Well, it's been a heck of a long time since I posted to this blog. I've been planning, for years, actually, to get back here and get started again, and I think I finally have things mostly sorted out. I'll just throw this on the wall and see if it sticks.
Gaming has changed a lot for me since I stopped updating this blog. I moved, from a place with an amazing array of gaming opportunities, across the ocean to a place where chances to game have been extremely limited. Add to this becoming a father twice over, and, well, I hope it's not to hard to see how I went from gaming 2 or 3 times a week to a handful of times a year (not counting my fairly steady playing of things like Snail's Pace Race, Animal Upon Animal, Go Away Monster, Rondo Vario, and Jungle Smart).
All the same, I've had some fun gaming opportunities. I've gone to Essen several times now, and Nurnberg once. I've managed to attend a small weekend gathering on each of the last three years, and I have contacts for a couple clubs in Oslo. I'd like to widen my exposure to the gaming industry as a whole, so it really seems like a good time to get back to writing.
For some warm up posts, hopefully I'll get some writing in related to:
Starting gaming groups
Small conventions
Game teaching
Essen
Anyway, since I certainly shouldn't have any readers after several years away, this is really, as stated, a test. And, hopefully, a reminder to myself to keep it up.
If for some reason, you've had a subscription to this blog running for all these years and you do see this post, well, bless you. Bless you.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Gen Con, recent gaming, general rambling
Over the course of the past few months, increasing amounts of my time have been dedicated to manipulating my little electronic characters in the world of Azeroth... I think it's slowing down a bit, though, and hopefully my real life activities can get some more play (pun intended).
I've joined a couple of weekly boardgaming groups - DR GLASS in Chapel Hill, and DAGGER in Hillsborough. I still make it to a Triangle Games Meetup Group gathering from time to time. These are dedicated designer/Euro groups. Lacking the desire to go back and write full reports at this time, I'll just mention the games I've played: Tikal, Tigris & Euphrates, Notre Dame, Lost Valley, Reef Encounter, Thurn & Taxis, Samurai, Midgard (twice), Santiago, Herocard: Cyberspace, Circus Flohcati, Mara Cash, Acquire, Get to Work!, Condottieri, and at least two more games that I'm forgetting. I'm really enjoying these groups, and I'm looking forward to, hopefully, getting a lot of table time over the next few months.
One thing I'd like to address in a little more detail is the evolution of picking games in these groups. The Meetup Group still has some events where people just show up and put stuff on the table. Mostly, though, the events have moved to a sign-up sort of format, in which the host will state how much space there is (how many tables), and usually what game they want to play. Then, people will volunteer to "host" the other table(s), and people sign up on the table they want to play, until it's full. The other two groups use a rotating pick system - the groups are semi-private, invite-only groups, so picking the game(s) for the night just rotates through the member list. I like both of these systems a lot - they seem very handy as simple methods to correct the sometimes lengthy process of choosing a game for a group. I especially like that the rotating choice system guarantees that the participants will have a chance to definitely get something on the table. This really helps get games that others haven't heard of on the table - everyone is willing to try, as they know they'll get their turn, too. I'd recommend people try systems like this - and I'd like to hear from people who use other systems. I'm curious if there's anything that could be applied to longer game days - like the ones that Chris and Edie run in Iowa City (although things tend to move along pretty quickly there, for some reason).
I made it back to GenCon this year, and had a great time. It was odd to have to sit back and read other peoples' reports of the con last year - but it gave me a bit more perspective on the event - there's so much going on there, it's pretty easy to miss a lot. I've already discovered some stuff I missed this year from reading such a report!
For the last few years, Gen Con, for me, has been mostly about hanging out with old friend. I like to go through the dealer room a couple times - see what's new, what's hot, etc., and then spend the rest of the time with old gaming buddies. This year, I stayed with my old friend EOD, and we spent almost the entire con together. Other than Eric, it was great to run into folks I knew from Chicago, like Azrael, Berrianne, Ray, and Brandon. I saw only a couple QC guys - Dr. Dan and Dave W., and one Wisconsinite - Eric F.. The Iowa City crowd had an impressive delegation there - Nate (who won a suit of storm trooper armor playing SW Pocket Models TCG), Peter, Drew, Tim, and Teagle. Former Iowan Lucas was running events for FFG all weekend. Overall, it was great to see everyone, especially since it's such a rare occurance now that we live out East. I only wish I could have seen more people, including those who were there, and those that couldn't make it.
Eric and I played a lot of games, but mostly together or with the Iowa City guys. I really regret that I didn't get to play Alpha Magic with Ogre or Dave W.. I also wish I could have played demos of some games I want to try, but the demo tables were always SO crowded.
So, quick game rundown -
-Battle Line x2
-Tannhauser x2
-On the Edge CCG x2
-Magic "Special Limited" tournament (one pack of each set legal for Standard) 3 matches (I did not do well)
-Magic 10th Edition draft - 2 matches (Eric beat me in the semis)
-Alpha Magic - I would estimate we played approximately 36 games of this, from 1v1 to 4 player group games
-Other Magic - about 6 games? we 1 on 1 drafted some packs we had laying around a couple times, like all Coldsnap, and Portal/Fifth Dawn/German Rennaissance, and played a few games.
So, most of the gaming was Magic... which is ok by me. Still a game I love, even though I don't like amassing cards any more. I've only played twice since we moved down here, so it was nice to get to play, especially with the Alpha.
Speaking of Alpha, we actually got lucky this year and found a few cards. Here's what I picked up:
Demonic Hordes
Lord of the Pit
Cockatrice
Roc of Kher Ridges
Aspect of Wolf
Dragon Whelp
Icy Manipulator
Copper Tablet
A pretty good haul, really, I think it cost me approximately $78, although I traded a dealer for a pretty good chunk of that. Cockatrice for $4 might have been the best deal. Peter said he got a black vise for $7, which is pretty good, also.
It's pretty clear, after seeing Ogre's deck, that the best thing is to be able to go to events and trade... that guy has a massive pile of lightning bolts, sol rings, chaos orbs, and a couple wheels...
Tannhauser was the only new game I played. It's an FFG "boardgame", themed an an alternate history ww2 time era, that is basically a skirmish level miniatures game in a box. It's an expandible game that will certainly have new boards/characters/items/rules/etc. coming out soon. It plays pretty quickly - under an hour when you've got it down. There are two maps, and ten characters. You can choose to play one figure each, or more. It's a lot like an fps, in that you can play deathmatch, capture the flag, take and hold, or scanarios that you make up. The combat system, which relies on colored circles for range and los, rather than needing to check with a ruler, is quick and easy. Minimum ranges on the weapons make for some tactical decisions on the map - sometimea a hand-to-hand specialist can get holed up in a room where automatic and heavy weapons can't be brought to bear on them - thank goodness for grenades! We liked this pretty well, perhaps because both of us are former miniatures gamers (which is also how we met), who don't seem to have time to paint figs or set up big battles any more. I'm anxious to see the expansions.
Oh, and, I forgot, we also went bowling. We almost didn't go out, but, fortunately, we ran into the enthusiastic Berrianne on Saturday night, who's undeniable energy ensured our participation. Eric and I had a wonderful meal at the Fountain Diner, and then headed to the upstairs duckpin alley, where we were joined by Berri and three of her friends. As ever, we had a great time, and Berri was tops on our team with her amazing Granny-roll technique. If you're interested in future GenCon duck pin expeditions, let me know.
Well, now it's time to adjust back to "normal" life, and look forward to starting my job next week. Hopefully, I'll be able to afford to register for TBGT at some point, and do a bunch of boardgaming...
GG, GL,
JW
Over the course of the past few months, increasing amounts of my time have been dedicated to manipulating my little electronic characters in the world of Azeroth... I think it's slowing down a bit, though, and hopefully my real life activities can get some more play (pun intended).
I've joined a couple of weekly boardgaming groups - DR GLASS in Chapel Hill, and DAGGER in Hillsborough. I still make it to a Triangle Games Meetup Group gathering from time to time. These are dedicated designer/Euro groups. Lacking the desire to go back and write full reports at this time, I'll just mention the games I've played: Tikal, Tigris & Euphrates, Notre Dame, Lost Valley, Reef Encounter, Thurn & Taxis, Samurai, Midgard (twice), Santiago, Herocard: Cyberspace, Circus Flohcati, Mara Cash, Acquire, Get to Work!, Condottieri, and at least two more games that I'm forgetting. I'm really enjoying these groups, and I'm looking forward to, hopefully, getting a lot of table time over the next few months.
One thing I'd like to address in a little more detail is the evolution of picking games in these groups. The Meetup Group still has some events where people just show up and put stuff on the table. Mostly, though, the events have moved to a sign-up sort of format, in which the host will state how much space there is (how many tables), and usually what game they want to play. Then, people will volunteer to "host" the other table(s), and people sign up on the table they want to play, until it's full. The other two groups use a rotating pick system - the groups are semi-private, invite-only groups, so picking the game(s) for the night just rotates through the member list. I like both of these systems a lot - they seem very handy as simple methods to correct the sometimes lengthy process of choosing a game for a group. I especially like that the rotating choice system guarantees that the participants will have a chance to definitely get something on the table. This really helps get games that others haven't heard of on the table - everyone is willing to try, as they know they'll get their turn, too. I'd recommend people try systems like this - and I'd like to hear from people who use other systems. I'm curious if there's anything that could be applied to longer game days - like the ones that Chris and Edie run in Iowa City (although things tend to move along pretty quickly there, for some reason).
I made it back to GenCon this year, and had a great time. It was odd to have to sit back and read other peoples' reports of the con last year - but it gave me a bit more perspective on the event - there's so much going on there, it's pretty easy to miss a lot. I've already discovered some stuff I missed this year from reading such a report!
For the last few years, Gen Con, for me, has been mostly about hanging out with old friend. I like to go through the dealer room a couple times - see what's new, what's hot, etc., and then spend the rest of the time with old gaming buddies. This year, I stayed with my old friend EOD, and we spent almost the entire con together. Other than Eric, it was great to run into folks I knew from Chicago, like Azrael, Berrianne, Ray, and Brandon. I saw only a couple QC guys - Dr. Dan and Dave W., and one Wisconsinite - Eric F.. The Iowa City crowd had an impressive delegation there - Nate (who won a suit of storm trooper armor playing SW Pocket Models TCG), Peter, Drew, Tim, and Teagle. Former Iowan Lucas was running events for FFG all weekend. Overall, it was great to see everyone, especially since it's such a rare occurance now that we live out East. I only wish I could have seen more people, including those who were there, and those that couldn't make it.
Eric and I played a lot of games, but mostly together or with the Iowa City guys. I really regret that I didn't get to play Alpha Magic with Ogre or Dave W.. I also wish I could have played demos of some games I want to try, but the demo tables were always SO crowded.
So, quick game rundown -
-Battle Line x2
-Tannhauser x2
-On the Edge CCG x2
-Magic "Special Limited" tournament (one pack of each set legal for Standard) 3 matches (I did not do well)
-Magic 10th Edition draft - 2 matches (Eric beat me in the semis)
-Alpha Magic - I would estimate we played approximately 36 games of this, from 1v1 to 4 player group games
-Other Magic - about 6 games? we 1 on 1 drafted some packs we had laying around a couple times, like all Coldsnap, and Portal/Fifth Dawn/German Rennaissance, and played a few games.
So, most of the gaming was Magic... which is ok by me. Still a game I love, even though I don't like amassing cards any more. I've only played twice since we moved down here, so it was nice to get to play, especially with the Alpha.
Speaking of Alpha, we actually got lucky this year and found a few cards. Here's what I picked up:
Demonic Hordes
Lord of the Pit
Cockatrice
Roc of Kher Ridges
Aspect of Wolf
Dragon Whelp
Icy Manipulator
Copper Tablet
A pretty good haul, really, I think it cost me approximately $78, although I traded a dealer for a pretty good chunk of that. Cockatrice for $4 might have been the best deal. Peter said he got a black vise for $7, which is pretty good, also.
It's pretty clear, after seeing Ogre's deck, that the best thing is to be able to go to events and trade... that guy has a massive pile of lightning bolts, sol rings, chaos orbs, and a couple wheels...
Tannhauser was the only new game I played. It's an FFG "boardgame", themed an an alternate history ww2 time era, that is basically a skirmish level miniatures game in a box. It's an expandible game that will certainly have new boards/characters/items/rules/etc. coming out soon. It plays pretty quickly - under an hour when you've got it down. There are two maps, and ten characters. You can choose to play one figure each, or more. It's a lot like an fps, in that you can play deathmatch, capture the flag, take and hold, or scanarios that you make up. The combat system, which relies on colored circles for range and los, rather than needing to check with a ruler, is quick and easy. Minimum ranges on the weapons make for some tactical decisions on the map - sometimea a hand-to-hand specialist can get holed up in a room where automatic and heavy weapons can't be brought to bear on them - thank goodness for grenades! We liked this pretty well, perhaps because both of us are former miniatures gamers (which is also how we met), who don't seem to have time to paint figs or set up big battles any more. I'm anxious to see the expansions.
Oh, and, I forgot, we also went bowling. We almost didn't go out, but, fortunately, we ran into the enthusiastic Berrianne on Saturday night, who's undeniable energy ensured our participation. Eric and I had a wonderful meal at the Fountain Diner, and then headed to the upstairs duckpin alley, where we were joined by Berri and three of her friends. As ever, we had a great time, and Berri was tops on our team with her amazing Granny-roll technique. If you're interested in future GenCon duck pin expeditions, let me know.
Well, now it's time to adjust back to "normal" life, and look forward to starting my job next week. Hopefully, I'll be able to afford to register for TBGT at some point, and do a bunch of boardgaming...
GG, GL,
JW
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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
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
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
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Games at David's: Hollywood Blockbuster
January , 2007
I had to take last month's edition of this game night off, but was happy to be able to make it for the first event of the new year. I was a little late due to wrestling practice obligations, but kept myself away from the computer and made it down to Dave's in decent time.
When I got there, Scepter of Zavandor was running with, I think, six players. Larry was teaching Tigris & Euphrates to two other gamers, and David had Taj Mahal on his table. I watched the T&E game for a while, but found I didn't want to think hard enough to actually analyze what was happening, and instead settled in to see if I could get a bit of the flavor of Taj Mahal, another RK game, which I haven't played.
I didn't read the rules, and I didn't get that full of an impression of TM. It seemed to me that the players were accumulating card sets, then expending those cards in built-up groups in an effort to win bids for choice of actions in the round. Those actions would score a player points, generally based on previous choices, but sometimes just straight up bonus points. These actions also seemed to involve the placement of a palace, which could score points based on connections. I, like Dave, own and enjoy many RK games, and TM certainly looked worth a shot. Hopefully, I'll be around at some future event when this gets off the shelf.
The T&E game ended, and the groups mixed a little. I sat down with David, Julia, Keith, and Sy for Hollywood Blockbuster. Larry, Carli, and someone else pulled out Puerto Rico.
HB is yet another RK game, this one with a theme of producing movies, built around a fairly straight auction mechanic. The action takes place over three rounds, during which there are several bidding phases and a couple "parties", in which players simply pick items. Each player has several films they are trying to complete. Each one requires different elements - stars, sound, special effects, a director, etc. Some require several of one and none of others. Once you've completed a film, you can take another. There are a limited number of films that can be completed, so it's to ones advantage to get them done (unfinished films don't score). Points are awarded for the first film of each of the three types to be completed, as well as the strongest film each round. At the end of the game, the films are worth points based on the quality of the elements - how good the director/stars/effects/ etc. are. Additional points are awarded for the best film of each type, as well as the overall best and worst films.
I wanted to complete at least one film every round, which I did. I managed to score one of the first completed bonuses, as well as one of the strongest of the round bonuses. In the end, I had completed, I think, five films, and I managed to grab one of the "best of" awards. I had finished more films than anyone else, and managed a victory, with David in second.
I liked this game. The auction was almost too straightforward - just a plain progressive bid. The game provides you with relatively light but important decisions about what you need to acquire, but there is a little added element of keeping track of what other people need and trying to block them. The game also has a decent social element, as you interact in trying to influence people to spend money, and joke about the actors (who's names are parodies of the names of real actors) have been put in which films. Another nice offering from Mr. Knizia, and a welcome reprint. This would be a nice Euro-intro for people who like movies and party games.
It seemed weird to only play one game, but it was getting a little late, and, being a weeknight and having work in the morning, I called it quits. The PR game had ended, and Scepter broke up while I was getting ready to go, with Dan emerging victorious.
GG, GL
JW
January , 2007
I had to take last month's edition of this game night off, but was happy to be able to make it for the first event of the new year. I was a little late due to wrestling practice obligations, but kept myself away from the computer and made it down to Dave's in decent time.
When I got there, Scepter of Zavandor was running with, I think, six players. Larry was teaching Tigris & Euphrates to two other gamers, and David had Taj Mahal on his table. I watched the T&E game for a while, but found I didn't want to think hard enough to actually analyze what was happening, and instead settled in to see if I could get a bit of the flavor of Taj Mahal, another RK game, which I haven't played.
I didn't read the rules, and I didn't get that full of an impression of TM. It seemed to me that the players were accumulating card sets, then expending those cards in built-up groups in an effort to win bids for choice of actions in the round. Those actions would score a player points, generally based on previous choices, but sometimes just straight up bonus points. These actions also seemed to involve the placement of a palace, which could score points based on connections. I, like Dave, own and enjoy many RK games, and TM certainly looked worth a shot. Hopefully, I'll be around at some future event when this gets off the shelf.
The T&E game ended, and the groups mixed a little. I sat down with David, Julia, Keith, and Sy for Hollywood Blockbuster. Larry, Carli, and someone else pulled out Puerto Rico.
HB is yet another RK game, this one with a theme of producing movies, built around a fairly straight auction mechanic. The action takes place over three rounds, during which there are several bidding phases and a couple "parties", in which players simply pick items. Each player has several films they are trying to complete. Each one requires different elements - stars, sound, special effects, a director, etc. Some require several of one and none of others. Once you've completed a film, you can take another. There are a limited number of films that can be completed, so it's to ones advantage to get them done (unfinished films don't score). Points are awarded for the first film of each of the three types to be completed, as well as the strongest film each round. At the end of the game, the films are worth points based on the quality of the elements - how good the director/stars/effects/ etc. are. Additional points are awarded for the best film of each type, as well as the overall best and worst films.
I wanted to complete at least one film every round, which I did. I managed to score one of the first completed bonuses, as well as one of the strongest of the round bonuses. In the end, I had completed, I think, five films, and I managed to grab one of the "best of" awards. I had finished more films than anyone else, and managed a victory, with David in second.
I liked this game. The auction was almost too straightforward - just a plain progressive bid. The game provides you with relatively light but important decisions about what you need to acquire, but there is a little added element of keeping track of what other people need and trying to block them. The game also has a decent social element, as you interact in trying to influence people to spend money, and joke about the actors (who's names are parodies of the names of real actors) have been put in which films. Another nice offering from Mr. Knizia, and a welcome reprint. This would be a nice Euro-intro for people who like movies and party games.
It seemed weird to only play one game, but it was getting a little late, and, being a weeknight and having work in the morning, I called it quits. The PR game had ended, and Scepter broke up while I was getting ready to go, with Dan emerging victorious.
GG, GL
JW
Games at Snoozefest's: Ligretto, Snapchen Jagd (I'm pretty sure I spelled them both wrong, but I'm too late, and too lazy, to check)
Saturday, January 13th
After a long day of coaching wrestling at the DSA Duals, I managed to keep myself from logging on to World of Warcraft, and made my way through the woods to Snoozefest's house. Note - If I can, I'm going to start trying to refer to people by their BGG screenname, just to keep things sort of private.
Gaming was well underway by the time I got there, with the six players present involved in Havoc: The Hundred Years War. I haven't played this, so I took a look at the rules and tried to absorb a bit of the game.
This game involves card selection and set building, picking blind from a deck and choosing from a set of face-up cards. Basically, you are trying to build a six card poker hand, with six poker suits numbered 1-18 (I think). There are also a few "dogs", which are zero value cards that act as a wild card for the purpose of suiting. There are a series of battles of the Hundred Years war to be fought (8,iirc). Each battle commences when a player decides to start it, on their turn. Players elect to withdraw from the battle or start a hand. In the end, the player with the best hand wins, and gets the victory points. In most cases, there are points for people who finish in some of the other places. Once all the battles have been fought, the war is over and vps are calculated. This was actually a fairly fun game to watch. I think Sarah won, and I'm not sure of the placings after that.
We took a bit of a break for people to get food and drink, and divide into a couple of groups. Mary had some games she was hoping to play and review, so one table sat down with her new copy of Drive. Ravindra and Sarah and I broke out the Ligretto decks for some frenetic card-slapping.
I've played this a couple times before, and its really the kind of game I'm not that good at - requires constant attention and good memory, combined with lightning reflexes. It's also the kind of game that Sarah, someone who seems constantly focused and full of energy, should be dominant in, and that she was. The game ended Sarah-Ravindra-me, with me being pretty far behind. Although I don't feel I'm going to be really competitive at this game, I actually like it a lot as a sort of warm-up, or maybe something to get you going after a long heavy game - gets the mental juices and the blood flowing, so to speak.
After Ligretto, we were looking for another not so heavy or lengthy game, to keep us on time with the other group. Ravindra pulled out Snapchen Jagd, a trick taking game with six suits. Maybe playing Havoc reminded him of this. I've played several interesting variants on trick taking games over the last year, and this is another that I've enjoyed quite a bit. In SJ, you pick an initial number to be your "good number". Each card you take that matches goes in the good pile, which scores you positive points. All other cards you take go in the negative pile, counting against your score at the end. After each round, you are allowed to discard one number of which you have at least 3 cards. If you have more than 3, you can put the excess in your good pile, and that number becomes your new good number. After the final round, you can do this twice. It was fun trying to get my head around a strategy for taking cards - at first I just tried to avoid every trick, but you can't win without taking something! Finally I got a mental list of the numbers I was trying to build, and started acquiring tricks to work on scoring. In the last round, I got very lucky, taking several tricks with aces, scoring me a lot of points. In the end it was Me-Ravindra-Sarah.
It was fairly late, and I was a little tired, so I decided to call it a night and head home. It was a nice, relaxing evening of gaming, and reminded me that I have to start trying to pick up some of these unique trick-taking games.
GG, GL
JW
Saturday, January 13th
After a long day of coaching wrestling at the DSA Duals, I managed to keep myself from logging on to World of Warcraft, and made my way through the woods to Snoozefest's house. Note - If I can, I'm going to start trying to refer to people by their BGG screenname, just to keep things sort of private.
Gaming was well underway by the time I got there, with the six players present involved in Havoc: The Hundred Years War. I haven't played this, so I took a look at the rules and tried to absorb a bit of the game.
This game involves card selection and set building, picking blind from a deck and choosing from a set of face-up cards. Basically, you are trying to build a six card poker hand, with six poker suits numbered 1-18 (I think). There are also a few "dogs", which are zero value cards that act as a wild card for the purpose of suiting. There are a series of battles of the Hundred Years war to be fought (8,iirc). Each battle commences when a player decides to start it, on their turn. Players elect to withdraw from the battle or start a hand. In the end, the player with the best hand wins, and gets the victory points. In most cases, there are points for people who finish in some of the other places. Once all the battles have been fought, the war is over and vps are calculated. This was actually a fairly fun game to watch. I think Sarah won, and I'm not sure of the placings after that.
We took a bit of a break for people to get food and drink, and divide into a couple of groups. Mary had some games she was hoping to play and review, so one table sat down with her new copy of Drive. Ravindra and Sarah and I broke out the Ligretto decks for some frenetic card-slapping.
I've played this a couple times before, and its really the kind of game I'm not that good at - requires constant attention and good memory, combined with lightning reflexes. It's also the kind of game that Sarah, someone who seems constantly focused and full of energy, should be dominant in, and that she was. The game ended Sarah-Ravindra-me, with me being pretty far behind. Although I don't feel I'm going to be really competitive at this game, I actually like it a lot as a sort of warm-up, or maybe something to get you going after a long heavy game - gets the mental juices and the blood flowing, so to speak.
After Ligretto, we were looking for another not so heavy or lengthy game, to keep us on time with the other group. Ravindra pulled out Snapchen Jagd, a trick taking game with six suits. Maybe playing Havoc reminded him of this. I've played several interesting variants on trick taking games over the last year, and this is another that I've enjoyed quite a bit. In SJ, you pick an initial number to be your "good number". Each card you take that matches goes in the good pile, which scores you positive points. All other cards you take go in the negative pile, counting against your score at the end. After each round, you are allowed to discard one number of which you have at least 3 cards. If you have more than 3, you can put the excess in your good pile, and that number becomes your new good number. After the final round, you can do this twice. It was fun trying to get my head around a strategy for taking cards - at first I just tried to avoid every trick, but you can't win without taking something! Finally I got a mental list of the numbers I was trying to build, and started acquiring tricks to work on scoring. In the last round, I got very lucky, taking several tricks with aces, scoring me a lot of points. In the end it was Me-Ravindra-Sarah.
It was fairly late, and I was a little tired, so I decided to call it a night and head home. It was a nice, relaxing evening of gaming, and reminded me that I have to start trying to pick up some of these unique trick-taking games.
GG, GL
JW
Friday, January 19, 2007
Holiday Gaming: Lost Cities, Hey! That's My Fish, San Juan, Gulo Gulo, Citadels
So, WoW has really eaten up a lot of my ambition to leave the house and game, as of late. We'll see if that changes tonight, as it's third Friday of the month, and timt to head for Rick's.
The first couple weeks of the holidays I was sick/recovering, and Kristin and I were in full on stay-at-home mode, induced by the cancellation of our planned trip to Norway. We played a few games of Lost Cities, and she stomped me. Mainly, I remember that I was just a little too willing to start expeditions that I didn't have enough cards to make profitable - and then I never drew them. A fun game, as ever, theme and ease of play ensure that it hits the table over it's strategically deeper cousin, Battle Line, at least in our house.
We made it back to my parents' place in Illinois in early January. I received a couple games as Christmas presents: Lost Valley and Streetsoccer. Unfortunately, neither, as yet, have been played. I managed a quick trip out to the Leupold's shop in Coralville, which was great. It's nice to see that they've been successful, and it was a real pleasure to see old friends like Jerod, Jeff, Cam, etc.. I also traded in some Game of Thrones CCG cards (useless to me now as nobody plays here), and picked up a couple things, including a Power Grid expansion map and Hey! That's My Fish.
Saturday we sat around during the day with my family, and ended up playing four games of H!TMF. Interestingly, my mother won them all. Not normally a strategy game player, she excelled in keeping her penguins going, and picking up higher value ice floes. It says a lot to me, about a game, when my dad will play it three times, back to back. I'm very happy to have acquired this. H!TMF is a light abstract strategy game for 2-4 players, in which you lay down ice floe tiles, each of which has a value (in fish) of 1-3. You take turns moving a penguin, capturing the tile that you leave. You can move as far as you want, in any direction, in a straight line, but can't move over/onto missing tiles or other players' penguins. Once nobody can move anymore, the player with the most fish wins. It plays very quickly, and has a good level of thinking for people in the mood for something light, but not empty. There's a lot to plan for, to try to keep your penguins active, while trying to get small areas cordoned off that only you can move into and score.
Sunday, some old friends from Riverdale stopped by for chatting and gaming. Grahm showed up first, toting a Christmas present his daughter had received, Gulo Gulo, which I had never played. We ran through a round, with me snatching victory (pun intended). Gulo Gulo is a great little kids game, that involves movement down a path which is performed by picking the right colored egg out of a bowl. It has some light strategic decision making elements, a fun dexterity component, and good colors. It's apparently a big hit with Anna, and I'd love to pick up a copy for my sister's kids.
Dave showed up, and we ran through Gulo Gulo again, with Grahm winning. Dave has large hands, which proved to be a bit of a disadvantage, although his aggressive "flick" technique did work out well.
We played a couple games of H!TMF, both of which I won. I managed a big solo area in one of these games, basically because Dave was nice and didn't strand my penguin someplace else, first.
We played, I think, two games of San Juan. I can't remember who won. I think Dave won one, and then maybe I won one.
The finale of the night was Citadels. We all played with two characters. The game ran fine, but bogged down a little bit with people trying to remember the abilities and taking some time drafting. Dave also got the shaft pretty hard over the first three turns, souring him to the game a bit.
Overall, not too much to report here. Looking forward to game night tonight, when I'll take along, I think, Torres and Union Pacific.
GG, GL
JW
So, WoW has really eaten up a lot of my ambition to leave the house and game, as of late. We'll see if that changes tonight, as it's third Friday of the month, and timt to head for Rick's.
The first couple weeks of the holidays I was sick/recovering, and Kristin and I were in full on stay-at-home mode, induced by the cancellation of our planned trip to Norway. We played a few games of Lost Cities, and she stomped me. Mainly, I remember that I was just a little too willing to start expeditions that I didn't have enough cards to make profitable - and then I never drew them. A fun game, as ever, theme and ease of play ensure that it hits the table over it's strategically deeper cousin, Battle Line, at least in our house.
We made it back to my parents' place in Illinois in early January. I received a couple games as Christmas presents: Lost Valley and Streetsoccer. Unfortunately, neither, as yet, have been played. I managed a quick trip out to the Leupold's shop in Coralville, which was great. It's nice to see that they've been successful, and it was a real pleasure to see old friends like Jerod, Jeff, Cam, etc.. I also traded in some Game of Thrones CCG cards (useless to me now as nobody plays here), and picked up a couple things, including a Power Grid expansion map and Hey! That's My Fish.
Saturday we sat around during the day with my family, and ended up playing four games of H!TMF. Interestingly, my mother won them all. Not normally a strategy game player, she excelled in keeping her penguins going, and picking up higher value ice floes. It says a lot to me, about a game, when my dad will play it three times, back to back. I'm very happy to have acquired this. H!TMF is a light abstract strategy game for 2-4 players, in which you lay down ice floe tiles, each of which has a value (in fish) of 1-3. You take turns moving a penguin, capturing the tile that you leave. You can move as far as you want, in any direction, in a straight line, but can't move over/onto missing tiles or other players' penguins. Once nobody can move anymore, the player with the most fish wins. It plays very quickly, and has a good level of thinking for people in the mood for something light, but not empty. There's a lot to plan for, to try to keep your penguins active, while trying to get small areas cordoned off that only you can move into and score.
Sunday, some old friends from Riverdale stopped by for chatting and gaming. Grahm showed up first, toting a Christmas present his daughter had received, Gulo Gulo, which I had never played. We ran through a round, with me snatching victory (pun intended). Gulo Gulo is a great little kids game, that involves movement down a path which is performed by picking the right colored egg out of a bowl. It has some light strategic decision making elements, a fun dexterity component, and good colors. It's apparently a big hit with Anna, and I'd love to pick up a copy for my sister's kids.
Dave showed up, and we ran through Gulo Gulo again, with Grahm winning. Dave has large hands, which proved to be a bit of a disadvantage, although his aggressive "flick" technique did work out well.
We played a couple games of H!TMF, both of which I won. I managed a big solo area in one of these games, basically because Dave was nice and didn't strand my penguin someplace else, first.
We played, I think, two games of San Juan. I can't remember who won. I think Dave won one, and then maybe I won one.
The finale of the night was Citadels. We all played with two characters. The game ran fine, but bogged down a little bit with people trying to remember the abilities and taking some time drafting. Dave also got the shaft pretty hard over the first three turns, souring him to the game a bit.
Overall, not too much to report here. Looking forward to game night tonight, when I'll take along, I think, Torres and Union Pacific.
GG, GL
JW
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