- High Society: First play for me and everyone else. This is a quick auction game from Knizia. You bid on cards from a 16 card deck; the auction ends after the 4th "red" card is revealed from the deck, so the game could be as short as 3 rounds or as long as 15. There are 12 yellow cards: 1 through 10, -5, and "lose a card". The four red cards are three x 2's and one x 1/2. You have a hand full of money to bid with, and the person with the most points in cards at the end wins (add the yellow cards and then apply multipliers, if any). The "lose a card" makes you lose a card you already have or the first one you acquire. For the 13 good cards, top bidder takes the card and pays his bid. For the 3 bad cards, all players pay their bid, except for the first one to pass who gets the card but keeps his money. The twist is that the person with the least money when the game ends is automatically disqualified from winning (money doesn't count among the remaining payers, so you can't bid nothing and win the game, if at least two other people acquired cards).
Ben's theory was to pay a lot of money for a x 2 and a high card (like a 9 or 10) and then sit tight. Unfortunately, he also had to pay to avoid some bad cards, and he tried to bid on a second x 2 at one point. In both of the games we played, he had the least money at the end; in the first game it was simply because the game ended only halfway through the deck. The bar mitzvah boy won the first game, and his younger brother won the second. It's a nice, quick filler (very abstract), but I worry that everyone's cash holdings are trackable; It's not hard to do, but I refused to track it exactly, because it would bog the game down and make it less fun. - La Isla: First play for me and everyone else. This is a small box Alea game from Stephan Feld. There is a board with island spaces of different terrain types (five types). Surrounded by every two, three, or four terrain spaces are animals that you can collect (five types). You get points for collecting the animals (2, 3, or 4 points, depending on how many people you need to collect them). You have five guys to move around the board. To move a guy to a place, you need two cubes of that terrain type (five types of cubes).
Each round you get three cards (from a deck of 180 cards). Each card can be used in any of three ways, and each round you must use one card in each of the three ways. One card you will add to your bonus abilities; it stays in front of you giving you a bonus ability. You only have three slots for bonus abilities, so every round you have to lose one of your previous abilities and gain the new one. One card you will use for the resource cube it gives, and then toss the card. And one card you will use to raise the value of one of the five animals, giving you points for its current value times the number of animals you have of that type (and also tossing the card). At the end of the game, everyone scores the value of the animal times the number of animals he has of that type, as well as 10 points for each complete set of animals (one of each type).
Nadine warned me that you have to guess and worry about which animal type the other players will be increasing, but I don't think the way she does, which is why she a) takes a lot longer to make her moves than I do, and b) wins these kinds of games more often than I do. I was happy to just play cards and see what happened. I didn't do too poorly, but the bar-mitzvah boy ran away with the game by collecting four animals of one type and scoring 12 and then 16 points several rounds in a row, while we were all making 2 to 5 or so. Even though he had no sets, he still won by a large margin (124 to my 77 to last place who had 61).
I enjoyed the game: it's fairly quick (medium length), plays nicely, and has some competition on the board. My only complaint is too many cards, and the cards are of poor quality (easy to bend and/or rip). - Speed ("Chinese-style") played with a young cousin. I don't really get this version of the game, and in any case she tended to cheat. :-)
Showing posts with label games played. Show all posts
Showing posts with label games played. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2016
Shabbat Gaming
I spent the weekend at my brother's; one of his boys had a bar-mitzvah. We got to play a few games:
Sunday, January 26, 2014
New Tichu Converts
I successfully taught Lisa's son and daughter how to play Tichu. The son is a gamer, the daughter is generally not. Tal and I, two experienced hands, played against the two of them. It was a slaughter, as in they slaughtered us.
I had two good hands out of about eight. The first hand was fine, but we didn't count it because they didn't have the rules down yet (one of them tried to use a standard straight as a bomb). On the six or so hands after that they gained on every hand, including making Tichus, until the score was something like 735 to 165 against us. I had nothing resembling a Tichu on any of the hands. Finally I had a good hand and called Grand Tichu (phoenix, 2 aces, 2 kings, a queen, a jack and a 7). I didn't make it, because the daughter had the dragon to get in, a sequence of five pairs, and then a triple to exit. So even though our team netted 105 of the points on that round, we still lost the round.
The good thing to come out of it was that they both loved the game, which is often helped by winning on your first play. The next day they in turn taught two of their friends how to play, and the scores were much closer.
I had two good hands out of about eight. The first hand was fine, but we didn't count it because they didn't have the rules down yet (one of them tried to use a standard straight as a bomb). On the six or so hands after that they gained on every hand, including making Tichus, until the score was something like 735 to 165 against us. I had nothing resembling a Tichu on any of the hands. Finally I had a good hand and called Grand Tichu (phoenix, 2 aces, 2 kings, a queen, a jack and a 7). I didn't make it, because the daughter had the dragon to get in, a sequence of five pairs, and then a triple to exit. So even though our team netted 105 of the points on that round, we still lost the round.
The good thing to come out of it was that they both loved the game, which is often helped by winning on your first play. The next day they in turn taught two of their friends how to play, and the scores were much closer.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Shabbat Gaming
Some games I've played over the last several shabbats:
Nefarious: Enjoyed with five players, three of whom were first-time players. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. I'm glad I found a copy of this hard-to-find game.
Amun-Re: Taught this game to two other people. One of them really liked it, and the other one hated it; that's the first time I've run into someone who really didn't like the game. This is a game that everyone (until now) I know likes but no one loves. He said it was too dry. He ended up asking us to stop after the first age.
King of the Elves: My friends Shirley and Bill are back in the country for a multi-year stay; I broke out this game that none of us had yet played. It's a light card game with some odd rules about building villages and playing thieves and so on, and then visiting the villages with your assorted transportation cards. It was pretty chaotic and had a lot of luck, but the rules were intriguing and we have barely explored the tactics space. We played four players, but only completed 3 rounds before two of the players had to leave. It's unclear if there is much strategy to the game or if it is all tactics. Shirley in particular liked the game.
Nadine is in the process of developing a fairly abstract board game and we are her guinea pigs. As we play she changes the rules around us if she thinks the new ones will be more fun.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Gaming with Steve and Co
My college roommate Steve visited Israel with his wife Miriam and their children. I played a few games with Steve and his boys. They are familiar with old style games, like Avalon Hill, etc, and I used to play a lot of Bridge with Steve.
On the first night I saw him, we played two games of Nefarious. They enjoyed it, but not overly much. Seeing my audience, I taught them Antike. I explained that the game is about points, not only about conquest and battle, but naturally old Risk players are going to start with iron and armies, and so they did. I accumulated a few Know-Hows early, but they caught on and took the rest of them. It was neck and neck for a while. I ultimately won by diversifying to take the low-hanging points, rather than by concentrating on one track, which is slow (though one of them was producing 17 marbles every two turns near the end of the game). Oh, and the game took us to 1:15 in the morning, which was an hour and a quarter more than I wanted to stay up.
Last shabbat we got together again. Since I had to carry games to them in the center of Jerusalem, I brought some light cards games, the usual assortment: No Thanks, Parade, and Tichu. No Thanks went over well and we played twice. One of the boys (my opponent) didn't enjoy Tichu because it required thought. My partner and I lost the first hand 100 to 0, but we won the second 300 to -100 and the third 200 to 0. They also enjoyed Parade and we also played that twice.
Steve and I then walked over to Nadine's, where we also found Emily and Eitan. We played one long game of Hawaii. I taught Steve, and simultaneously refreshed the rules for Eitan and Emily. And, as it turns out, corrected a few rule mistakes that Nadine had been playing with (update from Nadine: One rule wrong!).
I'm still not sure what the best strategy is, especially with five players. Of course, the strategies will vary depending on what is cheap and who else is going for the same things. I generally aim for two boats as soon as possible with some extra foot productions; in this game, I also got extra fruit production. Since only Nadine was competing with me for boats, and since she used them mostly for high victory point islands rather than for the utility tiles that the islands provide, there was little competition for my strategy. I also had three villages with kahunas, a few bonus points for fruits, hula dancers, and boats/surfers, and a bonus of 4 whenever I scored at the end of the round, which I did four times out of five. I was usually second to last place in turn order. I ended nearly 50 points ahead of the other players, who were all within ten points of each other.
On the first night I saw him, we played two games of Nefarious. They enjoyed it, but not overly much. Seeing my audience, I taught them Antike. I explained that the game is about points, not only about conquest and battle, but naturally old Risk players are going to start with iron and armies, and so they did. I accumulated a few Know-Hows early, but they caught on and took the rest of them. It was neck and neck for a while. I ultimately won by diversifying to take the low-hanging points, rather than by concentrating on one track, which is slow (though one of them was producing 17 marbles every two turns near the end of the game). Oh, and the game took us to 1:15 in the morning, which was an hour and a quarter more than I wanted to stay up.
Last shabbat we got together again. Since I had to carry games to them in the center of Jerusalem, I brought some light cards games, the usual assortment: No Thanks, Parade, and Tichu. No Thanks went over well and we played twice. One of the boys (my opponent) didn't enjoy Tichu because it required thought. My partner and I lost the first hand 100 to 0, but we won the second 300 to -100 and the third 200 to 0. They also enjoyed Parade and we also played that twice.
Steve and I then walked over to Nadine's, where we also found Emily and Eitan. We played one long game of Hawaii. I taught Steve, and simultaneously refreshed the rules for Eitan and Emily. And, as it turns out, corrected a few rule mistakes that Nadine had been playing with (update from Nadine: One rule wrong!).
I'm still not sure what the best strategy is, especially with five players. Of course, the strategies will vary depending on what is cheap and who else is going for the same things. I generally aim for two boats as soon as possible with some extra foot productions; in this game, I also got extra fruit production. Since only Nadine was competing with me for boats, and since she used them mostly for high victory point islands rather than for the utility tiles that the islands provide, there was little competition for my strategy. I also had three villages with kahunas, a few bonus points for fruits, hula dancers, and boats/surfers, and a bonus of 4 whenever I scored at the end of the round, which I did four times out of five. I was usually second to last place in turn order. I ended nearly 50 points ahead of the other players, who were all within ten points of each other.
Saturday, August 03, 2013
Shabbat Gaming
My brother Ben and kids came for shabbat. I played Antike with the younger two kids on Friday evening. I retaught the kids, but they remembered the rules if not any semblance of strategy. They did ok, but concentrated overly much on specific mechanics regardless of the amount of points that these mechanics achieved.
For instance, one of them was up to 17 marble production. That's not bad, but it took a while to get that, and by that time I was three points ahead and scoring nearly as quickly. The lights in my apt went out right before I was going to take my final turn and win by conquering one of his temples.
The next day I played Thunderstone with two of the kids. Similar story. I ended with 43 points, second place was 27.
In the afternoon David and Rosalynn from the game group dropped by. I taught them and Ben how to play Nefarious and everyone enjoyed it. Rosalynn had a quick start. Ben ultimately took the game. Our special rules were both for the Research phase: 1) no money, and b) "Draw 2 and keep 1".
Now that they knew the rules, we played again. This time Ben and I both hit 20 points exactly on the same turn. Ben was left with 3 coins and I had none, I had one card left and Ben had none. Fortunately for me (actually, it was planned), my one card cost 0 to play and gave me 2 points. Our special rules were a) 5 coins = 1 point, and b) a card without any special effects inherits the effects of the card you played prior to it (I like that one).
For our last game, I taught David (and refreshed Rosalynn) how to play Puerto Rico. I started with Settler/quarry, and there was no corn for Ben in second turn order. I grabbed the next corn, and we didn't see any more come out until the fourth Settler phase. I had a very early Factory (my second purchase), which I followed with Small Indigo, then Harbor, and then Small Sugar. No one had any tobacco until the end of the game.
Ben had an early coffee monopoly which David broke a turn or two later. This helped Ben keep up with me. Oddly enough, no one bought Small Market until turn five or six. Rosalynn picked one up because it was cheap, and David took the other a few rounds later because it was the only thing he could buy with a bunch of quarries but no cash. David had a Hacienda / Construction House / Hospice thing going. Ben shipped a lor (38 points) but had almost no buildings, ending with 50 points. I ended with two big buildings and 52 points. David took the only other big building and ended with 40something.
For instance, one of them was up to 17 marble production. That's not bad, but it took a while to get that, and by that time I was three points ahead and scoring nearly as quickly. The lights in my apt went out right before I was going to take my final turn and win by conquering one of his temples.
The next day I played Thunderstone with two of the kids. Similar story. I ended with 43 points, second place was 27.
In the afternoon David and Rosalynn from the game group dropped by. I taught them and Ben how to play Nefarious and everyone enjoyed it. Rosalynn had a quick start. Ben ultimately took the game. Our special rules were both for the Research phase: 1) no money, and b) "Draw 2 and keep 1".
Now that they knew the rules, we played again. This time Ben and I both hit 20 points exactly on the same turn. Ben was left with 3 coins and I had none, I had one card left and Ben had none. Fortunately for me (actually, it was planned), my one card cost 0 to play and gave me 2 points. Our special rules were a) 5 coins = 1 point, and b) a card without any special effects inherits the effects of the card you played prior to it (I like that one).
For our last game, I taught David (and refreshed Rosalynn) how to play Puerto Rico. I started with Settler/quarry, and there was no corn for Ben in second turn order. I grabbed the next corn, and we didn't see any more come out until the fourth Settler phase. I had a very early Factory (my second purchase), which I followed with Small Indigo, then Harbor, and then Small Sugar. No one had any tobacco until the end of the game.
Ben had an early coffee monopoly which David broke a turn or two later. This helped Ben keep up with me. Oddly enough, no one bought Small Market until turn five or six. Rosalynn picked one up because it was cheap, and David took the other a few rounds later because it was the only thing he could buy with a bunch of quarries but no cash. David had a Hacienda / Construction House / Hospice thing going. Ben shipped a lor (38 points) but had almost no buildings, ending with 50 points. I ended with two big buildings and 52 points. David took the only other big building and ended with 40something.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Shabbat Gaming / New Rule For It's Alive
I spent shabbat with my good friends David and Yael. Shira, their nine year old daughter, was also home. David is a semi-regular at the Jerusalem game group.
We started the evening with Shira telling me that she wants to play a great game with me that she has called It's Alive; she went goggly-eyed when I told her I had created it. We played the basic game after dinner with a new rule change:
The following new rule is an official variant for the game of It's Alive, and will be the standard rule in any new editions. On your turn, you can - instead of buying, selling, or auctioning the top card of the deck - buy a card from someone else's graveyard directly to your board. It costs the buy value + the sell value of the card. You can pay this cost using any combination of cards and/or coins. I.e.:
This replaces the entire double step procedure of first paying to bring the card to the center of the table and then buying, selling, or auctioning the card.
In the basic games, this means that cheap cards are nearly always bought from graveyards, and expensive ones more frequently. In the advanced game I suspect that duplicate cards will be auctioned more frequently and expensive cards fetched from graveyards more frequently.
We played the basic game and Shira won.
After this, David and I drafted Magic cards before bed. The next day we played with our decks. I had to play three colors and I was feeling pretty vulnerable with my deck because it had nothing against fliers except for a Serrated Arrows. I lost the first game quickly because I didn't draw more than two lands. But I won the next two games with one of those level up white guys who gives all of your other creatures +1/+1 . David didn't get many fliers out, and the one that he got out I killed with the arrows. So I basically won because I had the big white guy; when I drafted it, it was choice between him and an equipment that you could use to tap an equipped creature for any color mana.
We drafted again and played again, and this time I lost two games, both with large buildups, and once again I had nothing to take out his fliers.
On shabbat morning before lunch, Shira taught me Thirteen, a game that we played with a whole mess of cards from various decks, though I suspect that it should be played with two standard decks of playing cards. Shuffle both decks, including the jokers. Each player gets thirteen random cards face down in ordered slots, numbered one to thirteen. The first player picks a card and places this card face up in the slot corresponding to the card value (A is one, K is thirteen), then reveals the card that was face down in that slot. He goes again using the newly revealed card. This continues until he reveals a card that corresponds to a slot that is already revealed. He then discards the unusable (for him) card. In case you didn't notice this part of the game is exactly like the solitaire game Clock.
The second player takes the discard if he needs it and proceeds the same way. Otherwise, he draws from the top of the deck and proceeds the same way. Play continues this way until one person has finished his board. He sets aside the last revealed card to use in place of a draw on any later turn that he desires. He shuffles all of his cards in with the deck and the discard pile, deals out twelve cards (one less than the previous round) and continues. If he draws or reveals a King, he can't play it obviously.
This continues until a player has only one card left and then completes his board, whereupon he wins. Jokers can used for any card, and if you draw a card that goes into a slot with a face up joker, you can replace it and reuse the joker somewhere else.
There are two choices in the game. 1) when to use a card you set aside from a previous round. 2) where to place a Joker, the significance of which depends - very slightly - on what cards your opponent has already revealed. These choices are not significant.
Shira won, with some jokers to spare.
Later in the day we all played Cities and Knights of Catan. Shira needed some help understanding the cards and occasionally deciding where to place roads and settlements. She won this, too.
We started the evening with Shira telling me that she wants to play a great game with me that she has called It's Alive; she went goggly-eyed when I told her I had created it. We played the basic game after dinner with a new rule change:
The following new rule is an official variant for the game of It's Alive, and will be the standard rule in any new editions. On your turn, you can - instead of buying, selling, or auctioning the top card of the deck - buy a card from someone else's graveyard directly to your board. It costs the buy value + the sell value of the card. You can pay this cost using any combination of cards and/or coins. I.e.:
| Card value | Cost from grave |
|---|---|
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 7 |
| 6 | 9 |
| 7 | 10 |
| 8 | 12 |
| 9 | 13 |
| 10 | 15 |
This replaces the entire double step procedure of first paying to bring the card to the center of the table and then buying, selling, or auctioning the card.
In the basic games, this means that cheap cards are nearly always bought from graveyards, and expensive ones more frequently. In the advanced game I suspect that duplicate cards will be auctioned more frequently and expensive cards fetched from graveyards more frequently.
We played the basic game and Shira won.
After this, David and I drafted Magic cards before bed. The next day we played with our decks. I had to play three colors and I was feeling pretty vulnerable with my deck because it had nothing against fliers except for a Serrated Arrows. I lost the first game quickly because I didn't draw more than two lands. But I won the next two games with one of those level up white guys who gives all of your other creatures +1/+1 . David didn't get many fliers out, and the one that he got out I killed with the arrows. So I basically won because I had the big white guy; when I drafted it, it was choice between him and an equipment that you could use to tap an equipped creature for any color mana.
We drafted again and played again, and this time I lost two games, both with large buildups, and once again I had nothing to take out his fliers.
On shabbat morning before lunch, Shira taught me Thirteen, a game that we played with a whole mess of cards from various decks, though I suspect that it should be played with two standard decks of playing cards. Shuffle both decks, including the jokers. Each player gets thirteen random cards face down in ordered slots, numbered one to thirteen. The first player picks a card and places this card face up in the slot corresponding to the card value (A is one, K is thirteen), then reveals the card that was face down in that slot. He goes again using the newly revealed card. This continues until he reveals a card that corresponds to a slot that is already revealed. He then discards the unusable (for him) card. In case you didn't notice this part of the game is exactly like the solitaire game Clock.
The second player takes the discard if he needs it and proceeds the same way. Otherwise, he draws from the top of the deck and proceeds the same way. Play continues this way until one person has finished his board. He sets aside the last revealed card to use in place of a draw on any later turn that he desires. He shuffles all of his cards in with the deck and the discard pile, deals out twelve cards (one less than the previous round) and continues. If he draws or reveals a King, he can't play it obviously.
This continues until a player has only one card left and then completes his board, whereupon he wins. Jokers can used for any card, and if you draw a card that goes into a slot with a face up joker, you can replace it and reuse the joker somewhere else.
There are two choices in the game. 1) when to use a card you set aside from a previous round. 2) where to place a Joker, the significance of which depends - very slightly - on what cards your opponent has already revealed. These choices are not significant.
Shira won, with some jokers to spare.
Later in the day we all played Cities and Knights of Catan. Shira needed some help understanding the cards and occasionally deciding where to place roads and settlements. She won this, too.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Shabbat Gaming
I issued an open invite for people to come play games on shabbat. Nadine was over for shabbat; she was at our mutual friends on Friday evening where and when she and Noa played several games, including Thunderstone and Notre Dame. Nadine and Noa's family came for lunch, and so did David. Ben came in the afternoon, and so did Rosalyn and her husband and son. Tal joined us for a short time near the end of shabbat.
David's first modern game was Ticket to Ride, which I taught him a few weeks ago. He enjoyed it and seemed eager to play again or learn more new games. He has had experience with longer games (of the Avalon Hill variety) in his youth.
Before lunch, I taught him Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. He played black and won by killing Frodo. After lunch, Nadine, Noa, David, and I played Tribune. We played with an easy set of conditions. I had an ok first round but made terrible progress on all other rounds. Nadine won, with Noa only one laurel short of completing her conditions on the same turn. Nadine thinks she would have won on points anyway.
While we were on our last rounds, I taught Rosalyn and her family and Ben to play It's Alive. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Next, Ben, David, Nadine, and I played Carson City. David and Ben tied at fifty points, with David winning on turn order. I had 43 and Nadine had 41. I took Sheriff on the first round but only secured three points from him, which is kind of a waste. I ended up with control of nine squares on the board, but it wasn't enough to supplement my poor interim scoring. Ben and David had more guns, which gave them an edge, even though there was little fighting.
Meanwhile, I also played Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix with Rosalyn and her family. They picked it up ok, and we made it through two laps. I had the most money when we stopped.
For the last set of games, I taught Ben and David how to play Tichu and then I called and made a grand Tichu on the first hand (partnered with David). We only made it through a few hands.
Rosalyn, her son, and I also started Settlers of Catan, but it was slow going as they relearned the rules. Tal took over for me so I could concentrate on Tichu. Nadine eventually took over for Tal and Tal joined us. Shabbat drew to a close and we had to abandon both games midway.
David's first modern game was Ticket to Ride, which I taught him a few weeks ago. He enjoyed it and seemed eager to play again or learn more new games. He has had experience with longer games (of the Avalon Hill variety) in his youth.
Before lunch, I taught him Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. He played black and won by killing Frodo. After lunch, Nadine, Noa, David, and I played Tribune. We played with an easy set of conditions. I had an ok first round but made terrible progress on all other rounds. Nadine won, with Noa only one laurel short of completing her conditions on the same turn. Nadine thinks she would have won on points anyway.
While we were on our last rounds, I taught Rosalyn and her family and Ben to play It's Alive. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Next, Ben, David, Nadine, and I played Carson City. David and Ben tied at fifty points, with David winning on turn order. I had 43 and Nadine had 41. I took Sheriff on the first round but only secured three points from him, which is kind of a waste. I ended up with control of nine squares on the board, but it wasn't enough to supplement my poor interim scoring. Ben and David had more guns, which gave them an edge, even though there was little fighting.
Meanwhile, I also played Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix with Rosalyn and her family. They picked it up ok, and we made it through two laps. I had the most money when we stopped.
For the last set of games, I taught Ben and David how to play Tichu and then I called and made a grand Tichu on the first hand (partnered with David). We only made it through a few hands.
Rosalyn, her son, and I also started Settlers of Catan, but it was slow going as they relearned the rules. Tal took over for me so I could concentrate on Tichu. Nadine eventually took over for Tal and Tal joined us. Shabbat drew to a close and we had to abandon both games midway.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Shabbat Gaming
Nadine, Mace, and I played on shabbat afternoon.
I taught Mace how to play Homesteaders. I started with steel and gold buildings and some debt. All very nice, but this left me shy in money and trade goods, which I spent the next several rounds acquiring. Still, I didn't think I was doing too badly, as I was able to get the buildings I wanted in 3 of the last 4 rounds. Nadine, as usual, complained a blue streak, while she had Market, tons of trade tokens, and tons of cash, as well as the Bank which let her trade trade tokens for cash. She let too many auctions pass, however, and ended two points behind me.
Mace had the feel for the game from the get go. He passed on the first round and spent a lot of time calculating in later rounds. It paid off as he won 53 to 46 to 44.
After this Mace and I each played one of Nadine's training decks of Magic cards. Mace's was blue and artifacts, mine was green and white. The decks are pretty evenly matched. Mace had some early mana trouble. By the time he recovered, I was attacking with a band and all he could do was put up creatures to die. My pivotal card in play was a simple Elf Archer that for 1G could tap to keep one of his cards tapped (I kept his Tim tapped). I finally got through with a Giant that could lob forests to deal the last 2 points of damage.
I taught Mace how to play Homesteaders. I started with steel and gold buildings and some debt. All very nice, but this left me shy in money and trade goods, which I spent the next several rounds acquiring. Still, I didn't think I was doing too badly, as I was able to get the buildings I wanted in 3 of the last 4 rounds. Nadine, as usual, complained a blue streak, while she had Market, tons of trade tokens, and tons of cash, as well as the Bank which let her trade trade tokens for cash. She let too many auctions pass, however, and ended two points behind me.
Mace had the feel for the game from the get go. He passed on the first round and spent a lot of time calculating in later rounds. It paid off as he won 53 to 46 to 44.
After this Mace and I each played one of Nadine's training decks of Magic cards. Mace's was blue and artifacts, mine was green and white. The decks are pretty evenly matched. Mace had some early mana trouble. By the time he recovered, I was attacking with a band and all he could do was put up creatures to die. My pivotal card in play was a simple Elf Archer that for 1G could tap to keep one of his cards tapped (I kept his Tim tapped). I finally got through with a Giant that could lob forests to deal the last 2 points of damage.
Board Gamers and Volunteering: a Perfect Match
A worker in a local hospital let our synagogue know about a guy who is going to be stuck there for the foreseeable future. He has no local friends and no family in Israel. We organized some volunteers to visit. After my initial visit to get to know the guy and to see what he might enjoy playing, my next visit was to play a game of Scrabble (without scoring points). He enjoyed it, though he's not particularly good at it, and we agreed to have me teach him Go on my next visit. If that doesn't work, I'll try a few other games until we find one that works for him.
Board gamers have skills that include enjoying meeting new people and playing, teaching, and arousing interest in board games. These skills are in high demand at your local hospital, nursing home, or other facility housing mentally alert people who are desperately lonely and bored.
You have probably wondered at some point what you can contribute to others that doesn't involve a great deal of money or time. You probably live very close to one of the above types of facilities.
Pick a few simple age-appropriate games and go for a visit. You can adopt one person - a child whose family can't be there all day, an adult who has no family in the area, an elderly person - or you can invite anyone who is willing to play (and not throw the pieces) to join you. The visit might require some basic coordination with the child's parents or the hospital staff.
An hour or two visit each week is almost effortless and can make a big difference in someone else's life. Even if the facility has internet access for each patient, there is no substitute for face-to-face contact. You get to play games and do something good at the same time.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Shabbaton Gaming: Merkator, Hanabi, etc
My Jerusalem community spent shabbat at the Poriah youth hostel overlooking the Kinneret. The view was beautiful; unfortunately, there was a heatwave all weekend, so I spent all of Friday and shabbat inside. Still, I had a lovely shabbat with a great group of warm, spiritual, supportive people. Can't really do better than that.
Friday evening Nadine and I tried Merkator. First play for both of us. Uwe's rules are getting simpler, but the number of components in the box and the complexity of play remain voluminous. This game comes with 9 little folding boxes in which to place the roughly 400 wooden cubes of 8 colors and some additional tokens (his previous games had just as many pieces but they were just heaped onto or beside the board).
From the box, the game looks like it might be a route delivery game, but it is not. Each turn you pick a destination, take the cubes there (adding bonus cubes if you have any bonus cards for that destination), distribute cubes in other destinations, take or pay some "time tokens", and then fulfill any contracts that you have for that destination and for which you have the cubes. Fulfilling a contract gives you a new higher value contract; you keep the old one but you pay the cubes. A contract is worth its value in points at the end of the game or in money if you sell it during the game. Since you can only have 5 contracts at the beginning of your turn, you are always selling off the smaller ones.
Money is used to buy bonus cards that give you more cubes in certain destinations and "buildings" which are end scoring cards for certain conditions, like X points for a certain number or arrangement of cubes or cards.
There are two more rules, neither of which I particularly like. The first is that, on another player's turn, you can fulfill contracts at the space that he went to by paying some time counters. This means that on your turn you have to be aware of every contract of every other player and calculate not only how much you get from picking a certain place but how much every other player will get if you pick it. The second is that after every three or four time counters taken from the supply, everyone randomly loses 1 or 2 cubes. In our game we always had piles of cubes, so this didn't do much damage. If it had done damage, it would have been worse, since it simply randomly screws one person for little sensible reason.
There are some fiddly rules thrown in that look like the result of balance issues that must have arisen during play-testing. It's over when the last time counter is chosen or the first top-level contract is fulfilled. Everyone gets one more turn.
The game bogged down near the end as we had to evaluate the best net differential in points on our turn. Despite this, the game was interesting and enjoyable. As Nadine noted, there are no (or almost no) negative effects (like starvation in Agricola), which makes everything either a benefit or a bigger benefit. The calculation is very heavy; not mathematically, but cube to cube to point swapping.
As I mentioned, I didn't really like the "joining in" mechanic or the cube loss mechanic. The rule book suggests that you can play without the cube loss. I was also skeptical of the time counter mechanic; I didn't see what this added to the game, although I was always short of them and Nadine always had many of them. I'll see how this goes on the next play.
Overall, not for the squeamish, and not for the AP prone, but rewarding to see your contract levels grow turn by turn.
The next day I played and fairly quickly won a game of Chess against a 9 or 10 year old boy, who lost graciously.
Later on he joined Nadine and me as we played Magic. Nadine has a limited supply of cards for learning purposes. For some reason her decks were each 47 cards. I stripped out 7 unnecessary cards from each deck. We played and then swapped decks and played again. I won both times, but the second time was because she got mana screwed.
Some teenagers joined us and I brought out Hanabi. I had played it once at a BGG.con. This is a cooperative game where you can't see your own cards. Each turn you either give clues to the other players (the team loses a blue chip), discard a card (the team gains a blue chip), or play a card. You have to discard or play when you run out of blue chips (you start with 8). If you play a bad card, you lose a red chip (you start with 3). You win if you play 25 cards correctly. We did our best, trying to remember all the time not to look at our own cards. We totally sucked at the game and lost fairly quickly. I think we all liked it anyway.
Having taught the girls a game, they decided to teach me a game: Pounce. Everyone plays with a complete deck of cards and has 5 piles, once of which is the Pounce pile. Whenever another pile opens up, you can take a card from your Pounce pile and put it into the open spot. You can stack cards like Klondike on your own piles (black 2 on red 3, etc) or place them in ascending order on any pile in the center, like Spit. Every ace can be played to the center, so there may be a dozen or more piles in the center onto which to place cards. A pile is removed when completed with a king. Players cycle through their decks three cards at a time, repeating as required.
Toward the middle of the game, the play gets bogged down until someone manages to find a card to play, which either leads to a trickle or a flood of new cards played. In this way it's a lot like Klondike.
The game is over when someone's Pounce pile is empty for any reason. Your score is the number of cards you played during the game minus the number of cards left in your Pounce pile.
After Pounce, the girls taught me an unnamed card game that they created. It was, astonishingly, not bad; given the number of bad games that I have received to review, that's high praise. I made a suggestion for the starting positions in the game; they had designed this to be random, but I felt that a random start had the potential to be highly unfair. The rest of the game was making piles and placing blocking cards on your opponent's piles, and it worked. I hope they continue to develop it and other games.
I saw another family at the hostel, not from our group, playing Settlers of Catan and went to talk to them about it.
Lastly I played a game of Scrabble with an avid player (right after Nadine finished a game with his wife). It's really a much better experience playing off the computer; I don't like playing where you can't play a word that isn't in the dictionary (the computer won't let you), which allows you to play hundreds of sequences of letters until you happen to find one that the computer will accept. In our game, I got out a good bingo that crossed with a questionable looking word that he challenged. It was an acceptable word (YAR) so I got to go again. This time I played another questionable word that he didn't challenge. It turned out to not be an acceptable word. You can't do things like that online.
From the box, the game looks like it might be a route delivery game, but it is not. Each turn you pick a destination, take the cubes there (adding bonus cubes if you have any bonus cards for that destination), distribute cubes in other destinations, take or pay some "time tokens", and then fulfill any contracts that you have for that destination and for which you have the cubes. Fulfilling a contract gives you a new higher value contract; you keep the old one but you pay the cubes. A contract is worth its value in points at the end of the game or in money if you sell it during the game. Since you can only have 5 contracts at the beginning of your turn, you are always selling off the smaller ones.
Money is used to buy bonus cards that give you more cubes in certain destinations and "buildings" which are end scoring cards for certain conditions, like X points for a certain number or arrangement of cubes or cards.
There are two more rules, neither of which I particularly like. The first is that, on another player's turn, you can fulfill contracts at the space that he went to by paying some time counters. This means that on your turn you have to be aware of every contract of every other player and calculate not only how much you get from picking a certain place but how much every other player will get if you pick it. The second is that after every three or four time counters taken from the supply, everyone randomly loses 1 or 2 cubes. In our game we always had piles of cubes, so this didn't do much damage. If it had done damage, it would have been worse, since it simply randomly screws one person for little sensible reason.
There are some fiddly rules thrown in that look like the result of balance issues that must have arisen during play-testing. It's over when the last time counter is chosen or the first top-level contract is fulfilled. Everyone gets one more turn.
The game bogged down near the end as we had to evaluate the best net differential in points on our turn. Despite this, the game was interesting and enjoyable. As Nadine noted, there are no (or almost no) negative effects (like starvation in Agricola), which makes everything either a benefit or a bigger benefit. The calculation is very heavy; not mathematically, but cube to cube to point swapping.
As I mentioned, I didn't really like the "joining in" mechanic or the cube loss mechanic. The rule book suggests that you can play without the cube loss. I was also skeptical of the time counter mechanic; I didn't see what this added to the game, although I was always short of them and Nadine always had many of them. I'll see how this goes on the next play.
Overall, not for the squeamish, and not for the AP prone, but rewarding to see your contract levels grow turn by turn.
The next day I played and fairly quickly won a game of Chess against a 9 or 10 year old boy, who lost graciously.
Later on he joined Nadine and me as we played Magic. Nadine has a limited supply of cards for learning purposes. For some reason her decks were each 47 cards. I stripped out 7 unnecessary cards from each deck. We played and then swapped decks and played again. I won both times, but the second time was because she got mana screwed.
Having taught the girls a game, they decided to teach me a game: Pounce. Everyone plays with a complete deck of cards and has 5 piles, once of which is the Pounce pile. Whenever another pile opens up, you can take a card from your Pounce pile and put it into the open spot. You can stack cards like Klondike on your own piles (black 2 on red 3, etc) or place them in ascending order on any pile in the center, like Spit. Every ace can be played to the center, so there may be a dozen or more piles in the center onto which to place cards. A pile is removed when completed with a king. Players cycle through their decks three cards at a time, repeating as required.
Toward the middle of the game, the play gets bogged down until someone manages to find a card to play, which either leads to a trickle or a flood of new cards played. In this way it's a lot like Klondike.
The game is over when someone's Pounce pile is empty for any reason. Your score is the number of cards you played during the game minus the number of cards left in your Pounce pile.
After Pounce, the girls taught me an unnamed card game that they created. It was, astonishingly, not bad; given the number of bad games that I have received to review, that's high praise. I made a suggestion for the starting positions in the game; they had designed this to be random, but I felt that a random start had the potential to be highly unfair. The rest of the game was making piles and placing blocking cards on your opponent's piles, and it worked. I hope they continue to develop it and other games.
I saw another family at the hostel, not from our group, playing Settlers of Catan and went to talk to them about it.
Lastly I played a game of Scrabble with an avid player (right after Nadine finished a game with his wife). It's really a much better experience playing off the computer; I don't like playing where you can't play a word that isn't in the dictionary (the computer won't let you), which allows you to play hundreds of sequences of letters until you happen to find one that the computer will accept. In our game, I got out a good bingo that crossed with a questionable looking word that he challenged. It was an acceptable word (YAR) so I got to go again. This time I played another questionable word that he didn't challenge. It turned out to not be an acceptable word. You can't do things like that online.
Monday, May 06, 2013
Weekend Apples
Not my apple pie, though my guests asked for my recipe, but the game Apples to Apples, which occupied six of us for over an hour after lunch. First play for everyone except for me and Tal. One of the kids, aged 16, either acted - or perhaps was - disturbed by the judge's selection on various turns and threatened to leave the game/throw the judge out of the game. Explicably, he remained in the game nonetheless.
Before lunch I taught four of them how to play No Thanks. Unfortunately, one of them was a Very Young Child whose grasp of the game was just enough to realize that she could take all of the cards if she wanted to. And she did. And she did.
Before lunch I taught four of them how to play No Thanks. Unfortunately, one of them was a Very Young Child whose grasp of the game was just enough to realize that she could take all of the cards if she wanted to. And she did. And she did.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Weekend Gamings
Last week, my mom came for her second visit to my apt in Raanana. While it rained, we played 500 Rummy, which she won handily, and Scrabble, which I won handily (she was leading for the first third or so). She was surprised that I didn't know the word ROE.
This weekend I joined a great many of my family for a bar mitzvah in Jerusalem. We played Bridge a number of times, which is no more than expected. I taught some of them how to play Nefarious. Just like the last Raanana game night, they wanted to play a second time after having gotten comfortable on the first playing. The same guy won both games. In the first game he had 4 minions on Invent; in the second game he had 3 on it. I'm not sure if concentrating your minions on Invent is the smart move, but it's hard to argue with success.
I then taught some of them how to play Tichu, and we played a few rounds; not enough to really grasp the strategies. One of the players was one of my brother's sons, and he didn't care for the game after two rounds and quit. He is a Bridge fan, and didn't seem to have any patience to learn another 4 player card game. One of the other players was one of his friends, who seemed to like it. He DOESN'T like Bridge, so he was happy to have another card game to play instead (he's also the guy who won both games of Nefarious). The last was my older brother, and after the few rounds of play he seemed somewhat intrigued. I think he will be willing to play again.
This weekend I joined a great many of my family for a bar mitzvah in Jerusalem. We played Bridge a number of times, which is no more than expected. I taught some of them how to play Nefarious. Just like the last Raanana game night, they wanted to play a second time after having gotten comfortable on the first playing. The same guy won both games. In the first game he had 4 minions on Invent; in the second game he had 3 on it. I'm not sure if concentrating your minions on Invent is the smart move, but it's hard to argue with success.
I then taught some of them how to play Tichu, and we played a few rounds; not enough to really grasp the strategies. One of the players was one of my brother's sons, and he didn't care for the game after two rounds and quit. He is a Bridge fan, and didn't seem to have any patience to learn another 4 player card game. One of the other players was one of his friends, who seemed to like it. He DOESN'T like Bridge, so he was happy to have another card game to play instead (he's also the guy who won both games of Nefarious). The last was my older brother, and after the few rounds of play he seemed somewhat intrigued. I think he will be willing to play again.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Catching Up On Games Played
Last day of Pesach
At a friend's house, their daughter is particularly into Dominion. She has the base game, Seaside, and Cornucopia. I'd never played the latter, so she, I, and Nadine played a game with all Cornucopia cards: Fairgrounds, Farming Village, Fortune Teller, Hamlet, Horn of Plenty, Hunting Party, Jester, Menagerie, Remake, and Tournament.
When all the cards come from this expansion, you really have no choice but to play the "correct" strategy, which is to gain one of as many types of cards as possible. Maybe if you only add one or two cards from this set this won't be the case; then again, maybe these cards won't then be very desirable.
In the afternoon I taught Nadine how to play Magic. Actually, she had half learned how to play a previous time, but she hadn't played. She was surprised at the depth of the game, although not entirely since she knew how much David and I liked the game. She intends to borrow some cards and start playing with Gili.
Shabbat in Jerusalem
I brought a new player (Marne) over to play at Nadine's house in the afternoon. She was highly nervous, having not played any modern games and afraid that they would be too much for her. When I saw the game that Nadine had picked out (Walnut Grove) for her first game, I was also nervous. Thankfully she had a great time; I don't know if she had a "join the weekly game group 'good time'" but still.
This was my first play of Walnut Grove since BGG.con over a year ago, and the first play for both Mace and Marne. Nadine has played a few times, but some of those times were with the wrong rules. This is not entirely her fault, since several of the rules are written vaguely, and there is no way to know what the author means. I will have to look on BGG for clarifications, if I can find any.
As I said, it went well. Actually, I fared a little better than I did the last time I played, though I still came in last place (Mace won). I was calculating before the game started as to how to turn cubes into more cubes and how many cubes to each victory point. It didn't help me win, but I felt like I had more control over what was happening. I played a starvation strategy, collecting people and improvement tiles together with 6 begging tiles. Not counting the begging cards, I had the highest score, but I dropped to just behind third place after these were counted. I will have to try something new next time.
When I suggested Tichu for the next game, it was Nadine's turn to be nervous, but Marne picked up the rules by the end of the first hand. She appears to be a natural gamer. With just a little strategy suggestion here and there, she knew how to play and why most of the time. This was Mace's second time playing. Nadine called and (barely) made the only Tichu. We all had a great time.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Gaming with Bro and Co
Just to catch up, last week I played Anagrams with our resident expert, who again wiped the floor with me (and two other players). She's just amazing; she calls out a word., and as she is collecting the tiles she
s already transforming the word into another one.
This weekend I went to my brother's. His kids are still young and insatiable players. Friday night after dinner we played some Progressive Rummy. My mom won. Sat after lunch I taught two of them how to play Thunderstone; they had already played Dominion many times. They are sharper than they look, understanding all the rules immediately, except for how to add the attack values. I suspect that this was due more to laziness than from an inability to understand the rules. I won the first game handily but the second game was closer.
Thunderstone takes a ridiculously long time to set up, and the two games took a long while to play, after which I was pretty much spent. Still, I taught and played a few rounds of No Thanks ( I won the first game handily but the second game was closer), and then a hand or two of three-player Bridge. Around me, kids were playing other card games with various types of decks as well as Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. I also heard calls for Cosmic Encounter, but we didn't get to it.
s already transforming the word into another one.
This weekend I went to my brother's. His kids are still young and insatiable players. Friday night after dinner we played some Progressive Rummy. My mom won. Sat after lunch I taught two of them how to play Thunderstone; they had already played Dominion many times. They are sharper than they look, understanding all the rules immediately, except for how to add the attack values. I suspect that this was due more to laziness than from an inability to understand the rules. I won the first game handily but the second game was closer.
Thunderstone takes a ridiculously long time to set up, and the two games took a long while to play, after which I was pretty much spent. Still, I taught and played a few rounds of No Thanks ( I won the first game handily but the second game was closer), and then a hand or two of three-player Bridge. Around me, kids were playing other card games with various types of decks as well as Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers. I also heard calls for Cosmic Encounter, but we didn't get to it.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Purim News: Israel and the Settlements (of Catan)
The Jerusalem Post weighs in with Purim news about Israel and the settlements (and games).
I taught my brother and his kids how to play Ticket to Ride (with the 1910 expansion) today. The kids liked it and I think they will be picking up a copy eventually. One of the kids was ridiculously lucky, picking up tickets near the end of the gsme that fit all of his already existing routes. Meanwhile, my routes were all on the East Coast and the tickets I drew near the end were all on the west coast (and the least points was 12, so I lost 12 from the draw).
The previous shabbat, Nadine, Eitan and Emily (just before Emily gave birth), and I played La Citta. They were not impressed. La Citta is a prime example where the necessity of doing multiple calculations is used as a core mechanism. Calculations is not tactics or strategy, it's busy work.
I still like the game, more than they did.
I taught my brother and his kids how to play Ticket to Ride (with the 1910 expansion) today. The kids liked it and I think they will be picking up a copy eventually. One of the kids was ridiculously lucky, picking up tickets near the end of the gsme that fit all of his already existing routes. Meanwhile, my routes were all on the East Coast and the tickets I drew near the end were all on the west coast (and the least points was 12, so I lost 12 from the draw).
The previous shabbat, Nadine, Eitan and Emily (just before Emily gave birth), and I played La Citta. They were not impressed. La Citta is a prime example where the necessity of doing multiple calculations is used as a core mechanism. Calculations is not tactics or strategy, it's busy work.
I still like the game, more than they did.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Some Games
I played Thunderstone with Nadine. She picked up six Trainers at the start, while my draws wouldn't let me get more than 1 in my first three turns. I instead sacrificed four Militias to a monster that made all the attacking heroes have -2 strength. That put her ahead in XP and me ahead in tuning my deck. It was a close game (I occasionally noted to her a more optimal play, like when she tried to trash a dagger, overlooking that she had a disease in her hand). Final result was 47 (me) to 42.
Nadine, my mom, and I played Bridge, with Nadine taking over two hands. It is frustrating to forget so many of the nuances of the standard bidding system after not playing for so long. I need to play this regularly, not once every few months.
Last week I played Go with Anne, giving her a two stone starting advantage on a 9x9 board. She had played once or twice before a long time ago, so this was a refresher game. As expected, she played well. The end game had her up a point on the board, but I had captured many more stones. I very nearly lost an entire swath of the board by not paying attention. Another game that deserves real attention, and not a play every few months.
I also played some more No Thanks and Parade, teaching them to new players. Both were enjoyed, but oddly enough Parade went over slightly better, there being more scope for planning, or so I was informed.
I've been enjoying playing Hawaii for several weeks, and so have some people at the JSGC, but no one in the Raanana club liked the game. for some reason.
Nadine, my mom, and I played Bridge, with Nadine taking over two hands. It is frustrating to forget so many of the nuances of the standard bidding system after not playing for so long. I need to play this regularly, not once every few months.
Last week I played Go with Anne, giving her a two stone starting advantage on a 9x9 board. She had played once or twice before a long time ago, so this was a refresher game. As expected, she played well. The end game had her up a point on the board, but I had captured many more stones. I very nearly lost an entire swath of the board by not paying attention. Another game that deserves real attention, and not a play every few months.
I also played some more No Thanks and Parade, teaching them to new players. Both were enjoyed, but oddly enough Parade went over slightly better, there being more scope for planning, or so I was informed.
I've been enjoying playing Hawaii for several weeks, and so have some people at the JSGC, but no one in the Raanana club liked the game. for some reason.
Sunday, January 06, 2013
A Little Bit Like Ajiaco Bogatano and a Lot Like Rummikub
On the many occasions that I have been invited to Abe and Sara's over the years, I always asked her if what she was serving was representative of native Colombian cuisine. It never was, and this became a running joke: Native Colombian challah and hummus! I would say, or Oh, Colombian Coca-Cola!
I told her that one day we were going to have a meal of Colombian food, even if I had to cook it myself. Seeing as this was the last time that we (and some friends) would be sharing a shabbat meal for some time, I decided to cook Colombian cuisine as a going away present.
The problem with cooking Colombian in Israel is that a number of essential Colombian ingredients are not available in Israel, such as plantains, yuca, guascas, and so on. So I either had to choose recipes that didn't require these ingredients or substitute and fudge the flavors. My menu included Ajiaco Bogotano (chicken, corn, and potato soup with garnishes including Aji (cilatnro, pepper, and onion)), empanadas, chorizos, beef skewers, roast "Columbian-style" chicken, guacamole, hummus with roast pepper, and coconut rice, as well as salad and so on.
The results were a true mixture of classic success and failure.
Sara didn't recognize most of the dishes. What's this? she asked. When I said It's a classic Colombian dish, she would say It is? Ok, so apparently the native Colombian didn't recognize anything I cooked as actually Colombian. Luckily it was mostly tasty anyway. Sara recognized the coconut rice as Colombian, but I didn't use enough coconut milk, and she is used to a presentation that includes coconut shavings and the rice served in a ball.
My ajiaco presentation was correct. I brought out garnishes of shredded chicken, capers, sliced avocado, and aji (she didn't recognize aji; also, I couldn't use sour cream, since this was a meat soup), and even before I brought the soup out she asked Oh, did you try to make ajiaco?
Real ajiaco requires three different types of potatoes, at least one is a specific variety that you can't get here, as well as the herb guascas. Real ajiaco is also boiled down to a thick cream, whereas mine was more soupy. And anyway, ajiaco comes from Bogota- which is the capital of Colombia - but not from the region of Colombia from which Sara comes, so she didn't actually grow up eating it. Nevertheless, it's one of her favorite dishes (when she would go to Bogota). And while my soup didn't taste much like Ajiaco Bogotano, it was similar and familiar enough to make her happy.
After dinner we split into two groups. Nadine, Eitan, and Emily played Thunderstone. First plays for Eitan and Emily, who didn't like it that much. Eitan prefers games where the scores are visible during the game so that he knows how to pace his strategy (when to ramp up and when to cash out).
Sara, Anne, and I played Castles of Burgundy. First plays for both of them, third play for me. Both Thunderstone and CoB have long setup times and lots of moving parts, but during play the turns flow fairly smoothly. CoB is beginning to make more sense to me. It still seems to be one phase too long. Thankfully, by the last phase we were all playing fairly quickly, so it was soon over. In the last phase I completed a large district or two which jumped me ahead some 30 points from where we were all clustered in the scoring.
The next day's lunch was with two families each of whom had four children. I didn't bring games with me, but two of the kids engaged me in a game of Rummikub. Often, the finagling of the melds are held up by the lack of a few key tiles. The first to draw one of the tiles and recognize what to do with it then goes out. The following player is usually then able to go out immediately after, or at least would be able to if the game were to continue. That's what happened with us.
This was followed by Crazy Eights where the rules changed (not by me) whenever it looked like I had won.
I told her that one day we were going to have a meal of Colombian food, even if I had to cook it myself. Seeing as this was the last time that we (and some friends) would be sharing a shabbat meal for some time, I decided to cook Colombian cuisine as a going away present.
The problem with cooking Colombian in Israel is that a number of essential Colombian ingredients are not available in Israel, such as plantains, yuca, guascas, and so on. So I either had to choose recipes that didn't require these ingredients or substitute and fudge the flavors. My menu included Ajiaco Bogotano (chicken, corn, and potato soup with garnishes including Aji (cilatnro, pepper, and onion)), empanadas, chorizos, beef skewers, roast "Columbian-style" chicken, guacamole, hummus with roast pepper, and coconut rice, as well as salad and so on.
The results were a true mixture of classic success and failure.
Sara didn't recognize most of the dishes. What's this? she asked. When I said It's a classic Colombian dish, she would say It is? Ok, so apparently the native Colombian didn't recognize anything I cooked as actually Colombian. Luckily it was mostly tasty anyway. Sara recognized the coconut rice as Colombian, but I didn't use enough coconut milk, and she is used to a presentation that includes coconut shavings and the rice served in a ball.
My ajiaco presentation was correct. I brought out garnishes of shredded chicken, capers, sliced avocado, and aji (she didn't recognize aji; also, I couldn't use sour cream, since this was a meat soup), and even before I brought the soup out she asked Oh, did you try to make ajiaco?
Real ajiaco requires three different types of potatoes, at least one is a specific variety that you can't get here, as well as the herb guascas. Real ajiaco is also boiled down to a thick cream, whereas mine was more soupy. And anyway, ajiaco comes from Bogota- which is the capital of Colombia - but not from the region of Colombia from which Sara comes, so she didn't actually grow up eating it. Nevertheless, it's one of her favorite dishes (when she would go to Bogota). And while my soup didn't taste much like Ajiaco Bogotano, it was similar and familiar enough to make her happy.
After dinner we split into two groups. Nadine, Eitan, and Emily played Thunderstone. First plays for Eitan and Emily, who didn't like it that much. Eitan prefers games where the scores are visible during the game so that he knows how to pace his strategy (when to ramp up and when to cash out).
Sara, Anne, and I played Castles of Burgundy. First plays for both of them, third play for me. Both Thunderstone and CoB have long setup times and lots of moving parts, but during play the turns flow fairly smoothly. CoB is beginning to make more sense to me. It still seems to be one phase too long. Thankfully, by the last phase we were all playing fairly quickly, so it was soon over. In the last phase I completed a large district or two which jumped me ahead some 30 points from where we were all clustered in the scoring.
The next day's lunch was with two families each of whom had four children. I didn't bring games with me, but two of the kids engaged me in a game of Rummikub. Often, the finagling of the melds are held up by the lack of a few key tiles. The first to draw one of the tiles and recognize what to do with it then goes out. The following player is usually then able to go out immediately after, or at least would be able to if the game were to continue. That's what happened with us.
This was followed by Crazy Eights where the rules changed (not by me) whenever it looked like I had won.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Shabbat Gaming
Last shabbat after dinner I played Anagrams using Snatch-It tiles with Raanana's reigning Anagrams queen Shuli and her friend Janine, also no slouch. I used to think I was good at the game. This time I was surprised that I nearly held my own. I came in third, only a word or two down from Janine, who was a word or two down from Shuli.
After lunch I played Settlers of Catan with Anne, Sarah, and Noa. First play for Anne, astoundingly first or second play for Sarah (who has been playing games for some time now, and first time playing with the correct rules for Noa (who is a Dominion fan but doesn't know much else about gaming).
Experience and a little luck still holds some sway. I carefully promoted trading as a worthwhile endeavor, warned against trading with the leading player, especially when he or she is at 7 points or higher, and encouraged them to gang up on me.
Anne played aggressively, immediately going to block routes or steal board locations that other players needed. She claimed that she just played the best moves for herself and not deliberately to be aggressive. I've heard that before from a lioness ripping the meat out of a zebra. Sarah ended up boxed in with only two spots to which to expand, which can be difficult (though not impossible).
I had only three spots, but I only needed two. A series of 5s rolled early, each of which gave me 2 bricks and 2 wood, allowed me to plunk down an early 9-length Longest Road. I would not typically pick up Longest Road early in the game, but I felt that the large gap I had over the other players made it unlikely that I would get into a road building war with anyone else (and thus let a third player win, which is what usually happens to road builders).
This worked. I was able to keep my longest road to the end of the game and plunk down my fourth city for the win. The other players all had hidden victory point cards and 7, 8, or 9 points. I think they didn't realize that there were only 5 points (and Largest Army) to go around in the development card deck; they might have (should have) built a few more cities first before going for the cards.
This shabbat after dinner I played a few card games with Anne and a few kids at their house after dinner. I taught them how to play Oh Hell. We played to the end and I came in second. Then I taught them how to play Hearts. We played five rounds, no moons shot. We were all in our thirties or so when we had to quit.
After lunch I played Settlers of Catan with Anne, Sarah, and Noa. First play for Anne, astoundingly first or second play for Sarah (who has been playing games for some time now, and first time playing with the correct rules for Noa (who is a Dominion fan but doesn't know much else about gaming).
Experience and a little luck still holds some sway. I carefully promoted trading as a worthwhile endeavor, warned against trading with the leading player, especially when he or she is at 7 points or higher, and encouraged them to gang up on me.
Anne played aggressively, immediately going to block routes or steal board locations that other players needed. She claimed that she just played the best moves for herself and not deliberately to be aggressive. I've heard that before from a lioness ripping the meat out of a zebra. Sarah ended up boxed in with only two spots to which to expand, which can be difficult (though not impossible).
I had only three spots, but I only needed two. A series of 5s rolled early, each of which gave me 2 bricks and 2 wood, allowed me to plunk down an early 9-length Longest Road. I would not typically pick up Longest Road early in the game, but I felt that the large gap I had over the other players made it unlikely that I would get into a road building war with anyone else (and thus let a third player win, which is what usually happens to road builders).
This worked. I was able to keep my longest road to the end of the game and plunk down my fourth city for the win. The other players all had hidden victory point cards and 7, 8, or 9 points. I think they didn't realize that there were only 5 points (and Largest Army) to go around in the development card deck; they might have (should have) built a few more cities first before going for the cards.
This shabbat after dinner I played a few card games with Anne and a few kids at their house after dinner. I taught them how to play Oh Hell. We played to the end and I came in second. Then I taught them how to play Hearts. We played five rounds, no moons shot. We were all in our thirties or so when we had to quit.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Long Distance Antike with Chris and Jim
Last night I played Antike with two friends on a different continent. We didn't play an online board game; we played by video chat with four video cameras and three copies of the game, one at each location.
Chris lives in Oregon. Jim lives in Indiana. I live in Raanana, Israel. This was not our first long distance game. Four years ago, we arranged for Chris and Jim to set up a game at BGG.con so that I could play "at the con" when I wasn't able to make it. This year the internet reception at BGG.con was spotty, and scheduling was difficult, so we delayed the game a few weeks. On that occasion, we played Agricola.
Face to face is best, of course, since you get to see your friends, pass around a beer, and need control only a single board state. Online gaming generally has only text chat, which removes most of the social element from the game. Also, in online games, you are subject to the occasional implementation issue, such as an interface error. Playing by video chat neatly fits into the space between these two options. We could see the other person in a limited way when we looked at the screen, although we generally looked at our own board. We could talk in real time, and even wave at the other players' families in the background when they came in to gawk at us geeks. The copied board states ensured that no errors were made during play.
The game took two and a half hours, including setting up the communications and the boards, resetting the communications to remove some static and mic problems, and a bathroom break. We used Google+ Hangout (although we toyed with using Skype). Chris used two cameras, one for himself and one for the main board.
Pics that Jim's and Chris's wives took are on my Facebook profile.
We played on the Middle Eastern map. I played Arabia (southeast), Jim played Persia (central north), and Chris played Greece (central west). Chris and I had similar strategies of early Know-Hows; Chris beat me to the first one and stayed about a turn and a half in front of me until near the end of the game. We each took one south side of the board. Jim played a heavy expansion strategy, quickly expanding to 15 and then 20 cities across the north, and then he armed himself and created a military front to protect his territories, which bulged in an arc across the entire north of the board and down into the center. However, having missed all of the early Know-How points, he lagged behind in points for most of the game.
I get the feeling that both of them are used to more conflict in the game. In our game, not a single city was conquered. In fact, the only fight that occurred was when I swapped some ships with Jim so that I could place a ship near his city, not to conquer it but to get the second "7 ships" award. Near the end, Chris expanded to get the last "5 city" award, which brought him to withing a point of victory, but I collected the "All eight Know-Hows" (worth a free point) and then got my 14th sea location on my next turn. The game ended 10 to 9 to 6 (or 7).
As usual, this was a great time spent with two amazing people whom I rarely see or interact with face to face. The conversation was game oriented mostly, but the game was really an excuse to get together. Hooray for games, and for video chat, and for good companions.
Chris lives in Oregon. Jim lives in Indiana. I live in Raanana, Israel. This was not our first long distance game. Four years ago, we arranged for Chris and Jim to set up a game at BGG.con so that I could play "at the con" when I wasn't able to make it. This year the internet reception at BGG.con was spotty, and scheduling was difficult, so we delayed the game a few weeks. On that occasion, we played Agricola.
Face to face is best, of course, since you get to see your friends, pass around a beer, and need control only a single board state. Online gaming generally has only text chat, which removes most of the social element from the game. Also, in online games, you are subject to the occasional implementation issue, such as an interface error. Playing by video chat neatly fits into the space between these two options. We could see the other person in a limited way when we looked at the screen, although we generally looked at our own board. We could talk in real time, and even wave at the other players' families in the background when they came in to gawk at us geeks. The copied board states ensured that no errors were made during play.
The game took two and a half hours, including setting up the communications and the boards, resetting the communications to remove some static and mic problems, and a bathroom break. We used Google+ Hangout (although we toyed with using Skype). Chris used two cameras, one for himself and one for the main board.
Pics that Jim's and Chris's wives took are on my Facebook profile.
We played on the Middle Eastern map. I played Arabia (southeast), Jim played Persia (central north), and Chris played Greece (central west). Chris and I had similar strategies of early Know-Hows; Chris beat me to the first one and stayed about a turn and a half in front of me until near the end of the game. We each took one south side of the board. Jim played a heavy expansion strategy, quickly expanding to 15 and then 20 cities across the north, and then he armed himself and created a military front to protect his territories, which bulged in an arc across the entire north of the board and down into the center. However, having missed all of the early Know-How points, he lagged behind in points for most of the game.
I get the feeling that both of them are used to more conflict in the game. In our game, not a single city was conquered. In fact, the only fight that occurred was when I swapped some ships with Jim so that I could place a ship near his city, not to conquer it but to get the second "7 ships" award. Near the end, Chris expanded to get the last "5 city" award, which brought him to withing a point of victory, but I collected the "All eight Know-Hows" (worth a free point) and then got my 14th sea location on my next turn. The game ended 10 to 9 to 6 (or 7).
As usual, this was a great time spent with two amazing people whom I rarely see or interact with face to face. The conversation was game oriented mostly, but the game was really an excuse to get together. Hooray for games, and for video chat, and for good companions.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Shabbat Game: Alien Frontiers
I introduced five other people to Alien Frontiers on shabbat; two of the other "players" were actually teams. I had brought the game because I knew there would be a newbie, an up-until-now non-gamer who was nevertheless interested in trying out some games and who is particularly intelligent. I thought AF would be a good choice. It's actually a little dry as far as gateway games go; Settlers would have been better (as always).
AF is not a terribly long game, in theory, but my players tend to take a little longer than average. In this game, that little longer was a lot longer. Each turn took five minutes or more. Wow. I also made a few mistakes in the game explanation, having only played the game three times previously. These were corrected as the game went on with the occasional referral to the rulebook. The most egregious oversight was that players only receive 6 bases at the start; I had simply handed out all nine bases (we used the Kickstarter-supplied bonus rocket ships on the scoring track). After one player already had 4 bases settled we discovered the oversight and the end game was suddenly approaching a lot sooner.
Two of the players started the game with the force field card. That left the other two players, including me, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. Which left me, the only experienced player, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. By coincidence, the two of us without the force field cards started with the +1 VP cards, which are useless at the start of the game.
After the great oversight discovery, I sacrificed two of my cards to move bases around on the planet. This left all of the players within one point of each other, but could not prevent the newbie from winning the game on her next move, which I kind of expected from the beginning.
My BGG secret santa sent me two games: Castles of Burgundy and High Society, the first of which Nadine was able to bring back from the US for me (the other is still at her parents). (P.S. High Society is only $10.75 right now on Amazon.)
I also bought Thunderstone, which a local Raanana gamer has brought back for me from Toronto. I'm looking forward to playing it without the running score totals displayed as public knowledge, as they are while playing online at Yucata. Which are the best expansions?
Yehuda
Pre-order my Hanukkah board game on Kickstarter now!
AF is not a terribly long game, in theory, but my players tend to take a little longer than average. In this game, that little longer was a lot longer. Each turn took five minutes or more. Wow. I also made a few mistakes in the game explanation, having only played the game three times previously. These were corrected as the game went on with the occasional referral to the rulebook. The most egregious oversight was that players only receive 6 bases at the start; I had simply handed out all nine bases (we used the Kickstarter-supplied bonus rocket ships on the scoring track). After one player already had 4 bases settled we discovered the oversight and the end game was suddenly approaching a lot sooner.
Two of the players started the game with the force field card. That left the other two players, including me, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. Which left me, the only experienced player, the subject of all attacks for the first half of the game. By coincidence, the two of us without the force field cards started with the +1 VP cards, which are useless at the start of the game.
After the great oversight discovery, I sacrificed two of my cards to move bases around on the planet. This left all of the players within one point of each other, but could not prevent the newbie from winning the game on her next move, which I kind of expected from the beginning.
My BGG secret santa sent me two games: Castles of Burgundy and High Society, the first of which Nadine was able to bring back from the US for me (the other is still at her parents). (P.S. High Society is only $10.75 right now on Amazon.)
I also bought Thunderstone, which a local Raanana gamer has brought back for me from Toronto. I'm looking forward to playing it without the running score totals displayed as public knowledge, as they are while playing online at Yucata. Which are the best expansions?
Yehuda
Pre-order my Hanukkah board game on Kickstarter now!
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