2024 Week 1 to 4 – Tabletop Game Play Session Reports

Recently I started a new article series of play session reports for my tabletop games that I’ve played over the past months or so. Read the compilation of the first and previous one from this article.

Continuing on that, this article is the compilation of my play session reports during Week 1 to Week 4 of 2024, all within the month of January. Usually, I do short reports per week on my BGG blog.

By writing the session reports, it helps me to write the review for the game later. So, it is part of the review process even though I may not even write the review.

Sometimes, I also write a longer session report for one game where I describe what happened turn by turn with more pictures. There are links at the bottom of each entry to BGG post of that long report.

Some new games get more play until it reaches the target minimum of play. They might appear in multiple months. I also revisit some older ones from time to time. These are just games in my collection.

Click or tab on any sections from the table of contents to jump right to that part. Use the red arrow button on the bottom right corner of the screen to head back to the top.

List of Games

Here are the links to the Weekly Session Reports for shorter version:  Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4.

 

The Guild of Merchant Explorers

Retrying the Aghon map after one mistake about understanding the term region, making the Investigate card a bit more powerful than it is.

The 1st objective was to explore ruin spaces adjacent to 3 different terrains. 2nd Objective requires completing trade route worth 12 points. The last one was to discover a village adjacent to discovery tower.

1ST ROUND. This started with the 2 Grassland spaces. I went to the southeast, expecting to complete the region with the card for 2 adjacent spaces. That was exactly the next explore card so I got my first village which I placed at the bottom most space of that region.

After that was the 2 Desert spaces. I could either go west and north or west then south. Either way, I could use the next 3 sea spaces to explore the ruins. I ended up choosing the ruins next to grasslands. After that, I got the 3 sea spaces card next, so I explored that ruin. 2 coins from the treasure.

Then 2nd to last card was the Mountain. Well, this was a bit useless but with how I placed the 3 cubes during the sea exploration, I could aim for the 1 coin on the Mountain, north from Capital.

The last card of the round was the INVESTIGATE CARD. I could either explore 2 Mountains and 3 Grasslands, separately or 5 continuous spaces between the Sea and/or Desert. I went with the latter. This was enough to cross the sea from the grasslands east to Capital City. There was a Desert region there with just 3 spaces so I got a 2nd village from it.

2nd ROUND. I got the Sea exploration card as the first one. From the recent village I could go south to reach the Ruin surrounded by a land with 5 Mountain spaces even if I only used 2 of them.

2nd card was Grasslands. I explored farther east, still from the recent village. This way, I could continue with either Mountain or another Desert card. Apparently I got the 1st Investigate card. The east most Desert region had 4 desert space and a ruin adjacent to it. This Investigate card managed to explore them all.

So, I got my 3rd village and completed the 1st objective before the opponent. From the last 2 ruins I got 2 Vase Cards.

After that I got the card with 2 adjacent space. The Southeast Discovery Tower was just 3 spaces away from the last position. This card could reach to 1 space away from the Tower. I could use the next Mountain card to explore the Tower. That was actually the next card so I found my first Discovery Tower.

2 cards left and this time it was the 2nd Investigate Card. I had a choice between exploring 4 continuous spaces between the Sea and Mountain or explore 3 spaces in straight line from 2 different villages. I thought the latter was less flexible than the former so I went with the first.

Well I had a choice between completing that small island filled with Mountain or going north from the Capital. I thought it was a bit useless with that south island so I went north preparing for further exploration. I discovered my 4th village, 1st in the Mountain region.

The last card was 2 desert but at this point, I could only get 1 coin.

3RD ROUND. First card was the 3 Sea spaces. My only option was to reach the ruins south to Capital city next to Desert land from the village in Grasslands nearby. I got another Vase from it.

Next exploration card was the 2nd Investigate card. I could only move 4 spaces continuous, either Mountain or Sea. I tried to reach the Southwest corner by exploring just the Sea part from where I discovered the ruin. This way, I could explore further later either in Grassland in the south or the Mountain adjacent to it.

The next card was the 2 grasslands. I explored that Grasslands in the South, staying close to the east so I could reach the Desert area there using the 1st Investigate card. That desert had a City with a value of 3 while the Mountain had a city with a value of 4. If I could create the Trade route I could complete the 2nd objective this round.

The next explore card was the 2 adjacent spaces. I used it to explore the Mountain 2 spaces to reach that City with value of 4. This created the first trade route worth 4 x 2. I covered the 2.

Unlucky for me, the 3rd Investigate card showed up before I could complete the 2nd objective. My 2 options were going 3 spaces straight after a Mountain space or I could choose a Grassland and explore, the 5 adjacent spaces from there. I picked the former as it could help reaching out better than the latter.

Preparing to complete the 3rd objective, I almost could discover a village in the Southwest Mountain to be next to the Discovery Tower. So, I used the Investigate card, starting from the leftmost Mountain spaces on that region and moved back to fill one space there. That left me with 1 space Mountain before I could discover the village. The Explore card had not showed up yet so I could achieve that.

Then the 1st Investigate card. I could move 5 continuous spaces either Sea or Desert terrain. This was a good chance for the trade route worth 12 by exploring the South Desert region.

I could reach the City and started a Trade Route worth 4 x 3, completing the 2nd objective. The exploration left 2 desert spaces but I could expect the one of 2 last cards to complete it. That was when the 2 Desert explore card showed up, discovering the Village there. I had to let go the ruins nearby.

The last card of the round was the Mountain. Instead of aiming for the Discovery Tower, I completed the exploration of that Mountain Region, placing the village adjacent to the Discovery tower. Hopefully I could complete the 3rd objective before the opponent took it.

4TH ROUND. I got lucky with the 1st card being the Mountain which I used to explore the 2nd Discovery Tower in Southwest region.

Next card was the 2 adjacent spaces. Since I was done with the South part. I should try the remaining two Towers at the North. From my right most village, I could explore 2 spaces and then reached a point that could aim for the Northeast Tower using the 3rd Investigate card. So, that was what I went with.

And the 3rd Investigate card showed up. I explored the 3rd Discovery tower as planned. Only the Northwest part left.

After that I could explore the 2 Desert. I had to start from the Capital again going northwest in the Desert region nearby. Hoping that the 1st Investigate card could help reach the desert region near the last discovery tower.

And that was exactly when the 1st Investigate card showed up. I moved 2 spaces in the Sea and continued 2 more in the Desert and ended my movement in the Sea part between the Desert and Mountain in that Northwest. Maybe I could use the 2nd card to explore the Mountain there. For the last tower I had to rely on the 1st card again during the 4th Investigate card turn.

The next card was the 3 Sea spaces. The Northwest part couldn’t use it but there was a ruin near the Northeast tower so I used it, going almost reaching a nearby City. I got extra coin for every village in Mountain.

So, the 4th card showed up. As planned, I used the 1st card again. This explored the last Discovery Tower, completing the exploration of nearby Desert there and explored the Ruin. I got 2 more coins from the ruin.

2nd to last card was the 2 Grasslands. I used one to explore a City in the Northeast and another one to explore the east from the discovery tower. Well, the 2nd didn’t matter, just to get 2 coins.

Last card was the 2nd Investigate card. Instead of exploring the Mountain region in the northwest with a lot of Coins, I used that card to explore the Mountain region in the Northeast. Not as much coin but I could do 2 things. One was to discover a village and the other to create the last trade route worth 12.

I scored 25 from 3 objectives, 119 from coins up to that point and 13 from the Treasure cards. Final score was 157 so I won the Hard Difficulty.

Playing time was about 50 minutes.

Keep the Heroes Out!

3rd play of Keep the Heroes Out! game. This time I tried the 2nd Scenario with 2 characters, the Red Dragon and Skeleton. This was my first time playing those 2.

Red Dragon is one of the Crowd Control with a lot of attack cards. However, Red Dragon only uses one figure that can take up to 5 damage. Red Dragon’s special ability is to heal those wound per action.

As Pro Tip, according to the book, I have to avoid picking Equipment and focus on Potion and Scrolls with attack again?

Skeleton is one of the Defender type. Felt like support as well during my play. The Skeleton ability is to leave a Bone Resource where the figure is at. Very funny. Bones are essential to create Beast. Getting more beast card allows you to draw more cards. Even the Pro tip says to take more Beast with move action early in the game.

The Scenario 2 of the Dungeon Book is called OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! Unlike the 1st one where you will get additional objective when the card shows up and penalty for not completing it, this one is more beneficial.

When 1 of the Executioner cards shows up, you have to draw another Hero card to be thrown to jail. But after that you still need to draw 1 more hero and resolve them as usual. So, this can make the game faster. Of course, there is a chance that the one thrown to jail was the Wizard which will break them out.

As usual, the Red Dragon starts in the Treasure room while Skeleton starts in one of 2 Eyes room. One of the Mystic Eye room is actually adjacent to the Beast Trainer room. So, I placed more Skeleton figure next to that room.

The other Mystic Eye room is the Study room to create Scrolls and this scenario, that room is between the Treasure and the Library. That can help the Dragon to get more scrolls. I guess that leaves the Sewers for the frog and the Apothecary to create Potion rooms a bit in less traffic.

I did find that in this session, I didn’t get a chance to create a potion at all. Got like 2 Frogs generated but no time for the potion. Had I realized that, I could have gotten rid the Potion cards early. Instead I still tried to diversify the market cards, making sure that every type is available.

The Dragon itself has 2 cards with move twice in a card. So, the Dragon can easily reach the Library from the Treasure room and back. However, if the Dragon has to stop in the middle to create the Scroll, Dragon’s other cards are like 1 action or 1 move and 1 attack.

The Skeleton started first. Immediately got the Spider Beast with extra 2 actions plus draw 1 card. Thrown the Mage to jail, luckily so the Mage was stuck there alone. I noticed that Skeleton also has the power to kill Hero and turn them into the Skeleton.

That is significantly more powerful than the Slime I played previously. Not only the Skeleton removed the threat, but also add more figures in the room. Well, I got all 3 cards of that so I discarded 1 to refresh the market. I think Skeleton also managed to move to the Library, picked a Book and brought it back to the Study so the Dragon could make the Scroll.

2 Archers showed up in the Mystic Eye room, killing one of the Skeleton and damaged the Dragon in the next room by 1. Since there were other Skeletons in both rooms, the Archers stopped their action.

Red Dragon next, started by throwing the Warrior to jail. After activating the Portal in Treasure room and killing the Archer in the Study, the Dragon moved to the Workshop room which was between the Treasure and the Cell. From that room, the Dragon killed both prisoners while also created 2 traps.

2 Archers showed up again but this time in the Hats, the Library and Apothecary. Only the one in the Library took down one of the Skeleton. Both ended their movement immediately for not being able to open the chest.

Skeleton’s turn again. After throwing the Warrior again to jail, they killed both Archers next to them and turned them into Skeleton. While in the Library, why not pick another Book and brought it back to the Study again.

The rest of the actions were just getting more Beast, the Minotaur and the Tiger. I don’t know when but this session made me realize how important to create the portal from that Beast room to other place. The Dragon still needed to do more by having beast and the Skeleton could use some scrolls as well to help make that portal.

The next hero phase was actually the Executioner. He threw the Archer to jail. Unfortunately, the Warriors showed up in the Hat room, the Study and Apothecary. One skeleton got killed but the Warrior couldn’t open the chest. The one in Apothecary inspired the Archer there and they managed to open the Chest. They continued to the next room which was the Sewers and luckily, two of them couldn’t open the Chest.

Dragon’s turn again, started by throwing the Rogue to jail. There were 3 in Jail so the Dragon killed them all from the other room again. But that was just 2. The Dragon moved 1 to jail and killed the other hero. While in there, the Dragon opened the portal.

After that, the Dragon went back to treasure room, dragging one trap and then moved to the Sewer, killing both Heroes there, leaving the trap. Then the Dragon moved 2 spaces to the Study to finally get the Scroll. This one could either create a Portal or 2 movement plus 1 ranged attack.

2 Rogues showed up in the Mystic Eye room. One skeleton got killed in the Graveyard while the one in Study, wounded the Dragon.

For some reason, I activated the Hero Phase again and things got complicated. The next draw was actually the Executioner and the one after that was also the Executioner. So, I ignored the first one and just resolved the 2nd one. I threw the Mage to jail but the next one was 2 more Rogues in the Hat room.

The one in Apothecary immediately moved and ended their movement in the Sewer. That one should have been eliminated by the trap in the Sewer. The other one from the Library, inspired the Warrior and together they entered the Study, inspired the previous Rogue and went rogue…

They killed the Skeleton and injured the Dragon. But the Dragon survived with just 1 more health. So, I made the game harder in this easier mode.

Skeleton again and this time started with throwing the Archer to jail. Then the Spawn card brought 1 figure to that Study room. Killed 2 Heroes and turned them into a Skeleton each. One moved to Library to get a Book and moved back. Another moved to the Treasure room. The Tiger helped them killed the Rogue in graveyard. The Skeleton got a Scroll and a Beast. Still left a Bone and Books.

Next Hero phase was the Mages in the Bone. Another mistake here. I think I forgot to resolve it. The Mage should have ended the movement in the Sewer and killed the Skeleton in the Beast room.

The next Dragon’s turn started by throwing another Mage to jail. There were 2 prisoners so they broke out from it. But when they entered the Workshop, one of them was killed by the trap and they stopped moving after failing to open the chest. Instead of removing the killed one, it stayed in the Jail. Another mistake.

The Dragon had a scroll to do 3 actions to heal. In the Study with Books, the Dragon created a Scroll. Moved 1 space to the Treasure room and from there killed the 2 Heroes in the Workshop. Moved 2 spaces again to the Cell and killed the Mage that should have been dead. The Dragon moved back to the Workshop and created 1 trap.

Hero’s phase and this time 2 Warriors in Bone Room. One killed Skeleton and removed the Bone from it. That should have been the end of their action but instead the warrior opened the chest and moved again. In the Graveyard, another skeleton was removed and the warrior just stopped. In the Sewer, there should have been 2 other heroes and they could have opened the chest. Since I forgot one so they stopped their movement.

Here is another mistake. The Skeleton’s turn again and they threw a Hero in Jail. However, it was the Executioner. Instead of discarding it, I threw another Rogue to jail.

The Skeleton got lucky to have 1 Spawn card. It is important to keep that card apparently in case all figures were removed.

After spawning one Skeleton in Graveyard, with the help from Tiger, killed the Warrior and then moved back to Beast room and generated a Bone. The one in Treasure room moved to the Sewer. Killed the 2 Heroes and turned them into Skeleton.

It started to feel that Skeleton had not enough attacking card. So, 2 coins were generated in the Treasure room to start making equipment.

That was the end of 1st WAVE.

Actually, I think I made a mistake again or not sure how to resolve it. This was the Hero Phase again but there was exactly one card left. The card was Executioner. So, I was supposed to draw 1 Hero card to be thrown to jail. That card was an Archer.

Then I had to resolve 1 Hero card and it was the Rogue in the Bone rooms. The one spawned in Beast room killed the Skeleton and then had to stop in the Graveyard waiting for help to open the Chest. The one in the Sewer killed a Skeleton as well but there were 2 more.

I think I was supposed to draw one more since this was the 2nd Wave. But I thought I was still in Wave 1 so I stop the Hero Phase.

The Dragon’s turn again. As usual, I throw a Hero to jail but I forgot which. Maybe the Executioner so nothing happened.

The Dragon in the Workshop, first killed the 2 Heroes in the Jail. Then the Dragon moved 2 spaces to the Study and created a Scroll since there was a book already there. Using a scroll from previous round, The Dragon moved 2 spaces again and entered the Forge room, dragging 1 coin from the Treasure. From there, with ranged attack, the Dragon killed the Rogue in Graveyard. Since the Dragon was already in Forge room, the Dragon created an equipment. With the last card, the Dragon moved farther to the Beast room. Healed once.

Hero phase again and the first one was Mages came in the Hat rooms. The one in the Sewer inspired the Rogue to attack again and both killed the 2 Skeleton there. Another showed up in Library, immediately entered the Study and killed the Skeleton. But the mage had to stop there since they couldn’t open the chest.

The 2nd hero card was Archer in the Bone rooms. One in the Sewer inspired the other 2 heroes there and managed to open the chest. They continued marching to the Treasure room but since there was only 3 of them, they had to stop. The other in Beast room just hit the Dragon 1 damage.

Skeleton’s turn, started with throwing the Rogue to jail. Only one there. Skeleton had to start eliminating the heroes in Treasure room but all Skeleton figures were removed. So, the Skeleton had to spawn one in the Study. Killed the Mage there which became another Skeleton.

With the help from Minotaur, moved to Treasure and killed one Hero while drawing 1 card. Killed the 2nd hero, turning the hero into 3rd Skeleton. Tiger also came along and killed the 3rd hero there so the Treasure room was secured. Got 1 extra card, the other card to spawn.

One of the Skeleton moved to the Sewer and started catching 2 Frogs. The other stayed in the Treasure room to pick coin. After spawning one more Skeleton in Graveyard, the turn ended.

Hero phase and a lot of mistakes again. The first one was Rogue on Mystic Eye room. One in Graveyard killed the Skeleton there and ended the movement. Similarly in the Study room. The 2nd card was the Executioner which threw the Mage into jail with one Rogue there. So, they broke out but both were eliminated in the Workshop because there were 2 traps.

So, I had to draw and resolve one more Hero and it was Warrior in the Mystic Eye as well. The one in Graveyard inspired the previous Rogue. I was supposed to open the Chest there but I forgot and they both just proceeded to the Forge, which they stopped the movement.

Same goes with the one in Study. After removing the Book there, both the Rogue and Warrior marched to the Treasure room and just stopped there.

Dragon’s turn and started by throwing another Mage to the jail. Another mistake was thinking that the Mage required another Hero to break out. Either way, that one Mage would have stopped their movement in Workshop.

First, The Dragon got a Beast. Then with one of the Scroll, opened a Portal in the Beast room. Dragon then killed the Archer there and moved to Jail. Moved 1 space again and killed the Mage. From the Workshop, killed the 2 Heroes in Treasure room. The Dragon then moved to the treasure room and with ranged attack killed one hero in Forge using the Scroll. That same scroll allowed the Dragon to move again to Study. In the Study, the Dragon opened another Portal. Lastly, the Dragon moved back to the Workshop.

Hero Phase and the first one was Archer in Sword room. One was stuck in the Forge. The other hit the Dragon in Workshop. The 2nd card was Executioner. Warrior was thrown to jail. But Rogue showed up in Hat rooms.

One from Apothecary proceeded to Sewer and eliminated the Skeleton. The movement should have ended there but the Rogue continued and stopped in Treasure. The other in the Library also eliminated the last figure of Skeleton and that one stop their movement there.

Skeleton’s turn and this time threw another Warrior to jail. So, there were 2 of the Warriors. I actually lost track of what happened. One Skeleton had to spawn first. Luckily there was a card. 2 Heroes in Jail, 1 in Workshop, 1 in Treasure and 1 in Forge were eliminated. Two of them were turned into Skeletons.

Skeleton got another Beast and an equipment. One Skeleton stayed in Workshop with the Dragon. Two were in Forge and one in Beast room.

Hero phase again and first was the Warrior in Bone rooms. One eliminated the Skeleton and the other managed to enter the Treasure room. The 2nd was Mage in Mystic Eye. The one from Graveyard ended the movement in Forge and the other was stuck in the Study unable to open the chest still.

There was one Hero card left and the Dragon immediately just threw that Archer into jail. The archer injured the Dragon but the Monsters successfully defended their Dungeon.

Playing time was about 83 minutes. A lot of mistakes in resolving things… I have to try again, maybe the same setup.

Voyages

Revisiting Voyages again. Last time was solo play with the 1st Map and this time with the 2nd Map, the Marauder’s and Reef. I still haven’t tried the campaign though.

1st Round. Game started with a 1, 3 and 4. From that starting point, I went up and with the speed of 3 I reached the end of the board, got my 7th sailor. So, the 4 went to Duty. 2 spaces away from that position, there was a Pirate ship with a value of 2. I only needed a 4 to destroy it so I did.

2nd Round, 2, 3 and 4. Going upwards was impossible and 4 just going back to the starting position. So, 3 became the direction. Apparently I already made my first mistake as I also put 3 into the Duty. The 4 became the speed. The ship landed on an island with a value of 3. Oh well…

3rd Round, 1, 2, 4. From that Island, the direction 2, the ship entered the unexplored region. I wanted the 1 for the Duty so I got more Sailor so the 4 became the Speed. That position was just 1 space away from Pirate 6 so I could take it down easily. Actually, if I assumed that I spent the Sailor before, I couldn’t.

4th Round, 3, 5, 6. I decided to explore east farther so 3 became the direction. With the speed of 5, I was in the same line as the Star at the top right corner. So, the 6 went for Duty.

5th Round, 3, 5, 6. I had to spend 1 Sailor, turning a 3 into a 2. The 5 had to be the Duty so I got my 8th Sailor. I landed on the Star which was the 1st one. That Star was also 1 space away from Pirate 5 and with enough Sailor, I took it down.

6th Round, 1, 5, 6. Since this was at the top border, 1 was useless as direction and 6 just brought me back to the previous unexplored region. So, I had to pick 5 for direction. With the speed of 6, the ship entered the Island surrounded by reefs. That ship also landed on the 9th Sailor and only 1 space away from Pirate 4 so I took it down. This was the 2nd unexplored region. 1 filled the 2nd Duty.

7th Round, 4, 5, 5. I could have landed on that Land with the Port but I decided to move out because it took 2 turns to get out from that Reefs from that island. So, 5 became the direction. With 4 as speed, I stopped exactly 1 space from Pirate 4. I took down that 3rd Pirate 4. 5 filled the 2nd duty.

8th Round, 2, 6, 6. From that position, if I moved 6 in direction of 6, I could stop the ship right in front of the 2 reefs guarding the unexplored region at the top left corner. That position was also 2 spaces away from the Pirate 6 and with 8 Sailors, I took it down. Well, this time, the 2 became the duty that I should have filled previously. Got 10th Sailor.

9th Round, 2, 4, 6. To enter that unexplored region, I needed a 1 as direction so I spent 1 Sailor. Well, the other speed didn’t matter as long as it was 3 or higher. I picked 4 as Duty, the 2nd in that row. The ship ended the movement on a Heroic Sailor and 1 space away from the Pirate 4. That was like the last Pirate 4.

10th Round, 3, 4, 6. Since I completed the entire row of Marauders, I had to visit the nearby port. I needed 5 so I had to spend 1 Sailor at least. 6 became the Duty so I got another Heroic. The Port doubled that 2nd Marauders row and got me 11th Sailor.

11th Round, 4, 4, 6. Well, I needed a 3 to get out between those reefs so I spent 1 Sailor to change one of the 4. The 6 became the Speed and the 4 duty filled the 3rd one so I had +2 for fighting the Pirate.

12th Round, 1, 2, 5. 5 rounds left. I could get the Island with 12 and a Star between reefs. But before that I could reach the bottom unexplored region. From there, I could get the 12th Sailor for one more Star. From this position, I needed a 4 as direction and a 6 for speed. Spent 1 Heroic and 1 Sailor for it. The ship landed on the same space as Pirate 6 and with the help from Duty and remaining Sailors, I could take it down. I reached the 4th unexplored Region. The 1 filled the 3rd Duty so I could change the speed a bit.

13th Round, 2, 2, 5. I needed exactly 2 as direction to get my 12th sailor and the other 2 was perfect for the speed. 5 was also perfect to fill the 3rd Duty of that Row. With 3 rounds left, if I got exactly 1, 4, and 5 for Duty I could get another Star.

14th Round, 2, 5, 5. My last plan was to enter that Reefs and get to Island with 12 Golds and a Star. From this position I had to land on the nearby island first with 4 Gold. For that I needed a 6 for direction so I spent 1 Sailor to change the 5.

The other 5 became the speed but I had to spend 1 Sailor to change the 2 into 1 for Duty. I landed the ship and got 4 Golds.

15th Round, 2, 3, 3. I needed a 5 to enter those reefs. So I had to spend 1 Heroic. The speed of 3 worked so I had to change the other 3 into 4 for Duty, completing 2 rows. That position was 1 space away from the 3rd Pirate 2. I had enough to take it down.

16th Round, 1, 4, 5. Of course, I needed a 6 for direction but the 5 for Duty to get another star. So, I spent 1 Worker to change 1 to 6 and the 4 became Speed. I got 2 Star from it and this was 5th unexplored Region.

Final Scoring
19 Golds from visited Islands
25 from explored Ocean Regions
7 from Pirate 2
36 from Pirate 4
14 from Pirate 6
2 from 1 unexhausted Heroic
9 from 3 completed Duty Rows
15 from 5 Legendary Stars
TOTAL SCORE: 127

However, if I take into account my mistake earlier, I think I failed to take down 2 Pirate 6. So, my actual score was probably only 115.

Playing time was about 36 minutes.

The Blob that Ate the City

Back to The Blob that Ate the City, a free PnP roll and write game. This time I tried to play slightly differently. Usually I tried to play from one corner and work to the middle or the other end. This time, I played right from the middle of the board.

This time I scored 129, while previously was less than 120. Not a big much jump and I think it is mostly because I kept getting the roll for the bigger shape not because where I start.

Early in the game, by starting from the middle, I did get more way to place the tile. However, this leads to more things to keep track since after a couple of turns, I work on multiple different buildings that are still missing one or 2 spaces. There is a chance that I count the building incorrectly since I didn’t fill the shape with full color.

The weird shape next to each other leads to a visually confusing between the covered space and small part that was not covered yet. Of course, the solution is just to fill the shape with color but it feels like a waste.

Playing time was about 36 minutes. It gets longer towards the end since it’s getting harder to fit in bigger shape but weird details. Combined with multiple unfinished buildings, I had to evaluate which one gives better score or which one that can give higher but if I can cover it with the next draw.

I still only got 29 points from the biggest shape. That came from the combined of shape 3 and 6. Trying to connect both shapes as soon as possible was great but that led to huge gap in the middle and making it harder to completely cover a building or even to fill with the next growth.

Maybe I should try combining 3 shapes which could get like 40 points and use the other 3 to fill small gap in my next play. Not sure how easy to place it when it gets bigger though.

Sylvion

In last session, I lost horribly. Got a chance to play again with all of the modules, including the Ravage pawn. I thought I almost lost again but then I got unexpected help from one of the Extraordinary feats that I picked during the drafting.

From the drafting, I got 2 Extraordinary Feats, the Dove and the Owl. Besides that, I got 28 cards, 2 Owls, 6 Fountains, 2 Fish, 2 Hedgehog, 2 Dove, 3 Elephant, 2 Whale, 2 Squirrel and 6 Trees. I managed to avoid the Betrayal.

The game started with all 4 Support cards from the Ravage decks. 2 Blaze which increased no Elemantal, 1 Demobilization but I had no card in the discard yet and 1 stone Rain so I got my first hit.

I got both the Dove and Squirrels combo so I looked 2 cards from each Ravage deck and discarded 1 from each. 3 decks had 2 Elemental cards each so I got rid the stronger ones between the 2. From one deck I removed the Acid Lake. Since I knew where the next weak elemental card, I put a slightly stronger Fountain right in front of that deck. I also put a Tree with a value of 2.

I got a 2nd hit because of another Stone Rain and 2 Elemental cards entered the battlefield. One of my Elephant removed the Elemental 3 and Fountain 2 was right in front of the Elemental 0.

3rd round, Elemental 3, Acid Lake, Simoon and Geyser. I removed the Elemental 3 with my Elephant again. Played the Fountain 4 on 1st row leftmost.

4th round, Demobilization, Desiccation, Demobilization and Simoon. Thanks to the Demobilizations, I lost my Elephant and one of the Tree. I really got nothing to do at this point.

5th round, Simoon, Elemental 0, Temporal Tornado, Desiccation. That elemental got destroyed immediately by the Fountain 2 thanks to Simoon pushing it farther. Nothing to deal at the moment but I got the Squirrel and Doves combo again.

I removed Elemental 2, Desiccation, Blaze and another Stone Rain. I had to prepare for 2 Desiccations next round though and 2 Elementals.

6th round, Elemental 2 and 3 plus 2 Desiccation. I only had 3 cards and the defender deck run out so I lost 1 card which was the Dove. Nothing I could do.

7th round, Geyser, Desiccation, Geyser and Elemental 1. The Elemental 3 from previous round destroyed one of my Fountain and there was 1 other Elemental. I had 1 Elephant so I removed that Elemental 3. Nothing else I could do.

8th round, Elemental 0, Simoon, Blaze, Elemental 3. I actually had Hedgehog but I let the Blaze upgraded those Elementals. One of them destroyed the Geyser before I could use it.

So, I got 2 Owl to draw 6 more, including the Fish. 2 Water was for Squirrel and Dove combo again and one other for the Fountain 2 on Row 4. I removed 2 Simoon, 1 Blaze and a Desiccation. 3 Elementals and a Demobilization were coming.

9th round, Elemental 2, Demobilization, Elemental 0 and Elemental 2. The first Elemental card got the Ravage. One of my Fountain was destroyed and another Geyser a long with Elemental 4. I got a Whale to move another Elemental 4 from row 4 to row 3. Then I activated the Geyser on that row to eliminate 2 Elemantal cards.

10th round, Blaze, Blaze, Elemental 2 and Elemental 0. I cancelled the 1st Blaze with my Hedgehog. But now there were 3 Elemental 3 and 1 Elemental 4. The Defender deck run out again and I lost another Tree.

I only had 3 cards, the Elephant, a Whale and Hedgehog. Discarded the Hedgehog to play the Elephant and removed the Ravage from Elemental 3. I moved one of the Elemental card from Row 4 to Row 3 right to be destroyed by Fountain 4.

11th round, demobilization, demobilization, Elemental 3 with Ravage and Acid Lake. Lost my Elephant and the Hedgehog thanks to those 2 Demobilization. I got 3 cards, 2 of them were Owl so I could draw 6 again. Got 2 Fish, a Whale, Squirrel and some Trees. No Dove so I only played the Squirrel.

12th round, Elemental 0, Elemental 2, Tornado and Geyser. The Tornado returned 2 Fountains to my hand so nothing was defending the 3rd row. One Fountain 4 destroyed the Elemental 3 on row 1. Elemental 4 on row 4 destroyed my Tree and was 1 space away from hitting the forest. I moved the Elemental 3 with Ravage to the Row 4 so I could activate the Geyser and removed the Elemental 4 and the Ravage.

I got Fountain 4 again to protect the 3rd row and just placed Fountain 1 on row 4 to be destroyed so I could draw more card.

13th round, Simoon, Tornado, Elemental 3 and Desiccation. I had to discard 1 card because of the Desiccation and the other returned to the deck because of Tornado. I got my 3rd hit. 3 Elementals left on the battlefield. 2 of them would be destroyed by Fountain 4 so I removed the other one using Elephant.

14th round, Acid Lake, Elemental 0 plus Ravage, Elemental 1 on 2 rows. 1 Elemental was destroyed so there were 4 left. I got the Squirrel and Dove combo again, removing Stone Rain, Elemental 2, Blaze and Elemental 1 with a Ravage. Nothing else I could use for now except starting to plant a tree with a value of 2.

15th round, Demobilization, Elemental 1, Elemental 1, Elemental 0. I lost my Fish. 6 Elementals on the Battlefield and I only had Squirrels, Hedgehog and Fountain 1. I just placed the Fountain 1 on row 2 to be destroyed so I could draw more card.

16th round, last one, Demobilization, Elemental 1, Simoon, Tornado. Lost my dove. The only tree was returned to my hand. Got 2 more hit to the forest and there were 4 more Elemental cards left. One would be destroyed by Fountain.

I got whale so I could move one Elemental from row 2 to row 1 and the fountain would take care of it. After that, I got 1 Elephant to remove the Elemental from row 4. Placed Fountain 1 to be destroyed along with Elemental 1 on row 2.

Unfortunately, I already run out of cards when I still needed to plant trees with a total value of 5 at least.

Luckily the Extraordinary Feat of Owl allowed me to take 2 cards from the Defender deck. I picked the Owl and a Tree. Previously I played Fish so I still had the water to play the Owl and draw another Owl a tree and a Fountain.

I managed to plant 2 Trees one with a value of 3 and the other with a value of 4. So I had more than enough to survive and win this battle. I was lucky to have picked that Owl which I didn’t think of using it this way.

Playing time was about 56 minutes plus about 10 minutes for the drafting.

Imperial Settlers

Continuing my PnP campaign of Imperial Settlers. Still playing as the Egyptian as the main Faction and Roman as the border faction. This was the 6th play of that campaign.

Last time I had about 51 VP to buy Achievements. This time I bought INVENTION: MAP for 40 VP. This increased my Production of card by 1 but only Common card permanently.

So, in addition to the Egyptian’s starting Production, I had 1 Extra worker, 2 wood, 1 stone, 1 Gold, 1 Raze and 1 extra common card every production.

The event for this session was 2.2 Merchant Guild: MERCHANTS HAVE OFFERED YOU HELP TO KEEP THEM SAFE.

As additional rule, I was allowed to make 1 Deal for free.

The Quest was if I have at least 5 Deals at the end of the game, gain 1 VP per deal.

Also, thanks to my previous quest, I didn’t need to pay any Upkeep Cost. I was supposed to pay 3 Wood and 1 Stone per round to keep those 5 Provinces that I had conquered.

Honestly, I actually forgot the rule of 1 Free deal. Especially since I got a production card early that gave me 1 Food. I had no other use for it and just made a deal with the Border Faction every round. By the end of the session, I had 6 deals, so I could have probably saved 2 Golds from it.

Somehow I didn’t draw a Faction card with more than one copy to make a deal out of it. So, the situation didn’t really help me to take advantage of that anyway.

This was also the longest I got for keeping Common Production cards. In 3rd round, I still got 6 of them while usually I should have converted them into Faction location. I guess I was lucky a bit that the Virtual opponent didn’t take them out. They got one, I think from the Feature.

By the end, I got 15 Faction locations and about 7 Common cards. Usually I managed to convert those commons to Faction, leaving maybe just 1 or 2 left. One of the reason was that I kept spending 2 Workers in the last round to get more Faction cards. I still had 5 Faction cards and 1 Common in hand. Unfortunately, I already run out of resources to build them.

I also realized that converting them will only increase the VP by 1 while spending my leftover gold for the requirement. On the other hand, some of the Action locations can give me just 1 VP per Gold spent.

I actually forgot that the Egyptian Faction had 2 Feature cards that are very strong. The one that allows you to pay extra Gold to get more VP everytime you build Faction Locations, the Slaver. Another one was the Sphinx that gives 1 extra VP everytime I score 2 VP. Unfortunately, these 2 came out in the last round.

I scored 80 plus 6 from the Quest. From that I had to pay 20 VP for the Control Cost of 5 Provinces. As the result of my conquest, I got #13, the WINDY PLAINS. This increases the Food Production by 1 permanently but I have to pay extra 5 VP for Control Cost and 1 extra Stone per round.

Playing time was about 1 hour for the 4-round game.

Learn more about the game from Imperial Settlers Review.

Riverside

Another solo play of Riverside, this time using the 2 extension tiles. I got only 8 rounds since the dice kept getting 5 as median or temperature.

During the game I only scored 315. While writing the session report, I realized I could have made better decision here and there, especially to activate the 3 abilities. That got me to 344.

From either session, the lowest excursion type was the Brown with only 21 points from 2 tickets and only 1 excursion. The 2nd lowest scored like 44 so I could have done better with it. That could lead to higher score with the Captain.

The board has about 35 spaces for the ship to move from Start to the finish line. If I get the average movement with 3 or 4, I could have gotten about 9 to 12 rounds. So, maybe just 1 turn extra for more scoring.

That got me thinking, maybe it’s better to determine the actual score by dividing the score with the number of rounds? I mean, instead of just comparing the score to the chart. In my case, I got like 344/8 = 43 or 315/8 = 39. That means with 10 rounds I could get like 390 to 430. Unfortunately, the sheet doesn’t keep track with the number of previous rounds or rolls.

Playing time was about 22 minutes. Read the Full Session Report here.

Learn more about the game from Riverside Review.

Walking in Burano

Another solo play of Walking in Burano game. It was very horrible play in the last session.

Playing time was about 15 minutes. It was definitely faster than my usual time since I got a lot of lucky draw. However, I think it still takes the same amount of rounds, just faster decision.

Right from the start, I saw 2 Blues in the same column for 2nd and 3rd floor card. On different column, there was a Blue for the 1st floor with a Pizza Shop.

So, first round I picked the 1st Floor card first. Since the 3rd floor for that blue didn’t have any chimney, I let go the Santa Claus character.

Then on 2nd turn, I picked the 2 Blues and completed my first house. It had a total of 3 cats so I thought it was enough to attract the Tourist Girl. I let go one of the Tourist Boy.

3rd turn and I saw similar combination of cards on 2 different columns but for Green house. The 1st floor green had a Coffee Shop. The 2 floors above it had 3 plants and a Street Light for the officer. I picked the 1st floor first and let go the other Tourist Girl.

4th turn, I picked the 2 Green and completed the Green House, attracting the Tourist Guy who loves seeing Plants. I let go the other card of that same character.

5th turn. I saw 2 Yellows this time but for 2nd and 1st Floor. With the 1st Floor had a Tailor shop so I was almost completed the 4 different shops. The 2nd floor had a lot of flowers and no Street Light so I placed these 2 next to the Green. The Tourist Woman left.

6th turn. I found the last shop to complete the set with the Pink color and the Ice Cream shop. I picked that one and let go the Curtain maker.

7th turn. The roof part with Yellow color showed up and it was perfect as it also had chimney and 2 Flowers. I picked that one and attracted the last Tourist Woman who was interested in seeing more flowers. I guess the Plant seller was no longer interested in my block.

8th turn. 5 characters left. There was a column with 2 Pink for 2nd and 3rd floor, perfect for my block. The 2nd also had a Street Light. I needed 1 more color for the last column, ideally with a Street Light on the 2nd floor part.

The best option was the Red and all 3 were in 3 different columns. Hopefully I could get all of them. I picked the 1st floor first as it would have been removed right after. I let go the Flower Seller.

9th turn, I picked the 2 Pink in a column and completed the set, attracting the Officer. I let go the Mayor. Actually he could have scored better probably but I prefer the Shop guy.

10th turn. I let go the Red top because of picking the Pink. This turn I picked the Red in the middle, taking also a Yellow that I couldn’t use. The last Tourist boy left.

11th turn. I picked the top Red which had a chimney and 2 Flowers. I completed my last house and attracted the Shop Guy.

So, as the final scoring, I didn’t break any rule so I got 12 points from those 4 tokens. 9 points from the 4 shops. Lost 2 points from the 2 Closed windows.

Now from the characters. 15 points from the Officer. 9 points from the Tourist Lady who saw 3 cats. 5 points from the Tourist Guy for seeing 5 plants. Another 5 from the Tourist Woman with 5 flowers from Yellow. Another 15 points from the Shop guy for having 4 different shops. 44 points from characters.

My final score was only 63 points, the 2nd threshold from the score chart. The Tourist woman could have scored me 11 instead in the Red Building and if I chose the Mayor, I could get 9 instead of only 5 from the Tourist Guy.

Well, no way I could have known that though. Or maybe I could have by tracking the potential score right from the start but I didn’t.

Learn more about the game from Walking in Burano Review.

Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game

Back with another solo play of Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game against Steve Jr. with the hard difficulty or 2 extra Steve cards. Steve started with free 5G, but extra cost for 8K and NFC.

I started with the Flexible screen feature. The 1st Event was 2022 Social Media PR Strike. Well, the event didn’t matter for the first round as no need to put any discount token yet to any of the Marketing cards.

There were 3 Green Customers, 2 Blue and 2 Pink. 2 of them asked for 5G, 3 for 8K and 1 for either Flexible screen or NFC.

I set the price at 5 while Steve set his at 4 so Steve went first. However, Steve could only use free features. In this case, only the 5G feature. He produced 2 extra goods if he set the price at 4 or lower.

With 4 Tech points, I bought 1 feature with 8K for 3 that doesn’t increase the cost. For the Tech card, I could only purchase with the cost of 1 that gives 1 Star to my product. For the Marketing, I only had 2 marketing points which I spent to buy a card that gives me $1 for every Star feature on my phone. Steve just took 1 Private Blue.

Steve produced a total of 8 with a profit of 3 per phone. He could only sell 3 phones all of them to the 3 Blue customers, 1 was his private.

I designed a phone with 8K and the Flexible screen feature at 5. My profit was also 3 per sold phone. Both of these Feature cards had a Star each and got another Star from the Tech card. Using all of those, I managed to sell my phone to 1 Green and 2 Pink.

So both of us sold the same amount of phones this round with the same profit. I got extra $3 from the Star thanks to my marketing. Steve got no customer with any Star so no bonus for him.

Current score: 18 for me and 15 for Steve.

2nd Event: Crypto Adventures Bring Down the Economy. The Product base cost is $2 for this round. 4 Green Customers, 3 Blue and 2 Pink got added to the market with the previous 2 Green.

Only 1 asked for 8K, 2 for 5G, 2 for Flexible Screen, 1 for NFC, 3 for Camera and about 5 expecting at least 3-Star quality.

Well, if I had to compete with Steve, I needed to get that NFC with the cost of 2 but doesn’t increase the cost. I set the price to $5 per phone with still 4 Tech points and 2 Marketing.

Steve set his to $7 per phone. He was about to use all of his features that includes NFC, 8K, and 5G. Since I would sell first, I had to take out all of the customers that demanded NFC and 8K and Stars if I could.

Unfortunately, no good tech card so I just bought the cheapest one with a cost of 1. So, I had 3 more and bought 2 feature cards. One for Camera for 1 and the NFC as planned for 2. For the Marketing I bought the card that gives $3 if I can sell all phones in a round. The cost was 1 Marketing point so I could take 1 Private which was the Green.

I produced 5 phones. My phone had Flexible Screen and the NFC feature with total quality of 3 Stars. My profit was 2 per sold phone. First I sold to my 1 Green private. From the market, I sold to 1 Green with those 2 features and took out 3 of the Blue.

Steve only could sell to just 1 Green. He only had 2-Star quality. One more and he could have sold 2 more.

So, I sold more and got a bonus of 8 while he only got 4. I got $6 bonus from the Marketing cards. My profit was $10 for 5 phones while Steve only got $2 for that 1 sold phone, no other bonus.

Current Score: $42 for me and $21 for Steve.

3rd Event: Mobiles on the Launch Pad. 7 is the maximum price for this round. 5 Green Customers were added, 4 Blue and 2 Pink, in addition to 1 Pink, 1 Green from previous round.

5 asked for Camera, 4 for 5G, 2 for 8K, 2 for Flexible Screen, 1 for NFC and 7 demanded at least quality of 3 Stars.

The Features on the Market had Camera with 1 Star and no additional cost for 3 Tech point or 2 Star but for 4. Or I could buy the 5G with 2 Star and no additional cost for 4 Tech points. I went for the 3 so I could still buy 1 Tech Card cheaply.

So I set the development plan the same as before, price at $5, 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing Points and 3 phones plus 3 from events. Steven went with the same price so he got to sell his phones first. Steve didn’t get any new feature, only Star for free.

I bought the Camera Feature again with a Star and no additional cost. The Tech card I bought gave me 1 extra phone if I produced the least. For the Marketing, I bought the cheapest one that allows me to take 1 Private Pink. I took 2 as I had 1 extra Marketing.

Steve sold his phones first with a total of 7 phones. He could use all of his Free Features plus 2 paid which were 3 Stars, NFC, 8K, 5G. He sold it to his 2 Blue Private, the 2 Green with 5G that I didn’t have, and then 3 more Blues.

I put 3 Features with only 1 additional cost, a total of 4 Stars with NFC, 8K and Camera. First, I sold it to 2 Private Pinks, and then the 2 Greens that only wanted 4 Stars, another 2 Green that demanded a Camera and 3-Star quality. The last one was the Blue.

So, I sold all 7 phones, same as Steve and both got $6 bonus. Steve got 1 Bonus for having a customer with a Star demand. His profit was 3 per sold phone so it was $21. My profit was also $21 plus 7 from 2 Marketing cards.

Current Score: 76 for me and 51 for Steve.

4th Event: The Wearable Marketing. Place 3 more Marketing Cards and this round, players can buy 2 Marketing Cards.

5 Green, 4 Blue and 3 Pink Customers entered the market along with 2 Green and 4 Pink from previous round. 3 of them demanded 5G, 3 for Camera, 5 for NFC, 3 for 8K, 3 for Flexible Screen, 5 for at least 3-Star quality.

Since I could buy 2 Marketing Cards this round I considered adding more Marketing points in the plan. However, I could only get 3 Tech Points. Unfortunately, all of the Tech cards and feature cards were expensive.

Eventually I picked the same plan as before. I set the price at 5, 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing points, and 3 phones from this plan. Steve went with 6 so I could sell first. Steve finally got his Flexible Screen so I had to prevent him for taking those customers.

He could also use all free features plus 2 paid. So, he had Flexible Screen, 5G, 5 Stars, 8K and NFC. But his private customers considered his phone to have every feature.

I bought the NFC feature card with 1 Star but no additional cost for using it for 2 Tech Points. With the remaining 2, I bought a Tech card that gives me 1 additional produced phone for 3 but discounted.

Luckily, Steve for Marketing only took 1 Green Private instead of taking any of those cards. So, I could buy 2 Marketing Cards with the cost of 1 each. One will give me $3 for having a Camera and $1 for every Blue customer in my sale pile.

Since Steve didn’t have any Camera, I let those customers stayed until the next round. Instead I put NFC, Flexible Screen and 8K with 4 Stars to my phone to get the customers before Steve.

I produced 8 phones. Sold 1 to the Pink Private, then 6 to Green, mostly asking for 3-Star quality and 1 Blue. Steve produced 7, sold 1 to his Green Private, 3 Blue and 3 Pink from the Market.

I sold more so I got 8 bonus and 4 for Steve. Got $8 from 3 Marketing Cards, while Steve only got $2 from 2 customers with Stars demand. Steve’s profit was 4 per phone so he got 28 while my profit was $24.

Current Score: 116 for me and 85 for Steve

5th Event: Conspiracy Strikes Back. After adding customers discard all Customer with 5G from the market.

6 Green, 5 and 4 Pink customers were added. After the removal, there were exactly 5 from each Blue, Green and Pink customers. 4 asked for NFC, 2 for 8K, 2 for Camera, 3 for Flexible Screen, and 4 for quality.

I guess I was happy not to invest on 5G at all. Since I had everything else, I just had to set the lowest price than Steve and produced more to take all customers from him.

I set the price to 4, 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing and 4 produced goods aside from Event. Steve went with 5 so I got to go first. He could use 5G, Flexible Screen, 1 Star for free, plus 2 paid which were just NFC, and 2 more stars. He had no 8K and no Camera.

Since my goal was just to take all customers, I bought a feature card with 2 features for 3. The other 2 Tech points, I bought the one with Game End scoring. I took the Marketing card that gives me $4 for having 3 different features on phone.

I produced 11 phones with 8K, Flexible Screen, Camera and NFC. 2 were sold to my Pink Privates, 5 green and 4 Blue. Steve managed to sell 4. It seems he got 1 private Green from previous round and then only 1 blue and 2 Pink from the market.

I got 8 bonus, Steve got 4. Got another $17 from a lot of cards while Steve only got 1. My profit was only $1 per phone and with 11 phones while Steve got $3 per phone for 4 phones sold.

From the End Game bonus, I got $3 per Marketing card for 6 cards so $18. My final score was 169 and Steve only got 111.

Playing time was about 84 minutes.

Siege of Valeria

Another play of Siege of Valeria, a Tower Defense solo game. This time was the first time for me trying the campaign expansion. The expansion introduces a couple of modules like Boss, Commander and Elite Troops as additional enemies you have to deal with.

BOSS is like Siege Engine that will show up randomly in the last 4 Siege Engine cards. Another similarity to Siege Engine is that they will always in range to attack. However, to destroy them, we need to attack them twice and each attack has its own threshold, different amount of red and blue.

Boss will attack player twice. If you successfully attack one of them, you disable that attack and just deal with the other one.

COMMANDER is an enemy card, that will activate at the start of every round after you roll dice face and before the Siege engine. The one that I played against activate the leftmost out of range Siege Engine. Different commanders activate different actions.

ELITE TROOPS are like troop cards that you can defeat by placing the required dice. However, each Elite Troop, like Boss has 2 values that you need to fulfill using separate dice and have to be the exact value. So, one elite troop might require a red 1 and a red 2. You cannot overpay. This is where the ability to lower the value becomes handy.

After you defeated the Elite troops, they will become special ability card that you can play any time.

For the player, they get a Duke, a character that you can always use their ability without worrying that the game will remove them like Champion. There is a limit of how to use them like only once per turn for certain Duke.

I have to say, not every Duke is useful every turn. The one that I played with was Conjuress. This has the ability to reroll any Blue 1 or Blue 2 dice until they are at least 3 but once per turn. So, if you don’t have any unspent blue or already got a good roll, this is useless for that turn.

Player also gets a Starting Champions. These 3 will occupy one turret right from the start and if you use them, you remove them but place the card at the bottom of the Champion deck. It is very unlikely that you will find them again but it is possible.

And there are a couple of new cards for each existing module from the base game like new Siege Engine, new Champions, new events that you can always add to the base game.

The campaign itself is just playing 3 sessions. Whether you win or lose in one game you will get either penalty or reward for the next one. Winning or losing depends on whether you beat the boss and/or the fortress got destroyed. You get the highest point if you can do both but you can also fail on both.

If you succeed in defeating the boss, you will face a new Boss and Commander in the subsequent session. Otherwise, you will face them again. Successfully defending the Fortress, like the base game will give you just a Reward card for the next session. Otherwise you draw Penalty card and a new Duke.

Then you count total points from those 3 sessions and compare the achievement according to the chart. Of course, you can just play without the campaign with penalty or reward card between sessions, only with Boss, Commander, Elite troops, Duke module as standalone session.

So, what happened in my session? I failed at both. I didn’t even get a chance to hit the Boss even once. The Boss showed up as the last Siege Engine card. There were also 2 Siege Engines left.

I think the main reason of my failure was that there were 2 Gargan’s Eye Siege Engines. Also another one called Spinblade from the expansion which the abilities were basically spent my dice. 2 from each Gargan’s eye and one from this Spinblade. I guess I could have focused my attack on those 2 first but I didn’t.

I also suffered more impacts on the Turret. It was very lucky that one Event was removing all impact tokens from one Turret. I used the Duke a couple of times but like I said, there were moments where the Duke was useless.

I only had a chance to play one Elite Troop card ability which move an entire column one row back. Those 3 Starting Champions were activated like in first or second row and not even close to come back in that session.

Based on that one session, the expansion definitely makes the game significantly more challenging. I think it is still winnable but those 3 exact Siege Engines were too hard to show up together like that.

I’m also not convinced with how the campaign works where they will keep compounding penalties for failing. I was expecting to get some help when failing and make it harder when I win. It feels like I might as well just reset that session and keep playing until I win. Luckily, you can easily just retry the session.

Playing time was about 77 minutes.

For Northwood!: A Solo Trick-Taking Game

Continuing the campaign and this time with the 2nd scenario.

Summer 2: Poem Fu Panda.

In this one, I only had 3 allies, the King of Flower, Lady of Claws and the Baron of Eyes as the starting allies. Not using the challenge mode with just the first 2.

Also, both the Panda King and Tiger Lady had a different ability from what is written on their card. For Panda, I can still choose 2 cards with a total sum of 9 but I can either discard them or put both to the score pile, cannot be separated.

As for Tiger, I can choose 2 cards to discard but have to draw a number of cards equal to the difference of value between those 2 cards. It is possible not to draw any card if I choose 2 card with the same value.

The Fox, the Baron of Eyes allows me to either discard a card for playing an odd card or draw one for playing an even card.

For my starting hand, I got 2 Black, 2 Yellow, 3 Blue and 1 Red. I decided to visit the LADY OF LEAVES first where I had to win 2 tricks.

The Lady opened the dialog with a red 4. I responded with my only Red, a 6 so my first win. She continued with a Black 6 and I lost with my Black 1. After that a Blue 1 and I won with my Blue 6 and that was my 2nd win.

She continued with Red 7. I didn’t have any so I played my last Black. Finally the Lady started playing her Leaves, starting with a 4. I responded with a 2. Back with Black 4 and I played my only Blue 3 and with the help from Baron, I discarded my Yellow 7 as well. Her last attempt was Yellow 8 and I played Blue 4. So, I won exactly 2.

2nd Visit, I got 1 Blue, 1 Yellow, 2 Black and 4 Red. With a lot of red and a couple of high card from the other color, I chose to visit the JACK OF FLOWERS. I had to win 7 times to convince this.

The dialog started with a Blue 1 and I played my only Blue, an 8 as my first win. Then the Jack continued with Black 8. I couldn’t win so I played my lower Black, a 3. Another lost to Yellow 4 as I only had 1 Yellow, a 3.

The dialog continued with a Blue 6. I won my Red 1, a trump. 3rd won with my Red 3 to their Yellow 8. The Jack continued with Blue 2. I had to draw a card to get to 7 win. So, I played my 8 for the 4th win and with the help from Baron I got a Blue 7.

I immediately played that card against Blue 4 as my 5th win. Then the Jack continued with Yellow 5 and I won with my Red 5. I was lucky that the last card was Black 4 while I had Black 6. So, I got 7 wins.

This Jack has the ability to discard all cards with a matching suit to the current ruler. It is easier to control than the Panda so I replaced the Panda.

I got 4 Black, 2 Red, 1 Blue and 1 Yellow. This was a good hand to deal with Black so I visited JACK OF CLAWS that required 4 wins.

The dialog started with a Yellow 4 and I won it with my only Yellow, a 7. After that I lost with my Blue 3 against the Yellow 5. The Jack of Claws continued with Blue 2 and I lost again with my Red since I had no Blue.

I got my 2nd win with Red 7 against the Red 3. 3rd win with Black 8 as trump against the Blue 8. The ruler played Black 6 and I won my 4th with my Black 7. I still got 2 Black but already got 4 wins so The Jack of Flowers got rid of those 2.

For 4th visit, I got 1 Blue, 3 Yellow, 2 Black and 2 Red. No color was dominant enough so I thought maybe this was a good time for the 0 win, with the PRINCE OF CLAWS.

The ruler opened with Blue 5 and I replied with my Blue 1. The Prince continued with Blue 2 and I played my strongest card, the Red 8. I used the help from the Lady of Claws, discarding a 6 and an 8 to draw 2 cards. Luckily I got a Red 1 and a Red 2.

The dialog continued with Black 4 to which I replied Black 3. Another loss with Red 2 against their Red 5. The Prince continued with Yellow 5 and I lost with my Yellow 2. The loss continued with Yellow 1 against their Blue 4, also the Red 1 against their Red 4. With my last card being a Black, the trump suit, Jack of Flowers get rid of it. I won 0.

5th hand I got 1 Red, 2 Yellow, 5 Blue and 1 Black. Based on this I visited PRINCE OF EYES. I had to win 6 times.

The dialog started with Yellow 7 and I lost with my Yellow 4. Then they played Black 7 and I replied with Black 5. I got my 1st win with my Blue 5 against their Blue 3. 2nd win with my Blue 2 against their Black 4.

3rd win with Red 6 against their Red 5. They continued with Yellow 2 to which I replied with Yellow 8 as my 4th. I had exactly 2 trump cards a 7 and an 8, won against their Red 1 and Red 2. I got exactly 6 wins without the help of my allies.

6th Hand and I got 1 Red, 1 Blue, 2 Black and 4 Yellow. I decided to get rid of those Yellows with the help of Jack of Flowers so I visited QUEEN OF LEAVES. I could only win 1 trick.

As planned, I got rid all those yellows first. The Queen then played Black 5 to which I played my Black 6 as my only win. 3 cards left. They continued with Black 4 and I played my Black 1. With the help from Baron of Eyes, I also discarded Red 6. My last card was Blue 2 and I lost to their Red 1. I got exactly 1 win.

2 visits left. For my 7th hand I got 5 Blue, 2 Black, 1 Yellow and no Red. So I visited LADY OF EYES to aim for 5 wins.

The dialog started with Black 5 and I lost with my Black 3. 1st win with my Blue 1 against their Red 6. Then they continued with Yellow 5 and I lost with my Yellow 3. After that, they played their Blue 2 and I got 2nd win with Blue 3. Lost with my Black 8 since I didn’t have any red against their Red 2.

Another win with my Blue 4 against their Yellow 2. Same goes with my Blue 6 against their Black 2 as my 4th win. For my last win I played Blue 7 against their Blue 5. I got 1 Blue card left and Jack of Flowers got rid of it.

For my last hand of cards I got 3 Red, 1 Yellow, 2 Blue and 2 Black. The last visit was to QUEEN OF FLOWERS with only 3 wins.

The dialog started with Yellow 3 and I lost with my Yellow 1. With the help from Panda, I got rid of my Black 3 plus Blue 6. The dialog continued with Black 2 and I replied with Black 5 as my first win.

Another win with my Blue 5 against their Blue 3. I used the Baron help to get rid of Red 5 since I played an odd card. The next dialog was Blue 4 and I won my 3rd with Red 4. The last card was Red 3 so I lost again, luckily with my Red 2.

So, that was the end of all 8 visits. I managed to convince everybody. Actually I lost the first visit but I reset. Maybe another reset with one of the ruler, probably the 0 win one but I just retried.

Playing time was about 30 minutes.

The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw

Another solo play of The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw. This time still with one extra Advanced Solo Lesson. The one advanced solo lesson was 3 points for every Common Treasure. So, either I had to pick Rare Treasure or choose more cats which still gives points to the Sister.

1st Solo Lesson was that the highest Lesson scores twice. 2nd lesson was 5 points for each color of cat where you don’t have at least 1 cat of that color touching the edge of your boat. This means I had to play all colors to avoid it but getting even a single first color cat gives 5 points.

3rd solo lesson was 5 points per lonely cat. Usually I don’t like not making a family so this should be easy to avoid.

Round 1, First Color: Orange.

1st column had 2 Orange so I had to avoid it. 2nd had Onyx, Red and Purple. 3rd had 2 Red and a Lesson, #4. The lesson works well with the Solo Lesson at least. 4th column and 1 Blue 2 Common Treasures and Lesson #21. For this lesson I had to fill both Captain rooms. The treasures themselves were bad because of the solo lesson.

So, I had to pick at least a red and started a family for it. Either I went with the Purple as well or just focus on the red. The problem was I didn’t know which color.

Eventually I picked the 3rd Column. Mostly because I could start on the right end where the Red Treasure was there. One of the Red Cat had the exact shape to cover all of the Captain room. So, that was I went with and moved to the bottom edge of the boat. Got 1 Common Treasure so 3 points to the opponent already.

Round 2, 2nd Color: Purple.

I was lucky not to pick that. 1st Column had 3 colors, including the orange so I had to avoid it. 2nd column also had 2 even for Orange so I avoided it as well. 3rd also had 1 Orange. That means, I only had the last option with just 1 Red, a Rare Treasure and Lesson #11. This lesson gives 7 points if I only cover 3 treasures. Not that hard to achieve.

So, I placed the red cat to fill the bottom part of that 2nd room to the right. Then I placed the L-Shape Rare Treasure filling the top half of the 2nd to right room. This way, it was closer to the Green Treasure, assuming I went with that color.

Round 3, 3rd Color: Blue.

I guess I could go for the Green color then. 1st Column had a Rare Treasure but also a Purple. 2nd Column had a Green, 1 rare and 2 Common treasures. The 2 commons were not great for me. 3rd had Green and Red plus 2 Common so this was better or the same than 2nd column.

Last one had 2 Onyx and Lesson #15. The lesson was useless for me since I wanted to avoid the Purple. I picked this last column and used those 2 Onyx as Green. First the one with T-shape head covered the remaining part of the 2nd to the right room. Then I placed the 2nd Onyx so that it covered the Green Treasure. while getting closer to the middle of the boat. The bonus Common treasure that I got was placed to cover some rats at the top. Another 3 points for the Sister.

Round 4, 4th Color: Green.

1st Column had 1 Orange, Purple and Blue so I had to avoid them. 2nd had a Red, a Yellow and Onyx. 3rd had Purple, Blue and 2 Common. Last column had an Orange and 2 lessons. One was #26 to score the third largest family one more time.

The other lesson was #6 to get 2 points per visible rats. Basically this gives 1 point per rat just by taking the card. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of this during the game. Had I realized that, I probably pick the last column. The Orange was not bad since I had to pick the 3rd color anyway.

Eventually I picked the 2nd column, used the Onyx as another Red so I had 5 cats from Red and still started the Orange as well. First I placed the Onyx as red to connect the left most current Green to enter the bottom middle room while covering 3 rats. Then the actual red color connected this Onyx and the current red family.

Lastly, the Yellow L-shape was placed to cover the 3rd treasure. and get a Common. I placed that treasure to cover the one space at the bottom right corner of that bottom middle room.

Round 5, Colors: Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, Red.

3 rounds left so I had to start using the special abilities. 1st Column had a Green, Purple and Yellow. The purple was a no. 2nd had an Onyx, a Purple and Lesson #10. 3rd Column had 2 Oranges, 1 Green and either 1 Rare or 2 Commons. 4th Column had a Blue and 2 Lessons. Lesson #17 that gives 9 points if I have exactly 3 colors so I had to get it. Then Lesson #23 that can give 12 points if I have exactly 3 Rare and 6 Commons.

I thought this should be a good time to activate the ability to pick the Row instead of Column. Since row 2 and 3 had Purple and I wanted the Lesson from Row 1 Column 4, so I picked that Row 1 for 2 Green, 1 Yellow and 2 Lessons. The other lesson was getting 7 points for having 2 treasures touching 1 visible rat. I could work on that, I thought.

First, the Green cat with weird shape was placed to extend the existing Green family to the top, covering the 3 rats and entered the middle top room. Now I had 1 small Orange and the long 3 spaces Green to place. The Orange was just placed next to the existing inside the middle bottom room, hoping I could fill the room completely. I wished that I could swap the position of that single orange with the nearby Common.

Lastly, the Green long shape. I could either just extend to the top middle room or started filling the middle room. I thought I had better chance with the middle one so I placed that last cat to start filling that room while connected to the existing room.

Round 6, Colors: Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, Red.

2 rounds and 2 abilities left. 1st column had Blue, Green and 1 Rare. 2nd Column had Onyx, 2 Purple and 1 Green. 3rd Column had 2 Purple, 1 Orange and Lesson #8. This gives 4 points per family of 4 or more so this was not that hard to achieve. Last column had 1 Rare or 2 Commons, 1 Green and Lesson #16 with 9 points if 1 cat touches 5 treasures. Not even possible at this point.

I could have used the ability to pick a card one per row but I tried to save it for the last round. Since the first 3 columns had purples and blue that I tried to avoid, my option was just the last column.

My plan was to use the double treasure ability to get 2 Rare and the Green cat. The challenge that I was facing was trying to complete the Lesson #10 using the 2 Rare to let 1 visible rat touched both. I could either go for the rat in the middle room or the middle bottom room. Either way, that room would not be filled completely.

In my mind, it was more likely to fill the middle bottom room. so I chose the rat in the middle to touch the 2 treasures. But I also still tried to fill the bottom room using the treasure. I guess the Green placement didn’t matter at this point as long as it was connected to the Green family.

Round 7, Colors: Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, Red.

Last round, last ability. 1st Column had Blue, Purple and Red. 2nd column had Blue, Green and Lesson #9. 3rd Column had Blue, Red and Lesson #22. Last column had 2 Onyx and Lesson #12.

With the exception of the last column, all columns had a Blue I tried to avoid. Unfortunately, I couldn’t create a family for the Orange. Even the Onyx didn’t fit with the remaining space next to the 2 Orange. Lesson #9 already failed. Same goes with Red using Onyx. The remaining empty space couldn’t fit any Onyx. The other 2 Lessons were impossible as well.

Picking 1 card per row was not great either. 1 Column the 4th plus 1 card could be good if I picked the red. The other option was to get double cat using one of the Onyx to reach the left edge of the boat. The only reason to do so was to cover rats there. I could cover 3 at most.

I went with this last one. The difference was between 5 points from Green to 5 points for Red. However, even if I went with the extra red and 2 green, I couldn’t cover more rats. I had to avoid covering the 2 treasures as well. So, that was what I went with.

Final Scoring
0 points from Blue Family (0 for Sister)
30 points from Green Family (16 for Sister)
0 points from Orange Family (10 for Sister)
0 points from Purple Family (0 for Sister)
15 points from Red Family (5 for Sister)
9 points from Rare Treasures
27 points from 4 Lessons (10+10+10+9 for Sister)
-3 points from 3 visible Rats
-15 points from 3 Rooms

Total Score: 63 points for me (70 for Sister).

So, I lost. If I didn’t use the Advanced Solo lesson, that was 9 points from the Sister so I could have won with the easier difficulty.

Playing time was about 48 minutes.

Bullet ❤

It’s been a while since I played Bullet ❤. The last time was the final match up playing with Rie Akagi, the baseball Yakuza against the Ghost in the Machine in August 2023. So, the next play after that should be with new character and I took time before committing to play through since I have to learn how the new character works.

Finally, I got the chance to play and I picked Young-Ja Kim. This is the one with white hair on a wheelchair. I played the games 3 times, each about 30 minutes with All with the Score Mode.

However, after putting the game back in the box, I checked the forum and realized that I made a huge mistake. So, here is what happened. All of her pattern cards don’t have any specific color. Instead all of them have either arrows or a space with dash line, no other icon.

My mistake was thinking that space with dash line represents the bullet I was supposed to be targeting and get rid of it. Since there were no other icons on other cards, I forgot that it was meant to be mandatory empty spaces.

As a result, I got rid a lot of bullets per round. With the score mode it only increased the intensity and the bullet I had to deal with in the next round. At one point with the base intesity of 8 or 9, I got a total of 21 bullets.

How could that happen? Well, I thought each character is unique so I just assumed that maybe that she was just different. Luckily, I checked the forum and the discussion made me realize those mistakes. Also, I was surprised that there were only 2 threads specific for this character and there was not that much discussion. Maybe she was not that popular? I mean, the character designed to be on wheelchair is not very common though.

Clearly, I had to retry. Usually, my 3rd play would be against the weakest boss but I guess I was lucky to stick with the score mode.

So, how was the character? Well, for one, I got it right about pushing those bullets out from the sight or player board. I didn’t realize that is the only way to get rid of them. Pushing the other bullets on the way was also a way to help get rid of them. But that means, the leftmost and rightmost column would be always filled, just like how I experienced.

Sometimes even pushing the bullet inwards is a viable option just to clear those 2 columns on the edge. Since I have to leave some spaces empty to fulfill the requirement, I cannot always wait for the board to fill up first.

A couple of her cards can get rid between 1 up to 3 bullets at most. Not six. Since those 3-bullet cards are so powerful, you probably want to hold them first. I’m actually not sure about exchanging card by spending 1 AP. Maybe that means you have to play like every 2 rounds where one to move bullets first using weaker pattern and while holding more powerful one which you execute during the next round.

Moving bullets using AP is a bit different for this character compared to the other 5 that I’ve played. You have to spend 2 AP to move 1 space. However, you can also move it diagonally, still for 2 AP. Moving diagonally has the same cost as other characters.

The benefit of that ability is that you can get rid of bullets by just moving the bullet out for spending 2 AP. Definitely the strategy has to be around that idea.

There is also an ability to change the requirement. This is the one I didn’t use because of my error. With this ability, I don’t need to let that required space empty but it can be any bullet. The cost is also 1 AP.

Well, this is an interesting character. I just have to play correctly next time.

Aleph Null

Played this 3 times with the Circle of Adept difficulty level, with 3 random Level 1 or 2 Interference card.

Read the full session report of my 3rd session here. [blogpost=156940][/blogpost]

Well, apparently, right after publishing the article, Tony Boydell, the designer pointed out a major mistake. This is related to the GRAND CIRCLE card, one of the KEY card, essential for summoning the BAPHOMET to win the game.

My mistake was not reading the bottom part after summoning it. I was under impression that I only needed to summon Grand Circle with no consequences. Summoning the card itself already takes a lot more process than any other cards so I didn’t bother to check that one.

So, I’ve been playing the game wrong then.

Let me try to learn from my mistake here. The card says that after summoning the Grand Circle, everytime I scrap or discard a card I sacrifice them instead. That means, if I played it and then had to discard the Baphomet, I immediately lost the game. It could be any other Key card as well that got sacrificed.

So, I have to wait until the very end before even summoning that one card. During my 3rd session, the summoning happened like 3rd to last turn. That turn didn’t have any Baphomet so I was saved.

But then Baphomet card showed up again right in the next round where I actually had to discard it and lost the game. Alternatively, I could have waited the summoning. And that next round would have been resolved the same. I think I still can win it but it was kind of tricky. I guess I just have to try again next time.

Actually, I made another mistake before my 3rd play about the Bell. I thought the Bell was just to summon any card from the deck, I skipped the part where I had to discard revealed cards up to the chosen card. I realized this during my 2nd play and hopefully got it right during the 3rd. But it doesn’t matter since I still lost.

Playing time for each session was about 30 minutes. Read the incorrect play from the full session report here.

Jaipur

Played 3 sessions of Jaipur, still 2-handed between the Guy vs the Lady. The Guy won the first session with 82 points while the Lady only scored 65 points. Then in the 2nd session, the Lady won with 79 points and the Guy only got 71 points. So, they had to play another session to decide who won.

The Guy started the game with 3 Green and 1 Brown plus 1 Camel. He took another Green from the market. The Market had 2 Purple and 3 Camels.

The Lady had 2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 Brown. She chose to just took all 3 Camels from the Market. 1 Blue and 2 Brown showed up. Obviously the Guy took the Blue and his hand was 6.

A Camel refilled the market. The Lady took one of the Brown. Unlucky for her, because another Yellow or Gold showed up. The Guy had 1 more room so he took the Yellow. After that, the Market had 3 Purple.

The Lady just took the other Brown so she had 3. Now the Market had 4 Purple and 1 Camel.

The Guy then sold all of his 4 Greens first, worth 13 with a bonus. He had 3 cards left. Realizing that the Guy no longer had Green, The Lady traded her 2 Greens with 2 Purple from the market.

The Guy had no choice but to take one of the leftover Purple to prevent the opponent getting a set of 4. Another Camel showed up. The Lady sold 3 Browns, worth 9 with a bonus.

The Guy took the other Purple as his 5th in hand. Another Brown refilled the market. The Lady then unleashed 3 of her Camels to take 2 Green and 1 Brown. She was planning to force the Guy to take all Camels and then she dumped these Greens and Brown to take the valuable goods.

Well, the Guy could avoid it by selling his 2 Purple but he decided to take the bait and took all 5 Camels. 2 Red, 1 Blue,1 Purple and 1 Camel filled the market.

The Lady could have tried to get 2 Red and 1 Blue but she didn’t want to be that greedy. So, She traded 2 Green and 1 Brown to take 2 Red and 2 Purple. So, she had 3 of both Purple and Red in her hand. Of course, the Guy then took that Blue, which was replaced by another Brown.

The Lady sold her 3 Purple worth 11 plus a bonus just to be flexible. Seeing that the Lady no longer had Purple, the Guy traded the 2 Purple in his hand with 2 Brown from the Market. So, he had 3 Brown at this point.

The Lady could take the Purple or the Green again. Both were still worth the same value. She chose the Purple and lucky for her, another Purple showed up.

The Guy then sold his 3 Brown for 3 points plus a bonus. Since she still had room in hand, but no Camel, she took the 2nd Purple. A Camel showed up. The Guy then decided to take the 2 Camels from the Market. As replacement a Camel showed up with a Red.

Instead of taking the 3rd Purple, obviously the Lady picked her 4th Red, replaced by another Brown. The Guy then just took one of the Green as his 4th card.

The Lady sold her 4 reds for 24 plus a bonus while the Guy took the remaining Green. Another Camel showed up. The Lady then took her 3rd Purple. Lucky for the Guy, the next item was Yellow.

Apparently, he was not just taking the Yellow, he prevented the Lady from taking the 4th Purple. So, he traded his 2 Greens for those 2 cards. The Lady had no choice but to sell 3 Purple for 5 plus a bonus.

While still only with 5 cards in hand, the Guy decided to sell his only 2 Yellow for 12 but no bonus. Not bad but he was making room in case there were other Blue.

The Lady then took one of the Green, replaced by another Purple which became the 2nd Purple for the Guy. A Camel filled that spot and the Lady took a Green which was her 2nd in her hand. Lucky for the Guy, a Red showed up.

1 Brown, 1 Red and 3 Camels in the Market. The Guy decided to take the 2 Goods in exchange with 2 of his Camels forcing the Lady to take the Camels. After that, new goods were 2 Yellows, 2 Greens and 1 Brown.

The Guy then traded 1 Camel, 2 Purple and 1 Brown for 2 Yellow and 2 Green. He knew the Lady had green. The Lady took one of the Brown and another luck for the Guy, as a Red showed up.

With already 7 cards in hand, he had to let go the 2 Green to take 1 Red and the other Brown. 2 Green from the Market were traded with 2 Camels from the Lady.

The Guy had to make a room in his hand so he sold the 2 Reds just for 5 while the Lady sold her 4 Greens for 4 plus a bonus. 2 Purple and Camels in the Market. The Guy exchanged his Camels for those 2 Purples, forcing the Lady to take the Camels.

An Unexpected luck for the Guy. The Market was filled with 3 Blues, 1 Yellow and 1 Brown. The Guy sold his 2 Purple and 1 Brown to take those 4 valuable goods.

At this point, there was nothing the Lady could do. She needed 2 more turns just to sell anything while the Guy could just sold his 5 Blue or Silver and ended the game right away.

The Lady scored 65 while the Guy got 74. Even if the Lady didn’t exchange her Camel at the end and won the Majority, that was still a loss for her but close enough.Fsh

Playing time for 3 sessions was about 83 minutes playing both sides.

Learn more about the game from Jaipur Review.

Rescuing Robin Hood

Another game of Rescuing Robin Hood 3-handed solo. This time the 3 Characters were Much the Miller’s Son, Friar Tuck the Wandering Priest and Maude Lindsey The Illuminator.

I chose Maude Lindsey as the starting one because she, with her band got a good amount of Wit (Blue) and Stealth (Green). Her band also generated 2 Scouting, 2 Cookery and 1 Prayer token.

Much the Miller also got 2 more Scouting tokens so at the start, they used all of their Scouting means to Reveal the guards from the first row. Here is my first mistake. I thought 1 Scouting only to reveal 1 Guard but apparently it could be to 2, so I overspent. I spent 4 to reveal 4 Guards there.

Lindsey had a total of 12 Wit. The total required Wit to beat that row was 15. So, using 1 prayer token, moved one of them to the longest row. Then, Lindsey attacked those Guards and rescued Briceus Brown, the Apprentice. As the 2nd attack, using her Stealth power, she took out a couple of Guards from the last row.

Much the Miller’s Son had more Stealth Power with 9 so he could take out 2 or 3 Guards from the last row. Even with just 2 Wit, he took out 1 Guard.

The Priest had 3 Prayer tokens plus 1 from Lindsey and spent each of them to move Guards from the last row to the 2nd. With 4 Guards left, the Priest and his band managed to beat them and rescued Hugh Jeego and Pantaleon.

The Priest had 22 Brawn but was not enough to beat 4 or 5 guards left to rescue to more villagers. That was the end of Day 1.

Using similar idea as Day 1, they managed to rescue Fernando from the 1st Row led by Much. The Priest with total of 4 Prayer tokens, moved 4 Guards again from the lowest row to the 2nd. With some Wit and Brawn took rescued Roger Carter and Zakarriyya. Just like the previous day, the group failed to rescure the last 2 villagers from 2nd row.

Day 3. The Priest started the attack first. The group had ability of 4 Scouting tokens and revealed 4 Guards from the 2nd Row, that captured a Gold character. Revealed Guards seemed to be weak on Stealth but the Priest was only capable to took out 3 of the weakest.

After moving a couple of them using Prayer token, the Priest managed to use his Wit to rescue Emma.

Lindsey’s turn next and she had a strong With and okay Stealth power. Her wit was so strong she managed to take down 3 Red Guards to rescue Thomas Cooper on her own and band and a bit of Jolliness. Then using her Stealth she took down 2 Guards from another row.

Much as the last one rescued Mosie Onnover using his Wit. The 3 Guards left were very weak from it. Then with his 29 Brawn power, he marched and defeated the last row of 8 Guards, rescuing Augustine Sawyer and Hughes Onfyrst.

Day 4. Lindsey started the attack again this time. After revealing the 2 Red Guards from 1st row, she didn’t have enough Wit to rescue the Villager. But the Cookery helped. She also rescued Affan the Guard after moving some guards using Prayer tokens.

Much rescued Cassandra Fletcher using his Brawn. With his Stealth, took out a couple of Guards from the last row. The Priest then did 2 attacks to that last row, rescuing Farrimond Cheeseman and Walter Webb.

Last Day. Lindsey decided to attack first to the Gate using her Wit and got about 9 Jolly. With her Stealth ability, took out the 1st row, after moving a very strong Guard to the last row.

Much next but he was not able to beat the 2nd row of Guards. The Priest finished the job with that row. Before attacking the 3rd one, the Priest spent all of the Prayer tokens to move as many Guards as possible. Then, using his Stealth, defeated all guards from the 3rd Row and RESCUED ROBIN HOOD!

Robin Hood then attempted to attack the last Guard protecting Sherrif of Nottingham. While he managed to beat the Guards but the Sherrif was too strong. Sherrif had 12 + 24 Brawn while Robin Hood only had 27.

Playing time was about 104 minutes for running 3 characters. This time I managed to save a lot of Cookery Tokens and used them in the last Battle to the point I run out of tokens. Then, I started spending them before turning into Mead. Exchanging cards from Much also helped a lot.

Roll Camera!: A Filmmaking Board Game

Another solo play of Roll Camera!: A Filmmaking Board Game. This time, the role was PRODUCER. The special actions are CUT CORNERS to get $2 but you have to draw Problem Card and DELEGATE, where you can either spend 2 dice or 1 plus $1 to change another die to any face.

The script of the movie this time was VERY ATTRACTIVE UNBEARABLE ANGUISH. For the 1st part, for every 1 Purple and 1 Yellow Scene, the quality increases by 2. While the latter will increase the quality by 1 for each Blue Scene. The starting available script were a Green, a Yellow and a Purple.

I still played with the lowest difficulty with $14 budget and 11 rounds.

1st Round. I got 2 VFX crews to build a set. Lucky that one of them shows +$1 bonus on the tile. I placed it so it follows the Yellow script. Actually I got 1 more VFX but I locked that die in the set. Then 2 dice to resolve the problem and 1 to initiate the Meeting.

I had an idea to borrow $3 but can lead to a Problem and I thought not bad to put it in to do list. Unfortunately, I got 2 other good ideas. One was to get $2 if I haven’t shot a scene and I couldn’t do after that. Or I could discard 1 Scene to gain either $1 or 1 quality. I actually discarded my original idea, executed the 1st of other idea and put the latter to the to do list.

So I still had $15 and 10 rounds left.

2nd Round. I got 2 Actor dice and assigned them to build a set again. The 2nd stack had 3 Blue spot even if one of them must only be for Actor. I placed it so the Yellow scene was ready to be shot. Two dice to resolve the problem and that left me with a Camera crew which I just locked that die in the set along with the previous VFX.

$14 and 9 rounds left.

3rd Round. I got the VFX and another Actor to complete the Yellow scene. Well, I had to pay $3 but a bonus $1 from that. No instant bonus from that Scene to increase the quality. The other 2 dice were assign to resolve the problem.

$11 and 8 rounds left. So, I forgot to get the $1 bonus?

4th Round. Now there were 2 Purple Scenes and 1 Green. I got 4 Actor dice, 2 Sound and 1 Art. The two Sound dice were assigned to rearrange the set so I could shoot one of the Purple while getting bonus $1. The scene required 2 Actor, 1 Light and 1 Camera so I locked in the 2 Actor dice. The remaining 2 just resolved the problem.

$11 and 7 rounds left.

5th round. I got 2 Actor, 1 VFX and 1 Art dice. I first did a meeting, hoping to use the idea to reroll and reassign 3 used dice. Apparently the other ideas were good. I picked one that resolved the Problem right away and I didn’t have to draw a new one next round, discarding the other idea which was to increase the hand size to 5. My original idea went to the other to do list.

Since I didn’t need to worry about the problem, the 1 VFX filled the job for Light. For the Camera, I used the DELEGATE with one of the actor plus $1 and changed the other die to Camera.

I shot that 2nd Scene which was Purple. I got 1 quality instant bonus from that Scene but at the same time, I lost 1 quality because it was the 3rd Scene from the track. The cost was just $2 but I got bonus from the set.

$9 and 6 rounds left. I forgot to get the bonus again?

6th Round. At this point, there were 2 Purple Scenes and 1 Green I could shot. I thought I should aim for the 1st one just to increase the schedule. I had 2 VFX and 4 dice one of each.

So, the VFX went to rearrange the set. The Scene I was going to shoot requires 2 Actor, 1 Sound and 1 Camera. So, the 3 were already available and I locked them in. I used the Art die to exchange the idea. The new one was to ignore up to 2 Actor dice requirements on a Scene card when shooting.

$9 and 5 rounds left.

7th Round. I got 3 free dice but before the roll, the Problem card was the Food Poisoning so 1 crew die was not available until I resolve it. So, I only got 1 VFX and 1 Sound.

That VFX was enough to shoot a Scene. This was the 3rd Scene which was the 2nd Purple. 1 Quality bonus from the card. The Scene was from the 1st space so I had to pay $4 and got 1 extra time. If I didn’t forget it, I was supposed to get bonus $1 from the set.

So, I only had 1 free die which was the Sound and another one locked by the Problem card. I used that free one to initiate the Meeting. I had an Idea to resolve any Problem and get 1 Quality which I executed it right away, discarded the other 2 Ideas.

After resolving that problem, I got another die I could use which was an Art die. I assigned it to activate the 1st to do List. The idea was to discard 1 from the available Scene and then get $1 or 1 quality. I think I took the quality, discarding the Green Scene.

$5 and 5 rounds left. I was supposed to have $9 – $4 from shooting a scene + $1 bonus from set + 1 time. I also resolved 5th problems so I could take either $2 or 1 time. Does it mean I forgot again?

8th Round. There were 2 Red and 1 Purple Scene. Red were useless but no need the Purple again at this point. I got 3 Camera dice, 2 Light and 1 Sound. 2 to resolve the problem, 2 to pay for a new set. This set had 1$1 bonus and 1 penalty of 1 Problem card when occupied during shooting a scene.

So, I had 2 dice left. I used one to initiate the Meeting with an idea to lock an unused die for this round and the next to get $3 which I executed it right away. The other one that I put in the To Do List was an Idea to draw 5 scenes from the bottom of the deck and choose 2 to replace the existing 2. That was very handy at this moment.

$7 and 4 rounds left. No longer care about not tracking the money correctly. My loss anyway.

9th Round. 2 Camera, 1 Actor, 1 VFX, 1 Light and 1 locked from previous idea. 2 were assigned to resolve the problem whatever that was. I set aside the 2 Camera so I could use them to build the set.

So, I had 1 left plus $1 to execute the To Do List from previous round to draw 5 Scenes and replace 2. I got 2 Blue, 1 Purple and 2 Red Scenes from the bottom of the deck. With those, I picked 2 Blue to replace the 2 Red available to be shot. No Yellow unfortunately but the 2 Blues worked well with the bottom part of script.

After that, I assigned the 2 Camera to build a new set piece. That new one had a bonus for Quality when occupied during shooting. Paid $1 and placed the tile so it could be used for the next Blue scene along with 2 spaces with $1 bonus. Even if I probably forgot about them again.

$5 and 3 rounds left.

10th Round. Lucky roll! I got exactly all 4 dice required by the Scene, 1 Light, 1 Camera, 1 Actor and 1 VFX. Two other dice were Sound and Light.

Ideally, I had to resolve the problem first or I had to pay extra $1 for each Scene. But I let it so I could use 2 dice for something else.

Before shooting, I assigned 1 die to do Meeting. I played my idea to ignore the 2 Actor dice to shoot. However I set it aside for the To Do List. The other Idea was better to execute this time where the cost for shooting was $2 less this time so I executed it right away.

Then, I shot the Scene with the cost of $4 but got $2 bonus plus $1 cost from that Problem card and got extra time and 1 Quality. The Scene itself had 1 quality.

I had 1 Sound die left which I used for the other to Do list to reassigned 3 used dice. 2 of which just to resolve the current problem. Nothing for the last die. I had to lose 1 Quality though.

$3 and 3 turns left. The Quality was at 4 spaces above the Starting position.

11th Round. The new scene available was another Blue. The problem this time was I had to pay $1 for resolving any problem including that one so it had to be done right away. I got 2 VFX, 2 Camera, 1 Light and 1 Actor.

I thought I needed to find a way to increase the time. Played the VFX to run the Meeting. My idea was to reroll any number of unused dice 5 times which was not that useful for the time. Luckily there was one that can increase the time by one but I had to lose quality by 2 which I executed right away.

The other idea was to lose 1 time to get 3 money. Not exactly useful since I needed more time but I put it in the 2nd To Do List.

I assigned the 2 Camera to rearrange the set so it could fit the Blue Scene while getting quality and money bonus. Since I still had 1 die left, I decided to use the CUT CORNERS power from Producer to get $2 but I had to draw 1 Problem card. The problem forbade me from using VFX die at all. Well, I had to deal with another Problem next round then.

$4 and 4 turns left. Got extra 1 time for resolving 10th problem. Quality was only 2 spaces above the Starting position.

12th round. I got 3 Sound, 2 Camera and 1 VFX. The problem prevented me from doing Meeting.

I spent 4 of dice to resolve 2 problems. Now that I could use the VFX again, I started a Meeting. My idea was to swap the position 2 Scenes during editing to gain 2 quality. I just swapped the 1st two scenes.

The other idea that I kept was idea to double the bonus shown by the set during Shooting. So, I could get higher discount or higher quality result.

I only had 1 Sound die left I kept it locked in the set.

$4 and 3 turns left. Quality was 4 spaces above the Starting.

13th round. The problem this round prevented me to gain more quality. I definitely needed to resolve it right away or I couldn’t win. Got 2 Actor, 1 Camera, 1 Light, 1 VFX.

Camera, Actor and Light were required by the Scene along with the Sound already locked in previously. So, the other 2 dice resolved the problem.

$4 and 2 turns left. Quality was 4 spaces above the Starting.

14th round. I got 2 VFX dice the others were locked. The problem was if I resolve it, I get another Problem so it was useless to deal.

With that VFX, I could shoot the final Scene. However, I had an Idea to increase the quality for each Actor on the Set during Shooting. Then I shot the scene with the cost of $4, discounted by $2. The set increased the quality by 1 and 2 from the Scene card and 1 more from that Idea card. Also got 1 extra time.

The movie had Purple – Yellow – Purple – Blue – Blue scene. Got 4 more qualities from the Scripts. The movie became a CRITICAL DARLING, almost perfect.

Playing time was 67 minutes.

Next Station: London

I played 4 solo games of Next Station: London. Even after 20 plays, I’m still not interested in trying the module and just played the base game.

Unfortunately, I scored very low with these 4 sessions. The first one scored 103, not the worst of the day but 2nd to lowest. Connecting the Tourist Points 8 times so got 17 points, 3 spots with 2 lines and only 1 spot with 3.

2nd Play scored 117 which was the 2nd highest. Still with 8 times to Tourist spots, 5 spots with 2 lines and only 1 with 3, nothing for 4. Best scoring came from Pink line with 26, connecting 4 districts and all spots from the Pink district. The next highest one was Purple with 23 after crossing the river 4 times but only 3 districts and 5 spots in the Purple district.

3rd play was the lowest scoring with just 97. The highlight in this one was having 7 spots with 2 lines. Still the same number of Tourist spots. The highest score came from Blue by connecting 5 districts after going to bottom right corner thanks to the Switch and still 4 spots from its own district.

The last one was the highest score with 124, not the highest I got. It started with the Pink Line and all cards were revealed and the Switch happened in the 2nd to last card. Connecting 5 districts, including the one in the bottom right corner. The Switch happened in the Pink district increasing the highest number of connected spots to 4. Got 24 points.

The 2nd line was Green with only 8 cards revealed. Scored 26 with the same number of districts and most spots but this one managed to cross river 3 times.

3rd line was Blue only scored 12 also with just 8 cards revealed, no switch. I think I had to skip w of them as there were only 6 lines.

Last line with the Purple also scored 24, with all cards revealed and the Switch was useful at least. This time, the Purple crossed the River 4 times after creating the horizontal line in the middle.

Each line only connected the Tourist spot twice so I got 17 just like the previous plays. I got 8 spots with 2 lines which was very high still with 1 spot with 3, nothing with 4.

Playing time for all 4 sessions was 57 minutes.

Friday

2 plays of Friday, with the 2nd level difficulty. The first session was against the Pirate 20 and the Pirate 22 where only half of the face up fighting cards count.

I scored 56, 44 from the Fighting Value, 2 Aging Cards, 2 defeated Pirates, 5 Life Points and 6 leftover Hazard.

Here is what happened.

It started with the 2 LP card going back to the wreck with the raft. Then Robinson came back to the island fighting a Wild Animal, managed to learn survival lesson the very hard way, immediately losing 5 weak cards.

Apparently, the fight against Wild Animal continued. Robinson survived, even learned how to get rid of his hungriness. After that, Robinson went back to the wreck again to get food.

Next day, Robinson went exploring the island. He was focused so more than enough to deal with it. But then when he tried to go back to wreck again, he was distracted. On the bright side that helped him learned from it.

Another attempt to explore the island but Robinson was still distracted and felt weak. He learned how to deal with both. After a lot of failures, Robinson took another try to explore the island and finally succeed. He felt like a genius.

That made him confident enough to further exploring the island. With a lot of food supply, he kept pushing his luck and found a way to more food source. Then Robinson found cannibals. He took everything he had to win against them. Even the aging part got destroyed.

Back to exploring the island. Robinson still had to push his luck but not as much. Like before, he explored further but he had enough supply.

Well, he still felt going back to wreck from time to time. However, this time he felt scared but he made it back.

Another day of fighting Wild Animal. He learned a lot compared to when he was started. Robinson managed to defeat it even without all cards he had. Instead of taking rest, he decided to explore the island further. Robinson couldn’t keep winning. But he took it easy and just learned from his mistake, getting rid probably his remaining lowest and even his fear.

Time went by on the island and the island became harsher. Robinson started by trying to explore the island further. He got distracted but he knew how to get rid of it and pushed his luck a lot.

Another challenge against the Cannibals. Robinson was prepared enough, no need to push himself at all, especially with his most powerful weapon. As usual, after fighting enemies like this, Robinson went back to the wreck but this time with ease.

Robinson then went back to explore the Island further. He only took 1 push and found some food. Then another Wild Animal attack. Robinson got a bit overwhelmed before he found some weapon to beat it. While going back to the shore, he took a detour and explore the island a bit. It was easy as he already had his weapon.

Apparently, the Animal came back and attacked Robinson. He was not in a good condition at that point. First of all, he just used his weapon previously. He felt very tired and had to keep running from it. After the 8th time, he finally took down the animal.

I guess he got lost a bit and had to explore to find a way back to the shore. Luckily it was not that far. Another animal attacked him. He got his weapon again this time he beat that animal easy enough.

After all of those fights, he missed going back to wreck. Well, the weapon was a bit of waste.

The island became even harsher. Somehow exploring the island became very hard even for Robinson. He had to push himself 4 times to finally finish his job. Robinson decided to explore the island further. He had his strategy and experience but it was not enough. Robinson pushed himself twice and found his vision.

He was not done exploring. Even with his strongest weapon, it was not enough. 1 push, 2 push and on the 3rd he felt stupid. Luckily he had some realization how to deal with it. He pushed one time more and finished his exploration.

Robinson tried to take it easy for his next exploration. He even took some food while doing so. Robinson wanted to go back to the wreck again. This time he failed and canceled his plan while getting rid of his weakness.

1st Pirate came to the island. Robinson got his strongest weapon, some food which was almost enough to beat this pirate. He realized that it was not the only Pirate coming. So, he spent a bit of time to take some food and be prepared for hopefully the last challenge.

Then 2nd Pirate arrived and this was more challenging for Robinson. Robinson had to push himself like 9 times just to win which helped him get some Weapon and more food.

Robinson won with 2 LP left.

The 2nd session was against Pirate 30 and 25. I only scored 36 with 39 fighting power, 3 Aging cards, 2 defeated Pirates, 0 LP and also 6 leftover Hazard cards. In the last few turns somehow I managed to survive at 0 LP. There was a chance I played incorrectly and I may have lost.

Playing time was about 30 minutes for each session.

Curious Cargo

I finally got to play Curious Cargo again. This time was the first time playing with the 3-color variant, solo but with the single board variant.

I managed to ship 3 of Purple, 3 of Red and only 1 Blue. Only 1 red and 1 purple were received. Actually maybe the last shipped blue and red happened after the game was supposed to end so they didn’t count. The game ended in 12th round after the Conveyor tile run out. The opponent still had 4 Truck cards and 2 tokens.

Since this was my first time playing this variant, my initial impression is not it’s not as good as when playing with just 2 colors. Maybe if I play more, I will get better but I’m not convinced.

Early in the game, I thought I should just focus on just 2 colors and try to work on the 3rd but not as much. I think the problem is 2 folds.

One, if you play with just 2 colors, it is easier to sacrifice a connection of a color so the other color can connect while still having another connection for that sacrificed one somewhere else.

Secondly, even if I’m willing to lose one of the connection, it doesn’t mean I will get a tile that works. For example, maybe I have blue connection on 1st dock, red on 2nd and purple on 3rd. Then if I keep getting a tile between Purple and Blue then I will mess with the red as well.

From this session, it’s like I spent a lot more time and actions trying to cycle the tile without actually playing it.

Is that mean I have to use the storage differently? Like maybe I have to use one side to store tile with the 2 colors I was focusing on and the 2nd storage for the other. Then, try to play more long term based on just that one side.

Even I got a lot of truck cards that I wasn’t sure whether to keep it as truck or to get more tile. There were moments when I traded the card and after not getting the tile with right color, I took the action back and did something else. I don’t remember doing that with 2 colors as I probably can find a way to use them.

There were also some moments where I left just 1 space on the board because I had to make it worked with the tile I had and how I placed them left that one space. So, the Scaffolding was used that way. It doesn’t feel as efficient but maybe that was on purpose?

This is different experience with when I was playing with 2 colors. At some point I just placed the tile just to fill the gap and though I will cover it with something else.

As I said, maybe I just had to play more to get good but my initial impression for this variant is that it is not as good as the 2-color variant. I still have idea on what to do if I play this variant again so maybe that will change my mind about it.

Playing time was about exactly an hour.

Tybor the Builder

Another play of Tybor the Builder after almost a year. Still play 2-handed. One side had 2 Orange and 1 Blue as the Private Objective while the other had 2 Yellow and 1 Gray.

I played with the Job Diversity Scenario where having different jobs as Citizens by the end of each round can get 1 extra Builder Power Card. For the Chapter, it was the Specialist where at the end, I can get 5 points for 1 set with 4 of the same colors. Based on these 2, the strategy should focus on recruiting Citizens and getting points from it.

1st Player scored 98 and won while the opponent only scored 88. I think those 10 points was because the 1st player managed to build more buildings with 7 points more. However, this led to extra scoring from one of the building which was 3 and completing a 2nd set of the Private Objective.

2nd Player didn’t even get that chance when it came to the last round. There were very minimum numbers of buildings with the matching color for this player’s Private objective.

Since I played 2-handed, I probably didn’t play as intended where the 2nd player could have just tried to mess with the 1st player progress. Like they could have taken that single Orange, preventing the 1st player to complete their 2nd set and made them lose 5 or more points.

Not sure if that was enough to win but at least closer in score.

Playing time was about 33 minutes for playing both sides. Read the Full Session Report here.

Learn more about the game from Tybor the Builder Review.

Ankh’or

It has been a while since I played Ankh’or. No official solo variant sadly so I had to play 2-handed competitively. I actually already printed PnP file for fan-made solo variant but I have not tried it.

In this session, 1st player won with 29 VP while 2nd Player only scored 27 VP. I actually miscalculated the 1st Player score. The 1st player got 2nd 5 of 1 color token worth 3 points. 1st Player got 5 of white and 5 of red so they got 6 points from those.

The interesting part was that the 2nd player was the one to trigger the end of the game by having 13 tiles first while 1st player was behind with 12. Also, it felt like the 2nd player dominated the control of the market by always having a good amount of chips while 1st player was stuck.

Both sides focused on just 3 colors. White, Black and Red for 1st and Blue, Green and Black for the 2nd Player. Unfortunately, based on the progression in the last few rounds, the 2nd player didn’t have a shot to score the 5 of the same colors for the 2nd time. They could increase their Black but only to 4 because of the restriction.

On the other hand, that was the one color that both players shared. 1st Player managed to get 5 of a color with the other 2 colors.

Well, I didn’t realize how important the choice of colors until this time and that you should avoid the same color with the opponent. Sometimes, during the game, I just picked anything that I think works well, mostly based on the icon. By that time, you might not even realized that the other player might take that as well.

I also thought that there is a most optimal placement of these 3 colors. Apparently, I didn’t think much how the placements of 3 colors needs to have flexibility at least so on the upper level, you can keep increasing any of them, pivoting from one color to next.

This session improved my appreciation of this game. I guess I underestimated this game a bit.

Playing time was about 28 minutes.

Isle of Trains: All Aboard

This was my first time playing the solo variant of Isle of Trains: All Aboard. I played it 3 times, without any of the scenarios. First play I did poorly, only scored like 40 which was the lowest in the score chart.

2nd play was better with about 66. However, I realized a mistake. I thought I could try to score multiple islands at the same time. The correct rule is I have to complete the secondary contract of the first one first before trying to score the other. That means, I probably lost about 6 points.

I noticed that I was overwhelmed with all of the information that I had to look from these Multiuse Cards. As someone who doesn’t know anything about train, all of these Train cards looks almost the same even though I know they are not. But for me, instead of looking at the illustration, I tend to look at the type of cargo it can load.

Apparently, that helped only a little for me. It was even harder when I switched my focus when trying to use the card as the cargo itself. Depending on what I was trying to do in that round, I have to separate those cards differently.

Well I just noticed, apparently the color of the train cars are based on their level. Blue is lower level, and then Yellow for mid Level and the best one is always red. This works for any type of cars. Somehow I feel it’s easier to decipher if one color represent one type of cars like all tanker should be blue. Maybe it is just my issue.

Anyway, I played the game again for the 3rd time still with the same setup, except for the ticket tile, hopefully correctly this time. I still scored 66 completing both contract from Devon City for 14 points.

Got 8 points from the Oil Refinery, 4 points from the Engine card, 3 from Coach, 8 from Tanker, 5 from Hopper and 1 from Caboose 6. That Caboose was a bit useless apparently since I only used 3 of the maximum of 8 load that the Engine can handle. There were still 2 loaded passengers so 2 points and no other cargo. I got 21 from the VP tokens.

Playing time was about 30 minutes each session.

Horizons of Spirit Island

It’s been a while since I played Horizons of Spirit Island. Previously I played the Eyes Watch from the Trees Spirit, just a single Spirit with the normal drafting one.

For some reason, this time I chose Sun-Bright Whirlwind, with the power progression card but still the harder difficulty. This one really is the most complex Spirit in the box.

The session took about 90 minutes to finish while the last game I finished it within 60 minutes. Back then, when I played 2 Spirits with the Sun-Bright as one of them, it took about 3 hours.

In this session after about a few rounds, I had to reset the game when I realized that some of the Power only increases the Range not the attack power and yet I initially interpreted it as the latter. I can see the use of it even for this Spirit themselves but maybe it is better for the other Spirit with short range power.

One of the reason that this one takes longer is that the powerful attack comes only from the higher Innate Power like the 3rd and 4th threshold. In order to achieve that, you have to keep increasing the number of cards that you can play in a round.

This Spirit has 1 attack card which can target up to 5 but only 1 damage each. Without the ability to increase the damage, at most this can only wipe out Town but not Cities. Even then, you probably need to utilize the Innate power. Actually, you probably need all 3, 2 thresholds of Innate Power and that attack card.

To play well, you need to let two adjacent lands build up some Invaders. If one of them has a City, that land is the target of the Innate Power because the 4th threshold can destroy it. Ideally, you want from that land 1 City, 2 Towns and 1 Explorer, maybe more explorer.

By having them, you use the 3rd power to push 2 Towns and 1 Explorer out and spread the attack to various different Towns in the adjacent land. That way the Towns are down to 1 damage and you can destroy 5 of them with the Power Card. At least, that is the strategy with the Power Progression.

With this strategy, you cannot have too many Cities, at least early in the game. The moment one City gets added, you want to execute that strategy. With the buildup and generating Fear only from Towns, you don’t generate Fear that fast.

In this session, I only had 2 rounds left. The terror level went up in that same round, immediately ended because there was no City.

In this session, I didn’t take any disc from the Energy track. Some of the Power cards can generate Energy and one of the Growth option can give 4 Energy. Early in the game, that 4 Energy is enough for a couple of rounds. When you finally get some Major power, then you might need more.

This Spirit also doesn’t have any Defend card until the 2nd Major Power from that Progression. You probably can only rely the Dahan to take care of the Explorer but not the Town even or risking losing them. That contributes to a longer game as well.

I think I did lose 1 Dahan. A couple of Blight tokens were added to some lands.

I’m also not sure how that WRAP IN WINGS OF SUNLIGHT card works. In that session, I managed to trigger the extra steps with 6 Elements to first Gather 3 Dahan to a target land. After that I was supposed to move up to 5 Dahan to various lands and give Defend 5 to each.

My confusion was, does the early step of bringing in the Dahan to target land contributes to the Moving that grants that land the Defend? If the answer is a yes, as how I played it, I defended 2 Dahan and then destroyed 1 Town and 2 Explorers. My session ended exactly because of that.

But if it is the other way, then I lost 2 Dahan, got another Blight from that center Sand and that Sand got another City. So, I checked and it seems I can play another round and by destroying that one City was enough to make me win the game still.

With that being said, I’m not sure that I played this one correctly. There were a couple of moments when I tried to utilize the Innate Power which led to moving back and forth the invaders between 2 adjacent spaces to get the best result. The moving part can even happen during Growth (with the disc), the Fast Phase or the Slow (Innate + card). Then it gets worse when you can switch a Slow power into a Fast one.

Well, it was fun. I have to try again next time but I’m not sure about playing with the drafting mode. Either getting a card that attack or I have to pick the one with the Sun and Air element.

Pocket Master Builder

Another play of Pocket Master Builder 2-handed solo. First player was the Yellow Wooden cube and the 2nd player as the white plastic one.

As part of the setup, Yellow picked an Oracle card that can give points for having 2 buildings in the same row but in the longest distance. White picked the one to give score for having more buildings from the edges.

Yellow won with 43 points while White only got 38. This is interesting since during the play it felt like White was doing a lot better than Yellow. Yellow was always out of resource either card or cubes.

White, on the other hand, managed to invest in one of the Green buildings to get more cubes so White could draw more cards during rest. This 2nd player also built LIGHTHOUSE so they got 1 extra cube or card during rest. They were very flexible in their play.

On the other hand, this session was how I started using the Reward point to get cubes and/or cards instead, mostly cubes. Especially for Yellow player. Before this, I spent the reward mostly for pushing the Donkey track or to get Gold.

White actually was the 1st to get 6 buildings and triggered the end of the game so White had 1 more building than Yellow. The score from buildings between 2 players were close though, 25 for Yellow and 27 for White. Yellow won the Wall track with 8 points, reaching the farthest right first while Yellow was 2 spaces behind and ended up just 2 points.

Yellow also got 2 points from the Donkey track while White was stuck in lower space with no points. As I said above, Yellow spent a lot of those rewards for the Cubes and managed still to bump the Donkey track. There was one building, The Tower, that works well for getting reward after being farthest in Wall track.

Both won their Oracle scorings. I guess White actually contributed to Yellow’s win in that oracle by keep placing a new card in the same row. White had a chance to tie or even win by building the last card of the row but the score would have been even lower. On the other hand, Yellow, didn’t bother to invest in any Purple buildings until the last one.

I noticed that my strategy to place the next card has been to get the most resources possible. That is by focusing on the color and just place the cube there. Only after a couple of rounds in this session, that I realized, I should aim for the requirements of the next building I want to build next and place the card and cubes accordingly.

That can mean just placing a single cube instead of all 2 or 3 sides of the cards. So, there were a lot of moments where I have a lot of resources but a single type where I didn’t have enough for the other.

Maybe I should also keep track of all of the resources that I have from those Workers. I wish there is a better and easier way to keep track which cube and which set of resources.

This time, I tried using just 2 colors of cubes. It is still very hard to look at. Sometimes the cubes on the Scoring for the Built part is to close to the cube for the resources at the top and got bumped there.

This should come with 6 or 7 tokens per player to indicates the ownership of buildings instead of using the same cubes. Either that or a better system to keep track the Worker cubes and resources would be nice.

Playing time was about 76 minutes for playing both sides.

Lux Aeterna

I had a chance to play Lux Aeterna again. Until this point, I’ve played this game by adjusting the starting position of the Spaceship. The closest one was from +51 and last time I scored 71. So, I was curious about trying the +91, which is one space from the Blackhole.

I was expecting that I can lose the game right from the first turn if I get bad first 4 cards. Apparently, I managed to survive way longer than that based on my 2 plays. All of the other setting were the Standard, with just 4 Glitch and every system is under repair. I set the timer for 15 minutes just because I took picture every turn.

During my first game, the Spaceship fell to the Blackhole in the 2nd to last round. The cache was disabled and got no card to push back the Spaceship and it was back in the starting position. All cards had a speed of 1 but I lost. 3 of the system were already collapse with 3 other still under repair.

Whenever I had a chance I tried to get rid of the Glitch. Successfully done with 3 and got hit by 1 in which I had to put back 4 cards from the discard pile and shuffle back to the deck. One of the collapse system also had a penalty to take the 8 cards removed during the setup and added them to the deck. So, I had 3 turns more than the usual.

That was the end of my 1st session. I reset the game with the same 6 systems but different deck of cards and different random Glitch.

1st Turn. Got 1 card where I didn’t need to move the Spaceship at all. The Orange system took 1 hit. Spaceship was still at 1 space away from the Blackhole.

2nd Turn. Got Pink 24 with the Speed of 0. Then one card to move the ship back 2 spaces and another one with a choice between moving the ship back 2 spaces or increase 1 die by 1. I let the Pink system took a hit. The Spaceship was 3 spaces away.

3rd Turn. Only 1 card with a speed of 1 so that went to Speed. The other cards had the same color as the one that already got hit by 1 or a Green with 2 which would collapse the system right away. Luckily I saved 1 card that only hit the Gray system by 1 from the Cache. As the action, I got the similar action card with 2 choices as previously. I kept one that can flip a die in the Cache. Spaceship was 4 spaces away.

4th turn. Got a Blue and Yellow card, both hit the system 1 damage and a speed of 1. I let the Blue take the hit and used the other for the Speed. Since the Spaceship was not that close, I used this chance to flip 1 die but it couldn’t be a 1 to 6. I flipped the Yellow from 2 to 5. In the Cache a card to move the Spaceship back 2 spaces. Spaceship was 3 spaces away.

5th turn. TIME DILATION Glitch happened, after the draw. I had to put 4 cards back from the discard pile to the deck and shuffle it. All cards had a speed of 2 so I played the card from the Cache to push it back for the action. The only system that could still take a hit was Yellow and Green so I let Green took 1 damage. Spaceship was 3 spaces away.

6th turn. Some Yellow cards with Event and Speed of 1 so those were assigned for them. For the action, I pushed the Spaceship back 2 spaces. In the cache another card to flip a die but couldn’t be a 1 to 6. Spaceship was 4 spaces away.

7th turn. Only Orange and Blue card. Any of them would collapse the system. One of the Orange had an Event of 0 so that what I went with. The Blue had a speed of 1 and that was the best option. For the Action I pushed the ship back 2 spaces. Spaceship was 5 spaces away.

8th turn. This time got a green, orange and gray card. Any of them would collapse the system. If I let the Orange collapse I lost the cache. For the Gray, I had to assign first card as Event. Somehow I picked the Green.

Actually I misinterpreted it as I could ignore the color of Event card and chose to hit something else. I missed the part that I had to hit the system with the lowest value which could lead to collapse of systems consecutively. But I went with that, realizing how wrong I was right away.

There was only 1 card with a Speed of 1 so it went to that purpose. As for the action, I had a card to remove the next Glitch. Spaceship was 4 spaces away.

9th turn. Well, it didn’t matter which card I placed in the Event. I had 4 systems with the value of 1 and I had to let them collapse one by one unless I flipped any of them or increase the value. There was only 1 card with a Speed of 1 as the best option for Speed.

For the action, I chose to reroll a die. I let the Blue system took a hit and collapse. This only affected my score at the end based on the collapse systems not during the game. I rerolled the one from Pink and got a 4. Spaceship was 3 spaces away.

10th turn. I got 2 cards with 0 speed so one to the speed and the other to the Cache. The action that I took was to remove the Glitch which was the 3rd one so far. This time I let the Gray system took the hit. I thought with the penalty from the collapsed green, it was not a big deal. Spaceship was 3 spaces away.

11th turn. The Event card was Green 1 so it would damage my last system with a value of 1 which was the Orange. I was going to lose the Cache so I took that card with a Speed of 0 from Cache and put another blue card to the Cache to lose it. For the action, I had a card to flip any die but then I realized I only had 2 systems with a value of 4 so if I flipped any of them it went down to 3, so I ignored it. I could have just used the card in the Cache then.

12th turn. Another hit of 1 from the Event card. All cards had a speed of 1. I chose the one with the action to increase the value of 1 die by 2. From the Event, I let the Pink with 4 took 1 hit and then I increased it by 2 to 5 from the action. Spaceship was 2 spaces away.

13th turn Another Glitch and this time was POWER SURGE. Each system with the highest value took 1 damage so my pink which was at 5 went down to 4.

The Event card was another 2 damage which could hit any of my 2 remaining systems. The best card for speed was 2 so I used the other that can push back the Spaceship 4 spaces away. I let the Yellow took 2 damage, pushed back the spaceship 4 spaces and it got sucked back to Blackhole 2 spaces. It was at 4 spaces away.

Final Turn. 1 hit from the Event, this time was to Yellow with a 2 so it survived. Another card with a Speed of 0 for the Speed and the action card was just to push it back farther.

That was the end of the game. The Spaceship was 7 spaces away from the Blackhole. For my final score I got +91 from the Starting Position – 3 points per collapse system. No repaired system, no additional Glitch penalty.

FINAL SCORE WAS 79 POINTS.

From that 15 minutes, with taking picture every turn, I still had less than 2 minutes left for each session.

One Deck Galaxy

Another play of One Deck Galaxy. This time still playing as PlumPlim the Botanist vs The OPTIMIZATION CALIBRATOR. It was my first time playing against this adversary.

I would like to point out that everytime I try to learn how the new adversary works, I kind of hate the game. It happened this time and my previous play as well. I assume it will happen again for the next one. For me, the general rule of the game itself is not bad but the fact that every Adversary requires different way to resolve many things is probably the problem.

A quick solution is to make a complete guide for each Adversary from the setup, and how to resolve things each phase. Basically, expanding the rule from each Adversary card instead of just that Quick Guide where they tell unnecessary story about each of them. They should also include how to resolve each Event card.

Every game has unique boss with unique ways to run them. So, don’t just make general how to play rule which doesn’t always work. I haven’t talked about how unique the character we play which adds more rules to learn each. Playing the same set of character is recommended so no need to learn too much at a time.

Like the other adversary, once you get the idea, it is not that complex. BUT, even though I have played this game a couple of times and still got the urge to throw this game just to learn the next new bosses should tell you how bad the rulebook is.

Well, sorry about the rant. So, how did the session go?

I still play with the biggest boost with 6 Fleet, 2 probe, 1 Black die with a value of 6 and 1 extra die of each color.

This Adversary will store dice and no way to actively take them out. Each round they will get influence and for every influence, the player has to submit a die or get overwhelmed. The die then will enter to the Adversary main storage.

Then, in the next round, the Adversary will have 2 Influence so in that round, player has to pay 2 dice. This continues until the Adversary has 4 Influence in which player will remove the Influence card and take back some dice to the player’s pool.

The problem is that there is a restriction of which die we can put or cache in the Adversary influence card. The value must be higher than any die already in the storage of the same color. So, if there is already a yellow one, you can put Yellow 2 or higher. Considering that immediately placing a 6 will prevent you from placing any die of that color, you want to get the exact value. This leads to using a lot of Fleet just to decrease the value.

That is not the only restriction. For each color, there is a limit for the number of dice you can place based on the Intensity level of the Adversary, starting with 2 and every hit to the Adversary will reveal the next threshold and get the Adversary token.

That means, not only you want to start with the lowest value, you also want to diversify, spread to different color. Then, when you have the chance to take back some dice, you want to take the highest one which can lead to immediate use with high value. So, when the Adversary has 4 influence, you might actually want to place higher value dice. Just make sure to prepare which to take next.

Right in the first few rounds, I forgot the amount limit and I placed just any die that works in ascending order. Luckily, I noticed and then I could still change it.

From the Adversary Event card, they might add more restriction. I got one that prevent me from placing the same value if that value already has 3 or more dice in the storage. Rearranging the dice on the Adversary card is probably recommended.

Based on this one session, that Adversary limits the progression significantly. I only reached the end of the deck twice. That is because I used less dice and cannot use them to increase the use of the card as influence. By the end of my session, I only got 3 location cards added to the player card. I had to spend most of them just to generate the Fleet so I could change the die value.

I guess I was lucky to pick the Botanist. The Adversary held the dice so I could reach the Milestone easier. Also I used the Probe action a lot more. Upgrading the Starbase is crucial just to keep up the Fleet.

The game ended after about 11 rounds and took about 90 minutes, including constant checking the rule. There was a chance that I didn’t actually win. One Event card says that I had to spend one Tech token to cache die.

If this means, to place dice every round to the Influence card then I already got overwhelmed, but that happened in the last round. But if it was about caching out, then maybe it was not a problem.

Another problem with this Adversary is that I don’t know exactly when to resolve the Adversary progress. For example, it says moving the dice from the influence card to their Memory Cache during the Result. Is it after resolving the player’s phase? Same with when to resolve the 4 influence. This is why I don’t like that they put all of those complex rules just for one Adversary in a single card. They should have put extensive explanation in that Quick Guide.

I guess I should retry this one again but that really hurt my experience with this game.

Oh My Goods!

I had a chance to play Oh My Goods! again and it was my Full Session Report #71. Since I still don’t have the expansion to play solo, I played this 2-handed. The game itself is almost multiplayer solitaire so it feels like playing 2 games. Well, I guess that was the reason I made some errors or played poorly on certain sides.

In this session, the Lady or 1st player won with 29 VP against the Guy, or 2nd player with just 23 VP. The interesting part was that the Guy was the one who triggered the end of the game by having 8 buildings first while the Lady actually only had 6.

Also, the Guy even hired 2 Assistant while the 1st player only had one. The biggest score for the first player came from successfully created that production chains of Mill to Bakery and then to Food Factory. By the end of it she had like 9 goods worth 8 each from the Food Factory. That was like 14 VP alone from one building.

The 2nd Player only had the chain from Weaving Mill to Tailor’s Shop. That end product had 8 goods but only worth 4 each. That was only 6 VP and the rest of the scores between 2 players were about the same.

I guess that Yellow chain is that powerful? Between the Mill to the Bakery, they are similar to Weaving Mill to Tailor’s Shop from the white chain but no other factory after that. From the Bakery to the Food Factory, it was an instant transfer.

The Guy or 2nd Player actually had a chance for the 2nd Chain with the Red from Cattle Ranch to Tannery. Unfortunately, he built them in the last few rounds and no supply at all to any of it.

I recently wrote a review for Firm with Brownies which took inspiration from Oh My Goods!. That one also had similar powerful chain around the Bakery or Bread Factory. I cannot say for both games if that strategy is always the best one. It’s just the other players have to be aware and try to prevent if they know one of the players is about to execute it completely.

Playing time was about 71 minutes for playing both sides. Read the full session report here.

Learn more about the game from Oh My Goods! Review.

Final Words

So, those are all of the games I played. Hope that entertains or helps to give some idea what kind of tabletop games we can find on the market.

Some are new and some are older games. The complete list of the older games and my reviews about them can be found from this list.

I keep saying that these tabletop games can be a good way to spend some time without looking at the screen of our gadget. If we do have someone close, that we can play with, there are other games where we can play cooperatively or competitively but with a lot of player interaction.

The game can be very fast or like a filler type or it can take hours to play. Some games can also be played in solitaire mode and they are still more engaging than other entertainment activity. Some may say, it’s like a workout for the gray matter of our brain.

Thanks for reading.

 

Mark M.