We all do it. Even the heaviest of heavy board gamers do it. We all, at one point or another, play filler games. Often times, you’re waiting for one last player to get to the table or easing into a long day of heavy gaming. As a heavy gamer myself, there are some filler games that I refuse to play … I’m looking at you Love Letter and Avalon. In all honesty, I’m just so over those games, especially when there are better filler games out there to play!
I finally got my hands on a copy of Quadropolis (thanks to my Friendly Local Game Store Game Depot), and I can’t wait to get it on table. I first played Quadropolis over a month ago at a game night at the Game Boy Geek’s, and I seriously have been counting down toward the game’s April 29 release date.
Then my friend gave me a heads-up that Game Depot had early copies, so I drove down to Tempe to pick one up for myself. Quadropolis reminds me of city-building games such as Suburbia and Castles of Mad King Ludwig, but much more streamlined and less fiddly, in my opinion.
I attended another Game Night with the awesome Game Boy Geek, and we ended up playing this super quick, super fun card game called Happy Salmon. It’s a five-minute game that plays up to 6 people. This is seriously the most fun I’ve had playing a party card game. And, there’s video evidence of said fun …
I recently had two back-to-back weekend events with my core group of friends. During the first weekend, I introduced them to Sushi Go! and Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (I just now noticed that these two game titles both have exclamation points in their names). Both games were a big hit with my friends, so much so that two different people purchased Sushi Go! later in the week, and one of them also purchased Survive and its expansions.
So I’m a total sucker for all things cute … and giant pandas are no exception. Takenoko itself is a solid medium-heavy game that I’m always down to play, so when I saw an online deal on the Takenoko Collector’s Edition last year, I quickly jumped on that cuddly bad boy. It quite possibly is the largest chunk of change I’ve spent on one. single. board. game. And honestly, I have no regrets …
My one gaming group had a farewell game day for one of my close friends, who is leaving town with his wife and baby to be near family. It was a bittersweet day knowing that in over a week, they won’t all be in Phoenix anymore. The last game we played that night was The Grizzled, fitting for a game about friendship and making hard decisions. The game even asks: Can friendship be stronger than War?
In the spirit of Cthulhu, I felt like I had been devoured last week. I had the most insane week, and I’m thankful for being surrounded by people who care about me and who, at the drop of a hat, help me out … like say when you have plumbing issues, need a new kitchen faucet, and your laundry room and kitchen flood with water. Let’s just say I’m so very happy that it’s a new week!
I purchased Orleans with my game winnings when I was at Strategicon, and I’ve played this game twice already within the past week. It has quickly become a game-night favorite. Orleans plays 2-4 people and lasts about 90 minutes. It’s a medium-heavy worker-placement bag-building game, and, best of all, it isn’t too hard to teach. A friend of mine had said he was initially turned off by what looked like a really busy game board, but once game play was explained, he said it’s actually not that hard to learn. Winning the game, on the other hand, requires planning efficient moves.
I can’t believe it’s been a week since Strategicon! I’m seriously having convention withdrawal. My Phoenix friend and I decided to go to OrcCon for two very different reasons. I wanted to play Virgin Queen, which was slated for 11 hours of game play, and he wanted to play Mega Civilization, which was slated for 14 hours of play. And guess what? Both of us succeeded in doing so! Huzzah!
If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that last Friday I got to meet the Game Boy Geek himself, play games are his house and bask in the glory of his awesome board-game room. How cool is that?! I seriously still get starstruck when I meet folks from the Internet who are very active in the board-gaming world. And it all came to be because of a happy coincidence!