First Quarter Boardgaming 2023

 Just (mainly) the games new to me.

Anno 1800: This was fun; it's only a shame that I didn't listen more closely to the explanation of how one was likely to win. It's a tech tree game really, but the point of advancing up the tech tree was quite clearly described as being to attract new people to one's territory and then keep them happy. I managed the second part OK, but when we came to add up the scores I had a pathetically small number of inhabitants all of whom were wallowing in low scoring luxury. I'd like to give this another go.

Clank!: Catacombs: The original Clank! was a good game, but this much better. The main change is a modular board, which means that each game is different and allowing players to wander off in different directions, although the size and shape of one's table may influence this in practice. I really liked this.

Fürstenfeld: Economic game about brewing. I wasn't hugely enthused.

Mosaic: A Story of Civilisation: The subtitle is actually 'A Story of Civilization', but the blog must maintain its standards. This has tech tree elements, with a bits of set collection, area control, resource management and indeed very abstracted military conflict. The absolute best bit about this game is how quick each of one's turns is, meaning very little down time. On the other hand with five players, it does go on a bit, although by the third time through we had knocked an hour off the duration. Worth a look.

Mush!Mush!: This isn't a new-to-me game at all, but I can't resist writing about it because it was six years since it last got played. It's a husky racing game, with a clever central mechanism and works well with higher player counts. I hope to get this back to the table this year.

Scythe: This game is currently rated 16th overall on boardgamegeek, which inevitably means that I don't like it. I've had numerous opportunities to play it since it came out in 2016, but never bothered because I didn't think I'd enjoy it. Admittedly that judgement was mainly based on thematic and aesthetic grounds. It's set in some sort of alternate 1920s history in some sort of unspecified geography, precisely the type of fantasy/post-apocalyptic/steam-punk bollocks that gets right on my wick. Furthermore, it has a combination of a few ridiculous looking plastic pieces, which are not in scale with each other, and a few equally random sized wooden meeples making it a visual abomination. Anyway, I finally played it and hated it. I have been persuaded to give it another go tomorrow on the probably specious grounds that it will grow on me second time around. We shall see.