Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
April 2025 Gaming
As expected after last month’s post, where March had a huge number of games because of a convention, April came back down to earth with a much fewer amount of games.
However, it was much better than February!
Which means it was a good month.
Especially because I got a few older games that I haven’t played in quite a while
Would have been better without missing a Sunday and a couple of work lunch days, but still.
Two of the games, it had been 2 years since I played them.
In April, I played 16 games a total of 20 times (so the total plays was the same as February, but a couple more games).
Here’s what I played last month.
And here it is in grid format.
Many thanks to the wonderful BG Stats app, which lets me keep track of all this and produces such beautiful work!
There were also some great new to me games played, but those will be in another post.
Let’s take a look and see what was out there.
Read MoreStriking From the Dark – In the Shadows Review
Seldom has a game become so relevant to modern times between conception and final production as In the Shadows – Resistance in France 1943-44 has become (I’m assuming it’s been in the planning stages for numerous years, anyway).
This game is a 2-player, 45-60 minute (BGG says 30-45 minutes, and maybe that’s true once you’re familiar with it) game about the French Resistance in World War II fighting against the occupying German forces.
It was designed by Dan Bullock and Joe Schmidt and published by GMT Games in 2025.
In the game, the Occupation side is trying to remove Resistance units from the map as well as transferring French resources into Germany.
The Resistance is trying to undermine German authority with acts of sabotage that make things harder for the Occupation to win.
Only one side will be able to accomplish their objective.
Read MoreNew to Me – March 2025 – Part 2
Wow, it has been a spell, hasn’t it?
With so many new to me games in March, I broke the usual monthly post into two posts, thinking I’d get them done a few days a part.
Yeah, I think I got into one of my funks again, feeling daunted by the sheer number of games I had to write about.
Imposter syndrome’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Anyway, finally two weeks later, here’s part 2 of the list.
Part 1 can be found here.
Thankfully (for blog-writing purposes anyway), April hasn’t been nearly as full of games, making next month’s post a lot easier.
Two of these games, I have an online streamer to blame for, because I wouldn’t have bought them without actually seeing them in play first.
My wallet really hates Edward right now.
But I love him!
Speaking of love and hate, the Cult of the New to Me wasn’t too unhappy with this second part of the list, with three games that are actually older than a couple of years.
That’s, like, almost half!
So, without further ado (all of my ado was lost when the train flipped over anyway), here’s part 2 of the March list.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario LoM #11 – La Villa Strangiato
Combat Commander can be a game of wild swings of luck, back and forth so much that it might make you dizzy (and make bad decisions).
Sometimes, though, there is just one swing.
You know how, when you were a kid, sometimes your dad was swinging you on the swing on the playground, and you were laughing away, totally enjoying it.
Until he started swinging you higher and higher, and you were so far off the ground that you thought you would fall off and break your neck?
And then you did fall and broke your arm!
Yeah, this game was like that.
(This was all a joke, my dad was awesome so I have no actual experience at that)
Anyway, welcome to the latest tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of the finest games around, administered by the striking Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
He’s getting his star on the Walk of Fame in May!
What year in May? Who knows? But it will be in May!
This month’s scenario is from the Leader of Men battle pack, a set of tournament scenarios that are actually very good.
My opponent was Greg M, somebody who I had never faced before in my 4-year ladder career.
The scenario has the US (Green – me) face off against some tough Italians (Teal – Greg) in Sicily after the Allied invasion.
(You can click on a picture to blow it up)
Let’s talk about the very few special rules to this scenario.
Read MoreClank! – Sunken Treasures Coming to Digital This Summer
(Edit 5/15/25): The release date (on Steam at least) has been announced as May 21! I’ve asked whether that includes iOS and Android but haven’t heard back
Or at least that’s what “Quarter 2 2025” means to me!
Don’t quote me on the exact time frame.
Anyway, Clank is one of the Dire Wolf digital apps that I keep coming back to for asynchronous games, and the occasional solo one!
Now the first expansion for the game, Sunken Treasures, has been announced to be hitting the Steam version of the game.
This is great news!
As much as I love this game and keep coming back to it, the dungeon environments are getting a little stale.
Not stale enough for me to stop playing, but stale enough that some fresh content would be good!
Here’s a screenshot from the Steam page where you can put it on your Wishlist for when it finally does come out.
The expansion adds two new dungeons: The Pirate Ship (shown above) and the Seaside Castle.
It also has 35 new cards, from new monsters to new stuff that can help you with them!
I’m always in at least two asynchronous Clank games, especially since they made so many quality of life improvements to the app (skipping replays can be a godsend at the beginning of the game!).
This may force me to try and get into more games.
If you’re fan of the game itself, did you like this expansion?
Are you (any of you) excited about this release?
At least as much as I am?
If so, let me know!
Exploring the Underworld – Faraway: People From Below review
Some expansions for games make huge changes to it, maybe fixing something from the base game or giving new avenues to win the game.
Maybe the Mask strategy is really weak and this expansion makes it stronger?
Some expansions just add a bit more stuff to the game, not making any major changes but instead just additional content.
Some companies (like Alderac) call those micro-expansions because they’re just a bunch of cards.
Other companies just label them “expansions” and put them out for retail sale like any other expansion.
Catch Up Games and Pandasaurus Games did the latter for their new expansion (it says 2024, so I assume it’s only 2025 in North America where Pandasaurus is finally able to distribute it) for the really popular (and awesome) game, Faraway.
The game (and expansion) were designed by Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat with artwork by Maxime Morin.
Faraway: People From Below is simply a 17-card expansion that adds some content to the game as well as the ability to play with 7 players.
The expansion comes with 8 new Sanctuary cards and 9 new Region cards. Nine new regions, eight rounds in the game…hey, that’s enough for another player!
One fun aspect of these expansion cards is that finally the grey cards (newly named “Mystical Havens”) may actually get you something other than the symbols on them (or scoring opportunities).
Friday Night Shots – A Quick & Dirty Top 50
Welcome back to the bar!
Last month, I mentioned how this is almost becoming a monthly thing instead of a weekly thing.
That was…one month ago.
I guess it is!
Welcome to the finest bar in the city, because it’s so clean.
It certainly is uncontaminated by customers.
So that gives us time to talk boardgames!
Don’t mind the jukebox. It was fixed, but for some reason it just started putting out loud white noise.
The workmen said that it was a glitch in the system, but I’m pretty sure they actually just put that in there because I wouldn’t pay them.
Anyway, since we have the bar to ourselves, how about we take another gander at our Top 50 board games?
Read MoreNew to Me – March 2025 – Part 1
As I mentioned in my March Games played post, I played a lot of games last month.
Not only that, but a whole 14 of them were new to me!
That means this post would be monstrously long if I tried to pack it all into one.
Or I would not really say much about either one.
Thus, it’s been split into two parts, with the first seven games below.
The Cult of the New to Me gave me a little bit of a side-eye, given that so many of the games were pretty new (some even 2025!)
One’s not even out yet!
However, one was from 2017 and it was a convention where I played most of the new stuff, so I did a little begging.
Ok, a lot of demanding, actually.
They were mollified…for now.
Personally, I still think they’re plotting against me.
The life of a cult leader is never restful.
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado was eaten by some carnivorous fish anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreMarch 2025 Gaming
I knew March was going to be a big month for gaming, considering the Terminal City Tabletop Convention weekend.
However, I had no idea how big it would be!
Last month, I had 20 plays of 14 different games, and I thought it was good.
I knew March would be better…but my mind was blown.
Literally!
Well, figuratively, but still…
That’s right.
I had 44 plays of 33 different games in March.
That’s, like, an infinity of numbers higher!
But anyway…
Here are the games I played in March 2025.
And here they are in grid format. There are two pictures!
Many thanks to the wonderful Boardgame Stats app for these pictures and numbers.
With that many games, I’m sure there were a bunch of highlights, right?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreLike Sands Through the Hourglass – Sandbag Review
Trick-taking card games are no longer “dime a dozen” examples of games just quickly designed and then thrown out the door to the teeming masses (though really, up until a little while ago, were there teeming masses for trick-taking games?).
Now they all involve some kind of hook, a unique mechanism (or a unique twist on a standard mechanism) that tries to make them stand out among all of the other trick-taking games that are coming out during the Great Trick-Taking Renaissance (TM Mike Dilisio).
Some make a massive impact on the consciousness (or at least my consciousness), and some have a decent impact but get in their own way just a little bit.
Sandbag is one of those latter games.
Sandbag was designed by Ted Alspach, with artwork by Greg Bartlett, and was published by Bezier Games in 2024.
It plays 3-6 players.
Trick-taking games always have a choice to make: is winning tricks good? Or is it bad?
Are points good? Or are they bad?
Sandbag falls into the “bad” category, as you are trying to take as few tricks as possible.
The number of twists in the game, though, makes this stand out in the genre.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 