Board Games
Mar 24: A low game playing week. We spent much of the week catching up on TV from while I was away at Unpub. But Friday night we did play Joan of Arc, the new Orleans roll and write game. I saw this at my FLGS and was really intrigued by it. It was then for sale at the store at Unpub and so I picked it up. Technically I also played this solo on Thursday night, but got to the end and realized I forgot to do something rather significant for the AI scoring which meant the scores would be wildly incorrect so I just packed it up. But playing 2 players we did everything right. We used the standard buildings that come on the player mats and went back and forth. We only had a couple mistakes that we easily corrected and when the final round hit I pushed myself to the 6th star on the development track, scoring me the 10 points I needed to win the game. I haven’t played Orleans in a long time. It’s a big game that I love, but it’s hard to get to the table. This is incredibly easy to do so and I really liked how it played out. This has put Orleans at the top of my list to play, because there’s a solid chance this version could replace the original for me, but I’m not sure. We have so many expansions and modified buildings and such to use with the full game that there’s more ways to engage with it and the roll and write offers.
Mar 26: I started my day off with a solo game of Blazon. This is a new game for me I picked up at Games Unlimited in Pittsburgh on my way home from Unpub. I watched the Kickstarter but didn’t end up backing it, so since they had a deluxe copy in stock, I grabbed it. In this one you’re attempting to fill a shield with design elements to create your blazon. In the solo game you’re attempting to complete 25 objectives before the deck runs out. Which is also the reason I probably wouldn’t play it again. I was doing great. Making great moves and figuring things out. I was down to one more and I looked and had just discarded a card needed to finish that. But it was OK there were still 12 or so cards left in the deck. I had everything else I needed, just had to get one of those cards. Well I drew every card in the deck and there wasn’t one there meaning I lost the game. That really put a sour note to the end of a game I was really enjoying. Leaving it up to random deck distribution at the end wasn’t enjoyable.
I acquired a few other games while at Unpub besides these two. I also picked up Beer and Bread from the game store there. And then I won Kim-Joy’s Magic Bakery and The Fuzzies from raffle drawings. Then my staff pick of free game was That Time You Killed Me. I didn’t expect to come home with 6 games this year, but that’s how it happened. Now it’s time to purge some games to make room for these.
I also got the next expansion for Ashes in Red Rains – The Corpse of Viros. This time instead of two new decks to use, it includes a brand new style of game play. Typically Ashes is a 2 player head to head card battler. But this time the expansion is a cooperative/solo game mode where players face off against a chimera. I’m looking forward to trying this one sometime this week and seeing how it plays. Ashes is another one of those favorite games but isn’t one we often reach for on a regular game night. So if I can solo this and play through a lot of the decks that way I’ll be pretty happy. I’m also excited because it sounds like this might be a new thing where new chimera get revealed giving you new challenges.
Speaking of Unpub, I just about have that write up finished and expect that to come out this week.
Movies
Yesterday I saw John Wick 4. I’ve been waiting a year to watch this since they postponed it. I had plans originally to watch it and Matrix 4 on the same day since they originally were planned to come out on the same day. But alas, I had to wait. The wait was worth it. I love the John Wick movies, though in particular the first one. I consider much of the first movie to be perfect and have liked each successive one a bit less. As the world grows and becomes less mysterious I tend to like the worldbuilding a little less. The third movie in particular seemed to be filled with a bunch of one more thing gimmicks and questions of how big is this world. This movie had a little bit of that, but not nearly as much. It felt more realistic levels of assassin underworld. As with most stories, I hated the epilogue which in this case I’m considering the post credit scene. Still, solid movie and I enjoyed that the “gun ballet” has once again come to theaters.
Library Update
Our new library branch opens this week and in there is a new Maker Studio that I’ll be overseeing. I’ve got mixed feelings on this due to a variety of reasons, but last night we had the preview for our Friends of the Library fundraiser and I had a lot of excited and interested people. We haven’t opened a new one of these in about 3 years, and the last time we really eased into it over time. This time we’re kind of hitting the ground running and I’m really quite nervous about it.