I can't believe that it's already August. It feels like I just started July last week, but here we are at the beginning of a new month and I'm astounded at how fast time has flown.
There were a lot of new games for me this month, so I'll get right into it:
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This was an exciting one for me. The Collector's Edition has been on my wishlist for some time now and I finally was able to get my paws on the game. Sarah and I played two games of this after we picked up the game and our first game was played with the standard two-player rules and room numbers. The second game we played with an extra 11 cards for the rooms which resulted in a longer game, which we both liked a bit more. I think that's how we'll play two-player games if we have the time as it didn't feel like the game was over too quickly. I also printed off a two-player variant where both players place rooms on a single castle and score at the end and that should be very fun to play with.
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Adding another two games to Clank! via the new digital app on Steam. It's a really fun implementation and I really like the addition of challenges as well as a seasonal game where there are different score additions. These were two of the seasonal games and unfortunately I didn't make it out for either, but I'm beginning to learn what the bots do when I play. It's similar to playing with a person, but the bots tend to be far more cavalier with their choices that they make. I'm not complaining though, as any way to play more Clank! is a good opportunity.
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It finally happened! I was able to get my hands on Clank!: Catacombs and unfortunately for me, it seems as if my ability to deal with the chaos is only compounded by the ever-changing corridors of the catacombs, resulting in multiple losses over and over with multiplayer. I managed to do fairly well solo, getting two wins with the app-based solo mode, but when I attempted to play with Sarah and Anthony (and his kid), I biffed it every time. I lost all four multiplayer games that I played and I still have yet to win a game multiplayer. Yet, there's an irresistible draw of the game pulling me back for more and I just want to play more and more. I think it's my favorite of the Clank! series, but I still like base and In! Space! as well, so it's a general love for the series that I think comes out.
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This was a "we're angry at one another so we'll play Everdell" game that Sarah and I played and it actually worked quite well. I think the game helped clear our heads and made us focus on the logic of the game rather than the emotional imbalance that we were feeling and we both had one of the best games we've ever had. I'm interested in attempting the game with multiple expansions as I have yet to play with Newleaf and Everdell: Spirecrest together and I think it could be really fun.
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Two games of Thunder Road: Vendetta with my Friday game group at lunch and both games were to introduce my coworkers to the game. Both ended in the most ridiculous and over the top fashion, which was appropriate for this game and each game that I play makes me more and more excited for when the MAXIMUM CHROME EDITION comes later this year. I know it's still a ways off, but being able to add some more effects, player powers and new boards is something that I'm very excited about. I think this might be my favorite game of 2023, but I'll have to look through my list of games to see when everything came out. I may do a retrospective on years of my collection and list my favorite games there, but that's somethign for a later time.
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Two games of Dungeon Kart, both with Sarah who enjoyed herself with the game but noted that she liked Heat: Pedal to the Metal better due to the control in the game. I personally think that both bring very different things to the table and I like the kart-racing that this game brings to the table. I have yet to play the game with more than two players so I'm guessing that the chaotic nature will get a bit better with more players and it'll feel a bit more fun with a higher player count. I'm also tempted to try the game with each player playing two karts to see what happens, but I don't know if Sarah could handle it.
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A game of Wyrmspan with my friends David and Rynae on Friday night since my regular gaming buddy was out of town. Rynae had not yet played the game, but had quite a history with the inspiration (Wingspan), so this was an easy teach. Somehow Rynae managed to beat me three out of the four public objectives and pulled out a win at the last minute, beating me by a single point. I'm frustrated that anytime I play with either of them that I end up losing by a small margin, but I do have to defer to the fact that they've both played a ton of Wingspan in the past so I really can't compare myself to them until I have more games under my belt.
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Two games this month where I brought the game first to play with David for our regular Saturday Dad Gaming session. I managed to barely eke out a win at the last minute due to keeping some clever heat management with my hand. It was a really close race and even after recalculating David's final turn, several times, I still ended up winning, which was what I needed after a rough night before. The second game was with Sarah and we had the weather and garage modules active and Sarah somehow pulled out an absolutely massive win against me on the US map. I think that it's time to play the game with the legends since she's gotten a great grasp of the game and I'm finding myself behind the 8-Ball more often than not.
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After playing so much Terraforming Mars with Gerry, I wanted to play what I had in my collection. Unfortunately, I only have the card version of the game, but it still helps to scratch that itch that I had. I played another solo game and I think that I'm finally getting the hang of the game with the goals of getting Mars terraformed in 25 turns. It's still a bit of a challenge, but
I think that I'm getting the general overall game flow down and I think that the next game I'll be increasing the difficulty to "normal."
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Four games of Quacks this month to finish up the 10x10 Challenge goal for it this year. I played a game with Sarah and finished my final three games with a solo bot that I found here on BGG. Unfortunately it seems as if the bot is calibrated on the base game and not the expansions, so I might have to either update the cards or play the game on the hardest bot setting each time if I choose to play the game with the expansions as well (which I always do). Still, it was fun being able to play the game without other people and I have to agree with a sentiment that I saw here earlier: Quacks is a push your luck game that masquerades as a game with more control, but overall you still keep the same level of control through the entire game despite adding more chips to your bag.
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A game of Cascadia for our regular Friday night game night and it was the first of three games that we played that night. I play the game with the personal rule that at last one of my tile edges must match whatever I put in my tableau. While this isn't necessarily in the rules for the game, it still lends itself to me getting a really good score with my land. This game was no different and although I had a lower score with my animals, I ended up with the win because I had the longest corridors for all but one in the game. With three players, that amounted to an additional eight points that I scored and easily got me the win for that game.
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We played a three-player game of Clank! In! Space! for the first time with Sarah and while it felt slightly different because there were people taking cards that we were used to seeing, it ended up being quite fun. I was the only one who managed to make it out of the station alive as both Anthony and Sarah were killed in the dangerous part of the station when we pulled the cubes. I almost made it to an escape pod, but ended up being rescued due to not having enough movement to get there in time. I did enjoy putting in the scores since I was the only one who had a score with both Sarah and Anthony ending up with big fat "0"s on their score.
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Two games on BGA with Gerry and I'm so glad that I get to play this game more. There's so much card interaction and the more I play, the more I'm beginning to understand and develop strategies on how best to build my engine while playing the game. I don't want to put what my strategy is here because I know that Gerry reads this blog, but overall, I'm fairly happy with what I've been able to discover with the game on BGA. I would like to get a copy of the game for myself at home rather than having only digital versions, but for now, I'll have to be content with the digital implementation that I get to play with a really cool guy.
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Several games of Cartographers this month as it continues to retain the title of the game with the most logged plays. While I keep trying to push other games into that category, Cartographers consistently retains the number one spot and I find myself wanting to come back to it again and again due to the quick and relaxing nature of the game. BGA also hosts multiple games of it in an ongoing fashion all the time, so it's an easy game for me to play quickly. I'll probably continue the trend of playing this quite a bit next month, especially after getting the collector's edition of Heroes with new maps for me to explore!
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These were a few games that I played with my daughter as we had picked this up for her to play when we visited the Noble Knight brick and mortar store earlier this month. It was a simpler version of the original game, but with animals rather than a random assortment of symbols and other items on the cards. My daughter loved the game and we ended up playing for about a half hour because she was having so much fun with the game. We're not quite at the "let's play competitively" level yet, but she's really quick with the uptake so I bet we'll get there soon.
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A mix of IRL and BGA play for this month. I managed to get my hands on a copy and I played several times with Sarah and my friends, in addition to a few games on BGA. It's really interesting to me that this game can be so hit or miss with points as sometimes I'll build an engine that absolutely crushes my goals, and other times, I'll just not be able to get it going and fail miserably. I definitely prefer this over Splendor since there's a bit more going on, but I think that I'd enjoy going back to Splendor every once in a while.
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This one was really fun to play and I picked it up at a local game shop after seeing it recommended here on BGG as a game that was fun to play with kids and adults. That recommendation was not wrong as it was just as fun to play with my daughter as it was to play with my wife or friends. Once that tower gets high enough, you know that it's going to be toppling over and I think that I enjoy this far more than Jenga since there seems to be a bit more skill in building the tower with cards rather than wooden blocks. I'm looking forward to playing this more.
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Two games of Galaxy Trucker with Anthony and his boy for our Friday night game night. This game is so interesting as there could be some great things that happen, some awful things that happen, or nothing at all and the game feels like a wash. The first game was fairly calm, with only one meteor storm happening, but I managed to win, mainly because I had built my ship with a ton of cargo storage and I was able to clean up on the last planet. The second game, I ended up in third the entire game and lost all opportunities to really do anything during the game, which led to me not really getting any points that game. I think playing a series of three interconnected games would lend itself to a more intense game, but we wanted to play other games that night and that idea was shelved for now.
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Two games of this on BGA and I again realized that Sarah and I misplayed when we played last month. It's so interesting to me how many different strategies there are with the game and I ended up losing the first game quite handily, but won the second game by only a few points. There's a bit of a luck of the roll feel to the game, but interestingly enough, that can be mitigated by building your dice cleverly. I think I've got some ideas about how to play better and I'd love to revisit it with Sarah to get a better feel for everything.
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On the opposite end of luck, we have this game. Agricola is punishing if you don't play correctly, but it awards every move that you make well with more success. It's definitely punishing starting with negative points and having to constantly worry about your family's food levels is also difficult, but the game holds up surprisingly well, even to today's modern standards. Gerry and I have added this to our regular rotation of games that we play and I'm looking forward to playing it more to see if I can conquer the mountain that is Agricola.
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I really went wild with this game after I found that it could be played solo here on BGG. I played multiple games solo, only winning after my seventh game and then for my eighth game, I thought I'd play it with another person to see if I could win that one too. Turns out I couldn't. Back to solo play for next month for now!
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After some time of wanting to pick up the game, I was able to snag the collector's edition of the game and Sarah and I played the Nebblis (fire) version of the map. It was a really cool change to the game mechanics and we ended up really enjoying ourselves with the new ambush cards and some of the new exploration cards. I really look forward to trying this with some of the new cards and see how that will change how the game goes over the next few times I play this, especially with the new maps. I'm so happy I have more variety and I cannot wait to see how it all goes.
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Multiple solo games and a multiplayer game of this on BGA resulted in me getting five games of this. There's a bit more to this game that many of the other flip and write games that I have played, but I really enjoy having multiple chain reactions happen when I play the right cards. I still have yet to clear the 100 point mark with my solo game, but I'm beginning to understand the strategy a bit more. While I don't think I'll get this for myself to add to my collection, it's still fun to play on BGA.
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Another game of Azul and I cannot believe how deep this game can be. Every time I've played it on BGA, I find myself astounded with how much there is that I miss and how many different strategies that I fail to see. On occasion, I think that I've played well, but I inevitably miss something that gives my opponent an advantage that gets far bigger. Even 14 (or so) games in, I'm still getting the hang of things and while I thought that I knew what worked, I've found quite a bit that doesn't and that's great for me to learn from.
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Another game of Dungeonology to continue working towards the finish of my 10x10 Challenge. I've still got six games left but this is a game that I really have enjoyed playing. I'm currently going through a pseudo-campaign, and this game was basically me playing against the boss of the solo version anyways. It ended up being a fairly easy game and I'm really curious to see how this game is ramping up more and more with the campaign. With six games I think that I'll be just at the end of the campaign and I cannot wait to see what the new bosses have in store.
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This was a really fun experience and I think I prefer it much more than the original game. Machi Koro 2 offers significantly more choice, all while retaining much of the mechanics of the first game. Additionally, I like that this offers a very nice, light dice chucker for me to end the night with and Sarah really enjoyed how much fun the game was. I personally think that my mother, who isn't really into difficult games, will find this easy enough to learn and I look forward to teaching it to her later if/when we can get a game night going with her.
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With this being sent to me by the publisher to review, I had to at least get one game in before I started writing something up. There's a morbid sarcasm that comes with this dark twist on a card game and I'm all here for it. I don't want to add to much more here since I'm planning on reviewing the game on Friday, but suffice to say, the game itself was very fun and I really look forward to playing this with more people. It's not as meaty as some other card-based games that I've played, but it was still fun to chat about plotting to kill our husbands with Sarah.
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A solo game and a game to teach Sarah how to play resulted in a 1/1 win/loss ratio. I managed to get a great score for my solo game, but Sarah managed to beat me when we played together. I enjoy the game, but I'm also glad that I'm just borrowing it as I don't think there's enough meat here for me really to want to add this to my collection. Still, I do have to appreciate all the various dice colors that are on my board once the game is done. It definitely gives the feeling of completing a stained glass window.
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Sarah and I played this with Anthony and the simple, colorful tree-based cards belie a very cutthroat game underneath. It was really fun learning about and building out my tableau, even though it took me some time to figure out what the ultimate goal was. I ended up losing to Anthony, who had played a few games prior to teaching us, so I don't feel too bad about losing, but I definitely want a rematch so I can try to win.
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Two quick matches of boop. on BGA. It's a relatively simple game, but the cats are cute and I like how it does have a bit of strategy to it. Overall, really fun and definitely in the running to add to my collection due to the cute nature and simplistic gameplay of it. Plus it's a two-player only game, which would be perfect for Sarah and I.
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To round out our final game of D&D, my party and I played a game of Boss Monster together. There was a surprising amount of strategy with all four of us playing the game and it was a race to see who could get the most hero souls at the final round. My brother in law won the game with some clever dungeon implementation, much to my chagrin, but we all had a really fun time playing the game.
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Another game that I reviewed this month and Sarah and I played two games of it to see how it felt. I liked it from the perspective of teaching new players (and kids) on how to play worker placement games. However, as someone who owns the entire collection of Everdell, it's hard to not want to play that instead of My Lil' Everdell. Still, as my daughter gets older, I have a feeling this will come out a bit more often for us to play with her and I'm excited about that prospect.
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Several games of this with my daughter and her friends to really connect with her. She loves playing games with her dad and I am actively trying to get her into us playing more together. It was a really cute thing to hear her say after she lost, "I'll get more next time. That's ok." It made my dad heart proud and it's so cool to see how much my little girl has grown up.
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We picked this up because Sarah thought that it looked pretty and she wanted to try it out. I personally think that it's a decent game, but I would much rather play Dorfromantik: The Board Game because that has a bit more going on in it and it's cooperative. Land vs Sea has up to a four player option, but with two players, the game is very cutthroat. It's a nice way to end a long night, especially with the simple nature of the game, but again, I can't help but want to play Dorfromantik due to there being a bit more with the "match tile edge" gameplay.
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Having played the sequel before, I played the original game a few times on BGA. It's a simple and easy game to learn and play and it was nice to clear out some of my time that I was needing to fill. It's fun playing with others and I think I'll probably make this a regular game.
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I think I did myself a disservice, playing this game on BGA since I really didn't click with the game, especially playing on mobile. I also played it asynchronously and I think that also didn't allow me to really get a good feel for the fun of the game. I want to try this with my friends to see how it plays with actual marbles, especially since I'm a very tactile guy before I make a final judgement on the game.
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This hardly qualifies as a "game" and is more of an activity that I get to do with my daughter. It's not really great, but it keeps her occupied and with her need for tactile and sensory play, this works great. It's just not something that I think that I'll be playing much as she gets older (I hope).
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A few games of this on BGA and it's an interesting concept mixing tic-tac-toe with rock, paper, scissors. It's not something that I'll probably really get into, but it's good for a quick time waster if I can find someone to play it with me on BGA.
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A few games of Mancala with Sarah to start our night off with and I realize how basic and simple this game was. I hadn't played it in forever, but
after playing it again, I remembered why I hadn't done so. It's a nice little game and I understand that it comes from ancient times, but it just doesn't really hold my attention, just like when I was a kid. There's better games out there but this might be fun to play with my daughter and see if she can figure out how to play it.
To summarize, that's 128 separate plays over 50 separate games with an H-index of 5 for the month of July. It's a higher number than I achieved in June and I'm surprised that happened, although with BGA, I shouldn't be that surprised. Of those 50 games, 21 were new to me this month and that represents an extremely high number for me. I know that there's so many games out there and it shouldn't be that surprising to me that I played so many new games, but it still throws me off to see it that high, as I usually had one or two new games that I learned every six months before the pandemic. I'm so excited that I have so much that I get to choose from.
It was a pretty good month, with me being able to finish up one game for my 10x10 Challenge and adding another game play to bring me to under 10 plays left on the challenge. I'm hoping that I can finish Dinosaur World in August and get another few plays for Dungeonology, now that I'm so close to the finish line. What has been getting in the way, ironically enough, is that Sarah is playing more games with me and while I've wanted that for a long time, I find that it eats into my solo game time and that's when I normally complete a game for the challenge. "Who knew getting what I wanted would end up making things harder?", he asked himself sarcastically.
I had a great time and with this blog taking off, I again want to say thank you to everyone who reads this. You are all amazing and I appreciate each and every one of you.
Give me your thoughts:What are some of the best games that you've played this month? Are there any new games this month to you that you'd like to share? Anything else that happened this month that was great?
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