I’ve had the pleasure of playing a variety of games over the past two months so I thought I’d combine a few thoughts here into a collection of mini-reviews.  I’m splitting the games into three buckets: new-to-me, old favorites, and kids gaming.  As usual, I have a few games that I heartily recommend and a few that I’d rather never play again.  Here’s some quick thoughts on some recent games played.

New-to-Me

• Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Collector’s Edition – This game is beautiful and extravagant, and the gameplay really hits the sweet spot for me.  I enjoy the varied castles that everyone builds, and I enjoy the challenge of pricing the rooms well.  The component quality is phenomenal, and the variety of included expansions is really nice.  I wish the gameplay was more compelling with just two players, but with 3-4 people, it’s a keeper for sure.

• Everdell – I had been wanting to try Everdell for the last couple years, given how highly it is ranked and how beautiful the artwork is.  I finally caved and bought a copy since I hadn’t happened upon a friend with a copy, and I played it 4 times in the past month.  I disliked the experience more than just about any game in recent memory.  I kept trying it to be really sure, but it’s just incredibly extraordinarily not for me!  The extreme randomness of whether you get free building-to-critter chains and whether you complete special event pairs was maddening.  There are so many better worker placement, resource collection games that I cannot imagine wanting to play this ever again.

• Stella – I adore Stella.  I’ve always liked Dixit, and I think that Stella might be even better, especially for groups that are not creatively inclined to coming up with their own Dixit clues.  The ease of entry for Stella is superb.  I think this will be a perfect Thanksgiving family game.  The post-round discussion and debate of how could no one have selected X card or why on Earth someone selected Y card is a joy.  I’m so glad that I finally picked up a copy of Stella on a whim.

Triggs

• Designer: Karin Hetline
• Publisher: NSV
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by NSV

The subtitle of the game is: “The Game of Extra Turns!”  In Triggs, each player gets their own scoresheet;  the numbers 1-12 appear on the sheet 2-5 times, and you want to cross them all off first in order to win.  There is a deck of 108 cards, with 9 each of ranks 1 to 12.  Each player gets dealt a hand of 5 cards to start the game.  The remainder of the cards is split into 3 decks; one is placed face down in the center of the table, and one face up deck is placed on either side.  Make sure that only the topmost card is visible on the two face up decks.  The rules ask you to make sure the center deck has more cards then the outside decks.

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Echoes: The Microchip

• Designers: Matthew Dunstan, Dave Neale
• Publisher: Ravensburger
• Players: 1-6
• Age: 14+
• TIme: 1 hour
• Times played: 1 with review copy provided by Ravensburger NA
• Amazon affiliate link – https://amzn.to/3Dpv46h

Echoes is a growing franchise of puzzle games by Ravensburger.  They remind me a lot of the Adventure game series from Kosmos (also designed by Matthew Dunstan).  For both, I am not sure if I classify them as games, they feel more like interactive fiction to me – but in the end, they are games on BGG, and I enjoy both of them regardless of which classification box they get smushed into….

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Fancy Feathers

• Designer: Friedemann Friese
• Players: 2 per box
• Age: 8+
• Time: 15 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by 2F

In Fancy Feathers, you are searching for the best collection of noble pheasants.  In each game, you will play with 6 animal types (there are 12 different types in the box) – using three copies of the card per player.  Each of the animal types (well, the term animal is a bit loose here, as you will also have to consider a mirror or a nest an animal…) If you have more than 2 players, you will need multiple copies of the game to have enough cards.  The deck of animal cards are shuffled, and the top 6 cards are discarded from the game.  Each player chooses a color, and takes the matching servant disc and card.  The discs are randomized into a stack, placed to the left of a 5 card path of face up animal cards.

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