And that was January 2023

It’s a new year, and that can only mean one thing, folks: New challenges.

Today we’ll look back over the first month of gaming in 2023, talk about the two challenges we’ve commited to this year, and also tell the brief but exciting tale regarding FROSTHAVEN.

KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS

The first Kickstarter to land at our doorstep in 2023 is POWER PLANTS. I was drawn in by the tile laying mechanism, cute artwork, and beautiful components on this one, and the campaign filled out the box with a bunch of extra plants and mini expansions.

The only other Kickstarter that climbed onto our shelves so far is ON TOUR: NEW YORK & PARIS. I’d seen the original game and thought it would be a great addition to our Roll ‘n’ Write collection, so when the sequel showed up for Crowd Funding and let me get the original as a add-on, it seemed like a no brainer.

NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH (AKA 52×1)

As with last year, we’ve set ourselves a 52×1 challenge with the plan being that we play (at least) one new game a week so as to carve into the large number of yet untouched games. Some of these will be Shelf Of Shame games that have been around a while, while others will be fresh in the door.

My best friend surprised us with KING OF MONSTER ISLAND as a Christmas present, a game that I really wanted but hadn’t gotten around to buying yet. And after one play I have to say that it’s a lot of fun. I love the ‘King Of’ series of games, and while I was a little put off by the co-op change to this latest installment, I really enjoyed planning and fighting with my girlfriend beside me.

THE TAVERNS OF TIEFENTHAL was another Christmas present . . . but one from two years ago. After a quick Rodney tutorial, we were at the table playing and wondering why we hadn’t tried it before. It’s a bit of a mission to put your board together, but once you’re dealing out staff cards and taking in patrons, the eight rounds just fly by. And the best part is there are a whole bunch of modules to mix things up down the line.

DOWNFORCE is a game I’ve looked at over the years and have not entierly fancied playing. I enjoy racing games, but we’ve got FORMULA D for that F1 fix, so I wasn’t sure I needed it. And then I spotted it on sale at a local store, and an online friend egged me on because she liked it so much, and now we own it. And we’re glad we do. It’s a lot of fun, and very different to FORMULA D. Card based movement instead of dice make it a little more tactical, and the betting element adds some pre and post game fun. We’ve played at 2 and at 5 and both games have been different and enjoyable in their own ways.

I picked up TZOLK’IN: THE MAYAN CALENDAR at UKGE 2021 and it’s spent the following 18 months sat gathering dust. It’s another one that we wished we tired early. The time mechanic moving workers round is a clever twist and trying to plan things out across several wheels makes it very thinky. A two player game plays with some dummy worker tokens that only exist to limit placement. I would love to play this a higher count though, just to see how it differs.

A little delayed, POWER PLANTS finally turned up in the new year as our first Kickstarter arrival of 2023. It’s a really nice deluxe version with beautiful components and nice art. The games have been a little slow so far as we try and learn the different plant abilities and this is a problem I can see with the game going forward. When compared to a simpler tile laying game like CARCASSONNE, where actions are clear and limited, POWER PLANTS has a lot more going on. It plays with five plants per game. Each has two abilites (Sprout and Grow). There are ten sets of plant tiles to choose from each time you play. And each of those has a light and a dark side. So going forward it’s going to be a while to learn each probable ability. And that’s if we continue with just the two of us. Bringing someone new into the fold will slow things down again. And that’s without using one of the four included mini expansions. What I’m saying is that I never thought I’d complain about too much game, but while the main concept and gameplay of POWER PLANTS is fun, it’s going to be a while before we have a play that doesn’t feel like a learning game.

We absolutely love the Clever series, so I didn’t hesitate to grab CLEVER CUBED when I spotted it online. While the second and third games in the series were good, they never challenged the original GANZ SCHON CLEVER for top spot. But this fourth entry comes pretty close and is already our second favourite. The puzzles feel fresh, but the chains are a lot tougher and have to be earned.

I’ve mentioned before that my girlfriend loves Roll ‘n Writes, so I always had my eye on ON TOUR. I managed to grab the original as an add-on when I backed ON TOUR: NEW YORK & PARIS, and so that was the one we started with. I’ve already compared it to RAILROAD INK with it’s open landscape of opportunity slowly closing down until your previously relaxed turns are cursed for not predicting the future, and you eventually find yourself being forced to make terrible wasted decisions. The last few rounds are always tense. We like it.

20×5 CHALLENGE

While we managed to complete our 10×10 last year, we found that the focus we put on it took us away from other games we’d discovered and maybe wanted to play more. And some games on the challenge started out fun, but soon became a chore.

My girlfriend wanted to scrap doing the same this year, but I found a comprimise and pointed us towards a 20×5 instead. This lets us go for a challenge again (which I do enjoy) but lets us spread our wings and pick a wider selection. And if we enjoy a game a lot once we hit the 5, well we’ll keep playing it. But if we start to not enjoy it, it’s less of a slog to get to the end.

And continuing my girlfriends high level of determination, we’ve already played each game once, putting us a fifth of the way there in the first month.

The games are:

• AKROPOLIS – A new favourite already and quick to set up and play.
• BIRDWATCHER – A recent arrival that’s a change from WINGSPAN.
• THE CASTLES OF BURGUNDY – Became one of our favourites in 2022.
• CHAMPIONS OF MIDGARD – Missed out on inclusion for the last two challenges.
• DINOSAUR ISLAND: RAWR ‘N’ WRITE – Our favourite of the series.
• GANZ SCHON CLEVER – We can’t stop playing this.
• GREAT WESTERN TRAIL – One of our all time favourite games.
• KEYFORGE – Need to justify all the packs I grabbed in a sale recently.
• LORDS OF WATERDEEP – One of our most spruced up games.
• MARVEL DICE THRONE – Didn’t play this enough last year.
• MEEPLES & MONSTERS – The closest bag building has got to deck building.
• MIND MGMT – We enjoyed the ‘Training’ games and want more.
• ROLLING REALMS – One of our favourite Roll ‘n’ Write games.
• SCYTHE – We enjoyed our friends copy so much we rushed to get our own.
• SPLENDOR DUEL – A Splendor game that my girlfriend can beat me at (her choice).
• THE TAVERNS OF TIEFENTHAL – A game we’ve been wanting to play for 2 years.
• TRAILS – A recent gift for my girlfriend.
• TZOLK’IN: THE MAYAN CALENDAR – Another game gathering dust on our Shelf Of Shame.
• VITICULTURE – A classic we’d only played once since owning it.
• WAYFARERS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS – We had Raiders for the 2021 challenge, and Paladins for 2022, so it was inevitable.

FROSTHAVEN ARRIVES

Before I go, just a quick tale of a game that had the most insane arrival of any game in our collection.

We love GLOOMHAVEN in this house. It’s our most played game at almost 70 hours since I started recording stats in January 2020. We make a day of it and smash through scenario after scenario.

It’s been just the two of us and it’s been nothing short of the best gaming experience we’ve had together.

So it should be no surprise that we were really really really looking forward to FROSTHAVEN. Bigger and better. We needed it yesterday.

But . . .

We weren’t fans of the series at the time of the FROSTHAVEN Kickstarter campaign. I considered it, but it would have been my most expensive backing at the time, and I wasn’t sure if we’d enjoy it, not having tried it’s older sibling.

So I passed by the campaign, thinking that maybe one day we’d get to it in retail. And then we went and bought JAWS OF THE LION and were absolutely blown away. So much so that GLOOMHAVEN was dragged into our collection before we’d even finished the JotL campaign.

And while JAWS OF THE LION was awesome, GLOOMHAVEN itself was on another level. The map board, the retiring, the treasure trove of cards and tokens. It was so exciting to get it to the table on a weekend and fight together side by side.

And then the regret for not backing FROSTHAVEN began to seep in. I should have gambled. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We didn’t know we’d end up being such fans. So we settled down and waited the long wait for retail.

As the game was delayed, and second printing retail fell further and further into the future, I tripped over an online store doing PreOrders. I jumped straight in just to have my foot in the door. I knew it was months and months away, but the purchase was taken care of and it would turn up eventually.

And so it was back to GLOOMHAVEN and it’s expansion, knowing that in the future we’d have the sequel.

And then the retail date moved on further. And the price went up and up as more was revealed about the game and how much content it would include. At this point I figured that at least I got lucky getting in early at a lower price.

Just before Christmas people started getting their copies and posting about it. I was so excited to see it in the wild, but the regret came back. And as my friend let me know her KS copy was on the way in the UK at the beginning of January, I was quite sad thinking that could have been me if I’d taken a chance.

And then one evening, while watching TV, I got an e-mail from the online store I’d preordered with.

My copy was on the way!

I realised then that they must have backed the Retail pledge. I hadn’t even considered that as a possibility. I was going to get a copy 9+ months before I had told my brain to expect it.

Of course the next two days were stressful as my brain started to suggest things like ‘mistake’ and ‘mixup’. Would it arrive in one piece? Would it arrive at all?

And then . . . it did.

There are many highs in this hobby. Most come from winning or playing something for the first time that you’ve been looking forward to.

On that day, my happiness came from the surprise of FROSTHAVEN turning up. And I can’t wait to play it.

HIGHLIGHTS

• FROSTHAVEN arriving!!!
• Having our 20×5 challenge at 23% already!
• FROSTHAVEN arriving!!!
• Finally getting the latest Critical Role campaign Pin.
• FROSTHAVEN arriving!!!