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Zoomies

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We got Zoomies a few weeks back but didn't have a chance to play it until now.  It looked simple enough, just a big stack of oversized thick dominos with fun dog art, and some little tokens. The game starts with three dominos face up in the middle of the table and each player with two dominos in hand. Basically, each round you play a domino and put a token on top.  When both players have used all their tokens (or were forced to discard them) the game is over.  Scoring is done at the end of the game.  The tokens are: - Leader: you get one point for all matching adjacent dogs in the pack - Frens: you place on one dog pointing at a different dog and those two are now friends, at the end of the game you get 2 points per pair of friends - Zoomies: you make a group of adjacent dogs with the zoomies (paw) icon, and get 1 point for a group of one, up to 15 for a group of 5. - Bones: you make a group of adjacent dogs with the Bones icon and get 2 points for each It's a bit co...
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Back to the Favorites

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We were hoping to find a fun new game on our trip this weekend, but the ones we found were pretty ordinary.  We did bring one of our favorites, Skip Bo Junior.  It's nice to just deal out the cards and play without having to learn new tricks.  Although we always wonder if we are forced to play every card.  Sometimes, the only strategy there is is to hold back a card to not give your opponent an easy time. Anyway, kudos to the classics and favorites. We found these little gummy pizzas the next night.   Not exactly a game, just being playful. We also play Yut on the tablet a few times per week -- that simple game is still hard to beat for total Sorry-style chaos and unpredictability.
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Night at the Races (Games Workshop?? 2023)

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This one was a bit confusing right away: the box said Games Workshop and I got it because I like Games Workshop stuff, but the copyright said Professor Puzzle 2023. The box said it's a "rapid-fire betting game" but what's actually in the box?  There's a cute little race track, some horses that have a good feel to them, a stack of play money and some cards of decent quality.  As for the pace of the game, the main die says STAY (move 0), MOVE (move 1) and GALLOP (move 2), distributed as 0-0-1-1-1-2, and half the spaces are red making you draw a CHANCE card where half the cards send you back, and a few make you lose a turn.  So that's not going to be fast paced. Nope.  I think we started off rolling STAY three times in a row.  Whee.  Nothing happened. There is a betting aspect, which is reasonably well planned, although the default win of $150 for a 2-player game versus even a moderate bet of $100 at 15-to-1 odds means it's more about which odds cards you pic...
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"How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" Path Game

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This looked cute, but when we popped it open the rulebook was missing.  This was a rare case where BoardGameGeek was no help.  They had only two images and no rules or messages at all.  It only took a few minutes to find someone doing a playthrough on YouTube.  They seem like a nice couple, thanks for helping out. It turns out that all you do here is spin and move.  If you land on a green space with a skull, you get a dragon token.  Land on a red ship and go back.  If the spinner lands on the white dragon you get the white dragon piece which prevents all negative effects until another player takes it away by spinning it again. That's all.  Whoever gets to the end with the most tokens wins.  There are two alternate paths where you can get more tokens.  But there are no decisions here, no actual gameplay.  The production was nice, though oddly the backside of the game board was more attractive than the front. Probably fun for kids....
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BBC Earth Animals game

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This has a very attractive board and rulebook and pieces.  Good production value.  It was disappointing when the first thing the rulebook said was to go to a website to get the video questions needed to play the game.  The site was still there, it's bbcearthboardgame.com .  You can play a demo round, or enter the code from the back page of the rulebook to play an official game.   Oops.  The rulebook said the website was supposed to play a video then ask a question.  Each player has chips that say A, B or C, and they reveal their answers.  Correct answers get a card.  Except the site did not show any videos, just showed the questions. Oh well.  The rules say if you have no internet connection, use the animal cards provided.  So a game has 8 rounds either way.  With the cards, one player has to be the quizmaster and read the questions -- they get two cards at the end of the 3 questions on the card.  Players who answer q...
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Tapple 10

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This is a deck of round cards with categories on one side and colored letters on the other side, plus an hourglass.  We don't like speed games or timed challenges, so it was nice to see that the tiny rule book had 10 different games described.  Unfortunately, they all seemed dull. In various scenarios, the game involves looking at the color of the letter on one card -- let' say you got a black E -- then look at the black category -- maybe it's "Sports Stars" -- on another card.  Whoever comes up with a name or word starting with that letter in that category gets a card or a point. Not our cup of tea.  We never even took out the hourglass. One of the games just used the letters to make a 4 letter word and swap one letter per turn making new words until you get stuck. Also not our cup of tea. I don't mind spending a buck or two to see game ideas.  If we had bought it new it would probably be about $15 these days, and that would have been disappointing. I see how...
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Thrifting in Del Mar

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I took a day of PTO as the job I've had for the last 4 years is finally transitioning over to Cardinal Health, the company who bought us.  So we got a hotel room in Del Mar that turned out to be below/behind the Peruvian restaurant on the Coast Highway.  On our first quick walk we stopped at a thrift shop and found a few games for $1 to $2.  We unpacked tham and tried them out.  None of them were very good, so I guess there's a reason some things end up at these places.  Anyway, we got "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World - Path Game", the BBC Earth Animals game, and a little card game called Tapple 10. Meh.  Will look for some more tomorrow. It's tomorrow already.  We stopped at the Rancho Coastal Humane Society Thrift Shop.  Technically, it's a bit north in Cardiff By The Sea.  It's one of our favorites and usually has some good picks in the board game area.  Today, it was common stuff (Trivial Pursuit) and silly party games (Sh...
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