2023 Session Reports

11/29 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #23-47

16 at the UNO Park Community Center for a request night.

A welcome to Jim and Zack on their first visit. We continue to grow through referrals from current members. Thanks Annie, for introducing them to our group.
If you know folks who play games at home or work but haven’t experienced organized weekly gaming, please invite them to attend a session or two as our guests.
And a sincere thanks to those who stay home when feeling ill – we can adjust to changing numbers as long as communication is consistent, but the health of our group members is paramount.
Communicating your status for a session is extremely important, as it helps us plan what games we can play at optimal player counts. Our table leaders spend hours each week preparing to teach games to the group. One player more or less can force us to change game selection or make a good game unplayable. Out of consideration to all, please communicate availability via email, text or calling my mobile. We are adept at accommodating staggered arrivals and departures to minimize wait times. 

Our 12/6 session will feature WORKER PLACEMENT games. Our table leaders have submitted lists of their favorite games from this popular genre’
Expect to play from among: Lost Ruins of Arnak, The Pursuit of Happiness, Viticulture, Honey Buzz, Dogs of War, Lords of Waterdeep, Stone Age, Architects of the West Kingdom, Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria and more
 
Holiday Party December 13
 
Join us for our first annual Holiday Party at the UNO Park Community Center on December 13. Expect an evening of activity games and party games….a much lighter gaming agenda than our norm. We will have a prize table where members donate games and draw lots to draft their choice from among the prizes. Priority drafting choices for all those who have paid their portion of our annual rent – one chit issued per paid member. Start pondering games you’d be willing to donate that you think our gamers would enjoy. Sean and I will monitor the contributions to avoid any dumping of garage sale fodder and will ensure that those who can’t attend will receive games appropriate to their gaming tastes, as we will make selections on their behalf.
 
11/29/2023 @ UNO Park Community Center
 
IN: Steve & Sandy, Tim, Matt, Reimi, Armando, Amy, Tony, Nicole, Chris, Mike, Annie, Jim, Zack, Anna, Rob
 
ON OUR TABLES:
 
A Fistful of Meeples (led by Matt) 2019 game where Mancala meets worker-placement in the Wild West. Players on their turn grab a Fistful of Meeples and place them around the street. Take actions such as: mining for gold, building businesses, dueling in the street, and setting off explosive jail breaks! After the dust has settled, the player with the most points wins!
 
Savernake Forest (led by Tim) 2023 drafting and tile placement game where players build their own section of the forest with paths, where animals and food will appear. To get the highest score, players must ensure that on each path the animals can collect their favorite food.
 
Splendor (led by Armando) 2014 open drafting and set collection game where players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. 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. Armando was looking to get in some practice for this weekend’s PAX East Unplugged convention in Philly – we hear that he got schooled 

😁

  If you don’t own a copy of Splendor, you should.

 
Expeditions (led by Matt) 2023 competitive, card-driven, engine-building game of exploration (and sequel to Scythe). Play cards to gain power, guile, and unique worker abilities; move your mech to mysterious locations and gain cards found among the tiles; use workers, items, meteorites, and quests to enhance your mech; and use power and guile to vanquish corruption.
 
The White Castle (led by Tim) 2023 worker placement game set in Japan by the same team that authored The Red Cathedral. Over three rounds, players will send members of their clan to tend the gardens, defend the castle or progress up the social ladder of the nobility to earn players victory points in a variety of ways. Per Tim, there are NO sliders in this game.

Zooloretto

 (led by K-ban) 2007 German Game of the Year (SdJ) winner where each player uses small, large, wild, and exotic animals and their young to try to attract as many visitors as possible to their zoo – but be careful! The zoo must be carefully planned as before you know it, you might have too many animals and no more room for them. That brings minus points! Luckily, your zoo can expand by spending coins.

Caldera Park

 (led by Armando) Kramer/Kiesling revisited and revised Savannah Park in 2022 changing the terrain, placement/tile selection mechanism while retaining the herd multiplied by water hole scoring but adding geyser, waterfall, river and terrain bonuses. The two designs feel different enough to own both but Caldera Park will appeal more to gamers while Savannah Park will appeal more for casual and family gamers. It has a partial resemblance to the 2023 SdJ winner, Cascadia.

Zoo Vadis

 2x (led by K-ban) 2023 re-theming/revision of Knizia’s 1992’s negotiation game, Quo Vadis, from the Roman Senate to zoo animals taking things over and campaigning to be the star attraction. The addition of Peacocks who roam the grounds (and can be bribed for their support), asymmetrical animal powers that can only be used to help opponents and a two-sided board to accomodate 3-5 or 6-7 players vastly improves this classic game that finishes in 30-45 minutes. The production is drop dead gorgeous, especially the 3D wooden animals and the coins for the deluxe edition.

Point City

 (led by group) 2023 card-drafting, engine-building game from the authors of Point Salad, with more than 150 unique building cards, giving players the opportunity to create a completely different city each time it is played. The rules are simple: Take two adjacent cards from the dynamic city grid and add them to your expanding city. Use your resource cards and bonuses to construct building cards that require specific combinations. Build special civic structures to multiply your city’s points and be the top urban planner! There are similarities to Splendor as it scratches a similar itch, but in a card game.

 
Steve

16 at the UNO Park Community Center for a request night. A welcome to Jim and Zack on their first visit. We continue to grow through referrals from current members. Thanks Annie, for introducing them to our group. If you know folks who play games at home or work but haven’t experienced organized weekly gaming,…

16 at the UNO Park Community Center for a request night. A welcome to Jim and Zack on their first visit. We continue to grow through referrals from current members. Thanks Annie, for introducing them to our group. If you know folks who play games at home or work but haven’t experienced organized weekly gaming,…

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