by Steph
Hi all!Back to another long work week. I want to live on board gaming vacation time. It would be so much more enjoyable!
Monday night was gaming as usual- this time Geoff was generous and hosted us for some gaming as Joe was somewhere Ohio, I believe.
I managed to convince a 4 player game of Caverna: The Cave Farmers right out of the gate! Yay! Geoff taught both Dan and Michael the game and we got to playing.
I have played this game now with 2-4 players and I like them all equally. There is a lot going on with 4 players and I never seem to get what I want, but I enjoy that. I have to work with what I got.
After so many games I still hate getting additional workers. I spend most of my games not getting additional workers, I find that a waste of actions and more worrisome when it comes to feeding. I think only in 1 game did I aim to get more workers and I got them all and I lost. Well, I can't remember if that is the case or not. hahaha
I know I do perfectly fine without getting more workers. Especially this game!
This game Geoff and I went for the military thing and the other 2 went farming and cave building. You have to roll with the punches in this game. No, you do not want everyone doing one thing like adventuring but a healthy mix of people doing some of everything. I seem to play best when I have a good mix of available actions so I am never "shut out" of something I want to be doing. Maybe that is why I win! :devil:
I am seriously lovin' this game. I love building my little farms and caves. There is something so awesome about adventuring. It is a game that is moving up in my favorites list play by play.
This game was my best one yet. I got a score of 91. I don't know if that is fantastic in the world of Caverna but I won and I thought I did a great job. I look forward to playing it a lot more. I think Geoff came in second with 83 or 86. The newbs were lower. It is easy to look back at a game play and see what could have happened differently, especially after your first play.
eee I am still so excited to play this and Fields. SO GOOD!
To finish the game night (for me), we got to playing 6 player game of Deep Sea Adventure. There were actually 2 people learning, which is shocking to me since we have played this game so many times on a Monday night it is a wonder that they have missed it!
We got to rolling. I managed not to drown al 3 rounds. I did make it back to the sub in round 3! Yay! I even beat Joe H who made it back all 3 rounds. I didn't win over all because my score of 16 or something wasn't good enough. :(
haha it is a simple push your luck game and I am happy to play it whenever. It is a game I didn't love after first play but having played so many times now, I am really enjoying this game. Would play it anytime! :)
Ron and I went home and ate some late dinner as we normally do. I still wanted to play another game so I pulled out the old Cribbage board. :)
We hadn't played in a while so it was that time where we could play and I would win.
Yep! I got all the cards. I was way in the lead, and like normal he came from behind and caught up to me. As you can see from the pic below, he was un successful! Woohoo!
It was good to play that again. It really makes me want to play more card games. I have a Pinochle deck - just need to find players!
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Tuesday night is Fields of Arle night. Or at least that is the way it has been... and will continue to be, until further notice. I still can't get enough of this game.
This time I didn't have a plan and was just sort of putzing around. Not a solid way to play this game. I lost by a lot and Ron had his best game to date.
In the end I had a major plan but needed to buy 3 building tiles and had one season left - so that plan formed far too late in the game. I didn't have a single horse at the end which also hurt me since I had 6 sheep and a few cows. Ugh bad planning. I need a re match asap.
I had a ton of materials like I normally do- I think that is a major key to scoring well.
Ron had EVERYTHING else, however.
He managed to get 119, I believe. I only managed 104.5- not terrible but I felt I did a poor job in this game. I need to do better.
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Wednesday night Ron and I went to dinner with my mom and when we got home I felt we should learn a new game. More like Ron should learn a new game and teach me. We went with the easy game of Carcassonne: The City. New to me!
I love Carc the basic game with all the 500 expansions. It is such a great game. I Knew this one would be great. It was mentioned a few weeks ago and has been on my mind. I saw it a the DTC flea market in shrink and offered $20 which was accepted and then I was a proud owner of Carc the city. :D
I felt I got a pretty good deal since it hadn't ever been played and you get a LOT of wooden pieces in the game. I think it is also on the hard to find list. I was very happy to snag this game.
Ron read the rules and we got to playing. The game is really just Carcassonne with an additional element. You are building city walls!!!! It is totally a game within a game. I love that about this one.
It is all about timing and wall placement. If Ron has the opportunity to place a tile and join in on what I am working on well- if I build a wall in time I can stop that from happening. BOOM! It was an awesome feeling. Definitely a game within a game! Super fun times.
I thought it worked very well as a 2 player game. It had a very fast ending. We weren't even close to the end of the stack before the game came to a close since the walls surrounded us!
It was much faster than base game (since we have SOOOO many expansions) and I thought there was more to think about. Very good game. I look forward to playing it a bunch more. I still like Carc with all expansions better- but if I am looking for a fast goodie this will fit the bill. :D
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Since I just bought Joe H's copy of 猿道 (Monkey Road) I wanted to see how it played with 2 players.
Ron took the role of the Hooman and I was the MONKEY!:) oookiiki ooohkee
I had to escape 6 times!!!!! Or more, I don't remember. I did manage to get away 4/6 times... nearly did it!!!*sigh* The Hooman caught me.
2 cards were discarded and out of the game so Ron wouldn't exactly know ALL my cards from the get-go.
It is a clever little game. I feel like it should be SO EASY for the monkey but it is really not. One day I will escape for real and be victorious as the monkey on vacation!!! :D
really fast and really cute game. I have no reason why I wouldn't bring this game around wherever I go. It is a tiny box and good fun. I need to sleeve the game though- since I can see it getting dragged places. :)
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Finally, the last game of the night we decided on was a long but not forgotten game of Innovation. It was just staring me in the face from the bottom shelf looking all sad.
I wanted to revisit the game and see how I felt about it after so long. It was actually refreshing. I think we stopped playing for 2 reasons. 1) I always kicked butt and Ron didn't stand a chance of winning. 2) Because we once upon a time played http://innovation.isotropic.org/play this link seems to be sad at the moment. We played SO MUCH Dominion with the isotropic site then they had to take it down and it became Innovation. We played SO MUCH during lunch or whatever. Games lasted 5-15 minutes and it was/is just so easy. Seems to still be running so you can still catch a game. We got tired of it (unlike the fast dominion games) I just crushed Ron too much so we never saw many plays after a while.
To me the web production was/is perfect and to go back to the real deal is just sad and time consuming.
It was fun to play, however. I am not sad for revisiting it. I, actually, really enjoy this game. I can be and is luck of the draw but it is also how you can best manipulate the cards to your advantage.
For me it is a perfectly good 2 player game. When you start adding players it gets complicated and messy. I don't think I have to play with more players- even online.
I managed to win the game before ever really getting into the 9s and neither of us touched a 10 because I managed to acquire the "Empiricism" card and had about a billion light bulbs and magically won! Ron and I were both super close to winning based on normal rules 6 achievements wins. We both had 5- but then I had that win condition. It was awesome! Ron probably didn't think so :P
I enjoyed it. I took it off my trade list because I do like it enough to keep around. We have the expansion, which I don't think we have dabbled in at all... maybe sometime.
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Friday night Ron and I got to playing a couple games. We started with a 2 player game of Small City. Ron had to learn while the rules were still in my head- for the most part.
It took us 2 hours to get through it because it is still so complicated. I hope it gets faster and easier with more plays. For now we are still fumbling to figure it out. Ron made the pointof why would you need shields when you can just watch where everyone is grabbing from and that will give you the information. Valid point. In my first game I barely used the shield. In the 2 player game we did, and he commented on that.
In this game I made it a point to get lots of parks. I had a pollution level of 4 at the end of the game. Pretty damn good. It was also my bonus for the end of the game- so that went hand in hand. I got screwed in my first game cause I had 30 something pollution points to subtract from my score.
Ron did that mistake in this first game. He had a ton of pollution. He ended with 12 points to my 57...
There is still a lot to explore in this game. I do worry a bit about how much I will continue to enjoy it. The game we had 2 player both of us were having an OK time and I hope the enjoyment of this game picks up with more familiarity.
I definitely like the idea of the game. The flow of the game just seems off and we had to keep reminding ourselves which comes next. There is no obvious layout and the iconography is not the greatest.
I need to let this game sit for a few weeks and return to it with new eyes.
BGG Rejected
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Next we needed a game that eased the mind. A fast game of Patchwork fit the bill.
This game ron made a rush to get all the little 1 pieces, but I did manage to get 1 of them which always helps. He did finish the 7x7 first and got that bonus point tile. I have said before getting that secures the win. Well I suppose it was proven otherwise in this game. Ron played so poorly that he used too much time and didn't get enough coverage on his board. He had a -20 going into the count. I was at -10. So, even with his bonus tile I still managed to pull out the win. Hey! I will take it!
It is a cute, fast game. I enjoy it a bunch. Happy to play! :)
BGG Rejected
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Finally, we ended up playing a game of Seasons with all expansions mixed in.
We were lazy and played online. It is hard to argue since the site does all the math and fiddlyness that goes with playing seasons. Perhaps Seasons biggest downfall is who fiddly it actually is.
This game both Ron and myself got the chalice of eternity which allows you to get the powers of divine chalice but over and over again at a slow rate. I managed to pull in the 30 point card for free... which is always the best possible outcome with any of the chalice cards.
I got one of my favorites magma core which give me yellow energy when opponents play a card to the tableau.
I was just working the system. It was awesome and everything was flowing well for me.
I was hurting Ron with Karin a bunch in the final turns. The game ended with me at 180 and him at 148. It wasn't a run away game for me but it certainly worked out!
So fun. I love it.
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Saturday Ron and I ended up hosting gaming and had a small-ish turn out.
Dan arrived early like normal and we got to playing a 3 player game of Das Zeitungsspiel. New to me!
It is basically the exact same game that I played a few weeks ago. Can not recall the name at the moment.
It is an abstract tile laying game where you have secret goals to make clumps of that color on the board. There are a fw differences from this game and the other one I had played. Main difference that bothered me was that all the tiles have to go right side up so there is a very limited way to place the tiles. I like being able to flip them to be any direction.
I enjoy the game. I would rather play the other one but they are both good. It is fast- so that helps.
This game (like the other one) I creamed the others playing. I do very well in this type of game, apparently. Might be why I enjoy it. I think I got 80 something and the others got 30ish points. haha
I would play again. Might not be my first choice but it was interesting enough.
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Matthew showed up and we broke the shrink to my new copy of Elysium.
It had been a few weeks since my last play so I was happy to pull it out and give it a go.
Everyone had played this game before and we basically punched the game and got to playing.
I didn't really have a strategy. This hurt me. I was going to legends but poorly. I only managed to score like 50-60 points and the winning score was high 80s.
I thought I was getting 7 more points but I couldn't get the most transferred cards to the Elysium to make it happy. Tied with 13 cards. *sigh*
I didn't have any military helmets so got no points there. Only cause I got screwed over one round and had to take a broken quest thing and it was awful!!!!! Ugh I got so hosed because of that. I am usually much better at planning for those- but, this time is happened once and it ruined me!
Cool game. I look forward to playing more. For now, I am still really enjoying it. :)
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Pat showed up and we had 5 players so we opted to play a game of Die Sieben Siegel. AKA Wizard Extreme or Zing. Apparently, so many names.
It is a fun trick taking game that works very well with 5 players. There is 5 rounds and each round you have to predict which color and quantity of tricks you guess you will take.
It is a very good trick taking game. I love card games and if you do then I would highly recommend this one. i am always happy to play this one and if given 5 players it is one I might always suggest. It is just very fun :)
This game I lost pretty handily. Ron was screwing me over every chance he could. Ah well, I didn't come in last! :) hahah Just 4th.
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Joe C came next and we got in a 6 player game of Medici.
This seems to always be a go-to game with 6 players. I don't mind since I really love it. More recently it has been played without me so I was happy to get in a game and take home 3rd place. It was actually a very close game with a span of 20 or less between 1st and 6th place.
It is such a good 6 player game. Simple to teach and easy to pull out and just play. This time I got LOW boat for rounds 1 and 3 and I got a mere 5 points for 5th biggest boat in round 2. So, needless to say, I didn't get my points in that way. I manage to get up a couple of tracks for a bunch of points from them.
Awesome auction game I would play whenever requested :)
Classic, if you will.
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After Medici we split into 2 tables of 3 and I found some players for a game of Ginkgopolis. Woohooo!! It was awesome. Always happy to play.
You would be glad to know I didn't dominate in this game and Joe came from behind to win by a few points. I had no points that I was generating during game play and everyone else seemed to be getting boat loads for whatever they were doing. I had all my points in end game cards and board position. I was winning 2 major red sections then Joe C combined the red section to make him controlling it. My final hand I had to expand for little to no points, because I had no more exchange hand tokens... grrrrr.
Hahha but both Matthew and Joe really enjoyed the game and want to play it more regularly so they can retain the rules. We only played the base- they weren't ready for expansions rules (even the hold back 1 card). I would want them both to play the base game a few more times before bringing any of the expansion out.
Joe said it was a top 5 game for him- so really, we must play it more. :)
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What also put me off my Gink game was that Rose and D Way showed up and I was playing host for a lot of the end game of Gink... but I don't like to make excuses. :P
I had given them Castles of Mad King Ludwig as a gift recently and they were asking to learn it. Once we finished with Gink we broke into 2 tables of 4 and Dan joined in for a game of Castles.
It is a bit of a puzzling game, but once you play a few rounds you really get into it and see its potential.
It took almost the whole game before Rose started warming up to it. She doesn't really enjoy learning new games. Once she knows them it is all good and she appreciates games. It can be hard to get her to play new ones, however. They wanted to learn since I did give it to them as a gift. :D
This time I pretty must destroyed. But 2 were learning and Dan- whom never wins CoMKL.
All game I was advising Rose and Dave why one thing might be better than another. I was helping as much as I could. They appreciated that. Why I might value one tile vs another.
By the end Dan was in 2nd but the others weren't that far behind.
I think (hope) they really enjoyed it. It does play well with 2 which is what I was going for when I got it for them.
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We actually played 4 player (teams) Cribbage.
I hadn't ever played teamed cribbage before so that was new to me. Rose and I paired up and we kicked butt. The main difference is all players get dealt 5 cards and not 6 and you throw 1 card to the crib.
I thought the game was all right. I definitely don't have to play it again with 4 players. So many other options that I would rather play. It was ok.
We did win and it was still only OK. At least with 4 players the game goes super duper fast since you are scoring for the same team twice. So it was at least Over after MAYBE 8 hands. Probably less.
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We were in a mood for another card game and we all love Tichu so we had to play.
We cut for partners and I had the pleasure of playing with Rose as my teammate.
I am a crazy Tichu player. I like to make wild bids. If there is a chance of me going out first I will call or if I have an ace and a phoenix I will call grand. I am a bit wacky.
So we had a rough start. We were down in the negatives while the guys were a steady increase each time.
We had gotten back up to 200 and then lose a grand Tichu so were then around -10 to 500 or so. Some how make crazy bids worked for us in the remaining rounds. Managed to climb back to 650 to 850 or so. And then the amazing last turn happened where I called grand and Rose and I went 1-2 for 400 points and we ended the game with positive 1000 and Dave called Tichu so they ended up losing a bunch of points. Wahhahahahaah major comeback for the girls. It was awesome.
Rose doesn't like the pressure of calling tichu or grand so she left it up to me! Yay! hahaha We worked well. She didn't get mad at me when I failed. And we had an awesome come back! :D
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After Tichu we formed a 6 player game of Mysterium. Since no one actively wanted to play as the ghost, I always do, and they let me! :)
For whatever reason I like to play as super hard ghost. I try not to discard (though I could have definitely benefitted from doing that this time). I was getting all the wrong cards at all the wrong times. I finally managed to get everyone to guessing the rooms. It was a nightmare of a game for me though. :(
Needless to say I failed as the ghost. Everyone had a good time.
It is a fun fun game!! :D Ron was totally bored the whole time and Pat doesn't really enjoy it. So, I guess I won't make them play again :(
It is not a game for everyone. I should have made Ron be the ghost.
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Rose and Dave left after that and we pull out The Voyages of Marco Polo. I hadn't played it this week so I suggest it and everyone agreed.
This game I was going first so I got dibs for powers last... boooo...
I was the guy who started in Bejing. I had a set plan but then my travel cards didn't work towards my plan. I should have stuck to me initial plan I think I could have done a lot better.
I still did OK but Dan just destroyed us. I could have TIED Dan if I just had a damn dingle dollar to spend. It was worth 10 vps to me. Can you believe that?! It was highly frustrating.
Poor Ron was having a bad night and this game was no different.
I was around 60 and Dan was around 70 and the other were 50 and below. It was a sad game for me.
I was focused mostly on traveling and fulfilling some contracts that helped me move.
It is a fun game. I can see playing often enough. This was just a rough one for many of us.
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Dan left and Ron and I taught Pat Sheep & Thief. It took us MAYBE 20 minutes to play. It is super fast and SO CUTE! I really enjoy it.
It is really easy to teach, too.
I managed to pull out a win this time. I had 15 points in connected cities and some river tiles and a few sheeps. Ron had about a billion sheeps.
I had 31 and Ron had high 20s and Pat had mid 20s. :D
Yay!
I love this for a filler. It is super cute and- well it is just hard no to like it. Happy to play it.
BGG Rejected
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The final game of the night was a VERY fast game of 猿道 (Monkey Road). Pat hadn't played and I felt it would be a good finish to the night.
Ron played as the human and we were the monkeys. Ron wasn't playing a particularly good human guessing the same guess each time. Pat knew better than to play the monkey on the horse card... ahahaha
Pat managed to escape before me but I was right behind him with my escape!
OOOHKEEKEI Monkeys win! Woohoo! :D
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On Sunday Ron and I took it easy and just played a few games :).
We started with Shipyard. It is kind of a go to game for me at the moment. There is something very satisfying about this game, for me.
I love building up your ships and the secret goals (that become less secret as the game goes on).
This time I ended up picking the contract goal for collection of colored employee tiles I think they are called. Ron actually picked the other contract so he was going for all the tiles as well!! I didn't realize that when picking my end goals otherwise I would have gone for a different one which would have given me +4 or 5 more points at the end.
I am not complaining though. I was going for propellers on the boats and doing a fine job of it. So I could basically do as I wish with free rein. I just needed to acquire propellers! I was doing ships here and there and getting major river tile bonuses.
I ended with a respectable score of 98 which is very much like our other games.
Ron had a different game. He went for one MASSIVE 9 part boat and TONs of captains and extras. He sailed this one the final "buy one extra ship part" before end of game. Before that he had 0 points. It is definitely risky, I think. People on BGG seem to say they win a lot of the games with one massive boat. I don't really see how, but I suppose.
Ron did manage to get about 70 points but he was still very far from me in terms of scoring. It was a strategy, I will say. But if Ron couldn't pull it off, I am not sure it is the way to play. Perhaps I will try that sometime. mmmm Maybe not. I like the river tiles and making that work with my strategy. I think it is fun to sail the boats off! :D
Really lovin' this game!
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I really had wanted to play Le Havre but I didn't want it to ruin the day hahah so I took out Le Havre: The Inland Port. Le Havre's grandkid maybe. It has the flavor but doesn't scratch the itch like you want it to.
It has a lot of nice qualities to a [relatively] fast 2 player game. It is certainly much faster than the Le Havre game.
A lot of quick decisions to purchase a building or use an existing building on a players board. If you choose to use the opponents building you must pay them $1. All points are $ and building values at the end of the game.
We haven't played this one all that much since Ron DESTROYS me so hard. This time I still managed to lose but I did much- much better than my past games. For such a small game there are huge scores!
Ron got 222 and I did OK with 212. I am happy with my score. I hope we get to play it again soon. It will have to do for now, until I get a copy of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small. :P
BGG Rejected
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I let Ron choose the next game. He pulled out Fields of Arle!!!
Yay!!!
An off Tuesday game of Arle, I will take it! Anytime!
Gah soo good!
So I started the game looking at the available building tiles. I saw pottery wheel gets you animals of your choice. So from the get-go I opted to shoot for a clay/pottery wheel strategy. Ron saw through me and managed to bump on the pottery wheel track before me and snag the building before me. I was pissed.
I made it work. Like I always do.
I managed to still get lots of clay. Never really having clay in the other games I have played it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to have so much clay!! Glorious!
I was shipping clay for bricks and I managed to get 2, check it, TWO 15 vp buildings! whhhaaat!?
I ended with 58 points in building tiles. I had forests and others. I didn't have any materials which was sad. I had almost nothing to ship on the last shipment. I needed a ton of food that game so I ended up shipping most of the roads. I didn't have any animals- No time!!! But I had 21 points in tools!
A very different game for me. I still managed to get 115.5 a the end for the win. Ron was close on my heels with 112.
Gah! I can't seem to get enough of this game!! So happy he picked it. Made up for my terrible play from earlier in the week.
BGG Rejected
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I have definitely not been playing enough 7 Wonders. Ron and I played that next. We played with all expansions besides the tower of babel. We did play with the projects.
Ron and I just choose which wonders we wanted to play with. I wanted to try out the Great Wall since I think I have only played with them 1 time before. I also tried the mummy board which I am not sure I had ever played with. Ron choose Petra and Stonehenge.
I choose the Great wall with the science symbol on it. All pointes were leading to science. All my leader cards worked out to be the same. It was super crazy how it all came together.
For some reason Ron never decided to stop science. I thought he would start collecting but he never did! Didn't toss any and had very limited spaces for "hiding" science. So he simple just let me have them.
I scored a crazy 100 points for the great wall. I did really well with the mummy board too with 86 I believe. Ron didn't break 70 with either of his boards. I completely hosed him. Sorry Ron!! I guess it was my day for gaming!
It was awesome fun to play. I really wish gamers liked this more. I took it for granted when I did get to play ALL the time. Now with expansions no one is interested. I have no idea why- it is a brilliant game. I don't mind playing 2 boards with 2 players but sometimes I just want to play with one board. Still a top favorite game for me.
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Finally, our last game of the night was a very speedy game of Caverna: The Cave Farmers.
This game, I believe, played faster than our 2 player game of Arle. I didn't get any additional workers and Ron got 1 extra. So we just sped through this game.
I was going very hard for Ore. I only decided half way through because I had SO MUCH ORE and nothing to do with it. So I turned my attention to the 1 vp for ever 2 ore at the end of the game. I ended with 57 ore so I suppose that was a valuable tile for me to take. :P
I had tons of donkeys in Mines and they paid for my food with the donkey mine tile... it was awesome! I love not having to worry about feeding!!!! So much better!
So many spaces to go but so little time to do it all.
I had some awesome mines though. Everything was working out for me. I did manage to get 91 points same as my Monady night score from earlier in the week! I guess I am getting good at this game ;)
Ron didn't do as hot. He didn't do That bad but scored 75ish.
For now I am just enjoying the time I am better at a game before Ron turns around and figures it out and starts killing me each time! :)
Though, this one is different. I think I see this game differently than the majority. Maybe I just "get it".
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That was all for the week besides the massive amounts of online Star Realms. I am sure there will be more Arle and Caverna this week as well. I am still highly addicted to them both.
I hope to make Gink a regular scheduled event whenever I can. It is my #1 and all ;)
I wanted to mention I started to dabble with the "geekmod" here on BGG. I actually never even knew about it before last week and the comments regarding BGG rejected images.
I am still unclear how it all "works" but you can go in and vote for images to be accepted or rejected here on the geek. I am not sure if 1 vote does the trick or many people have to vote or you vote and admins get final say. I don't know.
I Enjoy this BGG feature. I like seeing other users images and potentially learning about games I didn't know about. It is very interesting. I have done a few hundred or more in the short week I learned about it. I will continue to help - if it indeed helps.
Thanks for reading!
Until next week!
Happy Gaming!!!
-Steph