Game Day 11/08/2007

Game #1a
Game #1b

Galaxy Trucker

The first of the Essen games arrived at my house. This game sounded like a funner version of Factory Fun. I bought it from Funagain (a.k.a. Rip-Off-Again) because it looked like a limited release that only a few stores would get. I will give Funagain credit for getting hard to find games and what seems to be all of the Essen games. However, they really charge you for that privilege.

This game is about building your own space ship and flying across the galaxy. You have random encounters where you pick up goods, fight off pirates, and dodge meteors. If your ship makes it back, then you get paid a bonus and you can sell off your goods. The rules are well written and include funny tidbits.

There are two phases to this game. You first build your ship and then you run the gauntlet. The ship building phase is rather chaotic. There is a big pile of face-down pieces in the middle. You randomly draw one, reveal it, and decide if you want to attach it to your ship. If not, you put it back face-up and try again. The problem is that everyone is simultaneously and furiously doing this. There is a sand timer that people can advance if they choose. So the people who think that they are in the lead will be motivated to move the timer ahead.

After all the ships and built and they all pass inspection, the flight begins. A set amount of encounter cards will be flipped over one at a time. The event usually happens to the first ship in the race and moves on to the next ship behind the leader. These events are usually bad. It could be a group event where all the ships are looked at together and the person with the least engine strength (or weapon strength or crew) will have to give up something. Or it could be pirates where you have to beat the pirates or suffer consequences. The person who beats the pirates will get a reward and also save the people behind them. Asteroids or blaster shots come in a grouping (kind of like D.D.R. where you get one from the front, one from the left, one from the front, etc). Two dice are rolled to determine the column or row that the path will take it. Small asteroids will destroy exposed piping. Large asteroids can only be stopped by a laser. Small blaster fire can be stopped by shields in that direction and nothing stops large blaster fire. If the leading component is destroyed, well then, it goes away. Along with any connecting pieces.

I was the only one who survived the first round. That gave me a good lead. In the following rounds, I was usually in last place because my engines were weaker than the others. This was bad because I would never be able to land on planets and get trade goods. But I was able to keep my lead through the whole game. One thing that none of us did was to look that the event cards and customize the ship for the events. We were usually too rushed to even consider looking at the cards.

Game #2

Tichu

We finally convinced Chapel to stay a little later. He claimed that his S.O. was expecting him home at 10pm. And yet the two married men have no such restrictions.

I had two Tichu hands. And each time Gravitt had a bomb but chose not to use it against me. Which was alright with me. My first hand was 1-9,33,00,ph. If my opening straight had been bombed, I would be hurting. I don’t think I would have cared if he had bombed me during my second Tichu hand.

We were doing okay until Jon went with a risk GrandTichu. But I can’t get too mad at him since he was stopped with a King bomb. And then we were under the gun when the final three hands were called. Jon’s second GrandTichu call was a desperation call. Mike and John stopped him easily. Perhaps that was why Chapel was feeling a little over confident in the last hand. Or at least that is what I assumed why he was cackling maniacally…


11/08/2007 The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon MikeCh & JohnG
T+ 100    
100
 
 
180
    120  
  20 GT-  
180
 
  65    
235
 
T+ 180    
320
 
  180   T+ 620  
  -20 GT-   820  
  225 GT+  
875