A Tale of Two Kitties
Gather 'round, all ye gamers,
for a tale of much fun,
That involves two kitties,
Both gold like the sun.
Our story begins you see,
on one bright winter morn,
with a boy bright eyed and clever,
who's priorities were torn.
He'd gone to the store
with hopes high in his heart,
looking for a new adventure
and a chance at a fresh start.
As our hero looked at the shelves
and the games they had in stock,
He found that he was confused
and at the selection, did balk.
Many games could be found,
All with covers of wonder,
but none of them caught his eye,
as they seemed for gamers much younger.
For much time our hero did ponder
the bounty before him,
Until perchance a stray cover
caught upon our hero's whim.
A name sat emblazoned
right directly on the side
of that wonderful box,
"Calico" he eyed.
for a tale of much fun,
That involves two kitties,
Both gold like the sun.
Our story begins you see,
on one bright winter morn,
with a boy bright eyed and clever,
who's priorities were torn.
He'd gone to the store
with hopes high in his heart,
looking for a new adventure
and a chance at a fresh start.
As our hero looked at the shelves
and the games they had in stock,
He found that he was confused
and at the selection, did balk.
Many games could be found,
All with covers of wonder,
but none of them caught his eye,
as they seemed for gamers much younger.
For much time our hero did ponder
the bounty before him,
Until perchance a stray cover
caught upon our hero's whim.
A name sat emblazoned
right directly on the side
of that wonderful box,
"Calico" he eyed.
A cat of orange
sat on the front,
curled up in a ball
this was not a stunt
With glee he reached out
to take the box in hand,
and the price he saw,
his wallet could stand.
He returned to his home
prize held in his grasp,
and showed it to his daughter
who responded with a gasp.
She pointed at their cat
sitting upon his perch,
Stating he found a second twin
with his board game search.
He couldn't help but smile
at his daughters revelation
for despite their differences,
He could understand her fixation.
For both the cat on the box
and the cat which lay before them,
had a bright orange colour
which he could not condemn.
For now he has three kitties,
one calico, one tabby, one box,
All to entertain him,
despite two's ability to flummox.
sat on the front,
curled up in a ball
this was not a stunt
With glee he reached out
to take the box in hand,
and the price he saw,
his wallet could stand.
He returned to his home
prize held in his grasp,
and showed it to his daughter
who responded with a gasp.
She pointed at their cat
sitting upon his perch,
Stating he found a second twin
with his board game search.
He couldn't help but smile
at his daughters revelation
for despite their differences,
He could understand her fixation.
For both the cat on the box
and the cat which lay before them,
had a bright orange colour
which he could not condemn.
For now he has three kitties,
one calico, one tabby, one box,
All to entertain him,
despite two's ability to flummox.
Purr-fectly Paw-sitive
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What excited me the most about the game was that it took the hexagonal tile-laying of Cascadia and made a slightly altered game with the same mechanic. Instead of pairing animal tokens with one another, Calico tasks the player with laying hexagonal tiles with six potential patterns and colors in a manner that satisfies a pattern listed on the small objectives in your boards. If you place a certain number of patterns in a shape or indicated number, a cat may sit on your quilt for additional points. Buttons can also be sewn onto groups of same-colored patches that are 3 or larger.
The game is super cozy and as any cat owner will tell you, they will definitely come to sit on anything they deem as looking comfortable enough. While a bit shorter than Cascadia, I do appreciate that Calico too includes a pseudo-campaign and achievement list to work through, both with multiplayer games and solo games. There's slightly less freedom that the aforementioned Cascadia, and while the game does have the same number of rounds, Calico can feel completed much sooner than it's northwestern territorial brother.
Overall, I really loved the coziness of Calico and it's pattern and colored nature will make it easy to teach our cat-obsessed daughter to play when she gets older. Definitely an excellent find and addition to my collection!
Everdell You That You Look Nice?
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I had seen quite a few posts here on BGG about how incredible the game was over last year and it really intrigued me. Not because the gameplay was well thought out and had nice weight to it, while being fairly accessible at a mid-light to mid tier weight game. Nor was it because there were so many expansions for the game that had come out. Nor was it even the overwhelming amount that I seemed to notice it in the various Local Game Shops that I frequented it over the last year.
What really caught me about Everdell was the beautiful artwork that it contained and the theme of the game. I grew up reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and I'm all about how good a game looks on the table. I love the idea of anthropomorphic animals creating their own society in the boughs and roots of a giant tree. There's so much story that can be built with that idea and Everdell takes it and runs with it making a beautiful tableau on your table as you play the game. It was as if the stories that I had grown up reading as a kid were coming to life right before my eyes as I built them on the table.
I found out that there was a Complete Collection available for the game but at a price of $350, I knew that there was not going to be any way to convince my wife that I should pick up the game aside from having her play the game herself to see what it was like. I launched into full "Convince my wife to let me spend an inordinate amount of money on a game" mode and spent the next few weeks trying to determine how to get her to agree to buy the game. I found out a friend owned a base copy of the game and he offered to lend it to me to try it out. I jumped on the opportunity and brought home the game I had coveted for almost the entire year to play with my wife in triumph.
I set everything up with the game and offered to play with Sarah that night, but she was tired and didn't really feel up to playing herself. Eager to get an attempt in with the game, I decided to play with the included solo automata, Rugwort. There were rules that were included with the game on how to play and I proceeded through my first game, eagerly filling my city with the cards that sat nestled cleverly in the trunk of the cardboard tree that came included with the game. I finished with a sense of dread, as while I was filling my own city with cards, the solo AI player was doing the same, and it seemed to be better than my own. I ended up beating the AI by 12 points, but it felt hollow. Empty. A disappointment after all the hype that I had heard about the game after the entire year of looking at posts, videos and advertisement for the game.
I expressed my thoughts to Sarah about the game and she offered to play with me the next night to see what it played like against another person. See, dear reader, my campaign to get her intrigued about the game had succeeded much better than I could have imagined: Sarah had seen me play the game and had noted how pretty everything looked and wanted to try it out to see what it played like. She loved the idea of playing with various animals and building a city and the overall production value and look was really big eye candy for her.
We played the next night and I sat down at the table with trepidation, concerned that the game which I had been so excited for this last year, was a victim of overhype and marketing. My first game had felt decent, but nothing to the heights of what was reported here on BGG. The solo automata was not great and I was concerned that the game would be destined to go into the "not for me" list. I loved the art style and look of the game, but to have something that I wasn't excited for just wouldn't do to add to my collection.
However, my concerns were for naught as when I played with Sarah, I found that playing with another person drastically altered the way that the game was played. Sure there was some things that an AI could account for using a single d8, but it missed much of the nuance that an actual human player brought to the table. There was much more chaos and intangibility from playing with another person that was missed with an AI player and Everdell was so much more fun when shared with another person. Sarah ended up absolutely loving the game and I had a much better time with playing the game too, since it was with another person.
I played four more times that week, once more with a solo AI, twice with Sarah, and a final time with a four player count. Each game that I played felt better and despite the failings of the solo AI, I was convinced that I needed to add the game to my collection. I had played enough to know that I would pull out Everdell at any time to play with Sarah and despite a lackluster solo mode, I would be happy to add this game to my collection.
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Our most recent adventure saw us play a four hour game with the Legends Expansion, Bellfaire Expansion, and Newleaf Expansion included in with the base game. It was a long, grueling game, but even at the end of it, both Sarah and I agreed that it was such a fun experience.
While Everdell might not be for everyone, I know that for me, it has been such an incredible addition to my collection because it's one that my wife will willingly play and choose to play anytime.
Finality in It's Best
That's it for this week! I didn't do as deep of a dive into my weekly plays as I thought I would, but there were quite a few things that I played outside the scope of the two above. This has been such an amazing opportunity to get my thoughts out and I appreciate each and every view and comment that everyone here gives.
I'll be back on Monday to talk about real-time elements in games, so look for that post when it comes!
What are some games that you saw and immediately knew that you had to add to your collection, unplayed? What games have you tried that have been disappointing at first but upon subsequent plays have felt much better? Are there any "cozy" games that you like to play?
Have a great week everyone and keep on playing those board games!
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