Chewsday Challenge - North Albert Boston Pizza - October 7, 2014 (18:00)

[scuudz]

Just to clarify, I do not intend to play a whole game of TS.  I will have the board set up, go over rules and strategy.  I've played so much TS in the past couple of years that I've had my fill until 2015.  I will probably jump into a different game if there is one starting at 7:30.

[prairieguy]

Maybe I will sit in on the teaching - want to take a shot at Ars Victor with me after the teaching?

[scuudz]

Maybe I will sit in on the teaching - want to take a shot at Ars Victor with me after the teaching?

Yup, sounds good!

[omegadirective]

630 yes.

[miles]

Sign me up for Russian Railways

[silent_rob]

I'd like to give Russian Railways a try.  Please mark me down.

[Cordawg]

I'll take the last spot in Russian rails

[silent_rob]

I just picked-up the game Diamonds (a big hit at this year's GenCon).  It's a great little game and I was thinking about bringing it to play but it's pretty short.  However, I realized that I have a couple of other games that are also short and have something in common with this new one.  With that in mind I invite anyone interested to come out for...

silent_rob's Gem-Encrusted Mini-Tourney

Cheesy-sounding, I know, but hopefully fun, too.  I'm bringing 3 games to play: Indigo, Splendor and Diamonds.  Each of them only takes around 20-30 minutes to play and features jewels in some way.  Participants will play one game of each, keeping track of their scores and the person with the most cumulative points for all three games will be the mini-tourney winner (and get some sort of prize...likely something flashy and cheap from The Dollar Store).  The player who wins each game gets an extra 5 points added to their overall total but even if you lose a game your score is still included.

Indigo is an abstract strategy game that's similar to Tsuro. Except that instead of moving one piece around the board, you lay tiles to move multiple gems around and, hopefully, get them to one of your gates so you can earn points.

Splendor is set collecting game where you get jewels (shown on poker chips) to buy gem mines and other valuable commodities (shown on cards) and then use all of that to try to get the attention of nobles (and get their valuable tiles).  Many of the cards and the tiles are worth victory points so it's really an "engine-building" game where you're trying to be the first to get a set amount of victory points.

And Diamonds is a trick-taking card game where there's a big pile of diamonds in the centre of the table and every player has a "vault" with a "showroom" in front of it.  On top of the usual trick-taking mechanics, each suit in the deck (60 cards, 4 suits each running from 1-15) also has an action.  So winning a trick means you can take that action and either take diamonds from the central supply, protect diamonds by moving them into your vault or steal diamonds from other players (though you can take suit actions at other points in the game, too).

Two of the games have a maximum of 4 players so we'll stick with that.  I'll start each game by going over the rules so don't worry if you've never played any of them before - they're all pretty simple and easy to pick up.

(4 players, 90+ minutes at 8:30)

Indigo - named for the deep shade of blue obtained from the Indian indigo plant - is a board game of intricate pathways and twists with players competing to gather precious gems, including the blue sapphire. Game play involves laying pathways along the board on which players move gems to the exits on the board's edge. The exits can belong to them or be shared with another competitor. If the exits are shared, each player is rewarded with a gem. If it belongs to only one player, all the gems go to that player. Indigo is a quick-play game with simple instructions for two to four players.

As a wealthy Renaissance merchant, acquire mines and transportation, hire artisans and woo the nobility. Create the most fantastic jewelry to become the best-known merchant of them all! Acquire precious stones to trade them for development cards. Use development cards to acquire more gem stones. Use your gems and gold to create the most fantastic jewelry, and appeal to the nobles to gain the prestige you need to win.

Diamonds is a trick-taking card game in which players collect Diamonds — not cards bearing that suit, mind you, but rather actual "Diamond Crystals" (acrylic crystals) included in the game. What makes the game of Diamonds different from other trick-taking card games is that when you cannot follow suit you get a "Suit Action" based on what suit you do play. Suit Actions are also taken by the winner of each trick, as well as at the end of a full Round of play. Suit Actions will enable players to take Diamond Crystals from the Supply, moving them to their Showroom (where they may score 1 point) or to their Vault (where they will score 2 points). The Vault is a secure area, but the Showroom is vulnerable to theft by the other players. Whoever has the most points in Diamond Crystals at the end of the game wins!

[roxy72]

Love the mini tournament idea!

[PhotoJim]

Rob, I'm in I was going to talk Lori into bringing Splendor, so you solved the problem!