Updated on May 19, 2023
What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – Nov 14-20
Rene and her dad picked up a copy of the brand new Splendor Duel and played it together. As I am a huge Splendor fan, I have been waiting patiently for this updated edition, which is said to offer a fresh spin on the original gameplay. Let me start by gushing about how adorable it is. The game’s little cards and tokens and compact packaging make it ideal for travel. The game itself entails selecting three gem tokens in a row, or less, at random from a board. The cards are played in the same way as the original, but with the addition of five distinct benefits such as extra turns, token removal, colourless wild gems, and crowns. The most notable modification is the addition of three instant-win conditions. In the end, Dad had 20 points, whereas I only had 19, and he also had 10 crowns, so he won both conditions. Like 7 Wonders Duel, I think it will become a hit on its own merits.
Greg and Tracy played a second round of Barrage, and he said, “The initial set up this time drove me towards creating lower quantities of power but more regularly.” As I unlocked my Country Power, I was able to complete contracts for more money than I had produced. Tracy did a much better job than I did of getting her own network up and running, and she eventually began to generate more power than I did at any one time. Nonetheless, I was able to come out on top by strategically employing a particular tile that awarded me a large number of points whenever I built something and by better timing the round-ending bonuses.
Circadians: First Light is a worker placement game that Renee and Jenn played. After reading the positive reviews, I decided to give this worker placement game a try. Underneath your player screen is a pool of dice that you roll to choose the actions you take on your player board. You may send out dice from garages to perform activities at various locations, depending on their values. The dice you roll at harvest time determine how much resources you receive from your farms. The challenge arises from the fact that you cannot see your opponent’s dice or predict how they will be used, therefore you must also determine in what sequence you will use your own dice while assigning them to the garages. Therefore you have to do some hedging your bets, which might sometimes go against your strategy; but, while these alternatives may not be perfect, there is usually something else you can do. There’s a good deal of room for customization thanks to the inclusion of leader cards, which grant unique powers, contract cards, which award victory points at the game’s conclusion, and event cards, which impose unique circumstances on each round. We both learned a lot from this game, and we enjoyed it very much.
This week, Renee got to experience her first four-player game of Azul: Queen’s Garden. “I’ve played this a lot, but it’s always been a two-player game. I thought the game was even more fun when played with four people. Two of the players were experiencing the game for the first time, and it was great to see them get into the strategic tile-placing and drafting that makes this version of Azul so enjoyable. I can’t sing its praises enough.
Kris enjoyed an authentic three-player game of Azul. I did it! I pulled off the impossible! When I think I’m doing well, I wind up with a slew of setbacks or the game ends before I’ve gotten everything where I want it to be. We love this game since it’s so interactive and entertaining.
Cam snatched grabbed a few of our Bicycle and Theory 11 card decks. I’m not normally a fan of novelty cards since, despite their inherent coolness, they’re frequently difficult to read, especially in smoky bars at 2 in the morning. I finally bit the bullet and purchased a few of our fancier options for use in our regular games; the fact that they are officially licenced by Bicycle gives me reason to be optimistic about their usefulness. We’ve opened and used three thus far, and every one of them works fine without requiring too much squinting or grumbling.
Renee finished the second-to-last book in The Expanse trilogy, titled Tiamat’s Vengeance. The aliens that murdered the protomolecule’s creator a few billion years ago have made a comeback in this one, along with doubts regarding the protomolecule’s function in the present. This one has a tonne of wonderful character tales and moments in addition to all the wild, odd, and outrageously alien stuff. This is again another fantastic read. Honestly, this is a great show.
Dan satisfied an itch that had gone unnoticed for far too long: “Since starting work at the shop and witnessing some of the fantastic paint works done by my coworkers I’ve had the urge to get back into mini painting.” Being stuck indoors this weekend with a sick seven-year-old seemed like a good opportunity to get started. The colours used to paint Oliver’s Great Earth Elemental were Vallejo Blue Green, Army Painter Dragon Red, and Vallejo Orange Fire. I finished it off with a wash of inexpensive acrylic Burnt Umber from Walmart, diluted with water at a ratio of roughly 100:1. For his Battletech Locust, he chose a colour scheme of Bright Bronze and Heavy Violet from Vallejo. I’ve been using a variety of acrylic paints to finish the remainder of the mechs, and I promise to provide more photos after I’ve reached the final stage of completion in the coming weeks.
