What was Played?? Week 51

Hi folks,

One more week with a lot of fun and games, a little different that previous weeks because we received a new friend in the "garagem" that would be a new regular player.

This night only with lighter games to show different types of games and mechanics to a the new player.

To open the night, a coop game with roll dice mechanic, FLASH POINT - Fire Rescue, recruit level, in this game the team made an excellent work and saved the seven victims required to win the game. 

At the middle of the game

The next game, don´t need any introduction, with hand management and drafting card mechanics we played 7 WONDERS, always fun with some strategy and thought decisions in every card we choose to play, at the end the winner was our guest. 

The best ancient city at the end of the game

In the next game, we all were bandits in a train, i talking about COLT EXPRESS, one of my favorites family/party games, with the promo Time Travel Car, with a hand management and programming actions mechanics, it´s always fun see the face of the players when the actions that was programmed for the round didn´t work because the other players messed with us previously.

Resolving (Stealin' Phase) the final station

In the next game, we still use the guns from the bandits, another party game, with bluffing mechanic, i talking about CASH & GUNS (Second Edition), it´s a fast game where the players will try eliminate themselves before split the loot. Like a gangster movie split the loot never was easy, the players always want more money and less mates to share the loot, in this game like was expected the player with more money at the end win the game.

At the middle of the game

Next, the people pick up the bikes to do a race in FLAMME ROUGE with the expansion PELOTON, the race selected was the Stage 7, another hand management game. With this expansion the game is more difficult than the base game, choose the perfect card with so many players is an art, and pass through the other players it´s a big challenge, because there are many narrow streets where only can cycling 1 player at a time. 

The last 2 turns

Next, we maintained the race theme, but instead to drive something will bet on it, i´m talking about CAMEL UP, the bidding of camel race where the time of betting is crucial to making money, either in a single round or in the bet of camel that finish the race in first or last.

At the beginning of the race

To finish the night, we try to do the best firework that ever saw, we played HANABI (x2), it´s always difficult but at this time with all the players were exhausted become more difficult. We only collected 16 point in both games ..... poor fireworks :(

And that´s all, we'll see you the next week.

And for all ...... We wish a Happy New Year 2019 with a lot of games and fun.

What was Played?? Week 50

Hi folks!,

Another week with a lot of games and fun around the table, with two games nights .... once again.

The first night the people played two new games:

BRASS: Birmingham (2018) (KS Edition):
Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace' 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution, between the years of 1770-1870.

Players: 2 - 4 

Mechanisms: Hand management, route/network building.

Playing time: 60 - 120 min

Designers: Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin Wallace
What game!!! I liked a lot, at first it seems to be more difficult than really it is but this economic strategy game is awesome, with so many tough decisions in every turn. Beautiful components in the KS Edition, have a little interaction between players using factories of coal, iron or beer, own or not, to build in the country. In our first game, we only play the Canal Era, and in this game we only did one mistake, we took a beer in the sell action from the wrong space, but this didn't influence the score in the end.

Personal board

At the middle of canal era

Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition (2018):

It´s a multiplayer puzzle game, where your goal is to connect as many exits on your board as possible. Each round, a set of dice are rolled in the middle of the table, determining which kind of road and railway routes are available to all players. You have to draw these routes on your erasable boards to create transport lines and connect your exits, trying to optimize the available symbols better than your opponents.
Players: 1 - 6 

Mechanisms: Roll and write, route/network building

Playing time: 20 - 30 min

Designers: Hjalmar Hach, Lorenzo Silva
It´s a good game easy to teach and play, like i said before in other reviews, the roll and write games are on fire, and this one is not a exception. The game have a good components (dices and boards), a good artwork for a little game, have 2 expansions included, and if you combine more boxes you can play with 12 players or more, All good things for lovers of puzzles games.

At the end of the game

In the second night we played:
Arraial (2018)
We've already talked about this game, which simulates Tetris, in which you try to have as many visitors as possible in a summer street party because the winner will be the player with more visitors in her party. Every game is little different, very clever, simple to teach and play, every game is played fast in summary a good and fast family game.

At the end of the 3 player game

Ceylon (2018):
Another excellent strategic game, with hand management and some luck, that already played a couple of times. It´s a light game, where in every turn, always will do something (at least 1 action) no matter who is the active player. Certainly, this game will be in the table more often, because is easy to teach and play, it´s fast and have a lot of interaction between players.

End game scoring

Ilôs (2017):
Ilôs is a card game of hand management, through your cards, you will explore new islands, bring more ships along, gather wealth and raise its price, build fortifications to slow down your opponents, and establish trading posts to improve your production. The goal of the game is to become the richest explorer of Ilôs.

Players: 2 - 5 

Mechanisms: Commodity speculation, hand management, modular board, stock holding, take that.

Playing time: 20 - 40 min

Designers: Frédéric Guérard
This game have a good components, it´s easy to teach and learn, a game is really fast, have a little semi cooperative component (market), in summary a really fun familiar game, with some strategy using the ships and explorers, to produce goods and build in the islands,in the end of the game every player will sell all your collected goods to the actual price of the market, the player with more money win the game.

And that´s all for that week.

See you in the next week, probably after the Christmas, therefore we wish you a Merry Christmas.

What was Played?? Week 49

Hi everyone,

The last week the people didn't play games in the "Garagem", this time we were going to Braga to enjoy AugustaCON, the last board game Convention in Portugal, the place selected to do this was the "Mosteriro de Tibães" a ancient building totally reconstructed. 

Like other Conventions, we know new people around the tables, knew several games outside the radar from new little editors, learn to play another games, trade some points of views with people that work around the board games. Indeed, was a very exciting and excellent day. 

The organization of this CON was held by the association "Cidade Curiosa" and it was amazing, they worked very hard for months to join, designers, associations of board gamers from all over the country, stores of board games, youtubers, etc. all in the same space. .... and what a space! A magnificent and beautiful building, by the inside and outside, where we saw a lot of people in every room or corridors playing on the different floors.

We left some photos taken in the CON to enjoy.

And that´s all folk!!

We'll see you the next week.

What was Played?? Week 48

Hi everyone,

One more week with a lot of games and fun and two nights with a lot of news.

The first one we played in the middle of the week was a new one:
Forum Trajanum (2018)

Emperor Trajan plans to have a monument built for eternity: the Forum Trajanum.
Players: 2 - 4 

Mechanisms: Tile placement, variable player powers.

Playing time: 60 - 120 min

Designers: Stefan Feld
Feld did it again, a solid and smooth game, with a simple mechanism, turn two cards, chose two tiles from the colony keep one and pass the other, receive other tile, chose one and take the benefit, then build one tile in your colony and send envoys or gain points. Repeat this by three rounds and the player with more points be admitted to the small circle of illustrious and mighty personalities surrounding the Emperor. Good artwork, good components with the exeption of the cards, there are very thin.

After one round

My colony at the end

In the second night the opening game was:
Battle Line (2000):

Two opponents face off across a 'battle line' and attempt to win the battle by taking 5 of 9 flags or 3 adjacent flags
Players: 2  

Mechanisms: Hand managament, Set collection.

Playing time: 30 min

Designers: Reiner Knizia
A good game for 2 players, where the flags are won with 3 card making pokers hands (straight flush, three of a kind, flush and straight) using a troop and tactical cards, I like this one more than the Lost Cities.

At the end of the game

Azul - Stained Glass of Sintra (2018):

Already talked about this game three weeks ago, it have a great view and good components but i think still prefer the first Azul. Maybe because this one have a complex system scoring, every time that a pattern is finish your score points and because the "glazier" conditions the placement of the glasses (it is only possible to place glasses underneath or to the right of it). We need to play more to take a final decision.  

At the end of the game

One window at the end

Brikks (2018):
Already talked about this roll and write game, a good puzzle game with a lot of luck due to the mechanism of rolling dices, it is always difficult to predict the next piece. Easy to teach and play this is one of my favorites actually.

Gùgōng (2018):
China, 1570. China is under the reign of the Longqing Emperor, of the Ming Dynasty. He inherited a country in disarray after years of mismanagement and corruption. He resided in the Forbidden city, which was the seat of many emperors under the Ming Dynasty. The country was already famous for its very intricate bureaucracy, but this also led to a lot of corruption. Even though the penalties for corruption were very high, the highest Officials of the Forbidden City would pretend to uphold the ban on corruption, by accepting gifts of petitioners, and returning one of seemingly lower value. Players take on the role of powerful Chinese families trying to gain influence and power by exchanging gifts with Officials.

Players: 1 - 5 

Mechanisms: Action / Movement Programming, Deck / Pool Building, Hand Management, Set Collection, Worker Placement.

Playing time: 60 - 90 min

Designers: Andreas Steding
A good game with a great artwork, very clever mechanism with using cards to do actions. You need to use a cards and assistants in a very smart way. A game that is resolved in the little details, with few points collected during the game, where each action should always be the best option. In my opinion this game was good, i think that have a low replay-ability, because in every game will try to do the same no matter which tiles are in the tableau.

At the end of the game

And that´s all folks!

See you in 15 days.

What was Played?? Week 47

Hi everyone,

The last week the people joined in the "Garagem" to played games in 2 different nights.

The first night, in the middle of the week and have been played 2 new ones games:

1.- Teotihuacán - City of Gods (2018):

Teotihuacan: City of Gods it´s a game played in three eras in which each player commands a force of worker dice, these dice could grow in strength with every action. On your turn, you can do one of these two option, take a normal turn (move a worker around a modular board up to three spaces and do something in that space) or unlock all your locked workers for free. At the end the player to gain most fame is the winner.

Players: 2 - 4 

Mechanisms: Area movement, point to point movement, set collection, tile placement, variable player powers, worker placement.

Playing time: 90 - 120 min

Designers: Daniele Tascini, Dávid Turczi

Notes: A game of the well knowns Daniele Tascini (T'zolkin, The Voyage of Marco Polo) and Dávid Turczi (Anacrony, Kitchen Rush, Cerebria), a very strategic and solid game, always with a toughs decisions to take, high replay-ability with different levels of difficulty, good components. In summary an excellent game that entered in the collection, actually, one of my favorites.   

At the end of our 3 players game

2.- Brikks (2018):

Brikks can be viewed as tabletop Tetris, with each player trying to place falling blocks into their grid to score the most points. As soon as you can no longer place a quadromino in your grid, your game is over and proceed to final score (lines with 8, 9 or 10 "X"+ point bonus track+ left over bombs + 1 point per 2 activated, but unused energy points).
Players: 1 - 4 

Mechanisms: Dice rolling, pattern building, tile placement

Playing time: 20 - 30 min

Designers: Wolfgang Warsch

Notes: In fact, Tetris and Roll-and-Write games are on fire. This year Wolfgang Warsch published four small games (The Mind, Illusion, Ganz Schön Clever and finally Brikks) all of them are easy to teach and play, all can be played with different levels of difficulty to support the entry of new players to the hobbie. For this one in specific, maked me remember when i have played tetris in the arcade. The main diference between boths games is that in the arcade you knew which was the next quadromino, in the board game the next quadromino is defining by rolling dice. The components are normal, everything in this game is logic. In sumary, it´s a good game to open or close a game nighta several times.

One of the play-mat at the end of the game

In the weekend only 2 games was played:

1.- Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King (2015) (x2) one play with the expansion "Journeyman (2017)" and the another without this expansion.

In this game the players are chieftains of famous clans and want to build their kingdoms to score as many points as possible during five rounds. In the end, the player with the best kingdom, becomes the sovereign of the island.

Players: 2 -5 

Mechanisms: Auction/Bidding, Set Collection, Tile Placement

Playing time: 30 - 50 min (75 with the expansion)

Designers: Andreas Pelikan, Alexander Pfister
Notes: A great game, one of my favorites, i feel sorry for not being able to play more games with the auction/bidding mechanic (Yunnan, Tramways, Five Tribes). This game is easy to teach and play, has a high replay-ability, good components, i don´t see any negative for this game.

Game end with the expansion (4 player game)

2.- The Mind (2018):

In sumary, the game is a deck of numbered cards (1-100) and the players will try to discard cards, without talk, in ascending order, trying to complete the levels associated to a numbers of players.
Players: 2 -4 

Mechanisms: Hand management, cooperative play.

Playing time: 15 min

Designers: Wolfgang Warsch
How i said before, a little game, very easy to teach and play, with a little bit of tension because the players can´t talk, like Brikks a good for open or close any game night. 

At the beginning

And that´s all, this was a our week of games,

See you next week.

What was Played?? Week 46

Hi Folks,

This weekend in the garage was not normal, it must have been the first week in almost 2 years that no new games were played, but it was not because of this that there was no fun at night.

To open the night we have played:

1.- Carcassonne (x2) (2000):

One the most oldest modern board game

Players: 2 - 5 

Mechanisms:Tile placement, Area Control / Area Influence

Playing time: 30 - 45 min

Designers: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede

And the Winner is ......

Then:
2.- Whistle Stop (2017):

It is a US coast-to-coast train journey in which players move their trains to the west and pick up goods, they can deliver these goods to small towns to gain action on railroads, or insure them for a larger payment when they arrive to the west coast.
Players: 2 - 5 

Mechanisms: Action Point Allowance System, Pick-up and Deliver, Tile placement, Set Collection.

Playing time: 75 min

Designers: Scott Caputo

At the Beginning

Almost game end

And finally:
3.- Roll for the Galaxy (2014):

This game it´s the dice version of "Race for the Galaxy", who love dice games this one it's a very good option. In the game the dice represent your populace, whom you direct to develop new technologies, settle worlds, and ship goods to building your space empire.
Players: 2 - 5 

Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Deck/ Pool Building, Simultaneous Acton Selection, 

Playing time: 45 min

Designers: Wei-Hwa Huang, Thomas Lehmann

At the end

What was Played?? Week 45

Hi everyone,

That weekend like we promise we were going to InvictaCon, the board game convention in Porto - Portugal to play and see the latest news from Essen 2018.

That was a space were the Con took place

Salão Multiusos de Gondomar

Our first day was friday night and we played:

1.- Azul - Stained Glass of Sintra (2018):

One of the most wanted games from Essen 2018 after Azul won prizes in everywhere, this second chapter was awesome and beautiful with a new way to score points and a new element; a glazier; that give us one action during the game.

In that game the players must build windows selecting glass panes from the factories to complete the owns patterns being careful not to damage or waste supplies in the process.

Players: 2 - 4 

Mechanisms: tile drafting, tile placement, pattern building.

Playing time: 30-45 min

Designers: Michael Kiesling

2.- Arraial (2018):
Another game with Portuguese theme, we are on fire, introduced in Essen 2018. "Arraial" is the name given to traditional Portuguese summer celebrations during which people take to the streets eating, drinking, and having fun in the old neighborhoods that are bedecked with arches, colorful balloons, popular music, and the aroma of sweet basil.
If you like Tetris, that could be a good option to play, very clever and fast, with good components.

Players: 1 - 4 

Mechanisms: Action point allowance system, tile placement, pattern building.

Playing time: 30 min

Designers: Paulo Soledade e Nuno Bizarro Sentieiro

At the end of the game

The best "Arraial" of the night

3.- Downforce (2017):
It's time to race, first the players must bid for cars and drivers, then they play cards to move the cars (own or not), and when the first car pass the yellow line all players must bet in one car (the car with better option to win), the game ends when the cards in the hand of players are exhausted. At the end the players receive money for your(s) car(s) race position, for your bets and pay the initial cost for car(s) and driver(s), the player with more money win the game.

Players: 2 - 6

Mechanisms: Aution/Biding, Betting/Wagering, hand management.

Playing time: 20 - 40 min

Designers: Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, Wolfgang Kramer.

At the middle of the race

Saturday, another day to play another couple of games.

1.- Santoniri (2016):
A beautiful puzzle, abstract and simple strategy game, where the players in turns must move one builder and build around him. The game ends immediately if either of your builders reaches the third level.
Players: 2 - 3

Mechanisms: Grid movement, tile placement.

Playing time: 20 min

Designers: Gord!

At the end

 2.- Dragon Castle (2017):
Another beautiful abstract and simple strategy game. Who like "Mahjong" certainly that's a good option to play a hundred of times.
Good components, different scenarios, high replay-ability, 3 different modes of play, all good stuff for a good game.
Players: 2 - 4

Mechanisms: Pattern building, tile placement.

Playing time: 30 - 45 min

Designers: Hjalmar Hach, Luca Ricci, Lorenzo Silva

At the end

3.- Great Western Trail (2016):
I don´t have more adjectives to describe that awesome game, I'm just shame that I do not play that game more often.
Players: 2 - 4

Mechanisms: Deck/pool building, hand management, point to point movement, set collection, tile placement.

Playing time: 75 - 150 min

Designers: Alexander Pfister.

At the beginning

And finally on sunday, we´ve sorry for not publish photos from this day:

1.- Teotiuacán - City of Gods (2018):
One of the most wanted game from Essen 2018, looks like a mix between Tzolkin and The Voyages of Marco Polo, goods elements, very clever, some many paths to win point, i was not disappointed after play that game.
2.- The River (2018):
Another most wanted game from Essen 2018. A good and solid worker placement family game, beautiful pieces like always Days of Wonder does, very simple game, a good choice for families.
3.- Luxor (2018):
If you like simple games with a lot of fun, that could be a good choice,
4.- Sagrada (2017):
The most played games of mine, i don't said anything.
5.- Azul (2017):
Always a good and strategic plays whit this game.

How can you see, that weekend we had a lot of fun, we try so many new games, some of then probably will be in our collections soon.

And that's all folks, we'll see you in the next post.

What was played in the middle of the week 45???

Hi folks,

In this week the people join in the garage to play:

1.- Wasteland Express Delivery Service (2017):
The players take the role of the half-insane drivers for the last delivery company left of earth. In this game drivers will deliver goods and guns between the handful of settlements pockmarked throughout the hellscape that you call home and take on missions from the handful of factions still trying to hold onto the last dregs of civilization.

Players: 2 - 5 

Mechanisms: Action point allowance system, dice rolling, pick up and deliver.

Playing time: 90-120 min

Designers: Jonathan Gilmour, Ben Pinchback, Matt Riddle

Near the end of the game

2.- Tiny Epic Zombies (KS edition) (2018):
In this game, survivors are always on the run, collecting weapons, killing Zombies and working toward completing objectives. Completing 3 objectives can win you the game but if you're too focused on the objectives, the Zombies will overrun the mall and that will be the end of you.

Players: 1 - 5

Mechanisms: Dice rolling, area control/area influence, pick up and deliver, press your luck.

Playing time: 30 min.

Designers: Scott Almes

Setup

And that was all.

In this weekend we will going to InvictaCon, the Board Game Convention in Porto. Follow us in the next post we will upload some photos of that event.