Ambie and Crystal discuss a couple games they've played recently, including Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures and King of Tokyo. We then talk about games we love in genres we typically avoid. In this week's "Board Game Etymology" segment, Crystal discusses the origins of the word "anomaly."

by Ambie Valdés

Last weekend I went to my second MeepleCon, a board game convention in Las Vegas! The convention was three days, but we ended up getting a flight early Sunday morning to go home (other flights were a lot more expensive), so we were only there on Friday and Saturday. But we still had tons of fun playing games!

I played 22 plays of 15 different games at the convention (plus some Craps), 8 of which were new to me. The most played and my favorite new game was The Mind, a new cooperative card game where you have to play the cards in order without talking! Jess had a copy that she borrowed from Scott Alden and was bringing it around to everyone at the convention to try out. It was really hard and a lot of fun, and I really want to get it. Unfortunately, it's currently only available in Germany, but I heard that it will be coming over soon.

Ambie, Cassadi, and Crystal discuss some games they've played recently, including Flip Ships, Magic: The Gathering, and Near and Far. We then have our first Top 5 list - Top 5 Surprises in Gaming! In this week's "Board Game Etymology" segment, Crystal discusses the origins of the word "card."

Ambie, Cassadi, and Crystal go off-format in this special episode and discuss their favorite games of 2016, as well as what they're looking forward to in 2017.

by Ambie Valdés

This year was my husband (Toby) and my first year at BGG.CON, and it was amazing. I tried out 53 distinct games, 49 of which were new to me (some were really quick dexterity games). I'm obviously not going to go over every game I played (you can see what I played here, but here are some highlights of the convention for me.

One of the best things at BGG.CON is the library. The library is HUGE. A whole conference room is filled with board games on all the walls, a lot of which are brand new games from Essen! There was also a section in the main hall with a lot of the hot games set up so that people could play them. Because BGG.CON is right after Essen, it was great for trying out all those games I've been hearing about the past month.