That’s birthday month over and I’m now lvl 44. Yikes!
A weekend away, just the two of us, saw a fair few games being played as we chilled out in a cottage on Rudyard lake near Leek. The peace and quiet, the beautiful views, and the isolation away from a stressful world were exactly what we both needed.
With our 52×1 challenge completed last month, I thought September would see us turn our attention to finishing our 20×5 challenge.The remaining games were all on their final plays. But most were big games, and with the stress we’ve had over the last four weeks, most of them didn’t appeal when we did have time to game in the evenings or weekends.
We also had another wonderful visit to the land of @boardgamereviewuk and played some cool new games there too, as well as getting to try some games (BUNNY KINGDOM and THE QUEST FOR EL DORADO) at higher than our usual 2-player count.
KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS
A good start to the month with the arrival of the UPRISING: CURSE OF THE LAST EMPEROR expansion UPRISING: TITANS OF THE FIRST AGE. This game is epic, a real table hog. And it’s probably the only game of it’s depth and size in our collection that is co-op. For me this is a massive bonus because I struggle with the longer games normally, and knowing that the person sat beside me is there to take some of the weight (instead of crushing me in defeat) makes for a more enjoyable experience over the length of time the game takes. I’m also looking forward to playing again as I grabbed the Deluxe Components, so it’s going to look even nicer.
A big change of scale for the next game was MOON, the third ‘long white box’ from Sinister Fish Games. I love the art work throughout this series and this one looks as interesting as it’s predessesors (VILLAGERS and STREETS).
I also got a nice selection of clothing from the last Mr Meeple campaign. Two really nice t-shirts and a hoodie, plus a Captain Meeple dice tray.
After some delays and fears of incomplete orders from the not-very-communicative Ghost Galaxy, my KEYFORGE: WINDS OF EXCHANGE set turned up. I was getting into KEYFORGE not long before it all went away and swapped hands, so when the Gamefound campaign popped up I figured I’d treat myself to some co-op material and a good mat too. I’m looking forward to diving back into this game, though the way Ghost Galaxy handeled the campaign has me and others wondering if we’ll be back for more.
Next up was a surprise delivery with TINY EPIC CRIMES. I’d forgotten it was due around this time, so when I opened the door to the post man, I wondered what I’d ordered. Gamelyn Games have once again cramped a lot of components into small boxes, but perhaps too much this time. It’s become quite a chor to pack these away since Pirates. I don’t know how much more they’ll manage before it ruins the games.
A day later saw the expected DREADFUL MEADOWS. We really like the gameplay, art, and design of SHELFIE STACKER, so I was keen to check out what Arkus Games came up with next. I’m looking forward to playing the game, though the expansion has me querying why I added it as it looks cumbersum and potentially unnecessary.
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH
While on our long weekend break away we didn’t want too much stress, so the number of new games we took was minimal. And of the small number we took, we only ended up learning one; SOLAR SPHERE from Dranda Games. This is set in the same universe as their previous game, SOLAR STORM, which was a sort of mini Pandemic like game set on a space ship. This time though they’ve gone bigger. It’s ‘Worker Placement’ of a sort as you use your Dice to take various actions. There’s constructing the titular Solar Sphere, hiring crew, buffing actions, and fighting off ships. It looks like it will be compliacted when setting it up, but the rounds and turns are preety simple and smooth. We both really enjoyed this one.
On our visit to @boardgamereviewuk the first game Nick taught us was ARCHEOS SOCIETY. It’s a game I’ve seen a little of and not heard much about, but I always trust his opinion. The teach was fairly straightforward and it’s a nice little game. I do think that the colours are a little too close on the location boards, and the score tracker board is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in all of gaming. But the gameplay is unaffected by this and I really enjoyed our play. I like that there are different abilites on the back of each location as well as a bunch of adventurers to play with. Variabilty is king and this does a good job of that.
The next game Nick taught us was FIT TO PRINT. This one is the latest from the Flatout Games / AEG collaboration but feels different to the three games that came before. There’s a real-time element to the game that sees players clambering for the best articles, pictures, and ads to fill up their front page. The rounds are played in two halves as you grab what you can and place it all on your desk first before calling “layout” and using the remaining time on the clock to construct your front page. Being our first play we struggled a little with taking too much or too little. I enjoyed our play of the game despite struggling with how many rules you end up with in terms of tile placement. Everything has rules and multiple scoring goals you’re aiming for. It’s spinning a lot of plates. But it’s fun when the whole table is in the centre of the chaos together. I think I agree with Efka from NPI when he said he sees it as less a game and more an activity. But it’s a fun activity.
As if we needed to endure more real time stress, KITES was the next game we were taught. Six coloured sand timers and a deck of coloured Kite cards. That’s it. You play a card of a colour and flip that egg timer. If the sand runs out in just one timer, you all lose. And I have to say that I liked this one a lot. It has a 5 MINUTES DUNGEON feel to it as people panic and yell at each other and hurridly place cards down as time runs out. There’s also the extra challenge of a turn order which you don’t have in the 5-Minute games.
We finished the day with WILD SPACE. I wasn’t sure about this one as it was being set up. More, I wasn’t keen on a tight turn-limited game when I was beginning to get tired. Could my brain handle the precision and turn economy required? But then Nick mentioned chaining and I perked up. While you do only have ten turns for the game, it becomes all about planning a turn to go through actions as much as possible. It has a mix of SPLENDOR (getting cards down with symbols to utilise later) and GANZ SCHON CLEVER (finding that one action to start the best combo). The sci-fi theme is irrelevent, though I do like the art style itself. But I like the mechanics in this one.
20×5 CHALLENGE
With our 52×1 challenge completed in August, I thought we’d get stuck into the 20×5 and complete that this month. But we ended up played a lot of games we’d neglected due to our two challenges, and only a handful of days in the middle of September even saw us complete any of the games (THE TAVERNS OF TIEFENTHAL, MARVEL DICE THRONE, DINOSAUR ISLAND: RAWR ‘N’ WRITE, VITICULTURE, and KEYFORGE are now all done). But with 3 more months, and only seven games on one remaining play each, we’ll be fine to get this done before the end of the year.
HIGHLIGHTS
- That relaxing weekend away with just my favourite person and a bunch of games.
- Another board gaming day with Instagram celeb Nick (@boardgamereviewuk)
- A bunch of Kickstraters arriving after months of delivery drought.
- Helping out with the Fareham and Gosport Board Game Lounge at a local event.
Always Play Blue 