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