Tag Archives: Welcome To…: Halloween Thematic Neighborhood

22nd December 2020 (Online)

For our last meeting before Christmas, we usually meet for food and have special Christmas Crackers. This year, this wasn’t possible of course, so instead of crackers everyone had a Box of Delights to be opened simultaneously at 8pm (similar to the Birthday Boxes we’d had in October). The boxes included a range of chocolates and sweets, home-made gingerbread meeples, a miniature cracker, a meeple magnet, and a selection of dice and other goodies.

– Image by boardGOATS

With several little people attending, we decided to play something straight-forward first, so we began the evening with Second Chance. This is a very simple Tetris-style game game that we’ve played a few times this year. Players choose one of two cards depicting shapes and draw them in their grid. If a player cannot draw either shape, another card is revealed and if they are unable to draw that one as well, they are eliminated.

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Once the rules had been explained and everyone had been given their unique starting shape, the group settled down with their colouring pens and pencils and concentrated on trying to fill their grid. Pink was the first one to take a second chance card, and when he couldn’t place that shape either he was the first to be eliminated and took his bonus space. The winner is the player with the fewest empty spaces, so while being first out is not a guarantee of anything, obviously players who stay in the longest are likely to do better. And it was a long time before anyone else was eliminated.

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As people gradually found their space was increasingly limited, there were the usual pleas for something nice, which became more desperate as people needed second chances. Then there was jealousy as players like Pine were eliminated with outrageously large shapes while others, like Little Lime, stayed in when they got the much coveted small pieces. Meanwhile, everyone else concentrated on beautifying their art with Christmas colours and embellishments.

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Eventually, Purple, Pine, Burgundy, Blue and lastly Green were also eliminated leaving just five when the game came to an end because the deck ran out. Then it was just the scores. Most people did really well, though some, not quite so much. More than half finished with single digits though, including excellent performances from Little Lime and Little Green. There was some beautiful artwork from Lilac (as usual), but festive offerings from Green, Purple and Black too. There was a three-way tie for second place between Black, Blue and Green. On his own with only one single empty space though, was Ivory.

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With the first game over, we moved on to discussing the important matter of the GOAT Awards. Every year, we give the Golden GOAT to our favourite game played during the year and the GOAT Poo award to our least favourite game. Last year, Wingspan won the Golden GOAT Award and 7 Wonders took the GOAT Poo Prize. This year, the unanimous winner of the GOAT Poo was Covid and its effect on 2020—nobody could deny that Covid was definitely the worst thing to happen to games night this year. As Covid wasn’t a game, Camel Up took the award on a tie break from Terraforming Mars and Welcome To….

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Terraforming Mars just missed out on the GOAT Poo prize, but in coming fourth in the Golden GOAT competition, won the unofficial “Marmite award”, for the most divisive game. Kingdomino and and last year’s winner Wingspan both made the podium for the Golden GOAT, but controversially, the winner was 6 Nimmt!. The controversy wasn’t caused by the worthiness of the game, just that Blue ensured it’s emphatic win by placing all four of her votes in its favour.

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Although 6 Nimmt! is an old game, we’ve played it at the end of almost every meeting on Board Game Arena since March. In a year with little smile about, it has given us more fun and entertainment than almost all of the other games put together and was responsible for moment of the year. That was back in May, when Lime joined a game of 6 Nimmt! with a bunch of Frenchmen by mistake. That is just one of many memorable moments we’ve had with 6 Nimmt! this year though. Furthermore, since we discovered the new professional variant the game has gained a new lease of life, so it seemed an entirely appropriate, if strange win for a strange gaming year.

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While Pink did the count for the GOAT Awards, Blue reminded everyone of the rules for the “Feature Game” which was to be the Winter Wonderland edition of Welcome To…. The fact that Welcome To… had nearly won the GOAT Poo award was an inauspicious start, especially since the main protagonist was Pine who had struggled last time. A lot of the ill feeling was due to the dark colour of the board for the Halloween edition which we played last time it got an outing, so the pale blue colour of the Winter Wonderland version was always going to be an improvement.

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Welcome To… is one of the more complex games we’ve been playing online. The idea is that players are developers building part of a town in 1950s USA. Mechanistically, it is simple enough—the top card on each of three number decks is revealed and players choose one of the three numbers to play. They mark this on one of the three streets on their player board. The house numbers must increase from left to right and each number can only appear once in each street.

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Each card is paired with the reverse of the previous card drawn from that deck, which gives a special power. The special power can be rule breaking, enabling players to write a number a second time in a street, or give some flexibility in the number they must write. Alternatively, the special power can directly provide players with extra points through the building of parks or swimming pools. Finally, the special power can facilitate the achievement of extra points by enabling players to build fences separating their street into “Estates”, or increasing the number of points each “Estate” provides at the end of the game.

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Aside from the colour scheme and artwork, the main difference between the base game and the Winter Wonderland Version was the addition of fairy lights as a means to get bonus points. These are added to to a player’s board joining any houses where the numbers are consecutive. At the end of the game, players get one point for each house in their longest string of lights. Additionally, the third planning card selected gave a lot of points for anyone brave enough (or perhaps daft enough) to successfully connect an entire street with lights.

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Little Lime and Lime took their leave, and Lilac and Little Green also decided to give it a miss, but that still left eight players, albeit one who was very sceptical. Pine had nominated Welcome To… for the GOAT Poo Prize, and felt that didn’t bode well, but was prepared to give it a go. The Plan Cards, give players points during the game as well as being a trigger for the end of the game. As well as the street full of lights from the Winter edition, there was also one that gave points for a pair of estates (comprising three and six houses) and for players completing all six end houses.

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The game started with a lot of “Bis” cards and quite a few high and low numbers. It wasn’t a huge surprise then, when several people completed the end of street plan. Ivory was first to complete the estate plan and eventually, Blue who felt that the Christmas element should be accentuated, completed the fairy lights plan. The question was, who would be first to finish all three and when, as that was the most-likely end-game trigger.

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It was towards the end that Purple commented that Black had been eliminated. It wasn’t immediately clear what she was on about, but eventually it was apparent that one of his furry friends had decided that they wanted to be the subject of his attention and had firmly sat on his player board, very effectively obstructing play. That cat-astrophe put paid to any successful involvement in the game by both Purple and Black, but it wasn’t long before Green announced that he’d finished all three of the Plans and was ending the game.

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With that, everyone totalled up their scores. Pine said that despite his scepticism, he had actually really enjoyed the game and felt he had done reasonably well and indeed was a long way from coming last. It was very close for second place with Green just beating Burgundy into third by two points. The clear winner, for the second time of the night, was Ivory who finished with an exceptional ninety-five points. And with that, he decided to quit while he was ahead and everyone else decided it was only appropriate that they should play the newly-crowned Golden GOAT—6 Nimmt!.

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6 Nimmt! is so very simple, yet so much fun. Players simultaneously choose a card from their hand and these are then revealed and, starting with the lowest card, added to one of the four rows. Cards are added to the row with the highest number that is lower than the card played, i.e. the nearest lower number. When a sixth card is added to a row, the owner takes the first five cards into their score pile, leaving the card they played as the new starting card. The player with the fewest Bulls’ Heads at the end is the winner.

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Board Game Arena implements the game with everyone starting with sixty-six points and the game ending when someone reaches zero. It also adds a couple of other variants, the most exciting of which is the “Professional Variant”, where players can add cards to either end of the row. Because Board Game Arena deals with all the up-keep, it makes this variant much easier to manage, and the results often come as a complete surprise.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

The reason 6 Nimmt! won the Golden GOAT, is that in a year where there has been so much to be miserable about, this game has provided more fun than anything else. This time, poor Burgundy went from jointly holding the lead to sixth place in just a couple of turns and threatened to beat Purple to the bottom and trigger the end of the game. As it was, he didn’t quite make it, and left Green who had only picked up seven “nimmts” in the whole game, to win.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

With seven players, the number of options were limited to more 6 Nimmt!, Saboteur, or something we hadn’t played before. In the end, we went for a sort of compromise in Incan Gold which most of us knew, though we’d not played it on Board Game Arena. This is a fairly simple “Push your Luck” game where players are exploring a temple. Simultaneously, players decide whether they are going to stay or leave the temple. Players who are in the temple will get shares in any treasure cards that are drawn that round. These are divided evenly between the players and any remainders are left on the card.

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As well as fifteen treasure cards, there are also Hazard cards in the deck: three each of five different types. When a second Hazard card of any given type is drawn, the temple collapses and buries everyone in it and they lose any treasure they have collected. Additionally, there are five Artefact cards in the deck—these can only be claimed by players leaving the temple. Any players that leave before it collapses, keep the treasure they have collected hitherto, and take a share in any remainders left on cards. If they leave alone, they also take any artefacts, but only if they leave alone. Having left the temple, however, they will get no more treasure in that round.

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The game is played over five rounds and the winner is the player with the most treasure at the end of the game. The game is extremely random, but can be a lot of fun with the right people. This time it was particularly random though. The first two cards drawn were both Hazards and the first round ending after just five cards with only Green getting out in time. The second round was even worse with three Hazards in a row terminating the round before it had begun. On the plus-side, having had two rounds ended by Mummies, two of the three Mummy cards were removed from the deck, making it impossible for the mummies to end another round. There were plenty of other Hazards though…

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

The third round wasn’t much better, lasting only three cards with a second snake ending another round and only Pink taking any treasure. The fourth round started with an Artefact, but when Burgundy, left, he was joined by Pink and Purple, so none of them were able to take it home. Just three cards later, a second Giant Spider card brought down the temple and everyone finished with nothing (again). The final round lasted a little longer, but two players still managed to finish the game without any treasure.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

Purple made an early escape and grabbed a couple of gems from the floor. Burgundy and Pink escaped shortly after and Black managed to sneak out as the Giant Spiders closed the temple for good. As a result of the unusually large number of Hazard cards, the game was especially low scoring. It ended in a tie between Pink and Green on ten, with Black two points behind in third.

– Image by boardGOATS from boardgamearena.com

With Incan Gold done, there was still time for one more game and it was only fitting to close with another game of 6 Nimmt!. Having done so well in the last two games made Green the target this time, not that anyone really had enough control to manipulate their own position, much less target anybody else. Pink, who had also done well in recent games, made a bit of a beeline for the bottom, and it was not much of a surprise when he triggered the end of the game. This time, Green could only manage third, and it was a two-way tie for first place between Black and Pine (who always does well in 6 Nimmt!, and always denies it). And with that, we brought our first online Christmas Party to a close and wished everyone a Very Merry Christmas.

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Learning Outcome: A box of sugar and exciting trinkets is ideal improving your concentration.

27th October 2020 (Online)

Blue had been up really early so took a nap after supper. Far from leaving her refreshed though, she woke cold and disorientated, and was a bit dopey for the rest of the evening as a result. She wasn’t the only one it seemed, as others struggled too and some didn’t make it at all: Mulberry was double-booked thanks to the time difference; Violet forgot and had an essay to finish, and Lime was away on holiday with the family. The absences weren’t obvious though, thanks to the noisy presence of Little Green, putting in a special appearance for half term.

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As the absentees were confirmed, everyone shared some Goaty Entertainment before starting the “Feature Game“. This was Tiny Towns, played with some of the pieces from the birthday boxes everyone opened last time. Unusually in the current climate, this is not a “Roll and Write” game, though it has some similar elements and was played more as a sort of “Roll and Write” variant on this occasion. At its heart, Tiny Towns is an area control and resource management game where players are planning and building a town on a four-by-four player board.

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Game play is fairly straight forward: Players receive a resource cube and place it on their board, then they if they wish they can swap resources for a building. Beneath this very simple process is a lot of clever game play underpinned by a Tetris-like mechanic. To build a building, players require a particular combination of resources in a very specific arrangement. The building is then placed on one of the spaces liberated by the removed resources, freeing up more spaces.

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The buildings are different shapes, but all give different scoring possibilities. For example, each Cottage is worth three points, but only if players have built a Farm to feed them. Chapels increase the score of each “fed” Cottage, while each Well scores points for each adjacent Cottage. Theatres score for each different building in the same row or column. Thus the combination of buildings is important, but so is their location. Planning is therefore really, really critical.

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Putting a building or resource in slightly the wrong place can completely negate any other good planning by blocking off an area of the board potentially making it totally unplayable. Because the game can be so unforgiving in this respect, we played with the “Cavern Variant” where players can set aside one unwanted resource just twice during the game. With so many players, this was coupled with the “Town Hall Variant” where resource cards are used to determine two of the resources and players choose their own for every third round. Also, instead of placing wooden buildings, players were to draw their constructions on their printout.

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Pink was keen to get the game moving, but others struggled to get their heads round the planning element at the start. Green started patiently re-explaining to Little Green, while some players were ready to move on, and others were trying to concentrate on working out what strategies might work best or were variously delayed by beautifying their artwork. As a result, it took a while for everyone to get on the same page and feel the rhythm of the game.

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By this time it was too late for poor Lilac who had got herself in a mess and had taken an early shower as a result. Green had also somehow got himself an extra resource, and once he noticed, didn’t take his next “free choice”. Things weren’t helped by Green’s internet that chose to throw a bit of a wobbly and just added to the frustration and confusion all round. Meanwhile Blue, who wasn’t very with it and had focussed what little energy she had on keeping everyone else on track, realised she had forgotten to build herself a farm.

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Belatedly, Blue tried to rectify things without success and as a result was first to be eliminated with what she thought was a final score of minus four (although this was corrected to one on a recount). By this time Green had sorted his internet issues and it wasn’t long before other players were putting resources in their Caverns or reporting that it there were only certain resources they could use. Burgundy was next to be eliminated closely followed by Pine and then everyone else shortly after.

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Pink was the last GOAT standing, but longevity doesn’t necessarily mean a high score, though obviously it does help. In the end, it was a tie between Green and Pink who both finished with thirty points, three points ahead of Burgundy in third. A quick rules check suggested that Green should take victory on the tie-break, but there was also some discussion as to whether Green should forfeit his position because of his “cheating”, but in the end, Pine offered him a lifeline in a “Guess the colour of the cube” challenge. When Green called it correctly though, it was clear from the response of the other players that it was best to call it a tie and leave it at that.

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From there the group moved on to the Halloween version of Welcome To…, which is a game we played for the first time a few weeks back. Welcome To… is one of the most popular of the “Roll and Write” style games and is the highest ranked on the Board Game Geek website. This Halloween themed version is a little step up in complexity with a couple of minor added features, but otherwise is very similar to the original.

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Like Tiny Towns, Welcome To… is played with cards which give people actions. Rather than building a town though, players are building a 1950s US housing estate. The top card is turned on each of three decks of cards, and players chose one to use. The cards are numbered one to fifteen which reflect the house numbers players write on one of three streets on their play-sheet. They must increase from left to right—if a player can’t write one of the three numbers available, they must take a “Building Permit Refusal”—when someone takes their third, that triggers the end of the game.

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As well as the house number, players also get a special action, based on the colour of the reverse of the previous card. These include rule-breaking actions, like allowing players to alter the number the write down by one or two, or allowing them to build a second house with the same number in a street. They also enable players to build walls and parks, and increase the number of points they will get for different sized completed estates. Last time we played we had found that swimming pools were particularly lucrative, but this time they just did not appear. Everyone patiently waited, but they just didn’t arrive, so everyone had to make the best they could of all the parks they could build.

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The Halloween version adds other features—every time players build a house with a ghost or a candy corn in the garden, they can choose one to circle. Collecting a set of four, six or nine candy corn gives points, while similar sets of ghosts give special actions. The catch is that each of these can only be claimed once during the game. Given the difficulties we have seeing what everyone else is doing, we “house ruled” it that each per player could only claim these on the turn they achieved it giving them the option to stick or to gamble in the hope of getting enough for a more valuable.

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As well as the ghosts and candy corn, there was also a special City Plan that players could target. Since the one drawn at random gave points for circling all five ghosts in the bottom street, it was no surprise that several players went hard and fast for collecting ghosts. Blue and Green both got six ghosts and claimed two extra swimming pools, while Burgundy got the full set of nine, but got himself in an almighty mess trying to get the best from them.

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People struggled with the change in rules and the darker colours in the printout as well as just generally struggling because it was one of those nights. Although they didn’t know it at the time, Green and Blue followed almost identical strategies both going for the City Plans (the one with ghosts and the other two with a four and a five estate and two five estates respectively). Somehow, Blue just edged Green into second, three points ahead of his score of seventy with Black in third just ahead of Pink.

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With that, Ivory bade goodnight and left the rest of the group to play what turned out to be a rather savage game of Saboteur on Board Game Arena. Saboteur is great fun with a lot of players, but although we only had seven this time, we decided we’d take a break from our usual game of choice at this point, 6 Nimmt!. The game is really simple: players take it in turns to play a card from their hand, either to extend the tunnel or a special action, breaking or repairing a player’s tools or causing a rockfall.

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What a player chooses to play depends on which team they are on, a Good Dwarf, trying to find the gold, or an Evil Saboteur who’s sole aim is to stop the dwarves. The first thing the Dwarves have to do therefore is always establish who the Evil Dwarves are. So, when Purple played a tunnel card in a sub-optimal place, that was immediately labelled as a “Saboteury move” and she immediately attracted a broken pick-axe and then a broken trolley. Although she tried to retaliate, Purple and her silent partner Black, failed to prevent the Dwarves getting to the gold.

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The rules for Saboteur, as written (and as implemented on Board Game Arena) consist of three rounds with gold cards distributed at the end of each, so the group began another round. Nobody believed that Purple could be an Evil Saboteur two rounds in a row, but when she started with another “Saboteury move”, everyone reappraised the situation and she quickly attracted another broken pick-axe. The Dwarves struggled a bit more this time, largely due to the cards they’d been dealt. The situation was summed up by Burgundy when he commented, “If anyone wants anything breaking or fixing, then I’m your Dwarf.” But as the Dwarves desperately needed tunnels building, that wasn’t much help….

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Purple confirmed her allegiance by playing a rockfall card on a critical crossroads. Fortunately, Black was able to repair albeit with an inconvenient T-junction that prevented the dwarves heading straight for the gold. It wasn’t immediately obvious who Purple’s partner was and everyone was very surprised when it turned out to be Black and the Evil Saboteurs had been the same for two games on the bounce. Surely that wouldn’t be the the same for the final round, would it?

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The final round was much longer and much closer. Purple tried desperately to get everyone to believe that she was a Good Girl this time, but after the last two rounds everyone was cautious. Black quickly revealed that he was an Evil Saboteur yet again, and it soon became apparent that Green, who is always a suspect, was his partner. While Black messed about with the tunnel, Green damaged the Dwarves tools and generally made a nuisance of himself. Eventually the Good Guys won though some excellent teamwork, resulting in Burgundy finding the gold.

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There is so much luck in the allocation of gold cards at the end of the rounds that we don’t really pay much attention to the result, but this time, it was a tie between Pine and Burgundy. With that, Pine and Green left the others to play Sushi Go!, a card drafting game that we’ve recently discovered the implementation of on Board Game Arena. The game is really simple and very quick, so was ideal given that everyone was quite tired.

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In this game, players start each round with a hand of sushi cards, then keep one and pass the rest on, with the aim of collecting sets to give points. In the first round, Pink top-scored with Blue and Black not far behind, though that was probably because Purple and Burgundy prioritised starting their collection of puddings.

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In the second round, Burgundy managed a massive twenty points—not quite beating his record of twenty-five, but still more than anyone else. Consistency is the key to this game though and Pink’s fifteen meant he still had the lead going into the final round. And it was a tough round, that was ultimately all about the puddings. Blue starved Pink of dessert, saving her from last place and leaving him with the minus six and almost nothing from the round. Burgundy had the most puddings and with it took the bonus six points and, as a result finished six points clear of Black in second. And with that, it was bedtime.

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Learning Outcome: One should never ignore the offer of pudding.