Tag: squaring circleville

Consimworld 2022: Wargaming in the desert

Consimworld 2022: Wargaming in the desert

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!

Arizona Game Fair 2022: Our local convention is back!

Arizona Game Fair 2022: Our local convention is back!

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!

Dice Tower West 2022: Board games in Las Vegas

Dice Tower West 2022: Board games in Las Vegas

My husband and I were going back and forth on attending Dice Tower West last weekend as it would be the first major convention we’d attend since the start of the pandemic. I had previously attended Consimworld in person last summer, but that was only about 200 gamers — Dice Tower West is probably nearly 10 times that amount. We decided to take a road trip to Las Vegas and had a fabulous time!

Thursday

We drove from Phoenix and arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday evening, and after a lovely dinner at one of my favorite restaurants ever — Firefly Tapas Kitchen and Bar — we checked into the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, where Dice Tower West is being held. Since my formerly-East Coaster husband, Chris, had never been to Las Vegas, I wanted to give him a tour of the town before we dove into board games. 

Firefly Tapas Kitchen + Bar is one of my favorite restaurants! I celebrated my 30th birthday there a lifetime ago!

We went to see O at the Bellagio, my favorite Cirque du Soleil show, and bought third-row seats. It was pretty epic sitting so close! I could feel the cold air when the water came down and the heat when the fires were ablazing. After the show, we meandered a small section of the Strip and ended up getting Secret Pizza at the Cosmopolitan. 

O by Cirque du Soleil is such an impressive show, a visual spectacle!

Friday

On Friday morning, we checked into the convention and scoped out the place. The Rio convention area is ginormous! I had last attended Dice Tower West in 2019, and this was much, much bigger and spread out, which made me feel safe to game with friends.

Me checking in at Dice Tower West. I accidentally matched the sign.

There were two main gaming rooms (one was mask optional and the other was mask required, where we stayed through the whole con.) The exhibitor hall was located in the mask-required room.

The convention area was so large and had many different rooms spread out at the Rio Hotel.

The convention area had the Dice Tower West library, panel rooms, lounge rooms, food rooms and breakaway rooms for gaming in a smaller space. There was no shortage of finding space or moving over to a quieter area.

The Dice Tower West library. They even had tables in the library!

The first game I played was Dog Lover. Such an adorable game! It’s the sequel to Cat Lover, a game I reviewed on Episode 117 of The Five By, and it introduces new elements such as Tricks and Traits to change up the card drafting. Players are rescuing dogs to feed them and can score even more points if the doggos become trained, go on walks and collect their favorite things. 

I just adore the artwork in Dog Lover!

Next up, I played Honey Buzz, which I purchased after talking with GameFreekGeekGirl at the Elf Creek Games booth. The awesome components drew me in, but the puzzly aspect of the game is what sold me! Honey Buzz is a bee worker placement game, where you place your beeples on a central board to expand your beehive, produce nectar and make honey. Expanding your beehive requires you to collect honeycomb tiles, which you then place into your area, and how you configure them will produce resources to complete objectives. There’s also a “bear market” where you can sell nectar, which are these semi-squishy beads in various shapes and sizes to correspond with different honey types. 

The beeples and components in Honey Buzz are cute!

I then attended a Twitch streamer event and met these wonderful ladies!

All these hard-working ladies are making such a positive impact in the board-gaming community: Amanda Panda, Beneeta and Monique, from Before You Play!

I then ran into Ta-Te Wu, the designer of Art Decko, originally released as Promenade, and beloved cat games like Cat Sudoku and Cat Rescue.

I finally got to meet Ta-Te Wu in person!

I then had a chance to playtest a new game he’s working on! Players are using cards from their hands to take control of a suit and place their meeple on it. It’s a neat bluffing, majority control card game that doesn’t have an official theme on it but I’m excited to see where this goes as all of Ta-Te’s games have such cute artwork on it. 

Chris and I got to playtest one of the games Ta-Te is working on.

I then got a chance to play So Clover! Uhh, this game is bonkers! Players are dealt cards with words on its four sides, and you randomly place it onto your plastic clover. You then write one word so that other players can guess which two words from the cards belong on that side of the clover. When it’s your turn, you remove the cards from the clover and are dealt a fifth dummy card, which then you place into the center of the board with the clover so that other players can choose which cards to place on which clover side. I can see how this is a fun party game, but man, the addition of the fifth card after you write your clues seemed to derail all of our games!

This game is bonkers! It still doesn’t beat my current party game at the moment, Just One, but it’s still fun!

I then played Floating Floors, a ninja dexterity game where you’re moving your piece across floating floorboards that you or your opponent have placed. Each turn, you roll three dice to determine which small shapes you’ll take and place them on the cards and add a floor on top of it. Ninjas then make their way across the matching squares in order to pick up bansen seals. 

Our ninjas precariously balancing on floating tiles.

Dice Tower West had plenty of events throughout the con. We took a break and watched Paula Deming’s live show. She sang, did some improv and chatted with the audience, and showcased her videos. It was a nearly full house! 

Lots of people came out to Paula Deming’s live show.

Amanda Panda then taught us Project L! This game is so neat! It’s a puzzly engine-builder game with polyominos where you collect objective tiles to place your puzzle pieces on it and as a prize, you receive another puzzle piece. The more puzzles you complete, the more pieces you’ll have to complete high-value tiles. The components and the square box are top-notch! It’s like a more brain-burnery NMBR9.  

Project L combines engine building and puzzle-building!

I finished Friday night with two quick games of Seasons. My buddy and I always fall back to this game because neither one of us owns it, and it’s a fast-paced game since we both know how to play. Plus, chonky dice! 

Seasons, an oldie and a goodie! I always love rolling these dice.

Saturday

I randomly caught the start of the Flea Market, which was hopping! We purchased an Oink game Mr. Face and Quixo, a wooden game that belongs to a series of games that my husband loves. 

Tic-Tac-Toe-ing our way around this wooden puzzle.

I then played Squaring Circleville. Love this game! I first played this game as a prototype back in BGG Con 2019 (which seems like a lifetime ago!), and the Kickstarter finally delivered this game earlier this year. I love the historical background of this game, where Circleville, Ohio, which was built in a circle, razed down structures to square off its town into a modern grid. Plus, it’s got a cool rondel action mechanism. 

I’ve been waiting for Squaring Circleville to be released, and it did not disappoint!

We then played Twin Palms with Greg and Stephanie, a very cool trick-taking game with only two suits and retro beach artwork that’s currently on Kickstarter. This game was so enjoyable, with such a clever twist on trick-taking! The Kickstarter is ending very soon, so if this is up your alley, I highly recommend backing it!

I love the artwork on Twin Palms! Plus, the unique trick-taking mechanism makes it easy for new gamers to join.

Next up was a party game prototype that my buddy Treg has been working on: My Soundtrack. I haven’t seen Treg for many years since we first met at GMT Weekend, so I was happy to run into him and his wife here. In the style of Apples to Apples, this music party game is all about building your life soundtrack. 

My husband played this winning card for this song on the soundtrack of my life. LOL

There are two stacks of cards: soundtrack cards and cards with song names and the artist on it. If it’s your turn, you draw two theme cards and pick one. The next two people to your left will each play a song card, and you have to pick which song is best. The winner of that duel has to compete one by one with everyone else at the table to pick the better matching song. The owner of the winning song gets a guitar pick! I like how in this game you aren’t competing with the entire table, but one by one, and even if you don’t know the songs, the game still makes hilarious gameplays based on the title alone. The person with three guitar picks wins the game, and there’s one final round where players get to choose who has the best soundtrack!

Fun times gaming with Treg; his wife, Jenny (right); and Maddy!

We also then all played Meeple Party, a cooperative puzzle-solving game, where players are moving meeples into and around a house party. Each player has photo conditions they need to complete, such as having two purple meeples and one yellow in the Dining Room, but also disaster cards, in which the meeples get all stressed if you don’t avoid it. It was quite challenging throwing a successful party to last until midnight! 

I haven’t been a house party this hectic since college!

After a lovely dinner off strip, I got a chance to finally play Merv, a game I purchased last summer but finally just pulled off my Shelf of Opportunity. I love the spatial puzzle of this game with the tile activations, and how in reality, you’re only taking 12 turns in the entire game, but each turn is so crunchy! Players are collecting resources to travel and trade along the Silk Road, as well as gain influence and power within the city walls. At the end of Year 2 and Year 3, there are Mongol hordes that will burn down your city, unless city walls are built or soldiers are placed at sites. Really enjoyed this one, and I can’t wait to play it again! 

And that concluded two days of gaming and events! Since it was the first large-ish convention I’ve attended since the pandemic, I took a more laid-back approach to gaming instead of trying to squeeze every single minute with an activity. It was so fun to enjoy Vegas being the con, get some gaming in, and see old friends and make new ones.

The West Coast contingent of the Five By podcast: (from left) Ruel Gaviola, Jose Chavez and John Gonzalez.

I think next time Chris and I will want to stay for a longer time. And with back-to-back conventions, next up is Arizona Game Fair this weekend, I feel like the world is slowly starting to return to the Before Times. And that makes me so joyful.

Hope to see you in 2023, Dice Tower West!