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Hypermind BoardGame Night - December 2007
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Ho! Ho! Ho! December is here and Christmas is coming! The Hypermind BoardGamers are getting in the spirit early and our good friend and patron Denise-a Claus is here to spread holiday cheer! Although this will be a short gaming month (we’ve decided not to have game night on Christmas day), it will be the most “wonderful time of the year” anyway! So dash on through that snow and join us as we continue to dream of a game-filled Christmas…
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Posted Sun Dec 9, 2007 9:23 pm
Edited Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:17 am
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Sweet Monkey Love... That's what you'll find at the Hypermind BoardGamers Meta-list. Monkey Love and lots of gaming reports. What could be better?
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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In planning out the Games of the Month! for the last quarter of 2007, we made the decision to take a bit of a gamble and let December's choice be whatever Games magazine chose as its 2008 Game of the Year. Fortunately, they selected The Pillars of the Earth, which is a game that garnered quite a bit of notoriety early this year, and has settled into quite a nice reputation here at BGG. Personally, I'm a little ambivalent about the game, and I look forward to gaining a better appreciation for it this month.
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 4, 2007
This was a great start to the most wonderful time of the year! Our first boardgame night of December was filled with new and favorite games, as well as tons of great people and lots of fun. I got to play two new games that I've been aching to give a try, and the first play of our Game of the Month! went very well. So, without further ado... On to the games!!!
Cartagena
We started and ended the night the same way, with a great session of my favorite little race game, Cartagena. As usual, Chris, Mark, and I arrived early and were looking for something to play. We pulled out this old favorite and got right to it. In the end, it was pretty close but I managed to edge out Mark for the win.
Then, to fast-forward a bit, the five of us remaining at the end of the evening again went for this quick, pirate-y game. Mark had a bit of luck in the beginning to jump out to a pretty big lead, but then sat for several rounds with only one pirate left. Several of us caught up and passed him, being only one turn away from victory, when Denise finally blew past us to take the game. My last brown pirate stood there at the dock and watched as the ship drifted away to safety.
Time: Game 1 - 17 minutes, Game 2 - 35 minutes
Game 1: Me 6, Mark 5, Chris 2
Game 2: Denise 6, Me 5(.999), Chip 5, Mark 5, Alton 2
Ratings: Alton 7, Chip 8, Chris 8, Me 8, Denise 8.5, Mark 8
Thebes
During the first game, Chip walked in with his spanking-new copy of Thebes, which is at the tippy-top of my wishlist. There was no real question of what to play next, and we started setting up. Unfortinately, Alton walked in (not because he stinks or anything, but just because Thebesonly handles 4). He said he'd just watch, however, and our archeological adventure continued.
Chip explained the rules (which are really quite simple) and we got started. I thought I would try to pick up several of the "lecture" cards that give an escalating amount of points as you gather more, but Chris ended up having more opportunity to grab them, so I instead picked up a few research assistants as I combed Europe for ancient knowledge. Mark made an early quest to go digging, choosing to make several small excavations (5-6 pulls), but got incredibly lucky in the tiles he drew and took the early lead.
I focused on yellow (Egyptian) and green (?) knowledge, and finally made my first quest near the end of the first year, getting in one dig in each of those colors. I started off the second year the same way, and ended up with most of the artifacts in both those colors. Chris dominated blue while Chip grabbed up some orange and purple, but both of them were pretty hurt by some bad pulls throughout the game. As time began to run out, I made my way back to europe and completed a couple of exhibitions as well, which proved to be the difference.
My (almost) final holdings.
After everyone was finally done with 1903, we totalled up the score and I actually managed to get the win!
Time: 58 minutes
Score: Me 58, Mark 54, Chris 41, Chip 33
Ratings: Me 8.5, Mark 8, Chris 8, Chip 8
This game was definitely everything that I had hoped it would be. As I'd heard, luck is certainly a big factor, but it can be compensated for at least a little and more importantly, it is extremely appropriate given the theme. The time/turn order mechanic is just brilliant, and gameplayt is just downright fun! If I just get one game for Christmas, I hope this is it!
For Sale
During the game, Sabrina also arrived. After she finished eating her supper, she joined Alton and Iesha for a couple of games of For Sale.
Time: Two games in 45 minutes
Game 1: Alton 79, Sabrina 64, Iesha 57
Game 2: Iesha 81, Alton 81, Sabrina 75
Ratings: Alton 8, Iesha 7, Sabrina 7
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 4, 2007 (continued)
The Pillars of the Earth
At this point, we had six people wanting to play. I had a plan, and it was perfect. First of all, I reviewed the rules for our new Game of the Month!, The Pillars of the Earth, with everybody. Alton, Chip, Chris, and Sabrina then decided to give it a shot while I took Mark away and had my way with him (in a gaming sense, you dirty-minded people).
Being occupied elsewhere, I don't know much about the game other than it was pretty close. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I think it was a good start to our Game of the Month!.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Chip 45, Sabrina 43, Chris 41, Alton 31
Ratings: Chip 7.5, Sabrina 8, Chris 7.5, Alton 8
1960: The Making of the President
My goal for the evening, however, was to find someone to try out 1960: The Making of the President with. So that's what Mark and I did during the Pillars game. We set everything up and I went through the rules with him pretty quickly. Mark was a little familiar with Twilight Struggle (which I still need to play, by the way), so he had the basic ideas down already. I played Nixon... and I changed history.
Mark never really threatened me in the West, but I quickly made serious inroads in the South and the Midwest. I got a lot of high-Campaign-Point cards early, which meant that Mark was way dominant in political capital (cubes in the bag) for the rest of the game. He kept getting distracted by the issues, the media, and the big states, however, and never made enough attempt to neutralize my ridiculous control over the various states. Despite having endorsements in every region, he kept fighting me for New York and Texas rather than just knocking lots of the middle-weight states down to neutral (which he would have won with his endorsements). By the last couple of rounds (after the Pillars game was done), I ended up needing to use the red workers from that game to supplement my own red cubes.
I lost the debate (2 issues to 1), had virtually no stand on the issues, only dabbled in the media, and had no endorsements, but I dominated the final score. At least Mark was happy that Jackie Kennedy had taunted me and apparently gotten me egged in Michigan.
Time: 95 minutes
Score: Me 324, Mark 213
Ratings: Me 9, Mark 9
Once again, after my first play, this game is everything I'd hoped it would be. We made one slight rules mistake (only pulling out one cube for initiative rather than until you got two of the same color), which shows that the rules really are pretty easy to follow. There's a lot going on, and it's easy to get distracted (as Mark found out), but this game also has such a great integration of theme and mechanics. The only downside I see right now is that it is exclusively 2-player, which is obviously inherent in both the theme and the system itself. Otherwise, it is relatively quick, easy to teach and understand, and immensely fun. I can't wait to play again!!!
Guillotine
The only other game of the evening was Guillotine. Everybody else seems to just love this little game, but I don't see why. The theme is pretty neat and darkly humorous, but gameplay itself is boring and random.
And as I was entering all this week's data into my huge boardgame night spreadsheet, I realized that I had passed a milestone. I played my 200th game this week, but was it Thebes or 1960: The Making of the President? No. It was Guillotine... yipee. What a game to remember. I'm so fricking excited.
Anway, here's the stuff on it:
Time: 2 games in 39 minutes
Game 1: Chris 16, Chip 15, Mark 12, Me 11, Alton 8
Game 2: Denise 16, Chip 15, Mark 12, Alton 12, Me 11
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Denise 8, Chip 8, Mark 8.5, Alton 8, Me 5
So, altogether it was a fantastic game night! I can't wait to play these and other games for the rest of the month. Come and join us if you can!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 11, 2007
This was a very active week for the Hypermind BoardGamers! In addition to seeing several new games, we also saw John return to us from law school, being home on Christmas break.
Cold War: CIA vs. KGB
When I arrived, Chris Ingersoll was playing some Magic: The Gathering CCG (which is why we call him “Magic” Chris), so I sat down with Mark and played a game of Cold War: CIA vs. KGB. Mark was the KGB and made heavy use of his Deputy Director, which both foiled several of my assassination attempts as well as costing me the objective points for each of those rounds. In the end, I gave him the game with a boneheaded move when I again tried my Assassin on a round that he had used his Master Spy and the objective (Vietnam) was enough for him to win. I killed his Master Spy alright, but just after he had claimed the objective for the win.
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Mark 100, Me 55
Ratings: Mark 8, Me 7
This game has some really cool things going on with it. I like the simplicity of the basic mechanic (I don’t know any other games based on blackjack), as well as the choices they made to spice it up. What I don’t like is the fact that “event” objectives all have only a population of one. It virtually removes any chance of tactical play, making it a simple random draw to determine who wins. The game is also a bit too long for what it is, but that can easily be fixed by simply playing to a smaller target score. I also think that it is a game that is aching for an expansion or two, and I’d like to see what could be added to make it even better.
Fairy Tale
During our game, John and Sabrina joined Chris for a quick game of Fairy Tale, which I barely noticed until it was over.
Time: 15 minutes
Score: Sabrina 38, John 35, Chris 33
Ratings: Sabrina 7, John 6, Chris 8
The crappy, unseasonably warm weather here in North Carolina was screwing with Sabrina and giving her a headache, so she headed on home to rest. The rest of us pulled out a new game that I picked up a few weeks ago…
Cutthroat Caverns
I had heard some really good things about Cutthroat Caverns from several of my trusted internet and podcast reviewers, so I grabbed it a charity auction at MACE just before Thanksgiving. One comment I heard was that it “is what Munchkin should have been”, which made me kind of tingly, because pretty much the only thing I like about Munchkin is the “idea” of it. Anyway, we finally got it to the table using both the base game and the Deeper & Darker expansion which adds more encounters and one-time-use special character abilities.
The game went pretty well, except for the fact that we pulled both of the encounters that extend the game. I think that the one nagging problem with this game is the fact that it can, once again, go a little too long for what it is. The varying creature abilities and interesting card play make it interesting and all, but especially when you play through 10 or 11 encounters (which is what we did), it gets a little old. As far as this particular session goes, there was lots of hacking and slashing, selfishness, and backstabbing… which is exactly what we wanted! In the end, John succumbed a trap in the last round and died, leaving Mark with the most prestige.
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Mark 13, Chip 12, Chris 3, Me 3, John DEAD!
Ratings: Mark 7, Chip 6, Chris 7, Me 7, John 7
Overall, I liked it. There’s nothing revolutionary or “special” about the mechanics, but it’s a fun, solid game that I’d gladly play again… maybe pulling out those “extending” encounters to keep the game length a little more manageable.
The Pillars of the Earth
From there, we were at a bit of a loss. We had five “core” people wanting to play, and a Game of the Month that only handles 4. Chip graciously bowed out and played a few games with James and Brett.
While I’m not a huge fan of The Pillars of the Earth, I still definitely wanted to give it a few more plays this month just to make sure that my view of it is wholly justified. Chris and I set up the game as I explained the rules to John and Mark, then we got started. I have a theory about this game, that the “2 wood for 8 gold” Woodworker! is broken and gives a ridiculous advantage to whoever gets it, so I made sure to pick it up on the first round. Our master builder pulls were relatively balanced throughout the game, which makes the game better, and the game went smoothly.
Play was pretty tight, but Mark fell behind towards the end of the game, while I pulled ahead a little. Finally, despite other people stealing both Goldsmith craftsmen from me, I still won. Now, I also had as much or more experience with the game as anyone, but that extra 8 gold a round is just hard to compete with. I think that everyone else used a master builder on almost every turn to be immune to taxes, while I was able to do cool things with mine (like pick up the privilege card that let me look at the top event, which let me be sure to be immune to the “place only 2 master builders” one on the last turn). Without the Goldsmith, I just went to market and use my extra gold to buy up the resources I needed to maximize VP production in the last round anyway.
Time: 70 minutes
Score: Me 52, John 42, Chris 41, Mark 33
Ratings: Me 7, John 7, Chris 7.5, Mark 7.5
Right now, I still enjoy the game, but I feel that there continue to be some lingering issues with it that keep it from being really “great” for me. I will continue to keep an eye on that broken Woodworker, and see if my theory holds up.
Cave Troll
The first game that Chip played with James (and then Brett as well) was Cave Troll. I don’t know a heck of a lot about this game, other than I heard generally positive reports about it online. Based on their ratings, it appears to be a solid but not terribly inspired game. Chip and James played one game alone, then were joined by Brett for a second game.
Time: 25 minutes (2-player game), 40 minutes (3-player game)
Game 1: Chip 54, James 37
Game 2: James 50, Brett 43, Chip 40
Ratings: Chip 7, James 7, Brett 7
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6.
Board Game: Thebes
[Average Rating:7.37 Overall Rank:100]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 11, 2007 (continued)
Hula Hippos
The other game that Chip, James, and Brett played was a Haba game that Chip got from his BGG Secret Santa, Hula Hippos. Chip has two small children, so he keeps us well-acquainted with all the great children’ games out there that can also serve as fun adult fillers. We also played another session to end the evening, and we all had a blast. It’s no Tier auf Tier or anything, but it’s fast-paced and exciting.
Time: 22 minutes (for 5 games), 14 minutes (for 3 games)
Session 1: James (2 wins), Zach (2 wins), Brett (1 win), Chip (0 wins)
Session 2: Chip (1 win), James (1 win), Me (1 win), Brett (0 wins)
Ratings: Brett 7.5, Chip 8.5, James 10, Me 6
Kingdoms
After Pillars, the rest of us played a game of Kingdoms. I know much about it before I started to hear how the new Beowulf: The Movie Boardgame was just a revamped version of this game, and then I had to decide whether to pick up the cheap original or the far more expensive licensed version. I opted to go cheap to see it I liked the basic gameplay. In general, I do.
John said that for some reason he didn’t want to like the game before we played, but found himself enjoying it quite a bit. The underlying scoring mechanism has the potential to make it a very dry and analytical game, but the randomness of the tile draws and the chaos of not knowing exactly what the other players will do combine to make it a very nice, well-balanced filler. Sure, each of us had a moment or two of paralyzing analysis (I did anyway), but nothing that really slowed the momentum of the game.
Time: 32 minutes
Score: John 240, Chris 192, Mark 172, Me 160
Ratings: John 7, Chris 7.5, Mark 7, Me 7
Thebes
Most of the crowd dispersed at this time, but I joined Chip, Brett, and James to have a second go at Thebes. The other two guys were new, so Chip explained the rules again, and at least Brett paid attention. We basically filled in James later as he frequently announced how clueless he was. Anyway, I tried this game to get more specific knowledge, and wound up with three shovels to help me get a few more pulls as well. Chip picked up the most of the “lecture circuit” cards (or whatever they’re called). Brett drove around a lot in the car he picked up in the first turn, and James got really lucky on his pulls.
For most of the game, James looked to be in the lead. At one point, I professed that I was obviously not using the best strategy in the game, which was apparently to be “slow and clueless” when playing, like James. I was a little worried that, as much fun as the game can be, the winner would always be the luckiest person. Thankfully, that didn’t prove to be correct in this game.
Time: 79 minutes
Score: Chip 63, James 49, Me 43, Brett 27
Ratings: Chip 8.5, James 9, Me 8.5, Brett 8
Chip’s planning and mediocre luck was enough to overcome James’ almost absent strategy and unbelievable luck. My faith in the game is confirmed! This game just continues to be a lot of fun, win or lose, and it’s cool enough that I want to play it again right away. I would like to try out a 2 or 3 person game pretty soon, however, just so we can have more time to do stuff. In the 4-player game, the exhibitions barely have an impact. No one was in the position to complete any in this game, and only 2 of the simple kind were completed in our first game. Of course, I also wonder how it would be to add some time to the 4-player game as well. Obviously, the archeological digs would be pretty tapped out by the end of the game, but it would give a little extra time to putter around Europe doing exhibitions and shoring up knowledge majority points. Hum…. something to think about.
Anyway, it was another great BoardGame night, and I can’t wait until our next session!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 12, 2007
John and I arranged to meet together this Wednesday to play a game of 1960: The Making of the President. John had played Twilight Struggle several times and wanted to see how this compared, and 1960 is my favorite new game right now, so I’m looking for pretty much any opportunity to play it. As we set up and I explained the rules, John chose to be Richard Nixon, which was cool for me since I played him last time. Plus, I liked looking at the board “right side up” for a change. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any new images to accompany this report.
Basically, in the first turn we each went back and forth on the card plays, and I ended up with control of two of the issues. After that, partly because of the events I played and partly because John just put way more effort into the issues than I did, I found myself with virtually no momentum markers and facing a sea of red endorsement markers for the rest of the game. On 3 or 4 occasions, John played some of my events that would have been pretty awesome to get, but I was sitting there with no way to take advantage of them.
Despite all that, the game was very close (too close to call, they’d say in election coverage) going into the last regular turn. In the end, two or three things won the game for John. The biggie was when he won initiative and played the “Congressional Summer Session” on me, costing me 2 CP on every card I played for anything other than the event. My candidate card was available, and I was counting on that 5 CP to swing a few states my way, so having it and all other non-event cards neutered in the last turn really hurt. Of course, the fact that 3 of the events I had in hand were either Nixon events or would benefit him more, my options were really limited. Meanwhile, John had the event that refreshed his exhausted candidate card, and he used that 5 CP to make a huge difference in a few swing states. When the final tally was taken, Nixon edged out Kennedy 304-233.
Time: 100 minutes
Score: John (Richard Nixon) 304, Me (John Kennedy) 233
Ratings: John 8.5, Me 9
Nixon has won both games that I’ve played, but I don’t know if that means anything. I really need to play more to see if I think there’s any inherent imbalance there. Overall, the game is still one of the coolest and most immersive experiences I’ve ever had in a board game. I love the balance that the game strikes between big, overarching strategy and the many little choices that you make with each card play. I also like the “karma” aspect of the cube bag and the “political capital” that you build with your rest cubes. The only issue with that is that I’m not so sure it really has a big enough effect on the game to make it that important. As far as strategy goes, I think that I need to put more effort in the early game into the support areas of the game (like media support and the issues) and wait until the second half of the game to focus as heavily on actual state campaigning. I guess we’ll see when I get my next chance to play… hopefully not too long from now!
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8.
Board Game: Khronos
[Average Rating:6.54 Overall Rank:749]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 18, 2007
Well, it’s the last BoardGame night of the year. 
Since next Tuesday is Christmas day, we’re going to take the week off and plan on getting together again on New Year’s Day. So, how did we finish off 2007? With a lot of card games, that’s how. Every game we played this week were either primarily card games or involved card play somehow in their mechanics. Let me tell you how it went…
Oh, by the way, I also took a little time over at my blog ( www.gamerchris.com) to discuss my initial impressions of the "new to me" games I played this week. I'd love to have you come visit!
Felix: The Cat in the Sack
Despite hearing a few mixed reports about this game, I picked it up because it has cute kitties on the cards. I like kitty cats. So does Chris. Anyway, when I got to Hypermind this week, three other players were already there, so I pulled this out and we read through the rules.
The game went over really well. We played back-to-back games and had a lot of fun. While being a limited-information auction game, different positions in the bid order have more or less knowledge about what cards are in the lot. And since everybody essentially has the same cards to begin, there’s also a lot of opportunity for bluffing and reading other people’s actions. And there’s the cute kitties… you gotta love ‘em!
Time: 18 minutes, 14 minutes
Game 1: Me 47, John 43, Chris 33, Mark 3
Game 2: John 69, Mark 58, Me 34, Chris 12
Ratings: Chris 8.5, John 7, Mark 7.5, Me 7.5
Khronos
My anniversary was this past weekend, and I received a copy of Khronos from my lovely wife. Once again, I had heard some good and bad things about the game, but the whole idea of time travel is really cool, and I desperately want to find a halfway decent game somewhere around that theme. Anyway, the game is pretty complicated in a Tigris & Euphrates way, with the added wrinkle of the time ripple effects. Therefore, it took 3 or 4 turns before we really had a good handle on the rules, and then we all struggled to figure out strategy for the last half of the game.
I decided to make an attempt to work primarily in the Age of Might and the Age of Faith only, and quickly established a castle that pretty much dominated the Age of Might. In turn 4, I made a move to try and unite two dominions that would give me control of the most prestigious building in each era. Unfortunately, my thinking was flawed and I ended up screwing myself in the Age of Faith. Mark stepped right in and built an Abbey that was impossible to disrupt and essentially won him the game. Britt, Chris, and John fought over control in the Age of Reason, and ended up sharing essentially one third of the points. Britt didn’t do so well, and his rating for the game actually exceeded his score.
Time: 104 minutes
Score: Mark 49, Me 44, John 34, Chris 25, Britt 7
Ratings: Britt 7.5, Chris 6.5, John 6.5, Mark 7.5, Me 7.5
The general consensus about the game was that we were all intrigued. It was hard to formulate a real impression of the game because of the complexity of play, and hopefully we’ll get another chance in the near future to give it another try while we still know what we’re doing.
Arkadia
Once again, we found ourselves with 5 players and a Game of the Month! that only supported 4. Mark and John volunteered to pull out and instead played a game of Arkadia. They finished so quickly that I barely got a picture of them before they finished… Okay, I actually didn’t. The picture is a simulation of them playing because I ran over there when I noticed them cleaning up. Everybody take a moment to compliment them on their great acting job of looking like they were actually playing.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: John 124, Mark 115
Ratings: John 8, Mark 8
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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December 18, 2007 (continued)
The Pillars of the Earth
For our Game of the Month! session this week, Chris and I started by explaining the rules to Britt, who had never played before. I continued to test out my theories about how broken the game is, and we found another prime example this week as well. On the first turn, Chris picked up the Prior Phillip privilege card, which gave him one extra victory point every time he placed a master builder at the Priory. That, combined with solid VP generation from his craftsmen, put him out to an early and commanding lead. Since Britt picked up the “broken” Woodworker!, I decided to try out a metal and stone strategy for a change.
I picked up the turn 5 Goldsmith, and both the Organ Builder and the Bellmaker on turn 6. On the last turn alone, I scored a whopping 20 VP… only to wind up a mere 2 points shy of Chris’ incredible score.
For some reason, Prior Phillip's vision said to call it the "Eiffel Tower"
Time: 68 minutes
Score: Chris 58, Me 56, Britt 41
Ratings: Britt 7.5, Chris 7.5, Me 7
This game has a heck of a lot going for it. As I think back over it, maybe I’m too hard on it at times. Perhaps it’s just all my perception that things are all broken and luck-based, because I seemed to make a pretty good run this game without either of the cards that we’ve identified as being just ridiculous. Playing it this month has at least made me very interested in seeing what the 5-6 player expansion will do to change the game, and I can’t wait for the English translation to be available.
Kung Fu Fighting
Britt and John called it a night at this point, so the other three of us pulled out Kung Fu Fighting as a quick finisher. Only Chris had officially played before, but we had all tried out The Red Dragon Inn and all Slugfest games are essentially the same. Mark and Chris went after each other early, but Mark kept drawing cards that restored his Chi. Eventually, Mark hit Chris and got him down to just a few Chi, which I then finished off on the next round.
Talkin' smack about yo' Kung Fu!
So then I faced off against Mark alone. At one point, he was back up to his full 20 Chi, while I was still well below 10. I had an ace or two up my sleeve, however, having both the “Your Kung Fu is Weak!” and “Your Kung Fu Is No Match For Mine!” cards in my hand at one point, plus I kept drawing other specific blocks to counter whatever he was throwing at me. I kept smacking him for a few points every turn, and eventually got the win with a fast, spinning, wild, crane-stanced kick.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Me (WIN with 4 Chi left), Mark (KO), Chris (KO)
Ratings: Chris 8, Mark 7.5, Me 6
The game was fun, and it has a real hand-management skill involved, but it’s still all about luck of the draw. Not bad for a fun, silly Kung Fu good time, but not at the top of my list either.
Cold War: CIA vs. KGB
Despite having his wife calling repeatedly on his cell phone, I managed to convince Mark to play one more game with me as we reprised our roles from last week in Cold War: CIA vs. KGB. Mark (the dreaded KGB) jumped out to another early lead, killing my Assassin and Master Spy in the process. He had four or five of the special action objective cards at one point, and used them for various effects throughout the game. At one point, he was up 75 to 45, and it looked like he was going to steamroll me again.
Then things turned around. I won like five of the next six objectives to be up 95-75. On the last turn, we both played our Master Spies (I had gotten mine back through the use of an objective card earlier) and I ended up losing dominance (therefore winning the objective) based on the tiebreaker symbols on the objective. It was really close, and there was only one other objective in the deck when we finished.
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Me 115, Mark 75
Ratings: Mark 8, Me 7.5
This game keeps growing on me. There’s a lot more depth to it than is obvious at first glance. The real core of the strategy involves choosing and predicting which agents will be used in each round, even though there’s quite a bit of skill in maximizing card play as well. I need to introduce this to other people…
Anyway, that mostly wraps up 2007 for the Hypermind BoardGamers. So, I guess I’ll see you all next year!
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Posted Sun Dec 9, 2007 8:10 pm
Overall, my impression of the game had improved since our last play session, as I had anticipated. Chip's rating actually went down a bit, despite winning both sessions!