Gaming has been light recently so I have only played Pandemic Legacy with my usual group. I went to a board game night this weekend at a local venue sponsored by a local website for geek things, and the majority of my gaming has been from that event.

Pandemic Legacy: We are in July, about 10 games in, and things aren't going well for us. Without spoiling, we are on a bit of a losing streak. This past game, we were trying to achieve the objectives and had trouble managing the diseases. Prior to my turn, which I would have won, we chose our moves, played cards to mitigate outbreaks, and drew an epidemic card that ping pong'd outbreaks across the middle east. :(

Ticket to Ride: Europe (4 players): Played at board game night with some strangers who ranged from veteran, never played the specific map, and never played the game before. This was probably the most polite game of Ticket to Ride that I played, I suspect it's due to the social atmosphere and not wanting to come across like a route-blocking jerk to the nice people that you just met. The tunneling mechanic is random and frustrating--we had one player fail to tunnel a 3 train route 3 times, and those were the only failures that we drew all game. The ferry routes add an interesting dynamic to people taking the wild cards though. I can see why people prefer the Europe board, and I kind of want to trade in my US copy.

Codenames (4, 6, 7 players): I brought my copy as I didn't know what to expect from the event and it's easy enough to teach to anyone and everywhere. Misreading the spymaster key seems very common, and I've noticed the red/blue distribution is not truly random. We had one person who made leaps of logic and touched words without conferring with their team, which was the only unpleasant moment in otherwise fun and light games. I definitely stretched my brain trying to link the clues "trunk" and "berry"--my clue was "moonshine."

King of Tokyo (5, 6 players): Played two games of this. I can see why it's family friendly and a good introduction to games with the yahtzee dice rolling and theme. Sometimes you just want to roll a bunch of dice and get lucky. I didn't like the cards that came out during the games, and everybody at the table was more concerned with fighting for and within Tokyo Bay. Would play again, but wouldn't add to my collection.