On the Road: The Berkshires

From time to time, we are lucky enough to score an invitation from the Commish and Wild Turkey to join their family at his parents' vacation home in the Berkshires, a mountain range in western Massachusetts.  Previous visitors to The Squid may recall that the Commish and Wild Turkey are friends of mine from college, and particularly important ones for the fact that they introduced me to My Wife.  We had not seen them in about a year, I think, so we were glad for the chance to catch up.

Saturday evening's festivities centered around the following:

Our dear friends share our love for games.  We introduced a couple of our new favorites to them this weekend.

via Games by Play Date

Love Letter is a simple card game.  The manufacturer's description:

All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and you must rely on others to bring your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first? Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2 to 4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards, each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long, however, and your letter may be tossed in the fire. 

The game is easy to learn and fast to play.  Strategy is subtle.  While the game is playable with just two, it's better with more people.  The artwork is satisfying.

via BoardGameGeek

Forbidden Desert is a cooperative game with a constantly shifting board.  Manufacturer's description:

Gear up for a thrilling adventure to recover a legendary flying machine buried deep in the ruins of an ancient desert city. You'll need to coordinate with your teammates and use every available resource if you hope to survive the scorching heat and relentless sandstorm. Find the flying machine and escape before you all become permanent artifacts of the Forbidden Desert.

As with Pandemic (review here), it's not a hold hands and sing "Kumbayah" sort of cooperative game - rather, it's get your act together or everybody dies.  I'd say it's easier than Pandemic but we've also only played the easiest level so far.  This game also has excellent artwork.  It's recommended for ages 10 and up but their seven-year-old daughter got the hang of it pretty quickly.

Overall, it was a fun weekend.  Too much of the vino on Saturday put a bit of a dent in my Sunday, I must confess, but an enjoyable time nonetheless.  Fortunately, we've already made plans to see them again in a few weeks.