All the Games on Our Shelves

 The game Saboteur was introduced to us a couple of years back by our friends the Gerdes Family.  It's a good one, but it had been a while since we'd played it.  We pulled it out early in this Thanksgiving week and played with family who had arrived from Southern California.  We use a combination of the original and the Saboteur 2 expansion.  It's a game that can easily be taken more or less seriously, as the mood dictates.  I was more interested in visiting with family than in being super strategic, and it worked just fine.  This is a game involving dwarves mining for gold.  Each player has a secret role (blue dwarf, green dwarf, boss dwarf, saboteur, engineer, etc.) for which they gain more or less gold at the end of each round depending on how the building of the mine goes.  The building starts with the card you see in the foreground in the picture above - the card with the ladder on it.  For most players, the crystals you see on these cards don't matter, but

 If you compare my rate of posting from this summer when I began this game blog to my rate of posting this fall as I'm back in the classroom, you'll see a DRASTIC drop in the number of opportunities we have to play games.  Also, if you look at most of my posts, you'll see that the majority of game times involve just our immediate family, as we are a rather introverted bunch of homebodies.  However, we have recently had opportunity to be hosted and to host, and, of course, gaming was part of that!  The first game here is Set Cubed , which is a board game based on the Set card game .  I didn't play, since I was getting in some "grandma time" and holding my new baby granddaughter Maleah, but Maleah and I were right there on the side taking in all the action.  This all took place in Southern California where we were visiting for our grandson Declan's second birthday and to welcome our new granddaughter, 3-day-old Maleah, into the world.  It was a quick

 Forbidden Island is a family favorite.  I like it because it's cooperative, so we all win or lose together - usually win, but it was a close call tonight!  I'm kind surprised it's such a favorite for us, as at least one of my sons is not much of a fan of cooperative games - likes to make his own choices!  I like the artwork and the pieces.  Also, the game plays well and tells a good story.  Basically each player is a member of a group of explorers on an island that is sinking, and the goal is to get the four treasures and to fly off the island without drowning.  Above is our initial set- up for tonight.  Cards are always placed randomly, but in the same shape as shown above.  Here are the treasures to be claimed.  During each turn a player takes 3 actions.  He can move to another tile (orthogonally), shore up sinking tiles, hand off a treasure card to another player with whom he is sharing a tile, use his special ability, etc.  Each player has a role, and it is