Board Games Played
Going into typing this, it felt like a pretty small list this week, but looking back at it I had 5 plays. It was just three of them were solo.
Jan 22 – Skulls of Sedlec: I played with the Merchants expansion doing it solo. I really like this game. It was one that I missed out on originally and found out about it in time for the expansions to hit Kickstarter. It’s a very easy to play game of flipping and placing cards. The cards all have two skulls on them and the skulls are organized into groups for scoring. It’s all about adjacencies and how you plan to build your stacks. It’s kind of been a go to quick solo game for me last year. Though having to carry 2-4 wallets for everything is getting a bit much. I might invest in a small card box to store them all in for ease of transport.
Jan 23 – Draftosaurus: We played this one with the Marina expansion. I was doing alright until the end when two of my strategies just didn’t pan out. I lost this one and (not specifically because of this) I think I’m ready to let this one go. I feel like after 6 plays of it, I’ve kind of seen everything it has to offer. Even adding the expansions doesn’t change my strategy all that much and I think Aerial Show is a pretty weak expansion too. Granted we’ve mostly played this at 2 players, so maybe that’s the fault of the player count.
Jan 24 – Count of the Nine Estates: I haven’t played this since I got two Black Fridays ago. It was better than I expected. Unless I did something really wrong, I reached the top tier of the scoring chart meaning I did really well. I was ready to let this be the play before I give it away, but now I’m not so sure. I at least need to play it once more and see what I think about it.
Jan 25 – Under Falling Skies and Silver & Gold: I began the day by doing a solo play of Under Falling Skies. This is a game that has a basic mode and a campaign. This was my third play of the basic game because I have been unsure if I like the game enough to open the campaign stuff. But this play of it (and the last one too) kind of pushed me forward. I plan to open the campaign on the next play of it and begin going through that to see how it plays out.
Silver and Gold was our game of the night that night. We had a long day and just needed something quick and this was a nice little game to play quickly. I was doing a lot of high point cards but Rachael had bonuses and was getting coins faster than I was. We added up our scores and I won 103-102.
Movies and TV
The movie of the week was Emily the Criminal on Netflix. I heard good things about this from several sources and I had some free time for a short 90 minute movie. I can usually always find time for a 90 minute movie and there should be more of them. This was an interesting one. I wasn’t super sold on it. I think it was good and it was definitely a look at the view of your circumstances can change who you are and make you something new. The acting was great and there was some great camera work. I’d recommend it to anyone, but I don’t know if I’d go back to it.
Rian Johnson’s Poker Face came out on Peacock and while I haven’t watched it, I did sign up for a year of Peacock because of a solid 50% annual plan from a Reddit ad I saw. I also saw that Tár, Brian and Charles, and Nope are on there which are all movies I have wanted to see so I can see my future weekly movie nights being on here for a bit.
On YouTube I had a good week of interesting videos. Mostly focused around pottery as I begin studying more on how to set up a studio and the materials and tools I’ll need. But I did find a new Minecrafter named Tootsie that I enjoyed exploring some of their videos. Link to their newest series of a 1.19 Hardcore world is here.
Pokemon Update
I would say this was a video game update, but let’s be honest I don’t play anything else. In Pokémon Scarlet this week I beat the Victory Road storyline. That put one team into the boxes to begin the Titan storyline just long enough to beat Orthworm which I need to catch for my Team Star team. So I’ve set that storyline on pause for a moment to move onto the Team Star bases. Once that storyline is done I’ll go back and finish the Titans. And that’s honestly just because the story feels like that’s the story you’re supposed to wrap up last based on one dialogue cue. Once I finish all three storylines with a unique team on each, I’ll take two members of each team with me into the post game.
I also need to find time to team up with some friends and take on the Greninja 7-Star raids in Violet where my strong fighters are.