Family Game Night #8 & Family Game Night #9

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post! It’s great to be back! This post will focus on mine and Em’s 8th and 9th family game nights! 

Our crowd from the 8th family game night!

Our 7th family game night (which you can read about in an earlier post) ended up as just three of us, so we decided to invite a few more people. Lo and behold, we ended up with seven people showing up to our 8th family game night! This time, joining Em and I were “old-hats” Dave, Leigh, Lydia, and Sean. New to the table was our buddy Laura! As usual we started with some delicious appetizers (both of the savory and the sweet variety) made by my beautiful wife Em!

Sadly, I don’t have any links to specific food items that she made for the 8th or 9th game nights because mostly she went to old favorites. But, as usual, you can go over to her blog, A Tasty Mess, at http://www.tastymess.org to check out her previous game night appetizers or any of her other delicious food.

For our game choices on Family Game Night #8 we went with Diamonds to start out the night, and with Poop: The Game to end it. Diamonds is a fantastic little trick-taking game by Mike Fitzgerald which takes games like Spades and Hearts and gives them a little nudge into the modern gaming scene. In this game you have a hand of cards and you are laying down cards in order to take the hand. 

You have to lay a card in the same suite if you have it, but if you don’t you are able to take a “suite-action” which gives you a bonus. This is the reason that I prefer this game over most trick-taking games. Instead of just relying on getting a great hand to take all of the tricks, you can also use the off-suite cards to get point as well. This game plays from two to six players, but I was able to slightly tweak the hand size and it played just as well with my personal seven-player variant. Lydia walked away with the sneaky win, but everyone loved this game!

Next up we went with Poop: The Game. This is a game somewhat similar to Uno where you are trying to get rid of the cards in your hand before you “clog the toilet” and are forced to take all of the cards that are on the table at that point. This is a very quick and fairly silly game as some of the cards force you to make farting noises and such. This is one of the first Kickstarter games that Em and I funded and we’ve loved having it as it is just a simple fun card game to pull out with large groups of people. Em and Dave pulled out the wins in this game. On a fun side-note, this is the first time Dave won a game! He is no longer just the bridesmaid, but now the bride! (If curious about this, just read previous Family Game Night posts!)

Family Game Night #9 was just a couple of weeks ago and we didn’t have as many people as the previous. Due to previous engagements only Sean and Laura were able to join Em and I for the game night. Again, we started with the appetizers, but since they were ones that had been done before, I’ll just go straight on to the gaming.

Slightly smaller crowd for the 9th family game night!

We decided to have an Antoine Bauza game night for this particular evening. We started off with Bauza’s super-fun gateway game entitled Takenoko. This is a beautiful, colorful game that uses tile-laying and set-collection as its main mechanics and it uses them perfectly! Plus, one of your main moves involves moving a panda around the board and eating colorful bamboo! How can you not love it? Sean was able to take this teaching game with a slight win over Em who came in second place.

We then pulled out one of my favorite card-games, 7 Wonders, also by the fantastic Antoine Bauza. This is a quick-playing, civilization card game that plays in just about 30 minutes when everyone knows what they are doing. Both Laura and Sean were new to this game but they picked it up within the first couple ages of the first game. Laura was able to take the first win by crushing us in civic structures (the blue cards) as we weren’t paying close enough attention! I was able to eke out the second win as I focused on a more balanced approach in last game of the night with everyone involved.

After 7 Wonders, Laura needed to leave and Em decided to turn in for the night. That left Sean and I to pick up and play two quick games of the wonderful tile-laying game Carcassonne. I was able to take both games that we played by being a bit of jerk and stealing castles that Sean was building on. Don’t feel too bad for him though, he tried to do the same to me...on a side note, I scored the largest castle I ever have with 40 points!

These were two more great nights with our friends (or as we call them, family!) and we look forward to many more in the future. Em is already planning out our next night’s delicious treats and I think we may break out a game I’m getting for Christmas called Elder Sign. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #7

A few weeks ago we have our 7th family game night! Sadly this one only consisted of me, Em, and Dave because two other had to bow out due to previous engagements. Even though there were only three of us it was still a blast!

Em chose to go with some really good appetizers for this game night (not that she ever cooks anything bad) and everyone enjoyed them immensely. The first thing she went with was a jalapeno bacon popper. They had bacon cream cheese in them and then were wrapped in crescent dough and baked in the oven. These were my personal favorites and we tore through them! The second appetizer was a roasted butternut squash dip. This had goat cheese in it and we ate it with crackers. It was delicious! Then, in honor of the fall season, she made a batch of deviled eggs that looked like little pumpkins. Lastly we had some brownie cheesecake bites as a dessert appetizer. You can find the recipe for the brownie bites at my wife’s blog at A Tastymess. After filling out stomachs with delightful food and some Dogfish Punkin Ale leftover from our last game night (thanks Sean) we moved on to the gaming portion of the night!

The first game we chose to play was Sentinels of the Multiverse released by Greater Than Games. This is a wonderful card game where everyone chooses a hero and goes up against a villain in a particular environment. The amazingly cool thing about this game is that each hero deck feels completely different from the next! It makes this game very thematic as you’re attacking the villain. Also, each of the villains and environments that you go up against feel very different and thematic.

To begin with we chose to go up again the villain Baron Blade. He is a psychotic villain who hates the hero Legacy (a Superman-like character) and just wants to defeat him. His current plan leads him to create a ray to pull the moon into the Earth and destroy everyone, including Legacy! Like I said, he’s a psycho. We chose to take the battle into the environment entitled Ruins of Atlantis. This is a water-heavy (obviously) environment that lightning users thrive in. After the villain and environment was chosen we each picked our characters.

Em went with her favorite character, Wraith. She is a Batman-style of character who uses weapons, martial arts, and her intelligence to defeat the enemies. She is a damage dealer who is good with protecting herself. Dave went with Legacy, the Superman-style hero. He is good with protecting and aiding his fellow heroes. Lastly, I chose to go with Tempest, an Aquaman-style hero. He is an alien who is great a dealing lightning damage and healing his fellow heroes. We took these three heroes and were able to destroy Baron Blade with very little difficulties. It was a ton of fun and it is great to see how new people respond to this game as it’s easy to learn and fun to play!

Carcassonne Unboxing

Carcassonne gameplay

After finishing Sentinels we moved on to Carcassonne. This was all of our first time playing this game and we all loved it! This is such a simple tile-laying game where you are connecting roads, cities, and fields and placing meeples (wooden people tokens) on these roads, cities, and monasteries in order to score points throughout the game. It is a simple, quick game that absolutely anyone can learn and play and enjoy. I would highly recommend this game for new gamers! In the end, Em schooled us and one by a fairly large margin!

Dave's breakdancing meeples

Traditional "usie" catching Dave by surprise this time

As usually, we had a great game-night and I can’t wait for the next one. I have Diamonds, released by Stronghold Games, coming soon from CoolStuffInc and that may be on the docket for our next play. Any comments or questions, just hit me up in the comment section. Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #5 & Family Game Night #6

So I’ve decided to post about our last two game nights in one go.  Mostly this decision was made because we forgot to get pictures of our Family Game Night #5, oopsie!  Oh well, I’ll just post a bunch of picture from Family Game Night #6 to make up for it!

Poop!

For Family Game Night #5 we invited our buddies Dave, Leigh, and Lydia to come over for appetizers and games.  Unfortunately Leigh had to bow out but Dave and Lydia were able to come over.  Because of some rough days, we decided to play 7 Wonders which is a game we all know.  We ended up also playing eight hands of Poop: The Game closing out the evening.  This is a super-simple game where you are playing cards and trying to get rid of everything in your hand.  You want to play numbers to keep it under a certain number so you don’t clog the toilet.  Also, just to add to the silliness, you have to make random noises (such as fart sounds) when you play wild cards.  It is a silly game that is a great way to end a night.

Em chose to use this night as a Mediterranean-themed night.  She started off the thought process by finding a recipe for a Mediterranean 7-layer dip.  This recipe gave her the idea for the theme and she ran with it!  Another of the recipes she made was an original for a Tzatziki dip.  Then she found another recipe for a pretty classic Baba Ghanoush.  Lastly, for dessert, she made some mini Baklava cups.  As usual, everything went over well and we polished the food off pretty quickly.  You can find the original post at Em’s blog, http://www.tastymess.org/2014/09/in-love-with-dip-mediterranean-style.html.

Family Game Night #6 went in a slightly different direction than the past few.  We invited over a different group of people and ended up breaking out a game we hadn’t played in a while.  Em and I were joined at this game night by Sean, Jenn, and John.  All three of these friends are gamers.  Because of this, we chose to break out Munchkin.  This is a game that can best be described as a hand management game that is more party game than “serious” game.  We’ve always said, if you can’t just have fun playing Munchkin without being too serious about winning, don’t bother playing!  That being said, we had an absolute blast!

(L-R) Sean, Em, Me, Jenn & Jon

Munchkin is always a blast, but Dogfish  Head's Punkin Ale makes it even more fun!

I jumped out to a large lead in the first few turns but was unable to hold it as I had terrible cards in front of me!  Soon everyone had come back and we ended up completely tied at nine points.  Sean, due to some silly good cards, was able to eke out the win at the end of the game!  It was a great night and Em had a blast on the day before her birthday!  As a side note, Jenn and John got her a Doctor Who Yahtzee game as a birthday present!  Overall another great night!  Until next time, game on!

Sean, the triumphant (and slightly smug) winner!

Booooooo! (sore losers!)

Family Game Night #3

On August 31^st Em and I had our third “family game night” and they seem to be going really, really well.  For our third night we had three other people join us.  Dave, Lydia, and Leigh all came over to eat delicious appetizers and have fun gaming.  This was the first time Dave met Leigh and Lydia and they all hit it off as we had a great night gaming!

Let’s start off with the food that Em served us this time.  While the last game night had a “theme” of Italian style appetizers, this time Em passed on a theme and just made some stuff that sounded good.  It ended up being a very “cheese-centric” night and as usual her food went off with a bang! 

The first thing she chose to make for our third game night was a puff pastry tomato tart recipe that consisted of a puff pastry crust, sour cream, cream cheese, and tomatoes all baked in the oven.  The next recipe chosen were mini crab cakes with red pepper sauce.  These were as good as any crab cake you’d find in a restaurant!  The third savory appetizer Em went for were mini cheese ball bites with pretzels for serving.  Lastly, for a dessert appetizer, she chose to go with chocolate chip cheesecake swirl brownie bites.  By the end of the night I think we had finished off all of the appetizers before everyone left, that's how you know the cook is great!  If you are curious about the recipes, just hop over to Em’s blog, Tasty Mess.  You can find the post at http://www.tastymess.org/2014/09/family-game-night-2-aka-excuse-to-serve.html.

Onto the gaming!  This particular evening I chose to go with another game by Antoine Bauza entitled 7Wonders.  This may be his most popular work as it has been featured on Tabletop with Wil Wheaton.  7 Wonders is a fantastic “card-drafting” game where all of the players are trying to create their civilization and win the most victory points in doing so.  There are many different routes to victory including building civilian structures, science structures, military structures, guild structures, and your specific wonder.  Some of the wonders include the Babylonian Hanging Gardens, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pyramid at Giza just to name a few.  A player receives their starting hand of seven cards, chooses one they are able to build (using resources acquired), and then turns the rest of their hand over to the player to their left or right.  The game consists of three very quick ages and then you score at the end.

I had just received this game earlier in the week and decided that it was the game that we HAD to play as I’d heard nothing but great things about it!  I was SUPER happy that I went with this game as everyone had a blast playing!  It didn’t take long for everyone to pick the game up and by the second playthrough everyone had developed their own strategy for winning.  After three games, Em won one, Lydia won the second, and I won the third.  Dave came in second every time thus becoming our “bridesmaid” for the evening.  “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride...”

Another great night in the bag as Em and I are having a blast having these get-togethers!  I’m not sure what our next game will be but I have a few I’d like to break out.  As usual, I’ll let you know then!  Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #2

Unfortunately I am late on this post, but in the end I‘m okay with it as long as my readers are!  On August 10^th, Em and I had our second “family game night” and it was just as successful as the first!  This time Em chose to cook even more delicious “appetizer-style” foods that we were able to enjoy along with our gaming.  This game night consisted of Em and I as well as our friends Leigh and Lydia.  They were brand new to our game night although Lydia enjoys good “designer” board games already.  Leigh is brand new to the hobby but she took quickly to the game we chose for the night and definitely enjoyed the gaming and fun!

To begin with, I feel as though I should talk a little about the delicious food that Em cooked up for the evening.  She began her planning by realizing she wanted to do a cannoli dip recipe for a sweet, Italian-inspired appetizer.  This consisted of the cannoli dip along with strawberries and both chocolate and original graham crackers on the side to dip.  This made her go with an “Italian” theme for the night and from there she went with three savory style appetizers.  

First she made some delicious marinara sauce and put it in a crock-pot with some small meatballs, a simple but delightful food.  She then went on to make some stuffed mini peppers with a fresh pesto for dipping or spreading on top of the peppers.  Lastly she went with a potted cheese spread that we were able to spread on crackers.  It was all delicious and you can find the recipes and more about them at Em’s blog: Tasty Mess.  You can find the specific post at http://www.tastymess.org/2014/08/family-game-night-excuse-to-serve.html.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Following some delicious appetizers from my wonderful wife, we went on to the game.  For this night we chose a fantastic “gateway” game by one of my favorite (perhaps my very favorite!) game designers, Antoine Bauza.  The game we chose for the night is called Takenoko.  This is a beautiful game distributed by Matagot/Bombyx/Asmodee and it is known for its beautiful components and simple but fun gameplay.  We only had time for one full game, as it can take a little while with four players.  This was actually the first time that Em and I have played this game with more than three players and we found it to be just as fun!  I ended up winning but don’t really count it as a victory since both Leigh and Lydia were brand new to the game.  Even though they hadn’t played before, both of our new players did an excellent job and picked up the gameplay very quickly and vied for the lead the entire way through the game.

After Leigh and Lydia left for the night, Em and I decided to pull out Quarriors (a “dice-building” game) and played through a round of that.  All in all it was a great night of fun, “family,” and gaming.

As a side note, the picture that I’ve included of the four of us was “technically” from our most recent family game night, but we figured the addition of the hats would make it stand out and fake everyone out!  Perhaps it didn’t work, but it’s the thought that counts, right?  Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #1

(L-R) Auntie Chainsaw, Em, Aaron & Romeo

Last night Em and I had our first “family/friends game night” and I think it was a success.  We have decided to have one night a month dedicated to having friends and/or family and/or friends-who-are-basically-family over to enjoy tabletop gaming and food/drink.  For the first gaming night we invited four friends over, Meghan (Auntie Chainsaw), Dave (Romeo), Brando, and Sean.  Unfortunately Brando and Sean were unable to make the night but Meghan and Romeo were able to come over and enjoy some gaming.

We chose the game Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak for a first gaming night and I think it was a success!  We chose a medium level scenario and started up the game right around 7:45PM.  After choosing our characters we set them up and started the zombicide.  For a while the game was going smoothly.  Romeo (as his character Grindlock) was able to find a concrete saw in order for us to be able to open the way into a well fortified prison.  With a little luck and some good weapon searches we made our way from the zombie filled street into the even-more-zombie-filled prison!

Around this time I (as my character Joshua) opened up some cell doors which held a ton of zombies and unfortunately killed off Grindlock.  The good news is we played in resurrection mode and he came back as a Zombivor (zombie + survivor…get it?) and was now even stronger!  Meghan (as Belle, the parkour star) was able to find a chainsaw (thus the new “Auntie Chainsaw” nickname) and start to empty the streets…or she would have if her dice rolls were better!  At one point some zombies moved a little quicker and were able to chomp her down as well.  She then came back as a stronger Zombivor and made quick work of the streets.

In an attempt to help out Grindlock I stupidly ran into a crowd of zombies and was unable to kill them all off with my claw hammer.  On their next turn the zombies finished Joshua off and on his next turn he also came back as a Zombivor.  While Grindlock (Romeo), Belle (Meghan), and Joshua (myself) were getting themselves chomped on by the crowds of rushing zombies, Em (as her character Shannon) quietly was killed off a ton of zombies with ruthless efficiency.  Her soldier background made her pistol use the best in the group and she made short work of most zombies.

Meghan sadly had to leave just before we finished the game to make her 2+ hour trek home but we took over for her and we were able to clear out the prison to create a safe place for our survivors (and now zombivors) and those who followed.  The last kill award goes to Romeo and he used his concrete saw to defeat a berserker abomination zombie before he got to the rest of us.  Woot!

Needless to say we had a ton of fun and can’t wait to have our next “family game night” where we believe we will be pulling out Munchkin.  Stay tuned to hear how that night goes.  Until next time, game on!