As we close in on the end of this year it’s that time when outstanding personal Board game challenges are hunted down, where Top 50 lists are created, and where gaming becomes cosy on those dark, dark evenings.
November was a month with less plays than are normal pace. There’s no real reason for this other than my wife’s work and my studies being a little heavier than usual. If it wasn’t for an evening at Dice Portsmouth, a visit to a fellow Instagram gamer, and another visit to family, the number of played games would have been far, far lower.
But on the plus side, we finished our 20×5 challenge for 2024. This means it’s just my personal 10×10 solo to go. 37 plays needed in just 33 days. Fingers crossed.
KICKSTARTER ARRIVALS
The month started with a bang thanks to the early arrival of INVENTORS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS on November 1st. We’ve been enjoying the Garphill Games Medieval trilogies and how they get heavier with each release. It’s nice to complete the South Tigris trilogy specifically.
Unfortunately, due to games being delayed as per usual (especially this time of year), some of the big box games we’re really looking forward to have all been pushed back into the New Year. Of course, if there are no further delays . . . January is going to be epic!
NEW GAMES OF THE MONTH
Early in the month we popped along to Dice Portsmouth, our FLGS. While most of the games we played that evening were already known to most of us, SUSHI GO!: SPIN SOME FOR DIM SUM was a complete learn for the table. Thankfully it’s pretty rules lite, and we’ve all had experience with other games in the series. It’s a very simple drafting game with very little in the way of mitigation, almost to the point that you can spend half the game being forced to take cards you don’t want. I was left pretty unimpressed and definitely won’t be looking to play it again in the future.
It didn’t take us long after it’s arrival to get INVENTORS OF THE SOUTH TIGRIS to the table. I’ve been eager to try it out since I backed the game. It’s very heavy compared to earlier trilogies, but fits in nicely as the next step in the South Tigris games. The process of designing, publishing, and building can feel a little overwhelming at first (even with icons that only make a little sense alongside the rulebook), but by the end of the game we pretty much got the hang of it. There’s a lot going on with your own board as well as the main board, and it’s going to be a couple more plays before I’m able to start a game with any semblance of a plan (much like Wayfarers and Scholars).
On our visit to Dice Portsmouth, we were gifted a bundle of games as part of the birthday celebration. AEON’S END was one of those games and it’s one that’s been on my wishlist since we completed the Legacy version back in 2021. I’d been put off by the price, and the fact that I thought my wife didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Turns out that I was wrong about that, and after two plays (a win and a loss) we are both excited to try more of the Nemesis and Mage’s on offer in this core box (and the two small box expansions that came with it).
Towards the end of the month we visited Craig (@getintogame) and Becky (@mrsgetintogames) for a day of gaming. While most of the day was spent playing games that we knew as a way to experiance them at 4-player for the first time (THE WHITE CASTLE and KUTNA HORA), the first game to the table was WORLD WONDERS, which I’d heard of, but never played. It’s city building; polyominio style, with some nice wooden Wonders to dot around your board. I was advised early on that the Wonders are not too important to scoring, but like a magpie that sees something shinny, I couldn’t resit using most of my turns to gather any Wonder that I could. Unfortunately, not only did I fail to score well, but most of the Wonders I accumilated where of the brown and grey variety which meant my city looked incredibly bland. Lesson learned for the next time I play.
THE PRETENDER was a game I won in last years 24 Board Game Marathon raffle. It’s a family game, for sure, one thats basically FAKE ARTIST GOES TO NEW YORK with charades instead of drawing. Perfect for a Sunday family game day. And it’s quite fun, though it has the usual niggles with games of this ilk. It’s very dependant on the group and the players sense of humour. And it’s always horrible if your ‘The Pretender’ and then have to go first. Still, I did manage to bluff one round but acting out ‘Batman smells’ becasue I’d figured the song was ‘Jingle Bells’.
THE BIG SCORE was another game we reviced on the recent Dice Portsmouth birthday evening. It’s from Van Ryder games so I had some hope for it. It’s a game played in two halves with players semi-cooperativly trying to coplete ‘Small jobs’ in Act 1 with a card drafting mechanic akin to SUSHI GO!. After that it’s Push Your Luck for Act 2 as players grab treasures from the Vault (a bag) and decide whether to flee before the cops turn up, or take just one more thing. Unfortuntely the teach ended up being a little chaotic, and the first play was tarnished a little, but I could just about make out a fun game that covers 6 players and is just mainly silly fun. Keen to give it another go.
HIGHLIGHTS
- An evening celebrating the 8th birthday of Dice Portsmouth
- Games day with @getintogames and @mrsgetintogames
- Managing to score all my rows and columns in a 5-player game of SAGRADA
- We completed out 20×5 for this year!
Always Play Blue 