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Doug Herring
United States
Pflugerville
Texas
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Some new games to talk about:
I have had the luck and opportunity to end up with a number of newer game titles recently and have been playing the heck out of them; thus the lack of updates from me here.
I don’t want to spend this time doing in depth reviews on these games but just wanted to let you know if I am enjoying them, can get them to the table, or they are simply not fun. The good news is I have not run into much of the later as most of the new releases have been pretty solid.
Dungeon Lords
I will start on the lowest note and while this is not a new game it is new to my collection. I had recently picked up Dungeon Lords and eagerly read the rules. OK, it was immediately obvious it was a bit fiddly but I am ok with that. The problem is I cannot get it to the table. Those of my gaming group that have played it were not hyped to play it again. The general comment was that while it is a neat idea it can fall flat during gameplay. So, I will give this a thumbs down for the simple reason no one wants to play. I am sure I will get it to the table at some point and the game looks really neat.
Braggart
One of my recent additions is a little filler card game that I saw review by Undead Viking a while back called Braggart! Now, this game was not super high on my list but it was cheap and looked like something different. My family really likes this game. It is simple and fun and if you are playing with the right people, willing to boast their hearts out, is very enjoyable. It is a filler game to be sure but it is satisfying to play multiple times.
Alien Frontiers
Man oh man was this game hyped up by the time I got it. A true Kickstarter success story and by all accounts a LOAD of fun. I have played it a few times now. Not enough to really do a deep dive review but enough to say it is an enjoyable game and will hit the table due to the ease of rules explanation and game mechanics. Is the game all it is hyped up to be? Well, I probably would have said yes if not for the game up next. They share only a shred of commonality but it is the dice worker placement style that makes people compare them. Before moving on I DO like Alien Frontiers though i did run into a couple in my group that felt it was simply OK. To me , it is way better than OK but to each their own. I like dice and spaceships so combining the two is cool.
Troyes
This is by far my favorite of the new load of games I have. I am very eager to play this every chance I get. Even when we went through our first couple of plays and botched some rules it was really fun. I think what sets this above Alien Frontiers is the variety of each game. While the mechanics are clear enough and the game play is the same the cards change it all u.p every time. This keeps the game pretty fresh.
I highly recommend this game and if you like the dice mechanic, go get Alien Frontiers and Kingsburg (with expansion of course)too as all three in your collection make for some darn good dice worker gaming.
Yggdrasil
My complete inability to pronounce the title of this game not withstanding, this has been another solid addition to my collection. It has been compared often to Ghost Stories but to be honest, I d not see the comparison. This game plays a lot MORE like Legions of Darkness by VP games, which is a solo only game that I like.
Other than the fact you can play solo, or you can play with others and there is a good amount of iconogrpaphy I found this and Ghost Stories entirely different. I have played Yggdrasil solo and with others and it is a load of very tense fun either way. I was surprised to find that playing the game unmodified (basic difficulty level) it is actually harder to win with others than it is solo. It is definitely one of my top solo games along with LOTR: The card game, Ghost Stories, and Thunderstone. I need a few more plays in a group before judging the multiplayer aspect of the game.
Games I have that have not hit the table yet for one irrelevant reason or another are Dakota, Letters from Whitechapel, Pergamon (started a game with my son but did not finish), and some older games that are new additions: Return of the Heroes (and Under the Shadows of the Dragon), and a brand spanking new copy of Puerto Rico. I am not sure why that last one was not in my collection but there you have it.
I also got to play some new IOS board games on my Ipad and thought I might share some thoughts there.
Tikal:
I should like this more. It is, after all, exactly like the board game for the most part. It plays fine and the implementation is decent (though the jeeps are a little small). For some reason after a couple of plays I am just not playing it anymore. Strangely, another game I recently downloaded I have been playing a lot of.
Feast & Famine:
I saw a review of the board game on Dice Tower recently and remembered that there was an Ios version to try. It was very cheap so I grabbed it. It is actually pretty good. Like the board game you can play the Feast part of the game separately from the Famine, and visa versa. It makes sense to play both to conclusion as the games do not take long at all. It is not horribly deep but the implementation is pretty good and it is a solid time passer.
Ticket To Ride:
Next to Carcassonne and Small World this is probably the best implementation of a board game to IOS that I have seen. With a couple of updates which are supposed to come soon (pass & play) it may very well be the best board game conversion to date.Pick this up if you have an Ipad.
All in all this a GREAT game month for me. I am really looking forward to getting some of the games to the table I have not had the opportunity to play yet.
If you have any questions about these games feel free t o ask.
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.. Hope to game with you soon. 
