Looks fun. How many showed up? Which game was the 'hit' of the day?

I played 'Takenoko' for the first time yesterday. It's an adorably cute tile-laying game with a lovable panda and towers of bamboo. Easy to pick up and offered different ways to acquire victory points. Not too taxing, and there's little room for screwing your buddy over, so it was a friendly hour or so rather than an ultra-competitive one.

Bloody love that game, even though at the cottage our dice were so badly cursed.

Played 2 games of this last night, got the big bad both times and smashed the other players both times. I am winner.

What is it?

Cheers Kern, looks and sounds good!

I'll go if Wookie picks me up in his Scimitar.

Shut Up and Sit Down have just started a new series of videos entitled 'Card Games That Don't Suck', looking at new games playable with just 52 pieces of cardboard rather than hundreds of dollars' worth of Kickstarted bling* that's not available in the shops or a fun game with tiny initial print one.

The first video is a short overview of an interesting and fast poker variant, Ricochet Poket. Going to be keeping an eye on this to build up my repetorie, and thankfully they don't start cooking half-way through.

Has anyone played the Legacy version of this game? I'm only two games in but it's brilliant. You get to alter map tiles and cards permanently and in each game you play as a descendant of your character in the previous game.

when the haunt starts next time I play Betrayal, I'm going to turn all the lights to red

Yes! We played chapter three last night. I'm really enjoying it so far, particularly as the game's always lent itself to light-hearted references to teen horror tropes. We're enjoying writing up their "fates" on the back of the card after each game too.





Brilliant idea! Might suggest that to my group.

Look what arrived today!

Revising some game rules ahead of Cottage, I noticed that one of my games helpfully reminds me to punch out the components before starting.

Parks and recreation.

Let's get this out of the way first. This is the most beautiful game I own. From the wooden tokens, to the box inserts, to the gorgeously designed park cards themselves, everything is a visual delight. Better than that, the artwork doesn't get in the way of the graphic design, so once you've mastered the simple iconic language it's pretty clear what does what. My dimly lit pub photos simply can't do it justice.

So, does the game match up to its promise? Absolutely.

Each player controls a team of two interpid hikers. In this age of social-media-led bragging rights, you aim to have the best year in the outdoors by visiting the most US national parks. And what do parks mean? Points! You can also get additional points by taking Instagram worthy snapshots.

In each of the four seasons, your team trundle along a varied trail of mountains, forests, rivers, and valleys, gathering resources. Land on a mountain, take one home with you! Steal a tree from the forest! Put a sun in your backpack! Steal a bear (animal pieces are ... wait for it ... wild!)! This old Scout's creed of leaving nothing but footprints, taking nothing but photographs doesn't quite apply here, but I'm sure we can pass that by and find another thematic spin on this element. .

When a hiker reaches the end of the trail, they can either buy cool gear to help them on future treks, visit a park by paying its resource cost less any particular bonuses they hold, or "reserve" a park by taking it from the supply with the intent to visit it when funds allow. Different parks give you different amounts of bragging rights, so this is sometimes a good option to prevent an opponent from grabbing a high-scoring one.

However, to really appreciate the outdoors you need solitude, and no hiker (even your own) can share a space with another player. Once you've gone down the trail, there's no turning back either, so every turn you're having to decide whether to forgo a particularly useful resource another piece is hogging, or move your other piece hoping that space will come free. You can only share a space if you can light a fire, and once used up that ability is extinguished until one of your hikers reaches the end. Knowing when to burn the fire card is probably a useful strategy in this game.

Every player also carries a canteen with them to fill up on the way, because dehydration is not fun or clever in the wilderness. If you find water, you can fill it up, and get a bonus. You can carry as many canteens as you can obtain. It's evident that the key to getting the higher-scoring parks is to use canteens in combination with gear cards and the particular rules in play in each season (each of the four changes the rules slightly), as every effect affects everything so you can get multiple combos if you're cunning.

The game was really easy to teach and after the first season the four people I was playing it with had grasped the basic mechanics. It plays pretty fast, helped by the no-man-left-behind rule meaning that when all but one of the hikers has reached journey's end, the remaining one is airlifted to the end space too. Getting the balance between moving quickly along the trail to nab favoured resources and lingering to block others was satisfyingly tricky, and on at least two occasions I damaged my chances by moving too fast. The range of possible combinations of cards, resources, and special rules means each round plays differently. Grabbing a coveted park the guy to my left had been after for ages was a particular highlight too!

It's a fun game with clever mechanics and strategy whilst not being too heavy. And did I tell you how beautiful it looked? Recommended.