So last Saturday was the first time playing Castle Dice. I must say it was rather fun and yet there was enough of the “cut throat” element within the game to make you keep playing. We played with 4 players and it ran about 40 minutes or so.   Here is a small description from makers page:

“Castle Dice is a light worker-placement, dice-drafting game in which the players have been ordered by the king to build castles along the borders of the kingdom. The player who can create the greatest castle will become the new heir to the throne. Players will explore the land by rolling the dice, and then take turns gathering resources from them. These resources are then used to hire workers and improve castles. Players must gather and spend wisely as the Barbarians from the neighboring lands will attack players and steal their resources throughout the game. At the end of seven turns, the player who has built the greatest castle (earned the most victory points) wins the game!”

In one of my older TableTop posts I said I came in right in the middle of a “stressful” game of Ticket to Ride: Heart of Africa, sadly I wasn’t able to play that time. BUT! This go around I finally got a chance to play. I enjoyed it, aside from people getting mad haha. The only time I got mad at the game, was when I realized I just screwed myself on completing on my last route. ONE TRAIN SHORT!!! I almost pulled a Anne Wheaton at the table too.

Game description from the publisher:

“Set in the vast wilderness of Africa at the height of its exploration by intrepid explorers, missionaries and adventurers, Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 3 – The Heart of Africa, a single-sided expansion map for Ticket to Ride or Ticket to Ride: Europe, focuses on the central and southern “heart” of the continent displayed in a vertical format.

This expansion introduces 45 new terrain cards, divided into three different terrain types. Each type is associated with different route colors: Desert/Savanna cards for yellow, orange and red routes; Jungle/Forest cards for green, blue and purple routes; and Mountain/Cliff cards for black, white and grey routes. Players can draw terrain cards just like train cards and they may use these to double the value of the routes they claim, under certain conditions.”

So after everyone cooled down from Ticket to Ride. We picked up Citadels. A rather enjoyably game and fast, I think the game it’s self only took about 30ish. Easy to learn and really easy to screw other players over hahaha (joking.. kinda)

Here is a small description from makers page:

“In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects her eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins.

Players start with a number of building cards in their hand; buildings come in five colors, with the purple buildings typically having a special ability and the other colored buildings providing a benefit when you play particular characters. At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character. Each character has a special ability, and the usefulness of any character depends upon your situation, and that of your opponents. The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.

On a turn, a player earns two or more gold (or draws two building cards then discards one), then optionally constructs one building (or up to three if playing the architect this round). Buildings cost gold equal to the number of symbols on them, and each building is worth a certain number of points. In addition to points from buildings, at the end of the game a player scores bonus points for having eight buildings or buildings of all five colors.”

The following day we played Alhambra with the The Magical Buildings expansion. Vary cool!! Even tho it was a small add on with only six titles, it added a whole to twist to the game. One that can make you or break you.  The game we played only lasted about an hour and a half, not to bad seeings how we had one last over FOUR hours. Here is a small description from makers page:

“Alhambra: The Magical Buildings, a promotional item from Queen Games for Spiel 2011, consists of six new tiles – one in each of the six colors of buildings – that are placed in the bag with the other tiles at the start of the game.

When drawn, they are placed for sale as with any other building. What’s different about these buildings is that no direction is up, so when added to a player’s Alhambra, the tile can be turned and placed in any legal position based on all the building rules except orientation. During scoring, these magical buildings count as a building of the appropriate color when determining majorities.”

Sadly I have the “Wil Wheaton cure” when it comes to this game. I own it, I love it…. BUT I NEVER WIN AT IT… I have never won one game haha. Oh well, one day…… Right?