Our 2/28 session will feature unplayed games from our table leader’s collections – 

new arrivals through our holiday prize table, purchases, crowdfunding and from the collection of Herb Levy

The proverbial ‘shelf of shame’… games that are unplayed and gathering dust.

Expect to play from among:

Tim – Sol: Last Days of a Star, MLEM : Space Agency (Cats in Space from Knizia)

Matt – Fractured Sky

Tony – Pillars of the Earth, Hare & Tortoise (the first SdJ winner)

Steve- Marabunta (new Knizia 2-player I cut/you choose game), The Great Split

Amy – Innovation, Arrial

Anna – Santa Fe Rails, Ghosts of Christmas (tricky card game)

and more (as the shame builds)

Take 5/ 6 Nimmt (led by Sean) 1994 card game that was the first game we played together at Purple Dragon Games in June 2021. Although the game has a 104 card deck, we use the preferred variant of using 10x the number of players + 4.  Ten cards are dealt to each player plus 4 cards to the tables. Each turn, players simultaneously choose and reveal a card from their hand, then add the cards to the rows, with cards being placed in ascending order based on their number; specifically, each card is placed in the row that ends with the highest number that’s below the card’s number. When the sixth card is placed in a row, the owner of that card claims the other five cards and the sixth card becomes the first card in a new row. Each card has a number of bullheads (from 1-7) that count as positive points. Low score wins.

That’s Life/Verflixxt (led by K-ban) 2005 roll & move game. Tiles are laid out in a continuous path, with the tiles either bearing a clover or being numbered -10 to +8. Wooden guards are placed on the clover tiles and two of the positive tiles. Each player has three tokens (two in a five- or six-player game) that start at the beginning of the path. On a turn, players roll the d6, then move one of their pawns that many spaces down the path. If one’s pawn is the only one on a tile when you leave it, it is collected, which shrinks the path on which everyone is moving. If a guard is still on a tile when you leave it, you do not collect the tile. If any player’s pawn is on the same space as a guard, you can move that guard instead of moving one of your own pawn, possibly setting someone else up for misfortune on a future turn and possibly setting yourself up for goods things — as long as no one else lands on your tile! Once a player’s pawn reaches the final space on the path, that pawn is retired from play. Once all pawns are retired, players tally their points, with each clover you possess turning a negative tile into a positive one. High score wins!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17240/s-life

Torres (led by Matt) 1999 Kramer-Kiesling SdJ winner. It is an abstract game of resource management and tactical pawn movement. Players are attempting to build up castles and position their knights to score the most points each turn. Players have a limited supply of knights and action cards that allow special actions to be taken. Efficient use of pieces and cards, along with a thoughtful awareness of future possibilities, is the heart of this game.Torres is considered by many to be an informal member of what is referred to as the Mask Trilogy of Tikal, Mexica and Java by the same authors.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/88/torres

El Grande (led by Sean) 1995 Kramer-Ulrich SdJ winner that popularized area control and married it to a clever action and turn order selection. We used the King and Intrigant expansion that combines the two, as players select 13 cards from among a deck of 18 (31 with all the expansions). High numbered cards receive few cubes but allow for more cubes to be placed – the reverse is true for low-numbered cards. Players are placing their wooden cubes called Caballeros onto 9 Spanish provinces or into the Castillo (tower). Each region has its own scoreboard that rewards players with VPs for first, second or third place.  For an initial play, we used the 6-turn short version (rather than the full 9 turns). This game was WAY ahead of its time and is considered a modern classic.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/93/el-grande

Tycoon (led by Chris) 1998 Kramer-Rosner game of flying planes to 9 cities, building hotels and factories, buying 2 kinds of travel tickets and earning VPs for pluralities in each city as well as bonuses for visiting different cities. Money is very tight for the first 2 of the 3 rounds….with high interest loans needed to survive. The game uses a clever diminishing marginal revenue concept and hotel renovation process. Old School but very engaging. Tycoon was revised in 2007 as El Capitan – we used several of those revised rules.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/267/tycoon

Savannah Park (led by Wendy) 2021 Kramer/Kiesling collaboration on a bingo-like puzzle game. Sean considers this as Take It Easy on steroids. Players are calling out tiles for all to reposition for their safari park, trying to group herds of animals adjacent to watering holes and avoiding fires. Scoring is the number of animals in a herd multiplied by the number of adjacent waterholes (up to 3). Additional points are earned for grasslands and trees. The authors revisited the game the following year and re-issued the revised game as Caldera Park

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/339484/savannah-park

Tikal (led by Matt) 1999 Kramer-Kiesling SdJ winner where is a game where players explore Central American jungles in search of lost temples and the treasures within. Players send their team of explorers into the jungle, exposing more and more of the terrain. Along the way, players find temples that require further uncovering and treasures. Players attempt to score points for occupying temples and holding onto treasure. The game used a groundbreaking budgeted action point system that got repeated in the trilogy.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54/tikal

DownForce (led by Ethan) 2017 revision to Herr Kramer’s Daytona 500, Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix and Top Race. It is card-driven bidding, racing, and betting game for 2-6 players. Players first bid to own the six cars in the race, then they play cards from their hand to speed them around the track. However, most cards will also move their opponents’ cars. So figuring out just the right time to play a card is the key to victory. Along the way, players make secret bets on who they think will win the race. Whoever has the most money from their prize money, winning bets, and remaining bank wins.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/215311/downforce