July 2017 roundup

This month, I managed to play 17 games of 15 different titles, with 9 of them being new to me. The new games were:

== NEW GAMES ==

Terraforming Mars – 1 play –  8 
First Published 2016

This isn’t normally a game I’d be drawn to but its success and the views of a couple of geek buddies made me take the plunge. I’m only likely to play this solo but both the solo and multiplayer game seem really solid and the theme is engaging. I really enjoyed my first play and am looking forward to trying the different corporations.

Start 11! The Board Game – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2012

Reiner Knizia puts his own twist on the card game Elfer Raus and it works very well as a nice family game. Not too much in the way of strategy but not brainless either. A nice relaxing game to play.

Numeri – 1 play –  7 
First Published 1998

I’m a big fan of Schmidt’s Easy Play line of games and this is another fun one, although it seems easy to mess yourself up with no chance of catching up. Not the best game in that line but one that is easy to get the family to play.

Dairyman – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2016

Another small Asian game from Tasty Minstrel and this is a push your luck dice game. I messed up the rules explanation initially but once I’d gone back and checked, it then worked quite well. Sadly our game ended in a three way tie and there appears to be no tie break rule, so that made it a bit anti-climactic but I’m not going to penalise it unless ties end up being a regular occurrence.

Sea of Clouds – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2016

An interesting card drafting game about amassing the greatest pirate loot over 12 or 15 rounds. Much of the loot is public knowledge but some is secret and as you need to collect pirates to assist in three boarding events, you need to balance going for loot with recruiting pirates, else you may end up being plundered too much. Good fun.

Das Vermächtnis des Maharaja – 1 play –  7 
First Published 2017

Another solid Michael Schacht game (no surprise there), with this being a set collection game with a tight money economy in which gaining more money makes things in the market cheaper for the next player. Plays well with two, which is how I tried it.

Fugitive – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2017

Clever deduction / second-guessing game for two that looks to work pretty well but Jan didn’t really like it much. Not sure whether the two roles are balanced or not but to me it was a quick fun puzzle.

Get The Cheese! – 1 play –  6 
First Published 2015

This card placement game sees you trying to place your fifteen animals mice cats and dog to gain the most cheese, capture the most mice or chase off the cats. Working out when and where to place is the key to winning and having some cards face down makes the game-end reveal quite tense. Fun but not fantastic.

The Bogey – 2 plays –  6 
First Published 2016

This is a solo card game with a traditional deck of cards where you face a nice puzzle of trying to lay out all the cards without opening up more than 12 columns. However, after each of your turns, the bogey reveals the top card of the deck and it has to placed somewhere and often it messes up your plans. I quite enjoyed this but am not sure how much I am likely to replay it. However, players of card patience will probably enjoy this.

== OTHER GAMES PLAYED THIS MONTH ==

2x Formula D
1x Herbaceous
1x Spot it!
1x Groo: The Game
1x Noch mal!
1x BraveRats

== STATE OF THE COLLECTION ==

I added 9 new titles to the collection and reacquired 1 (Rondo), which means my total collection now stands at 626. The new games were: Formula D: New Jersey & Sotchi, Get the Cheese, Fugitive, Numeri,Dairyman, Terraforming Mars, The Fox in the Forest, Medici: The Card Game and Start 11: The Board GameNow I’m back from holiday, look out for the great purge of 2017, which should start tomorrow or Thursday – geeklist auctions-a-plenty as another 200 games are going to disappear from my collection.

My list of unplayed games dropped by 1 from 24 to 23 and my Game of the Month was surprisingly a heavier game than I usually go for, particularly due to the really good solo version: Terraforming Mars.