Last weekend, Chris and I got invited to Tucson to play some games for the weekend. It was a nice trip out of town to see board gamers, and while I was there, I played a dozen games, some of which were new to me! And by the way, I did not misspell Arizona; that’s from “What We Do In The Shadows.” Highly recommend that show!
We began Saturday morning by teaching a game of Iki. It’s been so long since I’ve pulled this from my shelf, as we have the first edition version. The game is set in feudal Japan, and you’re hiring professionals to set up storefronts with their trade, but you’ll have to watch out for fires, which can burn those stores to the ground! I really enjoy the rondel mechanism of this game, traveling across the streets of Edo, to take your turn.
It’s feudal Japan yet people still need to travel the streets of Edo for goods in Iki.
Next, we played Carnegie. This is a game I’ve been wanting to learn since its release, especially since it’s on Board Game Arena, but I never got around to it. It’s a strategic euro, so I knew it would be right up my alley. Carnegie was inspired by the life of Andrew Carnegie, who became one of the major players in the rise of the United States’ steel industry. During the game you will recruit and manage employees, expand your business, invest in real estate, produce and sell goods, and create transport chains across the U.S. as well as become an illustrious benefactor.
Trying to build connections among U.S. cities in Carnegie. And make philanthropic donations as well.
I really enjoyed the action-selection mechanism of the game. There’s an action board set up randomly for gameplay, and when it’s your turn, you choose a main action, which could also correspond to a section of the map activating or other actions, and then everyone else has the opportunity to follow through with those same actions. Meanwhile, you’re building out your player board to add buildings, hire workers and increase your income.
Next up was Montana. I have not played this game in forever (even though we actually own it!). And seriously, more gamers need spinners. Wheeee! In Montana, it’s a race to build your settlements on the wide open land. On your turn, you can recruit the right workers to later purchase matching goods, deliver goods on time, and choose your settlements tactically. The first player to build all their settlements onto the board wins the game.
This version of Montana is deluxified. Those cow meeples are so cute!
I then taught a game of My Favorite Things. This trick-taking game can always be so random but I like knowing more fun stuff about who I’m playing with. One didn’t like the work of taking a card out of the sleeve to write answers in the middle of the game, as it goes for two rounds, but I think the game is just delightful as it is.
I love the randomness of the categories in every game of Eye My Favorite Things.
We then played a quick game of Tinderbox, a tiny dexterity game about building a campfire using teeny tweezers. You draw a card on your turn, and you have to complete that structure and put it onto the existing campfire. Sometimes you have to use your non-dominant hand, too! It’s silly and short, and I like that it fits into a small tin about the size of a deck of cards.
Look at this demure campfire! Very mindful.
After dinner at Serial Grillers, a fun restaurant with menu items named after movie serial killers, we played a couple of party games. First was Belratti: Is This Art or Can It Go? This neat deduction game splits the group into buyers and painters, and they’re both playing against a dirty counterfeit painter rat named Belratti. Buyers ask for a certain number of cards from artists to match a theme, and artists submit paintings of items face down into a pile, as well as four cards from Belratti. Buyers must then pick which cards are from the artist. If you pick one of Belratti’s paintings, he scores the point, and if he scores too many points, everyone loses the game.
What is art and what is a counterfeit? The buyers have to figure it out themselves!
The next party game was Green Team Wins! This was super fun but I’m so bad at it! A card asks a question, and everyone has to write down an answer. It’s not about writing down the right answer; it’s about writing the answer that you think everyone else will write down. If you’re in the majority, then you get on the green team and score points. If there’s a tie among the answers, then Green Team Wins!
Whatever the answer is, Green Team Wins!
The last game of the night was Sandbag, a trick-taking game with a mechanism that allows you to delay playing cards, i.e. sandbagging, because you do not want to win any tricks. You can play a card from your hand, or play it face down in front of an opponent to play one of the two cards in front of them that are face-up. As these face-up cards get replaced and played, the trump card changes based on the majority of the colors showing. Players also have one face-down card that represents the actual sand bag, which then basically becomes almost zero when playing, thus preventing you from taking that trick.
Sandbagging your turns so you don’t win any tricks in Sandbag.
On Sunday, we played three games before heading back to Phoenix. Chris and I played a 2P game of Nanga Parbat, where you’re a member of the Sherpa community establishing base camps and trapping animals. On your turn, you take an animal off the board in the section where the guide is situated and replace it with one of your meeples. The guide then moves to the location matching the number of the space where you just placed your hiker meeple. Once you have meeples all lined up in a group, you can replace them with basecamps and score them. Also, once you have a certain number of matching or different sets of animals, you can score them as well . Each scoring threshold can only score once, so if your opponent has done it, you can only score something larger or smaller. I really enjoy the mechanism of choosing when to score things, as you only have a certain number of scoring cubes to do so.
Collecting animals and placing camps in Nanga Parbat.
We then played Isle of Skye, a bidding tile-laying game. Players draw three tiles each round, and behind a screen, they price out the cost of two tiles with money in their bank and ax one of them (to be returned to the bag). When ready, players go around buying tiles based on their cost, with the opponent’s money and the money you placed to price it going to you, to place into their landscape. If your tile doesn’t get purchased by another player, you send the coins placed to price it to the bank but you get to keep the tile. There are four scoring objectives chosen for each game, and for each round, two to three of those scoring objectives will be scored, so you can play your strategy around that.
Building my landscape with ships, stables and animals. Hope they all score big!
Next up was Wandering Towers. This game was a hoot! And like, I had never heard of this game before until that day. The game comes with these cute cardboard tower sections that can be stacked and it begins with everyone’s meeples placed on top of them. The black Ravenskeep then sits at the end of a circle of towers. Players get dealt a hand of cards, and using those cards, you can either run your meeple toward the Ravenskeep a certain number of steps, or move towers to stack on top of other ones, potentially trapping meeples that were originally at the top-most level of the tower. It’s up to you to remember where your meeples are because once they’re covered, they cannot be uncovered until you or someone else decides to move levels of the tower that will reveal you.
These meeples can leap tall towers in a single bound! Unfortunately, those towers keep wandering!
There’s nothing more satisfying than trapping meeples in the middle of a tower level. And once a meeple completes their way to the Ravenskeep, the Ravenskeep tower itself moves. The moving target makes for a fun race and its gorgeous table presence is an added bonus!
The last game of the weekend was Windmill Valley, where players take on the roles of tulip farmers and entrepreneurs to build and enhance windmills, look for tulip bulbs in foreign trade or among vendors, and plant them in your garden for VPs. This game also has a cool action mechanism board, in which your two wheels rotate based on the dyke’s water level, which then determines which one of the two actions you can do. I love timing out your movements, and the game somewhat forces you to move along your wheel faster than others so you can gain better end-of-season bonuses. It’s such a crunchy euro, one that I hope to play again soon!
Tiptoeing through the tulips and windmills in Windmill Valley.
I had a great two days in Tucson gaming with old and new friends. Which of these games have you played? For funsies, I’m sharing a photo that my husband took. He told me to stand in front of this giant saguaro cactus. I think it just wanted to give me a hug! 🌵
Last month, my husband and I went to Japan! It was our first time visiting the country, and it was such an amazing trip! Chris and I spent 6 days in Tokyo, and then we took a cruise with family members around Japan, with stops in Kagoshima, Akita and Aomori in Japan, as well as Busan, South Korea. I loved every minute of it!
Visiting the Sensoji Temple.
The months leading up to our trip really did feel like Let’s Go To Japan, a darling board game about planning your visit to Tokyo and Kyoto. We didn’t make it to Kyoto, but we definitely will be back again!
A few things I learned about Japan during my trip:
It’s hot in June and very, very humid. (This desert lady was struggling!)
A digital Suica card does not work on Android phones. I had to purchase a physical card and load it up at kiosks inside the stations. The card is also very handy for buying drinks from vending machines.
If you want to make reservations at popular places, reservations open on the 10th the previous month you’ll be going. Our trip was in June, so I made sure to log into places on May 10 to make reservations. Reddit is a good source of information to secure in-demand reservations. I wanted Studio Ghibli Museum tickets. We tried on three computers, and we still couldn’t get tickets.
Tokyo is ginormous, but it’s very easy to navigate using their train system. We only knew a few key Japanese phrases, but didn’t encounter any difficulties in communicating.
Trip highlights
The moment you set foot in Tokyo, the image of Mt. Fuji is everywhere! But nothing compares to seeing it in person. We lucked out and it was a clear day during our day tour, which included a visit to Hakone, a boat ride on Lake Ashi and taking the bullet train back to Tokyo.
It was a good day to see Mt. Fuji!
Chris and I got to see a baseball game at the Tokyo Dome. The Yomiuri Giants were playing the Orix Buffaloes. Baseball is serious business in Japan, and the energy at the game was nonstop! There were sections for each team that included musicians and hard-core fans who all had some kind of choreographed cheer.
Our baseball game was packed! Lots of food options, too, from bento boxes to American fare, including alcoholic drinks, which workers with mini-kegs on their backs will pour at your seat.
We also got tickets to the Kirby Cafe. I got these tickets by staying up at 2 a.m. on May 10 since they released reservations at 6 p.m. May 10 Tokyo time, and frantically hoping for a time slot that fit our schedule. And we succeeded! This place was just so adorable!
I wish they had giant utensils for sale! It would be perfect for my Filipino kitchen. #iykyk
The food isn’t anything fancy, but the experience was just delightful. Since it required reservations, the place was not too crowded, unusual for most of the places in Japan we visited. They also had a Kirby Cafe, where you can buy lots of Kirby souvenirs. I bought a Kirby Cafe kitchen towel, among other things.
This very sleepy Waddle Dee was too almost too cute not to eat!
And what’s a trip to Tokyo without shopping! I brought a carry-on backpack with my clothes, which I then stuffed into a giant suitcase, which was essentially empty for all the souvenirs, Japanese beauty products and board games I wanted to buy there.
One of the Yellow Submarines in Tokyo.
We visited Yellow Submarine in Akihabara. It was so cool seeing all the games that aren’t readily available in America, as well as Japanese versions of popular board games.
I wanted to buy all of them!
I was on the lookout for Nokosu Dice and Come Sail Away, but alas, they were both sold out. We did, however, buy a bunch of games! Our lovely vacation haul!
Our Yellow Submarine haul. Which games have you played?
Lastly, what’s a trip to Tokyo without visiting Don Quijote. This massive store has endless flavors of kitkats, beauty products, Sanrio and Nintendo merchandise, all the snacks you can imagine and so much more. A lot of tourists visit this store, and I can see why. It’s a one-stop shop for a lot of things you’d want to bring back home. I bought so many face masks, skincare products and makeup here.
It’s seriously sensory overload at Don Quijote. Make sure you stick to your shopping list!
I also visited not one, but two Sanrio stores. There’s a cool stamp machine where you can create your own Sanrio stamp. I bought two: one of Hello Kitty and one of Keroppi, both with my name on it. I also bought a cool black Hello Kitty purse that I used for the rest of my trip.
I love Sanrio almost as much as I love board games!
The second week of my trip was aboard the Diamond Princess, which was an 8-day cruise that included four ports of call. Chris and I played a lot of trivia during our sea days, and it was nice hanging out and traveling with family.
Dressing up for formal night on the cruise.
Our first port was Kagoshima, known for their sweet potatoes and green tea. We visited the Chiran Peace Museum and Sengan-en, a Japanese garden attached to a former Shimazu clan residence.
Chris being the perfect height to take this funny photo in Kagoshima.
Our one visit outside of Japan was to Busan, South Korea. It was my first time visiting Korea but Chris’ second time. The day’s highlights included Haedong Yonggungsa, a large temple built overlooking the ocean, and Gamcheon Culture Village, dubbed the “Machu Picchu of Korea,” a densely populated community built on a very steep hillside that’s accessible by narrow roadways. I could’ve walked around there for the whole day!
You can barely see the narrow winding streets, but they’re down there!
In Akita, we got to see Akita dogs, visit a geisha house and enjoy a tea ceremony, and learn about the Kanto Festival, where people would balance a bamboo pole that held a large number of paper lanterns, at the Neburi-nagashi Museum.
Me trying to balance a bamboo pole with a small amount of lanterns.
Lastly, in Aomori, we rode the Hakkoda Ropeway up the mountain, and visited both the Nebuta Museum and the Jomon World Heritage Site. The Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse exhibits the four Nebuta floats from the previous year’s festival. The artistry in these exhibits was a sight to see, and to have a dedicated space for them year-round showcased how high these artists were held and how important the festival was for the prefecture.
These lanterns were massive and so detailed!
The Jomon people were hunter gatherers during 14000 to 300 BC, and remnants of their coastal village, as well as tons of pottery, were excavated in Aomori. The Sannai-Maruyama Site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021.
This is a replica of one of their structures.
The room where they excavated the original foundation, which still had remnants of wood inside.
Chris and I were on vacation for two weeks and a day. We flew to Tokyo out of LAX, and then caught the cruise out of Yokohama, which is still in the greater Tokyo area. I can’t wait to go back and explore even more of Japan — and buy more games! I’ve already played Let’s Make a Bus Route twice, and each time I’ve introduced it to new players, they enjoyed it.
Walking around in Yokohama. For those who play Yakuza: Like A Dragon, this area would be familiar.
If you do make it to Japan, wear comfy shoes (you’ll be doing so much walking!) and bring a coin purse. There’s endless machines for refreshing drinks and capsule machines, which pop out little toys and charms. I may or may not have come back with lots of Hello Kitty and Kirby figurines. Have you all been to Japan? And for those who have, what’s your favorite thing about visiting?
Last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend Circle DC, a convention held on April 5-7 hosted by Fort Circle in the nation’s capital! Votes for Women was my top game of 2023, so I wanted to support the game’s publisher, plus check out some sights and sounds in D.C. One of my goals this year is to attend more conventions. Circle DC is a great convention for historical game designers; I actually played more prototypes than published games!
Spring in Washington, D.C.
Prior to the convention’s start, Fort Circle hosted a reception at Astro Beer Hall, where we got to meet fellow convention-goers and eat some yummy food. These mixers are always a nice start before all the gaming about to take place for the next few days.
Hanging out with Drew Wehrle, Yoni Goldstein, Dan Bullock and Liz Davidson.
Friday
The convention was held at Planet Word museum in a private events room. I stayed a hotel a little over a mile away and walked to the convention.
The Planet Word museum, where Circle DC was held this year.
I first played a prototype by Liz Davidson of Beyond Solitaire and David Thompson called Night Witches. This is coming to Kickstarter soon from Fort Circle, and the game is about the all-female pilots of the Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment working together to fly harassment missions on the Eastern Front during WWII. The game will include a 10-mission campaign, with individual maps bound together in a spiral notebook. Players go on missions as pilots to avoid spotlights, evade attacks and ultimately kill Nazis, while managing their resources such as fuel, stress levels and bombs. This is Liz’s first design and I can’t wait for it to come out!
Liz Davidson and David Thompson’s prototype of Night Witches.
Next up was Volko Ruhnke’s newest prototype, Hunt for Blackbeard, which will also be published by Fort Circle. I’ve played multiple COIN games from Volko and this was quite a departure from those usual games. This is a 2-player hidden movement game where the colony of Virginia and its Royal Navy are tracking down the notorious pirate Blackbeard, whose fleet is living that pirate life down in North Carolina. The game is set up with blocks placed in a recessed board, with the Royal Navy side seeing all blanks, while Blackbeard is sailing from point to point carrying out his piracy.
Blackbeard hiding from the Royal Navy in North Carolina.
A big group of us went out to dinner to Ella’s Wood Fired Kitchen with Sebastian Bae and friends, some of whom are members of the Georgetown University Wargaming Society.
The last game of the night was Fruit, Dan Bullock’s latest prototype, about United Fruit in Latin America during a period of 50 years during the early 1900s. Each country has its own national objective, and the players, as business people, have secret priorities, ranked in priority The game begins with drafting cards and then taking actions with those cards while triggering events on the card itself. This is a very early playtest, but I’m excited to see how this game develops!
Exporting bananas in Fruit.
We ended Friday night with drinks at the Moxy Hotel at Lucha Rosa. Cheers!
Cheers! Dan, Yoni and I found a rooftop bar in the Moxy Hotel near the convention.
Saturday
The first game I played on Saturday was Chicago ’68 by Yoni Goldstein. This game takes place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. One side plays as the Establishment, and the other side plays as the Demonstrators. The game takes place over five rounds; each round has two phases that is daytime and nighttime. Each player plays from two decks of action cards, depending on daytime or nighttime. Players are attempting to seed the bag with their delegates, as one delegate is pulled at the end of each round. Whoever controls the majority at the end of the game wins. I really enjoyed this game, and while this is a prototype, the game feels pretty solid to me.
Chicago ’68 is a historical game about the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests.
Next up was Rafter Five, a cute little Oink game that I’ve been carrying around recently. Players are building planks with skinny strips of paper that one of the rafters have to stand on. The rafters are originally standing on top of the two Oink game boxes stacked on top of each other, and the game quickly evolves into a dexterity game of paper, rafters and placing a treasure chest on the newly placed plank. Placing all your treasure chests are required for victory.
Trying not to drop any treasure chests or rafters in Rafter Five.
It’s a delightful yet nerve-wracking dexterity game in which you’ll eventually have to pick up a rafter meeple that may or may not be keeping a bunch of planks in place. Or if you’re really mean, you place the plank in a precarious place so it’ll fall off and penalize your opponent.
Ryan Heilman, Tim Densham of Catastrophe Games, Chris and Wendy from Dice Tower, and I play Rafter Five before it all came tumbling down.
I then played a prototype for Peace 1905, which is about the Treaty of Portsmouth during the Russo-Japanese war. It can be played as a 2P game with Japan vs Russia, or a 3P game, adding Teddy Roosevelt as the third nation who is trying to achieve balance between the issues the other countries are negotiating. Players place face-down cards one at a time to vote on issues, and if there’s a giant difference between the two sides, the tension increases between the two nations. If tensions are really high, an event card will trigger where the two countries can participate in some party or billiards to reduce the tension. Teddy wins if both sides are in a tie.
Negotiating the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese War.
I then played Union Stockyards, an economic game about the meatpacking district in Chicago during the Gilded Age. I had such a hard time making money in this game, as the livestock market was constantly in flux! Players are also increasing brand recognition, building polyomino shaped buildings to connect to a network, and constructing houses in various cities in the hopes the train network will enter that market. But if there is worker dissatisfaction, they strike, essentially losing one action during the round.
The meatpacking industry in Union Stockyards.
Circle DC held a raffle each day; the grand prize for Saturday’s raffle was the Dune bucket.
The crowd on Saturday night at Circle DC.
I totally put all my tickets for this but did not win. Liz Davidson was the lucky recipient!
You know I totally stuck my hand in this. It’s much softer than it looks!
I then played Arcs, the latest game from Leder Games and designed by Cole Wehrle, who taught us how to play. I enjoyed playing this game so much – I think it’s now my favorite Leder game! Set in space, Arcs is a sci-fi strategy game that uses multi-use cards to construct ships, battle, move and repair.
Playing Arcs with Mark Herman, Dan Bullock and Brook, with Cole Wehrle teaching us.
Players play cards to take actions, and if you can beat the initiative order and suit of a previous player, you can play multiple actions related to that suit. Players also need to declare ambitions, which are objectives by which you can score VPs, but each round starts with a blank slate as to which ambitions will score. The board and components are gorgeous, and I can see a lto of replayability with this game, as your actions are tied to the hand of cards dealt to you each round. Cole said this game will be shipping soon to backers.
The Arcs board is just gorgeous.
Sunday
On the last day of the convention, I signed up to play Bosses of the Senate from Chonky Fire Games, a prototype set in the ambitious political world of the Gilded Age. Players take on the roles of different political ideologies and play as teams in order to pass your faction’s legislative goals and balance that with the will of the people. I love historical games that are team-based (e.g. Angola, a game I love to play at Consimworld), and this one did not disappoint. There was negotiation and trash-talking, and I enjoyed the back and forth of the politics to control seats in Congress. It also had some luck regarding how different types of agendas gain approval points, which was a fun touch.
Placing our tokens on various agendas that may or may not benefit you, but would benefit your team.
I stuck around for the Sunday raffle, held at 2 p.m. that day since people were heading home and eventually, I made my trek to the airport to catch my flight back to Phoenix. I had a great time at Circle DC and met so many new people and got to hang out with some of my favorite people in the industry.
I didn’t get a chance to game with Tory Brown but we were able to hang out at other events.
The convention was nonstop, and it seriously felt like most everyone I talked to was working on some type of historical game. I loved hearing about their projects, their interests, how they got into game design and just hanging out with so many smart and interesting people. I definitely have plans to attend Circle DC next year, and hopefully explore more of the city!
Me with Kevin Bertram, owner and founder of Fort Circle.
And the touristy stuff …
I landed in DC a day prior to the start of the convention and was able to do some exploring. I took a nice long walk from my hotel to visit the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
A very, very expensive and rare stamp: the Inverted Jenny.
I then walked by the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court and took some photos there.
Stopping by the U.S. Capitol to take a photo.
Lastly, I joined some board gamers at the Nationals Game that Kevin had organized. We got some sweet seats, even though I was a little unnerved by the foul balls coming over the net. We were that close!
About 10 minutes after this photo, it started pouring the game was on rain delay!
It was so easy getting around the D.C. area via subway and bus. I love being in a walkable city! There’s so much more to see for next time. And with that, the next historical gaming convention I’m attending will be Consimworld here in the Phoenix area, which will be in July. Hope to see you there!
My husband and I took a trip to New England earlier this month to attend Granite Game Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire, which is an hour north of Boston. The convention was on March 7-10, 2024. I had never been to Granite Game Summit, but Chris had and enjoyed attending a few times when he lived on the East Coast.
The convention is held at the Doubletree Hotel in Nashua every year, and attendance is capped at 525 people. We also got to explore Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, before the convention. More on that at the end of this post! And before we begin, this is probably one of the longest convention recaps I’ve written. I played 30 different games — mostly card games and trick-takers, with a sprinkling of euros and party games — over the course of 3.5 days, which made my little gamer heart very, very happy.
Our lovely hotel for the convention.
Thursday
We checked into the convention Thursday night after some sightseeing in Massachusetts, and yup, I did get a chocolate chip cookie — the best! First and foremost, Granite Game Summit organizers required masks in the main rooms of the convention hall. Upon checking in, you sign the giant convention poster and at the end of the convention, organizers flip a coin onto it and one person gets a free badge for next year.
The convention this year was space themed.
There was also Granite Game Summit backdrop, which of course I took photos in front of, and there were raffles for lots of games, as well as a convention library and gamer library.
Chris and I taking a photo in front of the convention backdrop!
It was so good to see our friend Kimberly, whom we hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. She’s one of the organizers of Granite Game Summit and is a wonderful person all around.
Me and Kimberly, one of the Granite Game Summit organizers. She’s the best!
All along the main room are tables with gamers’ games situated on them and numbers. You are free to play any game that’s on those tables as long as you return it. There are also little paper numbers next to each pile of games to take with you so you remember where to return that game. The main room closes each night at midnight but the room with the convention library is open 24/7, as well as other rooms and areas that are mask optional at the other side of the lobby.
The Granite Game Summit library, which is available 24/7 during the convention.
After grabbing a late dinner, we attended the Getting Tricky With It & Newcomer Meetup, which was all about trick-taking games (mostly).
The schedule for the convention.
First up was Scout, one of my top 10 games of 2023. Love Scout! It’s a very solid ladder-climbing game and not technically a trick-taker, but it has an added twist that you can’t rearrange your hand of cards. The cards have numbers on the top and bottom of it, and when you get your hand, you must decide right then and there if you want to play it that side up, or turn the entire hand upside down and play with those numbers. As you pull cards from the middle of your hand, you can potentially line up pairs, triples or runs.
Scout is one of those games that I keep coming back to. It’s super portable, too!
We then played Cat in the Box, a true trick-taking game that takes the genre, dare I say, out of the box! The cards in your hand are in black and white, and as you play them, you declare what suit they are and mark it with your token on the main player board. You also need to declare when you’re out of a specific colored card to play a priority suit. As cards get played to win tricks and tokens fill up the board, there comes a point when no cards can be played – as there’s only one card of each suit and number in the deck – thus creating a paradox where everyone loses. The cat artwork is too cute.
Don’t cause a paradox! Cat in the Hat is a unique twist on trick-taking games.
Next up is Inflation, also a trick-taking game played out over 12 rounds where you’re trying to win the exact number of tricks you bid on. Tricks are won by forming the highest number from your cards played. But with each round, you play each subsequent card to the left of your previous card, adding another digit to your overall number. The cards go up to 10, but as soon as you play your 10, the 1 of the 10 is covered, turning the card into a zero.
Making very big numbers in Inflation.
Up next was Chicken!, a game I reviewed on The Five By. This is a quick push-your-luck game where you’re trying to roll more chickens than foxes. But your roll can also lay eggs, which adds dice to your roll. As more dice get added to your roll, it’s likelihood of getting more foxes increases, but then so do the rewards. I dig the retro orange artwork of the game. And it comes in a little tube.
Don’t let too many foxes into your henhouse!
We then played Nokosu Dice. Oh man, I still totally regret not backing the Kickstarter for this! It’s a trick-taking game where you also draft dice, which then count as cards during game play. The last remaining dice after drafting will then become the leading suit color and number. Such a fun game, and I hope to find one in my upcoming trip to Japan later this summer.
Nokosu Dice is such a great game! I need to track down a copy of this!
Charms was the next trick-taker we played. There are two decks of cards, charms and numbers, and they are shuffled together and dealt out. On your first turn, you play two cards, one number and one charm. On subsequent turns, you play one card, either changing a number or the charm in order to win tricks. A charming game!
Charms is a neat trick-taker where you can affect the number or the charm suit.
We played these games late into the night. Our first day at Granite Game Summit was a success!
Gamer friends with boxes upon boxes of trick-taking games.
Friday
On Friday morning, I ran into Chip Beauvais, designer of Jackpot Payout, a game I had worked on the rules for a few years back. Jackpot Payout is a light deck-building game where you flip cards like you’re at a slot machine. It’s a fast-paced game and very family-friendly!
We’re playing Jackpot Payout with the game’s designer, Chip Beauvais.
We then played Chroma Cube, another game from Chip. Chroma Cubes is a roll-and color game. Roll these chonky dice with various symbols, and decide how you want to spend them by coloring in sections of a coloring sheet. This game was so delightful and very chill! I forget how much fun coloring is! We bought this game from Chip.
Chroma Cubes is a roll-and-color that’s so satisfying!
Chris and I then took a lunch break from the food trucks outside. Wicked Tasty Trucks was there Friday through Sunday during the day through 5 p.m. This made it very easy to get food while at the con, and there were also numerous other options within walking distance from the hotel as well as the small convenience store inside the DoubleTree.
One of the food trucks that showed up at the convention. Very convenient for gamers!
After lunch, we played Don’t Llama Dice. My husband enjoys Renier Knezia games so tried it, with neither of us having played the original Llama game. The artwork has lots of colorful rainbows. Players are trying to shed their hand of cards. On their turn, they can roll the dice or quit the round. If you roll the dice, you can discard one card from your hand of six cards that match each die. If you roll dice that don’t match anything they have, they must take a card from llama row. If you can’t take anything from llama row, then it’s llama drama, which forces you to take the rest of the llama row cards and the round ends. Each numbered card counts only once for scoring negative points, and llamas count was negative 10 points.
Don’t Llama Dice is so colorful!
We then played White Castle (and no, it is not a hamburger game). I really liked this publisher’s Red Cathedral so I had high hopes for this game. And it did not disappoint! Players are working to become the most influential clan in Japan’s Himeji stronghold. It’s a Euro-style game where you take three actions in each round, a total of nine actions in the entire game, but of course, you may be able to combo actions depending on which of the dice you choose for your action.
The main board for White Castle.
The red, white and black dice (equal to the total number of players plus 1) sit on these dainty cardboard bridges in ascending order, and you may have to pay to place a dice on an action slot or receive money depending on what dice is sitting there already. Overall, players can tend the gardens, defend the castle or progress up the social ladder of the nobility. The economy is extremely tight and if there’s a bad roll, everyone is choosing from less-than-ideal dice, but I love how crunchy the game is for a game that’s under 2 hours, even shorter with 2P! Chris and I immediately played the game again after playing it.
As you place meeples onto the board, you unlock more resources to potentially gain.
For dinner that night, a group of us walked a few blocks over to Chen Yang Li for drinks and dinner, including peking duck.
They cut the duck right at your table when you order it.
The dinner was so tasty, and we had so much food! With the duck order, you get duck pancakes, a duck stir fry with veggies and duck soup. Yums!
Cheers to gamer friends!
After dinner, we played this ridiculously fun game called Himmelsstürmer, a Parker Bros game from 1991 that’s also known as the Great Balloon Race. It’s a roll-and-move game with hot-air balloons, and each player has an objective for three balloons to get to the finish line. On their turn, they roll the dice and can move any one of the balloons — and hope an opponent unknowingly moves your balloons, too. There are a few spots on the board that will make the balloon go backwards or get struck by lightning and start over. Fun times!
Will your balloons make it to the finish line?
We then played a big game of 6 Nimmt. This game is a classic and can accommodate so many people. Always a fun crowd pleaser.
I haven’t seen some of these people since before the pandemic!
Players simultaneously play a card and cards in sequential order get added to the row its closest in number to. Rows can only hold five cards, so the sixth one will bust it. It’s fast-paced, easy to teach and nothing beats seeing your opponent’s agony over picking up a bunch of bulls because they busted a row.
In 6 Nimmt, avoid the bulls!
After that, we played Letter Tricks, a trick-taking card game that features suited cards with letters instead of numbers. When you win a trick, you take all the letter cards, and at the end of the game you try to create the largest word you can with your letters. What a clever twist to this genre! I love word games in all forms!
A trick-taker with letters instead of numbers so you can spell words? Count me in!
The next game we played was Don’t Drop Your Ring. Players are trying to complete their bids for winning a number of tricks or else the ring will fall off their finger, which is represented by a clear card with a ring on it placed over a card of a hand. This had some cool components but it kind of fell flat as the bidding and drafting mechanism made this game more fiddly than it was worth.
The clear card on top of the hand in Don’t Drop Your Ring moves closer and closer to falling off.
The last game we played on Friday night was Trump, Tricks, Game! a trick-taking game with bear, wolf, wild boar and mouflon cards . A different animal is the leading suit in one of four rounds, and the cards you gain from the tricks you win will create the hand of cards for the next round.
Different animals are the leading suit in this game depending on the round.
Saturday
On Saturday morning, we decided to stop by Designer Alley. Granite Game Summit set up a few tables for designers to showcase their up-and-coming games. We played Chip Beauvais’ daughter’s game Peep Over, and it was so cute! She hand-drew teenage peeps trying to have a sleepover, not get into arguments with mom and provide the right type of snacks. The movie posters were excellent. Chef’s kiss!
Who doesn’t want to watch this movie?
Chris and I then played Surrealist Dinner Party. The Edward Gorey-esque artwork of surrealist characters in history drew us in as did the components, including a silver platter where resources for the multi-course menu are placed. The Surrealists are invited to the table where they can socialize, dine and then leave when satiated. In the end though, the game did not have as much substance as we would’ve liked.
Love the artwork style on Surrealist Dinner Party but the game wasn’t for me.
We then learned Crisis, a game I actually own but have never played. I really enjoyed this one! It’s a crunchy economic game that plays in about 2 hours where players assume the role of business leaders trying to rebuild their companies and create value at a particularly challenging time in Axia.
I had never played Crisis before (even though I own it), but I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to play again!
If players fail to prosper or meet certain benchmarks, the game gets incrementally harder. Our game didn’t get punishing at all thought since we were playing at the basic level but I cannot wait to teach this to my gaming group at home on hard mode! Thanks Gil Hova for teaching the game!
It was nice to meet game designer Gil Hova and game with him!
I then got a chance to play the most adorable push-your-luck game ever Spots! Players roll dice to place on their spotted dogs (and one cow) but if you have too many dice pips buried in the doghouse that you can’t place on your cards, all your progress on your animal cards get wiped. You can also collect bones to reroll your dice. Super enjoyable!
Spots is the cutest push-your-luck game that delightfully uses dice pips in a thematic way!
We then played Nana, in the original Korean version and animal artwork, and people have described this game as a combination between Go Fish and Memory. The object of the game is to win three sets of three cards, or two sets of cards that equal seven, or a set of 7s. On your turn, you play your highest or lowest card, or you can ask your opponent to play their highest or lowest card. As the round continues, you’ll start to deduce which cards your opponents have and force them to play so that you can complete your sets.
Nana, which is called Trio in America, is a blend between Go Fish and Memory.
Maskmen, a ladder climbing game from Oink Games, is also a neat puzzle game. Players play one to three cards on their turn of the same type of wrestler and resolve the strength of the wrestler. At the start of the round, we don’t know which wrestler is the strongest, but as cards are played, more information is declared and sorted, which can help you shed more cards quicker, if you have the right cards in your hand. So basically, you’re seeding the strength of the wrestlers with the cards you play in the hopes of being able to shed your entire hand.
Maskmen is also from Oink Game, the makers of Scout.
Up next was Billabong, a racing game in which kangaroos are leaping across the board to cross the finish line. Kangaroos can move one space in any direction, or leap over a single kangaroo and land an equal number of spaces on the other side of that guy. If you line up kangaroos, you can keep jumping over them to get ahead. So fun! And just found out it’s available to play online on Yucata.de.
Hop over kangaroos to get to the finish line in Billabong!
I then played An Infamous Trafic for the first time. This game was brutal. Players are creating supply chains to conduct opium trades in 19th century China. The economy is so fragile as players rely on smugglers to get their product onto land while ensuring that the region doesn’t become a failed state, which will affect your company’s investments and bottom line. I honestly had no idea how to succeed in this game.
I played An Infamous Traffic for the first time. This economy in this game is so fragile!
Next up was Towers of Am’Harb. The rulebook for this game was substantial and in the end, we realized that it was just a Tower of Hanoi game where you activated sectors in this manner to place pieces for area control. The artwork looked great, but the font on the box cover was hard to read. This was a miss for me.
Towers of Am’Harb is an area majority game that uses the Tower of Hanoi mechanism to activate sectors.
We then played NMR9, a very fun spatial puzzle game where you stack polyominoes higher and higher without leaving gaps underneath. The polyominoes are number shaped, and on each turn, a card is flipped over to determine which number everyone simultaneously places onto their tableau.
NMB9 is an excellent puzzly filler game.
We then played a big game of Phantom Ink. This is a great party game that can accommodate up to eight players. Players split up into two teams, with one spirit for each team. The rest of the players are mediums trying to figure out the one clue that the two spirits know. In order to deduce an answer, each team gives their spirit question cards to answer and the spirit reveals the answer one letter at a time to their table, with their team telling the spirit to stop at any time if they think they know the answer to the question. The other team may not know what question you gave your spirit but you don’t want to reveal too much for the other team to deduce. Our team was on a roll that night!
Some of the questions we gave to our spirit to figure out the clue. Our team rocked!
We closed out Saturday night with Hamsterrolle, a dexterity game that involves a giant wheel. Players are trying to be first to place all their pieces onto the wheel, but as more pieces get placed on it, the wheel starts to roll, and eventually gravity will take over and pieces will fall out on your turn. Think Animal Upon Animal but with a wheel!
I honesty love this photo. Thanks, Kimberly for taking this!
Sunday
Sunday was our last morning in Nashua, as we had to drive back to fly out of Logan Airport in Boston that evening. We started the day with a quick and silly game, Pirates’ Blast. It’s a kids game where you’re trying to shoot cannons to move your pirate ship into your opponent’s cove. I can see why kids love this.
Chris squeezing air into his cannon to propel his ship.
We then played Dandelions, a cute area control game where you’re spreading your dandelion seeds across different gardens. Players roll a group of dice and draft them into gardens. But you can also float, puff and gust to move around the seeds.
Spread your dandelions across the fields!
Chris and I then played another game of Billabong. I am so bad at maneuvering my kangaroos to do combo jumps across the board.
The last game we played at Granite Game Summit was Pick-A-Pepper, a game about collecting chiles and making hot sauces! The game is divided into two phases: the first phase is collecting chiles by playing cards in front of them. The highest combination gets first pick at the cards in the market to put into their ingredient display. This continues until the second phase where players are making hot sauces or collecting more cards in the display.
Making hot sauces in Pick-A-Pepper.
And then it was time to say goodbye to friends. Womp womp. Chris and I had a great time at the convention. Flying into Boston and heading north into Nashua was not a problem, and the hotel had a fair number of restaurants within walking distance, in addition to the daily food trucks. There are also a few grocery stores nearby, including a Whole Foods and a Target.
Saying our goodbyes at Granite Games Summit.
The convention library as well as gamers’ personal game library made it a nonstop four days of gaming and discovering lots of new-to-me games. Chris and I didn’t even bring any games to the con, and there was never not a time we weren’t gaming, unless we were getting food. We can’t wait to go back. And we definitely will, as Chris won a free badge for next year! Remember that coin flip I mentioned at the beginning? Thanks, Granite Game Summit!
Our badges had a QR code on the back that made it easy to sign up for things and enter the raffles.
And for the touristy stuff …
Before Granite Game Summit, we flew in a few days before to explore Boston and squeeze in a day visit to Salem, Massachusetts, before heading to Nashua.
One highlight was visiting the Boston Library to have tea in the Courtyard Tea Room. I made reservations a month prior to the visit so that the hubby and I could enjoy tea, cute sandwiches and darling pastries. Pinkies up!
Afternoon tea at the Boston Library was such a fun experience! The teeny sandwiches and desserts were delightful!
We also took a look around the library itself, which had an older section and the gorgeous Bates Hall, and a more modern lively section that included a live taping of a Boston Public Radio interview.
I love me some gorgeous libraries!
Another highlight was walking on the Freedom Trail to visit historic landmarks from American history (and Assassin’s Creed 3, apparently!). The red-brick line across the city makes it easy to navigate! Boston is a very walkable city, and public transportation is so easy and convenient!
The Old South Meeting House was the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
We then rented a car when we left Boston to drive up to Salem (but before heading to Nashua) to visit the House of Seven Gables, an iconic house made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book of the same name. I even got to climb the secret staircase. I learned a little bit about the history of the area as well as how this iconic house came to be.
Me in front of the iconic House of Seven Gables, made famous by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
We also visited the Salem Witch Museum. The first half was a little hokey, with its outdated display of life-size figurines whose stages lit up when the film-projector-type voice narrated what happened in Salem in the late-1690s. But the second half of the exhibit had some interesting factoids and the connotations of being a witch.
The Salem Witch Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
And that sums up our trip back east. I’m so glad we got to spend a little bit of time. in Boston but there’s so much more I want to see! I’m already adding to my to-see list for next year’s trip. If you made it down this far, thanks for reading! And stay tuned for another game convention I’m going to in April (also on the East Coast).
Hello, friends! You’ve made it to the end of 2023. Pat yourselves on the back for surviving the year! I feel so lucky for all that happened this past year, including going back to the Philippines and attending several gaming conventions! And of course lots of gaming in between. Here are the top 10 games I played for the first time this past year.
I often keep Scout in my purse because it’s such a compact game and easy to each others.
Scout is a delightful ladder-climbing game in which cards have two potential values, players may not rearrange their hand of cards, and players may pass their turn to take a card from the current high set of cards into their hand. At the start of the game, you receive a hand of cards, and you can decide if you want to play the values on the top of the card or the bottom of the card — but you must rotate the entire hand, not just the individual cards. When it’s your turn, you must play a card or set of cards (without rearranging your hand) in order to beat what’s already been played, or you’re out of the round. The game plays up to 5, it lasts about 15 minutes, and not at all difficult for new gamers to understand. Plus, the box fits neatly in your purse so it’s easy to travel with.
The Gods Will Have Blood is such a unique solitaire gaming experience.
The Gods Will Have Blood, a solitaire game from Dan Bullock based on the book by Anatole France’s 1912 Novel “Les Dieux Ont Soif, The Gods Will Have Blood” is such a unique and grim gaming experience. As an appointed magistrate in 1793 France, you are presiding over show trials of accused royalists and counterrevolutionaries, with the goal of elevating your reputation without tanking the legitimacy of the court. You make some tough decisions in deciding who is guilty and not guilty, and dealing with the consequences — and court momentum — of those choices. The game is artfully designed and comes in a small box, making it easy to bust out a solo game almost anywhere.
Voidfall is a beast of a game, one that I’ve enjoyed playing time and again.
In all honesty, I kept going back and forth about adding Voidfall to this list. I’ve enjoyed each game of Voidfall I’ve played but the overwhelming giant-ness of the game can be a turnoff for some. First off, it comes in a giant square box, it takes possibly about 45 minutes to set up a scenario, and there’s endless amounts of icons, which over several plays become more intuitive. What looks like a classic galactic space 4x game really plays like a euro. As the leader of a Great House (complete with house-specific abilities), you play through three cycles, each with a game-altering galactic event, a new scoring condition, and a set number of focus cards that can be played. On each focus card, you select two of the three actions printed on it. You can advance your civilization tracks; manage your sectors’ infrastructure, population and production; or conquer new sectors with your space fleets. It’s an epic game that I’m glad a friend of mine owns and sets up when we decide to play it.
Revive is a game that I want to play over and over again.
Revive features a lot of game mechanisms I enjoy: multi-use cards, tech trees, card-tucking and deckbuilding, all while using dual-layered player boards. The game is set 5,000 years after the destruction of Earth and tribes are now exploring the frozen earth in order to repopulate it and survive. The game is for 1 to 4 players, with each tribe having its own asymmetrical powers. The game is a table hog though, with the main player board, and each player’s tribe board and player board, which holds giant tracks of various machines. Play cards into your board, manage your resources, go up on machine tracks for bonus actions, unlock your tribal abilities and collect artifacts, which counts down the end of the game — there are multiple paths to victory and lots of options to combo your actions, making your turns extremely satisfying.
Building my zoo requires the perfect combination of animal cards and conservation projects.
I’ve logged countless games of this online at Board Game Arena and in person. In Ark Nova, you’re working to build and design a zoo, and support conservation projects around the world. The game consists of five actions, and the strength of the actions depends on where the card is placed in your tableau. The game comes with 255 cards featuring animals, specialists, special enclosures, and conservation projects. As you specialize in partnerships with world zoos and increase your reputation, you’ll be able to increase the strength of your core five actions. If you’re looking for an immersive zoo game, this will not be for you, but as a dry euro fan, this puzzly game is worth checking out.
Planet Unknown is a fun puzzle where players pick the pieces for you, unless it’s your turn.
I’ve only played Planet Unknown on Board Game Arena but have greatly enjoyed it. Planet Unknown is a competitive game for 1-6 players in which players attempt to develop the best planet. Each round, each player places one polyomino-shaped, dual-resource tile on their planet. The tiles are situated on a Lazy Susan, in which there are two concentric circles holding the various shaped tiles. On your turn, you rotate the Lazy Susan so that you can have the option between two types of tiles – and force others to take the two tiles that result from your spin. When you place the tiles on your planet, you’ll go up the resource track of the type of the tiles you lay down. The Lazy Susan is such a neat mechanism, and the puzzly gameplay keeps everyone engaged at every turn.
I never thought I’d see a board game on a pivotal moment of history for my people.
In one of my most highly anticipated games of the year (for the past few years actually, since I wasn’t sure when this was going to come out!), People Power is a game about my people and the insurgency in the Philippines during 1981-1986. People Power plays in about 2 hours, which is fairly short for a COIN. And you know what that makes it? Accessible to more people. Seeing people of color in a board game as well as not needing a 30-minute video to explain the battle action are some of the very things that would help diversity this very niche area of board gaming. The actions in People Power are streamlined, the player aides are very easy to follow, and, with such a small map, it makes the game tense and fast-moving game to play. This is a COIN that I can actually teach to others — I could not have said that with previous COIN titles.
Feel the pressure of reporting and assembling a front page of a newspaper!
In Fit to Print, players take on the roles of editors-in-chief assembling the front page of the tiny town of Thistleville’s newspaper to be balanced with news stories, photos and advertising. All of these items are represented in over 130-plus unique block tiles, which are placed in the middle of the table face down. The game goes through three rounds: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with each subsequent newspaper front page getting larger. Fit to Print captures the stress of a daily deadline when laying out your newspaper, all wrapped up in a cutesy theme of woodland creatures. When I brought this to a game night recently with some journalist friends to play, one lady said she had stress dreams later that night about missing the deadline. It’s an enjoyable real-time puzzle for 1-6 players, but it’s up to you how fast-paced you want your games to go.
This gorgeous euro is trying to continue Mozart’s legacy.
The theme drew me into Lacrimosa and it’s the gameplay that has me coming back to this game again and again. Mozart is dead and his final wish was to finish composing the Lacrimosa movement of his Opus Requiem. Players work as Mozart patrons helping to sell or exhibit his works, commission missing parts of the requiem and travel across Europe to various courts and theaters. Lacrimosa is a deckbuilder that isn’t a true deckbuilder but instead filled with multi-use cards that you can upgrade later by buying stronger cards. You draw a few action cards each turn and decide to use them for actions or rewards based on how you tuck them into your dual-layer player board. It’s a gorgeous board that beautifully merges a strong theme and euro-style gameplay, something that doesn’t happen too often in board games!
Did you guess my top game of 2023 was Votes for Women?
What can I say about this game that I haven’t already? I am constantly talking about this game and bring it with me to every convention I go to in order to teach it to whoever wants to play it. Votes for Women is a card-driven game in which each side has its own set of cards. The goal of the game is two-fold. The suffragists want to push to Congress the 19th Amendment and campaign to have 36 states ratify it. The Opposition will try to prevent Congress from proposing the amendment or if they fail to do that, have 13 states reject the amendment. Votes for Women is a game that I can see myself in (a rarity in this hobby). It’s a game that new gamers and experienced gamers alike can play. I like it best as a 2-player but it can be played 1-4 players, with various team options for the suffrage side and the opposition. The game is beautifully done with awesome components, with lots of history in the cards as well as replicas of historical documents relating to the historic moment in women’s rights.
So that’s my top 10 games that I played for the first time in 2023. Which ones have you played? And what is on your top 10 list? I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and here’s to a wonderful 2024. Some of my new year’s resolutions include playing more games more regularly, and possibly attending a convention that I have yet to attend.
This review of Votes for Women is featured on Episode 134 of The Five By. Check out the rest of the episode, which also features HerStory, Detective Rummy, Steam Up and Don’t Talk to Strangers.
There are very few board games where I can imagine myself in. Did I, as a young Filipina lady growing up in Los Angeles, ever dream about trading in the Mediterranean or breeding sheep in the German countryside? No, of course not. But joining in the women’s suffrage movement and being eternally grateful for those people who helped usher in my right — and many other women’s rights — to vote? Sign me up! That’s a game I wholeheartedly support. Votes for Women, a game that came out in 2022, is equally educational and enjoyable.
And if you are the type of gamer that thinks, oh, this game is just so political (an actual review I’ve seen online about this), well feel free to skip ahead. Just move along, sir.
Votes for Women is a card-drive game that plays 1 to 4 players in about 60-75 minutes.
Votes for Women, designed by Tory Brown and art by Brigette Indelicato and Marc Rodrigue the second, is published by Fort Circle Game, which designs historical games with a particular focus on United States political and military history.
Indeed, the women’s suffrage movement that ended with the women’s right to vote in the United States happened just a little over a hundred years ago. That is not too long ago in the grand scheme of American history, and something we should work hard to not let the younger generation forget and take for granted.
Votes for Women is a card-drive game that plays 1 to 4 players in about 60-75 minutes. I’ve only played this game as two players — one for the suffrage movement and the other for the opposition — but you can play this game with either two suffrage players and/or two opposition players.
Each side has their own deck of cards for gameplay. Buttons also let you reroll dice.
Having that kind of flexibility is great because I foresee this game as being introduced to gamers and non-gamers alike. And having teams for two suffrage players can make the barrier to entry for playing this CDG less daunting. Additionally, the rulebook is 12 pages. How amazing is that? How many historical games can you say has a rulebook that’s easy to follow?
The game is beautifully designed, with a map of the U.S. and many wooden pieces that include an array of campaigners, green checkmarks, red X’s, influence cubes, and an assortment of dice. The game also includes a historical supplement and copies of historical documents during that time. Pretty neat for those who want to learn more about this!
The goal of the game is two-fold. The suffragists want to push to Congress the 19th Amendment and campaign to have 36 states ratify it. The Opposition will try to prevent Congress from proposing the amendment or if they fail to do that, have 13 states reject the amendment. Each side receives their own deck of cards to play during the game, which, if you’ve ever played other CDGs, eliminates the fraught decision making with playing cards that would benefit your opponent. The tension in this game comes from the tug-of-war campaigning across the U.S.
Cards are phased with events during the early, middle and late part of the movements, complete with snippets of history and/or historical figures in the flavor text. This shows that a lot of research and care went into the development of this game, and not just slapping a theme on a tried-and-true mechanism commonly seen in wargames.
Game play goes for six turns, in which there are 6 rounds for each turn. On each round, the suffrage player or the opposition player plays a card either for the event, to campaign, to organize or to lobby. Players start with 7 cards each turn.
The opposition (pictured) and suffragist side both have campaigner meeples.
Playing a card for an event is just that. Follow what’s written on the card and then end your turn. To campaign, players roll a specific dice based on how many campaigners they have on the board, and then they add cubes to those regions that the campaigners are in. To organize, players discard a card and collect a number of support buttons based on how many campaigners they have on the board. And lastly, to lobby, players roll a specific die and if they get a 6, they can either remove or add a congressional marker to the track on the board. The suffragists need 6 of these to achieve one of the victory conditions, whereas the opposition doesn’t want the suffragist side to send the 19th amendment to Congress.
Only 9 state cards are randomly in play for each game. There are 12 altogether.
There are state cards also in play. If a player places a fourth influence cube in a state that’s in play, they gain the state card and can use its benefit on a future turn. There are also strategy cards that also offer a benefit that players can bid on at the start of a turn using support buttons.
There is a lot of strategy in the order of the cards you play. The suffragist side is also racing to send the 19th Amendment to Congress as it’ll lock down states who vote for it once four cubes are placed into that state. The opposition side, though clearly on the wrong side of history, feels like it has an uphill battle fighting against the two suffragist movements, which are represented by the purple and yellow cubes. For the suffragists though, either cube works toward their influence goals. The suffragists also start with two campaigners on the board, increasing the amount of resources and the ability to campaign across the map.
Winning strategy cards can give you special abilities to help your cause.
If the game reaches the end of turn 6, and the suffragists haven’t sent the 19th Amendment to Congress, they immediately lose. If it did get sent to Congress, and neither side has placed all their x’s or checkmarks onto the board, players enter Final Voting where they will go state by state w;ho’s undecided and roll a die to see who wins that state. If there are influence cubes on that state, they’re added to the dice roll.
The player who places their final X or checkmark wins the game. If I’m being honest, it’s such a great feeling when the Suffragists win, and it’s pretty defeating when the Opposition wins.
I love how the game comes with replicas of historical documents from the era.
For those people not familiar with the United States’ geography, this game can be a little difficult to navigate but the game provides a reference sheet to help you with states’ locations.
There’s a beautiful quote from the game designer Tory Brown included in the game’s historical supplement book. It reads “I created Votes for Women as a love letter to one of the most successful movements in American history.” Votes for Women is a wonderful love letter that everyone should dive into.
I got a chance to meet Tory in person at SDHist Con, and it was such a pleasure hearing her talk about the design process and what inspired her. And just a few days ago, the convention announced that Votes for Women is the winner of this year’s Summit Award.
I got to meet Tory Brown during SD Hist Con this year!
And that’s Votes for Women! This is Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok as Meeple Lady, or on my website, boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening and don’t forget to vote! Bye!
On Nov. 2, 2023, I made the trek from Phoenix to San Diego for SDHist Con, an annual historical board game convention that was founded by game designer Harold Buchanan. This year it was held on Nov. 3-5, 2023. It’s my second time attending the convention in person, and after last year’s convention, I knew this one was a must-attend-every-year convention for me. This year, about 150 tickets were handed out, a combination of gamers, designers and publishers alike. It’s the convention to playtest and pitch your game, meet with wargaming companies, and, just overall, enjoy the sea, sun and seafood that San Diego has to offer!
SDHist Con held a meet and greet the night before the convention at Eppig Brewing.
I arrived late Thursday afternoon, checked into my airbnb (though there are plenty of motels and hotels near the convention location), and met up with Dan Bullock before heading to Eppig Brewing for a pre-convention meet and greet. SDHist Con provided pizza and salad and reserved space for convention goers at an outdoor beer garden overlooking a San Diego marina. I tried all the sour beers Eppig had and they were all quite tasty.
Dan Bullock and I went over and ran into Candice Harris of BGG!
I met some cool people for the first time and I really enjoyed the evening. More conventions should schedule a meet and greet beforehand! It’s a great time to meet new people in a low-key social setting before diving head-first into nonstop gaming the following morning.
Me with Candice Harris (center) of BGG and Liz Davidson of Beyond Solitaire.
Friday
On Friday morning, SDHist Con began! This year’s convention was held at the S.E.S. Portuguese Hall of San Diego nestled in the Point Loma Marina area of San Diego. There are lots of restaurants, coffee shops and breweries within walking distance, including Point Loma Seafoods, a seafood counter place where you can buy food and eat at picnic tables overlooking the marina. The hall was such a great location, and it’s quite near the airport, so you don’t really need a car to get around, unless you’re exploring more of San Diego.
SDHist Con was held at the SES Portuguese Hall in San Diego.
First up, I ran into Alex Knight, designer of Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War. I really enjoyed his game when I played at Consimworld this past fall and was excited to meet him in person and ask him to sign my game. It’s a great historical game that plays at 3P, fighting against a common enemy while trying to balance your faction’s needs.
Met designer Alex Knight for the first time!
My first game of the con was Shores of Tripoli from Fort Circle Games, a card-driven historical wargame on the First Barbary War. It’s a 2-player game (the Tripolitania and its allies, vs. American and its allies) and I played as the side of the Americans. Each side had their own deck, and the game takes place over 6 years,starting in 1801, with four seasons (a card play each season) in each year. Army. If neither player has achieved victory by the end of 1806, the game ends in a draw. It’s a neat card-driven game that plays in about an hour. Those who played Shorts of Tripoli (there were four games simultaneously going) were entered into a raffle, and I won a copy of the game!
Playing Shores of Tripoli by Fort Circle Games. I’ve been enjoying their games!
I stopped by to see Dan doing a demo of his game Blood and Treasure. This is such a great game, and I really hope a publisher picks it up soon! I’ve played it twice before and think it’s such a unique game.
Dan Bullock’s Blood and Treasure prototype about military contracts during the Afghanistan War.
I then signed up for a teach of Matthias Cramer’s The Promised Land, a game that covers the Israelian-Arabian conflict between 1960 (end of War of Independence) and 1978 (Camp David). It’s a card-driven mostly political game, but players can go to war while also negotiating the peace treaty as well. The game has a lot of tracks, and in addition to playing a card from your hand, some dice rolls can determine which actions you can take.
Matthias Cramer has a new prototype called The Promised Land.
I learned the game with all these cool people. We played through one war to get the gist of the game before our scheduled time was up. So many games, so little time!
A bunch of us learning The Promised Land with the designer himself! Matthias Cramer is on my left.
Next up was Molly House. This was the game I was most excited to check out at this convention! Molly House, which just wrapped up its BackerKit campaign, is the latest from Wehrlegig Games. Players take the roles of the gender-defying mollies of early 18th century London. Molly House has masquerade balls, back alleys for cruising and moments of joy within the queer community. But, there could be a constable among you that’s threatening to ruin all the fun!
Molly House was such a fun experience! I can’t wait until this comes out!
I love the inclusive and unique theme, and I know when the final product is released, the components will be top-notch. This demo included fun fancy pieces, and I immediately backed the game after playing it at the con.
I then attended a panel on creating written content, which was hosted by Andrew Bucholtz, and featured Dan Thurot, Candice Harris of Board Game Geek, and The Players Aid. SDHist Con has an entire schedule of panels and discussions in addition to scheduled gaming in the main hall.
SDHist Con had a whole schedule of panels during the con. Here, Andrew Bucholtz (from left) leads the panel with Dan Thurot, Candice Harris of BGG and the Players Aid.
It was really neat listening to all the panelists discuss their backgrounds and how they got into creating board-game content. I always love listening to fellow writers to get some inspiration! Plus, I got to meet the Players Aid guys for the first time!
I got to meet the guys at Players Aid! They have so much good wargaming content on their channels!
After dinner, I played an unnamed 2-player card prototype from Joe Schmidt. It’s a quick area control that is played out over three rounds, and the map itself is just four different cards, with the player first to 7 points wins the game. Meeples are either pawns (when they’re lying down) or knights (when they’re standing up) Your card has an initiative number, one of two actions you can do, and where the action can take place. It was really easy to pick up and doesn’t require a lot of space on table (or in your bag!), while still being tense and enjoyable.
Joe’s Schmidt’s prototype was a card game on area control where you use knights and pawns. Interested to see how this will develop!
I then played Lost Legacy, a spin-off of Love Letter, where you draw and play a card, with the hopes of finding the “Lost Legacy” card. I had so much fun playing with these cool folks that I actually forgot to take a photo of the game itself!
Joe Schmidt, Liz Davidson, Dan Thurot and Cole Wehrle are about to play Lost Legacy, and Drew Wehrle stopped by for the photo!
I then taught a game of My Favourite Things, a trick-taking icebreaker card game that’s one of my absolute favorites! You never really know how this game will play out when playing with people you don’t know too well, considering a lot of these people I met for the first time in real life at this convention. But it was a hit! My demo copy of the game was sent to me from the publisher, so this may or may not be the final look of the game.
My Favourite Things is just delightful chaos. Look at all the different categories written here.
Players pick a category and ask their neighbor to write down their top 5 favorite things in that category, plus one they hate, into these card sleeves, at the end covering up their number ranking when you slide the card back into the sleeve. You then play these cards as a trick-taking game, guessing the best way you can about which items are ranked more favorably than others. We got some absurd categories and even more absurd things. It was a riot! It was such a fun way to end the first day of SDHist Con.
Saturday
I began Saturday by teaching Lacrimosa. I always bring a few games with me to SDHist Con in case anyone would be interested in playing a non-wargame. I taught a 3P game and everyone seemed to enjoy it! The theme is unique – we did have a few “Weekend at Bernie’s” jokes about Mozart traveling across Germany – and the components and dual-layer player boards are just exquisite.
Growing Mozart’s legacy after his death in Lacrimosa.
I then had lunch at Point Loma Seafoods. SDHist Con actually had this place on the convention schedule, which provided an easy option for gamers to have lunch, plus a good reminder to get some food to fuel your day. I had some fish and chips. I was not disappointed!
I ordered some fish and chips are Point Loma Seafoods. So yum!
I then played Fire and Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683, which places you in one of the most dramatic sieges in history. Each player has their own set of cards, and you’ll be playing them to attack, dig tunnels and advance your forces, while your opponent is doing exactly that, or you can use the event written on the card. I enjoyed taking my Ottomans toward the Habsburgs in the Vienna capital.
Fire and Stone is a 2P wargame about sieging or defending the city of Vienna.
Fire and Stone plays in about 60-90 minutes, and with its familiar card-driven mechanism and large hex-based map (instead of a daunting map of teeny-tiny ones), it’s one that makes it perfect as a finalist for the 2023 Summit Awards.
SDHist Con founder and game designer Harold Buchanan!
The Summit Award aims to recognize a historical board game published in the preceding year that most broadened the hobby through the ease of teaching and/or play, uniqueness of topic, or novel approach. I’ve played all four of the Summit Awards nominees, and they’re all different yet fantastic games. I’ve reviews Stonewall Uprising and Votes for Women on The Five By, and John Company I had the pleasure of playing at last year’s SDHist Con with Cole and Drew Werhle! The diversity of these games’ themes and accessibility of gameplay are what I would love to see more of in the historical gaming corner of our hobby.
Tory Brown, designer of Votes for Women, talking about the game’s map.
I then attended a seminar from Tory Brown, the designer of Votes for Women! I seriously was fangirling the entire time. I’ve taught Votes for Women countless times, to experienced gamers and newer gamers alike. The game has appealed to my girlfriends simply because of the topic, and with that, they jumped into a wargame they wouldn’t otherwise and learned what a CDG is. Tory’s seminar also reiterated how much time and commitment it takes to design a game. She said she started in earnest in April 2020, in the midst of the early pandemic, and worked on the game full time, which was finally released earlier this year. I don’t know how all you designers do it! Props to you all and your time-management skills.
It was so lovely to meet Tory Brown! I asked her to sign my game.
I then stopped by to listen to the start of a demo for Tyranny of Blood: India’s Caste System Under British Colonialism, 1750-1947 by Akar Bharadvaj. The game is the winner of the 2021 Zenobia Award, which is both a competition and a mentoring program in which game designers from underrepresented groups develop and submit historical tabletop game prototypes. I didn’t get a chance to play Tyranny of Blood but hopefully next time!
A look at the Tyranny of Blood prototype by Zenobia winner Akar Bharadvaj.
I then played one of the new factions in Ahoy by Leder Games. Like with all Leder Games, this game just looks so darling, and I have fun playing the Blackfish Brigade. Ahoy is a lightly asymmetrical game where two to four players take the roles of swashbucklers and soldiers seeking fame on the high seas. The latest Backerkit campaign introduces four new factions, one of which is the Blackfish Brigade whales.
The Blackfish Brigade is one of the four new factions for Ahoy.
In Ahoy, you roll dice at the start of the round and use those dice to fill in sections of your board to take actions. The actions may have certain dice requirements, which will affect which actions you can do on your turn. I did a lot of moving my whale pod around and dropping off fins in order to score area-control points at the end of the round.
Look at all the cute components in Ahoy!
A big group of us went to get Asian dumplings for dinner down the street at Meet Dumpling. The sweet corn and chicken dumplings hit the spot for me. Look at this fun group!
Alex Knight (from left), Cole Wehrle, Liz Davidson, me, Dan Bullock, Taylor Shuss, Dan Thurot and Drew Wehrle get dinner at Meet Dumpling.
We then walked over to Craft Creamery for some ice cream, and I seriously squealed when the ice cream of my childhood was being sold at this shop. I spent a lot of time at Fosselman’s Ice Cream after school and totally had to order ube ice cream.
I had to get ube ice cream from Fosselman’s, which was being sold at Craft Creamery.
When we got back to the hall, the giant Liberty or Death board game was about to start. Look at the costumes!
Giant Liberty or Death, costumes optional!
I then ran my largest game of Fit to Print yet at 6P. This game is so, so fun! There’s nothing like being on deadline! Upkeep at 6P was a little daunting but everyone was having a good time analyzing their front page and what they could do better in the next round that nobody seemed to mind the time I spent adding up the scores.
My glorious Sunday front page! Just ignore the white space though.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, I attended the SDHist Con board meeting, as the public was invited! They talked about the state of the convention, what events are planned for next year, and just overall how they can increase diversity and accessibility at their events. I love hearing discussion on this because it’s a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. There have been countless times I’ve attended events where I’m the only person who looks like me and have even been asked if I’m waiting for my husband or boyfriend. I was not, thank you very much, I was there to play some games.
The awesome people who make up the SDHist Con member board and advisory board.
SDHIst Con is a convention where I’ve never felt out of place and have always been welcomed. I love schmoozing with all the game designers, listening to their design process, learning new games, and understanding the ins and outs of publishing without our hobby. There’s so much helpful knowledge and feedback being passed around at this intimate, laid-back and friendly convention. And bonus, you also learn a lot of about historical battles and moments in history that people are very passionate about!
The last game of the convention was Heat: Pedal to the Metal, which I was happy to play alongside Harold, fearless leader of SDHist Con! I’ve been playing Heat a lot on Board Game Arena lately, so I was familiar with the game, but it can’t compete with zooming your little plastic car around a hairpin turn and pressing luck by not spinning out.
The last game of the convention for me: Heat!
And with that, three days of gaming in San Diego came to a close and I began my drive back to Phoenix, which takes about 5.5 hours. Not too bad! I don’t have the dates yet for next year’s convention, but I’ll definitely be there again! I’d love to spend some extra time in San Diego, too, next year.
Lastly, here are the games I acquired during the convention. I purchased Dan’s The Gods Will Have Blood, a solo game set in France in April 1793 about presiding over trials and influencing the legitimacy of the court, a copy of Shores of Tripoli that I randomly won for playing, and Shikoku 1889. Thanks, Grand Trunk Games for giving me a copy! I can’t wait to get it on table!
I got a chance to play The Gods Will Have Blood a few days after leaving San Diego. What a cool solo experience! Shikoku 1889 is the last one of this group I haven’t played.
Thanks for reading, friends! Let me know if any of these games look interesting to you. And if you made it all the way down here, here’s a cute photo I took of a driver and his canine companion in San Diego. It’s a sunwoof!
This year, I was only able to make it for a few days at Consimworld, the annual wargaming convention in Tempe, Arizona. I got sick the week prior (derailing a bunch of other plans), which, of course, left me super bummed, but I made the most of the time there — and got some great gaming in! The convention this year went from Aug. 25-Sep. 1, 2023, at the Tempe Mission Palms, and over 240 people attended.
The main ballroom at Consimworld, held at Tempe Mission Palms in Tempe, Arizona.
Wednesday
I arrived on Wednesday and started with Brass: Birmingham. This sequel to the classic Martin Wallace game Brass has you developing, building and establishing your industries and network, in an effort to exploit low or high market demands. This game differs from the original as it adds the beer market, and there’s a chance to discard cards from your hand in order to take a wild card. In the original game, you would’ve been stuck with what was in your hand until you drew a card you could use. This was my first time playing Brass Birmingham, and I can see how Birmingham is popular with many gamers. Would definitely play again!
Brass: Birmingham’s color scheme is what I imagine cities looked like during the Industrial Revolution.
I then scoped out the vendor hall and picked up Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War, a recent release from new designer Alex Knight and Blue Panther Games. This is a three-player wargame where Spain’s three fighting factions — Anarchists, Communists and Moderates — must unite and fight off right-wing army generals aided by Hitler and Mussolini.
Land and Freedom: The Spanish Revolution and Civil War just came out from Blue Panther Games.
This semi-cooperative tug of war is super fun (and not too long at about 90 minutes) and the game is powered by a card-driven mechanism to complete objectives that enable you to seed a draw bag, for which a random chit-pull will give you VPs throughout the game.
We used a plexi since my copy was brand-new. It’s great for gameplay but bad for photos.
I then had to leave early because I went to a Weezer concert. I had a blast. They were playing in downtown Phoenix, and it’s probably about 10 years since I last saw them in person.
Weezer played a few songs from Pinkerton, which is my favorite album of theirs.
Thursday
Thursday was a full day of gaming! We started with Obsession. I love the theme of this game — think Jane Austen society where parties, gardens and marrying well were your family’s only priority — and it works so well as a resource management, deck-building, worker placement game. Each player plays as a prominent family of the time, and you have a hand of cards that represent different family members.
Your meeples represent servants you employ in Obsession.
On your turn, you’re working to invite people to your parties (playing cards from your hand) to a room in your house (in an effort to upgrade the room). These guests sometimes require servants, of which you have a small army of them and can hire more, and in return, most guests can increase your reputation and/or give you money. Unfortunately, some guests are worth negative points — those rich new money Americans (but they give you a lot of money!) or those cads who are just awful at your parties. After your party, that card is exhausted until you refresh your deck, and your servants get to rest a round until they can be used to help your future guests. It’s such a thematic euro!
Next up was People Power, taught to us by the designer himself Kenneth Tee! I had actually met him on Wednesday and got him to sign my game. (If you must know, I was totally fangirling). I think his friends were very amused.
Me and People Power designer Kenneth Tee. I had just asked him to sign my game.
So on Thursday, we played Obsession with him and he was kind enough to run a 3P game of People Power. You all know I’ve been waiting for this game FOR YEARS, and even did a fun photoshoot on Instagram when the game arrived earlier this summer, but I haven’t had a chance to get it on table yet.
Kenneth Tee is about to teach Dan Bullock, Cory Graham and me how to play People Power.
People Power is the latest COIN (CounterINsurgency) game from GMT Games. This one is special to me because it deals with my motherland, the Philippines. Most wargame and board game conventions I go to, I stick out like a sore thumb, and it’s even rarer to play a historical game where that representation is evident. And now it’s here, and I can’t stop raving about it.
There are over 7,600 islands in the Philippines. This map does a great job of simplifying the main areas for the purpose of the game. I even got to see all the islands I visited this past year.
People Power plays in about 2 hours, which is fairly short for a COIN. And you know what that makes it? Accessible to more people. Seeing people of color as well as not needing a 30-minute video to explain the battle action (I’m looking at you, Pendragon) is one of the very things that would help diversity this very niche area of board gaming. The actions in People Power are streamlined, the player aides are very easy to follow, and, with such a small map, it makes the game tense and fast-moving game to play. And dare I say, this is a COIN that I could actually teach to others? I could not have said that with previous COIN titles.
We then played a 4P game of Dan Bullock’s prototype: Blood and Treasure, a game about the U.S.-Afghan War and the contractors who would profit from it. Contractors bid for contracts, specialize in industries, and hire workers to complete projects — without getting inspected by the government too much. I enjoy this game the more I play it, but I have to remember it’s not always about completing the most contracts; the name of the game is collecting those government contracts and secretly undercutting your opponents. And with 4P, it’s much more cut-throat.
When Blood and Treasure gets published, we’re all expecting giant chonky pieces in the game, like these weighted chess pieces.
We then played a quick game of Fit to Print! I just received this game in the mail the previous week, and this was surprisingly a big hit! In Fit to Print, you’re all working at a newspaper trying to design A1 (the front page) with a good mix of various articles, photos and advertising while maintaining a balanced set of sad and positive news — in real time! Game play goes for three days (rounds), and each day begins with the reporting phase where you’re simultaneously flipping over pieces from the center of the table one at a time at your little cardboard desk. You then decide if you want to keep that piece for the layout phase or put it back into the middle of the table. You do this for a limited number of minutes, and by the end of it, you’ll have a stack of tiles on your deck.
I love, love everything about Fit to Print — from its cute artwork to its theme and its gameplay!
Then comes the layout phase: place those tiles onto your blank newspaper page, following guidelines (which you’ll get penalized for not following) and photos next to stories (of which there are three different types) they like. With each day, starting on Friday to Sunday, the size of the paper gets bigger, so it’s such a challenge to figure out how many tiles you’ll need for each day — and if they’ll be able to fit nicely into your template while the clock winds down!
Consimworld attendees attend the board game auction and raffle.
That evening was the auction and raffle. I stopped by for the raffle part and won this cool game! If any of you have played this, let me know how it is.
I won a game! That’s always super fun.
We ended Thursday night at Fate Brewing Company for some yummy food and even yummier beer. There are three locations in the Valley, and we went to the one in south Scottsdale. Definitely worth checking out if you’re ever in town.
Cory, Dan and I enjoy our drinks after a fun day of gaming.
Friday
We started our last day with our annual game of Maria. We play this every year, but I always kind of feel like I’m coming into this game cold. I’m definitely putting a calendar reminder for next year to brush up on the rules for next year’s convention! I must get better at this game!
Maria is a game based on the War of the Austrian Succession, between 1740 and 1748.
The last game I played at the convention was The North Provenance. I had never heard of this but I was immediately intrigued by the box and card art! It’s a 2P card combo game with multi-use cards where you reprogram Ancients, build Facilities and power up Nodes in an effort to chip away at your opponent’s VPs.
The game has some really net artwork. And depending on if you play it or activate in your tableau, either the protocol or spark action activates.
It’s a constant tug of war, and when your engine gets really built out, the action combinations are so satisfying!
The box art is also so slick!
I had a great time at this year’s Consimworld, even though I could only make three of its eight-day run. I hope my plans go much more smoothly next year! And for those interested in next year’s convention — mark your calendars! Consimworld 2024 will be held on July 12-20, 2024. Thanks, Consimworld, for having me!
Arizona is a great place for stargazing — it is even home to 19 dark-sky communities! There’s something so magical about looking up at the sky and imagining far-away stars and galaxies. Exploring the cosmos will probably not be something us non-millionaires can do in our lifetime, but on a game table, Starry Night Sky transports you to the heavens and the twinkle of the stars.
Starry Night Sky is the latest from Emma Larkins. Look at that box art!
Starry Night Sky, designed by Emma Larkins (who also designed the adorable card game Abandon All Artichokes), is published by Buffalo Games and came out in 2023. It plays 2-4 players, and playtime is about 30-45 minutes.
Thanks Buffalo Games for sending me a copy of this game!
In Starry Night Sky, players are astronomers taking to the heavens, exploring and mapping constellations, while completing goals and finishing end-game myths. Starry Night Sky is a beautiful family game — with vivid shades of dark blues and celestial gold — with a wonderful astronomy theme. The game comes with plastic telescopes, which players use to travel across constellations. The bag full of star tokens — sparkly plastic red, yellow and blue shaped pieces — makes the game extra delightful to play with.
The celestial constellations of Starry Night Sky.
Each turn has two phases: Gather and Explore. During Gather, you draw an exploration goal (if you don’t have three in front of you already) and draw new stars from the bag. You must then assign each star to one Star Pool, of which you have three on your player board. Star Pools can only hold 4 stars maximum, and once a star is in your star pool, they cannot be moved somewhere else. This small yet important decision where to place your stars adds some strategy to this gorgeous game.
Players randomly draw twinkly stars from this bag.
Then it’s time to Explore. To Explore, you move your telescope to a neighboring constellation on the board along the lines that connect constellations. Do you move toward the Vivid Orchid or the Energetic Houseplant? Such whimsical names and charming artwork! If you are the first player to move into a constellation, you place a discovery marker on it from the discovery track on the board. These tokens mark the timing of the game — once a certain number of discovery markers are removed from the track, the end of the game triggers.
Each player tracks their movement with these cute little telescopes.
Players score points for discovering constellations as well as placing stars on your board from exactly one of your star pools during this turn. Each star you place is another victory point and if you place the last star on the board for the constellation, the discovery market is flipped over to its completed side. That means the constellation is fully mapped.
Fully mapped constellations are important for myth cards, which are end-game objectives that score when certain constellations are mapped, regardless of whoever mapped it. These myth cards that you receive at the start of the game help guide you across the galaxy toward the constellations you want to map out but, like in real life, the galaxy is vast and sometimes it’s just plain difficult to make it all the way across. Luckily, you can still score points each turn with exploration goals.
Players all have their player board, which has three star pools to hold their stars, and three myth cards.
Exploration goals are challenges that you can complete during the course of the game for extra points. Challenges such as “Place 1 yellow and 1 blue star in 1 constellation on your turn” or “End turn with 2 stars in each Star Pool.” In a pinch, you can discard exploration cards to grab a star you need. Players can also do a bonus exploration once per turn if they move into a partially mapped constellation.
The exploration goals allow you to score a few extra points each turn.
As the game progresses, it becomes easier to move across the board as you can pass through mapped constellations and land on the next available partially mapped constellation. But by that point, the game is nearly over and hopefully you’ve accumulated enough VPs to win the game.
Taking advantage of the bonus exploration helps your telescope zoom around the board board, and sometimes just dropping off a few stars at a constellation nets more VPs at the moment based on what your exploration cards say. The game ends when a certain number of constellations are mapped; it varies with player count.
The game ends when the constellation tokens are removed from this track.
Starry Night Sky is perfect for those who love stargazing and those who love a strategic family game. It’s fun, beautiful to look at, and players can feel accomplished semi-working together to map the stars. Maybe one day you’ll discover a new constellation and name it the Distinguished Snail. Look at this dapper little fellow!
Is this a top hat or a fanny pack? Either way, it’s adorable!
Hello, friends! It’s been a busy few months (I feel like all of adulthood is saying this phrase over and over again but I digress). In between multiple trips and family coming to visit, I managed to get some gaming in. Most notably, last month I saw my friends in Atlanta where we met up for our annual Friendship Con.
Upon arriving in Atlanta on a Wednesday night, we all went out for dinner at Ponce City Market. This place is so neat! It’s a big fancy food court inside a converted Sears building from the 1920s. I most definitely enjoyed this Thai iced tea popsicle from King of Pops.
This mixed-use place in Atlanta has so many different food stalls and shops — something for everyone.
My friends in Atlanta surprised us with swag bags that contained this amazing Twilight Imperium 3-D printed war sun. Behold its gloriousness!
This war sun is ready to do some damage! It’s ginormous!
The swag bag, which had our names printed out, also contained the Critters of War board game and game and card component holders. Always a fun surprise!
My friends who hosted Friendship Con this time around gave us these awesome goodies! Plus a war sun that I forgot to add to the photo.
The first game to kick off the convection for me was Air, Land and Sea: Critters of War. This was a fun 2P game where players use 12 of their 18 cards to try to win majorities in the air, land and sea theaters. Some cards are played face-up or you can use the backside of a card, which is the same for all the cards in your deck. The game is fast-paced and tactical, and you play 3 quick rounds to determine the winner.
We immediately opened Critters of War to play.
We then played Red 7. I can’t believe I keep forgetting how great this game is! The goal is to play all the cards in your hands first by beating a card that’s always been played. If you can’t do that, you can also play a card to change the rule in play so that you can somehow beat the cards that have been played. I really should add a copy for my collection.
Thursday
The next day, I taught a game of Trajan, my favorite Stefan Feld game. It’s a point salad where your actions are determined by moving your pieces around a rondel, and if you end certain pieces in a space that matches the pieces where a Trajan tile is sitting, you can combo your actions. There are a lot of ways to score — from shipping cards, having points in the Senate to pick up end-game goals, construction and even area control.
Love me some rondels and Trajan!
I then learned how to play Ark Nova. This game has been on my radar for a while but have never gotten a chance to play it. Friends, I LOVE THIS GAME. It satisfies many itches for me — puzzle placement, hand management and cute animals, and I especially enjoy the mechanism to trigger the end game, which is when your two opposing scoring tracks (prestige and conservation points) cross each other, and the biggest gap between those two points results in the winner. What a fun race!
I’m building out my zoo in Ark Nova! Gotta get those conservation points!
While we played Trajan and Ark Nova, another group of folks were playing Fortress America. Old school!
The other table was playing this classic!
I then played FlowerFall, a unique game by Carl Chudyk, who designed Glory to Rome. In this game, you are literally making flowers fall! It’s an area control of sorts, think Carcassonne, where you’re making the biggest continuous path of flowers with patterned cards that are at the mercy of gravity. It’s very hard to beat gravity.
If you told me that Carl Chudyk made a gravity-based card game, I’d think you were lying to me.
We then played Scout, my favorite trick-taking game of late. The game has a twist though: once you’re dealt your cards, you cannot rearrange them at all. You can either use the numbers at top, or flip the entire hand over and use the cards at the bottom of the card, for which they’re different. It feels like Bohnanza in that sense, but you can take card or cards from the middle of your hand, and then make runs or pairs with the leftover cards as they slide together. Super fun and since it’s an Oink Game, it comes in a very small-size box.
Scout is such a great game! Love how you’re stuck with how the cards were dealt to you.
We ended the night with my absolute favorite game ever: Battlestar Galactica. We played a 6P game, and us humans narrowly avoided disaster! The game ended really late, and there was a point that people were asking, “are they a cylon or just super loopy and tired?” I love this game so much.
So say we all! The humans were victorious against the toasters.
Friday
On Friday morning, we played another Chudyk game: Bear Valley. This was a push-your-luck game where you’re trying to make a path in the woods and not run into the bar.
Is this Cocaine Bear the game?
I’m so bad at push-your-luck games because I tend to take it all the way to the edge, and unfortunately, the bear got me. You can also end up lost in the woods if you don’t plan your escape correctly.
You don’t want to get lost in Bear Valley!
I then played a 2P game of Revive. Ever since I played this game a few months prior, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. I love the combo-ing of the actions, the hand management (in the sense that you can’t play your cards again until you refresh), and the multi-use cards, which you can tuck into your board from either side, so you can get different benefits. This game is so fun!
Revive is a game that I want to play over and over again.
Next up was Tyrants of the Underdark. I hadn’t played this in years, but I remember when I first played it years ago I played it a lot. It’s a cool deck-builder area control set in the Dungeons and Dragons world (a world I’m not too familiar with). Cards enable you to send and move troops out, or send spies infiltrate the board for control. There’s also an action to promote cards, which removes them from your deck but will still score VPs for you at the end of the game. Just don’t do what I did and promote powerful cards too early!
Look at my red army taking over! But alas, that didn’t last too long.
The rest of the evening was spent playing a few more casual games as some of my friend’s family came over: Giant Codenames and Just One. These are always a hit!
Akropolis is one of my favorite filler games.
We closed out the night with more Scout and Akropolis. Akropolis, one of my favorite games of 2022, is a quick and elegant filler game that streamlines drafting and tile-laying. Players are building out their cities with tiles they’ve drafted (that are shaped with 3 hexagons), and scoring each colored district requires acquiring the scoring tile for that same color. It’s a neat puzzle, whether you build up or out!
Giant Codenames makes it easy for people to gather around a table and read all the cards.
Saturday
Saturday was an epic day of Twilight Imperium! We busted out our giant war suns, which definitely set the mood for this game. I played as the Yssaril Tribes, a faction I had never played before, but unfortunately, I got super pinned in the far reaches of the universe and wasn’t able to be as effective as I wanted to be. Our game lasted from morning to early evening.
Look at how bonkers that war sun is! Seriously, one year I will figure out how to do well in this game.
After dinner, we played a game of Villagers. This game is so fun! I like to joke how it’s tech tree the game with cute artwork, and I don’t think that description is too far off. Players are drafting characters into their village, and some villagers can hold more specialized versions of themselves, which give better bonuses or powers. Sometimes though to play a specific person, you’ll need to unlock a technology for that card — if you have it, you pay yourself; if you don’t, the bank will pay the person who has it. As you build out your village, you can draft even more people and/or build more buildings. Scoring happens twice in the game, and then you calculate end-game bonuses to see who wins.
The artwork in Villagers is delightful.
And if you’ve been reading along, we played another game of Red 7 to close out the night. Good times!
Sunday
Sunday was the last day we were all going to be in Atlanta. Friendship Con went so fast! We started the day with Dune Imperium and added the Rise of Ix expansion, which was my first time playing that expansion. It added airships to the game, and a new board where you bid on some really strong technologies. I thought about purchasing this expansion but haven’t gotten around to it yet.
I played an expansion to Dune: Imperium for the first time.
Lastly, we played a final Chudyk game: Impulse. This felt like the most Chudyk game that we played all weekend (sorry, Cocaine Bear!). Impulse uses multi-use cards to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate in outer space, and the game comes with these little rocket ships. The game has a map of cards, and you seed the Impulse track with tech cards from your hand. The game is a race to 20 points. It was so hard to wrap my head around this game, but I feel like now that I’ve got a play under my belt, it’ll be easier to jump into. Shoot, it took me quite a few games to understand the flow of Glory to Rome and now can almost jump into any game without a problem.
Exploring space and collecting multi-use cards in Impulse.
And with that, we had to leave for the airport to fly back home. I had a great time in Atlanta with all these people. There’s something so special about spending five days with the same group of folks, year after year after year. Lots of laughs, yummy food, conversation and, of course, gaming. Can’t wait for next year! So, which of these games have you played?
