2025 Session Reports

7/23/2025 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #25-29

26 at the UNO Park Community Center on 7/23 for a request night (just 2 shy of our attendance record)
Welcome Hunter, Ken & Rachel, and Burke on their first visits – and welcome back Patrick.
7/23/2025 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve & Sandy, Rachel & Tony, Ethan & Drew, Anna & Peter, Ken & Rachel, Sean K & Hunter, Sean, Tim, Armando, Chris, Julie, Nicole, Reimi, Rob, Danny, Maggie, Patrick Marisa & Jeremiah, Burke
ON OUR TABLES:
Scout (led by Tony) One of the 3 finalists for the 2022 SdJ award for best family game. It is a shedding/climbing card game with unique double numbered cards that can be flipped. Cards have two potential values, players may not rearrange their hand of cards, and players may pass their turn to take a card from the current high set of cards into their hand. More specifically, cards are dual-indexed, with different values on each half of the card, with the 45 cards having all possible combinations of the numbers 1-10.  Once each player has been dealt their entire hand of cards, they pick up that hand without rearranging any of the cards; if they wish, they can rotate their entire hand of cards in order to use the values on the other end of each card, but again they cannot rearrange the order of cards in their hand. On a turn, a player takes one of two actions:

• Play: A player chooses one or more adjacent cards in their hand that have all the same value or that have values in consecutive order (whether ascending or descending), then they play this set of cards to the table. They can do this only if the table is empty (as on the first turn) or the set they’re playing is ranked higher than the set currently on the table; a set is higher if it has more cards or has cards of the same value instead of consecutive cards or has a set of the same quantity and type but with higher values. In this latter case when a player overplays another set, the player captures the cards in this previous set and places them face down in front of themselves.

• Scout: A player takes a card from either end of the set currently on the table and places it anywhere they wish in their hand in either orientation. Whoever played this previous set receives a 1 VP token as a reward for playing a set that wasn’t beaten.

Once per round, a player can scout, then immediately play.

When a player has emptied their hand of cards or all but one player have scouted instead of playing, the round ends. Players receive 1 VP for each face-down card, then subtract one point for each card in their hand (except if they were the player scouted repeatedly to end the game). Play as many rounds as the number of players, then whoever has the most points wins.

Hot Streak (led by Tim)  2025 racing game for hard luck gamblers who love to bet on and scream at the racers, who in this case happen to be mascots who may (or may not) keep running in the right direction. Best with 5-9 players.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/446497/hot-streak

Take 5 (led by Armando) Wolfgang Kramer’s 1994 classic card game 6 Nimmt that accommodates up to 10 players – and the first game we played together at Purple Dragon Games back in June 2021. In all editions the 104 number cards are shuffled with four cards face-up dealt to the table to start the four rows with players being dealt a 10-card hand. Each turn, players simultaneously choose and reveal a card from their hand, then add the cards to the rows, with cards being placed in ascending order based on their number; specifically, each card is placed in the row that ends with the highest number that’s below the card’s number. When the sixth card is placed in a row, the owner of that card claims the other five cards and the sixth card becomes the first card in its row. In addition to a number,  each card has a point value. After finishing ten rounds, players tally their score and see whether the game ends. (Category 5 ends when a player has a score greater than 74, for example, while 6 nimmt! ends when someone tops 66.) When this happens, the player with the fewest points wins!
Take It Easy (led by Sandy) 1983 puzzle game that is a true multi-player solitaire, in which each player individually completes a hexagon-shaped board with spots for 19 hexagon tiles. There’s no limit to the number of players provided you have enough copies on hand. One person (the caller) draws a tile randomly and tells the others which of the 27 tiles featuring colored/numbered lines crossing in three directions, with numbers from 1 to 9, it is. “The 9-8-7,” for example. Each player then chooses which empty spot on his own board he’ll play the 9-8-7. This is repeated until the boards are filled.

The idea is to complete same-numbered lines across your board. Scoring is calculated by multiplying the number on the tile with the number of tiles in the completed line. A complete column of three 9s is worth 27, for example…but a lot of players will hope for five 9s to fill the big column down the middle.It is often compared to Bingo because of the familiar pattern of a number being called and then everybody looking at their cards to play it, and then scoring if a line is completed. But that’s as far as the comparison goes. Bingo is sheer luck; Take It Easy is a game of skill.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128/take-it-easy

Looot (led by Sean) 2024 tile and worker placement exploration and puzzle game where players are Vikings, gathering resources and capturing buildings to develop their fjord. Players fill their longships and complete their construction sites in order to rack up victory points. It is a clever management game, using a double placement mechanism – on the Common board players are Vikings conquering a new territory, which allows them to recover resource/building/objective tiles and on their Personal boards: they build villages with the tiles previously recovered from the Common board to unlock victory points. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/410991/looot

Bomb Busters (led by K-ban) cooperative game with limited communication among players trying to defuse a bomb by cutting pairs of numbered wires that won the coveted 2025 SdJ (German Game of the Year) award. To clear the bomb, players need to collaborate with their team of bomb disposal experts by using the wires on the tile holder in front of them and try to figure out their teammates’ wires. If the team inadvertently cuts red wire: BOOM! Use equipment earned wisely to meet the varied challenges which get harder and harder. There is a set of 48 normal wire cards numbered 1-12 (4 of each value) with some yellow and red wire cards. These are dealt out. Each mission is different, but the goal is always the same: go through all 12 numbers without blowing up! Players place the tiles on their stands and then take turns pointing at each others’ wires and guessing their values. If the guess is correct, the wires are cut. If not — the detonator advances! If you manage to cut all wires without blowing up — good job, the mission is completed! But if the bomb goes off – Try again! It took our intrepid quintel 3 or 4 tries to defuse the bomb on training mission #4. The game comes with 66 missions to explore with surprises awaiting.
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. If Splendor is on the table, the odds are that Armando is there.
The Gardens of the Alhambra (led by Ethan) 1993 Dirk Henn design (Carat) that was re-themed in 2005 to fit the very successful Alhambra family of games. It is an abstract influence game where each player is represented by plants of a particular color. Using tiles with all four colors on them, the players place them onto the board in fixed locations. In doing so, they try to surround victory point markers and capture them. Of course, since each tile has all of the player’s colors represented, every tile placement must be carefully thought-out so that you maximize your points while minimizing them for your opponents. Ties disqualify players – and so the next highest color total will earn the points. The player with the most victory points at the end of the game is the winner.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/963/the-gardens-of-the-alhambra

The Gang 2x (led by Tony) 2024 co-operative version of Texas Hold’em where players bet on how good they think their hand of cards will be relative to the other players, then try to make their predictions a reality. Early in a round, without talking to each other, each player chooses a chip indicating how good they think their hand is. Then they begin dealing cards into the middle of the table and have a chance to reassess their hands as more cards are revealed. At the end of the round, players see whether they correctly evaluated their hand. If all players did, you get to open one of the bank vaults! If not, you trip the alarm! If you manage to open three vaults before you trip the alarm three times, your gang wins!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/411567/the-gang

The Crew: Deep Sea (led by Ethan) 2021 card game, with the same innovative co-operative trick-taking mechanism as the highly lauded original space-themed game — but with some exciting new surprises! While communication between your crew members is severely limited by your submerged state, it is also critical to your success; finding the hidden land in the murky depths depends not only on winning tricks, but also on carefully negotiating the order in which they are won. If things don’t go as planned, players might just be able to salvage the operation, but it will take near flawless execution and perhaps a little luck to finally reach the lost continent of Mu. Amy reported that the first 3 missions were successful and that it took two tries to win the 4th mission. Trick taking and co-ops are rarely associated together, but The Crew works!
Faraway (led by Armando) 2023 runner up Light Game of the Year as voted by BGG users. The People from Below expansion was used which added more People cards, more Sanctuaries, the ability to play one additional player, more variety with no new rules. Players will play square cards as a row of 8 in front of them, from left to right. These cards represent the regions they will come across while exploring the lands. Characters on these cards will grant players victory points, but only score VPs if later cards fulfil the conditions they demand. At the end of the game, players walk back the same way, scoring cards in the opposite order they were played. There lies the heart of the gameplay. Throughout the game, the cards played will serve both to set new objectives, and to meet the ones previously played. On each turn, players select one region card from a hand of 3 and a clever priority system governs replenishment drafting. The first play in this 30-minute gem of a filler will likely make one’s head implode, as players wrap their brain around simultaneously thinking both forward and backwards on their journey to score VPs. The second play is generally one of those ‘aha’ moments when things click.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385761/faraway

Point City (led by Chris) 2023 card-drafting, engine-building game with more than 150 unique building cards, giving players the opportunity to create a completely different city each time it is played. This game is from the same team that designed Point Salad, but is a much deeper strategic and tactical game that packs a wallop with only a large deck of cards. 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! The game takes the same simple concept of drafting cards and building the best combinations, then adds new layers of resource management and engine building to the mix — making the game easy to learn, but challenging for everyone! Think of Point City as a cross between Point Salad and Splendor – with elements of both.

7 Wonders Architects (led by Tim) 2021 stand-alone addition to the 7 Wonders family. Instead of pick, pass and play, cards are drafted from decks situated between you and your two neighbors. Up to 7 players receive an unconstructed Wonder at the beginning of the game and must collect resources to build their society, develop military might to navigate conflicts, oversee resource management, research science improvements, and collect civil victory points as they race to leave their mark on world history.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/346703/7-wonders-architect

 

Castle Combo (led by Danny) 2024 tableau building card game. Each player will spend coins to draft 9 cards from 2 open markets on the table, with the messenger pawn, determining which market is open this turn – creating a 3×3 square of people interacting with each other to trigger instant effects and end-of-game bonuses. Each turn, players add a character to their tableau—a seemingly straightforward action that packs a punch regarding strategic decisions. Carefully managing one’s keys will be needed to carefully manage one’s Keys to influence the Messenger pawn at critical moments, as it controls which characters are available for recruitment from two different areas – peasants and nobles. Balancing one’s gold reserves is equally important, ensuring a player can afford the characters that best suit their strategy throughout the game. Selecting the right characters is crucial to maximising their immediate effects and the points they will contribute at the game’s end. Finally, carefully arranging these characters on one’s 3×3 board is key to unlocking their full potential. This is a very accessible game and was on the 2024 recommended list for SDJ honors (German Game of the Year). 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/416851/castle-combo

Landmarks 2x (led by Rachel) 2024 word game of hidden paths and clever clues. We used the co-op version where one player serves as the pathfinder (cluegiver) guiding the team to treasure, avoiding curses, hydrating and trying to exit with treasure in hand. There are multiple ways to fail/die – and our team managed to avoid them all. In this jungle, every word matters, as using strategic wordplay sends a chain of one-word clues with the connections between them creating a path leading to fortune and glory.  The team won twice – once exiting with 1 treasure, the second time with 2 treasures. We will try the competitive team play version in a future session. Fans of Codenames and Just One should enjoy Landmarks.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421374/landmarks

Steve

26 at the UNO Park Community Center on 7/23 for a request night (just 2 shy of our attendance record) Welcome Hunter, Ken & Rachel, and Burke on their first visits – and welcome back Patrick. 7/23/2025 @ UNO Park Community Center IN: Steve & Sandy, Rachel & Tony, Ethan & Drew, Anna & Peter, Ken…

26 at the UNO Park Community Center on 7/23 for a request night (just 2 shy of our attendance record) Welcome Hunter, Ken & Rachel, and Burke on their first visits – and welcome back Patrick. 7/23/2025 @ UNO Park Community Center IN: Steve & Sandy, Rachel & Tony, Ethan & Drew, Anna & Peter, Ken…

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