Dusting Off the Oldies

Liz had the day off today so we were able to chill together for a while. He heard that Sarah was at the parents house, so we got our junk together and headed over. The ladies got to chatting and looking through old photos while I took a nap on the couch. I was soon woken up and we got to playing some games. We started with one of the parents games.

Sequence 2-12 players
This doesn't come out too often, but it's pretty good. If they didn't own it, I'd probably have gotten it already.

The game comes with 2 standard decks of playing cards, colored chips, and board with an array of playing cards printed on it. The board has every card on it twice, but no Jacks. Each player is dealt 6 cards. On a turn, a player plays one of their cards and adds a chip of their color to one of the matching locations on the board. If they remember, they draw a replacement card. If they don't remember, then they are down one card. The goal is to get two lines of 5 chips. One-eyed Jacks can remove an a opponents chip and two-eyed Jacks are wild. If you play as teams, then there can be no communication between players about strategy. If there is, then it's a one card penalty for all players on that team.

We played as teams. I was on Sarah's team and Thom and Liz were on the other team. Our first game went well. Thom made a few errors which allowed us to sneak in a win. On the second game, they were playing better and it was close, but Thom cheated, by showing Liz one of his cards. I enforced the rule to Liz's dismay. I kept up the defenses while Sarah gave us the second win. Wooot!

We then broke out another one of the parent's games, but this one hadn't even been opened.

Skip-Bo  2-6 players
I don't even know if I want to bother with the rules. Here's the short of it. Everyone is trying to get rid of their stack of 20 or 30 cards (number dependent on amount of players). On a turn, a player draws up to 5 cards in their hand from the draw pile and plays cards in the center piles that count up going from 1 to 12. Skip-Bo cards are wild. You can play cards from your hand or from the top of the stack or any of the four discard piles that you will eventually have in from of you. Once you have no more plays, you add a card to a discard pile and pass the turn. The first person to get rid of their stack wins.

It was the same players as last time. It was slow going. There is nothing interesting to say about the gameplay so I'll just say Sarah won.

I hate this game. It has, in fact, defined a new low for me. Of all the games I have played, this is now the worst. I would sooner play Golf, which I dread. It's a very long game and the time between turns its boringly huge. If the deck of cards doesn't go your way (which for me it did a number of times) you might have a turn where you play nothing and you wait for 3 other players to drill through their cards. I'm okay with games where the luck of the cards can hurt you. I'm okay with long games. I'm even okay with low strategy games, but mixing all three is a travesty. Just reminiscing over this game gives me a bad taste in my mouth.

Becky showed up in the middle of the game and we took a break to eat, but we soon craved the feel of game. I wedged in...

Tsuro 2-8 players
I picked this one up along with an expansion to Ticket to Ride when I heard that my previously nearest game shop had a run in with an idiot driver. Seemed like a great excuse to give my financial assistance. It's an easy enough game to learn and play. Everyone starts anywhere on the edge of the board and has 3 tiles with winding paths on them. On your turn, you place a tile in front of your token and move any dragon tokens further down their paths. If you're still on the board, you draw a new card. If you fly off the edge, you're out of the game. The goal is to be the last dragon still on the board. It's certainly not a very intense game. It's less of a game of attacking the other players and more of a game to find where the safest places to land are. Then again, maybe that's just my own gaming style shining through.

It went quick. Liz and Becky were the first two out when Thom was able to play next to them. I was able to play next to Carol bumping her out. Sarah accidentally committed suicide and Thom followed suit right after.

I enjoy this game. It can accommodate 8 players and plays in less than 10 minutes. Becky and Thom really dislike this one. This boggles my mind a little. It too short of a game to hate.

We didn't have any other games for 6, so Liz and Carol bowed out so we could play...

Rack-O 2-4 players
I had this game as a kid then got it again in college. It's pretty basic. You place cards into a rack. You draw a card (either face up or face down) and replace a card in your rack or discard the card. Once someone gets their cards in increasing order, they call "Rack-O" and the round ends. As a kid, this is where the game ended. Later on when I was looking for games Liz's mom would enjoy, I happened upon this game in my collection. We played and someone pointed out in the rules that there is a point system. You score 5 points for every card from the first slot that continues the increasing pattern. This explained the numbers on the side of the rack that had dumbfounded me for the longest time. You also score bonus points for consecutive runs and if you were the one to call Rack-O. The first to 500 wins.

I was able to call Rack-O a number of time in the beginning. This gave me a comfortable lead. Thom eventually dropped out, but Carol took his place. Becky and Carol started catching up and I wasn't making fast progress. In the last round, it was anybody's game (except Sarah). I needed to get a Rack-O or have Sarah (or possibly Carol) call Rack-O. I was rooting Sarah on and she came through for me. I finished with 505 and Becky close behind me with 485.

We all enjoyed this one. It's great blend of casual play and light strategy. A turn takes seconds and the game is divided up into rounds, which allows you to take some small victories even if you are losing overall. If you are playing for points, it can go long, but that time passes pretty quickly.

Tally: 99/166  Bonus: 26/50