by Sam S.
It’s been a great start to the year from a gaming perspective.On Thursday, January 4, we had a snow day here on the east coast of the USA. And late afternoon, April and I got to show Allison one of our favorite games, The Castles of Burgundy. This was the first eurogame that April really got into. I think she was a little overwhelmed at first learning what all the tiles do (especially the yellow science tiles), but after a couple of games really got the gameplay. So when April asked Allison if she wanted to play a game and then chose CoB, I was pretty excited. Allison got the gameplay pretty quickly and we had a fun game. I had a good game with a high score of 194. Allison came in second (great showing for a new player) with 163, and April got hampered by having a few rounds with some sub-optimal options for her dice (having to take workers more than she would have liked) and scored a 154.
Early Saturday evening, Allison and her friend Nick asked to play a “story-based” game. So April & I broke out T.I.M.E Stories. April and I had played the Asylum scenario once (and didn’t complete it), so we reset the game and played it with 4 players for the first time. We liked it better with 4 than 2 (since with 2p you still have to use 4 characters, so each player is playing “two-handed”). More player interaction is fun, though it will really depend on your group. Allison and Nick both embraced the game. Again we didn’t complete the game (I think it’s pretty much impossible to complete it on your first run), though we got a bit further than last time. Allison went back to college today, so I hope to get this back on the table and get through it when she’s back home on break soon.
After T.I.M.E. Stories, Allison went out to dinner with her boyfriend. Nick decided to stick around and April & I taught him Lords of Waterdeep, Flash Point: Fire Rescue and Catan. We played two games of each. I didn’t track scores, but if I remember correctly I won one game of LoW and April won the other. I think I took a Catan, and Nick took the other. We successfully saved the people both games in Flash Point - Fire Rescue.
On Sunday, we got together with Karen & Jordan to continue our Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 campaign. Karen & Jordan are friends of our that are what I’d consider “eager casual gamers” who we are converting into more hardcore gamers. We introduced them a while back to Ticket to Ride, and then to Pandemic, both of which we played a bunch as a group. Once I saw how they enjoyed Pandemic, I thought it would be great to play Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 with them, which I had bought and was waiting for an opportunity to play. We started the campaign a while back in April of 2017. And this past Sunday we played the second run for the October mission and the first of the November (both of which we failed at). It’s always a fun time, especially when we get to rip up game components because it drives Karen crazy. We’re planning on taking the game and bringing it in the fire pit when we’re done with the game.
Wednesday evening we sat down to play a game in the den and I grabbed In the Year of the Dragon, which I had recently acquired via a BGG auction. Castles of Burgundy is one of our favorite games, so we’ve been trying out other Stefan Feld designs. We’ve bought Amerigo and AquaSphere and have played both (I like Aquasphere a bit more than Amerigo, though the tower/cube mechanism in Amerigo is pretty novel). I’ve also played Trajan with one of my gaming groups, though I think it may be a bit too point-salad-y for April. So when I saw an auction with a reasonably priced In the Year of the Dragon I picked it up. We quickly got through the rules and played a relatively quick 2 player game. The game seems to play well with 2p, but it feels like 3 or 4 might be better. I’d like to try it with higher player counts. We both enjoyed the perfect information aspect of things (you know at setup what the order of the 10 monthly events are) and how much of a puzzle it is to optimize for that. The variability of the setup of the 10 monthly events means that no two games are going to play the same. I’m eager to try it again. Sam - 99, April - 84.
On Thursday we decided to bring Terraforming Mars and the Terraforming Mars: Venus Next expansion to the table. It was the first time we had played Venus Next. TM is a game we both like, but don’t get to the table as much as we’d like to. And it’s also a game that gets better the more you play because you become more familiar with the Corporations and cards that are available. I like the way the World Government action speeds the game up somewhat, but it still seemed to take a while for us to get the terraforming conditions satisfied. April liked the new cards more than she liked the addition of the supplemental player board. Sam - 115, April - 90.
On Saturday, January 13th we had a pretty full gaming day. Russell and Danielle, two friends of ours that are also pretty big gamers came over late afternoon. We’ve been playing an Arkham Horror: The Card Game campaign with them since shortly after the game was released. We’re in the process of going through the Arkham Horror: The Card Game – The Path to Carcosa campaign, and on Saturday we played Arkham Horror: The Card Game – Echoes of the Past Mythos Pack and Arkham Horror: The Card Game – The Unspeakable Oath Mythos Pack. AH:TCG is a great experience and the deck building mechanism has captured April’s attention. It’s not a LCG/CCG that requires frequent deck adjustments (in fact, given the campaign rules, it actually limits deck changes) that seem to be more prevalent in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (which I love but play solo since April doesn’t enjoy the deckbuilding there that much). I think because your ability to make changes are limited (usually only one or two cards between scenarios, since it’s based on the XP you earn) it forces you to be a bit more focused, and that plays well to April’s interests. Both scenarios were a ton of fun. We’re enjoying Carcosa more than either Night of the Zealot or The Dunwich Legacy (both of which we both really liked).
After playing two scenarios of AH:TCG, we broke out one of the games that Russ & Danielle brought, Takenoko, which is a very cute action selection and set collection game. We both picked it up very fast, and both thought it was a cute presentation of a surprisingly fun game. I won’t be surprised when April asks to get this one. I didn’t write down scores, but I won, Danielle came in second and I think April was third (but I could be wrong on that).
After Russ & Danielle left, we decided to play one more game since we weren’t ready to go to bed yet. I had picked up the Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport expansion for Lords of Waterdeep a month or two ago, but hadn’t yet gotten it to the table. After playing the base game a couple of times earlier in the week, we decided to try out the expansion. We played the “long game” variant with both expansions. I can see why people say that you should consider the expansion a necessary addition to the base game. We really like LoW base, and the expansion makes it more fun. We’re a little unsure of the corruption mechanism, but the rest of the buildings, quests, intrigue cards and player action spaces are a great add. I’m really interested to see how this plays with the larger player counts (especially since it adds a sixth player option). Sam - won.
All in all it was a wonderful week (plus) of gaming. We’re heading out on vacation this week, and don’t plan on bringing any games with us, so it’ll be a little bit before we get another week like this one.