Tuesday our group met. First we played some weird memory game about being an orchestra conductor which was really bad. Then we tried the 5th mission in Port Royal Big Box… twice… in vain. We ended the evening early because:

On Wednesday we met again to play DnD. My character had an emotional reunion with a lost family member and we encountered our first gelatinous monster.

On Friday there was a public game night in town which I attended. The group I landed with first played two rounds of Frantic - a domestic UNO alternative but for some of them it was too chaotic so we cut the game short. We then played Ricochet Robots and the ladies at the table completely trunced me out of the gate. But after about 4 rounds I got up to speed and managed to race ahead after all. From this we moved on to X-Code where we managed to win the 4 basic missions and the first mission of the blue box. At this point we believed that the evening would wind down soon so we snuck in a quick game of Shark Attacks - where I finally did not come in in last place! Only to then learn that the game night would go on a bit longer this time. So picked up Las Vegas as well. I hadn’t played so many different games in one setting in ages and really enjoyed it. The evening also served as a nice way to cap off the organizer’s 5 year run in hosting these game nights.

Glad to see Terraforming Mars getting some love…

The size can make it a bit intimidating but there’s literally something for everyone. There are kids games, family games, party games, advanced games, super heavy games, roleplaying games, wargames and probably some I’m forgetting now. There are toys, accessories, fan stuff, everything.

I went alone for many years, I’ve gone with my GF, I’ve gone with friends. Every experience is a bit different but I’ve never not had fun. The only negative thing I’ve ever experienced was some people hogging a table for a game I really wanted to try but most booths now are pretty good about queueing up.

One thing you have to understand though is that Essen is a fair not a convention. While you can play games, you won’t necessarily get to finish them. Some booths have time slots and will tell you to wrap it up when yours is over. And if you play with strangers some might only be looking to “get a taste” for it and then move on. But if you’re “stationed” in Essen for the night there are several hotspots where you can go to play properly.

we also got out at midnight to watch the Perseids. We’ve been doing this for a few years now and never seen such an intense shower. Like you said, we also saw some fat ribbons across the sky. Not a whole lot but very impressive one. We also had a lightning storm on the other side of the valley.

I never considered using normal binos to look for Andromeda. What magnification do you have?

Regular boardgame nights returned from summer hiatus. The full group assembled for 5 player coop Great Wall. The game has amazing table presence and pretty interesting mechanics but absolutely no balance.

• Some leaders are just vastly better than others (pay a chi to make one additional damage vs get a massive discount when you recruit.)
• Missions have massively different difficulty levels and some are nigh on impossible for 5 players.
• Events are just ridiculous. Their immediate effects are ok but their ongoing effects are just way too punishing. Still the basic gameplay loop is compelling and we’re probably gonna play this on occasion.

On the weekend my sister also hopped over for a visit and we played:

• Thanos Rising - I basically had one decent turn, the rest was all a wash and with only two players pulling we had no chance.
• Earth - First time for my sister but she quickly took to it. This was the first game where I dared to take one of those terrains that forbids you from taking a particular action (growth) and I got by quite decently. Getting another card on every plant action was well worth the tradeoff. With enough card draws, I could fuel a lot of compost actions and on top of it I got lucky and drew the terrain that gives VP based on composted cards. All in all I won with a commanding lead. But after initial confusion over the common scoring cards (fauna) it was nice to see that everyone ultimately got the hang of it and scored at least 3 of them.
• Würfel Ligretto - Early morning we decided to wake ourselves up with someting frantic. So frantic in fact that one of the dice tumbled off the table and somehow into the kitchen installation. But we were ultimately able to find and retrieve the bugger and complete the game.
• Moving on from that we played Shark Attacks - a push your luck game where I consistently have less luck than everyone else. At least this time I lost to my sister instead of my GF.
• Pharaon - We capped the visit off with this game that I had kind shelved for a while. GF wasn’t in the mood for something heavy and just watched leaving it at a 2p setup. I must say I vastly preferr this game with less players. While I apprciate that it does go to 5 players and works it just becomes soooo much thighter. Spots per player are 7.5, 5, 6.25, 5 (from 2 to 4 players) and more importantly with 5 you might not even have the opportunity to go in a particular sector if everyone else prioritizes it.

I can’t blame you. It literally took us pretty much weekly sessions for over a year to reach the final scenario. That’s a daunting comittment. I actually low key burned out on the game a few times during that period. But it always pulled me back in again.

I grew up with the Ravensburger box of classics so, board games were always a part of my childhood. They quickly captured my imagination and I began to draw roll and move boards, explaining to my mom what should happen on each space.

When I got older the whole family got into games and that turned into a nice sunday tradition.

Eventually I got sucked into BGG and never financially recovered…

The discovery texts in the book just broke up the pace so much. Spliting the party made the down time insufferable and the “combat/diplomacy” mechanic was horrible.

We’re a group of 5 so someone would had to sit out every time and after one play I told everyone I would be happy to be that person…

Yeah. It got recommended to me as an easier Tzolkin. Well, it IS easier but not anywhere near as interesting and every game feels sooo samey.

Hoping to borrow Ares Expedition from a friend soon. Played it once in Essen and wasn’t wowed. Gonna be tough beating TFM after that…

Had it not pulled a Wii

A good expression for the situation. Wingspan’s success is definitly to a large part because of it’s accessibility. Every problem you have (no cards, food, eggs) has an immediate, guaranteed and obvious solution. Everything you CAN do improves your position. And if you play on the blue side there is barely any direct competition in the game. There’s no way to shoot yourself in the foot. There is no requirement to plan ahead.

But it does have some potential to plan ahead, optimize and compete for those who want to.

It also doesn’t fall into any of the typical setting tropes like fantasy or sci-fi that might put some people off. It’s production values are pretty enough to catch some eyes.

There are better sober games and there are better drunk activities than Munchkin.

If you’re at a point where you’re having fun with Munchkin you’d be having fun without it as well…

After seeing what the scenarios with different win conditions looked like I am GLAD most were just “kill all monsters”.

As for session length we always played just a single scenario (unless we lost the first super quick). It took us a good year maybe one and a half to play through the campaign. IMO the problem is less the session length and just how much of a time hog this game is in general. We’re talking 150+ hours dedicated to a single game.

As a Swiss person I would like to apologize for that woman’s “English”.

Busses have their uses. Lots of commentor have mentioned the flexibility in setting up / changing routes. But there’s also the flexibility in sizes. You can start a line with a large van or small mini bus and your only overhead is the driver. From there you can scale that up according to demand up to frequently run articulated busses. Meanwhile your minimum investment for tram includes at the very least a not inexpensive track installation.

Don’t get me wrong. If you have the passenger volume that investment definitely pays off. But I don’t like this unnecessary competition between two modes of transport that can be very complimentary to each other and are both better than individual cars.

Republicans are probably fully on board with these new charges. I hear they have quite the obsession with former white house residents deleting stuff that pertains to the government from private systems…

For his post is dark and full of errors.

Uhm. GoT isn’t exactly the first to use this expression…

An older more polluting car migth not be the better option. But if the new car is one of those giant murde boxes then it’s not going to be an upgrade either.

Exactly