Which Game First

Machi Koro Designed by: Masao Suganuma Published By: IDW Games & Pandasaurus Games (2012) Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 10 + Time: 30 min Unearthed by: Joe Armed only with your trusty die and a dream, you must grow Machi Koro into the largest city in the region. Collect income through development, public works, and of course, robbing your neighbors! And always remember & never forget: everyone else wants to do this to you. To win, you must build all the required landmarks faster than your rivals. Each player rolls one or two dice each turn. If the sum of the dice rolled matches the number of a building that a player owns, they get the effect of that building; sometimes you can even benefit from your rival’s rolls. Stay sharp, because the action’s fast on this one! Ticket To Ride: Europe Designed by: Alan R. Moon Published By: Days of Wonder (2005) Players: 2 – 5 Ages: 8 + Time: 30 – 60 min Unearthed by: Ed In Ticket to Ride, players collect cards of various trains used to claim trans-European railway routes! Each turn, you can get: a) more train cards, b) more Destination Tickets, or c) start building a lucrative route! The longer the route you claim, the more points can you earn when you build it. You also get points from the Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; but be careful, if you fail to finish that route, it will cost you points. At game’s end, the player with the longest continuous route gets a bonus, possibly winning the game even if they were never in the lead! “The tension comes from being forced to balance greed – adding more cards to your hand; and fear – losing a critical route to a competitor.” Just Desserts Designed by: Andrew Looney Published By: Looney Labs (2015) Players: 2 – 5 Ages: 8 + Time: 25 min Unearthed by: Mike In Just Desserts, each player starts with a hand of three Dessert cards; three Guest cards are placed in the center of the table. Each Dessert card shows 1-3 tastes that it satisfies, such as “chocolate, fruit, and pastry.” These must be matched with Guest cards, showing which tastes each Guest wants – and which ones they don’t. On your turn, draw a Dessert card and add a Guest card to the table. Then take one of three actions: 1) draw another Dessert card, 2) serve (and claim) one or two Guest cards on the table, or 3) refresh your deck by exchanging Dessert cards for the same number of new cards from the deck. If you’ve served three guests of the same type, or five guests of different types, you win!

Mountains of Madness Designed by: Rob Daviau Published By: IELLO (2017) Players: 3 – 5 Ages: 14+ Time: 60 min Unearthed by: Mike In Mountains of Madness, you get to play scientists unearthing remnants of an ancient city nestled in a chain of impassable mountains. You must all work together and communicate well to successfully scale this mountain, recover fascinating relics, and escape this accursed place while trying to maintain your health and sanity! Each step forward presents the players with a new challenge: to collectively add the numbers on their equipment cards to a total (within a specific range). As you progress, your team members begin to crack under varied types of madness creeping into their minds! Communication between the players becomes more difficult as you edge closer to escape, or death! Through the Desert Designed by: Reiner Knizia Published By: KOSMOS & Fantasy Flight Games (1998) Edition Played: Z-Man Games (2017) Players: 2-5 Ages: 10+ Time: 45 min Unearthed by: Ed In Through the Desert, you control a tribe of nomads vying for control of the desert. On your turn, you place two camels, expanding the reach of your caravans. By taking control of oases, claiming valuable water holes, and enclosing the most land, your tribe gains points and increases in power. Strategy is essential in deciding how — and where — to build your tribe’s caravans. There are multiple ways to gain points, and several ways to win. Should you try to build the longest caravan? Dominate the oases? Whatever your strategy, remember to keep an eye on your opponent’s caravans, or you may find your own tribe cut off — and in trouble. The game ends when all the camels of one color has been placed. At that point, the tribe with the most points wins. Nut So Fast Designed by: Jeff Lai Published By: Smirk & Laughter Games (2018) Players: 3 – 6 Ages: 8+ Time: 20 min Unearthed by: Celeste In the box are pose cards, nut cards, and big wooden pieces shaped like walnuts, cashews, almonds or pistachios. The nuts are all laid out in the center of the table.  Players takes turns flipping cards, most of which are nut cards; everyone looks the cards over as fast as they can, scanning for valid nut matches. If a player finds any good matches, they grab an appropriate nut from the center of the table. Just in case you think keeping track of the nut cards is too easy, sometimes you’ll draw a pose card instead! Poses, such as rabbit ears behind the head, must be taken immediately. In either case, the slowest players often get penalties! The player with the least penalties at the end of 3 rounds wins.

Five Crowns Designed by: Marsha J. Falco Published By: Set Enterprises Inc. (1996) Players: 1 – 7 Ages: 8+ Time: 30 min Unearthed by: Joe Five Crowns is a five-suited rummy-style card game. Five Crowns features a unique double deck that contains 5 suits: spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds, and stars. This special deck makes it easier to arrange your entire hand into books and runs. The rotating wild card keeps players on their toes! The game begins with 3 cards and 3s are wild, the next round has 4 cards and 4s are wild and so on ‘til the Kings go Wild! Make the right combinations, be the first to go out, then watch players scramble as they get one last chance to cut their losses! Five Crowns is loved by everyone, easy to play anywhere and a game that you’ll want to play again and again. High Society Designed by: Reiner Knizia Published By: Ravensburger (1995) Edition Played: Osprey Games (2018) Players: 3 – 5 Ages: 10+ Time: 20 min Unearthed by: Ed You are the cultural elite, true icons of the age. But competition is fierce amidst highborn and nouveau riche to assert your status and earn prestige in the eyes of your peers.  Show off your exquisite palette and excellent tastes, but don’t be caught penniless or be cast out as an impostor! Each player starts with 11 money cards worth 105,000 Francs collectively.  Each round, players bid on a Status card drawn from the deck. Players bid by placing money cards face up in front of them. When you pass, return your bid to your hand. The winner buys the Status card, and starts the the next round. If the auction is for a Disgrace Card, then player bid to AVOID the card, the first player to pass takes the card, and all players discard the amounts bid. When the 4th dark green ‘Prestige’ card is revealed, the game immediately ends.  The player(s) with the least cash is cast out as a scandalous impostor! The remaining player with the highest Status is the winner. Anti-Monopoly Designed by: Ralph Anspach Published By: University Games (1973) Players: 2 – 6 Ages: 8+ Time: ~ 2 hrs Unearthed by: Evan The basic idea of the game is to end the monopolistic practices of the 3-company-combinations of the game board. The players are Trust-Busting lawyers going about the board slapping actions on the monopolies. The winning trust buster is the one who ends with the largest number of social-credit points when one of the players runs out of money. Anti-Monopoly was briefly (1976-1982) published as “Anti” and “Anti-Monopoly II” was published as “Choice” whilst the company was forbidden to use the word “Monopoly”. In 1984 after prevailing in court the company used the names “Anti-Monopoly” and “Anti-Monopoly II” for its two games. In 1987, Anti-Monopoly was withdrawn and Anti-Monopoly II was renamed “Anti-Monopoly”. The game we played was produced as “Anti-Monopoly” before 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. The game produced as Anti-Monopoly after 1987 is a different game, with the same name.

The Game Designed by: Steffen Benndorf Published By: IDW Games and Pandasaurus Games (2015) Players: 1 – 5 Ages: 8 + Time: 20 min Unearthed by:  Celeste Players start with a hand of cards from a deck with cards numbered from 1 to 100.  There are four discard piles in the center of the table: two for counting up to 100 and two for counting down to 1. On their turn, each player must discard at least two cards from their hand onto one or more discard piles.  The rule for placing a card is simple: If you are placing it on a “decreasing” pile it must be lower than the number currently there; if you place it on an “increasing” pile it must be higher than the card already there. Then players draw new cards into their hands.   The game ends when all players run out of cards (and everybody wins!) . . . or it doesn’t, and everyone fails. The twist: you can’t reveal — or even communicate — the exact numbers on your cards. So to get all the cards played, everyone must communicate very creatively.   Nevermore Designed by: Curt Covert Published By: Smirk & Dagger Games (2015) Players: 3 – 6 Ages: 14 + Time: 45 – 60 min Unearthed by: Ed In the drafting phase, players are dealt a hand of 5 cards, from which they first pass three cards, then pass two cards; and finally one card to the next player. In the resolution phase, the results of five different suit effects are resolved: A “conspiracy” of 5 Ravens ends the round, giving that player a VP and dealing all other players 1 damage. Otherwise, in order, the suits are resolved, with the player(s) playing most cards of that suit gets the benefit of that suit’s ability; Attack allows you to deal damage. Healing allows you to heal damage. Radiance gains you Light Magick cards. Victory gains you Victory Points. Ravens are generally undesired, as they will force to you discard cards from the other suits, but having the most leftover ravens gains you Shadow Magick cards. If your health drops to 0, you become a Raven. Ravens are unable to win, but are able to peck other players for damage, and may try to transform back into a human. The last Human standing, or the first to score 6 VP, wins the game.   Round About Ludo Designed by: uncredited Published By: BRIO (1975) Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 5 + Unearthed by: Evan Each player begins the game with 4 pieces in their starting position. To get on to the board, roll a 1 or a 6, and you’re in. Work your pieces around the rings (starting with the outermost). The rings are interconnected at strategic points, so aiming for those spots can help you move to the inner rings. Get to the last ring in the board’s center, land on one of the magic ending spaces, and you win!

Qwixx A fast family dice game Designed by: Steffen Benndorf Published By: Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag (2012) Edition Played: Gamewright (2017) Players: 2 – 5 Ages: 8 + Time: 15 min Unearthed by: Celeste Each player gets a score sheet with 4 colored rows of numbers; the red and yellow rows go up from 2 to 12 left to right, while the green and blue one go in reverse order. All four rows also have a lock icon. The active player rolls six dice (2 white and 1 each of the four colors) — and announce the sum of the two white dice. All players MAY cross that number off from any ONE of the rows on their sheet. Then, the active player MAY add any one white die to any one colored die, and cross off the sum from the row of the matching color. Simple, right? The catch is, once you cross off a number you can no longer mark off any of the numbers on that row to the left of that number. . . and the more numbers you mark off in a row, the more points you’ll score at the end. If the active player doesn’t mark any numbers on their turn (whether they chose not to or get locked out), they take a -5 penalty. Once any player marks off 5 numbers off any row they can lock it, preventing all players from crossing out any more numbers on that color’s row. The game ends when two rows are locked; high score wins.   Tigris & Euphrates A game of culture, conflict, and civilization! Designed by: Reiner Knizia Published By: Hans im Glück (1997) Edition Played: Mayfair Games (2008) Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 12 + Time: ~ 90 min Unearthed by:  Ed You control a Dynasty striving to develop all 4 key spheres of your civilization: Settlements (black), Temples (red), Farms (blue), and Markets (green) as kingdoms grow in a 11×16 square grid representing a slice of the Fertile Crescent. To do this, players will position their leaders, create and extend kingdoms, build monuments, and resolve conflicts. They will thus gain victory points in each of the four spheres. Each time a tile is added to a kingdom (a group of adjacent tiles with a leader), the leader that matches the tile’s color, or the King, will earn that leader’s owner a victory point of the tile’s color. There can only be one leader of each color in a kingdom. If the placement of a tile or leader results in more that one leader of the same type, then resolve conflicts until there is only one leader of each type. At the end of the game, players compare their lowest spheres; the winner is the player with the most well-balanced civilization (which has the most victory points in their lowest sphere).   Dungeon Roll A Dicey Dungeon Delve Dripping with Danger Designed by: Chris Darden Published By: Tasty Minstrel Games (2013) Players: 1 – 4 Ages: 8 + Time: 15 – 30 min Unearthed by:  Mike In Dungeon Roll, you collect experience points by defeating monsters and scooping up treasure. Players each select a Hero avatar with unique powers, such as a Mercenary, Half-Goblin, or Enchantress. On your turn, delve into the dicey depths seeking fortune and glory! One of the other players takes on the role of the Dungeon Lord for that turn, and rolls increasing number of Dungeon Dice based on how deep into the dungeon you go. Success means you can press your luck and continue; but if you go too far, you may have to fight the dreaded dragon! After 3 delves each, the player with the most experience points wins.

Scotland Yard The hunt is on for Mister X! Designed by: Manfred Burggraf, Dorothy Garrels, Wolf Hoermann, Fritz Ifland, Werner Scheerer and Werner Schlegel Published By: Ravensburger (1983) Edition Played: Ravensburger (2004)   Players: 3 – 6 Ages: 10 +   Time: ~ 45 min Unearthed by: Joe The players are all working together as Scotland Yard Detectives. Well, all of them EXCEPT that shady, nondescript evil mastermind who’s incredibly dangerous. . . the notorious Mr. X, who must be hunted down and brought to justice! The detectives must hunt this nefarious character down, and the chase is on immediately! The detectives know what mode of transport Mr. X takes each turn — train, subway, or taxi. Mr. X records his locations each turn so he can’t cheat; he must also periodically reveal his current location. Detectives try to deduce where he currently is, based on his last known location (and his recent modes of travel).   Lanterns: The Harvest Festival Create the grandest decorations for the Emperor’s festival! Designed by: Christopher Chung Published By: Foxtrot Games, Renegade Game Studios (2015) Players: 2 – 4    Ages: 8 + Time: 30 min Unearthed by: Ed Players take the role of artisans, decorating the lake around the Imperial Palace. Everyone starts with a hand of 3 Lake Tiles, each with its own colorful arrangement of floating lanterns. On their turn, each player adds a new Lake Tile of lanterns to the festival, and then draws a new one add to their inventory, replacing the one just put on display. Players earn Lantern Cards according to the orientation Lake Tile, and earn extra cards for matching colors to adjacent Tiles. Platforms on the matching colors get you Favor Tokens, which allow you exchange one card for another. Returning sets of Lantern Cards (four of a kind, three pair, or seven different colors) will gain Dedication tokens to earn Honor! The player who ends this visually exquisite game with the most Honor is declared the winner.   Squint The game where pictures take shape! Designed by: Deborah Boss Published By: Out of the Box Publishing (2002) Players: 3 – 8 Ages: 12 + Time: 20 – 30 min Unearthed by: Celeste 72 cards with various shapes on them (such as a cross, various sized circles, wavy lines, etc…) get tossed up in the center of the table. Players take turns drawing from a set of cards with words on them, trying to convey one of the written words by using any number of the shape cards.   Other players try to guess what the word is. If a player guesses the word before the timer is up, the player who guessed right — and the cluegiver — rack up  points!

Galaxy Trucker In a galaxy far, far away… they need sewer systems, too. Designed by: Vlaada Chvatil Published By: Czech Games Edition (2007) Edition Played: CGE / Rio Grande Games 2nd Edition (2008) Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 10 + Time: 60 min Unearthed by:  Celeste This game starts with throwing a bunch of spaceship parts into the middle of the table. And because the game maker does not want you to get radiation poisoning from fuel cells, OR scratch the surface of your fine custom mahogany gaming table, the ship parts are represented by pictures on tiles.  They are placed face down in the center. All players will share this “Warehouse” of parts to build their ship. Each player is given a personal game board of an empty ship schematic to build on.  Simultaneously, players build their ship taking one part at a time from the warehouse.   Once all the ships are built, the players go trucking across the galaxy, trying to avoid calamity, survive meteor storms, and salvage cargo, while also getting to port before everyone else. The player with the most money (after deducting for casualties, jettisoned cargo and missing parts) — wins! The Voyages of Marco Polo Embark on a voyage of discovery and trade! Designed by: Simone Luciani & Daniele Tascini Published By:  Z-Man Games (2015) Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 13+ Time: 40 – 100 min Unearthed by: Ed You are associates of Marco Polo, trying to complete contracts and visit as many cities as possible. Each turn, players use their dice to perform several actions, which can include taking a contract, going to the bazaar, getting the Khan’s favor, getting gold, or travelling. The first player to reach a city will earn discounts — and each city offers a special ability which may help you reach the next city or complete a contract.  After 5 rounds, the game ends and the player with the most points wins. Uncle Wiggily Skip and hop along to No. 151 Green Moss Avenue. Designed by: Howard R. Garis Published by: Milton Bradley (1916) Edition Played: Parker Brothers (1967)   Players: 2 – 4 Ages: 5 to 11 Time: 30 min Unearthed by:  Mike In Uncle Wiggily, you play the game’s namesake, a gentlemanly rabbit with rheumatism. Your goal is to hop 151 spaces to Dr. Possum’s office for a cure to your (probably psychosomatic) ailment, avoiding pitfalls along the way. Players draw cards with rhymes and instructions on how many spaces to hop. (Occasionally they are directed to another deck with further instructions.) The first player to reach Dr. Possum wins.    

Suburbia Live in the town of tomorrow … TODAY! Designed by: Ted Alspach Published By: Bézier Games (2012) Players: 1-4 Time: 90 min Ages: 8+ Unearthed by:  Ed Ed brought this Mensa Select winner to the Which Game First table to indulge his nostalgia for the age of great city-building games. The Basics: Suburbia is a tile-laying game where you develop your small borough into a critical hub of a thriving metropolis. As you might have guessed, good planning is critical, but so is adapting to the ever-changing cityscape. New tiles are added every turn, bringing new residential, commercial, civic and industrial developments.  These all affect your income, reputation, and population. If your borough ends up with the most people, you’ve won — and made the whole city your oyster. Ex Libris Collect the best books to become the village’s Grand Librarian! Designed by:  Adam P. McIver Published By:  Renegade Game Studios (2017) Players: 1 – 4 Time:  45 min Ages:  10 + Unearthed by: Joe Joe brought this game to the WGF table because he was intrigued by game where setting things into alphabetical order holds such a high priority. The Basics: The game’s set in a gnomish village, casting the players as book collectors in a high-adventure fantasy world.  And as you might suspect with such a premise, the gnomes aren’t just reading the books to kill time, they’re researching contingency plans for messing with the next dragon attack or undead uprising. That’s why the town’s new position of Grand Librarian is both lucrative AND prestigious. And THAT’S why all the players are trying to grab that position — by winning the contest for who builds the best book collection. In Pursuit Lead, follow or jump ship! Designed by:  Rob Daviau, Dan Sanfilippo Published By:  Hasbro (2001) Players:  4 to 8 players in teams Ages:  Adults Unearthed by:  Celeste Celeste brought this innovative Trivial Pursuit spin-off to the WGF table — hoping the two-team play style would quicken the game’s pace while also providing a more social experience. Find out if she’s right! The Basics: The players are divided into two teams (red and blue), competing on trivia questions in the same style as Trivial Pursuit.  However, regardless of what team you’re on, only one player can win, so there’s ample opportunities for coups and betrayal: take over the captain’s chair from your team leader, or even jump to the other team! Do whatever you have to do to answer the final, winning question!

Which Game First heads out to the Dig Site of Crispy Games Company for an interview with Chris Pinyan, designer of Clear the Decks! Clear the Decks! is on Kickstarter until August 16, 2018. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1480427463/clear-the-decks Chris will be at Play NYC this weekend, August 11 & 12, at The Manhattan Center, 311 West 34th Street, NYC. https://www.play-nyc.com/  

WGF went to Seven Springs, PA to check out the 20th anniversary of the World Boardgaming Championships (WBC), organized by the Boardgame Players Association. http://boardgamers.org/ The convention evolved from Avaloncon, which started back in 1991,featuring games from Avalon Hill Game Company, which are still prominent in the lineup of over 150+ tournaments / events.  The cover of this year’s program honors the 51 games that have been in the competition at every WBC. Games like: 1830, Acquire, Advanced Civilization, Axis & Allies, B-17, Britannia, Circvs Maximvs, Dune, El Grande, Empire Builder, History of the World, Merchant of Venus, Panzer Blitz, Robo Rally, Settlers of Catan,Slapshot, Squad Leader, Tigris & Euphrates, Titan, Win Place & Show, and Wooden Ships & Iron Men. The panel chats about the games they watched and played and the WBC’s large open gaming area and huge gaming library with hundreds of games to check out and play. They cover the WBC game Auction, where Ed acquired a few games for us to explore including: a Spiel Winner from 2009… A “game of world Conquest” first published by Avalon Hill in 1993… Another Avalon Hill classic from 1976 based on a book from Robert Heinlein… The anniversary edition of a game about the events following the Council of Elrond The panel also chats about: The expanded vendor area. Wargame publishers have a strong presence including GMT Games, Lock N’ Load, Compass Games, Academy Games, Multi-Man Publishing, Decision Games and Rio Grande Games among the publishers present. Vassal game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. Many designers use it to playtest games. http://www.vassalengine.org/ Academy Games was showing one of it’s upcoming games: Agents of Mayhem: Pride of Babylon. A Fast paced and over the top 3D Tactical Board Game. https://www.academygames.com/ Compass Games will host an games expo at the Red Lion Hotel, Cromwell, CT from Nov 9-12, 2018. www.compassgames.com

Skyline A quick push-your-luck dice game of erecting urban buildings Designed by: David Short Published By: Tasty Minstrel Games (2012) Players: 1-4 Time: 15 min Ages: 10+ Unearthed by: Celeste Celeste found Skyline’s small box on Ed’s shelves. She liked the unique looking dice, making her eager to roll them instantly.  And was fascinated by its origin as a reward for the Kickstarter funding campaign for Ground Floor. The Basics: Skyline is simple: The dice faces represent different types of floors for urban buildings. Some dice show the lower floors, some the middle floors and some the upper floors.  You roll these dice and use them as the building blocks of your buildings. You start with a ground floor and build up, just like real construction. Taller buildings are worth more points, but they are also more difficult to complete. The player with the most points wins.   Grand Austria Hotel Compete for customers to transform your café into a world famous hotel. Designed by: Simone Luciani and Virginio Gigli Published By: Mayfair Games (2015) Players: 2 – 4 Time: ~ 90 min Ages: 12+ Unearthed by: Joe Joe was intrigued by the game’s box art and pictures of the staff and guests situated in the hotel’s luxury just made it look like a fun place to be! The Basics: You are a sharp, driven, and dangerously charismatic hotelier at the height of Austria’s glory days. You stake your name and fortune on your hotel becoming the favored stomping grounds of the richest, savviest, most stylish Central European elites, who rapaciously consume prodigious quantities of your delicious cake in the afternoons — sip your fine wine by night — and pour out your hot, tasty coffee in the morning to nurse their hangovers. To win, you must even attract the attention of the Imperial family, until every other vacation destination in the world is in your shadow! Make Paris aspire to be the Vienna of Western Europe!   For Sale Bid and bluff as you purchase properties to become the richest real estate mogul! Designed by: Stefan Dorra Published By: Ravensburger (1997) Edition Played: Überplay (2005) Players: 3 – 6 Time: ~ 15 min Ages: 8+ Unearthed by: Ed Ed enjoys this bidding/bluffing game that offers interesting strategies in a short playing time, he finds it to be a good filler game. The Basics: In the first half of the game, players first bid to buy the best properties (numbered 1 – 30) with their starting cash. Then, the players sell those properties vying for the highest value checks. The player with the most money wins.

WGF went to Hartford, CT last weekend to check out ConnectiCon and the Connecticut Festival of Indie Games. ConnectiCon‘s focus is on all things pop culture and does every genre of pop culture in as big a way as possible. The event attracts over 30,000 people to the city Hartford over the course of the event weekend, and plans to expand to other venues in downtown Hartford. http://connecticon.org/ The Connecticut Festival of Indie Games (CT-FIG) celebrates independent game development in New England and neighboring regions. Our goal is to create an inclusive environment for everybody who enjoys and appreciates tabletop and digital games in whatever shape or form. The festival seeks to support and showcase the efforts of independent game developers. We encourage attendees of our annual festival to participate and play games with their designers throughout the event. The games featured at the annual festival are innovative and refreshing, demonstrating both the budding and the established talent of game makers in the American northeast. The Connecticut Festival of Indie Games is backed by Geek Fever Games, an independent game design company in central Connecticut. The Connecticut Festival of Indie Games strives to strengthen the game development industry of New England. http://www.ct-fig.com/ The event this year had 26 showcase exhibitors and 4 sponsors. CONNECTICON will return to Hartford next year, July 11-19, 2019 The Boston Festival of Indie Games will take place in Cambridge, MA, on Saturday, Sep 29, 2018 https://www.bostonfig.com/ CT-FIG Winners: Best in Show & Best Presentation: That’s Wizard by Matt Sorrentino https://www.facebook.com/thatswizard/?ref=nf Runner Up: Life Siphon by Lay Waste Games http://www.laywastegames.com/ Best Design in Progress: Bloom by Stevo Torres and Yanaguana Games http://www.yanaguanagames.com/ Most Innovative: Patrol: A Coloring Card Game by Adam The Impaler http://www.welcometotheawesome.com/patrol-a-coloring-card-game/ Other games discussed: Someone Has Died by Gather Round Games LLC https://www.someonehasdiedgame.com/ Clear the Deck by Crispy Games Co.   Kickstarter going on now until August 16 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1480427463/clear-the-decks Fire Tower by Runaway Parade https://runawayparade.squarespace.com/ Robots: Battle for the Coal Heart by Duncan Davis and Jackclyn Ngo http://sherwoodgames.com/ Blinks by Move 38 https://move38.com/ The Meeple Machine by Copper Frog Games  Kickstarter going on now until July 31 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/copperfroggames/the-meeple-machine-artisan-crafted-hardwood-meeple Brew Dice by FunWiz https://www.brewdice.com/    

Spyfall 2 An easy-to-learn card game of bluffing, probing questions, clever answers, and suspicion. Designed by: Alexandr Ushan Published By: Cryptozoic (2017) Players: 3-12 Time: 30 min Ages: 13+ Unearthed by: Mike Mike discovered Spyfall at a game designers convention in New Jersey called Metatopia, playing the game with fellow designers and was instantly hooked. He brought this to the WGF table to see how we do at a social deduction game. The Basics (from rulebook): At the start of each round, players receive a secret card letting them know where they are – a vineyard, jail, coal mine, gas station (20 unique locations!) – Except that one player receives the SPY card instead of the location. The Spy doesn’t know where he is, but wins the round if he can figure it out before he blows his cover! Players then start asking each other questions during the intense 8-minute rounds. Non-Spy players want to ask questions and give answers that prove to the other players that they know where they are. But watch out! If your questions and answers are too specific, the Spy will easily guess the location and win, so you need to practice a bit of subtlety. But if your questions and answers are too generic, you might be accused of being the Spy. The Spy will also sometimes be asked questions (just like any other player would) and have to come up with questions of his own, without knowing anything about where he is! If you listened carefully to the other players, you’ll be able to come up with a plausible question or answer… hopefully.   London * The Great Fire has devastated the city, and all that’s left is to rebuild. Designed by: Martin Wallace First Published: Treefrog in 2010 Edition Played: 2nd Edition from Osprey Games (2017) Players:  2 – 4 Time: 60 – 90 min Ages: 14+ Unearthed by:  Ed Ed has played the first edition and, as a fan of Martin Wallace, picked up the new edition which modifies some of the mechanics and replaces the board with a new deck of large cards. The Basics: In London, you take the role of a prominent architect, tasked with rebuilding the city after the Great Fire of 1666.  Players start with 5 pounds and a hand of cards. On your turn, you first draw a card, then take an action. Actions can be drawing 3 more cards, developing your city, running your city, or buying land.  Running the city will give you different benefits depending on how you’ve developed the city, but will also generate poverty based on the size of the city. Buying land will grant prestige and reduce poverty.  The game ends after the city deck runs out, the player with the most Prestige wins the game.   The T-Shirt Game The party game wear funny matters! Designed by: Garrett J. Donner, Wendy L. Harris, Michael S. Steer Published By: Buffalo Games (2007) Players: 3 - 6 Time: 30 min Ages: 14+ Unearthed by: Celeste Celeste found this game at a downtown thrift store.  She brought it to the WGF table because she loves card judging games and, like most things she loves, she likes to experience them in as many iterations as possible, which, she says has led her to sit through some spectacularly eccentric productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Basics: Everyone is dealt five Slogan cards each with a T-shirt slogan on it.  The judge player of that round draws a T-shirt card with a picture that she will judge.  Everyone gives a slogan card to the judge who then picks the slogan she thinks best matches her T-Shirt’s image.  The owner of that slogan card wins the round. There is a small additional game mechanic here;  the winner of each round doesn’t get the same poin...

World Boardgaming Championships Seven Springs Mountain Resort, PA July 21 – 29 The Boardgame Players Association’s (BPA) largest event is the annual World Boardgaming Championships® (WBC) where about 2,000 people from around the world compete to be named champion of their favorite boardgames. Link: https://www.boardgamers.org/ BPA History (https://www.boardgamers.org/historyindex.html) The Boardgame Players Association (BPA_ started in 1991. The gaming convention which would eventually evolve into the present WBC got its start in 1991 as Avaloncon when years of campaigning for it by Don Greenwood finally convinced Avalon Hill management that a “return to basics” gaming convention emphasizing competitive play of the games was the best way for The Avalon Hill Game Company to reverse its flagging fortunes. Having started the Origins gaming convention two decades earlier—with all of 13 tournaments—Avalon Hill had freely relinquished control of that annual gaming fest to the fledgling Game Manufacturer’s Association to concentrate on the production of its own games. Ed, Mike, and Celeste are looking forward to checking out the event in person this year and will report on their experience!   Internet Archive https://archive.org/ About the Internet Archive: The Internet Archive, a non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge. Evan and the panel marvel at the large collection of software and games, which you can play from the website. https://archive.org/details/software   The Decemberists Present: Illimat https://www.illimat.com/ In 2009, the band The Decemberists had an Idea for a photoshoot where they would be a secret society playing a weird and wonderful game in different locations. Carson Ellis and photographer Autumn de Wilde created a game board as a prop and call it The Illimat. Twogether Studios and Keith Baker worked to create the Illimat board game, which was successfully Kickstarted in 2016. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/twogetherstudios/illimat  

Star Realms A fast-paced deck-building card game of outer space combat. Designed by: Robert Dougherty, Darwin Kastle Published By: White Wizard Games (2014) Players: 2 Time: 20 min Ages: 12+ Unearthed by: Mike Mike brought this game to the WGF table to show some of the diversity in deck-building games. The Basics: Star Realms is a space combat card game, in which players grow their deck’s starting fleet from a fledgeling force into a powerful armada. Each player starts with the same number of trade ships and warships. To improve their decks they will purchase cards granting new ships or bases. Both players try to access better ships and bases that are more efficient at trading or combat. Finally players will attack their opponents with warships, weakening their opponents’ authority. Once a player’s authority reaches zero, the game ends.   Century: Spice Road Discover the beauties of the spice trading road and its colorful markets. Designed by: Emerson Matsuuchi Published by: Plan B Games (2017) Players: 2 – 5 Time: 30 – 45 min Ages: 8+ Unearthed by: Ed Ed unearthed this short game about trading, and was drawn to its large cards, colorful art and nice components. The Basics: You are a caravan leader searching for wealth and fortune on the Spice Road. There are 4 spices of increasing value: turmeric (yellow), saffron (red), cardamom (green), and cinnamon (brown). Players  turn in specific sets of spices for Victory Point cards; in addition, Merchant cards offer different ways for spice to be gained, upgraded, or exchanged. Each round, players take one of 4 actions:  Play a Merchant card from your hand, Acquire a new Merchant card from the display, Return all your played Merchant cards back to your hand, or Claim a Victory Point card.  When any player takes his 5th victory Point card, the game ends at the completion of that round. The player with the most victory points wins.   As the World Turns “As played by the Hughes family on the Television Show As The World Turns.” Designed by: (uncredited) Published by: Parker Brothers (1966) Players: 2 – 6 Time: 60 min Ages: 10+ Unearthed by: Evan Evan unearthed this game along in a batch of 8 vintage games that were ordered online. As the title of the game indicates, this game was played live on TV by the Hughes Family, during an episode of the daytime soap opera As The World Turns. The Basics: This board game is a race to travel around the world. At the start, each player is dealt Passport Cards and Travel Cards, and pays the Customs Fund (bank) the value of those cards. Players then take turns rolling dice and moving their pawns around the board. If they land on a city space, they pay the indicated amount to the owner(s) of the passport(s) for that city. Landing on other types of spaces results in various actions like drawing a Customs card, spinning the world spinner, and moving off-course. The winner is the person with the most money when the game ends.