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

IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean, Tim, Armando, Zach, Matt, Chris, Julie, Danny, Nicole, Ethan & Amy, Tony, Rob, Carol

Harvest (led by Matt) 2024 reimplementation of the same title from 2017, that was set in a fantasy world. Players take on the role of a farmer, each with their own unique penchant for working the land, and choose a farmhouse with its own special round-to-round benefit. Each round, players draft sunrise cards that give them a one-time income and determine turn order for the round. Following that turn order, players place their 3 character figures around town to gather resources that they’ll use to manage their fields. Plant seeds, tend the land, and harvest crops to make money and score points. Clear land to expand one’s farm, and construct buildings that make the land more efficient and provide end game bonuses. By the end of harvest season, the farmer with the most points wins!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/395623/harvest

Istanbul (led by Danny/Sean) 2014 network, route building and worker placement game where players lead a group of one merchant and four assistants through 16 locations in the bazaar. At each such location, they can carry out a specific action. The challenge, though, is that to take an action, players must move their merchant and an assistant there, then leave the assistant behind (to handle all the details while they focus on larger matters). If a player wants to use that assistant again later, their merchant must return to that location to pick him up. Thus, players must plan ahead carefully to avoid being left with no assistants and thus unable to do anything. Each of 16 modular locations have requirements that improve a player’s position in the race to 5 rubies.

 Possible actions at the 16 locations include:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/251219/istanbul-big-box

Cafe’ Baras (led by Tim) 2024 card drafting, tableau-building game by the creative team behind Creature Comforts. Players are coffee shop owners trying to put together a delicious menu and decorate their shop to capture the perfect aesthetic.  Each turn, a card is played from everyone’s hand, either buying it as a food, drink, or decor item for their café or serving the customer on the card and earning money. If players meet a customer’s needs completely, they become a Regular and earn extra end game VPs!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/406498/cafe-baras

Pixies (led by Tony)  2024 drafting, set collection and connections card game, where players move through the seasons to meet little creatures emerging from a flower or sheltering in the hollow of a tree. Choose one of the revealed cards, but be careful which ones are left to your opponents! Place that card in your playing area according to its number. Cards placed one on top of another are validated and earn players points at the end of the round, as do the largest color zone and spirals. The Flower Power expansion was used.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/411875/pixies

Knitting Circle (led by K-ban) 2025 stand-alone puzzle game set in the Calico world (so there are felines). Players are knitters competing to create the coziest, most beautiful assortment of garments.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421606/knitting-circle

Bohnanza (led by Tony) 1997 Uwe Rosenberg bean trading classic game that has been reprinted several times and expanded even more. Players plant, then harvest bean cards in order to earn coins. Each player starts with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number on it corresponding to the number of that type of bean in the deck. Unlike in most other card games, you can’t rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you’ve picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game. On a turn, players must plant the first one or two cards in their hand into the two “fields” in front of them. Each field can hold only one type of bean, so if a player must plant a type of bean that’s not in one of their fields, then they must harvest a field to make room for the new arrival.  Next, two cards are revealed from the deck, and the player, on turn, can then trade these cards as well as any card in their hand for cards from other players. After all the trading is complete — and all trades on a turn must involve the active player — then the turn is ended by drawing 3 cards from the deck and placing them at the back of one’s hand. When beans are harvested, players  receive coins based on the number of bean cards in that field and the “beanometer” for that particular type of bean. Flip over 1-4 cards from that field to transform them into coins, then place the remainder of the cards in the discard pile. When the deck runs out, the discards are shuffled, playing through the deck two more times. At the end of the game, everyone can harvest their fields, then whoever has earned the most coins wins. The key to this 45-minute classic is the trading. 

The Gang (led by Armando/Tony) 2024 cooperative 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

Juraku (led by Tim) 2015 trick-taking area control board game. Outwit one’s opponents with tactical card play, use one’s loyal Samurais to bid control of areas and build prestige. Only the Daimyo with the highest reputation and the biggest stick can rule Japan!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180901/joraku

Steve