Gamestorm

For my birthday, Liz got me and her registered for Gamestorm, a gaming convention in Vancouver, WA. I took off from work today and tomorrow, but she still had to work today. After I dropped her off, I headed out to get there at noon when it opened. I've never been much for socializing on my own, so it took a few hours before I got a game in. The first one I got around to playing was...

Condottiere 2-6 players
I had heard good things about this one recently from Shut Up & Sit Down so I wanted to check it out. It's and area majority card game. Players start with 10 random cards and bid to control regions of old Italy. Most of the cards are numbered 1-10, but a few have special powers when played, like making all numbered cards worth 1, doubling the value of your cards, or returning a card you played to your hand, etc. Once all players have passed (or someone played a bishop or surrender card) the player with the highest total wins the region and the right to choose the next region to contend for. No one gets a new hand until only one player is left with cards, so if you run out of cards first, you may be out for a few rounds. The first player to win 3 adjacent territories wins (or else the player who controls the most if the map is filled with no winner).

We had a four player game going. I started with a horrible hand. My highest card was a 6. I did have a lot of cards to work with since two players went through half of their hands on the first territory, but it still wasn't enough to earn a territory before we got new hands. I actually had a worse hand the next time, but I did get on region. By the third hand I was doomed. I still had yet to get anything over a 6 and I pretty much had no chance of getting 3 adjacent regions. Red won, I lost.

I like the idea of this game, but I was kind of screwed the whole game. If you get three hands with out a card over 6 and everyone else has a hand with two or three 10s, all you can do it resign to defeat. I'm a little more hesitant to buy this game, but I'm willing to give it another shot.

I went for lunch and moved my car, but came back for another game...

Favor of the Pharaoh 2-4 players
I had seen a play of this game recently and wanted to try it out. It's a dice game with a mostly Yahtzee mechanic. All players start with 3 dice to roll. On a player's turn they have no roll limits, but must lock at least one die per roll. If you can get certain sets (pair, three of a kind, all evens, etc.) you can earn powers that can give additional dice to roll in future turns or special abilities to alter dice, like flipping dice, or adding pips to dice, etc. The more dice you have, the better powers you can earn. Once a player earns the "Queen" power, which is earned by getting a 7 of a kind or better, the end of the game is triggered. Each player then has one chance to try and beat the "of a kind" that the Queen has. The Queen also has only last chance to beat any player who beats that. After that, the biggest of a kind wins.

I joined into to this one to make a 3 player game. I went with a strategy to get as many dice a possible. That strategy combined with good rolls moved me swiftly up the latter. I was able to get the Queen with a 7 of a kind in sixes. The player to my left didn't even have 7 to try and beat it, and the other player only had 7 dice which wasn't enough to do better since dice don't go higher than six. I won.

I liked it, but it it went by pretty fast. As a lot of people indicated, it's a twist on the game To Court the King. The other player owned that game and said they liked this game, but couldn't see spending the money to get this one. I prodded them to see which one a player who owned neither should get, but they seemed pretty on the fence and didn't give me an answer.

By this time, I needed to get home to get ready for karaoke. I still have the next three days to enjoy too.

Tally: 181/185  Bonus: 48/50