Today I Played...

[Cody Lewis]

If you played a game recently, share it with us here! Maybe it was a lot of fun... or no fun at all. Either way, we want to hear about it!

Hopefully this thread will have a lot of ongoing activity. I know Scarlet and I will be posting here a lot!

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

The snowstorm kept us indoors all day and gave us the perfect opportunity to play a game! Our current game is Mystic Vale (with the Mana Storm and Vale of the Wild expansions). Cody won the day before (I guess that was okay because it was his birthday), but I got my revenge today in one of the closest Mystic Vale games we've had in some time.

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

Yesterday was a boardgames day hosted by one of the local boardgame retailers. They have one each month, and I always look forward to them.

I finally had a chance to play Clank!. After hearing so much about it from Cody and Scarlet, I knew I just had to try it, especially with being a fan of deck-building games myself. It was an extremely fun but tense game. When one of the players clambered outside the dungeon with just one health to spare, it was a race for the rest of us to get out before the dragon knocked us all out. In subsequent turns, two other players were felled due to not having enough health to go forward, and I managed to get out of the dungeons in just the nick of time (the very next turn would have been game over). The extra time in the dungeons allowed me to snag a few extra victory points, securing me first place. Definitely a game that I want to play again (and maybe even buy).

Next we played Istanbul, which is one of the games currently in my Top Five, although Clank! might just edge it out. Most of our group had already already played the game before, so we opted for a slightly more challenging set up. I had to adopt a new strategy as I couldn’t use my usual starting moves. While I didn’t win, I still had a lot of fun playing it. There’s a dice version of the game coming out in May that I’m looking forward to trying out.

We then played Ethnos, which is a game my group also enjoys. We’ve probably played it at the last five boardgames days. I’m usually not a fan of area control or area influence games, as people tend to play quite aggressively, but Ethnos employs a largely non-confrontational approach to this mechanic, so this is one of the few games in the genre I actually enjoy. Each Ethnos game plays a little differently as only 6 (out of 12) tribes get played with, so it’s always interesting to play.

Next was Five Tribes. I loved Mancala when I first introduced to it around the age of 10, so it was great having an opportunity to play a similarly-styled game. Other mechanics are included, so it makes for a fuller and more interesting game. I liked that there were various ways to earn victory points, although they weren’t equally weighted, which ended up counting against me. Still, it was a fun game and I’m glad I finally got a chance to play it. It was one of the first few boardgames I watched a play through of.

We ended off with multiple rounds of Two Rooms and a Boom. This quickly became my new favourite social deduction game, as discussions and strategising happen in smaller groups, rather than involving everyone at one time. Another thing I really like about the game is that it plays with 6-30 people. With each round, we attracted new players, as they were curious to find out what we were all playing (we were the only group of people standing up in the room and walking around a lot). With each game we played, new roles were introduced, which kept the game fresh.

[Cody Lewis]

YESSSSSSS, CLANK! I'm so happy you finally got to try it!

Today (Scarlet and) I played Topiary and Unearth at our local board game store.

We picked up Topiary and the owner of the store taught us how to play... and then crushed us. It plays a little like Carcassone meets Photosynthesis. It was fun, but I'm totally okay with never playing it again. (I may or may not be a sore loser.)

Scarlet and I were then invited to join a game of Ethnos, but with limited spots available, we opted to learn a new game by ourselves. That's when we unearthed Unearth. It's a dice game (most of which I hate), but places more emphasis on managing your dice than actually rolling them (which I love). It plays a lot like Stone Age, probably my favorite game that we don't already own, so it might just be our next purchase.

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

Haven’t played anything good lately, but Amy’s story about Clank victory sounds AWESOME!!!!!

[Shadow Gaunt]

Just yesterday I played a game “Kamisado” which is a game for two players. The setup looks similar to Chess, 8 figures in two lines on opposite sides of a 8 by 8 Board. However, each one is a different color. Each color can only move on the color it is on. The object of the game is to push one of your pieces onto the opposite side.

I played it with my brother, and while he did put up a good defense I beat him every time. However, during our second game he was one move away from a win.

[Cody Lewis]

Today (Scarlet and) I played Dominion! I wanted to write up another Tabletop Spotlight and it had been a while since we last played, so we played the online version to get reacquainted. Still lots of fun!

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

On Monday night, there was a large group of us so we played Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. It was an interesting take on the social deduction genre. We got several games in, and while they were fun (albeit challenging at times), I'm not in a hurry to play it again.

Last night I played Skull (or Skull & Roses) for the first time. The bluffing mechanic was quite fun, especially when we caught each other out. The game only requires 2 points to win, but it can be challenging getting those 2 points. I managed to bravely snag a point after stating there were 5 flowers on the table (from 7 players). It was very tense as I got certain people to reveal their cards one by one, but fortunately no skull card was to be found. By that point in the game, at least two others had one point each. Eventually one of them managed to win. With so few cards left at that point, none of us were as willing to take any chances, as the likelihood of being eliminated also had increased.

We then split up into groups and I got to play Terraforming Mars, which is currently in my Top 5. We played it with the Venus Next expansion for a change, which introduced some really cool cards to the game and an extra planet to try terraform (however unlike with Mars, Venus did not need to be fully terraformed in order to end the game). What I like about the game is that even after several playthroughs there are still new cards that one comes across, so it helps keep the game fresh. I managed to get a copy of Terraforming Mars at half price recently, so I'm looking forward to trying it solo at some point (partly so that I can refine my strategy and finally beat this one guy in our group who always wins without fail).

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

Wednesday was a public holiday in South Africa, so I was able to get a solid 6 hours of board gaming in.

We started off with a game of Sagrada, which is one of my favourite abstract games. We then moved on to Incan Gold, once more of us arrived.

Secret Voldemort was played next. Whenever we’ve played it, I’ve always been a member of the Order of the Phoenix, but I ended up being Voldemort for a change in our second game. I was able to gain the trust of the Order members, as they made me Headmaster at least twice, the second time spelled game over for the Order though as we had enough Death Eater cards on the table by that point. It was difficult keeping a straight face throughout though.

We then played Dominion with a twist. Instead of playing with 10 kingdom cards as per normal, we played the game in the style of the DC Comics Deck-Building Game with one of each type of kingdom card across various expansions (the base game, Intrigue and Prosperity, as well as random cards from other expansions that had been printed off the internet). Apart from the basic cards, only 5 cards were shown in the line-up at any point in time (any cards purchased would get replaced after a person’s turn ended). The game ended when either the stack of kingdom cards or Province cards were finished. We had a lot of fun playing it as one had to gauge one’s options more carefully. I ended up spending 6 coins on a Village card (costing a mere 3 coins), just because I really needed a card that would allow me to chain Actions. We’ll be tweaking this version of the game as time goes on.

Following that, we played 7 Wonders, which I always enjoy as there’s so many different strategies one can go with. The person who won the first game focused on drafting the science cards - in fact, all but one of his points came from them. I won the second game with a more balanced approach. I used to struggle to get the game to the table and was debating selling it, but now we seem to play it every other week.

We ended off with two rounds of Telestrations, which is always a winner. We had a lot of laughs trying to decipher each other’s drawings.

[Shadow Gaunt]

Yesterday I played Bonhanza which is a very fun card game. It centers about planting “bean cards” and getting enough of a type of bean card to make money. The person with the most money wins the game.

We played two times. The first time my brother won with 6 coins more than me. The second time I won with 5 coins more than my sister. 

Bohnanza is a very interesting game where you not only have to be able to outwit and outrade your opponents but also have some error margin for luck.

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

To coincide with the college basketball March Madness tournament, Cody and I put all the leaders from three Mystic Vale expansions into a bracket for Mystic Madness. Five days and 15 games later, Algeni was crowned the first-ever champion of Mystic Madness. GinGan had a surprising run and Glorus drew an unlucky first match-up.

Continuing with the leaders theme, we played our first game of 7 Wonders: Leaders tonight. It adds even more cards and complexity to a game that is already difficult to tell who has the lead. The Colosseum of Rome was victorious over Abu Simbel, Stonehenge (last night's regular 7 Wonders game winner), and Manneken Pis.

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

On Monday, I got to play several games thanks to the public holiday.

We started off with a round of Perudo, which is our go-to game while we wait for everyone else to arrive, as it's easy to slot in additional players without it affecting gameplay too much. For the better part of a year, we've played Perudo using the standard rules, but in the last few months, we've been playing other variants of it (such as starting with 1 die instead of 5 dice, or introducing cards that affect gameplay - I have yet to play with the latter variant).

We then played 7 Wonders, which is fast becoming a staple in our group. Now that most of us know the rules, the games play very quickly.

Afterwards, we played Robo Rally, which is equal parts fun and stressful. One needs to plan 5 consecutive moves at a time, but these moves are affected by the board (particularly conveyor belts) and other players. It took a turn or two to get the hang of it. I managed to get to the first check point largely unhampered, but with everyone converging on it, it made getting to the second checkpoint very challenging (my robot got pushed by another several spaces and then I moved straight into a hole, which meant I lost a life and had to respawn from the first checkpoint). I'm glad I got an opportunity to try the game, but I'm not necessarily in a hurry to play it again.

We then split into two smaller groups. My group played Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn. I liked that there were other aspects to the game beyond just area control/influence. I particularly enjoyed building different wonders (probably to no-one's surprise) and the ability to expand one's domains (there is a limited number of times one can do this, so one has to choose wisely. This also introduces variable player powers, which potentially makes a game more interesting). I've never played the video game the boardgame was based on, but I've always been intrigued by it (my brothers used to play it quite often). According to someone in our group, the boardgame plays very differently to the video game, but the experience is still consistent with it.

We also played a game of Century: Spice Road, a new acquisition of mine. I was a bit apprehensive going into the game, as I'd been on the fence about getting it for months, but it went down really well, and the other two people I played it with are keen to give it another go sometime. I like that it was a light game (so it helped balance out Civilization: A New Dawn), but there was still a fair bit of strategy to it.

[Cody Lewis]

Today (Scarlet and) I played Clank! The Mummy's Curse, an expansion to my favorite game that just came out today!

The Mummy's Curse introduces a few new cards, an entirely new board, and a couple new mechanics: The Mummy and... curses. Throughout the game, you roll a four-sided die to determine where the Mummy will pop up next. If he catches you, you gain a curse (-2 points). But if you're in the same part of the map as the Mummy, it's also an opportunity to thump him and send him after your opponents instead. Some tunnels can dole out curses as well, so at times you'll have to ask yourself, "Is this move really worth four points?"

Overall, not a huge game-changer, but still a refreshing change of scenery for a game that tends to spend a lot of time on our table!

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

I used to play a lot of Civilization myself:  primarily the computer game (I and II) but I did play the board game a few times too (the original 1980 one - not the Sid Meier branded ones).  My memories of it are fairly similar to the version Amy played, but with one problem:  games would drag on... and on... and on!  Googling suggests eight hours as normal for a game - which is why I don’t remember playing that board game more than twice!

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

Tonight was Leslie Family Game Night! 

We started out with one of our new games, Unearth. I love the dice and the colors in this game. I'm slowly picking up the strategy and learning to take more risks when rolling my dice. I collected a set of all five colors of ruin cards for the first time!

Next, we played Evolution. I wouldn't consider this one a favorite for the Leslie kids, but the future in-laws really like this game. The ultimate goal of Evolution is to collect the most food. This is done by creating species and adding traits to those species. I had a nice setup for a few rounds with an early "Climbing" trait card and a "Symbiosis" to protect my other species. None of the "Carnivores" could eat me unless they also had a "Climbing" trait, which sadly changed by the end of the game.

The final game of the night was 7 Wonders. Cody and I were battling for the science cards. My brother and sister were in a military duel. In the end, my sister won with Olympia. For some reason, Olympia tends to win a lot whenever we play 7 Wonders. 

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

Lately I've been playing a lot of Century: Spice Road and Clank! (another recent acquisition of mine). Last night's game of Clank! was particularly fun, as one of the players in our group tends to take more risks than the rest of us. Emboldened by his playing style, I stayed in the depths longer than usual, snagging two artifacts instead of the usual one. Unfortunately though, I ended up being the first person knocked out by the dragon, but at least I was able to escape the depths of the dungeons so my points still counted. Another player soon fell to the dragon soon after, while the risk-taking player managed to return to the starting point. During his following turn, the dragon knocked out the remaining player. I came last, but it was still my favourite playthrough of the game to date.

We played several rounds of Spyfall 2, which was a lot of fun. It's always tricky getting the balance right between giving subtle clues to other players that you're not a spy and trying not to tip off the spies as to the location.

We also played The Oregon Trail Card Game, based on the video game that a significant number of American children grew up with. Coming from South Africa, I've never played the video game, but I have heard about it in recent years. While I liked getting a taste of the original game, it's not a game I'd play again. I felt it relied too heavily on nostalgia for the video game, and, apart from educational value, it's not a well-designed game. While I wouldn't have expected a 50/50 chance of winning given the theme, it felt more like 5/95.

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

On Saturday, after a fun-filled day with the family, I played Clank! The Mummy's Curse with Cody and my youngest brother. We have played all the other expansions of Clank! together before. That night, we played two games - one game on each side of the board. Cody won the first game. In the second game, I was only one move away from getting out the depths before getting knocked out by the dragon. My brother and Cody were dead even in points the second game. But my brother had the higher valued artifact, so he was the winner. Although I wasn't close to winning either game, it was still entertaining.

I have had Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 on my wish list for months... possibly even before Season 2 was released. The idea of a legacy game was appealing to me and I really wanted to try one. The board and rules change as you play, making you put on stickers or write on game pieces. A few days ago, I finally ordered Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. The game plays through 12 months. Today, Cody and I completed January. The first month plays almost exactly like regular Pandemic (except Hong Kong and Chicago may cause us trouble in the future), so I'm really excited to see what will happen in the upcoming months!

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

As a fan of worker placement games, Stone Age has been on my list for a while. I finally got a chance to play it this last Saturday, which incidentally was International Tabletop Day. I enjoyed it for the most part, and I'd be keen to play it again at some stage.

We also played a 5-player game of Bohnanza. I came second, missing first place by 1 coin, but we were all within a point of one another. It was fun negotiating with each other, although I always felt bad choosing one player to trade with over another.

I also got to play Santorini several times, which is one of my favourite games. There's a fair bit of strategy involved, but games can play quite quickly. I also enjoy the variable player powers that one can play with, so each game plays differently. Our third game was particularly challenging, as one player had Ares, which allowed them to demolish a layer of a building in their worker's vicinity, which kept the rest of us from victory on more than one occasion.

Archaeology: The New Expedition was another game we played. I really liked the theme, and the push-your-luck mechanic often caught us out. I liked the variety of the different monuments included, as interacting with those made each game more exciting.

On Tuesday, I played Tyrants of the Underdark. While I'm not a fan of area control games, it does have a deck-building element, which I find hard to resist. This particular blend of mechanics was quite interesting, but I wouldn't necessarily be in a hurry to play the game again.

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

I played Millennium Blades last night, and absolutely loved it. It's a collectible card game simulator, which brought back memories of the days I used to play Pokemon. Each player starts off with a basic deck filled with cards of a particular element (I got water). We then played a tournament round using some of those cards (which also allows one to get a feel for how the game works -- we all made a lot of mistakes that round) before proceeding to a market phase. The market phase was high-pressured but fun (there were three timed mini-rounds to each set of market phases), as each of us sought to improve our decks and collect cards of a particular type or element (for scoring purposes). I felt it captured the spirit of trying to buy and trade cards quite well. While some of the more expensive cards had some indication of possible elements/types, there was a lot of chance involved. As a result, the second round didn't go that great for me either, but the third round saw things change for the better. I lucked out and got a powerful water gold promo card, which, along with other combo cards, cinched me first place in the third tournament phase. I can't wait to try the game again. It's quite unlike any other game I've played in the last year.

[Cody Lewis]

This month (Scarlet and) I played Pandemic Legacy: Season 1. I'd been reluctant about getting into legacy games (where you do things that permanently alter the game, like put stickers on the board or rip up cards). It's a pretty steep price for a game you only get to play through once, but Scarlet finally talked me into it.

It took us sixteen games played over the past month to get through all the content. Still kind of sad that it's over, but it was definitely worth the price of admission. And now I'm firmly on the legacy game hype train... Looking forward to you next, Charterstone!

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

Today, (Cody and) I played Sagrada. This is another game that has been my list for awhile, partly because it is so pretty, but mainly because of the dice! I love dice and this game has five different colored dice! It is a dice-drafting game. Players have private and public objectives to fill to try to earn the most victory points. Sagrada plays fairly quickly and has many variables that can be modified to keep future games fresh. After the mess that we made with Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, it is really nice to have a game that is easy to set-up and clean up like Sagrada.  

[Arianna Stonewater]

This afternoon I played a couple of games with the other moms at my daughter's playdate!

-We played this old version Catch Phrase (I think she said her machine thingy was the one that came out in the early 90s? I'm not entirely sure but "Current Pop" was NOT current! haha)

-We played WhooNu. I love this game! Very similar to Apples to Apples, it's great for getting to know people, and learn new things about the people you already know! Where else would I learn someone prefers Sundaes to Pie?

-Finally, we also played a fun game of Munchkin! I haven't really found anyone else in this area who likes D&D, so this is as close as I'm going to get! They had a lot of fun cursing each other and undermining whoever was in the lead. Unfortunately, no one told them how Divine Intervention works and I was able to win the first game! (hehehehehe)

[Shadow Gaunt]

Yesterday we played a 4 player elimination Kamisado round, and I won (yaaay).

We also played a few round of Timeline which was very hard and so disappointing when you were one space off.

Finally we also played some Munchkin but we always play it without the Divine Intervention card because it relies heavily on luck and it's very skewed towards the Clerics.

Edited June 10, 2018 by Shadow Gaunt

[Prof. Scarlet Leslie-Lewis]

When I told my brother that I got Pandemic Legacy, he said that he heard good things about Charterstone as a legacy game. Unlike Pandemic Legacy, Charterstone is a competitive legacy game. Charterstone arrived on Friday. The art is gorgeous and the pieces are really nice quality. The index deck comes in a neat magnetic box. It also provides an empty Archive box for cards we no longer need, which means we should make less of mess than when we played Pandemic Legacy. One campaign in Charterstone is 12 games. It is still playable after that with your custom board or you can get a recharge pack and complete another 12-game campaign on the other side of the board.

Cody and I played through the first game yesterday and the second game today. So far, it's been a lot of reading and trying the understand the rules, but we're slowly getting the hang of it. I'm hoping that it takes Cody a little longer to understand everything than me. Charterstone is also a worker-placement game, which Cody tends to be much better at than me... I've only won one game of Stone Age ever. 

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

I decided to relive one of my favorite Ancient Civilizations moments by playing an online version of one of the oldest board games ever... Senet!  I very quickly remembered how this game had survived the test of time for millennia:  just enough luck to make the game exciting while there was a very strong strategy component as well.  I thought I was doing okay at the start when I baited my (simulated) rival into returning a piece to the start.  And I was doing a great job of camping out at the center square waiting to attack, only to accidentally end up on the waterfall square near the end, losing quite a bit of play.

 

I was hoping against hope that my opponent wouldn't knock me out as I watched them score their first piece and place the second one near the scoring zone... but I stuck with my strategy.  Eventually I had two pieces scored to match theirs, and I scored my second piece (with my third one on the center square) right as their last piece passed my last piece!  

 

When each side has one piece left in Senet, choice drops out of the game - and it's luck from that point on.  So I had no control as I retook the lead, remaining vulnerable to capture (which didn't happen) and then hit the waterfall to go back to the center.  I thought I had lost... until my opponent ALSO hit the waterfall!  And then a few lucky rolls got me past the waterfall, which meant I could neither go backwards nor be captured - and I managed to score my final piece for the win with my opponent still eight spaces behind!