Pigs and Demons and Imps. Oh My!

We started the day with the plan to go to the DEQ and get some mini pies. The DEQ closed two minutes before we got there. This was very frustrating. It was a good thing the pie place was not stupid. Just before the lovely pies, we ate burgers and played...

Pass the Pigs 2-10 players
I got this as a stocking stuffer, I think. It's hard to remember. It was a long time ago. I never would have gotten this game of my own volition.

In the game, you roll two rubber pigs and score the result. If they land in less likely ways (on feet, back nose ears) they score more points and you continue to roll until you feel you are done or you have a bad roll. If they land on opposite bellies, you lose all progress for the turn. If they land touching each other, you lose all points earned in the game. If the land stacked on top of each other you are eliminated from play. First to reach 100 points wins.

We played and I won. Nothing really interesting happened. Of all the points scoring variants to see, we saw 7 of 28.
This game is a lot like Farkle, but much stupider. In Farkle, you have a few questions to answer. Do I keep rolling? How many dice should I roll? What are the odds of that happening? In this game, you only have the first thing to think about. You will always roll both pigs and there is no point in thinking about the odds, because there are no odds. These are the definition of unfair dice, because the aren't dice. In Farkle, you occasionally see people making giant leaps and bounds. In a normal game, you will probably see 75% or more of the point scoring variants. In this game, you will see the same 5 low scoring or turn ending rolls and maybe one big hit. In summation, this is a boring game and the first one I will trash whenever I run out of space and "the great purge" comes.

Later in the day I met up with the "Descent group", but since we didn't have the whole gang again, we played other games. We started with...

Pixel Glory 2-4 players
Since this was a short game to teach and play, Bryan felt comfortable starting with this.

It's kind of a deck building game, but all the deck building is done in the first half of the game. The game is in two phases: bidding for cards and killing demons. In the first half of the game, you each have 9 bidding cards (1-9) and you bid on dibs order for a set of cards with powers. The cards you're bidding on come in 3 flavors: Fire, Water, Earth. Each card tends to give you attack or drawing bonuses and also give you extra basic element cards. The flavors will become relevant in the next phase. Once all 9 bidding cards get used up, the cards you won now become your wizarding deck. In the second phase, you use your deck to attack any of three demons from the demon deck. You draw 4 cards and play all (or you can reserve one) to attack demons. You can attack multiple demons if you want or you can focus on one. Most of the demons also have a flavor and if the flavor you attack with paper-rock-scissorses correctly (i.e. water beats fire, yada yada) you get bonus hits on that monster. If you kill one, you get the points from it and a new one comes out. Anything you don't kill keeps all hits for the next player. Once the Big Boss card is killed (the last card in the deck) the game ends and the player with the most points from demons wins.

I built a deck of mostly water and a little earth. I felt pretty good about my deck and I should have. Near the end it was a race between me and Bryan. I had a slight lead and I just needed one more monster to clinch it. I got lucky that Bryan was one attack point short on his last hand. Victory was mine.
I like the game, but I felt it was too short. It would have been nice to have twice or 3 times as many demons to kill. I didn't even get through my whole deck of attack cards before the game ended. It's possible that Bryan had set it on a shorter/easier variant. At least I hope so. The game comes with extras cards in all of the deck,s so if we wanted to we could have added more.

We the decided to play a heftier game and also one none of us had played before.

Dungeon Lords 2-4 players
In fact, this wasn't even punched out yet. While we got to putting the game together and organized, Bryan read off some rules.

The basic idea of the game is that you are trying to build an efficient dungeon. One good at killing the heroes that come to conquer it. It is a worker placement game that takes place over two years and at the end of each year you must defend against the warriors, wizards, clerics, thieves, and possibly paladin. During the year, you are giving orders to you minions to get things like gold, food, tunnels, rooms, traps, monsters, imps, and "goodness". As the year progresses, you'll need to pay taxes and you'll also attract the heroes based on how evil (not good) you are compared to the other players. It is a delicate balancing act that requires you to not only make your own plans, but also have an idea about what other people plan to do since the cost of the resource you get depends on how many people also need those resources and when they decided to get them. At the end of two years, the player with the most points, based on a rubric of elements, wins.

We all had our own strategies and most of us were keeping pretty level. At the end of the first year, Bryan and I were doing peachy. Robert wasn't doing too bad. Josh had been beaten pretty badly (and by that, I mean hilariously), but he wasn't out. The second year got a bit tighter for resources and saw a number of us get no resources in particular areas. In the last battle, Bryan and I came out fine, Robert wasn't too hurt, and Josh was again beaten to a pulp. Once the scores were tallied, we had all scored positive points, but Bryan was just one point in the lead of me. Very close.
This is a great game. It gets you thinking and planning. Things get tense, but not so tense you feel doomed. And when things go wrong, you aren't out for the count, but it makes it entertaining for others to see your tribulations. Josh made his turns quite enjoyable. He has a way of whimpering with a smile that says, "What the crap happened" and "No! Wait wait... I got this" all at the same time. I would gladly play this again.

Tally: 116/173  Bonus: 29/50

Boom! Bang!

A lot of people were out sick or not in for work today. We were still able to pull together a group of 4. We started with one of Bryan's games.

Exploding Kittens 2-5 players
This was a Kickstarter game that sold really well mainly because it's from the maker(s) of The Oatmeal. I was told to get it by a friend, but it seemed a little silly, plus I'm not a fan of cats even if they are exploding.

It's a luck based card game. Each player starts with 5 cards, one of which is a defuse card. The rest of the cards are shuffled to make the draw deck. This deck also includes one less exploding kitten card then there are players. On a player's turn, they may play as many of their cards as they want. Some of the actions on the cards include skipping your turn, forcing another player to take your turn, canceling another players attack, or looking at the top three cards in the deck. Most of the cards have no action, but instead include weird cat variations (e.g. taco cat or beard cat). If you play a matching pair, you can steal a card from another player. At the end of your turn, you must draw one card from the top of the deck. If it's an exploding kitten, you lose and are out of the game, unless you have a defuse card. In that case, you get to put the exploding kitten back in the deck in whatever position in the deck you want. Once all the exploding kittens have done their duty, the last living player wins.

I got the brunt of attacks at the beginning of the game, but was the last one to be eliminated. I didn't have much of a chance. Bryan had a lot of good draws. He is a very luck man.
It's a good game. I had fun and it plays pretty quick. It does force a bit of a pile on since if one person starts stealing from you, everyone does since the probability of getting a defuse from that person increases. I was that guy. I would gladly play again, but I'd never buy it. I don't want my games to meow at me when I open them.

We quickly followed up with...

Good Cop Bad Cop 3-8 players
I just got this game in the mail as part of the Game Box Monthly, it and the expansion. I had interest in buying this game so I was glad to see it when I opened the box.

In the game setup, each player is given an equipment card and three face down integrity cards. The cards mostly say "Honest" or "Crooked". Which ever type of card you have the most of defines what team you are on. There are two other cards: Agent and Kingpin. If you have the Agent or Kingpin card, the other integrity cards you have don't matter, you are the leader of the Honest or Crooked team respectively. The goal of the game is to kill the leader of the opposing team. On a player's turn, they can do 1 of 4 things: look at one integrity card of another player, draw a new equipment card and flip over one of your own integrity cards, pick up a gun and flip over one of your own integrity cards, or shoot your gun at the player you're aiming at then drop the gun. If you are holding a gun at the end of your turn, you may aim it at a new player. If a player is shot, they are either eliminated from the game, or they reveal their Agent or Kingpin card and take a wounded token. Once the Agent or Kingpin takes a second wound, they die. Equipment cards can be played at anytime, unless the card says otherwise, and they tend to bend the rules of the game temporarily.

I was the Agent and I grabbed a gun after every other player looked at integrity cards. I took aim at the player who looked at my Agent card. I shot them since they didn't seem to make a move to help me. I got lucky and shot the crooked player. In instructing them on how to die, I gave a little clue that I was the Agent. Bryan was still a little doubtful, but changed his aim to Carol. I then stole Carol's gun leaving her doomed. Even if I hadn't let it slip, Bryan and I still would have won, but I still feel a little bad.
I liked this game and I can only see it getting better as the number of players increases. There is just so much more mystery. I'm going to try and play this again over the weekend.

Tally: 115/172  Bonus: 27/50

Staying Tiny

We had a lazy Saturday. We got up at 10am and headed to the Clubhouse for breakfast and to watch the Ducks game. After halftime, I set up...

Lost Cities 2 players

When ever people ask for a good 2 player game this one always pops up. It's a good and mathy card game. I got it at some point, mainly because I though Liz would like it. It's one of those games where you don't really understand how to play the game well until after you've played it once. The game contains a board with 5 colors and a deck of 60 large cards (2-10 and 3 contracts in each color). You each start with 8 cards. On you turn, you first play one of you cards. When you play a card, either place it on the board, making it available to anyone to draw, or next to the board on your side meaning you've started and expedition in that color. When adding to an expedition, you must go in increasing order, but it doesn't need to be consecutive. I did mention 3 contract cards. These are the multipliers. The more you have in the expedition the more it multiplies the value of it, but they must be played before any numbers. After you've played a card, you draw a card. That order is weird, which means you tend to mess it up the first few times, but it's that way for a reason: to piss you off. You can draw a card from the deck or one of the piles on the board, but only the top card. Once the deck runs out, the game is over. Here is where the math starts. If you don't put any cards in an expedition you score zero for it. Anything you've put cards in starts at -20 and you add the value of all the numbered cards, then you multiply it by the number of contract cards plus one. The trick to the game is making sure that if you start an expedition, you have the cards to back it up , because if you don't follow through you're eating a lot of negative points. First time players tend to have a negative score their first few times.

We played 4 games and we split the wins. One of the games, Liz left out her previous hand, but I forgave her since I won that game. After each game, Liz was eager to play the next. I love it when a game just works for the day you are having.
I like the game a little. The fact that you draw after you play is a "good" irritating. You get so annoyed at all your cards and you can't get anything new until you get rid of one of them. I also like the control of the pace of the game. If you think you need more time, you draw from the board. If you need the game to end fast, draw from the deck. My one complaint is that the game is too big. They are over sized cards with tiny numbers at the top and large useless artwork below. This could have easily fit on a standard card size and come in a smaller box.

 We headed out after and did some small chores. We went to Sasquatch for dinner and I brought...

Mint Tin Pirates 2 players

I got this and the next game from a Kickstarter. I couldn't pass up two games that fit in mint tins.
This one has players start with a ship and 3 crew members. On a turn you can discard up to 2 cards then draw back to 5 cards. You then play 2 matching cards (if you have any) and then roll two standard dice. If the number you roll matches the number on the bottom of the cards played, then you get to take that action. The action is usually attack the other player's crew, but is sometimes attacking the ship, stealing a crew member, or bringing back a dead crew member. The first to lose all crew members gains the pirate ghost. After that, the first to lose all crew members or the first to have their ship take 4 damage loses.

We played two games and I lost both. Each game I was in the lead and Liz got the pirate ghost, then she would kill my last crew member. It was a little annoying.
I like the pirate theme, but this game is a little bland. It depends way too much on a die roll. It could be better if there were more interesting cards, like cards that could react to actions.

We followed up with it's mate...

Mint Tin Aliens 2 players

This game has you play as aliens making crop circle and sightings, as well as stealing cows and people. It plays a lot like Ticket to Ride without a board. You draw two cards in a line of 5. You can draw from the face down deck or any of the 5 face up cards. You may only draw one card if that card is wild. All of this is just like TtR. At the end of drawing, you play matching cards to gain an award: sighting (2 cards), crop circle (2 cards), cow (3 cards), brains (4 cards), or extra credit (any 2 matching cards). If you can't make a play, you lose a point which is kept track of on a 10-sided die. Once all the awards are gone, the game ends. The most points (values indicated on the award cards and player die) wins.
We only played this one once. It takes a little longer to play, but it has a bit more heft to it. I won by one point.

Both of us liked this one so much more. Since it was longer we felt like we had some control over mitigating bad turns. It is only slightly luck based and does have you decide where to take risk, even if it is a very small risk.

Tally: 114/171  Bonus: 26/50

I'll Get You For That

No karaoke for me this Friday. This freed me up to have a game night with Emily and Drew. We headed over and were greeted by Saba and Eleanor. We said our hellos, but once that was through, Eleanor got us right to gaming.
She popped out Spot It! and set the game up. This was the Camping version of Spot It so all the symbols took some getting use to. As we were playing, Drew noted that he plays with the challenge that you can't take the card until you notice everyone's match. I began doing this once I got use to the symbols. By the end of the game, Eleanor won by 2.
She then had us move on to Hoot Owl Hoot. We had lost this cooperative game last time we played it, but Eleanor had gotten much better. There were a few times she wanted to play random cards, but right off the bat she was able to call out some really great moves. Through working together and communication, we were able to easily win this time.
Eleanor wanted to crack open Candyland, but it was time to eat. We had a great meal that Emily put together and we followed it up by going to a nearby ice cream shop to support Miles's school. It was a perfect treat.
Once we got home and the kids made it into bed and we read them a few stories, it was all about the games. We began with...

Diamonsters 2-5 players

Liz and I were on our way back from a lovely trip out to White River Falls and we stopped in Hood River to get some nibbles and sips. We had been in the town before for a beer fest when my family came to visit, so we knew of a small little game and hobby store called Hood River Hobbies. We wanted a small game to play while we ate. I pointed out a number of games that fit the bill and Liz made the final decision of Diamonsters. It's a very simple game. You all start with cards number 1 through 5 and everyone secretly plays one card. Ties cancel and the high card wins, but 1 always beats 5. The winner gets a free card and the card they played into their monster collection. The first player with a diamond value of 5 or three of the same card in their collection wins the round. After one person wins 3 rounds, they win the game. I think it's cute. It plays best with 2 or 3, but gets a little stupid with 5 or 6. The box it comes in is a might big for what comes in it. I made a smaller box so that it would be easily portable.

From the beginning, Emily and I continually played the same card and therefore were canceling each other out. It got to the point of laughable eventually. Drew and Liz were winning the rounds and I won a round in there too. Liz took the game.
This game plays really well with 4. It may have been the people we were playing with, but it was a riot. I'm very glad we picked this up now.

Liz suggested we play Survive next. She loves that game. I started setting it up and she popped open another bottle of wine. The game started pretty slow. No real dangers because all of us kept rolling the whale with no whales present. That changed quickly. Soon we were rolling nothing but the sea monster and the deal making and deceitful words started to fly. Liz sunk a ship full of Drew's survivors. Then the rest of us got our boats to shore. Eventually, Emily rolled a sea monster and she had a choice: kill one of two of my survivors, or move one away in accordance with the deal I proposed earlier. It was an extended period of Emily weighing the arguments. On my side, I pointed out how I had helped get one of her survivors to safety. Liz and Drew's position mainly boiled down to the statement of "KILL HIM!" She decided not to hurt the boat that helped her live, but not to save the other dude. There were many other "lively" discussions in this game, but as all good things, it eventually came to an end. Emily dominated this game. I love this game.
Up next we played...

Tobago 2-4 players

I saw a playthough of this game and knew it would be quite welcome in my collection. The design is frickin' amazing. The board interlocks and can be set up in 32 different ways. You also add little huts, trees, and statues randomly to the board. Past just being outright beautiful, this is a reverse deduction treasure hunting game at heart. On a players turn they can either move 3 legs or add a card to one of 4 possible treasures. The cards that are added add rules to where the treasure can be found. The cards say things like "in the largest forest", "within two spaces of a tree", or "not next to the ocean". Once the treasure can only be logically located in one place, it can be dug up when a player gets there. Everyone who put a card on that treasure gets a bit of the booty in a sort of reverse order to when the cards were added. It's a hard game to find. I'm pretty sure I ordered it from a European online store through Amazon.

This was the first time we got to play with more than 2 people. The game went really well. Drew spent a lot of time thinking carefully about his moves. It was then I knew he was enjoying the game. On the last treasure, it really came down to the wire. Had a card or two come out earlier, I would have won. Emily got the win, beating me by 2 gold. So close.

Tally: 111/171  Bonus: 26/50

Flipping Out

We just recently started back up with our Tuesday night bowling. I really wanted to knock one more game off the list so I grabbed the smallest game I had.

Coin Age 2 players

Microgame! I think this is pretty cool. It's the kind of game that I would have played non-stop as a kid. You can fit it in you wallet and the tokens are just currency. Each player starts with 89 cents. On a players turn, they flip one of each type of coin they have. Depending on how they land, you can add coins to the card sized map, move them, or remove them. Only smaller coins can go on top of larger coins. You want to control as much of the map as possible. The game ends when the map is filled or one player runs out of coins. Values are based on coins size, so quarters are worth 4 points and dimes are worth 1. Also the values are doubled if you are controlling the region. If you have any coins left in the bank they are 1 point each. The only problem with the game is that it's so small I forget I have it.

We played this while we were waiting for the other team to fix their scores from a lane error. It was a close one. Liz ended the game by placing all her coins. She beat me by one point. If only I had one more turn.

Tally: 109/171  Bonus: 26/50

Beachy Keen

We headed to Cleny's cabin this weekend to enjoy her birthday week. We had a roaring good time. Very relaxing and low key. We also busted out a few games I hadn't gotten to yet.
When Liz and I went to get breakfast, I set up...

Biblios 2-4 players 
I had seen this game in the stores a number of times, but never bothered with it. There were always other games I was drooling over. I recently added this to the basket when I needed a third game for a buy 2 get 1 deal.

This is an auction card game. The deck has a number of cards with a color and a value (between 1 and 4 depending on the color). Of those cards, some are gold, used as money, some have dice, used to change the worth of a category, and the other colors represent control of a category. Each of the 5 categories start with a worth of 3 shown on the dice. Play starts with a player drawing one card at a time and deciding to either keep it, put it in the auction pile, or give it to the other player(s). Once the player has drawn a card for every player and the auction, the next player does the same and the rotation continues until the deck runs out. The game then moves to the auction phase. The auction pile is shuffled and one card at a time is auctioned. Players bid gold they acquired on most of the cards, but bid cards on gold that pops out. At the end, players total up the some of cards in each category. The player with the most in a category wins the corresponding die. The player with the highest sum on their dice wins.

For a first game, things when pretty smoothly. I didn't take out as many cards as I needed for a 2 player game, but it just meant a slightly longer game. Liz didn't do so well, mainly because I had seen the game played and had strategies in mind. By the end, Liz said she enjoyed it and she could see the mistakes she made. I'm sure the next game will me much more confrontational.

When we got back to the cabin, people were awake and Cleny wanted to know what we were playing. I pulled out...

Tales of the Arabian Nights 2-6 players

It's much like Arabian Days. Just kidding. The best description of this game is a chose your own adventure book in game form. You are a character from one of the Tales of the Arabian Nights. You move around the board and encounter hags, beast, djinns, and wizards. You are then asked to chose your reaction to this encounter. Depending on how you react, it will lead you to a paragraph in a a book of thousands of paragraphs. What happens to you then will be based on what skills your character has and possibly a few other choices you make. Sometimes you can read the situation and make a good choice. Sometimes there are no good choices, but you can still hope. It's wonderful and usually hilarious. My first play of the game I became crippled, wounded, ensorcelled, and turned into a beast, and somehow I still won. But really, this game is not about winning. It's about enjoying the ride. It's about seeing the look of disappointment on another players face when they are stuck in prison for a fourth turn and all they can do is laugh.

Liz had a pretty rough start, but then started sweeping though the game with ease. Cleny had some lucky breaks and was able to ride high, but was greif-striken, fated, and diseased late in the game. I was wounded a number of time in the beginning and didn't really get any momentum until everyone else was mid-game. Liz got the victory alone, but Cleny and I weren't that far from a victory either.
If you love a good story, this is a must buy. Hell if you love making an Excel document to remove the use of reaction matrices, this is also a must buy. There is so much to love.

This game was quickly followed by...

Blokus 2 or 4 players
I first played this one with my friend Drew. It was pretty interesting and quite colorful too. I don't bring it out too much mainly because I have so many other games that I'm dying to play, but it's a great game to bring out for people who only have a basic knowledge of the "new gaming scene". It's abstract and pretty and the rules are utterly simple. It's like a much less intimidating form of chess. That isn't to say it plays anything like chess.

Each player starts with the same pieces, but in their color. Each player takes their turn adding one of their pieces to the board. The rules for placement are as follows. The first piece must must start in your corner of the board. Any following piece added must have the pieces touch only by corners. You can touch other players pieces however you want, but you can never overlap a piece. Once all the players have run out of pieces to place or have no moves left, the score is tallied. Each player gets a negative point for every square in every piece they didn't place. A +15 score is given if all pieces are played and a bonus 5 if the last piece was the single square.

We had a blast at this one. People got mean and people got frustrated. Brian was shut out early. Cleny was next, but she only had 3 pieces left. Liz got all but one of her pieces out. I cleared out all of mine and had the single square piece as my last. I had quite a high after that game. It felt so good.

We played one more game before we took off for home, Qwirkle. I got really lucky during play and scored about 7 or 8 qwirkles (one of them a double qwirkle). No one liked me at the end. Thankfully the weekend was so nice, Liz didn't bother griping about it. She was being quelled by the hot goodness of clam chowder.

Tally: 108/171  Bonus: 26/50

Mexican Standoff

I started out the day working from home. Once I clocked out, I played a solo game of Flip City. I won easily. I think it works better as a non-solo game.
Cody was working karaoke for me, so I was able to hang with Liz and the gang and go to trivia. After the slog of questions, I started to set up...

Ca$h 'n Gun$ 3-6 players
Liz got this game for me before it got reprinted and was a lot harder to find. Ain't she great? It's a game that lets you point foam guns at your friends (or enemies) and grab a bunch of cash if you're lucky (or forgettable). I never win this game. It's a game where you choose who to point your gun at and you can only point at one person each round. I tend to be a target in most games I play since I win a lot of other games and since I know the rules best. With this game, I can literally be their target. At least one or two of the rounds all the guns point at me (not including mine). I love the game, but it still drives me crazy that I still get all the bullets when I had no mathematical way of winning anyway

Our first game started a little slowly. Raeann wasn't comfortable with the rules, but she figured it out. There were two rounds where all the guns pointed at me. I ducked out both times, but lucky the pot was never that big or wasn't able to split very evenly. I actually won the game. Raeann wanted to play again and I was happy to oblige. The guns were blazing this time. Again, no one died, but there were a lot of shots fired. The last round was really between Sarah, Raeann and me. I pointed at Rae, Rae at Sarah, and Sarah at me. Since Raeann had a Bang Bang Bang card, she shot first and killed Sarah before I could get shot. This left me free to shoot Raeann. The final pot was mine and Liz's. I won again.

This is a great game, if you don't mind pointing foam guns at people. I have a hard time getting it on the table since it plays best with 4 or more, but Becky really dislikes it. Maybe she'd like it better if I got the expansion with samurai swords.

We didn't want to head home yet so I broke out Codenames. We played two games. Rae and I were teamed up and the sisters teamed up. Rae and I won both games. The last game was probably the closest. So the game works with slightly inebriated people.

Tally: 105/171  Bonus: 26/50

Games, 1

Another working day game. I had the perfect game to bring in this time.

Codenames 2-8 players
I got this game for free since Red Castle was having a "buy 2, get 1 free" sale recently. It's a pretty basic party game, along the lines of Password.

Players are separated into two teams (red and blue). One player on each team is made the clue giver. A 5×5 array of random words is laid out and a random "answer" guide is in view of both the clue givers. The words in the array represent the code names of agents in the field. The guide shows the clue givers which words in the array represent the code names of their agents, the other team's names, bystander's names, and the assassin's name. On a team's turn, the clue giver gives their team one word and one number. The word is to tip off what names they need to pick and the the number is the amount of names that clue is suppose to match. After the clue is given, the team then points at names they think they were meant to pick. If they point correctly, the name is covered with the team color and can keep pointing. If it's a name from the opposite team or a bystander, the name is covered with the opposing color or a bystander card and the team's turn ends. If they point at the assassin, the game ends and the other team wins. If the assassin isn't picked, the first team to get all their agents discovered wins.

It was just four of us. I was on Sarah's team and Bryan and Carol were on the opposing team. We were able to fit in 3 games. In the first game, Bryan and I gave clues. Sarah and I weren't on the same page and she ended up picking the assassin midway. In the second game, Sarah gave me a very open clue which caused me to reveal 2 of the opposing team's agents. This gave them a good enough lead for an easy win. In the third game, Sarah and I were linked. My favorite clue was "Dubstep, 2" which got her to pick "drop" and "beat". I was able to catch Bryan in shenanigans with the clue "Shortest, 3". The word in the clue must be in reference to the meaning of the word, not the letters in the word or rhyming scheme. He was trying to get Carol to say all the 3 letter words. This ended their turn and gave us a free agent to cover. I got Sarah one word closer. Bryan had to get three words with one clue. Carol got two from the clue and a previous failed clue. She made a stab at "Iron" thinking it linked with the clue "Charge". This was the assassin. Sarah and I were happy with the win.
I get a kick out of this game. It's a bit of a thinker, so there is plenty of time were people are deep in thought. If you are looking for a drunken party game, this is not it. If you are in the mood for a wordy game of wits, this is the game for you.

Tally: 104/171  Bonus: 26/50

Back On

I has been a while since I've posted. I'm still playing games, but most of them have been games I've already blogged about or video games (Mario Kart Wii, Mario Party 9, and Rayman Legends). Liz  and I had some errands to run today and one of them was stopping by Cloud Cap to spend a $25 card bonus that had been burning a hole in my pocket.  We got two games. We played one of them at the nearby Jade while we at lunch.

Flip City 1-4 players
This is a push your luck deck building game from the same guy who made Machi Koro. I thought it looked cute and I'm always glad to have another small game to bring to a bar or restaurant.

Each player starts with the same 10 cards and there are 4 or 5 cards available to buy in the center. Every card has two sides, each which do different things. In this game, you don't flip over cards unless you pay to do so. On a players turn, they draw one card at a time from their deck. They can always see what the next card is and can stop drawing when ever they wish. The catch is that some of the cards have frowny faces on them and if you ever draw a total of 3, you immediately end your turn. You might think this is easy to avoid since one can always see the top card, but a number of the cards required you to play them if they are on the top of the deck. This is the push your luck aspect.  At the end of your turn, if you didn't bust, you either buy a card and add it to the discard pile, pay to flip a card in your discard, or develop a card (buying and then upgrading the card from the center). Each building card has it's own special effects. Some have coins to spend, some have victory points, others bend the rules. You win if you ever play 8 victory points or play 18 cards with a convenience store.

Liz and I each took different strategies. I was able to get rid of most of my bad cards and, in fact, threw them into Liz's deck. I was able to win with 8 victory points.
I really liked this game. I'm interested to see how it plays with more players and other strategies. It also includes another stack of cards you can add to be bought. It's a pretty tight game with a weird mechanic that leads to tough choices. I'm very curious if they plan on making expansions for it.

Later on we headed to the rancho to play with Becky and the rents. We started with...

Kolejka 2-5 players
This game is pretty weird. I mean, it's a good game and very interesting, but it's the fact that of all the things that this could have been, it was a game. That is because of who created the game. Milton Bradley? Asmodee? Z-man? Nope, the National Institute of Remembrance in Poland. In order to educate people about waiting in queues (kolejka is polish for queue) for basic household products during the Communist Era, the Institute made a board game about it. It's a pretty cool game too. It comes in Polish, but the box includes sticker for about 6 different languages, so it takes about 2 hours to get ready if you don't all speak Polish. It also includes a booklet for additional historical background.

In the game, you are all trying to get the supplies you need to provide for your family. You place your meeples in different queues of your choice for things like furniture, toiletries, and clothes. Once everyone has been placed, then the backstabbing begins. Each player has an opportunity to play at most 3 cards that will mess up people's plans. They might jump in line, force a dispensary to close, or reverse the order of a queue. That's pretty much the whole game mechanically except for the fact that everything is limited. Only certain stores during the day will have anything to get, and if so, not much. Each player only has 10 queuing cards a week (5 day week), meaning if you play 3 cards a day you'll be left with one card on Thursday. You could have no cards to play on Friday if you don't use them wisely. Near the end of the game, the trucks stop delivering when they run out of supply (cards), and they always run out. It's bleak, stressful, and a little mean, but it's exactly what it should be. At no time during the game do you forget the theme, so bravo National Institute of Remembrance.

We played a 4 player game including me, Carol, Becky and Liz. Becky was behind most of the game, but the rest of us were fighting for just one item at the end. I very nearly had it, but Liz was just a little wilier than me and grabbed the furniture out from under me.

At this point, Carol dropped out to watch some TV and Sarah showed up. We started with...

Jungle Speed 2-8 players

Spoons on crack really. You all start with a pile of cards. You all go around flipping cards into your own discard pile until two of you have matching symbols. The two people with a match must grab for the totem in the middle of the table. The loser has to take all of the flipped cards from their opponents pile and their own, putting it at the bottom of their hand. But be careful. Most of the symbols look very similar and if you mistakenly grab the totem, then you get everyone's discard pile. There are a few special cards that make everyone flip simultaneously, or grab for the totem at once, or change the rules to be matching colors. Once a person empties their hand and gets rid of their discard pile they win. If you want to take the steaks higher and increase the possibility for injury, you can place the totem in another room of the house.

It was a pretty even game for a while, but then Becky got stuck in an interesting situation. she played her last card and it was the "matching colors" card. She couldn't match her card with anyone, her only hope for winning was to see an "everyone grab" card or have someone make an error. After a good number of rounds, I was the fool to mistakenly grab the totem.
This a great funny party game, but make sure to play with people who have clipped their nails.

We had just enough time for one more game. We played...

Survive: Escape from Atlantis 2-4 players
This is the other game we got at Cloud Cap. Liz had heard about it and was excited. I'm always eager to grab a game if Liz wants to play it, unless it has cats.

In this game, everyone starts with ten colored meeples on the sinking island of Atlantis. The goal is to get as many of your meeples off the island and to the safe neighboring lands on the corners of the board. Each meeple has a value, meaning you care about some meeple more than others. Unfortunately, once the meeples have been added to the board, the value (which is is etched in the bottom) can't be looked at until the end of the game. To make this even harder, you have to avoid sea monsters, sharks, whales, and whirlpools. On a turn, you play a tile (if you have one), them make 3 movements, then remove a land tile (and play it if the flip side as the proper color), then roll the red danger die to move a random creature. The game ends when either there are no more meeples left for everyone to move, or (more likely) the volcano tile is revealed.

We all had a blast playing this. The whale had a lot of action and wrecked many a boat. I was able to get all my big point meeples to safety and came out with the win.
This game has been around for more than 30 years and still holds up. As soon as the big expansion box comes out in a month, I'll have it ordered and added to the box.

Tally: 103/169  Bonus: 26/50