This article is the compilation of my play session reports #7. All games were played during Week 21 to Week 24 of 2024 from 20 May 2024 to 16 June 2024.
Usually, I do short reports per week on my BGG blog. or for the Daily Session here. For pictures of each play session, check out my TikTok account in slideshow form. Maybe I’ll add more social media accounts to share in the future and the best way to find out is to check my LinkTree account.
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.
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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.
Table of Contents
List of Games
Here are the links to the Weekly Session Reports for shorter version: Week 21, Week 22, Week 23 and Week 24.
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)
#6 2024 Week 17 to Week 20 (May)
Daily articles for individual game are posted on my Patreon for those who feel the need to read right away.
Marvel United: X-Men
Help the X-Men to stop Magneto and his henchmen from starting a war with humans in Marvel United: X-Men.
This was my 2nd play, solo with 3 characters. While I included the 2 Wild cards in each character’s deck I didn’t actually use them. I got a lot of things wrong, especially about being KO and triggering the BAM! actions. Maybe I would have lost the game actually.
In this session 2 characters got KO at the same time so between 2 Masterplan cards both were just drawing back 4 cards.
Also, staying at location where Blob was, is probably not the best to do. Even getting out from there required 2 movements so, it was kind of tricky. Cyclops’ Optic Blast and Jean Grey’s attack from adjacent location are probably a better way to deal with this without actually going to that location. Scarlet Witch is more dangerous than Quicksilver or Mastermind but if you can beat her fast then maybe she is a better choice to take down first than Blob.
Here is how the session went.
Magneto, the villain started at Genosha (Location 5) with Mastermind as the henchman there. The 3 heroes, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Prof. X were at Hangar Bay (Location 2) and they got attacked by Quicksilver.
LOCATIONS
1. Sentinel Space Station (1 Thug/ 3), Magnetic Force Field (0/4)
2. Hangar Bay (1 Civilian, 1 Thug / 4), Quicksilver (4/4)
3. X-Jet (1 Civilian/ 3), Magnetic Force Field (0/4)
4. Asteroid M (1 Civilian, 1 Thug / 4), Blob (5/5)
5. Genosha (2 Civilians, 1 Thug / 5), Mastermind (4/4)
6. Muir Island (1 Civilian / 3), Scarlet Witch (4/4)
MISSIONS
Defeat Thugs: 0 / 9
Clear Threats : 0 /4
Use Cerebro: 0 / 3
MASTERPLAN 1
1 Civilian was added to Hangar Bay and Magneto moved 3 spaces to Hangar Bay where all the 3 heroes were. No BAM! but activating the Quicksilver. 1 damage to Professor X.
1 Thug was added to Location 1, 2, and 3.
Cyclops went first with 2 attacks 1 to the Thug and 1 to Quicksilver. Jean Grey next with Major Telekinesis, 1 Heroic, 1 Move and 3 attacks. 1 attack and 1 heroic action were to the adjacent location. 2 hits to Quicksilver. She then used Cerebro, 1st time.
*** Maybe I forgot to activate one attack.
Prof. X next with 1 Heroic and 1 Attack plus 1 Move. He defeated the Quicksilver and cleared the 1st threat. Prof. X then moved to X-Jet and worked to disable the Magnetic Force Field.
MASTERPLAN 2
1 Civilian was added to Genosha, occupying 4th of 5 spaces. Magneto moved 2 spaces and BAM! He was at Asteroid M, adding 1 Thug to the location but no hero at the location to take any damage. No hero had any token or at location with henchman. 1 Thug to X-Jet (3/3), Asteroid M (4/4) and Genosha (5/5).
Cyclops went first with 1 Move and 1 Heroic plus 1 Heroic and 1 Attack. He moved to Sentinel Space Station. 2 progresses on disabling the Magnetic Force Field and defeated 1 Thug.
Jean Grey’s turn with 2 Attacks plus 1 move and 1 Heroic. She moved to X-Jet, following Prof. X. 2nd progress of disabling the Magnetic Force Field and defeated both thugs.
Prof. X next with 1 Move and 1 Heroic plus 2 Attacks. After 3rd progress on disabling the Magnetic Force Field, he moved to Asteroid M to meet Magneto. 2 damages to Blob.
MASTERPLAN 3
1 Civilian was added to Sentinel Space Station. Magneto didn’t move and no BAM!. But he used his MAGNETO’S HELMET. Until the next villain’s turn, cancel all Special Effects on Hero Cards. Magneto and his Henchmen ignore the first damage each Hero turn.
Blob removed the only Civilian on Asteroid M. He then dealt 1 damage to Prof. X and added 1 Crisis Token. 1 Thug was added to Genosha and X-Jet. Genosha was already full so the 3 Civilians were turned into thugs, along with the one in Muir Island. X-Jet got 1 Thug, occupied the 2nd space.
Cyclops started his turn with 2 Heroic actions plus 1 Move and 1 Heroic. He completely disabled the Magnetic Force Field there, clearing 2nd Threat. Cyclops then moved back to Hangar Bay and rescued 1 Civilian with bonus of 1 attack.
Jean Grey’s turn with 1 Move and 1 Attack plus 2 Heroic. 1 Heroic to completely disabled the Magnetic Force Field, clearing 3rd threat. 1 Attack to defeat 1 Thug. Then she used Cerebro again with 1 Move and 1 Heroic. As bonus from Location effect, she continued moving to Asteroid M where Magneto, Prof. X and Blob were.
Prof. X next with 1 Move and 1 Heroic plus 1 Move and 1 Attack. He had to use 2 Moves to get away from Blob and moved to Genosha. There, he defeated 1 Thug. Unfortunately, wasting the Heroic action as there was no Civilians in either location.
MASTERPLAN 4
1 Civilian was added to Sentinel Space Station again. Magneto stayed at Asteroid M and used ORGANIC IRON MANIPULATION, giving each Hero 1 Crisis token, dealing 1 damage to each per token.
*** I got it wrong this time and forgot to give one to Cyclops. Jean Grey took 1 damage and Prof. X was (supposed to be) KO. I forgot about the KO rule and only realized it during next Masterplan.
This should have led to another BAM, overflowing the Asteroid M, turning Civilian at X-Jet to Thug, hit Jean Grey at location.
Jean still had 2 cards left while Cyclops was supposed to have 2.
1 Thug was added to Asteroid M and Blob then got activated, giving 1 Crisis token to Jean and dealt another damage to her. 1 card left for Jean.
*** I guess at this point, Jean Grey should have been KOed too. Oh well… I just continued as how I played.
Cyclops started his turn with OPTIC BLAST, 1 attack to each adjacent locations and 1 attack to the location plus 1 Move and 1 Heroic. He took out 3 Thugs and completed the 1st mission. Magneto sped up his turn.
Cyclops decided to discard 1 card with 1 Move to trade 1 attack card with 2 attacks from the timeline as bonus effect from the location.
Jean Grey’s turn with MAJOR TELEKINESIS, 1 Move, 1 Heroic and 1 Attack plus 1 more attack. She used Cerebro and made 3rd progress and last progress with it, completing the mission. Magneto was vulnerable to attack from this point. The 2 attacks were done to 1 Thug and 1 to Blob.
MASTERPLAN 5
1 Civilian was added to Sentinel Space Station (that I forgot?). Magneto moved 2 spaces to MUIR ISLAND and BAM! 1 Thug was added to Muir Island. No Hero was there but Cyclops and Prof. X were at adjacent location. Cyclops lost the one attack token.
Scarlet Witch hurt nobody. Since Prof. X was KO and Jean Grey at adjacent location had only 1 card, no Civilian was removed. Blob, however, KO’ed Jean Grey and added 3rd Crisis token.
At this point, I still had not realized the KO rule. Prof. X should have only used his turn just to get 4 cards. Instead, he used TELEPATHY with 1 Wild action plus 1 Move.
With the wrong rule, Jean Grey traded 1 Heroic action card with 2-attack cards for that Telepathy action.
Prof. X then moved back to Asteroid M to help Jean Grey and hit 4th attack to Blob.
Cyclops then with LEADERSHIP, giving 1 Wild to another hero and 1 Move, plus 1 Wild. After rescuing 1 Civilian at Sentinel Space Station, he moved back to Hangar Bay and got 1 Attack token again as Location effect.
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MASTERPLAN 6
1 Civilian was added to X-Jet. Magneto stayed at Muir Island with Scarlet Witch and BAM! 2nd Thug was added to Muir Island. Magneto nobody and no hero was nearby or at location. Scarlet Witch and Mastermind did nothing but Blob finally KO’ed Prof. X (Should have happened previously). This BAM! did nothing.
1 Thug was added to Location 1, 6 and 5. 5 which was Genosha was overflown but 2 adjacent locations no longer had any Civilian.
This was Jean Grey’s turn followed by Prof. X. Both were KO so they just spent this turn drawing back 4 cards.
MASTERPLAN 7
1 civilian was added again to X-Jet. Magneto then moved 1 space to Sentinel Space Station and BAM! 1 Thug was added, 1 free space left. No hero for him to hit but he managed to remove 1 attack token from Cyclops from nearby.
Blob hit Prof. X again, adding 2nd Crisis token to him. 1 Thug was added to each location 1, 2 and 6. Sentinel Space station and Muir Island were full.
Cyclops started with another OPTIC BLAST again with 1 attack to location and each adjacent location plus 1 Move. So, he moved back to Sentinel Space Station to clear out space from 3 adjacent spaces, still no hit to Magneto.
Jean Grey with 1 Wild token from Cyclops’ Leadership, used her TELEPATHY to get 2 attacks in addition to the card’s wild. 1 attack to Blob, defeating him, clearing out 4th threats and completed the Mission. All heroes got to draw 1 card.
2nd attack was to the Thug at location so next Masterplan could take 1 Civilian. With 2 Wild, she moved counterclockwise back to X-Jet and rescued 1 Civilian. As location bonus effect, Jean Grey also moved back to Hangar Bay
*** I think I got it wrong by activating 2nd location effect this turn to take an Attack token from Hangar Bay.
MASTERPLAN 8
1 Civilian was added to Asteroid M so the location was full again. Magneto moved 1 space to Hangar Bay and BAM! 1 Thug was added to Hangar bay. Magneto hit 1 damage to Jean Grey and removed her (incorrect) attack token. Scarlet Witch and Mastermind still did nothing.
1 Thug was added to Location 1, 2 and 3. Location 1 was already full so the Civilian at Location 1, 2 and 6 became Thugs.
*** I actually forgot to turn the Civilian at Hangar Bay.
Prof. X’s turn with Leadership, giving 2 attacks to another Hero and 1 attack for himself plus 1 Wild. Cyclops got the 2 tokens. He attacked 1 Thug at Asteroid M, leaving 1 empty space. Then with Wild, he moved to the X-Jet, ended his turn there. As location bonus effect, he moved back to Hangar Bay where Magneto and Jean Grey were.
Cyclops was next with just 1 Move plus 1 attack but he also had 2 Attack tokens. He moved to Hangar Bay and all heroes and villain was there. Cyclops then unleashed 3 damages to Magneto. 4 hits left.
He got 1 Attack token again from Hangar Bay.
MASTERPLAN 9
1 civilian was supposed to be added to Genosha but it was already full, forcing the one at Asteroid M to turn into Thug. Magneto then moved 4 spaces to Muir Island and BAM!
Muir Island was overflown and forcing the one civilian at Sentinel Space Station into a Thug (which I forgot). Magneto and Henchmen did nothing but added 1 Thug to Location 5, 6 and 1. All of them were full so the last Civilian at Hangar Bay was turned into Thug (which should have happened earlier).
******* I altered the play from here on. The pictures still depict the session.
Because I thought there was still a Civilian at Sentinel Space Station, I didn’t try to clear out space at X-Jet. Had I played correctly, X-Jet was the last place to have a Civilian and during next Masterplan, Magneto would have added 1 there and I instantly lost the game.
So, the best move for this Jean Grey’s turn was to use 2 Heroic Plus 1 Move to the X-Jet. She cleared out 2 spaces at Hangar Bay.
Then with Prof. X’s turn, he used MIND ALTERATION with 1 move and special ability to turn 2 Thugs into 2 Civilians at Sentinel Station, even if the 2 Heroic were wasted.
MASTERPLAN 10
1 Civilian was added to X-Jet. Magneto did move 3 spaces to X-Jet and no BAM!. 1 Thug was added to Location 2, 3, 4. Hangar bay got 2nd Thug, 1 empty space. X-Jet was full. Asteroid M was already full, forcing the Civilians at X-Jet to become Thugs.
Cyclops with 1 Attack token, and 1 Move from previous card, had 2 attacks. He got to X-Jet and dealt 3 damages to Magneto. 1 left.
Jean Grey next with Wild from Telepathy, did the last damage to Magneto and 2 other Thugs.
Magneto was defeated. X-Men (could have) won. Well, maybe…
Playing time was about 77 minutes. This was my 2nd play of this Marvel United. Maybe there were more errors that I did but didn’t realize yet.
Read the Full Session Report with more pictures here.
Watch the slideshow of this Marvel United: X-Men Game session here.
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One Deck Galaxy
Watch the Slideshow of this One Deck Galaxy session on TikTok.
Explore, Colonize, Research the Outer Space, expanding your Civilization to fight the Adversary in One Deck Galaxy.
This time PLUMPLIM, the Botanists from the homeworld Brumigum was fighting the HUNGRY NEBULA Adversary. PlumPlim got a Supernova boost with 6 Fleets, 2 Probes with a research value of 8, a Black die 6 plus 1 die of every color.
As starting setup, there were only 4 locations to explore, no Encounter to escalate. The 4 locations were Chillonis, Ocean One, Star Burger and Zabfab Mine Co.
ROUND 1
Yellow: 1, 4, 6
Red: 1, 3, 4, 4
Blue: 3, 3, 4
Tech Token: 2
In addition to that, the Supernova Boost got me a Black 4 and 6, Yellow 1, Red 5 and Blue 3. The Adversary gained 1 Influence.
With those starting rolls, PlumPlim got a chance to hit the Adversary. It required a single Yellow 6 and Red 6 plus a Red with total value of 16. There were Yellow 6 and Black 6 for the first 2 boxes. The red total value was 12 and with Black 4, all of them were placed in the first row of Adversary card.
With 6 fleets, 4 of them were spent on CHILLONIS location to gain 2 Influence. The 2nd row of that location required Blue with total value of 9. I had 3 Blue 3 so I placed them all there.
I should have tried to remove one location card here in order to avoid additional escalation.
After all of those, none of the remaining dice were useful for the other locations. I had 3 1s to gather 3 more fleets and the last 2 4s for 2 more fleets.
I still had one Black 4 and I spent 1 Tech disc to activate CUBIC FARMING. The dice was stored and increased to Black 5.
Chillonis location gained 3 influence from the requirement of 5. First hit to the Hungry Nebula so I got 1st Adversary token.
Gained 5 Fleets in addition to 2 remaining. Since Starbase already had 8 Research points, I upgraded it to Level 2.
Then the SWELL from Hungry Nebula happened, twice. I exiled 1 Tech disc and spent 2 Fleet.
ROUND 2
Yellow: 1, 2, 4
Red: 1, 5, 5, 6
Blue: 4, 6, 6
Tech Token: 2
Fleet: 5
I still had Black 5 from previous round. The Hungry Nebula had their 3rd Influence.
Continuing influencing the Chillonis location, I sent 2 Fleets there for 2 more influence. Spent Blue 4 and Black 5 for the 2nd row for 1 more influence. That location was about to get 6 which was 1 more than the 5 requirement.
So, I spent 1 Tech disc to activate FLORAL INGENUITY which allowed me to move any number of influence from one location to another. I moved 1 from that Chillonis to ZABFAB MINE CO. which required a total of 5.
1st row of that location required to be resolved first using Blue dice with total value of 10. I spent 2 Blue 6. This allowed me to work on the 2nd row which required 2 Red dice one with at least a 3 and the other with a value of 6. I had Red 6 and Red 5.
I still had Yellow 1, 2 and 4 plus Red 1 and Red 5. The 1s were to gain more Fleet and the other 3 was to PROBE again.
I claimed the Chillonis location and it became my Colonies, adding a 5th red dice and 3rd Tech Disc. The 2nd location that I worked on had 4 influence, one more to claim it.
I gained 2 more Fleet in addition to remaining 1. The Probe got me 4 more Research points.
SWELL happened again twice. I exiled 2nd Tech disc and spent 2 Fleets.
ROUND 3
Yellow: 2, 2, 2
Red: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Blue: 3, 4, 4
Tech Token: 3
Fleet: 1
The Adversary had 4 influence tokens so additional Swell was about to happen this time. After the Discovery phase one Encounter showed up.
Continuing to work on the Zabfab Mine Co location, I spent all 3 Blues for the first row to gain 1 last required influence and opened the access for the 2nd row.
While the location would have gotten enough influence to be claimed but the dice for the 2nd row was perfect to generate 2 more Influence with Red 3 and Red 6. Using 1 Tech Disc for to activate FLORAL INGENUITY again to move 2 of the existing influence to the 3rd location, THE OCEAN ONE that required a total of 5 in order to claim it.
Either 3 more influence or just 1 research action to get rid of that one later.
I still had all 3 yellow 2s and 3 reds, a 2, 4 and 5. These were not enough to engage with the Encounter and didn’t work at all for the last location. So, the yellow were to generate 3 Fleets while the 3 Reds were to do 1 PROBE.
The ZabFab Mine Co location had enough influence so I claimed it as Colonies for extra Yellow dice and 1 tech disc, not the skill. This was Getting more dice were necessary to reach any of the Milestones except PlumPlim’s itself.
I got 3 Fleet in addition to the remaining 1. The Probe got me 2 Research points in addition to existing 4.
SWELL happened this time 3 times. I spent 2 Fleets, exiled 3rd Tech disc and let go that Research point cards that I just got.
ROUND 4
Yellow: 3, 4, 6, 6
Red: 1, 4, 4, 5, 6
Blue: 1, 3, 4
Tech Token: 3
Fleet: 2
The Hungry Nebula and the Encounter got their 1st Influence. With all of those rolls plus 2 Fleets, I got a chance to get rid of that Encounter, THE UNSEEN.
To get rid of it, it required a Yellow 3, Yellow 4, Yellow 5, Red 8 and 2 Fleet. Got all of them. No need to worry about extra influence for the Adversary.
The new location from the discovery was VOH, required total 3 Influence. All of the Blue this time were not enough to continue influencing the Ocean One location. So, I worked a bit on the new location.
The 1st row required Yellow 7 which I didn’t have while 2nd row required a Red 3 and Yellow 4. Not allowed to use 6 on this one and not enough Yellow. So, I used the Red 5 for 2nd row. Then for the Yellow 4, I had to trade Red 6 and Blue 4 for a Black 4 to fill that. 1 Influence for this location.
I still had 4 more dice, Blue 1, 3, Yellow 2 and Red 1. Spent both 1st for 2 Fleet and Blue 3 for one more Fleet. Using the Cube Farming ability, I stored and increased the Yellow to 3.
The Encounter was neutralized and claimed for the Tech. This allowed me to gain 2 Fleet by spending a disc. On Starbase, gained 3 fleets.
SWELL happened again twice. I still spent 2 Fleets and instead of more disc, I exiled 1 Yellow and 1 Red.
ROUND 5
Yellow: 1, 2, 2, 6
Red: 2, 3, 3, 3, 6
Blue: 1, 4, 6
Tech Token: 4
Fleet: 1
I still had Yellow 3 stored. The Hungry Nebula had 2nd Influence. Another OCEAN ONE location appeared after the Discovery. At this point the deck already run out and I chose the Swell card with removing Influence effect.
First, I spent a disc to gain 2 Fleets. I had to start reaching the next Milestone since I was about to lose my only Adversary token and I would have lost in the round after this.
Continuing to influence the VOH location, I spend Yellow 2 2s and 3 for the first row. This would have been the 2nd influence from 3 required. Then with Red 3 and Black 4, traded using Blue 4 and Yellow 6, I was about to get 3rd influence for this location.
7 dice left. The other locations couldn’t use any Red. I had Yellow 1 and Blue 1 and both for generating 2 Fleets. Still had Blue 6, Red 2, 3, 3, and 6.
Red 2 was to generate 1 more Fleet and the Red 3 was to do STUDY, trying to gain research from one of the Ocean One location with already 2 Influence.
So I had 3 dice left, Blue 6, Red 3 and 6. I used them to activate PROBE again.
2 Influence were generated and the VOH location now had the required 3. I claimed it for the skill since it allowed me to spend 2 fleet to get Red 6 and Black 3.
Generated 3 Fleets in addition to existing 3. The Study removed the location for 3 research points and the PROBE got me another 4 research points with a total of 10. Spent all of them immediately to upgrade the Starbase to Level 3.
SWELL happened again, taking 2 fleets and exiling 1 yellow and 1 red. I lost the Adversary disc to avoid getting Overwhelmed.
ROUND 6
Yellow: 1, 3, 5, 5
Red: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5
Blue: 2, 4, 4
Tech Token: 4
Fleet: 4
The Adversary had 3 Influence.
I had 5 Red and the Hungry Nebula already exiled 2 so there was one left in the supply and I could reach the Milestone. To do that I spent 1 disc to Rapid Deployment to gain 2 Fleets. Then I used another disc to trigger the MATTER DUPLICATION and spent those 2 Fleets to gain 1 Red 6 and Black 3. So no more Red in the supply with 5 for me, I reached the Milestone, Level 2. From this point I could start attacking the Adversary again.
For this 2nd confrontation, I needed Yellow 6, Red 6 and multiple reds with a total value of 25. I only had Yellow 5 so I spent 1 Fleet to change that and the last tech gave me the Red 6.
The rest of the red value was 18 so I needed 7 more. Already had Black 3 so 4 more. I spent the 2 Blue 4 to get Black 4 so it was enough to hit the Hungry Nebula.
The remaining dice were all 4 yellows and the Blue 2. 3 of them were used to STUDY, just to remove one Location out, avoiding extra influence to the Adversary. So, I had one last die, didn’t matter which just to gain 1 more Fleet.
Nothing to resolve in the Location. Gained 1 Fleet to my existing 3. Studied the OCEAN ONE location, gaining 3 Research points. Hit the 2nd time during Confrontation, getting 1 Adversary token.
SWELL again, losing 2 Fleets and I let go the Starbase token. I was level 2 and there was only 1 exiled Event card so nothing to overwhelm me.
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ROUND 7
Yellow: 3, 5, 5, 6
Red: 4, 4, 5, 5, 6
Blue: 3, 4, 6
Tech Token: 4
Fleet: 2
4 Influence for the Adversary so additional Swell was about to happen. The new location was SS SUNLIGHT. Previously there were 2 more, FLUTARA and GERN. 2 required 8 influence, 1 required just 3 and the last one was 4.
Flutara had another RAPID DEPLOYMENT which was nice with 4 influence to claim. I thought maybe I needed tech from GERN which allowed me to take 3 Yellow dice to help me with the next Milestone for 3 Influence.
The 3 highest yellow were good for the 2nd row of STAR BURGER, gaining 2 influence on it.
Red 4 and Yellow 3 for the 1st row of Flutara. Blue 3 and 4 for the 1st row of GERN. I had red 5 and red 6 for the 2nd row. None of these were enough to get rid any of the location.
I still had 3 Reds, a 4, a 5 and a 6 and a Blue 6. At least I had a chance to get rid the SS SUNLIGHT by studying it. To do so, I needed 4 dice or I could get 3 Influence and 1 die. Spent 3 Fleets after gaining 2 from the tech for the 1st row and this would have given me 1st influence on it. And then the 2nd row required Red and Blue 3 so I played the Blue 6 and Red 4 for 2 more influence. Red 5 for study.
So I activated the other tech to gain random Red. Got a 5 and stored it to a 6. The Study removed that SS SUNLIGHT and got me 4 research points in addition to the existing 3.
SWELL again twice plus 1. I only had 1 fleet so I had to activate the others. Chose to exile 4th tech disc and 2 dice which were 2 Blues. One additional swell, I let go 1 Research card with a value of 3.
ROUND 8
Yellow: 2, 2, 4, 5
Red: 3, 3, 4, 6, 6
Blue: 2, 4, 6
Tech Token: 4
Fleet: 1
1st influence on Adversary. A new location appeared and it was NOMNOMUD. It required 7 influence and I couldn’t use any dice with a value below 4. The skill was nice, trading 2 fleets for 1 die per color, if this would have come out earlier.
I still had Red 6 from previous round. Kept working on to increase influence on Gern. Already 2 from before to the target 3. Well, I guess I made a mistake here. I couldn’t use dice with the same value on this location.
Yet, I ended up using Blue 6 for Blue 3 and Red 6 for the 2nd row. I could have used the Blue 4, and then Black 3 by trading Red 6 and Red 3 for the 2nd Blue 3 box. So, I still could have used Red 6 but not Red 4. I had to use Red 5. Well, I had 1 fleet left so I assumed I could have done it.
I also continued working on FLUTARA which didn’t allow me to use the same value dice. Red 6 to Red 4 box, Yellow 2 for yellow 2 box of first row. 2nd row required red 2 and I used Red 3 and then the yellow 4 for Yellow 4.
The remaining dice were Blue 2 and 6, Yellow 2 and 5. I spent 2 disc, one to get 2 Fleets and the other to roll a red which I got a Red 2.
Blue 2 and Red 2 were to generate 2 Fleets. The Blue 6 for one more Fleet. Then I spent 3rd disc to store 2 Yellows, increasing each of their value by 1.
2 influence at Flutara, 2 more to Gern. Claimed the Gern, apparently I chose it as my colony, adding 4th blue die and extra disc each turn.
Gained 2 fleets from Tech, 3 more from Starbase so I had 5.
SWELLING TIME, twice. Spent 2 Fleets and 5th tech disc.
ROUND 9
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 4
Red: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5
Blue: 1, 4, 5, 6
Tech Token: 5
Fleet: 3
I still had 2 Yellow stored so I got more than 5 and there was nothing left in the supply, achieving the 2nd Milestone. From here, I got to confront the Hungry Nebula again.
The 3rd one required Yellow and Red each with total value of 25. I already had 20 for Yellow and 18 for Red. So, I spent 1 Tech disc to gain 2 Fleet and spent another disc plus those fleets to gain Red 6 and Black 3.
Yellow was 23 and Red was 24. Traded the 4 Blues into Black 1 for the Red and Black 5 for the Yellow. These were just for the confrontation.
I still had one Black 3 left. Used it to just generate 1 Fleet.
Still had to do something with the Locations. Spent 1 more disc for the FLORAL INGENUITY to move 3 influence from STAR BURGER to the new location HEMATIB. This only required 3 influence to be claimed so it was perfect.
I claimed it for the tech which allows me to spend 2 fleet to gain 2 Blue 5 or just roll a Blue.
Gained 4th Fleet. Dealt 1 damage to the Hungry Nebula. From this point on the Swelling went down to just one.
However, at this round, the deck run out again and I got rid of the card to remove Research points. Actually this happened in previous round where I was still at Level 2 so I had to lose my one Adversary token to prevent being overwhelmed.
Now I had 1 more adversary token and just one more hit to the Adversary.
SWELLING happened again and I only needed to spend 2 Fleets.
ROUND 10
Yellow: 3, 4, 4, 5
Red: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Blue: 5, 5, 6
Tech Token: 5
Fleet: 2
It seems I forgot to roll the 4th Blue. The Adversary had 3 influence this round. Another SS SUNLIGHT location showed up.
Continued on getting one last influence at Flutara, I spent Red 2 and Yellow 4 at 2nd row of that location.
Spent the 3 Blues at 1st row of Star Burger. 2nd row required Yellow 13. I had Yellow 5 and Yellow 4 so I needed another but no more Yellow 4. Instead I traded Red 5 and 4 to get Black 4 to cover it.
I still had Red 1 and 3, Yellow 3. Spent 1 disc to get 2 Fleets. Then another disc plus those 2 fleets to gain 2 Blue 5. This actually allowed me to reach the last Milestone necessary for the last confrontation but apparently I forgot.
So, I spent another disc just to store 3 dice and increasing its value by 1 each, the 2 Blue 5 into 6 and the Yellow 3 into 4. Then I spent the 4th disc to just roll a red. I got Red 2.
Red 1 for 1 Fleet and the other 2 for PROBE.
The FLUTARA gained its 4th influence allowing me to claim it. I used them for the tech to generate 2 Fleets. 5 influence to STAR BURGER. Still needed 3 more to claim it.
Gained 1 fleet to my existing 2. The Probe got me 4 Research points.
SWELLING TIME and only once. I let them took 2 Fleet.
ROUND 11
Yellow: 3, 5, 5, 6
Red: 2, 3, 4, 4, 5
Blue: 4, 4, 5, 6
Tech Token: 5
Fleet: 1
With the 3 dice stored, had more than 5 Blue dice in my pool and nothing left in the supply. 4th MILESTONE was achieved so I could start confronting the Adversary.
This required Yellow and Red each with a total value of 30. Currently, the yellow total value was 23 while the Red was 18. 7 more for the yellow and 12 more for Red.
Traded 2 Blue 6s into Black 6 for the Red. Then traded 2 Blue 4 for Black 4 for the yellow. Still needed 3 more for Yellow and 6 more for Red. For that I just used the same combo. 1 disc for 2 Fleet then 2nd disc plus 2 fleets for Red 6 and Black 3.
So, those were all the necessary dice for the final hit to the Hungry Nebula. I won. Not without some cheating with the rolls if I have to be honest.
Playing time was about 100 minutes.
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Quests of Valeria
Watch the Slideshow of this Quest of Valeria game session here.
Recruit Citizens of Valeria and send them out to complete various quest to be the best Guild Master in Quests of Valeria.
This was a solo session using RAHDO, THE GAME MASTER as the Guild Master. They are best known for completing Adventure and Commerce Quests. Most commerce quests require some money involving Worker class while Adventure quests usually require some Magic as resource, involving a member from Holy Class.
As part of the setup, there was 1 quest for each type. They had 4 rounds before the first quest, the Adventure one expired and 5, for the first commerce.
The Adventure quest was to ESCORT BROTHER MAYNARD ON PILGRIMAGE. This required a Warrior and a Holy class citizen with 1 Money, 4 Magic and 1 Attack.
The Commerce quest was BRIBE THE AMARYNTH NOBLES. This required only 6 money involving a Worker and a Shadow clan.
ROUND 1
First, Rahdo had to recruit some citizens to help him running. There was a BOGATYR at the tavern with 1 magic and 1 Attack. He was willing to join for free since he had no job for quite a while. Even though he was ready to immediately work on any quest, Rahdo needed more than just him.
That Adventure quest needed more Magic and a Holy clan. There was a Cleric there in the tavern. She was willing to join for one glass of drink. So, Rahdo bought her one. Apparently she felt bad for asking that so she gave one back to him.
ROUND 2
Rahdo kept looking for more citizens. A necromancer noticed what Rahdo was doing when he invited the Bogatyr and Cleric. Somehow Rahdo skipped him. Not sure what was his problem with a Necromancer.
Yet, the Necromancer was bored after not getting any job so he offered himself to help for free. Maybe the Game Master was just waiting to get him for cheaper price.
The Necromancer had 2 Magic so now the Guild had enough for that Adventure Quest. But they still needed at least 1 money. The Necromancer said that he knew other fellows from the same clan who can provide that. It was a Mercenary and the guy was in the Tavern as well.
Rahdo approached him and bought him a beer asking him to help. The Mercenary was actually a nice guy. Not only he was willing to join but also offered the beer back.
ROUND 3
With all those 4 citizens, Rahdo had enough people to complete that first quest. However, he felt sending out these 4 just for that one quest was a bit of waste. There was still time before the quest expired so he looked for other talents.
Then Rahdo saw a Bard, a lady Bard from Worker class. He thought maybe with her skill of singing she could help generated more money for the quest. So, he invited her and she was willing to help.
Next to the Bard, Rahdo saw an Alchemist. Seems like he was busy reading stuffs, probably something related to his work. While trying to approach the Alchemist, a Sorceress came to Rahdo and offered to join for just a drink. Rahdo was not actually sure what to do with her but the Guild was still open for more members.
ROUND 4
Finally, Rahdo managed to talk to the Alchemist to join his guild. The Alchemist was willing to join for free. He was afraid not getting any job after the Sorceress was more active.
Time to complete the Adventure quest. Rahdo assigned the Bogatyr, Cleric and the Alchemist to ESCORT BROTHER MAYHAM ON PILGRIMAGE. 1 Money, 5 Magic and 1 Attack with 1 Warrior and a Holy clan.
The Guild got 4 points for completing that plus 2 supplies of beer.
ROUND 5
The Tavern had 2 Adventure quests available and 1 Commerce which was about to be expired. Rahdo didn’t have enough money generator to complete that Commerce quest yet. So, he asked the Tavern owner to Reserve that quest for him.
Now he could focus on the next one, the Adventure one. This required a Holy clan again with 3 Magic and 2 Attack. Rahdo only had 1 attack from the Mercenary and he had no other Holy clan member.
So, he invited the other Cleric. Not only she was willing to join for free after seeing her fellow clan got a job from Rahdo, she brought some supplies as well for him.
ROUND 6
The Cleric said that she had another friend from the Holy Clan member who can helped them with this quest with the 2 Attack and additional Magic. It was a Priestess. The Cleric was willing to help Rahdo recruit her but she needed some supplies. Rahdo paid for the cost and got his 5th member.
Then Rahdo sent both of them to that Adventure quest, EXPEL THE EVIL SPIRITS OF KIRA’S CAVERN. With 3 Magic, 2 Attack from 2 Holy members, they completed the quest.
The Guild gained 3 points and some supply.
ROUND 7
Currently there was only 1 quest that Rahdo loved to work on. But there were 2 others high value quests. The closest one before it got expired was 3 rounds ahead. There was also still one quest in the reserve.
Either way, the guild needed more members. Rahdo hired a Merchant for free. The Merchant had a friend so he offered to join the guild as well for a glass of beer. Rahdo accepted and the friend was another Bard.
As 2nd action for this round, Rahdo just gathered more supply.
ROUND 8
Since the Guild had enough members with more than 6 money, Rahdo thought it was time to work on the reserved quest. It required 6 Money to bribe the Nobles. Rahdo dispatched the 2 Bards and Merchant from Worker clan. The quest also required a Shadow Clan and more money. Rahdo sent out the Mercenary to accompany these workers.
The quest was considered completed and the Guild gained 3 points, 2 supplies and a chance to hire new member. Rahdo hired a Bogatyr for free since he was just hanging round in the tavern doing nothing.
As 2nd action, Rahdo did HIRE again and this time was another Alchemist for just a glass of beer.
*** It seems I made a mistake of taking another action of just drawing 1 card.
ROUND 9
There was a high value Battle type quest that was about to get expired. It required 2 Warriors and a Holy clan. The Guild already had 1 Warrior and possible to hire another one. That would have not been enough attack power.
So, Rahdo let that one go and focused on the next quest which was the Adventure type. Before that, Rahdo hired the Peasant first for free and their farming work could have generated some money. Not only that, they also brought in 2 supplies.
After that, Rahdo hired another Bogatyr by buying him a beer. He was eager to do the Adventure quest right away. The quest required 2 Magic and 2 Attack. Rahdo assigned both Bogatyr to do this job and they provided perfect resources for that.
It was EXPEDITION TO WITHERED PEAKS. The quest was considered done and the guild earned 2 points, a supply and a chance to hire citizens. Well, Rahdo didn’t hire since the available ones were playing hard to get.
ROUND 10
There were 2 available Commerce type quests and one really high value Subterfuge. Rahdo planned on reserving the high value and focused on the 2 easier Commerce type.
First, Rahdo noticed a Baker in the Tavern. He thought that could have been a great to have her in the guild. He offered a beer and she agreed to join. Apparently, she also invited her friend a Sorceress next to her. Since they knew each other, they didn’t ask for more payment from Rahdo.
Rahdo decided to complete the next quest. This commerce type quest was THE EMPIRE NEEDS POTIONS, required 2 money and 2 magic, delivered by a worker.
The Guild had an Alchemist and a Peasant, completely perfect for this. Rahdo dispatched them and the quest was considered complete. As bonus for completing this quest, the Guild was allowed to reserve any available quest. Rahdo chose the SUBTERFUGE, TAKE OVER ROGUE’S LANDING.
ROUND 11
There were 4 more Commerce quests. One of them was about to get out of time which required 3 money and 2 attack involving a Holy clan.
Rahdo was not so sure he could afford to get all necessary resources for that. So, he just prepared for the next 3 in line.
Somebody approached Rahdo telling him that a Warlord was interested to join a guild but he had to pay 2 glasses of beer. Rahdo agreed because this Warlord also brought in a Miner.
There was another one and this time a Cleric from Holy clan. This was probably the only available Holy clan at the moment so Rahdo decided to let her join. Luckily she brought some supplies.
ROUND 12
That Commerce quest was gone. Nothing new came out that was interesting enough for Rahdo.
The Guild was almost full so Rahdo decided to dispatch some of them for the available Commerce Quests. One of them was RESTORE THE PALACE’S MAGICAL WARDS.
It required 3 Money and 3 Magic for the renovations with of course a Worker to do the job and someone from Holy clan to supervise.
The Guild had Cleric and Baker, providing the necessary clans with 2 Money and 2 Magic. To cover the missing resources, Rahdo assigned the Sorceress, friend of the Baker and the Miner to double the resources.
The quest was considered complete and the Guild earned 4 points. From the creator of the quest, they provided 2 supplies as the reward.
2 more Commerce quests and they both needed 3 money each. For that Rahdo, hired another Miner for free to double the money during quest. Luckily, the miner also brought along some supplies.
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ROUND 13
There was a Mercenary who had been hanging around in the Tavern without getting a job that long. Rahdo offered him to join for free. Apparently, he was thankful just to be accepted and offered some supplies.
A different Alchemist came to Rahdo and offered to join but Rahdo had to pay him for the 2 glasses of Beer. His alchemy work seemed to generate some money so Rahdo agreed.
ROUND 14
One Commerce type was about to run out of time. It was RECONSTRUCT THE WESTERN WALL which required 2 worker class, 3 Money and 1 Attack, probably as a Guard.
Before that, Rahdo had to hire a Merchant who could have provided more money for this quest. Rahdo offered 2 of his supplies and the merchant agreed. The Merchant even invited his friend a Rogue to join for free.
With the Merchant, the Miner, and the Mercenary, Rahdo completed that quest. The guild earned 3 points and bonus of 1 supply.
ROUND 15
Another commerce quest was about to run out of time. It was low value and required 3 money and a Worker. There were some available workers but they kept their prices too high for now.
So, Rahdo decided to let that one go and chose another Adventure quest on the line. This was also low value, required just a single Holy clan but with 3 Magic. For that Rahdo noticed a Monk was available in the tavern which could have been perfect for the job.
Rahdo talked to the Monk, paid for his one glass of Beer and he agreed to join. Then Rahdo dispatched the Monk, along with Necromancer who had been in the Guild too long. They now had enough Magic for this Adventure quest.
Off they went and the quest was considered complete. Since it was an easy quest and the Guild earned only 1 point. As additional bonus, The Guild had a chance to hire one citizen. Rahdo chose the Captain for their 2 Attack but mostly because the Captain was willing to join for free.
ROUND 16
The Tavern had 2 upcoming Adventure quests but they still had time. Rahdo decided to hire another BAKER, offering one beer. The Baker agreed and even brought in a friend, apparently a THIEF. Still needed 2 more money for the reserved quest.
As 2nd hiring, Rahdo came to the Blacksmith, offered to pay the same as the Baker. The Blacksmith agreed and even offered some supply back.
ROUND 17
Time to work on the reserved, Subterfuge quest. This required 3 people from Shadow Clan, 4 money and 3 attack.
For that, Rahdo dispatched Thief, Sorceress, Rogue for the 3 Shadow clans, 3 money and 1 Attack. For 2 more attack required, Rahdo asked the Captain to lead the team.
*** It seems I should have dispatched the Baker as well but I forgot.
The quest was considered complete and the Guild earned 6 points. As bonus, the guild got to hire one citizen and they chose the Miner because it was free.
The next upcoming Adventure quest required a Holy clan with some magic. Preparing for that, Rahdo hired a Monk for 2 supplies. The Monk also brought in back those 2 supplies.
ROUND 18
3 Adventure quests were available and all of them required some Magic and at least 1 member of Holy Clan. One of them was about to run out of time but maybe Rahdo decided to reserve it.
The Guild itself only had 1 Monk from that clan so first thing Rahdo did was hiring Summoner but not from the Tavern. Well, the Summoner brought in some supply and a friend to hire. The friend was Archer.
Rahdo reserved that quest but to complete it, the guild needed 1 more magic supply.
ROUND 19
There was a Merchant who had been hanging around in the tavern too long and Rahdo noticed that he could have covered the missing Magic. Rahdo hired him and apparently he brought along his Blacksmith friend which Rahdo was willing to buy a beer for.
Now the guild had enough to complete that reserved quest. The quest was DELIVER SCROLL TO EYE OF ASTERATEN LIBRARY which required a worker and holy clan with 2 money and 3 magic.
For that, Rahdo assigned the Monk, The Blacksmith, The Summoner and the Merchant. Off they went and the quest was considered complete. The guild earned 3 points plus 2 supplies.
ROUND 20
3 Adventure quests plus one Commerce were available. One of the Adventure was the highest value. No way the Guild could have worked on all of them. All of the Adventure quests needed magic and holy clans.
There were at least 2 Holy Clan in the tavern but still not enough magic. Rahdo had access to a Sorceress which could double the magic.
So, first thing he did was hiring the other Blacksmith for free. He had could make some money and provided some supply. Then Rahdo hired that sorceress for 2 beers.
ROUND 21
First of available Adventure quest was about to run out of time. Rahdo decided to reserve it first.
Then he hired the PALADIN from the holy clan with some magic and attack power. The game was almost over, the tavern could no longer refill the spaces.
ROUND 22
Rahdo hired the Monk for free and his Magic. He brought in some supplies.
With Paladin, the Monk and the Sorceress, the Guild finally had enough resources to complete the Reserved quest. It was INVESTIGATE A SUSPICIOUS DEATH which required 6 Magic involving a Holy clan and a Shadow Clan.
The guild earned 3 points from it.
ROUND 23
This was the final round since the Citizen row had just one card left. During the game I actually made a mistake for trying to complete the highest value commerce quest which required 6 money, 2 Magic and 3 workers.
I dispatched the Baker which should have been gone in previous quest. Not only that, instead of Magic I supplied an attack using the Ranger so this was not a valid move.
Instead of that, I could have afforded to complete a different Commerce quest called THE LOGISTICS OF WARFARE.
This required a Worker and a Warrior with 3 Money and 2 Attack. For that I had the Ranger from Warrior Clan with 2 Attack. Then I had the Blacksmith and a Miner for the Worker and double of 2 Money.
So, that was the last quest this guild completed. They earned only 2 points.
SCORING
The Guild had 37 points from 12 Quests and the Guild Master earned 11 more from completing 11 Commerce and Adventure quest. So the total was 48 and Rahdo became the MINISTER OF QUESTS in this Kingdom of Valeria.
Playing time was about 66 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Quests of Valeria Review.
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Chomp
Form herds of herbivore and carnivore dinos with their own food supply or one of them will eat the other in Chomp.
I played 3 solo sessions.
First one scored 25 from the fed dinosaurs and 4 points from 2 eggs. I got 2 more scoring cards from the initial 2. 5 points from 1st scoring, another 5 from 2nd, 4 points from the 3rd, and 0 from the 4th card. 5 dinos were extinct. Total score was 43.
2nd play got me 15 fed dinosaurs scoring 26 points plus 4 points from 2 eggs on nest. From 3 scoring cards, 8 points from one, 2 points from 2nd, 8 points from the 3rd. 4 dinos were extinct. The total score was 48 points.
3rd play got me 20 fed dinosaurs, scoring 35 points plus 6 from 3 eggs on nests. I didn’t take any additional scoring card and from the 2 initial cards, I got 2 points from 1 and 9 points from the 2nd. Only one dino got extinct. The total was 52 points.
Based on the new scoring rankings for solo mode, those 3 only got me to 4th (46 – 55) or 5th (36 – 45) highest rank.
I think for all these 3 games, I actively tried to avoid scoring that is not about feeding the dinosaurs to keep them survive. Not saying that it is the best strategy but I like the game better when doing that instead of trying to let them die with the Tar pit or any means.
I guess I also avoided the other weird scoring like having eggs, or adjacent nests. Saw one that can score if the card is not overlapped by other cards. Not sure I want to play with that.
I also did something different. Maybe this can be considered as cheating but in the last 1 or 2 cards, I checked both sides of the cards and see what would be available next.
One time, 3rd session probably, I had a herd of Carnivore without food source. After checking the last few cards, I knew there was none.to add them. Actually, there was one from the final card but I would have no chance to take it. Knowing that, I decided to just overlap them with new cards. So that got me the highest score of these 3 but it was still not a great score.
Playing time was between 12 to 23 minutes each session.
Watch the Slideshow of these 3 Chomp Game sessions here.
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I would like to use this chance to thank the publisher, AllPlay for helping me with the missing component. I bought the game from retail which I think a Kickstarter copy with a promo pack. From there the game only came with 35 where it should have been 36.
I asked the publisher which card was missing and whether it can affect the gameplay, mostly for solo. Didn’t really expect to get a replacement but I thought maybe they are willing to share the file for that one missing card so I can probably make my own.
To my surprise, they offered not to just send me that missing card but the complete set of cards. Well, I didn’t really ask for it but I gave them my address. That ticket was submitted in March 2024.
I got a shipment confirmation email from them almost like a month later. Less than a week after that, I got shipping notice from VFI who usually do a KS fulfillment for countries in Asia. The package arrived in May.
It seems they sent it along with the time they fulfilled their latest project with the A Message from the Star and Through The Desert. So, that was nice because I was expecting to pay extra cost but apparently I didn’t need to pay anything, not even shipping.
Another surprise was that not only they sent me the missing component but they sent me a whole game. Sure, it is a small box game but I feel bad now for even contacting them.
Kudos for the publisher for doing this but now I don’t really know what to do with it. Had they sent me just card replacement, I was planning to just combine them.
At first, I thought maybe I should donate this extra copy to my local game store. But now I feel bad if I don’t give them the complete game even just missing one card because it requires exactly 36 cards to be played with 4.
Another idea is probably just to scan the missing card so I can make my own, which was my original intent if they just gave me the file. Then I probably can send this complete set to other people.
What’s worse is that I finally know which card was missing. It was not even a card for solo play. I guess I should be more careful the next time dealing with missing components.
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For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game
Watch the Slideshow of this For Northwood game session here.
Convince the 8 rulers to unify them as one Kingdom of Northwood in For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game.
This session used the full game setup without using any of the Scenario. The 4 starting allies were PRINCE OF EYES, KING OF CLAWS, BARON OF FLOWERS and JACK OF LEAVES.
1st Visit: LADY OF LEAVES (5)
My starting hand was Blue 4 and 5, Red 5, Black 6, Yellow 3, 4, 6 and 8. A lot of high value cards also in yellow or leaves so I visited the Lady of Leaves first.
The lady started with Black 8, I replied with Black 6. Followed by Blue 3 and I got first win with Blue 5. The lady continued with Black 5 and I had no more black so I played my Red 5.
Another Black from the Lady and it was a 3. I only had 4 yellow and a blue for 4 more wins. I played my Yellow 3 so I got 2nd win.
Next was Black 7 and I won again using Yellow 4, 3rd win. The Lady stayed with Black and it was a 1. I played Yellow 6 for my 4th win.
This is where I got it wrong. The next card was Blue 1 and I should have played Blue 4 and got my 5th win. Instead I played my Yellow 8 which was also my 5th win. Then the next one after that was Yellow 2 from the ruler to which I lost with my Blue 4.
The possible way to win was either to get rid of the Yellow 3 first, very early using Baron of Flowers. Oh, well, so I didn’t actually get this one.
2nd visit: QUEEN OF EYES (3)
I had Yellow 4, 8, Blue 1, 3, 4, 5, Black 1 and Red 5. A lot of Blues but half more on lower value, considering the rest. For blue either won 0 or won 3 so I picked the latter.
The Queen opened the dialog with Yellow 6. Played yellow 4 so I lost. Next was Black 2 and I lost again with my Black 1.
After that the Queen played Yellow 7 and I only had Yellow 8 so that was my first win. The Queen continued finally with Blue 8 and since I couldn’t win with any of my Blue, I played the Blue 1. I probably should have played the Blue 4 and because Baron of Flowers could have gotten rid of the low value cards.
Red 2 from the Queen so I played Red 5 and it was my 2nd win. Baron of Flowers came in to discard my Blue 3 so I only had Blue 4 and Blue 5 left. Then Red 6 from the Queen and I played Blue 5 which was already my 3rd win.
With my Blue 4, I discarded it using Prince of Eyes but I got back a Red 7 instead. Here is where I got it wrong again. I should have check the FAQ while playing but apparently I had to do this twice since I already played an ally.
So, I had to draw again which was Black 4 and had to discard either Red 7 or Black 4. Probably best to discard the Red 7 and keep Black 4. Unless the next one was Black 3, I would have won that and failed to convince this queen. Black 2 and 1 were already out. Oh, well… I just assumed I won.
3rd Visit: LADY OF CLAWS (6)
I had Yellow 5 and 2, Blue 6 and 7, Red 1, 4 and 3, Black 7. Honestly, I didn’t know why I picked this ruler as the next one. There were only 4 high value cards and the one with the same suit was only 1 card. Maybe the Win 4 in Yellow was the better choice or Red with 1 or 2 wins.
The Lady started with Blue 1 so I got lucky and won first one with Blue 6. Next was Blue 2 and I won again, 2nd time with Blue 7. Now I already run out of blue. After that the Lady went with Yellow 3. I won 3rd time with Yellow 5.
From this point, my only strong card were Black 7 and probably red 4. I still needed 3 more wins So, I activated Prince of Eyes again to discard the Red 1 to draw hopefully something better. It was a Black 8.
Then the dialogue continued with Red 8 from the Lady. I lost with my Red 3. After that, it was Black 3 and I won the 4th time with Black 7.
The Lady played Black 5 and I won 5th time with Black 8. Before the next one, I played my KING OF CLAWS to just score the highest card or cards in my hand. My last 2 cards were a 4 and a 2 so I got 6th win with the 4.
The Lady last card was Yellow 4 and I lost with Yellow 2. Total wins was 6 so I got the Lady to join Northwood.
4th visit: LADY OF EYES (0)
I had Black 1, Blue 3, Yellow 6 and 8, Red 2, 5, 6, 7. There was only 1 Blue and it was a 3, very low. The only other blue was at space 0 win. Maybe I should have chosen the Yellow with 4 wins but somehow I decided to go with this one Blue and 0 win.
Another reason is probably I misunderstood the Jack of Leaves ability as my ally. I thought the idea was to swap the position of the current ruler to a different number of wins, 2 spaces away. Apparently this actually swaps the 2 rulers and I have to continue with the new one. With my incorrect assumption I was hoping if I ended up winning something with red, I had a shot to correctly win the next 2 rulers with red colors.
So the dialogue started with Yellow 7. I lost with my Yellow 6. After that, I let Baron of Flowers removed all of the 1, 2, and 3. That was actually a bad play since all I had left were higher value cards.
Then came right away, the Red 1. I had to win so I failed already at this point with Red 7. After that was Black 8 and I lost with Yellow 8. Then Black 7 with my Red 6. Last one was Blue 1 and I lost with my Red 5. 1 win and I failed.
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5th visit: BARON OF LEAVES (4)
I had Red 1 and 6, Yellow 6 and 7, Blue 1 and 3 and Black 1 and 8. Exactly 4 high value cards so I visited the Baron of Leaves.
First card was Black 5. Played Black 8 for 1st win. Next was Blue 4 and I lost with Blue 1. Then came Red 7, lost again with Red 1.
Yellow 4 next and I got 2nd win with Yellow 6. After that came Yellow 8 and I had to lose with Yellow 7. I still had Red 6, Blue 3 and Black 1.
Next card was Red 5. I got lucky and won 3rd time with Red 6. Then I used the King of Claws to score the highest card or cards in my hand which was a 3. I got my 4th win and the last one was Black 4.
It was a Black 6 and I lost, with exactly 4 wins. I convinced the Baron of Leaves to join Northwood.
6th visit: JACK OF CLAWS (7)
I had Red 3, 5 and 7, Blue 1 and 4, Black 5 and 7, Yellow 8. Those were at least 5 strong cards. This was the last 3 visits and the other 2 I could have only won once or twice so I went with Jack of Claws for 7 wins.
First card was Yellow 5. 1st win with Yellow 8. Then a Red 1, and I got 2nd win with Red 3.
Red 2 was next and I got 3rd win with Red 5. 4 more wins and I still had 3 strong cards. Yellow 6 came next and I got 4th win with Black 5.
There were 2 7s as my highest value so I let King of Claws scored them both. So I had 5th and 6th win, 1 more with just Blue 4 and Blue 1.
It was Black 8 so I had to lose it with Blue 1. There was still strong Black 6 and if the next one was not a Blue, I failed. I used Prince of Eyes to discard Blue 4 and draw a new one which I got Blue 5.
This one was wrong again. I already activated 1 ally so I should have discarded that Blue 5 and draw the next one which was Blue 3. Instead it became the next card from the ruler and I won with Blue 5.
I guess I probably have failed this one with the correct rule.
7th visit: QUEEN OF FLOWERS (2)
I had Blue 6 and 7, Yellow 2, Black 3 and 4, Red 4, 7 and 8. The last 2 rulers were both red with 1 or 2 wins. I chose the 2 wins first since I had too many strong reds already.
For that, I replaced the King f Claws with Queen of Eyes. Instead of just scoring the cards from my hand, this allowed me to look at the next 3 top cards and put them back in the same order.
I guess I got it wrong again. Without really reading the text I assumed I can return them in any order. Oh, well.
I also replaced Jack of Leaves with Baron of Leaves. This allowed me to swap cards from hand with either discard or score pile as long as the value are the same.
The dialogue started with Blue 2. I played Blue 7 and got my first win. Before continuing, I swapped the Blue 7 from that scoring pile with my Red 7.
Next one was Blue 5 and I won with Blue 7 and that was 2nd win. After that I let the Prince of Leaves discarded 2 cards my Red 8 and Red 6. I got back Red 3 and Blue 4.
Next card was Black 5 and I lost with my Black 4. After that the Baron of Flowers discarded my Red 3, Yellow 2 and Black 3. 2 cards left in hand were Blue and Black 4.
The Queen continued with Black 7 and I lost with Black 5. This is where I got it wrong with the Queen of Eyes. I took a look at the next 3 top cards and one of them was Red 5. It should have been the 2nd card. I was under assumption that I could have returned it in any order.
So, I should have lost this one as well. The Queen should have played the Yellow 8 and I won 3rd one with Red 5. 3 wins and I failed.
8th visit: LADY OF FLOWERS (1)
I had Yellow 1, 2, 3, 5, Blue 2 and 3, Black 1 and 6. Feels like a cheating with no red at all? Yep.
The dialogue started with Black 4. I won with Black 6. Then Blue 7 to which I lost with Blue 3. Before continuing, I let Baron of Flowers discarded all 1, 2 and 3 so I only had 1 card left which was Yellow 5.
The next one was Red 7 and I lost. Exactly 1 win, cheating…
Played very poorly. I failed the 0 space and possibly the 8th space, losing 8 points. At least. Oh, well…
Playing time was about 59 minutes.
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Level 10
Help Izzy play through all ten levels in each of five different video game worlds in a game of Level 10.
Based on my previous play, I thought the solo mode of Level 10 game is very easy, even without using the PAUSE cards. So, I thought to make it more challenging, I just reduce the hand size from 10 to 7 as in 2 player game. 2 plays and I lost both.
At first I thought it was just I played poorly. These sessions changed my perspective a bit. I cannot play 1 to 8 in that order for all rows. The moment 2 rows got exactly 8 in the same round then you cannot use the reset card on both in the subsequent column. So, at that point, you already know you have lost.
That means ideally you want to get different starting numbers for each rows. Maybe Red starts with 1 but blue with 3, green with 5, yellow with 7 or something like that. That way, every row will reset at different point. Starting one of them immediately with 8 is also a viable option. One row will have to use reset right away, right? And the other row has to play an 8 so the next round that row should take reset afterwards.
Apparently, it is not that easy to do that, for me, at least. My mind keeps coming back to the idea of going back to 1 again for all rows as the starting point while I should be spreading them out.
Also, that is assuming I got an ideal set of cards. There is a chance that you get all 1 right from the start. Or maybe you manage to set different numbers for each color but then the random order of the card mess it up for you. Suddenly, for 2 rows in a column, you have no choice but to play 8.
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Back to my idea of solo variant with lower hand size, I thought having 7 instead of 10 is not a big deal. It is, apparently. After losing twice with my variant, I went back to the standard solo rule where one color had 5 cards while the rest only might have none or up to 2. Yet, I still managed to win.
With the hand size of 7 from 2 players, while you only have 7 but the total available is 14 from the same total of 40. Even if one player somehow get all the same color, then maybe the other players have 7 cards for the other 4 colors. Even then the player with more diverse can go first, then the player with 1 color, back to the more diverse card again and the 1 color player can do the reset. At this point, they have a chance to trade 2 cards for possibly different color.
After winning with the regular solo rule, I still believed that maybe I just need to play better and avoid playing 8 in the same round. I tried again but then I lost because some colors were too low at the bottom. Even after stalling and carefully play the 2 reset cards, I couldn’t find that one color for the next round.
Then I went back again with the standard solo rule and I had no problem with it. I even tried doing face up cards when placing card at the bottom to reduce the memory element. It helps in a way not exactly necessary for my variant and definitely not necessary for the standard solo. Maybe I should try using that idea with 2-handed solo that I did in my previous attempts.
Otherwise, unless I can find somebody to play with, only the regular solo variant works and there is not much of replay value.
Playing time was about 27 minutes.
Watch the slideshow for this Level 10 official solo session here.
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Aquamarine
Watch the Slideshow of this Aquamarine game session here.
Three chances of diving through the depth of oceans before your oxygen tank run out in Aquamarine.
This was a solo play with Sheet #4, the Polar Shelf. Several new features were introduced in this sheet from previous ones like the Ice that blocks your path and suck your oxygen, exploring photographs spots to unlock certain abilities to mitigate the dice. Also 2 new creatures for different scorings, the Penguins and Krills.
Each enclosed penguin scores 7 but it cannot be enclosed along with bubbles. Enclosing Krills have to include other objects to gain 2 points per combined object.
Let’s dive in. The Dive starting hour was 3, so I got 4 turns before entering the night.
ROUND 1: 3 and 5.
Either roll had to be a straight rectangular shape. Below the middle and right boat, there were Krills but to enclose them with other object, it was better with even number shape.
There were also 2 stingrays that had to be discovered during the day on the left so I thought going with the left was the best starting choice. 3 was not going to get me anywhere deep because of the 2 blocking ice. Luckily not far from there, with 5, I could have reached bubbles and covered 1 Bluenose Shoal.
So straight 5, from left boat, 4th column from the left edge.
ROUND 2: 3 and 4.
From there with 3 I could have gone left horizontally, covering a Penguin. Couldn’t use 4 there because it had to be square shape, which would have covered a Penguin along with Bubble.
3 to the right had 2 choices. Either covering a Photo spot with a Shoal or one Stingray. 4 to the right in square would have just covered a Krill plus a Shoal. Going down straight got me nothing.
Probably not the best choice but I decided with 3 to the left, covering a Penguin. For this I moved along another Ice so I lost 1 oxygen.
ROUND 3: 2 and 4.
2 was a bit wasteful, especially near a Krill. I took 4 in square to cover 3 things, Krill, Photo spot and Bubble. Even if the shape was next to an ice, the Bubble saved it. 1st photo spot.
ROUND 4: 4 and 5.
6th rows deep. My only way forward had to be in straight shape. 5 was good to get out from that narrow path. Maybe 4 was better if the next one was even number.
I took 5 in straight shape, covering 2 Shoals, passing through an ice so I had to lose 2 oxygen. This was just before the depth level that required 1 oxygen.
ROUND 5: 3 and 3.
So I got to 5 in free form. From the current position, 11th row, there was a photo spot to the right and a Krill right below it. Covering both already took 3 spaces and nothing nearby for the other 2. On the other hand, I could have just gone deeper and covered a Krill, 2 Shoals and a Bubble.
By doing so I also passed through the Normal difficulty threshold for solo play. So, I went with that.
ROUND 6: 3 and 5.
I needed to go 3 levels deeper to reach the minimum solo hard more requirement. It was still too early to end the dive so I just took the time.
The next row had a Penguin. Going with 5 allowed me to also covered a Shoal and I still had 8 oxygen for this dive. 3 or 5 vertical got me nothing good. So, I just used 3 straight horizontally to cover a Penguin, spending 1 oxygen because of the depth.
ROUND 7: 5 and 6.
Going straight with either value only would have covered a Bubble and a Shoal. With 6 in more even rectangular shape got me to cover 2 Shoals and a photo spot. I thought it was an obvious choice, even if I had to spent 2 oxygen from the depth and from being next to ice.
I have reached the hard difficulty solo mode for this dive.
ROUND 8: 2 and 5.
Straight vertical with 5 could have allowed me to cover a Krill, a Bubble, a Shoal and a Penguin. While the Penguin was worth nothing in that but I got a lot with krill. On the other hand just covered the Penguin seemed to give me more score even if I had to spend 2 oxygen for the depth.
ROUND 9, 4 and 6.
I probably should have just ended this dive and started a new one but it was very close to some good scores. With 6 I could have either covered Cuttlefish plus bubble for 5 points or 3 Shoals and Bubble for 6. Obviously I had to go with the latter.
That was the end of 1st dive. Only scored 2 points from the photo spots.
ROUND 10: 3 and 4.
Going with straight 3 or 4 got me to cover only a Shoal from either 2 boats. With 4 in square shape got me to cover a Krill and a Shoal and both boats had it. I went with the right boat first so I had more freedom with the middle during the last dive using 4 in square shape. This covered a Krill and a Shoal, next to an ice. So, I had to spend 2 Oxygen.
ROUND 11: 5 and 6.
From this position, even with 6 in wider shape only got me to cover 2 Shoals. I could have gotten 2 shoals plus a Krill with straight. 6 Straight got me no additional object compared to 5. So, I went with the 5 straight covering those 3 objects while spending 3rd oxygen for being next to an ice.
ROUND 12: 5 and 6.
This next one was a bit wasteful in terms of going deeper. But with 6 I got to cover a Beacon and a Cuttlefish during the night while still opening a good possible shape for subsequent round.
So, I covered those 2 objects and spent 2 oxygen for depth and being next to an ice.
ROUND 13: 3 and 5.
For the solo hard mode requirement, I still had to go 10 levels down and I already spent almost half of the oxygen.
My best option was probably going with straight 5 to the Flag after the easy mode threshold. But for that I had to spend 3 oxygen since the depth started to require 1 more oxygen.
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ROUND 14: ?
Apparently, I forgot to take picture for this one so not sure which numbers I rolled. But I ended up with straight 5, to the nearest photo spot after that previous flag. I also had to spend 2 more oxygen so I guess I rolled a 4 and a 5. I think I should have spent 1 more oxygen since I stopped next to an ice. That means I only had 2 oxygen left.
That was also the 3rd photo spot.
ROUND 15: 3 and 5.
This was probably the last turn before ending the current dive since I had no more oxygen. For the difficulty threshold, I also needed to go 2 levels deep. So, with straight 3, spending 2 oxygen I just reached that threshold, covering nothing.
That was the end of 2nd Dive. 3 additional points from the photo track.
ROUND 16: 2 and 3.
Since I probably had 1 extra turn for the usual 8 for each dive, I thought I should save more oxygen.
From the middle boat, I went down 2 spaces, covering a Shoal. A nearby ice but diagonally.
ROUND 17: 4 and 6.
My best option was probably going straight 4 down, covering a Shoal and a bubble if I wanted to save oxygen. But I chose 6 in wider shape to cover a Krill and a Shoal but no bubble. I had to spend 2 oxygen plus 1 for being next to an ice.
ROUND 18: 3 and 5.
The better choice was probably using Straight 5 to cover bubble, penguin and a shoal even if I gained nothing from the penguin. At least, this let me go deeper and saved oxygen. Instead, I chose 3 straight to the nearby flag, ending up spending an oxygen for the ice.
ROUND 19: 3 and 4.
I could have used straight 3 to cover a penguin and a shoal. But I went with 4 so I stopped right before the depth required extra oxygen and hopefully easier next shape.
ROUND 20: 3 and 5.
Going deeper, straight 3 would have given me nothing. So I went with straight 5 down, staring with the Krill right below the flag and ended with the 4th photo spot. Also ended next to an ice so I had to spend 4 this time.
ROUND 21: 2 and 2.
I had 2 options with 4 in free form. Either only covered a Penguin for 7 or 2 shoals plus bubble and krill for 6 plus 3. Should have went with the latter but I went with the former, straight 4 horizontally.
I still had to move 1 space down to reach the minimum solo threshold.
ROUND 22: 4 and 6.
With the 6 I could have actually executed the other plan of previous round for 9. Instead I chose 4 straight down, covering a bubble, a Krill and a Photo spot for just 4 points plus 1. Hoping that this allowed me to reach deeper.
ROUND 23: 3 and 3.
This was near a group of objects and from the current position the best was just to cover 1 Krill and 3 Shoals for 6 plus 6.
ROUND 24: 1 and 1.
Well, I just covered a Penguin and a Shoal.
That was the end of 3rd dive and the game. 5 additional points from photo track.
SCORING
Cuttlefish: 5 points
Penguins: 42 points
Krill: 30 points
Shoals: 30 points
Flag: 14 points
Beacon: 0 point
Photo Bonus: 10 points
TOTAL SCORE: 131 POINTS
Playing time was about 41 minutes.
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Final Girl
Watch the Slideshow of this Final Girl Game Session here.
Appointment with a Doctor in Final Girl: Frightmare on Maple Lane.
The story was about Nancy who lived in a house Maple Street. On one Sunday morning she suddenly woke up because of the noise right outside of her house. Her house was actually one of the 4 houses in the intersection of this Maple Lane.
Nancy opened her northern window of her house and found that some of her neighbors were gathering in that intersection. She noticed that all of them were looking at the same direction, a house across the street of hers. It should have been Mr. Smalley’s house.
“Did something happen last night?”
Nancy immediately went to the western window of her house, opened the curtain and saw the house. Half of Mr. Smalley’s house was burnt down. Luckily, it seemed there was no casualty. Mr. Smalley and his family had not been around on this neighborhood for a while. But who did that then?
Nancy was curious so she planned on getting out and talked with the neighbors about it. But she was still a bit hungover after last night drinking. “Wake up, Nancy! Focus!” she said still half asleep.
Well, she got out of the house but actually fell asleep again in her porch and started dreaming.
In her dream, she saw a house. She noticed this house. It was Mr. Evan’s house, another one of 4 in the intersection. She can even see that house from her porch. It felt real for her, not realizing this was a dream.
She noticed someone was there. But that didn’t seem like Mr. Evan. “Who is that? Why is he bringing a garden fork, both covered in blood?”
Then, that guy looked back to Nancy’s direction. He noticed that Nancy had been paying attention to him. He smiled to her. After seeing that, Nancy’s vision became blurred. She was suddenly in a different room, trapped in a room with Boiler?
Nancy looked around the room trying to find a way out. She looked down, nothing. Glanced to the left, nothi… wait. It was that guy again. He approached Nancy and tried to stab her with that fork. Nancy run. That almost got her. She was bleeding from that scratch. While it was not a big deal but that scared her.
Nancy kept looking for a way out. Carefully, not to bump into that guy again. She looked again to the left. Nothing. She proceeded and looked up. nothing. She found her way out.
After passing through that door, her vision changed again. She was back to her porch. “So, is that a dream?” But she felt the pain from her arm. It was the scratch on the same spot where she got attack by that Garden fork.
Her immediate reaction was looking at Mr. Evan’s house where that weird guy was. Nobody was there. Still feeling unsure but she was convinced, something bad was about to happen and that guy had something to do with that.
In that dream, she remembered that the guy approached that intersection. She decided to warn the neighbor. Nancy got there. There were 6 of them.
“All of you have to get away from here. It is not safe!”
“What are you talking about?” said one of them back to Nancy.
“I cannot explain but I think I saw the guy who burned that house. He was right there but I cannot find him. You all need to get out from here fast.” said Nancy.
Only 2 of them seemed to listen. Nancy dragged those 2 to the east exit point. The 2 lived in that direction anyway. Both of them were still confused but followed Nancy anyway. They got to the exit point.
“Listen, just go home and stay in the house. Don’t open the door for anybody.” said Nancy to them before they got out of the premises.
Not sure what she had to do next, Nancy decided to take some supply from her house before she went out. The house was still close anyway. Nancy turned back to that intersection, trying to get home.
The 4 other neighbors were still there. Suddenly, one of them fell to the ground, bleeding. It was like he was stab. But nobody else was there.
Realizing that, the other 3 got panicked. 2 of them run to the east to Nancy’s direction and the other one to the South. Nancy still at the east exit witnessed that and got frozen, unable to do anything.
Until her next door neighbor, Rachel, who just got out of the house after hearing those noises as well, called her. “Is everything okay, Nancy?”
Nancy looked to Rachel and immediately run to her, convincing her to get in the house. “Close the door, Rachel!”
“What is wrong, Nancy? Why are you acting like this?” asked Rachel. “Somebody just got murdered! It is not safe here! You need to get out from this area!”
Rachel was stil confused but decided to trust Nancy’s word. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
Before they went out, Nancy noticed that Rachel had a rifle, Rachel’s dad had it. Nancy, had some experience on using guns, grabbed it, loaded it with bullet from the drawer she found next to where it was.
The 2 got out of the house and to the east exit point. Nancy looked to the intersection where she found the 2 surviving neighbors coming from there. One of them fell while running.
“Rachel, you need to get out alone. I will help those 2.” While still with rifle on both of her hands, she got to that fallen neighbor, lift them and dragged them also to the exit.
The 3 went out of the area. Nancy was thinking that maybe she had a chance to bring out more neighbors. While she was still not with clear mind, she looked to the exit direction and a vision started to show up.
It was that guy again he was trying to chase those 3. However, that guy turned around and looked to Nancy and started to do something.
“OMG… HE’S SLICING OFF HIS OWN FINGERS!” said Nancy in her head.
He dropped that finger and Nancy started to react. “You are crazy!”
“Oh, so you can actually see me from there?” said that guy.
Realizing that she just made a mistake, she run away from that guy back to the intersection, very scared. After getting to the intersection, she turned to the south and got to the front of her house. It didn’t seem that the guy was chasing her.
She started thinking, “Should I hide in the house? Is it safe?”
Then she noticed somebody was hiding in the nearby bush. It was one of the neighbor, the lady, one of the surviving from intersection. Without thinking to much, Nancy grabbed her hand and dragged her to the South exit.
At the exit, Nancy realized that she couldn’t tell this neighbor to run alone. She couldn’t as she was too scared to do anything. Nancy looked to the left and right trying to find a place to hide them both.
She noticed that the house at southwest quarter next to this exit was empty. They entered the house and locked the door. The 2 took some rest. Nancy tried to look around the house hoping to find something useful. The only thing she found was an Energy drink. It was not her thing to drink something like this but she kept it in her pocket.
The house had 2nd floor. Nancy thought maybe she could spot that murderer from higher floor.
Nancy looked to the intersection again. She couldn’t find anyone. But before she took her eyes off the window, she noticed a house across hers in the northeast quarter with the door opened. That was Mr. Derrick’s house. He and his wife lived there.
Not long after that, somebody got out of that house. It was the wife, running, screaming out of being panic. Nancy assumed that the killer when there and killed Mr. Derrick. She became immensely scared without even directly witnessing.
After all of those tragedy she saw in a day, she thought she should just run. “He is too dangerous! I’m sorry Mrs. Derrick but no way I could help you.” said Nancy to herself.
But then she noticed something. “But I’m the one holding this rifle. Do I have a chance to eliminate him? Even if I choose to run, maybe the killer will just hunt the other neighbors.” said Nancy.
“I have to do it and I have to get out from here so the killer just chase me.”
“Focus, Nancy! Focus!”
Before she left, Nancy told the scared neighbor to lock the door. “Don’t open it, even for me.”. And the Neighbor just nodded.
Nancy was still too scared. She walked slowly and finally she reached the front of her house. Then she looked at Mr. Derrick’s house with his wife outside. Nancy finally got a good look at the killer when he stabbed Mrs. Derrick.
The Killer also noticed Nancy and slowly approached Nancy at her house.
“I believe we haven’t been introduced! I’m Dr Fright, a Dream Doctor! Usually nobody can see me unless they are asleep and yet, here you are, looking at me.”
“You cannot touch me nor I to you while you are awake! The only way to stop me from killing these people is if you come to my Boiler Room again. You have been there, right? So, I’m inviting you to my party. Hurry up and make your decision before my appointment with the rest of the citizens ends”
The Doctor kept walking pass Nancy while Nancy was still pointing the rifle at him. “So, is that it? I have to fall asleep in order to attack him?” asked Nancy to herself. Then she smiled.
While the Doctor was still walking towards the south exit, he got shot from the back. Nancy hit her with the first shot from her rifle. “I can easily fall asleep!”
The Doctor didn’t expect that. Nancy took the 2nd shot and hit him again. Unfortunately, the Doctor was still alive. Those 2 hits only disabled his Minor Dark Power to stay in the Boiler room longer.
Those were Nancy’s only 2 shots as she had no more ammo. She started running to the north and the Doctor started chasing her. The Doctor attacked her but Nancy managed to defend it using her rifle, hitting him to the head. After that, Nancy run and hid.
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The Doctor couldn’t find Nancy. That shot noise was heard by somebody at the northwest quarter house near that north exist. The Doctor spotted, thinking that it was Nancy in that house.
“FRANKY’S COMING FOR YOU!” said the Doctor even if the victim was unable to hear that.
While all of that were happening, the cop finally showed up. They put a roadblock near the North Exit and a patrol car started circling around between the east and west exit to see if the cop could find something.
After taking that hit, Nancy found herself in the Boiler Room again. Carefully tried to sneak her way out. Nancy looked down. Nothing. Then to the left. There was the Doctor, throwing the fork at her and hit her. After that she moved down and to the left, finding the exit. Nancy woke up.
Nancy didn’t know exactly what happened in this awaken state. She saw that the killer was moving to the north direction. She thought this was her good chance to run and take some rest.
Nancy tried to use whatever means and improvisation she could to get away. She managed to stand up and start running when she realized the Doctor was about to enter a house.
Nancy got to the south exit. She was still confused and tried to knock on the door to the southeast quarter next to that exit. Somebody was there. This was her neighbor, John. He knew her well so she convinced him to open his door for her.
Well, to her surprise, he opened that door holding a Machete. John let her in.
“I’m gonna need that weapon of yours.” While treating her wounds a bit, she told him everything she knew.
“So, what are we going to do now?” asked John. “I need to rest a bit.” said Nancy after taking that Machete from John’s hand. “Just keep an eye out while I take some rest.” Nancy fell asleep and back to the dream world.
The Doctor, finally entered the house at the northwest quarter. He couldn’t find Nancy but he saw a victim. Of course, he killed that person. Everytime the Doctor murdered someone, he was getting stronger. He was very close to activate his Dark Power.
Nancy while in the dream state, got a phone call. It was her boyfriend, Blake. She couldn’t answer this call while in sleep state. After a couple of rings, Blake left a voice mail.
Apparently, he just arrived at his home at the northeast quarter after hearing about all of the bad news that just happened. He said he was worried about Nancy and asked her to call him back.
Nancy then realized that her boyfriend’s house was across the house where the Doctor was last time seen. She knew he was in danger. While still in asleep state, she got out of John’s house and saw the boyfriend’s car in front of the house.
Unfortunately, she also saw the Doctor came out from the house across the street, moving towards the boyfriend’s house. She was too far from them and there was no way for her to prevent this.
Then, Nancy started hearing a voice. It was the Doctor.
“Nancy, where are you?”
“Don’t you want to say goodbye to your beloved boyfriend?” asked the Doctor.
“No, please… don’t do that.” said Nancy back.
“Too bad. I need his precious soul. You should have stayed and let me take yours instead of his!”
Even without looking, she knew, Blake was killed already. She cried. That broke Nancy’s heart.
Doctor Fright on the other hand, kept getting stronger. He had been powering up long enough and finally reached his full power.
With his Full Power, Dr Fright was no longer bound to the physical world. He could start accessing everybody’s dream from anywhere and kill them.
The Doctor even bragged about it to Nancy.
“You know what, Nancy? I can start killing you right now if I want to. But I want to save you as my last victim and start killing the rest of citizens in this area.”
“How about I start taking their souls 2 at a time? There are 3 others beside you and 4 just entered the area. Do you know that they came here to have a party despite knowing that they just heard dangerous news? This is why they don’t deserve to live. They got every chance to live and do right and they chose to waste it.”
“There is no reason for you to help them, Nancy. If you want, you can run away from here and I will not chase you just so I can enjoy these souls and anybody coming to this town in the future.”
Then the voice disappeared after he laughed. Still shocked, but Nancy realized something. If the Doctor could access any soul from anywhere then maybe she also could reach him from anywhere.
With the Machete still in her hand, fueled by her rage to avenge all of her friends, she decided to stop the killer. She entered the Boiler room.
The Doctor spotted her once and attacked. Nancy was prepared and retaliated, dealing damage with her Machete. The Doctor was still alive.
She needed more time and created some distraction. That didn’t stop the Doctor for taking 4 lives. 3 left beside Nancy.
Nancy woke up and tried to treat her injury, preparing herself before going back to sleep state and keep fighting.
Nancy finally learned how to fight the Doctor without getting to the Boiler Room. The Doctor didn’t expect that to happen. She unleashed the Furious Strike dealing possibly the last attack to the Doctor, with a Stab of the Machete to his chest.
No sign of him getting back up. Nancy herself started to lose her consciousness after an exhausting whole day. But eventually she woke up from this Nightmare.
That’s the end of Frightmare on Maple Street. Playing time was 106 minutes.
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Beacon Patrol
Watch the Slideshow of this Beacon Patrol Game session on TikTok.
As Captain of the Coast Guard, ensure the safety of North Sea by exploring the sea and islands around Beacon Buoys and Lighthouse in Beacon Patrol.
This was a new game for me. Actually, I’ve played the digital version. That experience was not great but mostly probably because I am not used to play digital version of a board game like this.
In that, I have to constantly zoom in and zoom out. Zooming in is to see the icons on the small tile and because how the game works, zooming out to see the overall tableau situation. So, I was hesitant to purchase the physical game after that experience.
Luckily the game is relatively affordable so I eventually bought it. I have to say, that I didn’t expect the tile to be this big based on my experience with the digital version. While the box is definitely smaller than TTR box but I was really expecting something smaller and not this weird shape. So, with that tile size, maybe the box can be a bit shorter but that was almost the right box size.
Recently, there was already an announcement for the expansion. Maybe it can fit in the box.
Beacon Patrol is either solo or cooperative game for up to 4 players. This is an exploration, tile laying game where you have lay tiles in any direction adjacent to the previously explored area. Placing tiles adjacent to existing is already done in a lot of games. In this one, you also have to move the ship on the tile.
The square tiles will show either whole body of water or both island and ocean. You can only place the tile next to where the ship is on. After you place the tile, the ship will move to that newly placed tile.
Obviously, this coast guard ship can only move to the ocean part of the tile. So, not only the new tile has to be adjacent to existing tile with a ship but it also has to follow the terrain on the edge.
Another unique part of this game is that you can only place tile in one direction. Rotating the tile is not allowed. There is an arrow to remind you. I think I had 1 session where I didn’t realize I placed it in 180 degrees.
I have not played multiplayer, only solo. In solo mode, each round, you get 3 tiles and you can place them in any order, while still following those rules. After you place them all, the round ends and you get to draw 3 more.
In solo, specifically, you can also only play 2 out of 3, keeping one between rounds. But if you cannot place them, maybe because the ship is not on adjacent tile, then you have to discard down to 1 before moving to the next round with new tiles. Discarded tiles are out of the game. There are 55 tiles, not counting mini expansion added in the box.
Every round, you also have movement tokens that you can spend. In solo, you get to use 4. Ideally, you want to move the ship for free by placing a tile next to it with connected body of water. But the depicted picture might lead the ship to a dead end. For that, you have to move back by spending those movement tokens. I space per movement token. New round and you get to use those 4 again.
So, what is the goal of this game?
Technically just score as high as you can. How? By surrounding the tiles on all 4 sides, you score that surrounded tile. If the surrounded tile has a Lighthouse, it scores 3 points. 2 points if the tile depicts a buoy and just 1 point for having none of them. The 2 mini expansions included in the base box introduced new element and scoring.
So, with that way of scoring, ideally, you want to place a tile with those objects as close to the center as possible. What makes it challenging is that you may draw the other tiles first. Of course, you can just discard it but maybe they can still be used to surround the more valuable tiles later.
Even if you find a Lighthouse worth 3 points, the object might be on an island on 3 sides of the tile, making it hard for the ship to move around it and eventually surrounding it.
Unlike a lot of exploration, tile laying game, you want to keep everything radially. The main reason is because of the limited movement and the risk of discarding a good tile after failing to place them in a round.
Making a very long map is a huge mistake. The good thing is that unlike other tile laying games where the tableau shape is unpredictable and can expand anywhere, this one doesn’t take that big space, especially with that size and you have to place all 55. I manage to keep them in less than my playing area, maybe 60 x 60 or 60 x 75 is more than enough.
There is also a rule, that I haven’t used it myself that if you discard a tile, you can move the ship. So, in very bad situation where you may end up discarding a tile, maybe consider using it for movement.
Another challenging aspect is that you don’t actually know where to go next. Except probably with the last tile you keep. Only after you draw the next new tiles then you start making a plan. But that means, there will be moments when you move your ship to the center to make it closer to the part you want to explore farther but you end up getting a tile perfect for the part before you moved that ship at the end of previous round.
The game comes with different thresholds for scorings. My first play with the digital version, since I didn’t realize that you are not supposed to expand farther away, I didn’t get to the 2nd threshold of scoring, lower than 25. I finally scored better after understanding the concept.
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With physical version, I got 3 sessions. I guess I made the same mistake as the first time again and only scored 25. After that I played again and scored about 47 (4th threshold maybe?).
Like a lot of tile laying games, it is very easy to reset the game and play again. Unfortunately this didn’t come with a bag to draw tile blindly. Since I was expecting a smaller tile, I bought a small bag and it was not big enough to let it shuffle the tile. It has to be like bag in Calico game or maybe Obsession.
After that second session, I thought, yeah, the game is fun. Much better than my experience with the digital.
So with that mindset, I played the game again for the 3rd time that day. It can still be very frustrating, especially if you try to score high and expecting to get some specific tile to let that scoring happen.
Also in the 3rd play, I tried to be more aware of the scope. Like in the first 3 layers from the starting point, I will try to play tiles with either buoy or lighthouse. So, after a while, I thought, yeah maybe it is time to play the less valuable tile just to score the higher one.
I guess I miscalculated it. While I can see the remaining tiles but I know it is not going to be useful all. Maybe I still had to spread them in multiple directions while I was making decision whether this position should be the end or to keep expanding farther away.
The better way that I should try in my next play is based on the number of tiles. With just the base module, you get 55 tiles. If you expand equally, maybe you get like 7 x 8 or something closer to that.
In that 3rd session, I ended up making rather long board. While still scored 45, less than the 2nd play but that already involved some cheating with me when redrawing the next card. I even checked what was still available in the remaining pile.
This actually gave me an idea to check the distribution or variety of these 55 tiles. There were 12 open water tiles with no island. 7 of them have buoy while the rest are empty. That group has the most tiles.
The next group with the most tiles are the one with an island on one edge. Each side has 5 tiles. From those 5, only 1 has Lighthouse, 2 with buoy and the other 2 empty.
After that, the tiles with islands on 2 sides but water in the middle have the most. 3 tiles with horizontal water and 3 tiles with vertical.
The rest are tiles with island on either 2 or 3 connected sides. Each of these 8 variants has 2, one with a Lighthouse and one without.
Based on that, maybe it is not that hard to memorize and if you want to count what has come out and what hasn’t. On the other hand, I also saw the designer mentioned that he tried to make this more of a relaxing game where you don’t really need to do that kind of counting.
I think this is the same problem with A Gentle Rain, another tile laying game for mostly 1 player. They tried to sell this for that relaxing experience while offering a way to score.
As a game, I think gamers like me will end up trying to score as high as possible and getting stressed out of these 2 games. Like with A Gentle Rain, you have to actively tell yourself not to care the score that much to make it a relaxing experience. Otherwise, be prepared to get frustrated. Or maybe it was just me playing the game poorly.
In the multiplayer variant, there is a way to exchange tiles but each player is controlling their own ship. So, there is more cooperation than just multiple persons doing one man game.
Definitely will play this one again, maybe even trying the multi-handed game. Fast to play, under 30 minutes and also fast to reset so it is nice. As the game progresses, you get more option or more like you have a chance to expand your option. Or of course, you can cut them off yourself which is bad.
Playing time was at least 25 minutes each session.
More unboxing pictures of Beacon Patrol game on Instagram.
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The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game
Watch the Slideshow of this The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game session on Tiktok.
Develop your estates around your castle in Loire Valley by managing resources, careful planning and trading goods for silvers in The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game.
This was a solo session against Aaron again. I actually got 2 sessions with the first one got eliminated instantly after in first few rounds. Even in this one I almost lost the game but here is how it went.
ROUND 1.
Aaron started with 1 Purple, 1 Blue and 1 Mine in his estate.
The market had 4 Green or Castles at 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th. I guess this was the result for not shuffling it well after previous session. There were also 2 Blue at 1st and 6th and 1 yellow at 2nd space.
Had a 5 and a 1. I used the 5 to take the Castle (2) from 5th space. Got another 5. Played the 1 plus 1 worker to take 2nd Castle from 6th space.
A 5 and a 4. Played the 4 to take the 3rd castle from 4th space. All of my blueprint spaces were full. I had to start attaching those Castles in my estate. I needed a 2, 4 and 5.
Still with a 5 and a 4. Played the 4 first to place the Castle 4 to the estate. This gave me an extra action and I took the Yellow from 2nd space.
Still with a 5 and a 4. What were the odds? These were my last 2 cards for this round. I played the 5 to attach the 2nd Castle. As bonus action I attached the 3rd castle as if I had a 2. This completed the triplet. I took 2 goods and claimed the first green triplet bonus. The goods were 3/4 and 5/6. I started with a 5/6 so now I had 2 of it.
I couldn’t use the 4 for anything so I just took 2 Workers.
That was the end of 1st Round. Scored 3 for me.
ROUND 2
Aaron completed a Blue triplet first, scored 4 points plus 1 from the first time bonus. I had to score 2 more to avoid getting eliminated.
The Market had 3 beige at 2nd space and 2 at 3rd, a mine at 1st, another castle at 4th, purple at 5th and a yellow at 6th.
So, the Yellow was not going to complete this round. My safest plan was just to sell 2 goods just to keep up with the 5 points from Aaron. If I got lucky, I could have finished the Beige triplets and scored 3 plus bonuses.
Started the round with 3 and 4. Played the 3 to take the Beige from 3rd space that required a 4 to attach to my estate.
A 4 and a 5. Now that I think about it, there was another beige that if I attach it to my estate, I got free action of taking a Yellow or another beige to my blueprint. Didn’t realize it during the game.
So, I played my 5 plus 1 of 2 worker to get 6 and took the Yellow from 6th space just to make sure I had workers.
A 4 and a 1. I played the 4 to attach the 1st beige from blueprint to my estate. As bonus action from this card, I got to place any card from blueprint for free to my estate. For that I picked the Yellow 6. I got 2 Workers from it.
A 1 and a 6. Played a 1, plus 1 worker to get a 2 to take 2nd Beige from 2nd space. This was actually identical from my 1st beige, allowing me to attach one card to estate for free.
Last 2 cards and I had 2 6s. I was not sure I could complete the beige triplet this round. So, I had to sell the 2 goods 5/6 just to keep up with Aaron’s score.
I played 6 to sell them, scored 2 points plus 2 Silvers. Then using 3 Silver, I traded them for 3 cards and one of them was a 3. I used it to take the 3rd beige to my blueprint.
I guess, I actually had a chance then by playing my last 6 to attach the 2nd beige that required 6. The bonus allowed me to attach the 3rd one.
Instead, I played my last 6 plus a worker to attach Yellow 1 to get 2 more workers.
Scored 5, matched with Aaron’s 5.
ROUND 3
Aaron finished the Gray or Silver triplets first, scoring another 4 plus 1 bonus. So, I had to score 5 points this round to keep up.
The market had 1 Green or Castle at 1st space, 2 Pastures at 1st and 4th, Purple at 2nd, Beige at 3rd, Blue at 5th and Yellow at 6th.
So, if I had a chance to complete the beige triplet and the yellow one this round to get higher score than Aaron’s.
I started the round with 2 5s. Played one of them plus 1 worker to get a 6 and attached the beige card that required a 6. The bonus from this allowed me to attach a different card to estate for free, and I used it to complete the beige triplet.
Scored 3 plus as the first time 1 point. For bonus from round I got to get 1 card and I picked a goods with a 3/4. This was my 2nd goods for that type.
Also, the last beige card allowed me to take either a beige or a yellow to my blueprint from the market. Of course, I picked the Yellow to complete the set.
I had a 5 and a 4. That last yellow required a 2 so I waited. Instead I played the 5 to take the Blue card from 5th space.
I got 2 4s. Played one of them to take the Pasture card from 4th space. The blueprint space was full.
I had a 4 and a 6. Spent 2 workers to change my 4 to a 2 to attach the last Yellow. I got 2 workers back. Completing the set got me 4 points plus 1 as first time bonus. From the round bonus I took 1 goods from the 1/2 type. I already had higher score than Aaron at this point.
Last 2 cards were a 6 and a 5. Spent 1 workers to turn a 6 into a 1 to take the 2nd Pasture from 1st space. The blueprint was full again.
Last card was a 5 and to attach any card from blueprint required either a 3 or a 1. I had to spend my last 2 workers to get a 3 and attached the Blue. As bonus I took another goods, the 3rd of 3/4 type.
That was the end of the round. My current score was 14 to Aaron’s 10.
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ROUND 4
Aaron completed the Pasture set and Monastery set this time. Scored 4 plus 1 and 6 plus 1. So his current score I had to keep up was 22 and I needed 8.
The market had 2 Pastures at 1st and 5th, yellow at 2nd, beige at 3rd and 5th, castle at 4th and blue at 6th. So, I could have finished the pasture this time. But that only got me 4 points. The bonus animals could have gotten at least 1 point according to the face up. I needed 3 more from it. My safest option was to sell the type 3/4 goods. There were 3 of them and I could have gotten 3 points plus 3 silver which was enough to keep up with Aaron.
I started the round with a 6 and a 3. Played the 6 first to take the Blue from 6th space. Now the blueprint was full.
I got a 6 and a 3 again. Played the 3 to sell the 3 goods from 3/4 type. Scored 3 points plus 3 silvers.
I got a 1 and a 6. Played the 1 to attach the Pasture 1 as my 1st of triplet. The bonus got me a Pig in addition to my starting Cattle. This got me 2 points. I needed 3 more to keep up with Aaron.
I had 2 6s. Nothing could have been done and I had no worker so I used one of them to pick 2 workers.
I had a 6 and a 4. These were my last 2 cards of the round. I still needed to take 3rd pasture to the blueprint and attached 2 pastures to complete the set.
I played the 4 first to take the Pasture from 5th space. It seems I forgot to spend 1 of my worker. Then with my last one a 6, I spent 1 worker to attach the Pasture 5 as the 2nd of triplet. This got me a Sheep so I got 2 points for having 3 different animals.
Then I spent 3 silvers to get 3 cards. Let’s just say I got a 3 that allowed me to attach the last Pasture to the estate. This got me a chicken so I had a set of 4 different animals worth 4 points. The set was completed and I scored 4 points from it. As bonus round I took 2 workers.
That was the end of the round. I got 21 points from the estate plus 4 from the animals to Aaron’s 22.
ROUND 5.
This last time, Aaron completed the beige triplet and scored 3 points. He also got 3 more points from having all 7 colors as the first time. So he got 28 points and I only needed 2 more to win.
The market had 2 beige at 1st and 3rd, a blue at 2nd and 6th, mines at 3rd and 4th and pasture at 5th. I had a chance to complete the Blue set with 2 additional goods.
Started the round with a 2 and a 1. Played the 2 first to take that Blue from 2nd space. So I had 2 blue in my blueprint.
Got a 1 and a 3. I actually needed a 2 to attach one of the blue or a 5. So, I spent 1 worker to change the 1 into a 2 then attached the Blue. The bonus got me 2nd goods of 1/2 type.
I had 2 3s. To actually play the last one I needed 2 workers. It felt wasteful but I traded 1 of them for only 1 worker.
A 3 and a 1. I still had to spend 2 workers to get a 5. I played my 1 to sell the 2 goods of 1/2 type. Got me 2 points and 2 silver.
Back to 2 3s and these were my last 2 cards. I played one of them plus 2 workers to attach the Blue 5, last of the triplet. Scored 4 and I already won the game, cheatingly I guess.
The goods got me a 3 and a 4. I could have used the last one to sell that goods I just got to get only 1 point plus the 3 silvers. Unfortunately, I had no more turn to make use of these last 3 silver for 1 point.
That was the end of the game. I scored 32 to Aaron’s 28. But a bit cheating, accidentally. Oh, well…
Playing time was about 44 minutes.
Learn more about the game from The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game Review.
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Tiny Epic Defenders
Watch the Slideshow of this Tiny Epic Defenders game session on TikTok.
Defend the kingdom of Aughmoore until the Epic Foe comes out and defeat it in Tiny Epic Defenders.
This was a solo session with the 2 Elves, Nyrra the Dark Elf Ranger and Laishom, the Elf Commander. Using standard difficulty setup and just the base game.
To the West from the Capital City was the Forest, and from there in clockwise order, the Coast, Desert, Ruins, Plains and Mountains.
ROUND 1
First sign of enemy attack happened at the Mountain, followed by ruins., threat level 1 each. 2nd sign happened at forest, followed by desert, also to threat level 1 each. Another attack to Forest to level 2 threat and then Coast, level 1.
The Commander’s turn was next. They decided to let Nyrra took care the west side of the city while the Commander secured the east half. One bonus action for Nyrra and she moved 1 space to the forest. 2 actions moved the Commander to the Desert and the last action was to secure 1 level down at Ruins.
Nyrra from the forest, secured the adjacent coast and the Mountain, both down to level 0. On her own turn, she secured the Forest down to level 0. After that she moved to the Coast and from there she helped Commander to secure the Desert. She actually could have used the Forest ability.
With the shared turn, Nyrra just went back to the Forest.
ROUND 2.
First sign of attack this round happened at the same locations, Mountain first followed by Ruins, both to Level 1 Threat. With shared actions, Nyrra moved 2 spaces to the Plains and from there secured the Mountains she just passed through down 1 threat level.
Nyrra continued doing shared jobs by securing the ruins from Plains and moved back to the Forest.
First Dire Enemy appeared and it was GIANT WASP at Plains. Since nobody was there to defend the location, the threat level went up by 1. Since both heroes were at full health, they both suffered one damage.
Enemy attack continued at Forest and Coast. Then at Forest again plus the Desert. The Forest was at Level 2 this time. Laishom’s turn next and let Nyrra moved back to Capital City so she could heal. With 3 actions, The Commander completely secured the Desert and moved 2 spaces to the Plains, waiting for next round attack from the Dire Enemy.
Nyrra went last this round and healed back to full health. She moved back to the Forest, secured the location down to level 1 and from there the Coast, to level 0.
ROUND 3.
First attack this round happened at Forest to level 2 and then Desert to level 1. Next was shared turn. The Commander stayed at Plains so Nyrra had to do the job securing other places. With 3 actions, she moved to the Coast, completely securing the Desert. Apparently, she forgot to secure the Forest.
Giant Wasp attacked again and the Commander was there to Defend the location. He suffered 2 damage with 1 health left. The commander found STAFF OF CONTROL that allowed the owner to move the Epic Foe to any Outer Region.
Next enemy attack happened at Forest to level 3 and the Coast to level 1. Nyrra was next and with 3 actions secured 2 level of Threat at forest to level 1 and completely secured the Coast.
After that the Commander’s turn. He gave order for Nyrra to do one more action which she used to completely secured the Forest. Then using 3 actions, one to secure the Plains where he was at to leve 0 and he moved back to Capital City to heal.
Shared turn and the Commander healed back to full health. He moved back to Desert again with 2 actions. Nyrra used the last one to move to the Forest.
2 more enemy cards left. One attack to each Coast, Desert, Mountains and Ruins.
ROUND 4.
Nyrra started the round doing shared job alone. With 3 actions, she moved from the Forest to the Coast. From there completely secured the Coast and the Desert.
The Commander’s next by giving Nyrra one more action which she used to move back to the Forest. With his 3 actions, Laishom moved to the Mountain, secured it and moved back to the Plains, waiting for the Wasp.
First attack this round happened at Forest, followed by Desert both to Level 1 threat. Another shared turn and Nyrra spent 2 actions to activate the Forest ability to secure Ruins. The last one was to secure the Forest itself.
Wasp attacked again at Plains, defended by the Commander. He suffered 2 damage but he found ELIXIR OF ERRAND which he could used to lose 1 health to get 2 actions.
Nyrra’s turn next. Maybe the best used of this was to move the Commander from the Plains back to the Capital City to heal using the Coast ability. Yet, the turn was wasted just to move her to the Mountain space, nothing to secure.
So, the rest of the deck were enemy cards. 2 hits to each Coast, Desert and Mountain and 1 hit to each Forest and Ruins.
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ROUND 5.
Enemy attack continued at Forest to Level 2 and to Desert to level 3. Followed by ruins to Level 2 and Coast to level 3. After that one attack to Forest to level 3 and completely destroyed the Coast. Threat Level of Capital City went up to 1.
The Commander’s turn next, giving extra action for Nyrra that she used to secure the Forest down to Level 2. Apparently I forgot to do the rest of Commander’s action.
The attack continued at Mountain to Level 3 and the Ruins to Level 2. Shared turn next. The Commander from Capital City moved to the Desert trying to save that one from getting destroyed with 2 actions. The other 2 were for Nyrra to move from Mountain to Plains while securing one level of Mountain.
Wasp appeared again and it was Nyrra’s turn to take 2 damage. She found SPEAR OF VALOR, which allows the holder to deal 3 damage using 2 actions.
Next attack happened at Coast and Desert. The Commander defended the Desert and suffered 1 damage. Nobody was there to defend the Coast so the Threat Level of Capital City went up to 2.
The attack continued at Desert, defended by the Commander again. Followed by the attack to Mountain to level 3.
Nyrra’s turn next. With 4 actions, she moved 1 space from Plains to Mountains. From there, she secured 2 threat level of Mountain and 1 from Forest.
With the last shared turns. Nyrra moved back to the Capital City while the Commander tried to Defend the Coast. The commander should have secured the Desert at least once instead of Nyrra securing the Forest.
ROUND 6
The round started with the attack to Mountain to level 2 threat and Ruins to Level 3. Then the Wasp appeared at the Plains again. Nobody to defend there and the Location threat level went up to Level 1. Luckily no heroes had full health so none of them suffered anything.
The attack continued at Desert and this completely destroyed the region. Threat Level at Capital City went up to 3.
Shared turn and Nyrra did all of the job. She healed and from Capital City moved 2 space to the Plains again. From there she secured the ruins down to level 2 and Mountain to level 1.
The attack continued at Forest to Level 1 and to Desert, increasing the Threat Level of Capital City to 4. Followed by the attack to Ruins, increasing the Threat level to 3 and to Ocean. The Commander was still there taking damage and he had 1 health left.
2nd Dire Enemy appeared. It was SEA SERPENT at Coast. The Commander was there to Defend but the Tsunami moved him to the Desert. He found ZODIAC CLOAK.
Then the Commander’s turn. He had to heal back so moved to the Capital City without being able to do other things. But he did give Nyrra 1 action to move from Mountain to back to Plains after the Tsunami moved her 1 space.
Next attack was to both Coast and Desert. Those were already destroyed and nobody was there to defend any of them. This increased the Threat level of Capital City to level 6.
Nyrra’s turn. She moved 2 spaces to the desert space. While passing through the Ruins region, she secured it 2 levels down to level 1.
Last one was shared turn. The Commander healed back and he moved 2 spaces from Capital City to the Coast. While passing through Forest, he secured it to level 0.
That was the end of the round and the Epic Foe appeared finally. It was KRAKEN at Coast.
ROUND 7
The round started with the attack at Mountain to level 2 and Ruins to level 1. Followed by another attack to Ruins to level 2 and to Coast, defended by the Commander.
Shared turn next. The Commander with his Zodiac Cloak gained 1 extra action by losing 1 health to 2 left. He then at the Coast spent 3 actions to deal 3 damage. Kraken retaliated and threw him to the opposite space at the Plains.
2 more actions were for Nyrra to move 1 space and then attack 4th time to the Kraken. Then the Commander’s turn. Nyrra took that chance to deal 5th damage to Kraken.
Using the Staf of Control, he moved the Kraken to the Plains area where he was. He dealt 6th damage to Kraken and the Epic Foe retaliated by throwing him back to Coast Region.
With 3 more actions, he moved back to that area 3 spaces, used the Elixir to gain 2 more actions after losing 1 health to deal 7th and 8th damage.
Enemy kept attacking, one to Forest to Level 3 and to the Desert, increasing the Threat level of Capital City to Level 7, one left before it was destroyed.
Sea Serpent appeared at the Coast again. Nyrra was there to defend but the Tsunami moved her 1 space. At least, she found HAMMER OF MIGHT.
Next turn was Nyrra’s. From Desert, 2 spaces from where the Epic Foe was, she moved and with the last 2 actions, she used the SPEAR OF VALOR, dealing 3 damage to the last 2 health of Kraken. Even though the Kraken managed to throw her to the opposite region as last retaliation, the Kraken was defeated.
The Kingdom of Aughmoore was safe. Playing time was about 32 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Tiny Epic Defenders Review.
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Dale of Merchants
Watch the Slideshow of this Dale of Merchant game session on TikTok.
Be the best Merchant in Dale by learning from and working together with different animalfolks in Dale of Merchants.
This was played 2-handed with Raccoon, Chameleon and Ocelot.
1st player started by learning Nuisance technique from Raccoon by paying 2. 2nd player learned GIFT VOUCHER from the Chameleon. But the cost was 4 plus 2. The played Bold Haggler first, rolling a die and gained a value of 2. Plus 4 junk cards and they got the money necessary to learn that technique.
As 2nd turn, 1st player continued learning cheap technique and this time was passive ability from Chameleon. It’s called REFLECTION with the cost of 2, paid using 2 junk cards.
There was a ROTTEN FOOD technique from Raccoon from the 2nd most expensive space so the total cost was 6. 2nd player, had recently purchased that Gift Voucher with the value of 4 plus 2 Junk, learned that technique.
3rd turn.
1st player stayed with cheap and the cheapest space had GOOLD OLD TIMES from Chameleon. The cost was 3. They played the Bold Haggler again and rolled a 1. Plus The Flexible Shopkeeper and the Junk, 1st player bought that card.
Now the cheapest spot had DIRTY EXCHANGE with the cost of 4. 2nd player also played their Bold Haggler and rolled a 1. Plus 2 Junk cards and the Raccoon, they bought it.
4th turn.
1st player had a total value of 8 in their hand. The cheapest one also had that Dirty Exchange again. Paid using Good Old times and 1 Junk Card.
Another Rotten Food showed up in the most expensive space with total cost of 7. 2nd player had a value of 10 total in their hand. Spent the Dirty Exchange plus 3 Junk cards to purchase that 2nd Rotten Food.
5th turn.
1st player was the first to do the dirty play by playing the dirty exchange card. They gave their Junk and luckily, randomly picked one of the Rotten Food card from the 2nd player.
Their turn continued. The cheapest spot in the market had CHARM card with the cost of 4. They played the Bold Haggler again and rolled a 1. Plus the Reflection card and Wily Fellow Raccoon to purchase it.
2nd Player then retaliated by playing their other Rotten Food card, sending one of their Junk card to the top of opponent’s deck. After that, 2nd player had total value of 6 in their hand. They purchased TRENDESTTING card from Chameleon which was from the cheapest spot with the total cost of 5. They spent the Gift Voucher and one Junk Card.
6th turn.
1st player continued with their dirty action by playing the NUISANCE CARD. stealing randomly 1 card from the opponent, whatever that was. Then with 4 Junk cards, they spent them all to buy another GOOD OLD TIMES card with the total cost of 4.
2nd player wanted to buy something with a value of 3. There was 2 Whirligig card with a value of 3 from Ocelot folk. The cost was either 4 or 5. They bought the 5 using the Trendsetter card. Actually, before making the purchase, they played their ROTTEN FOOD again, throwing a Junk card to the top of their opponent’s deck.
7th turn.
A Gamble card showed up in the most expensive space with the total cost of 9 to buy. 1st player finally decided to get this instead of going cheap. Paid using Good Old Times card and Charm card plus 2 Junk.
2nd player went cheap this time buying REFLECTION card from the cheapest spot with the total cost of 2. They paid using 2 Junk Cards.
8th turn.
1st player returned the Junk card to their opponent deck using the Rotten Food. Also with Nuisance card, stealing one from the 2nd player, whatever that card was. Their last 2 cards had a value of 6 so they purchased NEW SEASON card with the cost of 2 plus 2. Actually they only needed to pay using 1 card, The Gamble.
2nd player followed by buying the other New Season Card. Paid using Whirligig card for 3.
9th turn.
Another Nuisance card showed up with the total cost of 6. 1st player didn’t let their opponent took it so they purchased it before by paying with all 5 cards with a total value of 6 from their hand.
2nd player bought the SEEING DOUBLES card with the cost of 5 plus 1. Paid using Gift Voucher and the New Season card for 6, adding to their other 3 Junk cards.
10th turn.
1st player got the Ocelot card, the Bold Haggler and decided to start building their Stall. But before that, they played the Dirty Exchange card. Unlucky for them, they traded the Junk card, also for Junk card. So, they built their first stack of their stall.
2nd player also played their Dirty Exchange card for the same result. Junk card for Junk card. After that, they bought CHARM with the total cost of 7, paid by using the Seeing Double card and 2 junk cards.
11th turn.
1st player continued building their stall with their REFLECTION CARD. But before that, they stole 1 card from the opponent using the Nuisance card, whatever that was.
2nd player got their Raccoon and Ocelot card. They chose the Raccon to start building their stall, 1st stack.
12th turn.
1st player continued with their 3rd stack of their stall. They built it using the Good Old Times card.
2nd player followed with building their 2nd stack. They played the NEW SEASON CARD. Before that, they played the Dirty Exchange again. This time, they managed to get the opponent’s Chameleon card, in exchange of their Junk.
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13th turn.
1st player was back with dirty exchange. They gave the Junk and they got their Chameleon card back. Their last 3 cards had a total value of 3 and they bought the Whirligig card from the cheapest spot.
2nd player used their Whirligig card to build their 3rd stack of stall.
14th turn.
1st player bought another New Season card with the cost of 2 from the cheapest spot. Paid using 2 Junk cards.
2nd player continued with their stack and now it was ahead of 1st player. They built their 4th using the CHARM card.
15th turn.
1st player had no 4 in their hand and nothing to combine. So, they purchased that same Charm card from the 2nd market spot. Paid using the Whirligig, the Raccoon and 1 Junk Card.
2nd player had no 5 to continue building their stack but there was one from the same market spot. They had a Gift Voucher with the value of 4. Played the Bold Haggler first and see if they could have gotten better value from it. Rolled a 2 so it wsa enough with those 2 cards to purchase the BLINDFOLD.
16th turn.
1st player built their 4th stack using the Charm card they just bought. Before that, they played NUISANCE to randomly force their opponent to discard a card, whatever that was.
2nd player just built their 5th stack using that Blindfold card they just bought.
17th turn.
1st player still had no 5 in hand but they had a 2 from Ocelot and there was a 3 from the same color in the cheapest spot. So they bought it using the Chameleon card and the New Season card. Before that they played their Rotten Food to place the Junk in their hand to the top of opponent’s deck.
2nd player had all Junk card but one SEEING DOUBLE so they couldn’t continued with the 6th stack. They probably should have bought a Reflection first from the cheapest spot but they thought they already had it. So, instead they bought the Gift Voucher from the most expensive one with a total value of 4 plus 4, paying with the Seeing Double card plus 3 Junk. Hopefully this allowed them to draw the Green 2.
18th turn.
1st player built their 5th stack using the Gamble card. Before that, they also had the Nuisance card, forcing their opponent to discard random card.
2nd player played their Rotten Food, placing their Junk to the top of opponent’s deck. With the last 2 cards, bought Good Old Times.
19th turn.
1st player built their 6th stack using Red 4 and Red 2, Charm and New Season.
2nd player built their 6th using Trendsetting and the Chameleon card. I think this was illegal since the Chameleon immediately copied any of the card from the rightmost stack of theirs which was a Red 5, the Blindfold.
20th turn.
1st player had Good Old Times card, a Green 3. There was Gift Voucher in the market, a green 4. So, they bought it. Paying it with Whirligig plus 2 Junk cards for the total cost.
2nd player had a lot of green. They had Green 4 and Green 3 already for the same plan as 1st player so they built their 7th stack.
21st turn.
1st player finally built their 7th stack this turn with those same set. Before that, they also had Nuisance card, forcing their opponent to randomly discard a card.
2nd player only had Ocelot 1, Reflection green 2, 2 Junk and the Dirty Exchange or purple 4. They should have bought the Purple 3, Rotten Food from the market. Instead they tried to stall the opponent by playing Dirty Exchange. Unlucky for them, they got back their Junk card from this exchange. So, now all they could have bought was Purple 2 plus 2 cost.
22nd turn.
I’m not sure what actually happened here. I think 1st player bought the Purple 5 from 2nd most expensive space for 8. To do so, they had to spend all cards in hand. Somehow, I played it as if they managed to play the Rotten Food again which could have added disadvantage to the opponent.
2nd player then played the Nuisance card, forcing the 1st player to discard random card from hand. Then using 2 junk cards they bought Reflection from the cheapest market.
23rd turn.
1st player got their hand of Purple 5, Purple 2 and Purple 1 so they built their 8th stack and won. Even taking into account that the error in previous turn and the wrong way to play the Chameleon card by 2nd player, 1st player still won.
Playing time was about 42 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Dale of Merchants Review.
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Tumble Town
Watch the slideshow of this game session on TikTok.
Build the best American West Town before the Outlaw steals all of the available resources in Tumble Town.
This was a solo session using the standard setup rule. I started with the horse named Kermit. Every building with green or boots icon will get me 1 point. My starting 2 brown dice were a 2 and a 5.
ROUND 1.
Level 3 had 1 building with this green icon. 2 in both Level 2 and Level 1. The one in Level 3 required 3 Gold dice so even had I taken that one I couldn’t have built it in the same round.
From Level 2, either Post Office or Blacksmith. The former required 3 brown plus 1 Gray while the latter required all 4 black. I thought I should take the former this time for the best points.
Took 2 Grey plus 1 Brown and rolled them. The result were Brown 3, Grey 3 and 6. To build the Post Office, the dice had to be between 4 to 6 in value. I got Grey 6 and Brown 5. The other 2 Brown were 2 and 3 so even the horse changed one of them, they were still not enough. So, I just kept the card and planned to build it next round.
Outlaw started with rolling all 3 dice above 4. So, they took 1 die from each color. Since they still had no penalty token, nothing to discard.
ROUND 2.
This time, I took LIVERY STABLE from level 1, with a green icon. This required 3 dice, 2 brown and 1 grey and all of them had to be odd value. I took 2 Brown plus 1 Grey. Rolled them and got Grey 5, Brown 2 and 5.
With Brown 4, 2 Brown 5 and Grey 5, I finally built that 1st one, the POST OFFICE for 5 points plus 1 green icon. This was placed in the 2nd row of the main street, 5 spaces from the left. That space required 3 levels and the space next to it required a brown at first level. So 2 points for following that requirement.
I still had Grey 3 and Brown 3 in the storage. However, I still needed another odd brown to complete the 2nd building. I already used the horse ability to change the die and still needed 1 more to change brown 2 into any odd number.
The Outlaw rolled Gold 2, Brown 6 and Grey 6. So, they only took 1 card plus 3 Gold dice. The Building they took was CHURCH with blue icon.
ROUND 3.
The Hotel building from level 3 with green icon was still available. I needed 2 turns anyway to complete it so I thought I could take 2 Gold this round plus anything that could help the previous one.
Rolled Gold 2 and 6 plus Brown 6. Using the horse, changed that Brown 6 into a 5 so I finally had enough to complete the 2nd building. The building was placed in the 2nd row, right most spaces. That right most required a brown at first level so I scored that one. 2nd space required 2 levels so no score from that one. The 3rd from the right required only 1 floor building so I scored that one as well.
Well I kept the Gold but the 6 didn’t help the Hotel much. Hopefully the next 3 Gold were more useful.
This time Outlaw rolled Gold 1, Grey and Brown 5. So only 1 card again plus 3 gold. The building was CHURCH with green icon that could have been good for me. 12 points so far for the Outlaw.
ROUND 4.
Still needed more Gold so I had to take from Level 3 again. No green icon from the market Level 3. However there was BANK that could have scored from Windmill 2 points each. My Livery Stable had 2 Windmills so an easy 4 points.
So, I took that one plus 3 Gold, a 1, a 5 and a 6. To build the Hotel with 4 Gold, the value had to be 9. I only could have used the Gold 2 and 1. Had to change the 5 into a 3 using the 2 buildings and still were not enough.
Now I had more than 6 dice for the storage, I had to discard the Brown 2 to keep the others.
The Outlaw rolled Gold 1, Grey 4 and Brown 2. They got 3 cards but had to return 2 Gold dice that they had the most plus a penalty token. The buildings were Mercantile, Barbershop and Land Office with a total value of 12. So, that was 24 points minus 2 for the Outlaw plus from unknown icon.
ROUND 5.
Another Bank showed up from level 3 and this one had a green icon but extra score from each building with 3 floors. Building this meant 4 points for me.
I took 2 Gold and a brown, rolled them and got Gold 2 and 3 plus Black 5. So, I had enough to build the Hotel. I think I got it wrong. The value should have been exactly 9 total from 4 Gold. I had Gold 1, 2, 2 and 3 so the total was 8. Luckily I actually still had not use horse or the other building ability to change that one. So, I cheated but it was possible change.
Using the ability from Post Office, I traded Grey 6 into a brown and a black which I got Brown 6 and Black 5. I needed both Black and Grey separately for the 2 Banks.
The hotel was placed in 1st row, right most spaces. That rightmost space required 2 floors and the space next to it required a Gold at first floor. Scored points from both.
I actually managed to build one of the Bank. That one required 5 dice, 3 Gold and 2 Black with total value of 24 or higher. I already got 2 Gold 6, Gold 3, 2 Black 5. This one was placed in 1st row, 3rd space from the left. That space required 3 floors and the space after that required a black on 2nd floor. Scored from both.
The Outlaw this time rolled Gold 2, Grey 3 and Brown 1. They took 3 cards plus a penalty token and had to return 2 Gold dice. Another 12 points for them minus 2 or 36 total minus 4 plus any from the unknown color.
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ROUND 6
This time I took LAND OFFICE from Level 3 again because it had green icon. It required 3 Gold plus 1 Brown with total value of 20 or higher. Already had Brown 4. Took 3 Gold and got 2 5s and a 3 so the total was 17. Even with changing with 2 buildings plus 2 points it was not enough. Kept the dice and didn’t build anything this time.
The Outlaw rolled Brown 2, Gray 4 and Gold 5. So they took 2 cards and 3 dice from the 2 colors. The buildings were Livery Stable, and Town Hall for 8 points total. That was 44 for them minus 4 plus any score from icons.
ROUND 7.
No more Level 3 building, 3 left in the market. This time I took OUTHOUSE from Level 1. This was 1 space wide 2 floors, required 2 Brown with a value between 2 and 4. I rolled 3 Brown and got Brown 4, 6 and 6.
So, I had enough to build 2 buildings. First with the Land Office using 3 Gold 5 and a Brown 6. This was placed in 1st column, 1 space away from the Hotel. One space required 3 floors and the other 2 floors but 2nd floor had to be a Grey which was failed for me. At least I got 2 points from the placement. 3 actually since it was also 1 space away from the existing Bank.
The other building, Outhouse was placed at 1st row, left most. This was 1 space away from the Bank also. That space only required a brown at first floor so I got point from it and being 1 space from the existing.
The Outhouse gave me 1 bonus die, any of 3 colors and I chose Black. Rolled and got a 6.
The Outlaw rolled Brown 4, Gold 6 and Grey 5. They took only 1 card, The Outhouse for 2 points plus 3 Brown. 47 points for them minus 4 plus any from icon.
ROUND 8.
The only available space to place building in my main street was 2nd row, 4 leftmost spaces. Still planning to build the other Bank for 8 points. So, I took the School House card just to get 3 Gold. Rolled them and got a 2, 3 and 5.
Still needed 2 Grey. The total value had to be 11 or lower or on average each die could have been only 2. With horse and the Livery Stable, decreased the 5 into a 3. Nothing to build this time.
The Outlaw rolled a Gold 2, Grey 5 and Brown 6. No Gold card from that space and there were only 1 Gold left. The other missing dice was taken from Brown. There were 5 and took 2 of them. Possibly next one was the last round.
ROUND 9.
I just needed 2 Grey so I took any card from level 2. It was Train Station. 3 Grey got me a 2, a 3 and a 6. So, I got all of the required dice but the total was 13. I used the Horse and the Livery Stable again to decrease it to 11 which was the requirement.
Placed the building in the last remaining space. Scoring only 2 points for completing the requirement of 2 spaces.
The Outlaw only rolled Brown 3 while the other were above 4. They got another Outhouse and 3 more Brown dice, triggering the end of the game.
SCORING
I got 31 points from buildings, 20 points from Level 3 scoring, 6 points from green icons and about 16 from the Main Street. TOTAL SCORE was 73 POINTS.
Outlaw got 48 points from buildings plus 6 from Blue icons, minus 4 from penalty. Total score was 50 for them. I got a good luck since they didn’t take that many cards this session.
Playing time was about 45 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Tumble Town Review.
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The White Castle
Watch the slideshow for this game session on TikTok.
This is a new game for me. I actually planned on playing this for next week instead of last night. Since this is a Euro game, I thought maybe it could take longer or heavier. But after watching the playthrough from Before You Play channel with Monique and Naveen, their video convinced me to play the game right away.
I knew there is a solo mode and I also know that a lot of people have issue with that variant. Since this was my first time, I thought maybe I should just play it 2-handed to get more actions in a single game.
I didn’t expect that it only took about 60 minutes for my first play running both. Should have just stopped there and play another time but I decided to play again. Mostly because the result was so unsatisfying. I guess it is expected based on what people have been saying.
The score was 20 for the Red player which was the 1st player and only 29 for the 2nd player. And this game comes with 80-point marker? I guess I played very poorly.
In that session, both players still had 8 of their meeples on the player board. 3 Lantern cards only for the Red and only 2 for the Yellow. Pretty sure I made rule errors here and there but I don’t think there is a major one.
The game itself is actually very simple. This is a dice drafting and dice placement game with about 11 possible ways to place the dice and activate the actions. 3 of them are on player board and the rest, you have to compete against other player on the main board.
One type of action activated by placing a dice is just to gain resources, either Food, Iron or Pearl, gain Money, VP or move on the turn order track.
There is also another resource called Daimyo Seals which in some ways works as Wild that you can trade for other resources. This is the part I have not explored yet even though during my 2nd game one player had probably too many of it.
You can also place dice to activate The 3 main actions. These actions are to deploy your 15 meeples of 3 different types which required some amount of associated resources. Each player starts with 5 Warriors, 5 Gardeners and 5 Courtiers.
Warriors can go to training grounds, Gardeners to the garden next to bridges and Courtiers to enter the Himeji Castle itself. Gardeners need different amount of food to enter 6 different Garden space. Warriors need different amount if irons to enter one of 3 training ground.
For Courtiers to enter the Castle is a bit more complex. Player can only start by sending their courtier from the Gate of the Castle and slowly moving up to the top level of the Castle itself. The rule even calls it social climbing.
While Gardeners and Warriors just stay in the location where you sent them initially.
There are 2 reasons why you want to deploy your meeples. One is to gain VP. By deploying, your meeple is worth at least 1 VP up to 10, I think. More expensive spaces that required more resources can give you higher points. Meeples stay on your player board at the end of the game are worth nothing.
The 2nd reason is to get more resources when placing a dice on your player board. When you take out one meeple from any row, you take them from the leftmost space. This will reveal an extra resource if you get to place a dice to that specific row afterwards.
That’s the entire game.
There are only 3 rounds and each round, players take turn taking 3 dice and placing them. However, when placing a dice to trigger an action, it can lead to a different action. For example, maybe you take a Warrior action. You deploy them to one of the training ground and it allows you to trigger a Gardener action. If you do have enough resources, specifically food for gardeners, you can also trigger an action, maybe a Courtier action where you need to spend money and pearl.
Planning your entire turn by evaluating every possible chain of actions
is how you get more than just 9 turns to win the game. Taking an action just to take resource is painfully wasteful, even if they are usually cheap or even can give you more money. You might as well pay the expensive action if it can lead to more chains of actions like playing a 5 at the ground.
When placing a dice on an action space, the space will tell you a minimum threshold. If the value of the dice is higher than the threshold, you make money by the difference. On the other hand, if the dice is lower, you have to pay the difference.
While having leftover money is worth points at the end but they are very low. Having money during the game gives you mostly flexibility to go to any space even with lower value dice. Getting the main 3 resources to make sure you can keep triggering the actions is more important.
In 1 or 2-player game each action space to place a dice on the main board can only have 1 dice. With more players, they allow you to stack. However, the player who went there before will change the threshold and may force the subsequent player to pay higher.
Maybe I made a mistake during the setup of my first game. There was a space in the Castle with 2 actions using the same color of dice. Only one other action for that color in different space and it was rather weak. In that session, one player occupied that space rather early using the 2nd color. That led to the dice of that color became a bit useless and less interesting available choice.
Maybe this is when taking Courtier action becomes more important. The Courtier action allows you to not just doing the social climbing but to claim action cards. These cards are the one that determine what your dice can do when you place them in the Castle spaces.
By using Courtier action, you get to take that card and place it on your player board. Now you have more control of when to use the actions stated by that card since the other player cannot send their dice on your board. Even if it required specific color of the dice and you have to pay money for it.
So, there is more customization for the actions on your board, in addition to revealing more resources. But this is just temporarily. You may use more Courtier action to keep changing the card and you can only hold 1 active card. When you take a new card using that action, the previous one becomes a bonus for your Lantern.
When you activate lantern bonus, you get resource. You start by just getting 1 type of resources. By getting and replacing more cards using Courtier, you get either extra money or VP.
You can trigger this bonus by placing a dice like other action but you can also trigger it during drafting. Each round you roll all dice in the beginning of the round. Then you place them in ascending order in their own color from left to right.
When drafting the dice, if you pick the lowest available one of that color, you trigger the bonus from Lantern. You can only pick one of 2 from a color, either the lowest one or the highest one. After one of them is taken, then if there are still more dice of that color in the middle, it will slide down to that empty end and the next player can take that one.
This is an interesting drafting mechanism. It is possible that the lower or the left end can also show a very high value dice. I got 6s on both ends in the 2nd session. Taking a 6 on the left also gives you the Lantern bonus while the 6 on the right doesn’t give you anything.
Maybe your lantern bonus good so you want to take the lower one. But at the same time, maybe the next one available in that cheaper space is significantly higher and it is available for your opponent. You are not just giving them good dice but also their lantern bonus. A lot to think about.
Even taking card using Courtier action can be dangerous. Maybe the next card you reveal that can be accessed to your opponent greatly helps them.
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I guess here is one of my criticism, related to this taking card. Hopefully just me playing it or setting up the game wrong. The rule says that as the setup you want to have 3 different actions (dark background) in the same row. If all of them are the same, you have to shuffle it and repeat that part of the setup.
While I did that exactly but during the game after some cards were taken, the board then got all 3 cards with the same action. In higher player count maybe one player might eventually take one of them, cycling the cards faster. But with 2, if the card is not exactly good for the player, the one taking it will have a disadvantage. On the other hand, waiting for the opponent to do that for you will not make the game more interesting.
In my session, there was also a moment when none of the cards on the main board action gives you that Pearl. This happened rather early in the game so even taking Pearl using your domain didn’t help much. I get that customizing your board is part of the challenge but maybe they need to elaborate more to make sure certain set of resources is available early in the game to keep the game move forwards.
Also in my 2 sessions, the 2nd level of the castle only shows resources to push in the turn order track. None of the player went there to use that space.
It is not broken and an easy fix just one additional step during the setup like they already did with the dark background action.
Well, this was just my first plays. Definitely will play again and figure out how to score over 80. In the 2nd session one player got 40 and the other got 42. Much better than first session. There is also solo mode I need to try and probably other fan made solo variants if the official one is not great as a lot of people have said.
Playing time was about 60 minutes per session for running two sides.
More unboxing pictures of The White Castle Game on Instagram.
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Café
Grow your coffee business by managing space for planting, Drying, Roasting Beans and eventually Shops to Deliver them to in Café.
This was a solo session using just the base game content, with Café do Brasil starting player cards. Actually, before this one, I had a frustrating session with how the card came out.
Not only that the randomness didn’t help the progression, it kind of ruined it, blocking the potential future expansion. Even in this one, I kind of kept randomized the first 3 cards until I saw a good one.
Anyway, here is how it went.
Watch the slideshow of entire session on TikTok.
ROUND 1
1st Card: 1 Bean, 1 Shop, 1 Cup, 3 empty spaces
2nd Card: 1 Bean, 1 Cup, 2 spaces for Shop, 2 empty spaces
3rd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Ship, 1 Drying, 1 Empty space
Every starting card has Roasting and Drying next to each other, making it hard to keep them both while growing any of them with the overlapping 2 spaces requirement. So, maybe it’s best to start a new space for one of them to grow both separately.
From these 3 cards on the market, only one of them had either drying or Roasting icon which was drying. 1st card had too many empty spaces in the middle. 2nd card was nice with additional cup but the shop was too big to be more flexible, especially early in the game.
So I picked the 3rd one, rotated it 90 degrees counterclockwise from the horizontal orientation. Then overlapped the leftmost spaces of the 3 columns from the starting card. By doing so, I didn’t increase the capacity of planting spaces but changing the colors. Not even the form.
The Ship might get in the way but the top part of the new drying had potential to grow. Same for space near the Roasting.
Only 1 Cup so only 1 action. I did PRODUCE with that group of 3 beans, producing 2 Yellow and 1 Brown.
ROUND 2
1st Card: 2 Bean, 1 Dry, 1 Cup, 2 empty spaces
2nd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Cup, 2 spaces for Shop
3rd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Roast, 2 spaces for shop
Starting with the 3rd card. This was actually perfect to expand the Roasting space while adding shop. It had to be rotated 180 and placed it so the new roasting part was next to the existing one. The problem is that by doing so, the new shop then would have been in the way of growing.
2nd card had a cup which was nice to get more action per turn. The Shop required a red and I had no beans so far.
1st card had the Cup and Dry. Not great for scoring but helped improve the overall production engine. I had to prioritize improving the process first and get the shops for scoring later. So, either the 1st card for the Drying or the 3rd for Roasting. Since the process had to be the Drying first before roasting, I had to go with the 1st card. Hopefully, in the next round, there was a perfect card to expand the roasting.
So, how did I place the card? I rotated the card 180. Placed it so that the new drying was below the existing drying on the left. By doing so I had to let go the benefit of the ship. This also expanded the Planting spaces from 3 to 5. I could start producing 2 Yellow, 1 Green and 1 Brown with a single action.
I had to pay for the new cup so I paid with my Yellow in my storage since I had 2 in production.
2 cups or 2 actions. 1 was to produce again from that same group only adding 1 Green and 1 Yellow. 2nd action was for DRYING. I chose the 3 Yellow and 1 Brown. Not exactly sure why choosing brown over green.
ROUND 3
1st Card: 2 Bean, 1 Dry, 1 Empty Space, 2 spaces for Shop
2nd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Dry, 2 Empty spaces, 1 space for Shop
3rd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Roast, 1 Drying, 2 Empty spaces
Well, I needed that Roasting or the production line was stuck with 2 from Drying and 1 from Roasting. With that one I increased the Roasting capacity to 2, making the process smoother. Unfortunately, still no red beans.
The other 2 had red. 2nd card had actually drying in perfect position to expand the existing. But I still needed the roasting.
I took the 3rd card. Placed it without rotating it so that the Roasting was adjacent to the existing while overlapping 1 Bean and 1 initial drying. The planting capacity went down from 5 to only 4, now with 2 Brown, 1 Yellow and 1 Green.
No additional action and only 2 cups. 1st action was ROASTING moving the 2 groups from Drying to Roasting. 2nd action was PRODUCE again. 2 Brown, 1 Yellow and 1 Green were ready to be processed.
ROUND 4
1st Card: 2 Bean, 1 Cup, 1 Empty Space, 2 spaces for Shop
2nd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Roast, 1 Ship 2 Empty spaces
3rd Card: 1 Bean, 1 Drying, 2 Empty spaces, 2 spaces for Shop
If I wanted to keep expanding and improving the engine, I had to go with the Drying again. The 3rd card had it but it was not at a great position for the existing. I could have ended up covering a cup at least if I wanted to use that one.
The one with roasting was actually not bad. But then I didn’t see the point of expanding this one without the Drying first. So, that left me with the 1st card with a Cup and a Shop. Maybe it was time to work on some scoring.
I took that card, rotated it 90 clockwise. Placed it by covering the 3 empty spaces of existing form near the Roasting. This expanded the production of planting area from 4 to 6. It also had a yellow and a Red, especially. By doing like this, I could have still expanded both the roasting and the drying.
New cup so I had to pay with Brown since it was ready to be delivered. With 3 actions, one was to produce, adding the existing supply with 1 Yellow and 1 Red. For 2nd action, I did DELIVER both the 3 yellows and 1 Brown. The new shop needed a Brown and a Green so I supplied the Brown first while sending the Yellow to my warehouse.
As the last action, I sent 2 types of beans to the Drying. I picked the red and Green. Brown could have been useful as well. But the shop needed a Green and Red seemed to be undersupply.
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ROUND 5
1st Card: 1 Bean, 1 Cup, 2 Empty Spaces, 2 spaces for Shop
2nd Card: 1 Bean, 1 Cup, 2 Empty spaces, 2 spaces for Shop
3rd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Roasting, 1 Empty space, 2 spaces for Shop
None of them had extra Drying space. Only 1 card with Roast and the other two had each a cup and a shop. The problem was that my existing situation only had 2 expandable spaces for both specific action. So, unless it improved any of them, I would have been wasting potential space.
That means, I had to go with the 3rd card. Luckily this still had a shop to score. The shop required 2 Green.
Picked the card, rotated 90 counterclockwise and placed it so that the roasting was next to the existing. This covered that single bean space and the initial drying. By doing so, this expanded not only the roasting but also the Planting spaces.
From this point, the planting produced 8 beans in a single action, 3 brown, 3 yellow, a red and a green I had to add more of those 2 last colors, assuming there were any.
No additional cup, 3 actions. 1 was to move the 2 from Drying to the Roasting. 2nd was to DELIVER those 2. The green to supply the first shop, completing the requirement. While the Red was sent to the warehouse.
3rd action was PRODUCTION. Filling all spaces again and now there were 8 beans ready for drying.
ROUND 6
1st Card: 2 Bean, 1 Cup, 2 Empty Spaces, 1 Roast
2nd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Cup, 1 Empty space, 1 Drying
3rd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Roasting, 1 Empty space, 1 Ship
No shops this turn. More roasting icons that I didn’t need and there was one DRYING. It was even in the perfect location. I needed one in either top left, bottom right or somewhere in the middle. This one, the Drying was at the top left.
So I picked that card, rotated 90 counterclockwise. Placed the card so the new drying was adjacent to the existing one at the top left of overall tableau. Not only this expanded the drying capacity but also the Production of Planting. While I had to let go that 1 extra produced yellow, I could start producing 10 with single action. Unfortunately, still no extra red.
This card had extra cup so I had to pay using the yellow with too many stock in the warehouse. 4 actions and the first one was to produce the extra 3 new beans from the new spaces.
2nd was to send 3 of them to drying. Definitely had to choose Green for the 2nd shop. Brown since nothing was in warehouse. Probably should have gone with Red but I chose Yellow, hoping to find shops afterwards that required yellow.
3rd action was sending 3 of the dried beans to ROAST.
**** Apparently I made an error. I should have gotten one more action which I could have used to produce again. But it was as if I forfeited it. Oh, well.
ROUND 7
1st Card: 3 Bean, 1 Cup, 1 space for shop, 1 empty space
2nd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Ship, 1 Roast, 1 Empty space
3rd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Drying, 1 Empty space, 2 spaces for shop
2 rounds left. Even if I chose to expand the drying this round and the roasting next round, I didn’t get more shops to score. So, I had to pick one with shops and possibly more actions. For that, only the 1st card matched those criteria.
I guess it didn’t matter where to place it. Ideally just to expand the Production but no specific requirement. I could have expanded on the top left or on the right. With one of the left, I just expanded the production by 1 while on the left by 2 so I went with the latter.
Picked that card, rotated 180 and overlapped one yellow and 1 empty space with 2 beans. The shop only demanded a single brown bean. I had to pay for extra cup so I had to pay with Yellow with the most produced yet unused beans.
I had 5 cups or 5 actions. One was to deliver those 3 from Roasting to shops. Completed the 2nd shop with 2 green beans and the new shop with just a single brown, scoring 4 and 2 respectively. 2 other brown and all yellows were sent to the warehouse. I had to focus on producing more red and green.
2nd action was PRODUCE. 12 beans were ready to be dried. Sent 3 colors to the Drying, 3 green, 1 red and 4 browns as 3rd action. 4th action sent those same to the Roasting. While the 5th one was to produce again.
ROUND 8
1st Card: 3 bean, 1 empty space, 2 spaces for shop
2nd Card: 2 Bean, 1 Cup, 1 Empty space, 2 spaces for Shop
3rd Card: 3 Bean, 1 Roasting, 1 Cup, 1 Empty space
Last Round. Shop on the 1st card demanded green and red, the 2 lowest produced beans. 3rd card had none so not great for me. That left me with the 2nd card. The shop also demanded a red but at least with 2 brown.
This 2nd card also had extra red bean that I needed. The thing is, wherever I placed this card, I had to lose a cup while adding and paying for this new one. There was one possible placement but that didn’t include the new red to the existing Production space.
So, I chose to place it, in its orientation at the top left. During the game I actually covered 4 spaces. Now that I think about it, I could have just covered 2 spaces, a cup and a yellow instead with the extra green for less result.
Paid the new cup with Brown since that was the most and ready to be delivered. I got 5 cups or 5 actions. First one was to DELIVER, from 3 roasting spaces to the last shop and warehouse. 5 Brown, 3 Green and 1 Red with 1 Red and 2 brown for the shop, completing the demand and the rest went to the warehouse.
2nd action was PRODUCE. With the better play I could have had 12 beans ready instead of 11. The actual play got me 5 brown, 2 red, 2 yellow and 2 green. The better play could have gotten 1 extra green.
In the warehouse, I already had 5 Brown, 4 Yellow, 4 Green and 2 Red. So I had to ignore the Brown, focused on the other 3. So my 3rd action was to DRY, 2 red, 2 green and 2 yellow. 4th action sent those to ROAST. Last action was to deliver them, all to the Warehouse.
That was the end of the game.
SCORING
EVORA 1942 shop: 3 points
LISBOA 1922 shop: 4 points
PORTO 1947 shop: 2 points
LISBOA 1829 shop: 5 points
Red Beans, the Least: 8 points
Either of 3 beans as 2nd least: 5 points
TOTAL SCORE: 27 POINTS
Playing time was about 24 minutes.
Read the Full Session Report here.
Learn more about the game from Cafe Review.
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Onirim
Watch the Slideshow of this session on TikTok.
Find your way out through Oneiric Doors in Onirim.
This was using all of the expansions but the standard variant of each. The 4 Dark Premonitions this time would have happened with 2 White doors, 3 of any doors, 2 Green doors and one of each color.
1st DOOR.
The starting 5 cards were Wild Sun, Blue Sun, Blue Moon, Green Tower and White Glyph. First door was supposed to be red but from this starting hand, I had enough to find Blue door but that means I had to change position.
The Green tower had a sun on both side so I thought this was not a great Tower to start with. Instead of playing it, I just used it to peek the next 4 cards: Red Sun, Blue Glyph, Lost Dream, White Sun.
I let the Lost Dream card went out first to be captured. Then maybe using Blue Glyph to find the Blue Door or any other door. Played Blue Sun, got Red Moon. Then the Blue Moon and got White Sun.
I discarded the Glyph card just to see the next five cards. Another Green Tower, a Dead End, 2 White Moon and a RED DOOR! This was pure luck which happened to work with the first goal card.
The rest of 4 revealed cards had to go down to the bottom of the deck.
2nd DOOR.
The next one was supposed to be White Door. However, I already worked on the Blue and I had to avoid the White door for now.
I still had Blue Glyph, Wild Sun, Red Moon, White Sun and another Wild sun. Discarded the Glyph just to be safe and the next 5 cards were 2 Denizens, Blue Sun, Green Moon and Sun. That Blue Sun could have been handy for this situation so I placed it at the bottom most just in case.
The next card was WHITE TOWER. This was not bad as it only had 1 Moon on the left and 1 Sun on the right so I played it instead of using it to peek. The replacement got me a Red Key.
So, I used the Red Key to peek the next five while discarding one of them. There was one Nightmare so it went out. The other four were Red Sun, 2 Dead Ends and a Blue Tower.
I still only had 5 cards in the discard pile so not enough to change position of the door. Red Sun came out first, discarding it. A Dead end next, stuck in my hand.
I let go the White Door and it was replaced by the expected 2nd Dead End. With that White Door I had enough to cast a spell to change the position of 2nd goal card which was White to Blue from the 8th position.
Then I completed the set using the Wild Sun to find the Blue Door. Searched through the deck and shuffle the deck.
11 doors left.
3rd DOOR.
I had Red Moon, Wild Sun, 2 Dead Ends and Green Sun. The next door should have been red and the last location card was Sun. So I played the Red Moon first. I got the first HAPPY DREAM!
This was to neutralize the Dark Premonition with 3 of any card. So, I could start working on this 3rd door. The replacement card got me a Wild Sun. I played it, got a Wild Moon. Played it also, completing this set and find the Red Door after searching through the deck. Shuffled the deck then.
10 doors left.
4th DOOR.
The next door was supposed to be a White. 2 Dead End cards and 3 Suns, a Blue, Green and White.
Not sure this was a good decision but I started to work with the 4th door for Green. There was a penalty but it would have only returned all Nightmare back to the deck. There was only one so far but it would have triggered only after I found 2nd Green door on the table.
Regardless, I had to play one anyway. Got Red Key as replacement. Discarded it to look the next 5 and discarding one of them. Green Moon, 2 Lost Dreams, a Wild Door and Green Sun. So, the only cards I could get rid from these were either the green cards. I needed them both for this next set. No choice so I kept the Moon and let go the Sun.
Another Wild Moon refilled my hand. Discarded the Blue sun and got Blue Key. Discarded it to look the next 5 cards again. Red Moon, Green Sun and Key, White Door and another Red Moon. I let go the Red Moon, expecting to use the Green sun to complete the next set.
There were exactly 7 cards in the discard pile so I casted a spell again to change this 4th goal from White to Green from the 7th position. Played the Green Sun, completed the set. Looked through the deck and found the Green Door. Shuffled the deck then.
9 doors left.
5th DOOR.
This next door was Wild so it could have been any color. Still had 2 Dead Ends, White Sun, Wild Moon and White Tower. I already had White Tower so I used this one to look at the next 3 cards. A Glyph, a Nightmare and a Blue Key.
Got the Key first so I could use it to get rid of the Nightmare by discarding it. The other next 4 cards were that Green Glyph, Red Sun, a Happy Dream and Red Tower.
I got the Tower first. This had Sun on the left and Moon on the right which could have been placed on the right of my 2 existing Towers. One Green Tower left to complete the Fortress.
Next expected card was the HAPPY DREAM. This neutralized the Dark Premonition with 2 Green Doors. So from this point, I only needed to avoid getting a White Door.
The next card again was the Green Glyph. There was a Green Door! Along with Red Sun, White Key, Nightmare and another Red Sun. Since the next goal card was Wild and I had not enough card to switch position again, I completed that goal using Green Door.
8 doors left.
6th Door.
The next goal was Blue. 2 Dead Ends, White Sun, Wild Moon and the recent one the White Key.
I discarded the Key to look through the next 5 cards. Luckily, there was a Nightmare so I could get rid of it.
The other 4 were Red Glyph, Green Tower, Red and Blue Sun. That Green Tower was perfect to complete the Fortress so it went out first. With only Sun on its left, it could be placed on the right to the existing 3 Towers, completing the Fortress. No need to worry about the Nightmare ruining it again.
Next card to show up was the Red Glyph. Not sure I would be getting a Door but I discarded it. The next 5 cards were Red Sun, 2 Blue Sun, a White Sun and Red Tower. All of them went to the bottom of the deck. I think I placed the Blue Moons at the bottom just in case I needed them for the next door.
The next card was Red Sun. I played the Wild Moon on the labyrinth just in case a Nightmare was about to show up. I was right. It was a NIGHTMARE! I had to let go all of my cards in hand. Thankfully 2 of them were the Dead End cards.
For the new hand of cards, I got Green Moon, Dead End again, White Sun, Red Sun and Red Glyph. In the process, 2 doors, a White and a Blue were captured by Dreamcatcher. 2 spots left.
I used the Glyph again and there was a Red Door, along with Red Sun, Red key, Green Glyph and Blue Key. With enough cards in the discard pile, I casted a spell to change position again. This blue goal door was replaced by a red, 3 spaces away. I placed and opened that door while the other 4 cards went to the bottom of the deck.
7 doors left.
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7th Door.
The next goal was White. I had 2 Dead End cards, 2 Suns, a White and a Red plus a Green Moon. I escaped to get rid of those 2 Dead Ends.
The new hand was Wild Key, 2 Green suns, a Blue Moon and a Green key. Used the Key to peek and there was a Nightmare that I could get rid. Actually there were 2, along with 2 Denizens and a Blue Tower.
So, I was about to get hit by Nightmare. It seems I had no choice but to let go my Wild Key. The first Denizen was the Harpoon from Nautilion which I recruited by discarding a Tower that I just got recently.
The 2nd Denizen was the Hammerbird from Aerion and I let it go. Then the Nightmare showed up and I let go my Key.
Now I had Green Sun, Blue Moon, Green Moon and 2 Dead Ends. I could have completed the Green set but the next one was not Green goal door. So, I casted a spell again, removing 7 cards to change position. This White Goal was replaced by Green, 3 spaces ahead.
The Labyrinth already had Wild Moon and Green Sun. I played the Green Moon afterwards, completing the set and looked through the deck to find the door. Found it and shuffled the deck, also releasing 2 doors from 1 Dreamcatcher. 3 empty spots left.
6 doors left.
8th Door.
The next one was White again. I still had to avoid it. I had 2 Dead Ends, Green sun and Blue both Moon and Sun. So, I started the next set with Blue. Played the Blue Sun first, replaced by Red Tower.
I discarded the Tower to look the next 5 cards. Blue Sun, Red Sun, Blue Key, Red Key and a Green Glyph. So I had enough to complete the Blue set and I set so the Blue sun came out next.
Casted a spell, removing 7 cards, switching the next goal card from white to blue from 3 spaces ahead. Played that Blue sun to the labyrinth, completing the set. I had to search through the deck and found the door, shuffling the deck again.
5 doors left.
9th Door.
This time was another Blue Goal before the next 3 White and the last Green using the Wild door.
I had 2 Dead ends, with 2 Red Suns and Green suns. So, I escaped, discarding them. The new hand got me White Key, Blue Moon, White Moon, Red Sun and White Sun. Along the process, 2 Nightmare and 2 Doors were captured by Dreamcatcher, 2 spots left.
Discarded the key to look the next 5 cards. No Nightmare so I had to let go Red Sun. There were Green Glyph, Blue Key, red Key and White Door.
I set so the Blue key went out first, planning to use it for set of 3 along with Blue Moon. So, I played the Blue moon first to the labyrinth. Got a Green Glyph. Then I played the Blue Key, got a red key.
I discarded the Red key and there was a NIGHTMARE to get rid of. There were also green key, Blue Moon, White Door and Dead End. So, I had everything to complete the set.
Played the Blue Moon and completed the set. Found the door from the deck while releasing the one with 2 doors and 2 nightmare back to the deck.
4 doors left.
10th Door.
3 White Goals plus Green or Wild. My hand had White Moon, White Sun, Green Glyph, Key and Sun.
So, I had everything to complete the Green Goal. Played the Green sun first since the last was Blue Moon. Followed by the Glyph. From that I got White Moon and Wild Sun. I kept the Green key just to be safe and used the Wild sun to complete the set.
The door was at dreamcatcher so I just took it from there. Got a Blue Sun as replacement.
3 doors left.
11th Door.
So these were the last 3 White goal cards. But there were still 2 active Dark Premonition. Completing even just one of them would have triggered one of them, preventing the prevention of the other.
I discarded the Green key. The next 5 were 2 Denizens, a White Door, green key and a Dead End. That last one went to discard. I like the Denizen from Cyberion that allows me to take card from discard pile.
But for that I had to get rid of that next Green Key. The other denizen was changing color so I let it go.
Still no Happy Dream. 2 White Suns and White Moon, a Dead End and Blue Moon. Actually I already played a White Moon and Sun. Just one more for the set which I actually had.
I let go the Blue sun and thankfully it was replaced by Red Tower. Discarded the Tower and found out the next 3 cards had HAPPY DREAM! Along with Blue Tower and another Denizen to store a card.
I finally neutralized one of the last 2 Dark Premonition which I chose the one with one of each color. This way I could have safely completed the set but still had to avoid the 2nd white door on the table.
Searched the deck and found the door, shuffling the deck.
2 doors left.
12th Door.
I had 2 White Sun, a Dead End, Blue Tower and White Key. Played the White Sun first, got a Green Moon. Discarded the Blue tower to look at the next 4 cards which had the last HAPPY DREAM!
I neutralized that last Dark Premonition. From here I could have safely finished the remaining 2 doors.
There were also Green Sun and 2 Denizens, another Harpoon and a Mirror? Those 2 were goods to avoid Nightmare. I actually discarded the Green Sun to recruit that other Harpoon.
So, to be safe. I activated the Harpoon to get rid of the Nightmare in the next 5 cards. There were 2. A Blue sun, green tower and White moon went to the bottom.
Activated the next Harpoon. There was the last Nightmare along with White Glyph, Dead End, Denizen from before and Blue glyph.
I completed the next set by playing the White Moon. The Door was at one of the Dreamcatcher so no need to search through the deck.
1 final door.
13th door.
The last goal was White and I had the White key. All 4 Lost Dreams were already captured. I had Dead End, White Key, 3 Reds. Discarded 1 Red and got a Tower. The Tower revealed that the next card was the White Door so I opened that last door using the White Key.
I got out from the Oniverse.
Playing time was 71 minutes.
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Under Falling Skies
Watch the Slideshow of this session on TikTok.
Defend your planet from Alien Invasion in Under Falling Skies.
This was still using the starting recommended setup with Roswell. Last time I played, I forgot the rule about Excavator uses 1 Energy, which of course, made the game easier. So, here was another attempt, hopefully with the correct rule.
ROUND 1. Gray: 1, 2, 4. White: 3, 5.
I had to avoid 3 and 5 for Column 1, 6 for column 2, 2 for column 3. Any number was safe for column 4 and 5 but preferably 5 was better for column 4 and 4 for column 5.
I set the Gray 4 at column 1 first, probably for attacking. Followed by White 5 at Column 4, forcing me to reroll the other 3. I got gray 3, 4 and White 5. The 5 at column 4 was for generating energy.
I placed the 3 at column 3 but for progressing the excavator. Then Gray 4 for column 5, filling 2nd space for the energy generator. Last white, the 5 went to 2nd column in the research room. The ship on that column landed on an arrow pointing to the right.
2 Starting Energy, spent 1 for the excavator. Energy room got 5 and 4 but generated only 6. Spent 2 for research and with value 5, moving up research track 2 spaces. Then spent 1 energy for the attack room at column 1, the value went down to 3, destroying 2 ships from column 1 and 3.
The Mothership went down one space, preparing the 2 destroyed red ships to deploy again plus 1 white. 4 Energy left.
ROUND 2. Gray: 3, 4, 6. White: 4, 5.
Spaces to avoid was 2 or 4 for column 1, 5 for column 2 nothing to push down nearby for column 3, 4 and 5. Ideally, 3 was good for column 3 and 5. Maybe 0 for column 4 but nothing to worry with higher number.
The rolls were mostly good. I set 6 for column 1, still for attack room, 4 for column 3 probably just to hold the ship back, and 3 for column 5 only energy room.
I used 4 first for column 2 probably for research or to move the excavator, forcing me to reroll the 5. Reroll got me a 5 still and it was for column 4 for the research.
3 ships were within shooting range.
**** Well, there goes my first error. I forgot to move the White ship from Mothership. It was supposed to move 3, landed on an arrow pointing left. But I resolved it 3 after the Mothership went down. Oh, well.
Time to resolve rooms. 4 energy. 1 was spent for excavator. Another 1 for the attack room value from 6 went down 1, destroying 2 ships only. Spent another 1 energy for the Research room. The value went down from 5 to 4 but it was enough to move the track 2 spaces. The last die didn’t do anything since I placed it in double energy room.
1 energy left. Mothership descended 1 space, forcing the excavator to move back 2 spaces. 2 Ships were ready to deploy at column 1 and 5.
ROUND 3. Gray: 2, 5, 6. White: 1, 2.
Spaces to avoid this time were 1 and 3 for column 1, 1 for column 2, nothing bad for column 3, 4 and 5.
I needed more Energy so column 4 and 5 should have been for Energy double room. 2 for Column 4 and 5 for column 5 so the ships landed on shooting spots.
Ideally I needed 3 at column 3 to move the excavator 3 spaces but there were only 2. The 6 was for the attack room at column 1. Those were the grays. Then with White 2 to reroll the white 1. I set it for room 3, hoping for higher value that I could have placed at research room column 2.
Reroll got me a 4 so I placed it in the research room while the one in column 3 just to slow down ship. That means, I made no progress for the excavator this time.
1 Energy left. Generated 7 – 3 from the double energy room. Spent 2 for research moving up the track 1 space with exact value 4. Then spent 1 for the attack room with value 6 went down by 1. 3 ships were in shooting spots with value 4 or below.
Mothership descended again, ready to deploy 3 reds and 1 white.
ROUND 4. Gray: 2, 4, 6. White: 1, 2.
Spaces to avoid were 2 for column 1, 1 for column 2, still nothing dangerous for the other 3. Ideally 2 or 3 for column 3, 2 for column 4 and either 1 or 4 for column 5.
I still needed more energy. 2 assigned for column 4 which could either go to double energy room or research with the next one with value of 1. I set it for Energy. 6 went to the 5th column completing the double room.
Then 4 was perfect for the next research, moving up 2 spaces so it went to column 2. Those were all the grays. This was my bad play. I initially placed the 2 for column 3 to move the excavator. Apparently, I needed 3 for that. So this forced me to use double attack room for column 2 and 3 and made no research progress.
I rerolled the white 1 and got a 5. I placed it at column 1 top room just to hold the enemy back which they landed on the shooting spot.
2 Energy left. Generated 8 – 3 so it was full. Spent 2 for the attack. 6 ships were actually in the shooting spots. Since the total value were exactly 6, I destroyed every single one of them. Not bad even if I made no progress.
The Mothership went down again but did nothing this time. 4 red ships were ready to deploy from column 1 to 4.
ROUND 5. Gray: 1, 1, 3. White: 1, 3.
Spaces to avoid this time was 1 for column 1, 2 for column 2 and 3 for column 5. Ideally 2 for column 1 and 2, 4 or 5 for column 3, 1 for column 4 and also 2 for column 5.
Well, the value was not great. I placed the White 3 first, planning to be for column 1. The rerolls got me White 2, gray 6, 1, and 2. I placed the 6 at column 5, planning to move the excavator as far as possible.
Then I placed the White 2 at column 4, planning for research track 1 space. Rerolled the other 2 grays which got me 2 5s.
There were only 2 ships at shooting spots but the value had to be 4 or higher. Unfortunately, my die from column 1 was 3 so that alone was not enough. I had no choice but to use both 5s in double attack room.
5 energy left. 1 was spent for excavator. 1 for the research track, moving up 1 space. Spent 2 for the attack room, destroying 2 ships. Did nothing with the die at column 1.
Mothership went down again, ready to deploy back 2 red ships plus 1 white at column 1, 3 and 5. One ship was ready to hit the city at column 4.
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ROUND 6. Gray: 2, 5, 6. White: 1, 4.
Spaces to avoid this time were 2 for column 1 and 2 and 4 with 2 or higher. Ideally 2 or 5 for column 1, 3 for column 2, 3 or 4 for column 3, maybe 1 for column 4 and 2 for column 5.
I guess it was inevitable for getting 1st hit from column 4. So, I placed the 6 there, not sure about the room yet but got 1st hit to the city. Probably for energy since only 1 left.
Then 2 for the column 5 completing the double energy room. I planned for the 5 at column 1 to move the excavator as far as possible to the last row.
Those were the grays so White 1 and 4 left. I placed the 4 first at column 3. Probably for the double attack room since 4 of them were already in shooting spots. From the reroll I got 3 so it was for Column 2, and another ship landed on shooting spot.
1 Energy left. Spent it for the Excavator. Generated 8 – 3 from double room. Spent 2 for the attack room, destroying all ships.
Mothership descended 1 space, forcing the excavator to move back 1 space.
ROUND 7. Gray: 2, 5, 6. White: 2, 2.
Spaces to avoid this time were 6 at column 1 and 5, 5 at column 2, 7 for column 4. Ideally 1 or 4 for column 1, 1 for column 2, 2 or 3 for column 3, 6 for column 4 and 5 for column 5.
The next mothership space was to push back on research track 1 space. I had to move it up by 6 to space value 1 so if it was pushed back, only required 1 to move it back up.
So gray 6 went to column 2, for the research room. Then Gray 5 for column 5, either for last excavator progress or energy room since I only had 3 left. I got all 2s left.
I placed white 2 at column 3 so the ship landed on shooting spot. The reroll got me a 1 and a 5. The 5 went to column 4, completing the double energy room. So all I got was White 1 for column 1. That was not enough to attack even though 4 ships were at shooting spots.
I actually could have used it even just to move the excavator 1 space. Somehow I misplaced the excavator, affecting the die placement and the die just became useless.
3 Energy left. Spent 2 for research, moving up 3 spaces with the total value of 6. Generated 7 Energy from the double room.
Mothership went down, pushing down the research track. 8 spaces away on research track from winning. 1 red ship was ready to deploy at column 1.
ROUND 8. Gray: 2, 3, 4. White: 3, 6.
Spaces to avoid this time were 5 at column 1, 2 at column 4 and 1 for column 5. Ideally 3 or 6 for column 1, 2 for column 2, 1 for column 3 and 4, 0 or 3 for column 5.
I planned for placing 6 at column 5 for the last excavator progress but that required rerolling. So, I placed the 3 first at column 1, not exactly sure which room since a lot of single room there.
Then 4 for column 2, maybe for attacking before the White 6 at column 5. Got 2nd hit to the city.
The reroll didn’t change the 2 dice, white 3 and gray 2. So, the 3 for column 4 and the 2 for column 3. Since the 3 at column 4 was for research with a value of 2. Unless I had total of 6, I couldn’t move up the track farther.
The 2 from column 2 and 3 activated the double attack room with total value of 6. So the 1st column was just to generate energy.
Had full energy. Spent 1 for Excavator to the last space. 1 more for the research room moving up 1 space. Then 2 for the attack room, destroying only 2 ships. Getting 3 Energy back from column 1.
6 Energy left. The Mothership moved down but did nothing this time, ready to deploy 3 reds at 1, 2 and 4.
ROUND 9. Gray: 3, 4, 5. White: 2, 4.
I needed to move the research track up 7 spaces with the total value of 30. Ideally a 10, a 9 and then an 11. Had to start using the triple room.
This time was actually good to let the Mothership went down to avoid getting pushed down on the research but only once. Maybe with 2 on column 3. Had to avoid 4 for column 1, 3 for column 2, 5 for column 4. No ship at column 5.
4 first for the column 4 so the ship was at shooting spot, planning for the triple room. Then 5 at column 2 and the ship moved to the right. The 3 was for column 1, attack room so the value went up by 1.
So, I placed the 4 first at column 5, planning for the research. That was a white and forced me to reroll the White 2. I still got White 2 which I placed at column 3. This triggered the moving down of mothership, skipping the penalty. At the same time, one ship was at shooting spot. Maybe I actually placed the White 2 first and rerolled the White 4 while still getting white 4.
I had 6 Energy. Spent 2 Energy at triple research room with total value of 11. This moved up 3 spaces with total value of 10. Then the White 4 at column 5, was actually not enough to progress the track so it went to attack room. Spent 2 energy and destroying 2 ships.
Then the 3 at column 1 generated 3 energy so I had 4 left.
The Mothership went down again, ready to deploy 2 reds plus 1 white at 2, 4 and 5.
ROUND 10. Gray: 5, 6, 6. White: 2, 3.
20 research point left. 2 rounds left, max. The city could still take 4 damage.
6 for 2, 4 and 5 was safe. 5 for 1 was also safe. For 3, even 1 was 1 hit. 5 then became 2nd hit.
With all grays I got 17. But the 20 had to be broken down to 6 and then 14, probably from 2 rooms.
I used the gray 6 for column 1, planning to get 5 research points. Got 3rd hit.
Then the gray 6 to column 3, 4th and 5th hit. Next was Gray 5 to column 4, no hit. I used White 3 first at column 5, planning for the research room as well. After execution, I moved up 2 spaces on the research track with total value of 6. 14 left. I already got 6 and 5 for the triple room and if I got just 3 from reroll, I won.
The reroll got me 6 for column 2, no hit. 5 Energy, spent 2 for triple room and 1 for column 5, nothing for column 1. Reached the top of research track while the Mothership was still 2 spaces away from the city.
Playing time was about 60 minutes.
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Remember Our Trip
Watch the Slideshow of this session on TikTok.
Recreate the map of the city you last visited together with your travel mate in Remember Our Trip.
I have played this almost 30 times but apparently only this time I realized that you can only score or confirm a shape in the same turn when you place at least one of the token. That means you cannot score it later. So there is more to push your luck element of this game.
This was 2-handed session using the Kyoto map and the more difficult variant. The goal card for this session was 2 points per adjacent confirmed same types of either Hotel, Attractions or Parks.
ROUND 1. Green
Red was the first player and took the set with Pink and 2 Oranges. Green shape means these tokens have to be placed in the corner of square shape. The map has orange photo spot almost at the bottom left corner.
The plan was on above and the right of this photo spot for 2 attractions, one for the square shape and the other for the L-shape. So, Red placed 2 oranges at the leftmost column with one exactly at the bottom left corner, not exactly at the photo spot. On the right of the photo spot was the pink for attraction, possibly for the L-shape attraction.
Blue player took the set with 1 Blue and 2 Reds. The Blue token was placed exactly in the photo spot next to the river while the 2 reds were at the opposite spot, with one next to the red photo spot.
No scoring this time.
ROUND 2. Purple
2nd set had 1 hotel while 3rd set had 2 pink plus a hotel. Clearly 3rd set was the best so Blue player took it. Purple card means the tokens have to be placed in diagonal line from bottom left to top right.
Trying to follow the red’s plan with 2 adjacent attractions near the bottom edge, the blue was at the top right of the shape, right below the blue photo spot. Then the 2 pink were at adjacent spaces to each other in that required shape. One was exactly above the orange photo spot.
Red player took the other set with one blue, one green and one orange. In that diagonal line, the blue was at the top right, exactly filling the blue photo spot. The orange then was placed at the bottom left of that shape, connecting the existing 2 oranges. Then the green was just one space closer to Blue.
Still no confirmation of shape.
ROUND 3. Red
Red shape means the 3 tokens have to be placed in a cross or plus sign but not the middle. One set had 1 pink, 1 blue and 1 orange. The other set had 1 pink and 2 orange.
Red player picked the one with blue token. The blue was placed on the left of blue photo spot. This was the top of the plus shape. The pink then filled the bottom end while the orange filled the left, to the left of previous green token.
Blue then picked the other set with 1 pink and 2 oranges. One orange was placed right at the orange photo spot. This was the bottom part of that plus or cross sign. The other orange was at the left while the pink went to the top. This way Blue was 1 pink away from completing the square shape of the attractions.
Still no confirmation.
ROUND 4. Green
There were 2 sets with pink. One with a blue and a green while the other with 2 reds. Blue player could take any of them but to confirm a shape this round, the best was probably the one with blue.
With this square shape placement, pink was at the bottom right, completing the attraction square shape of also bottom right corner. Then the blue was at the top right corner. This player actually had a chance to confirm the hotel shape as well but they probably wanted to do something different. Lastly the green was at the top left of placement shape, just 2 spaces below the green photo spot.
Blue player confirmed just one shape, the square attraction. Scored 6 from that shape and the matching placement on the main board for 4 points.
Red player took the set with 1 pink and 2 reds. The 2 reds were placed on the right of the river with one filling the red photo spot. The pink was on the left of the river filling the 2nd of the L-shape.
ROUND 5. Red
Only 1 set with a Pink along with 1 blue and 1 orange. The other better set had a Blue, red and orange. Red player picked the one with pink and they had to place them in plus shape.
In the plus shape, the pink was at the bottom, orange on the left and blue at the top. The plus shape then was placed so that the pink filled the top left of confirmed square attraction. By doing so, Red got a group of 5 adjacent orange. They also made a line of 3 blue, enough to confirm a hotel shape. But that would have left them with not enough flexibility for another hotel. So, Red waited for later.
Blue player picked the set with a blue, a red and a green instead of 3 orange. Green on the left of plus shape was to fill the green photo spot. Then the blue was on the right with the red had to be at the bottom of the plus shape. No confirmation for blue player.
ROUND 6. Blue.
There were 2 sets of 1 blue and 1 red. The other one was 1 green and 1 orange. Blue had to pick one of the same. They placed the blue token on the left of the river while the red on the right. This blue completed a Hotel with a straight line of 3 blue tokens so Blue player confirmed it. Scored 4 points plus 3 matching on the main board.
Red player picked the same set. They could have used the same placement as blue player but with red on the right most spot. Instead, to reinforced the 2nd hotel shape, they placed so the blue was on the right of Green photo spot. Then the red was below the blue photo spot. This completed an L-shape hotel which matched with the empty main board.
Scored 4 plus 3 points as well.
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ROUND 7. Purple
There were no set with pink. 2 with a single blue and 2 other colors. Red player had no empty space or had to lose tokens for trying to place blue by following the other confirmed hotel shape. So, they took the last set with 2 red and 1 Green.
The 2 reds were on the right side of the river while the green was on the left. Even this green would have been removed to make space for pink later but that was the best option available.
Fortunately for Blue player, they could still make it with 1 Blue, 1 Green and 1 Orange in that diagonal shape. The blue was at the top right of the shape and this filled the space to the left of blue photo spot. Orange was at the leftmost possible space, expanding the existing group while green was in the middle but next to different green.
No confirmation this time.
ROUND 8. Orange
Lucky for blue to score 2 Pink. These 2 were placed in horizontal line at the bottom most possible row on the right of orange photo spot.
Also lucky for Red player to get a blue and a red that they could have placed between the river while working on the 2nd hotel shape and expanding the red token group.
No confirmation still.
ROUND 9. Orange.
Only 1 pink but unfortunately this was with a Blue token. Not a great set for this placement shape and this map. Red player kept working on the 2nd attraction shape so the pink was on the left of the river while the blue was on the right, not blocking group of reds.
Blue player chose the 2 reds instead of 1 red and 1 blue. These filled the red photo spot and the right of it.
ROUND 10. Blue
1 set had 2 pinks. 2nd had 1 pink and 1 green and 3rd had 1 blue and 1 orange.
While giving the 2 pink would have been very beneficial for Red player, Blue just picked the one with a pink and a green. The green was right below the green photo spot while the Pink continued the 2nd shape of attractions.
Red obviously picked the 2 Pink that they could place to work on both attractions. One of them actually completed the 2nd Attraction shape even if they had to remove the existing green.
Scored 10 points for Red.
ROUND 11. Gray
Red got perfect set to place in vertical line, 1 orange and 1 pink. The orange was to fill the photo spot while the pink completed the 1st Attraction shape.
Scored 10 for the attraction and also scored a group of 6 oranges for 11 points.
Not so lucky for Blue. They had to pick one with pink and green. This helped them completing the 2nd attraction but had to discard the green token. Scored 10 points.
ROUND 12. Gray
No more orange for Blue but there was one with a red and a blue. This helped them getting a group of 6 adjacent reds. Confirmed and scored 11 points.
Red player had to take the set with 1 blue and 1 green just to fill the green photo spot without the need to remove any token. Red player scored nothing this last round.
SCORING
Current score for both were 38. Each lost 1 point for 1 mistake token. Both got 6 points for filling 4 photo spots with the right color.
For the Goal card they both only scored 4 from having 2 attractions adjacent to each other.
TOTAL SCORE FOR EACH WAS EXACTLY 47.
Red could have scored additional 8 points for group of Restaurants. But that happened in Round 7. Blue could have scored additional 5 for the 2nd hotel plus probably 4 points from the goal which also could have happened in Round 7. Not really an easy or obvious decision for either player.
Playing time was 41 minutes.
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Oh My Goods!
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Create Production Chains from you expanding factories to be the most profitable business in Oh My Goods!
This was played solo but 2-handed. One player as the lady and the other player as the guy. Both started with 7 Coal and 5 cards. The Lady’s charburner required 2 Silk and 1 Wood to process while the Guy’s required 2 stone and 1 wood.
The Lady’s starting hand had 1 White, 2 Yellow, 1 Black and 1 Green. Didn’t exchange them and the 2 new cards got her 2 more White. The Guy got 3 Red, 1 Green and 1 Black. Didn’t exchange them as well and the 2 new ones were Green and Black.
ROUND 1.
Morning Supply: Yellow, Red, Green
Both assigned their worker to their Charburner and they were very confident to work efficiently regardless of the Evening Supply. The Lady was planning to build Weaving Mill while The Guy was planning to build Brick Factory.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red and 2 White
The Lady produced 2 Coal plus one by spending one of her green card. With 10 coal, spent 5 of them to pay for building Weaving Mill.
The Guy unfortunately had to spend 2 of his Black cards just to help him work efficiently. His factory produced 2 Coal plus 2 with his green cards. With 11, spent 3 of them to build the Brick Factory.
5 cards for the Lady and only 2 for the Guy.
ROUND 2.
Plus the 2 new cards, the Lady had 2 White, 2 Yellow, 1 Black and 2 Red. While the Guy only had 2 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 Green.
Morning Supply: Black, Green
The Lady didn’t want to waste both of her White so she chose to work sloppily. She also had no green to boost the result. Her next factory in plan was CATTLE RANCH for 6.
While the supply already had 2 thirds required to work efficiently, They Guy also chose to work sloppily. His next plan was to build Mill for 3 coins.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Black, 3 Green, 1 Yellow
The Lady spent 1 of her White to run the factory and her factory only produced 1 Coal this time. She spent all of her Coal to pay for the cost to build Cattle Ranch.
The Guy also produced 1 Coal plus 1 using his Green. With 10 coins, he spent 3 of them to build Mill.
5 cards left for the Lady and only 2 for the Guy.
ROUND 3.
No exchange for the Lady and she had 2 Black, 2 Yellow, 2 White and 1 Red. Same for the Guy but he only had 2 Red, 1 Yellow and 1 White.
Morning Supply: 1 Yellow, 1 Green
The Lady thought it was best to work on her Cattle Ranch. Even for that she only could have worked sloppily. Her plan was to build the Office to permanently supply the Black.
With limited cards in his hand, the Guy stayed with his Charburner, planning to work Sloppily. He didn’t even had 1 Black necessary to run his factory. His next plan was SHOEMAKER for 12 but he probably couldn’t afford it.
Morning + Evening Supply: 2 Yellow, 4 Green, 2 Black
Apparently, The Lady actually got enough supply to work efficiently. Nevertheless, she got 1 Cattle plus 2 using her Yellow cards. 3 Cattle worth 3 coins each. Knowing she wouldn’t have gotten some changes, she spent 3 Cattle to pay the cost of 8 to build that Office.
The Guy also could have worked efficiently. Instead, he only produced 1 with nothing to boost. He only had Coal worth of 8 coins, not enough to pay the cost to build the Shoemaker.
4 cards left for each.
ROUND 4.
Still no exchange for the Lady and plus additional 2, she got 3 White, 1 Yellow, 1 Black and 1 Red. Same for the Guy and he got 2 Red, 1 White, 1 Yellow and 2 Green.
Morning Supply: 1 Red, 1 White
No Green from the morning supply and in the Lady’s hand. She had to work only sloppily at her Charburner. Since she already built Cattle Ranch, her next one was TANNERY for 13. Probably not going to be enough to pay.
For the Guy, with only 1 Red, he decided to work at Mill. While he could have supplied the rest of the requirement, he chose to work sloppily. His next plan was to build SAWMILL for 2 coins.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 2 Red, 2 Black and 5 White
Those were a huge evening supply. Unfortunately, the Lady only produced 1 Coal, unable to build the Tannery yet. The Guy produced 1 Flour plus 1 yellow card, worth 4 coins. Spent one of the Flour for 2 coins to pay the cost to build Sawmill.
5 cards left for the Lady and only 4 for the Guy.
ROUND 5.
The Lady still had diverse set of resources so no exchange. Plus the new 2 she got 2 Red, 2 Yellow, 3 White and 1 Black. Same for the Guy and he got 2 Red, 1 Black, 1 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 White.
Morning Supply: 1 White, 1 Red, 1 Green
The safest bet for the Lady was actually to work on Charburner again. But she took a risk and worked sloppily at Weaving Mill since she had some supply herself. She was still planning to build the Tannery.
The Guy stayed at Mill to make Flour. Even then he was still short 1 goods so he only worked sloppily. His next plan was BAKERY that could use goods from his Mill.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Black and 1 White
Apparently, the Lady had to supply 1 Red to run the Weaving Mill. The Factory produced 1 Goods plus 3 using her 3 Whites. She had goods worth 12 from that factory. Spent them all plus 1 Coal to pay 13 coins to build the Tannery.
The Guy also had to supply 1 Red to run the Mill. The Mill produced 1 and he got no other Yellow to boost his production. He had the Yellow Bakery card but he wanted to build it this turn and he could afford it. Spent 2 Flour and 7 Coal to pay the cost of 11 to build that one.
3 cards left for the Lady and 4 for the Guy.
ROUND 6.
Not sure about making exchange but the Lady had 2 Yellow, 2 White and 1 Black after the new cards. While the Guy exchanged his 4, one of each except yellow and plus new cards got 3 Green, 1 Yellow, 1 White and 1 Red. Probably a bad trade since he lost his Black.
Morning Supply: 0 Yellow, 2 Green, 0 Red, 2 Black and 0 White
Not exactly a great supply for the Lady but she chose the Cattle Ranch. She could only afford to work sloppily by providing 1 of the Yellow. While she had other yellow, the Mill but she was planning to build it.
The Guy had everything he needed to work efficiently at his Charburner. He even had supply to boost it later. His next plan was Weaving Mill.
Morning + Evening Supply: 0 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red, 2 Black and 1 White
The Lady made the right choice to work at but she still had to cover 1 Yellow requirement. She produced 1 Cattle no boost. She decided not to build nor use the Mill card to boost the production.
The Guy was happily produced 2 Coals plus 3 Green from his own supply. Unfortunately, he was short 2 coins to build that Weaving Mill.
3 cards left for each.
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ROUND 7.
Still no exchange for the Lady and she got 2 Yellow, 2 White, 1 Green and 1 Black. The Guy had 2 Yellow, 2 White and 1 Red.
Morning Supply: 2 Yellow, 1 Green, 1 Red, 0 Black and 4 White
Those were huge supply and perfect for the Lady to work efficiently at Tannery. She could also boost it with her Cattle production. She already had Weaving Mill so her next one in plan was TAILOR SHOP for 7 coins.
The Guy could have worked at Bakery even just sloppily. However, he didn’t have the Flour to boost the result along with Coal. So, he decided to work efficiently at Mill first with 1 Red ready in case the supply didn’t cover it. He was still planning to build Weaving Mill.
Morning + Evening Supply: 2 Yellow, 2 Green, 2 Red, 0 Black and 4 White
Not lucky enough for the Lady since no additional supply of Yellow. She had to spend one from her own to run the factory. The Tannery produced 2 plus one from the Cattle Ranch. Those were worth 18. Apparently she canceled her plan to build the Tailor Shop.
The Guy got everything he needed for his Mill. The Mill produced 2 Flour plus 2 more Wheat from his own. He was planning to use those produced goods to supply his Bakery later so he postponed building the next factory.
5 cards left for the Lady and 3 for the Guy.
ROUND 8.
No exchange again for the Lady and she got 2 Black, 3 White, 1 Yellow and 1 Green. The Guy traded 1 Red and 2 White for 1 Yellow, 3 Green and 1 Black.
Morning Supply: 0 Yellow, 0 Green, 1 Red, 1 Black and 0 White
A very empty supply. Luckily the Lady had 1 permanent Black supply so at least she could work sloppily at her Cattle Ranch. She was planning to build a 2nd office to permanently supply 1 Yellow.
The Guy was forced to go back to his Charburner, to work sloppily. He had no red from himself to even work sloppily at his Sawmill. He planned on building office to supply the Black.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Yellow, 1 Green, 3 Red, 3 Black and 0 White
Still no White but luckily none of these 2 needed it. Without additional supply the Lady produced 1 Cattle boosted by 1. By selling 1 Cattle plus 1 Leather she paid the cost of 8 for that 2nd office.
The Guy could have produced 2 Coal. He also could have worked on the Sawmill or the other 2 except for the Bakery. So, not so lucky for him but he boosted the Coal production by 3.
Spent 2 Coal and 2 Flour to pay the cost to build that office. He got permanent supply of 1 Black.
5 cards left for the Lady and only 1 for the Guy.
ROUND 9.
The Lady finally traded 1 Black, 3 White and 1 Green to get 3 Black, 3 Green and 1 Yellow. Not exactly great trade but at least she now had a Yellow.
The Guy had not many, so the 2 new ones got him 2 Yellow and 1 Red.
Morning Supply: 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red, 2 Black and 1 White
Those were more than enough for the lady to work efficiently at her Cattle Ranch. With 2 offices she had another plan to hire Assistant instead of building her next factory.
The Guy’s best option was sadly to work on his Brick Factory. He was planning to work efficiently while having 1 Yellow to readily cover the missing supply. He was back with the plan to build Shoemaker.
Morning + Evening Supply: 2 Yellow, 4 Green, 1 Red, 2 Black and 2 White
With those supplies, the Lady could have actually worked at her Tannery. At Cattle Ranch, she produced 2 Cattles plus 1. Spent 2 Cattles, or 6 to overpay the Assistant for 4 because no cheaper goods in her possession. The Assistant was stationed at the Cattle Ranch since her 2 offices almost completely provided the supply.
The Guy could have actually worked at Bakery even just sloppily. With his choice, he produced 2 Bricks plus 1 red and 1 Coal. Unfortunately, he canceled his plan to build the Shoemaker.
5 cards for the Lady and 2 for the Guy.
ROUND 10.
The Lady traded her hand again from 3 Green and 3 Black to 2 Yellow, 3 White, 2 Red and 1 Green. Just 2 new cards for the Guy and he got 2 Yellow and 2 White.
Morning Supply: 1 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Black and 1 White
The Lady’s Assistant was ready to work at Cattle Ranch with the Lady efficiently at the Tannery. Her next factory in plan was Shoemaker since she already had fully functional Tannery.
The Guy was ready to work efficiently at his Bakery even if he had to supply the White himself. Because of his limited cards, no actual plan to build any of them. Not enough factory to hire any of the remaining assistant.
Morning + Evening Supply: 1 Yellow, 3 Green, 2 Red, 2 Black and 2 White
No additional Yellow. The Lady had to provide the missing Yellow for the Tannery. Her Cattle Ranch produced 1 Cattle and her Tannery produced 2 goods, boosted by 1 Cattle. She actually had more Cattle but decided to keep some in stock for lower value goods for payment.
Spent 2 goods for Tannery worth 12 plus 3 coins worth 1 goods from Cattle to build the Shoemaker for 15. That was her 7th Factory.
The Guy had to supply 1 White to completely run the Bakery. Produced 2 goods, boosted by 2 Flour and 2 Coal. He finally built Tailor Shop for 7 coins by spending 1 goods each from Bakery, Brick Factory and Charburner. That was also his 7th.
6 cards left for the Lady and 2 for the Guy.
ROUND 11.
The Lady traded 3 White, 1 Green and 2 Red for 3 Green, 2 White, 2 Yellow and 1 Black. A very good trade, I’d say. While the Guy was stuck with just 2 new cards and he got 2 Yellow, 1 Black and 1 Green.
Morning Supply: 0 Yellow, 2 Green, 1 Red, 0 Black and 3 White
The Lady probably had to supply the missing Yellow and Black so the Assistant could work. On the other hand, she decided to work on the Shoemaker that required additional 2 Yellow probably. She took some risk. Her next and probably the last one to build was IRON SMELTER.
The supplies were perfect for the Guy’s Bakery. Unfortunately he had no Flour to boost the result. He was planning to build an Office to permanently provide the supply of White.
Morning + Evening Supply: 0 Yellow, 2 Green, 2 Red, 1 Black and 3 White
Still no Yellow at all so the Lady’s assistant couldn’t work. Even the Lady had to provide 2 Yellow and 1 Green from her own to help her work efficiently at Shoemaker. The Shoemaker produced 2 goods, boosted by 3 goods from Tannery. That was 5 goods worth of 8 each.
Spent 1 of them for 8 plus 1 Cattle for 3 to pay 9 coins to build the last one, the Iron Smelter. This triggered the end of the game.
The Guy only produced 2 goods at Bakery. Spent 2 of them for 8 to pay the Office. That was his 8th.
4 cards left for the Lady and 3 for the Guy.
ROUND 12.
The Lady traded 2 White, 1 Green and 1 Black for 2 Yellow, 2 Green and 1 Black. 3 Yellow, 1 Green and 1 Red for the Guy.
Morning Supply: 0 Yellow, 2 Green, 0 Red, 1 Black and 0 White
The Lady stayed at Shoemaker to work sloppily and the Assistant at Cattle Ranch. Cards were just to boost production. The Guy stayed at the Mill to work sloppily.
Morning + Evening Supply: 2 Yellow, 4 Green, 0 Red, 5 Black and 0 White
The Lady’s Cattle Ranch produced 1, boosted by 2. These 3 became 3 goods at Tannery and boosted the produced 1 goods from Shoemaker by 3. 2 Green for the Charburner and 1 White for the Weaving Mill. The last black and 1 Coal produced 2 goods at Iron Smelter.
The Guy had to provide 1 red to run his Mill, producing 1 goods boosted by 2. His last green produced 1 Coal. 3 Coal and 3 Flour then became 3 goods from Bakery.
That was the end of the game.
SCORING
The Lady’s Score
3 coins x 2 goods from Iron Smelter: 6 coins
1 coin x 1 goods from Charburner: 1 coin
3 coins x 1 goods from Weaving Mill: 3 coins
8 coins x 8 goods from Shoemaker: 64 coins
74 coins: 14 points
Buildings + 1 Assistant: 21 points
TOTAL SCORE: 35 POINTS
The Guy’s Score
2 coins x 3 goods from Brick Factory: 6 coins
1 coin x 1 goods from Charburner: 1 coin
4 coins x 13 goods from Bakery: 52 coins
59 coins: 11 points
Buildings score: 18 points
TOTAL SCORE: 29 POINTS
The Lady won. Playing time was about 90 minutes, running both sides.
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Ankh’or
Watch the Slideshow of this session on TikTok.
Manage Resources, Manipulate the Market to get the Tiles, placing and stacking them in a group to get the most points in Ankh’or.
This was a 2-handed session. The cheapest space had Black-White, Blue-Green and Black-Red. So, Black was a better choice after playing the Ankh token to refresh the market with up to 2 choices.
ROUND 1
1st player then took 3 tokens as their first action, taking 1 Black, 1 Red and 1 White. 2nd player instead tried to aim the 2nd option with 1 Blue, 1 Green and 1 Ankh token.
ROUND 2
1st Player then took 1 Ankh, 1 more White and 1 Green. 2nd Player got one for each token.
ROUND 3
However, instead of aiming the 1st or 3rd space with either White or Green color, 1st player bought the one from 4th space by paying 3 tokens, 1 Red, 1 Geen and 1 White. This was Blue tile with bonus token on it. So, it was as if the cost was only 2.
2nd Player bought the Green tile worth 2 points from the 3rd space by paying 1 red and 1 Black. That was an instant 2 points.
ROUND 4
1st Player again and they took 3 tokens. The result, they had 2 Black, 1 Red, 1 White, 1 Green and 1 Ankh.
2nd player bought the black tile with the Beetle from 2nd space by paying 1 Blue and 1 Green. 2nd player had 1 White and 1 Ankh token left. That was 2nd tile for the player and they placed it on the right of the existing Green with number 2.
ROUND 5
1st player again and they were planning to use the Ankh. This would have removed the White empty tile, moving the 2 Jackal tiles, red and white to the first 2 cheapest space. To refill the rest of the board, the choices were either more white or a black. 1st player went with the former since there were already 1 white.
After the Ankh, the market had Red Jackal, White Jackal, White Beetle, Empty Black, Green Beetle and Blue Beetle. Trying to prevent the opponent from collecting Bettle, 1st player bought one from 3rd space, paying 1 Red and 1 Black. This was 2nd tile for them so it was placed to the right of existing blue.
2nd player, having only 1 White, took 3 tokens, 1 Red, 1 Green and 1 Black.
ROUND 6
1st player took tokens, 1 Ankh, 1 Green and 1 Red. 2nd player was indeed planning to collect beetle but they were in expensive space. So, 2nd player spent 1 Ankh, removing the Red Jackal. Now the Green Beetle was at 3rd space and the Blue one at 4th. New tiles were Black Falcon and another Green 2.
Bought the Green Beetle by paying 1 Red and 1 Green. This was a mistake. They should have been 1 Black and 1 Red. Oh, well… Anyway, I just had to continue with the incorrect play. This was 3rd tile for 2nd player and it was placed above the existing Green with number 2.
ROUND 7
1st player already had 1 White so they bought the White Jackal from 1st space by paying 1 Black and 1 White. This was 3rd, and it was placed below the existing White.
2nd Player took 3 tokens so they had 1 White, 1 Black, 1 Green, 1 Blue and 1 Ankh.
ROUND 8
1st player also took 3 tokens so they had 2 Ankh, 2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Black and 1 White plus 1 Blue on the tile. 2nd was planning to buy the Blue Beetle. They spent their Ankh first, removing the Empty Black and the Blue Beetle landed on 1st space. They then bought it by paying 1 Black and 1 White.
This was 4th tile for 2nd player and it was placed to complete the grid of 2 x 2 at the top right corner. They had a group of 3 Beetle.
ROUND 9
1st player, already had a Blue, tried to take the other Blue Beetle that just entered. They spent 1 Ankh, removing the Black Falcon so that the other Blue Beetle landed at 2nd space. Paid 1 Blue and 1 Green to take that tile. This was placed above the White Bettle. Now 1st player had a group of 2 Beetles and 2 separated Blue.
2nd Player just took 3 tokens so they had 1 of each except the Ankh itself.
ROUND 10
The 3rd space had a Red Scribe which would have given bonus turn for purchasing it. 1st player paid 1 Black and 1 Red for it and started 3rd color. This was placed on the right of Blue Beetle.
As bonus action, 1st player took tokens. They had one of each.
2nd player then bought the other Green 2 from 1st space by paying 1 Black and 1 White, getting instant 2 points. Since the player already had a grid of 2 x 2 with a green, they placed this on top of those 4 so they got discount, saving the Black.
ROUND 11
No more tile from the 3 cheapest spaces. Using Ankh would have removed the White Storage to refill the market which would have been great for 1st Player. They did it anyway so that the Red 2 landed at 1st space. Bought the tile with 1 Black and 1 White. The tile was placed in the existing 3 x 3 at 2nd row 3rd column.
2nd Player with already had 1 Black purchased the Black 2 from 3rd space. Paid 1 red and 1 Black for it and from the existing 2 x 2 grid, the tile was placed at the bottom right, next to the Black beetle.
ROUND 12
1 White Jackal at 2nd space. 1st player already collected some white and 1 of them was Jackal as well. So, they paid 1 Green and 1 Blue to purchase that one. In this 3 x 3, the tile was placed at row 3, 2nd column, making a group of 3 White and 2 Jackals.
2nd Player just took 3 tokens and they had 1 of each except red.
ROUND 13
3 tokens for 1st player so they had 1 Black, 1 red, 1 White and an Ankh. 2nd player spent the Ankh, removing the Jackal Green, refilling the market.
They bought Red Beetle from 2nd space, paying 1 Green and 1 Blue. This was placed to expand the existing grid to 3 x 3, occupying the 2nd row 3rd column, creating a group of 4 Beetle. It was also 4th color for 2nd player.
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ROUND 14
There was a Black Jackal at 3rd space. Not the color that 1st player had been collecting but they went for it anyway, paying 1 Black and 1 Red. In 3 x 3 grid, the tile was placed at the bottom right corner, creating a group of 3 Jackals. Also 4th color.
3 additional tokens for 2nd player, so they had 2 Black, 1 White, 1 Red and an Ankh.
ROUND 15
1st player only had 2 tokens so they took 3 more. They now had 1 of each except for Red.
2nd player accepted to play the Ankh, removing the Empty Blue, chasing the other Green Beetle at 1st space at this point. Paid 1 Black and 1 White, placing the tile at the top right corner of their 3 x 3 grid. While they had 3 bonus points for having a group of 5 Bettle but the green was separated. They still had a chance to connect it by placing one at the top.
ROUND 16
1st player was aiming for the White Scribe from 4th space. Spent the Ankh first, removing the Red Falcon so the Scribe landed at 1st space. Bought it, paying 1 Black and 1 White.
1st player already had 9 tiles creating 3 x 3 grid. So this one was placed on top of it at the bottom left corner of 2nd level. For the discount, they kept the Black. Scribe gave them bonus turn so they took 3 tokens, having 1 red, 1 Black, 1 White and the ankh as the result.
2nd player bought the Green Jackal from 3rd space even though they were not really collecting the animal. However, the color was still useful the connect the separated green from the 2nd level. Paid 1 Black and 1 red, correctly this time and saved the Black as discount. This also created a group of 5 green, getting them 3-point token.
ROUND 17
1st player was planning to get a group of 5 white and 5 blue, needing 2 more blue and 1 more White. The market had 1 of each and both were Falcon and they were not exactly collecting.
Spent the Ankh, removing the Black falcon so the Blue Falcon landed on 1st space. 1 more White appeared but no more Blue.
The tile was placed at 2nd level, top left in this 3 x 3 grid., keeping the black as the discount bonus. Group of 4 Blue was created.
2nd player took 3 tokens one of each color plus 2 ankhs. They still had chance to get a group of 5 black with 3 more.
ROUND 18
1st player took 3 tokens. They had 1 red, 1 white and 2 Black plus an Ankh. 2nd player spent their Ankh, removing the Empty Red. The Market had 2 Black now.
Bought the Black Scribe from 3rd space with 1 Black and 1 Red. This was placed at bottom level, bottom left corner of the 3×3 grid. The Scribe gave extra turn and they just took 3 tokens so they had 1 of each except for the Red.
ROUND 19
1st player spent 1 Ankh, removing the White Falcon, refilling the market. There were 1 White 2 and Blue Jackal. This means, 1st player could have completed 2 groups of different colors but probably not the Jackal. I forgot about the Ankh to move the position of existing tile. Had I remembered and the 1st player had 1 more, they could have probably used it to get 1 extra point from the Blue Jackal.
They bought the White 2 from 1st space, paying 1 Black and 1 white. The tile was placed on 2nd level, bottom right of this 3 x 3 grid. This completed a group of 5 white, taking the 3-point token.
2nd player was planning to buy the Black 2 but they didn’t have the red required by the space. However, they placed it at 2nd level so they just needed to pay the Black. They had a group of 4 Black.
ROUND 20
1st player took 3 tokens, having 1 of each now. 2nd player did the same and had all colors one each plus 2nd Ankh.
ROUND 21
1st player spent their Ankh, removing the Green Falcon. There were 2 Blue, a Jackal and a Scribe. They decided to buy the Scribe from 3rd space, paying 1 green, 1 red and 1 White. Since they were planning to place it at the 2nd level, they got discount, keeping one of the token.
This completed a group of 5 Blue, taking the bonus token. The Scribe itself was giving bonus turn for first player which they used to buy the other Blue tile, the Jackal.
This was actually one of the rare chance to place at 3rd level. The initial cost was Blue and Green but with a discount, they only needed to pay 1. Not sure if this was actually correct play since the tile at the bottom was covered. I had to place it somewhere else or forgot to score that bottom tile. 14 tile so this was the last round.
2nd player used their Ankh, removing the Green Storage. The market got Black storage at 4th space. They spent 1 green, 1 red and 1 White to buy it and placed the tile at the bottom right of the 3 x 3 grid. This was their 12th.
That was the end of the game.
SCORING
1st Player
Blue Group: 6 points
White Group: 5 points
Red Group: 2 points
3 Jackal: 3 points
2 Beetle: 2 points
Points from Tile: 6 points
Bonus Tokens: 6 points
Leftover Tokens: 0 point
TOTAL SCORE: 30 POINTS
2nd Player
Green Group: 5 points
Black Group: 5 points
5 Beetle: 5 points
Points from Tile: 8 points
Bonus Tokens: 9 points
Leftover Tokens: 1 point
TOTAL SCORE: 33 POINTS
2nd Player won. Well, it was a bit cheating with incorrect payment. Playing time was about 44 minutes for playing both sides.
Learn more about this game from Ankh’or Review.
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Next Station: London
Watch the Slideshow of this session on TikTok.
Redesign the London’s underground railway network to connect as many districts and as many local spots in Next Station: London.
Usually I play this a couple of sessions but this time only once. This was a solo session, still not using the extra modules.
BLUE LINE
1st stop was PENTAGON, an underground station. From the starting blue, there were 2 options, both in the same district as that blue. I don’t like going to the left immediately since the line seems to cut off that entire district. So, I played it safe and connect to the right.
2nd stop was ANY STATION but a regular one. Back to the Blue starting position, there were 5 possible stations to connect. The 2nd one had 4 options.
There were too many options so I just went to triangle to the bottom right district. From here, it was just 1 space to the corner district.
3rd one was CIRCLE, an underground one. The starting point had 1 possible connection while the recent triangle had 2. Maybe I should have just connect the starting one to the circle on that district. Instead from the triangle at bottom right, I went up to the Circle. This felt like a waste.
4th one was another CIRCLE. So, either way I had to connect 2 circles. This time from the Blue starting point to the circle on the left within the same district. This increased the most connected stations in a district to 3.
Next one was a Switch to a SQUARE station, a regular one. I think this was the best chance to connect that bottom right corner district, increasing the number of total district connected to 3.
6th one was a TRIANGLE, regular one. From the Circle at the bottom right district, I connected the Triangle tourist spot on that middle right district, increasing the number of connected districts to 4.
7th one was TRIANGLE, the underground one. The Right end didn’t increase anything. While the left end had 2 options, going middle district, increasing the number of districts or going within the starting district. But from that latter option, unless I got the Wild, regular stop, I couldn’t connect the circle tourist spot.
I took the risk anyway and went with the latter.
8th one was another PENTAGON, the regular one. Unfortunately, there was no station I could connect from either end. Even if I went up in the last one, I didn’t increase the score by connecting the pentagon next to it.
9th one was SQUARE, the 4th underground. One more before the round ended. My only option was to go north from the right end. Still in the middle right district but crossing the river once.
10th one was the WILD OR JOKER, the last underground. This was the last card. Current score was 4 districts times 4 stations. I could have increased either aspect for the same result but connecting to the Tourist at the bottom middle increase that Tourist score. So, I went with that.
Blue Line Score: 4 districts, 5 stations, crossing River once for 22 points with 2 Tourist spots.
PURPLE LINE
1st card was TRIANGLE, the 1st underground. There were 2 options, staying in the district or going to the middle. I chose to stay in the middle. 2 Stations, 1 District.
2nd card was TRIANGLE, the regular one. So, I just connected the one in the middle district. 2 stations, 2 districts.
3rd card was SQUARE, regular one. 3 options on the left and 2 on the right. The left one increased the number of stations and possibly Tourist spot while the right only increased the number of Tourist spots. So I went with the left to the Tourist Spot. 3 stations, 2 districts, 1 Tourist.
4th card was WILD / JOKER, regular one. Based on the cards that have come out so far, the best use for this was probably to another triangle. There was only one option to the green starting line from the right end, increasing the number of districts.
The problem with that was I probably cut off the potential to explore to the right. So, I ignored that option and tried to extend the left end to one of the corners. I probably could have gone down to the Pentagon, increasing the number of stations but I went up to the top left district with a Circle. 3 stations, 3 districts, 1 Tourist.
5th card was a CIRCLE, regular one. Had I picked the bottom in the starting district previously this would have been an easy choice. For now, I had no possible connection from either end except to the Wild Tourist Spot in the middle. So, I picked that one, only increasing the value of Tourist spot.
6th card was WILD, 2nd underground. A lot of options but still only 2 ends. I didn’t want to use the right end with the possibility of blocking future connections. From that Tourist spot all shapes were available, except for Triangle.
So, I went with the left to the top left corner district. 3 stations, 4 districts, 2 Tourists.
7th card was SQUARE, 3rd underground. The left one was not going to give me anything so I only had the right end. I could either keep expanding out to more districts or focus on this middle district.
I took a chance and went with the latter. From the Tourist in the middle to the Square below it, not increasing anything.
8th card was PENTAGON, the regular one. 2 options from the right end. One stayed in this middle district increasing the number of stations to 4 or to the right, increasing the district to 5. The former was the better score so I went with that. 4 stations, 4 districts, 2 Tourist.
9th one was CIRCLE, 4th underground. Only one option, from the right within that same district, increasing the number of stations. 5 stations, 4 districts and 2 Tourists.
10th card was the PENTAGON, 5th underground so this was the last one for this round. Only one option, from the right, within the district. I knew this would have happened.
PURPLE SCORE: 4 districts, 6 stations, crossing river 3 times for 30 points.
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GREEN LINE
1st one was SQUARE, first underground. There were only 2 options from this starting Green. I just went with the Right one instead of going up. 2 Stations, 1 District.
2nd card was CIRCLE, 2nd underground. 3 options, only from the right end. To the Red station, or the middle district, either the right below that or the Tourist in the middle. I went with the Tourist in the middle. 2 Stations, 2 districts, 1 Tourist.
3rd card was TRIANGLE, a regular one. Nothing from the right end but 2 from the left. But one from that left was to middle district again while the other was to the top left district, just one more to the corner. So, I went with that latter.
2 stations, 3 districts, 1 Tourist.
4th card was WILD, a regular one. Aiming for Circle, only 2 options both from the right. One didn’t increase anything but the 2nd one was to the middle right district. Not sure if it was the best option but I went with that. Nothing really for Square. Pentagon had some but only worked probably with the top left corner.
So, I just went with that Circle to middle right district. 2 stations, 4 districts, 1 Tourist.
5th card was CIRCLE, a regular one. Nothing from the left. 2 from the right but none of them increased either district or stations. Either way had good potential for subsequent cards. I went with going back to middle district.
6th card was a SWITCH to a PENTAGON, 3rd underground. I used this chance to connect the Tourist in the starting district from the square below it. 3 stations, 4 districts, 2 Tourists.
7th card was a WILD, 4th underground. The next one could have been the last underground which was the triangle. So, I used this chance to increase the number of connected stations in the starting district to 4. If that last one indeed showed up, I could have gone increasing either aspect. 4 stations, 4 districts, 2 tourists.
8th one was TRIANGLE, the last underground. I decided to increase the district to the top right. Maybe safer to increase the stations.
GREEN SCORE: 5 districts, 4 stations, crossing river twice for 24 points.
RED LINE
1st card was CIRCE, regular. 2 options, to the left or to the bottom. I went to the left so it was next to a Wild Tourist spot.
1 Station, 2 districts.
2nd card was SQUARE, 1st underground. There were 3 options actually, 2 from the left and 1 from the right. From left, I could have gone to middle top or to the top right district, increasing that number. From the right to the station in the same district. I went with from the right to keep my option open by being next to that wild tourist spot.
3rd was a SWITCH to CIRCLE, 2nd underground. To create additional end, there was only 1 option, going from the starting to the bottom within the same district. I went with that.
3 stations, 2 districts.
4th was TRIANGLE, regular. From that middle end, I went to the bottom again, increasing the number of stations within a district.
4 stations, 2 districts.
5th card was PENTAGON, regular. From the right end, within the same district, going to the Pentagon station, cutting off the potential to go top right.
5 stations, 2 districts.
6th card was SQUARE, regular. 2 options, both from the left. One was going up to middle top district. But from here, there was only triangle option. I decided to go the other one to the top right district, letting go that chance to connect that Tourist in middle district.
5 stations, 3 districts.
7th card was TRIANGLE, 3rd underground. I used this from the middle end to the Tourist at the middle right district, connecting all 6 stations in that district.
8th card was PENTAGON, 4th underground. From the recent tourist, I went down to the bottom right district. 6 stations, 4 districts.
9th card was WILD, regular one. So all cards would have shown up and the last one was another wild. I used this one to connect to the Tourist spot in top middle, also increasing the district. 6 stations, 5 districts.
10th card was WILD, last underground. I had to increase the number of district so I went to the bottom right corner.
That was the end.
RED SCORE: 6 stations, 6 districts, crossing river once for 38 points.
Stations with multiple lines: 6 with 2 each, 12 points.
Tourist value: 17 points
TOTAL SCORE 147 POINTS.
Playing time was about 29 minutes.
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Horizons of Spirit Island
Watch the Slideshow on TikTok.
Defend your island from the Colonial Empires before they start populating and ravaging the home of Spirits in Horizons of Spirit Island.
This was a solo session, playing with 2 Spirits, Eye Watches from the Trees (Island G) and Sun Bright Whirlwind (Island H). Using standard rule with drafting for Growth and slightly more difficult variant, with additional Town during Exploration in Phase II.
First exploration happened at WETLANDS.
ROUND 1.
GROWTH PHASE.
No ravaging for this round but every Wetlands were about to get additional Town.
Sun Bright chose 3rd Growth option, getting a new card and placing one disc on the board. The disc was taken from the card track so the Spirit could have started playing 2 cards in a turn. Placed the disc on Wetlands H6. With the Spirit’s special ability, pushed that one Explorer on that land to H7, preventing the Build action from happening at H6 while H7 would have still only added 1 Town.
The new card was GIFT OF CONSTANCY, a fast power with Sun and Earth element that could give 2 Energy to any Target Spirit. This card also allows the target Spirit to keep the played cards instead of discarding it.
Gained 1 Energy from the track. Played that Gift of Constancy and GIFT OF SUNLIT AIR for 0 total cost. The latter card was also just to give the target Spirit 1 Energy.
Eyes Watches from Trees also chose the 3rd Growth option, getting 1 new card plus 1 Energy and placing 1 Energy. The disc was taken from the Card play track and put 3 spaces away from G7 Forest to Wetlands G2 where there were 1 City and 1 Explorer. From here, the Spirit could start playing 2 cards in a turn.
The new card was ROUSE THE TREES AND STONES, a Slow Power with a cost of 1 Energy to play. This card can deal 2 damage and push 1 Explorer but it cannot be done to a land with Blight. I thought this could be handy to destroy Town and increase the Fear.
Gained 1 additional Energy from the track and spent 1 of them to play MYSTERIOUS ABDUCTION and 0 cost for the WHISPERED GUIDANCE THROUGH THE NIGHT.
Maybe it was actually better to place the disc on G4 and then use that card to eliminate the single Explorer instead of G2 where there were still 1 City. But I went with that plan.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes went first with MYSTERIOUS ABDUCTION at G2 Wetlands. Generating 1 Fear, 1st overall. Dealt 1 damage to the single explorer.
Sun Bright gained 2 Energy from using GIFT OF CONSTANCY on themselves. Giving 1 Energy using the GIFT OF SUNLIT AIR to The Eyes.
The Eyes also triggered only the first threshold of their Innate Power. Generating 2nd Fear overall while the Defend 2 was useless.
INVADER PHASE
No Fear card yet and no ravaging happened this time. BUILD ACTIONS added 1 Town to G2, G4, and H7, nothing on H6.
The next exploration happened in the FOREST lands. 1 Explorer to all from having no invaders at all.
SLOW POWER PHASE
Sun Bright didn’t have enough element to trigger any of their Innate Power. No other Slow Power Card.
The Eyes still had Whispered Guidance Through the Night card. Activated on G4, 1 space from G7 Forest, a Sacred Site to gather just 1 out of 2 Dahan from G7. With Dahan and Invader were present on that land, gained 1 Fear, 3rd overall.
That was the end of Round 1. Sun Bright got to reclaim 1 card back which was the Gift of Constancy thanks to that card itself.
ROUND 2.
3 Ravaging were about to happen at all Wetlands except for H6. 7 damage to H7, 3 to G4 and 5 to G2. Build action was about to add 1 Town to each Forest land.
GROWTH PHASE
Sun Bright chose 3rd GROWTH option again, getting 1 new card and placing a disc. The disc was taken from the 2nd track again so they could start playing 3 cards in a turn. It was placed on Forest H5 to push the single Explorer only to Wetlands H7 to prevent the Build action from happening there.
The new card they chose was ENTICING SPLENDOR, a fast power, 0 range and cannot be used on land with Blight with 0 cost. This could gather either 1 of the invaders but not City or up to 2 Dahan. The card was also chosen for having Sun and Air element which works for Sun Bright.
3 Energy left from previous round. Gained 1 from the track. Sun Bright played GIFT OF CONSTANCY (Fast, 0), ENTICING SPLENDOR (Fast, 0) and SCATTER TO THE WINDS (Slow, 1). 2 Sun and 2 Air so Sun Bright got to trigger the first threshold of the Innate Power.
The Eyes also took the 3rd Growth Option, getting 1 new card and 1 Energy and placing 1 disc. The disc was from 2nd track which didn’t actually increase the Energy generated by the track per round. It was placed 2nd time on G2 turning that land into a Sacred Site.
As for the new card, they chose NATURE’S RESILIENCE a Fast one with Defense 6. Now that I think about it, The Eyes could have gained a lot of benefit had they chosen CALL OF THE DAHAN WAYS. Maybe next time.
The Eyes still had 2 Energy from previously. Gained 1 from track and 1 from Growth.
The Eyes got to play 2 cards. First one was BOON OF WATCHFUL GUARDING (Fast, 0) which was to protect G2 during ravaging. 2nd card was EERIE NOISES AND MOVING TREES (Slow, 2). In addition to generating 2 Fear, this card could push up to 2 Explorers or Towns.
The cards had 1 Moon and 2 Plants, enough to trigger the first threshold of their Innate Power.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes went first with their Innate Power, generating 1 Fear, 4th overall and setting up Defense 2. This was to Defend G4 from a Town and an Explorer from Ravaging.
Then with the Boon of Watchful Guarding on themselves, the put Defense 8 by paying 1 Energy at G2 against a City and a Town.
Sun Bright next with the Gift of Constancy, giving themselves 2 Energy. With Enticing Splendor on H6, gathered 1 Explorer from Forest H1, preventing it for doing Build action this turn and a chance to eliminate it with the 2 Dahan there.
INVADER PHASE
Still no Fear card yet. Ravaging happened at G2 by 1 City and 1 Town, defended by 8, countered by 2. Generating 5th Fear overall. Another happened on G4 by 1 Town and 1 Explorer, defended by. This was countered by 2 Dahan, eliminating them all, generating 6th Fear overall.
On Island H, ravaging happened at H6 wetlands by just 1 Explorer. No defense but countered by 2 Dahan. Also happened at H7 with a lot of invaders and nobody to defend it. 1 Blight was added there.
BUILD action only happened on Forest Island G. The 2 on Island H had no explorer. 1 Town was added to each G6 and G8.
The next EXPLORATION happened at all Mountain lands. 1 Explorer to each.
SLOW POWER PHASE
Sun Bright still had SCATTER TO THE WINDS slow power. This was activated on Mountain H4 just to get rid of the single explorer, preventing it from doing Build Action.
Their Innate Power was also triggered just 1 threshold pushing the other only invader on Mountain H3, to the Sand H2.
The Eyes, using Eerie Noises and Moving Trees, targeting G8, generating 2 Fears, getting 1st Fear card and pushed both Invaders to G7.
That was the end of Round 2. Sun Bright reclaimed Gift of Constancy. 1 Fear Card so far.
ROUND 3.
No Invaders on Island H Forest so no ravaging was about to happen. But the 2 Forest lands on Island G had 1 Explorer and 1 Town at G6, 2 Explorers and 2 Towns at G8.
Also no Build action for Island H but 1 Town was about to be added at G1. No invader at G8.
GROWTH PHASE
Sun Bright still with 3rd Growth option, getting 1 new card and placing 1 disc. The disc this time was from 1st track, increasing the Energy generated to 2 per turn. It was placed actually on Island G, the Mountain G1 which was 3 spaces away from H3. This pushed the single only Explorer there to G6, preventing the Build action later.
For the new cards there was only 1 Fast power but similar to Sun Bright starting card to deal 1 damage to different invaders. So, they chose a Slow one, PULL BENEATH THE HUNGRY EARTH with potential of 2 damage but only to Sand or Wetlands. Otherwise, only 1 damage and 1 fear on a land with the Spirit’s disc.
Sun Bright still had 4 Energy and gained 2 more from the track. They got to play 3 cards. One was the GIFT OF CONSTANCY still for 0 cost. 2nd one was TEMPEST OF LEAVES AND BRANCHES. 3rd was that new card, PULL BENEATH THE HUNGRY EARTH. This was probably just utilizing every leftover cards before reclaiming in next round.
The 3 cards didn’t have enough Air element to trigger even the first Innate Power. Paid total of 3 Energy for them.
The Eyes had to reclaim cards so went with the 1st Growth Option. Getting 1 new card and 1 Energy plus 1 from the track.
The new cards they took was VISIONS OF FIERY DOOM, a fast power with the cost of 1 Energy. This generates 1 Fear plus 1 more with 2 Fire and push 1 Explorer or Town.
With 1 leftover Energy plus 2 this round, The Eyes got to play 2 cards, the Nature’s Resilience and Visions of Fiery Doom for 2 Energy. These didn’t have enough element to trigger any innate power.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes started with Nature’s Resilience on G7, setting up Defend 6 against 2 Towns and 2 Explorers. The 2 Dahans were expected to eliminated both Towns.
On the same land, Visions of Fiery Doom was activated, generating 1 Fear, after 1st Fear Card and pushed 1 of the Explorer to the Wetland G4.
Sun Bright, using Gift of Constancy gave The Eyes 2 Energy. Then with the Tempest of Leaves and Branches, targeting H7, dealt 1 damage each to up to 5 different invaders. This destroyed 4 explorers and 1st hit of 1 Town.
***** This was where I got it wrong again. This power was only possible 1 space from a Sacred Site. The only Sacred site at the moment was 2 spaces away.
INVADER PHASE
1st Fear Card: AVOID THE DAHAN. Skip exploration on a land with at least 2 Dahan.
First ravaging was at G8, 5 damages, defended with 6, countered by 2 Dahan, destroying the 2 Towns, generating 2 Fears. 2nd Ravage happened at Forest G6 and nobody was there to defend it so 1 Blight was added.
No invaders on any Mountain land so no Build action. However, the next Exploration happened on the Mountain lands again, 1 explorer for each land. Unfortunately the Fear card did nothing this time.
Island G got 1 Town at G4 Wetlands and Island H at Sandland H2.
SLOW POWER PHASE
The only Slow power was Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth to deal 1 damage to a Town at Wetland H7. This was 2nd damage, destroying the Town, generating 1 Fear (INCORRECTLY).
The only possible fix was to apply both power cards to Sandland H2.
That was the end of Round 3. Both Spirits reclaimed 1 card, the Gift of Constancy itself and Visions of Fiery Doom.
ROUND 4.
Both Ravage and Build action were about to happen on Mountain Lands. All of them only had 1 invader but G1 and H3 had 1 Dahan to immediately eliminate them, preventing the Build afterwards.
GROWTH PHASE
Sun Bright had to reclaim cards so went with the 1st Growth option, while getting new cards plus 1 Energy.
They used this chance to get a Major Power, letting go Gift of Sunlit Air. The power card they took was WINDS OF RUST AND ATROPHY.
Sun Bright still had 3 leftover Energy plus 3 from this round. They got to play 3 cards, Gift of Constancy again, Enticing Splendor and that new card Winds of Rust and Atrophy for total of Energy.
The elements were only enough to trigger the first threshold.
The Eyes chose the 3rd Growth option, getting new card, placing disc and getting 1 Energy plus 2 from the track, after removing the disc from Energy track. The disc was placed at Mountain G8.
The new card they took was Minor Power, ENTRANCING APPARITIONS.
The Eyes still had 3 Energy left and gained 3 from this round for playing 2 cards. One was the BOON OF WATCHFUL GUARDING and the other was MYSTERIOUS ABDUCTING for the total cost of 1. These triggered only 1st threshold of the innate power.
FAST POWER PHASE
Sun Bright started with Enticing Splendor at Mountain H3, gathering the only explorer from Mountain H4, preventing it from doing Build action later.
With the Gift of Constancy, generating 2 Energy for themselves.
Then the last one, Wind of Rust and Atrophy, targeting the Sandland H2, downgrade the City into a Town, generating 1 Fear and set Defend 6. I guess this one could have applied to the Wetlands G8 in reverse of the incorrect play.
The Eyes with Mysterious Abduction, targeting Mountain G8, generating 1 Fear, dealing 1 damage to the only Explorer / Invader there, preventing it from adding Town.
Then with the Boon of Watchful Guarding, the Eyes gave it to the Sun Bright to set Defense 4 to H3.
With the 1st threshold of Innate Power, targeting Mountain G1, generated 1 Fear and set Defense 2.
INVADER PHASE
7 Fear from 1st Fear card.
1st Ravage happened at G1 by 1 Explorer. Defended and countered, eliminating the Explorer. Nothing on G8 and H4. H3 had 2 Explorers, defended and countered by 1 Dahan, eliminating both explorers.
No invaders on any Mountain Lands so no Build Action. The next exploration happened on Forest lands, adding 1 explorer to each. As additional difficulty, 1 Town was added to each G1 and H3. Just realized now that on both ravage was about to happen next round.
SLOW POWER PHASE
Sun Bright first level of Innate Power pushed out the Invader from the Forest H5 to Wetlands H6.
That was the end of Round 4. 7 Fears since 1st Fear Card.
ROUND 5.
Ravaging by 1 Town was about to happen on each H3 and G1. Nothing on the other 2 Mountain lands. Build was about to happen on Forest lands. Nothing on H5, 1 Town was expected on H2 and G8, a new City at G6.
GROWTH PHASE
The Eyes chose 2nd growth option this time, placing 2 discs. One was to turn the Mountain G8 as Sacred Site while the other was at Forest G6. Both discs were taken from the 2nd track, allowing the Eyes to get permanent Air element and starting to play 3 cards in a round.
The Eyes still had 5 Energy plus 2 from this round to play 3 cards. First was the ROUSE THE TREES AND STONES (Slow, 1), 2nd was VISIONS OF FIERY DOOM (Fast, 1) and 3rd was ENTRANCING APPARITIONS (Fast, 1).
Sun Bright was back to the 3rd Growth option, getting new card and placing 1 disc. The disc was taken from the 2nd track. Either one would have gotten them a permanent Air element. However they needed to play more cards. The disc was placed at Forest H1, pushing out the only Explorer / Invader three to H2 Sandland.
For the new card, they took ELEMENTAL BOON to generate 3 elements of their choices, one each.
Sun Bright still had 5 Energy, gained 2 from this round to play 3 cards. One was Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth again, then the Gift of Wind-Sped Steps and the Tempest of Leaves and Branches for total cost of 4.
*** It seems I forgot to give them the 2 new energy but also forgot to spend.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes started with Visions of Fiery Doom at G6 Forest. Generating 2 Fear thanks to 2 Fire elements, pushed out the only Town there to G1. This triggered 2nd Fear Card plus 1 Fear after it.
Using the Entrancing Splendors and their 1st level Innate Power, set up total defense of 4 to G1 against the 2 Towns. Gained 1 Fear, 2nd from 2nd card.
Sun Bright using the Gift of Wind Sped Steps, changed their Innate Power from Slow to Fast, triggering to the 2nd threshold, targeting Mountain H3. This pushed out 1 Town to the Sandland, generating 1 Fear, 3rd after 2nd card.
The Sandland H2 had 3 Towns and 2 Explorers. Using the Tempest of Leaves and Branches, dealt 1 damage to each of those 5 invaders, eliminating the 2 explorers and 1st damage of each Town.
INVADER PHASE
2nd Fear Card: RETREAT! Each player may push up to 2 Explorers from an Inland land.
The Eyes chose G8 pushing out 2 Explorers to the Wetland G4. Sun Bright chose H6 to push out the only Explorer there to Sandland H2.
Ravage only happened at G1 by 2 Towns, defended and countered by 1 Dahan, eliminating 1, generating 1 Fear. Nothing on other Mountain lands.
Build action only added 1 Town to Forest G6. The rest had no Invaders.
The next exploration happened at Wetlands, adding 1 explorer each. As additional difficulty, added 1 Town to H3 and G8.
SLOW POWER PHASE
The Eyes with ROUSSE THE TREES AND STONES, dealt 2 damage to a Town at G4, generating 1 Fear. It seems I forgot to push out 1 explorer.
Sun Bright with Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth eliminated 1 Town from Sandland H2, generating 1 Fear.
That was the end of Round 5, 6 Fear since 2nd Card.
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ROUND 6.
The only ravage that was about to happen was at G6 by 1 Town and 3 Explorers. 1 Town was about to be added by Build action on each Wetlands.
GROWTH PHASE
The Eyes had to reclaim again so went with 1st Growth Option while getting new card and 1 Energy. This time they chose Major Power, letting go Whispered Guidance Through the Night. The Major Power was INDOMINTABLE CLAIM.
The Eyes still had 4 Energy, plus 3 from this round to play 3 cards. One was the Mysterious Abduction, then the Nature’s Resilience and the last one was Eerie Noses and Moving Trees for total cost of 4 Energy.
These triggered the 2nd level of the Innate Power.
Sun Bright was back with option 3 Growth, getting new card and placing 1 disc. The disc was from 2nd track, allowing them to start playing 4 cards. Placing the disc at Wetlands H6, turning it into Sacred Site.
With 4 Energy, Sun Bright got to play 4 cards. One was the Gift of Constancy, Elemental Boon, Call to Isolation and the last was Scatter to Winds with the total cost of 2 Energy.
These at least triggered 2nd threshold of the Innate Power.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes started with Nature’s Resilience at G6 Forest, set up the Defend 6. Then with the Mysterious Abductions, generated 1 Fear and dealt 1 damage, eliminating 1 Explorers from G2. Still on G2, generated 1 Fear and Defend 4 against the City.
Sun Bright using Call to Isolation at H3, pushed out 1 Town to Sandland H2. Giving The Eyes 2 Energy using the Gift of Constancy.
The Elemental Moon added the 4th Air element for the Sun Bright’s Innate Power.
INVADER PHASE
3rd Fear card, plus 2 Fear: EMIGRATION ACCELERATES. Each player removes 1 Explorer or 1 Town from a Coastal Land.
The Eyes removed 1 Town from G1 Mountain while Sun Bright removed 1 Town from Sandland H2.
Ravage happened at G6 by 3 Explorers and 1 Town. Defended with 6, countered by 1 Dahan, destroying the Town for 1 Fear. Build action added 1 Town to all Wetlands except for H6.
The next exploration happened at Coastal Lands, adding 1 Explorer to each.
SLOW POWER PHASE
The Eyes with Eerie Noises and Moving Trees, targeting G4. This generated 2 Fear and pushed out 1 Explorer and 1 Town to G2 Wetlands.
Sun Bright with their Innate Power up to 3rd threshold, targeting H2, pushed out 2 Towns and 1 Explorer to H3, dealing 3 damages, generating 1 Fear from destroyed town. Then using the Scatter to the Winds on H3 with 1 explorer and 1 Town, pushed them out. The Town went back to Sandland H2 while the Explorer to Wetland G4.
That was the end of Round 6. Gift of Constancy allowed both to reclaim 1 card.
5 Fears since the 3rd Card.
ROUND 7.
Ravages on every Wetlands except for H6. H7 with 7 damage and already had a Blight. G2 with 9 damage and G4 with 4 damage. For Build action, 1 Town was expected to be added at H2, G3, G1 and 1 City at H2 and G2.
GROWTH PHASE
Sun Bright had to reclaim again with 1st option, while getting new card and 1 Energy. For the new card, they picked Major Power, trading Call to Isolation with Vigor of Breaking Dawn.
With 8 Energy, played 4 cards, Enticing Splendor, Gift of Wind Sped Steps, Vigor of Breaking Dawn and Winds of Rust and Atrophy for 8. These also triggered up to the 3rd level of Innate Power.
The Eyes with 3rd option, getting new card and energy plus placing a disc, took ENCOMPASSING WARD to give Defense 2 to all lands of targeted Spirit.
Removing the disc gave permanent Air element and it was placed at G4. Played 3 cards, Entrancing Apparitions, Encompassing Ward and The Boon of Watchful Guarding for 3 Energy. These only triggered 1st level of te Innate Power.
FAST POWER PHASE
Sun Bright with the Wind Sped steps turned their Innate power to fast, targeting the G2 island of the Eye with 3 levels of Innate Power. This pushed 1 Town and 2 explorers from G2 to G4, dealing 3 damage, destroying 1 Town and 1 Explorer. Gained 2 Fear total.
With Winds of Rust and Atrophy, set defense 6 at H7 Wetlands, while downgrading the City to a Town. At H6 using Vigor of the Breaking Dawn plus 3 Suns and 2 Claws, pushed out 2 Dahan to H7 dealing 4 damages, destroying 2 Towns, generating 2 Fears.
Using Enticing Splendor, at H8, gathered 1 explorer from Wetlands H7.
The Eyes with the Boon of Watchful Guarding at G2, setup Defense 8 by paying 1 Energy against total damage of 5. Also setting up defense 4 at G4, using the other 2 cards.
INVADER PHASE
4th Fear card: BELIEF TAKES ROOT. Land with a disc have Defend 2 and each Spirit gains 1 Energy per Sacred Site with invaders.
The Eyes gained 2 Energy. ***** I got it wrong for the Sun Bright as they didn’t have any land with both 2 discs and invaders.
Ravages happened at G2 by a City and a Town. Defended and countered by 2 Dahan, destroying the City for 2 Fears. Similar things happened at G4 by 5 explorers. Defended and countered by 2 Dahan, removing 4 of them.
Also at H7 by 1 explorer and countered by 2 Dahan.
Build on Coastal Lands. 1 Town was added to each G1, G3 and H1. While H2 and G2 got 1 City.
The next exploration, 1st Phase 3 was at Mountain and Wetlands. Almost every land gained 1 explorer except the H7.
SLOW POWER PHASE
No Slow Power this time. 3 Fears so far after the 4th Fear Card.
ROUND 8.
Next Ravage action had potential damage of 4 at G1, 6 at G2, 3 at G3, 3 and H1, 6 and H2 and 1 at H3. Next Build action would have added 1 Town to H3, H4 and H6 and G4 and a City at G1 and G2.
GROWTH PHASE
1st option for The Eyes. Getting a Savage Mawbeast Minor Power while reclaiming cards and getting energy. Played Encompassing Ward, that new card and Indomitable Beast for the total cost of 5 Energy.
Sun Bright took 3rd option, getting new card and placed a disc from first track, getting them permanent Sun element. The disc was placed at Forest H2. They got new Major Power: TALONS OF LIGHTNING, trading it with Tempest of leaves and Branches.
Played 4 cards, Gift of Constancy, Elemental Boon, Scatter to the Winds, and Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth for total of 3 Energy. These only triggered up to 2nd Level Innate Power.
FAST POWER PHASE
The Eyes started with indomitable Claim, placing 3rd disc on G2, while setting up Defense 20 while dragging 1 more Dahan from G4, making it 3.
Then with Encompassing Ward, added Defense 2 on all Lands of this Spirit.
Sun Bright gave themselves 2 Energy with Gift of Constancy.
**** Another error. Using Elemental Boon I triggered the 2nd level of Innate power which should have been during Slow Power, getting 1 Fear and pushed out the 2 explorers from G1.
INVADER PHASE
No Fear card this round.
Ravage at G1 by 1 town was defended and countered by 1 Dahan. Gained 1 Fear. **** This should not have happened. Instead, this would have destroyed the Dahan and 1 disc from Sun bright.
Ravage at G2 by a City, a Town and 1 explorer were defended with 20, countered by 3 Dahan. Every Invader was eliminated, generating 3 Fears.
Ravage at H2 but nothing to defend it so 1 Blight was added. At H1 1 Sun Bright disc was destroyed along with the Dahan by 1 Town, adding 1 Blight there as well.
Build action added 1 town to H4, H6 and G4. The next exploration happened at Forest and Wetlands, 1 explorer added each.
SLOW POWER PHASE
The Eyes with Savage Mawbeast generated 1 Fear on Forest G6 and 1 damage to the explorer.
Sun Bright with Pull Beneath the Hungry Earth targeting H6 Wetlands, dealt 2 damage and generated 1 Fear. Using Scatter to the winds to Forest H1, pushed out 2 invaders, the explorer to H8 and the Town to H2.
That was the end of Round 8. 4 Fears left before the TERROR LEVEL went up. 2 Cities left, one at G8 and the other at H2.
ROUND 9.
Sun bright did the reclaim option. Played Elemental Boon, Winds of Rust and Atrophy, Enticing Splendor and Gift of Wind Sped Steps. These were enough to trigger the 4th level innate power while turning it to Fast Power. Gained 1 Fear from it and 1 Fear from Winds of Rust and Atrophy.
From the Sacred Site at H3, targeting G8, 3 spaces away, downgrade the City to a Town. Using the Innate Power, targeting the H2 with the last City, dealt 4 damage and destroyed the last city getting 2 last Fears needed to level up the Terror Level.
The Spirits have won. With a lot of errors…
Playing time was about 4 hours.
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Circle the Wagons
Watch the Slideshow of this Circle the Wagons game session here.
Expand different types of terrains in your territory or score the bonus from the middle to build the best boomtown in the west in Circle the Wagons.
Played this twice, 2-handed. First one had ONE TOO MANY, GOLD COUNTRY AND RIFLES READY bonus cards. Trying not to get too many bottles of beers, place mines next to or on mountains and placing a fort adjacent to gun.
First player started with 3 mines on a single card. Two of them were already adjacent to mountains. 2nd player then took the next card in clockwise that had 3 wagons plus a fort.
The next card after that had 3 cows and a bottle so 1st player skipped it. Instead, they took the one after that with a cow, a gun, a fort and a mine. Instant 2 points with a gun next to the fort. Rotated the card 180 and placed it on the right to the first card so the mine icon of the new card was adjacent to mountain for 2 points.
2nd player got to take the skipped card. The card was placed above the first one which expanded the 2 territories, desert and forest by one. 2nd player got to go again and picked the next card with a mine, a gun, another bottle and a wagon.
This was placed on the left of first card with the correct orientation. By doing so, it expanded the water territory by 3 while placing a gun next to the existing fort.
1st player of course took the next card. It had a mine on mountain and a fort. The card was rotated 180 and placed above the 2 previous cards without overlapping. By doing so, this at least expanded the Mountain territory by 3. The fort should have been next to a gun to secure 2 points but by placing diagonally adjacent to another fort, it prepared to scored 2 sets, hoping to place a gun in that corner.
The next card after that had 1 Fort, 2 Wagons diagonally and a beer bottle. They could have placed the card below the existing so that the fort was next to a gun. While doing so, preparing the 2 Mountain territories to be connected. However, the card was rotated to complete the 2 x 2 grid so that it expanded the desert territory while the Wagon on Mountain was next to a Mine.
1st player skipped the next card and took the one after with a gun. The gun was also next to a fort. So, this Gun was placed between 2 existing forts plus 1 on that card, securing 6 points. At the same time they got 3 desert adjacent spaces.
2nd player got to take the skipped card with 3 wheat areas consisting a mine, a cow and a fort plus a beer. From the 2 x 2, the top 2 left section of that group were overlapped by the new card so that the mine of the new card was adjacent to a mountain, securing 2 points. This also covered a bottle but added a new one. The 3 wheat spaces were close to a single one on the right ready to be connected.
2nd player got to go again. I guess I didn’t plan well for these 2 cards. The next card that I took had a bottle, 2 cows and a gun. The Gun was on Wheat. Rotated the card 180 and placed it at the top right corner so the gun was next to a fort and expanded the Wheat spaces. The cow on forest was also expanded the forest. They could connect the 2 greens or the 2 groups of yellow.
1st player skipped the next card again with 2 guns and a mine. They instead, picked the card with 3 Forts since more forts means higher score but not necessarily more guns. With that orientation the card was placed at the bottom right corner. This expanded the Snow territory and the Fort on that territory was next to a gun. The other fort on Mountain would not have scored anything but the other one on the desert was ready for more guns.
2nd Player then took the skipped card. By rotating the card, it was perfect for them to expand the wheat spaces while placing a mine next to a mountain space.
3 cards left and 2nd player got to go again, taking the next available one. The card had a gun, 2 mines and a fort with fort and gun were not adjacent to each other. They placed the card at the bottom so that the Gun on the Water expanded the territory while the Mine was next to a Mountain.
2 cards left and the last one had 2 beers and a Mine so not a good idea for player to take it. So, no need to skip, just took the next one with 2 forts. While there were a lot of choices, the player only got to score one set, either the mine or the gun with fort. They chose the mine next to the card wagon on mountain while expanding the water spaces with a fort.
For the last card, now that I think about it, maybe the best use of this card was to connect the 2 group of yellows with another yellow on the new card and got 2 extra points. Instead they actually tried to reduce the number of bottles which was useless anyway by covering one and expanded the Green by 1 point only.
1st Player Scoring
Gold Country: 10 points
Rifles Ready: 8 points
One too Many: 0 point
Mountain: 3 points
Desert: 3 points
Snow: 4 points
Water: 2 Points
Wheat: 1 point
Forest: 0 point
TOTAL SCORE: 31 POINTS
2nd Player Scoring
Gold Country: 10 points
Rifles Ready: 4 points
One too Many: -1 point
Mountain: 1 point
Desert: 3 points
Snow: 1 point
Water: 5 Points
Wheat: 5 point
Forest: 3 point
TOTAL SCORE: 31 POINTS
Both were tied but 2nd player went 2nd and the possible 33 points. Playing time was about 22 minutes.
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2nd session had CLAIM JUMPERS, WAGON TRAIN and BADLANDS. Claim Jumpers was worth 9 points for having the most mines but forfeits 5 to the opponent if the opponent has more guns. Wagon trains gives higher score for the line of wagons, even the intersection. With Badlands, 4 points for placing a gun between 2 desert spaces.
1st player started with the 3 wagons. 2nd Player took the next one with a gun and a mine on 3 snow spaces.
Next card had no Wagon but a gun with 2 mines. 1st Player skipped it to get the next one with 3 mines and a gun. This was placed below the first card so it expanded 2 territories, a Mountain and the Water space. 3 mines and 1 gun.
2nd player took the skipped card, rotated it and place half of it on the right of the initial card. This expanded the Snow spaces by 1. 3 mines and 2 guns.
2nd player got to go again and took the next one with 1 gun and 3 forest spaces. This was rotated and placed on the right of the existing, expanding the forest size by 3. 3 mines and 3 guns.
1st player again and took the next card with a wagon, a mine with 3 Mountain spaces. The card was rotated and placed it so the Wagon extended the lines to size 3 while expanding the Mountain territory by 3.
The next card for 2nd player had a gun and a wagon with 3 desert spaces. The gun itself was next to and on Desert so just needed 1 more desert to get those 4 points. The card was placed at the bottom right so that the Wagon was adjacent to existing Wagon. 3 mines and 4 guns.
Next card had no wagon but after that had 1 so 1st player took the latter. The wagon itself was on Mountain and the card was place on the top right. This extended the Wagon horizontal line to size 4 while expanding the Mountain space by 1. 4 mines and 1 gun.
2nd player took the skipped card which had a mine on a green, another green and a desert. They used this chance so that the existing gun was between 2 desert spaces. While doing so, extending the desert spaces itself and the Forest space by 1. 4 mines and 4 guns.
2nd player got to go again, taking the next available card. This had 2 guns and a mine. This was placed on the bottom right of their 1st card. By doing so, extending the Snow spaces by 1 to 5 and Water spaces to 2. While a new gun was next to a desert, there was no chance to add another desert in the opposite side. 4 mines and 5 guns.
1st player again and the next card was great with a wagon, a gun and a mine. Rotated the card 180 and the Wagon extended the horizontal existing line to the left while expanding the water spaces by 3.
2nd player took the next card with a gun and nothing else related to the bonus cards. Rotated the card and placed it at the top right corner. This expanded and connected the green space after covering a bottle on yellow space. Now it had a couple of separated yellows, possible to be connected later.
3 cards left. 1st player skipped the next one since it had nothing related to the bonus. The card after that had 1 Mine and 3 guns. For the last one, it had a wagon and 3 forts.
They needed the mine to win the battle. While they had to forfeit for losing the number of guns, this also allowed them to place a gun between 2 deserts for 4 points. So that was their last turn since the 2 leftovers belonged to the opponent.
2nd player took the skipped first. The player knew they have lost the battle to have the most mines. So, they rotated the card and covered one mine in order to connect the 2 groups of water, for 2 points while losing 1 for making the green spaces smaller.
The last one had 1 Wagon and they managed to extend the wagon line to size 3. That was the end of this session.
1st Player Scoring
Claim Jumpers: 4 points
Wagon Trains: 13 points
Badlands: 4 points
Water space: 5 points
Desert: 1 point
Forest: 1 point
Snow: 1 point
Mountain: 5 points
Wheat: 1 point
TOTAL SCORE: 35 POINTS
2nd Player Scoring
Claim Jumpers: 5 points
Wagon Trains: 3 points
Badlands: 4 points
Water space: 4 points
Desert: 4 points
Forest: 6 point
Snow: 5 points
Mountain: 1 point
Wheat: 1 point
TOTAL SCORE: 33 POINTS
Playing time was about 14 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Circle the Wagons Review.
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Castellion
Watch the Slideshow of this Castellion game session here.
Defend the castle of the Oniverse by assembling the Denizens as Defense Lines in Castellion.
I actually got 2 sessions and the first one ended very shortly in a couple of minutes. Then I played a 2nd time, probably a bit cheating when drawing those tiles.
Well, here is how it went.
With a good amount of luck for the first 7 draws from the main pile, I got 3 Browns at the 1st column, from bottom to top, a circle, a triangle and a square. 2nd column had a blue circle. Then 3 green horizontally, from left to right, a triangle, a square and a circle.
Next tile was another brown with triangle shape so I could have placed it on top of the existing, creating a tower. So, the first Ordeal card was revealed. Unless I had 2 Bastion (2×2) shapes, I had to suffer losing 16 tiles while having foundation to survive.
After that, the next 2 tiles were browns. A circle which I placed on top of Green square and a Brown square on the left to it. These 2 were from the Safe pile.
The next one got me a Blue square which I discarded to use the ability and revealed 4 tiles, a traitor, 2 Red and 1 Blue. With that traitor, I planned to let it remove some tiles. I placed the 2 reds anywhere because I wanted them to be removed along with the 2 most recent browns. So that was what I did.
With the last one, the Blue circle, I placed it at the rightmost row 1 to complete the foundation. From here, I tried to pick from safe piles again and I got 2 Red and 1 Green. The Green was triangle and I placed it above the Blue on the rightmost space, hoping to switch it later with a red.
The red triangle was placed above Green square and a red square was placed on row 2 between red triangle and Green triangle. After that, still from safe pile, a Blue circle which I used to activate the ability again to reveal 4 tiles. All of these were from regular pile and I got a Blue, a Green, a Red and a Traitor with border. So, that was one closer to activate the Ordeal.
The Blue triangle went to 2nd row, 2nd column above existing blue while the red circle was placed next to that blue above green triangle, completing a 2nd row. The Green circle filled 3rd row in the middle above that red triangle from safe pile.
Next one from regular pile was another Red which I used to switch between the blue and green from the rightmost column, completing the line of 4 with green. Back to the safe pile and I got a Green Square so I switched it with Red Square. I placed it on 3rd row, rightmost.
Then I got another Red which was triangle and I used to switch the recent red and blue from the rightmost column. I got a Blue triangle again. Unfortunately, I couldn’t place it on 3rd row above existing blue triangle so I used it to reveal 4 tiles.
2 green triangles, blue circle and blue square. Those 2 Blues were perfect to complete the 2nd Tower revealing the 2nd Ordeal. With that Ordeal, I needed to have 3 Bastions to survive or suffer 32 tiles. So, I needed to start making those bastions.
The 4 columns on the left had a line of 4 greens on 1st row and a line of 4 reds on the 2nd. The 3rd started to have 2 greens. So my plan was to make those 4 columns into 2 bastions by dividing the red with the bastions not at the same row.
I used the last of 4 Green triangle to get Red triangle to switch those placements. Back to safe pile again and luckily another green that I could have switched with a red to swap position again. I got 1st Bastion of greens.
Oh, before that from safe pile was a Brown triangle. I placed it on top of Blue Tower, preparing to turn these 2 leftmost towers into bastion as well.
Still from safe pile was a blue to reveal 4 regular tiles. 2 browns, a red and a blue. One brown was placed above the Brown tower. Then using the Red, I swapped the position from the middle of both tower between the Brown and the Blue. Just needed 1 more swap to get 2nd bastion.
The other triangle brown from 4 was placed above the Green bastion on the right, 4th row. So, the last of revealed blue was to reveal 4 more tiles which I got Green, Brown and 2 Blues.
I used the Green to get a Red to swap the position of from the 2 Towers. This way I got my 2nd Bastion, ready for the 1st Ordeal. The Brown was placed on top of the most recent brown, 5th row.
2 more revealed blues, both had triangle. So I could only place one of them above the Brown Bastion. This was just to remove it when another Traitor came. I used the last Blue to reveal 4 again.
A traitor, a blue, a red and a Brown. Well, I had 2 Bastion so I let that traitor triggered the 1st Ordeal. The castle survived.
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The red then was to swap position from the bottom of 2 towers. One more and I got my 3rd Bastion. I couldn’t place the Brown square without ruining anything so I had to use the Blue circle first on rightmost, 3rd row above Red Square. Then the Brown was on top of it. Not sure what to use them at that time.
Next, I drew a Green which I used to get a blue to reveal 4 more tiles. I got a Blue, 2 Browns and a Green. One of the Brown was triangle, which I placed 3rd row, 2nd from the right between 2 circles and 1 square. Above that I placed the Brown with Circle. So the last revealed, a green was used to get a red to swap position between a blue and brown from rightmost space on top.
Next tile was another Blue so I used it to reveal 4 again. 2 Traitors, a blue and a red. I let one traitor made progression to trigger the 2nd Ordeal. But the 2nd one was to remove 4 tiles. 2 Browns from the previous 2 towers, a blue from top of those tower and a Brown from 4th column. After the towers fell down, I got a new Bastion from it, ready for the 2nd Ordeal.
So, a red and a blue. The red was to swap position of blue and brown from the top right corner. This was close to be another Bastion. Not really necessary.
The last revealed, a blue, reveal 4 more tiles. A traitor with a border, 2 browns and a red. I let that traitor trigger the 2nd Ordeal. The Castle survived with 3 Bastions.
This was the point I altered my play. Otherwise I made illegal move.
First, I used the red to finally create a Bastion at the top right corner by swapping the position of Blue and Brown. However, I wanted to turn this bastion into a tower to know the last Ordeal.
I had 2 more Brown. One was discarded to remove one of the brown from that bastion and moved the other bottom part to the top of the new tower. Then using the last brown, I got a tower, revealing the 3rd Ordeal.
It was an Earthworm, ready to remove the first 3 rows from the bottom. To avoid that, I just needed 3 more tiles to completely fill the 3rd and 4th row. No matter what color that was. One had to be a square and the other 2 preferably not a triangle or square.
So, next one I drew a Brown square which was perfect for the 4th row, 3rd space. Then I got Green triangle which was useless but I placed it leftmost space. After that I got another triangle brown which I used for the ability. I destroyed the top of the recent tower to move the recent green triangle to fill the 3rd row. All I needed was 1 more tile just not a triangle.
Unfortunately, we’ll never know. The next one was a Traitor, about to trigger the ordeal. During the game I was already prepared so I just assumed to trigger it. If the next one got me 1 right tile, I won.
Playing time was about 26 minutes.
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Wingspan Asia
Watch the Slideshow of this Wingspan Asia game session here.
Explore the continent of Asia to find the best bird while making sure to claim the best location to return them to in Wingspan Asia.
This was my 2nd play of this standalone game and my first introduction to the solo mode. I’m still not sure whether I got all the rules. Already noticed one mistake during the game which was navigating the Duet Mode board. Now that I think about it, maybe I still made mistake even after realizing that and tried to fix it for the rest of the game.
Initially, I thought I only need to look at the icon next to the current ROUND and only that icon to determine the starting position, the type of icons and the habitat type. Apparently, that is not the case.
Each part is determined by its own symbol next to each section. After realizing this, I still made a mistake. I still used the symbol next to the current ROUND to determine the starting corner, instead of the icon next to that section.
On one hand, it doesn’t feel wrong at first. This also only affects the opponent when they are taking face up or face down card and have to put a token on the duet board. So, it doesn’t always happen.
Maybe it is the design of the automa card that made me think like that? My reasoning was that the 2 tracker cards already indicates which round player is currently in. But then the automa card itself has 4 sections and each section mention the round as well. So, I thought the single symbol next to the ROUND of that number represents everything in navigating the board.
I don’t know which part made me realized that mistake during the game. Maybe the icon that says ACTIVATE THE PINK POWER. The thing is that in this specific session, I didn’t do anything that let the opponent cache at all. Maybe it was a mistake but I don’t remember adding a bird that give them something or let me take something from them.
There was one white power early in the game, but even if I played correctly, it doesn’t seem to trigger anything. Of course, I could be wrong with these.
It took about 40 minutes just for the 1st round because of learning this solo mode and the overall rule since this was my 2nd time. Even then I still got it wrong. Does it affect the game? I honestly don’t know. If yes, probably about the area majority aspect of the Duet Board. With that incorrect play, I won with 11 points from that while the opponent got only 4 adjacent tokens. The end of the round bonus was a different story though.
Anyway, here is how I tried to revisit that session.
ROUND 1, TURN 1.
As part of the setup, I chose FOREST RANGER bonus, green, red and yellow food plus 2 bird cards, White Browed Tit Warbler and Rose Ringed Parakeet. Those foods were the exact requirement for those birds.
So, as my first turn, I played bird, the Warbler, spending Green and Yellow foods to play it at 1st row, first space. I got to place a token on Duet Board and I claimed 2nd space from the left of the 2nd row from the top. This allowed me to get another food bonus. I think I took a grey or rat food as the bonus since it was the only one from Bird Feeder.
The opponent got Play Bird action, taking Mandarin Duck from the face up cards. Since I played with the Avid Asian Avian Admirer, that was the only one scored 3 or lower.
They got to place a token. According to the card, I was supposed to find a location in Green habitat, with either face orientation or span size, starting from the bottom left corner to navigate. I got it wrong but only for the habitat.
ROUND 1, TURN 2.
I played a bird again, the Parakeet. Spent the red food and placed it in the 2nd row of player board, 1st space. I placed the token on duet board that shows egg bonus with size below 50 as requirement. The Parakeet was 45 so I could claimed that space and got an egg. I placed it on my first bird card, 1st row, 1st column.
This Parakeet had a White power, allowing me to use the white ability of the opponent’s. The way it should work is I had to pick the ability from face up cards. I didn’t realize this at the moment during the game but even if I did, there was none from the face up card.
The opponent next card was taking face down card while removing all 3 face up cards. This also allowed them to place a token on duet board. Had I played correctly, I should start from the top right in blue habitat, looking for space with either size or face orientation.
That should got them a middle section instead somewhere the bottom row. So, I can see now that it could help the opponent significantly. Placing in the middle makes it easier to connect with later tokens.
ROUND 1, TURN 3.
My 3rd action was taking a bird card since I didn’t have any. I think it was from face up and I got LITTLE GREBE. This works in the 3rd row and since I already had the first 2 rows, I thought I needed one for the 3rd. The value was 4 points and it required 2 green and 1 blue food.
The opponent this turn only took 1 Egg.
ROUND 1, TURN 4.
My 4th action was taking foods. I got 1 from triggering that action and another one from the Warbler bird. From that I got 1 Green and 1 Blue. Not enough to feed that bird card.
The opponent took another Egg.
ROUND 1, TURN 5.
5th action was taking food again, still with those same effects so I got 1 Red and 1 Green. Now I had enough.
The opponent took 3rd Egg.
ROUND 1, TURN 6.
Finally played that bird on 3rd row, spending 2 green and 1 blue. I got to place the token on duet board and I chose the one with the card bonus, 3rd row from top, 4th space from the left. I fed the bird with fish so I could claim that spot.
As bonus I got BLACK NAPED ORIOLE worth 5 VP that I could place at the 1st row. Food requirement was 2 reds and 1 green. I had none of those.
The opponent removed a Yellow food from bird feeder.
ROUND 1, TURN 7.
I gained food again. Since there was only 1 die left, I rerolled all 5 of them. I got to take 2 foods and took 1 Blue and 1 Green. Not enough.
The opponent took face down card, worth 3 points using the easiest difficulty while removing all 3 face up cards. They got to place another token. Had I played correctly this would have claimed the location that would cut off my group and it was very close to the previous one.
Since I played incorrectly, the opponent took another one at the border, at the top.
ROUND 1, TURN 8.
I took another card and got SCALY BREASTED MUNIA that I could place in either 2nd or 3rd row from face up cards. There was a chance the opponent would just remove them.
I was right. The opponent played face up cards. This time they got to take 2 cards, kept 1 and removed the other. Scored 1 VP as the highest. Had I not taken that bird card, they would have taken it and gained 2 VP. For this card, the token placement result was the same between my wrong play and the correct one, luckily.
That was the end of the round. I won the bonus but mostly because I played incorrectly. The winner was the one with most tokens not on the edge. The opponent had 3 out of 4 that I placed incorrectly on the edge while I had only 3 all of them in the middle.
ROUND 2, TURN 1.
My first action was taking a bird card again and took SRI LANKA BLUE MAGPIE. I thought with 9 VP it could helped me score higher with the Bonus card to get ascending or descending value on row 1.
That was a smart move since the opponent took face down card and removed the 3 face up cards. This time, with the correct rule, the opponent should have placed the token at the bottom row, yellow habitat, 2nd to last space with nest type. Instead I let it claimed somewhere in the middle. Even that was wrong according to my interpretation.
ROUND 2, TURN 2.
After they refreshed the bird cards, it seems there was a good one again so I spent 2nd action just taking another bird card which was YELLOW BITTERN. This had a value of 0, only worked in the blue habitat. I think the reason I took it was because it allowed me to take a card from the middle slot from face up cards.
The opponent played another bird. They took BAYA WEAVER, worth 3 VP. The other 2 had higher value than the easiest threshold. With this action, the opponent should have placed a token. Apparently using either correct or incorrect rule, they couldn’t find a matching space from the blue habitat. I was lucky then.
ROUND 2, TURN 3.
I played the Yellow Bittern, as 2nd card in 3rd row. Spent 1 Greenplus 1 egg, and claimed the middle spot, 4th row from the top and 3rd from the left. Maybe the opponent would have taken this spot previously with the correct rule. There was alternative though.
The opponent this time only removed one food and it was a green food.
ROUND 2, TURN 4.
No more egg to play more birds so I chose that action. Got 2 eggs no additional power was triggered. One was placed on bird at first row and column and the 2nd one was on 3rd row, first bird.
The opponent also took 2 eggs this round, 4th and 5th for them.
ROUND 2, TURN 5.
Needed food again so I took 2, a red and a green. I needed yellow but there was none.
The opponent took face down card worth 3 points, while removing the 3 face up cards. With the correct rule, the opponent was supposed to place their token on the occupied space or not at all. But with my wrong way, they got 1 on the edge.
ROUND 2, TURN 6.
Another attempt to get more food and it was probably the last one so I rerolled. I got 2, a red and a yellow.
The opponent took face down cards again. They got to place token again and with the correct way, they almost blocked the connection of my 2 groups. My incorrect play placed that token almost at the bottom right corner. The difference was actually only the habitat choice.
ROUND 2, TURN 7.
As last action this turn, I played BLACK NAPED ORIILE as 2nd of 1st row. Spent 2 Red and 1 Green food plus 1 Egg. For the token placement on duet board, I actually cut off the potential connection for the opponent while increasing my group of adjacent tokens.
The opponent removed 1 food which was a Red from bird feeder. That was after rerolling since the last 3 had only 1 type which was green.
That was the 2nd round. The bird I just played had teal ability that allowed me to take one food which was Green, lay 1 egg and take 1 face down card. I got COMMON SANDPIPER.
For the bonus goal, I won with 3 occupied spaces showing food. The opponent only had 2. Not sure if with correct rule they got more.
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ROUND 3, TURN 1.
I played bird again for the 2nd of 2nd row. It was the SCALY BREASTED MUNIA. It required a yellow and a red, worth 2 points. I could have claimed a space with yellow food on yellow habitat, blocking the opponent connections with an egg bonus. Instead, I claimed the one with the size less than 50 and this bird was 22.
The opponent took face down cards again, removing the face up. Actually with the correct rule, this time they should have placed their token on 2nd row from the top, first from the left, so almost on the edge with no potential connection.
My incorrect play actually placed it in lower row, 3rd from bottom, still 1st from the left but closer to where the other tokens already were.
ROUND 3, TURN 2.
I played a bird again. This time it was the COMMON SANDPIPER on blue habitat as the 3rd bird. It required either a green or a blue food. I claimed the spot with the matching nest. This allowed me to connect every token on the board. The current value was 7.
The opponent this time only removed 1 Fish food.
ROUND 3, TURN 3.
No more egg so I had to lay more. 3 eggs, 2 on the 1st row and one on the 3rd row. One for each bird starting from the left.
The opponent this time played a bird, taking all 3 face up cards. All of them had a value of 2. With the correct rule, this one claimed the bottom right most space.
Maybe this was when I started realizing that I got the navigating wrong. But I still got it wrong. However, it seems it was a better result because the placement connected the other 2 tokens and that was their biggest group at this point.
ROUND 3, TURN 4.
I still had 1 card left but I decided to draw again and got to take 5 cards thanks to 3 bird cards and their power. Unfortunately, none of them could be played on yellow habitat.
The opponent only removed Fish food this time.
ROUND 3, TURN 5.
I gained food this time and got 3, a red, a green and a grey.
The opponent took 2 eggs, probably their 6th and 7th.
ROUND 3, TURN 6.
As the last action this round, I played PHILIPPINE EAGLE as 3rd of 1st row. In addition to 1 Egg, this required 2 grey food. I claimed the space that require the bird for facing left with a food bonus which got me another Yellow.
The opponent just took 3 eggs, so they had 10 now.
I had 2 birds with teal power. From previous first one I got 1 Red food, 1 egg and a Bird card which was EURASIAN EAGLE OWL. For the recent bird, I got to reroll all 5 food dice and reroll up to 2 times. I got 3 grey food so I got to take 2 bonus cards, kept one and discard the other. The one I took was WETLAND POPULATION MONITOR.
For end of the round goal, the winner was the one with most tokens on yellow habitat. I only got 2 and the opponent had 4 so they won this time.
ROUND 4, TURN 1.
Took food as 1st action this round. I got 2 Grey and 1 Yellow. I also discarded 1 card and got 2nd yellow food.
The opponent took 3 eggs, 13 total.
ROUND 4, TURN 2.
I played a bird, 4th on the 1st row. It was SATYR TRAGOPAN that required 1 yellow and 1 red in addition to 2 eggs. I had a couple of placement options for the token but to win the end of the round goal, I had to avoid getting more space with food. So, I chose the one with the size below 50. The bird was 26.
The opponent took 3 more eggs. 16 total.
ROUND 4, TURN 3.
I played bird again, to the yellow habitat, 3rd one. It was the EURASIAN EAGLE OWL that required 2 grey foods. Unfortunately, I had to take space with grey food on yellow habitat.
The opponent played a bird, taking 2 cards, keeping the highest. Both had a value of 2. For this, the placement was the same whether using the right rule or mine.
ROUND 4, TURN 4.
I had to lay eggs again. 3 were all placed separately on 3 birds of 1st row. 2 powers were activated. One got me 2nd card tucked under it and the other was push your luck, draw up to 3 cards with the total below 110. I think I got over 140 on the first card so got nothing to tuck under the bird.
The opponent played a bird again, got one worth 3 VP, a BLACK DRONGO. With either correct placement rule or mine, they found nothing that matches the navigation.
ROUND 4, TURN 5.
Last action, played last bird of 1st row. It was COPPERSMITH BARBET. The bird required a green and a red food in addition of 2 eggs.
It seems I already gave up trying to win the end of the round goal so I just placed the token to increase the group.
The opponent only removed fish food.
That was the end of the round. The opponent won the end of the round goal since I claimed more space with food.
From 2 teal powers, I only got 1 card, 1 egg and 1 food which was useless. Failed to roll 3 grey foods for more bonus cards.
SCORING
My Score
Birds: 38 points
Eggs: 2 points
Tucked Cards: 2 points
Cache: 0 point
Goal: 5 points
Duet Biggest group: 11 points
2 Bonus Cards: 9 points
TOTAL SCORE: 67 points
Opponent:
Duet Biggest group: 4 points
Eggs: 16 points
Cache: 0 point
Face up Cards: 14 points
Goal tiles: 9 points
Face Down Cards: 18 points
TOTAL SCORE: 62 POINTS
Playing time was about 117 minutes. That was the easiest difficulty and I probably lost with normal by 1 point. Not sure if the incorrect placement rule would have changed the score that much.
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Walking in Burano
Watch the Slideshow of this Walking in Burano game session here.
Redecorate your housing sections of Burano to attract Tourists and local people in Walking in Burano.
This was a solo play. Here is how the session went.
ROUND 1.
From these starting 4 columns, I could have taken either 2 orange, 1st and 2nd floor from one column or 2 yellows, top and middle floor from another column. Both of them were covered by plants, perfect for the tourist man. Taking one means letting the other go. From a different column, there was a orange roof with a chimney and a cat. Not exactly perfect for the 2 but I could have completed that color soon.
I thought about collecting stores and for that the yellow should have been the better choice. But then again, there were only 4 unique shops so I thought I could settle with that orange ground floor without one.
So, I took the 2 bottom floor cards from column 4. Now the Yellow middle was removed and it was no longer a good set. Got 2 coins and I decided to just build one floor first, the ground of that orange for cheaper price, just 1 coin.
4 coins left, 1 card in hand. I let go the Lady tourist who likes to see cats on a single house.
ROUND 2.
From these 4 columns, there were 2 shops, both were coffee shops. One was Pink from earlier and the new one was orange that I could no longer use. Like I said before, I could have taken the top orange with chimney but there were still time.
So, this turn I just took 1 pink coffee shop from the last column. Just one card, getting 2 coins.
I built only 1 still for 1 coin this pink shop on the right of my previous orange ground floor. If I aimed for the Police, the middle pink should have a streetlamp.
5 coins left, 1 card in hand. I let go one of the Tourist Boy who loves all different objects on a single house.
ROUND 3.
2 new shops appeared. A blue ice cream shop and a yellow fashion shop from the 2 leftmost columns. The 3rd one still had that orange top. That yellow fashion shop also had blue middle floor which could have been perfect for that blue shop later.
But that means, I had to take that 2 cards first before the blue or that would have separated the 2 cards. Either choice, the top orange would have stayed for one more turn.
So, I took the 2 cards, yellow shop and middle blue plus just 1 coin. I built only the yellow shop on the left of my orange ground floor for 1 coin.
5 coins left still, 2 cards in hand. I let go the curtain tailor lady.
ROUND 4.
Top orange on 4th column, blue ice cream shop on 3rd. 2nd column had top and middle red with ground green fashion shop. I already had a fashion shop so no need for that. 1st column had Blue pizza shop.
Taking either the top orange or the blue ice cream meant letting go the other. I thought that was only 1 top orange so far so maybe I could expect something later. So, either ice cream or the pizza shop for blue. Only one.
I just realized now that the pizza actually had 3 flower pots which could have worked well with the 2nd floor in my hand. I took the risk and picked that Ice cream shop instead.
So, I took 1 card plus 2 coins. I built 2 cards with 3 coins, the ground and middle blue on the right of my pink house. This point, I realized that I made a mistake with the blue. I actually still aimed for the police with streetlamps.
But with the orange lamp, and Blue middle floor without one, I should have planned it better. Something like expecting the yellow middle to have a lamp and placed it in on the right most. Then the Blue could have been placed on the left of the orange.
4 coins left and 1 card in hand. I let go the Policeman.
ROUND 5.
Nothing worked well from the 4th column. The 2 reds in the 3rd from earlier. Another pizza shop but with orange in the 3rd column. That same one also had middle yellow but with flowers while my ground floor already had plants. The leftmost column had top orange.
I could have taken only one color left. Since I probably needed to take 2 cards for now, I settled with the 2 reds from 3rd column.
Took 2 cards plus 1 coin. I built both immediately by paying 3 coins with a scaffolding card as the ground floor. Placed this new one on the leftmost. So, I had every column filled.
2 coins left and only 1 card left. While I had some flowers but they were separated on both ends. The middle actually had more plants close to each other. So, I let go the flower shop lady.
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ROUND 6.
Finally a red pizza shop showed up in first column. The middle pink was not great with closed window but it also had the top orange that I needed. For the rest, I either didn’t need them or already had cards for their specific section.
So, I took the shop first, just one card plus 2 coins. I built it immediately by paying 1 coin, completing the red house. The choice was either attracting the tourist woman for 5 points of flowers or the tourist boy for 6 points from 3 different objects. Obviously, I chose the latter.
3 coins left and 1 card in hand. I let go one of the Tourist guy who loves seeing plants on a single house.
ROUND 7.
Nothing good from 3rd and 4th column. 2nd still had that top orange. The 1st one had top yellow with a chimney and a cat while the middle and bottom I already had the card for those sections.
I thought the game was close to the end so maybe I should claim 2 cards this round. While the middle pink below the top orange was not great, I had to settle with it.
So, I took the top orange and the middle pink from 2nd column plus 1 coin. Immediately built both orange floors by paying 3 coins, completing the Orange house. The Tourist guy came and was amazed with the number of planted pots. 11 points actually, plus 2 from himself.
1 coin left and still 1 card in hand.
ROUND 8.
The top yellow with chimney and a cat on 3rd column. 2nd column had blue top and middle yellow but the yellow was not great with closed window. 1st column had nothing that I could have used.
So, I took the 2 cards from 2nd column, top blue and middle yellow plus 1 coin. I built the top blue only by paying 1 coin, completing the blue house. Since I already had all shops, I attracted the Shop Owner to come, scoring a potential of 15 points.
1 coin left and 2 cards in hand. I let go the gardener guy since my last cards didn’t have any plants for him to enjoy.
ROUND 9.
I still needed 2 tops, one yellow and 1 pink. There were 2 Yellow tops, one with a chimney and the other had 3rd floor and a lot of flowers. Since Santa clause was still available, I took the one with Chimney.
Only 1 card from 4th column plus 2 coins. I built both yellows by paying 3 coins, attracting the Santa Clause. Well, I actually looked at the next top cards and I knew another chimney was coming with Pink.
Or I could have just attracted the Mayor since I already had all ground floors.
0 coin and 1 card in hand. I let go the other Tourist lady since she was not impressed with the number of cats I had.
ROUND 10.
There were exactly 2 character cards left. Here is the thing. It seems I made a mistake tracking the number of coins. During the game, somehow I had 1 coins more than I should have which was enough to end the game this round. That was not supposed to happen.
Luckily, it was still possible for me to fix it. I took 1 card this round plus 2 coins and built only 1 card which was the top pink with a chimney. I let go the Tourist woman. 1 character left.
Then it didn’t matter which card I took next and I got at least 2 coins, built the last card for one, completing the last house, attracting the Mayor or Santa. No more characters left and it triggered the end of the game.
SCORING
Regulatory bonus: 12 points
Closed Windows: -2 points
Shops: 9 points
Tourist Boy: 8 points
Santa Clause: 12 points
Tourist Guy: 13 points
Mayor: 10 points
Shop Owner: 15 points
TOTAL SCORE: 77 POINTS (GOOD JOB!)
Playing time was about 32 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Walking in Burano Review.
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Isle of Trains: All Aboard
Watch the Slideshow of this Isle of Trains: All Aboard game session here.
Build your train and secure contracts with cities by delivering passengers and cargos in Isle of Trains: All Aboard.
This was a solo session and this was my first time playing with the Scenario. Obviously, I started with Chapter 1. One big mistake was thinking that there is a scoring threshold while fulfilling the scenario’s objectives. This is not that, not like Calico or Trailblazers.
I only realized this in the middle of the game. Spent a lot of turns where I kept building card, planning to build them later but they are just to increase score. No need to build them at all.
So, I failed. Only completed both contracts on 1 City but barely loaded the cargo for the primary contract of 2nd city. Also, since VP doesn’t matter, keep returning cards by spending 3 VP is probably the main thing here.
While keep adding cards and upgrading them no need to be done for the highest one but getting bonus actions is essential, as soon as possible. Maybe even in certain order. For example, maybe upgrading that Hopper to get extra build or even extra action early is good.
After that, then maybe upgrading the Oil tank is better since it can give extra bonus action of either Deliver or Load while Boxcard only comes with extra Load action.
But what if the order of the cards in the deck are in reverse order?
Anyway, in Chapter I, I have to complete both Primary and Secondary contracts of 2 cities, the Flint Beach and Billington’s. Both require at least 1 box but the Billington’s asks for Coal while Flint Beach for Oil. I only needed at most 2 of each type of cargos to complete both contracts of either city.
Here is how it went.
ROUND 1.
I got 2 green passengers, exactly to Flint Beach destination. The starting 5 cards were 2 Level 1 Boxcar, Level 1 and Level 3 Engine, Middle station.
First action was to load 1 passenger to the engine. I got 2 cards, Level 1 Hopper and Level 1 Engine. 2nd action was BUILD, to build Level 1 Boxcar, with the cost of 3 cards, discarding the 2 Level 1 Engine and the other Level 1 Boxcar.
As the timer, the discarded card from the top of the deck was another building card.
ROUND 2.
1st action, DELIVER. I delivered that passenger to Flint Beach. The bonus was to take 5 cards and I got 2 Level 3 Engine, 3 Level 1 Tanker.
I had 8 cards so I had to BUILD as the 2nd action. This time was one of the Level 1 Tanker with the cost of 2. For that I discarded the other 2 Level 1 Tanker cards.
Total load from cars was 3 from the maximum of 4. The discarded card was LEVEL 3 HOPPER.
ROUND 3.
1st action, LOAD. I loaded the Passenger to the Engine again with the bonus of 2 cards. They were Level 1 Coach and Level 2 Engine. So, I had 7 cards.
As 2nd action, BUILD. I upgraded the Engine to Level 2 with the difference cost of 2. For that I discarded Level 3 Engine and the other Level 2 Engine. I still had another Level 3 Engine card.
Also as a bonus for upgrading, I got White Passenger. 4 cards in hand. The discarded card this time was LEVEL 3 COACH.
ROUND 4.
1st action, DELIVER. I delivered that 2nd passenger to the Flint Beach as well, to get 4 cards. I got Level 2 Coach, Level 1 Engine, Level 2 Tanker and Level 1 Hopper.
With that Level 2 Coach and 8 cards in hand, I did BUILD action as 2nd action. Paid 4 cards using Level 1 Coach, Level 1 Engine, Level 1 Hopper and the Middle Station building. As a bonus, I got 2 passengers, both were Blue.
3 cards left and the discarded card for this round was Level 3 Tanker.
ROUND 5.
1st action was LOAD. I loaded one of the passengers to that Coach I just built. Got 2 VP and 3 cards, Level 3 Boxcar, Caboose 4, and Level 2 Coach.
For the 2nd action, DELIVER. I delivered that passenger to their destination. As bonus, I got 2 cards and Build action. The cards were Caboose 9 and Level 3 Tanker.
So I had 8 cards. I upgraded the Tanker from Level 1 to Level 3. The difference in cost was 6. For that I discarded Level 1 Hopper, Level 2 Coach, Caboose 4, Level 3 Boxcar, Caboose 9 and Level 2 Tanker.
Another Level 2 Tanker was discarded as the timer from the top of the deck. Only had 1 card left.
ROUND 6.
1st action was LOAD again, repeating the process. Got 2 VP and 3 cards which were Town Hall, Caboose 3 and Rail Yard.
2nd action was also repeating, DELIVER. I delivered that passenger to her destination and got a bonus of 1 card plus build action. The card was Level 2 Hopper.
For that Bonus action, I built CABOOSE 3 that I just got. This allows me to load any single cargo without any bonus. The cost was 3 so I discarded Level 3 Engine, Town Hall and Level 2 Hopper. As bonus I got Black Passenger.
Only 1 card left, a building card. The discarded card was Level 2 Engine.
ROUND 7.
1st action, LOAD. I loaded that passenger I just got. Got 2 VP plus 3 cards which were Level 3 Engine, Level 2 Hopper and Level 1 Coach.
2nd action LOAD again. This time was a cargo to Tanker. I used the Level 2 Hopper card to load an Oil. As bonus, I drew 3 cards and either Deliver or Load Action bonus.
The cards were Level 3 Boxcar, Caboose 5, and Caboose 1. From the bonus action, I chose LOAD and loaded the Box cargo using Caboose 1 card.
5 cards left and the discarded card from the deck was a building card.
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ROUND 8.
1st action, LOAD. My coach car still had 1 room for passenger so I loaded the White one. Got 2 VP and 3 cards which were Level 2 Coach, Level 1 Coach and Level 2 Hopper.
2nd action, BUILD. The total load was 6 so it was maxed out. I upgraded the Engine to Level 3 from Level 2. The difference in cost was 3 so I discarded 2 Level 1 Coach and Caboose 5. Got another Black passenger.
The discarded card was Level 3 Hopper. I thought I needed that card to put it in the face up card so I spent 3 VP to return it to the top of the deck. 4 cards left in hand.
ROUND 9.
1st action, LOAD, another cargo. With Level 2 hopper card for the Oil, I loaded it to my Tanker. Got 3 cards and bonus action either Deliver or Load. The cards were Level 2 Engine, Northern Station and Caboose 6.
I had 1 Box at least and 1 Oil to secure the 1st contract with Flint Beach so I used it as the bonus action.
2nd action, BUILD. I got 6 cards and I built Level 2 Hopper. The cost was 4 so I discarded the Northern Station, Caboose 6, level 2 Engine and level 3 Boxcar.
1 card left. The discarded card was another Level 2 Engine.
ROUND 10.
1st action, DELIVER. I delivered the Black passenger only to his destination. As bonus, I got to draw 5 cards which I got Level 3 Hopper, Oil refinery, Level 2 Tanker, Level 1 Hopper and Customs House.
2nd action, LOAD. I loaded 1 Coal using the Level 1 Hopper card. Got 2 cards and bonus Build action. The card was Level 2 and Level 3 Engine.
As bonus build action, I upgraded that Hopper from Level 2 to Level 3. The difference in cost was 3 so I discarded Oil Refinery, Level 3 Engine and Level 2 Engine.
3 cards left in hand. The discarded card was Coal Factory.
ROUND 11.
1st action, LOAD. I loaded 2nd Oil to the Tanker using Level 2 Tanker card. Got 3 cards bonus and one action either Deliver or Load. The cards were 2 Level 2 Boxcar, Level 1 Boxcar.
It seems I didn’t use the bonus action at all.
2nd action, LOAD. This time 2nd coal to the Hopper using the Level 1 Boxcar. As bonus I got to draw 2 cards plus any action.
The cards were Level 3 Coach and Level 1 Hopper. I got 6 cards so I chose BUILD action as bonus. I upgraded the Boxcar from Level 1 to Level 2. The extra cost was 3 so I discarded Level 1 Hopper, 2 Level 2 Boxcar.
2 cards left in hand and the discarded card was a Bank.
ROUND 12.
1st action, LOAD. Loaded the other black passenger to the Coach. Got 2 VP and 3 cards which were Caboose 10, Level 1 Tanker and Caboose 7. I spent 3 VP to return the Bank card, just to prolong the game.
2nd action, LOAD. Loaded 3rd Coal to the Hopper using Level 1 Tanker card. As bonus, drew 2 cards and any action. The cards were Bank and Caboose 8.
As bonus action, I upgraded the Coach from Level 2 to Level 3. Discarded Caboose 8, Bank and Level 1 Tanker as the extra cost. I got 3 passengers as bonus, 2 purple and 1 White.
2 cards left and the discarded card was level 3 Engine.
ROUND 13.
The deck was almost run out. I spent 6 VP to return 2 cards to the deck.
1st action was LOAD. Loaded the 1st Box to the Boxcar. Got 4 cards and Load bonus. The load bonus was to load 2nd Box using building card.
2nd action was DELIVER. With 2 Oil and 2 Boxes, I fulfilled the secondary contract with the Flint Beach.
After refilling 2 spaces from the faceup cards, the deck run out so the game ended. I failed since I haven’t completed both contracts of the 2nd city for this Chapter 1.
Playing time was about 58 minutes. I have to try again next time.
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Unreliable Wizard
Watch the Slideshow of this Unreliable Wizard game session here.
Journey to defeat the Demon Lord while along the way fight monsters, find companions and learn more spells in Unreliable Wizard.
The Wizard started with the 2nd Blue Spell and accompanied by the Hero. Unlike the Wizard, the Hero can constantly deal damage each turn in a fight.
1st Enemy: DODO
The Wizard and the Hero travelled to the west first to a settlement where they met DODO. This monster had 6 LP, defense of red and blue by 1 and green by 2. The Settlement itself gave extra protection of red by 1 to this monster.
The Wizard drew red 1 and then Blue 1 and Blue 2. 3 damage with blue nothing with red plus 1 by the Hero. Dodo still had 2 LP left and countered with 1. The wizard drew again Red 1, Blue 2 and then Blue 1, finally defeating Dodo.
After healing 2 points, the Wizard had 24 LP left. As bonus the Wizard learned Green 2 for their spell.
2nd Enemy: RA
The 2 continued their journey and back to the Woods area to the east. They found RA. This one had only 3 LP was very strong in red with defense of 3. Weak on green but 1 defense on Blue. The area itself gave extra 1 protection to their Blue.
The fight started and the Wizard drew Blue 2, Green 2 and then Blue 1. 2 damages and the Hero finished it. After the fight they met with the MONK. Monk could enhance the Wizard magic of green by 2 and red by 1.
The Wizard had 21 LP left.
3rd Enemy: DO.
The 3 continued north along the plains area. In the narrow path they were ambushed by DO. DO had 4 LP, weak in red, 1 defense in green and 2 in blue. The plain area gave extra defense to green so both green and blue was equally strong.
Regardless, the Wizard relied on 2 Green and both Red 1 and Blue 1. The fight started and the Wizard drew Green 1, 2 damage, drew again, Green 2, 4 damage total, defeating the monster.
As the reward, the Wizard learned Red 2. 19 LP left.
4th Enemy: KORU
The group had a choice between keep going north in plain area or going northwest through deserts. They heard there was a monster disturbing any people passing by so they decided to take care of it before moving forward. Before that, they visited a healing point to the west and then continued north.
They found KORU. KORU had 5 LP, very strong in red by 3, green by 2 and blue by 1. The desert area even enhanced their defense by 2.
Because of that the Wizard decided not to bring along their red magic. The wizard drew 1, Blue 2. Drew again, Blue 1, potentially 3 damage. Drew again and it was green 1, 2 damage. That was enough to beat Koru.
The Wizard learned WHITE SPELL. 17 LP left.
5th Enemy: KARU
The 3 moved backwards a bit, entering the Plains area again. They visited a nearby healing spot before continued moving north through the Plains area. After a while they finally entering a Volcano region.
The entrance to that area was guarded by KARU, which looks similar to KORU but bigger size. KARU had 7 LP, similar defense power but one extra blue. So, the Wizard had to rely on Green spell first and then Blue, ignoring red.
However, the Volcano space enhanced their blue defense by 2. So, the Wizard switched the blue with Red. The fight started. First draw was Green 2, no damage. Red 1, no damage. Then Red 2, 2 damage. Last one was Green 1, 5 damages and it was enough to beat KARU.
After the fight, the Wizard found GRIMOIRE 2, spell book, more powerful than what he knew but with harder combinations.
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6th Enemy: ZAZA
After passing through the Volcanic area, they went northwest, entering a City. Turns out, the City was under attack by monster named ZAZA. Zaza had 8 LP, weak in red only by 1, strong green with 3 and blue with 2.
The City itself enhanced their defense of blue and green each by 1. So, the wizard had to rely on the 2 Red.
First draw, red 1, 2 damage. Then, Red 2, 4 damage total. Next was Blue 2 but no additional damage. The Wizard kept going and drew White. He combined it with the 2 Red and dealt 6 damage. 1 extra from the Hero but Zaza was still alive,and attacked the wizard with 3 points of damage.
The fight continued but the Wizard decided not to draw again to save LP and let the Hero finished the job.
After the fight they met with the Princess. She was able to enhance all 3 magic and she knew the weaknesses of the Demon Lord, preventing him from regenerating every turn. The Princess agreed to join the adventure. 7 LP left.
7th Enemy: ARO.
The 4 moved northeast. Between the City and Volcano area there was a healing point so they visited there before entering the Ocean by boat. They were ambushed by big monster called ARO.
Aro had 8 LP, very strong by 3 points in red, 2 in green and 1 in blue. The ocean even made it harder for red spell by 3 points rendering it useless and 1 extra for blue. So, the Wizard had to rely on Green.
The Wizard drew Red 2, no damage. Blue 2, still useless. Then Blue 1, potentially 3 damage. The last one was Green 1, another 3 damage. 1 extra from the Hero but Aro was still alive dealing 1 damage to the Wizard. 4 LP left.
Next round and luckily the Wizard drew White, Blue 1 and Red 2 which allowed the Wizard to cast healing spell. While doing so, the Hero finished the monster.
They found a Porcupine companion, giving extra 2 damage to red and blue by 1 for the Wizard’s spell.
8th ENEMY: YABI
Before continuing north, they went west to visit a healing spot. Then they went north entering the Maze before the Demon City. They were ambushed by this last monster, YABI.
Yabi only had 7 LP, defense of 1 in red, 2 in green and 3 in blue. The Maze enhanced their defense of red by 1 and green by 3, so green magic was useless.
Before the fight, the Monk knew his weakness and dealt 2 damage. The Wizard used that chance to draw and got Red 1, potentially 4 damage. Followed by Blue 2, no damage. Then White, still no damage. The last one was Red 2. That was 8 damage with Red White Red spell and Yabi was instantly defeated. 4 LP left.
They met their last companion, the Paladin. The Paladin agreed to help with his ability to enhance the Wizard spell of red by 2 and Blue by 1.
FINAL BOSS: TERRA
The group managed to visit the last healing spot before finally facing the Demon Lord, Terra. Unfortunately, the Wizard only had 4 LP left.
ROUND 1. The Wizard managed to only draw 3 enough for healing spell, healed 8 LP. But Terra dealt 6 even after taking 1 damage from the Hero.
ROUND 2. 3 LP left. The Wizard was hoping to do another healing but after spending all 4 LP he got Blue 2, Blue 1, Red 1 and White.
The Hero, his companion since the start of the journey, sacrificed himself to let the Wizard healed 8 points. Didn’t want to waste that, the Wizard casted the spells, dealing 3 damage using Red and 4 using Blue White Blue.
Terra still had 8 LP left from 16, dealing 4 damage to the Wizard.
ROUND 3. The Wizard managed to cast healing spell again. No damage to Terra so Terra dealt another 4 damages.
ROUND 4. The Wizard got both 2 Blues and 2 Reds. 5 damage from red and 2 from Blue. Terra still had 1 LP and dealt 8 damage. The Monk sacrificed his life to give 8 LP to the Wizard.
Even with just Red 1 and Blue 1, they finally defeated Terra and saved the world.
Playing time was about 33 minutes.
I altered the report a bit because either I got it wrong or I forgot to adjust the LP one time during the game, making it easier.
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 and if you are interested in previous reports of each game.
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.