We all know that birthdays are different this year, so I don't want to try and focus on that. I currently have more board games than I have time to play as it is, but I do like trying new things or adding to my collection, so I did end up with some new games for my birthday or purchased/printed right around the same time. Here's what I've been picking up and playing.
My only real board game gift was Railroad Ink: Blazing Red Edition. Logan and Jenn (brother-in-law and his wife, regularly gaming chums) have the Deep Blue Edition and I've played that with them a few times and really enjoyed it! It's my favourite kind of competitive game - one where you can't hurt or hinder anyone else. Those type of games are not for me. This game is basically a solo game that you can play alongside others and compare scores. Basically, you roll dice that show a variety of railroad tracks and/or roads. Using a dry erase marker, you add these paths to your board, trying to connect as many as possible and score as many points as possible. This is a very easy to pick up game, but there is a lot of choice and strategy in how you lay out your paths. It's amazing how two people can have the same dice and come up with such different arrangements! Really like this one, excited to try the mini-expansions that come in the box.
Lots of people on BoardGameGeek, specially in the solo guild, play PnPs (print 'n' play games). It's a very cost effective to spending all of my money on published board games. For some reason I haven't really gotten into them yet. I've done a few, but they never turn out so great so I haven't committed to. I wanted to make more of effort to try out some of these wonderful games, so I started with a really simple game: Lantern. This is basically a Yahtzee-esque fantasy game. You travel through a dangerous land, attempting to reach and liberate the city of Lantern. You need to roll certain combinations to battle the foes you meet at each location. You have a swath of special abilities that you can use to re-roll dice and flip dice over to roll the require numbers. Very luck dependent and not very deep, but a fun and quick little game that cost me two sheets of paper. I put the game in a sheet protector and used a dry erase marker so I didn't need to print a new sheet for every game. When you just have the need to roll some dice, this is a good one.
My in-laws gave me $100 for my birthday and told me to spend it as selfishly and stupidly as possible. I've been trying to think of some ridiculous board game accessories to spend it on, but it's hard deciding. Until then, I decided to pull the trigger on a game I've had in my Amazon cart for a year or two - Four Against Darkness. The game is a book that explains all the rules and how to play. You need to supply your own pencil, eraser, dice (at least two), and graph paper. That's it! You build the dungeon as you roll and play. There are some really helpful files on BGG that summarize the rules and make things a little easier to find and get to. I've only played two dungeons so far, but I've already lost two adventurers and added two new ones. I haven't played it enough to really get a sense for the game, but I like what I've seen so far.
The highlight of my sessions was the remarkable rolling/fighting of my dwarf, Thalgot Rockforge. In the game, any time you roll a six it's called an "exploding six" and you get to roll again. Well Thalgot rolled three sixes in a row and took down a catoblepas (some kind of beast?) all on his own. It was pretty exciting.
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| Some serious damage. |
Last of the birthday-ish games was a new Clank! expansion. If you haven't realized by now, and you've been following for a while, I've got an obsession with Clank.The base game was gifted to me two years ago by a student teacher of mine (AFTER I gave him his final review - don't worry, it wasn't a bribe...or if it was, it was ill-timed) and at first I wasn't excited about it. But then, I played it! It was love at first clank. Now I've got every single expansion (not including the space side of things - don't have enough money to go that route as well), a few promo cards, and have delved into the Legacy game as well.
Well, about a week ago there was an email for an upcoming expansion: Clank! Adventuring Party. This one is due out in the fall and changes the max number of players from four to six. Now, I find the game drags a bit at even four players, but there is still new content in the box! I got to have it! While I was looking up more information on BGG what did I find? There is another expansion that I had missed!
So in spite of it being a weird birthday, it was still perfect. It was filled with my three perfect ladies, my naughty puppy, and board games galore.
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