19 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening honoring the BoardGame Geek’s Hall of Fame Games.  We plowed through 7 of the 25 games….with more likely to spill over into our April 2 request night, as we’ve already had requests for Agricola, Ra, Acquire, Power Grid, Carcassonne and repeats of 7 Wonders as well as attempting some Ticket to Ride expansion maps. Non HoF games will hit our tables as well. Kindly use our RSVP form to communicate your requests – both to play and to lead.

Welcome to Sean Keller and Elliot P (friend of Landon’s) on their first visit. Referring friends to our Wednesday Gamenites is essential to our group’s continued growth…and greatly appreciated.

IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Tony & Rachel, Gus & Nicole, Tim, Armando, Matt, Chris, Danny, Reimi, Julie, Rob, Landon, Elliot P, Sean K

Pandemic (led by Tim) 2008 Matt Leacock Co-op where players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.  On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases’ activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the “normal” spread of the infections.

Taking a unique role within the team, players must plan their strategy to mesh with their specialists’ strengths in order to conquer the diseases. For example, the Operations Expert can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases and which allow for greater mobility between cities; the Scientist needs only four cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal five—but the diseases are spreading quickly and time is running out. If one or more diseases spreads beyond recovery or if too much time elapses, the players all lose. The team won! There are legacy (campaign) versions as well as themed versions to explore in future sessions.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic

Caylus 1303 (led by Matt) 2019 streamlining of William Attias’ 2005 classic worker placement game with new graphics, variability of the starting position for a virtual infinity of possibilities, no more pre-set strategies and adding Characters with special abilities with a wavering loyalty who offer their services to the players. Thanks to Matt for stepping up when Zach’s work commitment temporarily scuttled Power Grid as our complex game of the week.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284818/caylus-1303

Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition (led by Sean)  2023 deluxe edition of Stefan Feld’s classic 2011 design. Each player takes on the role of an aristocrat, originally controlling a small princedom. While playing, players aim to build settlements and powerful castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, and use the knowledge of travelers.

7 Wonders (led by K-ban & Elliot P) 2010 drafting and card development game that won the 2011 Kennerspiel (Gamer‘s Game of the Year) award. The game lasts three ages. In each age, players receive seven cards from a particular deck, choose one of those cards, then pass the remainder to an adjacent player. Players reveal their cards simultaneously, paying resources if needed or collecting resources or interacting with other players in various ways. (Players have individual boards with special powers on which to organize their cards, and the boards are double-sided). Each player then chooses another card from the deck they were passed, and the process repeats until players have six cards in play from that age. After three ages, the game ends. Some cards have immediate effects, while others provide bonuses or upgrades later in the game. Some cards provide discounts on future purchases. Some provide military strength to overpower your neighbors and others give nothing but victory points. Each card is played immediately after being drafted, so you’ll know which cards your neighbor is receiving and how her choices might affect what you’ve already built up. Cards are passed left-right-left over the three ages, so you need to keep an eye on the neighbors in both directions.  

Concordia (led by Tim) 2013 peaceful, strategy game of economic development in Roman times. Instead of looking to luck-driven dice or cards, players must rely on their strategic abilities. Watching  rivals to determine which goals they are pursuing and where one can outpace them is essential to victory. In the game, colonists are sent out from Rome to settle down in cities that produce bricks, food, tools, wine, and cloth. Each player starts with an identical set of playing cards and acquires more cards during the game. These cards serve two purposes:

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124361/concordia

Ticket to Ride: Europe (led by Rachel) 2005 reimplementation of Alan R Moon’s classic Ticket to Ride on a European mapboard that features brand new gameplay elements. Tunnels may require players to pay extra cards to build on them, Ferries require locomotive cards in order to claim them, and Stations allow players to sacrifice points in order to use an opponent’s route to make a much needed connection. The overall goal remains the same: collect and play train cards in order to place your pieces on the board and attempt to connect cities on one’s ticket cards.

Dominion (led by Armando) 2009 Donald S Vaccarino designed deck-building game, where each player starts with an identical, small deck of cards and attempts to build an efficient engine. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can “buy” as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to victory points by game end. Dominion won the SdJ game of the year award in 2009.

To combat this, players will need to Buy powerful upgrade cards for their facility in order to become more efficient. These upgrade cards can either be purchased for a lower cost and placed into one’s system (deck) or installed directly to one’s facility to be used every turn for the remainder of the game. After a player has either completed five contracts or installed five upgrades, the game end is triggered and the player with the most Xenon points is the winner.