My illness - from which I have largely recovered, but the after effects of which linger on; I currently have costochondritis - has made this a thin month for boardgaming. However I see no reason not to bore you with a list of games played anyway.
Boom: Runaway: An amusing filler card game about bombs trying to escape from the arsenal. This has possibly the largest ratio of difficulty of explanation and scoring to playing time of any game that I know.
Codenames: Pictures: Pleasant enough, but for me not as good as the original word version.
Dead Last: Pointless and random tontine based game, whose only virtue is that it can incorporate an awful lot of players.
Eminent Domain: A simple enough drafting and deck building game. Its weakness is that the military and research strategies aren't worth pursuing. Stick to colonising and trading and you'll win more often than not.
Five Tribes: I really like the mancala mechanism in this, but am less keen on some of the others, especially the purchase of djinns. Some of the iconography is pretty impenetrable and, of course, there are not five tribes at all. Good game though.
The Grizzled: At Your Orders!: I've always enjoyed The Grizzled and this expansion radically changes and improves the game. So it's a thumbs up from me. I've still never managed to get my character to survive the Great War though.
Oceanos: Inoffensive drafting game loosely themed around Jacques Cousteau type exploration. There is a push your luck element, but like many return on investment type games many possible strategies aren't worth a candle. There's also too large a random element somewhat similar to the flaw in Thebes.
Quartermaster General: Air Marshal: I love this game, but unbelievably it's the first time that I've played it this calendar year. I was the Soviet Union and, rather historically, resisted the blitzkrieg and then swept back and captured Germany. The allies won on the twentieth turn.
Shakespeare: A eurogame with a pasted on Shakespeare theme, but entertaining for all that.
Skull: Never fails.
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