Easy Come, Easy Go

While we waited for the fifth person to show, we played this light filler. But then he showed up and joined the game already in session. Which seemed to work ok. We went for two goals instead of three.

Mu

Next up was this classic trick taking card game which is perfect for five people. Even if one of those people is Doug, who is not totally in love with this game yet. The bidding was quite high for our group. A number of hands had 8 cards bid. I wasn’t too successful in trying to be the partner to the Chief. Not even my two 7s…

Hacienda

Another playing of this game for me. This time we used the asymmetrical side of the board. There were no hugh chains of land this time. And many people were trying to connect to a lot of markets. The usual strategy was to place one land and one or two animals to reach the market. Which doesn’t give you that much money (2 or 3 dollars). I made one mistake in this game by letting Mike connect to a market and not actively blocking him. And he won (beating me by less than 10 points).

Tichu

Ahh… a good end to the night. I started off pretty well with 2 Ace bombs. But then Adam and Mike scored too many points. So Jon calls Grand Tichu. I was worried that he would be set since Mike also calls Tichu. However, Mike messed up by playing the Phoenix when Jon only had one card left (instead of the Dragon. He was trying to be cute in getting Jon to take -25 points). After we caught back up (800/800), we won the game!

Saboteur

Tonight we started out with a light filler. I started out as a saboteur and, rather than playing a card that moves towards the gold, instead played a broken light against Mike. And, of course, now Mike starts calling me a saboteur. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in stopping those damn good dwarves! This game seems stacked against the saboteurs since there is at most 2 of them active. You need to get some good cards in order to win the round. In fact, none of the saboteurs won their round.

Antike

Mike brought a new game for us to play. Your goal is to get a certain number of acheivements in the game. These are for the number of cities (5, 10, 15…), for the number of temples (3, 6, …), for being the first to discover technologies, for destroying enemies temples, and for the number of occupied sea territories (7 & 14). This game has a circular list of actions where you can move up to three spaces for free and pay if you want to move further. You can mine for resources (either iron, gold, or marble), move armies, build armies, build temples, or make discoveries. Quite simple and yet seems to allow for different strategies. In fact, the FAQ gives you three different strategies to pick. In our game, the people who started the military strategy were in contention for the win.

There were some amusing moments my combination of cards produced the following quote: “My Arabian mother is a MILF.” After barbarian Adam decimated Mike, I taunted Mike with the following statement: “I am coming up your rear, Mike” Jon then laughed and said that should be in the movie Brokeback Mountain.

Tichu

When I brought the Tichu deck to the table, Mike bolted! John didn’t want to stay for Mu either. So, Tichu it was! Which was good since I didn’t play a game of it this week…

For the last hand of the game, Adam calls Grand Tichu since we were behind. I pass an ace to him. But strangely, Jon passes the Mah-Jong to me. So I wish for the 2 I passed to MikeA. Fortunately, we made the bet to win the game. Mike had said that he would have gone out first if Jon had passed it to him instead.

Tichu

Jon had to work late tonight (It must have been important since tonight is his favorite night of the week). So, we started a game of Tichu and we would stop when Jon showed up. I notice that I don’t call Tichu enough. And Mike commented that if your Tichu made percentage is 100%, then you are not calling enough. So, call Tichu I did. Hopefully, John is getting more comfortable with this game. After all, we did have three one-twos. Now, as a homework assignment, he needs to call Tichu and make it.

The first picture was my first Tichu hand (a Queen is hidden). The second picture is a dilema. Do you call Grand Tichu on that? Well I called Tichu on it after the pass. And the third picture is Mike’s over-Tichu call on that same hand.

Ark

The second game was another new one for me. This is an area control game with rather cute animals. The only problem with it is that players do not immediately see correct plays that they can do. It takes a litttle searching and thinking before making a make. Which turns this supposed 45 minute game into a longer game. Still, with experienced player, this game would play better and fit its intended category as a cute filler game.

Hacienda

Ahh, another meaty game for me and another one that I wanted to play. Could you tell that a game order of mine arrived? (Along with Caylus and Mesopotamia). However, you do need to know how to start this game off correctly. Of course, I started incorrectly and lost the game because of it. Still one that I want to play more of.

GemBlo

Another playing of this game and getting to the burned out point… Yes, its somewhat light and quick. Yes, it can handle up to 6 people. But there are many games in that category. Give the others a chance too. This was my first game where I was hosed by multiple people. Like four people even. Sigh… Nothing much you can do in that situation. Everyone kept blocking off avenues of escape for me.

Railroad Tycoon

The next game was in the meaty category for me. Age of Steam is a game that I would probably like if I played it. However, there is an AOS-savant in our group. And playing with that person means that you play for second place at best. And then there’s this whole thing about how tough the financial model and how easy it is to become broke. So when I could play RT with an easier group (<duck>Ed being the easiest</duck>), I decided to try it out. And the financial model is much easier. Two of the people in our game were taking out massive loans in my opinion. The board is much bigger also so you don’t have to fight with other people so much (but there is less of a choice of rail connections. Much to my dissapointment when I needed to make a connection to Boston but couldn’t). The only problem with this game is there are special cards which come out randomly. So if you can fufill it easily, you score points but if not, then someone else does.

Il Principe

Ah, another game that I wanted to play. However, we messed up the rules to this game. This turned the game into one where you don’t want to build cities and where you want to get ownership of the special tiles that score for you when others build cities. Which is what I did. And when people built cities, I would score 25%-75% of what they did. I am sure that the correct rules would turn this game into something much different. So this playing doesn’t count much.

Geschenkt

Ahh, I like this game. Either you get lucky or you don’t. And this time I was very lucky indeed. The second to last card turned out to be the 14 which I desperately needed to fill in the missing gap.

Mesopotamia

Another game that I wanted to play. In this game, I was desperately searching for rocks. You see, you need them to increase your manna. And you need your manna to be at the maximum in order to win the game. Gods demand high-level sacrifices after all. It was only at the end of the game, when I found the needed rocks. But by then, Ed and Susan were one turn away from winning the game.

Hey! That’s my fish!

Ed brought a new game for us to play with the theme of penguins trying to collect the most fish. You have two penguins on an iceberg that is littered with fish. On your turn, you move a penguin in one of the six directions for as long as you want up to another penguin or the last hex. And your goal is to stake out territory for yourself that only you can collect. I was concentrating on staking out an area with one of my penguins while letting the other languish. However, luckily for me, the other players left an area for that one. So I was able to create two small icebergs that only I could collect. But I couldn’t collect enough fishes for the win. Jon was able to create a bigger space for himself.

Gemblo

Another playing of this game for me. It seems to be the popular choice for a filler game for up to six people.

Antiquity

Ahh, another playing of Antiquity for me. And I still haven’t won yet. But I want to play it more so I can master this game! The game can play quickly if every player is experienced with the rules. The only problem is that there are a lot of bits for this game. You must set up the board, move bits around during play, and then clean up a whole hell of a lot of games at the end.

I haven’t been to Tim’s in a while and since his copy of Indonesia came in, I decided to bring it to him. I play with Tim’s new X-Box 360 for a little bit until Mary comes in. He was bringing some games that I really wanted to play (Ark and Jenseits von Theben). But he also had recently bought a new Prius. So I asked to see it. And on the way back in, I noticed that I had a flat on my truck! Fortunately, John was nice enough to stay outside and help me put on the spare (and figure out how to drop the spare from under the truck bed). When we went back in, I found out that Marty hosed us by starting a game of Ark which I really wanted to play. But there was some good luck to go with that bad luck. I was able to find out early and fix my tire before going downtown at dusk to photograph the UT tower.

Category 5

John suggested we play this English version of 6 Nimmt as a filler until more people came in to play. There were only three people playing which made it seem easier for some reason. Not much hosage went on. I was able to escape with one point while John took a lot of them.

Caylus

A couple of people came in so John suggested Caylus and I accepted. Unfortunately, this was a learning game for two of the people. So this game took a long time to complete. And, as well, they were pretty slow players who liked to discuss likely outcomes of possible moves. I tend to not like people who take a long time and agonize over their moves.

Rook

We started out the night with a game that John brought called Rook. He described it as a trick taking game, so we decided to play it. I later learned that he didn’t use the correct rules. However, the rules he explained were more interesting. On your turn, if you cannot follow the suit that was led, you must trump if possible. You also must over-trump if possible. Which would be a bad thing if your partner is currently taking the trick. This makes the bidding phase more interesting.

You bid the number of point that you think that your team will win. Whoever wins the bid gets five extra cards that they may swap out with into their hand (from 0 – 5 of them). Then the five cards (new or not) are left aside and whoever gets the last trick will also get these cards (which may have points in them).

Don Pepe

We decided to play this light and quite mean spirited filler game. And it has been a while since we played it which is a shame. Its not that bad of a game as long as everyone is in the mood for singing “It’s your birthday!”.

Caylus

Another playing of Caylus for me and it still hasn’t lost its appeal for me. The only mistake that I made was in the second to the last round of the game. I had built 3 of a possible 4 castles for the majority. And I decided to keep the last one unbuilt in order to try and get the majority again (which is normally a good thing). However, Doug was able to build enough castles first to stop anyone else from building. In the end, we both tied for the win! Now that I think about it, if I would have built one more castle, I would have gotten two more victory points. Sigh.

Geschenkt x 2

I happen to like this light push your luck (or avoidance) game. The only dillema is what cards are missing from the deck and how many rounds can you keep other people chipping to avoid a card that you want.

Tichu

Jon really wanted to play Tichu since he did not play during lunch this week. So his penality was to play with John. On the first hand, Jon wished for an ace that I didn’t have but John did (hehehe).

I was really surprised last night to find this on my door step. It is my order of 3 copies of Indonesia from Splotter! The last time that I heard from an employee at Splotter on December 12th was that they were going to ship it out that week but hadn’t received my fax yet. I, of course, resent the fax and responded to the email asking for them to please notify me that they shipped it. Of course, I heard nothing from them. And over time I emailed them asking what was going on. With no response. Sigh.

Well, at least they seem to hose everyone equally. They still haven’t billed my credit card yet.

I experimented and made some cheese fondue for tonight. It was made with Emmental and Gruyére cheeses.

Ys

We spent some time trying to pick a game. With six people, we usually break up into two three player groups. John suggested playing this game since he hears that it is comming back into print. And why not with the current buzz and focus on their new game, Caylus. So I tought the rules and we played. John was able to pull a come back from behind move and tie me for first during final scoring. Nice play John!

Caylus

Another playing of this hot new game. And one that was thematic as well since both games played tonight were Ystari games.

We were robbed! Ed subconsciously gave the other team 100 points…