We’re taking a short trip over this Memorial Day weekend, and with us is coming a box full of fun!
- Coup
- The Resistance: Avalon
- Hollywood
- Love Letter
- Compounded
- City of Iron
- Heroes of Metro City
- Hordes: High Command
What will you be playing this weekend? Doing anything extra special?
My weekdays have been filled with too much work to get on this site and chat with you all, my amazing board game loving co-geeks, but I’ve been getting in a lot more gaming thanks to family and friend visits and the warm, spring time weather bringing all of the ground hogs out of their holes.
While not a board game, The Lady discovered Hearthstone on my iPad. I have not had said iPad in my hands for more than ten minutes at a time since then.
Fortunately, her new obsession with tactical card games got her interested in giving the much-reviled (by her) Sentinels of the Multiverse another shot. The two of us and a friend of mine played Visionary, Ra, and The Wraith and FINALLY laid the smack down on Baron Blade. This resulted in a new SOTM fan, and I rejoiced.
I also got to experience DiXit, which was interesting. I don’t think I’d break it out regularly, but it was a nice diversion.
Bang! The Dice Game was ridiculous fun and easy to teach and learn. It’s been sitting on my shelf for too long and it was awesome to give it some attention. I’ve always enjoyed the Bang! card game, but the ease and speed of the dice version elevated it to a new level.
Best of all: The Resistance. I have wanted to play this game for a very long time, and it did not disappoint. I think the level of player interaction (that’s obviously the focal point of this game; it doesn’t have much else) was mind blowing. There is a (anti-)social aspect to trying to pinpoint your “allies” versus “enemies” among a group of friends that left me stressed out, nervously shaking, and craving another round.
All in all, a great weekend!
After a near-unbearable game-playing drought of nearly two months, I’ve been able to get some gaming fun back into my life.
The weekend started off with Alhambra with The Walls expansion randomly chosen. It was a good win against my wife and mother-in-law. I was wise enough not to gloat.
We then played Tobago, a great and unique treasure hunting. It was my in-law’s turn to take a well deserved win.
I also got to play a few games with my game group. First up was Cuba with the expansion. I don’t get to play this one enough (or most of my games for that matter) and I got bogged down teaching and helping three new players. For that matter so did the only other player who has played before. We lagged behind for the first half of the game but joined the pack in the latter half. I stalled though and came in second last.
Finally, we ended off with a four player game of Endeavor. Everyone played a good game and ended up with mid fifties score, except myself who played perhaps my best game with 67 points. (We’ve only played this a half dozen or so times over the past few years.)
A good weekend indeed for me!
After working our butts off this weekend getting ready for a cookout with people over, we actually got some games in this Memorial Day.
2 rounds of Word on the Street.
2 rounds of Wits and Wagers Family.
1 round of Apples to Apples.
Since our regular Monday night was cancelled due to the holiday, 7 of us gathered at a friend’s house. 7 Wonders was played with Leaders. We cheated Flash Point to have 7 players but lost miserably. And a lap of Formula D.
We ended up learning several new games (Splendor, Tichu, Ginkgopolis) as well as hitting some old standards (Sentinels, Alhambra, Hanabi). I really enjoyed Ginkgopolis and Splendor seems like a pretty good, quick-to-learn filler game.
I purchased and played Gravwell and Smash Up this weekend! Both are lovely, but I am very, very bad at SU.
Gamenight Sunday with a round of Timeline, Fresh Fish and Among the Stars. In fact first time ever I’ve lost at Fresh Fish but still a fantastic game.
Sunday morning game group of @Cameron, @anorak, and I had a great time with some co-ops. First we tested our Taoist skills against the evil Wu-Feng in Ghost Stories. Unfortunately we stretched ourselves too thin and the village was haunted before we even saw the Lord of Nine ***** (I mean Hecks). After that we needed a morale boost for the group so we took on Yog Sothoth in Elder Sign and wiped the museum floor with it’s otherworldly “face” thanks to some terror ignoring and monster blocking from Kate Winthrop. Science!
@Bobb33z3r: Go Heroscape! My son and I went to a tournament last week-end, and this week-end he wants to teach my wife and daughter. We’ve played two games so far this week-end and hope to get in another today.
I also played three games of Tsuro and four rounds of Love Letter with my wife and her parents.
Lastly, I hope to get a couple of games of Marvel Dice Master in before the holiday week-end is done.
Heroscape and lots of it!!! Haven’t broken out the Heroscape bins in a while but it was really fun to unearth them. Probably going to play some more tomorrow!
I’m hoping to introduce the wife to Ancient Terrible Things, and possibly get in some Pirate Fluxx.
Lots of Robinson Crusoe
PANDEMIC. we’re on a winning run. Will try it with 6 epidemic cards. Time to man up LOL
@Hai – of course I read your review. I was already backing the expansion’s Kickstarter at that time, but your review made me splurge the extra $10 to receive the base game in advance.
I think I was merely expecting it to be “good” because I don’t care for the other superhero deck builders (despite giving both ample opportunity… even with expansions). I felt pretty certain HoMC would be better than either of them, but didn’t think it would be among the best deckbuilding has to offer. @melpomene – I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
And Ancient Terrible Things is a blast, isn’t it?
Today was wasted cleaning the backyard and pool for tomorrow. Did get in a quick couple games of Capo dei Capi. Tomorrow will be Castle Panic with expansion and hopefully moving on to Compounded.
And I’m looking forward to Monday’s project: breaking out the rules to learn Heroes of Metro City!
We had a fun afternoon with some quicker games including some Spiel des Jahres nominee/finalists:
Wurfel Wurst
Blueprints
Potato Man
Sanssouci
Splendor
Qwixx: Card Game
Sushi Go
Just one other friend and I at the Saturday morning game group. It was nice to get in some two-player games. I got to teach him Marvel Dice Masters. We played with the introductory setup but he was pleasantly surprised by the amount of strategy it offered. I can’t wait to open him up to the other heroes! After that we broke out Lord of the Rings LCG and were de-stroyed in the first stage of the “Into the Pit” scenario (from the Khazad-dûm expansion). It was awesome!
Have the nieces and nephews coming over so likely to see a lot of light games. Hopefully will get a few more substantial games with my wife played like Lords of Waterdeep.
Hmmm…apparently I said a BGdotECHELON word in my first post 😛
@Granny – I did not forget your request for an opinion and inside info on KAOSball I will throw a little blurb in the Discussion box at some point this weekend.
@Jim Thanks to the BGdot for getting me on the Ancient Terrible Things bandwagon. I nabbed a copy the other week and enjoy it immensely.
@Account Deletion Metro City does carve its own Cape Niche against the Powers & Panels Big Three. Read you not my joyful review? (I hope you did and it got the hook in you back then – payback for your City of Iron turn on. Thanks again for that. It is a game gem I would have overlooked otherwise). Even when you are getting hammered by the Rogues Gallery and the City Supply was a slag heap to begin with – it is a fun experience to deck build a struggle from Origin Story to hopeful City Champion.
As it is Gamemorial Day Weekend in the States, the cardboard will be travelling outdoors for some grilling and gaming! YAY! Exclamation points!!!!
(which is good because over the past few weeks not a lot of gaming has happened between Free Comic Book Day, my kiddos finishing the semester with all the joy of crits and grades, a rare v-game timesink for me with South Park:Stick of Truth, and a very Kafka-esque wedding last weekend. May has been a serious dearth of time and gaming 🙁 )
On Deck-literally
Catacombs–The Reconditioned Air Hockey Table Edition has already been dusted off and seen play as The Boy got the grill in order this week and took it for a test drive. My posterior was thoroughly flick-hammered. This will see some play this weekend – it’s a tiki torch tradition. BGdot friendly ‘adult beverages’ will be consumed.
Some games that make for fun picnic table play will probably hit the deck. Smash-Up, Killer Bunnies, Munchkin, and King of Tokyo are good cardboard condiments. A large game of Cosmic Encounters is bound to happen. Apples to Apples or Cards Against may be dusted off.
Much like Walking Dead our Last Night on Earth:Season One campaign sees binge play during the fall and summer. Session slated for Monday. (I also would like to play a large group game of my prototype SinGrizzly edition of Camp Grizzly because it seems fitting for burgers and boardgames.)
The Boy is having other Boys over for KAOSball tonight so that’s happening. Also a few of The Boy’s Kicks trickled in this week: Alchemist Academy and Epic Death (both with some manufacturing problems – shame shame Game Salute 🙁 But they rectified the one issue super fast and dice appear to be on the way). Also Warage appeared this morning and I need to get sorting – looks good! So maybe a test drive of something will happen this afternoon 🙂 (before Boys suit up as vamps and catgirls and punch each other silly)
Alas The Pathfinder Six remains in standard RPG limbo one bloody adventure away from finishing Hook Mountain and classing up. BOO!
So much potential gaming ahead and so much lost time to make up. It’s going to be a very @JAY weekend so final report on a sobering Tuesday. 😛