iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Look what arrived yesterday! Dice Envy Advent Calendar🎉🎲 (I got the "Nice" edition, instead of "Naughty".) So now begins the countdown until I can start opening it🤣 #dice

6 sided box. Advent Calendar banner style in 2 lines across the top. Dice Envy printed small in the center of box. The box is mottled dark green with winter holiday images all over it. Christmas tree, wreath, deer, snowman, cup of hot cocoa, candles, candy canes gingerbread men, and various figures, with snowflakes scattered all over between the other images.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Esme wanted us to deal her in for a game of Silver yesterday. But then she went to sleep on the chair after I dealt🤣 Table talk centered around how to make the dog a player in a game with hidden information. We'd turn over her hand at the end of the round and discuss her options🤣 #boardgames

White-blonde chihuahua-mix, ears down, looking wistfully over the table. The lid for Silver is on the table, on the righ, turned face side down with rulebooks barely visible inside. The playmat is Game Toppers Horror themed mat. The top of a spooky old house is visible on the mat.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Fewer games and plays in September, and we definitely leaned more toward older games! #boardgames

BG Stats Sep 2026

Plays: 30
H-index: 3
Games: 9
New: 1
Players: 2
Locations: 1
Hours: 25
Days: 9

Moon Colony Bloodbath: 7
Carcassonne: 7
Dominion (Second Edition): 4
Orléans: 3
Notre Dame: 10th Anniversary: 3
Doomlings: 3
Obsession: 1
Ticket to Ride: Northern Lights: 1
Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small – The Big Box: 1

9 designers:
Donald X. Vaccarino: 22%
Alan R. Moon: 11%
Andrew Meyer (I): 11%
Dan Hallagan: 11%
Justus Meyer: 11%
Klaus-Jürgen Wrede: 11%
Reiner Stockhausen: 11%
Stefan Feld: 11%
Uwe Rosenberg: 11%.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Morning sky through car window. (I was actually hoping the raindrops and streaks of rain on the window would show up, but I seem to have shot between the droplets💦🤷‍♀️) #SkySky

Looming bank of rain clouds on the right, with a long line of clouds just above the horizon going from left to right. Bottom of pic is the edge of street, a sidewalk and some fields an houses in the distance.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

As soon as I saw this holofoil of Boredom, I thought, "Wait. Isn't this the opposite of boredom??" Or maybe I'm just easily thrilled by shiny🤣🤔 @doomlings.bsky.social #doomlings #boardgames

Doomlings holofoil card of base game card, Boredom. It show a basic doomling with a meh expression. The card is tilted in the light to show a spectrum of colors across the foil parts. It is a gray "colorless" card with 0 face value, but scores +2 for each colorless card in your hand at the end of the game. At World's End you draw 2 cards, so an extra shot at colorless cards.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Capstone Games has some stuff on sale, including Orleans, a classic I've been thinking about getting. The sale price of thr bundle of base game + The Plague expansion is less than the sale price of the base game, so I got the bundle. Looking forward to playing the base game soon! #boardgames

On the left, base game of Orleans with a blue knight holding a shield facing a monk on the left, while another figure observes from the right. In the distance behind them are houses. On the right, the expansion box for Orleans The Plague, It says The 3rd Expansion under the title. The cover is dark, mostly black and dark gray with a plague doctor wearing pink, a beaked mask, black hat, holding a lit candle.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

We had a surprisingly excellent month of game playing! 2 new-to-us games, and a lot of favorites (Notre Dame 10th Anniversary Edition qualifies as both with the 1st play instantly making it a favorite!) #boardgames

BG Stats 5 x 5.
Play count:
7: Carcassonne;
6: Moon Colony Bloodbath;
6: Doomlings;
6: Dominion (Second Edition);
4: The Taverns of Tiefenthal;
3: Notre Dame: 10th Anniversary;
3: Herbaceous;
2: Alice's Garden;
2: Martian Dice;
1: Vantage;
1: Scrabble;
1: Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon;
1: Cottage Garden;
1: Obsession;
1: Ticket to Ride: Northern Lights;
1: Cartographers Heroes;
1: Century: A New World;
1: Tavern Masters.

BG Stats Aug 2026

Plays: 48
H-index: 4
Games: 18
New: 2
Players: 2
Locations: 1
Hours: 37
Days: 11

Carcassonne: 7
Moon Colony Bloodbath: 6
Doomlings: 6
Dominion (Second Edition): 6
The Taverns of Tiefenthal: 4
Notre Dame: 10th Anniversary: 3
Herbaceous: 3
Alice's Garden: 2
Martian Dice: 2

21 designers:
Donald X. Vaccarino: 11%
Alan R. Moon: 5%
Alfred Mosher Butts: 5%
Andrew Meyer (I): 5%.

30 artists:
Chris Quilliams: 11%
Julien Delval: 11%
Andrea Boekhoff: 5%
Anne Pätzke: 5%
Atha Kanaani: 5%.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

National Dog Day 2026. Bailey (elderly terrier-mix) on the left. Esme (chihuahua-mix) on the right. #dogsofbluesky #dogsofbsky #rescuedogs #chihuahua #NationalDogDay

Rough coated blonde-white terrier mix, ears down, head on floofy pink pillow.

White-blonde chihuahua-mix, ears up, on floofy pink pillow, with other pillows and dog in the background.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Learning Shackleton Base today!🌘👨‍🚀 #boardgames

Shackleton Base laid out on Game Topper with a space themed game mat. Corporations are above the board and box lid in upper left of pic. Beginner (first game) corporations are, left to right, Artemis, Moon Mining, and Selenium Research. Green player board is at the right of the pic and pink player is at the top of the pic. Some of the game's tuck boxes are used as bit holders.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Esme has taken to being our scorekeeper for Carcassonne. Sometimes she does not look happy at the state of the game😆 #boardgames #dogsofbluesky #dogsofbsky #rescuedog

White-blonde chihuahua-mix with tiny toes on the table rail, ears down, muzzle lightly resting on one paw. Yellow and green meeple on scoreboard track in foreground (out of focus).

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Well, whatever the problem was, it seems to have corrected itself🤷‍♀️

Bird Buddy feeder witg a White-Winged Dove facing away and to the left, gripping theperch extender beyond the red landing area. Most of the seed in the foreground is black sunflower. The orange half on the left is for mockingbirds.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Yesterday my Bird Buddy suddenly started giving me weird green pics and video. When I check the livestream it looks normal🤷‍♀️ What happened and how can I fix it? #birdbuddy #birds

Feeder with a greenish cast to the pic and some distortion obvious on the white-winged dove. Black sunflower seeds are dominant in the mix. An orange is on the left for mockingbirds.

A stoll shot taken from livestream. Color is normal, possibly slightly muted due to time of day. Black sunflower seeds are dominant in the mix. An orange is on the left for mockingbirds.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Found this for $14.99, new in shrink, at Half Price Books yesterday! Guess what were putting on the table first today?😁 #boardgames

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Esme. First half of the World Cup final 2026. Apparently she's not a soccer dog. #dogsofbluesky #dogsofbsky #chihuahua #rescuedog

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Male and female cardinal at my Bird Buddy❤️ They're a devoted couple! I've named them Kro-Bar and Lattis after that wonderful alien couple in @larryblamire.bsky.social 's Lost Skeleton of Cadavera. #birds #birdbuddy #film

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Sunday afternoon a friend taught us Bärenpark. My first bear park was...not square😆 And I actually got a better score than the second game where I made a nice square park🤷‍♀️ #boardgames

Final layout, first game of Bärenpark. 3-player game. My starting board was Bjornepark. All areas are completely filled. My bear tokens were 13, 12, 9, and 5 points. I got about the same amount in tokens in the second game, though slightly less total points. I won this game, despite the wonky layout.

Final layout, second game of Bärenpark. 3-player game. My starting board was Bjornepark. All areas are completely filled, and this time my park was neatly square. My bear tokens this time were 14, 11, 8, and 5. I think I had pretty decent total scores in both games🤷‍♀️

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

[Insert Elmer Fudd voice: "🎶 Kill the Wabbit, 🎶 Kill the Wabbit...🎶] Esme is such a happy dog❤️ Barking a challenge for me to come and get the rabbit, racing around the house with it. Pure unadulterated joy! #dogsofbluesky #rescuedog #chihuahua

White-blonde chihuahua-mix on rug with muted colors, brown stuffed rabbit in front of her. Dog's ears are at half-cocked angle and she looks ready to leap or bark!

White-blonde chihuahua-mix on rug with muted colors, brown stuffed rabbit in front of her. Tail is blurred in motion, head lowered,and back slightly bowed as if she's about to spring. She lets loose a sharp bark!

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Update from our Moon Colony adventures. Saturday I got another all-time high score (42!)...and I think this one may be impossible for me to top. I got the most big cards ever: both Domes and the Complex! More in Alt text. #boardgames

Game in-progress,with 3 big buildings intact, plus the Greenhouses on the left. 2 boxes on the Greenhouse, one each on the 2 Dome cards, and the new built Complex card on the right with no boxes. At this point I have 1 population on my board, 3 money, and 4 food. All Work actions have been taken. I knew that I'd be destroying the big buildings soon, so I stopped to take a pic. I may never be able to do this again! There were some money generating cards in the mix, which is the only way I was able to afford to do this!

My final board. Two of my three big buildings have been destroyed (which is why I have so much population on my board), leaving only one of the two Domes I'd built, and the Greenhouse, both of which have boxes on them. I have 15 pop on the board, 4 food, 7 money, and no Work actions taken in this shuffle when the game ended.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

I've got a Bird Buddy! The birds have found it and the app has a feature where you can give the birds names. I've decided to name them after characters in @larryblamire.bsky.social films, beginning with Mrs Cupcupboard, a White Winged Dove. (More in alt text) #birds #BirdBuddy

White Winged Dove perched on red landing, staring, with head slightly turned, at the camera. She does this a lot. It's like she knows there's a camera there. She also eats the sunflower seeds at the bottom of the frame. She has a black pupil in an orange eye, with a violet-blue ring around her eye. The edge of the white on the lower part of her wing is just visible on the side.

White Winged Dove perched on red landing, head down, considering which black sunflower seed to eat next. She has a black pupil in an orange eye, with a violet-blue ring around her eye. The edge of the white on the lower part of her wing is just visible on the side.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

New personal best score for Moon Colony Bloodbath: 35! That's 5 more than starting population🎉 (I've score 30 & 31 in other games.) Details in alt txt. #boardgames

Player board with 2 Work actions done, 1 money, 9 food, & 3 population on the board. (Note: these are upgrade game bits.) Cards remaining for my moon base, left to right, Kale Farm (5 pop), Hydroponics (4 pop), Spaceport (7 pop), Dust Farm (6 pop, last effort to push up population), Generator (5 pop), and the ever-popular Hacker Lair (5 pop).

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

A chihuahua and her moose. Esme sleeping on a rainy day. #dogsofbluesky #dogsofbsky #chihuahua

White-blonde chihuahua-mix facing away from camera, with the head of a plush moose with a knit hat against her on her left. She's lying on a soft pink blanket.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Behold! The most inefficient coffee operation!☕️🤣 First play of Café. We liked it a lot, but OMG this first play was a mess!🤣🤣🤣 #boardgames

Final layout. Overlapping cards with squares for 4 different colored beans (coffees), drying squares, roasting squares, etc. Card on the left is the warehouse, and where action points are tracked. Got a nice sprawling block for bean production (a lot of cubes still on the board). Fulfilled 3 coffeeshops for points. But couldn't get adjacency for drying or roasting. By game end I had 5 action points (coffee cups on cards) and I needed more because of how inefficient drying and roasting was. Had no red cubes on my warehouse card, but otherwise didn't do to badly balancing the extremely low amounts.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Bruno Cathala's Donuts, a 2-player abstract strategy game. Final board, National Donut Day 2026. I did not cover myself in glory🤦‍♀️😆 More info in alt txt. #boardgames #NationalDonutDay

Box lid at the top of pic, Bruno Cathala's name on the upper left. Modular board made of 4 square pieces. Grid on board has squares divided into pink and white halves. The board pieces are double-sided and the orientation when the 4 pieces are laid out is random. The donut pieces are wooden with chocolate design on one side and plain donut on the other side. Flipping your opponent's pieces is part of the game!

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Happy National Donut Day!🍩🎉😋 (And, yes, we will be playing Bruno Cathala's Donuts tonight😆) #NationalDonutDay #boardgames

Close-up of a donut with red icing and multicolored sprinkles.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

OMG I can't believe it!! This is the 7th game of Space Base played with the John D. Claire promo card, & only the 3rd when I've gotten the card. I got it mid-game & it triggered near the end, putting me over for the win!! My board at the time it triggered⬇️ See alt txt #boardgames

My board when the John D. Clair card was triggered. It's in sector 9, not deployed. I had 36 points, 6 money, 5 income.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Wrapped up Day 2 of PeliCon 2026! Took this pic on the way out.

Lobby with large standee of a cartoon pelican in armor, holding a sword and shield. Behind it is the entrance to the main playing hall. Above the entrance it says PeliCon 2026 in black lettering and below that is a purple banner that says Welcome Tabletop Gamers!!! PeliCon 2026 with a a few sponsors in small print (including Weird Giraffe Games)

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

PeliCon 2026 has begun! Started with learning a couple of short fast games this afternoon: Deadly Dowagers (1 game, play-to-win entry🤞) and Zombie Dice (3 games) Details in alt txt. Will be shooting for checking out more substantial games tomorrow #boardgames #PeliCon2026

Box art of Deadly Dowagers, showing several Victorian ladies, who climb the social ladder through marrying and murdering their husbands, then remarrying. Card play, but only cashing in after the death of a husband. The game-ending prize is the The Duke.

In our 2nd game of Zombie Dice Robert rolled 9 brains!! Since brains are points and 13 points wins, he won that one almost before I got started! The non-brain dice sides have either feet or shotgun blasts. Accumulate 3 blasts & you lose the brain points for the turn. Up to that point you can keep rolling or stop. Feet dice can be rerolled. The colors represent hiw easy or hard the dice are; green is the easiest and red the hardest.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Set a new all-time high score for Moon Colony Bloodbath with 31 surviving population!🎉 (2-player game) Got some excellent cards! #boardgames

Final board. A large stack of food. 6 money, 14 people tokens on my board (destroyed big buildings which is why I had so many on the board at game end). 3 cards (buildings) left. Left to right: Clone Banks with 1 box token on it, Greenhouses, and Orga. Banks with 2 boxes on it. Work tokens in upper left if mat: game ended before any Work actions had turned up in that shuffle. Playmat is space-themed, stars, nebula etc.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Sometimes Esme is a normal lapdog, and sometimes she tries to pretzel herself 🤣 #dogsofbluesky #dogsofbsky #rescuedog #chihuahua

White-blonde chihuahua-mix twisted awkwardly with head down and to the side of her body, legs thrashing (movement not apparent in the pic).

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Vantage. Epic victory!🎉 We actually could've gotten the Destiny sooner, but realized the final cube would end the game & we were 1 card short of the mission, so the Destiny was fulfilled on the turn when we got the final thing we needed for the mission. #boardgames

Mission: liberate your homeworld. Involves acquiring cards with red dice placement spots. Destiny: fill card with cubes on player's turn.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

I came so close to a new personal best in Moon Colony Bloodbath (2-player game)! If I could've gotten a work action I could built the Dome card in my hand. It would've given me 20 ppl. BUT robots got my opponent before a work card came out. I won with 28, & my best score is 30. (See Alt txt)

My final player area with 16 money, 4 people, no food (don't need it because I've still got the Greenhouse), & no Work actions taken yet this shuffle. Three buildings remain: the Flag (no pop, but play action gives money & it doesn't need feeding), Greenhouses, which exempts cards with boxes on them from needing food), and Complex which has a large population (16). I got an unusually large number of high pop cards & had already destroyed some for the population they held. I held the Dome card in hand, with enough money to build it. 1 work action card and I'd have had 20 more people at game end! An excellent win, which could've been a personal beat win.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Got my second best score ever for Obsession this morning😮 Did astonishingly well on Objective cards. #boardgames

Objective cards bottom left, Tile layout center of pic. Lots of Service & Estate tiles. Got 2 Monuments. 2 VP cards under purple and green row, 4 pts on each. Box for my family (Cavendish) on the left. Upper part of pic is the game board.

My player board with lots of expended servants, and my Prestige guests including Miss Elizabeth Fairchild and a promo card

My casual guests, incl 1 Pauper that I drew near game end.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Got the metal coin upgrade for Obsession, because I love metal coins in games...& I've got everything else🤣 Had a pretty good game today! #boardgames

Pile of gold and silver colored coins with two different images of Queen Victoria on the front side. Backside had various symbols from the game and coin values (though it seems fairly obvious that larger golden coins would be a higher value than smaller silver colored ones). There's only 2 coin values in the game: 100 & 500. The coins are thick and hefty.

Final layout for me. I went nuts with blue service tiles (2 of the courtship phases scored blue), and I bought and used/flipped 2 purple tiles to the monument side (Hermitage & Lionheart Suite). At the very bottom there's a glimpse of my objective and VP cards. Did pretty well on them too!

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Setup for first on-the-table play of Gizmos (a friend had taught it to me on BGA). Nifty engine builder with very satisfying action-chaining! Also: marbles! #boardgames

Botton of pic, in the V of the table corner; the marble dispenser. To the left, my energy ring for storing marbles, my dashboard with the starting card under File (ditto for right side of pic, other player). Center: the card market of Gizmos, levels 1-3 and some victory point tokens.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I *think* we're set up to play Through Ice and Snow. We rearranged the layout a bit to try to make it less sprawling for 2 players. We're going to find the North West Passage (or die trying). The game isn't co-op, but there is a game condition where we could all die (lose)! #boardgames

Double-layered player boards, left and right, resources in 4 bit bowls in right corner (plus a pile of Inuit meeples), ship upgrade tiles and cards. The main player board(s) are in sections rather than folded out, with score track to the far left. Above the main board is the first section of map. New sections will be revealed as the journey progresses.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

A Gentle Rain: my best score ever! 17!!🪷 If the tiles look a bit funny it's because I swapped 2 otter tiles in the Bloom Edition w/corresponding duck tiles in regular edition. Because I want both ducks & otters! (Also I keep all these pieces in the regular box because it's so compact.) #boardgames

Final layout with red bloom on the bottom left, and colors zigzagging in an up and down line left to right: red, pink, purple, blue, black, yellow, white, orange. Stack of 9 remaining tiles in bottom right of pic.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Alice's Garden is a nifty little polyomino optimization puzzle. One thing I like is that the single square tiles you earn aren't placed until game end, so you can maximize points based on the type of tile & empty spaces. I did much better than usual with the alternate side of the board! #boardgames

Player board, final position. The bottom of the board has how each type of tile scores. On this alternate side, the squares for chess pieces are scattered around the board. I lost 5 points for having a bonus tile leftover after filling in the gaps with bonus tiles I earned. The types of tiles are mushrooms (purple), roses (red), chess pieces, trees (which have faces on them) and playing card tiles which gain you single square bonus tiles during play for adjacency.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Carcassonne Winter, 2nd Edition (2020) which included the winter River mini-expansion. #ThirstyCardboard #boardgames

Bottom tile is a snow-covered monastery with fir trees, middle tile is a River tile witg a curved section of river, a couple of small outbuildings and fir trees. The top tile is the lake (end river tile) with fir trees (tile out of focus).

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Another pic for #ThirstyCardboard (beauty shots of board games) The lighting made this pic of Final Girl (maybe my first play?) unexpectedly moody and ominous😆😬 #boardgames

Camp Happy Trails board. Yellow meeple in upper left corner, pink and red meeples at tbe edge of the lake, casting long shadows...

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Here's an old, but lovely, shot of one corner of the game board for Zapotec to get me started with #ThirstyCardboard , the tag for boardgame beauty shots! ( #boardgames )

One corner of Zapotec board, gold city with black and orange buildings in all sectors.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Has anyone playing Space Base ever used the John D. Clair promo card & managed to trigger it? If so, under what circumstances?😆 We've tried it out in 3 games with it seeded into the Level 3 ship market row & that Rewards Bomb didn't go off!😆 (But I still love it because it's so crazy.) #boardgames

Cost: 35 Sector: 9 U.E.C. John D. Clair Designer Class Vessel. Blue block "Gain all other Blue Rewards on your board." (What you can if you roll a 9) Upside down red block "Gain all other Red Rewards above your board" (What you gain on other player's turn if this ship is deployed above your board.)

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

Happiness is a warm lapdog on a chilly morning. Esme is very comfy🙂 #chihuahua #rescuedog #dogsofbluesky

White-blonde chihuahua-mix asleep in my lap on top of an old quilt.

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Tea and Games @teangames.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Game day today! 4 person play of Moon Colony Bloodbath AND we made it all the way through the Event deck!🎉 I did really well, but one of the people I taught won! #boardgames

My final board, character Dr Kaneko. I think this was the most buildings I've ever ended with. 6 buildings (including Flag). 3 people on the board, 4 food stacked, 2 money, all 4 Work action tokens on the board. Visible above my board is the building discard (had to reshuffle the building deck for the first time ever), the Progress deck facedown, and the final event card on top of the already played cards in the Progress deck.

Foreground: the back of Esme's head (white-blonde chihuahua-mix) as she sits up in my lap and looks over the play area (out of focus in the background) during the game.

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