April 2025 review
A few words on the games I played in April 2025.
New this month: if you click on the paper clip icon next to a game name, it will bring you the game BGG page.
Freedom Five 🔗
We played the first scenario of the "real" campaign after the tutorial. Now we're talking! The hand holding is over and it's a much more interesting challenge. Minor complaint: I wish there was an easy tool to remember to draw multiple Scheme cards when the scenario asks for it. I played a hero from one of the later boxes, I can definitely say they are more complex than those from the base box.
Daybreak 🔗
Knowing the game and cards makes a huge difference in this. We cruised in the first game after the initial discovery and secured a victory. We had so much fun, we played another right away. The card draw was unfavorable to two of the three players, they could manage their end just enough for the third player to carry us to a victory thanks to a strong combo.
Spirit Island 🔗
It's been a few times now that I've played Spirit Island with friends I can't see very frequently, and therefore are not part of my regular gaming group. I really like this game, but will admit that playing the easier spirit is less interesting for me now that I've played a dozen of games. This group is starting to increase the difficulty for a greater, and more fun, challenge.
Moon Colony Bloodbath 🔗
Don't be scared about the title, it's not a war game. MCB is a light card game about several failing colonies on the Moon. Sure, there's a winner, but it's more about the fun of trying to survive long enough. It's a short game, 30–45 minutes, we played two games back to back, and it gave us an interesting perspective. I won the first game by having a population increase combo early in the game, while in the second game I was unlucky and didn't manage any combo. However, I was able to play late an expensive high population card which made the difference. There's the luck of the draw in the game, but also enough strategy trying to figure out how to keep yourself in the game to create a fun game.
Roll Player Adventures 🔗
We managed to do two more scenarios in the campaign. This is not a regular thing for us, the game is a backup activity when one of the RPG players can't make. We faced our first real challenged when two beasts killed the whole party. Bad rolls are bad. When this happens, the game tells you to read a story entry about having a second change and, at least this time, we came back with full health and stamina, which makes it easier to complete a scenario.
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 🔗
This game got a lot of hype and our group finally had the opportunity to put in on the table. It's a very fun puzzle, although one can trap himself if he sticks too much to his strategy. Plenty of points to be made in different ways, this type of game suits well our group as we like to try different strategies while learning the game, to test the range of a game. After playing, I've learned about the upcoming expansion, it looks very promising with more aliens and cards, asymmetrical starts and something to boost the scanning action which seemed a bit underwhelming in my first game.
Paranoia: The Uncooperative Board Game 🔗
I wasn't sure if I would be in the target audience for Paranoia, but I liked it. Some games like this one are meant to be taken lightly, have a good laugh with your friends while thinking just a bit about strategy. I could very well see people disliking the game if they are yelling "Traitor" on every occasion, I think it's more interesting if you're strategic about it. At the opposite end, I could see people finding this boring because they are too afraid of being called and play it safe. It's a silly game, about a silly computer, in a weird and dystopian world, just roll with it!
This makes the round for April. A few gaming nights had to be skipped, especially on the campaign side of things, as we managed to only get through one chapter of Oathsworn. Even the RPG nights were light this month as everyone was busy. It's almost like we suddenly had to get out of our houses now that it's no longer constantly under 0 Celsius every day. 😉
