Weekend Gaming

I had a few gaming opportunities before and after lunch.

I taught R-Eco to a shabbat guest (15 year old girl). We played twice, and she loved it. The first time she lost after dumping some 10 cards to my none. The second time she won; she dumped 9 cards, but she earned 25 points in chips.

I taught her Mr. Jack. She liked it, too, but not as much as R-Eco. I survived as Jack until the eighth round in the first game; all of the suspects could not even be jumped on in the last round, so she couldn't even take a last minute wild guess. In the second game, I eliminated the last suspect in round 6, and caught Jack at the start of round 7.

After lunch, another lunch guest joined the two of us for two games of R-Eco. He's a game player, although his shelf of games is rather limited (it includes a few of my recommendations over the last few years, as his brother and father occasionally come to the group).

I taught him how to play Tigris and Euphrates after R-Eco. We played on a 2/3 board, with 7 temples; game over when only one treasure left or tiles run out. I tossed out 9 of each tile color (12 of red) before starting, in the hopes that that would give a fair chance of the tiles running out. In the end, that's indeed what happened, so I guessed I tossed about the right amount.

We had a fantastic game, with tons of conflicts and a central monument that swapped ownership (and sometimes had no owner) often. I gained an early lead, but near the end of the game he did some fantastic catching up, having control of both monuments on the board. I just barely survived at the end with the tiles running out, winning 10 points to 9. He loved the game, and so did I.

Then he asked a lot of questions about creating games, which I answered as best I could.

We also played a small, light game that I was sent to review (upcoming), called Last Step Game by Alexander Zerykier. It's a classic NIM game, with horizontal and diagonal chessboard movements. We played several games, which I won until he caught onto the basic strategy.

Yehuda

P.S. Gamesizing published an email interview he did of me.