While it’s super hot outdoors, we’ve spent the month inside with the windows open and the fan on to carry on enjoying games at the table.
We’ve also been out and about visiting other gamers with some fun game days, and we’ve ended up playing A LOT of new games. So many new games.
And while we missed out on UKGE this time round, we enjoyed seeing a heck of a lot of content from others who went and got to see a lot of what might be heading to our table in the future.
KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS
We began the month strong with the arrival of ISLE OF TRAINS: ALL ABOARD from @drandagames on June 1st, but after that it was a drought. Checking notifications showed that a lot of the games I was expecting have been further delayed into July and beyond. So next month will either be a big month, or another dry one.
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH (including our 52×1)
Visiting new friends on the first weekend of the month meant being shown new games, and the first of these was ARK NOVA. @thoughtsofameeple had the game all set up when we arrived, and after a great rules teach, we jumped right in. Now this game was super hyped on release, but at the time it didn’t interest me. But after the play I saw it differently, and while I don’t see it as a top 10 game for me, it was a lot of fun as I started to work out how everything links together. I was pretty chuffed with my board by the end. Not sure if I’d own it, but would definitely be up for a play if anyone suggested it.
At the same visit, we were shown GIZMOS to fill the time while dinner was being prepared. I’d heard about this one before when someone on Facebook recommended it if I liked SPLENDOR (which I do). And GIZMOS is good. Really good. It has that escalation where progress is slow at the start, players gaining just the odd card in the first few round. But then you cross a point where taking one blue marble gets you so much stuff that everyone else falls asleep. This could potentially end up in my collection.
COLORFUL TREASURE was sent to us by Tawain Board Game Design for review. While it looks like a simple set collection game, there’s a little more depth to it. As well as the sets of coloured Gems, there are Diamonds for more points, and chest/key cards that eventually give you the ability to steal from opponents. The backs of the cards also hint at the coloured gems available in each column, so it’s less random when you choose your cards to flip. This one was a nice surprise.
After seeing SPOTS on a SU&SD video, I was quiet interested in trying it. One quiet afternoon we jumped on BGA and saw it there so figured we’d give it a try. And I like it. A lot. The push your luck element is fun, and the abilites you choose each turn make it more thinky than I expected. And despite being a cat person, I did like the adorable artwork on this one.
ISLE OF TRAINS: ALL ABOARD was my only Kickstarter arrival this month and we didn’t waste much time getting it to the table. It’s pretty much a pick up and deliver game with a nice mechanic where cards can be used for multiple uses. The art is great, the components are good quality, and the gameplay is interesting. I did find the iconography didn’t quite fit with the rest of the game and looks confusing to start. And it takes a moment to get used to giving your opponents things to enable yourself bigger plays. I found the hand management tough personally as I can be quite indesisive.
TOWN 66 was taught to us at a local group meet up. It’s an Oink game so lots of tokens crammed into a small box. This one had a sort of QWIRKLE or SODUKU feel to it with shapes and colours not being repeated in rows and columns. The score mechanic and end game mechanic confused us a little, and I’m not sure we played it correctly, so another play will be needed.
On the third weekend of June we visited @BoardgamereviewUK for a BBQ and a day of games. And the first one we were itching to try was AFTER US. We’d had to miss UKGE this year, so we passed by the excitment around this game. It’s simple to teach this colourful deck building race. I really like the mechanic of playing cards in an order to maximise their boxed abilities. Very clever. It’s a little multiplayer solo, and if you ignore points, even for one round, it can hold you back. But I think a couple of plays under your belt and you’ll get the hang of a good route to victory.
PLANET UNKNOWN is one of my biggest Kickstarter regreats, and while I’ve been hovering over a retail purchase now that it’s out, it’s £70+ price tag meant that I would still be wise to try before I buy. As soon as it was suggested for the table, I jumped at the chance. And what a game. I really like polyomino, and I love the lazy susan draft mechanic of this one. We played a six player game, but it never felt slow. I was never waiting. We all looked to have different strategies too, and my heavy meteor tactics did me good enough for second place. I did almost make a purchase this week, but then I saw the Deluxe reprint and expansion on Gamefound, so I’m holding off for that now.
NIDAVELLIR was another Kickstarter that I almost got. When it landed on peoples tables during fullfiment and photos went up on Social Medai, I started to take fresh interest in it, but still wasn’t sure. Now, after a play of it, I would definitely like to play this one a lot more. While the bidding to draft mechanic is good, I really like the coin upgrade system. Trying to keep track of who upgraded to what so as to guess their bidding power, and making sure your weakest coin isn’t too weak so as to hold back your upgrades, is very intertesting. I also like the art. Makes it stand out.
We really enjoy 7 WONDERS DUEL and the original 7 WONDERS (which we don’t get to play as much) so when 7 WONDERS ARCHITECTS was offered up to learn, I was interested in seeing what made it so different. And it’s a great intro to the series. Great components and a nice drafting mechanic where you can take from your neighbours decks and not your own. There is a fun race in the monument buiding, and I liked how War was started. Probably won’t end up in our collection, but this is another one I really want to play again.
FURNACE is a game that I’ve been more interested to try than to own. I can tell that it won’t get much table time with us, yet I was interested in the bidding mechanic and the engine buiding after watching the NPI review. And it was good. Great art work across the cards and board. I liked the control you have in the bidding with no repeated bidding numbers in the same place. Choosing my card order for phase two was sometimes difficult, and I found myself stuck working on only two resources which limited me, but I did alright. Though I could not play with the fixed card variant; I would easily mess that up on the first turn.
A long day of learning and teaching games was ended around 10pm with the more light hearted MEEPLE CIRCUS. This is the biggest most intricate dexterity game I’ve played. Up until now it’s been KITTEN, TINDERBLOX, and TIDDLYWINKS. This was intense, and a lot of fun. I struggled with the multiple scoring mechanics (my brain finds it hard to hold all the meeples and cards and goals at the front of my mind), and I wasn’t sure on the final round when it’s one at a time. But it is good silly fun. And I will never take the non-thumbs card again. But it was a fun way to end an entire day of gaming.
While out shopping last weekend, my fiance randomly picked up KOI GARDEN (as she’s prone to do based on cover art alone). It’s a relaxing card placement and insect moving game that has some clever ideas, but is a bit fiddly due to a poor rule book and challenging score mechanics. It’s good though, and several plays in will cause these issues to fade away. Time will tell.
We’re working through the Valeria games from Daily Magic Games, and I’ve been really wanting to play VALERIA: CARD KINGDOMS since it turned up ( a while ago). I enjoyed MACHI KORO in the early days, and we have a lot of fun with SPACE BASE, so I knew this wouldn’t be a challange to learn. And it’s a favourite straight away. I did have an issue with the Duke scoring (some look more powerful than others), but everything else from the Mico art, to the chunky dice, to the flow of the game, were all great. And I may have gone all in on this one, so we have planety of content to enjoy going forward.
After winning a voucher from Kienda, it made me go shopping (despite trying to shrink our collection) and in the end I went with STARSHIP CAPTAINS. I’d had my eye on it since it’s release last year and now was the perfect excuse. And we really enjoyed it, despite the complete tie at 35.5 points each. I’ve heard a fair bit about the ‘missions tactic’, but I’m hoping that won’t ruin the game for us. And it definitely feels like a game where the base version is fine, but I can see space for an expansion.
Another game we’ve learnt recently and really enjoyed is NEXT STATION: LONDON. And while it’s fun to pass and play with the colured pencils, we seem to get to it more on BGA (scoring is so much easier). So when we saw the sequel, NEXT STATION: TOKYO was on the site too, we knew we had to try it out. And we really like it. Not better or worse than the original, just different enough.
We missed out on BITOKU when it was released as a friend picked it up and we didn’t see the point in duplicating. However, we’ve still not played it, and when my Player-2 left her last job, they got her a copy as a leaving present. I’d been putting off the learn as the game looked very busy and hard to teach, but last weekend I decided to stop running from it and face my fear. And nearly two hours later we were done. We enjoyed it, for the most part. It’s definitely simpler than it looks. While the board is hard to decipher on first glance, everything has it’s place and turns should be relativily quick.I liked the dice manipulation, and the art work is gorgeous. More plays needed but it seems okay so far.
@cogitoergomeeple are one of my instaback companies when they put something out on crowd funding. Lately they are building a shared universe with their games, with SOLAR 175 and GONZA INDEX soon to be joined by a Roll ‘n’ Write called LUDITTE. We were fortunate to be sent a copy of the first level of this graphic novel linked campaign game and excited to finally try it out before the campaign goes live in July. And it’s good. A little complex with it’s interlocking sections (though my partner loved the puzzle of it all), but a very different and interesting design for the genre. I can’t wait to find out more about it in a few weeks.
20×5 CHALLENGE
There were not many games played from our 20×5 this month. With so many visits to gaming friends, there were more new games being played. I think for July we’re going to have another epic gaming Sunday where we get through a decent amount of the games left on the challenge.
We’re currently at 70%.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Two games days with two awesome Instagram buddies.
- Finaly getting to try PLANET UNKNOWN . . .
- . . . and discovering the Gamefound campaign was going up next week!
- Completing my FINAL GIRL collection (until series 3 comes out!)
- Running my third and final #30daysofdice
- Getting my first ever win with the base version of TICKET TO RIDE.
Always Play Blue 