You definitely should turn her on before you start stirring…

Tuesday our group met. First we played some weird memory game about being an orchestra conductor which was really bad. Then we tried the 5th mission in Port Royal Big Box… twice… in vain. We ended the evening early because:

On Wednesday we met again to play DnD. My character had an emotional reunion with a lost family member and we encountered our first gelatinous monster.

On Friday there was a public game night in town which I attended. The group I landed with first played two rounds of Frantic - a domestic UNO alternative but for some of them it was too chaotic so we cut the game short. We then played Ricochet Robots and the ladies at the table completely trunced me out of the gate. But after about 4 rounds I got up to speed and managed to race ahead after all. From this we moved on to X-Code where we managed to win the 4 basic missions and the first mission of the blue box. At this point we believed that the evening would wind down soon so we snuck in a quick game of Shark Attacks - where I finally did not come in in last place! Only to then learn that the game night would go on a bit longer this time. So picked up Las Vegas as well. I hadn’t played so many different games in one setting in ages and really enjoyed it. The evening also served as a nice way to cap off the organizer’s 5 year run in hosting these game nights.

Glad to see Terraforming Mars getting some love…

The size can make it a bit intimidating but there’s literally something for everyone. There are kids games, family games, party games, advanced games, super heavy games, roleplaying games, wargames and probably some I’m forgetting now. There are toys, accessories, fan stuff, everything.

I went alone for many years, I’ve gone with my GF, I’ve gone with friends. Every experience is a bit different but I’ve never not had fun. The only negative thing I’ve ever experienced was some people hogging a table for a game I really wanted to try but most booths now are pretty good about queueing up.

One thing you have to understand though is that Essen is a fair not a convention. While you can play games, you won’t necessarily get to finish them. Some booths have time slots and will tell you to wrap it up when yours is over. And if you play with strangers some might only be looking to “get a taste” for it and then move on. But if you’re “stationed” in Essen for the night there are several hotspots where you can go to play properly.

we also got out at midnight to watch the Perseids. We’ve been doing this for a few years now and never seen such an intense shower. Like you said, we also saw some fat ribbons across the sky. Not a whole lot but very impressive one. We also had a lightning storm on the other side of the valley.

I never considered using normal binos to look for Andromeda. What magnification do you have?

Regular boardgame nights returned from summer hiatus. The full group assembled for 5 player coop Great Wall. The game has amazing table presence and pretty interesting mechanics but absolutely no balance.

• Some leaders are just vastly better than others (pay a chi to make one additional damage vs get a massive discount when you recruit.)
• Missions have massively different difficulty levels and some are nigh on impossible for 5 players.
• Events are just ridiculous. Their immediate effects are ok but their ongoing effects are just way too punishing. Still the basic gameplay loop is compelling and we’re probably gonna play this on occasion.

On the weekend my sister also hopped over for a visit and we played:

• Thanos Rising - I basically had one decent turn, the rest was all a wash and with only two players pulling we had no chance.
• Earth - First time for my sister but she quickly took to it. This was the first game where I dared to take one of those terrains that forbids you from taking a particular action (growth) and I got by quite decently. Getting another card on every plant action was well worth the tradeoff. With enough card draws, I could fuel a lot of compost actions and on top of it I got lucky and drew the terrain that gives VP based on composted cards. All in all I won with a commanding lead. But after initial confusion over the common scoring cards (fauna) it was nice to see that everyone ultimately got the hang of it and scored at least 3 of them.
• Würfel Ligretto - Early morning we decided to wake ourselves up with someting frantic. So frantic in fact that one of the dice tumbled off the table and somehow into the kitchen installation. But we were ultimately able to find and retrieve the bugger and complete the game.
• Moving on from that we played Shark Attacks - a push your luck game where I consistently have less luck than everyone else. At least this time I lost to my sister instead of my GF.
• Pharaon - We capped the visit off with this game that I had kind shelved for a while. GF wasn’t in the mood for something heavy and just watched leaving it at a 2p setup. I must say I vastly preferr this game with less players. While I apprciate that it does go to 5 players and works it just becomes soooo much thighter. Spots per player are 7.5, 5, 6.25, 5 (from 2 to 4 players) and more importantly with 5 you might not even have the opportunity to go in a particular sector if everyone else prioritizes it.

I can’t blame you. It literally took us pretty much weekly sessions for over a year to reach the final scenario. That’s a daunting comittment. I actually low key burned out on the game a few times during that period. But it always pulled me back in again.

I grew up with the Ravensburger box of classics so, board games were always a part of my childhood. They quickly captured my imagination and I began to draw roll and move boards, explaining to my mom what should happen on each space.

When I got older the whole family got into games and that turned into a nice sunday tradition.

Eventually I got sucked into BGG and never financially recovered…

The discovery texts in the book just broke up the pace so much. Spliting the party made the down time insufferable and the “combat/diplomacy” mechanic was horrible.

We’re a group of 5 so someone would had to sit out every time and after one play I told everyone I would be happy to be that person…

Yeah. It got recommended to me as an easier Tzolkin. Well, it IS easier but not anywhere near as interesting and every game feels sooo samey.

Hoping to borrow Ares Expedition from a friend soon. Played it once in Essen and wasn’t wowed. Gonna be tough beating TFM after that…

Had it not pulled a Wii

A good expression for the situation. Wingspan’s success is definitly to a large part because of it’s accessibility. Every problem you have (no cards, food, eggs) has an immediate, guaranteed and obvious solution. Everything you CAN do improves your position. And if you play on the blue side there is barely any direct competition in the game. There’s no way to shoot yourself in the foot. There is no requirement to plan ahead.

But it does have some potential to plan ahead, optimize and compete for those who want to.

It also doesn’t fall into any of the typical setting tropes like fantasy or sci-fi that might put some people off. It’s production values are pretty enough to catch some eyes.

There are better sober games and there are better drunk activities than Munchkin.

If you’re at a point where you’re having fun with Munchkin you’d be having fun without it as well…

After seeing what the scenarios with different win conditions looked like I am GLAD most were just “kill all monsters”.

As for session length we always played just a single scenario (unless we lost the first super quick). It took us a good year maybe one and a half to play through the campaign. IMO the problem is less the session length and just how much of a time hog this game is in general. We’re talking 150+ hours dedicated to a single game.

Uhm. GoT isn’t exactly the first to use this expression…

It’s not an old video game. They’re not immovable parts of the level design. You can likely move or bump them out of the way enough to pass through.

Meanwhile right next to them is a huge metal box that stole 4 times as much sidewalk, transported half as many people and is literally un-moveable if you’re not in a heavy motorized vehicle.

When you want to get better using a hammer, just treat everything as a nail.

For the people who don’t want to squint at a weird format image:

• Communism: You have two cows. The state takes both and gives you some milk
• Fascism: You have two cows. The state takes both and sells you some milk (someone here has a very benign definition of fascism)
• Socialism: You have two cows. You give one to your neighbor who had none.
• Bureaucratism: You have two cows. The state takes both, kills one, milks the other and then throws the milk away.
• Tradition Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one to buy a bull. Your herd multiplies and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the profit.
• Venture Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother in law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option to buy one more.
• French Corporation: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want two.
• Italian Corporation: You have two cows. You don’t know where they are. You decide to have lunch
• Swiss Corporation: You have 500 cows. None of them belong to you. You just charge for storing them.
• American Corporation: You have 2 cows. You sell one and force the other to produce milk like 4 cows. You hire an independent consultant to determine why the cow died.
• Indian Company: You have 2 cows. You worship them.
• Irish Company: You have 2 cows. One of them is a horse.
• Australian Company: You have 2 cows. Business seems pretty good. You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.
• Iraqi Company. You have no cows. Noone believes you. The US bombs the crap out of you and invades your country. You still have no cows but at least you have a democracy now.
• British Company: You have 2 cows. Both are mad.
• Greek Company: You have 2 cows borrowed from French and German banks. You eath both. The banks call to collect their milk but you cannot deliver. The IMF loans you 2 cows. You eat both. The banks and the IMF call to collect their milk. You’re out getting a haircut.
• Chinese Company: You have 2 cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment and max bovine productivity. You arrest the journalist who reported the real situation.

Relatively little going on so I’m still gonna go back to reddit occasionally because for example on the software development side I’ve found the reddit communities really useful and they simply don’t exist here.

Beyond this I’m determined to stick it out with lemmy. There are cute animal pics. There are memes and jokes. And a few other interests of mine are also reasonably active. It’s almost enough to satisfy my desires for “doomscrolling” without being a total time trap. So that’s nice.

• Bohnanza is a good recommendation. It’s very easy to learn and doesn’t fall into the usual brackets of shedding or trick taking.
• Scout is my favorite combo shedding game (ie. you’re shedding multiple cards at once). The way you’re always either drawing or shedding keeps the play much more dynamic than in Daihinmin or the Great Dalmuti
• Frantic from GameFactory isn’t widely available but in the EU you can probably get it. UNO on steroids. More exciting special cards and you can play them against any player, not just the one following you.
• Tichu a team based trick taking game that has a lot of fans around here. I personally have never really taken to it. It’s fine but I don’t get the rabid fandom some have for it.
• The Crew is ridiculously difficult with 5 and cumbersome with 2. Would only recommend it in between. But there it is a very clever game.