He's a Lumberjack and he's okay! (Contest Winner Announced)

Thanks to everyone for entering our Click Clack Lumberjack giveaway.  Drum roll, the moment you've all been waiting for, yadda yadda yadda...

And the winner is...

Jeff Rhind!


Congrats Jeff, hope you enjoy your prize.  May you fell many trees very, very carefully.

A very special thank-you to Mayday Games for providing the prize.

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays, everyone!

-futurewolfie

Top Ten Filler Games

Last time I posted a top ten around these parts, it was my top ten lunch games, games that can be played and taught comfortably within the confines of a lunch hour.

But what if your lunch hour is more like a lunch break? Or what about those times when you want to play another game, but you're waiting to mix up the players, and the other group is playing a game of Power Grid that simply will not end?

That, friends, is where the aptly named "filler" games come in--short games that can be used to open, close, or fill gaps within your game night.

What defines an ideal filler game? Here are my criteria:

[ENDED] Contest: Win a Copy of Click Clack Lumberjack

It's the season for giving, and Mayday Games has graciously offered to give one of our readers a shiny new copy of Click Clack Lumberjack, a dexterity game for two to seven players. (Reviews here [first edition] and here [second edition].)

Check out the contest details below!

Giving Thanks for Games (a holiday session report)

My family celebrated Christmas over Thanksgiving this year (long story), so all of us descended on my aunts' house for four days of food, togetherness, and... gaming.

My family has always enjoyed playing games together--first trick-taking games like Pinochle and Rook, then party games like Scattergories and Rapid Recall, and now hobby games, beginning with Acquire. There were fifteen of us at the gathering, and we played a lot of games over the four days. I usually list what I've been playing in the weekly news, but I thought I'd write a separate post since several of these are new, and I'd prefer to treat them in more depth. So here's what we played.

Lumberjack Jenga 2: Revenge of the Golden Ax (a review of Click Clack Lumberjack)

Back for more, eh? It wasn't enough that you felled the first tree when you were simply trying to harvest the bark. No, now you've been practicing. Your skills have leveled up, and you're ready for a new challenge, like going for the golden bark or using hidden grubs to your advantage. And you've even sharpened your special tiny golden ax for good measure.

But can you wield it to great effect?

News Bits: 11/25/2013

"It's the holiday season..." Or at least it's coming. And that's probably why this was a slow week. (That, or everyone was at BGG.Con.) In any case, here's this week's NEWS:

Race for the Galaxy: Alien Artifacts coming soon [Link] The news has to be legit this time, since the designer diary was posted on Board Game Geek. Also, Tom Lehman comments that it is in transit now to the Rio Grande warehouses. Alien Artifacts takes Race for the Galaxy in a new direction, beginning a new arc for the game. It may be time to jump back in...