This was the last meeting during summer, and what a meeting it was! A total of six people were present, making for some intense games of Trans-America and Kuuduk!
Not sure what I'm talking about? Read on and you will see!
__________________________________________________
Primordial Soup
A game all about eating and pooping. No, seriously - that's all you do. Well, there's a little more to it. You assume control over a group of amoebae, hoping to guide them through their little protozoan lives without watching them ie horrific deaths at the hands of starvation or the brutal...blob-fists of other amoebae. The catch? You don't g
et to decide where you move. The wind just sort of carries you around. A card flipped over in the centre of the board dictates the motion of the wind. Die rolls can change your direction...but you have to pay for that.Pay? Amoebae have money? Not quite. They have "biology points", which take the place of money. You pay these BP in order to purchase "upgrades" (evolutions) for your amoebae, or to dictate their direction of drift! Every square you go, your amoeba must feed and excrete, but you can never eat your own excrement...and why would you want to?
Only Steven, Chris and Sean were present at the time that this game began, and so were the only ones who played. Traditionally, the game goes on longer, but with the arrival of TJ and the return of Cathy Wilms, the game ended at a minimum of 25 points. Sean was declared triumphant, as is reflected in the scores:
Sean | Chris | Steven |
26 | 23 | 18 |
Space Beans!
If you've ever heard of Bohnanza, this game is very similar. It's all about planting beans---but in SPACE. There are also many other differences, one of which gives it a very...communist feeling. You'll see what I mean later.
The point of this game? The most points. Points are tallied based not on the value of the beans...but both on their value and on how many are in a stack. For example,
in the image to the right, the yellow bean stack is worth five points, even though there are higher valued cards in the stack. Why? There are five cards in the stack. Until there are seven, those two sevens are effectively worthless.You can only have two bean fields at one time (just like Bohnanza), except you can't get anymore. One remains face-up, on remains face-down. You must cash in your face-up field before you can do so with the face-down field.
My favourite rule of the game is what you do at the end of your turn: You pass your entire hand to the next player. There is one shared communis-...community hand that everyone plays from. If you don't take the good cards....you leave them to the next player to steal from you. I really like this concept, since it forces you to make tough decisions without the luxury of waiting until your next turn---you might not have a next turn.
First to 30 takes a three point bonus, as well as bonuses based on anything else he can cash in. Chris F. easily dominated this game, showing that his bean-farming prowess doesn't even require things like gravity, or oxygen! His 37 points crushed TJ's 24, Sean and Steven's 21, and Chris K's 16.
Trans-America
There were six people present at last: Chris K., TJ, Sean, Steven, Chris F. and Cathy. Never before had a full six-player game of Trans-America (one of Chris F's newest purchases) been played at the Game Club. It was time.
The idea behind Trans-America is...well it's pretty clearly stated in the title of the game. You assume the role of a railroad constructor, and it is your job to cross the country by way of rail. You choose a starting location, and based on five differently coloured cards you try to connect five different cities in the Union. It's like a very simple (yet very speedy) version of another train game we play called Ticket to Ride.
Every turn, you lay down two tracks that get you closer to your goals. Once your tracks are connected to another players', you may start laying track off of their rails as well. It's impossible to win without another person's help, but using them to help you will also help them...
Each player begins with 13 points, losing points each round based on cities they did not reach by the time one player had finished. Once a player has lost all of their points, the game ends, and whoever retains the most points out of them all takes the win.
The manual states very clearly, however, that if there is a tie, the players "share in the joy of victory." This is a direct quote.
The map, and the scores:
Chris F. | Steven | Cathy | Sean | TJ | Chis K. |
9 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
Kuuduk was a fun game that took very little time to learn. The objective? Spell Kuuduk. How? Pick up a card. Put down a card. That's it. There were very few different kinds of cards- k's, u's, d's, Swipe Right, Swipe Left, Swipe Any, and Reverse/Draw Again. When you pick up a card, you either play it (or another card in your hand), or put it into the discard pile. You hand will never go above 3 cards in this way. The swipe cards allow you to steal any letter from your adjacent (or in the one case, any) opponents. The reverse card allows you to switch the direction of play, and basically gives you an extra turn, as it allows you to draw again.
After much swapping and swiping and swooping, Chris won his third game of the day with 15 points. Steven left the game, although he had been in no position to take victory in this game. A three-way tie at 14 between Chris K., Sean and TJ left poor Cathy in last with 11.
The smug face of the victor, proudly holding his Space Beans box for proof of further humiliation of us all.
How very evil indeed!
Shortly after this game, it was told to us that the Student Centre would be closing. Why? The dreaded Jabberwock, with eyes of flame was said to be approaching. The brave Strategic Gaming Club laughed in the face of the JubJub Bird, and giggled with glee at the Frumious Bandersnatch. No Jabberwock was going to get in the way of our fun!
Sean calmly explains strategy for fighting the Jabberwock with slings and arrows, while mere mortals flee out the door. TJ looks on in disgust, knowing that the only way to defeat the Jabberwock is with a vorpal sword.
Oodles of Doodles
In lieu of arguing over Jabberwock combat, we decided to play a game. That game was Oodles of Doodles. It's like Pictionary, but instead of one drawing, you're drawing eight. Basically, your team is told a category, and you draw the eight things on the card. If you team guesses one, they get a point. First to 30 (if memory serves) is the winner.
Team 1 was Cathy, Sean and Steve. Team 2 was the Two Chris' and TJ. The second team, basking in the glory of Chris F.'s winning streak, took the win with 35 points. Team 1 struggled behind with 26.
The game day ended...but the danger of the Jabberwock remained at hand. The ravenous beast crashed through the SCC and snarled at our gaming heroes. TJ quickly leapt into action, revealing nothing other than a vorpal blade! Snicker-snack, it went, and dead went the Jabberwock. It was quite the frabjous day, with everyone chortling "calloo, callay!"
Sean and Steve gazed on in amazement.
The Jabberwock slain and order restored to Randolph, the gamers went home for another week.
...all mimsy were the borogroves, and the momerath's outgrabe.
~ TJ
PS: Actually...that Jabberwock stuff? Never actually happened. : It was all a fabrication. Sorry.
No comments:
Post a Comment