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