2024 Week 5 to Week 8 – Tabletop Game Play Session Reports

Recently I started a new article series of play session reports for my tabletop games that I’ve played over the past months or so. Read the compilation of the first and previous one from this article. which was the last 3 months of 2023.

Continuing on that, this article is the compilation of my play session reports during Week 5 to Week 8 of 2024, all within the month of February. Usually, I do short reports per week on my BGG blog.

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

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

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

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

List of Games

Here are the links to the Weekly Session Reports for shorter version: Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8.

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.

Grove: A 9 card solitaire game

4 games of Grove: A 9-card solitaire game using all 4 different sets of recipes.

1st Session. With Orange Liqueur and Orange Jellyo. Actually failed to use 2 Orange dice. No Wheelbarrow, not even a 10. 3 dice left. Squirrel took 3 points. Scored 69 from target 75, 9 minutes.

2nd Session. With Fruit Cocktail and Limoncello. Got 2 10s and a Wheelbarrow. Failed to place all 15 dice. Squirrel took 3 points. Scored 71 from the target 73, 10 minutes.

3rd Session. With Fruit Salad and Lemon Curd. Almost completed the Fruit Salad with 3 adjacent dice with the same color. Gave up that in the last round. Took a long time for that one and failed. Got the Wheelbarrow and a 10 minus 3 from Squirrel. Scored 53 from the target 54, 17 minutes.

4th Session. With Lemon Soda and Lime Jellyo. Managed to complete both recipes but without Wheelbarrow. Not even a 10. At least I avoided the Squirrel. Scored 59 from the target 61, 11 minutes.

Rush M.D.

Saving life again with 2 solo plays of Rush M.D. game. This time I tried playing with 2 solo objective solo cards in hard difficulty. So, to win, I needed to get 55 points, started with 9 Medical Points only, with 9 Hospitalized and 7 Outpatients.

ROUND 1. 2 Outpatients and 2 hospitalized came in, thanks to the Yellow card where the Nurse could admit 4 at a time. One of the Doctor got the hospitalized into the Ward A. This one needed a MRI test with 2 IV Fluids. The test came out and it was not a big deal. He only needed 2 Orange pills, 1 Blue and 1 white.

The other hospitalized had a Mild condition, required just 1 test. However, after the test, the Doctor concluded that he needed Heart surgery. A lot of Blood and 3 Orange pills had to be in stock first.

The Outpatients part had an old man with broken leg. He was just doing follow up treatment that required 1 Blue and 1 White pills. Another one was a Lady with Mild condition. She needed 2 cc of blood transfusion and an IV Fluid.

Since all those 4 were taken care of, the Nurse admitted 2 more, one of each. A young lady came in, with a bit serious condition. Luckily, she only needed a couple of 3 different drugs.

Another patient with serious condition and needed treatment in hospital. After 2 lab tests, the doctor concluded that this one required a surgery for his kidney.

All patients of this day were treated well. The hospital gained 2 Medical points and 18 VP.

ROUND 2. Well, the pharmacy didn’t have many stock at this point. One Doctor could remove any Epidemic was at work. Two more senior doctors asked for treating 3 Hospitalized and using 2 organs to get more Medical Points.

As usual, the Nurse first admitted 3 patients. One was Outpatient and the other required to be in hospital. The Lady in Clinic just required some blood transfusion.

First hospitalized patient required Blood and X-ray test. The doctor concluded the problem was related in bone and internal organ. So, some surgery was scheduled.

The other hospitalized patient actually required the same test. However, the blood test came in and showed an Epidemic! Luckily the hospital had that special doctor taking care of that kind of issue. With that out of the way, this one only required some blood transfusion, some shots of green medicine and IV fluids.

Not much time left so the Nurse only admitted one more patient to the clinic. This guy was in serious condition and required 2 shots of yellow medicines and 2 orange pills.

Unfortunately, for this round, the hospital couldn’t fulfill the demand from those senior doctors. No Medical Point gained. 30 VP and 11 MP with 5 Outpatients and 5 Hospitalized treated.

ROUND 3. The Pharmacy was still almost empty. Not even had Blood in stock. At least one of the Special Doctor was available to generate 5 Blood at a time. The other Doctor could make 3 organs ready which I probably did not need. For more MP, I needed to perform 2 surgeries.

2 Hospitalized and 1 Outpatient again. The Outpatient was a kid. He just got back from school and had a flu. 2 Blue pills were enough for him. Then a Lady came in and she said she was having mild issue. Just to be safe the doctor suggested MRI. The test came and nothing to worry about. The Doctor gave her pills, 2 white, 1 Orange and 1 Blue.

The other patient was in Critical condition. He needed 2 MRI tests. After those 2, the doctor concluded that he needed a Kidney surgery. While taking care of that, the Nurse admitted 2 more patients.

Another kid came in to the Clinic. A mild condition. Maybe he was just having Anemia so a bit of blood so he looked tired.

In the hospitalized ward, a guy, also in mild condition was sent to the Ward A. The Doctor run a Blood test and he also needed a Kidney surgery. I guess that Special Doctor that could provide 3 organs was needed after all.

There was still a lot of time and one more round. So, the hospital used this chance to restock supplies. Especially the 5 Blood from that special doctor. By the end of it, the Pharmacy had 3 Orange pills. 1 Blue and 1 White pills, 2 IV Fluids, 3 syringes, 3 of each green and yellow drugs.

Got 14 points and with 2 surgeries, 1 Medical points. So, 44 VP and 12 MP with 7 Outpatients and 8 Hospitalized treated. I only needed 11 VP and 1 more hospitalized.

ROUND 4. This time, bonus 1 MP if I treated 3 patients with Serious Condition. One Doctor was expert in pharmacy, could stock 4 drugs in any combination. There was one Doctor that taught the Nurse so they could send Hospitalized patient to Ward. No need to rely on doctor to do that.

1 Hospitalized and 2 Outpatients were admitted. The hospitalized was a kid with Serious condition. He required a Culture test and an X-ray test. From the Culture, he needed another kidney surgery. One doctor got the organ while the other performed the surgery.

The 1st one to the Clinic was a very old guy. He looked very tired and was in Critical condition. After 4 cc of blood, 1 shot of green drugs, 3 blue pills and 2 IV Fluids, he got better.

The other patient in the clinic was a young girl with her Pig doll. A mild condition, She just needed an orange pill and a dose of green drug.

Still a lot of time. The nurse admitted 2 more. Both were in Critical condition. One required a Lung and bone surgery. Lucky for her, the hospital had them in stock from previous round.

The other critical patient was a Wrestler. Probably just won a championship and went straight here. With 3 white pills, 2 IV fluids and 4 doses of green drugs he went back to defending his title.

There was still time. Decided to take 2 more but only to the Clinic. One was in Serious condition and the other with Critical. 2 blue pills and 2 doses of green drugs for the former and 2 white pills, 2 cc of blood and 3 doses of green drugs for the latter.

Well, apparently those were only 2 patients with Serious condition so I didn’t get extra Medical Point even if there were 4 Critical patients treated.

Final Score: 64 VP and 12 MP with 12 Outpatients and 10 Hospitalized patients treated. I got lucky with those special doctors.

Playing time was about 41 minutes.

I played another session and after 39 minutes, scored 58 and 14 MP. But I think I made a mistake here. I remember that in one round, an Epidemic happened near the end. Because of that, I had to add 1 IV and 1 Green shot of drugs to every patient and there were 3 in the Ward. I only successfully gave them to two so I probably lost 1 MP.

Friday

4 game sessions of Friday. With Level 2 difficulty against the same 2 pirates, one against the leftover hazard cards and the other against the number of Aging cards.

First one was a lost very early in the Green phase after losing all Life points, about 10 minutes in. Similar with the 3rd one, still in Green phase, 7 minutes in, losing all Life points.

The 4th one was a bit longer with 32 minutes. I probably have lost during the Red Phase because of bad luck of card. Well, even if I cheated and just shuffled and drew again, I couldn’t win the 2nd Pirate.

Here is what happened in the 2nd play.

Green Phase

First Hazard was going back to the raft with 0 which I got distracted card. Got rid of it. Then immediately facing a Wild Animal with 4. 2 Weak cards, a Distracted card and a genius card. Got rid of 3 cards.

One card focus on the next Exploring Island hazard, a first win. Another won with weak card going back to the raft. Failed when trying to explore again but getting rid of Distracted card.

When further exploring the island, 2 weak and distracted were removed. Cannibals showed up along with the Hungry aging card. Got rid of 4 cards.

After that a Wild animal showed up. I had to reshuffle the discard pile. I won but spent almost the entire new deck. Another won for Exploring the Island card using a Weapon. Explore the island again and won using Focus card.

After 2 successes, Robinson got scared with the next exploring island card. But Robinson pushed himself twice and won the challenge, so keeping that Scared card.

On the other hand, going back to the raft, Robinson was focused. The Cannibals showed up again. 1st card allowed Robinson to sort 3 cards. One of them was the Stupid Aging card. Unfortunately the next 2 were still weak cards but 5th card was enough to beat the challenge.

The Animal showed up again and this time 2 Aging cards showed up. Lost but got rid of both. Last challenge of green phase was a Wild Animal. Got lucky with 2 strong cards and won.

Yellow Phase

Another attempt to further exploring the island. The scared aging card showed up so it was a loss to get rid of that card. Back to the raft was easy with Food.

Explore the island again and Robinson got his strongest weapon. Back again to the raft but this time with 2 Food. So, Robinson had to push himself a bit to get a weapon.

Wild Animal again. After eating some foods, checking his equipment, Robinson got 2 of his weapon. But they were not enough so he had to push himself a bit to win.

Cannibals showed up. Focus, Robinson! Focus! He got an idea, he was genius. But then got distracted from his aging and felt weak. He pushed himself twice and those 2 were enough to help him beat the cannibal.

Robinson further explored the island. Got some food and spent his time to learn some strategy. Back to just explore the island. Robinson got his weapon but it was not enough. After pushing himself, he felt weak again and insecure about his aging. Not sure what realization he got but he finally got over that issue. Pushed himself one more time and he completed the challenge.

Another attempt to explore the island. He learned from previous experience and it was easy this time. So, he challenged himself to further explore the island. Robinson found some foods. However, after checking his equipment, somehow he felt Stupid and a weapon in it. After pushing himself twice, he got more food and a stronger weapon.

Last card in Yellow phase was Wild Animal. First he ate some food. With his vision, he knew his weakness was going to show up and get rid of it. He was focused and believe he was genius! But that was not enough so he pushed himself and after one more focus, he defeated that animal.

Red Phase

Robinson tried to further explore the island. He got his strongest weapon, his focus and experience, he passed the challenge. Robinson continued his exploration. He got his 2 weapons but they were not enough. He pushed himself to come out with some strategy and finally beat the challenge.

Back to the raft but Robinson felt very tired. He got rid of it though. After some rest, Robinson tried to explore further again. He got food but that was not enough. After checking his equipment his weakness came back to haunt him. Focus, Robinson! You are a Genius! He completed the challenge.

Last exploration further. Robinson was focus and got his strongest weapon. Not enough. He pushed himself twice, got some food and made it back. Unfortunately 2 Pirates came to the island.

1st Pirate against he Leftover Hazard cards. 8 cards for 24 Fighting points. Got 12 from the 1st 8 and one of the cards was the Aging card. After that, Robinson had to push himself 8 more times to get to that value and beat the Pirate.

2nd Pirate, I got 5 free cards but required 2 x 8 aging cards for fighting points to win. Actually I only got to 15 after 2 extra cards and 2 life points. So, I lost as well.

Playing time was about 32 minutes for this session.

Calico

After successfully completed the Solo Achievement Scenario #7, this was the first time with the Scenario #8. The 3 cats were Millie, Almond and Leo, with the last 2 being first time in any of these scenarios. Millie only requires a 3 of one pattern. Almond asks for 5 hexes but in trapezoid shape while Leo also asks for 5 hexes but in straight line.

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

With all of those requirements, 1 of each cat can get me 23 VP, 6 buttons plus the Rainbow means 21 VP and one of the yellow scoring could get me at least 11. That means, I still need 11 VP. One more Leo and that was enough or 1 Almond with 1 Millie.

There were about 5 possible placements for Leo however, one of them already doesn’t match with the pattern, 2 involve crossing between goal tiles. The rest were 2 horizontal lines one on the top row and the other at the bottom with the last one almost vertical, being next to 2 goal tiles and somehow worked for Leo’s pattern for this time.

I went with the Bottom row using the polka dot and the vertical one with the palm. Hopefully this helped me scoring the yellow from the left goal tiles.

My 2 starting tiles were Yellow leaves for Mille and Red flower for Almond. I planned to use the top right corner for Almond since I already had that red Flower.

First. I placed that next to another red on the border and next to a light blue flower. As replacement, I took the Yellow polka dot for Leo. Green leave pattern went away.

2nd placement. I placed that Yellow polka dot at the bottom left corner next to the same pattern but with light blue color and another Yellow. As replacement, I took the Palm pattern Yellow for Leo. The stripe purple got removed.

3rd placement. I placed the Palm Yellow I just got next to that previous Yellow polka dot. This was the 3rd adjacent yellow so I got the Yellow button. That means if I want to complete the goal tiles, I can only play these 2 patterns. As replacement, I picked the Green Palm tile while letting go a green polka dot. Regretting this later, I guess.

4th placement. I placed that Green Palm next to the Yellow palm pointing to another Yellow palm pattern on the top border. 2 more and I got my Leo. As replacement, I took a light Blue flower for Almond with red leave got removed.

5th Placement. Then I placed that light blue flower next to another light blue flower on the border at the top right corner. So, I had a group of 3, 2 more for Almond. As replacement, I took the Blue Polka dot while letting go the Purple with the same pattern.

6th placement. I placed that Blue Polka dot, 2 spaces away from the Yellow Polka dot I placed previously. This way, the left goal didn’t get a new color while I created a group of 3 Blue for the button. As replacement, I picked the Red Leave for Millie, letting go the Purple Flower for Almond.

7th placement. I had to start making pattern for Millie since I had 2 in my hand. So, the Yellow Leave from starting hand went to the bottom right corner, which already had the same half pattern and color at the border. This was replaced by light Blue palm for Leo. Green Flower went away.

8th placement. I placed that light blue palm pattern I just got to continue the vertical pattern for Leo. This added first color and pattern to the middle goal tile. 1 more palm for Leo. As replacement, I took the Purple palm, letting go a light blue polka dot.

9th placement. I placed that purple to complete the pattern of 5 hexes in straight line for Leo. Got 11 VP. This also added 2nd color for the middle Goal tile. Also, there was another purple next to it as the border. I picked a Blue palm, letting go yellow cross icon for Millie.

10th placement. I placed the red leave to complete a set of 3 at the bottom left corner which attracted Millie. Got 3 points. This also added 2nd color and 2nd pattern for the right Goal tile. As replacement, I picked a Blue flower for Almond later.

11th placement. The Blue palm was a bit useless so I placed it next to 2 blue at the middle bottom getting a 2nd button with the 2nd color. THis also added 3rd color and 3rd pattern to the right Goal tile. As replacement, I picked the cross icon green blue, just for the color.

12th placement. That tile I just took was placed at the top left corner next to similar tile from the border and next to light blue palm. So, I got the light Blue button, a 3rd one. This also left some room for one more cross patter for Millie, hopefully a purple. As replacement, I picked the purple flower.

13th placement. I placed the Blue flower from previous turn to continue the pattern at the top right corner for Almnod. This was between the 2 Goal tiles, the top space. The tile added 3rd color and 2nd pattern to the middle goal and no new color or pattern to the right. As replacement, I took the Red Cross.

14th placement. I gave up the purple and just completed the 3 Cross patterns at the top left for Millie. Picked a Green Flower as replacement.

15th placement. I placed that Green Flower to finally complete the pattern for Almond at the top right corner. Got 9 VP. I took the Green cross tile, letting go a light blue leave.

16th placement. The purple flower from previous round was placed at the last empty space of the top most row. This completed a set of 3 purple tiles for the button, the 4th one. This didn’t add any color or pattern to that Middle goal tile. Picked a green Polka dot as replacement.

17th placement. Continuing the Polka dot pattern at the bottom with that Green I just took. I had a line of 4 now, one more for 2nd Leo. I picked a Blue Polka dot as replacement, letting go red palm.

18th placement. That last Blue polka dot completed the set for 2nd Leo, another 11 points for me. I picked a green Palm pattern as replacement for the left goal tile.

19th placement. The tile I just took was placed between the 2 Goal tiles. This didn’t add anything to the left while adding 4 colors to the middle so the middle tile was not available for yellow scoring. Actually the pattern was a fail too. As replacement, I picked a Yellow palm, thinking that this worked for the left goal tile.

20th placement. So that was what I did, placing the last tile for the left goal with Yellow palm. That Goal tile requires AAAA-BB. While the pattern was correct with 4 Palm and 2 Polka dot, the color unfortunately was 3 Green and 3 Yellow. So, At this point, I already failed the scenario challenge. As replacement, I picked the red polka dot just to get the button.

21st placement. I placed that red one between the 2 red tiles at the right most last empty space. Got the 6th button and the Rainbow.

22nd placement. The last empty space was right in the middle, between the middle and right goal tiles. The middle tile already failed and the right one could still work with the color only. I had to pick the Blue color, whatever patter it was and placed it.

So, that was the end of the game.

Scoring
Leo x 2 = 22 VP
Almond x 1 = 9 VP
Millie x 2 = 6 VP
Buttons x 7 = 21 VP
Left Goal Tile = 7 VP
Middle Goal Tile = 0 VP
Right Goal Tile = 7 VP
Total Score: 72 VP

I got higher score than the requirement but failed to get Yellow scoring from Goal tile. Playing time was about 29 minutes.

Next Station: London

Got 4 solo plays of Next Station: London, still only with the base game.

1st Play. Scored 26 Blue, 23 Purple, 24 Pink and 14 Green, 14 from Tourist, 16 from intersections so the total was 117. Playing time was about 18 minutes.

2nd Play. Scored 24 Green, 22 Pink, 20 Blue and 18 Purple, 17 Tourist and 10 Intersection with a total of 111. About 17 minutes.

3rd Play. Scored 32 Purple, 17 Green, 20 Blue and 17 Pink, 21 Tourist and 18 Intersection with a total of 125. 16 minutes. This one Purple scored the highest I’ve ever gotten, mostly from crossing rivers 4 times.

4th Play. Scored 27 Pink, 24 Purple, 17 Green and 26 Blue plus 11 Tourist and 20 intersection with a total of 125. 16 minutes as well. For this one I connected 3 corners, crossing rivers 4 times in Purple.

Compared to my previous plays, the average was higher, nothing below 100 but I didn’t score much higher. Even all of these were about the same score except for the 2nd one.

Not long ago, somebody shared their result where they got about 150. At least in that one, they didn’t aim for the Tourist much. I also noticed that they the diagonal line a lot, seems more on bottom half.

Usually, I tend to play safe but with horizontal or vertical line. If diagonal, it has to be in short distance but this person made a bold move reaching out to the other section, crossing the river even. I thought this would block the potential line later which it can happen but there is a potential to align them apparently.

My local store already had the Tokyo one in stock but I’m not sure trying that one considering I don’t do well with this one. I heard the Tokyo one is trickier.

Onirim

Back to the Oniverse with Onirim. Still with all of the expansions except for the Incubi pawn. The 4 Dark Premonition cards were those with 2 of each color. That means, if I got 2 doors of the same color, I would get penalty. Here is what happened.

1st DOOR

I started with 2 Green Sun, 1 Red Sun, a Blue Tower and a Dead End card. First door was supposed to be a White while the 2nd was a Green. I had to wait until I discarded 7 to change the order or find some way to open this White Door.

What I did first was to discard the Tower to pick the next 3 cards which were a White Door, Green Sun and Green Moon. So I could start making the Green set.

I played the Green Sun first. Found a Door with Wild Color. Then I played my Green Moon and it was replaced by NIGHTMARE!!!!

I let it took all cards from my hand since I needed some cards in the discard pile to cast spell anyway. The next draws were Blue door, Red Key, Blue Key, White Key a Red Sun and the Harpoon Denizen. So, I had to make decision whether to keep this Denizen by discarding a card. I did with the Red Sun. I had to draw again and got a Dead End card followed by a White Door which went to 2nd Dreamcatcher. It was replaced by a White Tower.

This Tower had a bit more flexibility with one Moon on the left and one Sun on the right so I played it. Got a Blue Glyph as replacement.

I discarded Blue Key to peek at the next 5 cards and discard one. There was a Nightmare, followed by a Dead End, a Red Tower, Red Sun and Red Door. So, with the Glyph I could open that first red door after changing the position.

That is what I did. With the Glyph, the next 5 cards were Red Sun, Red Door, 2 Dead End Cards and a White Moon. Opened that First Door while the rest of the cards when to the bottom of the deck with the White Moon at the bottom most. The next card I drew was a Blue Moon.

My hand of cards were Red Key, White Key, Dead End, Red Tower and Blue Moon.

2nd DOOR

I discarded the White Key to reveal the next 5 cards. 2 Denizens, a Blue Door, a White Sun and a Nightmare, which I discarded the last. I think I put the door as the last while taking those Denizens.

The Treasure denizen showed up and I discarded the Blue Moon. The Blue door occupied the 3rd Dreamcatcher. Got a White Sun which I discarded to take the Squirrel Denizen. Got a White Door again that occupied the 4th Dreamcatcher. Finaly got 2nd Dead End cards in my hand.

I was still looking for a Green Sun to finally complete the first set for Green Door. This time I used that Squirrel denizen to reveal the next 5 cards, Green Door, White Sun, Green and Blue Moon and Red Sun.

Still no Green Sun. What was worse is, if I let that Green door came out, I would lose one of the Dreamcatcher. So, I placed it as the last card possible. Drew the White Sun which I discarded immediately. I decided to keep the Red Tower with the Treasure Denizen and got Green Moon as replacement.

After that I discarded the Red Key to reveal the next 5 cards. There was a Red Sun which I discarded with the key, a Blue Moon, Red Sun again, Green Door and White Key.

I had no choice but to use one of the Freeing card and put back 2 Door cards from the Dreamcatcher. This way, I shuffled the deck. After that, I decided to discard all cards in hand just to get rid of 2 Dead End Cards.

The next cards I drew had 2 Denizens. One was the Hammer Bird and the other I don’t remember. I let them go. Got a Wild Sun, Green Sun, 2 Dead End cards and Red Sun. So I finally could finish that set.

Since I had to look for the Green Door, I used this chance to free another Dreamcatcher.

Shuffle time… and that was the 2nd Door.

Got a Green Key in addition to Wild and Red Sun plus 2 Dead End cards.

3rd Door

The next door was supposed to be White from earlier. I discarded the Green Key to reveal the next 5 cards. Got rid of the Dead End cards along the key. There were Blue Tower, White Glyph, Blue Sun and Green Glyph.

With the Blue Tower, I placed it to the right of the White Tower. After that I played the Red Tower on the right of the Blue, taken from the Treasurer Denizen. Got a Glyph which I discarded immediately to peek the next 5 cards. Green Glyph, Blue Sun, Red Key, Wild and Red Moon all went to the bottom of the deck since there was no door.

The next card was a Happy Dream card which I used to cancel the Dark premonition with 2 Red Door. I got another Dead End card which made it 3rd in my hand. Decided to discard all of them.

My new hand of cards were Red Moon, White Sun and Moon, Blue Key and a Red Door. The door went to occupy the 4th Dreamcatcher. Another Happy Dream which I used to cancel the Dark Premonition with 2 Green. Got a Blue Key after that.

I played the White Moon to start a new set. Replaced by a Green Tower this was perfect to the right of my 3 Tower so I completed this Tower Task. Got a Blue Moon. I played the White Sun as the 2nd card of the new set. Another Blue moon replaced it.

I decided to use the Blue Key to reveal the next 5 cards. Got rid of the Dead End card from it along with the key. The other 4 were White Key, 2 Lost Dream cards and a Green Door.

After getting the key, I used the last Freeing card to return the White Door and shuffle the deck.

I played the White Key to complete the set. After searching through the deck to get the White Door, I also returned the Blue Door from another Dreamcatcher. Apparently another White Door showed up and occupy the 3rd Dreamcatcher.

Got a White tower to refill my hand, in addition to Red Moon, 2 Blue Moon and 1 Blue Sun.

10 doors left.

4th and 5th DOOR

The next one was supposed to be Blue and I got all cards for it. I discarded the Tower to peek the next 3 cards which were the Blue Door, Red Glyph and Green Key. While I could make the Blue set, I decided to use the Glyph for this Blue.

Got the Green key first and then I played the Blue Moon for the set. Then I discarded the Red Glyph. There was the Blue Door, 2 Nightmare, Wild Key and Blue Sun.

Got the Blue Door and the rest when to the bottom of the deck. I think I kept the Blue Sun as the bottom most. 9 doors left.

Got a Red Key as replacement. After that, I played the Blue Sun as the 2nd of the set and got a Red Moon as replacement. I discarded the Green Key to reveal the next 5 cards. There was another Harpoon Denizen, a Green and Blue Glyph, a White Moon and Blue Sun. I let go the Denizen along with the key.

After drawing the Blue Sun, casted a spell to switch the 5th Door from White to Blue, 2nd to last, I played the Blue Moon. This completed the Blue set. I took the Blue Door from the Dreamcatcher.

However, since I got 2 Blue Doors, this triggered the Dark Premonition with 2 Blue. I had to discard 2 Keys which were the White and a Blue. Shuffled the deck. Got a Wild Moon as my 5th card in addition to 2 Red Moon, Blue Sun and red Key.

8 doors left.

6th & 7th DOOR

The next door was Red and I already got 2 Red Moon with Red Key. Hopefully I could get another Red without using the Key. I played the Red Moon first and got Red Tower as replacement. Discarded the Tower and revealed 5 cards. There was the Red Sun, Green both Moon and Sun, White Moon and Door.

Prepared for the Green door then after this red one. Got the Red Sun and played it, replaced by Green Sun. Played the Red Moon and complete the set. Took the Door from the Dreamcatcher so there was only 1 occupied Dreamcatcher. Got another Green Sun in addition to Green Sun, Green Moon, Wild Moon and Red Key.

7 doors left.

Luckily, the next one was Green. Played the Green Sun, followed by Green Moon replaced by White Moon and Blue Sun. Among that were Lost Dream and White Door which went to occupy the 2nd Dreamcatcher.
Played the Green Sun again and complete the set. I had to search through the deck and shuffle it. Also returned one White door from Dreamcatcher.

The Last Happy Dream showed up and cancel the last Dark Premonition. However, followed by a NIGHTMARE! I had to let go of the Red Key.

Another Denizen showed up and this was the Rainbow if I recall correctly. I let go the Blue sun to use this Denizen.

So, my current hand of cards were Wild Moon, White Moon, White Sun, Wild Sun and Red Sun.

6 Doors left.

8th, 9th, 10th DOOR

Lucky that next one was White Door and I had White Moon, White Sun and some wild or crossroads. Played the Moon first, replaced by Green Key and then the Sun. Replaced by a White Moon, so I didn’t need to use the Crossroad or wild. I played that White Moon and completed the Set.

Instead of taking the Door from Dreamcatcher, I search through the deck so I had to shuffle the deck. Got a Green Tower as replacement.

5 Doors left. The next one is Blue.

Discarded the tower to reveal 4 cards: Red Sun, Glyph, Red Door and Blue Moon. I only needed 1 Red Door and already had access to 2 Red Sun plus a Wild Moon. So, my plan was to keep the Glyph for different Door.

The Door was placed as the last. Played the Red Sun first, replaced by another Red Sun. Then I played the Wild Moon, replaced by the White Glyph.

*** I think I made a Major error here. While I got the Red set right but apparently I forgot to take the Red Door. I finished the set but did nothing but shuffled the deck as if I searched through it. Accidentally made it harder.

Well, after that I discarded the Glyph, hoping to find some Doors and there was a Wild Door. As usual, instead of treating it as any color I play it only for the Wild Objective door. So, I had to swap the position between the next one which was Blue with the Wild after that and got the 9th Door.

The other cards were a Nightmare, 2 Blue sun and Green Moon. They all went to the bottom with the Blue as the last card.

4 Doors left. The next one was supposed to be Blue.

However, I drew my replacement and got a Red Door. This went to Limbo but the next one after that was a Green. Since I had a Green Key, I casted the spell to swap position of this next Blue Objective with the Green in the last position.

Opened that door, 3 doors left.

The red door went to dreamcatcher. My current hand had Wild Sun, Blue Sun, 2 White Suns and Wild Moon.

11th, 12th, 13th DOOR and Lost Dreams

The next one was Red that was supposed to be opened already. Well, I played the Wild moon first followed by Wild Sun, replaced by 2 Red Moons. So, I played that Red Moon and completed the set for Red Door.

2 doors left. White was the next one.

Got a Red Glyph as replacement, in addition to Blue Moon, 2 White Sun and Red Moon. Played the White Sun to start a new set. As replacement, got a Blue door, followed by lost Dream which went to Limbo and 2nd Dreamcatcher. Finally got a Dead End as 5th card in hand.

I discarded the glyph to reveal the next 5 cards which were Nightmare, Green Glyph, White Tower, White Moon and Blue Glyph. All went to the bottom, with the White Moon as the accessible one.

Got a Blue Sun instead. I removed 5 cards from discard pile to take that White Moon back to the top. Discarded the Red Sun and got that White Moon and played it. Replaced by Green Sun and then I played the White sun to complete the set. The Door was actually in Dreamcatcher but I decided to search through the deck so I could shuffle it and released the White door and the Lost Dream.

1 door left which was the Blue and I got a Green Glyph.

Since I could not play the Blue Sun after the White Sun, I played the Green Glyph first. Got a White Tower which I discarded to reveal 5 cards. There were Blue Glyph, 2 Nightmares and 2 Blue Suns. My only option was to use the Blue Glyph to finish the set.

Since I knew the 2 Nightmare were about to show up, I released my Harpoon Denizen to reveal 5 cards and get rid of the Nightmare.

Then I played the Blue sun, the Blue Glyph and the Blue Sun again, completing the set and find the last door.

The game was not over. I had to catch the other 3 Lost Dreams.

I got Dead End, 2 Blue Suns, Green Sun and Moon. Discarded them all. The new hand was Dead End, Red Tower, Green Glyph, Blue Tower and Wild Key, after sending the 2 Nightmare and Lost Dream to the Limbo before eventually to Dreamcatcher.

2 Lost Dreams left.

I discarded the Key to reveal the next 5 cards. One was a Nightmare, straight to discard pile along with the key. These were the last 4 cards in the deck, 2 Lost Dreams, Wild Sun and Green Tower.

I just revealed them one after the other to send those 2 Lost Dreams to the Dreamcatcher. One card left from the deck and I found my way out.

Playing time was almost 60 minutes.

Fleet

The card game version of Fleet was one of my first games into this hobby. I had to buy a used copy and the expansion is not available locally. So, I had this game for almost 4 years and played the solo variant a couple of times. I had to admit that this recent session was the first time I played correctly, or hopefully I did.

Misunderstood how the auction works. The way I played back then was I did one on one auction with first captain before moving to the 2nd Captain in solo mode. Like either the first captain reached the maximum bid first or they passed completely before moving and continue the bidding with the next. Now it made sense that I have to involve the bid with both at the same time, with them taking turns raising or passing.

Well, the result is of course different but I was not sure by how much between the two. Sometimes with this correct way, one of the Captain can just immediately pass so it is like I bid one on one. Well, at least, with the correct one, the scoring is much closer between me and the 2 Captains. With my incorrect way, I think I win easily and I thought that was just the way it is.

This recent session run for 9 rounds. I scored 64 with Captain T.C. scored 68 and Captain Kirkman scored 62. The only reason I lost was because of the last round.

In that round, there was one King Crab Premium License and 2 Common Licenses. I couldn’t afford to just buy that Premium above the Max Bid of Captains. So, I had to open the bid of the other first hoping that the Captains took the Common licenses while I buy the Premium with cheaper price.

Kirkman bought the Common first. So, only me and T.C. I opened the bid for the other license and apparently T.C. backed out so I had to take that and T.C. got the Premium. That one gave him 11 points. Oh, well. I should have processed more crates just to make sure I can avoid bidding in that kind of situation even if I probably lose a couple of points. Maybe just preparing to have money with that same limit as the corp.

I think I want to try the 2-handed next with either Captain or even like 4 players.

Playing time was about 40 minutes. Read the Full Session Report here.

Learn more about the game from Fleet Review.

A Gentle Rain

Recently, Incredible Dream Studios announced their new version of A Gentle Rain game. They even have 2 versions, one which is almost the same as the one from Mondo Games with wooden token for the flowers and the other, Bloom Edition which use 3D plastic flowers. This deluxe edition surely looks nice but that means bigger box with plastic insert. Well, until it gets to my local shop, I will stick with my old version.

I played this 4 times. 1st one scored 16, that means there were 8 tiles left. 2nd play scored only 13 or with 5 tiles left. 3rd play I actually failed to find the 2 Flowers left so only scored 6. The 4th and last play I scored exactly 8, no tiles left.

For the 1st one, I didn’t shuffle the tiles probably from my previous play. So, there was a chance that the order of those tiles just worked one with the next, making it easier to score.

That 3rd one was probably my worst play after about 60 plays. Usually I only had 1 flower left and this one I still had 2. I remember during this session, first flower ended up creating a dead corner where two sides with Black flower, making it impossible to place anything there.

Similar situations have happened before but most of the time I could still even win with a couple tiles left. Somehow this time, it led to creating some U shape which was kind of almost impossible to put any tile in between.

I probably should have ended my game there but I was hoping to end at least with a win so I played the 4th time. While there were no dead corners but still a lot of U-shape, making them wasted a couple of colors. Also I felt frustrated because I kept getting the right 2 colors but not the right position on the tile.

Actually the 4th one, I remember that I couldn’t place the 3rd tile where all those 4 colors had no opening from the existing tiles. I had to change the first 2 and it had one opening.

Well, this experience of me forcing myself to get a win and became frustrating has happened before. I should have played just slowly and take more time. Maybe even take a breath just like the game suggested. Even if I don’t care about the score but I still consider this a game not just a tool for meditation as advertised and trying to get a win somehow important.

Playing time was about 64 minutes total for those 4 sessions.

Learn more about the game from A Gentle Rain Review.

Aquamarine

Time to dive again with solo play Aquamarine, back with the 1st Sheet again. The Dive started at the time of 4 so at night time.

1ST ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 2 & 4. I chose to dive from the right boat first and chose the 2, going 2 spaces downward. Found a single White Coral.

2ND ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 3 & 3. So I got to move 5 spaces but with free form. Unfortunately, 5 was not enough to reach the next Coral down. So, I stopped in the same column where I found the Cuttlefish.

3RD ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 3 & 5. Going down with 5 meant that I had to cover both different corals at the same time. I stayed with just one and moved just 3 spaces, with 1 Coral.

4TH ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 4 & 6. No other option for direction to move but downwards. There was a bubble ahead so I picked the 6. This covered a Coral, that Bubble and a Goldfish. Started to use more oxygen at this point.

5TH ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 4 & 5. So, there was a Flag nearby but if I used the 5, that Flag was stuck as a single space. So, I had to use the 4 first in long vertical shape, covering 2 Butterflyfishes.

6TH ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 2 & 2. With 4 and free form, I got the Flag and then moved downwards, trying to reach the other Cuttlefish below. At this point I reached the 1st HARD DIFFICULTY requirement for solo.

7TH ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 4 & 6. I thought I still had more time for this dive. So, instead of using 6 to get to the Cuttlefish, I used it to reach the Beacon and this happened during night time.

8TH ROLL, 1ST DIVE, 2 & 4. Well, that was perfect to reach the Cuttlefish even just with the 2. Ended the 1st Dive here.

9TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 2 & 5. 5 was perfect for the middle boat to reach the 2 Butterflyfishes, vertically. So, I started my 2nd dive there and spent 3 oxygen.

10TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 6 & 6. With 8 and free form, I got to the Cuttlefish since it was still night time, a Black coral next to it and I still could reach the Flag.

11TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 1 & 2. Not much I could do. I decided to use the 2 just to get closer to the shipwreck nearby.

12TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 4 & 6. There was another Beacon but this time was still night time so it was useless to get that. On the other hand, there was a Bubble nearby so I used the 6 to avoid using oxygen. This covered the Bubble and a single Butterflyfish.

13TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 1 & 6. Day time. Well, spending 5 oxygen for the 6 was too much. I already had to start spending because of the depth. So, I used the 1 just to pass the Jellyfish.

14TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 2 & 2. Got 4 with free form but I just used a square shape to cover the 2 Butterflyfishes nearby.

15TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 4 & 6. 6 was perfect to reach and completely cover the shipwreck. I chose the bonus for Cuttlefish since I already got a lot.

16TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 3 & 6. I had to keep moving downwards but only the 3 worked, vertically. I got another Flag from this dive. At this point, I reached the 2nd Hard Difficulty requirement for solo play. I guess I could have ended my dive here.

17TH ROLL, 2ND DIVE, 3 & 5. Well, that 5 was perfect to cover 2 Butterflyfishes and a bubble vertically so I chose it. This was the end of the 2nd Dive.

18TH ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 2 & 3. I chose the 2 to still cover a Coral and next to a vertical space.

19TH ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 3 & 5. I chose 3 vertically just to be next to that shipwreck or I had to spend 2 turns to cover everything.

20TH ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 3 & 6. 6 was perfect to cover all of the Shipwreck. As a bonus I should have chosen something else but instead I chose the Coral Bonus.

21ST ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 3 & 4. I couldn’t move downward with 3 so I use 4 as square shape. Found nothing.

22ND ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 4 & 6. Only 3 turns left so I had to use the 6 vertically. Luckily this covered a Bubble and ended the movement right next to a Jellyfish. This was 1 space away from the solo requirement.

23TH ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 2 & 3. I had to use the 3 vertically, spending 2 oxygen, covering just 1 Butterflyfish. At this point I reached all hard mode solo requirement.

24TH ROLL, 3RD DIVE, 2 & 5. There was a cuttlefish but this was still day time. My best option was just to use 2 to cover 2 Butterflyfishes.

That was the end of the dive and the game.

SCORING
Cuttlefish: 15
Coral: 12
Flags: 22
Shipwreck Bonus: 19
Butterflyfish: 15
Beacon: 0
Jellyfish: 0
FINAL SCORE: 83

Playing time was about 30 minutes.

Isle of Trains: All Aboard

I’ve played the solo mode of Isle of Trains: All Aboard a couple of times before. Initially, I was going to try the 1st Scenario but I was not sure that I played correctly last time. A discussion thread for this game made me realize that I may have got one or two rule wrong. This is about drawing a card or cards. In solo mode it is mandatory and will lead to end of the game sooner.

Another rule that I thought that I might have been playing incorrectly was resolving the bonus action. The bonus action doesn’t trigger another bonus. So, I thought maybe I should just play without the scenario again.

Started with a Green and Orange passenger. Got a Level 3 Tanker, Level 2 Hopper, Caboose 6, Level 3 Coach and a building.

1st Round. As 1st action, I loaded the Passenger on the Engine to get 2 cards which I took from the face up cards. One was Level 3 Engine and the other was Level 2 Coach. As 2nd action, I built that Level 2 Coach and paid 4 cards. Got a Blue and Purple passenger.

2nd Round. I loaded the orange passenger on that Coach car to get 3 cards and 2 VP. Got a building, Level 1 Hopper and Caboose 5. I discarded the building to build that Hopper as my 2nd action.

3rd Round. Loaded the Blue passenger to the Coach again to get 3 cards and 2 VP. Got Level 1 Coach, Level 2 Tanker and Caboose 7. I discarded 5 of them to upgrade the Engine from Level 1 to Level 3. Got a White passenger as bonus.

4th Round. I got 3 passengers, a Green, Orange and Blue. Delivered them to Camp Eagle or the Orange. I got 2 cards and a Load bonus which I loaded the Purple passenger on the Coach. The other 2 passengers became the Special Delivery to get 4 cards.

I guess this was where I made the mistake for triggering the bonus after loading that purple passenger. It was done via +L action so I was not supposed to get a benefit. So I got 3 extra cards and 2 VP. Oh well.

As 2nd action, I upgraded the Hopper from Level 1 to Level 2 by discarding 3 cards.

5th Round. Loaded the White passenger on the Coach again for 3 more cards and 2 VP. As 2nd action, I loaded first Coal to the Hopper and this gave me 2 cards and a Build action. Well, with that many cards I built Level 2 Boxcar for 6. 2 cards left. So, had I played correctly, I didn’t have enough card.

6th Round. I loaded another Coal and got Level 2 Coach and a building. As 2nd action, I delivered those 2 Coal and the White passenger to the ALPINE LODGE and secured the Contract. From the passengers, I got 4 VP. The purple passenger became the special delivery and gave me 2 cards, another Coach and Caboose.

7th Round. I upgraded the Coach from Level 2 to Level 3 by discarding 3 cards. From that I got 3 passengers, a White, a Purple and a Green. As 2nd action, I loaded the White passenger again to that Coach and got 3 cards plus 3 VP. Got another Engine, Tanker and Coach.

8th Round. I loaded the Box to that Boxcar and get 4 cards plus 1 Load action which I loaded the other Box. As 2nd action, I loaded the Coal to the Hopper to get 2 cards plus a Build Action, upgrading the Boxcar from Level 2 to Level 3.

9th Round. I loaded the purple passenger to the Coach again to get 3 cards plus 3 VP. One of them was the Coal Factory Building card which could generate a lot of points for me. I loaded 2nd Coal to the hopper, getting me 2 cards and a build action which I used to build that Building for 6 cards. I had 0 cards left.

10th Round. I loaded the Green passenger to the Coach to get 3 cards plus 3 VP. Well, it seems I lost track of what I did and there was a chance I didn’t do 2nd action or the previous one I did 3.

11th Round. I had 3 passengers, I delivered them to the Alpine again. The White passengers gave me 2 cards plus 2 VP and the other 2 became special delivery, giving me 4 cards. One of these cards was the Level 3 Hopper so I upgraded my Hopper by discarding 3 cards.

12th Round. I loaded 3rd Coal to that Hopper and with 3 Coals and 2 Boxes, I fulfilled the 2nd Contract of Alpine Lodge. Those were the 2 actions. Loading that 3rd Coal gave me another action which I took a Green passenger.

13th Round. The deck almost run out of cards. I used this chance to score a 2nd contract with the Billington’s. For that I had to return a couple of cards to the deck by spending VP. After that I loaded a Box to the Boxcard where I had to draw 5 and discard 1 card plus 1 Load action. For the extra load, I loaded the Coal. I delivered them both to the Billington’s.

So, that was the end of the game.

Scoring:
Coal Factory: 6 Coals x 2 = 12 points
Billington’s Route: 5 points
Alpine Lodge Route: 14 points
Engine Car: 4 points
Coach Car: 3 points
Hopper: 8 points
Boxcar: 8 points
VP tokens: 12 points
Loaded: 0 point
Final Score: 66 points.

Well, had I played correctly, I probably lost 10 points at least. Playing time was about 42 minutes.

Mandala

Meditate with a game of Mandala. This was a solo play with my modified official solo variant.

My starting hand was 2 Black, 1 Red, Purple, Green and Yellow. The Mandala on the left had a Yellow and Orange on the Mountain while the right Mandala was seeded with Green and Yellow.

I started first and play a Green on my left side since I couldn’t play it on my right. The opponent played their Black so the left had 4 colors.

Since I couldn’t play my black on the left, I played one of my Black on my right side. The opponent played an Orange on their right side, the 4th color.

With my only Yellow, I seeded the right Mountain with a 2nd Yellow. I got 1 Purple, 1 Green and 1 Black. Apparently the opponent also played a Yellow but to the left mountain as the 2nd Yellow.

With my only Red, I played it on my right side, which became the 5th color. The opponent added another Green to the right Mountain. So both colors had 2 each.

After that, I played my one Purple to my left side. The opponent played on the left as well and the draw was a Red. They drew 2 more times and it was a Black and a Red. to this left Mandala. The Mandala finally had 6 colors and the opponent won the majority. The opponent picked the 2 Yellow while I got 1 Orange as my first scoring color. The Mandala then was seeded with 2 Red.

Next, I played a Purple which was thee 6th color on my side and I won the majority with 3 cards against the opponent 1. I picked the 2 Green which became my 2nd scoring color while the opponent got 3 Yellow. The right Mountain was destroyed and got 2 new cards which both were Orange.

I made a mistake here and forgot to take action for the opponent then I lost track. So, I kind of reset the game and got a new set of cards with 2 Black, 1 Orange, 1 Purple and 1 Red. Oh well…

I played my orange on my left side since I couldn’t play it on my right. The opponent played a Purple on their left, so the Mandala had 3 colors.

Then I played my purple on the right with the opponent played a red. The right Mandala had 3 colors at this point.

I had to get more cards so I played my Black to the Left Mountain so it had 2 colors now. The new cards I got were 1 Red and 2 Yellow. The opponent did the same but with Red on the left Mountain so the Mountain had 3 Red and 1 Black.

I seeded the Right Mountain now with the 2nd color which was a Yellow. From that I got 1 Yellow, 1 Black and 1 Orange. The opponent added a Black on their right, winning the majority.

So, I played my Yellow to my left side as the 4th color of the Mandala. The opponent actually added another Yellow on the Right so the mountain had 2 cards for both colors.

I played another Yellow on my left side. The opponent then played a green on their left and that was the only card. So, the Left Mandala had 6 colors and I won the majority with 3 cards vs opponent’s 2. I took the 3 Red as my 3rd scoring color while the opponent only got 1 Black as their 2nd scoring color. The Mandala was seeded by 2 Purple

I played a Red to that Mountain and got a Red, a Yellow and a Purple. The opponent added a Black on their right side where they already won the majority.

I played my Yellow to the left side while the opponent added 2 Orange to that side, winning the majority again. After that I played a Black so I tied on that Left Mandala while the opponent added a 3rd Purple to the Mountain.

I added a Red still to that Mountain and got 2 Green and 1 Orange. The opponent added a 3rd Yellow to the right Mountain.

I played my 1 Green to the left side which was 3rd card and 6th color. The opponent only had 2 cards so I won. I took the 3 Purple as my 4th color while the opponent only got 1 Red as their 3rd color. The Mandala was seeded with 1 Green and 1 Purple. The opponent played their single Yellow on that left side.

I played my Red to my left while the opponent added 2nd Yellow on their left. 2 Black on my left side while the opponent added a Yellow to the right Mountain.

After that, I added 2nd Purple to the Left Mountain and got 2 Black and 1 Red. The opponent added a red to their right where they already won. So, I finally decided to play the 6th color to the right even if I lost the majority.

Now the opponent had tricky choice. They could take the 3 orange and got 8 points while giving me 4 yellows which was worth 15 points for me. Or they took the 4 yellow for 4 points while I only scored 3. I should have chosen the former but instead I picked the one where the opponent got more color scoring.

The Mandala was seeded with Yellow and Orange. For the opponent’s turn, they added 2nd Green to the left Mountain so both colors had 2.

I played my red to my right while the opponent added an Orange to the Right mountain. My plan was to get all color scorings so I played a Black as 3rd color to the right mountain while the opponent added 3 cards to their left side and 6th color.

The opponent took the 2 Purple for 5 points while I only got 2 Green for 4 points. New Mandala was seeded with red and purple.

I played 2 purple to the right side, ensuring to win the majority. The opponent played the green on the right side, completing all 6 colors to the right. I took the 1 Black as the 6th scoring color and single yellow for 5 points while opponent got 2 Orange for 8.

Since I got all scoring colors, that triggered the end of the game.
My score:
1 x 0 = 0
2 x 5 = 10
3 x 3 = 9
4 x 2 = 8
5 x 4 = 20
6 x 0 = 0
Total Score: 47

Opponent’s score:
My score:
1 x 4 = 4
2 x 1 = 2
3 x 1 = 3
4 x 4 = 16
5 x 2 = 10
6 x 0 = 0
Total Score: 35

Playing time was about 23 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Mandala Review.

The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game

Build your estate around the castle in another solo play of The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game. After a number of plays since 2020, I just realized that I missed the part where Aaron, the solo opponent will give you 1 VP everytime Arron gets a Cloister.

Even during this last session, I read it when I checked the setup rule again and I misunderstood that rule. I thought that Aaron should be the one getting extra points. Then after I lost the game, I checked the forum and apparently those extra points are for players. So, up to this point, I may have made the game slightly more difficult for me?

After realizing that, I also noticed that some people have suggested variants related to this Cloisters to make Aarron more challenging. Based on this recent play, I thought giving that point (which I did mistakenly) to Aaron was enough for me to get beaten. So, here is what happened.

ROUND 1. Aaron started with Cloister, Mine, and Pasture. So, I immediately got 1 point from it. From the market, there were 3 Blue or ship cards, 1 Pasture, 1 Mine, 1 Castle and 1 Building.

I played my 6 to take the Castle. Then with 4, I took the Ship and another ship with 2. I had 2 6s. Spent 1 worker to turn one of them into 1 so I could install the Castle to my estate. With the extra bonus action, I installed the Ship 2. Got the goods 2 as bonus.

I got a 5 and a 6 which were useless. Decided to spend one to get 2 Workers. With the 6 turned into 1 I took the 3rd Ship to my planning area.

ROUND 2. Aaron had 6 cards with 6 different colors plus 1 extra Pasture. So, still no point for Aaron. The market had 2 ships, 1 Castle, 1 Pasture, 1 Mine and 2 buildings.

I had a 4, turned it into 3 so I could take a Castle. My plan area was full and with no workers, I couldn’t install any of the card to my estate. I spent the 5 for 2 Workers.

With 1 of 2 4s, I turned it into a 3 to install the Castle which was the 2nd of my triplet. As bonus, I also installed the 2nd Ship. Got me the 3rd type of goods.

I had a 1 and a 4. Spent 1 worker to turn the 4 into 3 so I could install the Ship 3 as the 3rd card of the triplet. I scored the Blue triplet first and took the bonus. This was in Round B so I could take 2 goods as well. Got 1 from 2nd type and 2 for the 1st type.

2 cards left, a 1 and a 3. Nothing from the market helped me much so I used the 1 to deliver 3 goods. Got 3 Silver and 3 points.

The last 3 was still useless so I traded 3 Silver for 3 cards. One of them was a Yellow 5. I noticed that I needed to get this Yellow type so I don’t need to get workers so I placed it as my plan. Still, the last card was turned into 2 Workers.

Current Score: 9 points

ROUND 3. This time Aaron finished the Yellow triplet first and got the bonus for 5 points. Aaron also got another Cloister so that was 1 point for me. At this point, Aaron also got all 7 colors first, scoring additional 3 points. So, Aaron got 8 while I got 10.

2 Yellow, 1 Castle, 1 Pasture, 1 Mine and 2 Buildings on the market. I had get those yellows and Castle. However, one of the buildings could give a bonus of taking either Cloister, Castle or Mine to the planning area.

Got a 3 and a 5 so I played a 3 to take that building. Now I got a 4. I wanted to make sure the 5 could be for installing the yellow for more workers. So I played the 4 first, turning it to 5 with 1 worker to get 2nd Yellow.

Then I got a 1, which I spent to install the building. As the bonus I took the Castle from Market 1. I got a 1 which was useless so I played the 5 to install the Yellow and got 2 Workers.

Last 2 cards and I still needed to get 1 more card from market and install 3. Since Aaron already took the 1st Yellow triplet bonus, I let that one go and complete the Castle. I spent the 2 to take Yellow from Market 2. Spent 2 workers to turn a 1 into 3 to install the Castle 3 and the complete the Green triplet. Got 1 point bonus, 2 points from triplet and since this was the last time to get goods, I took 2nd type.

As additional bonus for installing the green, I installed another yellow so I had 3 workers again.

Current Score: 13 points for me.

ROUND 4. Aaron finally scored the Blue and the Beige. I already got the Blue so bonus for the Beige only. Extra 8 points for Aaron with 16 vs my 13.

The market had 2 Pastures, 1 Cloister, 1 Building, 1 Castle, 1 Ship and 1 Yellow. Unless I used the Cloister to complete a triplet or got lucky with Silver, I couldn’t score any new triplet this round.

I got 2 2s so I took the building from the Market 2. Then I got a 6, turned it into a 5 so I could install the 3rd Yellow. Got 4 points. I guess I was saved at this point, not get eliminated. As bonus from round I got 2 Silvers, adding them to my existing 1.

With my previous other 2, I installed the Building as the 2nd of triplet. The bonus allowed me to get either a Pasture or Ship which I took the Pasture to my planning area. With 2 2s again, I used one to take the Cloister.

The 2 cards were both 2s. I thought I was losing so I decided to use the Cloister to complete that Building triplet. Got 3 points and 2 more workers.

Last 2 cards were a 2 and a 5. Spent a worker to turn a 5 into 4 so I could take the 2nd Pasture. I traded 3 Silvers and used one of the cards to install one of the Pasture 5. Got a sheep from it. With the last card, I installed the 2nd Pasture and got a Pig. So I got 2 points for having 3 different animals.

Current Score: 22

ROUND 5. Aaron got a lot of points this time. Got 6 plus 1 for completing Cloister, 2 points for completing Castle and 4 points plus 1 for Pasture triplet. So, Aaron got 30 points vs my 22. However, Aaron got 3 Cloisters which gave me extra 3 points.

The Market had 2 Yellows, 2 Cloisters, 1 Ship and 2 Buildings. I had to use the Cloister to complete the Pasture set. There were still 2 different type of goods I could sell, each with 2.

Started with a 5 and a 6. Used the 6 to take the Cloister. Then I got a 1 which I turned into 6 to install that Cloister as 3rd of Pasture Triplet. Got 4 points.

I wanted to get more goods so with the 2 I just got, I turned it into a 3 so get the Ship from Market 3. Then with my 5, I installed the Ship and got 3rd goods of the 2nd type.

2 cards left with a 3 and a 6. Both were perfect just to sell the 2 types of goods. Unfortunately, that means I got a lot of Silver but not enough to turn them into points. Got extra 5 points from those sold goods.

FINAL SCORE: 34 POINTS vs Aaron’s 30. If I ignore the extra points from each Cloister like how I played the game up to this point, then I probably have lost the game.

Somebody also suggested a variant to use Aaron’s extra cloister to complete the other set. Those 2 extra Cloister could have given Aaron 9 more points. I guess I stick with the official rule.

Playing time was about 34 minutes.

Learn more about the game from The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game Review.

Old Town Road

Back to No Country for Old Men with a solo play of Old Town Road. Started with a 7, 2, 3, A, 5 and 4 from left to right. I thought the best set from these was a Straight with 3, 4 and 5.

The Ace of Diamond in the middle was perfect to target the 3 and 5 of Heart. She killed the 5 first and got into the wanted poster. Apparently 4 of Heart then showed up to the left. So I had a chance to get a Straight Flush set.

The Ace killed the 3 with a 3 of Spade showed up on the left. This 3 then killed the 4 of Heart, completing the first set. The current 6 were 2, 3, 7, 2, A and 4.

A potential for Pair of 2s or Straight from A to 4. I hit the middle first which was a 3. The Sherrif 4 took down with his long range gun. Ace of Club showed up on the left. That A killed the 2 of Heart next to him. Then 6 of Heart came in. The Sherrif killed the Ace of club so the 2nd set with Straight was completed. Current six were 5, 6, 7, 2 A and 4.

With these, I had a chance to perfectly rob the Bank between the A and 6. However, I had to get rid of the 2 and then the A and 6 robbed the Bank. 3 of Diamond showed up after the 2 of Diamond left the scene. After the robbing, 2 of Spade came in from the right.

So I had the chance to create the Flush. Already had 7 of Spade. There was only 2 of spade so this was a bit risky. The 5 of Diamond killed the 2 of Spade. Then the 4 of Spade showed up. Unfortunately, nobody could touch that 4 of Spade. I had to get rid of the 3 of Diamond next to him.

Apparently, 2 of Club came in and I let him killed the 2 of Spade. With this the 3rd set with Flush was complete. 5 of Spade then entered the scene from the right. Current six were 2, 5, 6, A, 4 and 5.

I could make a Pair of 5s or aim for another Straight from 4 to 6. I started with the 5 of Diamond first killed by the 6 of Diamond. Another Bank was in sight. Now the range of potential straight set got wider.

Next I aimed for the 6, killed by the Ace next to him. 5 of Club showed up. That was perfect to completely rob the bank with the help from 2 on the other side of the Bank. The 4th set was complete with a Straight set. Current 6 were 7, 5, 2, A, 4, 5.

I thought I should try getting the Pair of 5 now. Apparently the 2 of Club betrayed his partner in crime and killed the 5 of Club. Ace of Heart entered the scene.

I let the 5 of Spade finally killed the Sherrif next to him. 6 of Diamond came in from the right. Then the Ace killed that 5, completing the 5th set with a Pair. Current 6 were 3, A, 7, 2, A and 6.

I still needed the 3 of a Kind set to get all 5 different sets. My only shot was with Ace. Only 1 had been taken out and 2 were still on the road. I was expecting another Sherrif which was the Ace as he showed up previously but I chose another card.

The Ace of Heart finally killed the Ace of Diamond. As expected, the Sherrif Ace showed up and took down the other Ace. 4 of Diamond came in and killed that Sherrif, completing the 6th set with 3 of a Kind. Current 6 were 7, 4, 3, 7, 2 and 6.

From these, I was planning to get Pair of 7s. Started with the other card first which was the 2 of Club, killed by 6 of Diamond next to him. This way the Bank on the right could be robbed even if not perfectly. Same with the left and the 6 of Spade next to that Bank.

6 of Diamond and 3 of Club robbed the right bank first. Last card, 6 of Spade entered the road. 6 of Club, along with 4 of Diamond robbed the other bank, completing the 7th set which was Pair.

Remaining 5 were 6, 6, 4, 3, 6. So I had a chance with those 6s. 6 of Spade from 3 spaces away shot the 6 of Diamond. 4 of Diamond, the partner in crime during the robbery killed that 6 of Club along with 6 of Spade, completing the 8th set.

Only the 4 of Diamond and 3 of Club as the last 2 standing, got into the Old Town…

Scoring
1st Set: Straight Flush = 10 points
2nd Set: Straight = 5 points
3rd Set: Flush = 8 points
4th Set: Straight = 11 points
5th Set: Pair = 6 points
6th Set: 3 of a Kind = 12 points
7th Set: Pair = 6 points
8th Set: 3 of a Kind = 10 points
All 5 Different Sets Bonus = 10 points
FINAL SCORE: 78 POINTS

Playing time was about 18 minutes.

The Dungeon of D

Another attempt to find the Amulet of D’eugor, that can nullify the Black Knight’s healing power in The Dungeon of D. 17 Heroes were sent there but none came back. The Ranger as the last one made the final attempt. This one had the ability to get more Arrow along the way.

1st Level.

The Ranger was teleported right to the Rusty Cell of the 1st level. Inside the Cell, The Ranger found the Priest. He broke him free and the Priest decided to help. The Priest had the ability of Healing Hand.

The journey continued and the 2 proceeded to the next room where they found a room filled a Notorious Blooms and an Orc. They still had a lot of strength so the Orc was not much of a challenge. After defeating the Orc, they searched through those flowers and found some money and random potions.

At the end of the room, they found a Hidden door. When they opened it they almost fell into a trap. This led to another Hidden Door with similar trap. Nothing else to do here.

A lot of doors. One of them was a Treasure room, Guarded by a Monster. Realized that the monster was probably too powerful for them, they just immediately moved while taking some coins.

The next room happened to have a Boulder Trap. They jumped and avoided it. However, another Orc came and attacked them. The 2 defeated it easily.

The 2 proceeded to the next room and found themselves in Grand Hall. They found another Potion but they didn’t know what it was. Giant Bat came and attacked them but was even weaker than those Orcs.

Next, they entered a room with a Giant Carnivorous Plant. They realized that in certain branches of that Plant, there were treasures. The 2 attempted to get on the highest one and found Coins and Arrow.

After leaving that room, they entered what apparently a Hidden Room they previously visited. The 2 had not found the Mystic Portal but they had an idea where they should explore next. Instead of going to the Treasure room, they went the other way and found that Mystic Portal.

Another Orc attacked the group again and got defeated. Before teleporting to the next level, the group spent their coins to upgrade their weapons and take a rest. They had a choice to continue or escape the dungeon and decided to continue. The 2 Mages that sent the heroes there then teleported them again to the next level.

2nd Level.

The 2 found themselves in what appears to be a hidden room. They heard some noise, like a Monster was approaching. It was a Giant Spider. Thanks to upgrading the Weapon earlier, they managed to avoid getting Poison.

They found another Cell with locked up Hero. A Goblin was guarding it but they defeated it easily. After destroying the big lock of that Cell, the Monk joined the group.

Next to that cell was a Treasure Room guarded by a very strong monster. They knew they were not prepared for it. They just moved again while taking some coins.

This led to another Hidden room with some Electric traps. Luckily, they managed to avoid it and no monster was approaching. The 3 continued to the next room with another Large Carnivorous Plant. Before entering, a Skeleton attacked them. Usually this Skeleton had the ability to regenerate but not this time.

Just like last time, they attempted to reach the highest branch of the Plant and found some coins and arrow. At this point, they were almost exhausted and decided to rest. That room was not ideal so they moved back to the previous hidden room with less dangerous.

They took a rest and did some upgrading. After resting, they realized that room had another door and they explored it. Apparently that was the next Mystic Portal.

The 3 thought they should explore this level more. There was one other door connected to that Mystic Portal room. They explored it and found another Hidden room with a trap of Falling rock. While they managed to avoid it but they got attacked by Ice Slime. Well, this was not that strong.

Nothing else to be done here so they continued and apparently back to where the Carnivorous plant was. That previous Goblin was not dead and came back to attack again. After defeating the Goblin, they reached to a new room which was a Grand Hall. The room had some clue to detect random potion. One they got earlier turned out to be a Stamina Potion.

A Giant Spider suddenly attacked them but they managed to defeat it. So, they thought they have explored this level enough and decided to go back to that Mystic Portal. Apparently the previous Goblin death brought in their clans and got in the way along with Ice Slime in the Mystic Portal room.

The 3 managed to get pass through them. They had a choice again between moving forwards or end their journey. The 3 agreed to continue.

3rd Level.

After the teleport, the 3 found themselves in a Snake Pit! They had to immediately find a way out. Found it and they got away. Even got a random potion.

Apparently the next room they entered was the Mystic Portal. But a Goblin was there and attacked them. They were not ready this time and did a very weak attack. Luckily, that landed on the Goblin’s critical point and instantly killed it.

The 3 could have proceeded to the next level but they decided to explore the level more. That room was connected to the Hall of Echos. The 3 got attacked by Flying Wight but defeated it with no trouble.

The room was filled with Sand and the 3 noticed that there was something in the sand and tried to pull it out. It was an item, a Rope. The 3 continued entering the hidden door connected to the Hall.

This was a Healing Room. They took time to rest and prepare before continued exploring. Next to it was similar room but with an Electric Dart trap and a Goblin. They defeated those obstacles. This room had enough tools to help them upgrade their equipment.

After taking a rest, they moved to the next room with another Large Carnivorous Plant. It had Ice Devil attacking them. This one was not that strong but they kept trying to steal stuffs from the group. After defeating the Devil and taking some treasures on the plant, they moved to the next room where they found a Large Chest.

A Flying Wight attacked them but easily was defeated. They tried to open this large chest and found some items. This room was connected back to the Mystic Portal room. Luckily nothing got in the way. The 3 had a choice again to either continue or end their journey. They decided to keep going.

4th Level.

After teleporting, the 3 ended on a Snake Pit again, similar to the previous level. They got out, entering another Hall of Echos which confused them, thinking that they didn’t proceed to the next level.

However, they noticed something different. This time, a Zombie came and attacked them. This was first time facing one. After defeating it, the moved to the next room which was the similar room with the Large chest from previous level. Nothing to do here so they moved right away.

The 3 found a Peculiar Shop. In this random dungeon? Well, the shop owner seemed to already get used to meet with random explorers. Apparently they can buy or sell things here including identifying some random potion.

The shop owner said that one hero had been waiting for their arrival. But they had to pay in order to meet this person. The group agreed to pay and finally meet another Hero, the Wrestler.

The Wrestler shared his story of exploring this dungeon and what they may faced later. He said it was too dangerous and proposed to just go back to the world and retry again later.

Next to this Peculiar Shop was the Mystic Portal room. The Wrestler came along and he asked whether to continue or go back and escape the dungeon without the Amulet. 4 levels left.

Well… to be continued.

Actually, probably not. I wasn’t sure to continue this since it already took almost 2 hours. I keep track the progression so I could just continue the next level in my next play. But even this one I made a lot of mistakes, including getting mixed up between Item and Special item. Regardless, that was the end of this session.

Playing time was about 100 minutes.

Trailblazers

Continuing the standard solo mode of Trailblazers. This time with HARMONIZER as the objective. For this I need to have 3 sets of loops for each type.

ROUND 1, 1ST DRAW. From the first 8 cards, there were 2 with 2 red lines in which one of them was the main line. So, I started with the Bicycle Shack. Both of them had L-shape main line but in opposite direction. I placed one of them completely on the left side pointing the L-shape up. The other one was placed horizontally with half part adjacent to the first card and the other was adjacent to the camp. With these, I had 3 entry/exit points to the camp.

ROUND 1, 2ND DRAW. Unfortunately, from those 6, none of them was completely red. I thought my best option was to go for the Blue. There was already a Blue line in one of the first card at the bottom left corner so I could start extending it.

One of them had all Blue lines with a straight line as the main one. There was another card with C-shape blue with 2 shorter Reds. I placed the straight one horizontally, planning to have the camp right below it. Then the C-shape connecting the 2 shorter blue lines of that card. By placing the Blue camp and I already got 1 loop for blue. At the same time, the shorter red in the top right corner of that C-shape extended the loop of the line. I just needed one part again to complete that red loop.

ROUND 1, 3RD DRAW. Only 1 red as the main line while the rest were brown. That red one has C-shape. If the shape was facing down then there was shorter blue at the top left and shorter brown at the top right. Based on this, I thought I should start working on the Brown as well. Brown camp would be at the top right corner from the red.

I placed the C-shape red horizontally above the 2nd card, connecting 2 red lines of that card. Then, there was an S-shape Brown with one shorter red and one shorter brown. That shorter red was enough to complete the first red loop worth 7 points.

ROUND 2, 1ST DRAW. From these 8, 3 of them had a combination of Brown and Blue which didn’t work for my progress. 1 had all colors so I had to ignore that as well. The one with main Brown and 2 red could actually work but then the 2 reds would be pointing outwards that probably was going to take alot of turns to complete.

So, my last 3 options were 2 main blues both had S-shape, one with 2 reds and the other with blue and small red. My last one was main S-shape red with 2 blues.

I decided to close the 2nd red loop first. This was done by the S-shape blue with one red. With the hope that the other 2 Blue lines of that card could be something. That loop was worth 5 points, almost no possible way to extend.

Then I tried to extend the 2nd Blue loop using the other S-shape Blue. This was placed horizontally on the right side of the camp. While extending that 2nd loop, it added a new entry or exit point for both blue and red.

ROUND 2, 2ND DRAW. Ignoring the Blue and Brown and the other card with all 3 colors, the remaining were only red and brown. 2 C-shapes, one with red and one with brown, then S-shape red and L-shape all brown.

First, I decided to use the C-shape red to create the 3rd red loop, worth only 2 points at the right side of the red camp. This also extended the brown line. There was a chance to extend this 3rd red loop with the one already started at the bottom of Red Camp.

Next, I chose the all brown L-shape and placed it at the top right corner. Still was not sure where I would be placing the Brown camp later. But by doing so, I had 3 brown lines at least.

ROUND 2, 3RD DRAW. 2 were the combinations of blue and brown while the other 2 were all 3 colors. None of them were perfect but I had to make do. I chose the C-shape Blue with 2 browns to extend the 2nd blue loop and connect it back to the camo at the top left corner of the camp. There was a chance to extend this corner.

The 2nd card I chose was the L-shape Blue. with a straight short blue and a brown. I placed this horizontally on the right side of the camp, the bottom part. This completed the 2nd blue loop while extending the 3rd one to the bottom. The 2nd loop was worth 9 points.

ROUND 3, 1ST DRAW. None of these 8 were actually good or helped decide where to put the last camp. I had 12 cards left to place and the brown probably required a lot more work to complete the loop.

So, I placed the camo at the top right next to a C-shape brown loop so that it became the first closed brown loop with no possibilities to extend.

As for the cards, I decided to extend the 3rd red loop at the bottom right corner of the camp. I had 1 L-shape to place on the right pointing down and then to the left. This left one space left that required a straight small red line to connect with the other entry pointing from the bottom to the right. I had a couple options but I chose the one with Blue straight as the main with 1 small straight red.

That 3rd red loop was worth 5 points. There was still rooms to extend but probably not enough time.

ROUND 3, 2ND DRAW. No blue lines as the main, 2 main brown and 4 main red. I had to start working on the Brown. First, I chose the C-shape brown and placed it at the top left corner of the camp. This connected one of the brown lines to the camp. That card also had smaller brown at the top left corner, possibly to extend the same loop but from the other end.

Lucky enough, there was one L-shape brown with also a small brown. This also extended that same 2nd Brown loop and made it worth 9 points. If I could get another C-shape brown this could also connect to the 3rd line Brown which added 5 more points, plus 3 to connect to camp again.

ROUND 3, 3RD DRAW. All 4 were S-shape, 2 red, 1 Blue and 1 Brown. I chose a small brown at the corner of the red one to extend the 3rd brown line to the camp. Now, I needed only the C-shape brown to finish the 2nd brown loop.

Not the best option but I decided to use the Blue one to extend the 3rd blue loop from the right to the bottom of the camp. Ideally I needed at least an L-shape blue from right to the top.

ROUND 4, 1ST DRAW. From these 8, I actually got all the L-shape blue I just mentioned. I chose one and completed the 3rd blue loop worth 5 points.

2 brown loops left. For that, I needed at least 2 Brown with C-shape. There were none. If not, I needed probably 4 of the smaller ones at the corner. In the hopes that I would get at least one more C-shape brown, I decided to work on the 2nd loop with shorter brown line. Still required 1 more.

ROUND 4, 2ND DRAW. A lot of options to finally close the 2nd Brown loop so I just picked one. That loop was worth 16. No C-shape so I just picked one with S-shape brown and a smaller brown pointing from the right of the camp to below. In the worst scenario of the last draw, I could still just overlap this last card to create that C-shape for 3rd brown loop.

ROUND 4, 3RD DRAW. I was lucky and got that C-shape brown. I used this actually to extend the small brown line of that last card. This way, the 3rd brown loop was worth 3 points.

With one card left. There was one with L-shape blue that was perfect to extend the close 2nd Blue loop and added the value to 10 points.

That was the end of the game. I got all 3 loops for all 3 colors.

1st Red Loop: 5 points
2nd Red Loop: 7 points
3rd Red Loop: 5 points

1st Blue Loop: 4 points
2nd Blue Loop: 10 points
3rd Blue Loop: 5 points

1st Brown Loop: 2 points
2nd Brown Loop: 16 points
3rd Brown Loop: 3 points

TOTAL SCORE: 57 points

Playing time was about 22 minutes.

Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

16th solo play of Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write. The 3 buildings were Casino, Welcome Center and Hot Spring Mud Spa. For Specialists, Large Carnivore Handler, Small Carnivore Trainer and Social Media Manager. And for the 3 solo objectives, 3 Large Carnivore paddocks, 4 Merch Stores and 3 Small Carnivore Paddocks.

ROUND 1, 1st Action Phase. Raise Funds and Extract DNA were occupied. I picked the 2 Coins and 1 Yellow DNA plus Merch Store. I placed the store on the left side of the HQ. The last die I didn’t take had no threat. Then for dice placement, I doubled the money and the Yellow DNA plus another Merch Store right next to that previous one.

So, I had 4 coins, I hired that Social Media Manager. I got one Excitement Level. For every 5 threats, this Specialists would increase the Excitement Level by 1.

ROUND 1, 2nd Action Phase. This time, Duplicate and Build action were occupied. The duplicate gave me a road. I think I made mistake by taking 2 actually. Oh well.

I took one die with a Coin and Red DNA, built the Restaurant from another. Restaurant was placed on the right side to that HQ, connected to the 1st exit.

From the remaining, I had to pick either 1 Yellow or 1 Blue while the leftover would give me 3 threats. I picked the Blue since I already had a lot more Yellow and the 3 threats.

1 Coin and 2 more from the Raise Funds was enough for hiring the Security Chief. Free 2 security points vs 3 threats. For the 2nd die placement, I did Build action so the occupied die gave me 1 more threat.

ROUND 1, Run Park Phase. With 3 Merch Stores, I actually got all 3 dice with a total of 4 Coins. I paid 3 for the Jr. Scientist, hoping that I could make a Large Carnivore while getting benefit from the Handlers. Well, the last part didn’t happen with not enough money.

Instead I started hiring the Tour Guide, hoping to boost the excitement level so I got enough security. Also 1 coin from the Restaurant.

3rd Security from the Chief. I built the 1st Spinosaurus, placed the paddock right next to the 2nd exit to the right. Gained 2 threats and 3 excitement Level. For the 2nd Dinosaurs, I built the Ankvlosaurus, the herbivore one. I placed the paddock between the Restaurant and that Large Carnivore paddock. I got at least 5 threats so the Social Media Manager hyped the Excitement level by 1.

The Park Rune route this time was to the left from HQ, going through the 2 Merch Stores and to the first exit to the left. The Excitement Level went up twice.

From the Excitement Level track, I reached the 8th space of 1st row. So, I got 2 regular DNA, 1 Coin and 1 Security. The money went to fully hire the Tour Guide which gave me 3 additional Excitement Level. That got me 1 more coin and 1 security. The money went to the Large Carnivore Handler.

ROUND 2, 1st Action Phase. Make Dinos and Raise Funds were occupied. I got 1 Coin and double from it which I spent to hire that Large Carnivore Handler. Got 1 Excitement Level and security. The 2nd die I picked Purple and Blue DNA. I picked also Green DNA and 2 threats. Then for the 2nd die placement I used the Build action to build the 4th Merch Store which I placed between HQ and the first green paddock.

ROUND 2, 2ND Action Phase. Make Dinos and Extract DNA were occupied. I got 1 Coin from 1 die and 1 Coin plus 1 Red DNA from the other. From the last 2 I picked the 2 Red DNA and took the 3 threats.

The one coin and 1 Red got doubled, spent all coins to finally hired the last specialist the Small Carnivore trainer. 2 Excitement Levels bonus. For the 2nd die, I did build action again and this time 3 roads connecting from HQ to 4th merch store then the green paddock, then the Restaurant.

ROUND 2, Run Park Phase. From the 4 Merch Stores, I got 1 coin, 2 Roads, 1 Red DNA and a Ride. The Ride was placed between the green and yellow paddock. The 2 roads extending the 2nd Tour Route from restaurant, to the 3rd Merch Store and finally the Yellow paddock.

The ride then increased the excitement Level by 1 while Restaurant made money invested on Hot Spring Mud Spa.

From Specialist, 1 security from chief. 2 roads from Tour Guide, connecting the yellow paddock to the Ride. I think I forgot the 2nd road. Jr Scientist built 2nd yellow paddock for T-Rex. Got 2 threats and 3 excitement Levels.

The 1st Specialist gave me 2 securities for 2 yellow paddock. Nothing from the 2nd and the 3rd one gave me 2 excitement levels for having at least 10 threats.

The Dino Tour went through 5 buildings to the 2nd exit to the right from HQ, generating 5 excitement levels. From the Excitement Level track, I got 4 coins, 3 securities, 2 Advanced DNA and 2 regular DNAs. Spent the money to finally build the Hot Spring Mud Spa which I placed at the bottom right corner next to the T-Rex paddock. That building gave me 1 Restaurant so I placed between the paddock and that spa.

I got 11 threats but 12 securities at this point, so no additional death toll.

ROUND 3, 1st Action Phase. Extract DNA and Build Action were occupied. I took 1 coin and a yellow DNA to start building the Welcome Center. Then I picked a Road, extending the last Dino Tour route and a Green DNA. The last die didn’t have any threat.

For die placement, I doubled the one with Coins and also invested in that 2nd building. The 2nd die went to the occupied Build action to get 3 roads and extending the previous route again. Luckily the occupied die didn’t have any threat.

ROUND 3, 2nd Action Phase. Raise Funds and Build were occupied. I took the die with Ride, another one with Restaurant and one Green DNA. The last die had 3 threats.

First die placement was to Make 4 Dinos. One for the 3rd Large Carnivore. The paddock was near the last exit at the bottom. Built another one for Velociraptor which the paddock was placed at the bottom left corner. At this point, no more room for more paddocks so I just built more of Brachiosaurus and Ankvlosaurus. Got 7 Excitement Levels and 3 threats.

ROUND 3, Park Run Phase. From 4 Merch Stores, I got 1 security and the rest were DNAs. 2 Excitement Levels from 2 Rides. The 3 coins from restaurants profit went to Welcome Center. There was only one spot left for that.

1 security from the Chief. The 2 roads from Tour Guide were technically useless. Jr. Scientist made extra T-Rex and extra Velociraptor, 3 more threats and 5 excitement Levels. 3 securities from the 1st Specialist, 1 excitement level from 2nd Specialist, and with over 15 threats, 3rd Specialist generated 3 excitement levels.

The Dino Tour route was extended by 5 new buildings to the exit on the south. Got 5 more excitement levels. The excitement track reached all rows except for the last one.

Got 2 regular DNA, 2 advanced DNA, 6 securities and 7 coins. Since I couldn’t build the last building, the money went for DNA for points later. 18 threats but 24 securities so no additional death toll.

During the game, I scored 131. But even that I forgot to count the penalty from 1 death toll so -1. However, if I counted the error in first round, I probably failed to reach that 1st exit, got 2nd death toll and suffered bigger penalty of losing 4 DNA. Another -9 points from that so I got only 121.

Playing time was about 64 minutes.

Quests of Valeria

The King of Valeria once again looked for the new Ministry of Quests. Maria the Fortunate, a Guild Master took the challenge and started recruiting members to complete as many Quests as possible to prove herself worthy for that position.

Maria was known to accept any Quest related to either Commerce type or Subterfuge. One Subterfuge quest just came in and it would be a while so she had enough time to recruit members first.

Her first recruit was a Sorceress, mostly because she had been in the Gutrot Tavern too long and looking for just any job. She was from the Shadow faction. Maria then found access to the Worker Faction from the Blacksmith.

The 2nd recruit was a Ranger from Soldier class. He told Maria to contact with the Captain for more resources. She also met a Paladin and the Paladin agreed to help her.

The 3rd recruit was a Peasant, from Worker class. He actually had a good business and willing to provide some funds. The Peasant also introduced some access to other Workers to Maria. From the previous connections, a Priestess joined the Guild and this was from Holy faction.

5th recruit was another Priestess who had been in the Tavern, apparently. Maria talked to another Baker for resources.

6th recruit was a Bard. This one was not free. After that, Maria decided to start working on the Quest. This first one was a Subterfuge.

SERVE THE ALCHEMIST PETRUS SOME JUSTICE. Petrus had been handing out fake healing potions. He deserved some public humiliation according to this quest which required 2 Money, 2 Magic and 1 Attack, involving a Worker. For this, Maria sent out the Priestess, Bard and Sorceress.

It was a success. The Rouge in the Tavern got interested to join the guild. Maria got support from the Soldier as well, a Bogatyr sent her something.

The Guild had some room and Maria recruited a Bogatyr as her 5th which told her a Quest that she might be able to complete.

This was the 2nd Quest for this Guild which was a Commerce. REPAIR THE BRIDGE OF PRATCHETT’S PLATEU.

Maria thought this was a good idea because it helped the elders and they would turn a favor in the future. It required some money and a Worker. Maria sent out the Peasant, guarded by a Rogue.

A Merchant from previous connection came in to help. He said he had a Ranger friend willing to help as well but with extra cost. Maria agreed but she was short on resources (3 cards).

Maria then recruited a Knight who got special access to a Commerce quest. But that one required more money than what Maria had. 2 Wizards came in, brothers probably. One was willing to join on a quest while the other provided some resources.

At this point, Maria had more members than she could barely manage. But she needed others for the upcoming quest. So, to make some rooms, she sent out the Ranger and a Knight for a Battle Quest.

FLUSH OUT GOBLIN’S DEN. Those two were exactly what they needed to complete the quest. The reward was not much just a single resource.

Maria hired another Merchant and his friend a Paladin. The Guild was almost full again.

Another Battle type Quest came up. DESTROY THE GARGAN CULTIST. According to Mico the Monster Slayer, Gargans worship the old gods of death and chaos. Maria sent out her Bogatyr, Merchant and the Priestess to help Mico.

That quest was a success. An Alchemist and his Mercenary friend were interested to join the Guild after hearing that. Maria thought they were both perfect for the upcoming Subterfuge quest which required 2 Shadow factions and one of each resources.

TAKE FROM THE RICH, GIVE TO THE POOR. Maria sent both and it was a success. A Captain and his Blacksmith friend then joined the Guild. The Blacksmith gave her additional resources.

Apparently, that was not the only Blacksmith willing to join in that Tavern. The Guild was full and Maria had to send them out for Quest again. There was another Subterfuge submitted to the Tavern.

VANDALIZE THE ORB OF URDR. The quest required at least a Shadow and a Holy clan and 2 of each resource. Maria sent out Wizard and Mercenary with the financial help from a Merchant. That was the 5th quest for this Guild.

Maria then hired a Warlord and his Holy clan friend, a Cleric. The reserved quest required a Worker and a Holy with 3 Money and 3 Magic.

RESTORE THE PALACE’S MAGICAL WARDS. Clearly she had to send the Cleric and the Blacksmith but they were not enough. So, Maria hired two more, a Summoner and a Thief. The latter apparently owed Maria some money so the Thief provided the fund. While the Summoner increased the Magic Power. That was the 6th quest. Maria got some supplies for completing that quest.

No interesting quest at the moment. Maria used this chance to gather more members. Another Cleric, a Peasant and an Alchemist joined. Then a commerce Quest showed up.

THE LOGISTIC OF WARFARE. Hrothgar the Conqueror needed weapons for his army. Maria thought she could help since she had a Blacksmith, a Peasant for that. She also sent out a Ranger. Hrothgar was happy with the result and gave some supply along with an access to certain Subterfuge quest.

More hiring and this time were a Rogue and another Thief. Maria immediately dispatched them for this quest.

MEET WITH THE KEY AND BLADE COUNCIL. This is basically the Shadow clan. Only the person from that clan could do it and the only available in the guild was that Thief. Maria sent the Thief along with Paladin to complete the Quest. Turns out, the Council was offering access to another Subterfuge quest. This one required 3 Shadow clan members.

Maria already had Alchemist and a Rogue on the Guild. She needed one more. Another Thief came looking for a job. The Thief also brought along a Miner. Maria hired them and ready to complete this quest.

TAKE OVER ROGUE’S LANDING. The 3 Shadow clans were not strong enough to complete the job. Maria sent along a Captain with them. The mission was a success but only the Rouge came back.

Maria heard there was a Double Agent issue from the Kingdom. She gained access to secretly complete that quest. She needed to gather more forces.

Maria got a Knight and then a Necromancer. Another Alchemist joined in. It was still not enough. However, there was another quest that Maria could try to complete.

BRIBE THE AMERYINTH NOBLE. This required a worker and a Shadow clan to infiltrate the Noble’s area. The Noble asked for 6 coins. Maria sent out a Miner, the Rogue and the Alchemist to do the job. The Noble provided some resources and a Mercenary to help. Finally, Maria got all she needed to complete the reserved Quest.

ASSASSINATE THE DOUBLE AGENT. While Soldiers and Shadow could do the job, but it required some Magic. Maria sent out two Soldiers, the Knight and the Warlord along with the Mercenary as the Shadow. For the Magic she sent out the Necromancer.

Well, the time was almost over. The king was about to appoint the new Ministry of Quest. With the last remaining members, Maria completed the last quest.

RAISE THE DRAGON HATCHLING. A Cleric, a Summoner and a Merchant did the job for her.

Maria the Fortunate was appointed the Ministry of Quest after completing 13 quests with 48 points.

Playing time was 46 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Quests of Valeria Review.

Nautilion

Finally got to try the different Nautilion board. This time with the B side. Also played with all of the expansions.

ROUND 1. Darkhouse: set the dice to 2, 3, 4 no rerolling allowed. I gave the 2 to Phantom and 3 to Darkhouse so I had to lose 1 Reserve token. Nautilion got a 4, landed on Crew 1 with a Reef. Rolled 4 so the Nautilion got out of Reef. That Crew 1 was placed on the Mage board.

ROUND 2. Darkhouse: recover 1 token and place it between Phantom and Nautilion. Phantom discarded Crew 4 so it went back which I placed still far in the middle but closer to Nautilion.

Rolled 2, 3, 3. 2 for Darkhouse so the other 2 got the 3s. Phantom removed the Crew 3 while Nautilion landed on a reef with a 5. Rolled a 3 and got away from the Reef immediately.

ROUND 3. Darkhouse: Spend 1 token only if Darkhouse got a 4 instead of 3 or 4. Rolled 1, 2, 3 so the 3 went to Darkhouse. Phantom got a 1 which was Crew 1 on a reef. Nautilion landed on Mage C.

ROUND 4. Darkhouse: roll 1 die at a time and assign it before rolling the next one. Rolled a 1, gave it to Darkhouse. Another 1 rolled, gave it to Phantom which was Mage A. Last roll was a 2 for Nautilion, which was also Mage A.

ROUND 5. Darkhouse: if Darkhouse got a 2, reroll it and gave the result with 3 or 4 has to spend a token. Rolled, 1, 2, 2. Darkhouse got the 1 and the other 2 landed on Mage B, both with a Reef. Rolled a 4 and got out from Reef.

ROUND 6. Darkhouse: set the dice to 2, 3, 4 no rerolling allowed. 2 for Darkhouse, 3 for Phantom and 4 for Nautilion. Phantom removed Mage A with a Reef. Nautilion got the Mercenary which was placed on #3.

ROUND 7. Darkhouse: recover 1 token and place it between Phantom and Nautilion. I put back Crew 4 to the spot very close to the previous one.

Rolled a 1 for Darkhouse, a 2 for Phantom and a 4 for Nautilion which was landed on that Crew 4. I had to place it on the Mage next to the Mage B. Phantom removed the Crew 7.

ROUND 8. Darkhouse: Spend 1 token only if Darkhouse got a 4 instead of 3 or 4. Rolled a 1, 3 and 4. The 3 went to Darkhouse. 1 for Phantom and 4 to Nautilion. Phantom removed the Crew 3 and the reef while Nautilion got a Mercenary and placed it on #7.

ROUND 9. Darkhouse: roll 1 die at a time and assign it before rolling the next one. Rolled 1, gave it to Darkhouse. Then a 3 gave it to Nautilion and another 3 for Phantom. Phantom removed the Crew 7 and the Reef while Nautilion got the Crew 2.

ROUND 10. Darkhouse: if Darkhouse got a 2, reroll it and gave the result with 3 or 4 has to spend a token. Rolled a 1, 1 and a 3. 1 for Darkhouse and the Phantom which removed Mage C. Nautilion should have landed on Crew 7 but that space was already occupied. Spent 2 tokens and switched it with Crew 1 from somewhere closer to the end so Nautilion could take it later.

ROUND 11. Darkhouse: set the dice to 2, 3, 4 no rerolling allowed. At this point both Nautilion and Phantom were 7 spaces away from each other.

I think I made a mistake here. If I gave 3 and 4 for those 2, the Collision should have happened this time. I gave 2 to the Darkhouse and then I resolved one of the other 2 as 3 movements instead of 4. Oh well.

So, with that incorrect play, Phantom landed on Crew 1 while Nautilion landed on Crew 8. They were next to each other.

ROUND 12. Darkhouse: recover 1 token and place it between Phantom and Nautilion. I placed the Mage C between those 2 so they were no longer next to each other. I rolled a 1, 2 and a 3. 1 for Darkhouse. I gave 3 to Phantom so Nautilion with 2 could land on Crew 6 with a reef.

COLLISSION. Phantom didn’t get anything actually to increase the harpoon. So, Nautilion won. Nautilion then took the Crew 3 and continued moving to that reef with Crew 6. Rolled a 4 so Nautilion got away immediately.

ROUND 13. Darkhouse: Spend 1 token only if Darkhouse got a 4 instead of 3 or 4. Rolled a 1, 1 and a 2. 2 for the Darkhouse. Phantom landed on Crew 4 with a reef. Nautilion got a Mercenary which became just a token.

ROUND 14. Darkhouse: roll 1 die at a time and assign it before rolling the next one. Rolled a 2, gave it to Darkhouse. Another 2, gave it to Nautilion and Phantom got a 3. Phantom landed and removed Mage C. Nautilion landed on Crew 2 which was swapped with Crew 4.

ROUND 15. Darkhouse: if Darkhouse got a 2, reroll it and gave the result with 3 or 4 has to spend a token. Rolled a 1, 1, 1. Phantom landed and removed Crew 4 on a reef. Nautilion with no token just took the Crew 2.

ROUND 16. Darkhouse: set the dice to 2, 3, 4 no rerolling allowed. 2 for Darkhouse, 3 for Nautilion and 4 for Phantom. Phantom removed Crew 3 and Nautilion took Crew 5 as token.

ROUND 17. Darkhouse: recover 1 token and place it between Phantom and Nautilion. Not sure which token I put back because I couldn’t reach it again. Rolled 1, 1, 4 with 4 for Phantom. Phantom removed crew 5 and the reef. Nautilion after swapping, landed on Crew 9.

ROUND 18. Darkhouse: Spend 1 token only if Darkhouse got a 4 instead of 3 or 4. Rolled 1, 1, 4 again but this time 4 went to Darkhouse. Since I had no token so it didn’t matter. Phantom removed Crew 9 and Nautilion landed on Crew 2 which became a token with a reef. Rolled a 3 so it became a 2nd token.

ROUND 19. Darkhouse: roll 1 die at a time and assign it before rolling the next one. Rolled and rerolled until got a 1 for Nautilion. Then rolled a 2 for Darkhouse and another 2 for Phantom. Phantom removed Crew 9 again while Nautilion swapped that Mercenary with Crew 7. Nautilion got all the Crews and the Mages.

ROUND 20. Darkhouse: if Darkhouse got a 2, reroll it and gave the result with 3 or 4 has to spend a token. Rolled a 1, 2, 2. Either way Nautilion reached the end first.

Besides the cheating or incorrect play, I also failed to flip any of the Heroic cards. So, I technically lost. Even if I ignored that expansion, I probably didn’t make it had I resolved it correctly.

Playing time was about 29 minutes.

Unreliable Wizard

Another journey of the Unreliable Wizard to defeat the Demon Lord. The journey started with the Princess and the Porcupine as companions. The Princess knows the weakness of Demon Lord and increased the Wizard’s all magic power by 1. The Porcupine enhanced the Red Spell by 2 and the Blue by 1. Also strong against the Trident shape monster.

The group first went to the west, entering the Settlement area (Brown). Apparently there was a Monster called DODO with 6 HP. This was a trident shape so the Porcupine was going to be very helpful against. Dodo was stronger in Green by 2 while the other by one. Settlement area added the interference by 1 to Red.

Porcupine hit first with 2 damage. The Wizard drew the first spell and it was a Blue, hitting DODO by 3. Then the next draw was a Green, another hit by 1 and defeated DODO.

From the Settlement, the Wizard found the Grimoire 2 Book of Spells. HP=26.

The group continued by going to the east back to the Woods area where they were encountered by DERO. This one only had 3 HP, strong in all spells by 1 each. The Wood area itself enhanced their Blue defense by 1.

The Wizard drew the first one which was a Blue, dealing 2 damage. With the 2nd draw, the Green spell, they dealt 2 more and defeated DERO.

After the fight, they met MONK who became a companion. This Monk was strong against the Triangle shaped monster, enhancing the Red damage by 1 and the Green spell by 2. HP=25.

The group continued north, entering the Plains area where they were ambushed by RAH. RAH also only had 3 HP, very strong against Red by 3, Blue by 1 and nothing for green. But the terrain enhanced that Green by 1.

The Wizard got lucky as the first draw was Blue, dealing exactly 3 damage, defeating RAH. After the fight they met with the HERO. The Hero would deliver 1 damage at the end of each turn of any fight. HP=23.

After going to the west back entering the Desert area and a Healing point, the group went northwest where they found ROBI. Robi had 7 HP, strong in Green by 3, Red by 2 and Blue by 1. The area enhanced its defense of red by 2. Robi was also a triangle type.

The Monk hit 1 damage first. Then the Wizard casted a Red which dealt 2 damage. 2nd spell was Blue, dealing 3 damage. The Hero then delivered the finishing blow. In that Desert area, the Wizard learned the 2nd Green Spell. HP=22.

The group decided that they should proceed north from the Plain area. So they went back a bit, visiting a Healing Point and finally entered the Volcano area. The area was guarded by KORU, 5 HP, a box type, very strong in Red by 3, Green by 2 and Blue by 1. However, the Volcano area enhanced the Blue by 2.

The Wizard got 2 lucky draws and got both Green Spells. That alone dealt 7 damage, instantly killed KORU. The Wizard found the 2nd Blue Spell. HP=22.

The group continued Northwest, entering City Area. Apparently, the City was under attacked by a monster called YABI. Yabi had 7 HP, a triangle type, very strong in Blue by 3, Green by 2 and Red by 1. The City also increased its defense by 1 each to Green and Blue.

For that, the Wizard decided not to bring along any Blue spell and just focused on 2 colors. The Monk dealt the first 2 damage. 1st spell was Green 1, could have dealt 2 damage. 2nd spell was red which dealt another 5 and that was enough to defeat Yabi.

As the reward, the City gave the Wizard the Gray Spell. HP = 16.

North from the City was the Ocean space. They had to cross it before entering the Demon City. The Group decided to enter from Northeast area, while visiting a healing point in Volcano space nearby. In the Ocean space, the group was ambushed by ARO.

Aro had 8 HP, very strong in red by 3, Green by 2 and Blue by 1. The Ocean itself enhanced the Red by 3 and Blue by 1. For that, the Wizard decided to keep the Red spell and just with 5 others.

1st draw was a Green 2, nothing could be done with it only. 2nd draw was the Gray, still couldn’t do anything with it. 3rd was the Blue 2, which was still useless. 4th and final draw was the Green 1.

With these, the Wizard could do the Level 3 Green dealing 6 or the Green Gray Blue combo dealing 7. They went with the latter but still was not enough to beat ARO. Luckily, the Hero dealt the killing blow.

After the fight, the group found the PALADIN, the last companion. The Paladin was strong to enhance the red by 2 and Blue by 1. He also knew an easy access to Demon City, going through that Maze easier. HP=18.

Before going north, the group continued to the west visiting a Healing point. Then, they proceeded North, entering the Maze which was guarded by KARU. Karu was a box type, with 7 HP, strong in Red by 3, Green by 1 and Blue by 2. The Maze enhanced its defense of Red by 1 and Green by 3.

For that, the Wizard decided to focus on Blue and just 1 green and 1 red. 1st draw was Red 1, could be dealing 4 damage. 2nd Draw was Blue 2 which was useless on its own. 3rd was Green 1, dealing potentially just 1 damage. 4th draw was Blue 1 so the Wizard could cast the Level 2 spell of Blue, dealing 5 damage. That was more than enough to defeat Karu.

The Wizard finally got the Red 2 Spell. HP=16.

Maze was the only thing left standing between the group and the Demon Lord. The group went east first to find a Healing point and finally entered the Demon City, facing the DEMON LORD.

Demon Lord had 16 HP, very strong in all colors by 3 each, enhanced by 2 because of the Demon City. Every end of the turn, Demon Lord could heal back 2 HP but the Princess knew how to disable that power.

The Wizard only brought in Red and Blue spells. 1st round of the Battle and the Wizard got the combination to cast Heal. Only the Hero dealt 1 damage to Demon Lord. The Demon Lord countered with 6.

2nd Round. The Wizard got both Red, Blue 1 and Gray. Another Heal spell and 3 damage with the Red 1 plus 1 by the Hero. The Demon Lord countered by 4.

3rd Round. The Wizard got the same 4 spells but in different order. However, the Wizard decided to cast different set of spells. Level 3 Blue and Red 1, dealing 3 from red and 4 from Blue plus 1 by the Hero. The Demon Lord had 3 HP left and countered by 3.

4th Round. The Wizard got Grey, Blue 2, Red 1 and Red 2, so with the Red Level 3, it was more than enough to beat the Demon Lord.

That was the end of the Unreliable Wizard’s journey. Playing time was about 27 minutes.

Let’s Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game

First time playing Let’s Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game with the City map, solo variant but the expert mode. Blue started first with a Star Parent and Line B. I chose the star at 6th vertical road and the bottom most horizontal road.

BLUE ROUND 1. Got a Blue, 2 Orange and 1 Red. Orange became the movement so the rest as passengers. The Red went to the 2nd ability. With the Orange, I moved up one, crossing a school and then moved right to the Point B.

BLUE ROUND 2. Got 2 Grey, 1 Red and 1 Orange. I chose the Grey for movement to reach straight to the right end and landed on a traffic light. The rest became passengers, 1st Grey, 2nd Orange, 2nd red of the 2nd ability. After that traffic light I moved up, so the bottom right corner and that station would was no longer accessible.

BLUE ROUND 3. Got 1 Blue, 2 Red and 1 Orange. Even if I used the orange to move 2 spaces to the Tourist spot, I didn’t have any tourist on board yet. So, I picked the red for movement even just 1 space to take the Circle Parent. The rest became 2nd Blue, 1st Red of the 1st ability and the 3rd Orange.

BLUE ROUND 4. Got 1 Purple, 2 Blue and 1 Red. I could only take 1 Blue as passenger so the other became the movement. The rest became 1st purple, 3rd blue of the 1st row, and 2nd red of the 1st ability. I moved up one to the Tourist spot, scoring that single tourist. Continued to the right and up, picking up a 2nd Star parent.

BLUE ROUND 5. Got 2 Grey, 1 Blue, 1 Green. I had not scored the full blue first row so I couldn’t take that blue. Instead I used it to finally activate that 2nd ability. One of the grey became movement and the rest for 3rd grey, 1st pair of Star Parent. I moved up 2 spaces in the right most vertical line.

BLUE ROUND 6. Got 2 Green, 1 Purple and 1 Orange. I needed the Purple and complete 2 pairs of green so the Orange became the movement. That was 1st purple of the 2nd row. I moved up one to the second Point B and then no other choice but to move left, picking up 2nd Circle Parent.

BLUE ROUND 7. Got 2 Red, Green and Grey. I picked the Red as movement even just 1 space landed on the 2nd school. The rest became 2nd parent pair of the circle, 4th grey and the 1st red of the 3rd ability.

BLUE ROUND 8. Got 3 Purple and 1 Green. The 3 purple completed the 2nd purple row. With the green movement, after picking a Triangle parent, I had 2 similar choice. Both ended on a Tourist spot. I should have chosen going to the left had I realized that the Blue phase was almost over. And yet I chose going up, through the 1st traffic and landed on a traffic light which pushed the bus to the Tourist spot, scoring the entire 2nd row.

BLUE ROUND 9. Got 2 Grey, 1 Green and 1 Red. I realized I got too many red so I decided to start using the ability. I rerolled the red and got grey that I had to bend, 1st bend. The rest became 1st pair of Triangle parent and 6th grey. I moved to the left to pick up a 3rd Star Parent and then continued down.

BLUE ROUND 10. Got Purple, Green, Grey and Orange. I chose the purple for movement as it moves 3 spaces. The rest became 3rd Star Pair, 7th Grey. Actually, I rerolled the orange and got a Purple which I used to activate the 1st ability. I moved down twice before bending the pattern to the left which landed on traffic light. This pushed extra space to the left, picking up 2nd triangle parent.

BLUE ROUND 11. Got 2 Purple, Red and Green. I changed the Red to Blue for movement. The rest became 2 Purple of the 3rd row and complete 2nd pair of triangle. I moved down one to 3rd the Point B, then to the left and after the bending going up.

BLUE ROUND 12. Got Purple, Green, Grey, Orange. At this point I realized that I had not scored any blue even if I already got full row a while. I also wanted to get to the 3rd school for extra 8 points but couldn’t get both. I let the Blue go as I still got half the point and used the green as movement. The rest became 3rd purple of 3rd row, 8th Grey and 4th Orange. I ended the bus line on that 3rd school.

Total Blue score: 88 points.

Pink next, with the Bus Line A and the Circle parent. The Bus line started from the 2nd row from the bottom and 3rd column from the left. I also brought along the first 2 abilities.

PINK ROUND 1. Got 2 Purple, 1 Red and 1 Grey. I picked the Grey as movement and the rest became passengers. I moved down one and I had to bend it to the left to reach the 1st Point A.

PINK ROUND 2. Got 2 Purple, Blue, Green. Purple became the movement so I got 1st Blue passenger, 1st pair of green and 3rd Purple as passenger. I moved up twice then I had to bend, 2nd one, to the right landed on a traffic light. From there, extra movement up.

PINK ROUND 3. Got Purple, Grey, Green, Red. No parent without kid so the Green became movement and the rest became 2nd red of 3rd ability, 4th Purple of 1st row, and 1st Grey. I moved to the left, picking up 1st Star Parent, and then moved up landed on Tourist spot, scoring 14.

PINK ROUND 4. Got 2 Orange, 2 Grey. Decided to extend to the left most line, avoiding traffic with Blue line using the Orange. The rest became 2nd and 3rd Grey plus 1st Orange. I moved to the left and up, picking up 1st Triangle parent.

PINK ROUND 5. Got 3 Green and 1 Red. I chose red as movement so I could land on traffic light and got pushed to the 1st School. Completed 2 pairs of parents but the last green was useless. So, I rerolled it and got a Blue, 1st Blue in this Pink Phase.

PINK ROUND 6. Got Purple, Blue, Green, Orange. No green parent so Green die became movement. The rest were turned into 2nd Blue, 1st Purple of 2nd row and 2nd Orange. I moved up 1 space picking up a Star Parent and then moved to the right to the Station, scoring those 2 Blue passengers and got 3rd Orange.

PINK ROUND 7. Got 2 Blue, 1 Purple and 1 Red. I rerolled the red for movement and it seems I got at least 1 movement to the right and was pushed 1 extra space by the traffic light and landed on 2nd Point A. For passengers, I got 2 Blue of the 2nd row, 2nd Purple of the 2nd row.

PINK ROUND 8. Got 4 Purple. 2 Purple became passenger and 1 for movement. The last one was changed using the ability to Green, completing 2nd pair of Star Parent. From that 2nd Point A, I moved down 1, landed on a Tourist spot, scoring 14. After bending it, moved to the right 2 spaces, landed on a triangle parent.

PINK ROUND 9. Got Purple, Blue, Green, Orange. I wanted the Blue for movement with 3 spaces and some turns downwards. With the rest, I got 1st Purple of the 3rd, 4th Orange and the 2nd Pair of triangle parent. I moved to the right, through 2nd traffic jam, landed on the 2nd School. Then continued down and right to the traffic light which pushed the bus down 1 space through 3rd traffic jam, picking up 3rd Star Parent.

PINK ROUND 10. Got 2 Blue, Purple, Orange. Another Blue for movement so I got 3rd Blue of the 2nd row, 2nd Purple of the 3rd row and 5th orange. I moved to the left 1 space then continued down through 4th traffic jam, landed on a Tourist spot, scoring 5 points. One last movement to the left, reaching to the 3rd Point A.

PINK ROUND 11. Got Purple, Blue, 2 Grey. Blue for movement still. Purple was useless. One Grey for the ability, activating it and the 5th grey. From that 3rd Point A, moved down 1 space, then to the left and down again to the 3rd School.

PINK ROUND 12. Got Green, Purple, Blue, Red. I wanted to reach the station at the bottom right corner and for that, I had to use the Purple for 3 spaces movement. The other blue and red was useless but at least I got a complete pair of Green Star. This time I used the 3rd ability to roll the black die. I got a green for passenger and it was useless.

So, instead I used that Green for movement. That way I didn’t need to bend anything. I just moved down, through a traffic and then right to the traffic light. That pushed extra movement to the Station, scoring 8.

Pink Score for was 91 with 179 as the total score. Playing time was about 35 minutes.

Tumble Town

Back to building a town in American West setting with dice in solo play of Tumble Town. This is with the Normal difficulty setting and the DUELING STREETS board.

ROUND 1. Picked the Barbershop from the I group with the Hat icon along with 2 Brown and 1 Grey die. Placed the building in the bottom row, 2nd to the right lot. The Outlaw took 2 cards worth 9 points.

ROUND 2. Picked the Tannery card, still from the I group but not with Hat icon. This one allows me to flip a die so I picked it. Got the same set of dice and after changing their value so each die had different value, I built it. Placed it still in the bottom row but the second to the left lot. The opponent took 2 cards from II and I group.

ROUND 3. Picked the SCHOOL HOUSE from III group with 3 Gold dice. Not enough to build it as I needed a Black that I didn’t have. The building itself required a total value of 8 or lower so I had to manipulate those values now. The opponent took 2 cards from III and II.

ROUND 4. Picked an OUTHOUSE from I group so I could pick 2 Brown and 1 Black. Apparently I had to change the dice before I could use them for this 2nd building. I placed it next to the first building on my board. The bonus gave me 1 black die which was a 1 and it was enough to build my previous one as well. This one was placed next to my 2nd building with 3 stories. This time the opponent took 3 cards so got 1 Penalty token while also returning 2 dice, 1 Gold and 1 brown.

ROUND 5. Picked TRADING POST, from II group with a Hat icon again. This required 5 dice which all of them could be from one of 3 lower materials, with the value between 4 to 6 each. I had all of them so I built it and placed it in the opposite row, almost across the III building of the other site, just making sure I fulfilled the requirement of this Dueling street. The Outlaw took 2 cards, one from III and the other from II.

ROUND 6. The Gold dice was almost run out. I picked the SHERRIF OFFICE which required 4 Gold dice with the total value of 19. Got 3 Gold dice exactly all 6. The Outlaw took 2 cards from II and from I.

ROUND 7. Picked BATH HOUSE so I could take another Gold. That was enough to build the Sherrif office which I placed at the top right corner. The Outlaw took 2 cards again, III and II. No more Gold die. I didn’t realize this at that time but I could no longer build the BATH HOUSE. At least not correctly but I could have just broken the rule to get more points still.

ROUND 8. I picked the TRAIN STATION and got 3 Black dice. I still had 1 Brown from previous round so I could build that one which I placed at the top left corner. Apparently those were the last 3 Black dice so 2 pools already run out of dice and this was the last round. The Outlaw kept getting those Blacks. This time the Outlaw took 2 again, from II and I. That was the end of the game.

I got 26 points from buildings, 5 points from Hat icons and about 11 points from the Board so only about 42 points. The Outlaw got about 72 points even after that Penalty.

Playing time was about 29 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Tumble Town Review.

Remember Our Trip

Played Remember Our Trip 2-handed with Kyoto Map and without the extra row. The special scoring condition was 1 point per Landmark, Park and Hotel Location in the outer perimeter of the west side.

1st ROUND, Green. Red player started first and took 3 with Purple, Blue and Orange tokens. These were placed so that the Blue occupy the Blue photo spot while Orange was closer to its photo spot and the Landmark one was at the bottom right of the west bank.

Blue player took the set with 1 Blue and 2 Oranges. Instead of placing them similarly to the Red player, Blue chose to place the Blue next to Blue photo spot. The 2 oranges went to the left side so Blue could follow the Red’s Landmark.

2nd ROUND, Blue. Blue player took the set with 1 Blue and 1 Green that showed a bench. The Green occupied the Green Photo Spot and the Blue was between Blue and Orange from previous round.

Red took the one with Orange and 1 Red token. Placing the red on its photo spot was not ideal because the Orange had to be on the other side of the river. Red also didn’t place the Orange on its photo spot just so the left most side could be as many Orange as possible. Eventually, Red chose to place both right next to the Orange spot, still leaving room for the Landmark.

3rd ROUND, Red. Red player got lucky to be first this round and took the 2 Pink and 1 Orange. The placement shape was perfect so that the orange went to the photo spot and the other 2 Pink was progressing towards the T-shape landmark.

Blue player decided to keep working on the Hotel while Red was busy with Landmark so they took 1 Blue, 1 Orange and 1 green. The blue token went to the photo spot. The orange was next to another orange while Green had to make a new pair from the photo spot.

4th ROUND, Gray. Blue still worked on the Hotel so they took the one with 1 Blue and 1 Green. The blue token was actually completed the hotel straight shape but blue chose to hold scoring it.

Red then took the Landmark and 1 Green. This completed the T-shape Landmark even if the Green token would have been discarded later. Red scored 10 first.

5th ROUND, Gray. No hotel token so Red chose to start another Landmark on the east side of the river. The set had also a red so the Red token went to the photo spot while the Purple was the top most possible placement.

Blue had a choice between 1 green and 1 landmark or 2 orange. They went with the latter and the tokens were placed so that it created a line of 5 orange tokens, including the one in photo spot.

6th ROUND, Orange. Blue player got lucky with exactly 2 Green tokens that worked well for 2 Parks already on the board. For that Blue scored 4 x 2 = 8.

The remaining two options were the same, 1 hotel and 1 Landmark. Red placed it on top most both sides of river to continue the Hotel and the Landmark.

7th ROUND, Red. Since Red was 2 tokens away from completing their 2nd Landmark, they chose to take the set with 1 Landmark, 1 Orange and 1 Red. All of them could be placed on the east side of the river.

Blue player chose the set with 1 Hotel, 1 Landmark and 1 Orange. With these, Blue could continue the 2nd Hotel and started the 1st confirmed Landmark while extending the Orange. Blue also decided to score the Hotel with 7 points.

8th ROUND, Purple. This time, Blue decided to continue working on the confirmed Landmark. So they took the 1 Landmark, 1 Hotel and 1 Red. The landmark was on the west side of the river while the other 2 on the east.

Red took the 1 hotel and 2 oranges. After removing 1 Green from the board, Red followed the confirmed Hotel position and scored 7 points as well. The orange group had 5 tokens at that point but Red decided to wait.

9th ROUND, Blue. This placement should have been great to fill the green photo spot for Red. Unfortunately, no green token. Red could have taken the one set with 1 Landmark and completed the 2nd Landmark while removing 2nd token. Instead Red chose the 2 red and placed them on the east side of River so Red now had a group of 4 adjacent red.

Blue took that 1 Landmark and 1 Orange, continuing the work on 1st confirmed Landmark and extending the possibility of Orange. At this point that orange group had 7 already but there was a chance that Blue had to cut it somewhere in the middle.

10th ROUND, Green. Blue player picked the set with 2 Landmark and 1 Red and placed them on both sides of river. One Landmark completed the T-Shape confirmed Landmark after removing 1 Green. The other two, I could only keep one, the other Landmark on the north and the red to the south. Since there were 2 rounds left, not sure that was enough to complete the 2nd landmark so Blue discarded the other Landmark and the red went to the bottom most right side of river.

Red had 2 choices, either 2 Hotels and 1 Orange or 2 Reds with 1 Green. The Hotel didn’t help to follow the 2nd Hotel by the Blue player. So, Red decided to use this chance to fill the Green Photo Spot even if the Red were not going to be anything.

11th ROUND, Orange. Red took the 2 Landmarks. One was enough to complete the confirmation of the 2nd Landmark with square shape at the top right corner. Unfortunately, the other Landmark had to be discarded and it was the 2nd. Red scored another 10.

Blue player decided to pick 1 Red and 1 Hotel. The red went to the photo spot so the Hotel was next to it on the east side. This was 1 step away from completing another Hotel.

12th ROUND, Purple. Blue got lucky here. There was 1 set with 1 Hotel and 1 Orange plus useless green. With the placement restriction, Blue could finished the 2nd Hotel on the west with L-shape even if they had to remove one of the existing Orange. At the same time, Blue got another orange to connect the separated orange and the orange group had 6. Blue scored both, 7 from Hotel, and 11 from the Orange or shops. Also, the 3 red for 3 points.

Red only good choice was to complete at least 1 Park at the top left corner. Even that Red had to discard 1 Landmark token which was the 3rd. Red scored 4 points from the Park, 7 from Orange, and 5 from Red.

FINAL SCORING. Both got 6 points for having all 4 photo spots filled. Blue got 4 points from the special scoring and Red got only 3. Unfortunately for Blue, they had more discarded tokens so Blue lost 4 points.

Red scored 52 and Blue only scored 51. Playing time was about 38 minutes.

Sagrada

2 sessions of Sagrada game, one with solo variant and the other with 2-handed. The solo session with the Virtus card, red or yellow private objective, Row Color variety and Column shade Variety as public objectives. The 3 tools were Lathekin, Grozing Pliers, Flux Remover, Glazing Hammer and Lens Cutter.

Virtus had the green line from bottom left to top right. Each row also had 2 or 3 spaces that required specific value. Every number is different in each row so it still works with the Public objective.

The opponent ended up scoring 52 points. I got 18 from Yellow, failed in all row color variety and only 12 from the Column Shade variety. I didn’t get that many red with only 2 on my board and 3 more on the timer. 8 Purple in total, 9 for green, 9 for Yellow and 9 for blue.

In the 2nd to last round, I managed to keep the variety of colors in 3 rows. Sadly, no red came out so I failed in all of them. Even then I probably still lost the game.

For the 2-handed session, the Red still used the Virtus card while the Green used Ripples of Light. This was the 1st card and the easiest on the other side. This means I have played with all of these cards at least one side. Both cards use 5 Favor tokens. Virtus had 7 blank spot while the Ripples of Light only had 6 and all of them were at the top left corner, making it a bit harder.

I used the same 3 first tools as in the solo mode. The extra public objective was Color Diagonals. Red while using the slightly easier card was the first one to use tool. With Lens Cutter, Red got to draft a die and exchange it with one on the round track.

But in the next round, Green player had to use two tools. One was the Lens Cutter so Green had to spend 2 and 1 for Grozing Pliers. In the 8th round, the Red then used that 2nd tool for 2 tokens. Green then used one of remaining 2 tokens on the 3rd tool.

This means, Green had 1 more token that they couldn’t use. Green failed to fill every space with 1 had no die.

Red player managed to score 51 while Green only scored 33. Both had only 1 row with all different colors. Red had 4 columns with different shades, while green only had 3. For the last public objective, Red got 4 colors and Green only got 1. The green line restriction really helped the Red player to score better by aligning the other color parallel to that green line.

That Ripples of Light was in very disadvantage situation for this objective. Not completely impossible but unless the player was aware right from the start and made a long-term plan, the chance to score it was lower than the other player.

Playing time was 27 minutes for the solo session and 22 for the 2-handed. I think the solo was longer because I made a mistake after activating 2 tools in 1 round without skipping the round tracker so I had to check again.

Regicide

Another solo play of Regicide using the fan-made Marvel variant deck. A bit unrelated, I noticed a couple of updates recently about Regicide Legacy. Not sure if I like the legacy idea and I wish it is just campaign. In the meantime, I stick with this base game the original version or the Marvel.

Here is how the session went.

1st Enemy, THE WINTER SOLDIER. I got Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Star Lord, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Rocket Raccoon, Colossus and Captain America. Captain America and Wasp instantly beat the Winter Soldier and convinced him to immediately join the Avengers.

2nd Enemy, VENOM. Captain Marvel set up a perfect defense. Scarlet Witch brought in more heroes while beating Venom and convinced Venom to join. The Winter Soldier, Beast, Daredevil and Jean Grey joined the battle.

3rd Enemy, LOKI. Colossus and Raccoon started the attack, setting up some defense and brought in more help. Loki took down Beast. Venom, Blade, Invisible Woman and Storm joined the battle.

The Winter Soldier step in for the 2nd attack to Loki but it was not enough. Loki took down Daredevil. Mr. Fantastic, Drax and Iron Fist joined the battle. Star Lord and Blade worked together and successfully beat Loki and convinced Loki to joined.

4th Enemy, MAGNETO. Venom instantly beat Magneto, also convinced him to join the team.

5th Enemy, EGO. Jean Grey started the attack and brought in more heroes, but not sure which two she brought in. One of them was Gambit. Ego countered and took down both Mr. Fantastic and Black Panther.

Then Invisible Woman and Gambit attacked Ego. That was not enough to beat Ego. Ego took down the remaining members. Groot came and saved the day by bringing more heroes, Wolverine, Deadpool, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, The Thing, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange and Cyclops.

Cyclops finished the job. He managed to convince Ego to help.

6th Enemy, DR. DOOM. Silver Surfer set up a good defense. Dr. Doom was still too strong and took down Deadpool. Wolverine step in and completely disabled all of Dr. Dooms weapon. Dr. Strange and The Thing finished the job. Dr. Doom promised to help soon.

7th Enemy, ULTRON. Spidey alerted the other heroes to help him take down Ultron. Dr Doom, Ego, Black Widow, Iron Man, Hawkeye, She-Hulk and Prof. X joined the battle. Ultron countered and defeated Ego.

Both Prof. X and Hawkeye dealt a combo for double damage a strong defense. Ultron was still too strong as he took down Ant-Man. She-Hulk completely destroyed Ultron.

8th Enemy, KANG. Dr. Doom attacked first while more heroes joined in, including Moon Knight, Vision, Gamora, Human Torch, Falcon and Quicksilver. Kang took down Vision and Quicksilver.

Iron Man couldn’t use his best weapon but helped Falcon setup some defense. Well, I think I made a mistake here. I actually counted the double damage from the Iron Man and defeated Kang. Oh well…

9th Enemy, MEPHISTO. Human Torch started the attack and brought in the Hulk, Thor, Agent Coulson, Loki and Star Lord. Both Hulk and Loki were taken down by Mephisto. Black Widow and Star Lord worked together to setup some defense.

Agent Coulson was the only one left. Out of nowhere, Howard the Duck came in and brought more heroes like Black Panther, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Daredevil, Venom, Colossus, Captain Marvel and The Winter Soldier.

Captain Marvel set up more defense. Mephisto was still strong enough to beat Colossus. Venom then finished the job.

10th Enemy, GALACTUS. Scarlet Witch with the help from Wasp, dealt a lot of damage while bringing in Mephisto, Beast, Captain America, Rocket Raccoon and Blade to join. Mephisto took the hit from Galactus.

Both Black Panther and Rocket helped the recovery of some heroes and brought some in. One of them was Magneto which was taken down immediately by Galactus along with The Winter Soldier. Captain America then dealt the final damage to Galactus.

11th Enemy, THANOS. Daredevil and Storm set up some defense and brought in Galactus and Gambit to help. Both Cyclops and Deadpool took the damage from Thanos. Galactus stepped in and made Thanos attack completely ineffective.

Two combos from Gambi with Invisible Woman and Blade with Iron Fist finally defeated Thanos.

12th Enemy, DORMMAMMU. Dormmmamu managed to block the team from getting other heroes to join. The team only had Captain Marvel, the Hulk, Beast, Iron Man and Thor. Sadly, they were not enough to defeat Dormmammu…

Well, I already cheated anyway during the fight against Kang. So, this was inevitable…

Playing time was about 35 minutes.

Learn more about the game from Regicide Review.

Walking in Provence

Another play session of Walking in Provence 2-handed, the Red vs the Green. This time all of the Photo set goals were related to either Lavender or Wheat or both for the Cameraman and the Drone. Well, the 2 goals were about the biggest forest and the most chapels.

Green player was the first to find 6 spaces of Wheat. It was also next to a Windmill so the Green player scored 2 Photo scorings at once. This happened in the 3rd round.

Then in 4th round, Red also found the 5 Wheat fields next to a Windmill. Not only that, next to these Wheat, Red found 3 spaces of Lavender which worked well for one of the Drone’s objective.

In 5th round, Red found that on the other side of those 5 Wheat, a Chapel and a Sunflower. This was another objective for the Drone. In that same round, Green found the 3 Lavender fields next to their big Wheat fields.

Right behind the Chapel that Red just found was a group of 5 Lavender fields. Red took the picture in this 6th round. In this same round, there was a meadow space perfect for the Drone between the Forest and the Wheat field so it was perfect for the goal. At this point, Red already completed all of the objectives.

Green, in the 7th round, found the spot with 5 fields of Lavender plus the 2 spaces of Forest. Two pictures for Green, even if Red already took it earlier.

Since Red had no more thing to do with taking pictures, they started working on the other Goal. Red already get a group of 2 Forest and in 8th round, there was a chance to increase it to 3, winning the majority.

On the other hand, Green was having trouble to find 2 good spots for the Drone. Both required the Wheat, with one had to capture with Forest and the other had to be next to Chapel and Sunflower. Green this time chose to just worked on the Shops while expanding the Wheat.

After the Forest, Red worked on expanding the different shops. Red got a 3rd different one. In this 9th round, Green felt like they only could take 1 of the 2 remaining objective. The Photo set card had Wheats and Chapel that could be placed next to the existing Wheat group and near a Sunflower. The meadow next to that sunflower was perfect for the Drone.

Red with the last card managed to expand the other Lavender field while adding 1 more Chapel. Green already had 2 Chapel so it was a tie but the last card for the Green also had a Chapel.

So, here is what was interesting with the Green. Green was almost about to give up chasing the last Photo objective for the Drone. Apparently, it was still possible with the last card but Green had to let go their biggest Lavender field. To do so, the card had to be placed right in the middle instead of expanding the outer part.

That Lavender was supposed to give 5 points but with this last placement it went down to a 2. However, Green got 5 points from the objective, added 1 more point from the Wheat and winning the majority of having more Chapel.

Final Scoring, Red:
Lavender: 7 + 10 = 17
Wheat: 5 + 2 + 3 = 10
Sunflower: 3 x 2 – 3 = 3
Shops: 7 + 1 + 1 = 9
Photos: 7 + 8 + 4 + 5 + 7 + 6 + 8 = 45
Goal: 6 + 3 = 9
Total score: 93

Final Scoring, Green:
Lavender: 2 + 2 = 4
Wheat: 17
Sunflower: 2 – 3 = -1
Shops: 7 + 1 = 8
Photos: 5 + 6 + 6 + 7 +5 + 4 + 6 = 39
Goal: 6 + 3 = 9
Total score: 76

RED WON. Completing all of those photo objectives very fast helped a lot to start working on the other scoring. Playing time was about 41 minutes for playing both sides.

Castellion

Got 3 plays of Castellion. Mostly because I kept losing even after cheating. By cheating I mean, drawing a tile and put it back because I don’t like it. I played the Expert Mode, all 3 with the same set of Ordeal cards.

1st Ordeal was to have 2 Towers or suffer 16 tiles. 2nd Ordeal would just took down the 2 bottom most rows. While the 3rd on requires 5 horizontal lines or lose 42 tiles.

In the first lost, I failed to fulfill the last Ordeal. I got mixed up between working on the 5 horizontal lines or getting as many bastions as I could. Should have just focused on Bastions. At the end, I got like 22 tiles on my area, no more tiles left. I only got 3 horizontal lines. 21 minutes.

In the 2nd play, since I already knew what the Ordeal cards were, I forced myself to keep building the Towers early. I got 2 but then I realized something. Before I triggered the Ordeal I had to keep those Towers or suffered the penalties. There was moment when I had to change it back after changing the tower, working on the next ordeal.

Then I played the 2nd time. I managed to reach the end with 5 Bastions. This means I could reduce the damage by 20 tiles. However, I only got 26 which was not enough to keep the foundation. Even if I added 1 and got enough, I had no foundation after the penalty so I still lost. 26 minutes.

3rd play and I won but, as I said. still with a lot of cheating, even if less than the previous 2 plays. I managed to get even 6 horizontal lines before getting hit by the 3rd Ordeal. This was a fast game, with just 15 minutes. I guess I got very lucky to not draw that many Traitor tiles early.

Final Girl: Frightmare on Maple Lane

For this specific game, I broke my own rule about purchasing game. I don’t really like buying expansions. To even just consider buying an expansion, I have to play that game a lot first and evaluate whether I should seek more content or not. Usually, the base game is good enough.

With Final Girl, you already need to buy kind of an expansion with the Feature Film in order to play. So, I just accepted the first feature film as part of the base game and just play that one.

Also, Final Girl is a game that I have been actively tried to avoid. Based on what people who don’t like it said, this is not a game for me. And yet, it kept bothering me everytime I want to buy a new game. Eventually, I gave up and just bought it to be done with it. I had low expectation.

Somehow, the Feature Film that I bought first, the Haunting of Creech Manor was a nice surprise. I’m very impressed with how they crafted and delivered the theme. Even if all of the things that I tried to avoid were justified, I thought that the thematic touch was enough to keep me play that game. I even played twice just because I wanted to see the story.

Unfortunately, that Feature Film didn’t have one thing. In that, you don’t actually fight against the Poltergeist. You win by different winning condition, searching a character and get out from there. I knew about the different winning condition but I was expecting that I still in a way fight the Killer.

At the same time, in the box, they give you item to fight. They are tied to the location so that if you bring in different killer, you can still fight using those items.

So, I thought I missed out on something and consider buying one more Feature Film. That was how I decided to buy this next one, the Frightmare on Maple Lane. Why this one? I think even the developer recommended this one as the next after the Campy Trail.

In this one, the Killer is in the Dream. You cannot interact with the Killer, to fight or get attacked when you are Awake. Some events will force you to fall asleep.

In the Sleep state, you still can do a lot of things like in Awake or normal game, but there are limitations. You can move, search items but victims will not follow you.

You also cannot attack directly the Killer unless you enter his Boiler Room which always happen at the end of Killer phase. So, once a turn at least. Even that, you still cannot attack regularly. The only way to attack is to retaliate after the Killer, Dr. Fright attacked you first. I think I made a lot of mistakes for this specific rule because I thought I just needed to be in sleep state and in the same space to attack.

In a way, it seems, the game encourages you to occasionally attack the Killer once in a while. The way I played in my first game was, I moved around, saving victims first before starting to fight. I guess that made the game a bit longer than the other Feature Film.

It took almost 2 hours. Of course, I was still learning the game so constantly checking the rule also made it a bit longer. But I think I could get it a bit faster if I had the right mindset.

If anything, there was a risk for saving all of the victims. I got the board emptied out and reached the last Terror Card and triggered the Finale. The finale had 2 choices. Either the killer kills 2 victims or if none, I have to lose 4 health. Most of the time it could be an instant death. I was lucky to just recently did the Long rest.

That Boiler Room is an interesting mini game. The idea is that you have a stack of 4 cards. Each card has 4 sections and Dr. Fright will appear in one section differently on each card.

The way it works is that you have to slide the next card in orthogonally. If the revealed part has Dr. Fright, he is attacking you. If you can reveal 4 cards and survive, you get out of the Dream state.

This Feature Film, specifically the location introduced 2 new Action Cards: CONVINCE. The location is filled with houses. In order to enter a house with a victim, you need to get at least 1 success using this action. Get 2 and you can also get an item.

After that you still need to drag them out to the safe point with move actions. This idea also creates a weird situation as whether you should convince them still in the Sleep state. Another question that I found was that whether you should convince again if you only brought out one and tried reenter.

One of the funny part was I got a megaphone item that I could use to lure out the Victims so then I could easily enter the house. However, that creates noise and the Killer will move closer.

In that session, I somehow got a lot of ways to make the Convince action better with getting more dice from the events or the Bible item. I ended up not using them at all as they came out rather late.

So, here is my kind of first impression about this Feature Film. Mechanically, this is more interesting than The Haunting of Creech Manor. Thematically, I don’t think it was as good as the first one. Maybe with more plays, it can change my mind.

Finished!

Finally had a chance to write full session report for this solo game, Finished!. Still playing with the standard difficulty, starting with 7 Candies and 7 Coffees.

During the game, I played as usual, mostly using my feeling instead of keeping track which cards in what order. Mostly just guessing that previously this next number was close together so I should push to draw more.

During the writing, I tried to keep track. This made me realize something. If you don’t care about the memory element, maybe you can just play it with the deck facing up. Of course #48 or the last card should still start at the bottom but facing up.

This will make the game easier but I don’t think that much easier. For significantly make the game easier, just allow yourself to look through the deck.

I think keeping track like this also actually helped me figure out whether two or more cards are getting closer to each other or not and which direction was the closer one. This helped me look at the bigger picture. It’s just, keeping track without peeking was like a chore, which is why the idea to remove the hidden information by playing it face up might be a solution.

During the writing, I did notice a couple of chance to do better because I know what’s the next couple of cards are. On the other hand, I get that by making it face down, the game is more random because of player’s decision whereas the face up might be something solvable, at least for that randomized deck.

I don’t think you need to play the game that way in order to play it well. It’s nice to discover some potential strategy though. On the other hand, I’ve already played this game a lot and I still cannot win the game consistently using the standard difficulty. Maybe I’m just not that good with the game but made me wonder how I could get better to even win the more difficult one.

That session alone took about 1 hour. Usually I only need like 45 minutes but this time I took a lot of pictures. More than 80 rounds but I sorted all 48 cards with 1 Coffee token left. About almost 20 rounds, I did nothing. Half of that number was because I had no Candy and some because nothing good to do.

Read the full session report here.

Learn more about the game from Finished! Review.

Final Words

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading.

 

Mark M.