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And that was December 2023

Always Play Blue

Happy New Year everyone.

The final month of 2023 is behind us, and with the festive season meaning time with friends and family, there was more gaming than average going on over the last 31 days.

There was the local gaming group’s monthly meetup, two trips to see family, a games afternoon with one group of friends, New Years Eve with another group, and then there was my ‘sort of Stag gathering’ at my FLGS.

Yes. Lots of gaming was had.

KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS

There’s something about the Valeria series from Daily Magic Games that goes beyond the artwork that first pulled me in. Since diving in with Coasairs, Quests, and Shadow Kingdoms, I went for the big box Valeria Card Kingdoms Kickstarter and haven’t looked back. The most recent game in the series to fullfil is GUILD ACADEMIES OF VALERIA, which also came with the RIFTLANDS expansion for SHADOW KINGDOMS OF VALERIA. The arrival also had the added bonus of some Folded Space colour inserts which I do love putting together.

I had considered backing THE GIG when it showed up on crowdfunding, but for some reason I missed it and had to jump on with a Late Pledge (so far my only one). This is an interesting Roll ‘n’ Write that sees you uses musical note dice to work through a playlist. But the interesting thing about it is that the first phase of dice rolling and placement on the song sheet is simaltainious. I also got the expansion and an extra set of dice.

SCHOLARS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS is the latest in the third medieval trilogy from Garphil Games. We’ve enjoyed its predessesor, WAYFARERS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS over the last year (it was on our 20×5 for 2023) and we’ve been looking forward to seeing what Shem and Sam come up with next.

And that’s the last of the Kickstarter arrivals for 2023. I backed less in recent months so the games turning up will get less in the future. This is mostly due to lack of space and money, but also because the last six months saw me selling off some Kickstarter games that I regreted backing due to how flat they fell in our plays of them. I’ve finally realised that I don’t need, and can’t have, everything.

NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH

New Years Eve, 2019, I joined my gaming friends to celebrate the midnight descent into 2020 at our local FLGS. The last game we played that night was TERRAFORMING MARS, and being late, with a messy teach and limited table space, meant that my experiance of this highly rated game was sour one. So it’s a big thank you to our good friends Sam and Kirsty for taking the time to teach us TERRAFORMING MARS and banishing that foul experiance I’d had.

ONITAMA is a 2-player chess-like game that I’ve always wanted to try. But because we own and enjoy CAIRN, a similar game, I’ve not bought it. But we finally decided to try it aon BGA after we talked to a couple playing at a FLGS we were sat next to. And I like it. THough maybe not enough to own it. It’s clever in that you can make a move based on one of two cards in front of you, but that move then becomes available to you opponent, so you have to be careful that you good turn doesn’t screw you over.

We really like the medieval trilogy series from Garphill games and were super eager to try their latest, SCHOLARS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS. The colour dice mechanic takes a little getting used to, but once you understand it, it makes a fantasic mechanic to master. As always, the similar iconograpy of all the games makes things a little easier to pick up than it might have been if you’ve played previous games in the series. I don’t think this would be a good first Garphill. We liked it enough that it’s on our 20×5 for 2024.

UNO: NO MERCY is a varient of the classic game that our nephew taught us over Christmas and it’s a lot of chaotic fun. +10 cards are insane but with a game like this you just need to make it crazy and embrace the fact that it’s not about winning, just screwing everyone else over as much as possible before you’re knocked out.

SEA SALT & PEPPER has popped up a lot on my feed, and I wasn’t quite sure what to think of it at first. But tight on money and space, yet needing a game purchase to cheer me up during a bad day, means that it’s now in our collection. We only tried it at two, but I like it. It does feel like it would shine at higher counts, so I’m looking forward to introducing it to some of our gamer groups and friends soon.

SPICY is a bluffing card game that I’ve wanted to try since I saw the No Rolls Bared episode on YouTube. When our family gets together it’s mostly bluffing games we play like SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM or SECRET HITLER, but this is a nice smaller card game to get out between the longer ones.

2024 CHALLENGES

One thing we’ve enjoyed doing over the last few years is setting up challenges to add something to the 12 months of board gaming. We’ve had a 52×1 Challenge each year that helps us keep a little on top of our Shelf Of Shame by requiring at least 1 new game a week. We’re normally pretty good at this one.

We originally started with the famous 10×10 Challenge but found that the limit of variety and amount to be played meant we sometimes ended up resenting a game for feeling forced to play it (10 plays of WAR OF THE RING was not a good idea). So for 2023 we switched to 20×5 and found it a lot easier going. And we’ve decided to keep with that this year. We have a nice mix of old favourites, games we don’t play enough, and new arrivals that we’re keen to get stuck into.

And this year I’m adding an extra challenge for just myself. Towards the end of this year I decided to become a full time student and go to Universiuty (the aim being a career change). This has meant that by spending more time at home, I’ve leant a little further into solo gaming than I had done before. So I thought I’d go for a 10×10 solo games list to work on when I need a break from studying.

  • CYBERION
  • FINAL GIRL
  • FOR NORTHWOOD
  • LEGACY OF YU
  • MARVEL CHAMPIONS
  • MINI ROGUE
  • ONE DECK DUNGEON
  • ORCHARD
  • SIEGE OF VALERIA
  • UNDER FALLING SKIES

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Having my Stag outing at Dice, Portsmouth
  • Boxing Day gaming with the family
  • Starting a new RPG session set in the world of Numenera
  • Finishing the first arc of our D&D Campaign
  • Giving TERRAFORMING MARS a second chance and really enjoying it.
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