After we had already played the picture version a lot, Codenames Duet came into our collection - a two-person version of Codenames. And it's really fun, though for us only in a picture version. We both found it extremely stressful and unsatisfying with the words, but with the pictures from Codename Pictures it really brings joy. And since it's cooperative, you can quickly take it out when we don't feel like fighting.
Archive November 2017
Juliana's new favorite game: Battle Line. A classic, in our case with a new graphic design featuring knights instead of hoplites. 9 columns where you play a small "poker" game, the higher combo wins. The goal is to win 3 adjacent territories or a total of 5 territories. Easy to learn, easy to play (we don't play the expansion with tactic cards as it's only available in English). Within a very short time, the game has been played over 100 times and even more by Juliana, because it's the first game she voluntarily unpacks and plays by herself (left hand against right hand). Something that has never happened before. So definitely a quality statement for the game.
Another new addition is Viticulture Essential Edition - purchased on the occasion of a 10-euro voucher from the local game store, chosen because of the number of players (1-6). So far, I have only played it solo, but it works excellently for that. And from what I've seen, I'm already looking forward to playing it in the player round - a well-intermeshed worker placement, where the theme fits quite well with the actions in the game (ok, some details are a bit "creative", but overall the interplay of the actions makes sense). The whole thing then with quite challenging decisions in the game, but not as far as, for example, in Gallerist or similar highly complex games. So really something for the weekly round and not immediately a time investment for the weekend.
Recently, Godforsaken Scavengers arrived from Kickstarter and I tried it out right away. Originally, I only grabbed it because the unusual theme (or rather the style) appealed to me. It's basically a dungeon crawl with character attributes, events, locations, and everything that goes with it, packed into a super compact playtime and wrapped in appealing graphics. So, absolutely great for a quick game, as it hardly consumes any setup and the game itself is quick to finish. It has exactly the right length for the high proportion of luck it takes to survive - if things go wrong, not much time is invested, just shuffle and go again.
Another trade show souvenir is Azul, a nice tile-laying game with a super-friendly (and super-painted) theme: tile laying. The game itself is quite competitive and a lot of fun (at least for me) and has been well received in the board game group so far. I particularly like the short playing time, many games in our collection go beyond the hour and this one can be easily finished in 40 minutes, even with 4 players. In addition, it is super easy to teach to the players and the material is simply great. This will certainly find its way onto the table more often.
Triplock is a new addition that surprised me - I only picked it up because the manufacturer often delivers very interesting games in superb quality and the theme appealed to me (Steampunk world and lock picking). What surprised me, however, was how much I enjoyed it. Essentially, it's a classic memory game - uncovering combinations, remembering the same, swapping and twisting, and at the same time keeping an overview of what is where. A bit like the typical shell game, only as a board game with a story. And it works damn well, also (or perhaps even especially) solo. You happily play several rounds in a row until you've cracked the current scenario.