Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #boardgamesatoz, aggregated by home.social.
Our 2023 #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge definitely succeeded in pushing me out of my board gaming slump.
* 280 plays across 119 games
* 7 games payed at least 10 times
* Uno made the top of the list because (a) I recorded each hand rather than playing session, and (b) it's my "hospital waiting room" game and there was too much of that this year.
* We completed a Near and Far campaign well before our "N" weeks.
* New favorites: Leaf, Point City, Votes for Women
Lots of variety in December. Earthborne Rangers was a disappointment, and echoes: The Dancer was really more of an audio jigsaw puzzle than a game, but that was more than balanced out by the satisfaction of successfully completing our 2023 #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge.
Final Z tally for #BoardGamesAToZ:
Zooloretto (x2)
+Zooloretto
That's a wrap for the year!
Next year we'll be trading breadth for depth and doing a 10x10 challenge.
1. Played almost 6 hours of the couch co-op It Takes Two with @peterdrake for his birthday. He was very patient with my utter lack of skill with the Xbox controller.
2. Helped my parents with a video conversion and transfer problem that's been bedeviling them for weeks.
3. Played the final game needed to satisfy our 2023 #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge!
With tonight's game of Zooloretto, we successfully met our 2023 #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge! We still have two more weeks to add additional plays of Z games, but we pulled it off.
Zooloretto hasn't hit our table in years. It's not a particularly memorable or difficult game, so I was surprised to see that there's a "junior" version. You basically spend the first half trying to create "truck" sets that are appealing for yourself, and then the second half poisoning trucks for others.
It feels like they really missed a "collect 'em all" opportunity with Doctor Who Yahtzee by putting villains on the dice rather than Doctors.
This is off to a good start. #BoardGames #yahtzee #BoardGamesAToZ
I won our beginner's game of Xia: Legends of a Drift System. It reminded me a lot of Twilight Imperium and Eclipse, but I liked it better because you don't have to take and hold territory.
Since we were playing a short game, mostly with the goal of learning the rules, I took a lot of chances. I blind jumped 4 or 5 times (only once suffering any consequences), turned outlaw, jumped through a defective gate, and shot an undefended opponent out of the sky. Booyah!
It's X fortnight in our #BoardGamesAToZ challenge. We have exactly one game that starts with X:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/82222/xia-legends-drift-system
It requires more than two players, though, so we'll have to wait until game night to play it.
Game night is scheduled for the very last day of the fortnight. Letting everything ride on that is just asking for us to come down with hemorrhagic gastroenteritis or Dutch elm disease or something, so we played a prophylactic game of Xiangqi on boardgamearena just to be safe.
Final W tally for #BoardGamesAToZ:
+Wingspan (x2)
*Wordsy
*Web of Power
Wingspan Asia
Wingspan
Previous fortnights:
Wingspan Asia probably left out the plastic card tray and bird feeder dice tower to make the game more portable, but they are sorely missed. We were lucky that an errant die roll bulldozed through the Duet map only once tonight.
I won 81 vs. 71, but was ever so disappointed that the Rhinoceros Auklet came out too late for me to claim it. It wouldn't have added to the collection of platform/wild nests that gave me a spectacular number of Game End eggs, but still!
Votes for Women keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire game. Tonight I won as the Opposition by:
1. Delaying Peter from sending the amendment to the states until turn 6. So close to immediate victory!
2. Ignoring the West & Plains to focus on the South & Midwest.
3. Winning the critical Superior Lobbying strategy card.
4. Quietly returning to my foothold in the Atlantic to claim the last two states I needed to win.
Bonus 🎵 ambiance: 1910s greatest hits.
We started off both vacation and V fortnight with Verdant. I quite like the plant facts, even if they are in an impossibly tiny font. @peterdrake managed to squeak a 76 vs. 73 victory by going for completed plants and diversity while I went more for matching room, plant, item. And, well, lots of items.
While I can appreciate that Verdant is adding complexity with the draft options and green thumb actions, I think I might actually prefer Calico's harsher simplicity.
I'm not a fan of dueling games, but Unmatched isn't bad. The first few times I played, I switched characters every time and didn't get to know their cards before playing. Big mistake.
This month, I played three times as Medusa. By today's third play, I knew how to use my advantages and manage my hand.
Sinbad and Medusa were both still standing when we defeated Angel and Willow. It was all but over after I played a lucky Gaze of Stone against the defenseless Willow.
1. After six miserable days, finally feels like I'm coming out of the COVID.
2. Resumed my shoulder physical therapy exercises.
3. Kicked it old school with Ticket to Ride to close out the T weeks of our #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge.
Final T tally for #BoardGamesAToZ:
It was a rough fortnight, with @htdrake traveling for the first week and both of us having COVID for the second, but we knocked out a couple of train games.
TransAmerica
Ticket to Ride
Previous fortnights:
I had recently been eyeing Steam Up for its adorable plastic steamers and squishie dim sum ingredients, so I was delighted when friends arrived with their deluxe edition.
The game itself was so-so set collection. The character powers we chose felt unbalanced, although the final scores were very close. The movement of the start player token was a bit awkward. And it seemed like it ended a few rounds too soon. It was... fine? But not a must buy.
Final S tally for #BoardGamesAToZ:
Stone Age
Sagrada
Space Base
*Space Empires 4X
*Stay Cool
*Siva Afi: The Fireknife Dance of Samoa
Sticheln
*Suburbia
+Steam Up
Previous fortnights:
The first game for our S weeks was one I had not played before, Stone Age.
My Agricola instincts served me well: expand your tribe/family as quickly as possible to get more actions and prioritize getting an efficient way to feed them via agriculture/cooking hearth. I then loaded up on civilization cards that granted many, many victory points for the same.
The final shellacking I administered? 211 vs. 139 vs. 110.
I immediately added Stone Age to my wish list. Ha!
Ra is another long-time favorite. Short and sweet auctiony goodness. Perfect with three, decent with four or five, pointless with two.
Today, I went into the third epoch with the 2, 3, and 7. I fully expected it to end badly, but not this badly! I pushed my luck searching for a flood at the end, but pulled two disasters instead.
I prefer this classic art design to the reprints, but I did upgrade the basic black draw bag to something sturdier and more thematic.
I've played hundreds of games of Race for the Galaxy over the years. It's definitely in my Top 10.
The best way to learn is two-player because you have more control choosing two actions each turn. It's also important to be a patient teacher and give people time to process the iconography and card interactions.
I usually prefer a military strategy, but tonight I forced a fast Consume X 2 victory (36 vs. 20). They don't call it RACE for the Galaxy for nothin'.
Final Q tally for #BoardGamesAToZ:
Qwirkle
The Quest for El Dorado
The Quacks of Quedlinburg (x2)
Previous fortnights:
This evening we played the last of the Q games we own, The Quacks of Quedlinburg.
If real-life rats were as adorable as the ones frolicking around this scoring track, we'd all have rat feeders in our yards.
@peterdrake really should have won tonight's game, but he forgot to use his flask at the end, so I won by a whisker.
To me, The Quest for El Dorado and Flamme Rouge are members of the same found family. They're both card-driven racing games, but in Quest you build your deck up, while in Flamme you spend your deck down.
The track itself is a lot more important in Quest, though. In tonight's game, I should have bought more water cards, but a humble Jack-Of-All-Trades paddled me over the finish.
Qwirkle is another rainbow of a game, slightly simpler than Ingenious, but with the same arithmetic gymnastics as you try figure out how to maximize your own points while blocking your opponent. @peterdrake scored 2 of the 10 six-tile bonuses this evening to win handily.
I like the rainbow patterns and hefty wooden pieces. The drawstring bag that came with the game did not wear well, so I made a much nicer one to replace it.
1. Found three pairs of shoes that I desperately needed to replace others that have been worn until they are falling apart.
2. Found a near mint condition box set of A Series of Unfortunate Events hardcovers for my nieces' upcoming birthday. The good ones, with no movie or TV tie-in art or stickers!
3. Playing Pirates of the Spanish Main as part of our #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge made me remember how much fun we had collecting the ships and playing with friends back in the day.
Closing out our P weeks with Pirates of the Spanish Main, one of the few war games that I like. We own an embarrassing number of ships and also enhanced it with an ocean tablecloth and 3D islands.
I always forget how important pinning and ramming are in this game since you can't move a ship and fire its cannons on the same turn.
I took down more masts than @peterdrake, but he managed to deliver the decisive extra points of gold to his home island for the win.
Yarr, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, me laddies. #pirates #PiratesOfTheSpanishMain #BoardGames #BoardGamesAToZ #yarr #nautical #ships #TallShipsOfMastodon
My two feats of gaming this month were: (1) playing Nemesis for the first time and (2) playing all of the O games we own for our #BoardGamesAtoZ challenge. Even, shudder, Ogre. Twice, no less.
Ohanami is an easy, quick, and beautiful card drafting game. It's in the same league as Floriferous, but a bit simpler still. On each turn, you may add the cards you draft to your gardens, but only if the card number is higher than the top card of a garden or lower than the bottom card of a garden.
In this particular game, my advantage in water features and cherry blossoms overwhelmed Peter's plants.
I don't like hex and counter war games such as Ogre, but since we own the giant Designer's Edition, it was really the only choice for starting our O weeks.
@peterdrake almost managed to immobilize my Mk III Ogre by focusing his fire on my treads, but I held on long enough to eliminate all his units.
New York Zoo is heavier than all those cute animeeples make it look. It took quite a few plays for me to wrap my head around the rules for breeding and moving animals around, perhaps because they slightly differ depending on the number of players, but I think we're finally playing correctly.
Tonight's game was a nail-biter as I beat @peterdrake to victory by a single square.
A few more Nemesis thoughts:
The soundtrack really added to the experience with a couple of well-timed clanks and screeches.
It definitely had a solid crescendo of action and mayhem as the clock ticked.
I had four contamination cards at the end, but they were all clean!
I really enjoyed the full co-op experience, but I doubt I would like semi-coop with its hidden objectives.
I would not suggest playing it again, but would join if someone else did.
@peterdrake won Nemesis in a raffle. I don't really like this style of game, but agreed to try it full co-op for N weeks.
Everything was going our way at first. The ship was already pointed to Earth. We found the Engine Control Room early and two of the engines were already functional. No intruders appeared until late in the game. We destroyed the Nest easily.
And then... intruders showed up in force, killed Peter, life support failed, and the ship blew up.
Magic Maze is a co-op with a sand timer to create tension. The players share control of the pawns. Each player can move any pawn, but only in a certain way, and you aren't allowed to talk to coordinate.
The first two "easy" scenarios were very achievable with two players. I bet it would be both harder and more fun with more.
It reminds me of Space Alert, but simpler. Because it's quiet while you play, it's less of a sensory assault.
Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper is definitely in my top five games. And I'm not just saying that because I crushed @peterdrake 115 vs. 25 this evening.
It plays great with any number. A hand is a satisfying length. The Ripper can escape, but it's hard. The cheerful colors are a bit incongruous with the theme, but in a good way! Its only flaw is an infamously horrible rule book.
We own two copies so that we're prepared when the first eventually wears out.
Men at Work is a dexterity game that I think I like watching more than I like playing.
I've only played it about half a dozen times. Every time it has ended not because someone collected sufficient Employee of the Month points, but because everyone else loses their safety certificates. Thinking back, I'm not sure I've seen anyone survive long enough to earn Employee of the Month...