New to Me – April 2024

After a March that was a literal cornucopia of new games (yes, literal, they were all about fruit and veggies!), April was a really hard month for new to me games (and games in general, but that’s tomorrow’s post).

Until last Sunday, I only had one new to me game played in April, but that changed when Abi brought some of the new hotness to the day.

The one new to me game I had played earlier in the month was from 2013!

So the Cult of the New to Me was quite happy.

But last Sunday’s game was a 2024 game that has just arrived, and that dampened the mood.

I got a few stern looks, but overall they seemed ok.

It might have been because I spiked the punch with a sedative, though.

Sometimes when you’re a cult leader, you have to take drastic measures to quiet a rebellion.

Anyway, the writer in me is grateful that this post isn’t going to be that long!

So without further ado (all of my ado was used to construct my latest building anyway), let’s get started!

Skyrise (2024 – Roxley) – 1 play

Designers: Gavan Brown, Sébastien Pauchon, Adam Wyse

Artist: Andrew Bosley

Players: 2-4

I played Pauchon’s Metropolys a few years ago and found myself enjoying it.

I didn’t even know there was a sequel/reworking coming out until a friend brought it to game day last weekend.

Skyrise is a kind of auction game where you are placing buildings out onto districts on five different islands.

The buildings all have values under their bases, and those values are what you are using to bid.

Have I said yet that the Roxley production of this, especially the buildings, is brilliant?

They are all solid, beautifully sculpted, and just really tactile.

The current player is going to place a building in a district, either on the center island or in a district next to another already-placed building. It will be bottom up, so the value is shown.

Bidding goes around the table by placing a higher-value building in a district adjacent to the previously-bid building (so it will string along).

This happens until everybody passes. The winning bidder then flips that building over and collects the token that’s in the district (these were randomly placed).

They then start the next round of bidding using the same rules.

The tokens will be used in scoring, indicating how many points a building in that coloured district is worth.

You also will have a secret goal card for having at least 4 buildings in a certain colour of district, and there will be Panorama cards and island control scored at the end of the first era and at the end of the game.

It’s a beautiful game and the auctions can be agonizing. Where do you want to bid? Do you want to use one of your really big buildings to secure a district? That building is now no longer available to you.

Does one of your cards depend on having certain types of buildings in certain places?

This was a fun game.

I was terrible at it, of course, but it was still fun.

Would definitely play again.

Glass Road (2013 – Feuerland Spiele) – 1 play

Designer: Uwe Rosenberg

Artist: Dennis Lohausen

Players: 1-4

Glass Road is a game that I really need to play again.

Why?

Because we played it wrong!

Much like many of Rosenberg’s games, you’re doing a farm or at some other country setting.

Unlike many of these games, you’re not having to worry about feeding your people!

This game has some interesting mechanics.

Everybody has a number of cards that will do various things, and each round (there are 5), you will choose 5 cards for your hand.

Some will get you resources, some will let you build buildings, some will make you pay a resource to get another resource.

You’ll also have a board where you’re going to be placing buildings, fields, lakes, and forests that you can then cultivate.

Each rounds, players will play three cards (not two! Which is what we did wrong).

Everybody will play a card face down and then, in player order, the card will be revealed.

If anybody else has chosen that card and hasn’t already played it face-down, then everybody (in player order, beginning with the person who played the card) will be able to do one of the two actions on it.

If nobody has the card in their hand, then the person who played it gets to do both actions, in any order.

You can only “follow” twice, because you have to be able to play three cards in the round.

Ideally, you will follow twice and you will play three unique cards, meaning that you will get 8 actions in the round.

Most of the time, though, at least one or two of your played cards will also have been chosen by other players, so you’ll only get one action for those cards.

The only way you’re going to score points is through buildings, so you do need to build each round at least once, if you can.

The resource tracker is really cool, on a dial mechanism that moves when there is nothing next to it.

That makes no sense.

Look at the yellow sand on the left dial. The green disc is glass, and right now you have 0 of that.

However, if you gain some sand, that will move up to 1,2,3,whatever.

There will now be nothing in the “0” area on the other side of glass.

You’ll move the dial until there is something in that space, meaning you will have some glass!

I loved this way “paying” resources to get another resource. You’re essentially paying one (or more) of every other resource on that wheel in order to get glass.

The same with brick on the right dial.

In the picture, I had 2 brick!

I’m playing this on Boardgame Arena now, so I’m playing it correctly, but I’d love to play it on the table again in the proper manner.

I’m not really huge on these Rosenberg farming/country games, but this one was kind of intriguing.

I’d definitely try it again.

And there you have it.

My two new to me games in April!

Let’s hope May is a better month for that, though with possibly missing two game day Sundays, I’m not sure that will happen.

What new to you games did you play in April?

Let me know in the comments.