After a solid two months of 2023, I’ve made some good progress on my alphabet challenge that I wrote about at the start of the year. As a reminder, that challenge is playing a game that starts with each letter of the alphabet, as well as one that starts with a number. I’m at 10 of 27 played, and I suspect I’ll be able to make it through this without too much trouble. (Maybe. I’m a little worried about X, Y and Z, if we’re being totally transparent here.)
While visiting family over the last week, I knocked out # and A, the former with 5-Minute Dungeon and the latter with Acquire. That’s about as different as two games can get, and I think it’s interesting to consider the two side-by-side. (I also played a few games of Streets and Alleys, a solitaire card game that is very difficult to complete, which was a fun challenge.)
5-Minute Dungeon is a harried, low-strategy cooperative game that feels frantic and chaotic. I was happy to play with young cousins, but it’s probably not one I’d pull out at game night personally. If I want frantic, chaotic cooperative action, I’m going to play Magic Maze or Now Boarding. Or I might break out Zombie 15’, which I’ve just now realized starts with the letter Z.
Acquire, on the other hand, is slow, deliberate and tense. I’d somehow avoided playing this legitimate classic. It was released in 1964, making it older than nearly every great Beatles song (and I’ll stand by that!), and it’s very much from a different era — but at the same time, it didn’t feel stale. It’s designed by Sid Sackson, one of the first great game designers. It’s a game of mergers and acquisitions, tactical placement, and strategic planning. It’s also the fifth game ever listed on BoardGameGeek, if that gives you any sense of the historicity of it. (Number 1? Die Macher, a German political game.)
The edition of Acquire we played was not a commercially available one; it was a lovingly handcrafted version with actual hotel business cards for business stocks, miniature hotels for buildings, and a custom wooden grid for the game board.
Up next for me is B — I haven’t played a game starting with B yet in 2023. I’ve got a bunch of options, but I think it’ll be Bohnanza — maybe today or Friday? (Hi, Aaron!)
Some other games starting with B that I’d love to play soon:
Biblios: Quill and Parchment, a roll-and-write spin-off from Biblios, which is a very good game.
The Bottle Imp, a trick-taker from 1995 that I confess to only vaguely understanding from the description on BGG.
Brian Boru: High King of Ireland, an area control/trick-taking game that I haven’t played in nearly a year, but I’d love to get it back to the table.
Burgle Bros 2, a cooperative game about pulling off a heist from Tim Fowers.
Spirit Island
I’ve played a few games of Spirit Island this year, and I’m excited to continue down this path. It holds a really nice balance for me between variability, complexity, and strategy. Each spirit provides a different experience of play, with your own abilities affecting planning for everyone else.
Here’s what I wrote about Spirit Island two years ago:
Spirit Island is a different sort of game than the usual “‘explorers’ on an island” trope, even though it is sort of precisely that, too. As a player, you’re not an explorer — you’re instead playing as a native of the titular island, driving away the “explorers” who will eventually build on, then ravage your land.
The real trick here is the way the game divides actions. Play is simultaneous around the table, and you’ll take two different kinds of actions: fast and slow. Fast actions happen before invaders’ actions, and slow actions happen after them. That one little idea shifts so much about the way you think about your plans.
What to play this week
I’d love to get Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go to the Ghost Town, and not just because it has a near-perfect name. (Two or three more words and it’s spot-on.) It’s a pick-up-and-deliver game with a bit of a puzzle element, and it includes a ‘mayor’ role for one player that involves building the town.
I’d also love to play Heat, which is certainly all the rage. It’s a sort-of sequel to Flamme Rouge, which remains a favorite on my shelves, but instead of involving racing bicycles, you’re racing cars. I’ll report back once I’ve finally played it.
Off-topic
My science fiction short story podcast is in its fifth season, with three episodes released so far. The latest is a story by Philip K. Dick, “Beyond the Door.”
Speaking of science fiction, I’m also working on a newsletter about science fiction on the page and the screen, including a series I’m calling “Anthologized,” where I discuss a randomly selected episode of a science fiction anthology TV series, like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits, among others. I actually started that series in 2020 with two episodes, which I’ve just put on the site. I’ll be sending out an issue on Tuesday.