TableTop Fun: Rockwell

Designer: Bruno Crepeault
Publisher: Sit Down! Games

From BoardGameGeek:

Each player represents a mining company drilling the Earth to get resources. But drilling often requires the help of other players (forced or not). Each one therefore moves four drills on the arcs stratum of the planet to successfully implement his mines and extract maximum resources. The Fame points are acquired by spending materials, filling objectives and having majorities of material and money at the end of the game.

This game stands out to me for its awesome circular game board that represents the earth. The deeper you mine the more rewards you reap... but the more resources you'll need to get down there. The first time we played this we read a rule wrong and HATED it. Somehow we mixed up the selling minerals portion and money was extremely tight. It wasn't until the game was over that we realized we were playing it wrong. The next few plays were fantastic! 

During the mining phase the game becomes a little bit semi co-op in that you can move your miners onto another play's tiles to trigger the drilling action. This is all fine and dandy, unless you are left out. Such was the case when I played with a certain husband and a certain brother-in-law of mine. They stayed on one side of the earth triggering many tile flips, and I stayed on my side slowly gathering enough miners to flip one tile each round. I could have taken moves to get to their side, but by the time I realized what was happening it would have taken me a few turns to even get over there! Overall, I really like this worker placement game... great art, great gameplay, great theme. :D

It's been awhile since I've been able to sit down and write one of these.... Emma's a little older since we first played this game.................... :) [sad scuffed nose and everything]

Weekend Update: Beaver Edition

We had an "ok" weekend. Just "ok" because Ian and I are still sick. I have a cough and my ears remain blocked. Ian is almost constantly coughing. But he is trying to get in with his doctor today and I have an ENT appointment on Friday. Emma is good... finishing up her antibiotic and she seems much better. 

On Saturday, Emma did her usual check of the front yard... 

We went to get asparagus and briefly stopped to see the piggies. 

We also barbecued on Saturday and Emma felt the need to relocate the barbecue cover.

She's obsessed with shoes. She'll desperately try to put on her own shoes.. Ian has found her standing in his shoes.. and this weekend she tried on my flip flops.

On Sunday morning, we were hanging out in bed with Emma. I walked into the bathroom and heard Ian start screaming "There's a beaver!!! There's a beaver!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Sure enough.. there was a beaver walking down the sidewalk. He looked pretty wet, like he had just stepped out of his pond. He walked up the sidewalk, across our neighbor's lawn, back down the sidewalk, crossed the street and headed back towards the big pond in our area. Oh Canada.

We've added numerous games to our collection over the last month due to Ian's birthday and Mother's/Father's Day. We did some reorganizing and Emma helped. [She's actually playing with a bunch of "her games". They are empty boxes that we've filled with punched cardboard. Very entertaining for her.]

Someone Explain It To Me

Why does Emma feel the need to spit at the waterfall???

Too Cool

It's the weekend! Oh boy, do I need a good weekend. Emma's ready. She's got her shades on. :P

Dining Room Transformation

This post is 5 months late. January and February were spent enjoying the remaining Mat Leave time with Emma. March was spent with my family and celebrating Emma's birthday before heading back to work. April was the start of our illnesses, plus a trip to California. May was the worst month we've had in a really long time. June is all about getting back to normal! So yes.. this post is 5 months but.. better late than never? :) 

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For Christmas, I requested a storage solution for our board games that didn't include the entertainment center cabinets. This led to a long debate between Ian and I about our future house plans. We were allocating a gaming space in the basement.. but how far away was the renovation? Probably too far away to justify waiting on gaming storage.

We planned our house around having a dining room. Not many people have one these days.. we wanted one because my family comes to visit and we'd like to eat around a table (when we aren't going out to a restaurant!). Plus I think it's nice to have a big table handy... for me I can use it for crafting. It's helped "stage" big excursions. I can spread out around the holidays and get a bunch of wrapping done. But outside these uses, the room wasn't used often. I floated the idea of turning it into our gaming room. It can still be used as a dining/crafting/staging/wrapping room... but now we have a great space for tabletop gaming.

I'm lucky I have a brother-in-law who doesn't like outstanding projects.... Here's Drew in his jammies after he put it together. [blurry] :)

Putting it in the space.. [you can tell how late this post is just by the mini Christmas tree..]

Ian rehanging the Tree artwork. Something is slightly wrong with the left canvas.......

Here it is filled with games. We have added many more to our collection... but still need to keep some of the bottom rows empty due to DestructoBot-5000.

Finally, a view of the whole room - best view I could get. Since this picture was taken, Ian and my brother-in-law added a plug to put a TV above the shelving unit. This way I can easily put on music or a football game while we play.... or dwarven mining music if we're playing Rockwell... :)

I'm posting this now... because this weekend is our first BOARDGAME WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA that we've had in a really long time. :D