Well, we're finally back after taking a little break from the blog. Our schedules have become more complicated in the last several months and other priorities in our lives have taken precedence. After driving a few hours through many cornfields, and then followed by a few more hours of cornfields, we arrived at Origins once again in Columbus Ohio to celebrate the 5 best days of board gaming. This is our second convention of the 2017 season and this is when things start to pick up before continuing on to the massive convention that is GenCon. As always, GAMA has delivered and improved upon a few things this year and just like last year, the convention went exceptionally well! From June 14th through the 18th, The Greater Columbus Convention Center welcomed thousands of guests from all over to bask in the strategic, fun, and family focused environment of tabletop gaming that Origins has to offer. The theme this year was dragons so we anticipated large groups playing D&D. Come with us once again as we venture fourth within the walls of the Columbus Convention Center for one of the best board gaming conventions there is.
For this home segment we are reviewing the 1 to 4 player real-time co-op game, XCOM: The Board Game. Neither Claire nor I have played the video game version of this, so our first and only exposure has been the board game. To keep the theme of the game going, we had two Alien Brain Hemorrhage shots. They consist of 3/4 Oz of Peach Schnapps, 1/4 Oz of Irish Cream, 1 dash of Blue Curacao, and 1 dash of Grenadine. We tossed them back, and neither of us liked them. We agreed that they tasted like creamy cough syrup mixed with Alcohol. Definitely not the finest shots we’ve had, but they were fun to try at least one time. For those of you that are unaware, the XCOM app on the iPad is essential and the board game cannot be played with out it. The app can be downloaded for free on any smart phone or tablet. The world is needing saved once more, so the fate of mankind rests on your shoulders. However, this time it’s not from viral outbreaks and world-wide disease epidemics, it’s an alien invasion to end all humanity. See if we save the world or if life as we know it is toast.
Today we are reviewing a game that is still not up for release for another 2 weeks. We want to give a special thanks to Osprey Games for sending us this little co-op game for review. Hop over to their website here to check out all of the other games they have for release. With as great as they’ve been toward us, we wish we could say the same for The Well. When we’ve attended The Well in the past, they were better then but after today, for whatever reason, we see that their service has taken a drastic nose dive. Weak, lukewarm tea was given, when iced tea was requested, the amount of food was severely lacking, I had more tortilla wrap than actual food. I guess my gratuity was not high enough for them when we had to pay on their Square scanner for our already overpriced items. Well, going forward there's plenty of other coffee shops and establishments that want our business. After shaking off that poor experience, it's time for this weeks review as we look at Shahrazad a micro co-op tile laying game for 1 - 2 players. Read on to learn more of this Arabian Tale.
This week we find ourselves north of our normal territory, so we took the opportunity to visit our favorite coffee shop in Muncie, the Caffeinery. Whenever we visit, I find myself wishing they had a location in Fishers as their coffee & food offerings are consistently delicious. Today was no exception, with Claire enjoying their signature Steve Albini, a maple cinnamon latte that was just the right level of sweetness. Chad had a white mocha, as is his tradition, and greatly enjoyed it as well. While sipping our coffee, we snuck in a round of Fidelitas, “A Game of Medieval Meddling.” Keep reading to find out our thoughts!
International TableTop Day is here again and we have returned to Redemption Alewerks, as has been the tradition every year for TableTop Day. Claire had the Taxman SpinOff, a dry-hopped Sour Saison with boysenberry and ginger, while I had the Cream Ale and the Sooey Saison, a Blind Pig Confessions pale ale, with subtle hints of orange peel, coriander, and peppercorns. A great combination of farmers ales from great local breweries. While we are enjoying our beverages, this year we’re reviewing a silly farming themed game called Farmageddon. All the farming are belong to us!
Once again, Con Season is here! Just like previous years, we are kicking off 2017 with one of our local conventions held at the Wyndham West Hotel in Indianapolis known as Who's Yer Con. For any that are unaware, this is a free tabletop gaming convention put on by Who's Yer Gamers. The convention has been continuing to grow every year. The hard work, dedication and passion for the hobby shows at the convention, along with the staff, and other personnel from Who's Yer Gamers that continue to bring awareness of the hobby not just to the city of Indianapolis, but branching out to the entire state of Indiana each year. Let's take a closer look into what this year has brought us.
Our winner of the 2nd Blogiversary Contest is Jacqueline Ireton and we're not foolin even though it's April 1st! Congratulations on winning a brand new copy of Buy The Rights! Everyone enjoys movies, and we hope you will enjoy creating your own hilarious films to pitch to the producers in this wacky little card game! We appreciate everyone who took part in this contest and be sure to stay in touch with us on Instagram and the blog to find out more about upcoming contests in the future!
Today we ventured over to Carmel to Soho Cafe & Gallery. Our drinks of choice were a White Chocolate Mocha and a Leprechaun (Amaretto & Irish Cream). They were lightly sweet and very creamy with properly frothed milk. Unfortunately, Claire thought the coffee lacked flavor, and felt that the espresso was much fainter than expected. I personally love their coffee and I know I’ll be back many more times as they also have great breakfast food and sandwiches. The cafe itself has an open feel, with nicely spaced sturdy tables and a diverse selection of artwork for sale. If you appreciate art as we do, you should stop in to look at their art gallery and have some coffee! We appreciate the friendly, professional staff they have at Soho and look forward to returning again and again! As for this week’s game of choice, we’re in a rush to have a latte fun so read on to learn how we made our coffee.
Happy Pi Day everyone! It’s officially our two year blogiversary! Two years ago today we started our board gaming blog and have been blogging at least once a week ever since! For this year's post we are doing another giveaway contest for the successful Kickstarted party game known as Buy The Rights, created by Literally Wizards, one of our very own local Indianapolis residents. Read on to learn more about the giveaway contest and our celebratory 2nd year Blogiversary post!
Well of course this would be our #1 expansion, after all we are boards and brews. In our number one spot for our top 10 list of expansions that we own is the Tuscany expansion for Viticulture. What if you’re tired filling wine orders? In this expansion we have a lot more than just wine orders to fill. What if we were to expand into apples, tomato sauce, olive oil, or perhaps some cheese? All of those ingredients are optional in Tuscany depending on which expansion you are playing. We have some more interactions throughout our adventure that delivers a lot more content to the game. Through the utilization of a tiered system, this allows us to uncork a lot of new mechanics in the expansions providing an almost legacy-style Viticulture game. This one is packed to the brim with boards, meeples, and cards equalling 12 small expansions in all! While Viticulture is still noteworthy, Tuscany is a whole new beast. Read on to learn more about this incredible expansion.
It’s the game that I describe as D&D meets Dominion. Well, now with the Numenera universe combined, there’s more RPG aspects than ever mixed into Thunderstone. Coming in on our #2 spot is Thunderstone Advance: Numenera. Anyone who plays Thunderstone knows that even though there are standalone versions, nearly every version released is interwoven in such a way that you can utilize the cards with each release of the game. Thunderstone Numenera follows this same concept. It is a standalone game, but it is also an expansion. As far as the Thunderstone series goes, this is a very different approach in a way that no other Thunderstone game has been implemented. Like all of it’s predecessors, it still maintains a fantasy theme, but now with the implementation of the Numenera universe, we’re combining a lot more science fiction and technology into Thunderstone.
Of course we could not do our top 10 list without adding one of the expansions to our favorite game ever released! How could we not? It's Blood Rage! For this review, like many of the others, it was a close choice, but for our number 3 spot, we decided to go with the Gods Of Asgard expansion for Blood Rage. Odin knows that death is inevitable with Ragnarok coming, but he wants to forge his strength with us, so we can go down fighting as one. To it’s right-hand side sits the Mystics of Midgard expansion. Both of these add variances and alterations that assist the base game in some way. It’s good, but are they good enough to considerably alter the game? You’ll have to read on to find out.
Everyone loves that tantalizing sound of money in their hands. Realizing that you’ve prospered from those days when you toiled in the fields wearing your straw hat just struggling to make ends meet. Now, after years of hard work, you’ve risen to great heights and you’re moving forward to conquer a world that you once feared, but now envy’s you. Coming in at our number 4 expansion is Dominion: Prosperity. This is the 4th expansion to the deck-building game, Dominion. It adds 25 new Kingdom cards to the game, plus 1 new base Treasure card, and 1 new Victory Point card, both of which allow you to build above Gold and Province. Your central theme is wealth. There are treasures with abilities, cards that interact with treasures, and powerful expensive cards. Read on to see more.
Diseases are spreading into epidemics of massive proportions, creating outbreaks much worse than before. Your chances of epidemics are considerably higher, and the intensity at how they spread is much greater than before. Was saving humanity too easy in the beginning? It’s time to greatly increase the weight of Pandemic with new roles, events, and challenges. Coming in at our #5 spot is Pandemic: On The Brink. This is the first expansion for Pandemic and in my opinion, it’s still the best one I could recommend. Read on to see why.
The newly discovered outer worlds, with their rich, untapped resources, are tempting targets for those seeking to expand their power. Now, the scramble for control of these unclaimed territories begins. Will you outwit your opponents and claim victory in the Colony Wars, or fail and see your Star Realm lost? Coming in at #6 is Star Realms: Colony Wars. Everyone that knows about this game, understands that the expansions are typically small, including 12 new cards in each expansion. Colony Wars is a full standalone/expansion for Star Realms and this is one of the primary reasons we have placed it in our number 6 spot. There are a lot more cards in this expansion so read on to get a brief rundown on the game.
