In my prior post – 7 Days, 67 Games, Infinite Fun – I shared my opinions on the first half of my experience at a weeklong game convention this spring.  Today, I’m back to report on the second half, including prototypes from Friedemann Friese and Tom Lehmann, as well as old favorites like Imperial and Dominant Species, plus new upcoming games like Knizia’s Rebirth.  We left off with the incomparable Stephensons Rocket at the end of Day 3, and we’ll pick back up with the exciting Roll and Write for the Galaxy.

Day 4 – Oathsworn

I started off the day learning a Roll and Write for the Galaxy prototype from Tom Lehmann, who said that I could mention the in-progress game here.  I’m not sure how widely known the concept is, but I had not heard of it before.  I love Roll for the Galaxy, having played it 68 times, so I’m the target market for a new Roll and Write for the Galaxy.  This prototype did not disappoint, even though I had the same difficulty obtaining reassign powers as I do in the original.  I was impressed with how familiar yet different the game felt, so I’m definitely looking forward to picking this one up when it comes out.

I don’t bring a lot of games with me to conventions like this, but I do bring Oath.  I was eager to set it up in a high-traffic area and woo people into giving it a shot.  Oath definitely seems a lot more divisive than Root, which is reasonable because it’s so incredibly different from Root (and I think a lot of people expect a similar game given the same designer/publisher and similar artwork).  Oath actually feels a lot more like Pax Pamir to me as you build a small tableau of cards to control your actions and fate.  There is admittedly not that much control though.  I always warn people that you will most enjoy Oath if you’re okay congratulating an opponent on an epic reversal due to a powerful card revealed after almost 2 hours of play (not entirely unlike Innovation in fact).  Oath also has a highly variable game length (anywhere from 40 minutes up to over 2 hours), but the game creates such a lush and memorable narrative that it feels almost like a lite Dungeons & Dragons in a box.  I was thrilled to spend most of Day 4 playing back-to-back-to-back games of Oath.  This game really excels when you play it several times in a row and this made for a phenomenal afternoon!

Three straight games of Oath can definitely melt your brain a bit, so I followed it up by returning to Captain Flip, which I had played earlier in the week.  I still enjoyed Captain Flip very much, but I’m not so sure it needs space on the shelf after all.  After Captain Flip, the stars aligned for me to finally try Akropolis, which had been on my want-to-try list for years.  I’m a big fan of Java and Antics (plus I enjoyed Taluva), so the three-dimensional hexagonal tile building was very appealing in Akropolis.  I wanted to love Akropolis, but I ended up rating it a 7, which is definitely better than my 5-6 average, but not quite an 8 out of 10, which are the games I want to own.  I’m not convinced that Akropolis has the staying power of Java or Antics, and I’m not sure the scoring conditions for the various colors are at all comparable.  I’d be happy to play a friend’s copy of Akropolis though to explore it further.

I closed out the day with quick plays of the trick-taking game Of What’s Left and the absurd dexterity game Blocky Mountains, followed by an absurdly silly prototype brought by Taylor of Taylor’s Trick-Taking and a fascinating Matt Leacock prototype called Flickering Stars.  I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Flickering Stars later this year!

Day 5 – Celtic Crash and Space Search

I had the opportunity to start off Day 5 with the one game I brought that I had never actually played: Inis.  I picked up Inis a few years ago after seeing the Shut Up & Sit Down review, but I’d never managed to get it to the table.  I was thrilled to get to rectify that by playing Inis with two other players, and even more thrilled when they agreed to play it a second time in a row right afterwards.  I almost always want to play games, especially new-to-me games, a second time to help solidify the rules in my mind and to further explore the variety that the game has to offer.  I really enjoyed Inis, but I think it will only shine with players open to games with fairly direct conflict, and I could see it getting better with more play for sure.  I hope to find the right context to play it more in the year to come!

Next up were two card games: Holly Oak and Stroop.  Holly Oak is a Tom Lehmann trick-taking game from 2023 that revolves around the four seasons that was intriguing.  Stroop reminded me a lot of the old speed pattern recognition game Set, especially because I was mostly watching the other players given my slow processing speed for comprehending the Stroop cards.

The afternoon began with another Roberta Taylor game – Cafe Baras, which I think is releasing this summer.  I had tried Maple Valley earlier in the week, and Creature Comforts last year, but Cafe Baras is definitely my favorite of Roberta’s designs to date.  Cafe Baras is a tableau-building card game where you are taking menu items, decor, or customer orders from a face-up display to build out your cafe to serve the eponymous capybaras.  It was not only adorable, but also the right level of brain burning and combo-riffic to be my cup of tea.  After enjoying Cafe Baras, I had the chance to playtest my upcoming tile-laying game and got some great feedback to incorporate.

The evening began with repeat plays of many games that I had tried earlier in the week.  I love to play games a second or third time to better determine if they’re for me or not.  I played SETI for a second time, followed by Captain Flip for a third time, followed by Taylor’s prototype for a second time, Blocky Mountains for a second time, and Akropolis for a second time.  I confirmed my reservations about SETI that I shared in my prior convention post, and I

think I settled on not purchasing Captain Flip or Akropolis, but I may need to track down a copy of the very out-of-print 2014 dexterity game Blocky Mountains to join games like Men at Work and Bausack on my shelf, which seems like it will be a real challenge.

I closed out the night by learning two new light games – Silver & Gold: Pyramids and Seaside.  I enjoyed both, but Silver & Gold: Pyramids does seem very similar to the original (which I enjoy very much after 18 plays), so I’m not sure I need to pick it up, and Seaside is one I’m on the fence about buying, but I did enjoy the light gameplay, quick decisions, and aesthetics of the design so it’s certainly tempting!

Day 6 – More Fishing and the Worst Game of the Week

I was thrilled to start off Day 6 with another play of Friedemann Friese’s upcoming deck-building trick-taking card game Fishing, which was my personal “game of the con.”  As I wrote in the first-half piece, Fishing worked so well as a deck-building game and as a trick-taking game, and it was even more fun the second time!  Afterwards, I got to learn a Friese prototype that was earlier in the pipeline, but the sheer number of ideas that Friese has are really stunning.

Next up was a truly joyful three-player game of Dominant Species, which is one of my few 10 out of 10 games.  I’ve had the pleasure of playing Dominant Species 24 times since learning it at BGG.CON way back in 2010, and I expect it to be a favorite for decades to come.  The combination of worker placement and area control, combined with the ebb and flow of elements on the board, makes for a perfect game in my opinion.  Of course, I was saddened when this was voted as the most overrated strategy game by the collective Opinionated Gamers back in 2021, but that just made the contrarian in me enjoy this play even more!  As a three-player game in which I remove a couple of cards (generally Catastrophe and Immigrants, sometimes Parasitism and Intelligence), this is a relatively fast-playing game that has incredible depth and interactivity.

I moved from one of the best board games ever to one of the actual worst board games ever.  After browsing the shelves for a bit, I pulled off Dorf Romantik: The Duel to try with a friend.  Given that the original game had won the Spiel des Jahres, and I have previously enjoyed “duel” sequels (like 7 Wonders: The Duel), I figured this might be a great game for me.  Wow, I was so wrong!  This game was a truly abysmal experience that is perfectly summarized by the comments from Shawn Fischtein on BoardGameGeek.  As Shawn said so accurately and eloquently: “Player one flips open a tile randomly, player two then has to search through about 80 all similarly looking tiles with no number reference to find the same one, then both players play the exact same game side by side but no table ever made in humanity is big enough for both players to play in the same time zone.  By the time you’re done hunting and pecking out your 30th tile you realize you’re just playing Dorf and the game would feel more fun playing solo because of how much faster it is and if you’re the unlucky one hunting the tiles down, you look down at your watch and realize you’re 220 minutes into your first game and your butt is numb … This is a game that should have never been made, it’s an insult to the franchise.”

After this confounding and maddening experience with Dorf Romantik: The Duel, we decided to try the original Dorf Romantik to see if it was as awful, and thankfully it was a much better mediocre game, so at least there’s that.

I closed out the night by learning a couple light prototype party games, teaching some folks the not-quite-so-good Spots, and learning the nearly impenetrable Stationfall.  The cover art for Stationfall is awesome!  The game inside the box was less awesome.  It feels like a game that accreted ideas over years of casual play among a friend group that added dozens of ancillary ideas gradually over time.  I’m sure Stationfall is a blast for that group, and perhaps for any group that really wants to immerse itself in an immense Battlestar Galactica style game without the BSG theme, but I’ll stick with Paranoia at its Finest.

Day 7 – Wrapping Up with a Mixed Bag

I started off the last day of the convention with a bang, specifically with Mac Gerdts’ truly special 2006 release Imperial.  This was only my 29th play of this real masterpiece, and my first play in several years, but it was an absolute joy.  I think that Dominant Species and Imperial were easily my two favorite games of the week.  My favorite new-to-me games were definitely Fishing and Ravnica: Clue Edition.

I’ve tried and rated 2,051 different games and expansions over the past 19 years.  I have given a 10 out of 10 rating to less than 1% of those games, specifically to 20 games, and Imperial is easily one of those 10 out of 10 games for me.  This game is pure four-player perfection for me.  The rondel mechanism makes for lightning fast turns and almost no downtime in a complex game that weaves together tense player interaction, exciting negotiations, and a wide decision space for clever moves.  I cannot imagine ever tiring of Imperial.

Next up was learning the upcoming Knizia game Rebirth from the co-founder of the publisher Mighty Boards, David Chircop who came all the way from Malta to the convention in New York.  If you ever have a chance to play a game with David at a convention, then take it.  He was a real joy to meet and game with.  The best part might have been introducing him to the “Eww, David” meme from Schitt’s Creek whenever he made a move in the game that blocked somewhere we wanted to go or otherwise interfered with our plans.  Regardless, the claim was a blast, so much so that we played it twice in a row, and I’ve backed the game on the current Kickstarter campaign.  The gameplay reminds me a fair bit of Knizia’s 1998 game Samurai, but with some modern additions that make for a fundamentally different game.  I’m looking forward to playing more Rebirth, especially on what looks to be a truly gorgeous production coming hopefully later this year.

After teaching my tile-laying prototype to another group and incorporating some additional playtest feedback, I had the chance to learn three new games: It’s a Wonderful World, Vale of Eternity, and Blood on the Clocktower.  I think it’s safe to say that all of them get an Opinionated Gamers “not for me” rating (although I’d be happy to play Blood on the Clocktower again with a fun group).  It’s a Wonderful World reminded me of the cube-churning misery of Uwe Rosenberg’s Merkator from 2010 and Dirk Henn’s Colonia from 2009, so if you’re a fan of either of those games then check out It’s a Wonderful World so you can turn more cubes into other cubes for no discernible reason.  Vale of Eternity was a lovely card game that is a 4 out of 10 for me because of the seemingly out-of-place take-that aggression cards that did not feel like they fit the gameplay at all.  Blood on the Clocktower was extremely similar to Werewolf, despite all the fans of both games proclaiming that they are very different.  I just don’t see it.  Blood on the Clocktower is essentially a version of Werewolf with slightly different rules and roles.  That’s fine.  Werewolf is a perfectly enjoyable game (albeit not as fun as The Resistance or Coup or One Night Ultimate Werewolf), and Blood on the Clocktower is a little bit more involved.

I closed out a great week with two games of Avalon and one game of a clever early draft of a trick-taking prototype by fellow Opinionated Gamer Jim Brown.  I hope that Jim keeps working on the game and I get to play it again next year!

What a week!  After 7 days and 67 games, it was time to return home to “real life” with a boat load of memories and a bolstered list of games to add to my collection, plus some exciting movement on my tile-laying prototype that I hope to share here in the coming months.