Weekend Gaming

Puerto Rico

Rachel and I did play two games of Puerto Rico, as I expected. I won both, the first 56 to 45, and the second 56 to 54.

Highlights:

- We played with Wildcat Strikers. I CANNOT stress enough how good this building is. It is: 1/1. At the beginning of any round, before any roles are chosen, you may throw out this building and declare one of the roles to be Prospector instead of its usual function for this round. The colonist is returned to the supply.

Wow, is it good. All of the functions you can think of can be done: gaining extra cash, preventing someone from manning their building, ensuring a better spot for trading or shipping, etc. But using it only once and using it wisely is critical!

- We played with Royal Market. It is: 8/3. You may take any combination of Doubloons or Victory Points for your trade. Market bonuses cannot be exchanged.

This is even stronger than my previous version. Rachel looked at it and thought it was WAY overpowered. So I invited her to use it, which she did in the first game. Only then did she realize how much you sacrifice for giving up your Doubloons. Especially as I so thoroughly blocked the Trading House so often.

It may have more use in a four or five player game where the big buildings actually run out. In a two player game, I may simply have to up its power to something like: gain 1 VP for each 2 Doubloon you get from trading.

- We moved University to 7 cost and comes pre-loaded with a colonist, and it still didn't get bought.

- In the first game, Rachel got an early Hospice (onto which you may move a colonist when you first buy it), but I successfully blocked her from acquiring any useful plantations. In the second game I bought Wharf and then Hospice and acquired a series of corn plantations.

- Without Factory or Small Market, money was a little tighter than usual. That gave shipping a boost.

They were great games. Both were so unlike any other games that we had played before. Puerto Rico is really one of God's gift to gaming, through His prophet, Andreas Sayfarth.

Mancala

In the morning, Ariella brought over her boyfriend who asked to play Mancala with me. I think he was trying to suck up. Not that I have any real influence over anything; she's my step-daughter and has two real parents that need impressing. Still, every little bit counts, as my grandmother would say as she swept the beach.

We played with four stones per hole and what I think are fairly standard rules. Move all stones, drop in your own store but not your opponent's. Land on an empty space on your side and capture the stone and the opposite hole. Land on our store and go again. Find yourself without stones and your opponent takes all the rest on his side.

It was the closest game I've even played; of course, I've only played about twenty times or so. I won 25 to 23, i.e. by one stone.

Party Games

I have found several couples now who reacted positively to my idea of inviting them over for a party game on some night of the week, outside my game club.

Enough so that I think I have to start a new game group, the Jerusalem Party Gamer's Society.

Heh.

Links

Really good stuff happening at the new Good Neighbors blog.

Mischa points us to Where on Earth is Osama bin Laden? the board game.

Apparently they should hire the new James Bond, whose latest film centers around a card game. (That's not stretching it too much, is it?)

And via Boing Boing, headstones 2.0. So the deceased can finally make that move they've been thinking about forever.