What I would really like lately is to not be sick! Rabbit had to travel and came back with a bug, and that wonderful ritual of passing a bug onto your partner has bitten me hard. So it’s another journal of games I wish I could have played in some ways!
I did get to play a few new games, as well as sort some new deliveries. Organising Final Girl was a fun evening, and according to Rabbit, I looked like a kid at Christmas!
I went the Deluxe edition for Season 2, as well as grabbing the Season 1 Deluxe upgrades as well
That’s what I am looking forward to playing in the future, but let’s see what I played last week.
There were some travel shenanigans this week, so our Board Game Arena day was slightly different. We needed a game we could play we all knew, was quick and could get a few rounds in. 7 Wonders Architects for the win!
Playing 7 Wonders Architects with 3 players is so much fun. Alpal was on an absolute tear and was unstoppable over 4 games! But the bottom line, I still need to recommend 7 Wonders Architects more. So many people I think will enjoy this game!
One day I will try it with more players, but until then our games will always be something to look forward to.
Alpal was on a massive win streak no matter what Wonder she drew
I gave Paperback Adventures a good playthrough last week. Well, the digital version anyway. Straight off the bat, there are differences between the tabletop and digital versions.
Neither is ‘better’ than the other, but if you play one and expect the other to be the same you will be caught out.
Some of the gameplay changes are the top card doesn’t have to be the card discarded after the power is used. This can be set to the ‘tabletop’ or ‘classic’ mode in the options.
Tabletop you need to buy each of these packages. THe Digital version includes them all, locked only by gameplay
Other changes are some balance tweaks that have been applied. Some damage is different, or costs are changed. As I say, nothing makes one better than the other, but enough changes what you may have expected.
Now I played Paperback Adventures on the Steam Deck, and overall it works. I want to say it works well, but the text sizes and some selection areas are too small for the Deck’s screen.
The Steam Deck’s inbuilt Magnifier helped a lot with this, which let me successfully finish my first campaign! That was super exciting and unlocked the third set of adventures Plothook.
I remember the Kraken being differnt on the tabletop version?
I need to set up Paperback Adventures now and play on the table with the Ex Machina campaign. That way I can do a proper comparison rather than the disconnected ‘feel’ between the two sessions.
If you are interested in Paperback Adventures, it is an amazing solo game. The only downside I can see is the length and setup/teardown involved on the tabletop side, which the Digital version takes care of for you.
Try the Paperback Adventures Demo on Steam first and see what you think of the mechanics before purchasing.
One run complete – the third time was indeed the charm!
I am enjoying it, and it’s the sort of game I want to play more often. But the fact one ‘game’ is really 9 campaign missions makes the length rather formidable!
Targi is a game that has been on and off my radar for years. A two-player-only game, it wasn’t ideal for game nights and I would forget it existed for long periods. Just long enough for Targi to go out of print.
The issue I had wasn’t in the gameplay. By all accounts, it was simple to pick up and a good brain teaser to play. But the art and theme made Targi immediately forgettable to me for some reason.
Simple layout that is functional if not attention grabbing
So when Alpal asked to play a game, I settled in to learn how to play it again. And fell asleep. I went to a How to Play video on YouTube – and fell asleep. Went to a different video, and same result. Targi looks and sounds boring from the outside.
But when Alpal and I played, it was a very different experience. Bottom line Targi is a set collection, and you collect resources and ‘tribes’ to score.
The board is a 4×4 grid, with the outside a timer and a place to put your tokens to select what to collect in the middle of the board. Where your pieces intersect, you collect that card.
If you are playing the game, trying to work out the optimal move is exciting
The rules for placement are pretty simple – one token per card (there is a neutral token as well, acting as a timer). You can’t put your token on the opposite side of the row/column. That’s really it.
And this is what makes Targi look and sound boring, but fun to play. The puzzle of picking up what you need, while also potentially blocking your opponent and hiding your intent is fun.
Tagi is a kind of visually duller Istanbul in that regard, but like Istanbul once you play you will love it or hate it. I can’t imagine anyone being OK with Targi.
Like many great games, there are ways to break the rules in game that are simple to follow and use
Check it out on Board Game Arena with someone, and see what I mean. Oh, and if you want to pick it up, Targi did get reprinted making it much easier (and cheaper) to pick up their days!
If you get really into it, also look at Targi the Expansion (yes, that’s what it is called!). Same principles, but one new resource and even tighter gameplay bring new challenges to the table!
What about you? I hope you got some great games in. Or are you looking forward to a new one? Let me know!
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