Critial Mass

Most of the day was spent playing games or dealing with food. A great day if you ask me. We played Cribbage, Deep Sea Adventure, Hare & Tortoise, and Coconuts. After dinner, Liz helped me wrangle everyone together to play a game or two of...

Two Rooms and a Boom! 6-30 players
I got this in July from a kickstater that a funded a year and a half prior. This was the first opportunity I've had to play it since it plays best with larger numbers of people. Each player gets a card that they keep secret and indicates if they are on the red or blue team. One member of the blue team has a card the says President. One member of the red team has a card that says Bomber. Players are then randomly separated into two rooms. Each room elects a leader and the game starts. The game takes 3 rounds of decreasing time constraints in which players swap color information or full card information and the room leaders determine which hostage(s) to move to the other room at the end of the round. If the Bomber is in the room with the President at the end of the game, the red team wins. If not, the blue team wins.

The first game had an odd number of players so I added the Gambler card. This player is on neither team. If the gambler can guess which team will win before the reveal, the gambler wins. Luckily, I got this card so that a newbie (everyone else) wouldn't be confused. I figured everything out, but didn't notice that the last hostage exchange moved the location of the president. The red team won and I lost. Our second game had an even player count so the gambler was removed. I was on the blue team and had a good thing going, but Jess is a wily puppet master and was able to keep himself (the bomber) in the same room as Liz (the president).

I'm excited to throw in a few more of the character cards to make information sharing even more confusing and secretive. If only this many people wanted to play games every day of my life.

Tally: 161/182  Bonus: 42/50

Pre-Gaming

We met up with a bunch of Liz's friends at a cabin near Mt. Hood. It wasn't long until someone noticed we brought...

Rebound 2 or 4 players
I had the licensed version of this as a kid. It's basically a miniature version of shuffleboard with a bend in the track. Rubber bands make the bend functional. Liz and I won this wooden version of the game as a bonus prize during bar trivia. We got second in trivia, but the prize was a raffle where tickets were added for beers ordered. So really Liz won it. We played a number of times when we got it, but we haven't played it since. It's quite hefty and needs room to fit in the car. I've brought it to a few parties, but it gets ignored for other games.

This was not ignored at all. It's the first thing people noticed when they sat down. The first game was played with teams. I was with Jess (team: Ass Kickers) and we played against Gerg and Scott (team Cum Dumpsters). It was a pretty close game, but Jess and I won.
This is the perfect game to play for those who regular bars. You can drink and casually play. No thinking. Just hands and trash talk. This got played a lot all trip.

We wanted something that could play more people next and everyone seemed to be most familiar with...

Balderdash 2-6 players
I always remember my parents playing this game. It was always a riot, but isn't everything a riot with my parents. I tried it once as a senior in high school. It was a complete flop. I'm pretty sure most definitions written fell somewhere along the lines of "cow poop". Classy! I didn't consider playing it again until Liz had a go of a newer Beyond Balderdash. She enjoyed it a lot and now I really felt like I might be at that point where I could join in on the ruckus of my parents years. We picked up a used copy of the original at Guardian Games and held onto it for a while before the group was right for it to hit the table. It was fun, not as fun as my childhood remembers it being, but fun still. I am horrible at it.

I didn't do too bad this game. I had the lead for a while, but then stagnated at about the three-quarter mark. We had some funny definitions like "burgoo" is the grease removed from a burger. Liz actually got a correct definition once. The winner was Jane Lee.

The only flaw with this game is that it requires a lot of slips of paper. We probably used about half of them to play this game alone. I wonder if anyone made an app for this. I guess texting could work.

We also got a game of Dominoes going (Mexican Trains), but there was a lot of dispute over the exact rules. I think Scott one.
Once more people showed up, we ended up playing Cards Against Humanity. This was brought by Jamie who was gifted the bigger blacker box with all the expansions. We played 2 games and they ended pretty quickly because Gerg is a savant at it or something.

Tally: 160/182  Bonus: 42/50

X Marks The Spot

Once Liz got home from work, we picked up some food supplies and she got makin' with the food. I got makin' with setting up...

Martinique 2 players
I got this from a co-worker who was trying to thin out his collection. It's a pretty basic game of treasure hunting. Each player adds one of 4 of their pirates to the board. The pirates move based on the number on the tile that they are on. They also collect the trinket or treasure clue that they left from. If they ever end their move on an empty square or in the center, that pirate goes to the first available stool in the bar. If a player has any matching trinkets to the three smaller treasures, they can trade them in for that treasure pile. Once all pirates are at the bar. The second phase begins. Pirates, in order based on seating at the bar, make guesses about which of the 64 locations the lost treasure can be found. There player can use the treasure clues they picked up to help know where the treasure isn't. If the treasure is found (based on the 2 treasure clues not added to the map), that player wins. If not, then the player with the most points, based on treasure piles gained, wins.

I took a strategy of getting as many treasure clues as possible and keeping my pirates on the board the longest. Once the second phase came around, I had the first guess and last three guesses. I had limited the location to columns F, G, and H and the rows 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8. I started with a guess of F1, then Liz made all of her guesses. Hers were all in the A-E range, but she did make 2 guess in row 2. I then put all of my 3 remaining guesses on F2, G2, and H2. It was at H2. I won! We did a points count anyway so Liz fully understood the game if we didn't find the treasure. I had 19 and Liz had 18.

It's an interesting game. It's not great, but I like it. It's a thinker that makes you constantly balance your strategy. If you go all out on treasure clues, you'll probably have very little treasures and therefore very little points. If the other player gets more points, they could bluff you into picking the wrong locations. I like that.

Tally: 158/182  Bonus: 42/50

I've Seen All Good People

Liz and I had the Sunday to lounge. We took it slow, but then planned to go see Star Wars. We stopped at the Mandarin Palace to get food and played...

Chess 2 players
I was on the lookout for a small folding chess board that I could take to restaurants or bars. It's actually quite easy to find that, but harder to find pieces to go with it. I got the board at Red Castle Games and was pleased it had backgammon on the inside. It did not however come with any chess pieces. I figured I would find them online somewhere. That search was fruitless and disappointing. I asked Chuck if he was willing to make a wood set for me and even sent him some specs, but with a kid on the way at the time I wasn't expecting anything. I decided to model my own and have those 3D printed. I like the results, but the queen pieces didn't end up exactly how I planned. It's still completely playable, but it nags at me.

Liz played as white and asked a for reminders a number of times. I made a few mistakes myself, but nothing huge, or at least nothing that Liz took advantage of. I eventually put her in checkmate.
I like the game, but I hate the beginning of the game. I tend to enjoy chess puzzles rather than an actual game of chess.

After the game we saw Star Wars (good) and then took to more relaxing at home. We eventually made it out to the Old Barn to do trivia with Sarah. We got 3rd. That was followed by a game of Biblios and then Hare and Tortoise. I won and Liz won respectively.

Tally: 157/182  Bonus: 42/50

Merriment

After eating breakfast and opening presents it was time to crack plastic wrap and have fun. We started with the present I got for Liz.

CVliz@tions 2-5 players
Liz loves CV and one of her favorite video games is Sid Meier's Civilization, so this was an obvious present. The game takes place over 3 ages. Each age contains 3 rounds of playing actions. All players start with the same 8 possible actions to take. Each player, in order, picks 2 to play in a round, one face up and one face down. Once all players have picked, the actions are revealed. Most the actions get players resources (food, lumber, and stone). How much is dependent on how many people played the specific action. For example, if only one player plays Logging, then that player gets 2 lumber. If two people play it, then each of the players gets 3 lumber. If three or more people play it, then each player only gets one lumber. After each round, all players have the opportunity to use their resources to buy an idea card. The idea cards allow a player to bend rules or grant them additional victory points. At the end of the 3rd age, the player with the most victory points wins.

Liz and I played with Becky. None of us had any strategies since it was our first play, but there was a lot of interaction. I made a lot of purchases, which also meant I was strapped for resources most of the time. This payed off because I won.

We all really enjoyed the game. Liz and I talked about it later and agreed that we wished the game was longer. We wanted to have more idea cards to make some awesome power moves, but it ends a lot sooner that you would expect for a civilization game. We may experiment with doubling the amount of ages, but for now we want to see how a 4 or 5 player game feels.

After that game, we followed up with...

Antimatter Matters 2-6 players
A Kickstarter game that I backed mainly because it was made by a local Portland group. It also helped it was physics themed. It's mainly a roll and move game. You have a bit more agency than a standard roll and move and can use cards to mitigate the die at times. The goal is to create an atom from quarks, gluons, photons, and electrons, then make it back to the center. It's an okay game, but I don't love it. I did get to make a nice insert for it though. I may have enjoyed making that more than I did playing the game.

Liz and I played with Sarah this time. We added the neutron boards to make the game a bit longer and to get some use out of them. We actually had a lot of fun playing it. With the third player in the game it makes the tension a bit higher. All of us were close to winning at some point, but the die or other players messed with our plans. Sarah pretty much lost everything she gained. While we were busy reveling in her misfortune, I was able to finish my atom and make it to the center.

My opinion of this game has gone up a lot from this play. It still isn't the best game in the world, but for a roll and move it isn't too bad.

It was around this time that more of the family had shown up and we were ready for dinner, but once the plates starting filling the sink I got Sarah and Liz to play...

Array 2-5 players
Liz brought this home from New Seasons probably because it was returned and they couldn't resell it. It's essentially dominoes, but with 10 sided cards and colors instead of numbers. There are a few cards that make your opponent draw cards as well. You can add as many cards to the array on your turn as you want as long as you keep adding to the one you added last. If you don't add cards, you can just make a selected opponent draw cards or gain points by playing a splatter card. After one player runs out of cards, the round ends and all players gain points based on the cards they have left. If a player ever has 100 points or more, they are eliminated from the game. Rounds continue to be played until only one player is left.

We decided to play a short game to 50 points. Carl was actually in for the first round, but had to leave early. The lighting was a bit low and I had to get my phones flashlight out a few times. I was in the lead the entire game. After a while we were tiring of the game and so we called it before reaching even 50 points. I still had the lowest score.

I like the style and look of this game, but is has a lot of flaws. It a very long game. It requires very good lighting. It needs a lot of table space or has to played on the floor. There is also a card that simply forces a player of your choice to gain 10 points. It's kind of a cheap mechanic. In a two player game, it's even more unbalancing.

The parents were lounging around now around so it was easy to talk everyone into playing a game Carol received...

Movies Trivia Game 2-99 players

This is the most basic trivia game you can make. There are 4 categories of questions, comedy/cartoon, action/adventure, musical/drama, and horror/sci-fi. A player picks a category. If they get it right, they get a point in that category. Right or wrong, the turn moves to the next player. Once a player gets 2 points in every category, they win.

This was a fine game to pass the time, but nothing I would want to own. I won. Thom, Carol, and Liz were all half way to winning. Sarah only got one question right. I prefer the trivia I make. It's much more of an experience than a game.

Tally: 156/182  Bonus: 42/50

Fist Full of Bullets

There was a lot of relaxing today. I watched TV and played some video games. Carl brought over the kids and some friends to play games, but had to go deal with his car. This left me to watch the kids play video games. When he came back to pick them up we played a quick game of Splendor. It was very close. I got to 15 points, but Carl was able to play 5 more points to finish with 17.
Once they left, I went back to video games and TV. When Liz got home we opened presents and left for the parents. While walking in the door we saw Sarah putting together the birthday present we got her.

Flick 'em Up! 2-10 players

The first time I saw this game I knew I was getting it for Sarah. She has a habit of flicking pieces around the table, even mid-game. It's a team game where players act as old west cowboys running around town and shooting things up. If you want to move around or shoot things, you have to flick tokens to accomplish them.

Carl and Sarah played the outlaws and Liz and I played the law. The goal of the scenario we played was to kill 3 of the other team's players or have the most points by midnight. Liz and I started losing guys first. Near the end we were able to tie it up. There was a little bit of tension at the end as each of us tried to kill our last man. Carl was the crackshot and finished off the deputy to win the game.
I love this game. It plays well with all numbers of players and has a mess load of scenarios to keep things interesting. I have to work on my flicking form though.

Tally: 153/180  Bonus: 41/50

That Sinking Feeling

We decided to get dinner in SE PDX and ended up at HUB. Liz had us play...

Deep Sea Adventure 2-6 players

I saw a playthrough of this on a marathon and thought it was simple and cool. You each play as competing deep sea treasure divers on a budget. You are sharing a sub and oxygen supply. Everyone starts on the sub and rolls dice (2 D6s with values 1-3) to dive deeper to get treasure. Deeper treasure tends to have more value, but is harder to get safely. As soon as you pick up a treasure you start to exhaust the air supply and also move slower. The more treasure you have, the more air you use and less you move. If you make it back to the sub before air runs out, you get to keep what you got. If not, you pass out and drop your treasure to the bottom. After three rounds of this, the player with the most value in treasure wins.

On our first play, Liz was very greedy, but slowly learned how to play smartly. See didn't make it out with any treasure in any of the rounds. In the second game, she played even smarter. Added with the luck of rolling really high most of the time and she couldn't lose.
I feel like this is going to be one of those tiny game I always bring with me now. How couldn't I? It's just so much bang for a tiny box.

After this, we played 3 games of Lost Cities. I easily won the first game. The second game was tight with me winning by about 5 or 7 points. The third game was just as tight, but Liz won by about 4 points.

Tally: 153/179  Bonus: 40/50

Half A Game

After working out, Liz was starving. We planned on going back to Raccoon Lodge, but we noticed that IBU was open so I pulled a U and we stopped in. It was actually their soft open so the menu was a bit smaller. We started with cheese curds and I relearned...

Split 2-6 players
I got this sometime in college as a stocking stuffer. I played it once back then and thought it was stupid. It somehow made it with me to now. I still think it's stupid, but maybe I've playing wrong.

This game plays a little like Go Fish and Rummy, but with a different deck. Imaging taking a deck of standard playing cards and cutting everyone in half. That is the deck you are dealing with. Each player starts with 9 cards and one card is added to the discard pile. On a turn, the player draws a card (or cards from the discard pile rummy style). They can then play (or upgrade) any pairs the have. A pair is any two cards of the same rank (2 and 2 or J and J). The suits of the pair determines the strength of the match: Black/Red is Weak, Red/Red or Black/Black is Strong, and Exact Suit is Perfect. Depending on the strength, the player gets a bonus action. Weak allows a swap of pairs between players. Strong allows the player to draw another card. Perfect allows the player to give another player negative points. Once done playing cards, the player discards a card. Once a player discards their last card or the draw pile runs out, the round ends and all players take negative points for each of their remaining cards. For every match, the players check off the rank on their score sheet. Higher ranks tend to earn more points. After 3 round, the player with the most points wins.

This was the first time we played all 3 rounds. If I'm being honest, I did get a little bit of enjoyment out of it, but it still seemed a little bit fiddly. It's very random, like most card games. I think Carol would like it.

Tally: 152/179  Bonus: 40/50

And Wind It All Around

After our annual As Seen On TV gift exchange, there were a few still around to play one small game. I dealt out...

Slamwich 2-6 players

This game is painful, and I mean that literally. Liz got it as a present or something. The cards are in the shape of bread and have different food items on them or cartoon characters. You play cards "war" style until two cards match in a row or with a non-match in the middle of a match. Once that happens you slam the cards with you hand. The first slammer gets the deck to add to their hand. The cartoons add a few stupid rules that aren't even worth explaining. Once a player runs out of cards, they are out of the game. The last person with cards wins. The only time we played it came down to me and Darrin. It went on a while with neither of us pulling ahead. We called a draw to save out hands the pain. I think one of my nails may have even cut him.

This time was much less painful. The cartoon "muncher" cards confused everyone. No so much in function, but in purpose. These essentially give a random player the chance to get all the cards played if the next player doesn't make a legal match. It's a stupid random prize which requires no skill or dexterity. I won, but it was a bit of a hollow victory. I would suggest ignoring the muncher rules if you happen to play this game. It was fun, but Jungle Speed is so much better.

Tally: 151/179  Bonus: 40/50

Just A Nibble

I started the day playing Super Metroid and watching Jurrasic Park III. I got a text from Sarah that she needed her Xmas decor from out of my garage and she would love to play games when she came to pick it up.
We started with her pick of Takenoko. It's a favorite of hers and it rarely gets brought out. She needed a few reminders as we played. It went enjoyably and I won by about 10 points.
I then picked out Legendary: Encounters. She hadn't played it before and I know she likes deck builders. We got through half the game without a scratch. Not too far into the third objective it became clear that not having Coordinate attack cards was really hurting us. We were overwhelmed and the attacks were brutal. Poor us.
She had time for one more short game. I dealt out another deck builder Flip City. She was new to the game and she learned as she went. I viciously dominated the game, but she enjoyed it all the same. It's one of those games where if you don't know all the possibilities, you're going to drown. I'm sure she'll do better next time.
After she left to run trivia, I got to making a cheesy dinner for Liz and my continuation of...

Mice and Mystics 1-4 players
I got this game at the same time I regot HeroQuest. I was a little worried about this since the style of game is very similar: moving around, getting treasures, and killing things by rolling dice. There are a few differences though. In this game, you play as mice against rats, bugs, and one mean cat. There is also a modular board system. The biggest difference is that there is no overlord. Everyone is playing against the game. So in this respect, it makes the game very different for me.

We played twice before and failed both times, it was always pretty close. The third time we finally made it past the first chapter. So this game was the second chapter. Our goal was to rescue our friend Lilly from a mousetrap before she was overtaken by roaches and rats. Liz played as Tilda the healer and Collin the leader. I played as Nez the heavy and Lilly the Archer. We pretty much breezed through this one. We were in a little trouble near the end, but with a few good rolls we were able to save Lilly and clear out the rats and centipede.

Liz enjoys this game mostly for the cute mice and the theme. She's not a fan of bugs, but she doesn't mind a game with the goal of killing them. I like the game myself. My only grief is that it is easy to forget some of the finer details in the game if you haven't played it in a while. This meant I had to stop the thematic gameplay to check the rules a few times. This isn't the games fault, it's mine, but it hurts every time I do something wrong and then figure out how to fix it a page into the quest.

Tally: 150/178  Bonus: 40/50

A Hobbled Run to the Bottom

One of my coworkers wanted to get Roll for the Galaxy, but wanted to see what I thought of...

Race for the Galaxy 2-4 players
This is the original game. It's very similar to Roll. You're playing cards that act as planets, developments, and resources instead of dice and tiles this time. Each player still picks out what they want to make sure happens, but this time players get a bonus if they are the one to make sure it happens. The game ends when either all of the point tokens are gone or until one player "builds" 12 of their cards.

I was basically thrown into the fire on this one. We had a full load of 5 players (I think he had an expansion). The others had played before, but some only once or twice. I didn't really have a good strategy and I tried to play like it was Roll. This didn't work out too well. I couldn't get a lot of production going which meant I fell behind fast. In the end, I was tied for last with 16 points. First was around 38ish points.

I liked the game and I'm sure I could do better if I knew what to expect out of the deck. The benefit with Roll is you only have a few tiles to make decisions on. In Race, every card you draw has text to be read and symbols to be deciphered. You need to be weighing your options every turn and there is a flood of new things to weigh. In a fast paced lunch game, this is pretty stressful. I'm much happier with Roll, plus I'd have a harder time getting any of my regulars to play Race a second time.

Tally: 149/178  Bonus: 40/50

Play It Again Sam

We had another Wednesday Game Lunch at work. We played Between Two Cities again. This time we had the full compliment of 7 players. I won again. And again, both of my cities had the same highest score.
Once home, Liz and I decided to go someplace new for dinner. We headed out to Racoon Lodge and I brought along...

Foodie Fight Rematch 2-6 players
This is pretty much exactly the same as Foodie Fight, but they changed a few things. Remember how I said it would be great to drop a category and have one side of the dice to select your question category? Well hey! They did that. I still hate it, though. Here's why I hate it. They changed one of the categories to "food in the media" or something. You answer questions about famous personalities and food shows. I know about 5 shows on food network and that is my limit. It's like the game heard my pleas, gave me chocolates, then ripped off my lower jaw. And I like my lower jaw.

Even with the one crappy category, the game did play a lot faster. This time, I was the winner and I beat Liz by one point.

Of the two games, this one is probably better, but if you want more questions, then the first one is your bet. Liz's favorite addition to this one is the food poster that comes with the game. Occasionally questions will have you pick out fruits, vegetables, spices, or cuts of meat by picture rather than by name. I'll admit, it does add some pizzazz.

Tally: 149/178  Bonus: 39/50