Spooky

We had a small Halloween party at our house. We ate candy and once enough people showed up Liz had us play...

Pictionary 3-16 players

The only reason we have this is because we wanted extra words for Concept, so we nabbed it from Liz's parents. For those that have forgotten, teams roll a die and move on a board. The team then draws something from a card that is in the category that is landed on. If your team can guess what you are drawing in the time limit, you get to go again. There are occasionally opportunities for the other teams to steal. The player that gets to the last place first and has their team answer the drawing correctly wins.

We had two teams of three: Jess, Thom, and Other Guy against Liz, Spencer, and Me. We started, but didn't get too far. The other team was dominating. It took us a while to gain back control. Mid-game was neck and neck. We finally pulled ahead and made it to the last space. Liz had to draw and I was able to identify it as "booth" just before Other Guy did.

It was was right around then that pizza arrived. I hooked up the VCR to put Hocus Pocus on the TV. Raeann and Kevin showed up and once the movie was done we finally got to the game I was dying to play. No pun intended.

Mysterium 2-7 players

I just bought this the day before. I had been eyeing the game for a while and I didn't really have a Halloween themed game to play that would be easy for a group to play and enjoy. It's a cooperative game that acts like a mix of Clue and Dixit. One player plays a ghost and the rest of the players play psychics trying to determine who, where, and what caused the death of the now ghost. The game has two phases. In the first phase, over 7 or less rounds, the ghost player, who never talks, gives clues to the psychics in their dreams in the form of Dixit cards (cards with crazy and trippy illustrations on them). Each player, at first, is using the clues to determine who killed the ghost. Each player has a different suspect. Once a psychic determines the suspect, they move onto the location, then the weapon. If all players can discover all three of their individual clues before the end of the 7th round, they move to phase two. In the second phase, the ghost picks one of the psychics clues and gives three cards (one for each of the clues) to represent the real murder. The psychics who scored better get to see more of the cards than the psychics who scored fewer points. Each player votes privately. If the majority votes correctly, they win. If not, the soul is forever doomed.

We played with the full player count and I was the ghost. This was very difficult, but an awesome puzzle. Each of the player's slowly made their way to their clues. They nearly failed before round seven, but they were able to work together and help each other interpret their cards correctly. In the final phase, only Liz got to look at two of the three cards. The rest only saw one of the cards. The majority vote was wrong, but it was still and exciting game. Most people left after that, but Raeann and Kevin stuck around. We busted out another 4 player game with Liz as the ghost. This time we were successful.
I really like this one. I'm curious to see how Liz's sisters will like it.

Tally: 139/176  Bonus: 34/50

Save the Village

We went out to get some Halloween stuff and we stopped in for pizza at Blaze. While we ate we played...

Samurai Spirit 1-7 players

I do enjoy a good coop game. The theme to this one seemed cool. It's the movie Seven Samurai in game form...ish. You are all samurai fighting and defending your way through hoards of invaders. The cards in the deck are numbered 1-4 at the start and on your turn you choose whether to fight or defend. Both are important. If you don't defend enough, then bad thing's happen to the town your defending. You're also only allow to defend 3 times and only at certain times (depending on symbols on the cards) so you will have to fight the rest. If you can get the total value of the fight cards to equal your samurai's kiai value then you unlock a special power. If you go over that value, then you're knocked out for the rest of the round. If you take too many hits, you unlock your animal spirit and are stronger. Too many more hits and you die. You all must survive and keep at least one family and one farm standing by the end of 3 rounds. Mind you, the rounds don't get any easier. Each new round higher value cards get added. It gets tough quick. It's a bit luck driven, but I really like theme and the conversations it stirs over what the best strategy might be. It's always hard to tell because you never know what that next card might be.

Our game was pretty easy. There was only one 4 card and a good diversity of symbols for defense. I hit my kiai value at least 3 times. Liz did once too. It was pretty much a breeze, but things did look a little ugly in round two.

Tally: 137/176  Bonus: 34/50

Bruised Fruit

We went to Cafe Yumm before going to trivia today. I brought along...

Bananagrams 1-8 players

 

Liz got this game from New Seasons because it was stained. I think the game is kind of stupid. You make words in a free-form Scrabble type fashion until you run out of letters, then you draw one more and you mess with you tableau of words until you run out again, repeat. Of course, if you draw a letter, so does everyone else. If you want to dump a letter you can, but you have to draw three new letters. When enough letters are gone (all but one fewer than the number of players) and someone finished their tableau, the game ends. If all their words are legal, they win. The rules just seems a little silly to me. I'm sure it's a great educational game, but I don't care to play it all that much

I was burning through letters. Near the end, I was dinking around with 1 or 2 tiles, while Liz had piled up to about 7 or 8. In my last few draws, I picked up a J and a Q. This basically stymied me for the rest of the game. Liz rolled out with the win.

Tally: 136/175  Bonus: 34/50

Keepin' It Cas

We helped Sarah move into her new place today. Once all the lifting was done, she took us for lunch and I pulled a game out of her collect to play.

Yahtzee Free for All 2-6 players

 

This is a little like another game in my collection, which I haven't gotten to...yet. You each have your own set of 5 dice. A deck of cards with the different Yahtzee goals marked with different point values is shuffled and 3 are placed in the middle of the table. On a player's turn, they attempt to get one of the cards. If they fail to get any one, a chip is placed in front of each card. If they get one, they take the card and any chips in front of it. The taken card isn't theirs yet. Every other player has the opportunity to to steal it if they can beat your roll. If they do steal it, it goes in front of them and a chip is added in front of each of the 3 cards in the middle. If it gets back to your turn with the card still in front of you, you can finally bank it. There is also a pile of Yahtzee cards set aside worth 10 points, so Yahtzees are always available to score. Once the cards or chips run out, they player with the most points banked (chips are worth a point each) wins.

It took us a while to get this game started. Kevin was reading the rules. The rules are poorly constructed for this game. They aren't hard to understand. It's just that they are printed on a huge hexagon with flaps that kind of look like a Skil saw blade. Once started, things went pretty smoothly. It was hard to tell who was winning. After scoring, Liz and I had the same score, but Kevin had beaten us by 2.
This is an okay game. The construction of the box and the rule"book" makes me me never actually want to own the game.

Later on in the day we went to the parents house to have dinner. After eating and cleaning, Becky and Carol were eager to play...

Showdown Yahtzee 2-4 players

Liz got this at a Value Village well before we started gaming. It is my favorite of all the Yahtzees. It's Yahtzee with a board, cards, and chips. It's kind of similar to Yahtzee Free for All. You all start your pawns on different corners of the board. A player rolls a red die and moves their pawn. If they land on an empty space, (all spaces start empty) then they, well, play a turn of Yahtzee. What ever they get after 3 rolls is added to the board (if still available). So if they got three 4s they could score for 4s. They would take the 4s card and put it on that empty space and add 3 of their colored chips (because they got three 4s). If, when you move your pawn, you land on a placed card, then all you can do is try to beat or tie the previous owners score. So if someone lands on the 4s card and rolls four 4s, they return your chips and add 4 of their chips. If you land on a wild space (the corners) you can go for anything. If the card is on the board it stays there and you can try to beat it. If it's not on the board yet, you can add it to the next available empty space. If at any point someone rolls a Yahtzee, that means, they can count it as what ever they want. Once all the cards are added to the board, everyone gets one last turn, then the person who placed the most chips wins. The only thing I hate about this game is the size of the box.

I was playing poorly this day. I never landed on the wild space once, so I had to try an beat a lot of specific cards and most of the time I failed. The one time I did land on a wild, it was my last turn. With a current score of three, it didn't matter what I got, I was still going to lose. I ended up busting anyway. Carol killed everyone. She had every high chip card.

Everyone still wanted to play casual, but I didn't bring any other games of that type. We then scavenged the house to find their version of...

O'NO 99 2-8 players

This is a game from the makers of UNO. The deck of cards contains 2 of every number between 2 & 9 and 4 or more cards for all the other cards (10, -10, Hold, Reverse, Double Play, and O'NO 99). At the beginning of the game, each player starts with 3 chips and 4 cards. Players then play one card and then draw a card. When you play a card, you raise the total by the value of the card added (the value starts at 0). -10 lowers the score by 10. Hold adds 0. Reverse adds 0 and changes the direction of play. Double Play adds 0 and forces the next player to play two cards. O'NO 99 can only be played if the total is divisible by 10. When played it adds 0. If you forget to draw a card, then you are one card short. If you can't play a card (all O'NO 99s) or are force to play a card that would bring the total to 99 or higher, you lose. The loser loses a chip and another game starts. If a loser has no chips when they lose, they are eliminated. The last player standing wins.

Becky lost out pretty early. This gave her the chance to go home early too. Thom was the next to fall followed by Carol. It was then me with 1 chip and Liz with 2. Then it was 0-2, 0-1, 0-0. In the final round it was either of us. I was relentless. And by that, I mean as relentless as I could be for the cards I had randomly drawn. I won.
I'm fine with this game. It's a bit long, but stays pretty tense. Once the total gets near 99 it's like playing hot potato. You just hope it doesn't blow up in your face.

Tally: 135/175  Bonus: 34/50

Gimme An S

Once work was over, I picked out a few games for us to play. When Liz got back from the grocery store she emphatically claimed...

Scrabble 2-4 players

 

A standard game in anyone's collection. I got it for Liz as a birthday present since she is such a word nerd. She kicks my ass most of the time, but I did win once when I used all my letters for the 50 point bonus.

It was a very tight game. Liz was leading most of the game, But it was back an forth at the end. I thought I might have had the win, but I didn't know that Liz's last letter was a 4 point Y. She added it to "zing" to make "zingy". I felt pretty deflated. I thought there was hope. I was delusional.

Tally: 134/175  Bonus: 32/50

I Can Taste It

Back to work and we had a very large crowd show up for our lunch game time. This made playing a party game perfect. Becka had brought in...

Anomia 3-6 players

Anomia, or anomic aphasia, is a disorder which causes problems with recalling words or names. This game hinges on that idea. A deck of card is placed within reach of all players. Every card has a colored symbol (8 different symbols) and a category (book, magician, verb, rock opera, etc.). On a player's turn, they draw a card and flip in over in front of them. Players continue to do this, one by one, and they cover up any previous cards they flipped. If at any point two people have matching symbols on their cards, those two players must name something that fits in the category of their opponent's card. The faster player wins their opponent's card (place face down as a score tracker). If, on winning the card, this reveals another matching symbol, those two players race to name something. If no matches exist, players continue to draw draws. The game ends, when the deck runs out, or when you are sick of playing.

It played really well with our group. I may not have been great at picking words out of my head, but I was always prepared to name something that matched the card under my card. Once we ran out of time, I was one card behind the leader with 18 cards.
It's a nice party game. It certainly gets your heart racing. The game also has wild cards. I'm not sure how the rules work for those since we ignored them to keep it simple, but it means that if you want more challenge, the game is set up for that too.

Tally: 133/175  Bonus: 32/50

Coffee Before Murder

This was Emily's last day in town. We started the morning with more games. Emily picked out Glen More. It was a pretty tight game with a very short 3rd round. I won by a single point. We then wedged in another game.

Viva Java: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game 1-4 players

Another kickstarter I chipped into. It seemed like and interesting spin on the Yahtzee mechanic. You are each competing coffee companies. On a player's turn, they roll 5 coffee dice (the faces have different color coffee beans and pips to indicate value), but that is it. No re-rolls or anything. At least not yet. Depending on how you roll, you can either make a blend or put dice towards research. If you make a rainbow blend (5 different colors), you score points and at the start of every one of your turns as long as someone doesn't steal it from you. If you make a signature blend (series of common color beans), you place your dice on the coaster meaning on your next turn you just score points and don't roll. The blend will degrade (dice get removed), making it easier for other players to beat. Research, on the other hand, is what makes this game interesting. You can put research towards one color of bean. Each bean will give you a power or double power when you get enough research. So, for example, you can get re-rolls if you put 2 research into white. The other tracks could have you manipulate the dice or get you extra dice for your next turn. If you put enough research into a track, you score extra points for it, but loose all the powers gained from it. Once a player reaches 21 points, they win.

I started my game gaining points from blends. Emily did mostly research. I was about 6 points from winning when Emily jumped into action and closed a number of her research paths and closed the gap. My engine was too slow to do anything and she won.
I really like this game. I've only added the extra powers 1 or 2 times. I really want to play this one more to really test the limits.

We took a break to get food, get a bag for Emily, and carve pumpkins. Once we cleaned up, we played Tokaido. Emily had played this before, but was new to the expansion. I, like the last game, started with a strong lead, but Emily was building it all up for the end. She had gotten every calligraphy and trounced me by about 10 or 12 points.
We followed this with another game of Viva Java. I made sure not to make the same mistake as last time, which was to my benefit. I was crowned the victor finally.
We took another break to pick up Liz and go to bowling. Once back, Emily was eager to help me knock one more game off my list.

Clue 2-6 players
Everyone seems to roll their eyes when they hear the mere mention of this game. It's not great, I'll give them that, but it's one of the better game from my early childhood. It's all about logic instead of a random card draw or die roll. You can even bluff. Hell, you should bluff if you want to play well. I have the Simpsons version. It's the same but with new characters, weapons, and rooms.

Liz joined in for this game. I kind of guilted her into it and I don't feel bad about it. The game is really short and isn't that much work. I had a good idea of the solution, but couldn't get to the room in time before Emily decreed her suspicion.

The major flaw of this game is the die. Since you must be in the correct room to make an accusation, getting to the correct room is so hard. I've heard that there are better implementations of this game, but I've never really looked into it. I know there much better mystery games: Witness and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.

Tally: 133/175  Bonus: 31/50

Yeah For Bugs

Liz was at work today, so any games were just between Emily and me. When we got around to it we played...

Three Cheers For Master 2-6 players
This is the final game I received from Game Box Monthly. The basic idea is that you are a foreminion (like a foreman, but for minions) and you are trying to cheer up the evil master by having the tallest and coolest tower made of minions built by the time he gets back. The deck starts with a number of Big Hairy Fight cards shuffled in and the game end card inserted near the bottom. Each player gets 3 cards and on a player's turn, they play two of them. Cards either add to a tower or effect a tower. The ones that add to it are minions and each has their own characteristics. They may attack to the right or block from above, or die when completely surrounded, etc. The effect cards will move cards already placed in a tower or cause a minion to freak out and attack. You can use cards for any tower, not just your own. After you place cards, you can move your foreminion token one space. With your third card, you can keep or discard. Finally, you draw up to 3 cards and pass the turn. If a Big Hairy Fight card shows up, every tower goes crazy and attacks the other minions based on where the arrows point. If there are holes left, then the minions above fall unless they can fly. Once the Master Is Here card pops up, there is a triple attack and scoring occurs. Each minion has a point value (1-3) and each value is multiplied by the height in the tower as long as the foreminion is at least that high. High score wins.

I did my best to teach Emily, but there is a lot to keep track of in this game. You need to be able to decipher about 15 different symbols to play. She did pretty good. Her strategy was to minimize the number of attacking minions in her tower. It worked for a while. She was up to a 6 level tower at one point. But you have to be mean to win and I got a really good blow in near the end. I think her foreminion ended at level 2 or 3. I had a pretty stable 4 level tower since my high ones could fly.

It's an okay game. It is really hard to have a good first game with newbies. I'm trying to imagine a 6 player game. Just trying to keep track of everyone's tower and all the little symbols in each would be overwhelming. I don't think I'd want to do more than 4. Maybe not even that many.

After A Nightmare Before Christmas and a nap, we played...

Hive 2 players
This seemed like a neat little game to get, especially since I could get the travel edition. I love travel editions. Unfortunately, Liz hates it. She says the bugs are mean. She doesn't even call the game by it's name. To her it's just the mean bug game.

Imagine a game of chess with no board and all the pieces had to touch each other. That is Hive. You are two opposing teams of insects. You are trying to completely surround the opponents queen bee using the other bugs in your arsenal. The game starts by players adding tiles. Each tile must be added next to a tile in play. Except for the first two plays, all tiles added must only touch tiles of the same team color. Once the bee is added (within the first 3 tiles), players are allowed to move their bugs if they want instead of adding tiles. Each of the bugs has their own movement rules: ants surrey anywhere along the edge, grasshoppers jump across the pile, bees move one space, spiders move 3, and the beetles can move one space, but can also move on top of the pile. There are only two types of illegal moves. You can't split the hive into to separate hive by moving a piece, and you can't move a different piece in order to slide a piece out of wedge it's in. Both of the rules allow you to trap other players tiles. I find the game pretty interesting, but I don't play it to much because of Liz's hatred.

Since I was with Emily, I could final get this to the table. She understood the rules pretty well, but she didn't quite grasp a strategy. My strategy was to hinder myself by not using ants. In the final moves, I did bring out an ant though. It was a mercy kill really. Emily was playing the game, but she wasn't really caring for it, though not for lack of trying.

Tally: 131/175  Bonus: 31/50

I Will Be Insane Yesterday

We planned to go up into Washington and hike through Ape Cave. Once we had the right clothing and gear we headed out the door. We stopped for breakfast at Rosy's diner and played...

Cthulhu Fluxx 2-6 players
Emily highly suggested I pick this up when we went to the game store the day before. It's Fluxx but with a Lovecraftian theme and multiple ways for no one to win.

It was certainly interesting and the cards have a lot of special cases. This version requires a lot more reading because of that. You can never assume a Keeper is just a Keeper. We were never in much danger of Doom taking over. Liz ended up winning.

It's okay. It's still not my favorite version, but it's not my least favorite version.

We then had a lovely hike at Ape Cave. Awesome stuff. Once we came back to the world above, we stopped at the first bar we saw for drinks and a game of...

Back to the Future: The Card Game 2-6 players
Liz got this as a present for me. I love Back to the Future so why not. It's a retheme of a game called Chrononauts. You basically play cards to flip over different linchpin cards in the time card matrix. If you can get the right things in time to happen or not happen and then destroy the time machine, you win. It's kind of cool, but not that entertaining with two players.

This was our first play with more than two. Emily actually owns the original version, but has never played it. It was a very back and forth game. All of us were getting in each other's way and flipping things back that others had already flipped. This frustrated Emily a lot. By the end, she just wanted it over. Liz was really enjoying the game. She won, but she still would have had as good of a time if she lost.

If you like playing a game of tug-of-war with cards where you need to get just the right cards in order to tug, then get this game. If you want to feel like you are in Hillsdale, you'd feel closer just watching the movies.

Tally: 129/175  Bonus: 31/50

This Place Be Mine!

After waking up, Emily had us start in on the game we setup up the day before.

Eight-Minute Empire 2-5 players
This may have been the game I was always looking for when I wanted a small game to play in restaurants. I missed the Kickstarter by a long shot, but had a chance to get the sequel Eight-Minute Empire Legends. I did not want this, since it took up more space than the original and that would ruin the whole playing it in a restaurant idea. I kept my eye out in the shops, but all I would ever see is Legends. Eventually it popped up in Rainy Day Games and I nabbed it then and there.

It's a tiny little area control game. You all purchase cards which get you a resource and lets you take a certain action. Once all players have taken a set number of cards, then the score tallying begins. Each player scores a point for each country and continent they control. Each player also scores points for how much they have of each resource. It's kind of like Risk if you put it on 20 minute time limit and armies didn't attack, they just occupied. Oh, yeah, don't be fooled by the name it usually takes about 20 minutes to play. Maybe if you played speed Eight-Minute Empire it would be possible.

We played two games and Emily enjoyed each of them even though she lost both. She did learn a lot from each game so she's only going to get better. We'll probably pick up a copy for her while she's here.

We then followed up with a game Emily picked up yesterday in Hood River.

Walk the Plank 3-5 players
This is a programmed movement game intended to be played by the younger crowd. Each player has the same 9 or so action cards and 3 pirate meeples on the ship. The ship has a plank with 3 spaces. In a round, everyone plays 3 cards face down in front of them. One player at a time, each person flips over their first card and takes the indicated action. Actions consist of pushing, pulling, running, changing the plank size, and variations on those actions. In order, players continue to play the next card in their series of three. This continues until the last action. If a player loses all of their pirates, they are immediately out of the game. If there are more than two players with pirates left, then another round ensues. If one, two, or no players have pirates left, then the remaining players at the end of the round win.

Liz joined in for this game. We all made the bold move of shortening the plank in the first round.  This was very dangerous. I was left with 1 pirate and they each had 2. In the next round Emily lost a pirate. And in the last round Liz lost both of her pirates. Emily and I shared the victory.

This is a neat little game and can be played really quickly by any age group over 8 probably. I'm sure it's much better with the full hosting of 5 players.

A little while later, after we cleaned up a bit, we broke out Agricola. Emily hadn't played it and it peeked her interest. She was a little confused in the beginning of the game, but that was to be expected with this behemoth. By mid-game she was doing better, but making a few sub optimal moves, partly out of unfamiliarity with the game, and partly because she like the idea of seeing me squirm, even though it was to the great benefit of Liz. I was able to bounce back a little, but in a game like this, if you have to bounce back, you've probably already lost. Liz beat me by 7 points and I beat Emily by 8 points. This is what I get for knowing a game well enough to teach it.

Once we had a plan, we went to dinner and pumpkining. While eating we played a game of 3 player Cribbage. Liz again won. She barely had a had a hand under 8 points. Emily did okay. She had some good hands near the end. I had an average hand of about 5 points and the high was 7 points. I got skunked. It was a very depressing game.

Tally: 127/175  Bonus: 31/50

All The Lunches

With Emily in town and Liz not having work, we made a day of our time. The plan was to have Raeann pick us up and head to Hood River for alcohol, lunches, and games. We played a mess of games and had a loose definition of lunch.

1st lunch: meatball sub, pizza, and a flight of beers - Played Pairs and No Thanks!. Played each twice. Everyone seemed to enjoy No Thanks! more.
2nd lunch: a flight of beers - Played Hanabi and Emily and I played Brew Crafters. Hanabi went really well. Probably the best game we've had of it. Emily picked up Brew Crafters fast and beat me by 2 points.
3rd lunch: burger, tacos, curry bowl, and a flight of beers - Played Codenames and Guts of Glory. Liz and I won best two out of three in Codenames. Guts was a tight race, but Liz got gold after I showed her the way.
4th lunch: beignets, elephant ear, coffee, and a few beers - No games
5th lunch: wine, goldfish crackers, and fried cheese cubes - No games. It was a walking lunch
6th lunch: pickled vegetables, fries, and a flight of beers - Played...

Lifeboats 3-6 players

Of all the games I own, this is the one where people will hate each other in the end the most. You all have a number of survivors on different lifeboats trying to reach the safe shores. Anything that happens in the game is done on a voting system. You vote on which boat gets a leak, and if it comes to it, which sailor goes overboard, and on which boat to moves. There is also a phase where you swap boats that doesn't make too much sense thematically, but is needed to make the game work mechanically. The best part is that everyone has 3 captain cards to vote with which means they can overrule the vote. Of course, if multiple people use them in the same vote, they all cancel and you've wasted that card. The smartest play I've found is to be the quiet guy in the background that doesn't cause trouble. Unfortunately, I can never seem to keep my mouth shut which usually gets me into trouble.

I was apparently able to be pitiful enough to get people to leave me alone long enough. I was able to use my captain cards wisely enough to move the black boat twice and get 3 of may sailors to safety. Near the end, I wasn't even voting because I had saved nearly all of my sailors.
This isn't a game I can bring out any old time. I has to be just the right group of people. I find the only time is comes out is with people who've never played it before. The virgins don't know better.

7th lunch: kettle corn - No games. Driving home.

Tally: 126/174  Bonus: 30/50

Playing With Food

Emily is in town from Alaska. After picking her up from the airport and showing her the new digs, we met up with some other friends at Squatch for food and games. After eating we played...

Menu Mash-Up 3-7 players
I've stated in this blog that Keyflower is the one game I owned before starting this that I had never played. I lied. I've also never played this. But I wanted to play Keyflower and don't really care for the idea of this game. It seems like a mix of Apples to Apples and Foodie Fight. I can enjoy Apples to Apples, but this just sounds stupid.

One person draws a card to specify what they want to eat. All the other players compile the cards they have to make what sounds like the tastiest version of that. Everyone also has free access to cards with words like, "on" or "with". They turn in their dish to the eater in a fold up menu and the eater picks the tastiest or the one that fits the theme the best. Ugh. So stupid.

Stupid fun that is. Okay, maybe not stupid fun, but still fun. We played enough to give everyone a chance to pick a meal. Liz won. She's the only person who truly understands how picky of an eater I really am. This gave her a large advantage.
The use of multiple cards together in one cohesive unit allows for way more creativity in an answer. You can really personalize what you give them. You still have those cards that you can never seem to pair up, but if you can get creative enough you can find a place. I've seen crazier things work on Chopped.

Tally: 125/174  Bonus: 30/50

Yo-Ho

We had some friends over that we hadn't seen in a while to play games. After the catching up and other chit chat, we play two games of Codenames. Alex and I were teamed and oddly enough we won both games. In each, we started out poor, but we always made up for it in the end. After pizza, Liz was eager to play...

Libertalia 2-6 players
I had heard a lot of hubbub over this game on the internet and looked into how it played. I definitely had nothing like it and it didn't seem stupid, so I added it to my wishlist. I'm pretty sure I got it as an Xmas present.

You are all pirates, or maybe you're the crew of pirates,.. or the head of a crew of pirates. I'm not sure of exactly who you're supposed to be, but there are clearly a lot of pirates. Each player has their own deck of pirates. Every pirate card has a number between 1 and 30. Everyone starts with 10 gold and the same hand of 9 cards chosen randomly by the youngest player. The game takes places over 3 weeks, each week containing 6 days of booty grabbing (apparently pirates rest on Sundays).  Each day, every player secretly plays one of their cards. They are revealed and placed in numerical order on the ship. Each pirate has a special ability which actives at different times. Some activate while on the ship and fighting for booty, others while they have done their duty and are just hanging out in your den (the set of cards you've used). I'd try to explain it here, but just know that things get hairy as things always do with pirates. The highest card gets first choice at the days booty, down to the lowest. A lot of other phases happen and then is starts again for the next day. After the week is over, gold is tallied and the next weeks starts. Everyone reverts to 10 gold and everyone gets the same set of 6 random cards drawn from what wasn't used from the start. So every one will have six of the same cards, but 3 probably different cards that were left over from the previous week. I think I might wrap this up, because it's pretty confusing to understand if it's not in front of you and I feeling like I'm starting to sound like Jack Sparrow. After 3 weeks of this, the player who tallied the most gold wins.

My favorite part of the game is a set of metal coins that Liz got for me to deck out one of my games with. I considered adding them to Jamaica, but I didn't want to ruin the aesthetic it had. There is something about hearing clicking and seeing shiny things that make the game more intense.
The first week started a little slow, but I think that was due to the cards we had. Most only had night actions so there wasn't a lot of the zany rigmarole there usually is for the booty. It was anyone's game the whole way. At the last tally, both Alex (not me) and Liz tied for first. Arrgh!

Tally: 124/174  Bonus: 30/50

Earth Fire Water

We ran more errands today. Once we got tired running around, we stopped at Migration Brewing to watch some of the Duck's game. While we waited for it to start, we passed the time with...

Agricola: All Creatures Big & Small 2 players
I got this for Liz as a stocking stuffer that didn't fit in the stocking. She really loved the main game so I thought she'd find this interesting. It a much smaller simpler version of the original game intended for two players. It's Agricola with just the animals and no grain, veggies, or feeding. Our first play ever was kind of sad since we played like it was the original game and didn't really see how to make the most of what he had. In fact, when we tallied the scores, we were amazed at how poor we had both played. I don't think either of us got any of the big animal bonuses at the end.

This go around wasn't much better, I at least prevented myself from taking negative points. Liz wasn't as prepared. I finished out with the win.

Overall, it's a neat game, but I have so many other games that feel better to play in a bar. If I'm not out and about and feel like playing a worker placement, I'll play the big one.

We watched the first half of the Duck's game, then headed home to prepare for company. Raeann showed up and we played a few games before Sarah was able to show up and we sat by the fire.

Fireball Island 2-4 players

This game is the shit. It's a pretty standard roll and move game, but past that, there is nothing standard about it. It's one of the two games I own with a molded plastic board. The 3D effect is necessary because if you roll a 1 you get to launch a fireball at your enemies or possibly yourself. Your goal is to get your hands on the precious gem and get to the boat before you are fireballed or someone nabs it out of your pack. I loved this game as a kid. I'm so lucky it didn't get sold in a garage sale. When my parents sent it out to me in Portland there were a few missing or broken pieces. I got replacement marbles on the internet, used spare plastic and paint to fix the purple playing piece, and printed a new magic charm token.

Most gameplays of this tend to see one person run away with the victory. This game was a mad scramble. Cards flew and fireballs rolled. I almost had the win, but just couldn't roll high enough. Raeann had it.

Crash Canyon 2-4 players

This is the other molded plastic game I have. Another roll and move where you race around the track and let your micro machine roll you ahead or behind when you end on a hill. If you roll a star (replaces the 1 face), you can actually move a competitor back or forward. Occasionally you might end up in a ditch. The best part is that you can fill the ditches with water, or Kool-Aid... or chocolate pudding. We usually play a two lap game to make it double the fun. I printed some replacement turbo tokens, but I'm not as happy with them as I am with my printed token in Fireball Island. I tried to find additional micro machines for more selection, but most of the ones I find are semis or spaceships.

We didn't play laps this time, but we did play two games. I won the first game even though I was behind for most of the game. Raeann one the second, but Liz could have had it, if she would have remembered to use a turbo token.

Tally: 123/174  Bonus: 30/50