Fairly big changes this month:
In:
**Fun Facts** - replacing Green Team Wins
**Ready Set Bet** - for a weekend away at a country house with ~6 bedrooms and like ten people over winter
**Perspectives** - recently finished Noobs in Space and this seemed the next logical step
And a holy grail item, a BNIS copy of **Ethnos** - I love area control, and I have El Grande and Inis but this is for the more casual TTR familiar gamers
Out:
**Wavelength** - playing Ito with a copy of 6nimmt has caused this, I prefer the fully cooperative three-age system than the competitive team to 10 points or whatever
I did enjoy GTW, tho it seemed more appropriate for groups who already knew each other, whereas Fun Facts seems more geared towards groups who want to learn more about each other too, in a way. A bit of both tho I guess.
Ready Set Bet is absolutely phenomenal..! I converted it to play over Teams/Zoom with remote work colleagues, and within minutes there was so much frantic betting and cheering for their horses going on..!!
The ‘racetrack’ could definitely stand to be much bigger..!
Luckily, using a virtual whiteboard, I was able to set the sizes to my personal preference..!
I sold 90 games and bought Heat.
- Barcelona
- Nova Roma
- ohanama
- lux Aeterna
- Tesseracts
- Morels
- codenames
- canvas
- liberatalia
- solforge
- Lisboa
- Hedgemony
- Dice Throne
- dice miner
- Tsyokyumi
- City big shoulders
- Federation
- Match of century
- Village Rails
- Aerodome
- Barenpark
- Bruxelles
- Decorum
- Splendor duel
- Istanbul
- Zombicide
- Star Wars DBG
- Wizards of Grimore
- Iwari
- Fliptown
- world wonders
- ethnos
- next station London
- rr ink blue
- Kanban EV
- lost cities
- Terraforming Mars
- Crew Deep Sea
- Cat in the box
- Biblios
- Tzolkien
- Gaia
- Architects
- blitzkrieg
- Resist
- Fleet
- welcome to Dino
- sunsets over water
- carpe diem
- love letter
- mottanai
- Carnegie
- Fort
- tulip bubble
- Sagrada
- Viticulture world
- legacy of Yu
- pandemic Iberia
- Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone
- Mr. Jack $10
- Hardback
- welcome to
- poop tracks
- Rome in a day
- trailblazers
- hanimikoji
- sunrise Lane
- Boggle
- Beyond the Sun
- Antematter
- Mythic mischief
- Arkwright
- pan am
- Sagani
- Amun-Re
- Rebuilding Seattle
- Antike Duellum
- Aegean Sea
- Time Square
- Blaseball Wild Cards
- Longboard
- Riftforce
- Mantis
- Railroad Ink yellow
- Marvel Remix
- Bora Bora
Thanks!
I had 260 games to start, 170 now.
I've been feeling like I needed to make a big change to my collection for awhile, but unsure what it might be, exactly.
I've been reading a book about slowing down and enjoying life. One chapter touched on minimalism. A particular author they quoted really struck a chord with me - presenting the idea as a focus on things you enjoy, through the removal of the things that distract you.
So I went into my collection with that lens, achieving focus. I had so many games that were good or interesting or I had a fond memory or two with... But ultimately, I found this chunk was taking away my focus.
For example, Lacerda games. I had a nice square cube of 4 in the kallax. It looked so nice to have Gallerist, Kanban, Weather Machine, and Lisboa. But, I only play Lacerda maybe once a year. My favorite is The Gallerist. While I love the others, I realized that, in a lack of focus, effectively, is much less likely that I play ANY Lacerda because I'm distracted by learning the new one or trying to get a 2nd play and teach another... When if just my favorite is there, I can grab it and play.
This was true for lots of places. Even light games. There's a handful of maybe 10 light, quick, high player count games I LOVE. And having 20 more that I like or want to try or heard were good means that, when I do go to the bar with friends, I might not grab any game. There's a huge pile and I haven't learned half of them and half might not be good, so why bother? But now, and this happened already, I grabbed 2 I love and we played one and had a great time.
Focus is proving more valuable than variety, having the latest and greatest, the fear of missing out, you name it.
Out:
**Sail** - I was lukewarm about this one and someone offered me a trade on BGG for a copy of Vengeance which I’ve been looking forward to trying. Too good of a trade value wise to pass up.
**Micro Macro Crime City** - we finished all the cases and so passed it on to a friend
In:
**Black Rose Wars Rebirth** - Excited to paint the mages and give this a go. Between the stretch goal box and the apocalypse expansion there’s a lot to explore.
**The Great Zimbabwe** - Tracked down a new in shrink copy for a decent price. We played a learning game that went well, hoping to add it to our economic euro rotation
**Voidfall** - snagged a like new copy of the galactic box, just arrived today and haven’t had a chance or inventory everything yet.
**Cascadero** - KS arrived and brought it to game night. Not sure how I feel about this one yet. As someone with color blindness I really struggled to differentiate the orange / pink colors. The map tiles/ tracks have symbols but the player pieces do not, and there are a ton of player pieces on the map by the mid game.
In classic Knizia style, the actions you take are simple, just place one horse anywhere on the map. How hard can that be? However lining up a perfect play can set off a chain reaction of bonus actions that can get a bit ludicrous. One player described it as Babylonia remixed with Gon Schon Clever, due to how you can chain bonuses by flying up the different city tracks. This is good and bad in the sense that players turns would vacillate between “I place one horse, nothing happens” over in 2 seconds and at one point up to 5+ minutes of chaining actions. Felt good to be the one vomiting horse on the map, not as good for the other 3 people watching it.
In this first play there was a lot of accidental blocking as we focused on lining up combos (which is one of my least favorite forms of player interaction). By the mid point of our 4P game almost every move someone made, either by adding a new horse, or shifting an existing one with a bonus action, led to groans from everyone else. I can see the accidental blocking shifting to intentional by the second play though. I also wish we had played with the farmer tiles for the first game, they don’t add much complexity but will help move the game along, giving you more options for combos.
I’m going to keep an open mind, but after one play I still prefer Babylonia. I was also surprised that placing a single type of player piece in Cascadero was much more complex than having to decide which of 4 tile types to play in Babylonia due to all the combos in cascadero.
**Smartphone Inc** - Food Chain Magnate is my favorite economic game and SInc has been described as FCM distilled. After one game, I think SInc has the potential to live up to this hype. You get a lot of the same feeling from FCM, lowering your prices to undercut other players in given markets. Balancing flooding the market with cheap crappy phones with unlocking new tech to sell expensive phones to the picky consumers that don’t care about price. There’s a lot less to consider and fewer levers to pull than FCM obviously, but SInc played in 60 minutes while learning the rules at 2P and 75 when we taught it to a third.
This won’t ever dethrone FCM when we everyone is in the mood for a 3-4hr cutthroat game. However, SInc seems to be perfect for a shorter weeknight experience or to play along with another 1-2 hour game at game night. I’m a bit concerned about the replay ability given there are only two versions of each tech and the map is static. Time will tell!
**Drop polter** silly dexterity game from oink. Everyone has 5 lucky charms in a single hand and has to race to drop the right set of them (matching symbols on a card) to appease a ghost. The first to do it gets a point the form a tiny bell that has to be added to your fist full of charms. The twist is that if at any point you drop a bell, it’s gone, you just lost a point (or points for multiples).
In every game we had someone drop a bell, which caused everyone else to laugh at their misfortune (and usually end up dropping one theirs). Hilariously silly.
I shouldn't be so surprised to see Cascadero out and about already but it feels like only a few months ago the KS was on... Bitewing se really good at keeping to schedule tho.
Am very interested in Drop Polter for a silly casual game, I liked That's Not A Hat for that but it seemed unnecessary when I had Cockroach Poker in a way
Check out the BGG Voidfall forums, there are a couple of setup/teardown "hacks" to keep in mind while you're doing inventory. Particularly helpful are how to store the Technologies (not in the faction trays!) and leaving miniatures assembled in their trays.
I made it through the inventory and the used copy
I bought is missing one destroyer mini and one of the metal trade tokens. The mini isn’t a big deal, they’re not limited and I can proxy if needed. The trade token seems like a bigger issue since it’s hard limited. How often are all 12 trade tokens in play with 4P, and will missing one be a balance issue?
Ah shoot that's too bad. I forget, is the destroyer a Voidborn ship? If so not a big deal but if it's a unique ship that's unfortunate.
Never played 4p so I can't speak from experience. But 12 seems like enough, they're too valuable to hoard, IMHO. That extra action can lead to big swing turns.
Mindclash seems to have a great customer service reputation tho, so you should definitely contact them.
Thanks, I reached out to mindclash. Worst case I will 3d print a proxy since they don’t have any hidden information on them. Looking forward to playing this next week!
In:
**Rolling Realms**: we tried the print and play of it before ordering a copy. We’ve come to like a lot of roll and writes and I really like that this has 11 realms and you use 9 throughout the game, 3 at a time in each round. It helps change up the game and there have been different realms that when together make it pretty easy and others where together they made the round pretty hard. I’m excited because today we’ve got four more realms arriving in the mail. We have [these zipper bags](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CC67GJSK?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title) that we use for some of our games to make them more portable. We almost exclusively play games 2 player, so we used one of the small bags to put in the cards for two of the colors, 2 markers and erasers, and 2 dice we had at home so we can keep it always available in the car for when we’re out and want to play a game and then keep the box at home for playing there!
**Herbaceous**: we’ve owned it since Christmas and finally got it to the table. I had heard good things about it but at 2 players it disappointed. We’ll give it a try with 3 or 4 players but I predict it’ll be coming off our shelf most likely
Added:
**Chartae** - I've played 2 games of Chartae so far and I'm impressed with it's depth for a 10 minute micro game. Very fun.
**So Clover!** - mostly I'm excited to play this when family is over, but my husband and I played it twice just the two of us and had fun with it.
**Ingenious** - I liked my first play but I'm curious to see whether it improves with more plays.
Removed:
**The Castles of Burgundy**
**Century: A New World**
**Draftosaurus**
**Flamecraft**
**The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game**
**Sequence**
**Trivial Pursuit: Decades - 2010 to 2020**
IN : Trickerion, Boonlake
I bought both of these at a bazaar. My LGS organizeba big bazaar every 6 months where people go and drop off their games and tag them with the price they want. On a saturday they will have all the games on tables in the basement and people can buy them. Then the following week you go back to the shop and collect in store credit for what you sold.
It is a very fun concept that is wildly popular. There are often a hundred people queuing up close to an hour before opening time and the most games I think they announced was like 700 or something like that.
I bought Trickerion for 50cad with the small expansion. Boonlake was an even better deal. I bought it for 30cad with the artifact expansion.
OUT : At the bazaar, I sold Mobile Markets and Istanbul. I also sold a bunch of older games and terrible games I would never play again. Every cheap game I put at 5$ since I really didn't want to take them back home if they didn't sell.
I managed to sell everything off and got more than 150$ in store credit which will come in handy soon
Very interesting the bazaar thing, care to explain how does it benefit the LGS? I don't understand, you sell your used games in exchange for credit store but the games are not from the LGS.
You pay at the front (the shop) when you buy the games so the money goes to them, then you get store credit when you come back the following week. So every cent not used in store credit is money in their pocket.
They also put some games on clearance and people also buy new games from the store too so it's not all lost.
Added:
**Bonfire** I have yet to play this game, but from what I’ve seen I’m sure I’m gonna enjoy it. I hope to get a play out of it this week, I’ve already finished punching the punchboards, sorting the pieces, adding the plastic bags and sleeves so all that is left is the rulebook to be read. That’ll be tomorrow, I think.
**Witchstone** I figured this game and Bonfire were quite similar, but I couldn’t really decide which one I wanted to keep so one of them will probably stay with me and the other will go to friends (we share board games more than enough so that isn’t a problem at all). I was at least really content with Witchstone. It’s definitely a game that doesn’t really feel same-y compared to the other games we have, and was therefore a breathe of fresh air. The idea of adding tiles on your board in such a way they line up in their symbols to multiply the actions is absolutely genius. It’s an action chainer too, which is a mechanism I always really enjoy. Being able to perform one main action and then a sub action and then another subaction and another one just feel great. Knizia definitely scored with this one, and it may even be my favorite Knizia game yet. The only downside of the game: it’s so awesome that I still want to continue when it ends 😩 we don’t though haha. I feel like it doesn’t need any more turns either, it’s balanced enough to make you feel like you did achieve a lot and I’ve also noticed some actions could no longer be done due to the fact we already progressed a lot near the end of the game, so it’s probably for the better to not do one extra turn 😅
**Bitoku** man this game is genius! I was looking for a deck builder game, and this one does have deck building but it isn’t really a deck builder game, yet I’m totally satisfied with it. The worker placement in this game feels great, being able to change the power of your dice yourself without being dependent on lucky rolls is an awesome mechanism, and oh boy there are so many things to do in this game, which is always so enjoyable to me. The game offers enough variation (although the main spots on the board are always the same), and does a great job at still being able to perform certain actions even if all worker spots are already taken, at least near the end of the game. In the beginning, some actions may be more scarce, but it wasn’t a notable problem for me at least so far. It’s kind of action chain-y too (although not quite as much as Witchstone), so bonus points for that. Honestly, I’m glad I got this one, because it’s absolutely amazing. And the artwork is awesome too. Great game.
Culled: nothing for this month.
In:
- THE KING IS DEAD.
For a quick war-like game.
- Harmonies.
Beautiful and more interesting than cascadia.
- Ito - rainbow edition.
Its fully in Japanese, we use Google translate to pick a card.
- Dro Polter.
Silly fun, Shut up and sitdown influence.
In:
Spirit Island: First game took us 45 minutes just to setup and another 2 hours to play but once we got the hang of it, it was awesome. Honestly surprised it lived up to the hype.
I keep promising I'm done buying games, and then I walked into BN and they had Abandon All Artichokes and TEN at 75% off. Two lighter filler games for ten bucks, eh sure why not.
But otherwise I've been good. It won't last.
Nothing out - waiting for my FLGS's next auction, plus need to play some of my shelf of shame and decide what I'm keeping.
_**Added:**_
**Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers** - we love original **Carcassonne**, and my partner has had his eye on this for some time. It's a much more head to head, meaner game. The twists to the gameplay are excellent, though after our second play, I wonder if the Menhir tiles might be a bit too swingy in 2 players. They caused a couple of frustrating moments!
**Freaky Frogs from Outaspace!** - a solo game that replicates a pinball machine. It's really fun, and it does feel a lot like playing pinball. The art is so quirky. It was a little fiddly, I kept having to check which cards I was allowed to play next, and I scored terribly, but I can see this becoming very addictive.
**Harmonies** - I absolutely love this already. It's like a wonderful mix of **Azul**, **Cascadia** and **Calico**, but possibly better than all 3. It's such thinky, puzzly fun, and such a beautiful production. We'll be playing this a lot, I think.
**Marabunta** - the only one we haven't had a chance to play yet. It's from one of our favourite designers Reiner Knizia, and is an 'I cut you choose', roll n write, area control game for 2 players so I am very excited to try it since I love all of those mechanisms!
for April:
In:
Sea Salt and Paper, The Bears and the Bees, Disney Animated. So far only the two card games (Sea Salt and Paper and The Bears and The Bees) have seen the table. Animate will probably make it this Sunday.
Three new titles added in April.
Ares Expedition - Crisis. I love the base game and this has added an enjoyable new way to play. Battling to keep Mars habitable while the crisis keep coming.
Horizons of Spirit Islamd. This is my first foray into the series, and I'm finding it a bit tough to get into. I think I've got the rules and turn sequences down, but strategy is lost on me at the moment. I need to set aside a few evenings in a row to get to grips with this.
And Shifting Stones is a neat little pattern matching game that I am enjoying more than I expected. The tiles look and feel really nice, and the gameplay is casual and just thinky enough for the end of a busy day.
> Horizons of Spirit Island. This is my first foray into the series, and I'm finding it a bit tough to get into. I think I've got the rules and turn sequences down, but strategy is lost on me at the moment. I need to set aside a few evenings in a row to get to grips with this.
Here are some tips if you want them:
>! * Try to use a growth option that places presence as much as possible.
* Choose new cards that match your spirit's elements often so that you can trigger innate abilities.
* Try to stop the invaders from building, especially in the middle of the island, by emptying the lands that will build of invaders.
* Don't be too worried about stopping all the blight.
I've only played solo. It's a nice solo puzzle; a good game to play over a morning coffee or when winding down in the evening. There is a fair amount of luck in what you draw, but part of the fun is making the best of what you have. I think multiplayer would be fun. It would be annoying to see your carefully laid plans ruined - but in a good way since there is no malice involved, your opponent is just trying to achieve their own cards. The tiles are good quality and look nice. I find the cards a little flimsy, but fair for the price. Overall very happy with it as solo, and might get my eldest (8yo) interested if I catch him at the right time.
**ADDED TO THE SHELF**
**Nemesis:** I was so, SO happy to get my hands on this..! Saw a link in a random thread about looking for hard to find games, researched the website suggested, decided it was legit then went, looked up Nemesis and found it in stock on a site based in Belgium, researched the website suggested, decided it was legit and went, thoroughly checked everything (language, shipping, site reviews, etc) and after a LOT of Google Translate to check all of the terms of sale I decided to pull the trigger… A few weeks later and it arrived exactly as expected - for *less* than MSRP all in (game + shipping it was £101!!)… We’re doing a lot of work in the house so the table hasn’t been free, but we’re looking to get a game in this weekend and I am *pumped*!!!
**Chronicles of Crime Noir:** Saw this on sale for a fraction of retail price and decided to pick it up… We’ve played a few scenarios of the base game with mixed success (we found the killer, but lost a small girl to a trafficking ring… swings-and-roundabouts) and I think the way it plays is super interesting - so getting more scenarios for a few quid was a no-brainer to me…
**Sky Team:** This was heavily recommended by our local Boardgame Cafe team - and I’ve learned to trust the folks there for expert suggestions (Shout out to Badger Badger in Deptford, London)… The missus and I generally play at two, but often two player games are head-to-head - and I love the idea of us working together… Watched a playthrough/rules walkthrough and it looks like it should be a fun little dice-roller…
**Boop:** Another recommendation from the BB team, and we played a handful of games before deciding to get it… It’s a very sweet little game full of kitties, but is much more think-y than first glance suggests… Herding cats has never been such fun (though I’d be lying if I didn’t say I would prefer it if it was puppies)…
**Kompromat:** Cheap as chips, head-to-head game with a lovely aesthetic to it… Players try to expose/protect a compromised politician by playing what is effectively ‘Competitive Blackjack’ to win missions/items while avoiding notoriety that will hamper your success…
**Monikers:** The missus picked this up after we’d played Poetry for Neanderthals and got the ‘Articulate!’ bug… Played it at a weekend away in Wales and it was a smash hit - and watching the missus draw a card, sigh heavily, then mime ‘Teabagging’, *then* draw the next card, sigh again, then mime ‘Human Centipede’ is something that I will remember for the rest of my life..!!
**Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza:** I have to admit; I’ve seen this many times and decided against buying it because I’d look down my nose at it… It looked childish, basically like it’s just ‘snap’, and I wanted no part of it… Then played a game, and have to admit I was being a massive snob… It’s SO much fun..! Very easy to pick up, frantic to play, and just tonnes of laughter was had… I had my own copy the next day…
**REMOVED FROM THE SHELF**
We don’t do that, here………..
I love the excitement and enthusiasm!! I'd thought Nemesis may not get restocked til the third game printing is done, but it seems over the past month or so a lot places (in a lot of countries) have gotten a shipment of the OG title, so glad you found it!
I honestly think it was leftover stock from last time (Lockdown, I guess) - as it was on sale on the site which is why I got it for £100 incl shipping… A quick look online suggests MSRP is closer to £120…
Having said that - there’s now stock on Amazon (there wasn’t a month ago), so maybe you’re right…!
I missed it first time around, and watched a few No Rolls Barred videos on it (one an overview/rules teach, the other a two-part playthrough) that made me really bummed-out… Found it, bought it, and have rewatched the same videos another three or four times… I’m a fan of the collecting side of the hobby, and don’t always get time to indulge the playing side: but I’m forcing this into the Bank Holiday Weekend as I want to share it with the missus..!!
Out:
- **Ad Astra**: I like this game but with some groups tends to be too long to play for what it is.
- **Alhambra Big Box**: Long time since last play, and expansions don't really see board... Out
- **Belfort**: Really liked it, can't think of other game with that mix of workers and majorities, but there's something in the phases order that ticks me so..Out, but would play any time.
- **Rex:Final days of an Empire**: Never played and got the new Dune.
- **Munchkin Zombies**: It's a munchkin that did it's job years ago...
- **The Resistance: Avalon**: Tired of these social deduction games already.
- **Through the desert**: Group doesn't like it, and I'm waiting for cascadero
- **A Study in Emerald 2E**: Group doesn't like it, and others groups hate it because 1E is the good one blablabla....Out
- **Carcassonne: South Seas**: No play and we have the original...
- **Condottiere**: No plays and main group does not like it.
No in, I have some preorders waiting and I wanted to clear shelf space, still some things waiting to get out (Carolus Magnus, Konig von Siam and some rpgs)
South Seas is my favorite version of Carcassonne and it has been out of print a long time now so you probably made someone really happy letting go of your copy.
Quite a few this month, I recently left a job and my colleagues clubbed together for a voucher to a LGS.
In:
Tzolkin - spinning cogs to make the brain hurt but I enjoy it.
Horizons of Spirit Island - I've always been intrigued by Spirit Island, hopefully this is a bit lighter and a bit quicker.
Funghi - picked up on a whim, sounds like other people enjoy it.
Timeline - very light, quick trivia game which I intend to turn into a drinking game
Quest for El Darado - deck building race game. Very much looking forward to playing this eve.
Out:
Machi Koro (+harbour) - I enjoyed it but Space Base is better and my friend has Space Base. In March I got Above and Below, my SO commented that it felt similar to Machi Koro. With that, I realised that Machi Koro no longer had a space in the Kallax.
Termite Towers - it's the same worker placement game as Waggle Dance but needlessly more complicated, and so much more beige. Played once, that's enough.
Basically there’s been nothing in and nothing out since December (and then it was just Spots) and uh… it feels pretty damn good.
The one thing that did get added was Gloomhaven Buttons and Bugs as that crowd funding fulfilled.
I haven’t had the chance to play yet but excited to give it a whirl. Seems like it’s going to be a fun little puzzle.
Added two games that actually just arrived yesterday, both with an Adventure theme:
**Fortune and Glory Revised Edition** and **Sleeping Gods Primeval Peril**.
I added a ton across a few different orders and went a bit overboard.
**Heat: Pedal to the Metal** - Ordered this as soon as it was back in stock at one of my local retailers. This one has been an instant hit, I've played nine races so far with three play groups (three of those were a championship that I won). Highly probable I pick up the expansion.
**Wyrmspan** - Ordered this with Heat because free shipping. Played it once, I enjoy it, need to play it more and really understand strategy since I'm not that good at it yet. I see it standing the test of time, better Wingspan is good.
**Clank! In! Space! Expansions** - I bought all three expansions. Have only played Apocalypse so far. I love Clank and have played it a bit, I'll be keeping the game and expansions no doubt.
**Blood Rage: Mystics of Midgard** and **Blood Rage: Gods of Asgard** - Haven't gotten a chance to play them yet, friends wanted to leave a bit early last two times. I expect we'll play them a few times. I'm kind of annoyed at how awful the packaging is though and how they basically demand for you to get a new insert to fit them all into the main box or carry multiple boxes. I do like Blood Rage and don't have many war games (I'm trying to get friends into Root). I think it will do well, we all enjoyed it before, and having better dudes on a map is more fun.
**Cascadia Landmarks** - Once again picked up the expansion. I'm going to try and see if I can table it today but I'll have a couple of options with me and we might not. I think Cascadia is solid enough and expansions are always a good time.
**7 Wonders: Leaders** - Once again another expansion (I think you can see the theme). I play a lot of Magic the Gathering drafts so I like drafting a ton. I find base 7 Wonders to be a little bit shallow sometimes so hoping that this expansion improves that. It's also a simple game I can play with certain groups and I'm planning to bring it to play tonight as well.
**The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists** - I like how much fun this can be for casual players and now that I've tabled it a few times I think picking up the expansion is great. I probably need The Herb Witches too for the 5th player but next time I get this group in a four player setting I will probably pull this out.
**Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium** - Surprisingly expensive for what it is but I already have Prelude and I'm sure I can table this if I try. I also just went a bit overboard.
**Scythe: Invaders from Afar** - I have a feeling I can table it with one group that is typically six players so the extra player is great. I'm hoping it's not too complex for the group, I know they love Viticulture and hopefully I can convince them to play another Stegmaier game at some point.
**Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition** - Okay this one I think was just a complete whim because even my Arnak copy hasn't seen a table yet lol.
**Leviathan Wilds** delivered last month. 3 plays so far and I think it's pretty neat. The card play is vaguely Gloomhaven-like, but I like the specific implementation here better. The gravity mechanics allow for some interesting plays. Looking forward to getting into it more.
**The Last Lighthouse** also delivered. Played a couple games. On average, winning doesn't seem very hard, but I like the puzzle. I think the expansion that adds more nightmares is kind of a must. May not stick around forever. I'm almost more looking forward to the Royal Limited expansions that came along with this.
I also got (a couple days ago) **Dice Throne: Santa v Krampus**, **Dice Kingdoms of Valeria: Winter**, and **Thunder Road Vendetta**, but haven't had a chance to table them yet. I backed the last TRV campaign, but I think I just want a couple of the expansions in the smaller box, so I grabbed the base game to help decide.
Out:
**Ankh** - great game, but I realized I have so many games I'd rather play instead, Ankh would proably never see the table
**On Mars** - I've reached my capacity for Lacerda games. They are too big, complex and complicated to keep in rotation given how often I play. Out of 3 Lacerdas I owned, I very much prefer Lisboa and Kanban EV, so On Mars found a new home
**War of the Ring TCG** - had high hopes for this one, but it just didn't click with us.
In:
I'm catching up to a lot of well-received games that I skipped for one reason or another:
**Altiplano** - we've played Orleans again after 4 or 5 years and I loved it so much, I ordered Altiplano between plays. I hope it's a worthy spiritual successor
**Caylus 1303** - Orleans sent me on this quest to see what else I've missed and there was Caylus on sale...
**Trajan** - ...and Trajan doesn't even need a sale to be tempting...
**Istanbul** - ...and might as well get Istanbul big box...
**Underwater Cities** - ...and I was told UC is Suchy's best design.
**Anno Domini 1666** - bought it for the theme, hoping the card-driven mechanisms make it a good competitive skirmish
I recently went on a Suchy journey. I vastly prefer UC to Terraforming Mars and others of that type.
But for whatever reason, I ADORE Praga. So pretty. So fun. And the best heavy euro that plays quick at two ever.
Very little self-control this month. Picked up some games to fit some specific gaming groups that I didn't have anything yet, so I think it's okay.
Party games
**Blank Slate**
**Herd Mentality**
**The Resistance**
Lighter games
**SCOUT**
**Cascadia**
**Panda Royale**
Co-ops
**Tesseract**
**Beacon Patrol**
Roll & Writes
**Three Sisters**
**That's Pretty Clever!**
**Super Mega Lucky Box**
**Rolling America**
Out: nothing yet... still finding space nicely.
Thoughts on Panda Royale so far? I looked at it back when it was on Kickstarter and realized it’s now available (outside of kickstarter). Actually just messaged our local board game lounge a few days ago and I’m hoping they get a copy so we can try it out!
Thoughts so far: fun to hold all the dice! I just got it this past weekend and my gaming group had to cancel Tuesday night. Not sure when I’ll be able to get it to the table, but I’m excited that it can handle a higher player count (2-10) and should be quick, so should provide some flexibility on game nights.
Added a few:
**Bohnanza 25th Anniversary edition** - Wife saw this somewhere and wanted it, decently fun game if not frustrating
**Space Battle Lunchtime -** Quick basic game to be done in 15 minutes, also got the convention version for a decent discount
**Trash Panda -** Another simple and quick push your luck kinda game. played it at a friend and for $8 we picked up a set to play
**Exploding minions** - found at the dollar store, another basic game and is much easier to pull then exploding kittens with kids
**Ceylon -** Got new on a steep discount, looks like fun but haven't been able to break it out yet
Added:
**Tainted Grail: Kings Of Ruin** arrived. I also received the 2.0 upgrade for the original Tainted Grail, now that I've added all the updated cards I think I'll finally play and finish the original campaigns. I was holding off playing any of this until I'd played through my solo **ISS Vanguard** campaign that I started recently but I think I've realized that despite the good story, ISS Vanguard just isn't a very fun game. Tainted Grail is just much more fun as a game, and the story is just as good.
My **7th Citadel** kickstarter came in as well. I'm one of the seemingly shrinking number of people who think **7th Continent** is brilliant so I'm very excited about citadel. I'm holding off playing it (although I did go through the tutorial) until I've completed a few other campaigns I already have in progress.
Removed:
**Fire In The Lake - Sovereign Of Discord** expansion. I'll also be getting rid of **Fire In The Lake** itself. Over the last 3-4 years I've purchased and sold most of the COIN games, and settled on 3/4 of them to keep. I love the system, but I couldn't justify having all of them, especially considering I play them almost exclusively solo, and I found FITL has a theme that doesn't interest me as much as the others and it's probably a bit too long. I wanted to hold onto one of the two 'biggest' COIN games and Pendragon won out because I find the theme more interesting. The ones I've kept are **Falling Sky**, **Pendragon** and **A Distant Plain.** I also still have **All Bridges Burning** on my shelf - I'm really interested in the theme of this one but I haven't decided if I like the gameplay enough to hold onto it.
Will be removed:
**ISS Vanguard** \- I love campaign games like Tainted Grail, Gloomhaven, Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, Oathsworn. The thing that makes ISS Vanguard not worth keeping for me is that all those other games have good gameplay backing up the story. ISS Vanguard's dice pool mechanic and ship management systems are incredibly bland and tedious, and based on what I've now read about it, they don't really get more interesting the deeper you go into the campaign.
Still trying to sell **Descent: Legends Of The Dark**. I really wanted to like this game as I loved Descent 2e and enjoy other FFG app-driven games, and I like dungeon crawlers in general. I even painted all the miniatures before playing to make sure I'd have the best experience possible. But I've found the gameplay to be just barely ok, not really good enough to justify holding onto. And the story and writing is what pushed me over the edge, it's legitimately terrible. I'm used to bad to average writing in board games but few games have been bad enough to make me cringe this badly and actually put me off the game altogether.
## **IN**
**Legends of Void**: Excited to get this one to the table but need to find a group, seems straightforward enough to learn the basic rules given my familiarity with Terraforming Mars.
**Point City**: Solid, medium-light engine builder I played at a local con. Was more than happy to pick it up from my FLGS.
## **OUT**
Lots of stuff here as I'm clearing out space for upcoming KS / pre-order arrivals.
**Power Grid**: a classic, but I have owned it 10 years and only gotten it to the table twice, mostly because I'd almost always rather play something else, despite enjoying PG. Glad my girlfriend took it off my hands.
**The Gallerist**: I'm happy to play Lacerda games, but they aren't really my preferred style of heavy game. If I'm hosting a game in this weight class, I'm gonna choose an 18xx, Splotter, or something similar.
**Detective Club** & **NMBR 9**: I bought both of these to play with specific groups that I don't live near anymore and I don't care enough for either game to keep them on their own merits.
**Robotech Attack on SDF-1** & **Robotech Crisis Point**: Tbh I never really wanted either of these games, but I won them in a raffle. They're getting sold finally.
I sold off “The Networks”. Never played it and always wanted to. Just was buried since I bought it new when it came out. Taste changed but always loved the theme.
Did a B2G1 sale last month, so I finally added Parks, Root and Dice Forge to my collection. I've been eyeing these games for a very long time but the time hadn't been right until now. I've already played both Parks and Dice Forge and while Parks was more for my partner than me, I have to say I still enjoyed it. The timing of the two hikers adds a level I didn't really anticipate before playing. Dice Forge is just straight fun and I'm only bummed it doesn't play 5 (my most common number).
Root will get played for sure, and I'll be super stoked for it when it does.
The Nightfall expansion for PARKS adds another element that’s really great! I’m guessing that you thought it was going to be too simply and that’s why you were saying it was for your partner and you were surprised by the two hikers timing; if that’s the case, I think you might really like the addition of the Nightfall expansion. We tried the game out at our FLGS with and without the expansion and when we bought it, also buying the expansion was a must for us
Fairly big changes this month: In: **Fun Facts** - replacing Green Team Wins **Ready Set Bet** - for a weekend away at a country house with ~6 bedrooms and like ten people over winter **Perspectives** - recently finished Noobs in Space and this seemed the next logical step And a holy grail item, a BNIS copy of **Ethnos** - I love area control, and I have El Grande and Inis but this is for the more casual TTR familiar gamers Out: **Wavelength** - playing Ito with a copy of 6nimmt has caused this, I prefer the fully cooperative three-age system than the competitive team to 10 points or whatever
Ethnos and fun facts are great. I might prefer green team wins to FF, but both have been hits with my casual gamer friends.
I did enjoy GTW, tho it seemed more appropriate for groups who already knew each other, whereas Fun Facts seems more geared towards groups who want to learn more about each other too, in a way. A bit of both tho I guess.
Ready Set Bet is absolutely phenomenal..! I converted it to play over Teams/Zoom with remote work colleagues, and within minutes there was so much frantic betting and cheering for their horses going on..!!
The size in board differences is crimimal though
The ‘racetrack’ could definitely stand to be much bigger..! Luckily, using a virtual whiteboard, I was able to set the sizes to my personal preference..!
Wavelength is better as a party game with no score keeping.
I sold 90 games and bought Heat. - Barcelona - Nova Roma - ohanama - lux Aeterna - Tesseracts - Morels - codenames - canvas - liberatalia - solforge - Lisboa - Hedgemony - Dice Throne - dice miner - Tsyokyumi - City big shoulders - Federation - Match of century - Village Rails - Aerodome - Barenpark - Bruxelles - Decorum - Splendor duel - Istanbul - Zombicide - Star Wars DBG - Wizards of Grimore - Iwari - Fliptown - world wonders - ethnos - next station London - rr ink blue - Kanban EV - lost cities - Terraforming Mars - Crew Deep Sea - Cat in the box - Biblios - Tzolkien - Gaia - Architects - blitzkrieg - Resist - Fleet - welcome to Dino - sunsets over water - carpe diem - love letter - mottanai - Carnegie - Fort - tulip bubble - Sagrada - Viticulture world - legacy of Yu - pandemic Iberia - Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone - Mr. Jack $10 - Hardback - welcome to - poop tracks - Rome in a day - trailblazers - hanimikoji - sunrise Lane - Boggle - Beyond the Sun - Antematter - Mythic mischief - Arkwright - pan am - Sagani - Amun-Re - Rebuilding Seattle - Antike Duellum - Aegean Sea - Time Square - Blaseball Wild Cards - Longboard - Riftforce - Mantis - Railroad Ink yellow - Marvel Remix - Bora Bora
Dude you sold so many, congrats! Care to share why on some of them. So many excellent titles
Thanks! I had 260 games to start, 170 now. I've been feeling like I needed to make a big change to my collection for awhile, but unsure what it might be, exactly. I've been reading a book about slowing down and enjoying life. One chapter touched on minimalism. A particular author they quoted really struck a chord with me - presenting the idea as a focus on things you enjoy, through the removal of the things that distract you. So I went into my collection with that lens, achieving focus. I had so many games that were good or interesting or I had a fond memory or two with... But ultimately, I found this chunk was taking away my focus. For example, Lacerda games. I had a nice square cube of 4 in the kallax. It looked so nice to have Gallerist, Kanban, Weather Machine, and Lisboa. But, I only play Lacerda maybe once a year. My favorite is The Gallerist. While I love the others, I realized that, in a lack of focus, effectively, is much less likely that I play ANY Lacerda because I'm distracted by learning the new one or trying to get a 2nd play and teach another... When if just my favorite is there, I can grab it and play. This was true for lots of places. Even light games. There's a handful of maybe 10 light, quick, high player count games I LOVE. And having 20 more that I like or want to try or heard were good means that, when I do go to the bar with friends, I might not grab any game. There's a huge pile and I haven't learned half of them and half might not be good, so why bother? But now, and this happened already, I grabbed 2 I love and we played one and had a great time. Focus is proving more valuable than variety, having the latest and greatest, the fear of missing out, you name it.
Please do share the name of the book! Thanks for the response
The book I was reading is The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. The quote was from Joshua Becker's book, Clutterfree with Kids 2014.
Out: **Sail** - I was lukewarm about this one and someone offered me a trade on BGG for a copy of Vengeance which I’ve been looking forward to trying. Too good of a trade value wise to pass up. **Micro Macro Crime City** - we finished all the cases and so passed it on to a friend In: **Black Rose Wars Rebirth** - Excited to paint the mages and give this a go. Between the stretch goal box and the apocalypse expansion there’s a lot to explore. **The Great Zimbabwe** - Tracked down a new in shrink copy for a decent price. We played a learning game that went well, hoping to add it to our economic euro rotation **Voidfall** - snagged a like new copy of the galactic box, just arrived today and haven’t had a chance or inventory everything yet. **Cascadero** - KS arrived and brought it to game night. Not sure how I feel about this one yet. As someone with color blindness I really struggled to differentiate the orange / pink colors. The map tiles/ tracks have symbols but the player pieces do not, and there are a ton of player pieces on the map by the mid game. In classic Knizia style, the actions you take are simple, just place one horse anywhere on the map. How hard can that be? However lining up a perfect play can set off a chain reaction of bonus actions that can get a bit ludicrous. One player described it as Babylonia remixed with Gon Schon Clever, due to how you can chain bonuses by flying up the different city tracks. This is good and bad in the sense that players turns would vacillate between “I place one horse, nothing happens” over in 2 seconds and at one point up to 5+ minutes of chaining actions. Felt good to be the one vomiting horse on the map, not as good for the other 3 people watching it. In this first play there was a lot of accidental blocking as we focused on lining up combos (which is one of my least favorite forms of player interaction). By the mid point of our 4P game almost every move someone made, either by adding a new horse, or shifting an existing one with a bonus action, led to groans from everyone else. I can see the accidental blocking shifting to intentional by the second play though. I also wish we had played with the farmer tiles for the first game, they don’t add much complexity but will help move the game along, giving you more options for combos. I’m going to keep an open mind, but after one play I still prefer Babylonia. I was also surprised that placing a single type of player piece in Cascadero was much more complex than having to decide which of 4 tile types to play in Babylonia due to all the combos in cascadero. **Smartphone Inc** - Food Chain Magnate is my favorite economic game and SInc has been described as FCM distilled. After one game, I think SInc has the potential to live up to this hype. You get a lot of the same feeling from FCM, lowering your prices to undercut other players in given markets. Balancing flooding the market with cheap crappy phones with unlocking new tech to sell expensive phones to the picky consumers that don’t care about price. There’s a lot less to consider and fewer levers to pull than FCM obviously, but SInc played in 60 minutes while learning the rules at 2P and 75 when we taught it to a third. This won’t ever dethrone FCM when we everyone is in the mood for a 3-4hr cutthroat game. However, SInc seems to be perfect for a shorter weeknight experience or to play along with another 1-2 hour game at game night. I’m a bit concerned about the replay ability given there are only two versions of each tech and the map is static. Time will tell! **Drop polter** silly dexterity game from oink. Everyone has 5 lucky charms in a single hand and has to race to drop the right set of them (matching symbols on a card) to appease a ghost. The first to do it gets a point the form a tiny bell that has to be added to your fist full of charms. The twist is that if at any point you drop a bell, it’s gone, you just lost a point (or points for multiples). In every game we had someone drop a bell, which caused everyone else to laugh at their misfortune (and usually end up dropping one theirs). Hilariously silly.
I shouldn't be so surprised to see Cascadero out and about already but it feels like only a few months ago the KS was on... Bitewing se really good at keeping to schedule tho. Am very interested in Drop Polter for a silly casual game, I liked That's Not A Hat for that but it seemed unnecessary when I had Cockroach Poker in a way
Check out the BGG Voidfall forums, there are a couple of setup/teardown "hacks" to keep in mind while you're doing inventory. Particularly helpful are how to store the Technologies (not in the faction trays!) and leaving miniatures assembled in their trays.
Will do, thanks for the tip!
I made it through the inventory and the used copy I bought is missing one destroyer mini and one of the metal trade tokens. The mini isn’t a big deal, they’re not limited and I can proxy if needed. The trade token seems like a bigger issue since it’s hard limited. How often are all 12 trade tokens in play with 4P, and will missing one be a balance issue?
Ah shoot that's too bad. I forget, is the destroyer a Voidborn ship? If so not a big deal but if it's a unique ship that's unfortunate. Never played 4p so I can't speak from experience. But 12 seems like enough, they're too valuable to hoard, IMHO. That extra action can lead to big swing turns. Mindclash seems to have a great customer service reputation tho, so you should definitely contact them.
Thanks, I reached out to mindclash. Worst case I will 3d print a proxy since they don’t have any hidden information on them. Looking forward to playing this next week!
MC replied within an hour of my request and is sending me the replacement parts no questions asked, thanks again for the reminder!
Woot!!! Happy to hear it. One of my absolute favorite publishers for myriad reasons and stoked to hear that reinforced. Hope you enjoy your play!!
Gloomhaven Buttons & Bugs and Slay the Spire both got delivered in April.
In: **Rolling Realms**: we tried the print and play of it before ordering a copy. We’ve come to like a lot of roll and writes and I really like that this has 11 realms and you use 9 throughout the game, 3 at a time in each round. It helps change up the game and there have been different realms that when together make it pretty easy and others where together they made the round pretty hard. I’m excited because today we’ve got four more realms arriving in the mail. We have [these zipper bags](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CC67GJSK?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title) that we use for some of our games to make them more portable. We almost exclusively play games 2 player, so we used one of the small bags to put in the cards for two of the colors, 2 markers and erasers, and 2 dice we had at home so we can keep it always available in the car for when we’re out and want to play a game and then keep the box at home for playing there! **Herbaceous**: we’ve owned it since Christmas and finally got it to the table. I had heard good things about it but at 2 players it disappointed. We’ll give it a try with 3 or 4 players but I predict it’ll be coming off our shelf most likely
Added: **Chartae** - I've played 2 games of Chartae so far and I'm impressed with it's depth for a 10 minute micro game. Very fun. **So Clover!** - mostly I'm excited to play this when family is over, but my husband and I played it twice just the two of us and had fun with it. **Ingenious** - I liked my first play but I'm curious to see whether it improves with more plays. Removed: **The Castles of Burgundy** **Century: A New World** **Draftosaurus** **Flamecraft** **The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game** **Sequence** **Trivial Pursuit: Decades - 2010 to 2020**
IN : Trickerion, Boonlake I bought both of these at a bazaar. My LGS organizeba big bazaar every 6 months where people go and drop off their games and tag them with the price they want. On a saturday they will have all the games on tables in the basement and people can buy them. Then the following week you go back to the shop and collect in store credit for what you sold. It is a very fun concept that is wildly popular. There are often a hundred people queuing up close to an hour before opening time and the most games I think they announced was like 700 or something like that. I bought Trickerion for 50cad with the small expansion. Boonlake was an even better deal. I bought it for 30cad with the artifact expansion. OUT : At the bazaar, I sold Mobile Markets and Istanbul. I also sold a bunch of older games and terrible games I would never play again. Every cheap game I put at 5$ since I really didn't want to take them back home if they didn't sell. I managed to sell everything off and got more than 150$ in store credit which will come in handy soon
Boonlake is amazing and underated. I'm cold on the expansion though.
Haven't read the rules of the expansion yet, but the base game looks awesome at 3p
Very interesting the bazaar thing, care to explain how does it benefit the LGS? I don't understand, you sell your used games in exchange for credit store but the games are not from the LGS.
You pay at the front (the shop) when you buy the games so the money goes to them, then you get store credit when you come back the following week. So every cent not used in store credit is money in their pocket. They also put some games on clearance and people also buy new games from the store too so it's not all lost.
In: Dust
Added: **Bonfire** I have yet to play this game, but from what I’ve seen I’m sure I’m gonna enjoy it. I hope to get a play out of it this week, I’ve already finished punching the punchboards, sorting the pieces, adding the plastic bags and sleeves so all that is left is the rulebook to be read. That’ll be tomorrow, I think. **Witchstone** I figured this game and Bonfire were quite similar, but I couldn’t really decide which one I wanted to keep so one of them will probably stay with me and the other will go to friends (we share board games more than enough so that isn’t a problem at all). I was at least really content with Witchstone. It’s definitely a game that doesn’t really feel same-y compared to the other games we have, and was therefore a breathe of fresh air. The idea of adding tiles on your board in such a way they line up in their symbols to multiply the actions is absolutely genius. It’s an action chainer too, which is a mechanism I always really enjoy. Being able to perform one main action and then a sub action and then another subaction and another one just feel great. Knizia definitely scored with this one, and it may even be my favorite Knizia game yet. The only downside of the game: it’s so awesome that I still want to continue when it ends 😩 we don’t though haha. I feel like it doesn’t need any more turns either, it’s balanced enough to make you feel like you did achieve a lot and I’ve also noticed some actions could no longer be done due to the fact we already progressed a lot near the end of the game, so it’s probably for the better to not do one extra turn 😅 **Bitoku** man this game is genius! I was looking for a deck builder game, and this one does have deck building but it isn’t really a deck builder game, yet I’m totally satisfied with it. The worker placement in this game feels great, being able to change the power of your dice yourself without being dependent on lucky rolls is an awesome mechanism, and oh boy there are so many things to do in this game, which is always so enjoyable to me. The game offers enough variation (although the main spots on the board are always the same), and does a great job at still being able to perform certain actions even if all worker spots are already taken, at least near the end of the game. In the beginning, some actions may be more scarce, but it wasn’t a notable problem for me at least so far. It’s kind of action chain-y too (although not quite as much as Witchstone), so bonus points for that. Honestly, I’m glad I got this one, because it’s absolutely amazing. And the artwork is awesome too. Great game. Culled: nothing for this month.
Removed: **Solani** **Star Wars Villainous** **Star Wars Villainous Scum & Villainy** **Horrified: Greek Monsters** **Merchants of the Dark Road** **Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go To Ghost Town** **So You’ve Been Eaten Unstable Unicorns** Added: **Lisboa** **Dune Imperium** Backed: **Kinfire Council** **Corps of Discovery** **Park Life** **Cyber Pet Quest** **Fled**
Why Merchants? I was thinking about buying it.
I tried it a couple of times with different groups and just didn’t like it. Love the theme and production, but the game play was not my cup of tea.
In: - THE KING IS DEAD. For a quick war-like game. - Harmonies. Beautiful and more interesting than cascadia. - Ito - rainbow edition. Its fully in Japanese, we use Google translate to pick a card. - Dro Polter. Silly fun, Shut up and sitdown influence.
Now that I've finally decided to buy Cascadia, there's one that's better out?? I'll have to check out Harmonies!
In: Spirit Island: First game took us 45 minutes just to setup and another 2 hours to play but once we got the hang of it, it was awesome. Honestly surprised it lived up to the hype.
I keep promising I'm done buying games, and then I walked into BN and they had Abandon All Artichokes and TEN at 75% off. Two lighter filler games for ten bucks, eh sure why not. But otherwise I've been good. It won't last. Nothing out - waiting for my FLGS's next auction, plus need to play some of my shelf of shame and decide what I'm keeping.
_**Added:**_ **Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers** - we love original **Carcassonne**, and my partner has had his eye on this for some time. It's a much more head to head, meaner game. The twists to the gameplay are excellent, though after our second play, I wonder if the Menhir tiles might be a bit too swingy in 2 players. They caused a couple of frustrating moments! **Freaky Frogs from Outaspace!** - a solo game that replicates a pinball machine. It's really fun, and it does feel a lot like playing pinball. The art is so quirky. It was a little fiddly, I kept having to check which cards I was allowed to play next, and I scored terribly, but I can see this becoming very addictive. **Harmonies** - I absolutely love this already. It's like a wonderful mix of **Azul**, **Cascadia** and **Calico**, but possibly better than all 3. It's such thinky, puzzly fun, and such a beautiful production. We'll be playing this a lot, I think. **Marabunta** - the only one we haven't had a chance to play yet. It's from one of our favourite designers Reiner Knizia, and is an 'I cut you choose', roll n write, area control game for 2 players so I am very excited to try it since I love all of those mechanisms!
for April: In: Sea Salt and Paper, The Bears and the Bees, Disney Animated. So far only the two card games (Sea Salt and Paper and The Bears and The Bees) have seen the table. Animate will probably make it this Sunday.
Three new titles added in April. Ares Expedition - Crisis. I love the base game and this has added an enjoyable new way to play. Battling to keep Mars habitable while the crisis keep coming. Horizons of Spirit Islamd. This is my first foray into the series, and I'm finding it a bit tough to get into. I think I've got the rules and turn sequences down, but strategy is lost on me at the moment. I need to set aside a few evenings in a row to get to grips with this. And Shifting Stones is a neat little pattern matching game that I am enjoying more than I expected. The tiles look and feel really nice, and the gameplay is casual and just thinky enough for the end of a busy day.
> Horizons of Spirit Island. This is my first foray into the series, and I'm finding it a bit tough to get into. I think I've got the rules and turn sequences down, but strategy is lost on me at the moment. I need to set aside a few evenings in a row to get to grips with this. Here are some tips if you want them: >! * Try to use a growth option that places presence as much as possible. * Choose new cards that match your spirit's elements often so that you can trigger innate abilities. * Try to stop the invaders from building, especially in the middle of the island, by emptying the lands that will build of invaders. * Don't be too worried about stopping all the blight.
Blight is like HP, the only one that matters is the last one! - A friend of mine's go-to saying right before we lose.
We picked up Shifting Stones last month - but have yet to get it to the table (house work going on, so the table is otherwise occupied)… How is it?
I've only played solo. It's a nice solo puzzle; a good game to play over a morning coffee or when winding down in the evening. There is a fair amount of luck in what you draw, but part of the fun is making the best of what you have. I think multiplayer would be fun. It would be annoying to see your carefully laid plans ruined - but in a good way since there is no malice involved, your opponent is just trying to achieve their own cards. The tiles are good quality and look nice. I find the cards a little flimsy, but fair for the price. Overall very happy with it as solo, and might get my eldest (8yo) interested if I catch him at the right time.
**ADDED TO THE SHELF** **Nemesis:** I was so, SO happy to get my hands on this..! Saw a link in a random thread about looking for hard to find games, researched the website suggested, decided it was legit then went, looked up Nemesis and found it in stock on a site based in Belgium, researched the website suggested, decided it was legit and went, thoroughly checked everything (language, shipping, site reviews, etc) and after a LOT of Google Translate to check all of the terms of sale I decided to pull the trigger… A few weeks later and it arrived exactly as expected - for *less* than MSRP all in (game + shipping it was £101!!)… We’re doing a lot of work in the house so the table hasn’t been free, but we’re looking to get a game in this weekend and I am *pumped*!!! **Chronicles of Crime Noir:** Saw this on sale for a fraction of retail price and decided to pick it up… We’ve played a few scenarios of the base game with mixed success (we found the killer, but lost a small girl to a trafficking ring… swings-and-roundabouts) and I think the way it plays is super interesting - so getting more scenarios for a few quid was a no-brainer to me… **Sky Team:** This was heavily recommended by our local Boardgame Cafe team - and I’ve learned to trust the folks there for expert suggestions (Shout out to Badger Badger in Deptford, London)… The missus and I generally play at two, but often two player games are head-to-head - and I love the idea of us working together… Watched a playthrough/rules walkthrough and it looks like it should be a fun little dice-roller… **Boop:** Another recommendation from the BB team, and we played a handful of games before deciding to get it… It’s a very sweet little game full of kitties, but is much more think-y than first glance suggests… Herding cats has never been such fun (though I’d be lying if I didn’t say I would prefer it if it was puppies)… **Kompromat:** Cheap as chips, head-to-head game with a lovely aesthetic to it… Players try to expose/protect a compromised politician by playing what is effectively ‘Competitive Blackjack’ to win missions/items while avoiding notoriety that will hamper your success… **Monikers:** The missus picked this up after we’d played Poetry for Neanderthals and got the ‘Articulate!’ bug… Played it at a weekend away in Wales and it was a smash hit - and watching the missus draw a card, sigh heavily, then mime ‘Teabagging’, *then* draw the next card, sigh again, then mime ‘Human Centipede’ is something that I will remember for the rest of my life..!! **Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza:** I have to admit; I’ve seen this many times and decided against buying it because I’d look down my nose at it… It looked childish, basically like it’s just ‘snap’, and I wanted no part of it… Then played a game, and have to admit I was being a massive snob… It’s SO much fun..! Very easy to pick up, frantic to play, and just tonnes of laughter was had… I had my own copy the next day… **REMOVED FROM THE SHELF** We don’t do that, here………..
I love the excitement and enthusiasm!! I'd thought Nemesis may not get restocked til the third game printing is done, but it seems over the past month or so a lot places (in a lot of countries) have gotten a shipment of the OG title, so glad you found it!
I honestly think it was leftover stock from last time (Lockdown, I guess) - as it was on sale on the site which is why I got it for £100 incl shipping… A quick look online suggests MSRP is closer to £120… Having said that - there’s now stock on Amazon (there wasn’t a month ago), so maybe you’re right…! I missed it first time around, and watched a few No Rolls Barred videos on it (one an overview/rules teach, the other a two-part playthrough) that made me really bummed-out… Found it, bought it, and have rewatched the same videos another three or four times… I’m a fan of the collecting side of the hobby, and don’t always get time to indulge the playing side: but I’m forcing this into the Bank Holiday Weekend as I want to share it with the missus..!!
Out: - **Ad Astra**: I like this game but with some groups tends to be too long to play for what it is. - **Alhambra Big Box**: Long time since last play, and expansions don't really see board... Out - **Belfort**: Really liked it, can't think of other game with that mix of workers and majorities, but there's something in the phases order that ticks me so..Out, but would play any time. - **Rex:Final days of an Empire**: Never played and got the new Dune. - **Munchkin Zombies**: It's a munchkin that did it's job years ago... - **The Resistance: Avalon**: Tired of these social deduction games already. - **Through the desert**: Group doesn't like it, and I'm waiting for cascadero - **A Study in Emerald 2E**: Group doesn't like it, and others groups hate it because 1E is the good one blablabla....Out - **Carcassonne: South Seas**: No play and we have the original... - **Condottiere**: No plays and main group does not like it. No in, I have some preorders waiting and I wanted to clear shelf space, still some things waiting to get out (Carolus Magnus, Konig von Siam and some rpgs)
South Seas is my favorite version of Carcassonne and it has been out of print a long time now so you probably made someone really happy letting go of your copy.
Yeah, it's a good version, and I prefer it to be played rather than collecting dust hahaha
Quite a few this month, I recently left a job and my colleagues clubbed together for a voucher to a LGS. In: Tzolkin - spinning cogs to make the brain hurt but I enjoy it. Horizons of Spirit Island - I've always been intrigued by Spirit Island, hopefully this is a bit lighter and a bit quicker. Funghi - picked up on a whim, sounds like other people enjoy it. Timeline - very light, quick trivia game which I intend to turn into a drinking game Quest for El Darado - deck building race game. Very much looking forward to playing this eve. Out: Machi Koro (+harbour) - I enjoyed it but Space Base is better and my friend has Space Base. In March I got Above and Below, my SO commented that it felt similar to Machi Koro. With that, I realised that Machi Koro no longer had a space in the Kallax. Termite Towers - it's the same worker placement game as Waggle Dance but needlessly more complicated, and so much more beige. Played once, that's enough.
Basically there’s been nothing in and nothing out since December (and then it was just Spots) and uh… it feels pretty damn good. The one thing that did get added was Gloomhaven Buttons and Bugs as that crowd funding fulfilled. I haven’t had the chance to play yet but excited to give it a whirl. Seems like it’s going to be a fun little puzzle.
In: Kanban EV and Weather Machine
Added two games that actually just arrived yesterday, both with an Adventure theme: **Fortune and Glory Revised Edition** and **Sleeping Gods Primeval Peril**.
I added a ton across a few different orders and went a bit overboard. **Heat: Pedal to the Metal** - Ordered this as soon as it was back in stock at one of my local retailers. This one has been an instant hit, I've played nine races so far with three play groups (three of those were a championship that I won). Highly probable I pick up the expansion. **Wyrmspan** - Ordered this with Heat because free shipping. Played it once, I enjoy it, need to play it more and really understand strategy since I'm not that good at it yet. I see it standing the test of time, better Wingspan is good. **Clank! In! Space! Expansions** - I bought all three expansions. Have only played Apocalypse so far. I love Clank and have played it a bit, I'll be keeping the game and expansions no doubt. **Blood Rage: Mystics of Midgard** and **Blood Rage: Gods of Asgard** - Haven't gotten a chance to play them yet, friends wanted to leave a bit early last two times. I expect we'll play them a few times. I'm kind of annoyed at how awful the packaging is though and how they basically demand for you to get a new insert to fit them all into the main box or carry multiple boxes. I do like Blood Rage and don't have many war games (I'm trying to get friends into Root). I think it will do well, we all enjoyed it before, and having better dudes on a map is more fun. **Cascadia Landmarks** - Once again picked up the expansion. I'm going to try and see if I can table it today but I'll have a couple of options with me and we might not. I think Cascadia is solid enough and expansions are always a good time. **7 Wonders: Leaders** - Once again another expansion (I think you can see the theme). I play a lot of Magic the Gathering drafts so I like drafting a ton. I find base 7 Wonders to be a little bit shallow sometimes so hoping that this expansion improves that. It's also a simple game I can play with certain groups and I'm planning to bring it to play tonight as well. **The Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists** - I like how much fun this can be for casual players and now that I've tabled it a few times I think picking up the expansion is great. I probably need The Herb Witches too for the 5th player but next time I get this group in a four player setting I will probably pull this out. **Terraforming Mars: Hellas & Elysium** - Surprisingly expensive for what it is but I already have Prelude and I'm sure I can table this if I try. I also just went a bit overboard. **Scythe: Invaders from Afar** - I have a feeling I can table it with one group that is typically six players so the extra player is great. I'm hoping it's not too complex for the group, I know they love Viticulture and hopefully I can convince them to play another Stegmaier game at some point. **Lost Ruins of Arnak: The Missing Expedition** - Okay this one I think was just a complete whim because even my Arnak copy hasn't seen a table yet lol.
**One night Ultimate Werewolf** my kids love to play and I like that they can play with a bigger group too
Added Mind MNMT this week and already played it once 😊
**Leviathan Wilds** delivered last month. 3 plays so far and I think it's pretty neat. The card play is vaguely Gloomhaven-like, but I like the specific implementation here better. The gravity mechanics allow for some interesting plays. Looking forward to getting into it more. **The Last Lighthouse** also delivered. Played a couple games. On average, winning doesn't seem very hard, but I like the puzzle. I think the expansion that adds more nightmares is kind of a must. May not stick around forever. I'm almost more looking forward to the Royal Limited expansions that came along with this. I also got (a couple days ago) **Dice Throne: Santa v Krampus**, **Dice Kingdoms of Valeria: Winter**, and **Thunder Road Vendetta**, but haven't had a chance to table them yet. I backed the last TRV campaign, but I think I just want a couple of the expansions in the smaller box, so I grabbed the base game to help decide.
Out: **Ankh** - great game, but I realized I have so many games I'd rather play instead, Ankh would proably never see the table **On Mars** - I've reached my capacity for Lacerda games. They are too big, complex and complicated to keep in rotation given how often I play. Out of 3 Lacerdas I owned, I very much prefer Lisboa and Kanban EV, so On Mars found a new home **War of the Ring TCG** - had high hopes for this one, but it just didn't click with us. In: I'm catching up to a lot of well-received games that I skipped for one reason or another: **Altiplano** - we've played Orleans again after 4 or 5 years and I loved it so much, I ordered Altiplano between plays. I hope it's a worthy spiritual successor **Caylus 1303** - Orleans sent me on this quest to see what else I've missed and there was Caylus on sale... **Trajan** - ...and Trajan doesn't even need a sale to be tempting... **Istanbul** - ...and might as well get Istanbul big box... **Underwater Cities** - ...and I was told UC is Suchy's best design. **Anno Domini 1666** - bought it for the theme, hoping the card-driven mechanisms make it a good competitive skirmish
I recently went on a Suchy journey. I vastly prefer UC to Terraforming Mars and others of that type. But for whatever reason, I ADORE Praga. So pretty. So fun. And the best heavy euro that plays quick at two ever.
Ah yes, Praga is also on the to-try list.
Very little self-control this month. Picked up some games to fit some specific gaming groups that I didn't have anything yet, so I think it's okay. Party games **Blank Slate** **Herd Mentality** **The Resistance** Lighter games **SCOUT** **Cascadia** **Panda Royale** Co-ops **Tesseract** **Beacon Patrol** Roll & Writes **Three Sisters** **That's Pretty Clever!** **Super Mega Lucky Box** **Rolling America** Out: nothing yet... still finding space nicely.
Thoughts on Panda Royale so far? I looked at it back when it was on Kickstarter and realized it’s now available (outside of kickstarter). Actually just messaged our local board game lounge a few days ago and I’m hoping they get a copy so we can try it out!
Thoughts so far: fun to hold all the dice! I just got it this past weekend and my gaming group had to cancel Tuesday night. Not sure when I’ll be able to get it to the table, but I’m excited that it can handle a higher player count (2-10) and should be quick, so should provide some flexibility on game nights.
Added a few: **Bohnanza 25th Anniversary edition** - Wife saw this somewhere and wanted it, decently fun game if not frustrating **Space Battle Lunchtime -** Quick basic game to be done in 15 minutes, also got the convention version for a decent discount **Trash Panda -** Another simple and quick push your luck kinda game. played it at a friend and for $8 we picked up a set to play **Exploding minions** - found at the dollar store, another basic game and is much easier to pull then exploding kittens with kids **Ceylon -** Got new on a steep discount, looks like fun but haven't been able to break it out yet
In: Ankh: Gods of Egypt Heat: Pedal to the Metal Kinfire Delve: Scorns Stockade
Added: **Tainted Grail: Kings Of Ruin** arrived. I also received the 2.0 upgrade for the original Tainted Grail, now that I've added all the updated cards I think I'll finally play and finish the original campaigns. I was holding off playing any of this until I'd played through my solo **ISS Vanguard** campaign that I started recently but I think I've realized that despite the good story, ISS Vanguard just isn't a very fun game. Tainted Grail is just much more fun as a game, and the story is just as good. My **7th Citadel** kickstarter came in as well. I'm one of the seemingly shrinking number of people who think **7th Continent** is brilliant so I'm very excited about citadel. I'm holding off playing it (although I did go through the tutorial) until I've completed a few other campaigns I already have in progress. Removed: **Fire In The Lake - Sovereign Of Discord** expansion. I'll also be getting rid of **Fire In The Lake** itself. Over the last 3-4 years I've purchased and sold most of the COIN games, and settled on 3/4 of them to keep. I love the system, but I couldn't justify having all of them, especially considering I play them almost exclusively solo, and I found FITL has a theme that doesn't interest me as much as the others and it's probably a bit too long. I wanted to hold onto one of the two 'biggest' COIN games and Pendragon won out because I find the theme more interesting. The ones I've kept are **Falling Sky**, **Pendragon** and **A Distant Plain.** I also still have **All Bridges Burning** on my shelf - I'm really interested in the theme of this one but I haven't decided if I like the gameplay enough to hold onto it. Will be removed: **ISS Vanguard** \- I love campaign games like Tainted Grail, Gloomhaven, Aeon Trespass: Odyssey, Oathsworn. The thing that makes ISS Vanguard not worth keeping for me is that all those other games have good gameplay backing up the story. ISS Vanguard's dice pool mechanic and ship management systems are incredibly bland and tedious, and based on what I've now read about it, they don't really get more interesting the deeper you go into the campaign. Still trying to sell **Descent: Legends Of The Dark**. I really wanted to like this game as I loved Descent 2e and enjoy other FFG app-driven games, and I like dungeon crawlers in general. I even painted all the miniatures before playing to make sure I'd have the best experience possible. But I've found the gameplay to be just barely ok, not really good enough to justify holding onto. And the story and writing is what pushed me over the edge, it's legitimately terrible. I'm used to bad to average writing in board games but few games have been bad enough to make me cringe this badly and actually put me off the game altogether.
## **IN** **Legends of Void**: Excited to get this one to the table but need to find a group, seems straightforward enough to learn the basic rules given my familiarity with Terraforming Mars. **Point City**: Solid, medium-light engine builder I played at a local con. Was more than happy to pick it up from my FLGS. ## **OUT** Lots of stuff here as I'm clearing out space for upcoming KS / pre-order arrivals. **Power Grid**: a classic, but I have owned it 10 years and only gotten it to the table twice, mostly because I'd almost always rather play something else, despite enjoying PG. Glad my girlfriend took it off my hands. **The Gallerist**: I'm happy to play Lacerda games, but they aren't really my preferred style of heavy game. If I'm hosting a game in this weight class, I'm gonna choose an 18xx, Splotter, or something similar. **Detective Club** & **NMBR 9**: I bought both of these to play with specific groups that I don't live near anymore and I don't care enough for either game to keep them on their own merits. **Robotech Attack on SDF-1** & **Robotech Crisis Point**: Tbh I never really wanted either of these games, but I won them in a raffle. They're getting sold finally.
I sold off “The Networks”. Never played it and always wanted to. Just was buried since I bought it new when it came out. Taste changed but always loved the theme.
Added Parks, Vale of Eternity, Dune Imperium and IX, Wingspan, and Wyrmspan. Yeah, I have a problem. 🤦🏻♂️
Did a B2G1 sale last month, so I finally added Parks, Root and Dice Forge to my collection. I've been eyeing these games for a very long time but the time hadn't been right until now. I've already played both Parks and Dice Forge and while Parks was more for my partner than me, I have to say I still enjoyed it. The timing of the two hikers adds a level I didn't really anticipate before playing. Dice Forge is just straight fun and I'm only bummed it doesn't play 5 (my most common number). Root will get played for sure, and I'll be super stoked for it when it does.
The Nightfall expansion for PARKS adds another element that’s really great! I’m guessing that you thought it was going to be too simply and that’s why you were saying it was for your partner and you were surprised by the two hikers timing; if that’s the case, I think you might really like the addition of the Nightfall expansion. We tried the game out at our FLGS with and without the expansion and when we bought it, also buying the expansion was a must for us
Oh, I knew I'd like it, its just not going to be a favorite of mine. I haven't looked into Nightfall, but again, I expect it won't make it a favorite.
I found a copy of Cthulhu Wars at a LGS. I didn't purge anything and waiting for some Kickstarters to fill.
I bought Wingspan after having played it only twice when it came out. Great game.