12/17/2025 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #25-50
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24 for our final session of 2025 – a request night.
Welcome to Sam & Ruth on their first visit as well as Danny’s better half, Jenny, joining in for a game.
A Berkshire Gamers Year in Review email is being compiled and will be sent out before the end of the year.
12/17/2025 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve & Sandy, Ethan & Amy, Tony & Rachel, Danny & Jenny, Kenneth & Rachel, Sam & Ruth, Sean, Tim, Armando, Zach, Matt, Nicole, Julie, Reimi, Maggie, Carol, Chris, Landon
ON OUR TABLES:
Take Time (led by Tim) 2025 limited communication cooperative game where players must strategically play 12 cards facedown around a Clock, following specific rules for each Test. Players can work together through a series of games to pass all 40 Tests available in the game.
Magic Rabbit (led by Maggie) 2020 memory game where players cooperate in a limited time to gather in line rabbits and hats together in an ascending order. Initially Rabbit tiles are placed randomly face-down under a face up Hat tile. A number of Dove tokens are used dependent of the player count. Players have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to rearrange the Rabbits and Hats, so they match their number, At their turn, players have to choose one of these 3 actions, if a pile is not blocked by a Dove token :
- Look at a Rabbit tile in a Rabbit & Hat pile
- Switch 2 Hats between 2 Rabbit & Hat piles
- Switch 2 Rabbit & Hat tile piles in the line
- At the end of their turn, players may also move a Dove token from a pile to another one. Our quartet won!
https://boardgamegeek.com/
Empire’s End (led by Matt) 2023 John D Clair (Space Base, Mystic Vale, Ecos, Cubitos, Ready Set Bet) auction game where players lead a grand civilization at the height of its influence, but compete to keep calamity at bay. It marries the intuitive and elegant mechanism of reverse-bidding with engine-building, long-term planning, and strategic depth with multiple paths to victory. Players begin with a civilization at the height of its power with play proceeding through a series of phases, varying as the game progresses. During the Disaster phase, players face a common threat such as famine, a flood, or barbarians. The player who ends the bidding must take the disaster, which devastates one of their territories. With each disaster that befalls an empire, its people grow in wisdom and resilience. In the style of the modern classic game No Thanks, resources bid by all players will end up in the hands of the player who ultimately takes the disaster card. That player also gains a new ability, an innovation that reflects their empire’s ability to adapt in the face of challenging times.
Each turn, players move along a progress track that dictates whether they will face a disaster or another type of phase. Players can gain new resources during Production phases, rebuild lost territories during Industry phases, and challenge one another during Military phases. At the end of the progress track, the game is concluded and the winner is the civilization with the greatest number of victory points. Intact territories contribute points, but innovations and military successes can provide alternative ways to win.
Take 5/Category 5/6 Nimmt (led by K-ban) 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!
Ransom Notes (led by Maggie) 2021 creative party game for making hilariously terrible sentences. Players respond to outlandish situations like “Tell someone you’ve clogged their toilet at a party” with just their limited pool of word magnets, leaving even master wordsmiths no choice but to create awesomely horrendous phrases. With hundreds of word magnets included, every round is always fresh, wildly creative, and often funny. Each round, a prompt card is randomly drawn from the deck and players try to come up with the best answer from their pool of magnets. A judge is randomly chosen from the players, who reviews the answers and chooses a winner, who scores 1 point. The game ends after one player has scored 5 points. Players can also choose to take turns being the judge each round.
King Domino (led by Tony) 2017 German game of the year (SdJ) winner. The game uses tiles with two sections, similar to Dominoes. Each turn, players will select a new domino to connect to their existing kingdom, making sure at least one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play. The order of who picks first depends on which tile was previously chosen, with better tiles forcing players to pick later in the next round. The game ends when each player has completed a 5×5 grid (or failed to do so), and points are counted based on the number of connecting tiles and valuable crown symbols. Tony made a unique set – baking the tiles as cookies.
Moon (led by Tim) This 2023 release from the author of Villagers and Streets depicts a rush to construct lunar bases that are attractive places to live and work for the people of Earth. The most prestigious base will become the new lunar capital! The game employs the familiar “pick & pass” or “hand drafting” mechanism for players to select cards to add to their base. Each hand of cards represents a convoy of experts and equipment travelling between the players’ outposts, giving the player the choice of one new construction each turn.
https://boardgamegeek.com/
Top Frog (led by Matt) 2025 drafting ,set collection game, with simultaneous action selection where players will be catching and stacking stylish frogs on top of each other to score the most points by the end of the game. Players leap around the Pond and catch Frogs to add to their stacks. But pay attention to their weights! Only a Frog of equal or less weight can be placed on top of another Frog, and players can only have up to 3 stacks. Build up the ideal stack of Frogs and score big points by placing the appropriate hat on top! However, it won’t be so easy. The actions in Top Frog are simultaneous, with each player deciding where they leap to and what they will catch at the same time. Efficient use of your Action Cards is simple, until other players want the same cards. If 2 or more players try to catch the same Frog at the same time, neither player gets it. Deducing other players’ intentions can save you valuable time.
Stack Frogs efficiently, take advantage of their unique abilities, and claim the perfect hats to become the Top Fro
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.
Take It Easy (led by K-ban) 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.
Azul (led by Ethan) 2017 Michael Kiesling designed drafting and pattern building game, where players take turns drafting colored tiles from suppliers to their player board. Later in the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace. Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player’s score. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Azul won 2018’s SdJ and several other major awards. This was the first in a trilogy of Azul games.
Crusaders – Thy Will be done (led by Sean) 2018 area majority/influence game where players move their knights, erect buildings, and go crusading to spread the influence of their Order. When the Orders get too strong, King Philip will become nervous and disband all Templar orders, ending the game. The game utilizes a combination of rondel and mancala mechanisms. Each player has their own rondel, which they can upgrade over the course of the game, that controls their action choices during the game. A Player’s faction gives them a special power to control their rondel, and the buildings they erect will help form a strategy.
Medici (led by K-ban) 1995 Reiner Knizia classic perceived value auction game played on the original German Amigo edition.(since reprinted several times since the original went OOP) Bid to your opponent’s ‘point of pain’ in a series of once around auctions…where players are securing cargo both for the products and for bulk weight. Players are bidding with your VPs so some self-control is imperative to win the game.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah (and a Joyous Festivus for the rest of us). Looking forward to a wonderful 2026 gaming together.
Steve
24 for our final session of 2025 – a request night. Welcome to Sam & Ruth on their first visit as well as Danny’s better half, Jenny, joining in for a game. A Berkshire Gamers Year in Review email is being compiled and will be sent out before the end of the year. 12/17/2025 @ UNO Park…
24 for our final session of 2025 – a request night. Welcome to Sam & Ruth on their first visit as well as Danny’s better half, Jenny, joining in for a game. A Berkshire Gamers Year in Review email is being compiled and will be sent out before the end of the year. 12/17/2025 @ UNO Park…