Saturday 5 March 2011

On Saturday Babs and Carl were hosting games at their place partly in celebration of their birthdays and also as one of their new regular fortnightly Saturday games nights. We arrived as Craig and Sean and their kids were leaving. T and K had been given a couple of Chinese terracotta soldiers. But to make them more interesting they were each encased in a clay brick. Each brick came with little bamboo scraper and small brush to give the feel of archaeology. Judging how far the boys got in the first hour these bricks could keep them busy for days (if they don’t get bored and frustrated first). Overall a cute idea that I’d expect to see in gift shops at heritage sites around the world.

Expedition
We kicked the evening off with Expedition. The red route curled in tight loops around North America until we got bored with it. The blue route petered out very quickly in North Africa while the yellow route went around the world. I made a mistake of not going to a destination one link away from the one just got to, but luckily recovered to win.

Ian  18
Carl 17
Anne 10

Wyatt Earp
Carl then taught us Wyatt Earp, a Rummy game which in terms of its mechanics is part of the Mystery Rummy family of card games. Anne hadn't played Rummy before so the basic concept of pickup, optionally meld (create or add to a set of cards on the table) and then discard was new to her. In Mystery Rummy games the deck is divided into "normal" and "special" cards, with the special cards making up a quarter to a third of the deck. Each turn a player may meld or play one special card (in addition to melding normal cards). In Wyatt Earp most of the special cards relate to the scoring of sets, though the commonest special cards (the multi-use Wyatt Earp cards) can be, and often are, used to allow the player to draw more cards.

The theme of the game is hunting outlaws in the wild west. Each outlaw has a bounty which starts at $1,000. There are 7 suits (one per outlaw) with 7 identical cards in each suit. Melding 2+ cards in a suit increases the bounty on that outlaw by $1000 times the number of cards melded minus one. Some special cards can be added to melds of a particular outlaw that also increase the bounty. The cards played also indicate how much "knowledge" a player has of that outlaw (normal cards are worth 2 points). At the end of the hand the bounties may be paid out, but only if the total "knowledge" of all players is at least 8. If a player has at least 5 "knowledge" more than any other player they get the whole bounty otherwise it is share among the players. Unpaid bounties accumulate from hand to hand. I have been interested in this game for awhile as it has a sort of stock market idea.

At the end of the second hand I got to $24,000 but in next hand Carl prevented me from getting any more cash with a well timed Hideout card. Anne and I are keen to play Wyatt Earp again.

Carl  $27,000
Ian   $24,000
Anne  $24,000

Tichu
By this time the boys were in bed and Carl was keen for Babs to learn Tichu. As it was after 10pm I suggested that we just play a couple of hands, but it turned out that we played a whole game. I felt that I had consistently poor hands (I must learn how to make the best of such hands).

There were very few Tichu calls though plenty of 1-2s, and on two hands the points were shared 50-50. Babs and Carl were ahead through the mid-game but in the final two hands we scored 105 and 95 points.

Hnd IA+AM C+BdV
1.   200     0  1-2
2.   200   200  1-2
3.   215   385  Carl's Tichu
4.   265   435  50 points each
5.   315   485  ditto
6.   315   685  1-2
7.   515   585  our 1-2 & Carl fails Tichu
8.   560   640
9.   860   640  Anne's Tichu 1-2
10.  965   635
11. 1060   640

Saturday 19 February 2011

We started the afternoon with Andrew R, Andrew H, Anna, Carl, Jarratt, Anne and I. On one table Andrew R, Anna and Anne make some films in Traumfabrik. Anna won with over 100 points and Andrew lost. He says that there are several rule difference between Traumfabrik and Hollywood Blockbuster. In particular he says the rule in Hollywood Blockbuster for choosing tiles at the party involves counting the number of stars on actor and guest start tiles, also he says that Hollywood Blockbuster has different end game awards. This interested me but I couldn't find any references to this on BGG.

Meanwhile on the other table Carl and I took on Jarratt and Andrew H at Tichu. As is often the case we started cautiously without a Tichu call on the first hand (and A&J slapped us 80-20). After that Carl got his confidence back and called Tichu the next two hands, with a 50% success rate that put us back in front. The lead swapped back and forth and either side could have won. The game climaxed with a pair of Tichu 1-2s in the last two hands.

Hnd C & I A & J
1.    20    80  
2.   235    65  Carl's Tichu
3.   185   115  Carl failed to make Tichu
4.   220   180 
5.   220   480  Andrew's Tichu and 1-2
6.   280   520
7.   425   575  Carl's Tichu
8.   425   475  Carl and Jarratt failed Tichu but we scores all the points
9.   565   435  Carl's Tichu and Andrew failed
10.  570   530
11.  760   540  Carl's Tichu
12.  760   840  Jarratt's Tichu and 1-2
13. 1060   840  Carl's Tichu and 1-2

Overall Carl called Tichu 7 times in 13 hands and only failed twice. On the other hand I was way too cautious to call Tichu; while Andrew and Jarratt were more balanced calling twice each. The joke of the game was that whenever Carl called Tichu it meant that I had the stronger hand, this turned out to save our bacon at least once!

While we continued to play Tichu the others played a hand of Coloretto which Andrew Rae won before he hurried back to his family. Andrew P took his place and won a couple of games of Attika against Anna and Anne, with shrine to shrine victories.

Anna and Anne who had been jealous of our game of Tichu challenged Andrew and Jarratt to a game. The boys started off with a rush with 3 successful Tichus. After a couple of quite hands both Anna and Andrew called Tichu and both failed. Finally Anna and Anne started their come back.

Hnd A & J A & A
1.   165    35  Jarratt's Tichu  
2.   360    40  Jarratt's Tichu
3.   505    95  Andrew's Tichu
4.   575   125
5.   655   145
6.   600   100  Andrew & Anna both failed Tichu
7.   600   400  Anna's Tichu and 1-2

The game was abandoned because Jarratt had to go and cook dinner, amid protests from the others!

On the dining table I tried to teach Havoc to Jim, Margot and Carl. Unfortunately this turned out to be one of my less successful teaching efforts and Carl in particular ended up with the wrong idea of how to play a battle. I obviously need to brush up on my teaching technique. Andrew P beat me on the tie-break.

Andrew P  30
Ian       30
Margot    26
Jim       22
Carl       9

After Jarratt left, Anna and Andrew H taught Anne Glory to Rome. Anne played a military strategy but was weak in other areas.

During the dinner break Jim, Andrew H, Carl and I learnt my new game of The Bottle Imp and played one hand. I'd now like to try a full game of this odd trick taking game.

After dinner Andrew and Anna taught Carl Glory to Rome. But I was busy teaching Jim and Margo On the Underground. Which was draw between Jim and Anne.

Jim    48
Anne   48
Ian    41
Margot 38

By 10 pm everyone had gone home and after we tidied up Anne and I played a final game. Jaipur is our current two player game of choice. I won 2 out of 3 rounds.

Ian  54 57 86
Anne 89 49 72

Overall it was a pretty successful day even though I only played in 4 of the 11 games.

Birthday Games (13 February 2010)

It was a bit hectic the weekend before my birthday with the Wellington Sevens plus being out of town for half the week, so I organised my birthday games for the following weekend.

Peter, Michelle, Abbey, Lara and Lance were the first people to arrive. They arrived at the same time that my friend Graeme rang up and by the time I was off the phone On the Underground was on the table. Even though Peter has owned this game much longer than Anne has, it was Michelle's first time.

Michelle 34
Ian      31
Lance    30
Anne     29
Peter    28

While we were playing Abbey and Lara played some Mancala, and more people arrived. Brandon brought a huge box of games including Hoity Toity which he played with John B, Craig, Leonie and Nigel.

After On the Underground Michelle played Trans America with Siobhan, Abbey and Lara. While I taught Peter Sylla, Christians were persecuted, the slave revolted and the Senate was purged. John was first Consul, I was the second, John was third, Lance fourth and I the last and Peter stayed out of politics.

Lance  61
John R 59
Peter  50
Ian    50

Meanwhile yet more people had arrived and John B taught Craig and Luke Hansa Teutonica, Brandon introduced Leonie and Anne to Villa Paletti. Then Siobhan, Abbey, Lara and Michelle had a go. The third game involved 3 pairs Brandon and Anne, Siobhan and Leonie, Michelle and Lara.

It was heading towards dinner time and Peter, Michelle and girls left, so we were looking for short games Brandon pulled out High Society and Luke, Nigel and I joined him. At 5:30pm I optimistically thought that I could teach and play Traders of Cathage in 30 minutes. Lance got one more VP than John R but neither actually counted their VPs!

After a pot luck dinner involving Craig's Guinness pie, Brandon's pasta, Luke's chicken curry, Claire's vegi-curry, Anne's cake, and my quiche, we went back to games. Brandon, Luke, Travis and Nigel played Ys. Leonie, Craig, Frog and John R played Factory Manager. While I pulled out another of my unplayed games: Owner's Choice. This turns out to be a really light dice based share trading game. In game one:

Lance  $1190
Claire  $880
Anne    $840
Ian     $790

In game two we made much more money

Lance  $1430
Ian    $1400
Anne   $1300
Claire $1060

Siobhan was keen on joining a game so we played Villa Paletti a colourful Jenga-like dexterity game which she played with no fear. After all she was the only one of us who had played before. Who cares who won?

Claire left, as did Craig, Leonie and Siobhan and Nasia had arrived in time to play Traumfabrik with Anne, Frog and John R. Meanwhile who knows why Nigel was keen on Reef Encounter, but it had been so long since any of us had played with had to relearn it (even Lance). When Lance pulled off a sneaky coral dominance move Nigel himself started to doubt the wisdom of wanting to play this game.

I did well with my first piece of coral but lost my way after that. While Luke made an amazing run from the back to win in his first game.

Luke  73
Lance 64
Nigel 59
Ian   50

It was close to 2am before Anne and I got to bed after a very successful birthday games. And the tradition of the birthday boy not winning on their birthday continues unbroken.

Craig's BBQ Games, 12 December 2009

It had been Craig's birthday on Friday and he had arranged a BBQ for the Saturday, which was, typically for Wellington, overcast and windy. Mostly we ate and talked but a few games also got played. Initially once the food was out of the way Carl wanted to introduce his older brother to Endeavor. I started off with a Workshop and the #-zero Slave card to get me access to the level 3 buildings, but my strategy wasn't very clear beyond that point and my game didn't take off as expected. Carl chose a shipping heavy strategy with lots of culture and he got Governor card after Governor card. Rene had a more balanced strategy with plenty of culture, finance and politics.

Rene 60
Carl 60
Ian  55

After most people had left I taught Edel Stein & Reich to Leonie and Travis. This game turned out to be much more dynamic with respect to gem redistribution than Friday night's game, partly due to the event which made us discard half our gems. Craig's strategy of playing and loosing games on his birthday (as tradition dictates) paid off and he beat me by a $1,000,000.

Craig  66
Ian    65
Leonie 60
Travis 52
Anne   46

Leonie deserted us to play World of Warcraft and Jarratt arrived. There was a period of indecision about what to play which was resolved in favour of Timbuktu. Jarratt screwed up his information recording system on the first turn and lost 7 things in the first round, but then didn't loose anything else for the rest of the game. Craig lost the least on the first round but later caught us up. Water was least favourite commodity for the thieves to steal.

Jarratt 120
Travis   98
Ian      92
Anne     90
Craig    87

It's been a good week of gaming with three gaming sessions in the week.

Lance's Birthday Games - Saturday 26 September 2009

Lance carried on his tradition of birthday games with more food than ever before. No-one got around to eating his ice cream cake! Jessi also had her own party while the cats hid.

There was a trend in the games played for 6 player games. First up was Steam. We played the basic rule set to Steam with the Southern England board from Age of Steam with 3 initial cubes per city. Leonie complained that she didn't know what she was doing, while I should have known what I was doing, but ran severely short of cubes. There was a general consensus that the game was one turn too long (we had severe rust belt issues).

Leonie 41
Travis 37
Peter  34
Craig  32
Lance  32
Ian    23

Next up was Expedition, which was new to Terri and Paulette. Leonie helped me to the win.

Ian      15
Lance    11
Paulette  5
Craig     5
Leonie    3
Terri     2

After the pizza we played Wildlife where Terri showed us how it should be done with super intelligent Mountain Crocs.

Terri  - Croc    88
Ian    - Eagle   78
Travis - Bear    57
Lance  - Human   56
Carl   - Snake   50
Nigel  - Mammoth 45

After sensible people went to bed, we finished the evening with Age of Empires III. Carl built lots of buildings and discovered plenty of new lands, Lance played a balanced game, Nigel ended up obscenely rich, I was very poor, colonized as much as possible and went to war (Lance deterred me with soldiers, Carl deterred me with his super-missionary and so I attacked Nigel).

Carl  103
Lance  99
Ian    80
Nigel  69

The tradition of the birthday person not winning a game on their birthday continues.