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!

Gemlok

The BFF had a B&N coupon burning a hole in his pocket, and we needed to get out of the house, so yesterday we ventured out and The BFF picked up Gemlok. The first thing I thought of when seeing the picture on the box was 'Bejeweled: the Board Game'. But it's not.
The second thought when looking at the box was: gotta get these dice! Cool, funky, movement with arrows dice. And the surprise when the box was opened, the dice are huger than I expected. (yeah, I know that's not a real word, but it's fun)

Huge dice with regular sized Meeple for comparison

It's a pretty solid little game. Reminded me a bit of some of the tactics in chess, the movement only, the what's-the-other-player gonna-do Analysis Paralysis is gone, with every player only able to do what the roll of the dice tell him/her to do.
The two dice are different except for the one Gemlok side, so there are ten possibilities of how to move. You have to take the two or three steps laid out on the dice face, but you can turn the die any direction to start the movement (that was the one part that alluded me for about 1/2 the first game).
If you land on yourself or an opponent on your last movement, you get to bump, them/you, up to three spaces.

CU of game play

The board is set up with smaller point value gems sprinkled around the outside, with plenty of empty spaces, the center is a four by four cluster of higher end gems. I like that the colors of the gems seem to represent actual gems and dollar values, I'm not sure what 4 is, though, Opal? When you bump, of course, you want to bump your opponent out into the boondocks, and yourself closer to the center squares (and Paul Lynde). If and when you roll a Gemlok, with the exception of your very first roll, you have to/get to lock one of your gems. (Thus the name. Drink.) You don't want to get the Gemlok side when you're sitting in the sand, but you are aching for it when you're sitting atop one of the diamond 9 pointers (the highest point gem). Of course, as dice go, you can sing 'Luck Be A Lady Tonight' all you want, Big Jule, but you know those dice ain't gonna roll how you want them to.
After ten rounds, either player can declare the game end, but the other player(s) get another turn to try to bump you. I tried this tactic the first game, and sure enough, The BFF bumped me off TWO separate seven point jems, left me sitting in sand, and he beat me by less than that 14 points. So second game, I waited and let him call it quits, and that time he only beat my by two points. ;p You're supposed to play a four game series, but we were done after two, only because it was a long weened, and we were ready for relaxation, not thinking.
The other game ending condition would be if someone gets all eight of their gems locked. Which I think would be really hard with the two player game that we played, probably even harder with three or four. We're interested to see just how different the game will be with three or four. Next weekend is our family game day, we really think my dad and older son will like this. Maybe The Munchkin can get Grandma to play something else for a while. Or I'm sure she'd be happy with Plants vs. Zombies.

P.S. Now that The BFF has started his own gaming (and movie) blog, I hope this won't turn into a who-can-blog-it-first competition. But I did blog it first this time. With photos. ;p

Meeples swimmin' in Gems

P.S.S.
Be careful letting your Meeples out along with any kind of gems or gem-like bits. They are soooo money hungry, they jumped intot he gems like they were Uncle Scrooge McDuck.

Forbidden Island

I was so excited when we went to the new and improved game section of B & N this weekend. There are lots of good 'gamer' games that they haven't had before. Agricola, Dominion, Alhambra, Castle Panic, all the Munchkins, Word on the Street (which will probably be my next game purchase there), all sorts of stuff. And the B & N Onyx editions of some old favorites, including Stratigo, and more kid's games.
It seems that Barnes and Nobel are getting into the game business seriously. And good sales are always included, so we perused the 30% off table too.
I had been wanting to pick up Forbidden Island since I heard about it on the Spiel. Great bits, cooperative game play, and it comes in a TIN!! (I collect useful tins to store things in, so any game in a tin is a bonus!)
With an e-mail coupon to save on the already very reasonable price of Forbidden Island, I was able to pick up a little Connect Four carabiner key chain from the sale table for basically free.
We tried it tonight twice, first The BFF, The Munchkin, and I, and we didn't even come close to winning. The second time, The Munchkin opting for season four of Angel he's watching on Netflix, so we tried it two player. We had some great luck, like drawing no Waters Rise cards for most of the Treasure Deck, then drawing two at once, which actually makes the water rising not as bad. But second time through the Treasure Deck, the Waters Rise cards came up too quick, and bit us in the ass. We opted to play through our plan as if we hadn't gotten the last one at just the wrong time, and we would have won if that last card had been even one card lower in the deck!!
It's a very compelling game. We're excited to try it four, five, and six player, to see if it's better or worse. Also excited to push that 10+ age suggestion, we have some very bright game players at our church game day, that are 7 or 8 that I think would really bring something to the game.

Kickstart some Games!

Have you seen the new site, Kickstarter? A little like Kiva, but instead of giving someone a loan to start their business, you're investing in a project.
There's tons of awesome projects, crafts, films, books, and I was most excited when I saw there are some board games too. A great outlet for game designers!

Android

Two Sundays in a row now, we've had a game of Android. Both of my kids, The BFF, and me.
The BFF got this game on a great sale, 50% off, and I hadn't heard much about it before he brought it home.
It plays 2-5, and it has so many different parts to the game, we've likened it to playing 3-4 games at once.
It's kind of a mystery, because you're trying to figure out who's guilty, but it's no Clue. Who ends up being guilty is determined by how much/what kind of evidence is put on each suspect.
So there's putting evidence onto suspects (my least-best part of playing this game), plus there's points to get on the board, your own character's plot to resolve (or not), a conspiracy grid to resolve by playing puzzle pieces, and probably something else I'm not remembering.
There really are so many different things to do. But it doesn't seem over complicated, once you dredge through the rules.
Oh, and the picture is with my new camera! Woot! is awesome!!

Awesome Cupcakes

Game Cupcakes

Check out these cupcakes! One hundred differently decorated cupcakes in game themes. With a little guessing game element. I got most of them, with the exception of a few video games.
Also wonderful inspiration because I got a cupcake carrier for Christmas. I've been wanting one for a while. And it has a cupcake 'tree' for serving. And since tomorrow is our family game day, I decided to add to the monthly tradition, and always make cupcakes for it.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

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!

Dominating Dominion

The BFF found an iPod app that randomly picks which card sets to use, which completely solves one of my problems with this game. (who gets to pick, and possible arguements) So he and I and the Artist Extreeme played two quick games yesterday afternoon, while the snow fell.
I didn't take the time to write down which cards we played, but the first game we had four or five attacking cards with no defensive cards out. Crazily, we ended with a three-way tie!! With 42 points each. Hmm, maybe there IS something to that number...
The second game the gardens came into play, so I decided to try my flying-under-the-radar strategy. For me, this is almost a game within a game and it works with several games. It's basically all about seeing how long you can play a certain way before the other players notice. In this case it was buying as many garden cards as I could, starting with the very first turn. Garden cards are the ones that give you one extra victory point for every ten cards in your final deck and by the time The BFF figured out what I was doing, he and The Artist Extreeme each had two, and I had ALL the rest! (that's eight, for those of you playing along at home)
When we each counted our number of cards, we each had 50 (rounded down), so my gardens alone gave me almost as many victory points as my total victory points from the first game. Final scores were great for all of us, 58, 62, and 68.
And the snow continued to fall...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

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.

Nuke Con 9

This year we made a lesser attack on the Nuke Con weekend, four of us went for just Saturday: me, The BFF (BoyFriend Forever), his son Yehaw McKickass, and my younger son the Artist Extreeme. Going for one day only, we completely packed the day with gaming fun. I, for one, am still pretty tired!

Since a few things we had wanted to try (separately) were full, it ended up that The BFF and I played all our games together, which was great for playing his favorite overall game, "I-Beat-You!". We played all new-to-us games this year, not wanting to waste our one day playing stuff we've played before.

We played:
* an unscheduled Kingsburg with our LGS buddies (my must-have of the day)
* when no GM showed up for Shadows Over Camelot, we filled some empty slots on Are You Smarter Than a Con Guest (super fun! but made me feel dumb)
* On The Underground (train-ish game of the London underground) (which The BFF kept reminding me that he has actually BEEN on!)
* Chicago Express (train-ish game mostly auction-y)
* The RPG Don't Rest Your Head (I'm not experienced at RPGs. I'm especially shy in a con setting, but I really liked the story, and the folks we played with)
* Robo Rally for the Brain Dead (which I proved to be by 10:00, and could not 'get' the part about when the conveyor belt turned you or not)

The kids played D&Ds most of the day, broken up with one Race For The Galaxy session, which is a fav for them both.

We also made some purchases, of course! The BFF bought Small World and Dead Lands, and I bought Silent But Deadly Night in a great tin, Martian Fluxx, and some blank Fluxx cards that the Artist Extreeme and I are going to design!

More in-depth reactions coming soon...

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Inspiring Gaming Cakes

In case you don't read the blog Cake Wrecks: Most of the week they present photos of the most awfully funny awful cakes. On Sundays, for a change, they post wonderful cakes, and today's theme is games!
Check them out!
My favorite, of course is this Carcassonne cake! Inspiring...I might have to try one myself.

Also Last Weekend

Last Saturday was the first Family Game Day at my church. Organized by myself and a gaming friend met through yet another gaming podcast, Garrett's Games and Geekiness. We had twenty folks total, including the organizers and the baby, which was a great turn out for the first time, I think.
The age range was younger than I had hoped, one part of my plan is to get more teenagers involved (including MINE!), but that will come in later months. It was nice that the youngsters attending were roughly in the same age range, around K-3, so they could play the same types of games. I got to play Jumpin' Monkeys, Bat Man Uno (The BFF, when told this, replied 'you hate Uno' which is true, but I adore these kiddos!), my thrift store gold find Poppa's Pizza Topple, and even played a little Seismic, after taking out all the earthquakes and workers. It actually was great as a puzzle game, with it's hexagon pieces, and different amounts and styles of roads on each piece.
Also exciting was seeing a table of adults playing together, their children all at different tables playing other games.
A nice time was had by all. And next month, maybe I can drag my own kids? *fingers crossed*

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.

MEEPLES!

So I ordered meeples a couple weeks ago, from Meeple People, the coolest meeple website on the interwebs! I ordered one hundred meeples, and I got a few extras, they are so awesome!
More photos will be coming, that's part of the reason I bought them.

Zoinks!!

What happens when games sit too close together on the shelf? They intermingle! Oh, NO!!! Scooby Doo and the gang (and the ghosts) from Scooby Doo Hide and Shriek have invaded Ghost Stories! Will they rip the fake mask off Wu-Feng only to hear him hollar "You meddlin' kids!!" (while shaking his fist, of course)

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 Stories Links

The very helpful videos we watched to help us understand game play.
The latest podcast at The Spiel features cooperative games including Ghost Stories and Pandemic.

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.

Spore Creature Creator Video

Since I haven't posted a photo for a while, here's a Spore creature I made over the weekend.
It's a Killer Tangelo!

GEW9: Weekend Six / SSG@B&S

(That's Game Every Weekend 2009)

The BFF's son, Yehaw McK, was here for the weekend, and lots of gaming was done! There was a Magic tournament on Saturday that all four 'boys' were going to, and in preparation, there were a few practice games Friday evening to start the weekend. I am not a Magic player, I've tried it a couple times, I understand the concept, and have learned from trying it (as well as a couple other CCGs) that I do not enjoy deck building. If someone builds a deck for me in a CCG that I really like the concept of, like Deadlands, I'll definitely give it a go, but CCGs are not really for me.
So Saturday, after packing them each an awesome (if I do say so myself) snack bag of apple, box of animal crackers, package of cheese crackers, a couple string cheeses, a couple slim jims (none for the budding vegetarian), and a bottle of water, I sat down for a little Spore. OK, a lot of Spore. They were gone for HOURS! I've been concentrating on 'finishing' my first creature, he's in space, almost 3/4 'done'. Saturday, I did a few errands to raise enough bucks to increase my travel length and energy hold, and journeyed as close to the center of the universe as I could get. I did meet the Grox, and yes, they killed me. But one benefit to getting killed far away from home, you reappear back home. The guys all reappeared back home eventually, too, but none had won anything, which is surprising. Yehaw McK usually wins something in Magic tournaments, and often, a couple more do, too. The BFF consoled himself by buying Hunting which we'll have to try another weekend.
Sunday was our regular Second Sunday family gaming day, and The BFF and Yehaw McK had planned a nice Dungeons and Dragons day, but our printer wouldn't cooperate with the on-line creation sheets. So we switched to a card game day. We hadn't played Race For The Galaxy with five players yet, and we all enjoy that game. We also brought out Lord of the Fries, which I got for about six bucks a few weeks ago, when the 'other' Big Box Hobby and Gaming store had 75% off a few games.
Lord of the Fries was originally a Cheap Ass game (sorry, Mom, that's just their name). We have a few others on the shelf, but we haven't played many of them. I do love the cheapness and black-and-whiteness and lack-of-bit-ness of their games, such a change of pace from the heavy bits I usually love, I need to see about getting them to the table. This beautiful color version was put out by Steve Jackson games in cooperation with Cheap Ass games, and it has a lot of extras added beyond the original game. You are Zombies. What could be better than that? You are Zombies working in a fast food restaurant, feeding the humans, probably fattening up their brains for later consumption! There are eight different restaurant menus, all players (3-8) play off the same ones. You have to alter the deck (which are ingredients like meats, drinks, buns, sauce, etc) depending on which menu you're playing, so there are always some ingredients that are more rare for each menu. You deal out all the cards, 'make' the recipes on the menu, and the 'shift' is over when someone is out of cards. If you can't make the recipe called for, you give away a card, which is the biggest strategy in the game. In the beginning, you want to gather more cards to your own hand to be able to try for a bigger recipe (bigger recipe = more points!), but there is a time in the game that you don't want any more cards given to you, because the points in your hand count against the points you've earned from your recipes. We played a practice shift, and a whole game which consists of three shifts, and we all quite enjoyed it. Since two had never played before, we didn't use the timer, which is used to put a little pressure on the deciding player, deciding whether to roll for the recipe (when they would get all the cards that are passed), or pick a recipe they think no one else can make but them (then cards would pass to the left). We had all five of us playing only one of the 'shifts', and it sure does make a difference in how many cards you get, and how long it takes to get back to you. Since you only control the order being placed after you completed one, there are rounds that you don't get to put down too many points on the table at all. At one point, Rawk Star only had completed one menu item, with three cards, and he ran out of cards and stopped that round. He hadn't been able to make any more recipes, so he had given away all his cards. Very fun game! It played ok with three the first time we tried it, better with four or five, I will be excited to try it with six-eight sometime just for fun!
Gathering Storm, the expansion to Race For The Galaxy, adds a couple extra ways to get victory points, a solo game (which we haven't tried), and enough new worlds and other cards to play up to five players. The basic play of this game, if you haven't read about or played it yet, is you have a hand of cards, and you want to get some of them onto the table into your tableau, you also use your hand cards to 'pay' for what you bring out. Each turn is played in five stages, with a separate set of seven cards to determine what stage you want to play. This is a very cool game mechanic, and I don't know any other game that has something like this. Every player decides what stage they want to play in, and all put out their stage cards face down to be revealed at the same time when everyone is ready. All players get to play each stage that is revealed, but only the person(s) who played that particular stage card get to use the bonus for that stage. Even with five players, there were turns where only two of the five stages were able to be played, part of the strategy is trying to guess what stage everyone else is going to play. The cards you get into your tableau are going to give you victory points at the end, and/or give you an advantage during the game. The game stops at the turn that someone lays down their twelfth card, or someone picks up the last victory token (which we have never had happen in any of our games), and then everyone adds up their scores. The cards you bring to your tableau can work together in so many ways, the more expensive to bring out, the more they will probably help you. There are many strategies to play, mine is, see what starting world you get, and what you get in your first hand, and see how you can make it work together. I don't really enjoy trying to play military, but if that is what my starting world and starting hand lean towards, I have learned that I will get myself behind if I fight against my starting cards. And you can't get behind. It is a race after all. ;p
This is one of the best games I've ever played. It seems complicated at first with all the stages, they even give you huge cheat sheets to help you keep up, but it really ends up being much less complicated after you've played it a few times. The complexity is part of the beauty of it, trying for the most Alien cards, because you have the card that will give you bonus points for all of those Alien cards, but still trying to do it fast, because someone will definitely get twelve (or thirteen) in their tableau before you do! The BFF and son tried a modification after all of us who had to get up Monday morning had hit the hay, they went to sixteen in the tableau instead of twelve, and they enjoyed that as well.

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!

GEW9

The BFF twittered* this week: "Declaring '09 "Games Every Weekend 09." CoC CCG, Gametap, Zombie RPG's, party games, L4D, game convos, and other sorts of extreme nerditry." To which I whole heartedly agreed! Being this is only the fourth weekend of the year, I think I/we have successfully gamed every weekend so far, especially since he's adding computer games in there. With also the added bonus, that since he only works four days a week, Monday is still officially 'the weekend'. ;p
So thanks to a couple '$10 off a purchase of $30 or more' coupons, we each purchased a game yesterday at our local Big Box Hobby and Gaming store. (I don't need to give them extra advertising by mentioning their name, I do prefer to support local shops, but you can't turn down a free $10) The BFF picked up World of Warcraft minis, and I bought Humans!!! in my never ending quest to own all games Zombie related!
We plan to game this afternoon, or as he put it, play a game during the stupid-bowl, so we'll have to see whose game gets played first!


*Yes, I twitter too, but not as well as he. Feel free to follow either of us if you are in the twitterverse.

Party on, Gayme!

About exactly a year ago, the BFF suggested we make a gaming resolution for the new year: to refrain from making any game purchases in 2008. Guess how long THAT lasted??
Well, we actually did pretty good for a couple months, maybe even four or five, but we HAD to get Zombie Clowns!!! And, yes, we've picked up a few more than that.
But between the holiday game buying, gift received, and after-holiday sales, I would be comfortable making THIS year's gaming resolution not buying more party games, we are pleasantly well stocked.
The latest in the collection is Gift Trap. I fell in love with this game maybe a year and a half ago, when I saw Scott (Board Games withScott) review it. The game play sounded pretty good, nice family party game. But what really excited me were the awesome BITS! Every player (3-8) gets an adorable little gift bag filled with their game pieces, two plastic "gifts" one to represent gifts you gave, and one that looks open to represent the gifts you got, and several cardboard markers.

I finally like Risk

One of the cool things about my new iTouch, is the game apps that are available. Many are free, and a lot of the pay-for games have a free component to try before you buy. Since the BFF has had his iTouch for a few months, he had already downloaded several games and lots of other apps that all put themselves on my Touch when I first plugged it in, and now I'm sorting out which ones I will actually use.
One app I found on my Touch was Lux Touch, and the first time I opened it, I could't figure out what it was. I'm glad I gave it another chance before deleting it, as I discovered it is a solo Risk-type game.
Ask anyone who's ever played Risk what is the worst part about the game, and I'll bet they say the length!! It can take forever for it to get back to your turn, not to mention how long it takes to do all the die rolls!
Now imagine there are a mere seconds between your turns, even with four other players. The computer invisibly rolls all the dice, and destroyed armies just magically disappear.
I've only beat the computer once, but isn't that the case with solitaire? I have to say, when I'm just wanting a quick time-killer, I often click on this one. The whole game of Risk in just a few minutes, and no worry of someone tipping over the board in frustration.

Best...Calendar...EVER

So I realized I've been remiss in plugging the BFF's new blog! He is always finding cool free things out there on the interwebs, and on his blog, he posts one or two each day!
His 'thing' today is an awesome meeple pdf calendar!

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.