Valley Of Pandemic - Chain Reaction | My Week That Was ... (2025)

Monday

X nimmt! - A quick game to fill the time while we all finished eating and decided what we wanted to play. This is definitely growing on me, it seems to have more strategy to 6 Nimmt I feel; allowing for some planning and heavier thinking about which cards to pick up and play. Will try to get a few more plays of this to see how it fares over more sessions.

Pandemic: The Cure - I recently picked up the expansion to this at Octobers Essen Fair and have yet to get it to the table; after finally getting it to the table and realising that I wasn't 100% on the rules of the new stuff after olny skim reading it a month previously we settled on some new roles and away we went. We seemed to be doing so well until like usual in most co-op games one bad role set us off on a path that led us to an inevitable loss. I really like how this gives you the feel of pandemic with a smaller time and a different spin on the same mechanics, we've recently played both new pandemic releases (Cthulhu and Iberia) and neither seem to reach classic pandemic or the cure. I'll have to reread the rules again if I want to get the other modules in the expansion actually played.

Escape from Colditz - A friend had recently bought a copy of the 1973 classic escape from colditz, this is an up to date reprint of the original game. This is a perfect example of an old game with some tired mechanics, this is a reprint of the same game with the same tired mechanics. Would not recommend or play again, there are so many better things I could spend my time doing.

Libertalia - We played this numerous times when it first came out, since then it's popularity seems to have died down. We gave this another spin with some new players and it still holds up; we were a little rusty but after the first round we were swashbuckling with the rest of them. (Can you actually swashbuckle?) It's nothing amazing, I wouldn't after playing this go out to buy a copy, but I would play this again.

Sunday

Deus - Every time I play this I seem to enjoy it more.
What seems to happen is people say that they dislike the design of the board, but then after playing it really seem to enjoy the game. It's quick and has a surprising amount of depth to it. I own the expansion but have yet to play with experienced players and so have had to restrain myself. MAYBE NEXT TIME! (He says shaking his fist in the sky)

The Manhattan Project: Chain Reaction - I'm a fan of The Manhattan Project, it's a really solid worker placement game. I've seen the spin offs come out over the last few years, I've given them a look at the hope that it's more of the same awesome gameplay but no such luck. We played this and though it's boiled down to it's core components, mining yellow cake turning it into uranium and building bombs it is surprisingly fun and gives you s similar feel to the base game. I like that it lasts 15 minutes or so and the turns a really quick, there is a little card stealing and yellow cake thievery but nothing that would give you a salty taste in the mouth. This has been added to the Christmas list.

Valley of the Kings: Afterlife - Me and deckbuilders get on really well; we're the best of friends. So I've heard of these games but I always feel that a new deckbuilder has to achieve a lot to compare to some of the greats. This is ok. Some good card manipulation throughout your deck and draw pile, interesting card buying strategies. I'd would certainly play it again and for the right price pick up a copy.

Super Motherload - Third new game of the day and another deckbuilder to add to my list. This takes a few of the normal deckbuilding tropes and mixes them up, you never draw back up at the end of your turn and instead have to spend actions to draw and actions to dig through the alien landscape to collect resources. Those resources you then spend on buying new cards to add to your deck which in turn will gain you points. Good but not entirely enthused enough that I'd want to play it again anytime soon.

Until next week...