Gloomhaven Buttons & Bugs.
What a triumph this game is for distilling down the essence of Gloomhaven into a tiny, solo package. The story cards double as the maps, the ability cards are double sided so flip from A side to B side when used, then B side to 'discarded' when used again. The miniatures are genuinely miniature!!
The game is small but the decisions are still as chunky as the original. Timing is everything and the scenarios are super tight, often coming down to the roll of a dice and that last hit point. Scenarios last 20-30 minutes depending on how much you want to weigh up your options.
I've been having a lot of fun playing as the Bruiser to learn the ropes and will definitely play through again as one of the other characters. I can't recommend this game enough for a quick solo dungeon crawler.
#gloomhaven#buttonsandbugs#gloomhavenbuttonsandbugs#dungeonsanddragons#dungeoncrawl#miniaturegaming#bgg#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgames#tabletopgames#sologamer#sologaming#solitaire#cephalofairgames
Pocket Book Adventures
This is a super neat dungeon crawl experience that utilizes a very novel dexterity element to determine outcomes of combat and looting.
Following the area's rules you will draw a path through the territory picking up loot and fighting monsters. Combat occurs whenever you stop next to a space adjacent to an enemy and is resolved by placing the tip of your pencil on the line by the monster's name, closing your eyes, then lifting the pencil up and striking the target zone. Where you land determines the damage you take and any potential effects that might trigger.
This simple system is so fun and removes the need for dice or cards to give randomness.
I'm loving this Kickstarter and can't praise it enough for a portable game you can get out at a coffee shop for example. Thanks to @jubileegarden.uk for the coffee too.
#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgame#tabletopgames#bgg#pocketbookadventures#grumpyspidergames#coffeebreak#sologamer#sologaming#penandpaper#pencilandpaper#dungeoncrawl#dungeonsanddragons#loot
50 clues: Leopold parts 1-3
This is a room escape style puzzle game similar to Deckscape, Unlock!, Decktective etc. There is a website that you will log into in order to enter the codes you find during the game, similar to the Unlock! app. The game doesn't have a timer but puts emphasis on solving the puzzles accurately rather than quickly.
The puzzles aren't too difficult but they do seem to cover a lot of different puzzle skills, such as 3d thinking, logical comprehension, mathematical puzzles and linking actions into chains amongst others.
I will say when I first saw this set of games I gave it a hard pass for its theme. An outdated asylum escape that many of us are bored of. I only picked these up because they were so cheap in a discount sale recently.
I'm not sold on the theme at all, and I wish they had gone with something else because the underlying game is actually really solid. The game is very dark and contains a lot of violence and could be quite triggering which I felt was unnecessary. It's a real shame in the end because I actually really enjoyed solving the puzzles and getting a high score. I would also only suggest this as a solo or 2 player game, why you would want to play this with 5 players is beyond me.
#boardgamesofinstagram#roomescapegame#bgg#tabletopgames#50clues#escape#escaperoom#cardgame#sologamer#sologaming#boardgame
Rove: results-oriented versatile explorer.
Another solo button shy game.
In Rove you will use action points to manipulate your modules to navigate the dangers of the planet you have crash landed on.
You have 6 modules that each move in different ways and have unique actions that can be used once per game.
You draw a hand of movement cards which you will use to move your modules around to meet the current mission objective. When playing a movement card you will gain the top number of action points unless your current configuration matches that of the movement card, in which case you'll gain the higher number at the bottom. You then spend these points to perform movements of your modules in an attempt to match the formation on the mission card.
Once you have completed 7 missions you win, however if you run out of cards and module powers, you lose.
This game is crunchy!! Trying to figure out the most streamlined route to the formation you need, knowing when to take a suboptimal move so you can maximise movement points on your next card. Trying to leave those module powers until you really need them. I think this is a really clever game.
#buttonshygames#bgg#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgames#tabletopgames#sologamer#sologaming#dustindobson#milanzivkovic#rove#rovecardgame#explorer#space#cardgame#outerspace#astronaut
Food Chain Island
It's Hunger Games meets Solitaire. In this solo only game you will create a 4x4 grid of animals numbered 0-15. Each animal wants to feast on its prey, which are the 3 cards that come numerically before it. To do this the predator must be orthogonally adjacent to the prey. Once the predator has eaten the prey it is placed on top forming a stack and then its power activates.
These powers allow you to manipulate the board state and occasionally make your life harder as you try to puzzle out a couple of turns ahead.
Unlike Solitaire you win when you are left with 1, 2 or 3 stacks, continuing until you can no longer perform an action.
The 2 sea creatures give you one time use powers to help if you find yourself in a dead end.
This game is really light and cosy. It was really quick to learn and doesn't take up much space, plus the game has you essentially packing it away as you play!
#bgg#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgames#tabletopgames#cardgame#foodchainisland#Kickstarter#buttonshygames#buttonshy#scottalmes#sologamer#sologaming#solitaire#animal#island#hungergames#food#predator
Forests of Pangaia
As a forest spirit you are tasked with filling the land with trees. Players take turns growing trees from previously planted seeds, planting new seeds adjacent to their woodland spirit, collecting resources or fulfilling objectives and then finally adding treetops to increase the height of their canopy.
The objectives are where players gain their points and they come in 3 flavours. A player may complete a route by tracing a line from one terrain type to another that they have trees in, scoring points per tree in the route but potentially also giving resources to opponents trees used to complete the route. A player may complete a star objective if they have a tree on the designated terrain type with at least one adjacent tree. That player scores points for all adjacent trees and the original tree. Finally a peak objective scores for the highest tree of a terrain, scoring its height+1 points. Each time an objective is scored the trees that were used are decayed by one level except in the case of a peak objective where that tree is completely removed. Afterwards new seeds are spread if available.
This game is super cute but don't let that fool you into thinking this is anything less than a really smart, sometimes cutthroat game of timing and positioning. This is the game I wanted Photosynthesis and Bosk to be.
#bgg#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgames#tabletopgames#sologamer#gamesfortwo#forestsofpangaia#pangaia#forest#forestspirit#kokoro#totoro#terrain
After a very stressful couple of weeks, that saw me revise for and sit my AAT L4 exam whilst also moving to a new team at work, I had the absolute pleasure of spending 5 nights on the beautiful island of #santorini
As my birthday fell during that mad 2 weeks, this was a sort of belated birthday celebration with the most wonderful @melissa_a_griffin exploring what wonders the island had to offer
We stayed at the beautiful @sunnyvillas.santorini who were super helpful, and had breakfast on our balcony every morning. #imeroglivi was a lovely quiet part of the island just North of #fira
We went on a catamaran cruise, visited #akrotiri saw sunsets all over the island, including at #oia . We had delicious food and wine at @santo_wines and @venetsanoswinery . We walked miles and ate so much delicious food. Highlights were restaurants Anogi, The Wine Bar, a little cocktail bar we ended up in called @bartonavagio and @idol_restaurant
I had the best time and I didn't want to come home. Thank you Melissa for making the whole holiday and my birthday really special xxx
#holiday#travel#sunset#birthdaypresent#winetasting#cheese#gyros#greekfood#greekwine#island#islandlife#birthday#flights
Dog Park 🐕
This absolute beauty of a game pits players against eachother to become the most reputable dog walker.
The game lasts 4 rounds broken into 4 phases. First, in turn order, players bid for their dog of choice from the "field" secretly using their offer dials. Players pay that amount in points to add their chosen dog to their kennel board. Any losing bids pay 1 point for one of the unchosen dogs.
Secondly each player chooses which dogs to walk that round by paying the cost in balls/bones/sticks/toys taking into account any bonuses for putting a selected dog on the lead. Each selected dog gains a collar token to show it has been walked.
Next players move along the park path collecting resources and taking space actions until they reach the end of the track. And finally, players score points for the dogs they have walked, minus any unwalked dogs and score any round bonuses.
At the end of the game players score for their position on the track, any dog bonuses in their kennel, breed majorities in each kennel and objective cards.
This game is beautiful, it's about dogs and is a breezy teach and play. To me it feels like all the best bits of wingspan and parks combined into one package. While thematically it doesn't make a huge amount of sense, the game itself is solid and fun.
#bgg#boardgamesofinstagram#boardgames#tabletopgames#sologaming#sologamer#dogs#rescuedogsofinstagram#dogparkgame#dogpark#park#fetch#birdwoodgames#hounds#cardgame#wingspan#dogwalking#puppy
Hunted: Mining Colony 415
I've been after this for a little while now and finally found a copy so snapped it up.
This is a neat little push-your-luck dexterity card game. On your turn you draw a card from the top of the deck into the card row. These cards may be items of equipment, crew members, corridors or aliens. You continue drawing cards until you either have enough icons available to activate cards in the row and therefore do the relevant action, or you've drawn 2 aliens or have an alien and 2 bell symbols, in which case a fight occurs.
Fighting is the dexterity part of the game. As long as you have a rifle with ammo you select how many shots you want to take and chuck that many tokens into the box. The box contains a picture of an alien and a target zone. Each token that lands in the zone scores a hit and reduces the aliens health, you continue until the alien is dead.
Additionally you can hide, which wipes all cards from the card row. The aim of the game is to reach the landing pad which is near the bottom of the location deck. Several actions, such as fighting, hiding and reloading cost time, which is a precious resource.
This game is a real delight, has some tight choices for you to make but is also fresh and light. Chucking that bad boy grenade token into the box never gets old. This is definitely a keeper and makes me want to try out the other Hunted game that uses dice instead of dexterity.
#boardgamesofinstagram#bgg#boardgames#tabletopgames#dexteritygames#gabebarrett#miningcolony415#hunted#huntedboardgame#alien#aliens#sologaming#sologamer#solo#pulserifle
