If you missed it, last week I posted the first part of a short term series where I’m discussing my favorite games out of the top 1000 games on BGG. This first post was my favorites from the top 1-200 games. You can find that post linked here. The next part comes out this week looking at 201-400.
Board Games
Really good week for games. I’m going to switch up how I do this and talk about the games instead of by calendar because there’s some repeats in here.
I had a roll and write fest last Sunday. I needed to get a few pictures of board games for an upcoming post, so I played Cartographers and Railroad Ink: Green. Both of these went basically well. I got a winning score in Cartographers and did decently average in RRI. But then I tried a new to me game called Trek 12. I almost took a copy of this off the raffle table at Unpub and I kind of wish I had now because I’m getting rid of the game I got instead. This is a “mountain climbing” themed game where you’re putting numbers in bubbles but doing math to get the numbers you use based on two dice. I’m not sure I get it. I think the BGA tutorial is pretty awful and I did not grasp the rules very well. It doesn’t help that I think the rulebook was pretty bad too. I did like the game so I’m going to try again and actually read the rules this time from start to finish and play the base map to see if that helps.
I got three more solo plays of Dorfromantik in this week, usually before work in the mornings. I like this one a lot. I was doing consistently worse each game than the last, but the last game gave me a new high score so that was exciting and I have some new achievements to try and aim for. I’m excited to continue to explore this one.
Tuesday night was our regular game night and we tackled a couple of small games. We started with Ohanami which is a favorite of mine. I won this one and we both agreed we’re curious what it would be like at 4 players, and are hoping to get a play of that here soon with some friends to find out. We also explored Abstract Academy again. This one I lost at, but did get a small come back at the end. It’s another game from the Flatout Games design group and we have almost all of their games. Then last up was Dice Miner. This one I have mixed feelings on. It’s a game we enjoy and our group enjoys, but the last couple of games I’ve been very behind in the first round and have never been able to catch up, no matter the player count. Which does make me wonder if it’s fun. I want to play a 4 player game again and see how people jockey for position over the course of the game or not.
I played 3 games of Akropolis on BGA this week. I don’t know if I would buy this, but I’m loving playing it. I won all three games. Something about this clicks for me. But I also played 2 of those games against first timers so I’m curious to see if my win streak continues over time. That said, anytime I play a game 3 times in one week is probably a pretty good sign that I’d play it a lot if we bought it. Granted the overhead to play online is significantly lower than in person, but 3 times is more than some games I have on the shelf have every been played.
Rachael and I also played a game of Sea Salt and Paper on BGA after I mentioned we’re getting it from the Origins Flea Market. We had a good back and forth on the rounds and got very close at the end, but I managed to have a big turn after she called Last Chance giving me the win. She loved the art and is excited to get the physical game next month.
I also had a play of Tucano, boop, Next Station: Tokyo, and Bandido on BGA this week. Tucano was great, I did pretty well in boop considering I lost, I did much better in Next Station: Tokyo than my first game, and Bandido was a solo game just to see what it’s like.
YouTube
I didn’t watch any movies this week due to being away from home on the weekend. But I will leave you this video. It’s the Game Grumps playing Soda Pong but they use absolutely terrible flavors. I have personally tried the sweet corn variety and can attest to the awful yet extremely accurate taste.
Video Games
And here it is. Friday was the release of Tears of the Kingdom, a game I’ve been looking forward to. I technically never finished Breath of the Wild but I don’t care. I played that for so long just seeking out shrines, doing side quests, and exploring. The new game is a bit harder at least to start. Now that I have a few more hearts the immediate death isn’t as likely at every single turn. The puzzles are neat, there’s new features to tinker with. I do miss my bombs, but I like where it’s going with things. I’ve finished one of the four regional challenges and have begun exploring the depths. I’m moving onto the next regional one and trying to unlock towers and shrines along the way. I also love that they let me import my saved horses from Breath of the Wild so my incredibly good horse that I never had time to really bond with came over and we’ve reached full bond. I know I can make cars and planes and stuff, but I think I’ll likely use a horse for a lot of this because it’s just fun.
Reading
I read the last issue of The Last Ronin (which I realize I had read before). This is a great Ninja Turtles series I highly recommend to anyone who has an interest in TMNT. Really interesting change of pace tonally. I also continued Saga for the first time since they went on hiatus. I was very excited to get back to it, but just never did. Took the opportunity of being trapped in a car to get the new issues and start going through. I’ve read three issues of the new work and I’m enjoying it and looking forward to continuing the series.