Recap Monday: What did you play this week?

After half a year, I finally continued my King's Dilemma game with friends. We had a huge blast again, it's definitely one of my favorite boardgames at this point and I'm very excited for the sequel.

Also, this is my first post in the fediverse, so hello! So nice to find a kinda active tabletop community here!

I played Earth for the second time Sunday night (after my usual RPG night was cancelled/postponed), this time with 4 rather than my first game with 2.

It's a really interesting game, but I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. I originally took a look because it kept coming up in discussions around Ark Nova (which I tried and disliked), Wingspan, Terraforming Mars, etc.

I can see why people say Ark Nova is a bad comparison (I agree, very little overlap) but absolutely see why people compare it to Wingspan so often. So many of the mechanics in Earth seem to be directly pulled from Wingspan and then vaguely re-themed to be plant based. It really feels like they started with Wingspan as a base design, and then reworked it into their own concept.

Pros:

• Simultaneous/shared turns a la Race for the Galaxy work super well in a wingspan-like game. Getting to run your engine on other people's turns is so much nicer than sitting and waiting for them to deliberate over choices.
• The flexibility of getting to build your own tableau with almost no limitations is a lot of fun, as opposed to building off of an existing engine framework.
• The shared turns have made it (so far) so I never felt like I was truly pinched for resources. I wasn't taking actions out of desperation to catch up, I was picking what I felt would get me closer to my actual goals.
• Despite the singleton deck, it never felt like I was unable to find cards with the synergies or qualities I needed.
• There were a good number of high payoff "build around" cards that came up, which is something I always enjoy in a board game.

Cons:

• The iconography could use some work, especially considering how heavily the game relies on it. I mean, the "cold climate" symbol is a five pointed snowflake?! The object that is famously six sided?! I understand having a learning curve, but having a player ask, "what the hell does this symbol mean?" and hour into a game isn't great.
• Flavor is tenuous, in Wingspan I get that predators hunt smaller birds, that birds which lay lots of eggs and store lots of eggs, etc. In Earth, I have no idea why a given plant has 5 sprouts but only 2 growth, or another one has 2 sprouts and 4 growth. The event cards are even more incomprehensible.
• It's got a bit of the "egg rush" end game from Wingspan (sprout rush here) but it's mitigated by shared actions, and having more flexibility in how you build things up (this could have also been placed in Pros, tbh).
• I would never ever want to play this in person. So many fiddly bits interacting that I'm happy to allow BGA to handle for me. Especially considering the scoring, which (again) mirrors Wingspan but has significantly higher totals and would presumably take proportionally longer to count up.
• I understand why a game like this uses photos as card art, but I do really wish they had nice Wingspan-like illustrations instead.

Overall, very interesting game. I had fun, and I'm looking forwarding to digging into it more on future plays.

Kodama!

A cute Japanese tree-spirit creatures inspired board game about growing a tree and earning leaf points over three seasons. Whoever gets the most points wins! Takes around 30 minutes to play.

Mh, we had a round of boardgames with friends two sundays into the past. I'll chalk that up to rounding errors.

The session started with Flashpoint: Fire Rescue. It's a pretty simple and straightforward opening game about a burning house and rescuing a bunch of people from there, which is why it's one of our openers. If you know action-point based games, you know half of the rules already.

You spend 4-ish action points on running around, dousing flames, carrying or healing people and such. Afterwards you roll dice to select a field on the board to escalate the fire. Usually, you place smoke on empty squares (and in our case, the toilet was on fire so damn much...), but if you roll a square with smoke, that field and all connected smoke fields turn to fire. If you roll fire, that field explodes and damages walls, doors, spreads more fire in the cardinal directions. If you roll a specially marked field - a fire hotspot - you roll again.

We played on a medium difficulty setting because we had a new player and won that round, but everyone agreed that it was teetering on a knifes edge at 1-2 situations in the game - how it should be. Next time, heroics will be up :)

And afterwards, we tackled our current raid boss, Dune: Empire. This was our third or fourth session, and we found another 2-3 rules we had been doing wrong - one or two of these mistakes being a rather huge one nerfing cards like the Bene Gesserit very hard.

But as a game loop: You have rather normal deck building ideas. You draw 5 cards from a private deck and play one of those cards to send an agent to places - like cities on Arrakis, places at the guilds and the Landsrat, which gives you resources like money, water and spice, loyality with the guild and optionally armies. However - and this was the mistake we made - this card stays in play until cleanup. This repeats until all players have used their 2-3 agents, at which point you play your entire hand to get the final turn bonuses on them, money practically. This allows you to buy cards from the market, improving your deck a bit. Afterwards, the current combat strengths are evaluated based off or garrisoned or active armies, as well as some instant-cast spellcards to ad some spice to the fight and the winners get rewards according to the current conflict. At the end of the game, victory points decide the winner.

It's very much a bigger game and you can expect to invest 3-4 rounds into the game to understand all the rules, to get familiar with the cards and the pace of the game and to get some understanding of some meta of the game.

Like, I approached my first run with a dominion mindset. Get some trashing, get some value, thin the deck and win.The issue is - you only have 6-8 shuffles available based off of the pace of the game. This makes the usual trashing setup too slow usually. Most trashers also have conditions on them like "Have another Bene Gesserit Card in Play", and if you discard your cards in play too early, that also becomes harder.

But it's a very fun game once you get into it and it's going to be the main staple for the near future of your boardgame rounds.

Was just about to post this myself ;-)

GF and I played a round of Lost Cities, one of our go to games. It's always fascinating to see how each game develops and agonizing to decide which colors to throw away and which ones to commit to. This was a hugely close game 199 vs 224. The last round we basically didn't compete in ANY color. Each of us just kept drawing almost all cards of our respective color. She a bit more than me but what I lacked in value cards I made up in multipliers and managed to eek out a single point more than her.

At the weekly board gaming session my group played the last chapter of Aeon's End Legacy 2 (second attempt). I wasn't present for their first attempt and they really hyped up that last battle. But we got into it with a nice combo of characters. Despite some painful early losses of expensive cards our main damage dealers were able to power up while I and another geared up for support. At the midpoint it looked pretty bleak for a moment but a turn of 28 damage later things had cleared up very well. At that point I was pretty confident we would be able to exhaust the nemesis draw pile which we were. We didn't expect that we would also have to whittle down the nemesis to zero but it turned out to not be much of an issue.

Then on Wednesday my GF's brother came over for pizza and board games and we played Minecraft: Builders and Biomes. Just like last time I had the worst luck in my attempts to fight monsters. Must have wasted something around 10 actions drawing basically just potatoes. As such, while my building was pretty efficient my GF managed to sneak past me to victory. Her brother came in third (he really focused on collecting blocks hoping they would we worth something at the end - despite my assurances they would not shrug) but really liked the game and requested we bring it over when we visit the next time.

I went to a board game trade fair ("Spiel doch! Am Bodensee"). I had my kids with me, so I did mostly play family and kids games with them, but also found cough some cough games for me. But now I'm broke LOL.

Anyway, I welcome Hens ("Hennen"), Factory 42 (german edition; signed by the designer), Dune:Imperium and Everdell to my collection. I also got bear and puma tokens for Cryptid, as missing an areal and needing to correct a yes/no was always a strong hint to someone's rule and has ruined a game already a few times.

My kids also got some new games, but the only one of them, that I liked personally was Café del Gatto

I'm currently in the honeymoon phase with Innovation, a small but wild and cut-throat, kind of abstract civilization style card game originally released in 2010. I played it twice with my girlfriend now and she won both times, but losing is also fun here, simply because so much chaotic stuff will happen. It seems that so many different strategies are possible that no two games will feel similar.

I heard that some people dislike it for the chaos it contains, but I hope I can get some people from my usual gaming group interested so that I can play more often.

There will also soon be a Kickstarter for an updated version which I am excited for.

I FINALLY tried out the Hansa Teutonica game I got for my birthday two years ago. I've been wanting to try it out, but couldn't bring myself to read the rule manual. It's nothing against the wording or so, I was just procrastinating (I'm good at that).

1h youtube video later, I felt I understood the basics, and packed the game for our boardgame day last Saturday.

I LOVED IT. I don't have any other Euro-games, this is by design, but I really wanted to try one. This one came highly recommended, and I can understand why. There are so many things to do, strategies to try... I definitely will play it again.

We also played Codenames and Set a Watch, but that was less of a revelation and more of a return of some favorites on the table.

I played Santiago for the first time in a couple of years and it was so much fun. Excellent interaction mechanisms.

I introduced the 8-year-old to backgammon. She found it thrilling! We played 3 games before I had to do some yard work and other tasks as assigned.

It was my birthday on Saturday, so I was able to get a few friends to come home and play a few games with me. We got these to the table:

Cross Clues: Fun warmup game. Easy to integrate people midgame, which happened because a couple of people were running late. Also, my kids (8 and 5) got to play too, even if the 5 year old couldn't think of a clue (and one of my friends had to bite his tongue and not say the very nsfw clue he was thinking of).

Scape Goat: This game shouldn't work as well as it does. It's too simple, but still manages to get you paranoid. Also, you need to make sure you read the grid correctly, or you might target the wrong goat, which two of us did. Still, it was fun.

Derby: Simple horse betting game. Not a lot of depth to it, but it was fun. I like the illustrations Maldón (the publisher) usually does, but I think they could have made a better job of differentiating the colors. I wouldn't play this with bad lighting.

Codenames: Pictures: A classic. Also could involve the kids, so that was fun.

Article 27: I hadn't played this in ages. It's a fun negotiation game.

In all, we had fun. Next time I hope I can get something more meaty, but it was still fun.

Bought a copy of Turing Machine for my bf and me. We're programmers so I couldn't pass it up. Pretty good if you can keep from making foolish mistakes. Messed up the ordering of the cards already, but I figure that makes it a more authentic experience.

Got reacquainted with Raiders of Scythia, to teach next week - I needed a refresher. Trying to get better at Glass Road solo, the scores on BGG are some way above mine..

We recently got Paladins of the West Kingdom and got in a few plays of it. It's just as good as its reputation. Only missing Viscounts now, have to do my research on that.

We made some attempts at Mass Transit which is a lesser known small coop (or solo). A bit like The Game but with a theme. After a few plays I think I see how you'd win but we haven't quite made it yet.

On digital I've been playing lots of Mottainai (Yucata) which is an amazing game in a 54 card deck.
I have some Newton games going on (also Yucata). Relatively new to Newton but it has become one of my favorites from Luciani & the gang (T-series, Grand Austria etc). Love the card driven actions and the Concordia/Faiyum style deckbuilding.
A Cubirds tournament game, some Tash Kalar, Micro Dojo, Nova Luna, Age of Civilization (all on BGA).

Been playing the Paperback app to help me fall asleep. I think I still prefer Hardback but both are excellent.

Played Project L for the first time for several rounds over a few days. I'm definitely not quite there in terms of figuring out how to optimize the first few turns, and I'm not a fan of the scoring - we may start keeping a running tally so that the endgame isn't such a surprise. But the gameplay is unique and fun.

Tried Gigawatt for the first time this weekend with friends. It's a game about countries in Europe trying to transform their energy production into green energy while simultaneously meeting the growing energy demands, balancing the power net, and making sure you don't go broke. At first glance it seemed a lot simpler than the games I usually enjoy, but it surprised me with interesting strategic choices and a pretty good balance. And the theme is very well executed and (to my knowledge) quite accurate to the real world. Would recommend.

Also played a few games of Frosthaven, we just entered the third year in the campaign. Playing Shackles and Astral. Really loving the experience so far.

Lastly had a few rounds of The Crew, it's such a good little game for almost any occasion and group!

Managed to play Arkham Horror twice in one week, though missed playing War of the Ring with my partner.

Wednesday was an 11 hour Arkham Horror marathon due to 2 friends moving away. Four of us took the day off. We attempted the two-party Dream Eaters campaign with two groups of 3. The awake team blitzed through their scenarios while the dreamers struggled through theirs (having already played the other way, the dream scenarios are more complex). This resulted in the awake team waiting 30 mins - 1 hour per scenario for the dreamers to finish. We finished at the end of scenario 3 as we were so exhausted.

Saturday was my Path to Carcosa group, which proved to be a lot more fun, probably because we weren't trying to cram a whole campaign into one day. Completed scenario 3 before the final agenda came up. Our seeker is ridiculous at hoovering clues.

I finally got to play Age of Steam for the first time, on the Southern US map. I can see why so many people go all in on this game. I'd probably buy my own copy of it was easily available, and I had room.

On Saturday, I started with Decrypto. It's a fun team game, and quite newbie friendly. I also played a little game called Red Flags, a silly party game similar to Cards Against Humanity.

Libertalia (Winds of Galecrest) was a blast, and it wasn't too difficult to teach to new players. It's one of my favourites, and I highly recommend it.

The final game I played was Bunny Kingdom. I like the drafting mechanics, but I felt the scoring was a little fiddly.

I explored Shadowrun: Crossfire together with a few friends last week. I got it pretty cheaply on a yard sale and thought I it would be fun to try out.

After our first round, we went our separate ways and played a second round with the content from High Caliber Ops on Tabletop Simulator, which was also very fun. The second round basically just flew by and we were able to secure victories in both. I'll probably try out a new role in the next one!

We got a couple of 3 handed rounds of Wingspan, and one of Azul

Wingspan is such a pretty game, maybe a little overly complicated, but not as bad as Mandy Patinkin might lead you to believe.

I don't like Azul as much, but Mrs. Trabic and our friend love it. I think it may be a difference in learning styles.

Had a mid relatively recently, so Thursday was my first game session in a couple of months.

Played Chinatown and won handily. Love that game. Very straight forward rules, lots of good interaction and decisions, and a great narrative over the course of the game. Glad to get back to the table.

Avatar Rising. Fun game, more difficult than I’d thought (we were three players). And they really nailed the heroes/villains abilities for the lore of the game

Diamant 1x 4P (cardboard)

An always fun push-your-luck mechanic with a cave exploration theme.

Low learning curve, highly luck based and just sillyfun really. Yes, I recommend it (c:

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Also in the middle of some games on yucata.de : Port Royal, Rose King, Spexxx, Las Vegas, Thurn and Taxis, and Ali Baba. All are worth a try.

Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition - nice Variation to the original, better for 2.

Imperium:Legends - interesting and deep civilisation deck builder. We have both this and Classics, which means tons of civs for lot of replayability

I finished the first campaign of Isofarian Guard and then set up for some Final Girl 2, but didn't get a chance to play yet.

I played Great Western Trail again. I love this game so much but hate having to tell my friends to think about their turn before their turn happens. When their turn comes and they're staring at the board for a few minutes just thinking, it really grinds the game to a halt.

We played a match of Clank: Catacombs with 3 players.

One player was new to Catacombs itself but knew the normal Clank. The dungeon layout this time turned out a bit more tricky and there were few easy escape routes. The new player panicked a bit and decided to grab the lowest value artefact and run for it. He only made it out with 60 points. Final score was 121, 111, 60.

I really like how each game feels much more different with Catacombs, the layout of the dungeon being discovered throughout the game creates a lot of tension. If you love Clank but know the map inside out by now, Catacombs is the answer.

Whenever showing someone Clank, I usually first play a game of Dominion to show Deckbuilding, then we play a game of normal Clank. The next time they come, Catacombs is on the table.