This was a really nice game, and the mechanics worked rather well. The units and bases concept was nice. I also like the combination of factions as it makes the game much more expansive and doesn’t force a specific play style. I happened to get pirates and ninja, which have very similar play styles. That made it hard for me to do anything other than sneak around. Without the ability to drop lots of big hitters or bring up lots of other units I was unable to get many wins. I was able to sneak in for two of them, but it would take most of my hand playing special action cards. Jeff ended up winning, with Chris and I taking a back seat at the end.
Steph and I got to Cliff house late, and we walked into a really nice house. The wifi wasn’t good enough to run the games, but we played the board games and card games that we brought.
Adam Amit/Tina, and I played a game of Tzolk’in. Amit didn’t really care for it, but Adam and I had a good time. It was nice to get 3 monuments, even though I would have done better to have done differently. Adam still won with a really high score, and I think the biggest difference was me not getting many skulls. It comes back again and again, that if you don’t go for skulls and gods you will lose. I never have been able to get a full set of things that led to going for the god route.
We played some Cards Against Humanity, and I chose randomly. I ended up winning with the random choosing.
The house was very nice, and I regret not being able to stay there another night.
Steph, Tina, Amit and I played a round of Goblins Inc. last night. The game itself was interesting and I really like the systems involved. There was one big failing of the game that Amit pointed out, and that was the extreme limitation that the games puts on table talk. That limitation doesn’t allow for an enjoyable social experience when playing. If you are playing just for the game it is a good game, but if you are playing to have a fun time with friends it isn’t the best thing to go for. I’m not sure if it would play decently with table talk allowed since so much of it relies on secrecy. There could be an interesting meta game or there could be a complete failure of some of the important mechanics if too much information is shared.
I played a few rounds of New Era with Nick and Steph. Nick left and then Steph did some quick heads up play. I won all the games, and by a large margin. I got some really good cards to start out and it worked especially well with the groups I got. I also think that I was trying to build points early one, so that the others would have arguably better resource engines, but I had the best point engines. This made a big difference since the game is usually only 4 to 5 rounds long. The engines don’t last all that long, so building points early and setting up to make points is much more important than big engines.
Nick, Steph, Ilya, and I played some Innovation last night. We played in teams with Steph and Nick going against Ilya and myself. There were two things that went against us early; The ages progressing quickly, and Ilya being new. With the quick progression Ilya was overwhelmed by the options he had, and since he was reading all the cards for the first time and seeing them work for the first time didn’t realize the combinations. I was trying hard not to tell him exact cwhat to do, especially since I didn’t know what he had in his hand. I was left behind in the quick teching up, which was ok for most of the game, as I was able to strategically use the age 1 cards to block Nick and help Ilya. This didn’t work out in the end, as Nick and Steph were able to help each other out really well on the points, and at the same time take out many of our point machines. Steph and Nick ended up winning in age 9.
Adam, Chris, and I played Tzolk’in and Chris won both times. He really showed what a good early game setup can get you if you put the time into it. I think I’ll try for his method in future games. He got lots of people quickly and lots of farms, which game him the ability to use all his food for lots of decent placements.
Steph, Tina, and I played a few games of Race for the Galaxy so that Steph could unwind. She has been working hard lately and needed a short break. We each won a game, so it turned out well.
This time playing galaxy trucker I was thinking way too much when building and ended up going too slowly. I got last place and didn’t finish my ship in two instances. It was a little upsetting, but not too bad. I had a good time playing the expansion stuff, and didn’t do too bad considering. I went into the last round with only 5 crew, and a pirate came by that knocked out all 5. It was an unfortunate turn of events, but those things happen. Only 1 person made it to the end, and that made them win. That person was also the only one not to take the amoeba on the second round. Chris did really well, but even he hit an open space without an engine and died. I really wanted to hit the open space early in the last round as I had 11 engine power without needing to use a battery.
This was interesting with 9 people, and I’d say much less fun. There was less each person could do, and it was easy to just sit back and not do anything of use. The people who were werewolves also happened to be the new people. That made it very easy to tell in some cases what was going on. We got lucky a good bit, which made the villagers win, but just barely. I was on the villager team.
It's an Exciting World 