Tag: board games
BGG Con 2018: Another excellent time in Dallas

BGG Con 2018: Another excellent time in Dallas

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Holy forkballs! It’s December already! Where did November go? Man, it’s been a busy, fun, amazing few weeks, and now that I’ve had some to come up for air, let’s talk about all the gaming I did at BGG. 

This is my fifth consecutive BGG Con, and my fourth year volunteering for Team Geek. If you’re on Team Geek, you work eight 2-hour shifts throughout the course of the convention. And you get to do so in a sweet, sweet jersey. There’s also a volunteer dinner the Tuesday night before the convention so you can meet and hang out with fellow volunteers before the con gets underway on Wednesday. Here’s a photo of Team Geek from Jenny, who is also on team Geek:

Tuesday

I arrived in Dallas on Tuesday morning, had a wonderful breakfast with an old Phoenix friend at Yolk. What an adorable breakfast place, and my skillet was hearty and tasty. I was pleasantly surprised that they had an option for turkey sausage, considering I’m in the heart of Texas, where everything is all about other meats that I don’t eat. 

I arrived at the Hyatt Regency at DFW after breakfast, checked in, took a quick nap (don’t judge — I flew out of Phoenix at 5:30 a.m.), and started volunteer shifts. As a veteran Teek Geek member, I got the first selection on volunteer shifts, so I was able to knock out three of my shifts on Tuesday before our welcome dinner of Mexican food. Yums!

Julie was leading volunteers on Tuesday who had signed up to work that day. Jon of JonGetsGames stopped by to help, too! 

After dinner, we got our badges and free games, one of which was a sweet Everdell glass pint, and started gaming! First up was Teotihuacan: City of Gods, which was high on my to-play list for BGG. Kevin Russ, who I had met at RinCon two months prior, taught us how to play, and man, do I love this game!

 Teotihuacan was my favorite game of BGG Con this year.

In Teotihuacan, each player is a powerful noble family working to build the temple of Teotihuacan. You’re using your workforce of dice to move around the board like a giant rondel. Depending on the value of your dice, you receive various resources at each location, and then at the end of your turn, your dice levels up.

The board looks incredibly intimidating but the iconography is clear in terms of what rewards you’ll receive at each location, and game play, in my opinion, is pretty straightforward. Making the most of those actions is much more difficult.

As with its predecesor Tzolk’in, the game is a lot about timing your actions correctly. Instead of the giant wheel cogs in Tzolk’in, the game is all about moving your dice in a way so that it levels up at the right moment, so that you can get resources to build temple steps and gain technology, among other things. Dice are moving in one direction in order to ascend to 6 pips, and then you get a reward and start over again at one location. Can’t wait until my game group gets of a copy of this game!

Next up, I learned and played Catch the Moon for the first time from Eric. I can’t say enough great things about this darling game. It’s one of the few games I purchased at BGG Con because I immediately fell in love with it. And true story: Eric is really good and mean at this game! 

Catch the Moon is darling! Don’t mess up and make the moon cry!

Besides it being just adorable to look at, this dexterity game is easy enough for people to jump into and interesting enough to keep even the heaviest of gamers engaged. On your turn, you roll a die, and you place a ladder onto the cloud either touching one other ladder, two other ladders, or it has to be the highest point on the cloud platform. If you make ladders fall, the moon gets super sad and you receive a teardrop. If you get the last teardrop, the game ends and you’re eliminated, and the person with the fewest teardrops wins the game.

Getting some pre-con gaming in with Netters, Mitch, Eric, Daniel, Kimberly and Sum Fat Kid. 

I then played Tokyo Jidohanbaiki, which is a game about Japanese vending machines and drinks. It’s a little — literally, teeny tiny — game where place your smol soda bottles on drink crates and not have them explode, but also when you choose for them to explode, you can wipe out your opponents.

Look at these teeny tiny soda cans!

Wednesday

Today was the first day of the convention. I worked two shifts at registration, which I love doing. I love greeting folks and seeing everyone’s excited and happy faces on Day 1.

I then met up with some Arizona folks to play some games before  dinner that evening. I got a chance to play Meeple Circus for the first time. That game is a riot, and the circus soundtrack adds a nice touch for this game. I’m not normally a fan of adding apps or tech to board games, but this was stupid fun. I mean, who doesn’t love stacking meeples in a dexterity race while circus music is playing in the background?

Stacking meeples and animals in real time in Meeple Circus, which has its own circus soundtrack. 

We then all went out to dinner to a vegan restaurant called Spiral Diner. This was all of our first time visiting this place, and, even though it’s quite a haul from the Hyatt Regency, it’s definitely worth checking out.

It’s Greg Dickson of Hooked on Geek, Andrew, Dr. GloryHogg and GloryHoundd!

I ordered an El Paso burger with a cashew patty and pistachio ice cream for dessert. Both were super yum and tasted like what I would normally eat as a non-vegan.

I ordered a cashew-based patty for my El Paso burger.
I had to try the pistachio ice cream. Excellent! 

We then arrived back at the hotel to teach my favorite game to run at a convention: Sidereal Confluence. I enjoy having a large amount of people playing this game since it makes for a better economy, and luckily, seven people signed up to play. And I know live negotiation games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, or that maybe I’m not even the best teacher of it, but I do enjoy sharing this game with others as I feel like it’s not a game that would normally get on table on a regular game day. 

Sidereal Confluence is a table hog! I also love using my giant tweezers in the game.

I then ran across Eric teaching Eco Links, which is another real-time path-building game in which you’re trying to connects animals through a path. Even though the game is light, it reminded me of playing an 18xx because you’re playing these tiles on a board and looking for that sharp curve.

Eco Links is a real-time tile-laying, road-building game where players connect all the bears.

Thursday

On Thursday, I woke up early (for me) to game with Moe and play Fort Sumter at 9:30 a.m. Fort Sumter is a 2-player card-driven game that pits the Unionist and Secessionist player against each other. The game plays for 25-40 minutes, and takes place over three rounds and ends with a Final Crisis confrontation.

Here’s Moe teaching me to how to play Fort Sumter early Thursday morning. 

Similar to other CDGs like Twilight Struggle, players have a hand of cards and play them for events or action points. What’s different about this game, besides it taking a fraction of the time of a game of Twilight Struggle, is that in each round, you get a secret objective that you’re playing toward for extra victory points.

Fort Sumter plays in 25-40 minutes, and it’s a tense CDG!

I enjoyed the push and pull of this game, and that escalation of the game as more cubes come into play. This game is part of the GMT Lunchtime Games series, strategic games designed for the lunch hour. It’s a great game to play if you’re interested in learning how to play a card-driven game and don’t have an entire half-day to play.

Next up was lunch with Netters and Mitch, and then Netters taught me The Estates. Jeremy and @fencedingates also joined in on the game. This game is right up my alley! It involves bidding and blocking people, and is all kinds of mean! You are bidding to build pieces to place along three different streets, and any incomplete streets will score negative points in the end. Players can also dictate how long the game will go, and I love the closed economy of it.

Netters did a great job teaching this game. I enjoyed the bidding and just hanging out with all these cool folks. I wish Netters and Mitch lived closer to me!  

I then taught this game I had heard about on Tuesday from JonGetsGames: Eye My Favorite Things. This game can be a tad absurd but it’s fun with the right folks. You pick a category for the person on your right, and they write down their top 5 items for that category and rank them, as well as something they hate in that category and rank them as a zero. Then you get the cards they wrote on, and then it becomes a trick-taking game based on what you think they ranked all the items they wrote on their cards. You do this three times, and then the person with the most VPs wins the game. It’s a game that compares random categories like soup, world problems, board games and ice cream flavors altogether.

Eye My Favorite Things was the biggest surprise of BGG Con! 

I then met up with some friends at a meetup for female content contributors and their friends. Netters and I organized one last year and it was a nice refuge from the hustle and bustle of the main convention floor, and it gave people a chance to get to know each other in a smaller setting. The two games I played were — yep you guessed it — Catch the Moon and Eye My Favorite Things.

Oh, hai, friends! A great time was had by all!

FridayF

I started my Friday with a lovely game of Coimbra with these cool folks, Joe, Julie and Chris. I absolutely adore this game, and, even though I’m completely horrible at it, I’m always down to play it.  It was a wonderful way to start my morning. 

Coimbra is soooo good! So many tough decisions and working hard to make all your character cards work well together. 

Chris and I then went to meet Jason and Donna Dinger for lunch, and Jason taught us Ground Floor, designed by David Short. In Ground Floor, you’re the CEO of a company, and you have to manage hiring new employees, expanding your office and scheduling your shipments. In addition, you’re literally building floors into your office building. That was a neat visual component to the game! The game plays for about two hours, and man, you quickly start running out of actions and can’t do everything you want to. I had a great time playing this!

Each player has their own board, which you start to build out for your company.

Jason then taught us another game, The King of Frontier. It’s one of his favorite games, and he managed to secure a copy of the first edition, since the new one has been completely revamped with a completely different aesthetic. I mean, who doesn’t want to play a game with these stick figures?

This little stick-figure guy is ready to build his lan, and do some funky dance moves, too.

It’s a neat tile-laying game that has a follow mechanism, and you’re building out a little kingdom and collecting resources on your player mat. Jason showed me photos of what the new edition looks like, and I think it has lot a lot of its charm with the new art.

I then attended a meetup from the Inside Voices Network. I played Wangdo with a different Eric and Chris. It’s a cute little area-control game where you draw bears from a bag in order to place them on the board. But you can only place a bear when you have the appropriate colored bears matching the spots surrounding that location. There are also cards you can play to benefit yourself or hurt an opponent, and the game is a race to collect all the tokens.

Wangdo is a fun quick area control, set collection bear game. 

And the bear pieces look like yummy gummy bears. 

Squee! These cute bears are not candy though. 

Next, we played a prototype that Chris was demo-ing called Hour Town by LO5 Games. This game is a real-time worker-placement game where you collect resources to build buildings, some of which are multiple levels tall. And there’s also an area-control element in which you contributed the most resources toward a building. I like the up and down frantic-ness of this game, which lasts about 20 minutes. I hope this game gets published! 

Hour Town is a fun prototype that Chris taught Eric and me. Sand timers galore! 

I then played a game of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra. I was a little skeptical about this game, mostly that it was relying too much on being gorgeous and like how could it be better than Azul, which was one of the top games I played in 2017. 

I didn’t think it was possible to make Azul tiles look more like candy, but here we are! 

The verdict is that this sequel is worth playing! It changes up gameplay to make it more puzzly, and more importantly, it’s a fixed amount of rounds. You’re working to complete vertical columns, and there’s an added element where you only score columns to the right of the pawn. Thus scoring can ramp up if you build your window in the right order. I enjoyed that extra elements to the game. And it comes with this little cardboard box to discard pieces in it, which makes it easier to pour back into the bag. I don’t need both copies though. One should suffice in your game collection.

I ended Friday night with my usual BGG Friday Night Shenanigans by playing Yummy Monster and Coconuts with my girlfriends. 

My girlfriends and I are ready to feed the monsters! Now where’s the food items?

Yummy Monster is a flinging dexterity game in which each player is feeding a monster. Each player wears a mask over their face and slides cardboard claws onto their hands, and you throw pieces of food into the monster’s mouth, which is depicted as one of four walls you set up in the game box. It’s super ridiculous, but we had a lot of fun.

And of course, we love Coconuts. So much shenanigans. 

Fun fact: the longer we play this game, the worse we become at it. How does that happen?

Saturday

Saturday began with seeing some sun (even though it was freezing outside) when Rand, who is originally from Dallas, invited us and took a car-load of us to his favorite BBQ joint Lockhart. The place is a tad farther from the convention, but definitely worth checking out if you have access to a vehicle. The meat was tasty, and there wasn’t a 40-minute wait for the meats, which is the case when we go out to Hard Eight This place is casual, homey and right in the middle of the Dallas arts district. 

Amid the chowing down of the meats, I completely forgot to take a table photo of what we ate. But trust me, guys, this place was yum!

Saturday gaming began with Rescue Polar Bears. I’ve already been bracing myself for this game because everyone has been telling me how hard it is, and when you lose, these little guys die. 

Please save my polar bear family!

This game is a co-op action-point-allowance game where you’re trying to save the polar bears before all the ice melts. Brutal! But these components are just darling, and they make you super motivated to try to win the game by getting polar bears onto your boat and helicoptering them away!

We gotta rescue the polar bears before all the ice melts!

Saturday night was closing ceremonies. This is always a great time because so many game prizes were awarded! One year, I’ll totally win a prize package.

The main ballroom is packed for closing ceremonies. People want to win games!

I then unknowingly started a new tradition with my friends: teaching Battlestar Galactica immediately after closing ceremonies. This is my absolute favorite game, and I love teaching it to new people. I played this with Greg, Chris, GloryHoundd and DrGloryHogg. It’s my third year in a row that I’ve done this on the Saturday night at the convention.

All of our happy faces before the cylons tried to take over. Those dirty toasters! 

GloryHoundd even had this shirt on, which I totally should’ve guessed she was the cyclon. She later revealed she was, after DrGloryHogg brigged her and Chris. DrGloryHogg has no reason to brig Chris but Chris ended up being the other cylon. Good job, humans!

GloryHoundd was absolutely the cylon. 

The final game of BGG Con for me was Iki. The game is based in Edo, Japan, where artisans, street vendors and professionals are setting up shop. Players move their meeples along the city like a rondel. There’s also a track showing how protected your stores are from fire, and that determines the order for choosing how many spaces you want to move in the next round and the order to purchase character cards. This entire game has many clever elements! And some of the Japanese professionals are charming and based on historical writings.

When you do business with shop owners, you get resources and the shop owners gain experience. Timing also plays a large role because as shop owners maximize their experience, they move off the board and into your personal supply. So you might be expecting some resources, but another player has triggered your shop owner to be removed from the board. Iki is such a hidden gem, and I’m super sad that I can’t find a copy of it that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

And then just like that, six days came and went, and it was time to return to Phoenix, which was Chris’ first time visiting. Every year I say that I had an excellent time at BGG, and this year is no exception. It’s my one giant con for the year, and it’s truly an amazing experience hanging out and gaming with people I call my friends, even though they live all across the U.S. This year’s BGG was particularly special for me. Board-game Twitter just brings people together, you know?

I miss all these cool people and many others who had left by Saturday night! Can’t wait until we can all game again! 

Anywho,  if you’re interested in going to BGG Con next year, it’ll be moving to a bigger location in downtown Dallas, which means more tickets will be on sale! Staying at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas will result in access to restaurants and nearby attractions, something I’m very much looking forward to. Because, man, does it get expensive uber-ing out of DFW to get some good grub.

If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading about my experience at BGG Con! I hope everyone is having a wonderful December! 
State of the Blog

State of the Blog

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This week is my blog anniversary! Happy four years to me! It was four years ago that I created my board-gaming alter ego and wrote my first post, and then a month after that, I went to my first BGG Con in 2014.

The blog originally started because the guy I was dating noticed that I was super duper excited about board games all the time, and, since he wasn’t a board gamer, said that I should write about all those things and find my people. So that I did. Around the same time, one of my favorite cooking blogs posted a how-to tutorial on how to start a blog, which I took as a sign, and created my website.

This design is sooo 2014! And I’m totally being serious because this was one of the more popular themes in WordPress that year.

My, how things have changed! (Thanks Wayback Machine for this classic gem!) I also can’t believe I left that awful photo of Caverna in the header for an entire year! Totes shaking my head. I then changed the header photo to Battlestar Galactica a year later and kept it up for almost two years.

I changed my blog’s header photo in 2015 to a much, much better image.

The first two years were just casual entries about gaming, and I feel like I didn’t start devoting extra time to actively creating content and being active on social media until about two years ago.

I also redesigned my website this past January to what it looks like today with my new logo, and 2018 has been by far my busiest blogging year. Woot!

So, if you don’t mind, let’s take a trip down memory lane. I’m digging out some of my favorites posts and blogger moments below.

My most-read post ever: Shogun/Samurai Swords/Ikusa. I get emails about this game surprisingly often, usually someone will remember this game from childhood and look it up in Google and run across my post. Lots of folks super nostalgic about this game!

My favorite photo shoot: Takenoko: Collector’s Edition. This was fun as I actually went outside in the middle of the day to take photos. Isn’t that panda darling? No joke, if my place was burning and I only had time to take one game, this would be it.

My first year-end top games list: Top 10 games I played for the first time in 2016.

A few super personal posts: Why I Play Board Games, Dating and recent Life Updates. Things have changed for me a lot since some of these posts, but it’s still nice to see where I was at that specific point in time.

My most-listened-to interview: I attended GMT’s Weekend at the Warehouse in October 2017 and, that year, I was doing interviews on my SoundCloud channel. I had a great time at the convention and met some really awesome people.

My first foray into a board-gaming podcast: I was co-host and producer of Hooked on Geek for six months, an experience that was invaluable, and shared what I learned during that time.

My first top 100 list: Check it on BGG, which I compiled in March 2018. Feel free to agree or disagree!

My first radio interview on Phoenix’s NPR station: This interview was done for the upcoming Arizona Game Fair.

I started editing rulebooks: My professional background is copyediting, and I feel blessed to be able to combine my two loves. (Where’s my red pen at?)

My first time as a guest on a board-game podcast: Check out Harold on Games as well as his other interviews with wargamers.

I launched an FLGS profile series: My first one was on Imperial Outpost Games in Glendale, Arizona.

I joined another podcast: I’m part of the Five By Games team.

My first article for a major website: I wrote an article on LifeHacker on the best board games for kids.

My goal for the blog was to write weekly, and I think that for more than half of the four years, I stuck with that. I’m proud of the work I’ve done here, and I’m happy to have made so many friends in the board-gaming community along the way.

I’ve learned so much about the ins and outs of the board-game industry, from game design and development to content creation either via writing, videos or podcasts, all the way to running your own game company or convention. For so many people who do this, often times this is not their primary job and that speaks volumes to me that a lot of the content we see is a labor of love.

I have these meeple magnets on my fridge, because who doesn’t love meeples?

I’ve also learned about how important visibility is in the board-game world. When I first started this blog, there didn’t seem to be too many women of color in this sphere, but that number has grown so much in just the few years I’ve been online in this community. It’s been so fantastic!

What warms my heart most are those times when every so often, I’ll get an email or message saying that seeing someone like me, a woman of color playing a heavy game or a wargame, inspired them to check out whatever game I had been writing about. Visibility matters 100 freakin’ percent. And equally important, making all gamers welcome. When you have a large and/or captive audience, it’s important to give a voice to people who aren’t the majority as well as to make sure that the gaming environment is safe for everyone.

In closing, thanks, dear reader, for sticking with me on this fun journey. Here’s to many more years of board gaming and blogging!

And whether you’ve been here for years or this is the first post you’ve read, say hello down below and let me know what you like most about my content.

Hi, I’m Meeple Lady, and I love board games.
Snakes and Lattes Tempe opens in Arizona

Snakes and Lattes Tempe opens in Arizona

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Around the corner from downtown Tempe’s Mill Avenue and across the street from Arizona State University on Sixth Street, a new board-game cafe recently moved in: Snakes and Lattes. Snakes and Lattes is a board-game cafe chain from Toronto, Ontario, in Canada, and it has opened its first U.S. location in Arizona.

Snakes and Lattes Tempe had a soft opening last Friday, and the place was already buzzing. The cafe is in the old Z’Tejas building, for locals who remember that restaurant, but the inside has been completely gutted and renovated into a space that chic, modern, functional and inviting for board gamers of all kinds. There are lots of large tables for bigger groups, square tables that can be easily joined and separated, comfy booths, and a bar to sit at.

Snakes and Lattes Tempe is in the old Z’Tejas building in downtown Tempe.

The cafe offers about 3,500 square feet of seating, and occupancy is at about 200 people. There are also two large patios that seat about 25 people, and, in typical Arizona fashion, the patios have misters and heaters to accommodate the desert weather.

Gamers can also sit outside on one of the cafe’s two large patios.

Currently, the game library is at about 700 games, eventually growing to about 1,000 games. The library is color-coded, too, so that people can quickly pick out a game based on group size and skill level.

Some gamers are checking out the wall of games at Snakes and Lattes Tempe.

“If you’re brand new and see a wall of board games, it can be overwhelming,” said Susan Lawver, game curator for Snakes and Lattes Tempe. Lawver has been instrumental in helping shape the cafe and picking out the games for the library. “We’re always looking for game suggestions,” she said.

This coding system and stickers on games help people select a game off the shelf.

Lawver has been training the Game Gurus, who are staff members who can help cafe patrons pick a game and teach it. Game Gurus are supposed to to be able to teach about 200 games and help out with questions. She also plans to designate a game shelf for local publishers and create events such as game design nights, when publishers and game designers can bring in their game for playtesting, tweaking and getting feedback.

This shelf contains heavier strategy games for cafe patrons.

Snakes and Lattes Tempe is also a full-fledged restaurant. The menu is diverse, with appetizers, burgers and sandwiches, salads, naan pizza and an entire category on poutine, as an homage to the cafe’s Canadian roots. Currently, the poutine options include: Classic Poutine, Loaded Poutine, Vegan Disco Fries, Chicken Bite Poutine, Korean Fire Chicken Poutine and All Day Breakfast Poutine.

“The menu is unexpected for a board-game cafe,” Lawver said. “We did a lot of specialty items, and we brought in a chef from Toronto and a local chef to carry the menu.”

And let’s not forget about the drinks. Snakes and Lattes Tempe offers about a dozen craft beers on tap as well as a large selection of wine, canned and bottled beer, cocktails and a full coffee bar.

Snakes and Lattes has a full food and drink menu.

It’s been a busy few months for cafe owner Ben Castanie, from first getting the keys to completely renovating the space to the soft opening.

“We wanted to spend the time and not rush our opening because it’s our first location in the U.S.,” Castanie said. “We want to show the best of what we have to offer and put a lot of thought into what we did, the games, the food, and the alcohol, and we’re not going to stop there. We’re going to do a lot more.”

There’s also a gift shop inside Snakes and Lattes Tempe for various games.

Castanie said they have plans to sign a lease in Charlotte, N.C., and are also looking into another locations in Arizona and possibly Colorado. By the end of the year, he said, they’ll have more good news about future locations.

Susan Lawver and Ben Castanie stand in front the bar at Snakes and Lattes Tempe.

Snakes and Lattes Tempe will have an official, splashier grand opening in November. Lawver said they decided to go with a soft opening as to not overwhelm the staff and ensure that gamers have a great experience.

The cafe aims to draw the attention of ASU students nearby as well as families and gamers alike.

“I think Millennials are looking for more experiences instead of watching more screens. This’ll be a great place to take a date,” she said.

Andrew of Game State Show and his girlfriend, Ali, played at game during their visit to Snakes and Lattes Tempe.

If you go

Snakes and Lattes Tempe is open Tuesday-Sunday and is located at 20 W. Sixth St. in Tempe, Arizona. It’s $5 to play games, or free if you’re just eating. There is metered parking on the street and parking garages nearby. The cafe is also a few blocks from the light-rail stop. To get more information, visit their website, or find them on Twitter and Facebook.

 
RinCon Games 2018: Panels, Women’s Space, A Drink Surprise

RinCon Games 2018: Panels, Women’s Space, A Drink Surprise

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This past weekend was RinCon down in Tucson, which is a two-hour drive from Phoenix. Last year, I was only able to attend for one day. This year, the convention invited me to be a special guest, and I got to speak on some panels regarding subjects that are near and dear to me! How frakking awesome is that?

I drove south to Tucson on Friday after work and immediately jumped into a 7-player Sidereal Confluence, my new favorite con game after I busted it out at Strategicon. I’ve been bringing this game to conventions because I figure I can get a large player count for this game, which is absolutely fun and bonkers — if you love live negotiating! I got a chance to play this with friends I saw at Gila Monster, and a good time was had by all.

Sidereal Confluence is a live negotiation and trading game with asymmetrical alien factions.

We then played two games of Deception: Undercover Allies. The original Deception game is my favorite deduction-style game, so it was great playing this expansion. The new roles such as the Inside Man and Protective Detail made for some real nail-biters in finding the murderer. Plus, the microscopes and the police badges are a sweet addition.

I got a chance to play the expansion of my favorite social-deduction game.

On Saturday, I hopped into a game of At the Gates of Loyang, which is from my favorite designer Uwe Rosenberg. This has been one of my grail games to play, as I don’t know anyone local who has it. It’s an older game from 2009 and has the farming and harvest elements that are similar to his other games. I really liked the card-drafting mechanism for Loyang, in which players are placing cards from their hands into the courtyard to later pick two action cards. The player has to both pick a card from their hand and from the courtyard for their two card actions in that round.

I’m playing an Uwe game where I’m planting and harvesting fruits and veggies!

Then in typical Uwe fashion, you can plant and harvest your fruits and vegetables and complete orders from various customers. If you can’t satisfy some customers, then you’ll get a penalty. I need to find a copy of this game for my collection!

I then spoke from my first panel for the convention on diversity and inclusivity. Personally, I don’t have much experience doing public speaking so I’m always a little bit nervous doing these things, but everyone was so friendly that you can’t help but get caught up on discussions about making board gaming a better place for everyone. Topics such as how to promote welcoming spaces came up and how to best amplify those diverse voices in the industry. I was on the panel with Erin Escobedo, Jamie DuBois of Do Better Gaming, Jahmal Brown and Camdon Wright.

There was some good discussion on making gaming more welcoming and inclusive. (Photo by CritHitAZ)

I then met up with RinCon special guest Sarah Reed who taught me how to play her games Oaxaca and Project Dreamscape. It was a real treat finally meeting her in person and hanging out with her all weekend. I love the colorful artwork of Oaxaca and had a little too much fun activating some of the Handicraft Cards to target my opponents.

I love the colorful artwork in Oaxaca. You can target some of your opponents with some of the cards. But ultimately, the game forces you to specialize and be more efficient with gathering and crafting.

Come to think of it, we also started getting a little mean for Project Dreamscape! There’s an option to flip over cards, making it more expensive to get the cards we all want. Both games were really fun to play. I also learned about how Oaxaca came to be and gained useful information about creating prototypes during Sarah’s panel on Game Design, which also included David Short and James Earness of Cheapass Games.

It’s me and game designer extraordinaire Sarah Reed, who is originally from Sacramento. I’m glad we got a chance to meet in real life and hang out!

After that panel, I participated in a women in gaming panel with these lovely ladies: GloryHoundd, Marissa Kelly of Magpie Games, Sarah Reed and Griffin Maria. We talked about our experiences — good and bad — of being a female gamer, the role models we have or wished we had, and what motivates us to create content in a sometimes inhospitable environment. We all had different experiences and come from various corners of the board-game world. It was inspiring to listen to all these women speak.

Loved being on a panel with all these wonderful ladies. Karen Arnold Ewing (behind me in purple) is in charge of the convention and moderated the panel.

The Women’s Space came up in discussions as well. For the first time ever, RinCon dedicated a separate space for women to game in. This room was beyond fantastic — it had fresh-baked goods, snacks and a well-kept stash of products people could dig into.

Who doesn’t love fresh-baked goods? Women do it right!

Whenever I went into the Women’s Space, most folks were gaming but there were a few who just needed a quiet break away from the hustle and bustle of the main gaming areas. I think this is such a wonderful idea and hope that more conventions set up a place like this.

The Women’s Space was set up in a hotel suite away from the main convention floor. It was a nice retreat.

After the panel, I learned Gizmos, which is nothing like Potion Explosion despite marbles and a contraption from which the marbles come out of. It’s a quick engine-building game where you’re building these machines and scoring victory points. Certain machines will increase your capacity to hold various cards, which then will make your engine more efficient.

David Short taught us how to play Gizmos, a quick engine-builder that has marbles and a contraption that spits out marbles.

I then played Coimbra, which is my second time playing this game after Gila Monster. I cannot get enough of this game, with its crunchy decisions in a not-super-long eurogame. It’s essentially dice drafting in which pips matter for the first half of the round, and then the color of the dice matter for the second half of the round in receiving income or resources of the matching dice color. So crunchy! This is one I would love to add to my collection.

I love love this game, even if I’m not very good at it.

Lastly, I played Ginkopolis, which I first played at Arizona Game Fair. This game has card drafting, area control and multi-use cards. We played a 5P game that lasted into the wee hours of the night, briefly interrupted by some Eegee’s frozen treats at midnight. Also, on Friday night at midnight, the convention brought in some free pizza for a pizza party. Such cool perks from the con!

We played a 5P game of Ginkopolis that lasted in the night on Saturday night.

On Sunday morning, I signed up to teach Lisboa, one of my absolute favorite games and which I actually learned at last year’s RinCon, to some women in the Women’s Space. It’s a beast to teach, and I wanted to share my love of this game in a chill environment where people can ask all the questions they want. We got through the first half of the game before the time ended, but it seemed like most of them got the gist of it, enough to figure out if they would want to buy it. Also, the giant tweezers were a bit hit and made it very easy to point out iconography.

Had a good time teaching these ladies Lisboa. Hope they enjoyed the session!

After Lisboa, I purchased Oaxaca and found Sarah to say goodbye to her and have her sign my new game before making the trek back to Phoenix. The biggest surprise of the convention was finding out that RinCon named a drink after me! That is seriously the coolest thing! The drink was super yum and had a dragon on it to match the convention’s theme! Squee!!

I got a drink named after me! My life has totally peaked, and I can die happy.

And just like that, the weekend was over. I had a wonderful time gaming with old and new friends. I loved that the convention is so supportive in creating a safe and inclusive space for all types of gamers, especially with the addition of the Women’s Space. And thanks, RinCon, for having me as a special guest! Can’t wait until next year!

Cheers! And hope to see you at the next convention!

 
Building pyramids in Mexica, and a new podcast!

Building pyramids in Mexica, and a new podcast!

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Two entries in one week? Well, folks, I have some news! I’ve joined a group of talented folks on their podcast, The Five By, and today is my first episode with them. Go subscribe! Each episode is about 30 minutes, where 5 different co-hosts give 5-minute game reviews. I’ll also be posting the podcast episodes and the text of my segment here, if I haven’t already talked about the game on the blog. This episode features Near and Far: Amber Mines, Dinosaur Island, 1775: Rebellion, Mexica, Spirits of the Wild! Enjoy!

 

Mexica is a game designed by Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling. It was originally published in 2002 by Ravensburger and Rio Grande Games. Now it’s made by Iello. Mexica is the third game in the Mask Trilogy, after Tikal and Java.

Mexica is a game for 2 to 4 players, and plays in about 60 to 90 minutes. It’s an action-point selection game with area control. What’s cool about this game is that unlike many other area controls, you’re actually building out the districts on the map. What’s excellent about this game is the pyramids! Solid, study, meaty pyramids of varying heights, from 1 to 4 levels. Super excellent components. It definitely has great table presence and just gorgeous to look at.

The game is played out over two periods, which are played out exactly the same way. Players receive their first set of 9 pyramids, and the other 9 will be available in the second phase. Any pyramids not used in the first period will be added to a player’s supply for later.

Look at the gorgeous components in this game! Pyramids and canals galore.

Player also receive a Pilli Mexica, which is your little meeple. All the Pilli Mexicas start at the temple in the center of the board. The entire board is a grid system, and players use their action points to orthoganally move your Pilli Mexica meeple, construct canals, build bridges, place pyramids, and found a district. Each player has 6 action points to spend during their turn, and can do any number of these actions based on their various costs of doing them.

Before the game starts, you shuffle 15 calpulli tokens and randomly select 8 of them to use for the first period. The next 7 will be used later. Tokens will have numbers for a district size, and prestige points for the player who founded the district, and points for anyone in the district when it’s founded.

These tokens which districts to build during a particular phase. The district has to be the exact size of the number in yellow.

So how do you build districts? On your turn, you can spend 1 action point to place a canal that’s either a single or double square onto the board. Canals can only be placed on open spaces and can only touch other canals diagonally at a corner. As game play continues, these canals will segment areas of the board. The surrounding lake and the temple in the middle also act as borders for districts. When an area is completely closed off by water, a district can be founded.

In addition, your meeple must be sitting inside the district on a square to found a district. When you found a district, which costs 0 action points, take an available token that exactly matches the district size and place it on an empty space inside the district.

Once this is set, the token can never be removed from the place, and this district cannot be broken up on future turns. You then receive the amount of prestige points on the token, and if anyone else happens to be inside your district, they receive the smaller secondary number.

Players can also score prestige points at the end of the period by building pyramids to establish majority. The number of action points to spend to build is equal to the level of the pyramid you’re placing on the board. 1 point for a 1 level, 2 points for a 2 level, etc. To build a temple, your Pilli Mexica must be inside the district you’re placing it in.

The pyramids come in multiple levels, each with a pip on top to show how many level it is.

At the beginning of the game, before any districts are founded, it’s much easier to do this, but you run the risk of your pyramid not being inside a high-value district. Once districts start filling up the board, then you’ll have to become more strategic in how you move your meeple and put down temples.

Once a temple has been placed on the board, it cannot be removed or upgraded. I like how the pyramids have pips on the top of each of them, so that you’re not spending your entire time counting each level. It’s not the number of pyramids that determine majority; it’s the number of pips, which represent the total temple levels.

Another way to get around the board is building canals. Canals enable meeples to enter a district that has already been segmented off. Canals also allow your meeple to travel via an imaginary boat down canals. You’re basically bridge hopping and spending action points to do that. The lake also counts as a body of water when you do this action.

There’s also one last action to collect action point tokens, which give you extra actions for a future turn.

You have 6 action points on your turn, and these are the various actions you can take.

The first period of the game ends when all 8 calpulli tokens are taken placed on the board, or when one player places all 9 of their temples. Scoring happens again for every district founded. Determine which players have the most, second-most and third-most majority in that district, and prestige points are handed out based on the calpulli tokens in that district.

Everything on the board stays on the board. The rest of the calpulli tokens are revealed, everyone gets 9 more pyramids, and the game continues just like the first half.

On the cover of the rulebook, there’s a subtitle that calls Mexica “a game of placement, blocking and majority.” In other words, this game can be all kinds of mean! Meeples cannot pass through each other, so you can completely block a person from exiting or entering a district. That person then has to spend 5 action points to magically teleport to any location on the map, which, when a person has only 6 action points per turn, is a pretty hefty cost. 

The board is starting to fill up!

For people who don’t like games that can be mean, Mexica would not be for you. Also, having 6 action points to choose from can also bring out AP in some players. The person with the prestige points at the end of the game is the winner.

Mexica also has a 2P variant that allows you to place a number of neutral temples across the board to act as competition when scoring up majorities. And that’s Mexica!

This has been Meeple Lady for The Five By. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as Meeple Lady, and on my website, boardgamemeeplelady.com. Thanks for listening!
Friendly Local Game Store: Isle of Games

Friendly Local Game Store: Isle of Games

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This profile on Isle of Games is part of an ongoing series about Friendly Local Game Stores I’ve visited. Read other profiles here. 

I have some friends originally from Tucson who now live in Phoenix, and they’re always talking about a great store down in Tucson. Last year, while I was in Tucson for RinCon, (which I’ll be attending again this year!), my buddy drove me to check out Isle of Games. I also recently had a chance to stop by again during a trip down south.

Isle of Games is a Tucson game store that opened in July 2014. It’s owned by Gordon Holton, who decided to open the store after two other Tucson-area game stores shut down earlier that year.

Isle of Games is a friendly local game store in Tucson.

Having been a frequent customer of the now-shuttered Game Daze stores, Holton asked the managers who had been working there if they were up for running a game store.

“Those guys needed a job, Tucson needed a game store, and I wanted a place to play,” Holton said. “My day job allowed me to invest some money in order to make this work.”

Isle of Games has been open since July 2014.

And that it has. Isle of Games sells a large selection of board games, miniatures, puzzles and brain teasers, and painting and hobby supplies. The store is about 2,700 square feet, and includes space in the back for people to play games. Every time I’ve visited the store, the workers are always very friendly.

What sets this FLGS apart is its large collection of used board games for sale, which, Holton said, brings in a lot of traffic to the store. People can sell their games back for store credit.

I love how all the used games for sale come with a handy-dandy game-box rubber band.

Holton grew up as a gamer kid playing Dungeons and Dragons, chess and Monopoly. He discovered hobby games a little bit later in high school. After getting into video games after that, he rediscovered hobby games again back in 2007.

Holton is a big fan of train games, such as Railways of the World, and Power Grid. He said his third favorite game moves around a bit depending on what he’s playing. But owning a game store, of course, takes up some of that gaming time.

“If you want to play more games, you might want to avoid opening a game store,” Holton jokes.

Isle of Games is about 2,700 square feet, and includes space in the back for people to play.

In spite of having less time to play games, “when a family or gamer comes up and thanks you for being open and having the ability to play games and meet with their gamers,” Holton said, “things like that are the most rewarding about owning a store.”

Information and photos

Isle of Games is located at 7747 E Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85710. It’s open seven days a week. You can find more information on its Facebook page.

FLGS: Isle of Games
Love National Parks? Let’s go Trekking!

Love National Parks? Let’s go Trekking!

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Growing up, my family would take lots of road trips to various points of interests, national parks and other cool locales. We all would even camp at Yosemite for an entire week during our summer vacations. For years, I was the sole setter-upper for my family’s tents. I actually had my own tent growing up, which ended up being really scary this one time bears terrorized our campsite. But that’s a story for another time.

My fondness for road trips and national parks still lingers to this day. And what better way to celebrate national parks by trekking across the country to visit them?

Trekkers travel across the U.S. visiting national parks and score victory points.

Trekking the National Parks is a 2-5 player game that plays in about 30-60 minutes. Designed by Charlie Bink, this second edition has been published by Underdog Games, a new publishing company that Bink has co-founded. The family-friendly and educational board game has players racing across the country to visit national parks and gain victory points.

Before the game starts, 45 stones are randomly drawn from the bag and placed on each location on the map. The game comes with six Major Park cards, but only three are randomly selected for each game. The Park cards are shuffled and placed face down next to the board, and three cards are picked from the deck and placed face up.

Each player then receives two Trek cards, and then five cards are placed face up next to the board to make a market. The rest of the Trek cards will be face down in a deck next to the board. Lastly, players take tents in the color of their choice and a player aid, and place their Trekker meeple on the Start position of the map.

Look at this adorable first-player marker and wooden tents! I also love that each person gets a player aid.

The person to most recently visit a national park becomes the first player. They receive the brown bear meeple. Isn’t he darling?

On a player’s turn, they can take exactly two actions. Players can take the same action and do each action in any order. The available actions are:

  • Draw a Trek card
  • Move
  • Claim a Park card
  • Occupy a Major Park

Drawing a Trek card allows you to take the other future actions, either move or collect icons to claim a Park card or Occupy a Major Park. Cards have a number on them as well as an icon. Note: the number on the card is not the quantity of the icon. Each card has exactly one icon on it. The hand size limit is 12.

Each card has a number, to be used for movement points, and a single icon, which will help you claim or occupy park cards.

To move your Trekker, you must spend one or more cards from your hand to move along a trail on the map. The combined value of your cards must exactly match the number of spaces you’re planning to move. You cannot move through other Trekkers.

If you finish your movement in a space where another Trekker is sitting, that Trekker gets bumped and placed back at the Start position. I’m not going to lie — that’s pretty fun to do. Lastly, if there’s a stone at your final landing spot, you can pick it up.

To claim a park card, you must reveal the exact number of icons from your hand to match one of the Park cards shown face up next to the board and be at the location of the card. Claiming these Park cards nets you victory points.

Each Park card has icon requirements, which will give you victory points when you claim it, and a fact about the national park itself.

The last action is Occupy a Major Park. To occupy a Major Park, you must be at the location of the Major Park and you must reveal cards from that hand that match the number of icons on the card. When you do this, you place one of your wooden tents on the card, unlocking a special ability for you and gaining victory points at the end of the game. This is a neat addition to this second edition. I like how only three Major Park cards are chosen for each game so each game is a bit different.

The red and yellow player have pitched their tent in the Everglades, one of the three Major Parks used in this game.

The game end is triggered when all the stones on the map are collected, or when a player claims their fifth Park card. When this happens, game play continues until everyone has had an equal number of turns for the game. You’ll remember who started the game as they have the bear meeple.

In addition to the victory points for Major Park and Park cards you’ve acquired, you also get bonuses for collecting the most stones. The first-place and second-place winners of each color will get bonus points.

Give me all the stones! Collecting the most of each color will get you VPs at the end of the game.

Trekking the National Parks is perfect for your game collection if you love national parks or are looking for a family game that has the same weight as Ticket to Ride. I also love the personal backstory from Bink and his parents, who had the goal of visiting all the major national parks in the U.S. The park cards contain a fact about each national park and feature photography from Bink’s dad, John. The rulebook also lists information about the rest of the parks that aren’t trail locations on the map. 

The game does have some changes from the first edition. For starters, it only now plays five players instead of six. Occupying a Major Park is also new, and getting those extra powers is a nice touch to the game.

The bonuses for collecting the second-most stones of the different colors are also new. However, the stones are now made of plastic. I do miss the pretty gems of the old game, but I’ll gladly take these plastic stones for the wooden tents and the brown bear, which is the cutest first-player marker ever.

If you’re interested in purchasing the game, click here. And while you’re there, learn more about Underdog Games.

Thank you Underdog Games for sending me Trekking the National Parks! 
Strategicon Gateway 2018: Meeting more L.A. gamers and some alien trading

Strategicon Gateway 2018: Meeting more L.A. gamers and some alien trading

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I had the pleasure of dropping into one day of Strategicon in Los Angeles this past weekend. I love going to this convention, as I can visit family while board gaming, to make for a really productive weekend. I arrived early on Saturday morning ready to start gaming with wonderful folks from the board-gaming community. I was very excited to meet Jac, Ben and Albert, as well as see Ruel again, all of whom I had scheduled various games with.

We’re gaming early! Well, at 10 a.m. It was wonderful meeting Jac, Albert and Ben, who just moved to the U.S. recently, in real life!

Our first game for the day was Newton with Jac, Ben and Albert. Even though I had played this game already at Gila Monster, I totally didn’t mind playing it again. This game is super combo-tastic! Jac did an excellent job teaching Newton, and I loved being around her positive and enthusiastic energy. Albert and Ben were also equally fun to hang out with, as all of us ended up gaming together the entire day!

In this game of Newton, I didn’t do as well as my first play of it. My cards did not work as well together this time. We decided to draft cards for our masters, and it really helps even the playing field. (We didn’t draft in my first game of it.) So if you get a chance to play Newton, I highly recommend drafting so that no one player can be overpowered.

Newton is a great midweight game by the same designer who did Lorenzo Il Magnifico, which I love, and Grand Austria Hotel.

Next up was Trickerion, which I volunteered to teach. Ruel was supposed to join us, but his previous game and math trade ran long so he was unable to make it. I brought my beloved copy from home, which includes a gorgeous Meeple Realty insert. This game is a beast to teach, and I’m lucky that the group was patient with me, as there are so many things to remember. I do love this game so much.

Trickerion is one of my absolute favorite games! It’s a heavy worker-placement game that has programming and puzzly aspects. And the board is just gorgeous.

During our game of Trickerion, I ran into Michael of Unfiltered Gamers. We first met at Arizona Game Fair, where we were both part of the “So you want to be a game reviewer?” panel. Michael is a veteran content creator, and it’s always great talking shop with him and learning from him.

Got a chance to catch up with Michael of Unfiltered Gamers, who is based in Southern California, since meeting for the first time in February at Arizona Game Fair.

The gang and I then took a quick dinner break in shifts, as we didn’t want to lose our table in the basement. I love going to Strategicon, but my only complaint is that the basement is HOT AS BALLS. Either the air-conditioning isn’t as strong downstairs or the lack of air circulation, combined with the size of the crowds, makes the entire basement level really, really uncomfortable.

We found ourselves surfacing to the main level to get stronger air-conditioning and fresh air. The basement level holds open gaming and some RPGs, while the main convention floor is strictly for the scheduled gaming. That floor, by the way, is absolutely freezing. I hope the folks who run the convention either get fans in the basement or boost the air-conditioning down there. And this is coming from a person who says 100 degrees in Phoenix is a nice day!

The insanely warm and stuffy basement, in an otherwise wonderful and fun convention.

I then reconnected with Ruel, as our gaming schedules finally aligned, and he taught Welcome To … to me and five other folks.

I love meeting and hanging out with all these cool folks from board-gaming community!

Welcome To is a fun roll-and-write where you’re trying to place numbers into your neighborhood, score objectives and maximize your points, but instead of using dice, the game uses three different decks of cards that are flipped over at each turn. What a neat little game! We played it twice, and it’s a nice short game can play a bunch of folks. The box actually says 1-100 people!

Building my neighborhood in Welcome To. I didn’t realize the blank space is for the name of your city, not your name. Welcome to Meeple Lady sounds a bit odd …

After Welcome To, I impromptu taught a game of Gunkimono, a new retheme of an underrated game I adore, Heartland, which is a cut-throat tile-laying game about farming. Gunkimono uses samurais instead, but I personally love the look and theme of Heartland.

Gunkimono is a retheme of an old classic I love, Heartland. You’re trying to score victory points or honor points based on tiles you put on the board.

I wanted to grab some air and get a drink so I resurfaced up to the ground floor. I ran into the Brothers Murph, who are on one of my favorite podcasts, This Game Is Broken. I completely fangirled out and told them how much I enjoy their antics on the show. They were both super nice!

It’s me and the Brothers Murph! (This is me totally trying to be chill but secretly fangirling inside.)

Lastly, I had time for one more game and busted out Sidereal Confluence. This game is absolute bonkers, and I’ve secretly been wanting to play this at a convention so I wrangle up a lot of folks to play with me! It’s a live trading/negotiation game that plays up to nine players in about two hours. Each player is a unique asymmetrical alien race trying to use their technology converters to create resources.

The thing is, though, you don’t have the resources to run your converters, but the other aliens do. And this is where trading comes into play. Sidereal Confluence plays through six rounds, with each round comprised of 10 minutes of trading, as well as an economy phase and confluence phase. Anything goes during trading, and agreements are binding or else you’ll lose victory points.

Sidereal Confluence is an asymmetrical live-trading card game. And yep, it’s just as fun as it sounds!

If you like trading games, this game is soooo much fun! And while the game is strictly just cards, Sidereal grows into quite a table hog as more converters come into play. In each round, alien races can also research technologies, which will net victory points for the researcher, and then that technology will be available for all players in the next round. When I first stated teaching the game, I could see some confused looks and, to be honest, I wasn’t 100 percent sure folks would be down for it. But they assured me they wanted to play, and everyone ended up having a good time. I know I sure did!

I got to run a seven-player Sidereal Confluence game at Strategicon. Achievement unlocked!

Note to self: I am definitely bringing Sidereal to every convention I now to go. It’s so much fun! I also believe that a higher player count makes for a better experience, as the resource economy isn’t so starved. And with that, my very full day of hanging out with amazing gamers came to an end. I know I say it often, but I’m truly lucky to be part of such an awesome community. I can’t wait to hit up Strategicon next year!
Friendly Local Game Store: Dice House Games

Friendly Local Game Store: Dice House Games

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This profile on Dice House Games is part of an ongoing series about Friendly Local Game Stores I’ve visited. Read other profiles here. 

I’m originally from Los Angeles, so I visit Southern California often to visit family. Whenever I’m driving back to Phoenix, I love to stop by Dice House Games in Fullerton. I’ve purchased games there before because the selection is huge, with floor-to-ceiling shelves of games. I think I may have even bought the store’s second-the-the-last copy of Battlestar Galactica a while back.

Dice House Games in Fullerton, California, has been open for 10 years.

Dice House Games is owned by Tuan Le, and he opened it over 10 years ago. It was almost by accident that he ended up in the board game business. In 1995, an ex-girlfriend of his suggested that he get a job at the now-closed Game Castle because, at the time, he was an artist and she thought the game store had artwork similar to his style and that he’d enjoy working there.

Le got a job at Game Castle, and, while working at there, he learned the ins and outs of operating a game store, eventually moving up to become general manager. When Game Castle closed down in 2008, Le figured he had the knowledge and wherewithal to open up a board game shop himself — directly across the street from where Game Castle had originally operated. (Game Castle moved to another location prior to its closing.)

Dice House Games is stocked from ceiling to floor with board games, Magic the Gathering, gaming supplies and miniatures.

Dice House Games has over 2,000 board games for sale in a space that’s about 1,000 square feet. Le said that gamers tell him that the store has the best selection of board games in Southern California. The store also sells Magic the Gathering cards, X-Wing miniatures, gaming supplies and, of course, lots of dice.

Games, games and more games! I do love this Doctor Who door cover.

The store’s location is also a major perk. It’s located just a few miles from the busy campus of Cal State Fullerton, which means that there’s a new batch of customers every year to keep the board game community thriving. And those customers who shopped at Game Castle also ended up shopping at Dice House Games as well.

“I love talking to people,” he said. “I treat my store like a bar. People come in, and we talk about family, life and the job. I love having that face-to-face interaction with people.”

Gamers were at the Dice House Games playing on a recent Sunday. Fun fact: I’ve gamed with one of these guys at Strategicon for Advanced Civilization, an epic game that went for over 13 hours.

Different nights of the week have different scheduled events for X-Wing play, Magic the Gathering or RPGs, with Sundays reserved for open board gaming. Gamers can bring a game to play or borrow one from the gaming library.

Le doesn’t game as much as he’d like to because he’s busy running the store. His favorite games are co-ops, and he loves Pandemic, Last Night on Earth and pretty much anything zombie related.

Tuan Le owns Dice House Games. He loves talking with the people who come into his store.

“I don’t like arguing,” Le said. “I don’t get much out of winning, personally. The social aspect of board gaming is really the most appealing thing to me.”

“It’s all about building the community and the gaming experience,” he said.

Information and photos

Dice House Games is at 2493 E Chapman Ave., Fullerton, CA 92831. It’s open seven days a week. You can find more information on its website and Facebook page.

Correction: The story has been modified to correct the year and location Game Castle closed. 

FLGS: Dice House Games
Gamer friends meeting up for Gila Monster

Gamer friends meeting up for Gila Monster

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This past Saturday, a large-ish group of us decided to meet up and play games, specifically new releases from Gen Con. It was an informal gathering of gamer friends who decided to try something new and shell out money to reserve a room at the Mesa Convention Center for an event dubbed Gila Monster. It was great seeing local friends and friends from Tucson, and, more importantly, we all plan to expand the guest list for next year.

Choo-choo! Who doesn’t love Russian Railroads at 8 a.m.? Yes, it’s insanely early for me, but I love this game so much that I didn’t mind teaching.

The day started super early at 8 a.m., and first up was teaching Russian Railroads to three other folks. This game is one of my absolute favorites, and I am always down to teach it. It’s a classic worker-placement game, and I love how the scoring ramps up with each round. I also own the American Railroads expansion, which is also great, but I didn’t want to throw that expansion into our learning game. The group had fun, and one couple actually purchased the game from someone at Gila Monster who was selling it. Score!

Next up was My Little Scythe. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This game is just too adorable! It has the same mechanisms of Scythe, but it really encourages you to be friendly to go up the friendship track. You’re still moving along the board, collecting resources and racking up trophies. You can also pick a pie fight, but really only to claim a trophy for winning a fight. There are cute gems and apple pieces. One person on the table said that she wouldn’t have ever picked up this game to play, but was really glad that I suggested we play it. It was delightful!

Let’s have a pie fight! These figurines are adorbs. And like Scythe, you can’t take the same action twice in a row.

I then jumped into a game of Coimbra, a new Gen Con release. This game is tracks galore! The dice are rolled at the start of each round, and players take turns drafting dice. (Your player board actually comes with these cute little dice houses that you place the dice in, so that people will know which dice you picked on the board.) You place your dice on certain tracks, which resolve in a specific order based on the number of pips, so that you can collect cards. These cards increase your income on resource tracks and give you certain abilities.

Coimbra is a great dice-drafting action-selection card-collecting game with four different resource tracks.

At the end of the round, the color dice you picked will you give you resource income based on where you are on that track of the same dice color. Whoa, right?!? So good and thinky balancing which cards you want to take with which dice (because the pips matter for turn order), and then ultimately, which income track you want to go up on. And the board is just colorful and gorgeous. Plus, dice houses!

Dice in Coimbra sit in these little houses so people will know who drafted the dice.

Next up, I played Newton, also another Gen Con release. This game is combo-tastic! It has the same feeling of Lorenzo Il Magnifico or Council of Four of a tight euro game in about 2 hours. You play cards onto your player board, which allow you to take a specific action depending on the symbol of the card. If you play another card with the same symbol in the same round, then that action’s strength will increase — either moving farther along your route or accessing more powerful cards or covering harder-to-reach bookcases.

In Newton, you’re traveling across Europe to meet with scientists, build new tools and discover new theories.

At the end of each round, you tuck one of your cards under your player board so that you have an extra power of that action type. So if collect cards that work well together, you can really crush it with a specific strategy. My scientists helped me cover my bookcase quicker, and I ended up picking up a card that gave me points for all the books I had — ensuring my path to victory. It’s so satisfying playing cards that all work well together.

Look at my pretty bookcase and all my books! Players play cards one at a time on their board to activate actions. At the end of each round, you tuck one card to have an extra strength of that action.

I also got a chance to play Reef. In Reef, players collect pieces of coral to place on their board and score points based on patterns or stack requirements from cards in their hands. The game is quick to teach and quick to learn. On your turn, you either play a card to collect coral and possibly score the pattern listed on the card. Or you can collect a card from the market. That’s it. The key is to collect cards that will give you resources to score points from cards you also have. We played this game in about 20 minutes, and that includes teaching. The pieces are so colorful and vibrant! It’s definitely eye-catching.

Reef has these gorgeous components. It’s a light puzzly game where you score points from cards in your hand based on stacks or pattern formations.

I then took a quick dinner break with friends to Republica Empenada in Mesa. It was my first time going, and I immediately regret not stopping by this place sooner. This place is so yummy! I ordered two empanadas: a jalapeno potato popper and a chicken one. They were both yummy, but I loved the jalapeno popper one better. For dessert, I ordered a banana cream empanada. Heaven! (Banana cream pie is my favorite pie). And I got a Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Porter to wash it all down.

These empanadas are the bomb! Definitely worth checking out this place if you’re in downtown Mesa.

After dinner, I taught some folks Forbidden Sky, which, in my opinion, is the hardest of the Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert family. It has some neat elements we’re battling — literally! There’s wind trying to push you off the sky island, and lightning that will lower your health points. And then building the sky island with the tiles is much more puzzly because you have to get the rocket ship’s components out as well as the launch pad. I taught the game because I had recently played this game.

Once all the components are on the board, you’ll have to wire them together from lightning sources, and all the players need to get to the launch pad (cue my Arnold voice here) before someone dies or the storm threat level maxes out. One guy ended up dying, so we all lost. Womp womp. But the game has an awesome rocket ship! It makes a little blast-off noise when the components are all wired up, which is pretty neat! I totally forgot to take a photo of our game, but here’s a video of the rocket ship in a game I recently played. We also lost then.

The last game I played is an oldie but goodie: Tzolk’in. Full disclosure, I like lugging this game around because it’s excellent and also because I love my painted gears. Our three-player game played in about an hour because all three of us had played before. It was nice ending a full day of gaming with a game that was familiar and nobody had to teach it.

I love Tzolk’in! I think the wheel/timing mechanism is so unique!

And before you knew it, it was almost 10 p.m. and our room rental was about to expire. I had a lovely time gaming with good friends, friends I don’t usually see unless we’re at a convention. I’m also kicking myself for not learning rules for more games because there were a lot of new releases that I wanted to dig into but couldn’t find a teacher for. So for next year, I’ll plan on doing that.

And lastly, this event was an invite only among friends who wanted to try something new and if we’d have fun renting out a room to game. We definitely talked about expanding the guest list for next year with even more friendly gamers who play the types of games we do.