05/15/2024 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #24-20
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An even dozen on May 15 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of tile laying games.
Our May 22 Session will feature games on RACING…..expect to play from among: Heat:Pedal to the Metal, Thunder Road: Vendetta, Lacorsa, Camel Up, Ave Caesar, DownForce/Daytona 500/Top Race, Hare & Tortoise, Snow Tails, Das Motorsport Spiel, Long Shot, RoboRally, Montgolfiere….and more
For the past 18 years, users of BoardgameGeek.com have nominated and voted on the Golden Geek Awards.
Some of the games we’ve played recently that either won or were runners up:
Sky Team (Tim dubbed Drunken Pilots) voted best 2-player game
The White Castle was a runner up as was Knarr
Thunder Road: Vendetta won it’s category and Castles of Burgundy special edition was a runner up
Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) nominees should be announced in the next month, then finalists with the awards occuring in July.
Our first monthly afternoon session at the Williamstown Public Library attracted two new gamers (Roberta is a Mahjong player/teacher). We played “Take It Easy”, “Just One” and “Cahoots”
5/15/2024 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Ethan & Amy, Tim, Armando, Matt, Tony, Chris, Danny
ON OUR TABLES:
Harmonies (led by Tim) 2024 abstract pattern game, with simple rules, and a beautifully implemented nature theme. Players optimize by synchronizing, but at the same time try to outbalance luck by diversifying their scoring options, while growing a beautiful 3D habitat in front of them. Landscapes are built by placing colored tokens and creating habitats for their animals. To earn the most points and win the game, players must incorporate the habitats in their landscapes wisely and have as many animals as they can settle there.
Lanterns: The Harvest Festival (led by K-ban) 2015 pattern building and set collection game where players have a hand of 3 tiles depicting various color arrangements of floating lanterns, as well as an inventory of individual lantern cards of specific colors. When you place a tile, all players (you and your opponents) receive a lantern card corresponding to the color on the side of the tile facing them. Place carefully to earn cards and other bonuses for yourself, while also looking to deny your opponents. Players gain honor by dedicating sets of lantern cards — three pairs, four of a kind, or all seven colors — and the player with the most honor at the end of the game wins. Always a tight finish, short and sweet. Nice game to mix gamers with non-gamers/family.
Huang (led by Matt) 2024 Knizia revision of his classic Tigris & Euphrates/Yellow & Yangtze. For those familiar with T & E (Knizia’s most complex design), here are the main differences:
Huang deluxe edition has 3D miniatures
T & E has squares, Huang has hexes.
T&E has four leader/tile colors, Huang has five (one color is wild points)
T&E has two-colored permanent monuments that consume tiles to build (makes a state weaker) while Huang has moveable single-color pagodas.
Huang has a bit more complex leader powers on and off the board and a bit more complex tile laying effects.
Wars are very much different. In T&E, all conflicting leader-with-tiles colors in two warring states fight and lots of different-colored tiles can be lost for large point swings. In Huang, conflicting leaders in two or more conflicting states fight, but only with red tiles, and all players may contribute red tiles from their hands to affect the outcome. Red tiles are removed, but there’s little points earned, it’s more about controlling pagodas/areas.
Huang can feel like a more modern, lighter, nicer game with the moving pagodas and more special tiles/leader powers, but rules are more complex. T&E is generally considered more brutal and ruleswise simpler.
T&E has four leader/tile colors, Huang has five (one color is wild points)
T&E has two-colored permanent monuments that consume tiles to build (makes a state weaker) while Huang has moveable single-color pagodas.
Huang has a bit more complex leader powers on and off the board and a bit more complex tile laying effects.
Wars are very much different. In T&E, all conflicting leader-with-tiles colors in two warring states fight and lots of different-colored tiles can be lost for large point swings. In Huang, conflicting leaders in two or more conflicting states fight, but only with red tiles, and all players may contribute red tiles from their hands to affect the outcome. Red tiles are removed, but there’s little points earned, it’s more about controlling pagodas/areas.
Huang can feel like a more modern, lighter, nicer game with the moving pagodas and more special tiles/leader powers, but rules are more complex. T&E is generally considered more brutal and ruleswise simpler.
Flutter (led by Chris) 2024 crowdfunded game about pollinators that arrived at Steve’s door about 2 hours before our session. Kudos to Chris for being brave enough to do a cold read through the rules and capably lead. Players place uniquely shaped tiles, aiming to match petals and grow flowers. But it doesn’t end there – it’s about nurturing the ecosystem by providing the right flowers to each fluttering critter, spreading their rich pollen throughout the meadow. This is accomplished by strategically enclosing tiles, boosted by clever use of a player’s bee token. Once the supply rondel is running low, and a single stack of tiles is emptied, the game comes to an end. The player with the most pollen at the end of the game will be crowned the winner.
DorfRomantik: the Board Game (led by Tony) relaxing 2023 SdJ winning co-op game with a legacy aspect….achieve group goals and unlock new tiles and experiences. Goal is to keep increasing the team score by placing landscape tiles to progress to new levels. Based on a very chill and successful PC game.
Cacao (led by K-ban) 2015 Phil Walker-Harding design, that is a Carcassonne killer for me as it is much cleaner and offers better choices to earn VPs on each turn. Place worker tiles in the jungle to gain cacao, sell cacao at market, mine gold, earn sun tokens, gain water and influence temples.
Chomp (led by Armando) 2023 twenty-minute opener/closer where players collect, assemble and feed dinosaurs making sure their herbivores don’t get chomped.
Steve
An even dozen on May 15 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of tile laying games. Our May 22 Session will feature games on RACING…..expect to play from among: Heat:Pedal to the Metal, Thunder Road: Vendetta, Lacorsa, Camel Up, Ave Caesar, DownForce/Daytona 500/Top Race, Hare & Tortoise, Snow Tails, Das Motorsport Spiel, Long…
An even dozen on May 15 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of tile laying games. Our May 22 Session will feature games on RACING…..expect to play from among: Heat:Pedal to the Metal, Thunder Road: Vendetta, Lacorsa, Camel Up, Ave Caesar, DownForce/Daytona 500/Top Race, Hare & Tortoise, Snow Tails, Das Motorsport Spiel, Long…