LONERS LOUNGE

I took advantage of what will be a rare weekend with nothing going on this summer, and got to the table to play some games yesterday. SO MUCH FUN! First up, was Eleven: Football Manager. I played with the Stadium Expansion (which really is a staple now I'd say) and the International Players Expansion. I love the scouting mechanism with this expansion. You can see in the picture, my team's scouting token (yellow logo with the airplane on it. Here, I'm in Asia scouting players. To fly to another area of the world to scout, I have to pay the cost of an airplane. Here, I flew from Asia to Africa, as I had my eye on a particular player. I ended up ranking as "Assistant to the Manager" with 42VPs in the end. My second best so far. 😀 Owning all expansions now, I need to dive into another expansion to try it out. Most likely the Unexpected Events expansion. Next to the table was Distilled.... I was so close to reaching the 'A' goal and being able to score in the end. I needed to make Pisco in the final round and it would've got me there. Once you complete at least one goal in each row, then you score based on the red numbers you see on some of the goal cards I completed. In this case, the target score would've been 85 VP. I finished with 66 VP (my best yet), and that's without the Pisco. I unfortunately lost a fruit sugar during the distilling process, which is what prevented me from not being able to sell it and get the points. 🙄 I had to settle with Vodka.... Ugh. And lastly, I headed under the Evertree, with Everdell. I've been playing this on Steam recently, so I had the itch to get it to the table. It's such a beautiful game when it's played at the table. And I love that it's reasonably quick too. I could easily get a couple games in last night before bed. Sadly, Rugwort had it in for me last night and he took both games. All in all, a welcomed evening at the table yesterday. Can't wait to do it again!

This week I'm playing some Apex Theropod. 🦖 It's a thematic deck builder, where all dino decks and bosses play a bit different. I've got the first edition, with all expansion packs from the second edition and playmats from the collected edition 😁 I like how adapting (which Evolve cards to buy) and planning (when to set an ambush) work - in this smooth and uncomplicated game. I also think it's fun that even if you win, the deck will inevitably tell you there's an asteroid heading your way.

It was the end of August 2022. I pre-ordered a game that sat high on my wishlist since I first learned of it; Distilled. A few months go by, and the hope of it arriving for Christmas 2022 was fading. There were hold ups in production and shipping (of course). I started 2023 with optimism, figuring by my birthday in early February I'd be distilling my own spirits like a pro... but hope faded again. By March and April it seemed like everyone else was receiving their copies of this elusive game, including some others in Canada. Yet, I waited. FINALLY, last Thursday May 4th (of all wonderful days!!) it finally arrived and found its new home. 😎 I first of all couldn't get over the size of the box. Just a touch bigger than Tapestry. Wow. Decent size. I wonder what's inside?? 🤔 Distilled comes with fantastic trays to house all your components! This was a really nice surprise. Here's the card draw before unwrapping the decks. Notice the "STOP" paper on the left?? So this double sided sheet of paper I found at the top of the box as I opened it has a pretty neat little trick; Don't throw out the punchboards after punching your components. 😮 It suggests putting all of those empty punchboards underneath the above tray, which sits them at the bottom of the box. These now act as a riser for you and allows everything to side nicely flush in the box when you put the game away. 😃 Cool!! Now that's recycling! Wonderful rulebooks accompany this beautiful looking game, including a step by step "first taste" book if you prefer. The rulebook is about the size of the Brass Birmingham book. Lots of pictures, and easy to read rules. Here's some of my trays filled with my components. 😁 Awesome! **Sadly to report, as I type this on Tuesday May 9th, I have only settled down this past weekend to a half-two handed playthrough to get the idea of the game. This could be a record for me, as when a new game arrives I get right to it. But, sometimes, life gets in the way right? At least it's home now. What I can say so far is the production quality is fantastic, the strategy is going to be excellent and the rules are pretty smooth from what I can tell so far. Just before stopping on Saturday afternoon, I managed to make a batch of Whiskey to sell (my personal fav) and a nice dark rum as well. 🙂 I can't wait to sit down to learn the solo mode (sometime) this week!!! I will absolutely provide some thoughts as usual. 😉