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Chief EGG Head
United States
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So lately I've been on an abstract game kick and deciding to dig a little more into abstracts posted a recent geeklist to get some more ideas about good ones to try. As a result of this fascinating albeit somewhat lazy research, I got to try a few "new to me" games this past weekend and with very little arm twisting found a willing opponent
gameongameon
United States
First up was Scoozie. I kind of did a leap of faith on this game, recommended by
Joe Huber
Westborough
Massachusetts
but Joe's taste in games and mine run reasonably similarly. I found the game is OOP and only a few copies left so I did what any good geek would do and bought a copy. Pricey, but I think it will pan out in the long run. It also comes with a very nice large, wooden board and pieces The game seems kind of loosely based on American Football. The game is asymmetric in that you alternate playing offense and defense. Here is the football
I feel tempted to paint it a different color
The light pieces are offensive and consist of guards and 3 ball carriers. The dark pieces are the defense and consist of all tackles.
Here is the opening game
The game is played on a grid and guards and tackles move from small circle to small circle. The ball carrier moves from large circle to large circle along routes.
Each player may move 2 pieces 1 or 2 spaces. The routes can be controlled by tackles that are adjacent to the routes. In addition guards and tackles can block each other essentially preventing each other from moving the rest of the round but also permanently having the tackles control certain routes.
A ball carrier cannot run along a route if it is controlled by a tackle but may move 1 or 2 spaces always advancing along open routes. In addition the ball may be passed to another ball carrier along a straight route. Here the ball has just been passed.
The farther across the grid the ball carrier moves the higher the number of points earned. The round is over when a runner is captured by a tackle, reaches the opposite row for a score, (here my runner just made it to the opposite of the board for a big score)
or the offensive can only move one piece. Then players switch sides.
All in all I thought this played well. It does have a football flavor to it and their are lots of options on each move. The first turn or two we were both kind of tentative in figuring out what to do but it's pretty easy to get into the game. I'm really looking forward to another play.
Next up was Sly. and
-matt s.
United States
Eugene
Oregon
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/blog/22
had recently played this as well and added it to the geeklist. This game is the epitomy of 1970's design, not game mechanics but game art and layout design. Let's start with the cover art, here's a nice image from Wow, gotta love the fireplace, sweater vest and shag carpet. Open up the box and we have a faux suede box insert! and lovely Avocado Green, Harvest Gold and Burnt Orange tokens. Finally we have the nifty wood grain patterned board.
As for the game, or games rather, this box provides all the bits needed for a small collection of six Sid Sackson works.
We played Sniggle which is basically a race to get a group of 9 pieces across the board. Movement depends on the number of pieces your opponent has in the row in which you land. It was kind of interesting, but one of those games that I feel like someone else smarter than me has solved.
Then we played Line Up, where you win by connecting 4 pieces in a row or lose by being unable to move your designated piece. Players start with identical tokens but alternate which piece they must move on their turn in a set pattern square, triangle, cylinder. So I managed one win and lost the next two on connections!
Finally we played Blockade. This classic kind of reminded me of Ricochet Robots only the ricochet parts can move. Basically you each have a king and must find a path to the other side of the board by ricocheting off blockers. Each player takes turns playing blockers then moving them until one player sees a path at the beginning of their turn. Here was our game in progress
I've had an unplayed copy of Orbit sitting on my shelf for a very long time. This game has very neat wooden bits almost preschoolish with nice chunky wooden bits in bright colors. It also comes with rules for 3 games, Orbit, Harun and Corona.Orbit is for 3-6 so we were only able to try Harun which is an easier version of Corona. In Corona, you roll the dice and then race against the other opponents in trying to mentally apply each dice rolled as movement to one of the colored discs. The discs can then move clockwise. Points are earned by the number of discs in a space when the the new disc arrives.
So it's basically a puzzle game and the rule book comes with a number of solitaire puzzles. I'd like to try Orbit next time. It gets to use more of the cool pieces in the box!
I recently traded for a copy of The Colony which I had never heard of, but it turns out it's a mancala variant. So The Colony each player has 6 ants to place and each player tries to gather the most eggs and at the end of the game you also count eggs that your ants are guarding. The game comes with some really nice wooden tiles. The eggs are distributed evenly and then players alternate moving the eggs and placing their ants depending on the number of eggs on a log. When all the eggs are guarded the game is over and you add eggs collected plus eggs guarded. Really a pretty quick and fun little game. I'm glad for the trade.
We also played YINSH one of my favorites of project GIPF and I finally got around to playing GIPF itself. All the games in this series are well done and great looking games to boot.
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a faux suede box insert! and lovely Avocado Green, Harvest Gold and Burnt Orange tokens. Finally we have the nifty wood grain patterned board
.
and then players alternate moving the eggs and placing their ants depending on the number of eggs on a log.
When all the eggs are guarded the game is over and you add eggs collected plus eggs guarded.
Really a pretty quick and fun little game. I'm glad for the trade.
