Danger Planet session. 3-player Fish Eat Fish, 5-player Tongiaki, 5-player Ticket to Ride, 5-player Carcassonne.
Players were Ralph, Karl, myself. Ralph was a new player to the game. I had the first turn.
We spent 10 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of Fish Eat Fish.
This is a light game to play while waiting for more players.
I took the strategy of playing random cards without looking. That made Karl fret quite a bit, but I was the first to get eliminated.
Game lasted 10 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Fish Eat Fish at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Fish Eat Fish at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Ralph, Karl, Jeff, Cindy, myself. Jeff was a new player to the game. Karl had the first turn.
We spent 15 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of Tongiaki.
Whoa! I tried something different this time: going off exploring on my own.
Unfortunately, other players took me along for their expeditions, and I ended up eliminated from half the board, and too diluted to start any more expeditions. So, in this rather quick game, I ended up on only a few islands when the game ended.
This session is a great example of when the game becomes no fun because so much happens between my turns.
Caption: Ralph hides from view at this Tongiaki end-game.
Game lasted 25 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Tongiaki at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Tongiaki at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Ralph, Karl, Jeff, Cindy, myself. New players to the game were: Jeff, Cindy, myself. I had the first turn.
Click here for an overview of Ticket to Ride.
This game is a little more interesting than its predecessor, Transamerica.
I almost had the longest railway, but Ralph, amazingly, connected a zig-zagging track to beat me out.
I almost connect my last ticket to ride, but Karl inadvertently cut off a simple path I needed. I say inadvertently, because no one seemed aware of the screwage possibilities during the game, and merrily laid their own railways. I didn't realize the screwage potential until I noticed a few turns before what Karl ended up doing. However, avoiding giving away the obvious path I wanted to take, just gave Karl more time to take it himself.
Of his cards, Jeff had two ticket to rides for over 20 points. He only managed to connect one of them, ending up losing three points at the end of the game. I was surprised to see the range of scores on the ticket to ride cards at that point, and I wonder if this game is only slightly less chaotic than Transamerica.
You see, I think Transamerica is mostly about who'll take a hit his turn to cross the expensive mountains. Here, the chaos is shifted to whether you end up with high scoring cards that compliment each other, and screw the opponents by getting needed paths first.
It's interesting enough to try again, but not to push for it.
Caption: Ticket to Ride end-game.
Game lasted 80 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Ticket to Ride at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Ticket to Ride at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Ralph, Karl, Jeff, Cindy, myself. I had the first turn.
We spent 5 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of Carcassonne.
We played Carcassone with the expansions: Inns and Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, and King and Scout. (I don't think I'll ever separate these expansions again. Will have to buy another plain Carcassone to play that again! :-)
I guess the high points were that I ended up with the kind, and Cindy ended up with the scout. I was competing with Cindy for one big city, and with Jeff for a city with a cathedral. That neither completed hurt me.
Cindy seemed to be in last place the whole time.
Karl seemed to play a subtle game because he blew past our scores with all the end-game scoring.
I love this game.
Caption: Carcassonne end-game.
Game lasted 75 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Carcassonne at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Carcassonne at BoardGameGeek.com.
