by Isra C.
In order to keep track about what we play and who won and something like that, I'm opening this blog here, on BGG instead of make it in own personal blog (www.llamadice.com) because I want to write it in english (and try to improve my writing english skills -so feel free to correct me-).We (llamadice) are game designers from Spain that we play more than we design and we do what we do because we love playing. So although me, Isra (Israel Cendrero) write this blog, the 99% of the plays is Shei (Sheila Santos) involved.
So the week started with playing the latest version of our 'secret' prototype that we sent to our publisher Meridiano 6 in the way the designers Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro and Paulo Soledade test their games: Playing the 4-player game but every designer playing with 2 'dummy' players. Totally a brain burner and we have to develop that skill because it's quite useful for testing our own games before test them with people.
The day after, we decide to play for the very first time Troyes with the expansion The Ladies of Troyes (that it was in the shelf since 2014 when we bought in bundle with the base game) and some things we liked and we don't (at the moment) The new activity cards were awesome and give to the game a ton of replayability. The purple dice was really Ok but it makes the game easier and I'm not sure about it but it was cool. The other modules we didn't liked so much but well... you have to put more stuff in the box if you want to sell a bigger box. With a deck of cards adding activity, events and characters will be enough. Anyway: super enjoyable as always (and also Shei won teaching me a lesson).
The thursday we played again a hidden gem from last year Spiel: Coal Baron: The Great Card Game A twist of it's big brother that makes the game tougher but what could be a board game instead of a card game because the game expands in your table so much that it's mandatory to make room for the cards. Choosing Wolfgang Kramer&Michael Kiesling is always a winner.
Friday at last! We spend the whole afternoon and evening playing with our friends Dave, San and later Pepelu. We started the session with Lorenzo il Magnifico with 4 players. There was the first time for Dave & San and I admit that I took some advantage of they and I widely won. Shei didn't make it so well as the last times. I love this game so much even we designed a solitaire variant for it :)
Then we play a really quick game of Barony in which Shei won with quite a supremacy over us. I really like this game but I think that is better Taluva than this one.
After having dinner we play a brand new game that (finally) arrives at home: Villages of Valeria A kickstarter game that it's like Tiny Epic Kingdoms but waaaaaay better to me. Is the same mechanism of leading/following actions like San Juan/Puerto Rico/RftG but lighter. I liked it a lot despite having an awful experience with this kickstarter. It's difficult not-to-blame the game for it but being honest, the game is really enjoyable. Pepelu won this one but every one were near. Really tight!
And the last one of the friday session was Turn the Tide when Shei completely destroyed us playing the right cards in the right time. This game is totally a winner when you're under 5 players and you want to play something like Nimnt 6!.
On Saturday our friends Jorge & Ana came to our place to have another long session! But sadly the two games (and the dinner) took us too long and only we could play a couple of games.
We started with Vital Lacerda's The Gallerist. Such a great game but tough. I'm not sure about its version of 4 player (because until then, I'd only played with Shei before). I think I prefer its 2-player version because the mechanism of pulling off the players workers is cool but it makes the game a little bit tedious (especially when your turn never comes!). It's pure art on the table when the game ends. Such a pretty board and bits :). Ah, I won with an advantage of ~20 points, but it's because of experiencie of the previous games :laugh:
After having dinner (The gallerist took us about 4 hours) we played the new game from our beloved Stefan Feld: The Oracle of Delphi. A game of pick and deliver (and I hate pick and deliver) without points but with every Feld touch in every rule. It was super good and it was tense at very last time, when I made my final turn completing the last task and returning immediately to Zeus :meeple:
And on Sunday, just a another game that came to us thanks to Jorge & Ana and their joint pledge that took to arrive a lot of time (exactly the same experiencie as Villages of Valeria): Santorini
Really good abstract game that we enjoyed only in its simpler variant. The nex week we played with gods because we felt that all the meaty gods give the game a rise for sure.
And the week was done. Many many games played in just one week <3 :meeple:
Thanks for reading!