Boards & Brews at Home: Stone Age

On this segment we return to the tribal days of great trials and tribulations through survival to play Stone Age.  In this 2 - 4 player worker-placement game of strategy and dice rolling, you are trying to grow your tribe to be as sustainable and efficient as possible.  Ultimately this will reward you with more points as you progress throughout the game and whoever scores the most points by the end of the game, is the winner.  Join us as we gather what resources we can manage, hunt for food in the fields, and evolve our tribes the best that we can in order to survive the Stone Age.

Top 10 Stocking Stuffers for Christmas 2015!

Seasons Greetings everyone!  Hopefully everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Since it is the day after, and no doubt people are already planning and possibly out and about doing their holiday shopping, I'm bringing you a very special segment today on my Top 10 Stocking Stuffer games for Christmas!  This is a recommended list that I have put together to carefully consider what has been, and is currently hot right now in the gaming market.  I've done my thorough research for this segment.  I've carefully considered box size, price range, popularity of the game from both past and present releases so I hope this list will be a useful preparation tool for you as Christmas is quickly approaching!  Read on to see my top ten recommended stocking stuffer games!

Keepin' it Qwirky in Fletcher Place

Today's brain game of choice is Qwirkle, and we returned to the awesome Calvin Fletchers Coffee Company where we thoroughly enjoyed more breakfast sandwiches and coffee!  Qwirkle is an abstract strategy game based on pattern building and hand management.  The idea is to create the longest row of blocks from a single attribute (either single shapes or a single color, but not both).  Players begin the game with six blocks.  The active player places a block with a single matching attribute on the table.  The next player adds more blocks adjacent to at least one previously played block.  All blocks must be played in a row and match without duplicates, either the color or shape of the previous block.  

PentaCon 2015

I like to think that our blog is a tiny corner of the internet where we provide helpful information to other tabletop gamers and enthusiasts everywhere.  Hopefully this segment will be another one of those instances, because the most important thing is that the readers receive the truth.  Whenever a gaming convention is put on, there is supposed to be a sense of pride in the air.  There should be a feeling of confidence that the surrounding people really put in a lot of hard work and preparation to represent their city and state.  This convention ended up not being what we had expected at all.  Read on to learn about this unfortunate event.

You Have Chosen...Wisely

Today we drove a little further out of our way to visit The Caffeinery in downtown Muncie to play Lost Cities.  Located off of Walnut St, the Caffeinery is upscale, but approachable and friendly.  In addition to their great coffee, their kindness also shined for a great overall experience.  The coffee is a little pricy, but you get what you pay for here.  It was definitely worth the drive to venture out and try a new coffee shop and we were both very pleased to see Muncie embracing a local coffee shop.  We really appreciated the service we received today from The Caffeinery and we would absolutely recommend them to anyone!  Lost Cities is an exploration, hand management/set collection, wager game with an archeology theme.  This version is the 2 player card game and it consists of a single deck of cards with a rank of 2 - 10 in 5 different locations in the world.

Boards & Brews at Home: Betrayal at House on the Hill

 
  Happy Halloween Everyone!  

Light your candles, grab your crucifix, and stay close together because tonight, four brave souls will be lurking in the dark, dank hallways of a haunted mansion.  The floorboards are creaking and groaning under their feet, the light is swallowed by the dampened, dark corners of each room and the cold chill from the breath of the wind seeps through the cracks of the decrepit walls within this evil edifice.  Which one of us will turn against the others?  Will we survive the horrors within, or will the pain and suffering of the dark entities swallow us up? 

Quoth the Raven...

We returned to Noble Coffee & Tea today to play a game from Smirk and Dagger Games known as Nevermore.  This is a 3 - 6 player card drafting, hand management, set collection game with multiple take-that mechanics, subtle deception, and cunning trickery.  The raven has its eye out for you and we have a couple new players that have joined us for today's dark and dreary October morning.  Which of us will transform into ravens and which ones will be victorious?  Out of the darkness, our fate will be revealed in the cards.  Read on to learn about Nevermore. 

A Dreadful Double Feature

This week we attended Books and Brews which was having Live Music Night and showing the classic horror film The Shining, all while serving free popcorn and Halloween themed drinks! You should check out their website for the remaining movie schedule because this is not the last time that they'll be showing horror films in October!  On this night, we are reviewing two games, the dark humor story-telling game known as Gloom and the ever popular social deduction, bluffing card game, One Night Ultimate Werewolf.  Now lets shake things up a bit with terror-inducing stories and wildly-hairy accusations with some craft beer, or Dracula's blood as it's known tonight.

Beers and Braaaains...

Today we returned to Redemption Alewerks in Fishers to play Zombie Dice.  Throughout the fall time, Redemption has added a pumpkin-spice flavor to their Reclamation vanilla porter which is fantastic!   Today however, I had the Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and Claire had the New Day Johnny Chapman Cider, both of which were excellent and we highly recommend them!  On this segment, we are playing the role of the restless undead, and only hungry for one thing…braaaains!  Zombie Dice is a push-your-luck, dice rolling game in which you are trying to attain the most brains possible.  There's a problem though.  The living still want to keep their brains and they're armed with shotguns ready to defend themselves.

Boards & Brews at Home: D&D Castle Ravenloft

  Welcome to the October segments!  

Claire and I are big Halloween enthusiasts, and the segments for October will definitely be fun for us!  Steve is even in the Halloween spirit and has decided to dress up as well!  We're kicking off the October segments by providing you another home segment to play Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft.  As we've mentioned in the past, our monthly at home segments are designed for our big box games with lots of components.  Well, today is probably one of the best examples of these segments, because there is a lot inside of this box.  Venture further and read more.

Spotting New Places

Today we tried a new location in the Herron-Morton Place district of downtown Indy known as Thirsty Scholar.  It is located within the historic Penn Arts building which was built in the early 1920's, and still retains an early 20's european style.  They serve a variety of drinks such as coffee, tea, beer and wine, so it's our kind of place!  The barista's were courteous, but aloof.  The coffee had excellent foam and was well presented, but Claire's almond milk cappuccino was bitter.  We would like to revisit as we enjoyed the atmosphere and would like to sample their other offerings. 

A Meepling We Will Go!

Today at Books and Brews, we're all meepled up, and everywhere to go!  Now a quick history lesson.  The world famous French city, Carcassonne was known for its imposing fortifications erected during the Antiquity and the Middle Ages.  Even today, this fortress surrounded by it's magnificent walls, still stands as one of the most unique French cities.  In this 2 - 5 player tile-placement game, players must develop the area around Carcassonne.  They will place their followers onto roads, into cities, monasteries and fields.  The players who make the most judicious placements will gain the points required to win the game.

Get Yer Geek On!

Look out fellow geeks, here it is!  Today we went to Sure Shot Coffee in Fishers to play Geek Out!  Between years of science-fiction film viewing, fantasy films, several years of childhood super hero shows, tabletop games and video game experience since 1983, we consider ourselves quite the geeks.  Well, this game will really test your geek knowledge to the absolute limits!  There's not a lot to this game in terms of rules and complexity.  It's a party and bidding trivia game with hundreds of geeky questions from five genres, Games (both tabletop and video), Fantasy, Comics, Sci-Fi, and miscellaneous/pop culture style questions.  These 5 categories will demand answers from your knowledge on books, games, movies, TV shows, franchises, and more. 

Boards & Brews at Home: Sheriff of Nottingham

Once again, another at home segment is upon us!  Tonight we are playing something absolutely blinding known as, Sheriff of Nottingham.  What's that you say mate?  The premise of our story?  Well, that lousy Prince John has finally gone too far!  It's close to impossible for a merchant to make a living anymore, being taxed as much as we are!  He's hired that greedy Sheriff of Nottingham to check everyone who comes through the front gate for "contraband" and keeping it for himself!  Read more to see how he's proving to be quite the caterpillar in our buttermilk.

Renaissance Intrigue and Battle

This week we stopped in again at Sure Shot Coffee in Fishers to battle it out with Condottiere.  The premise of Condottiere is that during the Renaissance period, Italy was divided into numerous independent city-states, sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile.  This is the era in which the Condottieri appear as leaders of mercenary armies who offered their services to the most powerful cities.  In Condottiere, you relive this incredible age, and represent a Condottiere trying to conquer the most famous cities in Italy.  However, you are not alone!  You must take into account the ambitions of the other Condottieri.  The strength of your army alone will not suffice.  You must use diplomacy if you want a chance at victory.  The goal in Condottiere is to conquer city-states, unite them, and create the most powerful kingdom in Italy.