Easter was the perfect time to do this item: all Petra and I had to do was take one day off work and we'd have five days free to chill out and play board games all weekend. So first thing in the morning on the Thursday before Easter I packed a bag and headed to Petra's, where I'd be staying for the weekend playing games... only stopping to "eat, sleep and go to the bathroom".
Thursday
We'd invited people to join us at times over the course of the weekend, but as everyone was working, the first day was just us. So we set up in Petra's library and dived into a bunch of two player games:
 |
| Lost Cities Classic 2 player card game that's got a simple mechanic and is always a favourite |
 |
| Mr Jack Pocket One player is Jack the Ripper... The other player must catch them! |
 |
| Black and White An angel and a devil influence innocent souls to do their bidding |
 |
| Dominion Some game I've never heard of |
It was a bit dangerous once we started playing Dominion. As it is our favourite game and recently the online version we played had been taken down, we could totally see ourselves continuing to play Dominion all weekend. We ended up deciding to just play a few rounds, but to leave it set up in the library and to play other games downstairs. So the library became the Dominion domain, and we moved downstairs.
 |
| Mr Jack: The Board Game One player is Jack the Ripper... but this time in board form! |
 |
| Kieran joined us for a game of Booze Cruise. He beat us, so we didn't invite him to play anything for the rest of the weekend! |
Friday
On Friday, we figured we'd do something a little different - board game championships were being held at the Hellenic Club in Woden, so we entered into the Settlers of Catan tournament.
 |
| Settlers of Catan tournament |
That evening, Kelly joined us from Sydney. She wasn't super enthralled by the idea of a full weekend of playing games, but figured she'd pop in and out, or read; as well as joining in for the occasional game. As there was a Ticket to Ride tournament at the Hellenic Club which we'd entered, we taught Kelly how to play Ticket to Ride.
Soon after that Quay also arrived and joined us for a couple of games.
 |
| Ticket to Ride Build railway lines across America. Toot toot! |
 |
| Tobago Slowly narrow down the possible locations of buried treasure - then nab it before the others do! |
Saturday
As Kelly had enjoyed learning Ticket to Ride, we managed to convince her to join us in the tournament on Saturday.
 |
| Ticket to Ride tournament |
Unfortunately, given her inexperience with the game, Kelly instantly qualified for the bottom table, where she stayed for the rest of the afternoon. Petra and I fared a little bit better, narrowly missing out on the final (there was four spots and we came fifth and sixth).
 |
| Ticket to Ride tournament |
That evening we decided to up the geekiness factor - board games PJ party!
 |
| Zooletto Build a little zoo by claiming incoming carts of animals. Kelly will let baby pandas die. |
 |
| Zooletto - With PJs! |
 |
| Trans America Building railways lines across America... Sounds a bit familiar... |
On Sunday morning, we started off with a bit of Havana...
 |
| Havana Managing resources and roles in order to build buildings in a fledging Havana |
... and then Petra had invited a bunch of her board game friends to come round. They were board gamers indeed and brought piles of games with them... along with a desire to play really complicated stuff instead of the casual, mildly strategic, takes about an hour to play kind of thing that Petra and I had mostly been playing up to that point.
 |
| Puerto Rico Erm... Managing resources and roles in order to build buildings in a fledling Puerto Rico. And there's trading |
It was when I ended up with a group playing Eclipse that I really knew I was in hardcore gamer territory. They'd decided I didn't have a chance and didn't bother explaining all the rules to me... because there was too many rules to bother explaining to me....
 |
| Eclipse Get confused trying to conquer space |
I didn't have a chance, and spent most of the time watching the others have space battles with each other.
 |
| Eclipse + a whole pile of games |
Monday
Last day! We were on the home stretch. Petra had invited people over again, but we didn't play Eclipse. Thank God.
 |
| Innovation Really fun. Really random. Really like nothing you've played. |
 |
| Terra Mystica You're a race of mythical creatures trying to live in a magical world. There's mana orbs and stuff. |
As the evening got later, and Petra's guests had left, we figured there was only one appropriate way to end the weekend - and that was by playing Dominion!
Yes, while it didn't look like it in most of the pictures here, pretty much any moment we had to fill in, Petra and I filled it with playing Dominion in the Dominion Domain (aka Petra's library).
 |
| Card Sharks |
 |
| Nerdy Planking! |
Thanks Petra (and Kieran) for having me for the weekend. It was fun, and I didn't get as sick of playing games as I thought I might. We tried out lots of new games and played some favourites as well. A nice way to spend Easter.
Thanks also to the team at the Toy and Game Expo for the pictures of the tournaments. The Toy and Game Expo is in July in Sydney; but they also run casual game tournaments around the country.
www.toyandgameexpo.com.au
http://tournaments.toyandgameexpo.com.au
Summary
For the record, Petra's favourite games over the weekend were:
1. Dominion - because even though Brad beat me two times out of three the variability and luck of the draw kept things exciting.
2. Lost Cities - because it was simple to learn, challenging to play and didn't take more than about half an hour!
3. All the various Ticket to Ride games - because you get to play with little trains (toot-toot!).
Kelly's:
No.1 Has to be Ticket to Ride for me, since I'm still playing it on my phone hehe.
No.2 I like to the Zoo one, its fun cute with animals and I won, twice :P
No.3
Hmmmmm I have trouble remembering what new games we play, I quite like the one
we played with Quay, the treasure one! (Brad: It's Tobago)
Brad:
1. Zooletto - It was an easy game to get into, with a nice theme. Plus you could play with each other's heartstrings by threatening to kill baby Pandas (by the way this isn't actually what happens in Zooletto).
2. Dominion - Always love me some Dominion, and Petra was a good opponent.
3. Tobago - Another game with a great theme. Who's doesn't like treasure hunting? Plus, the way you play the game is really original.
More Stats!
Brad won:
Lost Cities
Mr Jack (pocket)
2x Black and White
12x Dominion
Ticket to Ride USA
Ticket to Ride Nordic
Kingdom Builder
Tobago
Trans America
Innovation
2x Terra Mystica
Total: 24
Petra won:
Lost Cities
Black and White
6x Dominion
Mr Jack
Innovation
Modern Art
Total: 11
Kelly won:
Dominion
Ticket to Ride USA
Ticket to Ride iPad
2x Zooletto
Havana
Total: 6
