I had a bunch of friends up and was gifted Cosmic Encounter.

I had seen it played on YouTube, but this was the first time I got to play it myself. We had a great time! The game can feel a little bit overwhelming at first with all it’s stages and card-decks, but once you get past it it’s a really good time.

If you’ve never played it, the super short version is that you are trying to get colonies on other players planets by drawing cards against each other. But what makes it fun is that every player also gets to draw an (initially secret) civilization/character card, which typically has abilities that completely turn the game on its head. We had lots of hilarious moments stemming from the character reveals. I would definitely recommend checking it out!

I also got to play Radlands with my S/O. Not at all the kind of game either of us have really played before, but we had a blast. It’s a card-dueling game, and all the cards feel very powerful with some cool synergies. It’s pretty simple to teach, especially if you use table-top sim or spring for the edition that comes with play-mats.

I played a 2-player session of Dungeon Petz - I had never heard of the game before but a friend of ours invited for a session. While I am not a big fan of Auction and Bidding, having had to many terrible session of Isle of Skye I was a bit hesitant at first. In the game you are going to grow cute little monsters, supply all their needs and then sell them. The game only consists of 7 turns but still takes some time to play and at least in this first game, it did not feel like I had to min/max from the very first turn. There is a lot going on during each turn where you have to make interesting decision. With each monster added to your care, you will have to supply their needs and care for them. Each level adds more needs as well and so as the game progresses, it becomes more and more challenging to take care of all your pets properly. For me, the game shines in the stage when you assign cards to the needs of the pet. There are four types of cards and depending on the monster it could be it needs 3 red, 2 green, 1 yellow and 1 purple card to take care of them. Behind each type of card you can have different effects, the card might indicate that the animal is trying to bite you, is hungry, wants to play, is full of magic and risks mutating, needs to take a shit or is getting sick. You will have a hand full of cards of these different types and will have to assign them, carefully thinking ahead so that the animal is not getting away, sick or shits all over the place, while fulfilling the auction and selling requirements for this specific turn. Some auctions will grand bonus points for each food consumed or magic played for this monster in this turn. It starts really easy but once you have 3-4 animals of various levels, it can get really challenging. Overall, I like the game and would play it again (maybe with 4 people this time).

This week was a good week. I have three wins to report.

Order by importance of the win:

Twilight Imperium - how did I manage to win? I still have no idea. This game is so long and it was my second time playing it. Four Player table. It is nicely asymmetrical and way too many factions to understand there balance playing it once a year. It is an ok game. But why do people like this game so damn much? The art is nice.

Root - Vagabond for the first time and won the game. Still prefer the other factions cause I like the war aspect of the game.

Heat - it is a race game. And I won. The review from shut up and sit down really captures the essence of the game. It is nice and a light game. Only half as lovely without Dutraits art. I was glad someone else moved the bots, cause this I didn’t quite catch yet. Would love to play with six players.

Foodchain magnate - oh, did I lose. This game gives no room for failure. It is tight and needs lots of planning. The old art style I really like. Nat a game I need to replay.

We had some friends joining for an impromptu dinner yesterday and after that we had time to play a couple of games Skull and Sushi Go. Light games that are easy to teach/pick up but still quite fun.

I hadn’t played board games in a while so it felt good.

A smaller, more focused group this week! This meant Gloomhaven: JOTL again! My partner and I got engaged earlier in the week, so we chatted too much to finish it in one session - so our friends came back on Saturday to finish it off!

It didn’t actually take us too long to finish the encounter, so we played a game of Mondo. This is a ridiculous real-time tile laying game in which you’re trying to ‘close out’ biomes on your board. Always good fun and super accessible!

Got in a great 7P game of Ares’ The Thing. I was the starting alien. I infected someone and they, in turn, interacted with someone else.

Just as the rescue helicopter was to arrive, I decided to out myself as an alien. That instantly cast doubt on those two other players, one of which was actually human. The humans left him behind and we won. So fun.

First play of Maracaibo. It’s a medium-heavy euro with lots going on. You can definitely see the GWT lineage, it’s fun to try to map the various concepts between them. Gameplay feels very different though, I don’t think that either is a replacement for the other. Maracaibo has a bit more of that Pfister wackiness (in a good way). And so much content in the box!

How do you play Maracaibo? Very carefully! Lots of moving parts that are easy to accidentally knock around. GWT-style double-layered player boards would have made a big difference. I hear that the expansion actually comes with those but I want to give the base game a few more plays before deciding on that. BTW, Amazon US currently has Maracaibo at a decent price in case anybody is looking to get it.

Back to back Clank and Clank! In! Space! - Happy to play any Clank any time! We haven’t yet played CiS as much as the original so I really enjoyed jumping back into that. We don’t have Catacombs yet, waiting for the price to drop.

Fit to Print - this came in just today and we gave it a quick whirl. Imagine if Phil Walker-Harding designed a more family-friendly version of Galaxy Trucker, that’s what it feels like. The actual designer is Peter McPherson who is known for Tiny Towns. At first glance the game might seems light (and it kinda is) but the twist of having to collect your components onto a small table first (without trying them on the board) and then build your newspaper in a separate phase (so you can’t take or discard anymore) makes it work. The game comes with a bunch of variants: player powers, event cards, solo, a turn-based mode, some puzzles and Cascadia-style challenges.