Everything I Played

Small World

2010-07-29T23:20:00.001-07:00

Chris 69, Deborah 82, Clinton 76, Shane 80, Chris 70

Dixit

2010-07-26T19:06:00.001-07:00

Chris 26, Denise 20, Nick 15, Max 14, Margaret 14, Bogo 11, Dan 4

Dominon

2010-07-25T19:36:00.001-07:00

Chris 30, Richard 19, Tim 11

Dominion

2010-07-25T18:52:00.001-07:00

Chris 21, Peter 12, Richard 19, Tim 9

Chinatown

2010-07-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

Chris $1,130,000
John $1,070,000
Kent $910,000
Tim $1,000,000

Forbidden Island

2010-07-23T00:09:00.001-07:00

Chris, Deborah, Jason, Brian win normal

Tichu

2010-07-22T23:45:00.001-07:00

Chris/Jason 315
Deborah/Brian 105

Ra

2010-07-22T22:11:00.001-07:00

Jason 40, Chris 32, Brian 30, Deborah 14

Dominion

2010-07-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

Chris 51, Lunatic 49, Yeh 12

Shadow Hunters

2010-07-15T23:00:00.001-07:00

Tom, Amber (shadows) def Yeh Tom Steve Chris

The Village

2010-07-15T22:14:00.001-07:00

Like, 20 people

Citadels

2010-07-14T22:14:00.001-07:00

Chris 14, Eliot 16, Tony 22, Liz 33, Stephanie 21, Alex 13

Dominion

2010-07-14T21:01:00.001-07:00

Eliot 45, Chris 43, May 38

Dominion

2010-07-14T20:15:00.001-07:00

Chris 24, May 23

Shadow Hunters

2010-07-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Chris Z (hunter) defeats Max, Chris F, Chris A, Margaret, Daniel, Bogo, Ola

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation

2010-07-12T19:14:00.000-07:00

Chris (free peeps) def. Max (Sauron)

Dominion

2010-07-11T19:52:00.001-07:00

Chris 51, Hilary 27

Catacombs

2010-07-11T16:18:00.001-07:00

Yeh def Chris

Shadow Hunters

2010-07-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

Deborah def Chris, Tony, Lunatic, Adam, Yeh

Shadow Hunters

2010-07-08T23:31:00.001-07:00

Adam (Neutral) def Chris, Deborah, Tony, Lunatic
Location: Just Awesome

Dominion

2010-07-08T22:18:00.001-07:00

Chris 45, Tony 21, Adam 18, Deborah 24
Location: Just Awesome

Dominon

2010-07-08T21:06:00.001-07:00

Chris 51, Adam 35, Deborah 34
Location: Just Awesome

Memoir '44

2010-07-05T17:47:00.001-07:00

Hilary (Allies) 4, Chris (Axis) 2
Operation Luttich

Memoir '44

2010-07-05T17:15:00.001-07:00

Operation Luttich
Chris (Germans) 4, Hilary (Allies) 2

Dominion

2010-07-04T11:47:00.001-07:00

John 68, Chris 43
Location: John & Carissa's

Duck Duck Go

2010-07-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

Hilary def. John, Carissa, Chris
Location: John& Carissa's

Dominion

2010-07-03T16:23:00.001-07:00

Chris 32, Hilary 30, John 25, Peter 14
Location: John and Carissa's

Dixit

2010-07-03T15:20:00.001-07:00

Chris 28, John 26, Peter, Hilary, Cassidy, Val
Location: John & Carissa's

Bananagrams

2010-07-03T15:14:00.001-07:00

Chris, Peter, Lynn, Cassidy
3 Games
Location: John and Carissa's

Maori

2010-07-01T23:41:00.001-07:00

Chris 32, Steve 30, Dante 36, Brian 22, Paul 23
Location: Just Awesome

Ticket to Ride Marklin

2010-07-01T22:23:00.001-07:00

Chaya 154, Sean 142, Chris 138, Kent 116, Peter 116
Location: Just Awesome

Jenga XTreme

2010-06-28T20:11:00.001-07:00

Loser: daniel
Location: Meebo

Fluxx

2010-06-28T19:26:00.001-07:00

Max wins
Location: Meebo

Incan Gold

2010-06-28T19:08:00.001-07:00

Bogo 47
Location: Meebo

Roll Through the Ages

2010-06-26T15:37:00.001-07:00

Grey 15, Chris 9
Location: Chris and Hilary's

Zombie Dice

2010-06-26T15:08:00.001-07:00

Hilary 13, Grey 4, Chris 3
Location: Chris and Hilary's

Zombie Dice

2010-06-26T14:58:00.001-07:00

Grey 13, Chris 11, Hilary 3
Location: Chris & Hilary's

Zombie Dice

2010-06-26T14:46:00.001-07:00

Grey 14, Chris 10, Hilary 10
Location: Chris and Hilary's

Blue Moon

2010-06-26T14:31:00.001-07:00

Chris def Grey
Location: Chris and Hilary's

KGB vs. CIA

2010-06-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

Grey 100, Chris 15
Location: Chris and Hilary's

Steam

2010-06-24T23:12:00.001-07:00

Kent 47, Chris 35, Harry 38, Sky 27, Steve. 26
Location: Just Awesome

Thurn & Taxis

2010-06-24T20:27:00.001-07:00

Chris 17, Kent 24
Location: Just Awesome

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition

2010-06-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

4 games. Villagers win all of them.
Players: Priscilla, Dave, Tom, Max, Bogo, Chris, Margaret

Dominion

2010-06-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Priscilla 39, Chris 34, Tom 31
Location: Meebo

Roll through the Ages

2010-06-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

Chris 4, Jonny 14, Robin 10, Richard 26
Location: Just Awesome

Forbidden Island

2010-06-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Chris, Ed, Matt, Jonny Loss
Location: Just Awesome

Forbidden Island

2010-06-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

Chris, Jonny, Liz, Casey Loss
Location: Just Awesome

Race for the Galaxy

2010-06-19T20:26:00.001-07:00

Chris 68, Lailah 34, Isaak 33
Location: Isaak's

Dungeon Lords

2010-06-19T19:14:00.001-07:00

James 28, Chris 26, Francisco 6
Location: Isaak's

Roll Through The Ages

2010-06-17T21:27:00.001-07:00

Chris 23, Yeh 13, Isaak 3, Mike 8
Location: Just Awesome

Callisto

2010-06-17T20:17:00.001-07:00

Chris 5, Steve 7
Location: Just Awesome

Dixit

2010-06-15T20:27:00.001-07:00

Max 22, Elaine 15, Szeto 10, Denise 8, Chris 6, Bogo 6
Location: Meebo

Sabateur

2010-06-15T20:02:00.001-07:00

Bogo 8, Chris 6, Max 3, Szeto 3, Elaine 0, Denise 2, Margaret 0, Erini 2
Location: Meebo

Set

2010-06-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Chris 7, Margaret 7, Erini 4, Denise 5
Location: Meebo

Finca

2010-06-13T01:26:00.001-07:00

Chris 36, Cynan 51, Kris 51+, Eric 44
Location: Cynan

Werewolf

2010-06-12T23:22:00.001-07:00

Werewolves win
Location: Cynan's

Werewolf

2010-06-12T22:51:00.001-07:00

Villagers win
Location: Cynan

Dominion

2010-06-12T22:28:00.001-07:00

Chris 26, Eva 37, Taylor 31, Cynan 24
Location: Cynan's

Galaxy Trucker

2010-06-12T15:56:00.001-07:00

Chris 74, Trevor 69, Yeh 49
Location: Chris & Hilary's

Agricola

2010-06-10T23:10:00.001-07:00

Chris 30, Shaun 57 , Sean 35, Yeh 6
Location: Just Awesome

5.31.10 - 6.6.10: Why don't you go play outside?

2010-06-09T23:10:00.000-07:00

The week started off with a Memorial day BBQ at Angel island. Got in a couple games of Werewolf with a loud, somewhat inebriated group while what appeared to be a NarcAnon meeting took place at the picnic site right next to us. We were having more fun.

Later this week, my work had a picnic at a nearby park. After ultimate frisbee provided a quick and brutal lesson about how out of shape I am, some co-workers and I played Set, Dixit, and Pandemic on a park bench.

On Sunday, my friend Linda hosted an all-day gaming party; the highlight was two 9-player games of Ca$h 'n' Gun$. Linda handed out raffle tickets to game winners all day and at the end of the party she gave away a couple of prizes, and Hilary and I went home with Zombie Dice, a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and a tall can of Corona Extra (which I can only assume was included with the zombie stuff because it tastes like death).

Reviewlettes:

Ultimate Werewolf: Ultimate Edition

Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 8

The ultimate (says so right there in the title) version of the classic hidden-role party game usually known as Werewolf or Mafia. Players are secretly assigned a secret role and a moderator leads the group through a Brechtian tale of suspicion, betrayal, revenge, and murder. This version of the game includes a huge number of roles that can be used to tweak the game a bit, though it is probably best to stick with the basic Werewolves-Villagers-Seer until everyone is fairly comfortable with the game. Some of the new roles are definitely better thought out than others, but it will take plenty of time just to work through all of the interesting looking ones, so I'm not really worried about it. Plus the Cult Leader looks like Steve Buschemi.

Thalatha

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 2

This game was taught to Erik, who owns my local game store Just Awesome Games by an Iraqi child with rocks in the dirt while Erik was stationed in Iraq. He put together a cloth board and stones and sells it in his store (and donates part of the proceeds to the Iraqi Children's Fund). It is a very simple abstract which I would highly encourage everyone to teach to their child as soon as they realize that they can force a tie in tic-tac-toe every single time. It uses a similar 3-in-a-row victory condition, but prevents ties with a bigger board the ability to move pieces around after you have placed them.

Dixit

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 3

The Apples-to-Apples for people who hate Apples-to-Apples. Dixit strips away the arbitrary matching that drives some people crazy ("What? Wheat isn't scary!") and replaces it with some truly strange card art. Players take turns acting as "storyteller", picking a card, providing a couple words, and trying to get some (but not all) of the other players to pick their card. A second set of cards with new art by the same artist is coming out soon.

Set

Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 14

Players try to rapidly identify sets of 3 cards that are either all the same or all different across each of 4 different traits (shape, color, pattern, and number). Nearly impossible to describe in words (see?), watching the light go on as people begin to understand what a set is is really gratifying. Now I know how Annie Sullivan felt. Speaking of kids, 10 year olds absolutely dominate at this game once they get it. Malleable young minds or something like that...

Pandemic

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 22

A pure co-op, Pandemic blurs the line between game and multi-player puzzle. Designed by a user-interface expert, and it shows. Everything in this game happens very programmatically, and there is exactly enough information easily visible to allow players to take everything in at a glance. The design also wisely distances itself from its own theme, representing 4 deadly diseases with 4 cheerfully colored sets of cubes and not providing any mechanical representation of population (and the deaths thereof).

Lost Cities

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 23

Lost Cities is surprisingly vulnerable to 2-person group-think. If one player decides to start putting down cards in a lot of colors speculatively, the other player is almost obligated to do the same or just start handing their opponent big bunches of points. The result can be a much tighter, lower scoring game. This game *looks* like 2 people each playing their own game of solitaire, but playing against different strategies really reveals how incredibly interactive it is.

FITS

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 10

What you get when someone approaches Reiner Knizia in a bar and says "betcha you can't make an entertaining board game based on Tetris," and he responds "betcha I can!". I imagine Stephen King takes similar bar bets for writing novels containing vaguely Christian symbolism in less than 5 hours.

Incan Gold

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 7

An easy to teach push-your-luck game that plays legitimately well with as many as 8 players and isn't a variation of charades or Apples-to-Apples. Recently rereleased as part of the Gryphon Games Bookshelf Series, the new version contains some nicely upgraded components which was the only real knock on the previous edition. At some point some game-theory/psychology graduate student is going to have a field day with this one; the binary nature of the decision making and the fact that the "what will happen if..." could be really interesting viewed under the lens of statistical analysis.

Ca$h & Gun$

Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2

My only experience with this game so far is with the Yakuzas expansion, which turns the game from a hidden-role bluffing game into a 3-team standoff. While some of the tension of not knowing who might come gunning for you next is lost, the ability for teams to confer twice in the game, send secret signals, and split special abilities between them adds a fascinating dimension. Some people will always be a bit put off by the idea of pointing guns, however orange and foam-rubber they may be, at each other, but if you can put that behind you, this is the best game I've seen for embracing your "inner Tarantino".

Fearsome Floors

Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 2

Players each control a number of characters trying to escape a haunted house before being eaten by a monster who moves programmatically. The game affords lots of chances to cleverly lead the monster into other players, but those opportunities seem a bit limited when playing with a lot of players (the game supports up to 7). The art walks a somewhat odd line between campy and gruesome, which may put off some folks with kids, which is kind of too bad, since the rules are quite easily within young kids' grasps and could be a nice transition from standard roll-and-move fare.

No Thanks!
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 2

No Thanks passed the wife test this week. Even through she was pretty much ready to leave, Hilary still enjoyed No Thanks! enough to demand that we buy it. Like Incan Gold, a game with entirely binary decisions that would probably provide interesting fodder to a game-theory academic. Bonnie and Clyde are *so* 1920s.

Zombie Dice

2010-06-08T23:00:00.001-07:00

Chris 15, Hilary 13
Location: Chris & Hilary's

No Thanks!

2010-06-06T20:12:00.001-07:00

Mark 18, Hilary 25, Ryan 26, Linda 30, Chris 33

Location: Linda's

Fearsome Floors

2010-06-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

Mark def. Chris, Hilary, Linda, and Ryan
Location: Linda's

Ca$h & Guns

2010-06-06T16:25:00.001-07:00

Chris, Hilary, Daniel (west coast) $190K, Linda, Carloyn, Rachel (east coast) $165K, Mark, Erin, Ryan (yakuza) $160K

Location: Linda's

Ca$h & Guns

2010-06-06T15:16:00.001-07:00

Rachel, Hilary, Ryan (east coast) $340K, Chris, Carolyn, Daniel (west coast) $210K, Linda, Mark, Erin (Yakuza) all dead

Location: Linda's

Incan gold

2010-06-06T15:10:00.001-07:00

Carolyn 38, Hilary 25, Chris 22, Linda 19, Mark 19, Ryan 9, Daniel 21, Rachel 16

Location: Linda's

FITS

2010-06-06T13:10:00.001-07:00

Carolyn 28, Chris 18, Hilary 14, Ryan 5
Location: Linda's

Lost Cities

2010-06-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hilary 16, Chris 2
Location: Chris and Hilary's

Pandemic

2010-06-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Chris S (Troubleshooter), Chris F (Medic), Margaret (Epedimiologist), Erini (Researcher), Priscilla (Archivist) win. 4 Epidemics.

Location: Flood park

Set

2010-06-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

Location: Flood park

Dixit

2010-06-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Chris S. def Chris, Elaine, Erini, Margaret, Denise

5.24.10 - 5.30.10: Kublacon and more

2010-06-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

After a Wednesday night game of Lost Cities, my gaming for the week started in earnest when I actually managed to get Hilary to come to Just Awesome's adult board game night on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday I went to Kublacon, one of the bigger bay area gaming conventions, and got to try a whole boatload of new games. Finally on Sunday we met our friends Alana and Thorsten for dinner at their place and played a game of Ice Flow, which I'd picked up at the Kublacon flea market. This week, let's just try a series of reviews:

Lost Cities
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 22

A simple, elegant, and enduring 2-player card game with elements of set collection and press-your-luck. The connection to the theme of exploring ancient ruins is pretty tenuous, but it isn't really necessary anyway - Cribbage, Hearts, Bridge, and Rummy do just fine without any themes at all.

Forbidden Island
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2

A reimplementation and simplification of the popular co-op Pandemic by designer Matt Leacock. The theme has been changed from curing diseases to escaping a sinking island with fabulous treasure to make it more family friendly (cue Indiana Jones music), but much of the core mechanics remain: players are trying to collect sets of cards from one deck (to cure diseases/find treasures) while another deck is getting drawn from at an increasing rate to make their situation more tenuous (spreading diseases/sinking the island). While both games are marked 10-and-up, the steamlining and simplification has taken this from a game that a 10-year-old could be taught to a game that a group of motivated 10-year-olds could pick up and learn on their own.

Brawl
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 3 (since I started keeping track)

A real-time fighting game that might have been the best thing to come out of Cheapass games, with apologies to The Big Idea, Kill Dr. Lucky, and Devil Bunny Needs a Ham. Players play as fast as they can to get down hits before the other player can find a block in that color. As one would expect, play is chaotic and fast. They put out quite a few decks of this with different levels of complexity and strategy.

R-Eco
Plays this week: 2
Plays all time: 2

A surprisingly clever card game where players compete to run businesses that are profitable, and at the same time environmentally friendly. A lot of the game is forcing other players into situations where they are forced to take negative points or to exceed their hand limit and thus be forced to discard (i.e. "dump illegally"). A quick, clever filler; a type of game I don't have enough of as I have a bad habit of eschewing them in favor of 2-3 hour games that are hard to get played.

Dominion
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 83

Got more plays under my belt with the new Alchemy expansion. It is becoming more clear that playing with Alchemy is really a significantly different experience from playing without it. Whereas the first 2 expansions added more options, bells, and whistles, adding a new base card (potions) to the mix really makes this feel like the "advanced" version of the game. The next expansion (Prosperity) promises to add a couple more new base cards (a 4-value treasure and a bigger VP card), and I'm worried this will start to make the game feel more bloated, but I was skeptical about Alchemy too, and thus far I really like it.

Race for the Galaxy
Plays this week: 3
Plays all time: 119

Another old favorite that got a new expansion The Brink of War). This expansion adds a new resource to be acquired and used: Prestige. The idea of adding another good to acquire is a good one, but in the first couple games, I'm noticing a couple potential problems:

Prestige is really powerful. Not only does each point of prestige count as a victory point, having the prestige lead will give you an extra card and VP every turn. In the games I played so far, it seems awfully hard to be competitive if you don't draw any prestige cards, and the fact that the deck is now enormous means that getting a run of bad cards is more likely than ever.
The game is now even harder for new players. The major mechanical additions from The Gathering Storm (goals) and Rebel vs. Imperium (takeovers) are optional. For new players, you can play without them and have a perfectly functional game. However, playing without prestige requires sorting through the deck before playing to remove this entire expansion, which is pretty annoying.

I think there is still at least one more expansion planned for this game, but it is definitely starting to feel a little bloated. I could try the drafting variant, but that seems like it would take a game for which a major feature was a quick playing time given it's depth and stretching it out into a 90+ minute affair.

Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1

An ambitious small-press game where up to 5 players play continental powers (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia) as they are assaulted by a devastating zombie outbreak. Thematically, the game does a great job. The first couple of turns, the zombies spread like wildfire, tearing into large population centers all over the map. As the game goes on, the outbreak slows as the zombies run out of food, and the players develop new technologies to allow them to combat the zombies more efficiently. By the end, the players finally obtain the upper hand, using nukes and powerful curing technology to beat back the zombie hordes. The production on the board and player mats is also great (though the zombies are disappointingly cardboard chits rather than plastic minis). However, it feels like there were a few issues, mostly related to the end-game, that could have been worked out with a little more play-testing. Essentially the game can drag on several additional turns that are fairly devoid of tension due to a couple of unlucky dice rolls. However, if a group that wanted to play this regularly were willing to make a few small tweaks, this game fills a pretty unique niche between Axis and Allies and Last Night on Earth.

No Thanks!
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1

Another quick, light card game in which you are trying not to take cards that are bad for you. This is considered a classic filler in gamer circles, and brings a reasonable amount of depth and a lot of push-your-luck to the table. Add in a 2 minute teaching time and a 7-minute playing time, and this is another quickie I'll have to try and pick up some time.

Agricola
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 28

This was my first opportunity trying out the Farmers of the Moor expansion, and I came away quite impressed. This is definitely one you want to save for players who already know what they are doing, but it definitely changes the game in a really interesting way; instead of starting with an empty farm, you now start with forests and moors on your land that you can harvest for wood an fuel (to heat your house - a new requirement). Not only does this add another way to get resources, it also makes managing where fields, pastures, and house tiles are added to your farm a much more interesting minigame.

Dungeon Lords
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1

In Vlaada Chvatil's Galaxy Trucker, players build spaceships and then attempt to fly them through space as they are pummeled by asteroids, slavers, and space pirates. In his Space Alert players plan out a series of actions under a time limit and then watch as their ship is pummeled by asteroids, aliens, and internal malfunctions. It should then be so surprise that Dungeon Lords involves players building something (in this case a dungeon) and then trying to survive as external forces (adventurers) try to kick down their sand castle. The real-time elements of the aforementioned games are replaced with a worker-placement mechanic, though still with enough chaos to make sure that it is hard to get too comfortable. Some fantastic visual design and, once again, a brilliant rulebook combine to make a mechanic that has often been criticized for feeling dry and and disconnected come alive.

Tichu
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1

The ne plus ultra of partnership ladder games, and a huge hit in boardgaming circles, Tichu uses the mechanic from Great Dalmuti/President/Asshole/Dickeater (and a bunch of other games besides) and tweaks it into a fairly in depth partnership game. A natural transition for people familiar with games such as hearts, spades, and bridge.

Ice Flow
Plays this week: 1
Plays all time: 1

Have you ever wanted to try to cross the Bering Strait by leaping from ice-chunk to ice-chunk, eating raw fish for energy and dodging polar bears? Of course you haven't, you're not completely insane. If you wanted to play a game based on that idea however, you could do a lot worse than Ice Flow, which uses great looking pieces (especially the art) and some novel mechanics to make a pretty entertaining race game with a good dollop of "take that."

Thalatha

2010-06-01T21:44:00.001-07:00

Chris def. Hilary
Location: Chris and Hilary's apartment

Werewolf

2010-05-31T18:35:00.001-07:00

Werewolves win. Hilary moderates.
Location: Angel Island

Werewolf

2010-05-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

Villagers win, Hilary moderates
Location: Angel Island

Werewolf

2010-05-31T18:30:00.001-07:00

Villagers win
Location: Angel Island

Ice Flow

2010-05-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

Chris def. Alana, Thorsten, Hilary
Location: Alana and Thorsten's

Tichu

2010-05-30T02:16:00.001-07:00

Chris & Kerin 590, Sean & Lane 710
Location: Kublacon

Race for the Galaxy

2010-05-30T00:12:00.001-07:00

Chris 28, Nathan 27, Jeff 38, Sean 59
Location: Kublacon

Dungeon Lords

2010-05-29T23:10:00.001-07:00

Marc 22, Wy 8, Chris 11, Mike 10
Location: Kublacon

Agricola

2010-05-29T19:52:00.001-07:00

Brian 37, Dave 36, Chris 42, Nathan 47, Jeff 32
Location: Kublacon

No Thanks

2010-05-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

Chris 68, Brian 100, Jeff 90 (lowest wins)
Location: Kublacon

Zombie State: Diplomacy of the Dead

2010-05-29T16:23:00.001-07:00

Chris def Nathan, Jeff, Dan, Sean
Location: Kublacon

Dominion

2010-05-29T00:47:00.001-07:00

Alon 41, Chris 26, Drew 26, Cody 7
Location: Kublacon

Dominion

2010-05-28T22:54:00.001-07:00

Chris 34, Rob 19, Sean 28, Jason 24, Cody 21
Location: Kublacon

Race for the Galaxy

2010-05-28T21:36:00.001-07:00

Chris 30, Sean 67, Rob 18
Location: Kublacon

Race for the Galaxy

2010-05-28T20:28:00.001-07:00

Chris 41, Alon 39, Mac 25
Location: Kublacon

Brawl

2010-05-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Deborah (Hale), def Chris (Chris)

Brawl

2010-05-27T23:59:00.001-07:00

Chris (Chris) def. Deborah (Hale)
Location: Just Awesome

Brawl

2010-05-27T23:54:00.001-07:00

Chris (Chris) def. Deborah (Hale)
Location: Just Awesome

R-eco

2010-05-27T23:27:00.001-07:00

Chris 4, Rich 10, Deborah 2
Location: Just Awesome

R-Eco

2010-05-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Chris 4, Rich 4, Deborah 4, Sean 9, Jason 10
Location: Just Awesome

Dominion

2010-05-27T22:14:00.001-07:00

Hilary 28, Deborah 2, Chris 19, Cynan 12, Jason 22, Sean 21
Location: Just Awesome

Forbidden Island

2010-05-27T21:00:00.001-07:00

Chris, Hilary, Malik Win
Location: Just Awesome

Forbidden Island

2010-05-27T20:58:00.001-07:00

Chris, Hilary, Malik Lost

Lost Cities

2010-05-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

Chris 184, Hilary 105
Location: Chris & Hilary's

5.17.10 - 5.23.10: Just Awesome Dominion Tournament

2010-05-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Games Played this Week: 13
Dominion x7
Space Alert x3
Fairy Tale x1
Word on the Street x1
Alhambra x1

New Games Played this Week: 1
Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale: First Look
Rich was good enough to teach us Fairy Tale, a card drafting game in which you:

10 For X = 1 to 4
15 Draw 5 Cards
20 For Y = 1 to 3
30 Gosub 100
40 Next Y
50 Gosub 200
60 Next X
70 Score
80 Profit

100 Pick card
110 Pass other cards to left
120 Return

200 Play card
210 Resolve card scoring impact (flip and unflip cards)
220 Return

And when your kids ask you what the hell that was, just tell them that's how we did it back in the day. Atari 400 4 life.

Space Alert: So this is it. We're all going to die
I've just received this game on Tanga. Yeh, a fellow Just Awesome patron and card-sleeving enthusiast just got it as well. We played his copy 3 times. It was the first time I'd played since one session in September, so naturally I was made captain, and naturally this led to our rapid failure in the Kobayashi Maru. We rebounded and pulled off a narrow victory in a second (and harder) training mission, and then we got drilled in an exciting, but eventually futile actual mission. There are 2 kinds of games: games of deep thought and quiet contemplation, and games of shouty fun. This is the second one.

Word on the Street: Heavy is so a type of metal
Sean and I played husband and wife (I assume) Steve and Anne Marie at this and pulled off a narrow victory, despite Steve's eyebrow raising at my giving "heavy" and an answer for "a type of metal." If I knew how to spell it, I would have answered something Finnish with like 3 Gs and a bunch of umlauts that translates to "music to kill babies by".

Alhambra: Putting the Ham back in Albra
It is possible I am running out of clever headings. While waiting for the Just Awesome Dominion tournament to begin, I taught Tim and his sons Lucas and Andrew (who is younger so played on a team with Tim) Alhambra. We only got through 2 of 3 rounds, but they enjoyed the game enough that Tim was pretty sure he was going to order the big box (the game plus a bunch of expansions) online.

Dominion: There can be only one
Just Awesome hosted a $20 buy-in Dominion tournament on Sunday. It was supposed to be 12 people, but ended up with 11 as we had a late cancellation. The card sets will all put together by noted Agricola enthusiast Izaac, who was unable to attend. I played a couple games during the week and lost them all, so that was auspicious.

Game one: Base set plus Intrigue
In this game, the Izaac included both the Gardens (which give you points for having a big deck) and the Chapel (which allows you to trim your deck down to an efficient Province-buying machine). My previous experience had taught me that if there were any cards that granted extra buys, Gardens tended to win that fight. The set included Festival, which is arguably the best extra buy card there is, so I opted to make my deck as big as I could. I didn't execute as well as I would have liked, but I managed to eke out a 1 point victory.

Game two: Base set plus Seaside
The dominant feature of the Seaside expansion is the inclusion of duration cards - cards that stick around for an additional turn and have a secondary effect. Izaac threw us for a loop in this game by avoiding those cards entirely and instead setting up a fairly brutal attack environment: Sea Hags and Witches and Ambassadors, oh my! A few of us took early hags and the curse deck was exhausted fairly quickly. I grabbed several moats and Bazaars so I could use more than one of them to draw. Despite ending the game with 10 curses in my hand I still won by a relatively comfortable 5 points.

Game three: Base set plug Alchemy
The Alchemy game ended up being about the ne plus ultra card from the set: Possession. This card lets you take a turn with your opponent's deck. Casey ended up with 2 possessions fairly early and used them to fantastic effect against Bertrand, so despite the fact that Bertrand probably built the strongest deck overall (he managed to pull off the rare double-province buy on one turn), he ended up coming in last with 24 (and in fact the double buy ended up being the only provinces he got). I was only a bit better with 29, and Casey ran away with it with 40.

Game four: The final five
The final game featured cards from all five sets. Of particular note were the Golem (keep turning over cards until you get 2 action cards, then play both), Scrying Pool (keep turning over cards until you turn over a non-action card, and keep everything you drew), and Vineyard (1 point per 3 action cards). I had been beaten soundly by a Vinyard strategy in the past and I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the game just ended too fast for my strategy to be effective. The players who focused on money (and who managed to simultaneously grab VPs with the 2 money/2 VP Harems) won out easily and I came in last.

Honorable to 3rd place contestant and recent Hawaii emigrant Sean who constructed a deck containing only a Golem and 2 Wharves (+2 cards, +1 buy on this turn and the next turn) as action cards, guaranteeing himself simultaneous 9-card turns every time he drew the Golem.

Congratulations to Patrick and Topher who placed first and second. Patrick in particular really dominated the tournament, winning twice, tying for 1st once, and placing second once in his 4 games.

Fun fact: Names at the final table were Chris, Topher, Patrick, Sean, Casey, combining to spell the names of former Cal basketball played Patrick Christopher and former Reds first baseman Sean Casey. Things you need to know.

Dominion

2010-05-23T18:47:00.001-07:00

Chris 24, Patrick 36, Sean 31, Topher 35, Casey 30
Location: Just Awesome

Dominion

2010-05-23T17:33:00.001-07:00

Chris 29, Casey 40, Bertrand 25
Location: Just Awesome