Week in review: Week to 31 January
Feb. 1st, 2026 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pedanther. The group from the board game club that sometimes meets on Sunday afternoons to play longer games met on Sunday afternoon to have another shot at Tainted Grail, a long-form game (the kind where there's a mechanism to save your progress because you're definitely not finishing in one session) that involves exploring and learning the stories of a land being overwhelmed by chaotic magic. The stories are interesting, but the gameplay is fiddly; there are often long waits for one player to resolve a combat encounter, and I'm not sure that I don't find the waiting less tedious than being the player resolving the encounter. However, the other players in the game seem to be looking forward to playing again, and I don't want to make them have to start over, and the stories are interesting, so I've decided I'm willing to stick it out until we inevitably get horribly killed by something.
. We had another long session on the regular board game day, because it was a public holiday so we started in the early afternoon instead of being restricted to the evening.
We took advantage of the extra time to play Nemesis: Retaliation, which like all the games in the series lasts for several hours. As with the previous games, it's semi-cooperative: there's a shared mission goal, but each player also has a secret personal objective which might clash with the mission or another player's objective, and partway through the game each player has to commit to one or the other. I got lucky with my personal objective, which had a significant overlap with the mission goal, so I just had to do one extra thing (which I did early in the game) and then as long as the mission was completed my personal objective would be completed as well. We managed to complete the mission goal, but none of the characters got out alive, falling to alien attack or lack of oxygen on their way to the shuttle pickup. (One of the new mechanics in this game is that the research station where it takes place doesn't have a breathable atmosphere when the life support systems aren't working, so you have to split your time between completing your objective and repairing life support systems or finding oxygen refills for your environment suit. There was a point early in the game where I had a choice between fixing the life support systems or going to the assistance of another player who was being attacked by an alien, and I went to help, and as the game progressed there were times when I wondered if I should have made the life support a priority instead.)
Afterward, to finish off on a lighter note, we played a game of Jamaica, a game in which each player is a pirate competing to sail back to port with the most gold and best treasures. I did very well at the sailing, after a shaky start where I'd forgotten how some of the rules worked, but less well at finding treasure and at keeping it from being stolen off me by another pirate, and finished up somewhere around the middle of the pack.
. I spent much of the week reading Sansûkh, and ended up being happy I'd put in the time. The ending is pretty satisfying, as long as you're able to take it on its own terms and not worry about how much or little it has to do with Tolkien's Middle-Earth.
. I had another go at Zombies Run; I took a water bottle with me, which contributed to having a significantly better experience than last time I tried it.
. I'm currently running a few episodes behind on Natural Six, but the advantage is that when I hit a big cliffhanger like the one at the end of episode 43 I don't have to wait a fortnight to find out what happens next. I might be able to catch up again soon; part of why I've been lagging is that the last few episodes had been making me uncomfortable waiting for a plot shoe to drop, and Episode 44 dropped it good and proper.
. Speaking of an absence of shoes, my week came to an unhappy conclusion when I was getting ready for bed and banged a toe against a piece of furniture I was too sleepy to successfully navigate past. I think it's just bruised, but it complained loudly and at length. It seems to have mostly settled down now.
. We had another long session on the regular board game day, because it was a public holiday so we started in the early afternoon instead of being restricted to the evening.
We took advantage of the extra time to play Nemesis: Retaliation, which like all the games in the series lasts for several hours. As with the previous games, it's semi-cooperative: there's a shared mission goal, but each player also has a secret personal objective which might clash with the mission or another player's objective, and partway through the game each player has to commit to one or the other. I got lucky with my personal objective, which had a significant overlap with the mission goal, so I just had to do one extra thing (which I did early in the game) and then as long as the mission was completed my personal objective would be completed as well. We managed to complete the mission goal, but none of the characters got out alive, falling to alien attack or lack of oxygen on their way to the shuttle pickup. (One of the new mechanics in this game is that the research station where it takes place doesn't have a breathable atmosphere when the life support systems aren't working, so you have to split your time between completing your objective and repairing life support systems or finding oxygen refills for your environment suit. There was a point early in the game where I had a choice between fixing the life support systems or going to the assistance of another player who was being attacked by an alien, and I went to help, and as the game progressed there were times when I wondered if I should have made the life support a priority instead.)
Afterward, to finish off on a lighter note, we played a game of Jamaica, a game in which each player is a pirate competing to sail back to port with the most gold and best treasures. I did very well at the sailing, after a shaky start where I'd forgotten how some of the rules worked, but less well at finding treasure and at keeping it from being stolen off me by another pirate, and finished up somewhere around the middle of the pack.
. I spent much of the week reading Sansûkh, and ended up being happy I'd put in the time. The ending is pretty satisfying, as long as you're able to take it on its own terms and not worry about how much or little it has to do with Tolkien's Middle-Earth.
. I had another go at Zombies Run; I took a water bottle with me, which contributed to having a significantly better experience than last time I tried it.
. I'm currently running a few episodes behind on Natural Six, but the advantage is that when I hit a big cliffhanger like the one at the end of episode 43 I don't have to wait a fortnight to find out what happens next. I might be able to catch up again soon; part of why I've been lagging is that the last few episodes had been making me uncomfortable waiting for a plot shoe to drop, and Episode 44 dropped it good and proper.
. Speaking of an absence of shoes, my week came to an unhappy conclusion when I was getting ready for bed and banged a toe against a piece of furniture I was too sleepy to successfully navigate past. I think it's just bruised, but it complained loudly and at length. It seems to have mostly settled down now.
