It’s happening again!
This gaming conventions is one of our favorites. We love the smaller size, the familiar faces, the mission (#gamewithpurpose), the sweet location, and the green dice this year were awesome!
We have played some super amazing games with fun Game Masters. Here’s a recap:
- The Crew: Mission Deep Sea — This trick-taking game was both hilarious and challenging. It’s a cooperative card game where the captain and crew members work together to complete missions. However, there is only one way to communicate… and you get very limited information. Dee Dee and Scott were a great team and we all learned something very important. If we want to succeed in missions, Heather CANNOT be the captain and David accidently opens up portals. It’s a good thing our Game Master, Mike Moderski, was there to guide us….and also encourage us when we failed our mission.
- Caldera Park: I. Love. This. Game! It is beautiful, easy to learn, strategic with a dash of luck, and totally reminded me of our trip to Yellowstone National Park and the breathtaking geysers. Basically, one token at a time, you group families of animals together around watering holes and avoid the bad weather that comes through the habitats. Janette and Chrissie were so fun to play with. David ended up with the win, but I think if the weather hadn’t split up my buffalo family, I could have squeaked by with the win!
- Viticulture Essential & A Bit of Tuscany: Um… a game about making wine? Yes, please! The hall didn’t allow us to have wine brought in, but it would have been great to sample the merlot, sauvignon blanc, and rose’s we were crafting. This worker placement game was a loooong game but was totally worth it! Crystal and our Game Master, Bob, were duking it out for the top spot, but David came in at the end and nearly beat them out as top winery! Ron and I were kinda far behind, but maybe that was because I was sampling too much and not filling as many orders. Hee-hee* hiccup*!
- The Captain is Dead: Let me just say, my anxiety playing this game was through the roof! When you start out with no captain, your coms go down right away, aliens invade your ship, the teleporter is disabled, and anomalies make it near impossible to move throughout the ship… IT’S CRAZY!! Thankfully, David, as our ships’ engineer, restored our Jump Core with the help of our Telepath, James! We were home safe just in the nick of time! Dee Dee, Raymond, Jason, John and I pulled together and made it though. A special shout out to our Game Master, Eric, or Mana Oasis gave us tips and the occasional side-eye, wink-wink, slow nod to help us make it out alive. Thanks Eric!
- Fuse: Countdown with designer Kane Klenko: What fun to meet Kane and play this fast-paced, cooperative expansion. While David and Peter had both played before, Mitchell and I were first time bomb-diffusers. By rolling dice and completing missions were were able to diffuse the bomb with 00:01 seconds remaining! Yes!!!! Each game only takes 10:00 minutes, so Kane also designed an app with a legit timer that talks to you and provides a little mood music for the hype. We were even able to get Kane to sign our new copy of Fuse! Highly, highly recommend!
You might think that was a lot of games but, wait! There was more!
Strong Tower also has a Play-To-Win table. With these games, you get to test them out and play them. Then, if you like ’em, you put your name into a drawing to win them on the last day of the convention. Dee Dee, Raymond, David and I played lots more games. We played Trekking: Through History, a crazy colored penguin game, an arena battle game that paired unlikely disney characters, a hilarious game called “What the Heck!” (I hope I win this one!), a ferret/weasel game, and several others. I’m crossing all of my fingers and toes that we get to win a few!