Recap Monday week 30 - what did you play last week?

We finally had our little group together and played wingspan - for such a popular but often polarized game I was eager and it turned out the game is … just Ok. The engine part never really materialized that much. The theme is neat but does little for me (I am a biologist, mind you). Overall its not a bad game but i would often choose other games in the collection.

We also played Dominion, Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars - all are amazing as usual

I think Wingspan is a good game but its weight is a bit tricky. My group finds it too light, my family finds it too complicated... Fantastic production value tho.

It's sad that Wingspan is the #1 in the Family category on bgg. From personal experience it's more like a "next-level" kind of game. Everdell at #3 isn't doing anyone any favors either!
@dpunked I think of Wingspan as a stepping stone game - it introduces people to euro mechanisms like worker placement (kind of), card tableaus, special powers and so on but it's all stuff most gamers have seen more interestingly implemented. The production quality is good and the bird sanctuary setting is not as alienating as, say, the industrial revolution, or trading in the Mediterranean.
- Yeah, I agree with that. If it would be the first game for someone, then its not bad. But once you have a small collection it would see the table less often
Wingspan is definitely one of those games that I would happily play if someone else wanted to because it's so dang charming! But the gameplay leaves something to be desired. I believe some of the expansions add a little more interactivity between players, but I'm not too sure.

Full group was around this week, but we chatted and caught up for far too long, so we settles for a couple of games of Sushi Go Party. We haven't played for a couple of years, but it's still a fairly fun time!

We also had some friends visit this weekend, so we took them out to our local board game cafe. We played a couple of games of Diamant, with the women of the table absolutely wiping the guys on points. We then tried Secret Identities which has probably been the most fun I've had with one of these style party games. Abstract clues and deductive reasoning made from a maddeningly good time - we're very tempted to grab a copy for our collection!

As it was the first time for a while that we've visited the cafe, we were finally able to switch put our rentals. So we temporarily have, and are looking forwards to trying:

Cat in the Box
Glow
Blitzkreig!

Played a whole lot of Wingspan this past week. Taught it to two different groups. First was my copy with all the expansions minus Asia. Second was a friend's base edition. It remains a game I don't love, but don't mind playing. Also, played the first Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards game, which was pretty cool. Learned how to play Pollen, so looking forward to playing that soon. Most fun and interesting game I played was a solo one, surprisingly, called Resist! about fighting back against the Franco regime during the Spanish Civil War. Thematically, something I'm very interested in anyway, but the gameplay is tough and enjoyable.

Had a busy week. The two of us played two scenarios of Gloomhaven JotL. I changed from my initial tank character to Voidwarden, who's got a buff/debuff and action granting/manipulation mechanic. She's a lot more fun for me and I feel like she works a little better with my partner's ranged character also. The last scenario was so close, we were 1 and 0 turns away from exhaustion when we won. Funnily enough we both got squeezed into a corner and surrounded by the boss's summons so the boss couldn't get to us.

Was really hoping to be able to play more of Aeon's End but alas, the weekend went by really fast. Going to get an expansion for it next time I go to the shop.

We also tried out Bread & Fred, a video game of two penguins connected by a rope climbing a mountain. I was hoping it would be hard and rewarding like Celeste, but it was mostly fun and frustrating due to us constantly jumping at the wrong time and falling off.... Would definitely recommend assist mode checkpoints if anyone else wants to try. It was a bit weird that they only supported the same input type for both, would have liked to use controller and let my SO use keyboard.

Dorfromantik (3x, 2p): I ended up buying it because it won SdJ and I didn't have any tile-laying game anymore. The game starts slow and slowly adds new components and "achievements". Kind wish it was more goal oriented, to be honest. There's no win-condition, you just sum your points, the more points you have the faster you unlock the new components. Definitely want to play it some more but I can't say I loved it.

@dpunked Last week was mostly vacation time. We played #Hanabi and #SushiGo and #DeepSeaAdventure and #LoveLetter - we even played under the tent vestibule while it was raining. This weekend I got in a game of #TwilightInscription and #SprirtIsland.

Exploding kittens - the third expansion is sub-par because a lot of the cards from it make the game too complex.

These games only work for me if alcohol is involved
- Copious amounts.

We wanted to try Hats but don't have a copy yet so we used the Arboretum deck. Which turned out to be appropriate since the two games have similar tensions. It took a while to get past the usual intuition of expecting the cards in your hand to eventually end up in your tableau which is not how it goes in Hats. I like discovering games with interesting card flows.

We continued our Dorfromantik campaign. In the most recent game we took a lot of risks that didn't end up paying off but it's nice that you make some amount of progress even when things don't work out well.

Also had the chance to introduce a non-gamer to Cabo, she enjoyed it a lot and it was a nice change from our usual 2p sessions.

Expecting our copy of Meadow to arrive soon, looking forward to trying that.

I was able to get in two games of Cartographers, one scenario from Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, and a round of Lords of WaterDeep. What a good week!

Cartographers is one of my new favorites for my friend group. We've been playing it slowly with colored pencils, just taking our time making the maps look extra pretty. We plan on printing some larger maps for the game, and then bringing our own art supplies. It's a nice relaxing game to just hang out with your friends to.

Got in a game of Marvel Dice Throne. Doctor Strange managed to overcome Miles Morales. Barely. Was a pretty fun round actually. We both managed to pull off our ultimates (in spite of my wife's attempts to thwart me). Gotta say, if you don't pull any spells in that five card draw, Strange's ultimate is a bit of a letdown.