Friday 5 May 2017

Things Are Looking Gloomy

Here's What I've Been Playing This Week:


Lords Of Waterdeep: This week started with a game of Lords Of Waterdeep. While it's been a month since we've played, it does feel like this one gets to the table a fair bit.  Not that I'm complaining at all because I will gladly play Lords any time its suggested.  It's just got that simple 'lets play again, I can do better' feel to it.  Managed to sneak out another win (80% win rate on this one), but it was reasonably close with us all within about 20 points.  Not sure there's much more strategy you can do than to just focus on collecting/completing quests that follow suit with your lord.  Towards the last round or two I may stray from that and go for the biggest point quests I can complete easiest, but feeling like I mostly do the same thing.  However, I still haven't added Scoundrels Of Skullport. From what I've heard the much loved expansion brings Lords to a whole new level and next time we play it will definitely be included - unless there's a new player or two.

T.I.M.E. Stories - Asylum: Hope this isn't too much of a spoiler, but realistically the first scenario is designed so you can't really do more than three runs through.  It's still always possible, but I imagine would be very rare for someone to complete a fourth run.  So it comes as no surprise that on our third run through we completed the first scenario of Time Stories and unravelled the mystery of the Asylum.  For the most part I really enjoyed my time at the Asylum, and it wasn't until the 3/4 through the 3rd run through that we realized what we had been missing not only for most of this game, but a good portion of the last time we played.  Something so simple that we overlooked cost us needless time going through the whole building and caused a bit of frustration for our group.  Once we realized our error, we didn't care and luckily were able to move on and complete the story - even if we finished dismally with a score of 4.  Yep it was pretty bad, but we feel confident of what to look for when we start the Marcy Case next and hope we can perform a bit better for Bob!

Jaipur: It's been sometime between games of Jaipur, but I've recently decided to do an article on my games designed for only 2 players.  Still a ways off that article being written as first I need to revisit all my 2 player games to be able to accurately compare them.  To kick start things we decided on a couple games of Jaipur.  This weeks play was not as amazing as I initially remembered Jaipur to be.  It's still a tidy, neat looking package of a game that can be very enjoyable - but as I've added others to the collection I don't rate it as highly as I once thought of it.  We'll see where it ends up once I've played through them all though.

Lost Cities - The Card Game: As above, another two player game on the quest to rate all the ones that I own.  Two quick refresher games turned into seven, most of them being played in around 8 minutes.  Quick to play, easy to learn, but with some frustrating choices to make!  Nothing worse than playing your 10 only to draw a 9 of the same expedition.  With a decent amount of Hand and Time management, Lost Cites will most likely see itself land above Jaipur in the rankings.  If you enjoy two player games, I'd be extremely surprised if Lost Cities wasn't a hit with just about anyone.


Board Games Purchased This Week:


Pretty Well Nothing - I've said this a few times only to be drawn in by a good sale, or a shiny new game.. But this time I think I might actually mean it. I'm curbing back my purchasing as my pile of unplayed shame continues to get higher and higher.  If I add in games I've only tried once it's actually almost depressing how many games I have yet to properly play.  So this section could be blank for a few more weeks yet to come.  Technically however I did purchase one game, I'll just be waiting a while for it to arrive..