What game did you play last?

[Flibster]

Thursday night is gaming night.

Actually did some this afternoon too... 1 new game, 2 old favourites.

New game - Azul Summer Pavillion
It's ok. Only did a single game as it rook a while to get going. Will need playing again to fully get into it. I can't understand why some people are saying it's the easiest to learn and teach, I still think the first one is the easiest, followed by Stained Glass of Sintra, then this one. It's a different take on the Azul idea, you take the tiles but don't place them on your board until the end of the round. You also have wildcard tiles each round, and the colour of them change each round. Definitely going to have to give it another go.

Then onto the old favourites.

The Captain is Dead: Lockdown - Great game. Co-op against the game itself. Set with 10 minutes to go in your favourite science fiction show, the captain is dead, you've been captured and have to escape from the alien prison without getting deadded. Lockdown is the third in the series, I'd recommend starting with the first Captain is Dead where you're trying to defend the ship from aliens while repairing it. Yet to play to second one which is set on a planet.

Then with a few minutes remaining, we played a few games of Roll for It. Simple, quick to learn and play.

 

[Bickaxe]

Been playing The Captain is Dead as well. Really enjoyable and gets very interesting as systems get destroyed.
Its a little like FTL: The Boardgame (would buy if it existed) and you can get into unwinnable situations.

 

[Pookie Bear]

Just got a copy of Pandemic (which I've played before) but never owned, and a copy of Splendor which has great reviews. Looking forward to trying it.

 

[Flibster]

Been playing The Captain is Dead as well. Really enjoyable and gets very interesting as systems get destroyed.
Its a little like FTL: The Boardgame (would buy if it existed) and you can get into unwinnable situations.

Yeah, it is a bit like FTL. With Lockdown as you're all captured everything starts out locked (nothing works, have to unlock the computer to get more skill cards and so on) and you're trying to avoid the aliens... until you can get to a point where you can kill them off.

Once got utterly shafted by the first game. Completely unwinnable situation. Engineering space had its door lock, thats fine.... unless the teleporter goes down we can still get in there.

Next alert card... teleporter fails... So annoying. But there was laughter because someone said as long as the teleporter is ok we're good.

Going to have to get the first game now. Also want to try the second.

Just got a copy of Pandemic (which I've played before) but never owned, and a copy of Splendor which has great reviews. Looking forward to trying it.

Not played the original Pandemic. Really should. Played Fall of Rome and Reign of Cthulhu (that we now own) and they're both great.

Splendor is really quite simple, but can be very competitive and infuriating, depending on who you're playing with. If you like it, Century Spice Road is kind of a more advanced version of it.

 

[JeditOjanen]

Thursday night is gaming night.

Actually did some this afternoon too... 1 new game, 2 old favourites.

New game - Azul Summer Pavillion
It's ok. Only did a single game as it rook a while to get going. Will need playing again to fully get into it. I can't understand why some people are saying it's the easiest to learn and teach, I still think the first one is the easiest, followed by Stained Glass of Sintra, then this one. It's a different take on the Azul idea, you take the tiles but don't place them on your board until the end of the round. You also have wildcard tiles each round, and the colour of them change each round. Definitely going to have to give it another go.

Azul is easier to teach the mechanics of, but much harder to teach to play adequately. You will get turboshafted the first time you play Azul, it will not be your fault that you do, and the penalties for doing so are disproportionate. Summer Pavilion is only slightly harder to teach ("you can only take one Wildcard even if you only take Wildcards" is the one rule I've ever had to repeat) but it's much easier to make plays that work, even if inefficiently.

I dislike Splendour a great deal. It's an engine builder which rewards early success with later success and the first players to take turns are pretty much given early success on a platter. I have never seen the fourth player in a game of Splendour win.

 

[Flibster]

Azul is easier to teach the mechanics of, but much harder to teach to play adequately. You will get turboshafted the first time you play Azul, it will not be your fault that you do, and the penalties for doing so are disproportionate. Summer Pavilion is only slightly harder to teach ("you can only take one Wildcard even if you only take Wildcards" is the one rule I've ever had to repeat) but it's much easier to make plays that work, even if inefficiently.

I dislike Splendour a great deal. It's an engine builder which rewards early success with later success and the first players to take turns are pretty much given early success on a platter. I have never seen the fourth player in a game of Splendour win.

Going to be playing Summer Pavilion again on Monday with a slightly different group, so going to have to teach it. Read through the rules a couple more times and also paid a visit to the BGG forums for a couple of clarifications.

Splendor is one of our most played games. We've found it to be pretty even all round, taught it to a 90 year old last year, and on his second game he beat us... I've won from all starting positions, it very much depends on what cards come up, and possibly as importantly, what nobes are on the board. Was given the Cities of Splendor expansions for Christmas. Those I'm not so sure about. 4 separate little expansions that you can't play together... It's just one of them at a time. Other half has played all 4, I haven't yet.

 

[JeditOjanen]

Got On Mars to the table for the first time yesterday. It's a bit of a beast, but reasonably intuitive once you understand the mechanisms. It's also an enormous table hog - we barely fit a 3P game on a 72"x30" table.

 

[Flibster]

Got On Mars to the table for the first time yesterday. It's a bit of a beast, but reasonably intuitive once you understand the mechanisms. It's also an enormous table hog - we barely fit a 3P game on a 72"x30" table.

That looks like a bit of a monster. Don't think we'd be able to play it at either of our groups we go to. Not enough space and possibly enough time.

I got to play Quacks of Quedlinburg for the first time yesterday. Really enjoyed it. Fairly simple game of pushing your luck really, although there is a bit of strategy and memory involved in expanding your bag of tokens and remembering what you have in there. I can see why some people can get a game done in under an hour, took us just under 2 hours, had to keep going over the rules for one of the players. Got a little frustrating. I can also understand why some people use coin cases for the tokens. They're going to get a lot of handling and will wear quickly. Lots of tokens as well, 215 in total I believe. May have to pick it up myself, only something like £26 from Amazon at the moment.

 

[PixieLandGirl]

I'd say protecting them or upgrading them is a must. I decided to make my own tokens but it was worth it in the end. Token count 216 for the base game & 166 for the expansion.

I keep considering making little spell books but I've not gotten around to it yet.

Spoiler: Tokens

Played a 5 player game of Architects of the West Kingdom earlier in the week. All of us had never played before but we all really enjoyed it. I did have a boxing error, 2 lots of stone, when one should have been marble but we worked around it.

 

[Flibster]

First time playing Snowdonia today. Quite a bit of setup, but the game plays really nicely. It's mainly a worker placement game, not too complicated and took around 90 minuets for us, 2 newbies and an experienced player. Artwork and theme is really cool on it as it's based on reality (ish)

Followed that with a couple of games of Roll For It. Always a fun little game.

 

[JeditOjanen]

First time playing Snowdonia today. Quite a bit of setup, but the game plays really nicely. It's mainly a worker placement game, not too complicated and took around 90 minuets for us, 2 newbies and an experienced player. Artwork and theme is really cool on it as it's based on reality (ish)

I've only played the sequel, Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea. It's less variable than Snowdonia, which has a massive number of options in its Master Set, but is otherwise similar and a little faster. We knocked off a 5-player game in less than two hours including teaching.

 

[Flibster]

I've only played the sequel, Alubari: A Nice Cup of Tea. It's less variable than Snowdonia, which has a massive number of options in its Master Set, but is otherwise similar and a little faster. We knocked off a 5-player game in less than two hours including teaching.

The setup of Snowdonia took about 15 minutes on it's own. Lots of bits that need to be in the right place, working out how much cast iron, stone and coal needs to go into the bag... Luckily the previous owner of it had bagged everything and put the wooden tokens in plastic sorters. Made it a bit easier.

Once the game gets going, it's not too bad. Will definitely have to stick in another game or two before we really get the swing of it.

 

[Flibster]

Played Ticket to Ride Europe vs Alexa...

I lost.

Badly...

 

[Flibster]

Best part of 11 hours spent at FBGCon 2020 today.

Quacks of Quedlinburg - Still fantastic. Quick playing game, very highly rated on BGG

Bunny Kingdom - Very good, but... the instruction book isn't exactly competent. Talked to the guy who owned the game and he explained it in 5 minutes and voom.. away we went. New game to all 3 of us.

Circulari (Currently in playtesting - Kickstarter coming later this year hopefully) - Lots of potential. Seems to be about a 45-60 minute 2-4 player puzzle strategy game. Simple idea, done well. Should be nice and compact too. Ideal for playing at the bar.

Mystic Vale - Absolutely lovely. Great art, theme is a bit out there, but it's one of the best deck building games as you actually add inserts to your cards to build your deck. Same number of cards throughout, but their strengths change as you go. 1st time playing it in about 10 months, also got someone who isn't a deck builder person into it. Said it's the best deck builder game he's played and is going to look getting a copy. Success!

Flash Point Fire Rescue - My absolute favourite game at the moment. Now got the Extreme Danger and 2nd Story expansions. Not tried them yet, introduced the other half to the advanced rules. We won. Decisively. Everyone rescued, no one killed. Although the other half did try to screw us over on the very first round by rolling the fire spreading into a hazardous material, which then exploded, causing another explosion... 2 rooms engulfed in fire on round 1! But I was in the firetruck as the driver operator, and actually did a good job of using the water cannon... for a change.

All in all, a great event. And I had pizza too. Didn't win anything in the raffle, but hey ho... Looking forward to FBGCon 2021 now.

 

[Flibster]

Regular Thursday games club(s) yesterday.

In the afternoon played Mystic Vale again. 3 new players and me. Nice close game. Also tried using the very large OCUK mousemat I bought as a gaming mat for it (it was on offer...) Worked really well. Especially as it was 1/5th the price of the official play mats, if you can find them at all. They were only available as part of an event pack for conventions and competitions.

And the evening, new game for the 7 of us playing it. Awkward Guests. It's a bit like Advanced Cluedo. I got sooo close. Had a choice of 2 motives... did a 50-50 guess and got the wrong one. Sad thing is, I knew the weapon at the end of round 1 and had a choice of 2 people who did the murder. Round 2 and 3 were just me trying to figure out the motive... Good game. Will have to play it again. I think 7 people is too many, 5 may be the sweet spot.

 

[Psymonkee]

Wednesday night was the new to me RPG night and now my 5th session running D&D. Having tons of fun as a DM even if my party are total murderhobos!

Next week 6 or 7 sitting at my table!

 

[martos123]

Finally got around to playing the copy of Scythe i bought before christmas. There was only two of us playing, and it took a little while to get our heads around the rules, but once we got going, we really enjoyed it. I can see it being tactically very different with more players too.

 

[fish]

Which faction did you plays as?

I like the game but thought the Russian were a little over powered.

 

[martos123]

Which faction did you plays as?

I like the game but thought the Russian were a little over powered.

I cant remember the names and not near the game right now, but i was the Yellow faction and played against the Blue one.

 

[JeditOjanen]

You were Crimea, your opponent was Nordic.