9/3: Carolus Magnus with Erik and Shelley
Given our 3-player configuration and the fact that I had some of my older Rio Grande games along to help Jodi out with the next day's Rio Grande-a-thon, I figured this older Leo Colovini game that works quite well with 3 players suited the situation. Though at times the luck of the roll can just kill any strategy you are attempting, the cool island setup, along with the interplay between players at they jockey for majority in various colors
9/3: YS with Shelley and Erik
Looking for something else to play, I suggested YS, a game Shelley has enjoyed in the past and that I think is one of the best games of the last year.With 3 players you have the option of playing iwth only 3 of the 4 quadrants available, but I figured the board would just be too tight that way. That left us with areas of competition, but also gave everyone something each round. The competition for first place in all of the gems was close, and everyone knew to get some black gems for that scoring opportunity. In the end I was helped by the "take 2 gems of any color" card that I'd picked up, giving me a tie in one gem, and the lead in another. I wound up winning a very close game with 101 points to Erik's 95 and Shelley's 93.
9/3: Kunst Stücke with Shelley and Erik
After a brisk walk and lunch at In n Out Burger, Shelley, Erik and I searched high and low for a table, found them all full, but then tracked down a small table in the lobby. With tubs parked, I pulled this new acquisition, a game I had to get when I saw the Tetris-like pieces, read good reviews, and read a description about its art theme. We spent a bit of time figuring out the rules, realized no one received a particular color, then understood that the object was to place pieces onto the board given a few restrictions, then hopefully move them into position to score various requirements in terms of groupings of pieces. Erik seemed to have a handle on the spatial requirements more quickly than either Shelley or me, and moved pieces into position quickly, blocking us from forming our needed requirements. He wound up winning with 42 points to me 33 and Shelley's 8.
9/3: Oltremare with Greg, Erik and Shelley
One more game before lunch, and we jumped into this excellent card-driven game that Amigo and Rio Grande have picked up for wider publication (and will include a board - I'm interested in seeing their new version!). I must say that I really like this game - once the initial explanation happens and initial confusions are dealt with, it moves fairly quickly, but leaves one with some nice decisions to make. I tend to take the strategy that one must SHIP as many goods as possible, hopefully not incurring the wrath of pirates too often. Making trades on other people's turns also benefits you with Prestige Points which can be the difference in the endgame. Everyone kept this one close throughout and it came down to my greater amount of shipping in the end. I won with 58 points to Shelley's 52, Greg's 48 and Erik's 47.
9/3: That's Life with Greg, Erik and Shelley
After the analytical Kreta, I decided a light romp would suffice and pulled out this SdJ nominee. A die hit the table and that always causes a comment, but I immediately explain that there's quite a bit more to the game than 'roll and move'. WIth 4, the tactical nature of the game remains fairly high, and I used the standard set up and ran through the rules of movement. We then moved our guys our of start attempted to score well and either succeeded in taking what we needed or failed miserably. I did well, picking up a couple of high negatives, but converting them quickly with a shamrock tile. Greg, unfortunately, couldn't seems to get those shamrocks and instead wound up with negative nubmers at the end. I won with 24 poitns to Shelley's 8, Erik's 7, and Greg's -9.
Subsequently I've played this at school with students and realized quickly that it's NOT the game to play there. As the teacher, it becomes a "Mr. G. vs everyone else" situation, with players willingly taking negatives or giving positives to others just so that I always come up short - not fun and not a game I'll be taking to school EVER AGAIN.
9/3: Kreta at ConQuest with Erik, Shelley and Greg
ConQuest arrived over Labor Day weekend, and with a first week of school under my belt (Shelley'd been back for 2) it was time for some games! Shelley and I picked up Erik and headed up to the Burlingame Marriot, wheeled the tubs into the game room, found a table, set up Kreta as our first game, began explaining the rules, then got bumped from the table. Annoyingly, it turned out that the table wasn't needed AT ALL until about 4 hours later, but we obliged the Age of Steamers, re-established ourselves, and had Greg join us as a 4th for the game.
Kreta happens to be one of those games that I either really like because things stay close and interesting throughout, or that unfortunately get bogged down in some of the 'luck of the draw' situation that can develop. I'm beginning to think that my first games (both of which were 3-player) were best because that number works best on the game. However, I'm happy to say that this game, a 4-player, was quite enjoyable and closely contested. Erik wound up squeaking out a win with 59 points to my 57, Shelley's 48 and Greg's newbie score of 29.
Kreta: 1
That's Life: 1
Oltremare: 1
Kunst Stucke: 1
YS: 1
8/26: Through the Desert with Chris, Kim and Shelley
Looking for a shorter game that we all knew, we headed out to the game room and after hemming and hawing pulled a classic we hadn't played in quite a while off the shelf - the original German version of Through the Desert. Elegant and quick, with many different ways to score, Through the Desert fit perfectly as an end of the evening game. In this game I seemed to be out of the loop a bit, failing to get enough watering holes or get to enough of the oases in comparison to everyone else. I did go for area creation, but didn't do nearly as well as Shelley or Kim. In fact, the women were dominant and ended VERY close. Kim won with 82 points, topping Shelley's 80 by 2 points. Chris was in a distant 3rd with 62, and I came in an even more distant last place with 52.
8/26: Kreta with Chris, Kim, and Shelley
After dinner, I thought we should try out this other new acquisition. I ran through the rules and we began our competition for the various areas of scoring. After a lucky first round on my part, Kim started to take off and never looked back. Given the way scoring opportunities were coming out, there was little we could do to reel her in. Instead, we found that the rest of us were huddled together on the scoreboard at the end with Kim off in the distance. She ended with 62 points followed by me at 46, Shelley at 45 and Chris at 44. Having now played this twice with 3 and twice with 4, I think its sweet spot is 3 - seems that with a more open board you have better chances to overcome a disadvantage.
8/26: That's Life with Chris, Kim, and Shelley
Chris and Kim came over for Friday night dinner and before we ate, I thought we should try this fun little SdJ nominee. As I've said previously, this one has some nice tension as you decide what to do with that dice roll that forces you to move. Chris and Kim started the tile taking, hoping for the bonus tiles that convert the negatives to positives. However, Shelley seemed to be the expert at rolling the dice to achieve the exactly right combination, ending the game with only 2 negatives, but also 2 bonus tiles, making all of her tiles worth positive points. She earned 28 poitns to my 17, Kim's 7 and Chris's -8.
8/25: Tutankahmen with Tim, Peter, and Nick
Finally, to end the night on a hopefully quick note, I pulled this one off the shelf. I must say that I love Out of the Box's reprint of this one - small box, but everything's there and you get rid of your coins by putting them into the pyramid - fun! I quickly set up, explained the rules, then once again we proceeded to analyze the game to death, taking 45 minutes to play a game that's sweet if it lasts 20. Table talk once again was the order of the day, with Tim and Peter talking through almost every move in the second 1/2 of the game. Tim won, Peter and I tied with 2 coins left, and I think Nick finished with 4 or 5.
8/25: Kreta with Nick, Tim, and Peter
Looking for a 'heavier' game, I thought I'd pull this one off the shelf since I'd just received it after a long wait. I loved this game when I played it at Oasis of Fun (x2) and looked everywhere for a copy at the domestic stores. After an aborted attempt through Game Surplus earlier in the summer, Thor cam through, sent me an email saying he'd gotten a copy in, and sent it on - GAME SURPLUS ROCKS!
The game involves area majority, but given the scoring method also involves a 'chase' after points. Staking out a spot on the board may pay off multiple times, and did just that for Tim whose 6-point area scored for him at least 3 times. My initial lead vanished quickly and I wound up in last by the end. What I SHOULD have done was push scoring to happen and had input into what would score.
Well, this is an excellent game if it's played in under an hour and the table talk doesn't become overblown. Unfortunately, both of these problems occurred, making the game last too long and suffer as a consequence. I understand the need to figure out a new game, but when there's a search for the optimal move with player input throughout the game, it bogs things down quite a bit. As my score reflects, I'd rather just play, make the mistakes, hopefully play well, but ENJOY the experience. Over analysis just kills a game IMO, and I think I may have been showing my frustration a bit too much at the end. Oh well....
8/25: Ubongo with Nick, Tim, and Peter
TIm arrived just as we were about to start a second game, and I'd already pulled this one off the shelf as Peter suggested it and wanted Nick and Tim to check it out. We kept things close throughout, with everyone missing a board at least once. Tim established an early lead, but then had 2 misses in a row. Peter then had the advantage going into the final round, but failed to complete the board. This actually left me with a win! Peter, Tim and I all had 7 gems in our #1 color, but I ended with 3 gems in two other colors, while Peter had 3 gems in 1 color and Tim had 2 gems in 1 color.
8/25: That's Life with Peter and Nick
Peter and Nick came over for some games on Thursday, and after a bit of dinner we headed out to the game room and I pulled That's Life, the SdJ nominee with a DIE, off the shelf. I set up the board, explained the very simple rules, and then we started rolling. I must say that this one's quite good for a game with a die - the strategy of when to move and how to use your roll as effectively as possible comes into play often; the fact that you can move the "guardians" if any pawn is on thei space also open s up the movement possibilities. I made some plays that were too cautious, and was also hurt when Nick moved one piece when he really should have moved another toward the end, giving Peter more movement choices. Peter wound up winning by 1 point with 26 points to Nick's 25 and my ZERO.
8/20: Architekton with Shelley
Pulling out another Schacht 2-player, I described this one as similar to Carcassonne, though different in strategy, and I believe there needs to be a bit less 'kind' play next game. You're attempting to build a string of buildings and get them surrounded by the proper landscapes to earn a point. However, if your building gets surrounded by non-matching landscapes you can lose 1-3 points. A player loses immediately if he/she can't pay the lost points. If the game does go to the end, players also earn points for the longest diagonal string of buildings. I won 8-7, but given that we ran out of point markers, I think we were far too nice to each other rather than scheming to place tiles in positions that would cause the loss of points. We'll have to try this one again.
8/20: Rat Hot with Shelley
Pulling out a couple of the games I'd just received in a shipment, I taught this reprint of Michael Schacht's 'print-and'play' Dschunke das Legenspiel to Shelley. The changes in the rules - scoring at every creation of a grouping and immediate elimination if 3 rats of your color are on the board at the end of your turn - actually make the game better, getting you thinking about the here and now rather only the distant scoring at the end. Also, you have to balance the need to cover your rats with the desire to earn points. On more than one occasion I had to forgo a 2-point scoring opportunity in order to use the two tiles I'd pulled to cover the rats on the board. It took a bit of time for Shelley to 'get' the game, so my 26 to 18 win must be tagged with a 'first time for Shelley' addendum. She liked, but didn't love the game, but I think it may find its way to the table again.
8/13: Ys with Gilbert and Art
With time for one final game and a couple of guys whom I knew played quickly, we decided on Ys after initially thinking about playing Keythedral. I know I've said it before, but I'll say once again that I REALLY LOVE this game!!! Bidding usually doesn't work for me, but this game works fantastically well and the mixing of the bidding for turn order, then the face up and face down bids in various places just seems to click in this game, whereas it doesn't in a game like Aladdin's Dragons (though I really should give that one another chance). The rounds flew by quickly as we each got the hang of things and worked to build our fortunes. Art did a good job collecting black gems, though only found himself leading in red gems, the lowest denomination. Gilbert and I were in the hunt for both green and blue, and Gilbert had tied me in blue at the end of round 4, only to see his work dashed as I pulled out my final card to play, earning me 2 extra blue gems for the lead in that color. I wound up with 102 points to Gilbert's 90 and Art's 83. A fun way to end a wonderful day of gaming.
8/13: Himalaya with Art, Eric, and Gilbert
After a great sandwich at Le Boulanger for dinner with Shelley, I headed back to games and found a few guys itching to try Himalaya, the game no one has because it's been between printings for far too long. Eric and Art had played its internet-published predecessor, Merchants of the Empire because they're friends with Jodi and Jodi became enamored with the game after playing my copy at Conquest - the first year I went and the place where we met - and proceeded to build her own copy of the game. I must say that I LIKE the theme of Merchants better, but I think they've streamlined the game just a touch in Himalaya (eliminating the middle city and its extra road being the main board change, and adding a "rest" move to the programming chits that works as a nice tactical choice) which make it a bit better. The only minus is the lack of a timer, which I think I'll transfer to the game box for those times I get stuck with an AP player.
I must admit that the game began on a REALLY high note for me, as I was the starting player, getting to place my Yak first, and took the supply city that garnered me a black cube that was then 1 road away from a 3-point city with a contract requiring only 1 black cube. Given the BAD luck I've had in my 2 previous outings where religion had just been unattainable for me, it was nice to see the luck change in my favor. Art, on the other hand, just couldn't seem to get things working; at least 2 rounds were for nought as he failed to put his programming chits in the proper order - OUCH! He was a good sport about it, though, and gracefully brought up the rear iwth only 2 religious points at the end. Eric wound up losing at least 2 political regions during the final 3 turns, winding up with only 1 majority and was also eliminated. That left Gilbert, who had won the game we played at BAP, and me. My 42 economic points bested his 35, so I came away with the win.
8/13: King Arthur Card Game with Candy, Holly, Janeen, and Eric
Looking for a quick game while I waited for Shelley to arrive so taht we could go to dinner, I found this group finishing up a prototype and suggested a game I'd played with Janeen and Holly at the BAP Game Day previously. They'd liked it so much that they went and ordered it, so I knew I'd chosen a winner. I ran through the rules and we began defeating foes and earning our goals. Sadly, I just couldn't seemt o get to the goals quickly, finding the ones I could achieve taken from me before I could act. I think I need to rethink the chance of taking cards by paying double more often as I came in last place with 26 points. Janeen won with 41, while Eric earned 35, Holly earned 30, and Candy beat me by 1 point at 27.
8/13: Oltremare with Eric and Clark
Finding myself in group rotation once again, Eric suggested one of my current favorites, Oltremare, and I pulled my copy, along with my laminated player mats downloaded off the Geek, out of my tub. After a quick run through of the rules for Clark who'd only played once, we were off and trading. Clark did an excellent job with card acquisition, seeming to get good cards quite a bit at the beginning and earning a substantial lead, while Eric and I stay at or below the starting position of 11. A few poorer trade set ups, however, hurt his chances as he wound up shipping only 1 good at least 3 times in the game - a rookie mistake that, I think cost him the win. Eric just couldn't seemt o get the necessary cards, even after I made a rather colollal blunder and traded him a couple of silver washer cards for a measly amount - cards that I could have actually used more effectively if I'd stopped to think about my actions a bit before making the trade. I did, however ship 3-4 goods on nearly every round after the 1st, thus creating for myself a substantial pile of goods. In the end, Clark should have ended the game rather than allowing me another turn, as I earned at least 6 points on that final play, pulling off a win at 78 points to Clark's 72 and Eric's 56.
8/13: Metallurgie with Jodi
With a lull in the available players and part of our FFFF group clamoring for Simply Fun fluff, Jodi and I settled down to a 2-player or 2. I showed her Drive, playing 1 round in which she realized too late that laying down sets early can be a strong advantage - she had 1 set when I won the round. Rather than play the game to its conclusion, we decided to try another 'new to Jodi' game that I'd packed in the tub - Metallurgie. I bought this one on a lark and ahve actually enjoyed it as a filler. Each card had a symbol on it representing a metal from Iron to Copper to Silver to Gold. Given that order, metal can only be placed on top the metal below it in sequence. Thus, Iron can increase the size of the layout of cards, then Copper can be played on Iron, SIlver on Copper, and Gold on Silver. The object is to create a connected group of the same type of metal after a starting group is placed. This game's quite interesting in its pattern recognition aspect, but definitely depends upon the luck of one's card draw to a certain extent. And in this case, luck was certainly in my favor - coupled with the fact that Jodi kept leaving me openings as she tried to set herself up for scores, I just kept getting the exact right cards for what I needed to achieve. I won easily, 19 to 6. I'm interested to try this one with 3 or 4 players to see if the randomness gets worse, or if tactics can mitigate it.
8/13: Fiese Freunde Fette Feten with Candy, Erik, Robin, Clark, and Jodi
With the arrival of others as we finished Friedemann Friese's excellent Power Grid, I pulled this latest Friese release from my tub, complete with many paste-ups in place. This one's a "Game of Life" with a German game twist, as each player receives 5 goals at the beginning of the game, then attempts to achieve those goals by having various experiences that one bids to participate in. First you go through Puberty, receiving an initial education in the areas of drink, drugs, sex, wisdom, sadness, religion, and others, then the 'real' life begins and players bid on 10 different events per round. The goals cards have requirements like have sex, get into a relationship, etc. and then you achieve a happy marriage goal (one of the ones I achieved). The hilarity comes in the symbiotic relationships you extablish with the other players. For example, Erik decided to play a girl in the game and our characters wound up 'fooling around' because I needed friends and he needed a sex requirement. Then, I wound up in a happy marriage with Clark (yes, regardless of California's laws and the fact that we're both happily married and heterosexual!). Needless to say, much hilarity ensued. Unfortunately, the game dragged on FAR TOO LONG for what it is (or we weren't playing too well) and I think some rather major tweaks are in order to keep the hilarity, but lose at least 1/2 of its length. Also, I think the game's too long with 6 players. Two of the suggested tweaks were drafting goal cards or dealing out 5, but just keeping 3. Both would help, and if this one hits the table again, I'll be sure to implement one or the other.
8/13: Power Grid at Games Day with Candy, Jodi, Matt, and Art
The bi-monthly Los Altos Games Day began on a clear Saturday and upon arrival I found Jodi and her usual group of friends deciding on a game. When we found that we had 5, and that Jodi wanted to play "a game where we can use poker chips," the suggestion of Power Grid seemed appropriate. Now, it has been quite awhile since I've played this excellent 2F game, and I'd forgotten just how good it is. The redesign of the board, from its crayon-rail-esque predecessor, works quite well, and I can't recommend enough the use of poker chips for money - fun to play with between turns, easier than the paper money included to use, etc. A quick refresh of the rules was in order, and though they mentioned it when this was done, my fatal flaw of forgetting that you can pay to go through someone else's city to get to another hurt my chances about 2 turns before we hit Phase 2. I'd done a good job of blocking in one direction, but forgot the rule and Matt slipped by me into an area I thought I'd sectioned off for myself. As we went into the seond round of Phase 3, I announced my inability to win with a smile on my face, knowing that I had no chance. However, I still loved the game - the elegant design, the company - and wound up beating Art in the money tiebreaker so that I actually didn't end up in last place. We both powered 14 cities, Matt and Candy powered 15, though Candy's money lead left her in second, and Jodi powered 16 for the win.
8/4: Coloretto x2 with Erik, Lisa, and Nicole, then minus Erik but adding Trisha and Betsy
This fun, quick card game hasn't found its way to the table much recently, though I still enjoy its simplicity and often angst-ridden choices. What I don't necessaryily like is when people are spending too long on a turn figuring out the percentages of whether to take a particular pile or not, and also helping others do the same - just not my favorite type of table talk. In the first game Erik ended his evening with a win at 39 points to Lisa's 35, my 28 and Nicole's (if there's a +2, I will take it no matter what) score of 15. In game 2 Nicole's startegy actually paid off a bit better, though she also handed the win to her mother (sitting on her left) as more than once she created a perfect pile for Trisha to take. Trisha won with 24 points to Nicole's 16, Lisa's 14, Betsy's 13 and my 12.
8/4: Fresh Fish with Erik and Lisa
Our second game for the night was that quirky 2F/Plenary Games route building game Fresh Fish. We ran through the rules as it had been awhile since any of us had played this one, and Lisa and I grasped the situation a lot more quickly than Erik - he just couldn't seem to wrap his head around what he needed to do to keep his score to a minimum. In fact, 2/3 of the way through the game, he pulled a tile when he only had 1 cube reserving a space. Given that it was an apartment, that meant his last space was full, and when a power plant was drawn by Lisa, Erik had no spot on the board to put it - ouch! Bidding was high on a number of occasions between Lisa and me, and I actually did fairly well, winning a bid for a nuclear plant that basically secured the win for me. I wound up with a nice low 5 points to Lisa's 9 and Erik's 22.
8/4: King Arthur Card Game with Erik and Lisa
Went to a local Thursday Game Group meeting and after an hour of kibbitzing and eating, we got down to business. Erik roped Lisa into our group, leaving the other guys reading through the rules and attempting to play Flandern 1302. I took this little Knizia card game out of the tub and worked hard to master our foes and achieve our goals. Lisa was the best knight, defeating foes and earning 55 points to Erik's 50 and my 48. Closely fought and enjoyable.
8/2: Reef Encounter with Jodi
Finally, we ended our game day with something heavier - Richard Breese's Reef Encounter. SInce Greg taught me the game last month, I've been itching to get it to the table and knew Jodi would be up for it. I ran through the extensive, though fairly straightforward, rules, seeded the board with coral, set up the dominant coral pieces, drew to fill the slots for what we'd be able to obtain for subsequent turns, then we built our parrotfish and gave them their initial coral piece.
One of the keys to this game is knowing when to eat. Since one's final score is based solely on what one's parrotfish has consumed and how powerful those specific types of coral are, if you fail to consume much, you don't have a chance. Given that this was Jodi's first playing, she made this mistake, waiting too long to consume a rather large bed of coral and I wound up eating some of it by changing the dominance.
I really like the tightly knit interplay of coral on the boards, the establishment of dominance, and the building of one's coral beds. Heck, who can't love a game that has shrimp with little painted eyes on them? The options for what one gets for his/her next turn are random, but work well, as you sometimes have to take the pile with 1 coral tile because you MUST have the corresponding cube.
I wound up winning, but given the game's learning curve, that was to be expected. I'm sure now that Jodi has a game of this under her belt, she'll give me a run for my money next time - and there WILL be a next time. Now that I know how to play, this one will definitely hit the table often. I'm also glad that this one's due out from a major publisher soon - with more people having access to a copy, it should earn its place in the top tier of excellent startegy games.
8/2: King Arthur Card Game with Jodi
The current favorite filler made its way to the table next. While I enjoyed the game this time, I think its starting to wear out its welcome a bit. The mechanics remain interesting enough and it plays quickly, but seemed to plod along a bit this time. More players may help that, and I plan on trying it again this evening with a larger group. Jodi was able to gather a rather substantial quantity of knight cards and make a charge for the final goals, pulling in the last two (leaving 1 of course) and winning with 78 points to my 68.
8/2: Rumis (x2) with Jodi
After a break for dinner and a jaunt to the local game store (Gamescape, which sadly is closing its doors at the end of August) we returned to try out one of the games both of us had snagged for 40% off at the store. Rumis is a game I now have 2 copies of (one orignal, one US version) and plan to bring to school because it's an easy game to teach, has some wonderful bits. Each player has a set of blocks that are different shapes (with 2 players you use 2 sets). Given a chosen grid, players take turns placing their pieces on the grid, following the rule that subsequent pieces MUST touch a piece of the same color for the move to be legal. When no one can place a piece, the game is over and scored by looking down on the grid and scoring a point for each square of color visible on top. Needless to say, it plays quickly, but has some excellent spatial thinking. I won the first game we played (the pyramid grid) while Jodi won game 2 (the wall).
8/2: Antiquity with Jodi
From the relatively short and mundane to the long and complex, Antiquity, a game I've only played once before (also with Jodi) hit the table next. Now it's important to realize that this game is an anomaly for me. With 100s of bits, a playing time that's 3 hours for 2 players, more when others are along for the ride, and rather high levels complexity that forced us to return to the rules again and again, I usually would shy away from such a game. However, there's something wonderful about this civilization-building game that makes it work for me.
A variable board gets set up and each player builds his/her first city. and establishes a boundary of influence. Given that for much of the game there is little direct conflict and instead you are attempting to make do with what you've been able to assemble, this one's multi-player solitaire for much of the time. However, it's engrossing! Players then use their existing products (starting with wood) to build buildings in their city(ies) head out into the country to farm, mine, fish, or chop down wood, explore the countryside, expand their boundaries with inns, establish harbors, etc.
The mechanics that make this more than just a droll product management game are fivefold. First, one must feed his/her citizens (like La Citta) by having buildings like a granery or having produced food that one has stored. The famine threshold that one must meet each turn increases each round unless a player builds a fountain, thus knocking the level down 1. If you don't meet the famine threshold, you must place graves into your city. Second, pollution is ever-present. Mining and farming pollute the countryside, leaving fields once used barren. Also, each city a player owns causes 3 markers of pollution that must be placed. Fountains and a Dump can be built to decrease the pollution one creates, and the Alchemist building can be built to remove pollution each round. This makes land both valuable and expansion or pollution management necessary. Third, the city buildings are Prince of Florence-esque in that you have a grid for each city and the buildings are sized and shaped differently. Once placed, they can't be moved (with one exception - detailed later). Also, the cities tend to fill with buildings one needs, and with possible graves making an appearance, things can get dicey quickly. Fourth, houses that provide workers must be built in order to man the various buildings each round. If a building isn't manned, its effect doesn't happen. Also, since farms, mines and woodcutters must be manned and stay out in the country until the crop is completely harvested, that leaves you short of manpower for a few rounds. Finally, choosing a saint from a roster of (I think) 6 provides you with a choice of winning conditions. Thus, you could choose (as I did) Santa Barbara whose winning condition is building one of every building type, or San Christofori (as Jodi did) whose winning condition is production of 3 of each food type and luxury. Each comes with a power once you've declared your saint - Santa Barbara allows you to move your buildings around, while San Christofori provides you with unlimited storage.
In our game I'd decided on my Santa Barbara strategy about 1/3 of the way through, but didn't declare my intentions (by building a Cathedral) until after I'd built my second city. Knowing what your goal is helps tremendously, and it's something I did NOT do in our previous game, leaving me directionless for far too long. Jodi had planned for her saint choice too, but I actually had a jump on her given my resource production. I wound up winning by building a third city and getting the rest of my buildings down.
Is this a game I plan to play often? No. Is it a game that's worth the money you'd have to spend on it at this point? I'm not sure. What I can say is that 3 hours passed quickly, I was engrossed in the game from start to finish, looking up the rules nearly every turn wasn't too painful as they're fairly clear, and HAVING JODI'S ADDITION OF STICKERS FOR THE BACK OF EVERY TILE IS MANDATORY. They're up on the web and FANTASTIC. I figure Jodi, Greg and I will play this one a couple of times a year, and I'll continue to think aobut those games long after others have been forgotten. To me, that makes it well worth the investment.
8/2: Fjorde with Jodi
I'd just picked up this 2-player as well, figuring its Carcassonne-like tendencies would appeal to Shelley. Jodi and I read through the rules, recognized the Carcassonne-esque elements, with a new Go-like addition, and began building upon the starting tiles to build the board and place farms for Phase 1. Each hex tile must fit with the landscape already present and must touch TWO of the already played tiles. Sounds fine, but this led to MANY successive turns where the drawn tile could not be played to the board. These 'misfit' tiles are then placed to the side of the board and CAN be played by either player instead of drawing from the facedown stack. Thus, turn order for Phase 2 - claiming fields - can be affected. You get 4 farms to place and they must be placed on the tile you currently play (much like Carcassonne), not on a tile played previously. Once the board is built, players take turns claiming fields around their farms with wooden disks. The person with the most claimed fields wins the round and a game is supposed to be 3 rounds.
I just couldn't seem to gain an advantage in this one, stupidly placing my farms too early in round 1, then allowing Jodi an uncontested area in round 2. I seemed to be playing defensively - preventing her encroachment - rather than offensively - heading into her areas - and this set me back in the 2 rounds we played. She won both rounds 15-12 and 17-14, but I was happy to note some improvement on my part. We both felt that a 3rd round was unnecessary and I don't see this one as a lasting addition to the game closet, though I do want to play it with Shelley.
8/2: Dschunke das Legenspiele with Jodi
Given that Shelley was out of town at her parents' place up in Santa Rosa, that I had to be back to take Mom to the airport, and that Jodi and I are both teachers on summer break, having Jodi over for a day of games sounded like an excellent way to pass the time - and it was! With just the two of us along for the ride, I scoured the game closet for 2-players or games that work well with 2 and after a satisfying lunch of cheeses and meat we started off with this homemade version of the Michael Schacht game Queen is now publishing as Rat Hot. The game involves playing 3-squared tiles that must connect to ones already played. These tiles have symbols in the squares that are either your color or our opponents. Grouping like-colored and type together earns points on a triangular scoring grid. However, tiles have BOTH colors present very often, and also may have RATS on them, which score negative points for that color. The neatest feature is that as long as you don't cover an already-placed tile directly with another, you CAN cover over images that have been already played. This one's a nice, quick game with some luck of the draw, but with some excellent strategy as you try to maximize your scoring while trying to block your opponent's or infest their cargo with rats. Jodi won handily with a score of 26 points to my 13.
Dschunke das Legenspiele/Rat Hot: 2
Fjorde: 1
Antiquity: 1
Rumis: 2
King Arthur Card Game: 3
Reef Encounter: 1
Fresh Fish: 1
Coloretto: 2
Power Grid: 1
Fiese Freunde Fette Feten: 1
Metallurgie: 1
Oltremare: 1
Himalaya: 1
Ys: 1
Architekton: 1
That's Life: 2
Kreta: 2
Tutankahmen: 1
Through the Desert: 1
7/30: Chicken Cha Cha Cha with Peter, Beth, and Shelley
Yes, I stopped at Gamescape once again and wound up picking up this (ages 4 and up) game because I got it (opened box) for 50% off. Wonderfully chunky cardboard bits and fantastic WOODEN chickens were well worth the $20 I paid! This one's a memory game that I bought with Nolan and Justin in mind (have to have something to play with them in the near future), but I thought we could try it out as a closer for the evening. Each chicken is spaced at equal distances around a circle of eggs. In order to move your chicken, you have to match the picture on the egg in front of your chicken with a bunch of facedown cardboard hexes in the middle of the circle. Everyone gets to see what you reveal, and the hilarity ensues as you TRY to remember where that white feather symbol is! I've found Peter's weakness! I won by jumping over everyone else's chicken and steaking their tailfeathers.
7/30: King Arthur with Peter, Beth and Shelley
Again I pulled this one out for a quick chance to quest. Amazingly, just like our previous game of pig racing, we wound up with a THREE WAY TIE at 40 points between Peter, Beth and me. Shelley was close at 36.
7/30: Rüsselbande with Peter, Beth, and Shelley
We followed shape building with pig racing, turning to Shelley's current favorite while we had some dessert. Four pigs makes for a less than perfectly filled track, but we all seemed to piggback nicely on each other. In fact, I CARRIED Shelley and Peter over the finish line for a 3 way tie win, with Beth just a couple of paces back in 2nd.
7/30: Ubongo with Peter, Beth, and Shelley
It's very wonderful when you can go from one Game Day to a good dinner with friends who willingly play games! Peter and Beth joined us over at our place (their first visit wince the remodel) and after yummy cheeses and bread, a Caprese salad, and spinach curry, I broke out the games. Ubongo seemed like a good fit for post-dinner excitement, and everyone seemed anxious to begin fiddling with their Tetris-like pieces as soon as they hit the table. I ran through the rules, rolled up the die, and flipped the timer. Even though I've played this one a lot, I still find myself missing on at least one board, though it seems that my mind "gets" this game pretty quickly. I was able to amass 7 blue gems for the win, with Shelley garnering 2 sets of 5, followed by Peter's single set of 5 and Beth's set of 4.
7/30: Oltremare at BAP with Gilbert, Walter, and Bay
Time for one more game, and I thought this one would work well. I was right for the MOST part. You know how sometimes a gamer just annoys the heck out of you? Well, that's what happened here. Maybe you've met such a gamer - State a rule clearly, but he asks a question about it 3-5 times; whatever thought about the game that comes into his mind MUST ber verbalized; the same mistakes are made 4-5 times, but when you correct him, he looks at you with amazement in his eyes like that's the first he's ever heard of it. Needless to say, though the game was quick 3/4 of the time, it DRAGGED for that 1/4 and I pushed it to the end, taking extra hand cards and pirate cards early - as soon as I recognized the problematic situation. Because I'd played the game before and had good shipping cards (and an anti-pirate for a couple of rounds) I came out on top with 47 points to Bay's 44, Walter's 38 and Gilbert's 28. I hope to play games with Gilbert and Bay again.
7/30: Attika at BAP with Gilbert
With others joining into scheduled games, Gilbert and I found ourselves looking for a 2-player and I suggested this title that had been on my shelf unplayed for too long - BSW got me back into the swing of things on this one. I taught Gilbert the rules, then failed miserably at building productively. Gilbert won by building all of his tokens and I had 5 still left to building when he'd finished.
7/30: Himalaya at BAP with Janeen, Dave, and Gilbert
As I suspected, others had arrived and were itching to get in on the gaming. Dave expressed an interest in learning Himalaya, so Gilbert and Janeen joined us for the game as I ran throguh the rules. Close throughout, I thought I had extablished myself fairly well with religion (luck break getting a final marker in kept me above the fray and Dave was eliminated first). However, I had TWO political areas either stolen from me or tied for no points on the last two rounds. This left me eliminated in political. When ther economic points were totalled, Gilbert's 36 squeaked by Janeen's 35. Good game and liked by everyone who played.
7/30: King Arthur at BAP with Gwennie, Peter, Janeen, and Holly
Headed to BAP once again (last Saturday is its regularly scheduled meeting) and got there as everyone was arriving at 11:00. One group headed over for a game of Tigris and Euphrates - a game I need to get to the table again, but not one I wanted to play at that point. Instead, I pulled King Arthur out of the tub, figuring it was a good starter and then we'd have a chance to form up new groups afterward. I ran through the brief rules and we began using our knights to battle evil and win goals. Though I seemed to be rather far behind at first, and Gwennie, a precocious 8 year old, was doing quite well for awhile, I wound up taking 3-4 goals in succession and ending the game with 37 points and the win. Holly came in second with 25, Gwennie followed with 24, Janeen with 23, and Peter with 15. Turns out I forgot the rule that bad guys in hand at the end count for their points, but I'm not sure that would have affected scores much, since I was well out in the lead and everyone had 1-2 cards in their hand.
7/29: King Arthur with Shelley
Since this one's been another gmae at the top of the 'fun filler' list, we thought we'd see how well it worked with two - turns out it does work quite well! We kept it close throughout, using the power to take a card early by paying double a couple of times. I won in a VERY close game by 4 points, 69 to 65.
7/29: Rüsselbande x2 with Shelley
A bit of wine with dinner, and we both figured on a couple of fun games as we finished another glass. This pig game still makes Shelley smile, so we ran through a couple of races playing 2 pigs each. In the first, we played that each pig got a separate roll and we alternated turns. I won, but then Shelley wanted to play that each person got a turn and could always choose which pig to move. Each way worked and the game went quickly regardless - I won that race too, by the way.
7/25: Rüsselbande with Ted, Mom, MaryJo, and Shelley
Another new acquisition seemed like the perfect follow-up to Walk the Dogs - yes, pig racing was the order of the day, and boy did they like this one! Yes, this is a dice-rolling game, but the beautiful little pigs STACK on top of one another, meaning that you can land on an opponent and have them move YOU on their turn. That rule, coupled with the fact that a) you get to roll again if you roll a 1 and b) one time during the game you can move a racetrack piece that has already been crossed by everyone to the end of the racetrack, thus making the race longer, make this an excellent little diversion that lasts no longer than 15 minutes. We were hooting and hollering with each roll, enjoying the fun - all reasons for recommending this one strongly when you want light and fluffy fun. MaryJo crossed the finish line first, followed by me and Shelley, with my pig riding on her pig's back, then Mom, then Ted. An aborted game of Ubongo followed, but too much wine had been drunk for that one to go over successfully. Fun was had by all, though, and I'm happy to say that everyone left talking about playing again and trying other new games.
7/25: Walk the Dogs with Ted, Mom, MaryJo, and Shelley
"Am I reading this right?" you might ask, "did Doug get to play games on three straight days?" Yes, folks, it's true! Another dinner party, this time for Mom who's heading out on a trip through Europe, meant a captive audience at the Garrett/Ganschow abode and thus a couple of post-dinner games needed to find their way to the table. Now, given the guests, I needed to make sure I chose wisely so that I didn't scare them off. When I first pulled out this game and began placing the plastic dogs in a line, I received a couple of derisive comments. However, those quickly subsided as they listened to the brief rules, realized that this wouldn't be rocket science, and we began playing our cards and collecting our dogs. Luck certainly plays a factor in this game, and Shelley's loss of a 2-dog pair to the dog catcher TWICE hurt her chances. My lucky draw at the end that gave me three dogs of the same type together, however, won me the game with 21 points. Shelley came in second with 16, followed by Ted at 15, and Mom and MaryJo at 9.
7/24: Skåål with Shelley and Greg
Turning once again to the shelf of new games (though in this case one that had just arrived the day before), I pulled this Tilsit 2004 release out and we spent a few minutes cutting the figures from the plastic and putting together the beer wagons in each of the colors. With 2 pages of rules and 6 options for one's turn, this one seemed to have disappointment written all over it. However, we quickly realized the interesting tactical aspects of the game. Points are garnered in two ways - first and most important through beer wagon majority: In this case the person with the beer wagon must have the majority of dwarves in the area and geta a point for each dwarf that's NOT his/hers in the area at the start of his/her turn. Second, one scores by collecting gold. However, one must seed the board with gold by mining and mining attracts dwarves from adjacent regions. Needless to say, the tug and pull of mining causes interesting shifts in majorities. I think I was just starting to get the hang of things about 1/2 way through when I realized there was no way for me to catch up to Shelley or Greg who were intermittently earning huge points from an area with a beer wagon that they kept trading majority on. I tried establish an area where I could collect gold solo, but to no avail. The beer wagon's power must be checked. Though I enjoyed the game, I think it would play much better with 4-6 rather than with just 3, as groups would work together to bring down a person who was generating a lot of beer wagon points. Greg won in a close contest between him and Shelley 97 to 90, while I brought up the rear at 58.
7/24: Reef Encounter with Shelley and Greg
OK, it's been a busy year. What that translates to in terms of games is that I haven't been able to play man y of the games I've been able to purchase. In fact, games have lingered on my shelf for far too long recently, with friends like Greg borrowing them and learning them with their game groups, then bringing them back to teach me! This is exactly the case with Reef Encounter, a game I've had since the end of last year. Thankfully, on this day after Game Night tradition when Greg returns for breakfast and some more gaming, Greg was kind enough to clearly run through the rules of the game (which ARE a bit confusing) then diplomatically trounce us. Reef Encounter seems a bit daunting when you read through the rules (as I had previously), but it turns out to be fairly staightforward, even if there's quite a bit of tension and some inevitable back stabbing as each player attempts to build up his/her type of coral, then protect it from others' predatory machinations. As with any Richard Breese game the bits are wonderful, and the wooden shrimp with painted eyes are worth the price of admission alone. Five types of coral, a well thought out mechanism for gaining advantage and "freezing" that advantage for attacks and future scoring, along with a bit of luck of the draw in terms of tiles available for the taking on one's turn combine for a fantastic mix of pieces, creating a wonderful whole. I look forward to playing this one again, as it will take more plays to get the interplay of actions clearer. Greg won with 43 points to my 31 and Shelley's 15.
7/23: Diamant with Shelley, Greg, David, Candy, Alix, and Paul
Another great group game had to hit the table to finish off the night. This one's a great press your luck fest, and we had a number of people willing to do just that for extended periods. David was the master, however, heading down a tunnel solo for a few cards before bugging out and finishing with 45 points. I came in second with 39, followed by Shelley at 29, Paul at 27, Greg at 26, Candy at 17 and Alix at 10. Certainly a fun one to end the night. Man, it's good to get people back in the house for some fun!
7/23: Tanz der Hornochsen with David, Candy, Alix, Paul, Greg, and Shelley
We were down to the diehards at that point, and with 7 people present, I needed to track down games that would work well for all of us as we ended the night. This boardgame version of 6Nimmt fit the bill quite well, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves quite a bit. I did quite poorly, while David went from second to last to first through canny play when the subtraction of points pictures were active. He won with a low score of 5, followed by Candy at 10, Greg at 11, Alix at 23, Shelley at 28, me at 31, and Paul with the most bad points at 42.
7/23: Ubongo with Kevan, Shelley, and Greg
After she spent some time discussing politics after dinner, Shelley was ready for another game, and Ubongo seemed to fit the bill. We were all fairly experienced players, so everyone was on the 4-tile side. Kevan's a wiz at this, winning most of the rounds, though we all kept it close. We won with 8 blue gems to my 6 ambers. Greg and Shelley each had 4 gems, though Shelley won the tiebreaker with another 4 in different color.
7/23: Gardens of Alhambra with Kevan and Greg
After fixing dinner and cleaning up, Greg and Kevan were up for something and I ran to the game room and pulled a few things off the shelf. Greg had never played this retheming of Carat, so I opened the box and we pulled out the chrome-laiden pieces. Overdone and overpriced for what it is, I must say that I still like the dynamics of this one. Yes, luck of the draw can destroy your chances or win you the game, but it plays quickly, has some nice ponder-filled moments, and even some "D'oh" incidents where you realize a play COULD have been better. With the same amount of influence for each player on each piece, the necessary ploy is work to help yourself and hope that your play doesn't benefit an opponent TOO much. The cool rule that ties for first mean that the second place person wins is fantastic. A great game? No. A good game given its length? Yep, though with a player who ponders too much it could drag painfully. Greg won with 94 points to my 84 and Kevan's 54.
7/23: Oltremare with Cyrus, Erin, Mike, and Brian
After the quick and light 6 Nimmt, it was time for somethign with a bit more meat on its bones, and given their limited knowledge of the games available, I suggested this current favorite. Running through the rules, I found the group a bit dazed by the complexity, but they were willing to give it a run through. Side note - we were up to 20+ people in the house by that time, on one of the hottest days fo the year. Though the air conditioning was working, the temperature continued to rise, sadly - 83 degrees at one point, even with fans on full blast as well.
Back to our game, and even though I'd mentioned the need to ship, everyone made the "ship one on the next turn" blunder due to worries about pirate cards. Yes, those pirate cards can hurt (heck I've lost a game or two due to too many of them) but if you can manage to ship 3-4 per turn, you're bound to mitigate their effect considerably. I did quite a bit of shipping and wound up winning with 57 points to Cyrus's 43, Erin's 35, Mike's 28, and Brian's 19.
7/23: 6 Nimmt! with Cyrus, Erin, Mike and Brian
A group of former students arrived together during the King Arthur game and I got them situated at another table playing 6 Nimmt. When King Arthur finished, I joined them for a quick game of this popular filler once they'd played on their own and remembered the ins and outs. I actually wound up winning by taking only 4 points. Erin came in second with 8, while Brian had 11, Mike scored 19, and Cyrus brought up the rear with 22.
7/23: King Arthur Card Game with Kevin, Chris, Shelley and Mary
Greg's arrival (before Caravans) meant that a few games he'd ordered for me had also arrived, so I pulled this one's shrinkwrap off and ran through the rules (with some help from Chris, since there's no English in the included rulebook AND I'd not found the rules at the 'geek - turns out there's a link). This is a fairly simple card game from Knizia that I've written about in a previous post (see June). The "use knights to defeat foes, then use those to achieve goals" works well. It plays fast, has quite a bit of luck due to card draws, but with the added rules (we missed) that you can take an adversary card early by paying double (we used the chips which delays receiving the adversaries until ALL of one color is defeated) works quite well and doesn't outstay its welcome. Chris won with 40 points to Kevin's 34, Shelley's 27, my 25 and Mary's 17.
7/23: Caravans of Ahldarahd with Greg, Kim, Shelley, and Chris
This interesting game from a new company made it onto my radar screen before Kublacon, but the company wasn't interested in getting involved, and the game fell off my radar. When Chris brought it out, my interest was piqued and I figured I should see if there was anything there to recommend the game. Each player is assigned a color and has his/her own player board, plastic discs, and glass stones in that color, along with money and a small board that shows another player's board on which you can play. Route claiming is the key to the game, Kahuna-like, and when you own the majority of routes into a city, you claim it with a stone. At the end you get 1 point for each city claimed on your own board and 3 points for cities on another's board. The main action occurs as you auction cards, roles, or even the ability to play on other's boards, then use what you win to claim routes. Money is VERY tight, as you only earn it when you claim a city or when you sell a small "play on another's board" tile. Ultimately, I liked the game, even though we played a rules wrong at first, which would have changed my actions. Also, I'm not sure I like the rule that lets a player sell ANOTHER player's "play on another's board" tile. It just seems like an extra "screw you" move that, admittedly, I suffered from. The game took a little over an hour - which felt about right and Greg, who had played before, won with 16 points, having taken advantage of playing on Kim's board to a considerable amount. A came in second with 9 points, followed by Kim with 8, Shelley with 6 and Chris with 4. Would I play it again? Yes, as long as I didn't play with major AP sufferers. Would I buy it? Probably not, though the smaller box size makes it more palatable.
7/23: Drive with Alix, Erik, and Candy
Finally, our return to hosting a Game Day! The house is done (except for a picture hanging or two) and many people arrived right on time at 1:00. That led to two groups forming immediately, with Shelley joining Chris and Kim for one of her THREE playings of Palazzo. I was very interested in playing Drive once again, the best Simply Fun game of the bunch, and Candy obliged by pulling it out of her bag. This game was more closely fought than the last time I played, and I still think it's a wonderful little diversion. After I dominated the first round, it was Alix's turn to break through and win both of the next two rounds for a 126 point win to my 91, Erik's 59 and Candy's 36.
7/16: Jambo with Shelley
Erik let us borrow his copy of this SdJ nominated 2-player game and we finally got it to the table for a game. Jambo's a commodity game of buy low, sell high, with the winner achieving 60 gold pieces. However, MANY special cards are thrown into the deck, allowing each player single use or multiple use modifications to how they are playing. For the first game, the speicals were a bit overwhelming but about 1/3 of the way through, I'd cuaght the hang of what needed to happen a bit, and used the cards I'd accumulated to pass Shelley by for a close win of 64 gold to her 57. I figure if you played this one a lot, the intricacies of the spcial cards would begin to develop, but I don't see optaining this one, let alone playing it more than a couple of times.
7/16: Sorry (variant) with Shelley
Shelley and I used to play Sorry all the time when we didn't know of the other games available to us. This variant is an interesting diversion - each player gets a hand of 5 cards from which he/she plays on a turn. This change allows for many more interesting tactical decisions and options, though of course the luck of the draw DOES still factor into the playing. I suffered a problematic streak aobut 1/2 way through, but recovered and caught Shelley at the very end for the win with her last piece in 3 spaces away from Home. Fun occasionally, but mostly for nostalgia.
7/14: Oltremare with Robin, Eric, Ursula and Shelley
We attended another Game Night at a roving group Erik connected us to, and we enjoyed a meal of chicken and soup on a rather hot evening. Games didn't start for awhile because no one wanted to enter the hot house, and instead spent some time chatting on the front lawn in the shade. When we finally headed in, I opened my tub and suggested Oltremare, a game I still enjoy quite a bit, and we rounded up a full contingent for the dining room table. I ran through the rules systematically (quite proud of myself on that front this time) then reiterated them again, and again....And round 1 took about 6x as long as it should have because of questions, pauses for re-explanations, ponderings over the symbols I had just discussed three times on a first turn where one only plays ONE CARD! OY! Yes, the game was still enjoyable, but lasted about 30 minutes longer than it should have, and then two of the players just got up and walked away from the table without a 'thanks' or any help with picking up. Man, that irks me, but certainly doesn't make Shelley partial to a return visit for playing more often. Oh well.... Shelley actually tied for the win at 46 points to my 40 (I wound up with too many pirate cards, but finished the game on my turn, as I REALLY wanted it to end and saw that the next player shouldn't have another turn because it would have benefitted him too much. I don't often think in my head, "well, I won't win, but at least Shelley's in contention," but that was the case this time). Ursula earned 37 points and Robin brought up the rear with 31.
7/9: Ubongo with Shelley
To end our Sacramento visit, Shelley and I actually played against each other as everyone else was in a game - odd that. I really do love this little game, and going head to head, while not the 'best' way to play, actually works. I did quite well and pulled in 6 reds to Shelley's 4 reds (why did we wind up collecting the same thing?).
7/9: Die Weinhandler with Shelley and Nick
OK, I've said it before, but I just STINK at bidding games. I just seem to either drop out of the running far too quickly, or wind up overbidding and therefore out of subsequent rounds when cards I REALLY need come up. This game was no exception, and I found myself with no wine cellar to speak of while Shelley had played into hers about 4 times. I came in dead last by a large margin, but thankfully the game goes quickly.
7/9: Kaleidos with Braedon, Dakota, Shelley, and Brandon(?)
Given my dismal performance on the previous game, I figured something ore my speed and u my alley might help. This was our first play of the set we acquired from Oasis of Fun, and I must say it's quite the enjoyable package! The pictures immediately attracted others to the table and we wound up with 5 players playing about 8 rounds. It's amazing how long you can stare at a picture and just not see anything, then have a few items all pop into your head at once. I wound up on top in this one - my vocabulary pays off - with 93 points to Braedon's 83, Brandon's 54 (I think that was his name), Shelley's 53, and Dakota's 36.
7/9: Flandern 1302 with Dakota, Charles, and Shelley
Greg and Kevan invited us to their Game Day up in Sacramento, and after a late start primarily due to my email being down and all of the invite information being there, we arrived about 2:00. Given that most people were already involved in a game when we arrived, we rounded up Charles, who had just finished a game, and unfortunately wound up with a young girl who was fairly competent, but became "annoying gamer from hell" as she wandered away when it wasn't her turn, had to ask the same questions over and over, and often made the rest of us wait as she wandered. Coupled with the fact that as teacher, I was Charles' target in the game, I had to deal with the painfully horrifying feeling of losing to the zoned out girl and coming in last. Frustrating, and not the greatest start to the event.
7/7: Drive with Robin and Lisa
Breaking into other groups, Shelley pulled Ubongo out of the bag and ran through it with Erik and Eric, while I pulled this Simply Fun edition of a Michael Schacht game off of Erik's shelf for a run through. Turns out, this is probably the best game in the Simply Fun line! On your turn you draw two cards from two different stacks (you have 2 draw piles and 2 discard stacks). You're trying to create collections of cards, and can beat another's collection of the same type by laying down more of that type. Everything seemed to click for me on this one, and I love its quick playtime and interesting dynamics. Lisa couldn't seem to catcha break, while Robin and I stayed neck and neck. I wound up pulling out a win with 131 points to Robin's 125 and Lisa's 68.
7/7: Himalaya with Shelley, Eric, and Lisa
Erik invited us over to his place for his weekly Thursday night Game Night, and I brought a tub of games to choose from. After a pizza dinner, we had rounded up enough players for 2 tables of 4, and I taught Eric and Lisa the game. This one was the most frustrating playing of the game, but not because of the people playing. I did a good job of gaining political influence and attempting to get some of my religious influence down, but contracts kept coming up in cities that already had religious influence in them. In fact, only 3 of the contracts that came out in the final 7 rounds were in religious-influence-free cities - AAAUGH!!! Needless to say, I just couldn't catch a break and lost out on religion, even though I would have won if I'd been able to get past that first elimination. Shelley and Eric were tied at least political, so they weren't eliminated in that round, and economics was close, with Lisa earning the victory at 31 points to Eric's 26 and Shelley's 21.
7/4: Walk the Dogs with Shelley, Joy and Eric
Joy and Eric had Shelley, the dogs, and me over for 4th of July, and I brought Walk the Dogs for a fun diversion. Nolan enjoyed making rows of dogs before dinner, but then afterward we made a proper line for the game and began playing our cards. I was able to create the best collection of dogs and earned 38 points to Shelley's 32, Joy's 27, and Eric's 23.
7/2: Walk the Dogs with Jim and Chris
Kevin and Mary had a pre-4th of July party, and I brought a couple of games (of course) and enticed Chris and Jim to get one to the table. This Simply Fun entry arrived a couple of weeks ago after we'd ordered it when we attended Erik's party. The fact that there are 60+ plastic dogs in the box that make a cool line from which you draw is the best part of the game. Each player creates his/her own line of dogs and scores points for grouping like breeds. There are a couple of game-balancing reward cards, coupled with a Dog Catcher who steals your biggest 'exposed' group of dogs (at the front or back of your line). Otherwise, this one definitely falls in the cool bits, family game category and will see play time primarily with our nephews. My 42 beat Chris' 34 and Jim's 23.
July Games Played: 35
1) Walk the Dogs: 3
2) Himalaya: 2
3) Drive: 2
4) Flandern 1302: 1
5) Kaleidos: 1
6) Die Weinhandler: 1
7) Ubongo: 3
8) Oltremare: 3
9) Sorry (variant): 1
10) Jambo: 1
11) Caravans of Ahldarahd: 1
12) King Arthur: 4
13) 6 Nimmt!: 1
14) Gardens of Alhambra: 1
15) Tanz der Hornochsen: 1
16) Diamant: 1
17) Reef Encounter: 1
18) Skåål: 1
19) Rüsselbande: 4
20) Attika: 1
21) Chicken Cha Cha Cha: 1
1) Carcassonne: 3
2) Category 5: 1
3) Leapfrog: 3
4) Hase & Igel: 1
5) Tanz der Hornochsen: 7
6) Ticket to Ride: 2
7) Razzia!: 1
8) Wheedle: 4
9) Weinhandler: 3
10) Fairytale: 8
11) YS: 6
12) Hispaniola: 1
13) King's Breakfast: 1
14) Coloretto: 4
15) Villa Paletti: 1
16) Mall World: 1
17) Himalaya: 10
18) Keythedral: 2
19) Settlers of Catan: 1`
20) Coloretto Amazonas: 18
21) Die Garten der Alhambra: 1
22) Einfach Genial: 11
23) Balloon Cup: 2
24) Motley Fool's Buy Low, Sell High: 1
25) El Grande: 1
26) Der Prestel Schlossgarten: 1
27) Clocktowers: 1
28) Paris Paris: 1
29) Attika: 1
30) Carcassonne: The City: 1
31) 6 Nimmt: 10
32) Starship Catan: 1
33) Oltremare: 8
34) Can't Stop: 1
35) Web of Power Card Game: 1
36) Flix Mix: 2
37) Ticket to Ride Europe: 1
38) Web of Power: 2/China: 1
39) Die Weinhandler: 1
40) King's Breakfast: 2
41) Perudo: 2
42) flowerpower: 1
43) Pit: 1
44) Arriba: 1
45) Nur Peanuts: 1
46) San Juan: 1
47) Flandern 1302: 3
48) Hennen Rennen: 3
49) Kubla's Gambol: 1
50) Carolus Magnus: 1
51) High Society: 1
52) Metallurgie: 3
53) Geschenkt: 2
54) Aladdin's Dragons: 1
55) Relationship Tightrope: 1
56) Louis XIV: 1
57) Ubongo: 8
58) Diamant: 4
59) Vom Kap bis Kairo: 1
60) Die Fugger: 1
61) Walk the Dogs: 4
62) Linkity: 1
63) Lost Cities: 1
64) Untergang von Pompeii: 1
65) Take 5: 1
66) Australia: 1
67) Niagra: 1
68) Kaleidos: 2
69) Take it Easy: 1
70) Shadows Over Camelot: 1
71) Tower of Babel: 1
72) Palazzo: 1
72) Around the World in 80 Days: 1
73) Verflixxt/That's Life: 4
74) Kreta: 5
75) King Arthur Kartenspiel: 9
76) Rüsselbande: 5
77) Alhambra: 1
78) Drive: 2
79) Sorry (variant): 1
80) Jambo: 1
81) Caravans of Ahldarahd: 1
82) Gardens of Alhambra: 1
83) Reef Encounter: 2
84) Skåål: 1
85) Attika: 1
86) Chicken Cha Cha Cha: 1
87) Dschunke das Legenspiele/Rat Hot: 2
88) Fjorde: 1
89) Antiquity: 1
90) Rumis: 2
91) Fresh Fish: 1
92) Power Grid: 1
93) Fiese Freunde Fette Feten: 1
94) Architekton: 1
95) Tutankahmen: 1
96) Through the Desert: 1
97) Kunst Stucke: 1