Board games – April highlights

The Quest for El Dorado

A streamlined racing deck builder where you need to pay attention to other players? Designed by Knizia? Yes please! (Played it 4 player twice and with 2 players once)

What i Liked:

– Very easy to explain and understand.
– Equally good and accessible for gamers and non-gamers.
– Wonderful tension and difficult decisions throughout the race
– Fast turns
– The way new cards enter the market is fantastic
– Plays great with 2 and 4 players because all 4 meeples are in play making the board crowded.
– Duration – short and does not outstay its welcome

Neutral:

– Not many cards. In the short/medium term this won’t be a problem. Might even be a good thing as it forces players to learn to use the existing cards better. Might be an issue after many plays.

– Setup takes time compared to the length of the game especially if you want to play back to back games but with different board setups.

What i Disliked:

– The cards are too small. The game takes a lot of table space so maybe that’s why they made them small but i find the size very annoying.

Conclusion- Great game! Enthousiastic

Spirit Island

I hadn’t played it solo for some time and went for the combination of River Surges in Sunlight together with Lightning’s Swift Strike.

– First Adversaries were the French (Difficulty Level 6*3 times):
After i was easily defeated in the 1st game i changed tactics. Game number 2 was still a defeat but the two Spirits start clicking with me and with one another and victory was finally achieved in the 3rd game

– Next, mighty England (Difficulty Level 6*3 times):
I was by now very comfortable with River and Lightning together but i couldn’t keep up with English builds. In the first game i lost during a round where i resolved no fear cards which meant that they build 3 times plus the Flag build. In game number 2 it was much closer where i lost due to Blight. Game 3 was a disaster though. Easily defeated.

After so many plays Spirit Island still finds ways to excite me and makes me eager to bring it back to the table again and again. – Enthousiastic

 

Board games – March highlights

Concordia & Venus expansion

This expansion changes the way the game plays significantly. I rarely felt that i was playing the optimal card for both players because i was usually at a different stage of play than my team mate. At first this frustration made me dislike the game.

Once i accepted this, I started playing cards that seemed to be more beneficial to my partner than to me and vice versa. And when things clicked it felt great and my feelings started to change.

For example i wanted to play an Architect but i knew that would have been a wasted play for my partner. So i played a Prefect to give us both more resources. Then on her turn she played a Diplomat on a card with 2 options. She used a Mercator and left me with the Architect. That was fantastic, as i still got to do what i wanted but not at the expense of my partner.

What i Liked:

– Interaction
You now need to pay more attention to your partner and the game in general. Sometimes Concordia felt a bit too solitairish for my tastes but this changes the game a lot.
– Hellas map.
I don’t know why but i really liked this map. With 4 players it felt like you both had space to manoeuvre but also just crowded enough to make things more tense.
– Shared coins
We forgot to do this for the first few turns but after that we used it a lot and your playing options open up a lot. I could sell my wines getting coins giving my partner enough money to build. Also, the sense of guilt of using the other person’s coins is interesting to experience.

What i Disliked:

– Length.
I think this will be my main issue. Our game went long but i am hoping that it was because players were not experienced with the game. Also i think table talk should be kept to a minimum to keep the game flowing better.

Verdict: It started (30-40mins) with me feeling frustrated but once we got things going there was a great sense of satisfaction when we got things right.  – Mixed but feeling optimistic about this.

A Feast for Odin & The Norwegians expansion

I was feeling quite guilty about purchasing the expansion because there’s already  so much content and replayability in the base game. I only played with the expansion once (solo) but i was impressed. The new board game tightens things a lot because there are fewer spaces now available. Also, the additional column which signals the end of your turn creates additional tension. I also liked the new tiles/shapes and the personal starting building. It’s a really good package – Enthousiastic

Treasure Island– I only played this once. I enjoyed marking the map and it does give you a nice impression of treasure hunting. However, the map is sometimes hard to read (green player colour is basically unplayable) and a couple of components are difficult to use. The downtime is an issue and our session was way too long for this kind of game. Around 2hrs. – Indifferent

Charterstone – We finally finished the campaign. A mediocre worker placement game at best which then becomes an imbalanced one after 12 plays. – Avoid

 

1Q84, by Haruki Murakami (#1)

I have mixed feelings about it.

On the one hand, i enjoyed the story and will continue with books 2 and 3. On the other hand, with regards to the female characters, it reads like a male fantasy version of these characters.

P.S It’s annoying the way this trilogy has been published. I purchased the Kindle edition which has books 1-2 bundled together but i can’t buy book 3 on its own. That leaves me with the options of either buying the physical version of the book or buying the entire trilogy on Kindle.

 

Movies

A rare post as i rarely watch movies anymore.

Deadpool 2 (HBO) – Whereas i did not like the first one i enjoyed this. Recommend

Backstabbing for Beginners (Amazon Prime) – Indifferent

Polar (Netflix) – Indifferent

Siberia (Netflix) – Indifferent

The Hard Way (Netflix) – Avoid