Liz and I went berry picking on Sauvie Island. We also stopped by St. John's and got a pretzel and some bratwurst. Darrin shot us a message for some game playing so we headed home, collected ourselves, and drove out to pick him up and play.
Tokaido 2-5 players
This is a very gorgeous game. You are all travelers taking the East Sea Road
(Tokaido) through old Japan. On the trip, you can have encounters, visit temples, get souvenirs, or just take in the sites. Along the way
you'll need to lend a hand in farm work to earn more money for the trip
and rest at inns to get some much needed food. Once everyone reaches the
last in, the winner is the player who had the richest journey. The main
mechanic is that a traveler can go as far down the road as they want
(without passing an inn), but doesn't get to go again until they are
last in line. You might think to just go to every space, but there are
limited spots on every location and sometimes you really need to get to certain places. It's a fantastically simple game with
great artwork all over it.
I got the expansion as soon as I saw it in a game shop. Thank you
Off The Charts Games.
After I picked it up I felt like I needed to do the insert justice and
pimp it out. I got metal coins and masu boxes and went crazy with white
foamcore. I posted it on BBG and the designer of the game, Antoine
Bauza, tweeted that it looked neat. I found that pretty cool.
We used the expansion for this play. Darrin's and my character started with plenty of coin and Liz's with a pittance. We all made the best of our trips occasionally annoying the other by taking a spot another player really wanted. Darrin made good use of the expansion (with the expansion you have a choice between two things at every location). I did my best to make every coin I had count. Liz was able to see a number of vistas and have a load of encounters. I had the most fruitful trip with Liz nipping at my tail. Darrin was happy to have passed 50 points.
Casino Yahtzee 2-4 players
While listening to a
Dice Tower Podcast,
I heard that of all the Yahtzees their favorite was Casino Yahtzee. I'm
not a fan of Yahtzee. That's all Liz's bag. Showdown Yahtzee changed my
mind towards Yahtzee variants though. I was willing to give this one a
try if it came along, especially since I knew Liz would go nuts for it. I
got it off eBay while I was on a big auction kick. This was also around
the time I was looking for more games that Liz's mom would enjoy.
The game is the least Yahtzee like game of all the Yahtzee games. There
are five dice, but you might only choose to roll two of them... or one
of them 5 times. It's your choice. What every you roll gets covered on your board. If you can cover a row before another player, you score the sum of the row. It's interesting, but I like Showdown better. Everyone
else loves it. They really get a thrill from the sliding clean-up boards.
I really knew how to roll the dice. There was nary a turn I didn't score points. Darrin didn't just give the game to me for free though. He didn't score often, but went he did it was by leaps and bounds. Liz, on the other hand,was really good at rolling numbers she already had which is really bad in this game. I had fun, I'm assuming they did too, but who cares when you get to do the sliding cleany thingy.
Next, we started getting food ready and I began reading the rules for:
Outlaw Trail: The Western Game 2-8 players
This is an oldie in Liz's family collection. They've had it for a while, but it rarely sees the light of day. This was actually the first time Darrin had even seen it.We had to play it. It's a roll and move game. You each play outlaws in the Wild West. You are all headed to Mexico and plundering goods and starting fights along the way. If you can earn $40,000 by the time you reach the border, you win. If you only made between 20 and 40 thousand you become a bounty hunter (I'm not sure how that works thematically) and you start gunning down the other players. If you are even poorer, you start again with $5,000.
I'm not sure where Liz's parents picked this game up, but it apparently counts as beer/wine.
As with most games involving spaces that tell you what to do, it's utterly random. The rule book is lengthy for a game of it's kind, but still seems to be a bit vague in areas, but we made the best of it. Darrin was the first to make it to the border with more that $20,000. He became a bounty hunter and was hot on our trails. I was probably the worst outlaw ever. I rarely held a robbery and when I did I barely made more than $1,000. Liz didn't fair much better. She was eventually gunned down by Darrin and was out of the game. I nearly had the game. And by nearly, I mean I had a 2:9 chance. I bet my money before crossing the border and I lost it all. I started over, but Darrin caught up with me and shot me down. Darrin was so proud that he's thinking of starting a spin off blog where he just writes about the games he beats me in.
Steam Park 2-4 players
I got this game mainly to get the free shipping from
Cool Stuff Inc, but also because I thought Liz would find it cute. She does.
You
are running a theme park for robots, because robots like fun too. The
game starts by each player furiously rolling their dice. You can roll as
long as you like. Once you're happy with what you have, you quickly
grab a turn order token. The faster you are in rolling and grabbing, the
better of you'll be. If you're the last to be rolling, then you have 3
more rolls. In order, players use the dice they have to build coasters,
build tents, add space, attract robots, fulfill goals, or get rid of
dirt. Coaster can hold robots. Tents can bend rules for you.
Robots and goals get you money. The building actions gain you dirt and
dirt is bad. The more you have in the end, the more you are penalized, so
you have to make sure to take care of it. Each player uses all there
dice as best as they can before the day ends. After six days, the richest
player that didn't drown in dirt is the winner.
Liz needed a game break so it was just me and Darrin. I went with a goal focused strategy and Darrin went with a.. I'm not really sure, but whatever it was wasn't a terrible idea. I grabbed a lot of tents and he started with a lot of roller coasters. By the end, I was clean of dirt, but rolling in money. Darrin lost nearly half of his money. Such a filthy park.
I think it's an
okay game. I'm not sure how it could be better or what is missing. It
feels like there isn't enough to do or maybe not enough time to really
get things rolling. Maybe the dirt doesn't seem like it's that much of a
problem. I guess what I'm saying is the game just feels a little too
light.
Tally: 59/152 Bonus: 14/50
No comments:
Post a Comment