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!

1/2 Featured Games

Hello current and prospective FNDers!

First and foremost, Happy Belated Holidays and Happy New Years!  Hopefully if you're reading this you had a blessed season and are continuing to do so.

In the midst of this busy time, we have one more thing to add to your list - our upcoming session on Friday, January 2nd, 2015 at 6:30 PM!  What better way to start of the new year than with some board and card games?!  I sure cannot think of one!

This upcoming session we will be featuring Games We Got For Christmas!  By "we" I don't just mean Beth and I, though those are the ones I'll be writing about, but rather everyone who comes!  So bring your new games and let's give 'em a go.  Or, if you want to play some games you've owned for a while, that's fine to.

Here are some of the featured!

Concept

Concept is a game I absolutely love - it is one of my favorite party games.  It is essentially 20-questions with pictures instead of verbal clues.  Well... Kind of.  On your turn, you get a word or phrase (anything as easy as Polar Bear to as difficult as "It is what it is").  On the table is a large board with many pictures, each a simple clip-art style image depicting some kind of 'concept.'  Using pawns of various types, you must get your team to guess your word.  If you got Polar Bear, for example, you could use a pawn to indicate it is a white animal.  If they still didn't get it, you could further indicate it is cold.  It requires a surprising amount of logical AND creativ
e thinking, which is why I love it so much - it really uses both sides of the brain.

No Thanks!

No Thanks! is a quick and light card game.  We'll probably play this between games at some point.  On your turn you either take the current card (which has a numeric value of either 3-35) or pass on it.  If you pass, you must put a chip on it.  If you're out of chips, you have to take it.  The catch is, you don't want points, so you never want cards.  But you have to take some.  When you take a card, you also get the chips that are on it - so maybe that 26 is rough, but it has 10 chips on it so it's not as bad.  Finally, if you have cards that make 'sets' of sequential numbers, only the lowest is counted.  So where as having 33 and 35 would net you 68 points (enough to give you last place almost certainly), having 33, 34, and 35 give you only 33 points.  It's fun and easy but still allows for interesting decisions, which is exactly what I look for in a card game.

Snake Oil

This was the Christmas of party games for us as we also got a fun one called Snake Oil.  This game is similar to Apples to Apples (or another game that comes in a Black Brick that shall go unnamed) in the sense that on a player's turn all other players are trying to win your vote.  In this one, on your turn you draw a card telling you what kind of  customer you are - you might be a cheerleader, or a homeless guy, or a pirate.  Then, from their hand of six cards, each other player combines two words to make a type of item.  This could be Joy Closets, or Stalker Vests, or Urine Bombs - and then they have to try and convince the consumer why their product is the one they want.  It is hilarious.

Imperial Settlers

This is the one I am most excited about.  This game just recently came out and is by the same designer as Robinson Crusoe - one of my personal favorites.  This is a civilization building game and it feels like it.  You are building an infrastructure based on cards that you put into play - some allow you to take worker-placement style actions, some give you production each round, some give you one-time scoring bonuses.  By the end, you want to be the civilization with the most points.  It is a very popular new game and is supposed to be quite excellent.

Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game

This game I've had for a while, but I received the Rebel Aces expansion for Christmas, which features a fancy new A-Wing and a fancy new B-Wing.  Last time we did this with like six players - probably a bit too much - but still had a good time.  We have enough ships where we can definitely do teams of two.

The Ancient World

This last one didn't actually come for Christmas, it just happened to arrive via Kickstarter around the same time.  This is a worker-placement game with the most beautiful artwork I think I've ever seen in a game - it is truly stunning.  The game itself seems quite enjoyable as well and it is about the same complexity level as Lords of Waterdeep.

So those are the games that WE got - feel free to post in the comments what you all got and bring 'em along to play!  Hope to see everyone out this Friday!!

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!

10/17 Featured Games and 10/3 Recap

Greeting Friends of FND!

This past Friday we had a great session!  A dozen people showed up to play dice games and dice games we did play!

To start, Beth, Drew, John, Laura, and Amy played a game of Dead of Winter.  Dead of Winter is a new release by Plaid Hat Games that has been all the rage in the gaming community.  These five players greatly enjoyed it and all of them ended up winning except for John.  DoW is a semi-cooperative game where everyone is trying to achieve a common goal in addition to their individual - the common goal was achieved, however poor John didn't achieve his individual goal.

While this was happening Tish taught Formula-De to a whole slow of people - David, Dana, David (2), and Dan (wow I didn't realize how many D's were at that table - it must have been extremely confusing).  From what I saw they were having a good time racing and Tish ended up winning.

After these were finished a group played Caverna while waiting and another played Splendor.  Once all of the games concluded we got in a couple of games of Werewolf!  It was a great night and we're excited for the upcoming one!

Feature Games - BGG Top 15

This next Friday (10/17) we will be featuring games straight off Boardgamegeek's top 15.  If you're not familiar with boardgamegeek.com, it is pretty much the only board gaming website.  It has a very intricate metric for ranking games - based off of the average vote and some how combined with the number of votes.  In other words if one person ranks a game as 10/10  and that's the only vote, it's not #1.  Generally speaking one shouldn't just look at the ranking system and assume that the #1 game on their is the best game for all scenarios, however, the games in the top 15 didn't get there by mistake - they're superb.

Not only that, but a lot of them by happenstance have not been played much in our gaming group... In fact, only three of them have.  Now nearly all of the games in BGG's top 15 are 'gamers' games.'  In other words, they're not exactly ones you'd teach people who really love Scrabble, so of course we'll still have some lighter fare.  We also don't own (or GCOM doesn't own) all of the games in the top 15 so we'll really only be featuring about a dozen of them.

This is a really good chance for you to learn some of these if you haven't played them before as they're all worth your while - plus you can have them taught to you rather than slaving over a rulebook (especially with some of the more complex ones).

With that said, in ascending order from 15-1, here are the ridiculous amount of games we'll be featuring:

#15 - War of the Ring

Ironically #15 is my personal favorite game.  War of the Ring is a 2 player game (it says 2-4, but it lies - it's two player) that recounts the epic struggles of the Lord of the Rings.  It is absolutely beautiful and it truly grasps the essence of Tolkien's work.  As a huge Tolkien fan this game is the best I've ever played.  I absolutely love it.  It's pretty heavy and again, is really just for two players.  It's pretty good to learn with a fellow noob so if two people wanna try it, this is a great chance.

#14 - Brass

Unfortunately we don't own Brass, nor does GCOM.  It involves trains and stuff....

#13 - Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island

This is the highest rated cooperative game on the geek and with good reason - it absolutely oozes theme.  This is my second favorite co-op and it is also one of my top 10 favorite games.  It's a challenge - you and your fellow players are survivors of a shipwreck and you have to achieve some type of scenario in addition to simply surviving.  This game can be somewhat unforgiving but its still great fun.

#12 - Le Havre

Le Havre is the first of three games by Uwe Rosenburg on the top 15.  They're all somewhat similar.  This one involves you constructing buildings at a shipping wharf and exchanging goods to earn the most points.  It's arguably the least stressful of his games as generally there are a lot of options available.  It's the one I know least of his games but I'll still be able to teach it if anyone is interested!

#11 - Castles of Burgundy

This lovely game by Stefan Feld is actually my wife's #1 favorite game.  In it everyone is a lord over an estate in the 13th century and you are trying to optimize your turns to have the wealthiest manor.  It's a pretty pasted-on theme but the gameplay is very elegant (I hate myself a bit for saying that, but it's true) .  It's a great game and isn't super complex once you learn to differentiated the three nearly identical shades of green that are used for different pieces in the game.  Also in German its called Die Burgen von Burgund which is just super fun to say.

#10 - Power Grid

Ironically I had to learn this classic game this week so I could teach it next Friday despite how well loved it is.  This is truly one of the modern classics of boardgaming and if you haven't played it you really ought to.  It is at its heart an auction game, but there is a lot more going on than that.  Players are manipulating pieces on a map, resources, turn order, and efficient actions all to end up with the most money.  It's a bit heady at first and may bog down a bit with a bunch of noobies, but once you play a round or two it makes perfect sense.

#9 - Mage Knight

Mage Knight has been in our collection for a while and doesn't hit the table often - mostly because it can run very long if people are prone to  analysis paralysis.  I can safely say, however, that no gam
e in my collection is quite like Mage Knight.  It is a very thinky game based around deck-building and adventuring.  Everyone starts with nearly identical decks of spells and uses them to move about a board, attacking, recruiting, pillaging, and learning.  The goal is to end the game with the most 'fame' (basically experience points).  The artwork is beautiful as well.

#8 - Eclipse

Eclipse was the most popular game ever for about 6 months in 2012 or 2011 (I forget) and then it kind of lost its buzz.  It was very highly rated as a game seamlessly combining more European mechanics like resource management and more American mechanics like combat and dice rolling.  We played the mess out of this thing when it first game out and we don't play it as much now, but it's still a great 4X space game that really should be tried if you haven't.   We do have the Rise of the Ancients expansion with this.

#7 - Caverna

This is my favorite of the three Uwe games on the list and also the most recent to come out.  Caverna is essentially Agricola 2.0 (which we'll get to shortly).  In it you are a Dwarf Cavefarmer trying to make your way in the world.  Through a series of farming, livestock-herding, mining, building, and adventuring you want to be the person with the most points.  There are an absolutely absurd amount of actions available to you and many many avenues to victory.  There are are also more wooden pieces in this box than any other game I own - I could basically go bowling with this thing it weighs so much.  This is one of my absolute favorite games and is well worth your time.

#6 - Android: Netrunner

Unfortunately we don't own Android.  It's an LCG (Living Card Game) that involves some cyber-punk cardplay.   That's all I know.

#5 -  Puerto Rico

My best guess is that if Puerto Rico came out today, it might not make the top 15 - it'd still easily be in the top 50 because it's a great game, but it's position in the top 5 of BGG (and for some time it was #1) is almost more of a homage to it's status as a game.  This game came out quite some time ago and was a smash hit.  It is really one of the quintessential Euro games. It is all about shopping, resource management, creating infrastructure, etc.  It's a very good game despite having somewhat simple components.

#4 - Agricola

The final and most important Uwe game is Agricola.  Agricola has also enjoyed some time as the #1 game on BGG and for good reason - it's really freaking good.  It is a pretty cut-throat worker placement game where players take the roles of farmers in the 14th century.  Life wasn't easy back then.  Your goal is to have the most productive farm by the end of the game.  Each game is different as players are dealt a hand of occupation cards and improvement cards that can be played throughout the game.  Despite being somewhat stressful, it is a superb game and one of the best the hobby as to offer.

#3 - Terra Mystica

I actually haven't played Terra Mystica yet nor do I own it.  It was hugely popular in 2012 but we haven't got around to it.  This is the last game we don't' own or have on loan from GCOM - 12/15 isn't bad!

#2 - Through the Ages: The Story of Civilization

This game by Vlaada Chvatil (also the designer of Mage Knight) is essentially Sid Meyer's Civ III in a box.  We've featured it before at FND and it is truly a great game.  Personally I prefer playing online (at boardgaming-online.com) as the game can be a bit fidly in person, but nonetheless it is very fun.  Like in Civ III, each player takes control of a civilization and works their way from antiquity to modern times, trying to earn the most culture by the end of the game.  You focus on infrastructure, population, happiness, military might, technology, and all of the other great things that make civilization games fun.

#1 - Twilight Struggle

The #1 game on BGG since I've really been into the hobby has been Twilight Struggle.  It is produced by GMT and is one of my personal favorite games.  This two-player war game (well... Kind of a war game) has players recreating the Cold War conflict between the USA and the USSR.  It has intrigue, deception, and tension out the wazoo.  It really feels like the Cold War as your playing it.  The historical theme is vivid and very educational.  I'm very anxious to teach this to two new players at FND as it really is best to learn with somebody else whose learning.  The game is driven by a deck of cards and knowing what's coming gives you a huge advantage - thus learning with somebody as clueless as yourself is really the way to go.  Seriously, if you haven't played this and you play games let me teach you it this next Friday.

Conclusion

Well that's the absurd number of games we're featuring this week!  Obviously we aren't going to play them all, but hopefully those are the ones we'll be choosing from!!  I very much enjoy teaching games and these are some of the best ones the hobby has to offer so hopefully folks who haven't played them will be anxious to learn.  Especially since we have so many potential games, it'd be lovely if people put comments below or emailed me requests - that way we avoid the Canadian stand-off where nobody wants to decide what to play on behalf of everybody else.

Invite friends and family!  We look forward to seeing you next Friday!!

9/19 Featured Games!

Greetings friends of Friday Night Dice!

This upcoming Friday yet again we will be hosting a game night.

We've had pretty solid streams of attendance over the past few weeks, averaging right around 15 people.  What's really exciting is how many total people we've had walk through our doors.  Without actually adding it up I believe it is somewhere in the ballpark of 50 different people come through our doors!  We're thrilled about that and would love to see that number continue to increase.

Before we get to the featured games, I want to take a moment tell ya'll that we will be hosting a special Halloween Friday Night Dice on Halloween night.  The 31st of October happens to be the 5th Friday of the month, a scheduled meeting time anyway, so that night we'll be playing scary games (well, games with 'scary' themes - Zombicide, Dead of Winter, Betrayal at House on the Hill, etc.) AND we'll be doing it in costume.  I mean, technically you can show up not wearing a costume, but preferably you will be!  We'll be giving out a prize to the best dressed attendee!  Mark your calendars now!!

So the theme for this upcoming FND is a bit unusual but I'm going to roll with it.  We'll be featuring a whole bunch of games that just came in the mail for us!   Not a very specific theme, but a lot of them are either a) recent releases, b) recent re-releases, or c) fresh from Kickstarter so I think people will be excited to try them if they haven't.

So without further adieu, here are the games we'll be playing!

Splendor

Splendor is a game that just came out in 2014 and was nominated for the Spiel de Jahres award (game of the year in Germany - it's pretty much the biggest gaming award).  It didn't win but many thought it should have.  It is a very fun and easy (super easy - like, one page rule book easy).  In the game everyone is some type of Renaissance era trader of gems.  Honestly the theme is so light it's almost an abstract game, but that's okay because the gameplay is very smooth.

CV

CV is most easily compared to King of Tokyo simply because it features the exact same mechanics - roll dice ala Yahtzee.  However, the theme is nothing similar.  In CV you are essentially living out a person's life.  Each turn your roll dice, the symbols of which include Good Luck, Bad Luck, Relationships, Money, Knowledge, and Health.  You keep the ones you want, reroll the rest, then do it again (just like in Yahtzee).  Afterward you get to buy one or two cards based on what you roll and what your other cards provide you.

It's all very thematic.  For instance, in the 'young adult' deck you can buy a Pension Plan for 2 money symbols.  This gives you an event called "Pension" that you can play later, but only once you get to the Old Age deck, and it gives you twice as much money as you put in for a one time use - very thematic.  This game is particularly exciting as it is not yet released in the United States.  I was lucky enough to find somebody selling on Ebay that picked it up from the Essen game fair in Germany.  This is a great time to check out a new hard to find game.

Among the Stars

This game was originally released in 2012 but it only just got printed again by Z-Man games.  However, at the same time Z-Man was reprinting it they were also releasing a campaign on Kickstarter.  It would get shipped to the States a bit later than Z-Man's publication would, but you could pay a similar price and get all of the promos and stretch rewards.  I chose that option and it just came in the mail!

Among the Stars is a drafting game VERY similar to 7 Wonders in play style.  However, the theme is quite different.  You use your cards to build a space station and, unlike 7 Wonders, the physical layout of your cards is very important for further turns and final scoring.  The artwork on the cards is gorgeous and between the base game, the expansion, and the ridiculous amount of promos there are so many cards you'll never have the same station twice.

Ca$h and Guns

Cash and Guns is a fun and light party game where everybody gets to shoot their friends with fake guns.  Not even joking.  Each round the 'boss' (I.E. The Godfather) counts down.  Everyone is holding foam guns.  When he says '3' everybody simultaneously points their gun at a different person, possibly inflicting damage depending on whether or not they just to play a 'click' or a 'bang' card before hand.  All players still in the round at the end of it get a share in the loot.  The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.  This game takes the ending scene in Reservoir Dogs and makes an entire game of it.  It's pretty light but it's also quite fun.  I have the new second edition of the game which looks great.

We may end up featuring one more game as I'm still waiting on Dead of Winter to arrive, but we'll see.  Either way, hopefully you'll join us as we play these and many more!

8/15 Featured Games (and 8/1 Recap)

Hello FNDers!!

First and foremost I would like to point out that GCOM website's calendar is still incorrect.  They have not updated it based on our switch to the first and third and fifth Fridays of each month (I don't have direct control over the calendar).  Our next session is August 15th followed by August 29th followed by the first Friday in September.  Please be advised to disregard where the "Annapolis" meeting site is on that calendar.

Additionally I want to say a quick apology for the blogs slightly less speedy updating over the past month or so.  My wife and I are both teachers on summer break and so we take full advantage.  Thus we are not home much and when we are things are busy.  As school begins again next week you will see this updated much more frequently and efficiently.

On a related note we have an FND coming up on Friday and I still haven't done the 8/1 recap.  On the first of the month we had over a dozen people show up for games.  I wasn't there personally but word on the street is that many a game were played.  This includes King of Tokyo, 7 Wonders, Lords of Waterdeep, Quarriors, and Smash Up.

Also, before I get into the upcoming featured games, I want to take a moment and talk about an awesome gaming experience I had over the past week!  I'm fortunate enough to be able to attend the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA with one of my best friends every summer and last week we got to go.  There are tournaments out the wazoo and open gaming 24/7 for a solid week.  It's a great time and always occurs in the first week or so of August so mark your calendars for next year if you have never heard of it.  It's only a couple hours north of Balitmore and is extremely affordable.

Because of the WBCs I got to play a few new games, some of which I'm anxious to feature this FND.  So, without further adieu.......

The theme of our featured games this weekend is BLUFFING.

Bluffing is a 'category' on Boardgamegeek that has a good number of interesting games, some of which get some pretty regular play time in our group so I'll be leaving them off this featured list (I.E. Battlestar Galactica).

Group Game of the Night:  Werewolf

If you've been gaming for any length of time you may have played Werewolf.  It's very popular, particularly at conventions like the WBCs as it thrives on huge groups.  There are plenty of people who are not a fan because of the player elimination, which is perfectly reasonable. As such, we will aim to begin a group game of Werewolf at 10:00 PM.  That way if it goes fast we can do two games.  If not and it looks like it's going to drag out then the eliminated players can go home without risk of missing other games.

Werewolf is a game where players are all given secret roles.  You are either a werewolf or a villager.  If you've played Mafia it is very similar.  All players close their eyes and then the werewolves open them, acknowledge one another, and point to a villager to eat.  That player is eliminated and then the banter occurs.  The villagers have to determine which person they will lynch in response to the murder of the night.  A lot of this part is deducing (sometimes through wild accusations) which players are in fact werewolves.  Of course, it is very likely throughout the course of the game that they will lynch a handful of villagers.  A small price to pay for ultimately getting the wolves.  You only win if you survive till the end and everyone on the other side is dead.  Quite, quite fun.

Other Featured Games:


Dixit:

Dixit is essentially a party game, but one that requires a lot more thinking and creativity than most.  If you've ever played Balderdash its quite similar.  Everyone has a hand full of unique and interesting cards with illustrations.  One person is the 'storyteller' and describes a card in his hand.  Everyone else then submits a card that could have matched that description as well.  The cards are shuffled and revealed and everyone (except the storyteller) says which they think is the correct one.  The catch here is the storyteller only gets points if at least one person guesses the correct one, but not everybody.  He must be vague and clever enough that its not obvious, but not so vague that nobody has any idea.

This game won the Spiel de Jahres (German Game of the Year) award a few years a
go and is well worthy of that praise.

Love Letter

Love Letter is a filler game (meaning its very short) that revolves around deck of roughly twenty cards.  There are eight different 'characters' in the deck, each of which has a different number of copies.  On your turn you will have one card in your hand.  You will then draw another card, discarding one of the two cards now in your hand.  Whatever the card you discard says to do, you do.  There are many ways to get eliminated or cause others to get eliminated
and a lot of the game is bluffing about what you're holding while deducing what others are holding.  A full game takes less than thirty minutes and a single round usually less than five.

Cosmic Encounter

This is an absolutely wonderful game that we are yet to play at FND and it is time that changed. Everybody takes control of an alien race and is trying to conquer five colonies on other players' planets.  Essentially each turn all you do is draw a card to determine who you're attacking, then each player simultaneously plays a numbered card from their hand.  The highest number wins.  It sounds ridiculously simple (and it pretty much is) but the real fun comes from all of the different alien races.  Each one lets you break the rules in some capacity and there are over 90 to choose from in the set we own.  No two games are the same.

Letters From Whitechapel

This is the modern Clue.  I will never play that game again now that we own Letters from Whitechapel because it so vastly outstrips it in every way.  One person plays as Jack the Ripper.  The others are the London police trying to track him down.  Using deduction and logic they systematically track him as he makes his way from murder scene to hideout over the course of four different murders.  It is a very tense game where both sides feel pressure.  Jack feels the pressure of outrunning the police and the police are worried that any second Jack will declare himself home safe and thus end the round.  We've only owned this game for a month but have played it eight times in that span.  That says a lot about its quality.

Twilight Struggle

Twilight Struggle has been #1 on Boardgamegeek's list for as long as I've been involved in the hobby.  It is on my top 3 list of my favorite games of all-time.  It is a masterful simulation of the Cold War conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union.  As such, bluffing, intrigue, secrecy, and espionage play huge roles in this game.  This is only 2-player and I only own one copy of the game but I am very happy to teach two people interested as it is best if two newbies play against each other.

All of these games will be available to play and learn this upcoming Friday.  Invite as many friends as you have!