So, we had a very boardgames-heavy Christmas, followed by the arrival of Artisans of Splendent Vale from Kickstarter and a Barnes and Noble sale of half off every game on the 26th and 27th. So my house is absolutely awash in new games, and every one we’ve played so far has been great. Just a wonderful week of games.
First up was Unmatched Vol 2–a great system of which I had thought we had enough, but at half off, I couldn’t resist. My son’s Achilles very narrowly beat my Yennenga, with some terrific moments for each of us.
Next was Fire & Stone: The Siege of Vienna 1683. I had recently read Enemy at the Gates, which inspired the design of the game, so I bought it even though I thought it would sound so boring nobody would play with me (I thought maybe it would help motivate me to find a game group for real, rather than relying on my kids for all my gaming needs). I still don’t totally understand why my son looked at it and was fascinated. Absolutely terrific, streamlined siege game; tons of dramatic moments, lovely presentation.
Clank! Catacombs was yesterday’s game. While I’m kind of sad that my son not only lost but was sort of grumpy about it, my daughter winning and having a good time might mean that she’s more likely to join us for future games, which is a huge bonus. It seems superior to original Clank!, with more interesting card designs and the unpredictability of the labyrinth making it more likely for people to actually die in the depths, which was rare enough in the original to rob it of most of its tension (in our plays, anyway–we tend toward conservative play).
For today, we have the deluxified Flamecraft set up. On a first read-through of the rules, it seems nicely influenced by Villainous, but with a shared world with more and chunkier locations, and gifting replacing playing negative fate cards on others. Utterly delightful, very lighthearted presentation; “Gnome Depot” is probably my favorite shop name, for example.
And I’ve had the solo-only Paperback Adventures on my table, learning and playing by myself in odd moments for a few days. Yet another game which sprinkles simple joy throughout its card design, naming, flavor, and art, and builds a very solid game around the pleasurable basic task of making anagrams. They had mentioned that some people found the tracking tokens (which are luxurious custom metal bits) a little hard to slot into the relatively tight gametrayz, and I find that, for some slots, that’s really true. Reportedly, they relax a bit with use, and I get why they aimed for snug as a way of making the game state less perturbable, but, with the trays being relatively light, it requires two hands to change things most of the time. It’s a small thing, but it’s a bit of a shame that compromises the first impression, and I’m sad to realize how much that attracts my attention. Still, very happy with the game.
