Hard to get Le Havre on the table...

So I've played a few games of Le Havre now and it is really growing on me. The strategies are subtle and numerous.


Unfortunately, the game is REALLY long and my partner seemed to hate it ("Too much reading of cards!"). Hard to convince him that we just need to play a few games and it'll make sense. Sigh. I even found, thanks to some posts on BGG, a great way to make setup easy and keep the pieces in order - craft containers from the dollar store! See below....

Ticket To Ride Online, or How I wasted away the hours....

As I mentioned previously, I am finishing up my Master's thesis this week and although it is going well, I find I need to take a lot of short breaks away from writing. One of my great reliefs and/or distractions has been TTR Online. I am a massive fan of the board game, having 5 editions, and love that I can play a round online in 10-20 minutes.

Many people don't realize that if you own a TTR edition there is a code in the rules book that let's you sign on and play for free. I just can't seem to get sick of this game, live or online. The only drawback to online is that they don't have my two favourite maps, Germany (Marklin) and the Nordic Countries. Maybe they'll bring in Nordic soon as it's such a great 3-player game.

I'm wondering if I'm actually prepping a bit for my visit home with Mom. She LOVES Ticket To RIde and I imagine we'll be playing a few games of her copies when I'm back in August...

Sidenote 1: Played Le Havre finally. Good game but quite long. Easy to explain, hard to figure out. I imagine it will grow on me quickly.

Sidenote 2: Dominion: Intrigue out today! Oh, it's gonna be a long night....

A very dry summer....

I am in the final throes of my master's thesis (one week to go!) and not only am I not playing many games but I can't really afford to buy many games. Ugh. I walked into my FLGS and stared longingly at the 63 dollar "Le Havre" box knowing I only had enough to purchase "Wits & Wagers" for 30. Sigh. I have a dinner party to go to tomorrow so that's a reasonable excuse, I guess, to buy yet another game.

Thank goodness my neighbors are buying Dominion: Intrigue. Don't think I could wait until my new job starts in September to buy and play it... On the plus side, I'm heading home to BC the beginning of August and I always bring an empty suitcase when I go. The majority of my old collection (including Union Pacific and Samurai) is stored there in a friend's basement so I always come back to Ontario with a suitcase full of great games just aching to be played again.

Farming, farming, farming...

So I've been eyeing Uwe Rosenberg's highly rated farming game Agricola for awhile now but it just seemed too complicated to teach to my group of friends (we play a lot of Alhambra and Ticket to Ride...) That and I own Caylus and Stone Age so I'm not sure if it was necessary. Now I've been reading up on Rosenberg's Le Havre which sounds like a simpler and some say better Agricola version 2.0. Maybe I'll just go with with that one. Tom Vasel claims it is the best game of the past year. Any thoughts?

Or I suppose I could just wait for the third in Rosenberg's farming series - At the Gates of Loyang. Oh, if only money grew on trees (or in fields and pastures...)