Final Holiday Gaming Post and Beginning the Quest for Good Two Player Games

On Black Friday I actually ventured into the world and visited at least one store, of course it was Lost Legion Games and Comics - the Riflemen and I went primarily to play games but I did take advantage of some Black Friday specials while I was there.  Shopping-wise, I picked up Say Anything and Arena Maximus from the buy one get one free table and picked up Mr. Jack Pocket,  Small World: Be Not Afraid, and Aye, Dark Overlord and received Small World: Necromancer Island free from the shop.

While there Dave G. stopped by with Tinner's Trail.  This is a nicely themed resource management game based in the mining region of Cornwall.  The game has an interesting turn sequence mechanism where players can choose to do various actions such as building a mine, opening bidding on a parcel of land, or constructing improvements on a parcel.  Each action takes a specified amount of time, moving the player along the turn sequence chart.  As players make money from the selling of their mined ores they then use the money to purchase outside investments that serve as victory points.  This is an excellent game and one I would be interested in picking up.

Prior to playing in Tinner's Trail, I watched Craig and Dan play a bit of Malifaux.  I had not previously been interested in Malifaux as many of the miniatures were too weird for my taste but some of the recent miniatures (Guld faction swashbucker types) looked good and a lot of folks around here like the game.  After watching for a while I can see the appeal of the game but I am now certain that it is not for me.  Too many rules (two whole rulebooks), too fiddly, and to be honest, too gross for my tastes.  Craig spent the first part of the game disassembling his own units in order to build a Frankenstein monster.  Not my cup of tea.

Next up - Lissa and I have been working our way through our two player games looking for good games to play together.  First up was Architekton.  This is a simple tile laying game.  Lissa liked this one quite a bit and I liked it ok.

Tonight we tried out three more two player games.  Scrabble Slam! is a fast paced game where you try to be the first to empty your hand of letter cards by covering up letters in the four letter word on the table to form new words.  This was a lot of fun for two and would be even better with more players.

Next we played Gold Digger.  This one was ok with two but would be far, far better with additional players.  You play cards to attach characters or gold/fool's gold cards to each of the six mines while staking a claim in up to three of them.  With two players there is little conflict for mines and you are able to quickly improve a mine that you have staked a claim in.  More players would lead to more cards being played between turns and more conflict.

Last up was Gone Fishing!  This game is a lot like concentration in that you are able to peek at the lake cards before selecting one each round when you are the angler.  The fish player can manipulate the placement of the lake cards between angler turns.  The game works ok but was not that interesting to either of us.  This one is destined for the trade/gift pile.       

Thanksgiving Gaming

Our holiday weekend of gaming continued today with Todd, Ann, and Jeff joining us for Smallworld and Carcassonne.  Everyone had a great time and liked both games and Ann's Brunswick Stew was fantastic.

Wednesday Boardgames - Work & Home

Since we were only working half a day today at the library and the students have already left for home this week I declared today Library Team Building Day.  By this I mean that we ordered pizza and played boardgames.  We had seven players for our games: Anna, Rebecca, Heather, Stacey, Chris, Shubha, and myself.  We started out with what seemed to be an easy choice, Trivial Pursuit Book Lovers Edition, given that the people playing all librarians or library workers.  Even divided into teams we had a very difficult time we the questions as none of us are especially good at modern literary fiction.  It took almost three hours for the team of Heather, Stacey, and I to win.

Chris, Rebecca, Anna, Heather, and Stacey playing Trivial Pursuit

Next up was Hey That's My Fish!  This game was a big hit!  Rebecca immediately picked up on the game and began isolating her opponents on small chunks of ice.  We played two rounds of this and I was thoroughly beaten by my team each time.

Rebecca, Anna, Shubha, Heather, and Stacey playing Hey That's My Fish!

We finished up with a quick one round play of Guillotine.  This game gathered a lot of interest but the game had to end quickly as the pizza arrived.

Stacey, Rebecca, Anna, and Heather playing Guillotine - "Off with their heads!"

After leaving the library I stopped by the Lost Legion Games - The Riflemen and watched Dave and JB play the final game of the store league's Blood Bowl Tournament.  The game went into overtime with Dave pulling it out in the end.  It was a tight game the entire time with two advanced elf teams duking it out and Dave understrength for most of the game.  Congrat's to both Dave and JB for a great game.

Dave and JB playing the Season One Super Bowl

 Finally, Lissa, Nick, Rosie, and I played a game of Road Kill Rally.  I spent most of the game wiping out and Nick spent a lot of time without weapons as our wives proceeded to run down pedestrians and lead throughout the race.  In the end they tied in points at 360 but Lissa placed first as she finished the race ahead of Rosie.  Nick placed third and I puttered like an old man in a hat into fourth place.

The past two days have been a really great start for my gaming oriented Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow we will eat Chinese and then return home for boardgames and then on Friday I will head to the shop for Black Friday gaming. 

Boardgames with Tori and Ashley

My youngest daughter, Tori, visited this evening and later on her friend Ashley stopped by.  Before Ashley arrived Tori, Lissa and I played a quick hand of Dominion.  Tori and Lissa had never played before and I had not played since Charcon 2009 so the game was new to all of us.  Everyone enjoyed the game and is looking forward to trying out some of the other card combinations.  I won the game but I expect the results to be different as everyone becomes more comfortable with the rules.

Ashley arrived and we decided to show Ashley Hey, That's My Fish! since she is attending school to become a zoo keeper - perhaps this would give her some insight into the penguins at the zoo.  We played two quick games before they had to leave.  Again, I won both games partly due to Tori and Ashley constantly cutting each other off on isolated ice floes.

  

Saturday Boardgames at Capitol Roasters

Jeff and I met up today at Capitol Roasters with Jim and Dana, two new math professors at the university where I work.  Unfortunately, Lissa was unable to play as she was working.

We started out with a quick game of Guillotine before Jeff arrived.  I believe that Jim won this game.

The next game was one of Jim and Dana's, Thurn and Taxis.  This is an interesting game where the players are building postal routes to various cities in Germany.  As routes are built, you score points based on a variety of factors, including the regions that the cities are in, and the length of the route.  You are also placing postal stations down as routes are completed.  These are used in the scoring process as well.  While I ended up placing very poorly in this game I rather liked it.  Dana won this game.

For game three we played one of Jeff's games, Steam.  This was a tight game that came down to the last turn where I would have won had Jeff and Dana not traitorously used some of Jim's track giving him the two points necessary to win :)  One problem that we had was that we badly misread the income rule and gave ourselves far more income than we should have.  Great game!

Our last game was another of Jim and Dana's, Ingenious.  This is a nice abstract game with an interesting twist in scoring.  As you play pieces, you score based on the number of matching colors/shapes that you can trace in a straight line from your piece.  You keep track of your score for each color/shape separately and your total score is equal to your lowest score.  This was another win for Dana.

It was great to finally get to play with Jim and Dana and to try out two new games.  Lots of fun!

Wednesday Night Magic

Harold, Nick and Rosie came by tonight and Harold, Nick and I got in three hands of Magic.  Harold's recent losing streak turned around tonight with him winning two of the four games and Nick and I splitting the other two.

We had one interesting occurrence that I would love to hear feedback on.  Nick had a Blood Moon in play and Harold had an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play.

The question is, does Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth retain the text or is it simply a Mountain?  My take is that it would become a Mountain with no text.  Please comment!

Sunday Laundry/Boardgames

Our eldest daughter, Shari, and her fiance, Ernest stopped by to do laundry and as is becoming our habit play some games with Lissa and I.  We were able to get in five games today while they did laundry.

We started with one of my favorite games, Carcassonne.  This is one that they have played before and enjoy.  I won this game and it's end signaled the end of my winning for the evening.  This is a fantastic game and it runs a close second to Settlers of Catan for my favorite Euro game.

Carcassonne Box

Next up was a game that we picked up at this year's Charcon convention.  In fact, we picked up two copies of it and had given one to them previously and they wanted to try it out with us.  Terra Nova is an interesting little area control game published by Immortal Eyes Games.  The game involves the claiming of sections of the hexagonal map by laying out "border stones" to delineate areas of control.  These areas are scored according to how many different types of terrain are included in the plot.  If the area contains only one type of terrain you score the number of hexes times three, if two types, times two, if three types, times one.  Only the player with the most pioneer meeples in the area scores points.  The points are shared in case of a tie.  The game starts out pretty open but as the end approaches things get rather tight and the decision making becomes more difficult.  The types of terrain shown have no effect on the game other than to determine the score multiplier and it is somewhat counter-intuitive that the more types of terrain you include the less you score.  Lissa one this one handily though she seemed to like it the least.  Ernest and Shari both seemed to like this one a lot.  Myself, I think it will grow on my after a play or two.

Terra Nova

Next up was Roll Through the Ages.  This is a favorite of mine and was one of the games offered at the 2009 Charcon Premier Board Game Tournament.  I was able to add it to the collection at this year's Charcon as part of my winnings.  It took a few rounds for everyone to catch on to this one but I think everyone enjoyed it.  Ernest caught on very quickly and won the game handily.

Roll Through the Ages Box

Last up was everyone's old favorite, Guillotine!  We played two hands of this fantastic, French Revolution themed game and both times Shari won.  We have been playing Guillotine for years now and Shari and Ernest liked the game so much that they picked up a copy shortly after we introduced it to them.

Guillotine Box

I certainly do not remember trips to my parents to do laundry being quite so much fun.  I guess Shari is just lucky that her parents are gamers :)

Wednesday Night Gaming - Egizia

 
We had four players tonight for gaming and pulled out my brand new copy of Egizia by Rio Grande Games.  Jeff and I had played before but Nick and Rosie had not so we began by taking a few minutes to go over the rules.  The game involves the players running work crews who work on various monuments along the Nile River valley.  Mechanics-wise Egizia is a worker placement game and resource management game that includes a neat mechanic wherein you place worker boats as you move down the Nile but cannot (unless you have a special card) place a boat upriver of your previously placed boats.

The game runs for five turns and the mechanics are learned by the time the second turn begins.  Everyone really enjoyed the game.  I won followed by Nick, Jeff, and Rosie though the scores were close for everyone.  This is one of my top two games from Charcon.

Charcon 2010 - A Busy Night in Distraction, New Mexico Report

This has been a while coming but here is a short writeup with a bunch of pics from our Charcon 2010 Gutshot game.  The buildings are all from Eric Hotz's excellent Whitewash City range of paper buildings as is the play mat.  There were six teams, each with separate goals to accomplish.  The teams were the Pinkertons, the Sheriff and deputies, the US Marshals, two outlaw gangs, and a gang of banditos.  The goals ranged from the banditos needing to "rescue" the little sister of the leader who had ran off and become a "can can dancer" and the Marshals who were tasked with arresting the leaders of the three gangs and one of the Pinkerton agents who was wanted in Colorado for actions in a coal strike.  The only team to complete their mission was Jeff's outlaws who successfully freed a team member from the Sheriff's lockup and left the board.  They were also shot up unexpectedly by Ken's banditos who ignored their goal and simply shot up the town and anyone in it they could reach. 

In addition to the normal activation cards that each character would have I added several cards that activated a civilian in a nearby building or began a pre-staged event such as the rampage of El Nacho Loco, a midget Mexican (Flintloque Frontiers Hobbit?) who was angry that all of the ladies at Madame Orre's were so dag-blamed tall.  At one point an outlaw used Nacho as cover and shot over him at another player.  The other main event was the gunfight.  When this card was drawn two NPCs left a bar and set-up in the street to have a classic shootout.  Unfortunately, as they thought this was to be their day of fame, they were largely ignored as folks brawled around them paying them no attention.

Figure 1: The setup

Figure 2: Another view of the setup

Figure 3: Larry moves one of the Sheriff's men

Figure 4: Overview of the game as the GM (me) digs for a civilian to add to the mix

Figure 5: The gunfight

Figure 6: Ken moves a bandito

Figure 7: The carnage at Madame Orre's and Nacho Loco being used as cover

Figure 8: The bank president walks out at the wrong time

Figure 9: The banditos just before they shot down poor Granny Clampett

Figure 10: A view of the carnage

Figure 11: An overhead view

Figure 12: One of the outlaws found some dynamite and decided to blow up the livery and is confronted by the elderly livery operator - he was eventually successful and miraculously survived