Game Night Home Version: Nov. 27th

While we are still the throws of the Covid-19 pandemic, our in-store Friday Night Game Night
sessions continue as a Home Version. We encourage people to play their
favorite games at home and then share your results, any comments, and maybe a
picture to our 
Off The Charts Games Facebook page. This way we stay connected to our gaming families and share in each other’s fun.


Week 37:  Nov. 27, 2020
Here are the games that our gaming community played during the week and weekend and shared to our Facebook page:



Laurie and Brian played Splendor, a set collection game with multiple layers of sets to collect,
an easy rule set, quick but deep tactical game play and great components.


Azul

Leah’s family played Azula colorful tile-laying abstract game.



Mariposas

Ron and Lynn played Mariposasa game about the migration of the Monarch butterflies from
Michoacán Mexico to as far north as Winnipeg and Quebec City, and then back
again to the Michoacán area.




Saboteur

Angelik’s family played Saboteur, a card game of treasures and trickery.  Can you dig a path to the hidden gold before the saboteur strikes?




Great Games and Great Fun!
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We
have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games,
war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle
enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble
Hill, 
Pomegranate, Dowdle, and White Mountain.


We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.


Game Arrivals: Nov. 27th

Here are this week’s game arrivals:


New!
Century Golem
An Endless World
Plan B Games

Century Golem Edition: An Endless World is the final in the Century Golem Edition trilogy
– – 2 to 4 players – – 30 to 45 minutes play time.  This game is a
stand-alone game or it can be integrated with the other two, 
Century Golem Edition, and Century Golem

publisher description
Return to Carvania in the conclusion of the Century: Golem saga. Players
will travel to an Endless World in an effort to explore the frontier
wilderness while collecting various crystals and trading with the native
inhabitants of that magical realm.

Century Golem Edition – An Endless World
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New!

Star Trek Voyager Fluxx
Looney Labs

New in from Looney Labs is Star Trek Voyager Fluxx another in their line of themed Fluxx card games.  Fluxx, the ever-changing card game with crazy rules – – 2 to 6 players – – 10 to 40 minutes.

publisher description
Journey home from the Delta Quadrant aboard the Starship Voyager! The fourth Fluxx-style excursion into the Star Trek
universe features Captain Janeway and her crew along with plenty of
their enemies: The Kazon, Species 8472, and, of course, the Borg. You
will also find several Timeships, the Holographic Doctor’s mobile
emitter, and Janeway from the Future. The usual ever-changing rules of
Fluxx apply, with a few new twists like the Caretaker and Ancestor’s
Eve.

 

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Restocks



Azul


Azul a colorful tile-laying abstract game – – 2 to 4 players – – 30 to 45 minutes game play.




Century
Golem Edition

Century Golem Edition –  a family friendly easy-to-learn game of collecting and trading crystals to satisfy golem cards worth victory points.  Beautiful artwork and acrylic crystals.

2 to 5 players – – 30 to 45 minutes play time.












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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham.
We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games,
war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle
enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble
Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.



2020 Holiday Hours

 

Here are our Happy Holiday Hours beginning Friday November 27, 2020:

Tues:  11 Am to 7 PM

Weds:  11 AM to 7 Pm

Thurs:  11 AM to 7 PM

Fri:      11 AM to 7 PM

Sat:     11 AM to 7 PM

Sunday:  Noon to 4 PM

Monday:  Closed


Reminder Note: There are just 3 days remaining in our Autumn Sales Event.  Sale ends Sunday, November 29th, so be sure to come before it’s over.



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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.



Happy Thanksgiving

 

We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  

We have many great customers to be grateful for.


Please note, we will be closed on Thanksgiving Day.

Friday at 11 AM we will be back at the store for window shopping and curbside sales.





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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham.
We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games,
war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle
enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble
Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Profile: Antiquity Quest

Publisher:  Grandpa Becks Games, 2019
Players:  2 – 8
Time:  30 – 90 Min.
The theme of Antiquity Quest is that players are archeologists searching for the most valuable sets of antiquities and treasures.  This is a set collection and hand management card game that features six different suits of antiquities numbered from 1 to 5.  Each set has 5 of
each number plus three wilds.
  Additionally, there is a suit of five different treasure type cards which are more valuable than the antiquities.  And lastly, there are two types of special ability character cards (Tess and Nigel).  The objective is to get rid of your cards while creating as many specific sets worth victory points as you can.  The player with the most points at the end of three rounds is the winner.

 
The mechanics of the game are straight forward. Players begin the game with two hands of cards, ten as their starting hand, and ten face down in front of them that won’t be picked up until their first hand is completely gone.  On a player’s turn they either draw two cards from the face down draw deck or they take the entire discard pile.  That player can then lay down new sets in front of them and/or add to any existing sets, theirs or their opponents as well as play any Tess or Nigel cards that they have.  The round ends when a player has gotten rid of both hands of cards and will receive a significant scoring bonus for doing so.  The other players get one last turn to lay down whatever cards from their hand that they can.   
At the end of each round tally your points on the score pad. There is a 500-point bonus awarded to the player who ended the round.  Complete sets will score ranging from 250 points
to 1,000 points depending on its type.
 A completed set is 5 cards – no more no less.  A complete set made up of a mix of same numbers of a suit and treasures is not worth as much as a complete perfect set that is made up of one of each number for that suit, i.e. a straight.  The same goes for treasures, a complete set with duplicate treasures of the same type is not worth as many points as a complete set made up of one of each of the different treasures. Additionally, each card in your complete and incomplete sets scores points based on it’s type.  Points are also scored for played Tess and Nigel cards.  Lastly, point deductions for each unplayed card remaining in your hand.

Antiquity Quest is quick and smooth with scores that reach tens of thousands.  The cards are typical of Grandpa Beck’s Games high quality.  This one is fun with the opportunity for some serious I gotcha moments.
Antiquity Quest
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Continue to check in for the latest in
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham.
We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Night Home Version: Nov. 21st

Since we are still the throws of the Covid-19 pandemic, our in-store Friday Night Game Night
sessions continue as a Home Version. We encourage people to play their
favorite games at home and then post results, any comments, and maybe a
picture to our 
Off The Charts Games Facebook page. This way we stay connected to our gaming families and share in their fun.


Week 36:  Nov. 21, 2020
Here are the games that our gaming community played during the week and weekend and shared to our Facebook page:



Whistle Mountaion

Whistle Mountain

Mitch played the new game, Whistle Mountain, a unique tile laying, worker placement & resource management game with blimps, hot air balloons, and dreadnoughts.




Victorian Masterminds
Victorian Masterminds

Laurie and Brian played Victorian Mastermind, a game where you race to complete your nefarious machine while trying to sabotage your opponents.
They also played Fleet, a card game of acquiring fishing licenses, launching boats, and fishing the briny seas.

Fleet
Fleet

Orleans
Orleans Invasion
Orleans with Invasion Expansion

Lynn and Ron played the cooperative mode of Orleans with the Invasion Expansion, a bag building, worker placement, strategy game.
Spirit Island
Spirit Island Jagged Earth

Bill’s family played Spirit Island and the new expansion Spirit Island Jagged Eartha cooperative, settler-destruction strategy game set in an alternate-history world around A.D. 1700.  



Wingspan
Clank!

Megan played these 3 games:  Wingspan, a card driven, engine-building game featuring 170 species of actual birds.  Clank!, a deck-building, dungeon crawling, press-your-luck game.  And, Gloomhaven, a cooperative game of tactical combat in a unique, evolving fantasy world.

Gloomhaven

Space Base
Antiquity Quest

Lynn and Ron played Space Base, an intergalactic dice game of fleet management.
They also played Antiquity Quest, a set collection card game with some interesting player interactions.

Point Salad
Point Salad
Marlo played several games as well.
Point Salad, an easy to learn card game of collecting fruits and vegetables for salad points.  DinoGenics, a game of building and managing your own dinosaur island resort.

DinoGenics
DinoGenics

And, Starship Samurai, a game of area control and massive mech combat.


Starship Samurai
Starship Samurai

Great Games and Great Fun!
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~


Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We
have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games,
war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle
enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble
Hill, 
Pomegranate, Dowdle, and White Mountain.


We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Arrivals: Nov. 19th

 

Here is this week’s game arrivals:


New Game!
Whistle Mountain
Bézier Games

New from Bezier Games is Whistle Mountaina unique tile laying, worker placement & resource management game for 2-4 player that plays in 60 to 90 minutes.  As indicative of it’s physical weight, the game is packed with lots of components that include wood blimps, hot air balloons, and dreadnoughts.

Whistle Mountain

publisher description

Welcome to Whistle Mountain! Collect resources with the assistance of blimps, dreadnoughts, and hot air balloons as you make your way up the mountainside. Spend those hard earned resources on scaffolds, machines, and equipment to rise higher than the competition as the water levels from the melting snow caps rise beneath you! Most importantly, you will need to protect your workers from the ever threatening floodwaters by moving them to safety on the newly constructed scaffolding.

The evolving gameboard creates ever-changing options as this worker-placement strategy game processes.


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New Game Expansion!
Legendary – Realm of Kings
Upper Deck

Realm of Kings is the latest small box expansion to the cooperative deck-building game, Marvel Legendary, where in 60 to 90 minutes 1-5 players can play cooperatively or competitively to assemble Marvel’s finest heroes to combat masterminds and thwart their schemes.

publisher description

If you’re not bowing or curtsying to this royal family, then you’d better be running from them as the soft-spoken Black Bolt leads his incredible family of Inhumans into the world of Legendary.  Though armed with new keywords and powerful threats, from Masterminds both within the royal family and without.  Whether you encounter the Terrigen Mist or not, embrace your  inherent potential as you wield the magnificent and multifarious powers of the Inhumans against all comers.



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Return of a Classic!
Station Master
Calliope Games


The classic Station Master  train-themed card game returns in an updated version from Calliope Games – – 2 to 6 players – – 30 to 50 minutes game play. 
Every morning, the train station is bustling with passengers looking to depart for their destination on time.  As Station Master, your job is to keep passengers happy by guiding them to their right coaches and sending the trains out of the station on time, earning you points for efficiency.  When completed trains leave, players with passengers aboard the train score Efficiency points.

publisher description

Station Master is loaded with railcars of positive and negative values, so you’ll need to plan carefully when sending trains off, as you’ll be affecting other players’ scores when you do!  More fun is added to the mix when Action cards are played that alter the rules with special one-time benefits.   The game ends once all  trains have left the station, and the player with the most Efficiency points is declared the winner and triumphant Station Master!

Station Master
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Restocks




Isle of Cats – a polyomino tile placement with colorful cats – – 1 to players – – 60 to 90 minutes play time.






Monster Factory – a super fun kids game of creating monsters one tile at a time – 2 to 6 players – – 30 minutes.

 






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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Profile: Century Spice Road and Golem Edition

Publisher:  Plan B Games, 2018

Players:  2 – 5

Time:  30 – 45 Min.


Century
Spice Road
is a game about trading spices on the way to
providing spices in the right mix to satisfy customers and gain points for
doing it.

Century
Golem
is a re-themed version of Century
Spice Road
, only you are traveling the golem road for
crystals to deliver and gain points from those deliveries.


The game mechanics are quick to learn and easy to teach.  Spices come in four flavors represented in
color cubes.  They start with yellow
(turmeric) and become progressively more valuable as they are traded up to
green (cardamom), to red (saffron), and finally brown (cinnamon). In the
central play area there will be a row of five face-up customer cards with spice
requirements and a stated victory point value. 
These will be replaced as they are claimed.  Next, there is a row of six face-up merchant
cards – also replenished as they are taken. 
Merchant cards are played to either upgrade or trade spices.  On a turn, you may take one of four possible
actions: You can play a card from your hand to take its action (upgrade or
trade).  It then goes in your own discard
pile.  You can take a new merchant card
from the central row of six face-up merchant cards currently available and add
it to your hand.  You can claim a claim a
customer/point card by discarding the required spice cubes.  Satisfying a customer from the first or
second slot can yield a gold or silver coin worth end game points.  Or, you can pick up your previously played
merchant cards that make up your discard pile and add them back into your
hand.  Play continues in this manner to
the end of the game.  The game ends when
a player has gained 5 or 6 customer/point cards depending on player count.  Add up the points from customer cards (they
range from 6 points up to 20 points). 
Add in points for any gold coins and silver coins gained.  Then add a point for each non-yellow spice
cube left in your inventory.  The player
with the most points is the winner.

Century
Golem
features exactly the same game play with fantasy
artwork and crystals rather than spice cubes.
 
The crystal colors are slightly different, moving upward from yellow to
green to blue to pink.

The secret to success in both Century Spice Road and Century Golem is building the right set of merchant cards that work in unison to accumulate spices/crystals faster and more efficiently than your opponents.  Even though this game requires good decision making, it flows smoothly and quickly.  This game works well for both gamers and non-gamers alike.


Century Spice Road
Century Golem

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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham.
We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games,
war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle
enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble
Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

Game Profile: Architects Of The West Kingdom

Publisher:  Renegade Games, 2018

Players:  1 – 5

Time:  60 – 80 Min.


Architects Of The West Kingdom is all about becoming the best builder of them
all!
  During the game players will construct individual buildings and work to help construct the cathedral.  This will be accomplished by placing workers to gather resources, hire apprentices, select buildings, or even visit the black market, the town center, and the guardhouse.
Managing money is a challenge.  Things can be expensive in the West Kingdom.  Some ways to get money are not on the up and up.  Use those methods and you lose virtue which can cost you points at the end of the game.  It can also prevent you from working on the cathedral.  On the other hand, bring being virtuous can score positive points at game end, however, it can keep you from visiting the black market.

Architects Of The West Kingdom presents players with lots of choices.  Each player starts with 20 workers and eleven different places on the game board to place them to initiate actions.  Each turn consists of playing one worker and taking the corresponding action.  Workers can be used to double up or enhance previous actions.  For example, place a worker in the quarry and collect a stone.  Later place another worker in the quarry along side your first worker to collect 2 stones.  A third worker later will yield 3 stones.  But wait!  Now you are too strong at the quarry.  One of your opponents places a worker in the Town Center which allows them to capture all of your workers in the quarry and place them on their player board.  Later,
they can sell them to the guardhouse for much needed money.
  It is expensive to release workers from another players’ board, or you can wait until they are sold to the guardhouse
where you can get them back with a worker placement action. 


One of the most critical actions is go to the workshop.  There players can recruit apprentices and acquire buildings to be built on a later turn.  Some buildings require certain types of apprentices to be hired before they can be constructed.  Players will go to the workshop many times.  Yes, workers can be captured from the workshop too, as well as from most locations.  The game flows back and forth with players gathering, building, and capturing throughout.
Game ends is triggered when a certain number of construction actions have been taken.  These include both the construction of players’ buildings and contributions to the cathedral
construction.  Points are awarded for buildings, steps on cathedral construction, and either plus or minus points depending on a players’ positive or negative position on the virtue track.  The player with the most points wins.

Architects Of The West Kingdom is a stand out when it comes to player interaction.  Your workers are going to get captured multiple times.  You will also do your fair share of capturing others.  It is a way to gain much needed money.  In this game, the capturing does not feel all that negative.  Having 20 workers and many places to go and multiple ways to gain points provides plenty of replay value.  The board and components are well done.  The game really shines at 3, 4, and 5 players.
 
Architects Of The West Kingdom
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Continue to check in for the latest in
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Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.
 

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.

 

Game Profile: Carpe Diem

Publisher:  Ravensburger, 2018

Players:  2 – 4

Time:  45 – 75 Min.


Carpe
Diem
is a game about building the best district in ancient
Rome.  Players will use their patrician
to move across the main game board to acquire the building tiles to construct their
district.  Each player will have their
own district player board to fill.

The mechanics of the game are straight forward. There are three rounds.  On a turn, each player in turn order will move
their patrician along one or two lines to a different location on the main
board and collect one building tile from that new location.  They will place the selected tile on their
district board adjacent to an already existing building.  The starting spot is printed on each district
board.  Along the way, they will displace
banderole chits on their boards which moves them up on a central banderole track
that influences both turn order during the round, and points at end game
scoring.  Players districts can be
constructed with villas, four types of landscapes, four types of dwellings, plus
markets, bakeries, and fountains.  Each
of these different types, when completed, will give a player specific resource(s)
or an immediate use ability.  Villas are
an exception; in that they score points at the end of the game.  The round continues until all tiles have been
taken from the main board.

The genius in Carpe Diem is the way
points are scored.  Villas score based on
their completed size.  The banderole
track is scored based on how far a player has progressed.  There are frame achievements set up randomly during
the game set up phase.  Each player’s
district board will have a locking frame on each of the four sides.  Each frame piece has two achievements with
their VP value indicated on it.  In order
to score these achievements, a player must build the prescribed building straddling
the row or column where the achievement lies. 
Fountain cards gained when placing a fountain tile provide additional
scoring opportunities.

 Separate from game end scoring, there are three mid game scoring phases that
take place at the end of each round.  Scoring
cards are randomly selected from four different decks and randomly placed on
the main board in a grid.  In player
order, based on position on the banderole track, each player must place one of
their scoring discs between two of these round scoring cards.  Each card has different requirements, i.e. completed
buildings or resources to pay.  The
player will score both cards.  The disc
will remain there for the remainder of the game and that spot cannot score
again.  For each card where a player
cannot meet its requirements, they will receive negative 4 points.  It is not uncommon to receive negative
points, especially in the first mid-scoring after Round 1.

Carpe
Diem
is a true point salad kind of game.  There are multiple ways to score points and multiple
ways to win.  It plays well with 2, 3. And
4 players.


Carpe Diem


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Continue to check in for the latest in
board games and jigsaw puzzles.
~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ ~


Located at 30 NW 2nd Street in Historic Downtown Gresham. We have a full range of family games, strategy games, Euro-style games, war games, card games, dice games and more. Also for the puzzle enthusiasts we carry quality jigsaw puzzles from Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, Pomegranate, New York Puzzle Company, White Mountain, and Dowdle.

We proudly serve Gresham and the greater Portland and Vancouver area.