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.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Yom Hazikaron in Raanana
The Raanana municipality ran a beautiful ceremony for Yom Hazikaron - Remembrance Day.
The event was held (as it is every year) in front of the Yad L'Banim [1] building, whose courtyard also functions as the city square. The square was also used for Holocaust Memorial Day and is used for other events like concerts and the annual sukkot market.
There were few people there when I showed up at 7:00. By 8:00, I estimated the crowd to be over 6,000 people. It eventually swelled to around 8,000 or so. The people spilled over into and across the streets beside the square. Police kept the streets closed down for the ceremony, which included Ahuza street, Raanana's main artery.
There was complete unity of religious and secular, old and young, left and right, native and immigrant. Everyone stood for the siren at 8:00. The speeches and sad, poignant songs had biblical or ritual references. Everyone, secular or religious, stood up as the haredi chief Rabbi of Raanana walked up to the podium; he spoke about connection of between today's soldiers and the armies who fought the Pelishtim during the time of King Saul.
The ceremony included recitations of the names of all soldiers and terror victims from Raanana, from the early 1920s until just last year. Along with the names were pictures and personal details. Some of the relatives, together with young soldiers, laid wreaths. The square was draped with projections of faces and/or rolling clouds or fire at different times, and there was live music, a singer, a clarinetist, and a hazan to read El Malei Rachamim.
I felt that this, or something like it, must be happening in each town around Israel: whole populations stopped to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers, every name read out and remembered, year after year. I never went to a ceremony like this in Jerusalem (usually I went to something small in the local synagogue), but it felt right to go to this one. Maybe it's Raanana, which seems to have a kind of unity that I hadn't noticed and I haven't seen elsewhere. Or maybe it's because my own son is now in the army.
[1] Yad L'Banim is an organization dedicated to fallen Israeli soldiers.
The event was held (as it is every year) in front of the Yad L'Banim [1] building, whose courtyard also functions as the city square. The square was also used for Holocaust Memorial Day and is used for other events like concerts and the annual sukkot market.
There were few people there when I showed up at 7:00. By 8:00, I estimated the crowd to be over 6,000 people. It eventually swelled to around 8,000 or so. The people spilled over into and across the streets beside the square. Police kept the streets closed down for the ceremony, which included Ahuza street, Raanana's main artery.
There was complete unity of religious and secular, old and young, left and right, native and immigrant. Everyone stood for the siren at 8:00. The speeches and sad, poignant songs had biblical or ritual references. Everyone, secular or religious, stood up as the haredi chief Rabbi of Raanana walked up to the podium; he spoke about connection of between today's soldiers and the armies who fought the Pelishtim during the time of King Saul.
The ceremony included recitations of the names of all soldiers and terror victims from Raanana, from the early 1920s until just last year. Along with the names were pictures and personal details. Some of the relatives, together with young soldiers, laid wreaths. The square was draped with projections of faces and/or rolling clouds or fire at different times, and there was live music, a singer, a clarinetist, and a hazan to read El Malei Rachamim.
I felt that this, or something like it, must be happening in each town around Israel: whole populations stopped to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers, every name read out and remembered, year after year. I never went to a ceremony like this in Jerusalem (usually I went to something small in the local synagogue), but it felt right to go to this one. Maybe it's Raanana, which seems to have a kind of unity that I hadn't noticed and I haven't seen elsewhere. Or maybe it's because my own son is now in the army.
[1] Yad L'Banim is an organization dedicated to fallen Israeli soldiers.
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, March 17, 2013
Ticket to Ride 2
On Friday night I introduced another non-gaming family to gaming with Ticket to Ride. I guess I chose TtR over Settlers of Catan because it plays for five, is actually easier to explain, and I sort of like it a bit more now than I used to (still not as much as SoC).
It was a success. I won the game by 8 points by virtue of having the longest route, and because one of the other players couldn't complete a 20 point ticket.
This morning I got a text from them asking me where to buy the game in Israel (unfortunately, I don't think you can right now; even if you can, it's almost twice the retail price, which is three times the store price in the US).
It was a success. I won the game by 8 points by virtue of having the longest route, and because one of the other players couldn't complete a 20 point ticket.
This morning I got a text from them asking me where to buy the game in Israel (unfortunately, I don't think you can right now; even if you can, it's almost twice the retail price, which is three times the store price in the US).
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Ticket to Ride
Tal, Saarya, and I took our annual pre-Passover mini family vacation last weekend. We vacation before Passover because the rest of Israel vacations during Passover and everything is too crowded. Also, during Hol Hamoed there js Games Day, and I usually work the rest of the time.
We stayed at Nuriel Fruit and Guest Rooms in She'ar Yashuv. The place is run by Miriam, a friendly and helpful woman who tries hard to accommodate your every need. She doesn't serve any meals (no breakfast), but she will give you milk, the rooms come with tea and coffee, and you can pick fruit from her trees. We picked a dozen grapefruit, and Tal squeezed them into juice for us to drink over the weekend.
She'ar Yashuv is a small moshav a few meters from the Banias spring. You can walk from the moshav upstream past Snir and to the falls, which is one of the prettiest in Israel. I'm pretty sure you used to be able to swim in and around the falls, but there are no swimming signs everywhere now. You can walk out the front gate of the moshav to Tel Dan, which is nearly across the street. It's a short drive to Kiryat Shemonah.
The moshav's synagogue is small, and there was only barely a minyan on Sat morning. One interesting thing about the synagogue is that the parochet has the usual gold and silver threaded stitching, but in addition to depicting symbols of the tribes of Israel they show two helicopters, in commemoration for the 1997 helicopter crash that occurred right above the moshav.
On Thursday we stopped for dinner at El Rancho, a nice restaurant that was way overpriced (but we used a groupon for half off). Friday we bought groceries and ready made food in Kiryat Shemonah for the rest of the trip. Then we visited the Banias springs and falls.
Friday night we played Ticket to Ride, our first time playing the game together. I think Tal and Saarya had both played the game at friends' houses. Tal nearly didn't complete any tickets, but she finally managed to sneak a route through the center of the map. I picked what I thought would be a series of tickets that, after completion, would lend themselves to matching at least one new ticket when I came around to drawing new ones. Alas, only one of the new tickets came even close, and I still have to build two routes (4 and 5) to get it.
Saarya fared better in his new ticket draw and even drew new tickets a second time. He ended up not completing one of the final tickets he drew, but he still won the game. We were all within 15 points of each other with Saarya leading with 125 points or so.
The next day we mostly slept. Tal beat me in a game of Gin Rummy. I think I called Gin once.
Sat night we drove Saarya back to his base (he had to be back on Sat night, for some reason) and headed home, taking home three soldiers from Saarya's base who were headed our way.
We stayed at Nuriel Fruit and Guest Rooms in She'ar Yashuv. The place is run by Miriam, a friendly and helpful woman who tries hard to accommodate your every need. She doesn't serve any meals (no breakfast), but she will give you milk, the rooms come with tea and coffee, and you can pick fruit from her trees. We picked a dozen grapefruit, and Tal squeezed them into juice for us to drink over the weekend.
She'ar Yashuv is a small moshav a few meters from the Banias spring. You can walk from the moshav upstream past Snir and to the falls, which is one of the prettiest in Israel. I'm pretty sure you used to be able to swim in and around the falls, but there are no swimming signs everywhere now. You can walk out the front gate of the moshav to Tel Dan, which is nearly across the street. It's a short drive to Kiryat Shemonah.
The moshav's synagogue is small, and there was only barely a minyan on Sat morning. One interesting thing about the synagogue is that the parochet has the usual gold and silver threaded stitching, but in addition to depicting symbols of the tribes of Israel they show two helicopters, in commemoration for the 1997 helicopter crash that occurred right above the moshav.
On Thursday we stopped for dinner at El Rancho, a nice restaurant that was way overpriced (but we used a groupon for half off). Friday we bought groceries and ready made food in Kiryat Shemonah for the rest of the trip. Then we visited the Banias springs and falls.
Friday night we played Ticket to Ride, our first time playing the game together. I think Tal and Saarya had both played the game at friends' houses. Tal nearly didn't complete any tickets, but she finally managed to sneak a route through the center of the map. I picked what I thought would be a series of tickets that, after completion, would lend themselves to matching at least one new ticket when I came around to drawing new ones. Alas, only one of the new tickets came even close, and I still have to build two routes (4 and 5) to get it.
Saarya fared better in his new ticket draw and even drew new tickets a second time. He ended up not completing one of the final tickets he drew, but he still won the game. We were all within 15 points of each other with Saarya leading with 125 points or so.
The next day we mostly slept. Tal beat me in a game of Gin Rummy. I think I called Gin once.
Sat night we drove Saarya back to his base (he had to be back on Sat night, for some reason) and headed home, taking home three soldiers from Saarya's base who were headed our way.
Thursday, March 07, 2013
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