Man, where did the time go? It’s already mid-July, and it’s still hotter than hell. I’m so ready for the Phoenix summer to be over! I’ve been staying inside a lot, playing board games naturally. Even amid all the Pokemon Go excitement (yes, I totally downloaded the game), I’m still not venturing outside too much, unless I really have to. And with that, there are two new games I’ve played in the past two weeks, and a couple oldies but goodies …
My two friends were in town last weekend, and we took a quick road trip to Sedona, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona. The state never ceases to amaze me in terms of scenery. It truly has some of the most gorgeous locations in the U.S. I posted a few photos on Instragram from the trip.
One friend left on Sunday afternoon, and the other on Sunday night. That left us with a few hours of chill time in between and, of course, some quick games. I busted out Patchwork since it’s a 2-player game and fairly short with a game time of 30 minutes.
My friend’s brother had a work party at his house last weekend, and he wanted to play board games. So my friend invited me and another guy as reinforcements to teach some games to about 20 people who don’t board game at all.
I loaded up my Big Frakkin Bag (it literally says that; it’s a Battlestar Galactica promo bag from the mid-2000s) with all sorts of party games and shorter games. My board-game friends did the same. We had no idea what people wanted and figured that it didn’t hurt having a lot of game options.
Many (many, many) moons ago, I graduated from college with an English degree. Naturally, Shakespeare has been a big part of my life, so when I saw this game at BGG Con last year, I purchased a copy. I loved the colorful artwork and was intrigued by the bidding and action-management mechanic of the game. Fast forward six months later, it’s still sitting on my shelf, waiting to be played. Shame, shame!! (Oh, wait, that’s Game of Thrones).
I recently stopped by to see my family in the LA area during my trip out to Gamex during Memorial Weekend. I decided to step back down memory lane and take photos of some of the games I used to play growing up that were still sitting on bookshelves.
Full disclosure: I only got into heavy euro gaming about five years when I was given my first gateway game, Ticket to Ride. Growing up, it was all about party games (and a few of those Girl Talk board games at sleepovers), and my sister and I had tons of fun playing these games with other family members.
Strategicon holds its board-game convention three times a year in LA. I had so much fun the last two times I went (at Gateway and OrcCon) that my friend and I decided to make the trek west again.
Over the span of the 3 days I was there, I played 12 games, one that lasted 11 hours. (We left early Monday but the con continued until late that afternoon). It was a great mix of personal favorites and learning a whole bunch of new ones. Brace yourself, folks, there’s a lot of photos ahead …
It’s been a happy week of board gaming. First up, my order of Happy Salmon has arrived! Squeee!! I first played this awesomely fun card game over a month ago at the Game Boy Geek’s house, and I’ve been patiently waiting for it to be finally released. It’s all mine! And I may have purchased an extra copy or two …
I also decided to buy Happy Pigs using my gift card to Game Depot that I won on International Tabletop Day. The pigs in this game are so freakin’ cute, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a kid’s game. It’s an economy building game where you try to get the most money from buying, feeding, mating and selling pigs.
A friend of mine recently let me borrow a few games since he’s been fairly busy recently. One game I now have in my possession is Concordia. I love this game — and it’s been on my wishlist forever — but I have never got around to buying it. Maybe a new gift card to my friendly local game store will soon remedy that?
Anyway, Concordia has a great mix of board-game mechanics: resource management, deck building, set collecting and point-to-point movement along a colorful map. The artwork on the box isn’t too exciting (and doesn’t really convey what the game exactly does), but, believe me, the game is solid. And, the rule book is 2 front-to-back pages, and one setup sheet. That’s seriously just 5 pages for a medium-heavy board game. Mind blown!
First off, I wanted to give a big thank you to friends and the folks of the Internet for voting for me in the Passport Game Studios International Table Top Photo Contest. I won a runner-up prize! Pretty sweet!! You guys are totally the best!
This past week has been a blur with work and, of course, lots of board gaming. Last Saturday was International Tabletop Day, which my friends and I took full advantage of. Our hosts at one of my gaming groups also had a raffle of board-game prizes and a cornhole tournament in which you could win $25 to Game Depot, our friendly local game store in Tempe.
I recently played Trajan a couple of times, and I’ll admit it … it’s pretty fantastic. It’s a Stefan Feld game, and, honestly, I don’t have much experience with his games, as my favorite board-game designer is Uwe Rosenberg. I feel like serious board-gamers have their go-to guy who they’re just obsessed with: Rosenberg, Feld and Bruno Cathala, who designed Five Tribes.
Anyway, before we start talking about Trajan, I’ve entered a board-game contest with Passport Game Studios. Please vote for my photo; the contest ends at April 29, 2016, at midnight. Vote here through this link. Thanks, friends!