Tales of old Dartmoor

That's an obscure title for a blog posting even by my standards. Hercules Grytpype-Thynne would understand. In any event I feel the urge for a boardgame round-up.

Cuthulhu Fluxx: Fluxx is a game that's fascinating the first couple of times that you play it and then gets dreary. I don't understand fantasy in general or H.P. Lovecraft in particular. Enough said.

Trains: This is a bit like Dominion with a board and with, well, trains. I'm not a particular fan of deck-builders, but this was as good as any I've played.

Eight Minute Empire: It actually lasted about twenty minutes, but it provided a good game for five of us. I'd play it again.

One Minute Unltimate Werewolf Daybreak: Which is the same old stuff, but with extra chrome (Alpha Wolf, Paranormal Investigator). Someone had brought in a loudspeaker to play their smartphone through. Strangely this didn't make it any better.

6 nimmt!: I like this, and don't understand why people think it's random; they're just not playing it properly.

Rococo: A nice game with all sorts of mechanics that mesh together well. My only quibble is that it is very difficult to work out who's winning whilst playing. It's about dressmaking and - please remember that logic doesn't always apply in these circumstances - I won essentially by making the most dresses.

Skull: Another game that I like. My logic was impeccable on every turn and yet somehow I failed to call people's bluff correctly. I'm not sure how that works.

R-Eco: We played this with the same rules (the correct rules?) for the second time running and it's growing on me. If you do try it then bear in mind that it's a very low scoring game when making decisions.

The Secret of Monte Cristo: Firstly this game has some lovely components - the marbles and the jewel value markers - and some really tatty ones - especially the jewel placement markers. Any heaviness in this game comes from placing one's marble after the end of one's turn, but my impression was that the number of possible outcomes makes it all so complex as to actually be far more luck than skill. It does however have my new favourite feature: in-game scoring on a track with a clear victory target. By the way, the game has nothing whatever to do with the story in the book.

It is also some time since I posted a photo of me on top of Haw Pike surrounded by women of a certain age. So here goes.

I'm a little teapot