Game(s) Played:
Today is International Tabletop Day and a great opportunity to play more boardgames wherever you may be! As a result, today saw our regular meetup's participation explode, with more than 20 people joining us throughout our session and 9 different games played (So many games, it has gone off the margins! I'm going to purposely leave it like that), definitely a record for SWAGamers. With all the excitement and games happening around me, it was not easy to get a handle on what was going on in detail to write a comprehensive session report so I will do more of a pictures compilation of our celebration of International Tabletop Day 2017.
International Tabletop Day 2017
Session – Hansa Teutonica
Game: Hansa Teutonica
Designer: Andreas Steding
Players: 2 – 5 Players
Playing Time: 90 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Area Control, Route Building
Player(s):
Edward (Blue)
Henry (Purple)
Jonathan (Yellow)
Justin (Green)
Yong Nam (Red)
We started our day with Hansa Teutonica, just to maintain the groove of things as Yong Nam & Jonathan had just come from an all night session of Imperial that lasted until 4am.
I was actually going for a large chain of cities with a levelled up Town Keys ability which is quite hard to do as it requires you to invest into Actions, Privilegium, The Book and Town Keys. It was a really, really close game with Jonathan needing only one more turn to put a merchant on the second spot of the Coellen Table and put the win out of my reach.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Justin (30 VPs)
Second – Jonathan (26 VPs)
Third – Yong Nam (24 VPs)
Fourth – Edward (20 VPs)
Last – Henry (14 VPs)
Session – Dominion: Intrigue
Game: Dominion: Intrigue
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Card Drafting, Deck Building
Player(s):
Liew
Louanna
Melvin
Moses
Moses started the second group by teaching Dominion: Intrigue where he taught not only how to play the game, but HOW to play the game (i.e. chain +Actions with +Cards and draw your entire deck into your hand).
Thankfully Liew & Melvin saw through Moses' web of "lies" and went with the economic adage "When in doubt, stick with the 8,000 year old currency".
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Liew (28 VPs)
Second – Melvin (26 VPs)
Third – Moses (23 VPs)
Last – Louanna (21 VPs)
Session – Concept
Game: Concept
Designer: Gaëtan Beaujannot, Alain Rivollet
Players: 4 – 12 Players
Playing Time: 40 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Deduction
Player(s):
Team 1
Edward
Howard
Valentina
Team 2
Albert
Alison
Jimmy
Valentina had just gotten Concept as a gift that day. I have admittedly only heard about Concept but never seen nor played the game. It is something in the vein of charades except the clues are given through pictorial icons on a game board.
Definitely something on my future "To Try" list, as I find many social deduction games have an unfair advantage when Players know one another intimately, i.e. siblings, couples, spouses etc.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Team 1: Edward, Howard & Valentina
Last – Team 2: Albert, Alison & Jimmy
Session – Love Letter
Game: Love Letter
Designer: Seiji Kanai
Players: 2 – 8 Players
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Deduction
Player(s):
Gideon
Henry
Jonathan
Justin
Yong Nam
I haven't played Love Letter in quite some time and in that time, Gideon had upgraded his copy to the premium set, which is really more luxurious than "premium".
That card stock is thicker than some office access cards I've seen
I am actually really, really bad at these sorts of social deduction games because I'm actually terrible at counting cards. It doesn't help that Gideon plays a Guard and randomly guesses the value of my character on his first turn in the first round, knocking me out for the rest of the round.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Jonathan (4 Hearts)
Second – Gideon (2 Hearts)
Third – Yong Nam (2 Hearts)
Fourth – Henry (1 Heart)
Last – Justin (0 Hearts)
Session – Lords of Waterdeep
Game: Lords of Waterdeep
Designer: Peter Lee, Rodney Thompson
Players: 2 – 5 Players
Playing Time: 120 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Worker Placement
Player(s):
Jonathan
Liew
Patrick
Yong Nam
I still have yet to actually sit down to a game of Lords of Waterdeep but didn't want to be the 5th Player to bog the game speed down. I honestly have no idea what went down but did notice that Yong Nam was in the lead about part way through.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Yong Nam
I did find out later that Yong Nam did manage to hold on to his lead and secure the victory in Lords of Waterdeep.
Session – The Resistance: Avalon
Game: The Resistance: Avalon
Designer: Don Eskridge
Players: 5 – 10 Players
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Deduction
Player(s):
Albert
Alison
Gideon
Louanna
Melvin
Teen
Yoon Yi
Ever since my last foray into a party, role deduction game with Christians, I've discovered that playing with a group that does not find lying to be second nature rather defeats the purpose of the game. Unless you are a sinner who breathes out deceit like carbon dioxide like Gideon and myself, of course.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – The Good Guys (can it be anyone else?)
Session – King of New York
Game: King of New York
Designer: Richard Garfield
Players: 2 – 6 Players
Playing Time: 40 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Area Movement, Player Elimination
Player(s):
Edward
Henry
Howard
Justin
Valentina
If anything else, today I learned something new by sitting at the table with experienced, cutthroat King of Tokyo Players. This was King of New York as it was meant to be played, wanton destruction of public property, repeated abuse of Power Cards and constant checking of HP to ensure your opponent's demise. Needless to say, my inexperienced Kong was quickly eliminated in the face of these Players' unnatural prowess.
Look at all that wanton destruction!
Results Of Game(s)
The Drakonis Superstar!
Winner – Henry (Surprise!) (20 VPs)
Second – Howard (7 VPs)
Third – Edward (6 VPs)
Fourth – Valentina (0 VPs)
Last – Justin (Eliminated)
Even more surprising, winning via VPs is a regular occurrence according to them. The vitality of their monsters is another level altogether.
Session – Dixit: Journey
Game: Dixit: Journey
Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira
Players: 3 – 6 Players
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Storytelling, Voting
Player(s):
Alison
Gideon
Louanna
Melvin
Simon
Yoon Yi
The evergreen party game for all genders, ages and gamer levels. It oozes happiness and as you can notice below, is the only playing group that smiles for the camera.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Yoon Yi
Session – For Sale
Game: For Sale
Designer: Stefan Dorra
Players: 3 – 6 Players
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Bidding, Hand Management
Player(s):
Jacky
Jeremy
Jimmy
Loh
Yuen Yee
I actually nearly forgot that Jimmy had started a game of For Sale with another group as I have no photographic evidence of the game occurring. For Sale is a good way to introduce boardgame to those who are a little boardgame phobic.
Results Of Game(s)
Jimmy only remembers that it was fun so... ... no winner declared
Session – Dominion: Intrigue
Game: Dominion: Intrigue
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Main Mechanisms: Card Drafting, Deck Building
Player(s):
Edward
Henry
Justin
We had a little bit of time left so I suggested Dominion: Intrigue. Apparently Henry is an experienced Tanto Cuore Player and felt right at home by buying up every last Wishing Well on the board. He literally could draw his entire deck into his hand and it was fascinating to watch, until past the 10th time he kept trying to do it.
As I mentioned before, being able to draw doesn't mean much unless you can draw into some gas.
Results Of Game(s)
Winner – Justin (43 VPs)
Second – Edward (39 VPs)
Last – Henry (23 VPs)
And so this was our little celebration of International Tabletop Day. Wherever you are, I hope you're having a good time playing more boardgames in celebration of our proud and ancient hobby.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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