by Bobby Warren
A little of this, a little of that and not mush else to say except what is below.
In December I played 33 different games a total of 65 times and ten expansions accounted for 17 recorded game plays. Seven of the games and two of the expansions were new to me, and I played 12 of the games and two of the expansions in November.
Those played games to finish out the year are:
51st State: Master SetTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 10/2016
My Rating: 7
I mixed in the promos I ordered from Portal games and we played with the
New Era cards. It was a my Merchants against T’s Mutants.
In our group, T is the one most likely to attack others, and he did attack a few times. I ended up focusing on getting VPs from deals and had a card that let me score three points a turn that he thankfully didn’t attack. I won but T’s last round scoring brought him close.
BluffTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 7/2016
My Rating: 8
We played two games of this at Mike’s, using the latest version of
Liar’s Dice which has the neoprene board.
Carcassonne: AmazonasTimes Played:1Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 7
I was excited to try this after Mike said he was getting it. Both he and I were tentatively disappointed.
The river will either force a long and skinny board or large parts of it could end up being ignored. Also, the rover point scoring felt more random than just about any other mechanism in another
Carcassonne game. I got screwed by drawing a couple of the too-many river tiles early in the game, which let the other two score rivers and jump way in front of me. I managed to catch up some by the end but never felt like I was in contention.
I’d like to play it again before rendering a final judgement on the game, but as of now it’s only an average game and a below-average
Carcassonne entry. Yes, that is a “7” in my book.
Clank!Times Played:1Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
Just once into the breach this month. If the Saturdays weren’t holiday month Saturdays I suspect it would have been played once or twice more.
ColonyTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 7
I managed to get the auto-upgrade cards (a 2, 3, and 4) and was prepared to win, but Matt jumped to the victory before I could take the turn that was to be my last.
Cottage GardenTimes Played:4Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 7
This is a replacement for
Patchwork. It does much of the same things as that game, but smoother and it plays with up to four players.
Mike and I played it twice and he and I played it with T and Michael. We also played with Matt and Jerry.
It was a blast with both two and four and I will likely be getting this when it comes out from Z-Man games.
Dice CityTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 5/2016
My Rating: 7
Expansion Played:All That Glitters and
Crossroads expansions.
Mike and I played with card from the first two expansions. We selected five cards of each type, including two of each type from
Crossroads. It has peaked already and I suspect it won’t see regular play, but I can see it getting played occasionally since Mike, Nico, and I all own it.
Doom: The Board GameTimes Played:1Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 6
It’s kind of slow. While it takes about two hours, the number of turns each player gets is relatively few and that makes the game feel like it is moving even slower. The initiative system, while cool, can make it seem longer if you go early one round and late the next.
Flash Point: Fire RescueTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 9/2016
My Rating: 8
We played on the brownstone board and ended up with a loss.
Hero RealmsTimes Played:4Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 7
I could see my rating go down on this. I really prefer the mix of cards in
Cthulhu Realms and having just three “suits” allows for better deck building in such a short game.
All four of the games were against Mike. The first was with the starter decks from the base game and the rest were using the hero decks and they add a nice flavor to the game.
High ScoreTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
The most average of all the rolls in any of the three rounds was mine. So I can happily tell the others to “Eat it!”
We had a tied score between T and Nick, who won the tiebreaker of having the highest single round between the two of them. His win for the month. :)
Isle of SkyeTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 9/2016
My Rating: 7
My weakness in this game is still not making sure I get some end-game scoring.
Keltis: Das WürfelspielTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 4/2016
My Rating: 7
This was the odd game were both Mike and I had all four of our tokens on the board. Usually we have just three because that allows us to focus on scoring with just them and means less of a chance of scoring negative points for one or more of them.
King of TokyoTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 9/2016
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:Power Up! and
Halloween.
We played a really fun game with five players. There was lots of laughing and trash talk!
Lord of the Rings: Journey to MordorTimes Played:1Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 6
It’s light. So fluffy light that it is
barely more than just rolling dice. We played with the “advanced” rules.
It was a nice diversion and I would play again, but I won’t be buying it.
MediciTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 10/2016
My Rating: 9
Allison and Nick were at the store on a Saturday, so we played. This time was with four and the tile mix ended up being a bit odd. We never saw the gold tile and one ofo the goods only was bought a very few times.
Nick won. We need to stop that from happening.
Nyet!Times Played:2Last Month Played: 1/2016
My Rating: 5
Michael wanted to show it to Nick, so the three of us played a round. We also played later in the day when Allison was there so she could see the game and they could decide if they wanted to get it.
OceanosTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 7
Mike’s set is obviously defective. The card selection for both games with it was horrendous as I saw entire rounds without crystals or bases. Iello should send him a replacement copy that actually works properly and take back his buggy one!
One Deck DungeonTimes Played:1Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 7
Mike backed this and we played the easiest scenario, against the Dragon, with the Mage and the Warrior. We made it to the final battle but were killed early on.
It’s a fun cooperative game designed for one or two players and I would recommend it if you were looking for solo game to play.
OrléansTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 6/2016
My Rating: 8
I went over the game again for Mike who needed the refresher. I went for making my boatmen and scholars wild by getting the Herb Garden and School tiles and then grabbing citizens and maxing out the development track.
Both Mike and I thought I was well ahead of him during the game, but when we tallied the final scores he was a point ahead of me and won.
Pandemic: IberiaTimes Played:3Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 8
Wow! Like
Reign of Cthulhu, this takes the basic game, twists it a little, and comes up with an utterly playable and familiar game that has new choices and decisions to make. We played it twice at Mike’s with five epidemics and lost badly both times.
I then broke out my copy and Michael and I played to end a Saturday, and my gaming 2016, using four epidemics and ended up beating the game.
It really is a blast and I look forward to playing with some of the included expansion/variant rules.
Pandemic: The CureTimes Played:3Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:Experimental Meds for all of the games.
We lost every time. That’s a good thing. :)
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Mummy’s MaskTimes Played:6Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
We finished off the beginning adventure, beating scenario four on the first try but it took us two tries to beat the last one. The real enemy in the loss was just the amount of time it took to get through the decks, plus a couple of bad rolls (
i.e., me twice needing a two or greater on a d10 to close a location and rolling a one each time).
We also started adventure one and beat the first three scenarios we chose to play. The players are allowed to choose the order for the first four scenarios and then play the last one after completing the others.
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Wrath of the RighteousTimes Played:9Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth for six of the games and
City of Locusts for three of them.
Michael and I moved into and completed the fifth adventure. And made it through the third scenario in the fifth adventure. Soon it will be done and we’ll go hunting mummies!
Ra: The Dice GameTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 10/2016
My Rating: 8
Yeah, we’re still playing this. Ain’t it cool!
Race for the GalaxyTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
Expansion Played:Xeno Invasion.
Just one quick game when we didn’t have enough time for one more scenario of the
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I think it might be time to go back to the original set of cards and expansions.
Robo RallyTimes Played:1Last Month Played: Before 2003
My Rating: 7
We played a four-player game using Mike’s copy which is either the 2005 or 2010 edition. The map was on a single tile and all four flags were on the first half of the board.
I won after Mike and Matt bit the dust.
I still like the game, but it is sure dated and takes a long, long time to play. I wasn’t a huge fan of the flag layout on the map. It would have been better to spread them out a little and force the robots to cross either other going to and fro, but it still worked. Jerry almost won by being the last to survive and being in last the entire game.
Roll PlayerTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 7
My Human Wizard was just a little more superior than Mike’s Frogkin Druid. It would have turned out differently if Mike had not misread one of the traits he bought.
Game two was my Dragonkin Thief competing against Mike’s Human Ranger and Greg’s Elf Barbarian. The way of the thief was the superior way. Money, baby. Money!
Villages of ValeriaTimes Played:3Last Month Played: New to me
My Rating: 7
It’s fun but I agree with Mike that it just doesn’t seem to flow. I want to play it some more, and soon, but I think this might be one that ends up dropping a point, or so, in the ratings and being relegated to gathering dust. Kind of like Jay Cutler in the NFL beginning in 2017.
ViticultureTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 3/2016
My Rating: 7
We played using Mike’s
Inferior Edition which is the worst of the three editions.
The basic set-up has been removed and the “Mamas and Papas” expansion from
Tuscany was made the standard way to start the game. I didn’t like that expansion. They also added the expansion that allows the fields to be sold, which just makes more money available. The visitor cards felt much more powerful in some cases and their relative power is varies greatly. They add way more randomness to the game.
Why anyone would ever buy another game from Stonemaier when this has gone through three rapid editions, changing the rules constantly. So if you own the initial edition, someone else owns the second, revised edition, and someone else owns this, you will be playing with different rule.
WarmachineTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 9
My first game was against Ben’s Retribution and I expected to lose because he went with a shooty list and I eschewed the choir to go for the big warjack. It was a horrible game since my rolls sucked, his didn’t, and I also made a couple of bad choices.
Game two was against the other Ben’s Circle Orboros. He left Wrong Eye, his hired minion, vulnerable and I tried taking him out to also take out his gator warbeast, but my attempt failed a couple of times because the darned walking luggage made a couple of saving rolls. Then Ben rolled over me. What a disappointing month.
Month four lets me switch out my warcaster (general) and double the size of my army, so now I will start playing with things how I might normally play. I don’t know if I will consistently be able to beat the better players, but I will feel more competitive while losing. I hope.
Also, starting a new job means my playing time might be curtailed some, but I hope to get in at least two games in January. Or more. Much, much more!
Würfel BohnanzaTimes Played:1Last Month Played: 9/2016
My Rating: 8
We needed a quick game for five players and this fits the bill.
Zombicide: Black PlagueTimes Played:2Last Month Played: 11/2016
My Rating: 8
Michael painted all my zombies from the base game because he found the exercise relaxing. Since he painted them, he wanted to play. So he, Nick, and I played with two characters each and we played quest 2, “The Black Book.”
It was a successful adventure.
Later in the month, Michael, Mike Mc., and I played quest 4, “Famine” and won, even though the last food item was the next to last card in the deck.
