24 at the UNO Park Community Center on July 30 for a Desert & Jungle themed session.

IN: Steve & Sandy, Tony & Rachel, Ken & Rachel, Sean, Tim, Armando, Matt, Danny, Rob, Reimi, Nicole, Julie, Sean K, Amy, Drew, Maggie, Burke, Patrick, Kaleb, Marisa, Jeremiah

Diamant/ Incan Gold (led by Tim) 2015 Bruno Faidutti/alan Moon collaboration push your luck game where players venture down mine shafts or explore paths in the jungle by turning up cards from a deck and evenly sharing the gems they find on the way, with any leftover gems being placed on the card. Before the next card is revealed, players have the chance to leave the mine and stash their holdings, including any gems gotten on exiting. The deck also contains hazards: scorpions, snakes, poison gas, explosions and rockfalls. When a particular hazard is revealed for the second time (e.g., a second scorpion), anyone still in the shaft or on the path has to drop all the gems they’ve collected that round and flee for safety. The trick is that as more players leave each turn, shares of the pie grows larger, which will perhaps inspire deeper exploration — but at the risk of ending up with nothing.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15512/diamant

Karuba 3x (led by K-ban/Tony) 2015 Rudiger Dorn designed tile-laying puzzle game. Players start with boards that are identical, and one player drawing tiles that all will use. They race to get their explorers to temples first and earn points. Along the way they can collect additional points by collecting gold nuggets and crystals off the paths they create. The game ends when one player gets all of their explorers to their corresponding temples or whenever the last tile is drawn and placed. Most points wins.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183251/karuba

Tikal (led by Matt) 1999 Kramer/Kiesling collaboration where players explore Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, they find temples that require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points for occupying temples and holding onto treasure. Tikal introduced the mechanic of budgeted action points and continued it in Java, Mexica and Torres. Players are bestowed 10 action points each turn to spend as they see fit across a select number of actions, each costing a certain number of points. Using these action points players will perform a combination of actions to move their explorer pawns around the jungle terrain, collecting artifacts or clearing the undergrowth to reveal temple layers. Since Tikal is an area majority game, all these actions funnel towards claiming temple majorities with player pawns and set collection of artifacts.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54/tikal

Cacao (led by K-ban) 2015 Phil Walker-Harding designed tile laying game, that for me is a Carcassonne killer, as it tis much cleaner and offers better choices to earn VPs on each turn. Players place worker tiles in the jungle to gain cacao, sell cacao at market, mine gold, earn sun tokens, gain water and influence temples. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171499/cacao

Lost Ruins of Arnak (led by Sean) 2020 deck-building worker placement and drafting game where players are explorers who have found traces of a great civilization. They will lead an expedition to explore the island, find lost artifacts, and face fearsome guardians, all in a quest to learn the island’s secrets. It is a game of exploration, resource management, and discovery. In addition to traditional deck-builder effects, cards can also be used to place workers, and new worker actions become available as players explore the island. Some of these actions require resources instead of workers, so building a solid resource base will be essential. Players are limited to only one action per turn, so choices should be made carefully… what action will benefit you most now? And what can you afford to do later… assuming someone else doesn’t take the action first!?

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/312484/lost-ruins-of-arnak

Harmonies (led by Danny) 2024 abstract pattern game, with simple rules, and a beautifully implemented nature theme. Players optimize by synchronizing, but at the same time try to outbalance luck by diversifying their scoring options, while growing a beautiful 3D habitat in front of them. Landscapes are built by placing colored tokens and creating habitats for their animals. To earn the most points and win the game, players must incorporate the habitats in their landscapes wisely and have as many animals as they can settle there.

Caravan (led by Armando) 2019 Joe Huber designed pick up and delivery game where players create trade routes and deliver goods across the desert using their caravan of camels. The author visited and played his games with us when we played at Purple Dragon Games.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269789/caravan

Samarkand/Bazaar II (led by K-ban) 1980 Sid Sackson desert trading game. Players visit nomad camps, oases and trading posts in a race to turn 200 Piasters into 500 through buying, trading and selling 6 different types of goods. We played on the 1998 Rio Grande edition. Gryphon Games recently published Samarkand Bazaar which includes the author’s Bazaar, Samarkand and Business – all in one box.

Steve