u/ferndinosaur

Hi there! I’m going on a 2 month trip to Europe doing the following countries/regions:

\- The Baltics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
\- The Balkans (Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia)
\- Other: Hungary, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Germany

I’m hoping to leave in mid September (and come back mid November) and am wondering what the right orientation of the travel is with weather and seasons.

My current thought is to start in Austria to see a bit of the alps in the beautiful summer, then head down through Slovenia and into the Balkans - I think Croatia would likely be best to experience in the warm temperatures. Then, head to Romania area for mid October for the forest (hoping to spend time in Transylvania) and then do some of the middle countries (Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia), and then the last month in Poland, the Baltics and Germany where it would likely be colder but we’d be more interested in doing indoor activities anyways in these countries (e.g. museums).

I want to take advantage of the most beautiful landscapes in the months where they are naturally beautiful (hence the beaches of Croatia in the summer and the forests of Romania in the peak foliage). I’m not sure I’ve done it correctly though! Or that this is even advisable. I also thought about doing North to South to keep it as warm as possible but worried the Balkans would be a little subdued in November.

All thoughts welcome :) Thank you, sincerely

I play Wingspan at least once a week, consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person, and frequently get scores in the 60s.

I try to use the two habitat rule (usually woodlands and wetlands), try to stack my woodlands with low scoring easy to play birds that let me get lots of great food, and then spend time building more expensive bird cards.

I tried to stop paying attention to bonus cards since they don’t seem to help much and generally do kind of average on end of road goals.

I don’t typically prioritize cards that let me cache and tuck (but I do often get at least 5 points towards that at end game) and generally don’t do a big egg laying strategy.
Would that be helpful?

My score usually looks like ~35-40 on birds, ~5 on tucked/cached, 12 EOR goals, 5 bonus cards, 5 eggs.

Any help is appreciated! I am frequently beaten by people who I’ve just taught the game to 😂

Looking for a place that does a lash lift and tint, as well as eyebrows (not microblading - just shape and tint).

Thank you so, so much!

This is mostly meant as a massive shout out to Drums of Autumn the book. I really didn’t love S4 and I remember being fairly distraught when the series shifted from J&C to new characters. But I LOVED the book.

I’ll start with a quick note that the first half of this book dragged a bit. I was fairly disinterested in the extremely lengthy descriptions of scenery of the North Carolina wilderness, the whole journey to River Run / at River Run but as soon as they started setting up house at the Ridge the words flew off the pages.

The book had so many awesome moments that I was so looking forward to and so many I didn’t realize the show had changed!

- Brianna visiting Lallybroch with the whole Fraser family. I loved how they all described how similar she was in looks and manner to Jamie, how touched they were to see her, and her formidable attitude with the Laoghaire nonsense. WHY did they invent the horrible Laoghaire hangout in the show.

- Brianna’s birth scene. I’m so glad Claire and Jamie are back for this and the adorable family of 3 moments and how often Brianna sought Jamie’s comforting strength. As a whole, their entire relationship in the book and how obsessed they are with each other.

- In my opinion, the reunion between her and Roger was far more complex and interesting. Not just a blind run through a field but two people who have been through immeasurable trauma choosing love AND obligation. Made me like their love story a lot more.

- The whole scene at the jail when Brianna is determined to save Lord John and then BONNET ends up saving her, he lets her go, and she decides not to shoot him. Man, do I love a complex villain … And DG does them so well!

- Frank setting up the conditions for Claire to learn Jamie is alive. Fantastic lore! I’ve been puzzled over that grave since it came up … Again, we love a complex character!

- More holistically, book Brianna is AWESOME and a BADASS.

Things I did NOT love:

- Why is Roger randomly kissing all these women on the mouth? STOP.

- “Leroi”. Enough said.

What were your favourite scenes from Drums?

My local theatre is the Toronto Scotiabank Theatre and sometimes people are literally in my lap they’re in such full recline! I totally get it if you’re in one of the first few rows and need to see the screen but a lot of people are just reclining like it’s a lounge chair in their living room and not like there’s a real person’s knees behind them! It can be quite uncomfortable and I often cannot cross my legs or even shift without disturbing their full recline.

Petition to add Randy Recliner to the name and shames at the beginning credits ;)

Any thoughts on this?

I typically play 2 player viticulture and find the 1 player per action rule pretty frustrating, especially in the end game. Does anyone play without it? Or a variation that lessens the frustration?

Thanks!

I really resonate with games with strong, fun theming. I played Viticulture Essential Edition for the first time the other day and was extremely enthused by the tight and interesting theming. The Tuscany element was awesome and I love how the clear round game pieces looked like grapes and wine. Awesome!

What’s your favourite game for theming? (Disregard how much you like the game - just evaluate on theme!)