looking forward to having again… 🙂

June 12th… Both my girls are in pain… Julie’s is the usual ongoing myriad of pain but Selena is something new… bad enough that we got her into the doctor yesterday where they determined that her arm and leg were both swollen but couldn’t tell her why… they tested for Gout and Lyme Disease then she went to work… Later we learned that the Gout test was negative and we’re still waiting on the other results… in the meantime the swelling went down and the pain disappeared and she was feeling much better but couldn’t raise her left arm above her shoulder…

I relaxed for a while in the morning then broke Mom out of assisted living again to cash in her $45 scratch off winnings, get her some more and grab some lunch at the Country Drive-In and ice cream at Guptill’s… on the way home we had to stop at Stewart’s again because she’d won another $40 on a new scratch off… 🙂  I was going to mow but was wiped out and just grabbed a short nap…

After supper Julie was itching to play despite the pain but I was waiting for Selena to get home from work in case she was interested in playing… she said she was and would eat afterward… I setup New York Zoo, gave a quick rundown and we jumped into the game…

This was my first experience with the game with 3 players… I knew the build area was slightly smaller but I didn’t anticipate how much faster pieces would disappear or how hard it would be to time my move when my turn came around to get to just the pieces I’d set my sights on… I was slow to begin animal breeding but had started filling up my board… Selena was completing tiles and getting attractions so I knew she knew what she was doing… then it gets to Julie’s turn and she announces, “I love you both but this gets me that and that finishes my board.” Game over.

Selena said she really liked it but throughout the game she was struggling to get comfortable and obviously in pain… We were going to play Rajas of the Ganges too and even started setting it up when Selena made a run for the bathroom… she had a quick bout of dry heaves and returned wondering where that came from all of a sudden… With that, we packed up and called it a night. Not as exciting as the previous night but it was great to get to play with both my girls – even for a little while… I just wish someone could make them feel better as none of the doctors around here seem to be able to offer any solutions…

June 18th… Oops – I did it again… WAIT!!! WTF am I doing quoting Britney Spears of all people?!? OK –  I DID back another Kickstarter…

Well – actually, I backed an EXPANSION… for a game I don’t even own so naturally I had to get the big box deluxe version that combined the original game and the new expansion… 

The original game is called Paris…

(from BGG): Explore Paris in the 19th century. Discover its renowned architecture and obtain the most eminent buildings in the right districts to achieve victory.

Paris is a typical medium-weight Kramer and Kiesling Eurostyle-game with straightforward gameplay, short player turns, and an ingenious point salad mechanism. You mainly score points by obtaining the right buildings and collecting the right bonus cards.

In Paris, you take on the role of wealthy real estate investors in the Paris of the 1900s. Paris is at the height of its transformation into one of the most beautiful cities in the world. After having successfully organized the World Fair in 1889, topped by the construction of the Eiffel Tower and celebrating the centennial of the Storming of the Bastille, Paris goes through a period known as “la Belle Époque”. The architecture of Paris created during this period ranged from the Beaux-Arts, neo-Byzantine, and neo-Gothic to Art Nouveau and Art Deco. It is your task to purchase some of these magnificent Parisian buildings in order to make a profit and invest in the development and upkeep of some of Paris’ most iconic buildings and landmarks.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): From the first time I laid eyes on this game I thought of our daughter who grew up loving all things Paris and I’m sure, given the chance, she’d visit there like a shot… the game itself looks fantastic and everything I’ve seen makes me think it plays equally as well… I have no idea why I never added this to our collection but I was watching a recent Crowdsurfing video from the Dice Tower that weekly explores projects ending in the next week or two and they talked about the expansion for Paris and the campaign was almost over… the timing was right since I had some extra cash so I pledged for the base game and the expansion… and the metal coins of course… The delivery date is December of this year so if it makes it on time it will be a nice Christmas gift for my little ‘Peanut’ who turns 21 soon… wow!!

As for the expansion… that’s Paris l’Étoile…

(from the campaign): A few years have passed since the events of Paris. You have invested in many of Paris’ most prestigious building and landmarks, and have made quite the name for yourself. But that does not mean you can rest on your laurels: shrewd foreign investors have set their eye on the French capital, eager to become important players as well in the Parisian real estate market. The most coveted properties are all centred around the most famous roundabout in the world: La Place de l’Étoile, which features the iconic Arc de Triomphe, which looks down on the Champs-Élysées. They are up for quite the challenge since your experience will give you unique advantages over your opponents.

My gut feeling is that this expansion makes a great game that really didn’t need more even better and I can’t wait to share it with my girls – especially Selena who still has a giant Eifel Tower on her wall… 🙂

June 20th… Had a wonderful Father’s Day with my girls… busted Mom out of assisted living and brought her here for some tech updates including a new phone and some grill food – always a favorite of ours…

That evening, despite being in a lot pain, the girls wanted to get a game in and Julie keeps asking to play Rajas of the Ganges (see above for details) and I was anxious to try it with three players so I set everything up…

The rules don’t change between 2 and 3 players… you play on the 3-4 player side of the board but a couple spots get blocked off otherwise it’s the same game… I was curious to see how this game would play out as my last two-player game with Selena I won running away which was disappointing to me as I’m not a fan of games where someone can get so far ahead that there’s obviously no chance for a comeback yet the game still has a way to go… I’m happy to say that this was not the case tonight…

The girls remembered everything pretty quickly (though Julie was still trying to wrap her head around how the Market worked) and were quickly pulling away from me on the Fame track… I meanwhile was employing my previously successful strategy of getting some tiles in my province to build a money engine… while I was able to accomplish this and briefly took the lead on the money track, both girls soon followed my advice and did the same after my reminding them that it’s essentially ‘free money’… now the game was getting close in many areas… everyone’s provinces were filling in nicely and before long we all soon had all of our available workers at our disposal but I needed some Fame…

I was looking for ways to catch up on the Fame track but constantly found myself short of dice which is the major resource of the game… I had increased my bonus Fame values on a couple of the buildings and shifted my focus to adding tiles to my province with buildings that would get me the most fame and this was catching me up but Selena was chugging along and I soon saw the ‘handwriting on the wall’… she was a few moves on either track from winning or at least triggering the end (the game end is triggered when the Fame and Money tracks cross)… sure enough… the next round she had a big money payout and added a tile with TWO buildings to her province to cross her two tracks… Julie had fallen too far behind on the Fame track to catch up and while I was close to crossing my tracks, it still wasn’t close enough to accomplish in one final turn so Selena walked away clearly victorious!!

As for the girl’s pains… Julie’s is the same severe pains she’s been trying to live with since Chemo 5 or 6 years ago but Selena’s are something new… pain in her legs and arms – especially her wrists… mysterious swelling that seems to relocate – just when one area starts to feel good again it flares up somewhere else… two trips to the doctor and they’ve eliminated elevated Lyme Disease levels and Gout and are now saying Rheumatoid Arthritis… both girls tested positive a couple years ago for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which could be part of it… I’ve read and heard from several people that Selena’s sudden symptoms are consistent with what many have reported having weeks or months after their second vaccine shot… and Julie’s doctor is now questioning her Costochondritis diagnosis from a few years ago (which they hadn’t heard of until Julie pointed out the symptoms) and are now thinking it might be Fibromyalgia… I guess that’s why they refer to it as ‘practicing medicine’…

You start with a single 1st generation butterfly which along the journey is able to hatch a couple 2nd gen butterflies and, at the end of the Spring (which is only 4 turns), all 1st gen butterflies come off the board – they have died on the trip… so you continue with your gen 2 butterflies and hatch gen 3 but the trick is how far do you go – seeking bonus points in the game and hatching gen 4 butterflies – before starting the return trip… at the end of Summer (which is only 5 turns) the gen 2 butterflies also die and come off the board… now your into Fall with only 6 turns left in the game and you need to get some gen 4 butterflies back to Mexico for end game scoring!! This I felt was a key point that I kept reminding Julie (and myself) of and when the game was over we each barely managed to get a single gen 4 piece back to Mexico though her piece was a double counting as 2 butterflies… The Dice Tower group review nailed this… they, as with us, got to the end that you can clearly see coming but realized too late that, “Aaaaaaahhh – so that’s how it’s going to be”… then you immediately start thinking about what you can do better and want to play again… that’s not terribly common in games and is the mark of a good one.

Julie was hurting by the end and it was getting late so that second attempt will have to wait but we’re both anxious to give it another go… well done Elizabeth Hargrave!!

July 19th… Selena’s been in the hospital since Saturday night / Sunday morning… at that time she was trying to get comfortable but ended up screaming in pain and Julie took her to the ER… after a number of tests they admitted her… they attributed it to a Rheumatoid Arthritis ‘flare up’ and monitored her Sunday with enough pain meds that should could rest a little but she was still in pain any time she tried to use her legs… they had her on a steroid but if that didn’t make her feel better by that night they would have to aspirate her hip Monday which is what happened…

They took over 6cc of fluid out of her hip and no one knows for sure if it was that or the weather clearing but she was feeling better by Monday night… well enough to ask me to bring some games when I came back for the afternoon visiting hours… we played a couple games of Silver and Gold (scroll about half way up this page for more info) and Selena easily kicked our butts both games… 🙂

July 21st… We thought she might come home today but they decided to keep her one more day to make sure… by this time she was feeling much better and really bored so when I returned this afternoon I knew what we’d play… something we hadn’t played before and that was Arch Ravels (scroll up a little for more info)!!

Selena was due for a walk so we all made our way to the visitors lounge to take advantage of the tables and chairs and the fact that there was rarely anyone in there…

We didn’t quite get to finish as visiting hours were ending but it was obvious that Selena had won again… 🙂

August 6th… And that was the extent of our gaming for July other than my almost nightly 30 minute online Farkle matches and phone call with my Mom… but I’ve been a little off in general though I’m not sure why…

Maybe I’m struggling to get back ‘in the groove’ of full time playing… or maybe that, combined with my crazy schedule between school work and band work and not sleeping well is taking a toll… Even on the rare occasion when one of the girls feels like playing I just haven’t had the urge… usually I feel like I couldn’t stay awake… maybe I’m getting too old for this schedule… then again, lack of sleep will do that too… 🙂

Tonight, after a Thursday night summer concert last night, FE has a rare Friday night off… I was hoping for a game night but Selena was working, Julie was in bed and in pain and, by the end of my day at school after a short night of not really sleeping, I was totally wiped out… I came straight home and crashed and that nap helped tremendously as I was able to then eat, Farkle and chat with Mom, pick out and pack wedding clothes and otherwise get organized, gassed, iced and ready for a minor road trip for another FE wedding tomorrow.

There were a couple lighter games that caught Julie’s eye a few weeks back when we were watching a Dice Tower Summer Spectacular playthrough and I thought these might be just the thing to jump start me again… One was My Farm Shop (which I ordered on Amazon while I was stocking up on drum sticks and cymbal cleaner and later learned that I had apparently ordered it from Germany) and the other was Summer Camp (a Target exclusive that I just happened to spot when picking up prescriptions)…

(from BGG): Growing food in your own garden, keeping livestock yourself — self-sufficiency is all the rage, but running an actual farm with a successful farm shop is a much bigger challenge than that.

In the family game My Farm Shop, players can live through that experience without leaving the house. Three dice are thrown on each turn. With one die, the active player selects a new expansion for their farm, and the combination of the other two dice dictates which field will be activated on the farm — not only for the active player, but for all others as well. The expansions enhance the actions that players use to milk cows, shear sheep, harvest honey, or collect eggs, and these raw materials can then be sold. In the end, whoever makes the most money wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): One night we were watching a Rhado Roundup of games he played the previous month and he was kicking himself for not playing it sooner… it’s bright and colorful and looks cute but will give your brain a serious workout… cool!! Julie and I were both sold!! Now I just have to wait for the German postal service to get it to my door… 🙂

August 13th follow up… My copy arrived today – over a week early!! I anxiously opened the shipping box and examined the game… looks right… I flipped it over and the back of the box is all in German… uh-oh… I break into the plastic, take of the lid and there they are… the German rules… I’m thinking I’m screwed if I can’t find English rules online… I dig in a little further and there they were – English rules… WHEW!!!  🙂   Turns out everything component wise in the game is language independent – there is no text at all on anything which means they didn’t have to print it in every language – only provide rules… good plan… 🙂 

FOLLOW UP: A few days later we got it to the table and this is now the girl’s go-to game!! They keep asking to play it!! I worked two of the three modules in to our second play and will use them every time now. What a great game!!

Then there’s Summer Camp…

(from BGG): Find your cabin assignment, wring out your swimsuit, and relive the days of canoeing, friendship bracelets, and s’mores with Summer Camp, a competitive deck-building game in which players race to earn merit badges and collect the most experience points to win. Each player has their own deck of cards to play, and as the game progresses you add new cards to your deck to make it even stronger.

Summer Camp differs each playing as the game includes seven different merit badge decks along with the base deck: adventure, arts & crafts, cooking, friendship, games, outdoors, and water sports. Each game uses three merit badge decks that can be mixed and matched for unique gameplay scenarios.

To win, players must earn the most camp experience points, points that are gained by claiming merit badges, advancing your pawns along the merit paths, and buying cards. Devise your strategy, build the best card combinations to outplay your opponents, and rule the summer as the ultimate camper!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We watched some of a playthrough on the Dice Tower Summer Spectacular then watched their 4 Squares review where a panel of 4 share their take on the game… while they couldn’t really agree whether it was too light or not they did agree that it was a very good game… it looked good to us and again caught Julie’s eye so it’s in the collection and I hope she feels well enough to try it some night when I manage to be home and reasonably alert…

August 12th… I backed one more Kickstarter though I was a little hesitant because of the current worldwide shipping disaster… the problem with the most direct impact on things like Kickstarters is the cost of shipping… a 40 foot shipping container from China to Los Angeles that used to cost about $3000 now costs between $15-20,000!! Part of this is the sudden demand for various items, then China got shutdown again by COVID… then there’s the cargo ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal for weeks… and while there’s a shipping container shortage there is apparently a large number of such containers in the US sitting and rusting when they should be heading back overseas and no one seems to know why… In the end this will ultimately mean higher shipping costs, higher game prices overall and increased delays in getting orders… it looks like this may be the case until at least next summer… 🙁

Knowing all that I still had to roll the dice (so to speak) and back a game that Julie and I both know Selena will like and that’s…

(from the publisher): Artisan dragons, the smaller and magically talented versions of their larger (and destructive) cousins, are sought by shopkeepers so that they may delight customers with their flamecraft. You are a Flamekeeper, skilled in the art of conversing with dragons, placing them in their ideal home and using enchantments to entice them to produce wondrous things. Your reputation will grow as you aid the dragons and shopkeepers, and the Flamekeeper with the most reputation will be known as the Master of Flamecraft.

In Flamecraft, 2-5 players take on the role of Flamekeepers, gathering items, placing dragons and casting enchantments to enhance the shops of the town. Dragons are specialized (bread, meat, iron, crystal, plant and potion) and the Flamekeepers know which shops are the best home for each. Visit a shop to gain items and a favor from one of the dragons there. Gathered items can be used to enchant a shop, gaining reputation and the favors of all the dragons in the shop. If you are fortunate enough to attract fancy dragons then you will have opportunities to secure even more reputation.

Designed by Manny Vega and illustrated by world renown dragon artist, Sandara Tang.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Well the dragons are adorable to start with – especially the deluxe version with the minis… besides that, the gameplay looks interesting so as much as Julie and I will probably like it, the dragons will bring Selena to the table… 🙂

August 16th… A couple days ago (August 14th) we celebrated our 17th anniversary (11 years to the day of our first date so 28 years total)!! Of course the band was working (which I’m generally grateful for) and I had planned to have both girls join me for the evening gig since it was a nice place and we might be outside… unfortunately, in the days before, I learned that there was a concert in the back parking lot that night – a Sublime tribute which none of  were interested in… it also meant that I would have to arrive about 5 hours ahead of our showtime (instead of the usual 3 hours) in order to park anywhere near the venue which would translate into a prolonged period of time with nothing for them to do… then I learned we were going to be inside… with the current upward spike in positive COVID cases, everything combined to make us choose to sadly cancel the plan altogether… when I left that day I told the girls to figure out what they wanted to do today and I’d take the day off from work and (after a 1:00 doctors appointment) we’d have our anniversary celebration (stick with me – it does eventually involve board games) and make a day of it…

They decided they wanted to visit the Via Aquarium in the old (and mostly empty) Rotterdam Mall… they’d been there before and really liked it and thought I would enjoy it so off we went – dogs and all – to our first stop. And they were right – I really did enjoy it!! It’s small but with a decent variety sea life I’d never seen live before… sharks, lion fish, jellyfish, sea horses, puffer fish, I found Nemo, and of course the stingray exhibit where you can pet and feed them!! I wasn’t about to stick my hand in there but had a blast watching the girls interact with these amazing creatures!! We all enjoyed it and the dogs (service dogs in training) did fantastic in a dark, strange environment surrounded by strangers.

Please enjoy some pictures from our visit…

Then it was time for a late lunch… we have a number of favorites in the area but I had passed one in Valatie while headed to a recent wedding that I was interested in trying but left it up to the girls who had read the menu and were game so we made our way across the capitol region to O’Kenney’s Express just off I-90 east of Albany… the place is clean and the staff was very friendly… the weather was nice so we took advantage of there only being a handful of people in the pavilion to unload the dogs and dine al fresco… 🙂   The food was amazing!!! Roast beef sandwich piled high, macaroni salad, homemade mac & cheese, clam roll, 10 inch hot dogs, various wraps, etc… everything was excellent!! It’s not that far out of the way – a little more than an hour from home – so I’m sure we’ll be making another trip here in the future.

We jumped back on I-90 heading for Guptil’s for ice cream but, being this close to East Greenbush, you know I had to stop by Flipside gaming on our way through to get myself something ‘pretty’ for our special day… they’ve reduced there selection slightly but I’m still impressed with the titles they do have and always seem to have something in stock that I’m looking for… today they had three such titles… 🙂

As soon as I got through the front door I immediately locked eyes on Project L… I thought this was out of print or not in wide release because I hadn’t been able to find it online but here it was…

(from the publisher): Build pieces, develop an engine, perfect your strategy, and win the game!

Project L is a fast-paced, tile-matching brain burner with triple-layer 3D puzzles and lovely acrylic pieces. Challenge your friends to a game of simple design but intricate gameplay that makes a lasting impression!

The core of the game lies in using your pieces to complete puzzles. Starting with just two basic pieces, you use three actions every turn to develop a powerful engine. With more pieces of various types, you can efficiently complete even the most difficult puzzles. The puzzles you complete award you points or new pieces to further fuel your engine. Can you outsmart your opponents?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Tetris shapes and my wife… need I say more??  🙂

Next I remembered the last time I was there they actually had a copy of Hallertau – a new big box Ewe Rosenberg game that I keep hearing about…

(from BGG): The Hallertau in Bavaria, Germany is the largest continuous hop-producing region in the world. It prides itself upon being the first in Middle Europe to cultivate hops. This game is set around 1850, when the Hallertau became what it is today.

As chief of a small Bavarian village in the Hallertau, your objective is to increase its wealth and prestige in the eyes of the world.

To achieve this, you will need to supply the local crafts folk with goods from agriculture and sheep breeding.

Place your workers, play your cards right, and let your village shine!

• Progressive Worker Placement: Action spaces can be used multiple times, becoming more expensive in the process.
• Two-Field Rotation System: Fields lose their potency over time so fallowing fields allows them to become increasingly effective.
• Card Combos: You can play cards at any time; this timing—and the combination of cards—can be very powerful.
• Sheep with an Expiration Date: Breeding sheep early comes with a lot of perks, but, eventually, sheep will die of natural causes.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Ewe Rosenberg and myself… need I say more?? I love so many of this designer’s other games – especially Le Havre and A Feast For Odin –  that I had to add this to the collection.

October 1st UPDATE… It took a while but I finally got to where I thought I was ready to teach Hallertau and Julie agreed to help me figure it out… and despite all the moving parts to the game, we had a pretty good bead on it after the first round or two and we both loved it!!! If we hadn’t started a little late and I didn’t have to be up in the morning, we would have finished!!

October 14th UPDATE… In an effort to streamline the setup a little (there are a lot of pieces), I purchased a couple organizers from Lowes, sorted all the tokens into their own compartments and labeled the lid to match… now when we want to play all we have to do is open the case (the lid stands straight up) and we’re off!! I can’t wait to try it!!  🙂

On my first pass of the shelves I was pleasantly surprised to find a brand new game called Meadow which went right under my arm – no way I was leaving this behind…

(from BGG): Meadow is an engaging set collection game with over two hundred unique cards containing hand-painted watercolor illustrations. In the game, players take the role of explorers competing for the title of the most skilled nature observer. To win, they collect cards with the most valuable species, landscapes, and discoveries. Their journey is led by passion, a curiosity of the world, an inquiring mind, and a desire to discover the mysteries of nature. The competition continues at the bonfire where the players race to fulfill the goals of their adventures.

In this medium-weight board game for 1-4 players, you take turns placing path tokens on one of the two boards. Placing a token on the main board allows the player to get cards, but playing them requires meeting certain requirements. Playing a token on the bonfire board activates special actions (which helps to implement a chosen strategy) and gives the opportunity to achieve goals that provide additional points. Throughout the game, players collect cards in their meadow and surroundings area. At the end, the player with the most points on cards and on the bonfire board wins.

Meadow also includes envelopes with additional cards to open at specific moments…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): There was just something about this game that kept getting my attention… it’s bright and colorful with gorgeous artwork and seems to deserve all the praise it’s been getting so I can’t wait to get this on the table.

And with that we headed for checkout, got back on the road and headed for home with a quick stop at Guptill’s for ice cream of course… the end of a great family day!! Something we haven’t been able to do for several years – even pre-COVID – which made it very special for us all.

September 12th… A couple weeks ago I was on Amazon replacing my aging white sneakers (with another pair of the same) and, as usual, had to take a quick look at the available board games to pad the order a little… 🙂  I stumbled on one I was very interested in but had almost forgotten about… Maglev Metro!!

(from the publisher): In Maglev Metro, utilize state-of-the-art magnetic levitation technology to build a metropolitan rail system, transporting workers and robots beneath the city. Replace aging Manhattan and Berlin subway systems with newer, faster, quieter technology. Enhance your rail system’s abilities so that your passengers arrive at their destinations first.

Efficiency is your key to success in this pick-up-and-deliver, tile-laying, engine-building game. Transparent tiles allow your route to overlap your opponents’ tracks, winding you along from station to station. Robots efficiently upgrade and adjust your abilities, leveraging unique goals to maximize points. By the end of the game, the game board has morphed into a modern subway map, with brightly-colored routes connecting stations all over the city.

Maglev Metro contains two unique maps.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The game components are what honestly caught my eye… the player’s track tiles are all clear plastic and overlap in such a way as to make all players tracks visible… the cardboard station tiles are extremely thick – maybe 4x thicker than regular cardboard!! No doubt so that, even when sitting in the recessed board, they are still as tall or taller than when all 4 players have a stack of track tiles next to it… and the gameplay just sounded like a gamers version of more welcoming train games.

On this night I was able to get this to the table with both my girls which is rare!! I’d been reading the rulebook and watching videos to better plan my teach… I knew it would be a challenge on a work night to finish the game and I started fading about midway but we all had a good feel for it by then… well, at least the first HALF… you see, even though it’s not described as such, the game essentially plays in two halves that happen at different times to each player… in the beginning everyone is planning their routes and laying track and maybe picking up and dropping off a commuter or two to better their player board… as you build stations and deliver robots and commuters, they go to your player board where they help to improve the number of units you have to ‘spend’ for each action you get to take… once you have your route established you are able to ‘adjust’ your various action’s power by rearranging the robots on your player board as you shift to the second half where the goal becomes to pickup and deliver as efficiently as possibly. Despite its relative simplicity in its actions, it’s an incredibly deep and intelligent yet fun game!!

So we stopped midway through and scored where we were out of curiosity… we were all very close though I don’t remember the scores… Selena had beaten me by 2 points and Julie had bested her by 7 but we all agreed that this was a great game and we were anxious to play again… so we did… the next night…

September 13th… I was anxious to jump in but there were a couple rules we had messed up so, after a quick review, it was game on!! Tonight I managed the victory but not by much… and even with the setup and review we easily finished in less than the 90 minutes estimated on the box… 

September 14th… Selena has college homework but Julie’s still ready to play again so we tackled a 2 player game tonight… we were half way through when I realized we were messing up the rules yet again… it wasn’t so much that we were playing wrong but rather we were forgetting one or two small but key rules. Julie was sure that I kicked her butt but the 30 points she scored from bonus cards had me doubting that… I did win but only by a couple points and if I didn’t have to be up so early I’m sure we would have done it again as it plays fast and remains interesting the entire time!! 

September 19th… a Sunday night game session with the girls and what do they want to play?? Maglev Metro of course… 🙂

Before we started we all reviewed the rules we had been messing up and only messed up once the entire game which we caught and corrected but tonight’s game wasn’t even close… maybe I was too focused on getting the rules right or maybe it was my several moments of indecision… either way, by the time I had finished and corrected my looping route for the third freaking time, the game was over and I had barely broke 30 points… Selena was around 70 but Julie had gone nuts and scored 105!! And she was merciless in the process!! Every time I was poised to pickup some much needed robots for my player board it seemed like I needed one more track action before I could do it and Julie would swoop in and pick them ALL up before I got there. And we all had a blast!!! Julie prefers something light and quick but only because it’s something she knows or can pick up quick… now that she knows this one (that takes about 60-90 minutes) she’ll gladly play.  🙂

September 20th… I had to stop at the CVS in our local Target for one of Julie’s many prescriptions which always means a quick scan of the game section… I couldn’t resist snagging a copy of The Fox In the Forest…

(from BGG): The Fox In the Forest is a trick-taking game for two players. Aside from the normal ranked- and suited-cards used to win tricks, fairy characters such as the Fox and the Witch have special abilities that let you change the trump suit, lead even after you lose a trick, and more.

You score points by winning more tricks than your opponent, but don’t get greedy! Win too many tricks, and you will fall like the villain in so many fairy tales…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remembered seeing Zee Garcia’s review and thought it would be a good choice so Julie and I would have a quick 2 player game at the ready… tonight it came in handy…

Selena came home tonight from her college culinary class (they were starting a section on butchering today) with a bandage on the palm of her hand… she was putting one of her new knives back in its sleeve when it slipped and jabbed her hand… she put some antibiotic and a sterile pad on it and continued class (she said she didn’t want to miss anything)… Julie and I gave her all sorts of grief and called our doctor’s office to see if there was anyone that could see her and we were fortunate to get in. She chose to drive herself (little miss independent) so I taught Julie The Fox In the Forest knowing that neither of us would be able to sleep until she was back home and we knew she was OK.

We were barely able to get through the short rules sheet and finish a game before Selena was back home… they glued her hand together and covered it and she was fine… whew. As for the game, the ‘trick’ in this 2 player trick-taking game is to know when to win and when to lose… I was able to work my hand just right so I managed to lose the last 6 or so tricks putting Julie into the ‘Greedy’ level where she got 0 points while I collected the 6 points I needed to put me over 21. It’s a great little game and she wants to teach Selena and just asked to play it again then remembered Maglev Metro… oh it’s game on tonight!!  🙂

Here are some Fox In the Forest pictures…

October 16th… I had another FE wedding today which took me on Route 20 heading towards Pittsfield, MA which also coincidentally took me ‘dangerously’ close to Flipside Gaming in East Greenbush so of course I had to leave 30 minutes early to pay them a visit… 🙂

AWARDS
2019 SXSW Tabletop Game of the Year nominee
2019 The American Tabletop Awards COMPLEX GAMES winnerAWARDS & HONORS

• 2021 GEEKS d’OURO Best Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 UK Games Expo Best New Boardgame (Euro-Style) Nominee
• 2020 SXSW Tabletop Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Advanced Game Nominee
• 2020 JUG Adult Game of the Year Finalist
• 2019 Meeples’ Choice Nominee
• 2019 Graf Ludo Best Family Game Graphics Winner
• 2019 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2019 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Winner
• 2019 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remember first seeing this and thinking how cool I thought it was the way the game came together and the board changed, etc… I can’t wait to try it!! Is it Christmas yet?? 🙂

There was another title – an older game that Julie and I always thought looked like fun but that’s hidden for Christmas… HOWEVER…

I did pick up a little card drafting game that we always thought was cute… to play whenever… 🙂

But be careful as your carefully constructed deck might start losing cards if you don’t actually use them. After all, if you don’t play with your friends, why should they hang out with you anymore?

—description from the publisherAWARDS & HONORS

• 2020 Golden Geek Medium Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee
• 2020 Golden Geek Best Board Game Artwork & Presentation Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game is frequently talked about and while people tend to be split on the artwork, they all pretty much liked the game.

October 17th… I broke Mom out of assisted living this morning for some shopping and lunch and came home to read up on the rules for Fort… or grab a nap… I kinda did both… I slept through a few tutorial videos… later I did actually read the rules and the girls wanted to play after supper so we gave it a try…

The game includes excellent reference sheets and it didn’t take us long to ‘gronk’ the game… we didn’t get to finish because I had to head to bed for an early start for school but we really liked it and can’t wait to play again!!

The next day I received an email from the seller sating they’ve received my request to cancel and will stop the order…

Another day goes by and I receive another email from the seller saying they couldn’t catch the warehouse and both sets of stairs are already on the truck but when the one matching the cancelled order arrives I should contact them for a PREPAID return label… I instruct both girls not to open the stairs when they arrive so that I can match the order numbers and we don’t open the one that’s going back by mistake…

I come home from work on the due date to find a hug box on my deck… just one… hmmmm… I look it over (it’s pretty beat up – thanks FedEx) and find the order number… this is the one going back… I can’t tell you why they both weren’t on the same truck but the second one arrived the next night (in almost as bad a shape)… Selena wrestled it into the house and began construction while I began the return process on the order that errored then shipped…

The seller had instructed me to let him know when it arrived and he would send the return label… he had already sent a message that he saw it was delivered and sent the label… I shipping taped it to the box as instructed and spent another 3o minutes taping the box back together in hopes that it would make it to the truck… I called UPS and learned that I’ve have to pay to schedule a pickup… thank you – no… UPS drops something off at our house it seems like every other day… I checked my upcoming deliveries, found one that was arriving via UPS and told the girls to try to catch the driver… in case they missed him / her, I taped a note with a large UPS logo on it begging them to please take it… Julie caught him but he was a ‘personal’ UPS driver using his own car (I’ve never heard of this)… I couldn’t get it in the van so I knew he wouldn’t even attempt it with a car… In the end I got my brother to swing by with his giant Ford Raptor and we chucked it in the back and ran it to our local UPS Store where they weighed it, handed me a receipt with no charge and said I was all set. Now I’ll wait to see if the payment plan gets cancelled before they start taking out payments…

This gave me the chance to put the finishing touches on something I started working on after Julie and my first play of Hallertau over a month ago and that was a component case for the game that would fit in the game box…

I remembered seeing bunches of plastic bins on Tom Vasel’s shelves the, in a recent video, someone else was talking about not only storing the components in this ways but using the bins during the game – making setup and packing that much easier!! Why didn’t I think of that?? I started searching online and discovered a couple different sizes in stock at my local Lowes – one with adjustable dividers… I snagged two of those along wit a couple smaller ones and some felt padding as I thought I’d want to get the components as near the top of their various compartments for easy access but still below the edges so as not to spill over into other sections…

The plan worked perfectly so I decided to go one step further (of course) and label the inside lid to make everything easily identifiable… here is the result… 🙂

While I waited for Selena to awaken from her slumber, I amused myself by taking Mom shopping and a quick supper and when I returned home Selena was up so I setup and prepared to teach her Hallertau… she picked it up in no time and we were plowing through it when we both needed to plant crops but I couldn’t remember how you get new crops… you can get MORE crops by planting ones from your player board but how do you get more to your player board if you run out of a crop or two… we spent 20 minutes in the rulebook and online before I finally spotted the only two spots on the entire Action board where you can get new crops… I guess this hadn’t been an issue when Julie and I played it a month or so ago… We didn’t get to finish but I showed her how the scoring would work and she really liked the game. For all its intimidating layout and moving parts, it really is a very easy game.

November 13th… Today was my second to last gig with FE – a wedding at Mohawk River Country Club… and it’s 5 minutes from Flipside Gaming’s smaller store but I had to swing in of course…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The quirky , steam-punkish artwork has always stuck in my mind… the reviews all talked about what a great two-player game this was but I never expected to find it… it’s in my collection now… 🙂

November 14th… After breaking Mom out for lunch I returned home hoping for a little game action but everyone was asleep – even the dogs – so I went back to watching how to play videos and reading rulebooks…

November 16th… Julie is still in pain and just not up for anything but I was able to convince Selena to give Botinik a try and we both liked it!!

November 17th… Selena was up for a rematch after I won the first time (and we figured out a rules mistake)… yep – we like this game!! It’s not very complicated (yes – we messed up a rule the first time) but I was able to best her again and she was ready for another go round but I switched out Botinik to teach her The Fox In the Forest. My hope was that, on some of these days / nights when I’m out gigging, the girls might pull out one of these two player only games for themselves.

She really liked this one too – even though I was able to sneak up on her and score the necessary 21 points… she really wanted another shot at this one too so I know she enjoyed it.

While we were playing it Julie made her way out of bed… we were just packing the game but she really wanted to play so I went back to Botinik because she hadn’t been able to try it yet… as soon as we finished she wanted to go again but I had to be up early for work so a rematch would have to wait. I’ll keep reminding both girls that they don’t need me to play these… 🙂

November 26th… Julie’s sister stopped to visit on her way through town and I was a little surprised by her request to play a game (knowing she wasn’t staying the night)… I had been going over in my head what games I was prepared to teach should I be able to attend a local game night and Maglev Metro was at the top of the list (see above for game details)… I knew Julie would like it too so the three of us jumped in!!

Julie was already a tough opponent and sat quietly as I explained the key points to her sister as I was setting up – then focused on the individual game boards… the rounds go by very quickly and I could tell she was getting after only a few rounds…

Julie was creating her own private havoc – somehow ending up being the only one to lay track and build stations on about a third of the board… I was busy with my own tracks and stations when I realized that sis wasn’t building any stations… I told her that it wasn’t a bad strategy watching Julie and I slug it out to be get the commuter stations built… she was improving her player board and already picking up and delivering passengers… hmmmm…

I screwed myself about half way through where the game’s focus shifts from route building to pickup and delivery and I noticed that I had a couple of illegal sections of track laid so I pulled them off the board… then I had to pull the commuters that I had delivered from my player board as there was no way I could have got to them were it not for the illegal track… then I spotted a couple other commuters that were illegal because I hadn’t had the required pieces on my player board to pick them up or drop them off… and with that – just as I was starting to get my engine running – my player board took what amounted to a load of buckshot and I was forced to regroup…

I was desperately trying to get my board to where I would have an extra action to try to make up for my earlier mistakes and I did it… on my last turn of the game… 🙂

I wasn’t looking forward to the final scoring since I already knew none of my bonus cards were worth points… in the end, sis managed a whopping 66 points!! As for Julie and I, let me just say that our scores combined didn’t catch her… nice game for a first-timer… 🙂

November 27th… I’ve started separate games of Hallertau with Julie and Selena but have yet to finish a game… tonight was my first Saturday at home since leaving the band… Selena was working a double and I debated heading out to catch another local act thinking Julie would be medicated and asleep but she was up and wanted to play!! We hadn’t tried it with my component case so I was anxious to see how that worked (it worked incredibly well by the way) so I filled the table with the medium-sized game board and the 4 other individual game boards we EACH get then set about reviewing what each section did and a few other core mechanics then it was game on!!

Julie would have occasional questions – then she’d remember the answer… I think I only had to refer to the rulebook once… we managed to complete the game in what felt like no time… I was able to move my community center in such a way to be setup with 18 victory points during the last round!! I thought this would be enough but also fell 2 resources short of moving it once more… I was showing Julie when she pointed out that I had 2 jewelry left which are like free moves where you get to move regardless of the resource cost… thank you, Jul!! I love you!! But that bumps me to 36 victory points!! I was sure I had her beat but what I didn’t know was that she had been stockpiling clay to fulfill a couple end game bonus cards… when scoring was completed, I had beat her by 11… without that last building move I still would have won but only by 2… even she was surprised at how close our final scores were… and that’s why we love these dry, farming Euro style games… 🙂

November 29th… For weeks now I’ve been trying to get Meadow to the table with Julie and Selena… Julie and I have played a few time and I know Selena will like it but our work schedules and Julie’s health issues have thrown a wrench in our plans each time… Tonight, Selena was home from class early so we decided to play with just the two of us…

I had to refresh myself on the rules and was trying to explain things as we setup and I flipped through the rules – hoping not to forget any key points… of course the dogs needed to go out so while Selena saw to their needs everything came back to me and I pulled together everything Selena would need to know to play… when she returned I told her it was an easy game, laid it all out for her and we dove in.

I was checking her periodically but could tell she knew what she was doing so I shifted my focus to what I was trying to accomplish wen Selena wasn’t taking cards from the main board that I really wanted… I did manage to acquire and play some higher value cards and was pretty pleased but I could see Selena’s meadow was growing larger and larger…

We finished the last round, added up our points and I had managed to garner an 8 point victory… WAIT – Selena caught herself… she hadn’t scored her bonus points from the Campfire board… those 9 points made HER the winner by 1 point!! BUT WAIT… I forgot to add in MY 2 measly points from the Campfire board but on this night, that was just enough for the 1 point win. Even in defeat, Selena still loved the game and especially the beautiful artwork… 180+ cards and no two the same… she ‘oohed’ and ‘aaaahed’ the whole game. 🙂

November 30th… Selena made this today!! It’s about 20 inches round, 2 layer, butter cream frosting and all edible!! Julie was ready to cut into it but I shouldn’t have any (I’m trying to avoid some nasty A1C1 medicine) so we agreed to give it to our neighbors across the way because they have a house full of kids who love their sweets (who doesn’t?)… 🙂

Chef Meg (Selena’s professor) went nuts!! She asked Selena if she would do 2 more to be served to the administration in 2 days at what they call ‘service’ (the restaurant)…

So she did…

After the last one she asked if Selena could make a tent out of frosting… so she did (in front of the snowman)… 🙂

At this point Chef Meg told her she didn’t have to attend labs anymore and she was ‘commissioning’ Selena to make her son’s birthday cake… it’s a camping theme which I guess is why she wanted to see a tent… 🙂  And Chef Meg made Selena a pasta and Alfredo dish she likes… 🙂

I’m so proud of my little ‘Peanut’!! I think her culinary career just took a turn towards the baking side… 🙂

December 4th… a number of things to relate today but a game will be involved – trust me… 🙂

Today is my late Dad’s birthday – happy birthday in heaven… he’s been gone since 1986…

I’m still trying to get used to being home on the weekends since leaving my last band and not landing with a new one yet…

Selena worked for the college Friday night (part of her Culinary classes) but didn’t feel good when she got home and had a mild fever… she was about the same Saturday morning but was going to head back to the college to make another cake… Julie picked up a few COVID tests and both girls tested negative so Selena left for school and I dropped Julie at her Mom’s apartment to do some more cleaning since her Mom has a bit of Dementia and recently was placed in a home downstate… When we got home Selena was already there… no one was at school so she came home and was really feeling rotten by this time… her fever was up and she was throwing up a little… they did another home test and it was also negative so we think she picked up one of the various bugs making the rounds in our area though her fever peaked at just over 101…

Later she was feeling a little better and asked me to make her some noodle soup which seemed to sit OK… Julie was staying up to keep an eye on her and I was going to head out for a local game night but Julie asked to play and I’ll always play with my family because the opportunity is sometimes rare… the Adirondack Tabletop people are wonderful too but tonight I’d rather be home in case anything happens…

Julie eyeballed a few games and we chose to have another shot at Maglev Metro!! I felt we were ready for the ‘harder’ game so I switched the map to the Berlin (not recommended for beginners) side and threw in the 4th type of bonus card…

I had a plan going in which was to complete a route that loops as quick as possible then build up my player board to add actions and make them more valuable… it worked fabulously!! While Julie had pretty much kept pace with her player board, she never got above 2 actions per turn where as I had managed to increase to 3 actions early and added a 4th only because I ran out of places to put all the commuters I was picking up… in the end we both scored very well but I was able to best her by 40+ points. She wanted to play again right then (and it’s not a short game) but I was ready for bed by this time… well, almost…

We’ve had Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade (see above for details) since last Christmas and, for whatever reason, I’ve never got it to the table – even though it’s pretty much a multi-player solitaire game (meaning there’s no player interaction and everyone is doing their own thing until it’s time to compare final scores)… it’s an amazing looking production and we decided to try to learn it together…

We managed to get 5 or 10 rounds in when the dogs starting telling us they needed to go out… I was getting a stiff neck so we called it a night but are anxious to try it again as it’s a very slick game!!

Selena slept the entire time – going back and forth between being too hot then freezing… hopefully she can shake this in a few days.

December 11th – Selena Update… Thursday (12/9) Selena was feeling much better, got up and went to class then stopped at the mall on her way home to get her booster shot… later she went to work… she came home with a couple small takeout bowls of some new Tuscan soup menu items from work… I went to bed but was awakened by Julie saying that Selena was really throwing up now… maybe her bug wasn’t quite done with her… maybe it was a reaction to the booster… maybe it was a little too soon for the rich soup… whatever the cause, she was down again – missing school and work Friday but was almost back to normal by Friday night… she’s going to work today and I’m dropping her off and picking her up since the girl’s Honda Accord is in the shop again – this time for $2100 worth of exhaust work, rear brake pads, an inspection and new tires (and possible a new rim due to her accident a couple years ago)… it’s just as well, we’re getting some heavy rains and maybe some wind though the icing apparently moved east of us as temps should be in the mid-50’s by this afternoon… the good news is she’s feeling better and the car itself is paid off in July and hopefully has several good years left in it (given Honda’s reputation) – especially after all the recent worked we’ve had done…

As for the game front, I’m torn between testing out the new solo mode and add-ons in the Paladins of the West Kingdom: City of Crowns expansion, breaking out Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade again or starting to wrap presents… it’s nice to have choices but weekends off after going non-stop for almost 8 years is a little tough… 🙂

December 26th… MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Whatever your faith, whatever you might celebrate, I hope you’re having a wonderful but safe time!! Before I breakdown our Christmas game additions, I have to tell you a quick story (or two) about my Mom…

If you’ve been following along on this page and others on my site, then you already know my Mom ended up in assisted living after successful hip replacement surgery just as everything started shutting down in March of 2019… For those unfamiliar with the history, I’ll briefly say that Mom was a healthy, fully independent 87-year-old with her own apartment and car… now she’s a healthy 89-year-old with ‘Independent’ status from the facility where she’s ‘incarcerated’… sorry – I’m still bitter because, were it not for TWO mistakes by separate health care ‘professionals’, I think she still would have been on her own…

To start with, the hospital sent her HOME instead of rehab – claiming her insurance didn’t cover ‘short-term rehab’… and this was before she had stopped vomiting and was eating solid food which was caused by a pain med that lodged in her throat and burned into her Esophagus the day of the surgery!! Something they failed to diagnose before just sending her out the door the next day… she’d return in an ambulance 5 days later because she still couldn’t eat and was vomiting again… this time a different doctor with an old country charm, after hearing this story, told her it was ‘bullshit’ and she WOULD be going to rehab this time where mistake number two occurred…

She was sent to rehab at the Pines in Glens Falls, NY the first week of March 2020… rehab went great and she was almost finished and planning to go home when the Social Worker employed by the facility told her that she really should apply for residency there because with COVID breaking out and things shutting down, if she went home and it didn’t work out, she’d NEVER get back in there… This scared Mom and, in a panic, she got hold of my brother and I, had us get hold of Medicaid, get rid of her apartment, her car, all but a few of her clothes and donate her furniture so she could become a resident there. We got it all accomplished then about a week later, the head nurse told my Mom she didn’t need the kind of care that they provide there and should go home… Mom was crushed since she no longer had a home – thanks to that Social Worker who had also cancelled Mom’s health insurance without asking her AND failed to tell her OR contact us when Mom apparently tested positive for COVID in April 2020… a few months later that Social Worker would be removed from the facility by NY State authorities but the damage had already been done.

Then things really shutdown, all visitation was cancelled, and we were left with only phone calls and being allowed to drop off boxes of goodies for her in the lobby… She had her iPad and I had shown her how to do email on it like she did on her computer and I eventually found a way for us to play Farkle online together which became our nightly after-supper ritual (and still is). All told, we would go well over a year without seeing our Mom!! This was the hardest at Christmas as Mom is the proverbial glue for the family and just about every holiday dinner and gathering was at her place but this year we would all be on our own… this brings me to Christmas 2021…

When Mom first became a resident, she asked me to pick up one of those small mini-fridges she had seen online at Walmart… she’s been using it ever since but the freezer doesn’t freeze anything and there’s not much room in it… I had planned to get her a larger one for Christmas, contacted the administrator at the Pines and got his approval, then I emailed my brother in case they were struggling with ideas for what to get her and invited him to join me on this… I sent him the picture and specs of a larger mini-fridge I had seen at Home Depot… almost the same footprint so it should fit on her dresser but more than twice as tall and with a separate freezer, had him double check my measurements, then, just to make sure, I went to her room while he had her out to breakfast with a tape measure and confirmed my measurements… we were in!!

I salted and sanded again when we arrived at our house to ensure that I could get Mom’s dinner from the house to the van without going on my ass… it worked perfectly… She asked me to tell the girls to stay inside because of Julie’s knees and back and Selena’s hip – she didn’t want to risk them falling… I brought out her presents and stocking and she had a semi-normal Christmas… even though it was in the van and only with me, she kept saying how it beat the Hell out of last year!! Soon it was time to eat…

I had a padded laptop tray for her lap and a placemat on a cookie sheet and sealed the entire meal in foil to get it to the car in the cold and rain so she could have an actual, HOT, full blown Christmas dinner that included sugar-cured ham, corn bread stuffing, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, mac& cheese, Cranberry relish and for dessert, biscuit beignets with butter pecan dipping sauce. The food was amazing!! Mom sampled everything and said she was stuffed but somehow found room for a few beignets… 🙂 She hasn’t stopped thanking us for figuring this out and I am beyond happy that she enjoyed herself and the food because she’ll be 90 in June and who knows how many more Christmases we’ll get to have with her…

I hope you enjoyed my story… now it’s GAME TIME!!

December 26th – Part II… Merry Christmas GAME Edition!! Hard to believe but this Christmas marks 9 years since I and my family discovered modern board games!! Each year since, Santa’s managed to add a few games to our collection and this year was no exception but included one giant surprise… where to begin…

AWARDS
2019 SXSW Tabletop Game of the Year nominee
2019 The American Tabletop Awards COMPLEX GAMES winnerAWARDS & HONORS

• 2021 GEEKS d’OURO Best Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 UK Games Expo Best New Boardgame (Euro-Style) Nominee
• 2020 SXSW Tabletop Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Advanced Game Nominee
• 2020 JUG Adult Game of the Year Finalist
• 2019 Meeples’ Choice Nominee
• 2019 Graf Ludo Best Family Game Graphics Winner
• 2019 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2019 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Winner
• 2019 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remember first seeing this and thinking how cool I thought it was the way the game came together and the board changed, etc… I can’t wait to try it!! 🙂

Each turn a player may spend action points to try to extinguish fires, move through the building, move victims out of the building or perform various special actions such as moving emergency vehicles. If 4 victims perish in the blaze or the building collapses from taking too much structural damage, the players lose. Otherwise, the players win instantly when they rescue a 7th victim.

The expert variant included in the game adds thematic elements such as flash over, combustible materials, random setup, and variations on game difficulty from novice to heroic. The game includes a double sided board with two different building plans and several expansion maps are available.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2014 Juego del Año Finalist
• 2013 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Family Game Nominee
• 2012 Hra roku Nominee
• 2012 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee
• 2012 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): We all watched Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop runthrough of the game (the links above will take you to it) but at the time thought it was a bit much for us… now, we play more complicated games in our sleep… the only challenge was finding a copy of a 10 year old game… 🙂

Ideally you can place habitat tiles to create matching terrain that reduces fragmentation and creates wildlife corridors, mostly because you score for the largest area of each type of habitat at game’s end, with a bonus if your group is larger than each other player’s. At the same time, you want to place wildlife tokens so that you can maximize the number of points scored by them, with the wildlife goals being determined at random by one of the three scoring cards for each type of wildlife. Maybe hawks want to be separate from other hawks, while foxes want lots of different animals surrounding them and bears want to be in pairs. Can you make it happen?

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’m pretty sure Julie fell in love with the artwork at first site… beautiful images of animals from the Pacific Northwest… I love the Beth Sobel artwork as well… she has quite a history having done the art for several great games including Wingspan, Viticulture Essential Edition and Viticulture, Arboretum and Calico – the first in the trilogy that Cascadia is part of. We love Calico and Cascadia has some similar mechanics so I knew it would be a hit.

Followup... a few days (and several videos and some reading) after Christmas, I managed to get Selena away from the Xbox to try Cascadia… and she loved it!! She loved the art work and the gameplay and we weren’t too far into the game when I could tell that she ‘got it’ because I couldn’t keep up with her turns so I just focused on my strategy… and still lost… 🙂

The next night Julie was up and moving and wanted to play something so I taught her… and lost again… but I knew she liked it because she wanted to play again and again… I told you she’d like it… 🙂

Players can finish panoramas by first laying groundwork cards, acquiring resources by turning the 3D pagoda, and allocating those resources to satisfy the requirements of each groundwork card. Once satisfied, a groundwork card becomes a landscape card. Multiple landscape cards laid in the correct order create a panorama. Each God has their own satisfaction meter which expresses their goodwill towards the gardens and their builders. Players try to please the Gods by completing landscape cards and finishing panoramas.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said at the beginning, I’ve seen nothing but positive comments from all the content creators I’ve come across so the time was right to add it to our collection.

To score, choose to remove either (1) a color that appears on the top stones of at least two towers on your player board or (2) any number of top stones on your player board. In the latter case, you score 1 point for each removed stone. In the former case, you score points for each removed stone depending on the scoring condition for that space on your player board, which might be based on the height of that stone in a tower or the number of colors in that tower or the height of all towers on your board. Place all removed stones on the shared central mandala, building from the inside out and possibly scoring points depending on the spaces that you cover.

If a player can neither pick nor score OR if a stone placed on the central mandala covers the game-ending space based on the number of players in the game, complete the round so that everyone has the same number of turns. Each player can then score one of two secret objective cards in their hand, then the player with the most points wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): While it reminds me of Azul (another game with chunky plastic tiles that we really like), it plays totally different with some twists that I thought Julie would like.

Then came the biggest surprise of all… one that caught me totally off guard… in a box the girls could barely lift… my girls had got me (us) GLOOMHAVEN!!

Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.

AWARDS & HONORS

• 2020 Japan Boardgame Prize Voters’ Selection Nominee
• 2020 Japan Boardgame Prize Voters’ Selection Nominee
• 2020 Gra Roku Best Thematic Game Nominee
• 2020 Gra Roku Advanced Game of the Year Nominee
• 2020 As d’Or – Jeu de l’Année Expert Nominee
• 2018 SXSW Tabletop Game of the Year Winner
• 2018 Scelto dai Goblin Winner
• 2018 Origins Awards Game of the Year Winner
• 2018 Origins Awards Best Board Game Winner
• 2018 Origins Awards Best Board Game Nominee
• 2017 Meeples’ Choice Nominee
• 2017 International Gamers Award – General Strategy: Multi-player Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Strategy Board Game Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Strategy Board Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Solo Board Game Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Solo Board Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Cooperative Game Winner
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Cooperative Game Nominee
• 2017 Golden Geek Best Board Game Artwork & Presentation Nominee
• 2017 Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming Nominee
• 2017 Cardboard Republic Striker Laurel Nominee
• 2017 Board Game Quest Awards Best Thematic Game Nominee
• 2017 Board Game Quest Awards Best Coop Game Nominee
• 2017 Best Science Fiction or Fantasy Board Game Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game’s been out for more than 4 years now and in all that time I don’t think I’ve ever given it a second thought since seeing the huge Kickstarter campaign… a campaign that I believe was the highest grossing crowd-funded game EVER garnering close to $5,000,000!!! As with some of the previous games I’ve just mentioned, I’ve seen this on countless video reviews and top 10 and game-of-the-year lists yet had no desire to play it… but why??

Maybe it was the cost (well over $100)… or the length… the 80+ campaigns take 1-2 hours EACH… maybe it’s the roll playing aspect… I’m generally not that into RPG’s – games with characters and lots of story… maybe it’s because the game requires a sort of commitment from the players to play at least semi-regularly which is difficult for us given Julie’s health and Selena’s and my work and school schedules… maybe it’s the ‘legacy’ aspect of the game – meaning that, as you play through the various missions, you’ll be placing stickers on the maps and boards and cards – changing them for ever… some cards even get DESTROYED – never to be played again… maybe it’s because this is essentially a one-time play through… granted at over 100 hours of gameplay and over 2100 pieces in the box we’d definitely get our money’s worth before just disposing of it all (like I could ever bring myself to do that)…

But here it is… on my floor (because I don’t think my utility shelves could hold it)… I’ve opened it with Selena and checked out all that the enormous box contains, watched some more videos (mainly reviews and how best to pack it all) and I’m actually getting excited to try it!! I don’t think Julie will enjoy it and given all the other games we all like in our collection versus the rare times she feels up to playing, I don’t think I would even start it with her… but as Selena and I were going through the box and I was explaining all the finer points of role playing, legacy and campaign games, she said, “This sounds like a ‘you-and-me’ game.” I think she may be right.

One of the knocks against the games is its lengthy setup time and the challenges involved in figuring out which map tiles to piece together for each campaign… however I recently learned that someone is designing a spiral map BOOK that’s become popular as of late in several other games… that should help things immensely so I’m on a search for that map book… if it does exist or is really in the works, I will wait until I get my hands on it before attempting my first play… but, to my surprise, I really AM getting excited to try it!! Here are some pictures…

January 31st / Gloomhaven Update… I’ve been digging more and more into Gloomhaven storage solutions… many cost as much as the game BUT make the setup and resuming the game quicker and easier… now I’m waiting for some extra cash to order one of these before diving in…

During my storage research I also discovered that there is a removeable sticker set / kit available that supposedly makes the game one that could then be reset and we could pass on when we finished it… add that to the list of things I want under my belt before I attempt to learn and play this beast… it’s still getting me excited which I never thought would happen… 🙂 Now on to New Year’s Eve 2021…

I was hoping for a New Year’s Eve game night with my girls since, after leaving the band, I would be home for only the 3rd or 4th time in over 40 years… Selena got called into work so it was just Julie and I and she was in a lot of pain as the weather was changing and a storm going through which makes it worse but she wanted to play Cascadia again… and again… and again…

She wanted to keep going but I talked her into stopping for supper (and so I could play Farkle remotely with Mom for half an hour) then trying one of our other new games that I thought she’d really like… Mandala Stones.

After a couple games of that I was ready for bed and figured we’d watch some videos while we waited for Selena to finish her late NYE shift but it was a great afternoon / evening of gaming with the Misses and a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Eve – even if I wasn’t drumming as usual… 🙂

I must say it was a much quieter and more relaxing holiday season than last year… I love Julie’s sister and really hope she’s able to get her life back together for the sake of her daughter as much as herself… I’m sure her son has good in him too – I just can’t get the events of last Christmas out of my head…

Click here to see if the lack of full-time band income cuts into our gaming…