Game Night: Saturday 2-3-2001

Games Played

 Roll Call

Ed aka Mako aka Weird                      Ray aka Worthy

John P. aka Prich aka Alias Johnny John M. no alias yet

Sorry Tim, I didn't get your picture.

The normally organized game night took a turn for the chaotic Saturday, when we decided to have dinner with the kids.The kids had a blast running around and wailing on each other with foam rods.ah youth.Before our excellent Luigi's dinner could be consumed (Thanks for picking it up Mike & Neal), Ed, John (Alias Johnny), and John (Ed's brother) arrived.I sent (read escaped!) them to the basement and they played yet another game of Carlos Magnus.Prich Won, thanks to my brother John. Thanks for all the kids, Jacqueline has been feeling a bit isolated and it really picked up her spirits.

Carlos Magnus

After the kids went to bed, I went downstairs and watched a furious game of Torres. Prich, John, Tim and I played Torres, I kicked everyone's ass! But this was the only ass I kicked all night! Tim had joined the basement group by now. They had already started playing, so I toiled and watched some XFL.Even bad football is better than basketball.Tim brought some novelty beer, but not even he would drink it (3 stooges beer?) Ed brought the ice tea mix (not to be confused with ass-tea mix).It was great, Ed lowered the content of sour mix.

Torres

An XFL note: Not bad.Do some tweaking for next week though.All access camera and microphones are truly wonderful, but ill conceived and sloppy plays on offense ruined the experience.(stop trying to pass so much after putting a team together only 4 weeks ago!)

When I joined the group (men men men men) we played 3 games:Web of Power, Take 6, & Rage.

Web of power is just too weird for my taste.Of course, as John pointed out, "You don't like games your not good at".Well, who does?!  It is a token placement game, without the intricacies or fun of the camel game 'Through the Desert'.I avoided last by scoring 1 more point than John who had never played before and played blindfolded while taking advice from a stuttering parrot.
Once again, I have no idea who won this one. Notes would be a good thing! I like this game, it plays quick when everyone knows the game.

Web of Power, think we can get ad money from Fosters?

After putting up with way too many conversations about Everquest, we continued...

Take 6 and Rage, however, I do like.I won Take 6 by taking no points in both round 2 and 3.Ed's voracious appetite insured that we only had to play 3 rounds.

In rage, Ed beat me for the trophy, but I played a good game.Rage is a nice party game, especially when those '-5 ' cards come out. Ouch. I forgot that I won this one. I like Rage too, it's a solid card game.

Take 6 Rage

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Game Night: Saturday 2-10-2001

Games Played

Roll Call

This game night started at Pete and Michelle's house for wine tasting and chili.Everyone brought wine in addition to the house, so the corks were 'a pullin'.My wine palate is rather basic, but I enjoyed tasting such a wide variety.The dinner was topped off by a mint cake that tasted so good that I refused to have a second piece because I assumed it must not be very good for me if I like it this much. 

When we migrated to our house for the games, we also had requests to heat up the hot-tub.More on that later.Present: Steve & Suzanne, Tim & Beth, Pete and Michelle, Jen and myself.

Ra was fun as always, but this particular game was noteworthy.I won without ANY monument points whatsoever.I was the pharaoh reaper,  and actually got 4 different civilizations in turn 1.My margin of victory became significant due to the overall lack of monument scoring though.

Next, it was a request for a brain-free game (math is hard), but we chose take 6 anyway due to its simple rule base.A neck and neck game were Pete beat me on the last card of the last hand.We were neck and neck and alas, when last cards were revealed, Pete had the 5th card, and I the sixth.

In cloud 9, Beth won in about 6 turns.Many more people made there role than usual, leading to the non-leapers making it home quickest.I am a jumper.Nuff said about where I finished.

Rage was a hoot, as people found new and inventive ways to play gray cards.  The best is to make people think your out of suit.It was a very close game, but I won by only missing 2 bids.Tim ended the game at not quite zero, beating his previous score.

Next, it was a hot tub break.Champagne (or beer), cigars and the hot tub on a cold night.It was wonderful and perfect...except for the over abundance of Bromine... and the complaining about visibility...and the tub overflowing onto the floor...and Tim losing his glasses over the side.Like I said, wonderful and perfect.

Before retiring, we played 2 full games of Liars dice.The women dominated us me, and we sent to bed (2am) with our tails between our legs.

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Game Night: Saturday 2-17-2001

Games Played

Roll Call

Beth and Tim. Got Tim, this time!

Oops I did it again...Well, Ed and I did.um, maybe I should explain.It was time to buy new games!Ed got his this past week, so we tried them all. 

First, I tried to get a game of Junta going.I bought this a long time ago as it has a huge cult following.But the rules are tricky the first time, and I aborted in order to re-read them before attempting it again.Thanks for the understanding from the players present, we'll try it next week. 

Luckily, we only invested 10 minutes (mostly punching out the pieces) and it was off to "Chez Geek".In this card game, you are dealt a slacker of some sort.I was the 'web designer'.Each player is one room of a large college boarding house.Your goal is to use your free time points, your cards, and your income (if any!) to get the number of slacker points designated on your slacker card.Now I do not know if it was because I am a big geek or what, but I won this game in 5 turns!No one was even close!  I had a party in my room with 2 cats (one evil), a 'guy on the couch', a girlfriend, the life of the party guy (who had a bong, since I had the bong card!) and Mr. Enthusiasm.They went through 2 bottle of booze and 3 different kinds of ciggys.Tim could have come in second, but I stole his slacker car.John had a cat, Ed had a TV, and Tim had a RPG game going.  I guess you know why I won, huh?
 
Next was the pirate themed game 'Cartagena'. This game is quite a find.Ed gets big points for this one (and he needed them due to the nature of his third purchase, see next).  The game rules are 3 freaking paragraphs. And if you ever played Candyland, you can skip the first two. First, you place down the random board.Each piece of the board has 6 symbols on it.You then give each player 6 cards.Each card has on ofthe same 6 symbols on them.Play the card, move up to that symbol.  Symbol occupied?Move PAST it to the next one!Get all 5 of your guys (pirates) to the end (boat) and you win.(The theme is totally unused).Ah, now the catch.How to get more cards.You don't just draw them.In order to get cards, you must move a piece backwards until it reaches another piece (or 2).So, you need to maximize your forward moves, while minimizing the distance you need to move back to get a card.I won the first game by discovering the best way to time to move backwards.Beth won the second game.Plays in about 20 minutes and it rocks!!!! -"We are own your base!"
Cartagena
Finally, we tried 'Atlantis'.I think they should have let the game sink with the city.I don't want to go into details, so suffice it to say that it had island pieces made out of plastic that formed a giant floating island.  There is a 'gay' spinner, Octopus pieces, little plastic shark fins, etc.  What it had in pieces, it lacked in strategy.I choose this piece...  whirlpool!...Half the pieces are gone!!Huh?
And always with the spinner.Even when your pieces are dead.Maybe if the little guys looked like survivor 2 players.Then we could imagine 'Kimmi' being eaten by a shark.Oh well.
Prich says it all in a picture, fun, fun, fun!

For next week, I have 'HellRail'.A neat card game where you are moving souls around the circles of hell.It was games magazine card game of 2000 winner.I also got Carcassonne.Three reasons:Great price, solid reviews (4.5 out of 5), and a tile placement game.We do not seem to have any of those (unless you count the parker brothers game of waterworks) so I wanted to get one.You build a town and stuff.You know, for kids...

I have read the rules for Junta as promised, they make perfect sense now.  It is 4-7 players, and involves the politics of running a third world (probably Latin American) country whilst suckling the teet of America foreign aid.  Siphon off the most foreign aid to your Swiss bank account and you won.  The cool part is that you run the county like a small dictator ship.Only 7 people in the land have voting rights.You elect (and later attempt to assassinate) the president.He in turn, chooses what voting cabinet posts you hold (which dictates you options) and how the foreign aid is distributed this year.Don't like it?Tough, unless you can get enough votes on you side...or stage a coup, or assassinate the presidents loyal voter, etc...

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Game Night: Saturday 2-24-2001

Games Played

Roll Call

Steve Suzanne

Hey, new game!Ed and crew arrived while we were still chowing dinner, so they headed off to the bar and played a game of Carlos Magnus.It's a cool game, but I only played it the once.Since I was upstairs for most of it, I don't know who won. We have found that the perfect time to arrive is during dinner. This gives us a chance to play a game while everyone else is spanking the monkey. I Snatched the victory from Prich, I was getting my ass beat, but John made a fatal mistake in not protecting a color. This was the start of a bad gaming night for Prich, aka Alias Johnny!

 
After the kids retired, it was on to the new Carcassonne game.This ended up being SO easy to learn.Pick a tile, place it legally (which is obvious), decide whether or not to stake a claim to any of it (if possible).  It is like waterworks but with roads, castles, cloisters (citadels), and grassland (used as farmland).The first game we did not quite know what the strategy was.Despite the fact that I stumbled upon it first, Ed leeched off my farm and beat me for the win by 4 points.Farms only score at end-game, but usually are significant points.It was so much fun we decided to play again.In the second game, I used the majority rule to corner the strategy market, but still fell short to Steve's victory by a mere 3 points.A game takes about 30 minutes once you know how to play.
Carcassonne.
Next, Suzanne selected Citadels, despite never having played it.It was unusually cutthroat with Ed's brother John invoking the 'kill Ray' strategy.  Something I learned about this game:Even though it appeared I was dead last, I actually came in second when the victory points were added up.Ed won again, despite our efforts to thwart him.Alias Johnny has the game wrapped up, only to have it snatched from him by some spurious table talk.(he was kinda pissed too). I know, it is no fun when you are on the receiving end of the table-talk, but this game was built around it. I even tried to give away the king several times to no avail.
Citadels Prich, leaving in disgust!

So, this week I was crowned the 'King of 2nd place'.Jen did not get to play due to 'The ever feeding lump (tm)'.

Advice: Never attempt to make FROZEN Long Island Ice Tea.You see, Coke is CARBONATED.The best gaff was when we REPEATED our mistake a second time.  Nevertheless, we drank EVERY DROP.

Sunday night at the movies was the digitally restored original 1974 'Gone in 60 seconds'.It rocked.
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