It was time for a strategy session with some of our favorite strategists! The game we played is not for the faint of heart, but I knew these two could handle it. We also went for a less sweet snack than usual, and it was well received! Read on to find out more about the snack, The Voynich Puzzle and our personal connection to it, and one other small game that fit the theme for the day. As always, check out the At a Glance tables for quick stats.

At a Glance…

Cardamom Pistachio Scones

I feel like scones, which are already a bit dry and crumbly, can be even more so when made gluten free, so I decided to make these scones from The Conscientious Eater on a day when we didn’t need to be gluten free. I haven’t made too many things from this site, but I’ve loved what I’ve tried so far! They are super quick and easy to whip up, using basic everyday ingredients and just a few dishes (as you can see from the pics). The only slightly unusual ingredient was the pistachios themselves. I love a good scone recipe, both for how quick and tasty they are and how well they go with tea. They make you feel fancy and indulgent without being overly sweet or rich. The flavor of these scones was subtle, but I did love the nuanced flavor of the cardamom and pistachio mixed together. A great combo, and very pretty to make when garnished with those few extra nuts. The only pain was that I couldn’t find any store bought shelled ones at the time, so we spent a good little while shelling enough of them, haha. Worth it though!

Puzzles & Parchment

The Voynich Manuscript is a 15th, beautifully illustrated codex that is written in a language no one can decipher, about things we still are unsure of to this day. In seems to reference plants that do not exist, as well as astrological things, biological, and pharmaceuticals. Recently, it’s even been examined by AI to see if it can help us decipher it, but still no luck. My husband is a professor of ancient Greek, and specializes in ancient (Biblical) manuscripts. For his birthday this year, we actually went to the University of Alberta’s special collections and saw, among other things, a rare and amazingly accurate facsimile of the Voynich Manuscript up close and personal.

Thus, when this game came out I knew it had to be ours. It is just as weird as the manuscript itself! The designer, Dani Garcia, did a fantastic job of implementing the eclectic theme with great euro mechanisms. The production leaves…something to be desired, with puzzle pieces being a little hard to fit in, and point trackers constantly bumping into each other. We’ve only played it a handful of times so far, but it is fascinating! There are not only the aforementioned puzzle pieces, but also little books with your action cards that you can flip and turn to upgrade, with the illustrations getting more beautiful and elaborate with each upgrade. I’m still really terrible at it, but I want to keep playing it to get better and try more things. What a weird manuscript and game!

In keeping with the theme, we finished the afternoon with Biblios Quill & Parchment. This is a muuucchhh lighter and quicker game, a spinoff of its og Biblios. Jon thinks og Biblios is the better designed game, but it does really shine more with more than two players. Q&P is a quick little roll & write that works well at any player count.

There are two phases, where you first roll your own dice in a somewhat Yahtzee mechanism, but only getting to reroll one or all of them. They can give you points for bidding in the second phase, movement for your traveling monk friend, church points (how pious are you??), or the ability to cross off parts of the manuscripts you’re working on. Then in the second phase, you use the points you collected in the first one to bid on the dice that round to do more of those things, ultimately trying to get the highest of everyone on the manuscript tracks, get your monk to all his places, etc. It was a nice cool down to the afternoon after the brain-burniness of Voynich!

Want to buy these games? Check out your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) or Board Game Bliss using my referral!