by Steph
Monday Ron and I got around to playing Castell. This was exciting because I hadn't actually played 2 player so I wanted to see what it was like!
I let Ron go first since it is an accused player advantage since the board refills on all odd rounds. I see how one might find that to be an advantage, and it certainly can be if all the right tiles come out at all the right times.
I didn't find it particularly important in our game becuase we were rarely seeking the same values and often on opposite sides of the board. If Ron reallllllllllllllly wanted to screw me over he probably could have but it would have only hurt him more being in the wrong location, etc.
In the end it didn't really effect our game and I don't see it as an issue at all.
Perhaps it helps that I significantly won the game ;). Poor Ron, I crushed him so hard. I have played this a LOT more than he has, but I got some nice combos of castellers. I like this game at all player counts for sure!
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I recently got a game called Mazing. New to me!
I am always interested in trying out new games and this one is a cool abstract game. At first it reminded me a lot of Quoridor. This one played 4 players however, and uses a deck of cards and die to move. Yeah it is a roll and move. I do wish there could have been an alternate mechanic than roll n move.
On your turn, you play 2 cards from your hand. Most of the cards you might find a shape made up of squares or just a single square. You take that shape and some tokens in your color and place it somewhere on the board. Ideally you want to best block and reroute your opponents. Some other cards might be to break down or jump over walls! You can never fully enclose yourself or an opponent and there must always be a pathway to get to the finish. Every player is trying to make it across the board out the other side.
It is certainly tricky and rolling a 1 each turn is not helpful. You almost have to build your own maze so the other player doesn't screw with your passageways too much. It is an easy game to pick up and play and even my family would be able to play it. Right now I have just played this one game as a 2 player game.
Ron and I each played one color and it was neck and neck to the finish. My terrible rolling skillz landed me in 2nd place, but I made him jump through a lot of hoops and I had some secret explosives in my hand of cards. I was able to catch up and had he not rolled a 5 in the final turn, I would have definitely won the game on the next move. It was sooooooooooooo close!
I really like that there wasn't a blown away winner, You really have to act accordingly to keep the other players at bay. I look forward to playing with 4 players soon!
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Next on the table I was able to easily teach Ron how to play Scare It!. I learned this a few weeks back at GAMA and was a cool token I could take home.
Ron hadn't played and it is another abstract game but it is sort of in disguise because it is so cute. You are playing to try and keep your hidden animal type and color on the board.
I guess I am quite good at this game, since I am now 2 for 2!I ended up winning this game just by a single point! I was pretty sure I had his animal and color figured out by the end and I was trying to poach those remaining towards the end.
I actually think this game might be best with 2 since you have the most control over the board and what is happening. With 3 or 4 it might be a bit chaotic, but I would be willing to give it a chance. easy and accessible. Cute game and so vibrant!
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Wednesday I wanted to play a new game called Fairy Tile. New to me!
Oh man, the look of this game is just awesome. I LOVE the art and the minis in this game. The minis are even painted! The quality and art is top notch. I actually think the art in the game on the cards is better than the art from the box.
The actual game play is fairly simple and accessible for families. People have been asking how it compares to Carcassonne or Takenoko. I don't really compare them, actually. So, in the game every player has a deck of cards and whomever can complete their stack of cards first will win the game. As you progress in the game you are unveiling the story with each card you complete! You will draw one card and have to complete that before drawing the next card. Cards will have requirements on them, for example, the prince and the dragon meet in the forest. Or the Dragon can see the Prince and the Princess. Each turn you will either add a land tile to the game board or move one of the characters. If you find necessary, you can bypass your turn and put your card to the bottom of your deck. If you do this than you get to flip the action market to the star side and possibly get a double action in a future turn!
The turns play out quickly and the game play had me engaged the whole time.
Ron and I just played a 2 player game so it came down to almost a standstill in the end. We both needed the Dragon to be in a particular place, so it could have just gone on and on with us pushing the dragon back and forward. Because of this, I wonder if there could be an alternate ending. But, otherwise, I find that this is a pretty good abstract. Do you place the tile in hopes the other player/s might move the people you need to. I am definitely interested in playing with more people to see how the dynamic will change.
In the end it was close though and Ron caved and moved the dragon to exactly the location I needed him to. I was able to get my final card down, though he might have been able to in the next turn.
All in all I had enjoyed my time playing and look forward to trying again soon!
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I needed to take some photographs of Altiplano.
I actually only played this game once in November! It was about time I played it again! I have also played only 2 player so far and each game lasts an hour or so. I needed a recap since it was a long while back but Ron refreshed us on it.
I wasn't focused enough and Ron ran away with the game as he did the first time. You would think I would learn by now that he just wins, I need to actively stop him. He was just always one step ahead of me this time. It was definitely rough going but I was happy I still managed to get over 100 points. But he was up around 140 or something. It was a demolishing for sure. This is a game I would like to play some more to see if I can actually defeat him... hmmm
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Yay Saturday was game day and basically my very late Bday party! Dan showed up with several others and he had a game for me! The arrival of Welcome To....
So happy to add this game to the collection I really do love it! Perhaps a bit long but I simply love this game! I think my one of my favorite types of games is Multi-player solitaire.
Several people were learning and I definitely picked up my score from that first game play. This game also ended much later as well so the scores were a lot higher. We actually played until the end of the game where there were simply no more houses to place and that was the game end trigger.
I actually did VERY well this game and ended with over 130 points. I was on point! I got the first goal for 11 points and then a bunch of 6 section regions for lots and lots of points.
It was all awesome! I even beat the Ron!
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I was of course interested in learning more games and Dan was happy to teach Manhattan. New to me!
This is essentially a new revival of an older title. I never had the privilege of played the original but this new edition is a show stopper. Every time I saw pictures of it I knew I had to play it. The clear blocks just make the game glow! It is so appealing to me. I love the bright colors. I really like the new look and I think it is wonderful. My aesthetic for sure, but my friends actually like the older version slightly better since they could tell the colors apart more clearly. Pssh they are just wrong.
The game play is very simple and abstract. Each round of 4 rounds, you select 6 of your building pieces you will be playing in the round. You have a hand of cards, and each turn you will select one card to play and one area on the game board to play in with one of the 6 pieces. You can always start a new building from the ground. But if you wanted to try and overtake an already in existence building then you must play a building piece = to or greater than the value of the one with the most value. So Yellow might have 2 pieces in the tower maybe 1 at value 1 and 1 at value 2 size to have a 3 building size. I would have to play a 3 or 4 building piece to overtake it, or if I already had a building piece there I would juat have to combine my values to equal or beat it and take control.
Every card has a diagram of each of the regions 3x3 and with a highlighted section of the 3x3 so that is where you place. Each player has a different point of view as well. My top right will be someone else's bottom right etc.
The goal of this game is to get the most points and you want to have area majorities at the end of each round and you get points for the number of towers you are controlling as well. Small bonus if you have the single tallest tower too! Lots to think about and people to gang up on in this game.
All game I was messing around with Dan's buildings since he ended up fighting for the areas I was in. Pete and Riley were going back and forth in other regions. There is definitely a last player advantage, but in a 4 player game, all players get to go last each once so it evens out.
I had a pretty good starting round, but you really ramp up in points as the game goes on because you are covering more of the board. Again, I was focused on controlling the couple of areas I found my pieces dominating, which meant being mean to Dan. This game can be a bit harsh, but much like any abstract, it feels less mean than some other take that games.
I actually won this game! Woohoo! I guess beating up on Dan worked out! Sorry Dan! The game was easy to pick up and play and interesting to work with the cards you are dealt. I had a pretty good time playing and would definitely play again. If you play with 2 players than you have to play 2 colors each, and I am not as excited by that, so maybe 4 players is the best. I will test it out though.
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Dan had a new game he wanted to try out called Colortopia. New to me!
I have wanted to play this game for a while now, if only because COLOR is in the title. Clearly I wanted to play this. It is actually a speed pattern recognition game. It is even better than that though, You have to use your set of cards to match the patterns, but you really need to know your colors and figure out the code quickly!
Probably to no ones surprise, I won this game with flying colors. See what I did there? When you complete a pattern you grab a token either red yellow or blue. Sets of all of the colors will get you more points.
I ended up scoring 9/10 rounds and got each color 3 times each. It was epic and awesome. Totally worked out for me! I guess colors just seem to clique for me. :D Fancy that.
I had a good time play and I would gladly play this one any time someone put it on the table!
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Next up we played my new game called Favelas. New to me!
I picked this up in the recent funagain blowout. I had been interested in this one for a while, since I saw the big clunky dice. The dice are amazing and rainbow colored, so I was immediately drawn in. It is also an abstract city building game as you are drafting tiles to place onto you already existing city. When you cover a matching color, then you get to adjust the die up or down by 1. Whomever has the majority in a given color at the end of the round will score points = to the dice value. if you happen to have all of the colors showing, then you get the bonus points of the clear/white die face.
This game has a lot of interesting things, I did not enjoy the tug of war for colors values though. I feel like there was a critical part of the game missing. I suppose it ended up being a bit boring.
I was last place this game, I could not maintain a majority and I was going for the rainbow each round, which was not good because of the single tile rules. Everyone was taking single tiles so they could lower the clear die.
The game didn't leave me wanting more, which is unfortunate, since I really wanted to love this one. It is visually very cool looking, its just missing that zing.
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We had 6 players and decided to try our hand at Decrypto. New to me!
I was very interested in this game since I first saw it in the BGG contest. I like hidden codeword games. Yeah it gives you a feeling of Codenames, but it is different enough. In the game you are working on a team, to try and out smart the other players. Each team has a set of words that line up with specific numbers 1-4. There is a code deck and if it is your teams turn then one person will pull a random card from that deck. It will have a combo of numbers like 324. If you pulled the card than your job is to link in clues to the words that are linked to 3/2/4. You need to be cryptic so the other team can't guess your secret code, but you need to know your team and understand them enough that they will guess the correct numbers. Once everyone is ready then the other team reveals their guess, then your teammates. If the other team guesses correctly and your team does not, then they will gain a point.
As the game goes on, the other team starts collecting lots of clues for each of the different words and might end up guessing the actual words so it makes it a lot easier for them to know the combos.
In our game we were bring very cryptic and totally understanding what the other side was doing. Our words were Teacher, dance, giant, mother. We were doing pretty well and got the first token awarded! We were on to them. They slowly started understanding us though and we were being less obvious to ourselves.
I think it was turn 5 when we ended up losing, I gave the word Eve, and Jess and Shrey weren't able to connect that to Mother. But, the other team was able to. Ugh I thought I was being so clever! Guess not.
There is definitely more rules and understanding in this game than in Codenames so I would say it is not as accessible. I probably won't bring this around to the family, but it can be a great end of night cap. I think it will take a certain crowd too. After playing just one time I am still very excited to get this back to the table and had a great time playing.
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Dan had another game for us to play called Doodle Rush.
I actually played this at G2S a few weeks back and was interested in playing it again.
Turns out we played the first time incorrectly. You are supposed to have your 6 words for the whole game and keep revisiting the ones that didn't float away to others. So, you have essentially 3 rounds to work on your images then frantically guess others then go back to drawing the left overs.
We played with the challenging words and they were definitely harder than the first game we played the other week. We were using easy words and changign words each round. Seemed to work alright and Ron killed us then.
With the hard rules it made sense to revisit the unclaimed tiles. I ended up getting a positive score of 1 which was nice. I think it was a tied winning score even, so yeah people were not playing that well.
I would play this again, I don't think it hold up against pictomania which is the best of the best.
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So a while back Cindy from Meeple Sourse told me she was getting in some copies of Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature. I wanted to try and help promote her and it is also NOW on KS from Mayday Games. She ended up selling out in under a day, but she may end up getting some more. In anycase, if you can wait for it, it is on KS now for you to check out.
It is exciting for this game to come to the US though because those polar bears need a home and they are just extremely cute! This is a pretty tough co-op game to collect enough data to win save the polar bears.
I have played it several times now and have enjoyed my plays. This current play was actually the only time I have lost it! Other times the team has managed to hang on and secure a last minute victory.
This time we were having rough luck with the temperature die and random placement of the data being scattered. Ice was breaking each round and hardly anyone's turns impacted the game. Eventually, all of our helicopters were used up and we couldn't save papa and baby bear from drowning and we lost immediately. I don't think we even found half of the data needed to win! We were just seeing the rough side of this game.
On the plus side I think everyone had a great time and would play again. I know Scott came back and played in this second game having learned it months ago. That was cool! I will have to try and play it again soon! :)
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Scott had a new game and I just had to play it called Panic Mansion. New to me!
This game is exactly how it sounds. It is a dex game! Each player gets their own "manor" In each Manor is a collection of items, everyone has the same set up. There is a deck of cards and you flip one. Each player races to complete the card. The backs of the cards are the rooms and so the one you just flipped will have several items on it and you have shake you manor to get all of those items no more no less into the room that is on top of the stack. Yeah it is a real time game and it is great. The components are awesome and the concept is simple.
Really anyone can play this! It is totally Halloween theme too so I know that is why Scott loves it. I had a great time playing though.
You play until one player collects their 5th card. It was actually a pretty close game when we played and several people got to 4 cards and one person was just terrible at the game. :P I ended up scoring the 5th card though and I was king shaker! :D So Fun I would play whenever requested! :D
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We had 8 players and I actually have Kung Fu Zoo that can hold 8 players! I have an early prototype of this game and several colors which allows for some amazing game play.
Jess was interested in learning this one and I was more than happy to play it. I have found it sort of difficult to get it played in the past, but I have to say after this past game it was amazing fun with 8 players. I took arguably the best selfie ever. (first photo below) It is seriously awesome. I mean everyone looks amazing and happy- might be my best pic ever! Who knows but I love it so much.
It was a very tense game for sure. I was doing very well until Ron had a killer turn knocking 2 of my dice out of the ring. We were playing caged battle so they were totally gone. It came down to Ron v Scott and it was super tight! Ron went all in and shot too hard and ended up losing his die in a magical spin move that was just lasting forever and it went right in the corner pocket, not what you want in the game. Scott was the winner that time around!
I look forward until the next time we can play the game with 8 people!
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We broke the party up and there were 4 people interested in playing Dokmus.
I really love this game. I think Ray was learning and Scott has this amazing pimped out version of the game which is just SUPER. Every time he brings it around I just want to play it because it is that cool.
I taught the game and Jess also played but I am pretty sure she had played before. She is not really an abstract player, but she still enjoys it much like Shrey. Maybe it is an abstract in disguise and they can't tell. I am not sure why this passes their abstract bar. That's a question.
Anyway, the teaching went well and I was then playing my own game. I was trying to cover the many tiles but find the temples. I was a mixed bag and going 3rd or last most of the game so it was definitely not a good position to be in. I am almost certain I didn't win this game, but I am not really sure. I can't remember who won, but I am thinking it was Scott. Don't know! It was a long time ago. haha still always so much fun to play this game, I look forward to playing again soon.
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Throughout the day I ended up playing The Mind 4 times, each with different groups of people.
There was one game I had to play and we made Joe C play, and I honestly thought he would be more opened to playing it. So we forced his hand into playing, and there was an audience of like 5 people watching our game. It was a bit awkward, so there was that. Pressure was too high to perform well.
We ended up losing about turn 3 or something then he was done and didn't want to play more.
Later though we played a 5 player game and ended up getting to round 5 or something so we did fairly well with that group.
Regardless, I am always happy to play this one, and would spend a day doing so! haha I really enjoy this one. Great game!
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Ron and Scott were looking for players and I elected myself to play Dinosaur Island and Derek joined in.
I rarely get to play with all of them at game day so it was fun to get to play. We choose to play the long game, I never played the long game before, and yeah, it was long. It felt much longer. We did have a dinner break, but still!
20 excitement is hard to pull off, I managed to get there eventually. I ended up completing like 3 or 4 of the goals by the end, so there was that.
Spoiler, I totally won this game. Ron was in the lead the whole time and giving me a hard time since he knew I was winning. I wasn't complaining about it, but he was rolling his eyes at me. Wat! I had plans and I was sticking to them.
I definitely think the long game was too long for my taste. I will stick to the medium length. I am a bit nervous about the expansion just adding too much stuff to drag down the playtime a lot, but we will see. I hope to try out the prototype in a few weeks! That will be cool!
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We had some time to kill before the other tables finished up and Ron taught the game Are You Gonna Eat That?.
I had been wanting to try this game for a while with 4 players since I only played it the once before with 2 players. I have to say I enjoyed the 2 player game a lot more since you are really playing a take that game and in 2 players it is expected. With 4 players I really felt like I was getting picked on left and right. Yeah, I think Ron ended up with like 38 points and I was -3 or something stupid. There was nothing I was able to do though, since I had to constantly spent my turns only drawing 2 cards. I just ran out of cards one time and then couldn't replenish. Kick the low man.
Regardless, I don't dislike the game, I will just only ever play with 2 players. I did not like the 4 player experience.
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Adam was interested in playing Dice Forge Shrey hadn't played before and was interested in learning and I think Jess was also playing.
Teaching went well probably because I had just recently played it at MeepleCon.
This game I was trying very hard for a couple of the 5+5 cards which were 26 points or something. I ended up only getting 1 and it wasn't enough to even get me over 100 points. I was playing chicken and used my shards when I had them It was rough though.
I am pretty sure Shrey won though. He had a lot of points. Jess was just working on her mini games and doing okay but it wasn't enough to win the game.
This is a fun one Gotta try alternate cards soon. Been playing the initial set up a lot.
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Since no one knew what we should play I took out Last Mouse Lost.
I first taught Shrey how to play in an effort to keep him around for a another game. I ended up then teaching ron and Jess how to play, and I have to admit I am getting better at this game, I won all 3 games!
I am not sure I won anyone over with it, but I had a good time. I just like pushing the bubble back and forth, its almost as satisfying as bubblewrap.
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Final game of the night was 7 Wonders. YAY one of my favorites!
We ended up playing with Cities and Leaders, and I had forgotten I mixed in my new leaders promo packs. It got everyone confused. I think Jess only had played once before and Dan forgets it all.
what it all comes down to is that I need to play this game more and clearly everyone else does too! It was a great time and I was sure I was going to win.
Not so much, Dan managed to pull out the win this game. I was just behind by only a few points though. He managed to get a lot of wins with military to really help out his score and I was negative there. Mostly since Joe took a coward position and grabbed that dove.
Roma Roma Roma for second place. I always have such a hard time with them, I try for big strategies and it never seems to work out for me.
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Easter with the fam!
Easter was a lot of fun. I got to go up to Maine for the day and see my grandparents and parents. Once my grandparents left, I convinced my mom and dad to play some NMBR 9.
This went over super great! I definitely will have to get another copy of this game because I want to play with everyone over Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think it will be great!
We ended up playing 3 times and Ron played stupid well. He won each and every time. But in the second game he did far better than any score I had seen before and managed to get 131. Really Ron? Ugh my poor mom thought she was doing so well that round too! haha he crushed us. It was still a good time though and one for the ages!
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There was one more game to get taught by Ron and it was Smile. New to me!
I had just picked this up and was really interested in trying it out. Everyone played my copy the day before and I missed out.
This game reminds me of No Thanks! But it is actually much different. There are cards valued -5 through 6 in teh deck and you splash card = number of players. You must always bid on the lowest value and you can never claim a card unless if it has a firefly on it. So if you are first you must always place a chip / firefly on the card and then the next player can either take it or pass.
Some cards have a color in the corner like pink, and if you collect 2 pink cards they are immediately taken and flipped upside down and no longer cont as points. This is good if you have like negative cards, but if you are canceling 2 higher valued cards that is a bummer.
Everyone will claim a card in the round. So, once you take a card you can't bid again for that splash.
I believe there are 10 rounds and 10 opportunities to collect points. This game I just did horribly. If you have to play a chip and you don't have one then you get a blue one which is -1 points at the end of the game. Yeah I collected one of those and was finding it difficult to keep my head a float. I ended up taking a lot of shitty cards, but hey i was still net 1 point at the end of the game! I think my dad won with 12 points though, so that was good for him!
It is a super cute game and I just love the art!Love it so much! I don't know what all of the critters are but they are amazing. I am happy to have it in the collection.
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Sorry for such the delay in post! I have been quite the busy bee this week. I will have to do better to get my post posted on time next week in preparation for Gathering!
New to the Collection:
Groves
Kitten Klash x2
Mazing
Smile
Sunset Over Water
Welcome To...
Broom Service: The Card Game
Thanks for following along! I hope you have an amazing week.
Until next week!
Happy Gaming!!!
-Steph
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