I Just Think About Baseball
First, a recap of Monday night -- I won a couple of races (Ave Caesar), and then lost several more (RftG).
Now that football season is over, it's time for pitchers and catchers to report, and for a rash of baseball boardgames to come out. It looks like Pizza Box Baseball has reached the US and will be in stores soon. Also, I received a catalog from the Strat-O-Matic folks; the 2007 cards are out and cost $37.
I'm pretty much guaranteed to get Oracle Box Baseball, but I'm only going to take the Strat plunge if people are still under its Jedi mind control. Will there be more Strat this season?
Also, I haven't played fantasy baseball since I was 19. Anyone? Scott?
posted by Dennis Ugolini @ 9:33 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
It was nice to see a large Monday turnout again for a change. Brian, Michael and Simon were playing Race when I showed up around 5pm. I joined in one game in which Michael slew the beast. Dennis and Sean showed up just in time to give us a 6 player Ave Caesar. By the end, we all said "Hail, Dennis." And a few choice words in between.
Al showed up and hung around for a while but I think he got tired of waiting for the end of the chariot races and soon departed. He was quickly replaced by Jon, and with 7 people, we split into 4 (Simon, Jon, Sean and myself) for Tichu and 3 for Race for the Galaxy. Our group also got in a game of Sean's Winner's Circle ("Bushhhhhherrrr!")in which Jon hit the jackpot on the final race (he had the sole bets on the winner) to pass Simon and myself and win the game.
Dennis brought Pizza Box Football and I kept thinking about requesting it, but it just didn't feel right playing it AFTER the Super Bowl. I didn't even KNOW there was Pizza Box Baseball...that's great!
I definitely would like to play some Strat or Pizza Box Baseball this year. However, the fantasy stuff may be a little too much work for my taste. I like that the other options can be played or put away as desired and that all the research is already done for you. The thought of the time required to learn about the players enough to make informed draft decisions and trade decisions is pretty intimidating to me and just doesn't seem like FUN. I'll listen to arguments to the contrary, though.
Photobucket is down for maintenance if anyone is wondering why the banner is AWOL.
My thoughts on:
1) Race for the Galaxy: I've noticed you guys really like playing this game. Personally, while I do believe it is much better than San Juan, it just doesn't really do it for me. I barely liked San Juan to begin with... Maybe more player interaction would help?
2) Ave Caesar: Even though the collective group decided Dennis should win on the third race (seriously people, I'm sorry I ran over all your dogs on the way to Dragon's Lair - I swear!) I had a good amount of fun. It's really hard to get mad at the game. Sometimes it's just your turn to get the uber shaft though Sean competed mightily for that honor. Ok ok, he probably won it.
3) Tichu: Add trick-taking games to the list of genres I'm "not big on". I've played many games of Spades and Hearts in my day , but just never really got the appeal. I'm sure if you slapped a theme on it that involved robots or zoo animals, I'd sing a different tune. I'm a silly person like that. Of course it didn't help that Chris and Jon royally spanked us...
4) Winner's Circle: My thoughts on this game never really changed from day one. It's just a crazy luck fest where like "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" the points don't matter (until the last race that is). Of course I don't mind luck a bit. In fact, it's a great thing to blame your losses on!
As always it was great fun though we could have had a game of celebrities to end the night. -Just Sayin'!
Hopefully we can get some Bootleggers out next time and get a healthy does of backstabbing and "future considerations" going. Mmm, negotiation games... Leave your carebears at home.
I'm not sure why I like racing games so much - no matter the mechanics the gameplay seems to focus on "block Sean and force him to last" - I failed pretty spectacularly on Ave Caesar and Winner's Circle. But they are fun, regardless of outcome - I guess it's the theme of it, and the visual unfolding of the race in progress.
Simon - you need to list some games you like. I've got a long list of games you're not fond of... :)
Alright, here goes:
Doom
Blue Moon
Blue Moon City
Hive
PitchCar
Carcassonne (all types and variants except The Castle)
For Sale
10 Days in anything
Cash n' Guns
I'm the Boss
Celebrities
Ra
Aladdin's Dragons
Samurai
Ricochet Robots
Fearsome Floors
Taj Mahal
Java
Tikal
Fussball Taktik
Space Dealer
El Grande
Poison
Shogun
Vegas Shodown
RoboRally
Blokus
Lord of the Rings
War of the Ring
Winner's Circle
Circus Flohcati
Ave Caesar
Drakon
Coloretto
Zooleretto
Mystery Rummy (all of the ones I've tried)
Hoopla
Frank's Zoo
Colossal Arena
Once Upon a Time
Heroscape
Loopin' Louie
Stratego
Mag Blast
Roma
To Court the King
O Zoo Le Mio
Louis XIV
Hammer of the Scots
Wizard Kings
Through the Desert
Keythedral
That's just what I can see in my closet from my computer. I suppose I could find more if I tried using my memory or BGG.
Re: Fantasy Baseball
Coming in at #3 on The Onion AVClubs 20 pop culture obsessions even geekier than Monty Python...
But Strato is ok. I think it may be better if we just buy one set and draft (it would be cheaper).
i am in for both sim baseball and fantasy/roto as well. For the latter I would think a free yahoo or other league would do the trick and allow us to fill out the league if we can't get enough SABG participation. For the former I personally prefer Pursue the Pennant or Statis Pro or APBA but Strat is fine and of course we don't know what Pizza Box will be like until it appears. I agree with Brian just having the participating group split the cost of one set of the new seasons cards and drafting in some way from that makes a great deal of sense.
Ok, first you need to get the silencer for your MP5.
Oh Dennis!? Yes this might be a wrong number.
Umm totally off topic but:
Green Grass and High Tides is a paper champion in terms of drums. Basically, once you have the endurance to beat it on medium it doesn't ramp up much to hard.
Learn to Fly on the other hand...I was definitely saying boourns.
Enter Sandman is totally doable on hard drums for future reference.
Plus the red dot scope is pretty nice.
I think I will pass on strat baseball this year. I might play a few games of oracle.
More hijacking:
Beat that god forsaken Learn to Fly and finished the gig after that. But the gig after that has me double rock blocked:
Vasoline
Electric Version
Coincidentally, Green Grass and High Tides is in that gig as well, but I 4 3/4 starred that even with a very conservative approach (conserving star power after the first 1/4 of the song). I think I could 5 star it pretty easily.
Ahem, I mean overdrive.
I want to think that the ACOG laser scope is better than simple red dot, but it seems worse. Have you unlocked it yet?
I've unlocked it for the MP5, but I use neither.
I like to run and gun so not appearing on radar is my highest priority. Thus I chose all the stealthy options.
I go:
MP5 with silencer
claymore x2 perk 1 (It will be frag grenade x 3 when that is unlocked)
uav jammer perk 2
martyrdom perk 3
I have another one that is
MP5 with red dot
claymore x 2
stopping power
martyrdom
I don't like it nearly as much.
Ok, so the Suns are apparently trading Shawn Marion AND a draft pick for Shaq?
Jesus, I know I say this alot, but I hope the Heat took the Suns out for dinner a movie before this.
Worst trade ever, ever, ever.
It was worse three evers trust me.
My weapon of choice is the M-16, red dot sight, smoke grenades (they look cool), stopping power, bullet penetration. I've thought about martyrdom or the one where you pull out your pistol while dying, but these seem like cheesy ways to get kills. I can see the attraction though.
I would imagine with your loadout, you're using a knife quite a bit as well.
I'm interested in baseball of some sort. Should we wait to see what pizza-box-baseball looks like? And are we going to have a mini-bloodbowl league?
Definitely, there is nothing quite as rewarding as stabbing an unsuspecting victim in the back.
While playing COD4.
Obviously while boardgaming, I stick to the most honorable endeavors only.
I don't think martyrdom would be as attractive with your setup just because you are less likely to be very close to your killer with that setup.
So it looks like:
1. I'll take the plunge on both Pizza Box and Strat, and happily volunteer the Strat cards for a draft league.
2. If someone thinks of a good proxy system for Blood Bowl, I'm in. Love the game, but have no tolerance for prepping minis right now.
3. Next time I get a wrong number talking about silencers, I won't be so quick to report them to Homeland Security.
(whupwhupwhupwhupwhupwhupwhup)
Hey Michael, are those helicopters?
Also Martyrdom works well on the headquarters game type. If I die in the headquarters, I want to "help" the opponents at their task.
Wow, that Suns trade can't be real. I mean there's no way Shaq can still be considered a reliable and viable center. Is there? Wasn't he going to retire soon?
My brain hurts. -But hey, that'll make the playoffs slightly easier for the Spurs in the next few seasons!
By the way, when are we getting the band back together?
Jon picked up Rock Band so I can play online with him and Rob now.
I haven't tried Headquarters yet. Cage Match would be fun to try sometime. We need more members in our SABG clan!
What's on tap for Sat?
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