Twitter-sourced Gaming - Weekend Gaming Recap

Apparently this week was in fact destined for lots of gaming opportunities as multiple invitations were extended on Twitter for the weekend. As a result I got to game on both Friday night & Saturday afternoon. 

Friday
On Friday, I met Chris & Eric at the Armory to break the shrink on Eric's brand new copy of Discoveries. This was very much a learning game as we all shared the rulebook to figure out what we were doing. I honestly thought I was going to take it, but, in the end, Chris's journal was just too valuable for me to beat him. The game was nicely thinky for a "dice game" & offered plenty of options for each turn; add to that the gorgeous artwork and great components & it's an incredible game for the price ($32 at our FLGS), making it hard to resist picking up my own copy. Especially when the one big thing I took away from the experience was that I cannot wait to play it again

Chris then pulled out Jarl and taught me this incredibly tense two-player abstract that is, in essence, a re-imagining of The Duke. I hadn't played its predecessor but it was fairly quick to pick up, though I bet mastering it would take a long time. The chunky Bakelite tiles are extremely satisfying to move around & pile up when captured - though the marbled colouration does make it tricky to spot the command iconography in particular. I really enjoyed the game but did last for a long time before Chris was able to trap me for the win.

To end the night, we pulled out an old favourite - The Castles of Burgundy. I needed a quick refresher as it's been embarrassingly long since I had played, but we got going quickly and the game sped along with three experienced players. I can't explain why I don't play this gem more; I always love the game but them it gets passed over for something shinier or newer every time I go to my shelves. Maybe I'll make an insert for it next after I finally finish the Eldritch Horror case, in the hope that pimping it out rejuvenates my interest in the game.

Saturday
On Saturday afternoon I headed to my other FLGS, Atomic Empire, to meet Daniel for a beer & some two-player gaming while our spouses were busy with mundane things like work & adult responsibilities.

I started off teaching him Tides of Time from Portal games. my husband & I have really been enjoying this gorgeous 2-player drafting game and I was glad to see Daniel enjoy it also, even if he did beat me. We did spend a fair amount of time ogling the art & graphic design while pondering what else Portal might use it for, as it seems far too valuable a resource for a single 18-card title. I for one, would be curious to play future titles placed within the same world should they choose to do so.

Next up, Daniel introduced me to Pixel Tactics, and thoroughly destroyed me in the first game. Having seen how things shook out though, I was better prepared for a second bout & was able to use my Summoner's leader ability to thoroughly rout his Witch in the rematch. It's a cute little game with very clear card layout & iconography but I found myself wanting a little more to it component-wise. Varied status tokens to mark heroes buffed by other heroes would go a long way in helping a player better tell what was going on in both their own & their opponents units. Maybe the later decks add more to it, but while it was fun, I don't have any pressing desire to search this one out.

To continue the dueling feel, we then pulled out The Duke which I was really excited to learn given that I'd played Jarl just the night before; I ended up winning twice in a row which shocked the hell out of me. It's definitely a significantly faster game than Jarl, and the tiles all seemed much simpler, though we didn't play with any expansion pieces which I've heard do move up in complexity compared to the base set. Unfortunately this meant that when I pulled a new tile out of the bag, it didn't lead to the same "oh wow" reaction that I'd gotten when discovering Jarl tiles but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. It's a very different feel, though I would be curious to play Duke vs. Jarl and see what happened - my gut says the Jarl player would have way more flexibility and options, but maybe the simplicity of the Duke's pieces would win out. Both are beautiful games on the table, both have nice satisfying components and both would be games I'd buy if I could justify 2-player abstracts, but right now I just can't see them getting played at home.

Moving to something with a little less direct conflict, we set up Jaipur, one of my favourite 2-player games where I was able to win 2 out of 3 rounds to take the win, thanks to some judicious hoarding of camels & precious metals. Sticking to the desert we then finished up our impromptu game day with Targi, a game I keep meaning to buy. I seemed to spend the entire game placing in the one spot guaranteed to hurt Daniel's plans the most (sorry mate) and so thought I had it in the bag. In the end, however, he clawed his way back & it went to the tiebreaker, as we both finished the game with 33 points! I was the only one who ended with leftover gold (a single piece) and that was enough to give me the win, but it was a close call.

Weekends like this are why I've found Twitter to be an amazing resource for gaming - both days came about because of friends tweeting to gauge interest in some last-minute gaming. Hopefully local gamers will keep doing so, because if I'm not at work, I'm all for grabbing a bag of games & jumping in the car.

Games Played: Discoveries, Jarl, The Castles of Burgundy, Tides of Time, Pixel Tactics (x2), The Duke (x2), Jaipur, Targi
New-to-me Games: Discoveries, Jarl, Pixel Tactics, The Duke