In addition to Apocrypha, which I’ve played every day this week, I’ve also been spending some time with Arkham Noir and Race for the Galaxy.
The more time I spend with Arkham Noir the more I realize it’s a little too puzzley for my tastes. Sure, maybe that’s because it actually is a puzzle game comprised of trying to locate and assemble specific type of clues in certain sequences when solving cases, but I’m finding out I don’t like having to dedicate so much brain power to a matching game.
And while some cards do have effects that give me a little more room to steer the next few turns of the game in one direction or another, I still find that most options available to me from turn to turn are more decided by where my cards can be played rather than could or should be played. Too often I don’t often feel like I have as much say in my success as the card order of my draw deck.
As for Race for the Galaxy, I’m sort of cheating by putting this one in the board gaming thread. While I do actually own the physical game and a few expansions, I’ve instead been playing the digital version of the game vs AI. I’ve tried the solo AI on the physical version, but the app is so slick, and its “Hard” mode so perfectly tuned to my skill level, that it’s a vastly better experience for me. But I’m still putting this one here because I plan to get my wife back into this game over the next couple days, and I’ll be doing that with our physical copy for now.
We used to play the game together ten years ago, but stopped when we bought a house and all my physical board gaming more or less came to halt halt in favor of video games for years and years. But I’ve been talking with her about how much fun I’ve been having with this game lately and she recalled how much she enjoyed playing me way in the way back, so the plans sort of made themselves. It’s a date, and we won’t even have to wear COVID masks.
Because I’ll be re-introducing my wife to RFTG this weekend I might not have time to get around to playing Ghost Stories with her, but I’m hoping to do that as well. The more I play the base game solo the more I realize how much I enjoy it. but I don’t want to spend too much time teaching new game after new game before we settle into a groove with any one of them. So this might be put off for another week or so, we shall see.