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| Cloud 9 |
| Heimlich & Co. |
| Puerto Rico |
Take 6 Winner Neal 15 - Kristine 22 - Laura 35 - Mike M. 38 - Ray 41 - Ashley 45 - Ed 51 - John P. 60 - Don 94
Labyrinth Card Game Winner John P. 8 - Ed 7 - Mike M. 6 - Ray 6 - Don 5 - Ashley 3
Land Unter Winner Ed 15 - Don 11 - John P. 11 - Ray 8
Cartagena Winner Ed 6 - Don 4 - Ray 4 - Ashley 3 - John P. 2
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Game Night: Saturday 8-10-2002
A small group, so immediately out came the new one, Puerto Rico. This game is superb, with the only drawback being that it is a longer game (about 2 hours). Because you are doing something all the time, there is no lull! So far, this gets our game of the year award for best long game. The choices thta need to be made are very much a matter of strategy. Maximize your choices. You have to build an infrastructure on your island, but then you have to use it. So, if you buy a hospice, which gives you cheap labor, you need to do a lot of harvesting early or it does not pay off. Great great game. Obviously based on the closeness of scores, it is not hard to play either. Ashley, whose nickname of "Sug" becomes amusing when she harvests sugar cane, set up an "indigo" trade very early and reaped in the victory points. Even though at the end her island looked weak, she maximized her indigo every step of the way to hold us off at the end.
Puerto Rico Winner Ashley 54 - John P. 52 - Ed 52 - Ray 51 - Jen 46
I had read about this game and wanted to try it. Ed bought it, but was under the impression that we had played it before and did not like it. So he never brought it over. I liked it, although we had a very mechanical game. The deck has 4 of each type of barnyard animal with points (10 for chicken, 1000 for horse). Get a four and score the points. You have a hand full of money cards, but you pay the auctioneer who is one of the players. So, the money floats around in a demented closed economy. You can force confrontations between auctions, but instead we saved them all to the end. This made the game less chaotic and probably jipped us out of some fun. I like the game and hope to try it again. Plus I tricked Ed out of his Sheep!
You're Bluffing Winner Ashley 2300 - Ray 2280 - John P. 1680 - Jen 1000 - Ed 200
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Game Night: Saturday 8-17-2002
Citadels is now a very functional game. The re-release in
English has clarified the rules and made this very competitive. With the
substitution cards (we used the Tax Collector instead of the Thief, the
negotiator and inserted the Queen) you get some nice variations. Since the
Negotiator allows you to skip your phases and draw four cards or take 4 gold, he
got assassinated a lot. Even more than the Merchant. The wizard would often
steal cards from the previous turn Negotiator. And here in lies the one flaw in
Citadels. Patterns evolve and tend to stick around for the length of the game.
(That and it clocks in at way over an hour.) Still, Pat, Jenny (newlyweds) and
Jen were patient as we finished and moved on to Werewolf.
Citadels Winner Noelle 33 - Steve 28 - Ed 25 - Ray 3 - Ashley 23 - Don 18 - John P. 15 - John M. 12
Well, I would put this score at closer to 6 to 2, as a couple
of games had an "exposure" problem. It stared with Pat and his "Kill Ray"
strategy. After a couple of these, I came up with a counter plan. The "kill
Pat" strategy. I would always kill "just Pat". Then, every time Pat would die,
everyone knew it was me. Then, as expected, other people would kill Pat so
everyone would think it was me! Suddenly, viola. Everyone wanted to kill Pat.
I finally have a temporary defense!
Mental lapses abounded as narrarators from around the globe made faux pas. The
worst was when I was the werewolf and the narrarator (Ashley) told everyone *I*
was dead. I got up from the table and left, knowing I was dead either way.
(and I was). This was very funny, but not half as funny as the VERY NEXT ROUND.
I drew the werewolf car again, Ashley drew the narrarator card again, and told
everyone I was dead again! I still felt good though as earlier I has been the
werewolf and got the victory with the old "I am the oracle, kill Don!" ploy.
They fell for it like townspeople lynching a...
Werewolf Winner Werewolves 8 Villagers 2
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Game Night: Saturday 8-24-2002
I did not play Take 5, a new game by the take 6 people that Mike bought. It was NOT like take 6 in that there was more thinking and less yelling.
Take 5! Winner Mike 32 -
Noelle 14 - Don B. 1 - John P. -4 - Ed -8 - Don -12
Take 5! Winner Ed 36 - John P. 28 - Noelle 26 - Mike -2 - Don -4 - Don B. -4
Then we got together a big game of Rage. This was the first
time for a couple of players. Notables were : Mike lost the first 2 rounds,
then missed winning by 3 points, Noelle led a good portion of the game, and Jen
seemingly came from nowhere to win.
Rage Winner Jen 87 - Mike 84 - John P. 77 - Ray 2 - Don B. 45 - Noelle 44 - Ed 27 - Don 22
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