10th November 2023: Print Me A Gamey Worthy Of Boardor
There's been a lot of printing, cutting, sleeving and laminating going on recently, as I've been working on even more games to bring to the tabletop.
Up first, I got the new version of Secret Hitler, in Secret Sith Lord, all finished and ready for some action. I even managed to come up with a better plan than the paper envelopes we'd been using all these years, as they would constantly wear out and would need to be replaced. Especially if alcohol was involved.
The next game to get some attention was Black Sonata. I'd printed out the tokens for its expansion back when I printed the base game. But I've only now pulled my finger out and printed all of the expansion cards. The expansion is called the Fair Youth, which means in addition to finding who the Dark Lady is, you also have to go around looking for the Fair Youth. Sounds a bit dodgy to me, Shakespeare.
The final game in this little print marathon is a bit of a dodgy one. I've been wanting Whitehall Mystery ever since I saw gameplay on Youtube a few years back. But it was unavailable here in the UK for ages, and Scotland Yard did nothing to quench my desire.
The damn thing is, it seems at some point earlier this year, there were a few copies of another print run available here. But like the idiot I am, I completely missed it, and now they're all gone again.
So I've been a bit of a dodgy geezer, and printed my own, until it's (hopefully) available yet again. I just need to make a screen for Jack to use, which I can also use when the printing police come looking for me.
Just print more copies of the game! Jackasses!
Now I'd finally got the Black Sonata expansion fully printed, I decided it was time to bring this game to the table again.
Up first, I thought it prudent to play a vanilla game without any expansion content, to help me remember the game.
This first effort did not go according to plan. The Dark Lady's double backs along her route confused me, and on subsequent laps I could only manage vague recollections of where she'd been. Because of this, I searched many times in empty locations. However, I managed to get two good searches on her late on and managed to win. The victory was quite hollow, however, as I had no fog cards left, and only 4 cards in the stealth deck on its last rotation.
This all gave me a meagre 4 points.
Just a warm up, though. I hoped.
In the second game, I made it much harder and much easier at the same time. I chose a more difficult route for the stealth deck, used the tougher Dark Lady cards from the expansion, and also added in the Fair Youth component. However, what turned the game in my favour was that I allowed myself to take notes this time. I have no idea if you're "supposed" to be allowed to do this, but it really did make it much easier.
For the Dark Lady's first rotation, I jotted down all the landmarks she visited, while I went all over the board hunting for clues about the Fair Youth's hideout. So at the end of that rotation, I sat there and worked out a good chunk of her route, as well as nailed down where the Fair Youth was hiding.
So, after I got enough clues to the Dark Lady's identity, I was able to successfully finish the game with both tasks completed and 44 points in my back pocket. A much better effort, but one that I would never have managed without keeping the notes.