Four Games Later... My Wallet Is Nervous

Had a midweek escapade to play board games and temporarily ignore all my adult responsibilities. This was a lovely way to support a friend that is recovering from surgery and cooped up at home during the day, but also any excuse to get cardboard to the table is a good one, right?

There is, however, a dangerous side effect to these sessions: immediate buyer's remorse. I literally left our post-breakfast session and the first moment I was able to, I drove straight to Millennium Games to buy one of the titles we played, only to find that they currently do not have it in stock. Standard gamer pain

Operating strictly as a two player crew, we made it through four very different games, and I have thoughts on how player count changes everything:

💠 Azure

Easily the biggest surprise of the day. Candidly, I probably would have walked right past this one based on the box and theme alone. A great reminder that I am still learning not to judge games by their covers. Because this is strictly a 2-player game, the head-to-head puzzle is incredibly sharp.

The first play broke my brain. The rules are simple, but the abstract puzzle is a lot to process at first. Then something clicked. We ended up playing it three times in a row because I immediately needed “just one more game.” I need a copy of this on my shelf and need to hopefully win some day. Can't wait to teach this one to my wife. There's an expansion, and I would be curious to try that too

🐟 Finspan + Sharks & Reefs Expansion

I already enjoyed Finspan’s engine, especially how it streamlines Wingpsan. I was afraid that the table we were eat was too small, but we made it work. Fun fact, we had some folks come and comment on the game. I really like it when people are curious enough to be like, “whoa, whatcha got there?”

The Sharks & Reefs expansion adds a whole new layer with coral reef ecosystems and those two part fish abilities. I definitely need more plays to understand the math behind optimizing the reefs, but it adds a really interesting puzzle without making the game feel bloated. Only downside is that now I want to buy the upgrade tokens

🐉 Flamecraft Duals

Adorable. There is no other word for it. It takes everything I love about Flamecraft and packs it into a smaller, faster package. The deluxe components are also absolutely chef’s kiss except for the map which doesn’t sit 100% flat. The art is still gorgeous, the tokens are chunky and you're constantly trying to fill your two dragon cards while your opponent keeps ruining your plans. Just when you think you got it, your opponent plays a token exactly where they did not need to

I expected it to be a lighter experience, but I was pleasantly surprised. Now I’m stuck with the classic board gamer problem: do I need the deluxe version, or do I just want the deluxe version? (The answer is definitely yes, which made it sting even worse when I found it sold out at the store this afternoon)

🍷 Wine Cellar

This one was a really interesting, though I do have one very important thematic complaint: no Chilean wines? Missed opportunity and no, I’m not salty about it! Not at all 😂

The gameplay is a tight bidding and sequencing challenge. You play a card, the highest number gets first pick, and then you’re trying to arrange your wines in a cellar of eight cards while maximizing your score. It looks simple until the scoring starts. You think you have everything perfectly planned, then one missing connection completely changes your final points. We played at two players, but this is a warning: don't judge the game by its 2-player performance. We played at two, but this feels like one that could really shine with four or more. I suspect the drafting tension gets much tighter as more players fight over the same wines, so I'm holding off on a final verdict until I've seen it at a higher player count