Stuff the Stockings with Fun!
Stuff the Stockings with Fun!
The decorations are up, the travel plans are made, shopping is almost done but what are your out-of-town guest going to do while they are here!? A person can only drink so much eggnog, watch so many holiday movies, and listen to so much holiday music before they start to get a little stir-crazy. I’ve been there (on both sides) trying to think of things to do that would occupy my time and my guests’ time. Playing classic games always brings back fond family memories; especially games like UNO, Rummikub, Monopoly, Connect 4, and Mancala. But, with the aid of social media new games are brought to the front making it easy to share across the web and even easier for us hosts to stay on top of the latest #trends and provide everyone with a new and exciting game this holiday. To help with your search, I’ve compiled the hottest, most trendy games that are currently on the market that will definitely make your season bright!
- You are bird enthusiasts—researchers, bird watchers, ornithologists, and collectors—seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your network of wildlife preserves. Each bird extends a chain of powerful combinations in one of your habitats (actions). These habitats focus on several key aspects of growth: Gain food tokens via custom dice in a birdfeeder dice tower; Lay eggs using egg miniatures in a variety of colors; Draw from hundreds of unique bird cards and play them.
- The two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their CODENAMES. The teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposite team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.
- As skilled members of a disease-fighting team, you must keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. You and your teammates will travel across the globe, treating infections while finding resources for cures. You must work as a team to succeed. Pandemic is a cooperative game, where all players win or lose together. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics fuel the spreading plagues. Can you find all four cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands!
- Plant and shape the ever-changing forest as you cultivate your seeds and your strategy. Take your trees through their life-cycle, from seedling to full bloom to rebirth, and earn points as their leaves collect energy from the revolving sun's rays. Carefully pick where you sow and when you grow as the richest soil grows the strongest trunks, and the trees left in the shadows are blocked from the sun and from collecting light points.
- Tickets, please -- all aboard for this cross-country train adventure. Ticket to Ride is a beautifully illustrated coast-to-coast railroad journey. Earn points by claiming routes, building continuous routes between cities, and by building the longest routes, but points are lost if you do not successfully complete the route on your destination ticket.
- It is a time of unrest in 1920s Europa. The ashes from the first Great War still darken the snow. The capitalistic city-state known simply as “The Factory”, which fueled the war with heavily armored mechs, has closed its doors, drawing the attention of several nearby countries. Scythe is an engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s period. It is a time of farming and war, broken hearts and rusted gears, innovation and valor. In Scythe, each player represents a character from one of five factions of Eastern Europe who are attempting to earn their fortune and claim their faction's stake in the land around the mysterious Factory. Players conquer territory, enlist new recruits, reap resources, gain villagers, build structures, and activate monstrous mechs.
- The creak of footsteps on the stairs, the smell of something foul and dead, the feel of something crawling down your back. This fun and suspenseful game is a new experience almost every time you play - you and your friends explore "that creepy old place on the hill" until enough mystic misadventures happen that one of the players turns on all of the others!
- As skilled members of a disease-fighting team, you must keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. You and your teammates will travel across the globe, treating infections while finding resources for cures. You must work as a team to succeed. Pandemic is a cooperative game, where all players win or lose together. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics fuel the spreading plagues. Can you find all four cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands!
Pandemic: Legacy Season 1 – Red
- As your Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 campaign continues, the world you are fighting to protect becomes uniquely your own. Characters are affected by their experiences battling the global pandemic and cities feel the weight of the outbreaks and epidemics that sweep through them. Even the diseases themselves evolve as you play. These developments have a direct impact on the game itself. Cities panic and become harder to travel to as the infection spreads. Characters' abilities are diminished as outbreaks take their mental toll. Your team is all that stands between global catastrophe, and you decide how it evolves. Enhance your characters' abilities or add powerful new event cards to the player deck. Many options exist, each of which will shape the course of your campaign.
- Played within the boundaries of a medieval walled city, two rivals battle to gain the most territory by strategically repositioning their building pieces back on the board. Victory comes to the player who is best at blocking and out-maneuvering their rival.
- Choose the Wonders you aim to build and guide your city through three Ages of drafting cards from cunningly shaped tableaus. Victory can be achieved in three ways: by invading your opponent's capital, by achieving a monopoly on scientific advancement, or simply by crafting the city that will earn the most victory points in the end. But be warned: only seven of the eight Wonders in play can be built. Will your city achieve greatness, or will your opponent prevent you from completing all your Wonders?
- In Carcassonne, players build the area surrounding this impressive city, one tile at a time. They then place a follower on fields, cities, roads or monasteries in order to score as many points as possible. These followers will become knights, monks, farmers and thieves, depending on where they are placed. No matter their function, the player who will most cleverly use their followers will win the game.
- Play mutant monsters, gigantic robots and other monstrous creatures, rampaging the city and vying for position as the one and only King of Tokyo! Combine your dice to gather energy, heal your monster, or just slap the other monsters down! Spend your energy to trigger permanent or one-shot special powers: a second head, body armor, nova death ray... Stop at nothing to become the King of Tokyo... but that's when the real trouble begins for you!
- Bananagrams is the award winning anagram game that will drive you bananas! It is a fast and fun word game that requires no pencil, paper or board; all you need is a table. One hand can be played in as little as five minutes.
- Build up your kingdom by claiming the lands that surround it, choosing the best wheat fields, forests, grasslands, swamps, mines, and towns to add to your ever-growing riches. As you conquer these lands, call upon your trusty knights to collect taxes for the royal treasury, and spend this money wisely by building up your towns. Try your best to win the queen's favor along the way, but make sure to watch out for the dragon!
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