All right, not actually in the garden now that it's a bit nippy, but
in a well-ventilated room with masks…
I'd asked about Spirit
Island,
because I didn't get into it when it was shiny and new, and enough
people whose opinions I respect rave about it that I thought I really
should give it a try.
And they were right. We played a hybrid of core game and expansion
content (not wanting to separate the expansion cards), and towards the
end I felt things getting away from me a little, but I got a good
sense of this starting with the bones of something like Flash Point
(or, if you must, Pandemic) and building something really intricate
on top. Definitely up for playing this again, though it's a pity about
the length (about two hours for this three-player game, though some of
that will have been delay from my learning the rules).
On to something a bit shorter, and frankly athematic as far as I was
concerned:
Sumeria, a very
dry design from 2009. There's area majority, there's set collection,
there's card manipulation, and while it's not at all my sort of thing
I did find it enjoyable – but I'd have preferred the board in stark
black and white with lots of hexagons…
Next, Lemminge,
and I don't think I've met anyone who dislikes this yet. It's quick
and light and easy to teach, but there's a remarkable complexity of
game from these very simple rules.
Cosmic Frog,
a gorgeous production of a game I could never see myself buying
because (like Cosmic Encounter, which I owned and sold) I wouldn't
get it out often enough… but it was great fun to play. Rather more
explicitly confrontational than most modern games but sometimes that's
what one wants.
And finally
Ominoes, another
game that perhaps isn't a masterpiece but is quick and
straightforward, with interesting subtleties of strategy if one wants
to develop them.
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