@atomheartbevo Finally got War Room to the table, which is a war game that looks like it could be the center of a table in a... war room. It even has staves, so you know it's the business. It's designed by Larry Harris, who's most famous for creating Axis & Allies. I think it's an amazing game and can see why people obsess over the war game genre as a whole, done right these are lifestyle type games.
War Room is the first game I've played that has completely obsoleted my 5x5 table. I had to use a folding table to hold as much of the admin stuff as I could, and it was STILL very tight.
They Live finally arrived, but we haven't had a chance to play it yet. Our names are printed on the thank you page in the manual, which is a cool touch. Looking forward to trying it out. I don't have many other traitor games and this theme is obviously perfect for that. If they nail the gameplay...
Also tried Final Girl, a solo only game where you play the last girl alive in a horror movie. Fun and clever puzzle solver with a lot of replayability.
Since that was a hit, I decided to try ISS Vanguard as a solo game. I've only just starting learning the game, but plan to start playing this weekend. Hearing good things and the theme is right up my alley - People are calling it Star Trek in a box, which, from reading the manual so far, might not cover the entire experience. We'll see.
Also played Zombicide: Undead or Alive. This is my first proper Zombicide game (I own Night of the Living Dead, but that's only 2 measly boxes of content) but it seems haaaaard. Two games in and we haven't come close to beating a scenario. I hope I'm doing something wrong at this point. The game mechanics are awfully fun, though, and chucking that many dice is always a loud time. (Euros have a high floor, but Ameritrash games have a very high, exciting ceiling)
The recent Western Legends mountain range token holder kickstarter delivered. I'm such a sucker for table presence and WL already had it in spades, pardon the pun. This kicks it up a notch while adding a bit of functionality. Still waiting for the Big Box to deliver.
Lacrimosa is one of my favorite games of 2022. The theme is you're tasked with finishing the piece Mozart was working on when he died. The gameplay is super solid and the production is top notch. Amadeus is one of our favorite movies (shoutout to Texas Ex F. Murray Abraham), so this one was easy to enjoy.
Also played Obsession. We very much love Downton Abbey and this is that. Great worker placement game with some pretty cool thematic elements. I'm not sold on the art, but apparently this is how shit looked around the turn of the century. Regardless, the game deserves its reputation. Looking forward to playing it some more.
ChessUp delievered, too. I was on the chess team in high school (because I was too cool not to be), but rust has long set in and I can get my ass handed to me pretty convincingly by a yoked up AI. I'm hoping to travel with ChessUp and polish up those skills instead of wasting time on the Switch playing Metroid: Prime (aka the greatest game ever to be designed in Austin).
And we've been playing the usual suspects like Return to Dark Tower (most recently with the card holders and 3D locations, complete with LED lights, because overboard is exactly where I like to be in relation to the board). Still our favorite co-op, even though it feels like we only win about 25% of the time.
And Smartphone, which surprises me that it doesn't get more run than it does. Such a fun economic game.
And, of course, Kingdom Death: Monster, because nothing makes you feel so alive as pain.
That should catch me up.