Friday, August 31, 2007

Pirates Rule.

Look. I know we've got the rivalry going, but this presentation, I believe, will definitely prove the Pirates domination over Ninjas in the coolness department.



And so it has been shown.

(Hey, at least you're better than clowns and mimes! Barely.)

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The summer is over.

The last club meeting of the summer! It was still a good one... it doesn't look like we will be meeting next Monday, since it is Labor Day, and most of us will be hanging out with family and such. It was still quite a successful summer.

For this last meeting of the summer we had the following in attendance:

Ashlei (pirate)
Brian (pirate)
Jon (ninja)
Mike1 (pirate)
Mike2 (pirate)
Rachael (pirate)
Sean (pirate)
Victoria (ninja)

And we did play a bunch o' games. Here's the proof...




[1:20 pm]

Quiddler


Players: Mike1, Rachael, Jon


They only played through 3 rounds of the game, but we'll still quickly log it here...

Rachael won with 51 points. Mike1 had 38, and Jon had 30.





[1:40 pm]

Cartagena


Players: Mike2 (p), Rachael (p), Sean (p), Mike1 (p)


Ah, 4 pirates playing a pirate game. Glorious.

Rachael "left with out us", and got all her dudes on the boat!
Sean "just missed the boat", with 2 guys left behind.
Mike1 "was hanging out in the middle", with 3 guys left behind.
And, Mike2 "had 2 guys still at the beginning", and also had 3 left behind.

Rachael wins!


To celebrate the win, pirates usually do this to a ninja. GAR!





[2:20 pm]

The Great Dalmuti


Players: Mike1 (p), Victoria (n), Mike2 (p), Rachael (p), Brian (p), Fenwick (p), Sean (p)


With 7 people here, we needed to whip out a big group game. Most likely that turns out to be The Great Dalmuti.

We played 5 rounds. Mike1 was the Great Dalmuti for FOUR of them. Sean was Lesser Dalmuti for three. Mike2 and Rachael dominated the bottom of the barrel, both being Greater Peon twice and Lesser Peon once.

We'll have to give this game to Mike1.


The Great Dalmuti should always wear smart headgear of some kind.






[3:15 pm]

Incan Gold


Players: Rachael (p), Fenwick (p), Brian (p), Mike2 (p), Mike1 (p), Sean (p)


Ah, the adventure is always grand, searching for Incan Gold in the deep, dark, scary, ancient temple.

With 6 players, the treasure is scarce, and the competition is brutal! Here's how the loot collection went:

Fenwick ended with 39, Sean had 32, Mike2 had 20, Rachael had 16, Mike1 had 14, and Brian had 13.

In the last temple, Fenwick managed to head out with the 4th artifact all by himself grabbing 10 extra points -- enough to get him the lead. If anyone else had left at the same time as him, he would not have one. Close game!


When entering the Incan Gold temple, it's usually a good idea to send in your assistant first... Look out for those spiders!






[3:50 pm]

King of the Beasts


Players: Mike2 (p), Sean (p), Rachael (p), Fenwick (p)




Since I first brought this to game club, it has come out quite regularly. Most of us can't figure out why... I think probably because it is a quick one, and we are all always surprised at how many, or few, points we are getting at the end of each round! Also, the artwork is quite nice.

We played 2 rounds.

Fenwick ended with 12 points, Mike2 had 11, and Sean and Rachael each had 10. Fenwick wins! (I think for possibly the first time ever at KotB!)





[4:17 pm]

TransAmerica


Players: Fenwick (p), Mike2 (p), Sean (p), Rachael (p)




Another Game Club regular... TransAmerica. Sean really was interested in playing a rail game, and this was the only one we brought with us this week. So we played!

Rachael fell of first, losing the game and triggering its end.
Sean was down to 2.
Mike2 was at 7...

But Fenwick was still at 9 points for the win!





[5:20 pm]

Mission: Red Planet


Players: Ashlei (p), Mike2 (p), Sean (p), Rachael (p), Fenwick (p)


This is a relatively new game. It's one we've been itching to play for a couple weeks. In terms of bits, this is one of the greatest I have ever seen. The little discs that represent astronauts are the only thing that is not spectacular. They work just fine, but it might be nice if they were a little more representative of an astronaut. That just might clutter things up, though.


In Mission: Red Planet you're off to be the first miners and settlers to Mars. It might help to ask a friend to help you move.



The game play feels like some other games pasted together. It's got an almost Citadels-style character selection at the beginning of each turn. It's got a Tongiaki-style launching mechanism that causes you and others to be transported. It's got a population domination element that is in many other games. But they all fit together well. And the old-style sci-fi theme and styling is super-original and clever.




And, for the icing, there is that slight bit of screwage available. We always appreciate that in Game Club.

Rachael ended with 46. Sean had 44, Fenwick had 43, Ashlei had 42, and Mike2 had only 11.

Rachael wins! Which is sort of poetic -- it was her last game of the summer, and is now off to Florida!




So, the summer has been a huge success... we were the only club to meet ALL SUMMER LONG!

The semester should bring some real fun. We have plans. Will we implement them? Probably not all of them, but I bet we get a BUNCH done. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I can admit when I'm wrong.

As a member of Team Pirate, I want to reassure you all that we are not just random pillagers who can't accept when we have made some kind of mistake. NO! The Pirates do pillage, of course, but we are rational folks who can admit an error in judgement.

Team Ninja, I must apologize -- I was mistaken about you. The Ninjas are a vital, courageous, and powerful force. What turned me around??!

It was this picture...


Oh yeah.

You guys are cool.

SUPER cool.

Ha!

I wonder if you spelled that out all by yourself, or if mommy helped.

OH! And nice puffy vest.

THERE'S ONLY ONE THING LEFT TO SAY:




Let the Pirate vs. Ninja battle begin!!
Garrr... It's going to be a good semester...

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Summer is almost over...

...but we're still playing. We're gonna lose some of our players as they transfer off to other schools... But for now we still have our regulars stopping by.

Today's players:
Ashlei (pirate)
Fenwick (pirate)
Rachael (pirate)
Sam (ninja)
Sean (pirate)
TJ (ninja)

Small group. Big fun.




1:40 pm

War and Sheep


Players: Sean (p), Fenwick (p)

This a game I've had for a while. It's actually the original German version of the game, which is called "Molly & Lore". It's a game for 2 players. I've wanted to play it for a while, but we needed to figure out how to play! It looked kind of silly, but turned out to be pretty groovy.



Each of you have a flock of sheep, and you are trying to graze the most valuable plots of grass while avoiding being eaten by the wolves. Eating the most valuable grass will knock your sheep, while eating the least valuable gives you an action card to help you out in the game.

If your flock gets eaten, you lose immediately, but if you can both survive until the end, you compare the values of the grasses eaten... highest value wins!

Both of us made it to the end, Fenwick had 3 sheep left, Sean had 2. But the number of sheep means nothing -- it's all about the grass eaten!

Sean ate 27 points of grass. Fenwick had 23. Sean wins!

Cool game -- I see us pulling this out for a quick 2 player game regularly.




2:10 pm

King of the Beasts


Players: Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)

This game always intrigues me... It's a Reiner Knizia game. And, as always in his games (mostly) timing is EVERYTHING. AND you have to give something away to get something in return.



It's a simple, quick game with painful decisions all along. It's almost too short to develop a good strategy, but it's quickness is definitely an attractive part of the game.

We played 3 rounds. Sean won EVERY one.

Final scores: Sean - 21, Sam - 14, Fenwick - 14.




2:30 pm

Quiddler


Players: Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)

Quiddler. We play it. All the time. And here it is again.



We usually are very friendly playing this game -- helping each other out all along the way. But before we started, Sam declared that this would be a cutthroat version. No helping. Go out as soon as you can. We went with it...

It definitely makes for a quicker game. And a much more frustrating one.

After the 6-card hand, when Fenwick got ZERO points (we usually don't let someone have this fate, if we can help it), Sam threw his hands in the air and cheerily cried "Cutthroat!!"... it was quite funny.

Final scores: Sean - 252, Fenwick - 249, Sam - 188/

(Looks like Sean's having a good day.)






3:00 pm

Megalith


Players: Sam (n), Fenwick (p)

This is a two-player game that we'd never played before. Another Reiner Knizia (surprise!).



The bits are BEAUTIFUL as expected by the PIN games from Out of the Box -- all wood, finely crafted. And, also expected by this series: simple rules, clever strategies. And very Knizia-like, you need to play pieces with values to dominate lines on the board.

We played three rounds.

Sam won the first round.

In the second round, Sam also succeeded in winning.

BUT, IN THE THIRD ROUND.... Sam won once again.

Sam won 'em all.


Sam played the light pieces. This is how the board looked pretty much at the end of each game.






3:17 pm

Gang of Four


Players: Rachael (p), Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)

This is a game Sean used to DESPISE, but he's coming around. I think it might be my (Fenwick) favorite 4 player card game ever. It's a lot like Tichu, but MUCH simpler and quicker. Possibly only Samurai beats it in my favorite 4 player games.

This was Rachael's first time playing, but the rest of us are veteran Gang of Four-ers. We tried to get her up to speed as much as possible, and then jumped in.

The full game went 11 hands. You are trying NOT to get points... first person to 100 triggers the end of game. At that point whomever has the least wins.


I think Sam played this straight...



Rachael won the first hand! But, alas, that was her last. Fenwick won 3 hands, Sam won 3, and Sean won FIVE. But it was not about winning the hands, it was about having less cards as much as possible...

A "Gang of Four" (four of a kind) is kind of rare. Maybe one or two in a hand. We had one hand that hand SIX GANGS OF FOUR played one on top of another. SIX. It was ridiculous.

Endgame scores: Sam - 37. Sean - 45. Fenwick - 62. Rachael - 105.

Sam wins!




4:25 pm

TransAmerica


Players: Sam (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)

Another classic Game Club entry.... TransAmerica got pulled out.

The game only lasted 3 rounds...

Rachael went off the board while Sam still had 8 points, and Sean had TEN.

Sean wins!




5:05 pm

Caratagena


Players: Sean (p), Ashlei (p), TJ (n), Fenwick (p)

TJ came! Our exalted President actually made it to a meeting!! At about the same time, Ashlei got there. AND Sam and Rachael had to go.


Hey look! It's Sean's arm!!



So, we were back to 4 players.

Cartagena is a good, quick, strategic one. And it's about pirates!


Ashlei picks a card to play.



Sean got all 6 of his guys onto the escape boat first! Fenwick had 4 on board, Ashlei had 3, and TJ had 2. ALSO, TJ's other 4 guys were behind EVERYONE else on the board.

Not surprising -- he's a NINJA.

Sean wins AGAIN.


The boat sails away in the distance. Look at all TJ's red dudes lagging behind... and he calls himself a PIRATE. Oh, wait. No he doesn't. He's a ninja.






5:40 pm

Shear Panic


Players: Sean (p), Ashlei (p), TJ (n), Fenwick (p)

We've had this one for a while, but have been itching to get the opportunity to play it. We finally had the right group together...


Roger Ram is getting a little busy with the sheep in the front.



In terms of bits, this thing is EXTRAORDINARY. Molded sheep on wooden bases. It's very satisfying. We kept banging into the score board, and knocking our bits off our individual move counter boards, so that was slightly annoying, but really, it's put together well. We realized at the end we were using the WRONG score sheet, so we played a shorter game than we should have, but it managed to give us the concept of the game.

The game goes through 4 phases, the last of which is the SHEARING of the sheep, and some sheep get eliminated. Ashlei was unhappy to be COMPLETELY shorn off the game by TJ. So she was cut out of the last couple moves of the game.


Waiting to be sheared... waiting to be sheared.



Final scores: Sean - 33. TJ - 29. Fenwick - 26. Ashlei - 24.




Summer is almost over... Our big game days will be back soon! Even though it was small, we played some new games, and some classics... a good day, indeed.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The summertime gaming continues...

The day was hot and humid. The Student Center alarm was going off the whole day. We were all hungry and tired. Everyone was running late. The game day seemed doomed from the start. But, for some reason, it was one of the best in a while!

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...