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. 

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!

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 :)