First visit for Averill and Lily as well as 6 undergraduate Williams Campers (we didn’t capture their names as they will be scattering to the winds shortly as camp ends soon)

Gamers were arriving and departing at odd intervals. A big THANKS to Ethan for leading a table of the campers in Azul: Summer Pavilion (while I did likewise on Globetrotting)

Our August 9 session will feature the return of 2-player games to start the evening and keep waiting times to a minimum for late arrivals. We will dedicate the remainder of the evening to games that feature Trekking/Globetrotting/Exploring

We have 4 more sessions at Purple Dragon Games in August before the closing of the store. Effective Wednesday September 6, our sessions will move to the Community Center at Uno Park in North Adams. We have signed a rental agreement and received confirmation for our September and October sessions. The Friday Magic: the Gathering group that met at Purple Dragon Games will be moving to the same venue. The Sunday afternoon Dungeons and Dragons group is likely to use the same venue as well.   

Take It Easy (led by Sandy) 1983 bingo-like puzzle game with 27 hexagonal numbered tiles, 19 of which get selected each game. Get the high score based on the same call of tiles. Addicting.

Globetrotting

2x (led by Sean/K-ban) Brand new 2023 KickStarter. 3D clear plastic globes of the world that have routes drawn on them using wet-erase markers. Think of it as On Tour with 3 tours at once and both public and private (bucket list) goals for scoring. The stands hold the globes in place, allow for the drawing of routes and calculate the cost of travel. 9 turns of drafting locations and each turn assigning 1 from among 3 destinations to add to a single seasonal tour. Simultaneous play taking well under an hour. This will get a LOT of play in the coming sessions

Isle of Trains: All Aboard

(led by Edward) 2023 revised edition of 2014’s Isle of trains. It is a card-based engine building game where cards have multiple uses: You can use cards as locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, or buildings to improve the effectiveness and abilities of your train. Cards can also be spent to pay for the construction of your new train cars and buildings, or you can use your cards as cargo and load them onto available freight cars. You will also have a range of passengers who want to be taken to different destinations. Players draw passengers at random from a bag when building passenger cars and certain locomotives. Passengers can then be loaded into any available passenger car. When passengers are delivered to their destinations, they will result in a bonus.

Cahoots

(led by Sandy) 2018 card-driven co-op with limited communication. The team fell one goal short of winning.

Azul: Summer Pavilion

(led by Ethan) third of the Azul series (after base game and Stained Glass versions) released in 2019. The similarities to the original game end with the tile selection mechanism. Score bonus points for completing clusters of 6 tiles in a color with bonuses for covering all lower valued locations on your board. If you’ve essentially ‘solved’ Azul, Summer Pavilion will challenge you while being familiar – all at the same time.

Horizons of Spirit Island

(led by Niko) 2022 streamlined mass market version of the 2017 co-op. It features the core mechanisms of Spirit Island, but features a new double-sided game board with a streamlined set-up, punch board components, and five new Spirits designed to be ideal for those playing a Spirit Island game for the first time. Limited to 2-3 players but with components from the parent game it can accomodate 4 players.

Blazon

(led by Tony) 2023 crowd-funded game of drafting and set collection in the world of heraldry (decoration/identification of battle shields)

Castles of Burgundy: Special Edition

(led by Sean) 2023 deluxe edition of Stefan Feld’s classic 2011 design. Each player takes on the role of an aristocrat, originally controlling a small princedom. While playing, players aim to build settlements and powerful castles, practice trade along the river, exploit silver mines, and use the knowledge of travelers.

Karuba

(led by K-ban) 2015 Rudiger Dorn tile-laying race game with players starting with boards that are identical, and one player drawing tiles that they all will use. Players race to get their explorers to temples first and earn points. Along the way they can collect additional points by collecting items off the paths they create. The game ends when one player gets all of their explorers to their corresponding temples or whenever the last tile is drawn and placed. Most points wins. A good 2-4 player gateway game to please both gamers and family.

Kites

(led by Ethan) 2022 real-time co-op game for 4 to 6, where players work together to keep all their kites — represented by colorful sand timers — in the air. Take turns playing cards, flipping the sand timers, and coordinating with other players to ensure none of the timers run out. If it does, a kite has crashed. Frantic fun.

 

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