Thursday, October 26, 2006

Game Day of 10-24-2006

Good game day this week! It started out a little wacky (quote by Fenwick: "We're not here to have fun, we're here to PLAY GAMES."), but it settled down quickly, and we got down to business.

As last week, this is not a comprehensive list, just the games I played and recorded...

Game: Labyrinth - the Card Game

Players: Kaylin, Sean, Fenwick

Play cards to make a magical maze that connects icons that match. It's that simple. I think the game is made for young children, but there's dangerous choices, and it has a unique strategy that is quite compelling.

Our limited experience in this game usually shows Kaylin to start out strong and just continue to demolish us throughout the game. This time she did NOT start out strong! But then went on to demolish us thtoughout the game.

Scores...
Kaylin: 15
Fenwick: 12
Sean: 10

Kaylin wins! As we expected...







Game: Dicey

Players: Sean, Fenwick, Kaylin, Mike2

This is a somewhat silly little stacking game. It has you making a tower of dice and cards. It
plays VERY quickly -- a round rarely lasts more than 2 minutes. SO, if you don't like the game, don't worry -- it'll be over soon. I do like the game. It's not very deep, it's all dexterity, but any time you get to build something and watch it then fall down -- well, that's a good thing.

The game is scored when the tower of cards and dice falls. Any dice NOT touching a card gives the knocker-overer points for the value showing. SO, the scoring is quite arbitrary. Points are bad -- fewest points wins.

Scores...
Kaylin: 0 (never knocked down the tower!)
Mike2: 11
Sean: 24
Fenwick: 24

Kaylin wins!







Game: Settlers of Catan

Players: Rob, Sean, TJ, Fenwick

I love this game. I was dying to play it, and as I was involved in a game of Dicey, people began to unpack it. Through a series of veiled threats, I managed to convince them to wait until I got done before beginning the game.

A funky shaped island was created (part of the beauty of settlers is the ability to change the game board every time!), and the settlement of the island of Catan began!

Sean managed to start the game with Settlements in semi-bad places (referring to his placements as "The Ethiopia of Catan"), Rob started the game with Settlements in REALLY bad places, and TJ started the game with a Settlement in a completely ILLEGAL location (immediately adjact to Femwick. We noticed it about 2 turns in, and moved the settlement one space away. We made a small sacrifice to the Gods of the Rules of Settlers, and continued to play as if nothing had happened...).

So the game began ugly.

And continued that way for pretty much the whole time.

Rob immediately became recognized as the Whipping Boy of Catan. The Robber managed to step on both of his starting Settlements quite often. And as soon as the Robber was there, the next roll was the number the Robber was on. He was pretty much relegated to a little peninsula, and in a fit of frustration declared "This could very well be the last game of Settlers of Catan I ever play." I hope he was kidding. He sure sounded serious. And the way his game was going, I wouldn't be surprised if he meant it.

Fenwick and TJ battled for the Longest Road bonus for a while, but TJ managed to conenct both of his starting Settlements to form a continuous path across basically the entire island. One of Fenwick's starting Settlements got isolated, and that one length of road sat unconnected on the opposite side of Catan. TJ had one long road connecting all o his Settlements. So TJ had clinched the Long Road Bonus.

AND, TJ had 5 Soldiers played before anyone else had played even 3. TJ's side of the table was getting crowded with cards... the 2 bonus tiles, and soldier cards abounding.

Sean had one corner of the board pretty well saturated, and, by building a couple Cities, was getting some large hauls of goods. Eventually, a roll of "9" provided him 4 woods, all from the same hex.

Rob started to spread out from his peninsular Alcatraz, but everyone else had spread out a bit towards him, making it hard for him to go much farther.

Let's check in near the end of the game...

Even though TJ had BOTH of the 2-Victory-Point bonuses, he only had 3 Settlements -- 7 points.

Fenwick had quite a few ports, and a few cities in convenient places (a roll of "6" gave him 2 brick AND 2 wood -- which is ostensibly 2 Roads. Also, he had a Wood trading port, so he could trade the 2 wood for anything!). With 9 points, productive locations, and ports making it possibly for him to trade things cheaply, it looked as if he was doing quite well...

And he was no terribly concerned with Sean's 8 points. Until Sean proudly built up one of his Settlements to a City and revealed he had the Library Development card -- giving him the last point he needed to win!

This game just has a ton of personality. It has a little more luck than I usually enjoy in a game. But you feel like you have a chance at coming back (unless you are Rob in this game). You have to be lucky, but you also have to be shrewd -- building when you can, dealing intelligently, and politically placing the robber to be beneficially to you, but not completely alienating everyone else. The game play is basic, but with a depth and attitude unseen in many games.

And with all the add-ons, it's a game that is impossible to get tired of.

I want to play more Catan!







Game: Poison

Players: Rob, Nolan, TJ, Fenwick

This is a simple little groovy game. It has some cool character. The cauldrons and magic potions should appeal to the Harry Potter crowd.
Should this game get some more publicity, I know it will sell well. It is a great game to teach addition to the younger players, as well!


You see, there are 4 different colored potions in the game. Three (Red, Purple, Blue) are standard potions, but the fourth (Green) is the poison potion! No potion is good to have, but the Green is doubly bad.

Each cauldron represents a color (aside from Green), and each person, in turn, pours some potion (plays a card) into one of the cauldrons. Green can go into any potion. Green only comes in value of 4, but the other cards come in values of 1, 2, 4, 5, or 7. When a cauldrons bubbles over (its total value exceeds 13), the person who put in the last card takes all the cards that were in the cauldron before playing that card. The card played stays, and 'seeds' the pot. The game is played until all cards are exhausted.

Each non-green card is worth one point, each Green card is worth 2. The exception: Any person who exclusively has the most cards of any non-green set gets NO points. Points are BAD -- you want the least number points.

SO, once you start getting some cards of a certainly color, you often want to try to get more, so that you have the MOST. The problem: if you don't manage to obtain the most, or even TIE for the most, you'll get bunches of points!! Let me remind you, in this game, points are bad.

Green cards are worth 2 points no matter how many you have.

The game is rather clever, which is to be expected since it is a Reiner Knizia (one of the most prolific and among the best!)... it's easy to learn, and has a great amount of frustrating decisions. In my opinion: a good game has to hurt a little bit.

Here's how the 4 hands we played went down...


Rob Nolan TJ Fenwick
14 4 6 3
16 0 8 10
8 10 6 6
9 15 2 8
TOTALS...
47 29 22 27



TJ wins!!







Game: Citadels

Players: Rich, Dave, Josh, TJ, Mike2, Mike1, Fenwick

Suppose I was Gilligan, stuck on an desert island... The Skipper and Professor was there. MaryAnn and Ginger are chillin' there, too. Mr. and Mrs. Howell III are in attendance. And there is little hope of rescue.

If we had Citadels, I wouldn't care if anyone ever came... I could eat pineapples, listen to scratchy coconut radios, and sleep in a hammock for the rest of my life -- if I could just play this game once, twice, or even thrice a day. It's that good. Seriously. Actually, you could thow out the radio and the hammock -- if Citadels is still around, I'm still content.

You can play this game with anywhere from 2 to 7 players. Actually, with 2 players it's just OK. With 3 it's pretty cool. With 4 it's good. With 5 it's great. With 6 players it is divine. With 7 it transcends the mortal and immortal and becomes its own immersive reality. It is by no stretch of the imagination a role playing game -- yet in every turn, you chose to play a role.

Each turn comes in two parts -- Part 1: decide on a character to play in part 2. Part 2: collect cards or coins, build a building, and use the abilities of your chosen character. IT IS THAT SIMPLE. [I need to remember this paragraph the next time I explain this game to new players.]

Part 1 is painful. It is gloriously frustrating. It is agonizingly remarkable -- because every card has a benefit, but also a weakness. The most useful cards are often targets of the most powerful cards. EXAMPLES: The Architect gets extra cards and can build extra buildings, but the Assassin can kill him (or anyone!). The Merchant gets extra money, but the Thief can steal from him (as well as anyone else!).

Many people suggest that the choosing in Part I as having a lot of down time for the other players. This is technically true, and can be frustrating when people spend a little TOO much time making a decision. For me, though, watching the agony of the other players as they choose is part of the charm of the game. A BIG part.

We usually play the 'standard' game, as we did here. But there are expansion cards that can change the dynamics of the game. It says a lot for the original Citadels that we don't feel we've conquered, gotten used to, or found boring the original 8 characters of the game. TEN MORE characters lurk in the box, waiting for us to draw them out. For now, we'll stick the 'basic' game. But we always spend a little time talking about how cool the expansion characters seem to be...


Rich sort of hung by himself -- which was a different gaming personality for him! He is usually all about the screwage. But, in this game, he sort of tried to keep from annoying people, and just collected money and built moderate buildings.

Dave spent much of the time getting spanked -- he was killed or a vicitim of theft for the first FOUR turns in row.

Josh semed to try to bridge the gap between playing a solid productive game, as well as stepping on others to get there. He did some nice building, while also stealing and killing as he felt the need or desire.

At one point, due to someone stopping by to let him know, TJ realized that he was missing a Bio mid-term (er, um, I mean, he got hung up at work), and had to go. We finished without him. I was sad to see him go, but, unlike other games (like Settlers), someone can bow out without having a significant impact on the game.

Mike2 became the "hoarder" -- just loading himself up with money. He wasn't building anything because had some huge valued cards -- many of which were 'Magician-ed' right out of his hand!!

Mike1 was the King for a bit, but for most of the game he was a 'tweener'. Usually on one end or the other -- either right in front of, or right behind, the King. In either position, you have an interesting bit of information that others don't have. Those really aren't bad places to be, and he generally used his power wisely.

Fenwick spent the first half of the game as the King. He spent 3 turns of the second half of the game getting killed by Mike2. The rest of the time he was wishing he didn't have such cruddy buildings in his hand...


Rich triggered endgame by building 8 buildings first....


Mike2 had 11 points. He only built 3 buildings. He spent more time hoarding gold (at one point we thought we might run out!), than building. So, his low score was mainly by his own choice.

Dave had 13 points. After being the spankee for most of the game, his lack of buildings was more due to others beating up on him than by his own choice.

Fenwick had 18 points. He had 6 buildings, but they were all pretty piddly!

Mike1 had 25 points -- even though he did WELL, he did not excel in building.

Josh had 31 points... and VERY respectable showing! He had 7 buildings and was pushing remarkably close to 8.

Rich had 37 points. He had great buildings, and earn both the 'first to 8 building' bonus AND the '5 different kinds of buildings' bonus.

Rich respectfully and desrevedly earns the win!!







Game: TransGalactica

Players: Dave, Mike2, Mike1, Fenwick

Go on over to BoardGameGeek.com. It's a fairly comprehensive list of published games. At the top of the page there is a Search section. Search for "TransGalactica", which is the game this part of the Blog entry is about. Go do it. Do it. Seriously. Do it. I'll wait.


Did you do it? NO?! C'mon!! Seriously. Go try it.

OK. You did it?

Cool.

Bet you didn't find anything! Know why?? ...


Because this game was JUST INVENTED.


Game Club is a big fan of TransAmerica and TransEurope. Simple, quick, clever, big boards, good bits.... Last Thursday night, Fenwick, Mike1, and Mike2 were playing TranEuropa.

Mike1 suggested at one point: "Wouldn't it be cool if there was one of these 'Trans...' games in space?"

Fenwick's eyes lit up. He wet himself, just a little bit. And agreed that it would be a cool-ass game.

He then promised to create this game AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Two and a half hours after he got home, the board was created and taped to the back of the TransEuropa board. Two days later the new star-shaped players' pieces were bought and painted (with glow-in-the-dark paint!). Three days later, the cards were designed, printed, cut, and pasted to card stock. Four days later we were playing this game!!

TransGlactica is born.

The basic concept is the same as other 'Trans...' games -- there are 5 different regions, and each player gets 5 cards (one from each region). They then take turns placing 2 'rails' per turn. Some spots are harder to get through, making one section being worth 2 rails. The first person to connect the 5 cards in hand wins, and everyone else LOSES points equal to the number of rails needed to finish the route.

Fenwick has added a slight twist to the TransGalactica world -- WORMHOLES. The starting player, after all starting positions are placed, also places 2 'wormholes'. This is a sort of warp -- a rail going INTO a wormhole can pop out of the other wormhole. Since this gives the wormhole an immense amount of power, there is a balance mechanism -- at least HALF of the players must connect to a wormhole (rounded up, with a minimum of 2), before this connection is active.

The wormholes are actually largely unnecessary (eventually the whole board is connected), but cool as hell, and make the game feel more spacey. In game design, I think, 'character' is nearly AS IMPORTANT as the gameplay.

After 4 rounds, Fenwick had won the game.







Game: 8 1/2

Players: Dave, Mike2, TJ, Mike1, Fenwick

Let's look at some card game history.......

Palace became Pig Pile.

A$$h*!e became the Great Dalmuti.


They ALL became 8 1/2.


In Palace/Pig Pile style, each player is given 3 cards face down, and 3 cards face up. These cards must be disposed of to win the game.

The rest of the deck is distributed to the players.


Players play one or more cards that are the same to the discard pile. Each player must play card(s) that are equal or greater the card previously played. If unable, a player must take the entire discard pile. If that player has cards in hand, those cards get set aside. If that player is playing cards from the table, that player must take those cards to make a new hand of cards.

This mechanic provides a great balance to the game. Players who rush through their hand, usually need to replenish with a bunch of cards. An apparently 'good' hand, may turn out to backfire.

The player who gets rid off all cards in hand and on table wins!

At that moment, all other players check to see what cards they had to set aside during the game. The player who had to collect the most becomes the loser.

The next hand is dealt, and the player who won gets to exchange a face-up card with a face-up card of the loser (a la a$$h*!e/Dalmuti).

Play till you can't stand it no more....

First game: Mike1 wins! Fenwick loses.
Second game: Mike2 wins! Mike1 loses.
Third game: TJ wins! Dave loses.


And it was now 10:00 pm. Time to split for the day.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

You might be a Game Geek...

(I stole the funny part of this off Tanga.com. It's too good/appropriate to not post.)

Tanga.com is a web site that sells one (1) product per day. That's it. It's different all the time. Could be a tool, could be a game, could be ANYTHING. But you have one (1) day in order to buy it. You miss it, too bad. They are pretty laid back folks, and usually there's fun product descriptions. ALSO, they have a little daily diversion -- a little puzzle per day.

ANYWAY, A few days back they were selling copies of the game Alhambra. It's a glorious game that I wished we played more. As part of their sales pitch, they included the following... slightly reworded and obfuscated. (It helps if you read it in a Foxworthy-esque drawl...)

You ever wonder if you're a Game Geek? You just might be... here are some warning signs...

If you stay up all night long to find out what the current year's Spiel de Jahres is, you might be a game geek.

If you actually KNOW what Spiel de Jahres is, you might be a game geek.

If you take copious notes of every game you've played, who won and what the score was – for the past 10 years, you might be a game geek.

If you start chuckling whenever you hear the phrase "Got wood for sheep?", you might be a game geek.

If Alhambra (or Carcassonne) is something you play, and not an incredible tourist attraction, you might be a game geek.

If you buy multiple copies of a game so that you can pass it on to posterity, you might be a game geek.

If Ra is your God and Essen is your Mecca, you might be a game geek!



I think we could come up with a few of our own...

If you were asked to make a list of celebrities and 'Reiner Knizia', 'Alan Moon', 'Bruno Faidutti', 'Klaus Teuber', or 'Klaus-Jurgen Wrede' are included, you might be a Game Geek.

If you don't like the city of Medford, Oregon, you might be a Game Geek.

If you have earned any amount of Board Game Geek Gold, you are certainly a Game Geek.


I'm sure other game clubbers can come up with better ones...


And lastly: Erik/Molly/Patrick -- have fun at Ubercon!! You suck. OK, not really... We're all just jealous, and expect a full report on Tuesday.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Games. We play games. That's what we do.

We had a regular kind of game day yesterday. Lots of people, lots of games. I (Fenwick) took some pictures and played some games... the games listed below we the ones in which I participated. BUT, even more games were being played on the other table. This is by no means a complete list of what went on, just my own record of what I played.


Game: Ingenious

Players: Mike2, Paul, Justin, Fenwick




This is a relatively new classic from Reiner Knizia. It came out in 2004, and has been one of my favorites since I picked it up. I don't play it enough. The gameplay is simple -- it can be taught to the most non-gamer of players! The thick plastic pieces are great to play with, and the best moves are super-satisfying.

It was Paul's first game of Ingenious, so, of course, he won. It seems most people win their first game... weird.









Game: Tsuro

Players: Mike2, Joe, Dave, Kaylin, Fenwick, TJ (just for game 2)




This is one we yank out often when we need a bunch of players (up to 8, and really great with any number down to 2), and includes players who are not big gamers. You can watch the game for 23 seconds, and pretty much figure out exactly how to play. It's also a beautiful game, with thick cardboard tiles, and engraved-rock-looking pawns.

We played two games. Incidentally, and apropos of nothing, Kaylin went down first in both games.

Mike2 won the first game.

Joe won the second.









Game: Heave Ho

Players: Joe, Fenwick


This is a two-player game that simulates two families of Scotsmen (and Scotswomen -- who are the strongest of the clans!!) in a tug-of-war. It's a fairly straightforward game... you play cards of varying strengths in order to make your side the stronger of the two. Before the tug-of-war, there is a speed round where each player chooses cards to keep and chooses other cards to give away. It's a simple fun game.

We actually didn't get to finish, as Joe's ride showed up mid-game. Still counts as one we've played, though!










Game: Clippers

Players: Rob, Rich, Fenwick



I love this game!! I don't do well, but it is really fun to play, and there is NO RANDOMNESS AT ALL. It is a true Euro -- strategy rules the game. It's pretty wild how each person goes at it with different tactics. Every choice is agoizing -- everything has some give-and-take.

You build shipping routes to your islands, at the same time as others are trying to divert to theirs. It provides for wonderful competition. There are SO MANY BITS, which is always satisfying -- the over-a-hundred route segments cover the oversized game board by the end. Beautiful game in appearance, as well as in playability. The gameplay is simple on the surface, but has some HUGE depth.

Final scores: Rich had 160, Fenwick had 162, and Rob demolished the two of us with 224.









Game: Settlers of Catan

Players: Rob, Rich, Steven, and Fenwick




Eright, I know I like this game. I own so many different add-ons and varieties, I'd better. I probably own $300 worth of Catan things. But I don't play it very often for some reason. When I play it, I am in love with the game. But, in between times, I forget how good it is.

I was again reminded. We were just playing the original 4-player Settlers of Catan game.

This game is sort of the perfect blend of American-style (roll the dice, move a piece), and Euro (manage resources, strategize agonizingly). The bits are beautiful, the gaming is fully satisying.

UNFORTUNATELY we didn't get to finish as both Steven and Rob had to leave early. Ouch. I need to play again soon. Next week, I'm dragging it out first, and I'm ready to play it all day.








Game: Hamsterrolle

Players: Kaylin, Rich, Mike2, Fenwick



This game was a generous and thoughtful gift to me from the Game Club. I love dexterity/stacking games, in general, and this one is one of the coolest. Because this is the ONLY ONE OF THEM that walks away from you as you play it! It has a wondeful "Whoooo-uh-oh!" factor! Once you place a piece, the whole contraption gets crazy. It has much predictability, and a whole lot of UNpredictability. Mainly it's just fun.

Check out this picture I snapped as Mike2 placed a piece -- yep, that yellow piece on the lower left is in MID AIR!


Kaylin won the first game we played as individuals.

Then we played in teams.... Mike2/Fenwick won the second.








Game: Pivot

Players: Kaylin, Rich, Dave, Angie, Mike2, Fenwick



Simple, simple, simple. That doesn't make it a bad game! When the cards are going "Up", you play a card to the discard pile which is a higher value... when going "Down", you player lower-valued cards. That's pretty much it. A bunch can play, and you can jump in for one hand or twenty. We only played 4.

Rich won the first game. Kaylin won numbers 2 and 3. Rich won the 4th.








Game: Great Dalmuti

Players: Mike1, Rich, Dave, Angie, Mike2, Fenwick

I didn't record who won what, but we played a bunch of hands of the game.








Game: Carcassonne w/ the River Expansion and Inns & Cathedrals PLUS The Tower

Players: Dave, Fenwick, Mike1, Mike2, Rich, Sean



CRAZY game. I love Carcassonne, and with these expansions, it gets super-crazy. There was much kidnapping and messing people up.

But near the end of the game, Fenwick and Mike1 were working on a single castle that looked like, when finished, it was going to earn over EIGHTY points. Everyone was really working towards finishing that castle, just so they could say they were a part of the glorious moment. Alas, it was not to be. And, since it had a Cathedral in it, they couldn't even get partial points.

Final scores...
Mike1: 28
Rich: 29
Dave: 46
Fenwick: 49
Mike2: 62
Sean: 65



Sean nearly doubled his score with his farmers at the end. He was trailing, and trailing, and mostly lagging behind, as well as trailing, throughout the ENTIRE game. But his lurking in the shadows of the farmfields paid off for him.

Gonna be a Guitar Hero!

Last week, instead of a 'regular' game club meeting, we had a Guitar Hero tournament. It went quite well! Not much to tell, really. Everyone had fun, and we had some real pros compete. A fellow named Matt (who we dubbed "Matt in the Hat" because of the obvious cranial accessory he was wearing) took the crown of True Guitar Hero.

Even though we crowned a winner, I must say -- Everyone Rocked! It was quite a bit of fun... The actual tournament took less than an hour, but we rocked out for hours and hours afterwards...

Here's a bunch of pictures highlighting the festivities!