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Hypermind BoardGame Night - February & March, 2008
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February is upon us at the Hypermind BoardGamers. I wish that I could tell you stories of bitter cold and beautiful snowstorms this time of year, but in North Carolina all we have is what we call "p-neumonia weather", where one day it gets up to 75 and the next morning it's 25. Heck, it's been over three years since we had a "real" winter... Mark gets a case of "the vapors" and collapses suddenly due to the highly variable weather.It's all good, though, because the weather's always perfect around the gaming table. Other than a magical catastrophe or two and the occasional galactic takeover, there's little worry of a real disaster here. So, I say Yee-haw! Let's play some games!!!
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Posted Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:24 am
Edited Sat Mar 8, 2008 5:00 am
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Spanning over a year now, this is the hub of all the many geeklists past. As you travel into the future with us in the Hypermind Boardgamers, this is the place to look back as well!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Power Grid is our Game of the Month! for February.
Even thougf a handful of us own the game, we've still only managed one and a half games so far in our history. I (and I guess some others) were wanting a bit of a heavier game for a change, and you just can't beat Power Grid's reputation here at the 'Geek. So, check it out to see how it's going!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 5, 2008
Race for the Galaxy
It's almost not even a question how we're going to start off each evening. Chris, Mark and I fired up a game of Race for the Galaxy, and Tim was around again this week so he joined us as well. Race is so quick and involving that I seem incapable of taking time to snap any pictures. I don't remember much about the game, but it seems like I couldn't draw what I needed. Meanwhile, Mark went nuts with the military and won by a mile.
We also finished the evening with another game, which I'll go ahead and cover now as well. I started off with Old Earth as my home planet and what I thought was a good opening hand. I was definitely going for a produce-consume strategy, but I got all constipated with it trying to decide whether to go with the Tourist World or the Diversified Economy in my hand. I got greedty and tried to get them both on the table, but instead ended up waiting too long and getting pretty much nothing out of it. I should have dropped that Tourist World as soon as I could and pumped out at least 6 VP every other turn. I don't really even remember what anyone else did, other than we reminded Alton of the rules all game long right up until he ran away with the game.
Time: 30 minutes and 35 minutes
Game 1: Mark 42, Tim 28, Chris 23, Me 23
Game 2: Alton 49, Mark 42, Chip 36, Me 31
Ratings: Mark 9, Tim 8, Alton 9, Chip 7.5, Chris 9.5, Me 9
Age of Gods
After our first play of Age of Gods last week, Tim was ready to play again right then. Enjoying it quite a bit myself, I brought it along this week as well. Chris Adkins, a regular CCG?er at Hypermind, joined the Tim, Chris, Mark and myself as well.
In round one, both Tim and I played the Sorcerer action cards, zapping two different cities into oblivion and leaving behind the hole in space-time that they call the Vortex. The Orcs seemed to worship it or something, but the rest of the world only seemed to get a healthy respect for magic from the whole experience.
After last week, I was sure that the main way to win would be to be as subtle with supporting my own races as possible. But this time, cirsumstances appeared to me to work out a little differently. I was playing Kraul, God of Technology, and had the power to increase the technology level of a race two times in the game. I also had a few Action Cards that would let me do some pretty obvious things for my races, so I decided to be more direct in my support of them this time.
By the end, I controlled the High Elves, the Centaurs, and the Gargoyles, all of which were maxed out in size. My size 1 race was the Giants, and they were at least still in existence (which is more than most could say about their littlest race). The Elves and Centaurs were technologically advanced, and the Gargoyles had a +2 to Defense (which I thought was pretty appropriate). It was enough to win, with (oddly enough) the exact same score that Chip won with last week!
Time: 78 minutes
Score: Me 23, Chris Adkins 20, Mark 19, Chris 11, Tim 3
Ratings: Me 8, Chris Adkins 8, Mark 8.5, Chris 8, Tim 10
Power Grid
With the loss of a couple(Chris A and Jim) who went and played Magic: The Gathering CCG and the addition of Chip and Jim, we had six willing players and a Game of the Month! that can handle six. So, Power Grid hit the table!
Most of us had only played once or twice, and it had been a while, so we started with a communal explanation/questioning of the rules. We decided to play with all the regions except the northeast on the US map. Apparently, strange natives invaded that area and built big, scary Maoi in each city to keep us out...
I can't remember many details, but Alton jumped out to an early lead despite the fact that he started out west somewhere. The game is supposed to have all these "catch up" features, but they weren't enough. After we went straight from Step 1 to Step 3 in one round, things went really fast. Alton had gone "all green" (which made it pretty natural for him to power California and the surrounding area), and was able to pump all his money in making those expensive connections everywhere he needed them.
Alton was Yellow
In the last round, four of us ended up at exactly 14 cities and able to power them all. Chris got stuck behind early and never caught up, while Alton never looked back. He wound up with 15 cities that he could power and took the game.
Time: 119 minutes
Score: Alton 15, Mark 14 ($161), Me 14 ($154), Jim 14 ($144), Chip 14 ($138), Chris 10
Ratings: Alton 8, Mark 8.5, Me 7.5, Jim 8.5, Chip 7, Chris 7
Slide 5
The last game of the evening was one I purchased earlier in the day at the Barnes & Noble 50% off sale. I had never played either Slide 5 or its predecessor Category 5 before, but it's by Wolfgang Kramer and it was cheap, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
Overall, the game was really nice. The card quality sucked heiney, but what can I expect for $5? The only issue I have is that the game was a little long for what it is, but I wonder if that's because of having to play all 5 rounds to completion. I understand that the only difference between this and the earlier versions of the game is that they ended randomly when one person hit a certain score, and I may try it that was next time to see if it runs in a little more appropriate timeframe.
Time: 49 minutes
Score: Chip 49, Alton 51, Mark 55, Chris 81, Me 83
Ratings: Chip 7, Alton 7, Mark 6, Chris 7.5, Me 6.5
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 12, 2008
I had to work a little late this week, so I missed the "preliminary" gaming that usually happens before 6 or so. Chris pulled out a few games that are new to boardgame night, including...
Hnefatafl
Now, I'd never heard of this game, and I'm not really sure how to pronounce it even now. Hnefatafl is supposed to be one of the oldest games in the world, consisting of unequal sides in which one player tries to have his king escape while being surrounded by the forces of the other player. It makes sense that our resident abstract-o-phile would have and introduce this game, and I hate that I missed it.
Time: 3 games in about 30 minutes
"Score": Chris (won 3 times), Mark (lost once), Tim (lost twice)
Ratings: Chris 7, Mark 7.5, Tim ?
Lost Worlds
I've played Lost Worlds since they were first introduced, but it's also been years since I last played. I actually brought a stack of them once to game night, but they didn't see play. Anyway, Chris at least got one game in against Mark this week.
Time: 15 minutes
Score: Mark (WIN), Chris (Lose)
Ratings: Chris 8, Mark 7.5
In addition to winning, this was also Mark's
200th Game with the Hypermind BoardGamers!!! Congratulations, Mark!!!
The Princes of Florence
I make it pretty clear that my favorite game is The Princes of Florence, and for the first time since it was Game of the Month!, we finally got it back to the table this week. Sabrina and Tim had never played before, so I went pretty carefully through the rules for their and everyone else's benefit.
I planned on trying out a Jester/Works strategy, but was willing to switch around if need be. It didn't need to be. I was fourth in the bid order on the first turn, and I actually got the Jester for only 200 Florin. I picked up the second one next turn for 1000 Florin, and things were beginning to look really good.
With everyone being new or rusty, the incredible importance of picking up Profession cards every turn until they're gone and then Recruiter cards when you can seemed to slip everyone's attention until it was too late. Sabrina fell into a Builder strategy by default that led her to 3rd place. Mark was pretty balanced, and with his Prestige cards came in second. I got the win, completing two works each of the last 3 rounds and a total of 8 works for 64 points.
Time: 80 minutes
Score: Me 64, Mark 52, Sabrina 45, Chris 44, Tim 42
Ratings: Me 10, Mark 9, Sabrina 9, Chris 9, Tim 9
Despite some of us not getting the "big picture" until late in the game, everybody was really able to appreciate how excellent The Princes of Florence is. Hopefully, this will help it see more plays in the near future!
Power Grid
This week, we had 8 people ready to play the Game of the Month!, so we split into two different groups. The "others" chose to play on the Benelux map and to use the new power plant deck. I don't know many details about the game other than they apparently played the special ecological power plant rule wrong.
Time: 105 minutes
Score: Jim 17 ($33), Mark 17 ($7), Chris 16, Tim 8
Ratings: Jim 8.5, Mark 8.5, Chris 7.5, Tim 9
For "our" game, we used the Germany map and the regular power plants. Because of the plants we picked up in teh first round, I placed myself in Essen while Sabrina and Alton took up the other two spots with "freebie" connections. Instead of starting in the wide-open northeastern corner of the map, Chip also chose to join me in the west where the low connection costs lived.
That made step 1 really tight. So I sat at 5 connections with virtually no where else to go for around 3 rounds while Alton refused to build his 7th city to send us to Step 2. When he finally did, I and Chip immediately built out to a ton more cities, and I thought that I was in a really good position.
We were also pretty rough on the resource market, keeping most of our power plants fully stocked whenever we could. Whoever was able to buy resources first ("last" place) had a distinct aedvantage for a while there.
As the game finally wound down, I found myself in a frustrating position. I was building third in one round and sitting at 14 cities. I had the capacity to power 16 cities, and had the money to connect to 3 more. So, if I wanted, I could trigger the end of the game and power 16 cities. Alton was the only other person that could power 16, but he was also sitting at 14 connected cities and would have the chance to build after me. If I ended the game, he could build just two more cities, power all of them, and would surely have more money left and win the game. So, of course, I just built up to 16 and powered them all. Alton did the same.
Next round, he and I both could only upgrade power plants to power a total of 17 cities. Sabrina, however, ended up with a capacity of 18, built the three extra connections she needed, and won the game. I came in second, which was apparently what I was fated to accomplish this game.
Time: 147 minutes
Score: Sabrina 18, Me 17 ($108), Alton ($23), Chip 16
Ratings: Sabrina 8, Me 7.5, Alton 8.5, Chip 7
Power Grid is definitely a well-designed game, but I can't get over how long and drawn-out it seems in the late game. While there's a lot to take into account, the turns seem repetitive and kinda boring, and the end of the game comes down to people doing a lot of math in their head to figure out what would be the best move. All-in-all, right now my impression is that it's interesting and challenging, but also way too long for what it is and not much fun at all.
Knights of Charlemagne
Some time while the Power Grid action was happening, Brett and James came in and figured out how to play Knights of Charlemagne. Apparently, they weren't very impressed...
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Brett 30, James 21
Ratings: Brett 5.5, James 5
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 12, 2008 (continued)
Kung Fu Fighting
After the "other" game of Power Grid, Chris joined Brett, James, and Mark for some martial-arts madness in Kung Fu Fighting. Apparently, Chris finished off mark with a fast, spinning, flipping throw to win the game. Then Brett and James convinved Tim to join them for even more up-the-wall craziness.
Time: About 30 minutes per game
Game 1: Chris (1st), Mark (2nd), Brett (3rd), James (4th)
Game 2: James (1st), Tim (2nd), Brett (3rd)
Game 3: James (1st), Tim (2nd), Brett (3rd)
Ratings: Chris 8, Mark 8, James 10, Tim 2, Brett 8.5
Mission: Red Planet
Meanwhile, the rest of us wanted at another game with some substance before calling it a night, and Mission: Red Planet seemed to fit the bill perfectly. M:RP is a weird mix of tightly constrained choices and wild, chaotic events.
I was in a really good position at the end of the game, having completed my bonus card and winning almost every territory I cared about. But then, the silly Discovery cards were revealed. One of them game a point per astronaut to everyone in a region on the far side of the map that had been hotly contested (and therefore had lots of everybody's astronauts except mine). I got no love at all from the discoveries, and paid the price as Alton surged past me for the win.
Time: 63 minutes
Score: Alton 45, Me 40, Densie 33, Mark 32, Chip 31
Ratings: Alton 8, Me 8, Denise ?, Mark 8, Chip 8.5 (need to get those recorded!!!)
I really like Mission: Red Planet... except for the stupid Discovery cards! They take a game that is a good mix of strategy and chaos and turn it into a totally unpredictable fiasco. I've heard about people just playing without them at all (only using Bonus cards), but I also wonder if putting one out at each location at the beginning of the game and giving the Scientist the ability to draw a Bonus and look at a Discovery would work. Maybe we all can talk about it later and work something out...
Bull in a China Shop
To finish the evening, I pulled out a card game that I've had since Christmas, Bull in a China Shop. Setup is a bit fiddly for my taste, but once things get going it's a really neat little challenge. We were all new to the game, but Denise was definitely either significantly better than the rest of us or was noticeably luckier than we were. Either way, it wasn't even close by the end.
Time: 28 minutes
Score: Denise 87, Alton 69, Me 68, Chip 65
Ratings: Denise 7.5, Alton 7, Me 7, Chip 7
Again, not a great game, but definitely an interesting filler card game that is pretty unique.
Well, unfortunately that took us to after midnight, so we called it an evening. We'll just have to wait now until next Tuesday!
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6.
Board Game: Pandemic
[Average Rating:7.76 Overall Rank:23]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 19, 2008
Race for the Galaxy
After a week of unexplained absence, Race for the Galaxy returns with a vengeance! I got to the store early this week, and before long Mark joined me for a quick romp around the galaxy. Mark pushed the action pretty hard, but I still managed to ride a 2x VP Consume in the last round to a 2-point win. In fact, this was my 100th WIN at BoardGame Night!!! Woo-Hoo for me!
By that time, Chris came in and joined us for another couple of games that he won. They all ran together, and the only specific thing that I remember is that I scored 4 points more in the first 3-player game than I did in my game against Mark and was still 10 points behind Mark and 15 behind Chris. They just went off completely in that game, with Mark getting lots of military and 6-cost Developments while Chris Produced/2x Consumed 3 or 4 times.
In the third game, I remember being like one turn away from kicking butt. I always seem to be a couple of turns too slow in this game, continually needing a little more time to reap my economic engine. I think that my plans are always just a bit too grand, and I just need to settle more for immediate rewards instead of trying to get things “perfect” before I switch over to heavy consumption mode.
Time: 20, 18, and 26 minutes (3 games)
Game 1: Me 34, Mark 32
Game 2: Chris 53, Mark 48, Me 38
Game 3: Chris 36, Mark 34, Me 34
Ratings: Me 9, Mark 9, Chris 9.5
Pandemic
I’ve been excited about Pandemic since I first heard about it months and months ago, both for its cooperative nature and its cool theme. I pushed it a little bit in our contemplations about what to play next, but it wasn’t a hard sell to the rest of the guys. Alton joined the three of us as we set up the game and I explained the rules.
In our first game, there were a lot of turns where we just moved our pawns around and removed disease cubes. We didn’t make much use of our roles’ special powers, and by the time the player deck ran out we only had one of the four diseases cured.
We immediately reset and played another game. Despite the game supposedly only playing 4, Jen had watched about half of the previous game and joined us as well. We were doing a lot better in this game, finally beginning to use our powers and see some of the interactions that were possible. I really thought we were going to win until, almost out of the blue, we had an outbreak in Africa. It worked out just right that we had a four-city chain reaction that threw us up to 8 total Outbreaks which made us lose again, once again after only curing one of the diseases.
Time: 45 and 33 minutes
Game 1: The Pandemic! – WIN, The Epidemiologists (Alton, Chris, Mark, and Me) – Died horrible, festering deaths
Game 2: The Pandemic! – WIN, The Epidemiologists (Alton, Chris, Jen, Mark, and Me) – Had our sores licked by dogs before the bleeding fever consumed us
Ratings: Alton 7, Chris 7.5, Jen 7.5, Mark 7, Me 8
Later in the evening, Chip was finally able to join us, and he wanted to give Pandemic a try as well. Alton and Mark were up for it, so we set up for an almost unprecedented third time in one evening. From the very start, it was pretty clear that we were far more efficient than we had been in either of the previous games. We knew what the role abilities could do, and the use of our turns was way more optimized.
On top of that, we had some pretty good luck with card draws in the game. Both in terms of top-decking the exact colors that we needed and in when the Epidemic cards came up, the game was pretty easy on us. In a relatively stress-free game, we finally cured all four diseases for the win being only about 2/3 through the Player deck.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: The Exalted Epidemiologists (Alton, Chip, Mark, and Me) – Victorious!, The Pandemic – Thwarted for the moment, but kept alive in a freezer somewhere in eastern Europe to be used as a biological weapon sometime in the future
Ratings: Alton 7.5, Chip 7.5, Mark 7.5, Me 8
Pandemic is the most cooperative game I’ve ever played. The rules state pretty plainly that the only thing you can’t do is actually show your cards to the other players, but you can tell them what you’ve got and all talk freely about plans and actions and pretty much whatever you want to. I agree with the Dreaded Gazebo that Pandemic plays more like a puzzle than a real cooperative game, but I don’t necessarily think that is a bad thing.
And when it comes to game balance, I think that this is right on the money. At first glance, I assumed that the Researcher (which can give cards to other players more easily) would be the weakest of the roles, but I was wrong (it actually may be the Scientist, which only needs 4 cards of the same color – instead of 5) – to cure that disease). In the end, I have a hard time deciding which, if any, of the roles are more “important” to success. They all do cool things, many of which you can’t really appreciate until you’ve played a couple of times.
And the whole mechanism of how the infections spread is just really cool. I won’t get into too much detail, but the way that the discard pile is put on top of the draw pile of the infection deck after an epidemic card is drawn is really clever (and stress-inducing!) For a little more discussion about Pandemic, check out my my personal blog.
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 19, 2008 (continued)
Power Grid - Italy/France
Despite my waning interest in our Game of the Month!, it was then time to pull out Power Grid for the week. We had five players, so there would only be one game going. I kinda wanted to play the Benelux map, but most of the others wanted to try out France with the brilliant idea they thought up last week to have the one unplayed area be the central one (where Paris is). So, that’s what we did (despite the fact that the rules specifically say that it would be a bad idea).
I won the best power plant in the first auction, so I went last in the building phase. I actually chose not to build at all so as to assure being in last place the next round, when I built into 3 cities, cutting off Jim from half of the southern cities and, I thought, putting myself in a good position. Instead, it just put me a turn or so behind for the whole game.
Alton, on the other hand, somehow got a turn or so ahead and everybody was playing catch-up. Near the end of the game, both Chris and Jim made big pushes and ended up tied with Alton at 15 cities in the last round. Alton had been sandbagging for a few turns (aided by the three turns when I kept buying all the trash and he couldn’t get any), and he had plenty of money to win the game in the tie-breaker.
Time: 120 minutes
Score: Alton 15 ($95), Jim 15 ($24), Chris 15 ($18), Mark 13, Me 12
Ratings: Alton 8.5, Jim 8.5, Chris 7.5, Mark 8, Me 6
Yeah, my rating took a nosedive. The more I’ve thought about it, I just don’t feel right continuing to rate it highly because of peer pressure and the fact that I think it’s a “quality” game. I just don’t really think it’s much fun at all, and in my assessment of its subjective replayability for me, the 6 may be generous.
Kung Fu Fighting
Jen had played Pandemic with us the second time, but didn’t want to get into Power Grid with us. Juvae came in soon and the two of them looked around at the store game library, finally choosing Kung Fu Fighting. They played a couple of games, and Jen won them both.
Time: 10 minutes each
Score: Jen (2 games), Juvae (0 wins)
Ratings: Jen 8, Juvae 7
If Wishes Were Fishes
After looking around a little more, Denise joined them and they figured out the still relatively-new Rio Grande game, If Wishes Were Fishes. Again, I didn’t actually watch much of this game, but Jen is apparently brutal.
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Jen 92, Juvae 85, Denise 68
Ratings: Jen 8, Juvae 5, Denise 8.5
Bull in a China Shop
Chip had gotten there by this time, but Chris didn’t want to get into anything too heavy before he headed home. We therefore compromised and went with a nice filler, Bull in a China Shop. A few of us played this last week, and in general it went just as well or better. I finished the last two rounds really well to take the win.
Time: 19 minutes
Score: Me 85, Chip 76, Mark 71, Alton 60, Chris 57
Ratings: Me 7, Chip 7, Mark 7, Alton 7, Chris 7
For Sale
This is when we got in the third game of Pandemic (which we finally won), we pulled out another filler to finish the evening. For Sale seemed perfect, so we gave it a shot. Once again, I managed to pull out the victory.
Time: 11 minutes
Score: Me $83k, Mark $65k, Alton $60k, Chip $60k
Ratings: Me 7.5, Mark 8, Alton 7.5, Chip 7.5
Ca$h 'n Gun$
Then, as I was walking out the door, Denise, Jen, and Juvae were getting started with a game of Ca$h 'n Gun$. Leaving Juvae dead in a pool of his own blood, Jen and Denise walked away rich, though Denise walked away slightly more rich.
Time: 20 minutes
Score: Denise $180k, Jen $165k, Juvae DEAD
Ratings: Denise 8.5, Jen 8.5, Juvae 5
And, unfortunately, that is all that the evening held for us. There’s still one last chance for Power Grid to redeem itself; otherwise I’ll be looking for someone who might want my copy in trade. See you next week!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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February 26, 2008
YINSH
After hearing about the Gipf project for… well, for as long as I’ve been into modern board games, I finally broke down and picked up what I heard was the most accessible of the series, YINSH. No one appreciates a good abstract game more than Chris, so while I hate that we left Mark out while we played; I really wanted to give it a try with Chris first thing this week.
We played two games, and with neither of us having any clue of how to set up or of any basic strategy, I stumbled my way into victory both times. Gameplay is indeed easy to pick up, but I need to play a heck of a lot more before I’ll even have the first clue about what kind of initial placement really holds any significant advantage. But still, it seems to be the kind of game that is takes "minutes to learn, decades to master".
Time: 11 minutes, 19 minutes
Game 1: Me 3, Mark 1
Game 2: Me 3, Chris 2
Ratings: Me 8, Chris 8
Infernal Contraption
At this point, Chris pulled out a new card game that he had picked up, Infernal Contraption. The point of the game is that each player builds a… well, an infernal contraption that you point at one of the other players each turn and which causes them to discard cards from their draw deck or do other similarly nasty things. There were 4 of us playing, so we didn’t have much of a draw deck to start with, and Mark had his destroyed after only 2 turns. In the end, it was down to Chris and me, but he got to go first and had enough bad stuff in his machine to kill me off as well.
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Chris WIN, Me 2nd, Alton 3rd, Mark 4th
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Me 6, Alton 8, Mark 7.5
Infernal Contraption is a cute enough little game that has a neat little theme and has a pretty cool little mechanic going on. It’s a little too one-dimensional, though, and luck of the draw is pretty dominant. I also don’t like the player elimination very much, even if the game did only last 30 minutes.
Brett and James actually played it later in the evening, where the game took a lot longer and gave them time to build some really massive contraptions. Brett won, but neither of them thought much of the game.
Time:63 minutes
Score: Brett WIN, James LOSE
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Jen and Chip had arrived by the time we were finished with our contraptions, and Jen brought along her copy of Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game. I and some of the other people had heard pretty good things about it (for a Zombie game anyway), so we thought it would be nice to try. We randomly chose the scenario where we had to find the gas and keys to drive the truck out of town, then we randomly chose characters. Frankly, I was a little spooked out, because not only was my character (Becky) a nurse (as am I), but we also looked incredibly identical...
When did I pose for that picture?
Anyway, I started in the hospital, of course, and Chris (playing the role of Sally the High School Sweetheart) started in the school. We both ran to the Diner and fought back-to-back against the amassed undead hordes that threatened us while the "men" cowered in the store across town.
Finally, Mark (playing Father Joseph, whose motto should have been "pray loudly and carry a freaking huge chainsaw") waded into the fray, spraying zombie gore in a 20' diameter from anywhere he went. Alton (the outsider Sheriff Anderson) took potshots with his revolver as he searched the store for the keys, which he finally managed to locate. I too found luck, eventually finding the gasoline behind the counter of the Diner, which was obviously the place that it should have been. Chip and Jen's zombies flooded into our area, however, preventing us from getting out the door. We fought through it in time, and soon the truck was gassed up and ready to go! And even better, lying in the back of the truck together, Chris the perky high-school sweetheart found love with Alton the out-of-place sheriff, and they lived happily ever after...
Time: 90 minutes
Score: The Survivors (Alton, Chris, Mark, and Me) WIN, Zombies (Jen and Chip) LOSE
Ratings: Alton 6.5, Chris 6.5, Jen 8.5, Mark 6.5, Chip 5, Me 5.5
Despite the good press it's received, Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game didn't do much for most of us. First of all, since our whole objective was just to find a couple of items and get to the truck, the only smart thing to do very turn was to find a building, stay put, and search (to draw a card). And for a zombie game, the zombies were pretty pitiful. Unless Chip or Jen had some massive fight card to play, they didn't really stand a chance against the heroes (especially Mark and the Holy Chainsaw Massacre). In the end, I'm pretty sure that none of the heroes ended up even wounded (because I kept healing Chris and my one wound was taken care of by an event card. It just seemed repetitive, too long, and too dependent on luck.
Power Grid
Thankfully, this was the last week of Power Grid being Game of the Month! I had heard that the Benelux map was quicker, so I wanted to give it a try to give every chance to the game that I could. We also played with the new power plant deck, just to see what kind of differences that introduced.
Luxembourg suffered the Zombie Apocalypse, removing it from play.
In short, none of it made a big difference. Early on, I thought I was going to be competitive this game, but I really wasn't. Most all of us were within in 1 city of the winner (Chip); but then again, that's how pretty much every game has gone. It was just more of the same old tedious gameplay, and I was glad to see the game come to an end, win or lose.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Chip 17, Alton 16($17), Mark 16($14), Me 16($11), Chris 13
Ratings: Chip 6.25 (he couldn't bring himself to give it a 6, even though he wanted to), Alton 8, Mark 7.5, Me 6, Chris 6.5
What do I think of Power Grid then? Well, my copy has already been traded away.
This was also a big night because it was the last game night in Hypermind's original location. Next week, we'll be in the partially-finished new location in another part of town. To say goodbye, here's a photo-montage (cue sentimental music)...
Farewell, Gala shopping center location... We'll miss you!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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The Game of the Month! for March is The Settlers of Catan. Since I’m going to be missing for a couple of weeks this month, we chose a simple game that is well known, but which is still a favorite of the group. It will also give us a chance to try out some of the many expansions that we have for this classic.
And obviously, I’m just going to continue this geeklist instead of creating an entirely new one due to my limited participation and free time this month.
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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March 4, 2008
Tier auf Tier
This was a bad week for me, both at and away from the gaming table, but I’ll get more to that later.
We were in the new store for the first time this week. Of course, it doesn’t look too much like a real store yet, but instead resembles something more like a tornado disaster site. We pulled a couple of tables out, though, and got down to playing anyway. I brought along Tier auf Tier and invited Denise and Nick’s two older kids (Ian and Elliott) to play with me. Chris came in right around that time, so he joined us as well. Unfortunately, the youngest Shepherd was also around, and in his exuberance for watching (and wanting to play himself), the first game was ended in a terrible table-shaking disaster.
We started over, and with the help of a spring-loaded table that would cause stuff to fall off almost any time that Chris rolled the die (even at the far end), I managed to win my one game for the evening.
Time: 12 minutes
Scoe: Me WIN, Ian (1 piece left), Chris (3 pieces left), Elliott (4 pieces left)
Ratings: Me 8, Ian 8, Chris 8
Race for the Galaxy
Several other people had arrived by then, so we jumped into a game of Race for the Galaxy. I started with a production strategy, but quickly switched over to Military in the first couple of turns. Chris and Mark just went nuts with what they were doing (even though I can’t remember what that was right now), and left me and Chip way behind.
Time: 27 minutes
Score: Chris 47, Mark 42, Me 26, Chip23
Ratings: Chris 10,Mark 9.5, Me 9.5, Chip 7
Britt was also around, but he was too busy talking to people when we got started, so he had to watch quietly while we played.
Bad Britt!!! Don’t you look at me! Just think about what you’ve done!!!
The Settlers of Catan
It was then time for the Game of the Month! Alton had his 4th edition copy of The Settlers of Catan, along with the 5-6 player expansion, so we all set up for it and had a huge 6-player game. We did play with the option that allowed everyone else to build between turns, just to keep things moving and prevent the huge glut of cards kept in hand in such a large game. We also played with the option of placing one settlement and then one city at the beginning of the game, mainly for time reasons with 6 players.
Anyway, most of us sucked pretty bad. I went for bricks and a brick port early, but my total lack of rock and grain killed me. Britt, meanwhile, was inundated with sheep (he kept saying that he was “rolling in sheep”, but that image disturbed me greatly). Alton built cities up in the mountain range, but his plethora of rock didn’t seem to do him much good either. Chris, however, powered his way to 10 points like it was nothing.
Time: 46 minutes
Score: Chris 10, Mark 6, Alton 5, Britt 5, Chip 5, Me 5
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Mark 8, Alton 10, Britt 9, Chip 9, Me 8
Settlers is really fun and I like it a lot, but sometimes you just get screwed…
Sometime in here, a huge line of scary thunderstorms that spawned several tornados made its way through the area. Whether it was the atmospheric pressure changes or all the sheep that Britt was rollin’ in, something made a few of rather squirrelly at this point. It was not necessarily a pretty sight…
Kingsburg
After Settlers, we discussed what to play. I was hoping to finally play Mark’s copy of Cuba, but others seemed more interested in trying out the store copy of Kingsburg. I had actually taken it home and read the rules, as well as watching Colin Sherman (the Obsessed Board Gamer) do his explanation and review of the game, so I more or less knew what the deal with the game was.
As it went, I did really well for pretty much the whole game. I led in buildings the entire time, I built the Farm so I rolled 4 dice most of the game, and I was in the lead just seconds before the game ended. Then, because a “1” was rolled on the King’s support die for the final battle, I ended up in last place. Yes, I so totally could have changed my strategy to make it impossible for me to lose 8 freaking victory points to the barbarians, but I guess that being screwed with a 1 in 6 chance was just a little too much for me to handle. It kinda ruined the whole experience for me, in fact.
Time: 110 minutes
Score: Chris 42, Chip 37, Alton 35, Mark 33, Me 33
Ratings: Chris 8.75, Chip 9, Alton 8, Mark 8.5, Me 7.5
Okay, technically I would have lost on a roll of 2 as well, but it would have only been by one point to Chris, and I still would have been in second place (which I would have felt a lot better about). It was more the fact that for 109 minutes of the game I was pretty much leading (in position if not in points), and then I ended up in last place because of one stinky die roll. The thing that hurts most is that I really liked the game while we were playing. It kept everyone really engaged, seemed to move quickly, and offered a good number of choices and strategies to try out.
With that being said, however, there are also a lot of things about the game that I didn’t like so much in retrospect. First of all, it lasted 110 minutes! That’s as long as the entirely-too-long games of Power Grid that we played last month! For the light to medium weight strategy game that Kingsburg is, it’s like twice as long as it should be. And while the decisions of how to use your dice rolls is pretty interesting and engaging, it’s also very repetitive. I just don’t think that 110 minutes of repetitive play will stay interesting for very long.
Again on the other hand, however, Kingsburg makes the best use of dice that I’ve seen pretty much ever. In a similar way to Yspahan (though much better IMHO), it finds a very interesting way to let players make cool choices with the random results of their dice rolls. It is still a dice game, however, and consistently bad rolls will still have a very limiting effect on your strategy. In the end, after looking at all the good and the bad, I still very much want to give Kingsburg another play.
Roostertail!: The Hydroplane Racing Game...
At this point, I went up to briefly call my wife while the rest of the group decided what to play next. Unfortunately, what I saw them do instead was to pack up and head home. I don’t know whose idea that was, but it almost cost me my life.
Like I said, for most of the evening it had been absolutely pouring outside. When things broke up, the rain had lightened considerably. I left and got on the interstate, driving what I thought was pretty carefully… at least until I hit the veritable lake gathered there and hydroplaned myself through 3 lanes of traffic, turned 180 degrees, and slid off the side of the road backwards into a deep storm ditch.
I was unhurt, however, and my car didn’t get anywhere nearly as torn up as I had feared. But if just one car had been in my way, or if I had slid up into the woods or into the guardrail, and I might not still be here to write this little report. I’m really thankful that God was watching over me and kept me safe, even in the midst of one of the scariest events of my life.
And, of course, please learn from my experience. Remember that leaving game night early can be deadly, so stay as long as you can if you value your life!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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March 11, 2008
Due to preparations for our coming baby girl, I was unable to attend this week's regular game night, so Chris took up the responsibility of writing a report for us. Take it away Chris!
Vyolynce wrote: I arrived at Hypermind at 5:30ish, after picking up some games and my wife's camera from home. The retail section of the new location is coming along nicely, but I was horrified to see that most of my hard work last week in clearing space for gaming tables was undone over the weekend thanks to needing to clear off Wade's truck! Alton was sitting back there chatting. While we waited to see if more people would show up, I satisfied some curiosity and tried a solitaire run of Kingsburg. Since there are no actual rules for such madness, I decided to delcare all "highest" or "lowest" as ties and to not use the two-player "interference" rule (where you roll unused dice to pre-claim some advisors), just to see what kind of score I could get; in retrospect, that may have been a little over-powering, as I earned 10 free VP (2 each year, at the beginning of summer and winning the battle at year's end with the "highest" total) and one free resource every start of spring, but hey -- I was bored. I think I wound up with a total in the mid-40s. The Settlers of CatanWhile that was going on, a group of new patrons came into the store and Denise persuaded a few of them to try a game of Cartagena (along with Ian).
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Ian 6 (Win), Blake 5, Michael 4, Montgue 2
Ratings: Ian 8, Blake 7, Michael 8, Montgue 8
Quote: I'm not sure how it went, but we agreed to wait on them to finish so we could show them our Game of the Month! (and perennial gateway game), The Settlers of Catan. We had Alton's edition set up and ready to go, and soon we were explaining things and got underway. After some initial confusion, most of them picked up the basics quickly (although "trade only on your turn" took quite some time, and keeping score seemed to escape them). The game went on long, even with the Special Build Phase, and Alton and I could tell that it was beginning to wear on their attention spans; we did what we could to keep order and control, but it wasn't easy with four new players. Fortunately, I was able to put the game away not long after thanks to some key Development cards, ultimately cruising to 11 points on the back of my Largest Army. The game was very well-received by the newcomers, and now that their first game is under their collective belts I am actually curious to see how they do in subsequent plays.
Time: 96 minutes
Score: Chris 11, Alton 9, Annette 7, Michael 7, Blake 5, Montgue 4
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Alton 10, Annette 8, Michael 10, Blake 9, Montgue 10
Quote: Race for the GalaxyChip arrived in the middle of Settlers, adding in some strategic advice as needed and helping to keep things moving. Once we put the GotM! to rest for the week (or perhaps not...), the three of us started up a Race for the Galaxy while the newcomers attempted a game of Liar's Dice that I believe was aborted due to either confusion and/or time issues. Our Race, however, went to completion and was neck-and-neck(-and-neck). Alton spent a lot of time Exploring, but was leeching off Chip and me playing a lot of Develop and Settles, as he had a full tableau by the game's end; now that I look at it again, he seemed to be setting up for some devastating Diversified Economy action, but I can't be certain. I stalled early after drawing a bunch of mid-cost worlds and developments, but after a Trade to restock I was able to really turn things around with a Consumer Markets-powered Production phase that gained me seven(!) cards and threatened to do some real damage. Fortunately for the others, they were both already at 11 and the game ended before I was able to hit a Consume x2, although not before I was able to put down the Free Trade Association to make up some massive points (that dev alone was worth 10VP!). But it would be Chip emerging victorious on this day, riding Replicant Robots to some high-scoring discount ALIEN worlds (plus Terraformed World) and trading in his New Military Tactics to help conquer the Malevolent Lifeforms -- one of several sources of gene goods that kept his hand full via Trades (especially with his Research Labs). Alton feels that he's still a couple of experiments away from becoming truly adept at this game, while Chip has finally become comfortable enough to improve his rating; I, on the other hand, will probably continue to love this game until my cards are worn out! This game was a good example as to why, with the three of us were separated only by a span of 8VP at game's end and remaining close pretty much the entire time. The facts that there aren't a lot of bits and the game typically lasts under 45 minutes are also huge plusses for me.
Time: 33 minutes
Score: Chip 29, Chris 26, Alton 21
Ratings: Chip 8, Chris 10, Alton 10
Quote: YspahanWe finished off the night with a game of Yspahan, as Alton was curious to give that a shot after seeing it compared to Kingsburg in last week's recap. I used both the "build without camels" and "build without gold" cards to claim key buildings early on and took an early lead, but Chip took advantage of a poor second week on my part to surge ahead. I attempted a last-day gamble, paying for three additional dice that I hoped would move me into the Vase neighborhood for massive points (a single five would have earned me 10 points, I think, thanks to my Crane and +2 Neighborhood Bonus), but rolled ZERO ONES on twelve dice and couldn't catch up in time. Time: 41 minutes
Score: Chip 87, Chris 80, Alton 54
Ratings: Chip 9.5, Chris 9, Alton 8
Quote: Tune in Thursday for a special "Ides of March" edition of the Hypermind Boardgamers! Like Chris said, some of us are free and will be playing a little on Thursday of this week as well, and I'll probably be posting a report of that activity too!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Puerto Rico
As promised, we had a special Thursday edition of boardgame night this week! It’s cool how things work out sometimes, when one opportunity is taken away and then another falls right into place. Anyway, I brought a handful of games that I wanted to play, knowing for sure that there would be at least two of us. As it turned out, we actually had four players show up ready to play.
The first game that we tried is one that has been surprisingly absent from virtually all of our previous game nights, Puerto Rico. I picked it up after only one play, but had yet to get my copy to the table. I figured with the mad obsession we’ve had with Race for the Galaxy, this would be the perfect time to introduce it.
Most others on BGG probably will think it strange that I had to struggle through explaining rules for the #1 rated game with two other active boardgamers. But the heyday of Puerto Rico passed long before most of us were active in the hobby, and older games often pass us by since we tend to be exuberant initiates in the cult of the new. Regardless, their experience with Race for the Galaxy did indeed prove to be extremely useful, and the game started very smoothly.
Since I was the “experienced” one, I was the only one with a real plan. I definitely went for a production/shipping strategy, focusing on corn and indigo. In the end, I won pretty handily, but Alton and Chris were catching on very well.
Time: 60 minutes
Scoe: Me 50, Alton 44, Chris 39
Ratings: Me 8.5, Alton 7.5, Chris 7.5
Overall, I was really impressed with my second play of this classic. For all the same reasons that I like Race for the Galaxy, Puerto Rico is even better. There are multiple, flexible strategies that you can try, and it all seems to come down to efficiency and timing. Ultimately, however, the reason that I think Race for the Galaxy is a better game is that it is so thoroughly more efficient. With all the fiddly setup and management in PR, plus a play time that is pretty much double, I would prefer in most cases to pull out Race.
Patrician
After my disappointment with Power Grid last month, I ended up trading it for the Lord of the Rings cooperative game and the next one we played, Patrician. I had my eye on this for a while, mainly because of how much I love China, and the others agreed to give it a try. Mark was there by then, and we ended up playing a couple of games.
Chris absolutely ran away with the first play, more than doubling the next player’s score. Immediately, however, we set up again and gave it another try. This time, I looked more ahead and grabbed up lots of the double-piece cards as well as having two extra cards more than everyone else. All that led me to the win in the second game.
Time: 15 minutes each
Game 1: Chris 57, Me 25, Mark 21, Alton 19
Game 2: Me 37, Mark 32, Chris 30, Alton 30
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Me 8, Mark 8, Alton 8.5
Everybody was really impressed with this little filler area-control game. It has a lot of strategic choice, especially in the fact that you pick up new cards based on where you play your pieces, but it is so quick and easy to pick up on. I'll definitely have to bring it again soon so we can try it with some other gamers.
The Settlers of Catan
Even though it wasn't a standard game night, I couldn't get away from the Game of the Month!, The Settlers of Catan. We played a pretty basic 4-player game but did include the Fishermen of Catan for a little variety. Mark seemed to jump out to an early lead, but then I managed to catch up and then hit a string of lots of big resource payouts to build my way to victory.
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Me 10, Mark 8, Chris 6, Alton 6
Ratings: Me 8, Mark 8, Chris 7.5, Alton 10
I've played this game a lot (as we all have), and at times I get where I don't really want to bother with it much any more. But then a time comes along when I get to play it with three other experienced players that I really enjoy gaming with, and the game surprises me again with how much dern fun it can be! And the Fishermen is a really, really nice little expansion that does just enough to smooth over a few rough spots while not really getting in the way too much. It really is a great addition to have if you can find it somewhere.
Race for the Galaxy
Alton had to go, so Mark, Chris and I finished the night with a triple-play of Race for the Galaxy. I can't remember a lot of details about most of the games, other than I came in second twice and third once. Apparently, my biggest strategic flaw for the evening was in not randomly selecting New Sparta as my homeworld, because the military ruled all three games.
The only specific thing I remember was being Earth's Lost Colony and having Spice World, Secluded World, and Consumer Markets in my opening hand. I don't think I could have done much different, but Mark and his stupid warrior droids didn't miss a drop and ended the game early. I had just gotten the engine in high gear, and another two turns would have had me produce myself way past him. Arrrrggghhhhh!!!!! Even when a beautiful strategy falls right into my lap I can't win!!!
Time: 18, 21, and 22 minutes, respectively
Game 1: Mark 39, Me 32, Chris 18
Game 2: Chris 38, Mark 36, Me 28
Game 3: Mark 34, Me 27, Chris 19
Ratings: Mark 9, Chris 10, Me 9
It was a great night of gaming... AND I didn't almost die on the way home, so it was just great all around! I hope this week is just as good!!!
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13.
Board Game: Cuba
[Average Rating:7.36 Overall Rank:113]
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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March 18, 2008
This is my last game night for a while, as I will be devoting pretty much all my time over the next few weeks to my wife and new baby girl. I therefore wanted to get in some good gaming this week, and I was mostly successful.
Race for the Galaxy
When I arrived at Hypermind, Mark was walking in at the same time. Wanting to regain some level of confidence in my Race for the Galaxy game, I challenged him to a couple of plays. Unlike all three games last Thursday, I managed to pull New Sparta as my starting world in the first game. Feeling sure that I was powering to the win, I managed to pick up both New Galactic Order and Glactic Imperium along with a couple of rebel worlds. Mark, however, was doing lots of card-drawing shenanigans over on the other side of the table, however, and ended up playing 3 or 4 6-cost developments including Galactic Federation. When the dust settled and we added up the VP, we found ourselves in, of all things, a stinking tie!!!
Of course, we shuffled up and started over, determined to have a winner! I pulled Earth's Lost Colony as my starting world, and while I didn't get the combo as quickly as I did last week, ended up with both Consumer Markets and Free Trade Association before running out of VP chips. In the two-player game, I was able to get things going quicker and had several "Consume 2x/Produce" turns. Mark was still hot on my tail, but I managed a modest win in this game to claim at least a bit of Race-ial pride back.
Time: 12 minutes and 19 minutes
Game 1: Me 41, Mark 41
Game 2: Me 44, Mark 40
Ratings: Me 9, Mark 9
(If you don't know what all the cards do that I mentioned above, download Brian Bankler's excel spreadsheet of card names/effects, which is a great resource for anyone that plays Race anyway.)
Catan: Cities & Knights
For our Game of the Month! play this week, I brought in my copy of the The Settlers of Catan variant Catan: Cities & Knights. Chris and Alton had arrived by then, but none of us had ever played it, so I did my best to explain the rules to everybody. There's not a lot to say about the game, other than how Mark played over in a corner filled with Grain and Ore while the rest of us struggled against each other in the crowded remainder of the board. Mark won.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Mark 13, Alton 10, Me 8, Chris 5
Ratings: Mark 7, Alton 7, Me 6, Chris 5
In general, we didn't like it much. I've heard some people say that they wouldn't play without Cities & Knights because of the extra strategy it adds, but to me, it almost seems to ruin what makes The Settlers of Catan a great game. It adds quite a bit of time and complication, and I'm not convinced that the extra stuff is interesting or fun enough to warrant either. I liked the city expansion stuff, but the knights themselves seemed to be pretty pointless except when the barbarian attacked, and even then by the end of the game it was no big deal. I'm not saying that I'd never give it another try, but I think it'll be hard to get it to the table around here anytime soon.
Pandemic
Chip was there to watch most of our C&K game, and then he and I pushed a little to play Pandemic next. It's definitely my favorite new game, and I can't seem to get enough of it. Alton and Chris joined us and we randomly picked the Medic, Scientist, Dispatcher, and Operations Expert as our roles. Things looked good early, but then we had a couple of epidemics hit in the midgame that tore South America and Asia out of control, eventually leading to a chain reaction of yellow that lost us the game.
We started over immediately, with the Researcher replacing the Operations Expert this time (thankfully). We had a couple of early Outbreaks in Asia, but then managed to get good control of things as we entered the midgame. We were able to hand the Scientist cards for a couple of cures, and with the Researcher's help also pulled out the other two and managed to save the world!
Time: 27 minutes and 28 minutes
Game 1: The world was lost to the orange (yellow+red) scourge!
Game 2: The Brave Epidemiologists save all of Humanity!!!
Ratings: Alton 8, Chip 9, Chris 8.5, Me 10
Mark and James played some Kung Fu Fighting while we played Pandemic, but failed to fill out a report form. Shame on them!!!
Cuba
Mark had picked up Cuba back in December, but the Game of the Month! at the time was The Pillars of the Earth at the time (same designer and some similar rules), so we had never gotten it to the table. I downloaded and read the rules, and actually handled the rules explanation this week as well.
Not really sure what would work, I just chose to make lots of cigars, planning on picking up the cigar factory, the building that lets you get VP for cigars, and the store that lets you sell them for 6 Pesos. In the end, I think that my limited focus actually worked against me, as people (particularly Mark and Chris) who were more generalized and free-form in their strategy seemed to do better.
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Mark 78, Chris 72, Alton 67, Me 66, Chip 65
Ratings: Mark 8, Chris 8, Alton 8, Me 7.5, Chip 7.5
I don't really know what to think about this game right now. There's a lot of choices to make and a lot that goes on each round, but I'm not convinced that a lot of what happens in the game really makes a big difference.
The use of the role cards is pretty cool, but it seemed like the choices of what to do and in what order were pretty obvious and universal to all of us (particularly early in the game). Similarly, the political element was neat and very thematic, but didn't seem to have a huge effect on the game. Maybe I'm minimizing it a little, but again it seemed like the bulk of the players wanted the same things to happen, and in only a few cases did it make a big difference one way or the other in final game outcome.
Overall, it felt a little unfocused to me, especially when compared to Puerto Rico and even its cousin, The Pillars of the Earth. I'd definitely like to play it a few more times to get a better idea of it, but I'm not sure yet if it would be something I'd like to own.
Well, like I said, the night was a little hit or miss for me. I'll still try to keep this glog updated as long as Chris or others send me reports for the game nights. Until I return, good gaming to all!!!
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Chris Norwood
United States
Graham
North Carolina
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As Chris points out here, I'm still a bit occupied with my adorable little girl, but I'm finally getting around to posting his report from the last week in March. Take it away Chris...
Vyolynce wrote: Settlers of Catan - The Fishermen of CatanIt was one of our less-populated Board Game Nights, but we had our solid core of four (Alton, Chip, Mark, and myself) assembled by six and decided to put our Game of the Month! to bed early. We opted to go with gold mines and fishing, as that went fairly well during our "Ides of March" Thursday session. While we were setting up, Ian talked his mom into letting him stick around, so we quickly re-set for the 5-6 player expansion and we were off. Not a very exciting game, as we were all fairly even for most of the duration. About halfway through the game we realized that we hadn't been utilizing the "Special Build Phase" and decided to just keep going that way, which only hurt those of us with full hands a few times -- mostly me! Alton nearly completed a cross-Catan Expressway to lock up Longest Road (although I came close to usurping that claim with a cul-de-sac in one of my two isolated port communities) while Mark emphasized massive resource production to pull into the lead. In the end, however, it was Chip who started hitting the big numbers and, combined with the muscle of his Largest Army, ultimately claimed victory. Time -- 49 minutes
Scores -- Alton 7, Chip 11, Chris 7, Mark 8, Ian 5
Ratings -- Alton 10, Chip 9, Chris 7.5, Mark 9As I mentioned in the comments for last week and Catan: Cities & Knights, I'm not terribly enthused by the Catan series. I don't really mind playing them or anything, but I will try to find anything else to play first. I think the random resource production is what knocks the game down a few pegs for me, as dice are the most fickle of RNGs. The Fishermen variant is slightly more palatable, as it offsets some of the disadvantage of choosing (or being forced) to build on the coast and there are a variety of useful effects available. I'd also be willing to give the game a shot using the Event Deck rather than the dice; I guess I just trust cards more when it comes to strategy (dice are for role-playing!). Race for the GalaxyWhile Ian was occupied with something else, the conveniently-numbered four of us reflexively went for our unofficial "Game of the Year" so far. As always, the game was tight and competition fierce. Alton, based on his homeworld of New Sparta, was a little slow in developing his military but came on strong towards the end and even settled (that's right, settled) the Deserted ALIEN Library although he was never able to trade that bad boy off (or indeed do much of anything in the way of consumption, which definitely hurt him on this occasion). I lost focus early on, shifting from a Contact Specialist strategy into a hybrid of it and Rare Earth which cost me precious tempo in the long run, including a key Consume phase where I needed to go x2 to stay competitive but had to Trade to refill my hand, opting for the latter; I would be the one to place my 12th card to end the game, which probably saved me from being crushed even further. Chip and Mark were both on a Consumption-oriented path, each of them hitting a x2 VP at least twice, with Mark sneaking away with the win thanks to gaining 10VP off one phase via his Diversified Economy and other shenanigans. (As tends to be the case with RftG, the game moved so quickly that by the time it occurred to me to take a picture we had already packed everything up.) Time -- 28 minutes
Scores -- Alton 27, Chip 31, Chris 24, Mark 36
Ratings -- Alton 9.5, Chip 8, Chris 10, Mark 9.5Ave CaesarLooking for something different (and with Ian back in the mix), Alton suggested that we go with Chip's Ave Caesar, which I had missed on its previous outing. Our first five-chariot race featured Mark playing obstructer in the early goings of the first lap, only to wind up stalled out for three turns straight thanks to some later maneuvering of his opponents! It was in this game that we learned that the Shepherd family apparently comes from a long line of Roman Charioteers, as young Ian took command of the first two races with a pair of victories. I was in a distant second, with the rest of the pack more or less even in totals. Time -- 35 minutes (2 races)
Combined Scores -- Alton 4 (4th, 4th), Chip 5 (2nd, 5th), Chris 7 (3rd, 2nd), Mark 4 (5th, 3rd), Ian 12 (1st, 1st)Magic: The Gathering CCG player Eric Navarro joined us for two more races, and although he finished 6th and 5th in them he may have given the group a new catch-phrase with his deadpan delivery of "That's unfortunate," in response to his opponents' woes. I took top honors in the first of our six-horse events at the Circus Maximus, with Ian finishing far enough back (dead last!) that my second-place finish (after dominating most of the latter laps) in our final race ensured my combined win despite his fourth-round victory. That's right: the sixth-grader won three out of four races that night! Time -- 40 minutes (2 races)
Combined Scores -- Alton 4 (3rd, 5th), Chip 4 (4th, 4th), Chris 10 (1st, 2nd), Mark 7 (2nd, 3rd), Ian 6 (6th, 1st), Eric 1 (5th, 6th)
Overall Ratings -- Alton 7.5, Chip 7.5, Chris 7.5, Mark 7.5For me, Ave Ceasar is a solid title, but doesn't really provide enough variety to be anything more than an occasional play. The fact that all of our ratings (of those who recorded one) were 7.5 supports this theory. While we did run the full four races recommended, we at least had them broken up into two separate events. I think that made it a bit more palatable; four races in a row with the same players seems like it would be trying towards the end of the third and miserable midway through the fourth. KingsburgTo finish out the night, we noticed that there were five of us (we thought Ian was going home, as it was already 9pm) and the store's copy of Kingsburg was conveniently lying around. While we were setting up, however, Ian informed us that he wasn't going anywhere; fortunately, Eric decided to just watch this one so we were soon good to go, as Ian already knew how to play so we didn't have to explain anything. The story of this game was essentially Mark building up to the Embassy early on and riding that to a crazy number of VP. Alton did what he could by accelerating through the Religious buildings and sitting on a pile of gold in his Cathedral at the end of the game, but it wasn't to be. The rest of us were there, but pretty much non-factors. Time -- 77 minutes
Scores -- Alton 42, Chip 37, Chris 35, Mark 45, Ian 31
Ratings -- Alton 8, Chip 8.5, Chris 8, Mark 8, Ian 8Kingsburg continues to prove itself a solid game with well-received mechanics that few of us can justify actually purchasing. It's unfortunate, really. Before we left, there was the matter of what to pick as our first game for the second year of our Game of the Month! program. That's right, twelve months ago we got things rolling with Tigris & Euphrates and have now come around for another April. With our leading contenders being Puerto Rico and Cuba, we opted to go with the larger Caribbean island based on simple availability: Mark has a copy of Cuba, while the only copies of PR available to the group are "the other" Ian's (MIA for some time now), Chris Norwood's (unavailable for most of April), and Jim's (unreliable attendance). As a side note, I noticed that Cuba's price tag has the same numbers on it as Kingsburg's. If I weren't rabidly waiting for the release of Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm, I'd be taking another serious look at KB. (Then again, there's also Primordial Soup... and the store has a copy of KB). Anyway, with Chris N doing the New Dad Thing for most of April, I'm going to take over the Glog duties for next month; it's just easier that way. I think I'm going to try a slightly different format, too. See you then!
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Posted Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:22 am
Let's play it again in the near future. 
We'll miss you next week.
Yeah, starting over in the LA area was a poor strategic decision; I didn't realize how expensive the connections got beyond the SoCal until it was too late and I was stranded there. I also made some bone-headed auction choices that didn't help matters.
In other news, my goal in our next game of Age of Gods is to not have Tim wipe out my Size 4 race. He has done this both times now!