Friday Night Dice General Update

Greetings Friends of FND!

This post is simply to give a general update of some of the activity of Friday Night Dice.

As many of you know, the leadership group of FND to this point has been a three-man team of Brian Chamberlin, Drew Knudston, and myself (Lee Nicholas).

Recently, after large amount of prayer and seeking, Beth and I have decided we will be shifting from Bridge Church to calling a different church our home.  This is a move that is 100% out of feeling called elsewhere and we are leaving with the full blessing of both Pastor and church leadership.  I genuinely insist that there are no ill feelings or anything of the sort leading to this!

Unfortunately, however, this means that I will know longer be able to participate in the leadership of Friday Night Dice.  While FND is a part of GCOM, it is also an important ministry associated with Bridge Church.

As far as we know now this shouldn't impact FND in any meaningful way!  Brian and Drew will be taking over the blog and any communications via the FND account.  And I love you all and will still come to FND with a truck-full (Honda Fit-full?) of games, just as a patron, not a leader!

Personally, it has been a tremendous blessing to be part of this leadership team and helping to run FND.  Getting to know everyone at FND has been wonderful - we couldn't have asked for a better group of gamers.  I am looking forward to continuing to game with you all!

Many Blessings!

1/30 Featured Games

Hi everybody!

With January being one of those awesome months that contains five Fridays, we at FND will be having our bonus 5th Friday of the month session!  Woo!  This means that there'll be two FNDs in a row - on 1/30 and then subsequently on 2/6.

This upcoming session (on 1/30) we will have a unique theme:  Arabian Games!

Oddly enough there are a good amount of games that involve Arabian and they are all quite different.  Now some of these will be a bit of a stretch, but most of them very specifically involve an Arabian theme set in the world of the Arabian Nights.  Let's check 'em out!

Tales of the Arabian Nights

I don't think we could have this theme and not feature this game.  This is possibly the most unique game I own.  It is a storytelling game (not quite an RPG) in which you move your character around a map of Arabia and respond to various events.  There is a massive tome of a book that details various interactions and how your responses influence them.  It is more of an experience than a game and is extremely enjoyable.

Five Tribes

Five Tribes is one of the hottest games of 2014 and it is also set in the world of the Tales of the Arabian Nights.  Admittedly, the theme in this one is a bit less consequential and certainly not as rich as in Tales, however it is definitely present in the artwork.  This game is very much a medium-weight Euro game and it is one of the best games of the year.  It incorporates the mechanisms of mancala and various other things to create a wonderful and thought-provoking package.

Alhambra

Okay so this one technically takes place in Spain, however it is in Grenada during the Middle Ages which is a time when this part of their culture and architecture was heavily influenced by Arabia.  So it flies.  This game, a former winner of the Spiel de Jahres (in 2003 I believe) award, is an excellent gateway-level game in which players are trying to build their own Alhambra.  Players are awarded points for the amount of various types of buildings they have for each type.  It has very similar mechanisms and feel to Ticket to Ride but with different scoring and theme.  This is a terrific game, particularly if you're relatively new to the hobby.



Camel Up

Camel Up is the somewhat controversial winner of the 2014 Spiel de Jahres award.  Many people felt that it should have gone to Splendor instead of this light, almost family-style game.  Well, after having played both Splendor and Camel Up, I firmly agree with the choice of Camel Up.  I've played Splendor more times in 2014 than any other game (mostly because my wife loves it so much) and it is a great game.  However, I recently played three games of Camel Up in the span of 24 hours and afterwards it was generally agreed that we had so much more fun playing Camel Up than we would have with Splendor.  Camel Up is a betting game where you wager on a camel race.  It is very luck driven and there is only so much you can do to control things.  But that's why it's so fun!  We had a group of adults hooting and hollering over which of these little wooden camels would cross the finish line first and it was a fantastic time.

Kemet

Kemet is also a bit of a stretch as it technically takes place in Ancient Egypt, but Egypt is pretty close to Arabia and they interact a lot so I'm tossing it in here.  This is a game that heavily involves player conflict and encourages you to attack each other.  Each player has a group of Egyptian warriors and you are both building up your civilization's technology while also vying for control on the map.  The game is gorgeous and the pieces are awesome.  You can recruit some giant god-like creatures from Egyption lore (huge Scarab beetle, Phoenixes, etc.) and it just feels awesome.  Each player as unique minis for their army and there are various ways to achieve victory.

A Distant Plain

The final game I'm 'featuring' is really one I don't expect us to play.  Not because it's not good - it's superb - but because it would jump to by and far the heaviest game ever played at FND.  This is a genuine War Game and as such it would probably be a bit of a stretch to play at FND.  If people are interested playing this or learning this, I'm all about it and feasibly if we started right at 6:30 we could probably play it by 11:30 but it'd be close with a thorough rules explanation.  I mention it this week because this game features the very recent conflict between the United States and its Coalition against the terrorist forces in Afghanistan.  It is a very recent theme and some of the beauty of this game is how educational it is.  It really helps you better understand the complex and volatile political climate of Afghanistan.  If you're interested in just checking it out, I'll have it there and perhaps we can try and schedule an extra time for it to be played.  I'm determined to make some War-Gamers out of FND, yet!

Well that's all of the featured games!  Invite some friends and bring any of your own Arabian games!  I'm thinking games like Jaipur, Istanbul, or any more I haven't heard of!  Hopefully we'll see you Friday!

1/16 Featured Games

Hello Everybody!


This upcoming Friday (in two days!) will be our regularly scheduled FND.  Attendance has been great over the past few months and we expect that to continue as we push forward through this cold January!!  If you're not busy Friday night, come play some games in our lovely (and warm) facilities and Bridge Church!

Also, mark your calendars as January has five Fridays which means we will be having a bonus FND on the fifth Friday of the month!


This upcoming Friday we will be featuring games that involve BOATS.  Boats, Boats, Boats!

I (Lee N.) will not be there this upcoming Friday so our good friends Tish and Laura will be bringing and teaching all of these lovely aquatic games!

Tsuro of the Seas

I have never played Tsuro or its sequel (of the sea), however, I see them all of the time at game stores so I've always presumed they are solid abstract games.  Tsuro of the Sea has some nice artwork that features boats, so even though it is an abstract game (meaning the theme doesn't necessarily influence the mechanics), it still fits this theme quite nicely.  Again, I've never played, so I'm not sure how it works, but according to BGG:  The basic game play of Tsuro of the Seas resembles that of Tom McMurchie's Tsuro: Players each have a ship that they want to sail — that is, keep on the game board — as long as possible. Whoever stays on the board the longest wins the game.

Hansa

Hansa is another game I've never played - in fact I'd never heard of it until Tish mentioned it (which is impressive - I'm pretty nerdy and have heard of most games).  Hansa is a neat Euro-game that has players taking the role of Hanseatic Merchants trying to buy and sell goods, establish trading posts, and do other Euro-y things along the coasts of Scandinavia. 



Settlers of Catan: Seafarers


Settlers of Catan was my gateway game and I personally own every expansion (except the newest).  Tish will be bringing her copy of Catan with the Seaside expansion.  While at this point in my life I generally avoid Catan, there is a certain degree of nostalgia when I think of it.  We played the heck out of Catan back in the day and Seafarers was always our favorite expansion.  If you've never played Settlers before then you should because its arguably the most important board game of the past twenty years (its that old).  Trading, bidding, rolling 7's.  It'll all be there.

Pirate's Cove

Pirate's Cove is produced by Days of Wonder.  Days of Wonder is probably the company that produces the most consistently good games of anybody out there. They don't make a lot of 'em per year, but when they do, they're great. Ticket to Ride, Memoir 44, Shadows Over Camelot, Five Tribes - all superb Days of Wonder games.  Pirate's Cove never really picked up the sames team as those other games, but it has gorgeous components and by all accounts is quite fun.  You're pirates.  You do piratey things. I've never played it, soo that's all I've got to offer as far as specifics, other than a complimentary arrrrr.




Niagara

Our next game has actually won the Spiel de Jahres award and did so back in 2005.  I've never played Niagara, but generally speaking games that win the Spiel are quite good.  According to BGG, here's what you do:

Niagara is set in the not particularly safe world of rushing waterfalls. In the late 18th Century, the Shawnee and Iroquois Indians pointed white Desperadoes, Mercenaries and Adventurers in the direction of hidden caches of valuable jewels, in the hopes of turning them against one another and away from their territorial expansion ambitions. Players play as some of those Adventurers.

The first player to be able to claim ownership of five jewels is the winner. But the chase after the riches has some snags. The speed of the river is always changing, since the speed depends on the decisions of the players and the changeable weather. And once a canoe goes over the falls, it's a hefty investment to replace it. And there are also the Desperadoes to contend with, who aren't above trying to plunder the riches from Adventurers returning home. Niagara is distinguished by an innovative movement mechanic as well as a beautiful three-dimensional rendering of the waterfall setting.

Dominion: Seaside

Dominion is a very famous Deckbuilding game that has roughly six thousand expansions.  The one we will be specifically featuring this Friday is the Seaside expansion which has several boat and port related cards.  In this game, everyone starts with the same ten cards and as the game progresses you add cards to your deck to try and create the most efficient engine of cards.  It plays fast, is immensely replayable because each game has different cards, and overall is a very good game.  It also is a Spiel de Jahres winner (I think).

Well, that's all of our featured games!  We hope to see you out at FND this upcoming Friday.  Bring some friends and have fun!