boardgaming in photos: OnStage, Biblios, Cafe, Sky Team

I played OnStage with my daughters Shee Yun and Chen Rui. This is a trick-taking card game from Vietnam, designed by Michael Orion. This was not my first time playing, so it didn't have that first play lustre any more. But it is still enjoyable. I like how the trump suit can change even in the middle of a trick. The 1, 4 and 7 cards which manipulate the actors can be very powerful when used at the right time. 

3 flowers mean big shot celebrity

Minor starlets standing in the shadow

I played the Unseen expansion of Innovation again with younger daughter Chen Rui. This Fortune Cookie card is so powerful! Granted, you need to have a strong empire to be able to use it. You need at least seven of one icon. 

I remember doing badly in Biblios when I last played it, so I was a little surprised that I won this recent game. Near the end, I calculated my strength in each of the colours I had, and I wasn't confident I would win many, because I only had absolute majority in one of the colours. When the game ended and everyone's cards were revealed, I was pleasantly surprised that in some colours where I wasn't strong in, Chee Kong and Jon did even worse. So I won some of the colours I didn't expect to. 

I played a physical copy of Cafe in 2022. I don't remember it being anything extraordinary. I thought it was okay and not very memorable. However when I played it online recently, I found it quite enjoyable. Normally I enjoy a game more when playing the physical version. Maybe it was because I didn't quite remember the game and had to relearn most of it, which meant rediscovering the tactics and overcoming the challenges again. These felt satisfying. I didn't do so well in the early game. I did have a big connected patch of farms, and also a big connected patch of drying areas, but I didn't have any big group of roasters. Roasters became my bottleneck. It was challenging to get out of that. 

I played several online games of Sky Team with Han. We tried different airports, i.e. different scenarios, including Kuala Lumpur. Some scenarios come with additional rules and challenges. Sometimes we were unclear about these rules and that led to disaster, getting people killed when we crashed our plane. Sky Team is a fun game and brings something new to the table.