Friday at Rick's, Saturday at Snoozefest's: Vinci, Robo Rally, Winds of Plunder, Leaping Lemmings
Friday, May 18th
I made it over to Rick's a bit late, and the tables were all full with games going on. Munchkin, Carcassonne, and a Pulsipher Prototype were on the tables. It looked like the prototype would be done soon, so I sat around and watched a bit. Soon, three more gamers showed up, wanting to play Vinci. So, we pulled it out, started to set up, and were joined by Rick when his game ended.
I like most things about Vinci. The Euro/abstract-historical/conflict without war kind of feel, play time, etc.. The lesson I felt I learned last time is that one doesn't want to be in front. I had no worries this time, as I grabbed a very modest, unthreatening starting civ. I can't remember the course of the game, but do know that the player to my right jumped out ahead, and then at various times the heat was diverted by players getting big vp jumps from mining, currency, and Rick's rapid expansion into a bunch of territory vacated when a couple players declined while his current civ had lots of dudes and weapons. Barbarian revolutionaries put the player to my right back in threatening position, and I was able to establish a fair-sized civ far away, in the South-west, and then move into the North with ports. I got slammed by the player to my left, who also triggered the game end, but he couldn't take me out entirely. Rick went through the various scenarios for the final turn, and we determined that nobody could prevent me from achieving the highest score. The way it worked out, I won with Rick only one point behind.
A few other games had broken up, and six of us sat down for Robo Rally, which is always a favorite at Rick's. My options were pretty unexciting - one gave me the ability to take damage to have some move options (I discarded this to prevent dmg), and another allowed me to bring back an archive at full health (I managed not to die in this game). Even though I didn't die, there was a lot of death, and most of us were moving pretty slow. I was third to the first flag, and then only two spaces away from the second, when Matt hit the third and won. A good, fun game, with lots of laughs.
Saturday, March 19th
I made the drive out to Snoozefest's looking forward to an afternoon of interesting gaming. I was hoping to play Midgard, as well as Colosseum, which I know he has a copy of. When I got there, though, Ravindra, Mary, Brian, and Sarah had all been playing Tichu, which they decided to finish. So, Rick, Bob, Greg, and myself sat down to Rick's copy of Winds of Plunder.
WoP is a GMT game with a pirate theme, which is really a Euro that fits pleasantly into their line, with it's nice looking world map. It has a hard cardboard board, which is not too common in my experience with their games. The components, in general, are very nice.
The game is aptly named. Each turn, players bid for wind direction. They then move, with the highest bidder determining who will go first. A player has three actions, which they may take before or after moving. When moving the players go from port to port, plundering items such as victory points, treasure maps, provisions, crew, and weapons. It's also possible to board and plunder the ship of an opponent who has fewer weapons than you. Having the most crew/weapons/provisions gives you a card with a special ability.
The game seemed quite well balanced. I decided to focus on weapon dominance, and boarding my opponents. This earned me few friends, and I had quite a few negative action cards played on me. I also scored smaller vp chips when moving into ports. However, I was able to achieve suppremacy in each type of resource, and hence had several bonuses. Despite the bonuses, the other players' grabbing of treasure maps and high vp ports kept me in the basement almost the whole game. I stayed close, though, and surged forward in the end-game scoring, to win the game, over Rick, by a point. This was a fun game, with a good group. I liked that it was really hard to tell who would win, until the very end. It was also nice that the leader-bashing mechanics keep the game close, and picking on someone with boarding (I boarded Greg several times) doesn't really take them out of the game.
We were done, but the other game was still going, so we agreed to play another game Rick had brought, his own Leaping Lemmings, which will soon go up on the GMT p500.
Leaping Lemmings is a fun sort of Euro-esque game that is themed after the legendary lemming tendency to follow each other, in a sort of herd, off cliffs, to their deaths. Each player has a group of little leapers that they try to navigate past the dangerous eagles, hovering over the landscape, to the edge of the cliff, which, once reached, they leap off of for vp. Players can also earn vp by grabbing food, which can have vp or special action abilities.
The game played pretty quickly. Fun and light, there are nice decisions about blocking opponents, pushing your luck, and strategies to maximize the chance for your lemmings to make it across the board. There's also a time factor, as the game has a definite end, so one has to rush a bit. We all managed to pick up some food, and get some lemmings off the cliff (although I think at least twice as many lemmings were eaten by eagles). In the end, we had a good time with this little filler game.
After that, I was hoping to still have time to play Midgard before I had to leave to come home and pick up Kristin to go to the Railhawks game. Unfortunately for me, Mary really wanted to run the "swap meet" portion of the afternoon. I hadn't brought anything to trade, as I wasn't sure whether I would be there when it happened, and I also didn't think anyone would want any of my games that I don't want. Consequently, my day was basically over. I talked to Sarah, Ravindra, and Rick for a while, and then took off for the drive back to Durham.
It was a pretty good weekend of gaming, and now I have lots of games to learn, as I acquired several new ones this week. I'll put in a good word here for the people at Thoughthammer.com - my order from them arrived quickly, and well packaged, with the games in very good shape. With a big discount and free shipping for my (17 lbs) order, it's tough for me to think about doing business with other online retailers (although they don't seem to have much in the way of real "imports").
GG, GL
JW
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Games at Greg's: Marvel Heroes, Midgard, Power Grid
May 6th, 2007
At the Dune game the weekend before, we had discussed getting a group of Durhamites together for some gaming in town, hopefully running out Greg's copy of Mutant Chronicles: Seige of the Citadel. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the requisite five players together, with just myself, Chris, and Greg available. We decided to still get together, and just play some other games.
When I got there, Greg and Chris were looking at Marvel Heroes, an FFG big-big-box game, based on the Marvel comic book universe. We were all feeling pretty relaxed, and decided to make that our first game.
Marvel Heroes is pretty fiddly. It has a lot of different rules, decks of cards, things that happen every turn, rules exceptions, etc.. However, it plays just fine as a sort of diversion type game... I think more competitive gamers would be frustrated by the degree of randomness.
The basic theme is that each player has control of a group of superheroes. Each group combats evildoers by troubleshooting headlines around New York City. The bigger the headline, the nastier the potential villain your opponents can play against you, and the more victory points, representing your groups fame or notoreity, you get.
Chris had the X-Men, Greg had the Avengers, and I took the Fantastic Four, as the big headline for our game was Galactus. Avengers have some big combat hitters, X-Men have a great specialist in Jean Grey, and FF seem like a pretty well-rounded group, who can deal well with "danger" headlines.
Greg was beating up on the villains, and Chris had a couple good rolls reducing the "trouble level" of his headlines, so he didn't have to fight at all. I solved a headline, and then had a couple really high trouble rolls, from which I failed to triumph over the respective villain. I managed to finish one more headline on the last round, only to have the Thing ko'd by my arch-nemesis, Dr.Doom, right after finishing.
Chris ended up winning, with Greg in close second and myself in a pretty distant third. I thought the game was OK, although there's not much long-term planning, and there's a lot of randomness. I had fun. I think you fun level with this one would be enhanced/limited by your familiarity with Marvel comics. Of course, now, with all the movies, I think many people have at least some familiarity with this publisher.
After this, we decided to try out Midgard, a game I acquired recently as a gift from Snoozefest. This is a game that combines elements of card drafting and area control for points scoring over three rounds.
Each player drafts a set of six cards, from cards of three different types, each round. Then, cards are played in a succession of turns to move around vikings on the board, or onto the board from an off-board supply. After the various movement cards have been played, everything is scored. Players earn points for controlling provinces in the regions, as well as for controlling Asgard. They also earn tokens, of which they are trying to complete sets. After this, vikings in "doomed" areas are sent to Valhalla, earning their players even more points. Then, start a new turn, putting out new "doomed" tokens and dealing out new sets of cards from which to draft.
We exercised the "first game" option, keeping the first hand we were dealt, rather than drafting. I made some mistakes in my round planning, and Greg got off to a great start with lots of Jotunheim movement cards, taking complete control of the region for a big early lead on points. I sent a lot of guys, all of them in fact, to Valhalla every round. I would have done a bit better if I'd just left one or two on the table. After the first round, we started to make up ground on Greg. After the third scoring round, Greg and I were tied, and Chris was just a bit behind us. End-game scoring has a round for province token sets, though, and Greg had one more set than me, giving him the win by five. Even though he had lots of tokens, Chris's plans to get the right ones had been unintentionally scuppered by the regions that Greg and I chose to fight him over on the last turn, so he ended up in a pretty poor position at the end.
I enjoyed this game, and am actually pretty excited to play it again. It has a nice weight/time ratio, with a feeling that you are actually playing a game with some planning/strategic thinking, while still coming in at around 45 minutes or so in play time.
We didn't feel done yet. However, Chris and Greg weren't as anxious as myself to play Midgard again, so we settled on a good "gamers' game" - Power Grid.
My strategy in Power Grid is to try for cheap connections, and make sure that I'm able to be the leader, or with the leader, in the number of cities that could be powered. With the random nature of the plants that come up, you never know if you're going to get a big one at the right time, so you have to make sure you get one, slightly ahead of time, even if you have to pay a bit much or take a plant that is a little sub-optimal on resources. I also like to buy resources first early, to make others pay more, and then move into the lead when I feel pretty set up.
I ended up the the four plant, and had the first buying position for the first several turns. I added a 2 for 2 oil plant, and a 2 power wind plant. I went for my first five plant a little early, taking the 3 coal for five plant While I could only power 6 cities that turn. I did this because it had come up while there were still lots of low value plants (probably) left in the deck, and Chris had gotten a very lucky pull with a two oil for five plant very early.
From there, I went into the lead on my second five plant, and then came back down. We were all heavily into coal early, and then people started to diversify. Greg failed to get into the bidding for a five plant early, and got punished for a few turns as neither Chris nor I wanted to buy anything, and he was stuck with a tableau of small (3 or less power) plants. T this time, I was certainly quite happy to have bought my five a little early...
I pushed straight into phase two, as Greg and Chris had cornered me a bit, and it was either make phase 2 or be cornered on six cities until someone else did it. In a couple more turns, I was up to twelve cities, all powered. After a turn of doing nothing, and getting the first buying position back, I payed a lot for the six wind plant, and then built up to seventeen, giving me the win with 16 powered cities. Chris came in second, but we didn't bother to finish his or Greg's turns, as neither of them had the cash (in Chris's case), or the power plants (in Greg's case) to catch up.
This was a fun game. I have always enjoyed Power Grid, and it's nice to put up a W. Interestingly, we turned out even on the day, with each gamer having a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finish. I look forward to doing it again.
GG, GL,
JW
May 6th, 2007
At the Dune game the weekend before, we had discussed getting a group of Durhamites together for some gaming in town, hopefully running out Greg's copy of Mutant Chronicles: Seige of the Citadel. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the requisite five players together, with just myself, Chris, and Greg available. We decided to still get together, and just play some other games.
When I got there, Greg and Chris were looking at Marvel Heroes, an FFG big-big-box game, based on the Marvel comic book universe. We were all feeling pretty relaxed, and decided to make that our first game.
Marvel Heroes is pretty fiddly. It has a lot of different rules, decks of cards, things that happen every turn, rules exceptions, etc.. However, it plays just fine as a sort of diversion type game... I think more competitive gamers would be frustrated by the degree of randomness.
The basic theme is that each player has control of a group of superheroes. Each group combats evildoers by troubleshooting headlines around New York City. The bigger the headline, the nastier the potential villain your opponents can play against you, and the more victory points, representing your groups fame or notoreity, you get.
Chris had the X-Men, Greg had the Avengers, and I took the Fantastic Four, as the big headline for our game was Galactus. Avengers have some big combat hitters, X-Men have a great specialist in Jean Grey, and FF seem like a pretty well-rounded group, who can deal well with "danger" headlines.
Greg was beating up on the villains, and Chris had a couple good rolls reducing the "trouble level" of his headlines, so he didn't have to fight at all. I solved a headline, and then had a couple really high trouble rolls, from which I failed to triumph over the respective villain. I managed to finish one more headline on the last round, only to have the Thing ko'd by my arch-nemesis, Dr.Doom, right after finishing.
Chris ended up winning, with Greg in close second and myself in a pretty distant third. I thought the game was OK, although there's not much long-term planning, and there's a lot of randomness. I had fun. I think you fun level with this one would be enhanced/limited by your familiarity with Marvel comics. Of course, now, with all the movies, I think many people have at least some familiarity with this publisher.
After this, we decided to try out Midgard, a game I acquired recently as a gift from Snoozefest. This is a game that combines elements of card drafting and area control for points scoring over three rounds.
Each player drafts a set of six cards, from cards of three different types, each round. Then, cards are played in a succession of turns to move around vikings on the board, or onto the board from an off-board supply. After the various movement cards have been played, everything is scored. Players earn points for controlling provinces in the regions, as well as for controlling Asgard. They also earn tokens, of which they are trying to complete sets. After this, vikings in "doomed" areas are sent to Valhalla, earning their players even more points. Then, start a new turn, putting out new "doomed" tokens and dealing out new sets of cards from which to draft.
We exercised the "first game" option, keeping the first hand we were dealt, rather than drafting. I made some mistakes in my round planning, and Greg got off to a great start with lots of Jotunheim movement cards, taking complete control of the region for a big early lead on points. I sent a lot of guys, all of them in fact, to Valhalla every round. I would have done a bit better if I'd just left one or two on the table. After the first round, we started to make up ground on Greg. After the third scoring round, Greg and I were tied, and Chris was just a bit behind us. End-game scoring has a round for province token sets, though, and Greg had one more set than me, giving him the win by five. Even though he had lots of tokens, Chris's plans to get the right ones had been unintentionally scuppered by the regions that Greg and I chose to fight him over on the last turn, so he ended up in a pretty poor position at the end.
I enjoyed this game, and am actually pretty excited to play it again. It has a nice weight/time ratio, with a feeling that you are actually playing a game with some planning/strategic thinking, while still coming in at around 45 minutes or so in play time.
We didn't feel done yet. However, Chris and Greg weren't as anxious as myself to play Midgard again, so we settled on a good "gamers' game" - Power Grid.
My strategy in Power Grid is to try for cheap connections, and make sure that I'm able to be the leader, or with the leader, in the number of cities that could be powered. With the random nature of the plants that come up, you never know if you're going to get a big one at the right time, so you have to make sure you get one, slightly ahead of time, even if you have to pay a bit much or take a plant that is a little sub-optimal on resources. I also like to buy resources first early, to make others pay more, and then move into the lead when I feel pretty set up.
I ended up the the four plant, and had the first buying position for the first several turns. I added a 2 for 2 oil plant, and a 2 power wind plant. I went for my first five plant a little early, taking the 3 coal for five plant While I could only power 6 cities that turn. I did this because it had come up while there were still lots of low value plants (probably) left in the deck, and Chris had gotten a very lucky pull with a two oil for five plant very early.
From there, I went into the lead on my second five plant, and then came back down. We were all heavily into coal early, and then people started to diversify. Greg failed to get into the bidding for a five plant early, and got punished for a few turns as neither Chris nor I wanted to buy anything, and he was stuck with a tableau of small (3 or less power) plants. T this time, I was certainly quite happy to have bought my five a little early...
I pushed straight into phase two, as Greg and Chris had cornered me a bit, and it was either make phase 2 or be cornered on six cities until someone else did it. In a couple more turns, I was up to twelve cities, all powered. After a turn of doing nothing, and getting the first buying position back, I payed a lot for the six wind plant, and then built up to seventeen, giving me the win with 16 powered cities. Chris came in second, but we didn't bother to finish his or Greg's turns, as neither of them had the cash (in Chris's case), or the power plants (in Greg's case) to catch up.
This was a fun game. I have always enjoyed Power Grid, and it's nice to put up a W. Interestingly, we turned out even on the day, with each gamer having a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finish. I look forward to doing it again.
GG, GL,
JW
Dune, Saturday, April 28th
Dan F. sent out some e-mails, as he is wont to do every few months, and put a Dune game together. It ended up being myself, Dan, Chris C., Lori, Keith, and Greg.
I had only played once before, with five players. As luck would have it, I ended up being dealt the Bene Gesserit (sp?), the faction that we'd played without the last time. We also played with "advanced spice rules," which we hadn't used on my previous play.
I spent quite a bit of the game just remembering what to do and trying to get the hang of the new faction. It seems the BG are sort of a "late game" opportunity group. Alliances happened early, triggered, I think, by Lori and Greg grouping Harkonnen with Fremen. I threw in with Dan's Atredes.
We had powerful combat abilities, but failed to take full advantage of them by not acquiring the full set of defenses. We also lacked any sort of long-term plan, which was hard to develop, as I had no idea how to play my faction. I do think we could have been much more effective if we would have stepped away from the table to hash things out a little earlier.
As it was, we played mainly in a reactive fashion, moving only when it seemed we needed to, against Chris and Keith. In this turn, about two thirds of the way through the game, we came pretty close to having what we needed to win. I think we needed to have that last defense, and gamble a little bit there, to have had a chance.
As it was, the game ran long, and I had to take off with about 45 minutes of play left. From what I hear, Chris stalled it out for the win. I really enjoy the combat system of Dune, and the way the long game allows for negotiation, alliance, and long-term planning. I'm just hoping I get to play it enough times to become familiar enough with the system that I can actually make effective long-term plans...
GG, GL,
JW
Dan F. sent out some e-mails, as he is wont to do every few months, and put a Dune game together. It ended up being myself, Dan, Chris C., Lori, Keith, and Greg.
I had only played once before, with five players. As luck would have it, I ended up being dealt the Bene Gesserit (sp?), the faction that we'd played without the last time. We also played with "advanced spice rules," which we hadn't used on my previous play.
I spent quite a bit of the game just remembering what to do and trying to get the hang of the new faction. It seems the BG are sort of a "late game" opportunity group. Alliances happened early, triggered, I think, by Lori and Greg grouping Harkonnen with Fremen. I threw in with Dan's Atredes.
We had powerful combat abilities, but failed to take full advantage of them by not acquiring the full set of defenses. We also lacked any sort of long-term plan, which was hard to develop, as I had no idea how to play my faction. I do think we could have been much more effective if we would have stepped away from the table to hash things out a little earlier.
As it was, we played mainly in a reactive fashion, moving only when it seemed we needed to, against Chris and Keith. In this turn, about two thirds of the way through the game, we came pretty close to having what we needed to win. I think we needed to have that last defense, and gamble a little bit there, to have had a chance.
As it was, the game ran long, and I had to take off with about 45 minutes of play left. From what I hear, Chris stalled it out for the win. I really enjoy the combat system of Dune, and the way the long game allows for negotiation, alliance, and long-term planning. I'm just hoping I get to play it enough times to become familiar enough with the system that I can actually make effective long-term plans...
GG, GL,
JW
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Games with Rune, St. Petersburg, Odin's Ravens, Streetsoccer
Thursday, March 22nd
Rune made the decision to leave his job here in the 'States, and return to Norway. We decided to get together again before he left, to play some games.
I picked him up, and after dinner we headed to a nearby Caribou Coffee to borrow a table.
We got in a game each of St. Petersburg, Odin's Ravens, and Streetsoccer. I think we messed up the rules on Streetsoccer again, forgetting to move the ball out of the goalmouth when it ends there.
I don't remember a lot of detail about the games... I know that I won St. Pete with a lot of Aristocrats, and a few extra "trading" cards from the observatory. I got really good draws in Odin's Ravens, and won that handily, as well. I felt a little sad to send Rune off in such a way, but, you know, I don't believe in throwing games...
We had a good time, but Caribou closes pretty early on Thursdays, so we called it a night.
GG, GL,
JW
Thursday, March 22nd
Rune made the decision to leave his job here in the 'States, and return to Norway. We decided to get together again before he left, to play some games.
I picked him up, and after dinner we headed to a nearby Caribou Coffee to borrow a table.
We got in a game each of St. Petersburg, Odin's Ravens, and Streetsoccer. I think we messed up the rules on Streetsoccer again, forgetting to move the ball out of the goalmouth when it ends there.
I don't remember a lot of detail about the games... I know that I won St. Pete with a lot of Aristocrats, and a few extra "trading" cards from the observatory. I got really good draws in Odin's Ravens, and won that handily, as well. I felt a little sad to send Rune off in such a way, but, you know, I don't believe in throwing games...
We had a good time, but Caribou closes pretty early on Thursdays, so we called it a night.
GG, GL,
JW
Gaming at Snoozefest's: Through the Ages
March 17th
I got out to Snoozefest's a little late due to morning commitments. When I arrived, they had a five player game of Leonardo DaVinci going. I sat and watched a while. When they were finished, two of the players had to leave. The rest of us decided to play Kevin's homemade Through the Ages set.
Through the Ages is a currently hard to find card game of civilization building. It's a new game, that sold through it's initial printing quickly. Kevin has a copy, but decided to upgrade it a bit by making the cards and components bigger. It said a lot to me that he liked the game enough to put that much time into it.
This game uses an interesting card drafting mechanic, taking cards from a changing tableau made from different decks, to simulate the progress of years. I grabbed a victory point machine that Mary pointed out to me as being very powerful, and spent the next several turns ramping it up. As a result, I was making a lot more points than the others early on. I shifted gears a bit, trying to build up military strength, as it seemed that I would otherwise become a target for aggression, being so far out in front. However, this distracted me from progress, and the others caught up with me in vp production. I was still in the lead when the end of the game came, but, having not paid attention to the endgame bonus scoring, I faired poorly at the end, and Mary was able to pass me up for the victory.
I thought this game was a pretty interesting implementation of the civilization theme. However, it seems very long - 4.5 hours just for the simple game, and it also seemed a bit solitaire to me - it didn't feel like we really interacted too much. It may be, though, that since it was my first play, and there was a lot going on, I was just too busy trying to figure out how my own civilization worked to pay attention to what anyone else was doing. I'd like to try it again, in the odd circumstance that I have 5 hours free and a copy of the game sitting around...
GG, GL,
JW
March 17th
I got out to Snoozefest's a little late due to morning commitments. When I arrived, they had a five player game of Leonardo DaVinci going. I sat and watched a while. When they were finished, two of the players had to leave. The rest of us decided to play Kevin's homemade Through the Ages set.
Through the Ages is a currently hard to find card game of civilization building. It's a new game, that sold through it's initial printing quickly. Kevin has a copy, but decided to upgrade it a bit by making the cards and components bigger. It said a lot to me that he liked the game enough to put that much time into it.
This game uses an interesting card drafting mechanic, taking cards from a changing tableau made from different decks, to simulate the progress of years. I grabbed a victory point machine that Mary pointed out to me as being very powerful, and spent the next several turns ramping it up. As a result, I was making a lot more points than the others early on. I shifted gears a bit, trying to build up military strength, as it seemed that I would otherwise become a target for aggression, being so far out in front. However, this distracted me from progress, and the others caught up with me in vp production. I was still in the lead when the end of the game came, but, having not paid attention to the endgame bonus scoring, I faired poorly at the end, and Mary was able to pass me up for the victory.
I thought this game was a pretty interesting implementation of the civilization theme. However, it seems very long - 4.5 hours just for the simple game, and it also seemed a bit solitaire to me - it didn't feel like we really interacted too much. It may be, though, that since it was my first play, and there was a lot going on, I was just too busy trying to figure out how my own civilization worked to pay attention to what anyone else was doing. I'd like to try it again, in the odd circumstance that I have 5 hours free and a copy of the game sitting around...
GG, GL,
JW
Friday at Rick's: Streetsoccer, Taj Mahal, Yspahan
March 16th
I hadn't been doing a lot of boardgaming, with WoW taking over my life. However, I was able to clear some room to head over to Rick's for the monthly game night. I ran out to Raleigh and picked up Rune, who was visiting from Norway.
When we got to Rick's several games were already going. We arranged to play Taj Mahal with David when his San Juan game was over. In the mean time, we settled in for a game of Streetsoccer.
I got Streetsoccer for Christmas, and since then, I 've had a few games with Kristin. Rune and I had a great game, with me jumping out in front, and then him tying it up. We had a lot of laughs, as players, particularly Rune's goalkeeper, ended up way out of position. The dice provided us with some nail-biting moments, as the game was very close. I honestly can't remember much of what happened in the game at this point, but I think Rune won.
We got Taj Mahal going. It was the first time for Rune and I, a four-player, with David and Dave. Again, It's been so long since I've been writing in the blog, I don't remember so much of what happened in the game. Taj is a Reiner Knizia game that involves card drafting and hand management to facilitate bidding with different kinds of currency (cards). The players are trying to establish networks of palaces on the board, as well as scoring through collection of objects. I was forced into overbidding early. It seems that once you've commited to a bid, since your going to lose cards, you want to continue to try to get something out of it. So, I got behind a little when I ran out of cards, then came back a little to finish, I think, in second. I think David won.
After Taj, we stayed in the same group, and David and Dave taught us Yspahan. This game involves chosing actions in order, with the actions available determined by a set of die rolls at the beginning of the turn. You can build, move, or occupy part of the city. I did a lot of building, and tried to get in on the trading caravan. I scored some points, but it was, I think, David who won again. I think I might have been second again. Anyway, I know I finished second in one of these games, and didn't win either.
Rune and I had a pretty good time, but after Yspahan it was time to take off, since I had to drop him back off in Raleigh.
Sorry about the lame report - I'm just trying to get caught up and get back in the habit, as I'm going to try to make a concerted effort to make it to some more game meetups in the near future.
GG, GL
JW
March 16th
I hadn't been doing a lot of boardgaming, with WoW taking over my life. However, I was able to clear some room to head over to Rick's for the monthly game night. I ran out to Raleigh and picked up Rune, who was visiting from Norway.
When we got to Rick's several games were already going. We arranged to play Taj Mahal with David when his San Juan game was over. In the mean time, we settled in for a game of Streetsoccer.
I got Streetsoccer for Christmas, and since then, I 've had a few games with Kristin. Rune and I had a great game, with me jumping out in front, and then him tying it up. We had a lot of laughs, as players, particularly Rune's goalkeeper, ended up way out of position. The dice provided us with some nail-biting moments, as the game was very close. I honestly can't remember much of what happened in the game at this point, but I think Rune won.
We got Taj Mahal going. It was the first time for Rune and I, a four-player, with David and Dave. Again, It's been so long since I've been writing in the blog, I don't remember so much of what happened in the game. Taj is a Reiner Knizia game that involves card drafting and hand management to facilitate bidding with different kinds of currency (cards). The players are trying to establish networks of palaces on the board, as well as scoring through collection of objects. I was forced into overbidding early. It seems that once you've commited to a bid, since your going to lose cards, you want to continue to try to get something out of it. So, I got behind a little when I ran out of cards, then came back a little to finish, I think, in second. I think David won.
After Taj, we stayed in the same group, and David and Dave taught us Yspahan. This game involves chosing actions in order, with the actions available determined by a set of die rolls at the beginning of the turn. You can build, move, or occupy part of the city. I did a lot of building, and tried to get in on the trading caravan. I scored some points, but it was, I think, David who won again. I think I might have been second again. Anyway, I know I finished second in one of these games, and didn't win either.
Rune and I had a pretty good time, but after Yspahan it was time to take off, since I had to drop him back off in Raleigh.
Sorry about the lame report - I'm just trying to get caught up and get back in the habit, as I'm going to try to make a concerted effort to make it to some more game meetups in the near future.
GG, GL
JW
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