I have decided to start a new monthly post on this blog where I write a little about what games I’ve been playing for the past month. I already keep track of all of this in the wonderful app Board Game Stats and so I thought that maybe some of you would be interested to know as well.
So, without further ado, this month I played the following games:
| Game | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cascadia | 4 |
| Small World of Warcraft | 2 |
| Res Arcana | 2 |
| Don’t Get Got | 2 |
| Sleeping Gods | 2 |
| The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine | 1 (7) |
| Pandemic | 1 |
Cascadia
I received this game last month and it is currently the game in my collection that gets to see my table (or floor or bed or wherever there happens to be a spot for it) the most. It is just so intuitively fun and easy to grasp while still being a challenge to play efficiently.
I mostly play this game with my girlfriend, but I did manage to play one game with four players this month and while it wasn’t a bad game, it did extend the play time in a way that didn’t necessarily add more fun to the game. Of course, it added a bigger element of needing to keep track of who’s going for what types of animals, but that was something you only needed to worry about on your turn – which came less frequent than at two players. More players just added more time where you weren’t playing.
But as a two player game, this game continues to be oh so delightful and I’m already looking forward to playing it again.
Small World of Warcraft
I played this twice during a weekend trip to a summer house. I won the first one and lost the second one. This game also continues to amaze me. It takes the core concept of war games like A Game of Thrones: The Board Game or Dune and manages to condense it into a game that doesn’t take all night (and day) to play.
Res Arcana
Every time I finish a game of Res Arcana, I think to myself that I really need to buy the expansion (Lux et Tenebrae), because this is just really a great game. And with a second expansion (Perlae Imperii) on the way, now seems as good a time as ever.
I introduced this game to my brother who plays a lot of Magic: The Gathering and it definitely showed. I won the first game (12-8) where he was still just learning the rules but already in the second game, he beat me (11-13). Afterwards, he told me about some of the strategies from MTG that he applied to this game (I didn’t understand a lot of it, but it was something to do with value).
Don’t Get Got
This month, I finally received the Kickstarter of Don’t Get Got: Secret Missions with Shut Up & Sit Down and immediately wanted to try it out. The first game was just me and my girlfriend and it made for a fun game. We got our missions in the evening with the rule that the game officially started once we woke up the following morning. When we woke up, I immediately got her with the ‘Guess what?’ mission, and the game was afoot. Or so I thought… turns out she woke up before me and I had already been got by one of her missions.
One thing, I quickly realized about this game is that it is very hard to play with your SO. Or rather, it is very easy. It is very easy to get someone close to you to do something weird and most of the times they’ll just do it without asking any questions.
Sleeping Gods
At the very start of this month, I finished my first campaign of Sleeping Gods and wow! What a game. I really really really enjoyed it.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much that the second play of it this month happened yesterday when I started a new campaign. Interestingly, this campaign is going to be with five players. The way that we are handling that is by having me act as a sort of GM in that I read all the story and keep track of the rules as well as handing out Adventure Cards, Quests and Resources. And I’m fine with that. I enjoy the game so much that I am willing to just watch other people play it while getting to experience the story with them. So far, it’s working great, but let’s see as the campaign continues.
I am also currently working on a written review of it, but as for a quick post-campaign first impression: It’s goooood.
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
Now, I know that stating that I played this game seven times is kind of misleading, considering the length of the game, which is why I decided to write it in parenthesis. I only played it for one session, wherein we played seven games of it.
This was the first time I played it two player with JARVIS as the third dummy player. It definitely works, however I definitely think the game shines more at three or four players. If you are looking at playing a two-player game, I would much rather play something like Cascadia. Which I also did.
Pandemic
I hadn’t played Pandemic in two years but suddenly got the urge to play it. And it was great. Nothing fancy, nothing extraordinary, but it was good. It also brought back a lot of memories of playing Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 which I definitely would love to play again sometime. Or, I guess first I want to complete my current campaign of Season 2 and then also play Season 0. But at some point, I want to return to Season 1 – it’s a good game.
Wrapping up
And that’s all the games I played this month.
Please let me know if this type of post is something you’d like to see more of and if you want more or less details about specific sessions.