2024 Week 17 to Week 20 – Tabletop Game Play Session Reports #6

This article is the compilation of my play session reports #6. All games were played during Week 17 to Week 20 of 2024 from 22 April 2024 to 19 May 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 17, Week 18, Week 19, Week 20.

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)
#5 2024 Week 13 to Week 16 (April)

Daily articles for individual game are posted on my Patreon for those who feel the need to read right away.

Final Girl: The Haunting of Creech Manor

The story was about Alice, who recently started working as babysitter for big rich family. The family lived in the infamous Creech Manor. She had to take care of the family’s youngest member, Carolyn. The house has 4 floors and they even use the attic.

In addition to Carolyn, there were 9 family members. The Dad and Mom, Alfred the Butler and then the kids were Ben, Mel, John, Jason, Rachel and Jack.

Carolyn has been saying that she is noticing some strange phenomena like a ghost in this house. Nobody trusts her. Alice wanted to trust her but she couldn’t do much.

Carolyn and the other younger kids love to play hide and seek in this big house. On this Sunday night, every member was home and the kids played. Alice was the seeker.

The night was about to come, Alice already found 2 of them, Ben and Mel. There were 3 more, including Carolyn. Usually, Carolyn loves to hide in the garage but this time, Alice couldn’t find her there. She thought maybe Carolyn went to the attic. This was unusual, especially after saying that Carolyn saw ghost. But maybe the other 2 were with her.

Alice with Mel and Ben went to the 4th floor. She told the 2 kids to stay outside while Alice looked inside the Attic. The thing was that they had to climb a ladder to reach that attic so it was a bit dangerous.

Instead, Alice scared them saying there was probably a ghost there. One of the Kids, Ben, said, “I ain’t afraid of no Ghost!”. So he climbed the ladder as well to the attic.

It was already a long day for Alice but she had to do her job. “Focus, Alice!”, said she to herself. “The day was almost over! Focus!”. Prepare to do some searching.

In another part of the house, somebody entered the Trophy Room from the left window room. Nobody was there and this person kept moving to the next room on that 3rd floor. The next room was the stair room. Nobody was there and this person was looking for a way to go upstairs. Who was that?

The other kid, Mel, that was supposed to wait outside the Attic, actually followed Alice and Ben up to the attic. Alice noticed her but she looked kind of weird. “Are you okay, Mel?”

Alice looked at her face and she looked very scared. Mel then said…

“I have to kill you! It told me to kill you!”

Mel grabbed any object she could find in the attic and start swinging that thing to hit Alice. Alice was surprised. “Mel, stop! Why are you doing this?”

“The Ghost! It spoke to me!” said Mel.

Luckily, these kids were too young and small for Alice so they were not that dangerous. Alice could easily handle Mel. But then, Alice noticed another weird thing. “Where is Ben? Are you okay, Ben?”

Alice looked the other way of the attic and saw Ben just standing there. She came closer to him and noticed the similar face she saw on Mel before. He started grabbing things and tried to hit and again Alice could handle him.

So, these 2 kids started to believe what Carolyn had been saying.

“The Ghost is real! She is here!”

The kids got panicked. Ben immediately climbed down from the attic. Alice managed to hold Mel. “Calm down, Mel! I’m here, okay. Don’t worry!” She calmed down. “Let’s go back down, get Ben and tell the others.” said Alice.

“Oh, wait, we still need to look for Carolyn. Maybe she is here.”

Alice started searching, looked for any clue she can find. She saw a paper. It had a list of things in the Closet. The list says, Ancient Text, Mr. Floppy? then a Padlock, and a Lucky Rabbit’s tail.

“Carolyn probably wrote this. She loves her Mr. Floppy so maybe this was her reminder where she kept it with other toys.” She couldn’t find Carolyn.

Back to the room next to Trophy room where anonymous person walked towards the 4th floor. That person finally reached the 4th floor between the Closet and room below the Attic where Ben was.

“THE SHADOWS ARE CLOSING IN”

Alice, Mel and Ben started hearing some noises very close. They got scared after what just happened to them. Back to that anonymous figure, that figure decided to move to the Closet.

The figure opened the door and there were the other 2 kids, Jason and John still playing hide and seek without knowing what’s going to happen to them. The 2 kids were surprised to see that the figure looked like a Ghost. They screamed. It was so close to Alice and the other 2.

The ghost then killed John. Seeing that, Jason, got panicked but he couldn’t move. The only path out was the door behind the Ghost with his dead brother. He was too scared.

Alice, after hearing that scream got a bit worried.

“Calm down and Focus, Alice!”

When she was about to give up searching the attic and leave the attic, she noticed something moving behind those boxes. She looked behind it and she found Carolyn! Alice woke her up. “Are you okay, Carolyn?”

“I saw the ghost and Mr. Floppy told me to hide here. It has been a while so I fell asleep.”

“Okay, let’s go. Something happened and we need to check the other kids.”

Alice, along with Carolyn and Mel climbed down from the attic. They found Ben. He was crying after hearing that scream from the closet. Alice tried to check the closet but Ben was so scared he pulled Alice the opposite way. “It’s the Ghost! The Ghost killed John!”

Alice, confused, thought, maybe it was better to keep them safe in that opposite room first. They entered the room. From this room, there was a path that they can climb down to the room with a window on 3rd floor. It was part of their route when playing hide and seek.

The kids knew their way and kept going until they reached outside the house. Alice then told them to go outside and find some help while she tried to rescue the other family members.

However, Carolyn refused, “I want to stay with you, Alice!”. “It’s too dangerous, Carolyn!”. Carolyn still refused.

Alice thought it would be a waste of time to argue. “Just stay with me, okay, Carolyn?” Carolyn nodded. The other 2 kids escaped the house while Alice and Carolyn reentered the house from the Foyer.

Inside her head, Alice got panic. “What should I do next?”

Back to the Closet room, the Ghost finally killed the other kid, Jason. The Ghost then spoke to Carolyn.

“FORGETTING SOMETHING?” said the Ghost while showing the illusion of Mr. Floppy.

Carolyn pulled Alice’s hand. “Mr. Floppy! We need to save him!”

“We don’t have time for that, Carolyn!” said Alice. “Please” said Carolyn, while crying.

“Okay, where is Mr. Floppy?”

“I don’t know.”

Then Alice remembered a list she found in the attic. The list had Mr. Floppy as things in the closet. “Maybe Mr. Floppy is in the closet. We’ll get him, okay, Carolyn. Just stay with me.”

While thinking their next move, something else happened on the other part of the house. The ladder they just used to climb down from 3rd floor to outside broke down. Nobody can use it again as an escape route now. Alice noticed it and saw from where she was. She got scared.

While in half panic, Alice tried to improvise. Making some distractions to get more time. While she wanted to find Mr. Floppy for Carolyn, she knew there were a couple other family members nearby she could warn first. There were 2 upstairs so she decided to run upstairs.

One, Rachel was in the staircase. She got to the room on 2nd floor and opened the door to find Jack. “Come on, we need to get out from here!” The 2 and Carolyn followed to the staircase again.

After checking the other part of that 2nd floor, Alice came back to the staircase ready to come down. A lot of things happened in her mind.

The Ghost after killing that 2nd kid in the closet started walking outside and to the staircase of 4th floor. She went down.

Alice, Carolyn and the other 2 members on the 2nd floor heard that noise. Carolyn started screaming.

“IT’S COMING, IT’S COMING!”

While Alice tried to stop Carolyn from shouting, they noticed the appearance of the Ghost. The Ghost killed Jack. Alice held Carolyn and tried to protect her. Rachel, after seeing the death of Jack, got panic and went to the right part of the 2nd floor.

Alice, not sure what she should do next, improvised a bit and start throwing things to distract the Ghost. She managed to convinced herself and Carolyn. “RUN! Go upstairs!”

Alice still tried to save Rachel. She grabbed her and dragged her upstairs as well. They kept going up. Carolyn remembered to get Mr. Floppy so back to the 4th floor, they all reached the Closet room.

The 3 found 2 dead bodies of John and Jason. Alice convinced them to stay and locked the closet door. While trying to figure out their next plan…

“SOMETHING UNHOLY HAPPENED IN THE ATTIC”

The ghost teleported to the Attic as the ghost thought they would be there. She found no one. Then the ghost climbed down. She knew the next possible space, which was the Closet. The ghost was just in the next room of that Closet.

Alice tried to improvise something, preparing for the ghost. While doing so, she told Carolyn to go look for Mr. Floppy. Carolyn found him and hug Mr. Floppy very closely.

“Okay. Now we need to get out. We need to run as fast as we can downstairs. The Ghost is right behind that door. I will create some diversion and you two just keep on running. Ready?” said Alice to both of them.

They got out of the closet. Alice threw whatever she found from the closet to the ghost just to distract the ghost. They went down to 3rd floor. The 3 could have gone to the main stairwell but Alice chose to get out from the 3rd floor window on the right.

“Carolyn. You know how to climb down there right? Bring Rachel along while I hold the door.”

Carolyn followed that instruction and while Alice tried to create a barricade, the Ghost broke into the room. The ghost attacked Alice but Alice managed to avoid it. Seeing that horror drove Rachel crazy. She got panic and run through that door, leaving Carolyn and Alice behind.

“VOICES… I HEAR VOICES!”

Rachel lost her mind and instead of going downstairs she went up. Apparently, the Ghost decided to chase Rachel. Before Rachel could even reach the stairs, the Ghost stabbed her.

Alice saw that and got more scared than she already was. She couldn’t think straight and just did the first thing that came to her mind. Grabbed Carolyn and run from the window.

They got out.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here, Carolyn!”

Carolyn then saw the Ballroom on 1st floor. She saw her parents were still in that room.

“We cannot leave mom and dad. Maybe Alfred, the butler was still there as well.”

Alice knew this was a bad idea but at the same time somewhere she believed that it can be done. So, they both reentered the house again and arrived at the foyer. They continued walking to the Ballroom and found the two parents.

“We need to get out now!” said Alice to her employer.

“What’s wrong?” asked those parents. “Why are you covered in blood?”

“Didn’t you hear what just happened in the past hours in this house? 4 members of your family have been killed!” said Alice yelling.

“Don’t be crazy, young lady.” said the mom.

Without trying to convince even farther, Alice picked Carolyn and moved back to the foyers. She called out Alfred, the butler, presumably was in the room next to the garage.

The parents eventually followed them still not believing Alice and started to get mad.

“If you don’t stop this madness, you are fired!” said them to Alice.

“I was trying to! Please!” said Alice.

While trying to figure out what to do next. The door to the garage was opened. Alfred the Butler entered the room. “Is there a problem, Sir? asked him to the dad.

Suddenly, a lightning struck, almost blinding those 5. When they gained their senses, they realized those lightning directly struck some of them. Alfred, the Father and Alice got struck. Alice was lucky not to get struck directly and survived unlike the other 2.

The Mom and Carolyn got panicked. Another lightning struck with the appearance of the ghost on the stair. The mom got a good look at the ghost and started running towards the exit.

Alice, injured, did everything she could to stand up and take Carolyn’s hand, going to the exit. They got out and left the premises. The ghost still could be seen from the opened main door to the foyer but the ghost stayed there, didn’t chase them. She continued haunting the Creech Manor.

That was the end of the story. Playing time was about 55 minutes.

IKI

I rarely played with other players, let alone with 4. IKI is one of the few games I had the chance to play with 4. I thought the 2-player variant was good enough but after playing with 4, it is not as good as with 4. If anything, I keep seeing why that variant actually makes it worse.

So, this time, I tried my idea to tweak the variant a bit and see if that makes it better. The way I do it is that for the neutral player, you also use all of the meeple or pawns instead of just placing character cards on the board.

By using the 3rd player pawns, this neutral player’s character will take time to level up and retire. They stay a bit longer. With the biggest 3rd player meeple, they can actually help your characters to level up. The official 2-player variant feels like there is no good reason to help the opponent to level up. It is also very easy to just skip them.

Using this tweak, then the 3rd player that is control by the 2 players, they can still help both even if not in their turn to control. Faster for characters to retire instead of just waiting to circle back 3 or 4 times.

Since the neutral character also stays longer, it helps to make longer plan. My problem with the official variant is that sometimes you end up taking useless characters for neutral player and place them in bad shop that nobody visits. Those characters end up staying until the end of the game, occupying spaces, forcing players not to hire character. No limit for neutral character.

In this variant, I still use the blocking tokens to determine the neutral player movement. So, it is not completely decided by the active player. Well, here is something I need to figure out further. I initially thought to use the Fire Fighting power to also determine which player to take the movement first.

In my session, I ended up just revealing the blocking token first before any player place theirs. I still use the fire track just so the neutral player can survive the fire. Both players definitely used the neutral characters as barrier on their turn and those characters got burned down twice.

Maybe this was because how I played the neutral characters but it feels like it is very unlikely you let the neutral character hire characters to increase their fire skill.

By revealing the blocking token first, the neutral player can always take space 1, 2, 3 and 4 which allows them to keep hiring. Another possible idea is to let the fire track decide which player to choose movement first, including the neutral. However, if the neutral player chooses occupied space, they instead pick the 1-4 space. I will try that next time.

In this experiment session, I also used the board side for 3 or 4 players as if I was playing with 3. The official variant for 2 uses the other side. While I had a chance to play with 4 but this was the first time for me playing with 3. I found the scaling a bit weird.

This side of the board has 16 spaces, 4 for each player. So, when playing with 3, there will be 4 vacant spaces. I’m not saying it’s bad but maybe not as good as with 4. You always have other options instead of being forced to take the leftover space that can lead to not hiring at all. For the sake of this variant, I’m thinking maybe I should use the 2-player side of the board next.

Overall, I think I like this better than the official rule. Not saying it is perfect and maybe there are things to consider further. Of course, I’m biased and this is just my first impression.

Based on my one play, it changes how I play a bit. Usually I don’t get that many woods and this one I got like 4 by the end for one player. It’s like the neutral character become extra channel to grow more production even if that can benefit the opponent as well.

Also, this one I played alone but running both sides, multi-handed. Sometimes I got mixed up when deciding the neutral character. In general, it should be benefitting the controlling one. Well, since I controlled both, maybe I got it wrong.

One question that came up during play was whether the neutral should activate their own shop or the active player’s. I’m leaning toward helping the controlling player. Otherwise it could lead to players just being selfish.

The session itself had a surprising result. First player, the red one actually lost the game by 11 points. Red player also got to build better building. They failed to get 5 different types of characters but only short by 1. So, even if they got extra 9 points, they still lost to the 2nd player, the Yellow.

During the game, I really thought the red was winning. A lot more leftover resources. Apparently, Yellow managed to buy a couple of tobacco pouches and pipes while Red only got the pipes. Yellow got all 5 colors. I think Yellow got one of their shop burned down once. Both failed to feed once or twice.

Oh, I also set so the neutral player could buy fish and tobaccos. Using the idea from fan made solo, I let them take the cheaper options. This prevented players to buy them at all.

I didn’t keep track anything for the blue. So, while this variant may add times to play since you need to move pawns for the neutral, I don’t think it was too much. Maybe it does add time to plan. Oh, I think at one point, I forgot that the neutral player still had 1 worker left so they could have hired one but I played as if they had none.

Playing time was about 128 minutes. I will try this variant again.

Old Town Road

Travel to the Old Town and along the way, witness the wild west life of outlaws killing and hunting each other just for the bounty rewards in Old Town Road.

The day started with a 3, 6, A, 4, 2 and 4 from left to right. A potential of pair, a flush or even Straight Flush. The first 4 started shooting the 2. Then sheriff came but immediately went away. The other one, a 4, stepped in from the right.

That same 4 then killed the other 4. He was out of range from the Sheriff. Finally a 3 with the same suit as the first 2 victims came from the left. The first 3 then killed that other 3.

1st set, a Straight Set with 2, 3, 4 of Spade.

Another 2 with club stepped in from the left. Potential for pair of 4 or 2 straights. Either 2, 3, 4 or A, 2, 3. The 2 of Club that just came in, killed the 3 and became the criminal. As he was within range from the sheriff, Sheriff took a shot at him.

Now the road had a 6, A, 6, A, 4 and 4. The last 4 was the Sheriff and the other 4 killed him.

2nd set, a Straight with also 2, 3 and 4.

Another 2 came in from the right with a heart. The middle of these, starting from 6 then A and 4, all had Diamond symbol so a potential for a flush. The 2 that just came in could easily eliminate all of them. So, he started from the closest one, the 4. A 5 of diamond came in on the left.

6 of club shot the other 6 of diamond from 2 spaces away. Another 6 came in from the left. The same 2 then eliminated the 2 of diamond.

3rd set, a Flush with 4, A and 6 of diamond.

5 of heart came on a horse but went away immediately. Then a 6 of heart showed up from the left. Now the road had 6, 6, 5, 6, A and 2. A potential for 3 of a kind with 6. Unfortunately, only one of them could be killed by whoever was there. Probably needed to switch plan to create a pair instead.

The 2nd 6, with a Spade, shot the 3rd 6, with a club. A 7 was in sight. That same 6 also eliminated the 2 on the right end so had to switch to a pair of 6 or 2 if any showed up. Unfortunately, a 3 showed up and this was unable to shoot any of the 6.

Now the line had a 3, 7, 6, 6, 5 and A. A decided to just get away from the wild road before he got killed. Another 2 showed up on the left. Unlucky for that 2, the 5 on the right end was able to shoot him.

4th set, a Pair of 2 plus a 6.

Another 7 showed up with 7, 3, 7, 6, 6, 5. A potential for 2 more pairs, either 7 or 6. Also possible for a Straight from 7, 6 and 5. However, 5 was probably needed to create the last set, the 3 of a kind to get all kind of sets. So, trying to stick with pair of 7.

The 3 and 6 robbed the 7 between them. A 5 then came in from the left, next to a 7 and then a 3. That 5 and 3 robbed that 7 together and became criminal.

After that, the 5 previously showed up and immediately left, came in.

**** I think I got it wrong here. This 5 should have come from the left instead of the right.

If I tried to fix it, the 5, 2nd from the left then probably killed the 3, next to him. After robbing the bank together, he betrayed the 3.

5th set, A PAIR OF 7 plus a 3.

If I played correctly the road now had a 7, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5. Potential of 2 pairs. There were 2 hearts and possibly another one about to show up.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t fix it so I just continued with the wrong play. The current order was 7, 5, 6, 6, 5, 5. Started the next set with the first 5 on the left killed the 6 next to him. A 4 of heart showed and killed the 5 on the other hand. Both of those and this 4 were Heart. To complete it, the 5 on the right end with a diamond, killed the 4.

6th set, Straight Flush with 4, 5, 6 of Hearts. Still missing the 3 of a kind.

The road now had A, 5, 7, 5, 6, 5. 3 cards left with random order of A, 7 and 3. The A was a sheriff that could easily eliminate all of criminals within 1 to 3 spaces. Only one 5 left had not turned into a criminal.

So, probably needed to create another set before the 3 of a kind with 5s. The first 2 5s then robbed the bank between them and turned the last 5 into criminal. Another 7 was in sight.

That first 5 killed the A next to him. The last 3 entered the road from the left. Both that 3 and the 5 robbed the bank between them.

7th set and it was a Pair of 7s plus A.

The last card was the Sheriff. He just shot down all 3 5s and created the last set.

8th set, 3 of a kind with 5s.

I finally reached the Old Town and the game ended.

1st set: STRAIGHT FLUSH = 10 points
2nd set: STRAIGHT = 10 POINTS
3rd set: PAIR = 4 POINTS
4th set: FLUSH = 6 POINTS
5th set: PAIR = 7 POINTS
6th set: STRAIGHT FLUSH = 8 POINTS
7th set: PAIR = 5 POINTS
8th set: 3 OF A KIND: 7 POINTS
Bonus all kind of sets: 10 points

TOTAL SCORE: 67 points

Well, it didn’t matter since I got it wrong. Playing time was about 33 minutes.

The Castles of Burgundy

I finally had the chance to play The Castles of Burgundy, the board game version. Already played the card game and dice game but not the original one. This copy is actually the anniversary edition from 2019.

Since most fans already have or are trying to have the Special Edition, my local stores are no longer selling the cheap version. Not sure if they are still producing them. Unfortunately, I had to settle down with the Chinese / Hong Kong version that includes English rule. Luckily the game is language independent.

Well, the box cover is slightly worse than version for other language. Not talking about the Chinese text. It’s just other version seems to have border line on the box cover that makes them look better. Luckily the content remains the same.

I checked unboxing videos and it seems this version from Hong Kong publisher had additional perks. I also got plastic trays with a cover and a wooden tray for the hex tiles that I need to assemble. Well, those trays are garbage and I threw them away.

Is separated plastic trays but a single lid covering those trays a thing?

At first I thought I didn’t need to assemble the wooden trays. Apparently, the plastic ones fit only for certain tiles but not all. And the Wooden tray doesn’t have a lid so placing them in the box will just create a mess. Well, I already broke one pieces so I had to glue them to assemble. It is not that easy to assemble anyway so I threw it out. Keeping all tiles in plastic bags works much better.

Sorry for the rant. It’s just that got me thinking maybe I could have paid cheaper without them. Not that I could afford the Special edition as the other only option to get this game.

Well, that made me sad. This is supposed to be a great game for a lot of people but now it’s getting inaccessible due to the price and unavailable for the cheaper one.

Enough rant. Let’s talk about the game.

So, I played this straight with solo variant. I thought after playing the Dice and Card version, I will have no trouble learning it. Thanks to Colin’s video from One Stop Co-Op shop, I could play the game right away.

Usually for new games I try to play 2-handed just to get more actions to do. I have to say I’m glad I didn’t. Didn’t expect the game would be this long. It took more than 2 hours. Well, part of it is because I took too many pictures during the game. Still, I was expecting 1.5 hours to be maximum, especially with solo. Like maybe 2 hours when playing with 4.

I definitely got one rule wrong. It was related to bonus of completing a color which was different compared to the multiplayer. The rule mention that the bonus is for completing a color, I got it wrong thinking about completing a region of same colors. So, early, I took a lot of bonuses.

Maybe in 3rd phase I started to realize how I got it wrong. While I try to fix it by not taking the bonus afterwards but I guess that wrong play already gave me too many benefits. As a result, I finished the solo objective in the 2nd to last round of the last phase.

Still, I feel this solo mode is a bit too long. Especially in the last phase. Maybe because it becomes a bit repetitive because you have to keep trying to fill every hex. In earlier rounds, trying to expand you opportunity to play certain color makes it interesting. You also get more colors to trigger different bonuses, even combos. Then once you get to that last phase, you are just filling them one by one, especially the single one with little bonus.

This is actually similar to the Dice game but in that one, you only play 3 phases. Also, maybe this is a complaint about the solo board itself, not specifically the solo mode, reaching out to those smaller regions doesn’t feel satisfying.

I did start with the Castle surrounded by biggest hexes. Maybe by starting from the top left, it could change the game. But still, as an example, I don’t get to do more interesting thing like with Livestock. The board, the easier side, obviously, only has a couple of single Light green and only a group of 3. So, once you have completed that group of 3, then you cannot really get more than 4 points.

Compared that to the other boards, they have only 2 groups but one of them has the size of 5 even if the other is just single. If you break it down, you can still get a group of 3 and a group of 2.

I thought the last phase of the Card game is a bit boring because you are just trying to make use of any leftover resources. Well, compared to this solo from board game, that makes more sense now. Instead of chasing and filling hexes, you actually start to end the game by just getting points. Maybe that same experience from card game still applies with the multiplayer variant?

At some point, I thought playing the card and the dice game gives me a complete picture of the board game experience. I was wrong and this probably affected how I play. Those special ability from Monastery tiles can change the game a bit. Assuming they come out and you get to take it. Some gives you ability while other gives only score.

I mean if you play the card game, all yellow only give you workers. Didn’t expect they were that important so I kind of ignored them except the first one. That one gave me extra change when playing a blue or green to duchy.

I also got one about BRIDGE which only helps winning the tie breaker in turn order which doesn’t work in solo. Also got another one that score certain building that I had none but I needed those yellows.

Now, I get it why people complain about not having a reference card for the monastery tiles. Even in the card game I have to keep checking the rulebook for the Building (beige). In this board game, I have to check both.

Also, I just realized that now there is a rule where each town or region can only have 1 type of building. Unless you have the specific monastery. Luckily, during the game, I managed to get every building in the same region unique.

Is this also a rule in card game because I always played to create a set of 3 just based on color, regardless of the same buildings?

I just realized another rule that I got it wrong about the depot. While I did it right, removing the other after I placed a ship and chose one depot. However, I also removed every round. No wonder I didn’t get to take that many goods to get more of the black market tile.

I only spent 2 silvers in the entire game to buy 1 from Black Market. Well, I got it wrong with the Mine. I thought, like in card game, I just got bonus when placing the tile. While in this one, you get silver every round from each mine tile.

I know that you can spend 2 silver to buy from black market. Is there a way or tile that allows me to buy from other depot? I feel like I read it somewhere but now I couldn’t find that rule.

Maybe there are other rules that I got it wrong but haven’t realized it yet.

Overall, as first impression, I like the game. There are moments when you evaluate multiple possible combos, going for different bonuses. There are also moments I got lost in track when activating bonus after bonuses. Maybe forgot to count certain VP bonuses.

I don’t know if I like this solo better than the card game. The card game has the chance to get instantly eliminated early so you need to keep up the score. I kind of miss that part here. Maybe I should try the fan made automa version from the Special Edition here.

There are still a lot of things to explore in this complete box. Usually I don’t buy expansions so here it seems I accidentally added some to my first game, if the expansions involve more different tiles of the same color, not new feature.

Playing time was about 127 minutes.

Rush M.D.

Treat all of your patients or lose medical points and shut down your hospital operation in Rush M.D. game.

Got 2 solo sessions. The 2nd one was easier with 60 points and 15 medical points from the starting 9. Treated 9 patients from Clinics and 11 hospitalized.

Here is how the 1st session went.

ROUND 1.

3 patients came in, one outpatients and 2 hospitalized. The 2 were Mild condition while one of the hospitalized was in critical condition and immediately required surgery. 2 organs even.

One doctor admitted to the ward A immediately while the other prepared the stock for organs. While waiting, the nurse treated the one in clinic. She only needed 1 white pill and 3 shots of yellow drugs.

The first doctor was done and admitted the 2nd hospitalized to ward A, 2nd Bed. She required some X-rays. The 2nd doctor were still working on the 2nd organ donor for the critical patient.

First doctor then did the X-ray to this 2nd hospitalized patient. Turns out, she also needed some organ surgery for her bones and lungs. But the Pharmacy only had 2 spaces in the storage for organs. So, doctor needed to treat the first patient before working on this.

One nurse prepared the blood supply and the other restock yellow drugs and syringes.

First doctor then led the surgery for this critical patient, aided by 1 nurse. He was saved. After the organ storage was empty, the 2nd Doctor started working on the other organs for 2nd patient.

While waiting, the nurse admitted 3 more patients, all in the clinics. 2 of them had mild condition, one kid and one elderly woman. A blue pill and a bit of blood transfusion for the kids and 3 shots of green for the lady. The other guy, a rockstar, had serious situation. He needed 2 shots of both yellow and green drugs.

1st doctor started the surgery for the 2nd patient with just help from one nurse. She was treated completely. After 3 nurses did restocking the pharmacy, the 2nd doctor and 1 nurse started treated the 3 patients in the clinic.

The day ended. Scored 11 points. Bonus 1 medical point for performing 2 surgeries.

ROUND 2.

This time if I treated 3 patients with serious condition, got 1 Medical point. An intern doctor was available to help moving a hospitalized patient to a ward. Also additional nurse that could get me 5 IV Fluids.

The hospital opened and 3 patients came in. One with serious condition in Clinic and the other 2 were hospitalized, one with Mild and the other was Critical.

The Critical one required 2 blue pills plus 1 orange and 2 X-rays tests. While the mild one only needed MRI test plus 2 IV Fluids. A lot of pills for boy in the clinic.

Both doctors admitted the 2 hospitalized to ward A. They both immediately worked on the tests. First X-ray test came in and the result was the patient required a Lung surgery. Before making that judgement, the doctor run another X-ray test on this critical patient.

Turns out the other patient with mild condition also needed a surgery for his heart. The surgery required 3 blood and 2 orange pills. 2nd X-ray test result came in and the Doctor concluded that the patient needed the lung surgery.

Luckily both organs were available from previous round. The 4 nurses restocked a lot of things, blood, syringes, yellow drugs and orange pills.

1st doctor run the surgery aided by 1 nurse for the critical patient. 2nd doctor did the same for the Mild patient.

Another patient that required to be hospitalized came in. The intern admitted her to the same ward A, last bed. She needed MRI and Blood test.

After the 1st doctor was done with the surgery, they started the MRI test. The result said that she may require 2 blue, 2 orange pills and 2 shots of yellow drugs. Before that, the doctor had to cross check with blood test.

While waiting, the nurse admitted one more patient in the clinic. A guy with his hand stuck in a pot. Nothing serious, just needed some pain killer. 1 nurse took care of him.

Back to the blood test, the result indicated that the patient actually brought in an epidemic. Now the same ward was considered infected and the 2 patients required extra white pill to prevent the infection.

The doctor concluded from these 2 tests that the patient just needed 1 IV fluids, 2 shots each of green and yellow drugs, in addition to her initial 3 yellow drugs.

All of the nurses were assigned to prepare a lot of pills and drugs. The first patient in the clinic got treated with 2 orange, 2 white and 1 blue pills.

All of the patients in Ward A got 1 white pill for the epidemic. However, the day ended and the last hospitalized patient needed to wait for the next day for full treatment. Her condition got worse from serious to critical. Her family got mad and the hospital lost some medical points.

Scored 14 points and lost 5 Medical points. No bonus since only 1 patient with serious condition got treatment.

ROUND 3.

There was additional nurse to help restock more syringes. At the same time, a bonus medical point for using 6 syringes this time. Another medical point bonus for treating at least 3 patients with Mild condition.

The hospital opened and 3 patients came in. A young lady with mild condition in the clinic, holding her piggy stuff doll. She just needed an orange pill and a shot of green drug.

Also ward A still had the patient from last time.

Two others required to be in hospital treatment. One had mild condition, only needed an MRI. The lady was in critical condition, required 2 blood tests and 1 pill of each.

First doctor admitted the critical patient first to Ward A. 2nd Doctor immediately run the Blood test of 2. The result came and she just needed 1 shot of green drug. However, doctor was not convinced until the result of 2nd blood test.

Meanwhile, the first doctor admitted the Mild patient to the same ward, last available bed. 2nd blood test came in and apparently another indication of epidemic. No need for surgery but 2 white pills, 3 of each yellow and green drugs. Luckily, the epidemic was false alarmed but she needed a lot of work.

1st Doctor then run the MRI on 2nd patient. This one while in Mild condition required a bone surgery according to the test plus 3 blood and 1 blue pill.

While the pharmacy still had organ stock but it was not enough. So the 1st doctor started working on it. 2nd doctor then did the surgery, aided by 1 nurse. The patient was treated completely.

The 4 nurses did a lot of restocking. For the remaining patients, the hospital needed at least 3 white, blue and orange pills, 4 syringes for 5 shots of yellow drugs and 3 for green.

While waiting for everything to be available, the 1st doctor treated the 1 patient in the clinic. Apparently, one new patient acme in to the clinic. He was a wrestler and in Critical condition. Maybe just won a championship but heavily injured. He needed 4 shots of green drugs, 2 IV Fluids and 3 white pills.

After more restocking, 2 hospitalized and the 1 in clinic got treated completely.

Scored 19 points to 43 plus 1 medical point bonus for using 6 syringes.

ROUND 4.

2 helpful nurses this time. One could get 3 pills of one color and the other could get 1 of each 3 pills. Bonus for not making any medical error this time.

The hospital opened and 3 patients came all with serious condition, 2 required to be in hospital and the other in clinic. One elderly man required heart surgery and the other was a kid required 2 tests, culture lab test and x-ray. The one in clinic just needed 2 orange pills and 2 yellow drugs.

1st doctor admitted the kid first while 2nd doctor worked on the heart organ in pharmacy. After finished with the organ, the 2nd doctor did the X-ray test for the kid. He just needed 1 IV Fluid, 1 Blue and 1 Orange pill.

The 1st doctor then did the Culture lab test. From that it was concluded that the kid also needed heart surgery, some blood transfusion and blue pill. Luckily the organ supply worked on both.

2nd doctor then prepared the blood supply. While waiting, 1 nurse treated the guy in the clinic. 1st doctor admitted the 2nd patient and began the surgery with the help of 1 nurse. He got treated completely.

2 more patients came in to the clinic. One lady and the other was grandma, both in serious condition. 4 more blood was needed with 2 shots of yellow drugs and 2 white pills. After the restocking, both got treated by nurse.

2nd doctor then began the heart surgery for the kid with the help of 1 nurse. He got better.

3 more patients came in to the clinic, 2 kids and 1 man. One kid was in mild condition while the other had serious. 4 orange pills, 3 white, 1 blue pills plus 2 IV fluids were needed.

Luckily those 2 extra nurses really helped restocking these pills. All of them got treated.

9 hospitalized and 13 from clinics got treated. Scored 61 with 10 medical points. Playing time for both sessions was about 111 minutes with a little break in between.

Nautilion

Recruit crew for your submarine and lead them to the Abyss to defeat Darkhouse before their henchman, the Phantom reaches the Happy Isles in Nautilion.

In this session, I played with all of the expansion and the Nautilion 2nd B board for the first time.

ROUND 1. 2, 2, 1

Darkhouse: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then roll 2 dice and give them to the remaining 2 figures.

I chose the Darkhouse first and rolled a 2 so no penalty. Then rolled 1 and 2. For Phantom, 1 got them to remove Crew 9 while 2 got them to recruit Crew 8. While for Nautilion, 1 got them a Mercenary and 2 got them Crew 1.

I had to give Phantom the 1 and the 2 for Nautilion. Crew 1 for Nautilion board was at the corner. I decided to place it in the Mage Board.

ROUND 2. 1, 2, 2

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between Nautilion and the Abyss.

There was only Crew 9 in the discard so I placed it back to the path somewhere in the middle. Darkhouse was safe to take any die. 1 for Phantom was Crew 8 so I needed to avoid that while for Nautilion Crew 2. This was a bit at the corner of the submarine so I thought I should skip it.

2 for Phantom was Mage B while for Nautilion it was Crew 5 on a reef that I needed. So, Darkhouse took the 1 and the other 2s for the other figures. 1 / 9 crews.

Since Nautilion landed on a reef, I rolled again and got 2. So, they skipped the next round.

ROUND 3. 1, 2

Darkhouse: Take the token on which the Phantom ends its movement. The Phantom receives the token on which the Nautilion ends its movement.

No movement for Nautilion so no removed crew this time. Darkhouse could safely take any of those numbers. With 1 Phantom landed on Crew 9 again while with 2, Phantom landed on Mercenary.

Because of the shape of submarine, taking mercenary after 5 was not a good idea. Crew 9 was also useless so ended up becoming just reserve token. I took the latter anyway just because I didn’t want Phantom to move too fast.

ROUND 4. 2, 3, 4

Darkhouse: Do not roll the dice. Turn them to values 2, 3 and 4. You may neither cast Repetitive Whirlwind nor Artificial Tide this turn.

Well, 2 was probably best for Darkhouse and 3, 4 for the other 2. 3 for Phantom got them to remove Crew 1 but 4 got them a Mercenary. For Nautilion, 3 was Mercenary while 4 was Crew 6.

The thing was I needed to get Crew 7 first before I could take Crew 6 and I couldn’t let Phantom took Mercenary with 4. So, I gave 3 to Phantom and 4 for Nautilion. However, I spent 2 reserve tokens to change Crew 6 into Crew 3 from somewhere near the Phantom.

With this I could start taking Crew 8 and 4. 2 / 9 crews.

ROUND 5. 2, 2, 2

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and place it in the reserve.

I didn’t matter which token at this point but I picked crew 1 as Reserve.

Only 1 option. 2 got Phantom to remove Mage A and reef while Nautilion got Crew 4 and a reef. Nothing happened for Darkhouse.

Rolled a 1 for the reef and Nautilion stuck for the next round.

ROUND 6. 2, 3

Darkhouse: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then roll 2 dice and give them to the remaining 2 figures.

Well, I chose Darkhouse first and rolled a 2 luckily. Rolled 1 die and got a 3 for the Phantom. That got them Crew 2 with a harpoon. I let it. 3 harpoons for Phantom.

ROUND 7. 1, 1, 2

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between Nautilion and the Abyss.

I think I recovered Mage A that just got removed in previous round. 1 got Phantom to remove Mage B and Crew 7 with 2. For Nautilion, 1 was Mercenary and 2 was Crew 1. I already had Crew 1 on Mage board but I couldn’t place it for the Nautilion. So, Darkhouse got the 2 and the other the 1s.

This Mercenary was placed at Crew 9 space so I could still get to place Crew 8 with Harpoon.

ROUND 8. 1, 2, 3

Darkhouse: Take the token on which the Phantom ends its movement. The Phantom receives the token on which the Nautilion ends its movement.

For Phantom, 1 was Crew 7, 2 was Crew 5 and 3 was Crew 6. While for Nautilion, 1 was Crew 1, 2 was Crew 4 and 3 was Mercenary. Nothing was useful for Nautilion but getting a token. So, I let the Darkhouse took the 3, losing 1 token. Phantom removed Crew 7 just so they didn’t move too fast.

*** I actually got this wrong. I should have moved the Nautilion 2 spaces and landed on Crew 4 with a reef. But somehow I only moved 1 space turning Crew 1 into a token, as if I rolled 1, 1, 3.

Oh, well…

ROUND 9. 2, 3, 4

Darkhouse: Do not roll the dice. Turn them to values 2, 3 and 4. You may neither cast Repetitive Whirlwind nor Artificial Tide this turn.

2 was definitely for Darkhouse. 3 was Crew 3 for Phantom and for Nautilion, Crew 5. 4 was Crew 4 for Phantom and Mage B for Nautilion. Obviously I went with the latter.

But then Nautilion was stuck on a reef as I rolled a 1.

ROUND 10. 1, 2

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and place it in the reserve.

Crew 4 and reef with 1 for Phantom. 2 got them a Crew 8 so I had to avoid it. I took another Mage B from discard as reserve token thanks to Darkhouse.

ROUND 11. 4, 1, 3

Darkhouse: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then roll 2 dice and give them to the remaining 2 figures.

I chose the Phantom first and rolled a 4. So, I had to lose 1 reserve token. 1 for Nautilion was Crew 3 so it was useless. 3 was Crew 2 so it was helpful. For Phantom, 1 was Crew 5 and 3 was Crew 7. I didn’t want Phantom to move too fast so I let them took the 1. However, I spent 2 reserve tokens to change the crew to Crew 6 right behind Phantom.

Nautilion got Crew 2. 5 / 9 crews. But they got stuck on a reef. Luckily, rolled a 4.

ROUND 12. 1, 1, 2

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between Nautilion and the Abyss. I took Crew 1 and placed it somewhere in the middle, about 7 spaces away from Nautilion.

1 for Phantom was Crew 2 so I had to avoid it and 2 was Crew 7 and reef. For Nautilion, either choice got them Mercenary. So, the 2 was for Phantom.

The Mercenary token was placed at space for Crew 1.

ROUND 13. 1, 4, 4

Darkhouse: Take the token on which the Phantom ends its movement. The Phantom receives the token on which the Nautilion ends its movement.

1 for Phantom was Mage C and 4 was Mage A. Definitely giving Phantom the 1. So with 4 for Darkhouse, I had to spend 1 reserve token, 4 left. Nautilion landed on Crew 3 with 4 and gave it to Phantom.

Only needed Mage A from that board.

ROUND 14. 2, 3, 4

Darkhouse: Do not roll the dice. Turn them to values 2, 3 and 4. You may neither cast Repetitive Whirlwind nor Artificial Tide this turn.

2 for Darkhouse. 3 was Mage A for Phantom and 4 got Phantom to remove Crew 9. 4 for Nautilion was also Crew 9 while 3 was Mage C, so it was a bit useless. I let Nautilion took the 4 just to move farther but spent 2 reserve tokens to change from Crew 9 to Mage A that the Phantom should have removed.

I could start rerolling 1 dice with Mage A and Crew 1 from this point.

ROUND 15. 1, 2, 4

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and place it in the reserve.

Took the Crew 1 as reserve token. Unless I gave 4 to Darkhouse, the collision would have happened. I thought I had to remove the 2 Mercenaries right away so I let it happened and gave the 2 for Darkhouse.

1 could have gotten Nautilion a Crew 8 or 4 for Crew 6. For Phantom, 1 was Crew 9 and 4 was Mage C. I let Phantom moved faster this time since it would have ended in collission.

COLLISSION.

Nautilion got 6 harpoons and Phantom only got 3 with the easier side. So, Nautilion won. The 2 Mercenaries were removed and got Crew 9. Nautilion continued moving and got Crew 8. 7 / 9 crews so far.

It was on a reef. Rolled a 1 so Nautilion was stuck.

ROUND 16. 2, 3

Darkhouse: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then roll 2 dice and give them to the remaining 2 figures.

I chose Darkhouse first and rolled a 2. Nothing happened. Then for Phantom, rolled a 3. This removed crew 7 and a reef.

ROUND 17. 1, 2, 4

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between Nautilion and the Abyss.

*** It seems I forgot to actually place a tile between Nautilion and Abyss. Oh, well.

1 for Phantom was Mercenary so I had to avoid it. 2 was Mage A while 4 was Crew 7 but that was too fast. Probably 2 for Phantom and 1 for Darkhouse.

That left Nautilion with 4, got him Crew 4. I spent 2 tokens to change it with Crew 1 from a couple of steps back. 8 / 9 crews left.

ROUND 18. 1, 3, 3

Darkhouse: Take the token on which the Phantom ends its movement. The Phantom receives the token on which the Nautilion ends its movement.

I guess 1 was for Darkhouse so 3 for the other 2. Crew 3 for Phantom and Crew 5 for Nautilion before they exchanged it. I spent 2 reserve tokens to change that Crew 3 into Crew 6 right behind Nautilion. So, at this point, Nautilion had all 9 crews and 3 Mages. But they had to removed 3 of them and replaced them for the Heroic cards.

Nautilion was landed on a reef. Rolled a 2 and they were stuck.

ROUND 19. 2, 3, 4

Darkhouse: Do not roll the dice. Turn them to values 2, 3 and 4. You may neither cast Repetitive Whirlwind nor Artificial Tide this turn.

2 for Darkhouse so 3 for the Phantom which was another Crew 4.

8 spaces away from Abyss. 7 for Phantom.

ROUND 20. 1, 2, ?

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and place it in the reserve.

Apparently I didn’t take picture for which die I gave to the Darkhouse. 1 for Nautilion got them another Crew 9 so it was a good chance to remove Crew 9 for 1 Heroic. I let Phantom move backwards 2 spaces this time to Crew 5.

7 spaces away from Abyss and 9 for Phantom to Happy Isle.

ROUND 21. 2, 1, 2

Darkhouse: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then roll 2 dice and give them to the remaining 2 figures.

Chose the Darkhouse again and rolled a 2. Then rolled 1 and 2. 1 for Nautilion was Crew 6 so it was perfect again to flip another Heroic card. This 2nd card allowed me to reroll dice but I didn’t use the power.

6 spaces away from Abyss and Phantom was 7 to Happy Isle.

ROUND 22. 1, 2, 4

Darkhouse: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between Nautilion and the Abyss.

From that Darkhouse card, I picked Crew 4 and placed it right 4 spaces away from Nautilion. Nautilion could then removed the one on board to flip the last card without activating the power.

Phantom had to take the 2 to avoid 1 for getting a Mercenary. They removed Crew 6.

4 spaces away from Abyss, 4 also for Phantom.

ROUND 23. 2, 2, 3

Darkhouse: Take the token on which the Phantom ends its movement. The Phantom receives the token on which the Nautilion ends its movement.

Because I forgot to add 1 token in the path, I thought I already won the game with 3 but it was actually 1 space away while Phantom was 2.

In the next round, the dice were 2, 3 and 4. So, either way I actually lost. Unless, this time, I got to reroll and got a 1 which I gave to Phantom.

Oh, well.

Playing time was about 44 minutes.

Firm with Brownies

Trade goods, manage the supply and wait for the demand with the help from Brownies to be the most profitable business in Firm with Brownies.

This was a solo session just using cards from the base game. It has been a while since I played this and I probably should have read the rule again. There was a rule that I forgot specifically for the solo variant. You are allowed to use a turn to reset the Level 1 Product and get a new set of 5 different goods. Not sure if that would have helped me during the game but maybe.

Also, just a self reminder. The game end is triggered when the building deck runs out. After that, play one more turn and the game ends.

As part of the setup, the 5 Level 2 products were Meat, Leather, Barrel, Iron and Stone Wall.

ROUND 1. I got 3 coins so my first action was to get 2 Woods and 1 Cotton. There were Timber and Thread in the Level 1 products so these resources could have helped me get them. I removed the Charcoal Hut.

ROUND 2.

As 2nd action, I traded 2 Woods to get Timber. So now the value of my goods were 6 from 2 cards. I think I let got the Water Mill.

ROUND 3.

I spent the Timber to get the SPINNING MILL building. Then as the building action, I traded the Cotton to get Thread.

So, I got 1 VP, 1 goods worth 3 coins. I let go the Brick Factory.

ROUND 4.

Sold the Thread for 3 coins and bought 1 Wheat and 2 Clay. There was a Cow in Level 1 and the other Clay was for brick. I let go the Tailor since there was no Cloth.

ROUND 5.

Spent the Wheat and Clay to get the Cow. I let go Bread Factory as there was no Bread in this session.

ROUND 6.

This was probably my mistake and the previous one. Instead of just taking a Stone for later, I traded the Cow for 5 coins to buy a Fish for the same value. I wasted a turn actually. Oh, well. I let go the Bakery.

ROUND 7.

With that Fish, I supplied that to the MARKET building with the value of 8 and I got 1 VP. This helps me to trade Product Level 2 as additional building action. I let go the Fish Shop as it was very unlikely to score a lot. Maybe I was wrong.

2 VP, 1 goods only worth 1 coin.

ROUND 8.

Spent the Clay to get Brick from Level 1. The value went up from 1 to 3. Letting go Quarry.

ROUND 9.

Instead of spending the Brick for more buildings, I traded that for 3 coins and bought 2 Woods and 1 Stone. Timber was available again so the 2 Woods. Hoping to get either Stone Wall or Iron using the Stone. No Cloth so letting go the Textile Factory.

ROUND 10.

Spent the 2 Woods to get the Timber. Letting go Shoe store. Leather was available so probably regretting it.

ROUND 11.

Spent the timber into Barrel, increasing the value from 5 to 8. I actually could have used the Market building this turn but it seems I forgot. So, I could have gotten one extra turn at least. Letting go Fishing Pond as no rod.

ROUND 12.

This time I activated the Market, selling the Barrel for 8 coins. Spent 6 of them for the Tannery worth 6 and took 1 wood and 1 Wheat for extra 2. Well, this part had to be done in separate turn. There was a Sheep from Level 1, so I spent 1 Wood and 1 Wheat for the Sheep.

Letting go Bar building, even though there was a Barrel. 3 VP so far, 2 goods worth 6.

ROUND 13.

Since I had the Sheep, I turned it into a Meat from Level 2. The value went up from 5 to 8. This was another time I could have sold that Level 2 on Market to buy more things.

I let go the Sawmill building.

ROUND 14.

Sold the Meat on Market for 8 coins. I bought Abattoir for 6 plus 1 Wood and 1 Cotton. As the main action, I spent 1 Wood to make Charcoal from Level 1. Letting go the Barrel Factory.

4 VP, 3 goods worth 5 coins.

ROUND 15.

Thread was available again so I spent the Cotton on the Spinning Mill to get Thread from Level 1. As the main action, I traded Stone and Charcoal to get Iron. Another time I could have immediately sold that on Market.

Letting go Sheep Ranch.

ROUND 16.

Sold the Iron for 8 coins. Bought Ironworks plus 1 Wood and 1 Wheat. As the main action, I spent those 2 resources to get Sheep. Using the Abattoir, I turned the sheep into a Meat.

No Milk product so I let go Cheese Factory.

5 VP, 2 goods worth 11 coins.

ROUND 17.

Sold the Meat on the Market for 8 coins. Bought Cow for 5, 1 Wheat, 1 Wood and 1 Cotton. Still with the building, I turned the Cow into Leather, increasing the value from 5 to 8.

As the main action, I sold Leather, Thread and Cotton for 12 to buy BUTCHER. Masonry got discarded.

7 VP, 2 goods left worth 2 coins.

ROUND 18.

Spent the Wheat and Clay for the Cow as the main action. Using buildings, turned that Cow into Meat with Abattoir and then sold the meat on Butcher for 2 VP. Letting go Restaurant.

9 VP, no goods left.

ROUND 19.

Since Thread was available again, I picked Cotton as my main action. Then, using Spinning Mill, turned that Cotton into Thread worth 3 coins. Discarding the Dairy.

ROUND 20.

So, according to the rule, this should have been the last round as the building deck no longer had any card. My plan was to trade the Thread for 3 coins to Brick for another 3 coins. Then I planned on spending the Brick to get the Milk Shop for the last VP.

But that took 2 main actions, including this one. So, I failed to get 10 VP to win the solo variant. There was definitely one wasted turn and a couple of turns where I could have done more actions. Maybe I actually had a chance to win, had I played more efficiently. Oh, well…

Playing time was about 42 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Firm with Brownies Review.

Grove: A 9 card solitaire game

Grow your lemon, orange and lime trees to help you fulfill your recipes in Grove: A 9 card solitaire game.

I got 2 sessions. The second one didn’t do well. I scored only 53 from the target 59 using Fruit Salad and Lemon Meringue Pie recipes. Scored 12 from fulfilling both but no wheelbarrow or even above 6.

1st one was better, hopefully using Orange Liqueur and Lime Cordial recipes. The target score was 74. One recipe doubles the orange dice value and the other score 5 for playing every Lime dice.

Here is how it went.

The starting card was number 9. I had card 1 and card 6. First, using card 1, I placed the part with 2 Oranges on top of 2 oranges. That means, the single orange from Card 1 covered the Glade of number 9.

Got new card and I had 6 and 12. The new card had 2 oranges again in a single tree at the corner. So, I rotated the card and placed it so that the 2 oranges added the Orange die with 4 to a 6. Next to this die, Yellow 2 was added to Yellow 1 and Green 1 to another Green 1.

4th card was 10. This one I took a risk using 6. 6 was perfect with the existing tableau except that it would put the Orange 6 to a glade. I let it happened. So, unless I added another orange to that fallen die, I lost 6 points, 12 actually. Using this 6, the existing Yellow 3 became 5. Got Green 3, Orange 2, Green 3 as new dice on the card.

5th card was 4. This had an orange in the corner, surrounded by 2 green which was perfect at the top of my tableau. Placed a new green with a value of 2 and a Red 3. This also increased the existing green from 2 to 4. One green die left.

6th card was 13. Rotated this new card 90 degrees and it was perfect to save the fallen die while adding value to 3 existing dice, with a new yellow.

The fallen orange 6 became 10. Orange 3 became 4, Green 4 became 6 and Yellow 5 became 6. New yellow was 4.

7th card was 14. The game was almost over so I thought I should use this chance to play the last green, fulfilling the recipe. Rotated card 10 and there were green and yellow at the top which was perfect for the bottom part of the tableau. Got new Green 2 and Yellow 3.

8th or the last card was 16. With this last 2 cards I had a chance to even increase the first orange die from 10 to 15 or wheelbarrow. While doing so I also increased the surrounding dice but I had to take another risk.

First using 14, rotated 90 counterclockwise, I placed the card so that the glade part was on the Orange 10, let it fell to the glade. This still increased the other Orange 4 into 6 and Green 6 into 10, Yellow 6 to 10.

So, with 16, rotated 90 clockwise, orange at the bottom corner saved the fallen die and turned it into wheelbarrow. The green next to it could have also increased the Green 10 to another Wheelbarrow. Since I had to choose, I let the orange, to get double points from recipe.

Unfortunately, this had to let go the existing Yellow 4, let it fell to the glade. That was the end of the game.

Scored 5 from Lime Cordial recipe since I played all Green. I got orange 6, 15 and 2, doubled them using Orange Liqueur recipe to 46.

There were Green 10, 2, 3, 2, 3 so the total was 20. Yellow had 10, 4 and 3 so the total was 17. No penalty from squirrel.

Total Score was 88, from the target 74. Probably the best score I had so far.

Playing time took 55 minutes for 2 sessions.

Fleet

Build the best Fishing Fleet by acquiring licenses, launching boats and hiring captains in Fleet, the card game.

This was a solo session against the 2 Captains, using just cards from the base game. I think I got the setup slightly wrong by only removing 1 Premium License instead of 2.

Here is how it went.

ROUND 1. TUNA, TUNA, SHRIMP, $5 Max bid for Captains, 25 crates left.

I opened the bid for SHRIMP LICENSE. The minimum bid was 4 but I bid 5 so it was already the maximum bid for Captains. They passed and I took the license. Both Captains got TUNA LICENSE.

I launched the Shrimp Boat. The cost was covered by the License. Then I hired the Captain, getting 1st fish crate. The 2 last cards were Lobster and Cod.

Captain T.C. launched 1st boat. Kirkman didn’t. I got 1 card worth 2 coins.

ROUND 2. COD, LOBSTER, PROCESSING VESSEL, $7 Max bid for Captains, 24 crates left.

I opened the bid for COD LICENSE first with $4, which was the minimum. T.C. raised the bid and so did Kirkman. I passed. T.C. passed so Kirkman took it.

For the 2nd auction, I chose LOBSTER. Started with $5 as the minimum. T.C. raised and I passed so T.C. took it.

I decided not to buy the Processing Vessel license and just took 2 cards just so I could launch a boat and hire captain.

Launched another Shrimp boat and hired captain for it. T.C. launched 2nd boat and Kirkman still no boat.

ROUND 3. COD, KING CRAB, PROCESSING VESSEL, $7 Max bid for Captains, 22 crates left.

I opened the bid for Cod first with $4. T.C. raised but Kirkman passed. I passed as well so T.C. took it.

Nobody could afford the King Crab yet so I opened the next bid for the Processing Vessel with $5. Kirkman passed so I acquired it.

Kirkman couldn’t afford that last one, a premium license.

While I got the license, I couldn’t afford to launch and hire captain. It seems I played it wrong by forgetting to take crates for my 2 boats. Using Processing Vessel, I took one from each and traded one for 1 card.

I had 4 cards left worth 8.

T.C. launched 3rd boat and still none for Kirkman.

ROUND 4. COD, KING CRAB, FISHERMAN’S PUB, $8 Max bid for Captains, 22 crates left.

Nobody could afford the 2 Premium so I opened the bid for the Cod license with 4. T.C. raised, Kirkman followed. I immediately passed. The bid war between the 2 Captains continued until 4 times. T.C. finally gave up and let Kirkman took it.

I got 2 cards for not acquiring any license. Launched another shrimp boat and hired captain for it. Took 1 crate each for my 3 boats.

Both Captains didn’t launch any boat. I traded processed crate into 1 card so I got 4 cards left worth 9.

ROUND 5. LOBSTER, KING CRAB, FISHERMAN’S PUB, $8 Max bid for Captains, 19 crates left.

I opened the bid for Lobster license with 5. T.C. raised it to 6 and Kirkman to 7. Then I raised to 8 and that was the limit for both Captain. So I won. The 2 Captains still couldn’t afford the 2 Premiums.

I launched another Shrimp boat and hired Captain for it. Took 4 crates, traded 1 for 1 card. I had 4 cards left worth 9 plus 3 from crates.

Both Captains didn’t launch any boat this time.

ROUND 6. TUNA, KING CRAB, FISHERMAN’S PUB, $9 Max bid for Captains, 15 crates left.

I opened the bid for Tuna License with 5. T.C. passed but Kirkman raised to 6. I raised to 7 and Kirkman passed. So, I got the license.

This time I launched Processing Vessel and hired captain for it. Only T.C. launched, the 4th boat for him.

I had 6 cards left worth 11 plus a couple of crates.

ROUND 7. SHRIMP, KING CRAB, FISHERMAN’S PUB, $11 Max bid for Captains, 10 crates left.

This time, the 2 Captains could start buying Premium. I decided to just let them as those didn’t help me with anything. I guess I played it wrong. Should have just let the bid for Premium by me so I could buy the Shrimp one cheaper.

I ended up paying 8 while I could have acquired with just 4. Oh, well…

Kirkman took the Pub and T.C. with the King Crab. I guess trying to prevent T.C. for acquiring this one was crucial.

I launched my 6th boat with a Captain. 7 cards left worth 11 plus 1 crate. Luckily, none of the Captain launched the boat.

ROUND 8. PROCESSING VESSEL, KING CRAB, FISHERMAN’S PUB, $12 Max bid for Captains, 4 crates left.

So, this could be the last round. I had to try winning the King Crab license. I opened with 10. Apparently both Captain passed so I won without paying higher.

T.C. still got the Pub and Kirkman got the Processing Vessel. Kirkman finally launched his first boat while T.C. launched his 5th.

I launched my 7th, the King Crab with Captain and triggered the end of the game.

SCORING

My Score
Licenses: 22
King Crab Bonus: 7
Crates: 17 (+2)
Boat: 11
TOTAL SCORE: 59

Captain T.C.
License: 25
King Crab Bonus: 6
Crates: 20
Boat: 9
TOTAL SCORE: 60

Captain Kirkman
License: 24
King Crab Bonus: 0
Crates: 4
Boat: 3
TOTAL SCORE: 27

Playing time was about 34 minutes. That was close.

Trailblazers

Build the longest Biking, Hiking and Kayaking loops from their matching Campsites in Trailblazers. This was the solo session still with Voyager or just a single objective. The objective of this one was FOREVER FLOAT. In addition of getting over 50 points, I also need to create a single longest Kayaking loop worth at least 25 points.

Here is how the session went.

ROUND 1, 1ST DRAW.

Clearly I had to work on the Kayaking loop right from the start. Luckily, the first 8 cards had 1 with L-Shape blue with a shorter blue. I picked that one first and placed it at the top right corner

After that, there was only one other card with Blue as the main line, a straight one with 2 shorter brown. I picked that and extending the shorter blue of previous card upwards.

ROUND 1, 2ND DRAW.

From the next 6, there was one with Blue main line in S-shape plus 1 shorter blue. There was also one with all 3 blue lines with Straight line. I placed the S one on the right side, top half so that the shorter line connected to the campsite and the straight line worth 3 points pointing upwards.

The Straight blue was placed horizontally adjacent to 1st and the 3rd card. The main line extended the L-shape and the shorter line extended the S-shape of 3rd card. If I could connect all of these, they were worth 11.

ROUND 1, 3RD DRAW.

From the 4 cards, there was only one with Blue main line in L-Shape, opposite of the first card I took. I placed this on the right side of the camp, bottom half, horizontally. So, I cut the access there so I could focus on combining all existing lines as a single loop.

Since there was no other Blue, the top part already had a couple of brown lines so I thought I could start working on the Brown camp. There was one card with main Brown line and a shorter brown in S-shape. This was placed adjacent to the first 2 cards, vertically, so the new 2 brown lines extending the 2 existing shorter ones.

ROUND 2, 1ST DRAW.

Well, I had to take the Hiking or Brown camp. I placed it to connect with the 2 existing brown lines. This was also adjacent to the Kayaking camp, blocking one access of each.

To continue working on the Blue long loop, I thought I had to start pointing the upward line downwards. The new cards had one with C-shape Blue and I placed it horizontally at the top.

For the 2nd card, there was one with all blue lines with S-shape as the main line. This one was placed horizontally on the right side. There were 3 disconnected vertical blue lines and this card extended the right most one downwards hoping to connect with the 2nd from the bottom. Currently, if I could connect all Blue, they were worth 20 points.

ROUND 2, 2ND DRAW.

From the next 6, there was one with straight blue that was perfect to connect the 1st vertical blue with the 2nd. However, it had 2 different colors on the 2 shorter lines, cutting of the existing brown loop.

Instead of that, I chose another card with Brown main line in L-shape but shorter straight blue. So, instead of 1 single card for the straight blue, I was hoping to make that 2 shorter straight blue with the mirroring L-shape brown, completing the brown loop while connecting the blue.

Now that I think about it, I probably could have used both and got the same result. Just a bit less efficient.

For the 2nd card, I picked the C-shape brown and placed it no the left side, top half. Hoping to create another loop from there, ending on one part of the top edge of the camp.

ROUND 2, 3RD DRAW.

There was one all blue with s-shape but I couldn’t make it work to extend the long loop. 2 others were the C-shape brown but with the existing lines, not sure about starting or ending one.

The last one was Red with L-shape and brown. This could be placed on the left of Brown camp, bottom part to extend the red line nearby while adding an entry to the brown camp. I thought I should start working on the red as well.

For the 2nd card, I picked the all Blue S. I placed this at the bottom of blue camp, preparing maybe for a different blue loop.

ROUND 3, 1ST DRAW.

I placed the Red camp on the leftmost of the existing form, 2 spaces away from the Brown camp. This also connected to the existing Red loop worth 3 points but not closed yet.

For the 1st card, there was a Blue L-shape that was perfect to connect 2 separated blue lines at the bottom right. Those 2 combines were worth 10. Just needed to connect with the last vertical blue and the first horizontal for another 11.

For the 2nd card, there was a C-shape Blue that I could use to extend the first horizontal line, and hoping it could connect with the 2 I just combined. Unfortunately, this created a hole between cards. It would be perfect for specifically L-shape brown with 2 shorter blue.

**** Apparently, I made a mistake here. I already took 2 cards but I took another one which was all Red with S-shape. This was placed horizontally on top of Red Camp right half, extending the 2 existing line while creating another entry point to the camp. Oh, well. I had to try again I guess.

ROUND 3, 2ND DRAW.

So, there was the L-shape brown with a straight short blue that could fill that hole. Unfortunately, the other shorter one was red which didn’t work to complete the loop. Had it been blue, that was the perfect 25-point blue loop. Well, it didn’t matter. I chose and placed it anyway.

I had to either find a C-shape blue with a brown in the right corner or I had to change other part. There was one had I waited but I ended up ruining it.

For the 2nd I chose S-shape brown with a shorter brown. Placed it at the top of brown camp, extending the C at the top left corner.

ROUND 3, 3RD DRAW.

So this was when I tried to change that initial biggest loop. From the first horizontal line, instead of creating a round upwards, there was a L-shape blue pointing downwards. And then at the bottom right corner, I picked a card with short straight blue to change the direction of the bottom most horizontal line to the right.

Currently, the incomplete loop was worth 21 points. I needed 4 more. If I got lucky it could be achieved by 2 cards but I doubt it. At most 4 cards. Either 2 L-shape with mirroring orientation or straight all blue and a C-shape blue.

ROUND 4, 1ST DRAW.

So, there was a C-shape blue. Placing it means the loop was worth only 23. There was only one other card with straight short blue. I took them anyway and still required 1 more straight short blue to complete this objective.

On the other hand I only had 1 other closed loop worth 9 points. The other 2 incomplete loops were worth only 14. Still missing 2.

ROUND 4, 2ND DRAW.

There were 2 cards with 1 short blue so I picked any of them and completed the objective with single long blue loop worth 25 points.

I needed 2 C-shape one red and one Brown. That would only close the brown one and got me 7 points. The red one then was worth 9 and incomplete. So I added that one to close it.

ROUND 4, 3RD DRAW.

I got lucky and both C-shape showed up. I closed both, gained 7 and 10 points. Total were 51 points from 1 Blue longest with 25, long brown with 9 points, shorter brown with 7 points and one red with 10.

Well, it didn’t matter since I played 1 card too many for the red. Had I played correctly I probably failed to reach 50 points.

Playing time was about 27 minutes.

Aerion

Traverse the skies of the Oniverse by first building all of the airships in Aerion. Played with all of the expansions, some with more difficult variant.

1st ROLL. 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

There were 2 sand time cards. I let it go and instead pursue building a Pier. with 5 of a kind. I took the worker and rerolled the dice 3 times and I got 2 other 5s. 1st Pier was built.

2nd ROLL. 1, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6

2 Pairs. There was a Cocoons material from the Deck 1. While there were 2 sand timers again, I let them go and took the material. Instead of placing in one of the workshop, I started working on the Flagship.

3rd ROLL. 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6

Another 2 pairs. I just took the Sand Time 1. 5 more from the Sand timer objective.

4th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6

It was close to be a straight set. I just spend one of the pixies, turning one of them into a 4 to get Helices material from the last deck. I also put this for the Flagship.

5th ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 6

2 pairs so I took the Blueprint from that deck. Hellkite blocked the book so it was safe.

6th ROLL. 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 6

Another 2 pairs. Taking the Egg from Deck 1.

7th ROLL. 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6

I took a Book from the Deck 2. My first and only so far.

8th ROLL. 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6

Deck 1 only had worker. I thought I should pay the first one before taking a new one. So, I discarded a factory card from Deck 3 to reroll the 2. I just need at least 4. Both 2 became 4 so it was more than 26 to pay the first worker.

9th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5

I got straight. That last deck had the Sognae crew. I kept it by spending my only book.

10th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6

I needed to reroll and had a good chance to get 3 of a kind for a book. Rerolled only 4 and 6 hopefully to get a 3 or low enough to hit Hellkite. Discarded the Material from deck 5 and rerolled 6 and 4. Got a 3 and a 4 so I took the Book.

11th ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4

Very low total, only 12. I used it to hit the Hellkite from the 5th space.

12th ROLL. 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6

There were 3 Hammer Birds. The total from dice were more than 30 so by discarding all 3 cards I could get rid of 4 stone clouds to start working on any of those airships. Only had one blueprint in the workshop so as long as that one was free, the rest didn’t matter which.

13th ROLL. 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6

2 Pairs but Deck 1 only had Worker. Another Worker on Deck 2 and an Egg on Deck 3. I rerolled the 2 and 4 hoping to get Full House. Discarded the Worker from Deck 2. Got 5 and 1 so I could take the Egg.

14th ROLL. 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 6

2 pairs and deck 1 was still showing worker. The total was 21. I thought maybe if I could reroll the higher one to get lower I could reach 15. Discarded crew from Deck 3 and 6 to reroll 4, 4 and 6 and got 1, 2, 5. That was exactly 15 so 2nd hit to the Hellkite.

15th ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 6

The total was 15 and the Hellkite was on a Lair card for Blueprint. Unfortunately no blueprint card on the display. So, I chose the Deck 2 with the next card was a Blueprint, I spent my Egg card to change the display with that one. So, I attacked the Hellkite, destroyed that Lair and got the Blueprint. I placed it to my 2nd workshop.

**** It seems I actually forgot to remove the Lair card and used it again later. Oh well.

16th ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5

The total was 18. Only needed to lower by 3 which was a good chance by rerolling the 2 5s. I discarded the Worker from Deck 1 and rerolled those 5s. I got 2 and 3 so it was even lower. Another hit to Hellkite.

17th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5

Straight set and Deck 6 had a book. But I already had a book. So, I thought maybe I should aim for other deck. There was a timer from deck 1 that I already took. Discarded it to reroll the dice but the 3s and I got 2 other 3s, a 2 and a 4. 4 of a kind was also a book so I settled with Deck 3, 3 of a kind. This had Incubi Crew which I stored using Book.

18th ROLL. 1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5

2 pairs and that deck had hammer bird which was a bit useless on its own. So, I spent 1 Egg to get the next card from the deck which was a book. Another egg replaced that spot.

19th ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6

Almost straight but also still another book that I couldn’t take. I actually was not sure what I wanted to take. The only option seems to be the Nut Material from Deck 3 or any of the egg from deck 1 or 2.

I spent my only book to reroll. Apparently I changed a lot and ended up getting 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5. So I got Full House to take the Nut Material. I placed it on the Flagship. To complete the Flagship I only needed the 2 Crews.

20th ROLL. 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5

3 of a kind so I took the Egg from Deck 2.

21st ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 6

Another set for Deck 2. This time the display had a Factory card. I just took it. It allowed me retrieve 3 cards when discarding a book.

22nd ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6

Close for a straight. I think I discarded the Material from Deck 2 to reroll 3 and 6. Maybe I got the same result from the roll so I discarded the Blueprint from Deck 3. Still was not enough. I ended up spending 2nd Pixie to get a total of 15 just to hit the Hellkite again.

23rd ROLL. 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Very lucky roll. I probably thought about getting card from Deck 4. But I settled with 2nd Pier. There was also a sand timer from deck 2 and it got discarded.

24th ROLL. 1, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4

Full House so I took the Book from that Deck.

25th ROLL. 1, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6

I tried getting Full House again for Incubi Crew. Discarded the Cocoons from Deck 2 keeping 4s and 6, rerolling the rest. I got a 4, a 6 and a 2. So, I got the set and placed the crew to the Flagship again.

26th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6

There were 2 Hammer bird cards so I just needed 20 more to get rid of the last 2 stone clouds. The total of dice was exactly 20 so I got rid of them. From that point I could start finishing any airship.

27th ROLL. 2, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6

Another full house and there was a sand timer from that deck. However, deck 2 also had sand timer and that was the last sand timer card from that deck. So, I had to use this one for Deck 2 first, letting go the other. It seems this was a result after rerolling. I discarded a book from deck 5 and got that full house, not the initial roll.

28th ROLL. 1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 6

There was a sand timer from Deck 5 but required 4 of a kind. I spent 1 pixie to get that.

29th ROLL. 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6

Took a 2nd egg from Deck 2.

30th ROLL. 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6

Took 3rd egg from Deck 1.

31st ROLL. 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5

2 Pairs again and Deck 1 had Factory card to keep as many book. I took it.

32nd ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5

There was another Factory card from Deck 5 which allows me to flip a die. So, I discarded Blueprint from Deck 1 to get 2 more 4s. Not enough. Discarded another Blueprint from Deck 2. The result got me 2 3s and 3 4s. So I settled with the Nut material for one of my workshop.

33rd ROLL. 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6

Still trying to get that Factory card. Discarded the Sand timer from Deck 2, Hammer bird from deck 1 and the Worker from deck 3. I finally got 4 3s, a 2 and a 5. So I took the factory card.

34th ROLL. 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5

Deck 1 to Deck 3 had all Incubi which was useless for this time. I discarded one from Deck 3 to flip a 2 into a 5 so I got 4 5s to take the Sognae crew. This completed the first airship from my workshop. 5 more.

35th ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6

Discarded Incubi from Deck 2 to flip a 6 into a 1. This was not to make 2 pairs but to get a total of 15. Destroyed the Lair card the Hellkite was on and I got to take another Blueprint from Deck 5 and placed it to my empty workshop.

36th ROLL. 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 6

Discarded a book from Deck 4 to flip a 6 into a 1. So, with 4 1s I got to take 2nd Book.

37th ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 6

A sand timer from Deck 4. I had to change a 1 into a 2 or vice versa. Ended up discarding 2 cards from deck 1 and deck 3 to finally get 3 pairs.

38th ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6

The total was 20. I just needed to flip a 6 into a 1 and got 15 to hit Hellkite. The Hellkite was on Lair with a Book. So, I hit it and got a Book from the last deck. Discarded the factory card from deck 4. I could have just discarded the sand timer from deck 3 but I needed to cycle deck 4 more.

39th ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4

Another total of 15. So I hit Hellkite and destroyed the Outpost it was on.

40th ROLL. 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5

First I discarded a Worker from Deck 2 to flip a 3 into a 4. With 4 4s I got to take cards from deck 5. The display had an egg. Spent 2 eggs from my supply and got a Sognae crew instead.

This finally completed the FLAGSHIP.

41st ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 6

2 Pairs and there was a Cocoon material from deck 1. None of the airship worked on workshops needed that so I spent a book to keep it.

42nd ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5

Discarded the Blueprint from Deck 5 to reroll the 2 5s, hoping to get a 4. I got a 5 and a 4. Straight set and I got to take Helices from it for my 2nd airship.

Since I already had Sognae crew, I completed the airship. 4 MORE.

43rd ROLL. 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 6

Another Straight set and the deck 6 had a Blueprint. So I took it.

44th ROLL. 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6

Deck 6 had sand timer so I had to take it now. Discarded the hammer bird from deck 1 to flip a 3 into a 4. I got the 5th sand timer. One more.

45th ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4

The total was exactly 15 so time to hit Hellkite again. Destroyed the last Outpost card.

46th ROLL. 1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 6

Discarded the blueprint from deck 6 that I already had to flip a 6 into a 1. Got Full House and took the egg card from that deck.

47th ROLL. 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5

I could flip the 5 to a 2 and it was close for the last Pier. Discarded a hammer bird from Deck 3 to flip. Then I discarded the Worker from Deck 5 to reroll 2 4s. I got a 2 and a 3 so I got 5 of a kind for the last Pier.

48th ROLL. 1, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6

Discarded a Worker from Deck 1 to flip a 2 into a 5. Took the egg from Deck 5.

49th ROLL. 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6

I noticed that the last sand timer was supposed to be from Deck 3 but apparently I already discarded them all. So, I spent 1 book to retrieve 1 sand timer and a Nut Material for that deck.

Spent the Full House set to take Book card.

50th ROLL. 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6

Discarded a Book from Deck 6 and Sognae crew from Deck 4 to flip a 1 into a 6 and a 2 into a 5. I got Full House to take the Nut Material for my Airship in Workshop 1.

51st ROLL. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 6

The last sand timer and I just needed to flip 2 dice to get Full House. It seems I decided to just reroll 2, 4, 5. I got a 1, 3, 6. Got Full House and finished all cards for Sand Timer set. Discarded a Nut Material from Deck 4 for the reroll.

52nd ROLL. 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5

The Hellkite was on a Lair with Material. With the total of 20, maybe not a bad idea to hit it. Ended up discarding 2 cards from Deck 1 and Deck 4 to finally get 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4. Hit the Hellkite and took the Helices from Deck 5 for my 2nd workshop.

Since I already had Incubi stored by a book, I completed this 3rd Airship. 3 more.

53rd ROLL. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5

A Straight. Took the egg from Deck 6.

54th ROLL. 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6

Another straight and another Egg from the same deck.

55th ROLL. 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6

I needed the Blueprint from Deck 4. Discarded 2 cards from Deck 5 and 6 maybe to reroll and I got 3, 3, 3, 3 and 4, 4. The blueprint went to 2nd workshop.

56th ROLL. 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5

Discarded Sand timer from Deck 5 to flip a 5 into a 2 so I got 2 Pairs to take Incubi. Finished the airship from 1st workshop, the 4th one. 2 MORE.

57th ROLL. 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6

Took the last Blueprint needed from Deck 4.

58th ROLL. 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6

Before this, I had to spend 1 Book to retrieve 2 cards for the Deck 1. An Incubi and a Cocoon Material. I already had the Blueprint in workshop 1 and a Cocoon stored using Book. So, I took Incubi to finish the 5th Airship. One more.

59th ROLL. 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6

All I needed was a Cocoon and Sognae to complete the last ship. Those 2 were available in Deck 1 and Deck 4.

Discarded the Worker from Deck 6 to flip a 2 into a 5 to get 2 Pairs and got the Cocoon.

60th ROLL. 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 6

Hellkite was on a Lair with Crew icon. I just needed to flip the 6 into 1 and hit to take the last crew. Discarded the Sand timer from Deck 6 for it and finished the last airship.

Last thing to do was hit Hellkite twice.

61st ROLL. 1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 6

Discarded a Factory from Deck 6 and a Hammerbird from Deck 4 to flip both 6s into a 1. Or maybe just rerolled 5, 6 and 6. Less than 15 and hit the Hellkite. One more hit.

62nd ROLL. 2, 2, 5, 6, 6, 6

Spent the last book to reroll 4 times. The result got me 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, exactly 15. Beat the Hellkite and finished all requirements.

Playing time was about 94 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Aerion Review.

Goblins vs Zombies

Deploy the Goblins to defend the Goblin Village from the horde of zombies in Goblins vs Zombies.

I got 3 solo sessions. The first one was the endless, survival mode. I managed to get 14 zombie cards in the discard pile before one of them entered the village.

The other 2 sessions were the Boss mode, randomly picked the boss. For the first one, the boss was Dwarf Hero Zombie which had 13 health and I only managed to hit 11 before one zombie entered the village.

I think I also played the game incorrectly, specifically with the Shaman. I got a chance to activate that Goblin and I thought I could flip any Zombie card. Apparently it only applies to a Zombie with shield icon.

So, I played a 3rd session. Not long ago I read a recommended strategy of having a SHOT IDOL to increase the attack of 2 others either Slingshot, Ice Shot or Big Shot.

I actually managed to pull that off in the 2nd session. Very powerful when you can actually get it. Most of new zombie coming out will get destroyed almost completely with 4 hits. You can get several turns just getting new cards without the need to do anything.

Of course, eventually a special zombie will come out that will force you to do something else like the Flying ones. At least you can still keep one slingshot or preferably ice shot and that idol. while the 3rd card can be anything even the flag.

I think I won the last one. Probably the first time where I got a strategy worked instead of just being lucky. That being said, I still feel I got some luck with the order of cards. Maybe got some rules wrong still.

Here is how it went.

ROUND 1. I got the starting 4 cards. 3 became Flags while I kept the Ball and Chain. Warlock Zombie came. Got 4 cards from the flags.

ROUND 2. I let the Flags stayed to give me more cards. Warlock moved 1 space after having a backup. Dwarf Zombie came. I got maximum 9 cards.

ROUND 3. As mentioned above, I got the Shot Idol and a Slingshot. Discarded 3 cards along with 2 Flags to deploy those 2. Took down the Warlock but there were still the backup and Dwarf.

The next zombie card was an event: WHAT’S THAT SMELL. The card says I got to pick one zombie from my field but not the Boss and moved it to another player’s field. Usually since I played alone, this just sent it back to me. But I’m not sure so I just throw a zombie away. Obviously, I picked the Dwarf.

But the card also bring one reinforcement and it was the THIEF ZOMBIE. I got 2 cards with just 1 Flag.

ROUND 4. Didn’t change the defense line to keep the card. The Slingshot killed the first backup zombie and the Thief just moved 2 spaces. Elf Zombie then showed up.

I got 2 cards again, 7 in hand.

ROUND 5. This time, I let got the Flag and discarded 3 cards to play Ice Thrower. This attacked 1 point to the Elf after the Slingshot and Idol destroyed the Thief.

Elf then attacked and destroyed the Ice Thrower. Jester then showed up.

I got 1 card and it was a Rock thrower, in addition to 3 cards in my hand.

ROUND 6. I discarded 2 to play the Rock Thrower. The Slingshot and Idol killed the Elf. Then the rock Thrower hit the Jester. The Jester card says that after getting hit, the card will move to another player’s field. Maybe it should have come back to my field but I decided to just discard that card.

So, the battlefield was empty but another Elf showed up. I got only 1 card and it was a ROCKET.

ROUND 7. The Slingshot and idol immediately killed the Elf. I probably should have removed the Rock Thrower and replaced it with Flag but I kept it.

A Gladiator then showed up. I got 1 new card and it was Ice Shot.

ROUND 8. I think I got it wrong this time. Gladiator had 4 HP. Slingshot and idol hit 2 and the Rock Thrower hit only 1. However, I played as if the Thrower got 1 additional attack so I removed the Gladiator.

Had I played it correctly then Gladiator would have reached the last space and a new one showed up. A Fighter zombie. I got 1 new card and it was another Slingshot.

ROUND 9. I think I should have changed the Rock Thrower into Ice Shot for the right double attack. But it seems I kept it and played it wrong. 4 damage to the Fighter and the Fighter was still alive, moving one space closer.

A Wrestler Zombie showed up. I got SCREAMER as the 5th card.

ROUND 10. It seems this time, I did change it. Discarded the Rock Thrower and 3 cards for the Ice Shot. 2 hit to the Fighter and killed it, even with the right rule. Then 2 damages from ice Shot to the Wrester, removing it from the battlefield.

So, the battlefield was empty but the next card was the BOSS EVENT CARD. Since my last kill was that Wrestler with die value of 1, the boss was the ELF HERO ZOMBIE.

I couldn’t attack her. She was just staying in one space. Every turn she would take 1 damage but destroyed the most expensive Goblin of mine. That means, the first target was the Ice Shot.

I got another Rock Thrower.

ROUND 11. Here was my plan. I couldn’t attack her anyway so I let go the Ice Thrower and let the boss target my other slingshot while I played a Flag as the 3rd, keeping the shot Idol.

1st hit for the Elf Hero Zombie. Slingshot was killed and I got 2 cards at the end. A Rocket and another Shot Idol. The next zombie was another FIGHTER.

ROUND 12. I had 3 cards. Discarded 2 to play a Slingshot just to hit 2 points to the Fighter. 2nd hit to the Elf Hero Zombie and the boss killed the Slingshot. Fighter moved 1 space. A ninja zombie showed up next, immediately moved 1 space.

I got 2 cards, a Shield and Assassin.

ROUND 13. Discarded the Assassin to add the Shield to the Shot Idol. Fighter and Ninja moved to the last space before the Village. The Boss took 3rd hit and killed the Shield part of Shot Idol.

I got a Pepper and a Shaman.

ROUND 14. I couldn’t play anything. 4th hit to the Boss while it killed the Shot Idol. The Fighter then killed the Flag. Since Ninja had nothing to ambush, it fled. Not sure if I should have resolved the ninja first before the Boss.

I got a Slingshot. The next zombie card was an Event: WATCH OUT! This added 2 Backup zombies. Then the card says the player should give one zombie an action. I assumed I could apply that to the backup so I moved one of them 1 space.

ROUND 15. I didn’t play anything. No Goblin on defense line and the Fighter was about to enter the Village. I let it happened so the Guardian Dragon would wipe out 1 Zombie from each area, leaving just the boss.

5th hit to the Boss but she got none to attack. The next zombie was the MONK ZOMBIE.

I got an Archer.

ROUND 16. This should be the last one because one hit left for the boss. I didn’t even need to play anything but I discarded 2 cards to play Shaman and gave the goblin the pepper to wake up. This then flipped the Monk into just backup zombie.

Elf Hero Zombie then suffered the last damage. Even if she took down the Shaman Goblins, that was the end of her.

The Goblins survived. Again, maybe with incorrect rule.

Playing time was about 28 minutes for the last session.

Learn more about the game from Goblins vs Zombies Game Review.

Regicide

The Legacy version finally came out on Kickstarter and at this point already got over 1,000 backers. According to the crowdfunding campaign, the game is expected to be delivered in March 2025. I don’t know if I will ever have the chance to get this. It’s a bit out of my price range and I have never played any legacy game. Mostly because I don’t like the idea of altering the game permanently.

Maybe this can change my mind? Well, it is still at least a year before the retailers get the game as backers. We’ll see.

Until then, let’s take down the corrupted monarch in the standard version of Regicide game.

This was another solo play. My starting hand had Warrior A, 9 and 3 (Manuka, Theodoric and Qelgrax), Bard 3 (River), Paladin 5 and 6 (Totara and Lee), and Cleric A and 8 (Wayne and Bronze).

Oh, it seems in the legacy version, the card will have a name on the character card so that is a nice touch. Definitely new art. I think they change some of the characters but I recognize most of them as they are the same in the standard version.

1st enemy: JACK OF HEARTS.

Lee, the Paladin, accompanied by Manuka from Warrior attacked first while setting up defense. The Jack countered and took down Totara.

Next, Theodoric, the Warrior and River, the Bard combined their attack. That was enough to beat the Jack and brought in new friends. A group of Bards and Clerics.

From Bards, we got 2(Tali), 4 (Glamelyn), 5 (Kowhai) and from Clerics, 3 (Arabella) and 4 (Krozzurum).

2nd Enemy: JACK OF CLUBS

Glamelyn the Bard and Krozzurum the Cleric’s combo started the attack, healing 8 of injured friends and attacked 8 to the Jack. The Bard brought in 2 more friends, Paladin 3, Fulrad and Bard 7, Folred.

The Jack countered with 10 points of attack, injuring Tali and Bronze. Another kids combo from Arabella and Fulrad, healing the 2 injured friends and setting up a defense of 6.

The Jack still had 6 health left and attacked with 4. Kowhai was injured. Folred then delivered the final attack while bringing in 6 new friends.

The team got Paladin 2 and 8 (Wicket and Bite), Bard 8 and 10 (Snow and Gard), and Warrior 5 and 7 (Kauri and Yrneha).

3rd Enemy: JACK OF DIAMONDS

Qelgrax, accompanied by Wayne opened the attack with 20 points, immediately defeating the Jack of Diamonds while healing 10 injured friends.

4th Enemy: JACK OF SPADES

Snow attacked first with 8 points and she had 3 friends, including the Jack of Diamonds. The other 2 were Clerics 2 and 7 (Sprinkle and Elashor).

The Jack of Spades still had 12 health and countered with 10 points of attack, injuring Bite and Kauri. Yrneha the Warrior delivered double attack of 7 points defeating the Jack of Spades.

5th Enemy: QUEEN OF DIAMONDS

Another combo of 2 kids, Sprinkle and Wicket, delivering 4 points of attack while setting up defense of 4. The Queen still had 26 health and countered with 11, injuring the Jack of Diamonds and Elashor.

*** Somehow I thought I couldn’t have empty hand. I had one card left and activated one of the Joker even if that card was another Bard 10.

Anyway, I got a new set of band, Warrior 2, 4, 6, 8 (Dinky, Herbod, Esme and Shadow), Paladin A, 9 (Plates and Belroth), Bard 6 (Jakhim), and Cleric 10 (Kazaghan).

Kazaghan did a combo with Plates, healing up to 11 friends and setting up defense of 11. The Queen got hit and still had 15 health but she could no longer deal damage. Shadow came, dealt double of 8 damage to the Queen, defeating her.

6th Enemy: QUEEN OF HEARTS

Jakhim, the only Bard left, led the attack with 6 points and brought in more friends, Paladin 4, 7, 10 (Dhonatir, Tanathil and Vegarian) and Bard A (definitely not a Duck).

The Queen still had 24 health and countered the attack with 15, injuring Belroth and Esme.

Vegarian stepped in and set defense of 10 while attacking the Queen. 14 health left and the queen countered with 5, injuring Dhonatir and Dinky.

Tanathil the Paladin, accompanied by the Bard Phoenix, delivered 8 attack points adding more defense and brought in more friends. 6 health left but the queen could no longer attack.

The new friends were Cleric 5, 6, 9 (Puriri, James, Eragar), Warrior 3, 10 (Theodoric and Oneria), Bard 3 and 9 (River and Elkoshoth).

*** Apparently I made a mistake. I should have played one more card with a value of 6 to defeat her but I didn’t. I should have used my tracker cards. Oh, well.

7th Enemy: QUEEN OF SPADES

Oneria opened the attack with double of 10 points. The Queen still had 10 health and countered with 15, injuring Eragar and James.

Another kids combo of River and Theodoric, dealing 12 points of attack, defeating the Queen. River invited more friends, Paladin 5 and 6 (Totara and Lee), Warrior A (Manuka) and Cleric 8, J (Bronze and Jack)

*** I made a mistake again. The Queen should have been defeated and yet I played the Jack of Hearts to heal 10 friends.

8th Enemy: QUEEN OF CLUBS

Elkoshoth led first attack with 9 points while inviting more friends. The Jack of Warrior, Cleric 4 (Krozzurum), Bard 2, 4, 5 (Tali, Glamelyn and Kowhai).

This last queen still had 21 health. She countered the attack with 15, injuring the Jack of Warrior and Puriri. 2 Bird Clans combo, Kowhai and Totara for the 2nd attack, dealing 10 damage to the queen while setting up defense of 10 and brought in more friends Folred, Fulrad, Arabella and Jack of Spades.

The Queen still had 11 health and attack of 5. She took down Folred the Bard 7. Another kids combo of Arabella the Cleric and Fulrad the Paladin. 6 damage and additional defense of 6. The queen stood still but could no longer attack.

Glamelyn, accompanied by Manuka dealt the last damage of exactly 5 while bringing in more friends.

*** Another mistake. I forgot to draw more cards….

9th Enemy: KING OF HEARTS

There were only 3 members, Bard 2, Jack of Spades and Cleric 4. Even with Jack setting up his defense, it would have been enough for the other 2 to survive.

Tali decided to stepped in and brought in 2 more friends, Queen of Spades and Wayne the Cleric A. No other Bard.

The King still had 38 health and dealt 20 damage. I could have let him injured the Queen, both Clerics for exactly 20 points. Then I could play the Jack of Spades before getting help from the last Goblin Joker. Instead I let the Jack of Spades run away. Oh well.

The new group had Warrior 5, 7, 9 (Kauri, Yrneha, Qelgrax), Paladin 8 (Bite), Cleric 7 (Elashor), Bard 8, 10, J (Snow, Gad, Jack).

Bite led the 2nd attack with 8 damage plus defense of 8. The King still had 30 health, countered with 12, injuring Elashor and Kauri.

Snow led the 3rd, also with 8 damage plus 4 friends, The Queen of Hearts, Lee, Phoenix and Jakhim.

22 health for the King and the King dealt 12 again, injuring Yrneha and Jakhim. Lee with the 4th attack dealing 7 damage and defense of 7. The king still had 15 and 5 attack. Qelgrax took the damage.

Gad dealt the 10 more while inviting 5 more friends, Paladin A, 2, 10 (Plates, Wicket and Vegarian), Cleric 2 (Sprinkle) and Warrior 2 (Dinky).

The King still had 5 left, dealing another 5, taking down all of the 2. Jack of Diamonds then finally finished the job. With 4 new friends, Oneria, Bronze, Herbod and the Queen of Spades.

10th Enemy: KING OF SPADES

Queen of Hearts led 1st attack with 15 damage, healing some friends. The King still had 25 health and dealt 20, injuring the Queen of Spades, Plate and Herbod.

2nd attack came from Oneria and companion Phoenix, dealing double of 11 damage while inviting more friends. The new group had Warrior 6 (Esme), Paladin 4, 9 (Dhonatir, Belroth), Bard 3, 5 (River and Kowhai), and Cleric 5 (Puriri).

The King still had 3 health and dealt 20, injuring Belroth, Bronze and Dhonatir. 3rd attack was from River, the Bard 3 with enough attack to defeat the King.

River got new friends, Eragar, Folred and the Queen of Diamonds.

11th Enemy: KING OF CLUBS

Vegarian got 1st attack dealing 10 points and 10 defense. The King had 30 health left and 10 points of attack. Esme and Folred took the damage.

Combo of 2 Bird Clans, Puriri and Kowhai, healing 10 friends and inviting in 6 to the group. The new members were The King of Spades, Lee from Paladins, Shadow and Theodoric from Warriors, James and Kazaghan from Cleric.

20 health left for the King and he dealt 10, taking down Eragar and Theodoric.

Lee was next attack with 6 plus some defense. 14 health left from the King and he dealt 4. James took the damage.

Queen of Diamonds dealt the last 15, defeating the King with 6 new friends. They got Jack of Clubs, Jack of Hearts, Elkoshoth, Arabella and Herbod.

12th Enemy: KING OF DIAMONDS

The Greedy one and the source of corruption for this kingdom. King of Spades stepped in and disabled all of the Diamond’s attack while dealing 20. Diamond was still alive with 10 left and Jack of Spades delivered the last double blow.

They won. Well, kind of…

Playing time was about 48 minutes.

Riverside

Invite the passengers of your cruise to various excursions along the river in Riverside. This was a solo session with the 2 extension tiles.

ROUND 1. White: 6, Yellow: 2, Brown: 4, Blue: 4, Red: 5, Green: 5

The median was 4 so the cruise stopped exactly at a village with White 12. 1 space from there was a village with 3 excursions, Red 5, Blue 6 and Brown 7. There were 2 other that required 4 spaces to reach, one had Brown 10 and the other had 2, Blue 4 and White 9.

It had been a while since I played before this recent one. I actually forgot that the idea was to spend the Fire early. Now that I think about it, maybe I could have chosen blue plus the Green. Instead, I chose Brown and completely filled the 2nd boat with 4 passengers with a bonus of 2 Yellow. Those 2 got seats of the 3rd biggest boat for yellow later.

I got one brown ticket and went to the nearby village with Brown 7. Scored 7 as the first one for Reindeer excursion.

ROUND 2. White: 4, Yellow: 6, Brown: 3, Blue: 1, Red: 6, Green: 4

The cruise moved 4 spaces according to the median and stopped at space after an intersection with no village. 2 spaces from there was a village with Yellow 11. 1 space from there was a Red 8. 3 spaces back means back to the village with 3 excursions. Also with 3 there was another village with 2, Brown 5 and Red 6.

Going with 4 got the boat to village with Yellow 6 and Blue 7. Another option for going 4 got the boat to village with White 12.

This time I spent 4 fire for the Green in addition to the White die since it gave the best value for free. I got 8 passengers, I filled 2 of the top boats for white excursions. I went with the last option, spending one extra speed to reach the village with White 12.

Scored 24 as the first one for Polar Bear excursion.

ROUND 3. White: 4, Yellow: 4, Brown: 6, Blue: 4, Red: 6, Green: 3

The cruise moved 4 spaces again. It stopped just 1 space away from a village with Blue 9. From that, within 3 spaces, there were only 2 other options. One had Red 8, the other had Red 6 and Brown 5.

Going with 4, there was a village with Brown 8 and White 7. There were 2 with 5. One had Yellow 9 and White 10 and the other had Blue 7 and Yellow 6.

The best options were either Blue, White or Yellow. I already had a couple of White tickets so I thought either Blue or Yellow. Any of them plus the Green got me 7 passengers. Both colors could get me 2 tickets.

I ended up choosing the Yellow, filling the 2nd and 3rd boats completely. However, I was not so sure about going 5 spaces to reach the only accessible yellow. The reason was after the first chapel space there were a couple of yellows so I thought I should be preparing before that.

I had no blue tickets so my only choice was to get the 2nd score for Brown excursion. Even that I had to move 4 spaces, spending 1 extra speed. I still only had 1 ticket but the value was still higher than previous by only 1. Scored 8 for the 2nd Reindeer excursion.

ROUND 4. White: 6, Yellow: 3, Brown: 4, Blue: 1, Red: 1, Green: 3

The median was 3 so the cruise moved 3 spaces. From where it stopped, within 3 spaces, there were only 3 options. One with Blue 9. The 2nd had Brown 8 and White 7. The last one was the Chapel 2. There was only one other option outside that and it required 4 to village with Yellow 8 and Red 4.

Yellow die was my only good option. Even after spending 3 fire for the green I could have only gotten 6 or just 1 ticket. So, I filled the last boat for yellow, activated the power, got the 3rd ticket.

For the excursion, I went to the Chapel. I had only 6 tickets so I scored 12.

ROUND 5. White: 4, Yellow: 6, Brown: 4, Blue: 5, Red: 4, Green: 4

The cruise moved 4 spaces just passing the Chapel. Within 3 spaces from there, there were only 4 options. The Chapel 2 as the first. 2nd was Yellow 8 and Red 4. 3rd had White 7 and Brown 8. 4th one had Yellow 9 and White 10. I could not afford to go with 5 but there was a village with Red 6 and Brown 5.

My usual strategy was to go for 2nd chapel excursion again. I just needed to get as many more tickets. Plus 4 green my best option was 8 seats.

I could have gotten 3 with Red, filling the first 3 boats since I already had 2 filled. So, I went with that and got 3 tickets. From the 2nd chapel excursion I scored 18, 9 tickets.

ROUND 6. White: 6, Yellow: 4, Brown: 1, Blue: 6, Red: 3, Green: 4

The cruise moved 4 spaces, stopped between 2 villages. From there, within 3 spaces, there were 5 villages and here was the breakdown.

1st Village: White 10, Yellow 9
2nd Village: Brown 5, Red 6
3rd Village: Yellow 6, Blue 7
4th village: Red 8
5th village: Yellow 8, Red 4

Nothing within 4 but there were 2 within 5. The Chapel 2 and Blue 9.

I already spent all of fires so I couldn’t choose blue or white. Yellow was almost full and brown was too low. Red got exactly 3.

I decided to choose brown 1 and then using extra 3 seats from the Yellow power I got 4. Filled the last 2 seats of the 3rd brown boat and 2 more for the last one.

For the excursion, I went back 3 spaces to the Yellow 8 and Red 4. I got 3 tickets for both and haven’t scored anything for those 2. So, I scored 24 for 1st yellow and 12 for first red.

ROUND 7. White: 4, Yellow: 6, Brown: 2, Blue: 2, Red: 6, Green: 6

The cruise moved 4 spaces. From there, within 3 spaces, there were only 3 villages.

1st village: Yellow 6 and Blue 7
2nd village: Brown 5 and Red 6
3rd village: White 9, Blue 4

Within 4 there was only 1 village with 3 excursions: Brown 7, Blue 6 and Red 5. Going with 5, there were 3, White 10 and Yellow 9, Yellow 11 and Brown 10.

The best was white so I got 4 seats. Now that I think about it after knowing the result, maybe the best way was to fill the first 4 seats of the 4th white boat to activate the power. Instead I chose to complete the 3rd boat and start filling the 4th.

Well, I couldn’t afford moving 5 spaces. I went to just the nearby one but score both, a white and a blue. Only 1 ticket for blue so I got 4 points and the white with 3 tickets scored 27 as 2nd score.

ROUND 8. White: 4, Yellow: 5, Brown: 3, Blue: 2, Red: 3, Green: 2

The median was 3 and the cruise stopped 5 spaces away from the finish line. So, the game was almost over.

Within 3 spaces, there were 4 villages.

1st village: Chapel 1
2nd village: Brown 10
3rd village: White 9, Blue 4
4th village: Brown 7, Blue 6, Red 5

Nothing within 5 but within 4, there were 3. One with White 12, 2nd with Yellow 11 and the last with 2, Yellow 6 and Blue 7.

I should have worked on blue more as it was my lowest excursion score. But I still believed I could get better roll later. I couldn’t afford it now anyway. So, instead I fill the last ticket for red using Red 3.

For the excursion, I went to Yellow 11 as this was probably the last time when it was within the range. I scored 33 as the 2nd time for Yellow excursion.

ROUND 9. White: 4, Yellow: 4, Brown: 3, Blue: 1, Red: 1, Green: 3

The median was actually 2 so the game continued. After moving, the cruise was 3 spaces away from the finish line. It was at village with Brown 10.

There were only 2 within 3 spaces, Chapel 1 and a village with White 9 and Blue 4. Within 4, a White 12, and with 5, a village with 3 excursions. I could have gotten to 6 and reached Yellow 11.

Unfortunately, this last dice didn’t help much. I could have used only the Brown 2, getting the 3rd ticket. For the last excursion since I didn’t trigger the white power, my best was to go to the village with 3 excursions.

Red got me 20 with 4 tickets. Blue got me 6 with just 1 ticket and Brown got me 21 with 3. I still had the Brown power to increase the ticket.

After reevaluating my result, I think the best use for that extra ticket was for Blue to score me 12. This would have significantly increase the overall score as the lowest excursion was enough to avoid captain penalty. Instead, during my play I chose Brown.

My final actual score as shown by the picture was 301. Since I used extension tiles, I have to subtract it by 25 and I lost since I got lower than 300.

Let’s see if I could have won with my new plan.

White: 65
Yellow: 75
Brown: 55
Blue: 23
Red: 50
Total 5 excursions: 268

Chapel plus the lowest excurion: 30 + 23 = 53
Bonus 15 for scoring Chapel above 50: 15

FINAL SCORE: 336

Minus 25 and I got over 300. So, I could have won with that last change in the last round. Oh, well…

Playing time was about 32 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Riverside Review.

One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows

Explore the Smoldering Ruins to beat the Fire Giant in One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows. This was a solo session using Warden using Basic and Savvy Talents with 2nd lowest difficulty. I think this was my first time playing against this boss and dungeon.

This one is interesting because you cannot just take it slow. The more exploration you do the more dice you have to exile. What that means is near the stairs, you probably want to lose times by not covering the challenge boxes.

Otherwise, as happened during this session, I explored, 4 closed doors, exiled 2 dice and then found the stair. Right after moving to the next floor, I had to explore again, exiling 2 more dice for nothing. When I got to the boss I exiled 15 dice, 2 were also from a strong enemy, not just the dungeon requirement.

Here is how the session went.

The Warden entered the Smoldering Ruins. This place is burning because it is the home of Fire Giant. Everytime they explore the dungeon, the place burn one of their items. The deeper they go, it gets hotter.

The Warden explored and found 4 doors. One Black die was exiled. She entered the first room and found a peril. Felt she couldn’t overcome it so she fled and opened the 2nd door which she found and enemy.

1st Floor, 1st Encounter: SPIKALON

POTION: 1
EXP: 4 / 6

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 2, 2, 3, 4
Red: 1
Blue: 1, 4

Spikalon had special ability: SPIKES. For every 5 placed on their challenge box, gain 1 Poison.

Blue 4 and Yellow 2 to the dungeon boxes. Yellow 4 and Yellow 3 to 2 of 6 Enemy’s boxes. Using Savvy talent, traded Red 1 and Blue 1 to roll a Black which I got a 4. Placed it to the Red 3 box to avoid the Poison.

The last die of Yellow 2 was useless. 3 boxes left with 3 hit to the health. Warden used her special ability, to ignore one damage but lost 1 time. From that encounter, Warden learned PRECISE BLOW.

1st Floor, 2nd Encounter: EYESHROOM

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 5, 5, 6
Red: 6
Blue: 2, 4

Eyeshroom had the ability of GAZE, forcing to skip the Heroic Phase. Warden didn’t have any Black die yet so it was not a problem. The enemy had no yellow challenge box.

So, Yellow 6 was for the dungeon box. Traded both Yellow 5 into Black 5 which was for the other dungeon box. Red 6 worked only for the Red 3 box and Blue 4 for the enemy box. Then using the Savvy talent, combined the Blue 2 and Yellow 1 into a Black die which I got Black 4 for the other Blue 4 box.

Blue 6 box and Red 10 were not covered. Got 2 hit to health, which Warden turned 1 into time, along with losing 1 time. Suffered 2 Poison.

From that encounter, Warden learned 2nd skill, EXPLOIT WEAKNESS.

1st Floor, 3rd Encounter: ROCK WYRM

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 5, 5, 6
Red: 2
Blue: 4, 4

Rock Wyrm had ACID SPRAY ability, adding 1 Poison to the hero. The enemy also had 1 Yellow 5 Shield so one Yellow 5 went there first. Spent Yellow 5 to the Precise Blow to get Yellow 5 and Red 2. Red 2 then activated Exploit Weakness to gain Black 4 which to cover the Blue 4 Dungeon.

Both Yellow 5 from skill and rolls went to the box, one for Dungeon and the other for the Enemy. The leftover boxes were Blue 12 and Yellow 12. I got 2 Blue 4. Traded Red 2 and Yellow 6 to roll Black using Savvy Talent and got Black 4. This and the 2 Blue was enough to cover that Blue 12.

2 damage from the uncovered Yellow 12. Warden turned 1 of them into time spent. From this encounter, Warden got 1 Magic and 1 more Health.

There was still one opened door which led to peril. Warden explored the dungeon, losing 2 time, had to exile 2nd die which was the Blue. Rolled a 6 when Resisting 3 Poison.

Then after spending 2 more times, opened the next door and found an enemy.

1st Floor, 4th Encounter: GUBLIN

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 3, 4, 4
Red: 5
Blue: 4, 5, 6

Gublin had Pack Hunter ability. It seems he could hide behind closed doors and it took longer with more closed door. There were 2 at the time.

Blue 4 and Yellow 3 for the 2 dungeon boxes first. Blue 6 to the Enemy’s only blue box along with 2 Yellow 4. The rest were Red 3, Red 3 and Red 5 boxes while I only had one Red 5.

Yellow 1 to activate Precise Blow to gain Yellow 5 and Red 2. Red 2 then became Black 4 with the other skill. Traded Yellow 5 and Blue 5 to Black 5 and placed both Black to the remaining 2 red boxes.

Every box was covered so no consequences. From that, Warden gained 2 EXP which was enough to level up now. This also gave Warden 1 Black die for her Heroic Feat.

Warden opened the next door and found another enemy.

1st Floor, 5th Encounter: TRICKSTER

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 1, 3, 5
Red: 6
Blue: 4, 5
Black: 4

Somehow I forgot to roll one more Blue. Trickster had the ability of POISON SNAP, converting 1 poison token into a hit.

The enemy also had 4 boxes with shields, Blue 4 and 3 Yellow 2. Blue 4, Yellow 3 and 5 immediately covered 3 of those and the Black 4. Yellow 1 to gain Yellow 5 and Red 2.

The remains were Yellow 5, Blue 6 from enemy and Blue 4 and Yellow 2 for the dungeon. I still had Red 6, Red 2, Blue 5 and Yellow 1 and Yellow 5. Red 2 to gain Black 4 from skill. This and the Blue 5 covered the Dungeon boxes.

Yellow 5 die to the enemy Yellow 5. The last one was Blue 6. I traded Yellow 1 and Red 6 to roll a black die using Savvy Talent. I got Black 6 so I covered the last. No consequences.

From Trickster, Warden learned BLITZ, 3rd skill. Warden continued with the next door and found a peril.

1st Floor, 6th Encounter: ROPE BRIDGE

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: –
Red: –
Blue: 2, 4, 5
Black: –

I had to choose Blue challenge with total value of 7 instead of Red with 10. However lost 2 times for it.

Blue 4 for the shield from Dungeon. Then Blue 5 and 2 exactly for the peril.

From this encounter, Warden gained 1 Strength item. There was only one opened door before exploring again and it was the first door with a peril.

1st Floor, 7th Encounter: VORTEX STONE

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: –
Red: –
Blue: 1, 4, 6
Black: 5

Choosing STABLIZING AURA with Blue 12 challenge. Had to lose time twice.

Blue 4 for the Dungeon shield and the rest were enough to overcome it. Warden had to take this as an item, giving her additional Strength and health.

Warden explored again, finding 4 closed doors. Exiled a red die. After opening one door, she found the stair to go deeper to the dungeon. She also resisted the poison, rolling a 4 to her 1 poison.

Instead of going down to the next level, Warden decided to face the peril.

1st Floor, 8th Encounter: THORNSPITTER

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 2, 2, 3, 4, 6
Red: –
Blue: –
Black: –

Warden chose to strike down the Thornspitter instead of evading the thorn for Yellow 9. She lost 1 time though.

Yellow 4 for the Dungeon’s shield and the rest were more than enough to destroy the peril.

From this Warden had to remove one of her item for one Strength and replaced it with 1 Agility.

Warden went down the stairs, do another exploring. Exiling a yellow this time. Apparently going deeper is even hotter so now 2 of the items were burned after exploring. Exiled another red.

Warden opened the first door of this 2nd floor and found an enemy.

2nd Floor, 9th Encounter: SHADOWSTALKER

Warden’s Stat (LEVEL 2)
Strength: 5
Agility: 2
Magic: 3
Health: 4 / 7 (+1)
Poison: 0

SKILLS:
METHODICAL (WARDEN)
PIERCING BLAST (BASIC)
BASIC TALENTS
SAVVY TALENTS
PRECISE BLOW
EXPLOIT WEAKNESS
BLITZ

POTION: 2
EXP: 2 / 8

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 1, 3, 6, 6
Red: 3, 3
Blue: 1, 5, 5
Black: 5, 6

This Shadowstalker had the ability of DARK AURA. For every 6 rolled, Warden loses 1 time. There were 3 from the initial roll.

The enemy also had 2 shields of Blue 4s. One Blue 5 covered them. One last shield for Blue 4. Traded Blue 1 and Red 3 to roll a Black using Savvy Talent. Gained Black 4 for that. Blue 5, Yellow 6, Black 6 covered 3 of enemy’s boxes.

Spent Yellow 1 to activate the Blitz skill. Warden got Yellow 4 and turned the other yellow 1 into a 2. That 2 was for one of 3 Dungeon boxes. That Yellow 4 was for the last enemy box.

The other Yellow 6 for the Dungeon box and the last one was Blue 4 box from dungeon. Used the Black 5 for it. Every box was covered so no consequences.

From this encounter, Warden gained it as 4 XP and bonus Black die. Warden opened the next door.

2nd Floor, 10th Encounter: SHARP CLIFFS

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: –
Red: –
Blue: 1, 5, 5
Black: 4, 4, 6

Instead of climbing it using strength which takes longer, Warden decided to use magic to Fly over it even if it was more challenging. At this point I still tried to save more time.

The 2 Blue 5 to cover the Dungeon boxes. Those 3 black were exact total for the peril challenge.

From this, Warden learned CLEVER SMASH skill. Warden already had 3 skills but the basic talent allowed her to have 1 extra.

2nd Floor, 11th Encounter: GIANT SPIDER

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 2, 2, 3, 3
Red: 3, 6
Blue: 3, 5, 6
Black: 3

Giant Spider’s ability was WEB, holding the heroes based on the poison tokens. Losing time for each poison. This enemy also had 3 shields, Yellow 3, 4 and 5.

First with Blue 3, activated Piercing Blast to reduce the challenge of every shield by 1. This way. Yellow 2 and 3 could cover 2 of the 3. For the last shield, I spent Yellow 1 to gain Yellow 5 and Red 2. That Yellow covered the last shield.

I used the Clever Smash and rolled a Yellow 5. That cover the 4th box. Spent Red 2 to gain Black 4 which was placed to cover Blue 4. Blue 6 was for the last enemy box.

Blue 5 and Yellow 2 for the dungeon. There was still Yellow 6 that I couldn’t cover. Even after trading leftover dice to a black. Warden let it happened. The consequence was just 1 hit but Warden turned it into a time spent.

Warden learned PULVERIZE, replacing her BLITZ skill. So, she gained 2 XP which was enough to level up. Gained 1 health and 1 potion.

Warden opened the last door before the next exploring.

2nd Floor, 12th Encounter: GREAT SPIRIT

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Red: –
Blue: –
Black: 6

Warden had a choice between showing strength that she was struggle free or display magical prowess. The former could have given her another magic while the latter a FOREST BLESSING skill to reroll 1 die and gain Black 1.

Warden was definitely better with her strength. The dice were more than enough for both the dungeon and this Spirit challenge. Warden took the item.

After that, Warden had to explore again, discovering 4 more doors. She had to exile 2 more items. Warden opened the first door and found an enemy.

2nd Floor, 13th Encounter: SPIKALON

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 2, 2, 3, 5, 6
Red: 4, 6
Blue: 1, 2, 4, 6
Black: 1

Warden already encountered this before. SPIKES ability forced Warden to take poison for every 5 placed on this enemy boxes.

From the initial roll, Yellow 5 and 3, Red 4 to the Enemy boxes with the corresponding value, along with Red 6 die to Red 5 box. 2 more from the enemy, Red 3 and Yellow 4.

Blue 4 and Yellow 2 and 6 to the Dungeon boxes.

I used Black 1 for Precise Blow to get Yellow 5 and Red 2. Red 2 was useless on the boxes but I used it to get Black 4 from Exploit Weakness skill. That black 4 went to Red 4 box from enemy. That Yellow 5 went to Yellow 4 box from the enemy. So, everything was covered. Somehow I got it wrong during the play. No consequences but maybe during the game I got hit by 1 which Warden turned it into time spent.

Warden learned FINESSE. She probably should have taken it as the Magic item instead. Warden opened the 2nd of 4 door.

2nd Floor, 14th Encounter: VINE TRAP

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 2, 3, 3, 4
Red: –
Blue: –
Black: 3

Against this peril, Warden had the option to either dodge it, taking time but required more agility or breakthrough it which required strength. Warden was better with the latter.

Yellow 4 first to the shield from the dungeon. No Yellow 5 for the dungeon but the rest were more than enough to breakthrough this trap.

Luckily, Warden had CLEVER SMASH. She got Yellow 5 to cover that 2nd box from the dungeon.

From this, Warden took the Agility item. She continued and opened the 3rd of 4 doors.

2nd Floor, 15th Encounter: WISP

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 3, 6, 6, 6
Red: 1, 3, 4
Blue: 1, 2, 5, 5
Black: 6

Wisp didn’t have any special ability but 9 single boxes, 6 blue and 3 reds.

So, Yellow went to the dungeon first. Yellow 6 and 3 to the Dungeon, along with Blue 5.

Then Blue 2, 5 and Red 2, 4 covered 4 boxes from the enemy. Black 6 for one of the Blue 3. 4 boxes left, Blue 3, 2 Blue 2, Red 3.

Spent Yellow 1 to get Yellow 5 and Red 2 from Precise Blow. Red 2 then was for getting Black 4. This covered the Blue 3. Red 1 from initial roll to the FINESSE to roll Yellow 5 and Red 4. Red 4 covered the last Red box. 2 boxes left. Blue 3 and Blue 2.

Traded 2 Yellow 6 into Black 6 for the Blue 3. Then using Savvy talent, traded Yellow 5 and 3 to roll Black which I got Black 3. So, everything was covered and no consequences.

Warden gained 2 XP from this and a black die for her Heroic Feat. She then opened the last of 4 doors.

2nd Floor, 16th Encounter: TRICKSTER

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5
Red: 2, 3, 5
Blue: 3, 4, 6, 6
Black: 3

Back with Trickster again. His POISON SNAP ability didn’t work this time as Warden didn’t suffer any poison. However, Trickster still had 4 shields, 3 Yellow 2 and Blue 4. Warden had everything to cover those.

Actually Warden could cover almost everything except Yellow 6 from the dungeon. Spent the Red 2 on Finesse to roll Yellow and got lucky to get Yellow 6. Otherwise, Warden just used her METHODICAL skill to convert hit consequences into time spent.

Warden gained another 2 XP from this one and a black die. She had to explore again, exiling 2 dice to reveal 4 doors. Actually, she also discovered a stair leading to the next floor. However, moving on means another exploration and exiling more dice without getting anything.

Probably should have spent more time when it was close to the stair to avoid situation like this. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize about this plan during the game.

So, to at least gain something, Warden decided to open a door and encounter something. Spent 2 times to open the first door.

2nd Floor, 17th Encounter: DIRE BOAR

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 1, 2, 5, 5
Red: 3, 4, 6
Blue: 2, 3, 3, 4
Black: 5, 5, 5

Dire Boar always CHARGE, whenever Warden tried to reroll or increase value of die. So, that prevented it. The enemy also had 2 shields, Red 3 and Yellow 4. Luckily, Warden got both covered.

Yellow 2 for the dungeon and Yellow 5 for enemy Yellow 3 box. Blue 4 for the dungeon. Yellow 6 left from the dungeon and 2 Red 5 plus Yellow 6 from the enemy.

2 Black 5 for 2 red 5. 2 Yellow 6 left. Spent Red 2 and Yellow 1 to get Black 4 and Black 2. Using one of the talent, covered the enemy Yellow 6 with 2 dice. Got hit from the uncovered Yellow 6 from the dungeon, which Warden turned into 1 time spent, 2nd hit from the Stair.

Warden learned SPARK from this enemy, letting go PULVERIZE to be 3 XP and a black die. She then moved to the next floor. RAINING FIRE happened. From this point on, no Black die could be used to cover challenges from the dungeon. Also additional shield against peril and Red 11 for enemy.

Warden did explore again, exiling 2 more dice. Total 11 dice were exiled at this point. She opened the first door.

3rd Floor, 18th Encounter: PANTHER

Warden’s Stat (LEVEL 3)
Strength: 5
Agility: 3
Magic: 4
Health: 5 / 7 (+1)
Poison: 0

SKILLS:
METHODICAL (WARDEN)
PIERCING BLAST (BASIC)
BASIC TALENTS
SAVVY TALENTS
PRECISE BLOW
EXPLOIT WEAKNESS
CLEVER SMASH
FINESSE
SPARK

POTION: 3
EXP: 7 / 10

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: –
Red: –
Blue: 2, 3, 4, 6
Black: 6, 6

Warden met a PANTHER. She had a choice to either avoid it, requiring agility or Charm it using Magic.

Warden chose to charm it. She got everything covered. So, now, Warden had a companion that worked like her skill, a CHARMED PANTHER. This replaced her FINESSE skill.

Warden gained XP and black die which was enough for her to level up. Gained health and potion token. More room for items and skills.

Warden continued and opened the 2nd door of 4.

3rd Floor, 19th Encounter: GNOLL

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 1, 4, 5, 6, 6
Red: 1, 2, 5
Blue: 3, 4, 5, 5
Black: 1, 4

Gnoll had the ability of HOWL, preventing heroic die to be placed on dungeon. This was the same as the Raining fire situation. Gnoll also had Yellow 3 and Red 4 as shields. Yellow 4 covered it. Charmed Panther provided Yellow 4 and Red 4 so the latter was covered.

Yellow 6 and 5 for the dungeon. Another Yellow 6 and 1 for the Enemy Yellow 7.

Spent Red 1 to get Black 4. With 2 Black 4, covered the enemy red 8. Warden decided not to cover Blue 4 and Red 11 from the dungeon to just keep spending time, avoiding exiling more dice.

Lost 3 times and 1 hit to health which Warden turned into another time spent.

Warden gained strength item from this. She then opened the 3rd door.

3rd Floor, 20th Encounter: EYSHROOM

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5
Red: 2, 5, 5
Blue: 1, 3, 5, 6
Black: 3, 6

Back to Eyeshroom again with GAZE ability, preventing the Heroic feat step. No yellow challenges from the enemy.

Spent Red 2 to gain Black 4. Along with Black 6 covered enemy red 10. Blue 6 for Blue 6 and Blue 5 for one of the Blue 4 from enemy. Spent the Blue 3 on SPARK and gained Blue 5 This covered the last Blue 4 from enemy.

All red went to dungeon Red 11. Yellow 2 for the dungeon. 3 boxes left, 1 from enemy, Red 3, and 2 from dungeon, Blue 4 and Yellow 6.

Decided to let it hit. Lost time twice and 1 health which Warden turned to time spent.

Warden gained 3 XP from this hoping to get more Potion. She then continued by opening the last of 4 doors.

3rd Floor, 21st Encounter: RAZORBARK

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 2, 3, 4, 5, 5
Red: 2, 3, 4
Blue: 3, 5, 5, 6
Black: 1, 4, 6

Razorbark had WOUND ability, forcing Warden to exile a black and a yellow dice.

Blue 5, 5, 6 for the enemy Blue 15. Yellow 4 for the enemy Yellow 4 that hit the health. Black 6 to Red 6. 2 left from the enemy.

Charmed Panther provided with Yellow and Red 4. Red 4, 3, 4 to cover dungeon’s Red 11. Yellow 2 for the dungeon’s Yellow 2.

Then using Yellow 3 to gain Yellow 5 and Red 2. Traded both Yellow 5 into Black 5 to cover Red 5 from the enemy. 3 boxes left and Warden chose not to cover them.

Lost time twice and 1 health. Warden turned that hit to another time spent.

She learned FOCUSED PLAN from this encounter. This replaced the CLEVER SMASH and turned it into XP. Warden gained more potion and healed.

That was the last door. Unfortunately, she had not reached the boss yet and had to explore. Exiling 2 more dice just to reveal 4 doors before reaching the stair. 15 exiled dice total. Warden decided to just face the boss, the FIRE GIANT.

BOSS: FIRE GIANT, 1st Round

Warden’s Stat (LEVEL 4)
Strength: 6
Agility: 3
Magic: 4
Health: 7 / 7 (+1)
Poison: 0

SKILLS:
METHODICAL (WARDEN)
PIERCING BLAST (BASIC)
BASIC TALENTS
SAVVY TALENTS
PRECISE BLOW
EXPLOIT WEAKNESS
SPARK
CHARMED PANTHER
FOCUSED PLAN

POTION: 5
EXP for POTION: 0 / 5

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 4, 6, 6
Red: 2, 5
Blue: 3, 4
Black: 4, 5

Fire Giant prevented the heroine to use all of her items. Only half of them were available.

Gained Yellow and Red 4 from Panther. Spent Red 2 on Focused Plan to increase one of each 3 colors by 1 value. This increased Yellow 4, Red 6 and Blue 4.

Spent Blue 3 on SPARK to roll Blue 3 which turned into Blue 5. 2 Blue 5 covered 2 boxes.

Then I spent Yellow 4 to gain Yellow 5 and Red 2. Red 2 generated Black 4. Spent 1 potion on AID to increase 2 dice by 1, turning Red 5 and Black 5 into both 6.

Covered Blue 6 using that Black 6. 2 Yellow 13 and Red 13 left. I still had Yellow 4, 5, 6, 6. Those were only enough for one box. I chose the top one to avoid getting 4 damage.

I had Red 4, 6 and Black 4 for the Red 13. So, the other Yellow 13 was uncovered. Warden took 1 damage and Fire Giant took 4. 4 left to the Giant.

BOSS: FIRE GIANT, 2nd Round

Initial Rolls:
Yellow: 4, 6, 6
Red: 2, 5
Blue: 1, 4
Black: 5, 6

Spent 1 potion on AID again, increasing Blue 4 and Red 5 by 1. Blue 5, Black 5 and 6 covered all 3 blue boxes. Those were 3 damages to Fire Giant. 1 left. Warden could win this round by covering the bottom Yellow 13. But then the other 2 would hit her 6 points of health.

Spent 1 potion to heal to 7 and let the Fire Giant hit by 6. Warden covered the last box with 4, 6, 6. Dealt 4 damages to Fire Giant and Fire Giant dealt 6 back.

Warden survived and defeated the Fire Giant.

Playing time was about 90 minutes.

Read the Full Session Report here.

Learn more about the game from One Deck Dungeon: Forest of Shadows Review.

Adventure of D

Save the Kingdom and the Island from the Chaos Wizard, Elzoof, in a game of Adventure of D.

This was a solo game where I played as Dwarf with INT+1 as the starting Stats. Dwarf is a Weapon Master. His ability allows you to increase the value of test card by 1 for every 2 Magic you spend.

Elzoof, the enemy was at the Tower of Death which was located exactly next to the Castle of Light. However, before the hero can enter the Tower of Death, they need to get stronger. In this setup, to bypass the Magic Barrier protecting Tower of Death, the hero must have a total value of their stats of 6 or higher in any combination. So, the hero needs to explore the island, do some training to improve their stats.

ROUND 1.

To the west from the Castle of Light there was a Swamp of Talis. An event occurred there, a Mysterious Cave was recently found. If the hero beat the challenge, they could increase their INT stats by 1. The challenge value was 8. Dwarf had INT of 1 and INT card with a value of 3, 2 and 1. Even with the strongest card, he needed 4 more. However, Dwarf could use their 4 Magic for 2 more so he only needed 2 from the extra card.

Dwarf moved using White 2 to Swamp of Talis with a danger level of 2. Check 1 result was 4 so it was a safe journey. Dwarf then immediately took the challenge of the event. Played Yellow 3 and got bonus healing of Yellow 2. The Check 1 result was 5 so that was more than enough to beat the challenge.

Dwarf gained INT+1 and 1 Magic.

5 HP left, 3 yellow, 2 2s and a 1 and 2 blue. Those yellows were perfect to train at Mountain of Mage to study with Master Chvatil. The Mountain was adjacent to that Swamp of Talis.

Dwarf moved there using Blue 3. With the danger level of 2, the Check 1 result was 4 so it was a safe journey. Using Yellow 2 and Yellow 1, Dwarf increased his INT by 1 to 3 like becoming a Mage Knight.

2 HP left and one of them was the Yellow 2, hoping to be used for more training at this Mountain of Mage. So, Dwarf decided to take some rest here in the Mountain with Danger Level of 2.

Dwarf kept the Yellow 2 but discarded Blue 4. Got Blue 5, Blue 2 and Red 3. Also gained 2 Magic which made it 7.

ROUND 2.

Unfortunately, Dwarf didn’t have what it takes to continue training with Master Chvatil. He had 2 choices for the 2 nearby events. Either going back to Swamp of Talis but for a chance of failing to get any item. Or, Dwarf could go to the other direction to Plain of Sorrow. There was a Goblin Joker there. From the rumor, you actually need to lose the challenge from this joker to gain something.

So, Dwarf moved to the Plain of Sorrow with the danger level of 3 using Blue 2. The check result was 3 so the Shadow attacked Dwarf. Dwarf spent 2 Magic to get rid of that Shadow.

After that, Dwarf found the Goblin Joker and took the challenge. To win, the value must be 7 or higher but he had to lose. Dwarf played Red 3, healed 1 which got him Blue 1. The test card was actually 3 so the total was 6.

Dwarf lost but he gained STR by 1 to 1. The total stats was 4 so it was not enough to enter the Tower of Death.

3 HP left, Yellow 2, Blue 5 and Blue 2. Dwarf probably should have just gone back to the Mountain of Mage. Instead he chose to explore farther to Woods of Mana. He thought he had good chance to catch a fairy with his Blue 5.

Dwarf moved using Blue 2 to Woods of Mana with danger location of 4. The check 1 result was 3 so the Shadow attacked Dwarf again. Dwarf still had 5 Magic and spent 1 to defeat it.

After that, with Blue 5, Dwarf caught some Fairy Dust and healed, with Red 4. 2 HP left. The safest place to get rest nearby was the Village of Dawn with only danger level of 1.

Dwarf moved using Red 4 and the check result was actually 1! The shadow with power level of 4 attacked. Dwarf had to spent 4 of his 5 Magic. At least, he reached the village and took some rest.

While keeping Yellow 2, he gained Yellow 3, Blue 4, White 3 and 5 plus 1 Magic.

ROUND 3.

2 Events happened. Mountain of Mage was visited by a Goblorc while the Ice Elemental appeared in Lake of Hope. None of them was close to where Dwarf was.

At Village of Dawn, using Blue 4, Dwarf learned a skill and this time from a KNIGHT, Shining Armor. This allows Dwarf to avoid getting random hit.

4 HP left. Dwarf decided to visit Old Village of Dew, next to village of Dawn. Even from the start of his journey, he heard that a Spider Mage had been attacking this location. Beating this one could improve the hero’s agility.

Dwarf moved using White 3 to a danger level of 3. The check result was 5 so it was a safe journey. The Spider Mage was ready to attack.

Dwarf played White 5 and he used his skill to increase the value by 1 using his remaining 2 Magic. The check result was 2 so that was exactly 8, enough to beat the Spider.

Dwarf gained AGI by 1. Actually the Spider card allowed you to teleport a player to nearby location which could have been used to move back to Village of Dawn.

2 HP left. Dwarf moved back using Yellow 3 back to danger level of 1. The check result was 5 so it was a safe journey. Dwarf took a rest there.

Dwarf kept Yellow 2, gained Yellow 2, Red 2 and 3, Blue 5 plus 1 Magic.

ROUND 4.

Exactly at the Village of Dawn where Dwarf was, an event happened. A Rock Golem attacked the village so the Dwarf tried to beat it as it helped improve his INT by 1.

To win, Dwarf needed a total value of 10. He already had INT of 3 and just 2 Yellow 2. His magic was not enough to increase his attack.

So, Dwarf played Blue 5, no healing. The Check result was exactly 2 so it was 10 total. Dwarf beat the Rock Golem, gained INT by 1 and an item, an Amulet of Alexa.

Dwarf had INT of 4, STR and AGI of 1 each so it was enough to start entering the Tower of Death. But was it enough to beat the challenge inside? There were 2 challenges, each required 12 total value. Dwarf decided to keep getting stronger first.

After the village was safe, Dwarf continued his training here and learned another skill. This time was from BARD, SONG OF JOY. This allows me to spend 1 Magic during reveal event to draw 2 cards and choose 1. Could be handy assuming I have the Magic to spend.

Since Dwarf had at least 1 for each of 3 stats, he could take advantage of the Garden of Mushrooms. He was strong enough to take that Mushroom now to increase one of his stat. The location was adjacent to that Village of dawn.

3 HP left. Dwarf moved using Red 2 to a danger level of 3. The check result was 1 so the Shadow attacked him. He wanted to keep the 2 Yellow 2. His magic was not enough to beat the Shadow so he had to use the Fairy Dust. Not only this defeated the Shadow but Dwarf also gained 2 MP.

Then, Dwarf got the Purple Mushroom and his INT went up by 1 to 5. Dwarf then moved back to Village of Dawn using Yellow 2 to a danger level of 1. The check result was 4 so it was safe. Dwarf took a rest.

Dwarf kept Yellow 2, gained Yellow 4 and 1, Blue 2 and Red 1 plus 1 MP.

ROUND 5.

Troll Warrior appeared at Tower of Death and Water Elemental at Forest of Gloom. None of them were close to where Dwarf was.

Dwarf continued his training at Village of Dawn. Played Blue 2 and learned a skill from MONK, MEDITATION.

After this, the next time learning skill, I got to draw 2 skills, choose 1 and put the other at the bottom of the deck while gaining 3 MP.

Dwarf was planning to continue training to become a Mage Knight at Mountain of Mage. It took 3 steps between the 2 locations. Alternatively, Dwarf could visit Old Village of Dew. The Elder there had an ability to teleport if you had Red card and a Magic. Dwarf had 1 Red.

He moved there using Yellow 4 to a danger level of 1. The check result was 3 so it was safe. Spent the Red 1 and 1 Magic to teleport to Mountain of Mage.

Unfortunately, Dwarf only had exactly the 2 cards needed for training. So, he decided to take a rest first and meet Master Chvatil the next day.

Dwarf gained Yellow 4 and White 0 in addition to his Yellow 2 and 1 plus 2 MP.

ROUND 6.

Dwarf started his day with his training. Using yellow 2 and Yellow 1, Master Chvatil helped him increase his INT by 1, making it to 6, 8 in total.

2 HP left. Master Chvatil then told Dwarf that in order to complete the training he had to visit Master Ernie at Plain of Sorrow which was next to the Mountain.

So, Dwarf followed that instruction and moved using White 0 to a danger level of 2. The check result was 2 so there was Shadow with no power attacking Dwarf. There, he met Aldie, I mean Master Ernie.

Dwarf had 1 HP left which was a Yellow 4. The challenge from Master Ernie required a total of 9. So Master Ernie suggested taking a rest and do the challenge the next day.

Dwarf got Yellow 5, Blue 5 and Red 1 plus 2 Magic.

ROUND 7.

Dwarf immediately took the challenge using Yellow 4. His INT of 6 was more than enough to beat Master Aldie, I mean Ernie. Dwarf healed and gained Blue 1.

His INT went up by 1 to 7. In addition to that, Master Ernie also thought him some skills. With the Meditation ability, Dwarf had 2 choices. Either Amazonian’s skill to travel through SECRET PATH or Elf’s ability of FRIEND OF NATURE.

Dwarf thought the ability to enter the Great Chasm was a better choice to improve his INT using the other 2 stats. So he took that one over Elf’s. Monk’s ability also granted him 3 MP.

4 HP left. Dwarf decided to go back to the Mountain. He heard that it was attacked by a Goblin Warrior. He moved using Blue 1 to a danger level of 2. The check result was 0 so the Shadow 1 attacked Dwarf. He spent 1 MP of 8 to defeat it.

To defeat Goblin Warrior, it required Red 6. Dwarf only had Red 1 and his STR was 1. If he got unlucky, his only way out was to spend up to 6 MP to increase the attack. He took a risk and didn’t spent any.

The check result was 4, got exactly a total of 6 so Dwarf defeated the Goblin Warrior. His INT went up by 1 to 2. The total was 10.

Dwarf also healed and gained Blue 2. 3 HP left and he thought maybe it was time to attack the Tower of Death. He had to visit the Castle of Light first and it took 2 spaces to move.

He went to Lake of Hope between Mountain and the Castle using Blue 2, to a danger level of 2. The check result was 3 so it was safe.

There, he found TASTY TOMATO that allows him to heal and cycle cards.

At the location itself he chose to activate the TRANQUILITY to exchange cards. He let go Yellow 5 and unluckily got Red 2. 2 HP left, he moved back to the Castle of Light. Using Blue 5 and to a danger level of 0. He took rest.

In addition to his Blue 2, Dwarf got Yellow 2, Red, 1, 2, 4, 5. 7 MP left.

ROUND 8.

Apparently, there was a Mind Challenge event at the Castle of Light. Dwarf could easily win it even with the lowest card. Dwarf played Yellow 2 plus his INT of 7, he beat it. The INT went up to 8, which was the maximum. He also gained White 4 from healing.

Before entering the Tower of Death, Dwarf thought he had some time to visit Village of Dawn once more to learn more skills. Also, a Carnivorous Plant just appeared there and had been terrorizing the villagers.

Dwarf moved using Red 1 to a danger level of 1. The check result was also 1 so the Shadow attacked the Dwarf. He spent a Magic for it.

The Carnivorous Plant required Blue 8 to beat. Dwarf played his Blue 2 plus his AGI of 1. Also he spent all 6 Magic to increase his attack by 3. The check result was exactly 2 so he won. Also healed and gained Yellow 2.

He gained 2 MP and Ring of Deven. After rest, this allowed me to exchange 2 cards.

While at Village of Dawn, Dwarf played Red 2 to learn skills. He had a choice of either Fighter’s SMASH or Priest’s BLESSING. Since I already had some items for cycling cards, so I went with the Fighter. Also gained 3 MP.

Dwarf moved back to the Castle using Yellow 2 to a danger level of 0. He took the last rest before entering the Tower of Death.

Dwarf still had Red 4 and 5 plus White 4 and Blue 5 from before. He got Yellow 3 and White 2. Using the item, Ring of Deven, exchanged the last 2 into Blue 2 and Yellow 5.

ROUND 9.

Dwarf moved to the Tower of Death using Blue 2 to a danger level of 4. The Check result was 4 so the Shadow attacked. Spent 2 Magic to get rid of it.

Dwarf had a total stats of 11 so he could enter the Tower, bypassing the Magic Barrier.

He immediately found and fight Elzoof, the Chaos Wizard. It required a total value of 12 to beat.

Dwarf played his Yellow 5 and he had INT of 8 so it was a win. But the Chaos stood back up and countered. Dwarf didn’t had 4 Magic so he was about to take a hit.

Luckily, he learned SHINING ARMOR from a Knight. The check result was 5 so he didn’t get hit.

Another round against Elzoof, required the same total of 12.

Dwarf challenged him with his STR. He played Red 5 plus 2 of his stats, he still needed a 5. But he recently learned SMASH from a Fighter. He had another Red and this increased the value by 1. Dwarf also used his ability of Weapon Master, increasing the value by 1 as well. So, all he needed was 3.

The check result was 3. Dwarf finally defeated Elzoof. The island and the Kingdom is now safe.

Playing time was about 58 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Adventure of D Review.

Sylvion

Defend the forest of Oniverse with the help from Sylvian Defenders from the Fire Elemental in the game of Sylvion.

Still using all of the modules, including the Ravage pawn. After the drafting I got 3 Traitors, 4 Squirrels, 3 Elephants, 3 Hedgehog, 2 Whales, 1 Stag, 1 Owl, 4 Fish, 1 Dove with 6 Trees and 7 Fountains. I also got 2 Extraordinary Feat cards, Owl and the Hedgehog.

The Owl’s Wisdom allows me to take 2 specific cards from the deck and reshuffle the deck. Hedgehog Fence allows me to skip the next Reveal Ravage cards. While I still need to deal with the Ravage from previous rounds but the round when I use this one, they won’t add more Ravage cards.

I didn’t get a lot of Owl so going through the deck was very slow. Had to get rid some of it during the demobilization. Not that I didn’t want to draw Owl but during drafting there were a couple of times when the Owl showed up and it was the opponent’s turn to take and they took exactly the column with the Owl.

Here is how it went.

ROUND 1. DEMOBILIZATION, TORNADO, ELEMENTAL 1, ACID LAKE.

No cards in the discard pile yet so Demobilization did nothing. Tornado forced me to return 2 cards so the reinforcement only gave me 1. Acid lake occupied 1 spot of the 4th row. Elemental 1 advanced 1 space. That was the only Elemental on the board.

My starting hand plus the reinforcement were 1 Elephant, 1 Hedgehog, 3 Fish, 1 Squirrel, 1 Whale, 1 Dove and 1 Tree. Discarded the tree to play 1 Fish and got 3 Water. 1 Water for the Elephant to get rid the only Elemental on the board.

The other 2 were for squirrel and dove combo. Row 1 had Desiccation and Elemental 1. Demobilization and Stone Rain at 2nd, Demobilization and Elemental 0 at 3rd. Another Acid Lake and Elemental 3 at 4th row. With Dove, I got rid all of the Support cards. From the 2nd one, I kept the Stone rain to hit me.

ROUND 2. ELEMENTAL 1, STONE RAIN, ELEMENTAL 0, ELEMENTAL 3.

No fountain or tree in 2nd row so the forest got 1st hit. Elementals advanced 1 space. The first one had Ravage now.

I had Hedgehog, 2 Fish, Whale, 1 Fountain and 2 Squirrels. The Fountain was as strong as the Elemental with the Ravage so I placed it in front of the elemental just to get rid of the Ravage. Then using Whale, I moved Elemental 3 to the 2nd row just because row 4 already had Acid Lake.

ROUND 3. ELEMENTAL 0, ELEMENTAL 1, STONE RAIN, ELEMENTAL 2.

2nd hit to the forest by the Stone rain as I had no tree or fountain in that row. The rest were all elemental cards and they just advanced 1 space to the forest. The one with Ravage removed the Fountain along with the Ravage. I got a card. There were 6 Elemental cards in the battlefield.

After the reinforcements, I had 1 hedgehog, 2 Fish, 2 Squirrel, 1 Whale and 2 Traitors. I thought having 4 squirrels were too much so I removed 2 of them along with these traitor cards.

I discarded 1 Fish to use the other Squirrel in my hand. Row 1 had Blaze and Desiccation, Simoon and Tornado at 2nd, Elemental 0 and Tornado at 3rd, Simoon and Desiccation at 4th. I set Blazing, Simoon, Elemental and Simoon as the next to show up. Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could have done.

ROUND 4. BLAZE, SIMOON, ELEMENTAL 0, SIMOON.

I cancelled the Blaze with my Hedgehog. Simoons pushed all of the elemental 2 spaces extra. 4 hits to the forest from 1st to 3rd row, making it to 6 hits total. There were 3 more ready to hit.

I had 2 Fish, Whale, 2 Fountain cards. Discarded the Fountain 3 to play Fish. 3 Water were for Fountain 4 which I placed right in front of the Acid Lake. Then, using the Whale, I moved the Elemental 0 from 3rd row to that Fountain. The other 2 were about to hit.

ROUND 5. DESICCATION, TORNADO, TORNADO, DESICCATION.

All support type ravages and I had no hedgehog. I only had 1 Fish and the Desiccations just put them to the discard pile. Luckily the Tornado did nothing.

The last 2 remaining Elementals hit the Forest twice. 4 health left for the Forest.

Reinforcement got me Betrayal, Fountain and Elephant. I just get rid of the Betrayal. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t do anything this round.

ROUND 6. TORNADO, DEMOBILIZATION, SIMOON, GEYSER.

*** This is where I got it wrong. I chose the card to remove from discard pile due to Demobilization. Somehow I just realized that I couldn’t choose the Betrayal card for that. I guess I just assumed I chose randomly and removed a Tree card. But then The Betrayal should came out again.

Anyway, Tornado just reduced the reinforcement to just 1. Simoon moved nothing. The Geyser occupied the 3rd space of 4th row.

I got 1 more Elephant so 2 Elephants and Fountain 2. Still unable to do anything.

ROUND 7. ELEMENTAL 3, ACID LAKE, ELEMENTAL 2, ELEMENTAL 3.

First Elemental got Ravage. Acid lake occupied left most 2nd row. All of the elemental advanced 1 space.

I had 2 Elephants, 1 Fountain 2, 2 Tree and Fountain 3. Discarded the 2 tree plus weaker Fountain to play elephant and to play the stronger Fountain. The elephant removed Elemental 2 from 3rd row and The Fountain was strong enough to remove the Ravage pawn so it was placed in front of the elemental 1st row.

My plan was to use the Geyser to get rid of elemental when they were at 3rd column. I only had Elephant card left.

ROUND 8. ACID LAKE, STONE RAIN, ELEMENTAL 3, DESICCATION.

The last one discarded my only card in hand. Stone Rain hit the forest again, 3 health left. Acid Lake occupied 1st column of row 1. The 3 Elemental moved 1 space. The one with ravage pawn destroyed the Fountain along with the Ravage. So I drew a card.

I got 2 Tree and 2 Hedgehog. Still couldn’t do anything.

ROUND 9. DESICCATION, ELEMENTAL 2, ELEMENTAL, ELEMENTAL 2.

Row 2 got Elemental plus Ravage. I used one of my Hedgehog to cancel the Desiccation. 4 Elemental cards moved 1 space.

I had Hedgehog, 3 Tree cards and 2 Fountains. Discarded all Tree to play Fountain 4 at 3rd row, 2nd space. Nothing else could have been done.

ROUND 10. DEMOBILIZATION, ELEMENTAL 0, DEMOBILIZATION, BLAZE.

Played a hedgehog to cancel the Blaze. For 2 Demobilizations, I removed 1 Squirrel, 1 Fountain and 2 trees. 4 Elementals moved 1 space.

The Sylvian deck finally run out of cards and I got rid of 1 Fountain and 1 Tree for the demobilization.

Now I had Fountain, Stag, Owl and Hedgehog. Discarded the Fountain to play Owl and got Fish, Dove and Tree 4. Then discarded the Dove to play fish and the 3 Water was to play Tree 4, 3rd row, behind the Fountain 4. Then with the Stag, healed the forest, 2 points, 5 health left.

ROUND 11. SIMOON, ELEMENTAL 2, BLAZE, ELEMENTAL 2.

I thought I should be cancelling the Blaze but then the Simoon pushed the Elemental with Ravage to the Forest and made me lost the game instantly. So, I had to cancel the Simoon while Blaze upgraded 6 cards. Then all 6 Elemental cards just moved 1 space.

Elemental 2 on the 3rd row got destroyed by the Fountain. Similarly with the one on the 4th. 3 more in 2nd row with the front most about to hit having a ravage. Elemental 3 on 4th row.

I only had Tree, Hedgehog and Fountain 3 and I was about to lose the game. So, I decided to play the Owl’s Wisdom to get 2 cards, which I chose Elephant and the Whale.

Discarded the tree to play Elephant to remove the Ravage Pawn. Using the Whale, moved that Elemental card down to the Fountain so it was destroyed. There were 3 more in the battlefield.

ROUND 12. BLAZE, GEYSER, GEYSER, GEYSER

*** Apparently I got a lot of rule wrong related to Geyser. This was the first one and I forgot to resolve them first instead of before moving the Elemental. Oh, well.

So, the one in 2nd and 4th row were supposed to be destroyed by Elementals. 3rd one got it right. Instead I moved Elemental first and then Geysers stuck to the rightmost spaces. So, I just continued with the wrong play.

I had Hedgehog, Fountain, Fish, Tree and Elephant. Discarded the Fountain to play Elephant. I got rid one of the Elemental that way. Here I got it wrong again. I think the possible move after the wrong play was to use geyser to get rid of 2 Elemental card from 2nd row. Then the Elephant removed the one at 4th row. That should have left me with 2 more geyser, one at 3rd and the other at 4th.

Instead I removed the 3rd kept the 2nd and 4th, played the Elephant, removing all of the Elementals.

Well I had 3 cards left, 5 health for forest.

ROUND 13. ELEMENTAL 3, DESICCATION, SIMOON, SIMOON.

I had hedgehog and played it to cancel Desiccation. Only one Elemental left so it moved 3 spaces in 1st row, almost hitting the forest.

I had 2 fish, 1 Tree, 1 Hedgehog and 1 fountain. Couldn’t have done anything with these cards to that only Elemental. So, I discarded the Fountain to play Fish. The 3 Water went for Tree 4 which I placed at the 2nd row, leftmost available space. I was planning to get more Tree so the Stag later could heal more.

2 cards left.

ROUND 14. ELEMENTAL 1, ELEMENTAL 0, ELEMENTAL 0, STONE RAIN.

The Stone Rain removed the Fountain 4 at 4th row. Elemental at 2nd row should have destroyed the Geyser. However, I got it wrong as well by letting it skipped the Geyser. One hit to the forest, 4 health left. 3 Elemental cards in the battlefield.

I had Hedgehog, 2 Fish, 1 Squirrel and 1 Elephant. Discarded 1 fish to play the other and got 3 Water. The water was to play Elephant and Squirrel with the Elephant removed the elemental from 2nd row before it hit the tree 4.

Squirrel revealed Elemental 2 and 3 in 1st row, Demobilization and Elemental 1 in 2nd, Elemental 2 and Desiccation at 3rd, Blaze and Elemental 1 at 4th.

I only got Hedgehog card and 4 health left.

ROUND 15. ELEMENTAL 2, DEMOBILIZATION, ELEMENTAL 2, BLAZE.

I cancelled the Blaze using Hedgehog. Not sure which cards got removed by Demobilization. The 4 elementals just moved 1 space.

No more cards in Defender deck. Demobilization occurred but not sure which cards it removed.

I got Fish, Whale, Elephant. Decided not to do anything.

ROUND 16. ELEMENTAL 3, ELEMENTAL 1, DESICATION, ELEMENTAL 1.

Elephant and Whale got discarded and the rest of Elementals just moved 1 space. As before, I let them skipped the Geysers. There were 6 Elementals in the battlefield.

I got Fish, Fountain, Hedgehog and Elephant. Activated 2 Eruptions, each only removed 1 Elemental. Discarded the Fountain to play Elephant. This was to remove Elemental from row 1 that was about to hit. 3 more left in the battlefield.

I had 2 cards and 4 health.

ROUND 17. BLAZE, BLAZE, SIMOON, ELEMENTAL 1.

Cancelled one of the Blaze with hedgehog while the other upgraded 4 elementals from either 1 or 2 to 2 or 3. Simoon then let them moved 2 spaces this round. The forest got hit twice, 2 health left. One elemental got destroyed by Fountain. 1 Elemental 2 left.

I had 1 Fish, 1 Stag, 1 Owl and 1 Fountain. Discarded the Fountain for Fish. The water was to play Stag and Owl. Stag healed 2, 4 health left. Owl got me Fountain 4, another Fish, and Hedgehog. I think I was supposed to have 1 Water left which was enough to play fish but I discarded the Hedgehog. Got 3 Water to play Fountain 4 at 4th row, ready to destroy Elemental 2.

No cards in hand. 4 health, 1 Elemental in battlefield.

ROUND 18. ELEMENTAL 3, SIMOON, ELEMENTAL 0, ELEMENTAL 0.

4 elementals in the battlefield. One got destroyed by fountain. The other 3 from the deck moved twice.

I got Fish, Elephant and Hedgehog. Discarded the Fish to play Elephant, removing Elemental from row 1.

Only Hedgehog card in hand, 4 health, 2 elementals in the battlefield.

ROUND 19.

This was supposed to be the last round after playing dove once. I activated HEDGEHOG FENCE to skip the revealing part just so I got more cards.

The 2 Elemental cards in the field got destroyed by fountains.

From that and after demobilization for out of cards, I had Hedgehog, Fish, Elemental 3 and Owl.

Discarded Fountain to play Fish and then Owl. I got Stag, Fish and Elephant. Played the Stag to heal 2, 6 health left.

ROUND 20. BLAZE, ELEMENTAL 3, DEMOBILIZATION, DESICCATION.

I had hedgehog and I cancelled the Desiccation. Demobilization didn’t matter. Blaze upgraded Elemental 3 to 4.

I had Fish, 3 Elephants and 1 Whale. Destroyed that last Elemental.

Got hit 6 but I had 2 Tree 4. So I restored the Forest. Incorrectly…

Playing time was 51 minutes plus about 11 for drafting.

Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game

Let’s make possibly the last movie this failing production company is going to make in Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game. Easiest difficulty, still without using specific company.

This was a solo play using single role, The Star. The Star actually has the ability to change a script or part of the script to the other ones available. For their 2nd ability, they can actually single handedly execute idea on to do list.

The initial script was HOORAY FOR SECRET LETTERS. For the top part, Sentimental (Yellow) Scenes at 4th and 5th will boost the quality by 3. While the bottom one for 2 back to back Dramatic (Green) Scenes, you get 2 quality. So, the 4th and 5th were locked but the 2 Green scenes could have gone 1st and 2nd or 2nd with 3rd. That left me one more free scene, regardless of the type.

Well, the starting Storyboard only had one Tragic, one Dramatic and one Comedic. Hoping that 2nd Green Scene could show up later, the first one could have been either the blue or purple scene. Probably had to work on the Blue to add more time even though it was more expensive. That Blue scene also increased the quality by 1.

As the 3 starting ideas, this Actor actually had an idea how to work as other crew during shooting. They also could build the set for free using toilet tubes. Last one was to gamble their last remaining budget to get more money.

Here is how it went.

ROUND 1. Sound, Sound, Light, Light, Camera and Actor.

PROBLEM: The Key to your trailer fell into an open sewer. Because of that, the Player board was not available until this gets resolved.

Budget: 14, Time: 11

The top stack of set had one with a money icon so 2 Light Crews were assigned to make them, to make that Blue Scene while getting the money bonus. Paid 1 money. Sound and Camera crew resolved the problem.

The other Sound crew initiated a Production meeting, bringing the idea of Building the Set for free using Toilet Tubes. 2nd idea was to use the other crew as a Microphone, allowing me to reroll any number of unused dice up to twice each. Sound crew became a wild. 3rd one was to use haze machine to create atmospheric scene, doubling the effect bonuses on the set.

I executed my own idea, adding 2nd set piece to the set with a quality bonus. Discarded the 3rd idea and put the 2nd to 2nd to do list.

One crew left which helped me to get more idea. The new idea was to put shopping cart wheels on sets to move and/or rotate any number of set pieces. This replaced the idea of using any Actor as anything during shooting.

ROUND 2. Art, Art, Art, Actor, Actor, Light

PROBLEM: The Director cannot decide on the shot and wants to shoot with multiple cameras. 1 additional camera is required for every scene.

Budget: 13, Time: 10

Art and Light crew resolved the problem, which was the 2nd. The 2 other Art crews added 3rd set piece to the set since the Blue scene required 5 adjacent spaces. The new one also had a bonus for money but penalty of 1 problem on adjacent space. Paid 1 money.

2 more Actor crews. One initiated another meeting. I brought in the idea to repaint the set and pretend it was a different set. This could add 1 quality. 2nd idea was to ignore all problems this turn but not resolving itby covering your ears. The last one was to give all actors fake mustaches. This could increase 1 quality for each actor during shooting.

Scrapped the 2nd idea, execute my own just readjusting the set and gained 1 quality. Put the 3rd on to do list for later in 1st space.

As replacement of my idea, I got another one that will scrap one storyboard for a new one to get either 1 money or 1 quality.

There was 1 last crew which helped me again to get new idea. The idea was to use super sensitive satellite lenses during shooting. This could ignore the requirement of 1 camera crew or light crew. I thought that was a better idea than my initial to just move or rotate any number of set pieces.

ROUND 3. VFX, VFX, Camera, Camera, Sound, Light

PROBLEM: The Producer hired Mob Goons to help with the production’s problem. While they are around, resolving any problem, including this one cost 1 money more.

Budget: 12, Time: 9, Quality: +1 from START

The Sound and Light Crew resolved the issue, 3rd one. 2 Camera crews added 4th piece to the set, paying 1 money. Now the set was ready to shoot that Blue Scene.

2 VFX left so I decided to just locked them on set, filling in 2 Actors of the required 3 by the scene. I still needed 1 Actor, 1 light and 1 Camera.

ROUND 4. Art, Art, Camera, Actor

PROBLEM: Turns out those VFX team was actually just smoke and mirrors. Couldn’t assign any VFX crew while this was on. Luckily, no new VFX crews this round.

Budget: 10, Time: 8, Quality: +1 from START

The 2 Art crews resolved the issue, 4th one. While Camera and the last actor required were locked in with the other 2 VFX crews. I still needed 1 Light crew to shoot that Blue scene.

ROUND 5. Camera, Sound

PROBLEM: Everything is going wrong at once. Resolving any other problem leads to drawing a new one.

Budget: 10, Time: 7, Quality: +1 from START

I was going to shoot the Blue scene but no Light crew. Luckily I had the idea for ignoring that requirement so the Camera crew initiated the Production Meeting. 2nd Idea was to place dice to any space not just blue during shooting by taping the crews on the wall of sets. 3rd Idea was to pay 1 money for 1 Problem but 2 time in schedule by hiring trained monkeys as 2nd production units.

Put the 3rd idea in to do list, replacing the existing one. Scrapped that 2nd idea and executed my first one allowing me to shoot the scene.

Paid 4 money but gained 1 time as the cost. From the set got 1 bonus money and 1 quality. Gained 1 more quality from the Scene.

As replacement of my idea, I got a new one to pay 4 money and lose 3 quality to immediately use the storyboard as scene, ignoring any bonuses from the storyboard. Didn’t like this one very much.

I had 1 crew left to help me brainstorm another idea to replace that. The new idea was to use old fashioned practical effects instead of CGI like Christoper Nolan. This could get me 1 quality for each VFX used during shooting on set.

The current problem was not resolved yet.

ROUND 6. VFX, VFX, Camera, Camera, Light, Actor

PROBLEM: The lights are melting the set. We’ve gotta shoot now before they are gone. Not shooting a scene each turn remove 1 piece and any locked crew on it.

Budget: 8, Time: 7, Quality: +3 from START

Since I ignored the previous problem, 2 Camera crews were assigned to resolve that one. It was the 5th and turned into 1 time. Light and Actor crew resolved the recent one, 6th one.

So, I got 2 VFX left, perfect to rearrange the set. The top of the Storyboard showed another Green scene. So, now there were 2 Green, perfect for the bottom part of the script. I rearranged the set so it fit perfectly for that new Green Scene, 4 spaces of 2 lines of 2 with 2 actors, 1 light and 1 camera.

Unfortunately, I needed 1 set piece that allowed me to place in 2 adjacent spaces not just at the corner. I had one but the adjacent space had penalty of problem card so I got rid of it. On top of the stack there was one with 3 blue spaces but one of them was only for Actor.

I just rearranged the existing so I still got Money bonus while leaving room for the new piece.

ROUND 7. Light, Light, Actor, Actor, Camera, VFX

PROBLEM: The Producer insists on giving their niece a roll in the film. With this, shooting a scene required 1 additional actor.

Budget: 8, Time: 7, Quality: +3 from START

I needed the 2 Light crews to add new pieces. Paid 1 Money for it. The VFX and the Camera crew resolved the issue. Not sure how they convinced the producer.

That left me with 2 Actors. I just locked them up on set as the set was ready to shoot that Green scene.

ROUND 8. Sound, Actor, Light, VFX

PROBLEM: Somebody left the entire storyboard in the back of the taxi cab. No scene can be shot before they get those storyboards back.

Budget: 7, Time: 6, Quality: +3 from START

I only needed 1 Camera and 1 Light for shooting the Scene. No camera so the VFX filled that role. That means, the Actor and Sound crew went out to find the cab and retrieved the Storyboards. They got it.

So, I shot the Green Scene. Paid 4 money but saved 1 time. Gained 2 money bonuses from the set and 1 quality from the scene itself.

ROUND 9. Sound, Light, Light, VFX, Camera, Camera

PROBLEM: One Sound Crew got food poisoning after eating Sushi burrito yesterday. The Crew was locked, unavailable until they resolved it.

Budget: 5, Time: 6, Quality: +4 from START

Since there was already Green Scene in the Storyboard, so I assigned the 2 Light Crews to rearrange the set pieces. It required 4 spaces for 2 Actors, 1 Sound and 1 Camera.

I guess the 2 Camera crews knew how to help the Sound crew and resolved the issue. That Crew initiated a Production Meeting.

I brought in the idea to gamble the budget to make more money if they got lucky. 2nd idea was to wipe crew’s memory so they don’t remember that they have worked today and I could reassign 3 of them. 3rd was to ask everyone to take more showers hoping they could hold up to 5 ideas instead of just 3.

I executed my idea and won the gamble! Gained 4 money. Scrapped the 3rd idea and put the 2nd one at 1st place of to do list, replacing the idea of fake mustaches.

I had one die left which was the VFX and just locked them in the set, filling in for Sound crew requirement of the Scene.

ROUND 10. Art, Art, Actor, Actor, Camera

PROBLEM: The Actors have decided to only talk during shooting in whispers. Shooting a scene while this problem happened required 1 extra Sound crew.

Budget: 9, Time: 5, Quality: +4 from START

Didn’t need the Art crews for the scene so both of them resolved the issue which was the 10th. Gained extra time bonus.

I got the 2 Actors and 1 Camera perfect to shoot the Green Scene. Paid 3 money for it. Gained 1 quality and 2 money bonuses from the set pieces. 2 Scenes left to shoot.

New storyboard got a Yellow scene, perfect for the top script at 2nd space and a Red at 1st space. Similar requirements as the previous scene, 4 spaces for 2 actors, a sound and a camera.

ROUND 11. VFX, VFX, VFX, Art, Light, Light

PROBLEM: The night scene now needs to take place during the day. So, for shooting a scene, 1 additional light crew was required.

Budget: 8, Time: 5, Quality: +5 from START

First assigning 2 Light crews to rearrange the set according to that Yellow scene. I thought this was a good time to add more time. There was one task in to do list to get 2 extra time by paying 1 money and drawing 1 problem card.

Assigned an Actor to work with the Star for executing that idea. This 2nd problem would have rotated a piece set at the end of the round. So, this had to be resolved first before the previous problem. I assigned 1 VFX and 1 Art crew for it, the 11th one.

One VFX crew left. This initiated the Production Meeting. I brought in the idea to come out with new Storyboard by discarding one of the existing to get more money or better quality.

2nd idea was to bring a night crew of film students to work for free. 3rd was to sell off parts of the set to movie memorabilia collectors.

I had to execute the 1st idea to find the 2nd Yellow scene for the last part. Removed the top one and another red scene showed up. Gained 1 money though. Somehow I scrapped both other ideas. I could have kept one but it seemed the one executed by the Star happened after the meeting.

ROUND 12. VFX, VFX, VFX, VFX, Light, Actor

PROBLEM: Someone left the doors opened and wild alligators have wandered onto the set. No Crew wanted to be placed on the set before it got resolved.

Budget: 8, Time: 6, Quality: +5 from START

2 VFX were to resolve the previous problem and 1 Actor with 1 Camera worked on the recent one. 12th and 13th problem. So I had 2 VFX crews left.

**** I made a mistake here. The set was actually not fit for the Yellow available scene. But somehow I assumed they were right as it was too similar. With 2 adjacent Actors, a Sound near and a Camera opposite to that. I should have used this turn to rearrange but instead I locked in the 2 VFX as if they were Actors.

ROUND 13. Actor, Actor, Light, Camera

PROBLEM: The lead actor rented themselves a private diamond studded hot tub limousine. While this happened, lose 1 money at the end of each turn.

Budget: 8, Time: 5, Quality: +5 from START

The 2 Actors resolved the issue, 14th one. Light crew held production meeting. I brought in an idea to make previous scene as flashback, allowing me to rearrange two scenes to gain 2 quality.

This got scrapped. 2nd one was to resolve any number of problems by paying 1 money or one quality each. This was set on to do list, 2nd space.

The last one that I executed was to re-remember previous ideas. I looked through the top 10 ideas in the discard pile and activated it again. Since I run out of time, I decided to gain 2 times again by paying 1 money and drawing 1 new problem card. The problem was that the director wants to do over 100 takes of the same shot. Lose 1 time for shooting a scene.

I still had 1 crew left, a camera man. Just locked that one in the set. This is where it got wrong. The placement was wrong according to the storyboard and while there was adjacent available blue space but that was specifically for Actor. So, this 4th scene was actually impossible to shoot without rearrange the piece a bit.

ROUND 14. Actor, Actor, Camera

PROBLEM: The Art team is now using gold leaf paint for everything. Assigning any of them cost 1 extra money.

Budget: 7, Time: 5, Quality: +5 from START

I assigned 2 Actors to resolve the problem before this last one that required 2 of the same. It was the 15th so I got time bonus.

Then with the last one, Camera Crew plus 1 money did one of the to do list. This allowed me to reroll and reassign 3 used dice. So, I rerolled those 2 and got VFX and Sound Crew.

The VFX stood in for one last required crew for the next scene to shoot (incorrectly). But before that, Sound Crew then initiated a Production Meeting.

I brought in the idea about using practical effects over CGI like Christoper Nolan ways since there were 3 VFX on the set. 2nd idea was to exchange player board between players without any dice on it. 3rd was to increase the caffeine content for the crew so shooting scene this turn cost less.

I executed the 1st, scrapped the 2nd and put the 3rd as one of to do list. Finally shot the 4th Scene, a yellow one, incorrectly.

Paid 3 Money and gained 2 money plus 1 quality from the piece set.

ROUND 15. Camera, light, Light, Light, Actor, Art

PROBLEM: The Storyboard artist drew all the storyboard in invisible ink. Every Storyboard will get scrapped until this issue is resolved.

Budget: 5, Time: 5, Quality: +9 from START

So I actually needed this current issue to stay until I got another Yellow as my last one that worked with the top part of the script. I had one more problem to deal from previous round.

I assigned 2 Light crews for that. 16th one. The Art crew initiated a Production meeting. I brought in the idea to swap sets with sets from other company to gain money and replace one of the set pieces.

2nd idea was to not using any electricity to save money for 2 money if I haven’t shot any scene. This was better than the 1st idea. 3rd was to shoot actors without doing their hair and make up which loses 2 quality but save 1 time. This was useful for the situation.

Definitely scrapped the 1st idea. Executed the 2nd as I wasn’t planning to shoot this turn. Then I placed the 3rd as to do list, 1st space.

3 crews left. One, the actor helped the Star executed that to do list to save money and lose quality.

5th crew the camera helped the Star brainstormed more idea. The idea was to spend all night to redraw all of the storyboards, allowing me to search the 5 cards from the bottom of Storyboard deck, choose 2 and return the rest to the bottom. This replaced my idea to change the script to save money.

I couldn’t use the last die so that was the end of the round.

ROUND 16. Camera, Sound, Sound, Light, Actor, Art

PROBLEM: Someone spilled film developing fluids and now everyone’s all loopy on fumes! Nobody can do production meeting until this issue is resolved.

Budget: 7, Time: 5, Quality: +7 from START

All 3 storyboards were removed. The new one was 2 Red Scene and Purple. I actually checked and the next one should come with a yellow. So, I let the problem stayed.

I resolved the more recent problem with Art and Light Crews. Since I already knew the next one to shoot, I assigned 2 Sound crews to rearrange the set accordingly.

2 crews left. The problem was resolved so the Camera crew initiated a Production Meeting. I brought in my idea for taking 5 storyboard cards from the bottom of the deck which I planned on scrapping.

2nd one was to work on the editing room to recut the whole movie to gain money or quality. 3rd idea was to give everyone an unpaid day off, saving 3 money but losing 1 time which I didn’t need.

Apparently, I executed the 3rd exchanging 1 time for 3 money. Scrapped the 1st and put the 2nd to the first to do list.

Last crew helped the Star to get new idea. The idea was to actually use that resolving a problem into part of the movie. This resolved an issue while increased the quality.

ROUND 17. Actor, Actor, Sound, Sound, Camera, Light

PROBLEM: The script fell into paper shredder. Not resolving this will result of randomized script at the end of the turn.

Budget: 10, Time: 4, Quality: +7 from START

From previous problem, the storyboards were all removed. The new ones were blue, purple and yellow scene.

So, I didn’t need this problem anymore. Sound Crew then initiated a Production Meeting. I brought in the idea of Hugs for everyone. This resolved the 1 problem and not drawing a new one next round. I resolved that one, 18th. Then resolved the more recent one with Camera and Light Crew.

2nd idea to just throw money to solve all problems, paying just 2 money. I put that in 2nd to do list. Scrapped the 3rd, to change up to 3 unused dice to any faces.

So no more problem next round and no active one. I was ready to shoot the last scene. So, I locked in the 3 crews, 2 actors and one sound as required by the storyboard for yellow scene.

ROUND 18. VFX, VFX, Sound

PROBLEM: None. The hugs for everyone worked to avoid more problems!

Budget: 10, Time: 3, Quality: +7 from START

So, I got the 2 VFX which were enough to shoot the scene. Paid 2 coins, losing 1 quality. Bonus 2 money and 1 quality from the set pieces.

Got all 5 scenes and finished the movie, incorrectly…

THE MOVIE

Here is the plot for HOORAY FOR SECRET LETTERS.

Once upon a time, a young lady got unexpected visit from her mom. Her mom was very disappointed at her after finding out that her daughter had been neglecting her college life. The young lady lied, instead of studying, she actually had a job. The mom found her at her workplace.

As single parent, the mom didn’t want her daughter to live the same life as her and hoping to get better career by sending her to school. They actually sat down and talked in that restaurant she worked at and got a huge fight.

After expressing her disappointment, the mother left. The daughter felt bad. Not long after that the daughter decided to quit her job and followed her mom’s dreams. But then something happened.

The mother had a heart attack and was brought into hospital. Her daughter came as soon as possible but when she arrived, the doctor announced the sad news. Unable to make up the relationship with her mother, the daughter cried. That broke her down.

The daughter had a boyfriend. Not long after the funeral, hoping to cheer her up, the boyfriend invited her to a vacation to his country side home. She was not that excited but she came along.

One afternoon, the daughter and her boyfriend went to his favorite hill from his childhood. They spent their time there just looking at a beautiful scenery. The night came and they were under the sky full of stars. The daughter actually fell asleep a bit.

Not long after that, the boyfriend woke her up so they could go home. When she woke up, he noticed something different from her face. He asked her, “Are you okay?”.

“Yeah” said the daughter. “I met my mom.”

She didn’t tell him everything about it. He knew something was changed and it was for the better.

Years later, they both got married. She got a good career just like her mom wished her for. They were seen having a lovely dinner with their child. THE END.

Playing time was about 92 minutes.

Voyages

Usually, I play games solo but for this one and the next 2, I had a chance to play with new casual gamer. She said that she has been to a big board game store in town that I have never been to. Her friend invited her to play a couple of games. One of them, she said was Take 6. So, I assumed she was not really a newbie but maybe prefer a different type of game than me.

We met at a cafe but not specifically for board game. I assumed that the table would be small, which was correct so I brought just small games and my big book of Roll and Write games.

The first one I introduced to her was Voyages. She was surprised when pulled out that big book and showed her a lot of different sheets. This was a new thing for her. The game uses 3 D6 but I didn’t bring any so I used Google for it which also surprised her.

At that point, it had been a while since I taught any game to a gamer and this was only the 2nd time to a casual gamer. This was also my first time teaching Voyages. I didn’t realize that it was not that easy.

So, I handed to her the dry erase marker and the Map 1 of Voyages, planning to teach her the game first in solo session. Then she asked “So, I am just going to play alone? Isn’t that boring?” Well, I convinced her that this was just to teach.

Maybe it was a mistake not to give example first instead of learn as you play. Honestly, after seeing the result, I was quite surprised. Maybe it is also not bad to not teach new gamer every rule. Here is the couple of steps I took to teach the rule one by one. Not saying this was the best to do but just what I ended up doing.

STEP 1: HOW YOU USE 3 DICE

I didn’t start with a theme but straight of how player use 3 dice in this game. Her reaction was “What…?”

“So, you have these 3 numbers from the dice. One for direction, one for how far you move and the other for the left bottom of your sheet.”

I think I should have just pointed to the round tracker at the bottom left of the sheet for the direction.

Then she asked “How to know which number is for which?”. I said, “that’s the game. You get to make that choice.”

Then I continued by giving some examples based on the rolled numbers. I think it was 1, 2 and 5. “So, you can choose 2 for direction and then move either 1 space or 5 spaces or 5 as the direction but only moved 2 or 1 space or 1 as direction, moving either 2 or 5.”

Eventually, she chose direction 1, and 5 as speed, landing on one of the cargo. Then I said “since you landed on a cargo, you make a circle in that cargo row, according to the icon. The number above each space indicates the potential score.” I didn’t continue with how to actually get that score.

“You already used 2 numbers for direction and speed, so now use the last one to choose any space with the corresponding number.” I didn’t suggest which space she should have chosen and what they meant yet.

After that, the next two rounds, she moved to pick the heroic icon and a sailor at the top left area of the sheet. I hadn’t told her how to use those sailors. I just pointed out, “since you landed on those icons, you make a box and/or circle at the bottom right section of the sheet.”

This also means she entered one of the unexplored space but I didn’t tell her what they meant yet.

STEP 2: THE THEME.

From the current position, she rolled dice that could have moved her to the island part with a 4 on it. This was when I started to explain the theme that this was about moving ship and those white hexes represent island.

“If you move there, the ship will stop the movement even if you use higher number”

She only needed 2 but she rolled 1 and the other was 6 or so with 3 as the direction.

“If you use one, you don’t reach the island but with 6 you stop instead of crossing the island.” I think she got it pretty quick but then she asked something.

“What does this number 4 means?”

“That is the score you can get. So if you can reach the other islands with numbers, you can get higher score.”

I still had not told her the settlement or the pirate icon yet.

After that, she continued moving direction 5 speed 2 and then direction 4, speed more than 2, landing on another island with a number 6. I kept helping her with all of the options but eventually she said

“Do not tell me! Let me work on it alone!”

STEP 3: THE SAILOR

I don’t remember when exactly but eventually I told her that she could change the number of 1 die by 1 by crossing the box at the bottom right corner. Even this had to be a gradual thing to learn for her.

First, apparently, it was not that easy for her to memorize that she had 3 numbers and one was changed to this so the other stayed. This was also when I started helping with options again. I remember there was a choice between changing a 2 into 3 or a 4 into a 3 and the 3 was the speed. So, either 2 or 4 was the direction which gave her a lot more possible combination.

2nd, her focus was still just to change for either direction or speed. The duty was still just whatever left. Well, in earlier rounds, any number works for the Duties part. I let her chose which space to fill. if I was playing, I probably would have made some recommendations.

Maybe around after half point into the game, she got less choice to fill duties and I reminded her, “You can also change the number for duties”.

Eventually, she got used to the idea of changing the dice using sailors. Sometimes even changing 2 of them. I still had not told her that she could use the Heroic to any number.

She finally asked “What happen if I run out of these boxes?”

“Then you can no longer change the number. But you still can get more.” Since she started to understand the importance of those sailors, I told her that she could get one by completing a row or column from those duties.”

I remember in one of the last few rounds, she had to change the numbers a lot. She already spent 2 Sailors for 1 die and she finally spent one of the Heroic to change one to any number, I think changing a 3 to a 6 or vice versa. That was a good use, I guess.

STEP 4: THE CARGO and DUTIES

The game continued. From the Island 6, she moved the ship down to a different cargo, entering the 2nd unexplored space. After that she landed on the island with Settlement.

Well, I did say thematically, she was selling the cargo. But I think what got to her mind was just about crossing them. I did explain that she can get higher score if she manages to cross them out. Otherwise each cargo is just 1 point.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get to make a choice whether to sell 1 type but all cargos or one of each.

After that settlement, she got 2 different cargos from the duties. One was the 2nd Hide so that worked and the other was the Spice, 1st one. Maybe this should have been the best time to explain how she could pursue specific row or column to get those cargos.

However, since she got the one she already had, I didn’t think I had to explain to change her plan. Compared to how I usually, play, she chose different path in filling duty spaces. Usually I focused on the middle, not chasing any cargo at all. She ignored the main row, her focus was at right part of those duty spaces.

In later rounds, she picked up a Wild cargo from the map and from the main row of the Duties. I guess I forgot to point out the key index, printed on that cargo section that the barrel means any type. I didn’t explain why but I just pointed out, maybe she should go for more of one type. She got to 2nd settlement and completely sold 1 type and gained a star.

I guess I missed the part about explaining the long term strategy. From that Barrel on the map, I could have explained to her that choosing which cargo for the barrel depends on the next one she is pursuing. There was one Spice nearby which she took it as the 2nd. That cargo could have been the 3rd of Spice instead 2nd of Fruit. She may even pushed it to the nearby settlement before the game ended.

STEP 5: A 6 TO A 1 OR 1 TO A 6

The game continued. She almost run out of sailors. Then it got to a situation that changing a 6 to a 1 or vice versa might help so I told her.

“You know, you can also use that sailor to change from 1 to 6 or from 6 to 1.” I wasn’t expecting her reaction which was “What? How?”.

Now that I think about it, maybe it was a bit shocking but also not. For me, who already played games like The Castles of Burgundy, that kind of option makes sense to me. But for other people, those numbers on the dice still represent value instead of options. Even a lot of modern designer games that use dice a lot still uses compounded value idea.

Maybe I should have explained it to her like that. Think of it like options instead of value. Instead I just pointed out “It’s like the direction system. They are not exactly number for that direction but just to represent option that you can adjust.”

She eventually got it and continued.

STEP 6: THE STARS

Finally, she got to pick her 12th Sailor and asked, “What does this Star mean at the 12th space of Sailor?”.

To that, I just answered that she should circle the Star track on the left. This becomes point at the end.

I actually was not expecting that she could get 3 stars, which was the requirement to win the game in solo variant. She got one from Cargo, one from Sailor and the last one was from the Duty track.

I didn’t even mention the requirement yet. Getting those 3 were very close to each other in the last few rounds of the game.

STEP 7: SCORING and OTHER LEFTOVER PARTS I DIDN’T EXPLAIN

16 rounds and the game ended. Then I started explaining the scoring from top to bottom. She visited 3 islands with numbers with total score of 13.

I’m not sure about the next one about exploring the hexes with dashes. Maybe I explained only during this time that if she explored those dashes area, she could get higher score. She explored 4 areas and got 16.

The next one was Cargo. She sold 3 of one type and 1 of another type and 3 other unsold. Gained 18 points.

The Heroic Sailor part, she actually got 3, 2 from map and 1 from the Duty. I guess I missed the part when she gained one from it. On the other hand, she already spent all of the sailors except that last one with a heroic. So, she got only 2 points.

We skipped the Pirate part and went to the last one about Legendary Stars. She got 3 so 9 points.

Counted the total and she got 58. Actually not very bad. This was very close to my usual score. I didn’t expect that.

Of course, she then asked about the Pirate. I just pointed to her that she needed to reach that specific space. But then I didn’t explain further the requirement nor the star symbol or the Star at the top right of the map.

I think she was very satisfied with the result. Or maybe relieved for finishing the game.

“The one who designed it must be a genius!” said her. To that I said “I think some of the board game designers had Ph.D.”

Then I asked whether she wanted another session of this game, maybe using different map and I could play also. She said “Can we play just card games?”

“You don’t like this one?”

“It’s just a lot of thinking.”

“What about the games you’ve played before? Don’t you also think in those games?”

“Sure, we are also thinking in those games but not like this. More like what you do to the opponent”

Well, that was a bit eye opener for me. I mean, Voyages is more of my standard game that I usually play. Of course, it is not light but I didn’t expect that it would be that too much for a new or casual gamer. From her reaction, I don’t think she didn’t like it but maybe she was hoping for lighter game.

The next game I played with her probably explained what she was expecting more when people are talking about a board game or tabletop game.

Learn more about the game from Voyages Review.

Jaipur

This was the 2nd game I played with this new, casual gamer. Well, I had good result introducing new and casual gamer with Jaipur before. Not my favorite game but I knew this was the kind of game non gamers are expecting. Too bad I didn’t take any picture as I had to play as well.

We still played on that small table of a cafe. The size of the table was probably about 40 x 60 cm, only about a third of my table where I usually play at home.

Well, apparently, Jaipur could fit on that table, where there were also 2 of our cups of coffee. The insert of the box serves good enough as a tray. The deck also stayed in the box. I was planning to bring and use card holder for the market but I didn’t. It could have worked well I think. Just need extra room for discard pile.

Maybe one thing that didn’t work well by using insert as tray is the bonus tokens. I kept the trade 3, 4 and 5 card tokens adjacent to each other. So, when I had to take one after the trading, I had to flip them one by one until I got the right bonus token. There was a chance I looked at the number behind each.

Not a big deal. The easy solution is probably to separate them between the other colors.

The way we play was not perfect but it could have been. She kept looking at the box which I placed a bit far from her to see if there were still available tokens and their value.

The tokens themselves are very colorful. Of course, I arranged them in ascending value of each type so she could still see their color at least. This helped her take cards with colors of higher value, red, yellow or blue.

Just like in Voyages, I tried explaining the game gradually. The good thing about game like this is that I could use my turn to give an example of what you can do in the game. Like either taking 1 card or all of the camels or when doing trading of multiple cards.

I think she got the main idea of the game very quickly. Except maybe when trading multiple cards with or without camels. Most of the time she just took 1 card from the market, even if she had chances to take multiple. Instead of trading using low value cards for the higher ones, She just sold them and then take a new one.

Even the random order of the card seemed to support that play. Most of the time she sold 3 or even 2. I think there was only once or twice selling with 4. None of us did 5.

I don’t think she played her Camel at all. Maybe just once. If anything it seems she was worried that Camel card was like getting penalty at the end so she kept asking me should she get rid of them. I told her, she is not losing anything for having them but she won’t get any point from them unless she has the most.

At least, she got the idea that pushing the opponent to taking all camel cards from the market was good for her. Even a bit of trash talk came out of her mouth. I thought maybe that was a good sign of players enjoying some games.

Even if she didn’t know every strategy, she won the first round. With Camel bonus she got maybe about 60 and I got less. So, we played again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really shuffle the cards thoroughly.

I think she also won that 2nd round. We both got 65 but we forgot to count the Camel bonus. So, since she was less likely to play them, she got the extra 5 bonus.

That was our 2nd game. I pulled out one more after that.

Learn more about the game from Jaipur Game Review.

A Gentle Rain

I actually brought 2 more games, Grove: A 9-card solitaire game and A Gentle Rain. Both are actually solo games. The latter actually had suggestion to turn it into a cooperative game which I think works for the former as well.

I thought Grove was a bit thinkier than A Gentle Rain so I picked A Gentle Rain. We still played in that same table. I was concerned that the table may not fit as this is tile laying game where it can grow to any direction. Apparently, we managed to make it work without too much moving to give some spaces.

We just take turns drawing the next tile and placing it. Maybe I should have just let her place her tile anywhere. Instead I pointed out when her tile had the same color pointing to the same corner which makes it impossible to play tile there later. I did tell here that every tile always has 4 different colors.

Well, the game itself is mostly just scanning the existing tableau for any possible placements. Maybe even lighter than Jaipur.

I also asked her to make decision as which color of flower to play in the middle of four tiles. Pointed out that maybe one color of the 4 had come out more while the other were still in the deck so less likely complete the 4 tiles.

You can say that maybe it’s just me playing the game while trying to make her part of the decision making process. In the end, we managed to find all 8 flowers with 2 tiles left.

She did ask one question about whether it was possible for completing 2 flowers of the same color side by side. There were a couple of half flowers of the same adjacent to each other and initially she thought it was impossible. By the end of it, she noticed that there were a couple that made it.

What makes it interesting is not her question. It’s just maybe she was invested in the game that led her asking that question, even if it was just small. Or I just lucky that she didn’t get bored.

After I got home, I played the game again. Got all of the flowers with 4 tiles left.

Playing time for all 3 games was about 60 minutes.

Peloponnes Card Game

Build your civilization by claiming territories, constructing buildings, increasing populations while overcoming disasters in Peloponnes Card Game.

This was a solo session again but hopefully played correctly using the 2nd level difficulty. With this setting, I drew 2 starting civilization, 3 resource cards available to use and chance to buy 2nd card twice one in any of 2 Epochs.

The 2 Starting Civilization cards were CORINTH and ARCADIA with initial total population of 8, 10 starting coin cards, 2 building points each, and production of 5 Wheat. For the 3 starting coin cards, I got 1 Wheat, 1 Wood and 1 Stone. The Arcadia also gave me 2 protection from Tempest.

From the 10 starting coin cards, I got 5 Wheat, 3 Population, 1 Stone and 2 Wood.

ROUND 1. 2 signs of DECLINE.

First, I claimed the Landscape card from the non conquest row for 3 coins. I paid with 3 coins depicting all wheat. No resources needed to construct the card. I got 1 time 2 coins and a production of 1 wood and 1 Stone. The 2 coins gave me 2 Woods.

After that, I immediately claimed another card, also from the non conquest row for free. However, I needed 2 stone and 2 woods to construct it and the previous one supplied one each. For that I discarded the 2 face up cards one depicting wood and the other depicting stone. Only the wheat card was left.

This means I let the opponent took 1 card from the Conquest row plus 3 coin cards. It was a landscape with a value of 1.

From these 2 power cards, I got 2 protection from the Decline disaster. I got a total of 11 populations, so the income got me 4 cards of 2 wheat, 1 population and 1 wood plus 1 Luxury item.

ROUND 2. 1 sign of PLAGUE and 1 sign of DROUGHT. Decline: 2, Plague: 1, Drought: 1.

That was lucky that no 3rd sign of decline. So, I got a chance to get the 3rd one this time. There were 2 but in conquest row. One was a building with a cost of 0 plus 3. The other, a landscape, with the base cost of 1 coin plus 3 from conquest. However, the building required 3 woods to construct. Both produced 2 wheats, increased the population by 2. The landscape one increased the production of Wood by 2.

Maybe getting the landscape was the better choice. But then I looked at my hand and I got a lot of Woods so I thought I could try the building. I paid 3 to claim that card, 1 from Luxury item and 2 from Wheat card.

My existing resources produced 1 wood and I spent 2 more Wood cards to build the building. I also produced 1 Stone so it became a Luxury item.

With this new Bridge building, the population was 12. I got 4 cards again plus 1 Luxury item. The 4 cards were 1 Stone, 1 Wheat, 1 Wood and 1 Population. 13 cards left plus 2 Luxury Items.

The opponent then took 1 card from the other row. It was a landscape with a value of 1 and 1 population.

ROUND 3. 1 sign of DROUGHT, 1 sign of EARTHQUAKE. Decline: 2, Plague: 1, Drought: 2, Earthquake: 1, Tempest: 0.

At this point, I had 2 buildings and 1 landscape. So the I was more concerned about the Earthquake. On the other hand, the Drought was closer but it was just going to take 1 card that produces 4 Wheat.

Maybe working on the drought was the better choice but I chose to prevent the Earthquake since I thought I had more time to get 3. There were 2 options for that. One was a landscape in non-conquest row while the other was Barrack building in the conquest row. 1 coin to claim the Landscape and 4 for the building.

The building also required 1 stone and 1 wood to construct without any production. Only a bonus of extra 1 coin when claiming the card. I actually forgot this ability at all. The landscape on the other hand increased the production of wood by 2 and population by 1.

Maybe the landscape was the better choice. I guess I was so concerned of giving the opponent extra 3 coins. So I took the building from conquest row with the cost of 4.

I paid 2 using Luxury items, and 2 with the Wheat. The production of 1 wood and 1 stone were enough only to construct the new building. I got 4 cards as one time bonus.

The total population was 13. So, I got 4 cards plus 1 luxury item. I got 3 stone, 2 wood, 2 wheat and 1 population from coin cards.

19 cards left plus 1 Luxury item.

ROUND 4. 2 signs of TEMPEST. Decline: 2, Plague: 1, Drought: 2, Earthquake: 1, Tempest: 2.

I just realized that I still needed 1 Tempest to get full protection from it. This was also Epoch B so I could take 2 cards this round again and that would have been the last time to take 2.

First, I took the Quarry building with the cost of 2 from the other row. Paid with 2 Luxury items. The building required 3 Woods and my production only supplied 1, so I had to discard 2 wood cards. This one gave me 2 points and production of 3 stones.

For the 2nd building, I took the TEMPLE OF APOLLO with the cost of 3 plus 3. The building itself required 5 stones. I produced 1 from Landscape and 3 from the previous quarry building so I had to discard 1 card for the stone and 6 for the building cost. 4 wheat cards plus 2 stone cards for it.

The current total population was 15 so I got 4 cards plus 1 from the Apollo, and 2 Luxury items. 2 Wheat, 2 Stone and 1 Population.

15 cards left plus 2 Luxury items. 6 of those cards were population and 3 were Wheat.

ROUND 5. 1 sign of DROUGHT, 1 sign of PLAGUE. Decline: 2, Plague: 2, Drought: 3, Earthquake: 1, Tempest: 2.

SUPPLY PHASE had not happened this time. But the Drought disaster happened. Luckily, I got complete protection from the previous Temple of Apollo so nothing happened to my civilization.

Plague was about to happen and I still didn’t have anything to prevent it. There were 2 for it, one from each row.

The thing was the one in conquest row also provides a complete prevention from Earthquake which I still needed. The cost was higher, produced nothing but 1 population and required 4 stones. While the one from the other row had only the same base cost and increased the production of both resources and no resources required to construct anything.

Well, I went with the conquest row with the total cost of 6. Paid 2 using Luxury items so 4 more from the coins. Apparently, I let go 2 Wheat and 2 Population cards.

To construct, it required 4 stones and my civ production could provide them all. I also produced 1 Wood which became the Luxury item.

*** It seems I forgot to take income. I had 16 population so I got to draw 4 cards plus 1 from one of the building and 2 Luxury items.

16 cards plus 3 Luxury items left.

ROUND 6. 1 sign of DROUGHT, 1 sign of EARTHQUAKE. Decline: 2, Plague: 2, Drought: 3, Earthquake: 2, Tempest: 2.

SUPPLY PHASE finally happened. No unfinished buildings. I had 16 populations and a production of 9 wheat. Paid 2 missing using 2 Wheat cards, including the one from face up cards, 3 using Luxury items, unfortunately, 2 from the population cards.

13 cards left and 0 Luxury item.

I still needed to work on the Plague prevention. There were 2 options, both from buildings in conquest row. I chose the one that gave complete prevention which was a Well building. The cost was 3 plus 3 lower by 1 compared to the other but the value was also 1 lower.

This also increased the production of wheat by 2 and population by 1. Also needed 1 stone and 2 woods to construct.

I paid 6 with all 6 resource cards for the cost. My civ only produced 1 of the 2 required wood but more than enough stones. So I paid using cards as well for the missing resources. I turned 3 excess stones into luxury items.

I got 17 populations so drawing 4 cards plus 1 from the building and 4 luxury items. 3 wood cards plus 1 stone and 1 population.

11 cards left and 7 luxury items.

ROUND 7. 1 sign of DROUGHT, 1 sign of EARTHQUAKE. Decline: 2, Plague: 2, Drought: 3, Earthquake: 3, Tempest: 2.

The Earthquake happened but I got complete prevention from it. Also, the SUPPLY PHASE happened again.

17 populations and only producing 9 Wheats. Paid the missing 8 using 7 Luxury items and 1 Population card.

10 cards left and 0 luxury item. 4 of them were resources.

I no longer needed to worry about any upcoming disaster as I got everything. Currently I had 17 populations and 21 points from the buildings.

While I had to increase population but I was lacking in wheat production. There were only 2 cards for that, both were buildings in conquest row. The thing was, I was not so sure I could afford any of it. Since there was still one round left so I thought I go cheap this time with the non conquest row.

Claimed the landscape card with that Supply icon. Paid 3 coins. Production of wood and stone went up by 1 each plus 2 populations and just 1 time of 2 coins. My production of 1 wood and 4 stones became luxury items.

With 19 population, I got 4 cards plus 1 from building and 4 luxury items. 1 Stone, 2 Wood, 2 Wheat.

12 cards left plus 9 luxury items. 3 stones, 3 woods and 2 wheats. 4 were assumed to be just resources since I forgot to draw.

**** It seems I forgot again to update the Luxury items but got the cards for income.

ROUND 8. 2 sign of PLAGUE, 1 sign of EARTHQUAKE. Decline: 2, Plague: 3, Drought: 3, Earthquake: 3, Tempest: 2.

Plague happened but I had prevented it. Like before I needed populations and wheat production. The best was the landscape from conquest row that increased population by 2 and wheat by 5 for the cost of 6 plus 3.

Paid all 9 with the luxury items. Got 7 back from excess production.

I had 21 populations so I got 4 cards and 4 luxury items plus 1 card from building.

16 cards left and 11 luxury items.

LAST SUPPLY PHASE.

No unfinished buildings. 21 population with only production of 14 wheat. I got at least 4 wheat cards so the last 3 came from the Luxury items.

So I had 12 cards left plus 8 luxury items. Only one of the cards was the Population. The other 11 could have been any cards. I just assumed that all of them were resources.

That means my definitive score from population was 22 plus 2 from luxury card.

I got 25 points from power cards plus 2 from luxury card. 19 leftover resources left means just 3 points. My score was still using the Population, which was 22.

The opponent got no population cards. They only got 13 populations and 16 points from their wealth.

Playing time was about 35 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Peloponnes Card Game Review.

Level 10

Help Izzy, the hero of Land of Woz in his adventure to reach Level 10 of 5 different worlds, one level at a time in a cooperative game of Level 10.

Played this game 3 sessions, one with official solo rule and the other with 2 handed. As in my previous post for this game, the solo variant seems to be very easy even without the pause card. Maybe 10 cards makes it too easy? I probably will try with smaller hand size.

Because the solo is too easy, I tried playing 2-handed, with one hand face down when they are not active. I guess it didn’t work if you have very good memory of the other hand of cards.

My first session, I didn’t use any of the Pause card as well. I was confused with how it works previously but apparently I missed the part that if you play the Pause card you also play any card from that row.

If I understand correctly, you can only discard a card when the deck runs out of cards but you can still play the Pause card anytime. This is really a weird rule, especially as it happens towards the end of the game. Maybe they expect players to ignore and discard that card in earlier rounds and then use it for later?

Anyway, my second session with 2-handed, I lost like in Level 3 or 4, still very early, when I actually had those 3 Pause cards. Maybe I just don’t know how it works yet. The problem is that if I cannot discard earlier and play that Pause card early, I will extend the row even farther, making it longer than other rows. It gets worse if I have to play multiple Pause card in the same row and there is no rule about it. Which is why I thought the removing card of that row makes anytime you play Pause card makes it more sense for me.

While in my 1st session, without using any Pause card I managed to get to Level 10. Just failed to place one last card where no more reset card and the Blue 7 had to be played right after Blue 8. Those were the last few cards in both players hand.

It seems that knowing which player to do the reset to get rid of some cards BEFORE the deck runs out is very important. Maybe even a couple more. If you get lucky then maybe when all remaining cards are in both players hand, you can start deducing the right order to play until the last card.

At that point, you can figure it out whether you win or not. Unfortunately, if not, then maybe there is no way to win. Even if there is one or more Reset card left, the exchanging part can only happen when there is still card in the deck.

I guess it’s like when you play the Crew then you realize your remaining hands will force you to win while you have to let somebody else do it.

Well, that feeling sucks. Maybe in a good way for some people. You get the flow and you feel like you can win but then suddenly you realize, you fail.

I guess that means, players have to be aware when there are few cards left. They need to start checking each other and evaluate. Which card are already out, which in one player and the other’s, which are left in the deck based on when they each uses Reset card.

In some of my sessions, there were moments when one player had cards in consecutive ascending order for the same color. Especially early in the game, they really need to get rid one of them. Gets trickier when it gets closer to the end as you probably need them right away.

It gets worse when all cards in your hand are in 2 colors only. Even using a Reset might not help. That player must point out that they only have those 2 colors and the other player must take notice and play accordingly.

I don’t know for sure, but it feels like there is a chance in that situation you cannot win the game. What if, from random draw of cards, you only get one color? You play and then draw, hopefully you get the 2nd color. Maybe the other player noticed and let you play that color. But then you draw again and get one of the first 2 colors? If you didn’t get the 2nd for the first time, then you cannot win.

Alternatively, you can try the reset route. If you are lucky then maybe get 2 different colors. If not then, the chance to win is low if any.

This means, at least you need to shuffle cards thoroughly. Especially after resetting the game when all cards in same color might end up close to each other.

Well, maybe that’s the problem with lower player count. Maybe not that big of a deal for higher player counts but I heard it is more difficult with more players.

Playing time took about 50 minutes for my 2-handed variant. Mostly because I had to keep flipping both hand of cards. Let’s see if I can get better with more plays.

The Guild of Merchant Explorers

Explore the world of Tigome through various terrains and discover some villages that can help you explore even farther to the corner of the world.

Last time, I played this solo using the same Kazan map and lost after failing to complete one of the solo objective. So I retried the game using almost the same setup.

1st objective was to explore ruins A and J. 2nd objective was to discover a village next to a ruin space. 3rd objective was to explore the Northeastern Discovery tower and ruin space C.

ERA I, 1st Card: DESERT.

My option from the Capital City was either to go east or west. Both had Desert region each with 5 hexes. Without additional Investigate card, the initial cards were not enough to discover a village in either of them. This means I should look for the next region after those desert region.

Going west could get me to a Mountain region with 3 hexes but the Capital city itself was already next to Mountain region at the north. There was Grassland region with 4 spaces but required at least 4 spaces from Capital City to get there. There was no guarantee that the card to explore adjacent place would show up before the Grasslands.

So, going to the east, I thought was the better choice. Explored the first 2 spaces from Capital City and gained 1 Coin from it.

ERA I, 2nd Card: SEA.

At this point, the only accessible region was the Lake at south from Capital City. There were still 2 options. Either going south to Ruin E or going to the west. Not sure going to the west got me anywhere better than the south so I had no other choice.

Going south 3 spaces of sea to the Ruin E. From the Treasure, I found my 1st VASE CARD.

ERA I, 3rd Card: MOUNTAIN.

My options with this were either going north or south. Both had Mountain region each with 3 hexes. I could expect the card to explore 2 adjacent spaces to help me discover a village in either Mountain region.

I chose the south option. The possible space to place the village could be next to a ruin space, to complete the 2nd objective. This also helped me to be very close to the Towers. More other regions to be explored after that as well unlike the north which was surrounded by Volcano and sea.

The question now where from 2 possible hexes of Mountain to place the next cube. Well, I guess if I wanted to rely on the card for 2 adjacent spaces I had to choose the left one. So, I went with it.

ERA I, 4th Card: GRASSLAND.

After this one, I got the adjacent cards and the Investigate card. With this and the adjacent space card, I could have explored up to 4 grasslands which was enough to discover a Village in 2 regions. Even the village would have been next to a ruin if I went to the south one.

I decided to keep the adjacent space for the Mountain. Other than easier to reach Ruin A, required by 1st objective, I don’t see better reason to go southwest more. So, I stayed closer to the east.

Using the 2 grasslands I just explored 2 spaces closer to the South Discovery Tower. Maybe the investigate card could help me afterwards.

ERA I, 5th Card: ADJACENT SPACES.

As planned I completed the Mountain region that I have started the exploration on. Discovered a village for 1 point, got 2 more from the visible coin. I placed the village next to Ruin E, completing the 2nd objective.

ERA I, 6th Card: 1st INVESTIGATE CARD.

The 2 Investigate cards I could have chosen were, Explore 1 Mountain and then up to 5 adjacent spaces from there. Or, I could explore 4 continuous spaces between Mountain and/or Sea spaces.

Definitely chose the 2nd option as it gave me more flexibility. The question was, where to use it now. As mentioned before, from Capital City, I could go north to Mountain spaces with 3 hexes and the 4th would have been the Ruin G.

I could have also used it for the Discovery tower at the south, going to the east to Mountain region. But the region itself required 4 Mountain and it was not enough.

3rd option was going to another Mountain region to the east from the Capital City. It had exactly 3 hexes and I used one for extending from the closest explorer through 1 Sea space to reach that Mountain.

I went with the 3rd so I had a village on this Mountain that could help me to reach Ruin A later. Gained 2 coins from it.

Current Score: 8

ERA II, 1st Card: ADJACENT SPACES.

Since this was the first card, this was a good time to try reaching Ruin A from the closest village on the Mountain. 2 spaces of the Grasslands and then the 3 straight spaces of the Sea could get me to that Ruin A. So, I went with it.

ERA II, 2nd Card: SEA.

Well that was just my plan. From previous explored space, 3 spaces to the Ruin A. The Treasure card was 1 coin for every Village on Mountain. Using this map, I could get at most 5 coins.

ERA II, 3rd Card: 2nd INVESTIGATE CARD.

Unfortunately, I was still too far from completing the 1st objective. I needed to go to Ruins J on the opposite side of Ruins A.

My 2nd Investigate cards were either exploring 2 Mountain spaces and 3 Deserts in any position and any order, or I could explore 1 Mountain and then go straight 3 spaces from there.

1st one was more flexible but the 2nd one could be handy as well just more situational. Also 1st one allowed me to explore 5 while the other only a total of 4. So I picked the 1st.

I still needed to work on the 1st objective. Using this Investigate card from the Capital City, I placed 2 on the Mountain north from the Capital and 3 Desert to the region to the east from Capital City.

With the upcoming 2 desert and 1 Mountain card, I could discover 2 villages this round. The village on this Desert region could help me reach Discovery tower at Southeast and the Ruin J.

Gained 2 coins from those exploration.

ERA II, 4th Card: GRASSLANDS.

From the current position, I only had one option where this could help me discover a village. The other just extended the exploration without reaching anything beyond that.

After this I had The Mountain card, the Desert card and the 1st Investigate card. The first 2 I already had a plan for it. If I got lucky and the Investigate card came out last, then that card could reach probably the southeast tower.

If not then maybe the better and safer option was to use these 2 grasslands to explore grasslands towards the tower. Then that Investigate card for the Tower plus some mountains and a ruin.

I took the risk and just used the 2 grasslands to discover a village in the explored southwest grasslands. Gained 2 coins plus 1. If after this the card was Investigate card then I had no choice but to just gained coins from the northwest Mountains.

ERA II, 5th Card: DESERT.

So, I got lucky. I could reach the Tower at the southeast. These 2 desert spaces were to complete the discovery of village in Desert region east from Capital City. The village was placed at the right most space, closest to the tower. Gained 2 coins from it.

ERA II, 6th Card: 1st INVESTIGATE CARD.

As planned I extended the exploration from the recently discovered village to the Tower. Gained 8 coins from it.

Unfortunately, I had to redo the exploration just to reach the nearby Ruin J. I probably failed to score it anyway but it was required for solo game to win.

ERA II, 7th Card: MOUNTAIN.

Also as planned, this was to complete the exploration of Mountain region north from the Capital city. Got 1 coin from the space and 2 from the village.

Current Score: 26

ERA III, 1st Card: ADJACENT SPACES.

I still had a chance to score the first objective using this and if the next one was the 3 sea spaces. From the closest village that should be enough so I went with that.

ERA III, 2nd Card: 3rd INVESTIGATE CARD.

Tough luck, unfortunately. I failed to score that but I still needed to complete it.

The 2 Investigate card I could have chosen were either explore 1 sea and 3 mountains in any order, anywhere or I could explore 5 continuous spaces between sea and/or grasslands, similar to my 1st card. While both offered flexibility in their own way, I had enough cards related to mountain and desert. I needed that Grasslands.

I had a couple of options to use this card. First I could have gone to the south Tower from the nearby village. 2 spaces away from the Northwest tower from the west most village.

3rd option was to go north from Capital city or the closer village on the Mountain. I thought I could start working on the 3rd objective by exploring Ruin C and Northeast Tower.

To reach the Ruins C, it was behind a Grasslands and maybe 2 sea regions from the closest village. Using this card I could explore up to 5 spaces. The grassland region had 5 hexes so with 3 from these and 2 from the Grassland card I could discover a village there. But that means I had to explore Ruins C in later turns or rounds even.

So be it. From the village on Mountain, I explored Ruins G first. The Treasure card fortunately gained me 1 more exploration cube. So, I could execute my plan and reached that Ruins C. The Treasure from Ruins C got me 1 coin for every Tower, so up to 4 only.

ERA III, 3rd Card: SEA.

As planned, I used this to reach the Ruins J, completing the 1st objective. The Treasure card got me 2 coins, counted later.

ERA III, 4th Card: DESERT.

With 2 desert spaces to explore, I could go northwest, closer to the Tower. But the region there required a total of 6. Even with 2nd Investigate card I could at most explore up to 5.

There was another region with 4 spaces closer to Capital City and this one was enough. However, I already had plan for farther village to be discovered and discovering one here felt wasteful.

So, instead I used these 2 to create trading route between the 2 Desert region. One had a value of 3 and the other a value of 2. So, I got 6 points and I covered the one in the middle. My other investigate card could help me to connect with the other city at the top right Mountain region.

ERA III, 5th Card: 1st INVESTIGATE CARD.

With this, explore up to 5 continuous spaces of Mountain and/or Sea. As I said earlier, I could start exploring the Mountain region at the northern most part.

Started from Ruins F, then 2 Mountain spaces on the left and the City with a value of 3. This city was connected with another city in Desert region northwest with a value of 3 as well.

The Treasure got me 2nd VASE CARD. Scored 9 coins from the trade route and I covered the one in the Mountain region.

ERA III, 6th Card: 2nd INVESTIGATE CARD.

3 Desert and 2 Mountain to explore with this. 1 Mountain space was to complete the exploration of Mountain region at the north. Scored 3 coins. Then using 3 Desert, from the City in the Desert region at northwest, I went 3 spaces to the Tower. Gained 3 coins from the map. Lastly, using the last Mountain space, I discovered the 2nd Tower. Scored 8 coins.

ERA III, 7th Card: MOUNTAIN.

Unfortunately not much use of this. So, I just reexplored the space with the highest value, accessible. It was 2 coins from the village in south Mountain region.

ERA III, 8th Card: GRASSLANDS.

I already had a plan for these 2 grassland spaces. These were to complete the exploration of the North Grassland regions. Gained 3 coins from the map and 3 more from the village. I placed the village next to the Ruins C so maybe I could explore west farther.

Current Score: 61

ERA IV, 1st Card: 3rd INVESTIGATE CARD.

5 continuous spaces of either Sea and/or Grasslands. From the village in the north Mountain region, I explored towards the northeast Tower through grassland region. The region had 4 hexes to explore so plus the tower I got exactly 5.

Gained 2 coins from the map, 4 coins from village and 10 coins from 3rd tower. I also explored Ruins H and the treasure got me 1 extra exploration cube. I just used it to continue exploring east farther to the sea space between the 2 lands so I had more options for later. Also, by reaching this tower and Ruins C, I completed the 3rd objective so I could win the game regardless of points.

ERA IV, 2nd Card: MOUNTAIN.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any better use than 2 coins from the same South Mountain.

ERA IV, 3rd Card: ADJACENT SPACES.

Desert and Grassland cards still had not come out at this point. I could use them to connect the two cities at the northeast. For that, I had to use this card to explore Ruins I and a grassland space so that the I was just 1 space away from either city. The Treasure card got me 3rd VASE CARD.

ERA IV, 4th Card: 4th INVESTIGATE CARD.

So, I could use one of the 3 investigate cards. I still had 1 tower left to explore and it was surrounded by a grassland space. So, I used the 3rd one to explore 5 continuous spaces of either grasslands and/or sea. Gained 14 coins from the Tower plus 2 coins from map.

I could have discovered a village there but instead I explored the nearby Ruins B. The village could still be discovered by grassland cards later. Got 4th VASE CARD from the treasure.

ERA IV, 5th Card: 2nd INVESTIGATE CARD.

2 Mountain and 3 Desert. I still had the Desert cards so I could explore up to 5 but one must be for the northeast city. Unfortunately, the remaining 4 would not be enough to discover any village unless I used all 5 for the region to the west from Capital City.

***** MISTAKE

It seems I got it wrong this time. I used this card to start exploring from the Northwest Tower which was forbidden. The best use for these 5 were 1 for the Northeast city, 1 from village on southwest mountain going south to desert and 2nd mountain to connect to the previous exploration. Then the last desert was to the nearby city. This connected the 2 city worth 2 x 2. Didn’t matter which one I covered.

With that correct one, I got 1 coin from Map and 4 from Trade route. Still 1 Mountain left so the best I could get was 2 coins.

ERA IV, 6th Card: GRASSLAND.

I already had plan for this which fortunately, didn’t get affected by wrong move before. 2 grassland spaces, one to connect the 2 Northeast city and one other to discover a village in South Grassland spaces.

Gained 8 coins from trade route and 4 coins from discovering a village.

ERA IV, 7th Card: 1st INVESTIGATE CARD.

This was to explore 4 continuous spaces of either Mountain and/or Sea. I just used it to explore behind the Volcano where every Mountain hex shows coins. Gained 10 coins from it.

ERA IV, 8th Card: SEA.

From the village in North Grassland region, I explored 3 spaces straight to Ruins D. The treasure got me 5th VASE CARD, which became 1st of new set.

ERA IV, 9th Card: DESERT.

Nothing else to do with this last one except taking coins from the map. The best was 3 from 2 cubes but somehow I chose only 2.

That was the end of the game.

SCORING
Current Score: 121
3 Objectives: 20
10 Treasure Cards: 26

TOTAL SCORE: 167

Playing time was about 68 minutes.

Siege of Valeria

Defend the Fortress of Valeria’s Southern border from Shadow Kingdom of Valeria by destroying all of their Siege Engines in 7 days in Siege of Valeria.

In this one, I also included the expansions with Boss, 4 Elite Troops, the Commander that I need to beat as well to win. I still played with similar setup as before since I lost last time, with Pharaoh as the boss and Extractor as the Commander. The Duke this time was different which was Priestess of War.

I won the game but I had to cheat a bit by ignoring some random setup like Siege Engines, Event and some troop cards. Not playing this as a campaign because losing in 1 session only leads to more penalties which make the game harder than it already is.

I think for my next session I need to use one bonus card as if I already won the previous session.

So, here is how the session went.

ROUND 1. Red 4, 3, 3, 2 and Blue 6 and 2.

The Extractor decreased the value of one blue die by 1 and I chose the 6 to a 5. 1st Engine was out of range. 2nd one forced me to spend 1 die which I picked red 2 and I had to reroll a 4 which luckily I got a 6.

3red engine forced me to reroll a 5 which I picked the Blue 5 and it became a 3. 4th and 5th were out of range.

Event: FRIENDS ARRIVE. Draw 2 Champion cards and add to the Fortress. I got Lady Gurira at 4th and Sister Althea at 2nd.

My Starting hand were Red Witch and the Dragonkin Warlord.

First I played Red 6 to Goblin Archer on Vanguard 2. Played the card immediately and got another Red 6. Vanguard 1 had Rune Witch and I played my Blue 3 on him with the help from Guard, the Starting Champion with Red 3.

Now that I had empty space, I played the Red Witch card and got Blue 3 and Smith Lacion Champion at 1st turret.

3rd Vanguard was also Rune Witch and I played Blue 2 and Red 3. 1st column front most had Goblin Warrior which I beat with Red 3.

4th Vanguard had Lycan Mage. I had Red 6 and only Blue 3. So I played Sister Althea to increase the Blue into a 4 and beat that Mage.

My only die left was Red 3. With Red 2 the help from Archer, the starting Champion, I attacked Gnoll Pack from 4th column, 4th row.

Those were all of my actions. One vanguard hit the 5th turret.

ROUND 2. I got Red 5, 4, 4, 4, 2 and 1, Blue 5, 3 and 2.

The Extractor decreased the Blue 5 into 4. 1st Engine hit first damage to the turret. 2nd, 4th and 5th were out of range. The 3rd rerolled my Red 5 and got Red 5.

*** Apparently I forgot to draw and resolve an Event.

First I attacked the Red Witch at 1st Vanguard using Red 2 and Blue 4. Sister Althea increased the Blue to 5. I played the witch immediately and got Blue 4 with Brother Benzin, a champion at 3rd turret.

Using Lycan after attacking that Witch, and turned a Red 1 into red 6, I attacked Efreet at 2nd row 1st column. Then I immediately played that to destroy 1st engine behind that one using Blue 2.

So, I got to draw a Champion. I removed Builder, the last starting champion after using him to remove the impact token in his turret. Sister Elina took that place.

Then Red 5 to Gnoll Pack at 2nd Vanguard. Behind that was Efreet and I played Red 4 and Blue 4, increased the red by 1 using Warrior.

With Red 4 I attacked the Gargoyle at 4th Vanguard. Behind that was Goblin archer I played Red 4 plus 3 from the Priestess of War. Using the 2nd Efreet and Blue 2 overkilled the 4th engine behind that.

So I got to draw another champion. Before that I used Smith Lacion to move the impact token on his turret to the 4th. Then Lady Gurira was removed along that impact token. I got Sir Chun’nan to replace her.

Played the archer and I got Red 6. This was perfect to kill the Troll Brute, Row 3 2nd column to push the Spinblade engine rignt to Vanguard where it was out of range.

Those were all of my actions. 2 troops at 3rd and 5th vanguard so 1st damage to each. New Engine at 1st and 4th column, both moved to 4th row immediately.

ROUND 3. Red 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2 and Blue 3, 3, 3, 3.

The Extractor lowered one of the blue. 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th engine were all out of range. 3rd one rerolled my Red 5 into a 1.

EVENT: DESERTER. Move one active red to spent dice pool. Somehow I forgot about the Red 1 and let go red 2 instead.

I had to focus destroying 2nd Engine since it was at Vanguard and the 5th one since it was about to force me to forfeit dice. 2nd engine required a 14. I played Red 6, double it with Dragonkin plus Red 3.

Before drawing a champion, I removed Sister Elina from 5th turret along with an impact token. I got Adept Immogin.

There was still one red die in supply and an archer in 3rd column. Red 4 and Blue 4 first to take down another Dragonkin at vanguard and then Red 4 plus Blue 2 from Adept Immogin to defeat the Archer. I played it and got red 2.

Then Red 3 and Blue 3 to defeat the Undead Samurai at 5th Vanguard. I used the ability right away to switch position between the Engine from that column row 3 to row 2 with the Gargoyle.

There were still 2 Blue 3, Red 2 and Red 1. I used the Rune Witch to reroll the reds and got Red 2 and Red 5. I increased the Red 5 by one using Warrior and double it with the Dragonkin. Plus Blue 3, I destroyed the 5th Engine.

Before getting a new champion, I removed brother Benzin along with the damage. I got Wardsmith Sajin as replacement at 3rd turret.

Still had Red 2 and Blue 3. I played my Gargoyle to attack Gargan Priest at 1st column, 3rd row. I could have used the Priestess of War to attack somewhere else but I forgot about her.

Those were all of my actions. 2 remaining vanguard and I got 1st damage at 1st and 4th turret. I assumed I could move the damage from 1st using Smith Laicon to 3rd and Wardsmith Sajin just removed it along with him.

ROUND 4. Red 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1 and Blue 5, 4, 4, 3.

The Extractor again to Blue 5. 1st, 2nd and 5th engine were out of range. 3rd rerolled a 5 into 1 and 4th rerolled a 6 into 4.

EVENT: FOOLS RUSH IN. 2 Red tokens to the weakest red troop in the Vanguard. There were 3 Gargoyles and 1 Gnoll plus 1 engine in Vanguard so I chose the gargoyle at 5th.

Started the round by using Rune witch to reroll low value dice. Red 2 and 3 Red 1 turned into 4, 3, 2, 2. Not bad.

Incendiaries engine in Vanguard had to be destroyed and the Breach tower before it starts loading troop at 5th.

So I played Red 4 first to Gargoyle at 5th vanguard and the Adepth Immogin took care the 2 extra red tokens. The tokens were added to Red 3 and plus Blue 5 destroyed the Engine at 3rd. I got Magister Femik at 3rd.

I played Red 4 and Blue 4 to kill Dragonkin at 2nd row 5th column. Behind that was the Breach Tower, required 14 to be destroyed. I got Red 6. Changed the Red 2 to 6 using Troll brute and plus Blue 3 I destroyed the engine. I removed Sir Chun’nan along with damage token and he was replaced by Sir Nathem.

I still had 3 Red and 1 Blue. With those I had to deal with 2 dangerous engines at 1st and 2nd. 1st was about to trigger at Vanguard later, lowering all red by 1. 2nd would have discarded and flipped one each champion next round unless I could destroy 2 troops in front of it to make it out of range.

I thought the 2nd was more dangerous. So, first with Red 2, flipped the die using Gnoll to 5 and used that die to attack Gnoll at 2nd Vanguard. Behind that was Dragonkin and I played Blue 5 plus Red 3.

Last die was Red 4 for Gargoyle at 1st vanguard.

Those were all of my actions. One troop left in Vanguard 4 so 1 damage.

ROUND 5. Red 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1 and Blue 5, 5, 4, 2.

The Extractor again to Blue 5. Only 2nd engine was out of range. 1st one lowered all red dice value by 1 each. 3rd added 1 impact. No 6 to reroll by 4th. I spent Blue 2 and rerolled Blue 4 to 4 because of that 5th engine.

EVENT: FORSIGHT. Look at the top 3 event and return in any order. 2 positive effects and 1 bad which I placed the bad as the last.

Unfortunately I had no more Rune Witch to reroll. I had to get rid at least the 1st engine at Vanguard.

First, I attacked the Lycan at 5th Vanguard which required Blue and Red 5. I used Blue 5 and Red 1. The other 2 came from Magister Femik. Immediately played that lycan to kill the Troll brute behind it using Red 3.

Now there were 2 spent blue dice. I used Sir Nathem to reroll them back and got Blue 4 and 5.

Using Gnoll card I flipped one of the Red 1 to 6 and then double it with Dragonkin. Plus Red 2 I destroyed that engine. I got Doktor Hilter in that 4th turret, replacing Sir Nathem.

Another Lycan at 3rd Vanguard and I played Blue 4 and another Red 1. Priestess of War helped with the missing Red 3. Red 4 plus 2 from Adept Immogin to get rid of Archer at 4th Vanguard.

The last vanguard at 2nd had Undead Samurai required Blue and Red 3. I played Blue 5 and Red 1.

I still had red 5, Blue 5 and 4 which were enough to destroy 2nd Engine. Before drawing a new champion, I let go Doktor Hilter along with the impact token and got Sir Heller.

As the last action, I moved the 3rd engine from 3rd column to empty space of 4th column. This way 3 last engines would be revealed next round.

No vanguard left to hit any turret.

ROUND 6. Red 6, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 and Blue 4, 4, 2, 1.

5 engines left plus the boss in 2 rounds with Pharaoh boss in the 3rd column 3rd row. The Extractor decreased one Blue 4. Pharaoh took Red 4 and decreased the value by 3. The bottom part got 3 Red Tokens.

Engine at 1st, 2nd and 5th were not in range. One at 4th column 2nd row added 1 impact token to the turret and the 2nd engine rerolled a 6 into a 5.

EVENT: SHORE UP THE WALLS. Remove all impact tokens from one turret. Using Smith Laicon, moved one token to the other so the other had 2. Both then got removed by this event.

Using Sister Althea, I increased Blue 4 by 1 into 5. Spent it to Red Witch at 3rd Vanguard along with Red 2. Then, using Lycan I overkilled the Elite troop at 2nd Vanguard with Red 2.

Blue 2 from Magister Femik and Red 1 from Sir Nathem plus my Red 2, attacked Gargan Priest at 1st Vanguard.

First, Catapult Engine at 4th Vanguard, which required 10 damage. I turned Red 1 into 6 using Troll Brute. Combined with Blue 4, destroyed that engine.

I thought I would have not gotten too much damage after this, I let go Smith Laicon. Then the new one after destroying that engine was Sir Quentin.

There was still one Spinblade engine at 5th Vanguard which required 14. I got Red 5, doubled it with Dragonkin, then with Red 2 and Blue 2, I got exactly 14, destroying the engine. I let go Adept Immogin from that turret with Sir Phanter.

Remaining dice were Red 5 and Red 1 with about Red 3 from Priestess of War. Using them I attacked Dragonkin from 2nd column 2nd row.

3 Engines left plus 1 Boss, 3 troops and the last 4 from the deck. Possible 3 elite troops there.

No damage since I cleared out all Vanguard.

ROUND 7. Red 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Blue 2, 1, 1, 1.

The Extractor was blocked by Bone Breaker card. Engine at 2nd and 4th Vanguard were both blocked by Gargan Priest cards. 1st Engine was out of range.

Pharaoh decreased Red 4 into Red 1 and added 3 more tokens for the bottom part while removing blue 1.

EVENT: AQUILA PROVIDES. Return 2 Random troops from the discards to your hand. I got Rune Witch to reroll dice and Dragonkin to double damage.

Immediately used the Rune Witch and rerolled 3 Blue and 3 Reds all the lowest. I got Red 6, 2 and 1, Blue 6, 4 and 4.

Ballista engine required 10 so I played Red 6 and Red 4. I got Wizard Denthal to replace Magister Femik. Red 2 from Sir Quentin and Blue 2 from Wizard, plus Red 6 and Red 2 destroyed Trebuchet from 4th Vanguard required 12.

I got Lady Ozwin which replaced Sir Nathem. I used then Red 5 and Blue 4 to kill Efreet from 5th Vanguard.

Then using Red 2 from Sir Phanter and my Red 1, I killed Goblin Warrior from 1st Vanguard. Behind that Warrior was the last engine so using Efreet and Blue 3, I overkilled it.

Lady Ozwin then reused 2 Red and I got Red 6 and Red 2. The new champion was Mrs. Rye. Mrs. Rye could increase 5 dice value by 1 each one time only. Got Blue 5 into 6, Red 2 and 3 into 3 and 4.

I still had Red Witch and gained Blue 4 plus Sir Filko.

The Boss was behind Goblin Archer so I played Red 6 first to that archer. Immediately played that card and got another Red 4.

Priestess of War plus Blue 6 and 4, Red 6 and 3 destroyed the bottom part of Pharaoh. All of the tokens went to that last Red die and I got red 6. Doubled it using Dragonkin Warlord and Blue 6 I destroyed Pharaoh completely.

I won. Unfortunately, I just realized when writing this, I still made some mistakes in addition to not completely randomize the setup.

Playing time was about 84 minutes. As mentioned before, I probably will look for a way to easier variant. Like using the bonus card as if I just won the previous session. Don’t know how much that will change.

Aleph Null

Another attempt to summon the demonic prince, Baphomet or meet my doom in Aleph Null.

This time, I still played with the lowest difficulty but instead of 2 Level 1 and 1 Level 2 Interference, I got 2 Level 2 and 1 Level 1. Still not completely sure I played the game correctly but here is how it went.

HOUR 1, 1st DRAW. CHASUBLE, WAX CANDLE, AKHTOI, GRAND CIRCLE, WEALTHY TANIST.

Well I had to summon Akhtoi and I got the Wax Candle so I summoned and scraped the candle. Summoned the Tanist while the rest went to discard pile.

HOUR 1, 2nd DRAW. MIRROR, DECK OF CARDS, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION, SALAMANDER, THE WEEPING TREE.

With the summoned Tanist, I could have only summoned the Deck of Cards but I just discarded them.

HOUR 1, 3rd DRAW. WAND OF POWER, WAX CANDLE, WAX CANDLE, SALAMANDER, MOTHER SHIPTON.

Summoned the Tanist and the 2 Candles. Scrapped the 2 candles for 2 MP to summon the Salamander. The key went to discard pile.

HOUR 1, 4th DRAW. LEARNED TANIST, BELL, GOLEM, WAX CANDLE, BESOM.

Sacrificed Akthoi and scrapped Salamander for 2 MP to summon Golem. Summoned the Tanist and Wax Candle. Scrapped the Candle for 1 MP to summon Bell. Besom to discard pile.

HOUR 1, 5th DRAW. THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH, BOOK OF PACTS, BAPHOMET, LODESTONE, VITRIOL.

Even by scrapping all 3 tanists I couldn’t afford The Devil in the Hearth. Didn’t see good reason to summon Book of Pacts or Vitriol so they all went to discard pile.

HOUR 2, 6th DRAW. EXORCISED WATER, BOLINE, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, MIRROR, WAX CANDLE.

Summoned Boline and Candle, scrapped them immediately to gain 2 MP to summon Mirror. The other 2 went to discard pile.

HOUR 2, 7th DRAW. CHASUBLE, LODESTONE, WAX CANDLE, SALAMANDER, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH.

Summoned the Candle. Scrapped it immediately along with the 3 Tanists to get 4 MP. Spent them all to summon Lodestone. The other 3 to discard pile.

HOUR 2, 8th DRAW. BAPHOMET, THE WEEPING TREE, DECK OF CARDS, WAND OF POWER, WAX CANDLE.

Summoned the candle. This was only enough to summon Deck of Cards but not useful for now. So, the rest went to discard pile.

HOUR 2, 9th DRAW. VITRIOL, SALAMANDER, WAX CANDLE, GRAND CIRCLE, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION.

Summoned the Candle. Scrapped 2 Candles for 2 MP to summon Salamander. The rest went to discard pile.

HOUR 3, 10th DRAW. BOOK OF PACTS, BESOM, GRAND CIRCLE, BAPHOMET, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH.

Got 1 MP on the token. Didn’t do anything with the rest.

HOUR 3, 11th DRAW. SALAMANDER, BOLINE, WAX CANDLE, WAND OF POWER, VITRIOL.

Summoned Wax Candle and Boline. Scrapped the Boline for 1 MP to summon Vitriol. The rest to discard pile.

HOUR 3, 12th DRAW. DECK OF CARDS, EXORCISED WATER, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, WEALTHY TANIST AND LEARNED TANIST.

Summoned the 2 Tanists. I knew that the next one was Chasuble. So, I scrapped the Candle for 1 MP to sacrifice Bell. Then I summoned Chasuble for free. The other 3 to discard pile.

HOUR 3, 13th DRAW. WAX CANDLE, MOTHER SHIPTON, WAX CANDLE, THE WEEPING TREE, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION.

Summoned the 2 Candles and Tanist. I think I scrapped all 3 Tanists plus 1 Candle for 4 MP. Spent them to summon The Weeping Tree and the Circle of Protection.

HOUR 4, 14th DRAW. ILL OMEN, WAX CANDLE, BOOK OF PACTS, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, DECK OF CARDS.

Got 2nd MP token. Summoned the Candle. I still had Salamander and 2 Candles. Had to sacrifice the Candle along with the Interference. Spent 2 MP tokens and scrapped the Salamander for 4 MP to summon Sacrificial Lamb and Deck of Cards.

Summoned the Interference and sacrificed it along with Wax Candle.

HOUR 4, 15th DRAW. WAX CANDLE, SALAMANDER, WEALTHY TANIST, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH, GRAND CIRCLE.

Summoned the Tanist and the Candle. I think I sacrificed the Weeping tree to gain 1 MP and draw 1 card. The card was Besom. Scrapped the Sacrificial Lamb for 3 MP so I got 4 and spent them to summon The Devil in the Hearth. Then I scrapped the Devil for 3 MP, spent them to summon Besom and Salamander. The Grand Circle to the discard pile.

HOUR 4, 16th DRAW. WAND OF POWER, LEARNED TANIST, EXORCISED WATER, BOLINE, MOTHER SHIPTON.

Summoned the 2 Tanists and Boline. With 3 summoned tanists, I sacrificed them all to summon Wand of Power. Exorcised water to discard pile.

HOUR 5, 17th DRAW. THE OPPOSITION OF THE BROTHERHOOD, BAPHOMET, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH, EXORCISED WATER, GRAND CIRCLE.

Got the last MP token. I sacrificed the Chasuble to cancel and sacrifice the Interference. I didn’t do anything with the rest.

HOUR 6, 18th DRAW. SACRIFICIAL LAMB, SALAMANDER, SUCCUBUS, BOOK OF PACTS AND THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH.

I had to summon Succubus. Any leftover card in hand before discarding would get sacrificed along with the Interference.

I sacrificed the 2 Candles and Salamander for 5 MP. Summoned sacrificial Lamb with 3 MP. Sacrificed it for 2 MP so I got 4 left. Summoned the Devil then with 4 MP. Then I sacrificed the Devil for 5 MP to summon Book of Pacts for 3 and the Salamander for 2 MP. Then I sacrificed the Succubus.

HOUR 6, 19th DRAW. EXORCISED WATER, GRAND CIRCLE, BAPHOMET.

Sacrificed Salamander along with Mirror to get 6 MP. Then sacrificed the Lodestone along with 6 MP to summon Grand Circle. After that sacrificed Boline for 2 MP to summon Exorcised Water.

So here is the part I wasn’t sure. I sacrificed the Deck of Cards that allowed me to draw 1 card and discard 2. But since there was no more card left in the deck, I drew nothing and discarded Baphomet.

I just realized that this was not possible because I already summoned Grand Circle. So, I had to do it before summoning the Grand Circle.

Assuming I played that way, I spent the last MP token to sacrifice Besom and took the Baphomet back to my hand. Then with the Grand Circle thing. After that I sacrificed Circle of Protection along with Exorcised water.

The remaining summoned were Wand of Power, Book of Pacts, Grand Circle, Golem and Vitriol with Baphomet as the only card in hand. I summoned it by sacrificing the 3 keys. So, Golem and Vitriol were the 2 sacrificed cards by Baphomet.

Assuming I got the play right, I got 1 point for being the last Hour, 3 points from not getting any damage, -2 from the 2 cards destroyed during summoning Baphomet. So I got 2 points, became The Wizard. Unless I made a mistake and I met my doom.

Playing time was about 37 minutes.

Hunted: North Pole

Welcome to the North Pole, not for early Christmas but actually to save Santa Clause as he was kidnapped by Jack Frost in Hunted: North Pole.

This is a new game for me and my introduction to the Hunted game series. They already have several standalone titles but with different theme and almost the same gameplay. From what I understand, you cannot mix them up. There is a cooperative variant for 2 players but probably best with 1, as the name of the publisher suggests.

The idea is that you play as one of 2 Elves, either Becky or Clarence. You try to move them 15 spaces to reach the location of Jack Frost and Santa Clause. Maybe something similar to a game of The Lost Expedition but in this one, there is an actual fight not just resolving icons on the cards.

You need to do that within 20 time units. Spending time happens when you use a weapon to fight, hide or reload your starting weapon, slingshot. Along the way you will encounter enemies find path to progress on the track or items.

The way you do it is by going through what they call HUNTED DECK in push your luck gameplay. This deck consists of item cards, enemy cards or path cards, in random order.

You can keep revealing cards one by one until you decide to clear them out or you are forced to fight the enemy. Well, the enemies are very cute, related to the theme. You can fight evil snowman, evil reindeer, gummy bears, gingerbread or toys. Each of them has different HP you need to decrease in order to defeat.

If you reveal one, you are safe. But when the 2nd enemy shows up from the deck, in general you have to fight the stronger one. Two of them can be combined if they are the same enemies and you have to fight both.

The other way to trigger the fight with only 1 enemy is by revealing the other type of cards but only if those cards show 2 bells symbols. In the other Hunted games, thematically you are creating noise and the enemy will start attacking you.

These Path and Item cards are multiuse cards. Items can show some resources in addition to the bell symbol or you can acquire them by using resources on the other cards.

Maybe as resource one item can show a Scan symbol or Walk symbol. You can acquire them if there are 1 or 2 Scan symbols on a different card or cards from the revealed row. After acquiring it, you put them in your inventory and use it anytime afterwards. The item can be a weapon that you can use in the next fight. Or you can get elf friend. They work as another weapon or health to take damage instead of you.

Paths and Reindeer cards are the one that can push you to the finish line to win the game. You need either a Walk symbol for the path to move 1 space or a Carrot symbol for the Reindeer to move 2 spaces. For each space on the Map card, you draw an Event. Moving 2 with Reindeer, you can draw 2 event cards and resolve only one that works better for you.

As mentioned before these paths and reindeers can also show bells and resources. So, instead of progressing towards the end, you can use them instead to acquire items which can help you survive longer and beat the final boss.

You want to reveal as many cards as possible to help you do either of these things, getting item or moving forwards. But then if you reveal a card that triggers the fight, you discard every other revealed cards.

As an example, maybe you already revealed an enemy. The next one is an item without a bell. Then after that a path with a bell. If the 4th card you reveal is either another enemy or the other type with the bell then you have to fight.

Either you hide, losing 1 time and the potential of items and progressing or fight. Fight usually means you will lose time for using your own weapon. If you cannot beat the enemy, you lose 1 health.

There is no leveling up by beating them. You get stronger by getting elf friends or weapons or items. I guess that means you are encouraged to avoid fight by hiding and wait until you get lucky for easier acquisition of items by drawing non enemy cards.

The fight is also interesting.

Every weapon you use has ammo limit or durability limit that translates into the number of dice you can roll in one round of a fight. For each weapon you also use different type of dice. Slingshot uses d4 and a candy cane sword uses d8 and some other with d6.

The value of the roll become how powerful your attack to the enemy. Slingshot can roll 3 d4. If you are lucky you hit 12 points and beat the evil snowman but very unlikely to happen. With Candy cane sword, maybe only 2 rolls per round but one can hit up to 8. You can only choose one weapon at a round.

So, there will be times when you fight weaker enemy with just 4 health and you want to take a risk by rolling only 2 or 1 d4, saving bullets. After running out of ammo, you can reload for 5 bullets but run out 2 time units. Some of the spaces to progress grant you with 3 bullets.

Some items allow you to discard the card to reroll dice or adds die with bigger size like d6 to add damage. There is one that add d20 and if you roll higher than the enemy’s health you instantly win. Some items and events allow you to get +2 token to add to any roll.

Your elf friends work similarly as weapon but instead of choosing one you add as additional attack. You can even only use them to fight to save your time and as mentioned let them take the damage. Once they run out of health or ammo, you cannot use their help again.

On the other hand, your elf friend also has one time ability like item. You can use their ability, but you lose them as your weapon. It becomes a tough choice. Use them as weapon until they run out of ammo or health or lose them for using their ability right now. Like any other items, you need to acquire them before they can join you by spending resource from other revealed cards from Hunted deck.

When fighting, getting hit and losing health affects how you resolve skill check during Event cards. The skill tests ask you to roll 1 or 2 d20 depending on your health and if you reach certain value threshold you succeed and may get some bonus or you fail and take some penalties.

You have 10 health. With 10 and 9 health you roll 2 d20 and pick one with higher value for skill check. With 3 to 6 health you only roll 1 d20 so no other choice but with 1 or 2 health you roll 2 d20 and pick the lower. In a way it is thematic, you are not in good condition and less likely to succeed on the test.

Each of 2 starting characters has 4 different stats, STR, DEX, INT and CHA. Maybe +3 for STR but +0 for DEX in one character but +0 STR but +2 DEX in another. The Event will tell you which stat to use for this test and you add the character value of that stat to the roll.

So, this is useful when moving 2 spaces and draw 2 events but only resolve one. Maybe one event challenges the stat the character is good at but not the other. Of course, both cards can still challenge the same type. Again, no way for the character to level them up permanently.

Well, that is the general idea of Hunted: North Pole game.

A bit of first impression from me. Maybe this will change after more play. I only played twice so far.

When I saw Hunted game, I watched Rahdo playing the one with Alien theme. In that one you resolve battle and skill test with dexterity. You throw cardboard tokens to the box and the box will have a big circle target. If the token even touch that circle, you succeed. Instead of dice with different size, you get to use token with different size. Bigger one is easier but only for skill check to replace d20 part of this North Pole version.

Some people say that the one with dexterity can be easier as you can get better when throwing those tokens. For those they seem to prefer the dice. Some other say that the dice version are equal to throwing that. Well, I have not played the dexterity part but I’m not sure I like the dice in this one especially the d4 for slingshot.

I thought if you can get good at throwing things then make the game easier is your reward. You earned it. While throwing dice in certain ways to get better result feels cheating to me. Or maybe I’m just bad at this game and now being a sore loser…

I also used the wrong dice for the elf friend. He was supposed to use d6 but I thought all friends use d4. Haven’t touched the d8 yet.

I knew the game is about push your luck. Do you keep revealing cards or clear them by hiding. During unboxing, I thought maybe by counting cards you can do better. From about 63 cards in Hunted deck there are only 18 enemies, about 20 for path / reindeer and the rest is items. So, roughly about 1/3 are enemies.

Again, maybe I just need to play more to get good but then it doesn’t feel like I can count on counting them. There were moments I kept drawing enemies and when there were no enemies and of course, something in between. If the fight is triggered only by 2 enemies, maybe it is better. But in this one, drawing items or path cards can be as dangerous if they have bells.

So, if you then draw enemy first and then right away a bell, it is very likely you will fight next. Maybe the better way to count them is by based on the number that can trigger the fight, enemy cards and the one with bell. There are about 42 of 63 so it is very likely to fight.

Keep drawing non enemy cards doesn’t mean it is good either. If they are not showing Scan symbols, you cannot get any item. There are only 14 cards with that scan symbol. There was one moment when I got to reveal like 6 or more cards. Like only one of them show the scan symbol while there are a couple of very strong item cards.

There are 24 item cards, about half of them require only 1 scan symbol and the other for 2. One weapon requires 3 symbols and 2 more requires 1 walk symbol. I got a couple of moments failing to get those that require 2 while getting the cheaper one doesn’t feel helpful much.

On the other hand, you get a lot of chance to move forwards which I ended up taking in that situation. You can probably argue that maybe you don’t need to always get those powerful items to win. I tend to agree with that but you still need to get some either the elf friend or the weapon. From my 2 plays, I got elf friends 3 times and no weapon.

It’s just I thought that was the thing that makes the game interesting. Getting different items and friends. Instead, it seems the game wants you to just move as farther as possible before reaching the final boss. Only then you may try to collect things. At that point you don’t need to worry about events, getting hit and roll d20.

Time is the bigger concern here. More ways to heal but I haven’t seen anything that can add time if any.

Even if, it is true that you don’t always need to get certain items to win, then maybe the replay value is not that big in this game. The map and the final boss remain the same.

Random order of the cards from Hunted deck will be different from each session but I don’t know if it changes anything. Maybe if you get lucky to get powerful item and then it can affect how you make decision later. When you do get one, it really feels more interesting.

The Event cards have nice story on each but during the game I only looked the skill test requirement.

While the 2 starting character has only 1 different ability I don’t know if that can change the game that much. I can see that maybe the 2-handed cooperative variant can be done solo to make the game more interesting but I need to try it first.

Playing time took about 40 minutes for each session. Well, let’s see if more plays I change my opinion about this game.

The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game

Expand the territory of your Castle to gain certain resources that can help explore even farther in a game of The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game.

Played the solo variant twice. One with Sheet B and the other with Sheet C. The latter scored only 58 starting from the top Castle with Silver. That took about 20 minutes.

Here is how the session went with the Sheet B.

PHASE I, Round 1. 1 HG, Blue, Orange, 1, 6.

Played with the Sheet B, started with the Castle at the top right with Worker Bonus.

No selling commodities. There was no nearby Orange to expand to but I had 2 choices for Blue. Luckily one die with a value had a 6 so I could use Blue 6. Going to the one on the right didn’t open to more options so I had to go the Blue on bottom left of that starting position. Even this one only opened to a green or next castle to expand.

PHASE I, Round 2. 1 HG, Yellow, Yellow, 2, 5.

No commodities sold. Yellow was the only option and there was only 1 area that I could expand to which was to the left of starting castle. I could fill any of those 2. The top would open to Cities while the bottom to another Monastery. I already had a nearby Monastery if I needed to so I chose to fill the top hex of the Pasture.

PHASE I, Round 3. 1 HG, Yellow, Purple, 2, 5.

I got lucky here. 2 and Purple works but 2 and Yellow also worked in that Pasture. So, I expanded to the 2nd hex of that left Pasture. I completed the area and got double points, which was 8.

PHASE I, Round 4. 1 HG, Blue, Blue, 6, 6.

Another lucky roll but that was my only option, Blue and 6. I could either complete the first river area by filling the 2nd hex or I could expand to the other area.

I chose with the former option since by completing the area I also opened to a new Pasture area. Also needed to get the commodity as soon as possible so I could sell early and got a Silver. Scored 4 points and got 1 Commodity, 2 River areas left.

PHASE I, Round 5. 1 HG, Gray, Orange, 3, 3.

I could start working on expanding to either Cities. My other option was for Mines at the top right corner for early Silver. I chose the latter, halfway to complete the area, just one more hex to fill.

PHASE I, Round 6. 2 HG, Blue, Blue, 1, 4.

1 Commodity sold. Got 1 Silver and 2 points. Unfortunately, these rolls couldn’t make any pair. Luckily, I still had the Worker from the Castle. So, I spent it to change the number to either 5 or 6.

Not sure if it mattered by I chose 5 and expanded to the left River area with 3 hexes. I filled the middle one so I could expand subsequently to the other Castle.

PHASE I, Round 7. 1 HG, Orange, Orange, 5, 6.

2 rounds left for this phase. I had no choice but to expand to City. There were 2 I could explore, one with 4, the other with 3 hexes. For the 4, I needed 2 Silver to complete this round and that was if I got lucky roll.

So, I at least had better chance with the 3 hexes. I used the Silver and made Orange 5 and Orange 6. Well, the 2nd one I chose the left hex.

PHASE I, Round 8. 1 HG, Orange, Blue, 1, 2.

Last round. I got lucky so I could complete that City area with Orange and any of those numbers. Got 8 points and 1 worker.

That was the end of the Phase.

PHASE II, Round 1. 1 HG, Orange, Purple, 2, 6.

I could use the Orange and Purple. Maybe because I already had a Worker for now, I thought I should use it for Monastery. I had access to all 3 areas. One of them only requires single hex so I could complete that right away and got the bonus.

However, I chose the right Monastery with Purple 2. This way the nearby Castle could be accessed using 2 numbers a 2 and a 6. I guess I could have done the same with the left Monastery and the Castle next to it but I chose this one. Both had 3 hexes to complete.

PHASE II, Round 2. 1 HG, Yellow, Purple, 3, 3.

My only option this time was Yellow 3 unless I wanted to use the Worker. I could have completed the single hex Pasture at the bottom left but I chose the bottom right. The top one was inaccessible at this point. By using this, I also increased the accessible number for Castle on the right with 3 numbers now.

PHASE II, Round 3. 2 HG, Orange, Gray, 3, 4.

Either color could have worked but I chose the Gray one. This was to complete the area with 1 hex left at the top right. Scored 3 points and 1 Silver. So, I had a choice to do double.

PHASE II, Round 4. 1 HG, Green, Purple, 3, 5.

Well, the Purple didn’t work unless I used the Worker. So, I went with the Castle. With Green 5 I could go in either Castle on the left but for the right one I had to use Green 3. I chose the right one so I could sell the goods as soon as possible. Already had a Silver anyway.

Gained 1 point and the Commodity bonus from it. Actually, I used 1 silver for one more action. I made a Green 5 to explore the Castle with Silver bonus. Gained 1 more point and that Silver.

PHASE II, Round 5. 1 HG, Purple, Blue, 6, 6.

My only option here was Blue 6. I could fill the single hex River on the right or the 2nd hex of the left one on the left. I chose the latter option and filled the 2nd hex on the left. Well, it didn’t really matter which one I filled first. I guess I could have used a Silver to create 2 Blue 6. Oh, well.

PHASE II, Round 6. 2 HG, Gray, Blue, 3, 5.

I sold the commodity from the Castle and gained 2 points plus 1 Silver. Using 1 Silver even from previous one, I could have made 2 pair, Blue 5 and Gray 3 but I only used 1 Blue 5.

This was to fill the 3rd hex of the left River Area. Gained 6 points and 1 commodity.

PHASE II, Round 7. 2 HG, Gray, Gray, 2, 3.

Sold the commodity for 1 Silver and 2 points. Only the 3 worked with Gray but using a Silver I could have made 2 Gray 3. I spent 1 Silver and filled the 2 hexes of that Mine area. Gained 1 Silver and 3 points. I completed all Mine areas so I got the first time bonus of 3 points.

PHASE II, Round 8. 2 HG, Green, Orange, 1, 2.

Last round of this phase. I could have spent 1 Worker to change the number to either 5 or 6 so I could claim the last Castle and got the all bonus from that color, securing 3 points.

Instead I spent 1 Silver to make Orange 1 and Orange 2 to fill the City area on the right with 2 hexes. I completed the area and gained 3 points plus 1 Worker. Maybe the castle was the better choice.

That was the end of Phase II.

PHASE III, Round 1. 1 HG, Orange, Gray, 2, 5.

Gray was no longer useful but luckily Orange worked on either number. I spent 1 Silver to use both Orange 2 and Orange 5 for the last City starting from the left most. The nearby castle now could be accessed by number 2.

PHASE III, Round 2. 1 HG, Yellow, Gray, 4, 5.

Another useless Gray so I had to use Yellow. It worked with either number but the existing areas already had number. One required a 2 and the other 2 were empty. I chose 4 for the one at the top with 2 hexes.

PHASE III, Round 3. 2 HG, Yellow, Orange, 1, 5.

Yellow could have worked for the last area with only 1 hex. But I decided to keep working on the last City. One of the 4 hexes already had a 5 so I used Orange 1 for the 3rd. 1 hex left.

PHASE III, Round 4. 1 HG, Green, Orange, 3, 4.

Either number worked for the last Orange hex. Scored 7 and got 1 Worker. Also got 3 points for completing all Orange hexes.

PHASE III, Round 5. 2 HG, Green, Orange, 1, 1.

Orange was useless at this point. Luckily Green 1 worked for the last Castle with the Monk bonus. Scored 1 and another 1 for completing all Green.

PHASE III, Round 6. 2 HG, Purple, Orange, 4, 5.

Chasing Purple was not going to help much since I have not completed any areas. So, I spent the Monk from the Castle to just change the color. The color that worked with those 2 numbers were Yellow and Blue. I should have gone for the Blue for safer option but I chose Yellow 4. Completing the hexes at the top, scoring double of 2 points.

PHASE III, Round 7. 1 HG, Purple, Blue, 2, 5.

I got lucky as I needed that Blue 5 for the last River area. Scored only 1, got a commodity bonus plus 2 points for completing all areas. I also used the last Silver to use the Purple 2 to continue working on the 2nd hex of 3 on the right.

PHASE III, Round 8. 1 HG, Yellow, Blue, 5, 6.

So, I failed to sell the last commodity. Failed to complete that one Purple area as well. Blue was useless at this point but Yellow still worked. I had to spend 1 worker to change the number into 3 for the last double hexes that already had 3 in one of them at the bottom right. Scored double of 2 points.

FINAL SCORE: 68 POINTS

I guess I counted wrong by 1 point. Playing time was about 18 minutes.

Read the full session report here.

Learn more about the game from The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game Review.

Final Words

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

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