Can you believe June is almost at an end? The summer is flying by, and as quarantine restrictions are being eased in Canada, many of us are back to playing tabletop games on an actual tabletop again. Let’s take a look at what titles the DWP crew has been enjoying over the last week!

Starting us off is Kimberly T with some award-worthy games:

I’ve been playing a lot of the Spiel des Jahres nominated games: King’s Dilemma, Cartographers, and Pictures. Cartographers and Pictures I’d played at BGG Con last November, but King’s Dilemma was new to me and the one I was most excited about. I love the idea of a “Games of Thrones” style of wheeling and dealing, full of intrigue and backstabbing. I also am a huge lover of legacy games and opening a bunch of sealed envelopes, so I’m looking forward to my next session of King’s Dilemma. So far, I’m loving my family motives and modus operandi. Shut Up and Sit Down did a fantastic explanation and review of the game, so check it out if this sounds interesting to you. Cartographers is a good gamer-level flip and draw game with public victory point conditions. Everyone should give Cartographers a chance as it’s a 30-45 minute game that changes each game, giving it that replayability factor. Pictures is just a delightful, creative game that requires players to replicate images using strange objects like wooden sticks, shoestrings, rocks, and colored cubes. One must put on their “abstract glasses” to discern what pictures their fellow gamers are trying to represent with their objects. It’s a game full of laughter and artistry.

As for myself (Jon-Paul D), two recent popular releases from made it to my table: 

The Mechanical Marquise was on the move last week, as I took the Root Clockwork Expansion for a first drive. Adding an AI faction as a third “player” made for a much more satisfying 2 player experience, and I’m looking forward to digging into the other factions in the coming weeks!

Now that social distancing restrictions have been eased in Nova Scotia, I was also able to play my first competitive game of In the Hall of the Mountain King. Digging tunnels, positioning relics, and hiring trolls has never been more joyfully intense. What an incredibly delicious puzzle of a game!

The original Daily Worker, Sean J, has been battling some classic rivals in an upcoming release:

I got to try a new addition to one of my favourite games from last year. Unmatched: Cobble and Fog add four new heroes to this simple, yet strategic duel game. Players can pick from Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, and (with a super cool mini) the Invisible Man. While I’ll save most of my thoughts for my upcoming article, I really enjoyed it so far.

Speaking of upcoming games, David W has also been exploring a title in development:

I tried out Phalanx Games’ new edition of WW2-themed “Domination“, just launched on Kickstarter. (link) As many publishers do, they’ve provided a digital version to try out for free–in this case, on Tabletop Simulator. I have to say I’m impressed at how they deliver on the promise of a two-hour play-time without skimping on interesting choices or multiple paths to victory. We played two-handed, but I think it would be even better with four. I might just back it!

Billy C has been juggling a favourite circus-themed game:

Got Meeple Circus to the table this week. It is my favourite dexterity game. It is tradition to play it every year as the first game of the new year. This week, it was for fun, not tradition. Meeple Circus is such a wild ride, a silly dexterity game, just asking you to try to stack meeples in creative and fun ways. It’s challenging, chaotic, and heaps of fun.

It has just enough structure to make it feel like a game, with just enough raw “build cool things” to be a dextrous blast! If you want to laugh as you build under time pressure, this is the dexterity game for you.

Jumping back into the digital realm, Nicole H has some positive experiences to share:

I played Finca on Yucata.de with a full table. I don’t know why it’s not more well known, as it’s absolutely fantastic. Interesting rondel action with some resource management and set collection.

And I got to play Teotihuacan over on Board Game Arena a couple of times. It’s much nicer to be able to play through with some automation and not having to grapple with pieces on Tabletopia (sorry Tabletopia!).

And finally, Matthew R is back with a mix of digital and analog plays:

As I was stuck without internet for a whole day this week, I could no longer depend on online games. I decided to do a solo game of Underwater Cities, a medium-heavy Euro worker-placement game by Vladimír Suchý. I really enjoy this game and have done it solo once before. I like the solo mode because it is pretty simple to do, unlike some automas or solo modes. I did succeed at “winning” the solo mode despite some frustrating card draws.

I also got continued with the Castles of Burgundy tournament I mentioned last week and also got in some in-person games of Codenames and Bridge with part of my larger “bubble.”

Thank you all for keeping up with what we’re playing each week! We’d like to keep up with you as well, so please let us know what games have been recently on your table (whether it be physical or digital!) via your favourite social media platform of choice.