Check Please- Games played in Summer 2023 Part 6 | Foam Bananas (2024)

"Stupidest person in the swimming pool"

Check Please

I hate ongoing sagas that last this long so here is the summary so far: games have been played and more games are being played.

Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion

There is a discussion to be had about difficulty in cooperative games. One thing is certain, the game is either going to be too hard or too easy. I picked up the "introductory" scenario to make Viticulture World possible to beat and we won. The gaming experience was awful. The reason I picked up this scenario was because the first base game scenario was painful. What this scenario does is give you free points at the end of the game to win you the game. This feels very unsatisfactory. Viticulture is a high-luck, worker placement game. Drawing cards is vital and if you get a good draw you are in a better position to win. If you don't, well at least you died trying. When you are playing against the game, any failure is shared as a team and you feel like you have let down your soldiers. Maartje said she did the best she could during the game and I felt I had lots of improving to do. I've read the reviews, listened to the podcasts and everyone is in agreement... the game is too hard. I think with hardcore gamers it could be a fun challenge but with Maartje, this game is a stinking glass of vinegar. I understand expansions are for the hardcore but if you have an expansion to a medium/light game, don't increase the difficulty to heavy weight. I really want to explore this game with my partner but instead it will sit in the box until I gather the courage to sell it. The game should have had an inbuilt difficulty setting. What a waste of time.

Boomerang: Europe

My heart is in pain. Every night it beats itself to sleep over the most trivial things. Boomerang is in the "write" category of gaming. You also draft. Maartje and I had a great time playing the game and Maartje did very well to beat me as hard as my heart beats when I go to bed. You can see the game looks great and is fun. So, what trivialities are bothering me:
1. This is a second edition and the pad of paper has shrunk from the original making it more difficult to play
2. The new two player rules are bad. We play with a house rules, but that feels unsatisfactory. I cry as hard as Rhado when I don't do something by the book.
It was a very close game, with Maartje wining by the few extra points you get from connecting East coast to West coast. As you only use half the cards each round, there is a chance the cards you need to connect your route don't come out. I like the chance aspect and it is fixed in the awful new rules. In the new rules, you know what cards are going to be in play which removes the chance factor and, for me, the fun factor. I wish the rules were more satisfactory but the changes from the first edition to the second put me at unease. To make matters worse, I had a chance to connect my route during this game but didn't! My ambivalence runs wild on this issue. It is a shame. I won't be able to sleep tonight as I worry about the spider I saw in the garden and whether it will makes it way in the house tonight. My heart only beats at trivial things.

Celestia

It is important what the other people around the table think of the game you are playing. In Celestia, everyone was involved and excited to win. Sadly, there can only be one winner and that winner was Chantel. In Celestia, you fly around in a silly looking ship, picking up silly little points. In the end if you lose by one or two silly little points it is all in good lols. Celestia has a nice rotating responsibility mechanic where if you are captain, you must carry on, even if it means doom to you. There was about four points between us at the end of the game and I look forward to playing it again and win.

In my next blog, there will be a special guest who featured in part1 (who could it be?) and a twist that no one was expecting. Will you be there or fail to be part of the Zeitgeist?