It’s another week, and we’re taking another dive into the games played by the DWP writing team. Let’s dive right in with Kimberly T:

I’ve been playing Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle recently. We’re 5 games in and our win ratio dropped rapidly once we hit Game 4 and Game 5. I can’t imagine what Games 6 and 7 have in store for us. The Villains and Dark Arts Cards have really given us a run for our money. And I get that the game has to grow and develop, providing harder challenges for the gamers, but boy has it been tough to overcome the baddies in these later games. Mostly it was due to my expectations set early in the series: the first 2 games were real softballs, barely breaking a sweat. Then in Game 3, things got dicey. As a developing cooperative game, I understand the need to start easy and learn the rules so that your heroes can grow, much like they do in the books/movies. I’ll keep you posted on the final outcome…

Spending some time in the digital realm is Matthew R:

Someone in my game group organized a 12-player, 3-table Castles of Burgundy tournament. The games aren’t played in real time, my table took about a week to finish the turn-based system. but I didn’t feel as if that pace took anything away from the game, which is one of my favourites. If anything I found the turn-based set up allowed me to plan more and actually consider what my opponents were doing, something I am generally not good at in live games.

I also got in a few games of Dominion, a game I was very late to but am trying to play catch up on even if many of the games I’ve played so far have new cards and concepts I have never seen before.

Game Guru extraordinaire Steve T stayed true to form last week, and revisited an old favourite:

I’ve recently been able to introduce several of my friends to Tobago on Board Game Arena. A few sentences from my recent article (link) on the game:

Tobago is part race, part logic puzzle, part push your luck, and part co-op (the map building is cooperative, but in the end it is every digger for themselves). Whether you’re a new gamer looking for something different from the games you’re used to playing, or an experienced gamer looking for a light game with just enough tense decisions to scratch the tactical itch, you can’t go wrong with Tobago.

Steve’s 2009 classic is far too recent for Sean J, who takes his analog wayback machine back to a game that uses a standard deck of playing cards:

I managed some live, in-person gaming this week and we played a new-to-us classic card game called Snip, Snap, Snorem. Super simple game where the cards have to be played out in order, so if I lead the eight of clubs, the only card that can follow is the nine of clubs. The goal is to get rid of your cards first and there is a lot of little strategies in this simple game. Oh, and did I mention you have to announce your played card by saying Snip, Snap, Snorem, High Cockalorum, or Jingo depending on the order it’s played in? Cause that’s also a thing.

Zooming us back to Planet Nine is Billy C. with a recent release: 

Finally cracked open The Crew, and have been playing it in my social bubble. I thought I had seen the biggest change to trick taking games with Fox in the Forest, but The Crew is a huge step forward in this fun little genre.

As a cooperative trick-taking game, The Crew introduces missions to the game while keeping all the aspects you already love about trick-taking games: following suit, trump, taking tricks. Succeed at the missions cooperatively to win the game! The missions can be simple, such as Billy needs to take the trick that has the blue 4 in it, or they can be a little more creative: Billy is sick, so make sure he doesn’t take any tricks! But the progression of difficulty and limited communication turns this game into a unique and wonderful experience. It even plops on some semblance of a story and theme! Why? Who knows, but it is FUN! If you like Euchre but want to work together, this is the only game to scratch those two itches at once. It is magnificent.

And finally, it’s me, it’s me, it’s Jon-Paul D! Here is my own memorable gaming from the last week:

Some of my favourite COVID-era gaming experiences have been online with Board Game Arena, a web-based gaming platform. Last week, my weekly group tried out the BGA implementation of Potion Explosion for the first time, which is really enjoyable! However, the real fun starts when my group is juggling multiple games simultaneously, and on this night we were also playing Stone Age and Can’t Stop concurrently. The smack talk flies freely in those situations, and the heavens open up with a shower of jeers if you’re ever the active player in all three games!

Now you know what we’ve been playing, but what about you? Share your recent gaming experiences with us on social media – we’d love to find a hidden gem, or be reminded of a great game that maybe hasn’t hit our table nearly enough in recent months!