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Steven Gibney - Carcassonne
This year one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to reduce the number of games I buy and instead play expansions to the games I already own. This month my focus has been on one of my favorite games - Carcassonne. There were two reasons I chose to start the year with this game, first I was lucky enough to get an expansion, Inns and Cathedrals, for Christmas. Secondly, it is one of the first games I ever bought, so it seems a fitting way to kick off the new year.
The base version of Carcassonne is a classic tile placement game, with tiles depicting a combination of cities, roads and monasteries. Each player places their collection of meeples on the growing map in an attempt to score the most points. Victory points are scored depending on the piece of landscape that the meeple is placed on.
Carcassonne is straightforward, easy to enjoy and has great replay value. This last point is only reinforced by the number of expansions - there are at least 10 that I know of, and there are probably more that I have missed. The first expansion adds new tiles which increase the number of points you can potentially gain from completing features, but if you fail to complete them during the game you earn zero points from them. This forces you to pick a strategy, do you invest in small guaranteed wins or do you risk trying to score big before the tiles run out? Based on my experience this month I’m already eyeing up the other Carcassonne expansions, which add everything from traders and thieves to bridges and bazaars, to name a few.
Jacob Dunkley - Obsession
My Christmas present to myself was Obsession, a game that comes across as looking like Downton Abbey the board game but rather than being something that I have no interest in was drawn to this game's theme of Victorian England. This is a game in which you play as one of the influential families in Derbyshire who have fallen upon hard times but during the game you will renovate your estate, hire servants and expand your personal deck of gentry who can participate in activities on your estate. Each round you will host an activity and play guests from your hand to increase your reputation, draw new guests and earn money to improve your estate by purchasing new tiles from the builder's market, all the while courting the hand of one of the Fairchild’s who will bring additional prestige and more importantly victory points to your family.
So far we’ve played this a few times since receiving it and although the first play took a little longer than anticipated, once you get the flow of the rounds and rules down this is actually not too complex of a game but one that is rich in theme. The art is perfect, through the use of old Victorian photographs and the game comes with the almost opulent player boxes and storage that add to the charm of the game having an almost ‘box of chocolates’ like wonder to the whole package.
I am yet to win a game of Obsession, but each time we’ve played there seem to be a few different strategies available to try and secure the most points, whether it is maxing out your reputation or building up a deck of higher reputation gentry or improving your estate with high-value buildings. Gameplay is quick and now I know the flow of the game well and this plays in just over an hour for a 2 player game, although I’m yet to play at higher player counts. There is also a very good expansion in Upstairs, Downstairs which I don’t own but I know adds a lot to the core game that will help to keep this game fresh once I’ve played enough of the base game. It would be too easy to say I am becoming obsessed with my choice of game of the month but there are no secrets amongst the upper classes of Victorian England.
Arnaldo Amaral - 7 Wonders Duel
There’s a reason why this game is on my profile is my favourite game. Sometimes, I go months without playing it which was what happened in this case (we have so many 2-player only board games we tend to rotate between them to justify having them all ahah) but every time we bring 7 Wonders Duel back to the table it hit us again: this game is a-ma-zing!
The base version of 7 Wonders Duel is a city-building, economic open drafting game at heart that brings to the table different mechanics to keep players on their toes like tug of war, set collection and multiple win conditions. A player can win 7 Wonders Duel in one of three ways: military dominance, scientific dominance and by civilian victory. The matches are super strategic and unique due to the way everything is set up and it really sparks that competitive fire among the players to try to outsmart their opponent. Easily a top 10 game of all time for me already, it becomes even better when joined by any of the expansions. This time it was 7 Wonders Duel: Agora.
This expansion features a new board called the Senate, which is comprised of six separate chambers that provide players with benefits once they take control of them. On top of this, it also adds 2 new wonders, 2 new progress tokens and a new victory condition called political dominance: should any player successfully take control of all senate chambers then they automatically win the game.
To do this, players can add to their city senator cards, whose power varies depending on the number of civilian buildings you have, and conspirator cards that open you to prepare and use conspiracies, one-time trigger effect cards with strong powers that can turn the tide of a game.
It’s impossible to overstate how much we love this game and, objectively speaking, just how good it is. There’s a reason why it’s sitting at #18 in BGG right now even though it’s almost a decade old: it just really is that good.! If you haven’t played it yet, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
John Hunt - Blood On The Clocktower
I had been holding out on buying this. I had told myself it couldn’t possibly be that much better than Werewolf. Couldn’t possibly be worth the price tag. Couldn’t possibly provide a social deduction experience that didn’t devolve into pure assertion and bluster. And then I got an invite to a 50th birthday weekend and I buckled. I rewatched the l reviews, read the manuals online and went out and bought it. I am so glad I did.
Clocktower does still have common DNA with its Mafia/Werewolf progenitor but, good heaven, it’s a far more evolved beast. The rules that amend player elimination are so simple but the continued involvement of the ghosts and the late game tension as they decide whether to use their one remaining vote is phenomenal. The storyteller as GM is not only enormous fun but makes for a level of curation that helps to manage the flow of information and disinformation to great and positive effect. And the sophisticated design of the roles makes for smashing variety and interplay. No one in Clocktower is just a villager – some hold information they start the game with, some gain information as the game progresses and others have powers to aid and protect the town. Equally the demon and minion variety and powers keep the experience exciting and fresh: rarely is the arc of a game straightforward, and effects like villagers unwittingly being the drunk or being poisoned by a minion open the possibility space.
The production values are strong, the Grimoire is one hell of a prop, and the volume of content with three character packs and the addition of travellers and fables make for plenty of replayability.... which I’d hope for given the price tag. We played with 7-13 and while 7 was very enjoyable the more the merrier really. What I would say is that I played with a fair number of non-gamers and the vast majority lapped it up and found it more’ish - so it is accessible and it doesn’t remove some of the barriers to social deduction games, but it was a far more civilised experience than many Werewolf games. All in all, a resounding thumbs up from me.