Today’s #boardgame: 1830. We didn’t quite lean into the stock shenanigans as I’d hoped. Still, any day is a good day when I get to play an 18xx. We called it after a few hours since one player was too tired, right as we started to bring out the knives. Hopefully we’ll revisit this soon.

Today’s #boardgame: Civolution. Excellent graphic design and player aid booklets help with the heavy rules overhead. Plenty of ways to mitigate dice. Card draws and tile reveals can be swingy. Not super interactive but lots of paths to victory. Group was happy w/ the experience and would play again.

Next #boardgame: “Windmill Valley”. Clever use of two interlocking gears to select your action(s). The wedges are upgradable to fit your strategy. Quick, meaningful turns makes for a good medium+ game. I wouldn’t mind picking up a copy down the road.

Today’s #boardgame: “Beyond the Horizon”. Or, Tech Tree: The Board Game, now w/ pastoral setting. It’s not a bad game — good for when you want a cozy, heads-down experience w/ a fairly light rules overhead — but our group would rather play “Anno 1800”.

Today’s next #boardgame: Big Top. Fast, clever bidding game. Our version had the nice metal coins that added to the enjoyment. Definitely want a copy for myself.

Today’s #boardgame: SETI. Heads-down, quiet game w/ tight resources, some shared goals (finding aliens), & universal effects (rotating the board). Aliens weren’t equally interesting in how they impacted gameplay. It’s not my cup of tea; group found the swingy cards frustrating but would play again.

Today’s #boardgame: East India Companies. Dislike the setting, but the game is solid for what it is: a Euro-style intro to stock games with a fluctuating market. We wished players owned their companies stock and received the money for purchased shares/dividends. I enjoyed it more than the others.

Today’s #boardgame: Bruxelles 1893 w/ Belle Epoque. Kitchen sink mechanisms and point salad scoring. It may just be my mood today, but it was sort of dull despite the multitude of strategies (area majorities, tracks, selling artwork, etc.). The group was also pretty “meh” about it.

Today’s #boardgame: Andromeda’s Edge. It’s a slow-starting engine builder with dice-based combat. Fairly lengthy downtime between turns means this is probably best at 3. We started w/ a medium length game but opted for the short game halfway through. Group consensus: fine, nothing special.

Today’s #boardgame: Perserverance Ep. 2. It’s not my type of game, but I can easily envision folks who’d love playing this multiple times to experience the story it wants to tell. The rules favor “theme” over elegance and the interaction is fairly low for a game this weight and length.

Today’s #boardgame: Fromage. The design of aging cheese is clever. It’s a good bridge between gateway & meatier games. It’s bright, quick & easy to teach, & plays in 45 minutes (maybe less with practice). It also has enough strategy to appeal to advanced players. 8/10; asking my FLGS for a copy.

Today’s #boardgame: Arborea. Some interesting ideas here, such as the shared resource bank that gives immediate points if new goods aren’t used. This leads to decent interaction for a point salad Euro, just don’t expect 18xx-levels of interplay. Sadly, the parts don’t cohere into a compelling whole.

#caturday

Love Albert

Today’s #boardgame: “Unconscious Mind”. Solid 3 hr Euro with unusual/refreshing setting. Multiplayer solitaire but each turn feels meaningful, especially when you’re chaining actions. This does lead to AP getting worse as the game progresses. Maybe a bit too bloated? 7/10 from group.

Who are my fellow board gamers? I prefer economic and Euro-style games with positive player interaction, such as:

Brass: Birmingham
City of the Big Shoulders
Container
Flotilla
Hegemony
Indonesia
Lignum

My group plays a new #boardgames every week, so expect some hot takes on Sundays.

This is me dipping my toes back into social media. It’s been a few years.

I’m a theatre director in Honolulu eager to engage with folks about the creative process, especially as we prepare to enter some very difficult times.

I also love gaming (board games, video games, crosswords, etc.) & pets.