For the last six months, I've had a German flatmate who enjoys playing board games, and he's going home tomorrow, so we've been trying to cram in as much gaming into this last week as possible.
So last Saturday, we played the 2019 version of Dune. We managed to get five players, so it was a fun experience. We played with the Ixian and Tlielaxu expansion for the first time which added a new element to the game in the form of tech tokens which give extra revenue avenues, and if you have all of them, an extra fortress.
In the first game, we drew a Shai Halud card in the second round and formed alliances early. I allied with my flatmate to make an Atreides - Fremen alliance, and there was also an Emperor - Tleilaxu alliance with a solo Bene Gesserit player. The Emperor - Tleilaxu alliance took the early lead, with victories gained by well played face dancers, but over time, prescience won out, and my flatmate and I won in the 6th round.
We then played a second game, and by a bizarre act of shuffling drew all the shai-halud cards in the first round so they all had to be discarded and we never had an opportunity to form alliances. Trying to hold three strongholds in a five player game is HARD, and the game was long and bitterly Fought. I was playing the Ixians for the first time, and had some bad luck with early battles, which set me back. But then I struck up a deal with the Atreides player where if they told me where the spice was going to blow in the next turn, I'd share half of whatever spice I was able to collect with my mobile fortress. This led to me nearly always being able to get close to it by the start of the next turn, then I'd let everyone else fight over it and kill each other off, then I'd come in and hoover up all the remaining spice.
This arrangement made both of us very rich, but the Atreides player had to keep his forces on the board where they were being attacked while I kept mine safely in my mobile fortress. I turned on Atreides and dropped two armies right on the doorstep of his only fortress, and had a double move card that I was going to use in the next move to wipe him out, while also deploying the rest of my off world troops directly into the only fremen stronghold, which would have given me stronger troop numbers, and a good chance of victory, but two players had to leave to catch the last bus so we had to abandon the game.
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Last night, we played a three player game of Brass Birmingham. I started with an abysmal hand, and ended up discarding most of it early to start again, which set me back, but put me in a better spot. I never managed to fully recover, but built up enough of a network to come second in the end.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/1081/b3LkOx.jpg)
Tonight, we played a three player game of Wyrmspan, which my flatmate got from the library. None of us had played it before, though he had played Wingspan, which it's based on.
It's a fun game, with lots of different areas to focus on, which I always enjoy. I played a diversified game. I ignored the early end of round bonuses, and focused on the latter ones as they're worth more. I used a lot of free excavations combined with cheap dragons to almost completely fill my mat, which meant my explorations were always bountiful. I had two random sources of tucks, both of which I had good luck with, and I was also able to cache a lot of supplies while always having plenty to spend. It paid off as a strategy and I managed to win the game with a comfortable lead.
The game doesn't need to be returned for two weeks, so I hope to play more of it.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/374/e3srkt.jpg)