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Hypermind BoardGame Night - November 2007
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November... That makes it Fall...  All opposition shall fall to my superior intellect and mad gaming skillz! Abandon hope all ye Hypermind BoardGamers, for your master has come!!! I will ravage your mind and leave you dumbfounded... Destroy your morale and leave you hopeless... Make you always "talk to da hand!" In other words, generally be a really bad dude. Anyway, Join me this month and witness the destruction of all my opposition!
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Posted On: 2007-11-08 17:00:20
Edited On: 2007-11-29 20:59:12
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This here is the reference list for the whole she-bang. If you want to check out the last 9 months of gaming action, this is the place to look! |
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Posted On: 2007-11-08 15:17:56
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Arkadia is our Game of the Month! for November.
A few months ago, we were wanting to plan ahead for the rest of the year, and several of the Hypermind BoardGamers had this as our first choice. I'm looking forward to playing this a little more consistently for the next little while, and can't wait to see what else I'll learn about it! |
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Posted On: 2007-11-08 15:21:57
Edited on: 2007-11-09 08:22:39
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November 6, 2007
This week was strange. We had the enviable problem of having more people walk in almost every time we started to play a game that couldn't support them. In fact, it kind of started first thing, as Chris pulled out his new copy of Easter Island, which is only a 2-player game, even though Mark was there with us as well. It was okay, of course, as we both took turns having Chris smack us around.
Easter Island is very interesting. I don't know exactly how they came up with the theme, though I expect that alcohol or some other intoxicating substance was involved. I mean, when I look at the huge Maoi statue things, "laser beams from their eyes" is not exactly my first thought. Whatever the case, however, there is some really cool gameplay involved, and lots of nice abstract decisions to make.
Time: 20 minutes, 17 minutes
Game #1: Chris (2 statues left), Me (1 statue left)
Game #2: Chris (4 statues left), Mark (1 statue left)
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Mark 8, Me 7
So then, we decided to jump right into the Game of the Month!, Arkadia. Sabrina was also there by then, so we thought we were perfectly set up for a 4-player game. Just as I finished teaching the rules, Chip also walked in. Once again, it's a good problem to have, and it was really simple to fix. He and I just went off and pulled out another copy and played a 2-player game together.
Both games were very close, especially considering that neither Sabrina nor Chip had ever played before. Arkadia's gameplay just clicks with me so much, having to figure out how to manage both the resource management aspects as well as the market manipulation piece. For the most part, everybody shares this same general impression of the game, and our ratings reflect that.
Time: 50 minutes (3-player), 30 minutes (2-player)
Game #1: Chris 89, Mark 88, Sabrina 81
Game #2: Me 129, Chip 118
Ratings: Chris 9, Mark 9, Sabrina 7, Chip 8, Me 9
So now, of course, we had 5 players - the perfect number for sooooo many cool games. I was just trying to push the group towards playing my favorite game (Princes of Florence), when (you guessed it) someone else walked in. Jim had come over from High Point to join us once for another evening of gaming fun, so we again set to the process of figuring out what to do.
I had recently picked up the new, pretty version of Lifeboat, which handles six, so we finally settled on it and I quickly explained the rules.
To be brief, it was brutal. With it being everyone's first game, we fought way too much early on, and both the Kid and Lady Lauren ended up unconscious and then dead in the first few rounds. Things calmed down a little from there, but the stage was already set for Chip (playing the First Mate) to sail along with his huge, manly "size" of 8. In the end, he was the only one living, but still only eked out a small victory because there were several psychopaths on board that wanted everyone to die anyway!
Time: 44 minutes
Score: Chip 30, Jim 25, Chris 20, Mark 7, Sabrina 6, Me 3
Ratings: Chip 5.5, Jim 6, Chris 6.5, Mark 5, Sabrina 5, Me 6.5
The biggest problem with this game is the player elimination. Jim and Sabrina just sat there from the very beginning because their characters had died. And then at the end, we all just watched Chip take turn after turn until he found the fourth "bird". So none of our ratings for it were very good at all. But then I noticed that we all still found ourselves talking about what had happened during this game for the rest of the evening, so maybe there's more to Lifeboat than we initially thought. Hopefully we can give it another shot soon now that we have a better idea of how to play.
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Posted On: 2007-11-08 15:41:56
Edited on: 2007-11-09 08:26:46
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4.
Torres [Average Rating:7.40 Unranked]
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November 6, 2007 (continued)
Still "riding high" with 6 players, Chip pulled out an old classic that none of the rest of us had ever played, Royal Turf. In the first race, things started very slowly, with only two or three horses actually making it out of the gate in the first round. A few jumped out to an early lead and didn't look back, giving Jim, Chip, Mark and me a good start in the money as well.
In the second race, Earl Grey was an early runaway leader. He passed the halfway mark in only 2 or 3 moves, and looked like he would win before some horses even got out of the gate. Then, he must have blew a tire or something, because he ended up finishing third. Chris (who hadn't bet on him) was "lucky" enough turn after turn to roll the perfect thing to keep him creeping along one space at a time for most of the rest of the race. Other than being worth more money, the third race was less eventful, and Jim managed to hold onto his lead to win the entire game.
Time: 67 minutes
Score: Jim 2100, Chip 1950, Me 1650, Mark 1450, Chris 800, Sabrina 100
Ratings: Jim 7, Chip 7, Me 7, Mark 7, Chris 7, Sabrina 5
Everybody liked the game, and realized how appealing it could be for new or non-gamers, but it just seemed to go on too long for what it was.
At this point, and despite Jim having to go, we had three more gamers join us to make a total of 8 people. We then split up, with Mark pulling out his new "post SdJ" version of Zooloretto. Its thicker boards, nice tile bag, and pretentious red award logo offended me and my "old fashioned" version, so I refused to play. The rest of them had a pretty good time of it, however.
Time: 48 minutes
Score: Mark 23, Brett 22, James 16, Chris 13, Denise 8
Ratings: Mark 8.5, Brett 6.5, James 7, Chris 8, Denise 8
Now, I had a different theme in mind for the evening. Since Arkadia is our new Game of the Month!, I brought a couple of games that "shared" components with it. As I already mentioned, I brought Princes of Florence, which shares similar tetris-like cardboard buildings that you place on a grid. I also brought along my brand-new copy of Torres which, of course, has almost identical little plastic castle pieces (as well as essentially sharing the same theme).
So, the other three of us decided to give Torres a try. Since I had only played one game before myself (long, long ago...), I went over the rules for the benefit of Sabrina, Chip, and myself. Play went very smoothly, and the game just flew by.
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Me 220, Chip 187, Sabrina 163
Ratings: Me 8, Chip 7, Sabrina 8
Yep, I like this as much as I remember. It's amazing that I so completely loathe the action point nastiness of Tikal, but really enjoy this game so much. I really need to get more people playing this game soon, and maybe it could wind up a candidate for GotM! some time.
At this point, Chris, Mark, and Sabrina took off (it was only 10:40!), but we still had 5 gamers ready for more action. I had heard a lot of good things about High School Drama! on the Pulp Gamer podcast and other places online, so we decided to give it a try.
In the first school year or two, things were going pretty well. In fact, we all pretty much broke into hysterics when Chip revealed his inner "lovable dork"...
But that's pretty much where the fun ended. I guess the game itself really isn't that bad really, but like Royal Turf, it's just too long for what it is. And when you push it after midnight on a "school" night, that gets to be waaaaaaay too long.
Time: 95 minutes
Score: Me 24, Chip 21, Denise 19, James 18, Brett 10
Ratings: Me 5, Chip 5, Denise 7, James 5.5, Brett 7.5
So, another good start for another good month. If you're nearby, drop in one Tuesday and have some fun with us!
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Posted On: 2007-11-08 16:58:23
Edited on: 2007-11-09 09:03:20
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November 13, 2007
This week was a bit of a "light" gaming night, because with the exception of our Game of the Month! everything we played was definitely on the lower end of the game weight scale.
To start and end the evening, we set up and played Chip's copy of the cool dexterity flicking game, PitchCar. He had brought this once before, and it immediately went to my wishlist (where, unfortunately, it has remained unfulfilled). I had a bit of trouble figuring out my flicking technique the first couple of games, but then managed to go from "worst to first" to win the third race. Apparently, however, I celebrated my victory a little too much and finished dead last again in the final heat of the night.
Time: 35 minutes for 4 games (about 8-9 minutes per game)
Race #1: Chris WIN, Chip 2nd, Sabrina 3rd, Me DEAD LAST!!!
Race #2: Chip WIN, Sabrina 2nd, Chris 3rd, Me Gee I suck!!!
Race #3: Me Woo-hoo Baby! I WIN!!! , Chip 2nd, Chris 3rd, Sabrina 4th
Race #4: Chris WIN, Chip 2nd, Sabrina 3rd, Me Too much party, too much drinky-drinky...
Ratings: Chris 8, Chip 9, Sabrina 9.5, Me 8
Seeing that it was pretty much just going to be the four of us for the evening, we set up for Arkadia, our Game of the Month!. It was only Sabrina's and Chip's second game, so Chris and I warned them that the pace of the game changes dramatically with different numbers of people. Anyway, the game went quickly (as always), but Sabrina and Chip were still unable to handle the chaos of the 4-player game.
Time: 38 minutes
Score: Me 111, Chris 82, Chip 51, Sabrina 44
Ratings: Chris 8, Chip 9, Me 9, Sabrina 7
We then tried out a game of Guillotine, which I had never actually had the chance to play before. It's pretty luch driven, but the whole premise of the game is just so ridiculous that it's just a hoot to play. In the end, the guys just beat up on each other too much while Sabrina raked in enough decapitated heads wo win.
Time: 23 minutes
Score: Sabrina 24, Chris 18, Chip 18, Me 17
Ratings: Sabrina 8, Chris 8, Chip 7.5, Me 6 |
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Posted On: 2007-11-15 15:14:40
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November 13, 2007 (continued)
Chopping off heads in Guillotine merely stimulated our appetites for murder, which we then decided to take out on a dottering old Doctor, playing my pretty version of Kill Doctor Lucky. This game had only been previously played once before, but the experience of trying it out with seven people made it less than totally enjoyable. Since nine months had passed, I figured that it was time to give it another try... with less than seven players this time.
I assumed the role of "Turd" Chris (using the turd-green colored pawn) as Zach joined the rest of us to play.
Me and Doctor Lucky, before things got ugly...
Things started off a little slow, with Chris getting some early "card advantage" by waltzing through part of the house seemingly courting the fine doctor. Meanwhile, the rest of us were taking whacks at him where ever we could. Slowly but surely, the Failure cards waned as the Spite Tokens built. Eventually, I managed to corner the Lucky Old Man in the Library for a murder value of 7. The rest of the players managed to thwart my attempt, leaving me nearly bursting with spite!!!
Twice more, I could feel the Doctor's luck coming to an end as he swung back around to where I lay in wait. Both times, however, Chris managed to circumvent his path and steer him in a different direction. In the end, Chip stole my thunder, first making one attempt that drained half my spite and then another for which we fell one failure point short of stopping.
Time: 55 minutes
Score: Chip WON; Chris, Sabrina, Zach, and I LOST
Ratings: Chip 7, Chris 7, Me 7, Sabrina 6, Zach 8
During our game, Brett and James came in and started a game of Zombies!!!. They didn't fill out a report form, so I don't know any real details other than I'm pretty sure Brett won.
As the Zombie-infested carnage raged, the "core four" of the evening pulled out my classic version of Titan: The Arena. Now, Sabrina (and even Chip to some extent) had some trouble picking up the rules, but I totally admit that a large part of their confusion was probably my fumbling through my explaination of how to play (I guess I really need to have read the rules within the last 3 months when I bring a game). But my impression was that by the end everybody had a pretty good handle on how it all worked (except maybe how the creatures' powers worked... how to trigger them was the real sticking point.)
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Me 17, Chip 10, Sabrina 10, Chris 4
Ratings: Chip 6, Chris 8, Me 8, Sabrina 6
That was how the evening ended. In some ways, with my heavy gaming weekend at the MACE Concvention coming up, I was glad for the evening of fluff. I just hope we don't make it too regular a habit... |
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Posted On: 2007-11-15 15:54:07
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November 20, 2007
This was a night of reunions, new introductions, old favorites, and newly acquired stuff. For the first time since September, Alton w | |
Posted On: 2007-11-08 21:26:59
Well, it's not like any of us had pregant wives at home waiting for us. :P
Wives, perhaps -- for Mark and me, anyway -- but not pregant (again/yet, respectively).
But good gravy -- 95 minutes for High School Drama?! That's outrageous, and I'm not sorry I missed it like I usually regret missing the "after hours" game every week.