Hitting the high C - a deep dive in my collection

by Monica Elida Forssell

As we continue our journey, and hopefully start picking up speed on it, it`s time for the C games of my collection. There is a decent enough cluster of them. They range from pretty big, table busting games, to the teeny tiny cute ones. One of my oldest games is a C game, Castle Panic. I have the first edition, all the gray in all its glory. And that is the edition I will be holding on to. It was originally a gift from my mum, as long as I bought the expansion that was available at the time. No biggie. It`s still a cherished game in my collection, which sees a few plays each year. As age goes I see that cooperative games are starting to get far trickier now than they were back then, I suppose. Though I will mention a few other "older" cooperative games that are trickier than Castle Panic. I have tried once to play with the whole mix of it, and that is not to be recommended when playing solo, as it kind of breaks a pea brain like me! When setting it up I always get that nostalgic feeling of playing this with my cousins years back, in the beginning of my time as a board gamer.

Another game that is worth mentioning is of course The Castles of Burgundy. I have the The Castles of Burgundy: 10th Expansion – Solo, too, which probably eventually saved the base game from the big cull. It`s one that would have been hard to sell anyway, as I had a special experience with being gifted the game. It was during a con that we could put in our note of a game we wanted, and we would possibly win it. I had a rough weekend, as I was singing in a choir at the time, and had a few concerts along the way. Unfortunately I suffered from some sore throat, causing me to lose my voice. As I did get to perform at one of the concerts, I had to pass on the other one, which meant I could be present for the prize ceremony. Already feeling down in the dumps a friend of mine asked me what game I had put in for the prize giving. I said The Castles of Burgundy. He won the prize giving. No big deal. At the time I had poor winner`s luck, meaning also that I many times went home empty handed from cons. While I was explaining a game, carefully, without a voice, to someone my friends, the guy and his wife, came towards me. I thought they would be saying their goodbyes. Turned out he exchanged the prize he won in order to get The Castles of Burgundy for me! I was so touched! And had even less voice to try to explain the game we were about to play... Alas, it was left on the shelf for a few year, until I was given the solo promo pack. Even then it was left on the shelf for a bit, till I picked it out of the shelf to try it. The first few plays didn`t quite sell me, but I let it linger for just a tad bit more. Now I am happily trying to figure out how to beat the solo mode goal of filling the board.

As for a multiplayer game in the letter C it`s the one I am most famed for at cons. At the most important con for me, Spill-o-Rama, I am known as the Colosseum lady. That one year I didn`t bring it along I was told off, mind you in a nice way. So I just started to pack that game along for every single Spill-o-Rama con after that. It does get to travel with me to other cons too, sometimes. At every single con I get to play it I get to teach it to new people who haven`t played it yet. Which I feel is saying something about "the cult of the old". The first edition, which I own, is getting on in years after all. However, with a player count of 3-5 players it`s not the first game I tend to pick up for a multi handed solo mode. It is also difficult to with the bidding and trading the tiles between the three, as either I am too lenient towards myself, or I just haggle in order to haggle. It still brings on the nostalgia of playing the game when i first started to teach games. Usually I bowed out and let others teach. With this one I found myself having to teach games on my own. And it also touches by the interest I have for ancient history. While it is set in Rome, most likely, I can`t help but think back to when I visited an equally amazing arena in Croatia. I even got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on big screen with a friend there, in the evening! While playing I dip into what I recall from the visit, and imagine the soldiers, lions, poets and all waiting below for their turn on the stage.

Canvas was really not a game I was going for at first. Suddenly I ended up buying the Kickstarter edition, new in shrink with wooden pieces, off ebay. As bad luck had it I could have just waited a little while and I could back for the expansion and base game only shortly after. Oh, well, at least I got to try the game a bit before going into the expansion. While the solo game setting is sort of beat your on score with a touch of a lazy AI removing cards, I find myself working hard to fulfill the goals of the different colored ribbons. I have of yet to get a superb score, but I have seen it getting up there. It`s also the game I got to hold my first proper tournament with at a con last year. A few years before I did a rushed little tournament with another game, but for this I was granted space to play it, the role of setting up the tables, and following through till a finale. Now for the game there is something quite special about it for me. I feel it speaks to my PTSD and depression and anxiety, because the art you can make from three cards sometimes bring on some dark, moody, heavy titles. Of course there can be some more chirpy titles, but I feel mostly it speaks to the darker mind of a person. It`s almost just as big of a part with the game to try to make an epic painting, as it is to actually score the ribbons for the goals. It`s a game that I have the easiest to enjoy with other gamers as I do solo. With many others I get so put out of people`s choices, and also if they start messing up for each other just for the sake of messing up. My last experience of playing Colosseum with other people gave me a bad taste in my mouth. Canvas also speaks to the hearts of those who enjoy games that might bring on a deeper meaning. For me I am left sometimes just marveling over the painting I have created from the three transparent cards.

One of my first experiences with a solo only game was Coffee Roaster. I had tried Black Sonata, but this was way different. It was also a game I didn`t plan to buy, as I already had a coffee game...however, that is now like three coffee games ago... You remember those friends who gifted me a game at a con? I was gifted Coffee Roaster from them at Christmas. It was that all famed year of Covid, meaning that as I caught a cold I was left to my lonesome most of Christmas, but had a Teams live chat with the family while opening gifts. And to think, I got Coffee Roaster while also being gifted Under Falling Skies from those gaming cousins of mine and their families. The whole tile drafting and push your luck does keep me on the edge of my seat while playing the game. It has taken some time to start unlocking the strategies needed to score big, but now I have a few rounds of the game sessions hitting pretty high. I am still a bit off the highest score tiers, but at least I see myself going up. As I had already started to master Coffee Roaster it was kind of easy going into the campaign for Conservas, too, which has some of the same mechanics.

For my PNP fix I brought on The Court of Xiang Chi. Don`t let the price, or lack thereof, fool you. It`s a tricky little game, trying to fight back Daemon Kings and building up a good court for yourself. It was one of many that gave me a good feeling of starting to print and assemble PNP games at home. While playing it should be the easiest thing in the book, those Daemon Kings can be brutal. It`s one I have on a list of PNP games that I would love to see a fully produced and professionally printed version of, as I have seen that being sort of a trend these days. But I actually started thinking of it before I saw the trend emerge. The art of the game is pleasing on the eye. Even though my brain can`t always comprehend how each of the characters work as of yet, I am looking well forward to dipping deeper into this game. It`s also an excuse to get to spend some "generic" Asian coins I backed from Drawlab.

The last game I will talk about is a little one. It is also a very good traveling partner, and has been with me through thick and thin. Crypt has a new take for me on dice management, as we don`t roll them for placing them on the treasure cards. The dice are my servants, which I have sent down in my father`s crypt to steal his treasures. Cue daddy jokes galore. I have played it while sitting together with my dad, but I don`t think I have told him properly yet what it revolves around. Of course, the dice for my father`s ghost, the AI I meet, are rolled. I have to put mine to a number. The pair of dice need to be the same strength. It`s when I bring the dice and treasure in that I roll the dice, to see if I have exhausted the servants from having them haul out gold and portraits and other trinkets. When I backed for it I opted for a gilded edition with gold edges on the cards. While I also bought some regular editions I ended up keeping one of those, as I also have the mini expansion that requires two decks. It was one of those "easy out, backing a small amount, getting a small game, sweet!" At that time I bit over everything big and small I could get my hands on, with a solo mode. That occurred in the year that I went full on solo gaming. The game has seen plenty enough of plays over the years. So much so that it`s starting to show wear. That was also a reason to bring in the regular edition, so I had two decks to wear out!

There are plenty more C games to talk about, for sure. While I have a fair few other both big and small games in the letter, some that have been very popular in recent years (yes, I am looking at you Calico and Cascadia), there is only so much I can bring into one post. Games like Coloma: Deluxe Edition and CoLab are on the brink of killing my table with its size. And I have a sizeable table, not a gaming table as such, but still. I wasn`t even backing Coloma, and suddenly I could be in on a group pledge and threw everything including the kitchen sink on it. I am sure there are other C games to talk about, especially a coffee game (I told you I had more coffee games in my collection), which has been nice to dabble with a bit. That`s Café. However now I will ask you good readers, what are your go to C games to play? What makes them special or intriguing or fun for you to play?

Please feel free to subscribe for more, and drop a comment below. Thank you! Also; follow me on instagram, username onesinglemeeple.