Space Dice

Good news! I've managed to write a blog post within a week of the last one. It's as if it was 2015 all over again.

When I arrived this week Matt was setting up Mysterium, a game that got huge buzz around a year ago but I never got a chance to play myself. I jumped on the table (not literally) and sat myself down (literally) for a game. I often hear Mysterium described as kind of like Dixit but with cards. Which is a strange comparison as Dixit has cards. I also heard it described as cooperative which also seems a bit strange as, although you're not playing against each other, there isn't a whole amount of cooperation. For the most part it's like there are a bunch of two player cooperative games going on simultaneously. Until maybe the end when you maybe have to work together but we lost before we got there so I'm not certain. I often hear this game described as hard and, although it
certainly wasn't easy, I don't know if I'd describe it as hard. Perhaps more of a luck-fest where people move onto the next stage for the most part, not through the help of the cards, but by a process of elimination. But as I said we lost and I can only assume not everyone loses all the time so maybe we're just not very good at the game.

Second for me was a new game I'd acquired, Roll for the Galaxy, the dice based incarnation of Race for the Galaxy. Although this game appeared at IpBoG a few weeks ago I didn't get a chance to play it so this was my first time. To be honest this version of the game didn't grab me like Race for the Galaxy did, but maybe it just needs a few more plays to get the hang of it. Or maybe I'm just bitter because Joe won.

By pure coincidence Mike was playing another dice based board game from Thomas Lehmann, the designer of Roll for the Galaxy, Favor of the Pharaoh. This one however is some sort of Yahtzee variant. I also saw people playing Secret Hitler, Paris Connection and a bunch of other stuff that I've subsequently forgotten.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I was away from IpBoG this week in what is probably considered the home of Euro games; Europe. In my absence Mike volunteered to write a few words and take a few pictures:

Last night was a quiet one.  I arrived just before 9pm and joined Dan, Matt, David, Adam and Andy who were wrapping up a game of 7 Wonders.  I rarely hear negative things about this game and tonight was no exception - I only regret that I could not have joined them.  I cannot remember who called victory - Dan or Matt - but pictured here is the position at the end.

Next up I persuaded everyone to try one of my new acquisitions - Paris Connection.  This is the most simple abstraction of the 18xx theme which I have been able to find and it plays in 30 minutes - even with six players.  I pulled of a sneaky win the first time around, but Dan and Matt's yellow cartel fended off all opposition in the second game.

Finally, Elder Sign was the closing game, and Yog Sothoth was the Great Old One whose slumber we were daring to disturb.  It was my first attempt to play this game, and I was delighted to have drawn the well balanced Mandy Thompson.  (Well balanced in health and sanity, of course, not necessarily in physical form...)  Sadly, the gaming world caved in when last orders in the "real world" was called, but by this stage we were two thirds of the way towards victory without anyone having suffered any physical or mental debilitation.  Or, so I thought, until the voices started again, as I lay awake in bed afterwards, under a waning gibbous moon, trying feebly to banish the night's unspoken horrors from my mind...