Alphabet St. #1

Our Dutch and Belgian solo players Facebookgroup always hosts a challenge during the summer months. Until this year I couldn't join (I used to organise them), but this year I could. So I did. As I love love love board game challenges. I think it's because going for the goal of a challenge is some kind of game in itself, that you can either win or lose. So while playing board games I am playing another game on a meta level. What can I say, I like to play. 😁 Another reason is that I just love planning activities - even more than doing them, probably!

This summer we're doing an alphabet challenge, and there are several levels to compete in – after a week I decided to play 26 games (one starting with each letter of the alphabet) in alphabetical order. And started over.

---

A

First up was Aqua ROVE. It is one of the games I backed this year and we got the print & play files in July. (It’s also available on PNP Arcade). Not that many cards, so I set myself to work the same day and played it.

I’ve heard a lot about its predecessor ROVE, but it's new to me, so I was very curious. My first impression is that it's a nice puzzle to play once in a while. And it’s cool that at the end of the game the illustrations on the cards depict the adventure you were on. It will take a few more plays to see how much I really like it though.

---

B

For "B" I played The Brambles. Some time ago I managed to buy this game second hand. Which was fortunate as it is very expensive to have stuff sent from The Game Crafter to Europe. And 80 cards plus 20 tiles is too much for me to craft at the moment. Anyway, I never got it to the table, alphabet challenge to the rescue.

The game supposedly has a “theme”: you try to free children from the brambles by defeating evil spirits. But it's all very abstract. Recommended for folks that enjoy playing Onirim though (which I do, so yay).  And for those that love looking at old illustrations (which I also do).

By the way, I recommend you check out Athena’s posts on The Brambles, they're really good:

• A Deck of Curiosities (gameplay)

• A Pictorial Guide to John Burton's The Brambles (artwork)

---

C

It had been three years that I last played Caverna: Cave vs Cave so I first had to refresh the rules. I saw that in the past I managed to win about one in four games, but I didn’t stand a chance this time. But I enjoyed it, it's way better than I remembered. And a solo session doesn’t take to long either (or maybe that was the problem, that I should have taken a bit longer to think of a strategy 🤔).

I’ve played Cave vs Cave exactly 40 times solo now, and it turned out this was also the 40th game that I’d played 40 times solo. Great! I'd bumped up my H-index accidentally. Which got me thinking... It'll be 60 weeks before I’m going to turn 60... How many games would it take to bring that H-thing to 60?

Now, that would be a challenge!

---

D

Later in July I borrowed Dune: Imperium – Uprising, so I could teach the game to its owner. I've got the previous one so I only had to focus on the new things Uprising brings. New cards and action spaces, sandworms you can ride into battle, spies to open up spaces for your workers or for drawing more cards to your hand. Great stuff – all improvements, really. And the AI is still simple to manage.

I lost, but it was very exciting!

I am really glad I could try this one. I probably am not going to buy it (knock on wood) as I’ve got all expansions for Dune: Imperium and I don’t really want another base game. But it sure made me want to play my older game again.

---

E

Well, it took 2,5 years, but I finally got Era - Medieval Age of the Shelf of Shame. 🥳 It’s a roll and, ehm, click? You click mini buildings on a grid to build your medieval town. Because of a misunderstanding with the seller I own the French edition, and I can’t read French, so I hope I played as intended. I did find an English rulebook online, but unfortunately it was missing the appendix that explains some important stuff.

I own both predecessors (Roll through the Ages: The Bronze Age and The Iron Age), but those games are way more abstract. The buildings in Era make it a lot more fun.

Now I just have to learn French… 😰

---

Other games I played:

Astroforce: The Dice Game – well I just wrote about that (Münchhausen in Space). I also got Deep Space D-6 to the table, to compare. And even though it is very luck based, I did enjoy it. But Astroforce is my favourite.

Chili Dice (new to me): Yahtzee with some twists, but not enough to replace it for me. Perhaps if I play it more (?). All dice have one side with a red number on it. You can change that one to the opposite number, or you can go for combinations with one or more red dice. They have a different effect on each combination and unfortunately there is no hint about what it is on the score sheet. So you’re consulting the rulebook after each roll until you’ve managed to memorise them. Too much work for such a simple game. Though I should probably make my own score sheets.

Desolate (not played in three years). Great to revisit this one. I do play with both “dark matters” mixed in, and then it’s a very good push your luck game. I must have written about this one before. Ah, there it is:

• Stranded at the Moonbase

Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write (new to me). A friend gifted this to me as she needed space on her shelves and she knew how much I enjoy dice games. It’s a roll & write and first impressions are very good.

You build your dinosaur park to get victory points for animals, specialists, buildings, tours and some personal goals. I got very low scores so I think I should take more risks. You probably just have to let your dinos eat some visitors after the tours. They’ve already payed and it doesn’t make your park that much less popular. It’s also possible I am at a disadvantage knowing nothing of the lore, having never seen Jurassic Park. 🦖