Bamboo-zled

We did a little pre-shopping and a little actually shopping. Later, we met up with Becky and Carl,
Becky had Ticket to Ride: Europe set up. They loved the game so much they finally bought a copy of their own. Carl was out doing yard work, so We played a 3-player game. It was a close game for me and Liz. Had Liz finished he last ticket, she would have had the win by far. Becky wasn't even close.
Carl showed up after and Becky took off to pick up food for themselves. To kill time, Carl picked out...

Takenoko 2-4 players
I saw this game on Watch It Played and found it adorable. Who doesn't love the idea of a panda waddling around, chompin' on bamboo. On your turn, you do two actions. Actions include getting more goal cards, expanding the garden, having the panda eat, having the gardener grow the bamboo, or getting more irrigation. Once a player completes a certain number of goal cards, play ends and the most goal points win. It's a very pretty game and pretty easy to learn. I added a small board to the box so that when I store it vertically things don't shuffle around. Darrin seems to loath the game and I'm not sure why. I can agree that the goal cards and weather die can make it a bit random, but no more than most other games.

This was the most intense game we had ever played. We were running really low on goal cards and the bamboo was growing really high. Carl could have ended the game earlier, but he was waiting to have enough point to beat me. I was just trying to end the game fast, but I kept digging out difficult cards. Carl forced the end eventually, but I was able to finish two more goals on my extra turn.

This isn't a very thinky game, but it's really nice and fun. Even though Becky didn't play, she found it supes adorable.

We finished off the night with a game of Escape. We played with character abilities and the standard chambers. We were doing moderately okay for most of the game. Becky just kept doing worse and worse. She lost 2 dice and got locked up a lot. I had to come and save her a number of times. Carl got out first, and Liz got out next. Becky and I struggled to get to the exit chamber, and were eventually crushed to death.

Tally: 68/156  Bonus: 20/50

Pre-Birthday

Liz went out shopping today while I was working. She apparently went to Cloud Cap and did some birthday shopping on behalf of herself and her parents. She even had them wrapped. Liz was really excited about it and had me open all of her presents then. She got me games that weren't on my list, but that I had a curious interest in. I still have two wrapped presents in wait.
Afterward, we headed out to get food before I had to work karaoke. We stopped at a place we hadn't been before, Sasquatch, and brought one of the new games:

Red7 2-7 players
Liz said that the shop keeper picked this game out. Liz was looking for a smaller game to add to the pile. It took a little while before she hit one I didn't own. She claimed it was how the game Fluxx should be. I'm not sure I agree.

The deck contains 49 cards (each numbered 1-7 in 7 different colors) Each player starts with 7 cards in their hand and one face up in front of them called the palette. There is a starting card played in the center called the canvas that determines the rule for who is winning. It starts on red which means the highest card is winning. Cards get ranked by number and if tied, then by color. The person to the left of the winner starts. On a players turn they use cards from their hand to do one of 4 things: add a card to their palette, place a new card on the canvas, both of the previous two, or lose. For the basic game there is no drawing of cards. Once one of those moves has been made, that player must have the winning hand based on the rule defined by the canvas card. Each color has a unique rule for winning. If a legal move can't be made, the player loses. That is the basic game. There are rules for scoring, but we didn't bother with that. There are also "action rules" which we did eventually add. There are action icons on the odd cards. These cards force you to do a special action after adding it to your palette.

We started out with the basic game. I wasn't a huge fan. You have very little to think about and I pretty much lost 3 times in a row. The game also seemed too fast to have an level of interesting interaction. We added the action rules and it got better. There were more cool plays and the fact that we were getting new cards every now and then gave a sense that one might get a chance if they could grab the right card. I won all of those games. I'm curious how games with more players will feel. I guess by then we will have to add scoring. So overall, I like the game when you get past the basic rules. It's a bit of a thinker at times.

Tally: 67/156  Bonus: 20/50

One Card at a Time

I'm surprised it took this long, but we finally played...

Love Letter 2-4 players
If you want a simple game it doesn't get much more simple than this. It's a whole lot of game for just 16 cards. There are 8 different numbered characters in the deck. Every player starts with one card. The current player draws one card and plays one of the two cards they have. Each card has a special action that will occur. You might be able to attempt an assassination, look at another players card, challenge another player to a duel, decree protection, force a player to discard, or trade cards with another player. You win the round if you are the last one alive or if you have the highest value card when the cards run out. The winner gets a token (I got special heart tokens for this game) and once a player gets enough tokens they win.

Normally we play this one at least once a week. It's really easy to play and can fit in your pocket, not to mention it takes up almost no table space. Sarah joined in on this game. She started out behind, but then dominated the rest of the game.

This game has about 5 billion different editions. Some of them change the play a bit, but not much. If you are looking for a small game, you really have no reason not to at least look at this one.

Tally: 66/153  Bonus: 20/50

Free Time

After Liz got home and we ate dinner, she wasn't to exhausted to play a game. After a bit of back and forth she decided on...

Alhambra 2-6 players
 I don't remember when we got this. It was certainly earlier than later. I know I had heard about it though Wil Wheatons Tabletop. It was an easy game to learn and I had a feeling Liz would get a kick out of it. She did. I got one of the better expansions and a promo for a little variety too. In the game, you all start with a fountain and some money cards in different color currency. You build your alhambra buy buying buildings in the four different currencies and get extra actions when you pay with exact change. You score points at the end of each round based on who has the most of each of the 6 types of buildings and by the length of the wall surrounding your alhambra. It's very interesting and a little bit stressful, especially when someone nabs the perfect building away from you and does it with exact change.

We played with about half the expansion modules. Normally Liz starts with a grand lead, but she was trailing most of the game. By the third round, she was just cheering me on to beat Dirk, the automated third player used in two player games. She did well enough not to be beaten by Dirk, but it was grim for a while. I was miles ahead. Everything just came together for me.

This is a really great game. I feel like it one of those games that can be easily overlooked when people think of  great gateway games. I should bring this to game nights more. It's a classic.

Tally: 65/153  Bonus: 20/50

Good Enough to Eat

Another lunchtime game event. We played one Justin brought.

Nacho Loco 2-6 players

This is a bit like dominoes with colors and triangular cards. Every player starts with about 5 or 6 cards. On a player's turn, they can play a card down on the array as long as the color can match with a side. There are a few special sides. If you match a "Skip Next", "Go Again", or "Draw Three choose opponent", then it does exactly what it sounds like. There are also black sides with X's. These can never be matched unless you can complete a hexagon and the piece you add matches two black X sides. Anytime a hexagon is completed, every other player draws an extra card and the board starts fresh. If a player can't play a card, they draw a card. If they can place that drawn card, the can, but if they can't, then their turn ends. The first player to get rid of their cards wins the round and gets points based on the cards left in everyone else's hands. First to 20 points wins.

I had played this before. Darrin and Sarah own it. I'm glad Justin brought it since I didn't bring any games for 6. We just played until someone went out. I was close to a win, but I wasn't able to place my last card and had to draw another. Brian, who played next, was able to end the game.

We had very little time left, but we played Citadels anyway. There were some new comers to it, but we powered through. I had a blast and burst out laughing a couple of times. Elizabeth probably got hit the worst, but I think she rolled with the punches well. We only played about 4 or 5 rounds and Sarah got the win. Lunch needs to be longer.

Tally: 64/153  Bonus: 20/50

Time Filled Between Time Filled

Darrin came out to trivia this time. I had brought a few small games and we went with the smallest I brought.

Angry Dice 2 players

This was a bonus game I got from a kickstater. It's pretty simple. You each have a pair of dice. You each roll your dice continuously trying to get the combinations of 1-2, then 3-4, then 5-6 in order. Like in most combo dice games, you can lock any die you want, but in this one you can't lock a 6. The catch is, if at any point in time you have double 3's (the 3 face has been replaced with an angry face), then you start over. First to the end wins. The game also came with an expansion that took a little long to get due to production delays. I hadn't played with them until tonight. The expansion dice change the catch of the game for each set.

 

We played a few times during the breaks in trivia. We each won some games. We played with some of the expansion dice as well. It's an interesting enough game. There is not a whole lot to it and it's utterly random, but it's so short it doesn't really matter. The best you can do is roll fast and I'm okay with that.

Tally: 64/153  Bonus: 19/50

A Game Instead of The Game

I started out the day killing time with CSI on Hulu and playing Pushmo on 3DS. I was invited over to watch the basketball match with Liz's dad and the son-in-laws. I got ready for the day and headed over with a few games in toe. I was going for the sociality not the watchiality. We only played one new one:

Age of War 2-6 players

This takes the Yahtzee rolling structure and turns it into a territory control game. There are a number of territories in feudal Japan that you are attempting to take control of. Each is worth a different amount of points. On your turn, you roll the dice and can decide which territory to go for. You are trying to match symbols on the card of that territory. Like in Elder Signs, you match parts of the card every roll. If you are unable to make a match on a roll, you can roll again with one less die. If you run out of dice before you can make all the matches, you're turn is over. If you make all the matches the territory is yours...for now. It's possible that someone could steal it from you. Another player just has to make all the same matches, plus one more symbol. You can lock it in if you get all the territories of the same region. Some regions have more territories than others. Once all the territories are controlled, the game ends and most points wins.

I've only played this once before as a 2-player game. That game was pretty back and forth near the end. There was a lot of stealing territories to assure wins. It took a while, but it just made the success feel more grandiose. Darrin and I played this to kill some time. It's entertaining enough for that purpose. Darrin was able to clench a victory with two territories left unclaimed. Damn those dice.

After the girls showed up, it meant that Liz had unknowingly brought Ticket to Ride (I left it in the car). With this knowledge, Becky continued to only speak or sing sentences that included "Ticket to Ride". Everyone was on board, but Becky was unwilling to play the 6 player team version. I opted out and spent the game facilitating play to speed thing up and make sure all players got their due points. I was rooting for Liz, and she almost won, but Becky was able to beat her by 1 point. This only served to feed the beast inside Becky. I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing.

Tally: 63/153  Bonus: 18/50

Friend In Town

Chuck came into town to do some stand-up. This gave us plenty of time to hang out and catch up. I saw his show the night before and it was good. He had another show today, but we had time to play some games. He was excited by the prospect of having the free time and enough people to play...

Battlestar Galactica 3-6 players
This is a game that is best with 5 people who have 3 hours to kill (That includes the time it takes me to teach the game). Since the alignment of those factors almost never meet, this one barely hits the table. It's based off of the TV series which I have never seen, but know a little bit about . I got the game because the mechanics seemed so cool. Everyone is given loyalty card that tells them if they are a human or a cylon. Humans are trying to space jump the ship to the new home planet before they are blown out the sky by the damn toasters. The cylon player(s) is trying to secretly sabotage the missions and cause mistrust amongst the crew. The best part is that mid-game everyone is given another loyalty card. It's possible you could now find that you were really a cylon all along. The game is best with five. It makes the game fair enough for both sides. Too many cylons and it's just crazy hard to avoid blowing up.

Our game was was awesome. Carl was new to it and Becky had played half a game before so we did a little rules intro, but left most of the heavy stuff to when we started playing. The first half of the game went by pretty quickly and we had mainly only taken hits to our in-game morale. Many accusation had been made, but no one was outed. After the halfway point, things began to look grim. We were surrounded and close to a jump. Carl finally revealed himself as a cylon and took out some fuel. Shortly after that Chuck revealed as well after putting Liz in the Brig and destroying out jump drive. We did what we could to repair the damages and jump clear of the danger. It still wasn't looking good. We had a chance though. We were one tick away from being able to jump to victory, and the next crisis card was going to bring us there, but unfortunately it also gave Becky two fatal choices: either run of of morale or run out of fuel. She decided to let us morally drift into space. Best game of this ever.

A lot of people think I like to win. I don't. I like a close game. It keeps things tense for everyone. I don't mind losing as long as I feel like I had a chance. It doesn't get much closer than this.

Afterwards we picked up some food, but came right back to play Ticket to Ride. Chuck hadn't played this one before, but was eager to learn. It was a tight game the whole time. I was in good position, but Becky and Chuck both got the end game bonus. Becky was still behind me, but Chuck jumped into the lead.
We rushed out of there pretty quick after the game ended so that I could get together with another game group. Chuck decided to kill more time before his show and he came out too. He took his own car so he got there a little later than me. While we waited for him, we played a new game that none of us had played.

Vye: The Card Game of Capture and Control 2-5 players
This is an area control card game, but I'm betting you got that from the ultra-long subtitle. An array of 5 cards starts the game and everyone has 4 cards in their hand and also 6 special cards in reserve. On a player's turn, they can add any card from their hand or reserve to the array. If the card is orthogonal to a matching card, they claim all matching cards that are orthogonal to each other. Claiming involves adding your color cubes and removing all other players cubes. If a reserve card is played, it has special claiming or protection rules. At the end of a turn, the player draws back up to 4 cards in hand. If the card drawn is the "clock" card then the game ends. The player with the largest contiguous area of control wins.

When we started, I didn't really understand all the rules. I just followed along and did my best to put a lot of cubes out. When the game ended. I had tied for the win and only then did I really understand what the goal was.

It an okay game. It a nice filler and I might get it myself if I'm looking to buy a small game. I'm sure we'll play it again at a work lunchtime get together so I can cultivate my option then.

Chuck showed up just as we were begin to explain...

Firefly: The Game 1-4 players
This is a mission centered pick-up and deliver game based on the wildly popular, but short lived TV show. Every player starts with a ship, a leader, an engine, $3000, a couple parts, and a mess of fuel. The goal of the game depends on the scenario card chosen at the beginning of the game. Whoever completes all 3 goals in order wins. Players go around to different planets in the Verse getting jobs, equipment, tools, parts, and crew. All of this is done while trying to avoid the the Alliance and Reavers.

It was pretty easy to learn, but we made a few mistakes along the way. We fixed what we could when we did make mistakes. Chuck had to leave after about and hour, but he enjoyed it enough to consider getting his own copy. I started out fine, but fell behind fast. Once Bryan had finished the first goal, he quickly finished the other two.

I think it's a nice game. It would be nicer if you could do more to slow down other players than move the NPC's when the game lets you. I hear that some of the expansion allow for more cut-throat play. If you really love Firefly then this is a great game. If you're not a huge Firefly fan, then there are other better games to go with.

Tally: 62/153  Bonus: 18/50

Drinkin' Gets Me Thinkin'

When Liz got home we headed to the newest Mio Sushi and brought...

Brew Crafters: The Travel Card Game 2-4 players
This was the other game we picked up the day before at Cloud Cap. I had heard that it was the best of the "rabbit" games from Dice Hate Me Games. I love Isle of Trains so we had to try it, plus Liz loves beers.

In the game, you each start with 4 cards. On your turn your draw 2 cards then either play a card for it's effect and add it to your brewery (usually allowing you to earn more points per beer or get extra cards in your hand) or you can play a number of cards for there ingredients to make one of 5 different brews. You score depending on the brew and any brewery bonuses. The game ends once a player scores 21 points and all players have an even number of turns. All players score any end of game brewery bonuses and the highest score wins.

We each enjoyed playing while waiting for our food. I had the win by about 4 or 5 points. It's a much shorter game that Isle. Is it better? I don't think so, but I still like it. We might try a game that goes to 30 points, but since you can only have one of each item in your brewery it may make the game a little bland at the end.

Tally: 61/153  Bonus: 16/50

Wake Me Up

We started the day with Jade and Isle of Trains. It was nice to eat outside and I really enjoy that game. It was a close one, but Liz took the victory. After, we headed to Cloud Cap which was nearby and picked up a couple of games.
Later, we got together with Liz's family to do more eating and playing. Most of them played The Game of Life while Carl and I played Star Realms. He won the first game and I won the last two. It was nice and I got to try out some of the Gambit cards. They gave a little kick to jump start a few hands. Carol won Life. We then took a break to get outside a bit.
Once back inside, we tried...

Sleeping Queens 2-5 players

Liz got this game for the kids a week or so ago. It was made by a 6-year old and her family. The game starts with 12 queen cards face down in an array. Each queen is worth points (between 5 and 20). Every player has 5 cards. On a player's turn they either play an action card or discard number cards. The actions mostly let you gain or make another player lose a queen. There are counter-action cards people can play to stop you as well. When you play numbers, you can play a single, a pair, or multiples. If you play multiples then you have to be able to create a true equation. For example, if you have a 1, 3, 5, and 8 you can make 1 * 3 + 5 = 8. Playing number cards just gets the numbers out of your hand. At the end of your turn, you draw back up to 5 cards.  Once a player gets 4 queens or 40 points (more for a 2-3 player game) they win. If the queens are all taken, then the player with the most points wins.

We played 3 times. It a very random game.There isn't much you can do in the game since a large majority of the cards are useless numbers. I do enjoy the equation mechanic, but for a Math geek like me it slows the game down while I'm sitting there trying to find the equation that lets me trash all 5 of my cards. For a kids game, it's fine. For a game made by a kid, it's really good. There are plenty of other games I'd rather a hypothetical kid of mine play.

Since there was now six of us to play, Diamonds seemed like the best game. It was nice and fit the group well. Carol won again.
Carol and Thom headed home and we were free to play the game Carl and Becky had been dying to play again: Ticket to Ride. Liz and I were all for it since one of the things we got at Cloud Cap was the Heart of Africa expansion. It added a few new cards to draw as route multipliers. It was a good game. It was pretty close. Most of them thought the game was mine. I was hoping so, but I wasn't sure since I never drew any new tickets. I was right too. Becky had finished all 6 of her tickets. That with the Globetrotter prize got her the win.

Tally: 60/153  Bonus: 16/50

Careful Words

More lunch time games at work. Sarah brought in a favorite of hers...

We Didn't Playtest This At All 2-10 players
This game is a little like Fluxx in that there is very little you can do to try and win. Everyone starts with two cards. On your turn you draw a card then play one. Cards do many random things like give you points or cause everyone to touch their noses or outlaw the words there/their/they're. You win if you are a player who didn't lose. You lose if you didn't win. Which is to say, there is no one way of winning or losing. It's all random and mostly about seeing how well you can juggle all the rules added by the cards.

The first game we played ended on the first card which just made the player who played it win. The next game ended when I was the only player to touch my nose while not pointing at it. The other two games were just as silly.

If you like games where anything can happen and you want to play just to see what can happen, you might like this game. If you play to win, or can see the novelty of a game like this fading, then you are with me and you don't want to bother with it.

Afterwards, we played several rounds of Pairs. Everyone enjoyed it. It played much faster, but I get the feeling that if most of them were to pick a game to play again it would have been WDPTAA.

Tally: 60/152  Bonus: 15/50