January 22, 2008

Only three people tonight.

• Triple Triumph - this is a neat little abstract game for 2-4 players. There are 60 plastic pyramids with purple and green sides in various combinations. The bottoms of the pyramids are also either purple or green. During the game, these pyramids are stored in a bag from which players will later draw pyramids at random. Each player has a “hand” of three pyramids. On his turn, a player tries to play his three pyramids to the board, adjacent to existing pyramids. Touching sides must match color. For each matching side, the player scores one point. If there are four adjacent pyramids on the board, another pyramid may be placed upside-down, in the middle of the four upright pyramids. This scores four points, and the base of the upside-down pyramid becomes available for building another level of upright pyramids. Building on an upside down pyramid allows the player to draw one pyramid from the bag to be used immediately. The player’s turn ends when he is unable to play any more pyramids to the board, either because he has no more to play, or because there are no legal plays available. He then draws back up to three, and play continues with the next player. The game ends when no player can make a move. Phil and I player this for the first time. I didn’t record the scores, but I won.
• Race for the Galaxy - This is a card game with mechanics similar to San Juan, but a bit more complex, and a space exploration theme. Phil, Eli, and I played. It was a first playing for both Phil and Eli. I was dealt a good Alien world, and a development that gave me bonus points for Alien worlds, so I concentrated on building all the Alien stuff I could get my hands on. I fell a bit behind on building. Phil and Eli both built their twelfth card on the same turn, ending the game, while I still only had nine cards down. The Alien bonus really helped me, though, as I had five Alien cards. When the game ended, Eli and I tied with 36 each (we tied on the tie-breaker as well), and Phil had 30.
• Triple Triumph - After Phil left, Eli and I played Triple Triumph. I won 70 to 60.
• Fibonacci - Eli and I played two games of Fibonacci. Eli won the first and I won the second.

Our next session will be February 12. Hope to see you there.

January 8, 2008

We had ten people tonight.

• Fibonacci - Phil and I. This was another hard-fought game which Phil eventually won.
• Maharaja - Phil, Hal, Eli, Jamie, and myself. This is another game that I really like that doesn’t seem to be that popular for some reason. This was a first playing for everyone but me, and everyone seemed to enjoy the game. I got off to an early lead, but it didn’t last. Hal placed his last palace in the 9th round, winning the game. Jamie had 6 palaces and 12 gold, Eli had 6 palaces and 10 gold, I had 6 palaces and 8 gold, while Phil came in last with 4 palaces.
• Zombies - Tim, Lance, Joey, and Brian. I didn’t hear who won.
• Guillotine - Eli, Jennifer, Jamie, and myself. Eli won easily with 25, I had 16, Jamie had 14, and Jennifer had 9.

Our next session will be on January 22.

December 11, 2007

Five people, including two newcomers, played six games.

• Battlelore - John and Brendan, both new to GCOM Glen Burnie although Brendan has been to the Salisbury location, played a game of Battlelore. I don’t have any details on the game, but John won.
• Yinsh - Phil and I played a game of Yinsh. Phil achieved his first row of five quite early. A bit later in the game, I had a choice of getting my first row of five, and letting Phil get his second, or of stopping Phil from getting his second. I chose to take my first row. After some tough maneuvering, I was able to get my second and third rows before Phil got his third, winning me the game.
• Fibonacci - this is one of my favorite two-player abstracts. Phil and I played two games. In the first game, I crushed Phil pretty quickly. The second game was a long, hard-fought game, in which Phil was eventually victorious.
• Hive - Phil and I played a quick game of Hive, which I won.
• That’s Life! - Eli joined Phil and me for a game of That’s Life! Phil crushed us both with 48(!) points, to my 7 and Eli’s 6.
• Kanaloa - After Battlelore, Brendan had to leave, but John joined Phil, Eli, and myself for a game of Kanaloa. John seemed to be doing quite well early in the first round, as Phil, Eli, and I all picked on each other. It didn’t last, however, as Eli surged near the end of the round. The first round ended with Eli in the lead at 10, me in second place with 5, John with 4, and Phil shut out. Eli continued to dominate the first part of the second round, but we all worked to bring him down. With his last move, John caused Eli to lose control of his last four islands, shutting Eli out of the second round scoring. I won with 15, Eli and John were tied for second with 10, and Phil had 5.

The fourth Tuesday of this month is Christmas, so our next session won’t be until January 8. Hope to see you there.

November 27, 2007

Seven people played seven different games tonight.

• Chateau Roquefort (Burg Appenzell) - Played by Hal, Phil, and myself. This is a cute game about mice searching an abandoned castle for cheese. Each player controls four mice, and starts the game with one of his four mice on the board. Rooftops block the view of most of the board. On a turn, a player has four actions. He can choose from 1) peeking under a rooftop, 2) moving a mouse one space, 3) adding a mouse to an unoccupied corner space, or 4) shifting one row or column of the tiles that make up the game board. Most of the tiles are printed with one of several types of cheese, some of the tiles are just blank, and a few of the tiles have holes in them. If a player can get two of his mice on tiles with a matching type of cheese, the player gets a marker for that type of cheese. In the standard game, collecting four different types of cheeses wins. If a player shifts the tiles so that a hole moves under one of the mice, that mouse drops through the floor and out of the game. If a player gets down to one mouse, the game ends, and the player with the most types of cheese (excluding the player down to one mouse) wins. Phil won by getting 4 types of cheese.
• Kanaloa - This is a four player version of the two-player game Kahuna. The board consists of 16 islands, each island with 3, 5, or 7 places to place a bridge. Players play cards to place bridges to connect islands. If a player controls a majority of bridges to an island, he takes control of that island, and kicks off all bridges belonging to other players. The game is played in two rounds, and at the end of each round, players score one point for each island they control, plus one point for each bridge space to that island that they don’t control (so you score maximum points by just barely maintaining your majority of bridges). Phil had a huge lead at the end of the first round, with me in second, and Hal in third with no points at all. In the second round, Hal made a huge come-back, while I continued my middling performance, and Phil really got hammered. Phil still managed to win by a narrow margin. Final scores were Phil 22, Eric 18, Hal 16.
• Poison - Played by Lance, Joey, Tim, and Katie. This time they played by the correct rules. Lance won.
• Mmm... Brains - Played by Lance, Joey, Tim, and Katie. Lance won.
• Phoenix - Phil had to leave after Kanaloa, so Hal and I played Phoenix. Hal finished first in the first and third rounds, while I finished first in the second round. Final score was Hal 23, Eric 19.
• Munckin Cthulhu - Played by Lance, Joey, Tim, and Katie. With Lance and Tim already cultists, Katie lost a fight with a monster that turned her into a cultist, giving Joey the win as the only non-cultist.
• Fibonacci - Hal and I played two games of this great, but relatively unknown, two-player abstract. I won the first game, and Hal won the second.

Our next session will be December 11.

November 13, 2007

Nine people played four games.

• Before the Wind - I introduced this game to Eli and Phil. This is a card game where the players take on the roles of merchants, trying to obtain and ship various goods for victory points. This is a three step process: the player has to get the goods into his hand, then move the goods to his warehouse, and then move the goods to one or more ships according to the demand of each ship. A certain number of ship cards, each with a demand for goods and a number of victory points, are dealt out face up. There are three action card decks, each deck corresponding to one of the three steps. The start player flips three action cards face up, and then chooses one. The other players may then offer bids for that card, or pass in the hopes of getting one of the other action cards. The start player can either accept one of the bids, taking the money and giving the action card to the bidding player, or he can pay one of the bidding players the amount of his or her bid and keep the card for himself. Then, the next player who has yet to get a card or money chooses from the remaining cards. The process repeats until all players receive either cards or money. Players then execute their action cards in turn. Once players have filled the demands of a certain number of ships, the round ends, and players may lose some of their goods due to spoilage. Then new ship cards are dealt out, and a new round begins. The game ends when one player reaches 50 points. I took an early lead in the first round by concentrating on the larger ships. Both Phil and Eli caught up in the second round, but I was able to pull ahead again in the third round and win the game. Scores were Eric 57, Eli 53, and Phil 47.
• Munchkin Cthulhu - Lance, Joey, Diana, Brian, and Tim played Munchkin Cthulhu. Lance won.
• Hive - Phil had to leave after Before the Wind, so Eli and I played two games of Hive (see the session report for 9/11/07). I won the first, while Eli won the second.
• Bushwhackin’ Varmints out of Sergio’s Butte - played by Joey, Brian, Diana, Tim, Katie, and myself. This is one of Z-Man’s series of B-movie card games that started with Grave Robbers from Outer Space. Players can add characters, props, or locations to their own movies, or attack the movies of others. The player with the most points in front of them when the “Roll the Credits” card is played, or when the deck runs out, is the winner. We each spent far more effort in attacking each others movies than we did in building our own. Diana emerged victorious.

Our next session is November 27.

October 23, 2007

Our next session will be on November 13.

October 9, 2007

Ten people played four games tonight.

• Sequence - Phil and I played a quick game while waiting for the others to show up. I won an easy victory, completing my two sequences before Phil completed any.
• Vegas Showdown - Hal, Eli, and Jennifer joined Phil and me for a five player game of Vegas Showdown. This was a first time for Phil, Eli, and Jennifer. Phil and Eli were the front runners early in the game, with me bringing up the rear. Phil was able to get a nightclub early on, which gave him a substantial lead. The scores evened up somewhat as the game progressed. Right near the end of the game, the theater came up, and I was the only person with enough money to buy it; the 12 points gave me the victory. Final scores were Eric 53, Phil 49, Jennifer 48, Eli 45, and Hal 38. All three new players did quite well.
• Munchkin - Diana, Lance, Joey, and Katie played Muchkin with the Munchkin Dice expansion. Lance won.
• Quiddler - Pete joined Hal, Eli, Jennifer, Phil, and me in a game of Quiddler. We only had time for 4 hands. Pete held the lead the first three hands. Jennifer and I trailed most of the game. I was dealt all vowels twice, and CL, W, X, G, M, I on the fourth hand. Phil scored a longest word bonus on the last hand with “TOXINS”, which was enough to give him the win. I ended up in last place with a barely positive score.

Our next session will be on October 23.