Gamey Weekend

Agricola bits with Bohnanza on the table

The second weekend of the month is the gamiest. This month was no exception.
Owl House Game day, hosted by James (who is now a contributor on The Gaming Gang site), was on Saturday, and our own SSG@B&S (Second Sunday Gaming at Bryan and Shells') was Sunday.
Saturday, we had six players, and among other games, we learned Bohnanza, and  taught one of our newest games, Forbidden Island.
I've been interested in learning Bohnanza for a while, especially since the farmers in Agricola enjoy playing it. The uniqueness in this game is not being able to rearrange your cards, which was a very interesting thing to have to try to think through. I need a few more games under my belt to get the strategy down. A more thorough review can be found on The Game of The Day blog, I didn't mind the beans as much as he did. They were cute, and not everything can be zombies or robutts.

Forbidden Island was my suggestion to play, both Saturday and Sunday. After playing it with three and with two, I was interested to see how it played with more, and both times we had six, the max players...or so I thought.
I will readily admit, that I was the rules reader on this game, and I taught it the first time we played, and on Saturday (with help from The BFF), just checking a few specifics in the rule book. Saturday, we lost twice, and in a big way, but it was a fun experience.

Sunday, with my children and parents all present, that makes six again, so we sat down to play. That's when my dad actually read on the tin that it says 2-4 players!!

Since there are six pawn/roles, I just assumed up to six could play. No wonder we got creamed so hard on Saturday!
As we already had it out, and I was mostly done explaining the rules to the newbies when the mistake was noticed, we decided to go ahead and try it, not expecting a less watery death than any previous game.
We did allow one small cheat, starting the water marker at a make-believe level 1, just below the Novice level 2, but other than that, we really just got lucky with the cards we drew, and as you can see, we all six got to Fool's Landing just in the nick of time!

My kids went off to game in another part of the house, and The BFF and my parents and I got out Gemlok. I was a bit surprised by a couple things Sunday. One: that my folks actually read this blog (hi folks!), and B) that my mom really picked up the gauntlet that I unknowingly threw down when I said I didn't think she'd like the game, and she played her heart out!
She was ahead most of the game, but had an unfortunate roll of two Gemloks at once, when she didn't have anything good to 'lock', otherwise, I'm sure she would have won.
As it ended up, the perceived strongest player was rather picked on by the rest, allowing ME to win by one point!
Hah! It's good to not be a threat sometimes!

Bunnies & New Year

Happy Two Thousand Ten!!
Waiting to ring in the new year, The Artist Extreeme and I played 1 1/2 games of Killer Bunnies last night. We have the blue starter, along with the yellow, red, and violet expansions. We haven't played the violet much, so there were lots of new cards we hadn't played before.
It takes so much shuffling, and the first game went pretty quickly, so we decided to just use the second half of the giant deck for the second game. A half hour or so later, we decided that all the 'free carrot' cards and bunnies must have been in the first half of the deck, and all the weapons were in the second half of the deck.
I do really enjoy this game, and would love to keep adding in the expansions, but how the heck to you properly shuffle it??

On the new year: no actual resolutions, as resolutions are things that usually get broken. But a plan to remember to post game sessions more often. And to put my Spiel Game Journal into action!

Exploding Dice

We played a game of Deadlands Sunday afternoon, The BFF, The Artist Extreeme, and me. This was the second time we played, the first was last month including The Rawk Star, so this was the first three-player game.
It went well, except for one little thing we forgot, which was actually a big thing. If you roll a six, you get to roll again, and add the six to whatever the next number is. And if the second number is another six, you get to keep going.
So for the first 3/4 of the game, we were all getting creamed in fights because some of the NPCs start at 7 even.
Pretty embarrassing to be looking for a rules clarification on something completely different, and realizing that you messed up a basic rule.
But it did serve to remind us why we play, not to win, or even get the rules right, but for the fun of being together.

Game Session: Killer Bunnies in Space

OK, I know that's not the real title of the game, but that's what I keep calling it. It's Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter. There, happy? ;p
Our monthly family game day, SSG@B&S (Second Sunday Gaming at Bryan and Shelly's) happened to fall on Easter, and without really thinking about it, I had been having a hankering to try Killer Bunnies in Space again. Then I also had a hankering to make deviled eggs...so Killer Bunnies and deviled eggs...On Easter...stereotypical much, shell?
Those present for our gaming, The BFF, The Artist Extreeme, and myself, agreed we all wanted to try KB and the J to J again, so we reread some of the spacey rules, and got the game set up. We have a good sized table, but this is one game that makes us wish for a larger one! There is so much stuff, and we didn't even have room for the organizing/cheat sheets we like to use for regular KB.
The game itself is fine, on the second playing, not counting the rules issues, it went much faster. We didn't get into any one-on-one combat, mostly because you have to be right next to the other player, and we were mostly all over the board. I almost wish the game would have taken longer, so we could have each gotten more ships on the board. I think each player getting 2-3 ships out there would be awesome, as it was, we each barely got a second ship out, and each lost the second ship pretty quickly. In the end, we each had two carrots, having decided at the beginning to play only six (duh! six carrots divided by three players...wasn't the best planning) The BFF had the 'magic' carrot, so he officially won.
Now about those rules issues. Or a sidebar dovetailed before the rules issues. I've been listening to and LOVING The Speil podcast for a few months now, including listening to the old shows, one of their segments is the Game Sommelier, trying to find the right game for the right group, and I've been attempting to think in sommelier terms when I'm picking games. [/sidebar]
This game, with these players, the sommelier didn't do such a great job. For one, all three of us tend to be 'rules lawyers', a phrase we've coined in our house, sometimes there can be more looking up clarification of rules than actually playing, or so it seems. I've tried to implement the idea (that I think I got from the On Board Games podcast) of just play it for now how the players agree the rule should be played, and take the extra time to look it up LATER, and most times that works ok most of the time. Unfortunately, we also had the Problem of Three working against us that day. The problem of three was first taught to me by my dad, who once, thirty something years ago, wouldn't let me do some activity with the two neighbor girls, because there would be three of us, and (paraphrasing) "when there's three, it's too easy for two to gang up against the other one." Even at that tender age, I knew this to be true, I had seen it already with these same girls, and it's something that I've always kept in mind with my own kids, and in the rest of my life.
In the case of a rules-lawyery kind of game, combined with the Problem of Three, it wasn't the most fun game session we've had. Another learning curve for the game sommelier in me.
After we ate (sandwiches and deviled eggs, of course), we played Dominion, which was a much better choice game for the three of us.

2 Player Ghost Stories

The BFF and I tried Ghost Stories yesterday as a two-player game. My overall reaction: wait for another two people.
The first game, we played by the official two player rules, each player takes one random board, across from each other, and the other two boards are randomly placed on the sides. The two non-player boards still play, but in a modified way; they only do their 'bad' stuff!
Backing up a little, in regular play, each player has two phases, the Yin where they have to do ghosty stuff, draw an additional ghost card, move ghosties up, haunt villagers, roll the curse die, fun bad stuff like that. The Yin phase is followed (again, in regular play) by the Yang phase, in which you get to move your pawn and either use the villager power you land on, or try to exercise the ghosty in front of you. So in normal four player mode, all four players get both phases.
Except in two player, you get all four times worth of bad stuff, with only two times worth of good stuffs! Sure, you can occasionally use abilities from the two non-player boards, but that doesn't work out very often. So without a full compliment of good things that can happen, the game was pretty slanted straight down into hell. It definitely made me not want to try the solo play (right on the week I have time to try solo games!)
The second time we played two player, we did it our own way: we each played as two players. We both had assumed that this would be the official rule until we read it. So it felt much more balanced, getting four times the good along with four times the bad. We still didn't win! We were doing a little better at the beginning, keeping the villagers unhaunted, and killing off the ghosties as they came out, but a couple times when drawing the required ghost caused another, then ANOTHER ghost to come out, and all-of-a-sudden we were down to the big baddy. And he was really big and really bad. We actually got the last 10 ghosties on the board after him, so we actually lost on the ghost deck being expired.
Funny side note: The BFF always wants to play green in whatever game we are playing (I always want purple, if you're keeping score), but with all four times of playing Ghost Stories, we've handed out the boards completely randomly, like shuffled behind my back and tell me when to stop and tell me a number and I'll count from there, randomly. And every time he's gotten green. At least in the last game, he got to play something in addition to green, but green still came up for him first.
Green must want to play him, too.

Ghost Story

Sunday we played two new games, Ghost Story and Zombiegeddon. Ghost Story was part of the last game order, waiting behind Dominion, Call of Cthlulu card game, and World of Warcraft miniatures to be played. Zombiegeddon was purchased Saturday night after seeing The Watchmen*, we love the theatre that's in the same mall as the big box hobby and game store, and the chain craft store.
The BFF and I both read through the rules (huge complaint on the white print on black background), and we checked out some videos for more clarification. The rules by themselves were a bit confusing, explaining things that hadn't happened yet, but we got them figured out. The bits are beautiful, with symbols instead of words, which is good and bad. It looks simple and no words to clutter up the art, but we had to keep looking up what the symbols mean. But it was our first couple of plays, we were just getting the symbols into our heads.
We played four player, The BFF, Rawk Star, Yehaw McK, and me, and it worked great with four. I honestly didn't take time to read the rules for 1-3 yet, but I imagine it will be a handicapped game.
We lost the first game. I should say we got creamed the first game! In your ghost deck, you put one random big bad ghosty in towards the bottom. The first game, we didn't get through 1/3 of the deck, never even saw the big baddy. The second game, we were killin' ghosts left and right, using our abilities to our best advantage, but getting so worn down...and then the big baddy came out, and he wasn't that big or that bad, and we actually won. It was a much uncelebrated win, we all felt like we hadn't won at all, and I still am thinking that we must have done something wrong to be able to kill the big bad guy so easily. But I guess it was just luck that we got an easy one, plus working well together to even get to him.
It is, in it's cooperativeness, much like Pandemic. You really have to work together to use everyone's abilities at the right time, and cooperatively plan ahead. It was a good gaming experience for the gamers playing. Great pretty bits, and a good solid game. With the different levels of difficulty, it will be a game that can come out a lot, I imagine.


*Mini Review: I loved the movie. I actually collected The Watchmen twenty years ago, waiting each month for the next one to come out. It was my first and only experience with being a comic book nerd, really, driving at least an hour to get the next one, waiting patiently for that next edition. Again, I loved the movie. It was like reading the comic with action between the cells. They were very true to the comic, it was much appreciated. One voice I had heard a little differently in my head than it ended up on the screen, but that's the beauty of getting to know characters on their own, letting them show themselves to you, before just watching and being told what the characters are.

Super WoW Review

#1 I don't I would have liked or even understood the game if I had never played the online MMORPG. I will even go a step further and say that if you've never played it online, you may even want to skip this review, as I would definately NOT recommend this game to you.
WoW is known for it's artwork and details, and that's the first thing you notice on the box, and the insides are even better. The core set, which is what we got, has everything needed for both players to start (it's only a two player game, tho I would guess that expansions could add more players). There is one of three random boards, and three random characters each, in two of three teams, Horde, Allaince, and Monster. We hot Horde and Monster, and a green foresty playing board. I wish we would have gotten the cool iced fucia board, it was purty.
Each of the six total game characters that you get have a card to represent them, with stats and specials, and two cards of things they can use, a weapon, instant action, buff, or heal ability. In one of the ways to add to your game, you can get extra cards for their abilities, and make your own 'deck' for each of your characters. Some cards are unique to the type of team, or to the species, or to the specific character (that might only be for the Legendary characters), and other cards could be used by anyone.
Whenyou buy more boosters, you get more cards, and I can really see how you could make a great team with abilities that really compliment their strengths.
The figs themselves are just georgeous! Very detailed and painted so well they don't look machine made. Since we got Monster, we could recognize things we had actually fought against in the game, like a harvest gollum, very cool. The figs have separate bases that are intended to go together. With maybe half of our figs, the dude went into the base just fine, but the others just wouldn't stay, so we abandoned the bases after a while. The bad part about this, is that one of the things that you keep track of with the base is the health, which can fluctuate every turn. We ended up having to use other means, which was annoying. The other thing you keep track of with the base is the round that the character can next play. This worked well, we just set the base next to the card for the character, but still would have been better if it was attached to the fig!
The round, and counting the round is the most unique thing about this game. Most of the other parts reminded us of Battle Lore, or other games, but we've never seen this technique. The BFF pointed out that this makes the board game more like the MMORPG. What happens is that when your little dude does something, anything, he has to 'pay' for it by clicking ahead on the round counter, and then he has to wait until that round to do anything else. Did that make sense? Well, it took me a few times to hear this before it sunk in. There are spaces marking 1-10 across the top of the board, telling you which round you're on. When you use a weapon, it would cost 2-4 'clicks' (depending on how powerful it is), so if you used the weapon on round 3, and it cost 2 clicks to perform the action, you move it to 5, and that character cannot do another action until you have gotten to round 5.
And remember to click it before you do the action! It's way too easy to forget, but it was our first time.
Our game went well, we both enjoyed the game play of it. Like most games when we're trying out the starter set, I wished for more choices of cards and characters, but I really see the potential in this. The BFF let me play Monsters, because he thought that would be the stronger team (he always wants me to win the first time we play to make sure that I want to play again-which is funny, because him winning just makes me want to play again more so I can beat him!) The Monster team should have been stronger, but my Legendary Drunken Panda couldn't roll for crap, and gave the other team double points when he was killed. '<
Overall, it's a keeper. Even though I can see it getting expensive with buying more boosters! At least each booster has the same team, which helps grow the troops. I want to figure out how to get another board without having to buy another whole starter set, I want that iced fucia!!!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Edit 2-4-9: I confused myself with the title, but I figured it out, this is the game we played during the Super Bowl!

Farming in the New Year!

I welcomed in the new year with a solo game of Agricola today. It's odd to not have to work on a Thursday but have to go back in on Friday, so it is going to be an early night, and I'm all to myself, so what better way to start the year?!
I've really been enjoying the Agricola posts over on the blog Playing with Myself (and loving the blog name too), where the writer tells of his solo gaming in the Adventures of Johan.
In a tiny tribute, I present the story of:
Renee and Ayesha
Renee and Ayesha started their life together on the farm with many path choices. Clay did appear to be a good possibility for Renee, and Ayesha was going to manage the farm itself, plowing and gathering grain as much as possible. They set their sites on building a larger home, and fill it with many children, so the idea of working outside the home delivering clay was replaced with carpentry classes for Renee.
While taking classes, Renee decided to also take up brewing beer, a quick easy way to feed the upcoming family. In addition to the planting of the grain, Ayesha saved up for the baker's oven, after trading in the fireplace they had bought earlier. They were blessed three times with young'ens, and the kids were glad to help out around the farm!
They added enough rooms on to the house to hold all the kidlets, and even had a room for Mr. Wooley, their pet sheep. Even if their home was only clay, it was homey. The growing of grains was very successful, and all were fed with bread and beer. Thanks to their oldest child's interest in hedge keeping and mini pastures, they were able to build two small pastures at no cost to them at all. They were even able to save up for another fireplace, and then build it up into a cooking hearth, for cooking of the animals to go with the bread.
In the end, they realized they could have turned their clay nook into a stone mansion instead of letting a couple of the youngsters race canoes, and they had way more reeds saved up than they would ever need, now that the chillins' were heading off on to their own lives, but they had a happy life, and now Renee and Ayesha are ready to retire.

Birthday Farming

I did go ahead and buy the iTouch program Score yesterday after posting about it, it's such a great little program! And then, of course, I had to use it! So we played a three player game of Agricola, with the basic cards, and we used the variant that we would be dealt 10 cards of each Occupations and Minor Improvements, and pick the 7 of each that we wanted to keep.
You see here the final score, which I shouldn't even document because the BFF, in a rare feat, beat me! ;p Rawk Star did really well building his farm, and had more spaces covered in the end than either I or the BFF did, but he mis-managed his food, and ended up with a couple begging cards, which messed him up.
I'm excited to score more games with this great little app!

SSG@B&S: December

We had a full house this month, as the BFF’s son, Yehaw McK, was able to join us for the first time, both of my kids were home, and my parents came down also. That makes a total of seven. And boy, do we need a bigger table!
Other game days we've played a longer, geekier game and a party game that's maybe short enough to play a couple times, and this month's game day was no exception.
We started with Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter the board game, which says it plays up to six, but there weren't specific pieces for the six, and there are lots of cards, so we figured we could do seven. We have been late to the KB extravaganza, and have only started collecting and playing Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot earlier this year. The card game, we have blue, yellow, red, and violet so far. On the new board game, only the blue and yellow, ie, the starter. Not being experts on the card game, with the average plays around the table being maybe 2, and the rules for the board game being the same as for the card game for the first part, we got off to a slow start. The BFF had asked me to also read the rules, but unfortunately, I hadn't had time to. Having more than one person understanding the rules, and not having to actually read the rules at the table would have been nice.
Now, I know that a lot of game teachers say not to read the rules at the table, and I would definitely agree for teaching at a con. But sometimes at our house, the reading of the rules is part of the fun, especially when it's just the BFF and I learning a new game.
So Killer Bunnies board game didn't go so great on the first play, but I attribute that mostly to us all learning at the same time, there were too many stops to look things up and too many little things we got wrong along the way. We also wondered if just the blue and yellow together was a little defense-lite, we remembered that in the card game, the red deck brought more defense.
I'll definitely play this again, after more thorough read through of the rules, and probably a few less people.
After eating, we went for a much lighter game, also new from the big box, Zombie Fluxx. We actually did a few hands of Zombie and a few more of regular Fluxx, without mixing them together. Fluxx is the perfect simple game for this sized group. We laughed a lot playing this, and the earlier grumpiness was wiped away! Especially with the Zombie version, when the rule came out that everyone had to moan when they drew a Zombie Creeper card!

After Shock: No Agricola

So I waited until the deadline day to volunteer to teach Agricola. at the Nuke Con After Shock 2008.3, which was Tuesday, and the rest of the week found some free time to reread some of the rules, dig through the cards as there were still some I hadn't seen before, type up some notes, and Friday night re-watched the Board Games with Scott video on Agricola.
And no one signed up.
I even for a while put my cool jars of bits up on the sign up counter for enticement, but no takers. Oh, well.
I joined a few others in a cooperative game of A Touch of Evil, The Supernatural Game instead. We played cooperatively, and we creamed the bad guy. I even got in the last punch. But, honestly, the other three really, REALLY weakened the monster before my puny dice rolls got into play. He had twenty-two wounds to take, and by the time it was my turn to charge, he was down to just a couple wounds.
I also played Pandemic, three player, twice. We lost big time first, and won big time the second time. Both games seemed really unbalanced, but in opposite ways. It just depends on where the cards lay.
Also learned and played for the first time la Harve, created by the same designer who did Agricola. Very nice game, like Agricola in many ways, resource gathering, planning ahead, many steps to some things you want to do or buy, and victory points. Different in that there are way more resources, each resource can 'level up', actions are played on buildings that you or the town buy and then anyone can use (usually for pay) the building to do the action the building provides. The three guys I played with had all played together a few times, and were very kind to the beginner. I got a score that they said was in par with their first plays, so I wasn't too disappointed, and their scores were the highest they'd ever gotten, which I'd like to take a little credit for. ;p There are many buildings to come out, and since every building had victory points, I was trying to buy as many as possible, and the guys didn't mention 'till the end that usually all the buildings don't get bought, I just assumed we all try to buy the better buildings and keep buying 'till they're gone! Very fun and intricate game. The resource refreshing is random every game, and the number of players definitely would change how the game goes. There's only seven total actions in each round (and you feed after every round), so in a four player game, someone only gets one action per round. Some of the things that happen at round end, ie how much to feed, when buildings and ships come out, if there is a harvest or not, these things all change depending on the number of players as well. I do think it had 1-5, so it must have a solo element as well. I don't think I need to buy this one, yet, but only because I think we have many more games of Agricola in store at home before bringing this one home. I would like to play it a few more times though! I'm not sure if it's out in the US yet, we played from an Australian version picked up at Essen.

Agricola: Family Photo

So here's the photo of us playing Agricola on game day.
Sorry, I'm not in the shot, someone had to take the picture. ;p



Update: The comments are now corrected, Dad, so you can post anonymously.

Agricola: Family

On our family game days, I try not to be too bossy about what we will play, and just see who shows up and what they want to play. I was hoping to play Agricola, so I was glad when Dad asked about it. Since both of my kids were home this time, along with both of my parents, me and the BFF, that's six and Agricola only plays up to five. I offered to just be the teacher, and let them all play, and that way I could help anyone with their turn, but my folks opted to play as a team. This worked out great, I think, because while my Mom is a great gamer, she is a bit of an unconfident player with new games, and playing on a team with Dad gave her someone to confer with about each turn.
I wanted to introduce the game to the new players with the Family way to play. This was the first time playing Family for the BFF and I, so we were all trying something new. The Family way to play mostly means no cards, no Occupations and no Minor Improvements. The first board piece for possible actions is turned over, with a couple slight changes on actions that involve the cards; Starting Player has one food instead of a Minor Improvement, Occupation is changed to Build Stable &/or Bake Bread, and the Day Laborer is changed from two food to one food, one building supply (not sure why the change on the Day Laborer). Playing five player gave us lots of great action possibilities as well, I think I like playing five player best, lots of wood and clay available!
We had a good time playing, and ended with most of the scores pretty close, the BFF excited that he beat me by one point! Team Mom & Dad got a somewhat slighted, since there are only four stoves/ovens to be able to cook animals in, and they didn't get to buy one. They ended up having to take a couple begging cards, but if they had been able to get an oven, they wouldn't have had to beg, and would have had a comparable score. (BTW, the BFF only beat me by one point because I forgot that I had to have TWO plowed fields to get a point.)
I thought it would be fun, since the game or version was new to all of us, to do a bit of a survey about what everyone thought of the game. So here are same questions I asked everyone:

1)What did you think of the game? (BFF and I-What did you think of the Family way of playing the game?)
2)On the BGG scale, please rate the game.
3)What was the best part of the game?
4)What was the worst part of the game?
5)What’s your favorite game right now?

And here are everyone's answers:

Rawk Star Age 17

1)It was ok, pretty good
2)6
3)The little sheeples
4)First player system, I didn't like how it worked. It wasn't an incentive at the end, and if you're the last player, you're messed up
5)D&D 4.0


Artist Extreeme Age 15

1)It was fun.
2)7
3)Having to decide what to eat
4)The length
5)Munchkin / D&D


Grandpa Retired and Loving it

1)I thought it was fun, took a little long to get into.
2)7
3)I kinda liked the way it related to agriculture, to reality. You need to know that you have to eat.
4)Takes a while getting into it the first time.
5)Pegs & Jokers-depends on who you're playing with. With our volunteer friends: card games; with you guys: a board game.


Grandma Retired and feisty

1)I guess I enjoyed it, I think I will enjoy it more the next time I play.
2)8
3)Learning a new game.
4)Not understanding the rules to begin with.
5)The card game Golf / Pegs & Jokers


the BFF Forty-Something

1)I thought it was harder because getting things like grain was harder, not more than one way. was it more fun? no.
2)7 for Family, 8 for regular
3)Playing it with the family, almost a gateway game
4)Waiting between turns
5)Race for the Galaxy


ME A little older than the BFF, and he never lets me forget it

1)Not as much fun without the cards
2)6 for Family, 9 for regular
3)Playing a three generation game
4)Not having the cards
5)Agricola (did you even have to wonder?)

Nuke Con: Other Games

Yes, I did play a few other games at Nuke Con besides Agricola! ;p
I also played Cash N Guns, Race For The Galaxy, Bang, Monsters Menace America, Rock Band, Run For Your Life Candyman, Torres, volunteered for one two-hour block, and play tested Boltz & Voltz.
I didn't play an RPG I meant to, because of a table mix-up (we were at the right table, but they had changed to a different table). The BFF (boy friend forever) really wants to play RPGs, and I'm not very good at them yet, so I didn't want to play without him there for moral support. I feel self conscious if I try to play with real RPGers. So I was a little bummed about the table mix-up, but I probably would have clogged up their game, so it's ok that I didn't play.
We also tried to play Power Grid, after hearing and reading so many good things about it, and we checked it out from the game library. But it was late into the night, and the BFF and I were very tired, and we couldn't get through the rules, we were just that tired! That's how we ended up playing the Candyman game, it was much simpler to understand at the late hour. It was actually very cute, it was basically the broken Candyland game in the playing of the board, with the added element of attack! Each player (he was Stinky, I was Butch) has a grid sheet to keep track of attacks on each body part, so hitting someone in the peppermint was hitting them in the head. This ended up being a perfect silly game for overly tired oldsters, even tho it went on too long, like the game it's parodying.
Cash N Guns les Yazukas was also very fun. This was one I had heard about first from the On Board Games podcast as a fun group game. It was also getting late the night we played this, and we had a fun table of folks to play with. The throwing stars, that are in this expansion were so much fun, maybe someone can perfect the double-knock-down move that our Yazukas were trying to do.
Bang was a little less fun, but not as silly. With part of who you are being hidden from the other players, it maybe was hard to first play with people you don't know. That's one part of a game convention, from all my little experience, that I've learned; some games are hard to learn with complete strangers, or maybe some strangers are hard to learn new games with. Either way, it's a dice roll, proving once again that Gaming = Life.
Monsters Menace America is a good game with a cool movie monster theme. I've played it once or twice before at game days or mini-cons, and have always enjoyed it. My kids and I played while we were waiting for scheduled games to start, and had a bonus player of an adorable Baby Bug who was an excellent player for such a young age. This is a game we've enjoyed each time we've played, and we've not bought it for our own collection only due to it being 3 player and up. The BFF and I usually only buy games that can be played two player, for those times when it's just he and I playing.
I learned at last year's Nuke Con that I really enjoy play testing new games, so when I saw one play test on the schedule this year, I made sure to sign up for it. Since it's just in playtesting, I don't know how much to say about it, but Boltz and Voltz is a good solid game with great artwork. I will be watching for it and will buy it as soon as it comes out!
Race For The Galaxy is a great game, which we have enjoyed many times since we got it last month. The time slot at the con was going to be a tournament, and there were something like 64 slots available. The BFF and I were getting pretty good, and were excited to play in a tournament, but including he and I, there were only six of us, and none of us being the tourney leader. Don't know what happened with that. We six separated into two games of three (good thing we brought our copy) but each table only played one game, with no tourney, it was more appealing to go play Agricola again! In my game, we were all pretty concentraty, and not talking much, and I commented to my group that I had read or heard that the game wasn't very social, and now I saw why.
Torres was a game I had seen the cool bits for and was very interested in, so I was excited to see it close up. I love that people bring their favorite games to a convention, just in case they can find someone interested in playing, and that was what happened. It is a very spacial game, almost a puzzle, and it reminds me of the kinds of games my brother and I would buy for and play with my dad when we were kids. I would like to pick this one up sometime, or maybe buy it for my dad.

Game Day October: Agricola

We started a family and close friends Game Day a couple months ago. I'd been thinking about starting this for a while, I wanted for one, to have a good reason for all the teenager-almost-adult kids to come visit once a month, to start a family tradition that will carry for years. So far, they've been small, which is fine, building up the tradition. This month, yesterday, it was the smallest so far, with just the BFF and I in attendance, but that's fine, because we all gamed a lot last weekend.
Since Agricola is my hot game right now, we played two games of that. We sure discovered the differences between a two player game and a five player game!
Part of how Agricola is varied depending on players, besides having three different decks to choose from, is that some cards are only in play depending on how many people are playing. Each pack has cards for 1+, 3+, and 4+ players, so for solo play and two player, the cards available are the same. We talked about having a ghost third player, and we could roll a die to decide their turn, or just cheating and adding in the 3+ cards, but we didn't try that yet.
The cards distracted us again, I would say, and not getting things out in the right order. Some of the cards have to be played before certain activities and vice-versa, and it's still tricky to plan far enough ahead of time to get it all done properly.
We each won one game, the BFF said on the second game, he purposely took the wood before I could get it, because he thought that was how I beat him the first time. I've heard that in each number of players, there are certain resources that are harder to get, I guess wood is harder to get in a two player game.

Agricola: Rules Reading and First Solo Play

Alone on a Friday evening, the BFF at work, Rawk Star at the play he was teching for, Artist Extreeme at his dad's, I finished reading through the Agricola rules, punched out all the bits, and tried a solo game.
A couple things of note in the rules: in addition to the phase/stage thing being confusing, the rules point out the difference between person and player. Since we're using 'people' for game pieces, the term 'people' means 'family member' or playing piece, not the person playing the game, that term is 'player'. Just in case you thought you as the player had to jump onto the playing board to claim your spot. ;p
The other thing I'm not sure if I had misunderstood when being taught, but the harvest is in three phases, in order, with new animal babies being the last phase. So if you only have two of an animal and you need to cook it up to feed your family, that animal won't have a baby, because cooking one leaves you with only one. I may have played this wrong at Nuke Con, but it would have only been on the third game which I stunk at anyway.
These were my cards for my first experiment with solo play.
Trying to concentrate on getting 'some of everything', I still was distracted by the cards I got. I decided that a solo game is kind of a puzzle, since you don't have to take turns with anyone else, you just have to figure out when to do things. I did use a few cards, I had good cards that would work towards house building, but I only was able to get out 1/2 of the cards I wanted to. I was able to build wooden rooms cheaper, so I did that first, then renovated twice. I would have had a ton more points if I had been able to bring out the Chief and the Chief's daughter, since I was able to get my house up to stone. Below is my final farm, I ended up with 32 points, only having negative points for veggie and boar.

Agricola @ Nuke Con

The most anticipated game in our house recently was Agricola. (and that is pronounced ah-GRICK-oh-lah)(and yes, I am the annoying one who has corrects everyone who pronounces it like a soft drink)(and by everyone I mean every game store clerk, every potential player, even the guy who taught us the game)
Last weekend at Nuke Con, I finally got to play it. I preregistered on-line to make sure I didn’t miss it. And the guy that taught us during the slotted time was happy to teach more new players and play more games during the rest of the weekend, so I actually got to play three times. I was a little afraid that I had read and heard too much hype, like a movie where all the good parts were in the trailer, and it wouldn’t be as good as anticipated. But playing it everyday of the convention only made me want it more!
Since this is leaning toward a review, let me mention what kind of games I usually like. My official favorite game is Carcassonne. I love all it’s expansions, I love all sorts of Eurogames, give me wooden bits and I’ll be very happy. My close second favorite game, or maybe I’ll say my favorite game series, is Zombies!!! I love all things zombie and gross like that, zombie movies and comics are always watched and read, and zombies are a theme in my arts-n-crafts, too. So I’ll play any and all games related to zombies, but the Twilight Creations Zombies!!! series will always be at the top of my list. (Now if I can figure out a game with zombie meeples…) I like various card games and party games, I don’t lean toward collectable card games though, and I’m usually turned off by war themes. Good mechanics of a game will win me over, but it’s the bits I love. Gimme good bits!
Speaking of good bits, back to Agricola! (who doesn’t love a good segue?) I opened the box this morning to get the rule book out to read, and there’s all the great bits! Nothing like the smell of cardboard and wood in the morning. ;p The first thing that impressed me was that they included a bag full of baggies, for when you separate out the bits. That’s game packaging at it’s finest. There are quite a few different kinds of bits, and I had wondered if it might get confusing, but I haven’t really run into that yet, except for clay is the lighter brown disk, and wood is the darker brown disk. I’m not sure if so many kinds of bits will be confusing for younger or older players, we’ll test it out with my mom next month.
The first two games we played, we just used the E deck. The coolest part, IMHO, about Agricola is the different sets of cards, and the quantity of each, so that the cards you use each time will be different. The three sets are: E which is basic, I for Interactive, and K for Complex (remember, the game was written in German). In each set there are Occupation cards and Minor Improvement cards, and you are dealt seven of each, and with a total of over 300, depending on how many players and which set you use, the possibilities are virtually endless. There are different cards used for different numbers of players, last weekend all three games were five player games, so we used the most cards available. The cards give you ways to do things easier, or allow you to break a specific rule. But a warning for new players, when you're first learning, and someone has a card that lets them break a specific rule, it's easy to forget that they get to do it because of the card, and get confused on the actual rule. That happened to us a couple times, when someone had a card that let them bake bread at harvest time.
Since I had watched the "Board Games with Scott" video of Agricola, I had a pretty good idea of the rules before sitting down to be taught. The best thing I learned from the video was to watch the scoring. As Scott says, ‘you want a little bit of everything’, and I really kept that in mind playing my first game. I’m proud to say that the tip from Scott even helped me win a little prize! Our game teacher played with us, and since he’d played many times before, he outdid all of our scores by plenty, almost doubling them. But out of us four newbies, I had the highest score, thus the prize. Watching the scoring is one of the keys, as our teacher pointed out, it is a two point swing, having nothing of something will give you a negative point, where even only one of something will give you a positive point in most cases. I only beat the BFF by that two point swing (but don’t feel too bad for him, he watched the video, too!).
The progression of playing is interesting, the second time playing, I also did pretty good (tied for second after our experienced teacher), and tried to incorporate more of my cards. The third time, with no newbies, we advanced up to the I deck and used one of the advanced rules, where you are dealt 10 cards and have to decide on the 7 that you want. I really got too focused on the cards that time, trying to use all the cards together, and ended up messing myself up, and even having to take ‘begging cards’. Begging cards are what you want the least in this game, and what you have to take if you can’t feed your family at a harvest. I was so intent on making my cards work together, I forgot that I had already eaten my sheep, and had to take two stupid begging cards! Our teacher had been saying all weekend that everyone he had ever taught hadn’t had to take begging cards, and I messed up his good record. (Sorry, Jerry!) At the end of that game, one other player who I think won that time around gave me some good advice: try to get maximum regular score points, focus on that, not on the cards. Why didn’t I think of that?!?
I always like learning strategies from other players, I watched our teacher save up his wood and build his fences all three times we played. I figured he's had good luck with that strategy, but it didn't leave him a lot of time to get animals out. It will depend on what cards you have, I suppose, when I had animal cards, I really needed to build my fences early! Another good tip I picked up from our teacher is the difference between the stage and the round. Some cards specify stage, which is a set of rounds, and he had a player with hurt feelings when he misunderstood the card.
Now I'm off! I have a date with the rest of the rules, and all the bits, and maybe a solo game tonight.