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Happy 2025!!!

Welcome to another new year and another year of board gaming!!

Our Christmas game haul was lighter than usual because, with Selena out of the house and Julie struggling to deal with all that life keeps throwing at her, our gaming has become less frequent…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This game had caught my attention a while back but didn’t make my shopping list until a few weeks ago when we were in bed watching various YouTuber’s games of the year and this came up a couple different times and Julie thought it looked like fun… and it is!! We played 3 games on Christmas Eve though both of us were exhausted… it’s such a simple concept that I have to wonder why no one thought of it before… the special deck with twelve 12 cards, eleven 11’s, ten 10’s on down to one 1 and one 0 card plus various bonus / mess with your opponents cards makes for a Blackjack meets Farkle style game… we love it! Such a great game!! I stopped at Mom’s facility on the way home from work and introduced it to her and she flipped (sorry) for it!! I’ll be bringing it by when I can because she trounced me this time… 🙂

Let’s start with the newest game entering the collection… Windmill Valley!!

During their turn, players choose the action by rotating the wheels on their windmill board. During the game they can:

• Enhance their wheels, by adding enhancements, to build their engine
• Plant tulips in their fields, which will score VP at the end of the game
• Build windmills on the main board to activate rewards from adjacent fields
• Hire helpers that provide bonuses for certain actions
• Get contracts for endgame scoring
• Visit the local market and conduct a foreign trade
• All in all, Windmill Valley is a lightweight game with quick turns, a smart action-selection mechanism, multiple options to build your engine, and a lovely setting.

Awards & Honors
2024 UK Games Expo Best Boardgame (Euro-Style) People’s Choice Award Winner
2024 UK Games Expo Best Boardgame (Euro-Style) Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I thought Julie would like this game for the bright colors if nothing else… and maybe the cool action selection gears… I knew I’d like the gameplay but I didn’t expect there to be this much going on… 🙂 I can’t wait to learn it and get it to the table!!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): If you’ve been on any of the game pages you probably already know the answer to this… I’ve loved everything that Shem Phillips and Sam McDonald and Garphil Games have put out since I first found Architects of the West Kingdom in their 2nd trilogy… I haven’t played this one or even read the rules yet but I’m already looking forward to the 4th trilogy which I expect to be announced in the next couple months. I’ll follow up once I get this one to the table either with Julie or the local game group which also has a huge Garphil fan… 🙂

The rest of our Christmas haul are some older games including one that I was so excited to give Julie that I may have gone off the deep end… I told a friend what I’d done and he paused then remarked, “Don’t get the bends on the way up!” 🙂

But first, let’s go back to 2019’s Tiny Towns…

Awards & Honors

2019 Board Game Quest Awards Best Family Game Nominee
2020 Spiel der Spiele Hit für Familien Recommended
2020 Origins Awards Game of the Year Winner
2020 Origins Awards Game of the Year Finalist
2020 Origins Awards Best Board Game Winner
2020 Origins Awards Best Board Game Nominee
2020 Nederlandse Spellenprijs Best Advanced Game Nominee
2020 Gouden Ludo Best Family Game Nominee
2019 Mensa Recommended
2019 Meeples Choice Award Nominee
2019 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
2019 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
2019 Cardboard Republic Architect Laurel Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Julie loves Tetris-y type games and this fits that with a bit of a twist…

Before we continue, I should mention that I also picked up the Tiny Towns: Fortune expansion as well… of course I wrapped the expansion and the original game in the same paper then taped them together just to make Julie wonder… 🙂

And lastly, a game that’s been on my radar for some time now… the game many think of as the old game ‘Life‘ but redesigned for modern board / Euro gamers… a game that’s 10 years old… a game that I was so convinced would be Julie’s new all-time favorite (knocking off Carcassonne), that I went waaaaaaaay overboard (I hope I’m right)… a game that Luke Hector of the Broken Meeple gushes over still… that game is The Pursuit of Happiness!!

(from the publisher): We all have one common desire: the desire for happiness. As we build our life, taking steps towards the pursuit of happiness, we come closer to the realization that happiness lies in the pursuit.

The Pursuit of Happiness is a game in which you take a character from birth and you live the life you always wanted. Using a worker-placement mechanism with time as your workers, you can take on projects, you can get jobs, you can buy items, you can establish relationships, you can raise families. The possibilities are endless as you live the life you have always wanted.

How much will you be able to achieve in just one lifetime during The Pursuit of Happiness?

Awards & Honors

2016 Cardboard Republic Daredevil Laurel Nominee

OK – this sounds like a better version of the game Life from back in my youth… but why now?? Why after all these years?? Well… because I stumbled on an online store selling the Big Box version that was Kickstarted back in 2020!!

Since the box has room for everything ever created for the game (and more), and because too much is never enough as they say, I set out to find anything and everything that WASN’T included in the Big Box edition… I found it all on the game’s publisher Artipia’s website… ordered some… then went back and ordered the rest (hence my going overboard)… I didn’t realize until the first package arrived and I had to sign for it that the company is in GREECE!! It got me even more into the Christmas spirit – the anticipation of watching Julie as I had wrapped the Big Box by itself then each expansion, each promo pack, the game mat and upgraded components all separately (but in matching paper of course)… then I got to tell her how a lot of it came directly from Greece… that’s how much I love her… and gaming… but mostly her… maybe… 🙂

So in total, here’s what we have for the game… the Big Box includes:

The Pursuit of Happiness (base game packs 1 and 2 – that’s 180 cards just to start)

The Pursuit of Happiness: Community (expansion pack 3)

The Pursuit of Happiness: Experiences (expansion pack 4)

The Pursuit of Happiness: Nostalgia (expansion pack 5)

The Pursuit of Happiness: KS1 promos (pack 6)

The Pursuit of Happiness: KS2 promos (pack 7)

The Pursuit of Happiness: KS3 promos (pack 8)

The Pursuit of Happiness: KS4 promos (pack 9)

The big box also includes a custom insert (which is very nice), cardboard tokens and wooden cubes (these won’t do if I’m going all-in for her)…

My first Artipia order to ‘complete’ our set:

– Pack 10 – Promo Pack (ALL promo cards ever made and some never seen before)

– Pack 11 – Holiday Pack

– Pack 12 – Gratitude Pack

– Pack 13 – Thug Life

– Pack 14 – Out of This World

My second Artipia order was for the giant neoprene game mat (that includes expansion boards ON IT)…

And ALL the deluxe components which upgrades the cardboard AND CUBES from the base game, the Community, Experiences and Nostalgia expansions AND includes larger versions of existing wooden components (hourglasses, etc.)!! Altogether the set contains:

– 45 wooden hourglasses (9 Red, 9 Green, 9 Blue, 9 Yellow, 9 Grey – replaces the smaller hourglasses)
– 21 wooden palm trees (4 Red, 4 Green, 4 Blue, 4 Yellow, 4 Grey, 1 Purple – replaces the player’s score and track cubes)
– 1 wooden star (first player token)
– 30 wooden hearts (desire tokens)
– 45 wooden arrows (level indicators – replaces black cubes)
– 4 Wooden unavailable action indicators
– 36 plastic creativity tokens (12 large (5 value), 24 small (1 value) – a little hard to tell apart without the 1’s and 5’s on them)
– 36 plastic knowledge tokens (12 large (5 value), 24 small (1 value) – a little hard to tell apart without the 1’s and 5’s on them)
– 36 plastic influence tokens (12 large (5 value), 24 small (1 value) – a little hard to tell apart without the 1’s and 5’s on them)
– 44 plastic coins (16 large, 28 small – probably the only disappointing part of all the upgrades… I ordered generic metal ones)

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Knowing how much Julie likes the original game ‘Life’, this has been in the back of my mind for quite a while so when I found the Big Box for sale I had to get it. We did get a game in a couple days after Christmas (I chose to start with the base game only) and we loved it but more importantly, SHE loved it!! Unfortunately, she’s still struggling with the loss of her baby brother (27) from brain cancer and the seemingly never-ending family drama that sadly came with it but I’m hoping to get it to the table again and again in the future so we can get comfortable with it then start adding in expansions… 🙂

February update… after our first play I realized that the plastic coins weren’t much of an upgrade from the cardboard… they just felt cheap so I found suitable generic metal coins and added those (of course)…

And that’s our Christmas haul for 2024!!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): This is very similar to Windmill Valley in that the game plays fairly quickly and is easy to play but hard to do well at – at least at first… it’s a unique theme with interesting gameplay and one I was confident we would enjoy. Had I honestly known about the various ways the game can be setup that adds to the replayability, I’d have been even more excited before I ordered it.

January 24… Julie finally felt up to a game… sort of… her desire to play was sparked by her admitted need for a distraction as tonight was the calling hours and funeral services for an Uncle she liked who recently passed… she really wanted to go but one of the others in attendance would be another relative who frequently sexually abused her as a child… Selena and Mike and I we got her through her Grandmother’s services last year with him there, but she couldn’t deal with seeing him again right now… I wish it was under different circumstances but here was our first game night of 2025…

I had been working on Windmill Valley (see above for game description) and, at one point, even had it setup hoping she might see it and be interested… or at least for me to make a solo attempt… it was a week or so ago but I ran out of gas after a long workday and ended up going to bed… I hadn’t finished my teach notes but I was able to get her dialed in and started the game…

Turns are quick!! About the only thing that slows things down is if a player chains a couple moves together or gets a double action… we loved the thematic nature of everything and how it tied together… we played one rule in the Market incorrectly where players are instructed to plant a certain color tulip… I interpreted it to mean take that color FROM THE SUPPLY and plant it in your field… I couldn’t find it in the rulebook but I ended up filling my field and coming away with a crap ton of points at the end of the game… Julie hadn’t taken as many of those actions in the Market but when she did, I had her play it the same way… I ended up winning by 60+… the next day I went to the BGG forum and found a thread where others had asked this question and confirmed that it is NOT in the rulebook… but the question was answered by non-other than designer Dani Garcia himself!! It’s meant to plant the specified color from the PLAYER’S STORAGE to their field… if you don’t have the specified color in storage, you can’t take that action.

January 27… Another bowling night… I’m subbing with a different team which has me even more nervous because these guys can bowl and the guy I’m subbing for has several 300 games… they were great guys – very supportive and even offered some tips that had me lined up better with more positive results… had everything not been hurting again despite going to an 8 pound ball, I might have rolled significantly better… however during the week that followed my back went out for the first time in 20+ years and I had persistent pain and discoloration in my right wrist that bothered me when I tried to sleep if I moved wrong… not good for someone who’s hoping to make a return to drumming this year…

January 29… After some begging, I was able to convince Julie to get a game in before bedtime… I’d been reviewing the rules and videos for Fromage (see above for game description) and felt like this might be the simplest game we’ve ever played…. that was until I started explaining it without any notes… 🙂 The most difficult part is probably wrapping your head around how the 4 quadrants of the board play as each plays differently AND that, on your turn, you can only play the one directly in front of you… and I didn’t realize that the Structure section of the player boards are different on each board until I started explaining them to Julie… the game includes 30 or so structure tiles for a slightly advanced mode where we’d get to select which structures we’d play with each game… you can randomly order the quadrants, change the difficulty of each via inserts and randomly place the resource selection area in the middle so the same resources don’t line up with the same quadrant from game to game… these things combine to add an albeit minor level variability which adds replayability to the game.

In our first play, Julie totally smoked me by 24 points – completing several contracts (the more you complete, the higher they score) and racking up 24 points in one quadrant alone!!

We both loved it!! Now that we know it, we could probably set it up and play a complete game in an hour… excellent game!! 🙂

January 31… I had to pickup a bunch of prescriptions for Julie and while was there I picked out a wrist wrap… I put it on as soon as I got home and it was feeling much better by bed time… yeah – my bowling days are over… I used to joke that I gave up bowling for SEX because the balls are lighter and I didn’t have to change shoes… 🙂

February 1… I thought I was in for another boring weekend… the local game group had nothing scheduled so, with a small storm overnight. it looked like the highpoint might be seeing how my messed up back and right arm would fare after shoveling the decks, firing up the snowblower and raking the roof… turned out I got through it all just fine and in only about 90 minutes… a shower and a nap and I was feeling pretty good… 🙂

Later that afternoon I took the dogs out and contemplating supper… Julie was still half asleep but I convinced her to get dressed and we’d load up the dogs and go hit a couple of our favorite places in Hudson Falls for dinner on the fly… she wanted a double smash burger from DiLo’s (and came out with a scrumptious strawberry cheesecake) while I opted for hot dogs for me and the dogs from Mandy’s…

When we returned home, Julie wanted to play ‘that cheese game’ again… of course I had something else in mind and had setup Tiny Towns) see above)… We almost played it once before… I’d setup the base game and Julie came in, sat down but I could tell she felt rotten and sent her to bed… this time I set it up again but added the Tiny Towns: Fortune expansion which adds the ability to gain a coin if you build two buildings on the same turn… spending the coin provides the option to ignore the resource that’s been called and choose any other…

We played 3 full games with different buildings each time… she trounced me by 24 the first game, then I made it close in the second before running away with the third… by then we were getting pretty good at it too!! Obviously we loved it and with that, we’ve played all but 2 games from our Christmas additions.

February 2… I slept in until about 6:30 then started the van and got dressed before venturing out in the -5 cold for some grocery shopping… Julie and the dogs slept almost the entire day… they didn’t even hear me unloading from the store and going in and out… the dogs had to go out just after lunch then went back to sleep… I started preparing for work just before supper and grabbed a shower before I ate… by then Julie was awake and, much to my surprise, asked to play a game… the dogs wanted to go out in the snow so while she took them out, I disconnected our Alexa from the bedroom and hooked it up in my office / game room so we could try Hey Robot (see above)!!

This game was a hoot!! You’re asking questions to Alexa (or any Smart device – Siri, Google, etc.) and trying to get them to say a word on one of 16 cards worth various points… we quickly learned that wording and phrasing is very important… 🙂 we had a blast and probably played 4 or 5 games straight before switching to Flip 7 for a couple games before calling it a night – capping off a fun weekend for me and leaving just Inventors of the South Tigris (see above) as the last remaining game from Christmas to be played… I don’t feel like I’m even ready for Inventors rulebook yet – let alone the game… 🙂

Your turn is divided into four phases:

Phase 1
During Phase I, you’ll use daybreak effects denoted on the cards in your formation! You may use those effects in any order during Phase I of your turn. If you continue to Phase II without using a daybreak effect, you may not use it later in your turn.

Phase 2
During Phase II, you’ll have 4 Action Points (AP) to spend doing any of the following:
– Summon an Elemental from your hand to the formation
– Play a Command card from your hand
– Swap the positions of 2 connected Elementals in your formation
– Draw a card from your deck

As the game progresses, you’ll be able to unlock special Faction Actions after you’ve defeated 4, 6, and 8 of your opponents Elementals! Faction Actions are powerful abilities that give you a leg up during the game.

Phase 3
During Phase III, you may use your gold to buy cards from the markets, sell cards to collect more gold, and refresh the markets.

Phase 4
During Phase IV, you’ll clean up your hand before ending your turn. Do this by discarding any number of cards from your hand, then draw from your deck until you have 5 cards in your hand. If you have more than 5 cards in your hand when you reach Phase IV of your turn, you must discard cards until you have no more than 5.

The game ends when your opponent’s Sage has been defeated!

I’m anxious to learn and try this… it’s for 2 or 4 players but is intended to be a 1 vs. 1 deck builder / battler with asymmetric factions… it looks very interesting though some of the initial reviews I’ve found are killing it… which could mean nothing… 🙂

February 5… nasty weather predicted for tomorrow and our Superintendent made the call this afternoon to close school today because no one weather person can seem to predict with any certainty what’s going to happen when… lots of snow, then some icing… or not… looks like just about every school in the area did the same thing… Julie’s up and feels like a game or two and I don’t have to get up in the morning so I’m in… I just have to remote into school and update the district’s website, Facebook and digital sign in front of the building as soon as she makes the official announcement via robo call… we’ve played all but one from our Christmas haul so I let Julie pick and she chose Windmill Valley (see above)…

It came back to us pretty quick once we started recognizing the iconography again… Julie made some moves early and was pulling away on the score tracker while I was planning out some longer term goals… we had corrected a rule we had played wrong last time so our tulip fields weren’t filling up like last game… we were also more actively opening and closing the floodgate to speed up our wheels which also shortens the game… glad I was paying attention because Julie was about to end it and I managed to complete two of the things I set out to do…

We started final scoring and Julie was already almost 30 points ahead of me… that is until it was time to score our tulip patches (fields)… you score for every completed row and column… rows need to be all the same color to get the higher score while columns need to be different colors… the other difference is that, unless you complete at least 5 columns, you have a mess of NEGATIVE points… I finished only one row but it was 7 dark purple tulips… AND I had built the three windmills necessary to unlock their scoring – 3 points each for a whopping 21 points!! That and one of my farm enhancements scored me enough to catch up and pass her… then she scored a few more points to jump out front again… until she got to her columns… she hadn’t completed a single column which cost her -23 points!! That left me well ahead for the victory. 🙂 We are really loving this game and I can’t wait to share it with Selena and the game group.

February 8… another storm coming in tonight into tomorrow morning… was debating going to meet the game group but most of them thought better of it too… Julie was stirring and told me to pick a game… I’d been wanting to get The Castles of Burgundy – SPECIAL EDITION back to the table since I finished blinging out our version back before Thanksgiving… our copy now weighs in at over 14 pounds!! Other than the thick, multi-layer player boards and the individual board layout overlays, there is NO CARDBOARD – the mainboard is replaced with a neoprene playmat and all tiles and tokens are acrylic and the coins are metal!! It makes for a beautiful production but I need a hand cart to move it… 🙂

It came back to us pretty quickly though I chose to only play with the base game since it had been a while… Julie was pulling away for most of the game but I got close towards the end but missed a couple tiles that would have helped me in final scoring (probably because I was answering Julie’s questions and forgetting my plans… I’m starting to think she’s doing it on purpose)… 🙂 We love this game!! Once you play a couple turns and get the feel of it, it FLIES!!

As far as my post-bowling recovery… my back is pretty much back to normal… wrist is feeling much better and the brace is off… elbow still catches and pops occasionally but I’d say, all-in-all, I’ve recovered.

February 16… time for a detour and proof that there really ARE still some nice people left in the world… 🙂

Remember about a week and a half ago (February 5th), there was a nasty winter storm predicted… heavy snow, then some icing… Thankfully we missed most of the icing and I was able to snow blow, shovel and rake the roof without issue…

A few days later (February 8th into the 9th), another storm came through dumping nearly a foot of heavy, wet snow early evening and overnight… I was out the next morning (before the temps could rise and make it that much heavier), cleaned off the decks and shoveled almost two feet that had been plowed in the end of the driveway – moving a little bit at a time and it wasn’t bad at all… then it warmed up like it was spring – everything started to melt with temps reaching 70!! A few days later, the temps plummeted and would stay there for the foreseeable future… everything in our driveway that wasn’t a frozen rut from driving over the slush was a skating rink!!

Another storm was predicted for February 16th – this one mostly snow… on the 14th I realized that I had never cleaned out in front of the shed after all that slushy snow and the 2 day thaw that followed!! I was certain that water had probably got in and around the shed and frozen the doors shut and the snowblower to the concrete shed floor when the deep freeze hit… I was screwed!!

When I got home and I made my way to the shed down the icy path began pounding away with a small sledgehammer which didn’t make a dent in it… I was going to need some pet-friendly ice melt…

The next morning (February 15th) I made a grocery run followed by a visit to Lowe’s… little did I know that every place within 100+ miles had been out of ice melt for a week or more… uh-oh…

I returned home, unloaded groceries and started hunting online – willing to drive as far as necessary… Walmart’s website says they have some in stock so I placed an order for pickup along with dog food… I quickly received an order confirmation but about an hour later I got an email saying part of the order had been canceled because they were out of stock… of course – the ice melt…

I called Home Depot and the local Ace – all were depleted… I found a small hardware store in Warrensburg (about 20 minutes north of me) that supposedly had stock… I placed an order for pickup, received an order confirmation followed shortly after by a cancellation again… now I’m getting nervous… if we get anywhere near the amount of snow they’re predicting, I’ll never be able to clear it with a shovel…

I find a website for another small chain store named ‘Do It Best’ that claims the Luzerne store (about 30 minutes west over the mountain from me) has 20 pound bags of pet friendly ice melt so I order one… receive the order confirmation and wait for what I’m sure will be a cancellation notice because I’ve been down this road before…

A couple hours go by with no word by which time I have to leave to pickup the dog food at Walmart 20 minutes in the other direction… while on the way I decide to give the Luzerne store a call… a man named Chris answers the phone and I tell him I placed an order on the website but hadn’t heard back… he finds the order and says, “I am so sorry”… (I already know where this is going)… “Unfortunately, the website that takes the orders doesn’t tap into our actual inventory and we are out.” I told him I understood – no problem… then, to my surprise, he says, “I do have some of the 50 pound bags… there might be a cost difference but if you like I’ll put one aside for you.” I was in shock and told him that would be great and thanked him very much. I got my dog food loaded and headed over the mountain by which time the snow had already started… the higher I got the more it snowed and I could see the storm making its way over the mountains in the distance as they gradually disappeared…

I found the tiny store and Chris – who directs me around the back of the store and even loads the 50 pound bag in the back of my van… I thanked him again and asked him what I owed him (I had already paid for the 20 pound bag online)… he replies, “You’re all set.” I reminded him that this was the bigger bag and there was a price difference… he says, “I looked it up and the price difference was nothing… you were so nice about understanding the website mess so you’re all good. Drive safe!!” I’m tearing up again as I type this… I was totally caught off guard by his generosity and think I smiled all the way home – happy to learn that there really ARE nice people out there still. 🙂

When I got home (about 1:30pm) there was a light covering of snow on the ground… I unloaded the dog food and went around the back of the van to get the ice melt… opened the back door… took one step on the snow-covered smooth ice and SWISH – BANG!!! Both legs under the van and I landed flat on my back, elbow and head!!! Lucky for me I had my thick snow coat on with my knit hat and thick hood up… I lay there for a minute with the snow hitting my face – all the time laughing my ass off and hoping the neighbors weren’t watching and that I could stand up without a repeat performance… I was able to get to my knees then my feet, get the bag over my shoulder and get it in the house without further incident. Now for the real challenge – getting in the shed…

2:00pm – drop a coating of ice melt all along the doors and the ice in front…

2:30pm – back at it with the small sledge… it was breaking up a little and I was even able to move a little bit with the snow shovel… I dropped another generous helping of ice melt and went back inside to let it work its magic…

3:00pm – more hammering and scraping and I was able to get the doors to start loosening up… I got them apart about 6 inches and was able to stretch my arm through the opening enough to reach my ice chopper… now things started moving!! After 15 -20 minutes it appeared I had moved as much as I could I coated everything with more ice melt…

3:45pm – more chopping, scraping and yanking on the doors… I’m making progress finally but learning that the ice in front of the doors is nearly 6 inches thick!! This is our original shed that got clipped by falling trees during the tornado back in July… it was still standing but with a nasty forward lean… I’d had to dig down in front of the doors just to get them to open far enough so I could get in and AND get the snowblower out… there was no time last year once we got everything else clear to get a new slab poured to raise the new shed and get the new shed built so I decided to get through the winter as best we could…

The process continued until at almost 7:00pm – in the dark for the most part but I had gotten the bulk of the ice cleared from in front of the doors and could pull the snowblower through the opening (barely)… now I was certain I would be able to get the snowblower out the next day after clearing whatever snow might fall… time for some supper, another shower and some sleep!!

The next morning the snow continued to fall until after lunch… close to a foot when it started winding down… and I was able to shovel the snow away from the shed doors, retrieve the snowblower and clean everything up as planned… and I owe it all to Chris at Do It Best Hardware in Luzerne, NY!! I never would have made it otherwise… there’s more to this story but that’s a couple weeks away so keep reading… 🙂

February 23… Selena stopped over for the afternoon…

We needed a little help dismantling and removing the broken couch from the living room… in its place we built one of the twin tables / storage units I got Julie for Christmas – the goal being to turn the entire living room into her craft center… there’s much more to rearrange before building the second table but it’s a start…

The other reason she stopped was so I could do her taxes online with her… 🙂 Julie was making spaghetti while we finished up… then I made apple turnovers for dessert… neither of them wanted any but ate theirs and split the extra one… 🙂

Before I let Selena leave we had to get a game in… I picked two quick ones that I knew she’d enjoy: Hey Robot and Flip 7 (see above)… we had a great time being together for the first time since Christmas… 🙂

March 1… Last week I made some game stops with my gift cards from Christmas (and one from my birthday almost a year ago)…

First… Julie had me running for online sale pickups for her… I had an hour to kill between appointments so I hit the local Barnes & Noble… I’d forgotten how good their game selection was!! I could have easily dropped $500-600 but I took my time and carefully selected a couple titles…

First was Oros…

When building sacred places, the Demigods of the Wise One ascend a ziggurat which acts as a timer toward the end of the game. When one reaches the top, players finish the round and then tally a final score.

At the core of Oros is the unique ability to shift, move, build up, erupt, and reposition the land within an infinitely connected play environment. This mechanic turns every action into a puzzle of creative problem solving, abstract thinking, and a constantly evolving strategy. Another chief aspect of the game is the player mat which uses a minimal worker placement mechanic to govern action opportunity. The mat also maintains an action economy that evolves differently for each player as they invest their gained wisdom into a variety of action improvements. Because of these core aspects, there are dozens of strategies for players to explore, and every game plays out in a different, yet competitive way.

Awards & Honors
2020 Ion Award Best Strategy Game Winner

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): When I saw this on the shelf it struck a familiar chord but I couldn’t remember why… but I took it anyway… 🙂 In between other projects, I started watching Monique and Naveen from their ‘Before You Play’ channel’s teach and playthrough… then I read through the manual and, other than some of the more quirky rules regarding the outer ring, I felt I was ready to teach and play it… Julie still wasn’t feeling like gaming so today I forced myself to play it solo… and have been soundly beaten the first few times… the game is fascinating to me for some reason and I’m anxious to try it with Julie.

March 5 update… I took today off from work for my 6 month checkup in the morning and Julie’s eye doctor appointment in the afternoon… in between I tried to teach the game to Julie… unfortunately, her meds were having a strange effect on her and she was pretty out of it the entire time… when we returned from her appointment, she wanted to try something else but, as I was teaching that – cards in hand, she’d sit there totally asleep… wake up, then fall asleep again so I convinced her to go to bed… another time… 🙂

Next up from Barnes & Noble was one a little more for Julie and that was Gnome Hollow…

· Immerse yourself in Gnome Hollow, a captivating fun strategy game where players cultivate a vibrant garden of mushrooms and flowers using strategic tile and worker placement mechanics.

· Harvest valuable mushrooms by completing intricate rings, select rewarding bonuses, and sell your mushrooms at the market for the shiniest treasures for points in the hollow.

· Enjoy automatic score calculation on player boards, ensuring smooth game play and allowing you to focus on strategic decisions and garden development.

· MAGNETIC BOARDS – Gnome Hollow features magnetic player boards, breathtaking components, and an advanced variant for added depth and replayability.

· STUNNING ARTWORK – Designed by Ammon Anderson, Gnome Hollow features stunning art and intuitive game play, perfect for both new and experienced board game enthusiasts.

· EASY TO LEARN & FUN TO MASTER – With simple rules, strategic depth, and engaging mechanics, Gnome Hollow is ideal for 2-4 players seeking a delightful gaming experience.

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): I remember watching some videos when this first came out and thinking it looked adorable but may be too light and easy… then I went back and watched some playthroughs and realized I was wrong and we would probably love it!! I’m so sure that I ordered the upgrade kit to bling it out before we ever played it… 🙂

Towards the end of the week, Julie got a call from Barnwell – a facility in Valatie (pronounced val-A-sha… don’t ask…) an hour+ away… they told her that her Mom wasn’t doing well and had lost a concerning amount of weight… This raised Julie’s desire to visit but I didn’t mind because Barnwell is a 15 minute drive from my favorite FLGS (friendly local game store) – Flipside Games in East Greenbush…

One of my old bands used to rehearse in East Greenbush and one night I went down early to find Flipside and check it out… the selection was very good and the guys were great… it seemed like I was coming home with something almost every week – taking advantage of their 20% discount on all board games… 🙂

As soon as I walked in the door, I knew my first selection was staring me in the face… Azul Duel…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Julie and I watch some TV before going to sleep… I think we were watching a Dice Tower video on most anticipated games of 2025 when someone started talking about Azul Duel… and Julie started smacking my arm as she’s done before and saying, “Yes please!! Yes please!! Yes please!!” 🙂

On this day at Flipside – much like at Barnes & Noble earlier in the week – I could have easily dropped $500-600 but was committed to limiting myself to just my remaining $100 in gift cards… after about 30 minutes up and down the aisles, I picked out something a little heavier that I thought we’d both enjoy… The Fox Experiment…

In The Fox Experiment, you’ll breed your own domesticated foxes. In each round you’ll select a pair of fox parents who have certain traits. You’ll gain those specific trait dice, roll them, then try to move them around to make complete trait symbols which you’ll then mark off on your pup card. You’ll then gain trait tokens depending on how many traits you marked off which you’ll use to upgrade tracks on your personal player board.

At the end of the round, the previous generation of foxes will be cleared and all of the new pups will be moved to the kennel — thus becoming candidates to be chosen as parents in the next round. The game ends after 5 rounds and you’ll gain points for pleasing patrons (end of game scoring bonuses), studies completed (personal player objectives), if you ever won the friendliest fox award, upgrades on your personal player board, and extra tokens. The player with the most points wins!

Awards & Honors

2023 Board Game Quest Awards Best Strategy/Euro Game Nominee

2024 American Tabletop Strategy Games Recommended

2023 Meeples Choice Award Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): There were a number of things that attracted me to this game… the gameplay looks interesting and ‘thinky’ yet the designer used some elements that are usually found in much lighter games like using dry erase cards for player’s foxes so in each game, players can create and write their foxes’ names right on the cards…

By now I thought I had surely burned through my $100 worth of gift cards but decided to grab one more inexpensive item on my way to the register… the first expansion for Heat: Pedal to the Metal – Heavy Rain…

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): OK – I have a problem (I heard that)… there’s one thing in board gaming that drives me nuts but obviously has the desired effect (at least on me)… that’s when a publisher puts out a game with an insert that includes space for expansions that don’t even exist at the time the game is released… this game went one step further and left space in the insert for cars for TWO expansions!! Of course I had to fill those spaces – well, at least one of them as the second expansion won’t be out until later this year (yes – I’ll have to have that too)…

Oh yeah – with the Flipside board game discount and my gift cards, this visit cost me only $10 and change out of pocket… 🙂

Draft & Write Records is a draft and write game for 1-6 players, aged 10+ taking 45 minutes.

Awards & Honors

2023 5 Seasons Best Portuguese Family Game Nominee
2024 UK Games Expo Best Card Game (Strategic) Nominee
2023 5 Seasons Best Solo Mode Nominee

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): Like I said, Julie (and I) love ‘and write’ games… ever since Avenue and Welcome To and Three Sisters, etc… this looks to be somewhere in the middle and we can’t wait to try it.

March 7… I’ve been going over and over in my mind just what to do for the guy with the tiny hardware store in Luzerne who was key to my getting my shed opened before the storm a few weeks ago… he has a Stewart’s and a Cumberland Farms right up the road but I have no idea which he might patronize… after much consideration, I decided on one of my favorite treats that, chances were, he’d never had… the amazing cookies from the Witch’s Cafe in Greenwich!! I left work about 2:00, picked up the order then drove about an hour and 15 minutes over what I call ‘the back way’ into Corinth and back to Luzerne in hopes that he’d be working…

I walked in the store and spotted the familiar silhouette in the back of the store… “Chris??” I called as he approached the front… “I don’t know if you remember me but a few weeks ago I was running all over trying to find pet friendly ice melt right before that last storm… I’d ordered a 20 pound bag from your website but you were out and said that the website doesn’t tap your inventory… but you had 50 pound bags in stock, held one for me and, though I’m sure there was a price difference, you didn’t charge me… you saved my butt that day!!! I would never have gotten my shed opened or been able to clean up after that storm”… as I started to hand him the box I asked, “You’re not Diabetic are you??” He smiled and said he wasn’t… I gave him the box with the Witch’s Cafe sticker on it and told him that this was from one of my favorite places near where I work… he opened the box and his eyes got huge… “You didn’t have to do this…” he said but I told him I had to do something… I could see him tearing up a little as he said, “You just made my weekend!! You made my weekend… do you need anything??” Nope – I just needed to do something nice for someone who I didn’t know who came through when I really needed something the most. 🙂

March 9… another weekend with Julie resting and me and the dogs entertaining ourselves and each other… I did some reading and more videos and worked on my tech and refresh notes for some of the new games and created dry erase versions of the score sheets for Draft & Write Records if for no other reason than to make them a little bigger since we’ve yet to blow through the provided paper sheets with any of the games… 🙂

I capped off the weekend with another solo run at Oros and this game was very different from my previous attempts… the AI opponents were creating mountains and sacred sites right out of the gate!! By the time I managed to get a follower to the mountain, I was left with no option but to create the temples (3rd level)… then the board seemed to dry up… there were no mountains or even level 4 land masses to collide to create mountains… then I got my followers in the way of my own action choices and ended up getting my ass handed to me yet again… 🙂

March 10… today the last of my game bling arrived… 🙂

Over the past few months I’ve found myself with some extra spending money and great deals on some game component upgrades – some I’ve been holding off on for years…

March 15… Julie’s struggling with meds and knee pain and weather changes and probably some allergies too as the snow continues to rapidly melt and lawn begins to appear… for whatever reason, I’ve been wanting to get Heat: Pedal to the Metal to the table again…

My revised Legends cards that are used to control non-human cars in the game make it easy to fill out the race field and have proved to be a very popular download on Board Game Geek’s website… I read up on the rules and realized I’d never written my Rules Teach and Refresh notes for this game as I have for so many other games (that’ll be next)… they’ve proved invaluable when teaching with the game group or refreshing myself after a game hasn’t hit the table in some time… today I just created a quick Legends player aid – condensing the steps but knowing full well that, after a few rounds, I wouldn’t need it anymore… 🙂

I setup the base game with all 7 cars (6 controlled by the Legends deck) – including the orange car from the 1st expansion… the 2nd expansion will be out probably this summer and, as I said earlier, I’ll have to have it since the game insert that holds all the components already had space for both expansions…

WOW – I suck at this game!! I started in 5th position and might as well have been the crazy camel in Camel Up (another race game where one camel has gone crazy, runs the wrong way on the track and might carry you on its back)… last place… get close… last place… get close… what they say about managing your engine’s heat in the game is true… I just have to figure it out… but it was still great to play it again. 🙂

Julie had been resting and came in mid-afternoon and asked to play Gnome Hollow… I was ready for this one… had my notes finished and my fancy wooden upgraded components neatly sorted and packed… she would have raced me in Heat: Pedal to the Metal but I was ready to be a gnome for a while… 🙂

In Gnome Hollow we’re placing tiles to eventually create rings of mushrooms the grow various magical mushrooms (not those mushrooms you hippie freak)… the more tiles in the ring, the more valuable it is plus you collect the various mushrooms to sell at the market for treasures which are your points in the game… if you’ve spent any time perusing this website you’ll recall my saying that I can tell when Julie ‘gets’ a game because the questions stop which usually means I’m going to get my ass handed to me… this game was close and, when the game end was triggered, we spent 10 minutes trying to get her one last score… she got close but I managed to come out ahead on this night. We LOVED this game!! The artwork is charming and the gameplay interesting while not being overly ‘thinky’… there are a lot of pieces to setup and pack but that won’t stop us from getting this to the table pretty often. OH – and the upgraded components felt amazing!!!

After supper I debated another race or maybe return to my teach notes I’d been working on but ended up just relaxing with some golf and more game videos… Julie Facetimes an old friend for hours at a time and, as it got later, I thought about going to bed but wasn’t really tired so I setup Draft & Write Records for a solo run through… Julie came in because she knows I’m usually in bed by now, saw the game and asked, “What are we playing?” I thought her meds might be messing with her again – maybe she just needed some sleep – but she wanted to play and I thought I knew enough to get us started and could lookup the rest as we went…

It’s a ‘blank’ & write game… these are games where you do something, then choose an area on a game sheet to write down the result… I think the first one we played was a FLIP & write called Avenue and later, Welcome To and, more recently, Super Mega Lucky Box… roll & writes are another type where you roll dice then write something… Yahtzee falls into this category but the games have gotten much more complicated and interesting (in my opinion) since Yahtzee… probably one of our favorite roll & writes is Ganz schön Clever – a game I ordered online without realizing there wasn’t an English version so when mine arrived and was in GERMAN, I had to create my own rulebook with the help of Google Translate and several searches… it worked and I was able to figure out the game and, when the English rulebook was finally available, I learned that my translations and interpretations were spot on… 🙂 One of the more complex that we’ve played would be Three Sisters…

Anyway, Draft & Write Records (full information above) is a DRAFT & write… drafting is a card mechanic where players are dealt a hand of cards, usually have to select one to play, then pass the remaining cards to an opponent… as the (fill-in-the-blank) & write games have evolved, one of their most endearing features is creating combos… mark something off in one section that lets you mark something else in another section which gets you a bonus you can apply somewhere else, etc… such is the case in this game where players are given a ‘band sheet’ and proceed to put together a band and crew, complete an agenda, plot a tour, release singles and albums, etc… it’s ‘combo-tastic’ as they say… 🙂

Tonight I’m sure Julie was really tired – or maybe it was her meds – but, even though she stayed awake and seemed to know what she was doing, she only managed 35 points to my 120… we both loved it but I think where we struggled was no fault of the game but rather our recent gaming habits… I can’t remember the last ‘blank’ & write we played so I feel like we were overcomplicating this game… once we had a handle on the iconography, we were fighting our own brains over how easy the process was… I pick this card and mark of the matching icon and, if conditions are met, I mark off other icons in other areas… mildly ‘thinky’ but not brain burning like some other games we’ve been playing… We’re anxious to try it again and I’m curious to see if Julie bounces back when she’s in a different frame of mind… 🙂

March 16… Selena is up to help with St. Patrick’s Day meal… once we had everything loaded and cooking, she helped Julie rearrange some of her craft stuff – heading towards a major rearrangement of our living room… then she was ready to relax while everything slow cooked and wanted to play a game… Julie’s blood pressure keeps getting low and I think it’s because she’s not eating enough… she needs to get her weight down in order to have her knee replacements so they have her on a shot now… it’s suppressing her appetite but maybe too much… so it was just Selena and I… I showed her some of the latest games we’d been playing but Oros was the one that got her attention (that’s my girl)… 🙂

We were probably 3/4 of the way through when we both stopped for bathroom breaks… Julie was up again and throwing reorganization ideas at Selena so I let Selena go back to work on that… Julie really misses her so it was better that they get to spend the time together… 🙂 Selena was doing well and really liked the game… there’s an almost Chess-like quality to puzzle out about it… maybe I can get Julie to try it again some day… 🙂

Julie’s pretty frustrated that she’s unable to go places because, with Selena gone, we only have my van and I need to get back and forth to work 35-40 minutes away… a friend of hers on Facebook was telling her that a relative suddenly had to go into a home and the family was selling off much of his property to cover the costs… one of the items listed was a Honda Accord with about 60,000 miles on it and the price was great and they were the only owners… she said they were getting a lot of requests but we could Zelle them a deposit to hold it until we decided for sure so I sent them $500… then there was nothing… she didn’t answers messages or Facetime… I thought she might have been overwhelmed… then I began thinking this could have been a scam…

March 17… still no response from Julie’s friend… I asked her how long she’d had the account and it’s been 5 or 6 years…

Mid-afternoon Julie calls me at work… she finally got hold of her and her account had been hacked!! I shot over to the local branch of my bank and explained what had happened… they were fantastic!! They immediately called Zelle, learned the best way to proceed and filed a dispute so there’s a chance I might get that $500 back… because I never gave out any information or clicked any links, they felt my account would be fine… the teller asked if she could do anything else and I told her, “No – I try to limit myself to one dumbass thing a week.” To which she replied, “Then I’ll see you next week.” I loved it and everybody laughed… 🙂

After work I took Mom out for supper to get away from the shit show that is the Pines… it’s been a roller coaster but a few weeks ago – out of the blue – they move her roommate out and a different one in… she’s told because the room she came from complained that she was abusive… REALLY?!? So you move her in with my Mom?!? Turns out the resident is fine (other than Dementia)… it’s her DAUGHTER that’s the abusive one… she shouts at Mom and is generally a royal bitch to everyone… the new roommate will only eat in the dining room with some of the other residents but the daughter insists on bringing her back, putting the TV on full blast and cranking up the heat (that she’s been told not to touch)… a few days ago she came in, put the TV and heat on full, wheeled her Mom to the dining room then went home… what an asshole!!! I’m hoping I can convince her to move to Fort Hudson when they have an opening… I really wish Julie and I had room at the house… she deserves better than this…

Got home from work and supper and scam cleanup, plopped into my chair, had a snack, played with the dogs and soon got bored and decided to take a crack at Draft & Write Records SOLO… Wow – this game is tough for being so simple… I quickly found myself running out of cards (which is one of the end game triggers) and only came away with 92 points (after my 120 point debut against Julie)… there’s a chart in the rulebook to see how your score measures up… neither of my scores even registered!! I need more practice… 🙂

March 18… someone at the Pines was finally motivated to improve Mom’s situation and this morning they moved her to another room because, according to Pines staff, the person in the window bed (bed A) they say controls the room and if there’s an issue the other person goes… good plan, eh?? For once it worked in Mom’s favor… there was an opening in a room with a sweet older lady who likes the room cool and didn’t want the window so, for the first time, Mom has the window and has room to breathe and a room she can breath in that’s not 90 degrees… AND she isn’t getting yelled at by a visitor!! I stopped on my way home to reconnect the Bluetooth transmitter I put on her TV so she could hear it through a small Bluetooth speaker she had at the apartment… took 5 minutes but I could already tell she was much happier and I’ll bet she got a good nights sleep for the first time in months… 🙂

Got home and checked my bank account… while my bank was pretty sure my account would be fine after my transfer to a scammer, they did think I should keep an eye on it which I do anyway… nothing suspicious…

After supper I relaxed with another go round with Draft & Write Records… this time I went for more bonuses but that blows through the deck quicker and I only managed 60 points… I’m getting worse… 🙂

March 19… Mom actually got some sleep!! The room is comfortable and quiet and all of her furniture isn’t crammed into a corner because a wicked witch of a daughter pushed everything ‘out of the way’ so HER Mom would have more room… we’re now hearing that a lot of the staff spoke up about the daughter and how she listens to no one and argues every point… I don’t know what rights these facilities have when the issue isn’t a resident but one of their relatives but it would seem they could tell them to find another place… never mind – it’s run by NY State and that would be giving money away… 🙂 At least for the time being, my Mom is happy and relaxed which is a welcome change… I had her out for dinner and shopping after work…

When I got home and checked mail and verified that my bank account hadn’t been emptied yet, I setup another session of Draft & Write Records before heading to bed… I’m not sure if it was the luck of the card draws or my clearer mindset but tonight I managed 141 points!! The rulebook ranks that as ‘gigging steady’… it’s low but not terrible… now if I could just get back to that in real life… 🙂

March 22… after a slew of morning errands and running around I settled back in with some the rulebook and more videos for The Fox Experiment… I think I’m ready for a solo run at this…

I was contemplating setting it all up after supper but could feel myself starting to run out of steam having been up since about 4:00am… I started my end-of-day routine when Julie started to stir and asked me to setup a game…

There was no doubt what it would be but I hadn’t even started my teach notes so I knew it would be rough… I got through a rough teach and we managed to get into the third round (of 5) before calling it a night… I like it though I’m not sure how much but Julie really likes it despite my fumbling instructions and frequent visits to the rulebook… hopefully we get another attempt in soon. 🙂

March 23… after some early morning shopping and a run to fix Mom’s TV (which had apparently finished an update and was now working fine), I settled in and started typing my notes for The Fox Experiment…. I’ve started doing these for all our games… it makes relearning them easier for reteaching them and the process helps me get a deeper understanding of the game that I try to convey in as few words as possible when I teach… it’s been working very well…

Julie was up and moving mid-afternoon and wanted to finish the game we’d started last night but I already had it packed up (so the dogs bumping the table or the cat jumping in the middle of it didn’t send pieces flying off – never to be found again)… the dogs wanted to go out to play so she took them out and I set everything up again for a new game… now that we have an idea of how to play it should go pretty quickly…

March 24… received a letter from Zelle… the transfer is immediate – once it’s gone it’s gone… they’re doing whatever it is they do in these cases but said there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to retrieve all or even any of my money… lesson learned… 🙁

March 25… the dice trays arrived today!! Mine is pictured above… Julie’s is purple… I forgot I ordered the magnetic ones… 🙂

As I was shutting down for the night, Julie came in the office and was very excited to see them… put hers together, kept saying she loved them, took the dogs out and went back to bed… maybe we’ll test them out tomorrow night… 🙂

March 30… the girls keep asking me what I want for my birthday (the 31st)… I know they’re all trying to save money… Selena and Mike are house hunting and Julie’s paying off her old credit cards… I keep telling them I just want a game night…

Late yesterday afternoon Selena came up and she, Julie and I got in a game of Gnome Hollow!! Selena liked the cuteness from the beginning but by the end she really liked the game too… and she almost won had I not gotten on a tear early with some big rings for lots of mushrooms and bonuses and flowers – all of which secured my victory with 81 points followed by Selena with 70 and Julie (who started slow with an over-sized ring that took forever to complete and never recovered) with 35. It was great sitting down with my 3 girls for a little while… just what I wanted!! Happy birthday!! 🙂

April 4th… the beginning of a week that would push my blood pressure to new highs… 8 days of Julie having people staying over with their dogs in tow and our dogs being confined to our bedroom… it all culminated on the 8th day when Julie picked up a friend to take her to a job interview… a dog ran out from nowhere, a truck swerved to avoid the dog – forcing Julie to back up where she took out someone’s mailbox and damaged the passenger side of the van which now has to go in for body work… what a week!!

April 12… today, after getting screwed on the last Kickstarter I backed (and after recently getting scammed out of $500 trying to get my wife a car), I am once again putting my faith in a recent campaign… The Great Harbor.

The actions that can be played include: gaining resources that are important for shipbuilding, scheduling workers to work on building the ships, increasing your colony capacity to dock ships and population, sending your ships to trade along the Mediterranean and be on the lookout for pirates, hire special workers and diplomats and more.

The game ends after six rounds after which victory points from the constructed ships, buildings, senate influence, and objectives are then calculated, and the player with the most points is the winner of the game and proclaimed the most powerful governor of the Mediterranean!

Why (we wanted it / like it (or don’t): The beautiful production caught my eye (the deluxe price point didn’t hurt either…metal coins, baby)… then I watched a couple of early demos and the dice placement mechanic had me hooked… I’m sure Julie will like it too and can already hear her exclaiming, “That’s cool!!” when she sees how the dice placement / action selection works… it’s a very slick design that I sadly won’t be able to play until it delivers sometime in 2026… 🙂

April 13… got Mom out for some shopping and lunch after a rough week or two with Mom… her sweet old roommate turns out has an arrogant dick of a son who comes in to visit 8:00 or 9:00pm – after everyone’s asleep, turns on all the lights, wakes up his mom and visits… OR sits with her just outside the door with another ‘resident’ – a younger man who treats it more like an apartment building and regularly checks himself out for the night and heads to local bars… and the men are loud which stirs up the other residents that have all settled in!! A couple nights ago Mom was so upset that they were going to medicate her to calm her down!! She questioned it and was repeatedly told that he could visit whenever he wanted because he works late… BULLSHIT!!

Finally a couple days ago, some of the few staff members with their heads on straight, told her she was entirely correct… that there should be no visitors on the floor after 8:00pm – what they called ‘lockdown’… the visitation exception is meant for resident’s that are sadly near the end of life… last week the son was contacted and told that, if he came to visit, he was NOT to turn on the lights and needed to take his mom to the dining hall… the nurses on the floor were also instructed that, if they saw him on the other resident who checks himself out together, they were to split them up because they apparently have no consideration for any of the other residents. Finally. We’ll see how long it lasts but I doubt it will work because a couple nights ago, all three nurses assigned to the floor called in and the one from an agency that was called in to cover has no idea of what to look out for.