The players:
Ashlei (pirate)
Christine (pirate)
Don Phelps (pirate)
Fenwick (pirate)
Mike1 (pirate)
Sam (ninja)
Sandy (ninja)
Sean (pirate)
AAAAAAND.... here's the games!
2:15 pm
Quiddler
Players: Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
Wow. We started the day with a game of Quiddler. Imagine that!
We learned today that "hove" is a word. It's the past tense of "heave" according the the Oxford English Dictionary.
Sean had the highest single scoring play with "TRUCK" "QUOIN" and "EX" for 70 points!
He also won the game: Sean had 320, Fenwick had 296.
2:40 pm
Gold Digger
Players: Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
Sam arrived... and we dragged out Knizia's Gold Digger. It's easy to learn and quick to play, which is always nice for game club!Each player tries to claim shares in a gold mine... but timing is critical. If you jump into the mine too early, folks will load it up with fool's gold, which is worth nothing. OR, if you're in a valuable mine, other people will try to dive in and get a piece of it.
If you wait too late, however, you may just miss out on the good stuff.
You only have three shares to spread out among the mines, so every choice is a tough one...
We played two rounds of the game.
Sam had the highest round score with 18 in the second round, but Fenwick wins overall with the highest total -- Final scores: Fenwick - 29, Sam - 26, Sean - 25.
3:00 pm
Ogre Bash
Players: Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
This is a new one for game club, and it is certainly a silly one. A hand can last 3 minutes, or twenty minutes based on luck.
Ogre Bash is basically a set collecting game -- there are 6 different types of winning hands with varying worth that you are trying to collect. What makes it difficult is that for just about every card you play, you need to get rid of another card which is likely an important one in the set you're collecting.
Fenwick had a winning hand at one point. OF COURSE, he got it disrupted before he could use it...
It is definitely reminiscent of bunches of dumb ogres sitting around mindlessly clubbing each other. It has as much frustration as fun.
We played a few hands -- Sean managed to win.
Final scores: Sean - 8, Fenwick - 5, Sam - 1.
3:50 pm
Samurai
Players: Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
Sam had to go pay his tuition bill, so it was back to Sean and Fenwick.
2-player Samurai was chosen... this is a classic favorite of most of the game club. Awesome bits, reasonable strategy, very reasonable game time.
Fenwick managed to win this one, having a majority of Buddhas and Big Hats.
4:05 pm
Mix Up
Players: Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
ANOTHER new one for the game club. Mix Up is basically Connect 4 on steroids. Each piece has a shape and a color... one player is trying to get 4 of the same shape in a row (or in a 2x2 square), and the other player is trying to do the same with color. It's actually quite a bit to keep track of... the game is quite clever and short.
That 2x2 wins for blue.
We played 4 games... Sean won the first and Fenwick won the next three in a row. HEY! A TURKEY! GLOBBLE GLOBBLE GLOBBLE!!
4:20 pm
TransAmerica (Sean's mod)
Players: Sean (p), Fenwick (p)
We decided to play some TransAmerica... another common Game Club activity.
Sean has made a somewhat historical modification of the game... instead of playing 2 rails per turn, you can only play one. SO, any bridge or tunnel actually takes TWO turns to complete (two rails need to be laid on the board for them to help us keep track). Also, you all start on the east coast (orange section of the game) and head west.
TransAmerica -- all old-timey and such!
Round 1, Sean lost 1.
Round 2, Fenwick lost 3.
Round 3, Fenwick lost 6. (gulp!)
Round 4, Sean lost 6. (also, gulp!)
Round 5, Fenwick lost 3. That puts him right off the board...
Sean wins with 6 points!
4:45 pm
Traverse
Players: Ashlei (p), Fenwick (p), Sean (p)
Traverse is one that gets dragged out on occasion. It is a little more abstract that we usually play, but for some reason it is a fun one. It does have nice little wooden bits... again, easy to learn and quick to play. The pacing of the game is very nice -- starts out kind of slow, then as you all meet in the middle and can jump over each other is starts to move frantically. The end game does have some good tension as you are each trying to squeeze your last pieces. It's really hard to tell who is going to manage to win until it gets rather close to the end... the first person to get pieces across the board is the often left with fewer choices. It's a simple-but-clever little game.There's lots of choices and some are painful, as setting up a nice run across the board for yourself will often help someone (or multiple someones) as well.
Ashlei wins! By about 4 or 5 moves, actually. We played on for next place, and Sean managed to get his pieces across next. One more move would have put Fenwick completely across the board.
5:10 pm
Through the Desert
Players: Sean (p), Ashlei (p), Fenwick (p)
STILL YET ANOTHER new game for game club. Another Knizia game, so we were fairly confident it would be good.
And the game has hundreds of plastic camels... ah, the glory of the bits.
It's basically a regional control game, fairly simple, nice flow. And just beautiful to look at. Plastic palm trees, pastel camels, beautiful board with hexes... any game with hexes has got to be good.
Sean ended the game by finishing off a set of camels -- when we totalled up the points, Fenwick managed to win with 72 points! Sean had 69, and Ashlei 61.
6:00 pm
Mix Up
Players: Sean (p), Sandy (n)
Fenwick ran out to buy some pizza for the starving game players, right around the time Sandy arrived...
So while he was fetching food, Sean and Sandy pulled Mix Up out again for a few rounds.
Round 1: Sandy wins.
Round 2: Sean wins.
Tie breaking Round 3: Sandy wins!
6:40 pm
Metro
Players: Sandy (n), Sean (p), Mike1 (p), Christine (p), Ashlei (p), Fenwick (p)
Metro is one we drag out semi-regularly. It is another route building game, and we are generally fans of those. Not sure why we like paths so much, but they come up in the games we play a lot...
We played with 6 players, which is the max. It gets rather crowded with that many, and it's easy to run out of choices and end up having to help, or, more likely, screw over, the other players. Whenever someone is playing, the rest of the group will give very important, clever, friendly advice as to where that tile should go. Groaning generally follows when that advice is not heeded.
Good example: Mike1 had a tile which couldn't help any of his own pieces. He then happily declared, "I believe I am going to be a douche bag." and placed the piece so it created to short routes for two other players. I think we will be award Mike1 the Quote of the Week Award!
Sean had the highest single play with a 22 point route. He also won the game...
Scores: Sean - 53, Fenwick - 47, Ashlei - 33, Sandy - 32, Christine - 29, Mike1 - 24.
7:40 pm
Hive
Players: Don Phelps (p), Fenwick (p), Ashlei (p)
Wait!! I know what you are thinking -- Hive is a 2 player game, and 3 players are listed! Well, Don Phelps took on each of us one at a time.
First, it was Don Phelps v. Fenwick.
Don won.
Then, it was Don Phelps v. Ashlei.
Ashlei won.
7:40 pm
Quiddler
Players: Christine (p), Sandy (p), Sean (p)
As the Hive games described above were kicking off, a game of Quiddler had gathered at the main table. It actually only seems fitting -- we started the day with Quiddler, nice to end it with hat as well!
Sean won this game with 285. Christine had 233, and Sandy 222.
Another good game day! Quite a few new games... not a huge crowd, but a nice one for end-of-summer... a few new games played...
Until next week...
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