Board Games

Another games night has come and gone and boy howdy, did we play some games! We had a fairly light turnout at about 10 adults, but we made up for it by gaming till 2am. We started out the games with Kirk's brand spanking new copy of Fire and Axe. We had a three player game that went fairly well (or so I thought). The game is pretty good, not too confrontational, but with a lot of unique ways to twist the game in your favor. There is a bit of sniping in the game, but not so much that it gets in the way of having fun. Kirk ended up winning (and its not even a racing game!) with me edging Greg about by a point (tee-hee!). The lady-folk knocked out a game of Apples to Apples and Kirk's new copy of Time's Up, which they seemed to enjoy quite a bit. The gamers in the group continued on to try out my new copy of Munchkin Cthulhu. It actually adds quite a bit to the whole Munchkin concept - its definitely a harder game to win and I definitely haven't adjusted to it yet, but I look forward to trying! Now that I think about it, Kirk won that too...that's odd... The lady-folk continued to chit chat and so we broke out an oldie, but a goodie, Roborally. We had a pretty good time playing an option heavy map, though some people did get a bit carried away gathering options - did I mention that Greg won that one? We finally got the full group together for my newest acquisition, Mall of Horror. This is a great little game that I think would do really well in the mass retail channel. Basically a political voting game with a whole bunch of cut throat behavior, but the game itself sets it up so that there's no real rancor. Good thing since I was the first to be wiped out...Kirk's wife, Jill, ended up squeaking out a victory. Eager for more gaming, we moved on to something to close out the night, Shadows Over Camelot. I've mentioned this one before and am pretty pleased to say we had another great win 10-2, although I think everyone was really surprised to see that there was no traitor - with a full seven players! Argh!

As an addendum, Asher and I got in a game of Star Wars Miniatures on Sunday, playing with our new board. Tried a heavily thematic game, with Asher taking a force of Republic Jedi and me taking a group of Sith. Good game and I promise to have some pics of the new board up soon.

Been playing quite a bit, so there's been some blog-lag!

Mini-Games Night
Had a small group get together and played a few games after being frustrated at not getting to play over Easter weekend! Shadows of Camelot was the game du jour. Good game and seemed to have some good re-playability. The forces of good trounced the forces of evil (i.e. Tristin) with a whopping 12 white swords - a total that has elicited several cries of "you probably weren't playing right." We ended the night on a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill which has lost a bit of the luster in our eyes, but it was a good game anyway. Greg ended up the traitor with a veritable horde of insects at his disposal and neatly mopped up our ragtag band of heroes.

Hard Core Night

Hard core night did not disappoint! Four whopping titles were played! We started off with Railroad Tycoon, which was a really great game, but definitely favors those who've played through once or twice. That said, I managed to spawn a massive system that allowed me to sneak into second, losing by a single point to the forces of Travis! Next on the docket was another Eagle Game, Conquest of the Empire. We played the eurogame version and...well...uh...we're Americans. We immediately launched into a policy of warfare that ultimately favored the turtle in chief, Greg. I swear to play it like a eurogame next time - really! We quickly progressed into a game of Cosmic Encounter which has been on my "to play" list for a while. I really liked the idea of a confrontational eurogame, though I really don't think this compares to Twilight Imperium (Yeah, they're both in space, but that's about it). Kirk led a rousing early expansion - after figuring out how the game worked, I rode his coat tails into a victory using the power of peace (pacifism kicks butt!)! It was at this point that we became desperate for a Kirk win (did I mention it was Kirk's birthday?) - so we did the only thing we could - we pulled out a racing game.
Daytona 500 is a racing game with a Nascar theme to boot! Regardless of my understandable skepticism, this was a really good game that I would seriously consider picking up. And Kirk won. We wound up the night with a game of Tongiaki, which can best be described as Carcasonne with chain reactions - a neat little game that wound up in a tie between Kirk and myself (but he won the tiebreaker).

Video Games
Halo 2 maps are out - remakes of Derelict and Hang 'em High. The maps are gorgeous and they play well. I think the Derelict remake will be the most popular in the long term. Good symmetric map with lots of opportunities for clever play and some really dynamic movement. The other is a great wave of nostalgia, but I really only want to play snipers and rockets on it.

My most current addiction is a little game for the DS, Puzzle Quest. You may have seen the Penny Arcade guys write about it. This game is lethally addictive - just go buy the darned thing...trust me.

Miniature Games
Last but not least, this weekend I got Mongoose's Victory at Sea and the brand-spanking new AT-43 rulebook. Victory at Sea is going to be one of those games that I'll end up blowing $100 or so on the miniatures and I'll drag out to play every so often. Its an alright system, but the rulebook isn't great, though the inclusion of counters so that people can play right away is terrific. AT-43 on the other hand is likely to become my number 1 or 2 game - its that good. These rules are tight and logical. They go right up to the point of simulation and then back away slowly - giving me exactly what I want: a minimum of "that just doesn't make sense" moments. And we're talking about well-painted, pre-painted, reasonably priced miniatures to boot. Color me impressed.

Went over to Guinn and Scott's for their monthly game night (no photos - just didn't cross my mind to be honest). Relatively light turn out this month, but the gaming was a laundry list of favorites:

• Marvel Heroes - Ended up playing the Fantastic Four, partly just to recheck our theory that they might be broken. Given that I didn't win, I probably shouldn't think of them as broken, but they've definitely got some great synergy. Guinn ended up leading the X-Men to a full route, but I wasn't that far behind! Just as a note, I was also testing out the theory that the game can be played in a relatively short amount of time. I'm happy to report that our game took about an hour and a half after all interruptions were excluded. Fairly typical for a strategy board game!
• Munchkin - Total domination by yours truly. 'nuff said.
• Boggle - Believe it or not, I've never actually played Boggle before. That said, I take my getting owned by my three life-long boggle-playing opponents in stride. Nice game - might see if its something I can play when time permits..
• Roborally - Haven't played it in a while as the last time I played, I personally didn't have a lot of fun. After last night's game, I might make a habit of pulling it out more often. Had a blast even if there weren't a whole lot of hijinks (and Guinn won - but I maintain that's mostly due to Scott's treachery!).

Overall a good night of gaming!

Threw down in a 1000pt game last night - two of us playing those zany zealots, the Protectorate, and my ol' college chum Chris bringing the hurt with the Cryx. Not a good day to be a fanatic - we got routed fairly badly (as shown by the bonejack standing right about where Severius was standing before he discovered that Cryx can do shooty). Good game overall - tactically we were sound, we just couldn't catch a break and so we rolled up pretty quickly.

I also picked up a copy of Rackham's new AT-43: Operation Damocles. Soon as I kick the tires a bit, I'll post some impressions.

Gezundheit.

Sorry - had to get that out of my system. BrettspielWeit is an online board game service (out of Germany, but even a relative novice such as me can get by). What kind of board games? The good kind! I've been playing a good bit of Caylus and Carcassonne, and I'm dying to get some Power Grid in when I get a chance. Check it out if you've got the time (though I do recommend the fat client - the applet seems a bit wonky).

The Lugar guided gala that I refer to as hardcore night was this past Saturday and a good time was had by all. Amongst the wonders that were on display, the following got pulled out:


Shogun was the definite hit of the night, creating a violation of the hardcore night axiom - thou shalt not play the same game twice in the same night. Not only did we play it twice, but we enjoyed the heck out of it. This game is definitely the spiritual successor to Wallenstein and has me jonesing to pick a copy up before they stop publishing the darned thing. Great mechanics, great components and a level of suspense that I've not seen in a game of this type. Definitely geared towards the more serious gaming crowd, its easy to learn and very confrontational - all in a nice eurogame package. And its got a dice tower!!! Glee!

Also played a game of Caylus. I don't mean to sound like the "me too" crowd over at the Geek, but I feel that this is really the ultimate gamer's game. Fairly complex rules explanation coupled with really simple rules and straightforward mechanics. Another big perk is the fact that it has multiple avenues to victory that don't require multiple plays to deduce. I tried something a little different this time and tried to speed the game's conclusion while maintaining a fairly constant lead. Didn't work out as well as I would have liked, with the Greg sneaking up from behind and trouncing me. Wasn't particularly popular with the crowd, but it remains a game I'll play every chance I get.

We also pulled out Battlestations but put it back in the box when we realized it required a bit more setup than we had and that it had a 4 hour play time to boot! Ay yi yi!

Fury of Dracula is another one of those games you never really get to pull out and I'll admit to be totally surprised when the group suggested it! It tends to be a fairly long-playing game and is very confrontational with one player taking the role of Dracula laying traps across Europe as he attempts to create his vampire army and the other players tracking him down to finish him once and for all. I've played the game twice - the first time we were too tired to finish about 2 hours into the game. This time, I got to be Dracula and showed players everywhere how you do it. We finished the game in 53 minutes with Dracula winning (and killing one of the other players to boot!). In fact, the game was so short, it ended up being really well-received by a group that was already getting a bit tired.

That was about all we had time for this Saturday - not a bad set o' gaming overall and a decidedly pleasant way to spend 10 hours!

I've been playing a fair amount of Ticket to Ride lately thanks to Days of Wonder's online site. In fact, I've apparently played over 30 games since I first got access to the site. Needless to say, I highly recommend it if you need a good board gaming fix.