Winter is gone. Spring is here. And board games are getting played.
Today we’ll cover an update on our 10×10 challange for this year, see what new games have arrived, as well as what’s new to our table, and see how our versus battle is going (hint: not well for me).
10×10 UPDATE
We continue to steam ahead, and as we gross the 1/3 mark of the year, we’ve crossed the 2/3 mark of the challange.
It continues to be a case of loving the games we picked for this list, and knowing them well enough before we slected them too. This years challange was all about having fun, as apposed to last years, which was more about getting stuck into games we’d not yet tried.
I managed to get some wins in games I’m not so strong in, like CUBITIOS and PALADINS OF THE WEST KINGDOM. while my girlfriend is suddenly coming on strong with CALICO, while continuing to dominate with LOST RUINS OF ARNAK and WINGSPAN.
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH
This month saw illness in the Blue household, so most new games we played were smaller, easier to learn ones.
We’re enjoying the few ButtonShy games we have, and didn’t waste time getting SKULLS OF SEDLEC to the table when it arrived on at the start of the month. It was a recent Kickstarter arrival, and I went in on the base game plus all expansions to date. It’s a really nice game of trying to build a decent scoring tableau in front of you, and doing your best to deny your opponent good cards from the graveyard. I also really love the artwork.
We visited my girlfriends mumjust before Easter and took a few of our smaller games with us. We managed to get in our first ever play of POINT SALAD (I know, we’re late to the party) which is such a nice little filler game. It’s so easy to teach. As above, it’s all about building a nice set of scoring cards while keeping the good stuff away from other players.
We also played TRIVIAL PURSUIT – HARRY POTTER, which was a Christmas gift to my girlfriend who is a fan. Unfortuntely, I took an early lead and no one else was scoring for most of the game. But my girlfriend found her mojo and came from nowhere to take the win.
Another gift game for my girlfriend was THE ISLE OF CATS: EXPLORE & DRAW. We both backed Kickstarters in the last year where we didn’t chuck in the Roll/Flip ‘n’ Write spin offs as we weren’t into that mechanic back then. She ended up getting me RAWR ‘N’ WRITE, and I ended up getting her this which showed up this month. We love the original game, and this one plays similar enough that it’s easy to tranfer the rules, but is a little kinder as there is little in the way of blocking out other players. This will be a nice varient when we don’t want to get it’s big brother to the table.
On the Bank Hiliday monday, we used the free time to finally get an epic Kickstarter to the table that I’d been wanting to play for a while. UPRISING: CURSE OF THE LAST EMPEROR is a cooperative 4x game that dominates the table. I watched a great How To Play video (twice), but still fumbled a few rules. We only played the short two chapter version as it was a learning game, and we’re planning on getting another go at it soon. It is a beast of a game, but a great co-op experience.
After becoming addicted to GANZ SCHON CLEVER, I thought maybe we should check out one of the sequels. So I ordered DOPPELT SO CLEVER a few weeks ago and we’ve played a couple already. It’s a good game, and offers new ways to use the dice. But it’s not quite as good as the original. It feels a little more clunky, and the bonuses don’t seem to flow as well. Win or lose, it’s so nice with the first game when a player chains loads of moves together. The sequel seems a little tighter on this and it happens less often, or not at all. It’s good, just not great, like its predessessor.
My girlfriend hasn’t backed much on Kickstarter. Of the ones that have arrived, they’ve all been pretty good so far. But the most recent one, which we got to the table within 48 hours of it arriving on our doorstep, was CREATURE COMFORTS, and it’s a really nice game. From the cute componets and adorable artwork, to the gateway Worker Placement mechanics and ease of teach, it’s a game that helps new players in, but still offers more than it’s cute and cuddly exterior whould have you believe. The only real flaw I have with it (and looking on BGG, I’m not the only one) is the play length. We’ve gotten a 2-player game down to an hour. And that was using the shorter 6 month set up. If you go into 8 month set up, and increase you player count to 3, 4, or heaven forbid . . . 5, then you’re looking at 2-3 hours. Which for what is definetely a gateway family game, goes a bit too epic for some players.
1vs1 CHALLENGE 2022
Well, it’s getting worse. 2022 is definetely my girlfriends year for gaming. Despite two seperate sessions where I was near unstoppable on the 10×10 games, it’s been a poor perfomracne on my part. And any victiry I do manage, usually gets cancelled out by the next game. I’m not managing to fight back, only slow down the enevitable.
As it stands, she has a 25 win lead. But it’s only April. Things could still turn around? Right?
Current score: (Me) 92 vs 117 (Girlfriend)
(Clarification: co-op wins count as a point to both)
Along with the four games that I’ve already mentioned above, we also got a few more new ones this month.
HIDDEN LEADERS was a Kickstarter I backed based on it’s amazing artwork and similarities to ROYAL VISIT. It’s a game where you use cards strateigecly to move pieces along a track in a bid to end the game with the outcome that benifits you. Looking forward to giving it a try.
One of the first games I got was the original DUNGEON MAYHEM. When I saw that they’d released a Marvel version, I couldn’t resist. So now we have MARVEL MAYHEM too. Looks exactly the same, just with that fantasy D&D paint job covered over with the colour Superhero. The base set has Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Scarlett Witch. I hope the release explasins and a big box, just like the original.
And finally, a last minute purchase yesterday saw PAPER DUNGEONS land in our collection. We continue to enjoy the variety of Roll ‘n’ Write games, and I’ve been wanting to try one of the Fantsay based ones for a while. While browsing Forbidden Planet, this one called out to me. Looks good.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Backed my 100th Kickstarter (went in on Mr Meeples t-shirts)
- Managed to get the funding to set up a board game club at my work place.
- My group completed Lost Mines Of Phandelver, which is our first D&D campaign.
Always Play Blue 