Games played: Week 9

The week was a combination of multiple solo plays and a game night featuring the big and complex new boardgame On Mars designed by Vital Lacerda.

On Mars

# of plays: 1

Let’s begin with On Mars. It was my first time playing the game, finishing in second place in a four player game. The game is designed for 1 to 4 players, and with two newbies it took a pretty hefty 3.5 hours to play. It is has a complexity rating as high as 4.61/5 over at Boardgamegeek, but to be honest it isn’t that complex and difficult. One big bonus is that even with a “bad start” and we the newbies not having that a clear strategy, we both managed 100+ scores and finishing in the middle of the field. This is in large part as the game is well balanced with multiple ways of scoring points. While things as blue prints and tech tiles are limited, when purchased the other players still can utilize the new features so you are never really “shut out” of the game. I’ll probably do another post with some more first impressions of the game. While I don’t own it myself, it will hopefully see more play during these next weeks/months.

The Quacks of Quedlingburg

# of plays: 1

This is a highly rated family game (as high as #8 on the Family list at boardgamegeek), and unlike I usually play – has pretty high luck factor. This is because the core mechanic is drawing ingredients from your own personal bag to make the best mixture. The game is played over 9 rounds, first drawing ingredients either until you decide to stop or have the mixture “blow up” (netting you either points or money, both if you stop before the explosion). Between rounds you use our income to buy new ingredients to add to your bag, and these adds new abilities you can use when the ingredient is pulled. While luck is decidingly is a factor, the types of ingredients you buy and how much you push our luck is important enough to keep the game fresh. This was only the second time I played it, but I came up in clear first (basically making sure to seldom blowing the mixture up and having to decide for either new ingredients or vp).

Trails of Tucana

# of plays: 10

The rest of the week I managed to get in a total of 10 solo plays of this fun and quick draw-and-write game by the Norwegian designers Svensson and Østby and Aporta Games. Quick to play and demanding very little space, it is the kind of game you can play a few rounds of while chilling in the sofa or before bed.