This article is the compilation of my play session reports #15. The Play sessions for this entry happened from 25 February 2025 until around 24 March 2025. This is the 4th one since no longer a weekly or monthly entry. I’m just going to enjoy playing the game more and less about writing this report.
Usually, I do short reports per week on my BGG blog. or for the Daily Session here. For pictures of each play session, check out my TikTok account in slideshow form. Maybe I’ll add more social media accounts to share in the future and the best way to find out is to check my LinkTree account.
By writing the session reports, it helps me to write the review for the game later. So, it is part of the review process even though I may not even write the review.
Sometimes, I also write a longer session report for one game where I describe what happened turn by turn with more pictures. There are links at the bottom of each entry to BGG post of that long report.
Some new games get more play until it reaches the target minimum of play. They might appear in multiple months. I also revisit some older ones from time to time. These are just games in my collection.
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Click or tab on any sections from the table of contents to jump right to that part. Use the red arrow button on the bottom right corner of the screen to head back to the top.
Table of Contents
List of Games
Here are the links to the Weekly Session Reports for shorter version.
February 2025: #66, #67, #68, #69.
Compilation of links to reports of individual games can be found in this article. Those are just for newer games and my initial impression for each. This is the list for all games with a Full Review.
Here are links to previous entries.
#1. November to December 2023
#2. 2024 Week 1 to Week 4 (January)
#3 2024 Week 5 to Week 8 (February)
#4 2024 Week 9 to Week 12 (March)
#5 2024 Week 13 to Week 16 (April)
#6 2024 Week 17 to Week 20 (May)
#7 2024 Week 21 to Week 24 (June)
#8 2024 Week 25 to Week 28 (June – July)
#9 2024 Week 29 to Week 32 (July – August)
#10 2024 Week 33 to Week 36 (August – September)
#11 2024 Week 37 to Week 40 (September)
#12 2025 1st Entry (October to December 2024)
#13 2025 2nd Entry (January)
#14 2025 3rd Entry (February)
Tiny Epic Dungeons
More pictures of this Tiny Epic Dungeons game session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Explore the dungeon, beat the minions and finally beat the boss in Tiny Epic Dungeons.
Another solo play using standard mode of Tiny Epic Dungeons. Still playing with the 2 characters, Clotho and Sir Lannon. I think I understand the rule better the more I play but it seems, in this 4th play, I still made some mistakes.
1st ROUND.
As usual, Clotho started first with Research. She got CLOUD OF DEATH spell. This is basically more powerful version of her Psychic Blast. After that, another free action, the Torch to reveal the 4 adjacent rooms. Fire Vortex to the south, Twisting brambles to the East, a Well to the west and a Prison. The last one had a Goblin, which was the Pokey. After revealing all of them, 6 more rooms were visible.
Clotho then used the Psychic Blast from that Entrance to defeat the Pokey. Got a Loot, SPELL TOME OF THE PHOENIX which could add Intellect result during skill check. Defeating the Pokey also allowed me to reveal a room which I chose to the east from the Twisting Brambles.
The room was ARCANE ALTAR, with 3 more to explore and it had a Goblin, Shooty Goblin.
Clotho could still move. So, she proceeded to enter the Well room, leading to just one north. She entered it and it was BRIDGE OF DOOM. Skill check was a success. Clotho continued north and got to a Minion Room. Clotho took 2 damage from MINOTAUR.
She had to end her turn.
2nd ROUND.
Before Sir Lannon’s turn, a Goblin appeared at the entrance. It was BOOMY GOBLIN. Sir Lannon attacked with the Hammer and got more than 5. The reward got him a LONG SWORD of the LION and he replaced his hammer with it.
Sir Lannon then followed along to where Clotho was. He managed to avoid the Bridge of Doom trap and got to where Clotho and Minotaur was. His last action was to heal Clotho.
3rd ROUND.
Shooty Goblin moved 2 spaces and ended their movement at the entrance. Then the Minotaur dealt 3 damage to both Clotho and Sir Lannon.
Clotho’s turn again. That Minion room was connected to 3 other room. Clotho took a chance and use Torch action to reveal all of those 3. Another Minion Room to the east, a Feast hall to the north and a Library to the West. 4 more unrevealed rooms connected to those.
That Library also had a Goblin, SPELLY Goblin. The 2nd Minion was DUNGEON CRAWLER.
Clotho’s Heroic Action was to cast that Cloud of Death Spell. So, I guess this was my first error that I just realized. Apparently, those Minions could counter the Spell but I didn’t roll any. Only dealing 2 damage to each and completely defeated the Spelly Goblin. Got a Loot, a SPIKED BUCKLER, probably better for Sir Lannon.
According to the rule, only one of those Minions would counter. Well, I could have chosen the Minotaur and assumed I rolled a Shield Break. So Clotho only took 1 damage.
After that, Clotho moved to the Feast Hall. Succeeding the Skill Check and she managed to heal back to full health with that Free action. Clotho continued to the east and found the Lair Door. Since, she couldn’t open it yet, she moved back to the Feast Hall room.
4th ROUND.
Another Goblin showed up at the Entrance and it was BOOMY GOBLIN again. Right there with the Shooty Goblin.
Then it was Sir Lannon’s turn and he was with Minotaur. He used DIVINE MIGHT first to increase his attack. He succeeded the skill check.
Then with his Long Sword, he got a 5 plus 2 from his ability, plus 1 from that sword, dealing 8 damage to Minotaur. Minotaur got 4 health left and the defense of 4 was not able to save him from the sword.
Got 6 more torch turns and 2 of either Loot or Spell or one of both. I actually forgot to take the reward so I just assumed I put them in the discard pile, whatever I got.
Sir Lannon continued by moving to the west, entering the Library and then the South where he found himself in Armory. After the Skill Check, he took that Spiked Buckler on his other hand so he could no longer use the Healing at the moment. That was the end of his turn.
5th ROUND.
Before Clotho again, it was enemies’ actions. 2 Goblins were at the Entrance. One moved 2 spaces and the other only 1. None of them was within range of attack. Then the Spider Minion moved and the closest hero was Clotho, 2 spaces. The Spider got to her and dealt 2 damage and decreasing her focus by 2.
Clotho was next and she moved away from the enemy to the Minion Room next door. From there she was 1 space away from the Spider and the Shooty Goblin. So, Clotho casted another Cloud of Death, killing the Goblin and dealing 2 damage to the Spider.
The Goblin got her an Axe of the Bear that she decided not to use while the Spider was still alive. Like before, I mistakenly ignored the possibility of retaliation. The counter attack could have knocked Clotho unconscious with 3 health left. But let’s say they rolled a break shield again and only dealt 2 damage.
That was the end of her turn.
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6th ROUND.
Another Goblin showed up at the Entrance and this time it was MIGHTY GOBLIN. Then it was Sir Lanon’s turn. From the Armory, he moved 3 spaces to where the Spider was. The Spider only had 3 health left but defense of 5. Rolled a 4 plus 1 from the Buckler, 1 from the Sword, and another 2 from the Divine Might took the Spider down.
That was the end of his turn.
7th ROUND.
Here is another error that I did. If I got 6 Torch turns back, that means, this time, the 2 Goblins were supposed to take an action. Any of them could have killed Clotho or at least forced her to get take a rest. But I didn’t reset the extra time so the next one on the track was empty.
So, Clotho moved again to the Feast Hall where Sir Lanon was. She healed back and then proceeded to the Lair Door and opened it.
The Final Boss was DRAGON!
To defeat the dragon, I only needed to drag it to one Altar. Instead of entering the Lair, Clotho moved away back to Minion Room next to the Feast Hall. From there, she casted Psychic Blast to defeat the Shooty Goblin that got her CURSED DRAGONSCALE.
Then using Taunt action she taunted the Dragon to chase her. She was within 3 spaces from the Dragon, ignoring Sir Lanon. That was the end of her turn.
8th ROUND.
Nothing happened this time before Sir Lanon. Sir Lanon then followed the Dragon to the next room where Clotho was. He got the Divine Might ready for the Sword. It seems I made another error here where I forgot to count the Defense of 8 from the Dragon.
The result was 8 damage so unless I made 16, it was impossible. 5 from the Divine Might, Buckler and Sword and the roll should have been at least 11. So assuming I got a 5 and 6 and the 2 was for getting 3 focus back.
The Dragon was still alive and rolled the Torch. That was 2 damage to each hero from SCORCH. The Torch track then activated the enemy again. There was only Boomy Goblin moving 1 space. Then the Dragon should have been using their INFERNO, 2 more damages to each Hero that I didn’t resolve. Luckily both were still standing.
Well, the Dragon could have dealt 4 damage still as counter attack. However, Sir Lanon had defense of 5 plus 1 from the Buckler so he was safe.
9th ROUND.
Another Goblin showed up at the entrance and it was STABBY.
Clotho’s turn again. She started by casting the Cloud of Death again. 2 damage to the Goblin next door and 2 to the Dragon. I think I got the retaliation correct this time. Luckily the Dragon only countered by taking 2 focus from her and she run out of Focus.
So, her next move was to enter the Bridge of Doom and dealt with the trap. Well, with lucky roll, she got avoided the trap and got some Focus back.
10th ROUND.
Enemies were attacking again. Only one Goblin in the dungeon and they just moved 1 space to where Clotho was. However, the Dragon did the INFERNO again. This time there was no way for Clotho to escape.
2 damage to both but Sir Lanon was supposed to still have 1 health left. Another 16 damage left to defeat the Dragon and Sir Lanon had only 3 focus left.
Well, he rolled a 14. Plus 2 from both Sword and Buckler, he took down the Dragon.
I guess for next play, I should play attention more from the Enemies’ Counters. Also, probably should have considered when is the best time to actually beat the Minion so the Torch Track reward was not punishing. I could have taken more time before actually opening the Lair Door. Next time.
Playing time was about 75 minutes.
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Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game
More pictures of this Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game solo session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Learn the market demands and build the best smartphone accordingly to gain the most profit in Mobile Markets: A Smartphone Inc. Game.
This was a solo session against 2 opponents using the deck of Steve Jr. cards and both with the hard mode or 2 starting cards. I had a note about an error I did after not playing this for a while. Somehow I forgot about the price for blue customers and ended up assuming that the company can just sell to any of them. Let’s see if I can spot the errors.
1st ROUND. To the Stars and Beyond.
3 was the minimum price. There were 3 Green, 4 Blue and 5 Pink customers. I, as the Yellow company set my price at 6 with 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing points and producing 3. Red Company set their price at 4 while Blue at 3 so I went last.
Blue could only use free features and only had 1 card for it, no feature but a Star. They produced 7 and only managed to sell 4, all from Blue customers with the profit of 2 per sold phone.
Red Player was next with 5G and Flexible screen, producing 4 goods with net profit of 3. From their own marketing, they got 2 Blue customers that they could sell to, and 2 Pink customers who needed that Flexible Screen.
Next was me. The starting feature was 8K with a Star but a cost. I bought a Tech card to increase the number of goods if I put 8K feature on my phone. The Marketing card allowed me to get Private Blue. I also bought a Camera Feature with 2-Star quality.
I produced 4. Definitely could sell my phone to my private and there were 5 customers left. 2 of them asked for 5G which I didn’t have. The other 3 asked for 3 Stars and either of the features I had. So I decided to put both features to get 3 Stars and sold all 4.
This means all players were tied with the Bonus Share of 4 each. Maybe I counted it as 5, after mistakenly rounding it up. Blue player only got 8 profit while me and the Red got 12. No additional points for either of the opponents.
Current Score was 16 for me and Red and 12 for Blue.
2nd ROUND. We’ll be Back.
The 3 leftover customers from previous round didn’t stay. 4 new Green, 4 Blue and 6 Pink new customers entered the market.
I didn’t change my plan so I set my price at 6 still with 4 Tech, 2 Marketing, producing at least 3. Red player set theirs at 5 and Blue at 3 so I still went last.
Blue player sold their phones first, producing 7 phones still with only 2-star quality but no specific feature. They took all 4 Blue customers and 1 Pink with net profit of 2 per sold phone.
Red player had 5G, Flexible Screen and 8K on their phone. Like last round they got 2 Private Blue which they could sell their phones to. They were producing 6, so from the market they managed to sell 1 to Green and 3 to Pink customers. Net profit was 6 x 2 = 12.
Then it was my turn. I got another Blue from previous marketing. Bought NFC feature with a Star quality, Game End Tech card and Marketing that would give me 4 points if my phone had 3 different features.
So here is where I got myself wrong. I couldn’t sell to that Blue customer since they asked for price of 5 while I set to 6. I produced 5 and from the market I only managed to sell 2 both to Pink since I only put 8K. Net Profit was 4 x 2 or 8.
Red won the most share with 8, Blue got 4 while I only got 2. None of them got extra bonus points. At least I got a Private Green for not selling all phones.
Current Score was 26 for me, 36 for Red and 26 for Blue.
3rd ROUND. Mobiles on the Launch Pad.
Price limit was 7 for this round. There were 3 Green customers from last round. 5 new Green were added along with 5 Blue and 6 Pink.
Still not changing my plan with the price at 6, 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing, producing 3 extra goods. Red set at 6 while Blue at 5 so I went 2nd since the Red was winning.
Blue went first and their phone still had 2-Star quality but this time with a Camera, producing 8 phones with net profit of 3 per sold phones. They also took 1 Pink customer as their Private and all their Private considered their phone to have all features.
So, they sold one to that Private, 3 to Green, 4 to Blue. One blue was actually incorrect but let’s just assumed that as if they asked for price at 5 instead of 4. That means Blue managed to sell all 8 with total profit of 24.
I was next but I had to consider what Red player could do. They had Flexible screen, 5G and 8K to their phone. They couldn’t take anything from the Green and only 4 from the Pink while producing 6 with total 3 privates.
I bought Flexible Screen so I had 4 of 5 features, missing just the 5G. The marketing gave me bonus if I put a Camera feature and I also bought another card for Game End scoring.
There was only 1 customer that asked for 8K and since I couldn’t compete with the 5G, I competed with just Camera and Flexible Screen, but 4-star quality. Produced 6 and sold 3 to green, 1 to Blue and 2 to pink. Profit was 18.
Red Player sold all 6 of their phones with also profit of 18.
Blue won the most share with 8 points for selling 8 while me and Red only sold 6 so got 3 points each. Bonus 7 for Blue and 3 for Red, 3 for me.
Current Score was 50 for me, 60 for Red and 65 for Blue.
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4th ROUND. Uprising Tiger, Renewed Dragon.
There were 1 Green and 1 Pink customers left from last round. The event added 6 new green, 6 blue and 7 Pink.
Still not changing the plan for me. Price at 6, 4 Tech points, 2 Marketing points and 3 additional phones. Red set at 5 while Blue at 4 so I went last again.
Blue was first and with price at 4, they only could use free features. However, they had none but 2-star quality. They still got Private customers of 1 Blue and 1 Pink. Producing 11, they sold 2 to those privates, 6 to blue customers and only 1 to pink. So they still had 2 phones. Net Profit was 27.
Red with price at 5 got 2 pink private customers but could only sell to one and 2 more Blue. Their phones had 5G, Flexible Screen and Camera with 2_Star quality but no 8K or NFC.
Producing 9 phones, they sold to 3 privates and all 6 green customers. Profit was also 27.
Next was me and there were 7 customers left in the market, 1 Green and the rest were pink. I got 2 new pink privates and 2 new blues. Sadly, I couldn’t sell to those Blue. Still had 2 privates from before.
Producing 7, so there were more customers than my goods. I only put NFC and Flexible Screen to my phone, with net profit of 4. Sold 2 to my private customers, 5 to customers in the market. I think I counted it 1 too many. Profit was 4 per sold phone so 28.
I got more profit but sold less phones. Blue and Red got 6 while I only got 2. 6 more bonus for Red, 2 for Blue and 2 for me.
Current Score was 82 for me, 99 for Red and 100 for Blue.
5th ROUND. 5G for G7.
There were supposed to be 2 customers left, both were pink. The new event added 5 new green, 6 Blue and 7 pink while giving each player Private Green.
This time I set the price at 8, 3 Tech points, 2 Marketing and 2 extra goods produced. Red set theirs at 6 and Blue at 5 so I still went last.
Blue went first and produced 9 goods, 3-star quality with 8K and Camera and net profit of 3 per sold phones. They also got 2 more Private Blue, 1 Pink. One of their Blue asked for 4 so that was incorrect but they still managed to sell all 9 phones. Profit was 27.
Red also got 2 Blue Private and additional Pink from previous round. Their phones had 8K, NFC, 5G, Flexible Screen with 2-Star quality. Producing 10, they sold 3 to their Private customers and took 7 from the market, 1 green, 4 blue and 2 Pink. Another error from me was the 2 Blue from the market asked for price at 4. Red set at 6 and got lowered thanks to their ability, those 2 were still wrong. On the other hand, they could have taken 2 from the Pink. So, either way they got 40 from net profit.
I went last and I still got 10 private customers. But I set the price at 8 so the 3 Blue were not available for me. I put 8K, Camera and NFC to my phone with profit of 6 per sold phone.
Producing only 8, I only managed to sell 6. So my profit was only 36.
Red got the most share with selling 10, then Blue selling 9 while I only sold 6. Blue got 9 from bonus, Red got none while I got 10. However, I got 2 Game End Scorings. One got me 14 for having all features, 18 with 3 for every Tech Cards.
Final Score was 162 for me, 147 for Red and 140 for Blue. So, I needed at least 1 Game End score to win by 1 point. On the other hand, those 2 opponents got more sales from my error of resolving their actions.
Playing time was about 127 minutes.
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Next Station: London
More pictures of this Next Station: London game on TikTok and on Instagram.
Redesign the London Underground Network to connect as many districts and as many stations in a district as possible in Next Station: London.
I have played this game about 30 times and up until now, I haven’t tried the two extra modules included in the box. For some reasons, I’m not that interested in adding them and my score was not getting better with just the basic game.
For this play, I decided to add them to my solo session and see what they have to offer. There are 2 modules, the Public Objectives and the Pencil Powers.
The Pencil Power Module
Let me start with the latter first since there are only 4 cards and you will use all of them even in one play. The 4 Pencil Power cards will introduce one time ability that you can use but each only when you use that specific color. You can use them anytime during that round but if you don’t use it, it’s gone.
One power allows you to treat the next station card as Wild. 2nd card will allow you to draw 2nd line but only to a matching shape. 3rd card allows you to add the next station as if it is accompanied by the switch card so you can have even more branching route. Then the last card allows you to mark a station in a district that during scoring will be considered as 2 stations.
So, you will use all 4 of these in one game. It’s just maybe in one game, the blue line has that extra Wild and the Purple has the extra switch. While in other games those two are for the other colors. Since the order of the color is also different from game to game, it can change the game a bit.
Based on my one play, my initial impression of this module is that it seems this is really for advanced players. Not a module you can add with casual players just to make it different. While some powers give you flexibility, knowing when exactly to use it to get better result feels like it requires more planning. TBF, they do call it advanced modules, for both actually.
There is a chance you might even forget you have that power since maybe you are doing so well with the drawn cards. In that exact play, my first power was to use the Wild. Usually in the first round where everything is empty, it is more likely that you don’t need any wild since you can always connect somewhere. Unless of course, you are doing it poorly.
So, it got me thinking about this one, especially with multiplayer. Does the player that start with this one have a bit disadvantage? Sure, there is no guarantee that using it will add any score. But I feel like if you get that power in the last round, you have more chance to use it and maybe even play more strategically.
With the timing aspect for some powers, you might end up not getting to that moment when you need to use it. Maybe you just draw all underground cards first and the round ends early. In multiplayer game then, there is a chance you finally get the power you can use and then somehow the round is not that long. I mean, this is the issue of this game and this module seems it makes it worse.
Specifically about the extra station count power. What if, one player with the extra station count get good score in one round then the next player gets that power and that round ends quicker? Even while playing solo, it sucks since you still need to compare to that chart and lose 10 points.
The extra switch power is nice while the extra line is a bit tricky. You need to create moment where both ends of the route has a chance for that same station. This assumes that shape is still coming out. This one really requires proper planning or you can end up just extending without increasing score. If you failed to catch the moment, you may never see another chance for that session.
So, for the Pencil Power module, I don’t really recommend including it in every game. Maybe mostly I won’t.
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The Public Objectives Module
This is actually the first module, a Public or Shared Objective. You have 5 cards and each session you will play with 2. It will give you goals that if you can achieve you get 10 points per goal.
The first two I played were, one, to connect to all 13 districts and the 2nd one was to connect every station in the middle district. Then there is a goal to cross the river 6 times, connect all 5 Tourist Sites and to have at least 8 interchange stations with 2 lines each.
While this one is also called an advanced module, I don’t mind playing with it. In fact, maybe I will encourage people to play with it early. Not because it makes the game better but it really gives you directions.
Some of them feels like it’s just your regular game, like connecting to 5 Tourist Sites. I don’t always pull that off but close. While some others may sound impossible but I think you’d be surprised when you try it.
Speaking as someone who doesn’t get score that high in this game, I mean compared to some other players I’ve seen, sometimes I tend to chase the same path. The result might not be the exact same since random order of cards but maybe you can find a pattern of what I’m chasing.
With that one play, maybe because of those 2 specific goals, I do feel like playing the game a bit differently. While it is still about score but at least I care more about accomplishing the goal more than the actual end score.
I do feel it also gives me a bit more overall planning. Still using that play as example, even if I cannot connect one line to one corner district, maybe I can make the next line connects to 2. Maybe by the end of 3rd round I already accomplish it and the last round I can do something else.
The same with the goal for 9 stations in middle district. Maybe first line only connects 3 but the 2nd and 3rd can almost connect everything. This way, the last round still gives me that focus to connect the last one or 2.
For me, playing with objectives, it feels like playing a whole game rather than playing 4 mini games of creating 4 underground railway lines. There is a better sense of progression. I made the progress in first round, not much but I can continue and maybe even finish it.
If you already set the focus on objective, then maybe it can encourage you to find a way to finish it. Otherwise, like without using the module, you just abandon it midways since you think there is a better score. And maybe it’s true that the score from the objective is not that different, which I cannot really tell.
In solo mode, if you don’t finish both and get 20 points, you still lose 10 just for this module. While it is not mandatory, the penalty may push to keep going with the objective. Or, of course, you just assume you don’t play with them at all.
In that one play, I scored 156(?) and since I played with both module, I lost 20 points. That means I got only 136 which is my typical score without using modules at all.
While I like one module more than the other, now I’m wondering if the Pencil Power module actually helped me achieved those 2 goals even with just extra one station per round. Maybe I need to try playing with just one in my next play.
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Walking in Burano
More pictures of this Walking in Burano game session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Develop your housing section of this colorful city with features to impress both Inhabitants and Tourists in Walking in Burano.
This was a solo session again. I probably should try playing 2-handed sometimes since I only tried it once. Anyway, here is how the solo session went.
1st ROUND.
The game started with very good 16 cards in the market. Unfortunately, it made it harder to choose since you could go in any direction. There were 2 blues in the 2 rightmost columns. But if I picked one, the other would just be discarded. The rightmost column also had a middle red that worked perfectly with the bottom red at 2nd column from the left. But since it was in the middle, I had to take with the top and bottom.
So, I decided to just pick from 2nd column, bottom red with a lot of flowers and middle orange with some plants and a streetlamp. Got 1 coin, 5 total. Then I spent 1 coin to just build the bottom Red.
Then I let go the Plant shop owner.
2nd ROUND.
Some good ones were still in the rightmost column. A top yellow in column 4 and middle yellow in column 3 that could have worked perfectly. For that middle yellow I could have taken it with the bottom orange since I already had a middle one. While both Yellow had some flowers, I decided to wait for more yellow top.
So, I picked the column 3 for the bottom and middle cards plus a coin. I spent that coin to build the bottom orange I just got to the left from my bottom red. This orange was also a coffee shop.
I let go the Old Lady that makes Curtain.
3rd ROUND.
Column 3 had top red with 2 flowers and a chimney. 2nd column had middle red with a lot of flowers. Definitely aiming for that one. It also had top red but no flower and bottom pink, no closed window and no shop.
I decided to take just the two reds from column 2. Got 1 coin and spent that coin to build 2nd floor of red. Already had 3 cards in hand now.
I let go one of the Tourist Lady.
4th ROUND.
I already had yellow but not built yet and there were 2 top yellow, one with plants and the other with flower. Since the one I had already had flower, I could just wait for that. From the rest, I was only interested in the green middle with plants and streetlamp.
The top red with flowers and chimney was still there and I decided to take only that. This way, the Green middle that I was aiming would still be around. Got 2 coins and I spent 1 to finish the Red House.
It attracted the Tourist Woman. Got 12 points from the flower plus 2 from the Tourist herself.
Letting go the Flower Shop Lady.
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5th ROUND.
Column 4 now had that middle green, bottom pink and top blue. I had none of those colors in my hand. Usually I went with the top since there was a Blue shop in column 1. However, that column 1 also had great middle and top pink for the Tourist Boy while Blue shop had no flowers at all.
So, I took the bottom pink and the middle green plus 1 coin. Since I had 5 cards in hand, I had to play 2 or lose a card. Actually I could have let go the other top red. But I spent 3 coins to build 2, middle orange and middle green even though I didn’t have bottom green yet. First scaffolding was used. Both of these middle cards had streetlamps so I placed the green to the right from my red. Still aiming for the Police.
Letting go Mr. Santa.
6th ROUND.
Because of what I took previously, I messed up the combination. The top pink was no longer with middle pink that I wanted. A different middle pink with two cats, streetlamps and closed window was with that top pink. Now that I think about it, this one even if had some penalties could have scored better.
Regardless, I aimed for the middle pink that I was aiming before. Luckily the top was orange with a plant. Actually there was another top orange with more plants but I probably didn’t have enough time to chase both.
So, I got a coin, spent it to finish the Orange building, attracting the Tourist Guy. He loves some plants and scored 7 plus 2.Actually, I spent 2 more coins to also build the bottom pink to the right of the green since I knew the middle card had no Streetlamps.
It seems I forgot to discard a card for this round.
7th ROUND.
This time, I only took the top pink since it was about to be discarded plus 2 coins. I already had 4 cards so I spent 1 coin just to build the middle pink.
I let go the other Tourist Lady who loves cats.
8th ROUND.
Now, there was another top blue but with less flowers in the same column as a middle blue with a lot of flowers and streetlamps. I was thinking of attracting a different Tourist Woman who also loves flowers.
Took those 2 cards plus a coin. I spent 3 coins to finish the pink and add the middle blue to the right of that pink. The Tourist Boy came in to see a lot of objects. 3 curtains and 2 cats got me 10 plus 2 from the Tourist himself.
I let go the Tourist Man.
9th ROUND.
I still needed 2 blues and 2 greens and with one blue already in my hand. Those 2 bottoms were in column 1 and 2. Both had shops that I didn’t have yet, tailor and pizza. Column 2 also had the top green so I had everything I needed.
I had no money left so I decided to just take the bottom green first. Got 2 coins and spent 1 for that bottom green.
I let go the other Tourist Boy.
10th ROUND.
Then I took the bottom blue pizza shop plus 2 coins. Spent 1 just to build the bottom blue. I needed 1 more coin to build the remaining 2.
Letting go the Tourist Woman since she gave only 10. But then the Mayor also gave me 10. Shop owner only 9 and the Police was 15. Since I forgot to remove a character before, so the Shop Owner was gone already.
11th ROUND.
I took the top green I had been aiming for plus 2 coins. Then I spent 3 coins to finish the Blue and the Green building. The Police and Mayor were attracted. 10 points from Mayor and 15 from the Police.
Since no character card left, the game ended.
I scored 9 from Tourist Man, 14 from Tourist Woman, 10 from Mayor, 12 from Tourist Boy and 15 from Police. 8 points from 3 shops, plus 12 from the regulatory tokens. No closed windows so no penalty. Total score was 80.
Playing time w/as about 35 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Walking in Burano Review.
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Level 10
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Help Izzy to beat all 10 levels of 5 different video game worlds in Level 10.
I got a couple of plays with Level 10. 2 with 2-handed and 1 solo. Actually I got more where I lost the game early. In one of the 2-handed session, I feel like I lost due to random cards. After that, I won but I had to assume that I got that exact card so not really a win. Maybe I should really try playing with one or two Pause cards in multiplayer mode. But then again, is there a chance I will have Pause card in that moment to play?
So, I went back to the solo play, no Pause card and with my variant, lower hand size of 7 instead of 10. I think I still lost due to playing 8 in the same round but I immediately played again. Here is how it went.
1st ROUND. Got Blue 3, 7, Purple 8, Yellow 1, 2, 4 and Red 8.
Started with Yellow 1, then I got Red 4. Blue 3 was next and got Red 6. Played the Red 4 and I got Green 1. I decided to reset on Green so I played Purple 8 next and got Yellow 7. Reset for Green. Yellow 7 and Red 8 were traded for Green 2 and Red 5.
Blue: 3
Purple: 8
Green: 0
Yellow: 1
Red: 4
2nd ROUND. Blue 7, Green 1 and 2, Yellow 2 and 4, Red 5 and 6.
Yellow 2 first and got Blue 2. Then Green 1 and got Blue 5. Red 5 after that and I got Yellow 8. I had to reset on Purple so Blue 5 was next and I got Green 6. Reset on Purple, trading Green 6 and Yellow 8 for Purple 4 and 6.
Blue: 3, 5
Purple: 8, 0
Green: 0, 1
Yellow: 1, 2
Red: 4, 5
3rd ROUND. Blue 2 and 7, Purple 4 and 6, Green 2, Yellow 4 and Red 6.
Red 6 first and got Red 2. Green 2 next and got Purple 2. Yellow 4 then and I got Red 1. Reset on Blue, trading Blue 7 and Purple 6 for Red 3 and 7. Then I played Purple 2 and got Purple 3.
Blue: 3, 5, 0
Purple: 8, 0, 2
Green: 0, 1, 2
Yellow: 1, 2, 4
Red: 4, 5, 6
4th ROUND. Blue 2, Purple 3 and 4, Red, 1, 2, 3, 7.
Purple 3 first and got Purple 7. Then Blue 2 and got me Blue 4. Played the Red 7 and I got Blue 6. Reset on Green, trading Blue 6 and Purple 7 for, luckily, Green 3 and Yellow 3. Played that Green 3 and got Blue 1.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7
5th ROUND. Blue 1 and 4, Purple 4, Red 1, 2, 3, Yellow 3.
Reset on Red right away, trading Blue 1 and Red 3 to get Yellow 5 and Green 4. Yellow 3 next and got Green 7. Green 4 after that and I got Blue 8. Then Purple 4 and got me Green 8. Blue 4 completed the round and I got Green 5.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2, 4
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3, 4
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0, 3
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0
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6th ROUND. Blue 8, Yellow 5, Green 5, 7, 8 and Red 1, 2.
Red 1 first and I got Yellow 6. Green 5 next and I got Purple 1. Played Yellow 5 and I got Purple 5. Decided to reset on Purple so Blue 8 next and got Yellow 7. At this point I already started seeing cards that I put at the bottom. Then I reset on Purple, trading Purple 5 and Green 8 for Red 8 and Green 6.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2, 4, 8
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3, 4, 0
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0, 3, 5
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1
7th ROUND. Red 2, 8, Green 6 and 7, Yellow 6 and 7, Purple 1.
Purple 1 first and I got Yellow 8. Green 6 next and I got Purple 6. Red 2 after that for Blue 7. Yellow 6 for Blue 6 and I reset on Blue, trading, Blue 7 and Red 8 for Blue 1 and Red 3.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2, 4, 8, 0
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3, 4, 0, 1
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0, 3, 5, 6
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2
8th ROUND.
Played Blue 1 got Purple 5. Played that Purple 5 and got Green 8. Then Green 7 to get Blue 7. Reset on Yellow and played Red 3.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2, 4, 8, 0, 1
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3, 4, 0, 1, 5
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0, 3, 5, 6, 0
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2, 3
9th ROUND.
At this point no more card in the deck. Reset on Green. Purple 6, Yellow 7, Blue 6, Red 8.
10th ROUND.
Blue: 3, 5, 0, 2, 4, 8, 0, 1, 6, 7
Purple: 8, 0, 2, 3, 4, 0, 1, 5, 6, 7
Green: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 8
Yellow: 1, 2, 4, 0, 3, 5, 6, 0, 7, 8
Red: 4, 5, 6, 7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 8, 0
Got 2 8s in the same round which was dangerous but it was last round. However, maybe I should try playing 8 faster on certain colors. Then again, if I remember correctly, everytime I reset, 8 was the first to put them at the bottom.
Playing time was about 15 minutes per session.
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Rolling Realms Redux
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Enter different realms of board games and win the minigames there in Rolling Realms Redux.
This was 2nd time playing this game and I still played it solo but not the RRR tournament. Last time I played the 9 out of 12 realms in the box so I started with the 3 I had not tried, which was the Tidal Blade, Poker and The Guild of Merchant Explorers.
1st ROUND, 1st Turn, 4 and 5.
With the 4 I started with the Guild of Merchant Explorers first. The 4 allowed me to cross 2 water spaces. Like in that game, crossing the body part is a bit crucial. No bonus from that.
Then with the 5 I went with Tidal Blades, aiming to finish the bottom right enemy. Got 1 trophy, no other bonus.
2nd Turn, 3 and 6.
The 3 was still for TiGome game which allowed me to explore 2 adjacent spaces. I kept going to the right and got the first star at the top right after those water space.
6 also went to Tidal Blades for the same enemy and I used it as number 1. Got a Heart.
3rd Turn, 1 and 5.
Well the 5 went for Tidal Blades, the top right enemy and I got 2 trophies and first STAR.
Then with the 1 I thought I should start with the Poker. I didn’t get this realm until later and by that time it was already too late. The 1 was filled in the Flop area left most. Well, this was a mistake but I got a Pumpkin.
4th Turn, 2 and 3.
I kept going with Poker using the 2 to deal a hand so I got a 2 and a 3.
The 3 itself was for Tidal Blades again continuing with the 4th enemy and got my 2nd pumpkin.
5th Turn, 2 and 4.
With 4, I finished that Tidal Blades 4th enemy and got a coin plus 4 trophies, crossing 2 Stars.
Well still not understanding the Poker, I set the 2 in the space 2 Flop to get a Heart.
6th Turn, 5 and 6.
The 5 went to TiGoMe game and this allowed me to explore 2 any spaces plus a water as long as they were adjacent. I went to the top left from the Castle and reached 2nd Star.
The 6 was for Tidal Blades and I turned it into a 2, continuing with the top right enemy which got me a Heart.
7th Turn, 1 and 1.
I used this chance to deal hand to Poker and got a Pair of 1. This was when I realized, at most I could only make a 3 of a kind with 1.
The other 1 was for TiGoMe and just to get a Heart in the middle space.
8th Turn, a 3 and 5.
The 3 was for Tidal Blades and finished the enemy at top right. Got a coin, 2 more trophies and a Star.
Then the 5 was for TiGoMe and I used it to reach the Star at the bottom right.
I spent 3 Hearts to use one of the die again for Poker and I got a 3. Placed it at the Flop again. Probably should have chosen the 5.
9th Turn, 2 and 3.
3 for TiGoMe and reached the Star at the top right.
I had to use this last one to create a hand for Poker. My only options were 2 pairs or 3 of a kind which got me a Star and either coin or pumpkin. Chose the Coin.
With 3 coins, I made a die with value 3 for Tidal Blades top left enemy. This got me a trophy and a Star.
That was the end of this round. 1 Star from Poker, 4 from TiGoMe and 5 from Tidal Blades. Only 1 Heart left from the resources so my score was 10.1.
2nd ROUND. Spaceshipped, Flamecraft, Legacy of Yu.
1st Turn, 5 and 6.
6 for Spaceshipped, finished the column with 11 so I got 1st Star.
The 5 was for Flamecraft to Enchant the top right shop.
2nd Turn, 3 and 6.
3 was for Legacy of Yu, leftmost space with a Coin. Then the 6 was for Flamecraft again for the bottom shop as Enchantment.
3rd Turn, 2 and 4.
4 was back to Spaceshipped and I completed the column with 11. Got 2nd Star. Then the 2 was to Enchant the first shop of Flamecraft.
4th Turn, 2 AND 6.
With 2, I filled the first shop and got a pumpkin. This allowed me to enchant and I put it to that same shop. Got a Star.
The 6 was for Legacy of Yu and I placed it at the bottom right space with a Pumpkin.
5th Turn, 1 and 2.
1 was for Legacy of Yu for the 2nd space, leftmost so the total was 4. Got a Coin from that space.
Then the 2 was for Spaceshipped. Completed that Column with 12 and that was 3rd Star.
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6th Turn, 1 and 3.
1 was for Legacy of Yu again, 2nd column, bottom space for the Coin. While the 3 was for Flamecraft, 2nd shop and I filled the first one as well as the bonus. Got a pumpkin and a Heart.
7th Turn, 1 and 5.
5 for Spaceshipped so I completed the column with 11. 4th Star from this realm.
The 1 was to Enchant the 3rd shop of Flamecraft, 2nd space. So, I got 2nd Star.
8th Turn, 1 and 4.
4 for Spaceshipped. Finished the column with 11 again, 5th star. 1 was also for Flamecraft, last enchantment and got 3rd Star.
9th Turn, 5 and 5.
I spent 2 pumpkins to change one 5 into 4 and filled 2nd column from the left of Legacy of Yu, top space. Got a Heart and the total was 5.
The other 5 was to fill the 2nd shop, both spaces and got 4th Star.
Then I spent 2 Hearts since it was a Pair to get another 5 for Spaceshipped. The total of that column was 14 so I got a Heart.
That was the end of 2nd Round. 5 Stars from Spaceshipped, 3 from Legacy of Yu and 4 from Flamecraft with 6 resources left. So, my score for this round was 12.6.
3rd ROUND. Rock-Paper-Scissor, Meadow and Atiwa.
1st Turn, 2 and 6.
With 6 I outlined the bottom right space of Atiwa. This got me a Star and a Heart.
Then the 2 was for Meadow, right fence, 4th one to get a Mushroom to fill the right column for a Star.
2nd Turn, 3 and 6.
3 for Atiwa again, outlined the middle bottom group. Got me a Star and a pumpkin. Then the 6 was for Discovery in Meadow for the 2nd card which got me 2nd Star and a Pumpkin.
3rd Turn, 1 and 3.
1 for Atiwa so I got a Star and a lot of Bats to circle. 3 for Meadow again to the right fence, 3rd row to get a bug. Filled 2nd column and got a Heart.
4th Turn, 1 and 5.
I had to start something with the RPS. Chose the 1 for the coin in 3rd row so the 5 was to 5th row, opposing end.
Then the 5 was for Atiwa, circling 5 bats, crossing 3 to get a Heart.
5th Turn, 3 and 6.
6 to circle more bats in Atiwa and crossed 3 to get another Heart.
Then the 3 was to get the last coin from RSP while the 6 got me 1st win from the 3rd Row.
Also I spent 3 hearts to get another 3 to fill Meadow. Filled it at left fence post, 3rd row to get another bug for 3rd Star from 2nd column.
6th Turn, 2 and 3.
I used the 3 for RSP, spent 2 pumpkins to changed it into 4 and filled 6th row for a coin and a win. The 2 went to that space that got me 2nd win.
The real 2 was for Meadow, bottom left fence post to get a berry to get a coin and start the left column card.
7th Turn, 2 and 4.
4 was for RSP, filled the 2nd row for the heart. Then I won that row since the 2 went to the same row, 3rd win.
The real 2 was for left fence post of Meadow again but 2nd one. Got me a flower and a Star, 4th one so far.
8th Turn, 4 and 4.
Spent 2 hearts for 3rd 4. First one for Meadow, 2nd of bottom fence post to get another bug for pumpkin.
2nd one was for RSP, 4th row for pumpkin and the opposing at 5th row.
Then for Atiwa, I outlined the top middle group for coin and heart.
9th Turn, 2 and 6.
2 was for Meadow, 2nd fence post on the right to get me the eagle for the 2 Stars. Got all 6 of them.
6 went for RSP, 5th row and 4th win plus a heart. So the 2 went to 4th row, 5th win.
Not sure if this was valid. I spent 5 coins to get die 5 for Atiwa which I used to outline the last group. I think I got it wrong this part: I spent 3 pumpkins, reusing one of the die for Atiwa again. That was to circle 4 Bats and crossed 3.
If I understand correctly, I still needed to make another die which I spent 3 pumpkins for the realm again. The only possible way was to spend the last coin to create Die 1. Even that was not enough to circle the remaining bats. So, I didn’t actually get the 4th or last Star of Atiwa.
Scored 6 Stars from Meadow, 3 from RSP and 3 from Atiwa. But I got 9 extra resources so my total score for this round was 12.9, not 13.4.
Final score was 35.6.
Playing time was about 76 minutes.
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Coral
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Grow 4 different species of Coral Reef next to each other while making sure each of them get enough exposure to the sun in a game of Coral.
2nd time playing this game and still with the solo mode. Got 3 sessions and apparently my score was not getting better. Mostly got 12 points, a combination of 2 – 4 – 2 – 4. The last one was a bit different but still just 12, 3rd from the bottom of scoring chart.
So, here is how the 3rd session went. Played with the Islet Starting Configuration. I’m not sure how to describe the session in this 3D game but I’ll try my best.
The first 3 Coral pieces were Yellow, Red and Pink. First I played the Red, moving the pawn first so it was next to the Purple pawn on Yellow. Then I laid the pieces on first level just to extend the area as wide as possible. The new piece was another Pink.
My 2nd play was one of these Pinks. Moved the pawn to the other corner of starting Red piece. Then I also laid the new piece all on first level. This way, the main face had 5 pinks and only one red. The new piece was white, with previous yellow and pink.
So, I played the purple or white next. Moving the pawn to the new red on the right on the only part extruding to the right. Then I placed the new piece a bit standing towards the main face. Now there were 2 Pink and a Yellow.
Played the only yellow next. Moving the pawn to the starting Pink, the top part. Then I laid this new yellow piece all parts on the 2nd level, covering the stone, one part of the pink and white. Now there were 3 Pinks.
No choice but to play the Pink. Moving the piece to the top of new White / purple. I could have gone 3rd level but I decided to stick with just 2 levels towards the main face. The main face now had 7 pinks. New one was Yellow.
Played another pink, without moving the pawn position. I laid the piece standing on bottom level. This way, the main face had additional 2 pinks and the other leg was next to where the purple pawn was. New one was White in addition to Yellow and Pink.
Next I played the White. Moving the pawn to one space of the Pink on 2nd level, next to where the pink pawn was, closer to the main face. Then I added the new white piece standing on 2nd Level, covering a red and a Pink, connecting to the other 2nd level on the left side. This was not a great idea since I cut off where the Purple pawn could move. Another Yellow came out.
Played that Yellow. Moving the pawn to the rightmost 2nd level, on a Pink. Then I added the piece so one leg was on bottom level and the other was on a Pink. Well, this was also not great since the Yellow pawn was also stuck. New Red showed up.
Played the red. Moving the pawn to the top level, which was a White. In the same way I placed that White, I placed the red next to that White. A White showed up.
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White or Purple and Yellow was stuck so I had to play Pink. Moved the pawn so it was on the same white piece as the Red pawn. In similar way I placed the White and Red on that 2nd level, I placed the Pink closer to the main face, adding 3 more pinks. Another Yellow showed up.
White or Purple was still stuck or I could play it but it didn’t do much. So, I moved the Yellow pawn to the top level on a Red. I placed the piece so that one leg on 2nd level covered a Red and the other covered a white. 2nd White showed up.
The purple pawn moved 2 spaces to the top level on a Yellow. Placed the piece 2 parts on 2nd level, next to the red in similar way and 2nd part of white to reach the top. Now a red with white and yellow as my options.
Played the red. Moving the pawn just one space towards the main face on the same level on a Pink. Then I placed the piece on its right, on 2 spaces of pinks with a single space of red as the highest position. 2 Yellows and a White as my option.
Played the white or purple so the purple pawn moved to the recent red piece, the top level. Then the new white piece covered a yellow on 3rd level with one leg on a pink, 1st level to the right. White has reached 4th level. 2 yellow and a red as my next option.
I wanted to play red first but the pawn was surrounded. So I had to play yellow first. I moved one space away from the main face to a white. Then I placed the piece standing on a red and a White, 2nd level. This was not great since the red was still stuck.
Now there were 2 reds and a yellow so I had to play yellow again. Moved the pawn 2 spaces to a white, the highest position. Then I laid the new piece on highest level all parts, covering a yellow, red and white.
5 pieces left with 2 reds and a white first. I already played all Yellow so I tried not to cover them. To play a Red, I moved the piece to a yellow single rightmost space. Here, I laid 2 red pieces both on the bottom level but one part on top of each other so only 3 spaces of red facing up.
I didn’t realize during the game that I couldn’t do anything to cover them with the pawns blocking the way. Last 2 pieces were white and Pink.
I moved the Pink pawn first one space to the right to a white, higher level. Then I added the piece to its left, standing facing the main face. This way I added 2 to that side.
Last one, without moving the purple pawn, I added the White standing, on a Red and a Pink. This way the White reached higher level, 5th one.
Got 14 pinks on the main face so I got 3 Stars. White reached 5th level so I got 4 Stars. There were 5 Red facing up so I got 3 Stars and there were 11 Yellow facing up so I got 2 Stars. So total was 12 STARS.
Playing time was about 20 minutes per session.
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The Castles of Burgundy
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Develop your princedom by building settlements around your castle in The Castles of Burgundy.
I was planning to try out the fan made solo content based on the Chateauma from Special Edition box but it seems I had to print parts of the rulebook of that special edition regarding that mode. So, instead I played 2-handed, exploring just the content of the 2019 box. Both sides used the number 2 player board.
Well, the session took a while. I even had to take a break after 3rd Phase. Red player was the first and Blue player was the 2nd.
PHASE A, ROUND 1.
1st goods was to depot 2. Red rolled 3 and 6. For 3 they took the Livestock with 4 sheep while the 6 was changed to a 5 to take the Mine.
Then Blue was next, rolled 1 and 3. With one they took the building from the 1st depot while the 3 was changed into a 4 and they took another building. So, they had 2, a Market and a Church.
ROUND 2.
Goods 6 went to depot 3. Red rolled a 2 and a 3. The 2 was to take the Castle. Since now the Key spaces were full, they had to place one. They decided to go bottom right by placing their Livestock which required a 3. That gave them 4 points as depicted by the number of sheep.
Blue also rolled a 2 and 3. With 3 they took a Town Hall building from depot 3. Since their Key spaces were also full, they used the 2 to install one. They chose to install the market at top left from the Starting Castle. This allowed them to take either livestock or ship and they chose Ship.
ROUND 3.
Goods 2 went to depot 6. Red rolled a 4 and 5. With 4, Red took 2 Workers. Then with 5, changed into 6 was to take a building, a Warehouse.
Blue rolled 3 and 4. First they installed a Town Hall in that top left area for buildings. The bonus allowed them to install any type so they chose to install the Ship. They took the first player order and got Goods 2 from depot 2, which was their 2nd. The 3 was useless to take anything from the board so they sold Goods #3. Only one so they got 2 points and a Silver, 2nd one.
With 2 Silver, they decided to buy a tile from the Black Market, a building tile, a Market Building.
ROUND 4.
Goods #3 to depot 1. Blue started first this time and rolled a 2 and 4. So, this was an error. Blue player placed another Market Building using die 2 to the same area as their previous Market building. Well, they could have used it for the other area, bottom left using the 4. Regardless, I just continued like how it played. The bonus from that allowed them to take another Ship. Then using the 4, they took 2 Workers.
Red rolled a 1 and 4. They kept going to the bottom right, using the 4, changed into a 5 to install Warehouse. The bonus allowed them to sell goods and they chose to sell Goods #4, for 2 points and a Silver. Using the 1 they took 2 Workers.
ROUND 5.
Goods 2 to depot 4. Blue rolled a 3 and 4. They wanted to finish the Ship area at the top with the 2nd Ship but the space required a 3. So, they had to spend 2 Workers to change a 3 into 1 and installed it. They kept moving on the turn order and got Goods 2. Then the 4 was to take 2 workers back. Got 10 plus 3 points, currently at 15.
Red rolled a 2 and 4. With the 4, changed into a 3, they installed a Castle at the bottom right. The bonus action from that allowed them to install the first mine, next to it. So they got 22 points just from that one action. Currently at 28 points. Then the 2 was for taking a Monastery 28.
I think I got it wrong this time. So, at the end Red player got income of 1 more Silver and they had 2. That income happened after they had ended their turn and the end of phase. But they bought the tile before it was removed. I guess I could just assume that the tile was available in the next phase.
PHASE B, ROUND 1.
Goods 6 went to depot 3, 2nd one there. Blue was still the first player and rolled a 3 and 5. Since they had 5, they took the Mine first from depot. Then with a 3, changed into 2, they took Monastery 10.
Red rolled a 1 and 6. They finished the Building area at bottom right. Using a 1 they installed the Carpenter’s Workshop they bought earlier. This allowed them to take the same building to the Key space. Then using the 6, changed into a 1, they took the Ship. No Workers left and Key spaces were full.
ROUND 2.
Goods 5 went to depot 6, 2nd goods there. Blue rolled a 3 and 5. With 5, they installed the Mine on the top left. Got 8 plus 1 point. Then the 3 was used to take a livestock, showing 2 pigs.
Red rolled a 2 and 3. Using the 2, they installed a ship to the left from the Castle, reclaiming the first player and 2 Goods 6 from depot 3. Then the 3 was to take building, the White Castles.
ROUND 3.
Goods 1 to depot 4, only one there. Red started again with a 1 and 4. Red decided to fill building area at the bottom left. Starting with the Carpenter Workshop using a 4. The bonus allowed them to take Chapel from depot 4. Then using a 1, they installed the White Castle next to it. The bonus was to use White die 4 which they used to take Ship from depot 4.
Blue rolled a 2 and 4. First, with 4, they installed the Monastery 10 at the top. Then with 2 they took the Castle.
ROUND 4.
Depot 6 got 3rd goods, all different types. Red rolled a 4 and 5. With the 5, they finished the water area on the left, securing their first player order. Got 8 plus 3 points and goods 3 from depot 1. Currently had 50 points. The 4 was for 2 Workers.
Blue rolled a 1 and 2. Changed 1 into 6 to install Castle on the left. With the bonus they took another Livestock with 3 pigs. Got 9 points. Currently at 33 points. Then the 2 was for 2 workers.
ROUND 5.
Goods 4 went to depot 6, 2nd one there along with 1 more. Red rolled a 2 and 6. With 6, they finished the Building area at bottom left, installing a Chapel. Got 14 points and the bonus was to take Monastery 26. With the 2 they sold goods, got 4 points and a silver. Currently at 68.
Blue rolled a 1 and 4. With 4, changed into a 5, they installed the Livestock with 3 at the top right for 3 points. The 1 was to take a Warehouse. Currently at 36 points.
PHASE C, ROUND 1.
Goods 4 to depot 5. Red rolled a 4 and 5. With 5, they took a Mine. Previously Red bought a Boarding House from Black Market. With 4 they installed it at the top left area, gaining 4 workers.
Blue rolled a 2 and 6. The 2 was to finish the Livestock area with the 2nd group of pigs. They scored 5 points from the tiles, and 9 from round and phase bonus. Currently at 50. Then the 6, changed into a 5 to take Monastery 6.
ROUND 2.
Goods 3 to depot 4, 2nd goods there, different type. Red rolled a 2 and 3. Since their Key spaces were full, they install Monastery 26 with the die 2 on the left. Then with the 3 they took another Boarding House from depot. Scored 7 points for finishing that Monastery, currently at 75
Blue rolled a 4 and 5. With the 5, they installed that Monastery 6 at the top area. Then the 4 was to take a Ship.
ROUND 3.
Goods 1 to depot 5, 2nd goods there. Red rolled a 1 and 3. They installed the 2nd Boarding House to the right area, gaining 4 more Workers. Then the 1 was for Ship.
Blue rolled a 1 and 6. In the top left building area, using a 1, Blue installed a Chapel. The bonus got them to take Monastery 8. Then with the 6, they finished that area at the top, scored 12. Currently at 62.
ROUND 4.
2nd Goods 3 to depot 1. Red rolled a 3 and 5. With 5, Red installed 2nd Mine on the left. Scored 6 plus 1. Then with the 3 they took a Livestock with 3 Cattles. Currently at 82.
Blue rolled a 3 and 4. With 4 they took another Chapel. Then with 3 they got 2 workers.
ROUND 5.
Goods 6 to depot 2. Red rolled a 3 and 4. Changed the 4 into 5 to install their Monastery 28 to the right from starting Castle. With the 3 they sold 1 goods, 2 points and a Silver. Spent the 2 Silver and bought a Livestock tile with 4 cattle. Currently at 84.
Blue rolled a 1 and 3. The 1 was to install Warehouse at the top left. Incorrectly, this completed the area size 5 scoring 21 points. The Warehouse got them to sell Goods 2 for 1 Silver and 2 points. Currently at 85. Then the 3 was changed into a 1 to take a Ship.
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PHASE D, ROUND 1.
Goods 2 to depot 3. Red rolled a 1 and 3. With 3 changed into a 2, they installed one of the livestock tiles with cattle. 4 points, currently 88. Then with 1 changed into a 6, they took 2nd livestock tile with sheep.
Blue rolled a 1 and 5. Blue took the Mine with 5. Before that, installed a ship to the left area with a 1. They got first player back with 3rd Goods 1 and 4.
ROUND 2.
Goods 4 to depot 1, 3rd goods there. Blue rolled a 3 and 5. With 3 they installed a Castle at the top right. The bonus got them to take a Boarding House. Then with 5 changed into a 4, they installed at the bottom left to get 4 workers. Got 5 points, currently at 90.
Red rolled a 3 and 6. With 3, they installed 2nd group of sheep to the bottom left area. Scored 7 points, currently at 91. Then the 6 was to take Bank building.
ROUND 3.
Goods 3 to depot 6. Blue rolled a 5 and 6. With the 5 they took Monastery 4. The 6, changed into a 2, installed that to the left, single space completing that area. Scored 5 points, currently at 95.
Red rolled a 4 and 5. With 4, they finished the Livestock area at the bottom left. Scored 7 from the animals, and 14 from the phase / round, currently at 112. Then the 5 changed into 4 to take Ship.
ROUND 4.
Goods 1 to depot 1. Blue rolled a 5 and 6. With 6, they installed the Chapel to the bottom left area. The bonus got them to take Monastery 6. Then with the 5 changed into 4, they got White Castle.
Red rolled a 2 and 5. With the 5 changed into a 3 installed the Bank to the right area, completing that area. Got 2 Silvers, scored 7, currently at 119. Then the 2 was to take a Castle.
ROUND 5.
Another Goods 1 to depot 1. Blue rolled a 1 and 6. With 1 they completed the Building area at the bottom left. Scored 4 points plus 6, currently at 105. Then with 6 changed into 5, installed a Mine for 5 points, currently at 110. White Castle Bonus was to take Ship. Blue also bought a Castle from Black Market.
Red rolled a 2 and 3. After changing a 2 to a 1, they installed both ships to the right area, completing it. Scored 7 points plus a couple of goods there. Bought a White Castle from the black Market. Currently at 126.
PHASE E, ROUND 1.
Goods 2 to depot 6, 5th goods there. Red rolled a 2 and 3. With 2, they installed a White Castle at the top left area. The bonus with white 6 got them to install a Castle on the left, scored 3 points. Bonus action got them the last Mine. Then with 3, changed into a 4, they took a Ship. Currently at 129.
Blue also rolled a 2 and 3. With 3 installed a ship to the right area. Got a lot of goods. Then took Monastery 2 with the 2.
ROUND 2.
Another goods to depot 6. Red rolled 1 and 6. Red installed a ship again at the top area after changing a 6 into a 1. Then with the other 1 took another Ship. Got some goods.
Blue rolled a 2 and 5. With 5, installed Monastery 3 to bottom right area. Then changed a 2 into 3 to get another Boarding House.
ROUND 3.
Goods 6 to depot 5, only one there. Red rolled a 1 and 2. With 2, they installed 4 sheep at the top, scored 4 points, currently at 133. Then changed a 1 into 6 to take another group of sheep.
Blue rolled a 2 and 5. The 2 changed into 1 was to complete the last area of Monastery. Scored 5 points and claimed the Color bonus. Currently at 115. The 5 was to get 2 Workers.
ROUND 4.
Another Goods 6 to depot 5. Red rolled a 1 and 4. With 4, installed the last mine, scored 3 points and the color bonus. Currently at 136. The 1 was to get 2 Workers.
Blue rolled a 3 and 6. With 6 installed the Boarding House to the bottom right area. Got 4 workers. Then with 3 installed the last Castle for 3 points, claiming the color bonus. Since they had Monastery 6, they bought Carpenter Workshop by spending 2 workers. Then the bonus from Castle installed it to complete the area. Scored 5 points, currently at 123. They bought Bank with 2 Silver and the last building got them Town Hall.
ROUND 5.
Goods 4 to depot 5. Red rolled a 2 and 5. The 2 was to get the last Castle and installed it with a 5 scoring 3 points and got a color bonus. Then they installed last livestock with the bonus action in the last space of that color. Scored 6 points from the animals, 5 points from the phase bonus, claiming that color bonus. Currently at 160.
Blue rolled a 1 and 2. With a 2, installed Town Hall. The bonus installed the Bank for 2 Silver, 5 points, claiming the color bonus. Then they bought a Ship with 2 workers from Black Market. Using the 1 they completed the right area of the ship for 5 points and a couple of goods. Currently at 133 points.
That was the end of the game.
Red got 160 plus 5 points from Silver, 12 from Color Bonus, 6 from unsold Goods so they scored 183. Almost forgot, they had one monastery to score 3 points per color bonus so they got 192.
Blue got 133, plus 3 from Silver, 9 from Goods, 15 from Color bonus. So their final score was 160. That was even with the error of installing the same building in one area.
Red won then. I guess the animals were really strong.
Playing time was about 136 minutes.
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Regicide
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Overthrow the corrupted monarchs, starting with their lowest rank members before eventually take down the last king in Regicide.
1st Round, Jack of Hearts.
This was a solo session so I started with a hand of 8. Got 8 and 10 from Diamonds, 2, 5 and 8 from Clubs, 2 and 7 from Spades and 10 of Hearts.
7 of Spades first, dealing 7 damage, 13 left while lowering their attack to 3. The 5 of Clubs took the damage.
Then a combo of double 2 from both spades and clubs. Dealt 8 damage and set 4 more shield so the enemy had no attack. The Jack still had 5 health left. 8 of Diamonds finished the job while gathering more friends.
2nd ROUND, Jack of Clubs.
I had 4, 7 and 10 from Hearts, 8 of Clubs, A and 4 of Spades, 9 and 10 of Diamonds.
10 of Hearts accompanied by Ace of Spades started the attack, dealing 11 damage, healing all injured characters while setting up defense of 11. Enemy’s attack had no more effect. Then 9 of Diamonds finished the job while gathering 3 more friends.
3rd ROUND, Jack of Diamonds.
Got 4 and 9 of Spades, 8 and 10 of Clubs, 4, 5 and 7 of Hearts plus 10 of Diamonds.
Double damage from 10 of clubs finished the enemy instantly with the exact value.
4th ROUND, Jack of Spades.
Still the same team but minus 10 of Clubs. 8 of Clubs attacked first, dealing 16 while the enemy countered with 10. 4 of Spades and 7 of Hearts took the damage. Then 4 of hearts finished the job while healing 4 injured friends.
5th ROUND, Queen of Hearts.
The team only had 3 members left, 10 of Diamonds, 9 of Spades and 5 of Hearts. 10 of Diamonds started the attack, dealing 10 damage while gathering 8 new friends.
All 3 Jacks, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs plus triple 3 of spades, clubs and diamonds. The Queen countered with 15, taking down 5 of hearts and Jack of Spades.
Then the triple 3 attacked. Dealing 18 damage, setting up defense of 9 while gathering 5 new friends. The Queen with 2 health left countered again with 6 and took down 6 of Clubs who just entered. 8 of Hearts then finished the job.
6th ROUND, Queen of Diamonds.
Still got 6 and 9 of Spades, Jack of Clubs and Diamonds, Ace and 7 of Diamonds.
Here I got it wrong. I mistook Jack of Clubs as Queen of Clubs dealing 30, instantly beat the enemy. No wonder it felt a bit easier than usual.
*******
Had I played correctly, the enemy would have taken down Jack of Diamonds and 6 of Spades. Then I played 9 and Ace for the exact 10 left.
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7th ROUND, Queen of Spades.
Incorrectly, I still got 6 and 9 of Spades, Ace, 7, Jack of Diamonds. 7 of Diamonds went first, dealing 7 damage while gathering Queen of Diamonds, 6 and 9 of Hearts plus 5 of Spades.
Queen of Diamonds then took the fall. 9 of Hearts and Ace of Diamonds next, healing 10 members and brought in 10 of Spades, 4 and 5 of diamonds. 15 damage took down 9 of Spades and 6 of Hearts.
4 of diamonds was next, came with Ace and 7 of Clubs plus Ace of Hearts. 10 and 6 of Spades took the fall. The Queen still had 9 health left. 7 of Clubs finished the job.
****
Had I played correctly, I still had 7 of Diamonds, got me that Queen of Diamonds, 9 and 6 of Hearts, 5 of Spades, 10 of Spades, 4 and 5 of diamonds. That dealt 7 damage, 23 more and the queen countered with 15, taking down the maybe 5 of hearts and 10 spades.
Then maybe next was both 5s, Spades and Diamonds just to deal 10 damage, 13 left with 4 new friends. Got Ace and 7 of Clubs plus Ace of Heart, 2 of diamonds. I guess I let the Queen of Diamonds took the 15 damage.
Then I had to play 4 of diamonds with Ace of Heart to deal 5, 8 left with some healing and got 4 new friends, 8 of spades, 2 and 3 of hearts and 9 of clubs. 7 of clubs and 8 of spades took damage. I guess I let the 9 of hearts finished the job.
8th ROUND, Queen of Clubs.
Still had a Jack, 2 5s and 2 Aces. Both 5 started the attack, setting up defense of 10, dealing 10 damage, bringing in 2 of Diamonds, 8 of Spades, 2 and 3 of Hearts and 8 of Clubs. 8 of Clubs took the damage from the last queen.
8 of Spades stepped in and setting up more defense so the enemy attack no longer had effect. Combos from both 2s of Heat and Diamonds. Followed by 3 of Hearts and 5 of Clubs dealt the exact remaining damage to the Queen.
*******
Trying to correct play, I still had 5 cards, 9 of Clubs, 2 and 3 of Hearts, 2 of diamonds, Ace of Clubs. Probably would have played the double 2 to heal and got 4 more friends, 6 of diamonds, 4 of clubs, 2 of spades, 5 of clubs. 9, 5 and Ace of Club took the damage. 26 left.
Played the 6 of diamonds next, 20 left. Got 7 of spades, Jack of hearts, 2 of clubs. Jack with 2 clubs took the damage. Then I still played 7 of spades, 13 left, and I had to use the Joker before taking damage.
The new team was 8 of Diamonds, 10 of Clubs, 10 of Hearts, Ace of Clubs, 9 of Diamonds, 7 of Hearts, 4 of Spades, 6 of clubs. 10 of hearts took the damage. 4 of spades next and 6 of clubs took the damage. Finished with 9 of diamonds.
9th ROUND, King of Diamonds.
I still had 6 members left but not enough to take damage. Jack and Ace of Clubs stepped in to deal 22 damage. The Joker brought in a whole new team with Queen of Clubs, 7 of Spades, Jack of Hearts, 2 of Clubs, 8 of Diamonds, 10 of Clubs, 10 of Hearts and Ace of Spades. Both Hearts took the fall. 10 of Clubs finished the job.
***
Trying to correct the play. I still had 8 cards, 8 of diamonds, 10 of clubs, Ace of clubs, 7 of hearts, Jack of Spades, 4 and 5 of hearts and 6 of Clubs. Played Jack of Spades with Ace of Clubs to deal 22 damage and 11 defense, 18 left. 4 and 5 of hearts took the damage. Finished it with double damage of 10 of clubs.
10th ROUND, King of Hearts.
8 of Diamonds was first, dealing 8 damage, came with 9 of Diamonds, 4 and 7 of Hearts and 4 of Spades. The King was still strong and countered with 20, taking down Queen of Clubs and 7 of Hearts.
9 of Diamonds with Ace of Spades were next with defense of 10 and 4 new friends, 6 and 8 of Clubs, Jack of Spades and 5 of Hearts. 6 and 5 took the beating.
Jack of Spades completely nullified the enemy’s attack but the King was still standing. 2 of Clubs finished the job.
****
Had 8 of diamonds, 7 of hearts and 6 of clubs. The diamonds first, 32 left. Got Queen of Clubs, 3 of Spades, 3 and Jack of Clubs, 3 and 10 of Diamonds. Jack of Clubs and 10 of diamonds took the damage.
Played the Combo of triple 3. Dealt 18, 14 left, set defense of 9 and got 7 new friends, 6 of clubs, Queen of Clubs, 8 of hearts, 8 and queen of spades, 7 of heart and ace of clubs. 8 of spades and 6 of clubs took the damage. Queen of Spades finished the job.
11th ROUND, King of Spades.
I had only 4 members left and none of them were diamonds. So, the 2nd Joker brought in a whole new team again after both 4s from Spades and Hearts dealt 8 and healed.
The new team had 3 of Spades, 3 and Jack of Clubs, 3 and 10 of Diamonds, 8 and Queen of Hearts, also 10 and Queen of Diamonds. Queen of Diamonds and 8 of Hearts took the damage.
Another Combo of 3s, Spade, Diamonds and Clubs dealing 18 damage and brought in more friends. Got 6, 10, 10 and Queen of Spades and 7 of Diamonds. Queen of Hearts and 6 of spades took the damage. Jack of Clubs finished the job.
*****
Had 7 of hearts, queen of clubs, 8 of hearts, 7 of diamonds and Ace of Spade. Diamonds first, dealing 7, 33 left. 8 of clubs, queen of hearts, jack of diamonds and 6 of spades came. 7, 8 of hearts and 6 of clubs took the damage. Queen of clubs and Ace of Spades dealt 32 damage, 1 left. 8 and queen took the damage. Jack of diamonds finished the job.
12th ROUND, King of Clubs.
I still had Queen, 10 and 9 of Spades, 10 and 7 of Diamonds. The Queen attacked first with 15 damage and defense of 15. 9 of Spades took the damage.
10 of Spades then completely nullified the enemy attack. Then 10 of Diamonds dealt more damage but not enough. 10 of Hearts came and finished the last King.
Well, this was not really a win since I got things wrong.
**** last part of trying to fix the play.
Had 9, 10 and 5 of Spades, Ace, Queen and 5 of Diamonds, 6 of Hearts and 7 of Clubs. 10 of Spades first, 30 health left. 6 of Hearts and 7 of Clubs took the damage.
9 of spades and ace of diamonds next, 20 health left. Got 4 of diamonds, Ace and 9 of hearts and 9 of clubs. No more damage from the last King. One Queen and one Five were more than enough to take down this King.
So, I got a chance still to win, a Silver one even. But not really since I failed to track cards for healing.
*********
Playing time was about 43 minutes.
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The LOOP
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Stop the evil Dr. Faux as the temporal agents from messing with the timeline in The LOOP.
This was my 2nd time playing this game and my last play was the end of 2024. I feel like it is not that hard to get the rules again, even though I still need to check the clarification of some cards. This is more about the flow of the game. I forgot a lot of things here.
I just realized when writing this I forgot one important rule that actually made the game easier for me. When completing the mission, I forgot that you have to end your turn in that Era after filling the slots. Instead I just assumed it was completed and removed the mission right after I filled the last slot. I also forgot that you take artifact cards after completing a mission.
Oh, well. Kind of invalidates what I am going to write here next.
Initially, I was planning to try the other game mode but I settled with the SABOTAGE mission, still using the easiest difficulty. Played with the official solo rule and with 3 characters. Last time I played with the Purple character but this time I replaced that one with the Pink or Dr. Time, still with the Blue and Orange character.
I feel like I enjoyed this session more than my previous play. However, it is mostly because of that Orange character to mitigate the randomness of the Rift cube drops. That is very powerful and with the solo mode, you can kind of keep activate the character more than the other 2.
If not, you can probably prioritize activating the Orange at the start of the Phase when you don’t know which era the enemy will hit first. When there are one or 2 eras left, then the other 2 characters can do take over. I think I’m going to stick with this one character while changing the other 2 as I play this game more.
Well, I still don’t like that cube drops. It happened where one era with empty red cubes suddenly got 4 or more. So, I did cheat by redo the drop again and probably why I enjoyed the session more. I won (well, not really) but already got 3 Vortex. Speaking of dropping, I think I settled with dropping just one by one instead of altogether.
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One new thing I did in this play was to do LOOP twice in a round. Didn’t do that in my last play. In that moment, it was very powerful that from a couple of Eras with full of red cubes, you can clean them out. But that happened only one time and I think in 3rd Cycles. Up until that point, I managed to have a lot of energies in almost every era and the built up helped.
So, I just checked each character’s starting cards. Apparently the 3 I played with are on weaker side when dealing with duplicates. The Orange only had 1 card while the other 2 had 2. Green and Purple each had 3 cards for it.
Orange character is strong when dealing with Rift with 3 cards while Pink and Blue have each 3 for Energy. No wonder I had a lot of energy during the game but also duplicates everywhere. So, I guess knowing that should help you make a strategy? Well, with solo mode, you immediately combine all cards so you probably have to check before combining them.
After all of those errors I did, I won the game in 3rd cycle, 2 cards left. Had I played correctly, even if just for completing the mission part, I don’t know if I have enough time. I did get a lot of cards since I didn’t spend time for the mission and those cards could help with the mission progress.
I guess I should try again in my next play. Hopefully I don’t forget all of these rules.
Playing time was about 143 minutes.
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Dale of Merchants
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Learn trades from Animalfolks and beat MONO to become the best merchant of the city in Dale of Merchants.
Back with the official solo variant of Dale of Merchants. Well, I guess it is more like playtesting since it is not definitive yet. I actually didn’t realize that they were still considering 2 options of this solo variants.
One was their original idea where MONO, the opponent will keep discarding Junk cards at the end of their turn. I kind of dislike this one since it feels you do too many things to resolve the opponent’s action on their turn like shuffling, flipping cards. Especially, compared to what you do yourself on your turn. Those are all physical things in addition to what you are doing in the game like buying cards, playing and removing them to build stacks.
Then, Sami, the designer managed to find a different solo variant where MONO doesn’t discard junk cards at the end of their turn. Making their turn simpler and with less, physical upkeep. From my previous play, I kind of like this one more than the previous idea. However, it seems it is not perfect either.
According to the change log, they are still considering these 2 options. But they did change something with the first idea that incorporates the idea from the latter. So, I tried both for a couple of sessions.
These plays were based on solo variant version 11. There was already a newer version number 12.
First Set: MACAW – PANDA – OCELOT.
I already played Macaw and Panda before but the Ocelot was first or 2nd try this time. Ocelot Mono is a bit aggressive by trading the top of your deck with the top of theirs. If this happens early, they might take one of your value 1 card which makes it almost impossible to win.
Sure you can probably wait and maybe they will return it by mistake but by that point, can you still catch up with them? This encourages player to immediately keep one of the value 1 in their hand and just build the first stall immediately. The bigger problem is if you also play with Raccoon that can also steal from your hand.
This also encourages player to keep those Junk cards stay in the deck. Otherwise, they will just steal more valuable cards. Not a guarantee that they will take junks but this can lead to do more hand management for player to keep good cards either in hand or in discard pile. Not sure to what extend though.
Also, sometimes, it feels useless when you end up trading junk cards. The worst is if you end up getting their MONO cards while they take something good. Especially since MONO tends to quickly remove valuable cards. I think I got value 1 cards a couple of times and at most value 2 probably one or twice from all sessions. It feels like I got MONO cards more from that ability.
So this ability feels like already one sided even though the idea is to create more chaos if I understand the idea of this animalfolk correctly.
Here is the result of this set, using the latest rule.
1st play: LOSS. MONO finished their 8th stack on their 19th turn. I was still at 5th stack.
2nd play: LOSS. MONO finished their 8th stack on 18th turn. I did better and got to 7th stack. Probably still need more than 2 turns to complete my 8th.
3rd play: WIN. But somehow I got to 22nd turn. MONO only needed one more turn to finish theirs. Not sure why it took that long.
4th play: LOSS. MONO won in 18 turns and I was still at 5th stack again.
5th play: WIN. I got my 8th stack in 18 turns while MONO was still with their 6th. So, they needed exactly 2 more turns. I think I got lucky to have played both 2nd and 3rd stack with just Ocelot 1 plus the dice.
6th play: WIN. I think this time I went back with the 2nd variant where MONO doesn’t discard their junk cards. Got my win after 20 turns. MONO was at 7th but probably needed 2 more turns since their last hand was all Junk cards.
7th play: LOSS? I didn’t keep track with this play but I decided to try out facing MONO cards using different set of animalfolks. I still played with Macaw, Panda and Ocelot while MONO played the other 3 cards, Raccoon, Chameleon and Squirrel. Not sure which solo variant I used, but probably the latest one, the discarding junks.
This was a horrible experience and I don’t think it is just because of not matching the MONO cards with the deck. I remember now that the reason I hate this variant so much was because of that Squirrel. They can use junk cards for their stall making their deck very thin. This means, triggering the other MONO cards to happen more often.
Combine that thin deck with the other 2, Raccoon and the Chameleon. Raccoon is annoying but it is even worse with Chameleon. Like every turn they triggered the Raccoon. There is another thing I don’t like with Chameleon.
Their ability will have you discard MONO’s deck and from that discard pile Chameleon will copy the first MONO card from the top of that pile. So, unless the other 2 MONO cards are in your hand as well, which is unlikely, then Chameleon has very high chance to keep triggering their ability.
The other thing I don’t like with Chameleon is, that I just make that MONO’s deck since they run out of cards and then they tell you to discard it. That means, reshuffling is even worse with this one. After resolving the Chameleon, the card joins the discard pile and I have to form a new deck. Then I draw again, and Chameleon shows up again discarding the deck.
This additional physical load is really bad for no good reason. Is it really necessary?
I understand that they want to increase the chance of triggering something by dumping the deck. Maybe by dumping the deck, they assume you will trigger a different MONO from what just being played in previous turn. However, if the other MONO card is in the hand along with Chameleon, dumping the deck will still trigger the previous MONO, already in the discard pile.
So, why not just trigger the next one in hand or just already in that discard pile. At least not forcing player to redo the deck.
Maybe this one or this 3 animalfolks are better with the 2nd solo variant. Or at least, I should try again with the matching deck.
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Second Set: Macaw – Panda – Chameleon.
So, I somehow was still interested in trying more but with the idea of matching deck. This time I swapped the Ocelot with that Chameleon and see if it is better with different deck.
1st Play: WIN. This was using the latest variant, discarding junks. Built the 8th stack after 20 turns. MONO had enough cards to build before me but somehow that Chameleon screwed by copying Panda.
This is where I am not sure. The Chameleon had PLUS icon which I assume to play that other MONO card. In this case, the MONO was Panda and after it takes the highest value card from the market, they end their turn. In that case, I won but very lucky.
2nd Play: WIN. This time with the 2nd variant, keeping Junks. Got 8th stack in 23 turns. Same as before, MONO was ready to build 8th before me but they got Chameleon to copy Panda and stopped after taking card from the market. If that is how I should resolve it.
I have a question about Chameleon and specifically about copying Macaw. Chameleon tells you to discard the deck but then if it copies Macaw, you have to draw 3 but the deck is empty. So, you immediately have to form a deck. Does it include the Macaw?
I assume and how I play it, it is not. At least, the Chameleon is not going to be part of the new deck right away so it is a good combo with Macaw.
So, which solo variant?
I actually like the latest one better, except for the shuffling anf flipping cards. Maybe it depends on the 3 decks you use. If they are good enough with the latest rule, then the one keeping the junk will make it feels slow. Then those that cycle the decks faster because they only have few cards, maybe need this 2nd variant to slow it down.
Well, this is just an idea. I’m sure the designer knows better, especially since they have to consider all decks, not just the one I have.
If the problem with pacing or cycling deck is specific to certain animalfolks, how about adding passive rule just for slower animalfolks to discard certain number of junk cards at the end of their turn? This is about using the 2nd variant where they keep junk cards in hand.
So, instead of every animal has to discard every junk cards at the end like in the latest variant, you discard 1 junk card per fast animal.
I also have question regarding how they make purchase.
Is MONO just aiming for the highest cost they can afford, regardless of the card value? Or, they choose the highest value first within what they can afford?
In my plays, there were moments like they can afford up to 7 or 8. But the highest value card, a 5, was at total cost of 5 or 6.
Also, with the latest variant, since you will discard junk cards, sometimes, you check which combination of cards with the lowest number to purchase that same card and you end up just discarding everything. Not a problem but more like whether the priority matters.
Well, that’s the solo mode or modes for Dale of Merchants for now. I still have a lot of combination to try with one box.
Playing time was about 30 minutes each session.
Learn more about the game from Dale of Merchants Review.
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Friday
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Help Robinso to survive the island and prepare to fight the Pirates in Friday.
This was several attempts at Level 4.
GREEN PHASE
1st Hazard. Cannibals or Exploring the Island. I went with the latter. Got Focused on first card so it was a win.
2nd Hazard. Exploring the island further or back to the Raft? I went with the latter again and Robinson got EATING so it was a win.
3rd Hazard. Exploring or Further Exploring the Island? I went with the easier one and Robinson felt WEAK and gave up.
4th Hazard. Further exploring the Island or Wild Animals? I went with the harder one. Robinson felt both WEAK and FOCUSED twice so it was not enough but he got rid of his weaknesses.
5th Hazard. Animals again or Cannibals? Might as well just challenge the harder one. After a GENIUS, 2 WEAK and 2 DISTRACTED, not a win but got rid of those 4.
6th Hazard. Exploring the Island or Back to the Raft? The easy one and Robinson was still DISTRACTED. Gained nothing but he learned the hard way.
7th Hazard. Exploring the Island or Further? Stayed with the easy one and Robinson felt both WEAK and DISTRACTED, removing those 2.
8th Hazard. Back to the Raft or Back to the raft? Either way Robinson was still distracted.
9th Hazard. Raft or explore the Island? Stayed with the easy one and Robinson still felt Weak but that was enough to win.
10th Hazard. Same choices and same result. Different bonus.
11th Hazard. Back to the raft again? Robinson was VERY TIRED but that was enough.
12th Hazard. Back to the raft or Explore the Island? This time tried the harder one. Got Equipment and that Aging card again. The two bonuses got a GENIUS and REALIZATION to remove that Aging card. So got a win.
13th Hazard. Wild Animals or Explore the Island Further? Challenged the Animals, started with Mimicry, Eating and FOCUSED twice. Pushed once and Robinson got Hungry again. Another push and got FOOD. Got 2 more for BOOKS and FOCUSED and Robinson finally beat the Animals.
14th Hazard. Animals again or back with the Raft? Robinson was still up for another animal. He started by feeling WEAK, twice with Realization and Focused. Not enough and Robinson got EATING, FOCUSED and FOOD and he beat the animals again.
15th Hazard. Explore the Island or Explore further. Last of the Green so Robinson tried the harder one. After some REALIZATION, EQUIPMENT and feeling DISTRACTED by his aging body, he felt GENIUS and beat the challenge.
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Yellow Phase.
16th Hazard. Back to the raft or explore the island again? Robinson was still up for harder challenge. Got Mimicry and Focused but needed to push a bit. The Books finally helped him complete the challenge.
17th Hazard. Back to the raft or Explore further? More challenge for Robinson. Even though he felt HUNGRY, he got some REALIZATION and GENIUS to overcome the challenge.
18th Hazard. Same options and same choice. Started with Mimicry, Books and Realization. Not enough, so pushed twice and got FOCUSED AND STRATEGY.
19th Hazard. One option which was Explore Further. Robinson chose more food source. Started with REALIZATION that he felt WEAK and SCARED. After 3 pushes, Robinson got FOCUSED, EATING, FOOD and Equipment to help him REPEAT.
20th Hazard. Explore the Island or face the Cannibals? Maybe better to face the harder one now. Robinson started with FOCUSED, REPEAT, FOCUSED again, some EQUIPMENT AND EATING. Just one REALIZATION after that was enough to beat this one thanks to double the 3.
21st Hazard. Only one option to explore the island. Robinson chose Mimicry over weapon. A Food source and realization helped him to overcome it.
22nd Hazard. Explore further or the Animals again? Robinson chose the harder one. He had GENIUS, STRATEGY and MIMICRY but felt SCARED. 2 pushes and got him more STRATEGY and FOOD to win.
23rd Hazard. Animals again or Cannibals? Decided to go with Animals. Robinson was FOCUSED, got some BOOKS, REALIZATION and he still felt WEAK. One push got him to REPEAT and win.
24th Hazard. Back to raft or Explore the Island? Robinson got tired and chose to back with the raft. Books reminded him how to complete the challenge.
25th Hazard. Same options but Robinson chose the other now. His EXPERIENCE was enough.
26th Hazard. Last of this phase was to go back to Raft. Robinson had to use STRATEGY just for this one.
RED PHASE.
27th Hazard. One option, just to explore the Island. Robinson chose WEAPON. Started with STRATEGY AND REALIZATION. Not enough. Got Mimicry. still not enough. Then a Realization, not enough. A Weak before the Weapon. Robinson destroyed that Weaknesses and won the challenge.
28th Hazard. Robinson challenged the Cannibals for the last time instead of exploring the island. Got some FOOD, EATING, FOCUSED, FOCUSED again, REPEAT. One push and got EQUIPMENT for 2 more, a REALIZATION and GENIUS. Still not enough. Two more pushes got Robinson to feel STUPID before he got REALIZATION.
29th Hazard. Robinson chose the Raft over exploring the Island further. One REPEAT to double itself and it was enough.
29th Hazard. The player forgot to take note on this one last challenge.
1st PIRATE, 30 for 8 cards.
Only about 10 points before double from the first 8. Got 9 more cards from spending life points, exchange and free cards from equipment to get more 16. One of them was a 4, doubled it to get exactly 30.
2nd PIRATE, 22 for 96 cards, only half of the cards counts.
From 17 cards, no aging, the highest 8 total value was 22 with one of them had DOUBLE.
So that was the end of the game. Got 44 points from card’s value, 30 from the 2 Pirates, -5 from one Aging card and 35 from leftover life points. Final score was 104.
Playing time was about 33 minutes.
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Photograph
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Make a good sequence of pictures using the half frame camera in Photograph.
This was my 2nd time playing this game. I still played this 2-handed since there is no official variant. Even though the rule is rather simple, I think I had to reset the game after a couple of turns but I don’t remember the reason. Maybe I just forgot anticipating the rule about no more than 3 in value gap. I missed that part of the rule in my learning session.
Anyway, here is how it went after the reset.
1st ROUND.
1st Player started with Yellow 10, Green 9 and 8, Red 1, and Green 4. So the green had a gap between 8 and 4. The market itself had exactly 2 Green face down between the value of 1 to 6. There was a good chance one of them was 5 or 6 or both could be lower than 4. To reach that, they needed to pick a Blue either 5 or 2.
It was safer to just start with the 2 so 1st player picked the Blue 2 and it was Green 6. 1st player would have to score 2 cards but before that, pushed a card to the back. For now, they decided to just push the 4 so it was after a 6. So, they scored the Yellow 10 and Green 9.
10 cards left from the market.
2nd Player started with Blue 12, Green 10, Yellow 7, Purple 12, Yellow 8. They had no red but at top right corner, there was Red 12 with Red 10 at top left and another face down between 7 to 12. The next one after that was Blue but face down, higher value. 2nd player could have started with Blue 12 right away. Taking 2 means scoring 2.
Green 10 was probably not a great idea if they actually look at their opponent. But if not that, then 2nd player had to score Yellow 7 before Yellow 8 and made it harder to create that set. So, 2nd player decided to just score the Green 10 right away after Blue 12 and pushing Yellow 7 to the back.
8 cards left from the market.
2nd Round.
Green 8, Red 1, Blue 2, Green 6 and 4. 1st player aimed for the other Green face down in the middle, lower value but they had to take along Blue 5. That means, they had to score 2. Green 8 was okay to score now but Red 1 was probably not until the market got refresh. So they could push the Red and scored the Blue 2.
They took Blue 5 and apparently it was Green 5. So, next turn, they had to push Green 4. Scored the Green 8 after 9 and started the Blue set with 2.
6 cards left from the market.
2nd had Purple 12, Yellow 8 and 7, Red 12 and Blue 10. The top had Red 10 and Purple High value while the middle had Red high and Purple 1. Bottom row had Yellow 4 and Purple Low. None of the low purple was useful but the Yellow might be a good one. 2nd decided to take the 2 top. Red 10 could work and unless the Purple was 9 or higher then, it had to wait.
This means they had to score 2. Purple 12 was safe. Waiting for next round for Yellow might not be ideal. So those two were about to score and they pushed the Blue 10. Took the Red 10 and apparently it was Purple 10 so they could score it immediately.
4 cards left from the market.
3rd ROUND.
1st had Green 6 and 4, Blue 5, Green 5 and Red 1. Obviously they wanted to push the Green 4 scoring the Green 6 and maybe Blue 5 if they took 2. However, high red and Yellow 4 were not great with what they already had. So 1st probably took just 1, one of the Purple. Purple 1 was a great start but the gap later could be problematic. To avoid that, 1st took the chance to just take 1 card, the Purple face down.
It was a 4. Then they scored the Green 6 after Green 8, pushing the Green 4 to the back as planned.
2nd player got fresh market. They had Yellow 7 that they could score, followed by Blue 10 they could score as well. There was no high Blue. Then Red 12 and 10 with Purple 10 the last.
There were 4 reds but the 3 facing up were too far for the gap. The face down was high value so 2nd had to take that first. But to take that, none of the card in that row was good for 2nd. Blue 1 was too far. Low yellow could work or Purple was definitely too far from 10. There were 2 more purple face down, one high value and one low value. Very unlikely to get both. Regardless they took those 2.
Purple 2 first and then it was Red 8. 2nd just pushed the 2 they got before scoring Yellow 7 after 8 and Blue 10 after 12.
10 cards left.
1st got Blue 5, Green 5 and 4, Red 1 and Purple 4. Blue 1 and Yellow 10 were not great and the 2 highest of low red were not great as well for 1st. So, they just took the Red 2 from 2nd row, left side and the 2nd card was a Blue 3. They decided to just push the previous Blue 5 so they could continue the ascending Blue. Scored the Green 5 and 4 after 6. They got more than 4 Green cards and got the bonus.
8 cards left.
2nd player had Red 12 and 10, Purple 10, Red 8, Purple 2. They had to keep pushing the 2 and the other could be scored right away. 2nd had to take the high value Purple whatever that is. Red 5 next to it worked for them but hopefully they could take the 6 as well from 3rd row.
They took the Red 5 first and apparently the next card was Purple 8 which they could score. Pushed the Purple 2 then scored the Red 12 and 10, a new set.
6 cards left.
4th ROUND.
Red 1, Purple 4, Red 2, Blue 3 and 5. 1st actually needed the Red 5 that 2nd player took. Red 6 was too far from 2. Regardless they needed the face down low Purple so they had to score at least 2. They probably could have taken the low Blue as well but that would have refreshed the market for the opponent.
So, they took Red 6 first and then the next one was Purple 5 that they could score. They decided to just push the Red 6 and scored Red 1 for new set and Purple 4, also new set.
4 cards left.
2nd had Purple 10, Red 8 and 5, Purple 8 and 2. Only the last one didn’t work. From these last 4, only that low Yellow might work unless it was 3 or lower.
It was a 5 that they could score. Pushed the 2 and then scored the Purple 10 after 12.
3 cards left so the market was refreshed.
SUNSET CAME.
1st Player had to score a Red 2 and Blue 3. Both worked. I think I messed up the order of 2nd’s hand. They should have scored 2 cards, Red 8 first, and unless they pushed Red 5, Purple 8. I thought I pushed the Purple 2 so their remaining hand should have been Purple 8, Yellow 5 and Purple 2. I messed it up and got yellow 5, Red 5 and Purple 2. Oh, well.
5th ROUND.
1st Player had Blue 5, Red 6, Purple 5. Red 6 didn’t work and there was no Red from the market so it had to be pushed. While they could have played safe with just taking and scoring 1, there was a high yellow in the middle that could work for them. So, they took a chance since the face up next to it, a Green 3 definitely worked for them.
So, they took the Green 3 and unfortunately, it was Yellow 12. Scoring that means they had to forfeit taking more Yellow. Regardless, they pushed the Red and scored Blue 5 after 3 and Purple 5 after 4.
10 cards left.
2nd player played safely and just took a Yellow 6. None of the other face up worked for them except for Green 7 but they might as well went with Green 11. So, they had to push the Yellow 5 to accommodate the 6, scoring Red 5. At this point, the error earlier was irrelevant.
9 cards left.
6th ROUND.
1st got Green 3, Yellow 12, Red 6. The last one still had to be pushed. They could have played safely by taking just 1 card but instead they got 2. Green 1 from top left and the high value Blue, expecting it to be an 8.
Apparently it was an 11 so it didn’t work and there was no more high blue in the market. They still pushed the Red and scored Green 3 after 4 and Yellow 12 after 10.
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7 cards left.
2nd had Purple 2 that didn’t work along with Yellow 6 and 5 which were good to score now. They had to keep pushing the 2. From the remaining, the other yellow could have worked but both were in different rows. 2nd had to take that Green 7 or Green 11. Had they looked at their opponent, the next after 7 should be 4 or higher and the card was already all in the opponent’s strip. So maybe taking Green 11 and whatever low yellow was a better choice.
Regardless, the 7 was what they took. Pushed the Purple and scored the Yellow 6.
6 cards left.
7th ROUND.
1st player had Green 1 and the 2 that didn’t work for them, Blue 11 and Red 6. So, they at most got to take and score 1 card. From what’s left, only high Purple and low green might work. Hoping to get Purple 8 they took the last of that color.
It was a 9. They pushed the Blue 11 and scored Green 1 after 3. I guess that other green was no longer an option since it was probably a 2.
5 cards left.
2nd could score the Yellow 5 and Green 7 and had to keep pushing the Purple 2. This time they only took 1, Low Yellow from the top one. There was another low yellow at the 3rd row.
It was a 2. Pushed the 2 and scored the yellow 5 after 6, and got 4 cards of yellow in order.
4 cards left.
8th ROUND.
None of the cards actually worked for 1st but they had to take anyway. They chose the low yellow. It was a 1. Pushed the Purple 9 and had to take penalty for playing Red 6 after Red 2.
The market was refreshed.
2nd player had Green 7 and Yellow 2 that they could score and had to keep pushing Purple 2. Market had Purple 6 and 3 with 2 more High Purple. 2nd player probably knew that 1st needed that Purple 6.
Even though it didn’t work yet, 2nd took that Purple 6. Pushed the 2 and scored the Green 7 after 10.
11 cards left.
9th ROUND.
1st had Blue 11, Yellow 1 and Purple 9. There was Blue 8 that was perfect for them to save the Blue 11 So, they took it. Pushed the Blue 11 and scored penalty for playing Yellow 1 after 12.
10 cards left.
2nd player could score yellow 2, Purple 6 but still had to push the 2. There was a Purple 3 but they knew 1st couldn’t use it. Instead they took Blue 9 which the 1st could use but didn’t need. Took that Blue 9. Pushed the Purple 2 and scored the Yellow 2 after 3.
9 cards left.
10th ROUND.
In order for 1st to save the Purple 9, they needed one of the high Purple. There were 2. 2nd had 8 and 6 so they were hoping one of them was a 7 but which one. One of them was in the middle so they had to take one more while the other could be taken as single card.
2nd already had Blue 12 and 10 while 1st had Blue 8 and 11. So, chances were that the middle Blue was a 7. While 1st could take it, they didn’t have time to keep pushing. They took a risk and chose the middle row anyway, taking 2 cards instead of 1.
They took Purple 3 first even if it didn’t work and lucky for them, 2nd card was a Purple 7. So, they pushed the 9 to the back ands cored the Blue 8 and 11. Got 5 cards for that color and bonus for them.
7 cards left.
2nd still had to push the Purple 2 but could score Blue 9 and Yellow 2. They could take Yellow 3 and hopefully had enough time to push the 2 or the Blue that was more likely a 7. They went with the obvious. Pushed the Purple 2 and scored the Blue 9 after 10.
6 cards left.
11th ROUND.
1st only had 1 card left that worked for them in the market. It was High Purple. Since 2nd already played the 12, 10 and 8 while first had 7 and 9 in their hand, it was probably an 11. So, they took it. They had to push the Purple 3 and scored the 7 after 5.
5 cards left.
2nd player took the last high blue which was a 7. Pushed the Yellow 2 after 3 and scored the Yellow 3.
4 cards left.
12th ROUND.
Last one and 1st really had no good cards to take. So, they just took one of the High reds. It was a 7. They pushed the Purple 3 and scored Purple 9 after 7.
3 cards left and that was the end of the game.
1st player then had to score Purple 11 after 9 so it worked but the Red 7 didn’t. 2nd player had a chance to push the Purple 2 and scored Yellow 2 after 3 and Blue 7 after 9.
1st player scored 3 points minus 2 from Yellow, also 3 points minus 2 from Red, 11 points plus 5 from Green, 8 plus 5 from Blue, and 8 minus 2 from Purple. TOTAL SCORE was 37.
2nd player scored 10 plus 5 from Yellow, 7 from Blue, 7 plus 5 from Red, also 7 plus 5 from Purple and 3 from Green. TOTAL SCORE was 49.
2nd player won. That was obvious after 1st player had to take cards they couldn’t use.
Playing time was about 45 minutes.
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Kimono Memories
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Walk in the quaint street of Kyoto and take pictures of different Kimono designs worn by locals and tourist to make the best album in Kimono Memories.
This is a new game to me and I think it was officially released during 2024 ESSEN, so still recent at this point. Kimono Memories is actually a reimplementation of another game by the same Japanese designer called Hinadan. Not sure how different they are outside from the theme.
Well, that one is only for 2 players while Kimono Memories has solo mode. This new one is published by Taiwan publisher, EmperorS4, mostly known for Hanamikoji and Walking in Burano.
While the top right of the box itself has Hanamikoji label, I’m not sure the correlation between these games other than being in Japan. If anything, they could have called this Walking in Kyoto, especially with the photography them. The same lady character appears in this game as in the 2 Walking in game Series. Maybe they just don’t want to have different designer for that series?
The theme is about you walking in a street of Kyoto to find tourists and locals wearing Kimono. You then take pictures and try to create photo album in the shape of a pyramid. Why pyramid? All I can think is it is probably from the previous design.
So, how does the game play?
The 2 players will take turns drafting a card with a picture of person wearing Kimono from the market. They then place that card to their tableau or album.
At the start of the game, there are always 7 cards, placed in circular form. To draft the card, player has to move the Photographer pawn up to 3 spaces and take the last card that the pawn just passed through. The movement is always in clockwise direction, one way. You then refill the market and the other player takes their turn doing the same.
The game keeps going like that until there are 2 cards left on the market and the game ends immediately. There are about 30 cards that you always use in every game, except the 5 excluded cards for solo mode.
So, how do you build your tableau?
First you have to place the new card to the right or left of your starting card, creating the bottom level. After 2 adjacent cards, you can put the next one on higher level, right in the middle between the 2.
Each card will have a main color and on left and right side there can be 2 more colors you want to match with the next card. There are 5 colors in this game and in the middle of the Market board there is one tug of war track for each color.
Everytime you take a card and place it in your album or tableau, you move the position of that track for that color closer to you. If you can match the color on the side between the 2 cards, you also pull the position of the track of that color towards you.
At the end of the game, whoever wins in each track will get a token worth different values depending on the track. 3 is the lowest for Purple and 7 as the highest for Pink.
Instead of color, the side of the card can also give you Cat symbol and if you can match it with another card, you get cat tokens. At some point you are already winning the tug of war for one color and your opponent may not even try to beat you again. Getting more of that color doesn’t help you much but you can try collecting these cat tokens. You’ll get points equal to the amount of cat tokens you have squared.
There are also 5 property cards that don’t have color but have wild symbols on the side so they can still help you match color. Each of these prop cards will give you the exact value stated on the card.
One of the top corners of each card may also have Mon symbol. If, by the end of the game, these symbols remain visible, you get points. The higher you place the symbol and let it visible will give you higher points. So, do you cover the existing to build higher or do you let them stay visible for points?
That’s all of how you play Kimono Memories, at least for 2 players. I will talk more about the solo mode below. The game is rather simple or light but it has expert mode and even Sudden Victory Mode that I have not tried yet.
From what I understand, in the Expert mode, winning a color track allows you to pick one of 4 remaining cards that you add to your tableau which can influence your other tracks. You start comparing from the lowest number, the Purple track.
While the Sudden Victory is just instant win condition. If one player can pull the position of 2 tracks to their side both on 3rd and 4th space, they instantly win. This way, players cannot just focus on some tracks and letting their opponent wins the other that easily. They really need to diversify.
Actually, after reading the rule again while writing this, I think I misunderstood something. In the basic game, you don’t count score. You win by just having more wins from those tracks. The Expert will count score, get different points from winning each track, from position of visible Mon symbol and from number of Cat tokens, in addition to the final drafting during scoring.
So, I played kind of mixed of both.
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My Initial Impression.
So, I tried playing this game 2-handed. By the end of the game, you will see a beautiful and colorful album. However, it does take a lot of space because this is basically a tile laying game, or more like card laying game. You will grow your tableau in unexpected direction so while the box is small but you might want a bigger table.
Otherwise, there will be moments where you will have to move things. Here, you place cards and above matching color on the side, you may put tokens on it. At first, it is not a big deal but eventually it will get bigger.
The thing is, creating a beautiful tableau doesn’t really feel necessary. Only when trying to match the sides and which Mon Symbol is still visible are important. Or, at least whether you already have enough cards to go higher layer.
The tokens themselves are not worth any points by being on the cards. Maybe you can even determine position of each track by counting the cards and tokens if you keep them aside.
What I’m saying is that, if you agree to ignore the scoring for Mon symbols, you probably can shrink down the size of your tableau. Of course, you’ll lose the end result. This is not really criticism for the gameplay but you might think about it, mostly if you have limited table space.
Going up or higher layer definitely gives you more option to match the sides. Otherwise you always only have 2 options, keep going left or right. Then it will become a problem when the next 3 cards doesn’t really help you match anything. Even though there is still a possibility not making any match even with more cards higher.
I mean, you create new side on higher level but you also need to add foundation to place the next card on that level. This is the thing you need to consider, especially towards the end of the game. You may not have the time for it even though you already created an opening.
That’s the thing with this game. At first, you just want to match colors. I have green on the left and yellow on the right and from the next 3 cards, 2 can work on both. So, you can just go with the flow.
Eventually, you will start considering making new opportunities. Maybe even further. You start seeing the possibility of getting some of the 7 face up cards from the market. I can take this one now and maybe later that one over there, 3 spaces from now. Even if my opponent take that one, I can still take the next one which work for my current situation.
That is not the deepest level. You’ll soon realize that you don’t get any benefit for keep winning on one track. So, just keep matching and winning one tug of war is not going to help you much. You’ll start considering competing on other tracks.
This then can lead you to evaluate, whether you have enough win or can your opponent still take over? Maybe they might not win that track but since you only win by 1 space, they can still neutralize but pulling it back to the middle, preventing you from getting bonuses.
At this point, you probably start seeing all cards in the market. There are a lot of green so maybe it’s okay if you let both win on that color a bit.
Also, don’t underestimate the secondary color. You might see 3 green, 2 blue, a yellow and a pink. No purple and those are the main color of the cards. You then think there is no way to pull the Purple position back to the middle while in fact there is a possibility of matching it from a couple of cards. And those are just cards from the market. Maybe your opponent only needs one since they already make another half.
This can also affect how you move the photographer. You might get that card with a match. But that allows your opponent for taking the card they need. Maybe you can take it slow and just move one space? Will that get better or just similar result?
Of course, you can just focus on your progress and tableau but paying attention to what your opponent is trying to do can give that extra layer for this light game. Maybe it is not that hard to consider all 7 cards and with only from the next 3 that the player can take.
Here is the part I also got it wrong. Apparently the Prop cards are not just one score as stated by the card. Some cards will show those objects as well and you can build score from that. During the game, I didn’t realize this and just ignore them because they don’t contribute to colors.
Now, I’m more interested in playing the game again. Maybe next time with the complete Expert Mode. For now, as initial impression, I like this one. While it doesn’t offer much but it is also not an expensive game. Even compared to this publisher’s Walking in series, it feels like you get less here.
The Solo Mode.
Unfortunately, I’m a bit disappointed with the official solo mode.
Basically, in the solo mode, you are going to play against the solo opponent, Fanny, using just the basic mode. The way it works is, everytime you draft a card from the market, you are giving the opponent the card before the one you take.
Then you check the card for the opponent whether they can make a match or not with the existing tableau. If not, then depending on the Mon Symbol, they will just add the new card to the right or to the left which will change the color to match.
The opponent is just going to keep adding cards in one row, not going up. This is how I got the idea that you don’t really need to create tableau. Just make sure what is the last color on either end.
Towards the end, there will be 3 cards left. You take one and give the other 2 for the opponent. Just like in basic multiplayer mode, you don’t count score.
To win the game you only need to win on 2 or more tug of war tracks, including having more cat tokens than the opponent. If you are tied with the opponent on one of the 5 tracks, the opponent will take the tokens. This mode will not use any Prop cards since you don’t score anything.
Here is the thing. If I understand correctly, all you need to do to beat this opponent is to keep giving them the same main color while of course, trying to prevent matching on sides. Let them keep winning on that color while you don’t even try. And since one color will have more cards then the other, why not giving them just that.
The order of the cards can still surprise and give you tough decision. They can still win or somehow pull back the position in one track to the middle and they win that tug of war.
I only played twice so far but somehow I got a feeling that it is not as interesting as the multiplayer game. While it is nice to have a solo mode that is not about scoring but it feels this might as well become one.
Why not give us something like Walking in Burano. The opponent will just remove cards and you can try to score as high as possible. Since only 2 plays so far, I’m hoping I got something wrong and maybe this can get better with more plays but I doubt it.
In that case, maybe I just play this 2-handed or just play like BYOS variant. For now, I’m not sure I would recommend this just for solo play.
Playing time was about 30 minutes per session.
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Aleph Null
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Try to summon the Demon Prince Baphomet correctly or die in Aleph Null.
This was with 2nd difficulty level, random 3 interference cards.
1st draw. CHASUBLE, DECK OF CARDS, MIRROR, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION, EXORCISED WATER.
I couldn’t summon anything with these.
2nd draw. GRAND CIRCLE, MOTHER SHIPTON, LODESTONE, BAPHOMET, WAX CANDLE.
Summoned the Tanist and the Magical Power.
3rd draw. WAND OF POWER, GOLEM, SALAMANDER, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, WAX CANDLE.
Summoned the Candle first. Then scrapped the 3 to get 3 MP. Spent it to summon Sacrificial Lamb.
4th draw. WEALTHY TANIST, BESOM, BOOK OF PACTS, VITRIOL, SALAMANDER.
Summoned the Tanist first immediately scrapped it to summon Besom. Then scrapped the Lamb for 3 MP to summon Salamander and Vitriol.
5th draw. BELL, WAX CANDLE, AKTHOI, THE WEEPING TREE, WAX CANDLE.
Summoned the Candle. Scrapped one for summoning Akthoi. Scrapped the other for the Bell.
6th draw. 2nd HOUR. LEARNED TANIST, BOLINE, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH, DECK OF CARDS, CHASUBLE.
Tanist and Boline were summoned first. Scrapped both and the Salamander to summon the Devil.
7th draw. WAX CANDLE, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION, GRAND CIRCLE, WAX CANDLE, THE WEEPING TREE.
Summoned the 2 Candles. Immediately scrapped it to summon The Weeping Tree.
8th draw. SALAMANDER, LODESTONE, WEALTHY TANIST, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, MOTHER SHIPTON.
Summoned both Tanists and scrapped them to get 2 MP to summon Salamander.
9th draw. MIRROR, EXORCISED WATER, WAX CANDLE, WAND OF POWER, GOLEM.
I scrapped the Salamander for 2 MP. Sacrificed Akthoi and spent both MP to summon Golem. Also summoned the Candle.
10th draw. 3rd HOUR. WAX CANDLE, BAPHOMET, BOOK OF PACTS, CHASUBLE, SALAMANDER.
Summoned the Candle first. Then I scrapped 2 candles and the Devil for 5 MP to get CHASUBLE.
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11th draw. DECK OF CARDS, LODESTONE, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, MIRROR, WAX CANDLE.
Only summoned the Candle.
12th draw. SALAMANDER, WAND OF POWER, GRAND CIRCLE, WEALTHY TANIST, WAX CANDLE.
Summoned the Candle and Tanist. Scrapped the 2 candles for 2 MP for Salamander.
13th draw. BOLINE, LEARNED TANIST, EXORCISED WATER, MOTHER SHIPTON, ILL OMEN.
I had to summon the interference and sacrifice it immediately along with 1 Magical Power. Decided to let go the Salamander. Summoned the Tanist and Mother Shipton. With 3 MP from sacrificing Salamander, I summoned the Water. One MP left and the damage when to the Golem.
14th draw. 4th HOUR. CIRCLE OF PROTECTION, WAND OF POWER, WAX CANDLE, MIRROR, DECK OF CARDS.
First I scrapped the Boline to get 1 MP. This was to pay for sacrificing BELL just to summon Lodestone. It was the first card. Summoned the Candle and scrapped the 3 Tanists for Mirror and Deck of Cards.
15th draw. SACRIFICIAL LAMB, BAPHOMET, WAX CANDLE, GRAND CIRCLE, WAX CANDLE.
First, summoned both Candles. Then sacrificing deck of cards to draw 1 and discard 2. Discarded the Key and Baphomet and got SALAMANDER. Then I sacrificed the Weeping Tree for 1 MP and draw 1 card. The MP plus from the token were to summon the Salamander and the new card was another Candle to be summoned.
Scrapped the Salamander for 2 MP plus the token to summon the Sacrificial Lamb.
I decided to get rid of Vitriol. Sacrificed 1 Candle from 3 to draw 2 cards. Got Book of Pacts and The Devil. Scrapped the Lamb and a token for the Devil. Immediately scrapped the Devil to summon the first key, the Book of Pacts. Only Vitriol left in my hand and it was sacrificed.
16th draw. 5TH HOUR. WAND OF POWER, BOLINE, GRAND CIRCLE, SACRIFICIAL LAMB, RELIQUARY.
The Interference had to be played and I had to put artifact in hand under it. Luckily it was only Boline. Nothing else was done.
17th draw. MOTHER SHIPTON, LEARNED TANIST, WEALTHY TANIST, THE DEVIL IN THE HEARTH, THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST.
I sacrificed Chasuble to sacrifice this last interference. Summoned all Tanists. Scrapped them immediately plus the token for the Devil.
18th draw. 6TH HOUR. SALAMANDER, BAPHOMET, CIRCLE OF PROTECTION, LEARNED AND WEALTHY TANISTS.
Summoned the Tarnists first. Then I sacrificed the Devil for 5 MP. Spent 4 of them for Salamander and Circle of Protection. Then sacrificed the Protection to get rid of the Interference. I guess there was 1 more MP and the damage was absorbed by the Golem.
So, I was not sure with this. I had 4 cards left in the deck and the Baphomet was in my hand. Under assumption that I could discard it and then using BESOM plus CANDLE, I put it back in the deck.
18th draw. SACRIFICIAL LAMB, MOTHER SHIPTON, GRAND CIRCLE, WAND OF POWER, BAPHOMET.
Summoning the last Tanist first. Next, I sacrificed BOLINE and the last candle for 3 MP to summon LAMB. I scrapped it and put it in the discard pile. The Exorcised Water sacrificed it along. After that, sacrificed all 3 Tanists to summon Wand of Power.
So, now I had The Grand Circle and Baphomet. Sacrificed Mirror and Salamander for 6 MP. Then sacrificed the LODESTONE to summon Grand Circle.
With 3 keys, I summoned Baphomet. I only had Golem left in play. Assuming I played correctly, I got MASTER?
Playing time was about 36 minutes.
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The Guild of Merchant Explorers
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Voyage to the corner of Tigome and discover villages or cities along the way in The Guild of Merchant Explorers.
This was another solo play with the Aghon Map. First solo objective was to discover a village adjacent to a discovery tower. 2nd was to complete a trade route worth at least 12. 3rd was to explore ruin spaces adjacent to grasslands, deserts and mountain spaces.
1st ROUND, 1st Investigate card.
The options were similar, either 5 Grasslands and 1 Sea separately or 5 continuous spaces either Sea or Grasslands. At first I thought the two had similar effect but I decided that the latter was more flexible to cross the water spaces.
With this, I completely explored the grassland area to the right of Capital City while going up with the water one space. This way, with the 3 straight water, I could reach the ruins near the top right Tower.
Got 3 coins total.
2nd turn: MOUNTAIN, 1 space.
Not much I could do with this so I went up from Capital City instead of top right.
3rd turn: 2 Grassland spaces.
Not sure I could use this to complete exploring any nearby grassland areas so from where I was with the Mountain north from Capital City, I explored 2 spaces. Got 1 coin, 4 total.
4th Turn: 3 Sea spaces, straight.
As planned earlier, from where I was with the previous water space, I reached to the top right and got to the ruin spaces there. The treasure was 1 coin for every Village on Mountain.
5th Turn: 2 adjacent spaces.
After this was 2 Desert spaces. There was small desert area with 3 spaces only near the top right Tower so I used one of this for the Desert with 1 coin and the other for the 2 coins in Grassland areas. 7 coins total so far.
6th Turn: 2 Desert spaces.
I completed the Village in that top right small desert area. Got 1 coin and 1 more from the village. 9 coins total
2nd ROUND.
1st turn: 2 Desert spaces.
The only use for this was to start exploring to the west from Capital City. I went with the 2 at the bottom left.
2nd Turn: 1st Investigate Card.
From the village at the top right, I explored the grasslands area and the Tower. Got 6 coins from the Tower, 3 from the map and 2 from the Village. 20 coins so far. I also completed the first objective.
3rd Turn: Mountain Space.
Still from previous village at top right desert, I explored the nearby city on Mountain.
4th Turn: 2 adjacent spaces.
I completely explored the desert spaces to the west of Capital city. Got 3 coins plus 2 from Village with the village being at bottommost space of that area. 25 coins so far.
5th Turn: 3 Water spaces, straight.
I could have used this to explore ruin spaces near Capital city at bottom left. But I decided to score the Trade Route between nearby cities at top right. So, I explored back from that ruin to the city on grasslands since Grassland had not come out yet.
6th Turn: 2 Grassland spaces.
One was to connect the Trade Route. Scored 12 from it and the other was to get a coin near Capital City. 38 coins so far. Also, I completed the 2nd objective, 1st prize.
7th Turn: 2nd Investigate Card.
The options were either explore 1 water and 5 nearby spaces or one Mountain plus 3 spaces from that straight. I decided to go with the latter. Used that from village at top right to explore Mountain moving downwards to reach the Ruins. Got 3 coins from the map and the treasure was Vase, 1st one. Currently 41 coins so far.
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3rd ROUND.
1st Turn: 2 Grassland spaces.
This was a bit wasted. I just took 3 coins from already explored area. 44 coins so far.
2nd Turn: 2 adjacent spaces.
From the village on Desert area, bottom left from Capital City, I tried to reach out to bottom left corner. Hoping to use 1st Investigate card not only to reach the ruin spaces but explore small grassland space on the west. So, I placed to the bottom left with just water, no ruins.
3rd Turn: 2nd Investigate Card.
From Capital City, I explored one Mountain to the top right. Then using this, explored 3 spaces straight to top left, reaching a Ruin space. Got similar treasure, 1 coin per village on Mountain.
4th turn: 2 Desert Spaces.
I was hoping to connect trade route with the city on desert island in the middle and a city on Grassland area at the top. For that I had to place one of that Desert city and then connect the village on nearby desert to the capital city. Somehow I forgot that the 2 Grassland card was already out.
5th Turn: 1st Investigate card.
After realizing my mistake, I decided to connect that Desert island city to a Grassland city at the top right with exactly 5 spaces to explore for village. Got 6 coins from trade route, 1 from the map, 3 from the village. 54 coins so far.
6th Turn: 3rd Investigate card.
This time, the options were 4 spaces in a region or 3 desert and 2 mountains anywhere. I went with the latter. The 2 desert spaces were to completely explore the middle desert island. 2 Mountains could have completed the Mountain area to the north from Capital city but I decided to use one to explore the farther top right Mountain so I could use the last Desert to reach a City.
Got 3 coins from Desert island village. 2 coins from exploring Mountain, 4 coins from the Trade Route between 2 Desert cities. 63 coins so far.
7th Turn: Mountain Space.
Completed the Mountain range to the north from Capital City. Got 3 coins from it. 66 coins so far.
8th Turn: 3 water spaces.
I just explored the Ruins near desert, connected to that Capital City. The treasure got me a coin for every Tower.
That was the end of 3rd Round.
4th ROUND.
1st Turn: 1st Investigate Card.
Since I already had a village in the middle desert island, I managed to reach the west end. Almost completely explored the Grassland island there plus the ruins next to Mountain. The treasure got me 2 coins and 2 more from that island. 70 coins so far.
Completed all of the objectives for solo play.
2nd Turn: 2 adjacent spaces.
The 2nd Investigate card was able to reach the bottom right Tower. Only if I used this card to reach the Mountain island inbetween that tower and capital. Got 3 coins from the Mountain. 73 coins so far.
3rd Turn: 2 Grassland spaces.
One was to completely explore the Grassland island on the west for 4 coins from the village. The other was just to get a coin from the top right. 78 coins so far.
4th turn: 2nd Investigate card.
As planned, I reached the Bottom Right Tower. Got 2 coins from the Map and 8 coins from the 2nd Tower. 88 coins so far.
5th Turn: 3 water spaces.
From the village on desert island again, I tried to reach the top left. It ended between the Mountain and Desert spaces.
6th Turn: 3rd Investigate Card.
I used these 5 spaces separately. The 2 Mountains was to move closer to the bottom left Tower. I could finish it with the single Mountain card. Then the 3 was to get closer to the Tower at top left. Got 2 coins total from the map 90 coins so far.
7th Turn: 2 Desert spaces.
I continued the exploration to the top left Tower. Got 1 coin from Map and 10 from 3rd Tower. 101 coins so far.
8th Turn: 4th investigate card.
In the game, I reused the 1st Investigate card to explore the bottom grassland area. Got me 3 coins from the map, 6 from trade routes and a treasure from ruin worth 1 coin for every tower. Total was 14.
After evaluating during writing this report, I could have reused the 2nd card to completely explore the mountain at bottom left. This could have gotten me 8 coins from trade route, 4 from map, 4 from village, 2 from the previous treasure cards. Total was 18. Should have chosen that instead.
110 coins so far.
9th Turn: 1 Mountain Space.
This was to discover the 4th Tower at the bottom left. Got 14 coins, 124 so far.
That was the end of the game. Got 30 coins from 3 objectives, 11 coins from the treasure cards.
Final score was 165.
Playing time was about 89 minutes, including the extra time trying to fix the invalid move after 3 turns in the last round.
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The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game
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Expand your estate while generating and managing resources to reach the goal faster and farther in The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game.
This was a solo session with the Map D. I chose the Castle with purple bonus as the starting point.
PHASE A, 1st ROLL: Yellow, Blue, 2, 5, 2 Hourglass
Obviously I had to go with Blue and a 5 to the left from the starting castle.
2nd ROLL: Yellow, Yellow, 1, 5, 1 Hourglass.
Immediately changed the color with first castle bonus, turning a Yellow into Blue and got Blue and 5. Completed first Blue area for 1 Goods. Got 4 points, 5 so far.
3rd ROLL: Orange, Yellow, 2, 6 and 2 hourglass.
Sold the item for 2 points and a Silver. Spent the Silver to make Orange 2 and Orange 6 in the area right below the starting Castle.
7 points so far.
4th ROLL: Orange, Orange, 1, 2, 2 Hourglass.
Had to be Orange 1 and filled 3rd space of 4 of that area.
5th ROLL: Blue, Green, 1, 5 and 1 Hourglass.
The only option was Green with 5 for the Goods bonus. Got 1 point, 8 so far.
6th ROLL: Purple, Gray, 5, 4, 2 Hourglass.
Sold the item for 2 points and a Silver. I went with Gray 4 and filled one of 2 hexes in the top area.
7th ROLL: Green, Yellow, 4, 4, 2 Hourglass.
So, I could make 2 Yellow 4. Spent the Silver for it to complete the yellow hexes on the middle left. Scored 8 points, 16 so far.
8th ROLL: Orange, Yellow, 1, 3, 1 Hourglass.
Orange 3 to complete the area of 4 Orange hexes. Got 13 points and a Worker bonus. 29 points so far.
PHASE 2.
1st Roll: Gray, Green, 4, 5 and 2 Hourglass.
With the Gray 4, completed the first of 2 Gray groups. Got 3 points and a Silver. 32 points so far.
2nd ROLL: Gray, Yellow, 3, 5, 2 Hourglass.
Gray 3 to start the other group.
3rd ROLL: Orange, Green, 1, 1, 2 Hourglass.
Orange 1 for the area at the top right so I had access to another Castle.
4th ROLL: Gray, Blue, 5, 5, 1 Hourglass.
Spent the Silver to get 2 Blue 5. Completing the 2nd group on the left. Got 3 points and a Goods. 35 points so far.
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5th ROLL: Yellow, Yellow, 3, 5, 1 Hourglass.
Filled the single space at bottom right. Got 2 points, 37 so far.
6th ROLL: Orange, Yellow, 2, 6, 1 Hourglass.
With Orange 2, completed the 2nd group of Orange at the top right. Got 2nd worker and 3 points. 40 so far.
7th ROLL: Blue, Blue, 2, 4, 2 Hourglass.
Sold the goods for 2 points and a Silver. Used on Worker to get a 5 and filled the first space of 3rd group on the right. 42 points so far.
8th ROLL: Blue, Yellow, 1, 6, 2 Hourglass.
Blue 6 finished the last of Blue Group. Got 3 points a goods and the first color bonus.
PHASE 3.
1st ROLL: Yellow, Blue, 2, 6, 1 Hourglass.
Yellow 6 for the single space at the top right. Got 2 points, 47 points.
2nd ROLL: Purple, Yellow, 2, 5, 1 Hourglass.
Purple 2 to complete the single space area in the top middle. Got 1 point and a Monk, 48 total.
3rd ROLL: Blue, Green, 1, 2, 1 Hourglass.
Castle 1 for the top Casle with a Silver. Got 1 point, 49 so far.
4th ROLL: Green, Gray, 1, 6, 1 Hourglass.
Spent the Worker to get a 3 or 4 for Gray, completing the last space. Got 2 points, a Silver and lower color bonus.
5th ROLL: Purple, Orange, 4, 3, 2 Hourglass.
Sold the goods for 2 points and a Silver. Orange 4 filled the middle space. Got 1 point and a Worker. 54 so far.
6th ROLL: Orange, Yellow, 4, 5, 1 Hourglass.
Yellow 5 for the space on the right end. 2 points, 56 total. Spent 1 Silver to get Orange 5 for the last space at the top left. Got 1 point, a worker and the color bonus. 57 so far.
7th ROLL: Green, Yellow, 4, 6, 1 Hourglass.
Spent 1 of last 2 silver for Green 4 and Yellow 4. Completed the Green color and filled 1 of last 2 spaces for Yellow. Got 1 point, a worker and lower color bonus. 58 so far.
8th ROLL: Yellow, Purple, 3, 4.
Yellow 4 to finish the last space of that color. Got 4 points, 62 so far.
Plus additional 10 points for completing 4 colors. Final score was 72.
Playing time was about 25 minutes.
Learn more about the game from The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game review.
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For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game
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Unify the kingdom of Northwood by having dialogues with all 8 fief rulers in For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game.
This was still with standard game, not the scenario campaign. Got Lady of Claws, Prince of Flowers, King of Eyes, King of Leaves as my allies. The starting hand was Blue 1, 3, 4, Red 3, Yellow 3, 4, 7 and Black 3. Based on that I visited Jack of Claws for 0 win.
1st ROUND. Jack of Claws, 0 win.
Before the dialog started, Prince of Flowers removed all duplicates with the same value. Removing all 3 but the yellow and the 4 Yellow.
The dialogue started with Red 4. I had no red so Yellow 7 and I lost. After that was Blue 2. Lucky that I got to lose with Blue 1.
Then Black 6 and I played Yellow 3. Black 8 after that and I completely lost with Blue 4. Jack of Claws joined the Northwood.
2nd ROUND. Jack of Flowers, 5 wins.
I got Yellow 6 and 8, Black 1, 4, 7 and Red 1, 2, 5. With 4 strong cards and some reds I visited the Jack of Flower.
The dialogue started with Black 2. I secured my first win with Black 4. After that was Yellow 1 and I got 2nd win with Yellow 6. Red 7 next and I didn’t have any to win so Red 2.
Blue 5 was next. I had no Blue so I played Red 1 for 3rd win. Blue 7 after that and I played the Red 5 for 4th win.
I only needed 1 more win and I had 2 possible stronger cards. So, with the help from King of Leaves, I looked at the top of the deck. It was Yellow 5 and I decided to lose by exchanging it with Yellow 8.
Blue 8 was next and I lost again with Black 1. Not guarantee that the next one would be Black even though there were only 3 so far. The King of Eyes came to help. I chose Black suit to discard and got 2 new cards, Blue 6 and Red 6, discarding the Black 7.
Black 5 was next and I took a chance to lose first with Blue 6. Last one was Black 3 and I got the 5th win with Red 6.
Jack of Flowers joined the Northwood.
3rd ROUND. Jack of Leaves, 3 wins.
Got Red 1, 3, 4 and 8, Black 8, Yellow 2, 6 and Blue 1. More on Red and no more Red ruler for higher wins which is why I settled with Yellow and 3 wins.
Yellow 3 was the first. First win with Yellow 6. After that was Yellow 4 and I lost with my Yellow 2. The Yellow continued with 7 and I lost my Red 4.
Black 4 was next and I got 2nd win with Black 8. Blue 4 after that and I only had Blue 1. Red 5 was next and I got my final win with Red 8.
The dialogue continued with Black 7 and I lost with Red 3. Followed by Black 6 and I lost the Red 1. So I got 3 wins and Jack of Leaves joined Northwood.
4th ROUND. Queen of Claws, 2 wins.
Got Blue 1, Black 3, 4, 7, Red 2, 5, 6 and Red 5. 4 strong cards but I needed blue. Instead I went with Black and 2 wins.
Yellow 3 started the dialogue again. Lost with my Yellow 2. Red 4 was next and I had to win with Red 5, first win, 1 left.
So, I decided to let go of the Black with the help from King of Eyes. Got 2 new cards, Yellow 4 and 7.
The dialogue continued with Black 5. I lost with Yellow 7. Yellow 8 was next and I lost my 6. At this point all yellows were out except for Yellow 1.
Red 3 was next and I lost with Yellow 5. Blue 4 after that and I lost with Blue 1. Not sure that Yellow 1 was going to show up so I let Lady of Claws discarded the Yellow 4 to draw 4 new cards. Got Blue 5, Black 8, Red 1 and 2.
The dialogue continued again with Black 1 and I got 2nd win with Black 8. Blue 8 was next and I lost with Blue 5. I still had Red 1 and 2 and all reds up to 4 had come out. Red 6 was out so I played Red 2, followed by Red 8 and I lost again with Red 1 for exactly 2 wins.
Queen of Claws joined the Northwood.
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5th ROUND. Jack of Eyes, 4 wins.
Got Blue 2, 3, 7, Red, 1, 2, 7, Black 2, 7. Some duplicate numbers and not enough stronger ones so I didn’t pick the 2 highest wins.
Dialogue started with Black 4. My first win with Black 7. Yellow 4 was next and I got 2nd win with Blue 3. This way, the 2 could be discarded as duplicates.
Black 3 was next so I lost with Black 2. They continued with Black 6 and no more black for me. Got 3rd win with Blue 2.
Yellow 1 after that and I had to play Blue 7 for 4th win. Still had 3 cards, all red. Red 3 was next and I lost with Red 2.
King of Leaves came to help. The top card was Yellow 5 and I exchanged it with my Yellow 7. So, I lost. Yellow 3 was the last one and I lost with my Red 1. Got exactly 4 wins and Jack of Eyes joined Northwood.
6th ROUND. Baron of Leaves, 7 wins.
Got Yellow 5, 7, Black 8, Red 6 and 8, Blue 1, 2, 5. A lot of strong cards and which is why I challenged the highest win.
Black 5 started the dialogue and I got 1st win with Black 8. Yellow 3 was next and got 2nd win with Yellow 5. Red 5 after that and I got 3rd win with Red 6.
Blue 7 was out and I lost with my Blue 1. After that was Blue 4 and got my 4th win with Blue 5. Red 2 after that and I got 5th win with Red 8.
Next was Blue 3 and I lost again with Blue 2. Only 1 card left and I needed 2 more wins so I asked King of Eyes to help again.
6 Blues were already out, 4 Red, 2 Black and 3 Yellow. I had to draw 2 but discard cards of one suit. Hoping that the next 2 were different colors, I chose Black. Got Blue 6 and Black 1, keeping the former, discarding the latter.
The dialogue continued with Red 1 and I had to play Yellow 7, 6th win. Not sure that the next one would be Blue so Lady of Claws discarded that 6 and drew 6 new one for me. Got Yellow 1, 2, 8, Black 4, 6 and Red 4.
The dialogue continued with Black 3. Got my 7th or last win with Black 6. Now I had to remove the rest. Instead of King of Flowers, I brought in Jack of Flowers to discard cards with matching suit with the ruler, removing 3. Still had Red 4 and Black 4.
The dialogue continued again with Yellow 6. Lost with my Black first. Last one was Yellow 4 and I lost the Red 1. Got exactly 7 wins so Baron of Leaves joined Northwood.
7th ROUND, Queen of Eyes, 6 wins.
Got Red 8, Black 1, 2, Blue 5, 6, 7 and Yellow 3 and 4. 4 strong cards and the last ruler was for 1 win only so I went with this one.
Yellow 5 started the dialogue. First lost for me with yellow 3. Red 2 after that and I had to win, 1st one with Red 8. Blue 3 after that and got 2nd win with Blue 5.
Red 7 was next and no more red for me. Blue 6 for 3rd win. Black 3 after that and I lost with Black 2. They continued with Black 5 and I lost again with Black 1. 2 cards left and 3 more wins.
The Lady of Claws discarded my Yellow 4 to draw Blue 1, 2, 4 and Black 7. So now I had better chance.
The dialogue continued with Red 1. Got 4th win with Blue 1. Black 6 after that and I got 5th win with Black 7. Yellow 7 was next and I had only blue so I won 6th win already with Blue 2.
Before continuing, I chose to get rid of Blue with King of Eyes. They got me Blue 8 and Black 4 so I kept the Black only. Last card was Yellow 1 and I lost with Black 4. 6 exact wins and Queen of Eyes joined Northwood.
8th ROUND, King of Flowers, 1 win.
No other option but I got Black 7 and 8, Blue 2, Red 3 and 6, Yellow 2, 6, 8.
They started with Blue 5 and I lost with Blue 2. Prince of Flowers then got rid of Yellow 6 and Black 8 for duplicates.
Black 1 was next and I already got the only win I needed with Black 7. 4 cards left.
Decided to get rid of Reds with the help from King of Eyes again. Got Red 1 and Blue 7 so I discarded 3, keeping 3 cards.
Yellow 4 was next and I got to lose with Yellow 2. Black 2 was after that and I lost again with Yellow 8. Decided to take a chance with King of Leaves. The top card was Blue 6 and I had to exchange it with my Blue 7. So I lost that last card and got exactly 1 win.
King of Flowers, with the rest of the rulers all joined Northwood.
Playing time was about 59 minutes.
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Goblin Vaults
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Win a card game against inmates of Kulbak Prison in Goblin Vaults.
This was another solo play. I think I just realized that I had been playing wrong about the Warden action, got mixed up between the suit and faction. It is supposed to be triggered by faction symbol at the middle top not the color of the card.
The 3 goals I used were BEGGAR KING (Red), Shrewd Dealings (Yellow), Raid Evasion (Blue). Also included all 3 matching suits in the game plus the Green one. For the Red goal, I needed to have a row where the highest value card is a red. For Yellow, I needed at least 2 columns with one yellow each and both had to be the same total value. While the Blue was just scoring adjacent blue cards 3 points per card.
I probably should have evaluated more carefully at the start. Blue was probably the most flexible one. Red depended on the other cards in the same row while Yellow probably involved moving cards.
Regardless, I started with 4 Blue cards, 3 yellow and 2 red plus a yellow. Used the Yellow as the start of the tableau.
1st ROUND. Yellow 1, Yellow 6, Green 7, with Green 1 for Warden.
Glavrun first bid was to Yellow 1 with Red 1. Since I wanted to expand to more columns, the Green 7 was great for row 1. So I bit there with my Green 2, matching the trump suit. Glavrun’s 2nd bid was underbid mine so I got a gear.
Placed this Green 7 at row 1, column 2.
2nd ROUND. Red 1, Yellow 6, Green 2, with Green 1 for Warden.
Glavrun bid their first card and this time using Red 4. I bid on the middle card since it worked for 2nd row and added another yellow to my 2nd column. Bid with Green 3. Glavrun’s 2nd bid was underbid mine again so I got another Gear.
I placed this to my row 2, column 2.
3rd ROUND. Red 4, Green 3, Green 2 and Green 1 still for Warden.
Glavrun bid my previous card, using Green 5. I wanted his previous one, the Red 4 since it worked for 3rd row and had my faction, the Snake. So I bid using Blue 8 while Glavrun bid the 3rd card.
Placed that Red 4 in row 3, column 2. Now the total value of this column was 17 while the first one was just 5. So I needed 12 to match.
Also I swapped the Green 1 from Warden with my previous Blue 8.
4th ROUND. Green 1, Green 5, Yellow 3, with Blue 8 for Warden.
Glavrun with Yellow 10 bid the middle. I went for the right one since it worked for top row and had my faction while adding yellow to new column. Glavrun’s 2nd bid was to first card.
I placed the card to row 1, column 3. Swapped the Warden card again from Blue 8 with Yellow 10.
5th ROUND. Green 10, Blue 8 and Blue 5, with yellow 10 for Warden.
Glavrun got another Red, a 7 and bid it on Green 10. I guess I was still focusing on the position. I bid the middle card since it was good for top row, my 4th column using Green 6. Glavrun’s 2nd bid was to 3rd card with Yellow 9.
As planned, I placed the card for top row, column 4.
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6th ROUND. Red 7, Green 6, Yellow 9. Warden still had Yellow 10.
Glavrun’s first bid to 3rd card with Blue 6. I played my Blue 9 to bid Red 7 since it had Snake and good for 3rd row, probably needed moving before that. Glavrun underbid mine with Red 9 so I got a gear.
I placed Red 7 to my row 2 column 1.
7th ROUND. Blue 9, Green 6, Yellow 10 and Warden got Blue 6.
Glavrun bid the 3rd with Green 9. I bid my previous card with Blue 4. Glavrun played Red 6 to the same card but I matched the warden’s suit so I got another gear.
I placed this to my 3rd column, row 2. This way, I got 2 columns with Matching total value, 12. However, now the Red 7 was no longer the highest value of that row.
8th ROUND. Blue 4, Green 6, Green 9 and Warden still had Blue 6.
Glavrun bid the middle with Red 2. With my Red 3, I aimed for the 1st card. Glavrun did the 2nd with Blue 3 to 3rd card. Since my bid card had the same faction as Warden’s card, I moved Red 7 from row 2 to row 3 column 3. Maybe I made a mistake for this.
Also swapped the Blue 6 with Red 2 from Warden.
9th ROUND. Red 3, Blue 6, Blue 3 and Warden got Red 2.
Glavrun bid the first card with Blue 7. Using my Red 5 I chose the middle one. Then Glavrun underbid my card with Yellow 7 since I matched the trump suit so I got a gear.
I placed the card at row 2, column 1. That was the end of the game.
FINAL SCORING.
I got 9 gears from tokens, 14 from the matching the position, 6 from my faction icons, 4 from Red Goal, 0 from Yellow Goal and 6 from Blue. My final score was 39.
Glavrun got 13 from tokens, 11 from matching suits or 24. Depending on the difficulty, they got 8 cards with matching faction icons so they got either 16, 24 or 32. Even with the easy mode they got 40 so I still lost.
Aiming for multiple goals is hard. Maybe it’s better to focus on the easier one right from the start but then again, depends on which suit is available.
Playing time was about 38 minutes.
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Mandala
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Craft the sand sculpture and destroy it to make a new one as a symbol of circle of life in Mandala.
This was a 2-handed session. Left Mountain had Black and Green and Right Mountain of Mandala had Orange and Yellow where left and right were from 1st player’s perspective.
1st player had 3 Yellow, 2 Red and 1 Orange. They played 1 yellow to their left side. 2nd player had Purple, Yellow, 3 Red and Orange. They added Red also to that Left Mandala.
1st player then had to play a Red to the Right one, their side. 2nd player played the Purple to that same Mandala, 4th color.
Back to first player, they added Yellow to the right Mandala Mountain and drew 3 cards, Black, Red and Yellow. 2nd Player did the same but to with Orange to get 2 Black and 1 Orange.
1st player added Black to the right Mandala, their side, 5th color. 2nd player added Black to the Mountain of the left, getting Yellow, Orange and Purple.
1st player added another Yellow to the Mountain of the left, getting 2 Yellow and a Red. 2nd player added Purple to the left Mandala, their side, 4th color.
1st player then added 2 more Yellow to their side of the Left Mandala, winning the majority. While 2nd player then added 2nd Red, making it 3 cards of that same Mandala, so both were tied.
1st had 5 cards left so they added 4th yellow to the mountain of the Right and got 2 Black and Orange. 2nd player followed but with Orange and got 2 Purple plus Red.
1st player finally added 6th color to the left Mandala, the Orange, on their side. They had 4 cards against 3, winning the Majority. 1st player took 2 Black, one for scoring color giving the Green to the 2nd player, only for scoring color.
New Mandala was seeded with yellow and Red.
2nd player then played their only Black to their side of that new left Mandala.
1st player had 3 Red, 2 Black and Orange and the only way to increase majority for that new Mandala was the Orange so they played that. 2nd player got 2 Purple and added 1 to that new Mandala, their side, 5th color.
1st player added Red on the top of Left, finally got 2 Green and a Red. 2nd player did similar but with orange to the Right Mandala top mountain so the two colors had the same number and got Orange, Green and Red.
1st player then added Green to their side of the Left Mandala and this was the 6th color. Let’s say I just forgot to add 2nd Green card so they won the majority of that Mandala. 1st player took the 2 Red, giving the single yellow to 2nd player. Both had 2 scoring colors.
New Left Mandala was seeded with Purple and Black.
2nd player with a lot of red, played 2 on their side of that new Mandala.
1st player added the Black to the new Mandala and got Yellow, Orange and Purple. While 2nd player got 3rd card on their side of that Mandala with Yellow, 4th color there.
1st player played their only Orange to that Mandala so at least they got something. 2nd player added 5th Orange on the Right Mandala to get 2 more Orange and Green.
1st player added 2nd Purple on top of the Left Mandala and since they still had 6, they got a yellow and orange. This time, 2nd player finished the Right Mandala by adding 2 green to their side, winning the Majority.
4 Yellow and 5 Orange. 2nd took the Orange, giving the Yellow to 1st. Both had 3 scoring colors. New Right Mandala was seeded with yellow and Purple.
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With a lot of Red, 1st player claimed that color on the right by playing 2, 3rd color there. 2nd player matched the majority with 2 Orange on their side, 4th color there.
1st player added 2nd Yellow to the Mountain of the new Mandala, getting Black, Green and Purple. While 2nd player was back to the Left Mandala and added 3rd Purple to the Mountain to get Orange, red and green.
1st added Green, 3rd card winning the majority of the right mandala, 5th color. 2nd player added 6th color but to that left Mandala with Green and it was on the top of the Mountain.
They already won the majority, 3 against 1. So they first picked purple with 3 cards. 1st had to choose either 2 points of black for them and 1 point from green to 2nd or new 4th color of green for 1st and 2 points of Black for the 2nd.
They chose the Black, giving the green to 2nd. New Left Mandala was seeded with yellow and Orange.
1st player added red to that new Mandala. 2nd claimed the green, matching the majority, 4th color there.
1st continued with Purple, winning the majority, 5th color. 2nd player added 2nd yellow to that Mountain, getting 2 red and Purple.
1st player followed but with orange, so both colors had 2 cards on the Mountain. 2nd player had too many reds but they couldn’t play so they discarded 3 and kept 2, getting Purple and 2 Black.
1st player finally finished the right Mandala by adding 6th color, Black to the Mountain while winning the majority, 3 against 2. Obviously, they had to take 6 points from 2 yellow. 2nd then took the 4 points from single purple while giving just 1 point from black to 1st.
New Right Mandala was seeded with Red and Green.
2nd player then played 2 Purple from their 3 to their side of the new Mandala.
1st player followed but with 2 Black, 4th color. 2nd player added 2nd Red to that Mountain, getting 2 Orange and Black.
1st player then added 3rd Yellow to the Left Mandala, getting Black, Red and Orange. 2nd player added 2 Orange, 5th color of the Right Mandala, winning the majority.
1st player finished the Left Mandala by adding Black to the Mountain. They won the majority, 2 against 1, taking 9 points from yellow first. 2nd player had a choice either 6 points of 2 Orange, giving 1 point of black to 1st or taking 1 new black or giving 1 new orange. Well, they chose the latter thinking they could win by getting 6th color first.
New Left Mandala was seeded with 2 Purple.
2nd player then claimed the single red color of the new Mandala.
1st player followed but with 2 green on that side of new Mandala. 2nd player added 2nd color to the Mountain with Orange, getting 2 Black and 1 Yellow.
1st player added 2nd Green to the Right Mandala, getting 3 cards. 2nd player decided to end the game by adding 6th color, the yellow to the Right Mandala, on the Mountain, already winning the majority, 4 against 2.
Obviously they took the 2 Reds for the 6th color first to trigger this end game. 1st player then took Green as 5th color for 5 points. 2nd then took 2 points from the single yellow.
That was the end of the game.
SCORING.
1st player scored 4 points from 4 Black, 2 points from 1 Red, 21 points from 7 yellow, 8 points from 2 Orange and 5 points from the single Green. Total score was 40.
2nd player scored 2 points from 2 green, 2 points from 1 yellow, 12 points from 4 orange, 16 points from 4 purple, 0 point from Black and 6 points from single Red. Total score was 38.
So 1st player won, even if they didn’t trigger the end game.
Playing time was about 56 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Mandala Review.
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Chocobo’s Dungeon: The Board Game
More pictures of this Chocobo’s Dungeon: The Board Game session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Help Chocobo find spells and foods, beat enemies, avoid traps until finally beat the Behemoth in Chocobo’s Dungeon: The Board Game.
This was back with 2-handed session after badly played the solo variant. Also I played this almost like open information just so maybe I could figure out how to get better in this. Got 2 sessions, with all of the lowest difficulty settings.
Maybe I did find out how but it seems you need to play a long game in this one. Meaning most of the time you just stalling, surviving while managing resources to keep getting cards and possibly a good spell. Moving fast is not the way to go unless you really run out of time.
But eventually, there is an action on that dial where you have to move. On other chances, you have to use the other action. So, it feels like the point of the game is to stay in good cycle of cards, removing as many enemies as possible while preparing to get a good card to move in exact number of spaces.
Also, a tip before descending to the next floor is making sure to still using as many actions to get cards before moving to the stair. In the 2nd play, the level before the boss fight, I almost run out of time, mostly because I had to play value 3 for the reaper once since that was the bonus card.
Doing it correctly can get you in the boss fight with almost full health and good amount of cards while still good amount of food. Again, this is strictly when playing with almost open information, 2-handed.
One session was a loss and here is how it went with the 2nd. Got Heal 2, Lightning and Speed 1 as the starting spells.
1st ROUND, 1st FLOOR. Dial 1: MOVE OR EAT. Bonus Card: 6.
Reaper action was #3. 2nd player had value 1 with #66. 2 enemies and both had 3 health. Chocobo had to move at action 4. Ideally 2 attacks with value 3 to completely remove the 2 enemies and either moving 1 or 3.
1st player played 15 and 97 both at value 3. 2nd player played 66, value 1 and 96, value 2.
So, with #6 for 1st action, got 4 cards, 1 food left. 15 with value 3 for beating one of the enemy, got 2 food, so 3 food left. Reaper then moved 1 space with #66, value 1.
Before moving with action 4, spent the book to move 1 space to the left from entrance. Got a food token value 5 so 8 left. Then moving 2 spaces with 96, landed with another Book, Healing 1.
Last action with 97 value 3 was to beat the 2nd enemy and got 2 more food, 10 left.
2nd ROUND. Dial 1: EAT / ATTACK. Bonus Card: 83.
The bonus value was 5 and last action had to move Chocobo. Moving 5 spaces was not bad but no bonus. The 2 enemies had 4 and 3 health. So, ideally, maybe the 5 was to beat the stronger one.
1st player played 23 and 94 while 2nd player played 11 and 92. 11 for first action was value 4 either attack or eat. Decided to go with attack, defeating the Slime. Bonus health but still full.
Dial 2 with 23 had value 2 for either move or eat. Decided to go with eat, getting 2 cards, 1 each, 8 food left.
Dial 3 was with 83, value 5 to defeat the 2nd enemy and got a Spell. I had to discard the other Healing I got previously and to take the Fire 4. Then Reaper action got them to move 2 spaces. While with 5th and value 1 from 94 moved Chocobo and pushed the reaper extra 1 space.
3rd ROUND. Dial 1: Reaper. Bonus card: 49.
Two Cactuars appeared and both had 5 health each. 49 was value 1. Placing it for one of 2 reaper actions seemed not likely. But both players had 5 or 6 cards above 49.
So, trying to place 49 for reaper, 2nd player played 98 with value 1 for the 2nd Reaper action with 50 value 4. 1st player played 93 value 3 and 69 value 4.
Dial 1 moved Reaper 1 space, 8 left. Card 50 with value 4 for 2nd action, either attack or eat. Decided to go with attack but before that, casted Lighting to deal 2 damage to both Cactuars. Then dealing 4 to beat one of them. Bonus book was Move 1 space.
Then Dial 3 was for moving 4 spaces with 66. This got Chocobo to intersection. Spent the recent book and Chocobo got 4 more food.
Dial 4 with value 3 from 93 was to deal 3 damage to the 2nd Cactuar. Got Healing 1 again as bonus. Then Reaper moved 1 space again, 7 left.
4th ROUND. Dial 1: ATTACK OR EAT. Bonus card: 5.
Slime and Cactuar again appeared. 2nd player had to play 40 with value 2, hoping to place it for the only Reaper action at dial 2. Then they also played 76. 1st player played 62 and 82.
Dial one was for EAT using 5 with value 3 to get 3 cards, 10 food left. Then the Reaper moved 2 spaces, 5 left. With 62 at dial 3, Chocobo did EAT again to get 5 cards, 5 food left. Then with 76 value 4, they moved again but this time back to intersection to the other way, landed on a food, value 5, 10 food left.
Last action was to attack with 82 value 2 to Cactuar plus Fire 4. The bonus was to move 1 space. This means the Slime was still there, dealing 1 damage to Chocobo.
5th ROUND. DIAL 1: MOVE. Bonus Card: 87.
Slime and 2 more enemies with 4 health appeared. 2nd player had to play 43 value 1 for the Reaper action along with 20 value 5. 21 and 61 from 1st player.
With 20 value 5, Chocobo had to move 5 spaces towards the exit but one space away. Got a food, value 4. Then 21 with value 4 was to get 4 cards by eating, 9 food left. 1 space for Reaper so 4 left.
61 with value 3 was to attack the Slime and gained 1 health. Then the last action with 87 value 5 to get 5 cards, 4 food left. Before the 2 enemies left began to attack, spent the book for move 1 and reached the stair.
2nd FLOOR, 6th ROUND. Dial 1: REAPER. Bonus card: 42.
1 normal and 1 elite enemy now. 1st player had to play 7 with value 1 for the first reaper. Either after or before 42 with value 1 or 2 for the 2nd reaper. 1st player also played 54 for that. So 2nd player played 26 and 77.
Reaper moved 1 space, 11 left. Then Chocobo moved 3 spaces, decided to go down route, landed on nothing. Dial 3 with 42 value 5 was to beat the elite enemy and healed.
Reaper moved again 2 spaces, 9 left. Last action with 77 value 2 was to beat the Goblin and got 2 food, 6 food left.
7th ROUND. Dial 1: ATTACK OR MOVE. Bonus card: 18.
Goblin and Tonberry appeared. 2nd player played 37 and 81, both with value 1 aiming for both Reaper actions. Chocobo had to move on Dial 3, and moving 5 spaces was the only good option. 1st player played 48 and 58, both with value 5.
First action with 18 value 3 was to beat the Goblin and got 2 Food, 8 food left. Reaper then moved 1 space with 37 value 1. Chocobo moved with 48 value 5, choosing the middle path to empty space.
Then with 58 another value 5, beat the Tonberry and got Healing 1. 6 spaces away from the Exit.
8th ROUND. Dial 1: MOVE or EAT. Bonus Card: 89.
The 2 enemies had 3 and 4 health and both had food as reward. That bonus card was value 1 but no way to use it for Reaper at dial 3. 1st player played 33, hoping for that spot with 17. 2nd player went with 8 and 60.
8 had value 3 and it was for Moving 3 spaces. Chocobo moved back from the middle and chose the middle path, landing on food 3. Then 17 was to attack the elite enemy and got 4 food. Reaper moved 2 spaces while Chocobo moved again with 4, right in front of the exit. Last action with 89 and value 1 was just to get 1 card. Chocobo took 1 damage from the other enemy.
9th ROUND. Dial 1: Attack or Eat. Bonus card: 71.
Goblin and Tonberry joined with the previous enemy. Last action this time was to move and Chocobo was just 1 space away from that stair. This was a good chance to get more foods with 2 actions and maybe beat the enemy for more food.
1st player played 24 and 65. 2nd player played 38 and 68.
Got 9 cards from the first 2 actions, 2 food left. Beat the enemy with 3rd and got 2 food. After reaper moved 2 spaces, Chocobo got to the stair with the bonus card.
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3rd FLOOR, 10th ROUND. Dial 1: REAPER. Bonus Card: 57.
With Tonberry and a Bomb this time. That bonus card was value 1 and hoping to play that for the 2nd reaper action at dial 5. 2nd player had to play 3 value 1 for the first reaper and 56 so before 57. 1st player played 27 and 41.
Reaper moved 1 space with number 3. Then with 27 value 5 was to beat Tonberry. Got move 2 book. With 41, Chocobo moved 3 spaces from the Entrance to empty spot.
56 with value 3 was to beat the Bomb and got 2 food. Reaper moved again with 57, 1 space.
11th ROUND. Dial 1: Attack or Eat. Bonus card: 22.
None of the player had card lower than the bonus. 1st player played 36, hoping for the reaper and 78. 45 and 52 from 2nd player.
That 22 value 1 was to attack. Then Reaper moved 2 spaces with 36. 45 value 4 beat the 2nd enemy and got 4 food. 52 value 5 was to get 5 cards. Then 78 value 5 was to beat the first enemy, the giant armor and got 4 more food, 11 food left.
12th ROUND. Dial 1: MOVE. Bonus card: 91.
That bonus card was probably going to be the last so either eat or move. Probably for eat since Chocobo had to move with dial 1.
2nd player aimed to play 44 for dial 3, Reaper with value 2, along with 64. 1st player played 31 and 35, both with value 3.
Chocobo moved 3 spaces with 31 and got a Book, Fire 3. Then Chocobo casted move 2 to the Food space and got 5 food. 35 value 3 for 3 cards. Reaper then moved 2 spaces with 44.
64 value 4 beat one of the enemy for 4 more food. 91 value 5 was to get 5 cards. Took 1 damage from the Armored Enemy.
13th ROUND. Dial 1: REAPER. Bonus card: 12.
That 12 was value 3. Players had cards lower than that but either the same value or greater so they settled with that 3 spaces for Reaper.
1st player had to play 70 value 1 for the 2nd Reaper along with 79. 25 and 51 from 2nd player.
So, the Reaper moved 3 spaces and they were 3 spaces away from instantly kill Chocobo. Chocobo then moved 4 spaces with 25 to a Book and it was HEAL 2. 51 value 3 was to beat the Bomb for 2 food.
With 70, reaper moved again 1 space. 79 value 3 was to attack one of the 2 Armored Giants plus Fire 3 to completly beat them for 4 food. Still 1 left and Chocobo took 1 damage.
14th ROUND. Dial 1: ATTACK OR MOVE. Bonus card: 46.
There were 2 Reaper actions, dial 2 and 5. Even if both got 1, they would trigger the instant kill. That bonus was value 1 so the aim was to get it for the first reaper action. Before the 2nd reaper, there were 2 move actions so if Chocobo could get total of 8, Chocobo reached the stair and avoided the 2nd reaper.
So, 2nd player played 30 value 4 for the first move. 39 from 1st player value 5 for the 2nd move. 75 from 2nd and 59 from 1st.
Chocobo moved total 8 spaces. Got a Food 3 along the way and reached the Stair.
BOSS FIGHT, 15th ROUND. Dial 1: Move or Eat. Bonus card: 13.
Full Food and 8 Health for Chocobo. 1st player played 19 and 100. 2nd player got 14 and 85.
13 value 5 was to get 5 cards. 14 value 2 was to move 2 spaces, getting food 4. Then reaper moved 1 space with 19 to 1 damage space. Chocobo moved again 3 spaces with 85 pushing reaper to similar damage space. Then 100 value 3 to beat the Slime and got 1 health.
Behemoth dealt 1 damage.
16th ROUND. Dial 1: Attack or Eat. Bonus card: 88.
9 and 32 from 1st player. 28 and 99 from 2nd. 9 value 5 was to beat Cactuar, got Lighting 2. For 28 value 1, Chocobo had to move 1 space and took 1 damage.
32 value 5 was to get 5 cards. Reaper moved 2 spaces with 88 to space with 1 damage. 99 value 2 moved Chocobo to get Food 4.
17th ROUND. Dial 1: Reaper. Bonus Card: 1.
So that 1 value 2 was for the Reaper. 2 and 84 from 1st player. 16 and 29 from 2nd.
Reaper moved 2 spaces to top right corner. 2 value 3 to deal 3 damage to Cactuar. Spent the Bolt to deal 2 damage to both. 18 left for Behemoth. Move 2 Book from Cactuar.
With 16 and 29, Chocobo moved 3 spaces and got heal 1. I think I forgot to move Reaper 1 space again and dealt 1 extra damage instead of just 1. Oh, well.
18th ROUND. Dial 1: Attack or Eat. Bonus card: 55.
4 cards left on each hand. 1st played 34 and 53. 2nd took the other half with 74 and 86.
34 value 4 was to get 4 cards. Then reaper moved 1 space with 53. 55 value 4 was to beat the enemy and got 2 food. 74 value 5 was to get 5 cards and 86 value 4 was to move again and got 3 more food.
19th ROUND. Dial 1: MOVE. Bonus Card: 1.
This was the time the deck run out. 47 and 63 from 1st, 72 and 95 from 2nd.
1 value 2 was after the entrance. 47 value 3 was to get 3 cards. 63 value 2 pushed the Reaper. 72 value 4 to beat the Enemy and got Fire 3. 95 value 4 to get 4 cards. 7 food left. 1 damage from Behemoth to Chocobo.
20th ROUND. Dial 1: Reaper. Bonus: 57.
10 and 85 from 2nd. 67 and 73 from 1st. Reaper moved 2 spaces with 10 value 2. Chocobo moved 1 space with 57 value 1 and got Food 4. 67 value 5 was to get cards. 73 value 2 pushed Reaper 2 spaces and 85 value 3 to beat the slime and heal. 1 damage from Behemoth.
21st ROUND. Dial 1: attack or Move. Bonus: 5.
4 and 82 from 1st. 36 and 50 from 2nd player. 4 value 2 to beat the enemy. Reaper then moved 3 spaces with 5.
Chocobo moved again with 36 value 2 to heal plus Move 2 book just to avoid Reaper and took damage. 50 value 4 to get cards. Reaper then moved again 2 spaces. 2 damage from behemoth
22nd ROUND. Dial 1: Move or Eat. Bonus: 77.
52 and 62 from 1st. 21 and 97 from 2nd. 21 value 4 was to get 4 cards. 52 value 5 was to deal 5 damage to behemoth, 13 left.
77 value 2 to move 2 spaces and got Food 5. 97 value 3 to beat the Goblin. Reaper moved 5 spaces with 52 value 5. Dealt 2 damage to Chocobo.
23rd ROUND. Dial 1: ATTACK OR EAT. Bonus: 42.
That 42 had value 5. With Fire 3 and that as attack plus another 5 to attack Behemoth, that was enough to win the game.
1st had 9 value 5 for 1st Attack and the 42 was for 2nd attack. 2nd played 30 in between. 90 from 2nd and 93 from 1st.
As planned 5 damage first to behemoth. 8 left. Then Fire 3, 5 left and another 5 damage to take it down.
Chocobo won. 3 health left but with Heal 2 spell, 14 food, 13 total cards from both hand.
Playing time was about 129 minutes.
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The White Castle
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Impress the Daimyo and gain influence by sending workers of your clan to every level of life in The White Castle.
This was another solo session with official variant and still with the easiest difficulty. Usually I played twice but somehow this took longer.
I started with 4 Food, 2 Iron and no Pearl, 3 coins and 2 Seal. The action for personal domain was GARDENER action with food as first lantern bonus. As part of the board setup, somehow the 3 rooms in first floor inside the castle all had 2 actions for one color, 2 black on the left, 2 red for the middle and 2 white on the right.
1st ROUND.
Red: 1, 3, 6. Black: 4, 4, 4. White: 2, 5, 6.
I started first so I picked Black 4 from the left. Got 1 food, at 5 currently. Placed the die inside the castle, 1st floor on the left, got 1 coin from difference. The first action got me 1 coin and 1 well action which got me 1 Seal, 1 Iron and one of any those 3 resource. Since I had no Pearl, I picked Pearl, currently at 1 with Iron at 3.
Then the 2nd action from that room was COURTIER action with a cost of a seal. Paid 2 coins to send my first one to the gate.
1st dice for the opponent was RED 1 from the left. It was placed on outer action, left one so they got no bonus coin. Then they sent one Gardener to any side. The lowest from Garden was next to red with 1 VP at the end. The opponent was advancing on the time track by 1 and got 2 VP.
So, at this point, they already took the first player position.
2nd die for me was RED 6 from the right, so no lantern bonus. Placed it in the 2nd room of first floor so I got 3 coins. Got 2 Irons, currently at 5. Then the 2nd action was GARDENER action with a cost of a Seal, 1 left.
I had 5 Food so I placed it next to White Bridge with the cost of 4 Food. The bonus allowed me to do another Gardener action and since I only had 1 food left, I placed it next to the red where the opponent already placed theirs. The action got me 2 of any combination from 3 types of resources. I picked my 2 pearls so I got to use them for courtier, currently at 3.
For opponent’s 2nd dice, they had to reveal 2 more cards before eventually they took Black from the right which was a 4. This was placed at the room at the right, first floor so they got 1 coin.
First card top action got them to send 1st Courtier to the Gate. Bottom action got them advancing 2 spaces from the time track plus 1 coin. Then the 2nd card allowed them to send 2nd Courtier also to the gate. Also advancing on the time track and 3 coins. It seems I forgot to advance their position by 1 space. Knowing the result, I don’t think it matters but we’ll see.
3rd dice for me was WHITE 6 from the right. Placed it on 2nd floor, left room for just Courtier Action, got 2 coins. Paid those 2 coins to send my 2nd Courtier to the gate. Then I spent 2 pearls to move 1 Courtier from the gate to the first floor left room. From those 3, this was the only one that could give me Pearl so I picked it. I activated that action as bonus for upgrading my domain. Got 1 food and 1 Pearl.
Last die for opponent this round was the last Black 4 from the left. They placed it on the other outer action so got no extra coin. They also sent out Gardener and this time to the right side, lowest value which was next to the Black bridge. Also got 5 coins.
That was the end of the round. They got the first in turn order so traded 9 coins for 3. They got 1 Gardener next to red and 1 next to black. No black die but there was a red so 1 more VP, currently at 8.
I had 2 Gardeners, one next to Red and the other to White. The one next to red got me to pick 2 resources of any combination from the 3 types. While the one next to white bridge allowed me to do one more Gardener but I only had 1 Food. So, I took 2 food from the red bridge.
Spent 2 coins and 2 food to place another Gardener on the other side of White bridge. This allowed me to activate one white background action. Chose the one to give me a coin plus Well action with 1 Seal, 1 Iron and one of any of those 3 types.
Took a pearl so now I had 1 Food, 6 Iron and 3 Pearls, 1 coin and 2 Seals.
2nd ROUND.
Red: 4, 5, 6. Black: 1, 4, 5. White: 1, 4, 5.
The opponent started first with WHITE 5 from the right. This was placed on Outer action, right one and no bonus coin for them. Then they sent their first Warrior to training ground with 1 Iron. 2nd part of that got them to move their Courtier 2 spaces up. They had 2 at the gate so they went up straight to 2nd floor and I chose on the right. That one previously had Gardener action which I didn’t think I needed more this time. Now the new one had Warrior action.
1st die for me was BLACK 5 from the right. This was placed again in the 1st floor left room. Got 2 coins. There were 2 actions. One was 1 coin plus well action so I got a Seal, 1 Iron and one of any. I think I picked a Pearl so currently at 1 food, 7 iron and 4 pearls.
Then the 2nd action was COURTIER with a cost of Seal. Paid 2 coins and to send 3rd Courtier to the gate and then I spent 2 Pearls to move up one Courtier from the gate to the 1st level, left room.
From the new card I activated the one coin plus Well action again. Got 3rd Seal, wasted Iron since it was already full and one of any. I think I chose the Food.
Got 3 coins left, 3 seals, 3 Food, 7 Iron and 2 Pearls. It seems I got 1 food too many.
2nd die for opponent was White 1 after revealing 3 cards. The spot to placed the die was already occupied by me so they went to the Well with no bonus. Then from 1st card, top action, they sent 3rd Gardener to any side and the lowest one was next to White on the left. They were advancing on the turn order again and got 2 VP.
From their 2nd card, they sent 3rd Courtier to the gate. Advancing one more space on time track and 3 coins. They were already in the 2nd part if I tracked correctly.
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2nd die for me was RED 6 from the right. This was placed to my personal domain. Got me 3 food, 2 coins and activating the coin plus well action again. Currently had 6 coins, 4 Seals, 6 food, 7 irons and 4 Pearls.
3rd die for opponent was Black 4 from the right after revealing 2 cards. Placed it in the right room 1st floor and got 1 coin. They sent 2nd Warrior to the middle ground while moving 1 Courtier from the gate up 1 level. Since they did again with the 2nd card bottom room, I chose to change cards in 2 rooms. Left now had Courtier and middle room had Warrior action.
Last part was to send 4th of their Gardener to the left side and the only empty space for them was next to Black bridge. Now they had all 3 on left and one in the middle.
Last die for me was RED 4 from the left so I got Lantern bonus, 1 Food, 1 space in time track, 1 coin. The die was placed in the middle room 1st floor so I got 1 coin and 2 actions.
First action was to advance again in time track, currently at 2nd space from the start. Then the 2nd action was to spend 1 Seal for Warrior Action. I had 7 iron so I sent one to the highest one with 5.
The bonus got me to do one from personal domain and one any white background action in the castle. From the personal domain, I activated the middle row. Got 3 iron back, lantern bonus, which was 1 food, 1 in time track and 1 coin, paying a seal for Courtier action.
Spent 2 coins to send 4th Courtier to the gate. Then spent 2 Pearls, to move up Courtier already at the gate to claim the card from the right room first floor. The bonus from the new card got me 2 Pearls.
Currently had 7 coins, 2 Seals, 7 food, 5 irons and 4 Pearls and at 3rd space of time track.
That was the end of 2nd round. I was still behind in turn order. The opponent only traded 3 coins for 2 VP but they got to activated all 4 Gardeners for 8. Currently at 20 VP for them.
I also got to activate 3 Gardeners. First one got me 2 resources in any combination of those 3. Then I got to do 1 action in the castle with white background. Last one got me to do one more Gardener action by spending 3 coins.
Starting from the last one, I spent 3 coins to do one more Gardener. I picked the top right for 4 food which allowed me to spend 3 coins to do one Warrior Action. Sent 2nd one to the top ground with 5 irons. This got me to activate personal domain again and another White background action in the castle so I got to do it twice with the other Garden bonus.
I activated middle personal domain. Got me 4 Irons, lantern bonus which was 1 food, 1 in time track and 2 coins with a Seal and 1 VP.
I still got 2 white background actions and I chose 2 spaces from the time track. This got me to the 2nd part by paying 1 Seal. While I was finally ahead but in same space in that track, the opponent still got 1st turn order since this happened after that rearranging.
Last Gardener action got me 2 resources of any combination and I chose 2 Pearls.
Currently had 1 coin, 2 Seals, 4 food, 4 irons and 6 Pearls and at 6th space of time track.
3rd ROUND.
Red: 2, 2, 4. Black: 2, 2, 2. White: 2, 3, 5.
The opponent was still first order and took BLACK 2 from the middle. This was placed on 2nd floor, left room so no coin bonus for them. Then they sent their last Gardener to the bottom right. They also got 2 VP and one space ahead in the time track.
1st die for me was also BLACK 2 from the left so I got Lantern bonus of 1 Food, 1 space in time track and 2 coins. Placed the die in left room 1st floor, paying 1 coin difference and got 2 actions.
First action was just advancing in time track so I was at 8th space. Then I got to do COURTIER ACTION by spending a Seal. Spent 2 coins to send the last Courtier to the gate. Then since I had 6, spent 5 Pearls to move one Courtier from 1st Level to the top.
Got a LANTERN BONUS plus any of the white background action. So, 2 more coins, 9th space of the time track and a food. The white background was 2 VP and Well action so I got 1 Seal, 1 Iron and 1 Pearl.
Currently had 2 coins, 2 Seals, 6 food, 5 irons and 2 Pearls and at 9th space of time track.
2nd die for the opponent was White 5 from the right to outer action on the right. No bonus coin for them. They sent 4th Courtier to the gate, advancing 1 space in time track and got 3 coins.
2nd die for me was RED 2 from the left so I got Lantern bonus again. This was placed to the right room of first floor. I had to pay 1 coin for the difference and 1 Seal to do just 1 Courtier action.
No more Courtier to the gate. Spent 2 Pearls to move one from the Gate to the middle room. New card got me back 2 pearls.
Currently had 3 coins, 1 Seals, 7 food, 5 irons and 2 Pearls and at 10th space of time track.
Last die for the opponent was RED 2 from the left after 2 cards. This was placed to the other Outer action so they got no bonus. First they sent out their last Courtier to the gate. There were 2 at the gate. 2nd part of first card moved one of them up 1 space. I chose the middle and no more card in that deck.
2nd card top action got them to send one Warrior to the lowest ground. Then the 2nd part of that 2nd card moved their last Courtier from the gate 2 levels to the right room.
Last die for me was WHITE 2 from the left so I got Lantern bonus. Food was wasted and I couldn’t afford to move farther in the time track since I had no 2 Seals and I needed them to do action.
This die was placed in my personal domain so I had to spend 4 coins for the difference. Got 3 Pearls and a Warrior action by spending a Seal. Even though I had 5 Irons I chose the middle ground and spent 3 just to get one more Courtier action.
So I had 5 Pearls which was enough to reach the top for 10 points. But the bonus was Lantern again and kind of wasted. So, instead, I spent only 2 to move up one from 1st floor to 2nd, left room. This got me 2 VP and Well action, a seal, 1 iron and one of any from those 3.
Currently had 2 coins, 1 Seals, 7 food, 2 irons and 3 Pearls and at 10th space of time track.
That was the end of this last round. I was ahead on the time track so the opponent had to spend 5 coins for 3 VP and got them to 25. For me I got like 5 VP.
I had 3 coins and 1 Seal left so no VP from those leftovers.
Then from Courtier, I got 1 VP from 1 from the Gate, 6 VP from 2 on 1st Floor, 6 VP from 1 from 2nd Floor and 10 from one at the top. That was 23 VP so I was at 28. The opponent got 21 from Courtier so their score went up to 46.
From Warrior, I got 2 at the top and 1 at the middle with 4 Courtiers in the Castle. So 16 VP plus 4 for me or 20, making it 48. The opponent only had 3 in the middle and bottom ground with 5 Courtiers in the Castle, so 15 VP, making their score 61.
From Gardener, I got 18 from 4 Gardeners and the opponent got 19. 66 for me and 80 for the opponent.
Both of us got to 2nd part of the time track so 3 VP each, 69 for me and 83 for them. From the 3 resources I got 4 VP so 73 for me.
So I still lost. 73 to 83.
I thought I won but apparently I miscalculated their score. Even though I significantly improved compared to my previous plays, but so did they. Oh, well.
Playing time was about 74 minutes.
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Under Falling Skies
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Defend the Earth from Alien invasion in Under Falling Skies.
2nd time with the New York City variant and still with all the easier side. Last time I did a major error with the rule where I did Excavator action multiple times in a round for a few rounds. Obviously that made the game way easier and I should have noticed that while playing.
Hopefully this time I got to play correctly. Here is how it went.
1st ROUND. White: 3, 6. Gray: 1, 4, 6.
A 6 in first column was good to move the excavator the farthest while the enemy was not triggering anything. So the gray 6 went there. 2nd column was not good with 6 but the rest was okay. I played the White 6 to the 3rd column, rerolling the rest.
Got White 4, Gray 1 and 5. I think the 5 went to 5th column so the enemy was in shooting spot but I had to place it at the top room holding them down. Then the White 4 to the 2nd column, rerolling the last die and got a 6. So, 6 went to the 4th column.
The 3 in the middle were for rooms in 2nd row. I had 2 Energy at start. Spent one for the Excavator. Then generated full energy from the 2 6s in double room. Spent 3 for the attack room with a value of 4 which destroyed one red enemy in column 5.
Motherhip added a White ship ready to launch with the one red. 5 Energy left. Research at 0.
2nd ROUND. White: 2, 4 and Gray: 4, 6, 6.
I had to avoid 6 for column 1 and 2 for column 2. 6 was good for 5th placing the enemy at shooting spot so one went there. Same goes with 4th so the 2nd one went there.
I placed the White 4 in 1st pushing the red ship also at shooting spot. Apparently I didn’t notice the White ship above and it actually pushed the Mothership down one space. Unfortunately, that means it affected the movement of ships in the 2nd and 3rd column.
So, technically, I already failed. Oh, well. Let me just continue.
So, after the white 4, I rerolled and got a White 5 and a 1. That 5 went to 2nd column. Even if I added 1 it didn’t trigger anything.
After that white 5, I rerolled the last die and got a 5. Well, the 5 without the Mothership movement means it pushed the red ship to the 4th. So, it should have stayed in the 3rd.
I had to use the 6 in 5th to keep moving the excavator. That means the only way to attack is a room that requires 3 energy. I had to get more energy and since the single energy room was in 5th, I had to place the dice in 3rd and 4th to double room. That left me with in column 1 and the only room available was the Robot room.
I had 5 energy. Spent 1 for Excavator. Then spent 3 for the Attack room, destroying 3 red ships. Generated back to full energy with 5 and 6. Spent 1 then for the Robot room with a value of 4. I initially placed the robot in the double energy room on the left but I soon realized maybe it was better with placing it on the right. Or maybe it was actually better to put it on the left, based on how minimum I used that robot.
Mothership descended again and added 2nd White ship ready to launch with the 3 recently destroyed reds. This was when I realized I forgot about the White but not realizing that it affected the movement of the other 2 columns.
7 Energy left and Research still at 0.
3rd ROUND. White: 1 and 3, Gray: 4, 4, 4.
Placed one of the 4 in column 1. The White ship stopped at empty spot while the Red at shooting spot. Then White 3 for column 2 so the Red ship went to shooting spot, rerolling the other 3 dice. Got White and Gray 4 plus 1.
White 4 to the 5th column so the Red Ship was also at shooting spot. The reroll got me a 2 and a 4. First the 2 to column 3 so only Red moved to empty spot. Then the 4 to 4th. The red one stopped at empty spot while the White moved to column 3.
The 4 in column 1 was to move the Excavator. Looking at the next 3 spot of Research track, I needed a 2, 3 then a 1 or total of 6 and I had a 2 and a 4 in column 3 and 4 so I thought I could use both. Placing them at the 3rd row. Well, the 2 in the middle could have worked in the 4th row for cheaper energy. Regardless, the last 2 dice, column 2 for attacking while the 4 in column 5 was for energy.
I had 7 Energy at the start of this round. Spent 1 for Excavator and 3 for the attacking. The value to attack was 3, destroying 2 red ships at column 2 and 5. Generated 3 Energy back to 6 then spent total of 3 to move up the Research track 3 spot.
Mothership went down again but did nothing this turn. 2 Red ships were ready to launch. 14 Research spots left, 3 Energy left.
4th ROUND. White: 2, 5, Gray: 1, 1, 4.
The 4 went to column 3 first with 2 ships. Red one above stopped at shooting spot while the White one moved to the 4th column. Then with the Gray 1, I placed it in 4th column, now with 2 ships. Both moved to shooting spots.
I placed the 5 in column 2. The ship was at empty space, rerolling the 2 dice that got me White 1 and a 5. 1 first at 1st column with 2 ships there. The White was in shooting spot and the Red above it moved to 2nd column. Reroll got me a 6 for the 5th column and the red ship moved to empty space.
The 1 at 1st column was just to move Excavator one space to the last row. The next on research track required a 3 and then a 1 and a 4. I had a 4 in column 3. But that means the only way to generate energy right now was column 5. Had I placed the Robot in column 3, it would have generated something. Or not.
Regardless, the 5 in column 2 was to attack and the 6 at 5th to generate energy. The 1 in 4th was kind of useless. And the 4 in column 3 could have been cheaper with 4th row instead of 3rd. But that what I went with.
I had 3 energy. Spent 1 for Excavator. Generated 5 back. Spent 3 to attack 2 Reds and 1 White ship. Then spent 2 for moving up on the research track 2 spaces.
Mothership added 1 White with 2 Reds ready to launch. 2 Energy left and 12 spots in Research track to win.
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5th ROUND. White: 2, 4, Gray: 4, 5, 5.
Gray 4 to column 3 first and the Red ship was at shooting spot. Then the 5 for the 5th moving the Red to column 4. Then the other 5 was to column 1 and the red was also in shooting spot. Played the White 4 first to column 2. 2 Reds there, one stopped at shooting spot while the other moved to column 3.
The reroll turned a 2 into 1 for column 4. Red from column 5 entered the shooting spot while the White launched to empty spot.
5 at column 5 was last move for Excavator. I had 5 in column 1 that I could use to attack and destroy 3 reds. 4 at 2nd and 1 at 4th were to do research so the 4 in 3rd was to generate energy with the Robot.
I had 3 Energy left. 1 for the Excavator. Spent 1 Energy to move on research track up 2 spaces with total value of 5. The attack with 5 didn’t require Energy, destroying the 3 red ships as mentioned. Apparently the last White 1 in research room was useless. Generating 8 Energy to full, decreasing the Robot to value 3.
The Mothership pushed back the Excavator one space. 3 Red and 1 White ships were ready to launch. 10 spaces left in research track to win and I had full Energy.
6th ROUND. White: 5, 6, Gray: 3, 3, 3.
One of the 3 to 1st, moving the Red to shooting spot. Then the White 6 to column 2, also moved the Red to the shooting spot, rerolling the 3 dice. Got White 1, Gray 4 and 5.
4 to 3rd, moving the White to 2nd column while the Red dealt first damage. 5 at 4th moved the red to empty space. That left me a 1 at 5th, moving the red to shooting spot.
The 3 and 6 in column 1 and 2 were to do research at bottommost room. 4 at 3rd for the attack room. 5 at 4th for more research. Unfortunately the last 1 at 5th was kind of useless.
The double research got a total value of 6 plus 3 and 3, moving up on the track 4 spaces. Had to spend 4 of 8 Energy I got. Spent 2 more to attack with value of 5, destroying 3 reds. Then 1 Energy for 2nd research with a value of 5, moving up 2 levels. Last die was useless.
Mothership pushed down on the research track with 4 Reds ready to launch. 5 spaces in research track to win with total value of 23. 1 Energy left and at most 5 rounds before I lost.
7th ROUND. White: 1, 3, Gray: 4, 4, 5.
5 first to 4th column, moving the red to shooting spot. Then the 4 to 3rd column, moving the red ship to 4th. The other 4 to 5th moved the red to shooting spot. Then White 3 first to 1st column, also moving a red to shooting spot, rerolling the last white. Got a 2 and it was for 2nd, moving the White to shooting spot while the red above it to empty space.
I had 1 Energy left so the 4 in 3rd was to double energy room with robot. 4 and 5 at 5th and 4th were to fill double attack room. 2 at 2nd was for research. That left me with a 3 at 1st which I used to make a new robot.
The attack went first spending the last energy, destroying 3 reds and 1 White. Generated back to 7 Energy. Spent 1 to move the research up one space. Then spent 1 more to make a new Robot with value 3 which I placed at the last room to generate energy.
Mothership did nothing with 3 red ships ready to launch. 5 Energy left, 4 spaces left on research track with value of 20 to win. 4 rounds left.
8th ROUND. White: 6, 6, Gray: 1, 4, 5.
I placed the 4 at 1st, letting the ship pushed the Mothership down so it wouldn’t mess the research progress. Then the 5 at 4th, moving the red to shooting spot.
Then 1 of the White 6 at 3rd, also moved the red ship to shooting spot. Rerolled got me White 5 and a 2. The 5 was to 2nd, moving also the red ship to shooting spot. The reroll still got me a 2 for the 5th, moving the red ship to also shooting spot.
I realized that with all of these dice, I could reach the top of research track this turn. 4 and 5 to double room, generating research value of 12. This was for the last push. All I needed was value of 9 or 5 plus 1 and 3. The 6 at 3rd generated a value of 7. So the 5 in 4th was more than enough.
For that I needed 4 + 2 + 1 Energy. I had 5 from previous round and the Robot could generate 4. So that was more than enough but the last die 2 at 5th was to generate energy anyway.
No need to destroy those ships and I won. Not sure how the previous error could have affected the outcome.
Playing time was about 62 minutes.
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Tybor the Builder
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Assign Citizens with different professions to help you build the city of Longsdale in Tybor the Builder.
This was a 2-handed session. Playing with the Job Diversity Scenario and Chapter V: IMPROVE TRADE. For the Scenario, having Citizens with different jobs at the end of each phase will give you extra strength to build. While the Chapter encourages players to get either 3 Merchants or 3 Captains by the end of the game.
1st PHASE.
1st player had the secret objective to have a set of 2 Orange and 1 Blue building for 5 VP. First citizen they took was FARMER with a discount of all types of buildings.
2nd player had secret objective to have 2 Blue and 1 Yellow for 5 VP each set. They recruited Merchant as Citizen first, getting discount for Yellow and Black.
1st player then chose CAPTAIN with a discount only for Blue as Citizen. 2nd player also took Captain but they got discount of 3 types except for Black.
1st player took in 2nd Captain and this time with a discount for Orange. 2nd player took 2nd Merchant and got 2nd discount for Blue.
1st player wanted to build so they didn’t want to give more Captain to the opponent so they recruited the Captain for the strength of 6. 2nd player did similar but with Merchant with a strength of 5.
1st player with Craftsman made a Blue Building, PORT TAVERN, a luxury one and got 3rd Captain symbol and 7 VP. The cost was 7 minus 2 and they had strength of 6.
2nd player also built with the help from Soldier, A Forester’s House, a yellow luxury one with 5 VP and 2 for each 2 Blue. The cost was 7 minus 2 and they had a strength of 5.
That was the end of first Phase. Both players had 2 jobs from their citizens so after the random 2 cards, both got strength of 5.
2nd Phase.
This time 2nd player started first and took in Craftsman with extra discount to Blue as Citizen. 1st player did the same but the Craftsman got discount to 3 types except for Orange.
Another hiring for 2nd player and this time they got 2nd Captain with discount to orange and Black. 1st Player took in Soldier for orange discount.
3 cards left. 2nd player chose Farmer with strength of 6. 1st player got all 3 cards with strength of 4 so they just chose 2nd Soldier as Citizen.
With the help from Craftsman, 2nd player build Blue Merchant building. It was a luxury one with the cost of 8 minus 3 and they got strength of 5. 1st player also built this time with the help from Merchant. It was luxury FENCE with 3rd Soldier for them with 7 VP. The cost was 8 minus 4 and they had to spend strength of 5.
Last card and 2nd player built again, a STONE HOUSE, black type, a luxury one with 4 VP. The cost for them was 8 minus 2 so they had to spend strength of 6. Building that one got them extra worker with the strength of 8. 1st player got Merchant as the last one and recruited him as Citizen, first one.
That was the end of 2nd Phase. 1st player got 5 different jobs while 2nd had 3 so both got extra workers, randomly both got strength of 8.
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3rd PHASE.
1st player started by recruiting 4th Soldier with discount to all type. 2nd player with a lot of strength and help from Merchant built a BOARDWALK, a yellow type. The luxury one had a cost of 9 minus 2 so they spent one of their strength of 8.
1st player took in 3rd Captain, 4th symbol, with discount only to Orange. 2nd player chose to have 1st Farmer with discount to Blue and Orange.
1st player didn’t need more soldier so the one with strength of 7 was kept to them. 2nd player took 2nd Farmer with a discount to Black.
1st player again and they also took the Farmer, 2nd one for them, 5th discount to Black. 2nd player recruited Priest for 5 VP.
Last one for 1st was to build ARSENAL, an orange type, the luxury one with 5 VP. The cost was 9 but minus 6 so even though they only needed a 3, they spent a 7.
2nd player used the last Priest to build BAKERY, a blue luxury one with 5 VP plus 3 if they had the most Black buildings at the end. The cost was 9 minus 4 but they still had to pay 8.
That was the end of 3rd Phase. 5 different jobs for 1st and 4 for 2nd so both got extra workers. Strangely, both got the same value again, a 7 this time.
4th PHASE.
2nd player started with recruiting 3rd Merchant, 4th of that symbol. 1st player took 4th Captain, 5th of that symbol.
2nd player took away the only Priest that 1st could ever recruited and had him built BORDER, and orange. The luxury one had 8 VP with the cost of 10 minus 3 so they spent strength of 7. 1st player took the probably the last Merchant and they only had 2. Probably should have abandoned that idea.
2nd player got 2nd CRAFTSMAN so they won the majority at this moment. 1st player followed so they got the same value.
2nd player with no worker took in Soldier with strength of 7. 1st player with the help from different soldier, built quarters. The luxury one was worth 9 VP with a cost of 10 minus 5 but they still had to pay with 7.
Last one for 2nd player was to build BEER STORAGE also with the help from Soldier. The luxury one was worth 4 VP plus 3 for a set of 1 for each type of building. With the cost was 10 minus 4 so they had to spend 7.
1st player followed also with the help from Soldier, built 2nd Black, a MARKETSQUARE for 3rd of their Merchant symbol. The value was 7 for the luxury version with the cost of 10 minus 6 so they spent their last 8.
That was the end of the game. Both definitely got more than 5 different jobs so they got 2 VP.
1st player scored 2 VP from that, 5 for the Chapter, 5 from the Secret Objective, 35 from the buildings, 12 from Captains, 6 from Craftsman, 8 from Soldier. Total score was 73.
2nd player scored 2 VP from the Scenario, 5 from Chapter, 5 from Secret Objective, 41 from Buildings, 5 from Building’s End game score, 10 from Merchants, 4 from Captains, 5 from Priest, 6 from Craftsman. Total Score was 83.
2nd player won.
Playing time was about 53 minutes.
Learn more about the game from Tybor the Builder Review.
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Unreliable Wizard
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Journey to defeat the Demon Lord while along the way fight monsters, find companions and learn more spells in Unreliable Wizard.
The Wizard started their journey with Monk and White spell. Monk increased the power of Red spell by 1 and Green spell by 2.
1st ENCOUNTER.
The wizard’s first stop was to the west on brown or village area. They encountered DERO with 3 LP, 1 defense on each while the terrain gave them extra protection against red spell.
First attempt to cast a spell was a Green. That was 4 damage 1 so total 3 damage which was enough to defeat the enemy. They met PALADIN which increased the Red spell by 2 and Blue spell by 1.
2nd ENCOUNTER.
The party continued to the east entering the Forest. They were ambushed by DOO, with 4 LP, defense of 1 against green and 2 against Blue. While the terrain gave extra protection of 1 Blue. The Wizard had 27 LP left.
1st attempt to cast a spell was the White and it was useless. 2nd attempt got them a Blue which did no damage to the enemy. Then 3rd one got them a RED. That was 5 damage and instantly killed the enemy.
After the fight they met with a PORCUPINE. This increased the attack of Red by 2 and the blue by 1.
3rd ENCOUNTER.
The party continued northeast, entering Plains where they encountered DODO. This enemy got 6 LP with 1 defense to each Red and Blue, 2 against Green. Luckily, this was a type vulnerable against the Porcupine.
Porcupine did first damage. 1st spell attempt was green, dealing 2nd damage to the enemy. Followed by Blue with 3 more, 1 left. Last one was a Red which was more than enough to beat it.
This time they met with HERO. The Hero didn’t increase any spell power but at the end of each turn in a fight, the Hero deals 1 damage.
4th ENCOUNTER.
The party then moved to the west, entering the Desert area. They found a healing point and then proceeded to the northwest passage where they found KARU. This enemy had 7 LP, defense of 3 against red, 1 against green and 2 against Blue. 2 more extra defense against red by the terrain. Wizard got 21 LP left.
First spell was Red but that was just 2 damage. Followed by Blue and dealt extra 2 damage. Last one was a green and that dealt 3. No need for the Hero to finish it.
From that fight, the wizard learned Blue 2 spell.
5th ENCOUNTER.
Instead of going through the northwest passage of the desert, they decided to go the other path. Back to the Plain area, entering the healing point before they entered the Volcano area where they got ambushed by KORU. This had 5 LP, defense of 3 against red, 2 against green and 1 against blue with extra 2 defense of blue from the terrain.
20 LP left for the Wizard. The wizard managed to cast White, Blue and Blue. That was exact 5 damage and killed the enemy.
The Wizard found Grimoire 2 spell book.
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6th ENCOUNTER.
From that Volano entrance, the party went northwest and visited a Town. They were attacked by ZAZA. This had 8 LP, defense of 1 against red, 3 against green and 2 against Blue. 1 extra defense from the Town to green and blue.
15 LP left for the Wizard. This was another prey for Porcupine, so it got 1 damage. Wizard casted a Green first which was like 0 damage. Followed by Blue 2 which was useless. But then came out Blue 1 but only potential of 2 damage.
Last one was a White. This led to 2 combinations of spell. Blue one alone and Green – White – Blue. Total was 2 damage from the Green and 3 from the Blue. After that the Hero dealt 1 damage. The enemy was still alive and countered with 3 damage.
11 LP left. Without doing anything, the Porcupine finished the job. After the fight, they met with the PRINCESS. She increased the attack of each spell by 1 and when fighting the boss, she cancelled the healing 2 of the boss each turn.
7th ENCOUNTER.
The party continued through the northeast. They visited a healing point before entering the Ocean area that they needed to cross in order to reach the boss island. They got attacked by ARO, with 8 LP, defense of red by 3, green by 2 and blue by 1. 2 extra defense to red and 1 to blue by the terrain.
Wizard got 11 LP. Wuzard casted Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 1 and White. So, they got 2 same combo as before. 5 damage by the green and another 5 by the blue so it was more than enough.
From that, the Wizard learned Red 2 spell.
8th ENCOUNTER.
Before entering the island, they got a healing point. Upon arriving on the island, they were ambushed by YABI. 7 LP, defense of 1 to red, 2 to green, 3 to blue and extra defense of red by 1 and 3 for green by the terrain.
9 LP left for the Wizard. Monk dealt the first damage. Then Wizard casted Red 2, Blue 2, White 1 and Blue 1. Wizard decided to heal 8 while the hero dealt 2nd damage. Yabi countered by 1 damage.
12 LP left for the Wizard. 3rd damage by the Monk. Then Wizard casted White, Red 2, Blue 1 and Red 1. This time, not only they managed to heal 8 but also red 1, 6 damage to the enemy. That was enough to defeat the enemy.
The Wizard learned Green 2 spell. Then the party continued to the east to a healing point before facing the final boss. TERRA.
TERRA got 16 LP. 22 LP for the Wizard. Wizard casted Blue 2, Red 2, White and Blue 1. They decided to use Blue 1 – White and Blue 2 combo and dealt 4 damage to TERRA. Hero dealt 5th one. Terra then countered with 4 and Princes blocked the boss’ self healing.
14 LP for Wizard. Casted White, Blue 1, Red 1, Red 2. This time, they used heal 8 and Red 1, dealing 3 damage. Hero then dealt the 9th. Terra was still up and counterd with 5 damage.
10 LP left for Wizard. Casted White, Blue 1, Blue 2 and Red 2. Not using the healing but the Blue 1 White and Blue 2 combo, dealing 4 damage. Hero then dealt the 15th damage. Terra was not done yet and countered with just 1 damage.
7 LP left. Blue 2, useless, then Red 1. That was 3 damage and killed TERRA. The Wizard and friends won.
Playing time was about 30 minutes.
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Spectacular
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Develop animal park for endangered animals while making sure the various habitats promote breeding in Spectacular.
Spectacular is a new game to me and it was released in 2024, so still new from Chilifox Games. The game itself is about making a zoo or animal park, specifically for endangered animals.
The Spectacular name came from having a Watchtower around the different habitats for visitors to observe these animals. It seems the name creates some controversy. While one might argue that the more appropriate name should be Watchtower but it still doesn’t tell what the game is about unless you look at the cover. The designer explains how they pick this title in this forum thread: [thread=3346314][/thread].
So, how does this one play?
I’ve only played the solo mode at this point. For the multiplayer game, the main mechanism of the game is closed drafting. Something like 7 Wonders or Sushi Go but instead of pick 1 card and then pass the rest to the next players.
In Spectacular, players will have a “tray” to pass a set of dice and hexagon tiles. Players can choose to take one, either tiles or dice from that and slide the tray to the next player.
In addition to Closed Drafting, Spectacular also has the similar idea as in Cascadia, where every turn you choose 2 things, a tile and a token. For this game, beside the die or tile you take from that tray, you have your own personal pool of dice and tiles. From here, you can also choose whether to take a die or tiles.
So, in one turn, you will get a combination of two things where both can be dice or tiles or mix of them. Then, like in Cascadia, in any order, you can place both items to build your tableau or animal park. Instead of tokens on tiles, here, you place dice on tiles with matching colors. There are 4 colors of tiles / habitats and 4 colors of dice.
You do this in 15 turns totals, divided into 2 rounds, 8 in first round and 7 in 2nd and the game ends. At the end of each round, there will be scoring, which is a bit different from each other.
For the first round scoring, your animal park has entrance point, connected to 3 hexes. You only score any dice on tiles connected to these entrance hexes.
Then the final scoring at the end of 2nd round, there are a lot more things to score. You score from each type of habitats that is eligible for scoring, then from Watchtowers and then for having unique animals in your park.
There is an advanced variant where each player will have 3 different mission tiles to get even higher score if they can complete them. If you play the solo variant, completing 2 of these 3 missions will be a requirement to win the game, in addition to scoring 200 or higher.
So how do you score the Habitats?
First you want to expand the habitat by placing them adjacent to other tiles with the same color but in order to score them, you need to have dice on them. In addition to color or type of habitat, each hex has dice spot, sometimes with requirement for value, a picture of animal and either BREEDING icon or one third of the Watchtower spot. Those are the two main types of tiles, Breeding Tiles or Watchtower Tiles.
You want each group of habitat to have at least a Breeding tile with a dice, either value 1 or 2. Without these, the other dice on other tiles connected will not score for the habitat. For the total score for each habitat, you count the total value of dice on those tiles, multiply it with the number of dice on breeding tiles.
If Breeding tiles can take lower value dice, Watchtower tiles can take the value between 3 to 5 or even 6 if you manage to create a complete spot of the Watchtower. To do so, you need 3 hexes, one connected to the other 2 with the same color of Watchtower spot. The spot can be one of 3 colors and the hexes forming the spot can come from different habitats.
After completely forming a Watchtower spot, you can then place a Tower cylinder there. However, in order to score from Watchtower, you need all 3 hexes forming that watchtower spot to have a die each. Even missing just one then you may lose a chance to score about 12 points or so.
On one hand, having a Watchtower opens up space to place die with value 6. Increasing your potential score. Maybe you roll them at the start in your personal pool so you can start placing it there. On the other hand, you have extra things to do in order to score.
Because of that, not always aiming for Watchtower is a viable strategy. Maybe you already start having 2 thirds of it and decided to abandon completing it to pursue other goal. Or maybe you just don’t have access to that last tile to complete the spot. So, some randomness can get in the way.
Well, it is kind of sad since the titular element is not really the main point of the game.
Does it mean it is all random? Actually, no. In fact, half part of the game, your personal pool, makes the game very strategic.
As part of the setup, each player will have a unique player board and a tuck box full of 10 starting tiles specifically for that board, along with 8 dice, 2 of each color and Worker tokens to manipulate those dice.
Your player board even tells you all of the tiles you will find in your personal supply and you will use all of them, including the dice. The other players will not steal them from you.
I already mentioned Cascadia multiple times as comparison but these strategic elements make Spectacular is actually closer to Calico. At least if you play the solo variant of Calico.
The game is about how you plan to use all of your personal supply while trying to make it work with whatever you can take from the Common circulating supply. You know what you can get from your personal area and first you need to focus on what you can take from the common supply.
Like in other closed drafting game, you will have multiple good choices from that circulating pool. If you take one and leave the other to your opponent, will it come back to you or will your opponent take it? Is there a chance that your opponent will not take it and instead focus on something else.
This includes how you should choose the dice as well. Since there are tiles for low value dice and others for the high value one, then you probably want some balance between your pool and the common one. Maybe you have Green 1 and 3 while the common pools have Green 5 or even 6 so you might want to take it first. Of course, you need to have tile to place them first.
Or maybe you are aiming for multiple breeding tiles so you need more lower value ones. If you have those dice in your pool then you can focus on something else.
Since everything is open information, I heard that in multiplayer game, it can lead to AP situation where player examines every pool. Even if it is meant to be simultaneous play, players can end up waiting to see what they will get from the next tray before choosing from the current one. Like I said, I have not tried this multiplayer but I can see it happening.
This game uses dice and workers to manipulate the value but this is no The Castles of Burgundy.
I mean I saw someone made that comparison. More specifically, you are not going to manage the worker like in that Stefan Feld game. They are just one time use, once per round, one for each color plus a Wild one for any color. No way to get more.
You can only change the value +/- 1 per token. Well, like in Burgundy, you can wrap around from 1 to 6 or 6 to 1.
If anything, if you can save them until the end of the round, you can use them to increase the value and thus, the scoring. Maybe you already place a value 5 on a tile before you finish the Watchtower spot. Then at the end of the round, you manage to get a Tower and that tile can use value 6.
That is one good use of those Workers. Some missions also require having specific value for multiple adjacent dice.
Spectacular can be played up to 6 players. I guess like other closed drafting game, with higher player count, the less likely you get the same set of items back to you that often. While with 2 or the solo variant, you just keep passing to one other player, less randomness.
The estimated playing time is about 20 to 30 minutes but I think it can take longer with more planning.
That is the general idea of how you play Spectacular game.
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Solo Mode and First Impression.
As mentioned earlier, in this solo mode, not only you need to score 200 or higher, you also need to complete 2 out of 3 missions. Like in advanced variant of multiplayer, each player will get 3 mission tiles, one from A-missions, one from B and one from C with total of 6 per group.
Missions from Group A seem to be about how you place the tiles. Something like you need to have 4 Breeding tiles adjacent to each other, no need to be in the same color.
Those from Group B seem to be about how you place those dice. For example, having 4 dice with value of 4 adjacent to each other. While in Group C the missions are about how to get certain total value for one or more colors of dice.
I only have 2 solo plays and it seems you really need to focus on these right from the start. At least, if you want to complete 2 of them. Otherwise, waiting for later, things can get more complicated since you may abandon certain goals that in fact, can affect how you complete those missions.
Some missions can be completed with just items from your personal pool. But for others, you might want to rely on common pools from both rounds.
For the solo mode, you don’t have opponent but there is a common pool of 8 dice and 8 tiles per round. To simulate the drafting, you first have to choose whether to take dice or tiles. Then before you take the item, you flip one of 8 solo tokens. The number on that token will tell you which item will be removed from the pool but from other group.
So, if you choose to take dice, flip token 8, they will remove tile at spot number 8. If nothing is there, they remove the next item in clockwise order.
Those solo tokens will be used only once per round. So, eventually you have a good idea which numbers have come out and which will still take out some items. If you need specific items for your goal, you might want to secure it right away. Of course, there will be options as valuable as the one you are taking on the other side that might get removed as well. That means, at the start of the round, you might have to spend a bit of time planning.
Here is the thing though. Even though running the solo mode is relatively simple, somehow I managed to mess things up with the drafting. I had to reset the game twice after realizing, I picked things incorrectly between personal and common pools.
You probably only realize that you made a mistake at the end of first round, maybe even the 2nd. While the game is kind of fast but it is kind of suck when you thought you did well but apparently you got things wrong. And you have to reset after that first 15 to 20 minutes, playing that round.
Luckily, it is no longer an issue for me for my 3rd and 4th play. Hopefully for my next subsequent plays as well.
In my 3rd attempt to play this solo mode, I scored 188 and only completed one mission. After that play, I kept thinking about what I could have done it better. Later, I played again with different missions.
Usually I will just wait for awhile before revisiting a game. This one made a good impression for me that I decided to play another game right away. So, you can say, as my initial impression, I like this game. Maybe even love it but of course, I need to play more.
In that last play, I managed to complete all 3 missions but unfortunately only scored 198. So, I failed. The designer says that the solo mode is quite challenging.
I cannot say for sure but I have a feeling that some missions are easier than others. The longer you need to complete, possibly harder to complete. For examples, some of the Missions from C require having specific total value of certain colors. This means, the more tiles and dice of that color you play, the less control you have.
Of course, maybe you can just avoid that right from the start. But then again you don’t know what is going to be available in the next round. Maybe you just need Yellow 3 but now the common pool only has Yellow 6, not enough even with the Worker tokens.
The one that I played with was related to ENTRANCE where you only deal with 3 tiles and 3 dice. I completed that in first round.
It’s like, not only you need to plan carefully, you probably need some good reminder to stick with the plan. This includes how you plan to use the workers. In solo mode, there is an additional use of these worker tokens. You can spend it to prevent the opponent from taking the item if you really need it. But then, you might need that token as well to change the dice to reach certain value from the mission.
There is another option that the game offers and you might need to take advantage. Before you start playing the round, the game allows you to refresh certain items of the new pool, including your personal pool before first round. You can reroll any number of dice and replace any number tiles from the fresh market.
It is still random and no guarantee to get a better result but if you know they are not going to work, maybe not bad to give it a chance. But that means it takes even longer to plan.
So, that is my initial impression of Spectacular. This will definitely get more plays from me and we’ll see if I can finally win the solo variant.
Playing time was about 45 minutes per session.
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Sensu
More pictures of this Sensu game session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Craft folding fans in 3 colors as fast as possible in Sensu.
This was my first time playing the multiplayer variant of Sensu, 2-handed. Before that, I’ve only played solo and there are a couple differences. In multiplayer, you will use the wild cards and players will be the one to trigger the end of the game, not when the deck runs out. You just keep going until one player completed their 2nd folding fans. This is also just the basic game and there are 2 more variants for the multiplayer.
Got 2 sessions and I realized an error with my first play regarding the wild card. With wild cards, you don’t get extra bonus card when redeeming because of the same value. They still work for the same color.
Also, in multiplayer game, if you always try to play a combination of 5 cards, that means you have empty hand. This can feel boring for you since you have to just keep drawing cards while the other players keep going. It is part of the strategy though whether to get as many cards as you can or just play slowly. This issue may happen in solo mode but there is only you and you can fill up those 4 columns before start scoring so you don’t feel just drawing cards.
Even though with 2 players you get extra 27 cards plus wild cards, I didn’t expect that you won’t get to the bottom of the deck. There are a couple of moments where you just keep drawing from the discard piles back.
With more players, more discard piles, more face up cards. Maybe more interesting options. But maybe also it can take longer.
Here is how the session went with the 2nd play.
1st player started with Blue 4, 5, Wild 7-9, Green 3 and Red 7. They drew a card and got another Red 7 and decided to discard the Green 3. 2nd player had Blue 6, 7, 4, Green 8 and Red 5. They could do 8, 7 and 5 for just 1 card but they took the Green 3 from 1st’s discard to make 6, 7, 4 and 3, letting go Red 5.
1st player still had 2 Red 7, Blue 4, 5 and Wild High. Well they drew again from the deck and got Blue 2 so they could play all 4 Blue for 20, discarding the Red 7. 2nd player played a combination as mentioned before with Green 3, Blue 4, 6 and 7. So, they got to take the Green 3 and Blue 7. Discarding the rest with the 6 on top.
1st player had none. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 1 stick for Blue.
1st played their combination with all 4 Blue cards. They got to take the Blue 2 with 3 sticks and the Wild one with single stick. Discarding the rest with Blue 5 on top. So, both player had only 1 card left each.
The 2 took turns drawing from the deck. Finally 2nd player got Green 8, Red 6, Blue 1, Red Wild High. They decided to take the Blue 5 from their opponent’s discard.
1st player had 4 sticks for Blue. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 1 stick for Blue.
1st player now had Red 4 and 7, Blue Wild Middle and 6. They took Blue 6 from 2nd discard pile. 2nd player already had 5 cards but decided to draw from the deck and got Red 8, discarding the only green, an 8.
1st player played a combination with 2 Blue 6, Red 4 and Blue Wild as 4. They got to take 3 cards then. One of the Blue 6 with 2 sticks and then the Wild Blue with 1 stick. The last of 2 were also two sticks and it seems I only took 2 for them. They could have taken the Red 4 for 2 sticks. That card ended up being on the top of discard pile.
2nd player decided to take it, discarding Blue 5.
1st player had 7 sticks for Blue. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 1 stick for Blue.
1st player with only Red 7 drew a card and got Red 2. 2nd player played a combination with Red 8, Red 4 and Wild red as 8. So, they got to take 2 cards, the 4 one with 2 sticks and the wild with 1.
1st player had 7 sticks for Blue. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 1 stick for Blue, 3 for red.
1st kept drawing and got 3rd Red, an 8. 2nd player with Red 6 and Blue 1 also drew and got Blue 9. Then Red Low Wild for 1st. 2nd decided to take the Blue 6 from 1st.
1st player drew again after 5 cards and got 2nd Red 7 so they had to discard the Red Low Wild. 2nd player played a combo of 4 Blue cards, 1, 9, 4 and 6. They took 1 with 4 sticks and 9 with single stick. Discarding the rest with red 6 at the top.
Currently 1st player had 7 sticks for Blue. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 6 sticks for Blue, 3 for red.
1st player then played a combo of 4 Red cards, 2 7s, 4 and 2. So they took the 2 with 3 sticks and both 7s with single stick each. Both player now had 1 card left in hand.
After taking turns drawing cards from the deck and each got 4, 2nd player had Red 6, Green 7 and 9, Blue Low Wild. They decided to take Blue 6 from their top discard.
Currently 1st player had 7 sticks for Blue, 5 sticks for red. 2nd player had 3 sticks for Green and 6 sticks for Blue, 3 for red.
1st now had Red 5 and 8, Middle Wild with Green 2. They took the Red 4 from their discard. 2nd player drew the Blue 4 from their discard and let go the Red 6.
1st player then traded their Mid Wild Red with the Low Wild Red from their discard. 2nd player played a combo, With Blue 4, 6, Green 9 and Wild Blue as 1. Took the Blue 4 with 2 sticks and the Green 9 for 1 stick, discarding the rest with the 6 on top.
1st player also played a combo, with Red 4, 5, 8 and low wild red as 3. They took the 4 with 2 sticks and the wild with single stick. Discarding the rest with 5 at the top. Now both had 1 card left in hand.
The 2 took turns again drawing cards. After having 3, with Green 7, 8 and Red 3, 2nd player took the Red 5 from 1st.
Currently 1st player had 7 sticks for Blue, 8 sticks for red. 2nd player had 4 sticks for Green and 8 sticks for Blue, 3 for red.
1st got Blue 8, Green 2 and 3. They took the Blue 6 from 2nd. 2nd then took the Red 8 from 1st.
1st continued taking Wild low blue from 2nd. 2nd player played a combo with Green 8, 7 and red 5, only taking the 5 with 2 sticks, discarding the rest with 8 on top.
*I made a mistake here. Somehow 2nd player also took Green 7 so they suddenly got 5 sticks.
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1st also played a combo with Blue 6, 8 and wild low as 3 plus Blue 3. Took the Green 3 with 3 sticks plus Low wild blue with 1 stick. Discarding the rest with 8 on top. 1st had 1 card and 2nd had 2 left so taking turns again drawing cards.
2nd player with Red 3 and 8 and Blue 3 and 8, took the Red 6 from their discard.
1st got Green 2, 6 and 8. Drawing from the deck and they got Red 2. 2nd player played a combo with Red 3, 6, 8 plus Blue 3. So, they got to take 3 cards. They couldn’t take the Blue 3 so they took the Red 3 first making it 8 sticks. Then they had no choice but to take the red 8 for 1 stick and had to let go the 6. Placing the Blue 3 on top.
Currently 1st player had 8 sticks for Blue, 8 sticks for red, 3 sticks for green. 2nd player had 4 sticks for Green and 8 sticks for Blue, 9 for red.
1st kept drawing from the deck after 4 cards and got Red 8. 2nd with only Blue 8 took the Blue 6 from 1st.
1st then played a combo with Green 2, 8 and Red 2, 8. Red 2 with 3 sticks didn’t work so Green 2 first and the 2 8s. Red 2 on top. 1st player had 1 card left while 2nd had 2. Another moment of taking turns drawing cards. Eventually 2nd got Blue 3, 6 and 8 and the deck gave them Red 3.
Currently 1st player had 8 sticks for Blue, 9 sticks for red, 7 sticks for green. 2nd player had 4 sticks for Green and 8 sticks for Blue, 9 for red.
1st had Red 9 and Green 6. Taking Red 5 from 2nd. 2nd player took Blue 5 from 2nd discard.
1st player then took back the Red 2 from their discard. 2nd drew a card from the deck and got Blue 7 and had to discard the Red 3.
1st player took back the middle wild red as their 5th. 2nd player played a combo of Blue 5, 7, 8. Took the 5 to complete the Blue fan, discarding the rest with 8 on top.
1st also played a combo with Green 6, Red 6 and 2 plus middle wild red as 6. They couldn’t use the 2 so it got wasted but took the single stick from the wild and completed their red fan. Discarding the rest with the 6 on top. 1 card left for 1st and 2 for 2nd. 2nd had Blue 6 and 3 and took the Red 6 from 1st.
Currently 1st player had 8 sticks for Blue, 7 sticks for green, completed the Red Fan. 2nd player had 4 sticks for Green. completed Blue and 9 sticks for red.
1st only had Red 9, took the Blue 8 from 2nd. 2nd drew from the deck and got 2nd Red 6 as their 4th. 1st continued drawing from 2nd and took the Blue 7 as their 3rd. 2nd drew again and got mid wild green as their 5th. 1st drew Green 1 as their 4th. 2nd took back Red 6 from their discard, letting go Blue 3.
1st then traded took back red 2 and traded with Green 1. 2nd took that Green 1 and let go the Red 6 they just took.
1st then took that Red 6 from 2nd, discarding Red 2. 2nd player finally played the last combo with Blue 8, Green 1, 6 and Wild as 5. That got them the Green 1 with 4 sticks plus the wild Green, completing their green fan with 10 sticks and became the 2nd completed fan for them. 2nd triggered the end of the game and won.
That was quite unexpected from the 2nd. Instead of struggling to complete the closest one which was red, they instead got a chance to complete a green with 5 sticks on a turn.
I counted 25 turns at least plus any number when they both took turns just drawing cards after playing a combo.
**** Actually 2nd player cheated, pointed above. They were supposed to have only 9 sticks for green so they game shouldn’t have ended yet at that point. For them to win, they needed to take back Blue 8 and Green 6 while having Blue 6 from their discard, assuming the opponent didn’t take any of them. That means, at least 2 more turns to draw and 1 to score.
Playing time was about 42 minutes per session, running both hands.
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Biblios: Quill and Parchment
More pictures of this Biblios: Quill and Parchment game session on TikTok and on Instagram.
Work hard to earn the Abbot’s trust and use their influence to make your work even more valuable in Biblios: Quill and Parchment.
This was 2-handed session. It’s been awhile and I forgot that this has its own variant for 2 players that includes Cadfael, the 3rd player. I remembered only after I got to the 2nd phase with the bidding and I decided to reset.
The way I did the 2nd player bidding was using the same bidding as in solo mode, roll the 2 influence dice until they get 7 or higher. Maybe not exactly the same. This was using the B side.
1st ROUND.
First player got 2 Green, 1 Red, 8 influence points and movement novice of 2. They moved the novice to the right, visiting the first city.
2nd player got 2 Blue, 7 influence points, movement of 1 plus a star. The star was for Gray and the novice was moved 1 space to the right.
Cadfael got 1 green, 1 Red and 1 Chapel.
2nd ROUND.
Cadfael got Gray, Pink and Green. 1st player got 9 influence points, making the total of 17. Got 1st Blue, 1st Pink and 3rd Green plus 2 more movements, reaching the nearest question mark. That got them 2nd Pink.
2nd player got 10 points of influence, 3 movement for novice, 2 Chapel and 1st Pink. Currently 2nd was the closest to the Altar, got them a star which was for Green, 1st one. Not reaching the city yet but they had to move the Novice to get a Gray, 2nd one.
3rd ROUND.
Cadfael got 1st Blue, 2nd Pink and 3rd Green.
1st Player earned 11 influence, 1st Gray, 3rd Pink, 4th Green and moving novice 2 spaces. From the question mark at bottom right, they reached the 2nd Gray. Total influence was 28.
2nd player got 7 influence with total of 24. Got 3rd blue, 2nd Green and 1st Red. Another 1 movement and star. The star was to get 2nd Red.
4th ROUND.
Cadfael got 2nd Blue, 2nd Gray, 4th Green.
1st player earned 9 influence points with total of 37. Got 2 movements, a Blue, 2nd one, a Chapel, 2nd row, and a Red, 2nd one. From gray in the middle, the Novice got a Green. 5th one.
2nd player got 8 influence points, with total of 32. Got 3 movements, 2 grays and a chapel. Those were 3rd and 4th gray. With 3 movements, they reached bottom left with a cross.
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5th ROUND. 2nd Phase.
First row had 2 Reds, 2 movements with plus and minus. Second row got 2 Chapel and Gray plus a reroll. 3rd one had a Blue, 2 movements and a Chapel.
1st player bid 5 while 2nd bid 7. 2nd chose first and took the 3rd option, giving them 4th blue. The chapel got them a star for 5th blue. While the movement from bottom left corner only moved the novice up to nothing.
1st player took the first option. Decreasing the Blue to 3 while increasing the red from 2 to 3. Movements got the Novice to the Cross at bottom left. They had 4 reds now, winning the majority.
Cadfael got 2nd gray and another gray from the star they got from Chapel.
6th ROUND.
1st row had Chapel, Green, 1 movement and star with plus die. 2nd had chapel, green, blue and reroll. 3rd option was blue, 2 movements and chapel.
1st player bid 10 while 2nd bid only 3. So, 1st took 1st choice, increasing the red from 3 to 4. Got to 3rd row in chapel, 6th green plus the 7th from Star. The movement only moved 1 space up from bottom left corner.
1st got to choose for Cadfael since they bid more than double than 2nd. Cadfael was in 5th row in Chapel, 3rd Blue and 5th Green.
2nd got to 7th row in Chapel, 6th Blue. Novice had to pass 2nd city with 2 movements.
7th ROUND.
1st Row had Gray, Red, 1 movement and star with plus and minus die. 2nd row got Gray, Green Blue and reroll. 3rd had Red, Movement and Chapel.
1st player bid 10 while 2nd bid 8. 1st got to choose first bit picked 2nd option. Got 3rd Blue and Gray, reaching the top with Green.
2nd player chose the 1st option. Increasing the Blue back to 4 while red down to 3. The star was for Pink, 2nd one. Movement only moved to the center. Got 5th gray and 3rd Red.
So, Cadfael got a red and a star which became a green, 2nd red and 6th green.
8th ROUND.
1st option got Red, Pink, 2 movements and a Plus die. 2nd got Green, Gray, Chapel plus reroll. 3rd got Pink, 2 movements and Chapel.
Both players spent their last remaining influence. 12 for 1st and 14 for 2nd.
So, 2nd got to take 1st option, increasing the Blue to value 5. Got 3rd Pink and 4th Red. The 2 movements got the Novice to the city at the top.
1st player got 4th pink and the movement to reach the 2nd city at the middle. I think I forgot to move them in Chapel which could have gotten them a star. Maybe that could have gotten them 4th blue for 2nd place.
Cadfael got 6th Green, 5th Gray, 7th row at Chapel.
That was the end of the game.
1st player scored 6 from completing columns, 5 for visiting 2 towns, 3 for one point in the cross, 0 from leftover influence, 2 at Chapel. Then 10 points from Blue, 3 from Gray, 9 from Pink, 6 for Red and Green. Final score was 50 instead of just 45.
2nd player scored 0 for not completing any column, 2 from 1 Town, 0 from no leftover influence, 3 from 1 point in the cross, 6 from Chapel. From book, they got 15 from Blue, 9 from Gray, 6 from Pink, 2 from Green and 9 from Red. Total score was 52.
So, 2nd player won.
Playing time was about 40 minutes running both sides.
Final Words
So, those are all of the games I played. Hope that entertains or helps to give some idea what kind of tabletop games we can find on the market.
Some are new and some are older games. The complete list of the older games and my reviews about them can be found from this list and this one for the more recent games and if you are interested in previous reports of each game.
I keep saying that these tabletop games can be a good way to spend some time without looking at the screen of our gadget. If we do have someone close, that we can play with, there are other games where we can play cooperatively or competitively but with a lot of player interaction.
The game can be very fast or like a filler type or it can take hours to play. Some games can also be played in solitaire mode and they are still more engaging than other entertainment activity. Some may say, it’s like a workout for the gray matter of our brain.
Thanks for reading.
Mark M.