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Hypermind BoardGame Night - September 2007
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September and the coming of fall have now pounced on the Hypermind BoardGamers, taking us by surprise! With many stolen away by school and the pressing obligations of work and family (what twisted priorities)... the rest of us, the remnant, press on towards our goal of maintaining a boardgaming community within a small town in central North Carolina. We are... the Hypermind
BoardGamers!
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Posted On: 2007-09-05 22:40:02
Edited On: 2007-09-06 09:51:40
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The "Master List" of our struggles to wrest control of the mundane world from the clutches of 382 different "versions" of Monopoly. We seek to redeem the lost card-floppers and convert the wayward dice-chuckers. All are welcome in the Hypermind BoardGaming family! |
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2 Comments []
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Posted On: 2007-09-05 18:19:46
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For September, we went in a slightly different direction for our Game of the Month! Instead of just one game, we chose an entire series of games, the Ticket to Ride family of games! So, this month we will see play from the original game, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition, and the Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 expansion.
Other nominated games include China, Shadows over Camelot, Mission: Red Planet, and Vegas Showdown. |
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Posted On: 2007-09-05 21:28:06
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3.
Hansa [Average Rating:7.15 Unranked]
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September 4, 2007
As we began our first Game Night of September, three of us arrived early and were itching to get started. I had brought Hansa several times over the last month or two, and finally Chris Ingersoll and Sabrina decided to give it a try with me.
The rules are pretty simple, so we got started after just a few minutes of explanation. It seems impossible to get a really commanding lead in Hansa, so things appeared close all game long. Sabrina was a little slow to start selling trade goods for victory points, but in the end was still competitive with Chris and me. This game is very dry and analytical, however, and it didn't do a heck of a lot for either of my opponents. Personally, I enjoy it in a very abstract kind of way, but fully recognize that there's not a whole lot of "fun" or "excitement" involved in the game.
Score: Me 49, Chris 42, Sabrina 40
Ratings: Me 7, Chris 6, Sabrina 5
Before we had even finished up our game, Chip, Mark, and Jim had all arrived and began to start up a game of our new Game of the Month!, Ticket to Ride. All of them had plenty of experience playing, so they had a very competitive game.
Score: Jim 138, Chip 133, Mark 115
Score: Jim 9, Chip 8.5, Mark 8.5
Chris, Sabrina, and I also started up a game of Ticket to Ride right after finishing up Hansa. Neither of them had ever played, however, so I had to quickly explain the rules of this game to them as well. Of course, it's probably the best gateway game in existence, so explaining the rules isn't exactly a big chore.
After several rounds of picking up cards, I started strong by claiming the long routes between LA and El Paso, then El Paso and Houston as I attempted to build a huge trans-continental railroad from San Fransisco to New York. Before long, I had a big lead, had completed my initial tickets, and had a very long continuous path.
Then I started with the badness. When I drew more tickets, the only one that looked good was getting from Boston to Miami. Of course, I couldn't find a blue or purple train card to save my life, so I started spinning my wheels for a while. Meanwhile, Sabrina was connecting up the central part of the country and Chris was building the longest path ever to get from El Paso to Denver. In fact, he managed to use up all 45 trains in a continuous path to circle all around the country and, of course, claim the longest path. The difference in the game ended up being one failed ticket card, going from Winnipeg to Little Rock, which I had the cards for in my hand but that Chris didn't give me the chance to finish as he used up his last few trains about 2 turns too early.
Score: Chris 121, Me 111, Sabrina 103
Ratings: Chris 8, Me 8, Sabrina 9 |
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1 Comment []
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Posted On: 2007-09-05 21:53:18
Edited on: 2007-09-05 21:53:50
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September 4, 2007 (continued)
The other group had waited for us to finish up, so we decided to try a game that we could all join in on. After a little discussion, we settled on one of my all-time favorites, Shadows over Camelot.
Sabrina was new to the game and a couple of the other guys had not played in a while, so we went over the rules as thoroughly as you really need to before getting started. When we chose up knights, this was the breakdown:
King Arthur - Sabrina
Sir Gawain - Chip
Sir Galahad - Jim
Sir Kay - Mark
Sir Tristan - Chris
and I was...
Brave Sir Percival, scourge of evil!
We secretly passed out loyalty cards and then started the game. After the obligatory turn or two of drawing cards at Camelot, Chip and I decided to head to the Grail quest. Chris headed straight to Lancelot's armor and Mark took on the Black Knight while Sabrina and Jim stayed back at Camelot for another turn or two.
Chip and I made good progress early with the grail, and the "Heroism" card got played on it early, making it worth one more white or black sword (depending on how it turned out). Mark made pretty short work of the Black Knight, earning our first white sword, but Chris got stung by a couple of Lancelot cards in a row, losing the quest and a life point while adding the first black sword to the round table in the process.
Jim started trying to fight the Saxons off the beach while Sabrina headed over to try and get Excalibur. As the Saxon invasion neared, Chris headed over to give Jim a hand and hopefully pick up a life point in the process. Despite Chris not having the correct card to finish the quest on the next turn, Jim still managed to win it the following round.
Then we began our all-out assault on the Grail quest.
While Sabrina drew more cards at Camelot, everybody else joined in on the bandwagon and whittled the despair away. Finally, Chip played the last grail card and claimed the artifact, also giving us 4 more white swords to put us up 7-1 agaist the forces of darkness!
At this point in the game, we were doing very well in terms of swords, but the seige engines were getting a little out of control and we were all rather short on life. I had a two pair in my hand (3's and 4's), so I immediately headed over to the Black Knight, while Mark (Sir Kay) assumed his near-permanent position fighting seige engines and almost everybody else headed over to the Excalibur quest.
Heroism was again played, this time on my Black Knight quest, which I was only one card away from winning. We had forsaken the Dragon quest, and Excalibur was slowly but surely making its way to the near shore. Things were going so well and I was sure that none among us were dirty, stinking traitors.
Then... Morgan played her master stroke. With the flip of a card, each of the knights lost one life, killing all of us but poor Sir Kay, fighting valiantly to keep the invaders from toppling Camelot itself.
Already holding a majority of swords, however, victory was still possible. If we managed to lose two quests among the Dragon,the Black Knight, or Excalibur before Sir Kay was overwhelmed, we would still win. So, time after time, Mark took his solo turns pulling black cards and fighting seige engines. The Dragon was lost, bringing the total up to 7 white to 3 black swords. He continued as tension built. Then, finally, the fourth Black Knight card was pulled and rejoicing erupted among the spirits of the dead knights.
But wait, Chris revealed that his Sir Tristan was, in fact, a dirty, stinking traitor. We had not ferreted out his evil when we had the chance, so would two of our hard-won swords be turned to the "dark side"? In a flurry of rules-book flipping it was investigated and... NO! The traitor must be both undetected and alive in order to corrupt the final score!
Victory was indeed ours, 7 white swords to 5 black ones! In losing two final battles and through the sacrifice of a host of brave knights, the war was won and Camelot was saved! Sir Kay would rebuild the Knights of the Round Table and justice and mercy would continue to reign in all of Briton...
What a great game! I just love Shadows over Camelot! As always, the tension and excitement built and built throughout the game, ending in an unpredictable but thoroughly exciting and enjoyable way. Chris, as the traitor, was both subtle and crafty, but alas his plan was foiled.
Ratings: Sabrina 9, Mark 8.5, Jim 9, Me 9, Chris 8, Chip 6 |
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2 Comments []
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Posted On: 2007-09-05 22:33:45
Edited on: 2007-09-05 22:39:49
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September 11, 2007
This week we took our Game of the Month "Riding of Tickets" all the way to Europe, exploring the second game in this wildly popular series! After waiting anxiously for enough people to arrive, we set it up and got ready. Only one person had actually played Ticket to Ride: Europe before, so we had to take a few minutes to identify what the differences were between this and regular Ticket to Ride.
Denise was going to try and play, but that darn annoying "running the store" thing got in the way before we really even got started. Chip jumped in her place, joining Alton, Chris Ingersoll, Mark, and myself. My "long trip" was from down in Italy up to Moscow, which I was pretty happy with, especially when I saw that pretty much everyone else was trying to compete for the more western parts of Europe. I completed my tickets and drew more before anyone else, and went on to draw more tickets 3 more times in the game, ending up with 7 total completed tickets. For most of the game, I thought I was firmly in the lead, but then Chris made a surge at the end and he managed to grab the longest track. In the end, Chris pulled out the win (a phrase which will grow tired before this entry is done) by a measly 5 points.
Score: Chris 128, Me 123, Alton 122, Chip 120, Mark 98
Ratings: Chris 8, Me 8, Alton 8, Chip 8, Mark 8.5
Overall, I think that I like Ticket to Ride: Europe just about the same as I do regular Ticket to Ride. The board is a little tighter, but the addition of stations pretty much eliminates the cutthroat element of the game. The tunnels and bridges are a nice touch, but I don't know if they really change gameplay that much. In general, I think what I like most about TtR Europe is just the different map, which makes me even more excited about playing Ticket to Ride: Märklin Edition this month and picking up Ticket to Ride: Switzerland very soon!
Next, I'm sorry to say, we witnessed the ending of an era. On his way in, Chip carried only one game – the oft' ignored Downfall of Pompeii. In fact, he said that he would bring no other games except for Downfall of Pompeii until we finally gave it some love and actually played it. So, in a moment of weakness, the paper volcano and its little lava tiles finally hit the table.
Chip was the only one of us who had ever played, so he gave us the rules explanation and we got started. Seeing that it was only a 2-4 player game, Alton volunteered to sit out and watch. Despite getting around three of my people thrown into the volcano due to omen cards, I still ended up with the best overall placement of dudes before the volcano erupted, with around 15 of my little blue men scattered all over the board. And even after several rounds of running like heck, I still felt pretty good having five men off the board already, four men right next to exits, and two more only a few squares away. I guess I was overconfident, because Mark screwed it all up when he made an eruption swallow up two of my men (along with one of his and one or two of Chip's) and sealed off one of the exits. That nearly stranded two other of my men, and I was resigned to getting only the last two out before the entire city was consumed by fire and ash.
I don't know what to make of Mark's action. In killing his dude, he took himself out of contention to win. He really screwed me over (and Chip to some extent) and set up Chris to have a good shot at winning. Maybe it was the dreaded "kingmaking", or maybe it was just a case of "let's do this and see what happens". Either way, it lost me the game.
In the end, Chip, Chris and I all had 7 people that had escaped from the city. Opening up the fiery paper cone of doom, we found that I had 11 people there while Chip and Chris each had only 8. So what do you call that? It's a stinking tie, and I'm "first loser". Grrrrr Mark! I'll get you!
Score: Chip 7 (+8 dead), Chris 7 (+8 dead), Me 7 (+11 dead), Mark 6
Ratings: Chip 7, Chris 6.5, Me 6.5, Mark 7
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Posted On: 2007-09-13 07:35:15
Edited on: 2007-09-13 07:36:11
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Posted On: 2007-09-06 07:55:26
It's all about love, Chris, don't be offended...