by Squishi

looks like it's hard to find a copy of this game, in English, in reasonable price.
is this OOP?

by sneakypete21

Squishi wrote:

looks like it's hard to find a copy of this game, in English, in reasonable price.
is this OOP?

I don't know, but I feel your pain. I've been trying to get this for ages but it's hard to come across for a good price (for good reason).

by Magicarl3974

sneakypete21 wrote:

Squishi wrote:

looks like it's hard to find a copy of this game, in English, in reasonable price.
is this OOP?

I don't know, but I feel your pain. I've been trying to get this for ages but it's hard to come across for a good price (for good reason).

Yes it is hard to find for little less than £45.00 but if it's a game you have wanted for a while and really do want it, invest in a copy. I got mine at that price and have never looked back. It's a fantastic game and worth the lay out. Sometimes guys we have to bite the bullet and just go with it. It may hurt your wallet at first but after a couple of games you will forget what you spent. And don't forget that board games are an investment for life.

by sneakypete21

Of course you're right. It's not that I baulk at paying £45 for it; it's keeping my wife semi-happy by not buying loads of games that is my aim. And, when someone in my group already has it and will happily lend it if we wanted to play it then the incentive is not there for me to spend loads on a second hand game. I generally try to get better value from my purchases, getting games that I have no access to.

by Blika_Gold

Are you able to pay your loans after the last turn (the turn when all players are able to put their marker wherever they want, even using occupied buildings)?
Or will the one(s) with loans have to pay their loans BEFORE end game?

If players are able to pay their loans after the last turn, how will any player get in a situation where they won't be able to pay their loans and get -7 point at end game?

Thanks in advance folks! You ar great!

by cesarpepe

You can pay your loans (all of them) in the very last turn. For details see page 9 in the rulebook.

by CmdrOverbite

Blika_Gold wrote:

If players are able to pay their loans after the last turn, how will any player get in a situation where they won't be able to pay their loans and get -7 point at end game?

You could be building-rich and cash-poor at the end of the game. If a building costs N francs, you could sell it for N/2 francs at the end of the game in order to raise the cash to pay back the loans. But there are values of N where it makes more sense to keep the building and take the -7 hit from the unpaid loan rather than sell it for enough money to pay back the loans.

by Karlsen

Blika_Gold wrote:

If players are able to pay their loans after the last turn, how will any player get in a situation where they won't be able to pay their loans and get -7 point at end game?

By taking too many loans :cool:

I found an old post of mine - I can safely say that, for me at least, 26 loans is too many loans. The sweet number is less than 26.

by Zark

Blika_Gold wrote:

If players are able to pay their loans after the last turn, how will any player get in a situation where they won't be able to pay their loans and get -7 point at end game?

This isn't a Martin Wallace game. You have try quite hard to get in a position where you can't pay off your loans.

It is not a game where you have to worry about taking loans. Indeed ignoring feeding and racking up loans is a valid and fun strategy

by Vaader

I am just translating my Polish variant "Wariant SOLO symulujący agresywnego przeciwnika" into English.
I need help to correct the grammar, reviews of gameplay also welcome.
There is a draft:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1558892/i-need-help-correct...

by Vaader

New File: Wariant SOLO symulujący agresywnego przeciwnika, translation into English in progress for Board Game: Le Havre

by Milena Guberinic

Hello everybody! This was a VERY VERY VERY special week!!!! VERY SPECIAL!!! If you read the title of this post, you already know why. If you don't read titles and just aimlessly click on things, I'll tell you now. It was a very special week because a) I met Zee Garcia, Tom Vasel, Jason Levine, and a host of board game industry people at Snakes and Lattes, b) I met Ignacy Trzewiczek and played a prototype of Tentacles of Time (with the wonderful Gil Hova watching over us), and c) I got to play many hours of board games with my dear BGG friend, Steph Hodge, at BoardGameBliss!!! Life doesn't get any better than that!

Inspired by all this excitement, I have decided to make a life goal. I know it probably won't happen this year, or next year, or even the year after that, but it's going to happen!

MINA'S PRIORITY #1 LIFE GOAL: ATTEND GATHERING OF FRIENDS!

That's enough dreaming! ON TO THE GAMING!

***

Snakes and Lattes


Because this was an unusual week, I have decided to adopt an unusual format. I will start with the most recent event - the Snakes and Lattes gathering.

On Tuesday night, Snakes and Lattes sent a Tweet saying that Tom Vasel and 40 of his friends would be at Snakes and Lattes College on Wednesday afternoon! Of course, I HAD to try to meet them! I didn't know what to expect. Would I have to push through a sea of people to even catch a glimpse of all the board game legends that would be there? Or would the late notice prevent people from showing up? Maybe, just maybe, would I get to play some games with them??? :D I'm SO DELIGHTED to report that there was no sea of random people and that I was not only fortunate enough to play a game of Libertalia with Zee Garcia (WHO IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!!), but I also managed to put my encyclopedic knowledge of board game rules to use in helping to teach Tom Vasel, Jason Levine and friends how to play Dilluvia Project! Of course, Zee won that game of Libertalia (my friend, Jamie and I tied for second) and Tom found the icons in Dilluvia Project less than delightful, but I hope he gets a chance to try it again soon! I wish I could help them learn games every day! :P

This photo was taken by my long-armed friend, Jamie (bottom left)

I got the most fearsome pirate board, but I did not end up being the most fearsome pirate :(

But not only did I get to meet The Dice Tower and a number of wonderful publishers and designers, I had the honor of meeting one of my favorite designers and publishers, Ignacy Trzewiczek (i.e. ANOTHER ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!!!). He taught me and my friend, Jamie, his new game - Tentacles of Time. This game is essentially a re-implementation of Tides of Time and is quite similar but also quite different. Players have not only to contend with majorities, but also with nasty tentacle cards. Each tentacle gives the player holding it one madness at the end of each round. The player who collects the most madness in a given round may either discard one of his madness tokens or take 4 VP. Madness isn't much of a problem unless you collect 9, in which case you immediately lose the game. I really like Tides of Time, but I really love Tentacles of Time! The madness doesn't add much to the complexity of the game, but it does add much to its depth. There is another strategy to explore and a push-your-luck element that I'm always keen to experience. Oh! And if you care about such things, it's gorgeous! :P

***

I am still shaking from the excitement of the above, but let's get back to reality before I pull you back to another exciting event!

What's New?


Nauticus

Nauticus was a game I passed by many times because it is difficult to obtain, not available in English, and just a bit "regular" looking, but it's a Kramer and Kiesling game, so I knew I would relent and find a copy at some point. That point came a few weeks ago and I finally took it out for a bunch of spins this week! Here's how it went...

The Overview

In Nauticus, players run competing ship companies, building fleets of ships, loading those ships with goods, and shipping those goods off to faraway lands to get points. The player who builds the best and biggest ships and delivers the most goods will be the winner!

The game is set up by randomly arranging 8 action tiles in a circle at the center of the board, placing a wheel that shows blue workers in the center of that circle, and arranging in piles all sail, mast, and body pieces for ships.

Each player receives a warehouse board, 3 pass tiles, which are placed with their -3, -2, and -1 up, 1 extra action tile, 4 workers, and 15 coins.

Extra action tile

Nauticus is a very blue game with a GOLDEN RULE: Every piece of anything you receive without paying money has to be stored in your warehouse. This is important because it makes the things you get for "free" not so "free."

The game is played over 4 rounds (5 rounds if playing with more than 2 players).

Each round begins with a preparation phase in which the round marker is advanced, the wheel is rotated so that the anchor on the wheel aligns with the first action taken in the preceding round, and the 8 action tiles are shuffled and dealt face up around the wheel.

Each round features 7 phases of actions and each phase involves one player selecting one of the action tiles, taking the bonus printed on the board, and executing or passing on the action. After this, each player may choose to follow this action or pass. When a player passes on an action, he flips one of his pass tiles face down, eliminating either a -3, -2, or -1 point penalty he would otherwise incur at the end of the round.

There are 2 types of actions:
1) Paid actions - Paid action tiles are blue in color and depict some sort of good that the player may buy. The cost of these actions is denoted by the outer numbers printed on the board. To buy goods, a player must pay the costs shown AND pay one worker for each good. Any good beyond the first of a given type costs 4 coins regardless of the cost shown. The central wheel may show blue workers aligned with the selected action. These workers allow a player to purchase goods without having to spend any of the workers in his supply. Any additional goods purchased beyond the number of workers shown on the wheel require that the player spend one worker from his supply for each good taken. If a player buys all 4 goods shown on the action tile, he receives one good of any of the types purchased for free.

Paid actions allow a player to buy:

*Hull parts -Paid hull parts can be placed directly on the table and used to build ships. Once a player has started building a ship, he must complete that ship with new hull parts. He may not combine ships in progress, nor may he insert hull parts into ships that already contain a front and a back.

*Masts - There are 5 types of masts, as determined by their different emblems. Only 4 may be bought. The masts that show a crown can only be gained by completing ships. Each ship must contain masts and sails that show the same illustration, with the exception being crowns, which are considered jokers.

*Sails - These are the same as masts. Sails must match the masts on a ship.

*Goods - Purchasing goods works the same as purchasing ship parts. Each paid good may be immediately loaded on a ship by being placed below a hull part.

2) Unpaid actions - Paid action tiles are tan in color and the numbers printed on the board are meaningless when these actions are selected. However, these actions still require one worker per action taken.

*Transport from your warehouse to your shipyard
Players collect ship parts and goods in their warehouses. This action allows them to transport ship parts and goods to their shipyards.

*Take money
Receive 2 coins for every worker spent.

*Deliver goods
Deliver goods from a fully loaded completed ship. A complete ship is has a front and end (and may have 1 or 2 middles) and has as many masts and sails as ship parts. Once a ship has been unloaded, it may be loaded again in the future.

*Crowns
Receive points equal to the number of workers spent multiplied by the number of crowns showing anywhere in your shipyard and/or warehouse up to a maximum of 15 points.

When completing a ship, a player may select 1 ship completion bonus per ship part included in the completed ship. The bonuses include taking 7 coins, taking 3 workers, taking 2 goods, taking 1 crown mast, taking 1 crown sail, and taking 3 points. Each rewarded may be taken a maximum of twice per ship.

In addition to the regular actions, each player has one extra action that he may perform at any point during the game. This extra action allows a player to first take 2 workers and then select one of the 8 regular actions to take. It's generally a good idea to keep these extra actions to help you out of a jam in the final round.

Once 7 actions have been taken, the round ends and players incur negative points for any pass tiles that remain on their negative sides.

The game ends after the 4th round at which point players score points for delivered goods (sets of identical goods provide increasing numbers of points), completed ships (larger ships score more points), and remaining ship pieces, undelivered goods, workers, and coins.

The Review

Played prior to review: 4x

:)



:) 1. Looks great
The pastel blue tones of the artwork are highly evocative of the nautical theme and fit perfectly with the pleasant gameplay. I did initially think that the game looked like every other game, but I retract those thoughts. I think it looks very pleasant and it plays just like as looks.

:) 2. Fast paced and fast playing
Turns in Nauticus are very quick and the action selection mechanism keeps all players engaged at all times. Because every player can choose to "follow" the action taken by the active player, everyone has some decisions to make and some actions to take during every other player's turn. And turns are very simple and quick, as players buy a few goods, take a few coins, buy a few ship parts, or score a few points. It's all very simple and streamlined, just as one would expect from a Kramer and Kiesling game.

:) 3. Familiar and yet innovative action selection mechanism
The action selection mechanism featured in Nauticus involves a familiar "following" aspect that allows all players to take the same action as the active player (without a special benefit reserved for the active player only). The interesting aspect of this following business is that passing on the following allows you to turn over a tile for which you would otherwise incur negative points at round's end. You can even pass on an action you select yourself, which you may do simply to turn over the -3VP tile staring you in the face. So even the passing action is imbued with some significance, forcing players to make tradeoffs between the value of the action vs. the negative points. But that's not all! Turning over one of the negative point tiles turns that tile into a potential VP goldmine because it turns it onto its crown side. One of the actions provides points for having crowns! So there is even more of an incentive to flip those pesky negatives face down!

The passing isn't the only interesting aspect of the following mechanism. Because other players are able to follow the action you take and once that action has been selected by one player, it cannot be selected by another for the rest of the round, you have to think carefully about the order in which you select your actions. You can take the shipping action when you see an opponent loading his nearly finished ships to prevent him from finishing the ships and then taking the shipping action, for example.

But this isn't all! The action selection mechanism is complicated by the interactions between the bonuses and workers available to help you take various actions. The value of each action is modified by the bonus awarded to the player who selects the action AND by the number of "free" workers available to complete the action. This can force some difficult choices between taking an action you really need/want and taking an action just to receive a bonus you really need/want. The tension between these two things often leaves me pulling my hair! The only consolation is the fact that you may be able to later take the action you want despite not having selected it yourself, but if it doesn't happen in the right order (for example, your opponent selects ship before you have an opportunity to buy goods), you could be kicking yourself for getting greedy with bonuses.

In conclusion, the action selection mechanism in Nauticus features a familiar yet interesting following aspect that helps keep all players engaged in the game at all times and a mind-twistingly wonderful interaction between actions and their associated bonuses.

:) 4. Tense
Nauticus is TENSE! And the tension builds as the game progresses, as the importance of the order of operations increases and the value of every worker and every coin grows.

Workers and money are very tight in this game. Workers help you get more done and money helps you get more stuff. You want to have lots of both! BUT YOU CAN'T!!! Because the game won't let you! There are two main ways to acquire money and workers; you can obtain them as bonuses for selecting certain actions and you can obtain them as bonuses for completing ships. The problem is that you only get a few workers or a bit of money for selecting actions and completing ships demands that you spend workers and money. The entire process is a bit of a catch 22. It creates a challenging loop that forces you to make the most of every resource you have. Resource management is tight and you're constantly asking yourself whether you will have enough workers to ship all the goods off your giant boat or whether you will have enough money to buy the pieces you need to complete a ship!

Nauticus is tense for one more reason - order of operations. In many games, you have to do one thing before you can do something else. In Nauticus, order of operations is made all the more important by the fact that you may only get to take any of the actions a maximum of 4 times (possibly 5 if you happen to use your bonus action) in any given game and you don't always have control over when that action is taken. If you don't have the money to buy ship parts you desperately need when the ship part action is selected by another player, you're out of luck! If you haven't yet loaded the goods in your warehouse onto your ships when the shipping action gets selected by another player, too bad! You have to constantly be on your toes, keeping an eye on your opponent(s) to ensure you have what you need for anything they may throw your way and to try to take actions in an order that would detain or thwart their plans. In the final round of the game, when you are struggling to complete that last ship or ship those last goods, the order of operations becomes even more important, as there will be no second chances, so the game culminates in a cloud of tension. It's quite the experience!

:) 5. Several strategies to explore
Your main avenues to point making in Nauticus are ships, goods, and crowns. Large ships score many, many points, huge collections of the same goods score many, many points, and lots of crowns score many points. These strategies are not mutually exclusive, especially since ships are a pre-requisite for shipping and acquiring more than 3 crowns in a round, but they can be pursued to various degrees. Which strategy you pursue will depend on the setup, including the specific alignment of actions and bonuses/workers, as well as your own preferences.

:) 6. Satisfying results
At the end of a game of Nauticus, I can gaze upon my beautiful fleet of ships and delivered goods and marvel at the beauty of it all. :P That's probably an exaggeration, but I do feel a strong sense of accomplishment at the end of each game of Nauticus. As I mentioned above, resources (workers and money) are tight in this game and there's a constant sense of impending

:) 7. Good replay value
Although I would hesitate to say that Nauticus is an extremely deep game, I do think that it offers players several strategies to explore (as described in 5 above) and thus has some intrinsic replay value.

Beyond this, the variable arrangement of action tiles in each round modifies the value of certain actions and may affect your strategy, generating some variability between sessions.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. BAZILLIONS of pieces
There are SO MANY pieces in this game!!! The sheer number of little ship parts and goods makes it a nightmare to set up if you don't find a box to house everything! We immediately boxed everything and simply open the nicely organized box and take ship directly out of it when playing, so setup takes no time at all. However, if you were to bag everything and take all the pieces out every time, you might be done by the time you've set the game up. I highly recommend boxing this one!

:soblue: 2. Not available with an official English-language rulebook
To my knowledge, the only English rules available for Nauticus at this point in time come in the form of a fan-made translation. The translation is great, but it would be nice to have a set of official English-language rules and an English-language edition of the game that isn't quite so difficult to procure as it is right now.

Final Word

Whether alone or in combination, Kramer and Kiesling have created some of the most engaging and interesting board games I've encountered. And Nauticus fits comfortably alongside their other amazing titles. Low on rules, high on interesting decision points, and delivering satisfying results, Nauticus is a game I know I will crave for years to come.

MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: SOME LOVE

***

Firenze

The Overview

In Firenze, players compete to complete commissions for the tallest and prettiest towers in Florence. The player who has built the most of the highest valued commissions by building towers and planned the best celebrations will win the game.

The game is set up by placing the end-game bonus tile on the board and level bonus tiles in ascending order on their reserved space on the game board. Then, 4 "balcony tiles" (1 each with a I, II, III or IV on the back) are placed on indicated spaces on the towers of corresponding colors and 5 neutral seals are randomly placed on various levels and towers on the board. A deck of cards is created by shuffling the regular cards separately from the start cards and placing the regular cards face down with the start cards on top. Six cards from the top of that pile (i.e. start cards) are then drawn and placed on their reserved spaces on the game board. Four blocks are randomly drawn from the bag and placed on each card.

Each player receives a construction site, 9 seals of his color (in a 2-player game) and either 2 white bricks or 3 white bricks or 4 white bricks, etc. depending on turn order.

The game board shows towers of various colors with flags that show majority bonus points that will be awarded to the player who has built the most towers of this color at the end of the game. Below the flag are various "commissions." Each of these commissions requires exactly as many bricks of its color to complete as are shown in the smaller number and completing each level awards the player as many points as are shown in the larger number. For example, a level-5 green commission awards 4 points when completed. Balcony tiles cover 4 commissions and provide bonus points, but the balconies must be completed in order (i.e. a player cannot complete balcony III until somebody has completed balconies I and II).

A player's turn proceeds as follows:

1) Choose a card (mandatory)
You must select one of the cards from the card row and take the card along with the bricks on the card into your hand. The leftmost card is free, but any card to the right of that one requires that you place 1 brick from your supply on each of the cards to the left of the one you take.

Cards come in a variety of flavors and have different effects depending on their type. Events are played immediately, personnel and celebration cards go into your hand and building cards go face-up in front of you (you have a 5-card limit for cards in your possession), and church cards go into public church spaces and affect all players.

Once a card has been taken, all cards slide to the left to fill in the gap and a new one is placed on the rightmost space along with 4 new bricks from the bag.

2) Exchange bricks (optional)
You may exchange 3 bricks from your supply for 1 brick from the card row.

3) Build towers (optional)
You may build towers on your construction site out of the bricks in your personal supply. You may build 2 bricks each turn for free, but any bricks you build beyond that require that you throw some bricks from your supply back into the bag.

4) Tear down abandoned construction (mandatory)
You must tear down any towers that you have not added to during the current turn's construction phase, placing half the bricks bag into the bag and the other half back into your supply.

5) Fulfill commissions (optional)
You may choose whether to use your towers to complete commissions or whether to continue building them. To complete a commission, the number of bricks in your tower must exactly match the number in the commission. You place your seal in the completed commission, score the points shown, and place all the bricks comprising the tower used to fulfill the commission back into the bag.

6) Check limits (mandatory)
If you have more than 10 bricks in your supply, you have to return excess ones to the bag. If you have more than 5 cards in your possession, you have to toss excess ones in the discard pile.

The game ends when one player has placed his last seal. At this point, all other players get one final turn and the game ends. Majorities are assessed for each tower, with the bonus shown on the flag of each tower given to the player who has fulfilled the most commissions in that tower. Some celebration cards award points at the end of the game and these are scored accordingly.

The Review

Played prior to review: 4x

:)



:) 1. Beautiful with thematically-appropriate tactile element
The art in Firenze is highly evocative of the ornate Italian Renaissance architecture and artwork that dominates the scenery in Florence.

The little wooden tower pieces that players collect and assemble on their boards add a wonderful tactile element that is unusual and highly evocative of the building theme.

:) 2. Relatively fast paced
Despite the seemingly long process that takes place on each player's turn, Firenze is actually quite a fast-paced game. Each step is very quick and on most turns, several of the optional steps are forfeited. The decision-making process is also not so complex that it slows us down, so the game moves along at a nice pace. It typically takes us about 45 minutes to complete, which I consider to be perfect for a game of this depth and complexity.

:) 3. Tense card selection mechanism
The cards are the heart of Firenze. They have a variety effects that include things like swapping bricks 1:1 for bricks in other players' supplies or the bag, taking bricks off another player's tower, forcing all players to return bricks from their supplies for each of their towers in progress, etc. The cards have a significant effect on the progress of the game and the fact that many of them affect all players means having to keep a close eye on all the cards you will be leaving behind whenever you select a card. Bricks are precious (especially the rare purple and blue ones) and plopping them down on cards to reach higher ones can be painful, but if it means avoiding a -3 point card or keeping one of those nasty thieving cards away from an opponent, it may be worth it.

:) 4. Restrictions that generate tension
Some games generate tension through scarcity of resources, but Firenze generates tension through restrictions that prevent players from accumulating cards and resources. While there are two cards that allow you to keep an infinite number of cards and increase your storage limit to 15 bricks from round to round, these don't always appear and until they do, the 10-brick limit ensures that players have gradually build and feed their towers and therefore carefully manage their supply of bricks of the right colors and ensure they are able to meet any adversities the card display and other players may throw their way.

:) 5. Strategic and tactical
Firenze is primarily a game of responding to the available cards, responding to the available bricks, and responding to your opponent. It's a highly interactive game in which players must always keep a close eye on each other and the situation on the board as it fluctuates from turn to turn. But there is also some long-term planning involved. You can start out with the intent to complete many small commissions (and possibly try to acquire the cards that give you 1 point for each 3/4 commission) or a few of the bigger commissions. You can go for the commission colors that provide higher majority bonuses but require less common bricks to complete or go fro more of the commissions with lower majority bonuses that require more common brick colors. And all the while, you have to try to make the best use of the cards that become available to further your goals while trying to prevent your opponent(s) from doing so.

:) 6. High replay value
Firenze features replay value in its depth and its variability. First, while its simple rules may suggest otherwise, Firenze is actually a relatively complex game. There are so many things to keep in mind and consider on each turn, including the options you will be leaving for your opponent. There is depth here.

There is also variability. The card deck is quite large and though there is some repetition, there is no guarantee that all cards will become available in any given game. This, combined with the variable timing of card availability ensures that the same strategy may not work every time.

And on top of all this, the designer provides a couple of variants in the rulebook that can change the feel of the game. One involves randomly placing all 7 neutral seals provided (instead of the 5 listed in the rules) on the game board and another involves completely blocking all 6 commissions of one color with neutral seals. Both of these variants dramatically change the game, with the first generating even more competition for commissions and the second making one color of brick essentially worthless. All of this ensures that each game plays out somewhat differently from the previous one and somewhat allows players to customize the experience to their preferences.

:) 7. "Best with 2" according to BGG and I believe it
I think that Firenze is probably best with only 2 players because more players would just create more chaos on the board, lead to more negative events hitting you between turns, and ultimately lead to less control. I like the amount of control over the brick and card situation that the 2-player version provides and I think that simply increasing the number of seals in the 2-player game sufficiently elevates the majority competition with only 2 players.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. Mean!
Soul crushing!!! This game will wipe that jolly smile off your face and eliminate any modicum of confidence you may have! Not only does this game encourage players to be mean to each other, it is simply mean to the players all by itself! Now that I've thoroughly terrified you, allow me to qualify and explain my statements. :P

Ok, first, the game is mean to players! Some cards, no matter who takes them, force all players to pay bricks for their towers in construction and tear down any towers that cannot be paid for. Some cards give you -3 points. Just because. Others give you -2 points. Just because they want to be a little less mean than the -3 cards. The cards are mean! Plus, the game demands that you keep towers under construction going each and every round or you have to crush them. So you have to constantly make sure you have enough bricks in reserve to a) keep your towers going and b) make payments for your towers under construction should payment cards be selected and c) make payments for cards higher in the card row to avoid negative points.

Second, the game encourages players to be destructive to each other. There are cards that outright allow you to take bricks off a player's tower under construction and return them to the bag, there are cards that allow you to swap a brick from your supply for a brick in another player's supply, preferably making it impossible for that player to continue building one of his towers in the next turn, and then there is simply the fact that your entire goal in the game is to keep your opponent from being able to keep his towers going, forcing them to be demolished.

Firenze might look like a game of construction, but it's actually a game of destruction. Don't let the happy faces on the box fool you!

:soblue: 2. The Campampanile card is dead to me
The Capanile card requires that each player build a tower of 3 white bricks before he can fulfill any further commissions. This card is optional, so there is no need to include it in the game if you don't want to and I don't want to. It would just slow the game down for no reason at all. Dislike.

Final Word

If you thought Firenze looked like a pleasant game of hiring pleasant-looking Florentine folk and building cute little candy-colored wooden towers, you thought WRONG! Firenze is actually a cutthroat game of destruction and demise in Renaissance Italy! :P It's actually an excellent game, filled with tense moments and compelling decision points, but it is worth emphasizing its meanness. It is a game that is mean to players in and of itself and it is a game that forces players to be mean to each other. As such, it is not a game I would recommend to everyone. I would also not recommend it to everyone because it is currently out of print and difficult to obtain, but if and when it does return to print, I would encourage those who can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction to take a look at it. I can stomach a little backstabbery and destruction in a quick-playing game that really forces me to think very carefully about managing my resources and optimizing the timing of my actions. I love it!

MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: :heart: :heart: SOME LOVE

***

Artifacts, Inc.

The Overview

Artifacts Inc. is a game about spelunking for artifacts and displaying them in museums. Players take on the roles of archeology companies, competing to acquire the best assets for their companies, find the most valuable artifacts, and display those artifacts in museums.

There are two versions of the game; one is described in the rulebook and the other is the designer's variant created to address issues of down time. I will describe the variant rules here because we have played by those rules more often than not and then discuss the differences in the review section below.

To set up the game, cards are separated into Asset cards and Public cards. The Public cards are Guide Work, Private Collectors, and 4 Museums. The Asset cards are labeled either A, B, C, D, or E. The D and E Asset cards are simply arranged in two piles, while the A, B, and C Asset cards are shuffled, arranged in 3 rows, and 3 cards from each pile are revealed. Level 1 versions of each of the Asset cards should be face up.

There is also a set of Diving cards that are arranged in numerical order, with the "2" card on top, and placed in the center of the board.

Each player receives one Desert Expedition, one Canyon Expedition, one Adventurer, and one Headquarters card, as well as a set of cubes in a given color, and 2 or 3 coins depending on turn order. In the variant, each player also receives a set of 7 dice, placing 3 of these in his available supply.

On his turn, each player will roll his Adventurer dice. The number of dice rolled is determined by the number of dice shown on his Adventurer cards. At the beginning of the game, this is 3, but this number should increase as the game progresses.

After rolling their dice, players take turns placing a die (or dice depending on the action) on a single Asset card or Public card. A player may place a die on a card occupied by another player's dice, but he may not place any dice on a card on which he has already placed dice in the current round. If a player places a die on a card occupied by another player's die with a lower pip value, he receives 1 coin. Otherwise, there is no benefit.

The available actions are:

Expedition: Gain one artifact, placing one of your cubes to indicate you have that artifact.

Buy: Purchase one new Asset card or upgrade one Asset card you already own, flipping it to its Level 2 side. Gain any points depicted on the card.

Museums: Sell the number of the artifacts indicated in one of the spaces on the museum, gaining a monetary sale bonus for each if applicable. The type of artifact sold must match the type of artifact shown on the museum card.

Guide Work: Take 1 coin.

Private Collectors: Sell any number of artifacts, gaining 1 coin for each plus 1 additional coin for each TYPE of artifact sold beyond the first.

Dive: Gain an Underwater card by placing one or more dice whose sum is equal to or higher than the number at the bottom of the topmost Underwater card. Each Underwater card gained will immediately give you 1 point. Underwater cards also show "finds" that can score additional points if you gain certain Asset cards.

The game ends at the end of the round in which one player reaches 20 points. At this point, players gain points for having the most cubes in the various museums. The player with the most points wins!

The Review

Played prior to review: 4x

:)



:) 1. Gorgeous artwork
Ryan Laukat. That's all you need to know. I love Ryan's style and Artifacts Inc. is a beautiful example of it.

:) 2. Interesting spatial element
While there is nothing outstandingly unique about Artifacts Inc., the spatial relationships between the cards players build into their tableaus and the restrictions on the tableau size are probably the most interesting and innovative aspects of the game. A player's tableau is built in two rows, which strictly limits your ability to exploit cards that score for adjacent cards of particular types and creates an interesting tension between wanting to build a card now to reap its benefits or prevent another player from acquiring it and wanting to save it for later in order to position it better to potentially take better advantage of its adjacency bonuses.

:) 3. Interesting upgrading mechanism
I quite enjoy the fact that all the Asset cards in Artifacts Inc. are double sided. Generally upgraded version of a card simply provides a point and more powerful action than the one on the non-upgraded version. But in some cases, the upgraded version provides the same action as that provided by the non-upgraded version and a scoring condition! This creates a significant amount of tension between upgrading an existing card and buying a card outright.

:) 4. Open to strategic and tactical play
There are both some long-term strategic and short-term tactical considerations to be made when playing Artifacts Inc.

The combination of A, B and C Asset cards available can help you carve out a general strategy, while the actions of your opponents can necessitate some modifications to that general strategy. The C cards are particularly useful in helping to guide your actions, as they can provide large windfalls of points for fulfilling certain conditions. For example, one C Asset card provides 1 point for each Doubloon shown on your Underwater cards, so you can build a strategy around collecting Diving.

In addition to creating a long-term plan, you will have to respond to the actions of your opponents. Not only will you sometimes be forced to adjust your plans when cards you were hoping to buy get taken before you are able to do so, but (when playing by the variant), you will have to consider the timing of your actions and the value of the dice you are placing. Money is very tight in this game and the opportunity to make 1 bonus coin simply for placing a higher valued die on the same card as an opponent is one that must be taken! And timing your actions to prevent an opponent from being able to take a coin for placing a higher valued die on the same card as one of your dice is just as important. So you not only have to respond to your opponent's moves, but try to maximize your ability to gain cash and minimize your opponent's ability to gain cash by playing your dice in the best order possible. This may involve saving low-valued dice for your private cards and spending higher valued dice on public cards.

:) 4. Light on rules
Artifacts Inc. is quick and easy to learn and teach and I think it would make a great introductory game for anyone.

:?block:

:?block: The designer's official "cutthroat" variant rules are FAR SUPERIOR to the rules as written
We really did not enjoy the relatively solitary experience of Artifacts Inc. with the rules as written in the rulebook. In the rulebook, players are instructed to place all their dice and take all their actions alone prior to the next player's turn. In the designer's variant rules, players take turns placing dice on cards, which encourages players to pay attention to what others are doing, minimizes down time, and increases the importance of the die rolls. With the variant rules, players have to really think about when and where to place their dice of various values; if you place higher valued die on a card that already has a die, you get 1 coin and money is tight! Without the variant rules, the die values have much less of an impact on the game.

This is neither a negative nor a positive, but I think that the variant rules provide a more interesting experience than the dice placement rules in the rulebook and, as I mentioned above, the variant rules are the ones I am reviewing.

:soblue:

:soblue: 1. Takes too long to set up and play for its weight/depth
Although it is a small game, consisting of a mere deck of cards and a few chits and tokens, Artifacts Inc. involves a surprisingly lengthy setup. Diving cards must be set in a specific order, 5 decks of cards must be separated by letter, 3 of those shuffled and cards taken off of those decks to form a display, a "common action" display must be formed, and players have to arrange their starting cards before themselves in their desired order. All of this takes way more time than I like to commit to setting up a light game.

Then there is the gameplay. Again, despite the fact that Artifacts Inc. is a relatively light game, it can instigate some seriously paralyzing analysis. The huge display of public and private cards demands reading all their effects and/or constantly reminding yourself of the options available to you, which takes time.

:soblue: 2. End-game is anti-climactic
Like many race games, Artifacts Inc. features a bit of an anti-climactic finish. Despite the addition of end-game scoring in the form of majorities in the various museums, it is often quite easy to see who will come out on top as the end of the game approaches. I appreciate the effort that went into making the ending slightly more interesting, but I think I would enjoy the game more had it involved a set number of rounds and a final scoring.

Final Word

I enjoyed my plays of Artifacts Inc., but I am much more fond of heavier games than lighter games that take a substantial amount of time to play. For me, 45 minutes was a bit too long for the depth and breadth of decision making that Artifacts Inc. offered. I do think that many people will enjoy its relative simplicity, interesting spatial aspect, and breathtaking artwork and I would highly recommend it to anyone who frequently teaches games to new players (particularly at lower player counts) or is looking for a compact travel game, but it's just a bit too light for the time investment for me. I'm glad I had the opportunity to try it and I may play it very occasionally while I still own it, but I don't think I will play it very often in the future.

MINA'S LOVE METER :heart: SOME LIKE

***

What Did I Play at the BoardGameBliss Gathering of Friends?

On Sunday, Steph Hodge and her partner, Ron, joined us for an afternoon of gaming at BoardGameBliss! They were kind enough to drive all the way from Niagara to help me avoid car sickness and I thank them with all my heart for doing that! There was an awful snowstorm afterwards and I felt quite badly about their having to drive back in those conditions, but they made it back safely. So what did we play in the 6.5 hours we had?

FRIENDS!!!

Rialto
The first game we played was Rialto! I recently reviewed this game and LOVED it with 2, but really wanted to try it with more than 2 players to determine whether that would improve the game. The verdict? I think that some people will prefer it with more than 2, but I actually prefer it with 2. With more than 2 players, it becomes a lighter, less strategic game. I found myself much more able to make and execute longer-term plans when playing with the 2-player variant than when playing with a full complement of 4 players. That may be a factor of a) the fact that I've only played with 4 once and b) the fact that I was distracted while playing, but I still think I actually prefer Rialto with 2. I guess I need to play it more with more players to really determine how I feel about it, but that's where I stand for now. :)

Dragon Racer
Dragon Racer is a cute little racing game in which players take on the roles of "DRAGON RACERS," controlling teams of dragons and trying travel the furthest over a set number of rounds by drafting cards and claiming majorities. My character was "Amrita," who had a cool ability that allowed her to move 3 extra spaces every turn I was able to activate her entire dragon crew. I ended up doing this relatively frequently even though I was the object of a few attacks during the game and pulled into the lead in the final turn! I may have contributed to incapacitating one of Ron's dragons in order to do that, but he was ok with second place. :P I think...:P

I really enjoyed this game. It's quick and easy and adorable. I'm not sure I would want to play it frequently with only 2 players, but I think my sister and her boyfriend would enjoy it, so I may try to get a copy.

Cha dango
Peter and I are not speed gamers. We take our time. But when Steph asked whether we'd be interested in learning Cha Dango, I was all over it! The game is SO CUTE and is basically the Stroop Effect in board game form.

In this game, players compete to grab the most cards from a central display before the deck runs out. The cards are double sided and the back of the top card of the deck determines whether you are trying to grab from a central display a card that has the same color as the background of a drawn card, the same figure as that on a drawn card, or the same color as the figure of a drawn card. If the display does not contain a card that matches the requirement, players have to put a teacup up to their mouths and the last one to do so loses a card from his pile. It's a speed game, so the point is to be the fastest to grab these cards, but the process of trying to determine which colors and figures I'm looking for took me so long to compute that I ended up just laughing like a maniac. I ended up getting MAYBE 2 cards during the entire game, but lost them in the process. Still, it was SO HILARIOUSLY FUN! This game was definitely not one that Peter and I would take out and play on our own but it was a great time with Steph and Ron! I'd happily play it with them (or anyone else) again!

Samara
Steph and Ron taught us Samara, which is a very cute little game that I sorely regret failing to photograph. I'm sure there are plenty of pretty photos of this one of BGG and on Steph's blog :P.

This game has interesting "time mechanism" that involves players placing workers on various points on a calendar that slides down. Players use their workers to acquire tools, which are needed to acquire tiles that provide points and/or special powers. I had zero idea what I was doing this whole game and ended up coming in last place. :( Oh well. It was interesting and I now understand what I should have done to make more points. The game involves assessing the positioning of the various tiles and their requirements and then selecting the best objective to complement the availability and positioning of those tiles and moving your workers around to maximize your ability to acquire those tiles. I would play it again. :)

Far Space Foundry
I really wanted to bring Bomarzo because I'm certain it's a better 4-player game than it is a 2-player game, but Peter wasn't sure about the rules and we hadn't played it very much, so we went with Far Space Foundry instead, which was possibly a mistake because I think Far Space Foundry s a better 2-player game than it is a 4-player game.

When I started teaching this game, I realized how difficult the rules can be to a) teach and b) wrap your head around. While I took to it almost immediately, Peter had a much more difficult time grasping how everything came together. I don't know if it was just bad luck in positioning, the vagaries of the 4-player game, or my poor teaching, but I think Steph had a bit of trouble with it and didn't enjoy it all that much. Sorry Steph! :( Ron ended up beating me by 1 point!

Cities
This game of Cities went poorly for everyone. Ron was the caller and he seems to have a gift for drawing the most frustratingly incongruous tiles! I ended up making the most points with fields and terraces and ended up coming in second (behind Steph, of course :P), but I felt like I made a very baaaaaad City. Must try again soon!

Steam Time
I brought Steam Time because we all enjoy it. In this game, I did a little bit of everything and ended up next to last. Ron won by collecting a bunch of end-game scoring cards. I managed to satisfy several of those as well, but I think all he did the entire game was collect those green cards, gems, and steam and that killed it.

Rolling Japan
Steph had a great little filler game to fill out the few minutes we had at the end of the night - "Rolling Japan." It's a cute little puzzle game by Hisashi Hayashi in which players roll dice and have to fill in an abstract map of Japan (or Tokyo) with the values of those dice. The trick is that adjacent values can be no more than 1 pip apart. Any space you are unable to fill gets an X and the player with the fewest Xs at the end wins the game.

Peter fell in love with this game immediately! It's puzzly and light but challenging, which are his favorite characteristics. Also, it's tough to find, which seems to be another one of his favorite characteristics in a game. :P I will have to find a copy for him!

***

What's Not So New But Still Exciting?

Terra Mystica
TM! It's my favorite game EVER and we hadn't played it in weeks! WHY!? I don't know, but we made things right this week! I drew the Engineers and Mermaids and immediately bid lots of VP for first dibs. I LOVE THE MERMAIDS! If Mermaids are available, I will do whatever it takes to get them! I ended up not having to bid that much because Peter loves the Engineers. It worked out. :P But I did win! The additional end-game bonus provided points for having the most connected structures next to the map edge and Peter killed that, but I managed to make many more in-game points than he did with my favor tiles! It was a close game!

Le Havre
YAYAYAYAYAAY! I am the Queen of Le Havre!!! At least, this week! :P I took on some debt and built a bunch of buildings early in the game. Peter was baffled by my building prowess. I had 3 or 4 buildings before he managed to get even 1! He ended up going for his usual strategy of converting goods into money using the shipping line, but I had the shipping line :P. I went for my usual strategy of acquiring a slew of buildings. I managed to collect the right combination of buildings to make maximum use of bank and I managed to get a luxury liner! I also managed to make enough money to pay all my debts in the final round! I won with 300+ points! This was my best Le Havre performance to date. It will never be my favorite, but at least now that I've won in recent history I don't feel completely ineffectual in its presence. :)

Le Havre: The Inland Port
I dominated adult Le Havre, so I wanted to dominate in baby Le Havre as well! And I did! :P My intent was to acquire as much grain and as many anchors as possible and make lots of points from those. In the end, I managed to get not only grain, but also fish, and wood scoring tiles! I didn't make quite as many points from those as I initially hoped I would, but I did win! But I think I only won because Peter was dead tired. :(

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
This was a very rough game of TTA for me. I failed to plan my resource generation very well and ended up with only Level A food and Level 1 resource producers, which meant that I kept having to send workers off to those spaces to increase production and which also meant that all that production was constantly cannibalizing my resource cubes during consumption, which basically meant I was SOL. But the clouds parted and the Gods had mercy on my civilization and they sent me a vast territory full of cheap people and a single resource cube. :P This thing saved my butt! Oh! And the Fast Food Chains won me the game! :P

Caverna: The Cave Farmers
We were having trouble deciding on a meaty game for Monday night, but ended up settling on Caverna when Peter suggested it. Peter NEVER suggests Caverna. If I'm lucky, he agrees to play it when I demand it get played, but he suggested it and I jumped on my chance!

It had been FOREVER since our last game of Caverna and it showed! I actually thought I was doing quite well. I acquired the Seam (1 ore for each new stone) almost immediately and set out to acquire as much ore as I could to weaponize all my dwarves. My intent was to later acquire the Supplies Storage (8 gold if all your dwarves are weaponized) and the Ore Storage (1 gold for every 2 ore) and I did succeed in doing that, but I somehow failed to do a bunch of other stuff I was planning to do (i.e. cover my cave and field in tiles and acquire more than a few animals). I ran into some feeding problems and had to turn my cave into a Slaughtering Cave despite my best efforts, so I ended up losing a bunch of animals. :( Oh well. I won, but our scores were so miserably bad (as in worse than EVER) that I can't even bring myself to report them here. :cry: We really have to play this game more often!

La Granja
Our La Granja love affair is still going strong. Last week, I discussed the fact that I wanted to see a different strategy succeed and I am happy to report that I was able to make a different strategy succeed this week! Instead of going for my usual progression of craft buildings in the beginning and market barrows at the end, I went for all market barrows all the time! I did have to go for the coin craft building when it opened about halfway through the game, but that was my only concession to the crafts. I spent the rest of the time populating the stalls of Majorca with my wonderful market barrows and won! I scored 73, which is lower than my previous score in which I pursued all craft buildings all the time, but I won!

Bora Bora
I had been slightly avoiding Bora Bora because I did so well in a recent game that I felt I could only go down from there. But I was WRONG! SO WRONG! I KILLED IT this time!!! I created a very nice little engine of woman-attracting men and settling women that I barely needed to do anything all game to all my huts out on the board and fill my board with men/women. So that secured 2 6-point bonuses straight away. On top of that, I also managed to complete every objective (completing objectives becomes very easy when you have a million huts on the board) and fill my little building board with materials, and buy jewelry tiles from every round. I ended up just shy of 200 points, which is pretty good in our experience. :) SO HAPPY I am a very proud Bora Bora board mama!!! But I'm pretty sure it's all downhill from here.

Subdivision
After our crushing experience with the Highway scenario in our previous game, we had to try it again to redeem ourselves. I won that game with around 70 points, while Peter had around 60. And guess what happened this time!? AN EVEN MORE CRUSHING EXPERIENCE!!! This highway scenario is brutally hard! It makes you think it's going to be soooo easy because you have all this highway access everywhere and then BOOM! You're destroyed. I assumed that lakes would give me enough money to make a decent number of points, but that didn't work. And neither did the parks! :shake: I think both Peter and I ended up with scores in the low 60s or high 50s. It was absolutely unacceptable! We need to play with this mad scenario a little more!

Sanssouci
Back to Sanssouci we go! I'm still trying to get past that 100 mark and I ALMOST managed to get there this week! I ended up with 94 points! I was 6 points away!!!!! :cry:

Alhambra: Big Box
Peter was very tired this week and one day, the only thing he wanted to play was Alhambra. We did play some other games that day, but they were all light and the first thing he requested was Alhambra! He just loves this game so much! We played with the markets, camps, diamonds, and falcons, as we did last week. Unfortunately, Peter's tiredness got the best of him because his Alhmabra ended up demonsrably inferior to mine. He had far fewer tiles and zero markets, which are usually huge point scorers for me! He did manage to collect more falcons than I did, but he didn't do this early enough to take full advantage of them. Better luck next time, Peter! :P

Dominion: Prosperity
I have been playing the Dominion app a lot, which has been making me crave the physical version. We played with my favorite set - Prosperity. So many of the cards were treasures that we were both basically just accumulating money the entire game. Peter got on the Monuments early in order to acquire some of those easy points, but neither of us had any cards that did much other than simply give us money. It was BIG BIG BIG BIG money! :P I managed to win by acquiring a couple of colonies and out-provincing Peter! :P Love Dominion!

***

Fresh Cardboard

1. Lancaster: Big Box - It's a big box. I need all the big boxes! :P
2. Cavum - Heavy Cardboard kept playing this, so I had to look into it and ended up getting a copy through the BGG Marketplace.
3. Above and Below - I was not planning to get Above and Below because I don't like story telling games, but Ryan Laukat + Alf Seegert (I know he didn't design the game, but he contributed to the writing of the Encounter Book) = dream team. I had to try it! I can't wait to try their upcoming co-design!
4. Aeon's End - Though we prefer competitive games, we love co-ops and Rahdo completely sold me on this one! Can't wait to receive my copy!
5. A Study in Emerald (second edition) - BoardGameBliss had a sale on this game and the price made it too tempting to pass up. It looks...weird...but sometimes, weird can be good. I'm happy to give it a shot.
6. Planet Steam - I acquired this one in a trade. Steph has written about it and photographed it and though it may not be the best 2-player game, I am interested in trying it.
7. Asara - Kramer and Kiesling kick! I got a used copy for cheap! YAY for cheap used copies!!! They will help me keep this blog going!

***

Next Week...

Look forward to Star Wars: Rebellion! IT'S HAPPENING!!!! TONIGHT!!!!! SO EXCITED! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT STAR WARS! :P Star Wars virgin review next week!

Also, I have a feeling that Peter will be itching to try our new Viticulture: Moor Visitors Expansion expansion for Viticulture, so we may try that as well.

And I'm sure I'll add another surprise or two along the way!

Thanks for reading, friends!
:) :heart: :)

***


MINA'S LOVE METER

Burn it! - I dislike this game so much that it makes me angry. (I rate these 4 or less on the BGG scale)
:( Dislike - I don't like this game, but I can see why others like it.
(5 on BGG scale)
:heart: Some like - I find this game somewhat appealing, but it doesn't really grab me. I am glad to have had the opportunity to try this game, but it is unlikely to stay in my collection for very long.
(5.5 to 6.5) on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: Like - I like this game and appreciate the design. I am happy to play this game occasionally when the mood strikes and enjoy doing so.
(7 to 7.5 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: Some love - I love this game. It's not perfect, but it really appeals to me and I will play it frequently.
(7.5 to 8 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: Lots of love - I really love this game. The design really speaks to me. I want to play it most of the time.
(8 to 9 on BGG scale)
:heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: :heart: All love all the time - I ADORE this game and can see myself playing it many times and for many years. I would go to sleep clutching it in my arms and want to play it all day every day...only not literally because that would be insane.
(9 to 10 on BGG scale)

by Vaader

New File: Solo variant simulating a challenging opponent for Board Game: Le Havre

by Steph

Hi ALL!

This has been one of the best weeks I have had for a while - well since Essen... :D

I got to game ALL WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!


Monday morning I woke up bright @ The Gathering and early to work on the blog last week. It took a good long while but I got it done. :D As soon as I was able I headed downstairs to play ALL THE GAMES. I only managed to get in 9 games since a few last a bit on the longer side than I might have liked but I still had a greatttt time playing anyway!

First on the table was Coal Baron the Card Game called Glück Auf: Das grosse Kartenspiel. New to me!

I was excited to play this- since I was able to take pictures even though it is in prototype form (please keep that in mind) and I could write about it!

This simulates the board game very well. It plays in just about the same amount of time- They both play great. I could see requesting either game. I guess it is not getting as well received here but I very much enjoyed it over many of the other prototypes I played.

This is a worker placement game that allows you to buy cards that are coal, coal cars, locomotives, contracts, and a whole lot of bonus cards for end game scoring. Every player has a hand of workers. If you have a worker card with "5' workers you can not play it on a stack of cards the doesn't have a 4 already there. So each stack starts at 1 and then next player can play 2 workers there to utilize the space etc. It is very much like the board game in that regard.

If you pick up coal you add it to your coal line- first in first out. You can take the action to transfer your loads to the coal cars but you must match the symbols printed on both the coal and cars. So, you have to plan for these. If you collect all the same color locomotive that is better so when you ship you can ship all of one type of locomotive.

In order to ship you must be able to fulfill a contract per train you are sending. There is a whole bunch of other scoring you can work towards that I won't get into but after 5 rounds(in a 4p game) I was left very satisfied. I utilize all my workers best I could to complete my mini goals I was working towards.

So we played 4p and I was doing a slow start. I picked up a few contracts that required 4+ loads in order to complete. So I didn't actually ship anything until round 3 and 4. I managed to get out 4 trains by the end of the game and completed a bunch of missions I was aiming to complete.

The other guys were working on other paths and shipping smaller loads for fewer points but collecting a bunch of points from the end game bonus cards- more so than I was.

In the final round I ended up spending the majority of my workers on collecting end game cards since I was left with no other options. I had no coal, coal cars or locomotives or contracts to work on. Seemed silly to try and do it all in one turn. No tot mention shipping it. I did a very nice game and I actually won with 66 points. Everyone was right on my train lower to mid 60s. So it was a very close game!! I was so excited I won!

While the game is very different from Coal Baron, I felt they did a great job with the style and mechanics. There is one thing I would change to make it even more-so like the board game. That is I would have stacks of cards with only one revealed. There is an action space that allows you to look at the top 4 cards of any stack and take one. But, in this game you MUST put the cards to the bottom of the stack. In Coal Baron you can choose to add them to the top or bottom. I think that would be a nice parallel to the board game. It would be super easy to do! I would and will at least try it when I buy this game.

Very enjoyable!

:star::star::star:


Next on the table was a game we picked up for Dan at BGB called Mops Royal. New to me!

This is a simple simultaneous tile placement game. (My fav!!) It is colorful and cute as heck. The differences between the boards lie with the starting tile. Each player gets a different starting tie randomly selected from their own stack. Then going forward one person draws a tile and everyone follows suit by finding that exact tile and placing it on their board. At the end each player will have a 5x5 board and hopefully a lot of points to win the game.

Each turn the tile is drawn and you must place it. You can then CHOOSE to score a configuration or not. In order to score you have to have the configuration all in the same color or type. Each color has each type so there are 6 colors and symbols.

The patterns are on the score board and the larger the configuration you complete the more points you get. When you score the catch is you have to flip over a tile so it like ruins your whole board. It is usually the dead middle tile and most obtrusive. You have to plan wisely.

I played very poorly it seemed that game. I did end up losing but we were all within like 3 points Ron first to last so I didn't lose THAT badly. It is adorable game and I don't know where Dan find these things but he does- somehow. I will be happy to play it again. Very cute and it has my most favorite mechanic! :D

:star::star::star:


Next up to the table was 3 p game of Quadropolis. We were teaching Ron. We went for the expert side since that is how Dan learned and he's Dan. I think Ron was board since he made a huge meeple pyramid :P He was very cool nonetheless.

The expert side offers more tiles to play with and a whole other scoring possibility. It also improves the factory scoring.

This game I went for the full on city buildings. I went for the new building the skyscraper. It offers nothing but points for the most you can get and the tallest. You can get 30 points if you have a level 5 high (5 rounds) skyscraper and it is in a patch with 6 other skyscrapers. I did this and my other sky scrapers were level 1's but I manged to get a TON of points from that! It was about all I was doing but it worked well! I was highly disappoints since I wanted to build them all around the factory to score max points but in the final round it didn't come out where I could fill the space next to the factory I had saved for it so I didn't get the max points I wanted to get.


Ron went full on wharves and got about a billion of them. Scored a ton of points for them. We actually ended up tied. CURSE RON! He won since he had the most meeples on the board afterwards. So, I guess you have to try and aim for meeples if you think you will end up in a tiebreaker. :( Of course he ties with me- That is so unfair.

It is a great game. I can say I like both the classic and the expert version. I think they are both challenging in their own way. I liked the classic just as much as the expert. There is more wiggle room with the experts than classic. I actually had a much harder time with the classic since your area is smaller and you have to plan much better. In the classic mode there are A LOT more opportunities to screw and mess with your neighbors and it is very tight. Definitely more my speed than the advanced. In the advanced version it is easy peasy to place your tiles and correct or change your focus. The classic mode is much more unforgiving- even with the action markers. I have to play them both again.

Great game!! I need it!

:star::star::star:

Next up I had scheduled to meet up and play Mombasa with new friend Bruce. I dragged Scott and Ron along for the ride for a 4p game. I am pretty sure this was the biggest hit of the con. I had seen it everywhere all of the time. Very very popular.

I taught the game- and I am actually quite good at teaching this game. I wasn't surprised since I have been teaching this one a lot recently. Bruce said I did a very nice job teaching. :)

It was a slow start since there is a lot to process in the initial game. Through the game Bruce was focused on the cape town track. he pushed hard for it and worked on getting the company boosted on the map. He choose not to partake in the diamond and book industry. I was focused more on pushing Mombasa track this game. I did what I could with the cards I had. It is so important to get the cards with the shares I can't even tell you! It could make or break your game.

Ron was working on a bit of everything. He was a mesh of ideas. No real focus but points here and there.

Scott did a good job with his books getting 30 points. Not the greatest but he was proud since he never accomplishes the books very well.

I really thought Bruce had the winning title at the end. He scored- 98 points in the cape town shares. 98!!! I knew I was doing well but I didn't expect that well... Bruce ended up losing with 107 points. I was WINNERRRRRRRRR @ 119 points!! It was a SUPER close game and a couple more shares for anyone would have won them the game.

We all played very evenly this game. I mean I have lost a game with 119 points so I really didn't think I was winning that one. I usually end up 120-150 depending on the board evaluation. This is such a great game. I love how final scoring works and totally surprises me! It is wonderful!

It took just about 2 hours so that was perfectly good for a newbie learning. Great game!

Courtesy of Bruce


:star::star::star:


Next up on the table was 5p game of Ponzi Scheme. New to me!

This game was being played a lot during the week and I was finally excited to play it. I think it is great that Tasty Minstrel Games picked it up! I will have to definitely wait for that one!

This game greatly manipulates the feeling of a ponzi scheme. I guess Ron played his first game and it lasted a while and our game only lasted 4 rounds. So, there can be a nice -ish game or a very mean game. Of course I was in the very mean game.

On your turn you have to take a card from the display. If you take a level 1 then you must take a NEW building tile. If you take a level 2 card then you must take a 2nd tile of a colored building you already have and same for the 3rd level and 3rd tile. You must do this action. The cards show the amount of money you get and the amount of money you MUST pay when it gets around to it. The higher the level the higher the interest rates. Crazy! If there are 5 red cards then at the end of the round the market crashes and the notch spins 2 spaces. This brings the cards closer to payment. If it reaches or exceeds a card you must pay in full the interest rates and then they are placed back on your wheel in the appropriate space- you will have to pay them again. It is mad crazy!

After you take a card for income you have the option of passing some number of money to another player and they can take it and give you a building tile you asked for or they can match your money and take that color you have in front of yourself.

That is essentially the game. If you ever go bankrupt then you lose the game and a winner is calculated.

In our game it was just crazy. It was a bit of an asterisk game because we didn't removed the crashed cards once it crashed the first time. No one removed the red cards when they had the chance and they kept piling up. Since we forgot to removed the cards it crashed twice in a row and ended up being the final round anyway. We played 4 rounds. It went pretty quickly but Scott and I were learning it and were a bit hung up on what to offer and try to get for what price. It is a funny game.

Becky won that game for the tied victory. But she won the tie breaker because she took more risk with the higher interest rate.

That was a fun game. I look forward to playing it more once it gets published in the US! Very cool!

:star::star::star:


A fast game of Liar's Dice. It was something fast before some folks went to dinner. Lexi and Will hadn't played before and were interested in a fast dice game.

This is a fun game I always seem to lose. I am just a terrible liar and always seem to be wrong. I guess there is a variant that Scott knows that if you are down to one die and you lose but the lose is to an accurate guess then you don't lose you last die. I duno- Lexi should have been out many turns earlier and I ended up with one die pretty soon after. I should have lost by normal rules. But we kept up with how we were playing. It was a roll off between me Will and Ron and then Will was out and then Ron was out. I somehow managed to win that game of Liars Dice! What!?! that is maddness!!

I never win this game! I suck! hahha It was cool even though I am not sure about that gathering of Friends variant for the tourney they have. I really need to get a copy of this game. Or make my own. Something! It is a great game!

:star::star::star:


So, I had wanted to play Elysium. Will and Lexi were interested in learning it and I don't get to play this game enough.

We played without the red,yellow and blue decks. Playing with the white and black deck might have been a mistake. There were a LOT of opportunities to get more cards in play and a lot of planning and reading for Lexi. She had about a billion cards and was pretty overwhelmed with options. It lasted about an hour longer than I wanted the game to last. It only got long and longer between turns as the game went on. I think I might have lost interest and focus around round 4.

Ron ended up destroying us. By that I mean he scored over 105 points. I was sitting around the normal 70 mark and the other were just over me. I think I ended up losing it all or Will might have. It was close between the 3 of us and Ron was 40 points ahead. It was just a wow. I was hungry- so it is why i was losing interest- perhaps. I still very much enjoy that game- but over 2 hours of play time is just a bit much for me and any game.

Stupid Ron is stupid! 100+ points are you kidding me. We failed a whole lot that game in not stopping him.

:star::star::star:


Geoff couldn't make it to the Gathering this year and we missed him like crazy. He asked me to look out for his good friend Dave. When I ran into Dan and Dave it seemed like the perfect time to play a game of Tichu. The one game Dave was actually carrying around with him. Imagine that!

I don't think Dave wanted to pair up with me since he didn't want to cut the cards for partners. It worked out, I got to play with Ron who I think I play best with even if we are both aggressive players. He knows me best and can predict what I might do.

This game we were on fire. GT call and then like 5 more tichu's. We were getting all of the good cards. I sort of messed up when we needed only 45 points and called Tichu. I really thought I would have it but then we got set. So it went on for an additional 2 or 3 rounds before we finally won. But they were pretty far behind catching up ever so slightly each hand with all of the left over points from the round. Ron and I weren't scoring well in that regard but still better than them!

Crushed them! 2 weeks in a row for me! Missed you Geoff!! :heart:

:star::star::star:


With the same 4p we walked around the room and I asked Dan if he would explain 7 Symbols, and 7 Nations. New to me!

A game I heard was awesome and really was interested in trying. I believe a Japanese game that was getting a bunch of play on Monday nights but I never managed to get in a game.

It is a trick taking game with 7 colors and 49 cards. You do the math. Each suit has a different display of numbers. I think Red had 2-7 and A which is the only difference since there is a letter and not a number. the A beats the all cards it is the super trump of the game. Otherwise you deal all cards and the left over card declares what the trump will be for the round. I forget the exact distributions for the colors but some suits went like 6-12 or 7-13 etc.

So you also play partners in this game. Dave was cursed to be playing with me due to where he sat.

It has a unnique scoring. You don't want to collect books but if it has a 7 you do. The round ends when someone gets 4 x7s or 7 books. You must follow suit if you can. And then you score points when teh round is over. Team that got 4 7s gets points = to 4 - the number of 7s the other team gets +1. If your team gets 7 books then the the otehr team gets your cards in hand and they gets all of the 7s from the hands and what they have played minus the 7s your team had and I forget if it was +/- 1 after that since it never happened that I can recall.

First team to 7 points wins.

Dave and I were getting the WORST cards. I was consistently getting no trumps and very low cards. I never knew when to play my 7's if my p had the card card or not. It was very hard to gauge what the correct play was. I of course very much liked this game. But, the first 2 rounds were taken by Dan and Ron (who had both played the game before...) and they were at 6 points. The 3rd rounds we finally got a couple points but the final round had them easily winning.

It is a cute game and I would really like to try it again soon. It didn't wow me but it did interest me into more games.

:star::star::star:




Tuesday seems like forever ago now, thank goodness I wrote down what I played. I remember the game thanks to my photos! We started the morning with the wonderful new game from Pretzel Games called Junk Art. New to me!

If you like Flick em up then you will probably like this. This is one for my shelves. It is a stacking game with many colorful blocks. Dexterity to a T. What is so great and unique about this game is that you are playing 3 different mini games and then the game is up. We had to play 2 games since it was just so great.

I think there might be 15 scenarios or so fir the different games. Some are speed games, some are play a card at a time until someone falls. Some might be stack to the highest you can using the cards you are given. It is all crazy. It comes with a tape measure.

It is just pure fun! We had to play 2 games. This was one of my favorite new games played. I love dexterity and I love stacking challenges. Unfortunately, a piece was missing when we played so we were a card short and I couldn't accurately complete a scenario. It was an asterisk round. I think I should have beaten Ron. We actually needed all the cards and it was down to me and him and I couldn't' place the last piece since we didn't have it.

I think I won the first game and he won the second game. We had played with 5 players. I can't wait to own this. I think they said it was going to be a GenCon Release! Yay!

:star::star::star:


Scott had found a newer game called Flying Kiwis. New to me!

We were on a dexterity kick and this was like a 5-10 minute game. We actually played it 8 times. We played winner is the one to make it to 3 wins first.

This game you flick the kiwis into the pens. If you get 4 kiwis in a square configuration then you auto win. Otherwise you get the stacks of kiwis if your player color is on top. Most kiwi's win!

It is an ADORABLE game. Wicked cute and I just KNOW Riley will own it.

I won the first game! I was on a roll! I didn't manage to win the next 7 games before it ended. That is not even fair. They all figured out how to play and I just kept losing! Almost certain Scott won that game- but I am not sure. ;)

Wonderful game I would play it anytime.

:star::star::star:

We were on a HUCH! & friends- streak so we played one more dexterity game called Tornado Ellie. New to me!

This game we played on easy. It is set matching and attempting to spin the tornado without making it fall over. We just used the easy track and realized after it was over it would have been SO MUCH harder with the advanced track.

The tornado is pretty stable using the easy mode. We were doing a good job. When playing a card you have to match the same type of animal or play more than the number on the already played cards with a card from your hand. Then you must spin the board to the next player. If you can't play then you must stack the tornado higher based on the top card of the draw pile. Then you have to take another turn first stacking it up again. If you don't have the required piece you lose and hte game ends. If the deck ends then game is over and most left over pieces wins. Sets of 3 score extra.

It is a nice fun little game. Not the best ratings on the geek but I give it a solid rating where I would definitely play again. I would really like to try it on the harder track. I think cards would have been falling a lot more than they were. pretty cool game.

I didn't win but Scott DEFINITELY lost! :) We made it thought the stack of cards but Scott made it fall like 3 or 4 times. I only made it fall one time.

hehe

Courtesy of Jeremy



:star::star::star:




A couple quick games of Qwinto before we headed to lunch.

I had to teach Jeremy but he figured it out quick enough. The first game we played was one of the best games I have ever had. I Managed to score all rows very VERY well and ALL my pentagons with awesome values. I ended with 84 points. What! So good!!

The second game we played I don't really want to talk about it. I think I only scored 14 - soooo not great. I managed to end that game too!!! With 4 X's... really bad.

Always happy to play this one.

:star::star::star:

So, Scott was looking for a game and I have been wanting to play The Voyages of Marco Polo. I knew he would be interested.

I have really been on a Marco Polo kick lately. I really like the new characters and the gift tiles. Probably too much. I ended up getting the gift character so that was SWEET and eventually I got the gift income additionally.

For some reason I talked Ron into taking the character that provides the free spaces. AND I thought the rule was you had to place a die on it but NOPE you just get a bonus free action to use a card as you see fit and count it as if you had a 6 die roll. What the heck! When I played that i was using a die to do it. Ugh! Reading the rules is hard.

SO yeah, Ron used that to the best of his ability and totally destroyed us. He was over 25 points a head of me at the end of the game/ I am not even sure I broke 50 points- it was quite bad! Scott was somewhere in the middle and Ron- well yah.

It was a good but frustrating game. I mis-played one round and it ruined me for the rest of the game. Things like that are total bummers. And, I get overly mad at myself for making bad choices.

I seriously like the game though and I was happy to play!

:star::star::star:


I heard the name Antoine Bauza mentioned and say the IELLO folks going to teach the game Oceanos. New to me!

I had to learn it. I love 7 Wonders and I was itching to play this new prototype. The Iello guys are awesome and I ended up getting to play with Zee and Jason from The Dice Tower so that was cool. (awesome guys by the way!)We played 5 player and it is a very light card game for set collection and somewhat push your luck for card draws.

There are 3 rounds and you are diving down to the depths of the ocean. You are searching for sets of different animals in each layer of sea. You are also looking for crystals to upgrade your subs! Points are awards at the end of each round for various fish collections.

As the round goes each player will get to be first 1 time. Each time cards are handed to everyone but the starting player and the other choice to keep 1 and hand the left over to the start player. The start player then gets to keep one. At anytime your fuel allows you to keep 2 cards and pass none. If your ship is upgraded then you might be drawing 3 keep 1 giving the other player more cards to choose from, potentially.

It is a very fast game and easy to play and teach. This will be in my collection. it is beautiful and this was only the prototype! I was so happy I got to learn it.

Zee absolutely destroyed in this game. I was upgrading my ship in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. It was just a mess for me. I ended up losing pretty bad. And I still very much enjoyed it!

Definitely easier than 7 wonders and could be a great gateway game. Plays fast and is super cute! Cant wait for the gencon release!

:star::star::star::star:



Next up was my second game of Dynasties: Heirate & Herrsche. (see last week for full commentary).

This game I was teach 2 others and re teaching a lady who had already played. It worked out well. I could easily remember all of the rules and we had a very close game.

I was working on trying to get majorities in all of the areas. It wasn't working so well and every time I made a marriage I would roll the crappiest dice combos. Where if they other were rolling they had VP's of 5 and 6 and I was say, 1 and 2. Also they were getting babies and end card points rolls. I was just getting a cube. Ugh it was about as bad for me as it could have been.

The lady was at 0 points at the end of age 1. But she caught up majorly by playing a bunch of cards and getting a lot of end points. She ended up winning that time. I think she was like 100 points or something crazy. I think I was around 80. Jeremy was SO CLOSE he was about 1 point behind her. It was a super close game for them. I messed up- but I blame the teaching.

I think this is a very nice game. I will very much like to play it again soon. Unclear if I will be owning it. I had a lot of fun with that and the dice are the bomb!

:star::star::star:



Since it was Tuesday- it only felt fitting to play a game of Fields of Arle.

I think I was getting tired but I taught the game to Jon who was also a new badge to the Gathering. Very cool.

He said he wasn't the biggest Uwe fan but he did like a few of his games. He was interested in trying out Arle with me. I definitely helped him a bit too much in this game. I never know when ot shut up or show the possibilities. Anyway- Jon ended up beating me at my own game with 116.5 to my 115.5 So- I haven't ever taught a newbie this game and had them score that high.

Ah well- I live and I lose it is okay. He played a good game. He mimicked a lot of what I was doing and got a 4 point vehicle in the first round so he was already shipping when I was shipping. I think it is key to start shipping as soon as possible.

He did and he did very well with it!

Love this game he very much enjoyed it by the end too. He really liked the mindful decisions and the planning he had to do. He said he would play it again sometime- that is all I love to hear! :D

Happy to play with Jon. He also loved the googly eyes! Some guy walked by and shrugged at them. So It made me happy when Jon was super happy about them! :D Who wouldn't like googly eyes! Cmon crazy!

:star::star::star:


I am not gonna lie. I think one of, if not my favorite, new to me game was played next until late in the morning. I think we played 10 times and ended up leaving for sleep around 1 am. This game is a new game called Happy Salmon. New to me!

This game is a variation of Pit. There is no trading or anything but lots of people around a table shouting. You are trying to get rid of all of your cards in your deck first. You are looking to high 5, fist bump, switch places, or happy Salmon with another player.

Here is this AWESOME video! I can't tell you how much fun this is. But, it is and I could just laugh all day and play this. Hilarious! We even play a silent variant but, that wasn't as fun.

I was so excited I was able to purchase the game once they were leaving the con. Yay!! Now I can inflict all my gaming friends with this amazing game! :D

Vimeo Video

So awesome! So freaking awesome!!!

:star::star::star:



So, Wednesday morning I was up and ready to game but I was running on little sleep. I ended up teaching Karuba bright and early.

It was fine. It is a light game easy to play and teach. A couple others had played before but I was teach Jon. I totally mis-judged my placement on the board and I ended up spending too many tiles on the paths and not making it work. I did manage to get 2/4 guys in the temples but it hardly seemed good enough.

Sure enough Stephan ended it on the last tile draw by getting his 4th guy in the temple. He destroyed us. I think I managed 3rd with 14 points but it was nothing to brag about. Really not my best play.

Always happy to play it even if I talk a lot of game and end up face planting. hahaha Great game!

:star::star::star:


We were finding the next game and I mentioned Bomarzo. New to me!

I had wanted to play it since it had been displayed around the room and looked like an interesting game. Mina was going to teach but forgot a lot of the rules so ended up not bringing it. Jon said he had played before and was interested in trying it again. He had to recall most of the rules from the book so it was a bit of a slow teach as it would be.

Its okay we had an interest and were patient. Steffan stayed for the game and we picked up a 4th who I believe was Jasen.

This is a fairly simple game with interesting choices. Cards are double sided and you have to get them in play and upgraded to get the bonus income/ ability. The end scoring is triggered by your playing. None of the stone gods score unless you put cards under them. There are 9 gods and all scoring for different things. You want to be working towards collecting the most of that things. Some are symbols and some are just money or food. High score wins which is actually a very low score of like 10. All ties are friendly AND then 2nd place would score as well.

That is the only major gripe I had with the game. Friendly scoring. I duno- I was really loving the game up until then. all my hard work when I get 3 points and everyone else is tied gets 2. Just isn't so great for me.

In this game I worked on pushing the temples. I had a card bonus that let me do that easier than the basic action. By doing this I was wasting my turns and not focusing on the really important things like getting more cards played down and working my tech track. It was just all around bad. I ended up pushing the gods harder than I should so everyone could just pass me in whatever track I was on and ended up taking my victory.

To no ones surprise I lost. It was still a close game I had 7, Steffan was 8 and Jon and Jasen were @ 9 for the tied win. Not many points to be had here. I would try for something else next time. It works very nice and has a worker placement mechanic like Coal Baron but with resource cubes and a worker. It is very nice and you have to manage it all perfectly.

I am really interested in playing this again. It is not going on my buy list but I am happy I got to play and would play again.

:star::star::star:


Since Ron had joined us I asked him to teach me IKI. New to me!

Ron had played months and months ago in prototype form. I had the chance but I am weary about prototypes and ended up not trying it out.

Ron recalled a lot of the rules but had to check on some updated ones. I have seen many bloggers around here really enjoying this game so I was definitely interested in trying it. This also had a rough start but we figured it out and got to playing the market place game.

It is a very beautiful game and has a lot of nice things going on. It really felt like a market place since we were running around the board collecting materials and, (clearly) hiring fire fighters.

In the game there are 3 fires and they start in a random corner on the board. You can't predict where they would start but when they happen you want to have enough fire fighters so your stalls don't burn. That is the craziest part of the game. Interesting mechanic but it might be too random for some people. Just have your fighting ability maxed out and you are good to go. It is just a small portion of the game. The real mechanics lie in the advancement around the board. There are 4 steps 3,2, and 1 steps around. You want to be moving faster. The more times you "pass go" the faster your stalls advance and retire. Once your workers in the stalls retired they are just season income for you and you can move on to the next worker. It also gets them off the board away from any potential fires.

If you are just moving 1 step that is also very beneficial since you get first pick at the new hires for market place stalls. They provide some income of points or goods.

At the end of each season we have to feed our workers on the board and we score points for sets of colors in the same regions.

So, this was this was somewhat of an asterisk game since some of the cards were not clear. It looked like one space advancement but it was still 3 and then the worker comes off the board. They were just doing 1 and then the worker comes off. This would have been more detrimental to Jon and Jasen. But the fact that I won means it was OK. I didn't break the rules. ;) It was certainly in their favor and not mine. So I was very happy when the game turned for me in the final season. There was a final fire and the only corner of the board that would be safe for me burned everyone else. One stall had enough protection but Ron lost a seriously high building and so did Jasen so I ended up winning the game because of that.

There is some end scoring and I was able to pick up an awesomely high valued building that gave me like 28 points or something.

I really enjoyed this game and I look forward to my next play. There is a bunch of interesting things going on and I really felt like I was running around the market place. It helps that I won, not gonna lie.

I don't think I will be looking to pick this up, but you never know what happens in math trades! cool game- a bit long for me. I think the next game will be shorter- at least I hope so.

:star::star::star:



When we came back I wanted to try out Bézier Games, Inc., new game from Ted Alspach called Colony. New to me!

This game was actually a remake of the Japanese game called Age of Craft. I hadn't played that game but a few friends who had. I can't compare the two but I can comment on this one.

I have to say I liked it a lot more than Machi Koro or Favor of the Pharaoh. This is a dice game that you roll and draft on your turn. You have a warehouse to hold dice from round to round if you didn't want to use them all. But, you are trying to buy cards for teh value and get points. First person to some number of points depending on player count wins!

Some cards might be attack cards, others might manipulate your dice or spend dice to gain the die roll you want. Some might provide provide additional dice on your turn to use.

It is a very simple game but has a box of cards for tons of replay value since you can have a different set up each time. It is a very nice game. I can see it getting play as much as Roll for the Galaxy per say.

In my game I was the one to get the pirate ship early and start the attacking as soon as I could. Everyone got the protection and only when Bianca had to duck out and Ron sat down did he buy the Pirate ship. We have that sort of bond, you see.

he started attacking but it was too late. I was already into the set collection and getting a bunch of points per turn.

I was happy to take the winning title on this game when we were complete. We had a fun time playing but I had a fun time trying to beat up on others!

This was a great game- I can see putting this one in the collection since I don't have the other dice games I mentioned besides Roll for the Galaxy.

Cool game!

:star::star::star:


 
Iello had another game I wanted to learn called Sea of Clouds. New to me. 

They were just starting this game and Stephan let me take his seat.
This is a new game coming out like next week. It is a very easy set collection game. Also with amazing art. Iello is really stepping up their game and their art. Art is really the first hint I notice. This was a finished copy of the game and it was lovely.

In this game there are 3 cards in the middle. On your turn you can look and take the first card. If you want it you can take it. If you don't then you put another card on top and move to the next one in line and do the same. The stacks get juicer if people keep passing. Only max of 3 cards can be on a stack then coins get added. 

There are a set number of rounds and some rounds here is war between players. You want to try and build you crew up to beat your neighbors in this war. You also want to be collecting hidden run bottles and visible treasure cards. There are some artifact cards that affect your tableau. Could be 2 point or might be -1 to combat. Etc.

In out game I felt pretty hosed being 3rd player. Start player was always the same person and I think that should have been passing. For whatever reason it seemed the kid after me would pass and then the lady would then pass giving the guy to my right a bunch of cards and potentially money. This left me with little to no options on my turn and rinse and repeat. It seemed to be the case. 

I lost every battle there where never any crew cards I could take so I went for rum and collection. It really went quite sour for me. I lost baddddddly I wasn't even close to winning. On the plus side I very much enjoyed this game.

I look forward to I king this one up. The game play is nice and the one thing I didn't like could be altered to just changing start player per round. I really liked how easy it was and It will play well with many of the gamers I play with. My family would also like that a bunch too. 

Very cool game.

:star::star::star:

Next up I was wondering around since Ron joined an eclipse game. I joined this table in the hall that was all looking at a computer and laughing. I guess it is pretty much like mad libs. We played three different games hosted by jackbox.tv. I think it was quip lash, and fibbish were the titles. Players log in on their phones by going to a website and putting in the code. They are then prompted with questions to answer. 

It was a hilariously fun game to play. I was loser out of the 8 or 9 players we had. I had some good responses but ultimately I am just terrible at these types of games. We all have fun and it is great since players can join whenever and start playing. I will have to look into getting that. It is. Lot of fun.

:star::star::star:


I was wondering around and found a space for me in an Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King game. I made the 5th player but it worked out ok. Most everyone had played before so we started pretty quickly. 

I was playing with Chris from Asmadi Games and Dave Chalker. They were both pretty great to game with. We got to talking and Chris wants to create a new gaming con for like 3k people in the Boston area. I am all for it. I hope he can get that up and running. It would be so cool if he did. I think the area needs something like that huge. 

So this game was just awful for me. I could not keep my tiles and I could not score any points. This might have been my worst play every of this game. I didn't even break 50 points!! Uh hit was embarrassing. I was working for a lighthouse in the final round when I had first buy but there were none! C'mon really!! Ugh it was a mess. Haha I have no idea who actually won since I was so disappointed with my playing. I still had a great time chatting up Chris. 

Still a fun game! One of my favorites from last year.

:star::star::star:


The final game of the night was one that looked interesting called Imhotep. New to me!

I saw the box and wanted to play it. I know Peat had liked the game so I definitely wanted to try it. It looks like it should be dexterity with all of those huge cubes. It is a very light game and was actually very nice to play later in the evening. We just played the basic side and I suggest just skipping to the advanced side. The basic side was a bit dull.

We were just learning and figuring it out. I was playing with Niki, Lincoln from game night videos and Henning was reading the rules for us. The was awesome to play with them! I could tell they were already getting pretty wiped and were tired. 

This game is about scoring the most points. Shocker. You do this by collecting cards for end game scoring or working on the pyramids/ walls/ obelisks. You get pointed from placing your cubes on these monuments. Some pay out then and here some pay out at the end for majority.
On your turn you can places a cube on a boat (sized 1-4 spaces big), move a full boat/mostly full determined by the boat size, or take 3 cubes. Once all the boats on display have been moved the rounds ends and you do it again continuing to grow that board and the monuments as you go. After so many rounds the game is over and you do final scoring.
There are other cards to draft that get you bonus actions which are cool and help you control your destiny better.

This game can be vicious if you let it be. See an opportunity to screw over another and take it. Sounds like me...

We were playing a pretty mediocre game here. None of them seemed to be backstabbing players so it was all in all a nice game of take this boat here and get some pints. Let Henning take all of the end game points. Haha I didn't manage to get on any one point engine but I was trying to be aggressive in my play. I eventually got cut off with what I was doing but I tried!

I don't think I won that game it was likely Henning with all of his points at the end. We ended up looking at the backside of the boards to see what the challenges would be. They definitely seemed interesting and I would want to play again to try them.

Seemed like a very fun game and I think it will work well for many homes. It looks abstract but it is not really. I suppose it can be a little bit but for the most part it's a cool game that most people would play, I would think.

:star::star::star:



It was brought to my attention that my posts were a tad long. Joe said I should split the week up with 2 posts. I know he is correct. My one blog post for the gathering would be so long. I still tagged everything. If you got here from a tag that wasn't mentioned then it will be in my second post. Please stay tuned I will be working on that post over the next few days and hope to finish it as soon as possible.
Thanks!





Thanks for reading! Please stop by for part III!




-Steph

by Picon

razzmonid wrote:

Where is the review btw. What happened to it?

As usual, the user deleted his account taking everything with him. But, once in the Internet, always in the Internet. Here is the original review:

gameon3948 wrote:

Le Havre is my favorite Uwe Rosenberg game, the board game I have probably played the most, and one of my all time favorite games. Aside from a handful of 3, 4, or 5-player games, nearly all my (likely 300+) plays have been 2-player.


Rules Overview

The object of the game is to have the most money at the end of a variable number of rounds determined by the number of players. Your end game money will be a total of your cash on hand, the value of your ships, and the value of your buildings. As goods are not worth anything at the end of the game, a popular last move (or second-to-last move) is to use the Shipping Line to sell as many high priced goods as you can for money.

Goods accumulate each turn on offer spaces in the harbor. On your turn you can claim all the goods on one of these spaces or you can let them accumulate further (and risk your opponents taking them) and use a building instead. At the beginning of the game there are only a few buildings available (so harbor offers are frequently claimed); but as players build more buildings, there are more choices available, the building actions are more efficient, the harbor offers are claimed less, and they accumulate to larger quantities. Buildings are owned by the player who built them, or by the city, and you usually must pay an entry fee to use them. In addition to the entry fee, some have usage fees as well.

After 7 turns the round ends, and you have to feed your workers. The amount you have to feed your workers increases throughout the game and, while you can always substitute money for food, if you still cannot afford to feed them, you must take a loan. Loans cost interest and points at the end of the game if not repaid.

Building ships (using the Wharf building) allows you to automatically feed X number of workers each round, lessening the amount of actions you have to waste on feeding your workers each round. Additionally, ships are required to ship goods at the Shipping Line--which makes up a large portion of your final money. The game is rarely won without ships, so do not ignore them!


What I like about Le Havre

Replayability. The order the goods accumulate in the harbor is randomly determined each game (and then remains the same throughout the course of the game once revealed). Also, the buildings available to be built are ordered differently each game. As only the top building on each of three stacks can be built at any given time, this changes strategies as well. Finally, there are quite a number of Special Buildings (36 in the base game), of which only 6 are used (chosen randomly) in any given game. These provide quite a lot of variety to each game. All these aspects combine to mean you must reevalute each game when to take goods, when to let them accumulate, which buildings to build, and when.

Careful, tight balance. This is not a game about specialization or about mutual exclusive paths to victory. This is a game about using your limited number of actions as efficiently as possible. You have one goal, to make money, and more often than not that means getting ships, getting valuable goods, and shipping them! As such it's not a game of devising an overarching strategy (the game provides that to you); instead it's about constantly reevaluating fluctuating markets, knowing when it's too risky not to take something, knowing when your opponent is being too greedy and leaving something to accumulate that they really need, knowing when it's okay to take a loan if it means being able to build that truly critical building a turn early, and knowing when it's best to wait and make sure everyone gets fed this round.

Interaction. When you use a building you block other players from using that building until either you use another building or that building is bought or sold. Since you don't need to move each turn (if you claim an offer in the harbor you stay in your current building), blocking the Wharf when you know your opponent needs to build a ship is a real (and frequent) possibility. Similarly, you are constantly watching what your opponent does, how many resources they have, what actions they could do next turn and which ones are most likely, so that you don't get blocked out of something or an offer you want doesn't get snatched out from under you.

Art. It is no secret I love Klemens Franz's work--and this is no exception. Bright colors, high contrast, all with ample space and clarity, the game is fun to look at AND easy to understand at a glance. Furthermore, the language independent symbology on the cards is clear and easy to understand.

Game Length. My wife and I play 2-player games in just a little over an hour. There is a little setup time (10-15 minutes) and more players will add time to this. But a 2-hour 3-player game or 2 to 3-hour 4-player game is the norm and I find that's a good length for most groups.

No individual luck. The randomization of the setup is done before the game starts and affects all players equally. The special buildings are revealed throughout the course of the game, but you can preview and reorder them by using the Marketplace, to have a little more control and forewarning. And even then, these buildings are still available to everyone.

Open information. The game is not perfect information because at the start of the game you do not know the special buildings nor the order they will be revealed. Similarly, the order of goods' accumulation is revealed once per turn throughout the first round, so only in the second round is this order known. That said, the game is 100% open information among players. There are no shields, no hand of cards, nothing kept face down in front of players. You can always see exactly which resources and in which quantities each player possesses, as well as their current relative score.

Easy to learn, difficult to master. The game is much easier to teach than Agricola and the concepts of getting goods, building buildings, shipping goods are readily understood. As long as you emphasize the importance of ships and shipping high value goods at the end of the game, new players also tend to do well. That said, you will soon find yourself addicted to the nuances and the desire to maximize, striving not only to win, but to get more and more money each game. 250? 270? 300? How high can you go?

(That said, the randomization of the buildings and interaction means not every game is the same. You are playing against the game as well as your opponent. In this way you cannot really compare scores between games. Typically games where ONE player has a high score, ALL players have relatively high scores and vice-versa. Still it is fun not only to try and score higher and higher, but also to see how low you can get your opponents' scores to be :)


Conclusion

One of my all time favorites. It is amazing how tight and well-crafted it is. All the building entry costs that may seem arbitrary become so critical when you are trying to squeeze out extra points. The seemingly minor differences in the order of goods accumulations, or the order of building availability, has a dramatic impact on each game. And as someone who judges games by how often I am looking at my opponents' resources or trying to guess my opponents' next moves--this game fires on all cylinders.

Source

by Picon

Here's the original review.

subnaut wrote:

Intro
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I love all types of games and playing games with all types of people. But the games I want in my collection are games I can play with my multigenerational, multicultural family.
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Le Havre
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Players compete to amass the largest fortune by the final round, that fortune being the sum of their cash and the value of their ships and buildings. Ships and buildings can be bought directly or built with goods and buildings. Goods and money are obtained from spaces where they accumulate or from using buildings. At the end of each round players must be able to feed their workers or they are forced to take loans. Ships provide recurring food and also allow players to ship and convert their (worthless at the end of the game) goods into cash. Ships are very important to winning the game!
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Why I added it to my collection
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* Affordable iApp available from Codito to try, learn, and play the game

* High replayability. Special buildings available each game are different. Goods accumulation order and standard building availability also randomized.

* Minimal luck. While the game state is different each play, there are no random elements in the actions you take.

* Tactical. The actions of other players affect you. When they take goods, you must wait for them to build up again. When they occupy a building, you cannot use that same building until they leave. The value of goods and buildings fluctuate throughout the game and everyone has value to everyone. You must constantly evaluate how you can most effectively utilize what is available.

* Planning. You must plan each round to ensure you have enough food for your workers. You must plan how many of each good you need to build what you want.

* Colors and art are vibrant, high contrast, and appealing

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Criticism
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None. This is a 10.
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Source

by Steph

Part III of the Gathering! Countdown to goodbye.



In case you missed the others:

First weekend:
Off to Canada! Gaming with Mina @ Board Game Bliss! O Canada!!!!!! - andalittleconcalledthegatheringoffriends *** Photos!*****

Second part:
THE GATHERING PART II! SO MANY AMAZING GAMESSSSSSSSS. It Started last week- Zombie Steph Still Writes Blog after a WEEK of 24/7 gaming!


:star::star::star:


To finish up this epic week- Thursday morning I really wanted to try the Oceanos game again and teach a bunch of players. The Iello guys weren't around yet but I thought I could teach without issue. The rules were in French so that didn't help since there were a few clarifications. See the last post for the better review.

We did ok when we played 5p. I made one mistake In that the start player should always get 2 cards to choose from when it is their turn minimum.so Adam was going first last and everyone used their last fuel cards to hold them. It was my mistake, but I asked the guys later about that and he was supposed to draw up to two. 

It was somewhat a rough start but it played quickly and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It really is just a 30 minute game when people get into it. It is very nice.

I made sure to up my fuel faster this game so I could keep more cards in the round. I did t worry so much about the fish as I had the first time. I tried to boost my general income of points too, but that wasn't as good as I had hoped.

I am thinking the more cards is the weakest of the parts to upgrade but I am unsure. Ron clearly destroyed us I this game. He had a huge collection of coral and a bunch of treasures to collect. I feel like I was last I this game as well since I just could get the cards I had needed but that is fine! Fast card games are great. I really enjoyed it.

:star::star::star:



The next game on the table was another Iello game called Tem-Purr-A. New to me!

This was an adorable game I saw in their catalog and I knew Scott would have to play it. I showed m and he was super excited to try the cute cat game. It is really push you luck card game for a whole bunch of players. We played with 6 and it was good for a few laughs. 

When it gets to your turn you have to play the matching car don't he stack or an action card that move it along to the next player. If you can't do that the. You can discard two cards that are the same from your hand to change discard the stack and start a new stack or you will count the numbers in the stack and draw that many cards for your hand. If you get the indigestion card then You take a token. More indigestion cards are added to the stack and everything is shuffled. The deck gets super small and crazy amounts of indigestion cards are present. First to 3 tokens loses.

I collected 2 pretty quickly and same with me and Ron. We were all on the same side of the table and needed to get it back to the other side of the table for some tokens. It didn't work out so much since Adam got a 3rd token pretty quick and the game was over.

I can't say I loved it but I didn't mind it. Not really thinking I will play it again but it is super cutes!!

:star::star::star:


Scott had picked up a few years old Haba game called Tier auf Tier: Jetzt geht's rund!. New to me! 

This is animal upon animal but you have to balance the. Rotate the board! It was super hard and not very balanced. We were playing with the ball bottom so it was super hard. With the flat bottom it will be more stable so I think. 

We draft out starting animals and you want to be the first one to get them all placed. I don't know how Riley doesn't own this game yet but he should. It was great fun! 

I totally lost. I nearly had it but I messed it up in the final animal. I let Bill win. How did I do that!! Totally screwed up.
I really enjoyed it and Scott got it super cheap. I am so jealous. Great game.

courtesy of Scott F

:star::star::star:


I wanted to play a game with Will and Lexi so I suggested Happy Pigs. New to me!

How hard could it be? :P It was on the Iello stack. I guess it was a remake of the Chinese edition from 2013.

This is a very cute game. You are trying to collect, reproduce, grow your pigs so you can sell them off for top dollar. You want to have the most money at the end of the game. It is simultaneous selection and you know those are my favorite! I fell right in tune with this game. I didn't win but I understood it.

Only after half way through did they say all pigs would be sold at market value at the end of the game. I was try to just sell them off- I didn't know they would all just sell at the end. My mistake, I suppose. I was picking all of my actions that others were not. Ron and Lexi were "on the same schedule"- and Will was just taking command with his farm.

So at the end of each season- Which is turns = to number of players, I believe, you have to have all of your pigs vaccinated. If they are not, then they will die. :( If you hadn't sold them off by that point you had to keep them alive by vaccinating them. Mina commented that she didn't like that but if she played her cards right then she might not have to vaccinate them. Never know!

I found this game charming and I might have to get a copy. It has a lot of the features I like in it. Each season provides a different "benefit/penalty" which might mean the market value increases or decreases. Or if you have all types of pigs you get rewarded. It will be somewhat predictable once you play a few times but it won't be the same game. I really enjoy the simultaneous actions- one of my favs!

I ended up not winning- I don't think I lost either! I am pretty sure Will ran away with the game. We got a bit sidetracked half way through to go and wait in line for free bits! But we came back and finished. I think otherwise the game would move quick and nice. Might have to go on my wishlist!

:star::star::star:


Since I promised Scott he said he was reading the rules to Mount Pingo. New to me!

As it turned out he was NOT reading the rules but assembling the game... mmhmm so I had to read the rules. How did I get stuck reading the rules? At least the rules were only 3 pages. It is a very simple dexterity game.

You draw a card from your stack and place it accordingly. The picture might be a seagull so you have to place the card board seagull on the floe. if it has baby penguins then you have to place in front of mama penguin. All the cards do different things.

If on your turn you make any cards fall off the flow you take them for negative points. I asked Larry to join us, little did he know that it was a dexterity game. He wasn't too excited about that. But he still played. He thought he was losing but I mad a HUGE error in judgement and made the whole thing topple over. FAIL!

So I was the epic loser. I think Scott might have won with no cards left and fewest cards fallen. I definitely lost though.

It was wicked adorable and the penguins are so cute. Fun little game!

:star::star::star:


Ron and I got some lunch after and when we came back we were ready for a heavier game! I suggested we play Brew Crafters.

Ron was setting up and I was trying to recruit players. I managed to wrangle some in and I had Ron explain he rules. We also played with the local partnership moving to the other space vs the space for start player. It took a few turns but the new guys picked it up pretty quickly what they should be doing.

One guy was a complete start up spending money for buildings and helpers where he probably shouldn't have been. it didn't quite pay off for him. I was too focused on my techs that I didn't really make much brewing happen. I was going for big points in the batches and less so on the amount I was doing. I ended up getting a lot made but it wasn't enough to beat the Ron.

Ron's memory was he got around 82 and I was sitting around 70 and the other guys were less. This game does benefit from more plays. Ron still has played less times than me so maybe you just get better after the first play? Unless you are me. :D haha

This is such a great game! I can't wait to start playing with all of the extra bits and alternate set ups. I was so super fortunate to pick it up from the prize table this year and it is signed! :D Woohooo!! It was mine and Ron's first pick since we knew it would get played in our house. We both very much enjoy the game.

:star::star::star:


Since we had a Tichu player at the table we tried to find a 4th for a game of Tichu! The Gathering is full of Tichu players it was awesome to see the game played so much. My only regret is that I didn't get to play it more!

We recruited a lady who was pretty newish to the game and didn't recall most of the rules. She was slow going but ended up playing well enough. We made Ron be her partner and help her along.

the game lasted longer than I might have liked but we still ended up winning the game. I got set once on the first hand- it was a rocky start but we ended up getting a whole bunch of great hands after it. The general problem where we call and then only make 105 points for the round. That seems to happen to me a lot! Need more points in game. That is something I have to work on. See the 10's eat them up.

My team ended up winning that game. Woohoo!! I was on a serious roll. that is like 3 games of Tichu in a row that I have won. I rock! Everyone should want to be my partner. Get in line!

:star::star::star:


Next up I sat down to play with new friends Jasen and Michael and they taught me and another a game called Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße. New to me!

This is a card game with A LOT of text. Thankfully this game was totally upgraded to English. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to make this game in English, since it doesn't exist. I guess someone had posted files online of the cards with English text and this copy had nice quality cards printed for the purpose of having them in English. That is a full upgrade. It was nicely done!

this is a hand management deck building game. You essentially have 3 stacks/decks of cards that you are playing from when it is your turn. On your turn you choose the bottom most card in your stack and do the action. If the action in in red then you trash the card from your stack out of the game. If it is not in red then the card then moves to top of that stack. You goal is to get 25 points before anyone else can.

Points might come on the cards you get. You might use your resources to buy the cards from the center- but you have to find the correct action to get them. It can be quite a challenge to make it all work in your favor and get the cards you need.

There were some attack cards, which Michael put in since he likes a little take that in his games. I guess they could have been optional. I found them ok- but I was already losing a whole lot! I kept taking away everyone's gold. Mwahaha

It was an interesting game. I was having a very hard time getting an engine going. It was Super hard to buy any of the contracts on display. I eventually got a farmer that lets me gamble to try and get some wheat fields. It worked 1/2 times I got to try so I got a point from that.

It was a neat game and I would play again. I did manage to get up around 18 points by the end but I was still so far away from actually getting to 25 points. Jasen and Michael totally destroyed us newbies. Got owned! I would definitely play it again! Maybe I would do better next time... I would hope so!

:star::star::star:


When I got back from eating I found Joe H and Michael about to play a game of Factory Funner. New to me!

Since I joined in on the KS for this one I was happy to try it. I have played the father game Factory Fun before and I heard it was quite similar. The differences only make it better in my eyes. The major difference that I can recall is that you can not move around the machine pieces once you place them. This allows you to just play the game and not recalculate everything all of the time. I get that it is fun for some gamers to do that. But when I want a 30 minutes puzzle game Factory Funner is a great fit.

My 3p game of Factory Fun lasted double the time since I was trying to figure out what to change and what not to change and it just overstayed its welcome. This is just the same without the recalculating. You just have to best optimize your options at the time of placement and that is it.

Very cool game. I was having a hard time even seeing the possibilities. I can't wait to test the waters against Ron in 2p mode. Should be quite interesting.

In our game this time was pretty challenging for me though. I still managed to make direct connections and I did ok. I still lost but the span of final scores was only like 10-15 points and I still managed to get 25 points. I was happy with that. I love all the bright colors and the updated graphics. I think it is fun and clever. I can't wait to get my copy so I can start playing!!

Really cool game.

:star::star::star:



Since it was there and Joe was waiting around for another gamer to show up I convinced him to play a round of Animals on Board. I had Ron teach him the rules- cause why not.

I guess we weren't clear with a rule that you have to feed each animal you take when you take a group of animals. But, he was able to adjust and score super huge points. Joe managed to get a bunch of 5s and 2 sets of animals.

This game is adorable and wicked easy to play. The box is a bit big for the game itself but I would still play it anytime. It was a close match. I knew I wasn't doing very well when I only got one set of 4. Ron had 2 sets of 3 and Joe had 2 sets of 5 with better numbers around it.

Grr! I want to play again- I know I can outwit them. :P Cute clever game. Easy to pick up and play.

:star::star::star:


After that I saw Ignacy demoing a game called Crazy Karts. New to me!

The table was almost done and I asked Ignacy if he would demo the game for me. He said get some more people in even number and come back. So I found 5 others and teamed up with Ron for this super fun racing game.

I hadn't heard much about it other than what Scott told me about it being pairs and working on racing through the board to try and get first place.

There are 2 rounds the "easy" first level and the "harder" second level. Lots of traps to work through and you might collect damage which will slow you down. In the game you nd your partner are working together to drive a race cart through the course. One is working on the speed of the card and how fast and far to accelerate and the other is working on how to power up and turn the cart.

It is a high speed game but not quite real time except when planning your hidden moves. You can not talk with your partner and just have to trust they will do the right thing.

It is a pretty exciting game. never really knowing what will happen. Another team might pull you backwards or push you into danger. You want to get initiative so you can do you move correctly. Each team has a unique power they can abuse to their benefit. It is a fantastically fun game and I can see a lot of gaming groups loving this.

I was excited we found 6 players. I think this works well with a big group of players. 8 players would even be hilarious still since it would be 4 teams racing. If you are at 4 players an d2 teams it might get kinda *shrug* but when there are more teams you are in for a whirlwind ride. It is a fast 45 minute game and it will be over before you blink.

In our game Ron was the gears and I was power ups and turning. we were in second when the first round of the race finished. We had a slow start to the second round but picked it up. We managed to screw up the other teams enough where we COULD HAVE won! Ron didn't think I could get enough initiative to go first BUT I DID! He didn't give us enough acceleration to cross the finish line though. He put no cards there! Really!?!?! We could have won!!! What was he thinking! Worst partner ever :P

We so had that win. That loss was totally on Ron. I did everything correctly to win! :shake:

Tons of laughs and so much fun- I know this will be a hit is many households. Very cool game.

:star::star::star:


I saw an opportunity to mention Tentacles of Time so I took it. New to me!

In Mina's post I saw that she had played this new game from portal games. Ignacy had the game with him and he taught it to me and Ron. It is essentially the same game as Tides of Time but with a twist!

I really like Tides of Time but it can be a bit repetitive so it is nice they are making another one with a super dark Cthulhu theme. I really enjoyed this. The art is superb and gorgeous!

While it plays the same there are some cards with a madness boarder. Aft the end of the round you collect madness tokens = to the cards you have with that design. If you have collected the most you can choose to discard one of them or take 4 points. All the points in the world wouldn't matter if you go crazy! getting 9 madness tokens ensures you go crazy!

My game with Ron was a killer. He got 40 points in round 2 but he was collecting madness left and right. I was sure I could take him over in the final round. All the cards in your tableau count from round to round if you have the madness symbols. so you might not want to hang on to them. But, they might have a benefit as well so you might WANT to keep it. It can be iffy though since you don't really want to go crazy and lose the game. We tied for madness cards in the final round and he wasn't able to get rid of any tokens and I ended up winning because he went crazy. :devil:

Even though I had not many point he went crazy and lost the game. That is the only way I will ever win. I have been losing Tides of Time a lot since we got that game. I rarely win. This madness things brings a whole new level to the game- it is very cool. And I won!! Maybe I am bias but it is nice to play with because it gives bad players like me a chance at winning! :D

:star::star::star:


The final game of the night was a head to head match against new friend Jasen in my fav Fields of Arle.

I had just played it the other night but was ready to play again with someone who knew the game. I asked if he wanted a recap but he seemed pretty sure of the game. He said he played mostly with his daughter so I was a bit weary.

I suppose I should have helped him a bit more with suggestions since he might have had the lowest score I have seen in any of the games. I did way better than the game I had played on Tuesday night since I wasn't focused on what he was doing as much as I should have been. I felt kinda bad. I think we were both getting really tired by late Thursday night from all of the constant gaming.

Next year he will challenge me sooner and win, I am sure of it. ;)

I think the major problem he had was not getting any shipping until round 5 or 6 and that is over half way through the game. You really have to get shipping before then. I got it on turn one as per usual and made it work to my advantage! I went hard for materials and got a couple 15 point building. I think I got 60 points on my farm. That's pretty dang good.

I got around 127 I think it ended up being. better than my normal so I was happy but poor Jasen got 75 or less... :( I should have went easy on him. :P

We were playing late and the game lasted about 2 hours a bit longer than I would like since we started so late. We were both so tired. But- that's ok! More Arle = more fun!

:star::star::star:



Friday came and we spelt in a bit later than I might have liked but I was in major need of sleep! in the morning I saw that CSI had a pre order for the game called Piratoons. New to me!

Since it was a pre order and I wanted to know if I should pick it up I found a copy on the Stronghold table and started to read the rules. I read the rules!! once I finished the game seemed easy enough to teach and I recruited 2 others to play the game with me and Ron.

This game is adorable! You are trying to build up your pirate ship and get it filled with pirates and sails and cannons! There are 8 rounds and you are basically doing a fast paced round of placing meeples on tiles and trying to get the majority. This is all under the pressure of a sand timer that is going for about 30 seconds. You have to have a clear majority to win the tiles. The tiles up for picking are boat parts and the smaller tiles that have people or sails on them.

For any tiles with the clear winner they just get them. Then there is a closed fisted auction for other tiles. If you bid the same amount as another player in this portion then you are both out and get not remaining tiles. This is essentially the game in a quick minute but you are aiming to grow the fastest best looking ship you can to score the most points at the end. You get points for bigger sets of same type or different types. You also score negative for having the most empty spaces on your boat. So you might have a HUGE boat for some points but if it isn't filled up you might be losing a bunch of points.

It is a lighter game but I actually had a great time with this game. The rules are a bit harsh for those who are shaky or clumsy. If you knock another player off a tile you are fully out for the round and can not participate. So, as it happened in our game Ron was just a bit too fast and knocked my guy off. It was towards the end of the placement phase and he was winning a bunch of other tiles. Because he knocked me off he couldn't claim any of it. Perhaps it is a bit harsh.

For a 30 minute game I thought it was really cute. I ended up with the best score of 22 and directly behind me was the guy to my right with 21. Ron really lost this game hard since he had gotten almost all of the negative points.

I have to say I found it very charming. I would love to play it again and I will be on the lookout for a copy. It is just a fast little game probably gears towards kids and families. I am basically a kid ( :P ) so of course I would enjoy this! :D

:star::star::star:


I kept giving Stephen owner and president of Stronghold Games a hard time for not playing Outpost with me. I kept saying "if Stephen won't play with me Who Will!?!?" We became pretty good friends throughout this con. I kept giving him a hard time. Maybe one of these years he will play a game of outpost with me.

As it turned out he was willing to play a game with me with his AWESOME Crokinole board. I was ready to get owned. I don't play this nearly enough to win against anyone with an awesome painted board such as this.

We were actually pretty evenly matched. I only managed to score 5 points but we had a few even rounds. I had some bad shots knocking his in instead of mine as I generally go. It was still so fun to play a game with him. He is a very cool guy and very dramatic. I loved every minute of losing to him in this game. I didn't see his Crokinole board get used at all in throughout the con so I was happy to help him out and use it for him. :D

Definitely one of the many highlights of the con for me. Super fun!

:star::star::star:



Since it was there and I was then looking for another game to play Ron read the rules to West of Africa. New to me!

This was a game that looked to be a light engine building game. You have to plant the goods and ship them for lots of money and potential to place houses for points. It is a very fast game with card selection for your turns initiative and actions.

I am not going to ruin this game for anyone so I am not going to comment on this too much. We played 5 player and it just didn't work for us. Too many turns of I was going to do that and someone else doing it first and the other players getting hosed. There was no stopping the leading player and no one was really enjoying the game play.

I have read positive reviews so there are many that still enjoy the game and I hope they continue to do so!

For me it just wasn't there and I don't think I will be returning to playing that game again. But we gave it a fair shot and I like the mechanics but I think the board was a bit tight without many options, at least for a 5p game.

To no one's surprise Joe H won. :P On the plus side I am growing to think more and more like Joe H! That means I am *Smaht*! :D :P

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Dan and I found Hang on Harvey! to play. New to me!

This is a game from 1969- yeah, crazy! I don't play games with that much dust on them normally, but this looked like a crazy awesome dex game so I had to try it. The goal is to try and peg your way down without letting Harvey drop. My Harvey fell like 10 times before I actually got him to the bottom without falling!

But, as expected I totally kicked Dan's butt in this game. haha It was fun to play and I got really good at it by the end. :P

This is a crazy game and a bunch of fun. It is really only a 5 minute game. (unless you are very bad at it- i.e. Dan) and it is more of just a novelty game and not one you would play all that often.

I would certainly play it again, however. :D

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Since it was there, we played a 4p game of Apple Pop. New to me!

I would like to give a shout out to Scott for actually make Apple POp a game in the BGG database! Cheers!

I played this game with Dan, Joe H and Ron. It is very simple- but I still managed to be quite terrible at it.

This is a simple kids game to pop the apple and try to get it in the box field or better yet the basket below for an additional turn. You want to get the colors for your bin to match what you hit down.

The little raccoon is adorable and the set up was cool. It was a cute game. I was terrible but I did manage to get 1 apple down! :D I think Ron won. He is just too good at games. :P

It was very cute.

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I agreed to play one more game before Ron and I went out to get some food. Dan picked Face Chase. New to me!

This is a speed game to try and get rid of all your cards first. A card of a face in the middle and players have to apply matching cards picked from their hand of cards to match either the hair, nose, eyes, or mouth. First player to get rid of all their cards first wins.

Pretty simple card game. I actually got a copy from the prize table as an extra. It is fast and cute. I don't foresee playing it a whole bunch but it is a nice game.

I totally crushed Dan and Ron in this game. I would have won sooner if my last card matched anything! I think it was 3 faces before I could play my last card! :) I nearly thought I was going to lose, but be real this game was meant for me to win! :D

I think my mom will enjoy this. haha It will be a good family gathering game for sure.

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When we came back we got in a 3 player game of Le Havre.

I was happy to play this since I had recently played it on a Monday night and got owned. I needed to make up for the terrible play I had then.

This game I didn't realize I was playing against a pro. He was seriously owning. He was really winning all along but I thought I had it in the bag. I had all the major buildings and everyone was paying me to use them. I seriously had the best game I had ever played.

I ended this game with 250 points! It was so awesome. I have never played that well before. I had all the buildings. Cokery, Colliery, shipping line, wharf, some special steel something- I mean I was pumping out the buildings it was awesome. I don't know how but I made it happen.

Apparently I was not using the Colliery to the best of my abilities and I should have been. Perhaps it is the best building in the game and I should treat it better- maybe why I don't win this game very often. Anyway, I forget his name :( but he was able to turn all of his goods (which was a lot since he had the market place) in for points and he turns like 20+ Coal into Coke just like that and got a ton of points. He ended up winning the game with 270 points. I had never seen such a high score like that. I pretty much didn't believe it but I will just go with it. I still had my best game so I am proud. Either way Ron lost- sorry Ron! My turn to win! well- beat a Ron win, anyway.

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Next we found Lexi and Will for a fast game of Automobiles. New to me!

I never got to play the game Planes when that was around. It went away too quickly for me to try it. I was okay with the game Trains. I think this one is probably the best in the series even though I understand they aren't much alike. Well the first is a deck-builder and this is a deck- (bag)builder with cubes- so they could be compared that way.

This is a racing game and first one to finish 3 laps wins the game. There are cards to tell us what all the cubes do and the Cubes that we draw from our bag each time to figure out the best use for. Most cubes that aren't gear cubes can be used as $ and for buying other cubes to be added to your bags. The colored cubes would be used as actions if not the $$. Purple cubes might allow you to start thinning your bag and returning used cubes back into the bag. You only reshuffle when you are out of cubes- but not as HARSH as Hyperborea- you get to reshuffle immediately and draw your full number.

The gear cubes are used for movement around the track. A while cube moves in the while spaces and light gray in the light gray spaces, etc. The highest gear level you use you have to take wear tokens which are essentially garbage and all them to your discarded pile. That is really bad and you want to get rid of those or better yet, not take them. If you are drafting the other players.

It is a pretty light game and standard bag building aspect to it. If you have played bag building games before this will come naturally. We played with the more advanced board and it took a little bit to start going but it was easy enough to pick up and play.

I was unfortunately, relying on Will to not have any blue cubes on his board when it came to being my turn. That is the only thing that prevented me from moving further than I should. The blue cubes mimicked 2 of the same color in a row and you didn't need to have the cubes in play. But you have to be the person with the most blue cubes on the board vs the other players and their discarded cubes. Will had about a million cubes so it took him forever to work through his cubes. Most of them were wear tokens.

Needless to say I was in last the whole game. Ron ended up finishing first. Will was in the lead the whole game but finally when he had to mix his bag back he lost a lot of ground fast. We could easily catch up to him. I even managed to come in second crossing the finish line on the final turn but no where near passing Ron's finish.


I was happy it was over since I felt like I was having a very bad game. But in the end I actually did OK. I think I miscalculated a few turns where I could have used my Blue cubes and didn't so perhaps I might have won if I did that instead. It was a cute game and I would play it again. I don't think I am itching to play it again soon though. There are others I would play first. I can see this being a hit with families too, though. Cool theme and racing game but very light and perhaps abstract for some players.

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The final game of the night was 3p and Ron and I talked Scott into playing Argent: The Consortium.

We got to play with Scotts copy with the painted bottoms all sparkly and awesome. He didn't have the expansion mixed in. :( That's ok- that base game has plenty of replay value and we had a great time with it. The only thing I really missed was the bell cards. I really like having those bell tower card cycle through.

I was really happy to play this game again. For whatever reason I am highly addicted to playing this game! It is one of those hard to get to the table games so I am happy to play it when I get the chance.

This game I went for all the information I could gather! I got as many marks as I could and there happened to be a vote card for that- so that worked out in my favor!

I knew a lot of the information like 3/4ths of the information. I did very well with what I knew and managed to make it all work even though I didn't get the most or SECOND most influence. I gave up on the hope for influence but I managed to get a ton of knowledge and wisdom which were both goals.

I knew 3/4 of the colored supporters I needed and made 2 of them work.

It was a very fun game, for me! I walked away with half of the voters and won the game. Scott took a series of photos of me. I thought I would add them in since I thought they were fun! :D

Still wanting to play more. I told Scott he should get the expansion. :P Always happy to play this- with the right crowd...

courtesy of Scott F

courtesy of Scott F


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I wasn't expecting to get in much gaming on Saturday since there was a lot going on that day. The flea market craziness that people just set up shop and try to sell their games. I ended up getting some AWESOME deals: dungeon lords, city of iron, terra prime each at $5 and Through the desert which I had been looking for- for a while! dang those were good prices. I couldn't resist! There were a few hours in between but then there was an ice cream social and the prize table at night. I still managed to get in a lot of awesome gaming that day. I managed to play a lot of favorites only learning 1 new game!

We started the morning with 6p game of Diamant. I guess Joe H was looking to play a game at a certain time so had about an hour to kill. We played with Joe R, Lexi, and Will. This is a fast push your luck game. We used Scott's copy and it is so decked out! He had AMAZING treasure chest boxes- like wicked cool. Always play with Scott's copy if you can he does the best job pimping them about I am always pleasantly surprised!

If you don't know the game it is pretty much like Incan Gold. Or so I have heard. You try to escape with the most gems each round. You can drop out at any time but you get only so many gems. If you wait too long then you might lose because if two traps pop up that are identical then you lose.

It is a cute game. I really failed at this one. I dropped out too soon on too many occasions. I ended up with only 9 points. Joe R won that game, I believe with 19 points. I don't think I died once but I still lost badly! I guess I just needed to push my luck more...

Cute game and happy to play it!

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Joe R left us 5 to play a game of Die Sieben Siegel.

It had been a while since we last played this and I knew it was a game Joe H liked to play. It fit his time schedule. He had to explain the game to Lexi and Will but we got to playing really fast.

It was a fun game. I was doing SO WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL- I always do very well in this game until the last round. I got 0 for the first 3 round! That is the best possible score you can get in a round. You can only get negative from there. The 4th round I got one -3 token. The pressure was on to beating Joe H. I made a BAD call on which cards to lead and ended up getting HOSED with -6 points at the end of the final round. I ended up in second place to Joe H who was at -6 and I was -9. Boo!

I was so close to winning I just made a terrible call at the end. This is a wonderful game. I very much enjoy it! :D

This was the first time I had seen Steven Segal not be taken for 3 rounds in a row! Crazy! I guess we are all pros!

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They went off to play their game. Ron and I found a guy to play a game with. He was like I will play ANYTHING. Well that wasn't a challenge to fulfill. His name was Mike Young. I want to remember his name since he was very fun to play with and a VERY FAST game player. It is hard to come by very fast players so when I do I want to remember. It is very much appreciated!

Ron and I returned with Russian Railroads&Russian Railroads: German Railroads. He was Very pleased with our pick. He had recruited another to join us. Peter hadn't played German rails before but we threw him in to swim and he was fine. We ended up playing with the coal expansion since Mike hadn't played with it before.

This game there were no engineers for industry so I opted to not aim for that track. I went hard for the center track and managed to get out the white tracks to score. Since we were using the coal you have to play with one fewer rounds and that is really where it hurt me. I managed to catch up in the final end scoring but if I had that ONE MORE ROUND I really would have gotten a TON of points and would have won the game.

As it stood I didn't quite get enough but I managed to come in 3rd place. We all ended on the same side of the board within 40 points of one another- I'd say that is pretty damn good scoring for this game. I have seen huge spread of points before.

I am always happy to play this game I really love the new customized boards and I managed to try a new strategy this time and I got close. I really needed that extra round. I made one critical error when I took first player but I had no money to pay for the engineer I desperately needed! If I had that buck I would have totally won this game, I know it. Stupid mistakes. I am still happy I managed to do as well as I did. I never really push the white tracks but it was okay to try this. I am not sure I like the coal portion of the game play so much. I missed the final round. Awesome game.

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Since Mike was so cool I was mentioning Uwe games and asked if he would play Caverna: The Cave Farmers as a 3p with me and Ron. He Loved this game and totally wanted to play.

I was excited since no one seemed interested in Uwe games at this con and I was dying to play it!

This game of Caverna I went hard for pumpkins and wheat and got to planting right away! I managed to plant 2 of each and harvest them on the FIRST harvest. I am never that punctual in this game with the farming. I was impressed. I didn't have anything else going for me. I didn't have caves or adventure dwarves. I didn't have any buildings. I was sparse. I did get a bunch of gems at the correct time and those are always helpful!

I started the adventuring but I made a critical mistake midway. I wanted to get my second dwarf all geared up and I didn't have any coal... I ended up using 1 ruby as 1 coal. This was a critical error because I SHOULD have had 3 coal from when I went to the deep tunnel space I just forgot to take it. Ugh. I only remembered turns later when I went back to the deep tunnel space. Fail!

As it turned out I did very well regardless! I managed to come in second this game with 88 points. Mike was just ahead at 90 points and Ron doesn't want to talk about his game. I was very happy to play this. I did quite well and got 3 dwarves out. I am always impressed when I get more than 2 dwarves out. Mike got the dormitory and was making babies left and right. I needed Ron to keep taking first place from him but he only did that once.

It was a good game. I really would like to play this more. So cool! I only wish I was wearing my Caverna shirt! :D I had worn it the day before to try and drum up interest. There wasn't any interest. :(

I was thrilled I could play and I did an Ok job in this game. Mike won that game too. He is fast and a crazy good gamer. I will have to play more games with him next year. Cool guy! Poor Ron- but it is okay since he wins everything else anyway.

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Next up was a 5p game of Eminent Domain: Battlecruisers. I was teaching this game and I randomly picked from the rules a set up. I had all the players find the cards and explained the game quickly.

This was a very mean deck of cards I selected. I didn't mean to! :D I hadn't ever seen anyone go into the red zone before. The other games I played the winning condition was 15 points. This game was about as opposite as could be. It was player elimination- last one standing. I was the first one to lose all of my cards. I kept being the target to discard cards and ended up not having any cards to discard which meant automatically eliminated.

The next easy target was Jeremy since we were kind of targeting each other. So he was next to go since he already had fewer cards. wow! It was a crazy game.

It came down to Ron and James and the duel of the final cards. Ron kept being able to deflect the discarding of the cards by losing points and the card he played made James lose cards. It seemed to be a never ending battle but it eventually came down to Ron had the better cards remaining and took the crown.

That was a crazy game. Michael liked it enough where he taught another group later on how to play. :D Yay!

I think most everyone had a good time. It is always a good time when Steph loses first! :P

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Before we got kicked out of the room I taught the same player a game of Rolling America.

It was just a simple game. We were rolling badly as usual. It actually didn't hurt too badly. I still managed to get 11. I used up all of my special abilities by like round 4... maybe a mistake maybe not, it is unclear. Better to use them than to be found without having used them at the end of the game.

I can't recall if I won by it was close to winning. We were a bit rushed at the end. Everyone enjoyed it though! :D I am sure they will all be going to Target to pick it up!

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So, once everyone was kicked out there was a huge line for eth ice cream Social about to take place. They were running a bit behind but where we ended up standing the Dice Tower crew were setting up a game looking for an additional player. I joined in with Tom and Zee and new friend Jon on playing Port of Piraeus. New to me!

I was more interested in learning a new game than waiting in line- when there would still be more when we were finished.

This is a buy low sell high kind of game with the market changing at all times. It was a constant fiddly board and you could never sell at top dollar before the market adjusted its pricing. It was all sorts of whack. I think we may have missed a rule or something since it seemed rather off. We would adjust after the initial flop of cards then players would have to bid to buy or sell cards this round. It just didn't like up very well.

We ended up playing 3 rounds before we called it and got in line for ice cream. Ice cream was more interesting we concluded. Unfortunately, that was not a hit for this table. I just don't understand why there is a top of the track when goods could never be sold for top dollar. I would be willing to try it again to see if we might have missed anything but as it stood it was not a game for me. I think it was fiddly for the point of being fiddly.

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While eating ice cream I joined Dan and Dave for several rounds of Big Boggle. It is possible I was more interested in the ice cream and the boggle but I still tried. It was more of an excuse for how badly I was playing!

I still love this game. I used to play it all of the time and I was REALLY REALLY good. I loved playing it on the yahoo games site.

The first couple of game we played I managed to write down like 2 words. Really bad. As we continued I did better with 10-15 words and getting a bunch of points. I was still no where near winning any of the games but I still love the challenge of finding the words. We played like 10 games or so before we got in line for the prize table event.

I love me some good old fashioned boggle games.

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After the event I found Nick and a few others and taught them how to play The Grizzled.

We ended up playing 3 games of this because we were playing 5p and it was VERY challenging. We really failed in the second or 3rd round of the first game. It was hilariously bad. they were also just learning it. I think Bianca was getting a bit overwhelmed- it seemed like she was getting a bit stressed. It was loud in the hall so it could have been that as well.

The 2nd game we did better but after the first round we were basically hosed. With our names on the tomb. I think people were enjoying it a bit. I think 5p might just be crazy hard.

We played one more time and still with the traps. this was our best game yet! We still lost but we lost with style this time. Everyone had fully grasped how to play by then and were playing to the best of their abilities. We failed but it was not as hard as the other games we had started with.

:star::star::star:

Next up was a 4p game with the same group to play Qwinto.

I was SO PISSED when my photo didn't come out and I played MY BEST SCORE!!!! I scored 90 points in this game of Qwinto! It was insanity!

Nick was rolling 16, 16, 18 Like crazy high values. I got my 18 points row filled in and it was purple so it also scored for 18 point Hex! It was AWESOME!!! I had never seen such high rolling. I guess I need to take Nick to the craps table more! :D

it was a very interesting and exciting game. I finished the game by completing two rows. Super cool! Always happy to play this one.


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The FINAL game of the con was a 5 player game of Junk Art. I had wanted to play it again since playing it the other day.

The more players the crazier it is. I had made some critical mistakes in this game. I missed out on getting points in the first round since I made my structure fall at the final second. Everyone else was getting points based on the number of pieces in the structure so they had a bunch and I had none! booo

I made the points back up when we got to the round where you have to hand the player to your left 2 cards they choose to play one and you have to play the other. I am very good at that level. It is the one we had played the other day and was an asterisk game since we were missing the piece. This time around the piece had been found and there were no issued. I managed to take in 8 points which was awesome.

I still ended up losing this game but everyone had a great time and I think it was one of the best new games I played.

courtesy of Scott F


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The Saturday night of the Gathering a few hours is dedicated to the prize table give-aways. If you bring a game then you can put your name in the box to be drawn and you will walk away with a gift. Since Ron and I were new Alan let the new badges get another pick. We ended up getting a nice look haul from the deal I am psyched to play them all! So happy to have gotten Brew Crafters. That was my first choice since it is a game both Ron and I really enjoy. Very cool it is even Signed! :D

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Here is the short list of games I learned over the course of the week adventure to Niagara Falls

40 new ones!


1. Codenames Pictures: Wishlist
2. Micro Robots: Would play again
3. Dynasties: Heirate & Herrsche: Can't wait to play again!
4. Alan's Adventureland: Wishlist
5. Animals on Board: Would play again
6. King Chocolate: Not for my gaming group
7. Get the Goods: Owned
8. Unpublished Prototype- I can't talk about it. : Wishlist
9. Quadropolis: Wishlist
10. Blood Rage: Would try again
11. Far Space Foundry: Not for me
12. Glück Auf: Das grosse Kartenspiel: Wishlist
13. Mops Royal: Would like to play again
14. Ponzi Scheme: Wishlist
15. 7 Symbols, and 7 Nations: Wishlist
16. Junk Art: Wishlist
17. Flying Kiwis: Would play again
18. Tornado Ellie: Would play again
19. Oceanos: Wishlist
20. Happy Salmon: Owned!!! So fun!
21. Bomarzo: Want to play again
22. IKI: Want to play again
23. Colony: Will be a big hit- I am sure of it! Wishlist
24. Sea of Clouds: Wishlist
25. Imhotep: Want to play again with harder side
26. Tem-Purr-A: Cute but not for me
27. Tier auf Tier: Jetzt geht's rund!: Awesome! Want to play again
28. Happy Pigs: Wishlist
29. Mount Pingo: Would play again
30. Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße: Interesting and would play again.
31. Factory Funner: Owned!
32. Crazy Karts: Wishlist
33. Tentacles of Time (name subject to change): Wishlist
34. Piratoons: Want to play again- potential wishlist
35. West of Africa: Not for me
36. Hang on Harvey!: Novelty and would play again
37. Apple Pop: Not for me
38. Face Chase: Owned
39. Automobiles: Would play again
40. Port of Piraeus: Not for me





I hope you all had a great time reading about my adventures. I only wish you could have joined me and the gaming awesomeness!


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Sunday was the Ride home 7+ hours and Ron and I managed a simple game of Star Realms. I only mentioned it since it was the only game we could play that day and it was great since I won! :D yay!


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I hope you all have a great week!!

Thanks for reading my epic adventure in Niagara Falls!


Until next week!


Happy Gaming!!!


-Steph

by stupidscholar

I didn't draw up plans for this, but I made this insert over the last week so that set up and clean up would be quicker. I want to spray paint the whole thing blue or orange to match the colors on the board, and there are some edges and angles that aren't perfect. Still, it seems to do the trick, and it was a lot of fun to build.

I'd love to have some feedback and ideas if you care to offer:


Box with Lids on


Box with Lids off


Compartments on Board to Show Functionality

Thanks!

by stupidscholar

<div>Insert with Lid off</div>

by stupidscholar

<div>Compartments on Board</div>