OO Boardgamers, what did you play this weekend?

[coopasonic]

Day 2:
Cascadia - Taught a couple of new folks along with one experienced player, kicked all their asses... I guess we weren't clear about final scoring and they thought only one biome counted.
Heat - Again taught some new folks (including Isg) with one experienced player and we both had some rules messed up and were able to help each other get a better handle on things... oh and I won, for the first time against humans.
Sniper Elite - Taught to Isg and won as the sniper.
Beast - Hidden movement game we hasn't heard about before, a little overwhelming initially but might deserve some more attention.

I am def not playing as many new releases or new to me games as normal, and that number wasn't ever crazy high. Those first three games from day 2 we were playing my copies. I guess I left the cult of the new a few years ago.

[Moliere]

I can't believe there has been no mention of Tammany Hall here since 2013. I only found out about it a couple months ago and have really enjoyed the game.

[coopasonic]

Day 3:
Heat - I won this one pretty convincingly, bit was close until the last couple turns.
Sniper Elite - I got CRUSHED by the guy I was teaching the game to. He trapped me and I couldn't figure a way out.
-- are you starting to see a pattern here?
Orconomics - We bailed before the first turn because the rule book sucked
Bad Medicine - A fun party-ish type game, not really my jam but it was fun.
Space Race - Bailed on the third round because I was showing my frustration at not getting it and Isg took mercy.
Heat - second place in a six player race. My first full race and it was a lot of fun.

[coopasonic]

Day 4:
Wandering Towers - This was in the hot games room, it feels a bit like Santorini but in a circle that only moves clockwise
Tzaar - played this 3 times with Isg, it's a quick play and a game I love for it's simplicity.
Colony - Since we only play ever 3-4 years, I have only played the starter setup, maybe one day I will see the rest
Thunder Alley - This is interesting, but I think we messed up a few times and managing six races cars is a lot even if the rules are sorta simple. We bailed when we lost track of which cars had moved, oops.
Sagrada - revisiting, still solid
Wandering Towers - one more pass before I left, much better than the first play but end game is still pretty tricky and a bit frustrating (maybe a bit too much luck)

Wow I didn't play Heat or Sniper elite on day 4. Gasp.

[Montag]

Played Dune Imperium Uprising. I really like it. Direwolf tightened up the gameplay quite a bit from Dune Imperium. I have the full Dune Imperium kit and it is very high on my list of games - but Uprising took it up a notch. I found myself struggling more on what move to do - for the right reasons. Resources spice, water, and solaris are more balanced. The spy mechanic is a significant addition, but not over powerful. The built in CHOAM mini expansion is a must. It adds another layer of turn strategy to get the rewards. 7.5 out of 8 tentacles.

[raydude]

Forgot to post this sooner, but a few friends and I got together for F-it-Friday a few weeks ago. I brought my "Heat: Pedal to the Metal" game and we all played it for the first time. We played with the basic rules, so everyone had the same starter upgrade cards. Very fun. We were a bit confused about the rules for paying heat when a car spins out but I think we figured it out in the end. I'm surprised by how close the race was, but I think it's because we're all still figuring out the best way to manage our hands.

Then we played Search for Planet X. An astronomy themed deduction game, where players are astronomers surveying the night sky and trying to find Planet X. The sky is divided into sectors, and each sector can contain only one thing: asteroid, comet, gas cloud, dwarf planet, empty space, or planet X. Players take actions surveying the sky sectors, doing research, or guessing where Planet X is located. It's app-based, so the actions one takes are put into the app and it spits back some clues that you then mark on your board.

Then as players take actions they move around the board, then the "viewable sky" board piece rotates to the position of the last player. Since players can only observe the "viewable sky" this prevents players from focusing on the same sectors over several turns and honing in on what those sectors contain. Also, as the "viewable sky" board piece rotates, it may touch upon a "conference" event, which is when players can put forth their "theories", i.e. educated guess on what object is in a given sector. If they guess right then they get the points, otherwise guessing wrong yields no points, but at least they know that particular object is not in that sector.

Oh, and the number of theories you can advance is limited by object tokens that each player has. 4 asteroid, 2 comets, 2 gas cloud, and one dwarf planet token. So regardless of whether your theory is correct or incorrect it is spent and can no longer be used. I thought I knew where the dwarf planet was, but I was incorrect so I lost out on those points and couldn't submit a new theory for the dwarf planet.

Everyone has a game shield so no one knows what information the other players have. And since it's app based, you execute the app on your turn only to get your clue. The app manages the locations of the objects in the sky so everyone is trying to guess the same "sky state". In other words, if the sky state has an asteroid in sector 6 then that's true for every player. The only thing you do know is what action a player takes, what sectors of the sky they are observing, or what kind of research they are doing.

By taking notes on what my friends were doing I was able to narrow down what sectors of the sky may contain certain objects. I also lucked out and figured out the location of several asteroids early on based on the logic rules for where objects are located. For example - asteroids always are in pairs next to each other, so they are either in 2 pairs in different sectors, or all 4 are adjacent to each other. Once I deduced one asteroid I was able to deduce the other asteroid location given some of the logic rules for the other objects.

I managed to find Planet X first, but still ended up in second place because another friend made some great guesses at the conferences. One final thing I like about the game - you can set the difficulty level for each player individually. This affects the number of clues they get at the start (beginners/kids get 12 and experts get none), and the kinds of clues they get when doing research. All in all, a very fun game.

[AWS260]

I got to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins for the first time since 2019, and we played so many board games.

Quiddler - A Boggle-ish word game. Each player is dealt a hand of cards with letters on them, and you have to create words from the letters. My aunt crushed us.

Secrets - A Cold War-themed hidden-identity game in which your identity can change with you knowing it. Quick and fun.

Inis (2x) - Still a banger. I'm very proud of myself for pulling off a victory in the second game with some extremely twisty cardplay.

Stationfall - It's a bear to teach, because you can do almost anything, but very funny to play. I spent most of the game controlling the Boarder, shooting people left and right, and then revealed myself as the Medical Bot, hoovering up points as I revived all the downed humans. It wasn't nearly enough to win, but very satisfying. Especially the time that the Medical Bot revived a human, then immediately bonked him over the head so that it could revive him again.

Innovation - I did what I usually do in Innovation, which is race ahead to the more advanced ages while forgetting to actually score points, and inevitably losing.