Welcome to Reimi and David on their first visit to the group.

For our May 24 session, the theme will be the novel use of dice – to things other than roll and move. Expect to play games from among :  Fantastic Factories, Sagrada, Blueprints, Space Base, Roll for the Galaxy, Cubist, Roll Through the Ages: the Bronze Age, Mountain Goats and more that our table leaders prepare for your gaming enjoyment. 

Kites (led by K-ban) a real time 2022 cooperative race to keep 6 kites (represented by sand timers of varying lengths) up in the air by playing matching colored cards that flip the timers. The team wins if they can play ALL the cards in the deck, while keeping all the timers active. A frenetic fast-paced game. We WON !

So Clover

(led by Armando) 2021 cooperative word-association game. Play as a team to get the highest score. Get Keywords and secretly write their common features on your Clover board; these are your Clues. Then work together to try to figure out each player’s Keywords but beware that a random card has been mixed in with each cluegiver’s set of 4 cards. We were good word sleuths.

Yokai Septet

(led by Tim) 2018  trick-taking card game that is a reimplementation of  2015’s ‘7 symbols and 7 Nations” The deck consists of 7 cards in 7 different suits. The team game was played, the winning team being the first to capture 4 Boss Yokai cards.

Earth

(led by Sean) 2023 open world engine builder with simple rules but tons of strategic possibilities for building one’s tableau. With its encyclopedic nature and the enormous number of unique cards and combinations, every single game will allow players to discover new synergies and connections. Some are comparing it to Wingspan and Race for the Galaxy.

Splendor

(led by Armando) 2014 award winning game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops and nobles—all in order to acquire the most prestige points (15 or more if several players go over on the same turn).

Palaces of Carrara

(led by Tim) This 2012 Kramer/Kiesling design that featured set collection and tile placement was updated in the 2022 second edition and given the deluxe treatment. This edition includes a revised set of rules, as well as a completely new advanced version that  includes many new strategies and ways of scoring. Statues, which allow the scoring of buildings in a multitude of new ways are introduced in this version. The advanced version was played.

Raj/What the Heck/Beat the Buzzard

(led by Armando) 1988 Alex Randolph classic bluffing game. Rarely is a game broken down to its barest elements like this one. Players are given an equal deck of bidding cards from one to fifteen. Each turn, a prize tile is randomly selected from a pool. A prize tile is worth either positive or negative points (from -5 to +10). Each player is attempting to gather the most positive points from these prizes. Players secretly select one of their remaining bidding cards and reveal them simultaneously. For positive prizes, the highest card gets the prize; For negative prizes, the lowest card is stuck with the prize. However, if two people play the highest (or lowest) card, they cancel each other out and the prize goes to the next in line. The highest total score after all fifteen prizes are awarded wins. Good mindless fun with much laughter.

Carcassonne

(led by Armando) 2000 tile laying game….aborted as time ran out.

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