Vacation is over - Full-on Game day is BACK

Spring Break has ended... we had a nice rowdy mob of gamers on Monday, March 20th.

I basically made notes on some random scrap paper, and did a lot of scribbling. I'm not sure if the chronology of what is about to be reported is correct, but I will try to make sure I include the whole day.

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Coda

Players: Jake, Sean, Angie, Chris

This is an amazingly simple game, which requires an amazing amount of logic.

Borrowing some elements of Mastermind, this is a great code-breaking game. I have only ever played this game with 2 players before -- with 4 players, the brain strain is exponentially greater.

The point of the game: You are trying to keep your code secret for the longest.

There are 24 game pieces -- they are numbered 0 through 11 in two colors (0-11 in white, 0-11 in black). In a 4-player game, all players draw three tiles at random, and arrange them in order from lowest to highest.

On each turn, a player grabs one of the unused tiles and looks at it. Then, with the information that player has, the player picks a specific hidden tile in front of a specific player and guesses its value. If the guess is correct, the player must reveal that tile. AND the active player gets to keep guessing, if desired. OR, the player can choose to stop guessing, and add the tile grabbed from the pool to their own hidden tile bank.

If the guess is wrong, that active player must reveal the tile grabbed from the pool, and place it among their own tiles in its rightful ordered place, revealing a little bit about their own hidden tiles.

Once a players pieces have been all revealed, that player is no longer a part of the game. The last player to have secret tiles wins.

Angie rocked this game. She eliminated Sean first, then Chris, and, finally Jake.

Angie wins! Not only that, but she eliminated every other player single-handedly!

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We then broke into a couple teams sets of people... one set playing the game "Munchkin", and the other Playing "Star Munchkin".

Let's look at each...

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Munchkin

Players: Jake, Danielle, Rob

This is a funny little game, which kind of picks on role playing games. Each player has a race and a class, as well as a level. You attempt to level up by beating up on monsters. The first player to reach level 10 wins.

Of course, there is armor, and footwear and headgear to help your character, as well as ways to beef up monsters that other players have to face in order to make them harder to defeat. You can call for help, but a helping player will definitely ask for some kind of compensation.

The gameplay is rather fluid, almost too much so for my strict gaming tastes. It actually reminds me a little of Beer Money, which we played a few weeks back... it has a sort of mushiness.

In this game of Munchkin -- after hanging back for a long time, Rob surged ahead to hit level 10 first. Rob wins!

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Star Munchkin

Players: Rich, Angie, Sean, Chris

This is an expansion, of sorts, to Munchkin. I picked it up mainly because it was a kitchy, campy, game that takes place in space. It has the same game dynamic as Munchkin, (in fact, you can combine the games) but it has more of a space-related content, as opposed to a fantasy theme.

If I had ever played the game, I would have never have paid $25 for what is ostensibly a card game. The artwork is cute, the text on them is funny, the gameplay is twisted. You basically play as many cards as you can -- possibly I haven't gone though it enough to get any strategy. So far as I can tell, there is little. I found little satisfaction in the game, which is interesting, since I won the game. But I felt like I somehow didn't earn it, it just happened.

I might need to try it a few more times...

Either way... Chris wins!

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Blokus

Players: Danielle, Eugene, Rob, Jake

Blokus. Best game ever. Nothing left to say.

The usual made-up strategy names happened. The normal frustration and screwage occurred.

Here's how it ended...

Danielle	-19
Eugene	-4
Rob	-10
Jake	-4

Jake and Eugene tie for the win!!

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Cityscape

Players: Rich, Angie, Manny, Chris, Sean (filling in for Angie)

Cityscape is a recent addition, and it is wonderful. It is quick, but ultra-strategic. We've described it before, so there's no need to go into much detail now. Just go buy it for yourself... you'll be glad you did.



We played two games with Rich, Angie, Manny, and Chris...

Rich	Angie	Manny	Chris
40	60	10	40
0	40	30	50
Totals...
40	100	40	90

Angie is having a good day. BUT, she has to leave... Sean takes up the slack!

Rich	Sean	Manny	Chris
50	10	20	70
60	20	10	30
Totals...
110	30	30	100

Rich wins over those two games!

Cityscape is a fun strategy game with a good deal of intentional and unintentional screwage.

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Tsuro

Players: Sean, Manny, Chris, Rich

This is one of Manny's favorite games, and we obliged his request to play -- it's a quick game, and a good filler while the other crew finished Blokus.

The rules never say this -- but we always explain the game Tsuro as an allegory for life -- you choose a path, and add to that path. If the path leads you off the board, you die. That last one alive wins. This seems to make sense... everyone picks up the idea quickly. There is a lot of luck in the game, but it always feels like the choices you make MATTER. You may not be able to win, but it always feels like you've tried you best... sometimes life's path runs you in a bad direction.

This is the first board game by the company "Wizkids". They mainly make collectible games -- I hope they continue to make other games -- this is a nifty one.

Rich backed himself into a corner first, and Manny had no problem causing his death.

Then, in a karmic twist, Manny backed himself into an inescapable corner.

Sean and Chris ended up in close place on the board, and Sean had no option but to place a tile killing them both... Sean and Chris tie for the win!!

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Apples to Apples

Players: Jake, Eugene, Rich, Sean, Manny, Chris, Selena (who left early)

Possibly the simplest and funniest game we play. It's strange we like it so much, since there's not much strategy. The only strategy is playing the funniest card you can -- depending on the judge. I guess it has a little of the psycho-strategy we like in some other games... Or, maybe it's because it is a refreshing change from the other games that require more brain power. I know a lot fo people who like this game because even if you lose it really doesn't reflect on any real ability... there's little definable skill involved.

Anyway... Here's how the game went:

• Sean got the card "courageous"
  
• Eugene got "intelligent"
  
• Rich got "hardworking"
  
• Jake got "relaxing"
  
• Eugene got "wild"
  
• Rich got "hilarious"
  
• Manny got "unforgettable"
  
• Sean got "shocking"
  
• Manny got "creative"
  
• Sean got "busy" (heh. heh. I said 'Sean got busy.')
  
• (at this point Selena had to run)
  
• Eugene got "odd"
  
• Eugene got "perfect"
  
• Chris got "luxurious"
  
• Eugene got "pathetic"
  
• Manny got "powerful"
  
• Rich got "chunky" (stop laughing. right now, you 7th grader.)
  
• Jake got "influential"
  
• Rich got "refreshing"
  

We all realized that it would be a while before any of us caught up to Eugene, so we called the game to move on to something else.

Eugene wins!!

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Things...Humor in a Box

Players: Jake, Eugene, Rich, Sean, Manny, Chris, and Angie joined a little later

I love this game -- it's a great one for bunches of people.

A topic is read, and everyone writes down something in that topic. Then, each player tries to guess who made what response. The more you know about the other players, the greater your advantage. AND, the more you play, the more you'll learn about the other players.

If I was slightly more insane than I already am, I would have recorded every response made to every topic. Instead, I just recorded the final tallies/scores for the players.

Jake	Eugene	Rich	Sean	Manny	Chris	Angie
8	6	10	7	6	9	2 (+5 pity points for late start) = 7

Rich wins! And he's just a guest!! He's here while he's on break from UMass. The guest beat us at our own game. Not good. NOT good.

Here's all the "Things" we wrote about in the game...


And here's the bottle, into which we crammed all our answers when they were eliminated from the game...

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Pass the Pigs

Players: Chris, Sean, Steven, Cathy, Angie, Manny

Cathy W. came back to play, and brought her son Steven. He's 8 years old, but ready to play.

I thought Pass the Pigs would be a silly, fun, easy to learn game. It turned out I was right!!



Pass the Pigs uses pig-shaped dice. Depending on how the pigs fall, you get points. You never want the pigs to land on their sides, with opposite sides showing. This is called a "Pig Out", and costs you all points earned that turn. Other combinations of pigs is worth points -- the less common configurations are worth more points. Normally a dice game would be non-strategic, but this game puts you in control. You can push your luck for more and more points, or play conservatively and build up few points at once. A standard game is played to 100, and we did that.

Here's the scores at the end of the game...

Chris	Sean	Steven	Cathy	Angie	Manny
47	80	93	51	102	35

Steven had a slow start, but burst onto the scene quickly. He was in the lead for most of it, and Angie was in last for most. Angie had a couple good rolls back-to-back, and claimed victory before Steven could finish up.....

Angie wins!

Pass the Pigs is a fun coffee-shop or bar game. It's portable, simple, fun, and funny.

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Ido

Players: Chris, Sean, Steven, Angie (filled in by Cathy)

Ido is a beautiful game. I've mentioned this before.

I do like this game a whole lot. I love how it looks, and I enjoy how it plays. It's simple to learn, and has clever strategy. The board morphs throughout the game, and as it does, there are different movement possibilities (or impossibilities).

I was worried that 8-year-old Sean would have trouble with the 12-and-up-suggested age level on the Ido box, but he picked it up quicker than most of the college students who've I've shown it to.

Steven was the FIRST with a piece off the board. Followed by Chris, then Cathy, then Sean.

Chris was the first to get his second piece off the board. Sean, Steven, and Cathy (in that order) followed suit.

At this point, any piece off the board would win the game. Sean shifted the grid so that Chris would win. He realized his folly, and then, after whining like a schoolgirl, we let him undo his move. As I wrote those events down, Sean grabbed my note paper and indicated: "When Sean threatened to erase Chris's unsavory remarks, Chris wept openly. ALSO, The Beastie Boys are the ONLY white people who can rap."

Both of those are reasonable points.

Still, the Sean move was deemed official, and Chris wins!!!

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Dicey

Players: Sean, Steven, Cathy, Chris


I like building games like Jenga and Villa Paletti. Dicey has elements of that. I forget when I actually bought this game, but I have had it for a while and have wanted to play it.

Each player gets some cards with dice printed on them. Each player, in turn, places the dice on the card, as indicated, and stacks in on the previously played cards and dice.



If a player causes the fall of the pile, that players gets points equal to the faces of the dices which don't touch any of the cards. Lowest score wins!!

A delicate touch goes well in this game, as well as placement that creates good balance. It feels like building a house of cards.



Here's the final totals when we decided to quit...

Sean	Steven	Cathy	Chris
0	94	13	26

Not only did Sean win, but he NEVER knocked over the pile. Sean wins!! And he wins nicely.

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Unexploded Cow

Players: Sean, Eugene, Chris

I've played this game a bunch, but not in Game Club. It has my FAVORITE game theme EVER.

There are these mad cows in Europe, as well as unexploded mines from previous world wars. Both need to be eliminated. OOH! Let's fix both problems at once: let the Mad Cows wander across the mine fields. Any mine eliminated also eliminates a mad cow.

Each player starts with some cash ($2000), and some cards (cards have cows or actions). Each player plays any number of cards that player wishes, or can afford, and then rolls a die to see if any cows have stepped on a mine. Any cow exploded provides a reward or penalty to the owner of that cow. Also, if you blow up your own cow, you get a city card which has a point value on it.

When all city cards have been claimed, the person with the highest value of city cards collect any unclaimed money in the game.

Game end:

Sean	Eugene	Chris
$1550	$2650	$1800

Eugene managed his cows the best. Eugene wins!!

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Quarto!

Players: Eugene, Chris

Quarto is one of our new favorite two player games. Eugene has seen it being played, and found it rather intense. It didn't take much for Chris to talk him into a few games.



Chris did end up winning three games in a row. But he had played a bunch, and Eugene was still new to the game, Eugene was always well aware of the board, but Chris managed to sneak in a win, three times or so in a row.



Chris wins three times! (the first two were for 4 round shapes in a row -- the last was for 3 short pieces in a row)

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Cityscape

Players: Rob, Eugene, Chris, Jake


We finished the game with some more of the wondrously clever Cityscape. It is a fun game for two, and stressful game when three play, and a twisted struggle for four players. We played with all four!

Scores...

Rob	Eugene	Chris	Jake
20	10	40	40
10	60	50	20
50	50	30	60
Totals.......
80	120	120	120

After three rounds, we had a three way tie. And Chris had to go at this point (taking his games with him), so the tie is what we ended up with! Until next time...

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Another great day of gaming!!

Some new games, some classics, some new players, some regulars.

I really do like games. Game Club rocks. Seriously.

No School, No Problem!

This week is spring break, but that will not stop us from doing the game thing.

Chris has to work, anyway, and Jake agreed to come in to do some playing. It was just us for a while, but then Eugene joined later.

Here's the game report for Monday, March 13, 2006...

Cityscape

Players: Jake, Chris

I have a special affinity for games that are made of wood. The pieces feel more solid than ones made of plastic, and it somehow is more engaging than other media. Cityscape is a finely crafted puzzle game, where each of you is battling for secret goals -- you may even be helping your opponents, unwittingly.

This is a two to four player game, with simple rules and painful strategy. We love those around here.

The "City" (the gameboard) is a 4x4 grid. There is a pool of pieces from which all players draw -- there are 5 each of 5 different sized pieces. On a turn, a player picks one of the blocks, and plays it somewhere on the board.

In front of each player is a set of four dice... each player chooses a side for each die in secret, and each one represents a goal for a row of buildings facing that player. The numbers 1 through 4 would represent that number of buildings exactly viewable from your side of the table. In the picture, the leftmost row would be a successful '3', since the first three buildings are visible, but the last would be hidden because it is shorter than the one in front of it.

If you have a 5 on the die, that means your goal is to have at least two buildings the same height. In the picture, the third row would score for a '5'.

If you have a 6 on the die, you are betting that at least one of the buildings in that row is one of the tallest in the city. In the picture, it looks like the 4th row would score on a '6'.

Once all the blocks are placed, each player checks each row to see how it scored. A '1' through '4', if successful, scores ten times that amount ('1' = 10 pts, '2' = 20 pts., etc). A '5', if successful, scores 10 pts for each building that is the same height as another in that row. A '6', if successful, scores 10 pts for each building in that row that is at least as tall as the tallest in the city.

Here's how the 3 games that Chris and Jake played went:

	Jake	Chris
Game 1	30	50
Game 2	30	30
Game 3	70	90
and the totals...
	130	170

It's fun to try to guess what the other player is trying to build. Sometimes you can, and sometimes you can sort of bluff by trying to beef up some building you don't really need to -- it can sometimes force your opponent to actually help you. There is some psycho-strategy involved. But mostly it's just the struggle to make your own goals with a very limited amount of supplies.

It's a great game -- a full game is played in less than 10 minutes, and the end result is a very satisfying city skyline. Cityscape is simple and beautiful...

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Quarto!

Players: Jake, Chris

Another new game for me is "Quarto!". This is a game that has been around for a while, but with our new-found enjoyment of simple two-player games like Fire and Ice and Gobblet!, I decided Quarto! was a must have. I knew a little about it before buying it, and it seemed like it would be a good addition to the games we play.

And I was right.

Quarto! is another tic-tac-toe variant. In this game, you have a 4x4 board, and are trying to get 4 in a row of pieces that share a common attribute.

There are 16 pieces in the game. They are in a common pool, both players draw from this pool of pieces... no one has a color or anything like that (like in Fire and Ice or Gobblet!), you are just trying to be the person who plays the piece to complete a row.

The pieces are all different, and all have 4 attributes: light/dark, short/tall, square/round, or solid/hollow. A successful 4-in-a-row might be 4 square pieces... or 4 tall pieces in a row. Seems like a pretty straightforward concept... but there is always a twist! Here it is: When it is your turn, you don't get to pick the piece that is being played. Your OPPONENT picks the piece and hands it to you. You are then free to place that piece anywhere on the board.

It can be painful at first. But it is another quick, abstract, strategic game.

We played 5 games...

Winner	the winning row was...
Chris	4 round pieces
Chris	4 solid pieces
Jake	4 light-colored pieces
Chris	4 square AND solid pieces
Chris	4 light-colored pieces

Again, it's a quick game... just takes a few minutes. Also, nicely crafted from wood, with a solid wooden base -- very suitable for display. And folks will be sure to ask about it, and you'll be able to get a game going immediately.

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Subulata

Players: Jake, Chris

Another new game I bought was called Subulata. It actually has a few hints of elements from other games, but doesn't really steal from ANY of them. Let me try to explain...

First, the board is constructed from 9 tiles that have 3x3 spaces on them. Tile placement, like Carcassonne!!! But it is NOTHING like Carcassonne.

Second, you have 9 figures with numbers on their backs, which the opponent cannot see. Secret values like Stratego!!! But it is nothing like Stratego.

Third, your pieces hop sort of diagonally across the board, mainly trying to get to the other side. Hopping pieces to the other side, like Checkers!!! But it is nothing like checkers.

Fourth, the pieces have different abilities to move, and when you land on a space with another player in it, you capture that piece. Different pieces with different movement and capturing pieces, like Chess!!! But it is nothing like chess. Especially because your movement does not depend on the piece, but on the space on which it sits! So a piece may be very mobile on one turn, and get mired down on the next, depending on where it lands.

Each player is trying to get a team of grasshoppers from one side of the 'pond' to the other. There are spaces of just water, spaces of leaves, and spaces of flowers. From a water space, a piece may move one space towards to opposite end's goal. From a leaf, 2 spaces, and from a flower, 3 spaces. You can only move forward. UNLESS, a backwards move allows you to capture an opponent, only then can you move backward.

Once one player cannot move, wither since no pieces are left, or all pieces have made it far enough across the board that there are no more legal moves, the game ends instantly.

Here's how it is scored... add up the value of each grasshopper that made it to the opponent's starting space. Add to that one point for each captured grasshopper.

At the end of the game Chris had 24, Jake had 19.


There is a lot of wicked strategy here, and you have to really pay attention to what can get to your pieces. You have to try to protect your high valued pieces, sometimes sacrificing the lower valued ones to do it. You have to balance moving many pieces across the board with moving a few fast to make sure they make it across the board. The game may end before you'd like, if the other player manages to fly across the board fast.

We only got to play it once, but in that playing, we could both see the potential for great strategy. The fact that the board is randomly created from the nine tiles each time is an interesting touch...

One MAJOR complaint: Like many games, the pieces are not labeled with the numbers when you first open it. It comes with stickers that go on the back of the pieces that you have to put on. The stickers SUCK. They are just awful. They do not stay on well at all... I have to think of something else to do... maybe superglue them on. Or possibly etch the numbers into that back with a pocket knife. Something. It took us ten minutes before the game to find the number 3 sticker for the white pieces! That's unacceptable.

(I can't really complain, actually... the sole reason I bought the game was because it was $5 at Funagain.)

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Lost Cities

Players: Jake, Chris

We went on to play an old favorite... Lost Cities. It is a very simple card game where each player embarks on virtual archeological digs. The cards you play have values that show how much the project pays off. Once you've played a card, you can only play cards that are greater than it on the same pile. There's planning, risk-taking, sometimes hoarding cards your opponent might need, with a little bit of both strategy and tragedy. We like this game a lot.

And since it's one we both know well, we can play it QUICKLY. Cards were being slammed onto the table with barely a second between them, as if playing the cards faster would have allowed us to gather better ones.

For each expedition you begin, you have to deduct 20 points to pay off your investors, so, if you don't make enough, you can actually fall into negative point land.

Here's how the game turned out:

Chris ended with a score of +1, Jake had -5. It was a very close low-scoring game; neither of us had good hands at all!

This is a great two-player card game.

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Cityscape (again!)

Players: Jake, Chris, and Tom M. later replaced by Eugene
Tom Molski was drifting by, and we convinced him to try one game with us -- his condition was that it had to be a short one. Well, we had already found that Cityscape takes less than 10 minutes, so we gave him a quick run-down of the rules, and the three of us got into a game.

Here's how it turned out:

Jake	Tom M.	Chris
60	10	20

Jake did quite well.

Tom left after this one game, as he had promised. But this was just as Eugene was arriving. Since we already had the game out, we gave him a game overview and played again. (It IS a good game!)

Jake	Eugene	Chris
90	50	40

Jake is victorious again.

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Mexica

Players: Jake, Eugene, Chris

This is a large game, with what seems to be an unwieldy amount of rules. Once you get the knack, it is a very playable strategy game.

It reminds me a lot of Torres, a game we have enjoyed in the past, in that it has a series of round, a limited number of building pieces each round, and points where you stop and score the table. But it is different enough to make it fresh and fun.

On each turn a player has 6 action points to spend on moving around, building canals, building bridges, building buildings, among other things. Each player is trying to form small areas surrounded by canals of specific sizes, determined by randomly drawn tiles. Once an area is made, players scramble to build the largest and most buildings in that area.

The specifics are way too tricky to discuss here, but in the context of the game, it all seems to make sense.

Here's the score at the end:

Jake	Eugene	Chris
105	94	95

Jake is having a good day!

Final thoughts: this is a great game of strategy and balance. You can sort of store up action points you don't use and cash them in later to have a mega turn. It seems that hanging back and then pouncing like mad is a pretty good strategy. Jake did have a dominance on one end of the board, but his win was certainly not predetermined -- I think both Eugene and I felt like we had a chance until the last score count.

A few more plays of this game will help flush out the strategies... once you get past the full-sized 12 page instruction booklet, there is a pleasant, beautiful game waiting for you.

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Wallamoppi

Players: Jake vs Chris, then Jake vs Eugene

Another class of games we have begun to enjoy are the building games. We like Villa Paletti quite a bit -- strategic construction at its best.

I decided to pick up a copy of Wallamoppi, which is a two-player, fast-paced stacking game.

The game takes place in two parts... in the first part, each player chooses a color, either the light or the dark colored disks, and each player grabs a disk of that color. The remaining pieces are put into a little bag, and each player, in turn, draws a disk and begins making a triangular shaped wall of disks. Once all the pieces are placed into the wall, each player places the pieces they grabbed at the beginning to complete the tower.

Now the fun begins.

Each player has a few seconds to draw a disk from the wall in that player's color, and put it on top of the stack to form a tower of disks. The time they have is determined by a marble dropping down a series of ramps as shown in the background of the picture (you can see the marble on the final ramp!). It goes like this: one player drops the marble, the other player has to draw out a disk, put it on top of the stack, and 'catch' the marble before it hits the bottom of the final ramp. Then THAT player drops the marble onto the top ramp, and the next player has a few seconds to do the same thing.

It is very frenetic and crazy, though a steady hand is required. I played a couple games and was a little worn out.

Three games were played, and here's how they went:

WINNER	LOSER	WHY DID THE LOSER LOSE?
Jake	Chris	Chris missed the marble!
Chris	Jake	The tower toppled on Jake's turn!
Eugene	Jake	Once again, Jake was responsible for the tower's fall!

It's a really fun silly game. There is actually a little strategy in the construction part of the game, but there is a LOT of luck there, too. Once the tower building begins, it gets a little crazy and funny. I found it as fun to watch the game as it was to play it.

I'm really happy I got this game. It is wonderfully constructed of all wooden pieces. It really satisfies that youthful urge to build up some blocks, and then watch them fall down. It's simple and fun.

The game is specifically for 2 players, but, if you ignore the colors of the pieces, I think it could potentially be played by more... we'll have to try that some time...

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Monkeys on the Moon

Players: Jake, Eugene, Chris

This is a game which came up as half price when I was buying all my other recent purchases at Funagain. As an astronomer, I couldn't help but by a game called "Monkeys on the Moon".

I did have a hesitation, because I own another game by Eight Foot Llama, the manufacturer of this game. I have "Who Stole Ed's Pants", which I do not enjoy. The game is very complex, with unnecessarily convoluted game mechanics all ending with a fizzle of an ending -- there is very little satisfaction at game end.

Monkeys on the Moon is another, seemingly similar game. There are a bunch of different small card decks that make up the mechanics of the game. Monkey cards, Civilization cards, Ship cards, Tribe cards, and Monkey Scorn cards are all separate decks, and have different uses. When you throw in Monkey Tribe Stones and Favor Tokens in 6 different colors, this little box has a daunting amount of parts.

I decided I would go at this game without any preconceived notions... I wanted to enjoy it. And I am glad that I did.

Again, at first glance it seems overwhelming. But once you immerse yourself in the flow, it kind of makes sense. Quick reference cards allow you to keep track of your turn easily -- these cards make the game possible: short, step-by-step instructions.

Let's step back at look at the backstory of the game -- Many years ago, monkeys were sent to the moon, where they started a new civilization, and divided themselves into tribes. Some are friends, and some are enemies -- these relationships are decided at random at the start of the game.

Whenever you help out a tribe, you garner their favor, but at the same time, you piss off the opposing tribe. Balancing the anger of the tribes is key to success.

I will try to summarize the game: There is a board marking the progress of each tribe. At the beginning of your turn, you promote one of the tribes. Then, you look at some monkeys, and start a bidding round on one of them. You bid on them using favor tokens you gathered when promoting the tribe. As you win monkeys, you load them onto spacecraft and launch them back to their long lost home of Earth.

You collect the cards of the monkeys and ships launched back to Earth.

Once all the civilizations have moved up as far as possible (by playing all the civilization cards) each player sees how much value they've earned from the monkeys and ships they've launched.

There is another layer to the game mechanic -- the furthest promoted tribes are worth the most points. So, the value of the tribes is counted, and the folks with the highest values in a tribe get points related to how far that tribe has proceeded.

Here's the breakdown of points by tribe at the end of the game...

	Jake	Eugene	Chris
Red Tribe	2	0	2
Green Tribe	5	3	0
Blue Tribe	4	7	0
Purple Tribe	2	1	0
Black Tribe	2	0	4
Brown Tribe	0	6	3
TOTALS	15	17	9

Eugene wins!

It was kind of a funny game, and I could see it being quite clever and competitive with 4 players (the maximum). I'm glad I took a chance on this one.

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Girl Genius: The Works

Players: Jake, Eugene, Chris

This is a game I have had for a while, and I enjoy it a bunch. It has a completely different game mechanic than any other I have ever played. The cards a laid out on the table in alternating directions, so it sort of looks like they mesh into each other (the picture shows how the board of cards looks). During your turn, you flip a facedown card (if there is one), and then turn a card of your choice 180 degrees. When this happens, it's possible that icons along the edge of the cards match. When they do, the card with more of the icons "pops"! That means it comes out of the board, and the player then has to follow some directions on the bottom of the card. Some cards are good, some are bad, some are neither, but all have a point value. And you want to collect points.

The first person to collect 100 points wins. There are a couple other ways to instantly win described on popped cards, but the most likely way to win is to collect the points.

The scores at the end of game were:

Jake	Eugene	Chris
62	101	91

It didn't seem that Eugene was doing that well... I think he was as surprised he won as Jake and I!

This is a nice game to fill up some time. It can be hard to plan strategy at times, but you really can manipulate the board to succeed. And once you have learned all (or at least MOST) the cards and their effects, you can use them to your advantage.

Girl Genius: fun game, dramatically different from any other game I know.

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Earthquake

Players: Jake, Eugene, Chris

Our first Game Day Road Trip!!!

We were hungry, Jake suggested Chinese food, so we went to a restaurant across from the college called Golden Moon. In case you care, we had Cold Sesame Noodles (YUM!) to start, and shared some Kung Pao Chicken, and Garlic Pork.

While we were waiting (which was a remarkably SHORT period of time, great service!) we played a game of Earthquake.

Earthquake is a card game. The cards have 5 suits (people who play Magic: The Gathering will recognize the suits as the different land types). At the beginning of a turn, a player discards all cards played on that player's previous turn. Each player gets 2 plays per turn. You play a set of cards (one or more) of the same suit to the table. You earn points equal to the number of cards you are playing TIMES the number of those cards on the table (including what you are putting down). SO, if you play three green cards, and there is no green on the table, you get 9 points (3 cards times three cards). If the next player plays two cards, it is worth ten points (two card being played times 5 (the two being played plus the three on the table)).

SO, each player tries to play the best collection on top of what was already played. There are wild cards, and other special cards which give instant points or more cards or more plays per turn. There is also the dreaded Earthquake card which clears the whole table of played cards.

It is a simple, quick game. There is some strategy in deciding what to play. You may have a big collection of a suit, and you may decide to play one card from that suit to try to draw out other players to play that suit, and then pounce on that when it comes back around to you for exponentially higher points!

We played for about 5 minutes, and quit when the food came... here's the result:

Jake	Eugene	Chris
22	54	53

Eugene wins!

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Lots of new games, lots of games played, on a day when we weren't even going to meet because we were on break! AND our first road trip! Not a bad game day that wasn't supposed to happen.

Marathon!

SEVEN HOURS. We played for SEVEN HOURS yesterday. Jake almost bailed early, but we convinced him to stay for the last half hour. SEVEN HOURS.Good game day.

Here's some highlights!

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Apples to Apples

Players: Jake, Chris, Eugene, Erick, Manny, Selena, Sean, and TJ.


I wanted to present a game that we could play with a whole mess of people. Apples to Apples is a great little party game. It is somehow one of the "Mensa Select" games, though it really requires no brain usage, it's just for fun. There's no strategic rules...

Each player is dealt seven cards with nouns on them. Each player takes a turn being "The Judge". As the judge, you draw a card which has an adjective on it. You read the adjective to the rest of the players, and they each choose a noun that he/she thinks the judge will choose as best matching the adjective.

That's it.

No rules for the judge, except to pick the card that the judge likes best.

So, it's important to 'play to the judge' -- even more important than trying to actually match the noun to the adjective, you're really trying to match the noun to the judge.

We decided to play until someone had been chosen 6 times.

Players: Sean, Angie, Cathy, Chris, Danielle, Jake

	Sean	Angie	Cathy	Chris	Danielle	Jake
Adjectives	Quiet		Boring	Delightful	Disturbing	Frightening
	Cool			Cheesy	Rare	Annoying
	Squeaky Clean			Graceful	Timeless	Woebegone
	Casual				Harmful	Calm
	Shy
	Scary

Apparently the adjectives you receive describe the kind of person you are. Maybe not so much: I think Angie has a vivacious personality, but then again... the description of Cathy is pretty on-target. Just kidding!

Sean wins!

We played a few more games of Apples to Apples. However, to our utter dismay, we did not record the results.

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The Big Idea

The players: Sean, Chris, and Erick played the whole game. Rebecca and Selena played 2 rounds. TJ played one, and Manny filled in and played another in his stead.


This is a game by the Cheapass Games company, which makes wonderful, affordable games. It takes a different kind of quick thinking than most games. It's always good for a laugh.

You each play as an entrepreneur, coming up with brand new products that will soon have an initial public offering. You need to pitch your new product to try to get other to invest in it.

Each player gets three card with descriptors (ex's: Low-fat, Compact, Disposable) and three cards with products (ex's: Candy bar, Bottle, Fireplace). Each player assembles those cards to invent a product which is useful, wacky, outlandish or mind-blowing.

Once each player secretly invents a product using as many or as few cards as desired, the four stages of each round proceeds...

Part 1: Pitch the product! Each player spends a minute or five explaining why the product will be in demand once it makes it to market. This is just fun... most fun when you really get into character -- you get to run your own mini-infomercial! If you can't think of a good sales pitch, the instructions suggest you begin with "How many times has this happened to you?!" The cards also have little one-liners to assist, as well. You may then invest in your own product.

Part 2: Super-secret free investment! Once the pitches have been made, each player takes a moment to secretly invest in any other player's new product. You can't invest in your own, or any old products which remain (that happens, you'll see!). We usually count to three, and everyone chucks an investment symbol at the product desired.

Part 3: Pay to play! During this round, each player can get a share in any product on the table. In order to get in on a product at this point, you'll need to pay a dollar per share to each shareholder already invested in the product.

Part 4: Check the IPO! Now, whoever started the round picks each product on the table, one at a time, in any order, and sees if it is a successful investment. Here's how that goes: the player names a product, and rolls a 6-sided die. If the value of the die is equal to or less than the number of shares, it pays off! Each share receives a dollar amount equal to the value of the die roll. (EX: A product has 2 Red investment shares, 1 Yellow, and 1 Blue. A "3" is rolled (less than 4!)... Yellow and Blue get $3, Red gets $6.)

If the die roll is greater than the number of shares, it doesn't pay off. Another share is added to the product, which represents a foreign investor. The product stays on the table... it may be further invested in a later turn, and will be checked for pay off in later turns. Each foreign investor makes it more likely for it to pay off later.


This game is rare for the strategic gaming club in that the payoff depends on a die roll. We usually shy away from something of that ilk. But this game depends on so many other elements that it's OK. And the excitement and disappointment associated with the die roll is worth it.

Here's the strategic pieces: You need to come up with a sales pitch for an innovative (if not insane) product in seconds, or minutes. You have to think on your feet. The Debate Club has used this as an exercise! An it's a worthwhile one...

Also, you need to decide which ones in which to invest. You can get into many of your own lonely products cheaply, but they will likely not pay off as well. Example: Consider that you are one of the shareholders in a product which has 3 single investors. The average payout will be $2 (it can be either $1, $2, or $3 per share -- average payout is $2 per share). If you have 3 shares in a product that has 5 shares invested all together, your average payout will be $9 (the possible payouts are $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5. Average payout $3 per share. 3 of those shares would give you $9).

The game actually creates its own little economy. It's rather impressive. You need verbal, mathematical, humor, and strategic skills to succeed. Also, a little luck helps a bit.

Here's a list of the inventions we all came up with...

Sean	Chris	Erick	Rebecca	Selena	TJ first, Manny second
Deadly Toupee	Empathetic Auto Milkshake Treats	Training Smokes	Personal Kitchen Magazine	Quiet Bicycle Game	Groovy Miniature Luminous Fruit Dentures
Bourgeois Encrypted Computer	Pine-fresh Erotic Phone Book	Mysterious Virus Cereal	Limited Edition Angel Machine	Flying Gigantic Airline Encyclopedia	Cute Edible Aspirin Non-stick Memo Machine
Invisible Vegetables	Holy Raft Paint	Disposable Jet
Zen Hammer	Exotic Fortune Coffee	Desktop Battle Copier
Reflective Cast-Iron Bikini	Waterproof Doll Vacuum	Vibrating Flowers
Obedient Chocolate Pontiff	Frost-Free Cheese Chainsaw	Extreme Origami
Total money made by those who finished the game
$50	$43	$50

We each started with $10! We all made money!! It's not easy to lose money in this game, so everyone ends with a sense of satisfaction. OK, my (Chris') satisfaction is less than the 'tied-for-the-win twins': Sean and Erick!

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Beer Money

The players: Erick, Sean, Chris.


TJ had to run, but he left behind a fun little slugfest called Beer Money. Erick was itching to play, and I had played the precursor, "Lunch Money" a couple years back, so I was quite willing to dive in. And Sean was all for any game involving pummelling -- even if it was just virtual, card-based pummelling.

Each player starts with 15 health points, and the other players throw cards out which attempt to smack down opponents. Beer bottles, sucker punches, and love taps all wear down your opponents' health. Players can dodge those attacks, and even use some cards to build health back up.

After game 1, Erick was left with 11 points of health after Chris and Sean lay bleeding on the floor.

After game 2, Chris was the last to stand, with 9 points of health.

After game 3, Chris, once again remained after a long battle with Erick. Sean was eliminated quickly, and a long brawl between Erik and Chris left Erick unconscious on the floor, and Chris with 3 points of health.

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Guillotine

The players: Chris and Erick.


Heads will roll!

Sean had to go, so Chris and Erick sat there staring foolishly at each other. Chris rummaged through the games which made it to the game table, and found Guillotine, which hasn't been played at game day yet!

Chris brought Erick up to speed after a minute or two, and we started executing nobles from France!

Each player is a rival executioner, and points are given for each head lopped off. The more important the person, the higher the value. "Marie Antoinette" is worth 5 points, while the "Piss Boy" (seriously!) is only worth 1.

There is a line of people waiting to be executed. Each player has some 'action cards', which, among other things, can rearrange the order of the line.

A turn consists of a player optionally playing an action card, collecting the next nobleperson on line, and drawing an action card (whether one was played or not). Through clever use of action cards, you can send the best heads to the chopper on your turn.

Each 'day' of the game starts with 12 people on line to get lopped. Once three days have elapsed, the players compare head collections. Higher value wins.

Chris collected heads which had a total of 42 points. Erick's head collection totaled 43 points.

Even though it was only by a point, Erick wins!

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Bohnanza

The players: Jake, Erick, Chris, and Igor (replaced by Danielle).

Farming gone wild!


Jake, Igor and Danielle returned... Danielle had to go chat with a professor. Also, Igor had a class in 12 minutes. So here's what we did -- we decided to start a game of Bohnanza with Jake, Igor, Erick, and Chris. We knew Igor would have to leave, but his wife Danielle would be an adequate replacement when she got back.

Bohnanza has a wild blend of luck, strategy, and savvy bartering. Each player is a bean farmer, with limited space, and limited cards.

The most difficult part of the game is that your hand can not be rearranged... you play cards in the order that they're dealt.

Each turn has a 3 stages....

Stage 1: Plant the first bean in your hand of cards. If it doesn't match a field you've already planted, you'll need to harvest one bean field to make room. You can, optionally, plant a second bean from your hand.

Stage 2: Take the next 2 cards from the draw pile, and show them to all players. If you want them, plant them (You HAVE to plant them if you take them). If you don't want them, put them up for sale. Any other player may offer to buy them with cards from his/her hand, or take them as a donation. There is a whole lot of bartering here, and is the heart and most fun and clever part of the game. It can get heated here, or die out, leaving the current player with possibly unwanted cards. All cards involved with the trading get planted.

Stage 3: The current player picks two cards, which are added to the back of his/her hand of cards.


Each bean type has a different amount of total cards available in the deck, with differing payoff values... you have to think about the possibilities there. Sometimes it's better to collect small bean fields to get lots of little bits of payoff, OR save up your beans for a few large payoffs.

This game ended with Jake and Erick TIED for the win with 11 gold earned. Danielle and Chris tied for losing -- both having 8 gold.

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Beat the Buzzard

Strategy + Psychology - any kind of luck = a nearly perfect game!

This was played by Jake, Danielle, TJ, Erick, and Chris. We played through twice.

We've played this before. This is the game we play when we want to mess with our own, and each other's, brains.

Everyone starts with the same set of 15 cards - numbered 1 through 15 - with which to bid. The bidding is done on some positive and some negative cards... you need to outwit your opponents in a secret bidding war to obtain the best cards, and avoid taking the cards which take away points.

Here's how the two hands went down....

Jake	Danielle	TJ	Erick	Chris
-5	12	-2	21	14
9	15	3	16	-3
Totals...
4	27	1	35	11

Erick wins! Erick wins each hand easily. Which means Erick wins the entire game, even easily-er.

I'm pretty sure 'easily-er' is not a word. But it works. I think. And I am the author of this entry, so what I say goes! At least right here. And this is the easily-est thing I've ever done.

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Villa Paletti

The players: Jake Erick, TJ, and Chris.

The day ended with a few rounds of building. Jake, Erick, TJ, and Chris played three rounds.



Each player assumes a color, represented by a set of pillars, and, using his/her own pillars, attempts to build a tower of columns and platforms... points are earned, balances are shifted.... it's a strategic and tactile tour de force!



This is a Jake-owned game. But not for long -- I really need a copy of this puppy...

Here's the rundown and highlights of each game...



In Game 1: TJ proposed the 2nd floor. He then proposed the 3rd floor, as well. Jake grabbed the master seal first. Chris got it next. TJ got it next. Jake succeeded in destroying the tower... TJ WINS!



In Game 2: TJ proposed the 2nd floor. By the time we got to floor 3, Chris had gotten the seal, and Erick wrecked the building -- Chris WINS!



In Game 3: Erick proposed the 2nd floor. He then proposed floor 3. TJ got the great seal... And then Erick, through a poor use of his wheeled chair, demolished the tower! I don't even think it was his turn, but we all blamed it on him. TJ WINS!



TJ won 2. Chris won 1.

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At this point, it was past 8:00 pm, and most of us had been playing since before 1:00 pm... Game day has become a full-time job worth of day!!

It's a new record... over 7 hours of games at a time.

You know... it would be cool to have a game-a-thon as a fund raiser. They have walk-a-thons, swim-a-thons, bowl-a-thons... We should have a game-a-thon!!!

This could be a new trend in altruism and philanthropy... Game-O-Thons!