Showing posts with label Unbox. Show all posts

Stella May I ask what new board game you have been playing?

Of course you may. This is Five Tribes and it was a very nice Christmas gift! This (and another game coming later this month) has been on constant replay. In this game, you are competing to gain the points by controlling the (you guessed it..) Five Tribes.
First off there components and instructions. The whole game is just so nice to look at. From the artwork to all the different pieces, it's all just so pretty.
Also included are individual cards that explain the different Djinns (basically genie cards that you buy to give you an advantage) and punch outs for the tiles and currency. You already know how I feel about these punch-outs. My perfectionist side of me just wants them to be perfect, but no matter how I punch them out it never is.
The backs of the Djinns card is a game turn list. As you can see there is quite a lot to do with each turn, but as you get the game going it moves pretty quickly.
 One of the unique features of Five Tribes is that you actually bid for your turn order. So for example if you really want to go first then you can pay 18 coins. Keeping in mind that each coin is a whole point, bidding to go first can become very expensive very quickly.
 The other components in the game. I was so happy to see the little trays for each of the components. I have noticed that none of the games we have have labels to let me know what goes where..
Five Tribes of Merchants, Elders, Assassins, Viziers, and Builders.
Lastly included is a drawstring bag, a scorepad, the Djinns, merchant cards, and turn markers.

Five Tribes is one of those classic Eurogame with a lot of strategy and a little bit of luck involved. I think I will go over the game play in another post soon as I don't have pictures of us playing. (It's just so easy to set up and clean up!)
Board Games, Games, Unbox
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Stella May I know what your first board game expansion is?

Of course you may and as you can see it's for Pandemic! This is (well, was, but more on that later) Mister's favorite board game. We played this game almost every other day and each time we play we never just stop at one game. So when this popped up during Amazon's Black Friday lightning deals I just had to pick it up.
Now this box as been sitting on our shelf since we received it back in November! And today I thought why not open it and see what's inside.
First off this is an "An Expansion by Matt Leacock and Tom Lehmann." I am trying to make a better effort to learn and follow game designers. Is that a little silly?
 A little bit of information: the expansion adds an extra person to the game! It's actually a person that would be playing against the rest of the group. One of the reasons we like this game so much is that this is a co-operative game. I mentioned this before but if you are used to playing board games that end up being very competitive then try out co-operative games. Everyone works together and everyone wins! With this expansion, adds a enemy within your group and that one person is working against everyone else.
Also in this expansion are new character roles and a new virus.
 So first off, under the directions for the game is some stickers!
And a very hefty and large pad. This is used for that extra enemy character.
The most exciting part of this expansion: these individual petri dishes! In the original, base game there is just two sections: one section for all the pieces and another section for the cards.
So as you can imagine the all the pieces or disease cubes would be jumbled up together and you spend the first few minutes of the game just sorting it out.

 The new pawns for the new roles.
The new disease cubes. There are less of these than the normal disease cubes since they play differently than the base game ones.
 These cards go with that new disease cubes. The far most left card is for your to place on the board with the other vials.
There are also extra event cards and another Epidemic card to play the Legendary level. Me and Mister haven't tried it out yet. The manual suggests playing just the new roles and event cards first before moving on to the new purple disease cubes and epidemic cards.
 What's nice is that even with all the new additions, everything fits inside one box. The boxes are also the same size so you can also switch between the lids.
It kinda makes me really happy to see that everything has it's own place.

links to other board games: Carcassonne Cribbage Ticket to Ride 
Board Games, Games, Unbox
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Stella May I know what you got in this month's Sephora Box?

Of course you may. This is the January Play by Sephora monthly subscription box. Each month you receive 6 samples (includes the one definite fragrance sample) and a little drawstring bag to keep all your samples in. They have recently changed up the bags to better color coordinate with each month's theme. This month is all about working out and includes products that work with that.
And like every month you get a special play pass card that gives you 50 extra Beauty Insider Points and in-store learning. I don't go into the store that often so this isn't so useful for me. But it is on this handy dandy poster sheet that not only tells you what is included but also tips and tricks to use the products.
What I received this month:
It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Color Correcting Full Coverage Cream + Anti-Aging Hrdrating Serum 0.135 fl. oz
Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey
Ouai Treatment Masque 0.5 fl. oz.
Tarte FRXXXTION Stick 0.22 oz.
Drunk Elephant Lala Retro Whipped Cream 5 ml
Tory Burch Love Relentlessly
 Look at this little cap on the tarte stick. It's nice packaging for a small sample.
 This would be one of those products upon receiving that I would just scratch my head at. It reminds me a lot of the old gel stick blushes tarte has (and I believe still have?) and when that handy dandy pamphlet would help explain things.
This actually an exfoliating cleanser! (and you know how much I like exfoliating things, see my latest skin care haul, here) All you do is swipe onto damp skin and massage into a lather. I can't wait to try this on out.
 
This little moisturizer actually came slightly opened. So when I picked it up it made a little rattling noise and I thought what an interesting product! But it's just a loose lid, which is actually a little concerning. The product inside was thankfully not dried out.
 Here's everything out of their paper packaging.
Swatches of the two colored products: top Clinique Almost Lipstick and below that the CC+ cream in Medium.
The lipstick is a lightweight no-mirror needed balmy type of lipstick. It really just tinted my lips a little. That's it for this post!
At First Blush, Beauty, Unbox
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Stella May I know why you like the Strawberry Pocky? Pocky Day

Of course you may. Today, November 11, is Pocky Day. Mister seems to think that it's because when written out numerically, 11/11, the "1's" look like Pocky! For today's Pocky Day, I want to share why I like the Strawberry flavored best. (& there are so many flavors out there.) 
This is the special strawberry one with little crunchies on it. (Still artificially flavored though.)
 And unfortunately it only comes in two packs.
But besides that the biscuit sticks are heart shaped! How cute is that?
What is your favorite Pocky flavor? Are you having Pocky today?
Days, Fiddle-Faddle Fridays, Food,
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Stella May I know why you just bought a Rubik's Cube?

 Why of course you may. I got the Rubik's Cube because it's one of those things that have been on my unwritten ever growing bucket list: solve a Rubik's Cube. Why did I get one now? Well that's simple. It's because the cube is on sale at Target! Now I don't usually wander through those Rubik's cube aisle, but since me and Mister have been on the board game train, I spotted this.
 What threw me off a little was that the whole thing just came with the cube and a little stand. I would have thought it provided the solution. I was so hesitant to move the cubes as I don't know how to solve it, but Mister already knows how to solve one.
There are 43 quintillion different ways to arrange the Rubik's Cube. 43,000,000,000,000,000,000.
a little Cumberbatch with the Rubik's cube.
Me after I finally solved it! Now my goal is to solve the Rubik's cube under one minute. (I don't ever plan in getting it in that 10 second range..)
Fiddle-Faddle Fridays, Games, Silly,
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Stella May I know how you like King of Tokyo?

Of course you may. As you know from Monday's post me and Mister got us some new board games (or tabletop games). For today's post I will be unboxing the King of Tokyo and give you our initial impression of the game. We opened this one first since it's lower on the BGG rankings and it's the shortest game play time.
Opening the box: first thing is the rule book,
Then the very simple board and punch out tokens. This is one of the simplest boards out there. One two spots and the second spot on the board is only used for 5-6 players. I still don't know how I feel about these punch out tokens. It's kinda neat that I get to be the first to use them, but I never get it clean and there is always a little tab left. Which I guess with use the tabs wear down and I wouldn't know the difference.
Even though it has just that one simple board, there are still a lot of other componets to the game. A very big stack of cards, energy cubes, and 8 dice. To note the cards smell a little funky when you first open them.
In this game you are a monster, alien, or robot and you are trying to become the King of Tokyo. These cute little holder is your game piece that holds your place on the board. You can play 2-6 players.
Each player also gets this score board to keep track of your Victory points and health. To become the King of Tokyo, you have to be the first to reach 20 Victory Points (top right with blue stars) or be the last one standing after every one else has lost all their health (bottom right with hearts.) It doesn't really matter which monster/alien/robot you chose since it has no bearings with the rest of the game play, but of course you want to pick out your favorite. (Mine is Baby Gigazaur, which is a Target exclusive character.)
At the start of each turn your roll 6 dice and over 3 dice throws you decide which dice you decide to keep or keep throwing. The 6 sides: 1, 2, 3 Victory Points, heal, energy, and attack. You decide if you want to attack the current monster in Tokyo City or gain Victory Points. You are either in the city (on the board) or outside of the city. Then who ever is inside the city attacks those outside and vice versa. This part of the game doesn't really matter for the two person version as one of you is always outside and one of you is always inside. For every turn that you are in the city you get two Victory Points, but you can't heal yourself. So you gamble whether you can get 20 Victory Points first or just attack your opponent 10 times to become King of Tokyo.
The energy you roll gets your energy cubes and you can spend them on special cards that give you temporary or permanent powers. Like growing an extra head for an extra dice when you roll or spending energy for Victory or healing points.
Overall I think this game is probably better with more people, but me and Mister still really enjoy playing this game. It's very fast game play and it doesn't require a lot of set of time. We only go through an average of 5 cards a game, but it's easy to just take out some cards, the dice, and your markers to start the game. Most of all I really like throwing dice. That luck element makes the game exciting!

As I am slowly realizing that I am becoming a board game geek, I was thinking about making it a permanent weekly feature to Stella May I. Me and Mister are very likely going to pull out a game every week (more than a few times a week if we are honest) so there will no doubt be a lot for me to say about board games. Every Thursday? Any suggestions for titles?

links: Monday's board game haul
Board Games, Games, Unbox
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