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!

12/5 Featured Games

Hey guys and gals!
This past Friday we had an awesome night of gaming.  We played a few games with animals (as our theme indicated) and a few games without.  We got in a game of Smash Up, Lords of Waterdeep, Caverna, Robinson Crusoe, and Splendor.  I'm pretty sure an excellent time was had by all thirteen people, including our two newcomers Kevin and Clayton.

Next Friday marks an exciting day for us at FND.  It will be my wife's first day back since the birth of our son, Grady!  As such, since I'm in charge of this blog and the featured games, I'm going to be a bit selfish and have our next session's theme be "Games that Beth loves!"  I told her this recently and she responded "But then I won't be able to choose what to play!"  That's an excellent problem, my dear.

So, without further jibber jabbering, here's the games:

Splendor

Splendor is super popular right now in the gaming community and our game group is no different.  I think FND has had it played each session for the past three or four sessions.  My BGG list of games played had Ticket to Ride easily at the top for the year 2014.  In two months of owning Splendor it has soared above it, due largely to Beth's unfailing love for it.  It is a very easy game.  You take gems.  You buy things with gems.  Those things let you buy more things.  You get points.  You win.  It takes like 20 minutes but its pretty fun.


Carcassone

Carcassone is a classic tile laying game.  It's kind of like Dominoes but fun.  You get points based on how you place your meeples and the tiles each turn, creating cities and fields and roads and farms.  It's really simple and is really fun.  We have the Big Box so we have a boatload of expansions and can play up to six (I think, maybe seven).


Castles of Burgundy

Castles of Burgundy by good old Stefan Feld is a very highly regarded game by Beth and most gamers.  It is very 'elegant' for lack of a better word - on each turn you roll two dice and those basically decide your options you can take.  You're 14th century nobleman in France building up your land.  Honestly the theme is pretty lightly involved, but it is a very enjoyable game of taking efficient actions and building your estate.

Trajan

While we're listing Stefan Feld games, Beth also very much enjoys his game called Trajan.  Trajan takes the mechanisms found in Mancala and turns it into a way of taking actions.  Each turn you move little pieces around your roundel just like in mancala at whichever one you end on that's the action you take.  Now, I suspect when Five Tribes arrives at our house hold (the newest game by Days of Wonder) Trajan will go down a bit as it uses a similar mechanic in a bit lighter of a way, but nonetheless right now Beth really enjoys Trajan.


Ticket to Ride

Beth, like every other human being, enjoys Ticket to Ride - particularly on our fancy 10th Anniversary Edition.  Trains.  Tickets.  Pretty maps.  I don't think I need to explain Ticket to Ride much more than that.

Escape: Curse of the Temple

We literally just got this game, however we played it three times in a row just the two of us the first night - which is impressive because we don't play a lot of games two player.  This game occurs in real time (exactly 10 minutes long) and you are trying to escape a temple (picture Indiana Jones) before it caves in on you.  You are frantically rolling dice as fast as you can in order to get the necessary symbols to secure the required number of power gems needed to escape.  Curses can come up that prevent you from talking, make you lose dice that fall on the floor, and all sorts of other crazy things.  It is super fun and fast and frantic.


Kingsburg

Kingsburg is a dice rolling game somewhat similar to Castles of Burgundy.  You use your dice to influence various advisers, thus getting resources, which you can use to build up your little empires defenses and infrastructure.  It's really simple and it is really enjoyable - I don't think anyone's ever played it with me and not had a good time.  Beth, of course, enjoys it too.

Ultimate Werewolf

And finally we couldn't have a game night dedicated to what Beth enjoys without it also including a chance for her to lie and betray all of her friends.  So we'll play werewolf at some point.  If you're new and have never played, essentially you lie to your friends about whether you're a werewolf or a villager and try to get them killed.  It's fun.

So, those are all of the games we'll be playing next Friday!  I hope to see everybody out!  Even though they're games Beth enjoys, I think overall they're games the majority of FND enjoys, too.  I will update this again if I a 'reminded' of any games I forgot :-)

Blessings!

Memorial Day Board-B-Que Recap

Greetings FNDers!

This past weekend, as many of you know, FND hosted a Memorial Day Board-B-Que.  Attendance staggered in slowly over the first couple of hours but by the end of the day we had 15 people show up!  Not too bad for a bonus event on a holiday.

Those present were Lee (myself), Beth, Brian, Annmarie, Jill, Dave, Evie, Lanna, Lily, John, Dan, Lee T., Don, Judy, and David.

Over the course of the afternoon/evening we got a lot of games in and also ate some food hot off the grill!  If you're reading this now I will be uploading pictures as soon as I get home this evening from the event.  For now just imagine pictures of devilishly handsome and intelligent people playing board games.

To start Lee (me), Jill, Evie, Lonna, and Lee T. played a game of King of Tokyo.  Evie was a bit aggressive and got her monster killed in round 2.   Lanna dealt the final blow to Lee T. not too far along, leaving the rest of us to fight it out for supremacy.  The body count stayed at 2 and I won the game by achieving 20 victory points, largely by accumulating cards that gave me points for subsequent purchases as well as discounts to subsequent purchases - a powerful combo! 

After this we split up a bit.  Brian, Annmarie, Jill, and Beth played a game of Smash Up!  I didn't write down what everyone was, but I believe Beth was time-travelling ninjas, Jill was trickster something or another.whatevers that Jill was playing will have something to say about that next time.
.. Oh well, they were all amusing things.  From what I understand the game was quite close and despite it being Jill's first game, it was a tie ball game right until the last turn, where Annemarie deviously handed the game to her boyfriend on her turn giving him the victory.  I suspect the Trickster

While that occurred, Dave and I played Memoir 44!  It was both of our first time playing so we did the recommended starting scenario - Pegasus Bridge.  It features the Allied forces trying to capture two bridges from the Nazis and historically was one of the first battles of D-Day.  Fortunately for the real-life Allies they did not have me in charge, as in our retelling the Axis won the contest, collecting 5 victory medals to my 4.  Dave had a magically good unit of infantry burrowed in behind sand bags that I simply could not defeat due to some pretty poor dice rolling on my part.  Nonetheless, Dave won the game fair and square and be both came away really enjoying the easy mechanics and historical theme of Memoir 44.

A third game popped up during this - Dan, John, and Lee T. played 7 Wonders.  Lee T. ended up pulling out the victory, though I believe all of the scores were within seven points of each other.

After all of this it was time to start cooking I passed on the game of Lords of Waterdeep that began with Brian, John, Dan, and Lee T. and opted to play some Telestrations with everyone else.  We had a great time playing Telestrations - it's hard not to.  Unfortunately the Waterdeep game did not get finished as some of them had to leave early.

Food was then eaten with joy and delight.

After we finished up eating we still had more time to game!

A 5-player game of Ticket to Ride broke out between Beth, Don, Lee T., David, and myself.  I ended up pulling out the victory in this one, due in large part to some extraordinarily lucky ticket draws on the last turn.  I realized I would probably come in 2nd or 3rd if I didn't take a gamble and ended up drawing three tickets I'd already completed on the final turn of the game!  Otherwise, my lovely wife would have won.

While this was happening Jill taught Evie and Lonna Castles of Burgundy.  Jill won pretty handily but the girls did well for their first time!

Finally, Beth, Lee T., David, and I closed out the game with a game of Hanabi, which is a fun and easy cooperative card game.  Beth and I just picked it up so it was only our second time playing.  For our first game we did pretty well, netting 21 points (out of 25 possible) and scoring in the second highest victory line!  We really enjoyed the new game and were pretty pleased with the purchase, especially since it was a meager 8 dollars.

As you can see we played a LOT of games!  It was a great day and we saw the consistent numbers continue, which was particularly exciting because we half of the group were people at their first or second FND event. 

If you couldn't make it out, hopefully you'll be joining us this upcoming Friday (5/30) for our next FND regular session.

Blessings!

Memorial Day Board-B-Que Games

Greetings FNDers and Friends!

As has been made known on a couple of posts via this blog, this upcoming Monday - Memorial Day (5/26) we are hosting an all-day gaming event with cook-out.  The full details are on a previous post, but know that it'll be occurring at Bridge Church (our usual spot) from 1 PM - 8PM.

As I've mentioned previously, the goal here is to play games that involve some type of conflict in honor of the holiday.  We are extremely grateful to the men and women, regardless of how long ago, that have served and sacrificed and very real ways so that on Monday we can enjoy simulating games of conflict while snacking on grilled meat and cold beverages.  It is so we could enjoy days like that those men and women gave everything and it is not lightly that we enjoy them.

As such we will begin at 1 PM simply by lifting up a prayer of thanks and remembrance for those who have given their lives.  If you're not comfortable with that you by no means have to join in with praying and can simply join in by being thankful and remembering.  That won't take long but we think it is important to begin the festivities with remembering the holiday itself.

After that we will have a whole array of games awaiting us!  While we'll have the normal array of games out, again, we'd like to see people stepping maybe a tad out of their comfort zone and play some games that you normally wouldn't.  Of course, if you'd rather play something that has nothing to do with conflict we won't stop you!  We're just happy to have you bless us with your presence.

Here are the games that we'll be playing and their target audience/complexity:

Party Game:  King of Tokyo (If you're the type that normally likes The Game of Life and Group Solitaire, then this game is for you.)

Okay... Calling this a "Conflict/War Game" is really a bit of stretch, at least in terms of involving Memorial Day... There aren't any people really involved, unless you count the citizens of Tokyo that are running in fear from all of the stereotypical monsters involved in its demise.

Nonetheless this is a game where you are trying to be the biggest and baddest monster and claim Tokyo for yourself.  Each player takes control of one of six available monsters, each of which mimic (while carefully avoiding copyright infringement) monsters from some of the best (by which I mean worst, by which I mean best) old movies available.  This includes "The King," "Gigazuar," and "The Kraken," amongst others. 

The game is played almost exactly like Yahtzee, but instead of just getting sets of numbers, you're using the symbols on the nice to punch other monsters in the face, heal yourself, or buy super cool power ups.  It is very easy.  We've taught this to ten year olds and they've gotten it and loved it their first turn. 

If you're somebody who is a bit overwhelmed by any kind of strategy game then this is probably the best place you could start as it is just pure fun.

Light Game: Small World
(If you prefer games like Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, or Dominion, then this game is for you.)

Smallworld is a game that tips its hat a bit to Risk, but is about 50,000,000 times more fun and only takes around 80 minutes to play.

Each player will assume the role of a generic mythology-esque race:  I.E. halflings, dwarfs, giants, wizards, skeletons, etc..  In addition, they will get a bonus attribute that essentially acts as an adjective to the race.  So instead of just being giants, you might be Flying Giants.  Or Seafaring Skeletons.  Or Spirit Halflings.  Yup, Ghost Hobbits.  I could stop there...

Basically you're vying for control of the map.  One of the key elements of the game is being able to go into 'decline.'  Essentially this means you abandon your current race and pick a completely new one at an opportune time. 

Small World is a staple of the lightweight game and really is above and beyond any other conflict games that could go into this category.

This game is really not any more difficult than Ticket to Ride and in my opinion is way more fun than Settlers of Catan. 

Light Game:  Cosmic Encounter

Cosmic Encounter is another light game that involves heavy player interaction and just a whole mess of fun.

Every player stars as a specific alien race and controls five home planets.  Their goal is to get foreign colonies on five of any of their opponents planets.  This involves a lot of player interraction and table talk, focusing around very straightforward mechanics.  The super fun part is each alien race.  In the base game and the one expansion I own there are aroudn 90 available aliens, each of which lets you do anything from making minor tweaks to rules to inventing completely new ones.   They're all unique and all quite fun.

This is also a game where multiple people can win and endings are almost always memorable.  One game I played with a group of friends involved one of the players getting a rather annoying alien power.  He proceeded to use this power in the most obnoxious ways possible.  As a result, the rest of the group decided to team up and win together - so we did!  It was a four person victory with one loser, ha!  Quite enjoyable.

Again, this one is quite simple and a great one to play with 4-6 players.

This game, like Small World, is not much tougher than a Dominiion or Settlers, so if that's your comfort zone, check this out!

Light-Medium Game:  Memoir 44

Ah, finally a game that actually involves war between humans on Earth and in some way simulates real events!  The company Days of Wonder is most known for its game Ticket to Ride, however second behind that is either Small World (shown above) or its World War 2 simulator Memoir 44.

Memoir 44 is one of the most accessible miniatures games there is.  Players take the side of either the Axis or the Allied forces and play out any one of a number of short scenario battles - i.e. the Landing at Omaha Beach.

Play is very straightforward and very simple - Days of Wonder really shines with accessibility in their games.  If you've never played any kind of war or conflict game that simulates real life events this is a very fun one to start out. 

This game plays just 2-players so bring a buddy who you want to learn it with and somebody at FND will be thrilled to teach you!

If you want to try an easy and short conflict simulation then this is absolutely the place to start.  Plus it doesn't take long so if you don't like it, then you still have 7 hours to play other games!

Medium-Heavy Game:  Twilight Struggle

It would not be a proper War Game day if we did not include a spot for Twilight Struggle.

I really got into the hobby of boardgaming in 2010 and since then not a day has passed where Twilight Struggle has not worn the crown of #1 game on Boardgamegeek.  Let me tell you, it is for good reason.  While my personal favorite game award will go to the one I discuss next, Twilight Struggle is top 3 for me.

It is a simiulation of the conflict of the Cold War between the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republic.  It is produced by GMT Games which means the key word used to describe the components is 'functional.'  GMT doesn't specialize in fun action figures or flashy colors so don't expect that - at the same time, don't let the less-than-flashy chits make you think this game isn't loads of fun.

The mechanics of it are relatively easy - each player has a hand of cards (each of which is unique) and throughout the game they are strategically using those card to influence different countries in the world.  Because of the way scoring and the cards work, there is a deep sense of distrust, intrigue, and paranoia that develops.  I learned a good deal about various events of the Cold War from this game and the simulation is spot on. 

Knowing the cards in this game gives a HUGE advantage so it would be best to play this 2-player product with a fellow newbie.  Lucky for you, Brian and I are the only two people who are familiar with the game so you're almost guaranteed to be playing somebody on equal footing.  It's a bit heavier and will probably take 2-3 hours, but it could take less if somebody wins early.

Seriously.  If you consider yourself a gamer and you haven't played this, then getting in for a game should be at the top of your list.  It is that darned good. 

Medium-Heavy:  War of the Rings

Like I said previously, one of the unique opportunities of this event is the ability to learn and play some 2-player games that don't get much face time at normal FND events.  This is one of them.  It is also worth noting this is my favorite game of all time.

When it comes to games based on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you will hardly find a pickier person than myself.  I have great contempt for games that paste on the LotR theme (particularly the movies) just because it'll earn them some extra cap.  I played the Lord of the Rings: Deckbuilding Game recently and absolutely loathed it.  Terrible game. 

War of the Ring, however, is brilliant.  Tolkien's writings (it is based on the books, not the movies) shines through the entire.  It genuinely FEELS like Tolkien.  Even better it does a superb job of playing the "what if?" game.  In the game you can answer questions like "What if Gandalf hadn't fallen in Moria?"  "What if Aragorn stayed with the ring in Mordor?"  "What if Boromir left the fellowship immediately to aid the war in Gondor?"

The most recent game I played (we also used the expansion Lords of MIddle-Earth) began with Merry departing the fellowship early because of fervent pursuit from Nazguls.  This forced him to go back to Rivindell where he joined a batallion of Elves.  Meanwhile, the Balrog escaped Moria and threatened to burn Rivendell to the ground.  Merry fought and defeated the Balrog but gave his own life in the process.  It was the most epic moment in recent War of the Rings memory.  And it is moments like that why I absolutely LOVE this game.  It is currently the only 10/10 on my BGG collection.

Medium-Heavy:  Wilderness War

Wilderness War is another production by GMT.  It is the third of the two-player games we'll be showcasing at the Board-B-Que.  We don't necessarily expect all three to be played (though we hope they will be) but we we like to give options, particularly for people interested in learning some 2-player games.

Wilderness Wars is a simulation of the French-Indian War.  Like Twilight Struggle, it is a Card-Driven Game and features the manipulation of events and operation points to achieve victory.  To be honest, Wilderness is a recent purchase and I'm still only midway through digesting the rules, but I'll have them down by Monday in order to fully teach the game.

This is one of the highest rated War Games and is as popular as it is because of how accessible it is.  I personally picked it up because I find colonial history to be one of the most interesting and this puts you smack-dab in the center.  One side controls the French and the other the British, trying to win full control over the colonies of the New World. 

There are various scenarios so the time of this can be pretty decent with the shorter one only taking a couple of hours.

Heavy War Game:  A Distant Plain

Our final game that I want to feature on the blog is the heaviest we will do:  A Distant Plain, again by GTM Games.   I recent posted my first official game review on boardgamegeek and it was of this game so if you want the full write-up, check it out.

A Distant Plain is a four-player game and it is the newest installment of GMT's "COIN Series."  All three COIN games depict simulations of various Counterinsurgency struggles.  A Distant Plain details the 21st century conflict in Afghanistan.

The four sides of the conflict are the U.S./U.K. Coalition, the Afghan Government, the Taliban, and the Warlords.  The cool part about this game is that all four factions play totally asymmetrically, which is why I'm labeling this as heavy.  The general flow of the game is actually very simple, it's just keeping track of all of the options that is tough.  I have played this game and have a good understanding of it and am aiming to teach this to four people and just stand and help out.

I think this is VERY accessible to people who have played their share of medium games and am very much hoping to get a full game of this going - in fact I'd say that is the priority for Monday as far as these deeper war-games go.


Concusion:

The big thing here is to not be daunted by games a notch above where you're used to playing.  FND leaders will be there to teach ALL of these games.  I'm a teacher by profession and enjoy doing so and can all but guarantee you will come away understanding and enjoying them.  In particular do not let the big heavy ones scare you!!  They look VERY intimidating but I carefully selected ones that are accessible for a reason.

Ticket to Ride is a delightful game, but it's not the only one!

As I've mentioned before please RSVP via my email (lee.a.nicholas@gmail.com) or by commenting on this blog as we will be grilling up some munchies for all present (for FREE)!

Also if you have any questions or really want to sign up for a specific game, say so in the comments and you'll get a seat reserved at one of the games being played.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!!