Having a child just keeps on giving. Specifically, giving me germs. He brought a lovely cold virus home from school over the weekend, which is currently at war with my white blood cells.
As a result, this week's update is a day late. My eyes already felt like they were burning their way out of my head, so after a day of work the last thing I wanted to do was stare at the screen. Apologies, I'll try to keep this regular from now on.
What's been going on?
Last Friday I took the day off work so I could play games all day. It wasn't just on a whim (although it's never a bad idea), it was so I could take part in a games day. Paul from Gaming Rules! celebrated his birthday over the weekend, and lined up a bunch of games with us folk from his Slack server.
I didn't get a chance to play with the birthday boy himself, but I played plenty with some other people there.
Kingdom Builder - Dominion was so good that people tend to forget that Donald X Vaccarino had another hit on his hands. Kingdom builder is a classic area-control game of putting little wooden houses on a hex map. It's quick, easy, and great fun.
6 Nimmt! - This is a game I never tire of playing. The glee of revealing the cards and realising you were one card away from having to pick up a butt-ton of bullheads is amazing.
Shifting Stones - A fun abstract about swapping and flipping stones to match colour patterns on cards. I enjoyed it enough, but it has the same problem as Mandala Stones did for me. There's absolutely no point in watching what the other players are doing, or doing any forward planning. The only thing that affects your turn is the board state left by the player immediately before you, and I'm not sure I like that in a game.
Next Station: London - Flip-and-write crack, I'm very addicted to this little game. Draw train lines with different coloured pencils, trying to make interchanges and meet share objectives. I know it doesn't sound particularly exciting when explained like that, but there's something about it which is deeply satisfying.
You can play them all now on BGA - Kingdom Builder, 6 Nimmt!, Shifting Stones, Next Station: London. Some may be premium to play, so if you don't have a premium account (why not?!) get someone who does to set-up a game for you.
New on the site
Reviews have been a bit thin on the ground over the last week or so. It's down to a combination of Real Life getting in the way, and working on a couple of other, bigger pieces which I'm hoping to publish soon. That's not to say there's nothing to read about, however. Slap your eyeballs against these.
Cloudspire Review - Punchboard — punchboard.co.uk A MOBA on your tabletop? Cloudspire from Chip Theory Games aims to deliver an experience that bridges the digital divide, and it's a hit.
Crescent Moon Review - Punchboard — punchboard.co.uk Crescent Moon is a bright and colourful, asymmetric war game. Wondering how it stacks up against Root? Read on and find out.
Until next time, when hopefully I'll have far less lurgy in my system. Thanks for the continued support everyone, I genuinely appreciate it all a great deal.
Adam