Boardgame session: 21Oct2018

We have not played Dungeon Petz for ages and have never tried the Dark Alleys expansion, which I received for my birthday. During the week Elaine and I tried the game/expansion to refresh our knowledge. We are not convinced the 2-player version works particularly well; it just seems a bit clunky and takes too long to finish. Anyway, we played again, using the Dark Alleys, when Val and Chris visited this weekend, and the 4-player game is much better. Chris emerged as the clear winner.

  

I have a mixed view about Dark Alleys: Some elements simply expand the base game (extra cages, add-ons, artefacts, customers and competitions), but the best additions are the large range of additional monsters! A major flaw in the base game is the limited number of Petz available. I think these new Petz are really good and quirky, especially the House Vampire and My Little Pony. The alternative turn tracker is OK and I doubt we will ever play the extended game tracker. The Black Market board works with 4-players, allowing all players the chance to buy a Pet in the first turn (solving another criticism of the base game). No-one has yet bought the Bodyguard, nor the extra add-on or artefact, but the food and cage options are good. The ‘slug-shop’ is fine and was used, as was the ‘fortune teller’ when things got tight. The ‘industrial zone’ was not used by most players, but I can see it could be useful. Overall, I don’t think Dark Alleys is an ‘essential’ expansion and I don’t think it will always feature in our game sessions, but it is worth getting simply to add those important extra monster options.

Last week we visited Oxford and called in at Thirsty Meeples. I managed to buy a copy of Ganz Schon Clever (German version). We have played a few 2-player games and then tried 4-player game today. I think this is a great ‘Roll & Write’ game, and could easily become a regular favourite with us. The rules are so simple but the choices become tougher as the game progresses. Really nice combo’s can occur that feel very satisfying, even if they do depend on the luck of the dice to large degree. The luck of the dice is possibly the weakness in the game, you may start to feel the game is driving itself depending on the numbers you roll and that you, as the player, are not making choices other than the obvious ones. I think this game represents the best £10 worth to date!