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2009 Gathering Highlights and Lowlights
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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My second year at the Gathering, and it was better than the first. We arrived a day earlier (late Friday) and left a day later (Monday), which was maybe a day too long for me. I was ready to come home yesterday. The thing that makes the Gathering great is the people. We knew several dozen people there before we went last year, met a bunch of great people and we were happy to see them again this year. This year we got to spend time with the folks from out of our area, and we made a whole bunch of new friends. I haven't tallied it all up yet, but it feels like I played fewer games this year. I know I spent hours talking to people and just hanging out. Last night I planned on going to bed at 1:00 and wound up talking until 3:00 (well, the original plan was to go to bed at 11:00pm, but, well, that just wasn't realistic). Anyhow, you all don't care about that stuff. You want ot hear about the games. I suppose I can talk about that....
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Posted Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:46 am
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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OK, I didn't play this particular game, I played D&D Fourth Edition for the first 3 days. We had a blast. I can't say it any plainer than that. Thanks to Kevin, Aldie, Derk, Derk's stand-in Jeff and mostly to Scott, our DM extraordinaire, for a fantastic time. Scott sculpted all of the PCs, NPCs, monsters and animals out of Fimo, and cast all of the walls and rooms and everything in Hirst Arts models. It looked fantastic, it played fantastic and it was truly the highlight of the week for me. We're supposed to continue the campaign next year, and I really hope we do.
I'll post a bunch of pictures from the sessions sometime this week.
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2.
Board Game: Dixit
[Average Rating:7.54 Overall Rank:129]
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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This is an intriguing game. The cards are beautiful and the game play is very interesting. There were two copies of it on the prize table, but I failed to get either one; hopefully I will be getting a copy next week, though.
You have a hand of 5 or 6 cards. You select one of them and say a few words about it, no more than a sentence. Then everyone else secretly selects a card from their hand that best represents your description. The cards are mixed together and laid out, and then everyone (but you, of course) select which they think is the one you were holding. If everyone guesses correctly, they all get 2 points and you get none. If no one guesses correctly, the same thing happens. If at least one person guesses correctly, however, then you and they get 3 points. So you want to be a bit vague, but not too vague. For everyone else who had someone guess their card, they get 1 point.
It's sort of like Wise and Otherwise in that mechanic, and probably many other games. What sets it apart is the artwork, which as I said before, is really stunning. The pictures are crafted in such a way that they are capable of being interpreted in many, many ways. It's fun and beautiful, and I hope like hell I get a copy soon.....
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I played this version and the "Modern Art: The Card Game" version, both published by Gryphon Games (see this Board Game News article for more info on why there are two versions). Each time I played it I liked it more and more. It takes the auctions out of Modern Art and leaves everything else behind, which still totals up to a great little game. It plays quick and still holds onto what I think is the brilliance of Modern Art, that nothing has value until you give it value, but it's all in a more approachable format. We picked the "Modern Art: The Card Game" version up off the prize table.
Some thoughts on the two versions: I liked the artwork on the Masters Gallery version better, but when we played it with a color-blind person, we found that he could not distinguish the card colors easily. The cards do have the names of the artists on them (Monet, Renoir, etc) but it's in a tiny font, and can't be distinguished from across the room. All they needed to do was put an index or a letter or something in the corner of the card. When will companies learn?
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I know, everyone's gonna groan about seeing this entry. Sorry folks! It really belongs here, though. I'll come back later if/when the game is published and update this entry.
This is from a friend of mine. I can't say much more than it's a card game, non-trick-taking, non-set-collecting, that can be played individually or as partners. I particularly like the 4-player partnership game, but it can also be played as 3 teams of 2 each, or 2 teams of 3. I really hope this gets picked up soon!
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5.
Board Game: FITS
[Average Rating:6.87 Overall Rank:412]
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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A brilliant game. I can almost see Knizia: he's playing Blokus and, suddenly in the middle of the game, he stops, grabs all of his pieces and runs off to find graph paper. Three minutes later, Fits is born. This saw lots and lots of play all week long. I hope someone picks it up on this side of the ocean, or at least someone starts importing it.
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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Played this 2 or 3 times and really enjoyed it. I am a tad concerned that the tree strategy is overwhelming, but otherwise it's a solid game. Yet another game I would have picked up off the prize table if I could have (there was only 1 copy that I saw up there). I'll probably buy this at some point.
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7.
Board Game: Cities
[Average Rating:6.69 Overall Rank:984]
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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Take it Easy! + Carcassonne == Cities.
I was kind of surprised I liked this one. The first time I played it I was like, eh, ok enough, I guess. When someone suggested it again later in the week, I said sure, why not. I started explaining the rules and June kept correcting me on the scoring. I looked it up and there are three different scoring levels. I had been taught some mixed-up hybrid between level 1 and level 2. June had been taught the level 3 scoring, and it really made it a much more interesting game. I'd really like to pick this one up from somewhere.
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8.
Board Game: Jet Set
[Average Rating:6.78 Overall Rank:862]
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I played this one once and really enjoyed it. It's like Ticket to Ride with teeth. Lots of them. Money's really tight in this one, and it's bordering on a brain-burner, but in a good way. I picked this up in my first pick off the prize table.
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9.
Board Game: Pyramid
[Average Rating:6.96 Overall Rank:772]
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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This was a great late-night, silly game that saw a lot of play. Mummies and magnets -- how can you go wrong with that? I don't know that I'll pick it up, but I'd play it if someone I know does (and I would have grabbed the one copy on the prize table if I could have).
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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Ghost Stories + Arkham Horror == Hexer von Salem.
It's like Arkham without the narrative (not such a good thing, IMHO) or Ghost Stories without the brutality (which is a good thing, IMHO). I was hoping for something more. I'd play it again, but I won't rush out to buy it. Will liked it way better than Arkham, though, so to each their own.
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I was disappointed in this re-make. Most of the game-play changes they made I really liked: I like the splitting of the civ powers into races and whatever the other part is called, I like the number-of-player-specific maps and I like the game ending changes. I did not care for the changes they made to the terrain (forests no longer give a defensive advantage, nor mountains an offensive bonus).
What really skunks it for me, though, is the graphical design. It's very busy and very gaudy and, quite simply, gets in the way of the game. Even the less gaudy aspects, like the flipped-over civ markers (denoting a civ in decline) are not done well, as it's hard to see which civ the marker belongs to because it's such a light, monotonous shade of gray. I'll probably try to adapt the Vinci rules to play more like Small World (primarily through the number of turns mechanic, I guess). A shame, really.
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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A big disappointment to me. I was hoping for better. It's a dice version of Rum & Pirates (a game I like quite a lot, though I'm probably in the minority there), but more fiddly and less fun.
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I tried out the new Czech Games Edition game and was a bit disappointed in it. It may be a great game, and just not for me; I got minorly hosed early on and then majorly hosed mid-game, and spent then next hour-plus just wanting the game to end. In that regards it's not unlike Age of Steam or any number of other unforgiving games.
The real disappointment for me, though, was the lack of an innovative game element (aside from the theme, which is really cool). Unfortunately, Vlaada Chvátil has set the bar really high, and didn't seem to clear it this time. I'd like to play it again once it's out.
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Joe Casadonte
United States
King of Prussia
Pennsylvania
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I'll leave off the low-lights list with Los Mampfos. It's a game about Donkey Poo. You memorize the color of the donkey's food and use it to then predict the color of the donkey's poo. Need I say more?
[Although I claim to detest the game, on principal alone, I must say I had a blast! I played with Erin, DM Scott and, I think, Jenna, and we had a great time. A word to the wise: only play this one after midnight, folks.]
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Posted Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:23 am
