Evo

This is a game I don't hear much about - Evo. It is a cool little game about the evolution of dinosaurs. You are trying to get yours to survive by getting better genes as each turn the climate kills off any dinosaur in the wrong area!  Playing 2 player, this wasn't so great, but at 4 or 5, it sings as the bidding really comes out and you get to see all the cool genes and try to protect your dinosaurs as you compete for area.

Gaming Articles

These two recent articles caught my eye.  First, the best Thanksgiving games.  We actually played Scrabble and dice, but these are also good suggestions!  We played Pandemic Legacy on Black Friday.  Oh my goodness....SO GOOD!!!!  And I can't talk about it.....

Anyway, we played Scrabble on my father's old board - so awesome!

 



Starting a gaming collection - this is a great starting list! The game I haven't played is the Resistance, but Ray has.  A game like that is important though.  We own Spyfall.

Camping Game: Over Under

We went to our cabin with the family over the Fourth of July.   No electricity and all that.  We took a few games: Batman Love Letter, Over Under and Pie Factory.  Over Under turned out be great as we could play it at the campfire just passing around a handful of cards.  It was easy and fun and you could play it until you felt like quitting and then count up to see who "won." (Honestly, who cares was our opinion.)  Plus since you are estimating, this didn't have the "trivia" aspect, yet was fun to try to figure out.  Most questions are history or sciences, which for us is great, but be warned if you absolutely hate both of those. 

Batman Love Letter is our favorite Love Letter and this was a great game for us after the kids and grandparents went to bed.  Doesn't take that long or that much room. 

The nice thing about all three games is they are very portable and were easy to toss into to take with us as well as didn't take much room to play.

Pie Factory actually takes the most room and got played the least.  We played Over Under each night at the campfire with even the grandparents playing along. 

Gaming on the Go

We recently took a train trip to Seward (which was really fun, but that post is on my regular blog).  Knowing we'd be on the train for quite awhile each way, we took some small games.  The games were took were Pie Factory, Microcosm (Eminent Domain), Brave Rats and Romans Go Home.  All did really well for the small spaces and times.  We also brought out the App version of Ticket to Ride, which was great. 

Pie Factory on the train

Ticket to Ride - this was nice as we could do pass and play in our seats

Microcosm at Subway when we stopped for a snack bread after walking the town - there was no one in there as it was the middle of the afternoon and they didn't seem to care we hung out for awhile playing while we ate our cookies!

Wharfside

 

We backed this on Kickstarter and it arrived about a week ago.  We LOVE Fleet,  but honestly, even with the robots (which work really well for robots), it isn't a great two player game.  You can (and we do) play it two player, but it is better with more. This is a GREAT two player game. I love how the markets change automatically.  This is a simple game, but there is plenty of strategy here. It also isn't that long, which makes it great to pull out for a quick game. 

 

I do wish the captains added more variety in that it really changed your overall strategy, but that's my only "complaint."  We played two games of this, both were close (we each won one).  The rules are easy to pick up, even for someone new to gaming (I would say this is easier to learn than Fleet).  Plus just like Fleet the cards are GORGEOUS!!

Viticulture

 

I have been super excited to try Viticulture and we recently purchased it and just got it to the table about a week ago. It was SO great.  I was so excited that this lived up to the hype in my mind.  We will definitely be purchasing the expansion!  First, I like that this is a "different" theme - the wine making theme comes through really well.  Second, it plays well at two player, but I think it will also do well in a larger setting.  Last, the components are gorgeous and the mechanisms all work really well.  This is not a beginner game, but it is also not super hard to learn to teach.  Definitely worth the purchase price!

Game Night

We are trying to get a monthly game night going...we are slowly building a core which is very exciting.  I'd like a few more people so that we have the option of one larger game or two smaller - right now we are stuck with having to do 6 player games as splitting up is hard.  So one or two more people would be nice, but I am really excited so far as our members are fabulous!