Welcome back to What Have We Been Playing – the weekly article where the DWPeeps share some highlights from their previous week of gaming!

SEAN J:

I finally got Godspeed from Pandasaurus to the table. I had played it once before, but it was long enough ago that I had to relearn from the rules. Luckily, while the game is full of interesting decisions, the rules themselves are really straight forward. You represent a nation trying to establish a base on an exoplanet. You have a team or workers with different skills and values and each round you have to decide if you’re going to use them for worker placement, as bidding chips, or to satisfy some high council demands. It’s a great approach to some familiar mechanisms. Look for my full review coming soon.

MILO M:

I made a new friend recently and I’ve loved slowly getting her into the hobby. This week we played Lanterns, Mr. Jack Pocket, Forbidden Desert and Cartographers together! Every time we play a game she’s blown away by how different it is from the last one we played. She continues to say stuff like “I can’t believe this whole world of board games existed and I had no idea”. It’s been so rewarding sharing this hobby of mine with her. Soon she’ll be wanting to start her own collection!

DAVID W:

Began a game of Sekigahara on yucata.de. It’s got all of the bluff of classic Columbia block-style wargames (Napoleon, 1812, etc.) with an added layer of card-driven management that so elegantly models morale, training, supply, and political support. And all with a ruleset that is very short for a wargame. It’s sobering to realize and uncover a vein of Eurocentrism I never thought I had–which is the only reason I now realize I’ve overlooked it all this time (it’s ten years old!). And I’m interested in Japanese history! But because the game’s theme wasn’t /quote sexy enough /unquote I gave it a pass. Yikes. Welp, the learning goes on.

STEVE T:

In addition to playing a lot of games on board game arena, I finished my solo play through of the Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps campaign. Frosty died, but Newt survived, so I recouped my losses. Played three games of the Duke, which I haven’t played in ages. I was able to win 2 out of the 3 games. The first game lasted two moves, but the other two were more satisfying. The game’s suggested play time of 15-25 minutes does not come close to accurately predicting game length. Two evenly matched players can play a single game for close to an hour.

KIMBERLY T:

I’ve been playing Sleeping Gods! And it’s an adventure for sure. I’m having so much fun sailing, exploring, fighting, and challenging my characters in this cooperative, storytelling game. The game is hard, but it’s rewarding and there definitely have been some interesting moments in the story so far, even though we’re only a third of the way through the game. Can’t wait to finish it!

Thank you for joining us for another roundup of our gameplay experiences! For more great game recommendations, check out David W’s Five Great Games By Women Designers!