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Carl Yaxley
Hello, game fans. I hope you all had pleasant festive breaks, and Santa dropped off a game or two for your collections! I was fortunate to unwrap Glass Road, Valparaíso, Vienna, and Battle Line: Medieval on Christmas Day. Also, I even got to play them all between then and New Years Day. Being the generous person that I am, I even played some of my partner's new games with her, including Villainous and Labyrinth.
Battle Line is a welcome addition to my two-player collection. My partner and I had a few closely fought games between sessions with another Reiner Knizia classic, Ingenious. Alas, I did not fare well at either. Glass Road at a three-player count was fun, and I'm eager to get it back to the table in 2021. It had long since haunted my watchlist!
Vienna and Valparaíso were the biggest surprises, being two new(ish) games that had not previously been on my radar. Both games fall firmly in the lightweight category for complexity. The former is a game of die rolling and placement. The latter combines action programming and point to pint movement to drive gameplay. I feel both have something to offer for new hobbyist or fans of lighter games that require a little strategic thinking.
Away from brand new additions, Small World found its way back to the table again, earlier in the month. Having been largely overlooked in recent years, I'm now rediscovering some love for it. Newish acquisitions like Outer Rim, and instant favourites, Coimbra and Villagers hit the table multiple times. As did some of my long term favourites Agricola, Bruges, Lords of Waterdeep, and Bohanza still get requested regularly. Most notably Bohnanza, which turned out to be both the last and most played game for me in 2020!
Rachel Page
Pretty much all of December was spend with my husband asking when he could unwrap Terraforming Mars. An unfortunate mishap with the confirmation email meant that he knew it was coming. We had been keeping an eye on it for a while and this was finally the moment. You collect cards whose effects help you make Mars habitable.
By increasing oxygen, temperature and placing oceans, you earn victory points and make Mars a happier place to live. It isn’t a short game and has a lot of things to keep track of, but it’s not like we have anywhere better to be! We got stuck in straight away and have been playing it constantly ever since.
Before we unwrapped all our presents, we were playing a lot of Everdell, which turns out has very similar gameplay to Terraforming Mars. Again you collect cards with different effects to gain victory points. However, the theme is completely different. While in Terraforming Mars, you can utilise an asteroid, Everdell is much cuter. The cards are covered in little critters and you have to make a city for them to live in. I love anything that is overly engineered and Everdell comes with a cardboard tree to place your workers on. I couldn’t bring myself to dismantle it, so it now sits proudly on its own shelf.
Then as always, we are powering through our Eldritch Horror campaign. For once, we are two rounds in with only one death and that was a tactical sacrifice. It is a difficult game at the best of times, but the Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion includes Personal Stories for each of the characters which add additional challenges. It is going suspiciously well and I am sure soon we will be back at the start. Eventually, the monsters always win.
John Hunt
Games aplenty over Xmas even though we stayed at home and didn’t mix. Much joy was had with New York Zoo, a fantastic polyomino puzzler from Uwe Rosenberg, a master of the genre. Swift play and simple rules but with thinky puzzles and plenty of interesting decisions. Beautiful wooden animals as part of the fab design and production values. Good at a range of player counts including solo and with a range of gamer types, from family to more hardcore participants. All-in-all a real winner.
Another gem which almost vanished under my radar was It’s a Wonderful World: rubbish title, adequate design and does nothing particularly new… BUT a great game of hand drafting and engine building in four taught rounds with really satisfying play. Particularly smashing is the way that in a round you can cascade production of your engine. You might ‘build’ cards which then produce resources later in the round which might allow you to ‘build’ more cards that round and so on.
My 8 yo daughter thinks it’s better than Res Arcana, and while she’s wrong, I can see why she thinks that. Don’t underestimate this game as I did.
More plays of the most excellent abstract puzzlers Azul and Sagrada – both are super, gorgeous, tactile and sometimes brutal abstract puzzlers.
Online, Pax Parmir (2nd Ed) got a runout and still remains my favourite new to me game of the year. Also played Hansa Teutonica online which was quite simply magnificent and I will pick up the bix box release when it drops. Simple rules and systems but with quite superb decision space, and some of the best player interaction beyond the simple conflict that I have experienced since Keyflower. My daughter also got onto BGA and had enormous fun with Kingdomino and Potion Explosion.
Lauren Harrington
While December saw the days grow colder and nights set earlier, it also gave my household more reason to settle in at the evenings to a game or 3. Thanks to Christmas and the inevitable board games gifted as well as received, we got to try out some new games along with some oldies but goodies.
First up is Carcassonne, perfect for when you’re looking for something simple for the evening. I always love the risk when you start building a megacity, and you’re never quite sure if you will be able to complete it, but if you do, the payout is huge. Well, this time it paid off quite nicely...for my flatmate, unfortunately, not me. Needless to say by the end she’d lapped the scoring board which maxes out at 50, and scored the highest points we’ve ever achieved in the game. I came in a close second at only 2 points behind, and straggling behind was our other flatmate in 3rd.
Next up - Dominion which is a favourite among our household, though it’s usually myself and another flatmate...who plays ruthlessly, who vie for first place. I really enjoy Dominion and how the game dynamics change depending on the set of cards used. After collecting about 15 witches in our last game I must say I was over that set, and it’s always my luck that even with the card that allows you to trash a witch...they never seem to appear in the same draw.
I’m eager to start collecting a number of the expansions such as Dominion Alchemy and seeing what new dynamics come to play. For a quick and simple game, we moved to Exploding Kittens NSFW, before finishing the month on two new games, Takenoko and the ever-popular Wingspan. Wingspan has quickly become one of my favourite games and I’m intrigued to try out the Automa mode for a night where I can’t coerce my flatmates into a game. We’ve so far played the less competitive version which saw me just climb in at the top, but I’m eager to try out the more competitive scoring soon and see how things change!
Scott Binnie
What a great month of gaming it's been as I managed to pick up some games I've wanted for a long time, and received some wonderful gifts for birthday and Christmas!
First up was Spirit Island, a game that I've found a bit intimidating in all honesty. There's something about the board and pieces that don't suggest just how intense and deep this game is going to be, but wow - what a brain-burner! This complex co-operative strategy game is so much fun, and so challenging. With a bunch of spirits in the game, all playing differently, there's just so much content here and I know I'm going to come back to it so many times to try and become a good player with each spirit.
My wife isn't usually one for those complex, head-hurting games, but she really got stuck into this and she's as big a fan as I am now!
On the other side of complexity, there was Disney Villainous, a much more chilled asymmetric competitive game in which dastardly villains are trying to pull off their wicked schemes first. It's fast-paced, really simple to learn, and the art and theme are so well realised. Sending Peter Pan to ruin Captain Hook's day, or using your scarab pendant to open the Cave of Wonders - it's brilliant fun and something the whole family can learn, play and enjoy. We've already picked up one of the three expansions, and we'll be finishing the collection very soon! There are so many villains to master, it's very exciting.
Solo-wise I had a sci-fi run, getting on that hype train for Warp's Edge and Under Falling Skies. Isn't it wonderful how the community just loses their collective minds for a game sometimes? Both of these alien-battling games were the red hot hotness and it's easy to see why.
Warp's Edge is a bag builder, the first I've played, that sees you take your ship up against a horde of alien ships before taking on the mothership. It's quick, it's a small footprint, and the decisions all matter. It's a great feeling when you dip your hand in the bag late-game to feel dozens of tokens. But you might only draw trash tokens…
Lastly Under Falling Skies. Wow. This dice placement game is special, very special. It's like Space Invaders meet Independence Day in a box. Each turn you roll your dice and make decisions on where to place them. Try to defend your base from the onslaught of alien ships from above. You might want to place those six there to generate energy. The ships in that column will move six spaces closer, and what about that mothership? I've not even got close to the campaign content for this one.
