King of 12

 x2 (led by Tim)  2020 card and dice game where each player starts a round by rolling their STONE OF POWER…or d12. Then players will play cards from their hands to manipulate the value of their die, the face of their die, or perhaps their opponents dice or values. As you do this you should avoid having the same…anything as any other player, because a repeat of points, types of card played, or die values will result in whatever has been duplicated being cancelled out.  After all cards are resolved, the values of the dice are compared. If two players have the same value on their die, these are negated. Usually the remaining player with the highest value on his die wins the round and gets 2 points. The second most also gets 1 point. But in some cases the smallest value may win… When only one card is left, players compare their points. Players with the same amount of points negate each other, then the player with the most points wins the round. This player puts one of their cards aside and another round is played until one player must put a second card aside. 

Heave Ho!

 x2 (led by Ethan) 2002 entry in the Kosmos two-player series. Two Scottish players participate in a classic tug-of-war, joined on occasion by Nessie. Players first scramble to build their decks in real time. After the decks have been built, card play goes back and forth until someone pulls the whisky barrel across their line and claims it. First one to win three whisky barrels wins the game.

Onitama

 (led by Drew Z) 2014 chess-like abstract strategy game played on a 5×5 board with 5 pieces per side – 4 smaller martial artist student pawns, and one larger martial arts master. The trick is that the pieces don’t have set moves as they do in chess. 5 cards (2 cards in each player’s hand, plus an additional card on the table) which dictate which moves are available. Use a card to move any piece in the way indicated on the card, then swap that card with the one on the table.This means your starting cards will be in your opponent’s hand eventually, to be used against you. Like chess, if you land on an opponent’s piece, you capture it. Capture the opponent’s master, or move your own master to the center square on the opposite side of the board to win. Last seen on our tables on 12/15/2021.

Blockers

 (led by Sean)  2010 tile laying game where players have the same hand of 28 tiles, with numbers (1-9), letters (A-I) and shapes plus a joker wild tile. Play your tiles to matching locations on a 9×9 grid – each space can take a specific number, a specific letter, or a specific shape. You may capture an opponent’s piece by placing a legal tile in its space, as long as it doesn’t break a group of tiles belonging to that player into multiple groups. Once all the tiles are placed, scoring is golf style – the winner will have the lowest score, calculated by adding the number of groups of tiles in your own color to the number of captured pieces of the one color you captured the most of. 

Hamlet: The Village Building Game

 (led by Tim) In this 2022 medium weight competitive village builder, players are communally turning their Hamlet into a bustling little town. In this tile placing game, players gain points as they construct irregularly shaped tiles, expanding the hamet and adding buildings that everyone can use to create materials, refine resources, earn money and make important deliveries to construct the Hamlet’s big landmark – the Church. Finishing the Church ends the game!

Splendor

 (led by Wendy) A modern classic (2014) game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige. If you’re wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige. Play is deceptively simple – On your turn, collect gems (chips), build a card (from hand or the display), or reserve a card for later and get a gold (wild) chip. Any player having 15 prestige at the end of their turn triggers the end of the game, and the player with the most prestige is the winner.

Carcassonne

 (led by Mike)  Carcassonne is the 2000 classic tile-laying game for two to five players. Players lay tiles by matching various features and build roads, farms, cloisters, and cities and seek to control them by placing their meeples on them. The size and quantities of these systems make them worth a various number of points and the player with the most points when all the tiles are laid down is the winner. Last seen on our tables 10/13/2021.

Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game.”

 2x (led by Ethan) We see the return of this 2021 hidden movement deduction game for a couple more plays. Mind MGMT is one of the few hidden movement games where time is not against the player moving in secret (The Recruiter) but against the investigators (Rogue Agents). During the game, the Rogue Agents will need to use any information they have available to try and capture The Recruiter before he makes 16 movements, or before he reveals 12 recruits to win.

Furnace

 (led by Ethan)  2020 engine-building Eurogame in which players take on the roles of 19th-century capitalists building their industrial corporations and aspiring to make as much money as they can by purchasing companies, extracting resources, and processing them in the best combinations possible. Last seen on our tables on 11/17/2021.