“Concordia”, a fantastic worker placement deck-building extravaganza that always satisfies.

I am trying to to remember how it started, but it’s a little fuzzy to me.

I know it did in part because in the period of years I went out and danced a lot on the weekends, I one time met Brian at Graham Central Station. Brian wears his black cowboy hat when he goes out dancing and he cleans up and looks like a kindly cowboy beneath, but that is what he is. He is fearless in the club, and thinks nothing of getting shot down when he seeks out acquaintances to dance with. “I play the numbers”, he once told me. Well, besides his boldness in a dance hall, Brian is a nice person, and undoubtedly that’s how we hit it off at some point as friends. He would be at the club freelancing it, and I’d be solo after the formal dance club time period would end, and we’d chat when we were both free and taking a break.

In time, Brian met and started dating Karen, and I think that is when we started the group. Karen was a dancer who, in time, injured a foot, and who could not go dancing, and at that point in time, Karen, Brian, my dance compadre Sally, and myself wondered about another way to spend time together. I mentioned board games, and we decide that on one weekend night we would meet for dinner and then to try out a game. I had a few, and they were willing to give it a go.

We met for dinner, and then gave it a go. Brian enjoyed it. Karen also enjoyed it, quite a bit. Sally had a good time, but games are not her thing. I had a good time too.

Shortly after that, Karen invited a friend of hers to join us for another game night when Sally demurred out. His name was Ron, and he quickly became our game night fourth.

And game night became a regular, nearly bi-weekly thing for us.

And I appreciated it much. As a single guy with this closet full of modern board games, I knew what I hoped I could one day play, but for me, to enjoy the experience, it would take sharing the experience with a few willing and committed folks who would be willing to slowly learn rules, who were competitive but also cooperative, who were focused and wouldn’t leave in an hour, who enjoyed breaking out a game simply to enjoy the mechanics and aesthetics of a table top game. Brian, Karen, and Ron and I maintained a pretty regular routine of meeting every other weekend to recreate around a board game, and that routine went on for nearly two years, I would guess.

In a shift of life directions, Brian and Karen broke up last winter so that Karen could move to Arizona to be closer to her family. With that relationship dissolved and Karen gone, it was questionable whether the group would remain a thing. Brian and I spent some time together otherwise, periodically meeting for dinner or a movie to just maintain our friendship.

Around Christmas, I sent Ron a salutation text, wishing him Happy Holidays, and his reply asked the important question. “When are we gonna have game night again?”

And so, in the spring of this year, we did. Once. And then again several weeks later.

The group was not dead.

It was during this time when Susan, the president of the local Albuquerque Dance Club (whose website I maintain), emailed me and let me know there was a guy in the club who was a big gamer fan. Coming from her, from someone outside of the hobby, I didn’t know if she knew what I meant by “enjoying the hobby of board gaming.” I could have meant, for all she knew, that I loved Chutes and Ladders and Candyland. Still, Susan is pretty good about talking to people and getting info from them about themselves, and I knew I, Brian, and Ron would enjoy filling the open seat at the table, because four is a good number of player for such games- so I contacted Kyle and invited him to game night.

And he knew pretty quickly and clearly what we were about. He WAS a boardgame guy.

And in recent months, we have enjoyed a renewal of the group.

It’s an interesting assembly. Ron, probably in his late 50’s, is a retiree and a horse trainer who lives on the east side of the mountains.

Kyle, the youngster of the group, is probably in his early to mid thirties, and is a mechanical engineer.

Brian is a cyber security wizard.

And then there’s me.

And we seem to all enjoy meeting together on game night for a good meal picked up from a local restaurant, followed by a two or three hour grind through a meaty table top game.

It’s a bit of respite from real life. We talk during dinner about individual circumstances and recent experiences, and it is great to spend time with people you enjoy catching up with.

And then, after dinner, when the dinner ware is sinked and leftovers are stowed and the table is cleaned off, we break out the night’s feature, set it up, and get lost in it until the game end is triggered and someone has one.

It’s always an enjoyable time, whether one wins or loses.

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