BGG 2014 – Saturday

On the last full day of the convention, we played a few new games and a couple of favorites.

King of Tokyo

King of Tokyo is a 30 minute monster dice fest in Tokyo by Richard Garfield. It’s ‘king of the hill’ with dice … short, sweet and fun. This or King of New York may find a place on the shelf soon.

Escape: Zombie City

Escape was our failed attempt at a real time, cooperative game.

Navegador

Navegador is another in the long line of rondel games by Mac Gerdts. Unlike some of his other games, Navegador has no direct conflict between players. This is an exploration, colonization and trading game themed around the trading companies that arose during the age of sail. Each of us came at the game with a different strategy and managed to have scores relatively close together except Chris who executed a timely, well planned move to end the game with three consecutive explores and catapult into the lead for the win. Fans of Antike and Imperial will likely enjoy this.

Gem Rush

Gem Rush is a small print card game themed around dwarves exploring exploring/expanding the tunnels as they mine gems. It’s a bit random and chaotic. The reaction was ok to meh.

The Pillars of the Earth

Pillars is a long time favorite we play nearly every year at the convention. I would say this is my all-time favorite worker placement game. At no more than 90 minutes, it never overstays its welcome.

Tichu

I like Tichu a lot and don’t play it nearly enough. It’s a partnership climbing game masquerading as a trick taking game. While taking tricks will give you points, being the first player out of cards is generally more important!