Yes, I realize that there are a LOT of gamers at a convention right now – and that the little invitational event my sons & I just attended is roughly the same size as a small tournament at GenCon. But part of the joy of our hobby is the wild variety of ways you can engage in enjoying board and card games with family and friends.

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.

What that means is that Braeden is celebrating a decade of attending Gulf Games while I’m at the 27 year milestone. Collin (the younger son) has been doing this for eight years. (Parental aside: I love that my boys share my hobby & enthusiasm for games; even more, I love that we enjoy traveling and playing together.)

With the preliminaries out of the way, let me dive into a recap of our Gulf Games experience!

Pre-Trip

Collin came home on Monday (a couple of days before we left for Gulf Games)… with Braeden landing during the day on Tuesday – and so we got some gaming prior to hitting the road.

• Kabuto Sumo – To be specific, the blinged-out wooden board copy of Sakura Slam, the “second edition” of Kabuto Sumo. Collin owns the fancy storage and board system (honestly, it’s pretty darn cool) and it saw a LOT of play over the week – both with adults and with kids. It’s kind of like those “push the penny” machines you see in arcades but framed as insects sumo-wrestling. It sounds nuts, but it’s quite clever and worth a try. (BTW, we’ve got a review coming up soon here on the OG!)
• For the Emperor – Tiny box card game with lane battle elements. It has some limits (small card count, only variable the order in which your cards appear) but the design is solid and it’s highly portable.
• Riftforce – Another lane battler, but with way more variety and some dynamic play moments due to the ability to play or activate multiple cards in a turn. I’m not very good at it, but glad my boys got it for me for my birthday. (Note: don’t recommend the solo game found in the expansion – it’s pretty blah.)
• Tales of the Arthurian Knights – While it doesn’t “fire” Tales of the Arabian Nights, it’s a substantially better ‘choose your own adventure’ design. So many rough edges of Arabian Nights are smoothed and/or reworked to make for a cleaner game experience. And, as an English major and a fan of Arthurian legends, the writing in the Book of Tales is spot on and evokes the feel perfectly. Even with Collin beating me handily, I had a wonderful time playing. (Note: the solo system works – but it’s more fun to play with 2-3 other players.)
• Heroscape – I wrote about the new figures (which we used) earlier this week here on the OG. I love playing Heroscape with the boys – we’ve been doing it for almost twenty years and the silliness never gets old.
• Race for the Galaxy – Braeden & I have played a LOT of Race over the years, so it’s the perfect “set up and play in 20 minutes or so” game for us. Still one of my favorite games… please stop complaining about the iconography already. :-)

Wednesday

After the aforementioned early morning game of Race for the Galaxy, we drove to Lexington, KY (about four hours) to begin our gaming adventure!

• Pastiche: The Birth of a Masterpiece – We played this last summer… it’s a tricky rummy/mahjongg-ish card game that I appreciated much more the second time when I kind of had a clue what I was doing (thanks to David Sidore’s coaching).
• Bus & Stop – A simple set-collection game of loading passengers onto buses. It doesn’t sound like much but it definitely fits my definition of a “cozy” game.
• The Gang – Imagine The Crew (a cooperative trick-taking game) but instead you’re cooperatively trying to rank poker hands. I’m not sure I completely understand the appeal of The Gang. Of course, I don’t understand the appeal of The Mind, either. A third play (two this summer, one earlier this year) hasn’t changed my mind.
• Hot Streak – There’s betting, a tiny bit of race-fixing, and then utter chaos. And tons of fun. I played Hot Streak twice with a REAL copy (my first play last year was with a prototype) at Gulf Games. It’s perfection – with the caveat that you need people who actually want to have fun with this playing, I had a blast both times. Those of you at GenCon should look out for a copy!
• The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game – Now imagine The Crew, only with a theme that holds the game together and individual goals that make sense story-wise. This is a solid cooperative game with 18 different chapters. (Collin has nice things to say about the solo mode – I haven’t tried it.)
• Fast Food Franchise – Two plays of this classic (seriously, it’s 33 years old now) at Gulf Games. The second game early on Sunday morning was a pretty normal game as Michael’s pizza empire slowly knocked the rest of us out of the game. However, the Wednesday evening game was over 100 minutes long (that’s a long FFF game) that saw not one but two players nearly get knocked out of the game only to rise from the ashes and rebuild. Kudos to Collin & Bob for their zombie companies running the rest of us out of the game. (I cannot express how much I enjoy this game.)
• In the Footsteps of Darwin – Two plays of Footsteps at Gulf Games… the first was simply the base game which is beautifully produced and works like a charm as a 2-5 player 30 minutes set collection filler. The second time we played, we added in the new Correspondence expansion – and I like the game even more. Correspondence fixes the least interesting mechanic from the base game (the Darwin figure) and offers more options to fill your board. And it does all that with only adding about five minutes to the playing time. If you like the game, the expansion is highly recommended.

Thursday

• Prototype – As usual, I got up early and played prototypes with Ted Alspach (Bezier Games). I am sworn to secrecy – but I can say that the prototype I’ve been hinting about for the last two Gulf Games reports is The Game Makers and I love it.
• Canopy: Evergreen – I really enjoyed this card-drafting/forest-building game when I first played it last fall… enough so that I picked up my own copy. I got one play in at Gulf Games with four players – which may push the length of the game just a bit. I think the sweet spot for Canopy: Evergreen may be with three players. (Note: the solo version is a little fiddly but works pretty well.)
• Buffet Boss – I’d played Buffet Boss a couple of years ago… but with the English release (and the kindness of friends – hi, John!) I got my own copy. It saw a lot of play at Gulf Games not only from our family but even on one of the brewery tours as a table game. There’s a lot to like: it’s a dexterity game that doesn’t rely on trying to set up your opponents to fail, the various fruit shapes are cute, and it’s very easy to teach. I’m glad I have a copy!
• Scream! – The newest card game release from Bezier Games is in the Cabo/Silver/Scram! family – but with way more bluffing & challenging. This isn’t my kind of game – but it’s a good design if that’s your jam. (My favorite of this “family” is Scram! as a four-player partnership game.)
• Trendy – Going old school with this Knizia classic – I know it’s been reprinted with other themes, but the whole clothes designer vibe really works here.
• Ascending Empires: Zenith Edition – It’s kind of a monster to set up… but when you’re finished, it’s worth it. I wrote an extensive review of the original back in the day as well as this new edition earlier this year… my only complaint about the new edition is that some of the tiles are not easy to suss out from their iconography. (If you haven’t heard of this before, it’s a 4X space battler in which movement is done by flicking your spaceship discs.)
• Fishing – Again, thanks to the kindness of friends, I have my own copy of this nutball trick-taking game. Have a bad hand? Your next hand is likely to be much better, thanks to drip-feed design of Fishing.
• Distilled – Distilled was my surprise “new to me” game of 2024… and I’ve gone about acquiring the two expansions because I enjoy it so much. As I’ve noted multiple times, it’s weird I don’t drink but adore this game about running a distillery. (Note: the solo system is excellent for Distilled… and I’m just beginning to dig into extra stuff in the Cask Strength expansion.)
• Zauberschwert & Drachenei – The 22 year old Adlung card game ‘Magic Sword & Dragon Egg’ was my closer for the night. This fantasy auction/negotiation game is highly enjoyable, especially with the two major expansions in. It was really interesting to play with five players – the boys & I are used to the game with three, which gives you access to a lot more magical items and compatriots.

Friday

• Minion Hunter – After another prototype play, Braeden & I dragged Bob (all hail King Bob!) into a family & friends favorite from the early 90s, GDW’s Minion Hunter. One of my good friends remade the cards for me and I re-did the lookup tables for encounters (since the original set from the Minion Nation expansion were on bright orange in a difficult to read font). Still, I want to be clear – the game needed more development and is basically cooperative Talisman in the “Dark America” RPG universe. Still, it’s a Jackson family standard – even my non-gamer wife is willing to play it.
• The Princes of Florence – From the ridiculous to the sublime… It’s always nice when games you’ve loved for a quarter of a century still manage to wow you – and The Princes of Florence does exactly that. One of my proudest wins of the event… edging out the win with a single Prestige card and only two buildings.
• Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition – After lunch, Braeden & I faced off in our ongoing series of Clash of Cultures games with Jon Pessano (the blanket guy)… and, as usual, the two of them had fun ganging up on me. Clash is a spectacular 3 hour 4X game, with lots of story/theme and opportunities for game-changing decisions. Braeden walked away with the win… but we all had a blast.
• Gelini Nightlife – Gelini Nightlife takes the base mechanic of Knizia’s Tutankhamen and makes it lighter and more enjoyable. And about gummi bears going to discos. You know if this is the right game for you based on that short description.
• K2 – Braeden loves this game. Someday, he’ll get a chance to play with expansions he owns – if he ever plays with a group of people who’ve all played before. I’m lousy at this press-your-luck game of mountain climbing, and I wish they’d have done something different to indicate weather changes. That said, the game is really good.
• Die Kullerbande – HABA brilliance. Roll ball through croquet-like animals inside the box (they attach magnetically) whilst making animal noises. I used to be the champion, but I have been dethroned. (See video from when I was really good at this game from over a decade ago.)
• Baker’s Dozen – Cute re-theme of Knizia’s Poison… though the donut shaped cards can be hard to handle.
• Just One – Never played Just One with elementary school kids before… that’s a particular challenge. But still fun.

Saturday

• Zombie Princess – Coming to Kickstarter this fall (close to Halloween)… and I like it much more than I liked Rebel Princess. I promise it’s not the zombie theme – it’s the gameplay. Looking forward to playing this Spades-ish trick-taker again.
• Memoir ’44: D-Day Landings – I’ve been preparing to host this 12 player event for 4 months… recruiting players, building briefing books, borrowing figures and cards (big thanks to Jon Manley who runs the Memoir ’44 U.S. Open for loaning us the six Breakthrough decks). And D-Day Landings was a success… especially for the Allied side, who managed to win this massive battle. (For those of you who play Memoir, these maps are 23 hexes deep… and the total medals needed to win across the six battlefields is 78.) It’ll be a while before I do something like this again – but we’ll be back to 8 player Overlord maps in the spring!
• Endeavor: Deep Sea – The Kennerspiel-winning game was on my list to try… and it was worth seeking out. (So much so that I bought myself a copy when I got home even though I lost miserably with my first game.) The production is top-notch, the puzzles inherent in the game are interesting, and I like the rhythm of how the game plays out. Highly recommended. (Yes, I know about the recent Kickstarter… it’s still open for late pledges.)
• Take It Easy – A Gulf Games tradition since GG3 – everyone plays together at “gamer bingo”. I have never won. Collin has. Neither of us were close this time around.
• For Sale – We played the GOOD version of For Sale (the 3-5 player FX Schmid version rather than the 3-6 player version that messes up the card distribution). And it’s short enough so that we played twice.

Sunday

• Come Sail Away – Our final morning before leaving… and Charlie taught us this mancala-ish game of putting passengers into your luxury liner. Another “cozy” game (not much you can do to other players) but a pleasant puzzle to figure out.
• Zooloretto – Yes, it has cute animals. (Except the cheetah, who looks like he’s a taxidermy project.) But this is NOT a cozy game. You are actively trying to figure out how to foist extra animals on your opponents. And it’s another personal favorite. And a great game to end the weekend on.

Summing It All Up

• 42 plays of 34 different games
• played with 40 different people over 4 1/2 days
• Had an absolute blast
• Can’t wait for Gulf Games 55 in the spring of 2026

Review copies provided to me (some MANY years ago): Memoir ’44 D-Day Landings & Equipment Pack and the new wave of Heroscape.