Archive for the ‘Playing, Reading, Watching, Listening’ Category.
Last night I played 7 Wonders at Monday night gaming.
It’s very complicated.
I suppose I mostly understood how to play by the end of the game but not really why. It’s 90% me vs. the cards I randomly get. And nothing seemed to “happen” during the game until we tallied the score at the very end.
Scoring is so complicated. I made most of my choices based on “ooh, that’s a pretty card, I’ll choose that one.” and I scored in the middle of the pack at the end of the game. So many of the “strategic” choices come down to whether luck will favor me getting the right cards. There are just so many ways to score victory points that it all evens out in the end.
I’ve also got to admit that I was distracted the entire evening due to some personal issues. So maybe the game is actually better than I experienced.
The night opened with a rousing game of Abducktion. I was too late to get in, but fun was had.
At the end of the night, we played a little round of Liars Dice. Such a simple game, but ultimately rather satisfying!
Last week at Community Games Night, I played Raiders of the North Sea again. Despite learning it just last month, I had mostly forgotten how to play. I ultimately played a bit better than the last time but quickly remembered that I would rather be playing directly with other players (either with or against); I’m playing mostly against my cards and the board. It was fine, the pictures are pretty.
Last night at Monday Night Gaming, I got to play Arcs: Conflict and Collapse in the Reach. It’s a complex, very nice game! By the end of 2 1/2 hours of gameplay, we were officially 3/5 of the way through a game and I was still figuring out rules, but it was fun! And a very good group to play with, teaming up with Kevin against Arthur will always be a thing. And Arthur will still always win ;-)
Kevin getting a shot of me getting shredded by my own attack on Arthur’s blue ships
I got about 2/3 of the way through playing Small World world at Monday night gaming. I had to bail because Abigail said she missed me, so I rushed home. I think it takes a few playings to get the hang of all the characters and their powers. We all played quietly, focusing on the many many pieces on the board.
Last night I got to play Raiders of the North Sea with the Hall of Heroes Expansion at Monday Night Gaming. It’s a fun group to play with. I still prefer games where I’m playing directly against my opponents’ wit. In this game, there are lots of ways to accumulate Victory Points. Sadly, very few involve direct interaction with the other players. I was most enthralled with the notion that when each of your raiders gets killed on a raid, you get an increasing amount of Valhalla points, which translates into exponentially more Victory Points. I thought about using that strategy…. “get killed as much as possible” but it didn’t work out. Instead I played a middling game and… tada ended up winning! I’m still not in love with games that focus on Victory Points for the win, but we had a good night of gaming!
Monday I played Dragonwood and Citadels.
I really enjoyed Citadels! I’d enjoy playing it again!
It’s easy to see why I didn’t like Dragonwood. Thinking back…
- It was all about getting victory points (I find them to be rather artificial because… well, they are)
- I was rolling D6’s that only has numbers 1-4 on it (1,2,2,3,3,4) that hurts my DnD soul… and I totally didn’t realize that nuance for a while, until I was crazily not rolling an average of 3.5 but an average of 2.5, which was a VERY important detail!).
- The creature cards were pretty and kinda cute, which was.. cute I guess
- The players didn’t much play against one another. There are cards in the center that we’re all trying to compete to get, which was most of the interaction
- There was a lot of waiting around trying to get lucky with the cards (finding straights, flushes, and of-a-kind matches), and with the dice
Cunk on Life is so funny!
Tonight at Juku’s monthly gaming night, I played The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, a rather fun trick-taking game!
Moreso, Abigail came and really enjoyed playing with the other kids there!
It was a win of a night!
At Monday gaming I played Terraforming Mars: The Dice Game for the first time. It felt like I was almost entirely playing my own game of building and only occasionally interacting with the other players. The cards and dice and such are fun, with nice quality images and such. It felt like there was a bit of slightly clunky artifice built into the game, scoring points for various things, but still it was fun learning the game. And it was certainly fun playing with friends.
I’ve been playing board games with a new group of friends lately. It’s been great!
Last night, we played:
The Mind – Cards are numbered 1-100. Players have to wordlessly try to fill the discard pile in the proper order. Fun and so easy to learn.
Love Letter – Card game with about 10 characters, each with a power. By carefully noticing what’s being played by others, you try to guess what card they have in their hand and knock them out. Mix of luck and careful observation!
Captain Sonar – a 4 player vs 4 player game where 2 submarine crews try to destroy the other sub. Thrilling, and a little complicated in how the players have to work together to drive the sub to victory.
Here’s a fun retro movie review site run by a friend: Will Turntale
He reviews in print and audio flix like the 1990 Robot Jox and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fun stuff!
Screenshot
Last week at Community Games Night, I played Raiders of the North Sea again. Despite learning it just last month, I had mostly forgotten how to play. I ultimately played a bit better than the last time but quickly remembered that I would rather be playing directly with other players (either with or against); I’m playing mostly against my cards and the board. It was fine, the pictures are pretty.
