Game Night- Small World

Small World Designer: Philippe Keyaerts Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Year: 2009 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 40 - 80 minutes Ages: 8 and up Description: In Small World, players vie for conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all. Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth. Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires -- often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory. Small World's design emphasizes the playful fantasy theme with rich details and components that beg to be played. My thoughts: One of our friends brought this over about two weeks...
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Game Night: Cleopatra and the Society of Architects

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects Designer: Ludovic Maublanc, Bruno Cathala Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2006 Players: 3 - 5 Time: 60 minutes Ages: 10 and up Cleopatra & the Society of Architects is a fun and engaging family game that includes a true, three-dimensional palace that players compete to build. Players strive to become the wealthiest of Cleopatra’s architects by constructing the most magnificent and valuable parts of her palace. Players, however, will be tempted to deal with shady characters and trade in materials of dubious origins in order to help them build faster. While these corrupt practices might allow an architect to stay a step ahead of the rest, they come with a high price – cursed Corruption Amulets honoring Sobek, the Crocodile-god. When Cleopatra finally strolls into her new palace, at the end of the game, the most corrupt architect (the one with the most amulets) will be seized and offered as a sacrifice to her sacred crocodile! Only then will the...
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Game Night- Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride Designer: Alan R Moon Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2004 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 30 - 60 minutes Ages: 8 and up Description: One of the most popular games ever designed, Ticket to Ride is a simple yet strategic game of connecting cities in the United States with trains. On their turn, players simply draw train cards, claim routes on the board, or draw more destination tickets. Players must balance drawing cards into their hand with claiming routes before opponents in this friendly, yet competitive board game. The rules can be taught in only a few minutes, but games are varied enough to give the game unlimited replayability. With scores of plastic trains and a beautiful board, this is a game you'll find yourself playing time and time again with all ages. My thoughts: First of all, this game takes us at leat an hour to play, but that may be because we always have at least 4 players. And it takes us a...
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Game Night- Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan Designer: Klaus Teuber Manufacturer: Mayfair Games Year originally published: 1995 Players: 3 - 4 Ages: 12 and up Description: In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. My thoughts: I'm amazed I haven't mentioned Settlers yet. It's a classic, well maybe not Scrabble classic, but a classic nonetheless. I actually won last weekend when we played, with 10 solid points, no longest road, largest army or victory point cards. I was pretty happy. In reality, I should be bad at this game. I'm not really good at cooperating with other players, and this game does encourage trading, especially how we play, but I manage, mostly because I try to only make trades that are advantageous to me. I rarely if ever...
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Game Night – Pirate’s Cove

Pirate's Cove Designers: Paul Randles, Daniel Stahl Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2003 Players: 3 - 5 Time: 60 - 90 minutes Ages: 8 and up Description: Come aboard and sail to Pirate's Cove... the legendary hideaway of thieving pirates and cutthroat buccaneers. The tales of those legendary pirates of old who've fought and survived these mysterious waters still haunt all those who yearn for a life at sea. Armed with a secret map and starting with a modestly outfitted sloop salvaged from last winter's storm, you set sail to Pirate's Cove -- your eyes filled with visions of treasure and fame, your lungs filled with the salty air of the High Seas. Your objective: to battle for the rights to plunder and become the most famed and feared Pirate the world has ever seen. To do so, you will need to navigate shrewdly, fight recklessly and pillage mercilessly. You will gain fame by winning battles; burying gold and treasure; and bragging about your exploits at the...
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Game Night

Puerto Rico designed by Andreas Seyfarth, published by Rio Grande Games Description: The players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico in the days when ships had sails. Growing up to five different kind of crops: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco, they must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors; growing crops and storing them efficiently, developing San Juan with useful buildings, deploying their colonists to best effect, selling crops at the right time, and most importantly, shipping their goods back to Europe for maximum benefit. A novel game system lets players choose the order of the phases in each turn by allowing each player to choose a role from those remaining when it is their turn. No role can be selected twice in the same round. The player who selects the best roles to advance their position during the game will win. My thoughts: Puerto Rico is one of our go-to games on nights when we have five players. We have...
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