That time I went to Boardgame Mecca

Last December was my daughter's 13th birthday. We decided to take her to the one place our teenager would be super excited about....Harry Potter World in Florida. When the plane landed, I had a mission.  A mission that only the patient wife of a game addict would understand. That's right, true believers! I was going to Cool Stuff, Inc., and I was going to get to go before the rest of the official trip even started.

Review - Longhorn (2013) - Blue Orange Games

The Blurb:

In Longhorn, the players assume the roles of two particularly feared outlaws: Eagle Perkins and Jessie Artist Byrd. The aim of the game is simple: to steal cattle (and a few gold nuggets, if possible) to see who can amass the most money by the end of the game — or who can get his opponent arrested by the sheriff!

First Comes Monopoly...

I first started dating my wife in the early nineties. This story is from the very beginning of our relationship--only three months in!  Back then, I knew virtually zero about board games. I only knew of the standards of the time: Risk, Trivial Pursuit, oh, and Monopoly. I would win Monopoly games by attrition. As a rule, I would never trade a property. I would rather have played a ten-hour game then let someone have a railroad.

Solo Review - Hostage Negotiator (2015) - Van Ryder Games

I'm going to take a break from our regularly scheduled throttling from my son and play a solo game. I will try not lose this one....but no guarantees. 

Quick Note ---- A Thousand Thank-You's

Just wanted to drop in really quick and say thanks for the support. We hit 1,000 views on Thursday and that means a lot to me. If anyone has any games they would like me and Tyler to review, or if you have stories of you gaming with your kids, I would love to hear them and post them. Thanks again to all of you.  Especially you Germany, Israel & Ukraine!  Did not expect support from so far away.

Bring Out Yer Wed

My birthday was Monday. It is tradition in our family that on your birthday, we do whatever that person wants to do on their day. After work, I wanted to play board games, but my wife was not feeling good, and I was going to opt out of playing, but she said, "No, you want to play a game, lets play." Now, for the record, my wife (like most wives in the hobby I have run across), is not a gamer. She likes some games, like Blokus and Zooloretto, but it is not something at the top of her list of things to do with free time. I will literally play any game, I don't care. So, I tend to get some strange games in from time to time. I would like to present the conversation as it happened when my wife, my son and I played this game Monday, and I think it will speak to all the gamers out there, as well as all the spouses who deal with our obsession (lets be honest I mean wives because I have never met a female gamer whose husband does not also play).

Review Jaipur (2009) - Asmodee

The Blurb:

Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan. You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city.
But that's not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja's court.  You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.

A card game for two seasoned traders!

When it's your turn, you can either take or sell cards.  If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking 1 card from the market or swapping 2 to 5 cards between the market and your cards.  If you sell cards, you get to sell only one type of good per turn, and you get as many chips from that good as you sold cards. The chips' values decrease as the game progresses, so you'd better hurry ! But, on the other hand, you get increasingly high rewards for selling 3, 4, or 5 cards of the same good at a time, so you'd better wait!

You can't sell camels, but they're paramount for trading and they're also worth a little something at the end of the round, enough sometimes to secure the win, so you have to use them smartly.

Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck.