On My City
Two within one month, we’d finished yet another legacy game! This time, it was the first legacy game Brian and I have ever started together, also the first one we started with Chris and Matt. I skipped my 10-year high school reunion for this, so let’s talk about it!
Background
So, what’s My City? It’s a legacy board game for up to four players consisting of 8 chapters, each with three episodes each - that’s 24 total rounds to play! Brian and I had initially bought our own copy, which still sits half-finished in our bedroom. We really enjoyed the game, but each round takes about 30 minutes or so to play, and we found ourselves leaving it for too long and every time we picked it back up for a few rounds, we struggled to remember strategy, rules, and find a good groove. So, when we saw it at a steep discount at Barnes & Noble (I think it was discounted to $15), we decided to take a chance on it again, this time with Chris and Matt. It was the first legacy game that we started as a quartet, but the second we finished. We got a little engrossed in Ticket to Ride, so My City took a back seat,
Gameplay
So, how do you play? Each player has a game board consisting of a large grid displaying an expanse of land. The gameplay area is dotted with objects of note, mainly a river, single trees, single rocks, a mountain and a forest at first. The goal of the game in the first few rounds is simple: build your city. With each turn, a building from the card deck is picked, and players are expected to place it on the map. The rules at first are simple: build next to the river to start, don’t build single buildings spanning the river, and keep buildings in the city connected to each other. And that’s about it for the first few rounds. Buildings consist of one of three primary colors, and at the end you’re either finished because you’re out of buildings or you’re out of space for buildings. It takes some planning since buildings are different shapes - a similar fashion to Tetris - but after a round or two, players get the hang of it. Points are earned based on the number of rocks and trees on the map, then the next round begins.
With each round, new hazards, rules, buildings, and goals are established. Your city may be trying new methods of prosperity, like cutting down the forest to reveal more green space, establishing mines in the mountain to find valuable resources, establishing religion through the building of non-skippable churches, and more. Each of the 8 chapters introduces a new challenge to face in gameplay, keeping things fresh but also distracting players from previous goals. Things are added to the map via stickers - sometimes they’re even taken away - and players are left to their own devices to prioritize the most effective ways to earn points in each round, which contribute to their overall personal points for the whole game.
Endgame
Well, the winner wasn’t a shock for me. In fact, when we played our second-to-last session, I realized that it was a rather difficult race for second place. Of course Brian won. It was actually quite nice sine we had never finished our own game, so we didn’t actually know what the final points or rounds looked like. Brian had a lofty fifty-something points by the end, and had a clear ten-at-least point lead over Chris and I by the 20th or so episode. Meanwhile, Chris and I were sort of neck-and-neck with points in the high twenties. But everything changed in the final three episodes. Chris hit a stride and ended up raking in the points, so he came in second. I fit in a comfy third and Matt rounded up the tier list. The main challenge, which I didn’t realize, was that there were going to be bonus points at the end based on achievement throughout the game. No spoilers here in case anyone wants to play it, but if you did well in certain rounds, you got certain stickers. Same thing if you did poorly. And by the end, these rankings gave bonus points, based on how your map looked. This was somewhat expected, but a nice way to earn a few more points by the end - kind of like the bonus points in Mario Party.
Final Thoughts
My City was fun, especially since the four of us kept each other responsible for finishing the game. I think it was a little drawn-out and lengthy, but at the same time, I wish there were more rounds to earn more points toward the end. Sometimes, it felt like we were using a gimmick for too long, like churches staying in play for the whole game after they’re introduced. Other times, it felt like things happened too quickly and one less-than-productive round would totally screw your progress. I loved that there were so many additions, slight changes, and rules to keep track of, but this also meant that if you took too long of a break in between rounds, you were at a disadvantage with all of the gimmicks and quirks to remember. This is what did Brian and I in when we played our first game at home. We would go days, weeks or even a month or so in between episodes, so we would forget that we’d get extra points for things like surrounding wells or making large groups of buildings in a specific color. The instructions were clear, accessible, and organized, but that doesn’t mean our easily distractible brains remembered everything. Still, I liked the strategy, frustration, planning and long-game thinking required for a successful game. It’s probably not something I’d play again, especially having knowledge of what’s coming up and what to focus on in order to succeed, but it’s something I’d recommend for anyone looking for a strategy game to play with others.Just make sure you pick reliable people to play with - this game doesn’t give pity points for players who missed rounds.
On Nightcore
Did you know there’s a whole genre of music centered around speeding up songs? And they sound like chipmunks sing them? Well I didn’t.
But Hamilton just put out a Nightcore EP for the tenth anniversary of the musical on Broadway (damn, it’s been a fast decade) and I’ve just discovered that I rather like fast-paced, squeaky voiced music. Brian claims he’s known about this for a while, but not many of the other songs he’s showed me hit the same way as this Hamilton EP. The diction, focus, and breath control needed to keep pace with the sped-up soundtrack is on point. It makes me want to crack open that Hamiltome (or take a look at the lyrics included in the boxed set of vinyl) and study.
This morning, I realized that listening to something fast-paced, with clean, crisp articulation got me hyped up for the day. I’ll have to do this more often. I highly recommend listening to some Nightcore, partially because they tend to have cool anime-style cover art, partially because a lot of them sound like theme songs for action-packed shows, but mostly because it’s hard to be in a bad mood if you’re picturing Cinderella’s mice or Chuck E. Cheese singing to you about the high-stakes American Revolution.
-G
On Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West
We did it! We finished a legacy game. A huge shout out and thank you to Chris and Matt for keeping us on a semi-consistent schedule and getting this game to its conclusion. I thought I’d give my thoughts and recollect on the process!
Background
What’s a Legacy Game? - A legacy game is a board game that gets played over multiple rounds, with the game, rules, pieces or conditions for winning changing each time. The basic premise of the game is usually the same, but new challenges, goals, or pieces to use may be incorporated with each passing round. It’s usually played with the same people each time, and at the end, you have an entirely unique-to-you game board.
What’s “Ticket to Ride”? - Other than a Beatles reference, the Ticket to Ride series is a collection of board games involving trains (and sometimes boats…). The series has over a dozen entries, each with a different spin. The game has players collecting different colored cards in order to pay for new train lines connecting cities across a map. The overall goal is usually to connect specific cities in order to earn points, but some other games have bonuses for the longest train, using the most train cars, etc. We have a few games in this series and particularly like the “Europe” version of the game.
Who did you play with? - Brian and I played with some friends / neighbors / former coworkers of ours: Chris and Matt! They’re the reason we’ve been introduced to the Ticket to Ride series and they’re who we bought the legacy game for. Legacy games themselves tend to be somewhat expensive, since there are a lot of custom stickers, added rules and materials, and limited replayability until it’s finished, so we wanted to play with people who would really appreciate it… And who would make sure we finished.
Gameplay
We broke gameplay up into one or two rounds per game night, spread over four months. Each player got to pick a specific train line / color - Yellow (Erie) for me, Black (New York Central) for Brian, Red (Pennsylvania) for Chris, and Blue (B&O) for Matt. The game started with three puzzle pieces showing the eastern US (the former colonies) and the simple premise of (1) connect cities with your trains, (2) make as much money as possible, and (3) keep in mind that Mama O’Connell, a big bad stretching over the series who we kept calling Mama Odie, is someone we want to stop somehow.
At the end of each round, we tallied our points on a bank slip and stored it in a box that matched our train line, not to be touched or looked at until the overall end of the game after 12 rounds of gameplay. As the overall game progressed, more pieces of the board are added and the map expands, but it’s the player’s choice which part gets added next. It was hard to keep track of who was in the overall lead since points were kept secret, especially as new challenges were added: a circus to grow, stocks to collect, treasure to find… Especially since we would only play every other week at most and every new challenge made us prioritize different things: would we try to connect as many cities and complete as many tickets, or would we try to make as much money through various means, or would we take this round’s gimmick in stride and try to make a fortune that way?
Endgame
So? Who won??? Well, it was kind of an upset in my mind. Whenever I play boardgames with Brian, I expect him to win. It’s one of his many secret talents. So, when we finally finished the final round this past Friday, I was absolutely shocked when Chris won by a rather slim margin (12 points!!). The entire game, Brian seemed to have all of the goals prioritized: he managed to collect the most stocks, he always collected a ton of money, and he completed a decent amount of tickets. It was one round, one single ticket that went uncompleted, that allowed Chris to eke out ahead. In the end, I think this was a good thing, particularly since this was Chris’ Christmas present to begin with.
Final Thoughts
Overall, if you like Ticket to Ride and have a dependable group of people to dedicate a solid chunk of change and good bit of time to, it was a great investment. Each round was an easy 1-3 hours in gameplay when you factor in setup and breakdown. The rules were a little convoluted, but there was clear thought in the overall progression of the game itself and I had a lot of fun.
I rather liked the game as a whole. It was challenging, fulfilling, and each new round brought new intrigue. I liked that the map ended up spanning hundreds of years, cities in Canada, the US and Mexico, and a variety of geographical zones. The map pieces were well themed, came with interesting and refreshing gimmicks, and became motivating factors in continuous playing. The final round even seemed semi-high stakes and really seemed like a grand finale. It even came with optional extra endings in case anyone had ever played before and already knew the ending.
One of the few downsides involved the fact that we only played with four people, not the max of five, so there weren’t as many benefits, challenges, or resources related to the green team. Another downside was the irreversible nature. This is usually a highlight of the legacy games, but if someone gets distracted and say, holepunches a ticket incorrectly or fills in their name twice on their score box or loses their cards or confuses their cards with someone else’s… Some mistakes are easier to fix than others. That being said, that’s not really an issue at all and leads for some good laughs and memories along the way. A final downside was the cost and time commitment. This game isn’t cheap. A solid hundred dollars to buy a game that you’re going to desecrate and over 24 weeks to complete isn’t something everyone has or can do.
I’m happy I completed yet another goal for the year, and I think we’ve already purchased another legacy game to start soon. -G
On The First Quarter of 2025
Well. that was a hard three months. Between losing Clyde so suddenly, and lots of shake-ups and responsibility increases at work, and Brian hitting a bit of a busy season with his job, and keeping up with family and friends, I feel like those first few months of 2025 flew by. We’re still adapting to this new silence in the apartment without Clyde, but that just means Brian and I are spending more time together. Chores have become a two-person job, simply because neither likes being alone in the silence. But that also means we’ve been rather productive. When we’re not reminiscing about good times with Clyde or complaining about work or discussing upcoming plans, we’ve been reading and cleaning and finding new ways to fill the space. The Lego train platform is nearly finished, for now, I’ve read quite a few books, and I’ve started mulling over an idea for a novel - a lot gets done when you quit TikTok and have a lot of big feelings to deal with.
I thought I’d use this opportunity to check in on some of the goals for the year that I made back in January, and possibly add some new ones to the list:
Read 25 books - Very in progress! Since January, I’ve finished 13 books, and I’m about a third of the way through book 14. Should a book review come soon? I’m also very open to recommendations despite my 40+ book long TBR.
Visit one new NHP (bonus points if it’s in a new state) - Not yet, but we’re working on it. I’ve discussed taking some time off around my birthday for something special (it’s my golden birthday this year) so hopefully this one will be accomplished by the end of May!
Re-start learning a language, preferably Spanish - Well. It wasn’t Spanish. I started up on Duolingo and also got Brian to join, which subsequently meant we got a family plan, so there are a handful of friends learning alongside us. I’m re-learning French, while Brian is learning German.
Finish a Legacy game (we have two ongoing right now!) - So close to being complete!! One legacy game has a single round left, and the other has quite a few rounds, but we’ll be finished this one likely before the end of April. Thoughts on the legacy game process coming posthaste.
Get the website to 1000 views - Work in progress, but getting there. We’re up to 124 unique visitors and 221 page views, so that’s not too bad! Not to get into the details of analytics, but I can see why people pull the sympathy card for clout. 32 of those visits came after Clyde passed. Maybe we’ll have to do a Cat-urday picture and story time or something…
Do something for Dad - still very “to be determined” but I’d really like to something meaningful. More than just a donation in his name. Maybe I can see how much those benches cost in OCMD or what it takes to get a plaque on a tree somewhere.
Travel to a new state. This one is ever so slightly different than number 2 on the list, but I’d really love to get to a state that I’ve never been to before. The list isn’t all that long (PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA, NY, CT, MA, FL) but maybe I can add a WV, OH, or something in the New England-ish area.
Write more. I have this idea for a novel. I’ve had a lot of ideas for novels. Maybe I can make that into something.
Take the ATP exam. I’ve been studying and learning and preparing, but I took a break from it all when work got hectic. I need to get back to this.
Anyway. That was a lot. I’ll try to check in again in July and see how we’re doing with all of this, but that being said, I’ll be gearing up for the extended school year starting, so maybe I’ll be a little preoccupied.
-G
On Clyde
It’s been a hard week.
Then again, “hard” doesn’t really cover it. On Monday, March 17, Brian and I had to help our sweet kitten Clyde pass on. Grief is hard. Stories are hard. So maybe I’ll start at the beginning and see where this goes.
On December 31st, 2015, I went to the local SPCA just to look at some cats. We had recently lost our family dog and I had been wanting a cat for a few years. Now, with a few weeks of winter break, a finished basement, and no other animals in the house, I had finally worn my mom down to at least consider looking at cats. There at Providence Animal Shelter, in a rehabbed aquarium that held kittens, was Clyde. He was so small - he never did grow all that much - with wide, curious eyes and big whiskers and a little crook at the tip of his tail. He scratched everyone that was there, including my mom, except for me. I couldn’t explain why, but I knew he was meant for me. He had come from a hoarding house in Jersey where hundreds of other cats had been found, he was a runt, and he was scared of pretty much everything, but after some convincing and some phone calls home and practically begging my dad, Clyde came home with me. We took a pit stop to the PetCo first, where we got his Flyers tag and a collar, a brush, a litter box, some toys and some food. He had that Flyers tag his whole life.
Bringing him home was easy, but getting him to adjust was tough. He was so small and loved to hide. He constantly played with wires. He climbed on things. But we kept him in the basement for a while and helped him adjust. I slept with him on the couch in the basement for weeks. He learned to sit in my lap, watching me read or draw or play video games. He started to sleep with me, preferring to curl into a ball in the crook of my armpit, pressed against my body and arm, purring like a chainsaw. He had the biggest purr for the littlest boy.
From then on, it was instant companionship. I hated leaving him to go to school or work. Whenever I was there he’d be by my side, at my feet, following me, leading me, with me. We were inseparable, No matter where I was, Clyde was with me. In a way, he still is.
Through huge life changes, two moves (and a stint back with mom and dad), two degrees and more, Clyde was there. He was even at my wedding (the legal one, anyway). I couldn’t have asked for a better familiar. Everyone who met him loved him, partially because he never really caused trouble but also because he was just so cute. Since he never really grew much, he was a perfect cuddle buddy. My dad would often cuddle up on the couch with him and take long naps when I wasn’t home. He loved to play. His catnip pickle and orange jingle ball and his laser pointer were among his favorites. Brian would get Clyde to run laps in our living room, making high-speed circuits around our couch. He loved treats. Hearing that bag crinkle would make him come running and even hearing the word “treat” would make him stand at attention. He knew a few words, like his name, and the letter “H”, and treats… Or anything that sounded like the word treat. In his last few months, he would respond to a new nickname from Brian - Jurj. If you’ve watched BoJack Horseman on Netflix you might’ve heard this one, but Clyde started responding to that like it was his own name.
Being without Clyde for the first time in a decade is sundering. I wish I had him here. I wish he didn’t have to go. I wish we got more time. But in the end, we did manage to get a little more time.
About two weeks ago, Clyde’s eating and drinking slowed to next to nothing. At first I thought he was being picky about his food. He was the type of boy who liked something once, and that was pretty much it. We were constantly rotating in new wet food to help his water intake, but he was a food snob. So when he wasn’t super fond of his wet food (which he never really was in the first place), I wasn’t that alarmed. Then he stopped drinking a ton of water. We thought it might be his bowls, so we bought new ones. When that didn’t work, we bought a fountain. He never touched it. Then he stopped eating his dry food, which was always an easy win for him, and I got really concerned. Clyde had always had bad teeth, lately he had been starting to get a cataract on his eye, and last May he had been at risk for kidney disease. Between these three, I had finally made the call and my Mom and I took him to the emergency vet. That was last Wednesday. They ran a lot of tests, and the results were mixed: an eye ulcer (give him drops), his teeth are absolutely awful and he should probably have them taken out (but they didn’t do dental there and couldn’t give him antibiotics because…), he has a heart murmur - a 4 out of 6 in severity (so that’ll make treatment complicated), and he’s dehydrated (so he needs fluids, but we can’t give him too much because of his heart) and he’s constipated (so he got an enema), and a scratch on his nose and eye (but those should be fine). A short trip and a lot of answers, but really just the solution of eye drops, oral medication, and a cone that he absolutely hated. He was pretty okay for two days, not himself but not worse, and we had a follow up last Friday with our usual vet. Brian and I took him with minimal complaint, which was abnormal since Clyde loathed his carrier and would give the loudest meows when he was confined in it. Clyde sat quietly in the car, waiting for the vet, and even on the ride home. Yet another red flag. Our vet confirmed the murmur, but said his eye was clear, so we were free to remove the cone. She was concerned about his nutrition and his teeth, so she gave us more painkillers, an appetite stimulant, and an antibiotic. She also ran a blood test, but those results wouldn’t be in for a few days. We went on our way, and Friday and Saturday were more or less okay. He wasn’t eating a ton, but he was eating some wet food and sipping some water, but he still wasn’t using the litter box. Come Sunday, after trying to give him his appetite stimulant and his eye drops, Clyde wanted nothing to do with me. He yowled, ran, hid, and complained when I tried to pet him. This lasted for over an hour and Brian and I took him back to the emergency vet. This time, things were much more concerning. They ran an x-ray and though his colon was clear, we later found out (from our normal vet and with some digging) that he had a very, very enlarged kidney. His kidney levels were off the charts and into the hundreds (our vet later told us that they had spiked from “normal but high” on Friday to astronomical on Sunday, something she’s never seen in her career) and that he was in late stage kidney failure. Our choices were an extended hospital stay, where they would try to give him fluids to flush the kidneys but that might stress his heart (killing him) and may or may not even help his kidneys, or take him home and make him comfortable. It was an obvious choice.
We had one great last night with Clyde. We tried to have a “normal” evening, but after three hours at the vet and a diagnosis so grim, we couldn’t take our eyes off of Clyde as he stationed himself in his new hiding space: under a towl hanging from the banister at the top of the steps. Ultimately, with offers of handfuls of treats that he hungrily accepted, we got him to come up on the couch with us, sitting between us like he had done hundreds of times before, for one final time. We also got a good final cuddle with him: he slept both next to me in the crook of my arm and in between us with his head on Brian’s pillow, for one final time. Over the course of the night, he wasn’t doing well getting back up onto our rather low bed, yet another red flag. In the morning, we tried calling our vet for a follow up, but she wouldn’t be in until later in the morning. In the meantime, Clyde was now refusing medicine as well as food and water. We decided against chasing him around to force the medicine: it wasn’t work stressing him. He wouldn’t get up on the furniture or even eat treats, a massive red flag. He was wobbly and lethargic, and was giving these begrudging, long meows when we pet him. It was almost as if he knew, and we knew though we couldn’t bring ourselves to admit it, that it was time.
Calls to a service, Lap of Love, were made. Confirmations with our vet followed. She called us earlier than expected, we suspect she called us out of office hours just to confirm: we were making the right choice. She had never seen such rapid advancement in her career and she suspected it may be a very aggressive and rapidly advancing form of cancer, possibly in his kidney but who knows where else. He wasn’t suffering yet but he absolutely wasn’t himself. He wanted nothing to do with anything he liked: treats, toys, broth, cuddles. It was time.
A doctor from Lap of Love came to our home and helped us guide Clyde over the rainbow bridge in the calmest, quietest, most peaceful way possible. He was with Brian and I, in Brian’s lap and my hands, while my mom was there too to provide support. Some of the people who loved him most were there to help him take one good, final nap. It was the fastest and longest moments of my life, all wrapped in one.
And now he’s gone.
I don’t want to akin this to losing a child - he didn’t come from my body - but I raised him. He was the closest Brian and I have to a baby. He was my everything from the moment he would wake me up at 5:30 in the morning for wet food to the moment I went to bed and he cuddled beside me. Now that I’m not running in a constant state of anxiety and stress for the first time in two weeks, my body feels hollow, my mind continues to race, and my heart is torn through. Brian and I continually rationalize that this was best for Clyde. No suffering, no prolonged pain, no continuing through treatments that could ultimately backfire. I know it was for the best, but it doesn’t make me wish I could conjure him back to us, just like he was a handful of weeks ago, so playful and curious and bothersome and loving and soft and warm. But I can’t. I couldn’t, even if it was possible, if the result would be the same.
I know he’s warm, safe, loved, fed, in whatever is beyond, but that doesn’t help us here. Clyde is missed, but Clyde is safe. Clyde is gone, but Clyde is so, so loved.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for following my ramblings. The last twenty-four hours sucked. I know this was incoherent and long and quite possibly I’ll edit it in the future, but I wanted people to know, just in the event that I lash out this week. Here’s why.
Hug your pets, count your blessings, savor the good, the bad, and the everything in between while you have it.
Sweet dreams baby Clyde. Mama loves you ten buckets full.
-G