I have been playing mostly games with my family recently with the holidays and weather canceling my weekly game nights I host at my college for the Southest KY Game Club. We finally had a game night this past week, but only six of us were there to play at the peak with numbers vacillating from four to six, which makes breaking up into two groups a bit silly even though most games that serve six are not my cup of tea. I had hopes of getting some heavier game to the table in the new year, but, alas, the start was lighter than I hoped. Here is what we played:
Conspiracy. It was announced this week that Conspiracy would be the next game to getthe necromancy magic of Restoration games. It well deserves it. Really nothing else like this game of secretly controlling spies and trying to get the secrets in the briefcasedelivered to your embassy. We played two games, but I look forward to playing four or fiveback to back at some point to watch the metagame develop over a few plays. This game is not for everyone, but, for me, it is nearly perfect. 9/10
Megaland. One of our regulars, Brit, loves Celestia, but she requested it too late for me to have it on hand. I did have Megaland--another quick push-your-luck game with gorgeous art and we played it instead. It is great fun. I like it better than Celestia at this point, but that may be the fact that I've played dozens of games of Celestia and its predecessor, Cloud 9, over the years. 8/10
Pandemic the Cure x 2. Two games of this "classic?" dice-based co-op. I love it because it is fast and gives me that Pandemic feel, but the speed that things can go from "fine" to"catastrophe" is frustrating. Still, set up and play is so quick that it will remain ago-to co-op for the rare times we aren't in the mood to destroy each other at a competitivegame. 8/10
Three Cheers for Master. One of our group likes "take that" games a lot and given we were trying to stay at one table for the night, I got forced into way more of them than I would prefer. This one has a cute theme and plays well enough but like most "take that" games depends on the players to keep the game close by picking on the leader and otherwise playing spoiler. 6/10
Lost Legends. This was a pretty fun dungeonless "dungeon crawl" with characters leveling up and getting better weapons as the monsters got bigger and more deadly. It has a lot of moving parts and dragged a little in the first game, but I think I'm in for more of this one at some point. 7/10
Quelf. I'm not a party game snob. I really like a lot of them (Time's Up, Wits and Wagers, Say Anything, Guesstures--the list goes on and on, but the is a really bad party game that depends too much on dice rolls and goes way too long. We had a few laughs, and I'm not sure the other players would agree with me, but if that is the last time I play the game, I'll be happy. 3/10
I live in the mountains and snow can really shut down or alter our game nights, but I have hopes of getting back to multiple tables running soon, and meeting my resolution to play more game from the "heavy" side of my collection this year.