December Games - Part the Second

 And thus began our Holidaze.... ...

The kids finished up skewl on Friday. And Amanda took MOST of this week off... She went in Tuesday, because she had to go to campus to teach a yoga class anyway... But took the rest as vacation or used up a small amount of the excessive accrued overtime... and a personal day... Next week, between Xmas and New Years, the university is closed and EVERYONE has the week off - except for a few essential staff that need to go in to take care of critters used at the Vet college, etc... 

Lots of time for GAMING! 

Friday, 17 December 2021

Kicking things off, Keiran, Amanda and i sat down to play a game of Carcassonne - we added in Traders & Builders and Inns & Cathedrals. Amanda cleaned up with the trade goods - scoring 30 points for having the most of the wine, grain AND cloth! But then I got 64 points just from farming - which kind of won me the game! 

Afterwards Amanda and I watched The Expanse with Finnegan and then just the two of us watched Wheel of Time together. 

Saturday, 18 December 2021

our Friend Kurtis came by for an evening of gaming. We finally tried playing the Century Golem Edition with ALL THREE games combined... It was a little much... It was interesting, I guess, to see the way they incorporated the mechanics of three different games into one. But there were a LOT of moving parts. 

Since it was so much work to set it all up and figure it out... We played it again. 

I like each of the games on their own. Mixing two together was interesting. All three was a bit much. 

Afterwards we played a couple of games of Kingdom Builder. EAch game used two of the new(-ish, to us) Marshlands edition boards and cards. 

In the first we played with the Hermits, Captains, and Geologists Kingdom Builder cards and the Tower, Fountain, Canoe, and Barn boards. This was the first time I saw the Canoe being useful. It seems like it could be a VERY powerful Extra Action... but only really if you can get BOTH. 

The Game was CrAzY close - Kurtis and I tied at 42 and Amanda has 41!

I the second game we played with Scout, Miner, and Messenger Kingdom Builder Cards and the Temple, Harbour, Farm, and Refuge boards. Only one of the extra actions allowed putting down additional settlements (the farm), the others only allowed up to pick up and replace settlements. I grabbed two farns quite early on so for most of the game i was placing five settlements every round to the three that Kurtis and Amanda were placing... and I just cleaned up!? 

That long orange line across the board, alone, gained me 44 points from Messengers... thats more than any of us scored in TOTAL in the previous game!? 

Monday, 20 December 2021

Monday evening we played a quick game of The Hanging Garden. Keiran had suggested it, so I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. We haven't played it since June of last year. 

Keiran and Amanda started clearing away their garden while I was laying out my tiles!? So I didn't get all three extended gardens. 

Anayway, here's what my garden looked like at the end of it - along with all the tiles I'd collected... 

Amanda won. By lots. 

Tuesday, 21 December 2021

Tuesday Amanda went into work for one last day this year - and stayed very late!? When she finally did get home, we all played Codenames: Pictures. We ended up playing six games - every one had a chance to team up with every other member of the family and within each pairing, each took turns being the Spymaster and the Field Operative. 

In Game One, Amanda and I were the Spymasters. I was paired with Finnegan and Amanda with Keiran. Amanda and Keiran won when Finnegan accidentally selected THE ASSASSIN!  

Game Two - Keiran and i were partnered up and Amanda Played with Finnnegan. Keiran and Fnnegan were the spymasters. Amanda and Finnegan won this round. 

Game Three - Keiran and Finnegan remained Spymasters, but we switched partners again. Amanda and Keiran won. 

Game Four - Back to Amanda and me being Spymasters. Kerian and I won - but only because Finnegan, again, accidentally picked THE ASSASSIN! 

For the last two games Amanda and I were partner and the kids were partners. Finnegan and I were Spymasters first. The kids won. 

Then Amanda and Keiran took a turn at being Spymasters. Again, Finnegan and Keiran won, despite Amanda and me haveing a pretty commanding lead to start... 

Good fun. Wish we played this more. It is very quick! 

Afterwards, because we are heathens and there was zero chance we'd be doing our traditional family get together on the 24th... we just opened up presents on the Solstice. 

Wednesday, 22 December 2021

Got the whole family together again to play O Zoo Le Mio

We haven't played this in YEARS, but played it a fair bit about 6-7 years ago. It's a fun little game where you play a zoo (or... the Zoo Manager) trying to build bigger better attractions at your zoo - by matching up tiles to make bigger enclosures. Fairly simple, very clever and not too long.. 

Out little zoos at the end of the game. 

Thursday, 23 December 2021

Initially, a friend of Amanda's was initially supposed to come over and play Wingspan... but kind of bailed on us. 

So Amanda and i just played on our own... 

This was the THIRTIETH game of Wingspan we've played since Amanda got it for her birthday in may. 

It was all festive colours.

(and apparently failing at math...) 

Friday, 24 December 2021

For many years we used to go over to my folks place on the 24th for our family gathering - spend the afternoon and evening there. presents were opened, games were played, puzzles put together and FAR TOO MUCH FOOD was consumed. Because of the pandemic and my parents current situation, this was just not feasible. 

I did get out for a bike ride in the early afternoon, despite feeling a bit run down (probably from the Covid vaccine booster I'd had the day before).

When I got back we played some games. 

Managed to wrangle the whole family into playing Kingdomino again (because it is QUICK!) 

Did I mention that Keiran got rainbow hair the day before...?

 Oh, they got rainbow hair all right! 

The game was SUPER close and everyone built lovely little kingdoms around their castles. 

I ended up winning. I thought I had done well, but then when everyone was telling me their scores I was amazing they'd all scored 10-12 points MORE than me... then they reminded me about the bonus for not having any blank spaces and for ending with the castle in the middle! That bonus fifteen put me in first with 64 points, Keiran had 63, Amanda had 61, and Finnegan had 60!? 

Afterwards, Amanda and i played Castles of Burgundy. Amanda by the end of the first round Amanda was about 50 points ahead of me and stayed well ahead for the rest of the game. I ALMOST caught up at the end with bonus points... but not quite... 

After I post this I think we'll be settling down to watch the new episodes of The Expanse and the Wheel of Time. Loving the Expanse. Indifferent to Wheel of Time. After we are done the latter, I think we'll check out The Witcher... 

I still need to play two more games of Kill Team to finish off ten games of that for my 10x10 challenge... I'm not sure what I'll do for the tenth game... The easiest might be to just play four more rounds of Codenames: Pictures. It might seem lame to add that in to a 10x10 challenge... but I've played THIRTY games of Wingspan... THIRTY!!! I think we've done okay for playing games this year! 

I hope everyone out there is having a happy, HEALTHY holiday season - and I do hope you get in a few games! I expect there will be a few more games we'll be playing this last week (and binge-watching shows on Netflix), as we all have the week off and won't be going out much at all - with the Covid numbers skyrocketing again!