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Larry Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
Way to go, Bubba.
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This is a weekly recount of my family's gaming. Most of the plays involve myself, my wife Melissa, my 9 year old son and my 8 year old daughter.
My wife was in Canada during the early part of the week and the rest of us were just too busy to work in any gaming. But our gaming started in earnest on Thursday.
I was surprised to see Qwirkle make the final three for the coveted Spiel des Jahres as it has been out for a while, but apparently it was introduced in Germany for the first time this year.
This has been a family favorite for a few years so it is always welcomed at the table. The game is easy enough for children to play well and is quite visually appealing. The game started out close but slowly me and my daughter pulled into a lead over Melissa and my son. The lead changed hands between us every time one of us made a play. We got to the endgame and the score was Larry 113, daughter 111. She had three tiles left and if she could go out, she would win the game. I had only one tile left so would definitely go out on my turn. She was able to play 2 tiles for 4 points to take a 115-113 lead. I would go out on my turn but my son had to play first. He was able to lay down all 4 of his tiles to go out and deprive me of my last turn, giving my daughter the win. Final Scores: Daughter 115, Larry 113, Son 92, Melissa 80.
We also got in 5 games of No Thanks!. The kids haven't played it in a while and the first two games were ugly. I won the first game with a 0 while the kids scored over 50 each and Melissa won the second game with a 23 while both kids scored over 65.
That completed our Thursday night session.
Friday is our regular game night and we continued with 3 plays of No Thanks!. The kids did much better as my son and daughter each won a game and I picked up the win in the 3rd game.
Next up was 6nimmt!.
We got in two quick plays of this one. I prefer to play with 6-8 but it isn't bad with just four. Melissa took only 2 heads to win the first game and I won the second one with 4. My daughter just missed out on the first game with 3 while my son finished with 7 to claim second place in the second game.
It was then time for our big game of the night and I bought our a game that hadn't made it to the table in 8 years! Entdecker: Exploring New Horizons.
I taught the kids to play and we were off to explore the new world. My son, daughter and I all started on the cheap side of the board while Melissa decided to stake her claim on a 1 coin side. Melissa soon had a huge island that everyone struggled to join. Eventually everyone got on the island but Melissa still managed to get the most points from it. I, however, managed more points elsewhere and was able to claim the victory. Final Scores: Larry 87, Melissa 73, Daughter 67, Son 37. (My son ignored my advice and tried to beat me at a hut that I had the advantage at. Not only did he lose, he lost two huts he could have won in the process and got shut-out in that area of scoring.)
Saturday there was no gaming but I did get to visit Greenville and check out the new location of the game store owned by my friend John. John and I had time for a nice long chat and I picked up copies of Troyes and Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game. I wish him much success at the new location.
Sunday I got my first opportunity to play Troyes.
The first few turns consisted of blank stares and what do I do now looks. Finally the game started clicking for us and the last turns were much quicker and more productive. In the end, it was a close game decided on the last turn.
Final Scores: Larry 40, Melissa 39, Son and Daughter 33 each.
Melissa had to work on Memorial Day but the kids were out of school and I was at home. In the morning we decided to play Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game.
I had read a lot of complaints about how difficult it was to understand the rules. I found them straightforward for the most part. Perhaps it was my wargaming experience that helped. If you can slog through Don Greenwood's old rules you can figure out most anything.
In our first game we got down to only 6 marines remaining from our original band of 12 and we were surrounded by tons of genestealers. Brother Leon had a 33% chance of winning the game and he did just that. I don't know that we would have survived another turn.
I then took the kids swimming for the afternoon. After dinner, the kids begged to play again. We recruited Melissa to join us for our first 4 player game. We were annihilated in location 1. We decided to try again and made it to location 2 before being overwhelmed. The kids decided that it is a better game when only 3 play.
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