After a bit of a lull we played a new game: Fromage. Really fun. Thinkier than it seems at first and even the retail version is a pretty impressive production.
We have that, and agree it’s great fun. Sometimes the game feels like it ends too quickly, but that’s a feature, not a bug.
We play it a lot 2-player, but I like it with more, because it makes it more likely someone’s going to block your action (or vice versa).
I read good things about a board game Scythe so I bought the iPad version to play with my friends online. But I frankly cannot make head or tail of it; the tutorial is not good and the documentation with it solely refers to the board game!
One of the fun things about Kickstarter is that sometimes you can back something and then kind of forget about it. So it was a pleasant surprise when the deluxe version of Ready Set Bet showed up on my doorstep this week. It’s a horse race game where the different horses progress over a bunch of dice rolls, and the players place bets. There are limited bets available, so there’s a balance between waiting to see how the race progresses, and getting in the bets you want. Very fun.
Maybe this video will help - Rodney is one of my two best game explainers (the other is Paul Grogan of Gaming Rules!)
Brian
Scythe is a really popular game but I bounced off it. I hope you have a better experience. One thing to know is it looks and feels like it should be a war game but it’s not a wargame. This isn’t the reason it didn’t work for me but it’s something people going in should be aware of.
It’s one of my son’s favorite games, and so we’ve played it twice with him, and it didn’t do much for us. I do get the appeal of managing how the various tracks on your personal board interact with the shared board, but it’s not a game I’d reach for given a group.
For those of you who have played 7 Wonders, could you provide a brief review? Does the simultaneous revelation of card choices and passing of hands make it really challenging or overly random and chancy? It sounds like two really intriguing play concepts.
The simultaneous play is a great mechanism and easy to do once everyone understands it. It speeds up play, since everyone is doing their turn at the same time. It balances play, since no can see what others are doing in the same turn.
The passing of hands decreases randomness, because every player is using the same distribution, but at different points in time. The one “bad” hand is getting passed around. But the nature of the scoring means that what’s bad for one player is good for some other player.
Seven Wonders is one of my family’s go-to games. Very replayable, especially if you make everyone randomly draw their city.
Not to dodge your question but if you are interested in a drafting game with simultaneous play, we enjoy It’s a Wonderful World much more than 7 Wonders. Especially at two players (IAWW is much better at two than 7W). You may want to give it a look.
I thought I was pretty good at 7 Wonders until I played with some of the young’uns at work (who did play it a lot, including with the expansions), and they trounced me every time. Badly. So I think there’s not as much luck as I might have thought.
I appreciate your recommendation for It’s a Wonderful World. It’s always nice to have alternatives to play.
We’ll sometimes play Seven Wonders with “dummy” players. We’ll shuffle their hand and draw cards until one is playable. It actually works fairly well, no worse than a new human player. 
The luck does depend on player count – with 7 players you will not see any of your hand this round - though you can use this info. If you have lots of science cards in your initial hand, you know you probably won’t get many more this round.
Our group has over 200 plays of 7W – it has traditionally be played as the first game on our game days – something to do while we wait for more folks to show up.
Although I have Leaders and Cities (and expansion civs), we usually play base.
Brian
7 Wonders works very well on the iPad, and I think you can add in computer players as well. It enforces time limits on turns (which are configurable) and of course al the rules. The UI takes a bit of getting used to but it’s okay.
7 Wonders is available on Board Game Arena, as is 7 Wonders Duel (two player version - the base does have a two player variant)
Brian
They have now combined the expansions.
Appreciated the 7 Wonders insights, everyone.
Caveat: Rio Grande Games sends games to me to demonstrate at my game clubs and conventions.
Power Grid Outpost - The latest standalone is a combination of the exotic and familiar. Connections between cities is random and set at the start of the game, Fuel is replaced by worker who must be replaced every game turn unless housed,
Moon Colony Bloodbath - Players are trying to construct a poorly planned moon colony. The player who has the most suvivors wins.
Both games are pretty good and serve each own’s niche.
For Christmas I got Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth. It’s a hybrid game with miniatures and a phone app. The game was like $80. I’m not sure it was worth it at that price.
Been playing a lot of Forest Shuffle, Ark Nova, Fromage, and Race for the Galaxy lately. We still have some new games from Christmas that also need tending to…