For April 10 we will repeat the April 3 Crowdfunding and prototype theme….so our table leaders didn’t prepare last week in vain. I should be receiving the Roads of Fortune expansion for Foundations of Rome – that adds value to buildings placed on the outer edges of the board – in time for Wednesday’s Gamenite. Sean is eager to get Thunder Road: Vendetta and Words of a Feather to our tables. Tim will once again attempt to get some combination of Space Race – The Card Game, Hamlet, Sol – Last Days of a Star and Botany (if it arrives in time) to our tables.

A reminder that Solar Eclipse viewing will occur around 3:30 PM on Monday April 8. The Williamstown Public Library has a supply of free Eclipse viewing eyewear. 

Let’s Go to Japan (led by K-ban) 2024 card drafting game where players are travelers, who after 13 turns of planning get to experience their own dream vacation to Japan. The game consists of thirteen rounds in which players draw activity cards illustrated by Japan-based artists and strategically place them on different days in their week-long itinerary. These tourist attractions have players bouncing between Tokyo and Kyoto via train, as players try to puzzle out the optimal activities to maximize their experience while balancing their resources. The game ends with a final round in which players ultimately go on their planned trip, activating each of their cards in order along the way. The player who collects the most points by the end of their trip wins! The Kick Starter edition includes wooden train, research, walk & wild tokens, neoprene playmats and ceramic bowls.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368173/lets-go-japan

Lore (led by Matt) 2024 fantasy game of action selection, card play, dice rolling, and a shining theme with seeds to grow your archetype’s story. A new take on old-school fantasy, it is a game for everyone who loves fairy tales and timeless myths. It plays like an RPG-lite where you tell a story through gameplay. At the end of the game players feel they accomplished a little lifetime of quests and companions, regardless of whether they win or lose. Stunning artwork.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/381587/lore

Faeries & Magical Creatures (led by K-ban) 2023 Glenn Drover (Railroad Tycoon, Raccoon Tycoon, Railways of the World) design that is a mish-mash of drafting, engine building, majorities and polyomino puzzle mechanisms.  On each turn, the active player gets to play a card from their hand and selects one of five actions – draft a new card, play a card from your hand, redraw up to five cards from your discard pile, select and place a polynomial tile in your faerie garden, or place an influence token in on of the five faerie folk areas. The other players will then follow by playing the same action. Once all players have performed the same action, the acting player marker moves counter clockwise so that the next player can choose an action. Point salad scoring results via card play, area control and garden tile placement. The Kick Starter edition includes equipment (board, starting cards, kinship tokens and additional Faerie cards) for a 5th player, jewels instead of wooden cubes for kinship tokens and a huge chunk of wood with a Faerie as the start player token. Annie Stegg Gerard’s artwork is exceptionally beautiful.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385245/faeries-and-magical-creatures