In which no Race was played

Well, not much, anyway.

Michael and I showed up early, and played a single game of Race before the crowd arrived. Jeff, Amy and Simon joined us for a quick game of Escalation.

I have played Geschenkt. Geschenkt was a close personal friend of mine. You, sir, are no Geschenkt. (Or Fairy Tale, or Flauschenteufel, or Bridge, or ... or ... or...). A "Play as many hands as you want" card game has to bring serious mojo to the table to be played again. Escalation is not that game.

When Sean arrived we split and played Power Grid. John showed up a bit later and joined in the side game of not much. Meanwhile, by busting my ass working a ridiculously stressful 32 hour week, I provided power to France.

After that was the chockingest choke that ever choked in a game of Celebrities. Choking was involved. Grand Moff Tarkin was not choked. Wayne Brady did some choking. As did several players. Winning for the "most amazing 3-time appearance in a single game" honorary MVP -- Master Chief. Why no, I don't have an XBox. Not bitter at all. Thanks for asking.

Then we closed with two games of Kutschfahrt, in which we learned that if several players simultaneously decide to deceive, everyone will get hopelessly confused. But we managed to get unconfused when Al and Sean kept swapping their "one use" professions with the device that reset them. They quickly declared victory, and we let them.

What, you say you want to hear how the games went, and not my surreal summary? Should have attended, I say. You'll have your shot next Monday. We may even play Race.

Saturday Session Report Part I

Brian and Jacqui were our gracious hosts for this Saturday gaming session.

We started things off with the Announce Pregnancy game, which is played in teams of two. Amy and I won. We're planning a two-player session of Go To The Hospital in May.

Haste Worte was next on the agenda. This is a Kramer & Kiesling word/party game that is only available in German. It was so intriguing to me that I made up some English language cards. Basically, a card with a category is flipped up. Something like: Things a cowboy uses. Then everyone gets one minute to write down as many things as they can that fit in that category. There's a round of blind bidding where you bid on how many items you think you will be able to read off your list. Starting with the lowest bid, players read off items. Once someone else has read off an item, no one else may use it. If you are able to read off the number you bid, you get that many points, otherwise you get nothing. The game ends when someone hits twenty points; high score wins.

Next up was Ca$h 'n' Gun$ with the long-awaited Yakuza expansion. Now you play with teams instead of every gangster for himself, and one lucky team gets to be the Yakuza. The Yakuza use Tanto and Shuriken instead of Guns and come with their own set of special power cards. The Tanto can only be aimed at an adjacent player (teams are scrambled so that no two teammates are adjacent), but if that player drops out, the next player around the table feels cold steel. The Shuriken have to be thrown, there's now a bit of dexterity involved. The expansion adds a LOT of gameplay with a minimal addition of rules. Amy said on the way home that she's not crazy about the base game, but she'll play again wit the Yakuza in the mix. We enjoyed it so much, we played it twice.

Let it be known - Tino is the man: 16 rounds, zero wounds.

The Black Coach to Devil's Castle (AKA the fart game) came next. Apparently, this went more smoothly than it did last week since it wasn't a learning game for everybody involved. I managed to work out who was on my team (mostly) but got no game-winning items. Luckily Dennis was paying more attention and trading more effectively, so the Good Guys won.

Riding in Coach

At the 1st annual "I went to Essen but didn't bother to bring my two favorite acquisitions" day, we opened with an 8 player game of Die Kustchfahr zur Teufeslburg (which I wanted to try). It took us a few rounds to get a feel for the game, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Dennis complaint that if you get stuck with a poor item early (or people ganging up against you 'just because') then you are in for a long, boring game, seems reasonable.

However, I think that most of the random play was just people getting used to the game. And once everyone knows the game then I think we'll trim some time off the game (although the full game adds a few more cards). And finally, I don't think anyone who brings Talisman should complain about random hosage.

Anyway, I'll be putting this game into the rotation. This would also make an interesting PBEM (moderated) game. It would remove the memory element, and all the illicit communication. For those who didn't play, this review should bring you up to speed.

For those who did play, the items that they suggest you skip in the first game:

• "Sextant" -- After you trade this, pick a direction (clockwise or widdershins) and everyone must pass an object (their choice) in that direction.
• "Tome" -- If you trade the Tome, you and your trading partner switch occupations. Used occupations (once/game) are reset!
• "Coat" -- When you trade the coat you get a new occupation from the unused stack (your choice!)
• "The Broken Mirror" -- The mirror must be accepted in trade, and the other traded card doesn't take effect.
  
• "The Coat of Armor of the Loge" -- If you have this item and any combination of 3 keys/goblets, you can proclaim a solo victory!
  

For such a small game (fits in a card box), I find myself thinking about this...

I summarized the games I played on my blog.