|
-
Chief EGG Head
United States
-
Day 2 I started out with Bargain Hunter a nifty trick-taking game that is best with 3. The problem is that I always forget how to play so I really need to play it more often so I can score better.
We went searching for Nessie next in Loch Ness. Very light game where you place cameras around the loch hoping to capture a photo on Nessie and earning VP. You use cards played secretly which determines Nessie's movement. Nothing to exciting, kind of cute I guess.
I finally got a game of Age of Industry played. Unfortunately since I was teaching, I didn't play the expansion maps. I showed Jodi, Kevin and Clark how to play on the Germany map. So I'm still up for some more plays on the expansion maps. Denis next year we have to play a Martin Wallace together.
Doug was kind enough to teach us how to play Lancaster. Had a great 5 player game. I really enjoyed this worker placement game. Nicely produced with pretty straight forward rules. I also played it again, later in the con but only with 3. Definitely much better with 5 and I imagine ok with 4 but I will try and avoid 3 player games in the future. Basically, Lancaster is a worker placement game. Your knights which come in different strengths are your workers. You can place them on the main board which will give you benefits like increasing a knights strength or adding a level 1 knight to your supply. Alternatively you can choose a noble who will give you points at end game and an extra voting cube during the game I found it easier to look at the letters instead of the little pictures of the nobles since each must be different to score. You can bump someone else's knight out of a spot on the board by using a knight of higher strength or adding squires . You can also take part in conflicts After all the knights are placed you then vote on laws Here is my complaint about the production. The game comes with cardboard tokens with an X and a check mark to vote with. They are large and difficult to hold in your hand and select without other players seeing what you are doing especially since you are also supposed to add voting cubes. We thought it might be much easier to use a red cube for no and a green cube for yes when voting which I'll try the next time we play. After voting you apply the laws, resolve the main board, then conflicts and then you resolve player boards which can give you extra actions. The game only lasts 5 rounds so it plays nice and quickly.
Doug always holds an icebreaker at the con in which all the attendees play a little game and compete for a prize. This year we played Color Stix a new game by SDJ winner Susan McKinley Ross of Qwirkle. It's a simple game in which you have a number of sticks with different colors in different arrangements and you try and match the sticks up so as to create the largest areas of the same color to score. a picture demonstrating this from Eric Martin. More challenging than it looks Bryon walked away with the win and his own copy of Color Stix.
I was also happy to finally play Fundstücke an old card game from Friedemann Friese. Turns out it's a little blind bidding game, not amongst my favorite mechanisms-mostly because I suck at it. Each player gets a set of biding cards numbered 0-5. Notice each set is a different shade of green of course! and a randomly drawn tile to break ties. After each player simultaneously chooses a bid card, they are revealed. In case of ties, the tie breaker tiles are used, with the higher number allowing that player use their card that turn. The tied players then switch tiles. Next starting with the lowest bid of 1 or higher, the player may choose the number of junk tiles equal to their bid. If the junk now collected by a player matches a contract they may fulfill it. If someone bids zero then that player may steal junk from players who had actions that round. The player with the most points at the end wins, with most points coming from contracts and a smaller amount of points from left over junk. So all in all a quick filler with silly blind bidding. Of course I think it's a wonderful game since it may be the only blind bidding game I have ever played and won! Thanks to Andrew for bringing and teaching this one.
Jeremiah wanted to play German Railways and so we started a game with Chris and Shannon. Shannon jumped out to a quick lead and the rest of us didn't really help as the next few stock that were sold were ones in companies she had stock in already. She crushed us. This is a tough game for me to play and I still do poorly at it. This time I came in third but just a few dollars behind the second place person.
|
|
|
which will give you benefits like increasing a knights strength or adding a level 1 knight to your supply. Alternatively you can choose a noble who will give you points at end game and an extra voting cube during the game
I found it easier to look at the letters instead of the little pictures of the nobles since each must be different to score. You can bump someone else's knight out of a spot on the board by using a knight of higher strength or adding squires
. You can also take part in conflicts
After all the knights are placed you then vote on laws
Here is my complaint about the production. The game comes with cardboard tokens with an X and a check mark to vote with. They are large and difficult to hold in your hand and select without other players seeing what you are doing especially since you are also supposed to add voting cubes. We thought it might be much easier to use a red cube for no and a green cube for yes
when voting which I'll try the next time we play. After voting you apply the laws, resolve the main board, then conflicts and then you resolve player boards which can give you extra actions. The game only lasts 5 rounds so it plays nice and quickly.
After each player simultaneously chooses a bid card, they are revealed. In case of ties, the tie breaker tiles are used, with the higher number allowing that player use their card that turn. The tied players then switch tiles. Next starting with the lowest bid of 1 or higher, the player may choose the number of junk tiles equal to their bid.
If the junk now collected by a player matches a contract
they may fulfill it. If someone bids zero then that player may steal junk from players who had actions that round. The player with the most points at the end wins, with most points coming from contracts and a smaller amount of points from left over junk. So all in all a quick filler with silly blind bidding. Of course I think it's a wonderful game since it may be the only blind bidding game I have ever played and won! Thanks to Andrew for bringing and teaching this one.
