Oh Flip...

Life moves on and situations change.  Toomuchlead towers is having to relocate, once again, and this reflects a sad change of circumstances personally; but one I am dealing with as best I can.  In the short term it means gaming opportunities are limited to those of the board and card orientation whilst I get a new apartment, broadband service and everything else arranged.  

Still, no point moping.

On a note I'm told is not as selfish as it sounds in my head, I've been able to reconnect with a lot of friends, both gaming and non-gaming and my social life by necessity and as an unexpected benefit has exploded.  In the last couple of weeks I've played numerous games, including Splendor, Five Tribes, Spyfall, Magic: The Gathering, Eight Minute Empire and others.

Two stood to getting Photo's at the time and so I guess get a little more discussion.  Firstly Carcassone: Wheel of Fortune. 

Let's Spin that Wheel!...

Basically it is standard Carcassonne (you can see my 'review' of the game Here if you are not familiar with it), but with a mid game bonus scoring mechanic inserted thanks to the massive central wheel tile that starts the game.  You can play meeples to tiles as normal or to the wheel as a sort of bet on outcomes.  when tles with a wheel number are drawn the spin marker moves that number of places and the resultant wheel position is scored.

This added a very random element, but one I was fortunate to reap the rewards of.  In game I found myself with three large unfinished cities full of bonus points and ordinarily these would have got me very little, but thanks to good fortune on the wheel they scored me mid-game bonus points repeatedly, and so I ended up a runaway winner having achieved very little in real terms.  Is this a good expansion? I don't know, I think it took a lot of planning away from the game in favour of luck.  But it could be a good option for less skilful players to even up the scores.

Secondly I came across a solo game that feels like a modern day Patience-killer.

 

Flip City is a simple little card game that uses just 6 different cards.  However each card is double sided with the opposite face being an upgraded version of the top face.  You play cards from your hand to a 'Push your Luck' mechanism, whereby you can stop at any time, unless a card says otherwise looking to earn money to buy more cards or to accrue points or cards in front of you in a turn to win.  You play from the deck rather than a hand of cards so the choice is rather like a version of Blackjack; yes you can see what is coming, but if you draw that card and under it is negative card you have to play you can still go bust easily.

Flipping cards is an option instead of buying new ones, and this allows more victory points of better special rules to come into play.  Although the game works as a 2-4 player game, my one play in that format seemed a little slow, whereas the solo variant I've already had five or six games of, with only one win, and in this context it becomes a thirty card game which you could tuck in a pocket for train journeys or other downtime moments.  I think it shines in solo mode (and is pretty tough to win).

With no internet at home for the next two weeks, I'm sure it'll see more play.

In the mean time, apologies if it's a bit thin on content over here; back to normal soon.

Yet again...