Game Night- Race for the Galaxy

by Carol2 Comments
Race for the Galaxy Designed by Thomas Lehman Description: The players all compete to explore the galaxy by exploring new worlds and developing new technologies. Each turn each player chooses one action, but the others will share in the actions chosen. In the end, the player with the most points is the winner! My thoughts: We played this game three times last Saturday, but, for the record, we probably should have quit after the second. It's a blast, just three games is too many. Exploring or conquering new planets, producing and selling goods and purchasing developments all get you victiory points. The player with the most points at the end wins. This games takes a little while to get a hang of, but after you know how the basics work, there are a wide variety of strategies to win. You can play the military strategy and just take over as many planets as possible, and, hopefully, pick up a development that gets you extra points. You...
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Card Games for a Group

by Carol1 Comment
When you have more than 4 players or so for a game night, it can sometimes be hard to find games that everyone can play together. These are a few of my favorite card-based games that can be played with a larger number of players. The Great Dalmuti designed by Richard Garfield Description: Life isn't fair... and neither is The Great Dalmuti! One round you're at the top of the heap, and the next you're peasant scum in this fast-paced card game of medieval one-upmanship. The players take their places in the pecking order, from Greater Peon to Greater Dalmuti, and try to get rid of the cards in their hands. Next round, everyone's roles could change because the faster you get rid of your cards, the higher you'll go. If you're unseated, you're really unseated: everyone moves around the table each round to take up their new positions. But don't get comfortable in the cushy chair of the Greater Dalmuti, because in a...
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Gameboard News

by Carol1 Comment
I'm happy. Rio Grande has put Dominion: Intrigue, designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, up on their website. I've seen a couple pictures of the box, so I just posted one. It may not actually look like this when it comes out in May. From the publishers site: Dominion: Intrigue adds rules for playing with up to 8 players at two tables or for playing a single game with up to 6 players. This game adds 25 new Kingdom cards and a complete set of Treasure and Victory cards. The game can be played alone by players experienced in Dominion or with the basic game of Dominion. I can't wait! Like I've said before, this is currently one of my favorite games. An expansion that allows for 6-8 players will be especially nice for us, since that's how many we usually have on a game night. I have to say that I really love Rio Games. They have a great list of games, and I've enjoyed all...
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Game Night

by CarolNo Comments
Tonight I thought I'd feature another card game. Amber and I read Rapunzel's Revenge earlier this week, so I decided to stick with the Wild West theme. Bang! created by Emiliano Sciarra, published by daVinci games "The Outlaws hunt the Sheriff. The Sheriff hunts the Outlaws. The Renegade plots secretly, ready to take one side or the other. Bullets fly. Who among the gunmen is a Deputy, ready to sacrifice himself for the Sheriff? And who is a merciless Outlaw, willing to kill him? If you want to find out, just draw (your cards)!" This card game recreates an old-fashioned spaghetti western shoot-out, with each player randomly receiving a Character card to determine special abilities, and a secret Role card to determine their goal. All the roles are kept facedown, except the Sheriff, so it may take a little while to figure out who's on which side. There are Bang! cards to shoot with, guns that have different ranges, Missed and Dodge cards and horses...
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Game Night

by Carol2 Comments
Rat-a-Tat Cat designed by Ann and Monty Stambler, published by Gamewright Description: A game of suspense, strategy, and anticipation. Get rid of the rats and go for the cats! Sneak a peek, draw two, or swap cards for an added twist.  In Rat-a-Tat Cat, less is always better, and you want to go out with the lowest score. Can you remember the numbers on the other players' cards? Can you keep a poker face, but notice when another player looks pleased? Sharpen your memory and your timing, and have fun with the cool cats and bad rats of Rat-a-Tat Cat.   My thoughts: This is a great family game, recommended for ages 6 and up. Basically at the beginning, each player is dealt four face-down cards. You can only look at two of them though. By drawing and replacing the cards, swapping, and peeking, each player tries to get the lowest score they can. When someone calls Rat-a-Tat Cat at the end of their turn, each...
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Game Night

by CarolNo Comments
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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