Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Good summer game day.

Well, it has been raining for more than a week around here. Good weather to sit inside and play games!

Tuesday, June 27th was a game day that had us playing new games and meeting new people. We played for our usual 7 hours...

Some of the regulars were not in attendance, which was unfortunate. But we will chronicle what we've done, so they can see what they missed...




Deflexion


Players: Mike and Chris



I was setting up for game day, and Mike got there before anyone else. So, Chris and Mike dove into the 2 player games while waiting for people to show up. Deflexion is a good one with which to start!

I don't know why I like this game. I am such an anti-fan of games like chess, checkers, or backgammon. Abstract strategy games are rarely ones I likely, and I am always bad at them. But, if you throw in a laser, somehow that makes it all OK.

Deflexion is interesting in many ways -- first of all, your pieces are somewhat scattered all over the board; both players' bits are intermingled around the board. Also, the laser is unconcerned with whomever's mirror it hits -- you can use your opponent's pieces against him (or her)! You have to be careful not to eliminate yourself from the board. The game shares a few elements of other games, but it has a real personality all its own. The fact that the game is designed with pieces that look ancient and modern at the same time is brilliant! Ancient Egyptian forms together with metallic-colored plastic, mirrors and lasers -- it looks wild.

Mike and I played 2 games. Mike won the first game nicely. In the rematch, Chris managed to pull off the win.

We were comfortable with one win each, so after those 2 games, we moved on.







Quarto!


Players: Mike and Chris

This is a fun, simple, two player game. It's really a tic-tac-toe variant... you are trying to get 4 pieces in a row that share a common attribute. The twist: the other player chooses what piece you play. It's a tiny little change to most games, and it's enough to make the game have a personality all its own.

We played a sort of practice game so that I could show Mike how to play.

Then we played 3 actual games. Chris won twice, Mike won once.




Quivive


Players: Mike and Chris

We knew people would be coming soon, but we decided to get in one more game before the crowds arrived. I picked up the game Quivive (not exactly sure how to pronounce that -- I make it rhyme with 'survive') over the weekend, and hadn't gotten a chance to play it yet.

It turns out to be another simple/clever game. The game board is made up of circles. Each player has a token to control (you can play with up to 5 players -- with just 2 players, each person controls 2 tokens). A move consists of moving one of your tokens, and removing a circle from the board. If you are unable to move at the beginning of your turn, you are eliminated from the game. You want to be the last one left. Very simple.

We played one game. Mike won. In fact, Mike shut Chris out -- removing BOTH of Chris' pieces without having any of his own removed!




Gemblo


Players: Mike, Christine, Laura, Chris

By the time we had finished Quivive, an old Game Club friend, Christine, had come by. And she brought her friend Laura. Now we have 4 people!

I remembered Christine being a fan of Blokus, and since she had been there, I had picked up a copy of Gemblo, which shares a lot of rules with Blokus -- the main difference: Blokus is based on squares, Gemblo is based on hexagons. The hexagons provide a MUCH wider possibility of moves. The hexes are supposed to represent different colored gems, and it's obvious.... It is one of the most beautiful abstract strategy games I own.

Laura was out first, but she did really well for her very first game at Game Club ever... Christine and Mike battled it out for second. Chris had paved the way to make sure he had room for most of his stuff...

Final Scores:
LauraChritineMikeChris
-21-15-13-8


Chris wins!!




Quiddler


Players: Sean, Christine, Laura, Chris

Mike had to go, but Sean was arriving at this point, so we jumped into a game of Quiddler. We've played Quiddler so much, there's likely no need to explain how it's played here. Let's go right to the scores:

LauraChristineChrisSean
184201219249


Sean wins with a comfortable lead!!




Quo Vadis


Players: Sean, Christine, Laura, Tom, Chris

Right near the end of Quiddler, Tom came by. Tom is an avid game player who heard about our game club, and decided to come check it out. We have a lot of overlap in the games we know, but there is certainly a lot we can teach each other.

One of the easiest and craziest games we play is "Quo Vadis?". I know it is one of Sean's faves, and certainly one of mine, as well. We were the only two to know how to play, but we quickly brought Christine, Laura, and Tom up to speed. The main rule: be a politician. You need help to get ahead. Make promises to others, and then decide whether or not you'll actually keep them. It's wonderfully back-stabby.

You collect 'laurels' as you go throught the game. The person with the most laurels wins. If there is a tie, the first person to make it to the end of the gameboard takes the win.

Here's the laurel count at the end of the game:

TomChristineLauraChrisSean
1416162121


So here we stand with a tie between Sean and Chris. However, Chris was the first one to make it to the last room -- Chris wins with the tie breaker rule!!




Oasis


Players: Brian, Sean, AJ, Tom, Chris

Christine and Laura had to run, but they were replaced by Brian and AJ.

Another newish purchase I had made was a game called "Oasis" by Alan Moon (the Ticket to Ride guy). It has been out for a couple years, and has lots of little wooden camels (not as many as Through the Desert, but still a bunch). You also have little followers with which you can claim an area (in a tiny little way, that's like Carcassonne). When the game ends, each area on the board has a commodity or product that is associated with it. You multiply the amount of those products you have with the size of its associated area to get a score.

The clever part of the game is that it begins with each player offering cards with areas and products to all the other players. You don't get to keep your own cards! But, if you are chosen first, you get to pick first the next round. SO, in order to get the best place in the next round, you often have to give up great things THIS round. It's an amazing game mechanic that I am surprised has been picked up in other games.

It was as fun as I'd hoped.

Here's how the scores came up:

AJSeanTomChrisBrian
428196110148


Brian wins with a giant margin! Tom noted that on the scoring track, Brian actually LAPPED AJ!





Deflexion


Players: Don and Chris

Don and I (Chris) have had an ongoing Deflexion rivalry for a while. I am in a big slump, though, losing the last 5 games in a row.

Today did not grant me any relief at all. Don won 3 more games in a row. Sheesh.




Ys


Players: Tom, Sean, Brian, AJ (later replaced by Chris)

As Don and I were playing Deflexion, Tom pulled out Ys, one of the games he had brought to show us.

It's a bit hard to describe -- there's a lot going on on the board. It is sort of a blind bidding game, but it has market-demand elements, like in Queen's Necklace. You bid on gems, but can also bid to change the value of gems. The gems most in demand are worth the most points... but their value changes throughout the game.

Another interesting bit is that it's a SEMI-blind bidding game. You make two bids per turn, one is blind, the other is visible. So people have a little inkling of what you are doing.

There are a lot of intricate rules, as well as cards that allow you to make some interesting changes to the game play. You really have to go through the game once to get a flow of the action. Once you do, you'll see that the game is remarkably clever, without being too cumbersome.

AJ started playing, but had to split. So, about 1/2 way through the game, Chris pinch hit for him.

After the final gems were scored, this is how the score track stood:

BrianAJ/ChrisTomSean
64737984


No one was running away with the win, and we really didn't know who was going to come out ahead until the very end.

This may be a good way to review the game: the day after we played it, I bought it. It's really that good.




And then we broke up for the day!

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Summer means fewer posts

Hey there! OK, we haven't been keeping up with our posting. We actually have just been meeting weekly with less recording of data and picture taking. But we are still playing!

Actually, on June 20th we had a little twist. Instead of sitting and playing, we decided to go a little more kinetic. I (Chris) dragged in my Dance Dance Revolution mats. And we did a little of that. But I also brought in my Guitar Hero stuff! That was were the fun was. We had some new people come by, so it turned into a recruitment gimmick, to some extent!

Here's just a couple pics from guitar playing...

This is Sean and Ben rocking out to Ozzy Osbourne.



As is this.



Here's Rich and Jake.


And this is too...



Guitar Hero: Best Game EVER.

Cheers!