Tuesday, January 15, 2008

We're still on break. And we still play.

Another light crowd, with some decent games played...

The players!

Ashlei (pirate)
Carlo (ninja)
Cathy Willms (pirate)
Chrissy (pirate)
Fenwick (pirate)
Phil (victim)
Sandy (victim)
Sean (pirate)


And now.... the games!





[2:00 pm]

Memoir '44


Players: Sean (p), Fenwick(p)


We decided to play the scenario #3: Sword Beach. Sean played as the Allies, and Fenwick as the Axis powers.

We hadn't played in a while so we did have to consult the rules a bit, and set up always takes a little bit, but we were up and running in about 10 minutes.



We were fairly well matched for the first 2 or 3 medals gained. Fenwick's ground power and bunkers were no match for Sean's swarms onto the beach.

Sean cleaned out Fenwick's right flank completely easily allowing him to take over the city Riva Bella for his 5th medal, and the win!





[3:00 pm]

TransAmerica (with Vexation expansion)


Players: Ashlei (p), Phil (v), Sean (p), Fenwick (p)


We were about to start a game with 3, when Phil hopped over and asked to be included. We had not begun, so pieces were hurled at him, and we began a 4-player edition.

The Vexation rails always allow for some serious screwage, and the screwage was in full force in every round. No one was holding back or being subtle about messing up other people's routes. It was brutality on the rails!



It was semi-well balanced until the last round. Sean won, and won so nicely that he knocked EVERY other player completely off the board, for the closest thing to a shut-out win in TransAmerica you can get.





[3:55 pm]

Mall of Horror


Players: Ashlei (p), Carlo (n), Cathy W. (p), Chrissy (p), Sean (p)


Somehow, this game of Mall of Horror turned out to be duller than most, for some reason.

Actually, a little ways in Cathy decided she didn't want to play anymore, and sacrificed her girl in Megatoys, and Gun Guy in the restrooms.

Sean lost his Gun Guy in Cachou. I can't help but wonder how emasculating it would be to die in the sexy clothing store... He lost his Strong Dude in the restroom. Not sure if that's any better...

Cathy's Strong Man bites it in the Security Room.

Sean loses his girl in Megatoys... she turns into a zombie, and pops up in the Parking Lot!

Carlo's Gun Guy gets eaten in the Supermarket.



Chrissy had a bad round as her Gun Guy gets munched in the Parking Lot -- the still hungry Zombies move on to eat the girl belonging to her. Her Strong Man tries valiantly, but gets eaten, as well.

The end game is triggered!

(Somewhere in here, Ashlei's Gun Guy got eaten, but it wasn't precisely recorded...)

Carlo and Ashlei end with 12 points. Everyone else was completely devoured!






[5:30 pm]

10 Days in Europe


Players: Carlo (n), Ashlei (p)


Our classic touring of Europe game! I really need to get 10 Days in Africa, and 10 Days in Asia, too...



You just play until someone completes a trip, and Ashlei did it first!

If you would like to know her itinerary, check it out...
She started in Italy.
She walked to Slovenia. And hopped on a red plane.
That landed in Serbia & Montenegro.
She walked to Romania.
She continued walked through Moldova, onto the Ukraine, and into Belarus.
She finally took a yellow plane over to Austria.

Quite a vacation...






[5:30 pm]

Diceland


Players: Cathy (p), Sean (p), Chrissy (p)


Diceland has become a regular staple for game club. And we scrounge dice from other games (mostly Dicey, and Dice Run), to up it from a two-player game to a MULTI-player game.



This was a fairly even battle. Each of them had 1 die left near the end!

Chrissy was eliminated, but Sean and Cathy were too far apart to encounter each other. They tie with one die left, and the same number of pips!







[6:30 pm]

Quiddler


Players: Chrissy (p), Cathy W. (p), Sean (p), Sandy (v), Ashlei (p), Fenwick (p)


Quiddler. Really that is all I should ever have to say at this point. Letters, cards, quickly played, simple rules -- gaming nirvana.

Here's how it ended...
Fenwick: 219
Cathy W: 221
Chrissy: 232
Sandy : 259
Ashlei: 264
Sean : 321


Sean won EASILY to finish out this game day...


("It's a series of tubes!")





I apologize for the awful Lollercatting by me. When I don't take pictures I gotta make up my own... thought I'd try something different...

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

A new year begins...

Sorry we haven't posted in a while... But now we're back, and the postings shall resume!!

Only a few players this week, but we are on break, and it was kind of an unannounced meeting. We got in a bunch o' games, though!

PLAYERS:
Annmarie (P)
Ashlei (P)
Don Phelps (P)
Fenwick (P)
Sean (P)

On to the games!




[1:40 pm]

Hey! That's MY Fish!


Players: Annmarie (P), Fenwick (P)




While I was waiting for people to show up, Annmarie had finished her lunch and asked for a quick game. She'd played ...Fish before, so it seemed like just the right game to play.

It actually stayed pretty even, both of us having room to move till close to the end.

Final score --
Annmarie: 44
Fenwick: 49





[1:55 pm]

Zertz


Players: Annmarie (P), Fenwick (P)




Annmarie had time for one more, and I have been itching to play Zertz for a while, so I talked her into it. It's fairly simple -- add a marble to the board, and remove a space on the board, OR jump another piece, checkers-style, to capture it. There are 3 kinds of pieces: the rare whites, the less-rare grey, and the plentiful black.

Collecting 3 of each wins you the game, or 4 whites, or 5 greys, or 6 blacks will win.

Fenwick immediately got aggressive with the white pieces, scoring 3 rather quickly.

However, Annmarie was sneaking black pieces off the board, and she managed to get 6 of them before Fenwick managed to grab another white one! She wins...





[2:30 pm]

Fjords


Players: Ashlei (P), Fenwick (P)




This is a nice quick two player game involving placing tiles and dominating different zones. This first part of the game has you building the map, and placing farms to be the base of operations in phase two. Then, you spread out from your farms, trying to block off more territory than your opponent.

Ashlei had placed all four farms pretty early, and Fenwick managed to spread his out quite well. That, and some unfortunate mountain ranges pinched in ASh's farmlands.

Final score--
Ashlei: 12
Fenwick: 17




[3:30 pm]

Dragon Parade


Players: Ashlei (P), Sean (P), Fenwick (P)




This is a new game to Game Club. It's a light filler game by Reiner Knizia. There is a board with a path in two halves. You play cards to move a dragon one way or the other along the path, and place a pawn somewhere on the path. This is done 3 times. You want your pieces to be as close as possible to the dragon.

There's a lot of luck involved, but you generally have a little control and idea as to the vicinity of the dragon. It plays quickly, and the bits are quite nice.

Final score --
Sean: 13
Fenwick: 13
Ashlei: 14

Ashlei wins! After the game she said, "Well, this game didn't suck as much as I thought it would."




[3:50 pm]

10 Days in Europe


Players: Ashlei (P), Sean (P), Fenwick (P)




Classic Game Club fare here. We've always enjoyed the '10 Days...' games. I can't wait to try the newest one in Asia!

Anyway, this game is just played until someone completes a path through Europe... Ashlei was the first to do so, winning the game!




[4:12 pm]

Hollywood Blockbuster


Players: Ashlei (P), Sean (P), Fenwick (P)




Another new one for the Game Club... and also a Reiner Knizia.

Each player is in control of a movie studio, bidding to get the best actors, directors, special effects, camera crew, and sound system for their movies.

It is really just an auction game, with the interesting aspect of the winning bid gets redistributed out to the losers of the bid.

There is an unnecessarily HUGE board where the tokens that are being bid upon are laid. The art work is cute, and the bits are all solid. No cards in this game, just cardboard chits in a variety of shapes and sizes (round numbers for scoring, odd-shaped bidding contracts, rectangular ones for the movie elements, and academy awards in stand-up bases).

The bidding can get rather ridiculous... especially since you know you can sit out a few turns and get some money back.

I found it to be quite enjoyable -- the race for the award of "Worst Movie" was pretty funny. Ashlei won that award, and that 10 points helped her a lot... Here's how turned out --

Fenwick: 78
Sean: 79
Ashlei: 85





[6:20 pm]

Gemblo


Players: Ashlei (P), Sean (P), Don Phelps (P), Fenwick (P)




This is one we drag out occassion. It is beautiful, and can really stretch your brain into painful knots.

It's a "fit your stuff on the board" game, much like Blokus... you want to get the most bits on the board, leaving the fewest stranded in front of you.

Here's how it ended --

Don P: 16
Ashlei: 11
Fenwick: 11
Sean: 10

Sean, who really doesn't like this game at all, wins!





[6:45 pm]

Diceland


Players: Ashlei (P), Sean (P), Fenwick (P)




Yay! Diceland! My favorite war-style dice fest! Plays quick and brutal, and is more tactical than it appears. We like adding other dice and other players. We grabbed the white dice from Dicey, making a very patriotic looking red-white-and-blue board.

Fenwick was eliminated rather early -- he had placed himself on the center of the board, making him the target of attacks by both Ashlei and Sean. They weren't ganging up on him, they just had NO CHOICE!

After he was cleared out of the center, Ashlei and Sean approached each other. Each hung back now and again to recharge a bit, but eventually, Sean emerged victorious, actually with 5 dice armies still on the board!




Small group today, but we played a bunch of games, even a couple new ones.

We shall continue to meet on Mondays through the break!! Come by...