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Hypermind BoardGame Night - February & March, 2008
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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 On: 2008-02-11 22:24:35
Edited On: 2008-03-07 23:00:55
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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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Posted On: 2008-02-11 21:22:10
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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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Posted On: 2008-02-11 21:26:18
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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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Posted On: 2008-02-11 22:24:29
Edited on: 2008-02-11 22:25:39
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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!!!
Princes of Florence
I make it pretty clear that my favorite game is 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 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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Posted On: 2008-02-17 22:02:55
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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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2 Comments []
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Posted On: 2008-02-17 22:40:09
Edited on: 2008-02-18 21:52:13
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Posted On: 2008-02-12 07:31:34
Let's play it again in the near future. 
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!