Category: Monthly roundups

In October, I managed to play 58 games of 18 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Twilight Inscription – 1 play –  8 
First Published 2022

This is a complex (in terms of decision space) roll and write but the gameplay is very straightforward. You have four boards that you are looking to develop (Navigation, Expansion, Industry and Warfare) but you can only work on one board each turn and you don’t have enough time to develop everything so you have to decide on where to concentrate your efforts. This decision may be influenced by the Faction you are playing, as each of the 24 different factions gives certain benefit that point you in a particular direction. Also, there are nine different versions of each board that can be mixed and matched and each board has certain objectives to aim for in the hope of grabbing lots of victory points. However, HAL is also working on these objectives to deprive you of the most valuable benefits. It works really well. I really enjoyed this and am certain the variety that is offered by the different factions, boards and objectives means there is plenty to explore.

Drop It – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2018

Drop It is a simple dexterity game that is reminiscent of Connect Four but here you have different shapes and you are trying to drop them into the grid to land in spots that will score you points while avoiding pieces of the same colour. Easy to explain and play but some people (i.e. me) are not very good at judging how the different shapes will bounce around the grid. Good fun.

Roller Rumble – 1 play –  6 
First Published 1999

This is one of PLAAY games’s earliest games that has just been re-issued in a new version. It uses the key features of many of their games, such as qualities and narrative, to simulate a roller derby where two teams skate around a track trying to get their point-scoring players through the pack to enable them to rush ahead and score points for opposing players they manage to lap within 60 seconds of them breaking free. Unfortunately, this didn’t click with me at all. Their basketball game (Highlight Maker Hoops) does the same sort of thing but much better. This one seemed clunky in comparison and too fiddly for what it was. Shame.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

24x Fast Drive Football
8x Motor Sport
7x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
4x Formula D
2x Marvel United
1x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
1x Igloo Pop
1x Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
1x Harry Potter Strike Dice Game
1x Fury Football
1x Zombie Dice
1x Obsession
1x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
1x Friday
1x Next Station: London

My NASCAR and baseball seasons came to an end this month and Fast Drive Football hits the midway point of the regular season. I also managed to get Obsession back to the table after a long absence and we’ve started the latest expansion to Hogwart’s Battle, which adds a new and interesting element.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

851 games of 115 titles.
42 new to me.
1 x 94 plays; 1 x 75 plays; 1 x 63 plays; 1 x 62 plays; 1 x 61 plays; 1 x 39 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 34 plays; 2 x 32 plays; 1 x 26 plays; 1 x 20 plays; 2 x 19 plays; 1 x 15 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 13 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 2 x 10 plays; 2 x 8 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 4 plays; 10 x 3 plays; 19 x 2 plays; 60 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 3 new titles to the collection: Roller Rumble, Twilight Inscription and Marvel: Remix so my total collection now stands at 765.

At the end of October, I have one unplayed game (one at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was an easy choice, Twilight Inscription.

In July, I managed to play 111 games of 22 different titles with 7 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Three Dice Horse Racing – 4 plays –  7 
First Published 2013

This is a dice and charts sports replay game of horse flat racing. Races take place over 4 to 7 rounds depending on the length of the race and, for each horse, the three dice generate a movement factor to which modifiers are applied to take account of the horse’s qualities and whether it favours the early, middle or closing stages. It works pretty well and a race takes between 10 and 20 minutes.

Trails of Tucana – 2 plays –  7 
First Published 2019

This is a flip and write game and works very well solo (and I’m sure equally as well with more than one). You have a map made up of different terrain hexes (desert, forest, mountains or water) with ten villages (marked A-E twice over) and five pairs of different features (named ‘sights’ in the game) dotted around the map. You also have a deck of 27 terrain cards. You turn over a pair of cards and draw a line between adjacent hexes that feature those types of terrain. Once the deck runs out (13 turns with one card left over) shuffle the deck and repeat to end the game. You score points after the first round for sights you managed to connect to any village and again at the end of the game plus any connected villages of matching letters. In the multi-player game, you also get a bonus for connecting matching villages before other players (or, in solo, a smaller bonus for all matching villages connected in round 1 and any other connected matches at the end of the game providing the bonus cards weren’t randomly removed after round 1). It’s a neat and simple game of trying to get your best score without knowing how the terrain cards are going to be paired up.

Lord of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game – 6 plays –  7 
First Published 2011

This solo print and play game has you trying to get to Mount Doom by progressing through the card deck in up to 25 turns and, once the card deck is exhausted, tossing the ring into the fiery depths to win. The 54 cards each show characters or locations you encounter on your journey as well as three things pertinent to game play: how many cards you draw next turn, how much damage the card does to you and an action that is only activated if it is the last card drawn. Get through the deck without losing all your health or encountering the witch king too often and you win. Games take 5-15 minutes and it has that addictive quality to try again when you fail.

Explorers – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This is another flip and write game, nicely produced by Ravensburger. The game is played over four rounds and, in each round, you will reveal 7 landscape tiles (from 8) one at a time and utilise one of the two terrain types shown to fill in 2 or 3 matching terrain spaces on your board. After 7 tiles have been flipped, the round ends and you score for things you have filled in. After four rounds, you tot up your points and see how you performed against a ranking scale (solo) or the other players (multi-player).

Boundary T20 Cricket – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2016

This is a print and play cricket replay game using real world statistics. It uses three dice and cards for the batsmen with a chart for everything else, principally bowler economy, how wickets fell, which fielder made any catches etc. Batsmen are graded from 11 to 55 and the card for their grade is used to determine how many runs they score or whether there’s a wicket possibility for each delivery (roll of the dice). It’s a pretty straightforward design and takes under an hour per innings even if you record full batsmen/bowler details throughout.

Motor Sport – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2012

This is another sports replay game from Lambourne which I’d describe as a cut-down version of World of Motor Racing with various modules covering F1, F3000, Indy Car, MotoGP etc. You can re-create any race where you have access to qualifying and finishing positions and these generate a basic racing grade and starting Cumulative Movement Factor. A race is comprised of a start turn, representing the opening break into the first corner, six regular turns and, in the case of MotoGP, a last lap turn. Each regular turn involves every driver rolling a die and, on a roll of 1-4, will move normally; a roll of five will generate a negative effect; and a 6 will generate a positive effect. Additionally for MotoGP, a roll of 1 will eliminate a real-life non-finisher – otherwise you just follow the normal result. It works pretty well and is very much suited to season play as races are completed much quicker than in World of Motor Racing.

Owzat T20 Cricket – 2 plays –  6 
First Published 2014

This is another dice and charts sports replay game with batsmen and bowlers rated from A-D to vary how the players perform. It uses a clever grid system with the batsmen moving around the grid, up and down the various columns based on a die roll but the better batsmen start in the better area of the grid so are less likely to get out whereas lower rated batsmen have to navigate through the grid to reach that better area and are more likely to get out before they get there. I like the way this works and there are different grids for different types of wicket (slow, normal, good). The key thing is the likelihood of getting out and I’m not sure whether the numbers properly represent the likely scoring statistics – two matches have not seen any team last 20 overs and the scores seem a little on the low side. Rating may improve if the numbers work out better after more plays.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

40x The Beautiful Game
14x Grand Slam Tennis
9x History Maker Golf
9x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
4x Metric Mile
4x Formula D
3x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
2x Finito!
1x Onirim
1x Top of the Stretch
1x World of Motor Racing
1x Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
1x Encore!
1x TurfMaster
1x The Great Escape

Besides my solo sports replays, I managed to play two games that have not seen table time for a while. I played TurfMaster with Jan and Becky to remind myself how it plays and just to play with the lovely horse pieces. And we also dug out Sherlock Holmes and stumbled around London trying to work out why some lions had been killed in Hyde Park. Good fun.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

631 games of 86 titles.
34 new to me.
1 x 84 plays; 1 x 75 plays; 1 x 63 plays; 1 x 61 plays; 1 x 39 plays; 1 x 32 plays; 1 x 26 plays; 1 x 25 plays; 2 x 19 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 13 plays; 2 x 10 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 3 x 5 plays; 3 x 4 plays; 8 x 3 plays; 14 x 2 plays; 41 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection: Motor Sport, LOrd of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game, Explorers, Boundary T20 Cricket and Owzat T20 Cricket so my total collection now stands at 756.

At the end of July, I have no unplayed games (one at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Lord of the Rings: The Adventure Deck Game.

In February, I managed to play 77 games of 12 different titles with 2 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Shoot-Out Hockey – 9 plays –  7 
First Published 2005

Solo sports replay game using stats for real NHL teams with a choice of playing the game using dice and charts or fast action cards. The cards work well and a match can be completed in 15-20 minutes with the game producing details of goal timings, scorers and assists, penalties, goalie stats etc. Pretty good but not my favourite of these sports replay systems.

Paleo – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

Last year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres is a co-op game set in the stone age where your tribe is trying to survive long enough to complete a cave painting with a novel card management mechanism and a mix and match module system to create different scenarios. Only played once so far, solo as two players, but I liked the way the game played although piecing together how to play was a bit tricky first time around. Need to play again soon.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

16x Fastcard Soccer
13x Let’s PLAAY Jai-Alai
12x Fury Hardball
10x Red White & Blue Racin’: Stock Car Action Game
10x History Maker Golf
2x Fast Drive Football
1x Paydirt
1x Onirim
1x Pizza Box Football
1x Rummikub

== YEAR SO FAR ==

136 games of 18 titles.
5 new to me.
1 x 32 plays; 1 x 19 plays; 3 x 13 plays; 2 x 12 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 3 x 2 plays; 7 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 1 new title to the collection which was Shoot-Out Hockey so my total collection now stands at 743.

At the end of February, I have seven unplayed games (eight at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Paleo.

In August, I managed to play 72 games of 29 different titles with 10 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Metric Mile – 1 play –  8 
First Published 1986

Very clever solo or multi-player game about middle distance running where you can see whether runners from years gone past would match their modern counterparts. A game lasts ten rounds with each of the four laps becoming more focussed so the first lap lasts one turn while the final lap lasts four. I mapped some of the cards to this year’s olympic finalists and it worked very well.

So Clover! – 2 plays –  8 
First Published 2021

Very accessible party game in the Codenames / Just One family where you try to give clues to allow the other players to correctly place word cards in the correct sequence. Really enjoyed this, even with just two players.

Ryder Cup Replay – 2 plays –  8 
First Published 0

Golf game based on the Ryder Cup competition where you get to replay a specific tournament to see if you can change history. Each player has a card grid of results for the type of club used and the results are cross=referenced with an outcome on the course being played. This was excellent and I’ve spent quite a bit of time adapting it to the 2021 Solheim Cup course and players in readiness for this weekend’s tournament.

Space Lunch – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

This is a nice set-collection game where you are trying to draw the right cards from a limited choice while looking ahead to limit your opponent’s possibilities and set yourself up for your subsequent turn. Only played solo but the AI worked well and I quite enjoyed this.

Fast Drive Football – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This is a downloadable solo print and play that simulates an American Football game using dice and charts to resolve each possession rather than play. Hence, a game can be played pretty quickly once you are used to the system. It works really well and the designer is releasing card sets for lots of historical seasons. I’m probably going to use this to play a tournament during this year’s NFL season.

Harry Potter Strike Dice Game – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2020

Simple push your luck dexterity game of throwing dice into a tray and hoping to match a symbol already showing in the tray. If you don’t get a match, you can toss in another die but once you’re out of dice, you’re out of the game. The Harry Potter version adds special actions for each symbol that mix things up and is a decent variant on the original Strike Dice Game.

Golems – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

A card drafting game where you are trying to collect the best combination of golem cards while utilising gems and runes to improve your position. It worked ok but I wasn’t blown away by it.

The Tea Dragon Society Card Game – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2018

This is a deck-building and management game where you choose to draw a card and trigger its effects or buy a card to improve your deck. Certain cards bought progress the game through the four seasons at the end of which whoever has collected the most points wins. It worked smoothly but didn’t wow me as anything different from lots of other deck builders.

Clue: Harry Potter Edition – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2008

Not a lot to say about this other than it’s Cluedo ported to a Harry Potter setting. There are dials on the board that open and close doors to some of the locations and there are cards that can help or hinder your investigations. These are interesting additions and it works pretty well although it’s still basically the Cluedo framework of deducing who did it, with what and where.

Mint Control – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

A pared-down area control game that worked ok but wasn;t anything that I felt I’d be rushing back to.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

10x Flamme Rouge
9x Pocket Sports Boxing
8x Pocket Cricket
8x Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon
6x Pocket Golf
2x Urbion
2x Onirim
2x Formula D
1x Can’t Stop
1x Qwixx
1x L.L.A.M.A.
1x Encore!
1x Love Letter
1x Qwinto
1x Limes
1x Take it Easy!
1x Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
1x Space Worm
1x Win, Place & Show

My Tour de France game has just about run its course and has been excellent fun. My cricket league has passed the halfway point and is working well (unless you’re a Lancashire Lightning fan) while the olympics gave me an excuse to give Pocket Sports Boxing and Reiner Knizia’s Decathlon a few plays. It was also nice to play Take it Easy, Qwinto, Love Letter and Limes again after a bit of a break. Onirim, LAMA and Can’t Stop remain in regular play.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

571 games of 135 titles.
41 new to me.
1 x 90 plays; 1 x 40 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 35 plays; 1 x 27 plays; 1 x 23 plays; 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 16 plays; 1 x 15 plays; 1 x 14 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 1 x 11 plays; 1 x 10 plays; 1 x 8 plays; 2 x 7 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 7 x 4 plays; 14 x 3 plays; 15 x 2 plays; 79 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection which were Blitzkrieg: World War Two in 20 Minutes, Ryder Cup Replay, Harry Potter Strike, So Clover and Mr Cabbagehead’s Garden.. My total collection now stands at 715.

At the end of August, I have seven unplayed games (ten at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Ryder Cup Replay.

In July, I managed to play 84 games of 18 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Shut the Box – 6 plays –  7 
First Published 1750

It might seem surprising but I’ve never played this dice game before. Very quick to play and some light decisions on which numbers to flip but you’re pretty much at the mercy of the dice rolls. This was a birthday gift and it was good fun.

Data Boxing II – 1 play –  7 
First Published 1976

This is a solo boxing game simulation using cards for real-life fighters allowing you to pit boxers from different eras against each other. Not easy to get into but, once you understand the many small rules variables, it works quite quickly and I enjoyed my only play quite a bit. Rating may go up as I get more used to the system.

Pro Golf – 4 plays
First Published 1981

This isn’t the commercial game but a promo game based on the original title which allows you to play a 36 man 4 round tournament in a couple of hours. I had fun rolling dice and seeing what the result of the Open Championship should actually have been. (Not rated as it wasn’t the full game).

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

14x Pocket Tennis
13x Pocket Sports Surfing Tour
9x Flamme Rouge
8x Pocket Cricket
7x Fastcard Soccer
6x Pocket Golf
3x Pocket Basketball
3x Completto
2x Rummikub
2x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
2x Formula D
1x Verflixxt!
1x Win, Place & Show
1x Powerboats
1x Dominion

Continuing my solo sports gaming splurge, this month saw me finish my Euro 2020 football tournament, the NBA playoffs and my baseball league. Also played some tennis during Wimbledon, continued the Tour de France, T20 cricket and Formula 1 season – as well as testing some ideas for horse racing, power boat racing and boxing. Otherwise, Jan and I got a few two-player games of Dominion, Verflixxt and Completto none of which we’ve played for a while and were as good as ever.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

499 games of 120 titles.
31 new to me.
1 x 90 plays; 1 x 37 plays; 1 x 35 plays; 1 x 34 plays; 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 17 plays; 1 x 16 plays; 2 x 15 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 1 x 11 plays; 1 x 10 plays; 1 x 7 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 6 x 4 plays; 14 x 3 plays; 11 x 2 plays; 72 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 10 new titles to the collection which were Eiyo, 15 Days, Golems, Space Lunch, Rebis, Mint Works, Mint Control, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective (thanks, Nick), Metric Mile and Shut the Box. My total collection now stands at 710.

At the end of July, I have ten unplayed games (two at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Data Boxing II.

In June, I managed to play 110 games of 21 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Rally Roll – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2016

This is a nice push-your-luck dice game in the Can’t Stop mould. roll the 5 small and 1 large dice and score for each small die that matches the colour of the large die. Reroll to try and add to your score but, if you get no match, you bust and it’s the next player’s turn. You also score a bonus for all five small dice matching the large die and first ot 50 points triggers the final round. Good fun and Jan has quite enjoyed it and even suggested we play it.

Pocket Sports T20 Cricket – 7 plays –  7 
First Published 2010

Another in the Pocket Sports dice game series and this plays like a slightly more involved Owzthat. It’s not perfect with too many No Balls and Clean Bowled results cropping up but I’ve used some rule tweaks and it now works quite well. So much so that I’m really enjoying playing a T20 league at the moment.

Agents of SMERSH – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2012

This is a really neat story-telling game (along the lines of Tales of the Arabian Nights) set in a James Bond-like secret agent universe. Only played one 3-player game so far but we really enjoyed it and it should work solo as well, which is a bonus.

Race The Rails – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

This is a party game designed by Tony Boydell where each player starts at a London Underground station and has to track their way from station to station until they reach home by spotting the next link in their journey in the large array of cards and noting where they need to go next. There’s a few silly additions (like having to run round the table before you can continue) to make it not completely about being the quickest eye in scanning your route but it is a game that rewards visual dexterity so won’t be for everyone. Good for the right crowd though.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

45x Fastcard Soccer
11x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
8x Pocket Basketball
7x Pocket Golf
7x Pocket Tennis
3x Würfelwurst
3x Rummikub
3x Formula D
2x Onirim
2x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
1x Memoir ’44
1x Hamsterrolle
1x KLASK
1x Ligretto Dice
1x Hoppladi Hopplada!
1x Mini Mölkky
1x Flamme Rouge

I’ve really been playing the heck out of my sports-themed games this month and have started a new blog to track my plays. As the Euro 2020 Championship is on at the moment, I’ve played a lot of Fastcard Soccer attempting to recreate the tournament (My games have been partly successful in that 6/8 of the actual quarter-finalists are also still in my tournament.

With the weather being so good in the UK, Mollky has obviously got a play and I’ve also managed to get a couple of other dexterity games to the table (Hamsterrolle and Klask). It was also good to get in a play of Memoir ’44 on D-Day (6th June).

== YEAR SO FAR ==

414 games of 112 titles.
28 new to me.
1 x 83 plays; 1 x 33 plays; 1 x 27 plays, 1 x 23 plays, 1 x 18 plays; 1 x 13 plays, 1 x 12 plays, 1 x 9 plays, 2 x 8 plays, 2 x 7 plays; 1 x 6 plays; 2 x 5 plays, 5 x 4 plays; 13 x 3 plays; 12 x 2 plays; 67 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 4 new titles to the collection which were Pocket Sports T20 Cricket, Win Place & Show, Rally Roll and Race the Rails. I also reacquired 1 game and parted company with 1 game so my total collection now stands at 700.

At the end of June, I have two unplayed games (3 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Pocket Sports T20 Cricket.

In May, I managed to play 79 games of 26 different titles with 3 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Tea for 2 – 1 play –  8 
First Published 2020

A very clever two-player deck-building game set in the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with each turn being a card duel where the higher card gets either to activate the card’s action or buy new cards. Easy to pick up and fun to play but with enough choices to make your decisions really matter. Excellent stuff.

PARKS – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2019

PARKS is an elegant game of travelling along a country trail, gathering resources, buying gear and canteens to help your future turns and taking photos. Resources can be used to visit national parks which give VPs at the end of the game and it is all about the fight for the best spaces along the trail to achieve your goals and sometimes hamper your opponents. I enjoyed this quite a bit.

It’s a Wonderful World – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2019

This is a card drafting game where the cards gained are used either as projects to fulfil or as resources to pay for your projects. Building your engine to help pay for future cards is important as is understanding the synergies between cards. Pretty good but I need to play again now I understand what I’m trying to achieve.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

12x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
12x Fastcard Soccer
10x Pocket Golf
7x Pocket Tennis
4x Flamme Rouge
4x Pocket Basketball
4x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
3x Formula D
3x KLASK
2x Pocket Landship
2x Rummikub
2x Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
1x Obsession
1x Scrabble
1x Cat Lady
1x Skyjo
1x Pocket Sports Hockey
1x Start 11! The Board Game
1x Shanghaien
1x Bowling Dice
1x Würfelwurst
1x Can’t Stop
1x L.A.M.A.

Continuing the sports themed games this month and completing the Flamme Rouge and Pocket Tennis tournaments were a focus this month. Also got to play the commercial release of Pocket Landship, which was excellent, as well as a first play of Shanghaien in over 10 years. Hogwart’s Battle saw us reach Monster Box 4 at last but failed to defeat it.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

304 games of 103 titles.
25 new to me.
1 x 38 plays; 1 x 22 plays; 1 x 20 plays, 2 x 16 plays, 1 x 10 plays; 2 x 7 plays; 2 x 6 plays; 3 x 5 plays, 4 x 4 plays; 13 x 3 plays; 13 x 2 plays; 60 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 3 new titles to the collection which were Pocket Landship, Tea for 2 and The Tea Dragon Society Card Game. My total collection now stands at 696.

At the end of May, I have three unplayed games (2 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Tea for 2.

In April, I managed to play 77 games of 30 different titles with 5 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Tiny Towns – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2019

A nice puzzle game about collecting resources to build buildings in a tiny 4×4 grid representing your town. Each building type scores points in a variety of ways, randomly selected at the start of the game. Clever as your building positioning can drastically limit your freedom to construct new buildings later in the game.

Whale Riders: The Card Game – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This came included as part of the Whale Riders board game kickstarter campaign and is a re-implementation of Trendy. Pretty much identical although, as a variant, there are some extra port cards that add further rules for when a scoring is triggered.

Pocket Landship: Free Trial Version – 2 plays –  7 
First Published 2017

Print and play version of what turned into the commercial game but I think this plays pretty much the same. In this small dice game, you man a tank and are trying to destroy enemy tanks before they destroy you. Plays very quickly and is quite challenging. I liked it quite a bit.

Pocket Basketball – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2014

Another in the Pocket Sports range of dice games, this time it was Basketball. As with the others, there is not much decision making but it gives a decent feel for the end to end nature of the sport and I liked the hot streak mechanism which gives a persistent advantage to a team until they next miss a basket.

MicroMacro: Crime City – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2020

Tried the demo version of the game which is available online. This is a deduction game where you are searching for visual clues on a large picture depicting Crime City, trying to solve various aspects of a crime that has been committed. Quite novel in game-play terms but it didn’t strike me as something I’d be itching to play multiple cases.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

17x Fastcard Soccer
10x Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game
8x Pocket Tennis
5x Marvel United
4x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
3x Flamme Rouge
2x Can’t Stop
2x Pocket Golf
2x Rummikub
2x Sharp Shooters
2x Encore!
1x The Bogey
1x Wyatt Earp
1x Eldritch Horror
1x Träxx
1x Onirim
1x Long Shot
1x Winner’s Circle
1x Formula D
1x Dungeon Raiders
1x Qwixx
1x Straw
1x Backgammon
1x Dream Home
1x Go 500 Racing Dice Game

Sports games were the focus of the month particularly with Fastcard Soccer, Flamme Rouge, Pocket Tennis, Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball and Pocket Golf getting a number of plays. Marvel Champions and Marvel United continued to see play and it was nice to get Wyatt Earp and Dungeon Raiders back to the table after too long an absence.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

225 games of 92 titles.
22 new to me.
1 x 26 plays; 1 x 12 plays; 3 x 10 plays; 1 x 9 plays; 1 x 7 plays; 1 x 6 plays; 5 x 4 plays; 12 x 3 plays; 12 x 2 plays; 55 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 4 new titles to the collection which were Pocket Sports Basketball, Tiny Towns, Whale Riders and Whale Riders: The Card Game. I also reacquired 1 game so my total collection now stands at 693.

At the end of April, I have two unplayed games (1 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Tiny Towns.

In March, I managed to play 55 games of 34 different titles with 4 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Obsession – 2 plays –  8 
First Published 2018

I’ve hesitated over Obsession for quite a while but eventually succumbed and realised I shouldn’t have worried as the game is superb. It really is all those Victorian novels about the Derbyshire estates wrapped up into a very engaging game and the solo version is very well thought out. I’ll probably grab the Upstairs Downstairs expansion when it’s restocked in the UK in the Summer as it really is that good.

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2020

Printed out a copy of the free Carniball table for this pinball dice roll and write game designed by Geoff Engelstein. It does give a good feel for pinball and there are definite choices to be made, which can work for or against you. The only thing against it is that it takes a bit too long to play. A single ball can run for 15 minutes so a full game is about 45 minutes. Pinball for me should be fast … or is that just because I keep striking out so quickly when I play the real thing.

Escape: Roll & Write – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2021

This swaps the real-time discovery of the original game for a more considered dice management game. It works fine but had me hankering after a play of the original (which I did a couple of times later in the month),

Solo – 1 play –  6 
First Published 1993

This is a slightly more complex version of UNO but I’m not sure the additions, which add to the time taken to complete a hand, do enough to make me pick this over regular UNO.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

9x Fastcard Soccer
8x Pocket Golf
3x Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
3x The Great Escape
2x Escape: The Curse of the Temple
1x The Pillars of the Earth
1x Rolling Japan
1x Pocket Football
1x Bowling Dice
1x Pocket Sports Surfing Tour
1x K2
1x Tiki Topple
1x Marvel United
1x Encore!
1x Fantastic Factories
1x Herbaceous
1x Roll for the Galaxy
1x The Game
1x Rummikub
1x Zero Down
1x Hanamikoji
1x Forbidden Island
1x Go 500 Racing Dice Game
1x Formula D
1x Guillotine
1x Brikks
1x The City
1x Onirim
1x Pandemic: The Cure
1x Qwixx

Playing a few sports-themed games this month. Pocket Football not quite hitting the mark made me dig out Fastcard Soccer which is a brilliant highlights replay syatem and I decided to run a league using Melchester Rovers and other teams mentioned in the Roy of the Rovers – Tiger comic strip. Also with the F1 season starting, plays of Go 500 and Formula D on the Bahrain circuit seemed appropriate. Marvel United got another play once the Kickstarter stretch reward box arrived this month and there are going to be plenty more plays as the game is really fun. And the Escape R&W made me dig out Escape: Curse of the Temple to get me rushing around for 10 minutes at a time grabbing gems before the temple collapsed on me.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

148 games of 75 titles.
17 new to me.
2 x 9 plays; 2 x 8 plays; 3 x 4 plays; 11 x 3 plays; 12 x 2 plays; 45 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 5 new titles to the collection which were Solo, K2, Escape: Roll & Write, Obsession and Agents of SMERSH. I also reacquired 2 games and parted company with 1 game so my total collection now stands at 688.

At the end of March, I have one unplayed game (0 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was an easy choice in Obsession.

In February, I managed to play 60 games of 40 different titles with 10 of them being new to me.

== NEW GAMES ==

Quirky Circuits – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2019

This is a neat co-operative programming puzzle game somewhat akin to Robo Rally where the players build a row of movement cards without communicating what cards each has played to manoeuvre the robot around a grid to complete a given objective within a set number of rounds. It works really well and it’s fun seeing your programming going to shambles and then having to recover. Good stuff.

Snooker Solitaire – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2016

This is a clever solitaire print and play game from Mark Tuck (the designer of Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game) where you are competing in a snooker tournament against progressively harder AI opponents. Has a nice feel of building a break and is challenging even with the weakest AI.

Pocket Sports Surfing Tour – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2017

Roll the dice to try to catch a wave and ride it to gain points with five attempts to score the most points from your three best runs. Has a nice feel of surfing and as the tour progresses you can pick up sponsors to improve your chances of scoring big points. Good fun.

Pocket Football – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2013

Very light dice game depicting the highlights of a football match. Little in the way of decision-making (as is the case with most of the Pocket Sports range) but gives a good feel for the game.

LAMA Dice – 2 plays –  7 
First Published 2021

Not truly “The Dice Game” as it is both dice and cards but involves a bit more push your luck than the original card game. Not as good but still works reasonably well and we enjoyed it.

Batman: The Animated Series Dice Game – 3 plays –  7 
First Published 2016

This is Zombie Dice re-themed to the Batman universe where players act as different villains who can each manipulate the dice in a different way. You’re still trying to roll the most brains (sorry, loot) and avoid the shotguns (Batman symbols). A nice variant that I’d like to pick up although it’s difficult to find these days.

Pocket Sports Hockey – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2015

Another decent dice version of a sport where you face off to gain control of the puck and pass around and shoot, attempting to outscore your opponent, while making the most of your power plays.

Pocket Sports Cycling – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2015

This attempt to reflect a cycling tour has some interesting ideas but I didn’t find it quite worked for me. You’re trying to progress up the “classification” over the successive stages but often you’re simply swapping places with the other teams and not really getting very far at all. Need to try again but not my favourite in this line

Pocket Boxing – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2015

The boxing dice game works ok and does a decent job of the boxers wearing their opponent down. Cause enough hits in an exchange and you can knock them to the canvas with the chance that they might not beat the count. Pretty good.

Scrabble Duplicate – 1 play –  4 
First Published 2020

I thought this sounded like a good idea, competing to come up with the best word from the same rack of letters but the execution, with dry wipe boards that don’t really dry wipe because of the pens, didn’t work for me and this will probably be offloaded to the charity shop as soon as they reopen.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

3x High Society
3x Lucky Numbers
3x Arkham Horror: The Card Game
3x Straw
3x Marvel Champions: The Card Game
2x Space Worm
2x Onirim
2x Can’t Stop
2x Zombie Dice
2x Encore!
2x The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac
2x Bowling Dice
1x Würfelwurst
1x Rummikub
1x Jaipur
1x Qwixx
1x Pizza Box Football
1x 6 nimmt!
1x Perudo
1x Pickomino
1x Clank!: A Deck-Building Adventure
1x Football Highlights 2052
1x The Great Escape
1x Spirit Island
1x Diamant
1x Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
1x Cahoots
1x Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game
1x Mahé
1x Pocket Tennis

My annual play of Pizza box Football was fun as always (and I called the Superbowl winner again) and I also got in my first play of Football Highlights 2052 in a while. I also tried a couple of solo modes for High Society and Zombie Dice that are being submitted to a BGG contest and they both worked pretty well.

== YEAR SO FAR ==

93 games of 53 titles.
13 new to me.
2 x 8 plays; 10 x 3 plays; 6 x 2 plays; 35 x 1 play.

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 8 new titles to the collection which were LAMA Dice, Quirky Circuits, Scrabble Duplicate, Pocket Football, Pocket Boxing, Pocket Sports Hockey, Pocket Sports Cycling and Pocket Sports Surfing Tour. I also parted company with 20 games so my total collection now stands at 682.

At the end of February, I still have no unplayed games (0 at the start of the month) and my Game of the Month was Quirky Circuits