Scot Martin

Boardgames for November. Includes BGG con as well our switch from Frosthaven into Oathsworn. I guess my Betrayal Legacy group missed the whole month too? Wow. We need to finish that up before we move to Flash Point: Legacy of Flame. #boardgames #bgstats #bgstatsapp

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Thoughts on other games played:
1. Luthier was a lot of fun, but behind Speakeasy for me in the new games
2. Only my second play for Gallerist and enjoyed it more this time than the first.
3. Clocktower continues to push out Werewolf for my social deduction gaming. I love it.

And of course the BGG puzzle hunt is always a favorite of mine. The puzzles this year were themed as a haunted diner cursed by a pair of twin girls who weren’t served their chicken strips on time. Solved the puzzles to break the curse and finished in the top 10 teams!

Had a booth at the bazaar where I brought a game or two to sell. Was happy with how it all ended up as I moved several games that needed to be cleared out to give me back my shelf space. And got a little money for them at the same time.

Got SETI down with the new expansion and went pretty crazy with the below corporation. Opponents worry it may be unbalanced, but too early to say with one playthrough. I think I mostly just had a lucky game and some good plays. Played with two of the new aliens and they were great. #seti

Speakeasy is the new game standout for me. I really enjoyed this lengthy game. I loved that one player took a different route to winning than just producing alcohol and was staying competitive. Multiple paths to victory are huge for a game. #speakeasy

Thoroughly enjoying the Wyrmspan expansion. New guilds add variety, eclectically as (generally) they are not as powerful as the originals. New income phase tightens the game up and gives some incentive to pass early. Fledglings are fine, but not revolutionary. #wyrmspan (2/x)

Been slacking on posting here later, but I blame the Blue Prince video game for that. I did however make it to BGG con this past weekend and here’s all I played courtesy of #bgstats #boardgames #bggcon
(1/x)

In theory the pirate should slow it down, but buying swords to get past them wasn’t tough and starting resources/rewards as opposed to 2 of each resouce felt like a lot. Extra building board also let players grab needed stuff instead of just improving the mancala wheel. Need to try again I think.

Played Ostia at game day with all the expansions. I’d played the base game before, but this is the first time I’d tried Pirates and the other expansions. The base game is still great… but not sure about expansions. Felt like it was sped up with drafting starting resources. #boardgames #ostia

The boardgame SETI nearing the end of the game.

Got SETI back to the table at game day. This has ended up being the top game out of 2024 for me. The tight economy takes adjusting to, but once you do it’s a great mix of strategy and flavor. Plus “big stack of cards” remains one of my favorite game mechanics. #boardgames #seti

In August, we sat down on a Saturday and played a 3 player game. Everybody kept saying “We could get the epic end, but I want to do this one more thing…”
We ended up playing 8 hours… that burnt us out on it a little, but would like to get back to it again at some point.

Boardgames in September. Dune takes the lead as three of us are constantly playing via the app. Space Base, Ticket to Ride, Azul and Spades come via BGA with a more casual group. Betrayal and Frosthaven campaigns continue, the latter nearly complete. Good month of gaming! #boardgames #bgstats

Played Wyrmspan with the new Dragon Academy expansion. Wasn’t sure about fledglings, but ended up enjoying the play patterns. End round income choices are a great addition. Downside: caves usually had some benefit, but new caves felt more likely to have useless caves in hand. #boardgames #wyrmspan

Played Underwater Cities at game day this week. I think I played this once at BGG 7(?) years ago, but hadn’t ever gotten back to it. Definitely a real gem and was happy to relearn it. Solid worker placement with a bit of tableau building. #boardgames #underwatercities

For Frosthaven we finally stopped sidequestimg long enough to return to the main quest. One more to go there! We’ve unlocked everything at this point, so we’re just playing out the string. Excited to see how it all ends up as it’s been a long journey with this one!

This is my second run through Betrayal Legacy. 6th scenario was my first death of the game and also the first time the “good guys” didn’t win. All traitor losses (or group win with no traitor). It was a fun scenario though, down to the wire where a 7+ on 6 dice would have won it! Close one!

Legacy games continued this week with the 6th scenario in Betrayal Legacy and the second to last scenario in the main quest line for Frosthaven. (Warning picture of Frosthaven in 2nd comment below that contains mini spoilers if you zoom in) (1/x) #boardgames #betrayallegacy #frosthaven

Learned Fromage over the weekend at game day. A fun, quick worker placement game with a rotating board. Loved how it visually shows you when your workers will return. Feels like playing 4 mini games all at once. Really enjoyed it! #boardgames #fromage

Got a request to teach Emberleaf for game day and had another good game. The new players really enjoyed it and I think the game is going to see some staying power at the table! #boardgames #emberleaf

Viticulture main board

Viticulture player board

Wyrmspan player board

Wyrmspan game, center area and multiple boards

Got in some good gaming this week with Viticulture and Wyrmspan. Both classic games that I was happy to revisit. #boardgames #wyrmspan #viticulture

Finally Spirit Island is one of favorites and my brother and I play whenever he is in town. We “warmed up” with a difficulty 2 setup, and I’m glad we did! The events abused us, constantly thwarting plans and failing to help us. We squeaked by with a fear win on a blighted island (3/3) #spiritisland

Twilight Inscription was new to me and I enjoyed it. Only played Twilight Imperium once, so had more of a learning curve. However I enjoyed gathering resources and points across the different sheets. Warfare wasn’t my favorite, but adjusted and got 2nd of 8 players. 2/x #twilightinscription

Weekend games included Vantage (not pictured), Twilight Inscription and Spirit Island.
Vantage continues to entertain as it took up a large chunk of Saturday. We completed the mission and had destinies, but players kept wanting “1 more turn”. 3 plays in and still loving it. 1/x #boardgames #vantage

Got Vantage back to the table on Wednesday night before GenCon. Was happy to see that the second game felt completely different than the first with new discoveries and puzzles. Nice pace at 3 players too. Excited to keep exploring it! #boardgames #vantage

Tried Endeavor: Deep Sea for the first time this week at game day. Great game! Mechanical options were solid and the idea of different scenarios to change up gameplay is great. I’d been meaning to try this one for a while and glad i did. Already looking forward to game 2 #boardgames #endeavordeepsea

We were at the 4 hour mark. There were some slow downs as it was a first time play and we stopped to look for rules answers here and there. I believe that “natural conclusion” will roll around faster in future plays (but that may not help you for your first time play)

A mechanic kicked in that brought the game to a natural conclusion. It’s a very well made game and does feel like you’re all in a very large choose your own adventure book. I’m excited to delve back in again and maybe give the missions/destinies a little more focus! (3/3)

Checking out the planet. One player started a collection, another went spelunking… we just kind of did what we wanted, and it was fun! We managed our resources well enough that no one hit 0, but didn’t stress over it. About as the game felt like it was dragging though (2/3)