Quarter of the year gone by and winter is definitely behind us now.
KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS
The month started in style with my copy of SHIPWRIGHTS OF THE NORTH SEA: REDUX turning up, along with the big box for EXPLORERS OF THE NORTH SEA. Now all our Medieval Trilogy games are in matching sized boxes.
With my wife’s love of Japanese themed games, I couldn’t not back LET’S GO! TO JAPAN. It’s an absolutely beautiful game with gorgeous art on the big cards, as well as some really nice tokens, high quality bags, and the additional token bowls.
It started with the announcement of an expansion fro CUBITOS, and suddenly I was picking other items from AEG’s Expansion Extravaganza. So as well as the FOWL PLAY addition for CUBITIOS, I also grabbed the new GENESIS expansion for SPACE BASE, as well as the Command Centre big box. TO save money, I added in the latest TINY TOWNS expansion, though I’d since sold the base game, so a quick message to that buyer means the addional content is with them now. And finally I went all in on WAR CHEST (base game and three expansions). So that’s two AEG campaign’s delivering within a week with a lot of that company’s great games. I feel like I should have gotten sponsered by them.
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH
With SHIPWRIGHTS OF THE NORTH SEA: REDUX arriving at the start of the month we were eager to jump in and see what the differences were to the orginal. And it’s definitely worth being added to our collection. You’re still drafting cards to build boats using townsfolk, but the biggest chance for us is the removal of the mean cards. Of course this does make the Redux version feel a lot more like a solo experience, but we’ve quite enjoyed it. The game feels a lot more in line with more recent Garphill games from these trilogies.
During our visit to the lair of @getintogames on Saturday in the middle of March, our hosts were kind enough to teach us a couple of games we’d never tried before. The first of these was DECEPTION: MURDER IN HONG KONG. It’s a twist on the hidden role games with one player having all the information but only being able to communicate via words on some tiles. The rest of the players have sets of cards in front of them and it’s their job to use the limited information thay have to deduce who the murderer is. I found it okay. Sometimes the words avaialble to choose from were completely unlinked and ended up being very misleading due to the fact that something has to be picked from each themed tile. And at four it didn’t work as well as it might at higher player counts because you had a 50/50 choice of who was the murderer. Not one I’d ask to play, but I’d join a game with enough people.
The last game we played on the visit to @getintogames was FLAMECRAFT. Specifically the Deluxe Edition. It definitely made an impression with the Dragon minis and gorgeous metal coins. The game itself though was okay. Nothing much happening from the limited choices. And I’m not a fan of games where every one is chasing a small amount of goal cards over and over and when someone takes the card you were saving for before you get to it, you find that there are no others avaialble with the resources tyou hacve,makung you have to start ysaving up agauin. It’s a good gateway game, and one I’d play again with the fancy version, but I’m glad I passed on the Kicksrarter as it’s not a game I’d want to play often.
The very next day we visited family who we always enjoy playing games with. While most of the day was spent with the higher player count games (like SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM and SECRET HITLER), we ended the visit with a 4-player, grown ups only game of CLANK! CATACOMBS. My wife and I had played the original game once about a year ago, and the only thing I wasn’t keen on was the map board. Here though we have a version where the map is made from a pile of sqwuare tiles offering variation on the dungeon each time you play. It was a fun game with, one I wouldn’t be surpriosed if it ended up in our collection one day.
I’d had AKROTIRI on our Shelf Of Shame for about two and a half years, so when I was looking for a new game to learn, and I felt like a 2-player only game, I usted this off and popped over to Before You Play. And for a pick up and deliver, it’s pretty good. This is another genre that I don’t always enjoy, but here it gets the additipon of expanding a map each turn and stratigically placing temples for map card rewards. The pick up and deliver isn’t really the aim of the game. Instead it’s the mechanic that allows you to fund the main aim of the game.
Genius Games were kind enough to reach out and ask if i’d like a copy of CELLULOSE to review. It’s unique theme coupled was interesting, and being Worker Placement meant that it was a something I wanted to try. And it’s pretty good. Some of the spots get confusing when you don’t know (or struggle to pronounce) the scientific names. But the process all makes sense within the theme, so it assist with learning if this was something you played with your kids.
FOREST SHUFFLE was a game I was invited to play on BGA, and it’s one I probably won’t play again. I think this game is a little marmite, and I fall into the camp of not really liking it. There are so many cards, and to read them all, plan around them, hope that certain things come out, and have a decent strategy all feels a little too much. And on BGA is was probably a lot easier to score than having to do it in real life. BGA also allowed it to not take over the whole table. I can’t see how we’d play higher than 2-player on our table.
LET’S GO! TO JAPAN was a game I backed based on it’s looks, the simple drafting mechanic, and it’s Japanese theme. After playing it, it’s a game that will stay in our collection as we booth really liked it. It’s two flaws are chop change of card drafting rules every round and the time it takes to score at the end for such a short and smooth game. But it’s a nice little puzzle trying to plan out the activities through the week, the art and components are super beautiful, and it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome when you just want a short fun game to play.
After watching a recent @actualol video on YouTube (‘Top 10 Games Of The Year‘ I think) we spotted a 2-player game we’d never heard of before called ORION DUEL. It sees you both laying tiles on a small galaxy board, trying to get your colour from one side to the other before you opponent does the same. It’s kind of like Blockbusters. In space. Okay, it’s a little more than that, but it looked like one we’d enjoy, and it was on BGA, so we gave it a go. And it’s pretty good. I stuggled a little as there are multiple ways to win other than just crossing the board, and my brain can miss one of these while focusing on another, causing me to make errors. I’m on a purchase ban at the moment, but I think if I stumbled across this in a sale in the future, it might just find it’s way onto our shelves.
When I backed the AEG Expansion Extravaganza on Kickstarter last year, I was only after the expansions for CUBITOS and SPACE BASE. But then I started adding more stuff, and this included WAR CHEST, which is something I thought my wife and I would like (it goes nicely with other games like TATSU, KAHUNA, or TA-KE). We’ve played once so far and while my wife didn’t enjoy it that much, I really like it. Having just four units and trying to work out the best way to utilise them is cool. And it’s simple with just a bunch of chips, a bag, and a board. Hopefully a few more games will bring her around as I think this is one we could play a lot.
Last year I was lucky enough to win a copy of FROSTPUNK in the build up to the 24 Hour Board Game Marathon. I was aware of the game, but with the scale of it (both box size and cost) I didn’t consider playing it, let alone owning it. But a free copy meant that we were at least willing to try it. Of course it’s quite intimedating so it’s taken us about 8 months to finally get around it it. But 2 How To Play videos and a free Sunday morning saw us getting stuck into the intro scenario. And what a fantastic game it is. Once we got the flow of the turn phases time flew by. Obviously we didn’t win. But we learnt a lot of things for when we try again. And while something of this size and time to play won’t hit the table every week, it’s one that I hope we play 2 or 3 times a year. Very glad to have it in out collection.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Visiting the domain of @getintogames for a games day
- Getting an hilarious victory in SECRET HITLER
- AEG big box Kickstarter arriving
- Finally learning FROSTPUNK
- Booking tickets for this years 24 Hour Board Game Marathon
Always Play Blue 