Danger Planet session. 5-player Greed Quest, 5-player Ticket To Ride, 3-player Blokus.
Players were Rich, Cindy, Doug, Karl, myself. New players to the game were: Rich, Cindy, Doug, Karl, myself.
We spent 5 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of Greed Quest.
Ah... Dungeon exploration and Phil Foglio's artwork. What could be better?
Well, this game is very social -- requiring bluffing to take advantage of card play.
Karl, gave up in frustration, and just played randomly from his hand. Until one time he played a card illegally... then he checked his random card for legality before playing it.
I found the game dragging longer than it needed to be. Perhaps stopping at the horde would fulfill my Greed Quest satisfaction level.
I was caught off-guard by the fact that all the rules weren't consolidated, playing this right off the bat with the group. The cards say one thing, the rules expand on the cards without repeating the card text, and the priority order of cards is only on the game board! As for the spaces on the game board, a few of them were explained (the same way the cards were.) It made for a lot of needless cross-referencing.
Unfortunately, the rules give more information that would be useful on the card itself, like what happens if more than one card of the same type is played? It doesn't say, at all, what happens if the same "go" card is played, so we assumed they all just counted.
And where does Steve Jackson Games get off calling the sheet the game is played on, a game board?!?!
Overall, I like the look of the game. Kudos to Philip Reed and Phil Foglio. The instructions need work, and the cards could've used more information so there would be less looking stuff up during the first game. The game is very light and chaotic, so it's really for people who want the social experience of playing a dungeon looting theme.
Caption: Starting a game of Greed Quest.
Game lasted 35 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to learn more about Greed Quest at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Rich, Cindy, Doug, Karl, myself. New players to the game were: Rich, Doug. I had the first turn.
Click here for an overview of Ticket To Ride.
I started with "Vancouver to Montreal" and "Seattle to Los Angeles." Do you see how easy this'll be? I remember a previous game, Cindy had "Vancouver to Montreal" and was uncontested for the route.
So, I started saving up cards because the path is costly. Karl tried to screw me between Vancouver and the next city over, but I took advantage of that by going along an expensive, but high point value, detour! Cindy was on her way to getting the longest path, but I finished my path, added a six track route, and ended with a two path route, using up all my pieces. All the pieces (except for a one track detour) went into making the longest path!
It seems to me that "Vancouver to Montreal" as a starting track gives a player a huge advantage, because it's worth so much, and the tracks along the way are worth so much. Perhaps screwage is in order, but, in this game, to go out of your way to screw someone is to lose out on longest path, and to lose a turn, while every other player benefits.
I consider this a light game, but it is satisfying to build a track and to work around other players' tracks.
Caption: Adding up the final score in Ticket to Ride.
Caption: The winning ticket and bonus cards.
Game lasted 75 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 Rich, Cindy, myself. Rich was a new player to the game. Rich had the first turn.
We spent 5 minutes going over the rules and setting up the game.
Click here for an overview of Blokus.
I like this game a lot so I had to push it as the final game.
I never played three players before, and found that we alternate turns for a virtual fourth player. I wonder what happens if virtual player gets the best score. :-)
Rich complained that he's not good at these types of games, but ended up playing extremely well for a first time player. Screwage is his friend.
By the Way, the virtual player got -22 points. Not a threat.
Game lasted 23 minutes.
Final scores were:
Click here to buy Blokus at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Blokus at BoardGameGeek.com.
