What game did you play last?

[Damnations Fury]

Dice Hospital: A fun, uniquely themed dice placement & manipulation game. Has a few oddities in it it though (better to release all your patients at the same time, so end up holding a few back) to make it gamey and if it ran for the full 90 minutes on the box it would outstay it welcome. We did it in 60 and even then it was beginning to drag a little for me. If it wasn't for the theme and the power (surgeon) drafting it wouldn't particularly stand out, but a dice dying when it hits 0 and discharged when it hits 7 makes so much sense.
6.5/10

Blackout: Hong Kong: Looks drab and takes mechanisms from Alexander Phisters previous games, some of which I like and some I don't. Ultimately feels closest to Mombasa with the card play/take back mechanism. Sadly it replaces the engaging share system (I want to get shares in businesses I think you're going improve) with a dull area completion race (place cubes on map, once an area is surrounded by one player, all players score cubes around it). It's a solid euro, with strong interlinking mechanisms going on. I did enjoy the game and many will love it, but I've seen it all before in better packages. Oh and did I say the art is horrendous, so get Mombasa instead.
6/10

 

[JeditOjanen]

Smartphone Inc - played last Wednesday. It's an economic area control game about producing and selling phones, with a brilliant action selection mechanism. Each player has two double sided "pads" with various icons on in a 2x3 grid, and at the start of the turn they secretly position them in such a way that one pad partially covers the other; the icons visible are the actions you take. You can also collect improvement tiles which cover the existing icons on your pads or provide bonus production, and develop technologies which improve the effect of certain icons. If you can find it - it's a Russian game and not on wide release - I recommend it.

 

[DampCat]

We should do a boardgame meet.

 

[JeditOjanen]

Repeat play of Newton tonight; I came third, but it was pretty close and I know what went wrong.

After that I got two of my shorter games to the table. Discovery: The Era of Voyage is a short, simple combination of pickup and deliver and a rondel; each player has a ship which moves between cards representing islands, but you have to go in the same direction until you return to the central island. As you go you collect resources that are used to upgrade islands to provide stronger actions for everyone, but which score you points for area control. It's neat and has a decent amount of planning for such a small game.

Then we played Narabi, a cooperative game where players must swap cards to arrange a set of stones into numerical sequence in as few moves as possible. The catch is that each stone has a rule on how it can be swapped - only with the player to your left, only with an even number and so on. Only the player who currently holds a stone can look at its rule, and he is forbidden to tell anyone what it is, only if he is able to swap the stone for another. The rules are also assigned randomly at the start of the game, so every game is different. We had a good start and were able to finish the game in 10 moves for a Good score, but it was very thinky. If you like Hanabi or The Game, you'll like this.

 

[Bickaxe]

We should do a boardgame meet.

I like this idea.
Just a case of where and when.

 

[Damnations Fury]

Arkham Horror 3rd Edition: The 2nd edition was my first modern board game and will always hold a little fondness, but lets be fair, it's a horrendously antiqued behemoth by modern standards. It's still an enjoyable game, but it definitely feels like a mid 2000's Fantasy Flight release, too long for the amount of game play, with too many tokens and decks. Just too much effort to play. Eldritch Horror improved on this a little (though I've still had overly long games), especially with the scenarios linked tighter to the gods, but I was never as much a fan of the globetrotting theme, my character felt further detached from me.

So here we are now at the 3rd edition which has learnt a few lessons, particularly from the LCG and I think they've done very well to sharpen the whole experience up. It's still a pain to setup, with lots of decks etc, but that was never going to change. The game itself though flowed so much much smoother. The 2 actions each turn system is still pretty much the same, but the amount of overhead you have to deal with each turn is so much lighter. Managing monsters, random effects, special events all feel like less of a chore, enough for another player to comment after one round how it already felt better. There's less dice chucking, speeding the game up as monster are handled very similarly to the LCG with them engaging/being attached to players. The scenario themes are in there adding good variation between the gods. The oddest thing we noticed was how the doom tokens on the board are handled almost pandemic disease like. They spawn from cards which every so often get reshuffled back into the deck in a way so that they will be the first to get picked again. Lastly it's back in the city, which as said earlier is my preferred setting.

The game took 2hr45 including setup, quick rules overview (it's fairly easy to teach) and a few rules lookup's as you'd expect for a first game. I'd expect a normal game to take around 2hrs.
8.5/10

Chronicles of Crime: Played 3 scenarios of this and was left with mixed feelings.I really like crime solving / puzzling games and this one has 2 USP's. First the card scanning app works well. If I'm taking to someone I can ask them about other person by scanning that person. This is great because unlike Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective etc you aren't always hot with the unchaining text, where you really want to ask something more specific but obviously can't. The other is the VR looking around the crime scene for clues which is interesting. I felt that it would be easier on a tablet as the in VR mode it is easy to be out of focus on a headset and on the none VR mode, the image is too small (easy to missing things) or all but the larges phones. The cases were interesting, the 2nd we played in particular had a very dark theme.

My issues were that twofold. First we sometimes were guessing how to do particular actions. I guess with further plays we kind of have a grasp of that now, though it was annoying in a game with a time (actions cost 5 minutes etc) limit. The second is that I did feel at times it came to asking particular people about anything and everything until you asked about the correct item/person. Generally you know what you want to ask, but other times we weren't so sure and linking with the previous 5 minutes per question, it didn't always sit well with me.

Still ultimately you know if you like this style of game and if you do, I do recommend it.
7.5/10

 

[JeditOjanen]

Got A Feast for Odin to the table with its expansion for the first time. It's a huge game changer. The new islands have some insane bonuses available, making wide exploration very possible - one player took three islands and still filled his home board while scoring 80+ points. The addition of horses and pigs improves animal breeding as a strategy, and the new U-shaped pieces grant much easier access to the bonus Ore (which previously needed at least two pieces or the Chalice). I also really like the new asymmetric start tiles: players each start with a random double-sided hut tile which provides easy access to strong bonuses and extra income, and lets you pick a direction to move in. If you like AFFO, it's a must buy.

 

[No1newts]

Had a game of Descent with my son tonight using the app to play the Overlord. Good game but I forgot most of the rules so my son was rather bored by the time we got started (he's only 7) I like the app as Overlord and will probably have a play through myself sometime soon.

Christmas soon so it will be boardgame overdrive, ordered the Catan 6 player expansion as it's always hugely popular in the family.

 

[Droolinggimp]

There are too many games out there. My wish list is huge. Alas, no money to buy any.

 

[Damnations Fury]

Underwater Cities: A decent worker placement/ hand management game. I like that whenever you take a spot, you must play a card. If your card matched the colour (there are 3) of the type you are playing on, you get to take that cards spacial action, so there is a nice complexity between wanting to take the bonus and taking the exact spot you want sometimes. For me Gugong does something similar much better though, and without the the amount of AP with this can have. Too often I was waiting nearly 10 minutes between turns. A game which should have taken at most 2 hours, ended up just over 3 and just didn't keep me engaged enough to want to go back with so many better competitors recently released.
6.5/10

 

[JeditOjanen]

Christmas Tree

Yes, it's a bit early, but someone wanted to play it. Someone always does. You draft cards in three rounds to build a tableau, which is your Christmas tree. Some points are awarded for flakes of snow on decorations, for positioning the correct ornaments around gingerbread men and for matching lightbulbs on the tree, but a lot come from the hidden objectives. Each player starts with a hand of four of these, and before each round begins they play one face down. At the end of the round it is revealed and scored. It's quite light and quick, but like Santa once a year seems about the right amount for it to make an appearance.

E: Oh come on, word filter...

 

[413x]

Sidereal confluence

My current favourite game

It's a trading/tech tree type game.
You have to trade to win. And trade well.
Trading naturally makes it. Interactive.

One great mechanic is that each faction is different in its play style and complexity. This means its easier for people of Different abilities to enjoy the game.

The faction I like to Play has a complex internal tech tree like a puzzle. Another faction my gf likes to play produces a lot of low value stuff and focuses On the ability to trade well.

Its based in space, but this is just a skin really.

 

[JeditOjanen]

Cryptid was played last night. Players are a team of cryptozoologists looking for elusive semi-mythical beasts. Each player has a clue to the one space on the map where the cryptid's lair could be - but each player also wants to take the credit for finding the lair, so they don't share the information. Players take it in turns to select a space and either ask one player if it is or is not the lair based on their clue, or tell everyone that it could be the lair and ask everyone if they can confirm. If nobody can say that a space isn't the lair, then it is the lair.

Quite appropriately, this game is the one that got away from me at Spiel. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but it does require people to be on the ball. We played two rounds and one of them was spoiled because one player failed to understand his clue.

I also got Cryptocurrency to the table. In this game players are bitcoin startups trying to maximise earnings from mining and selling four types of cryptocurrency while manipulating the price with rumours. You can cash out for a safe investment, but if you do you pass on the rewards for holding the most of each type of coin. At the end of the game, however, at least one currency will turn out to be a worthless scam. It's pretty quick, best with four players, and has two advanced variants.

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

Added a bunch of games to my collection this week, I wanted a few that my kids could enjoy as well so went with Sheriff of nottingham and Small world (Rising sun and backed the tainted grail kickstarter also but for myself!)

Sheriff of Nottingham is great fun and my 7 year old really enjoyed attempting to do some voices for the sheriff, I thought it was a great game!

 

[No1newts]

Christmas day playthrough of Fireball Island which arrived on Christmas Eve from Kickstarter, perfect timing

Really fun game and the whole family had a laugh with some fun moments that kept us laughing and engaged. Two issues with the game though; first, the box is really flimsy, almost paper thin cardboard, and there is no demarcation for bits so it's just a mess inside waiting to fall to pieces after remaking it. Secondly, the rules seem to assume you've played it a dozen times before, they do not logically flow and aren't really clear at all so we had a bit of hassle working out what was going on and there are a few things we probably got wrong.

That being said, really fun game and a brilliant one for families or for gaming groups looking for a fun, no real effort game. Really, really glad I backed it.

 

[PixieLandGirl]

Kinda sad I didn't back Fireball Island.

Wrapped up the end of the year board gaming with the parents. Can be a little difficult to balance at times as my mum doesn't like overly complex games & both parents could do with new eyes. Still, not a bad end to the year.

1. Azul
2. Pandemic
3. Side Effects
4. Tiny Epic Zombies
5. Sushi Go
6. Forbidden Desert
7. Overseers
8. Splendor
9. Keyforge
10. Dead of Winter
11. Five Tribes + Artisans
12. Castles of Mad King Ludwig
13. Who Goes There

Happy New Year fellow meeples.

 

[Kyrne]

Kinda sad I didn't back Fireball Island.

Wrapped up the end of the year board gaming with the parents. Can be a little difficult to balance at times as my mum doesn't like overly complex games & both parents could do with new eyes. Still, not a bad end to the year.

1. Azul
2. Pandemic
3. Side Effects
4. Tiny Epic Zombies
5. Sushi Go
6. Forbidden Desert
7. Overseers
8. Splendor
9. Keyforge
10. Dead of Winter
11. Five Tribes + Artisans
12. Castles of Mad King Ludwig
13. Who Goes There

Happy New Year fellow meeples.

Wow what a night ! Some decent games int hat list - bet you was playing all day / night ha.

 

[PixieLandGirl]

Wow what a night ! Some decent games int hat list - bet you was playing all day / night ha.

Ah that list was for the last week, although we did have days where we gamed for the majority of the day. A few of the games saw the table multiple times over the course of the week, which was nice too.

I have the Five Tribes expansions, Terraforming Mars and Food Chain Magnate on the way. Hopefully 2019 will be a fun filled year

 

[Lord-Jaffa]

Oh nice, where did you get food chain from? And was it a reasonable price!

I'm looking at Spirit Islands at the moment for my next purchase!

 

[PixieLandGirl]

Oh nice, where did you get food chain from? And was it a reasonable price!

I'm looking at Spirit Islands at the moment for my next purchase!

Gameslore had it back in stock for £65, which seemed like an OK price for it.