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!

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!

7/18 Recap

Greetings Friends of FND!

This most recent session on July 18th was another very successful gaming session!

We had fourteen people present, one of which was new.  Lee, Beth, Brian, Annmarie, Amy, Drew, Helen, Dave, Dana, David, John, Amber, Heather, and Tim (our new guy) were all present!  Fourteen is actually the lowest we've had in a few months but if that was our average (it's not) it would still be one of the highest (possibly the highest) averages of all GCOM locations.  Technically speaking it is our average attendance, but that's including the first few sessions where there were only a handful of us getting it started.  Our more accurate average is right around 16.

The theme of the week was Civilization building games and we definitely played some.

To start while waiting for newcomers there were two games going.  One was a friendly game of Uno (I'm guessing anyone reading this knows how to play Uno).  The other was Smash Up.  The big thing to come out of that was that Brian, who owns the game, finally suffered his first defeat - at the hands of Helen.

After this we segued into two groups of games.  The first table was quite large and played 7 Wonders.  Only about half of the group knew the game so Beth taught everybody.  Apparently she did a good job because after winning the first, Dana won the next two games and she was one of the newbies.  They played three straight games of 7 Wonders so apparently they enjoyed it!

While this was going on I (Lee N.) taught Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization to Tim, Drew, and Heather.  This is definitely the most complex game we've done at FND to this point and these three learned it quite impressively. We ended up calling it at the end of the Age II with me on top, but for it being the first game while I have played it a handful of times, it was pretty competitive.  They seemed to get it very well and everyone had a good time.

They finished 7 Wonders with a little time left so they finished the night with Telestrations while we finished up Through the Ages.  This was actually the smallest quantity of games in recent memory at FND but we still got a solid five different games in.

The next session is August 1 (this upcoming Friday) and the featured games should be posted within the next 24 hours.  I will be out of town for this upcoming Friday but am very okay with leaving some of my games at the church for others to use.  Below is a link to my BGG Collection.  If there's anything you really want to play Friday please leave a comment and I'll be sure to have it at the church.

http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Nicholee

Many blessings!

5/30 Recap

Greetings!

This most recent FND session featured yet again record numbers!  We had 18 people come out to play games - Lee N., Beth, Brian, Dan, John D., Lee T., Logan, Dustin, Heather, Helen, Ruth, John S., Vita, David, Dana, Jake, Drew, and Amy.  Dustin, Heather, Jake, and Logan were all newcomers.

Because we had so many people we were able to play a wide variety of games - having as many as four going at one time.

Beth taught Carcassone to David and Dana at one table.  They both seemed to enjoy the game, though David a bit less so as he was beat pretty convincingly by his wife.  Dana won this one, despite it being her first game!

Meanwhile, I taught Takenoko to Ruth, John S., and Vita.  Takenoko is a very light game involving pandas and bamboo and gardening... It's a little different, but the components are beautiful.  Like Beth, despite being the teacher, I did not win!  Vita pulled it out by just a few points.

As these games were going on more people filed in and they took to some other tables with different boxes.

Jake, John D., Any, Drew, and Helen all gathered around for a game of Smash Up!  I'm not sure of any of the details, but I do know that Helen reigned in the crown despite being dealt into the game late.

Finally, Brian, Lee T., Logan, Heather, and Dustin busted out a game of Lords of Waterdeep, which has seen quite a good deal of playtime at FND.  Brian won this game.

While Waterdeep and Smash Up! were still being played, it was time to start one of the featured games of the week - Telestrations.  Telestrations, as detailed in the preview, is party game that combines the drawing element of Pictionary with the 'telephone game.'  It is quite hysterical and the few rounds we played were no different - made particularly humorous due to a few members particularly interesting drawing abilities.

After Telestrations broke up we moved onto a whole new round of games.

Alien Frontiers, another of the featured games, was learned by Dustin, Dan, Logan, and Lee T.  Frontiers is a reasonably complicated game and they all picked up on it quite quickly.  Despite a very back-and-forth game, Dustin, taking control of the Smugglers faction, was able to end the game on top of the scoring track.

At another table John S., Ruth, and Vita taught Ticket to Ride to Dana.  Unfortunately her luck of winning new games ran out as John S. won this one.

A second game of Smash Up! started up with Jake, David, John D., Brian, and Helen, however this time it was Brian who won the game.

Finally during this stretch of time Beth taught Takenoko to Drew and Amy - Drew felt particularly manly playing a game with pretty colors and a nice painted Panda and looks forward to playing it again as soon as possible.  Despite his affection for it, he was bested by his sister - Amy won.  Apparently it was a good night for people learning games to go ahead and win.

Takenoko and Ticket to Ride finished up around the same time with still around an hour left of gaming so I taught John S., Beth, Amy, and Drew the last of the featured games - Kingsburg.  The four of them seemed to really enjoy it as there was a lot of tabeltalk occurring - particularly at the end when the King's dice roll for defense was exactly what Beth required to win the battle and have everybody else go down.  Despite that convenient luck, Drew was still able to pull out the victory with Beth in a close second.

The last game that was played was Hanabi - a fun and relatively quick cooperative card game.  Brian, Helen, Lee T., and my self played and ended with 20 points - good for the third highest winning category.  Not too bad!

As you can see we played a LOT of games!  Good times seemed to be had by all and we are very excited to see are numbers continue to grow.

We are making a large push to get our next FND past the 20-person mark so we will be doing some extra things to make that happen - including some prizes, food, and more!  Be sure to check the featured games page when it is posted for more details.

If you weren't at this most recent FND hopefully we'll catch you at the next one!

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!