Special Event Archives - Coastal Board Gamers

Meeple Escape 2026

Zac Hampson — Sat, 30 May 2026 10:47:06 +0000

Despite numbers being down compared to previous years, Meeple Escape 2026 went off without a hitch. Meeple’s extended hours compared to our regular CBG events allowed many long-haul games were brought to the table this year, including Western Legends with every expansion, John Company, Galactic Cruise and 1846: The Race for the Midwest.

Several smaller games were also brought to the table. Zac decided the bring out the latest expansion of Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Rocky Roads, to the table. However, an unfortunate four on a stress card at a critical corner caused an early spin out leaving him far behind the other racers and unable to catch up, giving him his first “did not finish” of his racing career.

Tragedy Looper was another game played, an Anime themed game combing a murder mystery with a time travel loop and all the confusing and mysterious mechanics of both genres. While Zac and Tim put in a valiant effort to avert disaster despite their unfamiliarity with the game, the experienced mastermind behind the events got the upper hand and won out in the end.

On Sunday a quick game on Funfair was played between Zac and Josh, so Josh could complete his Meeple Challenge. Despite Zac actually deciding to build rides as opposed to several movie theatres this game and winning the critics choice award for the most themes featured, it fell just short of outscoring Josh’s own theme park that fulfilled several blueprint cards.

Congratulations to the winners of our various prize draws, we hope you enjoy your new games.

Comments from Vandoon

Rode in the door Friday afternoon chaps dusty and hat low on the brow. Others gathered on the plain and the tumble weeds cleared as dinner was served. After a fine repast Everyone gathered their mounts and headed off to our game of Western Legends. There was one among us that was just too legendary and left us in the dust. Eleanor took the crown. Many different paths were taken, Some spent all day in the saloon playing poker others took to droving herds of cattle to market. Some even took to more nefarious paths however the landholder won out.

I retired for the evening.

The sun broke over a lovely day and all the excited gamers reared their sleepy heads. After a filling breakfast I set out to make my fortune in India. 6 families formed The John Company to bring riches back to England and retire our relatives in the comfort they deserved. We all set out with good intentions however the Natives and poor management caused our undoing. After a mere 2 years the company failed and we were all sacked. India went about its business, and we moved on to other games.

I thought I might try my hand in the industrial revolution and joined a game of Brass Birmingham. A game I quite enjoy. Everyone had a great time however industry must not be my thing as I managed to tie for last. I noticed a theme here, trounced out on the open plain, crashed the company ending with a negative score and last in a game I am comfortable with.

Feeling like I needed a change I took on World Order. Playing as the benevolent USA I proceeded to roll tanks across the board and shake my fists at the other impudent nations. Unfortunately, I was almost lapped coming 99 points behind the lead country. World domination is not my thing. I took my leave and got some rest knowing the next day I would run a rocket ship tour company providing joy to all my passengers.

Another day took shape and I began running the tour company. I had a slow start and others had rockets built and tours running before I made my first launch. I began to catch up but was just too late. The tourists had fun as did I however I again managed to tie for last.

The weekend drew to a close and we said our farewells.

It truly was great to see everyone again and I only wish I could have played more games with more people. I always want to get to the table with the friendly people that I don’t see often enough. I look forward to next year. The big question is always what games I can play and with whom. I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

Lynden Says…

I played 5 games during the camp. Saturday morning a group of us played John company We failed the company in the second round of the game. Causing the game to finish much earlier, most of us finishing on a negative score.

Saturday evening, I was in a game hosted by Justin, a new attendee to the camp, it was a very competitive game with a race to get each of the milestones. It was a fairly close scoring game with Maddie winning on $415, second place Sam $356, third place Lynden $280, fourth place Justin $160, fifth place Casual traveler $124 From Lynden

Chris says…

I didn’t actually play as many games as I thought as the one on Saturday was a long game.

Highlights for me were playing Heat on Friday with some expansions. That’s always a fun game. On Saturday I got my new Kickstarter Luthier to the table for a 6-hour game. All about buying items to make and sell Music instruments to composers and other famous people. It was great to finally have a 4 player game.

It was also good to play Condottiere after a long time. A battle to take over Italy on what seems like one of the smallest player boards out there.

Finally after a few games of Skull and The Crew Deep Sea the day was ended with a great game of Thunder Road. For my first ever game I ended up almost going out and destroying my cars after only a couple of rounds, I redemed myself once the fires were out though.

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NYE 2025 Event Wrap Up

Zac Hampson — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 10:54:37 +0000

Our New Year’s Eve event had quite the turnout this year, with a fair number of faces, both new and old, regulars and rarely-seen, taking advantage of our extended hours to play games until the wee hours of the morning.

With quite the turnout for the night, plenty of games were played throughout the night.

Sniper Elite – The Board Game
Marrakesh
Kingdom Rush
Roll for It
Barbecubes
San Jaun
Above & Below
Call to Adventure
Funfair
It’s a Wonderful World
Terry Pratchett’s The Witches
Aliens – Another Glorious Day in the Corps
That’s Not a Hat
Azul
Harmonies
Ticket to Ride London
River of Gold
5 Minute Dungeon
Labyrinth
Cats Knocking Things Off Ledges
Thunder Road – Vendetta

Aliens – Another Day in the Corps was the longest game of the night, starting a little after dinner and going on to well after midnight. Many aliens were killed throughout the playthrough, while the humans managed to escape by the skin of their teeth.

Cats Knocking Things Off Ledges was a new addition to our ever-growing collection of games. However, we found out that sleep deprivation does not pair well with the dexterity required for the game, leading to many toppled towers and poor little kitties crashing onto the table.

Our Play-to-Win, Don’t Get Got, was quite popular throughout the night, with many tickets being entered into our draw. Congratulations to our winners, Mike, Mave and Rob, we hope you enjoy your new games.

That concludes another year for Coastal Board Gamers.

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Meeple Escape 2025

Carl Niezen — Sun, 25 May 2025 10:47:11 +0000

What a fantastic Weekend! Meeple Escape 2025 was a great success and thanks to all those that attended! Let’s also thank the Meeple Escape Team for all their hard work to put together such a wonderful event.

With over 100 games played spread over 55 different titles there was something for everyone. Excluding the Play-to-Wins, Kings & Assassins was the most played game of the event, followed closely by Bomb Basters.

The longest game played was, without a doubt, Here I Stand. The game of religion and politics running at 10 hours for 3 rounds of a 9-round game! The game was called due to there not being enough time with other gaming commitments.

If you want to try that “big game” with people, Meeple Escape is the place to do it! Food is taken care of, drinks and snacks are delivered table side. Might we suggest next time you start Friday night and NOT book in any other games, then you might finish!

Here is what some of our attendees had to say about the event;

“Playing Axis and allies for the first time was great and the whole point of a weekend away is to play the long games. 3 games is all I had time to play.” – Lyndon

“Had an awesome weekend cramming in a bunch of fantastic games. Got to teach more than learn, but I love teaching so that was cool.” – Jimmy

“Thanks everyone for the fantastic weekend! I have now preordered SETI and look forward to playing it again at CBG as soon as it arrives. Thanks for the teach Vandoon and for introducing me to this amazing game.” – Mel

“While I only played 4 games I look at all of them trying to decide what was my highlight. I guess just being there with all the cool people.” – Vandoon

While I had several highlights of the event one had to be playing speed Land-Vs-Sea with Nic. Let me set the scene: There were 20min or so before dinner, Nic and I were standing in the middle of the gaming venue. There sat Land-Vs-Sea, the days Play-to-Win. All set up and calling to us. We sat down, Nic had played a few times that day and went into the 5min teach. We played for 10min or so having a wonderful time, Nic playing land and I sea. A few cheeky tile placements and I had managed to gain a small lead.

Then it all changed. The Host wandered over to remind us dinner was in 5 minutes. We decided we could finish after dinner. Then Penny, the MC of the event, came over and asked us to make sure we pack the game up fully and bring it to her for the draw at dinner! It was here the game WAS ON! Nic exclaimed, don’t think just place! We spent the next 5 minutes playing the quickest and most intense game of Land-Vs-Sea played that day! If it was legal it was placed. No thought was given to best placement for points or blocking the other player. We raced though those stacks of tiles, one after the other. Oakley joined us as a second set of eyes to confirm tile placement rules were maintained. We finished that game and we were both out of breath!

We carefully packed up the game and delivered it to Penny in time for the draw.

Congratulations Jesse! We hope your games of Land-Vs-Sea are as memorable, but maybe a little more relaxing than ours.

Here is a list of the Meeple Escape 2025 prize winners and their bounty!

Early Bird
Christopher: Windmill Valley

Door Prize
Sam: Wyrmspan

Play-To-Wins
Keith: 7 Wonders Dual

Jesse: Land-Vs-Sea

Judson: Pollen

10 x 10
Zac: Cyro

Meeple Escape Challenge
Eleanor: Gnome Hollow

If you missed out on the fun this year, don’t worry, Meeple Escape 2026 might be the one for you! Tickets go on sale in January 2026 and the event will be held 29^th-31^st of May!

So make sure you mark your calendar now and don’t miss out on Meeple Escape 2026!

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Special Event – Meeple Expo

Josh Newman — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 08:41:53 +0000

The first ever Meeple Expo is complete, and while the attendance was small, Fun, conversation and interesting things were plentiful. We had 5 displays set up with a variety of subjects and interesting people to talk with.

Jimmy was there with his 3D printer, which he put to work making a couple of inserts for Splendor, and also showed off his Western Legends game with all its printed and painted pieces.

Cat put together an awesome array of items and info about how we can make our games more accessible and accommodating for those with mental or physical issues that make games challenging for them to play.

We had James, a local artist and designer, show off some of his skilled work and even taught his game ‘Classroom buddies’ to some of us.

It was great to meet Adam from Leading Edge Burnie, who also had some of their 3d printed items (he really likes his collapsible lightsaber), as well as a few of their growing collection of board games.

We also had a few people showing and helping with some digital gaming options, which we obviously had a go at.

It was really good to get a glimpse into some of the things people in our little community get up to and their willingness to share and talk about it is a real gift to us. I personally learnt a heap and I really hope my mind can remember even half of it!

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NYE 2024 Event Wrap Up

Tim Dover — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:08:51 +0000

Twelve hours of games to bring in the new year with friends. Was a nice surprise to see Katy and Dave, back from the big island to visit friends and family.

Penny ran a play-to-win game of Don’t Get Got! throughout the night. A party game, each player received secret missions that they need to get other people to do. Congratulations to Mel, who got the most people.

The goal was to play 75 games … we almost made it half way. Maybe next time Mike and the other Anachrony players will travel back in time and play some shorter games first to help with the goal?!

It’s a Wonderful World was the most popular game at this NYE event. Setting to tone for a Wonderful 2025 😉

It’s A Wonderful World
Anachrony
Splendor Duel
Ecos
Forrest Shuffle
Harmonies
Godzilla: Tokyo Clash
Nekojima
Kingless
Landmarks
Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America
Cascadia
Ecosystem: Savanna
Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
Root
Fresco
Ticket to Ride: Berlin
Ransom Note
Ra
Stalk Exchange
Carcassonne
Typewriter

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Event #78 Wrap Up

L'nett Nankervis — Sat, 16 Sep 2023 09:24:56 +0000

RU OK 2 Play

Saturday 16th September saw us host our second annual R U Ok 2 Play Event, it was a huge success with 44 attendees made up of a few new faces, a few returning ones and our regulars, all mixing together to spread the message of “stronger together”. They were all warmly welcomed by our CBG Host Tim, and our MC for the night Belinda and given the welcome bag of goodies that kicked off the evening.

The Play to Wins were by far our most popular games of the night, I don’t think I saw any of the three tables empty, Penny and Narelle expertly guiding the players through the rules, ensuring everyone had as much fun as possible, if the laughs coming from the area were any indication.

Our guest speaker Elysia Cunningham gave an excellent talk on the benefits of social interaction towards maintaining good mental health and how board gaming is an excellent tool in the battle.

Thanks to our generous sponsors we were able to offer a variety of prizes through the night, much to the delight of our attendees, everyone enjoying the hunt for the meeple under the seat, as well as the raffle draws, play to wins, the welcome bags and the sausage sizzle, which leads me to a big thank you to our Chef Extraordinary Carl, who battled through the smoke and onion tears to cook our sausage sizzle.

Our biggest thanks go to you our attendees, who thank you to your generosity we will be able to make a donation of over $180 dollars to the R U Ok foundation, and hopefully we will see you all not only at our regular CBG Events but next years R U OK to play event.

The night wasn’t all about R U OK, we also had our regular library of games available to attendees and these also were hitting the table, one of the firm favourites of our regular attendees is Battlestar Galactica; the board game, and from all indications was a battle worth seeing with a Cylon actually being put into the airlock!

Terraforming Mars made it to the table a little late which meant that it wasn’t completed but still enjoyed by all 5 players.

The R U OK 2 Play Games

Dixit (Play to Win)
Inside Job (Play to Win)
Splendor (Play to Win)
Azul (Play to Win)
Taco Hat Cake Gift Pizza
Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game
Dungeon Mayhem: Monster Madness
Amsterdam
Ticket to Ride: London
Schotten Totten
Zombie Kittens
Blokus 3D
Takenoko
Carcassonne
Spot It! HP
Anomia
Scrabble
Arboretum
Terraforming Mars
It’s a Wonderful World
Escape Room: The Game
Splendor Duel
Bananagrams
Block Party

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Event #53 Wrap Up – R U OK to Play?

Tim Dover — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 09:05:15 +0000

A conversation could change a life. What better way to enjoy a conversation than over a board game? On 3rd of September 2022, we participated in R U OK? DAY celebrations by holding an ‘R U OK 2 PLAY?’ Event. A large contingent of visitors made the evening interesting and we had lots of fun together playing 23 games, some multiple times.

5 Alive
Azul: Queen’s Garden
Blueprints
Cluedo
Dog Park
Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy
Endangered Orphans: House of Rath
Guillotine
Hansa Teutonica
King of Tokyo
Kuna Luna
L.L.A.M.A.
Love Letter: Premium Edition
Nidavellir
Odin’s Ravens
Repel
Splendor
Splendor: Marvel
Sushi Go!
Terra Mystica
The Game of Life: Empire
Tiny Towns
UNO Flip!

Narelle and L’nett did a great job filling the event with R U OK? theme and lots of useful information. Play-to-win games were Nidavellir, King of Tokyo and Azul: Queen’s Garden. Each time someone played these games they got an entry to win the game to take home at the end of the night! There was a lucky door prize and a raffle for 3 new games which raised $242 for donation to R U OK?

Dog Park is a new game about collecting dogs into your kennel and taking them for walks while collecting the resources needed to select more dogs for future walks. During the recruitment phase players secretly bid available reputation (victory points) to try and get the best dogs. This is an interesting aspect of the game as players bid/spend reputation and go backwards in points with an aim to go forward more in future. The art in this game is beautiful, each card includes a short description which is very interesting. Lasting four rounds the game finishes quickly providing a fun and informative mid-weight gaming experience.

Eventful CBG last night; with a learning game of ECLIPSE: A Second Dawn for the Galaxy. Things started with peaceful exploration and diplomacy… which turned to betrayal and combat as Talita (white) and Tristan (blue) attacked Carl (Green). Talita went on to attack and beat the big “Death Star” in the middle of the board for a win. Meanwhile yellow (me) played a peaceful euro game building pretty buildings.

I’d like to run this again and give more people a chance to experience this epic BGG Top 100 game. In the future perhaps even build up to some epic six player games. 😎

(Mike on discord)

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