6/25/2025 – Berkshire Gamers Session Report #25-25
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We celebrated our group’s 4th Anniversary of playing together on 6/25/2025 with our second annual Crokinole Tournament and party games. Thanks to all our members for their camaraderie and especially to all our table leaders for teaching us new games and classics every session, in our mission of discovering goodness in modern board game design from around the globe.
We had 16 entries on 4 boards for the Crokinole tournament with Ethan and Tony organizing and Ethan leading. Round-robin play followed by elimination rounds produced finals between Tony and Ethan with Tony prevailing. Steve took 3rd and Nicole 4th. Ethan presented wads of cash prizes to the top 3 placewinners – unfortunately Tony’s 100,000 Leones from Sierra Leone was worth approximately $4.39 at today’s exchange rates, Ethan kept 5000 Kenyan shillings and Steve received 1800 Nepali rupees, which is $13.16 at today’s exchange rates. But Tony’s number was the biggest.
6/25/2025 @ UNO Park Community Center
IN: Steve, Ethan, Sean & Wendy, Tony & Rachel, Tim & Khalid, Anna & Peter, Armando, Zach, Chris, Nicole, Reimi, Julie, Rob, Danny, Lydia, Stuart
ON OUR TABLES:
Party Games
Landmarks 2x (led by Rachel) 2024 word game of hidden paths and clever clues. We used the co-op version where Rachel served 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 find most of them. 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. We will try the competitive team play version in a future session. Thanks Rachel for leading this COLD with only a how to play video sent to her that afternoon to guide her.
Panda Royale (led by Armando) 2024 dice drafting and chucking game that can accommodate up to 10 players but is actually just a big bag of polyhedral dice in 7 colors with score sheets that indicate how each different color scores points.
Just One (led by Rachel) 2018 co-op that’s become our group’s favorite party game.
Ready Set Bet (led by Sean) 2022 real-time horse racing game. Each round consists of a race followed by bet resolution. During each race, players freely place their bet tokens on the board while the race is going on. After each race, players win or lose money for each of their placed bet tokens, then receive a VIP Club Card to help them win more money in the following races. After four rounds, the player with the most money wins! We played 8-handed on the deluxe super-sized High Roller edition.
Other Games Played
Hanamikoji (led by Zach) 2013 ‘I Cut You Choose’, drafting influence game where 2 players compete to earn the favor of seven illustrious Geishas by collecting each Geisha’s preferred performance item. With careful speculation and a few bold moves, players can outsmart their opponent to win the favor of the most Geishas.
Agent Avenue 2x (led by K-ban) 2024 2-player card game of bluffing and set collection. Players assume the roles of retired spies in a suburban neighborhood, outsmarting each other with cards that can score points or trigger special effects. Players utilize the “I split, you choose” mechanic to play one card face-up and one face-down each turn from a 4-card hand. Your opponent chooses one, and the divider winds up with the other -influencing both player’s strategies. Cards feature different agents and tools that impact scoring and game progress on a track, advancing the “catch me” race to uncover the opposing spy. Very addictive 15-minute filler that elicits much laughter due to the bluff/double bluff aspect.
Steve
We celebrated our group’s 4th Anniversary of playing together on 6/25/2025 with our second annual Crokinole Tournament and party games. Thanks to all our members for their camaraderie and especially to all our table leaders for teaching us new games and classics every session, in our mission of discovering goodness in modern board game design from…
We celebrated our group’s 4th Anniversary of playing together on 6/25/2025 with our second annual Crokinole Tournament and party games. Thanks to all our members for their camaraderie and especially to all our table leaders for teaching us new games and classics every session, in our mission of discovering goodness in modern board game design from…