Staying Tiny

We had a lazy Saturday. We got up at 10am and headed to the Clubhouse for breakfast and to watch the Ducks game. After halftime, I set up...

Lost Cities 2 players

When ever people ask for a good 2 player game this one always pops up. It's a good and mathy card game. I got it at some point, mainly because I though Liz would like it. It's one of those games where you don't really understand how to play the game well until after you've played it once. The game contains a board with 5 colors and a deck of 60 large cards (2-10 and 3 contracts in each color). You each start with 8 cards. On you turn, you first play one of you cards. When you play a card, either place it on the board, making it available to anyone to draw, or next to the board on your side meaning you've started and expedition in that color. When adding to an expedition, you must go in increasing order, but it doesn't need to be consecutive. I did mention 3 contract cards. These are the multipliers. The more you have in the expedition the more it multiplies the value of it, but they must be played before any numbers. After you've played a card, you draw a card. That order is weird, which means you tend to mess it up the first few times, but it's that way for a reason: to piss you off. You can draw a card from the deck or one of the piles on the board, but only the top card. Once the deck runs out, the game is over. Here is where the math starts. If you don't put any cards in an expedition you score zero for it. Anything you've put cards in starts at -20 and you add the value of all the numbered cards, then you multiply it by the number of contract cards plus one. The trick to the game is making sure that if you start an expedition, you have the cards to back it up , because if you don't follow through you're eating a lot of negative points. First time players tend to have a negative score their first few times.

We played 4 games and we split the wins. One of the games, Liz left out her previous hand, but I forgave her since I won that game. After each game, Liz was eager to play the next. I love it when a game just works for the day you are having.
I like the game a little. The fact that you draw after you play is a "good" irritating. You get so annoyed at all your cards and you can't get anything new until you get rid of one of them. I also like the control of the pace of the game. If you think you need more time, you draw from the board. If you need the game to end fast, draw from the deck. My one complaint is that the game is too big. They are over sized cards with tiny numbers at the top and large useless artwork below. This could have easily fit on a standard card size and come in a smaller box.

 We headed out after and did some small chores. We went to Sasquatch for dinner and I brought...

Mint Tin Pirates 2 players

I got this and the next game from a Kickstarter. I couldn't pass up two games that fit in mint tins.
This one has players start with a ship and 3 crew members. On a turn you can discard up to 2 cards then draw back to 5 cards. You then play 2 matching cards (if you have any) and then roll two standard dice. If the number you roll matches the number on the bottom of the cards played, then you get to take that action. The action is usually attack the other player's crew, but is sometimes attacking the ship, stealing a crew member, or bringing back a dead crew member. The first to lose all crew members gains the pirate ghost. After that, the first to lose all crew members or the first to have their ship take 4 damage loses.

We played two games and I lost both. Each game I was in the lead and Liz got the pirate ghost, then she would kill my last crew member. It was a little annoying.
I like the pirate theme, but this game is a little bland. It depends way too much on a die roll. It could be better if there were more interesting cards, like cards that could react to actions.

We followed up with it's mate...

Mint Tin Aliens 2 players

This game has you play as aliens making crop circle and sightings, as well as stealing cows and people. It plays a lot like Ticket to Ride without a board. You draw two cards in a line of 5. You can draw from the face down deck or any of the 5 face up cards. You may only draw one card if that card is wild. All of this is just like TtR. At the end of drawing, you play matching cards to gain an award: sighting (2 cards), crop circle (2 cards), cow (3 cards), brains (4 cards), or extra credit (any 2 matching cards). If you can't make a play, you lose a point which is kept track of on a 10-sided die. Once all the awards are gone, the game ends. The most points (values indicated on the award cards and player die) wins.
We only played this one once. It takes a little longer to play, but it has a bit more heft to it. I won by one point.

Both of us liked this one so much more. Since it was longer we felt like we had some control over mitigating bad turns. It is only slightly luck based and does have you decide where to take risk, even if it is a very small risk.

Tally: 114/171  Bonus: 26/50