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.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/414317/harmonies

Carcassonne (led by Armando/Christopher S) Classic 2000 tile laying game for two to five players. Players lay tiles by matching various features and build roads, farms, cloisters, and cities and seek to control them by placing their meeples on them. The size and quantities of these systems make them worth a various number of points and the player with the most points when all the tiles are laid down is the winner. Our group has tended to favor the stand-alone Hunters & Gatherers version. This game was the origins of MEEPLES (there’s a big brouhaha with German publisher Hans-im-Gluck over the rights to meeples – watch the YouTube video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izDgyd2tDmY

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne

Survive: Escape from Atlantis (led by Armando) 1982 British game about getting to safety as the island your meeples inhabit disintegrates while remembering where their highest-valued pieces are located to maximize their score. An island made up of 40 hex-tiles is slowly sinking into the ocean (as the tiles are removed from the board). Each player controls ten people (valued from 1 to 6) that they then try to move towards the safety of the surrounding islands before the main island finally blows up. Players can either swim or use boats to travel but must avoid sea serpents, whales and sharks on their way to safety.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2653/survive-escape-atlantis

7 Wonders (led by Chris W) 2010 drafting and card development game that won the 2011 Kennerspiel (Gamer’s Game of the Year) award. The game lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided). Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends. Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Each card is played immediately after being drafted, so you’ll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how her choices might affect what you’ve already built up. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions. 7 Wonders belongs in everyone’s game collection.  

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders

Sky Team (led by Tim)  2024 German Game of the Year (SdJ) winner and the first time that prestigious game went to a 2-player game. Players are a pilot and co-pilot at the controls of an airliner. Their goal is to work together as a team to land their airplane in different airports around the world. To land their plane, players need to silently assign their dice to the correct spaces in their cockpit to balance the axis of the plane, control its speed, deploy the flaps, extend the landing gear, contact the control tower to clear their path, and even have a little coffee to improve their concentration enough to change the value of their dice. If the aircraft tilts too much and stalls, overshoots the airport, or collides with another aircraft, players lose the game…and their pilot’s license…and probably their life.  

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/373106/sky-team

Knarr (led by Chris W) 2023 race, set collection and drafting card game that was runner-up for Light Game of the Year as voted by BGG users (Thunder Road : Vendetta was the winner).  Players are leaders of a band of Vikings that are sent to new destinations. Manage the recruitment of your crew, and choose the best territories to explore. Depending on the destinations reached (for trading or influence) and the Vikings who accompany you, players can increase their reputation to gain even more wealth. On each turn players either place a new member in their Viking crew, activate the effects of all of them with the same icon, and get another one from those available under the matching color on the central board, or they can explore new destinations, with the opportunity to trade with those places and get more gains or reputation.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/379629/knarr

Gizmos (led by Tim) 2018 Phil Walker-Harding engine-building drafting game. Players build their machines/inventions using a 3D marble dispenser that supplies the resources required to complete machines. Marbles selected are then used to buy cards. The cards slot into different sections of your tableau, are worth points, and additionally trigger their abilities when you select certain colors of marbles, or build certain types of cards. Combos are king here. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/246192/gizmos

Again, thanks to Armando and Tim for keeping things going.

Steve