Saturday night we got together with a couple of our fellow strategy loving friends and taught them one of our new favs that’s hit the 10×10, Ezra & Nehemiah! We managed to pair it with some ethnically appropriate food, which doesn’t always happen but I love it when it does! I’ve got a bunch of recipes to share, and a great game to gush over!

At a Glance…

The Snacks

With a Biblical themed game on the docket, it seemed appropriate to do a light dinner of Middle Eastern snacks.

I made the Baba Ganoush from Minimalist Baker, which made the bake time of the eggplant nice and short. I did find that my eggplants were perhaps smaller than the recipe intended and had to bake another one at the last minute, which was not ideal. The taste turned out pretty well though; sort of like a beefed up hummus.

The Hemp Seed Tabouli from Oh She Glows came together quickly and easily (thanks Jon!), and I loved the opportunity to get a big dose of the protein-packed hemp I’ve been adding to a lot of my meals lately. (You can get a big bag here) I also added a cucumber to it, which I would definitely recommend.

A friend made the Muhammara from Rainbow Plant Life, which was fantastic! She didn’t have the pomegranate molasses, or pomegranate juice, but found it worked pretty well to do an apple-cranberry juice instead. She also used some cayenne instead of the Aleppo pepper. We use what we got, am I right? It could easily be made gluten-free with some gf bread crumbs.

The Baklava Cookies from Vegan Richa were quick and fantastic! I got compliments on how they were not overly sweet or sticky like baklava sometimes is, but the flavor was really highlighted well instead. Not sure where to get tapioca starch? I got this from Amazon.ca a while ago and it works well! Overall the food was a delightful addition to the evening.

The Strategy

Ezra & Nehemiah…boy! Where to start? If you’ve played any of the crunchier Garphill Games, you know they pack a punch strategy wise, and this one is no exception. In a nutshell, the game is played over 3 rounds, with each player getting 6 actions in a round. You use cards to activate actions, with the banners on the cards giving the strength of the action, and the banners building up from turn to turn. You are trying to build the walls, make sacrifices, and read the Torah to gain in-game benefits and end-game bonuses. I loved how quickly these friends picked up on the game and we were all just able to enjoy our snacks and strategy without it getting bogged down. If you are into heavier, thinkier games, and especially if you are keen on the religious theme, give this one a try! It’s so good! (And it crossed off a play on our 10×10 for us!)

We had a bit of time left in the evening and were able to get in a quick game of Topiary. You are collectively revealing tiles in a 5×5 grid to build topiaries in your group garden. On your turn, you place a meeple facing a certain row or column of tiles, pick up one of those tiles, and then replace it either with itself or one from your hand of 3 others. You want your meeples to be able to see as many tiles as possible, so you have to be careful, because the higher numbers block the lower ones. It’s such a cute breezy game, but can get unintentionally cut throat! Play it with friends who don’t take it too seriously 😉

PS- We enhanced our experience by using these blinged out metal coins and listened first to Melodice’s playlist and then the Prince of Egypt soundtrack while playing 🙂

Want to buy these games? Check out your FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) or Board Game Bliss using my referral!

(Or get Ezra and Nehemiah on Amazon US or Amazon CA)