I've been hesitant this year to update my game journal because I didn't feel like creating my usual formal entries. But that means I don't get to share my enthusiasm for the games I played and the great people I've been meeting (now that I've moved to Lexington, Kentucky.) This weekend, my friends, Chip and Sara, were visiting from Massachusetts. This is a real treat because I miss the friends I've left behind to follow jobs.
We went to my usual board gaming day at Rusty Scabbard which starts at 2PM Sundays.
We got there before anyone else, so we started with a game of Trendy. Did I play this before? It seemed familiar, though I don't recall the name nor the theme. It's a quick and fun game in which all players try to score cards by playing the same number of cards as the number on the cards. As soon as the number of cards of a numbered card reaches the number, those cards are scored and the rest discarded. the mechanic is play a card then draw a card. I remember playing a cutthroat versions that if you forget to draw you don't get to draw.)
Players start with six cards. Play continues, reshuffling the deck until someone reaches 100 points or more. Highest score wins.
Click here to buy Trendy at FunAgain.com
Click here to learn more about Trendy at BoardGameGeek.com
Shawn arrived. Then we played Domaine. It was Chip, Sara, Shawn and myself. Shawn was new to the game.
I started off with a slice of land to create a domaine with a mine. I think it's important to get a stream of income as soon as possible. This threatened Shawn, but I didn't intend to take advantage of him (too much) being his first game.
Sara sectioned off a domaine of her own and started making money too. the game seemed mostly about Sara and I growing our territories while Shawn and Chip tried to eek out some points from what remained. I mainly tried to keep enough knights in my first domain to keep Shawn from expanding into it. He kept trying to bump up his knight count there and playing betrayal.
I was eying a big chunk of land through the middle and around a corner to make into my domaine as Sara shot ahead in points. In a great play she played a spare wall on a chokepoint before I could complete that domaine. she was ahead of we when I completed the domaine. But I played an alliance between us which kept her from increasing her score and decreasing mine. this proved critical to my win because the game ended by running out of cards and I gained enough points by having the most money for the win.
Click here to buy Domaine at FunAgain.com
Click here to learn more about Domaine at BoardGameGeek.com
Shawn left and Andy arrived. We decided to draft a game of Magic: the Gathering because Chip brought sealed decks for just such a purpose.
The first time, I played against Chip while Andy played against Sara. Chip quickly beat me.
Click here to learn more about Magic: the Gathering at BoardGameGeek.com
ShawnG came in, so I set them up for a game of Navia Dratp, because I just bought the game, having enjoyed a demo of it a few weeks ago, and I wanted to see it in action. ShawnG actually played a lot of chess earlier in the week, so he was in the correct mindset for Navia Dratp -- the game is like a combination of chess and Magic the Gathering. Though, the two 1st edition starters are good for a satisfying game without the need to collect more.
Click here to learn more about Navia Dratp at BoardGameGeek.com
While that was going on, ShawnB came in. (there are so many "Shawns" to keep track of!) I drew him into a game of Skallywaggs. This is a funny pirate game in which players build crew men from mix-and-match body parts in order to have enough crew to set sail.
I picked this game up in Rochester New York, when I went to visit friends and family. This game was made in Rochester and I wanted the novelty of owning a game from my old home town. It took me a few games to grock how active and protected pirates worked, but now the rules are easy to explain. I think the endgame condition makes for too long a game -- past the point in which the theme is still captivating -- so I always play that it takes two less crewmen to win.
Click here to buy Skallywaggs at FunAgain.com
Click here to learn more about Skallywaggs at BoardGameGeek.com
Meanwhile ShawnG played the deck I constructed against Sara and commented that it works so I was getting bad draws.
Typical.
When we all finished up, we played a rousing game of Mall of Horror. This game is great, backstabbing fun. though I have yet to play it so that all the rules are remembered.
Hopefully, one of the summary sheets from BoardGameGeek will solve the problems.
Sara was ahead most of the game, until she voted to feed herself to the zombies when she thought we were voting to search the truck. Being the backstabbing game that it was, we didn't forgive the error.
Click here to buy Mall of Horror at FunAgain.com
Click here to learn more about Mall of Horror at BoardGameGeek.com
Chip and Sara are early birds, so we left when Mike came in for a game. They started a game of Liar's Dice as we left.
Click here to buy Liar's Dice (Pirate's of the Caribbean version) at FunAgain.com
Click here to learn more about Liar's Dice at BoardGameGeek.com
It was a fun day of gaming.
