This article is the compilation of my play session reports #4. All games were played during Week 9 to Week 12 of 2024 from 26 February 2024 to 24 March 2024. Usually, I do short reports per week on my BGG blog.
By writing the session reports, it helps me to write the review for the game later. So, it is part of the review process even though I may not even write the review.
Sometimes, I also write a longer session report for one game where I describe what happened turn by turn with more pictures. There are links at the bottom of each entry to BGG post of that long report.
Some new games get more play until it reaches the target minimum of play. They might appear in multiple months. I also revisit some older ones from time to time. These are just games in my collection.
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Click or tab on any sections from the table of contents to jump right to that part. Use the red arrow button on the bottom right corner of the screen to head back to the top.
Table of Contents
List of Games
Here are the links to the Weekly Session Reports for shorter version: Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12.
Compilation of links to reports of individual games can be found in this article. Those are just for newer games and my initial impression for each. This is the list for all games with a Full Review.
Here are links to previous entries.
#1. November to December 2023
#2. 2024 Week 1 to Week 4 (January)
#3 2024 Week 5 to Week 8 (February)
Keep the Heroes Out!
Defend your home. Or Dungeon in a game of Keep the Heroes Out!. This time with the Scenario 2 again, still with the easiest difficulty, using the Lizardfolk and the Ratkin.
The Scenario had 4 Executioner cards in the Hero Deck that will send the next Hero card to jail during Guild Phase. First time playing these 2 clans.
Lizardfolk is part of the Crowd Control with the special ability to shoot an arrow with only 5 figures. The Pro tip suggests getting more cards for movement and attack.
Ratkin is part of the Defenders. The special ability is to deploy one of their figures up to 9 figures. The Pro tip suggests getting more weapons.
1st ROUND.
Lizardfolk went first. Sent a Rogue to jail for 3 more cards. 2 figures started in the Graveyard next to the Beast to get more pets for more cards. One other started in the Study next to Library.
The 2 in the Graveyard took 1 bone each and got 2 pets, the Tiger and the Chest Monster. One Lizard went back to the Graveyard. The other one moved to the Treasure room and continued to the Workshop next to the Jail, getting ready to shoot those heroes in Jail. Deployed one more Lizardfolk in the Study. I think the Lizard also activated the portal in the Treasure room.
HEROES INVASION. Another Rogue showed up in the Sewers and Beast room. The first one ended their movement after failing to open the chest. The other one killed the Lizard in that Beast room.
Ratkin next and they started with throwing a Warrior to jail for 3 cards. 2 figures in each Study and Apothecary. The 2 from Apothecary moved to the Sewers where one Rogue was trying to open the chest and they killed her.
2 more Ratkins were deployed in that Apothecary. The other 2 in the Library took 2 Books and moved to the Study where they learned 2 Scrolls. After that both moved to the Treasure room.
HEROES INVASION. 2 Warriors showed up 1 each in Beast and Sewers. The one in Sewers killed one of the Ratkin and still fighting the other one. While the other one in Beast, inspired the previous Rogue. They finally opened the chest in that Beast Room. Both Monsters had to discard a card. Then one of them continued to the Graveyard and killed the other Lizardfolk there and they stopped.
2nd ROUND.
The Lizards sent an Archer to jail. Next to that jail, there was one lizard but they defended from that arrow attack and moved into the jail. With the help of a Tiger, got one card and killed one Hero in the Jail. While in that jail, they activated the portal and then moved back to the Workshop.
The one in the study moved to the Library to pick a book. Deployed a new Lizard in the Graveyard but didn’t engage with any of the Heroes there. Instead they took a Bone and moved to the Beast room and got a Mole pet.
HERO INVASION. One of the Executioner sent an Archer to jail, attacking the Lizard in the next room. The lizard defended and moved to the Jail again. After that 2 Mages showed up in Study and the Graveyard.
The one in the Graveyard inspired the other 2 heroes there. They managed to open the chest in that room. This led to another hero thrown in Jail which was the Rogue.
*I think I made a mistake here. They should have ended their movement but somehow I triggered them again. So, they moved to the next room which was Forge and opened the chest there. This also led to another hero thrown to jail and it was an Archer.
I made a mistake again by moving those 3 to the Treasure room where they finally stopped. There were 4 heroes in the Jail. Oh well…
Ratkin’s turn next. Threw another Rogue in jail and there were 5 now to get 3 cards.
One of Ratkin in the Apothecary opened a Portal. Deployed 2 Ratkins there and 2 of them moved to the Treasure room, killed 2 of the Heroes. One then continued to the Study room to kill the Mage and moved back in the Treasure room.
Previously, Ratkin got another scroll to deploy 2 Ratkins in the Beast room. They stayed there ready to open a portal and get more pet.
HERO INVASION. Another Executioner threw an Archer to jail but no target in the next room. 2 Mages then appeared one in Beast room, killing one of the Ratkin and the other in Sewer, killing another Ratkin. The one in sewer couldn’t open the chest even with the help from Warrior there.
3rd ROUND.
Lizardfolk’s turn again. They started with killing one of the Hero in jail with the help from their Tiger pet plus got 1 card. That same Lizard moved to the Workshop and killed another Hero in Jail so there where 3 left.
The Chest pet deployed a trap in that Workshop room and a Coin, plus 1 card. Deployed 2 more Lizards in the Graveyard. Threw another Warrior to jail to get 3 cards. One of that new Lizard moved twice to the treasure room, killing a Mage in the Sewer room next to that Treasure room.
One Lizard in the Library took a Book, dragged it to the Study to get a Scroll.
HERO INVASION. 2 Mages appeared in the Library and Apothecary, one each. The former was stuck since he couldn’t open the chest while the other killed one Ratkin and was still fighting the other Ratkin.
Ratkin’s turn and they mistakenly threw an Executioner to jail for 3 cards. The one in the Beast room opened a Portal. Deployed 2 Rats in the Apothecary. After killing the Mage there, moved 2 to the Sewer and killed the Warrior there.
Then the 2 in the Treasure room picked a Coin and brought it to the Forge room to get those Axes and Swords. Deployed 2 more in the Library, trying to beat the Mage there.
HERO INVASION. 2 Warriors showed up in the Study and the Graveyard. Both killed the Lizard there. The one in Study was stuck after failing to open the chest and the other moved to the Forge room and killed one of the Ratkin. Actually the Lizard in the Study managed to defend and run to the next room, the Treasure room.
4th ROUND.
Lizardfolk’s turn again and they also mistakenly threw the Executioner to jail for 3 cards. With the powerful scroll the Lizard got last time, the Scroll produced a coin and a Frog in the Treasure room, a Bone in the Beast. It seems I forgot about the Book.
One in the Treasure room killed the Mage there while getting 1 card thanks to their Tiger pet. After that, they shot an arrow to kill the Warrior in the Study before moving to the Forge with a Coin.
The lizard in the Workshop shot 2 arrows to kill 2 Heroes in Prison. I just realized I should have moved the one in Treasure to the Workshop first so both could shoot more efficiently. The one from Beast room moved to the Graveyard.
HERO INVASION. 2 Mages appeared, one each in Forge and Workshop. The one in Workshop got killed by a trap while the other inspired a Warrior in that room and both killed one Ratkin and 1 Lizard.
That was the last card of the Hero Deck.
Ratkin’s turn. They threw a Warrior to jail. Deployed 2 Rats in the Apothecary and with the existing one, teleported to the Forge, killed the Warrior. In the Library, the 2 Rats finally killed the Mages and found 2 Books.
The 2 in the Forge finally got an Axe and the one in beast room finally got a Minotaur pet. They opened a portal in the Forge. One of 3 Ratkin moved to the Treasure room.
HERO INVASION. The first one was the Executioner, throwing an Archer to jail while shooting a Lizard in the next room. The Lizard avoided it and moved in to the Jail room.
2 Archers appeared in the Forge and Workshop. The one in Workshop killed the Ratkin in Treasure and stuck there unable to open the chest. The other inspired the Mage and killed 2 Ratkins. They stopped their movement.
However, right away, 2 Mages appeared in the same two rooms. The one in Workshop was also stuck still unable to open that chest while the other inspired the Mage and Archer and moved to the Treasure room.
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5th ROUND.
The Lizard threw a Rogue to jail for 3 cards. There were only 2 Lizards. The one in Graveyard took a Bone and moved to the Beast and got a Monster Pet with 2 long ranged attacks. Deployed 2 Lizards in the Study and from there, shot 2 Heroes in the Treasure rooms.
After that, the one from Beast room teleported to the Forge room and from there, shot another Hero in Treasure room. While in the Forge Room, the Lizard got a Sword. Their Chest Monster Pet then generated a trap and a coin in that Forge room.
HERO INVASION. The Executioner again, threw a Rogue to jail. After that 2 Archers appeared in Apothecary and Library. The one in Apothecary couldn’t open the chest while the one in Library killed one of the Ratkin.
However, then 2 Rogues showed up in those 2 same rooms. So they finally managed to open the chest in Apothecary and this inspired them to proceed to the next room and got stuck again trying to open the chest. The one in Library killed the other Ratkin and inspired the previous Archer to open the chest but fail.
Ratkin’s turn. They threw a Warrior to jail. There was only 1 Ratkin which was in Beast room. Deployed 2 in Apothecary and moved to the Sewers and killed the 2 Heroes there. The 2 opened a Portal in that Sewer Room.
With the help from their Minotaur pet, the one in Beast room teleported to the Jail room and killed one of 5 Heroes there. That same Rat deployed 2 more of their kin in Jail and killed 3 more. Probably should have saved the Weapon for this room.
HERO INVASION. 2 Mages appeared in Apothecary and in Library. The former immediately proceeded to Sewer and killed 1 Rat. While the other one inspired the 2 Heroes there and they finally opened the chest. This only destroyed one of the Book.
* I think I made a mistake again. One of the Heroes should have proceeded to the next room even if that one got stuck unable to open the Chest in Study room.
After that the Executioner threw another Warrior to jail. 2 Archers followed and entered Graveyard and Study. The latter got stuck unable to open the chest after killing Lizard in Treasure room. While the former attacked the Lizard next room. Luckily the Lizard noticed and avoided. I think I forgot to move. The Archer entered the Forge room but got killed by a trap.
6th ROUND.
Lizardfolk again and they threw a Rogue to jail. Using the scroll, the Lizard got one of each resources. The one that got a Bone moved to the Beast room and got a Spider Pet. After that, they teleported to the Apothecary with a Frog and shot an arrow to the Mage in Sewer.
The one in the Treasure laid a trap and a Coin in the Treasure room before killing the Archer in Study and moved into that room. One more Lizard was deployed in the Study.
HERO INVASION. 2 Mages appeared in the Beast and Sewer. The latter killed the Ratkin there and tried to open the chest. Nothing was blocking the Wizard moving from the Beast, to Graveyard, to Forge and finally entered the Treasure room. In there, the Mage was killed by a trap.
2 Warriors then showed up in Apothecary and Study. The one in Apothecary destroyed the Frog and attacked the Lizard. However, the Lizard defended himself. I forgot to move the figure again.
The one in Study inspired the Heroes there to enter the Study. They killed the 2 Lizards while the other 2 failed to open the chest.
Ratkin’s turn again and they mistakenly threw an Executioner to the jail. They finally got a chance to use their Axe. They deployed 4 of their Kin to the Library room and moved all of them to the Study where there were 4 Heroes. With the Axe, those 4 Rats killed 4 Heroes.
Deployed 2 more in the Beast and immediately moved to the Graveyard. Those 3 in the Jail room killed 2 Heroes in Prison and moved 2 to the Workshop and killed a Mage.
HERO INVASION. This was the last card and it was 2 Mages appeared in the Graveyard and the Study. Both of them killed 1 Ratkin but the other Ratkins were ready to fight back.
Finally, the Heroes gave up. The Dungeon was saved. Playing time was about 84 minutes.
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Walking in Burano
Build colorful houses again to attract tourists and impress citizens in a game of Walking in Burano. This was the solo play.
ROUND 1. 2 orange and 1 pink in 1st column, 2 red and blue in 2nd, green, blue and orange at 3rd, and 2 pink plus blue in the middle at 4th column.
1st and 3rd column had closed windows or negative points. While 4th column was not bad but I prefer the shop from the 2nd column. So, I decided to pick the 2 red from 2nd column, first and 2nd floor and took 1 coin.
Just to make it cheaper I only placed the first floor and paid 1 Coin. 4 coins left. I let go one of the Tourist Girl who loves cats.
ROUND 2. 1st column had 2 yellows and one green but the 2 yellows had closed windows. 2nd had red, blue and orange with closed window on the red. 3rd also had 2 closed windows at 2 floors. 4th one had green shop, blue with closed window and orange chimney.
I took that green fashion shop plus 2 coins and immediately built that shop to the right from my red shop. 5 coins left. I let go one of the Tourist Woman who loves flowers.
ROUND 3. 1st column had 2 reds and 1 pink but I already had 2 reds. 2nd column had green, yellow with closed window and another green top with a lot of plants. 3rd had yellow with closed window and a lot of flowers, blue with flowers and orange top with plants. 4th had red with flowers and closed window, orange also with closed window, and top blue with flower.
My green shop already had plants and the top green from 2nd column could be perfect for the Tourist Man who loves to see plants. So, I picked the top Green plus 2 coins. I paid 1 coin to construct the 2nd red floor. I let go one of the Tourist guy. 6 coins left
ROUND 4. 1st column had yellow ground floor with plants, blue 2nd with 2 cats, blue top with flowers. 2nd had that 2 reds and top pink but only curtains. 3rd had green ground floor but I already had, yellow with closed window and pink chimney. 4th had yellow with closed window, blue with a lot of flowers and orange top with plants.
That 2nd blue from 4th column could do well with the top blue from 1st column. So, I picked the top orange and Blue 2nd floor from 4th column plus 1 coin.
I constructed the top green I picked previously by paying 1 coin. Since I didn’t have the middle green yet, I had to use the scaffolding card. Then I let go one of the Tourist Boy who loves to see different objects in a house. 6 coins left.
ROUND 5. 1st had yellow ice cream shop, pink with cat and curtain, and red chimney plus 2 flowers. 2nd had yellow with plants, closed window on pink and top pink with a cat. 3rd had red shop, blue with cat and another blue top. 4th had green with plants, red with flowers and pink top and curtains.
I picked the top red with chimney and flowers and the middle pink plus 1 coin. Paid that coin to construct the top red so my red building was complete. I attracted the Tourist Boy who loves to see different objects in a house. 6 coins left. I let go Santa.
ROUND 6. 1st had Orange pizza shop, middle orange with cat and curtains, and top red with flowers. 2nd had all yellows, ice cream shop, flowers, a chimney plus a cat. 3rd had yellow ground with plants, closed window on 2nd pink and top pink with cat. 4th had red shop, middle blue with 2 cats and top blue with flowers.
I only took the top blue with flowers from the 4th column plus 2 coins. Then paid 3 coins to build the 2nd and top blue above my 2nd scaffolding. The blue was built on the left of red since I was still hoping to attract police guy. I let go the Curtain maker, 5 coins left.
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ROUND 7. 1st floor had green coffee shop, middle green with a lot of objects and closed window plus top red. Not very ideal for me. 2nd Floor had 2 orange at the bottom, one with pizza shop, middle with cat and curtain and top green with curtain. 3rd had ice cream shop yellow middle yellow with flowers and top red. 4th had ground yellow with plants, closed window and objects on pink and yellow chimney with cat.
My best option was the 3rd column, 2 at the bottom with ice cream shop yellow. Both had flowers as well. I took those 2 plus 1 coin. Paid 3 to immediately construct both to the left of my Blue house. These 3 houses had flowers, perfect to impress the Flower Lady.
This means, the police would not score much so I let him go. 2 coins left.
ROUND 8. 1st had blue ground with flowers, perfect for me, middle red with closed window and top blue with objects. 2nd had similar blue but with closed window, green middle with plants and curtain and top red with only curtain. 3rd had the coffee green shop, middle green with closed window and objects and top green plus curtain. 4th had 2 orange at the bottom with pizza shop and 2 cats and top red with flowers.
I took the 2 oranges from 4th column plus 1 coin even if I already had the pizza shop. Immediately paid 1 coin to construct the shop. to the right from my green fashion shop. Unfortunately I had to let go the coffee shop, the only missing shop from my housing. Not sure if this was a good choice but I let go the Mayor.
ROUND 9. 1st had yellow fashion shop, middle orange with plants and lamp, top green with curtain and plant. 2nd had ice cream pink, yellow middle with plants and curtains and top blue with flower and cat. 3rd had blue with plants, middle red with closed window and flowers, top red with just a curtain. 4th had blue ground floor but closed window, green middle with curtain and plants, and top green with curtain.
The game was almost over. I still needed ground blue, middle green and top yellow. Already had 2 oranges ready to be built. So, unfortunately I had to pick from last column, the Green middle and ground blue where the blue had closed window plus 1 coin.
Paid 3 to immediately construct 2, green middle and orange middle since I already had full hand anyway. The green building attracted the Tourist Guy with some plants. I let go the other Tourist Girl since I had no cats for her. 0 coin.
ROUND 10. 1st had orange ground with closed window and 2 yellow with a lot of flowers. 2nd had pink coffee shop and 2 greens above with plants. 3rd had yellow fashion shop, middle orange with plants and lamp, and blue top with flower and cat. 4th had ice cream pink, yellow with plants and top red with curtain.
I took the yellow top from 1st column plus 2 coins. There is a chance I made a mistake and ended up cheating. Somehow I got 1 coin more than I should. That means I only had 2 coins and could only build 1 card. Let’s say the blue ground and attracted the Tourist Woman there. I let go the gardener, 2 characters left and 1 coin.
ROUND 11. I already had the 2 cards left to complete my last 2 houses, the top yellow and top orange. So, I took 1 card, whatever it was and 2 coins. That means I had 3 coins and paid all of them to construct the 2 cards.
I attracted the shop owner to the Orange and the Florist to the Yellow building. That was the end of the game.
SCORING.
The Florist: 11 points
Tourist Woman: 2 + 13 points: 15 points
Tourist Boy: 2 + 6 points: 8 points
The Shop Owner: 9 points
Tourist Man: 2 + 8 points: 10 points
Shop: 10 points
Regulatory Bonus: 12 points
Closed Window: – 1 point
TOTAL SCORE: 74 points (GOOD JOB!)
Playing time was about 20 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Walking in Burano Review.
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Trailblazers
Continuing the solo sessions of Trailblazers. This one was with WANDERLUST objective, only one, the 7th one from Voyager category. To win, I need a total of 35 points from the Hiking Loops (Brown).
I have to say that the further I go with these objectives the more demanding they are. Back then, like the first one felt easier where I’m willing to play a couple of sessions at a time. While this one feels like I have to work harder for that objective.
To be fair, my current life situation maybe kinds of was in the way for now compared to when I first played this game. Not that it becomes less interesting but back then was less strict.
Anyway, here is how the session went.
ROUND 1, 1ST DRAW. From these first 8, there were 3 Brown C-shapes, 1 Brown L, 2 Blue S and 2 completely Red. Since the objective requires investing a lot in Brown, I picked the C with 1 short brown and the L shape with all brown.
Honestly, I had no idea how big at this point having 35 points just from Brown loops. First, I placed the L to create starting point from top left of the Brown Camp, pointing to the left. Then with the C-shape, making sure that one created another entry to the camp and one extended the L Shape on the left side of the camp.
ROUND 1, 2ND DRAW. None of these 6 had a Brown as the main line. At least there were 2 with Blue main line with 2 shorter browns each. This was good to create 2 entry points to the camp. I picked the one with L-shape Blue as the main line since it was easier for the brown to connect to the camp.
This was placed at the right side of the camp. The left already had a bit of red while I started to work with Blue on the right.
For the 2nd one, I picked the C-shape red with one brown. The shorter brown extended the previous line, didn’t close it yet. The main line C-shape was pointed to the left, planning for the Red camp there.
ROUND 1, 3RD DRAW. These 4 had 1 with main Brown, L shape but with shorter red and blue. One other had 2 Blue and red which made it impossible with the current situation. 3rd one had 3 different colors with red as the main. So, my best option was the Blue S with 2 brown.
I placed it at the top right corner of the camp, creating another entry for the camp while extending the Blue line. For the 2nd one, I had no choice but to use the Brown L with 2 colors. This was placed at the left side, bottom part so the L shape extended to an entry from the 1st card pointing down and to the right.
No closed loop yet but the Brown had lines worth 15 points, 20 more for the objective.
ROUND 2, 1ST DRAW. Definitely taking the Red camp as the next one. The camp was almost aligned with the brown camp but up one space, 2 spaces to the left, now with 2 red entries. From the 8 cards, there were only 2 with Brown as the main line, C-shape and Straight line.
I picked the C first to completely close the first loop at the top left corner of the camp. The loop was worth 10 points.
I didn’t think the other was good enough for this situation so I chose a Straight Blue with a short brown and blue. This extended the existing Blue route and extended the brown entry from the right side, top part.
For the objective, the top part of the brown camp was already closed. My only option to keep extending was for the bottom half, probably to the right.
ROUND 2, 2ND DRAW. There was only one with Brown as main line with L shape and shorter brown and blue. I placed this to extend the route from right side, bottom part to the bottom while opening an intersection pointed to the left entry.
Since no other brown seemed to work, I chose the Blue C-shape. This was placed to the right from that previous card, horizontally, preparing for the Blue camp to be placed there. The shorter brown extended the previous existing route, same goes with the Blue.
Currently there were 3 separated brown lines worth 7 points. If these 2 became only a single loop, I needed 18 more to complete the objective.
ROUND 2, 3RD DRAW. There was similar L-shape brown but switched between the shorter brown and blue. Instead of connecting the 2 brown lines at the bottom right corner, the 2 brown lines extended one each by 3 points.
No more brown as the main line so I picked the S-shape blue. I placed it at the right most space currently where I thought I would be placing the camp previously.
Currently 10 points from first brown closed loop. One brown line would not get anywhere and 3 others, separated at the bottom half. If connected they were worth 11 points. 14 more to win.
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ROUND 3, 1ST DRAW. The last camp, the Blue was placed at the right most space, connected to 2 blue lines. From these 8, there were actually 3 with brown as main lines, A straight with 2 blue, S with 2 Red and S with 2 blue.
I only had 6 draws or 12 cards left and I thought I needed to start closing loops, especially the other 2 camps. So, first, I picked an L-shape red and placed it at the top of the red camp, closing the loop from right side top part to the top side, left part, worth 4 points.
For the 2nd one I picked the Straight Brown with 2 blue to actually connect 2 of 3 separated lines. The potential to connect the other 2 was about 14 points now, 10 more.
ROUND 3, 2ND DRAW. There were 2 Blue, L and S, 2 Red, also L and S and 2 Brown, both straight.
I picked the L Blue to extend one of the blue line so it was closer to the other line. All I needed was one more L shape blue to connect the 2 line and got the first blue loop. But it has to be the correct orientation of L shape.
I still needed to work on 10 more points for the Brown and close the loop. For that I picked the Straight brown with 2 browns. This was placed to extend the bottom right corner. Not only this added the length of previous one by 1 but also created another line worth 3 points with good potential to connect the 2 previous lines.
ROUND 3, 3RD DRAW. One straight blue, one L red and one S red. The last one was Brown L and this was perfect to extend the 2 lines at the bottom right corner by 3 points. All I needed to connect these 3 were 2 C shape. Currently, the value of these 3 separated lines were 20. 5 more to win.
The 2nd card was the L shape red to close 2nd red loop from the right bottom side of the camp. This was not enough, needed at least 1 more line to create the exit at bottom side, left part of the camp for 4 points.
Still needed at least 1 to close red, 1 to close blue, probably 3 more to close the brown. One extra left in the last round.
ROUND 4, 1ST DRAW. There was a C shape brown to finally connect 2 out of 3 brown lines at the bottom right. To connect the remaining 2, I needed at least a C and a small turn. No more C so I just picked the small one.
ROUND 4, 2ND DRAW. Got an L-shape red to finally close 2nd red loop for 4 points. No brown c but there was C shape blue, not enough to close the 2 blue lines.
ROUND 4, 3RD DRAW. This one I got very lucky to find a C-shape Brown and closed the 2 long lines for 25 points, completing the objective with the other loop with 10 points.
Another lucky card was L-shape blue to connect that single blue loop for 16 points.
SCORING
1st Brown Loop: 10 points
2nd Brown Loop: 25 points
1st Red Loop: 4 points
2nd Red Loop: 4 points
1st Blue Loop: 16 points
TOTAL SCORE: 59 points.
Playing time was about 25 minutes.
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Horizons of Spirit Island
Defend the island again from invaders as Spirit in Horizons of Spirit Island. This time still with the Sun-Bright Whirlwind but with the drafting and the more difficult setting. Played on Island G. Starting exploration happened on Sand Lands, one on each G3 and G5, a City on G2 and Town at G8. The Spirit had sacred site on G1 and 1 disc on G5.
ROUND 1.
For Growth, I picked the 3rd option to place 1 disc and get new Power card. The disc was placed at G3 where the explorer was and pushed that explorer to the Wetland G4, preventing it from build action. I took the disc from the 2nd row so from this point the Spirit could play 2 cards in a turn.
For the Power cards my options were Call to Tend, Call to Isolation, Land of Haunts and Embers and Enticing Splendor. I think the last one was part of this Spirit Progression. Based on the result, I think maybe the 3rd was the best choice since I got a lot of Blight on lands. Instead I picked Call to Isolation, mostly because of the elements that can trigger the Innate power. This or the Enticing Splendor had similar limitation.
I only had 1 Energy. So, with 2 cards, I played Gift of Wind Sped Steps (cost 1) and Call to Isolation (cost 0). The first one was to change the Innate Power from slow to fast.
The innate power became fast and but only triggered the 1st level to push one Explorer. The target land was that Sand G5 with explorer and I pushed it out to Jungle G7.
With the 2nd card I chose that same G7 with 2 Dahan to push it out to the G5.
That was the end of this Fast Power phase.
Invader Phase. No Fear card yet. No Ravage and no Build. Exploration happened at Mountain lands 1 to each G2 with 2 Dahan and Sacred Site and G8 with a Town.
Slow Power Phase. No more power this time.
ROUND 2. Growth Phase, I chose the one to reclaim cards, get a new card and 1 Energy in addition to 1 Energy from the track.
My options for new Minor Power cards were Dark and Tangled Woods, Delusions of Danger, Sap of the Strength of Multitudes, Gift of the Living Energy. I guess I was still stuck with the idea to keep triggering the Innate Power. From these 4 only the 2nd had the Sun and Air elements. The 1st had only Air but that could work too. I thought the 2nd card had more flexibility so that was what I chose.
With the 2 Energy and 2 cards, I played Gift of the Wind Sped Steps and Delusion of Dangers, cost 1 each. Using the first card, the Innate Power, the first level, became Fast Power. I target G8 Mountain, 1 space from the disc on G5 to push the Explorer there to G6 Jungle.
Using the 2nd one, I chose the top power, to push 1 explorer from a land 1 space from the disc. G1 was sacred site with explorer so I activated there, pushing out the explorer to G5 Sand where the Ravage would happen and the Dahan would counter.
Invader Phase. No Fear Card yet. The Ravage did happen on G5 by 1 explorer, countered by the Dahan. Nothing on G3 Sand. No Build on Mountain G1 but a City was added on G8 since there was a Town there.
The next exploration happened on Wetlands. Wetlands G2 now had 1 City and 1 Explorer and G4 had 2 explorers.
ROUND 3. This Growth phase, I chose the 2nd option to place a disc and get 4 Energy. The disc was taken from 2nd card so from this point I could start playing with 3 cards each turn.
I placed the disc on Wetlands G4 to push 1 of 2 Explorers to Wetland G2.
I thought I couldn’t do anything with the Ravage on G8 by 1 City and 1 Town. No Ravage on G1 but possible build actions on both Wetlands. I could push the Explorer out from one Wetlands and let the other added a Town.
With 3 cards and 5 Energy, I played Tempest of Leaves and Branches (2), Call to Isolation (0) and Scatter to Winds (slow, 1). Using the 2nd to move the explorer out of G4 to G2 and deal damage using first card. No idea yet with the innate power and the 3rd card.
So, that was what I did with the first 2 cards. Wetland G2 had damaged City only and no explorers.
Invader Phase. No Fear Card. Ravage on G8, nobody to defend so 1 Blight added there. Nothing on G1 and G4. Build action happened on G2, adding 1 Town as expected. The next exploration happened on Mountain lands. Since I played with higher difficulty, I added a Town on G6. 1 Explorer added to G8 and G1 each.
Slow Power Phase. The Innate power was triggered up to 2nd level. Generated 1st Fear. Targeting G8, I pushed 1 Explorer and 1 Town to Jungle G6. Using the last Power card, I pushed the Town from Wetland G2 to also Jungle G6. That land had 3 Towns and 2 Explorers.
ROUND 4. I wanted to destroy that City on G2 before they did ravage there. My only option was to use the Innate Power, 3rd threshold by pushing 3 invaders from nearby land. For that I had to play 3 cards with Air plus one from the 2nd track. So, I chose the 3rd option to let me pick a disc from that track and get a new card.
The disc was placed on G1, which already a sacred site there. This pushed out the only explorer to the Jungle G6.
The 4 new Minor Cards were Reaching Grasp, Elemental Boon, Entrancing Apparitions and Gift of Power. Had I stuck with getting the same elements, I would have picked the 1st card or the 2nd card. But I chose the 3rd one with Air element. This allowed me to Defend 2 and maybe gather up to 2 explorers.
So, I had 2 Energy from previous round and 1 from the track and 3 cards to play. I played Gift of Wind Sped Steps, Delusion of Danger and Entrancing Apparitions, all with the cost of 1 each and Fast Power.
The 1st card changed the innate power to Fast and target the Jungle G6 with 3 explorers and 3 Towns. Got 2nd Fear and pushed 3 explorers to that G2 Wetlands, dealing 3 damage to destroy that City. Got 2 more Fear, 1st Fear Card.
Using the 3rd card I target Wetland G4 with no Invader but 1 Dahan, placed Defend 2 and gathered 2 Explorers from G2. With the 2nd card, generated 2 Fear after 1st Fear Card.
Invader Phase. The Fear card allowed me to put Defend 3 to all Coastal Lands, didn’t help much. Ravage on G4 by 2 explorers, there was Defend 2 and the Dahan destroyed both. One hit but defended on G2.
Build action added a town to G8 in addition to a City there but nothing on G1. The next exploration happened on Jungle lands. I placed a Town on G2 Wetland since it had none. 2 explorers on G7 Jungle and 1 explorer plus 3 towns on G6 Jungle.
No more Slow Power this time.
ROUND 5. 1 card left so I had to use the 1st growth option to reclaim cards, get a new one and 1 Energy, in addition to 1 from track. This time I chose a Major Power card and my options were POWERSTORM, WINDS OF RUST AND ATROPHY, THE LAND THRASES IN FURIOUS PAIN and CLEANSING FLOODS.
I chose the 1st one, still with the same Element reason. The cost is cheap with just 3 Energy and it is Fast Power. This allowed me to get 3 Energy back and trigger the other Power Card which could be handy.
Unfortunately, not enough Energy to use this card for now. So, with 2 Energy and 3 cards to play, I played Call to Isolation, Scatter to the Winds, and Gift of Wind Sped Steps with the total cost of 2.
It seems I had to let the Ravage hit the Mountain G8 again and let adjacent land got 1 Blight. The other Mountain was safe and my focus should be preventing G6 from adding a City and/or a Town from Jungle G7.
I actually used the 3rd card to change the 2nd card into Fast Power. This 2nd card allowed me to push 5 invaders to as many different lands as possible. One Town to G8, G5 and G2 and the Explorer to G1. Then with the 1st card, I pushed 1 of 2 Dahan from G1 into that G6.
Invader Phase. No Fear Card. Ravage happened again on G8, adding a Blight to the G6. Also happened on G1 by 1 explorer but Dahan countered. No Build action on G6 but 1 Town was added to G7. The next exploration happened on Coastal Lands. G1 now had 1 Explorer, G2 had 2 Towns and 2 Explorers, 1 Explorer on G3.
Slow Power Phase. This time was for the Innate Power only, up to 3rd threshold. I chose G7 as target and I pushed 2 Explorers and 1 Town to G8, dealing 3 damage, destroying the City there. The Innate Power also got me 1 Fear so 3 total Fear. Got 2nd Fear card with 1 additional Fear generated.
ROUND 6. So, I wanted to start dealing damage using the 4th Innate power. For that I had to place disc and I picked the Growth option that gave me 4 Energy in addition to 1 from track. The disc was from that card track so I could start playing 4 cards in a turn and I placed the disc on G3. This pushed the only explorer there to G2 and created a Sacred site for the Spirit.
It seems I made a mistake but disadvantage to me. I was supposed to have 5 Energy but only got 4. Didn’t know where the last one went.
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****
I think this is probably where I got the rule wrong. This turn I didn’t have enough Energy to play the 4 cards. Even if I got 5, the total cost was 7. I was thinking that the POWERSTORM major power card could generate 3 more energy to cover the other. It seems the correct way was to have enough first to play all cards and these 3 extra energy were only to trigger the power again. Oh, well…
****
Anyway, I continued incorrectly. I played 4 cards. Paid 3 Energy to Powerstorm, 1 Energy for Entrancing Apparitions and just assumed that another 1 for Delusion of Danger. I also played the Tempest of Leaves and Branches with the cost of 2 using the Energy from Powerstorm.
Entrancing Apparition was activated to Jungle G6 without invaders to gather 2 explorers from G8. The card also added Defend 2 so the 1 Dahan there would get rid of the invaders during Ravage.
The Tempest card hit 5 invaders on G2, 3 explorers and one hit each to 2 Towns. Delusions of Danger pushed the only explorer from G1 to G2.
Invader Phase. Fear card was Scapegoat, allowed me to remove 1 Explorer for each Town there. I used it on G2 so there were only 2 Town there.
Ravage happened on G6 by 2 explorers, defended and countered by Dahan. Nothing on G7. Build action happened on Coastal land but only G2, adding a City to 2 towns. The next exploration happened in Wetlands, 1 explorer each. I also added a Town on G6.
Slow Power phase and only for Innate power, targeting G2 with 1 City, 2 Towns and 1 Explorer. Got me 1 Fear. I pushed the towns and explorer to G4 and the 3 damages destroyed the 2 towns and 1 explorer, generating 2 Fear. This was the wrong part where I triggered the 4th threshold to destroy a City, getting me 2 more Fear. TERROR LEVEL 2.
ROUND 7. Ravage was supposed to happen on Coastal Lands but no invaders there. Build action only on one Wetlands from 1 explorer. I think I used this chance to reclaim cards but it seems I forgot to take a new card. Got 1 Energy plus 1 from track.
This time I only played 2 cards, Call to Isolation and Delusion of Danger with the total cost of 1. 1st card was to push the explorer from Wetland G4 so no ravage and no build action this time. The 2nd one generated 2 Fear, got a 4th Fear Card.
Invader Phase. The 1st fear card cancelled the Build action but no build action this time and the 2nd one added Defend 2 but no Ravage this time.
The next exploration happened in Mountain plus Jungle. G1 had 1 explorer, G7 had 2 explorers, G6 had 1 explorer and 1 town, G8 had 3 Town and 1 explorer.
Slow Power Phase. Only Innate Power up to 2nd level. 1 Fear was generated. Targeting G8, I pushed 1 Explorer and 2 Towns to G5 so 3 town and 1 explorer were there.
ROUND 8. 2nd Growth option to place a disc and get 4 Energy. The disc was taken from Energy track so I got 2 more energy, in addition from 1 leftover from previous round. I placed the disc on G6, pushing out an explorer to G5.
With 7 Energy and 4 cards, I played Powerstorm (3), Tempest of Leaves and Branches (2), Gift of Wind Sped Steps (1) and Scatter to the Winds (Slow 1).
The 3rd card turned the innate power into Fast power and 4 cards had enough elements to trigger all thresholds. I used it on G5. First, pushed 2 explorers and 1 town to G8, dealing 2 damage to explorer each and 1 to the Town. G5 had 2 towns left which were destroyed by the 4th level innate power. Generating 2 Fear plus 1 from the 2nd level Innate Power.
I kind of lost track here. The 2nd card probably killed the only explorer on G1 and possibly on G6 but I forgot how. I triggered the 2nd card twice after paying 2 from 3 I got by Powerstorm. The possible scenario was with innate power I pushed 1 explorer from G5 to G6 and dealt 1 damage to the town. 2nd card then hit both the explorer and the damaged town, getting me 1 more Fear.
Invader Phase. The Fear card allowed me to either remove 2 Explorers or 1 Town from a land with a Dahan. The only one with Town was G8 but no Dahan there so my only option was G7 with 2 Explorers and 1 Dahan.
No Ravage and no Build action this time except adding a City to G8 after the 2 Towns. Next exploration happened on Jungle and Wetlands.
Slow Power phase was only for the 4th card, Scatter to the Wind, targeting G8 to move 2 Towns, one to G5 and the other to G7.
ROUND 9. I only needed 3 Fear and destroyed that last City to win. I could do that by using Innate Power but as Fast Power. So, I needed to reclaim that Gift of Wind Sped Steps. get 1 Energy plus 2 from track and 1 from previous round and get a new card as well.
It really didn’t matter but I picked THE TREES AND STONES SPEAK OF WAR from Major Power. I let go the Sun Bright slow card.
With 4 Energy and 4 cards to play, I played Call to Isolation, Delusion of Danger, Entrancing Apparitions and Gift of Wind Sped Steps. 3 Suns, 5 Air.
4 damage to the City in G8 got me 2 Fear and 1 more fear from 2nd Innate power. TERROR LEVEL 3 and no more City.
I won but as mentioned above, probably got the rule wrong.
Playing time was about 108 minutes. I have to try this one again.
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Regicide
Overthrow the corrupted monarchs in a solo game of Regicide. The starting group were mainly Cleric with Sprinkle (2), Arabella (3), Eragar (9) and Fennec (A), accompanied by Belroth (9), the Paladin, Yrneha (7) the Warrior and 2 Strong Bards, Gad (10) and Elkoshoth (9).
1st Enemy: NOBUTADA, Jack of Paladins. Yrneha went first, accompanied by Fernec. Fernec ability was blocked but still double damage by the warrior, 16 points, 4 more left to take Nobutada down.
Nobutada countered and dealt 10 damage, hitting 2 Clerics, Arabella and Eragar. Eloshoth delivered the final blow with 9 points, while bringing in more friends for the group.
Bite the Paladin (8), 2 Clerics, James (6) and Elashor (7) and 2 more Bards, Kowhai (5) and Snow (8) joined the party.
2nd Enemy: LETHOLDUS, Jack of Clerics. Belroth the Paladin set up some defense right away, lowering Letholdus attack by 9 while dealing damage 9 damage to the 2 new Clerics. (I got mixed up between the enemy health and attack).
Kowhai the Bard brought in more friends while attacking Letholdus by 5 points. The new friends were Wicked and Fulrad, both young Paladin, Kazaghan, the most powerful Cleric and Jakhim, a Bard.
Letholdus still had 6 points health left and injured Fulrad. Jakhim completely disarmed Letholdus and convinced him to join the group. As Bard, Jakhim also brought in Vegarian, the strongest Paladin, Herbod the Warrior and Glamelyn, another Bard.
3rd Enemy: KALANNAR, Jack of Bards. With Vegarian, the strongest Paladin, Jack of Bards couldn’t do any attack. Kazaghan, the strongest Cleric convinced Jack to join while healing 10 of their friends.
4th Enemy: TEZFUR, Jack of Warriors. Herbod the Warrior and his best friend Glamelyn did their favorite combo on Tezfur, dealing double of 8 damage to Tezfur while bringing in some reinforcement. The 2 Jacks, Dhonatir the Paladin and 2 animal companions, The Badger and the Phoenix(?).
That attack was not strong enough to defeat Tezfur. Tezfur countered with 10 damage, injuring the Jack of Clerics. Another combo by 2 young members, Wicket and Sprinkle. Wicket set some defense while Sprinkle healed some fallen members.
Tezfur attacked again and Bite the Paladin took some damage. Jack of Bards beat Tezfur while bringing in 3 warriors, Theodoric, Esme and the strongest one Oneria. Krozzurum the Cleric and Folred the Bard also joined the group.
5th Enemy: MALICE, Queen of Bards. Krozzurum and Dhonatir did a combo on the Queen, setting some defense while healing their other members. The Defense value was 8 but the Queen’s initial attack was 15, injuring Folred the Bard.
Oneria, accompanied by the Phoenix, dealt the final attack to the Queen. She agreed to join.
*** I made an error here by activating the Phoenix ability to bring in more heroes while the enemy was immune to it. Oh, well. None of the new members were Bards though. Let’s say, I used the Badger instead.
6th Enemy: LILITH, Queen of Paladins. So, I was supposed to use Phoenix and Esme, dealing 14 points damage to Lilith while brought in more heroes. 2 Clerics, Puriri and Bronze, a Paladin, Tanathil and their companion Pangolin, and Qelgrax, 2nd to strongest Warrior.
Lilith then attacked and injured both Bronze and Tanathil. Qelgrax delivered the final blow.
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7th Enemy: CATHERINE, Queen of Clerics. No Bards so the Goblin came with help of a new group. There were 3 Warriors, Dinky, Kauri and Shadow, 2 Paladins, Totara and Lee and 3 Bards, Tali, River and the Queen.
The 2 Rank 5 from Paladin and Warrior did a combo, dealing 20 damage while setting up defense of 10 points. Catherine dealt 5 damage, injuring Lee. Shadow then dealt the finishing blow to Catherine with double damage of 16.
8th Enemy: HOSTLA, Queen of Warriors. The group only had one Queen with 3 children. Tali and Dinky from Rank 2 did a combo to setup some defense and bring in more friends. The Queen of Bards took the damage.
Nobutada, the first enemy finally came to help, along with Elkoshoth the Bard, Yrneha and James from Rank 6. The Jack of Paladin set the defense, lowering Queen’s attack to 5. Hostla took down Yrneha from the same class.
Elkoshoth dealt 9 more damage but not enough to beat the Queen. The Bard brought in more friends, 2 more Rank 3, Belroth and Fennec. Sadly, the Queen injured James. Elashor finally beat the Queen and as Cleric, healed some fallen members.
9th Enemy: VEXX, King of Paladin. First attack was done by 3 Rank 3, Fulrad, Arabella and River. Fulrad’s ability was disabled but the other 2 still worked. Got Kowhai, Letholdus and Hostla immediately joined the fight, also Vegarian. The strongest Paladin took the damage from his King.
Hostla, accompanied by Fennec, dealt 32 damage and beat the King. Fennec completely healed the rest of the fallen members.
10th Enemy: TATHZAER, King of Bards. Belroth immediately setup some defense, lowering the attack by 9. Letholdus and Kowhai could have taken the damage while Snow brought in some helps. I chose to use the 2nd Goblin because the King disabled that ability.
The new group had 3 Paladins, Wicket, Bite and the King, 3 Bards, Jakhim, Gad and the Jac and 2 Warriors, Herbod and Tezfur.
Bite set another defense of 8 but the King still dealt 3 damage, injuring Herbod. Tezfur next, dealing 20 to the King and the King took down Jakhim. Gad dealt the final blow while bringing in Glamelyn and Phoenix from Bard class, Eragar and Krozzurum from Cleric and Oneria, the strongest Warrior.
11th Enemy: FYRNOD, King of Warriors. Vexx, the King of Paladin set complete defense to nullify Fyrnod’s attack. Glamelyn and Krozzurum did a combo of healing and getting more members. Got Folred, Dhonatir and Arabella.
Eragar, accompanied by Phoenix healed back injured members. Phoenix should have brought in more friends. Arabella completely beat and convinced this King to join.
12th Enemy: EDWARD, King of Hearts / Clerics. Jack of Bard started the attack and brought in more friends. Edward took down Oneria, the strongest Warrior, Dhonatir and Esme.
FYRNOD apparently joined the fight and immediately dealt the strongest damage to beat the King of Heart.
Got BRONZE VICTORY. Playing time was about 31 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Regicide Review.
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Carson City: The Card Game
Win the auction to help build the best Carson City in Carson City: The Card Game. This was a solo game, me as the Cactus player against the Bull, the Horseshoe and the Sherrif.
Era I, Round 1. 1st card had a mine and mountain. 2nd card had a ranch, 3rd card had 2 houses, the character card was the Heroes and 4th card was empty parcels.
I always go with character so I played my 1. Bulls played 8, 4 from Horseshoe and 1 from Sherrif. Well, I got the last pick and got the character.
Bull: 5, Horseshoe: 3, Sherrif: 3
Era I, Round 2.
1st card Saloon and 2 houses. The character was the Governor. 2nd card had 3 Mountains. 3rd had a Ranch and last card was empty. Well, I still wanted the character but I took a risk and played a 3. Bulls played 7, 3 from Horseshoe and 8 from Sherrif.
I won the tie against Horseshoe so I went 3rd and got 3 Mountains instead of the character.
Bull: 13, Horseshoe: 6, Sherrif: 13
Era I, Round 3. 1st card had 2 Drugstores and 2 houses. 2nd card had criminal, 2 houses and a General store. 3rd card had Mine and 2 Mountain. The character was the Doctor and the last card had only 1 Mountain.
Aimed for the Doctor so I played my lowest again, the 2. Bulls played 4, 2 from Horseshoe and 9 from Sherrif. Got my Doctor.
Bull: 22, Horseshoe: 10, Sherrif: 26
Era I, Round 4. 1st card had 1 mine and 2 Mountains. The character was The Captain. 2nd and 3rd had 2 Ranches in different position. 4th had 3 Mountains. I didn’t like any of these but I already had Mountains so maybe the 1st card, the character or the last card.
Decided to play my lowest which was the 4 plus the 3 from the Heroes. Bulls played 5, 8 from Horseshoe and 3 from Sherrif. So, I won 2nd place and took the Captain.
Bull: 27, Horseshoe: 17, Sherrif: 31
Era I, Round 5. 1st card had 2 Mountain and a Prison. The character was the Lawyer. 2nd card had 1 Mine and 1 Mountain. 3rd card had only 1 ranch and 4th card only had 1 Mountain. I wanted the character but 1st or 2nd one were not bad.
I took the risk and played my lowest still, the 5. Bulls played 9, 1 from Horseshoe and 6 from Sherrif. I was 3rd place so I took the one with Mine and Mountain to add to my City. This one was placed below the previous one so the Mine was next to 3 Mountains.
Bull: 34, Horseshoe: 20, Sherrif: 36
Era I, Round 6. Started with the character, the Teacher. 1st card had 1 Mine and 2 Mountains. 2nd to 4th were all empty lots.
I had to win 1st or 2nd place so I played my 9 but then again I was the lowest in tie breaker. Bulls played 3, 9 from Horseshoe and 5 from Sherrif. So, I was 2nd but had I played 6, I was still 2nd.
This new card had the Mine at the top right with 2 Mountain adjacent to it. I placed it to the left of my first card so this new Mine was adjacent to 4 Mountains and added 1 Mountain to the previous Mine.
Bull: 35, Horseshoe: 27, Sherrif: 37
Era I, Round 7. 1st card had 3 Mountain. The Character was the Sherrif himself. 2nd card had criminal, 2 houses and 1 Townhouse. 3rd and 4th were empty.
I needed that Sherrif so I didn’t need to worry about criminals. So, I played my highest which was 8. Bulls played 6, 7 from Horseshoe and 7 from Sherrif. I won first place and took the Sherrif to help me.
Bull: 36, Horseshoe: 29, Sherrif: 41
Era I, Round 8. 1st card had a Church and 2 houses. 2nd had 2 ranches and a Blacksmith. The Character was The Settler. 3rd card had 1 ranch and the last was empty.
Not a big fan of this Settler character and the Church value was 11, probably the 2nd biggest in this Era so far. I had 2 cards left, a 6 and 7. A guaranteed win with 7 but I chose to play with 6 plus 2 from my Doctor. Bulls played 1, 5 from Horseshoe and 4 from Sherrif.
Well, I didn’t need the Doctor after all. I took the highest one and placed it to the left from the last card so all Mines were separated to other buildings by those Mountains. Maybe it would be better on the right side so those houses could be next to more buildings.
Bull: 39, Horseshoe: 38, Sherrif: 46
Era I, Round 9. 1st card had 2 Mines and 2 Mountains. The character was the Singer, loves some Saloons. 2nd and 3rd card had 1 Mine and 1 Mountain. 4th had 2 houses.
Last round for this era and my card was 7. Bulls played 2, 6 from Horseshoe and 2 from Sherrif. I won 1st place and took the 1st card. I placed it in the middle of my city slightly overlap the first card. The 2 Mountains from new card didn’t add value to previous 2 mines but both 2 new mines were adjacent to 3 Mountains.
Bull: 44, Horseshoe: 47, Sherrif: 51
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Era II, Round 1. 1st card had Hotel, 2 Drugstores and 1 house with 17. 2nd card had Saloon, Hotel, Townhouse and criminals worth 12. 3rd had a bank, house worth 8. The Character was the Editor and the last had 2 ranches worth 5.
Those were high value parcels but I like the Character to give points for each character. So, I played the lowest, my 1. Bulls played 2, 1 from Horseshoe and 4 from Sherrif. Either way, I got to pick the Editor.
Bull: 56, Horseshoe: 55, Sherrif: 68
Era II, Round 2. 1st card had a Bank and house worth 8. The Character was The Prospector who loves Mines and Mountains. 2nd card had 2 houses worth 3 and the last 2 were empty.
I wanted the character. Hoping to at least win the 2nd place, I played my 8. Bulls played 1, 2 from Horseshoe and 7 from Sherrif. Won 1st place but I took the Prospector.
Bull: 59, Horseshoe: 56, Sherrif: 76
Era II, Round 3. 1st card had 1 Mine and 3 Mountains. The Character was the Chinese Worker who can get 1 additional parcel. 2nd card only had Townhouse worth 3 and the other 2 were empty.
I had to win the Chinese Worker. Played my 7 plus 2 from Doctor. Bulls played 9, 4 from Horseshoe and 8 from Sherrif. I won 2nd place and got the Chinese Worker.
Bull: 68, Horseshoe: 57, Sherrif: 79
Era II, Round 4. 1st card had Saloon, General Store, Townhouse and criminal worth 16. 2nd card had City Hall and Townhouse for 15. 3rd had Hotel, 2 Banks and Criminal worth 15. 4th card had Drugstore and house for 7. The character was Paperboy which probably has the most powerful ability but I still was not sure how to use it properly. Paperboy can use any other character ability from the deck or discard pile.
The first 3 cards were very valuable so I had to won those. I played my 9 with the highest in tie breaker. Bulls played 3, 9 from Horseshoe and 3 from Sherrif.
I won 1st place but I picked the 3rd card with 2 Banks to give more point for each Mine in my city.
Bull: 83, Horseshoe: 73, Sherrif: 86
Era II, Round 5. 1st card had Saloon, Blacksmith, Townhouse and House for 15. 2nd had a Bank, Drugstore and Townhouse for 14. 3rd had 3 Mountains and Mine for 9 and 4th had Bank and House for 8 and the character was the Gunsmith.
I decided to play the Chinese Worker to add one more parcel card which had 1 house and 1 Prison and on my turn I could take 2. To win, I played my 6 plus 3 from Heroes. Bulls played 6, 7 from Horseshoe and 2 from Sherrif.
I won and took the first 2 cards. Expanded the city to north. 1st card was placed as 3rd column from the left and 5th from the bottommost. Then the 2nd card was placed above the rest so from top to bottom I already used 8 spaces and 6 in width. 1st card added a house next to existing bank. 2nd carrd added a bank next to a Hotel and house with a Drugstore next to those same buildings.
Bull: 91, Horseshoe: 82, Sherrif: 92
Era II, Round 6. 1st card had Saloon, a house and a Prison for 13. 2nd had a prison and House for 6. 3rd had 2 Ranches for 5. The character was replaced by Mercenary who can add 5 points in bidding. 4th card only had Townhouse for 3.
Still had low value card so I thought this was a good chance. I played my 2. Bulls played 7, 5 from Horseshoe and 9 from Sherrif. I got my Mercenary.
Bull: 97, Horseshoe: 87, Sherrif: 105
Era II, Round 7. 1st card had Bank, Drugstore and Townhouse for 14. 2nd had 1 Mine and 3 Mountains for 9. The character was Auctioneer that could give 7 points per sold parcel card up to 3 cards. The last 2 cards had empty.
I was planning to use the Mercenary while playing my 3. Bulls played 4, 3 from Horseshoe and 5 from Sherrif.
I won but probably too much and took the 1st card. This was placed at 5th parcel to the left and 3rd from the top. Maybe this was not the best. Had I placed it more to the top, I could add value to existing while this way I only added value to the new Drugstore.
Bull: 102, Horseshoe: 88, Sherrif: 114
Era II, Round 8. 1st card had Hotel, Saloon, Townhouse and criminals. 2nd had Bank and House. The character was the Banker. 3rd and 4th were empty.
Unfortunately my 2 last card were 4 and 5 with no way to increase it. So, I played 4. Bulls played 8, 8 from Horseshoe and 6 from Sherrif. Last place and had to take the empty place. Trying not to expand too far to the right, this overlapped the 2 empty parcel part of the city.
Bull: 114, Horseshoe: 96, Sherrif: 121
Era II, Round 9. 1st and 2nd card were similar, had Drugstore and house for 7 each. The character was The Undertaker, giving points for more character in the city. The other 2 cards were empty. A bit anticlimactic.
I played my last one, a 5 with the highest in tie breaker. Bulls played 5, 6 from Horseshoe and 1 from Sherrif. I took the Undertaker.
Bull: 121, Horseshoe: 103, Sherrif: 122
SCORING
Mercenary: 0 point
Doctor: 5 points
Chinese Worker: 0 point
Heroes: 6 points
Prospector: 11 points
Undertaker: 18 points
Editor: 21 points
Captain: 6 points
Sherrif: 0 point
1st Bank: 9 points
1st Drugstore: 5 points
2nd Bank: 6 points
Hotel: 3 points
Blacksmith: 4 points
2nd Drugstore: 4 points
3rd Bank: 6 points
4th Bank: 8 points
Saloon: 11 points
Church: 11 points
1st Mine: 8 points
2nd Mine: 6 points
3rd Mine: 6 points
4th Mine: 8 points
MY TOTAL SCORE: 149 POINTS.
Playing time was about 35 minutes.
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Nautilion
Back to the Oniverse with a game of Nautilion. Still with the same setup as previous session, using all of expansions and the 2nd Nautilion board.
ROUND 1. Darkhouse Card: Roll the dice one at a time. Each die must be given to a figure before rolling the next die.
I probably rolled 2 first, giving it to Darkhouse to avoid giving Mercenary to Phantom. Then, I probably rolled a 4 which I gave to Nautilion, landing it on Crew 8 with a Reef. Luckily the last roll was a 1, giving it to Phantom, removing Mage A.
Rolled a 4 for Nautilion and they got out of the Reef.
ROUND 2. Darkhouse Card: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between the Nautilion and the Abyss.
I think I got the rule a bit wrong with this by thinking to place the token between the 2 figures. Either way, there was only Mage A, which I put back somewhere closer to Nautilion.
Roll: 1, 1 and 4. I couldn’t give a 1 to Phantom as they would get a Mercenary. So, I had no choice but to give them a 4, removing Crew 6. Nautilion got a Mercenary which was placed in the space for Crew 9.
ROUND 3. Darkhouse card: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then. roll 2 dice and give them to the 2 remaining figures.
I chose Darkhouse first and rolled a 3 so I lost 1 reserve token. The other rolls were 1 and 2. 2 for Nautilion was another 8. So, I gave the 1 to Nautilion, getting them a Mage C while the 2 for Phantom got them to remove Crew 4.
ROUND 4. Darkhouse card: if the die you give to the Darkhouse is a 2, you must reroll it. If the result is 3 or 4, you must discard a token, with 1 or 2 no effect.
Rolls were 2, 2 and 4. I gave the 2 to Darkhouse so I had to reroll and luckily got a 1, so no token to lose. The 2 for Phantom got them to remove Crew 3 while 4 for Nautilion landed them on Crew 1 with a Reef. That crew was placed on the Mage board.
I rolled a 2 for Nautilion so they were stuck there for next round. Got another reserve token.
ROUND 5. Darkhouse card: Discard value = 4, discard a token. Rolls were 2 and 3. Since the 3 didn’t do anything for Darkhouse, the Phantom took the 2, removing Crew 9.
ROUND 6. Darkhouse Card: Roll the dice one at a time. Each die must be given to a figure before rolling the next die.
Not sure which I rolled first. Probably a 1 and I gave it to Darkhouse. Then I rolled a 2. Nautlion would land on Crew 2 but only to become a token. So, I gave it to Phantom, removing 2nd Crew 9. I rolled again and got a 1 for Nautilion so they got Crew 7. This was placed in the 3rd of Mage board already with Mage C so from here now on I could reroll once for free.
ROUND 7. Darkhouse Card: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between the Nautilion and the Abyss.
Since there were 2 Crew 9 discarded, I put one back, somewhere closer to the Phantom but between 2 figures.
Rolled 1, 1 and 2. 1 for Phantom would get them a Mercenary so they had to take the 2, removing Crew 3 and a Reef. 1 for the other 2 and Nautilion got Crew 2 that they couldn’t place on the board. Turned it into a token.
ROUND 8. Darkhouse card: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then. roll 2 dice and give them to the 2 remaining figures.
I probably chose Darkhouse first and luckily rolled a 1. The other 2 rolls were 1 and 3. 3 for Phantom would have been a Mercenary while for Nautilion Crew 1 again. 1 for Phantom was Crew 8, still giving them extra harpoon while Nautilion got Crew 2 they couldn’t place.
So, I went with 3 for Nautilion but spent 2 reserve tokens to swap Crew 1 with Crew 5 from somewhere behind Phantom. Phantom got their 3rd harpoon, 4 for Nautilion.
ROUND 9. Darkhouse card: if the die you give to the Darkhouse is a 2, you must reroll it. If the result is 3 or 4, you must discard a token, with 1 or 2 no effect.
Rolled a 1, 3 and 3. Definitely one for Darkhouse. Phantom got to remove Crew 1 and Reef while Nautilion got another Mercenary which was placed on space for Crew 7.
ROUND 10. Darkhouse card: Discard value = 4, discard a token. Rolled all 1, maybe after one reroll.
Phantom got a Crew 5 or their 4th Harpoon. Nautilion got Mage A and already with Crew 1 on that board. So, from this point, I could do 2 rerolls.
ROUND 11. Darkhouse Card: Roll the dice one at a time. Each die must be given to a figure before rolling the next die.
I think I rolled a 2 first and gave it to Darkhouse. Then I rolled a 1 which would get Phantom a Mercenary so I gave it to Nautilion which got them Crew 1 and a Reef. Rolled again and got a 3 for Phantom, letting them remove Mage B that I still needed.
Rolled a 2 this time and Nautilion was stuck on Reef next turn. Got a reserve token.
ROUND 12. Darkhouse Card: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between the Nautilion and the Abyss.
I recovered Crew 3 from discard pile and placed it 3 spaces away from Phantom to prevent them for getting either Crew 5 or Crew 2 with Harpoons.
Rolled a 1 and a 2. With 1 Phantom would have removed Crew 4 but with 2 a reef and Mage B. I still needed both but I let Phantom removed Crew 4.
ROUND 13. Darkhouse card: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then. roll 2 dice and give them to the 2 remaining figures.
I think I chose Phantom first and rolled a 2, letting them remove Crew 3 I added back previously. Rolled 1 and 4. Definitely 4 for Nautilion, getting them the Crew 4.
ROUND 14. Darkhouse card: if the die you give to the Darkhouse is a 2, you must reroll it. If the result is 3 or 4, you must discard a token, with 1 or 2 no effect.
Rolled 1, 1 and 2, with 2 rerolls. Gave the 1 to Darkhouse. Either those 2 left got Phantom a Crew with Harpoon. 1 for Nautilion was Crew 5 but they already got it so they took the 2 and got Crew 3 on a Reef.
I rolled a 4 and Nautilion got away from the reef plus bonus reserve token.
ROUND 15. Darkhouse card: Discard value = 4, discard a token. Rolled a 2, 2 and 3. 3 could go for Darkhouse with any penalty.
Those result got the 2 figures right next to each other so the Collision was about to happen next turn. Phantom removed Crew 7 with a reef while Nautilion got Crew 2 and a Harpoon.
ROUND 16. Darkhouse Card: Roll the dice one at a time. Each die must be given to a figure before rolling the next die.
Rolled a 1 first, giving it to Darkhouse. Since Phantom would be the one to trigger the Collision, it didn’t matter which number I gave it to them. Rolled a 3 and I gave it to Nautilion to get Crew 6. Even 2 could get them Mage B. Phantom got that 2.
COLLISION TIME. Nautilion got 7 harpoons and Phantom got 5 so Nautilion won the fight. As bonus Nautilion took Crew 7. One more crew on Nautilion and Mage B to complete them all.
Nautilion continued the move and landed on a Reef. Rolled a 1 so they were stuck there next round but bonus reserve token.
Nautilion was 12 spaces away from Abyss while Phantom was 16 to Happy isle.
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ROUND 17. Darkhouse Card: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between the Nautilion and the Abyss. This is where I got it wrong. I retrieved Mage B but I placed between Nautilion and Phantom instead of Nautilion and Abyss. So, Nautilion was supposed to be 13 spaces away.
Rolled a 1 and a 2. Phantom would have removed Crew 9 with 1 or Crew 5 with 2. Either way it didn’t matter but I let them took the 2 to avoid landing on Mercenary next turn.
13 spaces away for Nautilion and 15 for Phantom.
ROUND 18. Darkhouse card: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then, roll 2 dice and give them to the 2 remaining figures.
Rolled a 1, I gave it to Darkhouse. Then I rolled a 3, giving it to Nautilion getting them the last crew required which was Crew 9. I rolled 3 again and for Phantom, letting them removed Crew 2.
10 spaces for Nautilion and 12 for Phantom.
ROUND 19. Darkhouse card: if the die you give to the Darkhouse is a 2, you must reroll it. If the result is 3 or 4, you must discard a token, with 1 or 2 no effect.
Rolled and possibly rerolled 1, 2, 1. 1 for Darkhouse. Nautilion needed a 2 to land on a reef but with Mage A. I spent 2 tokens to switch it with Mage B. Phantom removed Mage A, a different one.
Rolled a 3 and Nautilion got away from the reef plus bonus token. To win, Nautilion still had to lose and refill 3 Crews to activate the 3 Heroic cards.
8 spaces away for Nautilion and 11 for Phantom.
ROUND 20. Darkhouse card: Discard value = 4, discard a token.
Nautilion was close to another Crew 7. I could discard the existing Crew without ruining the board to activate the Heroic card. The first one allowed me to change 3 dice to any value but all had to be different value. So, I got a 1, 2 and 3. 3 for Darkhouse safely and to get the Crew 7 back, Nautilion needed the 2. So Phantom got a 1, removing also Crew 7 and Reef.
6 spaces away for Nautilion and 10 for Phantom, 2 Heroic cards left.
ROUND 21. Darkhouse Card: Roll the dice one at a time. Each die must be given to a figure before rolling the next die.
Nautilion was 3 spaces away from Crew 9 that could replace the existing one after activating 2nd Heroic Card. I rolled a 2, giving it to Darkhouse first. Rolled another 2 so I gave it to Phantom, letting them remove Crew 2 and Reef. Last roll and reroll was a 3, giving it to Nautilion.
I activated 2nd card and got me 2 reserve tokens. Since Nautilion landed on a Reef, I rolled a 1 and they were stuck there for next round.
3 spaces away for Nautilion and 8 for Phantom. 1 Heroic card left.
ROUND 22. Darkhouse Card: Recover a token from the discard and add it to the path between the Nautilion and the Abyss.
Not sure which token I put it back but this increased the distance for Nautilion to the Abyss. Rolled 2 1s, probably after rerolls. Phantom removed Crew 6.
4 spaces away for Nautilion and 7 for Phantom. Still 1 Heroic card left.
ROUND 23. Darkhouse card: Choose 1 figure. Roll a die and give it to that figure. Then, roll 2 dice and give them to the 2 remaining figures.
I chose Darkhouse and I rolled a 3 so I had to lose 1 token. For the other 2 I rolled and probably rerolled a 1 and 2. I chose 1 for Nautilion and whichever token it landed on, I swapped it with Crew 6 so I could activate the last card by spending 2 tokens.
The card prevented me for losing token if I gave Darkhouse a 3 or 4 in this and next round. Phantom removed Crew 8 and a reef.
3 spaces away for Nautilion and 5 for Phantom.
ROUND 24. Darkhouse card: if the die you give to the Darkhouse is a 2, you must reroll it. If the result is 3 or 4, you must discard a token, with 1 or 2 no effect.
Rolled and possibly rerolled a 3 a 1 and a 1. I gave the 3 to Nautilion and they reached Abyss before Phantom to Happy Isle. Nautilion had all 9 crews and 3 Mages.
Playing time was about 37 minutes.
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Juicy Fruits
Another battle of me against the Full Fruit in solo mode of Juicy Fruits. I had the Pomegranate basket at the top left, Mangosteen at top right, Orange in the middle, Banana at the bottom left and Lime at lower right. To clear out every boat on my island, I needed 11 Oranges, 8 Banana, 5 Limes, 13 Mangosteens, 11 Pomegranates. So, I had to focus on Oranges, Mangosteens and Pomegranates.
The Full Fruit had a boat 3 spaces away from the starting point.
ROUND 1. First I moved the orange basket up 1 space, getting 1 Orange. Nothing I could do with this single fruit.
2 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit.
ROUND 2. Then I moved the Lime Basket up 1 space, getting 1 Lime. I had 1 Lime and 1 Orange and the boat on the left beach, middle one requires exactly those 2 so I got 1 point.
1 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit.
ROUND 3. I moved that Lime basket to the left beach, 3 spaces, getting 3 limes.
Opponent scored 8 points for the boat, removing 1 business token number 18, also getting 5 points from the middle island.
3 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 1 Point for me, 13 points for Opponent.
ROUND 4. I moved the Orange basket again down 2 spaces for 2 oranges. There was a bot on the left beach that required 2 limes and 2 oranges. I had them and got 4 points. 1 lime left.
2 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 5 Points for me, 13 points for Opponent.
ROUND 5. I moved the Mangosteen basket 2 spaces down for 2 Mangosteens. With previous 1 lime left, nothing I could do this time.
1 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 5 Points for me, 13 points for Opponent.
ROUND 6. I moved the Lime basket down from the left beach, middle space down 2 spaces to the bottom left corner for 2 limes. I had 2 Mangosteens and 3 Limes. The middle boat at top beach required 2 of each Lime and Mangosteen. I delivered and got 4 points. 1 Lime left.
Opponent reached their next green boat and scored 11 points plus 3 points from the middle islands.
2 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 9 Points for me, 27 points for Opponent.
ROUND 7. I moved the Orange basket again up 3 spaces to the top beach. Somehow I only took 2 instead of 3. With 1 leftover lime, nothing to do for now.
1 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 9 Points for me, 27 points for Opponent.
ROUND 8. I moved the Mangosteen basket 2 spaces up for 2 Mangosteens. I had 1 lime, 2 oranges and 2 Mangosteens. The middle boat at the bottom beach required 2 Oranges and 2 Mangosteens. I delivered and got 4 points.
Opponent scored their next green for 9 points plus 5 points from middle island.
5 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 6 Business tokens left. 13 Points for me, 41 points for Opponent.
ROUND 9. I moved the banana basket 2 spaces to the right. With 1 Lime and 1 Banana I bought my first business token from the 1st row for 1 point. It was a advanced collector token with Lime and Banana. I placed it in the middle row, left most space. 1 Banana left.
4 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 5 Business tokens left. 14 Points for me, 41 points for Opponent.
ROUND 10. I moved the Orange basket down from the top beach to the bottom and gained 4 oranges. Still needed at least 1 more banana to deliver one of the two boats at the top left corner. 1 Banana and 4 oranges left.
3 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 5 Business tokens left. 14 Points for me, 41 points for Opponent.
ROUND 11. I moved the banana basket to the left beach, getting 3 more bananas. So with 3 oranges and 3 bananas, I fulfilled the order for the left boat at top beach, getting 6 points from it. 2 Bananas and 1 Orange left.
2 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 5 Business tokens left. 20 Points for me, 41 points for Opponent.
ROUND 12. I needed to get rid the left boat at bottom beach that required 2 Mangosteens and 1 Banana. So, I moved the Mangosteen basket down until the boat and got 2 Mangosteens. Delivered those 3 to that boat and scored 2 points.
1 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 5 Business tokens left. 22 Points for me, 41 points for Opponent.
ROUND 13. I finally could move the Pomegranate basket down to the bottom beach and got 3 fruits. No Mangosteens to fulfill any of the boat on the right beach. Nothing to do for now. 3 Pomegranates, 1 Orange and 1 Banana left.
Opponent scored their next Orange boat for 15 points and removed a business token from #2, which was the yellow ice cream stand. They also got 8 points from the middle islands and pushed the next boat 1 space away.
6 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 22 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
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ROUND 14. I moved the Mangosteen basket up until the boat and got 2 fruits. I spent 2 Pomegranates and 2 Mangosteens to buy another Advanced collector token exactly for these 2 fruits. This was from the 3rd row so I got 3 points and the token was placed at the top most row, 2nd column. I had 1 of each Pomegranate, Banana and Orange left.
5 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 25 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
ROUND 15. Finally I got to move my first Advanced collector token 3 spaces and got 4 fruits. To clear boat, no need for Lime but still required 5 bananas. So, I picked 4 bananas. But nothing could be done for now.
4 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 25 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
ROUND 16. I moved the Orange basket from the bottom beach to the top beach and got 4 fruits. Spent 3 of them and 3 bananas to get rid of the last boat from the left beach. Gained 8 points from it. 2 Bananas, 2 Oranges and 1 Pomegranate left.
3 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 33 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
ROUND 17. I moved the 2nd Advanced collector token from the top beach down 3 spaces and got 2 Pomegranates and 2 Mangosteens. Spent 1 of each to fulfill the middle boat from right beach so the 1st advanced collector token could move and produce more. Gained 1 point from it. 2 of each Banana, Orange and Pomegranate left plus 1 Mangosteen.
2 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 34 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
ROUND 18. I moved the 1st advanced collector token to the left 3 spaces to the left beach. Gained 3 Bananas and 1 Lime. I had enough bananas but needed 1 more Oranges to start building the Eco Hotel from 5th business row.
1 space away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 4 Business tokens left. 34 Points for me, 64 points for Opponent.
ROUND 19. Needed more oranges so I moved the Orange basket from top beach to the bottom for 4 oranges. Spent 3 of them and 3 Bananas to purchase that Eco Hotel that takes 2 x 2 space. I placed it at the top left corner of my island and gained 18 points plus 5 from the row. 3 Oranges, 2 Bananas, 1 Lime and 1 Pomegranate left. I think I made a mistake of returning 1 Pomegranate and 1 Mangosteen to the supply thinking those were spent. Oh well.
Opponent scored their next green boat for 19 points. They also got 3 from middle islands and removed 1 Business token.
5 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 2 Business tokens left. 57 Points for me, 86 points for Opponent.
I accidentally moved the token from the business track so it was 1 space away from triggering the end of the game. That means I actualy had enough time for the ice cream plan. I could take 1 business token and maybe scored 1 ice cream and completed the Smoothies. Oh, well.
ROUND 20. Since I thought I could only take 1 business token left, my best option was to build the Crocodile Farm for 12 plus 2. Then maybe another 20 to completely fulfill every boat.
I moved the 2nd advanced basket with pomegranate and Mangosteen 2 spaces to the right for 3 fruits which I picked 2 Pomegranates and 1 Mangosteen. Spent 3 Pomegranates and 2 Bananas to fulfill the last boat at the bottom beach for 6 points.
4 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 2 Business tokens left. 63 Points for me, 86 points for Opponent.
ROUND 21. I moved that same basket back 1 space so it could move up and down better. Gained 2 Pomegranates from it. Spent those 2 plus 1 Mangosteen to fulfill the top boat from right beach for 2 points.
3 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 2 Business tokens left. 65 Points for me, 86 points for Opponent.
ROUND 22. Moved that basket again to the top beach for 4 fruits, 2 of each. Spent all of them for the top right boat and gained 4 points.
2 spaces away from the next boat for Full Fruit. 2 Business tokens left. 69 Points for me, 86 points for Opponent.
ROUND 23. To avoid giving points to the opponent, with this wrong play, I had to trigger the end of the game this round. Still aiming for that Crocodile farm. I only needed 2 more Pomegranates and 1 Orange that I already had. For that, I moved that basket again to the right 2 spaces for 3 fruits. Spent as planned to get the building token plus 2 points.
The building was worth 12 and I placed in the middle of my island. This actually blocked a lot of other basket from moving, including my first advanced collector.
All I could do right now was to spent the leftover fruits in Juice Factory but only for 3 points.
What I thought as my final score was 86 points, tied the opponent. Somehow I didn’t even track the score correctly, missing 5 points.
Had I played correctly there should have been 1 more round and at best I could score extra 6 points while the opponent could get another 14. So, I lost. I really had a good chance to win using the ice cream. Oh well.
Playing time was about 38 minutes.
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Chomp
New game to me, Chomp, from AllPlay. My non gaming life started to get busier so I thought I need to get some easy, small, filler game and I thought this could fit those criteria. The box is very small that can fit in your palm but maybe slightly too big to keep in any shirt pocket.
Some people might say that the game is a combination of Point Salad (for the drafting and the double-sided cards) and Sprawlopolis (with the tile laying aspect where you overlap partially the existing cards with a new one). This giant square card or tiles has one side for scoring and the other side with a grid of up to 4 spaces, showing different terrains or objects.
Each turn, player can take one card from either 3 scoring cards or one of 3 terrain sides. If you take the terrain side, the scoring card above it will be flipped into the terrain side and a new scoring refill the empty space. Players take turns until each player takes 8 cards in any combination.
The theme is about creating an ecosystem of dinosaurs. There are 2 main types of dinosaurs, the herbivore and the carnivore, each with 3 different sizes. You are trying to create a herd for the same type even if for the different sizes and you want to put their food source adjacent to it. Herbivore eats plants while Carnivore can either eat meat source or the Herbivore adjacent to the Carnivore with the same size or smaller.
At the end of the game, if they are not adjacent to their respective food source, they become extinct and players get no point from the extinct, unless they got the scoring conditions specifically for that.
There is another type of terrain called Tar Pit. Any herd adjacent to it at the end of the game will become extinct, even if that said herd has access to food source.
Each section of the terrain can also show some WALL. This will limit the connecting part to create the herd and their access to Food Source. So, when placing a card, you cannot just place the same type next to each other but you also need to make sure, there is no wall blocking to be a group. At the same time, this can also save Herbivore from Carnivore or any dinosaur from Tar Pit.
The last special terrain is called the NEST or more accurately, EMPTY NEST. Some of the dinosaurs may also show an egg icon. You need to have empty nest first and then add a card with an egg, not the other way around. If that requirement is met, then you can put an Egg token on that empty nest. The egg will score at the end unless you overlap the nest with subsequent card, removing the egg.
For scoring, any survived large dino scored 3 each, 2 for each medium and 1 for small. 2 points per egg and no penalty for dead dino. Then count the score from any scoring conditions.
Playing time is really fast, like 20 minutes each. I already played 4 times, 2-handed even though there is a solo mode that I haven’t tried yet. Well, 4 plays was because I got the rule wrong in the first 3. Hopefully got it right with the last one.
For the first 2 sessions, what I got it wrong was the end game trigger. I thought the game ends after the deck runs out. Turns out, the game ends when all cards were taken. Somebody pointed out that this could create a problem for the last player as that player will only get 1 card left, which is always the terrain side.
Having just 1 choice is already bad and it gets worse if that terrain has a Tar Pit. If that player is lucky they will get 0 point, not losing because the dino becomes extinct. The player before that may get a scoring condition. There is no guarantee that it will give some points but a good chance to get at least 1 extra point.
The game comes with exactly 36 cards to support 4 players with 9 cards each. For those who find it problematic, then they can play just with lower player count but use more cards. Just need a reminder to trigger the end of the game, before every card runs out. For the 4 players, this is not an official suggestion but I think the best option is to play 1 round less.
My 3rd play was when I realized I got the rule about eggs and nest wrong. I thought if I get a Nest I will get an egg no matter what and I thought the egg near the Dino will give points too. That is not the case.
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I think this is just initial impression but I have 2 minor complaints. Minor because I think it goes away with more plays.
One is about the Wall. In most terrains, the wall is very contrast to the terrain and the object in that space, except for 2, the Plant and the Tar Pit. For those 2 the Wall becomes more obscure visually.
One of my play I thought I managed to create a herd next to a Plant. The herd part doesn’t have a wall but after looking at the plant part at the end, there was a Wall that I didn’t realize. So, in that game, 3 dino got extinct.
On the other hand, with Tar Pit it works the opposite. In general, you will want to avoid those Tar Pit or at least overlap it with subsequent cards. There was a moment when I eventually picked the card with that Tar Pit after avoiding it for a while, then I realized there was a Wall that will prevent that Tar pit from killing the adjacent dino. Maybe just my eye sight was not great but I didn’t notice it until I actually pick it up and look closely.
My 2nd minor complaint was about the distribution of terrains. In lower player count, you will remove a number of cards. This is a problem for scoring related to those terrains that may not show up.
There was a time when I took a scoring related to Empty Nest. I took it from the start, trying to focus on it. That entire game I only saw 1 tile with a Nest. In that same session I thought I needed to get more scoring card. Then there was a scoring about making a large group of plants, which should be very easy, right? I took that scoring card like in 6th round and saw no tile with plants.
People might say that it was my problem for picking scoring cards poorly but I still expect to see those terrains a bit more.
Here is some interesting part about the game.
In general, you want to keep all dinosaurs alive by making sure they have their respective food source. The idea of letting the Carnivore eat the Herbivore was a bit weird to me and kind of ignore it at first. Until I got to the scoring about killing as many dino as possible.
My first thought was maybe I should always take the Tar Pit before realizing that I can kill them with other ways like not feeding them or let the Carnivore do their job.
Another thing is that the game reminds me of The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw, specifically the solo mode. In that game, player will collect cats and the Sister or their opponent will also get some score from the player’s progress. Focusing on just cats will not help the player to win the game. They have to find lessons for extra points.
Chomp has something similar to that. While you are not giving score to the opponent but relying on just getting Dino is not going to score very high. Mostly because you need to make sure the Dino survive and there is a chance they will not and taking terrain cars will become wasteful. So getting some scoring also matters.
I had one play where one player didn’t take any scoring while the other got 2. Without those additional goal or scoring, both scored almost the same like around 30 points but the 2 additional goals gave like extra 10.
Well, those are just my initial impressions. Maybe with more plays, it can change my mind. Definitely not bad for a filler.
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The Guild of Merchant Explorers
The Merchant is back exploring the Kazan world in The Guild of Merchant Explorers game. This was a solo session and the 3 objectives were 1st, to explore ruin A and Ruin J, 2nd, to explore ruin C and the Discovery tower at northeast and 3rd, explore a space with at least 3 coins.
So, not only I had to explore the Southwest (Ruin A) and Southeast (Ruin J) but also Northwest (Ruin C) and Northeast (Discovery Tower). I had a feeling that I probably would not be able to do so, especially the first one. At least, only in the end where I would not get any points from it.
Here is how the exploration went.
ERA 1. It started with the 2 Desert spaces. From starting Capital, I could either go southwest or southeast, both had 5 spaces to completely explored. I went with the Southeast and got 1 Coin.
2nd exploration was 1 Mountain space. Had I chosen the southwest, I could have gone the Mountain area there. But sadly, I had to settle with the 3 Mountain spaces next to the Capital city. 2 coins.
3rd was 2 adjacent spaces. I used this chance to completely covered the Mountain spaces earlier. Discovered first Village and it was next to the Ruin G. 3 Coins.
4th was Investigate card. My options were to explore 4 continuous spaces between mountains and water or explore 1 grassland then any space adjacent to it. This was probably my biggest mistake in this session. Usually, I went with the continuous movement but instead I went with the other, challenging the idea that I could do well with any card.
The reason was I had a chance to complete the Grassland to the west from Capital City with the 2 grassland spaces later. While the other was not going to help me secure any Village this round.
So, I went to the grassland space west from Capital with the most explored space with this card. 4 coins.
5th card was the 3 water spaces. My options were either going north with the 2 ruins or going south with just 1. I thought I would be exploring the northern part later so I saved that one and explored the south. Turns out, I got to place one more cube. Nothing good could be done except just exploring space with 2 coins. 6 coins.
6th card was the 2 grassland spaces. I completed the grassland region to the west from Capital City and discovered a Village next to the water space. Hopefully the next round I got to explore the Ruin A space. 8 coins.
That was the end of the round.
ERA II. This Era started with the 1st Investigate card. This was very wasteful since my best option was to go backwards from the most recent village. 10 coins.
2nd card was Mountain single space. Another waste and from previous route, continued south and explore one of 3 spaces in Mountain region. Still 10 coins.
3rd card was 3 water spaces. I should have used this to explore the Ruin A or at least getting closer to it. Instead I went to explore the Ruin B. Got treasure card to gain more coins per 2 villages in any terrain.
4th card was 2 desert spaces. I used this chance to complete the exploration of desert region Southwest adjacent to the Capital City. Another mistake was to discover the village in the southern space instead to the west just because I thought the previous village was too close. 12 coins.
5th card was the 2nd investigate card. The 1st option was similar to my 1st Investigate card but instead of grassland, it started with desert space. For the 2nd, I could explore a Mountain space and then 3 spaces in straight line. I went with the 2nd since it allowed me to reach out farther.
Now that I think about it, I could have started with the Mountain space north from the Discovery Tower in the Southwest and got exactly to that Tower. This could work while exploring the Ruin A. Instead, I explored the mountain in the Southwest edge of the board and reached the Discovery Tower as well. 20 coins.
6th card was the 2 adjacent spaces. Had I focused on the Ruin A, I could have reached that Ruin A. Well, instead, I completed the exploration of the Mountain Region in that Southwest border. 26 coins.
7th and last card was the 2 Grassland spaces. I could have used these 2 to completely explore the Grassland region north and adjacent to Capital. This could have helped me to explore farther to the north with the Desert space. Instead I used this to create a trade route between the Desert region west from Capital and the Grassland in the South border. 28 coins.
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ERA III. 1st card was the 3 water spaces. I went up exploring the 2 ruins. Got more coin per Discovery tower and got more coin per village in Grassland area. 28 coins.
2nd card was the 2nd Investigate card. I could try to complete the Mountain region in north area but instead I explore only one of the Mountain and then 3 spaces in the narrow path of water. Hopefully, I could use the 1st Investigate card better later. 28 coins.
3rd card was 2 desert spaces. Nothing could be done with this to extend the current exploration. So, I explored a new one to the east from Capital City. 29 coins.
4th card was the 3rd Investigate card. So, I could no longer score anything from the first objective. My 2 options were going 2 Mountain and 3 desert spaces in any order or something similar to my 1st Investigate card but starting with Mountain. I should have drawn again but I went with what I got.
Of course, I had to choose the 1st one. The 3 desert spaces completed the exploration of desert region east to the Capital City. While the other 2 Mountain went separate ways. One was to explore Mountain space behind that giant volcano with 3 coins. This completed the 3rd objective. The other filled one of 3 remaining mountain space in the North border. 35 coins.
5th card was Mountain, single space. Continued filling the Mountain Region in northern border. Still 35 coins.
6th card was 2 adjacent spaces. Completed the exploration in that Mountain north region and started a new one in the Grassland area leading to the Northeast Tower. 38 coins.
7th card was 1st Investigate card and the last card was the 2 grassland spaces. I started with the grassland next to the Northeast Tower and then explored every space adjacent to it, including the tower. 48 coins.
8th card, the 2 grassland spaces. One was to complete the Grassland area next to that recent tower and discovered Ruin H. It seems I forgot to take one Treasure card. That was just 1 space, and the other grassland was the one with 3 coins in the northern region. 54 coins.
ERA IV. This era started with the 2nd Investigate card. From the Village in Mountain region at northern border, moved 3 spaces to the west, starting to explore the grassland again.
2nd card was the 1st Investigate card. Started with the grassland next to Ruin C and explored any space adjacent to it. Completed the 2nd objective. Still 54 coins.
3rd card was single Mountain. I placed it in the Town in the Northern Mountain region.
4th card was 2 Desert spaces. This to explore farther to the Northwest. One of them occupied a City so a Trade route was created with the Town from the Mountain. The other just went closer to the Discovery Tower.
5th card was the 4th Investigate Card. Well, I guess I was so desperate trying to reach the Ruin J for 1st objective. From the North! That was impossible. So, apparently I used the 2nd card again from the Mountain in the north to reach behind the big Volcano.
6th card was the 2 Grassland spaces. One was to complete the exploration in Northern grassland region. The other just to get 2 coins from somewhere in the south. 89 coins.
7th card was the 3rd Investigate card with 2 Mountain and 3 Desert spaces. The 3 desert spaces were enough to reach the Northwest Tower. The 2 Mountains then continued the Mountain exploration behind the giant Volcano. 96 coins.
8th card was the 2 adjacent spaces. At this point, I’ve already lost the solo game after failing to complete the 1st objective. I could use these 2 last cards only to get to one of the 2 required ruins. Instead I just aimed for the last Tower in the Southeast.
From the nearby village, I went 2 spaces to the water.
9th card was the 3 water spaces and this was enough to reach the 4th Tower. That was the end of the game.
Scoring. 110 coins so far. 15 from the 2 objectives. 4 coins from 1st Treasure card. Another 4 from 2nd Treasure card. 3 from the 3rd and 1 from the 4th. Assuming I got something from the Treasure card that I forgot, I probably got just 1 coin.
My final score was 138. Well, I lost anyway since I didn’t complete the 1st objective required by the solo session. After evaluating this session, I did get the chance to actually complete that objective even if I scored significantly lower. I will try again next time.
Playing time was about 59 minutes.
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Final Girl
Time to put an end to the terror of Frightmare in Maple Lane in a game of Final Girl. I probably still made some rules error since this was the 3rd play of this game and 2nd time for this setup. Well, also, a lot of cheating.
This time, Sheila was trying to save her boyfriend. She was at the Smalley’s house, across the block from her boyfriend’s house when she heard about all the weird things starting to happen in the Maple lane. So, she tried to warn everybody there to get out.
FOCUS, SHEILA! FOCUS! She walked out from the house and saw one person there. Sheila managed to convince this person that the place was dangerous. That person believed her and followed her along to the west exit. Sheila was not really an extrovert person so her successfully convincing people to save their life gave her some confident that she could do this.
After sending that person off, Sheila looked to the nearby houses. One of them, from the same block as the Smalley’s House seemed to have the door opened. Nobody was there? She decided to check it out.
Meanwhile, in the street, north from the intersection, one citizen suddenly got killed. Somebody saw that and warned everybody to stay inside. BETTER CLOSE THE DOOR!
Sheila heard that as well and thought “Great! Now I need to convince them just to open the door for me! I guess I stay in this house for a bit.”
But then her boyfriend called. He said he was going to come and get her to stay at his house. She told him where she was and she was just going to wait. He got out of his house and stopped where the citizen was suddenly murdered, near the intersection. He didn’t see any bad person there.
Back to Sheila, she noticed that the occupants were killed but the victim managed to leave some clues. Something like this was done by Dr. Frightmare, an urban legend story. Apparently, Dr Frightmare lives in the dreamworld like the mirror dimension in Dr. Strange movie where that dream world is a reflection of the actual neighborhood but he can kill the citizen in the actual world from that dream world.
After realizing that, Sheila knew that everybody was in danger. She found a key for the lock to the bicycle outside but the key was stuck behind the shelf. Sheila had to improvise a bit and got the key!
Instead of waiting for her boyfriend she thought it would be faster just to ride it. So, she stepped outside that house and rode that bicycle to the intersection and then north to where her boyfriend was.
After meeting with her boyfriend, she tried to convince him that he cannot go back to his house. Someone nearby was just murdered and the killer could be still nearby but nobody can see.
The boyfriend didn’t believe her. In the middle of arguments, they somehow noticed something from the north exit direction. Another person got killed out of nowhere.
Sheila noticed that was actually the first person she convinced to get out from the west exit. DIDN’T YOU KNOW THAT THEY WERE ALREADY DEAD?
She got scared and dragged her boyfriend to the intersection. In the intersection, her boyfriend suddenly stopped running. Sheila looked back and asked, “why do you stop running? We have to go!”
Her boyfriend didn’t answer but she saw his body fell and blood was all over his body. That terrified her. She knew the killer was probably next to her. She thought she was going to die as well…
Sheila closed her eyes and just waiting to be killed. One… two… three…
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Wait? Nothing happened? She was confused. Why didn’t the killer finish her? He was nearby, right? Is it possible that he couldn’t touch her?
Sheila opened her eyes. From that intersection, she noticed somebody else was approaching. Out of fear, she told herself. FOCUS, SHEILA! Even her body was not convinced but she made it. She walked to pick the bicycle again and moved to the east from intersection.
Sheila talked to that person and convinced that person to exit the area to the east exit. After sending that person off, she looked to the right. A house in the Southeast block with somebody inside it. She knocked on the door, tried to convince the occupant.
Luckily, the occupant knew Sheila and let her in. That person even gave Sheila a kit to make some booby trap. She didn’t know what to do with it but put it in her back. Sheila convinced that person to get out of the area as well.
She then continued and going to the house across the street. Well, it was empty.
Meanwhile, turns out, there was another person south to the intersection. Another homicide. There were 2 persons in the house from that location. They saw the whole thing and screamed.
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE! Dr Frightmare saw them went inside and ended their life. Those were enough to trigger the Dark Power.
Sheila was still in shock with everything she experienced. She decided to take a bit time in that house in Northeast block near the east exit. Think, Sheila! She looked inside the house for anything she could use to help her. All she got was the Energy Drink. She didn’t feel drinking it for now so she put it in her backpack. Now, she was ready to get out from there.
She opened the front door. Nothing weird to be found. She sprinted to where she left the bicycle and rode to the intersection. At the intersection, she saw a trace of killing again to the South. She stopped and noticed the house near the South exit with a person. So, she tried to save that person and go straight to that front of the house.
Sheila managed to convince the person to let her in with some improvisation. This person was very religious, holding a sacred cross after hearing about recent events believing it could repel the evil things. They even gave Sheila one and Sheila kept it in her backpack.
Meanwhile, Dr. Frightmare, in his dream world got even stronger after more killings. He got one of his Minor Dark Power, the HELLISH PURSUIT. This killer then stepped out from the house in the Southeast block to the south street and stopped to where Sheila and the occupant were.
Sheila knew the killer was nearby but nobody could saw him. Not even that owner of the house. So, she simply convinced the owner to exit the area from the South Exit. She walked out from the house and sent that person off.
Shelia continued to the house across the street, hoping to get the owner out as well. Nobody was there. It seems the owner forgot to lock the door. After a bit of searching, she got a glance of a Machete. Sheila didn’t like holding weapons like this but she kept thinking maybe she needed a weapon after all. She kept it in the backpack for now.
Sheila immediately went outside, picked up the bicycle and ride again. In the intersection she stopped and looked around. She thought she could either go north or west. The north seemed to have more occupants left so she went to the north exit. Her boyfriend’s house were there. She was not ready to enter and told his family. So, instead she chose the opposite house. The house seemed to be empty. She stayed there and said to herself, “FOCUS, SHEILA!”.
Meanwhile, Dr. Frightmare pursued north. He got even stronger with another Minor Dark Power, “ENDLESS SLEEP”. This made Sheila fell asleep.
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Sheila noticed the different between the real world and this dream world. She was trapped. This was her first time. She was confused and didn’t know what to do.
Sheila then looked outside and finally got a look of the killer and the Killer noticed her as well. So, she got panicked and try to search the house for something to fight the killer. All she got was a LUCKY DICE. She remembered the Machete she picked up earlier and got it out from her bag, held it in her hand. FOCUS, SHEILA!
The killer finally got to the front of the house. He started taunting Sheila to get out and do some nasty stuffs to scare her and he got it right. Sheila got scared. She was so scared to explore that Boiler Room and stayed in this dream world.
But Sheila got enough of it and decided to attack the killer. “Improvise, Sheila! Do whatever you can!, Focus!”, said her to herself. She moved out of the house to where the Killer was. Holding a Machete in one hand and a Cross on the other, she did FURIOUS STRIKE.
The killer was not prepared for it and got a lot of damage, rendering his two Minor Dark Powers useless. The fight was not done and she prepared herself again.
The Killer attacked her but Sheila did RETALIATE, still with her Machete, dealing a lot of damage to that killer. The killer became more horrifying. He said to Sheila, “You will NEVER SLEEP AGAIN!” trying to scare her.
She did got scared a bit. But she entered that Boiler Room. First room to the left. Nothing was there. Then 2nd room up, nothing was there. 3rd room to the right, nothing was there. She knew that the killer was in this last room. And there he was, attacking Sheila with 2 damage but she managed to wake up.
Sheila woke up in the street in front of her boyfriend’s house. She still couldn’t believe that she could make it out alive. Sheila immediately put the Machete and the cross back to her bag and picked the bicycle and rode away. She didn’t know where to go.
At the intersection, she saw the Smalley’s House again and she just went there out of panic. She noticed the damage she took in the dreamworld was also happened in real life.
Focus, Sheila! and she took a short rest, going back to asleep to heal herself.
Meanwhile, the words about Maple Lane became viral.
DID YOU HEAR WHAT HAPPENED IN MAPLE LANE?
WHAT’S GOING ON OVERTHERE? One person entered the area from each of the exit.
Some people mistakenly thought there was a Halloween party in Maple Lane. PARTY IN THE BURBS! Apparently, those were the boyfriend’s friends. 4 of them then stayed in the house.
Since the killer noticed that Sheila went back to sleep, the killer approached her to the intersection.
IT CAME RIGHT THROUGH THE YARD! The Killer entered the Smalley House. Sheila was on Guard, managed to avoid all of the attacks and created a diversion.
The Killer thought that Sheila made it out to adjacent house so the Killer went there.
Suddenly, IT’S RAINING! All of those curious people recently at the exit, entered a nearby house.
Sheila thought that she needed to end this for good. She prepared herself for the her next fight with the Killer. Sheila put the Machete back on one hand and a Trashcan Lid she just found on the other like a shield.
After that, she went out, sprinted to the intersection and to the South, just 2 spaces away from where the killer was. FOCUS, SHEILA!
The killer saw her, get out of the house. This was the Finale.
TIME TO DIE, he said to Sheila and attacked her. The Trashcan blocked the attack and Sheila did RETALIATE. She stabbed Dr. Frightmare. He was still moving but eventually fell down.
That was the end of the killer and Maple Lane was saved.
Playing time was about 87 minutes.
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Level 10
Another new game for me, Level 10. This is actually a reimplementation of Okey Dokey, from the same Japanese designer, Hisashi Hayashi. Like I said in Chomp above, I was looking for more smaller, faster game and this seems to fit as well.
This is a solo or cooperative game for up to 5 players in the same genre like Hanabi or The Crew, with limited communication. Players take turn playing one card from their hand and draw a replacement. They keep doing this until all cards have been played and they win. If at any point any player cannot play a card by following the rule, they lose the game instantly.
You can ignore the theme. The game is about lining up cards in ascending order from 1 to 8 in 5 different rows. Each row can only hold one type of color.
The first restriction is that players have to play a card in 1 column first before moving to another one. Maybe in Green row, first player starts with Green 6, then the 2nd player starts with Blue row but with 8.
In every column, one of them must be a Reset card with a value of 0, not from any player’s hand but ready on the table. Each row has 2 of these Reset Card. After the reset card, then in the next column, player can start with the lowest value again.
The player who gets to play the reset card has the chance to discard up to 2 cards and draw back the same card from the deck. This is actually the chance for player to sort the deck and put cards that they are not going to play anytime soon at the bottom of the deck.
Since every row needs to have a card first before moving to another column, ideally players want to diversify their type of cards. Trying to balance the hand. So the color with the most cards maybe should go at the bottom of the deck. However, that color may have a lot of cards but in already ascending order in hand. Throwing them at the bottom may ruin it.
For the limited communication aspect, players can only say the number of cards for each color in their hand but not the specific value. However, they might say that they want to play the next card in specific row. Maybe the current card in that row was 1 so the player implies that they may have a 2. Or maybe they have a 5 but that is the best they can do.
Players can also say that they want to use their turn to Reset specific row. Which can mean that they have the lowest card for that row or they desperately need to redraw a new one.
For difficulty, the game comes with PAUSE card or skip card. This means the current value for that row is still the same as the previous one. There are 3 in the game and the hardest or MASTER level is to not use them at all.
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So, I already played this 3 times. Twice as solo. First one was a lost. Somehow I realized that the Pause cards were kind of useless. So, I played the 2nd one and maybe I cheated a bit but I managed to play all cards. Maybe I just got lucky or is it too easy? Somebody did mention that it is more difficult with more players as players have to wait a bit longer before their turn and it can mess the order of the cards up.
After that, I tried to play 2-handed. The way I handle the limited communication aspect is by placing the cards face down for the non active player but separate the cards by the color to indicate the number of cards for each. The non active player then also rotate the card from one of them to indicate that is the one they want to play next.
A bit fiddly but definitely more interesting than the solo. Well, I still won but maybe cheating again. I did some take back after realizing that both sides tried to play in the same row.
In general, I like the game. Maybe I should try even with 4 or 5 hands of cards. This feels similar to the solo game, Finished!. Well, that one is more interesting but more fiddly and takes longer if you play with the physical game. On the other hand, this one is faster but takes a lot more table space just to accommodate the cute art on the card but completely irrelevant. I guess I was hoping for something like 5×5 with just square small tiles with color and numbers.
A bit complaint about the production is that it seems you can look at the color of the next card from the side in that face down deck. But I didn’t care enough to check during the first 3 plays.
The box is slightly bigger than it needs to be just because they want to look and feels like holding a GameBoy. It’s just a deck of 53 cards or so. Well, with sleeve, the 60 micron one, the depth of the box fits perfectly.
This plays very fast, less than 15 minutes in solo. About 20 when playing 2-handed with my fiddly rule that I mentioned. I will play this again and see if it will change my mind.
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Castellion
Back to the Oniverse of the week with building and defending your castle in Castellion. Got 2 sessions still with the Expert mode but the standard rule, both using the same sets of Ordeals. I still couldn’t play this without cheating by redrawing a new tile.
But thanks to the 2nd Ordeal to create 3 horizontal lines, I learned a good way to lower the penalties from those traitor tiles. 4 Horizontal lines and no need to remove any tile, assuming I got lucky enough not to draw those traitors before then.
The 2nd sessions started very lucky with immediately drawing 2 traitors so I only removed like 1. Finally I got to finish the lowest row. While building the first tower then a traitor came out and took 4 of those base. Not long after that, another one and I managed to keep like 4 columns.
First tower was complete, revealing the first Ordeal where it would remove my 1st row when triggered. At that point, I barely got a complete base. Still needed 3 more tiles. Another hit from the traitor after it was revealed with the other 3 using the Blue.
2nd Tower was complete, revealing the 2nd Ordeal. This requires me to have 3 horizontal defense lines or lose 32 tiles. 1st Ordeal was not triggered yet. Got 2 rows, one horizontal line was at the bottom and would be removed. The 2nd row had 2 green and 2 red so I piled up 2 more green above the red hoping to change their position later.
Then I got one of the Traitor I couldn’t discard, triggering the 1st Ordeal, losing that one Defense line. Reconstructed one of the Tower to reveal the 3rd one. This would remove the first 3 rows at the bottom when triggered. I needed 5 more tiles just to complete those 3 rows and another 5 to create another row.
I used the Blue again to reveal the next 4 tiles. There was a 2nd Traitor that I couldn’t remove but this had not triggered the 2nd Ordeal yet. Completed 2nd row with no functional form. I had to switch the 2 tiles from the 2nd Tower so the horizontal line was formed.
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Finally completed the Green horizontal defense line at the 1st row. Apparently I forgot to switch places the tile from previous tower so the 2nd horizontal defense line at row 2 was still having extension even until the end of the game.
Luckily, by the time I had to trigger the 2nd Ordeal since I got the 3rd traitor I couldn’t remove, I already had 2 more defense lines at row 3 and row 4.
Less than 10 tiles left. Since I already had 4 rows, I could safely just triggered the 3rd Ordeal. Otherwise I would have drawn 3 more Traitors from those remaining tiles and ruin more tiles than needed to survive the Ordeal.
Then again, I played it wrong thinking I had 4 functional defense lines so when I drew the traitor I just discarded it without removing any existing tile from the Castle.
Playing time was about 45 minutes for 2 sessions.
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IKI
Back to Edo time in Japan to run a chain of businesses in a game of IKI. This was a solo session with the fan made variant again, hopefully I played correctly this time.
The buildings were Well, Shrine, Inn, Storehouse, Farmhouse and Restaurant. I got a Salt Peddler as my starting shop, placed in the Red Block while the opponent got Cotton Peddler in the Yellow district.
SPRING 1, Block tile: 3. I went first and actually wanted to go 3 spaces to increase Fire and got Food. Instead I picked 2 while the opponent went for 1.
So, the opponent went first and hired Ukiyoe Artist which was placed in the Yellow block close to the middle. I hired a guy to run Soba Stand (Blue) which was placed in the Purple, close to the middle. Paid 3 for it, 5 money left.
Then I moved 2 spaces, landed on the shop with the opponent’s Cotton Peddler. I got a money and a sandal, increasing their experience. I also bought 2 more Rice for 3 money, 3 money left.
For the Neutral character, I picked the other red character and placed him in the Blue block but close to the middle.
SPRING 2, Block tile: 2. The opponent wanted to move to the tobacco shop with 3 spaces. I decided to block it so the opponent had to move first but couldn’t hire anybody this time.
The opponent still bought a pipe and a tobacco pouch, both the cheapest one. This also increased the fire fighting power for the opponent to Level 1 so they made decision first from here on out.
I hired a Sandal Maker for 3 but there was a coin with him so I got a discount which was placed in the Blue block but outside corner, behind the fish shop. This also increased my Fire Fighting power so I went first again.
I moved 3 spaces to Pawn Shop to sell my Sandal for 4 coins. Paid 2 of them for 2 rice to my Soba Stand behind the shop. 3 coins left.
For Neutral character, the opponent picked another Brown and placed it in the Yellow block, creating a Harmony with their previous Brown.
SPRING 3, Block tile: 4. The opponent next visit was to the Pawn shop, 1 space away from where they was. I blocked it but I wanted to go to the Fish Shop so I had to spend my Sandal.
The opponent had to go first with the 1 – 4 movement but couldn’t hire again. They landed on that Pawn shop and increased my Soba Stand guy by 1.
I had to save some money so I hired Yamabushi guy that could teach me more fire fighting skill for 1 coin and I placed in the Blue, middle stall. The guy had a coin with him and he was willing to pay that extra cost.
After that I moved 1 space plus sandal to the Fish Shop and bought the cheapest fish for 2. I run out of money at this point. Visited the Yamabushi guy to increase my Fire Fighting power.
For Neutral character, I picked a Yellow character and placed in in the red block, to the center to create harmony with my Salt Peddler.
During Payday, I got 4 coins, 1 VP, forgot 2 other VP, and feed 4 people. The opponent only got 2 VP.
SUMMER 1, Block tile: 4. The opponent’s next stop was to the Fish Shop, 2 spaces away. I actually wanted to visit the Fire Tower but that was 4 spaces and decided to go with 3 to the Rice Shop instead.
The opponent went first and hired a Plasterer, a red which was placed in the red zone, middle stall. Then they also bought the cheapest fresh fish there.
I already hired 4 so I took just 4 coins and moved 3 spaces to the rice shop, increasing the experience of all characters. There, I bought 2 rice for 3 and got 1 coin plus sandal from the opponent’s cotton peddler, almost got him retired.
For neutral character, the opponent chose the other red character and placed him in the Purple, middle stall.
SUMMER 2, Block tile: 3. The fire was about to happen. Next stop for the opponent was to the Sandal shop, 2 spaces from their current. I let him took it while I chose 1 space to the Fire Tower.
I couldn’t hire still so I got 4 coins and visited the Fire Tower to increase the Fire Fighting Power to 3. Also got 3rd rice from my Salt Peddler behind.
The opponent hired the Umbrella Maker and placed it in the outer purple space. That was the only empty stall at the moment. Then the opponent moved to the Sandal shop, increasing the experience of their 3 workers, retiring 1.
Then the Fire happened and it was at the Purple block, where the Umbrella maker just opened a shop. So, the opponent immediately lost it.
Since that spot became vacant, for Neutral character, I opened a Greengrocer there to create harmony with my Soba Stand.
SUMMER 3, Block tile: 3. I had enough money so I wanted to buy those tobacco pipes and pouches so I went with 1 space, letting the opponent took the 2 space movement, landing them at the same shop.
Still couldn’t hire, so I took 4 coins. Bought the pipe with rice bonus and the pouch with VP based on Fire Fighting for a total of 7 coins. I think I forgot to use the service of Book Lender behind the shop to get a coin and sandal. The opponent actually removed him later if I didn’t.
The opponent went next and hired another Brown, an Engraver which they placed in the Yellow block. This created harmony of 3 Brown characters in the same block where the opponent owned 2 of them, very strong harmony. I should have removed the brown neutral there before.
No more empty space so the opponent couldn’t place any neutral character this time.
PAYDAY TIME. I had 5 VP while opponent with 12 VP thanks to that harmony. Still had 9 coins, 2 sandals and 1 rice.
AUTUMN 1, Block tile: 1. This prevented the opponent from using that 1 space movement so they couldn’t hire this time. I went with 3 to buy more Fish since I also couldn’t hire anybody.
The opponent went to the Pawn shop but didn’t use my service. Instead they visited the Fireworks maker to get more VP while giving me 2 coins.
Got 4 coins and bought the cheaper fish. I also visited Yamabushi to increase my Fire Fighting power.
For Neutral character, I picked the Lantern Maker, preventing the opponent from taking it later. I placed this in the Red zone, close to the center.
AUTUMN 2, Block tile: 2. This prevented the opponent from using it and since I took the 1 space as well, the opponent chose the 1 – 4 space movement, unable to hire again.
The opponent went to the Fish Shop, bought the more expensive leftover fish. They also used the Yamabushi service to increase the Fire Fighting power, retiring him for me.
I hired a Puppet Maker to fill the empty space left by Yamabushi. Paid 5 for it and the coin that he had was to pay the extra rent cost. Then I moved 1 space to the Exchange shop to get 2 coins and used the Puppet Maker service to switch place between Sandal Maker and Kite Maker to prevent my Sandal Maker from getting burned down.
No empty space for Neutral character chosen by the opponent.
Then the Fire happened, in the Purple zone again, burning down the Greengrocer neutral service.
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AUTUMN 3, Block tile: 1. The opponent next move was 2 spaces away to the Sandal shop. I blocked the 2 space movement so they couldn’t hire again this time.
The opponent landed at Sandal shop, increasing the experience of their 3 workers. I moved next, couldn’t hire still, 2 spaces plus 1 with sandal to the Fire Tower. The Soba Stand worker retired.
I increased my Fire Fighting Power to 6 and got my 2nd rice from the Salt peddler.
For neutral character, the opponent took the Red character, Tatami Maker and placed him in the purple outer space.
PAYDAY TIME. The opponent got 32 VP while I still only had 13 VP. Had 12 coins left and a Sandal.
WINTER 1, Block tile: 2. Both me and the opponent wanted to go to the Tobacco shop, 1 space for me and 3 spaces for opponent. I went first and hired Buddhist Sculptor to open a shop in Purple stall, last empty space.
A bit expensive so I could only bought a pipe with a Gold bonus but not a pouch. I didn’t use any action from the store behind preventing the opponent from hiring.
The opponent then only bought a pouch and a pipe. Couldn’t place any neutral character either.
WINTER 2, Block tile: 1. This immediately prevented the opponent to hire more. I went with 2 spaces, planning to use Sandal to the Fish shop.
The opponent removed the Mask seller in that purple zone. I bought the cheap fish again while switching place between the Sculptor and the Sandal Maker so I got Red Harmony in that Blue group.
The Fire happened and it removed one of the Red in that group but it was Neutral character.
After that the opponent picked Folding Fan Maker, a brown placed it in the Purple zone.
WINTER 3, block tile: 4. I went with 3, the opponent with 2 to the Fish Shop.
The opponent hired the Kabuki guy and placed him behind the Fish Shop. Bought the expensive fish and got VP from the Kabuki service.
I couldn’t hire so I took 4 coins and moved to the Rice shop. My Salt Peddler retired. Then I bought 2 rice for 3. I also got a Wood from one of the neutral character but it was replaced by another Brown to create harmony for the opponent.
PAYDAY, last one. I got 33 VP and the opponent got 46 VP.
NEW YEAR. I visited the Construction site. The only building I could afford was an INN, required just 1 Wood and 1 Gold for 12 VP. The opponent bought the last tobacco pouch.
SCORING. I got all 5 different types of characters while opponent only got 4. Both got 3 fishes. I only had tobacco pouch of 1 while the opponent got 4.
My Finals score was 89 while the opponent got 101.
Playing time was about 74 minutes.
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Villages of Valeria
Back to building your village and recruit characters in Villages of Valeria game. Played 2-handed with the Monument expansion, Red player, the starting one, vs Blue player.
Red scored 28 while Blue triggered the end of the game and scored 34. I guess Red spent too much time building their engine while Blue got a couple of extra scoring from some buildings. Red only got one and didn’t have enough time to work on it. That was from character, not the buildings.
Here is how it went.
ROUND 1
Red started by developing a Stone generator in their Castle. Blue chose a Food. Red got Cathedral, Laborium, Inn, Smithy and Headquarters. Blue had Armory, Tannery, Wood Mill, Smithy and Cathedral.
Red: HARVEST, Blue followed.
3 cards for Red and 1 for Blue. Red took Farm, Barracks and Forger’s Den from the face up cards. Blue took from the top of the deck and got their 2nd Wood Mill.
Blue: HARVEST, Red followed.
Since Blue already had 6 cards in hand, Blue only took 2, Wizard’s Tower and Market from the face up cards. Red got Monastery but since Red already got 8, Red discarded Forger’s Den.
ROUND 2
Red: DEVELOP, Blue didn’t follow.
With the Barrack card, Red developed Magic Generator in their kingdom. Red also discarded Headquarters as the cost. Blue didn’t follow since they had to discard 2 cards.
Blue: DEVELOP, Red didn’t follow.
Wood generator for Blue using the Smithy card. Blue discarded one of their Wood Mill card since they already had one.
ROUND 3
Red: TAX, Blue followed.
1 Gold and 1 card for Red while Blue only got 1 card. Red took Wizard’s Tower from the face up cards. Blue drew from the top of the deck and got Archery Range.
4 coins for Red, 3 for Blue.
Blue: TAX, Red followed.
1 Gold and 1 card for Blue and the card was Witch’s Hut from the face up card, planning to use it to develop a Magic generator. Red got Oracle card from the top of the deck.
4 coins for both.
ROUND 4
Red: DEVELOP, Blue didn’t follow.
Using the Inn card, Red developed Food Generator, discarding an Oracle card as the cost.
4 coins for both.
Blue: DEVELOP, Red didn’t follow.
Witch Hut was used to develop a Magic generator for Blue. Blue discarded the Archery Range as the cost.
4 coins for both.
ROUND 5
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
First Build for Red and it was the FARM. This would supply Food resources for subsequent Build action. As bonus, Red got Worker’s Guild. To build, Red needed 2 Wood, 1 Stone and 1 Magic. Red’s kingdom could only provide 1 Wild, 1 Stone and 1 Magic. So, the other wood was supplied by Blue player, paying 1 Gold to Blue.
Blue followed by building a TANNERY, 0 point with a cost of only Food. As bonus for building that, Blue got another Gold, one time only.
Blue: HARVEST, Red followed.
With only 5 cards left, Blue did harvest and got another Archery Range, Holy Shrine and Headquarters. Red followed and got Tannery.
Village Size: 1 for Red, 1 for Blue
Gold: 3 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 6
Red: TAX, Blue followed.
Got 1 Gold and a Tannery card while Blue got Mine from the top of the deck.
Blue: BUILD, Red followed.
That Mine card that Blue just got was built. This increased the production of Stone permanently. Blue could provide the Food, 2 Wood and 1 Magic to build it.
Red followed and built TANNERY with just 1 Food. As bonus, Red got another Gold, one time only.
Village Size: 2 for Red, 2 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 7
Red: DEVELOP, Blue didn’t follow.
After previous build action where Red had to rely on Blue for one more Wood, Red developed a Wood generator using the Smithy card. Red discarded the Worker’s Guild card.
Blue: DEVELOP, Red didn’t follow.
To be able to generate one of each resource, Blue developed the Stone generator as the last one, using the Headquarters card. Discarded the Holy Shrine as the cost.
Village Size: 2 for Red, 2 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 8
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
This 3rd building for Red was the Monastery which would provide any one resource to build the next Holy type building. To build Red needed 1 Wood, 1 Stone and 2 Magic. Red got 4 Gold and could provide everything. As bonus, Red got HONOR TOWER card from the top of the deck.
Blue followed and built the Wood Mill which required 1 of each resource. The Stone was provided by their Mine building and the other 3 were from the Castle. After this, every subsequent build action got a discount of one Wood.
Blue: HARVEST, Red followed.
5 cards left in hand so Blue drew 3 cards, Tavern, Fountain and Thieves Den. Red got Key and the Blade card.
Village Size: 3 for Red, 3 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 6 for Blue.
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ROUND 9
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
The next one to build for red was the Laborium. I think it’s better to build this first before the last one. This would increase the production of Magic for subsequent build action. The cost was 1 Wood, 1 Stone and 2 Magic. Everything came from the Castle. As bonus, Red got a Fountain.
Blue followed and built HARBOR, which required 1 Food, 2 Wood and 1 Stone. The Castle only needed to provide the food and the other wood. This was Blue first Shadow type building.
*** It seems I forgot to take main action for the Blue this time and Red did another action. Luckily it was like the Blue did their own Build action.
Village Size: 4 for Red, 4 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 10
Red: RECRUIT, Blue didn’t follow.
First, Red paid 1 Gold to recruit ALCHEMIST since Red already had 2 Worker and 1 Shadow type required by the character. As one time bonus, Red discarded the Key and the Blade card to get 1 Gold.
Red also took EMERALD STRONGHOLD monument by paying one more Gold. Blue didn’t follow because the cost was too expensive, 2 Gold just to recruit.
Blue: BUILD, Red didn’t follow.
This time, Blue built the Armory, first of the Soldier type with the cost of 2 Stone and 1 Wood. The Castle only needed to generate 1 Stone. As bonus, Blue got Oracle card.
Red didn’t follow because they didn’t have enough Gold to build anything building card in their hand.
Village Size: 5 for Red, 5 for Blue
Gold: 3 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 11
Red: TAX, Blue followed.
1 Gold and the Encampment card for Red. Blue got Thieves Den card.
Blue: RECRUIT, Red didn’t follow.
With 1 Soldier and Shadow type building each, Blue got to recruit MERCENARY. Paid 1 Gold but also got instant Gold bonus from the character. Blue also paid 1 more Gold to reserve HOLZGRAFE MEMORIAL monument.
Too expensive for Red to follow.
Village Size: 5 for Red, 6 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 4 for Blue.
ROUND 12
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
Finally, Red decided to complete the construction of Soldier type monument in reserve. The cost was 2 Food, 1 Wood, 2 Stone and 1 Magic. 1 Magic and 1 Food were provided by the other buildings so the rest came from the Castle with 4 Golds. As bonus, Red got Cloister card.
Blue followed and built TAVERN, another Shadow type, only required 2 Food from the castle while Wood and Stone came from the other buildings. This one would give 1 VP per Character recruited. Since this was also a Shadow type, the previous Harbor added 1 more point.
While Blue didn’t get bonus card for following, but the Armory got them another Barrack card.
Blue: BUILD, Red followed.
The next building to build for Blue was the CATHEDRAL with the cost of 2 Magic and 1 each of the other 3. 2 were provided by buildings while the other 3 came from the Castle. Blue got Guard Tower, forgot the one provided by the Armory.
Red also built Cathedral, no bonus card.
Village Size: 7 for Red, 8 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 4 for Blue.
ROUND 13
Red: RECRUIT, Blue didn’t follow.
With at least 1 building for each building type, Red recruited, KING’S HERALD. This would give 3 points for each complete set. Paid 1 Gold for that and another Gold to reserve the CATHEDRAL OF ST. AQUILA. This monument was a Holy type.
Too expensive for Blue to follow.
Blue: TAX, Red followed.
1 Gold from the action and another Gold from Cathedral. Blue also got Market card. Red got 1 card which was Tavern for following that action but also 1 Gold from the Cathedral.
Village Size: 8 for Red, 8 for Blue
Gold: 3 for Red, 6 for Blue.
ROUND 14
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
With Laborium and Monastery already built, Red easily could afford to build WIZARD TOWER that required 3 Magic and 2 Stone. The other 3 came from Castle. Red also got a MINE card.
Blue followed and completed the construction of the Monument. I think Blue forgot to take card provided by Armory for Build action again.
Blue: RECRUIT, Red didn’t follow.
Paid 1 Gold to recruit Archer after having 1 Soldier and many Worker type buildings. Got 3 cards bonus one time but not sure if Blue actually took them.
Blue also paid 1 more Gold to reserve the ORB OF URDR monument, a Shadow type.
Village Size: 9 for Red, 10 for Blue
Gold: 4 for Red, 4 for Blue.
ROUND 15
Red: BUILD, Blue followed.
Another Worker type building, Mine was the next to build for Red. The Castle only needed to generate 2. Got 1 Gold from Wizard Tower and the bonus card from the action was another FARM.
Blue followed and built THIEVES DEN. One Wood from the Wood Mill while 2 Food and 1 Wood from the Castle. Got Encampment card thanks to Armory.
Blue: BUILD, Red followed.
This was the 12th card in the village. Blue finally completed the reserved Monument. The villages could provide 1 Wood and 1 Stone while Castle could only provide 1 Magic and 2 Food. Blue still needed 1 more Magic and they paid the Red’s castle for it.
This triggered the end of the game.
Red followed and completed their reserved Monument. Monastery, Laborium, Farm and Mine provided 4 of the 6 required resources. The other 2 came from the Castle.
That was the end of the game.
Village Size: 11 for Red, 12 for Blue.
SCORING
Red
Farm: 1
Tannery:0
Mine: 1
Monastery: 2
Cathedral: 2
Wizard Tower: 2
Cathedral of St. Aquia: 6
Laborium: 1
Emerald Stronghold: 6
Alchemist: 3
King’s Herald: 1 + 3 = 4
Blue
Tannery: 0
Mine: 1
Wood Mill: 1
Holzgrafe Memorial: 6
Harbor: 1 + 4 = 5
Tavern: 1 + 2 = 3
Thieves Den: 2
The Orb of Urdr: 6
Armory: 2
Cathedral: 2
Archer: 3
Mercenary: 3
TOTAL SCORE: 28 FOR RED and 34 for BLUE. Blue Won!
Playing time was about 57 minutes. Read the full session report here.
Learn more about the game from Villages of Valeria Review.
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Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game
Make a movie again in the solo game of Roll Camera!: The Filmmaking Board Game, using just a single role, THE PRODUCTION DESIGNER. This role has the ability to place or modify the placement of set pieces with just 1 die. The 2nd ability is that the role can increase the quality but it requires 1 Art Department crew dice.
For this movie, the original script was DISMALLY LONELY LONG LOST COUSINS. This means if the Movie has 2 Blue (Sad) scenes as the first 2 scenes, the quality goes up by 3. The 2nd part is that if there are 3 Green (Dramatic) scenes, the quality goes up by 3.
Still played with the lowest difficulty with 14 budget and 11 rounds. Here is how it went.
ROUND 1. Problem: If you do not shoot a scene, lose $1 per turn. The crews were 2 Art, 1 VFX, 1 Lighting, 1 Sound and 1 Camera.
Sound and Lighting were assigned to resolve the problem. I used the VFX to run a Production meeting. I had the idea to gain more money for later and was expecting something useful from the other 2. Turns out there was another idea that allowed me to build set for free.
From 3 scenes I could shoot there was a Blue in the 2nd spot so I assigned the 2 Art dice to set the piece and another 1 on the role board to set 2nd piece. That means, in this one round I got 3 set pieces, ready to shoot that Blue scene. One set had 3 blue spaces with one strictly for Actor, the other 2 could give bonus either Quality or Money each.
$12 and 10 rounds left.
ROUND 2. Problem: Assigning Camera to any action including placing on set cost $1. Got 2 Actor, 1 Art, 1 Camera and 2 lighting. I had every dice I needed to shoot that Blue scene except for the Camera. 1 Light, 2 Actor and 1 Sound were on set while the Art and the other Lighting resolved the problem.
$12 and 9 rounds left.
ROUND 3. Problem: At the end of each turn, move 1 set piece to a far corner of the set area even if they have dice on them. Got Art and Actor.
I decided to let the problem stayed so the other 2 dice could work on something else. The Actor led a Production Meeting. I had the idea to change 3 unused dice to any face. So, the art die was changed to camera.
The idea to move any set piece was scrapped while the idea to ignore all problem effects in a turn was put in the 2nd To Do List.
With all required crews were on set, I shot that first Blue scene. Paid 3 minus 1 and got 1 quality from set plus 2 from scenes.
$10 and 8 rounds left, Quality +3 from the Starting Point.
ROUND 4. Problem: At the end of each turn, lose 1 Quality, unless it is already below Start and it goes up. 3 Actors, 2 Camera and 1 VFX.
Since I had 2 active problems, I assigned the 2 Camera to resolve the previous problem and 1 Actor plus 1 VFX to resolve the newer one. That means I had 2 Actors left and somehow I chose to use them on Set Action instead of the role.
After shooting that Blue scene, a new one came out which was another Blue at the 1st position. So, I rearranged the set according to that Blue scene.
$10 and 7 rounds left, Quality +3 from the Starting Point.
ROUND 5. Problem: At the end of each turn, clear all crew dice on set except for the Sound. Got 2 Camera, 1 Art, 1 VFX, 1 Sound and 1 Actor.
Well, the set was ready for shooting. I needed 2 Actors, 1 Camera and 1 VFX. I assigned them except one Actor and the other 2 dice to resolve the issue.
5 problems had been resolved at this point so I got 1 extra time.
$10 and 7 rounds left, Quality +3 from the Starting Point.
ROUND 6. Problem: Put a Blocked token on any 1 set piece and no crew can be placed on it. Any crew already on it had to be reroll or reassign. I chose to place it on a set with a Camera crew on it. I rolled only 3 and got 1 VFX and 2 Lighting. The Camera became an Actor after reroll.
Well, the 2 Lighting were useless for scene so I let them resolve the issue. The VFX stood for the 2nd Actor required by the scene, locking 4 dice.
I assigned the Actor to do my previous idea for money. The idea was to flip a piece 3 times and if I get 2 grid sides I got $4, otherwise lose $1. Well, let’s just say I did get the $4 minus 1 since I only had 1 die to activate.
$13 and 6 rounds left, Quality +3 from the Starting Point.
ROUND 7. Problem: Set Pieces can no longer be moved or rotated except by other Problems. 1 Actor, VFX and Art. Well, no camera but I got the VFX to stand in so I shot that 2nd Blue scene from 1st spot, paying $4, got a discount of $1 from set and plus 1 Quality from set. Got extra time as well.
The other two just resolved the problem. The new scene available was yellow with the previous red and purple.
$10 and 6 rounds left, Quality +4 from the Starting Point, 3 scenes left to shoot.
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ROUND 8. Problem: At the end of each turn, shuffle both top and bottom script decks to create a new and randomized script. Got 2 Camera, 1 Actor, 1 VFX, 1 Lighting, 1 Art.
I thought about letting the problem reshuffle the scenes but those first two Blue scenes I already shot could become worthless. So, I decided to search for more ideas.
Before that, I allocated the Art die to increase the Quality. The rest could go to anywhere. 2 were assigned to resolve the issue. One to rearrange the set assuming there is a good way to change the script. That means I had 2 left, and I assigned one to change 1 idea card and the other for the Production Meeting.
The idea to increase the bonus from set by double it was scrapped and unfortunately was replaced by different idea for the same type. With the new one I could place any die on set on any space not just the blue.
I doubted that I would get anything from the meeting. So, I decided to just shoot whatever scene. In this case, the Yellow one from 1st spot just to increase time.
So, the one die ready to rearrange the set did their job to match the requirement from that Yellow scene. a plus shape for 5 dice with all actors in the middle.
From the Production Meeting I played the one to reroll any number of unused dice and if the result is sound die, it becomes wild. I scrapped this idea since the other two were better.
One of the idea allowed me to ignore up to 2 actors during shooting a scene. I set it as To do list for next round. There was an idea that I resolved right away that allowed me to replace the existing set with any from the stack. Since I didn’t feel the need to change, I changed the one with Quality bonus with another similar one.
$10 and 5 rounds left, Quality +4 from the Starting Point, 3 scenes left to shoot.
ROUND 9. Problem: Put a Blocked token on Quality track. You cannot gain Quality but you can still lose it. Got 2 Actors, 2 VFX, 1 Sound and 1 Art.
Since I had that to do list to ignore 2 required actor during shooting, I had all 3 other required to shoot, 1 Actor, VFX to stand in for Camera and a Sound. One die was to activate that to do list plus 1 money while the other 2 resolve the issue.
I shot that Yellow scene. Paid 4 with a discount of 1 and got 2 Quality from the scene. Also got 1 extra time.
$6 and 5 rounds left, Quality +6 from the Starting Point, 2 scenes left to shoot.
ROUND 10. Problem: Put a Blocked token over the Production Meeting Action. That action cannot be taken. I also got 2 Lighting, Camera, 2 VFX and 1 Art.
So I had this idea to immediately shoot a scene by just paying either $4 or losing 3 Quality. I was planning to use it to place the scene that just came out from the deck which was a Purple scene.
But since the meeting action was blocked, I had to assign 2 dice first to resolve it. Which dice didn’t matter as long as the Art was allocated to increase the quality using the role action. This was the 10th problems which gave me 1 extra time.
Now that the meeting action became available again, I played that idea and resolve it immediately. The 1st of the other 2 ideas were to pay $2 to resolve all problems and the 2nd was to gain 1 quality for each actor used when shooting a scene. I kept the latter for to do list.
I got my 4th scene by losing 3 quality points. Here is what I am not sure. I assume that I still got the extra time bonus from the 1st of Scene row even if I didn’t shoot. The idea only removed the cost but not the bonus time. So, I got 1 extra time.
With the art die, I increased it again by 1. 2 dice left. One was to recycle idea that allowed me to place dice on any space on set. This was replaced by an idea to discard 1 Scene and gain either money or quality.
Maybe this was cheating but I planned on using that idea so I checked the next scene card from the deck and then I used my last die to rearrange the set accordingly.
$6 and 6 rounds left, Quality +5 from the Starting Point, 1 scene left to shoot.
ROUND 11. Problem: Every scene now cost 1 more to shoot. Got 2 Lighting, 2 Sound, 1 Art and 1 VFX.
First I did the meeting to play that idea card to remove 1 Scene card. The other 2 ideas were to increase the time. Either get 2 extra time, paying $1 and a problem or lose 2 quality for 1 extra time. I kept the latter and discarded the former. So, there was the Green scene.
I assigned the Art again to increase the quality. 2 dice resolved the problem. Apparently I placed the last die to rearrange the set again so my previous concern didn’t matter. Actually, I got VFX I locked in the set.
$6 and 5 rounds left, Quality +7 from the Starting Point, 1 scene left to shoot.
ROUND 12. Problem: Put a Blocked token on any editing room space. Scene cannot be placed there. Since I had only 1 empty spot left, I had to resolve it immediately. The dice were one of each face except the VFX.
That Green scene required 3 Actors, 1 Sound and a Camera. The Sound was already occupied by VFX. I placed 1 Actor and the Camera.
3 dice left. The art die increased the quality by 1 and the other 2 resolved the problem.
$6 and 4 rounds left, Quality +8 from the Starting Point, 1 scene left to shoot.
ROUND 13. Problem: From now on, lose $1 for each VFX you used when shooting a scene. I had to resolve this. Got an Actor, a Lighting and a Sound.
Set the actor on the scene so I needed 1 more actor and the other 2 resolved the problem.
$6 and 4 rounds left, Quality +8 from the Starting Point, 1 scene left to shoot.
ROUND 14. Problem: Moving and/or rotating set pieces cost $1 even if it is forced to do by other problem. I got VFX and a Lighting.
That VFX completed the required dice to shoot that Green scene. Before shooting, the other die was to activate the to do list. This one gave 1 quality per Actor die on set during shooting a scene. I had to pay 1 more.
Paid 4 minus 1 from the set and gained 2 quality from scene plus 1 from set. I got at least 2 Actor dice on set so two more quality. Also 1 extra time.
$2 and 4 rounds left, Quality +13 (Masterpiece at 12) from the Starting Point. 2 more qualities for having 2 Blue scenes as the first 2 scenes which matched the top half of the script.
The plot of the movie was The main character was sad due to lost of her significant other. After a rainy funeral, her friends invited her to a dinner and they introduced another guy to her to start a new relationship. A bit rough at the start but they finally fell in love with each other. The End.
Playing time was about 57 minutes.
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Aleph Null
Another attempt to summon Mr. Baphomet in a solo game of Aleph Null. Since the last time I got the rule wrong, I still played with the lowest difficulty. Still not sure if I played correctly this time.
HOUR 1, 1st DRAW. I got Book of Pacts, Wax Candle, Lodestone, Salamander and Mirror. Summoned the Candle and that was all I could do.
HOUR 1, 2nd DRAW. A Bell, Wax Candle, Chasuble, Mr. Baphomet and the Devil in the Hearth. Summoned the Bell by scrapping the previous candle and summoned the other Candle. Nothing else I could do.
HOUR 1, 3rd DRAW. A Boline, The Weeping Tree, Exorcised Water, Vitriol, Grand Circle. First, I summoned the Boline and then scrapped it along with the previous candle for 2 Magic to summon the Weeping Tree. Discarded the rest.
HOUR 1, 4th DRAW. Wax Candle, Wealthy Tanist, Mother Shipton, Salamander and Circle of Protection. Summoned the 2 Tarnists and the Candle. Scrapped the Candle and that Wealthy Tanist to summon the Salamander.
HOUR 1, 5th DRAW. Akhtoi, Golem, Wand of Power, Wax Candle and Sacrificial Lamb. Well, I had to summon the Akthoi so that Wax Candle went to be scrapped immediately. Since the Golem was present, I sacrificed that Cat and scrapped the Salamander for 2 MP to summon the Golem.
HOUR 2, 6th DRAW. Besom, Deck of Cards, Learned Tanist, Circle of Protection and another Wealthy Tanist. Summoned those 2 Tanists and the rest went to discard pile.
HOUR 2, 7th DRAW. Wax Candle, Sacrificial Lamb, Wand of Power, Salamander, The Devil in the Hearth. I had 3 Tanists so I sacrificed them all to summon that Wand of Power. Summoned the Candle as well and the rest to discard pile.
HOUR 2, 8th DRAW. Boline, 2 Wax Candles, Book of Pacts, Lodestone. Summoned the Boline and Candles, scrapped them to summon the Book of Pacts.
HOUR 2, 9th DRAW. Salamander, Mirror, Wax Candle, Chasuble and Mr. Baphomet again. Summoned the candle and scrapped it immediately along with the previous Boline to summon Salamander. Actually I could just summon the Mirror and the Salamander just went straight to discard pile along with the other cards.
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HOUR 3, 10th DRAW. Got 1 MP, Vitriol, Grand Circle, Exorcised Water, The Devil in the Hearth and Boline. Only summoned the Boline and the rest went to discard pile.
HOUR 3, 11th DRAW. Wax Candle, Sacrificial Lamb, Salamander, Circle of Protection and Deck of Cards. Summoned the Wax candle first so I had access to 3 MP. Scrapped the Boline and the Candle plus 1 MP from token to summon the Salamander and the Deck of Cards.
HOUR 3, 12th DRAW. Unfortunately, I didn’t take picture here. I assumed there was Chasuble and Besom and probably a couple of Candles. If I remember correctly, I sacrificed the Salamander and the Mirror to get 6 MP. 5 was to summon Chasuble and the other was to summon Besom. Then I scrapped probably one candle to sacrifice Besom since I was expecting Lodestone to show up and it did in the next draw.
HOUR 4, 13th DRAW. Got 1 MP. Boline, Mr. Baphomet again, Ill Omen, Wax Candle and Salamander. Ill Omen along with Wax Candle were sacrificed. Summoned Boline and scrapped it immediately plus with the 1 MP from token to summon Salamander.
HOUR 4, 14th DRAW. 3 Wax Candles, Circle of Protection and Sacrificial Lamb. Summoned all of the candles and since this was HOUR IV, sacrificed them all to summon the Lamb.
HOUR 4, 15th DRAW. Assassin, Vitriol, Grand Circle, Exorcised Water, The Devil in the Hearth. Well, that interference had to be summon. I sacrificed the Salamander along with scrapping the Lamb to get 6 MP. 4 was to summon the Devil in the Hearth and the other to summon Exorcised Water.
HOUR 5, 16th DRAW. Got 1 MP. Grand Circle, Vitriol, The Opposition of the Brotherhood, Boline and Circle of Protection. The next could have been the last draw. So, I guess it was time to summon the Grand Circle.
I sacrificed the Chasuble to sacrifice that last Interference. I sacrificed the Devil for 5 MP along with the Weeping Tree for 1 more MP and drawing 2nd to last card. 6 MP to sacrifice Lodestone to summon the Grand Circle. I drew Sacrificial Lamb. The last one in the deck was Mr. Baphomet.
Summoned the Boline and sacrificed it along with MP from token to summon the Sacrificial Lamb. I think I could have scrapped the Lamb for 3 MP and used them to summon Vitriol and Circle of Protection. So, it went to discard pile. I could have sacrificed the Exorcised water to sacrifice the Lamb in that pile. But this had to be done before summoning the Grand Circle.
I sacrificed the Circle of Protection along with that Interference. So the remaining were the 3 Keys, Golem, Deck of Cards and Vitriol plus Mr. Baphomet as the last card in the deck.
This is what I’m not sure. If I understand correctly, I can draw again but there is only 1 card, so I have to advance the Hour to VI but I can still keep drawing as many card available, which in this case was none.
HOUR 6, 17th DRAW. Mr. Baphomet. I summoned by sacrificing 3 keys with Golem and Vitriol became -2 points. Score was 1 from Hour 6, plus 3 from 3 damage tokens -2 points so I got 2 points.
Well, I still don’t know if I played it right. Playing time was about 31 minutes.
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Siege of Valeria
My 2nd attempt of defending a castle in Valeria, in solo game, Siege of Valeria, using the expansion contents. The Duke for this session was CAVALIER with the ability to move 1 Red or Blue troop to row 5, once per round.
The enemy had EXTRACTOR as the Commander. This will decrease the value of 1 blue die by 1. At least, this doesn’t take out the die completely.
ROUND 1. Red: 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Blue: 2, 4. The event this round decreased the value of 3 dice by 1 each.
2 Blue troops and 3 red in the Vanguard. None of the Siege Engine was in range. First, killed the Orc Archer in Vanguard 1st column to get more red die. I used Red 3 plus the help from Guard, the starting Champion so this went away to the bottom of the deck. Got a Red 6.
Red 4 and Blue 4 to take down Lycan Mage in 2nd Vanguard while Red 2 and Blue 2 to take down Rune Witch, the 3rd Vanguard. Behind that Witch was Dragonkin Warlord. I played Red 6 and 2 to beat it. Red 5, the last one to attack the Gnoll Pack in Vanguard 5.
That was the end. Vanguard 4 hit the turret, 1st damage.
ROUND 2. Red: 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 5 and Blue: 1, 2. The event this round returned one Troop from discard pile to the Row 5. 1st Turret was hit by Siege Engine. 2nd, 3rd and 5th were out of range. 4th hit the Turret by 1, 2nd damage.
First, I hit the Troll Brute, Vanguard 3 with Red 2 plus 5. With the help of Lycan Mage card plus Red 2, beat the Red Witch behind that Troll brute. I played this Witch card immediately to roll Blue die and got a Champion, Lady Ozwin at 4th Turret. Got a Blue 4.
Behind that Witch was a Siege Engine, required 14 to beat. I played my Red 5, doubled by the Dragonkin card plus the Blue 4. Got Magister Femik, stayed at Turret 2. This Champion attacked the Magic Troop at Vanguard 4, which was Gargan Priest. That was Blue 2 plus my Blue 2 and Red 1.
The Builder removed 1 Damage from Turret 4. I still had Red 5 and Blue 1. Red 5 was played to beat Gargoyle Talon at Vanguard 5. Nothing could be done with that last Blue. The Duke moved the Gnoll Pack from Vanguard 1 to empty space in Row 5. 1 damage by another Gnoll Pack at Turret 2.
ROUND 3. Red: 1, 1, 1, 3, 5, 5 and Blue: 1, 2, 4. The Event added 2 Red tokens to the closest Engine. There were 4 at the same row so I placed them on the one in 1st column.
2nd damage of 1st turret by the Siege Engine. 2nd Engine rerolled a 6 but I had none. 3rd Engine removed 1 Champion and flipped 1. I removed the Archer and let Lady Ozwin got flipped. 2nd Damage at 4th Turret by the Engine and 5th one was out of range.
Red 3 and Blue 1 to beat the Gargoyle in Vanguard 3. Behind that was Efreet and I beat it with Red 5 and Blue 4. Behind that was another Rune Witch. Magister Femik hit that with Blue 2, plus my 2 Red 1. I immediately played the Efreet card to beat the Siege Engine in 4th column next to that Rune Witch with my Blue 2.
Adept Immogin, a Champion entered the Turret 5. I still had Red 5 and Red 6. The Red 6 plus Blue 2 by that recent Champion hit the Troll Brute in Vanguard 4.
Red 5, doubled by Dragonkin card killed another Dragonkin in Vanguard 1. The Duke pushed the Undead Samurai from Vanguard 2 to Row 5. The only Vanguard left was Goblin Warrior in 5th column and hit 1st damage of that Turret.
ROUND 4. Red: 3, 4, 5, 5, 5 and Blue: 3, 4, 5. The Event activated one Engine that was out of range.
This activated the Engine in 3rd column, removing Magister Femik and flipped the Adept. 1st Engine was out of range. 2nd one rerolled a 6 which I had none. 4th was out of range and the 5th removed my Red 4 and the Adept Champion.
Red 5 to Gnoll at Vanguard 2 and Red 4 to Gargoyle at Vanguard 3. Red Witch at Vanguard 4 was defeated by Red 4 and Blue 3. Got a Blue 5 from that and Sir Nathem, a Champion. Next I hit the Siege Engine in column 3 Front with Red 5 and 2 Blue 5, more than the required 14. Got Mrs. Rye at Turret 2.
Red 3 to Goblin Warrior at Vanguard 1. The Engine behind that required a total of 13 plus 2. I had Red 5. Sir Nathem rerolled 2 used Blue and got Blue 4 and Blue less than 6. I played the Troll Brute to change that lower one to 6. Got Spymaster Tey at Turret 3.
I still had Blue 3 but nothing I could do with that one. The Duke moved Troll Brute from Vanguard 5 to Row 5 of the same column.
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ROUND 5. Red: 1, 2, 3, 3, 4 and Blue: 1, 2, 4, 4. The Event returned 2 Troop cards from discard pile to my hand. I got Efreet again!
1st Engine was blocked by Gargan Priest. 2nd one rerolled 1 6, so one of my dice probably had 6 before. 3rd and 4th were out of range. The Spymaster blocked the 5th using my Red 2.
The 1st column had Efreet, 2 Goblin Archers and a Red Witch so I could get a lot of dice. Mrs. Fye increased 5 dice by 1 each.
Red 5 and Blue 4 first to the Efreet. Immediately played the Efreet plus Blue 2 to destroy the 2nd Engine. Got Wizard Denthal in Turret 1.
Blue 2 and Red 4 to the Archer behind it. Rolled a 6 and used it to the Archer behind it. Luckily got another Red 6.
Vanguard 3 had Elite troop. I beat it with Red 4 and Red 1. Red 3 to beat the Goblin Warrior at Vanguard 4 and with another Efreet plus Blue 2 destroyed the 5th Engine at Vanguard. Got Lady Althea at the same column.
No more dice. The Duke moved the Undead Samurai from 4th Front to Row 5 of the same column.
ROUND 6. Unfortunately, no picture before playing the dice. The Event allowed me to check the top 6 troop cards and returned in any order. There were only 4 left.
1st and 2nd Engine were out of range. 3rd one took out one of red dice and rerolled Blue 4 to Blue 3. Spymaster blocked the 4th Engine with Red 2. The 5th one took out 1 Red and 1 Blue.
Red 3 plus Blue 5 to beat Lycan Mage in Vanguard 3. Immediately played that card plus Red 2 to beat Elite troop in Vanguard 4.
Beat the Efreet behind that Lycan with Blue 4 and Red 5. Immediately played that card plus Blue 2 by Wizard Denthal to destroy the 4th Engine next to it. Got Sir Heller at Turret 2.
Red 2, turned into 3 by Goblin Warrior card plus Blue 4 to beat Red Witch in Vanguard 1. Lady Ozwin rerolled 2 used Red. With Red 6 and 2 Red 4, destroyed the 1st Siege Engine. Got Doktor Hilter at Turret 4 which was removed immediately to remove the damage token there.
It seems I rolled a blue using that Witch and didn’t take a Champion. The Blue was spent somewhere else so I probably beat the witch early.
2nd hit to Turret 2 but the Duke pushed the Elite Troop from Vanguard 5 to row 5 of the same column.
FINAL ROUND. Red: 1, 1, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6 and Blue: 5, 5, 5. There was one Siege Engine left in the deck so I already failed. The Event added 2 Blue tokens to the closest Siege Engine which was at Vanguard 3.
1st, 2nd and 3rd Engine were out of Range. The Boss, Pharaoh, in 4th while the 5th was blocked by Spymaster plus Red 2. This Boss decreased one Red 4 to Red 1 and spent 1 Blue die.
First I played the Elite troop Skeleton Legion card to change Blue tokens into negative point. So The Siege Engine with 2 Blue tokens required only 12 to beat. Wizard Denthal decreased it even more by 2. Played Blue 5 and Red 5 to destroy it. Got Sir Tilko at Turret 4.
Since I already lost, I decided to attack the Boss at least once using the Gargoyle. Played Red 6, Red 4 and Blue 6 for the top half.
Blue 6 and Red 1 to beat Troll Brute at Vanguard 6. Red 1 and Red 5 to beat the Archer behind 3rd Engine. Another Red 5 to Gnoll behind the Archer.
I had no more dice. The Duke pushed Gargan Priest from Vanguard 1 to row 5. 2nd damage from Turret 2 and Turret 4 each.
That was the end. I lost. There were still 4 Engines and half part of the Boss. Not even that close.
Playing time was about 57 minutes.
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Sylvion
2nd Tower Defense game of the week with Sylvion. Still with all expansions and the Ravage pawn. After the Drafting, I got 5 Extraordinary Feats. 3 of them were the instant winning condition with a number of Trees, a number of Fountain and a number of cards. 2 of them could be activated during the game. One was to skip the Ravage phase with the Hedgehog while the other was the Squirrel to reveal the next 2 cards and return them in different decks.
For the Sylvion deck, I got 3 Traitors, 2 Doves, 6 Fountains, 10 Trees, 4 Elephants, 3 Fish, 2 Hedgehog, 2 Stag and one of each Owl, Squirrel and Whale.
Now that I think about it, I probably should have chosen more Owls but I was trying to avoid those traitors. Actually, this time I realized that I could have used those Traitor cards during Demobilization, removing 2 of them instead of 1 random card. Never thought to use it before.
Anyway, here is how it went.
ROUND 1. Elemental 2, Blaze, Elemental 1 and Acid Lake. I started with 8 cards minus 1 with Traitor and then the reinforcement got me another Traitor and they went to discard pile. The rest were 2 Fountains, 4 Whale, 1 Stag, 1 Squirrel, 1 Dove and 1 Tree.
Discarded the Tree and Fountain 2 to play 2 Elephants to get rid of those 2 Elementals.
ROUND 2. Demobilization, Blaze, Elemental 2 and 1. The Tree card was removed from the game. I got 2 more trees and a Whale. Discarded the Tree 1 to play Elephant to remove the Elemental 3. Played the Fountain 1 in front of the Elemental 2, expecting to be destroyed and got 1 card.
ROUND 3. Elemental 2, Simoon, Tornado and Elemental 3. Well, the Tornado returned 2 cards from my hand so I got only 1 new card which was a Tree again during reinforcement. Another tree from the destroyed Fountain.
Discarded 2 trees to play Squirrel and Doves, removing 2 Blaze, Elemental 3 and Demobilization, ready for Simoon, 2 Elemental and Desiccation. Played a Whale to move one of the Elemental from row 4 to row 2.
ROUND 4. Simoon, Elemental 3, Elemental 2, Desiccation. I lost my Stag because of the last card. The forest got first hit from Elemental in Row 4. 2 more just 1 space away in Row 1 and Row 2.
Got 2 Hedgehog and a Tree from reinforcement in addition to the Tree from previous round. Nothing really could be done with these cards. I played a Tree 1 in row 4 next to the Acide Lake hoping for better benefit from Stag later.
ROUND 5. Elemental 0, Elemental 0, Demobilization and Elemental 1. Used my Hedgehog to prevent that Demobilization. 2 more hit to the Forest.
The reinforcement gave me Fountain 4 and 2 Trees. Discarded 3 Trees to play the Fountain 4 on Row 2 Column 1.
ROUND 6. Simoon, Elemental 3, Stone Rain and Simoon. 3 more hit to the Forest and the Tree in Row 4 got destroyed. I got Fountain 4, an Owl and a Traitor.
I discarded the Fountain to play Owl and got 2 Fish plus a Tree.
ROUND 7. Simoon, Geyser, Demobilization and Tornado. Lost one of my Elephant from Demobilization. The Tornado returned 2 cards to the top of the deck so I only got 1 extra from reinforcement which was another Elephant. 8th hit to the Forest.
Nothing I could do with these cards.
ROUND 8. Elemental 0, Elemental 1 with Ravage, Geyser and Tornado. I cancelled the Tornado with my Hedgehog. The Geyser in Row 2 removed that Ravage pawn.
I got a Tree, Fish and Doves. Discarded a Tree to play Elephant to remove Elemental from Row 1. I discarded one Fish to play the other fish to plant Tree 4 at Row 4.
ROUND 9. Elemental 1, Elemental 2, Stone Rain and Desiccation. The Dove was discarded. 9th Hit by the Stone Rain to the forest.
Got a Stag and 2 Fountains with the Fish from previous round. Decided not to do anything.
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ROUND 10. Elemental 3 plus Ravage, Simoon, Demobilization and Desiccation. For Demobilization, I removed 2 Traitors from discard pile. The Fish was discarded by Desiccation. During reinforcement, the Sylvian deck run out and Tree 0 was removed from the game.
Got a Traitor, a Stag and a Tree. Discarded a Fountain and a Tree to play Fountain 3 in Row 1 column 1. Played one of the Stag to heal 2 Forest.
ROUND 11. Elemental 1, Desiccation, Blaze and Elemental 1. My only card, the Stag got discarded. The Elemental with Ravage was upgraded to 4 while the other 4 became a 2. 2 of these Level 2 got destroyed by Fountains.
I got a Tree, a Fountain and a Hedgehog. Discarded a Tree to play Fountain 2 in front of Elemental 2 in Row 4. Only Hedgehog card left.
ROUND 12. Stone Rain, Desiccation, Acid Lake, Desiccation. The Hedgehog cancelled the Stone Rain and the 2 Desiccation did nothing since no more cards in hand.
The Elemental with Ravage was about to hit the Forest after destroying a Fountain. Another Fountain got destroyed in Row 4. So, I got 5 cards, Owl, Tree, 2 Elephant and Whale.
Discarded the Tree to play owl. I think I got 2 Fountain and a Tree. The lesser Fountain and the Tree were discarded to play the 2 Elephants. Both removed the Ravage and the Elemental card below it. The other Elemental 2 in Row 1 was moved by Whale to the Fountain 4.
ROUND 13. Blaze, Simoon, Geyser and Acid Lake. 2nd Lake in 4th Row and 2nd Geyser in 3rd Row. I got a Squirrel and 2 Trees.
Discarded one of the Tree to play Squirrel. A Blaze was coming with upgrading 2 Elemental cards to Level 4 at least. I had to let it come out first.
ROUND 14. Elemental 3, Elemental 3, Elemental 1 and Blaze. I got Dove and 2 Fish. Discarded a Tree to play Fish.
With 3 Water, 1 was to play Dove, removing the next 1 card of each Ravage deck and 1 more to play the other Fish. So, I had 4 Water and 3 were to play Fountain 4. Wasted 1 water. The Fountain was placed in row 1 in front of Elemental 4.
2nd Geyser in 3rd Row destroyed the Elemental there.
ROUND 15. Elemental 3, Blaze, Geyser, Demobilization. Demobilization removed 1 Traitor and one Tree. 3 Elemental 4 in the battlefield. One got destroyed along with Fountain 4.
I got Hedgehog, Tree, Elephant and Dove. Did nothing for now.
ROUND 16. Elemental 2 with Ravage, Desiccation, Elemental 0 and Acid Lake. I had to cancel the Acid Lake or no room in Row 4. The Dove was discarded by Desiccation. I got Fish, Fountain 4 and Hedgehog.
Discarded the Fountain to play Fish. 1 Water for Elephant, removing Elemental 4 from Row 1. 2 more to plant a Tree 3 in Row 2. Only Hedgehog left.
ROUND 17. Elemental 0, Demobilization, Desiccation and Stone Rain. I cancelled the Stone Rain. I got Dove, Fountain 3 and Stag.
Discarded the other 2 to play Fountain 3 in Row 1 just to remove the Ravage. Activated the Geyser in row 3 to remove The elemental in the same row.
ROUND 18, last one. Demobilization, Elemental 0, Simoon and Elemental 2. Fountain 3 was destroyed so I got 1 card. 2 Elementals left in row 1. tree 4 got destroyed by Elemental and about to hit the Forest again.
4 cards I got were Stag, Owl and 2 Fish. The Owl got me some Elephants but not enough to destroy every Elemental.
There were 2 Elemental cards left that would hit the Forest 7th and 8th time. Even after Stag healed 2 of them and my Tree 3 and Tree 1, they were not enough to recover the Forest.
So, I lost. Here is the thing. I probably had a chance had I remembered to use the Hedgehog Extraordinary feat to skip a Ravage. This could give me extra time.
Playing time was 43 minutes plus 9 minutes for drafting phase.
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Voyages
Back to sailing in a game of Voyages. This time to the Cold Dark Depths trying to discover hidden creatures with Sheet #3.
During the game, I actually forgot about the rule of penalties from rolling doubles and triples. Luckily, after checking each turn, there were only 3 turns where I got doubles and no triples. In all those times, I already added some health tracks to the corresponding part of the ship so no penalty from it.
ROUND 1: 1, 4, 6. From the starting point 4 spaces away in the direction 5, there was a creature with the tentacle shape. So, I spent my first sailor to change the 6 to 5 and moved 4 spaces away. The 1 then increased the health for Mast to protect it from that creature.
ROUND 2: 1, 3, 5. Now that I think about it, I probably could have moved 5 spaces in direction 1 to enter the first unexplored ocean space and the 3 became the Duty. Instead I thought nothing could be done nearby without spending any sailor. So, I tried to pick the Sailor nearby in direction 5, 2 spaces away. I had to spend 1 sailor to change a 3 to 2. This was the 7th sailor and the 1 increased the health for Keel.
ROUND 3: 2, 3, 4. I thought the best option with these was to get the 2nd type creature 3 spaces away in direction 3. That means I had to change either 2 or 4 to a 3 with 1 Sailor. I changed the 4 and the 2 became Duty to increase the health for AFT since this was related to where the ship was.
ROUND 4: 2, 4, 6. From the current position, there was a Shipyard nearby that could help the ship move pass through ice. I needed to move 2 spaces in direction 4. So, the 6 became Duty. While the Shipyard upgraded the BOW, I added the 6 to that part to get the Sailor Bonus. The Shipyard also gave me a Sailor so I got my 8th and 9th from this.
ROUND 5: 3, 3, 4. So, this was the first damage from the double roll. Since I was in this Tail Creature, 1 damage to the AFT part but since I already added 1, I still could use Sailor.
From the shipyard, it was already in the bottom edge so these numbers were useless. I used it anyway to get a Relic in direction 3, adjacent to the shipyard. Well, the other number for speed didn’t matter but I picked the 3 for Duty to increase the AFT part again.
ROUND 6: 1, 2, 5. My only options for directions were either 1 or 2. Going 2 or 5 spaces in direction 1 were useless. But going to direction 2, 5 spaces could land the ship to another island with 7 Gold. So, that was what I went with. This passed through the 1st unexplored region and an ice, landed on an island.
The Duty was 1 to increase the AFT still. 3 more and I could get the bonus from the AFT track.
ROUND 7: 2, 2, 5. 2nd damage to the AFT part but the ship still got 5 more in that track. Going more to the right was useless from the current position. I needed to go left but I needed a 6. Even then with 6 for speed, nothing to be found there.
The only option was going up with 1. With 4, I could land on another Sailor. So, I had to spend 2 Sailor this time. Got the 10th Sailor. The Duty was 2 so I couldn’t add it to the AFT track. Instead it went to the Mast. Well, it could go to any other 3 tracks.
ROUND 8: 2, 5, 6. Still the same situation as previous round. I needed to go to the left. Going to 6 just return the ship to the starting island. I could go to 5 with the speed of 2 to get another Tail Creature. However, I wasn’t sure about collecting 4 more to fill the journal. So, I moved the ship to direction 1 to another island with a Shipyard.
Spent 1 sailor to change a 2 into 1 and used the 5 as speed. It required just 3 to reach the island. The 6 as Duty increased the 2nd track again, 2 more to get the bonus. I got my 11th Sailor and a protection to my Keel. Actually, I forgot to activate the protection.
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ROUND 9: 1, 4, 5. Definitely 5 as direction. But even going for 6 as speed didn’t land the ship on anything except 1 but a bit wasteful. So, 4 as speed and 1 as the Duty. I filled the 1st track since the 3rd already had a 1.
ROUND 10: 3, 4, 6. Going to direction 6 with a speed of 3 and I got the 3rd creature to complete the Journal. Got my 1st STAR and the 4 increased the 2nd track. One more to complete it and I needed a 5.
ROUND 11: 3, 4, 5. From the current position, going to direction 5 with a speed of 5 and the ship landed on another island with shipyard. Spent 1 sailor to change the 4 into a 5. The 3 filled the 2nd space of the 3rd track. This completed the 2nd column so I upgraded 1 Sailor into a Heroic one.
The shipyard gave me my 12th Sailor so I got my 2nd STAR. Apparently, I forgot to add the Sailor during the game. Upgraded the MAST part of the ship.
ROUND 12: 3, 4, 5. 5 rounds left and I tried to get that STAR at the bottom left corner. I guess I could have set 4 as speed and 5 as direction and landed on unexplored region and in straight line to that Star.
Instead I used 4 as direction and moved 3 spaces. Still in straight line to that STAR. The 5 became the Duty in 2nd track and I completed this track. Chose the STAR bonus which was my 3rd.
ROUND 13: 1, 2, 4. To get the Star, I needed a 5 as direction and at least a 4 as speed. Not sure what happened but I spent 1 Heroic and 1 Sailor for that. Maybe I miscounted the speed and thought I needed a 5 instead of 4.
Well, I got the 4th STAR but I lost 2 points for spending the Heroic. The 2 became duty to increase the 1st track, a 3rd one.
ROUND 14: 2, 6, 6. So I was supposed to get another damage but the associated part, the Mast, was already upgraded. Since I thought I haven’t gotten the 12th Sailor, I aimed for one 2 spaces up from that STAR location. I could have just moved up and got 2 more unexplored regions. Spent 1 Sailor to change a 6 into 1 and the 2 became speed.
The 6 for Duty filled the 3rd track, 3rd space. One more on the 4th and I got 1 Heroic.
ROUND 15: 2, 3, 3. 2 more turns and my plan was to enter the unexplored region and landed on the nearby island to get 8 Gold. Spent 1 Sailor to change a 2 into a 1 and used the 3 as Speed, landed in the 3rd unexplored region.
The other 3 filled the 3rd space of the 4th row in Duty so I got the Heroic Sailor bonus from it.
ROUND 16: 2, 3, 5. I only needed a 3 for direction and any number of speed to land on island with 8 Gold. The Duty also didn’t matter so that was the end of the game.
SCORING.
Island Gold: 8 + 7 = 15
Ocean Regions explored: 9
Complete Journal: 8
Heroic Sailor: 4
Legendary Star: 12
TOTAL SCORE: 48
Playing time was about 33 minutes. I could have gotten 15 more points had I kept track of Sailors correctly.
Learn more about the game from Voyages Review.
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Bruxelles 1897
Back to the street of Brussels to show the world some love for Art Nouveau art style in a game of Bruxelles 1897. Played the fan made solo variant again, still against Victor Horta. These Noble loves that art style in architectural designs.
Well, I think I still made some rule errors but hopefully minor. I was the starting player with Red.
ROUND 1.
The Market had 2 buildings, 2 resources, 1 artwork and 2 nobles, with the rest being buyers. No Exhibition this time.
One of the Noble was Paul Hankar who could provide more building materials. He could help Victor Horta a lot.
So, I sent my first Architect to ask the Noble to help me first before my opponent with a value of 1. He was at 2nd row and 2nd column.
The opponent then took the Building Material next to it with the Architect value of 1.
My 2nd action was to take the red Artwork, the only one in the market. This was in the 2nd column, increasing my majority to gain more Prestige. I sent an Architect with the value of 1.
This was my first mistake resolving the opponent. Victor Horta was supposed to take the other Noble in the Market, Charles Buls. But instead Victor Horta did a Construction with his Material card. He took the one in 1st column and 1st row with his Architect 2. One point for him.
My 3rd Action was to take the only other Material card in the 1st Row, 3rd Column. I sent Architect 1, matching the majority power of Victor Horta for that column.
Again, Victor Horta was supposed to take Charles Buls but instead I sent him to Cinquantinaure Park to get more Materials. He sent his Architect 1.
My 4th action was to take the only remaining Building in the market by using my only Material card. The building was in Column 4 Row 1. I sent Architect 1, since I already run out of money.
Still wrong with resolving the opponent. Victor Horta when to Cinquantinaure Park again. Even this one, he was supposed to get another Noble but instead he went to get Building built. He spent his Material card, while sending 2 of his Architects.
My 5th action, since I already run out of money, I sent one Architect 2 to the Stock Exchange to get 5 money. This time, Victor Horta finally recruited Charles Buls, increasing his Prestige point to the 2nd level. He sent his Architect 2, winning the majority for that column. This was also his last architect.
My 6th action, I could either pass first and got 3 money or sent my last Architect 2 to the City Hall to get 4 money from Georges Brugmann. I went with the latter.
So, that was the end of the round.
Victor Horta won the majority of 1st column, got his architect released from jail. I won the 2nd one, increasing my Prestige level to the same as Victor Horta at level 2. Both of us tied for the 3rd and increased the Architectural track by 1. Victor Horta already started ahead so he was at Level 3 while I was level 2.
Victor Horta had more Architects in the Bruxelles area so he had to send one Architect back to jail.
For the Coat of Arms Majority, there were only 2 completed Coat of Arms. I won 1 and tied to Victor Horta for the other.
3 VP for me 4 for Victor Horta.
ROUND 2.
There were 3 buildings, 2 Nobles, 2 Artworks, 1 Material and the rest were buyers. No Expo again this turn.
Victor Horta went first and he sent his Architect 1 to take the only Material card from Column 1 Row 2. I still had Material Card so I used it to take the building from the market. The building was in 2nd column row 1. I sent my Architect 1.
Victor Horta’s 2nd action was to take Emil Vandervelde to release his Architect. This Noble was in Row 2 4th column. Victor Horta sent Architect 1 there.
For my 2nd action, I sent my Architect 2 to get Charles Buls help in 4th column row 1, winning the majority against Victor Horta for that column. This allowed me to release architect by the end of the round.
3rd action, Victor Horta took the Blue Artwork from Row 2 Column 2 with his Architect 2, winning the majority against me in that column. However, my 3rd action was to match that again by taking the same Artwork but from Row 3 Column 2.
Victor Horta needed more Material card for hist 3rd Building so he sent his Architect 2 to the Cinquantinaure Park. My 4th action was to send Architect 1 to the City Hall, gaining bonus from Georges Brugmann and Paul Hankar for money and building material.
With enough Material cards, Victor Horta built a building in the 2nd Row, 3rd column with his Architect 2. Well, I didn’t have enough material card so I just sent Architect 1 to get rid of the other building but completing 2 Coat of Arms.
Victor Horta sent 2 of his Architects to Cinquantinaure Park again for more materials. This was his last Architect.
My last one was to occupy the row 1 column 1 space to complete the Coat of Arms and win the column majority there. There was only buyer and I paid just 2 with Architect 2 instead of selling one of my Artworks.
That was the end of 2nd round.
I won the majority for Architectural value, increasing the position to Level 3. Tied with Victor Horta to gain Nobility, mine to Level 3 and his to Level 2. Victor Horta won the Prestige so we were at the same level. I won the majority to release my Architect from jail.
The Bruxelles area had 1 of my Architect and 3 of Victor Horta’s so he had to send one again to jail. There were 4 completed Coat of Arms. I tied in 3 of them to Victor Horta while he won one.
11 VP for me and 13 for Victor Horta.
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ROUND 3.
The Market had 3 Materials, 1 Noble, 2 Artworks, 1 Building and 3 buyers. No Expo again.
I went first and my 1st action was to visit the Noble, Paul Hankar, just to make sure that Victor Horta didn’t get any help from him. Sent Architect 1 and after getting Material card, I let him go.
Victor Horta took Material supply, the one in Row 1, Column 3. He sent his Architect 2.
My 2nd action was to build the only building there since I already had enough Materials. This was in 4th column 2nd row so I sent my Architect 2 to do the job and match the majority with the green opponent.
According to the opponent chart, Victor Horta was supposed to keep taking Materials first instead of trying to build using the Bruxelles area. So this is a weak part of this variant if I understand the rule correctly. With that interpretation, Victor Horta sent his Architect 2 to take Material form Column 4 Row 1, matching the majority with his 2 opponents.
My 3rd action was to take the Yellow Artwork that I didn’t have from Row 2 Column 3. I only sent my Architect 1, probably going to lose the majority from that column.
Victor Horta took the material again from this same column with his Architect 2, winning the majority over me.
The market only had 1 Blue Artwork left, which I already had and 3 buyers. My 4th action was taking that artwork, planning to sell it later. I sent Architect 2 to row 1 column 1.
Victor Horta when to Cinquantinaure Park to finally build his 4th buildings since he already had 2 Material cards. He sent Architect 3 there, very unnecessary.
Next as my 5th, I sent Architect 1 to the City Hall to gain benefit from all 3 Nobles. Got 4 Money, Material Card and the Prestige to Level 4.
Victor Horta went to City Hall as well since he already had 4 buildings. This was when I realized that the opponent kept the Nobles. I thought since they were not going to pay, they didn’t stay. So, I ended up returning those cards I discarded for Victor Horta, Charles Buls and the Emile Vandervelde.
He could only use 2 of them, including himself. The 2nd one in his priority was Charles Buls. Both increased his position in corresponding track to level 4. For this action, he had to send 2 Architect since I already occupied that space first and those were his last architect.
I still had 2 Architect. Sent 1 to buyer in 2nd row, 2nd column to sell one of my Blue artwork for 3 money using Architect 1. This completed a Coat of Arms that I won.
With my last one I could have completed more Coat of Arms but spent more money or sent 1 Architect to Stock Exchange for 5 money. Somehow I did neither.
That was the end of 3rd round.
I won the majority for architectural value, increasing my position to Level 4, matching with Victor Horta’s. Also won for Prestige with no competition to Level 5. Victor Horta got the upper hand to release his Architect from jail.
Both of us tied for Nobility, increasing my position to Level 4 while his to Level 3.
4 Architects from Victor Horta in Bruxelles area against my only 1 so Victor Horta had to send one to jail again.
There were 3 completed Coat of Arms. I won in 2 and tied with Victor Horta in one.
23 VP for me and 17 for Victor Horta.
ROUND 4.
Finally there was an Expo coming along with 3 Artworks, 2 Nobles, 1 Building, 1 Material and 2 Buyers.
Victor went first again. He was in Mode 2 after having 4 buildings built. He had not enough materials so his next one should be chasing Charles Buls. The Noble was not available.
So, he sent Architect to City Hall. He could activate 2, including himself, increasing architectural value and Prestige point to Level 5 each.
Based on the chart, Victor Horta would go there again next. So, I thought I could abuse it by sending 2 Architects forcing him to send 3 next. I got Material from Paul Hankar and 4 money from Georges Brugmann. Charles Buls had nothing to do. I sent 2 Architect 1 for this 1st action.
Victor Horta as expected when there again, sending 3 Architects only to get help from Emile Vandervelde to release his Architect from jail.
My 2nd action was to take the clone of Victor Horta from the market, increasing my architectural value to Level 5. I sent Architect 1 for that to Row 2 Column 2.
Victor Horta then send 1 Architect to Stock Exchange to get 3 VP. I sent another Architect 1 to the Park, hoping to get the Green Artwork, completing my collection. I got it, both of them, luckily.
Victor Horta insisted to keep going to Stock Exchange with 2 Architects to get just 3 VP again. Those were his lasts.
I still had 3 more Architects so I could win all of the majority if I wanted. First, I took the Expo card, sending Architect 2. I played my Blue first so Victor couldn’t do anything. I got a total of 8 VP with one of each color.
Next, I sent Architect 2 to get Prince Albert since I already got the bonus for having all different nobles. This was in column 3 row 1. I had 10 money left and had to pay 8 later.
Last action, I sent Architect 2 to build my 4th building from Row 2 Column 1. That was the end of the 4th round.
I had Architects in 3 columns and Victor Horta had none. So, I won the majority in those 3.
Nothing to release from jail, Architectural value was already at 5, the same for Prestige as well.
FINAL SCORING.
I still had 9 money and paid 8 to keep 4 Nobles. 20 points for me and Victor Horta each for having 4 buildings with a value of 5 each. Victor still had 2 Material cards so 2 VP and I had none. I had the Expo card so I got 2 VP.
For the last Majority Column bonuses, I got nothing for the leftover money. 8VP for 4 different Artworks and only 4 VP from 2 different buildings. I also got 10 VP for 5 Nobles, including Brugmann.
FINAL SCORE: 74 for me and 45 for Victor Horta.
Playing time was about 60 minutes.
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Adventure of D
Save the island from Elzoof, the Chaos Wizard again in solo game of Adventure of D. Still with the easiest difficulty. I thought I managed to finish the game very fast but then I realized I made a major error that would have prevented me from winning that easy. I misread the action on Location card and I thought I only needed to discard 1 card while in fact I needed to have 3.
Even then I got lucky a lot with finding very useful skills and events that worked for my character progression. Well, I still got a few extra rounds to make it up but I didn’t realize the error until after the game.
Anyway, here is how it went. Played as RANGER with Agility Level 1.
ROUND 1
To pass through the Magic Barrier before entering the Tower of Death to fight Elzoof, The Chaos Wizard, the Hero needed to have level 5 of any of their Stats. The Hero started with their Agility of 1 so they wanted to work more on that. Luckily, the Hero had Blue 1 and Blue 3 card which were useful to increase the Agility in FOREST OF GLOOM.
The forest was 3 spaces away from the Castle of Light where the Hero was. Alternatively, the Hero could visit the nearby Old Village of Dew and asked the Village Elder to teleport the Hero right to the Forest. The Village was 1 space away from the Castle so it saved just one extra card from movement.
For that, the Hero also needed a Red Card and 1 Magic which the Hero already had.
The Adventure started.
Played White 1 to move 1 space from Castle to the Village. The danger level was 1 and the CHECK 1 result was 3 so it was a safe journey.
Played the Red 5 and spent 1 Magic to Teleport to the Forest of Gloom. Met the MASTER OF CHILDRES to learn more agility! Spent Blue 1 and Blue 3 and the Agility went up from 1 to 2.
The Hero had 2 HP left and decided to rest in the nearby VILLAGE OF DAWN. Played the Yellow 2. The Danger Level was 1 and after CHECK 1 the result was 3 so it was a safe journey.
The Hero took a REST. Got 4 more cards plus 1 Magic.
ROUND 2
Apparently the Village of Dawn had a Workout facility to learn new skill. All the Hero needed was a Blue or A red Card. So, I discarded the RED 4 and learned SHINING ARMOR from a Knight.
This skill gives the Hero a chance to avoid LOSE X OR SHOCK X. This could be very helpful during the final boss.
No Blue cards to visit the Forest of Gloom again and no existing events to increase the Agility. The Hero heard that there was a JAVELIN CONTEST in the Castle of Light. The winner would get an item that can teleport the Hero to Village of Dawn.
So, the Hero decided to travel back which was 2 spaces away from the current location. Played WHITE 1 to move to the Old Village of Dew, North from current location. The Danger Level was 1 and after CHECK 1 the result was Blue 1 so a Shadow appeared and attacked the Hero.
To defeat the Shadow, the Hero played the Yellow 5. Got 4 Magic from it.
2 HP left and the Hero decided to keep pushing back to Castle of Light and rest there. Played the White 5 to move to the west from Old Village of Dew to the Castle of Light. The Danger Level was 0 even with the ongoing Event. After CHECK 1, the result was a 3 so it was a safe journey.
The Hero took a rest before entering the Javelin Contest the next day. Got 6 cards and no Magic.
ROUND 3
Time to win this Javelin Contest! To win, I needed a result of Blue 6. The Hero already got Agility at Level 2. Played that Blue 4 and that was enough to beat the Contest. Also got a bonus HP of Yellow 1.
As the reward, got an item: RED SCROLL, Teleport any 1 Player to Village of Dawn.
The Hero immediately used the item and went back to the Village of Dawn to do more workout. Played the Red 3 and learned SECRET PATH from an Amazonian. This allowed the player to visit the GREAT CHASM between the Castle of Light and the Village of Dawn.
5 HP left. No Blue cards to train in Forest of Gloom. The better option was to train at PLAIN OF SORROW to increase any of the stats.
*** MISTAKE TIME
Apparently, to increase stats in Plain of Sorrow, I needed to discard one card of each color plus an item. I got it wrong and thought only to discard 1 type of card and an item. Oh, well…
The Hero had no item but between these 2 locations there was a Blue Zombie occurring in the Forest of Gloom. If the Hero could beat this challenge, they could get an item.
Played the White 1 to the Forest of Gloom. The Danger Level with the event was 2 and after CHECK 1, the result was 4 so it was a safe journey.
Encountered the Blue Zombie. Played Yellow 3 and got a bonus of Red 1. The CHECK 1 result was 4 so the total was 7, enough to beat the Blue Zombie. Got POTION OF AGILITY.
The Hero continued their journey to the PLAIN OF SORROW. Played Yellow 2 to a Danger Level of 2. The CHECK 1 result was 2 so a Shadow attacked the Hero. With 2 Magic, the Hero defeated the Shadow.
At the Plain of Sorrow, The Gathering of Magic event happened. Discard the Red 2 and the item from recent event and the Hero increased their Agility to 3 (THIS WAS A MISTAKE).
2 HP left and the Hero decided to take a rest in the Great Chasm, thanks to the skill from Amazonian. Played a Yellow 1 to move. With the Danger Level of 1, the CHECK 1 result was a 1. A Shadow attacked the Hero but was defeated by 1 Magic.
The Hero took a rest. Got 4 new cards and 1 Magic.
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ROUND 4
* MISTAKE TIME. I think I increased the Magic after taking a rest twice and increased it to 7.
While there was a good challenge at the Castle of Light but it required Blue 10 to beat and with cards in hand, very low chance to beat so I kept it for later.
Decided to learn more skill by going to the VILLAGE OF DAWN again, 1 space from the current position. Played the White 2 to a danger Level of 1. The CHECK 1 result was 3 so it was a safe journey.
Spent the Red 1 to learn new skill. Learned SMASH from a Fighter. This allowed me to increase the value of Test Card by 1 by showing a Red Card. This could be handy against that Red Wolf.
3 HP left. The plan was to go to the Castle of Light and take a rest there before trying to beat the Red Wolf. Played Yellow 2 to move 1 space to Old Village of Dew. The Danger Level was 1 and the CHECK 1 result was 5 so it was a safe journey.
Played the White 3 to move back to the Castle. After the event, the danger level was 1 but the CHECK 1 was 5 so it was still a safe journey.
The Hero took a rest. Got 5 new cards and 1 Magic.
ROUND 5
Time to beat that Red Wolf. Played Red 5 as the Test Card. Then with the SMASH skill, I still had 2 more red and increased the value to 6 and I got the Agility at Level 3. So, all I needed was just 1 to get to Blue 10 to beat this Red Wolf. The CHECK 1 result was 4 so it was more than enough. The Agility Level went up to 4 and got RED FUR item.
Before moving on, spent 2 Magic to reveal a new Event. The Event was FIRE LIZARD at Village of Dawn. This was perfect as it could increase the Agility again with only Blue 7 as the challenge.
Played the White 0 to move to Old Village of Dew. The Danger Level was 1 and the CHECK 1 result was 5 so it was a safe journey. Moved again with Red 2 to the Village of Dawn with a Danger Level of 2.
*** It seems I forgot to do Check 1 after movement to determine the Shadow or safe journey. I guess I just assumed it was safe journey. Oh, well…
2 HP left and the Hero decided to take a rest before fighting that Fire Lizard. Got 2 more cards plus 2 Magic.
ROUND 6
One of the revealed event was Blue 5 and I declined it by spending 2 Magic so I could keep the Fire Lizard. Time to take that Lizard down.
Played Blue 2 as the test card. Increased the value with SMASH skill with that Red 3. The CHECK 1 was a 1 and with the Agility Level of 4, the total was 8, more than enough to beat the Fire Lizard with Blue 7. Got a bonus of White 3 for playing a blue card and increased the Agility Level to 5.
So, now the Hero was ready to enter the Tower of Death. The Hero just needed a good set of cards first.
While at Village of Dawn, the Hero used this chance to learn one last skill. Discarded the red 3 and learned INVOKE from a Druid. This allowed the Hero to get Fairy Dust item by having a Blue card and spent 3 Magic.
From Village of Dawn, decided to go to Old Village of Dew, so with the help from Village Elder, the Hero could just teleport to the Tower of Death.
Played the White 3 to move. With a danger level of 1, the CHECK 1 result was a 4 so it was a safe journey.
The Hero had 2 HP left, discarded one and took a rest. Got 4 new cards and 1 Magic.
ROUND 7
One event was rejected for covering the Tower of Death. There was also a Pink Ice Slime event occurring. Accepted but got removed by the Young Ice Dragon with the same color. 4 Magic left.
At the Old Village of Dew, asked the help from Village Elder to teleport. Spent the Red 5 and 1 Magic and arrived to the Tower of Death.
Before entering, activating the Invoke ability with last 3 Magic to get a Fairy Dust.
Entered the Room 1. There was a MAGIC BARRIER. The Hero had Level 5 of Agility so they passed through it.
Room 2. A GUARDIAN. CHECK 1 result was a 5, a Shadow attacking. Spent the Fairy Dust to beat that Shadow and got 5 Magic.
Room 3. A TRAP. SHOCK 1 happened. With the ability of Shining Armor did Check 1 and the result was a 3 so the Hero avoided the trap. 4 HP left.
ROOM 4. ELZOOF THE CHAOS WIZARD. I still got my Blue 2 and Red 1 so I beat the Wizard.
Well, not really since I cheated…
Playing time was 41 minutes. Read the full session report here.
Learn more about the game from Adventure of D Review.
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Café
Played Café, solo variant twice. 1st one I scored only 15 with just 3 coffee shops plus 3 cubes of the 2 colors. I guess I needed a bit refreshment with the strategy.
By the 4th round, I got 2 separates roaster and dryer. Then the 5th one got a new dryer with 2 icons. Adding another one in the 6th round. Even then the I still had 2 separate roaster. Only in the 2nd to final round got another Roaster that I could attach to the first one with the 3rd on the final round.
Got 5 action points by the end. Processed too many Yellow coffee beans for nothing. I was too busy developing the engine, not enough time to diversify the production.
Playing time was about 25 minutes.
Then I reset the game using the same initial card. This time I started to develop a new Roasting part right in the first round. Hopefully the initial one could be upgraded for more dryer. The new card also added a Coffee icon so I got 2 actions. Used them both to produce two groups of coffee beans.
2nd Round. Got another Roaster, attached it to that new existing one. The card also had a boat and a coffee. With 3 Action Points, dried and roasted a Yellow and then dried a Brown bean.
3rd Round. There were 2 cards with a dryer. But only one of them was at the corner so I could attach it to the initial dryer with only overlapped the beans. At the same time, the card created a new group of coffee production and a coffee icon.
With 4 actions, delivered the Yellow, roasted the brown, produced 1 of 3 colors. The last action was to dry 2 colors, 2 green and 1 yellow. Still no Coffee Shop.
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4th Round. This time there were 3 cards each with one Coffee shop. 2 of them had a Coffee icon and either 1 or 2 coffee beans. The third one only had a dryer and a yellow bean. I decided to take the dryer. The icon was in the middle and was perfect to expand the existing dryer to 3. However, with how I placed the card, I had to let go one of the Coffee icon.
Instead of getting one more action, I lost one. Roasted 2 green and 1 yellow with 1st action. Delivered them all to Braga and warehouse with the 2nd. With the last action, I produced 1 green and 1 yellow in addition to previously produced brown.
5th Round. One card had Lisboa coffee shop with 3 beans. 2nd one had also Lisboa 1837 with a Coffee icon and a green bean. The last one had 2 beans, 1 dryer and 1 roaster.
I picked the 1st one even though this didn’t add more action or upgrade anything. But I needed the red bean production and something to score. Unfortunately, I just realized that I made an error with the placement. I only covered 1 space, making it invalid. Oh, well.
First action, I produced first, 1 red, 1 green and 1 brown. With 2nd action, I dried 2 green and 2 brown plus 1 red. With the last one, I only roasted the brown and the green because that coffee shop ordered them.
6th round. 2 cards with coffee shops again, one with coffee icon while the other had roaster. The 3rd one with only Roaster plus coffee icon. Since I was not done supplying the previous shop, I picked the one without any shop. This was placed next to the existing roaster group with 2, expanding it to 3.
Got 4 actions. Roasted the red with 1st action. Then delivered 2 brown, 2 green and 1 red to the previous shop and warehouse. However, the shop still needed a yellow. 3rd action produced 1 red, 1 brown and 1 green. 4th action was to dry 1 green, 1 brown and 1 yellow.
7th Round. 2 cards with shops. One had a coffee icon plus 2 beans while the other had dryer and 2 beans. The last card had coffee, dryer and 2 beans. Tried to get more score so I picked the one with shop and coffee cup.
This was placed to extend the production group while sacrificing one produced red beans. This group now had 4 beans, one of each color. Got 5 actions. 1st and 2nd was to roast the 3 dried beans and then delivered them. The Lisboa one finally got the Yellow, completed the order. The new one, from Porto 1933, required 1 brown, 1 yellow and 1 red. I delivered only the brown. The green bean went to warehouse.
8th Round. 2 cards again with Coffee shops. A big one with coffee cup and brown bean and the other had smaller shop, a cup and 3 beans. The last card only had dryer, ship and 3 beans.
I picked the one with smaller shop hopefully to produce and process beans more. This expanded the production group from 2 to 4. Got 6 actions.
One was to produce that group. There were 3 production groups, all had beans ready to be processed. So, the 2nd action was to dry 2 red, 2 brown and 2 yellow with the 3rd action to roast them.
I still had 3 actions with the last one just to deliver. The other 2 was to dry and roast the produced green. Delivered 1 brown to the Porto 1947 shop and the remaining to the Warehouse.
That was the end of the game. Here is the Scoring.
Porto 1947: 2 points
Braga 1871: 3 points
Lisboa 1905: 6 points
Porto 1933: 4 points
2 Red Beans: 4 points
3 Green or Brown Beans: 3 points
Total Score: 22 points
Well, the score didn’t matter since I played it wrong. Playing time was about 20 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Cafe Card Game Review.
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Under Falling Skies
A new solo only game for me, Under Falling Skies. It was once the highest solo only game on BGG overall ranking before Final Girl took over.
I have to say, I’m impressed that like 80% of the contents are for the campaigns while the rest are for standalone sessions. Even those standard game has a lot of setup varieties. Unfortunately, a lot of people said that they don’t like the campaign but it seems there is a way to use some of the campaigns element to the standalone session.
So, I played once, the learning game using the recommended introductory setup. Lost after 43 minutes. Only got to the 9th Research level. Somehow I was expecting a way to push the Mothership up so I let those attacking ships trigger the descending, hoping to skip some penalties like additional white ships. Well, I was wrong which is why I was still far away from that research track.
The excavator got to the end but I didn’t got a chance to use like 2 bottom most rows at all. Game ended after 8 rounds.
After that, I played again right away with the same setup. I won! Hopefully correctly, since I tend to make a lot of rules error. This time I got 11 rounds. Is that the maximum for this setup? I think I pushed the Mothership down once in the last round and if I didn’t trigger the winning condition before the Mothership phase, I would have lost the game.
Even if I got 1 extra round, the game is very tight then. You can avoid making it descend faster but not slower than it should. I still could take 3 more damage at that point so maybe there was a room for it.
I also noticed that the Mothership could push down the progression in research track. Ideally you have to be in position where going back up is easier. In that one game, I got 6 research points to bump it up 1 level and then the Mothership just pushed it down. That means I had to afford 6 Research points again.
This session I managed to take down a lot of ships. That was one of the fun part. I knew they would just comeback so focusing on destroying them is not going to help you win the game, just to survive longer.
I think I initially got the rule wrong about attacking those ships. Since you can only place 1 die on each column, I thought you can only attack the ship in that column from that attacking room. Well, that was not the case so you can destroy multiple ships in any column as long as the die value is higher than those ships. So, you can plan and move them to the shooting spot and destroy multiple of them. This reminds me of another solo tower defense game called Siege of Valeria, maybe not for the same purpose but similar mechanically.
If you can do that, then you have a lot of time to work on research, excavation and maybe the Energy. One handy new trick about those small ships is to move one to another column so the column has more than one. Moving to different column using the arrow. Then, use the die with value of 1 to not move at all.
Here is a challenging aspect of playing the game, besides trying to win. Since you can only place 1 die on each column, sometimes you have a plan, you activate one room by placing one die and realize that it blocked you from using the other room of that column. This is a dice worker placement where you block yourself. Your first game you probably will make that mistake of placing more than 1 die on the same column without realizing it.
This becomes challenging because there is a room with a size of 2 dice and unless you place 2 dice, it won’t activate. So, you first place 1 die on half of that room. Then you proceed on placing the other dice, maybe rerolling hoping to wait and get a better value for the other half. By the time you get to the last die or before triggering, you realize, you forget to complete the other half.
During my play, there were moments like this. Then maybe you try to figure out how to redo your plan and taking those dice back. That is a bit impossible to do if your turns involved rerolled dice, unless you take a picture. The good thing is that you probably can still move that 1 die to different row but the same column without changing how those ships move.
However, this can still lead to some energy shortage because maybe the other room requires more energy and you are not prepare for it. So, in my session, there were one or 2 rounds where some dice became useless.
Also, since you only have 5 dice to place, at least in the standard introductory game, sometimes after placing them, you realized that you forgot to leave one to work on the excavation. Well, that’s not really a big issue but the lower rooms probably open more option and the sooner you access them the better you can utilize them more.
It’s more like you probably will forget since dealing with the ships is that much interesting. The problem is again, when you try to redo your plan by taking back dice. This issue went away almost completely during my 2nd play.
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This is what people might call it a crunchy game. You want to get some specific number like where the enemy ship will stop their movement and how to make sure you provide enough value for generating energy or progressing research track. My 2nd play took shorter but still about 40 minutes.
I think the biggest issue is the random dice roll. The only mitigation is to reroll up to twice per round. Even after rerolling both times, you might get the same or even worse. I think this issue is a problem only towards the end of the game.
At the start of the game, the Mothership is still far up there. You can place any 6 and let the ship move down with enough room. Maybe later that same ship can still be destroyed. Towards the end of the game, the Mothership becomes much closer. You place a 6 and that is a good chance to get a hit.
To be fair, maybe even taking a hit is not a big deal. But since you are still going to deal with at least 5 ships, you want more accurate value for each column. While that creates a good game arc, I guess I was expecting to get better mitigation for the player.
Maybe the idea is at that moment, to switch from playing defensively to offensively and focus on the research to win while letting those ships deal damage to the player. A lot of Tower Defense games have this idea.
Well, this was my first play and this is just my initial impression. Maybe I just played poorly and need to figure out different way but I’m not sure. During this session, there were moments where I rerolled the reroll, so it was cheating.
Let’s see if I can get better with more plays. The general gameplay is fun. I like playing with numbers in this kind of crunchy game. Also fast to setup and reset.
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Yin Yang
Back to travelling in China, to build temples, one in each Kingdoms in a solo game of Yin Yang.
The order of Kingdom to build was:
1st: the Southeast,
2nd: Northwest
3rd: Middle South
4th: West
5th: Middle North
6th: Northeast
7th: East
For the 4 lines, I needed:
1st line: Yellow, Blue, Green and Red Goods
2nd Line: Yellow, Red, Green, Red
3rd Line: Green, Yellow, Red, Blue
4th Line: Yellow, Yellow, Blue, Green
With the overlapping, I needed a total of 3 Yellow, 3 Green, 2 Blue, 4 Red.
1st ROUND. I started in that Southeast region, next to a city in the East and Middle north Kingdom. Built that 1st temple and there was a Yellow goods. I got rid of the Disaster token in the Middle North kingdom so I could travel to the Northwest as the 2nd kingdom to build the temple.
This round, The Will of Gods blocked the Boat action token and the immediate Goods action. I got 5 White and only 1 Black. Since I couldn’t take that yellow goods, I had to start moving to the 2nd Kingdom. I needed 3 steps, 1 via boat and 2 via road.
The boat part was done with the immediate action. That took the only black I had. So, with all 3 white I had to take the Carriage Action token.
So, after moving via boat to the west, I had use the carriage token to move north one space and then 2 Whites for the same, entering this 2nd Kingdom of Northwest. I used 1 Black and 1 white in that order to build the 2nd temple.
2 White left, that means 1 more carriage action. The 3rd Kingdom was Middle south so I had to move back from where I came from, ended my movement in the Middle North kingdom.
2nd ROUND. This time Disaster token in the Middle north area blocking access to the West Kingdom was removed. That West was the 4th one.
This round, the Will of Gods blocked the Temple Action token and the action to increase Turn Order according to the number of built temple. I actually got the same 5 White and 1 Black so I could take the Blue and Red goods from the middle by spending 8 White. That white area in the middle was refilled with yellow and green goods.
For the immediate action, with just 1 Black I could only get boat action. Another one to increase the position in turn order by 3 was not that useful. If I used the black for the immediate action, I had only 3 white for the action token which was a Carriage that I already had.
So, I chose the build Temple as immediate action using 3 White. With 2 White and 1 Black for the action token, I could take either Goods or Temple action token. I chose the Goods.
I built 3rd temple but this was not the right Kingdom but I could still use it to randomize the coin later. From that position in the Middle North Kingdom, I moved via Road south 1 space to another city in the same region using the Carriage token. Then with 2 White move via road again entering the Middle South Kingdom.
With 1 Black and 1 White I built the 3rd Temple in the correct order, flipping the 3rd Traveller tile. Then I used the Goods Action token to pick that red Goods.
All I got left were 2 White to move via road again. However, from that position, I need to move with Boat. I chose to just forfeit the action and took 1 Black instead of moving backwards.
3rd ROUND. This time I removed the Disaster token from the Northeast Kingdom. The Will of Gods blocked the Goods Action token and the immediate action to increase the turn order position by the number of temple.
I got 4 White and 2 Black this time. My next destination was that West Kingdom. From my current position, as the shortest path I needed 3 spaces 1 via boat plus 2 via road. The boat went first so I used 2 White and 1 Black as the immediate action, landed at a city with Blue goods still in that Middle South Kingdom.
For the action token, I wanted to diversify. Since I already had Carriage and Goods action, with 2 White and Black my options were either Boat or Temple. So, I took the Boat for flexibility in transportation.
For the actions, I got 4 White, 2 Black, 1 Carriage, 1 Boat and 1 Goods actions. I could take the Goods action first, then move to west via road with carriage, move again via road with 2 white and landed on the West Kingdom. I still had 2 Black, 2 White and 1 Boat. For 2 Black and 2 White I could use the Temple and Goods action and then moved to the east for the next Kingdom which was the Middle North.
However, I took a different path. Instead of immediately going west, I went south after picking the Blue Goods from Middle South, entering the Southeast region. This one had Yellow so I picked the goods with 1 White and 1 Black. Then I moved to the west, entering the West Kingdom via boat using the action tile.
I still had 1 Black and 3 white. 2 White for moving via road to the north, still in that West Kingdom. Then 1 Black and 1 White to build temple, completing the 4th objective.
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4th ROUND. I removed the disaster token in the East Kingdom which was the last one to build temple. The Will of Gods blocked the Temple action token with 3 blacks and the action to change position of goal tile which was not useful for me.
I got 4 White and 2 Black. White track got to 8 so I took 1 Green and 1 Red, replaced by 1 Yellow and 1 Red. I still needed 2 Green, 2 red and 1 of each from the other 2 color.
Since I already 1 of each tile except the Temple, I used 2 White and 1 Black. With the other 2 White and 1 Black, either Boat action or moving up in the turn order track by 3, which was useless. So I went with Boat moving one space to the east, entering the Middle North Kingdom which was the next one to build temple.
First I used the Temple action token to build temple, completing the 5th objective, flipping the Traveller Tile. My next destination was the Northeast Kingdom. The shortest path was 4 spaces and there were 2 options. For either path, they had 1 green each and either 1 red or 1 Blue. I could go to the east first passing the Capital City or via Northwest Kingdom.
Since I had mostly white where 2 White means carriage, the North option was better with less waterways.
So, with 1 of each Action tokens, 4 whites and 2 Blacks, I used the Temple first for that 5th objective. Then the Boat tile to go north, entering the Northwest region followed by Carriage to the east in that region.
1 Goods and the coins remaining. To enter the Northeast, I still needed 2 carriage actions with 4 whites. That left me with just 2 Black. There were 2 goods I could take, blue and green but only one I could take. Decided to go with the green. I ended my movement in that Northeast and forfeited the last 2 coins for extra Yin or Yang, I couldn’t remember.
2 Temples left plus 1 of each Yellow, Red and Blue goods.
5th ROUND. Last disaster token was removed from the Southeast. The Will of Gods blocked the Boat tile again and the Temple action that I actually needed.
So, I actually got a lot of Black, maybe like 5 black and 1 white. The black track reached maximum so I could take 1 Red and 1 Blue. Only 1 yellow to complete the 4th line.
I destroyed that 1 Temple from the 2nd Round in the Middle North area to randomize the coins. Got 3 White and 3 Black.
Since I already had 5 temples, I used the immediate action to increase position in turn order track by 5, using 2 Black and 1 White. Now that I think about it, this was actually very useless. Since the bonus 4 yin or Yang was not enough.
Either way I took the Temple action tile hopefully to build 6th and 7th Temple.
First with one Temple tile I built the temple in the Northeast region, completing the 6th objective Traveller Tile. My next and last one was the East or Brown kingdom. I could enter it from the Center but there was a Yellow goods that I needed in the Southeast region via outer path. Along the way, I could visit this last East region to build the 7th temple.
For that I needed 2 Carriage, 2 Boat action, 2 Temple action and at least 1 Goods action. I had all 4 different action tiles plus 1 Temple that I already used.
Carriage action to the east, 2 White for another carriage to the east. Actually, there was a Yellow goods in this corner so I used the goods action and completed the 4th line. Then going south to the East region via waterway with the Boat tile. Built the 7th temple with the last temple action tile, completing the last objective. At this point, I already won the game, completed all of the objectives.
3 Black and 1 White. 2 Black for Boat action to the south entering the Southeast region. Using the 1 Black and 1 White to take the last Yellow which was a bit useless.
That was the end of the game. Built 7 Temples and Completed 4 Lines got me a DEITY status. Playing time was about 42 minutes.
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The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw
Saving cats again in The Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw. This was a solo play with one extra advanced solo lesson. 1st Lesson was 2 points per cat in the largest family. 2nd lesson was 3 points per filled room. 3rd lesson was 10 points if you have fewer than 9 treasures. The extra advanced solo lesson was 3 points per Common treasure.
So, those last 2 lessons were really the challenge. If I got 9 treasures, I could ended up giving 27 points to the opponent but preventing them to get 10. I had to get a lot of Rare treasures to avoid this or at max 5 common and 4 rare. Didn’t actually think about this during play.
1st ROUND. Purple.
All first 3 columns had at least 1 purple that I had to avoid. Luckily the last one only had 1 Blue. Even then blue could be the 2nd best color for the sister. 1 Blue, 1 Onyx and the Lesson #7 which was 3 points per family.
So, with the risk of blue being the 2nd color, I chose the Onyx to be Blue as well. First, I placed the Onyx which perfectly fit the edge of the top deck edge and next to the 2nd room from the right. This covered 3 rats as well. Then the Blue with the T-shape, was placed next to it and fit in that 2nd room, top edge, covering 2 rats.
Actually I had to place the T-shape first before the Onyx because the Onyx covered the Blue treasure. As bonus for covering the treasure with the matching color cat, I picked the size 3 common treasure in straight shape and placed it next to the T-shaped blue along the top edge in the 2nd room to the right, connecting to the right most Captain room.
2nd ROUND. Purple, Yellow.
1st column had 3 blue cats. 2nd had 1 Onyx, 1 Yellow and 1 Purple. 3rd had 2 Blue and 2 Common treasures. 4th had 1 Rare, 1 Green and Lesson #21. Had to avoid the 2nd column and I didn’t want to commit to Blue since the Blue could still be the 3rd color. So, I avoided the 1st and 3rd column.
That left me with the last one. This one had the Rare in T-shape size 4 which fit perfectly to the Captain room at the right most. The Lesson itself, #21 was 12 points if I could completely filled both Captain rooms. So, one of them was done.
The Green cat had C-shape which I placed to the left of previously Onyx cat on the top edge, started to enter the top room in the middle. There was also a Green Treasure in that room. The cat also covered 1 last rat at the top edge of the board, in this 3rd room from the right.
3rd ROUND. Purple, Yellow Blue.
I guess I made a good decision not to commit to Blue. 1st column had 2 Green and 1 Blue. 2nd row with 1 Onyx, 1 red and 2 Common treasures. 3rd had 1 red, 1 blue, 1 yellow and Lesson #10. Last one had lesson #14, 1 green and 1 purple, and 2 common treasures.
I probably should have chosen the 2nd column and committed to red even if I still didn’t know between red and green to be the 1st and 2nd. 3rd and 4th had to be avoided because of purple and yellow.
I decided to commit to green first by choosing the 1st column. The Blue with kind of B-shape, was placed in the 2nd room to the right between the 2 treasures. This one actually was not connected to the previous 2 blue cats so I had to connect it later with additional Blue cat. I placed it so it left bigger empty space at the bottom of this 2nd room to the right.
The 2 green were a Cross shape and a Straight 4 with a hand. I placed the cross shape mostly in middle top room where it covered the Green treasure, leaving an empty space between that cat, the edge and previous green. The bonus filled that 1 space. The end of this cross shape entered the middle room. The other shape was placed to fill the gap left by the C-shape and also reaching to the middle room. So, these 3 started a family.
4th ROUND. Purple, Yellow Blue, Green.
1st column had 2 purple and a green. 2nd with 1 Blue, 1 Yellow and 1 Onyx. 3rd one had 1 red, 1 yellow and either 1 rare or 2 common. The last one had 1 Green, Lesson #12 and #19.
I had to avoid the first 3 columns. Lesson #12 was 7 points if I have exactly 4 families. Not sure if I had the chance for this. Lesson #19 was 10 points if I have exactly 16 cats on my boat. This was possible but not guaranteed.
The Green cat had the C-shape but with a head. I placed one of the hand part filling the leftover empty space of top middle room, covering a rat. The head went to the left most room and the other hand reaching to the middle room.
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5th ROUND. Purple, Yellow Blue, Green, Red.
Apparently, I forgot to take picture for this round. I remember there was a tough choice. Based on the next picture, I used my first ability that allowed me to pick 1 extra card of another column.
I think the column that I picked had 1 Rare of 2 options, 1 Blue and 1 Red, which I think was the 1st column. The additional card was from column 4 which was a Lesson #17 which gave me 9 points if I have exactly cats with 3 different colors.
The Blue cat had an S-shape which I placed in the middle of 2nd room to the right connecting the first 2 Blue cats with the separated 3rd. This left 4 spaces of the 2nd room in exactly L-shape provided by the other card of the chosen column.
The red cat had also S-shape but size 5. I placed it next to the green in the left most room, covering the Red treasure. This left 2 empty spaces between this red cat, the green and the top edge of the board. I used the bonus to fill those spaces.
6th ROUND. Purple, Yellow Blue, Green, Red.
1st column had 2 red and 1 purple. 2nd had 1 purple, 1 yellow and 2 common treasures. 3rd had 1 Blue, 1 Green and 1 Rare. The last one had 2 lessons and 1 purple. Avoiding yellow and purple means ignoring 1st, 2nd and 4th column so my choice was only the 3rd.
However, I needed more red. Since I had 2 more times left to activate abilities, I decided to use one now. For this I used the one to pick a row instead of a column. The 1st row had 1 red, 1 Blue, 2 common treasures and Lesson #3. I couldn’t choose the other row because of purple and yellow.
Lesson #3 was 1 point per lesson that I have chosen which was nice. The 2 Common treasures were not great but greatly could help me filled the left most room for the other lesson.
I placed the Blue first, connected to the existing family in the 3rd room from the right next to the bottom edge of the board. This covered 3 rats. The Red cat had L-shape with the same size hand. I placed it at the left most space facing inward next to the existing red. This left 2 empty spaces, one between the 2 red cats with size of 2 and L-shape between the recent cat and the bottom edge of the left most room.
The 2 treasures I could pick was either size 1 and 2 or 2 size 3 with different shapes. I had to choose the first option, leaving just L-shape to completely fill the left most room.
7th ROUND. Purple, Yellow Blue, Green, Red.
Last round. 1st column had 2 purple and 1 yellow. 2nd had a lesson, a blue and a yellow. 3rd had 2 red cats and 1 lesson. 4th had rare, blue and lesson.
My choice were only the last 2. Lesson #11 from 3rd column was useless which was 7 points if I covered exactly 3 treasures and I already covered more. The 2 red cats were important though.
The other lesson was #18 from last column which was 10 points if there were 5 visible rats. There were only 3 visible rats left.
I had exactly 7 treasures. So, I could have doubled the rare treasures and avoided giving 10 points to sister and get 6 points instead. Unfortunately, my red cats were only 2 and I had to choose 3rd column for more red. So, instead of double item, I doubled the one of the 2 red cats.
One cat was enough to fill the left most room and with 2 other created a family of 5. That was the end of the game.
SCORING.
My score was 15 from Blue families, 11 from Green, 15 from Red families plus 6 from Rare treasures, minus 2 for 2 visible rats and minus 15 from 3 unfilled rooms.
I had 7 lessons. #3 scored 7, #7 scored 9, #17 scored 9 and #21 scored 12. TOTAL SCORE: 67 POINTS.
Sister score was 15 from Blue, 8 from Green and 5 from Red families. From the 3 lessons, Sister scored 10, 10, 12 and the Advanced one, 15. Total score for Sister was 75. So, I lost.
Had I chosen the other column and doubled the rare items, I lost 15 points from red but 6 points from 2 Rare. From Blue I could score extra 5. In that I lost 4 points, giving another 5 to Sister, taking out 3 points from red family and 10 points from one of their lesson. I also lost 3 points from lesson #7. Well, I still lost with just 55 to Sister’s 67.
At least, if I ignored the Advanced lesson, Sister’s score went down to 60 and I won with lower difficulty.
Playing time was about 40 minutes.
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Peloponnes Card Game
Build a civilization of ancient Greece while preparing for the disasters in a solo game of Peloponnes Card Game.
Up to before this session I have not played the solo variant other than the easiest difficulty. So, I thought I should try the next one. However, only after the game I realized that I was supposed to draw a 2nd Civilization card. I thought I was only allowed to buy 2nd Card twice one during each Epoch.
That means I still haven’t tried the next difficulty level. However, even if I drew one, somehow this session was still not that challenging. More because I got lucky to avoid all of the disasters at the right time. If anything, the 2nd card might have helped me more.
Anyway, here is what happened. I started with SPARTA as my Civilization. Got 2 inhabitants, 4 starting coin cards and immediately produced 2 Wood and 1 Stone. The 3 extra resources cards were Wood, Stone and 1 inhabitant.
1st EPOCH A, 1st Plague and 1st Drought. The card that triggered the Drought was free in the non conquest row. So, I used this chance to buy 2 cards this Epoch. I took that one for free which also increased my Stone production by 4 to 5 and gave the 1st protection to Drought.
Then I conquered a Building that for the 2nd Drought prevention and a total prevention from Decline. The base cost was 1 plus 3. I discarded all 4 coin cards for it.
To build it, I needed 3 Stone and 3 Wood while my production was 5 Stone and 2 Wood. With the extra resource card of wood I built the building, and got 2 excess production of Stone. The building was PORT, which increased the inhabitants by 1, production of Wheat by 1 and coin card by 1.
Got 2 Luxury items and 2 cards, 1 Wheat and 1 Wood. The opponent took the other card from non Conquest Row increasing their inhabitants by 2 and nothing from the property.
2nd EPOCH A, 1st Earthquake and 1st Decline. The other 4 had protection from Tempest, Drought, Plague and Decline. Well, I would like to take the protection landscape for Earthquake from the non-conquest row. However, the opponent would then take the Building for 3 points.
I couldn’t afford the one with Decline and Plague from Conquest row but the other 2 were free plus 3. Since I already had protection for Decline, I took the one with Tempest protection. I got 1 point from this, no resources needed to build and just paid 3, 2 coins plus 1 from Luxury. From previous cards, I produced 5 stones and 2 Woods and they just became luxury items.
This landscape also increased my inhabitants to 4 so I could start drawing 2 cards during income plus 1 from production.
The opponent took one card from non-conquest row. Their inhabitants went up by 1. I had 8 Luxury Items, plus 3 coin cards.
3rd EPOCH A, 2nd Earthquake and 2nd Decline. The other 4 had protection from Tempest, Plague, Tempest and Earthquake. I definitely needed that protection from Earthquake from either row.
I chose the one from non-conquest row for 3 points while letting the opponent took the other one with 2 points. The cost was 1 and required 1 Stone plus 1 Wood to build. I paid with Luxury item for the cost and my production of 6 stones and 3 woods were more than enough to cover the resources. While this BARRACKS didn’t increase my inhabitants, at least I got 4 coin cards for one time only.
This was the end of Epoch A. I got 4 inhabitants plus 1 from card in my hand and another 1 from the starting resource. 14 Luxury items, and 9 other coin cards with 6 points property value.
1st EPOCH B, 2nd Drought and 3rd Decline. I already got complete protection from Decline so nothing happened to my civilization. The other 4 had protection for Plague, 2 Droughts and another Decline. No supply phase this time.
No additional protection for Earthquake that I could take this time so I focused on the 3rd for Drought. This time, I picked the one from non-conquest row. The Well would provide the 3rd protection for Drought and complete protection to Plague. The opponent could take the landscape from the other row for just 1 point but also 3 cards and 3 inhabitants.
I paid 3 with the Luxury items for the cost. To construct, I needed 1 Stone and 2 Wood. With my production of 6 Stone and 3 wood I got excess of 1 Wood and 5 Stone, all of them became luxury items to 16.
Another benefit of this Well was increasing the Wheat production by 2 to 3 and the inhabitants by 1 to 5. Also a value of 2 for property. I got 3 coin cards by the end.
*Apparently I forgot to take 3 cards for the opponent since they took from the Conquest.
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2nd EPOCH B, 4th and 5th Decline. I guess this what made this session was not as challenging. The other 4 had 2 for earthquake, 1 for Plague and another for Tempest.
Supply Phase happened. I had to feed 5 inhabitants but my production was only 3 so I had to discard 2 of my Wheat cards. Somehow I discarded 3. No loan for buildings.
I used this chance to get my 2nd protection for Earthquake. There were 2 cards and both of them were in Conquest row. Both were Landscape with a property value of 1. One had more wheat but lower inhabitants while the other had more inhabitants, 1 Wood and 3 Wheat.
I picked the latter with the cost of 3 plus 3 which I paid using the Luxury items. The opponent took the Aqueduct building with the property value of 2 and 2 extra inhabitants. I drew 3 cards as the income plus 1 from production.
3rd EPOCH B, 3rd Drought and 2nd Plague. I already got 3 for Drought so nothing happened to my civilization. So, I got lucky there was no Earthquake or I would have lost one of my building.
I had to take the 3rd protection for Earthquake. There was one complete protection in non-conquest row from Treasury of Atreus. The other was in Conquest row which was a Landscape. Both increased the inhabitants by 1.
Now that I think about it, the non conquest one was probably better. But I paid 7 for the landscape with 3rd Earthquake protection, increasing my inhabitants by 1 and production of stone far too many at this point. Paid the cost using Luxury items and got filled back by excessive production. This made me realize that I should have traded luxury items for more coin cards hoping to get inhabitants from cards.
The opponent took the Treasury of Atreus. I got 7 inhabitants plus 2 from cards, maximum luxury items and 14 resources cards. The property value was about 9 before the items.
1st EPOCH C, 3rd Plague and Decline. No Supply phase this time. At this point, the Tempest was not going to happen. Earthquake might still happen but I already got the prevention.
I probably should have focused on getting more inhabitants and provide more Wheat. The best option was probably in the conquest row, the Stoa building could increase the inhabitants by 3, the highest among these cards and 3 wheat with a property value of 3 as well.
Sadly, I didn’t think of this during the game, so I picked the Acrocorinth Building from the non conquest with the cost of 4 with just 2 inhabitants and 2 Wheat. The construction required 4 Stone and 3 Wood which I already produced more than enough. I paid with the Luxury and the excess just brought it to full again.
The opponent took the landscape from conquest with 3 extra cards. This increased their inhabitants by 1 and the property value of 2.
2nd EPOCH C, 3rd Earthquake and Plague. I got what I needed for that earthquake. The supply happened and I had to feed 10 inhabitants. My production was 8. I still had more Wheat cards in hand. No loans that I needed to pay.
My best option was what I ended up buying. STATUE OF ZEUS from the Conquest row with the cost of 6 plus 3 and a value of 5. This increased the inhabitants and wheat production by 3. It required just 6 stones that I could produced.
The opponent took Ariculture building with a value of 3 and no inhabitants.
That was the end of the game.
Before the scoring, last supply phase happened. I had 13 inhabitants and 11 Wheat from production, I discarded 2 cards from hand. I got 5 more inhabitant cards plus 2 from the Luxury card. So my score for this was 20.
The property value was 19 from Power Cards, 2 from the Luxury card and a total of 31 items which was worth 5 points. So, the score for this was about 26 but it didn’t matter.
The opponent got 17 from property value, 19 inhabitants and 6 cards. I forgot 3 cards which could increase their property value by 1 to 18 but the inhabitant was still 19 or increase the inhabitants to 22 but still 17 for the property.
Either way, with the lowest score, I still won. As I said, this session was not very challenging because I got very lucky with the disaster. However, it made me realized that I had to trade those luxury items for more cards, hopefully some of them became inhabitants for more points.
Usually some of the disaster would have forced me to spend more cards and luxury items. In that case, the game becomes more survival mode, unlike this one.
I definitely need to try again with the right mindset and the correct solo rule for higher difficulty.
Playing time was about 32 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Peloponnes Card Game Review.
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For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game
Unite the woodland Kingdom of Northwood in a game of For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game. This time I didn’t use any of the Scenario, just randomize the allies and fiefs. Since my last game, I realized that I made a rule error with using the same fief multiple times. They are supposed to be one and done even if you don’t actually use their ability.
My 4 allies were Lady of Eyes, Jack of Flowers, Lady of Leaves and Prince of Claws.
1st VISIT. I got 4 Blue, 1 Yellow and 2 Red with no Black. Based on that, I thought I should visit the QUEEN OF EYES. I needed 5 wins to win her over.
The Queen started with Red 5. I got Red 6 so my first win. She continued with Black 8. I lost with my Red 2. Next from her was Red 1 and I played my Blue 5 which was a trump so I got my 2nd win.
The Queen said Blue 6. I lost with my Blue 1. She continued with Black 1 and I won with Blue 4, my 3rd win. Yellow 3 from Queen and I played Yellow 7 as my 4th win. Black 4 from her and I played Blue 3 as my 5th win.
I still got 1 card which was a Blue 2 and my ally, Jack of Flowers discard it because it was the same suit as the ruler. So, I won her over.
2nd VISIT. I got 4 Blue, 2 Red, 1 Black and 1 Yellow. 3 of those were 5 or higher. I decided to visit the PRINCE OF FLOWERS. For this I had to win nothing.
The dialogue started with a Black 4 and I responded with my Black 1. After that, a Blue 3 which I played my Blue 1.
I only had 2 Red and I had an ally to discard them all. I thought maybe it was not a bad idea to use the Prince of Claws ability to draw until the same card as the ruler’s suit. First, I got a Yellow 3 and then a Red 1, so I stopped. Jack of Flowers then discarded all red cards from my hand.
The dialogue continued with Yellow 5 and I played that Yellow 3. After that a Red 4 and I played my Yellow 7. Black 7 from the Prince and I responded with Blue 6. Black 6 after that and I replied with Blue 4. Last card and it was Yellow 1 and I only had Blue 2. I won nothing and convinced the Prince to join.
3rd VISIT. I got 4 Black, 1 Blue, 2 Yellow and 1 Red. 5 of them were 5 or higher so a good chance to win a lot. So, I decided to visit LADY OF CLAWS for 6 wins.
The Lady started with Yellow 6. I got my first win with Yellow 8. Red 6 from the Lady and 2nd win for me with Red 8. After that Red 3 which I played my Yellow 2. The Lady continued with Red 7 and I played the trump Black 2 as 3rd win.
Blue 7 from the Lady and I got my 4th win with Blue 8. Yellow 4 from her and Black 3 as my 5th, followed by Blue 5, and I got last win with Black 5. My friend Jack of Flowers got rid of the last Black. I got 6 wins and convinced the Lady to join.
4th VISIT. I got 3 Blue, 3 Black, 1 Yellow and 1 Red. Only 2 of them were 5 or higher. I decided to visit the BARON OF LEAVES with just 1 win.
The dialogue started with Red 5 to which I replied Red 4. Red 2 and I played Black 6. 1 Red from the Baron and I played my Black 4. Yellow 3 from Baron and I got my win with Yellow 5. I couldn’t win anymore.
Blue 4 next and I replied with Blue 3. Yellow 1 from Baron and I played Blue 2. Black 7 and I lost with Black 1. Blue 6 and I lost again with my last card the Blue 1. 1 win and Baron joined the kingdom.
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5th VISIT. My hand of cards were 3 Black, 3 Yellow, 1 Blue and 1 Red. 4 of them were 5 or higher. KING OF CLAWS was next with 4 wins to convince him.
The dialogue started with Yellow 1. I won my 1st one with Yellow 2. After that Yellow 5 and I got 2nd win with Yellow 7. The King then played Red 4 and I lost with Red 3. Blue 4 next from the King and I played Blue 5 as the 3rd win.
Black 4 from the King and I lost with Black 3. After that Black 6 and I lost with Black 5. The King played Black 1 and I got the 4th win with Black 8. The dialogue ended with Blue 1 and I replied with Yellow 4. So, I got exactly 4 wins.
6th VISIT. I got 4 Red, 2 Blue, 1 Yellow and Black 7 with 4 of them were 5 or higher. Maybe this was the best chance to visit the King of Flowers with 7 wins to convince.
King opened with Black 2. Got my 1st win with Black 7. Yellow 1 from the King and I won 2nd time with Yellow 3. The King then played his trump card the Red 6 and I played my Red 1.
Yellow 8 from the King and I played my Red 2 and 3rd win. Black 5 from the King and I won 4th one with Red 5. After that Blue 4 from the King and I won with Blue 6, 5th win. Then a Red 3 and I played Red 8 as my 6th win.
My last card was Blue 3 so there was a little chance I could win my 7th one. Prince of Claws then stepped in and drew Yellow 6 before stopping with Red 7. I had to lose the other 2 and try to win only with the red.
The dialogue continued with Black 1 and I played that 6 I just got to lose. Lucky for me that the King played a Blue 2 and I won my 7th with Blue 3. So, Jack of Flowers got rid of my Red 7. 7 wins and won the King over.
7th VISIT. 3 Blue, 2 Black, 2 Yellow and 1 Red with only 3 of them were 5 or higher. My last 2 rulers were either Jack of Eyes with 2 wins or Jack of Leaves with 3. Decided to go with the 2 wins first.
The dialogue started with Yellow 4 and I lost with Yellow 2. Yellow 5 after that and I won my 1st win with Yellow 6. The Jack continued with Yellow 3 and I played my Black 5. Red 5 and I lost again with Red 3, followed by Red 2 and another lost with Black 3. I got 3 Blue cards left. The Jack played Red 8 and I won my 2nd one with any of the Blue while the rest of my Blue were discarded by Jack of Flowers.
8th VISIT. 3 Blue, 2 Black, 2 Red and Yellow 8. I had no choice but to visit the JACK OF LEAVES hoping to get 3 wins.
Black 7 first, replied with Black 6. Yellow 1 after that and I won with Yellow 8. Red 6 next and I won my 2nd one with Red 7. Jack continued with Red 4 and I lost with Red 1.
Black 8 from Jack and I lost again with Black 1. My last 3 cards were Blue, 3, 4 and 6. Blue 7 came out next and I lost my Blue 3. Black 4 after that and I lost with Blue 4. Before the last one, the Prince of Claws stepped in to draw and that next one was Yellow 7, only 1 card.
The dialogue continued with Black 2 and I lost with Blue 6. Last card was Yellow 4 and I won my 3rd win luckily with that Yellow 7.
That was the end of the game and I managed to convince all of the rulers to join the kingdom of Northwood. Didn’t even substitute any of the ally with the ruler.
Playing time was 20 minutes.
Final Words
So, those are all of the games I played. Hope that entertains or helps to give some idea what kind of tabletop games we can find on the market.
Some are new and some are older games. The complete list of the older games and my reviews about them can be found from this list and this one for the more recent games.
I keep saying that these tabletop games can be a good way to spend some time without looking at the screen of our gadget. If we do have someone close, that we can play with, there are other games where we can play cooperatively or competitively but with a lot of player interaction.
The game can be very fast or like a filler type or it can take hours to play. Some games can also be played in solitaire mode and they are still more engaging than other entertainment activity. Some may say, it’s like a workout for the gray matter of our brain.
Thanks for reading.
Mark M.