Summer game photos

Now that summer is over, I thought I'd compile some photos of games we've played over the last three months.

The yellow plague outbreak gets away from us.

We love Pandemic, but we have such a hard time winning.  Late last June, the yellow plague took root in remote Santiago, and we neglected to deal with it until the outbreak counter reached the critical point.

Hostages (four orange counters, upper right) await rescue by Alpha and Bravo Squads (red and green counters).

My son Liam and I enjoy playing Boots on the Ground (designer Sean Cooke, publisher Worthington Games) in co-op as a team against the game.  Pictured is an attempted hostage rescue that isn't going so well.  My squad is holed up in a building trying to recover from wounds while Liam's squad is making its way down the street to rendezvous with us.

My agent in the Heroes' Garden secures a quest for immediate resolution.

I picked up a copy of Lords of Waterdeep at the HistoriCon flea market last July, and Kathy and I played it for the first time later that week.  We enjoyed it, and I expect to play more of it this year.

End position in Le Havre

We really like Le Havre and have played it a number of times, although the short form of the game leaves us wanting more, I think.  I think we have to get a little more practiced, though, to play quickly enough to try it in its full form.

Mars Needs Mechanics in its inaugural game in our back yard

A couple of weeks ago, I told the story of how my good friend Stephen Craig arranged for me to get one of 25 limited-edition steel copies of Mars Needs Mechanics (designer Ben Rosset, publisher Nevermore Games).  Kathy and I played it in the back yard recently, and we really like it.  What a treasure.

Robber Knights by the heat of a fire bowl

Kathy's winning Citadel

We've had a bit of cooling weather as autumn approaches - cool enough to break out the fire bowl, but not so cool as to keep us from enjoying a game of Robber Knights in the back yard.

Finally, Kathy and I never tire of Citadels, such a versatile game that scales so well from two to seven players.  A brilliant, mind-bending second-guessing spouse-tormenting game.  In our last session earlier this week, she killed me with a late-game Architect move in which she built three districts with just five coins to reach eight districts and all five colors to trigger the end of the game.  I never saw it coming, and she won 31 to 23.