This card game is played by dealing thee cards out with spades as trump and following suit. All players should have equal numbers of cards. You then bid on how many tricks you think you will take starting to the left of the dealer. The dealer cannot make the total bid equal the total tricks. The scoring is done as tricks taken plus bid modifier. The bid modifier is -5 for missing the bid and +10 for making you bid exactly. You repeat these round making rhe hand size 1 less each round until you get 1 card. Then you increase cards back to the original hand size.
We didn’t do much this morning. Around noon we went to the beach and everyone else had lunch there.
I took a good long walk and got to talk to Derick about a good many things. I really liked the walk because I’ve been feeling restless from inactivity. A quick rain storm came up and we all ran under the big roof. Carlos ordered lunch then so we waited around. Steph took a coconut from a l ocal for free and then took another for me that he later said was not free. I thought it was tricky but he didn’t get the 100 he wanted just the 65 I had. We went back to the house and played a game of settlers. I did terribly and even failed in king making to get Brittany to win.
We had a good dinner of mangu and kabobs. The kabobs were really good and brittanys mangu was also fantastic. The mangu is something that I might want to try making at some point.
After diner we had a bit of hookah and played dominican dominoes. Jack and angel won the first game but steph and I got the second.
I taught Nima and Caryn Suburbia last night. I think they liked it. Caryn had trouble since she went for pure population too early and then got reputation later, making her income all the way low. I ended up winning with 149, and Nima was well over 100 as well.
This morning I dropped things off at Good Will that I didn’t want anymore, a lot of it the bad Zynga shirts. I kept the few good shirts that I like, but don’t think I’ll wear them often.
I got back to my house and biked over the CPR (Cell Phone Repair) and gave them my phone to fix the screen. I stopped by the post office and got a haircut. I then made it back home and finished setting up the mac mini I got on Tuesday. I set up a standing desk with the printer on the table next to it in my room. The dragons are roosting just above me as I work, making sure I stay on task. I also am using a folded up yoga pad to stand on, and it is making a huge difference compared with standing directly on the hard wood floor.
Last night for board games night I showed up early and Riley let me in. I got some of the Gyros Gyros falafel wrap for dinner, and it was delicious. Riley decided to make some pizza, which was also really tasty. I grabbed an angry orchard cider with elderflower, and it was really really good.
Chris showed up a little early and we played a game of Neuroshima Hex. I was Blue and he was Green. It was the first time I had played the game and I really like it. Chris got an early lead, but once I got the hang of it I was able to get good traction and take him down. The game went really well for me in both luck and figuring out the mechanics quickly. BGG Link
Nima and Caryn then showed up and we played a round of Shadows Over Camelot. The game was going really well, and then I decided to show that I was the traitor when we were all gathered around the Picks and I was supposed to put down the 5. Nobody else had a 5, but they were all there. They managed to get out of there, and even managed to finish the Picks since it didn’t come up for a while. I was able to really hit them hard in a number of situations and the game ended when they lost the holy grail. They weren’t doing very well in any other area either. It would have been a close game even without me turning traitor. BGG Link
Nima and Caryn left, and then 10 of us decided to get together to play a few rounds of Avalon. It is just like the card game mafia, but with some expanded rules. I think it makes the game actually fun since you can somewhat piece together who is who. Chris was the Merlin character and he knew that he was going to be assassinated no matter what, which was right. I think the game is fun and would love to play it again. I was loyal both times, won the first, lost the second. BGG Link
Brian had Hanabi with him, as he tends to always have. We played a 5 person game and got pretty far. There were a few mistakes and we are also working on convention of what to do/understand. With some of these conventions the game will get much easier, and it will be fun to finally get the whole thing without making any mistakes.
Brian got a new game at the Game Kastle flee market called Villa Paletti, and it is a strategic Jenga like game. You have to take your color columns and put the as high as you can, when you can’t move any higher you add on another story to the structure. The person with the most pieces the highest wins. The strategy is trying to force the timing of the person who places the next story to be the person before you, and also to make sure that your high value pieces are mobile. The control of what happens it the game is a little lacking and once a player starts winning there is very little you can do to stop it.
Brian got a lot of a type of game called Diceland. It is an interesting concept where the geometry of the pieces maters and they are rolled like dice onto the table. They are all 8 sided dice shapes and have different stats based on what sides they are on. When damaged the dice switch to a worse side. It was a really interesting game, and I liked playing it a lot. We played the Diceland: Space version and I had a few really powerful ships. Brian had a fleet of small fighters. Once he got the going they were decently strong, but I was able to destroy them all with a single blast from one of my stronger ships, so I ended up winning. I’d be interested in playing it a good bit more.
We then played a short game called Times Square. It reminded me a lot of the wedding game and seems like it could work well as a basis for the mechanics of the wedding game/cease fire. I thought it could use a bit more depth, but it was decently balanced. The whole thing was a game of frustration as you couldn’t do anything that the other player would then just completely undo. He won the first round with Champaign Charlie and I won the second with Sue.
Nick and Candice showed up about then. Candice brought Togos, and I had a decent chicken sub sandwich. We played two rounds of Glory to Rome. I didn’t do too well in either game, with Brian winning the first one via a building and Nick winning the second time through the Vault.
Yesterday morning I went to Gamekastle’s flee market hoping to pick up a game or two. I was specifically looking for Blue Moon for Steph. Unfortunately none of the tables there had a copy. I saw a copy of Gauntlet of Fools for $15, but when I went to buy it someone had just picked it up. I met Brian there and we went back to his place to play some games. Nick stopped by the flee market later and picked up Tongiaki.
It's an Exciting World 