Al's private gaming party session. 7-player Squint, 7-player Quiddler, 3-player Crime Lords, 12-player Werewolf, 4-player ZooSim, 4-player Blokus.
Players were Steve, Matt, Amy, Rob, Maria, Chris, myself.
Click here for an overview of Squint.
When I arrived late in the day, I followed the sound of happy, giggling players, and joined in on a game of Squint with them. The other players in the house, were silently concentrating, or laughing menacingly. While I would've liked to be in on those games, those games would take a while to finish.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Squint at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Squint at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Steve, Matt, Amy, Rob, Maria, Chris, myself.
Click here for an overview of Quiddler.
With so many players, it's inevitable that someone is able to go out within the first two rounds, and that leaves everyone else in a desperate attempt to find the highest score sooner than they'd like. Perhaps this is balanced by the fact that there are a number of hands as there are players. But luck is luck, and this is counter-balanced by a player's knowledge of words.
I was off to a bad start when my first word, "Que", was challenged.
Rob seemed to give up easily, which garnered sympathy from the ladies to help him with his hands.
Steve bemoaned the abundance of consonants or vowels in his hand.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Quiddler at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Quiddler at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Chris, Matt, myself. New players to the game were: Chris, Matt, myself. I had the first turn.
Click here for an overview of Crime Lords.
This game is a lot like Illuminati with a few changes to make things interesting. There is an auction to start things off, so players have a chance during the first initial turns. The game is action cost based, which get replenished at the end of a turn. This is important for defensive plays during the game.
Otherwise it's very similar to the original game.
Chris played the Old Family. Matt played Murder Incorporated. I played North Side Mob.
Early on, I attempted to get Matt's boiler room and failed. Matt attacked my Bordello and succeeded; this deprived me of an income (short of forfeiting my turn, which I did often.)
I attempted to get East Side Numbers, needing a 4 or better. Matt and Chris let me have the slight chance, and I succeeded!
Eventually, Matt and I decided to ally against Chris who was getting very powerful. It didn't help. Chris eliminated my boss' subordinate, which made him unhappy enough to leave, which left me with absolutely no power structure. Chris picked up all my rackets, more than doubling his for the win.
In our postmortem, we evaluated all the bosses, and found The Old Family to be the best in general. Murder, Inc., and North Side Mob were the worst because they needed specific conditions for their abilities to be useful.
Only 15 rackets came out the whole time which made Matt's power (an advantage when attacking rackets, generally useless.)
Overall, a fun game. Maybe a bit too long, but we had a break that made it bearable.
Game lasted 195 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Crime Lords at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Crime Lords at BoardGameGeek.com.
Click here for an overview of Werewolf.
We played three sessions while munching on pizza.
Some people couldn't wait to be eliminated to get at the delicious, greasy slices!
Most notable was the very first session, in which I was the seer. First turn, I pointed and guessed one werewolf. Second turn, I pointed and guessed the second werewolf. Then I just announced, "I am the seer and these two are the werewolves." They didn't have a chance!
Click here to buy Werewolf at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Werewolf at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Steve, Chris, Matt, myself. New players to the game were: Steve, Chris, Matt.
We spent 5 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of ZooSim.
We played two games.
It seems people need one pass to get the hang of the game, then it clicks. Fortunately, this game is short enough to accommodate multiple plays.
I enjoy the game for its depth and quick-play.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy ZooSim at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about ZooSim at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Steve, Chris, Matt, myself. New players to the game were: Steve, Chris, Matt.
Click here for an overview of Blokus.
A quick game that was well received.
Game lasted 20 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Blokus at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Blokus at BoardGameGeek.com.
