Weekend Report
Does it date me that my brain inserted "with Dennis Miller" after my title rather than "with Colin Farrell" or "with Tina Fey and ________"? Probably.
Two SABG events this past weekend: Friday Night Gaming was at our place. Michael and Simon joined us. We got things started with a videogame: Mario Party. It's a boardgame in videogame form. Everyone was leading at some point except for Simon. The completely random game mechanics handed the game to Amy.
We headed upstairs after that to play a non-luckfest, actual cardboard-and-plastic boardgame: Taj Mahal. This is the most fiddly Knizia I can think of. There's twelve rounds which each consist of six simultaneous auctions. Michael and Simon were neck-and-neck the whole game. I was doing something else during the final scoring (I was so far back that it didn't matter for me) and I missed who actually won.
Lowenherz was next on the table. Amy and I have played this Teuber creation at least half a dozen times, but I think this was the first time we didn't screw up a rule. Suboptimal play by just about everybody handed Michael a region so huge that it was mathmatically impossible for us to catch him, so we called the game early. (We were about 80% done.)
Finally, we played Democrazy. Fluxx with voting. Uggh. (And I like Fluxx.) I knew it would be chaotic, but I thought it would be fun chaos. Amy mentioned afterwards that it might be better with more than four (the minimum number that can play).
Fortunately, bad games (except Taj Mahal) can still lead to some good times.
Saturday at Simon-Con (tm) saw Ben, myself, Michael and Dennis. Ben and Simon were wrapping up a game of Roma(?) when I arrived. We then let Simon destroy us in a game of Hey! That's my Fish! while we waited for Michael. With Michael, we had four and four at Simon's means Crokinole. Everyone but Simon was a newbie and our suboptimal flicking showed it.
When Dennis arrived we broke out Knizia's Lord of the Rings (with the Friends and Foes expansion). Simon and Michael claimed they they owed Sauron a good solid kick in the teeth. Now they owe him two solid kicks in the teeth. We were playing well/correctly, but freakish tiles draws overcame us. On one scenario board, Michael took our first and only turn. He drew six (or more?) tiles before hitting a 'safe' one. We managed to not be devoured by Sauron (well, most of us) on that board and fended off a horde of Foes, but that left Sauron on the '6' space of the corruption track, and the three remaining hobbits on the '5'. We handed Sauron the ring early on the next scenario board.
Ben had to leave, and since that left us with four, we went back to Crokinole. The newbies were visibly improving, but were still outclassed by Simon and Dennis. We got in two games before I had to call it a day, and the non-Jeff team won both.
Remember - Gaming at Jeff and Amy's next Saturday. I'll post another reminder later this week.
posted by Jeff @ 9:04 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Both of the morning games were as I remembered. Crokinole is great, especially with a high-quality board. Lord of the Rings is an excellent simulation of an actual march into Mordor, with about as much fun and control. OK, a little strong, but I've never played a game of this where at some point I wasn't left sitting helplessly during a run of event tiles.
After Jeff left, we played the first mission from Doom: The Boardgame. This was my first playing, and I was very pleasantly surprised -- the game is both very strategic and a lot of fun. It's far better than Mutant Chronicles, and a good way to scratch the Space Hulk itch until I am rich enough to reprint it myself. In fact, it might be fun to lay out the whole map for a mission, and house rule the "motion sensor blips" from Space Hulk for an added sense of anxiety. In any event, my upcoming Boulder order is growing.
The game ran fairly long due to a pizza/college football break in between. After that came three rounds of 10 Days in Africa, with Michael winning the first and Simon the next two. At this point I left; parity having been restored, I believe the others went back to Croking.
I was going to say that I was surprised not to see Doom... but ala, here it was.
Great reports.
I think Norm McDonald when I see Weekend Update, but I digress.
Much fun was had at both events (although my hate mail to Nintendo is writing itself after Mario Party 5). I won a ton of the mini games, including a 3 for 3 bomb chucking round and a ufo chase game that ended within one second, but since I didn't win any of the "randomly recieve a lot of coins" games, I didn't get the bonus star. Add to the fact that all my stars were stolen by some stupid roulette space. Ugh, dumb.
Taj Mahal was very good and I enjoyed it a lot (tactical Knizia auction game, mmm). Michael barely beat me after Jeff couldn't muster one more king to prevent him from sweeping the last auction.
Lowenherz was pain. Democrazy was pain. Fast foward.
Ben and I played a game of Blue Moon City to start things off Saturday. I feel asleep in the early game, but came back fast and hard at the end...Unfortunatley, I waited a little too long to start my comeback and Ben snuck in the last couple offerings. We then split games at Roma and the rest is well documented.
I will say that in regards to Doom (which Micheal requested, thank-you-very-much Rob), perhaps I should've showed a bit more restraint as the invader. Michael and Dennis were cleaning up in the first few rooms and I got a tad squeamish. One well spawned Hellknight later with a barrage of fairly nasty cards, and I was out on top by too good a margin...Sorry guys, I should've at least let you squeeze off a BFG round. That's always a fun moment...
Also, nothing happened after you left, Dennis. Michael was chided on home after I made short stop to the grocery store to pick up a random assortment of necessities (beer, dog food, shampoo).
And for the record, I am a newb at Crokinole too. Michael has had the exact same amount of playing time as I have. That will probably change when Dayna comes in town, but for now it's true.
Other minor correction, I only won one game of 10 days.
Hmmm... I do remember Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray doing the SNL news... but I was a wee tike then.
I'm sorry I missed Doom! Hopefully my Descent expansion set will be arriving shortly, and we can play fantasy Doom again.
I just picked up Lowenhertz... man, I hope it plays better than the initial review portray!
Post a Comment
<< Home