International Tabletop Day

This is day one of my gaming challenge. I chose this day since it had gaming significance and I didn't think I could wait until my birthday to start this project. I had originally planned to head to a game store and play with Liz and other randos. It would give me the chance to get some of the free promos. But it seemed that a number of our friends and family had the idea to make a gaming meet-up on the same day. This worked for me. I can always try to find the promos on eBay anyway.

Stone Age 2-4 players

We started the day off with one of Becky's games. Liz and I gave this one to her as a birthday present. She hadn't even cracked it open yet. Mmmmm, fresh game! It's as basic of a worker placement you can get. You're all cave people trying to keep your tribe alive. You take actions to gain resources, bonus points, tools, or more workers. The gimmick with this game is that you roll dice to see how many resources you get. The more workers you send, the more dice you get. Each material has a different scale factor making certain ones more valuable than others.

We had a four player game going with Becky, Carl, Steve, and myself. Liz read us the rules, but sat out and watched from time to time. Since this was our first time, no one really started with a strategy, but it became a little clearer mid-game. I was going for lots of tools and green cards with a complete abstinence policy (no more workers). Steve was making as many babies as he could and grabbing as many cards to boot. Becky and Carl seemed to go with a little bit of everything. In the end, It was a pretty close race, but the bonus points from the cards separated the pack. I towered over everyone having gotten one of each green card and most of the cards for tool points.

I liked the game and not just because I won. It's nowhere near my favorite of course. I like a little more in the way of choices for worker placements. I felt a bit limited in what I could do and I mean that offensively and defensively. Becky loves the game though and that's all the really matters to me.

Jamaica 2-6 players
I needed a racing game in my collection and I was between this and Formula D. Jamaica was cheaper and had a cooler theme. I feel like everyone should have this game. You are all pirates on the island of Jamaica taking part in the annual race around the island. Everyone has three cards with a symbol on the left and right. The left is the day action and the right is the night action. The starting player rolls 2 dice and decides which number goes to the day and which goes to the night. Then everyone secretly plays one of their three cards. So if it's 3 in the day and 2 in the night, you might have the options to move forward 3 and gain 2 gold or possibly gain 3 gunpowder and gain 2 food. As you move and fill your cargo hold, you needed to pay food or gold to stay at your location or drift back until you can. You may even gain treasures or bonus powers. If you land on a space with another ship, you must battle by using another special die roll aided by any gunpowder you have. The winner can empty one of your holds or steal a treasure. The game ends when someone passes the finish line. The person with the most points wins.

The game itself is thoughtfully designed. The box looks like a treasure chest and the instructions like a treasure map. Everything has its space to fit in the box and won't shuffle around how ever you store it. You know it's a good game if the design extends beyond just the game.

Our play of the game was quite non-confrontational. Steve took giant leaps ahead, Carl pretty much stayed in one place for the first half, and Darrin, Liz, and I moved at a pretty causal pace. In the whole game there was only 3 sea battles all of which saw Darrin losing. I was the only one to cross the finish line, but came in 3rd. Steve had a lot of gold and treasure so he was 1st, Liz 2nd, Darrin 4th, and Carl last even though he had caught up to most of us. The game might have been more entertaining with some more cannonballs flying, but it was a great day for a race all the same.

King of Tokyo 2-8 players

This game was all the craze well before I got it. I'm not sure when I cracked, but I probably should have gotten it earlier. It's so simple and fun. You are all monsters terrorizing Tokyo and competing king of the hill style. You roll special dice in a Yahtzee fashion to earn points, gain energy, heal yourself, or beat up others. You can use energy to buy powers. If you're outside Tokyo, you can only beat up the monster in Tokyo. If you're the monster in Tokyo, you beat up everyone outside Tokyo, but you can't heal. I got both the expansions and made a lovely insert to fit it all.

This was actually a pretty short game. Carl ended up winning on points. he had a great combo of having an extra die to roll and the power of scoring 9 points if he could roll one of each symbol. He did it twice. We did our best to kill him, and may have succeeded had we had one more go round, but It just wasn't meant to be. To be honest, even had we killed him, I think I may have died soon after him. It's hard out there for an alienoid.

Pairs 2-8 players
This is a cute little pub game. There is no winner, just one loser. The deck has numbered cards: one 1 card, two 2 cards, three 3 cards, ..., and ten 10 cards. At the start of a round everyone gets one card dealt face up and the lowest card starts. On your turn you either take another card from the deck or pass and take points. If you take a card and the number matches a card you have, then the round ends and you take points equal to the number that got paired. If it doesn't match, the turn moves to the next player. If you pass, the round ends and you take points equal to the lowest card on the table. It's very quick and clear. There are many versions of the game, some which include bonus games. My version doesn't include a bonus since I really liked the art style of the fruit pack.

Ida was insistent we play this one. It's a game she gets and enjoys a lot. It's so short we were able to get two games in. Since there is not a lot of thought necessary, it gives a lot of time for players to poke fun and crack wise. This made for a very light-heated and jovial atmosphere. Steve lost the first game and Darrin lost the second. I forget what exactly their punishments were, but it had something to do with hooking up hoses under the house and pooping on the roof.

7 Wonders 2-7 players
This is the drafting card game that defines them all. You are all ancient societies progressing though time. You draft cards (pick a card, pass the rest to the left) to gain resources, trading posts, armies, science, money, victory points, or levels of your wonder. The neat little thing about this game is that if you don't have the resources to build something, you can pay your neighbors (the person to your left and right) to fill in some of the gaps. You do this over three rounds (ages) and the most victory points wins. You never really know who's winning in this game until the end because you are spending all your time looking at your own board and the two boards next to you. The boards on the other side of the table could be doing anything, I mean they are a world away.

We played two games. The first with just the base game and the second with the Tower of Babel module. I forget who woe the first game, I just know I wasn't in last place. I think I was 3rd to last and the was a three-way tie for 2nd. The second game had me at the bottom and Sarah at the top. I've played this game many times before and with a number of different expansions, but this was the first time we played with Babel. I will tell you that this new expansion really changes the game. Most of the time you end up getting screwed in one way or another. Very little good comes from that tower, but that isn't to say it's a bad addition. It's just a completely different beast. You have to keep your wits about you.

The Resistance: Avalon 5-10 players
Avalon is basically the same game as The Resistance. It just has a different theme. When I first heard about The Resistance from Shut Up & Sit Down, I was not interested for a few reasons. The first reason was that it required at least 5 people and at the time I had no gaming group nor did I ever see 4 other people I knew at the same time. The other reason was because it seemed like acting was required. In a way it is, but not in the way I was thinking. It seemed to me that the game was driven by player input similar to games like D&D, Fiasco, or Once Upon A Time. What you would create would make the game, meaning you needed players willing to let go of the idea of winning and simply get lost into their character and let the story drive them. That just seems silly to me. Of course, I was wrong. A few years later Shut Up & Sit Down did a full play through of Avalon and it looked like a very cool game. Plus, by that time, I had people I regularly played games with, so the player number was less of a factor.
In Avalon, you are Knights of the Round Table. There are some in the group there to undermine the knight's goals. Unfortunately, most of the faithful knights have no clue who the evil minions of Mordred are (other than Merlin). The Minions on the other hand know exactly who the other minions are. During the game, one person will chose a certain number of members to go on a quest. Everyone votes if they like the team. If the majority doesn't like the team a new leader makes a new team and they vote again. If the majority is cool with the team, they embark on the quest. The members on the quest secretly vote to pass or fail the quest. Good knights would only ever pass the quest. Minions can choose to pass or fail. Any fail votes will fail the quest. The good guys win if they can get 3 out of 5 successful quests and the Minions don't know who Merlin is.

I have only attempted this game 3 times before. The first try ended in the "getting to know you're fellow minions" phase. As the moderator, I noticed that one person was confused as crap after the set up. I asked if she was a minion and she didn't see her other minion companion. She said yes. I picked the drunkest person and flipped their card: Minion. We started over. This time I was a minion and everything was going smoothly. Darrin was in a bad mood or something and was blatantly voting everything down. Even then the game seemed too easy for the bad guys. This made me think that the drunk was Merlin. After we failed the 3rd quest I flipped his card again: Merlin. The last time I attempted this, no one was too drunk and Darrin was in a much better mood. Everything went wrong throughout the game. People voted with the wrong cards, people didn't know the difference between blue and black, good guys failed missions to attempt subterfuge. It was a colossal failure. Why was this so hard?
On this night I was determined to get it going. Steve had played it before and he even said it was one of his favorite games. Becky and Darrin would have no part of it. Spliters! Sarah was on the fence and leaning towards bailing, but gave it a try. This meant a 5-player game. Steve suggested that we play without Merlin to make it easier. I was quite adamant about keeping him in, but caved just so that I could actually play the damn game.
In the first game, Carl and I were the minions and we did a poor job of keeping things under wraps, that or Steve did a really good job of convincing people we were phonies. We were only able to fail one of four missions. In the second game we included Merlin. This made the game much more livelier. There were accusations flying everywhere. Sarah and I were evil and I was the assassin. I had a strong feeling Liz was Merlin since Carl and Steve seemed very confused on each turn. I was right, but it didn't matter. Carl and Steve were doing such a good job of being confused that Sarah and I were able to beat them before the last mission. By the end, Sarah had changed her opinion of the game. Now if I can just get Sarah and Liz to sway Becky, I might be able to play a game with more than 5 people.

Coconuts 2-6 players
This was a Kickstarter that I had never heard of until after its public release. I caught it on an episode of Gamenight! and was sold. It's basically beer pong without the drinking and you can steal cups from other players. Oh, and you use cute little spring-loaded monkeys to fling tiny rubber coconuts instead of ping pongs. I played it with my family and they just had to have it. It made Xmas shopping easy. I eventually got the expansion through Kickstarter to allow for 6 players and to add more coconuts and cards. I had to make a new box to fit it all. I'm quite proud of it.

This was my first 6-player game and also the first time the new cards from Cocunuts Duo got some use. Becky was busy putting the kids to sleep, plus she gave the impression that she did want to play it anyway. I think that girl has a bad attitude. Anyway, I started out strong by nabbing a number of red cups right away. This may have put a target on me, but I never dipped below 3 cups. Eventually Carl made his presence known and he was the one to beat most of the game. He had a hard fought victory with all the cards shooting his way, but he earned his win.

Rise of Augustus 2-6 players
A.K.A. Bingo for gamers. This got on my radar when it was up for the Spiel des Jahres. It was a very simple game. A person pulls a token with a symbol out of a bag. If you have that symbol on one of you cards you can cover one of them. If you fill a card, you yell "Ave Caesar!" and get a new card and possibly a few other bonuses. After one player gets 7 finished cards the game ends and everyone tallies their points. I love this game for being so simple, but mostly because there is very little down time. The only time you are waiting for another player is when they are picking out a new card. This game just sails. It's also the kind of game my mom would like because you don't have to think too often.

Becky was very keen to get another game a Stone Age in which meant we needed to break into groups since it maxes out at 4. Sarah played this with me while Liz watched (she was tired). I end up winning quite handily. I had a lot of high point cards and a number of bonus tokens. Sarah had a few tokens of  her own, but her cards weren't getting her much in the way of points.

Mall Madness 2-4 players
The story goes like this. Liz was feeling down about work and I was intent on fixing that. Since we needed food and also needed to get a present for her sister's birthday. I told her that we could go get tacos and as we picked out a present she could get any game she wanted. We stopped by Red Castle Games game first. Liz scanned the store with droopy eyes and a bad attitude. She noticed a clearance table that was still out from the stores 5th anniversary. Her eyes immediately lit up as she squealed to me, "Mall Madness. I want that one!" I was happy to oblige. It was only fitting that I get a game about finding items on sales and clearances actually on clearance.

We needed one more game to play while we waited for the Stone Age game to end and this had the right feel and time length. Sarah played as...Sarah, a "friendly girl who is into just about everything. She can be girly at times but she also likes to compete at sports and build things." I played as Scott a "talkative boy who's really into games. He excels at science and math and is also a big music fan." Hmmm, I bit too on the nose.

This is not a game of winning. At least, not for adults. This is a game of enjoying the nostalgia and laughing at the things you buy. I got prescription shades at the Sunglasses store for $20,. They were on clearance. Every game is always a close game. I ended up winning, but Sarah wasn't far behind me.

That ends the first of many days to come.

Tally: 7/147  Bonus: 2/50