I finally got our group back into the Scythe: The Rise of Fenris campaign after ~8 months due to work/schedule conflicts.

Had a little October/Halloween themed night and played a handful of rounds of Mysterium, followed by Obscurio.

I lost every game 🙃

We only did scenarios 2 and 3. I bought it used probably almost a year ago and only got through the first scenario, sadly, before it got shelved and “forgotten” for newer/higher player count games (my usual group count is 3-4).

It went over well though, so I think we’ll plan on picking up more scenarios eventually. I think the other player was surprised by how light and easy to pick up Memoir 44 was.

Couple of games of Memoir 44 and 7 Wonders Duel
Only 1 person was able to make game night, but we made it work :)

Gloomhaven is a really poor suggestion IMO. It seems like a recommendation made by someone who has only played one, and isn’t actually familiar with the other (beyond maybe what they’ve heard online).

If you have a pushy person deciding the games for the whole group and don’t want to take turns picking because of potential game length issues, I can think of 2 simple approaches I could see myself making in this situation:

1. Pick a random game, perhaps veto-able by majority vote or something in case the game is too long or people don’t feel like playing something
2. Anonymous voting, potentially ranked choice style

Got to break out The Witcher: Old World for the second time. This time with 3 players (first time was 2P) and it went over really well. It was definitely one that everyone wants to play again, especially after getting a feel for how a lot of the deckbuilding and fighting works.

Last Friday got to play Mysterium with a group I don’t usually play games with. Originally was supposed to be The Witcher: Old World, but someone wasn’t able to make it last minute but also had a few new players join and ended up with a higher player count, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

Wasn’t able to get around to any board games this weekend because I was DMing my 2nd session of D&D, so it was still a super fun time.

I haven’t played OG Nemesis, so take this with a grain of salt… but Lockdown wasn’t all that difficult to learn. The rulebook is pretty good and there are decent how to videos out there. From what I understand there are some additions that make Lockdown more complex, but if you’re used to games of this complexity it’s completely doable.
They’re both expensive games, so I likely won’t buy Nemesis, and don’t really agree with buying the original for simplicity’s sake prior to buying Lockdown (if you were leaning toward Lockdown). Of course if you know/think you want both at some point, go for it.

None that I can remember.
Him escaping via the ocean shouldn’t end up being terribly difficult because everyone can tell that’s where he is, how many ocean spaces he went through, and cannot backtrack. Usually you can narrow his location down to a few ports.
Mina Harker’s power is absolutely critical to use whenever possible. Once you’ve narrowed position down to a region the game should feel much more winnable because all 4 hunters can spread out and close in.

The bigger issue we usually have with that game is the combat doesn’t feel super great and bogs the game down.

Honestly, if you like the hidden movement aspect of the game, I think Specter Ops is the easier/more accessible game to play. It’s not that far off from FoD, but it’s not as heavy.

Just make sure you get the Atomic Bonds expansion! The base game is pretty broken and is a ‘meh’ game at best without it.
With the expansion it’s not perfect, but has still become one of my favorites.

I love co-op games. A few of my favorites (in no particular order) are:

Fallout (w/ Atomic Bonds expansion of course)
The Crew (either version)
Black Orchestra
Stars of Akarios
Forbidden Desert
Gloomhaven
Mysterium
Arkham Horror LCG
Spirit Island

Honorable mention for some semi-co-ops:
Fury of Dracula
Specter Ops
Dead of Winter

Ryobi is a great toolset overall. Even light woodworking is perfectly fine. I have maybe 8ish of their tools, ranging from drill to lawnmower and the only one I’d have any real issues with is my table saw.

It was my entry game too, so it holds a special place in my heart. The biggest downside to it for me is that there is almost no theme at all, so I don’t really play it anymore except to introduce to new people. Sure, it’s D&D themed, but it’s incredibly thin. To the point where it doesn’t need to be D&D and you could slap almost any other theme over it and it would work fine.