Boardgaming Monday
Yesterday, to distract, and take advantage of a friend in from out of town, four of us got together and spent the afternoon into the evening playing Feast for Odin: The Norwegians. As I posted on Bluesky, I continue to be aggressively mediocre at the game. I managed to get 3rd out of four, which is good as I am reliably one of the worst at boardgames in my playgroup.
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Play Set in the browser
Spurred by the video, I decided to look for the game online as something I could play as part of my daily brain games. I found the linked for a simple and straightforward implementation.
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I remember reading Word Freak back in college, a book that delved into the realm of competitive Scrabble. That is where I was first introduced to Nigel Richards. This video highlights how impressive his mental acuity is for Scrabble.
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Learning Distilled
I've got an afternoon of boardgaming planned and we're playing a new game called Distilled. This has been an excellent learn-to-play video, can't wait to check the game out.
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Interview with the Monopoly World Champion
Disclaimer: I work for Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, who are the makers of Monopoly.
People ask for tips and I tell them to buy three houses on each property when you own a complete set. Also, jail is your enemy at the beginning of the game, but your best friend towards the end. By then, if you go to jail, stay there for as long as possible because you can collect money off your properties but you don’t go around the board paying other players. There are also Monopoly “heat maps”, which show the places that are landed on the most.
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Eclipse & Terraforming Mars
Got to enjoy some quality boardgaming last night with friends. First was a game of Eclipse. Eclipse looks, at first glance, like a game about space combat. But in truth it is much more about exploration and resource management. I've played it a half dozen times now and I quite enjoy it. I didn't do to well yesterday, I ended up boxed in on the map, had some bad dice rolls, and really struggled economically. But, it was still a very good time.
After that, we kept with the space theme, and played Terraforming Mars. Another game I've played many times, I even have it on my phone. We played with a number of the expansions and it was a fantastic time. Again, I struggled economically due to some poor choices on my part. But I think I did alright, all things considered.
I was telling my friends last night, I still consider the lack of ability to get cards to be my biggest criticism of the game. They raised good counter points, and I'm perfectly willing to believe I'm wrong. But I can say confidently that for my enjoyment, if there was some standard action sort of way for me to draw a card and have a bit more agency over that, I'd be a happier player (and likely still loser.)
There are few ways I'd prefer to spend my Saturday afternoons than playing boardgames.
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