Games Played

Housewarming

I had people over for my housewarming on Monday. It turned out to be a little too warm. When I turned on 2 burners and had the oven going the little amount of airflow that I could get from the apartment just wasn’t enough and it started to heat up substantially. Steve was probably the most effected by it, but everyone felt a little warm to say the least.

I ended up having Jeremy B, Adam, Andrew, Amy, Adelaide, Tina, Amit, Candice, Brian, Nick, Steve, and Steve’s wife over. It was a very large crowd for the space and I could not have fit more people in than were already there. I was somewhat surprised by the turnout since only half of them said that they would be there.

We played some cards against humanity and open faced chinese poker. The games worked really well in the space, and with the crowd that was there. Everyone liked the kitties, and played with them using the laser pointer. I think things went as well as could be expected.

I cooked a baked mac ‘n’ cheese dish, that turned out really well. The bacon was super tasty in it. I think I’ll make it again and take it over to beachhead for dinner on Thursday. Jeremy brought over a cake, Amy brought over ice cream and root beer, Brian brought over some chips and dip, and Wit brought over some really tasty beer. Nick also brought over most of the Liquor that we had built up, I’m assuming once he finds a place he’ll want me to bring over some of the nicer stuff that he likes to his housewarming.

August 20, 2013 0

Open Faced Chinese Poker

This variant of poker is much more my style of game than other poker variants. I can use strategy and planning in this version, whereas the other ways of playing poker are more about meta game and probabilities. The way the game is played is each player has 3 hands, a top, middle, and bottom. The top hand is only 3 cards and must be the worst hand. The middle and bottom hands are 5 cards each, and the bottom must be better than the middle and top. The players are dealt 5 cards to start, which they can split any way they like. The cards are then dealt out 1 by 1 and each player chooses where to place the card in their hands.

The scoring is the tricky part. If you fault you lose all your hands, that is if the strength of the hands is not bottom>middle>top. From there you go hand for hand against each player. If you beat a player for all 3 hands then you get 6 points from them. If you beat the player for 2 of 3 then you only get 1 point. You lose the respective points for losing in the respective manners. If you have a really good hand (straight or better) in the middle or bottom then you get bonus points. If you have a pair of 6’s or better in the top you get bonus points.

The last rule is called Fantasy Land, and only happens when you have a pair of queens or better in the top. I’m not going to go too much into how that works, but it is really powerful and you get all 13 cards at once.

August 18, 2013 0

Gauntlet of Fools

This game is really well balanced, and automatically so. The way in which you take boasts to balance out the character offering is genius. It is a form of drafting where nothing is ever out of the question. We played 2 rounds. I lasted the longest on the first, but wasn’t able to kill much of anything. The priest is kind of like that if he doesn’t have a great weapon. The second round I was the prospector with a sling. Normally that wouldn’t be good, but since we had some really big monsters and a lot of tiny ones, I was able to use the sling and survive a while. I also got really lucky with a few of the rolls to make me absolutely destroy the others. I ended that round with 28 gold. This is a really amazing game that only takes about 30 minutes to run through and is pleasantly synchronous.

August 16, 2013 0

More New Era

The versatility of this game makes it fun to play over and over again. We played another round of it tonight at 906. This was the first time we had a 5 person game, and I must say that it was a little attack heavy. Even so it was really fun. I got destroyed first turn, where I would have been able to get a fantastic engine going had either of my first two cards I put down survived. That was the most annoying part of this play. Adam won again, with me in second. Chris was a very close third, and nick was a somewhat close 4th. Jeff was far in last, due to him not playing as recently as the rest of us.

August 16, 2013 0

New Era

I played a really close game of New Era last night, and would have really run away with it if there had been one more turn. Adam got exactly 33 points to end the game, with me sitting at 32 points and a great engine on my board. I didn’t have many point scoring cards, which is what really did me in. I should have gotten a few more, and payed more attention to when I could have gotten them. I think picking up a point scoring card on the third turn would have made my life much easier. I got an amazing start with the New Road card being in my starting hand with a good number of small buildings to put down. I need to focus on not building the engine on turn 3 and 4, but focus on getting points instead. I think that is where I have been falling short so far.

Adam and Andrew came to 906 to play with Nick and I. We might end up having games night there if no one else is hosting.

BGG Link

August 15, 2013 0

Tzolk’in

The last game of the night was Tzolk’in. Tina, Adam, Nick, and I played this one. We didn’t have anyone going for skulls, and I did the food strategy again with the bonus of the food tile monument being out. I got 11 of the food tiles, but that wasn’t quite enough to make up for the other ways I destroyed myself to get it. I should have waited a few more turns to take it, but such is life. I ended up getting a close third. I think the next game I play is going to be the resource strategy instead of the food strategy. It technically has a bigger payout, but it is also harder to play since food is the way you place units. I’ll probably trade a bunch to get the food I need instead of hoping for the food track to have something for me. With many people seeing how I can control the board with the food strategy I expect a few more to go after it in the future. I also don’t think getting as many people as I did was useful in the end. I should have gotten other things instead.

BGG Link

August 9, 2013 0

Suburbia

The second game of the night was Suburbia. It was a good game, but I didn’t get my engine to take off. I was going for a yellow ring strategy and the buildings I needed never came out. I was able to get a good thing going with some other buildings, but nothing that really took off. If we had gone a few more turns I would have been completely ruined. Tina beat me, and Adam came in last. He didn’t get anything really going strongly either, and didn’t get many bonus points on top of that.

BGG Link

August 9, 2013 0

Small World

Last night for games night I played a good number of games. The first of which was Small World with Chris, Julian, Jeff, and Bri. I was able to take the lead and keep it with the strategy of going for the mountains before declining. No one tends to attack the mountains with a declined race on them. I also came into the board right next to my declined race, so that there was only one side they would really be attacked from. It was a good game and we played with all the expansions. I started out with a bad race of historian elves. I declined that immediately and moved on to rampaging amazons. The amazons did really well, and the elves stayed on the board for a while. I then got the flying pixies, which was fantastic for taking over a ton of area. I won by a fair margin, and was able to knock down my closest competitors with the rampaging amazons.

BGG Link

August 9, 2013 0

New Era: Round 2

I had Andrew and Brian over to play New Era tonight. It was a really close, really high scoring game. I didn’t get much in the beginning, as I couldn’t incorporate anything. The first turn I had 0 points. I was able to catch up and got a good engine around cooperating and gas. I still lost, but it was 43 me, 44 Andrew, and 46 Adam. I might have to play it again this Thursday at games night. The only thing that would trump it is if one of Steve’s games hits the table.

BGG Link

August 6, 2013 0