Tag Archives: Wingspan

3rd September 2024

By the time Blue, Purple and Pine arrived, Cobalt was already half-way through a solo game of Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw, a “roll and write” version of the card-drafting, polyomino cat-tile-placing game, Isle of Cats. In Explore & Draw, instead of drafting cards before choosing tiles, players choose a set of cards each turn and then draw their “discoveries” on their boats. In this version of the game, players simultaneously choose a column from the Island (the central market) and action all three cards in it in order. These could be three cards from the Cat deck, two Cat cards and one Lesson card, or two Lesson cards and card from the Cat deck.

– Image by boardGOATS

Cat cards are polyomino cards, Lesson cards are scoring cards and special Oshax and Treasure cards can be found in both decks. Cats, Oshax and Treasures are all drawn directly on the boat on the worksheet, while lessons are ticked off and scored at the end of the game. In the solo game, Cobalt was playing against his “Sister” who reveals a Cat Colour and a Lesson, every round and at the end of the game scores for the different Colours in that order and then the Lessons in turn. This time cobalt made mincemeat of the Automa beating it by seventy-one points to forty-three.

– Image by boardGOATS

With everyone arrived by this time, it was just the “simple” matter of deciding who was going to play what. Blue started off leading the “Feature Game“, which was Kavango. This is a card drafting game where players are building an animal reserve by collecting tags and adding animals to their tableau. As such, it takes familiar elements from games like Sushi Go!, 7 Wonders, Wingspan, Meadow, Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars, but has a different feel to all of them. In each round players draft and play ten cards (from an initial hand of twelve), that is to say they choose a card and pass the rest of the cards on to the next player.

– Image by boardGOATS

After each card has been chosen, it is added to the player’s tableau. Then players have the option of claiming money for achieving Research Goals and/or spending money on Poaching, Habitat and Climate protections. These are required for some of the animals especially the more interesting and lucrative ones. The clever part about the game is the way the decks progress. In the first round, the deck is mostly made up of Producers (Grassland, Trees, Invertebrates and Fish) and small animals while the second has mostly medium, but some small and some larger sized animals. The third and final deck contains almost exclusively larger animals like Zebras, Lions, and Elephants.

– Image by boardGOATS

This makes it harder to get Producers in the final round (though it is still possible by paying for Rewilding), but players can often just play cards directly as they already have prerequisites that they acquired earlier in the game. Throughout, the rules and mechanisms are rooted in reality. For example, players are responsible for their own Poaching and Habitat protections, but Climate protection is everyone’s concern and players have to work on that together. Similarly, before a player can have a Puff Adder, for example, they have to have enough small mammals and birds to feed it. Likewise, if a player wants a White Rhino or an Elephant, they need sufficient Grassland and/or Trees to support them.

– Image by boardGOATS

Each round, there are four Research Goals, each with several levels. The Goals can each only be claimed once, so players generally have the choice of claiming Goals early to get money they can spend straight away, or waiting and getting more money, which may delay progress. These Research Goals also progress during the game, so early on, they tend to reward players with lots of Producers and Small Mammals etc., while later in the game they reward players with lots of Protections and bigger animals. At the end of the game, players add bonus points for Biodiversity, Climate Protection and Habitat and Poaching Protection, to the points they got for each animal in their Reserve and the points they acquired during the game for achieving their Research Goals; the player with the most points is the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

Nobody had played the game before, but Indigo had done her homework and had watched the “how-to-play” video, and Blue had done a decent job of reading the rules for a change. The fact that the rules all made sense helped too, and for the most part everyone had a reasonable handle on what they were trying to do. The first challenge was to try to get all four of the player boards on the table with the score-track/Research board and Climate in the middle. The boards were so huge that it wasn’t actually possible, so the side of Indigo’s and Navy’s boards were hanging off the edge of the table, and Pines and Blue’s corners were all overlapping or had a flying free-hold. Still, everyone could just about see what they needed to and could place the cards they had to, and it was all stable so long as nobody moved…

– Image by boardGOATS

Pine (the Ecologist), started off really well adding a lot of Small Mammals to his Reserve and achieved early Research Goals as a result. Early in the game, Indigo (the Investor) started contributing to Climate protection. Navy (the Botanist) and then Blue (the Researcher) helped her out later in the game, though Pine never had enough money to contribute enough to gain the Climate Protection bonus. Blue took an early lead in Research Goal points, but Navy soon caught up and by the end of the third round, he had an eight point lead with Indigo holding a three point lead from Pine. That is only a very small proportion of the points available in the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

The Lion’s share of the points come from the animals, including Lions, of course (which Navy had one of). Pine really struggled in the latter part of the game since he had loads of Small Mammals, but not a lot else. His problems had begun in the second round when he struggled to generate any money as none of the Research Goals fitted after his highly effective first round. Even so, he still got a over a hundred points for his menagerie and was one measly bird of prey short of getting the Biodiversity Award. Indigo had a slightly more valuable Reserve, while Blue and Navy tied for the most animal points.

– Image by boardGOATS

Indigo, Blue and Navy all picked up the bonus points for Climate Protection, Poacher/Habitat Protection and Biodiversity, which meant that Navy took victory by virtue of his eight point lead from the Research Goal points. It had been a very enjoyable game though and there was much discussion as the group carefully dismantled the precariously balanced player boards. Pine took an interest in the other animals in the deck, and there was much hilarity when he found the Sausage Tree—Google convinced him that it was not related to the infamous Spaghetti Tree, and was in fact real. Nobody could convince him that the fruit wasn’t ideally suited to coaxing Trouser Snakes out of their lair’s though.

– Image by boardGOATS

On the next table, Black and Pink were leading a rather ill-fated game of Wyrmspan. This is a variant of Wingspan with Dragons instead of Birds. So, like the original, players are playing cards from their hand onto a player board, and activating the habitats in turn. The differences are more than simply cosmetic, however. Firstly, before a Dragon card can be played, it is necessary to explore the cave it will be played in, which involves playing a card (and claiming a Bonus). In Wingspan, if a player needs a resource, they activate their Woodland habitat and visit the Birdfeeder, claiming the resource they want and a couple of extras, whereas in Wyrmspan, players only get resources one at a time so they don’t have any extras.

– Image by boardGOATS

This is critical as “Planting Dragons” requires a lot of Resources and can be difficult to do, so it is important that the Dragon planted is then exploited as much as possible. Players also need to make the most of the new Dragon Guild. A step around this Rondel typically gives a Resource as a reward, with a more valuable bonus half-way round and after a full circle. The distribution of cards is different too: in Wingspan, the majority of the cards have an effect when the terrain is activate, but in Wyrmspan, these are in the minority with most card effects happening when played or at the end of the round/game. In Wyrmspan, the rounds are also different.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players get a set number of coins at the start of each and an action typically costs one coin. Some cost more however, and occasionally players can pickup extra coins, which can lead to variable length rounds. Thus, although Wyrmspan is very definitely Wingspan at its core there are lots of differences. Blue suggested the group played it, as she had played it with Black and Pink a few months back and they had found it played easily given that they all knew how to play Wingspan. Thinking Purple, Teal and Lime were also very familiar with Wingspan, Blue rashly assumed it would work, but she underestimated how different it was, how long it was since that last game, and how much longer the game would take with five.

– Image by boardGOATS

So, Black patiently explained the rules, while Pink tried to help others muddle through. Teal focused on simply achieving the end of round goals and “planted” his Dragons accordingly while working on the top row of caves to generate resources—the equivalent of the “woodland”, which works for both Wingspan and for Wyrmspan. After fighting through one round though, the group agreed to curtail the game after the second round. In such a short game, the scoring was always going to be skewed, but ultimately the player with the most valuable Dragons, Pink, was the victor, with Teal taking second thanks to him taking the points for winning both the end of round goals.

– Image by boardGOATS

Across the other side of the room, the final game was Tapestry, with the Plans and Ploys expansion. On the surface, Tapestry has simple mechanisms, but they combine to make a complex game. On their turn, players move one step along one of the four Civilisation tracks around the board: Science, Exploration, Military, Technology and carry out the action (or actions) associated with it. Each space requires payment of resources, and the further along the track, the more expensive the spaces become. If a player cannot afford to pay (or chooses not to), then they instead take income, which gives them more resources. They also gain points and play a tapestry card, which usually provides a power for the next round.

– Image by boardGOATS

So, at its heart, Tapestry is an engine building and resource management game: players carry out actions and get resources so they can get more resources and ultimately, points. The Plans and Ploys expansion mostly just adds more of the same with new Civilisations, Tapestry Cards and space tiles. The biggest difference is the addition of Landmark Cards which are designed to give each player a personal short-term goal in the first part of the game, in the form of buildings that only they can claim. Everyone was familiar with the game, so the rules explanation was minimal. Byzantium started (Spies/Grassland) and there was an initial general rush towards the Technology track,

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory (Islanders/Forest), always one for doing something different, instead went in for Exploration as this linked in with his Civilization. As the first round went on, Byzantium and Cobalt (Aliens/Tropical) stuck to Technology, whereas Plum (Riverfolk/Wetland) diversified slightly into Science and Exploration. Her primary plan was to exploit her Civilisation and then try to get to six island hexes to trigger her personal bonus Landmark. Byzantium was first to move to the Income phase, closely followed by Plum and then Cobalt. Ominously, Ivory did what he usually did and managed to stretch my first era out, putting himself in a good position to grab the first Exploration Landmark and also making progress on Military.

– Image by boardGOATS

Byzantium went for Technocracy as his first Tapestry card, sticking with his technology theme. He also managed to grab the first Technology Landmark and completed his Architecture card (appropriately the Game Shop). Plum also went for a Tapestry card, Terraforming, that linked her with her strategy, giving her five points for building on impassable plots, something her Riverfolk Civilization wanted her to do and gave her additional resources of. Although her alternative Civilisation had looked more interesting, it involved knowing what other people’s options were so she had chosen the simpler Riverfolk and made good use of it. She was also still fairly diverse in her track focus. Cobalt went for Socialism, to keep pace with Byzantium on the Technology track.

– Image by boardGOATS

Cobalt also gained Landmarks from his Technology cards, helping him build his Skyscraper Architecture card. Having only taken his Income whilst everyone else was half way through their second Era, Ivory could see Cobalt was focusing on Technology, so he used the State Marriage Tapestry card to gain befits on this track whenever Cobalt did. Having the Military track to himself and a good head start on Exploration, Ivory managed to grab a couple of Landmarks quite quickly. Everyone was also getting Income from buildings on their mats too. Again, Byzantium Plum and Cobalt all moved into their third Era in quick succession, leaving Ivory half way through his second Era.

– Image by boardGOATS

Cobalt managed to grab the third Era Technology Landmark, but he struggled to fit it on his Capital board and it had to overhang. At this point, Plum used the Dictator Tapestry Card (with associated comments from Byzantium) to move up the Technology track while restricting everyone else’s progress on the same track for one turn. Byzantium had been plotting a move as he was next in line for a Landmark, but Plum’s Dictatorial behaviour only slightly delayed him getting it. This, plus the State Marriage benefited Ivory and competition with Byzantium meant Cobalt used the Militarism Tapestry card to switch his focus to Exploration and Military.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although Cobalt had changed tack to avoid competition with Byzantium, Ivory had a health head-start on both of these tracks, grabbing the Landmarks as he went and also conquering the centre island just before Cobalt could. To add insult to injury, when Cobalt tried to conquer the island and topple Ivory, he was ready with a Trap card, foiling his plan. Cobalt quickly got revenge paying Ivory back in kind when he tried to do the same thing to one of his territories. However, that wasn’t going to discourage Ivory, and with the Military track encouraging him to conquer, he got the final word in, conquering one of Cobalt’s territories and gaining a double topple bonus.

– Image by boardGOATS

Moving into the final era, again, Ivory was characteristically some way behind everyone else. Byzantium picked up extra resources from the “Age of Wonder” and used these to good effect being the first to reach the end of a track. Plum, hosted the Olympic Games with her final Tapestry card (and presumably moved to Paris to do so). This gave her ten points in exchange for a Worker Resource, and additionally a bonus building if any other player took up the offer of doing the same. Byzantium was the only one who did, as Cobalt wasn’t able to and Ivory had other plans.

– Image by boardGOATS

Cobalt and Plum were both still fairly diverse in their track focus, although Plum had made good progress on the Science track, which was mostly ignored by everyone else. Byzantium also switched focus to some of the other tracks now he had completed the Technology track. Ivory stuck to Military and Exploration, completing the former (although there was not enough time to gain the second Civilization). He was sorely tempted by one of his favourite strategies, sending his Meeples into Space by completing the Exploration track, but instead, Ivory switched focus to the other tracks to get as many income buildings in his Capital as possible to maximize the final scoring.

– Image by boardGOATS

Again, everyone finished in quick succession except Ivory, who, as usual, had about five or six turns to go after everyone else had finished. Plum started with an additional thirty-five points at the beginning of the game thanks to her Riverfolk which gave her points for each territory in her City that had at least two unpassable spaces, but everyone caught up throughout the game. In the end, in Ivory’s final Income round scored him well over fifty points, overtaking everyone and winning and giving him victory. It had been a good game, enjoyed by all, and although he’d won Ivory hadn’t given everyone as much of a trouncing as he had in the past. Cobalt felt that the advantages of going first were not mitigated for those going last, so maybe next time that could be used as a slight handicap for Ivory.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Animal games are a lot of fun—And that’s not Lion!

Spiel des Jahres Winners – 2024

This afternoon, the 2024 Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) winner was announced as the cooperative two-player game, Sky Team. In this game, the players are the pilot and co-pilot at the controls of an airliner working together as a team to land the airplane in different airports around the world. Cooperative games can operate in different ways, but this is a limited communication game that runs over a fixed number of turns as the plane descends. Before the descent, the pilot and copilot discuss the strategy. Once the players have agreed their plan, they are on their own until the end of the turn, throwing their own dice and carrying out their own actions.

– Image by BGG contributor JuiceNeutron

There has been some precedent for cooperative games over the years, with Hanabi, Paleo and last year’s winner Dorfromantic, receiving prizes as well as Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 which was given a special award. What makes Sky Team unusual as a Spiel des Jahres winner, however, is the fact is is a two player game. Although there have been a number of games that play particularly well with two (Scotland Yard or Lord of the Rings for example) and there has been a special awards for Seti (which is a two player game), this is the first time the Spiel des Jahres (or indeed the Kennerspiel des jahres) Award, traditionally a family prize, has gone to a two player game.

– Image by BGG contributor The Innocent

The winner of the Kinderspiel and Kennerspiel des Jahres, the “Children’s” and “Expert” (or “Connoisseur’s”) games were announced at the same time. The first of these went to Die Magischen Schlüssel (aka Magic Keys), which is a simple and beautiful push-your-luck game of collecting gems. The winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres Award was e-Mission (aka Daybreak), which, like Sky Team, is also a cooperative game, but with elements of the mechanisms inspired by card games like Wingspan and Terraforming Mars.

– Image by BGG contributor The Innocent

In Daybreak, one to four players work together to battle climate change with each player controlling a World Power. If too many people from any World Power are in crisis, everyone loses, but if if by working together global emissions are reduced to net-zero, everyone wins. This concept has been used previously in a game, in particular CO₂, but Daybreak is far more accessible. Daybreak also focuses on the the human cost of climate change and the benefits to humans that the solutions might bring, as such, as well as a good game in its own right, it also delivers an important message.

20th February 2024

Once everyone had finished eating, we moved on to the usual difficult decision of who was going to play what. The “Feature Game“, Wyrmspan which is a very new stand-alone game, based on the mechanisms of one of the group’s favourite games, Wingspan, with dragons instead of birds. It was not as popular as expected, though that was at least partly because it was a relatively quiet night and many of those who would have enjoyed it were away. In the end, Blue, Black and Pink settled down to play leaving two other groups of three to sort themselves out.

– Image by boardGOATS

Wyrmspan is very closely related to Wingspan, though it is less forgiving, that is to say, the consequences of mistakes can be much more severe. Like Wingspan, players are playing cards from their hand onto a player board, and activating the habitats in turn. In Wingspan, the cards are Bird cards played in three different habitats, Woodland, Grassland and Wetland, whereas, in Wyrmspan, the cards feature Dragons and they are placed in three different cave networks, the Crimson Cavern, the Golden Grotto, and the Amethyst Abyss. The differences are more than simply cosmetic, however. Firstly, before a Dragon card can be played, it is necessary to explore the cave which involves playing a card (and claiming a Bonus).

– Image by boardGOATS

This is one way of getting Resources, there are others (playing dragon cards for example as well as activating the Crimson Cavern). One of the key differences is that these typically provide only one Resource at a time. So, whereas in Wingspan, if a player needs a resource, they activate their Woodland habitat and visit the Birdfeeder, claiming the resource they want and a couple of extras, in Wyrmspan, they don’t have extras so every move as to be made to count. And this is all the more critical as “Planting Dragons” requires a lot of Resources and can be difficult to do, so it is important that the Dragon planted is then exploited as much as possible.

– Image by boardGOATS

Further, one of the Bonuses is movement on a new, separate board, the Dragon Guild. A step around this Rondel typically gives a Resource as a reward, and when players reach half-way round and all the way round, they get a more valuable bonus which depends on the Guild in play. The distribution of cards is very different too, in Wingspan, the majority of the cards have an effect when the terrain is activate, but in Wyrmspan, these are in the minority with most card effect happening when played or at the end of the round/game. That is not to say they are not important—their very presence enables players to do more when the cave network is activated.

– Image by boardGOATS

Further, in Wingspan, players have a fixed number of actions per round (with fewer in the later rounds), whereas, in Wyrmspan, players get a set number of coins at the start of each round and an action typically costs one coin. Some do cost more though, and occasionally players can pickup extra coins, which leads to variable length rounds. Thus, although Wyrmspan is very definitely Wingspan at its core (players pay Resources to play cards and then activate habitats) there are lots of differences which give the game a very different feel, and make it a tighter, slightly more challenging game to play. All that said, there has been a lot of discussion online saying it is much more difficult, but that is not how we found.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue went first and playing a Spirited Hydraptere Dragon in the first round which gave her two extra coins and then she proceed to plan her strategy from there. Black prioritised progress around the Dragon Guild (Seafarers), which, as that was also high on Blue’s priority list, set them in competition. Meanwhile, Pink had started with two Hatchlings (Kindly Sea Serpent and Algal Lindworm) which looked like they would synergise well, so he worked towards playing them. Unfortunately, he came to the conclusion that this was a mistake as it slowed the start of his game and that he would have done better if he had ditched one of them.

– Image by boardGOATS

It is interesting to note, that many of the online comments have suggested that Hatchlings come at too heavy a price. However, discussion after the game suggested that all three players felt they were essential to the “engine” and were worth the effort albeit needing some care to choose the right dragon. As the game progressed, Black powered round the Dragon Guild with Blue snapping at his heels. Black took the straight six points from under Blue’s nose, so she took a free excavation instead. Then, towards the end of the game when Blue and Black were heading for their third Dragon Guild bonus Pink grabbed the three point for each completed column and then Black took the straight three point bonus.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue was most unimpressed as between them they had cost her eight points by leaving her with a solitary straight single point, though she picked up a few more from her Tawney Northern Drake (which gave her two points for each marker in the Guild at the end of the game). Pink did well with his Guild points (despite only placing two tokens), but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. As well as his points from the Guild, Black had also prioritised the end of round Public Objectives. In a game with small margins, it looked like this might be enough for victory, however, Blue had a few more eggs, some more valuable Dragons, more tucked Cards and cached Resources. As a result, she just edged it with eighty-eight points to his eighty.

– Image by boardGOATS

Meanwhile, Green who had considered joining the Wyrmspan game, eventually joined Cobalt and Ivory in a three-player game of Terraforming Mars. This game is quite popular within the group, though it doesn’t get an outing very often. The game is set in the 2400s, when mankind begins to Terraform the planet Mars. Players take the role of corporations sponsored by the World Government on Earth to initiate huge projects to raise the Temperature, raise the Oxygen level, and increase the Ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. Victory points that are awarded for contributions to the terraforming, but also for advancing human infrastructure throughout the solar system, and doing other commendable things.

– Image by boardGOATS

The players purchase Project Cards which can give immediate bonuses, as well as increasing production of different resources. Some of the Cards only become playable when the Temperature, Oxygen, or Ocean coverage increases enough. Buying Cards is costly, so there is a balance between buying Cards and actually playing them. There are six different Resources: MegaCredits (money), Steel, Titanium, Plants, Energy, and Heat and players keep track of these on their personal player board. Players compete for the best places to build Cities, place Ocean tiles, and develop Greenery. They also compete for different Milestones and Awards worth many points.

– Image by boardGOATS

At the start of each round (or Generation) players purchase cards from four drawn privately. Then players take it in turns to carry out one or two actions: playing a card, claiming a Milestone, funding an Award, using a Standard Project, converting Plants into Greenery tiles, converting Heat into a Temperature increase, or using the action of a Card already in play. Once all players have passed, players get Resources according to their Terraform rating and production parameters. When the three global parameters (Temperature, Oxygen, Ocean) have all reached their goal, Terraforming is complete, and the game ends—the winner is the player with the most points.

– Image by boardGOATS

This time, the group played the Elysium map (from the Hellas & Elysium map pack), with the “quick-start” Prelude expansion (but without the Incorporation Cards) and with Card Drafting (after the initial starting hand). Ivory had the Valley Trust Corporation giving him increased money production which was further increased by his Research Network Prelude Card, ensuring that finance was not going to be a problem for him. Green had Tharsis Republic, giving him an injection of cash when any city was planned on Mars. Cobalt had Cheung Shing which gave him a two MegaCredit discount on Building Cards.

– Image by boardGOATS

Green and Ivory both placed early Cities; Ivory got built the Research Station giving him a discount on all future Cards. From there, Cobalt and Green then began focusing on Terraforming. Green used his initial Titanium (from Prelude Cards) to play several powerful Event Cards early on. Cobalt then played several action cards including Regolith Eaters, Aquifer Pumping, Extreme Cold Fungus and CHG Producing Bacteria which he was able to combine together well to climb the Terraforming Track, although Green’s Event Cards meant he was never far behind.

– Image by boardGOATS

While Green and Cobalt were busy Terraforming, Ivory focused on getting his Plant production up and running as well as further increasing his money production (partly through building another city on Olympus Mons, refilling his hand). Although the other two had sped ahead on Terraforming, during income everyone was getting similar income thanks to Ivory’s increased money production. However, the other were generating lots of Energy/Heat and getting a lot of other resources. As a result, Green took the first Temperature Bonus and Cobalt the second. Turn order meant Cobalt wasn’t able to grab the Oxygen Bonus, which went to Ivory. The Oceans were complete very early in the game, so there was no third Temperature Bonus.

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory’s focus on money production as well as Plant and Micro-cards, allowed him to grab the Specialist and Ecologist awards in one turn. This forced Green’s hand to take the final milestone, Legend (for playing at least five events). Green then quickly grabbed the Legend award after. From there, Cobalt continued to focus on Terraforming (particularly Temperature), placing only one City and a handful of Forests, whereas Green and Ivory started placing Greenery tiles. Ivory managed to get to his plant production up to eight, giving him a Greenery tile each round. Ivory and, to a less of extent, Green also started building more Cities.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although this was going to score Ivory a lot of points at the end of the game, each City built was feeding Green’s engine, increasing his money production, quickly getting well into the teens. From there, the Awards were the focus. Ivory jumped first for Desert Settler, Green shortly after for Celebrity. Noting he had very little end-game scoring, Cobalt had to spend 20 MegaCredits to grab the last award, the Industrialist. All three players scored the maximum five points for each of the Awards they funded. It then became apparent that the end of the game was approaching: Ivory’s Greenery tiles were rapidly pushing the Oxygen to its maximum, the Oceans had been completed early by Green and Cobalt and Cobalt had focused on Temperature.

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory picked up a number of Animal Cards (Livestock and Fish) and focused on getting animals on them while Green’s huge money production allowed him to play a large number of Cards. It looked like the game was about to end after Generation Seven, but taking that final Award prevented Cobalt from raising the Temperature the final step, forcing one last Generation. That allowed Ivory to get more Animals and Greenery tiles and Green more cards with points before Cobalt finally triggered the end of the game. Both Green and Cobalt were way ahead on Terraforming and everyone scored similarly for Milestones and Awards, but Ivory’s Greenery tiles, Cities and Animals got him victory just ahead of Green.

– Image by boardGOATS

This demonstrated how important it is to develop a really robust engine, which together with some other scoring Resources will generally allow the funding of awards. It is also key to keep an eye on the milestones and awards, since they can disappear almost instantly before you get the opportunity. Cobalt had only really played Terraforming Mars solo before this. In the solo game it is a race to Terraform the planet alone before the clock runs out (fourteen generations with the Prelude expansion). This requires a very different strategy to multiplayer Terraforming Mars, however, where it is much better to concentrate on a strong plant engine with some cities to add to the score, as demonstrated by Ivory.

– Image by boardGOATS

While Mars was being Terraformed and Wyrms were being “Spanned”, Teal, Purple and Pine were playing Glow, a strange little game which visually inhabits the domain of the graphic novel, the roman graphique, much beloved in France. Ben Basso and Vincent Dutrait’s appealing black and white line art is unique and stylised and sets the tone of gentle strangeness, which contrasts well with the brightly coloured dice and other game elements. In Cedrik Chaboussit’s Glow, players take the role of animal leaders recruiting a band of up to eight companions to make a journey to bring shards of light back to a dark world. The game ends after eight days and the winner is the player with the most Light Shards.

– Image by BGG Contributor Propi

Players start by selecting one Leader Card from a choice of seven and take the accompanying big dice noted on the Card. Dice in the game have elemental symbols on them, Cloud, Water, Leaf, Flame and Gem. The colour of the die gives an extra face of that coloured symbols, for example, the green die has two Leaf symbols on it. On day one and every subsequent day players select a Companion Card from the “Meeting Track” (Marketplace) which is refreshed every day with new Cards. Players take the selected Card into their tableau next to their Leader group to form their growing band. Players also take any small temporary dice that have been placed on the Marketplace card.

– Image by BGG Contributor a2b2c517

Once the recruitment phase is over, players simultaneously roll all their dice. Players can re-roll one or two of their dice if they either play a re-roll token (acquired through in-game actions) or move their scoring track token back to the next re-roll space, effectively losing points for this benefit. The dice results are then used to purchase actions at the base of each character card. For example two Flame symbols provides three Sparks, or a Gem and a Water symbol provides a re-roll token. Each die can only be used once on each card, but each card can be triggered multiple times if dice are available, and each die can be used on each card if legal.

– Image by BGG Contributor Propi

In addition to scoring point Sparks, players can earn re-roll Tokens, Footprints and Glow-Worms. Unused Feet score one Spark at the end, but have another use in the Journeying phase. If a player has glow-worms equal to or more than their Companions, they receive a ten Spark bonus at the end. The scoring track surrounds a map of the game world with multiple branching paths. Players start in one corner and in the Journeying phase, attempt to move their band meeple to point-scoring campsites of progressively higher value secured by pitching their tent on scoring spaces. To move along the paths players pay the indicated cost, such as a Leaf symbol, from the revealed symbols in their dice pool. Footprint tokens can be used as jokers to by-pass costs.

– Image by boardGOATS

At the round end, five new Companion Cards are dealt to the Meeting Track and players give back their temporary small dice by placing them on the matching symbols in the Meeting Track above the Cards. These dice are then taken when the Card is selected in the following round, thus increasing the value of certain Cards. Although the game phases are played simultaneously after the recruitment phase, this time, Teal, Pine and Purple opted to play sequentially to assist with learning the game.

– Image by BGG Contributor Propi

The complexity of the game comes from selecting Cards from the Meeting Track and weighing up potential Card actions against increasing a player’s dice pool. Choices include denying opponents Cards, weighing up the cost of re-rolls, planning for action combinations or focusing more on the Journey board for points. Pine selected the starting card of Braccio, giving two big green dice, and the action of two leaves providing a Footprint and three Sparks at the game end. During the game Pine got an extra big green dice with a Sketal follower early on to assist with maximising the Braccio special action focussing on Leaf generation for points.

– Image by BGG Contributor rascozion

Purple selected starting card Noctiluca with two big purple dice—the sixth face gives two Footprints and the action of three wild symbols scoring five Sparks. Purple went for a corvid strategy, selecting three crow-like birds. One of these, Kaar, effectively curses other players dice by locking away from use one symbol per turn if the black die is chosen along with the other dice. Teal selected Tocana, with three big red dice and four Sparks at game end. As the game developed Teal went for a wild symbol strategy and acquired two Torke cards to generate guaranteed points each round, or so he mistakenly thought at the time…

– Image by boardGOATS

Progress was made on the journey board by all, with Purple and Pine getting to the better quality campsite netting fifteen points each, inspiring reminiscences about woeful tales of camping experiences. At game end Teal scored a hundred and six, some fifteen ahead of Purple in second place. Unfortunately, when playing Glow later on BoardGameArena, Teal realised that while the “wild” multi-coloured cost symbols powering actions could represent any symbol, they ALL had to match each other to trigger the benefits.

– Image by BGG Contributor Propi

Because Teal had more of this type of card than other players and acquired them early on, Teal had been unfairly gaining a point advantage by triggering Spark acquisition using mixed symbols. This explained Teal’s high score and he insisted on being relegated, recording his score as null and void—that left Purple to take the golden crown and Pine the silver medal. It had been a good game which has lovely presentation with immersive art. There’s lots of risk-reward decision-making, and another game would be great now that the rules are better understood, especially as simultaneous play should reduce playing time to the advertised forty-five minutes.

– Image by boardGOATS

With both Glow and Wyrmspan finished, there was just time for something quick before home time. There was some discussion about what to play, but eventually, the player count of six and the short time available fixed the decision as the old favourite, No Thanks!. This is a very simple “push-your-luck” game where players take it in turns to choose whether to take the face-up Card, or pay a Chip to pass the problem on to the next player. At the end of the game, players add up the face value of their cards and subtract the number of Chips to give them a total—the player with the smallest total is the winner.

– Image by boardGOATS

There are two additional rules that make the game work: firstly, if a player has a run of Cards with consecutive numbers, they only count the lowest number. This is tensioned by the second rule, which is that roughly one third of the Cards are removed from the deck at random before the start. This means players have to gamble on whether a card in a run is still available and it can make things go very wrong for people. This time, it went very wrong for Blue who finished with forty-eight and for Black who top scored with a massive one hundred and twelve! The winner, with a very reasonable twelve, however, was Pink, two ahead of Pine who finished with fourteen.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Wyrms are more challenging to handle than Birds.

Golden GOAT Award Winners – 2023

The boardGOATS love a good party, so once again, they met just before Christmas for their annual Un-Christmas Dinner and to decide the winners of the GOAT Awards. After food, crackers and writing GOAT Christmas Cards, the group voted for two awards: the Golden GOAT for our favourite game played during the year and the “GOAT Poo” award for our least favourite. Everyone had the usual three points to hand out for the Golden GOAT Award (plus a bonus if wearing Festive Attire), though a maximum of two points could be given to any individual game. Everyone could also nominate up to two individual games for the GOAT Poo Prize.

– Image by boardGOATS

This year, there were a handful of games that received the unofficial “Marmite Award”, that is to say they received nominations for both the Golden GOAT and the GOAT Poo prizes. These included Challengers!, Kites and SCOUT. For the GOAT Poo Prize itself, this year there were no outstanding candidates, with a tie between 2019 winner 7 Wonders and Dice Hospital, with two votes each. Nominations for “Moment of the Year included the game of Challengers!, which was likened to “Speed Dating”, and the massacre in Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, but the winner was the three way tie in the epic game of Tapestry with the Fantasies & Futures expansion.

– Image by boardGOATS

And finally, there was the Golden GOAT Award for the best game played in the year. Previous winners including Wingspan and 6 Nimmt! were ruled out, but there were plenty of options remaining. Earth, Fantastic Factories, SCOUT and Zoo Break all received three votes, but the clear winner was Tapestry. Over the years, we’ve played this quite a bit, but it is a game that doesn’t suit a significant number of the group. This year, however, with a slight shift in those eligible to vote, heavier games were in with a better chance and Tapestry was the beneficiary. We will have to make sure it gets another outing in the new year.

– Image by boardGOATS

5th September 2023

The evening began with Green and Purple arriving to find Plum and Cobalt sitting outside the pub chatting. This was partly because the weather was warm, but also because someone else was sitting at our usual table and we had been relegated to another long table on the other side of the room. Pine arrived soon after and once introductions between Cobalt and those who had not been about last time were concluded, the group decided to play a short intro game while they waited for everyone else to arrive. The game settled on was Coloretto, which had only just begun when Ivory arrived, but he was happy to watch.

– Image by boardGOATS

Coloretto is a quick and simple game that is very popular with the group. Players either turn over the top card and add it to a “Truck”, or take a Truck and add it’s contents to their collection, sitting out until everyone else has taken a Truck. Players are collecting coloured sets of Chameleon cards, but the key is that only three sets score positive points, with the others scoring negatively. Thus players are trying to get as many cards in three colour suits, and as few as possible in each of the rest. This time, everyone started with a different colour, so there were no obvious clashes. As is usual for this game, it took a few turns for each players position to become clearer.

– Image by boardGOATS

By this time Plum was keeping the number of colour sets she had low with only two, but also had a couple of +2 bonus point cards and a Rainbow Chameleon (a wild) . Purple’s set was similar but with three colours. Green was making steady progress and Cobalt was low on any particular colour, but only had four sets and a Rainbow Chameleon, so was poised for a good score if the cards fell in his favour. Pine meanwhile seemed to be in the process of collecting at least one of each colour! By the end of the game, Plum had managed to collect Chameleons in just three colours and so scored no negatives, while Pine just seemed to have sets of everything. Purple had three extra colours, but with only one of each; her Rainbow Chameleon and +2 cards helped to give her a good score.

– Image by boardGOATS

Green managed only one negative point, but had no bonuses, while Cobalt had his cards fall right and ended with a couple of good colour sets and with it, victory. By the conclusion of Coloretto, Jade and Sapphire had arrived bringing with them the feature game, Vaalbara. In this game, each player is a clan leader trying to take over some territories with game-play which is vaguely reminiscent of Libertalia/Winds of Galecrest. Players all have the same deck of twelve cards representing the members of their tribe. Each turn, players choose secretly one card, then in the order of initiative of the revealed Characters, players activate their powers and take over one of the available Territories. Each type of Territory has its own way of scoring points (Collection, Pair, Diversity, Risk etc.).

– Image by boardGOATS

Thus the game is about timing and playing the best powers and the high initiatives at the most opportune moments. After nine rounds, the player with the most points wins. Jade and Sapphire had played Vaalbara about a dozen times together, and Green had played a similar number of games on Board Game Arena with reasonable success. Pine was entirely new to it the game and joined the other three. Jade and Pine took the Mountains in the first round, and then Jade managed to snatch the only one on offer in the second round. Green ended up with the final card in the first round—the All Rounder, so scored poorly with it.

– Image by boardGOATS

By the middle of the game Sapphire was going all out for Fields, Jade was on to his third Mountain and Pine was beginning to get the hang of things. Green was struggling with his all rounder strategy: all he could get was a River and several Forests and even after he’d swapped one of those for something else (he’d mixed up the cards and instead of swapping a card between first and second row, it was any card with the top card of the deck) it didn’t work out. Pine managed to complete his second Mountain, but Jade amazingly managed all four which catapulted his score. It was only then that Pine and Green realised that the fourth Mountain was twenty points on top of the ten for the first three (i.e. a very thirty in total from four cards).

– Image by boardGOATS

By the end of the game the Poppy Fields were coming out in profusion and started to really score a lot of points. Unfortunately for Green, Jade managed to nab the Field card ahead of him for a five type bonus and Green was still only on four terrain types. Once the dust had settled and the final scores were compiled, it was quite close with Jade and Pine were tied for first on seventy points, and Green only three points behind and just ahead of Sapphire. Pine joked that maybe the tie-break would be the player position on the last card back, thinking that would about as arbitrary as some of the other tie breaks had been recently. A quick check of the rules confirmed it and ultimately gave victory to Jade.

– Image by boardGOATS

From there, the quartet moved on to play an old favorite, Azul. In this game, players are tile-laying artists challenged to embellish the walls of the Royal Palace of Evora. On their turn, players draft colored tiles from the marketplace onto their player board. At the end of the round, players score points based on how they’ve placed their tiles to decorate the palace with wasted tiles scoring negative points. Bonuses are awarded at the end of the game for completing rows and columns and sets of the same colour, and then player with the most points is the winner. A pretty game, the group started with a short discussion about what colour one of the tiles really was.

– Image by boardGOATS

People wanted to call it blue, but there is already a fully blue tile, and this one was a little more turquoise with a white pattern—they did not come up with answer to the problem. The game played much as it always does with complaints about the tiles that were not coming out of the bag when needed and at one point there was one Marketplace with four tiles all the same colour (that colour that we could not quite pin a name on). Mid-way through the game no-one seemed to want the orange tiles, and it ended up with about eight of them in the middle of the table. It finally fell to Pine to take them, but he could not place any of them and they all had to go on his negative score line!

– Image by boardGOATS

The game was reluctantly brought to a conclusion by Sapphire, at the urging of everyone else. He did not want to complete his row, wanting to hold out and complete a different colour later, but if he hadn’t taken the tile he would have ended up with a larger negative score and it had already not been possible to fully populate market. After final scoring, Jade and Sapphire shared the lead with ninety-five points with Green, who’d had a much better game than he usually has in third. Tie break time again, but this time Sapphire won it because he was the only player to have completed a full row (the tile he hadn’t wanted to take).

– Image by boardGOATS

There was still time for something else, and the group settled on Nimalia, a new, interesting card-laying game where players are designing the best Animal Sanctuary. Each card has four “Biome” squares on it of potentially different terrain, and different animals. Players start each round with three cards and draft them, placing the chosen card partly (or wholly) on top the already laid cards in a simlar way to Sprawlopolis or Honshū. The Sanctuary must remain within a six by six grid made of the squares (not the cards). The game is played over a series of five rounds, where two or three different conditions are scored at the end of each drafting round. This time, the first round would score for the largest area of Savannah and for connected Polar Bears and in the second round the scoring switched to Polar Bears and Gorillas next to Water.

– Image by boardGOATS

In the third round it returned to the largest Savannah, but with the complication of scoring maximum for no Giraffes down to scoring nothing with three or more giraffes—of course giraffes live in the Savannah! Rounds four and five used both the Giraffes and the Gorillas to score while adding in the Savannahs in the fourth round and polar bears in the fifth. The nature of the scoring meant that any cards with Giraffes were quickly passed on leaving some players with a double giraffe card to lay as the last card on a giraffe scoring round. Since it wasn’t possible to lay a new card underneath an old one, those giraffes caused scores to tumble!

– Image by boardGOATS

In the first round Pine roared into the lead while everyone else stayed within a point or two of each other. After the second round, Sapphire was the one who lost out, with Pine retaining his significant advantage. During the third and fourth rounds Jade and Green managed to catch Pine, with Jade pulling into the lead. Sapphire managed a good score in the fourth round, but he had a lot of ground to make up and he’d left his charge to the finish a little too late. In the final scoring, Jade and Green pulled ahead in a tight battle, which Jade won by just two points with his total of eighty. Pine was third after flailing around in the final round and having been left with a double giraffe.

– Image by boardGOATS

While all that was on-going, the rest of the group, Plum, Ivory, Purple and Cobalt, opted for a club favourite, Wingspan, enhanced by the European Expansion. This is a card-driven engine-building game where players choose one of four possible actions (activating their Woodland, Grassland or Wetland areas or placing a bird card in one of those locations). Points come from each individual card end of round goals, and eggs left at the end. The game is all about building combinations of cards that work together efficiently, so the it took all night as everyone wanted to do their absolute best.

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory as always was very good at this, but was also quite generous giving everyone food each time he activated his Woodland area. Cobalt was the first to get three bird cards in his Reserve, though Ivory ended up with the most valuable birds on his board, with Plum’s next highest. One of Plums birds moved at the end of each round though, which was very useful for saving costs and improving yields. It was Ivory and Cobalt who tended to come out best with the end of round goals. As is often the case Ivory continued to score well with a good haul of bonus card points too.

– Image by boardGOATS

Purple failed to complete any of her bonus cards, but did make sure all her birds laid purple eggs. Cobalt finished the game with the most eggs, however, inevitably followed by Ivory. As for cached food and cards, Plum got the most food, but Purple had the most Tucked cards. With all the scores added up, Ivory was the almost inevitable winner on ninety-three with Cobalt not far behind with eighty-three and Plum taking the battle for third by just three points in what was a hard-fought game.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning outcome: Goats love playing with colours.

Spiel des Jahres Winners – 2023

The 2023 Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year) winner has been been announced as the cooperative campaign game, Dorfromantik: The Board Game which is based on the video game of the same name. Players work together to together to lay hexagonal tiles to create a beautiful landscape trying to make the train track and river as long as possible while also fulfilling the orders of the population. There is a legacy element where points earned can be used to access new tiles that are hidden in locked boxes, which give new, additional tasks and make higher and higher scores possible. The game is very simple (as draw a tile, place a tile, fulfill tasks), but the hook is the changing strategy that comes with the expanding pool of tiles.

– Adapted by boardGOATS from image
by BGG contributor Rugerfred

The winner of the Kennerspiel des Jahres, the “Expert” or “Connoisseur’s” game was announced at the same time and was Challengers!. This is a sort of “capture the flag” tournament game where players first draw cards and build a deck, then shuffle and duel against another player. The winner of the match takes the trophy and points, and at the end, the players with the most points duel in the final to decide the overall winner. Although this is supposed to be a more advanced, it is not in the same league as previous winners of the Kennerspiel award like Village or Wingspan, or even previous Spiel des Jahres winners like El Grande and Settlers of Catan.

– Image by boardGOATS

The thing to remember though is that these games are intended to be family games and the awards are intended to cater for three different ages of families, those with very small children (Kinderspiel—this year won by Mysterium Kids); those with young children (Spiel des Jahres, or “Red Pöppel”), and those with slightly older children (Kennerspiel des Jahres, sometimes known as the “Grey Pöppel”). This doesn’t mean these games are not suitable for more dedicated gamers, just that they not the target audience, so they should not be surprised if they are not a great fit. This situation is not going to change in the near future, as the ultimate purpose of these awards is to sell games and advertise them to the general (German) public.

– Image from spiel-des-jahres.de

That said, with the right mindset, anyone can enjoy all these games, and they are some of the best of their type available. So, as usual, congratulations to all the winners and nominees.

13th June 2023

Lime was first to arrive, soon followed by Blue and Pink, and then Pine who were all delighted to see the return of our favourite bar staff. There was a lot of chat about the recent changes at The Jockey (which is currently managed by the Healy Group who also run the Punch Bowl in Abingdon), and as everyone else arrived, people seemed more interested in gossiping than playing games. It was a relatively quiet night with quite a few people away. Black and Purple sent a message to say they were thinking of us, but when Green received a photo from Black and Purple of their current view, it just made everyone else jealous.

– Image by Black

Jade arrived with his shiny new copy of Earth which he’d picked up from UK Games Expo. It is a game where players are building themselves an ecosystem and was to be the “Feature Game“. Earth is a sumptuously illustrated, card-driven engine-builder that is often compared to Wingspan. We played that Last time after a bit of a break, and remembered how much we liked it, so had decided to give Earth a go this time. The heat was getting to some people, but Ivory was quite keen to give Earth a go, and they were soon followed to the next table by Green (who had played it online) and then Teal. Everyone was pretty new to the game: Ivory and Teal had not played it before and Green and Jade had only played a couple of times.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although there is a lot to explain before starting, Earth itself is not actually all that complicated. Players are building a four by four grid of Flora and Terrain cards which represents their island and during the game they will plant flora, water it and allow it to grow. On their turn, players do one of four things: Planting (paying the cost in Soil tokens), Composting (gaining Soil and placing cards from the deck in their discard pile), Watering (place Sprouts and gain Soil) & Growing (draw new cards and place growth tokens). A bit like Puerto Rico, once the active player has chosen which action they are taking, everyone else gets to do a subsidiary, slightly weaker version of the same action. For example, when Planting, the active player plants two cards, draws four and keeps one, while the other players plant one and draw one.

– Image by boardGOATS

Once everyone has completed the action for the turn, everyone activates all the cards in their island that match the colour of the action chosen, starting with the card in the top left and working across each row in turn. This means, not only is it important which cards are played, but also where they are located in the player’s island. At the end of the game (triggered when one player has completed their island), players score points for each flora card, any Trunks and Canopies they have grown, their Sprouts and their pile of “Composted” or discarded cards. Players also score points for achieving objectives on the Fauna cards revealed at the start of the game and for completing their island first.

– Image by boardGOATS

As in Wingspan, Flora cards have actions that take effect when they are planted and when activated, many of the Terrain cards have ongoing effects and/or end-game scoring opportunities. When Planting, players must place the cards either orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to an existing card, and although they can never exceed a four by four grid, like in Kingdomino, players can extend on either side of their island until the maximum size is reached. Each Flora card has a maximum growth and when this is achieved the final wooden Growth token placed on it is a Canopy showing it will score extra points at the end of the game.

– Image by boardGOATS

The challenge in Earth is really in deciding what actions to do and which cards to play into your tableaux. Teal found that simply building his tableaux was enough to think about without considering the extra goal cards and end game scoring. Jade and Green both agreed that was the same for their first game too. Ivory started and played his first few turns, selecting the green Plant action, so his tableaux filled up quickly. The rest of the group needed to choose other actions in order to get the soil and cards to play, so by the time it came back to ivory he was able to plant again. He had already had his eye on the bonus cards and was quickly planting as many cards as he could, successfully—he was the first to claim a bonus.

– Image by boardGOATS

Green started with a high scoring climate card which gave him fewer cards at the start, but better in game bonuses, an approach to the game that nearly paid off. He went for the brown scoring cards, but Ivory just pipped him at the post for that particular shared bonus, which helped up his score as well. Teal spent the first half of the game, learning and began to fall behind. It wasn’t until Ivory claimed the first shared bonus that he remembered those cards. Early on he gained lots of Sprouts which are worth points, however, it is possible to gain a whole lot of Sprouts in the latter stage of the game and use those early actions for other more beneficial things.

– Image by boardGOATS

Jade was quietly working away to build a tableaux engine that worked for him, but was falling behind Ivory and Green on the shared bonuses. Jade managed to pick up some of the Fauna bonuses later, but mostly after the others so they weren’t as highly scoring. Green went for brown scoring cards because he kept picking them up from his nearest pile (there were two draw piles), and eventually reverted to the other pile to find green Flora cards. Unfortunately, he just couldn’t find the double powers he needed for the shared bonus. On the opposite side of the table, Teal didn’t come across any brown scoring cards, only realising why at the end of the game—it seams the shuffling had left something to be desired. The Event cards also seemed to be clustered towards the bottom of the draw pile.

– Image by boardGOATS

Ivory came out on top with a very high score of two hundred and thirty-six with Green just eighteen points behind and Jade in third. There was much discussion about similarities between Earth and other games. Green felt it was similar to Terraforming Mars, the others thought it was more like Wingspan. After some thought, Green came round to this idea as it is about playing cards which then provide more actions and bonuses that can be played on those cards (eggs in Wingspan, Sprouts in Earth; tucked cards & cached food in Wingspan, Growth in Earth). The others could also see Green’s thoughts about Terraforming Mars though as the game has lots of pretty and individual cards that can be played or rejected, with some providing actions, some bonuses and the all important Events. Everyone really liked it and definitely wanted to play it again, though better shuffling would be a good idea.

– Image by boardGOATS

Meanwhile, the rest of the group carried on chatting all agreeing they should play something, but nobody terribly keen to commit to anything. Eventually, Blue suggested Bohnanza, and as Pine agreed, Pink had to go along with it. This is an old favourite, though Pink had gone off it a bit as he felt he always did badly—unfortunate really given the number of copies of the game that he owns. The game is very simple: keeping their cards in the order they are drawn, players must plant the first bean card from their hand and may plant the second if they have space. They then turn over the top two cards from the deck and can play these or trade them as they prefer.

– Image by boardGOATS

Finally, once both of these have been planted, the active player may trade cards from their hand before drawing three replacement cards. Players can harvest their Bean Fields whenever they like, but the amount of money they get depends on how many Bean cards it has in it and what the beans are—scarce ones give a better return, but are harder to get. Everyone knows the game quite well, though Lime had recently acquired and been playing a new anniversary edition and it seems some of the rules are slightly different for that.

– Image by boardGOATS

This time, everyone bought a third Bean Field (which makes it easier to hang on to the rarer beans a little longer). Indeed, Lime was so determined to use his, he ended up not trading, just so that he had something to plant! As usual it was quite a close game with fine margins. So little things like Blue harvesting her Red Beans only to immediately draw another and Pine gifting Pink a Wax Bean or Lime trading with Pine instead of Blue made a difference in the final score, though nobody knew it at the time. Ultimately, Pink was the victor, beating Blue by just two Bean Thalers with Lime a couple behind her in third. On the plus-side, Pink can’t complain that he never wins any more.

– Image by boardGOATS

Earth was still underway, and for once in a way, Bohnanza had played relatively quickly, so there was plenty of time for something else. Nobody was very focused, and eventually the group settled on the cooperative game, Forbidden Desert. This is a sort of sequel to Forbidden Island, which itself is a simplified version of the popular gateway game, Pandemic. All three of these games use the same mechanism as Zoo Break, which we played recently. Essentially, the active player carries out actions and then they reveal cards from a deck which generally make life difficult: releasing wild animals, causing the island to gradually sink, spreading disease, or in the case of Forbidden Desert, burying the play area with sand.

– Image by boardGOATS

The premise of Forbidden Desert is that the team have crash-landed in the desert and need to find the components of a flying machine and take them to the launch pad to escape. The game is played on a five by five grid of square Tiles, with a gap in the centre representing the sand storm. Each player has a character with special powers. This time, Lime was the Climber, Pink was the Navigator, Pine was the Explorer, and Blue was the Water Carrier. On their turn, players can take up to four actions: Move (one action per Desert Tile), Remove Sand from the Desert Tile they are on or an adjacent one, Excavate a Desert Tile (i.e. turn it over), or Pick up one of the four component parts of the flying machine.

– Image by boardGOATS

Lime started. Once he had cleared some sand and turned over a couple of Desert Tiles, he started turning over Sand Storm Cards. These indicate which direction Tiles should move to fill the hole, and how many Tiles should be moved, one, two or three. Each of the Desert Tiles moved then have a Sand Tile placed on them—a single Sand Tile needs to be cleared before the Desert Tile can be Excavated, but two or more additionally obstruct players preventing them from passing (except for Lime who, as the Climber, can cross Sand Dunes of any height).

– Image by boardGOATS

Pine went next and used his special ability—everyone else could clear orthogonally adjacent Tiles, but he could to work diagonally as well. It wasn’t long before the first “Sun Beats Down” card appeared. These cause everyone to use water, so as the water carrier (and the only one who could make multiple visits to the Oases and collect water, Blue topped up Lime, who had started with less water than everyone else. The group gradually started revealing tiles, finding a Duneblaster, a Solar Shield and a Time Throttle, but the Storm picked up and before long the group were turning over more Sand Storm Cards. Pink located the Propeller for the flying machine and then the engine, the group were making progress, but it was all too slow.

– Image by boardGOATS

Before long it became apparent that the Sand Storm was getting the better of the group and the hiding in the Tunnels wasn’t helping. Determinedly, the group fought against the rising tide of Sand making good use of their Duneblaster, but it only delayed the inevitable. Blue, Pine and Lime were discussing a plan to play a Storm Tracker, but when they were briefly side-tracked, Pink played on without it and everyone suffered as a result. So Pine labelled him as a Saboteur as a consequence. In such a finely balanced game at such a critical point, it could have made a difference, but in all probability it only hastened the inevitable demise as the group were sadly buried under the ever growing sand dunes and ran out of Sand Tiles (one of the end game conditions). It was a deflating end to the evening, but given the heat, probably appropriate.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning outcome: Shuffling is an important skill.

30th May 2023

Pink and Blue were late arriving thanks to a debate as to whether the actor Gary Lewis was in the Roland Emmerich film The Day After Tomorrow. Eventually Blue and IMDb were proved right when Pink found the guy who WAS in the film (Richard McMillan, who bore no resemblance to Gary Lewis whatsoever), but that meant they were late arriving and Plum and Byzantium were already there. Unfortunately, due to a mix up, the Jockey wasn’t serving food, so Blue headed off to get chips for everyone from Darren at The Happy Plaice. As the chips were consumed, everyone else arrived and it was just a question of who would play the “Feature Game“, the Wild Ride expansion to our go-to motor racing game, Downforce, and what everyone else would play.

– Image by boardGOATS

Eventually Pink and Green committed to Downforce, and were joined by Pine (who claimed that after doing well the first time he played, he’d come last ever since), Black and Lime (as long as the other group weren’t playing Wingspan). Pink and Green reminded people of the rules of the base game, which are simple enough: after being dealt their hand of cards, players bid for cars, with the player who pays the most deducting the cost from their final score. Once the bidding is over, the race takes place. Players take it in turns to play one card from their hand, and then move all the cars depicted on it in turn.

– Image by boardGOATS

When the first car crosses a betting line, the race is paused while everyone bets on which car will win the race. There are three betting lines, but the winnings for betting decrease the closer they are to the finish line. At the end of the game, players total their winnings from the race with those from the betting, deducting the cost of their car and the player with the most cash is the winner. The Wild Ride expansion adds two new tracks: Aloha Sands and Savanna Stretch. Aloha Sands adds water jumps which cars can use if they are moving fast enough. The jumps allow players to pass other cars and get round the track more efficiently, but timing is everything.

– Image by boardGOATS

In contrast, Savanna Stretch features wild animals that block the track. Once the first car has passed an animal, they are moved to another part of the track, as such, they help to prevent the “runaway leader” problem that can sometimes be an issue in the base game. It was this track that players chose to use this time. The inclusion of extra animals on the track caused a little confusion initially, but the group soon worked out two of the important features of this track. Firstly, the animal tile only moves after the first car is fully past it and all other the cars have finished their movements for that card, which means that the animal is really only an impediment for the first few cars.

– Image by boardGOATS

The other the slightly unusual aspect of this track is that the pole position car starts at the rear of the pack. With five players and six cars, there was always a chance that someone would get two, and that someone was Lime. While this can be a huge advantage, especially if the cars are cheap, it can also be a risky strategy as it can be difficult to manipulate two cars and they can also become a target for other players. Unfortunately for Lime, his cars were among the most expensive, leaving him with a deficit of $11M before the racing began, compared with Pink and Green for example, who paid just $2M for theirs. Once everyone had got to grips with the rules and the cars had been allocated, the race was underway.

– Image by boardGOATS

For a track with so many tight sections it was not surprising that there was a lot of blocking going on—most of it, to be fair, totally deliberate… Pink (in the red car) found his early push to the front to be a mistake, as he was instantly the target for blocking maneuvers from turn two until the final straight. Green (in orange) used his online experience from Board Game Arena to keep himself in the pack, but not at the front. Luckily for him several other players selected his car to win the race at the first two check points, which helped keep him out of trouble and pushed forwards.

– Image by boardGOATS

However after the halfway mark, Black (driving the blue car) and Pink both surged forward causing Green and Pine to lose their nerve and bet on Black (instead of Green) at the last checkpoint. However, they should not have worried, as very soon after that, Green’s car surged forward weaving between the cars in front to race for the line and victory. Pine was close behind, followed by the first of Lime’s cars (the other brought up the rear). With the race done, there were just the winnings to claim from the bookies. Because Green had got away with paying little for his car and won the race, he had a significant prize pot even before betting was paid out.

– Image by boardGOATS

There wasn’t a huge difference in the results from the betting, but it was enough for Green to extend his lead. Pine also raked in millions as his betting pattern was the same as Green’s (perhaps someone should investigate them for race fixing). As a result, Pine come in clear second with Black completing the podium. Since there was still some time left for a “proper” game, the group hunted around for something that wasn’t too long and could play five. In the end, they settled on the simple little “push your luck” game, Port Royal, as much because no one could find anything better for five players, than because anyone really wanted it specifically.

– Image by boardGOATS

It had been a little while since most of the group had played, though the rules are simple enough. On their turn, the active player chooses to “twist” and turn over the top card of the deck, or “stick” and keep the current card set. The deck of cards consist of coloured ship cards and character cards. The first decision is to decide whether to risk a “twist” because if second ship card of a colour is drawn the player goes bust and their turn ends. If a player “sticks” they can take a ship and add its treasure to their stash, or they can use their gold to buy the support of characters. These give players victory points and special powers, but also can be used to claim contracts and give more points.

– Image by boardGOATS

Once the active player has taken a card, players round the table can take a card too. The cards are double-sided like those in San Juan or Bohnanza, so in the same way, keeping an eye on the discard pile and the money in players’ hoard is also key. Although Black and Green did their best to quickly explain the rules, Pine and Lime were still both a little unsure, and perhaps with good reason. Part way through the second round Black and Green realised something was amiss and re-read the rules and spotted a “rules malfunction”: they had forgotten that when a player takes a card on another player’s turn, they pay the active player one coin, thus encouraging players to push their luck further to give more players more choice.

– Image by boardGOATS

So from the second round on-wards they group started playing correctly. Pink’s strategy involved ignoring the Sailors and trusting to luck with turning the cards while spending his money on symbols to make up Expedition cards. That gained him the first Expedition card, but ultimately, this single minded approach wasn’t very successful, at least in this game. Green went for a strategy of collecting fighting cards, in order to fight off the pirate ships. This worked initially, but by the time he had five fighters (and seven points), he kept going bust on his turn as he turned up skull bearing Pirate Ships against which there is no defence!

– Image by boardGOATS

This meant that everyone else was able to gradually build their wealth and cards to catch him up. Green then collected two more fighters and in preparation for one final attack, but would he get the chance? Black had managed to accumulate a lot of points, not least because he collected money for both a large array of cards and for when it went bust thanks to the Admiral and the Jester. If Black could collect another special symbol he could claim an expedition and win the game before Green could make his mega move with a full fighting force. Unfortunately for Pine, he wasn’t able to collect the symbol he needed to claim a expedition as he went bust.

– Image by boardGOATS

So it was Green’s turn again and he started to pull out cards, with a huge line of cards. After defeating every lower value Pirate Ship he came across, he managed a full five different coloured ships. From there he was able to collect another five coins and purchase the two crosses on display, which gave him an expedition card and enough points for victory. At the conclusion of the game, Pine confirmed his early feelings that he did not really like this game, and Lime felt it was all a bit too confusing, never really sure what he was doing. This was an older game that we used to play a lot of at the club, but it seems to have lost its lustre now and will probably forever remain an occasional play game.

– Image by boardGOATS

Meanwhile, on the next table there was a lot of debate as to what they’d play. With five, the options were quite restricted, Burgle Bros. almost made it, until Teal realised it only played four, which left Tiny Towns. Plum wasn’t so keen, so in the end, the group went for the old favourite Wingspan (having said to Lime that they weren’t going to play it… Sorry Lime!). There was some debate as to whether there was time for the game with five players, and options of playing three rounds instead of four were briefly discussed, but since everyone knew what they were doing, the group decided to give it a go and see if they could squeeze in a full-length game.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is an engine builder that is quite simple in theory, but quite difficult to play well. Players are collecting birds for their sanctuary, scoring points for exciting birds, eggs, cached food and cards tucked under birds (representing flocks of birds or prey caught), as well as bonus points for achieving particular goals during the game and at the end of the game. The idea is that, on their turn, players either play a bird card from their hand into their tableau, or carry out the action associated with one of the three habitats (Woodland, Grassland or Wetland) and then activate each bird in that habitat. While that is all there is to it, it’s all in the cards and getting them to work together.

– Image by boardGOATS

Wingspan can be a little “multi-player solitaire”, that is to say, there can be very little interaction between players in some games. For some players this is preferred as it means players don’t have their carefully laid plans destroyed by others, while others feel they might just as well be sitting alone and interaction between players is what makes playing games important. It had been a while since it’s last outing, but the group were quick to get going and were happy to play with the European Expansion which was already mixed in. Plum in particular, got off to a flying start with her opening hand, four of which were coloured birds and matched her chosen Bonus card (the Photographer).

– Image by boardGOATS

In contrast, Blue had cards that didn’t match at all. The Rodentologist was her best Bonus card giving her two points for each bird in her sanctuary that ate a rodents, but not one card in her starting hand qualified. Teal started out with a strategy to maximise his egg production and prioritised birds with brown powers and resource conversion to assist that aim. The first card Plum played helped him in this, and everyone else too as it happens as it was a very generous Ruby-throated Hummingbird that gave everyone food every time it was activated. Teal returned the favour as he laid eggs at every opportunity and Plum had a bird that rewarded “once between turns” if anyone laid eggs.

– Image by boardGOATS

As the game progressed, players worked on the end of round bonuses. Three of the four birds Plum had kept from the start also happened to have bowl nests which contributed towards the fourth round goals, as long she could ensure they had eggs on them. She didn’t really aim for anything else, but Blue, Byzantium and especially Teal did well in the early rounds. Plum picked up some more birds with colours in their names, but also managed to play the Yellowhammer end of round card which she was able to use to great effect as it enabled her to play an extra bird card if she had used all four actions during the round. Byzantium had issues with the dice which repeatedly wouldn’t give him what he wanted.

– Image by boardGOATS

Then to compound Byzantium’s woes, he got himself in a bit of a mess when he played his migrating bird into the wrong habitat meaning he didn’t get the advantage of moving the bird straight away and costing him more eggs into the bargain. Purple had different dice issues when she rolled five berries and called “Yahtzee!” Blue had improved her hand and acquired some more helpful cards, including one that gave her an extra Bonus card, the Behaviourist, which gave her three points for each column with three different power colours. As people sifted through the deck trying to find cards they liked the look of, the California Condor appeared, which everyone agreed looked like a monkey.

– Image by boardGOATS

Towards the end of the game, partly as a result of Plum’s Hummingbird, Byzantium ended up with a surfeit of food and nothing to spend it on. So, he switched tactics and took the Condor hoping to get a bonus card that would improve his fortunes. It didn’t. Blue tried the same and didn’t do any better. After the final round Plum activated her Yellowhammer again and was left with the choice of playing a bird that gave her a Bonus card or one that gave two extra points. She also went for the Bonus card, the Fishery Manager, but only one of her birds ate fish. Time was ticking on, but the game was over well within two and a half hours with just the scoring to go as last orders chimed.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue had some high scoring birds, but not as many as Plum who took fifty-five points for them alone. Blue had quite a lot of eggs too, but not as many as Teal who had twenty-three. Everyone else was concentrating on counting, when Purple (aided by Black who had come along to lend a few fingers), gave her score for her bonus cards: thirty-four points, more than twice that of anyone else. Unfortunately for her though, prioritising her Backyard Birder Bonus which gave her points for birds scoring fewer than four points left her with lots of low scoring birds. It was a close scoring game, but first place went to Blue who finished a handful of points ahead of Plum with Teal a little way behind in third.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Forget snakes on a train, what about snakes on a race track?!?!

21st February 2023

With this set to be our last meeting before The Horse and Jockey changed hands, a lot of people turned up early to enjoy the Thai special (a preview of the Thai Night the following day). As the last of the food was consumed the final couple of people arrived, and then it was all about deciding who was going to play what and how we were going to split up the group of thirteen. In the end, Ivory took a group of five to play the “Feature Game“, Verdant, while Pink and Lime led a group of four to play Cascadia, and Green gave his copy of Wingspan with all the expansions (Europe, Oceania and Asia) an outing.

– Image by boardGOATS

The “Feature Game“, Verdant is a card game where players are trying to match plants to rooms and grow luxurious foliage to give them the most points at the end of the game. The game is played over fourteen rounds with players taking it in turns to take cards from a central market. In a similar way to Cascadia where hexagonal tiles are paired in the market with animal tokens, in Verdant, the cards are paired with object tokens. However, where, in Cascadia players just have to choose which pair to take, in Verdant the decision is a little more complex. Instead of taking a card and it’s token, in Verdant each tokens is paired with two cards (a room and a plant) and players choose one card to take with the associated token.

– Image by boardGOATS

Players then add the card to their three by five array, with plants placed next to rooms and visa versa to form a chequerboard-type arrangement. Whenever a plant is placed next to a room with matching lighting conditions, it gets a verdancy token; plants which achieve target verdancy are completed and gain a fancy pot (some of which give bonus points) and then score points at the end of the game. Players then add and/or spend their object tokens. The objects come in two types, Furniture/Pets and Nurture tokens. Furniture/Pets are either added to a room or placed their one storage space. Nurture tokens are particularly useful as they can be spent to add extra verdancy to plants.

– Image by boardGOATS

At the end of the game, as well as scoring points for completed plants, players also score for each room with adjacent plants that match their type—one point for each plant, two for each if the room contains an object with a colour that matches the room. Finally, players are rewarded for any residual verdancy and receive bonus points for having a complete set of each plant type, for having a complete set of each room colour and an increasing number of bonus points based on how many unique Furniture/Pets they have in their home.

– Image by boardGOATS

Blue started, and with no idea what she was doing, took a high verdancy plant and passed the problem on to Teal whose turn it was next. There was quite a lot of “try something and see what happens” going on in the early part of the game, but before long Pine voiced everyone else’s thoughts when he asked of Ivory, “How come you’ve got two pots already?” Then, as everyone shrugged, Pine added, “Oh, I see, you have cheap plants…” Ivory looked, if not exactly disgruntled, some way from being actually gruntled, and replied, “You make it sound like I got them from a garage on the way here!” And so the game continued with players taking cards and adding them to their arrays with as much verdancy as possible.

– Image by boardGOATS

About halfway through the game, Pine shared a new post on The Jockey Facebook page which said the current business owner would now be leaving in two weeks but Dan (the current manager) would be responsible for the pub for the next couple of months. So, while there’s still some uncertainty, it seems there WILL be a meeting in two weeks time. By this time, people were getting into their strides a little, though most people’s main strategy just seemed to be taking Nurture tokens whenever they had the chance, something which Pine and Indigo seemed to get a lot of and Blue didn’t have until her final tile (which she picked up with a Panda Plant, much to Pink’s delight from the next table).

– Image by boardGOATS

And that just left the scores. A bit of a point salad, it seemed like points came from everywhere. The bulk of everyone’s points came from completed plants though and rooms scored surprisingly well too. Most people thought Ivory was going to win, and so it proved, but much to her surprise, Blue was only a couple of points behind his seventy-nine, and took second. It was really tight for third with everyone else within a couple of points of each other, but it was Pine who just made it onto the podium ahead of the others. Although the game had taken quite a bit longer than expected and was more of a head-scratcher than its brother Cascadia, Verdant had been universally enjoyed and deserves another go.

– Image by boardGOATS

Speaking of Cascadia, Pink, Lime, Black and Jade were giving last year’s Spiel des Jahres Award winner another outing. In this game, similar to Verdant, on their turn, players take a terrain tile and animal token from the market and add them to their array. In this game however, players score points for their largest terrain of each type and also for animals in a specific arrangement. There is a lot of replayability in the game as each animal has several different scoring motifs on cards with one of each drawn at random at the start of each game. This time Bears scored for each group not surrounded by bears with larger groups scoring more; Salmon scored for long chains, and Elk scored for groups of one, two, three or four tiles in a particular layout.

– Image by boardGOATS

There was some discussion surrounding the scoring of Foxes, but they scored for each unique animal pairs surrounding them. The Hawk card was from the Tantrum House Promo Set and gave points for each Hawk that had a direct line of sight with both an Elk and a Fox. And this proved challenging for most people as Pink spent the first half of the game by taking all the Elks in what was later referred to as “The Great Elk Shortage”. The others soon got their revenge, however, when Pink was after Bears and everyone else took them just before he could. The game progressed quite quickly and before long, it was time to score.

– Image by boardGOATS

Despite the Elk and Bear based tussle, the scores for the Wildlife were very close with Jade just three points ahead of Black and Pink. In this game though players ignore the largest areas at their peril, but these need quite a lot of planning to make them work. With bonus points available to the player with the largest of each type of terrain, going heavily into one or two not only scored per tile, but also an extra three points. This tactic gave Pink eight more points than anyone else for his Habitats which ultimately gave him a comfortable victory, eight points clear of Black in second.

– Image by boardGOATS

Cascadia was the first game to finish and the group looked around for something quick to play that everyone knew, and quickly settled on Sushi Go!. This is the archetypal card drafting game, where players are dealt cards, keep one and then pass the hand to their neighbour. Played over three rounds, players are collecting different types of sushi. This game was closer than Cascadia and a bit rushed. There was a big debate as to whether players could play wasabi on top of wasabi and score nine points—the initial response was “that would be silly”, but it was confirmed with a rules check.

– Image by boardGOATS

The group played with the Soy Sauce Promo which gave points for having lots of different types of sushi, and variously pretty much everyone had a go at making them score. Almost everyone eschewed the Chopsticks, which allow players to take two cards instead of one later in the round, but that assumes there is an opportunity to use them later. Pink gave them a go, but without much real success. The final round had no Puddings, so there was a three-way tie for Desserts giving each player two points, except for Pink who missed out completely and lost six points. With a deficit of eight points in such a tight game that probably gave victory to Jade, who finished two points ahead of Pink in second and five ahead of Black in third.

/tr>

– Image by boardGOATS

Meanwhile, on the third table, a rather epic game of Wingspan was underway. This is one of the group’s favourite games and seems to be popular with almost everyone. The game is a kind of action based card-driven, engine-building game. Players take it in turns to take one of four actions: take food; take bird cards; pay food to place bird cards, or lay eggs on bird cards. Since we enjoy Wingspan and play it a lot, we have all the current expansions within the group, though none of the people playing this time had experienced Oceania or Asia (except solo), so the group decided to put in as much content as they could. This meant using all the bird cards available, creating three huge stacks.

– Image by boardGOATS

There were so many cards that they piled way up beyond the top of the card holder, and by the end of the game, they were still over the top! The group added the round bonus chits from the European and Oceania expansions to the base game ones, but ended up only pulling out one from Oceania (birds pointing left) and none from Europe. And of course the group used the nectar (replacing the original set of dice too), and lots of different coloured eggs from the different sets. The only parts of the expansions the group weren’t able to use were the two player components and the six/seven player components from Asia as there were four in the group, Green, Plum, Byzantium and Sapphire.

– Image by boardGOATS

The group only needed to refer to the rules a couple of times for clarification on how the birds interacted. Byzantium’s Snowy Owl, did not point left or right, so he could not count it towards the end of round goal, which meant he only tied with Sapphire for first place in round two. For most of the game there was little egg-laying, but the group managed to fill their boards with lots of birds (ten to thirteen each). Only Green and Sapphire went on an egg laying frenzy in the last couple of rounds, but they still only managed ten and thirteen in total respectively. Plum and Byzantium both managed to collect an almost unheard of total of four bonus cards each.

– Image by boardGOATS

Although this helped Byzantium towards an extra twelve points from the bonus cards, it was still shy of Sapphire’s thirteen from two cards (seven points of which he gained on his very last turn with a lucky bonus card draw). Plum, however, really made good with her bonus cards for a whopping total of twenty-five. This was to prove the clincher for her as she won the game with ninety-six points, some way ahead of Sapphire’s eighty-eight giving him second and Green five points behind in third. Of the expansions, everyone in the group used lots of Nectar (another aspect where Plum managed to outscore everyone else) and a good smattering of birds from each expansion, except for Asian birds.

– Image by boardGOATS

Only Sapphire placed an Asian bird card with the group using twenty base game birds, ten from the European expansion, fifteen from Oceania and the single Asian bird. Green did manage to get two “flitting” birds and regularly made use of them to flit between habitats. During the after game discussion, the group agreed that they really wanted to try the two player and the large group versions. Having played Wingspan with six last summer without the Asia adjustment, it was clear what needed tightening up, and that seemed to have been done. As a result, the group all agreed that they looked forward to a Mega-Wingspan game soon.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome: Some board games are prickly and others more succulent.

Golden GOAT Award Winners – 2022

As usual, the boardGOATS met just before Christmas for a party and to decide the winners of the GOAT Awards. After pizza and crackers and the usual mayhem, the group voted for two awards: the Golden GOAT for our favourite game and the “GOAT Poo” award for our least favourite. Everyone had the usual three points to hand out for the Golden GOAT Award (plus a bonus if wearing Festive Attire), though a maximum of two points could be given to any individual game. Everyone could also nominate up to two individual games for the GOAT Poo Prize.

– Image by boardGOATS

This year, there were a few games that received the unofficial “Marmite Award”, that is to say they received nominations for both the Golden GOAT and the GOAT Poo prizes. These included Dice Hospital, Azul, Modern Art and Viticulture. For the GOAT Poo Prize itself, there were several games that received two or three nominations, but the clear winner was Villainous – The Worst takes it All which received six nominations—quite an achievement since only five people played it and one of those wasn’t present for the vote! Villainous is a beautiful, asymmetric card game, but one that we struggled with for several reasons, not least the fact that players had to work out how to play their own character, and we were playing it with five people which is two or three more than it needs.

Disney Villainous: The Worst Takes it All

– Image by boardGOATS

Nominations for Moment of the Year included two epic games, one of Viticulture and the other of Tapestry. The latter nomination included the citation: “I thought I was doing well until Ivory lapped me… twice!” Pine also recalled Lilac nobbling him in Turf Horse Racing. The most poignant moment however, with hindsight, was last year’s UnChristmas Dinner, which was the last meeting attended by Burgundy, who very sadly, suddenly passed away just a few days later. We all still miss him, but the fact we were joined by Jade and Plum and their partners this year is his legacy, and one we think he would have been proud of.

– Image by
Pushpendra Rishi

And that just left the Golden GOAT Award for the best game of the year. Previous winners including Wingspan, Altiplano and 6 Nimmt! were ruled out, but there were plenty of options remaining. Lots of games received three nominations including Endeavor, Cascadia, Old London Bridge, Splendor, Tapestry and Die Wandelnden Türme But this year, the clear winner was Everdell. This card-driven game was only played for the first time a few weeks ago, but it is planned to play it again soon with one of the expansions being the “Feature Game” early in the new year.

– Image by boardGOATS