Meetup Recap Series (#3): August 6, 2015

One of our biggest turnouts this week, and a number of new faces again. Seems like word is getting out and new blood is joining our ranks. Uncharacteristically, a decisive start to the night occurred as a number of people knew what they wanted to play, and 2-3 tables were set up and going before even 6pm. 

Jana:

Bill, Joe, Maryeve and I started the night playing Ophir. A beautiful looking worker placement game where you build a multi-layered temple. Bill said it reminded him of a less random version of Jamaica (and a little more complex). The game components looked great and the card stock on the temple pieces were some of the thickest pieces I've ever seen in a game. The rules are fairly straight forward allowing the play to move quickly from one player to the next. IIRC Joe won the game with MaryEve a very close second. Bill and I battled it out for 3rd and fourth position. A game I would definitely play again. Thanks to Joe for the game and rules explanation.

We followed that up with a 3 player game of Istanbul. I quite like this worker placement race game. Even though I finished 3rd (sounds better than last). Joe won again getting his 5 gems with MaryEve and I had 3 gems - so it wasn't even close. But we had fun sending out out minions to do our bidding in the various marketplaces. The only minor downside to the game is the set-up time, but in my opinion is well worth the gameplay. My 2nd playing of this game and will continue to play in the future.

Dan:

Last week was a night-long TerraMystica; this week was a 4p night-long game of Archipelago with Dave, Jonathan, and Danny. The game was an interesting action selection game with each player having limited information of end game VP conditions. I found something about the game a bit off; the design of its mechanics just didn't flow as smoothly as I'd like, and the pacing of them game a bit weird. As a group we weren't sure if it was because we had gotten some rules wrong or were playing the game strategically wrong. The game ended in a 3-way 7 VP tie with Jonathan winning the money tie-breaker over Danny. 

Other games that made it to the tables: BattleLore, Kingsburg, and Dead of Winter.

(Thank you Jana for the great photos)