First few plays of First Rat. Very simple rules, on a first glance it seemed almost too simple. But there is a lot of fun strategy in there thanks to all the upgrades you can get on the way. Plays very fast, quick turns peppered with some “ok, I really have to think this through” pauses. Overall we both love it, an easy to get into euro but plenty of variety to make it fun to come back to. Worth noting that other than the variable setup the game has zero randomness. It’s a pure battle of rat-wits.

We tried two small card games: Piepmatz and District Noir (also known as Throne and Grail). Both have interesting card flows and use majority based scoring systems. District Noir reminded me of Coloretto and I think Piepmatz has some similarities to Hats. Card quality is great in both but the oversized cards were not a great choice for District Noir since sometimes you end up with a long row of cards on the table. Not a big deal though.