I was there at the (nearly) beginning of Gulf Games… my wife & I were one of nine families who made up the attendees of Gulf Games 2 in the fall of 1998. For the next 5 years, I was a pretty regular fixture – then we moved across the country and I only managed to make two Gulf Games events between 2004 and 2014. Beginning in 2015, I began bringing my sons (first the oldest, then both of them) to enjoy one of my favorite family-friendly gaming events.

My older son (Braeden) and I had delightful time road-tripping and gaming together – due to finishing college & his previous job, this is the first time we’ve been able to both make it to a “winter” Gulf Games since 2019.

Join me as I take you along on our magical gaming mystery tour!

Wednesday

After a very long drive, we landed in Asheville, North Carolina for a four day extravaganza of gaming.

Escape From 100 Million B.C.

Escape is an odd but extremely enjoyable cooperative game designed by Kevin Wilson that requires players to piece their time machine back together while chasing off dinosaurs and fixing time rifts. Jay’s heavily armed botanist did some heavy lifting, while Braeden befriended both Young Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt to create a presidential hunting party. We were forced to leave JFK behind… as it was, we ended up accidentally bringing two velociraptors back with us to the present day. (We’ll still call that a qualified win for Braeden, Jay, Kevin H. & myself.)

I was chatting with Kevin Wilson (on bluesky) last year and the rights of the game have reverted to him – it would be wonderful to see a new version of this game appear!

River Valley Glassworks

When you’re looking for a short game with some tricky decisions, River Valley Glassworks certainly fits the bill. It’s incredibly easy to teach (due to all of the possible actions and scoring system laid out on the individual player boards) and plays in about 20 minutes for four players. The production is also a feature – I sprung for the “deluxe” edition last year and it’s a pleasure to play with. Braeden absolutely decimated Warren & Sharon & I – Sharon was closest to him and still was 22 points behind. (Do not ask what my score was.)

I have the expansion cards – which have some clever ideas – but still haven’t used them as we almost always have a new player at the table.

Daybreak

Sometimes, Daybreak – the cooperative game about climate change designed by Matt Leacock – is a vicious beast that forces you to watch the world burn (literally & figuratively) as your efforts fail again & again. Our game of Daybreak at Gulf Games was the complete opposite – Warren, Sharon, Braeden, & I managed to achieve carbon draw down during turn 4.

And, no, we didn’t use any of the “make it easier” cards.

I will note that the card system (tucking, playing, and activating cards) gives each player the opportunity to accomplish cunning combinations that are really satisfying to pull off – I think that’s the highlight point of the game design for me.

Cabanga!

We played Cabanga! twice this weekend – and with good reason. It’s a blindingly simple shedding game with the chance to throw cards on the table and yell “Cabanga!” What’s not to love? I initially described Cabanga to folks as “6 Nimmt-ish” – which isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t do an adequate job of explaining why this silly game is so much fun. Players are attempting to clear their hands – but when they leave a numerical gap between the card they play and the other card of that color on the table, the other players can call “Cabanga!”, discard the cards between the number, and force them to draw penalty cards. Lots of laughter ensues. Highly recommended.

I will note that over two full games, I only ended up with a combined score of 3. (Yes, I won both games – defeating Braeden twice, and Ron, Sharon, Warren, Sheldon, and Regina once each.)

The game was enhanced by using Greg’s copy that had a little Tiki figure to keep track of the most recently played card.

Exxtra/Excape

I think I play Exxtra at pretty much every Gulf Games – this classic dice game works great with six players – but I never win. This time was no exception. (Congrats to Ron, who was dangerously close to winning for at least 1/3 of the game – but allowed some of us to get close to him before finishing us off.)

Ready Set Bet

I’d originally discovered Ready Set Bet at a previous Gulf Games (GG50). This is a fast-moving and delightful betting game… made even better by the use of the app to run the races for us. It’s real-time – something I try to avoid as my brain and reflexes slow down with age – but it works really well here.

Interestingly, as random as the game is, experience does play a part, as it’s tough to figure out the prop bets the first time you play. Judicious wise betting plus a couple of REALLY lucky guesses propelled me to a win.

And with that, I was off for bed.

Thursday

I’m an early riser (I start work each morning at 6:30 am or before)… so I’m typically the first person into the game room each day. I sit and read for a bit, waiting for the action to begin.

Prototype (Bezier Games)

Details must remain mum, but Braeden & I had both enjoyed this prototype last summer and were gung ho to try it again. There’s a nifty theme and a clever mechanic/mechanism at the literal center of the game that works like a charm… and the changes were all improvements!

Nassau

I’m a huge fan of Stefan Feld’s Rum & Pirates… and, until the recent releases of Marrakesh and Kathmandu, was not really a fan of most of his other games. (In the Year of the Dragon is good – but the brutal nature of the disasters means it never got to the table that often.) So when I heard that Nassau was a re-imagining of the chaotic set-collecting of Rum & Pirates, I definitely wanted to give it a try. Renee brought her “deluxe” edition for us to play – and with Tyler & Dan, the four of us embarked on our first play of the game.

Each round, there’s a “Rum & Pirates” phase, followed by a “Maracaibo/Francis Drake” phase, utilizing the resources you’ve gathered in the initial phase. As in many Feld games, there are a variety of ways to score points and improve your abilities: collecting weaponry, absconding with resources, saving shipwrecked pirates, taking over towers, and even defeating merchant ships and the occasional kraken.

I still think the Rum & Pirates “escorting the captain” is clever – though I’m not exactly sure how it works thematically with the larger game of Nassau. In typical Feld fashion, there are some odd bits that aren’t clearly explained on the player aid (you use weapons to determine the number of dice you roll to attack a ship or kraken, but sails to determine the number of dice you roll in defense) as well as a plethora of scoring pathways.

While I liked the game (and the folks I played with were great companions for this adventure), it ran long at three hours. (For comparison, Rum & Pirates is typically a 45-75 minute game.) Even winning the game (I did quite well – sometimes because I made a smart play & sometimes because I got lucky) doesn’t assuage my concerns about the length of the game. Admittedly, since it was a first play for all of us, we’d shave at least 30 minutes off the game with a second play – but that still feels like a bit too much.

I think the attempt to deepen the admittedly fluffy Rum & Pirates by making it a mechanism inside a much larger game grew bigger than it needed to be… I’d be curious to know more about the development and pruning process of this design. (And Queen needs to up their player aid game… example: Kathmandu had tiny cards that required 20/20 vision & a magnifying glass to read.)

The Pursuit of Happiness

After a late lunch (Nassau pushed my Panda Express bowl back to almost 2 pm!), I led Dallas, Bob, and Ruby into the wonderous world of The Pursuit of Happiness. I’ve described this as a gamer-y version of The Game of Life… and I stand by that description. (It’s the best of a crowded field of these games, by the way – I’ve played CV and Adulthood and Funny Friends and Chez Geek and yadda yadda yadda – Pursuit is still number one.)

I wrote a pretty extensive review for the OG back when the game was first published… and we played this game without a lot of the expansions. (It’s quite a table-eater even without all of the extra tracking boards.) Bob managed to have the most Long-Term Happiness (aka “victory points) and take the win.

Aqua Garden

My last game before dinner was the very pretty Aqua Garden – a drafting/placement game cleverly hidden behind beautiful painted wooden pieces of fish & coral. I appreciate JB and Michael teaching it to Janna & I – this is not a game I’d have ever picked on my own. (And I managed to win with my clown fish & turtle strategy.)

Nexus Ops

After dinner, Braeden & I joined Quinn & Bob for an old game in a new version – Nexus Ops with the new Renegade reprint. The new edition boasts better card art, a molded monolith (rather than a cardboard standee, and all of the variant rules from the FFG edition.

Nexus Ops is a really well-thought-out “dudes on a map” game that subverts the ever-present turtling problem with a varied set of rewards for attacking other players. (“Turtling” is emphasizing heavy defense and little or no offense, in hopes of getting your opponents to exhaust themselves fighting each other and/or throwing themselves against your defenses in vain.) In addition, it’s pretty fast-moving and a lot of fun to play.

Braeden ran over Bob & myself on the way to a relatively easy victory.

Planet Unknown

Keeping with the “space” theme, Bob taught Braeden & I Planet Unknown, which was (clever wordplay incoming) unknown to either of us prior to this. (Thank you, thank you – tip your waitress. I’ll be here all week.)

I like the rotating tile spinner (aka “lazy Susan”) as the tile dispensing mechanism for the game – it keeps the game moving along with near-simultaneous play and one you were more experienced, would enable you to read other players planet boards and deny them the tile they need. (For my first game, I just took the best possible tile for what I needed to accomplish – and that turned out to be good enough for the win.)

I don’t know that I need to own this one – but I’d be happy to play it again.

Fishing

Friedemann Friese’s designs are not always successful – but they are always interesting. The ones that work, however – wowsa. (See Friday, Power Grid, Famiglia, Fauna, etc.)

Fishing works like a charm – mixing a trick-taking game with the seeded deck mechanism he used in Fabled Fruit & the Fast Forward games turns out to be a winning combination… and forces players to think carefully about how to play not only the hand they’re in but what they are setting themselves up for in later hands.

This was my second game of Fishing – and I managed to play MUCH WORSE this time around. And still had fun. (Congrats to Bob & Mark Moore on tying for the win!)

Friday

There’s a kind of wonder on Friday morning of Gulf Games – when I get up early with my traditional Pop Tart & Coke Zero breakfast – and realize that I’ve got two & a half more days of gaming ahead of me. It’s really nice.

Nova Era

Braeden & I learned this new civilization-building game together in the early morning hours… and evidently Braeden learned substantially better than I did, as his civilization crushed mine.

This was probably the “new game” highlight of Gulf Games for me – I like the mixture of drafting dice and drafting cards, combined with finding ways to cope with a variety of disasters. Additionally, there’s a very cool “obsolescence” mechanism that keeps pushing cards out of the system as new technologies enter the game.

I definitely want to play Nova Era again… if only to beat my son.

Distilled

After a second game of Cabanga! (much laughter ensued), Braeden & I taught Distilled to Sheldon & Regina. Due to Sheldon getting ready to leave for a group outing, they played as a team – and did really well. They decided to focus exclusively on non-aged spirits, while both Braeden & I were aging whisky in our warehouses. At the end, my victory is pretty much due to the Tour Guide upgrade, who let me convert money into victory points at a 3:1 rate rather than 5:1. (I only edged out the Smith team by 2… and Braeden by 7.)

Distilled has both drafting & push-your-luck elements, along with a smidgen of set collecting & a bit of engine building. That can sound like a mish-mash… but it actually pulls together nicely into a very playable game. 

After multiple plays, I’m glad to see that the strategy of leaning into aging spirits (which denies you of a large income, particularly if you start early) doesn’t doom you to failure. Depending on which tasting menu you choose, a variety of tactical options are available. I like when multiple pathways are available in a game of this nature.

And, yes, as a non-drinker, it always makes me laugh a bit when I end up enjoying games about drinking (The Red Dragon Inn) or owning a bar (The Taverns of Tiefenthal or Volle Hutte) or making liquor (Distilled).

Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game

After lunch, Braeden & I tried Mistborn – and while I’m about halfway through the first book of Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series (dang, that guy writes LONG books), neither of us have any experience with the Mistborn universe.

The game itself is a deck-building coupled with a “power” system (burning metals, for those of you who know this world) that ramps up over the arc of the game, letting you play more cards and unlock more abilities on those cards. As a fan of designer John D. Clair’s games, I can see where this is going – but I have still have some questions about the viability of a “knock your opponent out” strategy vs. a “mission completion” strategy. (I won by completing all three missions first.)

Sky Team

Another “let’s teach ourselves” game for Braeden & I – this time, the Spiel des Jahres winner from last year that neither of us had played.

The folks here at the OG have written much more about Sky Team– I’ll send you to them for the details. But before we go, some observations:

• Still seems weird to me to give a 2 player game SdJ.
• The production is very nice.
• The amount of coffee our pilots drank should have necessitated one of those fraternity “beer funnel” contraptions.
• The game was made more enjoyable by Ted Alspach kibitzing us through it – “Flight 666, where are you?”
• Still, we won.
• And, though it works fine, I don’t need to own a copy.

Revolve!

I originally thought this was a prototype… since it has some of the same vibe as many of Bezier Games’ card games AND Ted was teaching it to us. But no, it’s a published game. (Man, I needed more sleep by this point.)

It’s a shedding game, not dissimilar to Scout – but I like it better. (Others at the table felt more positive about Scout – to each his own.) Michael, Ted, Braeden, and I hotly competed for the win… with Ted edging us out in the end.

Africa

A long time top 100 favorite – and overlooked Knizia design – was next. I don’t usually play with four or five players – but the game works at that number as long as you realize your scores are likely to be lower AND that the game timer is likely to be accelerated.

My win has an asterisk, as I was clearly the most experienced player at the table.

Landmarks

After dinner, Braeden & I joined Bay, Chris, and David for a couple of rounds of this cooperative game of clue giving & exploration. My younger son (who sadly couldn’t be at GG due to college classes) is a big fan, so this isn’t the first time I’ve played.

Landmarks works well – but the difficulty of the cards varies a lot (the easy deck has some difficult maps in it… and the hard deck is a nightmare). Every time I play, I realize that I’d rather be playing Codenames.

Traumfabrik

Bob, Braeden & I played this Knizia auction classic with an old-skool German set… meaning we got to make real movies with real actors! (I’m glad this exists in other editions, as the basic structure of the game is great, but the parody names date quickly and take you out of the movie mogul vibe of the original.)

Bob & I tied for the win – the original edition does not have a tie-breaker and some of the suggested tie-breakers online don’t make sense. I like to think we merged our studios and bought Braeden’s and made him a production assistant.

Baseball Highlights 2045

We had the opportunity to teach Davebo our favorite baseball-themed game (more baseball board gaming on Saturday – details to come) and play through the first two rounds of a four player game/series. My highly defensive team was pretty much unstoppable… winning all six games on our way to the World Series.

This is yet another top 100 game for me – one of the best things Mike Fitzgerald has designed (and he’s designed a lot of great card games!).

Scram!

We closed out the night with the partnership take on Silver/Cabo – which I like substantially better than either of the predecessors. Bob & I shot out to an early lead at Scram! – which evaporated in the third and fourth hands as David & Braeden smoked us.

Saturday

Saturday – traditionally a very full day at Gulf Games with the Liar’s Dice tournament and the evening celebration (complete with a giant Take It Easy game). Today was no exception.

Square One

Ted Alspach & I have discovered that we are both early risers – which means we get to play in peace and quiet before most other folks are up. (At a different gathering last year, we were playing Fox in the Forest Duet at 6:30 am in the morning in a hotel hallway.)

I don’t think it was quite that early when Ted taught (and beat me at) Square One… but it was very cool to get to play this well-produced shape-shifting game. (It’s evidently a cousin to Project L, which I have not played… but my good friend Jason keeps recommending to me.)

O Zoo le Mio

Braeden joined Ted & I for this blind bid auction tile-layer (with lots of wooden bits)… it’s pretty vicious (your income is based on the number of auctions you’ve won) but mercifully short (25-30 minutes). And I love it.

Ted turned out to be as good at running a zoo as he was at building abstract shapes in Square One.

Diatoms

Diatoms has a theme – the dance of microbes when observed by humans. (Yes, seriously – that’s the theme.) It’s actually an abstract set collection game with scoring determined by the placement of pieces in each player’s individual grid.

And despite that rather lackluster description, it’s actually a pleasant little pattern-building game. Braeden (the only actual person with science training among us) won – which might suggest the theme helped him. Except his bachelors degree is in Kinesiology, so not sure that applies to matching cardboard bits to each other. :-)

Liar’s Dice

Another Gulf Games staple… the Liar’s Dice tournament. I managed to make it down to the final two at my table… again. And lose. To a very nice very young lady named Harper. (I got schooled with the last couple of bids.)

Sandbag

I’m actually a playtester of Sandbag… but that certainly didn’t help me remember the rules – at least for the first hand. This is a trick-taking game where the idea is not to take tricks… except when there’s a rocket card in them. It’s not the most complicated trick-taker I’ve played, but I’d hesitate to introduce this to folks without gaming experience.

Memoir ’44

Another Gulf Games tradition – though one of my own making. I’ve been hosting Memoir ’44 Overlord games each year and it’s been a delight to play my literal #1 game in this format every time we get together. This time we fought the Rats in the Factory scenario – the battle for the tractor factories on the edge of Stalingrad in late 1942 as the German army attempted to dislodge the Russians.

It was a hard-fought battle – lasting almost two hours – and it came down to the final few die rolls as the Germans (Chris, Lincoln, and David – led by Charlie) beat the Russians (Sheldon, Nathan and Braeden – led by me) 18 medals to 17 medals.

The discussion now is about possibly doing some portion of the D-Day Breakthrough landings scenario at Gulf Games 54 this summer!

In the Footsteps of Marie Curie

Last year, I’d enjoyed “In the Footsteps of Darwin” – a gorgeously produced and easy to teach set collection game themed around Darwin’s travels. So I was interested to try “Marie Curie” – and found it to have some interesting twists (the use of the cube tower) and the various pieces of the lab you have to build. Overall, though, I don’t think it’s as strong a game as Darwin. (I beat Braeden on a tiebreaker.)

Sides

Another cooperative clue-giving game – with delightful company to play with – but I’d still rather be playing Codenames. (In related news: get off my lawn, you young whippersnappers.)

Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball Game

Davebo and I managed to sandwich in a five game series of Harry’s Grand Slam (yes, another top 100 game for me)… and while I jumped out to a 2 game lead early, ultimately I lost the next three games and the series.

I will have my revenge, Davebo. Just you wait.

Take It Easy!

The other long-time Gulf Games tradition – a giant game of gamer bingo aka Take It Easy. I posted an even worse score than usual… but the moaning and groaning about bad tile draws is always fun. Braeden actually had the second highest score – I have no idea how. (Our caller – Peter McCarthy – drew 8 of the 9 possible low value [1] tiles.)

My favorite Take It Easy memory is from GG 49 where I was tapped as the caller: “So, I call the game, playing along with everyone else (and doing a miserable job, thank you very much). Tradition dictates that once all the folks have completed their scoring, the group stands. As I announce different score thresholds, people sit if they haven’t scored that much.

“When we went from 190 to 200, only two folks were left standing. Bob (my former boss when I worked at the TN State Legislature) and Collin (my 17 year old son). Collin beat out Bob for the win with 216 points!”

Catan: Starfarers

Post-Take It Easy, Braeden & I invited Bob to join us for Catan: Starfarers. As with our previous three player games, the playing time is coming in at 75 minutes or so. For those who remember the original Starfarers, this is almost an hour shorter. This new version definitely knocked some rough edges off the original design while maintaining much of the charm… and the design of the spaceship shakers is much less fragile. It’s not really one big design change – it’s a lot of smaller changes that add up to a quicker play game with more board variety and the ability to customize the shaker ships to speed up or slow down the game. The reboot is impressive enough that it ended up on my top 100 games list last year.

Here’s a more detailed list of the changes:

• The map – using six puzzle cut boards with gaps for planet clusters and trading posts gives the game a LOT more variation than the original design – maps can be laid out specifically or randomly. And while the map is the same size (15 hexes long by 9 hexes wide), moving the trading posts into the map and rearranging the other openings makes the game develop faster.
• The components – gone are the rickety/fragile starships from the original game (that were so breakable that they required a retrofit from the company)… in their place are smaller but sturdier ships. In addition, the nice Catan folks provided extra plastic “marbles” for the shaker portion of the ships, so you can change the mix in each one for a faster or slower game.
  • It’s important to note that the suggested mix makes encounters slightly less likely.
• The starting planets – it doesn’t sound like much, but there are no pure 2 or 12 planets in the starting mix. Instead, there is a 3/12 chip and a 2/11 chip.
• The rules – a number of rules tweaks were added that make the gamer run faster:
  • after a roll of 7 (and the subsequent stealing), each player besides the thief draws a card from the reserve pile
  • the first contact with any planet cluster flips over all of the number chips
  • the resolution of trade post is now simply “longest road” style
  • the largest pirate lair is slightly easier to defeat

I was incredibly close to the win… but couldn’t harvest the resources to build a final trade ship and space jump out to the remaining alien outpost – which left Braeden enough room to sneak in for the win.

Sunday

I wandered in early Sunday morning to find – as usual – some of the games gone (people packing up early & heading out) and one of the young adults (Drinnen) still awake after staying up all night.

Undaunted 2200: Callisto

So, I talked Drinnen into learning Undaunted 2200: Callisto – the newest game in the Undaunted series. He took the rebel miners against my evil corporation mercs (complete with a couple of mechs)… and managed to get to three kills before I did (I had two).

The game presentation is really nice here – including 4 double-sided mounted map boards – and the underlying game system is incredibly solid as always. My only gripe so far is that the solo book is perfect-bound, thus making it difficult to lay flat and use in solo play.

Well, that and losing to Drinnen was hard on my ego. :-)

K2

By the time we’d finished, Braeden had arrived and we jumped into one of his favorite games, K2. It’s a push-your-luck game of mountain climbing that involves balancing speed with sufficient oxygen/stamina. I’d planned a last ditch jump towards the summit, but Drinnen got to a narrow point in the climb before me and blocked me out. Braeden – no surprise – won.

Here’s a plan – we meet back in summer and try one of the expansion boards that Braeden owns but has never had the chance to play.

7 Wonders: Architects

We were trying to get on the road – finish packing up our games and head out – but then Sheldon & Regina sat near us and set up 7 Wonders: Architects. And Sheldon didn’t remember the rules well enough to teach – so Braeden stepped in. And then I more than gladly offered to join as well – and we were off. Sheldon pulled off a close win, with myself and Heidi & Clare (their grandkids) close behind.

It’s not as deep as the original 7 Wonders – but it’s a great family game with some nifty bits. I will recommend the expansion, as it adds two new wonders, new ways to score points, and some new progress tokens.

With that done, we said our goodbyes and hit the road.

Summing It All Up

• 38 plays of 37 different games
• 6 of my top 100 games played
• played with 39 different people over 4 1/2 days
• Had an absolute blast
• Can’t wait for Gulf Games 54 in the summer of 2025

Picture at the head of the article includes me photobombing our Memoir ’44 game, Bob & Braeden giving Planet Unknown a thumbs-up, Ted thinking through how to beat me at Square One, and my utter defeat to Davebo at Harry’s Grand Slam.