2024 Week 13 to Week 16 – Tabletop Game Play Session Reports #5

This article is the compilation of my play session reports #5. All games were played during Week 13 to Week 16 of 2024 from 25 March 2024 to 21 April 2024. 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 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16.

Compilation of links to reports of individual games can be found in this article. Those are just for newer games and my initial impression for each. This is the list for all games with a Full Review.

Here are links to previous entries.
#1. November to December 2023
#2. 2024 Week 1 to Week 4 (January)
#3 2024 Week 5 to Week 8 (February)
#4 2024 Week 9 to Week 12 (March)

Wingspan Asia

A bit late to the party but I finally bought Wingspan Asia when everybody already started playing the new implementation with Dragon theme, Wyrmspan.

I actually already played the base game Wingspan once. It was like the 5th game I played after entering this hobby in late 2019. My friend has a copy so I didn’t think about buying it myself. However, both of us live very far from each other so when we had a game day, we probably played other new games instead of replaying previous ones.

Luckily, the publisher released a standalone expansion for just 2 players so I don’t need to buy the big one. This box was very tight actually, probably meant to be an expansion box but good enough even for sleeved cards.

Other than the Duet Mode from this one, I don’t exactly remember how different the other parts with the base game. It has been a while and it was just one play so maybe I cannot make a good comparison based on my recent first play with this one.

So, I played this 2-handed. Maybe I could have just went straight to solo mode but I was under impression that I needed to know how to play the multiplayer first before trying the solo. At least this gave me a chance to try a lot more Bird cards with 2 boards.

I could be wrong with this but I don’t remember the text, for abilities from bird cards from base game is that complex. Of course, there are simpler ones with just 2 rows of text but most of them are 3.

I also don’t remember about caching foods, or the idea of tracking points by placing those tokens on the card. Also, the tucking card under bird, I thought it was only about predator birds that I rarely found. I saw a lot more in this one.

There is also a push your luck element? Don’t know if this is new or I just didn’t see it when I played the first time. The bird allows you to roll dice and if you get certain type of food from that roll you can get points by placing them on that card. You can do it 3 times but once failed you lose the result from previous roll.

Similar to that, there is a bonus to draw card randomly but only if that card shows some specific food requirement. Or if you draw up to 3 cards and if the total wingspan is lower than 100, you can tuck them below the bird and if you draw and it was higher, you lose the previous drawn cards. So, you want to stop or a chance to lose them.

Maybe there are other interesting abilities that I haven’t seen from those 90 cards or I saw but discarded them immediately. Well, my focus during the game was just to make sure I can play the card, related to my the food I already had. Only later in the game I started to focus more on how I can add tokens to the Duet Board.

That Duet Board is a nice addition. It really forces you to play bird with certain criteria instead of just what’s best for your engine. Or maybe I built the engine poorly.

In that session, the player with the Black token managed to connect 12 of their tokens while the other only got to 6. In the last round, even the White player tried to connect 2 groups while Black tried to cut them off completely. Unfortunately, either White didn’t get the right bird or not the food to play them. Eventually White gave up trying. On the other hand, White won or tied on almost round end goals.

Also it seems the Duet mode with that extra board really encourages player to play more bird cards. At least every end of the round, both players had good chance to win the goal over the other so they had to evaluate and pushed themselves to play more so they can place those tokens. Whether you can actually play or not because of no suitable bird card or lack of food is another discussion.

Specifically for the majority bonus of covering space that shows food, I wish it was easier to keep track without moving the token above the space a bit. Compared that goal with the others, the other are very easy as you can see the token clearly.

I don’t know why but I kept having trouble getting red food from the dice. Rolled some but early in the game and then the new roll came with just 1 or none in the middle of the session. While I didn’t use the option to discard a card to get more food but if it has to be what’s available, then it doesn’t really help. I also didn’t use the Duet token to reset because I somehow made it work to place the token for area majority.

On the other hand, a lot more birds seem to require worm more as food. Somehow the ability from the played bird cards only gave bonus to worm and wheat or worm with mouse for both players. Again, maybe I just haven’t seen more cards. I guess this is the downside of playing 2-handed. I didn’t give enough time to read all cards and evaluate more than just playing them. Maybe some of them can actually provide easier access to certain food.

With 2 players, I used like more than 45 cards. Not as an option to play on player board but some were for the ability like tucking cards, randomizer for the push your luck or such.

In this session, both players got an interesting bonus card each, both based on the name of the birds. One got points if the bird had a color in their name and the other got points if the name mentioned a body part, called the anatomy.

The good thing is those bonus cards have a list of words that indicates those things. This is very helpful for me who doesn’t speak English as main language. Sometimes I don’t know if that word indicates a color like Olive. But the Anatomy part is still harder for me. Actually I think the player that got the Anatomy card ended up not getting any points at all. Maybe I just failed or too lazy to spot them even if the card has a list.

Since this was a learning session, I didn’t read those bonus cards until one bird can score it in the middle of the game, whether to replace it with a new one or score it again later at the end of the game. So, I really didn’t try to chase birds based on those criteria.

The other bonus cards were also similar, both were about different type of nest from different environment. I was already too busy just trying to play birds with the matching criteria on the Duet Board. Both scored equally for those bonus cards.

So, the game does offer a lot of things to consider especially related to that Duet Board. If anything, I didn’t even consider building the best engine as what Wingspan is known for.

Not saying it is a good play or the best to win. Of course, I still tried to get the best ability but there is always a restriction of what you can play and forces you to pick whatever bird you can for that moment.

I think for the winner of this session, I focused on playing the bird with the very high points. Got 2 with 7 and 3 with 6.

Again, this is maybe just first impression. Maybe I will change my perspective after playing the game more and trying the solo mode.

From that session, here is the Scoring.

Black (1st)
12 Birds: 43 points
End of Round Goals: 7 points
Tucked Cards, Eggs, Cached Foods: 4 + 5 + 16 = 25 points
Bonus Cards: 8 points
Connected Tokens: 12 points
TOTAL SCORE: 95 POINTS

White (2nd)
12 Birds: 59 points
End of Round Goals: 14 points
Tucked Cards, Eggs, Cached Foods: 3 + 2 + 16 = 21 points
Bonus Cards: 3 points
Connected Tokens: 6 points
TOTAL SCORE: 103 POINTS

Playing time for this 2-handed session was about 135 minutes.

Calico

Sew the coziest quilt in certain patterns to attract cats. This was a solo session with the Scenario #8. I already tried this one but I failed to complete the yellow scoring to get both patterns and colors of one goal tile. The 3 cats are Millie, Almond and Leo. Millie only requires a 3 of one pattern. Almond asks for 5 hexes but in trapezoid shape while Leo also asks for 5 hexes but in straight line.

To win, I need to get at least 66 VP, a Rainbow button, 1 of each cat and yellow scoring from one of the Goal tiles. The goal tiles were AAAA-BB which I placed on the left, AAA-BB-C on the right and AA-BB-CC in the middle.

If I get 1 cat each, a rainbow button and 6 other buttons, plus one yellow scoring, I can get 55 at least. That means I still need either one more Leo or 1 more Almond plus Millie or any of the button. I thought planning for Leo is easier than Almond so I went with 2 Leo.

In this session, Millie loves Stripe and Leaves. Palm Leaves and Flower for Almond. Leo loves Polka dot and Plus sign pattern.

I placed the AAAA-BB on the left space, AA-BB-CC in the middle and the AAA-BB-C on the right. Based on this experience and the last time, I think the AAAA-BB is while not impossible to complete both requirement, but there is a trap. I only realized this when I already made the mistake. Yet, I insisted in this session. Luckily, I managed to do with the other.

With that wrong mindset, I tried to complete both requirement of that left goal tile using 2 Leo cats. The polka dot line would be going straight to the top right. Then using the plus pattern from the bottom right to the left in horizontal line.

The 2 starting tile in my hand were the Polka dot purple and Blue palm pattern. While the 3 that I could take afterwards had from left to right, Green leaves for Millie, Red Stripe also for Mille and Green Polka dot.

1st TURN. I placed the Purple Polka dot to create a line of 5 from bottom left going to top right. There was a purple color already on the edge so I thought I could use it for the purple button.

By doing so, this added 1 color and 1 pattern to the middle goal tile from the limit of 3 for both.

As replacement I took the Green Polka dot, letting go the Red Stripe. I was sure that Millie could get what she likes from other pattern. Blue Flower and Light Blue showed up in the market in 2nd and 1st place in that order.

2nd TURN. I placed the Green Polka Dot, still in that line, between a green palm pattern on the left edge and the Left Goal tile. So this added 1st color and 1st pattern to that goal tile.

As replacement, I took the Blue Flower pattern that works for Almond, letting go the Green Leave that could have worked for Millie. Then Red Polka dot showed up in 2nd place and Red Palm in the 1st.

3rd TURN. I placed that Blue Flower I just took at the top right corner. I planned this corner for Millie. There was already a Flower pattern with Light Blue so this was the 2nd. That same pattern would be a pattern for both goal middle and right goal tile.

At this point, I had a tough choice. I could either take red polka dot for Leo or the Light Blue flower for Almond. Taking one meant letting go the other to discard pile. I decided to go with Polka Dot.

Luckily, a Yellow Flower for Almond entered the 2nd space and Light Blue for Millie in the first.

4th TURN. I placed the Red Polka Dot I just took as the 2nd in that line. This was between that left goal tile and another Red tile on the edge. Since this goal tile could only take 2 of colors or patterns, I had to stick with Green and Red from now on. I could still add one more pattern but that would be the plus sign for Leo from the bottom right going to the left.

As replacement, I took the Yellow Flower, letting go the Red Palm. No plan for it anyway. Light Blue Leave moved to the 3rd. Red Flower entered the 2nd, Yellow plus sign in the 1st.

5th TURN. I placed the Yellow Flower to continue working on Almond’s corner at the top right. So, I had 3 options. One would have added a color and a pattern to both middle and right goal tile. Another would have added 1st color and pattern to the right and the last one added nothing to either.

I decided to just added the color to both so I could start focusing on both. That position was also 1 space away from the yellow on the top edge so I was hoping to get a yellow button from it.

As replacement, I took the Red Flower from the 2nd place, letting go the Light Blue for Millie. The Yellow plus for Leo moved to the 3rd. Another Polka dot red entered the 2nd space, with Light Blue sign both for Leo as the first.

6th TURN. I wanted to place the Red flower to keep working on Almond’s corner. There were 2 options, the leftover choices from previous one. And at the top edge there was already a red color so I had a chance to get a button with this. However, I also had a chance there to get a button for blue and yellow but I could only get 2 at most.

Maybe I didn’t realize this at the time but there was a chance the red button could come from the left goal tile. Well the other could still happened in other places but I think I tried to keep at least the Blue one.

Anyway, apparently, I placed it next to the top edge. There was still a chance to get a button from any of those 3 colors. 1 more left to finally complete a set for Almond.

As replacement, I took the Red Polka dot from the 2nd space, letting go yellow plus both for Leo. The Light blue Plus sign moved to the 3rd. Blue Polka dot entered the 2nd and Blue stripe on the first.

7th TURN. I had to place the Red Polka dot. That line I was working on only require 1 more to attract Leo. However, by placing it there, it added 3rd color to the middle goal tile. On the other hand, I needed that for the left goal tile.

So, I placed it to the bottom left corner empty space next to the same tile and that left goal tile. This didn’t added new color and pattern to the goal tile. Not getting any cats from it but I did get my first button, the RED BUTTON.

As replacement, I took the Light Blue plus sign from 3rd space. This means letting got the Blue Polka dot. Blue stripe moved to the 3rd. Another Blue stripe at the first and a yellow palm leave as the 2nd. That yellow was a bit useless for me, except maybe for the color but not for now.

8th TURN. I had to start working on the 2nd pattern for Leo with the plus sign going from bottom right to the left. The problem is that this Light blue color didn’t share any color with the bottom edge. So I was not sure where to place it exactly. Definitely not adding a color or to the left goal tile, even if the pattern would have been added anyway. That left most space had to be either green or red with plus sign pattern.

So, I just placed it on the 2nd place of that line of 5. As replacement I took any of the Blue stripe, probably from the 3rd space. So, the Yellow palm got removed. Red Plus and Red Palm leave entered the market.

9th TURN. So I placed this Blue stripe at the top left corner. I guess this was the corner for Mille. There were only 2 spaces there that I could place without adding anything to the goal tile. And there was already a Blue stripe on the left border. So, I just placed it there. Maybe I could get a button from it.

As replacement, I took the Red Plus sign for Leo. The Blue stripe from 3rd space got removed and Red Palm leave moved to the 3rd space. Yellow stripe entered the 2nd space with Light Blue plus sign at the 1st.

10th TURN. This had to be in the leftmost line of plus signs for Leo at along the bottom edge. This didn’t add any color to the left goal tile but added the 2nd pattern with 3 from the 1st and 1 from the 2nd pattern. 2 tiles left for just a single green and single red with 1 polka dot and 1 Plus sign. Any combination but had to be in those exact numbers.

As replacement, I took the Light Blue sign from 3rd space. Red palm leave was discarded. Yellow stripe at 3rd, Blue plus at 2nd, Light Blue palm at 1st space. No use for the last one.

11th TURN. Continued working on the 2nd line for Leo with the line of 5 plus signs at the bottom. I placed this light blue one next to the same color. Didn’t get any button from it yet since there were only 2. 1 more and I could attract Leo.

As replacement I took the Blue plus from 2nd space. Yellow stripe got removed, replaced by light blue palm at 3rd space. Green plus that I needed for the left goal entered 2nd space with Light Blue flower on the 1st.

12th TURN. I completed the line of 5 with this last Blue plus sign on the bottom row. I got my 1ST LEO. Still needed that Green Plus sign even if not for another Leo just for the goal tile.

Light Blue palm leave left the market, replaced by light Blue flower at the 3rd space. Green Flower entered the 2nd space with Purple Plus sign at the 1st.

13th TURN. I placed the Green Plus at the top right from the left goal tile, next to green polka dot and the middle goal tile. I got 3 of adjacent green so I got the GREEN BUTTON. This placement also added 3rd color and 3rd pattern to that middle tile. The left goal tile had 1 empty space left and I needed exactly a Red Polka dot.

I should have realized at this point that it was not possible. I guess it was possible if I got Green Polka dot and the Red Plus sign. But I got it wrong already.

I took the Light Blue Flower, to continue working on the Almond’s corner. Green Flower got removed. Purple plus moved to 3rd space, Light blue at 2nd and Yellow stripe at 1st.

14th TURN. 9 turns left. With the Light Blue Flower, I decided to finish the work on Almond’s corner. This was the fifth and I placed it at the top right from the right goal tile. I got ALMOND. While I got the cat this had prevented me from getting Blue button and Red button. I already got the Red button and there were 2 possible Blue to work on.

I took the Purple Plus sign from the 3rd space, letting go the Light Blue stripe. Yellow stripe moved to the 3rd, Green Polka dot at 2nd, and Red Flower as the 1st. I should have waited for that green polka dot.

15th TURN. I placed the Purple plus sign I just took and placed it at the top right to the middle goal. This got me 3rd Purple, adjacent to each other. I got PURPLE BUTTON. Also, the good thing is this didn’t add any color or pattern to the middle goal.

I took the Green Polka dot to complete the other Leo line. Well, I guess this didn’t work still with my other plan even if I realized it.

Yellow stripe was removed. Red Flower entered the 3rd space, Green stripe at 2nd and Blue Polka dot at the 1st.

16th TURN. I placed the Green Polka dot to finally complete that line I worked on since the first turn. Finally got 5 and attracted another LEO for 11 points. This also didn’t add any new color or pattern to the middle goal tile.

As replacement, I took the Green stripe, trying to work on Millie’s corner. Red Flower got removed from 3rd space. Blue Polka dot moved to the 3rd with Blue Plus sign at 2nd, and Yellow leaves at first for Millie.

17th TURN. So I decided to use that Green Stripe to attract MILLIE at the top left corner. I got it wrong thinking I had 2 sets of 3 adjacent greens and placed another green button next to it. The problem was I gave up my chance to get a Blue button from it. I still could get it from the last corner.

As replacement, I took the Blue Polka dot from 3rd space, letting go Blue plus that no longer working for anything. Yellow leave moved to the 3rd, with Blue leave at 2nd and Yellow Polka dot as the 1st.

18th TURN. 5 turns left. I already got 3 cats, 3 of 6 buttons, missing yellow, light blue and blue button to get the rainbow.

I placed the Blue polka dot at the bottom right of the right goal. This was adjacent to 2 other Blue tiles so I got 4th BUTTON, BLUE BUTTON. This also added 3rd color to the right goal and 2nd pattern. For this goal to work I could only play blue, light blue and yellow.

This was my only chance to work on the last 2 buttons. The right empty space should be for light blue since there were 2 already there. Then the remaining 2 had to be yellow. The patterns didn’t matter but I could still add 3rd pattern.

I took the Yellow leave which would have been the 3rd pattern to this goal tile. Blue leave got removed and Yellow Polka dot moved to the 3rd. Green Flower entered the 2nd while Yellow Flower entered the 1st space. This last one was perfect to score both middle and right tile.

19th TURN. I placed the current Yellow leave at the bottom left of the right goal tile. This became the 3rd pattern to that tile, no additional color.

I took the Yellow Flower from 1st space so Yellow leaves was removed. Green Flower moved to the 3rd. Light Blue Polka dot was at 2nd and Yellow Polka dot was at 1st.

20th TURN. I placed the Yellow Flower on the left to the right goal tile. I got the YELLOW BUTTON, only the Light blue left. This also completed the middle goal tile. I got exact right combination for both color and patterns, 2 of each, 2 Yellow, 2 Purple, 2 Green with 2 Plus sign, 2 Flower, 2 Polka dot. Scored 11 points.

As replacement, I took the Light Blue polka dot for that last button from 2nd space. Green Flower was removed. Yellow polka dot to the 3rd space. Purple plus at 2nd and Red Plus at both 2nd and 1st space. That 1st space was perfect for my last tile.

21st TURN. I placed the Light Blue Polka dot on the last empty space. This created a set of 3 for the Light Blue color and I got the LIGHT BLUE BUTTON and RAINBOW BUTTON.

As replacement, I took the Red Plus sign. Yellow Polka dot was removed. Purple plus to the 3rd. Light Blue palm at 2nd and Purple Polka dot at 1st.

22nd TURN. Last one. I placed that Red Plus to the last space, the right of the left goal tile. This goal tile had exactly 2 colors and 2 patterns but the distribution was incorrect. 4 red and 2 green but 3 polka dot and 3 plus. So I scored only 7 points.

SCORING.

2 Leo: 22 points
1 Almond: 9 points
1 Mille: 3 points
7 buttons, 1 of each color and Rainbow: 21 points
Left Goal tile, color only: 7 points
Middle Goal Tile, both: 11 points
Right Goal tile, both: 11 points

TOTAL SCORE: 84 POINTS.

Playing time was about 32 minutes. So, I completed this Scenario. Well, a bit cheating and take back…

Walking in Provence

Walk around and fly your drones in Provence area to take the best scenery photos in a game of Walking in Provence.

This was 2-handed session. One Scene set required a Chapel and size 4 of Lavender fields from photographs perspective. 2nd one required a chapel, 2 shops and a sunflower field. 3rd one required 2 shops near size 4 of Wheat field and the last one was 2 forest areas next to a windmill and a sunflower field.

Using the drone, one scene set required 2 shops next to size 4 of Lavender field. 2nd one required another size 4 of Lavender field next to a windmill and sunflower. The last one required a wheat field with the size of 4, next to a Chapel and a sunflower.

Both player also had to compete to have the most Windmill and the biggest group of Lavender fields.

ROUND 1.

Green player got 1 card with a green shop, 2 lavender fields, 1 wheat field and a forest. The other card had 2 wheat, 2 Lavender and a Windmill. Green chose the former and placed it to the right of starting card, extending the vertical lavender to size of 3. Then they moved the photographer to the new empty space while the drone stayed in the starting position.

Red player got 1 card with a chapel, 2 separated lavender fields and a wheat field. Their 2nd card had 2 lavender fields next to each other, a wheat, a forest and a purple shop. Red did similar to green, choosing the 2nd card and placed it horizontally above the starting card, extending the horizontal lavender field to the size of 3. Moved the photographer to the new empty space keeping the drone in the starting position.

No picture was taken by any player.

ROUND 2.

Green player got the card from the Red player with a Chapel, 2 separated lavender fields and a wheat. The new card had a brown shop, a sunflower, also 2 separate lavender fields and a wheat. Green decided to expand the group of shops with different color. They already got a green shop, currently at the top most existing card while this new brown one was in the middle of the vertical card.

Green could have just rotated the card but that would have put the sunflower not facing the sun. So, instead, Green tuck the 2 bottom parts of that new card below the existing one so they got the 2 shops adjacent to each other with the new empty space, a sunflower facing the sun and another group of lavender field. I guess green could have rotated the card 180 degrees and still did the same but instead of sunflower, they got a horizontal group of lavender.

Didn’t move either the photographer or the drone.

Red got the card from Green with Windmill, 2 Wheats and 2 separated Lavender fields but same orientation. The new card had purple shop, a chapel, a Lavender and a Wheat field. Red already got that Purple shop so unless they wanted to make a new group, they had to pick the other.

But that also means giving the Green player that Purple shop. Red decided to just focus on their progress and chose the one with Windmill to work on the Wheat field. The Windmill itself worked for the majority goal.

The card was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and overlapped 2 spaces of the starting card. This way the Wheat field had the size of 3 while decreasing the Horizontal lavender to 2 because of the Windmill but one nearby was ready to be connected.

No movement for the photographer nor the drone. Also no picture was taken by either player.

ROUND 3.

Green got the card with chapel and purple shop from Red. The new card had a blue shop next to sunflower and a wheat and 2 horizontal connected Lavender space. Green took the one left by Red player to extend their group of different shops. The card was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and placed connecting the shop with the existing group. Nothing was overlapped. Green moved the drone to the empty space on the left of the shop group.

Red player got the card with a chapel, 2 separated Lavender fields and a wheat from the green. The new card had a Windmill again at the center, next to the empty space and 2 wheat fields at one end and 2 lavender at the other.

A lot of the photo sets required a chapel so Red decided to pick the card with that. The card was placed horizontally at the top right corner. The Wheat and the empty space were tucked below the existing card so one of the Lavender field connected the 2 separated existing fields. Now Red got a size 4 of adjacent Lavender fields near 1 shop and near a chapel. Not enough to fulfill the requirement. No movement for the drone or photographer.

Also no picture was taken by either player.

ROUND 4.

Green got that new card from red with Windmill in the middle and 2 wheats at one end and 2 lavender at the other. The new card had also one Windmill at one corner, a brown shop at the opposite corner, 2 wheat and 1 lavender.

Green chose the card from red. The 2 Lavender fields could extend the 3 existing one to a size of 5. With this setting, using Drone, Green got to fulfill 2 photo sets, both as the first one. One with size 4 of Lavender fields next to 2 shops and the other with same size 4 Lavender, near a windmill and a sunflower. Scored 7 and 8.

Green also moved the photographer back to the starting card but to where the drone was. Didn’t get a good angle but this was more to make a room for development later.

Red got the card from Green with a Blue shop and a Sunflower with 2 Lavender and 1 Wheat. The new card had a chapel in the middle, a forest next to lavender and a wheat next to an empty space.

Red chose the card from the green. They had to tuck 4 spaces of that card so that the shop could be next to the existing shop while the Sunflower was still facing the sun. Now, with the current position of the photographer, 2 shops, a chapel and 1 Sunflower field was in one frame so Red became the first to take it. Scored 7 points. No movement for the drone.

ROUND 5.

Green got that card with chapel in the middle from Red. The new card had Blue shop again in the middle next to a sunflower with 2 Lavender fields at one end and a Forest at the other end.

So that Blue shop was the last one to complete the set of different shops. Now that I think about it, maybe the best placement was to place it horizontally but upside down, connecting the shop to the existing group while the flower was at the outer area to be overlapped later. This also created a new set of Lavender but with horizontal line.

Instead, I only rotated the card from horizontal orientation 90 degrees counterclockwise and tucked the 2 left parts of the shop so the shop was still next to the group. I was planning to use the 2 Lavender from the new card to extend the existing one. Completely forgot that Green already had a group of Vertical lavender. The sunflower was facing not the sun as well.

After that, Green had to move the Drone to a different empty space next to the shop group. The Photographer then moved to that space where the drone was. From that position, 2 shops, a sunflower and a chapel on the background was in 1 frame. Green took the picture but Red already did so they scored only 5 points.

Red got the Brown shop and the Windmill from Green. The new card had green shop at one corner next to an empty space, a forest and a sunflower in the middle, a wheat field with alien and a Lavender.

Well, Red still needed both shops to complete their set. Now that I think about it, maybe the one with windmill was a better choice. This worked on the majority goal, created another Wheat field for more scoring, while extending the group of shops to 3. Instead, Red picked the other card and placed the card horizontally at the top right corner of their area, extending the shop group, another sunflower facing north and a forest that was too far from the existing windmill for the photo requirement.

No picture was taken by red and no movement for either drone or photographer.

ROUND 6.

Green got the card with Brown shop and windmill back. The new one was actually similar with a green shop but at corner next to lavender and then a Windmill with 2 Wheat.

Either way, Green could start a new group of shops. The existing area already had 2 wheat at the top left corner. Either card could extend that area into a 2 x 2 for 8 points. Green chose the card they got earlier mostly because the empty space for taking picture position was closer to the center along with the windmill. This also started the horizontal Lavender for Green.

No picture was taken but Green moved the drone to the new empty space. While the photographer got a good angle for size 4 wheat. Just needed one more shop next to that wheat.

Red got back the card with chapel in the middle, a forest, a lavender and a wheat. The new card had brown shop, 2 connected wheats and 2 separated lavenders with different lining.

That brown shop was what Red needed to complete their group of shops. Red tried to connect it while keeping the 2 Wheat visible which means the 2 parts of the new card had to be tucked below the previously placed card.

No picture was taken. Red moved the photographer so the 2 shops were in frame along with 2 Wheat. Just needed to extend the 2 Wheat to take the picture.

ROUND 7.

Green got that card with Chapel in the middle back. The new card had blue shop in the middle next to a forest, 2 connected lavender and 1 wheat.

Green already got a group of Lavender with the size of 5 near a Wheat with a size of 4. There were 2 Photo requirements that demanded a Chapel next to one of each. Luckily, that card with the Chapel could help for both objectives.

The Lavender part worked to extend the existing group with the same aligning even if the forest had to cover part of the existing one. Green then moved the photographer to a new empty space on the new card and got everything required in the frame, size 4 Lavender and a Chapel. Scored 6 for being the first.

Then Green moved the drone between the group of wheat and the new card with a Chapel. Within 2 spaces from that drone position, a sunflower could be spotted as well. Green got that picture taken and they were the first so scored 8 points.

Red got the card from green with a Windmill and a Green shop, with 2 wheats and 1 Lavender. The new card had 2 Lavender, connected, 2 connected Wheat and just a forest.

Without changing the position of either photographer and the drone, the former card could help complete 3 objectives, one for photographer and 2 for drone.

But for that, Red had to let go 2 spaces of size 3 wheat covered by a new shop and the lavender extended the horizontal group by 2. Now from the photographer position, size 5 Lavender was in frame with a Chapel. Red scored 4 from it.

Within 2 spaces from the Drone, size 5 Lavender was in the same frame as 2 shops in 1 group for one objective and in the same frame as 1 windmill and 1 sunflower for the other objective. Red was the 2nd to take the picture of those, scoring 5 and 6.

Green had 2 objectives left while Red still had 3 to work on.

ROUND 8.

Green got that card from red with 2 connected Lavender and 2 connected Wheat plus a forest. The new card had a chapel, 2 connected lavender and a sunflower.

Green definitely had to work on the 2 Forest from one of the leftover objective for photographer. They already had 2 forest but separated away from each other. Since the drone and photographer was near one of them, placing the new card to make a group of 2 forest was impossible without ruining the Lavender field. So, the card had to go to the other existing single forest.

Luckily the new card had the forest in the corner. Also the new added forest was in frame with a sunflower even if they were 5 spaces apart. Green moved the photographer to the empty space next to the sunflower and managed to take the picture. Scored 7 as they were the first to take it. For the last objective, green just needed a shop, placed near another shop and a group of wheat.

Red got the card from Green with Blue shop in the middle, next to a forest, with 2 connected lavender on one side and a wheat on the other. The new card had a chapel at one corner, horizontally, next to 2 wheats and a single lavender.

Red got a chance to work on 2 objectives, both required a size 4 wheat. So, obviously, the one with Chapel and the 2 wheat. They had 2 wheat at the northern part of their area. Adding 2 more and the group of 4 wheats was still in 5 spaces away from the photographer and in the same frame as the 2 shops, required by the objective. Red was the first one to take this objective and scored 8.

With that placement, the 4 wheat were next to an empty space for a drone. Within 2 spaces from that drone, a Chapel, 4 Wheats and a sunflower were all in one frame. Red took the picture and scored 6.

One objective left for each and 2 turns left.

ROUND 9.

Green got the card with blue shop back. The new one had purple shop, a sunflower, 2 connected lavender and a wheat.

Either card worked for their last objective. But Green also had a chance to increase the size of that size 4 wheat but only with the new card. Even that card had to be tucked below the existing card, covering 4 spaces, including the wrong orientation of sunflower.

Green’s photographer was already in position where they got 5 fields of Wheat and 2 shops were in one frame. They took the picture and scored 6 for the last objective.

Red got the card from Green with a Chapel at one end, 2 connected lavender and a sunflower. The new one had a Windmill, a sunflower, 2 connected Lavender and a wheat.

The last objective for red required 2 forest, a windmill and a sunflower in one frame taken by photographer. No card to add the 2nd Forest to the existing but if the last card had one, the best one was probably the left forest. So, the one with Windmill and Sunflower was hopefully could worked on that. While placing it vertically, Red increased the size of Wheat from 4 to 5, creating another size of 3 for horizontal lavender.

The photographer was moved to the new card just to make sure new card, hopefully with a forest could be added to where the Photographer was.

ROUND 10.

Green got back the card with chapel at the top, and 2 horizontal lavender in the middle and sunflower at the bottom. No more objective so Green started to work on expanding the Horizontal lavender. There were only 2 possible placements to increase the existing horizontal lavender from 1 by 2.

Green picked the bottom option as it allowed the new card to keep the sunflower facing the right direction visible. 6 points from that Lavender plus 2 from sunflower.

Red got lucky. The last card indeed had a Forest. To expand that existing forest on the left, the card had to be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. The placement had to cover existing Windmill, 2 of 5 spaces from horizontal lavender while adding 2 new ones.

The new empty space was also perfect to get 2 forest area, a windmill and a sunflower from previously placed card, all in one frame. Red moved the photographer there and took the picture for the last objective, scoring 5 points.

That was the end of the game.

SCORING

Green:
Horizontal Lavender: 5 points
Vertical Lavender: 6 points
Wheat: 9 + 2 = 11 points
Sunflower: 4 – 3 = 1 point
Town: 12 + 3 = 15 points
Photo Sets: 6 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 7 + 8 + 8 = 47 points
Windmill Goal: 6 points
Lavender Goal: 3 points
TOTAL GREEN SCORE: 94 POINTS

Red:
Horizontal Lavender: 6 points
Vertical Lavender: 2 points
Wheat: 9 + 2 = 11 points
Sunflower: 6 point
Town: 12 + 1 + 1 = 14 points
Photo Sets: 4 + 7 + 8 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 = 41 points
Windmill Goal: 6 points
Lavender Goal: 6 points
TOTAL GREEN SCORE: 92 POINTS

Green won but close enough for red. Playing time was about 60 minutes.

For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game

Unify the kingdom of Northwood by engaging in conversations with 8 of their rulers in For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game.

Not using any of the Scenario this time, just randomized the 8 rulers with 2 for each suit and one each as the starting allies.

My first ally was BARON OF FLOWERS that can discard all cards with a value of 1, 2 or 3. This is great to get rid any of them to match the winning number. So, you keep them and when you have enough wins for the ruler, you can discard these low value cards.

2nd ally was KING OF EYES, where you can choose a suit and draw 2 cards. Then you have to discard all cards with the chosen suits. This is also useful to get rid cards of 1 suit. Especially for the suit that requires 0 or low number of wins, assuming you have a lot of cards for that suit. Or maybe you are using other ruler or ally that can draw too many cards and this is a good option to get rid of them.

Another use for this is that if you don’t like the last few cards, maybe you can try drawing 2 new cards hoping for better chance. To get better use, maybe counting cards will help to know which cards are left in the deck. If use later in the game, you have better chance to certain value.

My 3rd ally was JACK OF LEAVES. So, I just noticed that I got this one wrong. I thought the card allows you to move the targeting card to other neutral rule so I can change the number of wins. Apparently, this just switch the ruler up to 2 fiefs away. So, I played this whole session wrong. Oh, well.

Actually, the ability I was thinking of was the PRINCE OF LEAVES where you can move the visiting card to the next lower or higher one. This session that one was actually in the 3 wins space. I just assumed I had this as my ally while the Jack of Leaves was the ruler.

Well, this means, you can change the trump suit during the visit. This becomes less useful later in the game. At the start you can switch ruler between 2 to 4 depending on the chosen location. For the last one, no more choice so you have to start taking substitute depending on the location.

I don’t know how well you can utilize this but maybe you can plan long term. Like, based on your starting hand, you choose one location but you are not sure to get that many wins so you start thinking how likely to still win with the nearby fief. The consideration is even deeper if you have a chance to get more cards and chances to more wins. Still, it is situational.

My 4th ally was PRINCE OF CLAWS. This gives a chance to draw from 1 up to a lot of cards. Also get better result to use it later and do some card counting. Works well with the Baron of Flowers to discard low value cards. Or required to bring along an ally to discard a lot.

1st VISIT. KING OF CLAWS (0 WIN)

My starting hand had 4 red, 3 blue and 1 yellow. 4 of them were between value 1 to 3. So, I thought I had less chance to win against the ruler’s trump suit.

The King started the conversation with 7 of his suit. I lost with my highest red card, the 8. Then the King continued with 3 of his suit and I lost with my other 8 of Blue.

Another black and a 4 from King and I lost my Yellow 6. The King kept going with Black 6 and I lost with Red 5.

At this point I had 4 cards left with a value between 1 to 3. The Baron of Flowers got rid of them and ended the conversation. No win for me so the King joined the Northwood.

The ability of King of Claws is to play the highest valued card or cards from your hand to the scoring pile. I think I missed the part about the possibilities to play multiple cards. But at least this gives an easy win without relying on the card from ruler.

2nd VISIT. BARON OF CLAWS (2 WINS)

I had 3 Black, 2 Blue, 1 Yellow and 2 Red. Only 3 of them had the value of 3 or lower. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that this was the best choice of ruler to face with this hand but that was what I went with.

The Baron started with Blue 2. I lost with my Blue 1. The Baron continued with Red 2. I had Red 5 and Red 3 so either way I had to win this. So, I played the Red 5 hoping to get rid of Red 3 later or lose with it. 1 win.

Next card from Baron was Red 8. I lost again with Red 3. No more red in my hand. 4th card was Black 7. I had black 3, 4 and 6. Since I already had 1 win and only 1 more, I lost with my Black 4, hoping to get rid the 3 with Baron of Flowers.

5th one was Yellow 1 and I had Yellow 6 so I had to win this. 2nd win already. So I had 3 more cards, Black 6 and 3 and Blue 8. Using the King of Eyes, I drew 2 cards while choosing Black to discard.

I got Red 4 and Red 7, discarded the Black 6 and Black 3. The conversation continued. 6th card was Yellow 4 and I had no yellow. So I lost with my Red 7. 7th card was Red 6 and I lost again with Red 4.

Last card was Yellow 5 and I lost with my Blue 8. So I got exactly 2 wins.

This Baron of Claws that just joined my side had the ability to draw cards from the deck with the same value as the chosen one in my hand. Then I have to shuffle the remaining deck. Another ability that requires card counting but just for one number and limited to what you have in hand.

3rd visit. LADY OF FLOWERS (1 WIN)

I had 4 blues, 3 reds and 1 Black. 3 of Blue and 2 of reds were 3 or lower so I could get rid a lot of them using Baron of Flowers. So I had chance to win with my Red 8 and hoping to lose using Blue 6 and Black 7. So, I chose this next ruler with just 1 win.

I immediately got rid of the low value cards.

The conversation started with Black 4 so I had my first and only win using Black 7.

2nd card was Yellow 1 so I lost again with Blue 6 since I had no yellow. 1 more and I chose to use the King of Eyes to get rid of the Red. The 2 cards I had to draw were Red 4 and yellow 4 so I got rid 2 cards and only got 1.

Last card was Yellow 5 and I got lucky to lose with Yellow 4. So, I got exactly 1 win.

4th visit. JACK OF LEAVES (3 WINS)

My hand had 2 Black, 3 Yellow, 1 Blue and 2 Red. Only 3 of them were 3 or lower. I initially chose Queen of Leaves, the next one higher from the Jack of Leaves.

I immediately got rid of the value 1, 2 and 3. So I had no red and only 2 Yellow. The dialogue started with Red 4. I had to play my Yellow 4 so I got 1st win.

2nd card was Red 8 and I won again using Yellow 5. 3 more. 3rd card was Blue 3 and I won my 3rd one using Blue 6. 3 wins already and I still had Black 4 and Black 7. 4th card was Blue 2 and I lost my Black 4.

I used the King of Eyes and chose Black to get rid of the last Black card. Unfortunately, I drew Blue 1 and Red 7 so I had to continue. 5th card was Blue 8. I lost with my Blue 1. One card left, either I won or lose with Red 7. Somehow not a lot of Yellow and Black had been revealed so I thought I had better chance to lose.

So, staying with 3 wins, I used the Prince of Leaves to move the visiting card to Jack of Leaves that required exactly 3 wins.

I was lucky that the last card was Black 3 and I only had Red 7. Got 3 wins and the Jack of Leaves came to my side.

5th visit. QUEEN OF LEAVES (4 WINS)

I had 3 Reds, 2 Blues and 3 Blacks. 4 were 3 or lower so maybe only 4 wins. However, I started thinking of using the Prince of Leaves as my ally again. So, instead of choosing 4 wins I aimed with 5 with Queen of Flowers, planning to move next door depending on the situation.

The dialogue started with Blue 7. I played my Blue 5 so I lost. 2nd card was Yellow 7 and since I had no yellow, I played Red 2 and won.

3rd card was Yellow 3. I had to play my lowest red again which was 4 so I got 2nd win. 4th card was Black 8 and I lost with Black 1. 5th card was Yellow 8 and I lost again with Blue 2.

6th card was Blue 4 and I had no more Blue. So I lost with Black 2. 7th card was Red 1 and I got 3rd win with Red 8. I needed 2 more wins and only had Black 5 or one more and settled with 4 wins.

I used the King of Eyes and tried to get rid of Blue. The 2 cards were Red 5 and Yellow 6. So I had 3 more chances.

8th card was Yellow 2 so I won 4th one with Yellow 6. 9th card was Red 6 and I lost with Red 5. Back to only Black 5. 6 red cards had been played along with 5 yellow and 3 black and 4 Blue.

This was where I gambled. I needed to lose. 13 cards left and I could lose against 11 of them. So I settled with 4 wins and used Prince of Leaves to visit the lower wins against Queen of Leaves.

Last card was Red 7 so I lost and got exactly 4 wins against this Queen of Leaves. Queen of Leaves allows me to use the ability of ruler I am visiting.

6th visit. QUEEN OF FLOWERS (5 WINS)

So, since I got mixed up with the ability between Prince of Leaves and Jack of Leaves, I messed up this part a lot. I initially visited the space with 7 wins, thinking I could aim for 5 by moving 2 spaces. That rule was wrong even with the right ruler. Luckily, I could have chosen the space with 6 wins while both rulers from 6 and 7 wins shared the same suit. Hopefully I didn’t mess up with the ability to use power of current ruler.

I had 3 Yellow, 2 Blue and 3 Blacks. Only one of them was 3 or lower so I thought I had better chance to a lot of wins. That was not the case apparently.

1st card of the dialogue was Red 3 so I had to lose with Black 3. 2nd card was Black 1 and I got 1st win with Black 4. 3rd card was Blue 4 and I won 2nd time with Blue 5.

4th card was Yellow 8 so I lost with Yellow 4. 5th was Red 6 and I played my trump, got 3rd won with Blue 8.

6th was Red 7 and no red so I lost with Yellow 5. 2 cards left, Yellow 7 and Black 6 and I still needed at least 2 more wins.

7th card was Red 2 and I had to lose again with Black 5. I used King of Eyes and chose red to get rid. The 2 cards I got was Red 4 and Blue 6. Discarded the 1st and kept the latter.

2 cards but wasn’t sure it was enough. I took Baron of Claws as substitute for Prince of Claws to take the last 6 from the deck and shuffle the deck.

Also took King of Claws to substitute Baron of Flowers and placed my biggest one, Yellow 7 as my 4th win.

8th card was Black 5 which I played Blue 7 as the trump and got my 5th win. I settled with 5 wins and using Prince of Leaves moved the visiting card to Queen of Flowers.

Last card was Red 5. So I lost that one with Yellow 6. I got exactly 5 wins. This Queen of Flowers allowed me to take the top card of score pile to the top of the deck. A good control to win or lose the next one, assuming you have the same suit or the trump.

7th Visit. PRINCE OF EYES (7 WINS)

Actually I visited the 6 wins first and planning to move the visiting card depending on the situation.

I had 3 Blue, 2 Yellow, 1 Red and 2 Black. 3 of them from 2 suits were 3 or lower. I probably needed to draw more to get enough wins.

1st card of the dialogue was Black 7 and I lost with Black 1. 2nd card was Black 8 and another lost with Black 3. No more Black cards for me.

3rd card was Black 2. I got my 1st win with Blue 4. 4th card was Blue 2 and I got 2nd win with Blue 6. 5th card was Red 8 and I lost with Red 3.

6th card was Yellow 2 and I won 3rd time with Yellow 7.

7th card from the ruler was Red 1 and I won 4th time with Blue 8. At this point I needed more cards so I used the help from my ally, Prince of Claws to keep drawing until I got the trump suit.

I got Yellow 3, Red 4, Red 6, Red 7, Red 2 and finally Blue 1. With the King of Eyes, choosing Black, I got Blue 5 and Yellow 5.

8th card was Yellow 1 and got my 5th win with Yellow 8. 9th card was Blue 7 so I lost again with Blue 1. 10th card was Blue 3 and I got 6th win using Blue 5. No more trump cards for me.

11th card was Yellow 4 and I won 7th one with Yellow 5. Using Prince of Leaves, I moved up the visiting card to the 7 wins. I still had Red 3, 4, 6 and 7 and Yellow 3. With the help from Baron of Flowers, I got rid Red 3 and Yellow 3.

12th cards was Yellow 6 and I lost with Red 7. 13th card was Black 6 and I lost with Red 6. Last card was Red 5 and I lost again with Red 4. I got exactly 7 wins.

The Prince of Eyes allows me to draw a card and discard a card for each exhausted ally.

8th visit. QUEEN OF EYES (6 wins)

I had 1 Yellow, 2 Red, 1 Blue, and 3 Blacks. Just realized that I forgot 1 more card. 5 of them were 3 or lower.

1st card of the dialogue was Black 1. Got my 1st win with Black 2. 2nd card was Black 7 and I got 2nd win with Black 8.

3rd card was Black 4 and I lost with my Black 3. 4th card was Black 5 and I had no more black so I played Blue 2 and got 3rd win.

5th card was Yellow 1 and I won 4th time with Yellow 2. I substituted the Prince of Leave with Queen of Leaves which allowed me to use the ability of current ruler. The ability was to see the next 3 cards and put them in the same order and the next 3 cards were Red 1, Blue 7 and Blue 1.

6th card was Red 1 and I won again 5th time with Red 8. I thought I had 2 cards left but instead I got 1 left, missing 1 for the initial hand and it was Red 3.

So, I activated King of Eyes ability to draw 2 cards and got rid of the red 3. I knew these next 2 ones were Blue 7 and Blue 1.

I only needed 1 more win. 7th card was Blue 3 and I won 6th time with Blue 7. Baron of Flowers got rid of the Blue 1. So, I got exactly 6 wins for this ruler.

So, I managed to win all of them. Well, with an error reading the card of 2 Leaves.

Playing time was 37 minutes.

Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game

Learn the market demands and build your smartphone accordingly to sell the most profitable products in Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game.

This was a solo session. While I like the system of this game but I feel the official rule for solo variant is a bit underwhelming. Even with the hard mode, since the card for Steve Jr., the Bot doesn’t have any adjustment to the actual market situation, it feels like it is not that hard to take advantage of.

Then, on the forum, somebody suggested that the game and the solo variant can be played as against 2 opponents. That same account says that it improves the solo variant so I thought I should give it a try and I did.

The game comes with more than enough Steve Jr. cards to run 2 of them. Many not enough for playing against 3. Also, I played with

I have only tried once at this point so this is just an initial impression. Based on that one play, I can definitely say that the game is more interesting now. I actually didn’t expect with the result.

I won by just 1 point. The one at 2nd place was losing every round. But then, suddenly in the last one, all 3 players sold almost the same amount of phones and that 2nd place managed to get a huge profit, like almost 50 points.

I said that this is just initial impression. Maybe after playing more using this variant it may change my perspective. One of the reasons is that somehow the two opponents got weird distributions of their cards.

The one at 2nd place kept selling at highest price but at the same time only get free features. On the other hand, the 3rd player kept selling with lower price, competing with me to be the lowest several times but at the same time, they kept getting the feature with a cost.

In the last round, this 3rd player only had like 2 free features and since they set the price so low, they couldn’t use the other features. Since they went first, they still managed to take all blue customers and made decent profit.

The one at 2nd place got all of the free features but only 2 with paid features. So this one always used all of them. They managed to sell very low number of phones. Since they also got 2 features to ignore the extra costs, this increased their profit at the last round.

Also, the 3rd player got a lot of abilities or bonus from Private customers and yet they never got to draw once. They got one but from the event not because their card told them to.

So, maybe the next time I play, both can get better mix of Steve Jr. cards and change my experience with them. For better or worse. I cannot tell for sure for now but I’m looking forward to it.

For me myself, I had to play to the point of selling a lot of phones with only 1 point profit per phone or none. I secured the bonus round but gained very little to no profit. This never happened in my plays using the official solo variant against one Steve Jr.

Regardless of player counts, the market for technology and marketing cards remain the same, 4 cards each in general. So, with just me and Steve Jr., usually I can still get a good option even if I went last.

This time, I stayed half being the first and the other half being the 2nd. With just 1 opponent, I just went lower then I have a lot more control. This one, there was always a good chance somebody would go lower then me and removed something that I wanted to take.

Running 2 opponents also doesn’t increase the playing time that much. It was still about 2 hours. If anything it felt the extra small time is worth the time than just dealing with 1.

Maybe it can get longer if I kept trying to be the first, selling low. This can lead to reading both opponents’ next move. If then I stay as 2nd place, I resolved the opponent with lower price first, then I started thinking to beat the 2nd with whatever leftover things I could use. This made the 2nd player being that close much more impressive as I tried every round to beat that one as that one always went after me.

While this variant feels better but it still doesn’t change my planning phase that much. I still need to get enough Tech Points to buy at least 1 Tech card per round. But since more players to remove more cards, maybe the available ones were new and more expensive. It forced me not to buy any Feature card in one round hoping I could save Tech points for now and buy a better one later.

Maybe I just did poorly this session or maybe the randomness. But it felt harder to diversify for the features. I don’t remember the choice was this harder.

Maybe I just need to play more and explore different avenue. Like selling high. But then the randomness, especially from Steve Jr. cards make it feels like it was impossible. So, it still feels like tactical game and just do the best according to the situation. Along the way, of course, you can get cards that work together well and even build up but it depends on what’s available right from the start.

I also got lucky with one end game bonus card related to the number of Marketing card. That was the only game end bonus that showed up, I think. Also, there was an event where I could purchase 2 Marketing card at once so it went very well.

Well, that was my initial impression with this solo variant against 2 opponents. Definitely will play again while I already became less interested with the official solo against 1 opponent.

In that session, I (yellow) scored 132, Red scored 131 while Blue scored 117.

Playing time was about 120 minutes.

Finished!

Back to office work to sort some files while managing your supply of candies and coffees to keep going in a game of Finished!.

I already played this a lot but always using the lowest difficulty setting, with 3 more available above that level. I thought how you shuffle the deck can still offer more challenging game so I stayed with that level. But this time, I tried one level above. Play with 7 Coffees or 8 rounds but start with only 5 candies instead of 7.

1st COFFEE.

The first 3 cards were 39, 45 and 46. So, I instantly got another candy from 45. I spent the candy on 46 to draw next card, hoping to be 47. Obviously it wasn’t but I got 18. Sent them to the past in ascending order but started from 39.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18

2nd draw, 20, 23, 43. Nothing really to do so sent them immediately to the past in ascending order.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 43

3rd draw, 30, 31, 38. Spent 1 candy on 30 to pull the last 2 cards from the past just so 43 was the last. Sent them all back to the past in ascending order.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43

4th draw, 37, 41, 14. Nothing to do here. Sent them to the past, ascending order but started with 37.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14

5th draw, 3, 7, 19. Got 1 candy from 3, 5 candies left. Nothing else to do so sent them to the past in ascending order.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,7, 19

6th draw, 2, 25, 27. Spent 1 candy on number 2 to draw 2 cards and got 5 and 8. Then I spent 2nd candy on 8 to pull back the last 2 cards from the past and put them all in ascending order. 3 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 19, 25, 27

7th draw, 4, 9, 12. Spent 1 candy on 4 to put these 3 directly to the bottom of the deck before those in the past. 2 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27

8th draw, 6, 16, 21. Got 2 candies from 6 and 21. But nothing else to do so sent them to the past in ascending order. 4 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21

9th draw, 13, 15, 26. Got 1 candy from 15. Nothing to do as well. Sorted and sent them to the past.

10th draw, 22, 32, 40. Well, nothing to do so sent them to the past in ascending order. 5 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40

11th draw, 34, 35, 47. These 3 were closer to the back to number 48 then the frontmost card. So I spent 1 candy on 35 to push them to the future. 4 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40

12th draw, 34, 36, 42. One candy from number 36. Spent it on 33 to exchange the 36 with the next on the top of the deck. It was number 29. Put them in ascending order and sent these 3 and the next from the future to the past. 3 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34, 35, 47

13th draw, 28, 36, 44. 2 candies from 28 and 36. Spent 1 on 44 to pull back 2 last cards from the past. Now I had 35 and 47 again and spent another candy on 35 to push these 5 to the future. 4 candies left.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34

14th draw, 11, 17, 24. Spent 1 candy on 24 to push these 3 to the future as well. 3 candies left and 2 levels of future.

Current order: 39, 45, 46, 18, 20, 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34

15th draw, 1, 10, 48. Sorted out that number 1 and got 39 as replacement. Got a candy from 10. Spent that candy on 39 to exchange 48 with the top card from the deck which was 45, got another candy. Sent them to the past in ascending order, along with the 1st level future.

Back with the 5 cards, 28, 35, 36, 44, 47. Spent 3 candies on 47 to draw 3 cards and got 48, 46 and 18. Another spending on 46 and got 20. Sorted them out in ascending order and sent them to the past, including 48. Drank 1 coffee. Got 2 candies from 46, 47 and 48. 2 candies left.

Current order: 23, 30, 31, 38, 43, 37, 41, 14, 3,2, 5, 7, 8, 4, 9, 12, 19, 25, 27, 6, 16, 21, 13, 15, 26, 22, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34, 10, 39, 45, 17, 11, 24, 18, 20, 28, 35, 36, 44, 46, 47, 48.

2ND COFFEE. 1 card sorted out.

16th draw, 23, 30, 31. Nothing to do so just sent them to the past in that order. 2 candies left.

17th draw, 37, 38, 43. Nothing to do as well. 2 candies left.

18th draw, 41, 14, 3. Got 1 candy from number 3 and I knew the next one should have been number 2 so I spent 1 on 14. Sorted out 2, drew a 5. The 3 was out, drew a 7. Then I spent another candy on 41. I pushed this and 14 to the past to draw 2 cards and got 8 and 4.

Sorted out 4 and got a 9. So, now I got 7, 8 and 9. Sent them to the past and got 2 candies bonus. 3 candies left, 5 cards sorted.

19th draw, 12, 19, 25. Nothing to do so sent them to the past in that order. 3 candies left.

20th draw, 27, 6, 16. Got a candy from 6 and sorted it out. Drew a 21 after that and got another candy. Nothing to do and sent them to the past in ascending order. 5 candies left, 6 cards sorted.

21st draw, 13, 15, 26. Free candy from 15. Spent it on 13 to exchange 15 with the top one which was 22. Sent them to past in ascending order.

22nd draw, 15, 32, 40. Got the candy again from 15. Nothing to do.

23rd draw, 29, 33, 42. Nothing to do as well.

24th draw, 34, 10, 39. Free candy from 10. Nothing to do but kept 10 as the last. 8 candies left.

25th draw, 45, 17, 11. Got 1 candy from 45 and spent it on 11 to push 11 and 17 to the past. Then I got 2 more cards, 24 and 18. Sorted and sent them to the past. 7 candies left.

26th draw, 20, 28, 35. 1 candy from 28. Nothing to do though.

27th draw, 36, 44, 46. 1 candy from 36, spent it on 46 to draw 47. Spent 3 more on 47 to get 48, 23 and 30. Then I spent on 44 to pull back 28 and 35. One more candy on 35 to push these 9 to the future. 3 candies left.

28th draw, 31, 37, 38. Spent 1 candy on 37 to remove all candies in the present cards and future cards. Then I pushed these 3 to the 2nd future using 48. 1 candy left.

29th draw, 43, 41, 14. Nothing to do so just sent them in ascending order. Same with the next future cards. When it got back to the 9 cards, I spent the last candy on 35 again to push these 9 up again.

30th draw, 7, 8, 9. Sorted all these 3 out and got 12, 19, 25. Well, nothing to do and let them went to the past along with those 9 cards. Got 2 candies from 46, 47 and 48. Drank 1 coffee.

Current order: 16, 21, 27, 13, 22, 26, 15, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34, 39, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 45, 20, 43, 41, 14, 31, 37, 38, 12, 19, 25, 23, 28, 30, 35, 36, 44, 46, 47, 48.

3rd COFFEE. 9 cards sorted.

31st draw, 16, 21, 27. Got 1 candy from 21. Nothing to do, 3 candies left.

32nd draw, 13, 22, 26. Nothing to do. 3 candies left.

33rd draw, 15, 32, 40. Got 1 candy from 15. Nothing to do.

34th draw, 29, 33, 42. Still nothing to do.

35th draw, 34, 39, 10. Got 1 candy from 10 and it was sorted out. Drew a replacement and it was 11 so it got sorted out as well. I got 17. Sent the 3 to the past but 17 as the last. 5 candies left with 11 cards sorted.

36th draw, 18, 24, 45. Got another candy from 45. Nothing to do still. 6 candies left.

37th draw, 20, 43, 41. Nothing to do still but sorting them in ascending order. 6 candies left.

38th draw, 14, 31, 37. Nothing to do. 6 candies left.

39th draw, 38, 12, 19. 12 was sorted out and got 25 as replacement. Still nothing to do. 6 candies left.

39th draw, 23, 28, 30. 1 candy from 28. Nothing to do. 7 candies left.

40th draw, 35, 36, 44. Nothing to do. 7 candies left.

41st draw, 46, 47, 48. Spent 4 candies on 46 and 47 for 4 cards. Got 16, 21, 27 and 13. 13 was sorted out and replaced by 22. Got 1 candy from 21 which I spent on 27 to draw 26. Then I spent 1 on 16 to push these 8 to future. 3 candies left

Current order: 15, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 34, 39, 17, 18, 24, 45, 20, 43, 41, 14, 31, 37, 38, 19, 25, 23, 28, 30, 35, 36, 44

42nd draw, 15, 32, 40. Got 1 candy from 15. I spent it immediately to either 32 or 40 to push a single card, the 15 to the future, joining the 8 cards in the future.

Then I sent these 2 to the past. With the 9 cards back to the preset, I spent 1 candy on 26 to push them back to the future. 2 candies left.

43rd draw, 29, 33, 42. Nothing to do so I sent these 3 and the 9 from the future to the past. The 9 was in ascending order but started from 46. Got 2 bonus candies from 46, 47 and 48. 13 cards sorted. Drank 1 coffee.

Current order: 34, 39, 17, 18, 24, 45, 20, 43, 41, 14, 31, 37, 38, 19, 25, 23, 28, 30, 35, 36, 44, 32, 40, 29, 33, 42, 46, 47, 48, 15, 16, 21, 22, 26, 27

4th COFFEE. 4 candies left, 13 cards sorted.

44th draw, 34, 39, 17. Nothing to do. 4 candies left.

45th draw, 18, 24, 45. 1 candy from 45. Nothing to do. 5 candies left.

46th draw, 20, 43, 41. Nothing to do, 5 candies left.

47th draw, 14, 31, 37. 14 was sorted out and got 38 as replacement. Nothing to do still. 5 candies left.

48th draw, 19, 25, 23. Nothing to do other than sorting them in ascending order. 5 candies left.

48th draw, 28, 30, 35. 1 candy from 28. 6 candies left.

49th draw, 36, 44, 32. 1 candy from 36. Spent it on 44 to pull back 30 and 35. Sorted them and pushed them to the past. 5 candies left. I think I forgot to take 1.

50th draw, 40, 29, 33. Nothing to do still.

51st draw, 42, 46, 47. Spent 4 again and drew 48, 15, 16, 21. Got 1 candy from 15 but along with 16 they got sorted out. Drew 22 and 26 as replacement. Spent another candy on 26 to push them up to the future. 2 candies left.

52nd draw, 27, 17, 34. 17 got sorted out and replaced by 18 which was sorted as well and replaced by 39. Nothing else to do so I pushed these 3 and the 7 in the future to the past. Got 2 bonus candies from 46, 47, 48, drank 1 coffee and got 2 more candies.

Current order: 24, 45, 20, 43, 41, 31, 37, 38, 19, 23, 25, 28, 30, 32, 35, 36, 44, 40, 29, 33, 27, 34, 39, 42, 46, 47, 48, 21, 22, 26

5th COFFEE. 4 candies left and 18 cards sorted.

53rd draw, 24, 45, 20. Got 1 candy from 45. Sorted and pushed them to the past. 5 candies left.

54th draw, 43, 41, 31. Other than swapping 41 and 43, nothing to do.

55th draw, 37, 38, 19. 19 got out and was replaced by 23. Still nothing to do. 6 candies left.

56th draw, 25, 28, 30. 1 candy from 28. Nothing else to do.

57th draw, 32, 35, 36. 1 candy from 36.

58th draw, 44, 40, 29. Nothing to do.

59th draw, 33, 27, 34. Sorted then pushed them to the past.

60th draw. 39, 42, 46. Spent 1 on 46 to draw 47 and then spent 3 more on 47 to draw 3 more. Got 48, 21, 22. Another candy on 22 to exchange 39 with the next one which was 26. Candy to this one to push 7 cards to the future.

61st draw, 39, 20, 24. 20 got out and was replaced by 45, another candy. Spent that candy on 24 to push these 3 and created 2nd level of Future cards.

62nd draw, 41, 43, 31. Spent 1 candy on 41 to push 31 and 41 to the past and got 37 and 38 as replacement. Another candy on 37 to remove all candies from cards in present and the 2 futures. Pushed them to the past along with 3 cards from the 2nd future.

Back to the 7 cards, 21 and 22 got sorted out, replaced by 23 and 25. 23 got sorted out as well, replaced by 28 and a candy. Spent that candy on 26 again to push these 7 to the future again.

63rd draw, 30, 32 35. Nothing to do here so I pushed these 3 and the 7 to the past. Bonus from 46, 47 and 48. Drank 1 coffee. 23 cards sorted.

Current order: 36, 44, 40, 29, 27, 33, 34, 31, 41, 37, 38, 43, 24, 39, 45, 30, 32, 35, 36, 42, 46, 47, 48, 26, 25, 28.

6th COFFEE, 2 candies left, 23 cards sorter.

64th draw, 36, 44, 40. 1 candy from 36. Sorted them and pushed to the past.

65th draw, 29, 27, 33. Sorted and to the past.

66th draw. 34, 31, 41. Sorted and to the past.

67th draw, 37, 38, 43. Sorted and to the past.

68th draw, 24, 39, 45. 24 got sorted out, replaced by 30. Sent to the past in descending order.

69th draw, 32, 35, 42. Sent them to the past.

70th draw, 46, 47, 48. Spent 4 candies on 46 and 47 to get 26, 25, 28, 36. 25 and 26 got sorted out, replaced by 40 and 44. 1 candy on 44 to pull back 42 and 35. Last candy on 35 to push these 9 to the future.

71st draw, 27, 29, 33. 27 got out and was replaced by 31. Sorted and sent them to the past.

The 9 cards were back from the future. 28 got sorted out and replaced by 34. Sent these to the past in ascending order but starting from 34. Got 4 bonus candies, drank 1 coffee, 4 candies left and 28 cards sorted.

Current order: 41, 37, 38, 43, 45, 39, 30, 32, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40, 42, 46, 47, 48.

7th COFFEE. 4 candies, 28 cards sorted.

72nd draw, 37, 38, 41. Nothing to do.

73rd draw, 43, 45, 39. Got 1 candy.

74th draw, 30, 32, 29. 29 and 30 got sorted out followed by 31 to 36. Got 1 candy. So the new cards were 40, 42, 44. 5 candies left.

Spent 1 on 44, to pull back 39 and 45. Sorted and pushed them to the past. 4 candies left.

Current order: 41, 37, 38, 43, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45

75th draw, 46, 47, 48. Spent all 4 candies to draw, 41, 37, 38, 43. 37 and 38 got sorted and replaced by 39 then 40. 41 got sorted out as well, drawing 42, sorted out along with 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48.

1 COFFEE left.

Playing time was about 48 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Finished! Review.

Aquamarine

3 chances to dive into the depth of the ocean while managing the oxygen supply in Aquamarine. This was a solo play using Sheet #2, started from time 4, during the night.

ROUND 1, Night, 4 and 5.

Since it was night time, there were 2 creatures to explore, the one on the left and one in the middle. The left path was blocked by Cave so I chose the middle one. From the middle boat, right most space, going 4 spaces down covering one fish.

ROUND 2, Night, 2 and 4.

Because of the surrounding shape, choosing 4 didn’t help to explore deeper. So, I chose the 2 and just went 2 spaces right from the bottom most space of the last shape. This covered the night creature and one space to the right of it.

ROUND 3, Night, 6 and 6.

With double 6s I could move 8 but in free form shape. There was a research point, a beacon and a shake in between those 2. 8 was more than enough to explore the 2 objects while avoiding the shark and 2 more to go deeper.

I filled the leftmost space of the longest research track. This gave me bonus to move 3 spaces again which I used to move downward, close to a group of fishes. From this depth, 1 oxygen had to be spent.

ROUND 4, Night, 3 and 3.

Got double again so I could move 5 but in free form. I used it to cover the 3 fishes nearby for 6 points. Didn’t enter the cave but chose to go left from the bottom fish of that group.

ROUND 5, Night, 2 and 3.

I chose 3 to keep going to the left until a space between the rocks. Spent 2 more oxygen because of the depth and the difference from both dice.

ROUND 6, Night, 3 and 6.

I could go down or left but even with the 3, I couldn’t make that shape by going down. On the other hand, going 6 in rectangle was perfect to cover a bubble and a research point below the shark so I went with 2 x 3 shape. I filled the 2nd space of the longest research track. No oxygen was consumed thanks to that bubble.

ROUND 7, Night, 3 and 3.

Double again so I could move 5 in free form. I could aim for the fishes to the left but only covered 2 fishes. The other option was to move between rocks by going to the right. This could reach the flag there.

At this point, still needed to go down one space to complete the Hard mode requirement.

ROUND 8, Night, 2 and 4.

I had to move in straight form, through the cave. Going with 4 means crossing the shark and lose some points. So, I chose the 2, just enough to pass the rocks and cave, spending 1 light. Still had to spend 2 oxygen.

I could end the dive right here but there was a research point next with a chance to cover a fish.

ROUND 9, Night, 1 and 3.

3 was enough to cover the research point and the fish. Spent 2 oxygen plus 2 more for the difference. Filled the 1st space of the 2nd longest research track, hoping to get extra 5 space movement.

I ended the first dive here.

ROUND 10, Night, 2 and 4.

I thought I should leave diving from right most as the last one since it would have been at daylight. So, I chose the left one with 4. From the right most space, I could create a square shape to cover 2 fishes. Spent 2 oxygen for the difference.

ROUND 11, Night, 3 and 6.

From the current position, I could either go down, or to the right. Going down with 3 only cover 1 fish and with 6, straight I would have passed the shark. 6 in rectangle was useless. I thought the best was to aim the nearby research point by going straight 3 to the right. Filled the 2nd space of the 2nd longest track, no bonus yet.

ROUND 12, Night, 1 and 4.

Next to the recently covered research point, there was a bubble. Going 1 was useless. I could have gone 4 but square to cover the creature but it was still night time. So I went with 4 down, covering a bubble and a fish.

There were other options by going down 4 but same with just covering 1 fish and no bubble.

ROUND 13, Day, 2 and 4.

I initially thought I should explore the giant Squid inside this huge nearby cave. But then I realized, I would have overlapped the previous explored space or ended the dive early, failing the solo requirement.

So, I went to the left. Going with 2 or 4 only covered 1 Fish. I chose 4 straight down instead, leaving one row just in case I rolled very high and could cover a lot of things in this row. Spent 2 oxygen for it because of the difference in dice.

ROUND 14, Day, 5 and 6.

I got lucky. As mentioned before, this row, withing 6 spaces there were a lot of objects to be covered, a flag, a bubble, research point and day creature. No need to spend 1 oxygen and chose the 6 to cover all of these.

ROUND 15, Day, 5 and 6.

This was a very rare case where higher roll was bad. There was nearby beacon to pair with the night one from before but I needed a 4 max. I could go down with 5 or 6 but it would have prevented me to go deeper if I aimed for the beacon after that. So, I had to choose 6 and created a rectangle. This way, I had room to reach the beacon next and then going down afterwards. Spent 1 oxygen from the difference and 1 more from the depth.

ROUND 16, Day, 1 and 4.

One was a bit wasteful and I already run out of time for the 3rd dive. while 4 was a bit expensive. Regardless, I went with 4 with square shape to cover the Day Beacon. Spent 3 oxygen from difference plus 1 from depth.

ROUND 17, Day, 3 and 5.

I could have ended the current dive and started a new one but this was not deep enough for the hard more solo requirement. Going with either number down means passing a shark and losing points for that requirement. I let it and chose 5 because it could reach another research point. With that I filled the 1st space of 1st track to get free bubble so no need to spend any oxygen for this turn.

That was the end of the 2nd dive.

ROUND 18, Day, 1 and 4.

I could have chosen the left boat and went down with left path with the last dive. But it was a bit narrow and wasteful. Diving from the right boat, I could go with the center or going to the right for that last daylight creature.

I chose to stay in the middle by going with 4, spending 3 oxygen to cover a fish. Didn’t have much time left and I thought I should go down as fast as possible.

ROUND 19, Day, 2 and 4.

It seems I went with 2 down. Maybe trying to avoid going with 4 and then later I had to use straight form. It was only 1 space away from the previous route which was forbidden.

ROUND 20, Day, 2 and 4.

Not sure the dice roll I got but maybe 2 and 4. I went 4 down this time, spending 2 oxygen and reached a Flag. From this point I could continue to the right and down.

ROUND 21, Day, 2 and 6.

For the right path, I had to move right first before going down. I could have gone with 6 with rectangular shape but a waste since I had to spend 4. So I went with 2 just 2 spaces to the right.

ROUND 22, Day, 3 and 4.

Running out of time so I had to choose 4 down straight. Spent 1 oxygen plus 1 from the depth. The shape covered 2 fishes.

ROUND 23, Day, 3 and 3.

I could move 5 in free form now. The current position was an intersection and I could go left or right. There was a research to the left but not much farther it was blocked by previous route. The free form allowed me to take the research point and go right after that.

With 5 I could even take the Flag but I already reached one in this dive so the last one was useless as this one had higher value.

Filled the 3rd space of 2nd research track gave me additional movement with 5 spaces. I used it to go down and reached the bubble so no need to spend oxygen. The hard mode solo requirement had been achieved but the game was not over.

ROUND 24, Day, 3 and 4.

With 4, I still had enough oxygen. I could have gone for a research point and the day time creature. Or I could make a square shape and covered 2 research points. This could completely fill a single track and got me 5 points. I went with the latter, spending 3 oxygen and covered those 2 to fill the last 2 spaces of 2nd research track.

That was the end of the game.

SCORING
10 points from Creatures
0 from Colossal Squid
32 points from Flags
15 points from Research tracks
-3 points from Shark
12 points from Fishes
15 from a pair of Beacon

TOTAL SCORE: 81 POINTS.

Playing time was about 42 minutes.

Chomp

Build Dinosaur herds and provide each type with proper food source or the Carnivores will start chomping on the Herbivores in a game of Chomp.

This was my first time playing the solo variant and I got to play 5 times. Compared to the multiplayer, the gameplay is exactly the same just without other players taking the cards from the market and affect what’s available left. So, you have full control of what to get and what to let go. On the other hand, if all of the face up cards are bad then you have nobody else to take something and change the market.

The main difference in this one is the setup. Instead of getting just 1 card with tile facing up as starting card, the solo variant gives you 2 goal cards and 1 tile. In multiplayer game, each player get 8 turns but in solo game, you get to take 9 cards in addition to the starting 3. So, the game is slightly longer per player.

As part of the setup, the 3 starting cards must come from card with the single player symbol, which is about half of the entire deck. After that, the leftover is combined with the rest of the deck, shuffled and become the cards you can take. The varieties come not just from those cards with the single player symbol but also from the rest of the deck.

This is basically a BYOS type game and the solo rule comes with a scoring chart. However, there is a discussion thread about an issue related to this. In general, it is not that hard to reach the top of the scoring chart in this solo variant. The highest level in the chart is about 30 points or higher but in reality, even in my lowest score from these 5 sessions, I got easily 30 points while the highest could go over 60.

The publisher has then released an updated chart where you need to go over 66 to be the best.

One thing that I don’t like about this variant is nobody to tell whether you have taken 9 cards or not since you include all of them in the deck. You have to count it and end the game yourself after taking 9 cards in a game where you overlap those cards as a tile.

An easy fix for that is, after placing 3 goal cards and 3 tile cards, you only take 9 cards as the deck randomly instead of all deck. When the deck runs out, that instantly ends the game.

Another thing that I don’t like with the setup, related to resetting the game to play again is that you have to separate those cards back into 2 categories, the one with solo icon and the one that doesn’t before mixing them up again. These big square cards themselves are already hard for me to shuffle. Even if the play itself is fast but each session takes like 20 minutes and big portion of it is for this separate then mixing cards and shuffling.

Here are the results of my sessions.

1st Play, I got 21 from fed dinosaurs, 4 from eggs in a nest. Got 5 total scoring cards which got me 39 points. So the total was 64 points.

2nd play, I got 14 from fed dinosaurs plus 6 from eggs. Took 2 extra scoring cards which got me only 11 points. One of them, a starting goal was completely 0 point. Total was 31 points.

3rd play, 27 from fed dinosaurs plus 4 from eggs. Also took 2 extra scoring cards, which got me 14 points. Total score was 45 points.

4th play, 21 from fed dinosaurs, plus 2 from eggs. 2 extra scoring cards and got 24 points from those 4 goal cards. Total was 47 points.

5th play, 14 from fed dinosaurs, 2 from eggs. Only got 1 more scoring card and got 17 points. Total score was 33 points.

Some thoughts of these solo variant.

In general, getting more scoring cards might provide more points, assuming you can work on each. If all of them work the same goal, each scores better. Even better if those goals align with the general idea of the game, making and keeping as many herds and as many dinosaurs survive.

For going the other way, if you then have a goal to kill more dinosaur with tar pit and not getting one, then you cannot score much. In that case, if then you switch plans midway, you probably also don’t get a lot of points. This is what happened in my 5th play.

In my 2nd solo play, also the lowest score, I got a scoring where you need to get nest with eggs, next to another nest and next to a herd or more. Scoring related to eggs and nest are probably the most difficult to achieve. Not only you have to get lucky to take a card with a nest, you then have to take a card with an egg to put them. This is in addition to the spatial consideration as where to put them.

In my previous Blog post entry related to this game, I mentioned a distribution issue between these types of goal cards and the icons in lower player count. I think this applies here as well and make the solo even worse.

It feels like the game is designed specifically to be played with 4 where you use all of the cards. With lower player count, you may not get the cards with the required icons at all.

In solo, the goal is to score as high as possible while in multiplayer game, you just need to score better than others even just by 1 point. With multiplayer, if you cannot increase the score because all cards are bad then you can start hate drafting to prevent the other from getting more score on their turn. In solo, either you keep improving the score or no chance to be at the top of the chart.

This leads to ignoring certain types of goals. Those starting goal cards might be a trap if you think you can score very high by focusing on it and let it shape your entire strategy of that session.

Well, I have only played this solo variant 5 times. Maybe I’m just bad at the game and by playing more maybe I can score better. But it feels there is some randomness that doesn’t support this BYOS idea. Maybe people should just do your best when playing the game and not caring about the score at all. Even game like Sprawlopolis, they give you different target score based on different goal cards and what’s left from the expected cards.

I don’t mind solo games like that but maybe not very exciting for some.

Playing time took 109 minutes for 5 sessions.

Keep the Heroes Out!

Work with the other Monster Clans to defend your dungeon in a game of Keep the Heroes Out!.

This time played as the Gnoll, one of the Crowd control and the Poltergeist from the support category.

Gnoll has 7 figures and their main ability is to attack. Somehow I forgot about this for the most part of my session.

They start in the Bone rooms either Beast training room or the Sewer. Their starting cards can kill a hero, turning them into coin and then they can spend that coin to deploy up to 3 figures in the same room like calling their clans for help.

The book suggests dragging some coins everywhere but this is bad for this scenario. Played the 3rd scenario where Troll will randomly shows up and demand 2 coins payment or each player has to lose 1 card from their hand. This means, ideally, 2 of the coins has to stay in the Treasure room until 2 Trolls have showed up.

Since this scenario has 3 columns of rooms, I guess the 3 coins should be spread out one for each. Just need to make sure that at least one Gnoll is in each column to activate. So, for this scenario, Gnoll clan works well as defender.

Poltergeist has the ability to move through wall as their special ability which can help move resources without passing through doors. The problem is that they only have 3 figures and each movement can only bring 1 item per figure.

Also in this scenario, the room that generate the related resources is still very close or use the same number of movement to the room to spend those resources to gain loot. So, in this scenario, their ability is mostly to move between 1 column to another through walls while their teammate can only move between 1 row to another within the same column. Even then, when you have opened enough portals, you want will want to use them more.

At that point, Poltergeist plays a different role. They will start using 8 attacks from their starting cards to be more of a crowd control.

So, this Gnoll and Poltergeist pair is very strong crowd control potential. After the game I kind of wish I increased the difficulty a bit. I played still with the easiest difficulty.

Here is how the session went.

WAVE 1, ROUND 1.

GNOLL’S TURN, started with 2 figures, one in the Beast training and one in the sewer. First thing they did was to throw a hero to jail. Unfortunately, it was a Mage.

So, the mage immediately broke out. The jail was the farthest from the Treasure room so the treasure there only required a single hero to open. Luckily, the effect just removed an item there which I had none.

*** Somehow I made a mistake again. The Mage should have ended his movement after opening that chest but instead I moved him to the next one the Apothecary. Well, he stopped there since he couldn’t open the chest that required 2 heroes. I think I put him back to the prison later.

After that, the one Gnoll in the Sewer had to move 2 spaces to the prison and kill the Mage, turning the hero into coin and spent the coin to get 3 figures in that Prison.

That first Gnoll also generated a Frog and since he had to pass Apothecary anyway, he brought the frog there and made a Potion. The potion card from the available loot allowed the owner to draw 3 cards and keep any of them with a trap symbol. This was probably better with Imp but I saw a weapon with trap symbol so I planned for the Gnoll to get it. It didn’t happen and I actually kind of regret getting this card.

Since some of them were in the prison, they activated the portal. Then I moved 1 of them back to the Treasure room to pick up a coin. I guess I should have brought it to the other column with no Gnoll but instead I moved it back to the Sewer.

**** I think I messed it up since I tried to fix the wrong Mage movement. Oh, well…

HERO’S TURN. 2 Archers appeared in the Hat room, the Library, farthest in the left column and the Apothecary. The former killed one Poltergeist in the next room and the latter killed the Gnoll in the Sewer. While the former opened the chest, it was only to discard the item there and there was none. The latter couldn’t open the chest alone.

POLTERGEIST’S TURN. Only one in the trap room. Started by throwing 2nd archer card to jail. Luckily, after fixing the mage movement, no Gnoll in the next room to be killed.

Deployed 2 in the Blacksmith room. I was trying to help move the coin in the sewer to Gnoll in the Beast room right next to that sewer. So, I moved one from that Blacksmith or weapon room to Sewer while getting 1 extra card from the deck. Did it twice with the other card and finally the coin was there.

Then I moved that Poltergeist to the Bone room to generate one. There was an Owl bear beast that can draw more card, especially for Gnoll. Using the same card, moved back the Poltergeist along with the bone to the Beast training room. The Poltergeist didn’t claim that beast but moved back to the Bone room to bring more.

Poltergeist had 3 cards left all with 2 attack or one movement each. I could have at least used one of them to kill the Archer in the Library but I thought it was a waste with 2. I regret it shortly.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Rouges in the same room as the archer before in hat type room. So, the one in Library inspired the archer and they moved into the Weapon room with one Poltergeist. One killed the Poltergeist but the other couldn’t open the chest alone.

The one in the Apothecary did the same but both only managed to open the chest there. Luckily, the effect was just to remove an item so they both stopped there.

WAVE 1, ROUND 2.

GNOLL’S 2ND TURN.

This time, started by throwing a Warrior to jail. Got that Potion card that I couldn’t use. Then I killed the 2 heroes in jail, turning them into coins.

*** It seems I made another mistake again. I should have gotten only 1 coin and leave the other hero or killed both and got 2 coins. Instead I got 2 coins and the warrior was still there.

Anyway, I moved one Gnoll from prison through portal to the treasure room so one Coin was ready for the Troll. Using the same card, triggering the coin in that Treasure room.

2 Gnolls in the prison left. I moved one to the next room with 2 heroes there (I also brought along the coin). This was the part I forgot about Gnoll’s special action to attack. That move card also has activation symbol which I used to get another coin in the treasure room. After moving to the Apothecary, killed and turned the rogue into coins.

All coins were used in the dungeon. So, I turned one of them to deploy 1 figure to that Apothecary. 2 cards left, one of them was the potion. I forgot about refreshing the loot cards. But then again, 1 Beast, 3 scrolls and 1 weapon all seemed useful for me.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Rogues appeared in the Eye room, the Bone and the Scroll room. The former killed the Poltergeist there and they were exhausted while the latter had to wait for 2 more friends to open the chest.

POLTERGEIST’S 2ND TURN. Started by throwing 2nd Warrior to the jail for 3 cards. Only 1 figure left in the trap room. I deployed 1 in the Weapon room and using the 2 attack card, killed the 2 heroes there.

1 move and 1 activation next were for generating a trap and moved the Poltergeist in that trap room to the Beast training one. There was one Gnoll with his one coin and a bone.

Apparently I decided to use a card with 1 action and 1 draw to take the Beast for Poltergeist. I was planning for it to be taken for Gnoll.

Then using a card with 1 move and 1 activation, moved the Poltergeist in the Weapon to the Library to open the portal there. Back to the one in the Beast room, moving the Poltergeist to the Bone room with a Rogue there.

Draw 1 and activate one to generate a Bone. Back again with Poltergeist in Library, moving it through portal to the prison and with double attack killed both the prisoners.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Rogues again and this time appeared in the Sewer and the Beast. The former couldn’t open the chest while the latter killed the Gnoll there.

WAVE 1, ROUND 3.

GNOLL’S 3RD TURN, started by throwing a hero to jail. Unfortunately it was a Mage. I got lucky that I killed the 2 previously. The Mage took out the Gnoll but the Poltergeist was still there.

Since there were 3 coins in the Treasure room, spent 1 of them to deploy 3 in that room. All figures were in the dungeon. Moved one of them to the Library through portal and it took 1 book. Then very wastefully, spent 2 cards just to move back through portal to the treasure and then to the Scroll Study room. Gnoll made a scroll with the book they brought along. This scroll can deploy 2 figures in hat room and a trap.

While in the same room, Gnoll killed that Rogue, turning them into coin. Same goes with one of Gnolls in Apothecary to kill the Archer. No more coin could be generated though. One card left and it was the useless Potion but they just got that scroll with a trap.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Archers, one in weapon and one in trap room. The former killed the Gnoll in the Scroll room next door while the latter got killed by a trap.

POLTERGEIST’S 3RD TURN. Started by throwing another Warrior to jail. There was already a Mage there. Using card with 2 attacks, killed the Mage in jail and the Rogue in Bone room. The latter Poltergeist then moved to the Beast room again with a bone.

2 attacks, one to kill the Warrior in jail and the other for Rogue in Beast room. The one in jail then teleported through portal from jail to Library and got a book. 3 scrolls were available in the loot market.

Draw 1 and activate one to get a new card and generate one more book. Got exactly the same card. While bringing one book, teleported to the treasure room. Draw 1 and activate 1 again which I used to generate 2nd trap in the trap room.

Continued moving the one in treasure to scroll room with a book and got a scroll. The scroll allowed the Poltergeist to move 3 times.

I moved it again to the next room with a coin, to the weapon so anybody could start getting a weapon card. The Owl beast got 1 new card and killed the hero there. One last card was to move the one in beast back to Bone room.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Mages appeared in Eyes, the Study and Bone room. The former couldn’t open the chest while the latter just killed the Poltergeist and stopped their movement.

WAVE 1, ROUND 4.

GNOLL’S 4TH TURN. Last archer card to the jail. Killed one of the Gnoll next room. Only 3 Gnolls in the dungeon,1 in Apothecary, one in Sewer and one in the Treasure.

First one was moving the one in treasure, through portal to the Library room. Gnoll also generated 2nd book there. That Gnoll then moved to the Weapon and with a coin there made one from the loot. This card allowed all Gnolls in the room to deploy a trap each or do 1 ranged attack.

That Gnoll moved again with the Book from Library to make a Scroll. This one allowed Gnoll to do 3 ranged attacks. Gnoll killed the Mage there, turning them into coin and that Coin brought in 3 friends of Gnolls.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Mages, one in Weapon and the other in the trap. The former killed the Poltergeist there while the latter got killed by a trap.

POLTERGEIST’S 4TH TURN. Started with throwing Warrior again to the jail. One other hero was already there. Only one Poltergeist in dungeon and it was in the trap room.

Deployed the other 2, one in each room. Using a scroll with 3 movements, moved the Poltergeist in the weapon to library, then teleported with a book to treasure and came back to library. One move and 1 action, moving one Poltergeist from trap to treasure and then the one in Library generated a book.

The one in treasure took the book there and brought it into the Scroll room and made one. This allowed them to do 3 ranged attacks. Then Draw 1 and 1 action. Got the Owl Beast and activated the special ability to move the one in Library through wall to the Apothecary. Using the same 2 cards then moved that Poltergeist to the prison and killed both heroes. There was a coin in Apothecary and the Poltergeist brought along.

After that, played the Owl just to get 1 more card. using that new card, moved back through portal with a coin to the Library again so the coin could be spent for weapon.

HERO’S TURN. TROLL CARD and they took 2 coins from the Treasure room.

WAVE 1, ROUND 5.

GNOLL’S 5TH TURN. There were 2 cards left in the Heroes deck before the next wave. One of them was supposed to be the other Troll and the other was Rogue.

Threw one to jail and it was a Rogue. That means, after this, another Troll demanded 2 coins in Treasure room.

First thing was moving 1 Gnoll from Scroll room to treasure room and generated 1 coin. Using the same card that Gnoll generated 1 more coin so now it was enough for the Troll and then the Gnoll teleported to the Bone room with a Mage there. Killed the Mage but didn’t turn them into coin as all coins were on the board.

With the Weapon card, the 3 Gnolls deployed 3 traps in the Scroll room. After that, using the Scroll card, created a portal in that Scroll room. No more heroes in the dungeon currently so that was the end of the turn.

HERO’S TURN. TROLL CARD again and they took the 2 coins from the Treasure room.

WAVE 2, ROUND 5.

POLTERGEIST’S 5TH TURN. 1st Archer card was thrown to jail for 3 cards. The archer killed the Gnoll in Apothecary room.

First action with 1 move and 1 action was to move a Poltergeist from the Library with a book, teleported to Scroll room. Then made a Scroll with that book. The Scroll had options either to defend or to double attack.

Using the same set of actions, moved the Poltergeist from Scroll room to treasure and generated 1 coin, preparing for the Troll again. With 1 draw and 1 action to generate the 2nd coin for the troll and got the Owl card.

Using a scroll with 3 movements, moved the 2 poltergeists, one from treasure to Sewer and from Scroll to Weapon. The latter brought along a coin. With 1 draw and 1 action, made a weapon and got 2 attacks or 1 move card. The weapon was either move 1 plus attack 1 or all figures attacks. This was actually better for Gnoll but there were something similar in the Loot market.

After making that weapon, the Poltergeist went to library and then teleported to the jail. Using the Owl card, killed the archer and drew a scroll card.

Using 1 move or 2 attacks, moved the one in trap to the Beast room and using the scroll card opened a portal. Last card just 1 movement or 2 attacks, moved back the one from jail to the library.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Mages in Library and Apothecary. The former killed the poltergeist there and the latter moved to the sewer and killed the Gnoll.

2 Warriors appeared in that same room as the Mages. After inspiring the mage in library, they both moved to the weapon room and opened the chest. Both Monsters had to discard one card.

The one in Apothecary moved to Sewer, killing Poltergeist and inspired the Mage. Fortunately both were unable to open the chest.

WAVE 2, ROUND 6.

GNOLL’S 6TH TURN. They threw another archer to jail. 3 Gnolls in Scroll room and one in Bone room.

1 Move and 1 Action was to move 1 Gnoll from Scroll to treasure room and generated 3rd coin there, preparing for the 2nd Troll.

Using the same card, probably should have generated 4th coin but all of them were already in the Dungeon. So, instead, moved Gnoll from treasure to Sewer and then generated a Frog.

There was a coin there. Spent it and brought in 2 other Gnolls to the room. 1 Move and 1 Action again to move 2nd Gnoll from Library to Weapon room with 2 heroes there. Killed the Mage and turned him into a coin. I meant to spend the coin to deploy the last Gnoll but it seems I didn’t actually resolve it, only discarded the card for no reason.

Used the other attack card for coin to kill one of 2 heroes in Sewer.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Rogues appeared in the Eye room. The one in Bone room killed the Gnoll there and the other in Scroll room, removed 1 trap but got killed by the other trap.

TROLL CARD showed up and took 2 Coins from the Treasure room. 1 coin left there.

POLTERGEIST’S 6TH TURN. Started by throwing another Rogue to jail. Only one figure and it was in the Beast room.

Spent the bone there to take the Mole Beast using 1 draw and 1 action. The new card was move 1 and 1 action or deploy. Using that card, deployed 1 in the Weapon room.

That Poltergeist immediately moved to the Library to get a book. With the same card again, teleported with a book to Scroll room and made one. The Scroll can deploy 2 figures in bone type room and attack.

With 2 cards of 2 attacks or 1 move, the Poltergeist in the Beast room teleported to the Jail and killed both heroes. Teleported again to the Bone room, generating 3rd bone and then killed the Rogue there.

HERO’S TURN. 2ND TROLL CARD. There was only one coin so both Gnoll and Poltergeist had to discard 1 card each.

Then 2 Mages appeared in bone type room. The one in the Beast room couldn’t open the chest alone and the one in the Sewer inspired the Warrior there and they both killed 2 of 3 Gnolls.

2 Warriors then appeared also in the same two rooms as those mages. In the Beast room they finally opened the chest and the warrior removed the coin. They got activated again so they moved to the trap room. One trap killed the Warrior and the Mage couldn’t open the chest alone.

The one appeared in the Sewer inspired the 2 heroes there and removed the Frog. One of them killed the last Gnoll but then the 2 couldn’t open the chest without the 3rd one.

WAVE 2, ROUND 7.

GNOLL’S 7TH TURN. Throwing another archer to jail. There were only 3 Gnolls in the dungeon. One in Sewer, one in Scroll and the other in Weapon.

Using card with 1 move and 1 action, moved the one in scroll to treasure and made a weapon in that room as there was already a coin. This weapon allowed the Gnoll to move all figures in the same room.

Using that same card again, moving the one from Treasure to the Sewer, and using special ability, the one in weapon killed the Warrior there. That one in the weapon room also created a portal using scroll.

There were 3 heroes in Sewer. Killed one of them and turn them into coin. Using card with 1 move and 1 action again, killed the 2nd hero in the sewer and teleported a Gnoll from weapon room to beast to pick up one of 3 bones.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Rogues appeared in Weapon and Trap Room. The latter with 1 Mage couldn’t open the chest.

*** I think I resolved the one in Weapon incorrectly. There was nothing in that room so the Rogue moved to the Study room. The Rogue should have been killed by the trap but instead I resolved it as they disarmed the trap and then killed the Poltergeist there.

After that, 2 Mages came in the Bone and the Scroll room. The former killed the Poltergeist there, the last one actually but there was still Gnoll there. While the former with the recently summoned rogue couldn’t open the chest.

PLOTERGEIST’S 7TH TURN. They threw another archer to the jail. There were 2 in jail. No figures in the dungeon for Poltergeist at all and those 5 plus 3 cards didn’t have any to deploy.

Played the draw 1 plus 1 action and finally got a card to deploy. No action could be done unfortunately. Deployed one in the trap room with 2 heroes.

Killed them both with 1 card and using the Scroll, created a Portal in the trap room. Using the other scroll card, moved that figure to the Beast room and then used ranged attack to kill the Mage in Bone room.

There was still one more move from that card. From there, teleported to the Scroll room with 2 heroes. Attacked the 2 heroes with 1 card.

Played the Owl beast card to draw a new card and got the card with 2 attack and 1 move again. 1 attack or 1 defense was wasted.

Using another scroll with 3 movements, only used one to teleport to the jail. With double attack card killed both heroes.

HERO’S TURN. 2 Mages appeared in trap and weapon room. The former still couldn’t open the chest. Same with the latter but after moving to the Scroll room.

2 rogues appeared in Beast and Sewer room. The former went to the Trap but couldn’t open the chest still with Mage. While the latter inspired the Warrior there and killed the one Gnoll but they couldn’t open the chest.

WAVE 2, ROUND 8.

GNOLL’S 8TH TURN. There were 2 more hero cards and both were the Warrior. Threw one to jail so the last one was the Blue room.

Only 1 Gnoll in the Bone room. Teleported that one in the sewer with 2 heroes there. Killed the Rogue and turned her into coin. Spent that coin and brought in 3 more Gnolls. After that, killed the Warrior and turned him into coin as well.

Deployed new Gnoll in the beast room. Using a scroll with 3 ranged attacks, killed the 2 heroes in the Trap room.

HERO’S TURN. 2 last Warriors appeared, one in Trap room unable to open the chest alone and the other in Weapon room. That last one moved to the Scroll room where they found a Mage but both were unable to open the chest.

The Heroes finally gave up and left the dungeon.

Playing time took exactly 2 hours. With a lot of errors, still.

Mint Works

Build your city by managing Mint Workers in a game of Mint Works.

Instead of solo, played this 2-handed. The first 3 buildings were the Bridge (Green), Co-Op (Red) and Garden (Green). Also played with Swap Meet and Recycler space. In this session I gave the 2nd player 4 mints instead of the same 3 for all players.

ROUND 1.

First player kept their Leadership token. 3 Mints left. 2nd Player went to Producer with 1 Mint to get 2 more. 5 Mints left.

1st player followed and took the Producer space. Spent 1 mint to get 2 more. 3 Mints left. 2nd Player paid 1 Mint to the Supplier to claim the first building, the BRIDGE. 4 Mints left. Actually, I got the rule wrong by refilling the building cards right after one player took a card. The better choice was to get the red for this 2nd player but that Co-Op showed up after 2nd player took 1 from the market.

1st player then used the last Supplier space to take that Co-Op Red building. The cost was 1 mint. 2 mints left.

2nd player then built that Bridge by paying 2 mints. 2 mints left.

1st player claimed the last space of Builder and paid 2 mints. No more mint. Unfortunately nothing else could be done well for 2nd player so 2nd player passed.

UPKEEP. No player had 7 Stars. Each player got 2 mints. 2 for 1st Player and 4 for 2nd player.

ROUND 2. GARDEN, MINE, PLANT.

1st Player kept the 1st player token and got 1 Mint replacement. 2 Mints left. 2nd player took the Mine card from the Supplier by paying 2 Mints. 1 Mint left.

1st Player used 1st space of Producer, paying 1 Mint to get 2. 3 Mints left. 2nd Player followed, 2 mints left.

1st Player took the Gardens card from supplier by paying 3 mints. No mint left. 2nd Player then built the Mine by paying 2 Mints. no more mints for both so that was the end of the round.

UPKEEP. Both only had 1 Star so the game continued. 1st Player got 2 tokens and 2nd Player got 3. It seems I added 1 more each.

ROUND 3. VAULT, CRANE, PLANT

Instead of keeping the 1st player token, 1st player claimed the Crane card from the supplier, paying 2 mints. 1 Mint left. 2nd Player claimed the starting token. 3 Mint left.

1st went to Producer, paying 1 token to get 2. 2nd player did the same and had 5 mints left.

1st paid 2 to Builder to build that Crane. From this point, 1st only needed to pay 1 for Builder. The rest of the building cards had a cost of 5, too expensive for 2nd player so they passed and the round ended.

UPKEEP. 2 Stars for 1st player and only 1 for 2nd so the game continued. 2 Mints for 1st and 8 for 2nd.

ROUND 4. VAULT, WINDMILL, PLANT.

2nd went first and kept the Starting token. 1st went to Producer, paying 1 mint to get 2. 3 Mints left.

2nd player claimed the Plant card and paid 5 to supplier. 3 Mints left. This was a red building. 1st player took 2nd space of the Producer. 4 mints left.

2nd paid 2 mints to build the Plant. Got 2 Stars and every Upkeep got 2 extra mints. 1 mint left. 1st followed paying just 1 mint to build the Garden. This was a green, 3 stars and no special ability.

2nd player with the last mint, paid 1 to supplier to take the Windmill card. 1st player passed and that was the end of the round.

UPKEEP. 5 Stars for 1st and 3 for 2nd so the game continued. Both had 5 Mints.

ROUND 5. VAULT, LOTTO, FACTORY.

2nd player went first and claimed the starting token. 1st player to Producer and had 6 tokens.

2nd player followed and had 6 as well. 1st player paid 4 to get the Lotto building card. 3 Mint left.

2nd player then took the factory from supplier after paying 4. 2 mints left. 1st only needed to pay 1 to build that Lotto. Got 7 stars already. 2 mints left.

2nd player followed and paid the last 2 to build that Factory. Got 3 stars but only 6 so far. 1st player passed.

UPKEEP. 1st player had 7 Stars while 2nd only had 6. So, 1st player won.

Playing time was about 14 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Mint Works Review.

Friday

Help Robinson again to survive on the island as his servant and friend in a solo game, Friday. Only 1 session and this was with the Level 2 difficulty, started with 1 Aging card in the starting deck and 20 available life points. The 2 Pirates were the 25 and the 16.

GREEN PHASE.

1st Draw. Robinson first option was either explore the island or further explore the island, both for the same ability. But the latter gave more fighting points.

Robinson got to draw 3 cards for free. First one was the Aging card, the Distraction. He told himself to “focus” but then he got distracted again. The total fighting he got was -1 from the requirement of 2 so he lost 3 which was enough to get rid both of distracted cards. 17 life points left.

2nd Draw. Going against the Cannibals or going back to the raft. According to the story, Friday’s father was one of the victim they rescued from the Cannibals. Let’s say Friday convinced Robinson to go help his dad and somebody else there.

Robinson got 5 chances. First, he felt weak. 2nd. He felt weak again. Friday let him eat to get 2 Life points as the 3rd. 4th time. Robinson still felt weak. 5th time. Still weak.

The requirement was 5 but so far, no fighting points. They only wanted to get rid of Robinson’s weaknesses but not the eating part. So, Friday convinced him to give one more chance. Drew another one. Weak…

Clearly, Robinson was not ready so they accepted defeat. 13 Life points left.

3rd Draw. Going back to raft again or explore island again. Let’s just say Robinson felt bad for being that weak so he decided to explore island to find weapon. He got 2 chances.

1st. Robinson still felt weak. 2nd. Still weak. He pushed himself once. Got distracted. Requirement was 1 but they got -1. Lost 2 points and got rid only 2 cards. 11 life points left.

4th DRAW. Friday asked him the same 2 options, Explore or Back to Raft. Robinson said Explore. 2 chances again.

1st one. He still felt weak. 2nd one. He already got distracted. No use to keep pushing so they gave up. 9 life points left.

5th DRAW. Friday already had low hope from Robinson but he asked the same 2 options again, Explore or Raft. Robinson said “EXPLORE!”. 2 chances.

1st one. Still distracted. 2nd one. FOCUSED! Finally. While that was not enough, at least that was a progress, very minor one. The requirement was still one but this time they got to zero, exactly to get rid 1 card. 8 life points left.

6TH DRAW. Since Robinson seemed to get better, Friday asked a bit different. Explore or Wild Animal? Robinson said “ANIMALS!”. He got 4 chances.

1st one. He got an idea. Robinson was GENIUS. Next, he got DISTRACTED. Focus, Robinson! 4th one, he got FOCUSED again. Requirement was 4 but this time they only got 3. Robinson pushed himself again… He chose EATING! No additional fighting points. At this point, they already went through 18 starting cards so new aging was about to show up. They decided to let it go. Lost 1 point but enough just to get rid 1 card. 8 points left.

7TH DRAW. Cannibals or back to raft? At this point, he had won nothing. So, with an aging card about to show up, he decided with the Raft. Only 1 free chance.

Robinson felt weak. But that was enough for him to get to the raft. Finally first won. He found some equipment to draw 2 cards next.

8TH DRAW. Explore the Island or Further explore the island? Robinson thought he got a good chance and the difference was just 1 fighting power so he went to explore further. 3 chances.

1st one was he felt STUPID, an aging one. Then Focus, Robinson! Next was he got to use the equipment and got 2 more chances. Robinson was FOCUSED again. Requirement was 2 but they got 0. Next one, Robinson chose EATING.

At this point, while they already got rid a lot of weaknesses but only won once so they already got to another aging card. They stopped and decided to learn how to get rid that STUPID card by losing 2 points. 6 LP left.

9TH DRAW. Friday asked again, Explore or back to raft? They had to be very careful so they chose Raft. Requirement was 0 with one chance card.

Robinson was HUNGRY. He lost 1 LP but luckily that was enough to get him to the raft. That one got him exactly Food Supply. 5 LP left still.

10TH DRAW. Explore further or deal with Wild Animal? So far taking risk didn’t help Robinson much so he chose to explore further. 3 chances for 2 Fighting points.

First one and Robinson felt GENIUS! That was enough to complete that challenge. He got another food supply. I guess Food really helped. 5 LP left.

11th DRAW. Keep exploring further or back to animal? Robinso was convinced that he was ready with the Animal. 4 chances for 4 fighting points.

Robinson was FOCUSED! 3 chances left for 3 points. But then he felt weak. 2 chances left for 3 points. Next he was EATING, got 2 LP but still 1 chance left for 3 points.

Then Robinson got his equipment for 2 free cards. He got FOOD with 2 Fighting points. Last one was another Food. So, they got 2 more LP but they needed 1 more point to beat the animal.

Robinson pushed himself once. He got GENIUS! Not sure what idea he got but he beat the Wild Animal. Robinson said he even got some REALIZATION. Also, another aging card was added to the new deck. 8 LP left.

12TH DRAW. Friday was so proud with the last win. So, he didn’t challenge further. The option was the same going back to Raft. But either for more equipment or PHASE-1. Robinson chose the latter as he still had to deal with previous challenges but higher requirement. 0 requirement from 1 chance.

Robinson was FOCUSED! More than enough for the challenge. 8 LP left.

13TH DRAW. Stay in the raft or back to explore the island? Robinson said he was ready for the challenge so the latter. Most likely because of the food supply. 1 point requirement from 2 free chances.

Robinson was HUNGRY. Lost 1 LP. But then he immediately got FOCUSED! That was enough for the challenge and Robinson got more food supply. 7 LP left.

14th DRAW. The next choice was the same, further explore the island. But instead of getting more experience, Robinson embraced a VISION to sort the next 3 cards. 3 chances for 2 points.

His STUPID came back with -2 points. But Robinson got FOOD for 2 points back. 2 more. After eating, Robinson got FOCUSED! Well, that was not enough so Friday pushed himself a bit. Robinson got his REALIZATION to to finally destroy that STUPID of his. He finally embraced his VISION. Another aging card and 7 LP left.

15th DRAW. Last challenge for the Green Phase. Face the Animal or going back to raft? Robinson said “ANIMAL!”. 4 free chances for 4 points.

First, Robinson got his equipment. He was FOCUSED so 3 points left. Then he got HUNGRY, losing 1 LP. So, he got his FOOD and the LP back. He decided to lose this one so the -2 points was to get rid of the Hungry card. Pushing farther just added too many aging card. 5 LP left.

YELLOW PHASE.

16th DRAW. This phase started with either Explore the island or Cannibals? Robinson felt bad for failing the first time to beat the cannibals so maybe this was a good time for it. 5 chances for 9 points.

EATING first for 2 LP but no fighting point. Robinson got his BOOKS so the challenge went down to 5 points. Unfortunately, Robinson got SCARED, the highest point became 0.

Robinson then got FOCUSED but this became the highest so it was 0. Next, he got FOOD for 1 LP. He pushed himself and he got GENIUS for 2 points but this was the highest so became 0. Robinson kept pushing and his WEAK came back. That was the last card before another aging card. He stopped.

Only 1 point so minus 4 points to get rid the Aging card and the last Weak card. 4 LP left.

17TH DRAW. New deck of card and with new aging card. The choice was either Explore or further exploring the island. Robinson took the harder challenge. 3 chances for 5 points.

Robinson got his BOOKS again so the requirement went down to 2. Then he got his FOOD for 1 LP and 1 point. Apparently, Robinson got another SCARED, turning the highest one into 0.

He decided to stop and losing 2 points was to get rid that Aging card. 3 LP left.

18TH DRAW. Robinson got the same options, explore or further explore the island. He took the harder one again, 3 chances for 5 points.

Robinson started with his VISION for 2 points. Followed by 2 more from FOOD. He got FOCUSED for 1 point. That was enough for the challenge and he learned REPEAT. 4 LP left.

19TH DRAW. The options were easier this time. Explore or back to raft. Robinson still went for the harder. 2 chances for 3 points.

Robinson got his FOOD for 0 point and EATING, also 2 points but total of 3 LP. He pushed himself once. Got FOCUSED for 1 point. Not enough. Pushed again and he got GENIUS for 2 points which was enough for the challenge. Another food source. 4 LP left.

20th DRAW. The same 2 choices as before, explore or back to raft. Robinson was still up for the challenge. 2 chances for 3 points.

He got his REALIZATION. It was enough. He learned DECEPTION to save things for later. 4 LP left.

21st DRAW. The challenge went up, either Wild animal or Further explore the island. Robinson said “Animal!”. 4 chances for 7 points.

There were 2 cards left before new aging card got added. Robinson first got his EQUIPMENT for 0 points but free 2 cards. Then he got FOCUSED for 1 point followed by REPEAT for 2. He got his REALIZATION back. The repeat made it enough for the challenge without pushing himself. Another VISION for Robinson, 4 LP left.

22ND DRAW. Further explore or back to raft? The harder challenge of course. 3 chances for 5 points.

Robinson got his DECEPTION, FOCUSED AND BOOKS. As the challenge was lowered the 2 fighting point they got was enough to win. He got EXPERIENCE with 4 LP left.

23RD DRAW. Wild Animal or back to raft? Robinson went with the Animals, 4 chances for 7 points.

He got EATING, FOCUSED, FOOD and GENIUS for 3 points and 3 LP. Not enough so he pushed himself and got VISION for 2. 2 more. Using the Vision, he sorted the next 3 cards. Luckily one of them was Aging so he discarded it. He pushed again and got FOOD for 2 points and 1 extra LP.

Robinson got experience again. 2 cards left before new aging card and 6 LP left.

24th DRAW. Cannibals or explore the island. 3rd attempt against the Cannibals. 5 free chances for 9 points.

He got FOOD, FOOD, FOOD for 4 points and 3 LP. Unfortunately, the 4th card was VERY TIRED where he had to stop.

1st pushed got GENIUS for 2 points, 3 left. 2nd push was FOCUSED for 1 point, and 2 left. 3rd pushed was VERY HUNGRY, losing 2 LP. 4th pushed was REALIZATION for 3 points and this got rid the last Aging card.

Robinson got his strongest weapon. 3 LP left.

25th DRAW. Wild Animal or back to raft. Robinson went with the Animal, 4 chances for 7 points.

He got DECEPTION, BOOKS, FOCUSED and EQUIPMENT for 2 points. But the challenge was lowered to 4. The equipment got him 2 more which were VISION and EXPERIENCE which was more than enough. Using his DECEPTION he put the Books back for later.

Robinson learned STRATEGY and had 3 LP left still.

26th DRAW. It seemed all of the harder challenges were already gone for this phase. This time was either Explore or Back to raft. The harder of course with 2 chances for 3 points.

He got FOCUSED and EATING for 1 point and 2 LP. Pushed himself and he got EXPERIENCE which was more than enough. Learned another REALIZATION with 4 LP left.

27TH DRAW. This was the last Hazard card for this phase and Robinson just tried to go back to raft. 1 chance for 1 point.

He got his VISION which was more than enough. Robinson learned MIMICRY and had 4 LP left.

RED PHASE.

28th DRAW. Cannibals or Back to Raft? Last attempt to save Friday’s father from cannibals. 5 chances for 14 points.

Robinson got FOOD, REPEAT, BOOKS, EATING and STRATEGY for 6 points and 3 LP. With Books the challenged was lowered to 9 points. Using the repeat, doubling the 3, Robinson only needed 1 more. With the Strategy, discarded the Food and got REALIZATION for the last point.

Robinson got the strongest weapon. 7 LP left.

29th DRAW. Further explore the island or Back to Raft? Robinson went with the harder one, 3 chances for 8 points.

He got VISION, FOOD and GENIUS for 5 points and 1 LP. Using Vision, sorted the next 3 and one of them was VERY TIRED. So that went to discard pile and the next VISION card was needed for to win.

Paid 1 LP to push himself and got that VISION. Robinson won and learned another REALIZATION. 7 LP left.

30th DRAW. Explore the island or Further Exploring the island? Usually Robinson went with the harder one but the harder one had EXCHANGE ability which would have cycle the cards faster and there was one Aging card left. So, he went with the easier one to learn COPY. 2 chances for 6.

Robinson got FOCUSED and REALIZATION for 4 points. He pushed himself once and got MORONIC aging card with -4. Luckily, Robinson had that realization to destroy it. Robinson pushed 2nd time and got FOOD, 5 points and 1 LP. 3rd time push and Robinson got FOCUSED again.

Robinson learned COPY with 5 LP left.

31st DRAW. Explore or Back to raft? The weaker choice only had Exchange so Robinson chose to explore for weapon. 2 chances for 6 points.

Robinson got WEAPON and REALIZATION for 7 points. He won and got more weapon with 5 LP left.

32nd DRAW. Same 2 choices of exploring the island but one with just weapon and 2 fighting points or 1 point but DOUBLE SKLLL. Robinson went with the latter, 2 chances for 6 points.

He got FOOD and MIMICRY for 2 points and 1 LP. 1st Push and he got FOCUSED for 1 point. 2nd push was EQUIPMENT to draw 2 cards for free where he got EXPERIENCE and DECEPTION for 3 more points and he won. Using the Deception he saved the MIMICRY for later. This was the last time for aging card. 4 LP left.

33rd DRAW. Last 2 options were back to raft. One with exchange and the other with DESTROY. Robinson went with the latter, 1 chance for 3 points.

He got DECEPTION which was not enough. Pushed himself once and got FOOD for 2 more points and 1 LP. He won and learned another REALIZATION with 5 LP left.

1st PIRATE. 7 chances for 25 points, no additional rule.

Robinson got GENIUS, REALIZATION, WEAPON, FOCUSED, EQUIPMENT, WEAPON and the last aging card, SUICIDAL. His realization destroyed that last card so he got 12 points.

2 more cards from Equipment got him FOOD AND BOOKS only 1 LP and no additional points. Pushed himself once and got STRATEGY for 3. 2nd push was VISION made it to 17.

3rd push got him WEAPON, made it to 21. 4th was Realization, got him to 23. 5th was EATING for only 2 LP, no points. 6th got him REALIZATION again, making it to 24. One more. 7th was another aging card, VERY TIRED, destroyed by realization before it. Last push and he got REPEAT for 2 points so he beat the Pirate.

10 cards left for the 2nd Pirate. No more LP.

2ND PIRATE. 7 chances for 16 points but for every additional card, spend 2 LP.

Robinson got FOOD, REPEAT, EXPERIENCE, FOOD, MIMICRY, EXPERIENCE and FOCUSED for 10 points and 2 LP plus 2 free cards.

The next 2 free cards were FOCUSED and VISION. Spent the last 2 LP and got MIMICRY for 14 points. Double the highest point which was 3 using REPEAT and he got to 16 and beat the Pirate. Using the Copy, got 2 more LP.

SCORING
28 Fighting Cards with 43 Fighting points: 43
2 LP left: 2 points
Beat 2 Pirates: 30 points
No Aging card: 0 point
7 Hazard card left: -21 points

TOTAL SCORE: 54 POINTS.

Playing time was about 39 minutes.

The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw

After helping Friday and Robinson, time to save Cats in The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw.

This was a solo session with 1 extra Advances Solo Lesson. 1st Solo lesson was 5 points for every cat over 15. 2nd was 5 points per each color without any cat touching the edge of the boat. 3rd was The highest lesson scores twice. The Advanced lesson was 5 points per family.

ROUND 1. RED.

1st column had 1 red and 2 blue. 2nd had Lesson #22, a red and a blue. 3rd had a purple, one of 2 rare and a yellow. 4th had Lesson 11, a yellow, Lesson 18.

Definitely avoiding column 1 and 2. After knowing the result 3 could have been my choice but between the 2 colors, the treasure was too far from each other. I took what I thought was the lesser risk with just 1 color and picked the 4th column with 1 yellow and 2 lessons.

Placed the yellow cat with straight shape of 4 spaces plus 1 space or its hand in the leftmost column, covering the treasure, aligned to the to edge. The extra bonus of common tresure filled the space between the cat and the edge.

With lesson #11, I could only cover 3 treasures for 7 points. While Lesson 18 had me leaving 5 visible rats on the boat for 10 points.

ROUND 2. RED, YELLOW.

1st column had a purple and a red, a yellow and a blue, and a single purple. 2nd had Lesson 12, a purple and a green. 3rd had a yellow, Lesson 14 and one of 2 possible rare. 4th had an Onyx, a red and a yellow, and 2 of the 4 common treasures.

So, I chose the 2nd bad color. I had to avoid 1st and 4th column because of the red. Knowing the result, the 2nd was probably the best but I ended up choosing the 3rd, working on just the yellow family with rare treasure and more lesson.

The cat had shape like letter B which was perfect to fill the bottom left corner of the left most space. From the 2 rare treasures I could pick, I chose the one with L-shape going to the top edge of the boat since that was the room with Red treasure while I planned on reaching the Green treasure which was the bottom room. This also allowed me to expand the Yellow family more.

For Lesson 14, I could get 8 points for having exactly 4 Yellow and 4 Purple. I thought I could still achieve it.

ROUND 3. RED, YELLOW, BLUE.

1st column had 2 Green and 1 yellow. 2nd had Lesson 4, a yellow and a green. 3rd had a purple, either 2 common or 1 rare and an Onyx. 4th had Lesson 17, a green and Lesson 19.

Knowing the result, this round had probably the best set for me. There were yellow but I already had started a group with that color. Any column actually worked. I almost picked the 4th one with those 2 lessons. At the time I thought I could fulfill them.

I still avoided Purple since the treasure was still too far from me so 3rd was a no. 1st was great color but I didn’t like enough their shape, leaving a lot of empty spaces. 2nd was the best but I wasn’t sure to have any cat with no family for this lesson. I was wrong.

Turn out, I had other options by using the abilities. I chose the one to pick a row instead of a column with 4 cards. With that I picked the 2nd row and got 2 green, 1 yellow and a Rare treasure or 2 commons.

First, the yellow cat had 2 lines of 3 spaces. I placed it vertically, half of them in the left most room and half other to reach the bottom room. This left an empty space within that leftmost room. My plan was to cover the Green treasure and got a bonus common treasure to fill that space.

After that I placed the green cat from the 4th column. This had perfect shape to fill the narrow part of the bottom room and reach the bigger one of that room. The 2 remaining ones were Green cat with Plus shape and a Rare treasure with L Shape. I had to connect the 2 green while this 2nd one covered the treasure. The Plus shape would have left some empty space to the edge so I placed the rare treasure first on the edge of that bottom room. Then the plus was above it, covering the treasure while still connected to previous green.

This bottom room had 1 empty space left next to the bigger room on the right so it was not that difficult to fill. With the bonus, I completely filled the left most room while the yellow cats became a family.

ROUND 4. RED, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE.

1st column had a red, a yellow and a purple. 2nd had Lesson 5, a blue and a red. 3rd had a red, either 1 rare or 2 common and another red. 4th had choosing 2 of the 4 commons, a red and either a rare or 2 commons.

This was probably the worst choice I had in this game. All 4 columns had at least 4 red and in all 3 rows. The only way to avoid it is by using the most powerful ability which picking 1 from each row. Usually I saved it for the last round. Even then, the choices were not so great.

I went with that anyway. Picked the rare treasure from the 3rd row, a rare from the 2nd and the only lesson from 1st row. Luckily, the lesson was 2 points for every rare treasure which worked well with this.

At this point, I started thinking, maybe I couldn’t get that many cats. I probably wouldn’t even fill the right most rooms. However, I still tried to cover rats until 5 visible left. So, instead of reaching as far as possible, I tried filling the middle room. I placed that size 5 straight shape rare treasure in the bottom left corner of that room. Still hoping to get one more yellow cat to the existing family.

The S-shape from 3rd row was to fill the last empty space of the bottom room pointed to the up and right for the purple color or just covered more rats.

ROUND 5. RED, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE, GREEN.

1st had a yellow, a red and a purple. 2nd had Lesson 21, a yellow and two kittens, a yellow and a purple. 3rd had a red, onyx, and 2 kittens a yellow and a green. 4th had choosing 2 of 4 commons, a green and again choosing 2 of 4 commons.

I had to avoid 1st and 3rd because of the red. Knowing the result, maybe 2nd one had better choice for me but still not sure with 5 yellow and 1 extra purple. The lesson itself was impossible as I had to fill the other captain room.

So, I went with the 4th and just 1 cat this round. Fist, the green cat had an L-shape, 4 spaces long and a tail. I made sure it was still connected to the existing 2 green and made a family while kept going top right to the purple treasure.

With the idea of leaving 5 visible rats. 2 of them were in the 2nd to right room. Then the other 3 were near this green. I had to cover the 3 near the purple treasure and the 2 in middle room.

With the other 2 cards I got 4 common treasures. I chose the longest shapes, 3 of them to start filling the middle room. Still hoping to add one more yellow but apparently not a good shape. One last common was to keep going top right ot the purple while creating barrier to make sure the 3 rats at the bottom left were kept visible.

ROUND 6. RED, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE, GREEN.

2 rounds left. 1st column had a red, a green and either a rare or 2 commons. 2nd had Lesson 9, a blue and an Onyx. 3rd had 2 choices of 2 commons, Lesson 8 and a red. 4th had Lesson 2, a green and Lesson 24.

Similar to last time, I had to avoid 1st and 3rd because of the red. I wanted a 3rd family with 3rd color which should have been purple but the only option was using the Onyx. And for that I had to pick the Blue.

I only had 1 ability left, saving it for the next last round. So, this time I picked the 4th, the safe choice. Lesson 2 was 1 point for every common. Already had 6 points. While Lesson 24 was impossible. It was very rare for me to play different family for the same color.

For the only green cat I had to place, there was only 1 possible placement to extend the existing family for that shape. Going to top right to the purple treasure again without covering anything this time.

ROUND 7. RED, YELLOW, BLUE, PURPLE, GREEN.

1st column had a yellow, a blue and a green. 2nd had Lesson 25, a purple and 2 kittens, a blue and purple. 3rd had also 2 kittens, a red and green, Lesson 1 and 2 more kittens, a blue and a green. 4th had Lesson 26, a yellow and an Onyx.

The first 3 had a blue at least. That left me just with 1 Yellow and 1 Onyx. The problem was the Yellow had straight shape that I couldn’t connect to the existing family. So, I had no choice to get more blue.

3rd had a red so it was a no. 1st also had a yellow that I couldn’t place to the family. That means my only option was the 2nd column.

That lesson itself was no longer possible. I had to have less than 3 treasures for 15 points. So, what could be done with 2 purple and 1 blue?

I could still cover the purple treasure for Lesson 11 and the bonus for Lesson 2. Also needed to cover 5 more rats for Lesson 18 using 2 large cats. Lesson 14 was also no longer possible. No 4th yellow and even if I doubled one of the purple, still missing 1 purple.

I also could try completely fill the middle room. The remaining empty space was a 2 x 2 spaces. This can be done using the bonus from treasure and the small one space blue kitten.

Considering the solo lesson, I had to make sure that the Purple was touching the edge so I gave less 5 points to the Sister. Unfortunately, Blue was not possible for that.

So, I activated the last ability to get double purple, using the biggest purple cat from this column. Size 6 with 3 rows and different length for each row. These 2 could cover 5 rats while staying adjacent to each other and the purple treasure. The bonus for the middle room as planned along with the Small Blue. With the last purple kitten size 2 was placed between the 2 purple cats, creating a family of purple.

SCORING

Blue Family: 0 point
Green Family: 11 points
Yellow Family: 8 points
Purple Family: 8 points
Red Family: 0 point
Rare Treasure: 9 points
Rats: -5 points
Rooms: -20 points
Lessons: 32 points

MY FINAL SCORE: 43 points

Blue Family: 3 points
Green Family: 4 points
Yellow Family: 12 points
Purple Family: 6 points
Red Family: 0 point
1st Solo Lesson: 0 point
2nd Solo Lesson: 10 points
3rd Solo Lesson: 10 points
Advanced Solo Lesson: 15 points

SISTER FINAL SCORE: 45 (Lowest Difficulty) or 65 (with Advanced Lesson)

Even with the easiest difficulty, I lost. I thought getting less cat and only focused on lessons was great. Apparently not so much against the advanced lesson.

Playing time was 53 minutes.

Curious Cargo

Build your warehouse infrastructure so they are ready to ship and receive cargos in Curious Cargo. This was playing with the official solo PnP variant using just 2 colors of goods and the lowest difficulty (4 countdown cards).

The player board was number 5, probably my first time playing with it. Each board only has 2 machines, each with 3 possible connections. This means using Splitter is a must to get more active connections.

On the other hand, each player has more active docks compared to the previous board. That means it is easier for the opponent to get more active connections without the trouble of using Splitter.

Well, I actually lost the game. In the same Trucking phase both players got the Star by receiving 4th goods of one type. I got the 4th red while the opponent got the 4th blue.

I thought I lost the game because I failed to deliver 2nd red goods. But then apparently, in that same trucking phase, the opponent played a truck on my side and there was a red active connection so I could send the 2nd red.

That means the winner was determined by points. The opponent managed to ship 5 reds and 4 blues while I only got 2 reds and 4 Blues. From that alone, I got only 10 points while the opponent got 17. The receiving part, we both got the same score only those 4 of 1 color. Not sure how the star counts. I just assumed 9 points from the 3rd space.

For points from tokens, I only had 1 construction token left plus a Splitter. The opponent seemed to have one splitter only but I think I forgot to give them some trucking tokens after shipping both red and blues. While they probably have played them immediately anyway, maybe I lost even more instead of getting better score.

Last part was the scoring from turn order track. I was stuck with just 6 while the opponent got to 9th. So, they got 4 points while I got none. This was even after I cheated. There were a couple of times when I decided to draw a different solo bot card just to make the game longer or otherwise they got the 10th connection already and got a star, ending the game much earlier.

I definitely didn’t do that well but since this was my first time with this board, I didn’t expect to lost that badly. There were a couple of moments, while the opponent was still doing countdown that I chose to now draw more tile using the truck cards. I thought the truck was good so I kept it but eventually I did less.

Just to be a sore loser even more I wanted to blame the randomness of truck cards. Somehow the opponent kept getting the size 3 while I was stuck with 5. The lowest was size 4. Sure I could play that on their side but for exchanging them into tiles, I at most could draw 2 instead of 3.

Maybe I should really build fast and immediately ship when they were still doing countdown. I remember that in the last few rounds, I knew that the opponent was ready to catch my shipped blue and that would have been their 4th one which would have happened before I received my 4th red.

The best move was probably to use 5 and then maybe 5 and forced them to push those 2 to their receiving side using another 6. What ended up happening was I playd 6 followed with 4. So, both were still on my shipping side. I thought playing aix would have pushed both but I was wrong as it would only pushed 1, the size 6.

Or maybe if I got multiple shorter ones, I could play them first and then pushed with 2 6s or 2 5s. I’m just blaming randomness. Should have just shuffled the truck cards more.

So, I got panicked at that time and ended up pushing the opponent’s shipping side. In my mind maybe I could still win by getting the Star first. Didn’t realized they got the star as well and me pushing their shipping side helped them shipped a lot of blues and gained a lot of scores.

Maybe I should go back with board 1 to 4 and get better there. I still have not figured out how to use Splitter properly or make a plan around it. It seems this one requires that significantly.

This session got me thinking, maybe I resolved the opponent card incorrectly up to this point. It had been 3 months since the last time I played this before this recent session so maybe I just got it wrong. Even though I like the game, not really sure about resolving the opponent card is what kept me playing this game more.

Playing time was about 71 minutes.

6×6 TALES

Explore the island, find the source of evil in a print and play solo game of 6×6 TALES. Played as the Human Hero this time.

Here is how the story went.

The King of this island asked Jack, the human hero for help. The island suddenly started to get terrorized by monsters. They had no idea why so Jack had to get some clues to find out the source of this evil power by exploring the island.

Jack only had a sword, no item and 3 Gold to help him. Apparently, Jack also had a dream of becoming a Cartographer and made a side quest to draw the map of this island. Since he had no idea how to start working on the task from the King, he thought he could just work on his own quest and maybe that could lead to some clues.

So his journey began, starting from this Castle of Light. Jack knew that the Castle was not far from a shore but he was not sure the exact position. From the information he could gather from people in the Castle, the island had a couple of villages, mountains, plains, swamps and forests.

WEEK 1, DAY 1. THE NEW ADVENTURE

Hero Stats:
Attack: 1
Damage: 1
Speed: 2
HP: 4 / 4
Gold: 3
Poison: 0

Item:
none

Fame: 0

Quests:
– Complete Map (E.02)

No events for this day. Before leaving, Jack thought he should do some preparations. The Castle itself has some shops but he didn’t have much money to spend. But he did spend 2 Gold, instead of sharpening his sword, but to buy equipment which can improve his accuracy. His Attack went up from 1 to 2.

When he was about to leave, somebody approached him, offering another quest. The task was to BRING 2 SCROLLS to specific location. That person only said that the location was 4 steps to the east and 6 to the south but without the reference point.

Also, it was not like that person already had the scrolls but Jack had to find a way to get those scrolls. When he finished the task the receiver would give him 4 Golds and a treasure. So, Jack could just buy the scroll from the shop but he already run out of money. Alternatively, Jack could find some scrolls along the way if he got lucky.

Since there was no time limit, Jack just accepted without knowing when he could finish it.

Jack left the Castle. He had to walk so he could at most move 2 spaces a day. The Castle was surrounded by Forest. He knew that the shore was close to the west so he went to the west.

After a while, Jack found an intersection that could lead to either north or south. From that point as well, he could see behind the trees an ocean. So, he knew that this was the west most section of this island.

Between the 2 options, Jack chose to go south. While he was there, Jack was encountered a Giant Rat. This one had an attack of 9, damage power of 1 and 1 HP. The battle began.

With the attack of 2, Jack hit 1 damage and defeated the Giant Rat. He got 1 Gold loot from it.

Jack continued going south, still in the same Forest. After some walks, he found another intersection. One led to the east and the other to south.

While thinking about his next direction, Jack attacked again by another Giant Rat with the same stats.

With the attack of 2, Jack hit 1 damage and defeated the Giant Rat. He got 1 Gold loot from it.

The night came and that was the end of the 1st day.

WEEK 1, DAY 2. THE 2 SCROLLS

No event for today as well. Jack met a guy who was selling another equipment to improve his attack accuracy again. Afraid that the monster was too dangerous, he agreed to pay 3 coins the guy for that equipment. His Attack went up from 2 to 3.

He decided to keep going south until he found another end of the island instead of going to the east.

Jack got out of that Forest and found himself in a Plain, next to a shore. Actually, he could see the corner of the island. There were even 2 paths to a beach there. After taking a time to enjoy the view and finished his map, he looked to the east to continue his adventure.

Before going, he noticed something on that path. It was a treasure.

After analyzing it, it was an ANTIDOTE SCROLL. This could help him when he got a Poison. Or, he could bring this scroll to complete that second quest. So, he continued to the east with that scroll.

Jack continued walking on a Plain, along the south edge of the island. He got to an intersection. One led to north and the other continued to east.

Luckily, he encountered no Monster this time. Instead he found another Treasure. Twice in a row? Somebody must have dropped them.

After analyzing, the item was a DASH SCROLL. This could improve his Speed by 2 for a turn. Or, he could bring this Scroll for the 2nd quest as well, completing the task. He knew that the location was already close, 4 spaces to east and 6 to south. Just 2 spaces to the east and he got there.

The night came so he had to take some rest.

WEEK 1, DAY 3. THE WATER SPIRIT

Somewhere on this island, there is a Giant Lake, a home to Water Spirit.

Yesterday was a bit peaceful for Jack, the hero as he encountered no Monster. But that means he got no money, no upgrade could be done for now. Jack continued to the east.

Still within this Southwest Plains. Jack found an intersection. He could continued to the east, where he assumed his next destination for one of his quest. To the south there was a pathway to the beach, a bit separated from the southwest corner. Or he could go north, probably back to the Castle.

While enjoying the view and finishing his drawing of the map, a Monster ambushed him. It looked like a Pink Slime but this one was a bit bigger than what Jack heard from people in the Castle. Usually this means the Monster was a Veteran Monster.

This Veteran Pink Slime had Attack of 8, Damage of 2 and 1 HP, tend to Ambush.

It was an Ambush attack so Jack couldn’t do anything to counter it. But now he was ready.

Jack dealt 1 damage, beating the Veteran Slime. He earned 2 Golds from the loot and continued with this journey to the east.

Jack found himself about to enter a Mountain. This was where he should meet up with the receiver of 2 Scrolls from the quest. After hiking a bit, he reached the top of a Hill and found an intersection. There were 2 paths, one pointing to the north and the other to the east.

Then he noticed there was 2 persons there. Maybe that was the receiver. It seems they were fighting.

Apparently, one of them was a Goblin, attacking that person. Jack immediately jump into the fight trying to help that person. This Goblin had Attack of 7, damage of 2 with 2 HP.

Jack dealt 1 damage to the Goblin. The Goblin was not done.

Jack dealt another 1 damage and finally beat the Goblin. Got 1 Gold from it.

After the fight Jack approached that person and told him about the 2 scrolls he brought as a request from the Castle. The person thanked Jack and accepted the 2 Scrolls. Apparently he had his own quest and had to wait in the Mountain a bit.

That person gave Jack 4 Golds as the reward plus a treasure.

The treasure was a Dash Scroll. Jack told him that he could have used it for himself because it was the same scroll he brought to him. He needed only 1 actually so gave the other to Jack.

The night came again. That person asked Jack to stay for the night before continuing his journey. They had dinner and Jack told him about the quest from the King to find out the source of this Monster.

The person also wondered the same thing. However, he told Jack about the Water Spirit living in a Giant Lake. He suggested Jack to pay a visit and maybe Jack could find better clue.

According to him, the location was actually close to the Castle of Light just 1 space south from it, inside a Forest. He suggested a shorter path instead of going back. Jack agreed as that could help him explore more parts of the island.

WEEK 1, DAY 4. THE WATER SPIRIT PART II

Before Jack left, that person offered to upgrade Jack’s magical boots. Jack agreed and paid 3 Golds and from this point on, Jack could explore 3 more spaces in a day. He learned a couple more stuffs so he could upgrade it again in the future. Then, Jack went north.

Exiting the Mountain and Jack found himself in a Plain again. He got to the intersection with 3 possible roads. One to east, one to north and one to the west. His only option was to the west if Jack wanted to visit this Great Lake.

While finishing his drawing of the map, Jack got ambushed. It was another Pink Slime but not veteran this time with attack of 8, damage power of 1 and 1 HP.

Jack couldn’t deal a counterattack as he was not prepared again.

First attack, Jack dealt 1 damage, defeating the Slime. Got 1 Gold from it. Jack continued moving to the west.

He found himself at entry point of a Mountain. Jack suspected that this was the same Mountain range as where he met that guy but the different part. Another hiking and he got to an intersection again with 2 options. One to the north and the other to the west.

He heard somebody was approaching. It was another Goblin with a weapon ready to attack Jack. Jack drew his sword and ready to fight the Goblin that has attack value of 6, 2 damage points and 2 HP.

Jack landed the 1st damage. The Goblin was still up.

Another hit from Jack and finally the Goblin was defeated. Jack took 1 Gold from the loot and continued his journey to the west.

Jack entered the Forest. This was where the Giant Lake was according to that person and Jack could even see the Castle from this position.

Instead of finding a Giant Lake, Jack found a Giant Rat, a veteran one even. This rat had the attack of 9, 1 damage value and 1 HP and had the Regenerative ability.

Jack landed 1 damage.

The regenerative power didn’t bring the monster back to life. So, Jack won and got 2 Gold.

After the fight, Jack noticed a light came from the deeper part of the Forest. He followed the light and finally found the Giant Lake. The Lake even had path to all 4 directions.

Jack then heard a voice from the Lake speaking to him. It was the Water Spirit, emerged above the Lake. The Spirit saw Jack’s bravery against that Veteran Monster so the Spirit showed herself.

She also knew about Jack’s mission and told him that if Jack wanted to stop the source of evil in this island, he had to do something first. The Spirit gave Jack a Water Potion. Jack had to cast the potion at 3 different places.

The Potion would revive the island and reveal the location of the Dark Force. A New Quest!

The 3 locations were the Northwest corner, Northeast corner and the Southeast corner of the island. After explaining that, the Spirit wished Jack a good luck and disappeared.

Jack was already tired with a lot of information he got this day. The night came and he decided to take some rest.

WEEK 1, DAY 5. AN INJURY

New day. Our hero got up early since he was already close to the Castle. On his way back he found someone selling equipment. He paid 4 Gold for upgrades for his Magical boots again. From now on, he could explore 4 spaces per day. Jack really wanted to revive the island as soon as possible. He went north and got to the Castle of Light.

Jack reported back to the person who gave him the previous quest that he had completed the job. Somebody else there, a woman, noticed that and asked Jack for another task.

The Lady had a bag of Mangos. She needed someone to deliver this. The location was about 4 spaces along the northern shore. Jack thought that he was going to that direction anyway so he accepted it. She promised to pay 3 Gold after Jack delivered it.

Jack decided not to buy anything yet from the Castle Shop and just continued going north.

North from the Castle was another Mountain. Jack entered and started hiking. On top of the hill, Jack noticed there was a cut down path to the north to a different part of this Mountain range. He looked to the east and saw a different Plain. His only available direction was to go west.

Something was approaching Jack again. Another Goblin but this time a Veteran one. This had an attack power of 6, damage of 2 and 2 HP with Regenerative power.

That was a double damage to the Goblins. But the Goblin had regenerative ability.

The regenerative ability didn’t bring the Goblin back to life. Jack won and got 2 Gold and proceeded to the west.

He got out from the Mountain and found himself in a Plain. In the intersection, Jack saw the South direction and noticed the Forest he was in during Day 1. To the west there was a path to a small beach. Apparently to the north there was a village so he immediately went there.

Suddenly, Jack was ambushed by another Pink Slime, 8 attack points, 1 damage, 1 HP. Jack was not ready.

Jack took a hit, 1 damage. He prepared for the next round.

With 3 attack from Jack, it was a hit to Slime and he beat it. Gained 1 Gold from it. Jack run north, entering the Village.

Jack could actually moved again but after taking that hit, he decided to rest in that village.

WEEK 1, DAY 6. THE MANGO

Event happened.

Bad weather in Swamp space. No one could enter any revealed Swamp on this day.

After taking some rest and healed his injury, Jack went out shopping. The village had a shop to buy different scrolls. There was also a place to make some donations. But Jack decided to just buy equipment to improve his accuracy again. Paid 4 and the attack point went up from 3 to 4.

Jack was so close to the first place to revive the Island. Beside the south entry point, the village had 2 more, the east going to a Mountain again or to north which seemed to be the Top left corner of the island, the place to pour the Water Potion. He went north.

Jack entered a Forest. Somehow the Forest looked dead.

He could see the ocean by looking at the west and north so he was sure that was the Northwest corner of the island. There were 2 paths. One leading to the west but only to a beach or to the east. Before trying to pour the Water Potion, he saw a Monster coming.

It was a Giant Rat with attack point of 9, 1 damage and 1 HP.

Successfully, Jack dealt 1 damage and defeated the rat. Got 1 Gold.

Jack poured the Potion. The potion revived the Forest and all trees showed their color back to life. First step of reviving the island was done. Before moving on, Jack noticed a Gold on the ground. Well, he assumed that was the reward for completing this first task so he took it. Next stop should be the one at Northeast corner of the island. So, Jack went 2nd space of the day to the east.

Jack got out of the Forest and found himself in a Plain area. Nothing was there and eventually he got to an intersection. There were 3 other path. One going north just to a beach. The other 2 were pointed to 2 parts of the same Mountain range. He had to keep going east.

Jack learned his lesson. Plains for this week was full of ambush attack from Pink Slime. it happened again this time with 8 attack point, 1 damage and 1 HP.

Jack couldn’t counter but he got no damage.

He landed the hit and defeated the Slime. Gained 1 Gold from it. Then, he proceeded to the east.

As mentioned before, this was a Mountain range. A lot of fog on the top of the hill. Jack could only see a path pointing south and another one to the east. He knew where he should go next but he saw something approaching him.

A Goblin came with attack point of 6, 2 damage and 2 HP.

Jack dealt 1 damage. The Goblin was not done yet.

He dealt the finishing blow. Got 1 Gold. Jack proceeded to the east.

Turns out, it was a Swamp with a bad weather. Had he known that, he could not have entered but there he was. This should be the location to deliver the Mango. Jack looked around.

Luckily, no monster came. Finally, he found a house. He thought he should take some shelter. Jack knocked on the door and the one of the residents opened the door and let him in.

It was a family of 3. They had a kid who was sick and had to stay in bad. Jack realized maybe that was the reason he had that Mango quest. He pulled out the Mango and gave it to the parents, telling them that somebody from the Castle sent it.

Apparently that was not just any fruit. The Mango was known to heal some illness that the kid had. The parents thanked Jack and feed the Kid with that Mango. They insisted that Jack should stay for the night and gave him 3 Gold as the reward. The quest was completed.

WEEK 2, DAY 1. THE CURSED VILLAGE

Hero Stats:
Attack: 4
Damage: 1
Speed: 4
HP: 4 / 4

Gold: 7
Poison: 0

Item:
WATER POTION
DASH SCROLL

Fame: 0

Quests:
– Revive the Island (E.04) 1/3
– Complete Map (E.02)
– Bring 2 Scrolls (E.22) COMPLETED
– Send a Mango (E.38) COMPLETED

The parents helped Jack to upgrade his equipment. His attack went up from 4 points to 5. Jack paid them back 5 Gold for all the trouble. The 2 warned Jack that the Monsters on the island were getting stronger.

After telling them his mission to go Northeast, they told him that there were a village around there but it was cursed. Jack then left them, moved to east after seeing their kid was getting better.

Jack found himself in another Plain. Instead of a Monster, Jack found a treasure.

It was a Pear Scroll, the best healing scroll. Jack continued to the east which should be the northeast corner of the Island. There was a village there.

This was what those parents said about the Cursed Village. Every citizen there looked sick, not much activity happened there. Jack realized maybe this was part of the reviving island that he needed to do. He took out the Potion and started casting it.

Suddenly the situation improved. The Plants started showing green colors again. Fresh Air. Water became clear. Citizens started getting up and lived.

One of them noticed what Jack was doing and thanked him. He gave him 1 Gold as sign of gratitude. While the village used to have shops but they were just rebuilding themselves so Jack decided to proceed with his quest.

Unfortunately, there was only 1 road from the entry point in the village pointed to a beach. So, Jack had to move back to the Plain area.

Jack was attacked but this time by Blue Slime. Unlike the Pink one this one didn’t do ambush. This had the attack point of 9, 2 damage per attack and 2 HP.

First attempt, Jack dealt one damage. The Slime was not done.

Jack dealt 2nd damage, beating the Slime. Got 2 Gold from it. After that, he moved south.

Jack noticed that this was a huge Plain area. While he could see some road on the west but the existing road was only pointed to the east where he should go.

Luckily, instead of a Monster, Jack found another treasure.

It was 2 Gold. The night came and Jack decided to take some rest.

WEEK 2, DAY 2. REVIVE THE ISLAND

Apparently, the parent from the Mango quest caught up with Jack. He knew Jack was still not far and they brought more equipment. That helped Jack upgraded his Boot from 4 to 5 points. So from now on, Jack could explore 5 spaces a day. So, he knew he could finish reviving the island this day. Jack paid 5 Gold to that parent and the parent went back home while Jack continued to east.

The Plain area kept extending. Jack got to an intersection and actually saw a road leading to that cursed village but it was blocked. Either way, Jack had to go the opposite direction and continued south to the Southeast corner of the island.

Luckily, no monster attacked Jack this time. Instead, he found a treasure.

It was a RUSH SCROLL. This item had 2 functions, either increase the speed by 4 for the day or change the road magically to connect to adjacent part. Could be handy in the future. Jack continued moving south.

Jack entered another Forest. After walking in a bit and got to intersection, he saw 2 paths. One led to the west, which was blocked by logs of woods. So, he could only move south which was his destination.

While drawing his map, Jack was ambushed. This time by a Giant Bat. with 10 attack points, 1 damage and 1 HP.

No damage no attack between the 2. Jack was not prepared to counter.

He dealt 1 damage and defeated the Giant Bat. Got 2 Gold from it. After finishing his map, Jack continued moving south.

Jack got out of the Forest and found another Village. This one didn’t seem to be affected by the curse. It was actually a nice one with a beach nearby and a lot of the citizens were enjoying themselves there.

Jack decided to just keep moving south. He was close.

Another plain area. From the intersection, Jack saw 2 paths, one to the west and the other to the South. While drawing the map, Jack noticed that something was approaching him.

It was a Blue Slime again. This had 9 attack points, 2 damage and 2 HP.

Jack’s attack dealt 1st damage. The Slime was still alive.

Jack dealt 2nd damage, defeating the Slime. Got 2 Gold. He continued moving south which should be the Southeast corner of the island.

It was a Swamp with a road connected to east or the beach or to the west.

Before Jack could take out the Potion to revive the Island, a Zombie attacked him. This was a strong one with 3 HP, Poisonous, 1 damage and attack points of 8.

Jack dealt 1st damage. Almost took damage but Jack dealt 2nd hit to the Zombie.

Jack finally defeated the Zombie. Got 2 more Gold. After that Jack poured the Water Potion at that location and completely revived the island.

The Water Spirit appeared again and thanked Jack for that. Now that the island was completely revived. the location of the Dark Force was revealed. The Spirit told Jack that there was A PORTAL not far from there. This portal was the one bringing Monsters to this island.

The Spirit wished Jack a good luck again and gave him a treasure. It was another DASH SCROLL. The night came and Jack had to take some rest.

WEEK 2, DAY 3. A PURPLE PORTAL

Event happened.

At the start of the day, Jack noticed a person laying on the ground. The man was sick. Luckily, Jack had the Pear Scroll and gave it to him. After eating the Pear, the man got better. The man thanked Jack and gave him 6 Gold, twice the price of that scroll. Got 25 Fame too.

Not only that, but he was also actually a Blacksmith. He offered the sharpen Jack’s sword. From his recent fight against Zombie, Jack realized that maybe he needed that. Jack paid 2 Gold for it and his damage went up from 1 to 2.

Jack next move was to finish his map and find the Purple Portal the Spirit told him. It was to the west and northwest direction. The Blacksmith was going to the East village so they both went separate ways. Jack moved to the west.

It was another Swamp area from the southeast corner. Jack could see on the west, the Mountain where he delivered the 2 Scrolls. It seemed there used to be a bridge connected there but the bridge was gone. The only way was to go north.

Before moving, another Zombie attacked Jack. This time it was a veteran one. Same as regular but more poisonous with 3 HP, 8 attack points and 1 damage.

Jack’s attack dealt 2 damage with his sharpened sword. Zombie was still alive. Double damage to the Zombie and Jack won. Gained 3 Gold from it. Jack proceeded north.

He found himself entering another Forest. Not far from the entry, Jack found the PURPLE PORTAL in the middle of that forest.

While looking at it, there was an ambushed by a Giant Bat that has 10 attack points, 1 damage and 1 HP.

No damage, no hit from Jack since he was not prepared. 2nd attack and Jack dealt 2 damage, defeating the Giant Bat. Gained 2 Gold.

His attention was back to the Purple Portal. After getting closer to it, he noticed there was someone next to that portal. He looked like a Knight wearing some armors.

Jack realized that the Knight was actually opening the portal. From inside the portal, one by one, Monsters came out. Jack soon realized that he was not ready to deal with this and try to move north secretly, trying to get away.

Before Jack got out, a Monster noticed his presence and started chasing him. Jack tried to run but he was not fast enough. He got ambushed. It was another Giant Bat. Jack decided to engage with it in a fight.

First attack. No damage to any of them. Jack dealt 2 damage and took down the Bat. After taking 2 Gold, he run away north.

Jack got out of the Forest and into a Plain. There were only 2 roads. One to the east, which Jack assumed to be the East Village. The other was pointed to the north.

Nothing monster was approaching and no treasure to be found. Jack decided to keep going north.

Jack entered another Forest. There was only one path but Jack noticed a stack of logs blocking a path to the east.

Another ambushed attack by Giant Bat. With 10 attack point, 1 damage per attack and 1 HP.

First attack. No hit, no damage.

2 damage was done and the Giant Bat was defeated. Got 2 more Gold. As the last movement, Jack went straight following the path to the west.

Jack got out from the Forest where he found another Village. The night came and he took a rest.

WEEK 2, DAY 4. THE CARTOGRAPHER

Jack started his day by visiting shops and bought some equipment to improve his attack accuracy. Paid 6 Gold, and the Attack went up from 5 to 6.

Before he left the village to continue, somebody approached him with a quest. He said a veteran monster captured one of his family so he asked Jack if he could defeat this monster.

He said that the location was the Mountain north from the Castle of Light. Jack checked his map and it was close to the leftover areas where he would complete the map so he accepted it. If his drawing of the map was correct, then there were 6 spaces left that he needed to explore to finally finish his private quest.

He planned to do finish it this day but for that he needed to move 7 spaces. His magical boot only allowed him for 5. So, he decided to use one of his Dash Scroll so he got extra 2 for the speed this day. So, he left the village and moved south.

Jack found himself in a swamp area. There was a road leading to the east to a plain area he passed through yesterday but the road was cut off. The only other path was to the west. The Swamp was full of fog but he could see the tip of the Castle of Light. While moving to that direction, he noticed something.

Poisonous Zombie showed up again with 8 attack points, 1 damage each and 3 HP.

Jack attack was 6 so Jack dealt 2 damage. The Zombie was not done.

Jack dealt 2 more and the Zombie was gone. Gained 2 Gold. The journey continued to the west.

After getting out of that Swamp, Jack got into a Forest. The Castle of Light was really surrounded by this Forest. He got to an intersection with 2 possible roads. One was to the west where he knew was the Castle of Light. Or he could go north so he could explore 4 more space.

Ambushed and by a Giant Bat again in this second week. 10 attack points, 1 damage and 1 HP.

Unfortunately, Jack was not prepared to take advantage of his luck.

Jack dealt 2 damage, finishing the Bat. Gained 2 Gold. After finishing his map for this section, he continued moving north.

Jack got out from the forest again and found a Plain area. To the east he could see the last village he visited. Unfortunately, there was not path leading to that direction, only one path to the north. At least that was Jack’s destination.

There was really nothing here. What a peaceful day. 3 more spaces left. Jack went north again.

Another forest. Jack knew behind this small forest was a Mountain that he passed through a week ago. After a bit of walking, he got into an intersection. He could either go east or west. Those were the 2 remaining spaces until he could complete his personal quest. Since, after this, he had to go west to that Mountain, he went east now.

Luckily, nothing happened again so Jack just kept going east. 2 spaces left.

Jack got himself to a Plains again. He was there several days ago but the path didn’t really connected to that path. Jack looked north and he noticed the family house where he delivered the Mango to.

He really had nothing to do here other than drawing his map. When he was about to go back…

Something was approaching him. It was a Blue Slime with 9 attack points, 2 damage each and 2 HP. Jack was ready to fight.

2 damage to the Slime. Jack got 2 Golds and moved back to the forest. 1 space left to explore. Previously, the Forest was safe…

Apparently that last visit attracted a Giant Bat again. They hid behind those trees and ambushed Jack.

Jack avoided the attack but couldn’t counter it.

2 damage to the Bat and Jack won. Gained 2 Gold and Jack proceeded to the west, the last space to complete his map.

Jack got out from the Forest and entered a Mountain. He completed his quest. Jack was so proud as a Cartographer. After taking time to complete his drawing, he looked around. He noticed that this was the same Mountain for the other quest. Unfortunately, the road to the south was cut. He had to find a way around it. When he was about to leave to the nearby village…

Jack saw an Ork approaching him with a weapon. The Ork had attack power of 7, 2 damage each and 3 HP. Jack pulled out his sword.

His attack dealt 2 damage. The Ork remained standing.

Dealt 2 more damage and the Ork was defeated. Jack got 2 Gold. The night came so he had to take rest in this mountain.

WEEK 2, DAY 5. THE LAST QUEST

First thing of the day for Jack was to move to the nearby village. He upgraded his boots again by paying 6. So, from this point on, he could move 6 spaces in a day. Since his personal quest was finished, he started thinking about going back to that Purple Portal, trying to fight that Knight to stop the source of evil.

Jack looked at the map and it took about 7 spaces. So, he thought he needed 1 more day to reach there from this village and got one more upgrade to be done.

That Portal looked dangerous and the Knight seemed very strong. He could be killed there. On the other hand, he still got some Gold in his pocket and what was the point keeping them if he died?

The village had a temple. Jack visited there and did some praying. He also donated some of his money, keeping just enough for upgrades and buy some scrolls. He was planning to buy a Kaboom and Pear Scroll for 6. The upgrade was probably for the last sharpening for 3 Gold. So, Jack donated 10 Golds. The Monk or Priest there noticed. Jack became famous for that. Gained 50 Fame.

He had to move on. There was still one unfinished quest left. Jack moved south to the plain area.

A Blue Slime came out and attacked Jack.

Jack dealt 2 damage and gained 2 Gold. He continued moving east, entering the Mountain. This was where the Monster kidnapped that person’s family.

Jack got in and it didn’t take that long to find them. The victim was still alive. Jack just walked to the Ork and challenged the Ork.

This was a Veteran Ork. Ork had a regenerative ability, 7 attack points, 2 damage each and 3 HP. As Veteran he was fast, knew how to ambush.

Jack avoided the first attack but he couldn’t attack the Ork back.

2nd attack and Jack dealt 2 damage. The Ork remained standing.

2 more damage to the Ork. The Ork was down but the regenerative power brought it back to life.

Jack dealt 2 more damage. The Ork went down again but was he going to stand again with his regenerative ability?

No. The Ork stayed down. Jack won and gained 3 Gold. The victim was safe and thanked Jack, giving him a treasure as a reward.

It was Dash Scroll. The victim could have used it herself if only she was not chained. The Castle of Light was near so Jack decided to bring her along and got her medically treated there. They both moved south.

In the Castle of Light, after getting the victim treated, Jack visited the King and told him everything he knew and his plan to finally stop this source of evil.

Based on that story, the King concluded that the Knight was the Chaos Knight. The King heard about the Shield and how the Knight could get stronger the longer he fights.

Jack thanked the King for all of the information and left. Before leaving the Castle, he visited the last shop. With the Gold he got from the last fight, he bought one more scroll, the Antidote scroll just to be safe.

The fastest way from the Castle to reach that Purple Portal was by going south 1 space and 3 to the east.

So, he moved to the Forest. This was where the Great Lake was. Jack was hoping to meet the Water Spirit again but unfortunately, he couldn’t found her…

Instead, an ambushed happened. A Giant Bat attacked him.

Jack avoided the attack but couldn’t retaliate.

Dealt 2 damage to the bat. Gained 2 Gold. Jack kept moving to the east entering the Mountain.

Nothing to be found here. Jack was expecting to meet the guy he delivered the 2 Scrolls to during his first quest. I guess he was done with his own quest and went back home.

The night came and Jack decided to rest. A big final day tomorrow.

WEEK 2, DAY 6. THE FINAL BATTLE

Hero Stats:
Attack: 6
Damage: 2
Speed: 6
HP: 4 / 4

Gold: 10
Poison: 0

Item:
PEAR SCROLL
RUSH SCROLL
ANTIDOTE SCROLL
KABOOM SCROLL
DASH SCROLL

Fame: 50 (E.04), 25 (E.35), 50 (E.02), 50 (E.08)

Quests:
– Defeat a Monster (E.19) COMPLETED
– Revive the Island (E.04) COMPLETED
– Complete Map (E.02) COMPLETED
– Bring 2 Scrolls (E.22) COMPLETED
– Send a Mango (E.38) COMPLETED

Probably last upgrade. Jack paid 3 Gold and sharpened his sword. The damage power went up from 2 to 3. Jack was ready. 2 spaces left to reach the Purple Portal.

Event happened.

Bad weather again to the Swamp area. Luckily, Jack didn’t need to pass any of that to reach his final destination. Jack moved to the east, entering the Plain area.

Nothing happened in the area so Jack kept moving east and finally reach the forest with that Purple Portal.

Ambush again by Giant Bat. Jack avoided the attack. He knew these Bats so well by now.

Jack dealt 3 damage and gained 2 Gold. He got to that Purple Portal. Another Giant Bat came out from that portal, ambushing Jack.

Nobody got hurt from that first attempt.

3 damage to the Bat and gained 2 Gold. The Chaos Knight came out of that Portal. He knew Jack was coming. However, the Knight had 1 more Guardian with him.

It was a Troll, and it immediately ambushed Jack. Jack had to fight this first before the Chaos Knight. The Troll had 8 points of attack, 2 damage and 3 HP.

The Troll hit Jack 2 damage, 2 HP left.

Jack dealt 3 damage to the Troll.

3 more damage to the troll. The Troll had regenerative ability but he failed to come back to life. Jack gained 4 Gold. At this point, he could either run or fight the Chaos Knight.

The Chaos Knight had 10 points of attack, 2 damage each and 7 HP. Every round Jack didn’t finish him, he got stronger.

Jack used his Kaboom Scroll. 3 damage to the Chaos Knight.

The Knight attack but Jack avoided it and countered, dealing 3 more damage. Both remained standing.

The Damage power of the Chaos Knight went up by 1 from 2 to 3.

Jack used his PEAR SCROLL, gaining full HP back.

2nd Clash and Jack delivered 3 more damage and beat the Chaos Knight.

The Chaos Knight melted and the Portal roared, absorbing all monsters on the island. Jack gained 50 Fame.

He saw the Knight’s shield on the ground, getting absorbed by the Portal as well. Jack decided to catch it.

Plus speed of 6 from Jack’s boots, he caught the Shield while the Portal closed down. He won and the island was safe. The Shield was his proof.

He went back to the Castle of Light and told the King. They had a royal feast and the King gave Jack 200 Gold.

That was the end of 6×6 TALES.

FINAL SCORING
Revive the Island(E.04): 50
Event of the Day (E.35): 25
Complete the Map (E.02): 50
Donation to Temple (E.08): 50
The Absorbing Machine (E.09): 50
The Chaos Shield (E.37): 50
3 Quests (E.01 / E08 / E.15): 45
215 Gold: 215

TOTAL SCORE: 535. LEGENDARY HERO

Playing time took about 3 hours… mostly because of the drawing. Read the full session report with all of the dice rolls here: [blogpost=160034][/blogpost]

Next Station: London

Connect stations in London into 4 different Rail Lines for the widest reach of interconnecting transportation of the city.

Played 2 solo sessions still without using extra modules. Since I was still not good in this game, I thought I should try playing the game a bit differently. Instead of revealing 1 card at a time, I reveal all cards until all 5 underground stations were revealed for one color and then make decision based on it.

First one scored 127 and the 2nd one scored 132. Maybe these 2 were too small for comparison but compared to my previous plays using the standard rule, I scored slightly better. But they are still not as good as other player that can reach close to 150. I honestly don’t know what else I can improve to score better.

The highest score per color is definitely higher one with 32 and the other with 34. While the lowest was still with just 15 where the round only got like 7 cards. I think the total of all 4 colors are slightly higher with around 100. Usually I could get 90 if I was lucky enough.

2nd play got the highest connected stations using 2 colors with 7 stations. Usually it didn’t get to 5. Still only one station with 3 colors and nothing with 4.

I have to admit that I don’t really have long term plan when playing this one, other than trying to get as many stations in one region and expand as many regions as the rest. What I mean is that I don’t or cannot really visualize where the next color would go. Is it really possible to plan like that? My head seems to say that it depends on the order of drawn card and just wait until that color’s turn and make the best out of it later.

With the standard and correct rule, it is mostly just tactical, reacting to the next card. Slightly doing better than that just means reading the last like 2 or 3 cards predicting which underground shape that has not come out yet.

Colors for the later rounds are definitely just wishing to connect whatever’s possible. That works the same for either method.

With revealing all cards right from the start, at first I thought it led to Analysis paralysis. But after or even the first color, I can find a way to make it work. But again, just trying to make sure, I can connect using every card. I guess I like it better since I can do back and forth just trying by following the order of the card.

First session took 21 minutes, not much longer than the regular way. 2nd one took 27, a bit longer. So, I guess I managed to do better with this method, take more things as consideration for the best move.

Well, I was hoping by trying this method, revealing all cards from the start of each round, I could notice somethings that I could use with the regular rule. Not really sure that I did.

Streets

Develop properties in your neighborhood and sell them in a game of Streets. This was a solo session using Business Tokens module but not the Consultant.

ROUND 1. The 3 starting buildings were OPTIMISTIC DIY, CANDY SHOP and EXPERT VINYL SHOP, a Wild, Green and Yellow type in that order. The Grifter’s next building was COLOSSAL HEAD which will close down the Street.

I could either place their building to close the City Park or the one in Central Station. If they closed down right away, there would be only my building and nothing for them. Only I got the score. I guess I went with that idea, expanding the Central Station but close it down immediately.

OPTIMISTIC DIY should be for longer Streets while the other 2 were similar, 2 icons either green and yellow and each building had that 1 icon. The Central Station would add the other icon to make the pair so I could get the same score either way. Decided to go with Expert Vinyl Shop, a Yellow, attracted 1 Yellow resident.

The Grifter closed it down, started a new street and I had to sell that one building for $5 + $1. I also got the first Retail Business token. Nothing for Grifter but they caught the Pink resident from the Central Station while the rest were stuck with no place to hang out yet.

Current score: 6 for me, 0 for Grifter.

ROUND 2. The new building I got was STARTER HOME, a green type that can score 2 for each Green icon. Grifter’s next one was POSH NIGHT CLUB, a blue that can score 3 for each property they own in the same street.

I had no Blue so I couldn’t prevent Grifter from taking those Blue resident from Central Station. First, I placed the Candy Shop, in the same street as the Colossal Head to the south, attracting 1 Green resident and catching the one from Central Station. Just 1 more green to get some value for that Candy shop.

Grifter also built their on the same street. Catching the Blue and attracting a new Blue. They could score 6 at that point just from that property. The 2 yellow residents were still stuck in first street unable to find a new home.

Current score: 6 for me, 0 for Grifter.

ROUND 3. I got a HUGE MALL, a wild type that can score 2 for every Blue resident. Grifter’s next was THE BEST SUSHI shop, a blue type that can score 5 for every pair of 1 Blue and 1 Yellow icon.

The only options were to extend the City Park but no bonus point or that 2nd street but no yellow yet in that street for Grifter. I had 2 Wild so either of them would become a yellow for Grifter.

While I could play a Green to increase the value of my Candy shop and avoid giving one for Grifter, this was probably by only best chance to get the most score from OPTIMISTIC DIY with 5 buildings in the same street.

I built that as the 4th building in that 2nd street without attracting any new residents. Grifter built theirs next to it as the 5th in the street so the Street was full. They attracted 1 new blue resident.

Those 2 yellows were still stuck in 1st street.

Current score: 6 for me, 0 for Grifter.

ROUND 4. I got UPVOTED HOTEL, a pink that can score 2 for every pink icon. Grifter got CHILAX SPA, a blue type that can score similarly to that hotel.

Either of us had to start a new street since the 2nd Street was already full. I had to prepare catching some of them. Unfortunately, I had no Blue so I couldn’t prevent Grifter from catching those Blue existing residents. Since Grifter could take advantage of my Hotel, I decided to go with the Starter Home.

This was built north of 1st and 2nd street aligned with the 1st, as a closing one to the 2nd. I attracted 1 new Green resident with the base value of 2 for now. Grifter built their next to it to the west, attracting 2 new Blue residents but with 0 base value.

Those 2 yellows were still stuck in 1st street.

Current score: 6 for me, 0 for Grifter.

ROUND 5. I got INCREDIBLE DAY CARE, a green that can score 3 for every property that I own in the same street. Grifter got INDIE STAGE, a wild that can score 2 for every Yellow resident.

Grifter could place that anywhere but not going to score until somebody attracted a Yellow resident next to it. I decided to place that new day care to create 4th street, closing the 3rd one to the east. The reason was that I was expecting to close the 3rd one very shortly. This attracted 1 new green with the base value of 3.

So, Grifter could add the building in the 3rd or the 4th street or of course, next to City Park. The last one was better thematically. Since I had the choice, I let it built next to my Day Care. No value for that building.

Those 2 yellows were still stuck in 1st street.

Current score: 6 for me, 0 for Grifter.

ROUND 6. I got WEIRD RESTAURANT, finally a Yellow type that can score 5 for every pair of 1 pink and 1 yellow icon. Grifter got JUNK ART STATUE a pink and yellow type with only value of 4.

I could have played my Hotel or Restaurant to at least catch the Yellow or Pink residents instead of letting Grifter took both. Unfortunately, this was my last unused Ownership token so I had to start closing down the 2nd street.

So, I placed the HUGE MALL at the other end of the 2nd street. This was Wild icon and usually I will abandon it later.

I sold the Candy shop for 12 and Optimistic DIY for 10. Grifter got 7 from Colossal Head, 11 from Posh Night Club and 11 from The Best Sushi shop.

I took the hospitality business token from my DIY shop instead of Restaurant token to compete with Grifter. Grifter got 2 Restaurant tokens from their Night Club.

Green residents from my previous Candy shop migrated to my Starter Home. Blue from Grifter’s previous 2 buildings moved on to Chillax Spa, also owned by Grifter. Pink and Yellow were stuck.

That was my action. Grifter then placed their building in the 3rd street to the west from their Spa. This attracted 1 new yellow and 1 new pink while accommodating 2 of each Yellow and Pink from previous places.

Current score: 28 for me, 29 for Grifter.

ROUND 7. I got TRENDY LOFTS, another green type that can score 2 for each Yellow icon. Grifter got FAST CARS shop, a blue type that can score 3 for every 2 blue residents.

Grifter definitely wanted to place it in the 3rd street. I could either extend it or close it down. Even if I closed it down, the Grifter could just place their anywhere and caught those existing blue residents and got the same score.

So, instead, I just extended the 3rd street with my Trendy Lofts. This would give higher value thanks to Grifter’s yellow while adding value to my Starter Home. I attracted 2 Green residents with 2 as the Base value. Grifter built their as the 5th in the 3rd street, attracting 2 new Blue residents with the base value of 9.

Current score: 28 for me, 29 for Grifter.

ROUND 8. I got BOARD GAME CAFE, a wild type that can score 1 for any type of residents in the same street. Grifter got BICYCLE REPAIR BAR, a yellow that can score 2 for each Green.

Nothing could be added to the 3rd street so the best option for Grifter was to add to 4th street with 1 Green and 1 Wild there. Well, I had to start taking back my ownership so I had to close down the 3rd street.

I placed the Weird Restaurant to the other end of 3rd street. The yellow icon on this increased my property value in that 3rd street without adding anything for Grifter.

I got 6 from selling the Trendy Lofts and 11 from Starter Home. Grifter got 11 from Fast Cars, 10 from Junk Art Statue and 7 from Chillax Spa. Both of us took Real Estate Business token sharing the majority.

My restaurant became the new place for Yellow residents. Green went to my Day Care in 4th street. Pink and Blue from 3rd street were stuck with no new home for them.

That was my action. Grifter placed their building as the 3rd in the 4th street next to their Indie Stage. This attracted 2 new yellow residents with the base value of 2 for the property.

Current score: 45 for me, 57 for Grifter.

ROUND 9. I got CONCEPT STORE, a pink, scoring 2 for every blue icon. Grifter got LUXURY APARTMENTS, a blue that can score for being an enclosure.

I couldn’t prevent Grifter from catching existing Blue residents. However, I could take advantage of the icon from their next building which was blue if pointed to mine. The Concept store was great for this.

Instead of adding my building to 4th, 5th or 6th, I created a new one next to Fast Cars and turned it into enclosure That Fast Cars had 2 blue icons pointed to the new street and increase the value of my Concept store.

By doing so, I attracted 2 new Pink residents and caught the previous 3 from 3rd street. Grifter then closed it down the street immediately using their Luxury Apartment that attracted 1 new blue residents and 7 from previous 3rd street.

I immediately had to sell the Concept store for 11 and got a Retail business token. Grifter score nothing. All pink residents were searching for new home now.

Current score: 56 for me, 57 for Grifter.

ROUND 10. I got BRAND BURGERS, a green that can score for being an enclosure. Grifter got SWEET ICECREAM shop, a pink that can score 6 for every 2 Green icons.

For this current situation, the best place for Grifter was the 4th street as the 4th building as there were already 2 green icons. For me, my best option was to catch the existing Pink residents stranded in my previous Concept Store.

Adding to 4th with a Wild could increase the value but I decided to extend the 8th street which had a Luxury Apartment, to the east. If this could extend to the far east, there was already an enclosure while 4th had none.

I attracted 1 new pink and caught the previous 5. Grifter built their Ice cream shop in 4th street, attracting 1 new Pink.

Current score: 56 for me, 57 for Grifter.

ROUND 11. I got MICRO BREWERY, a yellow with Copy Valuation. Grifter got WAREHOUSE, a wild type with higher value for being surrounded with more buildings.

So, if I kept adding building to the 8th street to the east, Grifter could get the highest scoring possible for that building by building there as well. That location would be surrounded by 6. Even if I held it they still got 5 surrounding buildings.

Luckily, I got the Micro Brewery with Copy Valuation. The more profit Grifter got with that Warehouse, the more profit I got as well. So, I placed the brewery in that 8th street, next to my Hotel and attracting 1 new Yellow. Grifter built next to mine so both of us got a base value of 12.

Current score: 56 for me, 57 for Grifter.

ROUND 12. I got GROOMING SALON, a green and blue type with a base value of 4. Grifter got SUPERVISED BEACH, a green that can score 6 for every 2 pink icons.

The best option for Grifter was building a 5th in 4th street with already 2 Pink icons there. I could prevent it but I already run out of Ownership tokens.

So, I decided to close down the 8th street while abandoning the Huge Mall from somewhere not developed. I wanted to catch the Blue residents there so I played that Salon to attract new green and blue and the existing blues from luxury apartments.

I got 10 from selling my Hotel, 13 from Brewery. Grifter got 12 from Warehouse and 14 from Luxury Apartments. For business tokens, Grifter already got real estate so they took the hospitality instead. I picked the real estate.

The blue residents from apartments migrated to my Salon. Yellow to my restaurant. Pink went to Sweet Ice Cream, owned by Grifter in 4th street.

That was my action. Grifter built 5th building in 4th street. This attracted 1 Green with a base value of 6.

Current score: 79 for me, 83 for Grifter.

ROUND 13. I got CRAFT COFFEE, a yellow that can score 4 for each wild icon. Grifter got SHOPPING AREA, a pink that can score for a pair of 1 blue and 1 pink icon.

So, I played the game wrong. I placed Grifter’s next one in the 4th street while that street was already full. The best option should have been in the left most street, the 9th next to my Salon.

I played my Board Game Cafe between my Weird Restaurant with 5 yellow residents and Salon with 10 residents. Grifter’s Shopping Area even added 1 value to my Board Game Cafe while getting base value of 5.

Current score: 79 for me, 83 for Grifter.

ROUND 14. 2 more. Grifter’s next one was STUDENT HOUSE, a yellow that can score 6 for being an enclosure. I also had one similar to that, so I thought this should be a good chance to close that 9th street.

I built the BRAND BURGERS to the north end, enclosing the 9th, attracting 1 new Green. Grifter closed the other end, attracting one new Yellow.

I got 14 from my Salon, 16 from my Board Game Cafe and 10 from my Restaurant. Grifter got 6 from their SHOPPING AREA. Yellow residents moved to Grifter’s Student House. Blue had no new place yet and the single Pink went to Sweet Ice Cream in 4th street owned by Grifter.

Current score: 119 for me, 89 for Grifter.

ROUND 14. Last one. Grifter got GIANT TOY STORE, a wild scoring 2 for every Green. The best option for this was next to my BRAND BURGERS.

While the best for my CRAFT COFFEE was to be next to my previous HUGE MALL that I abandoned.

That was the end of the game. No more closed street.

SCORING

I got 3 from Craft Coffee, 4 from my Brand Burgers, 5 from Day Care. Grifter got 1 from Giant Toy Store, 1 from Indie Stage, 4 from Bicycle Repair Bar, 7 from Ice Cream, 6 from Student House, 4 from Beach.

From Majority of Business tokens, I won 3 sets and 1 for Grifter.

FINAL SCORE: 161 for me and 122 for Grifter. I won in Normal Difficulty but lost 1 point in Hard difficulty.

Playing time was about 53 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Streets Review.

Let’s Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game

Pick up passengers and deliver them to their destination in Let’s Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game. This was the expert solo mode using the City map again, where roll only 4 white dice and pick 3 for passengers and one option for building the route.

BLUE ROUTE, 1ST ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Red, 1 Orange.

The Blue route was the Route A, started from a Green Circle. I chose the Circle at the top right corner next to a School.

Just to move farther, I set the Purple as the route so the other 3 became the passengers. The Red one was to activate the first ability.

Using purple, this allowed me to move 3 spaces in straight line. The only way without changing direction was going south. However, after the 2nd space, I changed the direction so the last one moved to the east, ending it on a traffic light. That means I got 1 extra movement to the south and picked up a Green Star.

BLUE ROUTE, 2ND ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Green.

Purple and Blue allowed me to move 3 spaces but the Green if I landed on a traffic light also got me 3 spaces. There was a traffic light 2 spaces to the west from my current position and that could end the movement on the first Point A for this Blue line. So, the other became passengers, 3rd for the first row of purple and 1st of 1st row for Blue.

Moved the bus to the west 2 spaces, landed on a traffic light and moved south to the Point A.

BLUE ROUTE, 3RD ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Green, 1 Orange.

I could only take 1 more Purple passenger for now so the other had to be the movement and the other 2 became passengers, 2nd for orange and 1st pair of Green.

From the current position to avoid changing direction, my best and only option was to go south to the border. However, this means the bottom right corner section was completely blocked from this route.

Well, I took that risk since this map is bigger than the Mars one so I couldn’t explore any space anyway. I moved south 3 spaces and landed in a traffic light. With the extra movement, I had no choice but to move west, picking up a 2nd Green Star.

BLUE ROUTE, 4TH ROUND. 1 Blue, 2 Orange and 1 Red.

My Purple was full so I had to drop them in the nearby tourist spot which was 2 spaces to the west from my current position. For that, my best option was to use the red for 1 space movement to the traffic light and it would push to that Tourist space. I could use the orange but I had to suffer penalty for changing direction.

So, that was what I did. Got the 2nd blue for the 1st row and the 3rd and 4th orange. I dropped all 4 purples in the Tourist spot for 14 points.

BLUE ROUTE, 5TH ROUND. 1 Blue, 1 Gray, 1 Orange and 1 Red.

I wanted to reach the 2nd Point A 2 spaces to the west from current position and after that aimed for the Station nearby. For that I could use the Gray for movement so the rest became passengers.

Got 3rd of 1st Blue row, 5th of orange and the red was to activate the 1st ability. Just needed 1 Purple for it. Moved 2 spaces to the west and reached that Point A.

BLUE ROUTE, 6TH ROUND. 2 Purple, 2 Gray.

My next stop should be the station to drop the 3 Blue passengers so I could start a new one. For that I had to move 2 spaces north and then 1 space to the west. So, I had to use one of the Purple with changing the direction which was the 2nd time.

Got 1st and 2nd Students or grays and 1st purple of the 2nd row as passengers. I moved 2 spaces north and 1 to the west and reached the Station. Dropped 3 blue passengers for 8 points plus 2nd purple for the 2nd row.

BLUE ROUTE, 7TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Gray and 1 Orange.

Still aiming for the 3rd Point A. Not enough passengers for the Tourist spot even though there was one nearby. I probably couldn’t get the most points from School or grays.

So, I just took time using Orange for movement for 2 spaces. I got 3rd purple for the 2nd row, 1st blue of the 2nd row and 3rd gray. Then I moved north 1 space and then east, picking up 3rd Green Star, ended the movement next to a Tourist spot.

BLUE ROUTE, 8TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 2 Gray and 1 Red.

I actually picked one gray and 1 red to activate the 3rd ability first. One more red for that. I took the 4th purple and ready to deliver them to the Tourist spot nearby. So, I had to use Gray to move 2 spaces.

I moved north 1 space to the Tourist spot and then changed the direction to the east 1 space landing on a traffic light. This was the 3rd change. That traffic light pushed 1 more space and I chose the north, very close to another school and station.

Dropped all 4 Purple and scored 14, at least I was supposed to. Somehow I actually forgot to score this one.

BLUE ROUTE, 9TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Gray and 1 Red.

Since I forgot to score the purple, my purple was still full so apparently I aimed for the Tourist spot in the middle top. I still picked the purple but to completely activate the 1st ability and the red for the 3rd ability. Scored 4 from each.

Last passenger I picked was the Gray so I could move 3 spaces using the Blue. I went 1 space to the east to the 1st traffic jam, picking up 1st Green triangle. Then I moved north 1 space and continued to east 1 space to the Tourist spot so I finally scored 14.

BLUE ROUTE, 10TH ROUND. 2 Gray and 2 Green.

I just realized that I only had 1 complete pair of green while a lot of parents without kids here. So, I had to pick 2 Green kids this time and I filled them for the 2 Star Parents. I also got 4th Gray and used the other gray for movement.

I first moved north 1 space to the last POINT A. After the 4th changing direction, I moved to the west, landed in a traffic light. That light pushed up one space avoiding going to the Station through a traffic jam. I picked a 2nd Green Circle.

BLUE ROUTE, 11TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 2 Blue, 1 Orange.

I had to pick the 2 Blue so I could drop them at the nearby station. To reach that, the orange was perfect movement so the Purple filled the 1st space of 3rd purple row.

I reached the station, dropped 3 blue passengers. Scored 8 points and got the 2nd purple of that 3rd row.

BLUE ROUTE, 12TH ROUND. 1 Blue, 2 Gray and 1 Green.

All I could do was to reach the 2nd School. Only needed 2 spaces, one east and one south which can be done with green. However, if I used the Blue, I could moved 1 space to the east again after the school and the traffic light would push the bus and picked up the 2nd Green triangle. Blue passenger was useless anyway so I went with that.

I got the 3rd pair of green star, 5th and 6th students as passengers, reached the 2nd school and picked 2 more Green parents.

SCORING
Line A: 10 points
Purple: 30 points
Blue: 16 points
Gray: 12 points
Green: 14 points
Orange: 8 points
Abilities: 8 points
Penalties: -9 points
TOTAL BLUE SCORE: 89 POINTS

PINK ROUTE, 1ST ROUND. 2 Blue, 1 Gray, 1 Red.

I decided not to bring any activated abilities so I could score from them again. Pink route got Line B, started with green triangle 4th column, 4th row next to Point B.

I took the Gray and Red to activate the 3rd ability so I got only 1 Blue. Blue allowed me to move farther so that was what I went with/

I moved south 1 space first to first Point B. The next one should have been either west or east which landed me to the first station. But I avoided it by changing the direction the first time this phase. So I moved south 1 space again and then I moved east, landing in a traffic light. The bonus pushed me south 1 space farther.

PINK ROUTE, 2ND ROUND. 1 Blue, 1 Green, 2 Orange.

I took the 2nd Blue and filled the first green and 1st orange as passenger. So, I got the other orange as movement. My best option was to reach the 1st School which by moving east 1 space and then south 1 space.

PINK ROUTE, 3RD ROUND. 1 Gray, 2 Green, 1 Red.

Unfortunately, I had not picked any new Green parents so one green was wasted. I had to use the Green for movement so the other for passengers. I got first gray and activated the 3rd ability.

With Green as movement, I moved east 1 space to the 2nd Point B. Then I moved south 1 space, through 1st traffic jam to a traffic light which pushed the bus 1 space to the east and landed at a Station. I dropped the 2 blue and scored 4 points, getting 2nd orange.

PINK ROUTE, 4TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 1 Gray, 1 Green, 1 Red.

Still no parent so the Green had to be for movement. Red filled for the 1st ability and I got my first purple and 2nd gray as passenger.

With the movement from green again, I moved east 1 space and then north space, while picking up the 2nd triangle green. The last movement ended at a traffic light which pushed north 1 space next to other parent.

PINK ROUTE, 5TH ROUND. 1 Purple, 3 Blue.

Well, one of the blue had to be movement. I got the 2nd Purple of 1st row, 2 blues of the 2nd row.

Using the Blue as movement, I moved west 1 space, picking up the 1st Green circle. Then I moved north to the Tourist spot, dropping the 2 Purple for 5 points. After that I moved west again to the Point A.

PINK ROUTE, 6TH ROUND. 3 Purple and 1 Blue.

I wanted to say the Purple became the movement but blue was the better option from the current position. I got 3 new purple for the 2nd row.

First I moved north 1 space through the 2nd traffic jam. Moved again west 1 space, picking up 2nd Green Circle and ended the movement with north 1 space.

PINK ROUTE, 7TH ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Gray.

I could only take 1 purple and 1 Blue at the moment so the other purple became movement. That gray was the 3rd. To avoid any change of direction I had to move 3 spaces to the east. The last one was 3rd traffic jam and landed at a traffic light, which pushed 1 space north.

PINK ROUTE, 8TH ROUND. 2 Green, 1 Orange, 1 Red.

So I could only move 2 spaces. I picked the orange for it so I filled 2 Green, one for Circle and the other for triangle and the red was to activate the 1st ability.

With orange I moved up 1 space to 3rd Point B. Then moved west 1 space, picking up a Green circle, a 3rd one, which was the Blue route starting point.

PINK ROUTE, 9TH ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Blue and 1 Green.

Both my current row of Purple and Blue were not scored yet and full so I couldn’t take any of them other than for activating the abilities.

I filled 2nd Green Circle. Instead of using Purple as movement, I rolled the Black die for movement and got a Blue.

From the Blue route starting position, I moved 1 space south to the 2nd school, through the 4th traffic jam and then west 1 space, picking up 4th triangle green. Instead of moving south again, I changed the direction for the 3rd time to the west and ended the movement at traffic light which pushed 1 space to the west to the Tourist spot. Dropped 4 purple and scored 14.

PINK ROUTE, 10TH ROUND. 1 Green, 1 Orange, 2 Red.

I filled the 3rd green triangle and used both red to activate 2 abilities. The 2nd one needed 1 more but scored 4 points from the 1st. So, the orange became the movement. From this Tourist spot, anywhere I go I went to traffic jam, the 5th one but I picked west and then north to a traffic light. This pushed to the Station to the left, through a traffic light as well, the 6th one.

Dropped all 3 blue and scored 8 and gained 1st purple of the last row.

PINK ROUTE, 11TH ROUND. Purple, Blue, Green, Red.

Well, the blue was a bit useless so it became the movement. I activated the last ability with red, scoring 4. I got 2nd purple of the last row and filled the 3rd green circle.

This was similar movement as the Blue route last one. I moved left through 7th traffic jam, picking up a Green Star. Then I moved south 1 space to a 3rd school, 8th traffic jam and then lastly 1 space to the west, 9th traffic jam to a traffic light. This pushed the bus 1 more space to a 10th traffic jam to south, picking up 4th green triangle.

PINK ROUTE, 12TH ROUND. 2 Purple, 1 Green and 1 Red.

Got 2 last purple passengers before dropping them at the last tourist spot 2 spaces away. Filled the 4th green triangle. Instead of using red as movement, I used the 1st ability to just change it to any face as long as I could reach that tourist spot. I could have moved 1 space again to pick up another green but suffered another penalty of -3 just to get 1 extra point.

I scored 14 for the last purple and that was the end of the game.

SCORING
Line B: 10 points
Purple: 33 points
Blue: 12 points
Gray: 9 points
Green: 25 points
Orange: 4 points
Abilities: 12 points
Penalties: -13 points
TOTAL PINK SCORE: 92 POINTS

TOTAL SCORE: 181 POINTS.

Playing time was about 40 minutes.

Pocket Master Builder

Build the city with your opponent in Pocket Master Builder. It’s been a while since the last time I played this solo mode. I think I already made a mistake about placing a worker. The rule is that I can only place it on the edge where the card is connected to another card. So, you cannot expect some future placement hoping to get the bonus from the next placement. Unfortunately, I only realized this after a couple of rounds and decided to just continue instead of resetting the game.

Anyway here is how the session went.

ROUND 1.

The 3 starting cards were Fountain, Gold Workshop and Tower. I placed the Fountain at the bottom left corner. The left side had purple color showing a Gold, connected to another purple showing a brick and I placed a worker on it. The bottom shows a brick with purple next to another brick but with red. I didn’t place any worker.

Instead, I got it wrong where I placed the worker on the top with no adjacent card. This top part had 2 stones. I didn’t build anything yet this round.

I took 2 cards as Rest phase, a Market and a Prison with 3 workers left.

The opponent rolled a 5. Even this was a mistake. I was supposed to place the card in the first empty space of the current column from the top. Yet, I placed it from the bottom as if I rolled a 6. No flipping for now.

ROUND 2.

I placed the Prison card at the top left corner of the grid. The left side of this card has 2 brown stone, connected with another brown with a Wood. I placed a worker there. The top had red brick with purple wood that I didn’t place any worker.

Instead, I placed another worker on the bottom side with no adjacent card. So, this was another mistake. This one had red stone.

This time I built BARRACK for 3 points from the left border. This required 2 Wood, 1 Brick and 2 Stone. From 2 workers that I could use based on the donkey track, I got 2 Stone, 1 Wood, 1 Brick and 1 Gold. One gold was to pay the other Wood so I got enough. As bonus, I moved my cube on the Wall track 1 space, gained 1 reward to currently at 5. I also got 1 worker for being at Wall 2.

For Rest phase, I took 1 worker and a new card which was a MANOR.

The opponent rolled a 1 and placed STONE WORKSHOP at 1st row, 2nd column. I flipped 2 green type buildings from the left border.

ROUND 3.

I placed GOLD WORKSHOP at first column 2nd row. The left side had brown stone, connected to brown brick and I placed a worker there. At the bottom, it shows a purple stone, connected to 2 purple bricks so I placed a worker there. This placement completed the 1st column so I got another worker.

The top part had 2 red bricks and connected to another red stone which I already mistakenly placed a worker there. I guess this still worked as if I just placed the worker this round.

However, I built GATE as my 2nd building this time. This was a border at the 2nd row that requires 2 bricks and 3 stones. This was where I made a mistake by spending the 2 stones from previously mistaken worker. I also spent the 2 bricks and 1 stone I just got this round.

Got 3 points, increased the wall track by 1, gaining 1 reward and 1 bonus card.

The new cards were BRICK WORKSHOP and STAGING POST and I had 2 active workers left.

For the opponent, I rolled a 6 and they placed WOOD WORKSHOP at 2nd column, 4th row. I flipped a FOUNTAIN building from 4th row and LIBRARY from landmark.

ROUND 4.

I placed MARKET card at 3rd column, 4th row. Only the bottom part had the matching color with 1 Gold and 1 Brick so I placed a worker there.

Built nothing this round and I picked 1 card plus 1 worker for rest phase. The new card was another MARKET card with 2 workers left.

Rolled a 6 for the opponent and they placed TAVERN at 2nd column, 3rd row. I flipped WOOD WORKSHOP from the 4th row and the CATHEDRAL, a landmark below that workshop.

ROUND 5.

I placed the BRICK WORKSHOP card at 3rd row, 3rd column. The left side had purple with 2 bricks, connected to a purple brick so I placed 1 worker there. While the bottom part had red brick connected to 2 red wood so I placed another worker there.

This time I built my 3rd building which was the GOLD WORKSHOP, the 1st building at 2nd row. A green type that can give discount of 1 gold for subsequent build action. This required 2 wood, 3 brick and 2 stones to build.

For this, I had to use 3 workers but the Donkey only allowed me to use 2 for now. I had to spend 4 rewards plus so I could use 3. From those 3, I got 2 Wood, 4 Brick and 3 stone. Not very efficient. I got 2 rewards and 4 points.

For rest phase, I took 1 worker and 1 card. The card was SENTRY and I had 1 active worker left.

The opponent rolled a 4 and placed GOLD WORKSHOP at 4th row, 4th column. I flipped a TAVERN from 3rd row, 2nd building and PRISON from 1st row, 1st building.

ROUND 6.

I placed MANOR at 3rd row, as 4th building, connected on 2 sides. The left one had 2 purple wood connected to a purple single wood which I claimed with worker. The bottom one had purple on both sides, one with brick and the other with stone. I had to spend 2 reward to get 1 worker to place it there.

I built SMITHY as my 4th from 3rd row, 1st building. This required 2 Wood, 1 Brick, 2 Stone and 1 Gold. I already got the discount for Gold. I only used 2 workers this time and got 3 woods, 1 brick and 1 stone. So I still missed 1 stone. For that I discarded TOWER card with brick at the bottom.

Gained 4 points, moved the wall track 2 spaces with 2 rewards and from this point everytime I built orange building I got 2 rewards.

For rest phase, I took 2 workers and had 3 cards left.

Rolled a 2 for opponent and they placed WOOD WORKSHOP at 2nd row, completing the column. This bumped my position in donkey track to the 2nd space which didn’t increase how many workers and cards I can use.

I flipped STONE WORKSHOP, 2nd building of 1st row and the rightmost WALL.

ROUND 7.

I placed MARKET card at 2nd row as 3rd building, connected on 2 sides. Both sides had all brown colors and I placed workers on both. Got 3 bricks from the left and one wood plus 1 gold at the bottom.

I built nothing this time and took 1 card plus 1 worker for Rest. The new card was CHAPEL.

For the opponent, I rolled a 5 and they placed BARRACK at the first row, 4th building, completing that column. This moved up my position on the donkey track so I could start using 4 workers and 3 cards.

I flipped GOLD WORKSHOP from the rightmost 4th row and the 2nd Wall.

ROUND 8.

I placed SENTRY at 1st row, 4th building, connected to 2 sides, both with matching colors. The left had purple with 2 stones and the top had 2 woods and 1 brick with brown colors. I had to spend 2 rewards again to get 1 more worker and placed them on both.

As my 5th building, I built another BARRACK from the 1st row 3rd building. This required exactly the resources from the 2 most recent workers.

Gained 3 points, moved up 1 space on the Wall and now I could no longer flip a wall, gained 3 workers from 6 walls as the building bonus. Since this was another orange, I got 2 more reward.

I took 1 card and 1 worker for the rest phase. Got SENTRY again.

Rolled a 6 for opponent and they placed CHURCH at 2nd row, 4th building, completing the column. Got me 1 new card which was SHELTER. I flipped CHURCH and MANOR, 4th building from 2nd and 3rd row.

ROUND 9.

I placed CHURCH as 5th building of 1st row. The top got me 2 Gold from matching color and the left didn’t match the color but got me 2 wood.

This time, I built BELL TOWER, the leftmost Landmark. This required 3 Bricks, 2 Stone and 2 Gold. I had 1 Worker with 3 Bricks. Another one with 2 Gold but one gold was discounted so the Gold become another Stone. Then the 3rd worker got me a Brick and Stone.

Also, this was my 6th so I triggered the end of the game. Next round was the last one.

Too many bricks but I gained 3 points, 3 rewards and for every orange type building I got 1 point at the end.

It seems I took 2 cards for the rest action. One was FORTRESS and the other had a Gold at the bottom.

ROUND 10.

I placed that FORTRESS I just got at 2nd row, 5th building. Placed the worker at the top and the bottom and got me 2 Stone, 1 Gold and 1 Wood.

All of the leftover resources got me 4 Wood, 2 Bricks, 3 Golds from workers and 2 Wood plus 1 Stone and 1 Gold.

For my last building, I decided to build CASTLE, 2nd to last Landmark to help me with my Oracle card. This required 2 Bricks, 4 Stones and 3 Gold, discounted the Gold by 1. The 2 extra gold became Stones and I still needed 1 more. For that I spent 3 Reward for 1 Gold which became a Stone.

So, I managed to build it and gained 6 points. At the end I scored 1 point from every 2 Walls which got me 3 points.

The opponent placed TOWER at 3rd row and flipped WOOD WORKSHOP and MARKET both from 2nd row. I didn’t have enough reward to push the Donkey 2 spaces to get points.

That was the end of the game.

SCORING
Buildings: 26 points
Wall: 2 points
1st Landmark bonus: 4 points
2nd Landmark Bonus: 3 points
Oracle card: 4 points
Penalties: -2 points

FINAL SCORE: 37 POINTS

So, even after cheating, I didn’t score higher than my previous game. Playing time was about 49 minutes.

Under Falling Skies

Defend your planet from Space Invaders in Under Falling Skies.

This was my 3rd play, still with the easiest setup of Roswell. I just realized where I got the rule wrong. Totally forgot about the energy to move the Excavator.

ROUND 1. Gray: 3, 3, 6, White: 4 and 6.

Ideally, I needed 2 or 3 4s, one 5 for the movement for invaders. Higher than that was not bad for Excavator.

I played White 4 first on the 5th column the double room for energy and moved down 1 ship to a firing spot. Then I rerolled the other dice and got 2, 4, 5 for gray and 2 for White.

I played the 4 in the 2nd column to do research. Then the 5 in the other part of energy room so I could generate 5+4 – 3 energy. The ship went down 5 space to another firing spot. That left me with 2 dice White 2 and Gray 4. I guess I could have played the 4 at the 1st column, dragging the ship to also another firing spot and placed the die on firing room but that would only take down one ship.

So, I played the 4 in the 3rd column just to move Excavator 2 spaces while the 2 was to move down the ship 1 space from the 1st column.

The starting energy was 2 and I got 6 energy, spent 2 for the research. Value 4 on research moved up the research track 2 spaces. Spent 1 for the excavator.

Mothership was ready to deploy white ship. I think I should have placed it at 4th but I placed it at 2nd.

ROUND 2. White 3 and 5, Gray 1, 3 and 5.

The dangerous spots that could have pushed the Mothership down was 1st column with 2 or 4 and 2nd column with 2 or 5. The rest was safe.

I could advance the research track 2 spaces with at least 4 with the room in 2nd column but I only got 5 and it was dangerous.

Now that I think about it, I could have played 5 in the 3rd column to move excavator farther. Instead I only used 3 on 1st column to move excavator 3 spaces. Played the 5 at 1st row, 3rd column so the ship only moved down 4 spaces. Then the gray 1 at the double room for energy on 4th column. That left me with 2 White, a 3 and a 5. I played the 5 first on the 5th column, 2nd part of the energy room.

After rerolling, I got a 4. So, I could played it at 2nd column safely to advance on research track 2 spaces.

I had 6 Energy (5, actually). Spent 3 for Excavator and Research. Got 5+1-3 from the Energy room. Advanced the research track 2 spaces.

Mothership moved down 1 space and pushed the Excavator backwards 2 spaces.

ROUND 3. Gray 1, 3, 6 and White 3 and 5.

Next on research track was 4 and then 1 so if I played 5 I could advance 2 spaces. The dangerous spot were 1 space on column 1, 4 on column 5 and 3 at column 2.

I wanted to push the Excavator as far as possible so I played the 6 first at the right most of the next level down. This pushed the ship down only 2 spaces left from hitting the city.

Then I played the White 5 in the research room on 2nd column. After rerolling I got White 4, Gray 3 and 5. I played the White 4 at the other reserach room of the 4th column.

After rerolling again, I got 2 and 3. 3 was for the 1st column and 2 on the 3rd, both at 1st row so the ship moved less.

With 5 energy left, I spent 1 for Excavator and 3 for the 2 research room. I moved up the research track 3 spaces.

Mothership went down, 9 spaces away from the planet, ready to deploy 2nd white ship.

ROUND 4. White 4 and 6, Gray 3, 3, 3.

Spaces to avoid were 3 spaces on 2nd, 3rd and 5th, and 6 for 1st. First I played the White 6 on 2nd column just to move Excavator as far as possible.

After rerolling, I got White 3, Gray 1, 2, 4. The next on research track required a 2 and then a 1 before a 6. I needed more energy first so I played 4 at 5th and 1 at 4th column for the double energy room. I played the 2 on 3rd column but 1st row so the closest ship moved to firing spot.

Lastly I played White 3 at research room 1st column. The value was down by 1 so I only moved up 1 space on the research track.

I had 1 Energy left but got 4+1-3 from the double room. Then I spent only 1 for the Excavator. I think I even forgot to update the Energy track.

Mothership moved down again, 8 spaces away from the finish line. Nothing happened this time.

ROUND 5. White 2 and 5, Gray 2, 3, 3.

Well this was where I should have lost the game. I thought I had the energy to attack with the double room from Row 3. There were only 2 and for Excavator and the Research room.

I played the White 5 first thinking I had the energy to shoot at double room 2nd column. After rerolling, I got White 6, Gray 2, 4, 6. I played the 2 at 5th column but 1st row so the ship moved to shooting spot.

Then I played the White 6 on the research room 4th column and got hit once. After rerolling again, I got Gray 1 and 5.

The 1 was to fill the 2nd part of double room at 3rd column and the 5 was to move the excavator. Spent 2 remaining Energy just for the Research and the Excavator with 3 ships about to hit the city.

Mothership moved down again, 7 spaces away from hitting the city. They were about to deploy white ships plus 3 that I mistakenly took down. With 3 Energy left.

I guess I just continued the wrong story from here on. Oh, well…

ROUND 6. White 1 and 4, Gray 5, 5 and 6.

I played the 6 first in the double energy room of 5th column. Then I played the White 4 at 3rd column for the double attack room. The white ship from that column then moved to the 4th, no other ship there.

After rerolling I got White 4, Gray 3 and 4. Gray 3 to fill the double energy room of 4th column and gray 4 for the 2th column, the other part of attack room. So I had the White 4 left for the 1st column, another Energy room.

Spent 2 energy for the double attack room which took down 2 ships, one from 2nd column and the other from 6th. 2 more were close enough to hit. Got the Energy up to 7. I was planning to do more research but I got not enough die for the next on track which required a value of 6.

Mothership went down, 6 spaces away, pushing back the excavator 1 space.

ROUND 7. White 3 and 6. Gray 2, 4, 5.

First I played the 5 to finish the Excavator. Then the 4 in double research room, 3rd column. Got hit once. I played the White 6 for the other part of that room and moved the ship to the 3rd column.

After rerolling, I got White 3 and Gray 6. The 6 was to research as well in 1st column. While the 3 was just to get Energy again in 2nd column.

From 7 Energy, spent 1 for excavator, 2 for research double room. Got full again from the energy room. The research track moved up the 6, the 1, 3 and then the 5.

Mothership went down again, 5 spaces away, moved down on research track by 1, 4 spaces away from winning. One red ship was ready to be deployed on 1st column.

ROUND 8. White 1 and 6, Gray 2, 4, 6.

The city could only take 3 more hit. I needed 3 for 1st, 2nd and 5th column to push those ships to the shooting spots. Or maybe a 1 for 2nd and 3rd column.

I played 2 on 1st row, 3rd column. One ship was in shooting spot. Then 4 at 5th column, 1st row so the ship was also in shooting spot.

No ship in 4th column so I played 6 for the reserach track. So, I had the 2 whites left. I played the 6 first in the shooting room of 1st column. After rerolling, I got a 3 and I placed it at 2nd column, 1st row. There were 2 ships in that column. One hit the city and the other was at shooting spot.

With 7 Energy, spent 2 for the attacking room and 1 for the research. 3 spaces away from winning. The attack managed to take down 4 ships, 3 reds and 1 white.

Mothership went down again, 3 spaces away. Nothing happened this time. 4 red ships were ready to deploy.

ROUND 9. White 1 and 4, Gray 3, 4, 4.

Next research required a 1 and then a 3 before finally an 11. I needed a 1 to avoid getting hit from the ship in 3rd column and placed it in shooting spot. I wanted to keep the other value so I placed it 2nd to last.

So, I played the 4 in 4th column, planning to activate the double research room along with the White 1. The ship was in shooting range.

Played the gray 3 at 5th column so the ship was in shooting spot. I played it in attack room. Then I played the 4 in the energy room of 2nd column. Finally played the White 1 at 3rd column, double research room.

Had to reroll the White 4 and got a 2. Luckily the 1st column would send the ship to shooting spot even if I could only use it to generate more energy.

With 7 Energy, I spent 2 for double research room, 2 for attacking room. Back to full again with 2 Energy room. The attack took down 2 ships, from 3rd and 2nd column.

Mothership went down again, 2 spaces away, pushing down the research track so I needed 11 plus 3 again. 2 red ships were ready to deploy.

ROUND 10. White 3 and 3, Gray 1, 2, 4.

I needed a total of 14 for research track to win. If the triple room was for the 11 with 3 dice with average of 4, I needed 1 more die for the 3 before that space.

I played the White 3 first in the research room of 5th column. After the rerolls, I got White 4, Gray 2, 4 and 5. So, those 3 were enough for the last research. The last White 4 in 1st column was just to attack.

Played the 2 in the 3rd column, then a 5 in the 2nd and the gray 4 in the 4th of that triple room. 2 ships were in hitting spot.

I got full Energy, spent 1 for the Single research room and 2 for the triple room and 2 more for the attack.

I won, but incorrectly. No wonder the game felt a bit easier. I have to try again next time, hopefully correctly.

Playing time was about 60 minutes.

Bamboo

Decorate your home while maintaining balance to gain the most happiness in a game of Bamboo.

This was 2-handed session between the Panda family with Purple and the human with Green, using the advanced variant board.

Panda got Balance tile in the middle that required from top to bottom a Faith, Garden and Tool. This worked well with the requirement on the left side of their house. Beside that, their home demanded 1 more faith item, 1 garden, 1 decoration element and two more of any.

Human family got something similar with the Balance tile in the middle where it required 3 items from top to bottom: Decoration, Tool and Faith. This worked not completely but in exactly the middle section. Their house needed 2 tools, 1 garden element, 1 Faith and 3 of any.

YEAR 1.

In the Spring, the Panda went first and took the 2 coins while the Human took the Balance action and they took 2, one for the left side and one for the middle. The left side required any Faith related element while the other required 4 items in S-Shape placement with total comfort point of 9.

In Summer, Panda started first by visiting the red temple with 2 incense sticks asking for favor from Kitsune Spirit. There were already 2 brown incense sticks.

Panda took 2 actions, 1 Balance and one Home action. With the Balance action, Panda took 2 tiles, one for the left side of their house which required a combination of Faith related element above any other element with a total comfort point of at least 4. For the 2nd, they took one for the middle. This required 4 objects placed in square shape with a total comfort value of 9.

With the Home action, Panda started decorating the left side by taking Faith tile and placed it at the top left corner. They paid the cost of 1 coin and gained 1 happiness point.

As replacement for their 2 Bamboos, they got 1 Purple and 1 Green.

Human family went to the Purple temple with 2 incense stick, hoping to gain favor from Tengu spirit. There were already 3 brown there so they needed 1 more to win.

They got the same action as the Panda with 1 Home action and 1 Balance action. Paid 2 coins for taking the Garden element tile which they placed at the top right corner of their house. They gained 2 happiness from it.

For the Balance action, they took 2 tiles. One for the left and one for the right. The left one only required any decoration element while the right one required a combination of Faith related object on the left to any other object but the total comfort point should be 4 or higher.

For Bamboo replacement, they got 1 Red and 1 Purple.

Panda had 2 incense sticks left. They decided to visit the Blue temple with hoping to gain favor from ROKUROKUBI spirit. They only had 1 Bamboo for the Food since there was one token with a value of 3. In the temple there were already 3 brown sticks.

Panda got another Blue bamboo back with a Wild icon.

Human visited Green Temple with KAPPA spirit. They came with just 1 incense stick and the action they could do was to gain 2 coins. Nobody else had visited the temple so they were winning the majority for the moment.

As replacement, they got 2nd Purple Bamboo with Home action.

Last incense stick or 1 action from Panda. They visited the Green with 3 Bamboo but only 1 stick, winning the majority for Kappa spirit against the human.

They took the Home action. Paid 2 coins, gained 2 happiness to get Tool related tile which they placed at the bottom left corner of their house. 3 Comfort point on the left of their house but none on the right.

Human came back to the Purple temple again with 1 more incense stick but 2 possible bamboo actions. They had 3 sticks there, winning the favor from Tengu Spirit.

For the action, they chose Home action as well. Paid 2 coins, gained 2 happiness to get a Faith related item which they placed at the 3rd row 2nd column as required by the house. At this point, 2 Comfort points on their left house and 3 on their right.

That was the end of Summer Year 1.

In Autumn, Human gained favor from Tengu while Panda got from Kappa and Kitsune. The brown player got the Rokurokubi.

Purple had Ookami for next year, Blue got Tengu, Bakeneko in Green and Tanuki in red temple. Brown already filled each with 3, 0 3 and 2 incense sticks in that order.

In Winter, Panda had Food with value of 3 and only needed to feed 2 so they had to spend everything unfortunately. Human had to feed 2 but they got no food so they lost 2 points of happiness.

Panda family had 8 happiness while Human got 7 happiness.

YEAR 2.

In Spring, Human family went first and chose to get 2 coins. Panda had to take the Balance action which they took 2 for the right side of their house. One required a combination of tool object above a garden while the 2nd required a decoration above any kind of object but the comfort value should be 4 or higher.

Summer started with Human family visiting the Red temple with Tanuki Spirit there. They brought in 2 incense sticks and 2 bamboos. At that point, they won the majority.

The 2 actions were Food action and Home action. There was one food token with a value of 3. For home action, they paid 2 coins, gained 2 happiness to take a tile related to Tool. This was placed at the middle row of the middle section of the house which required to be filled but with any kind of object.

As replacement, they took 2 Green Bamboo, with a Food and a Star icon.

Apparently, Panda had the same idea and visited the Red with 2 incense sticks, winning the favor against their 2 opponents. They could do Money and any action.

They got 2 coins, and spent them immediately to gain Garden object and 2 happiness from it. This was placed at the left most column but middle row. completing the balance tile requirement.

As replacement, Panda took 1 Blue Food and 1 Red Balance.

3 sticks left for both. Human visited the Purple temple this time, bringing in 1 stick and 1 bamboo with balance action. There were 3 brown so they were not winning yet. Actually, they paid 1 coin to move it to the Red temple and winning the majority there.

With that Balance action, they scored the left tile that required just any Faith Object. They got one at the left side, bottom corner so they gained 2 happiness. 2nd part of that action, they took balance tile, also for the left. This required 2 objects, a tool a the top and a garden at the bottom. They only needed a garden tile to complete.

As replacement, Human family got Green coin bamboo.

Panda went to Blue temple where, meeting with the Tengu with 2 incense sticks. The 2 actions were Wild and Food. At the moment the best of food available was only a value of 2. For the 2nd action, they took Home action, paying 2 coins, gaining 2 happiness to take a Decoration tile.

This was placed at the top row, 4th column as required by that section of the house. As Bamboo replacement, they took Purple Coin and Red Star.

Last action from Human with 2 incense sticks. They went to the Blue temple, trying to win another favor from Tengu. 3 possible actions were Coins, food and Home action and they could only take 2.

Since they had no money, they took 2 coins. Then they spent 1 for the Home action, taking the cheapest option with Tool symbol and gained 1 happiness. This tile was placed at the top left corner of their house, as required by that section.

As bamboo replacement, Human took 1 Blue Balance, 1 red and 1 purple with Home action.

Last action from Panda with 1 incense left was to Red Temple again with 2 Bamboos. So they had 3 sticks there and winning the majority against 2 opponents for the Tanuki spirit.

They could only one of 2 actions, Balance or Wild. Got 2 coins and as bamboo replacement, they took Red Home and Green coin.

That was the end of Summer Year 2.

During Autumn, Human got another favor from Tengu while Panda got one from Tanuki. The other 2 went to the brown player.

With the new one, Tanuki stayed at Purple, another Tengu in Blue, Ookami in Green and Kitsune again in Red. Brown player already had 2, 0, 3 and 3 sticks in that order.

In the Winter, Panda had to feed 4 but only had a food with a value of 2, losing 2 happiness. Human family had to feed 4 but only had food for 3, losing 1.

10 points of happiness for Panda and 11 for Human.

YEAR 3.

In Spring, Panda went first again and chose getting 2 coins over the Home action. Human family only had 1 coin so they could only purchase a decoration tile with 2 comfort points which got them 1 happiness. This was placed at the top row, middle of the house, as required by that section.

Summer Time. Panda started by visiting Green Temple to gain favor from Ookami, bringing in 2 incense sticks. The 2 Bamboos were Home and Coin actions. The temple itself already had 3 Brown, so they were not winning yet.

Panda bought a Garden tile from the cheapest spot. Paid 1 coin, gained 1 happiness. The tile was placed in the middle of the house, bottom row as required by that section.

As bamboo replacement, Panda got green Balance and Red Food.

Human family had the same idea of visiting the Green but they brought in 3 sticks and 3 Bamboo, winning the majority. The 3 actions they could do was Food, Star and Coin.

There was only food with a value of 2 as the best available option. They took 2 coins and the last action was another Home action. Paid 2 coins, gained 2 happiness for the Garden tile. This was placed on 2nd row, left most column of the house. The section required any object there but this followed the requirement by one of the balance tile.

As replacement for Bamboo, Human got Purple Star, Blue Home, and Red Coins.

Panda next turn was to visit Red with Kitsune bringing in 2 sticks and 2 Bamboos. They already got the favor before and the temple had 3 Brown so they were not really trying to win.

One action was food and the other was Home action. Only food token with a value of 2 available. Paid 2 coins and gained 2 happiness from buying a Tool item. This was placed in the middle of the house, middle row. The section required to be filled but with any object but this followed the requirement of one Balance tile which was ready to score.

As replacement, Panda took Red Star and Blue Food.

Human’s next stop was to Purple temple with 2 Bamboo and 2 sticks, currently winning the majority for Tanuki against only the Brown player. The 2 actions were Home and a Star.

They had to use the Star to get 2 coins. There was a Decoration tile in the cheapest space so they spent 1 coin, gained 1 happiness for that tile. This was placed at the bottom left corner of the house. While the section didn’t demand to be filled but this worked well with one of the Balance tile, ready to be scored.

As bamboo replacement, Human took 2 bamboo for coins, 1 in Green and the other in Blue.

Panda had 2 sticks left and chose to visit Blue but only with single Bamboo, so this was not their last action for this round. The action was Food but since no competition in the temple, Panda was currently winning the majority for Tengu.

Available food token had only a value of 2 as the best one. That bamboo was replaced by Green Home action.

Human’s last action for the round. Before that, they got the help from one of the Tengu to reset the Food supply. Luckily one had a value of 3 so they took it.

For the action, with the last stick they chose the Green temple. They already won the majority but this would prevent Panda from overtaking it.

The action was Coins so they just took 2 coins. They took Purple Balance as replacement.

Last action for Panda was for the Red temple, adding 3rd sticks and winning the favor from Kitsune again. The action was Star which they used for Balance action.

This scored one of the left tile, gaining happiness of 3. For the 2nd part they took another balance tie for the left as the other part was full. The new one only required having a Garden object in any part of the left side.

As replacement, Panda got Blue food again.

That was the end of Summer Year 3.

During Autumn, Human gained favor from Tanuki and Ookami while Panda got Tengu and 2nd Kitsune.

The last 4 spirits were Bakeneko in Purple, Ookami in Blue, Kitsune in Green and Tanuki in Red. Brown players placed 2, 3, 0 and 3 of their sticks in that order.

In Winter, Panda had 6 to feed but only value of 4 foods so they lost 2 points. Human had 7 to feed but only food with total value of 5 so they also lost 2.

14 points of Happiness for Panda and 13 for Human.

YEAR 4.

In Spring, Human started first and chose to pick food with a value of 3, giving the Panda the Home action. Panda only paid 1 coin for the cheapest Faith object which was requirement for the bottom right of the house while gaining 1 happiness.

In Summer, Human family asked for favor from their 2nd Tengu to take the other food token with a value of 3. They started slow and visited Purple temple with just 1 stick and 1 Bamboo, against 2 from brown.

The action was Balance action. Human scored 2 tiles from the left of their house, gaining 5 happiness points.

As replacement, they took 4th Blue Bamboo and it was a Star.

Panda first action was the same, trying to get food with the help from Tengu. Unfortunately, even after resetting, the best one they got was a value of 2.

They started by visiting Blue temple with 1 stick and a Food action. There were already 3 brown there so not close to win. They took another food token with a value of 2.

As replacement, they got Red Balance bamboo.

Human’s next visit was to Red temple with Tanuki, bringing in 2 sticks and 2 bamboos. Brown still won the majority. The actions were Home and Coins.

Their house still had 2 spaces required to be filled. One demanded a Tool. So, with this action, they paid 1 coin for the cheapest available one, gaining 1 happiness. This tool tile was placed at the bottom right corner.

As bamboo replacement, they got Purple Star and Green coins.

Panda’s next visit was to Green temple with Kitsune in it. They brought 2 sticks and 2 bamboos, no competition. The actions were Balance and Home.

Their house only had 1 space left required to be filled however, one of the balance tile required at least 2 more after that. So, they paid 2 coins, buying a decoration, gaining 2 happiness. This was placed at the 2nd row, right most space. That means every required space was filled and this one helped the balance tile as well, ready to score.

As replacement, they got Green Star and Blue Food.

This time, Human went to Purple, with just 1 stick but already won the majority at this point for Bakeneko. The action was Star which was for Home action. They tried to fill the last required space.

Paid 3 coins, bought the Faith type object while gaining 3 happiness. This was placed at the middle row, 4th column.

Got Red coin bamboo as replacement.

After that, Panda followed to the Purple temple, bringing in 3 sticks, winning the majority. They could do were coin, Food and Balance action.

Got 2 coins, food token with a value of 1. For the Balance action, scored one from the left side and took a new one on the right. Gained 2 happiness and the new tile required a Garden on the left of Faith type object.

As replacement, got Green Coin and Food plus 2nd Blue Food.

**** Apparently I forgot to place the sticks so Panda somehow got more actions.

Human’s next turn was to visit Blue temple with 4 bamboos and 3 sticks left so this was their last action. They won the majority for the moment to get Ookami.

All types of actions were possible. They decided to use Tanuki helped to get at least a Home action. Got 2 coins first and spent them immediately to buy Faith type object with 2 happiness. The tile was placed at bottom row, middle of the house, completing the 2 middle balance tile.

Got 2 coins again from 2nd Bamboo action and then took Home action as the 3rd and last. Bought the cheapest decoration for 1 coin and 1 happiness. This was placed at the right most, middle row.

As replacement, got Purple Balance, Green Home, Red Star and Food but no more action.

So, this was where I got it wrong. This was supposed to be the last turn for Panda with just 1 action and 1 stick. However, Panda got Kappa and Tanuki on their side to do 1 more Balance and 1 more Home action.

The 2 Kitsune also allowed to convert any bamboo for any actions. Panda only had 2 coins left. The best was to buy cheapest decoration for 1 happiness and 3 comfort point first. This was placed at top row, middle house.

Then as the main action, another Home action to buy Tool 3 for also 1 happiness and price of 1 coin. This was placed at the middle row, 4th column.

With the help from Kappa, scored the middle tile with 4 tiles in square placement with a total comfort value of 9 for 5 happiness. With this same action, scored the right balance tile for 3 happiness.

That was the last turn and both got 35 in happiness.

In Autumn, Panda should have won Bakeneko and Kitsune while Human got Ookami and Tanuki.

During Winter, Panda had 10 to feed but only food with a value of 5. So, Panda lost 5 points. Human got 11 to feed but only food for 6. However, they had 2 Ookami so they could afford 8 more food.

FINAL SCORING

Panda had 5 different Spirits so they got 10 points. Human only got 3 so 6 points.

Panda had 3 more comfort points on the right so they lost 6 points. Human got 2 more comfort points on their right house and they lost 4.

For the leftover Balance tile, Human could have scored one more so they only got 2 points.

Final score was 34 for Panda and 39 points for Human. That was close enough. I played it wrong and with too many actions for Panda, they got to 50

Playing time was about 98 minutes.

Marvel United: X-Men

Well, nostalgia hit. I thought I was done with Superheroes so I had been avoiding any game with that theme for a while. But then, Disney recently released that X-Men 97 new animated show. I haven’t watched the new show but apparently the trailer and the intro song were enough to bring me back to my childhood playing video games about X-Men. So, I got this Marvel United: X-Men.

I have played the original Marvel United box once in a board game cafe. The person who worked there was kind enough to teach me the solo mode. I played with Captain America, Ant-Man, Hulk against the Taskmaster. Unfortunately, that person was too busy with other work so I had to figure out the rule myself. Maybe made a couple of rules mistake here and there.

With this standalone box, I played with Prof. X, Cyclops and Jean Grey against Magneto. A lot of people suggest playing with the Heroic mode where you remove the 2 Wild cards from each character to make the game more challenging or otherwise the game tends to be too simple or easy. I didn’t realize that during my play with the original box and I decided to give it a try this time.

First of all, I didn’t realize that the game takes that much table space. Maybe that my table at home is way smaller than the table in the board game cafe. Especially if you also try to create that Storyline where you lay out cards you’ve played. Other than tracking which card has been played, I don’t know if it is that necessary to create that storyline. I remember during my first play I only lay out between 2 most recent Masterplan cards and put them in stack afterwards.

2nd point, maybe Magneto is significantly more complex to upkeep than Taskmaster? For one, I understand that this one replaces the Rescuing Civilians card with using Cerebro which is a nice twist.

First few Masterplan cards, I forgot about placing a new Civilian on the opposite side from where Magneto was. After realizing that how the existence of Civilians can trigger the instant lose condition, then there is no way to forget it. Actually it affects your strategy as you want to make sure that opposite location has room for Civilian and not overflowing.

I don’t remember resolving BAM! action other than from the Villain Dashboard which is apparently, I have to resolve their threat or henchman cards as well. Either Taskmaster doesn’t have threat cards with BAM or I played it incorrectly. On the other hand, Magneto has no threat card with that target symbol.

4 Henchmen with BAMS and only 2 other that require a set of heroic tokens. That means, against Magneto, beating the Henchmen is more important to win or suffer more than completing other threats with only Heroic tokens. The problem is that, in addition to not rescue civilians using Heroic, using Heroic for threat cards is less so. I run out of Attack right away.

This led to relying on Wild tokens or symbols to be used as punching when trying to beat the villain. Or using cards with special ability to reuse those cards with Attack again. Cyclops has 5 cards with at least 1 attack, Jean has 3 but with 2 Wilds from 2 Special cards and Prof. X has 4 cards with an attack but a special card that can change any Heroic symbol into Wild.

Compared to those, Wolverine has 7, Beast has 4, Storm and Mystique have 5 each I think. Well, I thought I won (apparently I didn’t), with those 3 characters but you really need to maximize everything. You cannot just waste those attack for any thugs. Also, those extra cards with Wild symbols do seem to make the game easier. Jean Grey had like the last 4 cards left and the other 2 only had 1 card in the deck.

So, I got the rule wrong with this one play. I thought I only needed to complete 2 missions before attacking Magneto. Apparently there was 2 Threat cards that can still protect Magneto from being attack in that location and locations adjacent to it. I had to complete them first.

I focused too much to get rid of the Henchmen, especially that will affect heroes from anywhere. Mastermind and Blob can remove any civilians in their location but if there was none, no need to worry. I think I still need to beat Mastermind first. Quicksilver is just annoying but only 1 damage to 1 Hero so maybe not that big of a deal. Scarlet Witch was dangerous but none of the hero stayed there when any BAM! happened.

There is a chance that I didn’t resolve Blob completely when moving out from his location but I beat him very early. Same with Mastermind.

Well, apparently I made a lot of rules errors in this session, maybe more that I didn’t realize. I guess I have to try again in my next play, maybe still using this setup.

The rule even pointed as IMPORTANT NOTE that you need to read the Villan’s Dashboard and the Threat Cards before proceeding with play. I thought I could do that during the game but I was wrong.

Playing time for this first and learning session was about 60 minutes.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

Build a Dinosaur theme park in Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write. This was the solo session.

The 3 buildings were Goat Pen, Main Gate and T-Rex Jet Ski Park. With Goat Pen, I had to build at least a Large Carnivore. The Main Gate had to be connected to two attractions and 2 Dino Paddocks to get the most points. For the Jet Ski park, I didn’t realize until I had the chance to build that it requires a big space like at least 6 x 6.

For the Specialists, 1st one was Jack of All Trades, Architect as 2nd and Paramedic for the 3rd. The first one is offering different kind of resources. With 2nd one I had to prepare for destroying some attractions just to fund all buildings. This one didn’t work well as it will take a lot of waste space. Paramedic will just give more securities but between 0 to 3, depending on the dice.

For the 3 solo objectives, I had to get 3 paddocks of Small Carnivores, 4 Restaurants and a Paddock of each type of dinosaurs.

ROUND 1, ACTION PHASE 1.

Raise Funds and Duplicate space were taken. Got purple DNA from the duplicate I picked the 2 Coins and started hiring the Jack of All trades.

As 2nd die, I picked the one with Orange DNA since I had to build Carnivores. The leftover dice could gave me a road plus 3 threats or 2 Red DNA with 2 Threats. I picked the lower threats and the road was place to the right of HQ.

I doubled the Coin because luckily the one occupying the Duplicate space had no threat. So the coin was enough to pay for fully hire the Jack of All Trades. I think I made a mistake here. The die showed 2 Coins so the double should be 4 coins. I could have gotten 2 more and spent it on other specialists. Oh well… As the instant bonus for hiring this Specialist, I picked the 2 Excitement levels.

With the 2nd die, I used it on BUILD action to build the first Restaurant, extending the road to the right of HQ and connected to the first exit to the right.

ROUND 1, ACTION PHASE 2.

Duplicate space was taken again so I got the Orange DNA. Build Space was also taken. For the 2 dice in drafting, I picked the one with 1 Coin and the one to build Ride Attraction for free. The attraction just extended the existing route, not connected yet. I spent the coin to pay 1 to hire the Security Chief.

The last two dice had 1 threat each so that was my 3rd threat. I already got purple DNA so I thought I should get the Green DNA.

With the 1st die, I built my 2nd Restaurant since the occupying die there didn’t have any threat. For the 2nd die, I chose the RAISE FUNDS for 2 coins and this helped me to completely hired Security Chief. I got 2 security points with only 1 threat left.

ROUND 1, RUN PARK PHASE.

No Merch Store but 1 excitement level from 1 Ride. 2 Coins from 2 Restaurants which I spent to start hiring Tour Guide, hoping to get benefit from 3 excitement level before resolving that part.

Got my 3rd security point from the Chief. 1 coin from the Jack of All Trade to help me completely hire the Tour Guide. Got my excitement level up to 6th space of 1st row. No other specialist yet.

There was only one Dino Tour route from HQ to Restaurant and then to 1st exit. So I got 1 more excitement level and points from that exit point. The excitement level track up to 7th space of 1st row got me 1 coin which I spent on Jr. Scientist, 4th security point and the 2 Basic DNAs, a red and a yellow.

No unsecured threat so no Death Toll.

ROUND 2, ACTION PHASE 1.

Raise Funds and Extract DNAs space were taken. No dice with money this time. One die with Merch store and 1 threat, the same 1 Blue DNA plus 3 threats and a yellow with 3 threats.

I picked 1 Yellow and 1 Blue DNA. From the 2 leftover, I picked a free Merch Store and suffered 3 threats. The Store was extending the existing row, passing 2nd exit to the right next to the 2nd Restaurant on right edge.

Since I didn’t get much money, I thought I should get more Restaurant this time using one die. I placed that 3rd Restaurant next to that Merch store but didn’t reach the 3rd exit yet.

With the 2nd die placement, I chose the Raise Fund even if there was already a die there with just 1 threat luckily. I got 2 coins which helped me paid the Jr. Scientist. As bonus I got 2 Advanced DNA and picked the Green and Purple.

ROUND 2, ACTION PHASE 2.

Space to Make Dino and Raise Funds were taken. No dice with money again. 1 had Merch Store again with 1 threat and the other had Ride or Green DNA, no threat. 3rd die had only Purple plus 2 threats and the last had a Yellow and a Green.

I picked the one with Merch and Ride dice for placement. For the location, I started thinking about the Main Gate building as it requires to connect to 2 attractions. So, from the existing 3rd restaurant, I place those 2 so they were adjacent and ready to be connected to the Main Gate later. This left some space at the bottom right corner.

From the 2 leftover dice, I picked the 2 DNA and the 2 threats, 9 threats so far, 4 were secured.

As for dice placement, I placed the one with no Threat on Build action space. This was to build the 4th Restaurant, completing the solo objective. The Restaurant was place at that bottom right corner between the 3rd restaurant and the 2nd Ride.

After that, I placed the 2nd dice on that same space without suffering any threat. However, this time I picked the 3 roads. These 3 roads extending the existing route from 2 buildings to 5. I was expecting one more road from Tour Guide to connect to the 6th and 3rd exit.

ROUND 2, RUN PARK PHASE.

2 dice from 2 Merch Stores got me a Purple DNA and option between Ride attraction or Green DNA. I chose the Ride so I got the benefit right away. Instead of extending the existing route, I started a new one to the left from HQ. I placed it next to the 1st exit leaving some space at top left corner just enough for one Small Carnivore paddock.

3 Ride attractions got me 3 excitement level to 10th space of 1st row. 4 coins from 4 Restaurants. Spent all 4 to hire Paramedics. Got my 5th security points, with 4 more unsecured left.

Security Chief added a 6th security, 3 threats left. 2 Roads from Tour Guide to extend the first tour route to the 4th restaurant and 2nd Ride.

With Jr. Scientist, I got to make 2 Dinos. I couldn’t afford to get too much threat so I made one Herbivore and 1 Small Carnivore, Brachiosaurus and Velociraptor. As planned, the paddock for Small Carnivore was placed at the top left corner so the 2 buildings were ready to be connected between HQ and first exit.

The Herbivore paddock was placed at the bottom edge, planned to be connected to the Main Gate at the bottom exit point. This left only enough space for one other Herbivore paddock at the bottom left.

The Small Carnivore added 10th threat while the 2 Dinos increased the excitement level by 3 to 3rd space of 2nd row.

With Jack of All Trades, I had to start getting more security so the 6th of 10 threats was secured. Rolled 2 dice for Paramedics and either of them only got me 1 more security.

Dino Tour began and visitors got to see 5 new buildings before the exit point. Got the excitement level up to 8th space of 2nd row. As excitement level bonus, I got 3 coins, 2 securities, 2 Basic DNAs and 1 Advanced DNA.

I paid 3 coins to start building the Main Gate instead of the Architect. The Advanced DNA was the purple so I could make more T-Rex while the basic were red and blue since I already had a lot of yellow. 2 securities meant that 9 out of 10 threats were secured but somehow I added 1. I just assumed that 2 coins that I forgot was spent here.

So, no unsecured threats and no death tolls.

ROUND 3, ACTION PHASE 1.

Space to Make Dinos and Duplicate were taken, showing 1 threat on each. At least I got 1 coin and 1 road from that duplicate space. There were 2 coins, 1 Purple DNA and 2 threats, 2 Red DNAs plus 2 threats, and either 2 Blue or 1 Purple plus 1 threat.

I chose the 2 Coins first to pay 6 out of 8 for Main Gate. Then I picked the single Purple DNA. From the 2 leftover dice, I picked the lower threats and 2 Red DNAs.

For dice placement, I duplicated the 2 coins, taking 11th threat. 2 coins were enough to finally build the Main Gate. I got 2 roads as bonus. I placed the Main Gate next to the south exit and 3 roads were ready to connect this building to 2 attractions and 2 paddocks. Well, the 2 other coins was to pay for Goat Pen.

2nd dice placement was to get 3 road. 1 for the main gate. The other 2 were to make the 2nd Dino Tour Route to the left of HQ, connecting the HQ, a Paddock, a Ride and the 1st exit.

2 unsecured threats left.

ROUND 3, ACTION PHASE 2.

Space to Extract DNA and Duplicate were taken with showing 1 threat each. From the Duplicate I got the Green DNA. My options were 1 die showing a Restaurant plus 1 threat, 1 red DNA plus 3 threats, either 1 Orange or 2 Yellow DNA plus 1 threat or 1 coin and 1 yellow plus 1 threat.

I picked the one with coin and the Orange DNA. Since Restaurant was useless, I took the 1 threat from it and the Red DNA from the other. Got the 13th threat.

1 coin was to pay 3rd coin out of 6 required for Goat Pen. I knew I could build that Goat Pen but to get the most of it, I needed to make a lot of Large Carnivore in the same paddocks before building it.

With DNA in my storage, the best option was to build T-Rex. So, with the first dice placement I made 4 dinos, all 4 T-rex. I placed the paddock planning to connect it to Main Gate.

Making these 4 T-Rex got me 8 threats and 12 excitement levels all to the 3rd row of the Excitement track. I got exactly 20 threats, only 10 were secured. 4 would be covered from the excitement bonus, 1 from chief and maybe 2 more from the other specialists.

I would be making 2 more Dinos with more threats using Jr. Scientist. So, I had to find another source of security. That was done by placing the 2nd die in the Raise Funds but for 2 securities. Any additional should be covered later from coins in Excitement level bonus.

8 unsecured threats so far.

ROUND 3, RUN PARK PHASE.

2 dice from 2 Merch Stores got me 1 coin and 1 Purple DNA. The coin went to build Goat Pen. 3 excitement levels from 3 rides, 3rd of 4th row on the track. 4 coins from Restaurant. 2 were spent to completely build Goat Pen which was connected to T-Rex paddock. Got 8 excitement levels from it since the paddock had 4 dinos, the 1st space of 5th row in excitement track.

I was not sure to build the last building with a cost of 9 coins. So, I started hiring the last specialist the Architect.

1 security point from the Chief so 7 unsecured left. 2 roads from the Tour Guide. Those 2 were pointing to the same empty space so with 1 more building or paddock, I could create a long 2nd route.

2 dinos to be made by Jr. Scientist. This was my only option to make a new building or paddock to connect that 2nd Tour Route. At the same time with 2 paddocks for 2 different Small Carnivores, I could complete the other solo objective.

The Paddock for Pteranodon was the one connected between the T-Rex and the Ride attraction on the left. For Dilophosaurus paddock, it didn’t matter where as I couldn’t connect it to the existing route anyway.

Got 2 more threats and 4 excitement level bonus from making those 2. 9 unsecured threats left. Also to 3rd space of the 5th row in excitement level track.

From Jack of all trades, I picked the Security. 8 unsecured threats left. Nothing from Architect yet but the dice from Paramedics got me 2 more security, 6 left.

Last Dino Tour began and the visitors got to see 5 new buildings from HQ to the south Exit. The excitement level got to last space of 5th row.

From the excitement level track, I got 2 Basic DNA, 7 coins, 6 securities, and 2 Advanced DNA. All of the threats were secured. I had enough money to make the Jet Ski Park but unfortunately not enough space and even if I had, not enough to secure the extra threats.

So, the money just went to hire the last specialist, the Architect and the road bonus became nothing. No unsecured threats and no death tolls. That was the end of the game.

SCORING.

Herbivore: 2 points
Small Carnivores: 9 points
Large Carnivores: 20 points
Specialists: 18 points
Buildings: 26 points
Exit: 21 points
Excitement Track: 19 points
DNA: 8 points
Solo Objectives: 9 points
TOTAL SCORE: 132 POINTS.

Playing time was 67 minutes.

Sagrada

Back to Sagrada Familia and craft the stained glass window in a dice drafting game of Sagrada. Played 2 sessions as usual, one with the official solo variant and the other was played 2-handed.

I want to rant a bit here. During the 2-handed session, I pulled dice from the bag and one die got pulled hard and bounced off the table and rolled to the bottom of my bed. I couldn’t reach it with my hand so I used a broom stick hoping I could reach the die and pull it out.

Apparently I knocked it too hard and the die went to the bottom of other shelfs because the die was so small and managed to enter all of those small holes. I had to take out a lot of things in that shelf just to find the dice. All of that took about 10 minutes while playing time was 20.

How was the session? Both used the harder cards Ripples of Light for Green player and Fulgor del Cielo for the Red player. Playing with these 2, each player got 5 Favor tokens.

Green Player as the first player won with 41 points while Red only got 38. I was not expecting to be that close since Green managed to fill every die slot while red failed to fill 2 spaces.

Well, Red got a lot of 6 for their private objective color with 20 points while Green only got 12. Green got 10 points from Color Diagonal objective while Red got only 5.

2nd objective was 2 points for every set of a 3 and a 4. Green got 3 sets while Red got only 2. 3rd objective was to get a set of each color for 4 points. Green got 2 sets and Red only got 2.

What about the tools? One allows player to flip a die, the 2nd allows to move exactly 2 dice by following restriction and the last one just allow the first player to draw again right which in 2 players, only works for the first player of the round.

Only the first tool was used with 7 Favor tokens on it because it is that useful. If anything, the Red player actually tried to use the 2nd tool during the last round since they couldn’t place the 2 left dice in the last spot.

Here is some rant why it didn’t work. The player card that was used had a lot of restriction already. Even if you try to move the dice without any restriction on the spot, it still affects the surroundings or is dictated by the surroundings. It may work in earlier rounds when the board was still empty but I doubt to use it that much.

Since you are covering the spot with the dice, you have to pick each one of them just to find out the restriction there. In my attempt to pick the dice, I guess my finger is to big for these components so I accidentally changed the face of the adjacent dice. So, I had to use some kind of tweezers? Especially if I tried to move dice in the middle of the board not the edge. Eventually I just gave up to even try using that 2nd tool.

Also, is there a way to know whether the dice was actually following the restriction by the card after you cover them? it’s like players can lie and say they did. I guess you have to draw that card out from the board to make sure you actually follow it.

The solo session took 17 minutes. I played using the Ripples of Light board. Private objectives were either Blue or Yellow and Public Objectives were Color Diagonal and Medium Shades. 2 additional tools from the 2-handed was to return and draw a different dice and to move 1 die ignoring color restriction only.

ROUND 1. Blue 2, Blue 5, Yellow 3 and Red 6. I picked Red 6 and placed it on the 4th column 1st row that required a Red. Then I picked the Blue 2 and placed it 2nd row last column that required a blue, surrounded by 4, 5 and a 6.

Opponent got 8 points.

ROUND 2. Blue 2, Blue 4, Red 1 and Yellow 5. I picked the Yellow 5 since it could fill the 3rd row 4th column where it required a yellow, surrounded by 1, 3, 4 and 6. For 2nd die I pucked the Blue 4, placed it next to the previous Red 6 in 1st row, next to a space with purple and empty space.

Opponent got 3, making their score 11.

ROUND 3. Blue 1, Green 2, Purple 5 and 6. I picked Purple 5 first and placed it 2nd row next to that previous Blue 4 to the space that required a Purple, surrounded by space for a 4 and a 3. For 2nd die I picked the Purple 6 for the space that required a 6 in 3rd row, last column, next to blue 2 and Yellow 5 and space for Red.

Opponent got 3, making their total to 14.

ROUND 4. Purple 1, Red 2, Green 4 and Yellow 4. First I picked the Green 4 and placed it in 4th row middle column that required a green, surrounded by space for 1, 2 and 3. After that I picked Red 2 and placed it next to that Green.

Opponent got 5, with 19 total score.

ROUND 5. Blue 1, Purple 2, Green and Yellow 3. I picked Blue 1 first to fill the space in 4th row 4th column that required a 1, next to yellow and green and space for red. For 2nd die I picked the Yellow and placed it at the bottom left corner in space that required a Yellow next to a 2.

Opponent got another 5 with 24 total.

ROUND 6. Purple 1 and 4, Yellow 4 and Blue 2. There was a space that required a 4 but already surrounded by a Purple and a Yellow. I still picked those 2 4s. The purple was placed at 3rd row, 1st column, next to space for blue and a Yellow 3. Then the Yellow 4 was placed diagonally to that Purple 4 and next to Purple 5.

Opponent got 3 with 27 total.

ROUND 7. Blue 1, Red 2, Yellow 3 and Green 4. That Green 4 was perfect for the 2nd row 4th column. For the objective, I had to pick more 3s. That Yellow 3 then was a perfect also for the other objective with Color Diagonal if I placed it at the top left corner.

Opponent got 3 points, with 30 total.

ROUND 8. Red 6 and 5 for Yellow and 2 Green. So, I picked a Green 5 for the top right spot. Then the Red 6 for the 2nd column 1st row. So, I used the other Green 5 to change the Yellow 5 into 2, thinking that it would reduce the score for opponent. Not sure if this was allowed. This didn’t help me win anyway.

Opponent got 2 or 11. The total was 32 or 41.

ROUND 9. Blue 2, Yellow 3, Red and Purple 4. First I picked the Red 4 for the bottom right corner space. After that I used the purple to trigger FLUX REMOVER to exchange the Blue 2 with a new die from the bag. I got Red 3 which was perfect for the 3rd row 3rd column.

Opponent got 3. They could have gotten the 2 actually. Total score was either 35 or 44.

ROUND 10. Red 1 and 3, Blue 1 and Yellow 6. I picked both 1s for the last 2 spaces. Actually I did the same as in Round 8 where I just activate the tool just to prevent opponent from scoring more using the Red 3. Not really a useful Tool for solo though. I heard in digital game this was not allowed.

Opponent got either 6 or 9. Total was either 44 or 53.

SCORING

For Private Objective, I got 8 for Blue or 15 for Yellow so I went with the latter. 8 points from Color Diagonal and only 6 points from Medium Shade. So my final score was only 29. Even if what I did with tools was allowed, I still lost since the opponent got 38 at least.

Rescuing Robin Hood

Let’s storm into the Nottingham Castle again to beat the Sherrif in Rescuing Robin Hood. This was a solo session but using 3 characters. Oh boy, this took longer than before. In a way maybe because this one is so crunchy with a lot of doing numbers.

I just realized that I missed the part of extra benefit from the scenario card during my previous plays. There is also an express mode where you’ll be doing less number of days but each day you save double the amount of villagers. Maybe I should just try that next time.

I’m still not sure I played correctly, especially about when to use ability or tokens.

DAY 1. On this day, each band leader got extra Stealth and they could reveal one troop from any row.

I decided that Lady Christable should go first. With the help from Hylda, Oliver Deplace, Reginalde and John, her band got 7 points in Wits, 14 in Stealth, 3 in Brawn and 2 in Jolliness with 1 Cookery token from John. She also had the ability to increase the effect of Cookery or Mead by 1. They can utilize Wits and Stealth first, so their Brawn and Jolliness could be passed to the next player.

First, they tried to save HAROLD, defeating 5 Blue guards using Stealth. First guard had 3 and 2nd one had 1 point in Stealth. 3 more with the average per guard of 3.3, the Lady needed about 15. Just to be safe, the Lady spent the Cookery token to add 2 plus 1 for the Stealth.

After revealing, the total Stealth value of those 5 guards were 14. The Lady and her band managed to beat them all and rescued Harold, sending him to the Tree.

2nd Attack, the Lady planned to use their Wits to the last row with 2 captured villagers, Dickory and Fawkes Enhound. 1st Guard had Wits of 3 so the Lady went again and the 2nd had exactly 4. So, the Lady had to stop her attack, passing their Brawn and Jolliness to Maid Marian.

Maid Marian and her band had 13 in Wits, 6 in Stealth, 5 in Brawn and 6 in Jolliness. Eunice Baxter provided 2 Cookery tokens which I only used one and 1 Prayer by Gamelus. Nothing from Gilbert and Sibyl Wright.

They continued the attack to the 4th row with 9 guards left. The frontmost had only 2 in Stealth so Marian decided to use her Stealth. She spent the cookery token to increase the Stealth to 8.

Beside the frontmost guard, they attacked the 3rd one from the back and the 3rd one from the front. The total was luckily, 7 so they took them down.

4 guards left. Marian tried to use her 13 Wits. The first guard had 5 and the 2nd had 1 in Wits. 2 more guards with the average of 3.3, and Marian needed about 13. Mariad took down the first one, 8 points left and the 2nd one, 7 points left. Revealed the 3rd one and it was 3 Wits, 4 points left. Then the last one had 4, exactly 13. Very lucky.

So, Mariad managed to save both villagers, sending them to the tree and they passed on the Brawn and Jolliness.

Alan A-Dale and his band next. With the help from Warin, Percival, Gontier and Agnes Daisy plus the leftover Brawn and Jolliness, they got 7 in Wits, 2 in Stealth, 10 in Brawn and 16 in Jolliness. One cookery token and 1 Prayer token.

There was only one row of guards left capturing 2 villager, Henry and Onnover. Apparently the previous bands and this one used 2 Prayer tokens to push 2 guards to this row. Both of them were weak in Brawn so they were placed at the backmost position.

Alan A-Dale had to use their Wits and the Brawn this time. The first 2 guards had 4 and 1 in Wits. Alan A-Dale ate the Cookery token to increase their Wits to 15 and started the attack.

2 guards down, 10 Wits left. 3rd one had 1, 4th had 5 and 5th had 1 so there were 3 Wits left. Alan A-Dale stopped their attack. 5 more guards including the face up 2 on the back. The frontmost now had a 6 in Brawn plus 4 from the 2 on the back. 2 guards, with average of 3.3 each, they needed 17 to beat these all. Alan A-dale had 10 in Brawn already and spent at least 10 Jolliness bringing up the Brawn to 20. After revealing the last 2, the total brawn was 17 so Alan A-Dale managed to rescue to 2 villagers.

That was the end of Day 1. From the rescued, Fawkes Enhound with 6 Wits 2 stealth and 2 brawn plus Scouting token joined Alan A-Dale. Mosie Onnover, having 2 Wits, 5 stealth, 2 Brawn and 1 Jolliness plus Cookery token joined. Lady Christabel. Harold, having 8 Wits joined Maid Marian.

Dickory and Henry went back to the Sherwood Forest to rest.

DAY 2. Still similar rule with Day 1, extra Stealth and reveal 1 guard.

Maid Marian started first. She had 11 in both Wits and Stealth, 8 in brawn and 3 in Jolliness. So, she tried to use both Wits and Stealth. First, targeting the first row with 5 guards that captured Aelraed.

After revealing the 2nd guard, the first 2 had a total of 5 in Wits and 8 in Stealth. 3 more were about 9.9. Marian beat the first 2, 4 wits left. 3rd one had 2 Wits so 2 Wits left. She took the risk and revealed the 4th one and luckily that had 2 Wits exactly and Marian stopped the attack.

There was still one guard left and it had 1 in Brawn. So, using the Prayer token, the guard was moved to the 2nd row on the back so it could be attacked using Brawn later. No more guard on 1st row and Aelraed was rescued, sending him to the tree.

With the 2nd attack, Marian targeting the 4th row with 11 guards using her Stealth of 11. The first one had 6 so ignoring that. If she got lucky she could take down 3 or maybe 4 guards. Marian chose 1st 2 guards on the back, 3rd and 6th from the front. The total was 6 so she succeeded defeating them and that ended her attack.

Alan A-Dale went next with Lance, Leolina, Odo and Gertrude. The band had no Wits, 11 in Stealth, 18 Brawn and 8 in Jolliness plus 1 Scouting and 1 Cookery token.

Alan continued the attack on 3rd row with 7 guards left. First 2 had 6 and 4 in Stealth. Using the Scouting, revealing the next 2, the guards had 11 in Stealth. They decided to aim the last 3 cards and attack with Stealth of 11 plus 2 from the Cookery token.

Those 3 apparently had a total of 12. 4 guards left and this time Alan was about to use their Brawn. The total required was 9, just half what Alan had. Jock Enroll and Anastasia Forester were rescued and sent to the tree.

Lady Christabel next with Anot Tyde, Alice, Fyrmyn and Noah Guy. They had 5 in Wits, 10 in Stealth, 15 in Brawn and 10 in Jolliness plus 2 Prayer and 1 Cookery. The 2 prayers were spent during Marian attack.

There was only 1 row with 10 guards and they had to use Stealth and Brawn. First 2 guards on the front and one on the back had total of 11 Stealth and 7 in Brawn.

Lady Christabel spent the Cookery to increase the Stealth by 3 to 13 and exchanged 1 jolliness to 14. They attacked 4, the 2nd revealed guard, 3rd the 5th and 7th. The total was 8 so they had more than enough to beat them.

2nd attack. 5 guards left with about 5 in Brawn plus about 10 unrevealed. The Lady spent all of the Jolliness so they had more than 24 in Brawn. After revealing, the total brawn of those guards was 23. So close.

They were lucky. Letitia and Briceus Brown were rescued and that was the end of Day 2.

Aelraed with 3 Wits, 2 Stealth, 1 Brawn and 2 Jolliness plus 2 Prayer tokens joined Alan A-Dale. Anastasia Forester with 6 Wits and 9 Stealth joined Lady Christabel for the Stealth. Briceus Brown with his 6 in Wits, 3 in Stealth and 2 Jolliness helped Maid Marian.

Agnes Daisy and Odo left Alan’s group. Same with Anot Tyde and Oliver Deplaice with Lady Christabel and Waldew and Willelmus from Marian group.

DAY 3. This day and the next, any remaining Stealth is passed on to the next player. There were 5 groups of guards between 3 to 11 guards each capturing one or 2 villagers each.

Alan A-Dale attacked first with Aelraed, Lance, Fawkes Enhound and Percival. They had 13 Wits, 4 Stealth, 11 in Brawn and 8 in Jolliness with 2 Prayer tokens and 1 Scouting.

First attack was using the Brawn to the 1st row with 3 Elite Guards capturing Fernando. Using the Scouting token the other 2 had 2 and 5 in Brawn so they were too strong for Alan’s band. Alan used their Prayer token to move the frontmost guard with 9 in brawn but only 2 in Wits to move to other row with also weak in Wits, the 3rd row.

So, the remaining 2 guards only had 7 in brawn against Alan’s 11. 4 left. For the 2nd attack, Alan had to use their 13 Wits. Alan increased it to 15 using Jolliness.

They attacked the 3rd row with 9 guards that captured Anne Dittover. First 2 had 4 Wits, 11 left. 3rd had 1, 4th had 5 and luckily, last one also had 5 in Wits, exactly 15. There were still 4 guards left.

Lady Christabel next with Alice, Fyrmyn, Noah Guy and Anastasia Forester. The band had 8 Wits, 20 in Stealth, 10 Brawn and 7 Jolliness plus 2 prayer tokens from Alice.

3rd row, 4 guards left to rescue Anne Dittover. The Lady planned to use their Wits. First guard had a 1. 3 more was supposed to be about 9.9. Spent 3 from Jolliness so the Wits became 11. Took down the first guard. 10 left. 2nd had 5 so 5 left. 3rd had 2 so 3 left and the last got exactly 3 so the band succeeded in rescuing Anne Dittover.

2nd attack was to 2nd row, with 3 guards to rescue Sir Render using Brawn. The first one had 4 Brawn so with the other 2 probably required about 11. They took the risk and just went with 10 Brawn instead. After revealing, the other 2 only had 6, making it the total of 10, so it was enough. They rescued Sir Render.

Maid Marian’s turn next with Sibyl Wright, Briceus Brown, Eunice Baxter and Jocelyn Itloose. They had 15 Wits, 15 Stealth, 18 Brawn and 10 Jolliness plus 3 Cookery tokens and I only took 2. Their target was the last row trying to rescue 2 villagers. The row had 11 guards.

The other leaders still had 2 prayer tokens. 1st guard had low Brawn so using the Prayer token, they moved it to the other row as the last one. 2nd guard was revealed and they also had low Brawn with 3 and using 2nd Prayer token, sending the guard like the previous one.

So, now this last row started with a guard that had 5 Wits, 1 Stealth and 2 Brawn. 8 Guards left and so it required about 27 points, divided by 2 attacks so about 15 each. Marian increased the Brawn by 10 to 24 and decided to attack first using Stealth after increasing it to 20.

They chose the 4 on the back plus the front most. The total Stealth of those guards were only 12, and Marian had more than enough. So, first attack was a success.

3 more guards and they wiped them with over 20 brawns. Only 8 required. So, the 2nd attack was also a success, rescuing Katherin Clarke and Affan.

Unfortunately, the band leaders had to let the guard captured Zakarriya and he was taken to the Nottingham Castle.

That was the end of Day 3 and it was time for recruiting the rescued villagers. The Lady Christabel was going to attack first next day. Affan also strong in Stealth like the Lady joined the team, with 4 points and 8 in Brawn.

Katherine Clarke, strong with 10 Wits similar to Marian, joined their band. She also strong in Stealth with 6. Anne Dittover joined Alan A-Dale with 2 Wits, 4 Stealth, 8 Brawn and 1 jolliness.

Sir Render and Fernando returned to Sherwood Forest.

DAY 4. Same rule as day 3 where the leftover Stealth will be passed on to next player.

Lady Christabel started the attack with the help from Hylda, Mosie Onnover, Reginalde and John. They had 7 in Wits, 14 in Stealth, 5 in Brawn and 2 in Jolliness plus 2 Cookery tokens.

The Lady tried to help Beatrice and her baby first. She was captured by 3 Elite troops. The 1st guard was weak in Stealth so they decided to attack with Stealth, all 3 of them. She spent one of the Cookery token and increased their Stealth by 3 to 17. After revealing all 3 guards, the total required Stealth was 15. So, they succeeded in rescuing Beatrice.

2nd attack was to the 3rd row, trying to rescue Hugh Jeego. He was captured by 8 Blue troops. They planned on using their Wits. The front most had 3 to beat. They increased their Wits by 3 using 2nd Cookery tokens to 12.

Took down the first guard, 9 wits left. 2nd had 3, 7 left. 3rd had 2, so 5 left. They kept going and the last one required 4 so 1 left and they stopped their 2nd attack. 4 Guards left.

Maid Marian was next with the help from Colinet Good, Gilbert, Gamelus and Harold. They had 22 Wits, 3 Stealth, 6 brawns and 7 Jolliness plus 1 Prayer token. The band still had 2 Mead tokens from previous day.

With very strong Wits, they attacked the last row to save 2 villagers. 11 guards and the front most had 2 Wits. Took down the 1st so 20 left. 2nd one required 3, so 17 left. 3rd had 1, 16 left.

4th required 4, 12 left. 5th had 2, 10 left. 6th required 1, so 9 left. 7th required 2 and 8th required 3 so still 4 Wits left. There were still 2 Guards left but they decided not to risk it.

Their 2nd attack continued on that last row. 2 guards left and the first one had 5 in Brawn. The band had 6 and increased it by 3 to 9 using jolliness. After revealing the 2nd one, they only needed 8 so they rescued Emma and Thomas Cooper.

Alan A-Dale and their band next, with the help from Warin, Gontier, Leolina and Gertrude. They had 2 Wits, 7 Stealth, 8 Brawn and 11 Jolliness plus 1 token of each type.

Their first attack was to rescue Hugh Jeego with 4 guards left. They used the Scouting to reveal 2 of the guards. Apparently these 3 revealed guards were weak against brawn with a total of 6. With the last one, maybe 8 was enough. They took the risk and after revealing the last one, apparently they only needed 7. So, they finally rescued Hugh Jeego.

There were 2 more to be rescued in 2 different rows but only 1 attack left. They decided to save the easier one with only 3 guards that were capturing Pantaleon.

Before attacking, they spent 1 prayer token to move the front most to the other row. The next one on the front required 4 Wits or 2 Stealth or 6 Brawn to beat. They attacked that row with 7 Stealth on both Guards. The last guard only required 1 Stealth so only 3 required. So, they managed to rescued Pantaleon.

Warren Peace was taken to the Castle. That was the end of Day 4.

The 3 band leaders then prepared their storm on the Day 5 to Nottingham Castle to rescue Robin Hood. Each of them could only bring 4 villagers and sent the rest to the Sherwood Forest.

Alan A-Dale brought Fawkes Enhound, Hugh Jeego, Anne Dittover and Aelraed. Lady Christabel had Beatrice, Mosie Onnover, Affan and Anastasia Forester. Maid Marian chose Emma, Katherine Clarke, Harold and Briceus Brown. 20 other villagers returned to Sherwood Forest.

DAY 5. Every Band Leader got 3 Jolliness for this day.

First attack of the Castle was to take down the Gate of Nottingham first. This required a value of 24 in either Wits, Stealth or Brawn.

Lady Christabel decided to start the attack since they had 27 Stealth. They succeeded in opening that gate. This inspired all of the villagers in Sherwood Forest to help the 3 bands. There were about 30 villagers so Lady Christabel got about 10 Jolliness.

After that, they had to attack the first line of guards with 7 Elite troops. They had 10 Wits at first and with Cookery token and some Jolliness, they increased it to 23.

First guard was moved to the last row using Prayer token so there were 6 left. 1st one required 3 Wits so 20 left. 2nd required 2, 18 left. 3rd required 2, 16 left. 4th required 5 so 11 left and 5th one required 6 so 5 left. There was 1 more Guard but they decided to stop the attack to be safe. They got it right since that last guard required 7 to beat.

That last one was removed by another Prayer token so first row was gone.

Maid Marian next. 2nd Row had 7 Elite guards and the starting one required either 4 Wits or Brawns or 6 Stealth. Marian had very strong Wits with 38.

Took down that 1st, 34 left. 2nd required 6, 32 left. 3rd required 5, 27 left. 4th required another 5, 22 left. 5th required 2, 20 left. 6th required 8, 12 left and the last one required 3, 9 left. Marian successfully wiped out that row single handedly.

Last row before rescuing Robin Hood had 8 Elite guards. Marian was about to attack using 20 Stealth after increasing it by 20 using Jolliness. First guard required only 2 stealth. Using Scouting token, revealing the next 2. one required a 3 and the other a 7. Moved that 7 using Prayer token to the last row.

So, the first 2 required 5. With 20, Marian probably could take down 4 more. They took the risk and turns out the total stealth required was exactly 20 but there was one guard left.

Alan A-dale then did the first attack to finish this last guard using 13 stealth when it only needed 4. They rescued Robin Hood.

Robin Hood convinced Alan A-Dale that 2 more attacks were enough to beat the last row of guards and the Sherrif of Nottingham himself.

One attack for the guards and 2nd attack to take down Sherrif. To take down Sherrif, it required 20 points. Wits for the Sherrif and so Brawn for the 12 guards. They increased the Brawn to maximum of 59.

After revealing all 12 guards, the total required Brawn to defeat them was 52 so the band had enough and successfully beat those guards. They definitely had 20 Wits and some leftover Jolliness. So, they attacked and successfully beat the Sherrif. They won.

Playing time took 146 minutes.

Solar Draft

Design your Solar System by arranging Planets, Moons and Comets in specific order to get the best combination in a game of Solar Draft. This was using my own solo variant since the game doesn’t have one.

My 3 starting cards were 2 Red Planets, size 4 and size 20 and a Comet card. S4 says that get 1 point for every Red Planet in solar system while S20 says get 4 points if this planet is the 8th planet from the Sun. I thought I should focus on getting as many Red planets.

Oh, my Sun had the Quazar ability, to rearrange the entire solar system once per game. I actually forgot about this and probably could have scored better. The market had 1 Brown Planet, 2 Blue Planets and 2 Moons.

ROUND 1. Since I could have up to 5 cards in hand, I drew one from the market and picked one of the Moon. The one I picked allowed me to play 1 more card right after playing the Moon.

A Red planet card refilled the market. Rolled a 3 and the other Moon card was removed and it was replaced by a Green planet, 2 planets in a card actually.

ROUND 2. I should have drawn the Red that gives me point if I have at least 6 planets. But I decided to pick one of the Blue planet. This size 17 says that 3 points if this planet is the 1st in solar system. Since I already had 5 cards, I thought I should start playing next round.

Another Brown planet refilled the market. Rolled a 2 and it was immediately replaced by also small Brown planet.

ROUND 3. Well, I had to play before I could drawing more card so I played the Blue planet size 17 as my 1st Planet in my solar system. Base score was 1 and got 3 points for being the 1st planet unless I terraform it later.

Rolled a 1 and this removed the Brown planet. A Green planet refilled that space.

ROUND 4. This time I drew that Large Red Planet. The size was 50. I could play it any time as long as I could get to 6th planet.

Another Comet card with cat shape showed up. Rolled a 5 and this removed the other Blue planet. The new card was another Moon.

ROUND 5. I had to play card again so I played the Red size 4 as my 2nd Planet. The base point was 1 but extra 1 point for every red planet.

Rolled a 2 and this removed the only Brown planet at the market. The replacement was actually another Brown but large size.

ROUND 6. Since I was about to play my 3rd planet, that Green one size 39 sounded perfect. If I play it as 3rd I get 3 points plus 3 as the base point.

Another Moon card refilled that space. Rolled a 3 and this removed the double green planet card. 2nd Large Brown planet showed up.

ROUND 7. I played that Green size 39 as my 3rd Planet. So, I got 3 base points and another 3 points for being 3rd.

Rolled a 6 and this removed a card from the top of the deck. It was another Brown planet, mid size.

ROUND 8. No more red planet. I chose to draw the only Comet card there. After playing this I could start holding 7 cards and play 1 more during Scoring.

The new card was another Moon. Rolled a 3 and this removed one of the Large Brown. A Large Red then finally showed up.

ROUND 9. I played that Comet immediately between the 3rd and the 4th planet. Rolled a 4 and this removed one of the Moon, replaced by mid size Brown.

ROUND 10. I could draw again so I picked the only Red Planet. Another Moon replaced it. Rolled a 1 and this removed the other Moon, replaced by Large Red.

ROUND 11. I picked that Red again as my 6th card in hand, replaced by a large Green. Rolled a 6, removing the top card of the deck which was a Large Blue.

ROUND 12. While I could still draw more, I decided to play one of my large Red Planet. I chose the size 58 as my 4th planet because this could give more card everytime I add a Moon on it and there were a couple of Moon on the market.

Rolled a 6 again, removing the top card of the deck. It was a Large Green.

ROUND 13. Well, I should have drawn more cards but instead I played my only Moon Card to my 4th planet. This allowed me to play another card which was red size 54. The planet had 2 points as base score and 1 point for every Large Planet.

By playing Moon to size 54, I got to draw a card from the top of the deck, which was the double brown. Rolled a 5 and this removed the Moon. Luckily, another Moon showed up.

ROUND 14. I picked the Moon with no ability but increase the base planet value by 4. It was replaced by Small Green planet.

Rolled a 1 and this removed the Large Green, replaced by large Blue.

ROUND 15. I could draw again so I picked another Moon. It was replaced by a Comet. Now that I think about it, this is not actually a good moon. Only get 1 point for being the only Moon for the planet.

Rolled a 3 and the Small Green was removed, replaced by a Red, a small one.

ROUND 16. I could have drawn again but instead I played a 2nd Moon to the size 58. Somehow I decided not to get a new card from the top deck. At least it increased the base point by 4.

Rolled a 2 and the Large brown was removed and replaced by another Large Brown.

ROUND 17. I picked that small Red. The size was 20 with the base value of 4 and the bonus point of 1 point for every 2 planets.

Another red planet showed up, middle size. Rolled a 2 and this removed the Large Brown, replaced by smaller brown.

ROUND 18. I played my red size 50 planet as my 6th planet. Securing 3 points for having 6 planets.

Rolled a 4 and this removed a brown mid size, replaced by small green.

ROUND 19. There was a red planet on the market but this one gives extra score for being the 4th planet. I could terraform the existing size 58 losing maybe 1 point but got 4 instead. Well, I didn’t think about it during the game.

Instead I picked the Comet. The comet allowed me to draw cards from the top of the deck based on the number of Moon in solar system. The card was replaced by a Green but rolled a 5 and it was removed immediately. Another Moon showed up.

ROUND 20. I played my Moon to my 2nd planet, the red size 4. This just increased the base value and 1 point if this was the only Moon.

Rolled a 4 and this removed a Green planet which was replaced by another green, a double one.

ROUND 21. I played the Comet after the 6th planet and since I had 3 Moon, I drew 3 cards from the top of the deck. Somehow I actually drew the red planet and the Moon from the market. I guess I missed the top deck word. The other was a Large Brown.

The 2 from face up cards were replaced by mid size Green and Double Red. Rolled a 4 and this removed that green, replaced by another Moon.

ROUND 22. I could only play 2 more planet before triggering the end of the game and I had 3 red planets. One was for the 8th and the 7th should be the one scores for every 2 planets.

So, I played the latter as my 7th. This was 3 points plus about 4. Rolled a 4 and the Moon was removed, replaced by a Comet.

ROUND 23. I picked a Moon card and this one can score for being on the smallest planet. My smallest was already had a Moon and if I added one, that existing Moon would not score so I had to terraform something. Had I remembered the Sun’s ability, I could have rearranged them.

This was replaced by double blue. The roll of the die removed it immediately and it was replaced by another Blue.

ROUND 24. I played that Moon anyway to the smallest planet. Rolled a 5, removing the double red. Green planet showed up.

ROUND 25. So, I had another Moon, this will score 1 point for every ring the planet has. I had a planet in hand with 3 rings which was the most at this point but I had to play the planet first and it would have triggered the end of the game. Only now I realized terraform the 4th planet, I could get a lot of benefit, including from this moon.

Anyway, I played the moon on 4th planet. I should have drawn a card but I didn’t. Rolled a 4 and removed the Comet. Another comet replaced it.

ROUND 26. This was the last round, as there was only 1 card left on the deck. I played a size 20 as the 8th card securing the 4 points.

The die removed 1 card from the market and the deck run out of cards. That was the end of the game.

Final Score was about 64 points. A lot of errors anyway.

Playing time was about 24 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Solar Draft Review.

Lux Aeterna

About 10 minutes to survive alone in a spaceship, next to a black hole in a solo game of Lux Aeterna. Last time I tried the +91 position or one space away from the Black Hole. I thought I won but after reading the rule again, I forgot about the instant lose condition after 4 systems collapse. So, I tried again.

Also, this time, I read the effect of each system card first and laid them out based on how severe the penalties from each. I put the most dangerous one at the top left and the least painful one at the bottom right. This way, I don’t need to worry about which to prioritize first during the game. If I have to let some of them collapse I start with the bottom right one first.

In this session, Red had the most dangerous penalties as I had to start applying speed 3 after the system collapse. Next one was Green where I had to add 1 extra damage to the event card. 3rd was the Gray where I had to assign first drawn card as the Event which is a bit swingy.

4th was the orange where I had to lose access to Cache. This was not that bad actually but I like having more options. 5th was Yellow where I had to change a value of one system into 1. Now that I think about it, maybe this should be the last one. 6th or last one was Blue where I don’t count point from system under repair. I thought this should be the least painful as I only lose 1 point each.

Here is how it went.

1ST DRAW. 2 Green, 1 Red and 1 Gray. One green had the speed of 0 so I assigned the card there. The other 3 only hit 1 damage but to 3 of the most dangerous systems. Red had the action to move the spaceship backwards 3 space so it went for the action and I picked the Gray one with 1 damage. The other green allowed me to flip any die.

RED: 2, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 1, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 2, BLUE: 2. 4 spaces away from Black Hole.

2ND DRAW. Got 2 orange, 1 gray and 1 yellow. Only one of them had a speed of 1 so I assigned that orange there. The least painful was Yellow with just 1 Hit so the yellow for Event.

I took the Green from Cache to flip a die, which was to flip the gray that was turned into a 1 previously. Kept the gray card so I had options whether to move backwards or add 1 point to a die. Discarded the other Orange.

RED: 2, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 6, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 1, BLUE: 2. 3 spaces away from Black Hole.

3RD DRAW. 2 Red, 1 Orange and 1 Blue. Every card had a speed of at least 2. Luckily, one of the Red had action to ignore the speed this turn. So, this allowed me to use the other red with speed of 3 for Speed. I could have let either orange or gray to take damage but I let the Blue took 2 and let it collapsed. Penalty was to ignore the scoring of under repair system.

RED: 2, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 6, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 1, BLUE: collapsed. 3 spaces away from Black Hole.

4TH DRAW. 2 Yellow, 1 Gray, 1 Red. I couldn’t let the yellow take any damage so gray with 1 damage for the Event. One Yellow had speed of 1, which was the lowest for these so I got the Speed. The other yellow allowed me to flip any die so I flipped the Yellow from 1 to 6 so it could take more damage.

RED: 2, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 6, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 6, BLUE: collapsed. 2 spaces away from Black Hole.

5TH DRAW. 3 Red, 1 Orange. All good cards for the speed. One red with 0 speed allowed me to remove the next Glitch card. I set it for action. The other card had a speed of 1 or event of 1 damage, either red or orange. I let the Red take the damage.

RED: 1, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 6, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 6, BLUE: collapsed. 1 spaces away from Black Hole.

6TH DRAW. 1 Gray, 1 Blue, 1 Red, not sure the last card. Red had a speed of 1 so I got the Speed card. The blue couldn’t be used for event but luckily it allowed me to push the spaceship 2 spaces back. 1 hit for the Gray system.

RED: 1, GREEN: 2, GRAY: 5, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 6, BLUE: collapsed. 2 spaces away from Black Hole.

7TH DRAW. 1 Green, 1 Blue, 1 Gray, 1 Orange. Lowest speed was 1. Blue allowed me to remove the next Glitch so I used it for action. I should have used the gray or orange for event but instead I chose Green and Gray became speed.

RED: 1, GREEN: 1, GRAY: 5, ORANGE: 2, YELLOW: 6, BLUE: collapsed. 1 space away from Black Hole.

8TH DRAW. 3 Orange and 1 Green. Only 1 orange card with a speed of 1 as the lowest so that was the Speed card. The lowest damage was 1 to Orange so it became the event. I guess I was lucky not to set the previous one with Orange as event.

My options for action were either remove a Glitch or either move spaceship backwards or increase die by 1. I had to move the ship backwards anyway, 2 spaces and kept the Glitch removal.

RED: 1, GREEN: 1, GRAY: 5, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 6, BLUE: collapsed. 2 spaces away from Black Hole.

9TH DRAW. 1 Orange, 1 Blue, 1 Green and 1 Yellow. Lowest speed was 1 from either Green or Yellow. Only Yellow could take the damage so Green became Speed and 1 damage to Yellow. The orange allowed me to flip but not from 1 to 6 so I had to use the blue to move backwards 2 spaces again.

RED: 1, GREEN: 1, GRAY: 5, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 5, BLUE: collapsed. 3 spaces away from Black Hole.

10TH DRAW. 2 Green, 1 Gray, 1 Blue. Lowest speed was 1 from Blue so that was the Speed card. Only gray could take more damage this time so 2 damage to Gray. This time 3 Glitch removal cards showed up so I guess no more card for this so I used one of them to remove the 3rd Glitch card.

RED: 1, GREEN: 1, GRAY: 3, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 5, BLUE: collapsed. 2 spaces away from Black Hole.

11TH DRAW. 1 Green, 1 Red, 1 Gray and 1 Blue. 0 Speed from Blue. Only Gray again to take damage, 1 damage. The Red card allowed me to move the spaceship 4 spaces backwards. I replaced the previous green with 2 options of action with the new green to flip any die.

RED: 1, GREEN: 1, GRAY: 2, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 5, BLUE: collapsed. 6 spaces away from Black Hole.

12TH DRAW. 2 Yellow, 1 Green and 1 Blue. The next card to draw was Glitch. Lowest speed from Blue again which was 1. One damage only from the remaining cards so the Yellow took 1. I used the Green to flip a die from Cache to flip a Green from 1 to 6. Kept the other yellow with 2 options.

RED: 1, GREEN: 6, GRAY: 2, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 4, BLUE: collapsed. 5 spaces away from Black Hole.

GLITCH: GRAVITY SURGE. Move Starship 4 spaces towards the Black Hole. 1 space away now from the Black Hole.

13TH DRAW. 1 Yellow, 1 Orange, 1 Gray and 1 Blue. Lowest speed was 1 but that was for Yellow only. Luckily the Gray allowed me to move backwards 2 spaces so I could take Speed of 2 this time which was Blue. 2 damage for Yellow.

RED: 1, GREEN: 6, GRAY: 2, ORANGE: 1, YELLOW: 2, BLUE: collapsed. 1 space away from Black Hole.

That was the last draw. I survived…

SCORING
Under Repair Systems: 0 point
Operational Systems: 0 point
Starting Position: 91 points
ERR GLITCH: 0 point

TOTAL SCORE: 91 POINTS

Playing time was about 11 minutes.

Bullet♥︎

Last time I already started playing with Young Ja Kim, the character in wheelchair. I got the rule wrong about the required empty space to trigger her patterns so I thought I should try again with the Score Mode.

Got 3 sessions each about 30 minutes. First one got to 9th intensity track, to 7th on 2nd and to 8th on the last session. Well, this is definitely a more interesting and challenging character.

Usually, with other characters, I don’t spend AP to draw the next pattern that often, or not as often as I did with this one. You really need to focus on getting rid of those bullets with Star. Bad luck if you got nothing on the board.

With this one, instead of paying 2 AP to draw a new one, you can also pay 1 AP to exchange existing pattern card for a new one. I didn’t use this much but I kind of see why it can be a good strategy. Especially those patterns that can get rid up to 3 bullets. You kind of want to keep one of them and make a plan around it based on the current position of the bullets.

Since the only way to get rid of bullets is by pushing them out to either up, left or right edge, those in the middle become less of a challenge than the red or pink column. I got hit more with those 2 colors and maybe blue or yellow while green was the least.

During the game, I asked myself “why do I keep getting reds or pinks?”. Maybe this is just bias feeling but it feels that way. To the point maybe I should hold those 2 colors a bit and clear the other if we do get that choice of which to clear out first.

Here is a rookie mistake with this character. Most of the time your red and pink column are filled. So, you want to use patterns to clear some bullets by pushing the middle to either side. Then you realize that the bullet from the middle now fills the space of that column on the edge. In that case, if you don’t have other good pattern then too bad. Maybe not a bad idea to actually push them inwards if that can make some empty space for those 2 columns.

Another thing with this character is that usually I can keep drawing bullets until my bag is empty, especially in earlier rounds. With other characters, maybe I stop once because the board is already filled and I have to move some first to make a room and then continue drawing. With Young Ja Kim, I could be doing a couple of times per round.

I think one of the reasons for that is this character cannot move bullets in cheap way as other characters. You have to pay 2 AP. On the other hand, that action actually has more things going or can lead to another thing. Unlike other characters, you can push them to any directions, including outwards. You can also push bullets out on the edge. Only after my 3rd session I realized how beneficial this idea is to just push them out without pattern cards.

Not only that. The pushing has similar effect as using the pattern of the card that it can cascade or chains of movements. In fact, it can be better when the board is full since the action doesn’t require an empty space to activate.

I need to utilize this idea more in my next play. During this last session, I still think like playing the other characters where I have to use the movement simply to prepare for resolving pattern cards. Or at least this action can help preparing for pattern cards.

When the player board is full, then the other ability to turn pattern’s requirement of empty space into any bullet becomes very powerful. Somehow, I kept thinking on making empty space and ended up spending more AP while I could just spend 1 AP and activate any pattern, anytime.

Here is a bit negative point about this character. It seems like you need to get a specific pattern card for the current situation. Everytime I need to draw a new card for the next round, after shuffling the discard pike, I will draw and then replace it if I think I don’t like that card. So, I guess, I already cheated. I don’t feel I need to do that with the other 5 characters that I have played like I just find a way to make whatever card I got work.

Maybe I just need to play more and get better so I don’t feel the need to cheat like that. On the other hand, her ability to exchange card makes me think maybe this character demands specific patterns. Even with that, it is still challenging to play.

Previously, with other characters, I need to play with stronger boss mode in order to force myself to look for the best strategy for each character. Young Ja Kim is the first one where handling your own patterns is already interesting and challenging enough. Not sure if I should proceed with the first boss mode next or stay with this score more first.

Isle of Trains: All Aboard

Develop Train Cars to deliver cargos and passengers to fulfill contracts with some cities in a game of Isle of Trains: All Aboard. This was the solo session using the Challenge Mode, without the Scenario.

I thought I did well but I barely got the Engineer status, like 3rd level from the highest. One thing that I haven’t utilized much was the face up cards which could be good to store cards long term.

I probably should try to draw from them instead of from the top of the deck and stop when I get a good card. But at the same time that means I need to have long term plan right away. Otherwise I will be spending 3 VP just to put card back to the discard pile.

Another thing that I realized was about the upgrade. I was under impression that higher level of different train cars will force you to draw more. So, in that session, I avoided upgrading too high. Upgrading could be good in like last attempt but not during.

The drawing more cards doesn’t seem to be the case for higher level of Hopper or Coal. Or at least, I need to check and compare.

Anyway, here is how the session went, the shorter version.

ROUND 1

1st Action: LOAD

I loaded the orange passenger to my Engine and got 2 cards, Boxcar (2) and Northern Station Building. The reason for choosing this passenger over the other was to take advantage of the Build action from their home town.

2nd Action: DELIVER

I delivered that passenger to Camp Eagle, their hometown. As bonus, I got 2 more cards and Build Action. I got Caboose 9 and Boxcar 3.

The bonus action was to upgrade the Engine card since I had 9 cards to Level 3. The cost was 6 minus 1. So, I discarded the 2 buildings, the 2 Caboose and Boxcar (2).

Since I had that Blue passenger, I thought I should work on the contract with Billington’s which requires Boxcar and Hopper. So, I kept Hopper 1 and Boxcar 1 and 3.

Bonus for upgrading the Engine was a passenger from Devon City (gray). Discarded card for the round was Hopper 1.

ROUND 2

TRAIN:
Engine 3

Cards:
Boxcar 1
Hopper 1
Boxcar 3

Passengers: Blue and Gray

Face up Cards: Caboose 3, Tanker 1, Boxcar 2

1st Action: LOAD

This time I loaded the gray passenger since their hometown was offering Load action. As bonus, I got 2 cards, Hopper 1 and Coach 3.

2nd Action: BUILD

To start working on the Billington’s contract, I needed to have Hopper and Boxcar. I built Hopper 1 this round. The cost was 1 so I discarded the other Hopper 1 card.

Discarded card for the round was Caboose 4.

ROUND 3

1st Action: DELIVER

I delivered the gray passenger back to Devon City, their hometown. As bonus I got 2 cards and a Load action. So, I loaded that Blue passnger to the Engine but no bonus. For the cards, I got Engine 2 and Coach 2. Both had oil as goods.

2nd Action: BUILD

Since I had no more passenger, I thought I should get one by building Coach. So, I built that Coach 2 with the cost of 4. I discarded all remaining cards in my hand, even though I probably needed those Boxcars.

As bonus, I got 2 passengers, the Purple from Cactus Mine and Orange from Camp Eagle again.

Discarded card for the round was Engine 2.

ROUND 4

1st Action: LOAD

Loaded the Orange passenger again, planning to get the bonus from Camp Eagle. This time the passenger was loaded to the Coach. Got 3 cards and 2 VP. The cards were Engine 1, Hopper 3 and Tanker 1.

2nd Action: LOAD

I loaded the Coal to my Hopper using the Tanker 1 card. As bonus, I got to draw 3 cards and discard 1. The cards were Engine 3, Engine 1 and Hopper 3. I discarded the Engine 1.

Discarded card for the round was Hopper 2.

ROUND 5

TRAIN:
Engine 3 (1 load)
Hopper 1 (1 load)
Coach 2 (1 load)

Cards:
Hopper 1
Caboose 7
Engine 3
Hopper 3

Passengers: Purple
VP token value: 2

Face up Cards: Caboose 3, Tanker 1, Boxcar 2

1st Action: LOAD

I loaded the other passenger to the Coach. As bonus I got 3 cards and 2 VP. The cards were Tanker 1, Coach 1 and Engine 2.

While I had that Hopper 3, I thought I should get the Hopper 2 first from the top of discard pile. So, I spent 3 VP to put it back to the deck.

2nd Action: DELIVER

I delivered the Orange passenger to their hometown. The bonus got me 1 card which was that Hopper 2 and a Build action. I upgraded my Hopper 1 to Hopper 2. The cost was 4 minus 1 so I discarded Caboose 7, Hopper 1 and Engine 2.

Didn’t deliver the other 2 passengers. Discarded card for the round was Hopper 3.

ROUND 6

1st Action: DELIVER

I delivered the Purple guy to their hometown, Cactus Mine. As bonus, I got to draw 5 cards and the cards were Boxcar 1, Rail Yard building, Tanker 2, Hopper 2 and Boxcar 3.

2nd Action: BUILD

Since I had 9 cards, I had to build something. Continuing with the Billington Contract, I built Boxcar 1. The cost was 3 so I discarded Engine 3, Hopper 2 and Tanker 1. While I could afford the Boxcar 3 but the bonus forces me to draw 5.

Discarded card of the round was Engine 2.

ROUND 7

1st Action: LOAD

Loaded the first box to my Boxcar using the Hopper 3 card. The bonus got me 4 cards which were Engine 2, Boxcar 1, 2 Boxcar 2.

2nd action: BUILD

With 8 cards, I had to build something so I upgraded the Boxcar to Level 2. Still avoiding the Boxcar 3, considering Billington only asked for 2 at most. The cost was 6 minus 3 so I discarded Engine 2, Boxcar 1 and Boxcar 2.

Discarded card of the round was Coach 2.

ROUND 8

1st Action: DELIVER

I had the required 2 goods to get the Main Contract with Billington’s with 1 Coal and 1 Box so I delivered them plus the Blue passenger. The Blue passenger got me 4 VP.

2nd Action: TAKE

No more passenger so I thought I should get one and got a White from Alpine Lodge.

Discarded card for the round was Engine 2.

ROUND 9

1st Action: LOAD

I loaded my only passenger on my Coach. As bonus I got 3 cards and 2 VP. The cards were Coach 1, Caboose 5 and Coach 3.

2nd Action: LOAD

Very lucky to have drawn that Coach 3 so I built it. This was done by loading a Coal using Coach 1 card to my hopper, getting 2 extra cards and Build action. Got Caboose 5 and Custom House building.

For the Build action from bonus, the cost to build was 7 minus 4. I discarded Coach 1, Coach 1 and Boxcar 3. As bonus, I got 3 passengers, 2 Purple and 1 Grey.

Discarded card for the round was Engine 3.

ROUND 10

TRAIN:
Engine 3 (0 load)
Hopper 2 (1 load)
Coach 3 (1 load)
Boxcar 2 (0 load)

Cards:
Tanker 2
Caboose 5
Rail Yard Building
Custom House Building

Passengers: Purple, Purple, Gray
VP token value: 7

Face up Cards: Caboose 3, Tanker 1, Boxcar 2

1st Action: LOAD

I had to continue working on 2nd contract with Billington with 2 Coal and 2 Boxes. Already had 1 Coal so I loaded 1st Box. I used the Custom House building card. As bonus, I got 4 cards and Load action. The cards were Tanker 3, Southern Station Building, Tanker 2 and Caboose 10. I loaded the gray passenger as the 2nd to my Coach.

2nd Action: LOAD

I had 7 cards. Loading again would have gotten me more cards. I decided to load the Coal again to Hopper since it offered Build action bonus.

For that I used the Caboose 5 to load the Coal. Got me 2 cards, Bank Building and Engine 3. For the Build action, I built the RAIL YARD building with the cost of 6. I discarded Bank, Engine 3, Tanker 2, Southern Station Building, Tanker 3, and Tanker 2. Only 1 card left.

To get more points from this Rail Yard building, I had to add more train cars.

Discarded card for the round was Engine 1.

ROUND 11

1st Action: DELIVER

I delivered the 2 passengers to Devon City. The gray passenger got me 1 card and 1 Load action. While the White passenger became Special Delivery for 2 cards.

So the 3 cards were Tanker 1, Middle Station Building and Caboose 2. I got the Tanker from face up card apparently. The Load bonus was to load the 2nd box using Caboose 5 card.

2nd Action: DELIVER

This time I fulfilled the secondary Contract with Billington’s. They asked for 2 Coal and 2 Boxes. I delivered them and got extra points bringing it up to 14.

Discarded card was Coach 2.

ROUND 12

1st Action: LOAD

I loaded 1 of the Purple passengers to my Coach. As bonus, I got 3 cards and 3 VP. The cards were Hopper 2, Coach 1 and Grand Central.

2nd Action: LOAD

I had to get more train cars and work on more Contract. My best option was to deliver 2 boxes to Camp Eagle or either Cactus Branch or Flint Beach. The first one would have forced me to draw too many cards while with tanker I could draw less probably. I guess the Alpine Lodge was not bad either.

So, I used Caboose 2 card as Coal and loaded it to my Hopper. As bonus I got to draw 2 cards and Build Action. The cards were Town Hall and Caboose 1.

For the Build action bonus, I built Tanker 1 with the cost of 2. I discarded the 2 building cards for it.

Discarded card for this round was Tanker 1.

ROUND 13

1st Action: LOAD

First, I loaded 1 box using Caboose 1 card to the Boxcar. As bonus I drew 4 cards plus Load Action. The cards were Engine 1, Caboose 6, Tanker 2 and Engine 2. For the bonus Load action I loaded Oil using Hopper 2 card.

At this point, I noticed that the deck only had 1 card left so the game would have ended at the end of this round. I spent 3 VP to return 1 card.

2nd Action: DELIVER

I secured the 2nd Contract with the Flint Beach by delivering 1 Oil and 1 Box for 6 points. Unfortunately, not enough time for the secondary contract.

I had 6 cards in hand so I discarded the Middle Station building card. Discarded one for the round was the Tanker 1.

ROUND 14

TRAIN:
Engine 3 (0 load)
Hopper 2 (1 load)
Coach 3 (0 load)
Boxcar 2 (0 load)
Tanker 1 (0 load)

BUILDING: RAIL YARD
CONTRACT:
BILLINGTON’S (SECONDARY)
FLINT BEACH (PRIMARY)

Cards:
Coach 1
Caboose 6
Engine 1
Tanker 2
Engine 2

Passengers: Purple
VP token value: 7

Face up Cards: Caboose 3, Coal Factory Building, Boxcar 2

1st Action: BUILD

This was probably the last round. I could still add train car so I built Caboose 3. The cost was 3 so I discarded Engine 1, Tanker 2 and Engine 2. Also gained 1 Blue passenger as bonus.

2nd Action: LOAD

Loading anything would have led to drawing the last card from the deck and ended the game immediately. It didn’t matter which but I loaded the passenger to my Coach. I drew the last card which was the Boxcar 1.

That was the end of the game.

SCORING
Tokens: 7 points
Engine car: 4 points
Hopper 2 car: 5 points
Coach 3 car: 3 points
Boxcar 2: 5 points
Tanker 1 car: 2 points
Caboose 6 car: 1 point
Billington’s Contract: 14 points
Flint Beach Contract: 6 points
Loaded Cargo / Passenger: 3 points
Rail Yard Building: 10 points

TOTAL SCORE: 60 points (ENGINEER)

Playing time was about 62 minutes. Read the full session report here.

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 and this one for the more recent games.

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.