Some Game Plays With My Synagogue Group

On Yom Haatzmaut some of the members of our synagogue went to the country for a short tiyul and BBQ. I'm happy to say that, again, mine was the best and quickest BBQ grill and I used only one match and no lighter fluid. I'm a man.

I also brought along Scrabble. I wonder why I haven't done that before, since many of the adults in this group are Scrabble lovers, if not quite as competitive as Rachel and me.

We played a four-player game of Scrabble. LHO opened with a bingo. I ended the game a few points behind her and a few dozen points ahead of the other two players.

As many of the same group also went away for an entire weekend this last weekend, I also brought Scrabble. I didn't have to bring Apples to Apples, since that is already one of the hit games among the kids there, and someone else had brought a copy. I should really get a hold of Jungle Speed, since it's becoming popular in Israel (my non-gamer 20 year old daughter went and bought a copy).

I also brought Antike, hoping to get some of the boys to play it instead of Risk, which is what they always play. Unfortunately, they had just started a game of Risk by the time I found them after lunch, and I couldn't convince them to abandon it.

Instead I played Antike with Nadine and Cliff. Cliff lives only a few blocks from me and plays these games all the time, but never has the time to make it to game night, or even Game Days. A pity.

Cliff really liked Antike, and thinks his own boys will, too. Nadine manages the tactical elements fine, but is still working on the strategy (in her words). I was very happy playing it again, and was beginning to do some long term planning moves. Unfortunately, we had to interrupt the game midway as we were scheduled for a hike.

One other game I played, sort of: Zingo. Zingo is a little like a kid's game of Bingo. Using the correct rules, two plastic pictures pop out of the bottom of a plastic contraption, and each player has to shout the name of one or more of the items if they have it on their board (with penalties for shouting an item that isn't on your board). So it's way more of a game than Bingo.

However, I joined a grandmother playing with her 4 year old, and her method of playing was for each player to take a turn. The player checks to see if the tile will fit on his or her board, and if it does, he or she just takes it. Otherwise it goes to the next player who can use it. Then it is the next player's turn. In other words, the game was changed to a decision-less skill-less game.

The kids still liked it, and had learned the words. but she also wandered away about 2/3 of the way through the game. I guess winning isn't that important when you aren't bringing anything to the table.