Board games abound - 4 January 2014

When we gathered on the first Saturday of January of the new year, our time was limited because of a number of factors. So we postponed the scheduled Warhammer Ancients game (which the historical section of the group had planned) and went with board games of various types.

A few of us played a hand of "Cheating Moth." This is a card game where cheating is not only tolerated but encouraged! There are rules for catching cheaters but only one player -the one who holds the "guard bug" may catch the cheaters. It's simple and a lot of fun.

Bear throws down a card while Katie looks bemused. I was holding the "guard bug" (the green card on the table) but I only caught Bear cheating once... once out of his FOUR times he confessed to.

Derek sets up a game of "Last Night of the World", a zombie apocalypse board game. This drew a lot of attention so you see (from left) Tyler, Derek, Katie, Bear, and Rob. I don't do zombie games; I find them - for lack of a better term - "icky." Besides which, I've worked in high school and I've seen enough zombies.

Beth plays "Pokemon Monopoly" with one of our youngest members. There are so many variants of Monopoly these days. The original game seems to be an excellent way to take up an entire weekend AND destroy your family. I saw a magazine article years ago where a group played Monopoly on the streets of Atlantic City, NJ, using the streets on which the game was based. They rolled huge dice - the size of packing crates - and ran around the city for a few days.

After the camera was put away, I ended up playing "Ticket to Ride", a railroad building game based on the map of North America in the early 20th Century. Each player gets "tickets" and attempts to complete the route outlined. For example, you might have to build your route from Chicago to New Orleans or Los Angeles to Sante Fe. Each completed route earns you points, some more than others. The biggie seems to be Montreal to Vancouver although the New York-San Francisco run might be bigger, if such a ticket exists! At another table, some folks broke out the Star Fleet "Heroclix" type game. I think I'd like to try that one sometime.

We've had a lot of snow here in Southwestern Ontario and more is coming today. I'm not sure what we're playing this week, but if time and duty (and weather) allow, I hope to be part of it.

If you're in the vicinity of London, Ontario, most any Saturday, stop by the Crouch Branch Library on Hamilton Road between 10am and 4pm (more or less) and see what the games group is up to that week! With the exception of some holiday weekends, someone is usually there. We meet in the large meeting room unless the library needs it for an activity, then there's a smaller room we meet in.