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.

Pathfinder (The Board Game, not the RPG)

I played an old Milton Bradley board game Pathfinder with one of the kids of a family that had invited me for dinner on Mon night.

Pathfinder is a game that looks like Battleship and plays a lot like Battleship, though it seems like it shouldn't. Each player has a hidden 6x6 grid. A player sets up a given number of walls between squares or along the left side and then sets a goal in one of the squares. So you start the game with a maze for your opponent to navigate and a target location for your opponent to reach. There must be at least one path from the left side of the board to the goal.

On your turn, if your hunting ship is off the board, you choose one of the squares on the left side to enter your opponent's grid. If you are already on the grid, you can choose one square orthogonal from your current position to which to travel (or one square orthogonal from any location along your current path). After any successful movement that does not hit a wall, you get to try to move again. First player to reach his opponent's goal wins.

It's cute, with about the same depth as Battleship, or perhaps a little closer to Stratego. However, it eventually comes down to a series of blind guessing with no real information (other than your opponent's placement style). Of course, it's long out of print, but you can pick up a copy at the above link.

I also played (at lunch) a game of Homesteaders with Laurie and Abraham. I was pretty confident that I was winning, and so was surprised that Abraham beat me by a few points. Usually, when I think I'm losing in Homesteaders I'm actually winning, and when I think I'm winning I'm winning. I'm still not sure where I went wrong. Laurie thinks it's because Abraham was pulling in more trade chips per round than I was (3 to 1). But Laurie wasn't pulling in any, and so her progress was quite hobbled.

Happy new year.

Shabbat Gaming

At my mom's for shabbat.

With Tal, I played a hand of Gin Rummy, which she won.

Then she forced me to play Go Fish with her. Wow. I won 7 sets to 6. I'm not sure we played correctly. On your turn, you called a number in your hand. If your opp has one or more cards of that number, you get them, and may call again. If you fail to collect any cards from opp, you end your turn by drawing. If you collected any cards from opp, you don't draw at the end of your turn. If you drew, and it was the card you called, you take another turn.

It's not an entirely brainless game, compared to War for example, because you have to decide what to call. That takes memory of what your opp has previously called, as well as some odds calculation as to what remains in the deck and what they might have pulled on their last few draws.

Still, I'm glad it was over quickly.

In the afternoon, I taught Homesteaders to two Beit Shemesh game groupies, Gavriel and Yaakov. As usual, I had a great time and I won the game without a clear understanding of why. I knew I was doing some things right, but I also thought I was doing many things wrong. Every time I play, I'm shy something critical at mid-game, either trade chips, cash, or all of the better commodities. In the last half of the game I begin calculating the number of points I'm actually able to gain each turn, which focuses my attention.

It's definitely an overwhelming amount of calculation for the faint of heart, so it's not for everybody. After 7 or 8 games, I've grown familiar with the exchanges so I have a better idea of what I can't do, freeing my thoughts to go after what I can.

Both of my opps played well. Gavriel took a heavy railroad tie strategy, with four houses giving bonuses for railroad ties and six railroad ties by the end of the game. He only netted 45 points total, however. Yaakov had some good buildings and victory point chips, but little in the way of bonus points from buildings and no high valued commodities left over. Also 45 points.

I had a few good buildings, thirty victory point chips, and a number of high valued commodities at the end; the latter because I was shut out of bidding in both of the last turns (bidding went to 21 in both columns). I earned my three points from the railroad track and kept a few commodity points; while Gavriel ended up paying as much in money and commodity points as he gained from the building, for a net of 0 points, Of course, it prevented me from getting the building which would have netted me around 13 points.

I ended with 58 points.