Welcome fellow board gamers to 2024! We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Here are the games that kicked off CBG’s first event of 2024!
It’s a Wonderful World: Crafting Your Utopia
It’s a Wonderful World, designed by Frédéric Guérard, invites players to become visionary leaders crafting their utopian societies.
This card-drafting and engine-building game challenges players to efficiently manage resources, make tough decisions, and race against time to develop the most prosperous civilization. A favourite game of Penny’s, you can always ask her to teach this one, just don’t expect to beat her!
At its core, It’s a Wonderful World excels in its accessibility. Player’s draft and manage cards representing various projects, each contributing to their society’s development. Balancing immediate benefits with long-term strategies is the key to success, as players compete to gain victory points and prove their utopia is superior.
The game’s unique mechanism of resource recycling adds an extra layer of depth, encouraging players to optimize their resource usage. At Coastal Board Gamers, we appreciate the game’s blend of accessible mechanics and strategic depth, making it a perfect choice for both seasoned gamers and newcomers alike.
Now onto the Near and Far Campaign report by Belinda.
Near & Far Campaign Session 9
Mammoth Jungle 6/1/24
This penultimate session had (arguably) one of the funniest moments of the campaign to date.
All the players had to build a camp on a mammoth space where they would gain knowledge of the past and receive clues of the location of the Last Ruin. Failure to do so would see the player lose 8 VP’s at game end. As there were only 4 of these spaces scattered throughout the jungle, the race to claim a space was on!
As my party (Vera) headed through the jungle, one step away from claiming one of the nearest mammoth spaces, they were surrounded by wolf-like monsters with needle like teeth who threatened to eat one of them. But Vera did not have enough combat to fight them so instead, chose to trick them with the promise of finding them a mammoth to eat.
After leading them through the jungle for hours, the monsters were on the verge of pouncing on her, but her party leapt into the river to escape, taking them all the way back to town. This sudden change in course almost had me spitting the dummy and had the other players in fits of laughter. I should have seen it coming as David could not keep a straight face while reading the storybook (thanks for nothing David!).
Towards the end of the session, I eventually found my mammoth space at the very outskirts of the map and no player was penalised.
Will the players be able to find the Last Ruin? Will they defeat the Boss cards or will they have to repeat the final session? Stay tuned as the hilarious Arzium adventures continue!
Campaign Corner Report
Apeps Rise
Our intrepid little party continue their adventures in Ambria. The last few sessions have found them exploring the strange mage tower that appears only at twilight.
This tower is full of puzzles and mysteries to solve. In this session our heroes gained a level after using their abilities to distract 3 large Water weirds (giant snakes made of water) to escape the Baths of the Eriadu Seas, a spa of sorts found on the 9th level of the tower.
Along the way they have been finding some strange artifacts, bonbons, with clues and puzzle pieces within. Can they solve the riddles to solve the puzzle? What is happening at the top of the tower?
At one stage, Volgath the mighty barbarian, went up the final staircase to see what was there. After peeking, he found the room to be bathed in a purple glow with thick tendrils of black smoke, “NOPE!” was the reply, as Volgath quickly went back downstairs.
Coastal Board Gamers would like to invite all readers to come along in 2024 and have a game. Seasoned gamers or those just wanting to sneak a peek are all welcome! We have a dedicated team of hosts and amazing members wanting to share this hobby with everyone and anyone.
Our next CBG event will be #86, on Saturday the 21st January, make it your first!