games day
Today our friend Pam hosted a fun day of gaming. We had ten
players, so tended to split into two games at any given time.
I played the following:
Carcassonne: I sometimes think I will just never get the strategy of placing farmers.
Swashbuckler (first time for most of us; Dani just got a copy): simulates a bar-room brawl; fun idea with mechanics that are sometimes a bit tedious. As with Robo Rally, you plot out your sequence of actions somewhat in advance and then execute all the orders in sequence. Observed: throwing chairs can be very effective; throwing daggers and beer mugs didn't do much; tipping over tables (onto people, or with people standing on them at the time) seemed like it would do more damage than it did; swinging from the chandeliers never came into play; losing half the hit points in your body hinders you but being down to one hit point in your head makes no difference (you weren't using your head for much anyway, I guess). Cute game; would play again.
Quoridor (approximately): played on a 9x9 board; you start in the center of your side and are trying to move your piece to the other side. Of course, so is everyone else. On your turn you can either move or place a two-space-long wall (barrier). Tends to create one-space-wide corridors, hence the name.
Vinci: we misread the rules on conquering territories and thus saw faster turnover of civilizations than we should have. Our five-player game was very close most of the way through.
A two-player card game, name unknown. You play with 26 cards, 2 through ace in red and black, drawn from two visually-distinct decks such that all the red cards come from one and all the black cards from another. Deal five cards to each player; you look at your cards and place them in a row face-down, in order (black lower than red of the same number). To play, draw a card and look at it. You can either add it to your sequence (face-down) in the proper place or use it to attack. To attack, you point to a card and guess its value. (Remember that you already know its color.) If you are right, your opponent has to turn it up and you can guess again. If you're wrong, you have to place it face-up in your own sequence and your turn ends. Starting off can be kind of slow (lots of wrong guesses), but between the information you know about your own cards, the information you learn in play, and the limited option space, you can rapidly bring logic to bear on the question. Interesting and quick game.
I have the vague feeling that I played something else, but I can't think what it was if so. It was kind of a long day, though fun.
This session tended toward shorter games. I'd like to try out Age of Imperialism soon; we recently received it as a gift and haven't yet been able to play it. Maybe we'll host the next games day and do it then.
Carcassonne: I sometimes think I will just never get the strategy of placing farmers.
Swashbuckler (first time for most of us; Dani just got a copy): simulates a bar-room brawl; fun idea with mechanics that are sometimes a bit tedious. As with Robo Rally, you plot out your sequence of actions somewhat in advance and then execute all the orders in sequence. Observed: throwing chairs can be very effective; throwing daggers and beer mugs didn't do much; tipping over tables (onto people, or with people standing on them at the time) seemed like it would do more damage than it did; swinging from the chandeliers never came into play; losing half the hit points in your body hinders you but being down to one hit point in your head makes no difference (you weren't using your head for much anyway, I guess). Cute game; would play again.
Quoridor (approximately): played on a 9x9 board; you start in the center of your side and are trying to move your piece to the other side. Of course, so is everyone else. On your turn you can either move or place a two-space-long wall (barrier). Tends to create one-space-wide corridors, hence the name.
Vinci: we misread the rules on conquering territories and thus saw faster turnover of civilizations than we should have. Our five-player game was very close most of the way through.
A two-player card game, name unknown. You play with 26 cards, 2 through ace in red and black, drawn from two visually-distinct decks such that all the red cards come from one and all the black cards from another. Deal five cards to each player; you look at your cards and place them in a row face-down, in order (black lower than red of the same number). To play, draw a card and look at it. You can either add it to your sequence (face-down) in the proper place or use it to attack. To attack, you point to a card and guess its value. (Remember that you already know its color.) If you are right, your opponent has to turn it up and you can guess again. If you're wrong, you have to place it face-up in your own sequence and your turn ends. Starting off can be kind of slow (lots of wrong guesses), but between the information you know about your own cards, the information you learn in play, and the limited option space, you can rapidly bring logic to bear on the question. Interesting and quick game.
I have the vague feeling that I played something else, but I can't think what it was if so. It was kind of a long day, though fun.
This session tended toward shorter games. I'd like to try out Age of Imperialism soon; we recently received it as a gift and haven't yet been able to play it. Maybe we'll host the next games day and do it then.