Weekend Gaming

With Rachel away, I am out my weekly 2 player PR game, although I'm still in the middle of several slow PR games on PRG.net . And with my kids in and out, I don't get much time for games during the week. Only the weekly game JSGC sessions.

This shabbat I managed to get in a few games, however. For lunch I was invited to a family with a fistful (pun intended) of boys and one girl. Left to their own devices, they sat on the couch and punched each other. I figured that rather than helping set the table I could make myself more useful. I asked for a deck of cards.

A few seconds into my explanation of "I Doubt It" they told me they know the game under another, uh, less pretty name (you all know it by that name, too). We played a round of that for a good while. I had lots of fun whistling innocently when I wanted them not to doubt me (reverse psychology), fanning my hand and letting them pick one of my cards to play at random into the pile, etc...

Eventually, I organized my hand into the cards I needed for the last few turns, made sure I got rid of all the junk earlier, and then had nothing but what I needed until I went out three turns later.

I left them to their own devices and they continued playing as I went outside to talk to the father. After about fifteen minutes, I came back in and they were sitting on the couch punching each other.

So I got another deck of cards and taught them Pit. Many mothers now curse me for teaching their children Pit. The kids love it, but it sure is loud. I tried to introduce the silent finger-holding version halfway through, but it didn't work too well. I played two hands (lost both), and then left them to that one too until lunch got underway.

Nice conversation at lunch. Halfway through, I turned around and all of the kids were sitting on the couch punching each other. "Play a game", I told them. So they did. They played Pig.

Pig is a card game where each player has 4 cards and the object is to get 4 of a kind. One player is always the start player. He or she picks a card and adds it to his or her hand. Then he or she passes one to the next player and so on until the last player throws one card out. This continues until one player has a complete set, at which point he or she sticks his or her tongue out. Each player has to notice this. The last one to stick his or her tongue out loses and the game continues with one less player on the next round.

I also ran into Nadine at shul, and she was amenable to playing in the afternoon or evening. I decided to try out 2 player Louis XIV with her. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, since I like Goa 2 player better than 3 or 4 player (especially 3 player). I liked it just fine 2 player. I guess the only thing is, is that you really get a feeling of who is winning pretty early on, and it is probably hard to catch up for the losing player.

I wouldn't know, as we had to stop halfway through. I still haven't managed to complete a full game. I was up one mission over her, and she had one extra shield. My missions were better quality. It looked like I had a solid lead and was likely to keep it.

While the rules for the dummy were fairly clear, I decided immediately that the four sets of tokens the dummy placed had to be on four separate boards, and not doubled up if we pick two of the same board, or the board with Louis on it. We discarded those and flipped again.

Half a game took us about an hour. My game group tends to play slower than others, so keep that in mind. In any case, Louis XIV, 2 player - recommended.

Yehuda