RogerBW's Blog

Marlow Tabletop and Board Games 6 August 2018 13 August 2018

This Meetup-based boardgames group continues to meet at the Marlow Donkey.

The heat was still on, and only four of us made it. Since we arrived in waves, I started with Onitama, which just seems to fit very well with the way I like to play games. One day I may even get to play it when I'm not chronically overheated.

The four of us went on with The Grizzled, which feels a bit too abstract for a game about a theme that interests me; in a game about the Great War I want to do representations of actual Great-War-ish things, not just play cards until I run out.

We ended the evening with Homeland, first play for one of us – and he got the terrorist, which is perhaps unfortunate. He played well in the guise of an opportunist, and I'm not quite sure just what it was that gave him away; perhaps he played too much as an opportunist? In any case, we just barely pulled out a win, and I (a loyal agent, of course) ended up with a personal record of 38 points – having got lucky on picking threats that were rewarding to me but still ones we all had to resolve, getting time to spend Rep tokens (from successful plots) on buying allies, and having some decent intelligence cards to trade in.

This isn't a game that gets talked about much, but it's very rapidly become one of my favourites; it's just the right blend of slightly advanced social deduction gameplay with a mission structure and a set of restrictions that are carefully designed to engender distrust.

[Buy Onitama at Amazon] [Buy The Grizzled at Amazon] [Buy Homeland at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

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