120 tables on Board Game Arena… 27 victories. I love board games, but I never said I was any good at them! I did try to learn a lot of new games this month and also discovered that a few of the Roll & Writes/Flips have solo modes on BGA, so that made the tables list go up and my ability to win go down.
Some new games I tried on BGA this month:
- Welcome to New Las Vegas – I LOVE the basic Welcome To game and was excited to see this sequel on BGA. NLW has a LOT going on and you’re not just managing the horizontal streets, but the vertical ones as well, along with driving a limo around, building theaters, new construction and more! All the while managing your debt! Is it too much? Maybe? I keep playing though, there is something about it that pulls me back in…
- Viticulture – this game is on so many top ten lists, I’m so glad I got to try it out virtually. This was one I tried to just jump into without a close read of the rules and totally failed then my friend did a teach for me and now I love it! So much strategy! I will probably pick this up physically at some point.
- A Feast for Odin – I have no idea what I was doing during this HUGE GIGANTIC GAME but I somehow managed to muddle through. I think I would need to play this at a real table to understand it all.
- Space Base – I got the hang of this around the last round of my first game…going back in for another game and actually looking at the cards I pick this time LOL
I am really loving BGA and all the ways it lets me “taste test” different kinds of games!
My BoardGameGeek stats are a mix of games that hit the actual table…and others that hit Tabletop Simulator:
I have managed to rope a coworker into playing Dice Throne with me once a week (and now maybe twice a week!) during our lunch break. As usual, I’m more likely to lose than win, but I have been impressed how every game has been very close. Actually got to try a 3-player game at the end of the month (hopefully a new recruit for the lunch break games) and it was a real showdown, with all of us down to single digit health by the final round.
My friend taught our game group Disney Villainous using a TTS mod. I can see why this game is so popular as an introduction to asymmetric gaming – the familiar Disney characters providing a welcoming theme that works really well. It does require you to attack other players though, which I think is a harder “mechanic” for certain types of people…though once that first magical punch is thrown, I felt like everyone loosened up and started targeting players moving ahead. I would like to play this one again!
Lord of the Rings: Journeys to Middle-Earth was a birthday present and I’ve only been able to get it to the table that weekend, but I enjoyed those two hours of play! I like how the app guides you in set up and gives you the lore, rather than having to flip through a giant tome, filled with rules and story. We won the first scenario but lost the second battle – but losing the battle did not mean we lost the game, the story just progresses with the app tracking that defeat and that the boss is still at-large.
I finally figured out the correct way to play Unsurmountable and I’ve tried to climb the mountain several times and survived ONCE! I made a TikTok about the gameplay:
Another group is playing HeroQuest using a TTS mod and after 3 games, I can see how this was the grandfather of games like LotR and Gloomhaven.
Catan is free-to-play on Steam (with paid DLC options). I played Catan once before, years ago when I didn’t know about board game culture. I remember that the teach didn’t go well because we didn’t grasp the wood for sheep trading system and the whole game ran really long and it was painful. So I had avoided it since then, but a friend suggested it and since it was free, I figured I would give it a go. I do feel like the game’s mechanics can be frustrating: the dice roll and random board setup can really screw you over (as it did for our second game) so I understand why the game gets a lot of flack now. But playing it digitally, eliminating the setup/breakdown time makes it a little more palatable. Good warm up or cool down for a game night but probably not one I would show up just to play. Of course, I haven’t experienced the expansions so I don’t know how those modify this experience.
Nut Hunt was a TTS playtest and I think I will write up a separate post about this game because it is coming to Kickstarter soon and I want to promote it. It was a lot of fun!
Did you play any board games this month? Let me know in the comments or link me to your posts!
orangerful 