Friday, September 29, 2006

Welcome Back Bash and Club/Organizational Fair

(For some reason Blogger is not putting pictures in again. I shall post this with just text until I can fix that!)

The "Welcome Back Bash and Club/Organizational Fair" is a big name for a bunch of tables out on the lawn of the college. It is a time for clubs to show what they do, and to recruit new members.

Our table was loaded with games -- mostly games that could be learned in minutes, and could withstand the wind. We did play a bunch of games with old friends and new people, but we did not keep detailed notes on the games played...

But here's a list of games played at the Org Fair...

Jumpin' Java

Dino Dodg-Em

Travel Blokus (basically Blokus for 2)

Point Blank

Trippples

TransAmerica... and we do have photographic evidence that Olivia won!


Once the Bash officially ended, we all moved inside and had a sort of impromptu bonus game day!

Tsuro



Players: Kaylin, Sean, TJ, Crystal, Fenwick

Tsuro is one that we pull out a lot for a quick filler with bunches of players. It has one simple goal -- be the last 'alive' (the last to stay on the board). TJ was the last alive for this game, and he wins!




Sunken City



Players: Rich, Sean, TJ, Fenwick

In Sunken City, each player is an intrepid explorer trying to collect treasures from a sunken, magical city. Buildings containing artifacts can rise from the depths, only to be sunken again by the wrath of Neptune, and then to rise again in a different place!

On every turn, a person plays a card which gives that player a certain amount of building power, a certain amount of moving ability, and the ability to move Neptune (who destroys all in his wake, including any players that may be unfortunate to be in his way).

This game offers probably the most amount of screwage of any game we play. And, when you've been sunk by Neptune, you get the ability to use Neptune to a great extent somewhere later in the game.

It is SUPER frustrating at times, and with 4 players, there is a huge amount of nailbiting as the other players move the destruction closer and closer to you.

I oddly enjoy the frustration. It's actually a tremendous game -- there's almost NO randomness (only a slight bit when it comes to moving Neptune), so you basically know what abilities the other players have at any given time, and have to factor that in to how you play. You also need to factor in the PERSONALITY of your opponents. Some people may try to be inconspicuous and collect points, while others will spend their time destroying everyone else.

The number of artifacts recovered is your score... Here's our scores:
Rich: 0
TJ: 1
Chris: 2
Sean: 7

Obviously, it wasn't even close... Sean demolished us.





Ticket to Ride: Marklin Edition



Players: Rich, Mike2, Sean, TJ(replaced by Mike1), Fenwick

The Ticket to Ride games have been a worldwide phenomenon. I'm surprised they haven't been even MORE popular -- I think it just came out at a time when people don't care as much about board games. But this game is simple and strategic. It's basically about collecting sets of cards. There is a lot of press-your-luck factor as you try to complete more routes than anyone else, and wait for the best passenger routes -- if you wait too long, someone else will grab your points.

The Marklin Edition is the most complex of the bunch, and can take more than an hour and a half to play with the full set of 5 people. That's what happened to us... I actually meant to bring the USA version which goes much faster...

At the end of the game, you have hundreds of train cars decorating the beatifully designed large gameboard. This game has some of the niftiest bits of all.

Also at the end of the game, we check the scores... Here they are:

TJ/Mike1: 53
Rich: 55
Mike2: 78
Fenwick: 103
Sean: 123

Sean wins again!




Trippples



Players: Sean vs. Fenwick

Tripples is a crazy 2 player game. It has a randomly-made board with arrows all over it. Each player has a transparent game piece. The transparency is KEY, since you have to see what arrows lie below you. Actually, YOUR OPPONENT needs to see, since the arrows indicated on the space you sit are the possible moves for your opponent. It's an amazing game mechanic... your choices affect your opponent, but you can see your opponents possibilities and you know that his/her move is going to affect you right back. It feels like you need to turn your brain inside out.

After a very long, and almost stalemated endgame, Fenwick made a slip, allowing Sean to win once again!




Wallomoppi



Players: Sean vs. Fenwick

We decided to kill some more time waiting for folks to stop by... Wallomoppi is a fast-paced stacking game.

The game is played in 2 stages: first you each take turns drawing a disc, and building a triangle-shaped stack. Once the stack is complete, each player takes a turn pulling a disc from lower in the stack and putting it on top. This is pretty standard in terms of stacking games. The twist here: there is a marble run that is used as a timer. One player drops the marble into the marble run, and the other player must grab a piece, put it up on the stack, and catch the marble before it gets to the bottom. That player now drops the marble, and the other player must dash to make a move before the marble falls.

If either the tall stack falls, or the marble hits the bottom, the active player loses.

There is a little bit of strategy in building the stack and for what discs to pull, but mostly it's dexterity that will win the game.

We played three games.

Fenwick won game 1.
Sean won game 2.
Fenwick won the tie-breaking game 3.





Jumpin' Java



Players: Sean vs. Fenwick

Still killing time, we decided to play the very quick Jumpin' Java. You can play a game in just a minute or 2, and it has an amazing jst-one-more factor.

Basically, each player has two cups on saucers. By jumping other cups, you are trying to get them to the other side of the board. It's almost like a one-dimensional chinese checkers.

We played 13 games.

Fenwick won 6 of them.
Sean won 7.

(Embarrasing session note: In the 8th game, Fenwick managed to jump his cups too far, so that he wouldn't be able to get a saucer under it. He managed to beat himself.)




Coda



Players: Sean, Kaylin, Fenwick, Philip

Coda is a great codebreaking game, and one we play quite often. As people began to trickle back in, we pulled it out.

We played 3 games.

Kaylin won game 1.

Chris won the second game. Kaylin was eliminated quickly by Philip. She suggested that she had a very geeky set, and he guessed, correctly her four numbers: "1337".

Kaylin came back to win game #3.




Tsuro (again!)



Players: Philip, TJ, Sean, Kaylin, Chris, Nick, Fenwick

Folks were drifting back in... once we had 7 people, Tsuro immediately came to mind.

We played two games...

Sean won game 1. The field was narrowed quickly as both Philip and TJ were eliminated immediately after their first turn.

Kaylin won game 2.

At this point, it was close to 10:00 pm... we decided to break up the game day.


.... or DID WE?!




The Great Dalmuti



Players: Philip, Fenwick, Kaylin, TJ, Sean

The on-campus game day ended, but we were all hungry and made a change of venue to Taco Bell!

We grabbed some food and found a table that coul almost hold 5 people. We placed a tall chair on the end of the table -- the Great Dalmuti seat.

We only got to play 2 games before they closed, and kicked us out. The manager of Taco Bell came by and hung out to watch us play for a while.

We only got in three rounds:

Philip started on top. Going down in rank: Fenwick, Kaylin, TJ, Sean.

Kaylin won, becoming the new Dalmutti. Going down from there: TJ, Sean, Philip, Fenwick.

TJ won the last hand... going down from there: Fenwick, Kaylin, Sean, Philip.


It was an amazing game day. Especially since it wasn't even REALLY a game day!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

No session report yet...BUT...


A momentous occasion has dawned upon me.

Behold, O shredders of the frets.

That's right. Expert difficulty.

I actually beat it twice, but the first time my fist-pump of victory pulled the guitar...which in turn pulled the cord it was attached to...which then pulled my Ps2 from where it was...long story short, it didn't save.

What is my just reward for such a sweet, sweet victory?

The Battleaxe, a machine of such musical power, that its edges are apparently stained with the blood of bad musicians.

A good thing, too. My guitar controller received a lot of punishment for my frustration during that last bout. The whammy bar is no longer attached (an executive decision on my part...), and the "Star Power" feature that allows you to kick the power in by lifting the neck of the guitar up...only works when it wants to.

With this, I managed to beat the song I couldn't progress more than 5% in a few weeks ago.

Also of note, I felt, was the breakdown of my earnings during the last song ("Bark at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne):

Manager's Fee: $25,999
Promotion: $$2o,ooo
Roadies: $9ooo
Security: $11,999
Lawyers: $15,ooo
Bribes: $3999
Catering: $7999
Your Cut: $5ooo

Now, these were all the expected categories. The oddity I found was in the sheer amount of money generated!

The total, after a long-staking math equation involving several factorials of pi and taking the square root of infinity and applying it in the appropriate places, and finally multiplying the whole thing by 42, was $99,995...and that includes my cut. I find it odd they didn't just add it all up to the $1oo,ooo.

Oh well. I can finally put the game down. :)

Friday, September 22, 2006

Triple Digits



I have just added our 100th game to the list on the left side of the page. ONE HUNDRED, baby!! Awesomeness.

We should have a party.

OK, I know, I know... every game day is a party....

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Technical Difficulties

The session report is being mucked up by some unknown force of Dark Matter. I will have to confer with Chris as to how to prevent this most vile occurrence from repeating itself.

Through bravery and cunning, Gamesquad will prevail over this most nefarious presence!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

The new and improved Strategic Game Club... now with CHONKEYS!

I just updated the template and added some of the new games we've been playing. The official count of games played is now 90. NINETY!! In just about a year. That's learning an average of almost 2 NEW games per week. FOR A WHOLE YEAR.

Crazy. Just crazy.

Games are good, mmm-kay.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

We've got a problem...

Check this: Cathy Willms and Chrissy and Steven came to my 1:00 Planetarium show today. We were talking, and we realized that we had almost TWELVE minutes before I had to start letting people in for my next show. So what do we do? PLAY A GAME. Any gap of of a few minutes, and the games come out.

We played a hand of Kuuduk. Steven won.

So now we have set a new record -- SHORTEST GAME DAY EVER.

I think it counts. I'll have to check with President TJ...

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Of all the Game Clubs, in all the towns, in all the world...


...she had to walk into mine.

As time goes by, the game club is graced with new members- random passerbys who become interested in the goings-on like Val, people drawn in by our amazing (and presently non-existent, oddly enough) advertising like Kaylin, and of course, old friends stopping by for a good time, like the Magnificent Angie.

On September 5th, the only word I can use to describe the number of people is "a buttload". Well...that's not true. I'm sure there's a word for the number. For example, if seventeen people had come, "seventeen" would be the appropriate word to describe such the number. However, all of that is rather pointless semantics and kind of gets in the way of the whole telling the story of what happened on tuesday thing.

Let's just say there were a lot of people, more than I personally have ever seen before, especially on the first day, especially without any advertising! ...yet.

Truthfully, the vast majority of this blog was written by Chris. I'm just doing a bit of editing and adding what was left out, as well as adding a bunch of pictures! A big thanks to Chris for his help with this absolutely GARGANTUAN game day!

Now let's get on to the action!
__________________________________________________________

Easter Island



Players: Sean & Chris

New game!

This is a nifty little 2 player game. It has a few elements of Defelexion, but without actual lasers. You just have to sort of imagine that they're there. You place Easter Island-style big head guys on the board, as well as little light-beam starting points around the perimeter. You set it up so that you can launch a light beam to destroy your opponents' pieces. You get to make 2 moves per turn, which means you have to imagine what your opponent is plotting and plan for AT LEAST 2 moves ahead. Ouch.

Chris won the first game, Sean won the second. OF COURSE, we discovered at the end that we were playing it wrong... the game is supposed to end when someone has been knocked down to one character left on the board. We were playing until total elimination, when in fact you are supposed to play until a person has been brought down to a single fellow left on the board. We found out why, too -- when you each have a single character, you can hit a stalemate.

I'm pretty sure 65% of the games we've played were played wrong the first time...




Pepper



Players: Pat, Molly, Sean, Mike2, Fenwick, Chris K.

Another new game! This is a card game which comes in a rather nondescript tin, and there's not a lot of info on the box. I simply bought it because it was by Out of the Box publishing, makers of Apples to Apples, Wallamoppi, and many other games I enjoy. AND it was cheap!

This actually has some elements of Pig Pile. Each person is dealt five cards. There are five colored suits. Player one picks a card and throws it at another player. That player must then choose a card of the same color or a higher number and throw THAT at any other player, who must do the same thing. So play jumps around the table -- each player gets to choose who will go next. If a player is unable to play a card which is the same color, or a higher number, as the card played, that player must pick up ALL the cards played in front of him/her. That player then gets to play any card to another player, and play continues as above.

The object: Be the first person who is out of cards.

It's fun, simple, and fast paced.

Here's how many wins each person had:

Pat Molly Sean Mike2 Chris
1 0 1 0 2





Things... Humour in a Box



Players: Justin (replaced by Mike1), Josh, Val, Ashlei, Sean, Chris K., Dave, Mike2, Fenwick, Kaylin

Whenever we have fourteen thousand people, Things... is one that is sure to come out. We've played it before, and it's always good for a laugh or 2. We generally like the imaginitive games (like Balderdash), and this one is just pure fun. We played quite a few rounds with a large group...

Some examples of the categories:



And here's how the scoring went...

Justin (replaced by Mike1) Josh Val Ashlei Sean Chris K. Dave Mike2 Fenwick Kaylin
1 (3) 6 4 6 11 9 0 6 1 1







The Great Dalmuti



Players: Fenwick, Sean, Chris K., Josh, Ashlei, Dave, Kaylin, Mike2, Nolan (who came in soon after we began), TJ (who joined even later)

The basic concept and game mechanic goes by many, many other names and is played with a 'standard' card deck. Depending on what high school/college you went to you may know it as President or A***ole. Versions of it have been played for a VERY long time around the world. Richard Garfield, the designer (ever heard of Magic: The Gathering? That's his.) of THIS version nods to the grand history of the game in the liner notes of the instructions. [I wish every game had designer commentary about the history, inspiration, and design of games.]

Anyhoo -- this version has a clever twist to the deck. The 1 is the most powerful card, and the 12 is the least. The number not only tells the value of a card, but also tells HOW MANY of that card is in the deck. SO, there's a heap of cheap cards, but the hot ones are rare.

A turn begins with someone playing a set of cards, which then determines how many cards every other player must play of a stronger denomination. If someone starts with THREE 11's, for example, the next person must follow with a three-of-a-kind that is stronger (a lower number) than 11's. THREE 7's would do it, but THREE 12's would NOT. If you are unable/unwilling to play, you pass. Once everyone passes, the last person to put down cards leads with another set of cards.

The first person to lose all his/her cards becomes the "Great Dalmuti", and sits at a place of honer. The next person 'out' becomes the "Lesser Dalmuti", and chills out next to the Great one. The penultimate person 'out' becomes the "Lesser Peon", and the last sap left with cards is the "Greater Peon", and is mocked by all.

In between rounds, everyone must actually GET UP and arrange themselves around the table in the order that they went out. So this game is sort of like Poker meets Musical Chairs.

After everyone is rearranged, and all the cards are dealt (by the Greater Peon, of course), the Greater Peon must give the Great Dalmuti his/her best 2 cards, and the Great Dalmuti returns 2 cards which are of least use to him/her. The Lesser Peon/Dalmuti exchange ONE card in a similar manner. Then the G.D. leads of for the next hand.

It's an easy game to learn. It's fun and frustrating and quick.

Here's how the royalty was during the 7 rounds we played.
Round 1 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER DALMUTI: Sean
LESSER PEON: Josh
GREATER PEON: Chris K.

Round 2 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER DALMUTI: Sean
LESSER PEON: Chris K.
GREATER PEON: Josh

Round 3 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER DALMUTI: Sean
LESSER PEON: Chris K.
GREATER PEON: TJ (who assumed this role as he jumped into the game)

Round 4 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER DALMUTI: Nolan
LESSER PEON: TJ
GREATER PEON: Chris K.

Round 5 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Mike2
LESSER DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER PEON: Sean
GREATER PEON: Chris K.

Round 6 ended with:
GREAT DALMUTI: Fenwick
LESSER DALMUTI: Angie
LESSER PEON: Chris K.
GREATER PEON: Dave

AND the final standings after Round 7:
GREAT DALMUTI: Angie
LESSER DALMUTI: Nolan
3rd place: Fenwick
4th place: TJ
5th place: Dave
6th place: Ashlei
7th place: Chris K.
LESSER PEON: Mike2
GREATER PEON: Sean

The only reason this picture is here is beause Ashlei did not want it here.

I am shocked to find it here. It's not like I put it here or anything. Anyway, she will soon work as a pastry chef in our kitchen. Such is the consuming effect of the Game Club.




Zeus on the Loose



Players: Angie, Nolan, Ashlei, Cathy W., Mike2, Sean, TJ, Chris K., Steven, Sarah, Dave, Fenwick

This is a silly game, but we pull it out every once in a while. The little Zeus character makes the game.

We totally exceeded the design specifications for this game -- it was not meant to be played with TWELVE people! It has taken me longer to type this than it took us to play and realize there were too many people.

We played one hand. Cathy W. won.




TransAmerica



Players: Sean, Angie, Fenwick, Mike2, Chris K., Steven

I really, really enjoy this game. The rules are super simple, the play is quick. It's really a kind of a race game, with everyone using the same tracks, trying to not be too obvious about their destinations. It's as fun with 2 players as it is with 6. It's a great one if you need a brain break... it's not too heavy of a game.

Angie won soundly with 9 pts. Most of us just fell right off the scoreboard.

Steven watches the starting blips to make sure they don't go anywhere. Angie stares down a green card with pure angst. Sean laughs as the Marseillaise* plays on in the background, commenting that the French should stick to their day jobs- surrendering and white-flag manufacturing.

*You can't hear that because it's a picture...if you don't know it, it's that very stereotypical French song...not the can-can...the other one.

For some reason, Chris F. loves this picture.

I do not know why. Had to be there, maybe?




Pepper (again!)



Players: Molly, Chris K., Pat, Fenwick, Angie

Molly, Chris and Pat each won one.

Fenwick ducked out, and Nolan filled in... and THEN...

Molly won 2. Pat won 1.

TJ supervises the game, after remarking to conveniently-placed piano player Sam "I thought I told you never to play that song again?", and promptly busting a cap.




Gang of Four



Players: Angie, Chris K., Nolan, Sean (came in a little late, and claims to really suck at this game)

This game has some similar aspects to The Great Dalmutti, but with many more options, and a bunch more strategy. It is a near-perfect four player game, in my opinion.

And here's how it went down...


Angie Chris K. Nolan Sean
1 1 3 0

What game did we play next?A game of many-more-than-fifty-two pick-up...





Beat the Buzzard



Players: Mike1, Dave, Cathy, Steven, Nolan

This is one we play often -- always leads to laughing and screaming... especially when 3 people play a '15' and some wins a hot card with a '3'. It happens.



Mike1 Dave Cathy Steven Nolan
33 5 27 14 4






Sunken City



Players: Chris, Steven, Cathy

AND yet still ANOTHER NEW GAME.

This is a interesting strategy game, with much oppotunity for screwage.

Each player represents someone searching the magical sunken unnamed Atlantic-like city. The board is constantly changing as walkways and buildings rise up, and are cast back down into the depths.

On each turn a player plays a card which tells the actions that player may do. You will get a certain number of moving actions, a number of building actions, and the ability to move Neptune around the board (which is a DESTROYING action). You can build walkways, which allow to move around the board. You may optionally build one building per turn in certain areas of the board. There are 10 buildings, each containing a valuable artifact. You must manuever your pawn around the board -- fetching treasures from the buildings. You get the treasure, and then must get your pawn back to home base to fully claim it.

There is treachery afoot, however! Once a turn, a player may roll a die to see how many spaces that player may move Neptune. Neptune moves along the walkways and buildings just like the players, but whenever he LEAVES a tile/building, that building is cast back into the depths. If your pawn is on one of those spaces, it returns to its home base, and ANY ARTIFACTS BEING TOTED ARE LOST! The building goes back into the pool of buildable things, to be rebuilt in a different place later in the game. This lost, sunken city changes all the time -- it gives the game a nice magical, organic feel.

The game has some really cool mechanics, and some of the finest bits I've ever seen. The gameboard is quite large, the walkways are of thick, dense cardboard, and the buildings are very nice detailed blocks. At first glance it looks like a cumbersome game, and ther lengthy quick reference cards can scare away non-seasoned gamers. It's not difficult to pick it up, though.

The timing of the game is interesting -- there are 6 spaces on the edge of the board from which you draw walkways. They all start out over slot 1. They are drawn from that slot and placed on the board. When Neptune destroys them, they are put in slot 2. When slot 1 is exhausted, they are drawn from slot 2 and discarded to slot 3.... etc. When slot FIVE is exhausted, you finish the round of turns, so that everyone has had an equal number of plays. Most artifacts retrieved wins! In case of tie, add their values.

Cathy was not happy with the ease of destruction in the game. She kept being frustrated by spending hard-to-find building points, only to have them demolished almost instantly. She thought she was doing horribly, but I reminded her she only lost by 2 artifacts!

Chris won with 7 treasures collected. Steven had 6, and Cathy had 5.

I liked this game quite a bit. Can't wait to play it with some really vicious people...


___________________________________________________________

Ingenious
Players: Molly, David, Nolan, Patrick

This game is rather...well...ingenious. It's simple enough. The tiles you use have two different colours on them, and they must be laid next to those colour tiles to score points. Winning is slightly different from what you might expect, as you take your score based on each colour group made. For example, if you connect five yellow sections of til

e and four blue, you might get five yellow points, and four blue. However, you win based on your lowest scoring colour. Your lowest-scoring colour must be higher than the rest of the player's, so the strategy is to keep evenly scoring in all the colours.

It's quite an interesting game, and definitely one worth checking out!

Molly, David and Patrick, three new gamers played along with Nolan. Molly and David tied for first with 10 points, while Nolan took second with 8, and Patrick fell in last with 7.

____________________________________________________

Continuuo
Players: Cathy, Sarah, Mike1, TJ

This game was described in a recent post, so I won't bore you with the details. Simple tile-laying for points!

Cathy overwhelmed us all with a 28-point tile in the second round! Two rounds later, she hit another jackpot with 29! A modest 25 later seemed to pale in comparison, but is still a great score! Needless to say, she slaughtered Mike 1, Sarah and TJ with great ease. Mike 1's 173, Sarah's 188, and TJ's 190 fell too short of Cathy's incredible 207 points.

This also marked a sad day for TJ, as this was the first game of Continuuo he played where he scored less than 20 points with a tile.

He wept openly over that, and the fact that there were no more cookies in the vending machine. That, is the work of the devil.

Notice that in this picture, TJ's hand appears to move through the little piece of paper he's keeping score with.

______________________________________________________

So ends another great game day with many many people! We look forward to more game days just like this. A fantastic start to the semester.

Until next time, here's lookin' at you, gamers.

~ TJ

Sunday, September 03, 2006

'Twas brillig and the Game Club did gyre and gimble in the wabe...

August 28th, 2oo6

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 get 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.