5/30 Featured Games

Greetings FNDers!

This upcoming Friday we are hosting our regular FND meeting at the normal time/place - 6:30 PM at Bridge Church.

We have been unbelievably thrilled with the turn-outs the past several events.  Over the past month and a half we've averaged over 15 people per event, breaking records in consecutive weeks.  That may not seem like a ton of people, but it is a great deal larger than we expected in only a few months of existence.  This upcoming Friday we want to keep the streak of breaking the 'most people' record going and are hoping to inch closer to the 30-person mark.


As such, we are asking all of our regulars as well as those of you who would be new or only returning for your second time to bring friends!  We want to extend the fellowship and comradery of board games and card games to more people and you can help by inviting literally every single person you know.  Or just the people you think would be interested, either way.

Anyways, this Friday will have two more feature games!  We're going to place them at a specific time on the schedule this Friday to attempt and further promote them.  We at FND like to reward designers of great games by taking time to teach and feature them, particularly if they are games that really showcase a specific mechanic or genre of game.

Featured Party Game:  Telestrations

This week's featured party game will be my personal favorite: Telestrations.  At this point in my life I have played a lot of games.  I've played a lot of party games.  None of them produce the stitches-in-your-side hilarity that this one does.  Not even close.

Telestrations is essentially a combination between Pictionary and the "Telephone Game" (the one you played as a kid where you whispered down the line, slowly misconstruing the original message).  Players start with a word or phrase and have to draw it on the first page of their flipbook.  Then, the flipbook is passed clockwise and that player guesses what was drawn.  Subsequently, the book is passed again and the new player draws the previous players guess.  This continues until it returns to the original owner of the book.  We then take turns sharing all of the different ways in which we butchered the original words or phrases. It is generally quite hilarious.  The pictures surrounding this are courtesy of Google and aren't our own personal ones, but they give you the right idea. 

Telestrations will begin at 7:30 PM or as soon as we finish the first set of games.  We will play a few rounds, probably lasting till around 8:15-8:30 PM.

Featured Strategy Games:  Alien Frontiers and Kingsburg

We are featuring two games this week that are normally mentioned in the same breath due to very similar mechanics.  Both of them rely heavily on rolling dice in order to determine what actions you can take, both are light-medium weight games as far as complexity, both have very nice components, and both are super fun.

Alien Fronters

Alien Frontiers' claim to fame is that is the first hit game to published via support on Kickstarter.  Since then they have done four subsequent campaigns, including the most recent release of the 4th edition to this game, which includes some upgraded components.  I own this edition as well as the Factions expansion which is, in my eyes, essential to each game.

In the game you play as different alien factions that are all fighting for control of a planet to colonize.  The goal of the game is to score the most points, largely via controlling the most sectors of the planet.  The way you take actions is very unique.  Each of the dice in your possession is a space ship (use your imagination). Each turn you roll them.  The actions available all have different numbers or combinations on them, so you have limited choices based on what you've rolled.  Of course, there are ways to manipulate your roll and improve on your options.

In addition to the actions on the board, because of the Factions expansion, every player as a unique ability only he can use as well as a unique action that others must pay him to use.

The components really are top notch and this back-and-forth, area of control game is simply 'cool.'  We were fortunate to be able to get a copy of it as the most recent KS campaign wasn't recent so take advantage of that and give Alien Frontiers a go!

Kingsburg

Kingsburg, like Alien Frontiers, uses dice to determine what actions can be taken.  However, it has a very different feel to it, in large part due to the very different theme.

In Kingsburg each player is using the dice to gain favor in a medieval/fantasy court.  Starting with '1' and going all the way up to '18' are numbered members of the King's court, including the lowly Jester and the king himself.  On a players turn he will place one or more of his dice on any of these advisers that do not have another player's dice.  He could put a die showing a '1' on the '1' space or two dice that add up to '11' on the '11' space.  Each one gives different resources and abilities so the key is tactically using your dice to a) get what you want and need and b)make sure you don't get blocked out of all available spots.

These resources are used to build different buildings in the realm, all of which give you subsequent bonuses.  At the end of each round there will be a random monster that attacks the land and based on how you've build your region along with how many soldiers the King decides to lend in aid, you may gain victory points for defeating the monster or lose buildings and points as he pillages you.

All of that being said it's a rather straightforward game and would definitely fall into the 'light' category.

Both of those games have quite the following and are very well respected in the gaming community so if you haven't tried them I very much encourage you to give them a go.

As with before, if you're interested and want to reserve a spot at one or more of these games, please put your info in the comment section.

We will be playing Kingsburg and Alien Frontiers at ~ 8:30 PM.


Hopefully we'll see you all out!  We will have the full library available and all games are welcome, though we hope to see more people playing these featured ones.

We look forward to seeing you Friday!!

Blessings,