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Hypermind BoardGame Night - April 2007
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Welcome to boardgaming in Burlington, NC! Since my original blog-style Geeklist ( http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/19363) is getting a little large and unwieldy, I'm taking a suggestion from one of our regular gamers (chiplee) to start a new Geeklist every month to chronicle our gaming adventures and provide a forum for communication both inside and outside our group. Also new starting this month is a new feature to our Game Nights which I respectfully took from Mark Johnson, the host of Boardgames To Go, who on one his very early podcasts ( http://boardgamestogo.com/2005_04_01_boardgamestogo_archive....) mentioned how the Santa Clarita Boardgamers choose a "Game of the Month". After listening to that podcast, I realized that in our Tuesday night sessions, we tend to chaotically play lots of new and different games with little opportunity to really get familiar with any particular game, let alone develop any strategy for it. I therefore brought a few games that I thought would be good candidates to the first week's Game Night, hoping that the rest of the group would take to it. So, with out further ado, on to the games!
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Posted On: 2007-04-04 21:45:06
Edited On: 2007-04-04 13:04:55
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This is the original Geeklist for our BoardGame Night. Check it out to catch up on the players and how we got started! |
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Posted On: 2007-04-04 13:08:40
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Our first Game of the Month! is Tigris & Euphrates. The nominations also included Citadels and Shogun.
As I see it, T&E is an excellent choice first because it is a "classic" game, which is well-rated and well-respected by pretty much everybody in the hobby. Also, there is such a depth of play involved in the game which you can't really appreciate with just one play "every so often". The different choices and strategies are something that you really need to experiment with to really understand, and I hope that being Game of the Month! will help us all discover that.
By the way, Game of the Month! does not mean that it is our favorite game for that month or anything, but rather that we will make an effort to play it at least once each week and hopefully discuss it here and in person to help us all develop a better understanding and appreciation for the game. I hope to have a good mix of both classic and new games as the months go on, but that will ultimately be decided by the group as a whole. |
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Posted On: 2007-04-04 13:22:22
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April 3, 2007
I arrived early this week, and even before we had selected it officially as the Game of the Month!, "Magic" Chris and I wanted to take another shot at Tigris & Euphrates. We grabbed James, taught him the game, and got started.
Chris and I were less confrontational (to start with, at least) than we were the last time we played, instead spending a little more time establishing our power base. I built two monuments early (blue/green and red/black) and started getting a constant stream of victory points. James was a little lost, but hopefully he'll be ready for another game soon. Anyway, eventually Chris and I met in the middle of the board, struggling to claim treasures and having a few key conflicts. After doing well early, I found myself at a severe lack of green VP's, so I worked hard to connect myself to the two green monuments. Pretty soon, all the monuments were out and most of the board was covered in one humongous kingdom.
In the end, I managed to rack up a few extra green points by cutting off his trader from the big kingdom via a catastrophe tile and playing my own trader into the kingdom with two green monuments. I edged him out by two or three points for the win.
Meanwhile, Mark, Denise, Alton, and Britt (from our Twilight Imperium Saturday specials) had come in and settled down for a game of Bang!. I'm not sure exactly how many games they played, but the one I caught the end of had them passing dynamite around and ended with Sheriff Britt finishing off Mark in a big time showdown.
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Posted On: 2007-04-04 20:22:47
Edited on: 2007-04-04 21:46:48
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April 3, 2007 (continued)
Next, we had the conversation about the Game of the Month! and talked about what to play next. Britt really wanted to try out Shogun, so we decided to give it a shot. Starting the game were Britt, "Magic" Chris, Mark, Chip, and myself. Alton hung around to watch the game and help out the new players.
Now, the first time I played Shogun, I was a little too aggressive with the attacking, wore myself too thin, and got smacked around in the late game. So this time I resolved to play it a little more conservatively. I had a moderate presence in the green, purple, and orange regions, and I tried to focus on fortifying my position and erectng buildings. As the game progressed, however, I still found myself overcommitting and leaving several provinces underdefended.
After the first year, I was in the lead but it was a close race all around. Mark had to go so Alton took over for the yellow horde. I continued to build buildings and everybody seemed to really have the feel of the game. Then, in the last turn, I had two provinces in the orange region decimated, losing 5 buildings and my majority in at least one or two kinds of buildings. Alton was strong and had built lots of buildings, sprinting to a 5 point victory over the next Daimyo to become the Shogun. Meanwhile, I finished second to last...
Britt and Chip both also expressed a concern that Alton had voiced after his first game with Shogun, that it seems to end too soon and too suddenly. Once again, I agree that the two-year cutoff is a little arbitrary, and maybe we'll be able to try a 4 or 5 year game sometime in the future to see if it makes a difference.
During our marathon game, we had five more gamers come in for BoardGame Night. First, there was a group of Elon University students who came in and played a couple of games amongst themselves. They started with a game or two of Taluva, which is one of my favorite new games.
Then they pulled out Betrayal at House on the Hill, which is a game I just haven't played enough lately.
Their names were (left to right) Brandon, Allison, Jonathan, and Kristin (note - another "Chris" for our Dudes Named Chris... except that she's not a dude). I hate that I was involved in such a distracting game, because I wanted to talk with them a little more. They seemed to enjoy themselves, and said that they would join us again, so hopefully I'll get that chance in the near future.
Denise, James, and the newly arrived Jason also started up another game while we were playing Shogun, playing a game or two of Munchkin Bites!.
All in all, for me it was a game of heavy-hitters, and was very satisfying. Can't wait till next week...
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2 Comments []
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Posted On: 2007-04-04 21:44:18
Edited on: 2007-04-05 06:21:41
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April 7, 2007
I was out of town, but another epic game of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition was held this Saturday. I'll let those involved give a report when they get a chance. |
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2 Comments []
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Posted On: 2007-04-08 07:48:54
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Posted On: 2007-04-08 15:04:24
