11/4/2026 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #26-44

18 at the UNO Park Community Center on November 4 for a request night.
Welcome to Nora and Joel on their first visit. thanks Reimi for the referral.
11/4/2026 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve & Sandy, Norm & Hope, Fred & Janet, Sean, Tim, Zach, Chris, Sean K, Julie, Reimi, Kelby, Carol, Danny, Nora & Joel
ON OUR TABLES:
Blockers (led by Sandy)  2010 tile laying abstract where players have the same hand of 28 tiles, with numbers (1-9), letters (A-I) and 9 shapes plus a joker wild tile. The object is to have the fewest groups of tiles in your color added added to the fewest ‘captures’ of other players’ pieces. This Kory Heath design started out as ‘Uptown’ and is currently on Kickstarter as “Triskel”. 
5×5 City (led by K-ban)  2024 30-minute city building tile drafting game, where players build various buildings in their city. Each player has a city board of 25 squares representing vacant lots, that are divided into various types of compartments depending on the city planning card selected at the start of the game.

For each of 12 rounds, lots of building tiles are randomly drawn from a bag according to the number of squares in the specified section and drafted in turn order, then placed on the designated section of everyone’s city.

There are 10 types of buildings, each with its own method of scoring, depending on its placement.

Players have the option of turning a drafted building tile to the reverse side, as a park and after placing 3 parks have a single opportunity to swap the position of two building tiles. High score wins.

Condottiere (led by Zach) 1995 majorities/influence card game where the object is to acquire four or more connected provinces in renaissance Italy at the end of each battle. To do this, players bid on these provinces with a hand of cards representing mercenaries, seasons, scarecrows, and political figures. However, unlike standard auctions in which only the highest bidder loses their bid, in Condottiere every player loses their bid. Players are, in effect, bidding the number of troops they are willing to lose in order to win a province. However, several special effect cards shake the contests up and keep the players guessing.

Each round is a battle, where players choose the number of troops (if any) to contribute to taking the province. Once all players have committed their forces, the cards are compared and the player with the highest total strength conquers the region and, if they control enough provinces (based on number of players), they win.

Rock Hard 1977: Ear Candy Expansion (led by Sean) 2024 worker placement and set collection game with variable powers where players are up-and-coming musicians, dreaming of making it big with their band. The game was designed by a member of the band, The Runaways. Players will rehearse, play gigs, write songs, and promote their band. With careful planning and a little luck, players will earn the most fame and become the best new artist of the year.  The game is played over a maximum of nine rounds, each representing a typical day of one month in 1977, from April to December. The game is won by accruing the most fame by increasing reputation, chops and songs; achieving production, performance, and publicity bonuses; getting record deals and earning royalties; playing concerts; and hanging out at the hottest after-hours spot.
The 2026 Ear Candy first expansion lets players use their Life Experiences to write 45 RPM Singles in various styles.

Promoting these Singles gets them played on the radio and moves players up the Hit List song charts, giving them an additional way to gain Fame.

The expansion includes two new characters, two new managers, two new types of Candy, and additional cards for every deck.

Mind Up 2X (led by K-ban)  2023 card game who’s mechanics are similar to the classic Take5/6 Nimmt and the recent Trinket Trove. Players start with a line of cards on the table, with as many cards as players. Each turn, players pick a card from their hand and simultaneously reveal it to make a new line, ordered from the lowest to the highest card. Each player then takes the card in the previous line at the same position as the one they just played, adding it to their tableau. These cards will score points at the end of the round, depending on their color and the order they were picked. After being scored, they become the player’s hand for the next round. High score after 3 rounds wins. If you like Take 5 you should like Mind Up as much or more.
Santiago (led by Zach) 2003 influence and negotiation game where players are cultivating and watering fields. To accomplish this, a number of tiles denoting various plantation types come into the game each round. The tiles are auctioned off such that each player gets one, and the tiles are then placed onto the game board along with an ownership marker that also indicates how plentiful the tile’s yield will be. Whoever bid the lowest in each round gets to be the canal overseer and decides where a canal will be built that round. The other players may make suggestions to help the canal overseer decide, and back up their suggestions with money. The final decision is always wholly up to the overseer, though.

At the end of each round, players determine what the water supply situation looks like. Should a plantation not be sufficiently watered, its production drops dramatically; should it happen more than once, then that plantation may revert to fallow ground. At the game’s end, naturally only the cultivated land counts. Each plantation is counted according to type – the bigger the better. But since the ownership markers play a role as well, the same plantation can give drastically different points for different players.

Lodge (led by K-ban) 2026 Peter McPherson tile drafting puzzle game that we playtested on Peter’s last visit to UNO as ‘Hotels’, is now set in an alpine ski lodge. It is a spatial puzzle game set in the Swiss Alps. Players draft room tiles from a sliding display and place them on matching floors to attract guests to their lodge. Gain bonus points for placing those guests on their preferred floors and by constructing amenities to keep the guests happy.
Shoot Out (led by Chris) Proto-type playtest.
Steve

18 at the UNO Park Community Center on November 4 for a request night. Welcome to Nora and Joel on their first visit. thanks Reimi for the referral. 11/4/2026 @ UNO Park Community Center IN: Steve & Sandy, Norm & Hope, Fred & Janet, Sean, Tim, Zach, Chris, Sean K, Julie, Reimi, Kelby, Carol, Danny, Nora…

18 at the UNO Park Community Center on November 4 for a request night. Welcome to Nora and Joel on their first visit. thanks Reimi for the referral. 11/4/2026 @ UNO Park Community Center IN: Steve & Sandy, Norm & Hope, Fred & Janet, Sean, Tim, Zach, Chris, Sean K, Julie, Reimi, Kelby, Carol, Danny, Nora…

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