What I Played Today: August 17

7 Wonders, Cosmic Encounters, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride

A game of 7 Wonders with seven people was played at around 7 p.m. It went alright, I didn't win, and this game somehow always ends up being harder to teach than I think it should be. I mean come on guys, can't you juggle literally 20 different types of icons and immediately know what they mean?

A game of Cosmic Encounters, which went oddly. One of the races picked got to choose who attacked who every turn, which was crazy. I had a race that didn't lose enemies to the warp when I allied with people, and I used this ability to constantly throw in with the defender and get more cards. For some reason, this pissed off everyone, and nobody wanted to be my friend, so I didn't win. That happens.

Then a five-player game of Pandemic, which we totally won somehow! We had some good roles and were pretty creative with our ideas, and also we managed to completely cure the blue disease by my third turn, which really helped, and although we did have a turn where there were three outbreaks, we managed to get it under control and won. And I cured two of the diseases! Go me!

Then a game of Ticket to Ride Europe, which I sweeped. Everyone was really focused on building tracks in Western Europe, and they completely ignored Eastern Europe, which I bought up. I also completed my long route, which let me hit triple digits. Good for me.

What I Played Today: July 15

Amun Re, Ticket to Ride, Saint Petersburg

I went to the Minneapolis Board Game Marathon today, and played an average number of games. Not a marathon, but it was the last day and I couldn't get signed up for any of the other days, so...

I walked up to a random table and played a game of Amun Re, which is a game with an opening auction to claim one of the territories, then you build it up, then you throw money away, and continue. It was alright, nice and succinct, and each territory is dramatically different in value that it becomes a real issue of which is better.

One nice thing is that halfway through the game, you clear the board and start over, but the pyramids, the main scoring mechanic, stay where they are. It's clever, because of course they do, and also dramatically change the value of the territories in the auction the second time around. The guy who owned the game really pushed us to spend a lot of money on auctions, which was a little annoying, because we need that money to build stuff, guy.

Then a game of Ticket to Ride: Fantastic Asia. The new thing in this one is mountain passes, which cost more of your trains to take them. Of course...you get extra points for the trains you lose, more so than if you had claimed one of those routes normally, so I don't see how it's a disadvantage.

Then Saint Petersburg, which I had always seen on shelves and though, "Dang, that's an ugly game." But it was alright! You are basically building up your tableau with stuff, which score their value during certain phases of the round and can be upgraded. The mechanic of who goes first in each phase was clever, and the game has some interesting ebbs and flows of when cash rolls in for you. I tried to spread out my money gives across each phase so I was never wanting, but I still ended up not being to buy what I want, or what I wanted being bought out from under me. Interesting game though, although the explainer was a little over-explainy.

Then I went home!

What I Played Today: April 21

Sentinels of the Multiverse, Ticket to Ride, Yin-Yang, Bullfrog Goldfield, Some Dice Game?

A game day, with some game dogs. Like, literal dogs! (No, I'm kidding, there were no dogs.)

Someone had borrowed my copy of Sentinels of the Multiverse and had already started setting up a game, so I jumped in on that to play against the boringly named Organization. This enemy is goddamn impossible. Every turn, the badguy summons a miniboss. Every turn, the miniboss summons a particular thug. This keeps going all game, and it's worse when certain cards heal the bosses and others dump all the minibosses back to the field. Needless...we didn't win.

Then a game of Ticket to Ride, which is always boring!

A dumb game to fill time, involving cards? Man, I can't remember enough to bother describing how it played. So skip it!

Then a train/stock game called Bullfrog Goldfield, and it was bullshit! One of the problems was the people I was playing with, who usually are a bit slow to play. Smart players, just...slow. And I think the game was not very well designed. There are two different types of companies, trains and mines, and their value is determined by a lot of arbitrary rules. How high they will rise is based on many buildings, if railroads are connected to it, etc. The only problem is the potential for the stock price of a particular company to explode really quickly, especially if you own both a railroad and a mine, and we got into the situation where someone just ran with his companies and forced game end by round 3. Oh, sure, he lost, but it just felt...pale. I didn't like it. I really wish there was a stock game that didn't suck and didn't involve fucking trains.

Then a stupid dice push-your-luck game. As with all push-your-luck games, my strategy of "if I do not do this, I will lose the game" won out. Good for me, I guess.

What I Played Today: January 28

Ticket to Ride: Nordic, Nottingham, Ora et Labora

Played a couple of games of Ticket to Ride: Nordic, which is vicious as hell. The game is designed for only 2 or 3 players, so the routes are lot more exclusive, and its very easy to get blocked and lose a lot of points because you can't achieve your destination. If that wasn't enough, the engines are no longer wild, and are in fact required for certain routes, so...that sucks. I don't think I'm a fan of this one.

Also played Nottingham, which is interesting set collection, where you can either take the card offered, or give up the card to use a special action to hopefully get the card you want. It's pretty alright, although I'm not a big fan of the weird mechanic in which after someone scores, anyone with less than a certain number of cards gets a card for free. Mainly, because the person who just played a set gets another leg up, and the person who is waiting for the card they need gets nothing. It only helps those who are already doing alright.

Then a long game of Ora et Labora, that actually wasn't that long, because myself and another player were quick decision makers. It went really well, although I got cornered by one of the players falling into a wicked combo, and maybe half a dozen times I played to take a particular action, only for someone else to do it first. But it was good playing it with people who seemed to get the game.

What I Played Today: March 15

Ticket to Ride

At the game store this evening, I showed up and paid my fiver (a process that doesn’t bother me as much as I assumed it would, because then I get a little coupon afterwards, so it is effective in hiding my game budget from me (wait that’s not a good thing!)), and all I ended up playing was Ticket to Ride. I could be grouchy about it, but I’ll abstain, it was fun enough. One thing that was bothering me that one of the players would not sit still, getting up between every other turn, and considering that it’s Ticket to Ride, he was moving a lot. I turned down a chance to play Ghost Stories with him because I didn’t feel like losing, and also he didn’t show me he would be a courteous player. Etiquette is important.