Long weekend (not a “long weekend,” but a weekend that was long) of gaming.
Friday was our bi-monthly (twice a month… gosh English is tricky sometimes) Frosthaven game, but one of the players forgot, so the other three of us played Tyrants of the Underdark.
Lovely, lovely little deck-builder, and the area control elements are clever and elegant. Not perfect, but I continue to be very happy I have it in my collection. Mike won with a score of 100, Katie came in second with 96, and I finished 3rd with 94.
Then we played a quick game of Red Cathedral, which I wasn’t sure Mike would like (he generally hates dry Euros), but it went quite well. Bit of a grind to teach, but we managed it, and the final scores were Katie 49, Mike and I tied at 47. So a lovely little game. Probably my favourite “pure” Euro that I own? I think I like Hansa Teutonica better, but I haven’t owned a copy in yoinks.
Then Saturday, my buddy Terry had his birthday. 10:30am dim sum (where he mocked me for my Mandarin pronunciation of the food, “Char siu bao” instead of “cha soo bao,” things like that), followed by Tsuro with 7 players. Lovely, fast, bloodthirsty, and I won.
Then we played Mafia di Cuba a few times. Gosh, what a great little social deduction game. Andy (my partner), who usually hates traitor-style games managed 3 wins (twice by stealing diamonds!).
Then on to Robo Rally, specifically the 30th Anniversary edition. The painted minis are great (although the way they are stored is not), and the maps are great… but the “Everyone has their own deck of cards” is fine, but then the damage is a lot less satisfying? I get the idea, though, since earlier editions of the game were very chaotic, and the new one is trying to be more strategic… I’m not sure that’s an improvement? But, regardless, Turrel (who I consistently called “Tyrell” because I have the brain of a goldfish and have read far too much Game of Thrones) managed the win. It was close, though!
After that we played a couple rounds of The Metagame, specifically the Judge one (everyone puts out a description card in front of them, like “Most likely to End World Hunger” or “The Boss Monster of New York” and then you put your “thing” cards by the description cards… so you might put “River Dance” by the “Boss Monster of New York” or whatever). A lot like CAH, if CAH was fun and well designed. Anyway, the other one we played was “Critics” where everyone makes an argument for their “Thing” card to a council of judges, and each round the council decides who did the best (they get to draw more cards) and the one player who did the worst, who then joins the council. Neat, and more engaging for the most part, but… I mean, it’s good, but it’s not Funemployed or Monikers, so I think it might be time to move it on? I dunno.
And then Monikers and what can be said?
“Small children’s character that teaches kids not to each pork!”
It’s great. It’s just great.
Then Turrell and his fiance Megan had to go, so the 5 of us remaining played one lap of Formula D, which everyone else insisted on calling “Formu-lad”. Hilarious. Anyway, I won handily, and Trinity flipped over and exploded at about the halfway point. But good fun.
Then we went to Indian food (lamb rogen josh (sp?), which was fantastic), where the very enthusiastic and friendly waiter insisted on singing Happy Birthday to Terry, despite him asking her very politely not to, and even offering her a bigger tip if she didn’t… to no avail, sadly. She sang.
(As an aside, I hate when people do this. If we don’t want singing, please don’t sing! We didn’t ask for special treatment for his birthday, didn’t even mention it except she asked what brought us in at the end of the meal and Terry was gushing about how he loved the restaurant and so for his 40th birthday he wanted to bring a bunch of friends in…)
Anyway. Then back to Terry’s place, where I finally played Blood on the Clocktower, and I now feel confident in saying that Quinns is kooky-dooks. The game is fine. It’s aggressively fine, but gods there is a TON of work and fiddle and little rules and things to remember… it’s fine.
Granted, we only played with 6, which is really too few. I think a minimum of 12 might be right, but the thought of trying to teach 12 people… ugh, my stomach twisted just thinking about it. The Forces of Evil ended up losing on Day 3 when the Demon tried to kill the Saint, who was protected by the Monk and that threw the Demon (who was a beginner player) off. And one of the players basically listened to half the rules and she wasn’t interested in playing at all… that might’ve had something to do with it… anyway. Moral of the story: it’s fine, but ye gods that price point.
Then we played eight player Two Rooms and a Boom (Terry was basically using his birthday as an excuse to put social deduction games on the table), which my team won (Red) because by sheer luck 3 of the red players were in my room to start and that let us dictate the terms of the engagement very effectively. Another so-so game. I guess it’s biggest problem is that it’s not Mafia di Cuba, which is superior to most others because you can choose which team you’re on. Huge, huge thing for games of that ilk.
Anyway. After that we played a round of Hot Streak which is spectacular. Mum was unstoppable.
And then lastly we played a couple 6-player rounds of The Gang, which we went into the final round 2-2, and then lost when I didn’t want a high chip but everyone kept taking my 3 and 4 chips… so I took the 5 and should’ve been a 4.
Although we won one round that I thought we lost because I thought I had a pair of 5s with an Ace kicker, but actually had two pair Aces and Fives. Oopsies.
Cool. That brings me to today, when my buddy Dave, who I haven’t seen in a few years, made the hour-long drive out to see me. I invited a few other buddies, and we played Inis with the Seasons expansion for the first time (first with with the expansion for me, first time ever for Dave, Scott, and Katie, but Mike had played before). Second last turn Dave and I both try to claim the throne but tie (him on Sanctuaries, me on Regions), so we switch to “We Demand a King,” and I thought I had it in the bag after a clutch invasion of an island and then buliding a Citadel there, but Mike managed to remove one of my two scoring conditions AND get 2 himself to take the win. Great game.
Then lunch, and we were going to play Star Trek Ascendancy but I forgot that with 5 players it tends towards the slow side (especially since I am the only person who has played it), so we put it away and pulled out Cyclades instead. Again, Mike and I have both played the base game, but I put in Titans for the first time and we had a lovely time romping through the Greek countryside. I won by a clutch Pegasus attack against Scott’s Metropolis one god before Katie could build one Metropolis and use 4 Philosophers to instantly win. Great game. I still like Inis better, but Cyclades is faster and it’s very good.
Then we finished with another game of Hot Streak in which Mum promptly turned around and ran off the side of the board. Twice. It was great!
Phew. I’m exhausted, but it was a very good couple of days.
