We Are Board Gamers

We're not really sure when and how we became as big of board gamers as we now are. We both enjoyed them before we got married, but not to the extent we now are at.  To be fair, both of our families had a few games we would play together sometimes as kids. Andrew even used Monopoly as an ice breaker to help introduce Liz to his mom (which, for the first time in her life, Liz won).

Our power went out one day, so we played a card game together by candlelight.

But after being introduced to a few fun, slightly more modern games and being brought to BryceCon* for the very first time, our interest in board games skyrocketed. We get games that we have tried and enjoyed together for each other for birthdays, Christmas, our anniversary, Valentine's Day, Easter... Any occasion that calls for a gift is an excuse to get another board game that we loved playing together.

Two sets of games going on at the same time,
but still enjoying spending time with each other

Board games really have become a huge part of our relationship with each other and a huge way that we stay connected with our friends. Looking back, we probably became as big of board gamers as we now are when our friends first invited us to join them at BryceCon*, but it's hard to be sure since we already enjoyed them prior to this happening.

*BryceCon is a convention that happens in Bryce Canyon every January that is all about playing board/card games. They have a gigantic library of board games including a Play-to-Win section, raffles that go around to win some games, and they host a giant board game flea market. This is definitely the biggest place where we add to the list of games that we really enjoyed playing together that we want to eventually own. It's so much fun taking a break away from life to just enjoy time together as friends and families, doing something that we all really enjoy doing together.

Our friends that we attend BryceCon with.

We really enjoy doing game nights with our friends in smaller settings as well, just to hang out and have fun together. We also do this with people in our neighborhood as an opportunity to get to know more people that live nearby and make new friends.

We love having kids games available to play with our friends' kids before they go to bed as well. After a few games with the kids, they are usually put to bed and then we pull out some of the more complicated games to play with their parents. 

Playing "The Witches" based on Terry Pratchett's
Discworld book series at a local game store.

We love party, cooperative, competitive, deck building, drafting, resource management, decision making, and dice games; I don't think we've found a style of board game that we haven't yet enjoyed. Each really brings its own fun element to the (literal) table.

Andrew thinking up a strategy to try to help us win the
cooperative game, "Salvation Road".

Some of Andrew's favorite games are Mystic Vale, Dead of Winter, Settlers of Catan, Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, Roll for the Galaxy, Firefly, Munchkin Quest, and Not Alone.

His favorite game play styles are deck builders, worker management, cooperative, decision making, and role playing games.

Andrew loves games where it's possible to lose, and flourishes (AKA often demolishes everyone else) in strategy based games. He is often thinking several steps ahead in the game to figure out the best way to win.

Liz playing a game with her friend Alexis at BryceCon

Some of Elizabeth's favorite games are Dead of Winter, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Codenames, Paperback, Clank, Paramedics: Clear, Flash Point: Fire Rescue, and Quiddler.

Her favorite game play styles are cooperative, word games (like Scrabble, Quiddler, and Paperback), deck builders, puzzle solving, and role playing games.

Elizabeth loves games that push her to think outside the box, and (usually) excels in luck based games. We once played a game of Phase 10 where she had at LEAST one wild in her hand every single round.