GBA Night

Back on the road, back on the bike, for a Flamme Rouge race. With Avenue Corso Paseo on the menu, a completely flat stage, and eight cyclists at the start, representing four teams, one of which debuted on the international circuit.

The start was slow, with the peloton running compact, headed, from the start, by the blue team. No one seemed to be willing to take the initiative. No major changes, whatsoever, for almost the entire first third of the race. Until the red team attacked, managing to put both of their riders in the front, escaping from the group, and forcing the pack to move into hot pursuit mode. The peloton only fully regrouped at the entrance of the final curves, with some cyclists already showing wear signs. A tight dash to the finish line ... and the winner is … the red team sprinter, by just one bike length!

Asger Harding Granerud. Flamme Rouge. Lautapelit.fi, 2017. MEBO Games. Lda.

Flamme Rouge once again exhibited its remarkable balance, in which suspense usually remains high throughout the entire race, and in which someone seldom gets out of  the fight. A game that takes less than 10 minutes to be prepared and taught, and that plays in about 45 minutes.

It is also possible to design other routes, to introduce climbs and descents, add wind and rain effects with the Meteo expansion, increase the number of cyclists with the Peloton expansion, or even, why not, modify some rules.

Uwe Rosenberg and Corné van Moorsel, Nova Luna, Pegasus Spiele, 2019.

From the road we fly high to the Moon, Nova. Picking up tiles. Limited by the position of the Moon, which moves, and by the choices of other players. Advancing the Moon to a new phase. Choosing a small step, to play more often, or taking a giant leap, to collect "the" tile.

Placing tiles. Making alignments of central gems, so that they match, in terms of number and colours, to the combinations that are depicted in each tile, in order to meet the objectives.

A beautiful puzzle, not trivial to accomplish, requiring a constant adaptation and lots of attention. It's easy to get your eyes crossed, at first!

Oleksandr Nevskiy, Club Detective, IGAMES, 2018. MEBO Games Lda.

Returning to Earth and to the contact with other human beings. Telling stories, making links between words and images, bluffing, trying to read the others and to find out who was kept out of the initial secret. Club Detective.

With cards reminding Dixit, but with different game mechanisms, it is one of those games that shines at larger player counts, in a relaxed ambiance, giving room to the imagination and requiring a fast mind for establishing connections.


And so it was, one more session organised by the Aveiro Boardgamers Group, with Carlos Abrunhosa, Nuno Rebelo and Pedro Chuva for company.

See you next time!