An extended meeting of the local game group on a bank holiday afternoon.
We opened with Flip
7, played at
Airecon and bought soon afterwards. It's very random, but I won, so
obviously I am great at it. One visual note: since everyone needs to
know who's still in a round, it's probably a good idea to turn you
cards face down when you leave the round for whatever reason (bust,
freeze, pass).
Then a longer game, Steampunk Rally Fusion: Atomic
Edition.
I'm very much enjoying rediscovering this; combining the two editions
of the game, but with a curated card set as I've mentioned before.
This time I played as Lise Meitner (from the original game), though I
ended up using her power to gain extra cogs much more than to eject
red dice. This time all the timing worked out perfectly, including
shedding the vast majority of my machine as I crossed the finish line
but still having enough movement powers to move a little in the final
round. (Won.)
Another beneficiary of my plan to bring back games I haven't played
for a while: Hex
Hex (my copy is
combined with Hex Hex Next, since I bought them before the combined
edition Hex Hex XL came out). It's not a smart or subtle game; it's
not really a party game, either, because while individual rules aren't
desperately complicated they often interact in unexpected ways. (E.g.
"you must stack your cards in order and play the top one each time you
get a Hex" combined with "draw a new card"—which we interpreted as
"you can insert that card into your stack anywhere you like".) It's
all very take-that, which is another reason not to play it all the
time. But just once in a while, with the right people. (Last place.)
A rather more streamlined party game,
Landmarks, the
first time I'd played in team mode. And it went very well! Replacing
the traps and water constraint with pressure from the other team ended
up being much more to my taste, though of course I'll still play the
one-versus-many version. We failed to win by one move.
Finally Skull
Queen, played
at Airecon and in fact with the same copy, since donated by its former
owner (thanks!). This is a tricky one for people to get their heads
round (and I'm fairly sure we were playing it incorrectly), but I
found it great fun even as I fell into last place.
