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Stephen Smith
United States
Columbus
Mississippi
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So Thor at GameSurplus came through for me again. After BGG.con last year, I asked him about some of the games I was interested in. The most recent finally arrived, resulting in another order from him.
Sun, Sea & Sand
This was the last game I was waiting for Thor to receive. He actually received as batch earlier in the year, but I passed on the game at the time because I wasn't expecting to make another order anytime soon. Then he received the next game on this list shortly thereafter and I was kicking myself. Fortunately, he was expecting some more copies. I was happy to hear that it finally arrived and placed this order.
This game is actually kind of the odd man out on the BGG.con games I asked about. I didn't actually get around to playing it, but I did hear some good things about it. I also have a tendency to like the Cwali games that do grab my attention. Finally, it seems like an easy game to trade away if I end up not liking it. A nice little bonus is that it uses a real Courie shell as the start player marker. How cool is that.
At any rate, I hope to get it played soon. I have high hopes. My ability to get new games in the collection played this year has been better than usual, if not exactly stellar.
Rallyman
This was the first game that I played at this past BGG.con. I don't recall having heard anything about it prior to arriving, but it looked nice, and I am something of a sucker for race games.
That this is based on actual rally racing makes this operate differently than most race games. For one, there is a staggered start, so you are actually racing the clock. Movement is based on gear and acceleration dice, with the gear you end your turn in determining the total "time" for the turn. On top of this are four double sided boards with a variety of track pieces that can be mixed and matched for all sorts of challenges.
I thoroughly enjoyed my play of this at the Con and look forward to being able to play at home. Unfortunately, the dice can stick it to you, but them's the apples. Random bad things can happen in real-life rally through no fault of your own. Sounds thematic to me.
1853
The third game in my order from GameSurplus. I've had my eye on this for a loooong time, but it was terribly hard to find. I was very excited when Mayfair announced that they were going to be publishing it. Given my love of train games, it is surprising that it took me this long to pick it up.
I've developed a significant fondness for 18xx games. I don't think that they are the pinnacle of train game achievement that some of their followers seem to ascribe to them. They are good games, though, and I am generally happy to play them. Unfortunately, most of them are fairly long. They are also fairly deep economic games. That limits the number of players interested in playing. And time limits when those few players can get together.
I don't expect that I will get this one played anytime soon, but I can always hope.
At the Gates of Loyang
I picked this game up separately from the other two, but at close to the same time. A recent Tanga deal was to get this for under $20. With shipping and some Tanga cash, it came out to right at $21. I figure that it reasonable enough. I've enjoyed the other recent Uwe games but have not been able to play this one. Unfortunately, a lot of the locals were not enthused when they played which leaves little opportunity for me to get a game in. I figured it was worth the shot. We'll see.
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