“Camelot Legends”

Game Description: A card game based on the Arthurian mythology. Each “character” has different stats for 6 characteristics. The characters, mostly Knights, need to be combined so that their stats meet the overall needs of event cards or quests.

Players: Matt B, Joel

Matt won by a nice margin. We played at the “advanced” level. I don’t see any reason to play this at the lower levels except to teach new players.

Camelot Legends (pic credit: edubvidal on BGG)

“Formula D”

Game Description: In essence this is a roll-and-move game taken up a few notches. The main difference is that the gear shifting in real racing is simulated here by dice with progressively higher numbers of spaces you can race forward on the track… and the bottom of the range for each die is NOT 1, but rather some progressively higher number as well. For example the “4th gear” die is a 12 sided die with numbers ranging from 7 to 12. Also, just like in real racing, you must slow down when trying to get through a curve. This is simulated by making players end their moves a certain number of times WITHIN the boundaries of the curve, sometimes once, sometimes twice, and even rarely three times. This means you have gear back down, wear out your brakes, or maybe even spin-out and have to start from a dead stop. All-in-all, a very good simulation of racing with lots of thinking about how to use the right combination of gears to get through the laps. Still, its only down-fall is that players are at the mercy of die rolls. No matter how well you play, a player might get two or three very good rolls in a row and that virtually guarantees a win.

Players: Eric M, Charlie M, Joel

We played a “Basic” game, which I won, and an “Advanced” game which Eric won (by quite a margin).

Formula D (Monaco track) (from BGG user Firepigeon)

“Pandemic”

Game Description: A cooperative game where players are CDC workers, playing against the game system, to prevent the spread of four epidemic diseases and cure them before time runs out.

Players: Eric M, Sara M, Charlie M, Joel

We played a beginner’s game with 4 Epidemic cards and lost to the dreaded Black Death.

Pandemic (from BGG user basilmicheal)

“Illuminati”

Game Description: A card game that postulates the secret control of various governments, social groups and economic establishments by the mysterious and powerful Illuminati. Each player represents one of the major Illuminati groups and try to forcefully control various other groups. This of course makes the main group even more powerful and more likely to control other groups each turn. Each group has various characteristics that define it and also provide a means to modify the results of attacks for control. The other players, representing opposing Illuminati groups, can use money (what else?) to influence these control efforts and even thwart them.

Players: Eric M, Sara M, Charlie M, Joel

Charlie won this one, due mainly to his seizing power over New York City and using his power to buy a privileged attack (one where other players may not buy influence in the outcome).

An Illuminati group controlled by the Discordian Society (from BGG user breakmanynecks)

“Puerto Rico”

Game Description: Perhaps the best board game ever designed… #1 game on BGG. Players represent land owners from the “Old World” who’ve come to Puerto Rico to produce and export goods from the island’s new economy. You set up a plantation business, planting crops, processing them to create goods, selling the goods, or shipping them back to Europe. The problem, and the thing that makes the game fascinating, is that you can’t do that in a linear fashion. Each player selects an action to perform and then EVERYONE has the option to perform that same action. So, you have to figure out how to be successful while preforming most of your actions out of order. There are thousands of pathways to winning and players often have to change strategy horses in mid-game stream in order to compensate for the chaotic turn sequence.

Players: Tammy D, Eric M, David D, Peter S, Stephen, Joel

Eric bought a copy of the game so that we could play two 3-player games concurrently. I won the game at my table. Then, after Tammy and David left, we played a 4-player game. I won that one too.

Puerto Rico (stock photo from BGG)