East Portland Tabletop Arcade: FAVORITES (Hobby games at the Midland Library)

Hello! East Portland Tabletop Arcade is a free, friendly board game meetup on the first Sunday of every month at the Midland Library at SE 122nd & Morrison. Our next event will be on Sunday, June 7th from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and I'd love for anyone that's interested to come join us. This time around, we'll be in room 1F, one of the community rooms in the NE corner of the building, near the science fiction section. These rooms are explicitly for community use and open to the public, so I'm quite proud of the welcoming, relaxed atmosphere we've been able to create. We tend to have a mix of interest in shorter/lighter games and longer, more involved games, and we've been able to organize pretty organically without anyone having to wait too long. Still, if you're interested in something longer or more complex, I'd suggest arriving at the beginning so we can get that going from the jump.

I've been choosing a broad theme each month and bringing a few selections in that vein to have available. Playing these is hardly mandatory, of course - I'll have a number of other games with me, and I hope that anyone who attends will feel free to bring stuff that they're interested in getting to the table. That said, June will mark one year of hosting this event, and it also happens to be my birthday month, so I'll have a few personal favorites on hand:

BOHNANZA (Rosenberg, 1997, 3-5 players, low complexity): In Bohnanza, you plant, then harvest bean cards in order to earn coins. Each player starts with a hand of random bean cards, and each card has a number on it corresponding to the number of that type of beans in the deck. Unlike in most other card games, you can't rearrange the order of cards in hand, so you must use them in the order that you've picked them up from the deck — unless you can trade them to other players, which is the heart of the game.

IBERIAN GAUGE (Holland, 2017, 3-5 players, medium complexity): In Iberian Gauge, you will invest in railroad companies during Stock Rounds. In the Operating Rounds, each share of stock allows the shareholder to build track for that company, in the order those shares were purchased. But building in such hostile terrain is expensive! Leasing track from other companies reduces cost and keeps your railroads expanding. Failure to expand will sink your stock values, leading to ruin!

INIS (Martinez, 2016, 2-4 players, medium complexity): Inis is a game deeply rooted in Celtic history and lore in which players win by being elected King of the Island (Inis). Players can try to achieve one of three different victory conditions. Careful drafting, hand management, bluffing (especially once players understand the importance of passing their turn), good timing, and a precise understanding of the balance of power are the keys to victory.

The library itself is quite nice, especially after its recent facelift, and is just a couple minutes' walk from the 20-Burnside bus and a maybe a five or ten minute walk from the 122nd Ave Blue Line MAX stop. As far as food options, Bridge City Taproom is right across the street, there's Just Tea about a block away, and Los Francos Food Truck, Don Pedro, Victorico's, Bon Bahn Mi, Gold Garden (Chinese), and Sisters (Ethiopian) all within a few blocks.

Alright, I think that's everything for the moment. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I hope we'll see you there!