17 for a request night at the UNO Community Center in North Adams.

In anticipation of Thanksgiving, our 11/27 Session will be a food and farming themed session. Expect to play from among:  Agricola & All Creatures Big & Small, Point Salad, Fromage, Caverna, A la Carte, Kitchen Rush, At the Gates of Loyang, Bohnanza, Vegetable Stock, DairyMan, Finca, NY Slice/Piece’O’Cake …and more, as our table leaders examine their collections for suitable fare.

A reminder that our annual Holiday Party will be on Wednesday December 11. Expect an evening of party and activity games plus our popular PRIZE TABLE. Kindly contemplate your contributions ( 2+ games per person) that will be donated to the table. I will be adding approximately 40 games, so that all paid members will go home with at least 4 games to add to their collections. If you can’t attend the celebration, kindly designate a proxy from the group to make your selections for you…. and make sure that your contributions to the prize table reach Steve or Sean the week before the party. Selection order will be randomly chosen each round.

IN: Steve, Sean Wendy & Quinn, Ethan & Amy, Tony & Rachel, Tim, Armando, Matt, Chris, Reimi, Nicole, Rob, Julie, Zach

Jokkmokk: the Winter Market (led by K-ban) 2023 45 minute set collection game set in the 400+ year old Swedish Winter Market, that uses the turnorder mechanic popularized in Tokaido (player trailing the procession is on turn). Collect cards representing treasures in the Winter Market and earn VPs in various ways. Having a different mix of treasures each time played adds to the variability, making each game unique.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/388570/jokkmokk-the-winter-market

String Railroad (led by Sean) 2009 unique train game that consists of colored strings, tokens, station tiles, and a board for scoring. A colored string tied in a big circle on the table to establish the field area for the game. A small circle of string to represent mountains and a line of string to represent a river is also placed as are the main stations for each player equi-distant from one another. On a turn, players draw and place a station tile, then try to place a railroad string between their stations in an effort to connect them, forming their own train network. Connected stations earn victory points (VPs). After five turns, the game ends and the player with the most VPs wins.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/76674/string-railway

The Great Zimbabwe (led by Tim) 2012 economic game about building a trade-based civilization in ancient Africa, where players are tribal leaders trying to please the gods by building monuments, buying technology, building craftsmen and gathering resources – accomplished by building and developing a network of monuments. The higher the monuments, the closer the players will be to victory, but players must balance many subtle aspects of the game.  Since players only get one action per turn, the clever use of turn-order manipulation, economic development in an almost closed environment, scarce natural resource use and logistical optimization to deliver goods from craftsmen to monuments are the keys to victory.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111341/the-great-zimbabwe

Coloma (led by Matt) 2019 is a fast moving worker placement game set during the 1848 Gold Rush that features a rondel and has many paths to victory. It offers unique twists on simultaneous action selection, resource management, and engine-building. The town cards in a player’s tableaus allows them to play more efficiently, gain extra actions, and bend the rules to their advantage. With these cards and the bridge tiles (which add points based on what players achieve), players can create the perfect combination for their strategy and play style.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/264982/coloma

Century: Golem Edition (led by Rachel) 2017 re-themed version of Century: Spice Road set in the world of Caravania. Each turn, players perform one of four actions:

Fromage (led by Sean) 2024 cheese making game, set in France, is actually a handful of mini-games featuring a lazy Susan that rotates 90 degrees each turn. At its heart, it is a simultaneous worker-placement game where players place Workers to make cheese and gather resources from the quadrant of the board facing them. Once all players have placed their Workers, the board rotates, aging any cheese that was made, and presenting each player with a new quadrant to place Workers. Players score VPs by selling cheese to the four locations, and by efficiently managing and upgrading their creamery.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/384213/fromage

Sagani (led by Rachel) Uwe Rosenberg’s 2020 abstract tile laying puzzle game that is reminiscent of the author’s previous Nova Luna and Framework and set in a world where achieving harmony between the natural elements of Earth, Water, Air and Fire is the central goal of the spirits that populate this world. We will schedule a future session honoring Herr Rosenberg ( Bohnanza, LeHavre, Agricola, Patchwork, At the Gates of Loyang, Tangram City) as he has a tendency to plumb the depths of a particular game mechanic.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/309105/sagani

Acquire (led by K-ban) Classic 1963 Sid Sackson hotel chain building game where each player strategically invests in businesses through buying up to 3 shares of a chain per turn, trying to retain a majority of stock. As the businesses grow with tile placements, they start merging, giving the majority stockholders of the acquired business sizable bonuses, which can then be used to reinvest into other chains. All of the investors in the acquired company can then cash in their stocks for current value or trade them 2-for-1 for shares of the newer, larger business. The game is a race to acquire the greatest wealth.  We played on the new opulent 60th Anniversary edition – which includes money on heavy poker style chips, the option for ‘tycoon mode’ tertiary bonuses for mergers and optional extra rules that were found in Sid’s notes.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5/acquire

Splendor (led by Armando) 2014 award winning game of chip-collecting and card development. 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 wealthy enough, players might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which will further increase their prestige. On 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, or, why not, your opponents don’t get it—you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem. All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do. Rumor has it that Armando likes this game….a lot.

Steve