Month: May 2021

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.