In February, my husband and I went to the Philippines and had an amazing time with family in the Manila area. We even visited two other islands! For those unfamiliar, the Philippines has over 7,500 islands, with Luzon the biggest and most populous island and it’s where the nation’s capital Manila is located. It has been decades since I’ve gone back to the motherland, and there is something truly special about connecting with relatives you haven’t seen in person in a long while, while being around the culture and people just like you — all the Filipinos!
During my trip, I was able to squeeze in some gamine and visited a Gaming Library store (the one inside Alter Ego in Mangaluyong City) and buy some games. The employees were really nice and answered my questions about games, mainly if the Tagalog version of a particular game was similar to the English version or was it something different. I ended up purchasing Just One — in Tagalog!
The cards in this version of Just One are all in Tagalog.
I also asked if they had a copy of the card game Darna at ang Nawawalang Bato, and they searched high and low to give me a demo copy that was a little beat up. It absolutely did not matter to me its condition, as I was so happy to take it! Darna is a Filipina superheroine that first appeared in 1950.
I’m so happy to finally own a copy of this game, which is now out of print.
I also purchased my own sungka game at another store in the mall. Sungka is a Filipino mancala-type game that uses this wooden board and seashells as the counters.
I played a lot of games of sungka with my grandma growing up.
I also played a bunch of games with my game-loving family. During one weekend, we played a bunch of games outdoors near the pool. My cousin gifted us Games of the Generals, a Stratego-type “fog of war” game where you’re trying to capture your opponent’s Flag by marching your army pieces, which has a hierarchical order to their strengths. The game can play 3 players, with one person playing as the arbiter, who determines which piece wins battles, as you and your opponent can only see what’s behind your metal pieces. You and your opponent then only can deduce which army piece eliminated your piece, and a lot of the game is remembering where your opponent’s potentially strong pieces are. You can also play as a 2-player game, and in that version, when a battle happens, players reveal the two pieces in the battle, and you both can figure out which piece is stronger. I also learned this game is also called Salpakan, which means to slap. Let the slapping commence!
I eventually could not hide my flag and my opponent captured it during this game.
Next up was chess. (I am very bad at chess but I know all the rules to play it. My nephew totally kicked my butt!) I also learned that when their pawn gets to the other side of the board, it gets promoted to a stronger piece. I told Chris that I never saw that on “Queen’s Gambit,” and he’s like, it doesn’t happen when people are good at playing chess. 🙃
I really should be playing more chess to improve my game. It’s one of the first games I learned.
We also played backgammon on an old set from Greece. My cousin owned this board after a neighbor gave it to her before they moved, but she never played it, so she gifted it to us. One of the pieces is missing, so there’s a 10 peso coin on the board in its place, and it’ll always remind me that it came from the Philippines.
My cousin gave me this older backgammon set from Greece.
If you ever attend a Filipino party, there’s always mahjong. This is the quintessential gambling game that Filipinos love to play. The rules are a little different depending on each culture, but it’s a game that I’ve grown up playing and it always makes me feel nostalgic for the family parties of my childhood.
Trying to complete my hand of tiles during our mahjong game.
My other cousin also owned this charming deck of Byzantine-themed playing cards that Byzantine Time Traveler designed and sells. I was able to buy a deck when we visited the Ayala Museum in Makati later in the trip.
The artwork for this deck is just delightful and super informative!
Lastly, we also played a lot of Pusoy Dos. According to Wikipedia, “Pusoy dos (or Filipino poker, also known as chikicha or sikitcha), a variation of big two, is a popular type of “shedding” card game.” The object of the game is to be the first to discard your hand by playing poker hands to the table. I played A LOT of this game in college because it’s fast, strategic and can be played with any deck of cards. The lowest value card, according to the rules I play, is the 3 of spades and the highest is the 2 of diamonds. I use the the mnemonic Daly City High School to remember the order of the suits. When someone plays a pair of 4’s, then the next person has to play 4’s of a higher suit or a higher pair in general. If everyone passes, then that person can lead the next thing to beat.
I have the 2 of diamonds, which is the highest card the version of Pusoy Dos we play.
In addition to spending time in the Manila area, we island hopped to Coron in Palawan as well as Boracay. Though a little remote and rural, Coron was breathtakingly gorgeous. I had never ever seen water so clean and clear — it was just like a movie set!
The water in Coron is so crystal clear, with a bright turquoise tint to it!
We took an all-day boat tour to explore small nearby islands and we snorkeled, kayaked, hiked and swam, even eating a seafood lunch on picnic tables with food cooked on the boat. We especially loved seeing the fish, the Twin Lagoon Lake and Kayagan Lake, which requires climbing 163 steps up and 204 steps down to access the lake. And then you need to climb the reverse of that to get back to your boat! Just stunning!
We purchased a Go Pro right before we left, and we got so many photos during our water excursions!
During our time in the Philippines, we also visited Boracay, which has a completely different vibe than Palawan. Boracay is a resort town with lots of hotels, restaurants and water activities.
The white sand beaches of Boracay. It was about 9 a.m. and the crowds hadn’t woken up yet.
We signed up for helmet diving, which is walking across the ocean floor in a pressurized helmet. It takes a little getting used to to pressurize your ears as you climb down the ladder, but nothing too bad. It was so much fun! We did helmet diving on Valentine’s Day and snapped this photo.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Boracay!
Overall, the Philippines is a must-recommend travel destination! The Manila area is just like a big city — densely populated with lots of traffic — but it was nice staying in a walkable city with access to so many restaurants, malls and things to do. For the other islands, we took small planes via Philippine Airlines, and stayed at beautiful resorts there. Most everyone speaks English in the country, the food is so diverse, yummy and cheap (based on the U.S. dollar exchange rate), and the hospitality is top-notch.
Some Filipino street food — chicken and pork isaw — at a small eatery on the University of the Philippines campus.
We did so much and visited so many places in two weeks, and I’m so grateful to be able to spend time with my relatives. Can’t wait to go back (hopefully it won’t be decades until we return) and visit other islands next time!
An overhead shot from the airplane of Coron Island in the province of Palawan.
I recently got a chance to play another all-day game of the global WWII game War Room. And by all day, the game continued on for about 8 hours before folks decided to wrap it up because it seemed inevitable that the Axis were going to win in one to two turns. After 8 hours, we had taken seven turns, so it could conceivably have continued for another one to two hours — and it was getting late already. I’ve played this game twice already, and this time I was on the Axis’ team as scrappy little Italy holding on to assist stronger Axis powers and being a big pain in the butt against Great Britain’s navy in the Mediterranean.
War Room is a 2-6 player game where players take on nations during WWII: three people will be the Allies as the U.S., Great Britain and Russia, while the rest will play as the Axis: Japan, Germany and Italy. Players can also play only the Pacific theater with 2-3 players if you can’t manage to round up enough folks for an all-day game. While it plays similarly to Axis and Allies (with some streamlining during combat), the preplanning of military orders and discussing strategy with teammates are very reminiscent of Diplomacy — but without the backstabbing!
War Room is so large that players need command staves!
First off, to play War Room, you need a very, very large table, and preferably another side table or two to place the battle boards. The player board is a puzzly configuration of a giant circle, similar to those world maps you’ve seen in war movies. Each player receives a slim rectangular box containing command markers and flag tokens, as well as a cardboard pegboard and pegs keep track of their resource tracks.
The game also comes with a million plastic pieces, representing infantry, tanks, planes and bombers, and an assortment of ships, from submarines (yellow ones specifically!) and aircraft carriers and others in between. For those who opted for a game upgrade, the game also comes with large branded sand timers and command staves to move your forces across Europe.
Each stack of units is assigned a number, which will come into play when you assign orders for them.
There are seven phases of War Room: Direct National Economy, Strategic Planning, Movement Operations, Combat Operations, Refit and Deploy, Morale, and Production.
Game play isn’t too difficult, if you’re familiar with either Axis or Allies, but there’s plenty of room to make errors. During the Strategic Planning phase, players secretly write out orders on their O&P chart to reveal simultaneously at the end of this phase. Some countries have more command boxes than others, so you’ll have to strategize which units you want to move to which location, and orders can’t be changed once the phase ends.
These fancy sand timers will tell you when time is up!
During this time you’ll also be bidding with your oil resources to pick turn order. Sometimes it’s better to go after everyone has made their move, while other times you want to first so that your troops get pinned.
Players write down commands on their O&P chart. Italy has 6 commands; others have more.
Pinning happens when an enemy unit moves into your location. If you had planned to move that unit out during Strategic Planning, it now is stuck. During the Movement phase, armies can move one space, or many spaces along the train rail route in friendly spaces.
You can see the railroad tracks going through Germany and other countries.
As forces move into contested areas, battles happen! Players move their units to the provided combat boards, both both sea battles and land battles. Each side places their forces based on the chart and they roll color-sided dice to determine who is the victor. Various units give you a different number of dice (increasing your odds of winning), and they also may take more damage, while others will get wiped out upon immediate hits. The chart makes it so easy to figure it out. Player roll all their dice and assign hits. If units are damaged, players can spend resources to keep them in play. If they’re destroyed, they go to the Morale Board, which then calculates stresses for the next round.
This combat board simplifies battles. It tells you how many dice to roll and how much damage units can take.
A country suffers morale penalties when it receives too much stress at the end of the round. Such penalties include no rail usage or disrupted supply lines. These are not good, and it’s hard to lower these penalties once you’ve moved into a higher category, which can be seen in a circle on the turn order track in the middle of the board.
After the stresses are calculated, players can order new troops or forces by buying them during the production phase. You can write down the calculations for these on your player board. When you put new pieces of plastic on the board, they enter the game at your factory locations, and the factories’ smokestacks show how many items may be placed there for production. But they are not quite available yet to your armies. They’re being “produced” and will be available for use in two rounds. When you produce forces, you move your resource markers down based on how much you’ve spent.
Units that were destroyed get placed on the Morale Board, which is used to calculate a nation’s stress level.
Then so begins the next turn, which is the first phase: Direct National Economy. You calculate your income based on all the territories you control. This is really easy to figure out because you’ll have the individual card for that territory and it’ll tell you how much oil, iron and OSR (other strategic resources), and you’ll move your little peg up your box.
Each player gets one of these boxes, which stores your command markers underneath the peg board that tracks your resources. These were all the territories I controlled at the time.
The game continues until the Allies control both Greater Germany and Japan, or the Axis controls two of the following areas: the Eastern United States, Great Britain or Moscow. Players can also play a 6-turn variant if they are unable to devote that much time for a full game.
I’ve quite enjoyed my two plays of War Room, with each game being completely different. I’ve learned that moving across the Pacific takes a long time (I played as the United States in my first game), and Italy, while small, can be strategically helpful to Germany and Japan. War Room is such an epic game — to look at on a table and to play! The tension never eases up, and while it does require a time commitment, the game moves quickly and there’s never a dull moment!
The end of 2022 is almost here! Dang, that went by so quickly! In all honestly, this was the first year that it felt like life in general was returning to a somewhat new normal. I feel so fortunate that I got to travel and attend multiple game conventions, where I played a lot of games and hung out with some good people. Here are the top 10 games I played for the first time in 2022.
The spice must flow! But watch out for the storm and sandworm — they’re both pretty treacherous.
This Dune is a streamlined version of the 1979 game that many people grew up playing. I played this game for the first time this past Consimworld, and I had a great time. It’s definitely a convention game because it can run a little long, depending on how experienced the gamers are, but it’s a great implementation of all the different warring factions in the source material (for me, it’s just the 2021 movie — I’ve never read any of the books. Don’t take my nerd card away from me). There’s treachery, secrecy, negotiations, battles for spice, an always-moving storm and the most dangerous thing of all — the sandworm! I would definitely love to play this again at the next con I go to.
Project L is a Tetris-inspired engine builder that comes in a small minimalist box.
I love puzzles, and Project L is a Tetris-inspired board game that is also an engine builder. Pretty cool, right? It comes in a sleek little black box, with lots of plastic tetromino pieces and decks of thick-cardboard puzzle cards, in which you place those plastic pieces to complete a puzzle. When you complete a puzzle, you gain victory points and/or new puzzle pieces, enabling you to complete more challenging puzzles that require more pieces for more VPs. Placing all those colorful pieces to create a mosaic puzzle feels just so satisfying, as does the stack of puzzle cards you accumulate throughout the game. It’s a great short game, one that I’ve played a lot throughout the year.
There are literally many paths to victory in Merv but you’ll need to do it in 12 actions.
Merv is a crunchy, city-building economic game, one that follows a trend in the past couple of years where the entire game comprises of very few actions — 12 to be exact in this game — but many things will happen as a result of that one action, making the game both brain-burnery and fulfilling. Players make their way around the board three times, and on each side, they take a turn, first by placing a building on a location in the row or column where you decide to place your meeple or activating a building in that row or column if there’s a building already there. Buildings will net resources, and then you can choose a site action (caravansary, palace or marketplace), gain a favor or deploy a soldier. If you move ahead on your turn farthest on a side, you’ll start as the last player on the next turn, unless you pay camels to bump ahead. The goal of the game is to gain favors with the palace, collect resources to fulfill contracts, move along the Silk Road to trade and build city walls to avoid the Mongol destruction that happens at the end of the second and third year, which is the last round of the game.
The days are counting down on your rehabilitation process in Heading Forward.
I never play solo games but was intrigued by Heading Forward. Based on designer John du Bois’ own experience, in this game you assume the identity of someone embarking on the long road to recovery following a traumatic brain injury. This solitaire card game mimics the choices one must make while rehabilitating, deciding which skills to relearn or which will atrophy based on non-usage, while under a deadline pressure before your medical insurance will run out. It’s a unique experience that offers a glimpse into rehab’s long and difficult process, and the uncertainty of recovery, the result of which could be uplifting or heartbreaking.
Lots of support tracks in Stonewall Uprising that could have dire consequences for the Pride side.
I got a chance to learn how to play Stonewall Uprising at SD Hist Con with the designer Taylor Shuss himself! Stonewall Uprising is 2-player asymmetrical deckbuilder in which one side plays as The Man and the other as Pride and they fight each other for or against civil rights. It is a notable moment in board game design when a game with this subject matter that’s near and dear to the designer can be published by a wargaming company. Taylor told me about all the research he did on the various historic people who helped the Pride movement get to where it is today. Each side starts with a basic deck of cards, and the game eases you into building your deck. It plays through the 1960s-1980s, which leads into the catastrophic losses the gay community faced with the AIDS epidemic. There are also rule twists that set this apart from a standard deckbuilder. When folding early, which will give your opponent some traction on one of the support tracks, but you’ll be able to draw more cards the following round.
Which horse will win? It’s anyone’s game! But make sure you bet on the right one.
Who knew betting on horses would be so fun? Long Shot: The Dice Game manages to capture the chaos and excitement of a day at the races — all in a compact roll-and-write package that plays 1 to 8 people. With each turn, the active player rolls two dice, one that pushes a specific horse and the other one by how many spaces along the race track. Players then take one action based on the horse die, and they can either take a concession, mark a helmet on a horse, mark a jersey on a horse, bet up to $3 on a horse that matches the horse die, or straight up purchase a horse. The helmets enable you to make bets on that horse after they pass a certain point on the track, and the jersey allows you to attach a second horse to a primary horse to move one spot after the primary horse moves. The concessions action allows you to get bonuses when you cross off a row or column. The game is fast-paced, and you’ll never know whose horse will cross the finish line! The person with the most money at the end of the game wins.
Akropolis is a short yet strategic tile-drafting and tile-laying game.
Akropolis was a total surprise for me. It’s a game that was introduced to me at the end of a game night when we had about 30 minutes left before calling it a night. What I thought would be a quick filler is an elegant, streamlined drafting tile-laying puzzle, a game that plays in under 30 minutes. On your turn, you choose a tile from the construction site; the first one costs zero, but if you want to get one farther down the line, it’ll cost you one stone each spot. You then place the tile into your city. The tiles themselves are one large shape made up of three hexes. When you place the tile into your city, it must border at least one edge of another city tile, or you can place it on another level as long as it covers three hexagon tiles underneath it. The three types of construction: quarries, plazas and districts. Quarries don’t score points but get you stone when they’re covered. There are five types of districts, which score differently and have their own placement rules. Lastly, the plazas are multipliers for these various districts. But a district won’t score any points until you get a matching plaza of the same color into your city. The result is tense drafting and an enjoyable city-building puzzle.
This is the deluxe version of Paint the Roses, where the tiles are made of acrylic.
I am not the best at deduction games, but there’s something about Paint the Roses and its semi-cooperative deduction gameplay that makes this game so worthwhile. The theme is Alice in Wonderland, and you’re all trying to finish the Queen’s garden before she cuts off your head. On your turn, you choose one of the four tiles face up and place it in the garden next to other tiles. Each tile has a colored flower and a shrub behind it, one of the four symbols, a heart, clubs, spades or diamond. You and others then place cubes to determine if the placement satisfies the secret objective card in each of your hands. After each turn, you have to make a guess about someone’s objective, based on the cubes on the board. They can either be colors or shapes, or both, as objectives get harder. If you guess wrong, the Queen starts chasing you across the board — faster and faster as the game progresses — and you need to win before she gets to you. And because nobody exactly knows what everyone’s individual objective is, there’s no problem of one player taking over the game and making decisions for everyone.
The bees are buzzing along and collecting resources to complete orders.
Honey Buzz is an excellent worker-placement economic game, all packaged together in the cutest way possible: bees, flowers and whimsical animals. This game is delightful and crunchy, and you place your beeples on the board to collect various tiles to place into your hive. If there are already beeples at that action spot, you must place exactly one more beeple to take a tile. When those tiles create a pattern, all the symbols on the tiles activate, either producing nectar, coins or more beeples; selling items to the market or completing an order; or activating any other symbol in the pattern if you have a wild symbol. As various types of nectar are sold to the market, their price drops and multiple nectars drop too low, the market crashes, triggering the end of the game. There are also objectives that players can claim throughout the end or at the end of the game. Honey Buzz is a fantastic combination of economics, worker management and puzzle-laying. This game is definitely buzzworthy!
The most epic of roll and writes: Twilight Imperium. Everything about this game is just so slick.
And here we are at No. 1: Twilight Inscription. I seriously have not stopped talking about this game since playing it for the first time. It’s the most epic of roll and writes, an ambitious project set in the world of the galactic classic Twilight Imperium. It feels so much more than a regular roll and write, while maintaining the feel and characters of the TI4, all in a game that’ll last about 2 hours. The game can also look intimidating upon first glance, but once you get started, the symbols are all easy to interpret and gameplay feel sintuitive. The hardest part of the game is deciding which direction to go and which boards to invest in. Each player has four boards: Navigation, Exploration, Warfare and Industry, and each round begins with an event. There are 25 event cards in the game. During an event, there are dice rolls preprinted on the event card, and each player can choose to cross off those symbols on one board of their choosing. Once everyone is done, the dice are rolled, and players must cross off those new symbols to the active board they’ve already chosen from the event card. This is how everyone’s game can branch off in different directions. Should I explore more systems, or should I invest in warfare? Or maybe it’s worth unlocking these technologies and collecting bonuses for later. So many choices! There are also bonuses for reaching Mecatol Rex first, naturally, and other game objectives scored at the end. Overall, Twilight Inscription just looks so slick, especially with the fancy orange shiny markers that really pop against the blue backdrop of each sheet. Plus, the big chonky dice feel good to roll.
And that’s my list for 2022. Thanks, friends, for making it all the way through this list. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and here’s to bigger and better things in 2023! What are some of your favorite games you’ve played in the past year?
Last month, during Veterans weekend, I drove to California to attend the San Diego Historical Games Convention, or SDHistCon for short. It was their first time having the convention in person since 2019, and my first time attending it in person; I’ve only attended virtually during the pandemic. The convention this year was held at the San Diego Jewish Academy, which was a gorgeous location and lots of space for gaming. SDHistCon is an intimate, laid-back and friendly convention, with about 130 attendees, and a fantastic place for game designers, especially those in the historic gaming realm, to meet with industry veterans.
The convention went from Friday, Nov. 11, to Sunday, Nov. 13. On the Thursday evening before, organizers held a casual event at Sky Deck in Del Mar Heights, which was an indoor/outdoor food court with some yummy restaurants and breweries within it.
It’s always a fun time hanging out with Dan Bullock, and I got to meet Joe Schmidt for the first time!
I then met some cool designers for the first time, and reunited with some friends that I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic.
Here’s me with awesome designers Drew Wehrle (from left), Cole Wehrle and Mark Herman.
On Friday morning, I showed up at the convention to check in and scope out the gaming areas. The gaming areas were on two different floors, with each space very sizable and tables spread out.
You can see some nice views from the windows on the second floor.
The upstairs had games on display for the raffle, and where most of the demos were happening. There was also a smaller room for panel and game design discussions. The bottom floor had the snack bar and sodas for purchase, as well as large tables for open game play.
This is the gaming space on the first floor.
I ran into Harold Buchanan, wargame designer and founder of this cool convention, who then introduced me to Terry Leeds, an artist who designs a lot of the artwork for GMT Games.
It’s me, Terry and Harold! The maps on those GMT COIN games are gorgeous!
I got a chance to see a copy of Fort Circle’s upcoming game, Votes for Women, which is said to be arriving at my mailbox pretty soon! I’m super excited by that game and can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Some players had packed up the game, so I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of the board.
My first game of the con was a quick route-building area control game called Streetcar Suburb. This was a quick 2P game where you’re building a streetcar line and maximizing placement of buildings around the track and running it throughout the city.
We’re building out our streetcar track in this prototype.
My first game of the convention was learning and playing Twilight Struggle: Red Sea — Conflict in the Horn of Africa. Game designer Jason Matthews was on hand to teach multiple games, and a tournament was even on the convention schedule.
Jason Matthews, who co-designed Twilight Struggle, is teaching Twilight Struggle: Red Sea.
Jason said that impetus behind TS: Red Sea was so that people can learn and quickly jump into the Twilight Struggle system with a game that lasts about an hour. This game is part of the GMT Lunchtime Games series meant to be played in under an hour. The original Twilight Struggle game can often last 2-3 hours if you are not familiar with the cards, and can be daunting to folks new to this style of gaming.
Twilight Struggle: Red Sea deals with the conflict in the Horn of Africa.
The deck is smaller, and you get dealt a hand of cards, with players going back and forth playing cards, until the turn is over. The game only plays three turns, unlike the original game. I unfortunately did not win my game but enjoyed learning it from the designer himself.
TS: Red Sea is quick and plays only three turns, i.e. rounds for non-wargamers. My opponent was Monte Johnson.
I then learned a trick-taking prototype game about getting tenured. When you win a trick, you can either place a card from your hand to one of the matching stacks in front of you or take a card from the trick to place back into your hand. The stacks in front of you represent books, and you’ll need three of the same type to “publish” your book, eventually making tenure when three of your books are “published.” It’s a neat take on a trick taking because you want to keep your cards to win tricks but you also have to save some cards for those stacks in front of you.
I love the flavor text of this game. Hoping it’ll make it to a publisher someday!
I then got to meet Kai Jensen, game developer extraordinaire, who was interviewed on an episode of Dan Bullock’s podcast Game Design Deep Dive. After listening to that episode, I was just in awe by her experience and knowledge in developing games. As a side note, Dan’s got some really excellent interviews with game designers, so you should check out the podcast.
Kai Jensen has developed many games, including Dominant Species: Marine, which I love.
We all then took a dinner break at Urban Plates, which is a yummy, healthy place in the plaza with the Sky Deck. Here’s the dinner gang.
Taking a break from all the gaming and getting dinner.
After dinner was a raffle. There were so many games, and a different set of games to win for Friday night and Saturday night. Everyone received one raffle ticket with their SDHistCon ticket, and people could purchase more tickets to drop in.
These were all the games for raffle on Friday night. A new set of games came out for Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Wow!
The last game of the day was 1714: The Case of the Catalans. 1714: The Case of the Catalans is a strategy and negotiation board game set in the War of the Spanish Succession at the beginning of the 18th century. The players represent the powers of the Grand Alliance constituted in 1701 to prevent the dynastic unification of France with the crowns of Castile and Aragon by the Bourbons after the death of Charles II.
The concessions you’re trying to obtain are on the right side of the board.
I’ve never encountered a wargame such as this before — there is sooo much negotiation, and I’m here for it! Each power — Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Austria, the Duchy of Savoy and Portugal — is trying to obtain concessions that match the goals of their countries, while moving troops across the map and attacking Bourbon armies. Sequence of play also factors into this game a lot, as depending on which concession you obtain, determines your turn order on a future turn. I ended up coming in second place, missing first place by one point! (All that negotiation did me some good!)
Game designer Taylor Shuss teaching us his game Stonewall Uprising on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, I learned how to play Stonewall Uprising with the designer Taylor Shuss himself! This 2P deckbuilder pits Pride vs. The Man and covers the period through the 1960s to the 1980s. There are also three different tracks that represent the tug of war between the two sides: systemic support, public support and individual support.
I know the colors are thematically accurate for the Pride movement but it’s just so cool seeing them on a board game.
The Man’s goal is to detain and demoralize 10 people from Pride’s deck to take the wind out of Pride’s movement. Pride’s goal is to shift the Overton Window and to organize protests, demonstrations, and sit-ins to sway the public, represented by their dice pool, to keep their movement’s momentum going well past the ‘80s. I love the theme of this game, one hardly ever seen in games, much less a wargame, and while events can feel bleak, it’s a period in history worth learning about and exploring.
Pride and The Man both get their own player sheet, which works as a player aid for the deckbuilding.
I turn played this neat little game called Turncoats. The game is literally glass pebbles in red, blue and black, all in this little cloth pouch that doubles as the game’s cloth board when flattened and opened up all the way, revealing a stitching of a map with territories.
Turncoats, which comes in this bag and looks so unassuming, is so, so tense.
The game is about area control on the board and which color is the dominant pebble, all the while having a hand of pebbles in your hand, hidden from the rest of the players. The struggle is setting up majorities on the board using stones from your hand, while keeping stones from those majorities to score in your hand at the end of the game. Elegant and simple to learn, but strategically difficult and so tense!
I love how the map in Turncoats is built into its bag, which serves as the game’s carrying case.
I then played a game of John Company with the designers themselves: Cole and Drew Wehrle. I had a blast meeting these guys for the first time at this convention, and it was so neat to see them in action, whether explaining the rules of John Company, checking out a new prototype at this con, or talking about the inner workings of board game publishing.
I got hang out with these guys for a few hours as we played John Company. The guy in the middle told me that he had played the game a few times during the course of the convention.
I am still not confident in myself to teach John Company to others, but I feel like I had a better grasp of the game, especially now that the 2nd edition board is much, much better and easier to follow along!
Here’s how our game ended. That’s me in pink — in first place!
After dinner, there was another raffle drawing, and this time I won Nicaea by Hollandspiele. I had been eyeing this game recently and had been planning to buy it during the Black Friday sale they have every year so this was a total score! I still did purchase a few games during their sale though because I enjoy their games so much.
Woot! I bought a couple more extra raffle tickets and it totally paid off!
I then stopped by the giant Liberty or Death game, which pitted Harold, Volko Ruhnke, Mark Herman and Jason Matthews as the four factions, but I couldn’t stay when they started as I had another game scheduled during the time slot.
Harold stands over the giant Liberty of Death board before the game gets underway on Saturday night.
I finally got a chance to meet and chat with Volko, whose COIN games got me into this niche corner of board gaming. My first COIN game that I played was Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caesar.
It’s my first time meeting Voko in person!
I then went downstairs to play an 8P Game of Thrones, which included the Mother of Dragons expansion, which adds House Targaryen and House Arryn into the game. The game included some cool dragon minis for House Targaryen and while we didn’t finish our game before closing time, I had a lot of fun! I don’t think I’ve played GOT in over 6 years and I loved revisiting it.
The Targaryens keep flying dragons over to attack everyone. They’re the worst!
Before closing, I took a quick photo with Treg, one of the guys I had met back at GMT Weekend at the Warehouse many years ago. Even though we didn’t get to play a game together, it was good to see him and catch up all weekend!
I last saw Treg at Dice Tower 2022, where we got a chance to play some games.
On Sunday morning, I taught a 4P game of Twilight Inscription. I love this game so much! The game plays for about two hour and always preface a teach by saying it looks so overwhelming at first, but once you get going, it’s not as difficult as it seems because the symbols and iconography are well done and easy to understand. It’s a epic roll-and-write in the Twilight Imperium world, and each player gets four player boards. When an event is read out loud, you choose one of those boards to be the active sheet, and you cross off symbols matching what shows on the event card. Then, the speaker rolls these big, nice chunky dice, and players then get to place those symbols on the active board they chose for the event. The four boards are navigation, warfare, exploration and industry. It’s seriously so epic.
My last game of SDHistCon. I got to teach these cool guys how to play Twilight Inscription.
By noon, I had to get back on the road to go home. I had a blast in San Diego gaming with friends and meeting new people. The SDHistCon organizers really make you feel welcome, and everyone I had encountered was so chill and friendly. If you’re a game designer, especially in the historical gaming field, this is a great convention to go to with your prototype. I saw so many people with their prototypes out on tables because experienced designers will play your game and give you feedback. The weekend went by so quickly that my only regret is that SDHistCon isn’t one day longer! I’m definitely planning to come back next year.
One of the signs throughout the facility to help you find the gaming rooms.
The first card-driven game I learned to play was Twilight Struggle. It was early on during my entrance into the hobby, and, at the time, the game was No. 1 on Board Game Geek. I used to play it often way back when but, times have changed, much like the rankings on BGG, and I don’t often have the time to devote to that particular 2P game. Luckily for gamers, GMT Games created a Lunchtime Game Series, and Flashpoint: South China Sea is the latest game of the series, which consist of smaller-format strategy games designed to be played in 20-60 minutes.
Flashpoint: South China Sea’s box is slimmer than other GMT games.
Flashpoint: South China Sea, designed by Harold Buchanan, is a tense yet much more accessible game than its CDG predecessors. Set in the conflict between the United States and China in the disputed region around the South China Sea, the game pits two players against each other as they try to assert economic and diplomatic influence across various regions and countries using cubes and event cards.
But first, a big thank you to Harold for sending me this game!
The game begins with a board, event cards, scoring cards, wooden cubes, player aids and rulebooks. There’s also another deck of cards for those who like to play games solo. First and foremost, I appreciate how the rulebook immediately indexes and explains important terms and concepts on the first page — this makes jumping into this game less daunting for less experienced wargamers.
In the Philippines, you can see the darker-colored triangle corner in the square to indicate starting cubes belong at that location.
Setup is really easy. On the board, squares with a darker-colored triangle at its corner shows where starting cubes begin. You then set up the 7 scoring cards face up near the board and shuffle the 48 event cards. Deal out 6 event cards per player, and set the tension to low and the campaign track on the 1. The game plays out through three campaigns.
On campaigns 2 and 3, the person with the fewest VPs gets to decide who goes first, but in campaign 1, choosing first player is a little different. Each player secretly bids the number of victory points they’re willing to give to the U.S. player in order to play as China. I’ve never encountered starting instructions like this before, but it immediately puts pressure on the players before even starting the game! You probably don’t want to give the U.S. too many points to play as China, but maybe you’ll be better at this than me!
Here are the different type of event cards: red is for China, blue for the U.S. and the third card is neutral.
Players then alternate playing event cards until each side’s hand is empty. Event cards are friendly to one side, and they have an operational value, a mode and a scoring impact. If you play a friendly card to your side, you can play the event or use the operational value to conduct actions. If you play it for the scoring impact, score one of the scoring cards sitting next to the main board, execute it and turn it face down. That scoring card cannot be scored again during this current campaign.
There are 7 scoring cards altogether. Here are four of them.
Cards are then discarded to a discard pile, and the next player takes their turn. If you play a card that matches the mode as the top card in the discard pile, you can either execute the discarded card’s event or scoring impact. There are three different modes in the deck.
China and the U.S. both have an available pool and reserve pool of cubes. The available cubes can be brought onto the board through cards, while moving reserves to available will cost 1 Operation value. Certain actions will also cost more to carry out as the tension level increases throughout the game.
Here’s the setup of the game, along with all 7 scoring cards visible.
At the end of the first and second campaigns, each country moves economic influence cubes to available, and the tension level moves one space to the left. If a side reaches 15 VPs during play or final scoring, it’s an instant victory. If no one reaches 15 VPs after the third campaign, the side with the most VPs wins the game.
The game is a constant tug of war for political and economic influence, and there are never enough cubes to do everything. Plus, timing is absolutely key when activating the scoring cards. But sometimes your opponent will score before you, or, based on the random draw, you do not have the matching symbol to activate that scoring card. The game’s well-written rulebook shows plenty of examples, and even provides several Spotify playlists, depending on how intense you want your game to be. I most definitely always crank up the HIGH tension playlist. 🤘🏽
I was so surprised by these playlists at the end of the rulebook. Super cool!
So if you’re looking for a 60-minute, two-player wargame, Flashpoint: South China Seas is worth checking out. And with that, I’m off to Harold’s San Diego Historical Con for the weekend. I’ll be writing about that convention next time!
The pandemic has changed many things in our lives, and that rings true for board game conventions. A few conventions have folded up during this era, while others have had to tweak their programming. Case in point: Rincon, Tucson’s Tabletop Game Convention! Last month, Rincon paired up with Tucson Comic Con during Labor Day weekend to feature gaming at the convention and after-hours gaming and dinner at a nearby hotel, the Ramada by Wyndham Tucson.
Rincon attendees needed to purchase a ticket to Tucson Comic Con and Rincon after-hours if they wanted to participate in both things each day. And while the setup wasn’t ideal, it was still great to see the wonderful people who work so hard to get this convention back on its feet. I even received a pencil from the a conventiongoer that said “I survived Rincomicon!” Yes, indeed!
An overhead shot of the exhibitor hall at Tucson Comic Con. So much shopping!
I only attended RinCon for two days — Friday and Saturday — as I couldn’t stay away from home for too long (more on that at the bottom of this post). I arrived in Tucson on Friday afternoon to get ready to teach Cascadia at the women’s table in the gaming hall.
I personally love teaching all types of games at the women’s table because it gives us a chance to learn a game in a stress-free, ask-as-many-questions-as-you’d-like environment. I taught two games of Cascadia, one 2P and another as a 3P, and it was a hit!
I am always so happy to teach Cascadia. It has such a pretty table presence.
After teaching the game, I was able to walk the Tucson Comic Con floor and see all my fellow nerds — and buy some nerdy things, like a giant Kirby fan (which came in handy as it was hot that weekend) and some D20 earrings.
I love this giant Kirby fan!
Once evening hit, Keep it Rollin’ w/RinCon festivities moved over to the Ramada, which was a quick walk on the other side of the freeway from the Tucson Convention Center, where Comic Con was being held. Evening tickets provided dinner and ballroom space for gaming and smaller rooms for LARPing.
The gaming room at the Ramada by Wyndham in Tucson, where scheduled gaming took place.
On Saturday, I spoke on a panel called Diversity and Inclusion in Tabletop Gaming. We had a great discussion about inclusion and diversity, which touched on topics such as themes, game choices, welcoming spaces and many others.
I was on the panel with Lizzy Jayne Took (from left), Mariah Johnson, Darrell Lynn aka Sosha Justice, and Karen Arnold Ewing) at the Diversity and Inclusion in Tabletop Gaming panel.
I then walked the other half of the exhibitor floor to for more shopping (as one does at a Comic Con) and literally squealed when I saw this: The Batmobile!
Holy smokes! It’s the Batmobile!
The 1960s Adam West Batman is my absolute favorite version of Batman. I grew up on this show in reruns and literally know every single episode and famous cameos on the show. I also own a copy of The Official Batman Batbook and spent childhood memorizing it. Ah, the days before the internet!
I then taught a game of Honey Buzz to three other women. One lady said she had wanted to learn how to play the game before purchasing it, and everyone enjoyed the game! Plus, the components are always so delightful to play with!
Honey Buzz is just so adorable and it’s a quite a strategic economic game! Plus, who doesn’t love beeples?
After leaving the convention center and walking over to the Ramada, I met Zach of Korrosive Games, who brought their prototype Fate of Venterra. It’s a 4x game with a gorgeous build-out of various terrain, and there are five different factions you can play from. The company is local to the Phoenix area, and the game is still being developed, eventually getting on Kickstarter.
Fate of Venterra is a 2-5 player strategy game that’s being developed.
The Ramada had some signature drinks at its bar, so naturally I ordered a drink that was named after me.
Being on the drink menu was a nice surprise!
It was yummy and sweet! And that garnish was of a fruit roll-up consistency.
I need to figure out how to make these small meeple garnishes!
And with that, I drove back home to Phoenix on Saturday night. It was wonderful seeing gamer friendsI hadn’t seen in a few years because of the pandemic, especially Karen, chair of the Rincon Convention. She is truly one of the nicest people out there in the gaming sphere and worked hard to make it happen this year. Thanks for having me, Karen!
It’s always a pleasure seeing Karen Arnold Ewing!
And for those who have made it down this far, I’ll circle back to why I couldn’t stay at RinCon for the entire four days. The day before Rincon …
My husband and I adopted a new dog! He’s a 10-year-old dog that we adopted from the Arizona Small Dog Rescue. He’s a handsome boy, and we’re so happy to have him. My husband was originally supposed to come with me to Tucson but he stayed home with our new dog, and I just couldn’t wait to get back home to this smiling face.
The face of a handsome doggo who is always looking for snacks!
A week before Consimworld, I had mentioned on Twitter that I was excited for the con, and someone had asked if there were any games I was looking forward to playing, and friends, I didn’t have an answer. I felt a little disconnected from the wargaming community this past year, and me not being able to answer that question created a little bit of anxiety, with various thoughts swirling around in my head, the loudest one that said, “do I belong here at this convention?”
Well five days of nonstop gaming in Tempe from Aug. 27-31 shut down my fears about that and I ended up having a wonderful time! There are so many different games you can play in the wargaming sphere, from megagames that last multiple days (something I hope to get into next year!) to 2P card-driven games that can be played in under an hour. Plus, a small highlight of attending an Arizona con during the summer is hearing Midwesterners say, “Oh, 100 degrees isn’t so bad!” when we’re walking to dinner. That #desertlife!
The main room at Consimworld at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel.
My buddy and game designer Dan Bullock arrived on the Friday the day before the con so we did some pre-gaming with a 2P game of Squaring Circleville. I really like the rondel mechanism of this game! My husband usually teaches this game, so I was a little unprepared for teaching it but we got through another enjoyable game of it.
We’ve succeeded in Squaring Circleville, a real town in Ohio that the game is based on.
Aug. 27
This was the first day of Consimworld! Here’s Dan and me arriving bright and early for gaming!
Dan and I are ready for all the gaming! This was taken before temps hit 110 degrees. It was a hot week!
We started the con with a 3P game of Passtally. This quick filler is such a brain burner! I finally own a copy of it, after playing it at BGG Con Spring eons ago! This is a tile-laying game in which you’re building routes to connect to your markers. You can also build on top of other tiles, which elevates this cute game into super crunchy puzzle. For each turn, you get VPs based on how many tiles your route goes through — horizontally and vertically!
Passtally is so pretty yet will probably melt your brain.
I then busted out my new copy of Twin Palms, a game I first played at Dice Tower West 2022. I backed the game on Kickstarter and it arrived the day before Consimworld. What luck! Twin Palms is a neat trick-taking card game, where you play pairs of cards and there are only 1-3 suits in the game, depending on player count. The highest pair of cards are determined by a hierarchy of pairs and/or suits, and you may bet before each turn how many tricks you’ll be able to take. It’s a neat twist on an otherwise very familiar mechanism.
I love the cool retro artwork for this trick-taking game with a twist.
Next up was Pax Pamir. This is a game we play at every single Consimworld, but I am still not very good at it. Players are purchasing cards and creating their tableaus, while trying to gain control of territories at the right moment. Every game I’ve played is so different. I’m hoping to get my copy from their Kickstarter soon, so maybe there’s a chance for me yet to improve my game!
Pax Pamir never disappoints! I can never get enough of these components and linen map.
We then played A Study in Emerald, a grail game that’s, for the lack of a better word, insane. The Great Old Ones have taken over the world, and historical figures from the 19th century are either Restorationists fighting against the creatures or Loyalists attempting to defend the status quo. There’s a giant map of Europe, and players are depositing influence into various locations to attack monsters and/or gain cards. There’s hidden roles, deck-building, area control, and possibly zombies! Paranoia is at an all-time high, and when certain markers hit the end of their tracks, the teams compare scores and the side with the lowest score automatically loses. It is quite the experience, and I’m still not sure I’m describing the game correctly!
A Study in Emerald is quite the experience! And sometimes there are zombies.
The last game on Saturday night was Crescent Moon. This is a new asymmetric area-control game set in the 10th century Middle East, which is laid out in a very small hexagonal-tile map. There are five different factions, and each faction takes 4 actions over the course of 3 rounds, making it a total of 12 actions total. There just aren’t enough actions to do everything you want to do. Each faction has a very clear objective, and the player guides clearly explain what that is and how to best go about your relationship with other factions. And while there are some similarities to Root, there’s a lot more wheeling and dealing to negotiate with your neighbors while you work toward your win conditions.
A lot happens on this small map for Crescent Moon.
Aug. 28
Sunday began with an epic game of Dune! It was my very first game of this, and we had a complete game with 6 players. I played as the Harkonnen, which excels at treachery, so basically the complete opposite of me in real life. The game plays out over 10 rounds, unless a win condition is triggered (controlling a certain number of strongholds) beforehand. The Dune planet is represented on the main board as a giant circle separated into sectors. At the start of each round, the storm moves, spice shows up on the board and the sandworm can appear to wreak havoc on players’ troops. There’s also battles, which players set up secretly with cards and leaders in their hand and discs showing the number of troops they want to commit. There are also traitor cards, which allow you to activate an opponent’s leaders to immediately lose your conflict. This game is so fun!
The spice must flow! But watch out for the storm and sandworm — they’re both pretty treacherous.
I would totally love to play this again, especially because I nearly won and lost in the same round! During Round 8, I had a traitor leader card of my opponent I was battling, and I had a 50/50 shot of him using that leader. Unfortunately he didn’t! And I almost lost b/c if I had won that battle, the Bene Gesserit would’ve stolen my victory from me because they had made the prediction (at the beginning of the game per their faction power) that the Harkonnen would’ve won in Round 8.
We then played La Belle Epoque, a euro-ey cube-pushing wargame. In this game, Central Empires, France, Great Britain and Russia compete with each other to gain control of countries across Europe during the time between the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the start of World War I. The game continues for 9 turns, separated by 3 eras, in which the game could end anytime during the 3rd era with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
We all were learning La Belle Epoque together. It’s a cube-pushing euro-y wargame.
We then ran into Bobby Factor, and it was such a pleasure meeting him in person and gaming all week! He has so many hilarious stories, ones that he’ll love sharing if you ever end up at a convention with him.
These fun guys! From left, Dan, me, Cory Graham, Bobby Factor and Sobhi Youssef.
Aug. 29
Monday began with a game of Dominant Species: Marine. I love, love this game, and I think I played my best game yet! (I came in second, fyi, as the reptiles. Please cheer for me.) I love the worker-placement mechanism of this game, with the limitation that you can only place your worker on a space after your last one on the board, meaning you can’t take an action you’ve already passively skipped. But once dominate in an element, you take a special white pawn that allows you to break some of the worker-placement and unlock some extra action spaces, but most importantly, it allows you to take an extra action before you spend your turn recalling your workers off the board.
I love the Dominant Species: Marine’s board and color scheme.
I then played a prototype of Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India 1290-1398. One of the designers Cory Graham is local, and I had a great time gaming with him all week. This COIN-inspired game is so, so good, and I think will usher in a new wave of more accessible wargames. The game is currently on GMT’s P500, and it’s the first game of their new Irregular Conflict Series. Vijayanagara is a 3P game that plays out in about 2 hours, with little downtime for everyone. Players take on the roles of the Delhi Sultanate, the Bahmani Kingdom and the Vijayanagara Empire, and like a COIN game, there’s a deck of cards that determine which two factions can take a turn. But unlike a COIN, the third faction can take a limited command and is still eligible for the next turn. Plus, a good number of events on the cards make it appealing to take the event instead of a full command because it allows your faction to stay eligible, a new twist to other COINs. I can’t wait until this game comes out.
I really enjoyed playing Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India 1290-1398. I can’t wait until it’s out!
Aug. 30
Tuesday began with a quick game of Dan’s card game Bowie where you’re playing as four different David Bowie personas trying to stay alive while earning points for recording music. Meanwhile various threats, dark princes and figures of the occult going after them. If any of the Bowies die, everyone loses.
The Bowies must work together so one of them doesn’t get killed.
We then played Dan’s prototype of Blood and Treasure, a game about the U.S.-Afghan War and the contractors who would profit from it. Players are secretly bidding for market contracts but the trick is you want to bid lower than your opponents but enough so that you’ll receive the cash from your bid. That money can then be used to bid on other contracts but also gain extra pawns to take more actions. Your company will also need to diversify in various industries so that you can collect more contracts and put cubes on them so that when it’s inspection time, you won’t get penalized for non-activity on the contract. It’s an unflattering look at the U.S. government, a unique departure from your usual wargame themes.
I played a 3P game of Blood and Treasure, a game about American contractors during the U.S.-Afghan war.
Next up was Flashpoint: South China Sea. Harold Buchanan designed this game in the GMT Lunchtime Game series (games that can be played under an hour for two players). I had a chance to playtest this years ago at a previous Consimworld, and I’m so happy to see his design here on table! It’s another accessible wargame that borrows the card-driven game mechanism for its gameplay. Players take on the role of China vs. the U.S., and the game begins with secretly bidding VPs to go first. Players then place economic and diplomatic influence across various regions and countries in the South China Sea to score for VPs each round. I’ll be doing a more in-depth review of this game soon!
Flashpoint: South China Sea is 2P game that simulates the complex geopolitical contest currently taking place in the South China Sea.
I then played a quick game of Watergate. This is such a tense 2P game, also one that plays in under an hour. One player plays the side of a Washington Post Editor trying to connect Nixon to his informers, while Nixon is trying to hang onto his presidency and not be forced to resign. The cat-and-mouse feel of this game makes this game so good and enjoyable to play.
Watergate is so tense! Every small move could have giant consequences in this game.
Lastly, I ran a game of Battlestar Galactica, a tradition for Consimworld. This is my absolute favorite game and each game is so much fun, even if us humans lose! So say we all!
It was such a joy gaming with Harold Buchanan (left) and Bobby! My buddy Mark (back left) joined us for this game.
Aug. 31
On Wednesday, we played a game of Angola. I first learned this game last year (and it was one of my top games that I played in 2021) and have been looking forward to playing another game of it at this con.
Playing Angola a second time, I had a much better grasp on the game. But we still got outmaneuvered!
I played as the FNLA this time around, and it was nice not having to use the blank cards during your turn. I started out strong, getting lucky with the random start of most of my troops being in the north, but then I just got closed in on by FAPLA and by a few turns in, our side had lost the game. Still a great experience (it took most of late-morning to early evening), and I learned a thing or two about clipping chits.
A similar photo like this got roasted on Twitter because some of the chits were not clipped! The horror!
I then played the working prototype of Forward Ever by designer Sobhi Youssef. This game is set during the U.S. invasion of Grenada, and it’s a trick-taking game where you’re placing influence on the board.. We got through a couple rounds of the game before Sobhi took some notes from some of the players’ feedback.
We played Sobhi’s prototype for Forward Ever.
Sobhi is also designing After the Last Sky, set during first Palestinian Intifada from 1987-1993. I, unfortunately, didn’t get a chance to play his prototype. Hopefully I’ll get a chance next time we all meet again. There’s been talks to meet up at Harold’s convention in San Diego in November: San Diego Historical Con! I’ve already purchased my ticket for it. Looking forward to more wargaming then! I’ve only ever attended the convention online during the pandemic.
I’m hoping to get a chance to play After the Last Sky next time Sobhi and I are at the same convention.
By then, it was Wednesday evening. We all then thought we were going to do more gaming but instead winded down at a local Mexican place across the street from the hotel, partaking in food, drinks and great conversation. And that was a great ending to my time at Consimworld.
Cheers, Dan! We took a celebratory shot in honor of Dan’s birthday!
During the con, I played 16 games, 17 if you count Squaring Circleville the night before. The convention continued until the following Saturday, but I couldn’t stay the whole week because I had to get ready for another convention. (That post will also be coming down the pike). The only game I purchased during the convention was The Chase of the Bismark, designed by VUCA Simulations, which had a booth at the con.
There was a demo copy of this game during the con. It just looked so awesome!
I enjoyed playing all kinds of games: some new, some old, some under an hour and others that lasted a big chunk of my day. I met some lovely gamers and game designers, and learned more about design and the publishing process during my week with them. Thanks, Consimworld, for having me this year! It’s been a blast! See you next year!
It’s July and the summer is halfway over! The heat in Phoenix is getting to be unbearable (112 degree days, anyone?), and one way to combat the heat is by staying inside and playing board games. During the last week of June, my two friends flew to Phoenix to visit my friend and me so that we could host this year’s Friendship Con! I look forward to this week every year so that I can disconnect from work and just hang out and play games with friends for five days!
We love good swag here at Friendship Con. We got water canteens for everyone, plus a variety of stickers.
Wednesday
We kicked off gaming with QE! This has been my go-to short-ish game of late. The game is just bonkers because it’s essentially no-limit betting! Nations are secretly bidding on industry tokens, which are worth VPs and other points for set collection purposes, and the winner is the one with the most VPs. But if you’re the person who bid the most during the game, you’re immediately ineligible to win, despite possibly having the most VPs. It also has an element of hidden information because only the starting bidder on each turn can see everyone’s bid.
QE is a delightful game of no-limit bidding!
We then played a game of Container. I can never quite wrap my head around this economic simulation game, in which you’re building factories, producing goods, selling goods, storing goods, auctioning off goods and storing them on your island, but I always have a good time playing it! The trick is that you can’t really do any single of these things from your port (except build factories and produce goods), but instead they have to come from other player’s supply chains and warehouses. I also enjoy the auction element of this game: bidding on ships that get to the island, ships that you don’t always completely full of goods. The final score is also calculated based on a personalized secret objective card where goods are worth different points, but the goods that you have the most of are removed from scoring.
Shipping and bidding on goods in Container. Dang, those supply chain issues just get to you!
Wingspan was next. From its superb components (don’t you just want to chomp on those eggs like they’re filled with chocolate?) and engine-building game play, Wingspan never disappoints. And while I haven’t deluxified my game (other than a giant 3D printed bird that I use as the first-player marker), the game just feels so lux and fun to play with. There’s also something super satisfying about the combos and activating your birds, while learning all about them. I also enjoy that as the rounds progress, you’re left with fewer real actions, yet with the birds you have laid out in your tableau, it feels like you’re doing even more with each turn.
All the pretty birds — and some murder birds — in Wingspan.
We decided to continue the nature theme with a game of Cascadia. This puzzly tile-laying drafting game is always such a delight to play, even if the player to your right keeps taking your salmon tokens! It was one of the top 10 games I played in 2021, and every game is slightly different based on the random animal goals that are selected for each game. It’s gorgeous and easy to teach, and I can’t stop recommending this game to people!
The beauty of the Pacific Northwest is evident in the artwork of Cascadia.
We then took a quick break for dinner. I cooked a giant pot of chicken adobo. Yay! I’ve been trying to learn more Filipino recipes, so I’m glad everyone enjoyed this dish. We ate this over rice and had plenty for leftovers the next day.
Chicken adobo is a Filipino dish made chicken, garlic, soy sauce and vinegar, and served over rice. It’s yummy!
After dinner, we busted out Hello Kitty Monopoly. There is something super Boss Lady about asking your husband and three male gamer friends to play this adorable version of Monopoly, which actually ended up being really cut-throat because we played with the real rules. None of this Free Parking cash collection nonsense. I remarked during the game that its second half felt like the wheeling and dealing chaos of Sidereal Confluence, because we needed to make those monopolies to start bleeding our opponents dry. I loved the metal Hello Kitty character tokens, but for those who aren’t familiar with Sanrio, it was a little difficult to figure which piece was yours. Overall, the game was intense and it did eventually end (not like those games during childhood where everyone just got bored because it went on too long), but I was disappointed that I was never able to buy Hello Kitty’s Hotel (aka Boardwalk).
Hello Kitty Monopoly — all the characters may look cute but they will cut you for your property.
Thursday
Thursday was our D&D day. My friend has worked so hard at painting minis of our individual characters and setting up a game for us as DM. He also gave us sparkly dice to play with! My character was a monk tiefling named Sevi Olum, and she kicked so much butt!
Friendship Con swag also included these sparkly dice for each player for our D&D game.
Our group was Earth’s last hope against an alien invasion, and we worked hard to complete some adventures in a tavern, cave and the sinewy tendrils of a giant eyeball. Ewww! Despite my aversion to eyeballs in general (and not being familiar with too many D&D campaigns), I had a good time with my friends!
The minis are painted, and ready for battle and to save the planet!
We ended our Friday with Just One. Last year, we played a lot of Just One, and I was especially amused that a lot of our inside jokes carried over from those games. It’s truly one of the best party games I’ve ever encountered, and it plays up to seven people.
Just One is a guaranteed good time!
Friday
We started Friday morning by playing Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition, but changed it up by adding the Prophecy of Kings expansion. Since we had never played this expansion before, we dealt out three characters from the expansion to each person and chose one to play. This expansion adds mech leaders with some special abilities. I chose the Naaz-Rokha Alliance, which basically looked like space cats with monkey aliens on their backs.
These space cats look so intimidating!
Our game lasted about 7 hours, which is quite speedy! The game randomly ended though during Agenda, which gave one player 1 VP to put him at 10! We all got thrown off by the agenda card, but the game was close anyway between him and another guy.
The most epic of board games: Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition!
After dinner, we played Battlestar Galactica, one of my absolute favorite games ever! I will only play the base game and with 5P, so we enlisted our friend to come over to run the game. I can’t tell you how much I love this game: the paranoia, the semi-cooperativeness, and the fear of secretly being activated halfway in sleeper phase to become a cylon. It’s always such a great experience, no matter if you win or lose, and especially if I get to play as Helo (which I did!). Unfortunately, us humans did not win this time!
Sadly, us humans could not fight off the cylons. But my man Helo is still looking fine.
We ended Friday night with a 3P game of Dune: Imperium. I’ve been enjoying this worker-placement deck builder the most I play it and wish that more games have this combination of mechanisms. The Lost Ruins of Arnak is the only other game that feels similar to this one! Are there other deck builder worker placements that you can think of?
The more times I play Dune: Imperium, the more I’m liking it!
Saturday
We started Saturday with Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. I love, love the adorable artwork and quality components of this game but honestly, something about the chaos of a game in which you need to hang on to your win condition until the start of the next round drives me bonkers. I do enjoy the exploration of the action spaces of the game and moving around the board, but I’ve come to accept that Oath is just not for me. And that’s totally fine! We like what we like!
The gorgeous board and world-building in Oath is top-notch.
I then taught a game of Project L. If you want to learn more about Project L, check out my latest segment on The Five By Episode 123. Project L is a neat engine-builder puzzle where you’re using Tetris pieces to complete cards with puzzles on it for VPs and/or more puzzle pieces. The more cards you solve, the more pieces you’ll have to tackle even bigger puzzles that are worth more points.
In Project L, you complete the puzzle cards in order to gain VPs and even more pieces.
I then learned how to play Tranquility, a cooperative card game where you work together by putting a card down so that cards fall in ascending order — in silence! This was such a neat yet mildly stressful game because you have to figure out which cards you need to save in your hand to play, or which ones you can discard. If you discard the wrong cards, you and everyone else will get backed into a corner in the display and will be unable to complete the objective. What a fun filler! We actually played this twice because we did badly the first go-around, and we won in our second game!
Tranquility: a silent game of card-counting.
Next, we played Shipwreck Arcana, a deduction and logic game in which players are trying to figure out which fates (numbered chits 1-7) are in your hand while placing drawn fates onto logic cards that can help others figure out which fates are in your hand. I liked the dedication aspect of this game, which reminds me of those logic puzzles growing up.
This logic game relies on placing the correct fates under a card so others can guess which fates you have.
After that, we played Long Shot: The Dice Game. This roll-and-write captures the chaos and excitement of a day at the races. Horses move along the track with each dice roll, and players can choose to bet on horses, buy horses, or collect bonuses. It’s seriously a lot of fun, and even though it’s not your turn, you’re still highly invested in how the race is going and making decisions to win the most money.
Which horse will cross the finish line first? It’s anyone’s guess in Long Shot: The Dice Game.
For dinner, we ordered some Korean corn dogs for dinner from Two Hands, since these things aren’t readily available on the East Coast. Behold!
Korean corndogs have some crazy combinations such as spicy dogs and potato dogs.
The last game of the night was Alea Iacta Est, a dice worker placement game. I honestly hadn’t heard of this game before, and, despite its goofy 2000s Roman art, I really enjoyed this! Alea Iacta Est is Latin for “The Die is Cast,” and players are using their dice to conquer new provinces and recruit patricians for those provinces. I also thought it was hilarious that unused dice end up in the latrina.
The artwork on this game just takes me back to the 2000s in board gaming.
Saturday night was the last night we were all together gaming. One guy had to fly back home on Sunday, while the fourth guy was flying back on Monday. Here we are very chipper after long days of gaming!
These guys are the best! One guy from Atlanta couldn’t make it this year. Hopefully he’ll join us in 2023.
Sunday
We began Sunday with a quick 2P game of The Field of the Cloth of Gold. It’s incredibly tense, and the passive-aggressive gift-gifting is just so amusing to me! The game plays in about 20 minutes, and it’s perfect to bust out when you have a small pocket of time.
A gift for me means a gift for you!
My friend who was still in town and I did some thrifting looking for board game deals and books at various second-hand stores throughout the Valley. My big scores for the day were Pipeline, Kraftwagen and Star Cartel. I’m very excited to try out Pipeline next game day!
My friend also wanted to try Sonoran hot dogs, something of a specialty here in Arizona. A Sonoran hot dog is a hot dog that is wrapped in bacon and grilled, topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments, often including mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeño salsa.
You can’t see it underneath the sauce but those hot dogs are indeed wrapped in bacon.
After that, we drove to my friend’s house to play Alien Frontiers, another dice worker-placement game! It’s a game of resource management and planetary development, where you roll your dice and place them on various action spots on the board. You can unlock new technologies as you control locations on the planet as well as by gaining technology cards. This was the first time I had played this game, and I actually won! But I think I got some practice the night before from learning Alea Iacta Est. Apparently, manipulating dice pips to take action spots is my jam!
It was my first time playing Alien Frontiers, and I won!
In true Friendship Con fashion, we then played a game of Glory to Rome, with Imperium rules, and our game was so ruthless! I built the forum, which required me to have every type of card in my clientele for a victory, and my alleged friend kept preventing me from doing that. Good times though!
Rome demands all the things!
And lastly, the final game of Friendship Con was another play of Dune Imperium. It was really nice ending our convention with a game I’m very familiar with.
And just like that, five days came and went so quickly! Thanks for making it all the way down here. I played a total of 20 games, sprinkled in with endless snacks, mostly home-cooked meals, and lots of catching up with my dear friends. Last year’s Friendship Con was in Atlanta, and I hope they had as great of a time coming out here to the Valley of the Sun as I did going there in 2021. And with that, we sail into the second half of summer, hoping the weather will cool down, even just a wee bit. Like seriously, I will gladly take 105 degrees here in Phoenix. What are some of your summer plans?
Growing up, my family and I would go camping at Yosemite every summer. We’d have a blast swimming in the river, enjoying the outdoors and hiking up waterfalls. While I haven’t been to Yosemite since my late-teens, I’d always wanted to eventually make it back and try some of the more difficult trails.
The John Muir Trail, which begins in Yosemite, is a trail that runs through the Sierra Nevada for 211 miles and passes through several national parks in northern California. Instead of taking weeks to hike the strenuous yet picturesque trail, you can traverse it in the comfort of your own home by playing Trailblazer: The John Muir Trail, a game available on Kickstarter by Mariposa Games.
(Full disclosure: Mariposa Games provided this review prototype copy, and I received compensation for proofreading services for its rulebook.)
The artwork in this game is just gorgeous!
In Trailblazer, players have 10 days to hike the John Muir Trail — rain or shine! Players must have enough supplies in their backpacks to make the trek, while also gathering resources to collect Field Guide Cards and Destination Cards, which go toward end-game goals and victory points.
Each player has a player board that represents their backpacks, which fill up with up to 12 items and also has space for a limited number of natural and personal resources. These resources are vital to making your trip across the trail, as represented on the main playing board.
Each player has a board that holds their supplies and equipment.
Each day has three phases: sunrise, daytime and sunset. During sunrise, players draw and play a Trail Card, which will allow you to place items into your pack or “activate” them. Activation comes into play later for increasing your elevation. When you complete a row of items in your backpack, you collect the bonus depicted on the board. The sunrise phase also determines the weather everyone is having that day. Sunny skies mean no extra resources are needed to move on the trail, but other weather conditions require something extra.
Each day, the weather dictates whether you’ll need more supplies to make your journey. For a more family friendly version, the game can last 12 days instead of 10.
During daytime, players use their Tracks Tokens to take an action on the main board. Players start out with 3 Tracks Tokens but can gain up to 2 more as the game progresses. One action is hiking, moving at most one space per day if they fulfill the hiking requirements on their map pack, as well as weather and trail conditions, if any. Each player has a different map pack at the start of the game, a booklet of the same resource requirements but in a different order.
These two map packs require different resources for the first leg of the trail.
Another action is acquiring natural resources: water, earth, wind and fire. Placing your Tracks Token on these locations on the board will net you a specific number of tiles based on the resource. You then place them in your pack if you have room for them.
A third action you can do is discover Field Card Guides. These require various natural resources based on their location on the board, and when you pay those resources for them, they give you a backpack item, which you can place in your backpack or active if it’s already there, and some kind of reward. These cards also come in five varieties, which score points based on each unique set you have at the end of the game.
Field Guide cards picture the native flora and fauna of the John Muir trail.
A fourth action is exploring destination cards. These cards require you to trade in natural and personal resources to receive backpack items and victory points. The cards are also one of four types, and when you receive the first card of a type, you can activate a one-time bonus on your player board. As hikers move along the John Muir Trail, the destination card decks will substitute out for harder cards that are worth higher point values. Both the destination cards and Field Card Guides could also go for end-game bonuses if you acquire a matching type of Journey Bonus Arrowheads.
Destination cards feature the picturesque scenery along the trail.
Lastly, you can also use your Tracks Token to visit the High Sierra Lodge to resupply personal items, but only if you’ve filled your backpack up with 9 items. Personal items are food, a water bottle, Zzzs and condition.
If a card pictures a backpack item you already have in your pack, you can choose to activate it. When you activate it, you move your tent along the elevation track on the main board. Moving up this track will give you bonuses, as well as your fourth and fifth Tracks Token, and the chance to collect Bonus Arrowheads for more victory points. At the start of the game, the Arrowheads are placed in three piles, with the top tile flipped over for everyone to see. There’s also one Arrowhead placed in the center of the board that everyone can score at the end of the game. When you collect a personal Arrowhead, only you can score it. The person who reaches the end of the Elevation Chart gains 7 points, and the rest will score fewer points.
As you increase your elevation, more bonuses and Tracks Token become available. I love the elevation info on these peaks.
The last two locations on the board are the Mountain Pass Trail Cards, where you can draw cards and collect rewards without receiving the benefit of the backpack item, and the First Light location, which enables you to become first player the next round. If no one takes that action, the first-player marker moves left and a water tile is added to this location to make it more enticing as an action.
The last phase of each day is sunset. Players must turn in one food and one water bottle (which players can trade in two water tiles at any time to gain a water bottle). Players also take their Tracks Tokens from the board and pass the first-player marker to the person who took the First Light action or the next player to the left.
As you continue along the John Muir Trail, more resources or equipment are needed to continue.
The most important part of this game is that hikers need to get to the end of the John Muir Trail. Anyone who doesn’t make it to the end of 10 days is ineligible to win. And naturally, the players who get there first will get more points than the rest. This kind of deadline forces you to plan ahead and move so that you’ll finish the trail. You can always move without having resources but you’ll gain a Hardship Token for each missing resource, and the more of those you have, the more negative points you’ll have at the end of the game. But you can also stop by the High Sierra Lodge to get rid of them, if you have access to the lodge.
Trailblazer: The John Muir Trail will appeal to both nature lovers and board gamers of all levels. It comes with gorgeous artwork and quality components (I especially liked the tent and hiker meeples, and sturdy player boards for my prototype). Games last about 1-2 hours, with each journey unique based on the weather conditions, map packs and trail requirements. The requirement to finish the trail for a chance to win adds some weighty strategy to this game. Overall, it’s a fun experience without having to load up your pack and dust off those hiking shoes. If Trailblazer sounds right up your alley, check out its Kickstarter page or visit the Mariposa Games website.
It’s been over three years since the last Arizona Game Fair. The previous one had been scheduled for March 2020, but we all know what happened two years ago. This year, the Arizona Game Fair came back in full force, and it was just awesome to see so many familiar faces again in person!
The convention was held on March 10-13, 2022, but I ended up attending just that Friday through Sunday. The previous week, I had been at Dice Tower West and was unable to take that many days off again. Nonetheless, I got lots of gaming in — old games and new ones!
Friday
I opened my new copy of Sidereal Confluence and dusted out my giant tweezers for the occasion.
An Arizona convention wouldn’t be complete without a game of Sidereal Confluence. I dusted off my giant tweezers to run a 7P game of space trading and bartering on Friday morning. I love this game so much, even if I never do well in it! It’s the perfect con game, where a large group of folks can dedicate a few hours respectfully yelling at each other.
I wanted to take a photo before the trading madness began!
After the game, I took a break for lunch and then played a series of shorter games while waiting for friends to finish up their game. First up was No Thanks! Always a fun filler and a quick teach!
In No Thanks, each card is worth the number that’s printed on it, and you’re trying to have the lowest score in the game. If you have a chip, you can refuse a card. If not, you’ll end up taking it.
Next up was Favelas, a game I’ve always wanted to play. This cute tile-laying game is based on the iconic buildings in Rio de Janeiro. You’re stacking tiles onto your player board and each round, you score for the color majorities, which are dictated by dice rolled at the start of each round. During your turn though, you can also increase or decrease the pips on a die so that one color can be more or less valuable during scoring. So colorful and puzzly!
Favelas was surprisingly a crunchy puzzle!
Then I taught a game of Seikatsu. I just adore the components of this game! My version, and the Arizona Game Fair library version, has these acrylic poker chips that are used during this tile-laying game. I heard that newer editions aren’t like this? You draw chips from a bag and place it onto the center board. You can either score groups of birds now, or score sets of flowers at the end of the game, based on your perspective from the garden. This visual mechanism to the game is pretty clever!
I love the poker chip pieces in Seikatsu.
I then learned a solitaire game called Orchard. What a neat game! I normally don’t play solo games but I liked playing this. It’s a good quick game to play if you’re waiting for someone at a bar or restaurant, and it’s about the size of a deck of playing cards. In Orchard, you’re laying 9 down cards and overlapping them in order to grow your fruit harvest, and you have mini dice to keep track of your crop size. The game comes with 18 cards, so after you finish your quick 10-minute game, you’re all set to play another with the 9 other cards you separated out.
The Orchard is a delightful solo game where you’re building up your orchards by overlaying cards of the same exact crop.
The next game I played was Khora. Khora is a civilization-building game set in ancient Greece whose main action turn is similar to that of Twilight Imperium 4 or Puerto Rico. You pick two action tiles to play, and they resolve in the order of the actions, and you spend the whole game working to increase military, economy and culture. Also, the player boards in this game were top-notch.
Lots of different tracks in Khora. The dual-layer player boards made it easy to track your progress.
I then played Match Me! This co-op game was so much fun! Players are given an identical hand of cards that are essentially color swatches. Each player is given one category on their turn and gives players a clue so that they can play one of their color cards that they think best matches the clue. As the round continues, players are left with fewer cards, making it harder to give a good clue! For example, if the category was fast food, the clue giver would say McDonald’s, and hopefully everyone will play the yellow color face down.
Match Me is such a fun party game! I wonder if I’ll be able to ever find a copy.
We ended Friday night of the convention with a game of Squaring Circleville, a game I had also played at Dice Tower West.
Friday night fun in Circleville!
Again, I love the historical background of Squaring Circleville, and I enjoy teaching it to folks — especially those who love the rondel mechanism! It’s so satisfying putting the giant cardboard pieces out to show which sections are upgraded.
The Ohio town of Circleville has been officially squared!
Saturday
We started Saturday with a game of Dune: Imperium. I’m enjoying this game more and more with each play. I’m not a huge fan of deckbuilders in general, but this game is the perfect blend of that and worker placement. The game ramps up with each round and it clocks in at under two hours.
The spice must flow in Dune: Imperium.
I then learned Era: Medieval Age, which is an interesting twist on a roll and write. Instead of filling out player boards, you’re using the dice rolls to build out your little kingdom. I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of this, while the resource management for building things and not get attacked. My only complaint was that the player board was a bright yellow and hard to see the different phases and symbols on it.
If I owned a copy of this game, I’d paint the board so I can see the resources.
We then played a 5P game of Macaron. This cute trick-taking game involves two types of betting — both on the number of bids you think you’ll take as well as which suit, or flavor, is trump. You can also win tricks using some of the cards’ special abilities. Definitely a must-have for fans of trick-taking games. Made me want to get some macarons after the game!
Trying to win tricks and fulfill orders in Macaron.
After dinner, I played a game of Vivid Memories, which I didn’t enjoy. We pored through the rulebook on the spot, and it felt like the most important mechanism of this game was just an afterthought based on how the rulebook was written. The game, while gorgeous, is essentially a drafting game where you’re trying to collect memory cards and fragments in order to thread them on your player board and score. I think the rulebook should’ve stressed the importance of threading more, instead of the drafting, because by the time we realized how the game was supposed to play, we were halfway through round 2. And the game only goes to 3 rounds.
This is your brain in Vivid Memories, where you’re threading fragments and creating memories.
We ended Saturday night with a game of Dog Lover. I love the artwork on this one, and it’s quickly becoming my go-to 30-45 minute game at the last few gaming events I’ve been to! Who can say no to these doggies?
Look at all these good doggos learning tricks and going on walks.
Sunday
Clinic was right up my alley! There’s just so many crunchy decisions you have to make!
Sunday morning was for Clinic! This was the game I was hoping to play at this convention, and I was so happy that Brian was able to teach it to me! In Clinic, players are building a medical clinic, which requires building rooms; hiring doctors, nurses and orderlies, and getting patients — all the while making sure everyone has a parking space! And the more efficient your clinic is, meaning fewer steps each person has to take to get treated, the better it will be for your bottom line! I also like the spatial element to this game when you’re building rooms, as you can build up and out.
The car supply situation on the main board is getting out of hand, much like the parking situation on your player board!
While I was helping clean up Clinic, two ladies came by and asked if I was Filipino. And I said yes. They then got super excited about seeing another Filipino lady, and immediately called over another Filipino lady so that we could take a group photo. It just warmed my heart that they got so excited over seeing another person like them at a convention, and just reminds me how important representation is in these gaming spaces. We all got to know each other a bit and exchanged information to schedule a game day sometime!
These super nice Filipino ladies all introduced themselves to me!
I then played Juicy Fruits, a darling fruit-drafting with chunky wooden pieces! In this game, you’re collecting fruit pieces to fulfill orders and build buildings.
These wooden pieces are so chunky and satisfying to hold!
It reminds me of those childhood puzzle games where you’re moving number pieces to put them back in order, but in this game, you’re moving fruit tiles on your player board, and the farther they move, the more pieces of fruit you collect. Then you can trade your fruit in to fulfill orders or buy buildings for victory points. As you fulfill your orders, your player board opens up and the game can really escalate quickly to the end condition.
Juice Fruits is similar to those childhood puzzle games where you’re moving numbered pieces.
The last game I played at Arizona Game Fair was Long Shot: The Dice Game. It’s also roll-and-write game where you use your dice rolls to fill out your player sheet to buy horses, place bets, influence race movement and use special abilities. And on each roll, at least one horse will move, so you can strategically purchase the horse, or even bet on it. It’s such a riot!
We’re off at the races! Will your horse win? Who knows!?
And that concludes all the gaming I did at Arizona Game Fair. Thanks for having me! The convention was so chill, and, while it got really busy on Saturday afternoon, there was always a place to game and people to game with. I can’t describe how awesome it felt to do some nonstop convention gaming again, though I don’t recommend doing back to back conventions! As much as I will deny it, I am not a young person anymore! But it does inspire me to attend more conventions this year. Let’s see where 2022 takes us!
