Welcome to the Aziz family on joining Kaleb for a session. Edward graciously volunteered to lead them through Ticket to Ride.

Ryan stopped by and will hopefully join us for a Wednesday session soon.

Our July 12 session will feature the games of hot young Australian game designer, Phil Walker-Harding. At one time or another over the past two years, we’ve played almost all of his best known games. His games are elegant, accessible and FUN.

Some of his notable games:

Barenpark

Imhotep (and Duel)

Sushi Go (and Party)

Gizmos

Planted

Cacao

Summer Camp

Super Mega Lucky Box

Silver & Gold

Archeology: the New Expedition  

Ready Set Bet!

(led by K-ban) 2022  John D Clair (Mystic Vale, Cubitos, Space Base, Ecos, Dead Reckoning, Rolling Heights) horse race betting game is played over four rounds. Each round consists of a race followed by bet resolution. (races can either be rolled manually or through an app) During each race, players freely place their bet tokens on the board while the race is going on. After each race, players win or lose money for each of their placed bet tokens, then receive a VIP Club Card to help them win more money in the following races. After four races, the player with the most money wins! We played 7 handed (can handle up to 8 or 9 with a full-time race caller/banker) A party game for a larger (6+) group with much laughter

Splendor

2x (led by Ethan) 2014 game of chip-collecting and card development/purchasing. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. On each turn players may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card—in order to make sure you get it a gold wild chip is chosen (if available).

Ticket to Ride

(led by Edward) Alan R Moon’s 2004 train route building game that has become a classic (rivaling Catan). This was the base game with the USA mapboard. We do need to try some of the many expansion maps for other parts of the world. Should be in everyone’s collection. We should explore some of Moon’s other designs, like Union Pacific, Santa Fe Rails, Airlines Europe, Elfenland and San Marco.

Gizmos

(led by Tim) 2018 Phil Walker-Harding mid-weight engine-building, combo-chaining game with a 3D marble dispenser. It’s kind of cool that engine-building is both the main mechanism, the goal of the game, and its theme.  Scratches a similar itch as do Splendor and Century: Spice Road.

Big Top

(led by Sean 2023  fast-paced Japanese auction game where players bid on show-stopping acts to draw crowds to your circus, but beware – each winning bid will make your competition that much richer. The attractions you’ve already won will affect bids in future auctions. Each attraction card lists several numbers – bid that amount in any auction to place a coin on that card and gain the points! That means you don’t need to win an auction – or even WANT to win it – to benefit from bidding!

In this competitive world of circuses, you’ll have to keep a close eye not just on your winnings, but on all of your opponents’ bids. VPs are awarded for attractions, most ‘stars’ as well as various Clown bonuses.

A lot of game in a small box!

Dungeons Dice & Danger

(led by Tim) Richard Garfield’s (Magic the Gathering) 2022 roll & write game where players explore deep, dark dungeons filled with treasure — and infested with monsters

Dorf Romantik

(led by K-ban) 2022 SdJ finalist. Co-op tile laying game to maximize group score. This time we minimized at 98 (157 is our group high score) 

Word Domination

(led by Sean) 2017 game where word building meets area control. Each turn, players spell a word using any of the available letters on the board, canvassing the priceless artifacts they contain. On subsequent turns, players attempt to steal those letters, claiming them for the player’s exclusive use. A cunning player will carefully select which letters to steal, as adjacent letters are more valuable at the end.

Vegetable Stock (led by K-ban) Single deck 2019 Taiwanese drafting card game of fluctuating produce markets. Perfect filler for 20 or so minutes.