Game Session

We had another nice game night, and started out with the group games, Shadow Hunters and then Dixit. At Shadow Hunters I was the Neutral Allie, and I made a miscalculation that allowed the Shadows to win as all 3 Neutrals were eliminated. For Dixit, this was the first time I played with 11 players, and it was a little chaotic. It seemed near impossible to pick the right picture with 11 possibilities, and the clues were obscure as you knew that out of 11 people someone would pick yours. Always a good laugh to hear someones rationale for using a certain picture.

One group then played Puerto Rico, and we broke out Panic Station. It had been awhile since we played it, and we all knew the game so it went rather quickly. We used the newly posted set-up rules which seemed OK, but the Host (Tyler) was never able infect or get anything going and the Humans won easily as I took 4 gas cans into the hive. It did seem less tense, but that may be because the humans got the upper hand so quickly. It is definitely more fun playing with veterans and not having to explain the game.

I (white player) burned the hive on the far left for the win

 The new game we tried was Thunderstone, a deck-building game that is like Dungeons & Dragons with cards. It was actually not too much like Dominion, and we rather enjoyed it. With the variety of cards that can be used (only 3 monster classes and 4 hero types are used in each game) I could see great variability and I think this will get out onto the table again. I was pleasantly surprised by it as I don't think I was expecting too much. 

Our game results were as follows:

Shadow Hunter:
W - Tim R, Cristina G, Tyler H
L - Jeremy, Matt N, Brett H, Josh D, Nate J

Dixit:
1- Creela H, 2- Matt N, 3- Tim R, 4- Josh D, 5- Nate J, Jeremy 6- Tyler H, 7- Garrett S, 8-Brett H, 9-Jordan, 10- Cristina G

Panic Station:
W- Brett H, Josh D, Nathan J, Matt N, Tim R
L- Tyler H

Thunderstone:
1- Tyler H, 2- Nate J, 3- Brett H, 4-Josh D, 5- Tim R

Game Session

We had a big crowd for game night, which led to more socializing than playing. But we did get to play some smaller card games that were enjoyable, like Bang! and Coloretto. Bang! definitely needed more players, four just didn't cut it and was way too easy for the sheriff and deputy to win. Coloretto uses a unique mechanic that is the basis for Zooloretto, a game of the year winner. In it you either draw and place a card in a row, or take a row. There can only be a maximum of 3 cards in a row, and they are generally chameleons of 7 different colors. In the end you score from only 3 colors, and the rest count against you. So you must decide when to take a row before you are forced to take colors you do not want. The two big games that were played were Power Grid, which had an intense (and long) 5 player game, and the other was Tobago.
Tobago  is a very ingenious and unique game of finding buried treasures on an island. Cards are played based upon island features that narrow down the location of treasures until it can only be in one spot. Not only does the finder get treasure, but also anyone who contributed a clue card to its location. There are many decisions and strategies as you can work on four different treasures at a time. You also must move your Jeep to pick up amulets and get to the treasures. I have never failed to have a good time playing this. The game came down to selecting treasure cards, and Mike H bluffed me into passing a good one and I ended up losing by one point!

Mike contemplating his move in Tobago

Our Tobago island configuration, courtesy of Lexi

How to whittle down the location of the white treasure . . .

We ended up the evening playing a few games of Werewolf, which many had not played before. We'll have to try it with a bigger group of people next time.



Bang! - W - Nate J, Charles G; L - Tim R, Brett H

Coloretto - 1 - Brett H, 2 - Nate J, 3 - Tyler H, 4 - John L, 5 - Lauren T

Power Grid - 1 - Daniel S, 2 - Dallin E, 3 - Joseph J, 4 - Charles G, 5 - Tim R

Tobago - 1 - Mike H, 2 - Brett H, 3 - Cristina G, 4 - Lexi H

Werewolf
W - John, Dallin E; L - Charles G, Tyler H, Mike S, Lauren T, Nate J, Tim R, Daniel S; M - BrettH

W - Charles G, Tyler H, Nate J, Lauren T, Tim R; L - Dallin E, John; M - Brett H

Game Session

We are getting a good collection of people out to game night on Thursdays. Dominion saw the table for the early game, and then we split into two groups. The first played Power Grid, and I taught my group Troyes. Troyes is a really good game that uses dice in a unique way. It starts with worker placement, and your workers determine what color dice you will use for your abilities, if your workers are placed in the palace (war - red), within the town hall (merchants - yellow) or church (religious - white). The dice are rolled, and they are used based upon their face up numbers to replace workers in the buildings or to activate cards with special abilities that earn you money and influence. It has quite a bit of strategy, and once you learn the icons the game flows intuitively. I had a pretty steady flow of victory points, especialy when I used my archers to defend the city from marauders and other event cards. On the last turn I had an extra die to use, and Tim suggested I use it on an event card to get one more victory point. When points were tallied Josh made a huge comeback, earning maximum VP from the hidden objectives of everyone (24 points!). I ended up squeezing out the victory by one point 59-58, and owe that one to Tim.  We ended the night teaching a couple of players 7 Wonders.

The game results were as follows:

Dominion: 1- Nate, 2- Jeremy, 3- Josh, Tim

Power Grid: 1-Mike, 2- Dallin, 3- Daniel, 4- Joe

Troyes: 1- Brett, 2- Josh, 3- Tim, 4- Nate

7 Wonders: 1- Brett, 2- Nate, 3- Dallin, 4- Jeremy, 5- Tim

Check the facebook group for monthly standings.

LaJolla Nature Pics

Here are some of the nature pics from our trip down to LaJolla as a family. It was such a beautiful picturesque day and there was was plenty of sea life to view.

This dude was crowd-surfing over his buddies.

You should've seen the sea lion who got caught in this trying to climb the rock!

These pudgy guys are like torpedoes.

You can check out a slideshow of all the pictures here:

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LaJolla Family Trip

With Brittany in town, we took a family ride down to San Diego county, specifically to see the temple. As she weighs the pros and cons of getting married in either the San Diego or Newport Beach temple, we got to have a day of play for the family. Here we are at the SD temple:

Shell then took us to some cool sights on the shore by LaJolla. We explored a tunnel to a sea cave, saw flocks of birds & sea lions, watched crashing waves against the rocks, and even mingled with seals on the beach. Quite the fun day with absolutely beautiful weather.

You can check out all the pictures here:

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Games with Britt!

Its great having Brittany in town for a few days before she begins her last semester at BYU-Idaho. My wife Michelle and I got to play a few games with her and Jake Hopkins. We played 7 Wonders, a staple multi-player card drafting game of civilization building. I had no resources, so I played many yellow merchant cards and collected money hoping to buy the resources, but I was limited and Brittany stomped on us by going after science. We also played Pastiche, a cool art game created by Sean MacDonald of Utah. You place hexagon palette cards with the primary colors and connect them to the existing hexagon palette. Where the primary colors touch you create colors that you collect in the form of cards. You then have famous works of art that have required color cards in order to create the commissioned masterpieces. The first one to 35 points in artwork ends the game. I had a string of lesser valued art pieces created by DaVinci (including the Mona Lisa), but Brittany came through with 3 high point paintings to win the game in a rather quick fashion.

My Mona Lisa was not enough, only valued at an 8.

Triple Celebration

Today, April 8th, our family had a triple celebration. It was Michelle's birthday today, and Brittany flew in this morning from Utah, newly engaged. Oh yeah, it's also Easter! Church (Michelle spoke and gave an AWESOME Easter message), easter baskets, egg hunt and of course our annual tradition of egg races by rolling them down a hill.

The birthday girl in hot pink supervises the hunt!

The engaged girl with her race entry.

On your mark . . . get set . . .

GO!!!!!!!

Who will cross the line first? Who can make it into the cone? Who will not lose their yolk?

Our family shadow portrait . . .

. . . turns into our own instant message!

Now its the "peg dad with the yolk" portion of the events

Aftermath . . .

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