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Hypermind BoardGame Night - January, 2008!!!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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This is a BIG month for the Hypermind Boardgamers! The third Tuesday will be our one year anniversary!!! It's really hard to believe that it was a whole year ago that I wandered in Hypermind after a particularly disappointing game experience at a rival not-so-FLGS and told Denise that we really needed to start up a regular weekly game night. Alton and Mark were there and quickly jumped in too, and the rest is history! We've seen good times and bad , excitement and not quite as much excitement , moments of brilliance and bonehead plays . And through it all we've become really close and played a heck of a lot of games, 367 plays of 123 different games at last count, to be exact. Right now, I'm compiling some data about our most-played and best-reviewed games, which I'll try to have ready by anniversary time. Don't worry, I'll be sure to link it all here as well. But, even with all the reflection on the past year, we're still full-steam-ahead plowing on into 2008, and this is the Geeklist of our January gaming! So go, you little Hyperminds! Go and play!!!
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Posted Mon Jan 7, 2008 3:31 am
Edited Tue Jan 8, 2008 1:40 am
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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If you want to read more about the year we've had, or want to follow our journey into the future, this is the place to look. This is the master list linking to all of our adventures in the world of boardgaming!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Our Game of the Month! for January is Zooloretto!
Since we gave the Games Magazine Game of the Year the spot last month, we thought it was the least we could do for the esteemed SdJ champ as well. Plus, we have several copies floating around the group and there are all of the neat new expansions that have recently been released (in stores, anyway) to try out.
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 1, 2008
Well, some of us had a grand plan to play all afternoon and evening on the first day of the year, but in the end only John and I were able arrive early for game night. After an appropriate time waiting for others, he and I launched into a two-player marathon for most of the daylight hours.
Kingdoms
We both had played our first game of Kingdoms in a four-player affair a couple of weeks ago, and were more impressed with this simple game that we expected to be. Our session was extremely close, with John taking a first round lead, me surging with a very good second round, and then us fighting tooth-and-nail in a close final round that saw me edge him out by just a few points.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Me 316, John 302
Ratings: Me 7.5, John 8
The 2-player game is very similar to the 4-player, except that players are required to place more of their castles in order to fill the grid. It is more predictable in some ways, but the randomness of tile draws prevents it from becoming a hard-core strategic exercise. In both games so far, Kingdoms strikes me as being exactly what it should be, both in game play and weight, and it is very enjoyable.
Khet: The Laser Game
Denise recently got in a few copies of Khet: The Laser Game and opened one as a demo copy. I pulled it off the shelf and quickly taught John the basics, before kicking his butt in two straight games. I haven't had a lot of experience with the game, but apparently it was enough to give me a significant advantage in knowing how to move and position my pieces. Khet is very gimmicky, with the laser and all, but I fear that at it's core it may just be a mediocre abstract strategy game. It's still a little too early for me to tell, and the toy factor will keep me interested for at least a little while longer.
Time: 8 minutes, 10 minutes
Score: Me 2 wins, John 0 wins
Ratings: Me 7, John 6
Race for the Galaxy
Race for the Galaxy was another game that I had played only once before. I've never played San Juan either, so I felt a little lost during that game, even though I really liked how tight and well-integrated all the parts of the game felt. This time, I was able to wrap my head around game play a lot better, and the 2-player variant of playing two action cards really helped me better understand how to use them. I chose to go the military route from the beginning, while John built up to six or seven production worlds. With the help of the New Galactic Order card and being able to conquer the Rebel Homeworld, I managed to pull out another close victory!
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Me 48, John 43
Ratings: Me 8.5, John 9
Like I mentioned before, what impresses me most about Race for the Galaxy is how efficient the game is. The cards serve as almost everything, from the resources paid to play cards to the goods produced by the planets. Right now, it certainly feels like there's a lot more upside to this game, and I hope to get the chance to see if it is as upwardly mobile as I think it will be!
Taluva
Taluva is a favorite of mine, and John was away at school when it was our Game of the Month!, so he had never played before. After a quick rules explanation, I managed to play out all my towers and temples pretty quickly, and won yet another game against him.
Time: 12 minutes
Score: Me WIN, John (not win)
Ratings: Me 8, John 7
Memoir '44
With still no one else in sight, I thought we could try out a game that neither one of us was very familiar with. I've played a lot of BattleLore, but only one game of Memoir '44 before. We went through the rules together as we set up the initial scenario. After we got it all set out, I thought that we should probably at least have played a scenario that included armor, but it was too late by then. I was playing the allies, and I had to either kill a bunch of John's Germans or kill some and take a couple of bridges. John just had to defend the bridges and pick off allied infantry making a mad rush into his fortified position. Unfortunately for him, I had a card that allowed me to call in an artilery barrage that completely destroyed the center of his defense, and I rolled to a pretty easy win (completing my 2-player sweep for the afternoon).
Time: 32 minutes
Score: Me 4, John 1
Ratings: Me 7, John 4
John wasn't impressed. Frankly, I wasn't either. The lack of having any troop specificity made it all pretty boring, and the random factors of the game had a way bigger impact than any particular strategy that either of us employed. At the same time, I hope that John doesn't totally write off the game based solely on this one introductory scenario.
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4.
Board Game: Citadels
[Average Rating:7.32 Overall Rank:95]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 1, 2008 (continued)
During the game of Memoir '44, several other gamers arrived. We decided to go ahead and get in at least one play of our shiny, new Game of the Month!...
Zooloretto
Since both John and another visitor, William Boswell, had never played before, we held off on any of the expansion tiles. It was a very close game the whole way through, and everyone did a pretty good job of staying competitive. In the end, Denise pushed past Mark to get the win.
Time: 55 minutes
Score: Denise 26, Mark 24, Me 23, John 21, William ("Boz") 19
Ratings: Denise 9.5, Mark 8, Me 7.5, John 7, William ("Boz") 7.5
Easter Island
Chris and Kat got there during our game of Zooloretto, so they pulled out Easter Island to pass the time. I'm pretty sure that Chris is undefeated at this game (at game night anyway), and he kept his streak alive this time as well.
Time: 20 minutes
Score: Chris (4 left), Kat (1 left)
Ratings: Chris 9, Kat 7
Citadels
At this point, we had 7 people ready to play. We considered splitting up, but instead dove into a game of Citadels that we could all participate in. As became our usual lineup when it was Game of the Month!, we included the Witch and Wizard instead of the Assassin and Magician.
I also got one of the Dark City districts in my opening hand (the Laboratory shown above), and probably spent too much time concerned with trying to get it out and useful. Meanwhile, both Kat and Chris built up huge-mongous cities. Mark was doing a lot of whining about getting picked on and how the King never came near to his side of the table. Of course, it was a little uncanny how the King card was the first face-down card in like 6 of the first 9 turns. By the end, and despite my hard work to delay the inevitable, Kat took the victory in her first-ever game of Citadels.
Time: 77 minutes
Score: Kat 34, Chris 31, Denise 29, "Boz" 23, Me 20, John 15, Mark 13
Ratings: Kat 9, Chris 8, Denise 9, "Boz" 8.5, Me 8, John 4 (his magic number, apparently), Mark 7
The game was a little long and had an inordinate amount of downtime (as it often does with seven players, particularly when several are new or haven't played in a while), but it was still a lot of fun.
At this point in the evening, I headed home to my wonderful and significantly pregnant wife (who was ravenously waiting for her dinner). The rest of the guys (plus Chip, who had come in just after we started the Citadels game) kept at it.
Tumblin-Dice
Chip had brought his Tumblin-Dice table and already had it set up, so games were in progress as I walked out the door. They played three games back-to-back, as is the custom with these cool wooden dexterity games that Chip brings and sets up for us.
(snapped this on the way out...)
Zooloretto
Chip, Chris, and Kat must have then strong-armed others into playing another game of Zooloretto since they missed the first one of the night. This time, they apparently played with "most expansions" except for the construction tiles.
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Chip 29, Mark 27, Kat 20, Chris 16, "Boz" 14
Ratings: Chip 8, Mark 8, Kat 9, Chris 9, "Boz" 8
Well, there you have it. The first Hypermind BoardGame night of 2008! Come and join us for the second!
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5.
Board Game: Mr. Jack
[Average Rating:7.35 Overall Rank:97]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 8, 2008
This week was way too short for me. I had a meeting at church and only got in a couple of games before I had to go. As always, Chris Ingersoll was there to take up my slack and fill in with the report of what I missed. So, on we go.
Mr. Jack
I got to Hypermind as soon as I could, and had Mark playing my new copy of Mr. Jack as soon as he got there. It was Mark's first time, and I've only played a couple of games myself, so we split the two games we played with the Inspector winning both. I made a couple of bonehead plays when I was the inspectors that almost gave him the game, but then he returned the favor and I won anyway.
Time: 36 minutes for 2 games
Score: Mark - 1 win, Me - 1 win
Ratings: Mark 7, Me 7
I don't know what to think about Mr. Jack yet. I like how it plays, but it is so incredibly hard to win as Jack. Hopefully it will get better as I learn more about it.
Race for the Galaxy
By then, of course, Chris was there and we pulled out my also-new copy of Race for the Galaxy. The game was new to both of them, but Chris picked it up in no time (Mark... not so much). Chris put out lots and lots of cards, but they were mostly all cheap. I had a really slow start (I was New Sparta but had no military options in my opening hand, or anytime soon), but managed to get going later. In the end, however, I had too little, too late.
Time: 32 minutes
Score: Chris 27, Me 20, Mark 14
Ratings: Chris 9, Me 8.5, Mark 8.5
I could see that ("Magic") Chris really got into this game. I like it a lot too, and hopefully it will become a staple in the group around here.
At this point, however, I unfortunately had to go, so here's Chris and his commentary on the rest of the night:
Yspahan
Vyolynce wrote: Mark, Chip, and I got Yspahan set up, and Brett came over to fill us out at four. Just as we were ready to get underway, Brit and Carol reappeared and then quickly vanished for the night.  Anyway, due to various factors, there was never a good time for me to choose Camels... so I went the entire game without a single one of them; this in turn meant I was unable to construct any buildings without the "no camels" card (which I never drew). Meanwhile, Mark quickly built all of the buildings while Brett focused on filling out neighborhoods; Chip was all over the place as usual, hitting whatever play seemed best for him at the time. All I had managed to do was grab an obscene amount of gold (I had twelve coins at one point), and turned my attention towards the caravan when I couldn't fill a neighborhood. In the end, my caravan plan was able to squeak me past Chip and Mark to take the game -- although I'm sure the "turn no more than 10 Gold into Points" card that I lucked into was a factor as well. That's right: a no-camels, no-buildings Yspahan win -- who would have thought that was possible?
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Chris 66, Chip 65, Mark 63, Brett 45
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Chip 9, Mark 8, Brett 7.5
ZoolorettoQuote: Once we learned that Brit and Carol would not be returning, we went ahead with our weekly Zooloretto session for the month. Using the same expansions as last time (everyting but construction zones, and playing a four-player game without any chimps since that way we didn't have to incorrectly refer to them as "monkies"), things got off to a crazy start as we pulled out at least six fertile animals. Then, in subsequent rounds, many of the animals that were drawn early went into hiding, wrecking many of our zoos in the process. Ultimately, Mark lucked out on some key pulls and combined with some strategic claiming of nearly-empty trucks was able to be least shafted by the cruel whims of the evil bag.
Time: 50 minutes
Score: Mark 22, Chip 19, Brett 16, Chris 14
Ratings: Mark 8.5, Chip 8, Brett 8, Chris 9
Race for the Galaxy
Quote: While we were in the midst of keeping our zoos, John made his final appearance at Hypermind for some time... toting his copy of Race for the Galaxy. Mark and I were more than happy to go for a second play, and Chip was willing to give it a go after catching the end of our previous game, so we went right to it as soon as Brett opted to play some Magic with James and a couple of other guys who haven't featured in our Game Nights and are thus unimportant ( I keed, I keed...). The short version of what happened is that, thanks to a bargain-basement Drop Ships development (-1 for selecting the phase and another -1 for having Imperial Credits), I was able to get my forces mustered after stalling early and proceeded to crush major point-scoring worlds (Rebel Base, Rebel Outpost, Alien Ship... stuff like that) with startling efficiency, finishing the game with the Research Station(? the one that gives points for Explore abilities) development that was worth another 10 points. The other guys were doing their own thing, with John initially looking for Earth worlds and Mark attempting a sort of proto-production strategy; I'm not entirely sure what Chip was trying, but he got down an early Replicating Robots development before I stopped paying attention to the rest of the table and started my sweeping conquest of the galaxy (and extermination of the rebel scum!). This game has definitley grabbed the attention of the group and I wouldn't be surprised to see it as Game of the Month! in the near future -- probably after the 6-player expansion is released (next month, I hear?).
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Chris 39, John 32, Chip 17, Mark 14
Ratings: Chris 9, John 9, Chip 7, Mark 7.5
Café InternationalQuote: We finished up (as far as I know) with Chip's copy of Café International, a game that immediately grabbed us as needing a serious artistic update ("now with less suggested racism!") were it to be published today. We all grasped the rules quickly enough and went at it, with John taking an early and commanding lead. That was not to hold, however, as the bar soon began to fill up and seats became scarce. Chip placed the last tile to fill the cafe, stranding enough tiles in John's hand for him to fall from his perch and give Chip the win.
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Chip 74, Chris 59, John 59, Mark 51
Ratings: Chip 8, Chris 7.5, John 7, Mark 7.5
Next week is the big day - our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! We're gonna have a lot of fun, so come and join us!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 15, 2008 - The One-Year Anniversary Party!!!
This week is a milestone in the life of the Hypermind BoardGamers, and we wanted to celebrate it with a special event to mark the occasion. As the gamers came in, I had a board all set up with a report of some of the statistics I have been keeping over the whole first year of our group. I also included what proved to be an almost impossible little game-recognition challenge, which only two people got right (Chris and Chip).
(Here is the report that I had on the board)
I was a little worried at first that no one much would come, but in the end we had a full house:
In fact, pretty much everyone who had ever been regularly associated with our group, as well as many who are occasional or drop-by visitors, ended up joining us either intentionaly or by pure, random luck. The only person conspicuously missing was out third most-regular attender, Mark. Apparently, going bowling in Roxboro is more important than BoardGame Night's one-year birthday. Don't worry Mark, I'll make up some excuse to tell her so that her precious little heart won't be broken...
Anyway, there were hotdogs, chips, punch, and, of course, cake!
Here we had some of our youngest members helping to blow out the candle on the cake, then Denise cuts it up as we all prepare to dive in.
We also finished voting for our favorite games played by the Hypermind BoardGamers in 2007. We ended up with a dozen regular gamer participating, and the winners were:
Favorite Filler: Liar's Dice
Favorite Gateway Game: Ticket to Ride
Most Thematic Game: 1960: The Making of the President (barely edging out Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition and Shadows over Camelot
Coolest Game Mechanics: China and Ra tied, but China received more first-place votes so it was declared the winner
Favorite game of the Year: The Princes of Florence
And while not everyone could stay for the whole time, we did, of course, eventually get around to actually playing some games. So, on to part two...
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 15, 2008 (continued)
Race for the Galaxy
Just as I was finishing up some of the preparations, Chris came in and we jumped into a 2-player game of the newest hot game around here, Race for the Galaxy. Chris was, and still is, undefeated in Race. I thought I had a good start, but when the end came I was one turn short as the game (for the first time since I've played) ended with the consumption of all the VP's.
Time: 20 minutes
Score: Chris 32, Me 26
Ratings: Chris 9, Me 8.5
Felix: The Cat in the Sack
As others, including my lovely and quite pregnant wife Gwen, began to come in, we next moved into a game of Felix: The Cat in the Sack. Sabrina got screwed early with a very, very negative lot, and young Ian just didn't do much of anything. I helped Gwen a little to start, then she ended up kicking all of our butts in the end.
Time: 24 minutes
Score: Gwen 65, Me 57, Chris 34, Sabrina 8, Ian Shepherd 6
Ratings: Gwen 8, Me 7, Chris 7, Sabrina ?, Ian Shepherd 9
At this point, there was much partying and eating, but eventually we got back gaming with...
Alhambra
I've never played Alhambra before, but Jim brought it along and taught it to a group of eager gamers.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Dan 127, Jim 120, Sabrina 96, Alton 86
Ratings: Dan 8, Jim 9, Sabrina 8.5, Alton 8
Zooloretto
Meanwhile, the group I was in decided to pull out the Game of the Month!, Zooloretto. We decided to play with all the new expansions except for the construction sites, which seem pretty brutal to us at this point.
Anyway, Denise and Gwen talked about breatfeeding and breast pumps and stuff the whole time (going so far as to actually bring a pump to the table), and Denise especially had to be reminded when it was her turn and obviously didn't have her head in the game... until she also kicked the rest of us around in the end. So, there you have it, the best stategy in Zooloretto is to talk about boobies a lot and pretend like you're not paying attention.
Time: 70 minutes
Score: Denise 28, Gwen 26, Me 24, Chip 21, Chris 14
Ratings: Denise 9, Gwen 8, Me 7.5, Chip 8, Chris 8.5
The Settlers of Catan
There were two games of The Settlers of Catan played during the evening. The first ended up being a simple 3-person game with standard rules. The second was a huge 6-person affair involving several different expansions and alternate rules that Alton had engineered. I didn't play in either, but I've got the results:
Time: 66 minutes
Score: Chris A 10, Brian 7, Ian Shepherd 6
Ratings: Chris A 10, Brian 10, Ian 10
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Alton 12, Sabrina 11, Dan 9, Denise 8, Chris A 7, Brian 6
Ratings: Alton 10, Sabrina 8.5, Dan 9, Denise 8.5, Chris A 10, Brian 7
Memoir '44
Britt and Nick squirreled themselves off in the corner and pulled out Memoir '44 for a quick game.
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Britt 5, Nick 3
Ratings: Britt 9, Nick 9
In the Year of the Dragon
One of my Christmas acquisitions was the new Alea game In the Year of the Dragon. I had heard Jim Cote rave about it on the Metagamers podcast, and it sounded like something that I would be interested in. I convinced Chris and Chip to give it a try with me, so we set it up and I went through the rules with them. I started with the lowest value on the "person track" and could never get ahead there, and so I went last in everything for the entire game. By midgame, Chip pulled out to a sizeable lead that Chris and I couldn't touch.
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Chip 112, Chris 97, Me 81
Ratings: Chip 7, Chris 6.5, Me 7.5
I think that there's a lot of potential here, but there were also a few things about gameplay that wasn't a lot of fun. There are certainly a lot of hard choices, and maybe things would be different in a second play, so I hope that we're able to get this to the table again pretty soon.
Tier auf Tier
The "other table" finished off the night with a couple of games of Tier auf Tier.
Time: 15 minutes for 2 games
Game 1: Dan WIN, Alton, Sabrina, Chris A
Game 2: Chris A WIN, Denise, Sabrina, Dan
Ratings: Alton 8, Chris A 10, Dan 9.5, Denise 9.5, Sabrina 10
Carolus Magnus
Chip and I finished the evening with another game that is new to both of us, Carolus Magnus. It took a times of Chip explaining the rules for me to get my head around it, but once I did I had a great time. With two players at least, the multiple layers of strategy in picking which disc to use, how far to move the Emperor, whether to use the cubes for the court or the territories, and, of course, which territories to concentrate on all make for a really cool game experience. In the end, I managed to push ahead and win the game as I united the whole left side of the board and got all 10 of my castles down.
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Me 10, Chip 5
Ratings: Me 8, Chip 8
As always, of course, the night ended far too quickly. But at least next week we can look forward to the start of a whole new year of boardgaming!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 22, 2008
Race for the Galaxy
As I entered Hypermind, Chris and Mark were already going at a 2-player game of Race for the Galaxy. I, of course, taunted Mark ruthlessly about choosing to go bowling last week instead of coming to the one-year anniversary of boardgame night. In the end, the game ended as had all the many other games Chris had played before, with him being victorious. But the winds of change were blowing…
Time: 24 minutes
Score: Chris 40, Mark 27
Ratings: Chris 9.5, Mark 9
I would not be denied my regular Race fix, however, so we immediately jumped into another game right after they finished. I was playing Earth’s Lost Colony, and happened to get Spice World in my opening hand. In a few turns, I dropped Trade League as well and traded for a total of 10 cards, refilling my hand completely and having an extra VP for my trouble. I did my best to take advantage of this, and a few turns later had done the seemingly impossible… Ding Dong the Chris is dead!!! While he was still close on my heels, I won the game and gloated appropriately.
Time: 27 minutes
Score: Me 41, Chris 37, Mark 26
Ratings: Me 9, Chris 9.5, Mark 9
There is no question about this being the hot game of the group at the moment!
Blue Moon City
Chris won Blue Moon City last week at the Anniversary Party, so he brought it and gave us the quick rules explanation as we set everything up. Everybody got the hang of it within the first few turns, and the game flowed pretty smoothly. I sort of hoarded crystals and worked more on completing buildings while others made contributions to the tower. Instead, I waited until I could go and made three in a row on two different turns, then headed back out to get the last few crystals I needed to win the game. I got what I needed, ten discarding two extra cards in hopes of getting a gray card that I could use to get all the way back to the center for the win on the next turn. Unfortunately, I didn’t get what I needed and ended up one space short. Meanwhile, Sabrina completed a building that also triggered the dragon scale scoring, which put another six crystals in Chris’ hands. Already having the gray card he needed to get back to the center, and now equipped with the crystals he needed to make the last contribution because of Sabrina’s action, he won the game.
Time: 62 minutes
Score: Chris 4, Me 3, Sabrina 3, Mark 3
Ratings: Chris8,Me 7, Sabrina 7, Mark 7.5
I don’t know about this game. We were all right there pretty much tied at the end, and the game seemed to be decided by the rather random luck of the card draw (Chris having the extra movement card when I didn’t), which makes me almost think that the whole game is rather random and pointless. On the other hand, you could also view it as a closely contested battle where Chris made better hand-management decisions that led him to victory. I guess I need to play it again to see which one I think is really the truth.
Zooloretto
So, it was then time for our Game of the Month!. There were six of us by this point, so we decided to split up and I went with Jim and Sabrina to play El Grande. Chip, Mark, and Chris played with all six of the single-animal enclosure expansions, as well as the polar bear and the Souvenir shop. It was incredibly close, but more importantly, it was Chris' 200th Game Played!!! Congratulations, Chris! Unfortunately, Chris didn’t win the game (at least your 200th game wasn’t Guillotine, for goodness sake!), though.
Time: 34 minutes
Score: Chip 28, Chris 27, Mark 26
Ratings: Chip 8, Chris 9, Mark 8.5
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 22, 2008 (continued)
El Grande
Yes, El Grande is a classic, but I’m still relatively new to the heavy-duty boardgame scene and I’ve only played it once before. Sabrina had never played, though, so Jim and I explained the rules to her as we set things up.
Jim's king is more grande than most!
From the get-go, I was sucking. I think that I have this irrational need to over-concentrate on a few territories rather than spreading them out like I should. By the first scoring round, Jim rode several second-place finishes to a pretty big lead. Sabrina caught on more as the game went along, however, and made a really strong push by the end of the game. In the end, Jim still barely edged her out by just 4 points, while I languished some 13 points further behind her.
Time: 115 minutes
Score: Jim 137, Sabrina 133, Me 120
Ratings: Jim 9, Sabrina 7, Me 8
Something about El Grande just doesn’t click with me. Of course, having a 2-hour game didn’t make me too excited, but it’s more than that. In the two games I’ve played, I’ve lost by a mile in both. So I guess there may be some element of sour grapes or the game not jiving with the way I think or something. But I still rate it an 8 because I can see both the impact it has had on successive game design, as well as just how uniquely balanced the game play is.
I guess what bothers me more than anything is that the game just isn’t really very much fun. Compared to some of the later generation area control games, it seems to lack something to me, for instance: China is far more elegant and quicker, Struggle of Empires is more thematic and has an epic feel, Mission: Red Planet is cooler and a lot more fun. I want to like it, and I’ll still continue to give it another few chances, but that’s just how I feel about it right now.
Thebes
During our marathon game of El Grande, the other guys played three other games. Heck, they were pretty much done with Zooloretto by the time we had set up and explained the rules. From there, they pulled out Thebes and went digging for artifacts.
Time: 56 minutes
Score: Chip 80, Chris 62, Mark 59
Ratings: Chip 8.5, Chris 8, Mark 8.5
Race for the Galaxy
And then they finished off the evening as it had begun, with Alton joining them for a game of Race for the Galaxy. Apparently, I have damaged the fabric of all that is natural, and Mark ended up beating Chris as well. Or maybe we’re just finally starting to catch up with Chris’ finely-honed card flopping skillz. We’ll see…
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Mark 42, Chris 31, Chip 22, Alton 18
Ratings: Mark 9, Chris 9.5, Chip 6.5, Alton 9
Obviously, we also have a dissenter to the Race for the Galaxy bandwagon. Chip just doesn’t care for it much, and I demand that he defend his obviously flawed opinion here and now! So speak up Chip, why do you not also bow down and worship all that is hot and exciting in the galaxy???
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 29, 2008
Race for the Galaxy
Race for the Galaxy is like a phenomenon or something! Once again, Chris, Mark and I started the evening off with a quick of session racing for galactic control. It was so quick, in fact, that I forgot to take any pictures!
Anyway, I started off with Epsilon Eridani, and played Drop Ships right off the bat. My plan, obviously, was to go the military route. Instead, I ended up with Mining World, Comet Zone, Mining Robots, and several other Rare Elements production and windfall worlds. So, during production I would have tons of goods and draw like 3 cards, but the only consumption power I had was from my homeworld. I then concentrated on finding other ways to spend all that rare elemental goodness, eventually picking up New Earth and Galactic Resort. Somehow, I pushed the pace enough and finished up with a x2 VP Consume to jump to 32 points and take a crazy 1-point win.
Time: 20 minutes
Score: Me 32, Mark 31, Chris 28
Ratings: Me 9, Mark 9, Chris 9.5
Modern Art
There are times when I realize how relatively new I still am to the modern board game scene. For instance, our second game this week was our first ever play of Modern Art. I’ve heard a lot about this game, so I picked it up recently when I had the chance. Chris, Mark, and I played just a 3-player game, so I’m not sure if we really got the full experience or not.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Me $481k, Mark $222k, Chris $132k
Ratings: Me 7.5, Chris 6, Mark 5.5
Chris and Mark were not very impressed at all by Modern Art. Personally, I thought that the crazy variety of auctions was pretty cool. I’ve heard so much about how it takes a few plays to really get a sense of the economy of the game, and I hope that they’ll give it another shot before writing it off altogether.
Age of Gods
Time was getting on a bit, but we were still the only three boardgamers there. Looking at the games I brought, we decided to pull out another new release (in English, anyway), Age of Gods. As we were setting up, the game itself attracted a new gamer, Tim, over to us. Just as I was starting to explain the rules, Chip also came in and joined the game.
Things really got going in turn 2 or 3, when Chris had the humans call a Holy War on the High Elves. I suppose the elves were terribly offended by this, and almost immediately turned it around and said, “No, WE call a Holy War on YOU!” to the Humans. Battles were fought, blood was spilled, and the Humans were nearly exterminated by the end of the game. Some time just after midgame, Mark revealed that he controlled the Dark Elves, feeling secure in the high defense that his special ability gave them. Unfortunately for him, the wrath of many gods fell mightily on them, as area after area was wiped out with floods, earthquakes, plagues, and the assault of cranky dragons.
In the end, the winner was the player who was best able to keep his races secret, with Chip being able to carefully manipulat neutral races and the circumstances around him to mask his real intentions. Meanwhile, anyone who revealed that they controlled a race of any power was beaten on mercilessly until it was a quivering pile of goo.
Time: 92 minutes
Score: Chip 23, Me 15, Chris 12, Tim 11, Mark 9
Ratings: Chip 7, Me 8, Chris 8, Tim 10, Mark 8
Age of Gods went over really well. It moves quickly, is full of interesting decisions, and is a heck of a lot of fun. For more of my thoughts on the game, check out my blog.
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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January 29, 2008 (continued)
Zooloretto
This was Zooloretto’s swan song as our Game of the Month!. Since Tim had never played before, we decided not to include any of the expansions this time. I definitely had my best game of this in a while, and won pretty handily. I vacillate in how I think of this game, because sometimes it seems completely random with little chance to make nice plays, but other times I can see a lot more. In this game, for instance, I felt like I was able to say ahead of the tile draws and refused to take the dregs that I seem to get stuck with a lot of times.
Time: 31 minutes
Score: Me 28, Chris 18, Mark 18, Chip 15, Tim 12
Ratings: Me 8, Chris 8, Mark 9, Chip 8.5, Tim 6
Il Principe
Il Principe had become the newest candidate for the Pompeii-Memorial Wallflower Award, since I’ve brought it virtually every week since I picked it up the first week in December and had yet to be played. Well, this was its night! I had heard good things about this game, so I was pretty excited about finally getting this to the table.
Anyway, Chip also owns the game, so we got through rules explanation together and then got down to business. Things were a little shaky at first, but we got into the swing of things pretty quickly. I jumped out to an early lead by building a big building, but then hit a major stall. People passed me left and right, and the game quickly sped to an end that surprised pretty much all of us.
But still, in the last round, I saw some hope. All I needed was a blue building card or two to finish off any of three different buildings out on the table. I probably wouldn't win, but it would be close. Carefully, I figured out the maximum bid I could make in order to still build the 8 VP building, and then made it. Tim, however, bid higher. So again, I made another bid that would still allow me to build the 6 VP building. And again, Tim outbid me. It would have been pointless to go on, because I couldn't have done anything with the cards, so I pulled out and resigned myself to last place. Tim, of course, couldn't do anything either, but he just wanted to win the auction for some strange reason.
Time: 65 minutes
Score: Chip 43, Denise 38, Mark 37, Tim 34, Me 29
Ratings: Chip 8, Denise 8, Mark 7.5, Tim 7, Me 8
With the 8 points from the building and maybe a few more from playing those cards to the table and influencing a territory or two, I may have given Chip a run for his money. Regardless, everyone enjoyed this game a lot, and I think it may have potential to even be a future GotM!
Ca$h 'n Gun$
It was late, but it's always so hard to let go of game night, so we pulled Ca$h 'n Gun$ for a quick couple of games. Not much to say... it's a lot of fun, especially when you get to point two guns at somebody!
Time: 30 minutes for 2 games
Game 1: Chip $165k, Mark $100k, Denise and Me DEAD
Game 2: Me $140k, Mark $105k, Denise $100k, Chip DEAD
Ratings: Chip 8, Denise 8, Mark 8, Me 7
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Posted Sun Jan 6, 2008 8:51 pm
The only other game I have played that I can think of that compares to this type of game is San Juan, which I've only played on the computer either on BSW or computer program vs. AI. At the beginning of playing that was a similar feeling until I became familiar with the different cards and their functions. I do think RftG will be better than SJ in the end.
