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Happy 2023!!!

If you missed it, please check out our Christmas 2022 game additions… the games just continue to get better and better… so many to play, so little time… 

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January 1st Update… Happy New Year everyone!! If you’ve been following along you already know that I was home on New Year’s Eve 2021 so it felt great to be back out there on NYE 2022!! Though I spent most of today recovering from the workout and lack of sleep… I’d still do it again tonight if there was a gig… 🙂 Before I get back to gaming, here’s a recap of the night in case you missed it on my 2022 history page…

It was great to be playing again on New Year’s Eve rather than sitting home though I’ve been anxious about this night since it was booked as it’s at the Hermitage Club in Wilmington, VT – ski country… and seemingly a million miles from anything… and with the wacky weather we’ve been seeing I didn’t know what to expect… it turned out to be higher than normal temps – 50’s during the day and only dropping into the upper 40’s overnight so the roads should be decent… I’d checked Google maps a couple times and it seemed like it would be easy to get to…

The itinerary we received said load in was at 5:00 but I headed over early (of course) – arriving a little after 4:00 but not before traversing 6 or 8 little back country roads after leaving the main road… once inside I found two of the members already there setting up the PA and keyboards and went back to get the van…

The valets had me back right up on the large concrete area in front of the building which must serve as a loading zone for skiers… they told me to take all the time I needed which was a refreshing change from many venues (especially in NY)… Then, after I was unloaded, we were told to tell the parking guys in the lot up top that we were with the band… I did and they directed me one of several unused handicapped spots in about the only PAVED section of the parking lot… WOW!! Thank you!! No mud on my dress shoes!! 🙂

As I was loading out, different staff were stopping me to say how great the band was… said we added a lot of class to their Gatsby theme and they had lots of positive comments from guests but admitted that that was more than they could say about the kitchen… one said they were short staffed and another said they apparently didn’t have any prep time for the party crowd (after the ski crowd)… on my last trip out the young guy who first greeted me when I arrived was still there working and said they were ‘still learning’… new owners maybe?? They shouldn’t expect anyone who attended this event to come back next year after this fiasco…

I thought I’d be on the road around 1:30am but with the lack of space to pack it took a little longer as I waited until some of the other guys were packed so it was closer to 2:00am when I hit the road… I set my Garmin and Google maps to head for Troy rather than go home through the back woods and back through Cambridge and Greenwich… I use both when I’m out in the country because sometimes there’s no cell service but the Garmin usually can find a satellite…

I start the return trip on all those little back roads that brought me in and I hear ‘turn right’… the sign says ‘DO NOT ENTER’ but I don’t see another connection to the road I’m supposed to be on (and there are tire tracks) so I entered anyway… mistake number one as the road was either muddy or icy (it was 46 degrees) as I couldn’t keep traction and thought I was going off the road for sure a couple times… I managed to keep it straight down the hill and got enough speed to get up the other side and got to the road I wanted…

A couple more turns and a little further down a road I get another ‘turn right’… I stop, look, backup and turn down the road to be greeted with a ‘ROAD CLOSED – Seasonal road’ sign… great… I start to back up in the now pouring rain and somehow end up off the road facing up a hill… every time I tried to inch forward, I’d lose traction and start spinning in the snow, ice and mud… I tried calling the venue but no one was answering… I was about to call 911 but decided to try a couple more maneuvers on my own… good fortune was on my side as I cranked the wheel hard left and was somehow able to roll out and back on the wet pavement and made my way back to the main road…

The next challenge was the 18 miles over the mountain from Wilmington to Bennington in thick fog which brought me to a crawl in some areas… once I reached Bennington, everything cleared and the rest of the trip was fine… I got home a little after 4:00 the following morning… 🙂

And that was the last gig for Body & Soul and perhaps for yours truly… there was talk about various band possibilities but no one has said anything to make me think that I might be part of anyone’s plans… time will tell…

Happy 2023!! Here’s a picture of the Hermitage Club…

In the end, Selena trounced me by over 40 points… yep – great game… 🙂 She was always just one step ahead of me which made losing that much more fun for me… This will be getting played a lot!!

January 4… Julie’s feeling much better… up and moving and wanting to play a game!! Selena’s home too but is working on a craft project for her best friend from school who is back in the area student teaching so I setup Honey Buzz for two players and guided Julie through Rodney Smith’s Watch It Played how-to-play video… we were just about to start when Selena comes in to show us her finished craft product and asks if there’s still room for her… of course there is!! We reset and get her positioned to play… 🙂

Tonight was a different game in some respects… I had all my BEEples early and was building a decent hive… in other respects it was more of the same as Selena AND Julie battled over the 20 point Queen’s Contests then started gobbling up work orders while I tried to make sure they were following the rules and understood their options… the nectar tiles were almost gone before I managed my first work order while Selena already had 4 to Julie’s 1 – then Julie completed THREE on a single turn!!

In the end I managed 51 points – most of it in coins I hadn’t spent.. and Selena (this will come as a shock to no one) had amassed 109 points – increasing her margin of victory over me from our first play… but Julie managed the win with 113 points!! Pretty impressive (the girls – not me)!! It’s apparent that we all really like this game. As I was packing it up Julie asked if we could play it again tomorrow night… of course we can but her health usually only allows her one day like this before pain and nausea force her back to bed for days… if she’s up to it, I’ll have it setup.

January 6… While we didn’t get to play the next day, Julie’s feeling better tonight and wants to play Honey Buzz again… Selena’s working so it’s just the two of us and Julie wanted to try one of the other starting hive arrangements which made for an interesting game…

A short time later I noticed that, unlike our previous play with the recommended starting layout, there seemed to be a lot more partial cells with 1 or 2 white walls already in them… interesting… this made getting Cherry Blossom and even Acacia a little easier…

Our hives were getting huge when I was looking over the job orders and discovered that we couldn’t trigger the game end because the remaining jobs either required 2 Rosemary or 2 Wildflower and I could only produce one at a time, OR… in Julie’s case, they required a Rosemary that she had no way to generate because there was only one in play and I had it… after exploring all our options we decided to call the game and add up our points and call it a night… I had managed some high-priced sales – primarily 30 points from pollen – to pull away for the win. Julie was ready to reset and go again but after not much sleep the night before due to cuddling dogs and after a full day’s work, I was ready for bed though I really wanted to play of course… 🙂

A little earlier I had started watching videos of Atlantis Rising to try to get a feel for that… one of the videos was an older Dice Tower playthrough with Brent Dickman – one of the designers!! Click here to view… In the playthrough I noticed that they had a playmat under the game that looked amazing… I’m quickly becoming a sucker for playmats but this one was also FUNCTIONAL!! In the game the various peninsulas are sinking into the sea and the game simulates this by flipping the land tiles to their water side… however, with the playmat under neath depicting water, you simply REMOVED the land tile which prompted me to see if it was still available and, of course, order one… it should arrive on the 12th and I hope to have a grasp of the game by then – even if I have to play solo… 🙂

January 7… another Saturday off… hard to believe that New Year’s Eve with Body & Soul was already a week ago… I was mulling over what games to pack for the local group’s game night should Julie not feel up to playing but thankfully this was not the case… you’ve probably read it before but, while I like all the people in the game group, I’ll gladly stay home and play with the family when either of them want to play (their reduced immune systems keep them from many public gatherings)… such was the case today… Julie was ready to extract some sweet revenge in Honey Buzz (see what I did there?) so who am I to deny her that opportunity… 🙂

Another custom layout – this time she had me pick… the random assortment of nectar was fairly well-balanced this time so it was game time!!

I felt like a boxer who hadn’t adequately prepared for or underestimated an opponent because Julie was flying circles around me (sorry – couldn’t resist)… she had pollen, sold pollen, had a wildly large hive and seemed to be able to get anything she wanted… she sold honey… she pulled away on the Queen’s Contests (3 game conditions that change each game worth 20 points each) though I did manage to tie her on one but, in this game, that means BOTH players get 20 points… I could do nothing to get remotely close in the end because, before I knew it, she had emptied 2 of the 3 stacks of work orders and the game was over!! I don’t recall the scores but suffice it to say I wasn’t even in the ball park but we’re all loving this game!! 🙂

After that beatdown I was ready for a change and convinced her to try to figure out Three Sisters with me…

The game lasts eight rounds. Each round, roll dice based on the number of players, group them by number, then place them on an action space of the circular action wheel, starting with the current position of the farmer; the farmer moves each round, which means that dice showing 1s, 2s, etc. will end up on different spaces each round.

OK – I’d read the rulebook and we’d watched some how-to-play videos together but I still wasn’t sure I could get through a game…

As I started going through the rules with Julie it started clicking for me and it was nowhere near as intimidating or complicated as it appeared… Julie was still a little confused but we slowly launched into the game and, once she got a feel for what the various symbols meant (there aren’t that many), she started putting combos together and before long the questions stopped and, as I’ve learned by falling victim to her in other games, that usually means she’s got it and she quietly lays an ass-whooping on me!! 🙂

Today was no different though I did squeak out the first game… then she reset the game without asking to play again – even erasing MY dry-erase sheets I’d made!! She then proceeded to win the next two games pretty easily (and they only took about 20 minutes each)!! I attribute the game length to my suggesting that we take almost simultaneous actions rather than waiting for each other to complete our turns… and I attribute her ease of victory to my showing her a bonus action in the shed… if you complete one of the items there, for the rest of the game you get to plant THREE times instead of two… I read a funny gardening tip somewhere that said if you bury a body in your back yard, plant endangered species over it so it’s protected and illegal to dig up… yeah – that’s how she plays games too. 🙂

After supper, I read the rules for another of her Christmas presents, Planted!! Julie was resting but still upright and I thought it was easy enough that I was ready to teach and we could play pretty quickly…

The game is a ‘Target exclusive’ meaning that it’s initially released ONLY to Target stores – then eventually to all retail outlets… the buzz around this game (sorry – I’m still doing it) revolves around its price point – only $30; and its production quality – which rivals many deluxe versions… AND it’s a really solid and fun game!! And it’s about planting so I had Julie at ‘hello’ as they say… 🙂

She picked this one up pretty quick and the game plays in no time – only 30 minutes or so… we must have played 3 or 4 games before calling it a night and we both had our share of wins… it is a fun puzzle to figure out – a great game.

January 8… a nice relaxing Sunday… I was breaking Mom out of assisted living for lunch but earlier in the morning Julie wants to play Planted again before I go… how could I say no? 🙂

When I returned, Selena was home and cleaning her car… once I came to (after feinting), I was settling into my office and contemplating a nap, but Julie wanted to play again… as you know if you’ve been reading other sections, there are long stretches where her health keeps her from feeling up to gaming so whenever she feels this good, I’ll take full advantage… 🙂

We were just about to start when Selena came in – asking if there was room for her again… there’s always room for our little girl… we reset for 3 players as I explained the game to her… I must have been tired or just keeping an eye on her so she didn’t miss any opportunities… she must have caught them all because she doubled my score and beat Julie by 3!! We all love this one too!!

Julie wanted to play again but I really wanted Selena to try Three Sisters with us… she’d seen us playing when she left for work and seemed really interested so we packed up Planted and setup Three Sisters…

The score sheets can be a bit overwhelming at first glance but once you get a ‘tour’ of them from someone who’s played a few times, it’s not bad at all… she trounced me again and Julie was close to her… after being flogged over and over I can’t understand why I don’t prefer playing solo… yes I can – I’ve said it multiple times, “it’s not the game – it’s the experience and time with family”… great times… time spent with my girls and THREE new games that we’re all enjoying tremendously!! Thank you, ladies!! 🙂

Three more games left to tackle from our Christmas haul: Azul: Queen’s Garden, Atlantis Rising and Wayfarers of the South Tigris… I’ve already read the rules for Azul: Queen’s Garden and think I’ve got it figured out to where I could teach it… the other two are big epic 90-120 minute games… fantastic games that I know I can get Selena to play but Julie has to be in just the right mood so I may end up going solo on these sometimes… 🙂

January 12… Selena’s working the next couple of nights so there’s no chance of finishing the game we started… Julie asked if we could restart with just the two of us… of course we can so I reset for a 2 player game and we started again like we knew just what we were doing – even correcting our round scoring blunder from that partial play…

When we hit final scoring Julie started off by LOSING 18 points because of tiles she had left on her storage mat… that gave me a big lead but it wouldn’t last for long as she came blazing back and we went back and forth with the lead and I honestly can’t remember which of us won but we liked the game.

I wasn’t as clear with the ‘groupings’ but when checking the rulebook to make sure we were scoring everything correctly I discovered that the colors or patterns just needed to be touching in ANY direction… I was so focused on patterns that I scored a big fat 0 for all 6 groupings so Julie had probably won that game… 🙂

We picked it up pretty quick… it was easy because I’ve been reading and watching videos AND the game is cooperative – everybody wins or everybody loses – so we can talk about what each of us is thinking… we were doing pretty well – a little more than half way through (3 of 6 rounds) – when we realized we couldn’t win this time… we needed to build 10 things to win the game and had built 3 BUT (with less than 5 players) we could only build 2 things each round, still needed to build 7 more and only had 6 opportunities left to do so… DAMN!! Next time we’ll plan better… but we loved it!!!

January 15… everyone got a much needed nights sleep – even the dogs didn’t wake up in the middle of the night… I was up early and had breakfast while I watched the end of a Dice Tower playthrough of Atlantis Rising with one of the publishers and I couldn’t figure out how they planned to build almost everything in the last round… maybe it was cards or other powers but I was sure they’d missed the same rule about workers for building that we had miscalculated…

I started working on a redesign of the Hologram cards used in the solo and 2 player games when Selena came in with her coffee and wanted to play… we shuffled everything and set off on another game… this time we were on top of the building requirements and staying well ahead of everything… and the island was staying afloat which didn’t hurt…

By the last round we only placed the workers we needed to build the last 2 pieces and could have cared less what Misfortune cards came out as we won pretty easily… Selena really likes this one and I’m going back to make sure we didn’t miss any rules as this time it felt a little too easy. Hopefully Julie feels better soon so she can try it… it looks big and scary but is really pretty easy.

Selena left to spend time with her boyfriend so I packed everything up and continued work on the new Hologram cards… Julie was up but still feeling ‘icky’… nevertheless she wanted to play… I was afraid she might be rushing her recovery from whatever it was and told her to rest but she kept asking… finally I told her we’d see how she felt after supper and I started setting it up again…

We ate and she was still anxious to play but the look on her face told me this really wasn’t what she had in mind… I told her Selena and I loved it and I’d bet with her right then that as soon as we finish, she’s going to want to play again… I love being right but must say that, when it comes to learning a game, she’s a horrible student… 🙂

Our first play went about the same as it did with Selena… we didn’t get enough built early and had no apparent way to catch up… recognizing this Julie kept begging to just restart so we did… this time she attacked like she knew the game inside out… picked a different character for their special power and was all over how best to use said power!! By the last round, we had already won… we had all the resources necessary and, just like with Selena and I, we only needed to place the necessary workers to build the last two pieces. I’m still afraid I’m missing something because the two games we’ve won seemed almost too easy… still a great game and we can increase the difficulty and change characters and components to mix it up but I must say I’m a little surprised at how quick the girls picked it up and how much they really like it. 🙂

January 16… I’m off for the MLK holiday but am taking Mom to lunch and Selena’s hanging with her old school chum again later but wants to play Atlantis Rising again… now I know how much she likes the game… 🙂

We changed some things up to make it a little harder and could tell we had no way to win by only the 3rd round!! So she asked to switch to Three Sisters…

As we were packing the first game Julie comes in – acting all mad because we were playing without her… she sat down and the three of us enjoyed another game of Three Sisters before Selena and I had to leave.

I’m starting to think this might have been my best crop of Christmas games as far as the girl’s tastes and interests in gaming as they’ve loved everything so far… but that leaves Wayfarers of the South Tigris… I know it’s heavier (more complex) than some of these designer’s earlier games but it’s also beautiful as your building your tableau of cards and creating a panorama of not only desert and water but also the night sky!! I’m hoping that will draw them in… but first I have to learn in… 🙂

January 17… I made it home from work before the rain and ice hit though it was already sleeting a little… I settled into my office chair to check the day’s emails and do some other work when Julie comes in and wants to play Three Sisters again… it was still on the table so why not?? OK – she twisted my arm… NOT… 🙂

January 23… It’s been a rough few days with the unexpected passing of Julie’s younger brother Wil… she’s asked to play a couple times and we did get a couple plays of Three Sisters in but neither of us were able to concentrate and understandably so…

A storm rolled in overnight… we were supposed to 1-3 inches which became 2-4 inches… before I could get up at 5:00am for breakfast, school had called and we had a snow day today… my department doesn’t get snow days but we’re able to burn vacation days if we so choose rather than make the trip (I give back most of my days every year anyway)… I was still up at 5:00 and put the ‘closed’ slide on the school’s sign, website and social media channels before going back to bed for a little while…

Later on, Julie was feeling a little better… I hadn’t finished breakfast before she was asking to play again… I think I have a handle on Wayfarers of the South Tigris (my Christmas present) and Julie agreed to play but not before a couple games of Three Sisters… 🙂 By the time we finished and packed and I had Wayfarers setup and started my teach, the storm had started to let up so Selena and I went out to move some heavy snow before it got wetter and heavier so our first play would have to wait.

There was almost 10 inches (giving the weather people the benefit of the doubt they were only off by 6 inches) and it wasn’t real wet but enough that when we pushed it off the vehicles or walked on it, it packed and was a challenge to move – even with the snowblower… Selena handled the two decks and raked the roof while I muscled the snowblower all over… it took about 2 hours and I had to sit and rest a couple times in the process but we got through it… good thing we started when we did because the snow was getting heavier by the minute as it was getting warmer… 36 and light rain when we finished.

I was drenched in sweat and my clothes soaked so it was shower time, then a little lunch and a short nap… by the time I got up everyone else was napping – sorry Wayfarers but I hear your solo mode is pretty bad… another time…

I’m convinced that I’m missing something in the rules of Atlantis Rising but can’t figure out what so I took advantage of the quiet and hit the BGG forums where I started a thread that asked straight-up if there was any point in continuing the game if we didn’t have at least 4 of the necessary 10 components built by the end of the third round… a very nice person took the time to respond with bulleted points about strategy and Library cards, etc… I thanked him and said that we are either beating it too easily or getting thumped and folding early… he made some more recommendations and another person jumped in to say how much he loved our conversation… this person turned out to be the game’s DESIGNER!! Nearly 5 years after the game’s release and he was still monitoring and replying to questions in this forum… impressive!!

I went back and watched the end of the Dice Tower playthrough because I had noticed they seemed to be ignoring the Wrath of the Gods track… Then I went back to Rodney Smith’s Watch It Played video, jumped to his description of the track and had my ‘Ah-ha’ moment… once you reach the 6th space of the track, it simply remains there – flooding 3 tiles at the end of every round THAT FOLLOWS… THAT’S IT!! The Wrath of the Gods track is NOT a round tracker!! It doesn’t end after the 6th level of the track is reached!! I went back to the forum and admitted to being a dumb ass for treating it as such and they were all very supportive… even the designer said he could see where someone would make that mistake. We haven’t tried it again knowing what we now know but are anxious for another play… 🙂

After supper Selena awoke and wanted to try Wayfarers of the South Tigris but the dogs had other ideas after sleeping most of the afternoon too… we gave up and I packed it away… maybe the game group will play it again at a future game night… 🙂

While we were playing, I was sure there was something with the card placement we were messing up but I couldn’t put my finger on it in the rulebook so when I went to bed, I pulled up one of the how-to-play videos I had watched and found it… there are Townsfolk cards with icons on them that have to match the icons on land or sea cards they’re enhancing… I showed Selena and she just burst out laughing… 🙂 There’s one other thing in the dice placement I have to check too but otherwise, I think we got it and we really liked it – despite having to spill onto a second table to fit it all.

The next day, after some re-reading and video review, I discovered that I was right about our missing something in the card placement… when placing Townsfolk into your tableau, there is a tag (or two) in the lower right side of each card and whichever land or sea card you want to tuck the Townsfolk card under (to enhance its purpose) MUST match the tag (or one of the tags if there are multiple tags shown)… OK – that’s easy to fix…

The dice placement we pretty much had except for the requirement interpretation… if a certain icon (or icons) are required to place one of the dice, that die MUST come from a location in the Caravan that has the icon (or icons) OR the card you’re placing it on must have an enhancement that provides the required icon (or icons)… I recently watched a video of Jamey Stegmeir – President of Stonemeir Games – who talks about his favorite mechanisms in various games… when referring to ‘Wayfarers’, he described this as one of the most innovative dice ‘customization’ mechanisms he’d ever seen because you’re not actually modifying the dice themselves but rather the grid that controls what icons they’re related to which amounts to the same thing… I never thought of it that way but he’s right (that’s why he’s the President)… 🙂

January 26… A scary start… Around 2:00am this morning my Mom was awakened from a sound sleep with pain in her chest and shoulder… she attributed it to the position she had been sleeping in, went to the bathroom and back to bed… when it didn’t seem to get any better, she decided she better tell someone and put her light on for the night nurse who checked her vitals and her BP was 186!! With that she determined at about 3:40am that Mom needed to go to the hospital.

They called my brother and I both but called my cell which was on charge in my office so I didn’t learn of this until I was heading for work around 5:30am and saw a missed call from the facility and a text from my brother… Mom was alert and talkative and, by that time. just wanted coffee and for the ER to get the show on the road… 🙂 They admitted her about mid-morning but there’s no visitation until 11:00am… she had her cell phone with her and called to tell me to take my time and I should have lunch before heading to the hospital…

I spent the afternoon with her… BP was coming back down after a pill and the two of us chatted away the afternoon… once it was obvious she wasn’t going to nap, I broke out the 12 inch wooden dice tray I had sound proofed and brought along and we played 5 or 6 games of Farkle – her favorite. She had won every game but the last game looked like I had it in the bag… even though she was only 100 points from the target score, I pieced together a couple big point turns to pass the target from way back… she needed 1150 points to tie me (the potential losers always get one last turn to try to catch up)… she rolls 1200 on the first roll to win!! Of course I’m picking on her and she’s laughing but manages to say, “Don’t make me laugh – I HAVE TO PEE!!” 🙂

The heart doctor came in after I had left to say that the only thing he could see was a valve in her heart that needed replacing… that would explain the sudden jump in BP… otherwise he said she was healthier at 90 than HE was… the only medication she was taking regularly was a daily Tylenol and a stool softener (and eye drops to keep the pressure in check from Glaucoma)… he put her on 2 heart meds to keep the BP level and told her there was no urgency in getting the valve replaced… he put her mind (and ours) at ease when he explained that the procedure is no longer ‘open heart surgery’ – instead, they run a line up your leg, replace the valve and you’re on your way the same day. Whew!!

She was discharged the next day but not without some confusion…

January 27… When the ambulance brought her there, the EMTs told her they’d see her when they brought her back so that was the plan… but when the hospital was finishing the paper work about 11:00am they called me at work to say that, because Mom can walk (with a walker), if Mom gets transported by ambulance, the FAMILY has to pay (most are getting around $1000)!! I didn’t know they had called my brother too and we both started scrambling because Mom didn’t even have clothes with her let alone a walker and Glens Falls Hospital is discharging as is… ridiculous!! My brother stops and picks up her walker and coat and a blanket, gets her loaded up and back to assisted living.

I went down later to drop a few things off but she wanted some help rearranging and packing some things so I tested (the facility requires every visitor to test) then was cleared to go up… she said her legs were a little wobbly which was to be expected since she usually walks several times a day and when we go out she loves to wander the fabric store, the dollar store, the grocery store, etc… and she was having Diarrhea which isn’t common for her… come to find out, the hospital had given her a shot in the belly for the blood pressure and this was a side effect… that would have been good to know before she took her regular stool softener!! By late in the day, she was cleaned out pretty good and was getting back to normal but the lack of communication – both with that shot and the transportation – are mind boggling…

On the home front, Julie has been in bed the past couple days in a lot of pain – partly from some storms passing through and partly because she was out of pain meds… by the time I got the alert that her meds were ready the pharmacy was already closed so she had to try to get through another night without them…

While in the hospital, Mom pointed out that the hospital TV remotes had a speaker in them and she thought that that is what her assisted living facility should have because so many of the residents have them blaring – some because their hearing is shot and some because they can… Mom has a roommate that constantly talks to herself and anything she reads – newspaper, letters, TV listings – she reads out loud… all while having the TV blasting… Mom regularly has to ask her to turn hers down a little so she can hear her own TV… I told her I might have a solution and verified that her TV indeed did have a headphone jack…

I checked around and discovered that one of our local Walmarts had small Bluetooth transmitters in stock. Back when she had her apartment she used to get on her computer every evening to catch up on emails and play word games (which I firmly believe is what has kept her sharp for so long)… I had given her an Alexa one Christmas and an antique looking Bluetooth speaker which sounded incredibly full… she would tell Alexa to play country music and it would tap into my Amazon Prime Music and when she went to bed she’d tell Alexa to turn off the light… she was pretty high tech… 🙂

January 28… Early morning grocery shopping with a stop at Walmart to grab one of those Bluetooth transmitters for about $30. Once the groceries were put away, I paired the transmitter with her speaker and tested it all at my house before going to visit and it worked fabulously…

By now our CVS was open so I shot down for Julie’s meds so I knew she’d have a better day… 🙂 I held off until later in the morning to visit Mom in case she decided she WAS ready for a short trip and some lunch…

When I got to her room, she watched curiously as I unpacked… her TV also had a USB jack to power the transmitter so there was no need to run power to an outlet… I Velcro taped it to the wall right next to her TV then ran cable behind her bed to her little dresser and plopped the speaker down… it was like seeing an old friend again… a couple volume adjustments and she was up and running and couldn’t believe it… “That’s perfect!!” she said excitedly. Then it was Farkle time again before I headed home for some lunch and a nap… she was feeling almost back to normal but wasn’t ready to stray too far from her room (or a bathroom) just yet… and she’s being extra careful about food even though the heart doctor had given her no such restrictions… she was doing great… back and in charge again… 🙂

After a short nap, Julie was up and ready to try her first play of Wayfarers of the South Tigris!! I ran through the icons and some of the mechanisms… she has no patience for learning but the game has a full page of icons and 5 different decks of cards so she’s going to need to listen to me a little… it wasn’t long before she was asking questions (usually about things I’d already explained) but I knew that she knew what she wanted to accomplish and was just making sure she was doing it right… she didn’t beat me but she wasn’t far off and instantly wanted to play again… we’d been at it for almost 3 hours with my instructions and her rules clarifications so, as much as I would have loved to, the last couple days had worn me out and we headed to bed where we watched a couple videos to confirm the adjustments I had made after playing with Selena were correct… only this time, Julie understood everything that the video was talking about and I loved that.

January 29… Mom is ready for a ride and she can’t promise that she’ll eat anything so I picked her up about 11:00am and we did a curbside yarn pickup at Walmart for a project she was starting, hit Stewart’s for drinks and her scratch offs (she hit for $100 on a $1 last week) then headed for Mandy’s in Hudson Falls, NY which has become one of our favorite eateries… I still remember hearing the AM radio commercials for it back when I was 7 or 8 but we sadly never ate there until only 3 or 4 years ago… our loss… amazing food!! Anyway, Mom goes up and down the menu in her head… ham sub, roast beef sub, chicken parm, hot dogs, pizza… she loves their personal pan and usually eats half a cheese one (so we get the other half with pepperoni for Julie and Selena)… today she decided she really wanted a warm ‘slice’ since the facility rarely gets a warm meal to her that isn’t stone cold… this is the same crew that brings her cold cereal every day but no milk… she proceeded to chow down on pizza between repeating how good it was (and burning her lip on hot cheese) and she was one slice away from eating half the pie again!! Welcome back, Mom… 🙂

We started the game and she warned me that I might have to refresh her memory on a few things… I didn’t… I beat her by only 5 points and it was with one last move that would have been a 6 point swing giving her the victory… better still, she recognized it as soon as I did it!! 🙂 She frequently tells me how she doesn’t like long or complex games but she’s loving this one which prompted me to point out that this may have been one of the most complex games she’s played… tonight the three of us might try it together… if I can fit everything on the table… 🙂 Shem Phillips and SJ McDonald along with art by The Mico and Garphil Games have hit another one out of the park. BRAVO!!

February 14… Happy Valentine’s Day!! We’ve been in another game drought… Julie’s been feeling rotten and Selena is splitting time between school, work, homework and boyfriend… then, just to keep things interesting, about a week ago Julie took the pup out and slipped on a patch of ice!! She twisted an already bad knee and landed flat on her already ailing back – thumping her head too!! I was on the computer at the other end of the house and couldn’t hear her screaming for help… luckily, our neighbor (a fireman) was outside with his son-in-law and came over… the son-in-law opened the back door and was calling my name – otherwise I’d have never known… they called the rescue squad and we covered her up and kept her from moving… in the process our neighbor hit that same patch of ice and went down right on Julie’s foot… when they were loading her up they thought she had fractured her ankle too!! I found our scared puppy sitting right behind the house with the leash still on – afraid to move – but once she saw me and I called to her, she ran right to me – wagging her tail – and knew it was OK…

They didn’t admit her and her ankle was only sprained… they didn’t see any further damage to her knee or back – both of which were scheduled for injections the following week that had to be rescheduled… and she had a mild concussion…

I managed to get her in the house without falling and she’s been in pain and stiff and resting every since though yesterday she was starting to get around a little more like herself… and we had her late brother’s service a few days ago which I was happy she was able to attend… bottom line is no one has been in a gaming mood (other than me of course)…

Tonight, after I brought home supper and a special Valentines Day cupcake with a milk chocolate heart on it for ‘my girl’, I was able to prep a replacement iPad for Julie (her current one looks like it’s been run over… by a tank… several times)… while the transfer was running Julie and I got in a couple games of Three Sisters before her back started bothering her… I finished the transfer while she rounded up the dogs and we headed for bed… such was our romantic evening but we enjoyed it… 🙂

What I wasn’t expecting was the huge amount of content in the box!! The board is modular and huge – reminiscent of designer John D. Claire’s hit from last year, ‘Dead Reckoning‘… the main board is the empty map made up of 6 large rectangles that butt up against the scoreboard then is bordered on BOTH sides by level 1 and 2 building tiles… there are 78 of these tiles… in addition there are 90 meeples of different colors representing different workers, 285 cubes (more like single square Lego pieces) of different building materials that stack to construct the buildings (see the pictures below), 25 Advertisement and Target tiles (end game goals) and more!!

Another thing that took me by surprise was the game’s depth… there’s a whole lot more here than just chucking meeples in a box and pushing your luck… this game has a ton of strategy – a mix of city building and set collection and resource management… I may not wait for someone to be ready to play with me and jump right into the solo mode against ‘the mayor’!! 🙂

February 19… Finally got bored enough to tackle Rolling Heights solo… I’m not a huge solo fan but Selena got called into work and Julie’s meds were knocking her out so as long as I thought I was ready to teach it, I’d teach it to myself… 🙂

Bloodwork tomorrow morning then I have the holiday off so I’m surely taking another run at the Mayor… 🙂

February 20… Blood work, errands, shopping and getting Mom out for lunch took me into the early afternoon… Selena’s been working all kinds of extra hours (she thinks someone quit or was fired) so she was beat and still in bed as noon approached but she was up when I returned from lunch and was torn between a nap and playing but insisted that she wanted to play…

Teaching this game was easy… I think I could have taught this at a con today – and that’s without having ever played it other than 1 solo game!! To that end, I think I might have to sign up for a couple sessions of this at the upcoming Adirondacon (below)!!

I handed one of my freshly laminated copies to Selena and used it as the main focus of my instructions – saving the ‘best’ for last (the showman in me).

The ‘best’ being the method used to determine if and how hard your workers are working (as I described above) and that’s by flinging the meeples into a tray and seeing how they landed… this brought a huge grin to her face and I had to wait while she spent the next couple of minutes chucking meeples over and over and over again… with that huge grin… 🙂 NOW she was genuinely excited to try the game!!

A quick review of the player aide and how the building tiles worked and we were playing in what felt like no time… when she gets something, she gets it!! I think she only asked one question the entire game (though I was watching and offering advice along the way)… it was close in the beginning then I started pulling away then I noticed Selena wasn’t even waiting for me to finish my turn… you can only add 1 building per round but as soon as she saw me place one or was sure I couldn’t, she executed her well planned strategy… I somehow stayed well in front for most of the game but she would finish a giant 4 tower building for a bucket of points that almost caught her up to me in one swoop!! It was impressive to say the least but in the end I managed to pull out the victory 124 – 111. She loved it!! We BOTH did!! I can’t wait for Julie to feel better so I can teach her though we’ll need to start early because, if her pain permits, she’s going to want to play this multiple times for sure… 🙂

Later that night I was having trouble falling asleep so I was working in the office when Selena came home from work… she walks in, greets me and starts tapping the game box with this huge smile on her face… 🙂 This might her favorite of all time at this point… I’ve never had a game get this reaction from her… I was tempted to play of course but, with her home, the dogs would all come out in the living room with her for a little while and I could get some sleep (5:00am comes early as they say)… 🙂

February 25… A full day – it’s great to be off from work… 🙂

An early start that featured a 7 degree run to Stewart’s for milk that I forgot to pickup the previous day… back home for breakfast, then out again to meet my new tax guy Justin… super nice guy!!

Mom’s a little under the weather so we won’t be shopping and eating… just as well as it’s still painfully cold outside as the morning progresses… a quick trip to Hannaford to refresh some items and snag a few things for Mom who’s staying put for a few days but still has an appetite, back home to repack the things going to her and grab a few things I already had then Julie and I had a ‘date’ day…

Selena didn’t go in to work until this afternoon so she had the dogs while Julie and I took a ride, dropped Mom’s stuff off, had some lunch, visited King’s Dairy (outside Schuylerville, NY) because it’s never too cold for ice cream (Julie loved their Banana Cream Pie with cream and vanilla wafers in it) then it was back home so she could rest…

I put the finishing touches on version 2 of my player aide for Rolling Heights AND made the decision (which will come as no surprise) to run 2 sessions of it at the Adirondicon Spring Fling!! 🙂 I’ll be teaching at 10:00am and 1:00pm!!

After supper I considered going to the local game group’s game night then catching a reunion performance of Toulouse Street – one of the first local bands I’d ever seen who blew my mind back in 1979!! I had the good fortune to work with the guitar player Mark Caruso from 1993-1999 with the Upstarts along with keyboardist Matt Donnelly who was now playing keys with this group… but it was still really cold out which makes the side room at Dominos in Hudson Falls where the game group meets feel like a freezer (we’ve played with gloves and coats and hats some nights) so I decided to wait and just catch the band… but Julie was up… Selena had raved about Rolling Heights to her and she was ready to try it and I had been chomping at the bit to show her…

She picked it up pretty quick (it really is pretty easy) but was a little slow to add buildings while I was adding and completing them and pulling away on the score track… she noticed that and kept remarking that she could tell who was going to win this game… I could see that she had a bunch of unfinished buildings and, if she got them constructed, I was sure she would catch or even pass me… she did of course… then the rest of the game was back and forth with me eventually coming out ahead but by less than 10 points. She loved the game (I knew she would)!!

I’m anxious to hear what some of the reviewers have to say… I’ve already heard one husband and wife team echo the lack of a player aide (which prompted me to create one and present it on the Board Game Geek website)… I think the game presents a fascinating puzzle… tonight’s game was especially challenging because I let Julie shuffle and randomly place the 6 Neighborhood tiles that make up the city grid and, just by chance, we ended up with mostly water in the middle of the board and only a few large areas of blank areas to build – many were small, secluded group including a few single islands… maybe this was a little more complicated than I wanted her first play to be but it didn’t seem to bother her… 🙂

March 1… Today I uploaded version 3 of my player aide… a double sided masterpiece in my opinion… 🙂

September 2023 (peek into the future) Update… to date, version 3 of my player aid has over 1000 downloads!!

March 4… today started with the cleanup from a 14″ snow dump overnight… but this wasn’t your typical snow – no, Mother Nature went all bi-polar and put down a 4″ layer of wet packed snow then hid it under 10″ of almost fluffy stuff… with normal snow at this depth, I can usually finish the path from the shed, the small driveway and turnaround, rake the roof and shovel both decks in about 90 minutes… but this crap – even though it wasn’t the wet slushy stuff that constantly clogs the snowblower – this crap took me 4 hours of wrestling the snowblower just for the path and driveway!! Thankfully Selena handled the roof and the front deck… I had a brainstorm of NOT cleaning off the vehicles until we backed them into the area I had already cleared because when the wet snow comes of it packs so hard nothing will move it… this worked great!! The last hour or so I could tell it was getting tougher to move (I thought it was just me being exhausted) and, by the time I finished, the temperature was near 40!! No wonder it felt heavier… and the roof where Selena had raked was now bare!! C’mon spring!! I’ve had enough… 🙂

Julie was ready for another game of Rolling Heights before I’d even finished breakfast… now I know for sure that she really likes this game… 🙂 It would have to wait as I really wanted to get out early and tackle the storm… good thing because, as I was finishing, I could see my neighbors who were just starting really struggling with it as the warmer temperatures made it so much more difficult…

After a shower and some lunch and a nap, I was making supper and Julie was ready to play again… by now I was ready too… she didn’t even need a refresher… I did remind her (and myself) of one rule we forgot and that was that, once you have more than 10 workers, you have to SELECT only 10 to activate that turn… I also wanted to pay particular attention to the play time of the game prior to Adirondicon… even with dog interruptions, we still finished in less than 90 minutes… she beat me by 6 points and I’m sure she wanted to play again but could tell I was spent from the day’s activities…

March 5… halfway through lunch and Julie wants to play again!! This time we blew through a game in about an hour… and she trounced me by getting some high value (but tough to complete) buildings started early… then capped it off with an 18 point end game bonus… I need to step up my game… 🙂

March 8… out of curiosity, I went into the BGG forum to see if anyone had downloaded version 3 of my player aide… to my shock and surprise – 58 people had!! I checked my earlier iterations, and the total number of downloads for all three is almost 300!! I’m sure there is some overlap there but that’s a lot of eyes on my work and not a single negative comment – THANK YOU ALL whoever you are!! 🙂

It’s scheduled to ship in November which puts it right on time to be my Christmas present for the girls to give me – just as the first installment was last year… :

March 11… finally made it to the local game group’s game night!! Brought my copy of Rolling Heights to test my teach and get an idea of the game length with more players…

I taught it to 4 people that hadn’t even heard of the game (prepping for teaching 2 sessions at a Adirondicon on 4/1)… there was one player with some minor AP (analysis paralysis) but I tried to gently keep things moving and have players ready when their turn to buy / build came around which may have helped… the game itself just cracked the 3 hour mark (a little more than 3 1/2 with my teach) and the scores were in the 96 – 123 range. This isn’t too bad but I only have a 2 hour block which could be tough… one of the convention organizers was playing and we talked about moving to a longer block or otherwise making adjustments… but everyone loved the game!! And my player aide… 🙂

March 13… I had been planning to visit my friendly local game store to treat myself with some of my tax return but that went out the window due to my $250 deductible for a repair on the new van…

I was driving to work one morning last week which takes me through a section of farm country… on this particular morning, the fields on both sides of me were heavily populated with large black crows… there were a half dozen in the road – chowing down on some roadkill… 5 of the 6 scattered as I slowed down and approached but 1 of them (I can only assume has a learning disorder) hung on a little longer, flew up at the last second and caught my passenger side headlight, breaking the cover and leaving a beak or claw scratch in the chrome and hood right above the light!! I turned it in to my insurance because the headlight alone is going to be around $1000… so much for mt friendly local game store…

I reexamined my finances, found a hard-to-find game I’d been considering for some time on sale online so I ordered my birthday present which arrived today – Bad Company!!

Activating a gangster provides resources needed to complete heists, money to upgrade your gang members, or advance your car through the city.
You want to advance your car, because you need to stay ahead of the police in order to collect loot along the city route.

You gain points by completing heists, upgrading your gang and by driving your car through the city.
Some completed heists provide special abilities which you can build your strategy around.

The game ends when a player completes their 6th heist, or when any car reaches the dock on the city track, and the player with the most points wins.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game has a similar mechanic to a few other games that we really enjoy – Machi Koro, Space Base and My Farm Shop – where one player rolls dice, selects 2 pairs to play, then all other players get to pick1 of those pairs to also play… this one adds a couple of thematic elements like outrunning the police and the graphically amusing stretching of your gang members as they add powers… I seen glowing reviews, love they art and gameplay and think we’ll all love it!!

March 14… we’re getting clobbered with another whopper of a snow storm!! Selena usually helps but she was recovering from a stomach bug but I was able to clear the driveway, decks and roof in about 2 1/2 hours – compared to the 4+ hours it took last storm with her helping… I went out again after supper for the additional 6-7 inches and hit everything again which took a little more than an hour…

In between I taught Bad Company to Julie… storms always seem to make her pains much worse but she was able to make it through my abbreviated (and sleepy) teach and beat me easily… I can’t wait for Selena to feel better… I’m sure she’ll like it too. 🙂

March 15… had to leave work early to meet the collision repair center which got me home early… Selena was up and feeling much better though not quite sure of her stomach just yet but wanted to play so I taught her Bad Company…

It’s a fairly simple game and, as usual, she picked it up quickly… she was managing to keep ahead of the cops while I lagged behind but was completing heists… in the end it looked like I would win easily but there’s a -3 point penalty for being behind the police and I ended up winning by only 1 point… she immediately wanted a rematch but that would have to wait until after supper… 🙂

After we ate and took another solo shot… I was 1 turn from ending the game… the police were 2 behind me and rolled a 2 which means they go past me and the game is over… I exhausted my remaining coins to reroll a couple times – managing 2’s for the police both time and no movement for me either time so I lost on the last turn… I would have had an OK score – not great, but OK… next time… 🙂

Selena’d been playing Xbox remotely with her boyfriend, she took a break for another round of Bad Company… different group of thieves this time but would it change anything??

This time I stayed ahead of the police though, towards the end, I was content just to stay even… I completed my 6th heist triggering the end game – competing 2 more on that turn!! I thought I was in pretty good shape until Selena put together some end game bonuses and went past me… then she lost 3 points for being behind the police and I beat her by 1 point again… and we both burst out laughing… 🙂

March 18… had some time before heading out for a gig (finally) and took another solo shot at Bad Company… and failed miserably again – all because I couldn’t stay ahead of the police (which is important when you’re a criminal)… it seemed like every turn I’d move 1 or not at all and the police would consistently move 3 and I was caught in no time… it’s still fun and plays fast… 🙂

March 19… Selena’s home and has 3 giant pots of corn beef and cabbage on the stove… while we’re waiting for those to finish, she wants another crack at Bad Company too!!

I noticed she wasn’t recruiting a lot of new gang members but whatever she did worked because she was just ahead of me until the last scoring items (bonus necklaces) where I managed 3 out of the 4 which gave me the win… She’s already asking for a rematch… 🙂

Before I went to bed I had to try another solo game… it was going pretty well as the police were moving much slower than in previous games… I had a couple high value heists in the works then the wheels must have literally come off my vehicle… two turns later I was nabbed… 🙂 I keep going back to make sure I’m not missing anything because this can’t be that hard… the top score in the ratings chart for solo play is 60+ points… I haven’t been able to finish a game without heading to the slammer… in the game I came closest to finishing, my score would have been upper 20’s – only a little worse (or better in this case) than a law-abiding citizen… sure… when it’s good to be bad, I can’t be nothin’ but good… 🙂

March 24… Julie was discharged at 1:00pm today… last weekend she kept complaining of feeling lousy but insisted it was her usual pain and nausea… Monday morning I was at work and received a call from Selena saying she was taking Julie to the ER… turns out that her physical and emotional pain pushed her over the edge and, unbeknownst to Selena or myself, sometime Friday or Saturday night she’d taken a handful of Tylenol and Ibuprofen… Monday morning she called her therapist who told her she needed to get to the ER and have her liver and kidneys checked!! Fortunately, they both showed no sign of damage but the incident had to be treated as a suicide attempt and she spent 5 days in the Behavioral Health Unit of Glens Falls Hospital… I’m sure if she really had wanted to die she would have taken her Oxy or Morphine instead… she realized it was a stupid mistake and the doctors there must have agreed because by Thursday they were telling her that she really didn’t belong there and today was released. It was a scary incident and just goes to show that you just never know what someone might be going through and to what degree…

March 26… Julie’s been resting since her release and is doing great!! She’s not up to gaming just yet and I’ve been reviewing my notes and preparing for next weekend’s convention where I’m teaching 2 sessions of Rolling Heights…

This afternoon I decided to take another solo run at Bad Company (because it’s kicked my ass every time so far)… THIS time luck was on my side!! I had a crew with a couple extra drivers that helped me keep well ahead of the police who (for once) weren’t moving 2 or 3 spaces almost every turn… I was able to complete my 6th heist to trigger the end game and a 7th on the final turn for an impressive 40 points – about half way up the chart which pleased me personally… FINALLY!! 🙂

Selena has been asking to play so I setup Flash Point: Fire Rescue – a Christmas present from a few years ago that we’d never played… mostly because I was trying to track down the custom fire meeples I’d seen on Wil Wheaton’s playthrough only to discover that they were part of an expansion that’s been unavailable forever… and the custom character minis still needed to be painted and I can’t even draw… 🙂 She got home from some errands and just as she sat down to play, her friend that she was going shopping with later texted that she was close so Selena was out…

In the meantime Julie’s sister had arrived for a few days visit and wanted to play so I setup Bad Company… she had surgery to remove her tonsils about a week ago and wasn’t feeling great but missed our game nights… the next thing I know, she and Julie are resting comfortable in the big bed watching Bohemian Rhapsody… so I packed it up and went back to prepping for the convention…

I wanted to count and repack the components for Rolling Heights and, as I was going through it, decided to set it up just in case someone wanted to play… by the time I finished supper, shit, shaved and showered, the girls had finished another movie and sis wanted to play!!

I went through my teach for additional practice and we were able to bang it out in about 90 minutes… she picked it up pretty quick and had some great resource generating buildings built which let her eventually pull away from me… I managed a couple good scores in the end but it wasn’t enough as she clobbered me 118 – 79!! I think I’m ready for the convention though I still worry about completing the game in the allotted time with a higher player count… with the right players it could be fine… 🙂

At the end of the day – even though I’d hoped for a couple more players – I was very pleased that two people had taken a chance on a game they knew little or nothing about (or my teaching abilities) and went away happy and planning to purchase a copy for themselves… that’s a great feeling. 🙂

April 5… Julie and Selena are both up and asking to play… they’re leaning towards Rolling Heights but while they were taking the dogs out and getting something to eat, I setup Star Wars: The Clone Wars.!!

It didn’t take long for all of us to get a feel for it… shortly thereafter, we all realized that we were screwed in our collective strategy and we lost pretty quick on the easiest level… 🙂

Selena had to leave but Julie and I took another shot at it… we learned a few things, confirmed a few things in the rules and generally had some better luck this time around… we were able to complete the required missions and reach the finale against the villain… as soon as we were sure we’d won, Julie had to text Selena with the news… 🙂

We all enjoyed this game… it’s not terribly complicated and plays pretty quick… this will probably be requested when they don’t feel like one of my longer favorites… 🙂

April 8… The girls haven’t been feeling that great – most likely due to how the change in seasons and weather changes affect their bodies and EDS and allergies – so I took advantage of the quiet weekend (and holiday yesterday) to work on a project I’d seen in the Rolling Heights forum on BGG…

It’s a fan made mini expansion intended to speed up the game just a little by having each player pre-build a City Hall tile and gain a bonus worker (a Public Servant that boosts worker’s output)… I liked the idea but the problem I had was I wanted to make tiles that matched the game’s existing tiles (well, as best I could not being terribly ‘crafty’)… I’ve read and watched videos on best ways to seal and finish paper and cardstock and had everything printed and cut… today I bit the bullet and jumped in and am pretty pleased with the results (below)!! They’re a hair thicker than the actual game tiles but otherwise PERFECT!! I can’t wait to try them in a game!! 🙂

I had planned to join the game group tonight but those plans would get derailed…

Later in the afternoon, Selena and her boyfriend took a walk along the cross-country trails behind our local YMCA with his dog ‘Bear’ and our 1 year old ‘Tinkerbelle’… she called about 5:00 to say that ‘Tink’ had fallen into a little creek and was getting pulled by the current after some recent heavy rains… she was able to get out but just as she did a couple kids on motorized bicycles came down the path and she freaked out and took off!! Julie grabbed my keys and went down – leaving me at home with no transportation and unable to help search… she returned after about an hour with no luck to get warmer clothes and this time I drove…

There was still a lot of daylight left but I was worried about her being alone, cold, wet and not fearing traffic though she does fear other people… the same goes for our poor puppy (just kidding)… 🙂 Julie was on my cell to the company that chipped ‘the puppy ‘Tink’ to report a lost dog while I drove through the back of the mall and a small plaza that butts up against some of the trails… still no sign of her… the chip company was taking our information (to file the report and design posters for us to print from our computer) when Selena’s phone came up on the car system… it was Mike – her boyfriend… they had walked all the trails and were going to sit on a bench to wait for us when ‘Tink’ came trotting down the side road… she had worked her way back to where they had parked… WHEW!!! 🙂

That was enough excitement for one day so I skipped game night… by the time I had gotten there I might have been able to get in on a late game but I was worn out… maybe the girls will feel better tomorrow… 🙂

April 9… After Selena’s delicious Easter brunch (we tried a Market 32 meal package this time) I dropped Mom off and returned home… Selena really wanted us to play a game with her boyfriend Mike before they headed for his family and Easter dinner so I cleared my craft project from the table… I had been giving a lot of thought as to what type of games he might like… he loves D&D but Selena equates that to him loving board games which is frequently not the case… I had a couple in mind that I was pretty sure he’d enjoy but I hadn’t finished relearning them myself just yet so I setup Bad Company thinking that would be an easy teach and a shorter game…

He picked it up quick and seemed to enjoy it – getting into the theme of completing heists and staying one step ahead of the police… I can’t remember who won but I was more focused on his enjoying himself so hopefully he’ll want to do it again… I think he will judging from the way he was eyeballing my collection… 🙂

After a lovely Easter dinner and dropping Mom off at assisted living, I watched some of the Masters golf tournament stream then Julie asked to play Rolling Heights… I was ready for a game and anxious to incorporate the mini expansion I made the tiles for (even though they were still a little tacky from the Modge Podge)… I set everything up while she had the dogs out… a quick explanation of the expansion, a little refresh of the rules and we were off!!

I don’t know what strategy she was employing (and I assume everything she was doing was legal) but in no time she LAPPED ME on the score tracker pulling more than 50 points ahead!! I shifted gears and tried to get some larger point building plans but could already see one resource getting low (when one of the four resources is exhausted that triggers the end of the game)… in no time I had my largest one complete but she had lapped me AGAIN!!

A different resource ran out thanks to my completing a well-scoring building that meant absolutely nothing overall but triggered the end of the game… on the last turn I watched her burn through a stack of bonus tiles and saw a new building grow to completion in one swoop… I scored well in the end-game bonuses and still lost by over 100!! She said to leave it setup because she wanted to play again tomorrow… you bet your ass we’re playing again!! Either she has some impressive master strategy that I need to learn or… she cheated… REMATCH!!! 🙂

April 14… the rematch never happened… Julie has been in a lot of pain all week and can’t find a comfortable position…

Today I got my repaired van back from Calber Collision and it looks amazing!! However, with all the dirt removed, I noticed two other areas with scratches – one looks like it’s down to the metal… 🙁 I have to get in for an oil change and will find out how good the ding coverage Saratoga Honda sold me is… the worst part is I’d end up paying for a rental car out of pocket this time… I’ll know when I get there…

April 16… Today we took advantage of the nice weather, picked up Mom and fired up our grill for the first time this year… YUM!! 🙂

After I dropped Mom off Selena was ready for a game and asked to play Rolling Heights… CERTAINLY!! And I could see how she likes the fan-made expansion I made the tiles for…

Our scores were close throughout the game… back and forth… she’d pull away a little, then I’d catch up or pass her… then she’d retake the lead… but in the end I managed a couple last minute completed buildings for decent points but also for end game scoring which is where I really pulled away… it wasn’t as bad as Julie beat me a week ago but I had broken 100 points and almost lapped her… this is one of our favorite games currently!! 🙂

The game was moving along pretty good and we all seemed to have a pretty good grasp of what we needed to do and wanted to do and how to accomplish it all (and there’s a lot to keep track of)…

We were maybe 30 minutes from finishing the game but the dogs who had been sleeping at our feet the entire time were now getting anxious and needed to go out so we cut the game short, played a final round and jumped to scoring…

Points come from so many different places that the score sheet did prove helpful in making sure we didn’t miss anything that might have been worth point… in the end, Selena and Mike tied with me 9 points behind… Mike won it on the first tie breaker with how far he’d advanced on the Valkyrie Track (how many of his Vikings were killed in raids)… We all seemed to enjoy it and I know Julie will like it if she can get past the size of it… 🙂

As we were packing up, Mike notices Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the top shelf of my desk and points it out to Selena… add that to the playlist… 🙂

A little history… Raiders of the North Sea was my first game from Garphil Games in New Zealand… I’d seen it in videos and my FLGS (friendly local game store) had a copy on their shelf tempting me a few times when I was in there but I knew little about it and wasn’t sure the girls or myself would like it… I’m so glad it was still on the shelf on one of my visits and I grabbed it but couldn’t get it to the table right away between Julie’s health – even back then – and Selena’s and my work schedules… AND trying to wrap my head around the rules and game mechanics at that early stage of our discovery of the hobby… During that time I kept recalling in the back of my mind the various reviews that mentioned the expansions… I think in Tom Vasel’s original review (before the expansions were announced) he said that this was a great game and one that didn’t need any expansions… After the expansions were released – Fields of Fame and Hall of Heroes – he said he’d never play without them… and neither will I. 🙂

This is the game that made me a huge fan of designer Shem Phillips and Garphil games (which I believe is a combo of his father’s name Gary Phillips) and, even though it was part of a trilogy of games, the other two weren’t as well received so I never played them but I was still hooked… in the next trilogy he teamed up with another designer – SJ McDonald – to produce a West Kingdom trilogy that was amazing –  Architects of the West Kingdom,  Paladins of the West Kingdom and Viscounts of the West Kingdom!! Each game was so much different from the other yet if you’d played one, you had little trouble understanding iconography from the others and they were all great. So good that I backed them all on Kickstarter (my first venture into that realm) and commented to the designers that if they announced that their next game would be ‘Whack A Worm With A Wet Noodle’ I would back it!! Last year I backed the first game of the next trilogy – Wayfarers of the South Tigris – and earlier this year backed the second game  Scholars of the South Tigris. Such an amazing design duo!!

This is the original game board with the two expansion boards to the right and below the main board…

And this is the new play mat I recently stumbled on that INCLUDES the expansions… much cleaner on the table…

Of course I had to order one… 🙂

May 1… Both my girls are in pain with the rain and wind and thunder and temps going up and down… our dog Sam shakes and freaks out with weather like this so we can only imagine what he must have lived through as a stray in Georgia… I swear he knows just from the air when the weather is changing (maybe from the barometric pressure?)…

I took Mom shopping and ate and was hoping to play Raiders of the North Sea again since it takes a while to set it up and pack it… Selena was wiped out so I thought this would be a great chance to re-teach Julie in a 2-player game but Selena really wanted to play… I reset everything for 3 players and was about to start my teach when Mike comes in to surprise Selena, sees the game and screams, “You can’t start without me – I’m the champion!!” It’s already going for 7:00 and I’m usually in bed shortly thereafter but we’ll see how much of an abbreviated game we can get in…

Julie hates instructions and just pushes back whenever you try to tell her something… then 2 minutes later asks what something does that I just explained… despite her learning on the fly, the game was moving along pretty good but by 8:30 I could tell Selena was fading and Mike and I both have to get to bed and be up early for work so we played 2 more rounds and calculated the final scores… Julie was last, Mike and Selena were a point apart and a few points ahead of her but I managed to pull out the victory tonight!! My player mat (see above) will be here tomorrow so we’ll have to try again… 🙂

May 2… the playmat arrived as scheduled… WOW!!!! I’ve reset everything in hopes of breaking it in tomorrow night… 🙂

May 3… Selena had the last of her college classes and Julie is feeling rotten so I broke out the Raiders of the North Sea solo app (we call him ShemBot – a nod to designer Shem Phillips)… it took a couple rounds for me to get used to where certain thing were before it all clicked… the solo app is quick and smooth and Shembot was well out in front of me on the score track… As the end neared I picked up a few Quests and made offerings to the Chieftan to grab some late points and, after all the points had been added, I lost by 1 point… 🙂 Solo is never as much fun as with live people but I managed to amuse myself for a little while anyway… great game!!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve watched several playthroughs and it looks like a lot of fun!! As much fun to run as it is to play because as the GM (Game Manager) you also take the roll of the ‘House’ which is the person who rolls the dice, moves the horses and calls the race. There’s also an app that does a splendid job as well but if you want to inject some personal touches into the race, be the House.

May 12… Julie is feeling worse than ever but saw the game on the table as I was repacking it and wanted to try it… Selena jumped in too and I was going to try my hand at running the race but know I really need to practice so I’m ready for August so I used the app and was able to bet along with the girls… and we loved it!!

The game takes place over 4 races and the first race was pretty quiet but by the second race the girls were screaming at the horses… I can’t wait to try this with a large group… 🙂

As you progress in your dog walking career, your good ratings will unlock new abilities, such as walking more dogs simultaneously, going off leash at the dog park, and taking more end-of-turn actions, including pickups and activities like visiting pet shops. Be wary of returning dogs late, because you could lose out on most the pay!

At 45 minutes – 1 hour, this Gateway+ game is targeted at all players and pulls in dog lovers, providing fun for new gamers and critical thinking and optimization problems for seasoned gamers.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): It seems like there have been a number of dog games the last couple of years but this one is stuck in my mind… the game play looks like fun and the art is amazing… and there’s squishy poop. My only regret in not backing it when the campaign was running is that, for a small fee, they would have created a card from a photo of one of our dogs!! Well at least there’s still squishy poop… 🙂

June 24… It’s been a while but there hasn’t been much to update gaming wise…

I was finally able to get Julie to try Raiders of the North Sea again with just the two of us… I could tell she was getting it but ran out of gas before we could finish by the time I retaught her… she still likes it but we’ll see if she plays again… 🙂

A couple weeks ago I had another surprise delivery… Shake That City…

• Roads wants to connect to an edge of the board.
• Factories wants to be next to other factories and roads.
• Homes want to be placed in clusters that are as small as possible — the smallest being a single tile — so long as they’re not next to a factory.
• Parks wants to be next to homes and factories.
• Shops score increasingly more the closer they are placed to the city center, but if they’re not placed on an edge, they need to be adjacent to a road connected to the board’s edge in order to score. Without road access, you’ll have no products to sell!

At game’s end, players earn points for tile-placement combinations and for the completed bonus point tiles around the edge of their board.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): More tile placement with a little city building… it didn’t take long for this to become one of the girl’s – especially Julie’s – favorites!! It’s light and plays fast and they love the rubber-banded cardboard contraption that drops out the cubes in a 3×3 grid. The game is so easy that the second time Julie and I played I slipped the ‘Wild Nights’ (I think) expansion which adds wild cubes and maybe one new rule. A very enjoyable game!!

Here are some pictures… the cube shaker releases random cubes in a 3×3 grid that indicate how the city tiles MUST be places on your map – no reorienting or rearranging or flipping allowed!!

I was also excited to learn that my last big Kickstarter should be delivered in a few days – The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION!! This link is to an unboxing from The Board Game Garden… I didn’t go as crazy with my pledge as I would have liked (adding the acrylic tiles or neoprene playmat or 3-D tiles, etc. but it’s still a pretty blinged-out version and one I’m sure we’ll all enjoy for a long time. Oh – the UPS tracking says the box is 14 pounds!!!! 🙂

July 8… Julie, Selena, her boyfriend Mike and a friend of hers from college (Shelby) have been camping in Maine since June 30… I’ve been home taking care of the dogs and anxiously awaiting the arrival of 14 pounds of The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION…

It’s been 6 days and I don’t think anyone is going to call… so, to that driver who braved the elements to make sure my The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION didn’t suffer any water damage, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! Your company apparently doesn’t want you to know how much I appreciated your efforts. So why am I writing this 6 days later?? I’ve been enjoying the game of course!!

This game came out in 2011 and just about all the content creators I watch refer to it as a classic… I remember seeing the original on the shelf of my friendly local game store when I was first discovering the hobby but didn’t pick it up… then there was a lot of buzz surrounding the anniversary edition which I considered buying but never did… by the time this version was announced I was playing on Steam and thought that, because of the simple yet intriguing game play and Julie’s love of castles, this might become her game of choice so I backed it!!

I didn’t go crazy with my pledge (the lack of band work has cut into my ‘play’ money) – no acrylic tiles or the 3-D hexes, but I did get a pretty blinged-out and very impressive version. It took me an hour to unbox the tremendous amount of components, punch a ton of cardboard and organize it so it all fit back in the box… I’d already watched several how-to-play videos and run-throughs – including a Rhado solo play through in anticipation of this day… I spent the first day punching and packing, then set it up for my first solo play and read the rules until I was falling asleep… I spent the next few days playing solo though I’m still not sure I’m doing it all correctly but it was still very enjoyable… then last night (July 7) Julie was finally feeling up to learning and playing… I had already worked out my abbreviated teach and had her playing in about 15-20 minutes… and she kicked my ass by almost 30 points of course… if her health allows, she’s already asked to play again today… another play or two and I’ll explore some of the expansions that were included. 🙂

July 18… Julie’s been feeling especially rotten – some of it attributable to the high heat and humidity and her allergies on top of all her regular ailments… today, after I got home from work and had supper, she was feeling much better and really wanted to play again…

While I was eating, I read through the rules for the Vineyards expansion which had piqued my interest during one of the videos… it didn’t sound like it would be too hard to add in… I started explaining it to Julie while I setup and added the necessary components and was pleased to hear Julie say that this may be her new favorite game of all our games – maybe even surpassing her current favorite (and one of our first games) Carcassone!! I was also a little disappointed because, when it looked like the game wouldn’t arrive until late fall, I thought it would make a great Christmas present because I was convinced that she would love it for the plastic castles alone… when it arrived in July, of course I couldn’t wait to tear into it… I couldn’t have imagined she (or for that matter either of us) would love the this much… 🙂

On this night she beat me again of course… while I focused a little more on the Vineyard aspects , she played a more normal game – only taking a couple Vineyard pieces for their bonus benefits… I was still pretty close to her in scoring and, had I not missed one minor key to scoring in the vineyard, I would have been within a couple points of her… next time. 🙂

July 21… Julie is hooked on this game as am I!! Tonight I threw in The Inns expansion… this added just 5 tiles to the game that are wild and add 1 to the number of areas in your completed Duchy it’s in… so for example, if you play it in an area of 5, it scores as if it had 6… in larger areas that can be a significant number of points!!

On this night I tried to be patient and take what the tiles gave me… Julie almost lapped me – breaking 200 points!! The first time either of us had managed that… 🙂

July 22… I keep going over the game in my head… what strategies I might attempt, etc… this is the mark of a great game when it’s on your mind even when you’re not playing it… 🙂

Julie wanted to try the flip side of the Duchy boards which have a different layout (there are 40 or 50 in the box – all different – for a ton of variety)…

The tiles were on my side tonight… I didn’t go crazy in the Vineyards though I did complete a large section of one color that I had a bonus chip for which got me an early lead of over 20… then a few of the good Monastery tiles (which provide ongoing benefits and end game bonuses) game out along with buildings that provided coins and extra workers… as luck would have it the Monastery tile with an end game bonus for white castles came out early and there were already two white castles available… I was able to collect all three without Julie noticing…

Julie seemed focused on completing her vineyard… in the end I found out why… she thought she remembered some huge bonus for covering every spot… she had confused that with completing a huge area of one color… I think it’s 9 or 10 tiles which would have earned her 96 points…

In the end, here vineyard did net her a ton of points and she was able to pass me… my single color of grapes netted me 16 points… 14, 15, 16… I’m 1 point behind… then Julie reminded me of the single 5 point bonus I got for completing an area and I won by 4 points… 🙂

We are definitely in love with this game!! There are a few mor expansions in the box but I’m not feeling the need or desire to add them just yet if at all… after a few games with just the base components, then adding the Vineyard and Inns expansions, I feel like we’ve found a sweet spot and we’ll stick with it and maybe change out the Duchy boards occasionally. It will feel funny going back to the base game but I will if I ever get the chance to teach Selena who’s been working 10-12 hour shifts at the Lake George Club – including being asked to come in early for baking and dessert decoration which was her focus in college and she’s loving it!! 🙂

We made our way to (what’s left of) the Plattsburgh (old Pyramid) Malls (there used to be TWO malls on opposite sides of the road)… once inside I was able to follow the scent of cardboard to Bazaar Trader Games… they had a couple small shelfs with board and card games but I was caught off-guard by the handful of fairly NEW titles…

The game includes 81 scenarios from which to choose, including a simple tutorial that gradually introduces you to new rules and an advanced tutorial for when you’re ready for a far greater challenge.

Choose cards, build pathways, and control the spread of the fire as you work together to guide all the cats in their race to the raft!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): As I said, we love The Isle of Cats so this was an easy pick for us… on the way home Julie asked how long it would take before I’d be ready to teach her… it wasn’t long… a video here, a skim of the rulebook there and I was ready. We completed the 1st scenario pretty easily then proceeded to get our ass kicked by the 2nd scenario… this will be a fun challenge… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remembered seeing this and thinking it looked interesting back when it was kickstarted but didn’t back it… if I’ve learned nothing else during our brief gaming life together it’s that if Julie’s interested in a game, I have a better chance of getting it to the table so this was our second pick and we can’t wait to play it!! And with that I was able to ease Julie’s guilty conscience… glad I could help… 🙂

By now it was lunch time and we made our way back to the highway and a couple exits north… there are multiple McSweeny’s in Plattsburgh but we found the food at this one to be far superior to the others and worth the extra few minutes drive… and I had a plan…

We picked up our lunch and Julie was on cloud 9 because, in addition to her sandwich I was able to get her poutine fries!! We usually just eat in the car on the way home but today I surprised her by heading to the state park a few minutes away and we made a picnic out of it sitting right on Lake Champlain!! Happy 19th anniversary!! Our 30th year together!!

I went in to sign her out, asked if she was excited and told her Mark had just called… anticipating the worst shoe frowned and muttered an ‘oh no’… I told her what he said and I thought I might have to hose her down… 🙂

It was a fantastic show that they’re still talking about and they got the picture above AND an autographed copy of Randy’s book!! What an incredible day!! I can’t thank Mark enough for everything he did… these are memories that will last their lifetimes.

The second thing that happened today was a surprise mail delivery while I waited to pick the girls up after the show… on of the last couple of Kickstarters I backed (back when I was playing full time)… Fit to Print!!

Did you take enough tiles to fill the paper, but not so many that things have to be cut? Over the course of three hectic days, your skills will be tested as you compete to be the most newsworthy editor!

Fit to Print is a tile-laying game for the whole family. Players simultaneously collect newspaper tiles, stacking them on their desks until they think they have what they need to make the perfect front page. Then, they will yell “Layout!” and begin to lay out the page by carefully considering the placement of centerpieces, articles, photographs, and advertisements. When everything is just right, they yell “Print” to be the first off the press and gain their choice of centerpiece for the next round! This hectic spatial puzzle features over 100 unique newspaper tiles, 6 characters with their own special abilities, as well as 3 decks of Breaking News cards — so that each and every time you play you will be solving a new puzzle!

If real-time games aren’t your style, Fit to Print has a number of alternative modes to satisfy every type of puzzle gamer. In Slo-Mode players take turns drafting tiles from a shared market and arranging them on their front pages. In Puzzle Mode, take a specific set of tiles and piece together the highest-scoring arrangements. Whether you enjoy relaxing solo puzzles on your own, or frenetic action for up to 6 players, you will have a blast helping the critters of Thistleville tell their stories!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’ve never lost sight of how much Julie likes Tetris and (if you haven’t already noticed) if I see a polyomino game that sounds interesting I’ll snag it… this was another of those times… 🙂

This year we were only able to hire two boys and we had some larger projects then usual but these two very quiet kids absolutely KILLED IT!!! They followed instructions, were able to work on their own and just got every job done!! For that I treated them to lunch (they wanted pizza) – a huge 24 cut… half cheese and half black olives and bacon… I also got each of them a half dozen gourmet cookies from a local cafe and bakery… then it was game time.

A few days earlier I had shown them some of the games I was thinking of bringing on this website… I narrowed my choices down to 6 and brought them all along with my big game mat… as they were diving into lunch I started setting up by throwing down my large playmat and asked which one they wanted to play… without hesitation, they both said ‘the one where you throw your workers’… of course, Rolling Heights!!

It was a close game – the two interns and Andrew – our new fulltime guy only a couple years out of college – never more the 5-10 points apart with the leader frequently changing. During final scoring it looked like one of the interns was going to walk away with the victory were it not for one of the 3 common end game goals that offered 2 points to each player for each column in which they had a completed building… Andrew chalked up 12 points giving him the victory with each intern only a few points behind. Everyone had a great time… stuffed to the gills and sugared-up on cookies but with an appreciation for the strategy the game offered. And I was of course pleased to offer a glimpse into modern board games and perhaps gain some converts. 🙂

August 29… Julie’s recovered from her Randy Travis outing and wants to play a game… I had an abbreviated teach of Fit to Print already prepared so we were able to jump into a play in no time which turned into 3 plays… yeah – we really like this brain-burner of a timed Tetris puzzle… 🙂

September 9… Julie’s up and moving which gave me the opportunity to join a local game group for the evening since she still wasn’t up to playing…

September 13… Julie hasn’t been feeling well and Selena’s been working or spending time with her boyfriend so there hasn’t been much gaming…

This afternoon Julie got the results from her last batch of tests and scans and several calls from her doctor’s office asking if she had an Oncologist appointment… they were concerned about something but the CR Wood Cancer Center has been telling her since July that they can’t get her in before December…

Then we learned that the lump in the back of her neck that had been bothering her was a large tumor!! And they saw a number of smaller ones as well!! When the doctors finally compared notes, her Oncologist said that they needed to be removed ASAP at which point both offices started searching for a doctor to do the procedure between home and Albany… the earliest they found was an office in Saratoga in mid-October but she was at the top of the list for any openings… her doctor’s office said that, once Saratoga ready the test results, they were sure she’d get bumped up… so we wait…

Julie was a wreck the rest of the night – thinking of all the possibilities… It’s been about 8 years since her initial Chemo treatments at which time they told her that most people with her type of cancer live about 5-10 years… she was better after hours of my trying to convince her to wait until they remove and test the tumors and her insisting that she had a right to be scared given her medical history… we curled up and watched some a couple episodes of ‘Mrs. Brown’s Boys’ – an Irish comedy series that cracks us up when we can understand their heavy accents… 🙂 This gave her some much-needed laughs…

September 17… while Julie and I have enjoyed our multiple plays of Hickory Dickory, I was ready for a change and anxious to break in those amazing acrylic tiles for The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION the I willingly overpaid for… 🙂 I have to say, it was well worth it!!

The game has earned its ‘classic’ status and this colorful reprint was long overdue… the special edition is truly ‘special’ with all of its overproduced components but the acrylic tiles pushes it into decadence. levels… it was such a tactile difference that I started searching for the acrylic TOKENS to complete my edition… this time I got a break and found a website selling them for less than half price… they’re on their way!! I get the feeling that having everything ‘blinged out’ was the publisher’s original intention for the Special Edition but they had to offer them as upgraded so that ‘normal’ people like myself could justify the cost… one indication of this is that the plastic inserts included in the box are sized to hold the upgraded bits… I had to cut foam spacers to hold the cardboard bits in place… but not anymore… 🙂 So many times these ‘special’ or ‘kickstarter’ editions of games include boxes and boxes of stuff that never gets used… in this case, other than MAYBE a couple of the odd expansions, we’ll be playing and enjoying all that was included for a long time to come!!

September 18… I get home from work and Selena greets me by saying that she and mike (boyfriend) really want to play a game with me… my head is spinning trying to think of something Mike would enjoy (he’s a Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering player – both games I do not like in the least)… I decided to go with Escape – Curse of the Temple as I remembered enough of the rules to teach it and it only lasts 10 minutes…

Selena was excited as soon as she saw it on the table and Mike loved the dice chucking chaos… 🙂

September 19… I’m home a little early… Selena’s on her phone on the couch with the dogs and her boyfriend is tied up at work… naturally I hit her up for a game!! 🙂

I quickly setup Hickory Dickory, taught her the game and then proceeded to get trounced… I think she’s started a new streak of winning any game we play when it’s her first time (her last streak lasted a couple years)… I also think that she got a little confused when moving the score trackers – failing to move mine down a row but rather starting the same row again as she pulled ahead… 🙂 It couldn’t matter less as we enjoyed some overdue Dad / daughter game time before supper.

I also received a valuable lesson today in “caveat emptor” which is Latin for “let the buyer beware”…

Coming off our first play of The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION with the acrylic tiles, I decided to go back and try to find the acrylic TOKENS I had originally found – but at a more reasonable price (compared to the hex tiles)… most places were sold out but then I hit one that had them in stock and on sale!! It was a website called the Game Steward which I had heard of several times but never visited previously… after browsing all that the site had to offer, I pulled the trigger on the order… I entered my information – including my debit card since they didn’t take PayPal – and as soon as I clicked the Submit button my anti-virus software freaked out!! The site tried to redirect me to some slidecardusaa something or other which was infect with URL: Blacklist!! Yep – it was a bogus website!! I did some digging and found that the actual Game Steward website was at thegamesteward.COM whereas these assholes were at thegamesteward.SHOP… I emailed the REAL site in case they weren’t aware of the impersonator and am spreading the word on BGG as much as possible. I’m keeping a close eye on my bank account in case any of my info got through but it appears that my free version of Avast may have saved my ass!! If so, I think I definitely need to move to their PAYED version – thank you.

September 23… Well I got GOT!! This morning I discovered that at about midnight Friday evening, the scammers at thegamesteward.SHOP made two Amazon purchases that appeared on my bank account totaling $364!! My fear is that this was just a test and they did it knowing that, even if I did see it, I wouldn’t be able to contact my bank until Monday morning… I’ve been down this road before but, sadly, no one seems interested in pursuing the culprits… last time it was some big ticket items and we had the address in Michigan they were being delivered to but everyone was content to issue me a new card and move on…

September 24… Julie’s in bed, Selena’s working so I entertained myself all weekend by taking Mom shopping and to lunch, mowing and searching for bank contact information which was the most frustrating as there is absolutely nothing outside of normal business hours… thanks.

I was still up when Selena got home and I gave her the crash course in Race To the Raft… so I did get one quick game in so the weekend wasn’t a total bust. 🙂

October 5… Still not much gaming between Julie’s health and Selena’s work and boyfriend schedules… tonight my old friend Dave invited me over and I always pack a couple games… I brought The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION with me last time and he seemed really interested but we got to chatting and 3 hours later it was time for me to head home with work the next morning… tonight I set it up, did a quick rules teach and we dived in… I was doing a lot of rules clarifications for him and pointing out available strategies and either he picked it up or I lost focus because he trounced me by about 50 points… 🙂 He really liked that one so I’ll have to bring it again… 🙂

I was able to find a copy of the Collector’s Edition on The Game Steward’s website (the REAL one – not the fake that hacked my debit card) and, thanks to PayPal (and their pay in 4 plan) I was able to swing a copy for us which I’ll add in the Christmas stash… 🙂

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I’m not exactly sure but I think it’s the historical nature of the game and the test flight card play mechanism that has me interested… and I think the girls will really like it to… 🙂

October 8… yesterday – just when it looked like I’d have another 3 day weekend bored out of my mind – Julie asks to play a game right before supper… after we ate, I pulled out three and setup one – by which time she was in bed and asleep again so I put everything away…

Today, after sleeping most of the day, she came in my office / game room to ask again but saw that I’d put everything away and went back to bed… I knew she wasn’t feeling great so I didn’t push it… coming off last week’s game convention (which I didn’t make) the game group was taking the weekend off so, unless I get desperate enough to play something solo, it would be another game-free weekend… I spent part of the day writing my condensed quick-teach notes for The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION, made myself supper and some apple turnovers then someone walked by and the dog’s barking woke Julie up… I shared the turnovers with her and she asked about getting a game in (hmmm – bribery… let me write that down)… 🙂

I had a few games in mind that I had refreshed the rules for – one of them being Project L – a simple Tetris-like puzzle game that I got for her a couple years ago because she LOVES Tetris and I vaguely remember that she really liked this game… I was anxious to see if my memory was correct because earlier this year I backed a deluxe-i-fied version based on my recollection that includes multiple expansions – one in particular that has me excited called Project L: Finesse… it should be here for Christmas and my plan was to wrap it and give it to her and pass our base game on to a family in the game group with a younger daughter who I think will like it.

I set it up again, reminded her of the few rules and we jumped in… over and over and over again!! Yeah – she REALLY likes this game!! Now I’m excited for Christmas (who am I kidding – I’m ALWAYS excited for Christmas)… 🙂

October 15… Selena’s wrapping up her second year at the Lake George Club and helping to clean and button everything up for the winter… as she’s walking through the facility she passes the head chef and the ‘big boss’ having a conversation when the boss sees her and says to the head chef, “And THIS one – don’t lose her!!” We’re so proud of her!!! 🙂

She’s already found a winter job at a local Tractor Supply… she’d love to be baking somewhere but TS has already told her that, when the club opens up next season, they will work around her hours there… that’s very generous and forward thinking… it’s life after all and it’s a work in progress. 🙂

October 19… Another quick Rolling Heights update… I happened to be on BGG and decided to check on my player aid… it’s over 1100 downloads AND someone has taken it and created a French version!! Yeah – all my peacock feathers are showing… 🙂

October 22… At first I thought it would be fun to have Selena and her boyfriend wrap my copy of First in Flight to give to me for Christmas… then I watched this new Dice Tower review and decided I couldn’t wait!! 🙂 AND I’d been reading (and they mention it in their review) about some confusion regarding the stickers for the included trays… I found an excellent explanation on BGG and wanted to tackle that before I forgot all I’d read… and of course I want to play it NOW… 🙂

October 24… Everything is organized and I’m ready to take flight!! As soon as I have someone to play with… or learn the solo rules… 🙂

October 28 and 29… Selena comes home from her winter job at Tractor Supply (her baking and line cook position at the Lake George Club is seasonal) and insists that she wants to play a game… I’d given up hope as she has her own life now (which I’m adjusting to as a Dad) and the last few times she’s asked she’s had someone coming over or was going to dinner – something was looming that didn’t leave us time to even start a game… but tonight she had nothing planned but a game and spending some time with me (aaaaaaaawww)… 🙂 Julie hasn’t felt good in weeks so she would stay in bed…

I knew just what I wanted to try – First in Flight – even though I’d barely started writing my game teaching notes… I fumbled my way through the manual (which I’d already read through twice) and my memory to explain the game (and refresh myself) and set flight for our first game…

With my teach and checking rules during play, it took us a little more than 2 hours to get through – about double what the box says… we missed a couple things in the rules that might not have mattered or may have been game changers but, in the end, I was the first to fly more than 40 yards which triggers the end of the game… BUT… everyone – including myself – gets a chance to break that record and win the game… which Selena did of course… with a huge grin on her face… as we were packing up, she kept telling me that she really liked the game… me too… 🙂

The next day was a carbon copy of the previous… I’d spent the day working on my teach notes and creating a player aid… she came home from work and wanted to play again… I finished supper and reset everything…Julie still wasn’t up to it so it would be me and ‘Peanut’ and Gustave – a dummy player that clogs up the action choices and simulates a 3rd player…

I could tell Selena had a plan and she was executing it… before I knew it, she was FAMOUS!! That’s what happens when you complete a flight of 15 yards or more and you get to flip your pilot to their famous side where their special power gets better… I managed to get close, then also became famous a few turns later… she made another great flight of 38… then I was able to take advantage of my friends, my skill and my technologies and successfully fly 42 yards!! I knew not to be too confident because Selena had already flown 38 so I knew she already had the cards to beat me and she’d added to them… sure enough – she flies 44 yards on her last flight and beats me AGAIN!!

Tonight it was obvious that we both knew what we were doing and we finished the game in around 45 minutes… I think that, once I’ve perfected my notes, I could teach this to new players and complete a game in under 90 minutes which I don’t think is too bad for a first play. I can’t wait to play with Julie… this will be another of those that, once we have it setup, she’ll want to play over and over… 🙂

October 30… Selena’s working but Julie wants to try it even though she can barely move (and I couldn’t convince her to go back to bed)… You’ve read it before, Julie is a horrible student… she tolerated my abbreviated rules explanation – all the time sitting quiet with a disgusted look on her face… but once she learns a game, she’s a tough player to beat!! 🙂

She picked it up quick and (with a little guidance) was making flights and taking advantage of her pilot’s powers, friends, and much of what the game offers… before long she had soundly thrashed me!!

October 31… Julie wants to play again but it’s Halloween and, even though our only trick or treaters are our neighbor’s kid and his friends, I still thought we should be available in case others made an appearance… 🙂

November 1… I’m happy to report that all but one of my scaled-down Christmas game haul (some of them Kickstarters from a year ago or more) have arrived!! The last (a late Kickstarter) has made it to the states and is expected to deliver the end of the month so, even if it’s delayed, it should still make Christmas. 🙂

Selena’s off from work and both girls want to play!! I’m excited because I’m curious to see how it plays with more than two live players and the dummy player…

Turns out it plays pretty much the same – at least from my perspective… I managed a huge Flight Deck but sadly learned that that doesn’t necessarily translate to a lot of distance… I think the best I could muster was 37… Selena’s game was not what it usually is… I think she was already headed for her boyfriend’s for dinner in her mind… Julie was getting upgrades and money and doing whatever she wanted and before long flew 42 yards triggering the end of the game… I was sure my Flight Deck couldn’t break 40 yet and Selena had the same feeling but we all took that final flight… another 37 for me and 38 for Selena,,, the only one that improved was Julie who went 44 yards… 🙂

It’s safe to say that we are all really liking this game. I can’t wait to share it with the game group and maybe even the next convention… after all, I apparently have a reputation there now for coming up with unusual and interesting games… 🙂

November 24… Finally – an end to the recent playing drought… 🙂

Selena is splitting time between home and her boyfriend’s as they gradually head towards living together and marriage… tonight she stopped by but only because her Christmas present – the only thing she wanted – was due to arrive today… it was the latest greatest Samsung phone – a Z Fold 5!! I was going to make her sweat and tell her there was an issue getting it shipped or something but we needed to have her old phone backed up so we could factory reset it and ship it back to Samsung for $300 off the new one…

The transition couldn’t have gone smoother…

Samsung’s Smart Switch app made backing everything up a breeze…

I use Ting Mobile for all three generation’s cell phones (Selena, Julie and my Mom)… I love the pay for what you use plan and, other than some spotty coverage, we’ve been very pleased with the service. I had put a support ticket in to see if the new phone was compatible prior to ordering it (it was) then had to initiate a chat session during setup when their directions said to check the SIM and their website said it couldn’t be activated… I was pretty sure it was because it was already activated in the old phone so we moved it to the new phone and everything worked perfectly. Chat confirmed that this was the right thing to do, updated our information in their system and we were done.

November 29… tonight I finished my revised player aid for First in Flight… I was pleased with the last version but needed it to match the revised card locations after sleeving the Flight Deck cards and reorganizing the card tray that comes with the game…

Over the weekend I sleeved the 160+ Flight Deck cards – only because (with the bare cards) it was easy to see where the red problem cards were in the deck when shuffling which could make it possible to cheat if one was so inclined… the sleeves make that impossible but also make it impossible to fit the cards in the provided tray in the locations described…

I eliminated the Flaw Discard location and rearranged the other spots… then I printed (on printable vinyl) new tray labels and added my own labels to the areas to the left and right of each of the 6 locations… I’m anxious to see how it works with new players but it should make it easier to tell which cards are which from anywhere around the table.

I also received an email notification today that my last Kickstarter that I was waiting on for Christmas (the Project L deluxe version which includes the Project L: Finesse expansion) is being delivered in the states by Amazon and should be here Saturday!! 🙂

December 1… much to my surprise, my Project L Deluxe version and expansions arrived today – a day early!! I’ll squirrel it away until we get the tree up and I can wrap it…

Julie and I are coming to grips with some sad but happy news… our little girl is moving in with her boyfriend / fiancé in the next couple of weeks. As parents, we knew this day would come but would be happy if she stayed with us forever… 🙂 Mike treats her like a total princess – something none of her previous suiters could even approach… we’re so very happy for them but miss her already… guess I’ll have to adjust my gaming plans a little… 🙂

In gaming news… I’m growing increasingly curious though concerned… my wife says she got me TWO games this year…

My concern stems from last year when she got me a copy of Gloomhaven… this is a beast of a game that can take months or even years to play… my best chance at getting this to the table would be solo because you really need to have the same group of players for each session and I’d need to leave it setup in order to continue… I was never really interested in the game but opened the box thinking I’d better give it a try… after exploring the contents of the massive box and starting to read the rules, I packed everything back in the box… I feel terrible but I don’t think I’ll ever play this…

3 months later we’d be on a road trip that took us near my favorite (not so local) game store… I was browsing the isles for a birthday present when Julie had stealthily bought me a copy of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion… this was a sort of prequel to Gloomhaven that they said makes it easier to learn the game mechanics and get into the story… sadly, I couldn’t get far in the rule book before I packed that away as well… that brings us back to the present… present time that is… OK – I guess ‘present’ in the gift sense would be applicable as well…

I have 2 games coming from her… all I know is she said they’re games that Zee Garcia from the Dice Tower really likes so she hopes I’ll like them too… OK… my tastes and Zee’s do overlap on occasion… fingers crossed… 🙂

December 18… Selena is now living with her boyfriend / fiancé Mike… super nice guy and we’re happy for her but miss her terribly already… 🙂

Today she was visiting to help rearrange the living room and get the tree up… Julie was able to help a little but ended up back in bed… Selena had the tree looking great and had time before heading back to her new home and asked to get a game in… I couldn’t remember if we’d played previously but I knew she would like… Mandala Stones so we did a quick rules refresh and knocked out a game. 🙂 I can’t wait for her to see what games we’re adding to the collection this year…

December 27… Well we made it through Christmas though Julie is really struggling with Selena not being here all the time… this has caused her to battle some serious depression – even when she was with us… we’ll get her through it but it isn’t fun… on the whole, it was a great holiday so let me backup a few days…

December 24… Selena spent most of the day with us Christmas Eve… we wrapped and talked and even snuck in a game of First in Flight which has become one of her new favorites… all while Julie slept through the day – only to awaken just before Selena left for Mike’s family holiday party…

I always have something under the tree for Christmas Eve – for Selena when she was little, then for the family as she got older – usually a game to play to make the evening go by quicker (who can sleep – at any age – with the thrill of Christmas only hours away?)… 🙂 This is a throwback to when I was a kid and my Grandmother would stay with us over Christmas and on Christmas Eve we would drink Egg Nog and snack and play Monopoly… In recent years, Julie’s health has had her in bed… one year she missed Thanksgiving and Christmas altogether – medicated and sleeping here at home… so it’s been a few years since the Christmas Eve gift has been opened before Christmas Day… this year it looked like there might be a chance… and the game was Bark Avenue…

At 45 minutes – 1 hour, this Gateway+ game is targeted at all players and pulls in dog lovers, providing fun for new gamers and critical thinking and optimization problems for seasoned gamers.

But alas, it wasn’t to be…

I had the game all setup and was pretty sure I could teach it, but Julie still wasn’t feeling the holiday spirit and stayed in bed… Selena left mid-afternoon to attend her boyfriend’s family’s Christmas Eve party with the intention of coming back and spending the night… by 7:30 it was clear that Julie wasn’t getting up anytime soon and I was tired just from all the planning and amusing myself so I too headed for bed and we told Selena to stay put and enjoy the party.

December 25… Merry Christmas!! Selena returned Christmas morning and we unwrapped gifts before Selena and I made pancakes and bacon… then we checked our times for Christmas dinner prep… plenty of time for Selena to grab a nap before anything had to go in the oven and Mike arrived…

With Mike’s arrival we swapped gifts with him and started dinner… there nothing to do for the next hour + after the ham went in and Selena wanted to play a game with everyone but Julie wasn’t into it so Selena and Mike played one of the latest Uno variants Julie had given her…

Meanwhile I went to pickup my Mom, swing by my brother’s to swap gifts with him and his wife and visit with Mom… then we headed to my house for what’s become our traditional drive-in Christmas dinner… you see, Mom can’t negotiate stairs (and there’s no room for anyone to sit around a table anywhere) so I hook Mom up with a lap table, keep the van warm and the two of us have dinner in the van… she LOVES it – especially since the alternative would be not getting out on the holidays…

The Cracker Barrel heat ‘n serve was excellent… we were shocked when Mom started eating the Dutch apple pie we had for dessert and said some sharp cheddar cheese would go great with it… we just happened to have some in the fridge which sent her down memory lane… seems her Uncle always had to have a sharp cheddar with his pie… back then they bought giant wheels and probably ate half a pound at a time and her Mom would give them Hell for feeding it to her… 🙂

The presents were amazing… Mom got a new iPad from my brother and I (because she’s on it all the time)… Julie got a new iPad from me (because she’s on it ’round the clock because when she tries to sleep she frequently has nightmares from her childhood)… there were clothes (lots of Mickey stuff for Julie of course) and Mom got to see everyone in the hats she’d made (she had made over 40 for staff where she stays and friends and family) including Selena and Mike from a distance since they both just got over COVID… of course there were a handful of games which I’ll come back to shortly…

As the dust started to settle, Selena packed up the extra food including ‘doggie bags’ of ham for my brother and ham and pie for my Mom… OH – and more sharp cheddar… 🙂

December 26… I’m off from work and anticipating a quiet day… well, I made plans knowing Julie would most likely still be in bed…

I started the day with an early Honda service appointment… oil change and a recall that required my unloading all my gear from the back end… guess they had to run wires from the rear camera to the dash because EVERYTHING was rearranged… 🙂 Then they forgot to reset the oil life AGAIN… I discovered that on the way home and the girl who checked me in told me how to reset it – saving me a return trip… then I found a screw in the cup holder they apparently couldn’t find a home for… if something starts rattling I’ll know where it belongs… of course the engine and cabin filters needed replacing (I’m wondering if this isn’t a scam) and I’m going to need tires before next winter… that means the tires that came on the van will be lucky to make 30-35,000 miles… beautiful facility but my faith in Saratoga Honda’s service department is on the decline…

Then it was home to take the dogs out again so Julie could keep resting… I snagged Mom’s pile of Christmas gift cards and picked her up again for shopping and lunch… today it was just groceries (more extra sharp cheese) and Mandy’s…

Back home for some quiet relaxation… I was watching a run-through of one of the new games and nodding off when the dogs decided it was potty time again… I was herding them all into the house and reloading the freshly emptied garbage containers when a car pulls in the driveway… I can see multiple people but can’t tell who it is… then out pops Julie’s sister and her son and daughter from Georgia!!! We head inside and I wake Julie up to see the visitors… it was great to see them again!! They’re up for a few more days so before they left, Sis and I selected a few games to take back up to where they’re staying that they might like to play before they leave. I know – this is something I don’t normally do because I’m very protective of the games but I’m hoping they might find something they enjoy that will get them into the hobby at least a little… 🙂

December 27… I’m back at work and Julie started acting more like herself last night and this morning… she still has no interest in gaming which has me thinking that perhaps that part of our life has run its course… I started going through the collection in my head about a month ago – selecting a number of games to cull from the collection and maybe pass on to members of the local game group… some we haven’t played in years, others we are just terrible at… time to get them somewhere where they will give someone some enjoyment… 🙂

One of our Christmas games was the second in Garphil Games’ South Tigris series – Scholars of the South Tigris… I may only get to play this with the game group or solo if I get really desperate as this is a pretty meaty game… Julie insists she’s not very smart and leans more toward simpler games when she feels like playing but when I can convince her to try games like this, she quite often cleans my clock!! There’s one more in the trilogy coming next year – Inventors of the South Tigris… this may be my last Kickstarter and perhaps my last game purchase… it was a worthwhile investment for the family when the girls were interested in playing but with Selena gone and Julie’s lack of interest, that money could be better spent elsewhere… after I complete this set. 🙂

I must say that I personally have had a blast discovering and exploring the hobby that I stumbled on only about 10 years ago!! There are so many great games coming out each year that it’s almost impossible to keep up… people at school are asking me when I’m going to retire and I tell them that I have no plans to step down… the things that I enjoyed doing the most I can no longer do – at least to a level that is satisfying… it would be fun to be home and game regularly and maybe tackle some longer campaign games but I’d need someone who’s also interested… maybe I can start a new YouTube channel on games… 🙂 As for retirement, an ex-serviceman once said that you look at retirement as a permanent ‘R&R’ (rest and relaxation) but after a while, you have nothing to rest up from. I still enjoy my work and the people around me though most – including all three bosses over me – will be gone in 4-5 years… hopefully they’ll keep me around – I still have a mortgage… 🙂

December 29… Finally – a GAME NIGHT!! Well, at least Julie and I played a couple… 🙂 She’s been trying to do more around the house which puts her back in bed because she does too much… I can’t convince her to do a little at a time or, better still, let ME do laundry or dishes and such… I experienced something similar before my Dad passed and after he was forced to retire because of his eyesight… he still needed to feel ‘useful’ and wanted to do things – rarely letting us help so I get it…

She was finally feeling like playing something and I still had Bark Avenue on the table… a quick run through of the pieces, the rules and the gameplay and we were off (once I got her to stop playing with the squishy poop tokens)…

I thought I was doing well but in the end, she had bested me by more than 45 points!! It was good to have her at the table though I could tell she was tired… she wanted to play again but I thought that this was enough for one night for her… she asked again so I pulled out a word game she had gotten me (more on that in my holiday game recap)… it’s made for 3 or more but there’s a 2 player variant which I thought I understood enough to get us through… we played a quick game only to discover the next day that I had a few things wrong… it was still fun but we’ll have it right next time… and with that, we were off to bed.

December 31… Well it’s a feeling that I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to yet here I am… home on New Year’s Eve for just the 3rd or 4th time since becoming a professional musician way back in 1975… I was hoping for another game night which didn’t happen so I spent the day and night watching football and working on custom dog cards for Bark Avenue with our dogs on them… 🙂

Have a wonderful New Year everyone!!!