Black Sonata - Shakespeare for the win!

We have been thoroughly enjoying the game Black Sonata recently.

It calls to mind one of my favorite games, Scotland Yard, but it allows you to play it solo.

My print-and-play version, after winning.

The game is very simple. But I love this elegant mechanic: you have a deck of location cards that can go in a number of different but specific orders. Once the cards are in order, you cut the deck, and the symbol on the top of the deck tells you where the dark lady is right now. However, there are multiple places on the map with that symbol on them. So you're not sure which of those is the exact one she is in.

You have to play a little chasing game in order to find her, and when you find her you get a clue as to her identity. Then she flees again. the clues give you a little side game. A logic puzzle wherein you have to figure out which three symbols you are being led to with the help of each clue card.

Once you have enough clues to figure out which of the women in the dark lady deck she is, you find her one last time, see if you are correct (a reveal that is similar to that in Clue) and either win or lose right then and there.

My only concern with the game is this: is it possible to memorize the dark lady cards? I doubt it, at least for me, but if you have a good memory, I wonder if that would ruin the game for anyone. Maybe the publishersp can issue new dark lady cards every year...? Those could be easy and fun little $5-or-so expansions.

Those Darn Terraforming Mars Expansions...

So I played Terraforming Mars again today — this time with the Colonies expansion, which I just purchased the other day. I'm starting to think that I just don't like the expansions (other than the extra playing boards). None of them are really worth it.

I *love* the extra project cards that they each add to the deck; those are fun. But the Prelude expansion just gives you a couple of extra things at the beginning of the game but they don't really go very far; Venus adds extra confusion and I already have enough to think about while I'm terraforming Mars; Colonies didn't really add anything interesting (it was expensive to add use the colonies, and really would just maybe bump up production on something by one, or give you a little extra money -- but it cost a lot to use it).

And I don't like the new solo rules because I liked playing the way that's printed on the darn boards! Anyone else out there feel the same way? Just wondering if I'm the only one missing something here. 🤔

I guess what I'm saying is, unless you have the luxury of having a great game group that gets together a lot and likes to play games like this over and over and over, then you really don't need the expansions. People say they speed up the game, but I haven't found that to be the case at all, and the base game is complex enough if you're only going to play it a couple of times a year.

Terraforming Mars is one of my favorite games and I really wanted to love these. But I can't in good conscience ever recommend them. I wish they would sell the project cards separately to people who don't want to buy the expansions.

Grease Monkey Garage

Okay, yes, we are going a little print-and-play crazy these days... But we recently discovered lists of these free games that are available, so we are trying the ones that look the most interesting!

Grease Monkey Garage is today's game. It's a fun and easy little worker placement game where you are trying to obtain and fix cars by using your workers to gather the supplies needed, which are listed on each vehicle's card.

It's not easy, because when the pile of cards is used up, the game ends after one more round. And the pile of cards is not a big one!

We think it is more fun to play it with other people than solo. in Solo, the game goes by so quickly and you feel like you don't get enough done. You just need one or two more turns. Plus, there isn't really an opponent to beat, you just have to keep trying to beat your high score. I prefer mechanics in solo play that are more like the opponent in Tiny Epic Galaxies or Mint Works, where you have someone working against you.

One of the downsides of print and plays is that sometimes the people creating them are not very responsive, plus there are usually a ton of typos (which are of course not exclusive to unprinted rule books). Did I mention that as a side business I am a proofreader? 🤣 I need to get involved in some of these rule books...

The graphics are great and it's just a really quick game. We need to get our friends together for a quick game day and play about 20 games in a couple of hours 😄

Here's the link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200691/grease-monkey-garage/files