Boardgaming in the Time of Covid

If you've been reading my blog over the years, you'd know that I am an avid fan of board games and tabletop games. I would normally play at least once a month and sometimes, I would get to play multiple times a month. Unfortunately, the pandemic prevented my for enjoying this hobby for most of last year. To give me some semblance of normalcy, I decided in late 2020 to purchase Herbaceous Sprouts online from Gaming Library. This game looks visually appealing and it has a solo variant, meaning I can play it by myself. It's a quick game and the instructions are easy to understand. I found it to be quite enjoyable to play. I'm the only one in all my board game groups who has played this game so I look forward to the day that I can introduce it to my other friends.

Herbaceous Sprouts

I would have played Herbaceous Sprouts more frequently if not for the fact that some of my friends gave me online games on Steam. We decided that for our online Christmas get-together, we would play online games so I set up a Steam account and I got Lords of Waterdeep, Wingspan, Agricola All Creatures Big and Small, and Viticulture as presents.  (Thanks friends!) I also downloaded Tokaido on my phone because it's free on the Android Play Store. We got to play a couple of rounds of Lords of Waterdeep, Wingspan, and Tokaido that night. It wasn't quite the same as getting to play with my friends face-to-face, but given the situation, it was the next best thing.

The cool thing about these games is that you can play against AI players. As such, I ended up playing Tokaido quite a bit on my phone. This is such a relaxing game, although while there is still some strategy involved, I do find it is quite luck-based and the start-player sequence does play a part in how the final results are determined. I did manage to win my fair share of games against the AI.

One of my winning games in Tokaido

Lords of Waterdeep is the game I have played the most. I think this is one of my top 5 favorite board games because, while there is some luck involved, it requires a lot of strategy while having relatively simple and straightforward game mechanics. This makes it perfect for both newbies and experienced board gamers. I've played a few times with my friends online but most of the time, I play against the AI and I think I've become quite good at it haha. I've had more than my fair share of wins but the best one came earlier today, when I got what I think is the highest score I've ever achieved in Lords of Waterdeep - 191 points! - as well as my largest lead (I was 71 points ahead of the second placer). Amazing!

I'm Player, with a score of 191!

I'm really happy that I have these games now and maybe I will try purchasing a few other games on Steam, such as Scythe and Terraforming Mars. Until then, I will enjoy the ones I have now.