Summers here and things are getting hot.
Perhaps a little too hot, for someone like me who just does not enjoy this warmer weather. But there are still games to be played and that’s what’s important. Especially on this blog.
KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS
It was a very lean month this May. No actually crowd funded boardgames arrived. The only one off my list was FALL OF HOME, a group TTRPG in the form of a zine. Looks interesting, but will I get to try it anywhen? With my RPG group not really doing much of late, this might sit on the shelf for a while, which is a shame as it looked interesting.
Next month is (fingers crossed) looking a little more epic for KS / GF arrivals so hopefully more to talk about at the end of June.
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH (including our 52×1)
A reduction in new games compared to last month, but still a fair number. Though our 52×1 barely moved as a lot of what we tried were other peoples games.
We really enjoy STAR REALMS, so when a Star Wars skinned version was announced, I preordered as soon as my internet speed would allow. STAR WARS THE DECKBUILDING GAME is very close to STAR REALMS, but it has enough differences to give it a different flavour. The Star Wars theme helps if you’re fans of the movies, and the Planets giving you both asymetric abilities each time you lose one is a nice tactical edge to the play.
As cat people who like 2-player only games and spent the early days of our relationship playing CHESS and DRAUGHTS, it was clear that BOOP would end up in our collection as soon as it became available in the UK. It’s like a complicated and cute version of Tic-Tac-Toe with you cat placment knocking surrounding cats away and potentially off the bed (board).
We were lucky enough to get to try WORLD EXCHANGERS from EmperorS4. And while it looks Flip ‘n’ Write, it’s actually something quite different. Players buy and sell Cities, with the funding graph being the Write part of the game. Your line passes through certain symbols on your personal board and its these that work out most of your end game scoring. It’s very easy to teach and play, and rewards future planning and good timing. A lot of fun.
We were also very lucky to get hold of a prototype copy of PIONEER RAILS from Dranda Games (big thanks to @favouritefoe for sorting this out). It’s a Flip ‘n’ Write that I’d been wanting to play since seeing it at UKGE last year. Building rail routes across your sheet will trigger different locations (Saloons, Banks, Bandits, and more) when you choose a dealt card and use the suit for your action while the card number works towards a hand of cards for extra scoring. An instant favourite.
As we continue to try out party games for our wedding next year, some family suggested we try HERD MENTALITY. It has the feel of being the opposite to JUST ONE. So instead of thinking of a word that no one else does, you want to match the most other players. It sounds simple, but we were laughing hard at some peoples choices (a must for a good party game), and the Cow mechanic of being blocked means you will fear being the loner in a round.
Another party game we tried was recent purchase WEIRD THINGS HUMANS SEARCH FOR. I say straight off the bat that this was not good. I’ve never been so uncomfotable teaching and playing a game where it was obvious for the entire play that no one was enjoying it. People wanted funny or weird answers, but most on the list of ten for each card were boring yet vague. Neither team scored much. It will not be invited to our wedding.
I’ve had TRIAL BY TROLLEY: DERTAILED EDITION for over three years now, but with the ideal minimum player count being 5, and some cards being NSFW, there really hasn’t been much opportunity to play it. And after that long wait? Another dud. I’m glad I got to play it before it gets sold on, but it really needs the right group. Like CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY it gets stale if the cards don’t work for you.
NEXT STATION: LONDON is a much talked about Flip ‘n’ Write and we knew we had to try it. It has the clever mechanic of players each having a different coloured pencil per round, so you’re always working on a different Underground line to your opponents. Our first game was a bit of a headscratcher as we struggled with the rough rule book. But now that we know what we’re doing, we really like it.
Sometimes you have a game in the back of your mind, but it never gets Wishlist status. MILLE FIORI was that game for me. It looked really nice in all the posts I’d seen, and I was interested in it despite not knowing what the hell was going on. But for some unknown reason I pulled the trigger and added it to my basket, despite there already being three games ready to go. But I’m so glad I did. Four plays in a week and the excellent new expansion has already been bought and played. We’re looking forward to a visit to friends next week so that we can try it at 4.
CARBON CITY ZERO was an early Kickstarter backing, but for some reason the rulebook perplexed me and I never got round to teaching it. Flash forward three and a half years and my knowledge from those last 42 months showed me that it was just a simple Deckbuilder. And it turns out that it’s pretty good. We also have CARBON CITY ZERO: WORLD EDITION which is essentially the same game with co-op rules and a few tweaks, but we prefer the original.
20×5 CHALLENGE
Bit of an odd one this month. We started on May 1st with an epic day of only 20×5 games Seven were played including big hitters like WAYFARERS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS and GREAT WESTERN TRAIL. And then? Well we didn’t play any off the list until the 27th where we mopped up the last three games that needed their third play of the challenge.
So, we’re still ahead of the target by a good amount, and we got at least half the games on the list played once in this month. Still going to get this one done before the end of 2022 with us currently sat at 68% complete.
THE CULLING
We have limited space like most people. When we started having trouble getting to games because the newer ones were all pile on the floor in front of our shelves, it was clear something had to be done.
But I was precious over the collection and didn’t feel like I could let any go.
And then I watched the BoardGameCo video where @professormeg went through her collection and it showed me that I didn’t need to keep every game I’d every bought.
So we looked at Unplayed games, games we didn’t like, games that needed more than 2-players but none of our friends would enjoy. I started to make hard decisions and I was worried that I’d falter and change my mind.
But I didn’t, and during May I said goodbye to some games for the first time (and made some money along the way).
First out the door was WAR OF THE RING. It’s a great game, don’t get me wrong. But the set up time, the rules relearn, it just meant that it was slowly becoming a chore to play and that’s not what games should be. I’m a little gutted that we never got to play the expansions (so that was a waste of money) but it’s all gone off together, and we got a lot of space back.
Next up was four boxes of ZOMBICIDE: BLACK PLAGUE content. It’s a great looking game, and I’m sure it would have been a lot of fun, but besides two solo plays of the main game during Lockdown in 2020, I’ve not played it. And all four boxes take up one Kallax cube. So it went. And due to it’s value, I made a decent amount back.
After that it was just a bunch of games that have outgrown their use. Whether it’s gateway games that we don’t really play anymore, or early purchases that have since been replaced, these were mostly gathering dust. So goodbye to KLUSTER, MACHI KORO, and FORBIDDEN ISLAND.
And the one I’m most sad about is THE CREW, a game that I know I’d have enjoyed, but none of the groups we played with were able to get their heads around co-op Trick Taking and we never got to the end of a play in all our attempts. Sometimes you just don’t have the right group for all the games that exisit.
But it’s only a start. We have many more on the sell pile now, and I’ll just spend time putting them out before my local gaming groups and seeing who wants them. It’s a slow process, but it’s helping me also be more cautious about what’s coming in to the collection going forward.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Selling our first game. Yikes!
- Getting to play a prototype copy of PIONEER RAILS from @drandagames
- My first online game of BLOOD ON THE CLOCKTOWER (I was the Poisoner!).
- Our second FAREHAM & GOSPORT games evening,
Always Play Blue 