Overdue New Year/Christmas Post

This post should have come sooner but at last, it's here. This is where I go over what I got for Christmas etc. As you can see below I got some new board games and expansions so I will also be updating my favorite board game list.

 So let's start with 7 Wonders: Duel. It's definitely a different take on 7 Wonders and is definitely WAY better with 2 people than 7 Wonders is. I enjoy it immensely. I guess you could say it is more 'streamlined' than 7 Wonders. For example, with the chains it's just symbols, meaning you don't have to remember the names. Also, the science is a lot easier. If you have six different symbols you just win the game.

 The Castles of Burgundy I enjoyed a lot more than I thought. I got this game because it had a Black Friday sale so my mom asked if I knew about it/wanted it. It's rated number eight on boardgamegeek so I definitely had heard about it. But I wasn't sure if I wanted it. I looked into it and decided to get it. Glad I did.

 Aw, yes. The expansion to Five Tribes. The expansion that Andrew didn't know about and somehow still said, "What if there was an expansion for Five Tribes that added a sixth tribe and its color was purple?" Well, that's exactly what this is. I've only played with it once but I enjoyed it the time I played with it.

 I have yet to play this yet since I rarely get together with a big enough group of friends. But I know from past experience that this is a good game.

 Village Port is an expansion for Village that replaces the traveling spot. Instead of traveling on the land you travel on the seas. It is more complicated than regular traveling but that's expected from an expansion. I've only played this once but I enjoyed it a lot. I actually feel like going traveling instead of ignoring that corner of the board. And that's not just because it was new it was actually a good way to get victory points.
My brother, Andrew, also got me all but one of the Dominion promos (the other was out of stock). I've played with them a few times and even got a Scavenger-Stash combo going.

Oh, almost forgot. I also got a new Kindle for Christmas. This one is good enough to play Hearthstone on! It also has a camera which is what these photos were taken with.
Oh, and happy New Year I guess.7

Pandemic Legacy and Stuff

        I got Pandemic Legacy on October the 14th for my Birthday. Eric and I played it over the course of many days and go to finish it on the 31st. I (and I'm pretty sure he) enjoyed it thoroughly (As you can tell, by it taking the #1 spot on my favorite board game list). 
        The only problem with the game is that it has a limited shelf life. Once you beat the game it's over. (We won btw). So slowly, but surely it will fall down the ranks. The memories will always be there but we won't be able to continue the memories. (until Season 2 comes out(well, maybe, we actually know nothing about Season 2))
        Now keep in mind that you are getting your moneys worth. You play between 12 and 24 games. (Even though I'm pretty sure it is impossible to get 12 games. (it would require winning 12 times in a row (which would be crazy))) We ended up playing 17 games in total.
        Other things: Homework, Hearthstone, Homework, Grades, Board Games, and some more Homework. My schedule has been pretty packed as of late (and yet somehow I still make time to play a lot of Hearthstone). With four honors classes (one being Honors Biology, mind you) it has been pretty crazy. I have been able to keep my grades up and maintain a 4.0 GPA (without weight).
        I still try and play board games and right now I really want to get more into Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. If only I had more people to play with, we could have our own little meta. Ben and I play that every once in a while, but I want to play it more.

Dominion Box

My brother, Andrew, told me to post a photo or two of the Dominion box organizer thing a while back. Due to so much homework and me forgetting, I've only got to it just now. Anyway, here are the two photos.

Couple things we did differently than the organizer itself. First off, the Trash section is filled with blank cards and Event cards. Another thing was there was no place for extra curses so we just put it behind the other extra cards.
We put all the kingdom cards in the base box and all the Provinces, Golds, Coppers, Ruins etc. in the Guilds box.
We store the Adventures mats in the Guilds box.
Another thing we did was color code the tabs. For example we colored Reaction cards blue, Victory cards green, Treasure cards Gold/Yellow etc. We couldn't find a color for Reserve cards so we just left those alone.
One last thing, for all the cards we don't have we just left the organizer card in its place in case we get it later.

Boardgame List Redone

Dead of Winter is my new favorite game I guess. Dominion is number 2. Village is number 3.
Then it goes to the 3 games that are all similar but aren't quite the same. Hearthstone, Ashes, and Magic.
Hearthstone is different because you automatically get 1 more mana a turn.(unlike Magic where you have to have a mana in your hand.) And there are 9 classes. Each class with there own specific cards and power.
Ashes. Ashes is different because there is no mana ramp. Instead you start each round with 10 mana. Another thing that makes it different is the different phoenixborn(summoners). Each one has a different power, life total, Spellboard value(the amount of spells you can have), and Battlefield value.(the amount of units you can have on the board.) And each phoenixborn has a card that no one else can use.
Magic. Magic is different because there are no classes/phoenixborn. Any deck can have any card. You could look at magic as the original Collectible Card Game.(CCG)
Now the question is which do I prefer. Now that's the tricky thing. I like the gameplay for each game equally. So I rated them not on the gameplay but other things.
For example Hearthstone is rated the highest out of the 3 because it is an online card game. Meaning I can play whenever I want, not whenever other people want.
Then comes Ashes. Ashes is rated higher than Magic simply because it isn't a CCG. Instead it is a ECG(Expandable Card Game). Meaning that I don't have to waste money on buying cards, instead I just buy one thing and have the same cards as everyone else.
Wow that was a long explanation over the ratings of 3 games.
A few other changes. Terra Mystica has gone down. 7 Wonders has gone up. Mice and Mystics, Eldritch Horror and Summoner Wars have all gone down. Other than that there were only minor changes I believe.
One last thing to mention is that I added Flowers For Algernon to my Favorite Books list.

Found an Old SD Card PART 2

Part two. Birds.

Wow I had a lot of birds. There were 372 photos on the SD card when I found it and at least 200 of them were pictures of birds. I ended up deleting about 95% of them.

Lots of Birds (in case you can't tell)

Not only did I take pictures of living birds though, I also took pictures of dead ones.

First Dead Bird

Second Dead Bird