Last Thursday we began working our way through the BG Summer Bucket List Challenge! Week One (June 1-6): Enjoy a game with ice cream! We weren’t sure if that meant play a game about ice cream or eat ice cream while you’re playing, so of course we did both!

At a Glance…

Strawberry Crumble Bars

I was drawn to this recipe from Ambitious Kitchen for a few reasons 1) it was gluten free and we had a celiac attending 2) it was refined sugar free and we had someone avoiding sugar attending 3) it could be served with ice cream for our bucket list 4) it looked delicious!

This was super easy to whip up! (I did make myself more work by only deciding to double it partway through making it, which complicated matters, but that’s my fault). Lomi took care of my strawberry bits I didn’t use ( I got a new one! Lomi has fantastic customer service! It’s so pretty! Get yours here!). I love how you use the same crumble for both the base and the topping, making it a breeze. It was a bit hard to say how people liked it on its own, since we all smothered it with ice cream, haha, but I will say even after doubling it that only a small square was left! This is definitely a winner for both its flexibility and deliciousness.

The Games

We began with our group of 8 playing a quick game of Welcome To…summer edition! Welcome To is a great ___& write. Instead of dice, you’re flipping cards and then everyone simultaneously chooses what they want to do with the options on the cards. Thematically, you’re building a 50s style neighborhood, with things like pools, parks, estates, fences, etc. added on to your house numbers. There are a few variations you can play with, many of which match the seasons. Since I was trying to check off the bucket list challenge, we of course played the summer ice cream map, which adds a little ice cream truck to your neighborhood you’re moving to scoop up the ice cream. Any time I play with an expansion, I often focus too much on it to the detriment of other things. This was no exception, but I still did alright!

I love Welcome to… for how simple but strategic it is, how friendly and welcoming it looks, and how many people it can play. All in all, it is a great game and a wonderful start to the challenge.

Burgle Bros. is a great cooperative game where you are a heist team trying to rob 3 floors of a building. We first played this at a convention where there was an epic 3D tower with each of the floors and we though, wow! This is amazing! So we asked for it for Christmas and it was in this tiny box and we thought, hmm, how can they fit that big tower in that small box? Turns out the tower was a kickstarter exclusive, sadly, but the game is still fantastic! There are the classic mechanisms of good guys get some actions to do things, then the bad things happen. In this case, the bad thing is a guard on each floor trying to catch you. If he ever does, he takes away one of your three stealth tokens. If you’re ever caught without one you all lose. All the tiles are face down and you can either play is super risky by running round flipping them over and setting off alarms, or take it more cautiously by first peeking at the tiles to see if you really want to go that way. We have found this game has about a 1 in 8 win ratio (after getting super frustrated by not winning, researching the win ratio, putting it on our 10×10 on year just so we could get that win within the year). But it has some great moments of luck, drama, tenseness, hiding in bathroom stalls in the building so the guard doesn’t catch you, and other such nonsense. All around a great one!

Castles of Mad King Ludwig is one I’ve previously talked about here. It is one of my favorites, and I always have a great time with it and introducing it to people. This most recent play, my castle began with the Venus Grotto, a dirt room, and a crypt lol. It did not win, but it was super fun to build and give a tour of, haha.

Want to buy these games? Check out your friendly local game store (FLGS), Amazon [here], or get a first-order discount at Board Game bliss [here].