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Board games
For the last two or three months we have been playing board games regularly on the weekends. Game Fanatic started us playing an easier version of Gloomhaven. Some time ago we had tried the regular version, and it was okay, but we didn’t play for a long time and when we tried this version I had forgotten how to play. The good news is we played often enough to remember how to play for now. It’s been just The Scientist, Game Fanatic and me, but once we finish all the campaigns, the plan is for Lego Lover to join us for the regular version. The good thing about this game is you keep the same character and build it up over time. I guess for some this isn’t a good thing but for me it’s good to stick to what I know and keep playing it. Normally I choose a character that uses magic for these games but this time I chose a close-up fighting character and it’s been okay for me.
That said, we haven’t played in the last month due to other games and distractions. We finally tried out Takenoko for the first time and we all liked it well enough to play it again and again. Good things about this game are it is short, easy to learn and has some strategy involved. I’ve had the board game for a year or two, along with an expansion. We have yet to include the expansion but will likely try it soon. I also have the iOS version and have started practicing it so I can get get better at it.
The most recent game we played was a new version of Sentinels of the Multiverse. We played the older version years ago but hadn’t played it for years now. Game Fanatic bought the new edition recently and we learned it all over again. This is another game where you play a character type although it’s not like Gloomhaven where you build it up over several games. I found one that I really like and have stuck to it, but I will have to try others or get stuck in a rut. We played this before Game Fanatic’s birthday and on his birthday recently and it was enjoyed by all of us.
I like our new version of game playing where we are sticking to the same games over a period of time instead of trying something new each time. I found it anxiety-provoking to be challenged with something new almost every time and now I can relax and enjoy it more.
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Board games
For awhile we were playing games quite regularly but then they seemed to become a bit of a burden so we didn’t play very often even though they seemed to be collecting in the house. Games Fanatic has been buying then quite regularly, mostly through Kickstarter campaigns he funds. Anyway, we have started playing again and have tried a couple news ones lately.
Last weekend and this we played a game called Root, which was one of the Kickstarters that has been sitting around for a few months. It’s an interesting game because each player plays in a different way so it takes a while to get through how to play. We spent about three hours last weekend and I was just starting to get my head around what I was doing. So this weekend I played the same role and did better. But it still took longer than the playing time listed. There are expansions with more roles to play which we hope to get to eventually but we need to learn to play all four roles of the base game before we try that. Unfortunately Lego Lover got a bit bored waiting between turns (plus there were other issues that exacerbated the situation) so it’s not likely he will play with us the next time. We’ll have to change to three player rules, whatever that means. I’m hoping it goes well though.
There was another game we played recently called Five Minute Dungeon. The nice thing about it is the short game time. The five minutes isn’t really the length of the game but the rounds you play. We got through a few of those the one time we tried it and it was pretty good.
After we played Root for the first time we were looking through all the board games we have and it is apparent we need to weed out the collection. We have quite a few that have hardly ever been played and aren’t likely to get more play. Some of these are games that were/are popular but we just never got into them all that much. Some of these are old games that don’t interest us. We also have a few oldies to keep due to sentimental reasons, e.g. my first Monopoly game which is missing a couple of deeds and has an almost flattened box. Maybe once we clear out some games we will have more space and be able to organise the collection better.
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Happy 2014!
I have been missing in action for the past several weeks. I’m here but for some reason I’m at a loss of what to write quite a lot of the time.
We’re just getting through the last month of summer here and it’s been fairly mild for the last couple of weeks. Not to say we haven’t had some hot days but nothing extreme like has occurred in many of the eastern parts of the country and none of the nasty floods that have hit the north of our state. I wouldn’t mind, however, having a small share of the rain from the north. After such a wet late winter, it’s been almost completely dry here since the end of October, I think, perhaps a bit earlier.
January wasn’t a great month for us. The year started off well enough but there were a couple of things happening, family-wise, that left January a rather negative month. I can just hope the year improves from this point.
At the end of the month, our gym membership contracts will run out and we are cancelling our membership with the club. Not that we are unhappy there, but the Scientist reached his goal months ago and I have started to lose much interest in going. My aim at the beginning was to go at least twice a week and aside from a couple weeks at Christmas, I have more than stuck to that for the better part of the eighteen months. Now I am more interested in doing exercise outside the gym like just walking or dog walks, cycling, etc. We also now have a spin cycle and a treadmill in the house, so should be set for even the winter and the really hot days left in the season.
Speaking of the gym, I am still working on my weight and fitness levels. I think the fitness is still pretty good but the weight stalled for quite a while and I have had to overcome some of the psychological aspects of that before getting going again. I also had some shoulder bursitis and tendinitis issues that I couldn’t quite get sorted with physiotherapy alone and had a steroid injection just before Christmas. With further physio, some of the shoulder issues have improved enough so I just need to make sure I don’t overdo any particular type of exercise again. Anyway, after some ups and downs, I think I am back on track for the moment.
I saw my new immunologist for the second time on Saturday. She had requested I have certain blood tests done and the results were back well before the appointment. They also sent copies directly to me. Overall, the results were all fine but I can’t help but be a bit pedantic about one thing that showed up. I’ve been getting a high titer ANA back every test since the first one back in 2004. This time was no different but there was a completely different sort of pattern to the ones that have appeared before. It was a different lab so my feeling is it was misread. My doctor wasn’t bothered about, didn’t really seem to know the pattern differences either. My usual pattern is rare but associated with Sjögren’s syndrome (which I have) and also autoimmune liver disease. Because of the pattern, previous doctors were keeping watch for a couple of liver-related antigens in blood work. These never were positive in the past but one associated with autoimmune hepatitis did come back a weak positive this time, which is rather funny, I think. At the moment, it isn’t so much of an issue due to it being weak-positive but mostly due to the fact almost all my liver functions tests came back in normal range. Only my albumin was slightly low…so also isn’t an issue at this point. At the moment, I will just go back for yearly reviews as I’ve done since my symptoms haven’t been anything major as yet.
Today I went in for a whole blood donation and was asked to give plasma instead. I was a bit surprised since it’s been so long since they’ve requested whole blood. Plus I thought they really wanted it this time as I got more reminders than usual. I’ve become acquainted with some of the staff at the center since I began donating, to the point that some of the staff skip quite a few of the questions. But the last couple of times, I have gotten new people and they have gotten into detail on some questions. Strangely it came out today that nobody thought to note down the Sjögren’s syndrome on my records before. The lady that interviewed me had never even heard of it so then went on to check it was okay to donate. Which it was.
Our board games have sat rather untouched the past two months. At first, Lego Lover wasn’t interested in playing but then we missed it one weekend or another and just haven’t got back to it. Meanwhile, we’ve had a few more games arrive lately so we need to get back into it.
There are probably some other things I need to update but honestly can’t think of anything now. I just wanted to get back into it keeping track of things a bit more before more time passed.
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Challenging the anxiety
Game Fanatic has been fairly desperate to find ways to make some new friends for a while now. He has had some issues in the past that I think he’s finally willing to overcome, or at least compromise on. But the finding of the friends has been a difficult part since he’s not engaged regularly in work or schooling right now. In fact, he’s been mostly isolated in the past few years and only recently has been engaged in any sort of social interaction via old friends from the homeschooling community, mine and his. This hasn’t been particularly regular but it’s been something and he’s found he has improved on subsequent visits. His recent attendance at the Supernova convention was meant to help find avenues for friendship but it was simply too crowded to accomplish much of anything aside from going around to the different stalls and looking at the cosplay creativity of other convention goers.
What he did do was pick up a flyer for a local Japanese anime fan group that interested him. Even though he’s had the flyer a few weeks, he didn’t gather up courage to go until this weekend. The group has screenings of anime series and movies on all but the first Saturday night of the month. On the last Saturday it seems they have a social gathering in the afternoon before the screenings. The viewing sessions do come at a cost but the social group is free. Game Fanatic asked to go early in the afternoon so we headed out about the time they were due to start and arrived half an hour later. We found a mostly empty space with a couple people hanging around. It seems this weekend wasn’t a good one for joining in the first time due to another event nearby and the fact it’s winter here. I talked to a couple of the guys there and it was suggested that we come back a little later and see if there is more of a crowd.
We went away and came back an hour later. We were optimistic to find the parking lot nearly full but it seems those were people attending other events in the center as only a couple others had joined the group we were there to see. This included an older woman with a sewing machine, which seemed rather odd to me. I will point out that GF was in quite a panic from the start and was silent through the brief chats I had with most of the others that we came across there. I finally got him to sit down with me at one of the tables set up for the afternoon and he was shaking from nerves. Fortunately he calmed down after we’d been there for a little while. I chatted a bit with the sewing machine woman, who was having some trouble with the machine. She went away after a while to take that machine home and retrieve another one, I think. The few others came and went but mostly left us alone. They weren’t unfriendly but they weren’t terribly inviting either. I suspect this crowd, being rather geeky, doesn’t have a notion of helping other join in. So we were just sitting there most of the time. I had a couple of things in my purse to occupy myself but GF just sat there the entire time. I talked to him a bit and kept asking him if he wanted to stay or go. It was still quite a while until the evening activities would be set up and I was bored and I suspect he was too (aside from nerves). Â Eventually I made the decision that we would leave so I said our goodbyes and said we would come back some other time. Then we came home.
I will credit Game Fanatic highly for being so determined to stick it out. If I’d felt there would be any positive outcome I’d have stayed much longer but it seemed to me a fruitless venture on this particular day. I made sure he understands that we won’t give up and we will keep trying until it works. Not only do we have to have the right environment but GF also needs to be able to engage in the situation to some degree. I suspect that will take a few attempts just on its own so I hope his determination continues.
We found another possible social avenue when I discovered a new games shop has opened somewhat locally. It’s not close to home but it’s in the area so we take what we can get. At least it’s not in the city proper like the one other games shop here. Anyway, this new place has regularly scheduled events most days of the week. Thursday night is devoted to board games and they have several available to play but the option to bring your own too. We drove down on Thursday afternoon to have a look at the place and it seems nice enough as a venue for games. Their selection of games for sale isn’t very big right now but they have only been open a few months. There were only a few people in the stores, mostly older guys playing some card game…perhaps Magic the Gathering or something of that ilk. Since today’s adventure didn’t come out very well I am encouraging Game Fanatic to try out the games night. We may well have to go two or three times before he is comfortable there but it doesn’t hurt to keep trying and this is the sort of activity where he’s most likely to find like-minded people.
We ended up buying a couple of games while at his shop even though they cost more than we’d pay at our online supplier. If the service and community work out to be good here, it will be worth the investment, I think.
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Board game blog
I decided to start up a separate blog for our board games yesterday. I’m not totally sure what shape it will take yet but I’m expecting it will have mainly reviews with some sort of format along with input from more than just me included. I still plan to write about our board games here but will try to keep it fairly general instead of rambling on at times. Also under consideration is the inclusion of video games so maybe it will ultimately be a games blog with the main focus on board games.
Thus far, I have set up the blog and set a temporary theme while I work out the details. The Scientist and I will be administrators to start and we will go from there. I will add a link once it’s up and running properly.
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Just an ordinary Saturday
Most weekends a visit is made to our local markets, which have several shops that often get business from us. This afternoon I went there to pick up some bulk food items and some food for lunch plus the newspaper and a chai latte. I was in the markets for less than half an hour. I went to put the purchases in the car and a guy came up to me to tell me he and his cousin saw another car sideswipe the front of our car and drive away. He had the number of the license plate which he wrote down for me. It’s not terrible but it is obviously scraped and will likely cost a bit to repair. Sigh…contacting insurance on Monday as they don’t seem to have any place to call on the weekend, aside from roadside assistance. It’s not urgent so I will wait.
I was planning to go to the gym after eating lunch but then remembered the dogs needed exercise. We walked for over an hour and both dogs had slowed down by the time we neared home…not enough to stop them barking at someone walking on the footpath along the way though. I didn’t think I’d gotten that much exercise but hours later my bottom is quite sore so I guess my glute muscles got a bit of a needed workout. I don’t use the treadmill much at the gym these days so I guess a walk was a good idea.
We had our Saturday evening family games again with Lego Lover choosing two games.We played Scotland Yard, which I’ve had since I was in college and which we always love to play. The Scientist played Mister X and was doing well but missed a detail that left him open to capture and was caught by Game Fanatic. Just before I’d stupidly made a comment saying it was going to be difficult to win…then both the boys managed to get right over to that part of the board. Just goes to show my lack of ability in strategic planning…at least compared to the rest of the family. After that we played Castle Panic and had some really bad luck at the start that ultimately led to us losing the game.
Game Fanatic had downloaded the first version of Silent Hill onto our Playstation 3 and he and his dad played that for a couple of hours before the Scientist went to bed. Apparently they managed to solve a puzzle already, so must be well on their way in the game. I stayed there for a while and did some random stuff on my iPad and Lego Lover was in his room until after the Scientist went to bed. I brought up our current favorite online game at Geoguessr.com and was trying to work out a few locations from the Google street view images when I came upon a location obviously in Canada. As Lego Lover is still madly obsessed, I saved it for him to work out. I’d already found out the general location but he enjoyed navigating through the small city and working out all the details. We carried on working out several more of the images and found ourselves in Latvia, Poland and Australia along with the city in Quebec. Lego Lover and I really like doing this game together. We may fight a lot and get annoyed with each other at the methods we each use. But together we often work it out pretty well. Most impressive was Lego Lover getting within a kilometer on the Latvian location in a port city. We’d not found enough information to work out streets and he just dropped the marker and was almost right there. He also did quite well at a more random marking to locate an image from a West Australian road location. There were limited clues and he got within 75 kms of the correct place. I am really amazed at some of the details he picks up on the some of these road images that helps pinpoint locations.
Now it is rather quiet here, aside from the music playing on Spotify…which is also fairly quiet. I need to be off to bed so I can wake up at a decent time tomorrow. It’s gotten a bit cooler here and getting up is difficult when it feels so chilly in the mornings.
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Long weekend
We just finished a three day weekend yesterday and it was quite a busy one. On Saturday we went to lunch with the Scientist’s family at my in-laws’ home and spent much of the afternoon there. My mother-in-law always makes quite a feast for all of us and it’s always quite tasty. I went to the gym when we got home and had a light workout before coming home for what’s become our Saturday afternoon/evening games session.
Starting the weekend of Mother’s Day, we each get a turn on the weekend at choosing what game(s) we will play. It’s become the habit to choose one short and one long game. Usually the long game takes enough time there’s not a question about starting a third game. We’ve also gotten into a habit of replaying one of the new games the following day. The new game this week was Shadows over Camelot, which was one I bought. I liked the premise of a co-op game with the added twist of a possible traitor amongst the players. It reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings in the complexity of the cooperation, particularly as regards sacrifice. As in some other recent games, we missed a few important bits of information the first time around so that it was totally impossible to win. The biggest issue was not getting a starting hand of cards to use so that we were struggling at the start. We played again on Monday and did much better…but again lost, except for Lego Lover who was a traitor. There were still a few issues with how we played that affected our outcome this time. It turned out Lego Lover really didn’t have to do anything to help us lose as it was all going to happen anyway. But he did carry off the pretense of being a partner the whole way through quite well. :) My short game on Saturday was King of Tokyo which was won by Game Fanatic quite well by eliminating all the rest of us as players.
Sunday morning we went to the gym in the morning and I had a rather short workout due to my lateness getting there…but still managed a solid half hour or so which is my main goal. Once we got home, the Scientist and I showered, ate lunch, then went to see Jesus Christ Superstar Arena Spectacular in Perth. We had the pleasure of seeing Tim Minchin (local Perth boy, now  international success) playing Judas along with Mel C from the Spice Girls as Mary Magdalene and Ben Forster (relative newcomer)  as Jesus, all from the original London production. It really was quite a spectacle and it was so well played by all involved. This was my anniversary present to the Scientist who was rather keen to see the show. He was more than pleased with it and I feel fairly certain that a dvd copy of the London production will be procured once it is released next month. I was far less familiar with the show although I have seen the movie at some point… just not at a time when it stuck with me. I’m pretty sure it will stick with me a bit better after this show.:)
Yesterday was what is now called West Australia Day here. Before last year it was always called Foundation Day and was just a day off for most of us. I don’t really recall much of last year either. This year, there were all sorts of events organised to celebrate WA Day. We didn’t do anything to celebrate the day this but stay home. The last few years, we would take Lego Lover to see the Model Railway show that includes a massive Lego display on this day. He was interested in going this year but eventually decided not to go as it would be quite crowded. The other issue was getting up in time to get there. I was rather relieved he didn’t want to go as we’d been out and about all weekend and I was keen to stay home. So we stayed home and played board games in the afternoon. The Scientist and I left a little after 5pm for tai chi class and didn’t get home until about 8pm after having dinner at a Mexican grill place near our class. I only have four more weeks and I will officially be an advanced student. Then we can both attend that class together instead of the Scientist playing tutor for the other students.
I don’t think we’ve been quite so busy on a long weekend in quite some time…aside from the birthday/Christmas combos, that is.
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I’ve got a golden ticket….
We continue to buy and play games here. This weekend we played some that have arrived in the last week or so.
One is  a relatively short game called Citadels which we all enjoyed.  It’s mostly card-based and rounds go fairly quickly, even with the slowness at which Lego Lover takes his turns.
Another game we played is Nuns of the Run. Game Fanatic pointed this one out as it has a similar feel to Scotland Yard, a game I bought close to 25 years ago while still in college. That game has a lot of memories for both the Scientist and me as we used to play often in the lobby of our dorm. It was a favorite then and it’s now become a favorite of the family. I notice it now sells with a totally new box and (I think) game board design but I quite like our old copy tha t is a bit worn from time and use. It’s a co-op game where a thief tries to stay clear of the detectives of Scotland Yard…there are five detectives against one thief. Each turn the players can use different types of transport to move around the board and the fun is to locate the thief as a team. There are limits on the how often you can use the transport so it’s a matter of making good use of what you have.  Nuns on the Run isn’t exactly a co-op game since everyone is really playing against each other…but one player plays the guards and the others are nuns who have to reach a room with a particular key and then go to another room with a particular item before returning to the cell. All within 15 turns and while the Abbess and Prioress (guards) are roaming different pathways. We played this twice on the weekend and I managed to just win on the first game. The second game I played way too safe and had no chance of getting back in time. So it’s a bit like the reverse of Scotland Yard, minus the cooperative play. There were a lot of little details that we didn’t pick up on the first time playing and I suspect we’ll catch a few more after we give it a few more goes. It was definitely one of the more complex games that we’ve played lately.
We also played a game called Smash Up, which is a card-based game with different decks for play. It”s all about building up points on different bases with cards in your decks to gain points. First player to 15 wins. Game Fanatic won the first game quite easily but it was another one we all liked.
To be honest, I think we’ve liked pretty much all the new games we’ve tried lately. That’s not a bad record considering how many new ones we have now. The other day, we looked on our top shelf at our older games, mostly ones that came with us from the US. We have several versions of Trivial Pursuit there, and most of those will be quite dated by now. There’s also The Game of Life which I have had since childhood. I’ve been thinking about getting rid of that one as we never play it and I can’t imagine us every playing it again. I also have an old copy of Monopoly which is my first board game. I probably won’t get rid of that…we have a newer set that came in a fancy set with Clue and some other games. It plays the same except it uses the British versions… maybe I can just keep the cards from mine to play the US version…
I also got a “Golden Ticket” when the Nuns on the Run game arrived. This was a competition of sorts run by Ozgameshop, the UK based shop where we buy most of our video games and board games now. There were only a few golden and silver tickets placed in random packages. After opening the box, Game Fanatic ran into my room (I was in bed) to tell me the great news. The gift was $150 credit towards future purchases…Game Fanatic immediately began thinking of more games to buy…we now have four more to come plus a Nintendo 3DS game of Animal Crossing for me when it’s released. It’s the first game I’ve purchased since I inherited a 3DS console and it’s a game from a series I’ve liked for several years. Not to mention another one that arrived today.
Not board game related by the Scientist got us onto an online game, Geoguessr.com, using Google street view images where your objective is to figure out where it is as close as you can. Lego Lover just adores the game and he’s quite adept at using Google Earth/maps…and is quite persistent in his attempts to place the marker as close as possible to the location. He has managed to get within a few metres several times but last night he managed to get it spot on. I was impressed although it is exhausting to go through the process at times. Along with his persistence (while good it has some negatives), there are some of his less positive traits that come out. Still, it’s a nice way to spend time together and learn quite a bit together about the world.
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Mother’s Day
It’s nearly at the end of my Mother’s Day here and it’s gone pretty well overall. This morning, the Scientist and I drove up to take his mum out for lunch at an Indian restaurant that has some nice food. The boys opted to stay home, which was okay as it was far less expensive without hungry teens to feed. :) The restaurant was mostly empty so it seemed like we should get good service, at least at the start. However, the woman who served us was as unsmiling as on our previous visit. The food took a long time to come but it tasted good, so was worth the wait. The Scientist got the meat thali (a combo of three small dishes of meat curry plus dahl and a couple side dishes…and a small dessert slice). His mum and I both got the vegetarian version and the curries were quite nice. There was a lot of rice served with the meals plus a naan bread and a pappadam…they were all very nice. We should have gotten a can of soft drink with our meals as they were lunch specials… but completely forgot until after we were on the way home…Anyway, it wasn’t offered. The Scientist recalled this happened on the previous visit too although we did remember to ask for it then. The two previous times I’ve eaten their food, it was incredibly hot but this time it was quite mild…Had we known we could have asked for more heat…anyway we will know for next time. We then took his mum home and hung out for a short while before coming home.
We went to the gym soon after we returned home then came home to prepare for the evening. The plan with the boys was to play some board games and watch Doctor Who at 7:30pm. The decision as to which game(s) was rather difficult due to the significantly increased choices now available. I finally decided upon Discworld and used the special day as an excuse to encourage Lego Lover to play this time. I wasn’t sure how that would work and it seemed like it might go a bit pear-shaped as he was rather crotchety about it at the beginning. We’d tried to insist once before and he was totally uncooperative and uninvolved so we switched it to just three players that time. Today, however, he did take a bit more part in the proceedings and I think he kind of liked the game even if he never admitted it. It went pretty well this time but was quite interesting as the dynamic changes quite a bit with the extra player. The Scientist won this time and it was time to decide on another game.
In an act of some goodwill towards Lego Lover for taking part, I asked him which game he thought we should play next and he chose Puerto Rico. It’s a fairly long game so I wasn’t too sure about playing so late in the day when we had a tv program to watch afterwards. Game Fanatic wasn’t at all keen to play as he finds the game kind of boring due to the theme of it. I decided to make a go of it since Lego Lover was so put out…Obviously this meant we wouldn’t be watching Doctor Who tonight…which makes it every episode we’ve watched after the broadcast this season. What I had forgotten most was how terribly long the set up for the game is…There’s no good way to hurry it along either. Once set up we also had to refresh our memories of how to play. Eventually we got into the swing of it and all went pretty well. Lego Lover particularly enjoyed it and I noticed how much better his game play was this time compared to earlier games. Game Fanatic had a fair bit of bad luck so eventually stopped making much effort at the game and I just plugged away at it. After nearly two hours, we reached the end and the Scientist had won again…so  it was a good night to play for him.
Last night I also played a second game of Summoner Wars with Game Fanatic since it’s one of his favorite games right now. It’s only a two player game  (can be expanded though) so it’s not had a lot of play as yet. It’s only been a few weeks but I’d forgotten most of the game play. Also I had a different deck of cards this time which made it a bit harder. Our first game only took about 45 minutes but we went well over an hour last night and I managed to win by some luck and a bit of help from Game Fanatic…he didn’t let me win but he did point out a few moves in the course of the game. I told him we have to play more often so I don’t forget and so that I learn to play well enough to be properly competitive. I found the game a lot easier than Magic the Gathering was when we last played nearly two years ago.
Now it’s late night and I’m hoping to get in touch with my mom soon to wish her a happy day. Or I will wait until tomorrow morning and catch up with her.
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Fun times
We are continuing to play more and more board games as a family and the latest additions have been some of the most fun yet.  I will point out I rejoined Quickflix (sort of Oz version of Netflix) and have felt obligated to watch the dvd that arrives instead of what we really want to do to make it decent value for our money. After one month on a low price, I opted to cancel so we just have a couple more dvds to watch when they arrive and then they go back…so we can soon play the games as we want to do. A couple weeks ago, Discworld: A game of Ankh-Morporkh arrived in the mail and we eagerly looked forward to having time to play. For the Scientist and me, the game has a lot of meaning as we have read most of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series over the years. Game Fanatic knows the series only slightly from having been read one of the YA/children’s books many years ago but hasn’t read any further than that…after all, it wouldn’t do to listen to suggestions from the parents, would it? :D  Lego Lover has no interest in any of it and refuses point blank to even try playing the game. This was a disappointment but we had to carry on without him or never play at all. The game uses a deck of cards with various abilities/tasks on them and there are cards for many of the character from the series. Instead of a single goal for players, there are about five or six different goals over about eight cards. Three happen to have the same goal but are represented by different characters. Nobody knows what the goals of the other players are at the start so half the game play involves working out who has which goals and preventing competing players from winning…while also trying to win your own goal. It was mostly by chance but I won the first game we played and all three of us had a good time. It was far better than I expected it to be (being adapted from a series of books) so I imagine we will play that one often, particularly when Lego Lover isn’t interested in playing games.
Two other games arrived from here in Australia and we played these late last week. The first one is Ghost Stories, another cooperative game that goes really quickly. We found this one is far more complex in play than Castle Panic or Forbidden Island are  and were a bit tentative during our first game. I think we will play far better the next time since we have more of an idea of what we are doing now.
The second game is Cyclades, which has a Greek mythology theme which appealed to everyone. This game involved quite a bit more set up than the other recent acquisitions so we didn’t try it out until the weekend. It also requires a lot of space so we had to clear the kitchen table and use the extension to have sufficient room…even so it was a bit crowded on the sides where the boys were sitting. This game had elements of several others we’ve played recently so it was a matter of putting it all together and making heads or tails of it…We had a bit of trouble on our first play because it wasn’t clear how one was supposed to earn gold from early in the game and it seemed as though we were missing some elements of it. We played the game the best we could with the knowledge we had and the Scientist won that one. A bit of online research showed us where the missing information was…at the back of the manual. This wouldn’t be an issue normally except the manual has more than one language. When Game Lover was working it all out, he read to the end of the English language section…but there were diagrams at the back to show how the board was supposed to be set up at the start. There were also a couple smaller points that were clarified. We tried again on Sunday and it was so much better to play with some ability to win. This time, Lego Lover returned to his game goal that mostly involved making sure his father didn’t win…he was quite destructive in the game but he also nearly brought it to a halt. At the end, I wasn’t able to make any progress due to his strategy and decided to just play it through to the end. Despite his best efforts, the Scientist did win again by reaching a certain goal required…and so won it quite fairly the second time. It was a lot more fun and it looks like another winner of the recent games acquisitions…
The downside to all these good games is that we are sure to miss out playing other games because we like these so well. Â We have three others still on the way…well one is on the way and one is on backorder and another is due to be posted out from the UK very shortly.