Game Night at Rick and Marnee's: Robo Rally, Antike, For Sale

November 17th

People were a little slow to arrive at this edition of the monthly gamefest at Rick's. We stood around a while and talked games, while another few people sat in the basement and discussed, I think, nitting. After about half an hour, we finally got enough people to get Robo Rally going, and we hit the factory floor.

Robo Rally

We had six for this: Rick, myself, and four new players. We explained the game and got to racing. We were playing the first edition, using expansion boards. I don't know if I've discussed this game before or not. It's a Richard Garfield (MtG) classic, which involves drawing cards which have movement options on them, and using them to program a robot who's racing through a factory with elements that will effect movement - conveyor belts, pushers, crushers, spinners, pits, etc.. It generally involves a lot of humorous interaction, as people mess up their own or others' programs. The game got off to a good start, with almost everyone taking advantage of board elements to enhance their movement. Many of us capitalized on a long oil slick. About two thirds of the way to the first flag, things got interesting, with some miss-moves and collisions resulting in pushes. Rick made it to the flag very efficiantly, while I got stuck moving back and forth facing another player, shooting each other at each phase. This was, as RR usually is, lots of fun. However, at this point in the game, Ravindra and Chris were starting up Antike, which I really wanted to try, so I bailed out. I usually won't (almost never) abandon a game. However, RR is a game you can get out of without really affecting other players' enjoyment/position, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I don't know who won, but I know they had so much fun they played another round, with more players.

Antike

There is a newish Rio Grande reprint of this German game, for which Ravindra owns the original. I don't know the designer off the top of my head. This is a sort of civ building game, with a very small tech tree. It uses an interesting rondel (sp?) for action selection - you get one power/action type per turn, and you can choose any with in three spaces of you, or you can pay to move further around the circle (something I should have done, at least once, but didn't). You can harvest different raw materials, build different things (temples/units), or move/attack. You score points from accomplishing a variety of different goals over the turns, and play until someone hits nine points.

There was a lot of solitaire play in this, as each player is pretty isolated. It really seemed to me that you spend most of the game just doing what's best for you. There is a race element, for different victory points/tech powers that drives some consideration of opponents, but there's not too much negotiation/direct conflict. Ravindra jumped out to an early lead, and pretty much stayed there. I made a huge mistake in the last round, when I could have paid to take a victory point that would have moved me out of my tie for last, and kept him from winning that turn. However, I knew I was going to score something else, and didn't see his impending victory. The pacing of this game is important - it's hard to score, and especially hard to score multiple points in a turn, so you really have to keep up. Ravindra was first, Scott was two behind in second, and Chris and I were a point behind him, in third/fourth. This was pretty fun, and came in at about two hours. I'd play again, although it won't be near the top of my list.

For Sale

Chris and Ravindra and I sat around chatting about games for a while, waffling on playing another game. Chris was ready to go all night, but Ravindra and I were feeling the call our respective beds. We decided on a quick filler, while Chris waited for the second RR game to finish.

For sale is a game of investing in real estate properties. Each round, a number of houses equal to the number of players are put up for big. Each has a unique value, which will determine, to some extent, how much it's worth at the end. There is an auction phase, in which the first to pass takes the lowest, the high bidder gets the highest, and the second to pass pays half his bid, rounded up, and takes the second highest card. After all the houses have been auctioned, there are several rounds in which checks are turned up. Each player makes a hidden bid of one of his properties. Highest value property gets the high check, second high value gets second high check, and so forth. After all the checks have been handed out, you count them up, add them to remaining starting cash, and the person with the most money wins. Chris had $81, and Ravindra and I tied at $86. Ravindra won the tie breaker of having the most starting cash left. A fun little filler. This is a type of game I think my collection is a little weak on, so I might try to pick it up.

With that, I made my way out the door, a little jealous of Chris, Rick, and some others who were setting up Power Grid.

GG, GL
JW