ScottVee Gaming

 Continuing the bits of board gaming on our four-day weekend, next up was the old classic Outdoor Survival (Avalon Hill, 1972).  Big points for Anne for being adventurous enough to give it a shot.  I've had the game since high school and even then it was hard to find anyone to play it again after the first game or two.  The most common reaction would be "Yeah, I want to spend another 3 hours dying of thirst ten different ways," and the guys would rather play something massive (usually Rise & Decline of the Third Reich) instead because at least they would get to blow some stuff up. I always run game one as a basic intro with the Lost scenario.  It has pretty harsh food and water needs, and for a player's first run, just ignore the Wilderness Encounter rules on the back of the scenario cards.  A few ways to nerf the game to prevent a rage quit: let shacks count as both food and water, and let movement along a river be 2 points per hex and count as a single direction

In between real life things and some Mincraft sessions, and spending too much time on those little app games that keep asking for a dollar here or $2.99 there, we got some actual board game play into the mix.  First, I brought over Coral Islands, which turned to be 3 different games in one box: Coral, Islands (flip over the little game mat and use different cards), and a solo game I intend to try some day.  This is a dice-stacking game that comes with about 80 dice.  You make vertical stacks of up to 3 dice, one at a time, and try to match the patterns on the cards.  Match a pattern, take a card, and it sounded almost too simple to be worth the hassle of working through the specific setup situation.  But after there are a few dice on the mat, it's obvious that it's not as simple as it looked. First, a die can only be placed on a die of lower value (or an adjacent empty space), except for ones which can be placed on any number.  And you get fish tokens for not getting a match on

Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2 are not like any other app-based games, and that's a very rare thing these days.  They are a quiet sort of experience where you lead a tiny figure through level after level of spatial illusions clearly inspired by old M.C. Escher designs.  Even the opening screen has a sense of great mystery... Aside from the little bits of story at the start and end of each level, there are no words, no interfaces to fuss with, just what's on the screen.  You simply tinker a bit to see which paths or towers or blocks might flip or slide or trigger something new.  It never ceases to surprise with odd little twists of reality.  There are walls that flip to become floors, islands with islands inside, a strange pattern of lights waiting to be swirled with your fingers, even a whole town sliding down a hill while you run to try and catch your baby.     I can't think of anything to say to add to the experience, or any strategy tips other than to keep trying