Getting There
Black Moon Games is in the plaza next to the Fire Station where Sunrise Buffet is and the Lebanon Village Store. Take the stairs on your right before the entrance to the Lebanon Village Store. Black Moon Games is the storefront on the far left.
The Shop
You can find a list of games they have available for rent on their website. I called ahead to make sure the games I wanted to rent were in stock before I packed up the kiddo and drove there. I was in luck.
Upon entering the store I told the owner that I was there to rent some games. He told me he had set aside the games for me, which I thought was very considerate of him. I asked if he had any more recommendations for people new to board games and he gave me a few ideas to try. Based on his recommendations, I added Ticket to Ride to my rental list.
Before paying, I meandered through the shop. There were card sleeves to protect deck building card games, supplies to create figurines for games, rule books for role playing games, and a nice selection of games.
The Rental Process
Renting the games was easy. I provided basic contact information and a credit card to charge in case the rentals were not returned.
I loved that I didn’t just have the game for one night, but 3! The prices were reasonable too, 10% of the list price. The games were marked, so you knew how much the rental was.
I walked out the door excited to play Ticket to Ride, Dominion, and Small World.
Playing the Games
Small World
Set Up and Learning the Rules
This was super fun to play, once you got the hang of it. Give yourself some time to watch the run through to understand because just reading the instructions wasn’t enough for me to be able to explain it to my husband so we could start. We got confused over when to change races and taking back the tokens on the board when you conquer a land. This made much more sense after watching the videos.
I loved the idea of being different creatures with special abilities, which are clearly explained on the large double sided sheet each player gets. We tried to play before looking at that: no wonder we were confused!
Playing the Game
We started at 10:30 and at 11:30 we had set up the game and taken two turns. I should’ve watched the videos first because it would’ve gone more quickly. I understood the basic concept but couldn’t answer the detailed questions so I spent a lot of the time trying to understand the rules, which surprised me because the game concept is easy to understand.
Once I did the game moved very quickly and was a lot of fun.
You choose a race and certain races cost more based on their placement in the lineup. Reading the double sided sheet explains each race so you can understand which race to choose.
Based on the race you choose you get a certain number of troops. I choose rats; they didn’t have a lot of abilities but you got a lot of troops to play with. My husband chose trolls so he got more defense capabilities but fewer troops to attack with. You can conquer a region by having a certain number of troops more than what is on the region. Mountains, fortresses, and native people in a region mean you need more troops to conquer it.
I stretched myself out too thin so when my husband changed races he had a lot to work with and was able to conquer my lands easily. As you can see in the picture when you switch races you turn over the card so it’s still your land, but easily conquered because there’s only one creature on it. The two circular tokens in the picture mean that land can’t be conquered; I like that ability!
At the end of the game my husband had control of most of the land, but that’s ok losing was really fun.
Final Run-through Time the First Time Played
1 hr 45 min
Why I liked the Game
I used to love the computer game version of Risk, so I really liked this game. Each race has a certain number of troops and abilities so the game is always different every time you play. We got into strategy as well: if I do this…then…but…hm. We played our luck too, rolling the die and often lost, unable to have that extra troop to conquer a region. I would definitely play it again.
Ticket to Ride
Set Up and Learning the Rules
We were able to set up and start the game, understanding what we were doing, in under five minutes.
I didn’t realize that each turn you choose one action instead of all three. So each turn we were picking up routes, playing routes, and picking up train cards to collect sets. No wonder it was so hard to keep track of our routes!
After a few turns I realized my mistake and we choose just two routes to keep and played only one action a turn; this made it a lot easier to keep track of your routes.
Playing the Game
The point of the game is to collect train cards of the same color and turn them in to place trains on the board and complete a route you have picked.
After twenty minutes we had made a lot of progress on the board. My husband laid the black trains and was making his way across the country. I was red and collecting sets for longer routes, so it took me longer to place trains.
In the next ten minutes we really covered ground across the country, so game play is quite fast.
We finished five minutes later because we ran out of trains.
Final Run-through Time the First Time Played
35 minutes
Why I liked the Game
This game has a lot of replayability. There are many routes to take and of course routes to sabotage if you choose to. It’s a light game with a fun theme and definitely easy to pick up and play on a weeknight after work or on a weekend. I could see this being the new Sorry! or Monopoly of family game time. You can see an overview here.
Dominion
Set Up and Learning the Rules
This is a quick game once and easy to understand: make your basic deck you start with better.
Set up is simple and the rules are easy: deal yourself cards, play cards, shuffle. Repeat.
Playing the Game
I like the images on the cards and the Medieval theme. The problem we ran into is understanding how to apply strategy to the game. If the cards just say +1 action +2 coins etc., how does that help us build better cards?
It took us a bit of being patient to start seeing our decks building. My husband started getting lots of coins because he kept getting cards that allowed him to play again. This gave him the opportunity to buy a card word a lot of money and win the game.
Final Run-through Time the First Time Played
An hour and we didn’t play the whole game through. Understanding strategy took some of that time. I think it’ll go by a lot quicker the next time we play.
Why I liked the Game
It’s simple and easy to learn. Now I’m ready to try it again and apply more strategy!
Looking for more board games to try? Check out these top recommendations from board game experts.
