The Game Ranch Roundup for Saturday, August 20

by Ed Rozmiarek
This past Saturday we had a break in our schedule and were able to host our second Saturday game day at our house. Even with a couple of no-shows, we had twelve people and were able to get in several new games and some old favorites. There was much junk food to be had and beverages to be drunk. We hope everyone had a good time because I know Susan and I did. Again we were happy with the way the new house handles that many people. We just need to get another decent sized portable table. A card table just doesn’t cut it for many games.

König Salomons Schatzkammer/King Solomon’s Mine

Our group’s most recent Adam Spelt order had arrived earlier in the week and this was the one game we had gone out on a limb to get. Susan had read the description and wanted to give it a try since the play was puzzle like. After we had placed the order, we saw the game being played at Gulf Games and the comments were fairly positive, so we were looking forward to playing it. I roped Mark, Adam, Doug and Mike Ashley-Rollman into playing. (Note: Mike A is currently thought of as “New Mike” as opposed to “Old Mike” – Mike Chapel. “Old Mike” must be getting lost on the way to the new house since he hasn’t made it out to the new place yet.)

The game is played on a 6 by 6 grid. On each grid location is a stack of four tiles each with an artifact printed on it. There are four types of artifacts; treasures (valued 1 to 5), curses (valued 1 to 3), scrolls (no value but four different types) and magic items (four types). The tiles, which are face up, are held in place by a large plastic tray that looks like a cave floor. The object of the game is to collect tiles to score points at the game end. Treasures are worth their face value. A set of the four scrolls are 10 points. There is a majority scoring (first and second place only) for curses and magic items.

The game comes with a set of cards that control the players' actions. There are 32 cards, numbered 1 to 32. The cards also have a number of tiles (from 3 to 6) in a certain arrangement. The players get a number of cards (based on the number of players) and some gold coins at the start of the game. Each round, the players select one card and reveal it simultaneously. Players take their turns based on the number on the card they played (lowest first). On their turn, players may excavate a set of tiles in the same layout that is on their card, however, the tiles must be on the same level. Players may spend gold coins or treasures to move tiles in order to set up the set of tiles they want to excavate. If players excavate a curse, they must pay for the tile (face value) in addition to any costs for moving tiles. However, there is a fairly large, 24 point, end game bonus for the first place in curses.

In our game with five people we got five cards to play. I thought I was going to have problems because I got all low numbered cards with my highest card being 14. This is because the lower numbered cards allow you to excavate fewer tiles. However this is offset by going earlier in the round, which turned out to be beneficial. The game play is very puzzle like but with very little to do when it is not your turn. There is little interaction between players except by moving tiles on the board that the players after you may want. However, I liked the game as it did provide some challenges in maximizing your move, the risk of exploring while moving tiles, and the trade off of getting curses (which were expensive) hoping to get the big payoff. Also, the magic items create good tension between collecting them for a decent endgame payoff or using their power during the game to get even better tiles.

I enjoyed the game and managed to end up coming in second (a sign that lower cards aren’t all that bad). Doug was able to use the Samson’s Hair amulet to collect a large number of curses and used that to win the game. I think the game will be better with 3 or 4 players where you get more turns and have less downtime.

Shadows over Camelot

We had 12 people for the second round of games so I figured this was time to pull out Shadows over Camelot, the one “must play” for me that day. Susan and I had played at Gulf Games and were eager to try the game out with the home crowd. We were able to fill it out to seven players fairly easily. Since I had played before and then read the rules, it was fairly easy, but time consuming, to go over the rules for everyone. We dealt out the character cards and then the loyalty cards and got to the task of saving Camelot. We played with only seven loyalty cards, thus guaranteeing a traitor.

Shadows players

More Shadows players

I was very pleased in that the game seems to have gone over very well. There were early calls of “traitor” after just about everyone’s first few turns. Mark quickly went after Lancelot’s armor, marking him for early suspicion. In fact he was the only person who, later in the game, was accused of being the traitor. However, Mark was loyal to the cause. A couple of people suspected me of being the traitor for giving out game play tips (pro-evil and pro-good) but I was never accused.

We were able to complete several early quests without having any fail. Mark was able to retrieve the armor, several people pitched in to complete the Grail quest (after a very long search), I was able to defeat the Black Knight (but just barely) and we fought off the Picts. However, we were running close on the siege engines as they got to 9 or 10 on the board a couple times. We did lose a battle to the Saxons and one joust with the Black Knight that no one fought. The incorrect accusation of Mark added another black sword. So here we are with seven white swords and three black swords on the table. While I was trying to keep Excalibur from the frozen wasteland, several knights were battling the dragon and a couple knights were back at Camelot keeping the siege engines under control. We just needed to defeat the dragon to fill the table with enough swords to hold off the traitor who had not been unmasked. I had my suspicions about who the traitor was but was not sure enough and it was too close for me to make a wrong guess. Everything worked out and the knights defeated the dragon and filled the Round Table with 9 white swords, thus holding off the evil traitor.

And just who was the traitor??? Well, none other than that evil being Susan. Yes, that’s right. Two Shadows games and Susan has been the traitor booth times. A fact she did not like. She now says she will only play Shadows again only if she is not the traitor. Obviously something only a true traitor would say…

Diamant

After the Shadows game was over we needed to fill some time until the Taj Mahal game on the other table got over. So with seven (actually eight since we pulled Kevin in), we pulled out another game from the recent Adam Spelt order, Diamant. This was my third playing. The first was at Gulf Games where I crashed and burned with flare getting no gems at all (Hi Craig!). Several of the players had played at Mark’s house the previous week so knew the rules, but we still had several new people.

The game was short, random and fun. I’m liking it and I’m glad we picked it up (over-priced production and all). However, there is at least one person from the group who does not want to play it ever again. So it does seem to have an ability for love it or hate it responses. Betty was able to claim the win with Mary a close second.

Trump, Tricks, Game!

We split into three tables with Antiquity starting in one room and Thingamajig in another. I got Doug, John and Mark to agree to try out Trump, Tricks, Game!, a new trick taking game from Phalanx games being distributed by Mayfair. Yet another trick taking game with a twist. We play a lot of card games during lunch at work so I wanted to see if this could break into the rotation. I had actually played the previous week at work but with a different set of people and wanted to get other opinions.

The game is played with a fairly standard deck of cards. Four suits of 13 cards. Each suit has cards numbered 1 to 12 and a special “trump” card. The trump cards are removed from the deck and used to control the trump suit for each hand. The remaining 48 cards make up the play deck. The theme for this one is hunting animals so each suit is a different animal. The middle cards (5 through 9) have animal footprints on the side which will score you points after the first three hands of the game. The set up is fairly easy, shuffle the main desk and deal 12 cards to each player. The four trump cards are shuffled and laid out face up so the players can see the order. The game is played over four hands and each suit will be trump once. The four trump cards control the order of the trump suits so having the cards face up allows the players to see the order of trump suits over the game.

The card play is fairly standard for a trick taking game. Players must follow the lead card and play within suit if possible. If they are void in the lead suit they may throw off any card. The highest trump card played will win the trick, if no trump is played, then the highest card in the lead suit wins. Pretty standard stuff. Here’s where the twists come into play. First off, for the first three hands of the game, each player may only win 3 tricks. Once a player takes three tricks, the cards he plays are no-ops and do not count for taking tricks. He must follow the regular rules for following suit and when he leads his card does not set the lead suit. Why the limit? The cards you take will become your hand for the next round. The cards are not shuffled and dealt out again. So, you are trying to balance getting scoring cards and getting good cards for the next hand.

Speaking of scoring, the first three hands are scored different then the fourth and final hand. After the first three hands, you score points based on number of footprints you take (remember, the 5 – 9 cards). Your score is the number of footprints times the number of different footprints you collect. So this drives a desire to take tricks with footprints in different suits. Since the early tricks tend to be single suited, we found that we were all trying to delay taking tricks to get a mix of suits, hopefully with footprints. The scoring for the final hand is different. After that hand you score based on the number of cards you take with each suit having a different value. Red are worth 4, green 3, yellow 2 and blue 1. So in the third hand of the game, you also start watching what cards you have for the last hand, because for that hand you now want lots of trump.

The game sounds like it has many interesting facets, but so far in play it has not lived up to its potential. People quickly learn to try to avoid early tricks and they tend to hold on to the footprint cards. You really must watch that you try to setup a balanced hand for the next round, but if you are forced to take two tricks of a single suit you get easily get stuck with 7 or 8 cards of the same suit for the next hand. About the only time you want that is getting a lot of trump for the fourth hand. Also, getting a lot of one suit means your chances of getting a decent footprint score is reduced due to the multiplier. In our game, it was fairly even but broke down near the end. During the third round Doug had very low cards from the second hand and did not take any of the first nine trick and therefore just got all of the final 12 cards. Since no one wanted to (or could) play yellow (the trump for the last hand) early, Doug ended up collecting 9 or the 12 trump cards for the last hand, including most of the high ones. This made the last hand a landslide win for Doug, getting 9 of the 12 tricks. The rest of us each got 1 trick. This gave Doug a huge score for the last hand and he went from last to first. I’m still holding off final judgement on this one as it may take a couple more plays to figure out the “correct” card play but I fear others may get turned off by the randomness and seemingly lack control.

Niagara

The Thingamajig game ended about the same time our card game did so we were able to shuffle again. One half jumped into the new version of Australian Rails while we stayed with lighter fare and pulled out Niagara. I actually haven’t played it in a couple months and several of the others had not played it at all. It was a pretty friendly game where the weather was not used much (never got to +2) and there was only one stolen gem. It was pretty funny in that during the first five turns John (who was sitting to my right) and I played the exact same card and did the same move.

I thought I was falling behind John, Mark and Betty in getting gems, but I was able to pull off getting a pink gem (the one closest to the water fall) and then on the next turn, steal a yellow gem from Mark. I was then able to bring both gems home the next turn and win the game with all five gems. Yes, I was the only one who stole anything during the game and won.

Around the World in 80 Days

It had been a long day and the Niagara players decided on another light weight game and pulled out Around the World in 80 Days. A quick review of the rules and the race was on. Betty and Mary got off to fast starts with Betty leading the charge for most of the race. However, they both were playing high cards to do so and quickly spent a large number of days. I tried to keep up and stay within one or two locations of Betty. I was bit early on by bad die rolls one turn when I took the balloon option. The first roll was 6 and I spent my only two gold to re-roll, getting a 5 and 6 in the process. However, Mark and John were able to hang back and get low cards and good balloon trips letting them advance by using few days.

As it ended up Betty was first to London but spent over 80 days. I got there second with exactly 80 while Mary was stalled out in New York by a lack of boat cards. This allowed Mark and Jon to both catch up and pass Mary while they both kept their day totals less then 80. Mark took the win.

Bang!

With the Australian Rails game over we had seven for one last game and pulled out Bang! since a couple of people had not played it. I included the High Noon expansion to provide some variety and the game timer effect of the High Noon card itself. Betty was the sheriff and quickly got out a horse and rifle and took a pot shot at Doug (with no indication of loyalty from him). The rest of the first round was fairly calm as no one seemed to want to declare their role. Due to the second round High Noon card, that round went counter-clockwise and then the fun started. Mary (who was to Betty’s right) started shooting at Betty. Later in the round Doug shot at Jeff and I used a couple of cards to remove Betty’s horse and barrel. Jeff shot back at Doug and Jon removed Betty’s rifle.

So after the second round it appeared that the outlaws were myself (I was one), Jon and Mary. There was more action the third round but no deaths until we get to Mary. She had played a Volcanic during the previous round and used it to go after Betty. Since Betty had no Missed cards and Mary had ample Bang cards, Mary was able to cut down Betty in a fit of Volcanic rage. The Outlaws win! But Doug had a strange look on his face; he was an outlaw. And so was Jon. I made three, so what was Mary? Turns out she was a Deputy! So the sheriff was taken out by one of her own. The game was a little unsatisfying for the new players, but those of us who had played several times got a kick out of the different ending.

Everything broke up after that. We chatted a bit and everyone went home after 9 and a half hours of gaming. Susan and I hope our schedule works out so we can hold another game day soon.

Other games played: Palazzo, Traumfabrik, Taj Mahal, Antiquity, Thingamajig, Australian Rails

For more pictures from this game day, see our Picture Album.

Susan's Gulf Games Report Part 4

by Susan Rozmiarek
Well, I made an error in my Part 3 report. The Liar’s Dice tournament was Saturday morning, not Friday. I swear the days just seem to blur together at these things. I’m usually in a very tired state and having too much fun to keep track of the time or what day it is.

It’s always sad when Saturday rolls around, as you know that Gulf Games is coming to a close. Saturday is always a short day of gaming too, due to the scheduled activities of the evening. By this point, I don’t really care all that much what games I play; I just want to spend time socializing with friends before I have to go home.

Princes of Florence

I usually like to ease into the day with something light, but I couldn’t refuse to play my Most Favorite Game Ever. I hadn’t played it a really long time, but I only needed a very light rules refresher. My fellow Princes were Michael Bland, Scott and Cheryl Tullis and Chris Comeaux.

I started off by buying the first builder for a rather high cost. I often use a builder strategy with this game and Puerto Rico if I’m able. What can I say, I like to build stuff! I was able to get my second and third builders rather quickly and cheaply. Alas, I neglected my works a little too much and made a key error in not getting one more out in time. This not only cost me the victory points for the work itself, but also prestige points from one of the cards I was holding. This put me in last place. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I wish that I could have immediately played the game over. Scott, Cheryl and Chris all scored 56 points, with Cheryl winning the tiebreaker. Michael followed with 45 points and I pulled up the rear with 41.

Fjords

Kim Berg happened to be walking by the table as Princes of Florence was finishing up, so I insisted that she play a game with me. She suggested we try Fjords. Neither one of us had played before, but we read through the very short rules and after a few clarifications from Ed, we got started.

This game should be called Go Carcassonne, as it shows a bit of resemblance to both those games. Tiles are drawn and placed in Carcassonnian fashion, forming the board. When a player places a tile down, he may choose to place on it one of his limited farm pieces. Once all the tiles are placed (that can be), a territory grabbing phase of the game starts that feels a teeny bit like Go.

I happened to place my farms in a better position than Kim did. I say “happened” because at the time I didn’t know what I was doing. We were both basically just spreading our farms out, I think. I was able to add more territory at the edges of the board beyond my last farms, while Kim’s ended up more in the central areas where I could cut her off.

While not spectacular, both Ed and I liked the game enough to pick up a copy from Ward.

TransEuropa

At some point this new version of TransAmerica appeared in Jay Tummelson’s stack of games. Finding players to play it was easy, and Kim, Sheldon and Laura Smith, and Robert Wood all joined me to build train tracks across Europe.

As it turns out, the game is played almost exactly like the original. The new map does make it feel a little new, but it is mostly the same game. As far as I could tell, the only difference is that wonky rule in the original about moving the barrier after the 2nd round has been dropped in TransEuropa. I never played with that rule anyway.

One really bad round put me out of the running, but it was a fun game. The European map makes the game feel a little different, but not enough to compel me to purchase it.

I would have been very disappointed had I not gotten to play some of Mark Jackson’s “fluffy” games with him. Not to worry. The rest of the afternoon was a FluffFest that took us right up to an early dinner.

Viva Topo!

The bits in this game are waaaay over the top and way cool. The chunky, wooden mice have string tails and felt ears. The game is a literally a “roll your dice and move your mice” game. It’s very similar to Midnight Party with a hungry kitty replacing the ghostly Hugo. It was fun, but I missed chanting “Hugo, Hugo, HUGO” whenever the die was rolled. I played with Mark and his nephew William. Mark’s mice bravely avoided the Bad Kitty and were able to claim the Big Cheese for the win

Tief auf Tier

I saw this in Adam Spielt’s catalog when placing an order and thought it looked really neat, but more for the kiddies. So, I didn’t get it. Well, now I wished I had as it turns out that this is nice little dexterity stacking game. Each player has an identical set of wooden animals in all manner of shapes that he is stacking in pyramid-like fashion in front of him. A roll of a special die determines how he must try to add to his stack on his turn without causing any animals to fall. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of all of your animals. The animals are absolutely spectacular with each one nicely painted and detailed.

Jeanette Vander Ark joined Mark, William and me for this fun, simple game. Amazingly enough, my hands remained steady and I won. Obviously, I had not yet received my normal dose of caffeine for the day!

Bis Bald Im Wald

Kevin and Lenny Leo now joined Mark and me for this very simple memory game of hunting animals in a 5X5 grid of facedown tiles. This should have been easy but was ridiculously hard for us, proving that memory games should always carry the warning label “kids only.” Kevin the Kid was leading when we had to abort the game for dinner.

After dinner, it was time for awards and the prize table. It takes a very long time to get through all this, but I wouldn’t miss all the laughs for anything. It’s the perfect cap to a wonderful week. Since we are always leaving early the next morning, I never stay up to play many games afterwards, but I did manage to play a few. Actually, I could have played more, but I was too busy socializing!

Diamant

It’s amazing how fun this ridiculously simple push-your-luck game is. Especially when you get to watch Craig Berg and Ed bumble their way through the caves without collecting a single jewel the ENTIRE GAME. Take my advice, don’t ever go exploring with these two as they are disaster magnets. Those of us who weren’t so greedy included Gail, Vicki, Kevin and me.

Pickomino

I ended my Gulf Games on a great note with another playing of Pickomino with Sandi, Kim, and Vicki while chatting and enjoying some wine. Kim barbecued an amazing 12 worms.

Sunday started with loading up the games, a few quick goodbyes, and then a heck of a long drive back to Texas. It is now a month later as I’m writing this and reliving the great memories. Wow. Despite the absence of some old faces and the addition of some new ones, Gulf Games has lost none of its magic. My family is indeed blessed.

Of Catan and Canals

by Susan Rozmiarek
No, this isn’t about a new Settlers of Catan scenario but rather two separate interesting news items.

The first is actually about Settlers, the launch of “Catan Online” at MSNGames.com. This is a subscription based multiplayer version of the original game. You can find more info here.

At $29.99 per year, it appears to be a pretty good deal for Settler fans. There is a free trial period and Iain Cheyne had some pretty positive things to say about it on his weblog.

The other newsworthy item is the announcement of a new Ragnar Brothers game, Canal Mania. Hooray! Viking Fury was probably my favorite game released last year and this new game practically has me drooling in anticipation. Read all about it on their website and make sure you catch the “Gaming Parlour” link for even more details. I’m actually kind of glad it won’t include one of their famous linen cloth maps. Heresy for a diehard fan, I know, but I’m a sucker for high quality bits and art.

Susan's Gulf Games Report Part 3

by Susan Rozmiarek
The late nights and noisy neighbors were taking a toll on me. I slept in again this morning, missing the Liar’s Dice tournament. I’d just as soon gotten the rest though, as I’m horrible at Liar’s Dice and am rather burned out with it as well. It was nice having a quiet room all to myself for an hour or two.

 

 

Pickomino

My first course of the day was barbecued worm, an excellent light appetizer. This game is already a favorite of the group at home. The theme is bizarre, but it’s yet another nice push-your-game enhanced by chunky domino-like tiles. There was some discussion about when to flip tiles; it appears that some groups have been playing it slightly differently. I tied for first with Chris Comeaux and Jim Cobb, with Chris winning the tiebreaker, followed by Eddie Bonet, Chris Lohroff, and Jeanette Vander Ark.

Amazonas

This game grows on me the more I play it. It’s not without its flaws, but if you’ve read my review, you know it has several features that I like. Warren Madden and I taught it to Jim Cobb and Leon Hendee. It is very easy to explain, so we were playing in no time. It’s at its best with a full complement of four, as there is usually more competition for locations and this proved to be the case in our game. Warren and I seemed to be always vying for the same spots. I ended up getting the last bonus token for having all types of specimens, which cost me. Warren won with 13 points, followed by Leon with 11, me with 10 and Jim with 7. I think Jim got a little hemmed in by starting on the edge of the board rather than near one of the more central locations.

Einfach Genial

Next, Peter Hendee joined Leon, Jim and me for a partnership game of Einfach Genial. This is by the far the most enjoyable way to play. I was paired with Peter. Like most games, both teams started out getting big point gains in certain colors by capitalizing on the big rows being formed. Soon however, a few straggling colors on our scoreboards made it obvious where the battles on the board were going to be. A vicious struggle ensued with lots of defensive placements. I loved it, as always, even though Peter and I were unable to catch up and get the points we needed.

King Arthur Card Game

Jack Lindsay and I realized we hadn’t played a game together yet, so we sat down with Chris Comeaux and Tim McCarthy to learn this game from Jay. It turned out to be a very simple but enjoyable game of card collection. There is an array of quests to win of varying point values displayed on the table. To do this you collect knights in several suits by drawing from a deck. These knights are then used in sets of the same suit to defeat various foes. The foes are arranged in rows on the table below the quests and can be refilled as they are defeated down to a certain number in a row. Players collect the foes they defeat to use to fulfill quests. Each quest has a different requirement to fulfill it, based on the colors and numbers of the foes cards. There were also some sort of tokens, but Jay didn’t think they added much to the game and we didn’t use them. My explanation makes it sound confusing, but in fact it is very simple, probably too simple for many people. I enjoyed it though, and I think it would be a fun game to play with my kids. I plan to pick it up when it becomes available. The scores were fairly close, ranging from my winning score of 45, down to 36.

Prototype

Jay then taught Chris, Jack and me a very nice abstract tile-laying game. It had a clever mechanism involving how you created and scored certain colors. I liked it, although the placement options seemed a little limited. Not everyone agreed with me about that, however.

Eleusis

Wow, was I ever surprised to find Michael Weston suggesting a deduction game! Okay, not really. If you are a fan of deduction games, Michael is your man. And actually, if you want to nitpick, Eluesis is an INduction game, a slightly different beast. I actually find induction reasoning easier than deduction reasoning which I’ve heard is a female characteristic. But I digress. Eleusis is a game by Robert Abbot that uses standard decks of cards. A favorite game of mine, Zendo, is based on Eleusis. With Zendo, players are trying to guess a rule by building arrangements of colorful plastic pyramids and being told whether or not their arrangement follows the rule. In Eluesis, players lay out cards in a row trying to figure out a pattern rule the cards must follow. Eluesis has a bunch of chrome added to allow for a scoring system, but the idea is the same. So, I was definitely happy to try it and sat down with Michael, Valerie, Scott Alden and Philip Sasse to play.

At first I couldn’t make any sense of the cards at all, which was frustrating. Suddenly, I it clicked and I saw the pattern. Well, a pattern, anyway. Too bad it wasn’t the right one. Valerie saw it, too. So, more frustration ensued, with more possible patterns of mine shot down. Valerie was able to figure out the rule eventually. I can’t remember what it was, but it was hard. Once the round ended and the rule was revealed, I dropped out of the game so I could go take a break from gaming. I desperately needed one!

I missed the pretty pyramids and the tactile enjoyment of fiddling with them, but Eleusis is a neat game to play with standard playing cards. All the fussy scoring rules are not necessary for me though; the satisfaction of discovering the rule first is enough for me.

More people were finally arriving today and one of those people were none other than my online friend and gaming foe, Mark “Fluffdaddy” Jackson. I wasn’t able to get a game in with him until that evening, but was it ever worth the wait.

Shadows Over Camelot

Oh joy! I was finally getting to play this game of much inflated hype. Ed and I had been salivating over our copy for weeks, intimidated by the rules and afraid of testing it in our group, lest it bomb because of our inexperience. Most of us were new to the game and Mark explained the rules. They were very confusing to me and I assumed they’d make sense after we stated playing (they did). We decided to be brave and play with the traitor even though it was the first game for most of us. Mark said that he’d go over the special traitor rules one the traitor was revealed. Alas, this decision was to cause me grief later.

Character cards were passed out randomly to the players - James Miller, Michael and Wendi Green, Robert Woods, Mark, Ed, and me. Ed got to be our noble leader, King Arthur. I got Sir Kay, Arthur’s Seneschal. In other words, I was “Ed’s little secretary.” Goody. That got a few laughs around the table. Then the loyalty cards were passed out. I carefully peeked at mine to discover that I was…the traitor. Arrrghhh!!! I hardly understood the game at all and I had to play the hardest role??? Of course, I was now dying to flip over my character card to see what advantages, if any, I got once I was discovered. Alas, doing so would have the clued in the others so I had to play in ignorance. I decided to sit back and bide my time.

So, I kind of flitted from quest to quest helping out a bit here and there, but not doing anything too spectacular. At this point, I had no clue how to hurt the good side. I now know that getting Lancelot’s armor would have helped me a lot in spreading my evil. I spent a number of turns at the Round Table just drawing cards. I was very careful to phrase questions like I was on the good side, but not talk too much. Unfortunately, several quests were completed quickly and I realized that my best chances for winning was to keep my identity a secret in the hopes of being able to turn two swords to black at the end of the game.

Once the good side had enough white swords on the table and the danger wasn’t as great, the accusations of traitor started to fly. First James accused Robert, and then Robert accused Ed. Now it was Ed’s turn.

**Okay, I now need to take a break in my narrative and impart some wisdom and advice to any gaming newbies reading this. An important rule in gaming is, never, EVER play a bluffing game with your spouse. Trust me on this one.

Ed wasted no time in accusing me, his “loyal” Seneschal, as the traitor. Rats, my game was up. Nobody else seemed to have suspected me at all, but it’s hard to fool somebody you’ve lived with for almost twenty years. I finally got to look at the back of my character card. Fortunately, I still think I’d played it the right way and hid my identity for as long as I was able. If only I’d gone after that armor, though. Now it came down to me trying to flip bad cards and get out those siege engines, my only chance for victory due to the number of white swords already on the table. The game came down to the wire. Ed was able to play a card that allowed him to rearrange the top five cards in the Black deck, but he was obviously sweating about the order. Apparently, he did the right thing, allowing the game to last long enough for it to get back to him. He drew a Dragon card, ending that quest, even though it was a victory for me. However, the two dark swords completed the circle and ended the game. Rousing cheers went up from those goody-goody Doers of Good.

Did the game live up to its hype? I thought it was FANTASTIC. This was due in no small part to the great group of people playing. I only hope Ed and I can carry over that spirit when we try it here at home.

Yinsh x2

I now faced a parenting dilemma that almost always occurs at Gulf Games. My own child, the one who practically refuses to play any games with me at home, has been following me around and begging me to play a game with him. Now, of all times, when I have a chance to play with all these folks that I only see once or twice a year. Ah, well. I’ve got to the right thing as it IS a family vacation and I need to nurture his interest in games when I get the opportunity as well. The game Shea was all eager to play was Yinsh, no less. I warned him that it took practice and I would probably beat him, but he rose to the challenge and still insisted we play. I won easily, but carefully showed him what I was doing. As it was now after 11 pm, we took it up to the room and played it again before bed. He was already starting to pick up on some of the strategies. I hope his interest carries over to home this time.

Up next: the final day, including Princes of Florence, Fjords, Trans Europa, Viva Topo!, Tier auf Tier, Bis Bald Im Wald, Diamant, and Pickomino

Susan's Gulf Games Report, Part 2

by Susan Rozmiarek
Refreshed after sleeping in, I arrived in the game room rather late in the morning but ready for a full day of gaming. I spied a group setting up Kaleidos, a Gulf Games favorite, and eagerly joined as I had never played it.

 

 

Kaleidos

This felt more like a group activity than a real game, but it was a fun activity. The game consists of identical sets of pictures propped on easels for everyone to examine. The pictures are very busy with lots of small objects in them. A spinner randomly determines a particular letter of the alphabet and an hourglass is turned over. Everyone then furiously tries to write down as many things before the time runs out that they can see in the picture that start with the letter. Then, everyone compares results, scoring one point for things also found by others and five points for unique things on their list. This procedure is repeated for twelve pictures. Things listed do not have to be nouns; they can be adjectives like colors and emotions as well. It’s quite fun seeing what people can come up with besides the obvious.

I started off slowly but got better with practice. With some pictures, I’d just draw a total blank which was very frustrating. I didn’t do too badly though, placing in the middle of the pack against Gail Schloesser, Kim McCarthy, Scott Tullis, and Cheryl Tullis. Unfortunately, this game is out of print and nearly impossible to find. I’m thinking of trying to make a homemade version with a copy of Scrutineyes that I found in a local thrift store. I’m not sure what to substitute for the spinner, though.

Ubongo

This is another “speed puzzle” game with players racing to be the first to solve a puzzle. Players each have an identical set of shapes that they will be trying to fit on randomly drawn boards each round. A die roll determines which shapes from their set each player will have to use to complete the puzzle on their card. So, everyone is working on a different puzzle each time. There is a really wonky scoring system. Gems of different colors are laid out on a main board in rows of twelve. Players that manage to finish their puzzle in the allotted time get to take two gems from the end of a row. The earlier you finish, the more flexibility you have picking from which row to take your gems. After nine rounds, the player with the most gems of a single color wins the game.

Personally, I thought the whole scoring system was fussy and it took too long to set up at the beginning of the game. I think others have come up with simpler rules to collect the gems, although for me it didn’t really matter. I just enjoyed trying to be first to complete my puzzle. Heck, I just enjoyed trying to complete my puzzle before the time ran out! Gail absolutely rocked at this game, winning pretty easily. Also playing were Tom Cortazzo and his son, Paul. This game was very popular and it got lots of play all week. I wouldn’t mind owning a copy.

Diamant

The Ubongo group stuck around to play another game, relaxing our brains a bit with this light, press-your-luck game. Actually, the physical game itself is not very light, being quite over-produced with wooden Indiana Jones meeples, pretty gems, and little individual chests for players to put their treasure in. Very pretty and no complaints from this bit worshipper, even though I cringed when I saw how much a copy would cost me.

The game is very simple. Players are exploring mines that are represented by cards. The cards either show a “disaster” or they show a number that represent how many gems are found in that section of a mine. Players have to decide before each card is flipped whether or not to stay. If a number card is flipped, those that stayed divvy up the gems evenly, leaving any left over on the card. However, if a disaster is flipped, and there is already another of the same type showing from an earlier flip, then the expedition ends and the players still in the mine lose the gems that they have found so far in that mine. Cowardly (smart?) explorers that bail early get to run back out of the mine, scooping up any gems that were leftover on the tiles. They get to put these and any other gems collected so far into the safety of their treasure chest. Surprising, the fancy meeples are simply used as simultaneous indicators by players to show whether they are staying in or fleeing. Players explore the mines five times before gems are tallied up to determine the winner.

Ooooo, I did like this game. Pretty, pretty, pretty and I just love to push my luck. Too bad I pressed it too much and came in last! The game is almost too simple but I don’t care; it was fun. I’m glad we have a copy on the way from Adam Spielt. Given that it plays very quickly and handles up to eight people almost guarantees that it will see a lot of table time as a filler with my group at home.

St. Petersburg

I finally played a game that I’ve actually played before. Learning all these new games is wonderful, but my brain was beginning to overload. A person can only hold so many rules in her head. I sat down with Philip Sasse, Cary Cleaver, and Chris Comeaux to play St. Petersburg. Cary was not very familiar with the game so Philip started explaining the rules. I started mentally moaning “uh-oh” in my head as Philip and Chris were commenting on the various buildings and which were their favorites. Obviously, they had played the game a lot, definitely more than the few times that make up the total of my experience. I did know that it was very bad for the rest of us when Chris got the Observatory in the first round. He wasn’t afraid to use it often, either. Philip however, also knew what he was doing and was able to get a lot of aristocrats, as well as the second Observatory later in the game. He was able to win with 84 points over Chris’ 73. Cary did very well with a bit of help from Philip, and pipped me for third place. I did dismally, scoring only 65 points. I played way too conservatively. I need to play this game more often.

We took break in the gaming to ride the trolley to Marguaritaville. With all the fabulous places to eat in New Orleans, this was the only must-visit for Ed. He is a total Parrothead and had enjoyed visiting the one in Las Vegas on a business trip earlier in the year. Some dire warnings of long waits by other Gulf Gamers who had eaten there earlier in the week prompted us to get an early start. It was crowded, but we got seated fairly quickly. I had blackened salmon, which was decent, served with garlic, mashed, sweet potatoes, which were weird. Garlic just doesn’t go with sweet potatoes. I did have a Perfect Marguarita, which wasn’t perfect because it wasn’t frozen. Our server said that it was mostly liquor so it couldn’t be frozen. The menu almost scared me away from it, saying it was very strong and for “professionals only,” but I didn’t think it was much stronger than a normal drink. Ed was pretty disappointed as the place was really just another over-priced tourist trap. He thought the one in Las Vegas was much better.

Prototype

After we returned to the game room, Valerie Putman showed Chris Comeaux, Michael Weston, Ed and me a prototype. I think Jay Tummelson had brought it. Obviously, I can’t say much about it, but I will say that it was a speed game of recognizing colors and patterns, with the object of getting rid of all your cards. This kind of game is not my favorite, but it seemed to be a rather good game of this type. I believe it was designed by Reiner Knizia.

Louis XIV

Another new game to learn and this one was a doozy. There was a lot going on here and I think that I would have to play it again to even try and do a decent job of describing the mechanisms. I’ll give it a very brief shot, though. Players are trying to earn victory points, mostly by fulfilling the requirements on secret mission cards and also by obtaining shields. Getting the stuff necessary to fulfill the missions involve getting majorities of your influence cubes on 12 different locations on the board. This is done through the play of cards and some movement rules when the cubes are placed. The 12 board locations each provide different items or allow the player to do some action. A lot of planning and management is necessary in this game, and there are a lot of details to learn, so be prepared to be totally confused your first game. I certainly was. And about that random shield bonus that so many are griping about – it didn’t bother me a bit. It was no different to me than a bad die roll or not drawing a card I needed in other games. If I feel I played a clever game, losing by a point or two doesn’t ruin the experience for me. I’m just not that competitive, I guess. Valerie won our game, with Ed second, me third, and Michael W. fourth.

I wasn’t totally wowed by the game as it was a bit fiddly, but I think if I became more familiar with it I’d enjoy it enough to own it.

All the younger children had to be out of the game room by 11pm, so I retired for the evening and took Shea up to the room. I was pretty beat.

Next up: Part three, including the King Arthur Card Game, Amazonas, Eleusis, and Shadows Over Camelot

Ed's Gulf Games Report - Part 1

by Ed Rozmiarek

New Orleans

Gulf Games 16 was held in downtown New Orleans. Quite a change from the previous ones we had attended. The hotel was much bigger and there were many more non-Gulf Gamers staying there. We ran into several inline hockey teams there for a Junior Olympic competition. There were teams from Canada, New Zealand and Australia. There were also a large number of people there for a Christian fellowship conference and even some people that were in town filming a movie. All in all, it made for a crowded hotel, with long waits at times for the elevator and other inconveniences. However, the gaming area was very nice (and that was the main reason for being there). It was large with plenty of gaming tables. The room looked out onto the rooftop swimming pool (handy when Kevin wanted to go swimming) and the windows let in a good amount of natural light.

New Orleans itself was interesting but not something I would call “family friendly”. The downtown area seemed geared more towards adult aged entertainment with the partying, Bourbon Street and the casino. Walking down the main street you are greeted with stores displaying t-shirts in the front window that had profanity (including the “F” word). I’m not a prude and have no objection to that being in the store, just don’t display it so that my pre-teen children can easily see it by just walking by. Given that Gulf Games is geared towards families, I was a little surprised at the location. However, as I said earlier, we were there to game, and game we did, and we highly enjoyed that part of the trip.

Before we get to the game write-ups, let me make a couple of general comments. First, I’m not going spend a lot of time writing up game play mechanisms as you can read about that elsewhere, like the Boardgamegeek. Second, although Susan and I don’t make an effort to either play games together or intentionally play in different games, we tend to play about one third of our games together at Gulf Games. So if you read Susan’s reports, you will see some repeats here, but maybe a different view of the events.

Monday

Der Untergang von Pompeji

We were tired after 10 hours on the road and moving stuff to our room, but it wasn’t hard for Greg Schloesser to get us into a game. We wanted something light and not too long and he suggested Pompeji. Not having played it and interested in trying it, we sat down and even got Kevin to join in. When Michael Labranche wandered by, Greg gave up his seat and just facilitated our game by teaching the rules. The game was just about right for our needs, not being too taxing or too long. There were some decent decisions to be made during the first round of people placement and then the “running for your life stage” had me wanting to move more people than allowed. A nice solid family game and would pass my lunch time game criteria (easy to teach and play within 45-60 minutes). It’s suppose to be coming out in English later this year from Mayfair and we will probably pick up a copy then. Susan won the game easily but there was a three way tie for second which was won by Kevin on the tie-breaker (having the most(?) people in the volcano).

We didn’t play any games on Tuesday as that was our sight-seeing day and the group dinner at Mulates, a local Cajun restaurant.

Wednesday

Boomtown

A bright and sort of early start on Wednesday found me in the game room around 10:00. I found a game of Boomtown being setup and jumped into it. Everyone knew the rules and we got right to it. The first two rounds found my mines paying off each time giving me a minor boost in early capital, however it also made me an target for a couple of early dynamite cards which kept me from getting the first couple of mayors. I had to shift to a more conservative bidding strategy to build up some cash. I was able to slip under the radar for the rest of the game but was never able to catch up to Michael Adams who had collected several good payouts and a couple of mayors. The other players in our game were Scott Tullis, Jay Bloodworth and Craig Berg.

Verflixxt! / That's Life

I wandered over to watch Shea finish up a game of Verflixxt! (coming soon as That’s Life from Rio Grande Games). This is a very easy “roll and move” but still with some decent tactical decisions to be made. After Shea’s game finished up, Greg Schloesser asked if we wanted to play and then reset the game and joined Susan, Shea, Michael Adams and myself to play. I’m sure my group at home will call this game “flawed” since it has a die in it, but I found the game very fun. Yes, your fate is controlled by a die, but the opportunity to move the guardian pieces to either help yourself or hurt an opponent adds enough to the game to make the decisions non-trivial. Also, like backgammon, sometimes you have to play the odds and set yourself up to take advantage of the different die rolls. We liked the game enough that we picked up an English copy from Ward Batty when he got some in later in the week.

Zigity

One of the interesting and fun things about Gulf Games is that you get pulled into kids' games that you would probably never play at home. This was one of those instances as little Claire Tullis asked if I wanted to play a game of Zigity. Zigity is an Uno like card game from the makers of Cranium. In this game, the object is to get rid of your hand of cards by playing sets of cards that add to 11, spell a word, complete the puzzle, or match musical instruments. The cards have four different symbols, one in each corner, and an action in the middle. What you need to do on you turn is based on the top card in the discard stack. So on your turn you either play a set of cards to the discard pile or draw a card. First one out of cards wins.

You never know how long one of these games will go as it can be short, long or somewhere in between. This was a short one, very short. On the second round, Shea who to my right, played a set that made the action “match a drum set”. Well, it turns out that my hand was made up of about five cards with drum sets and two wild cards. So, I was able to lay down my entire hand of 7 or so cards and go out. Game over. One other comment is that Zigity has clear plastic cards. Kind of cool but I’m not sure if they would cause any game play issues with making the cards in the discard deck hard read or giving away information to other players.

Ubongo

I got to jump into a game of Ubongo, another game I really wanted to try. From the description and early reports, I thought I would like this game and I did. Timed spatial problem solving, right up my alley. I played with Cheryl Tullis, her daughter Amanda (both of which had played before) and Kevin. The game never clicked with Kevin who struggled with the placements, but the game turned out to be a close three way battle between me and the Tullis women. In fact, the game turned out to be a three way tie at the end which I won on the tie-breaker. The game definitely moved onto my buy list (and I’m now kicking myself for not adding it to our recent group Adam Spielt order). Ubongo seemed fairly popular during the week as I saw it played many other times.

Rio Grande Prototype 1

Next up was a prototype from Rio Grande Games. This was the second summer Gulf Games in a row that Jay Tummelson from Rio Grande has been able to attend. Both times he has brought prototypes to test. I can’t give any details but I did enjoy this one and it seemed fairly solid, game play wise. There was some discussion about end game scoring between Joe Huber and Jay, but I think this one will see the light at the end of the tunnel and get published.

Piranha Pedro

Next up Jay pulled out Piranha Pedro, a game that was published last year but never made a big splash as there was never an English version published (although the components are language independent) but there is a version on BrettSpielWelt. Jay was evaluating it for a possible English version (sorry, he gave no information on his plans, but in my opinion, it appeared that he was not impressed with the physical quality of the game). I had played the game several times on BSW so I knew what to expect, a fairly random, simultaneous action selection game that played pretty quickly. Luckily we only had four for this playing (myself, Joe Huber, Rob Wood and his young son Robbie) as I had found the game too random with 5 or 6 on BSW. The game played pretty much like I expected, the first player has the best choice and is the only one who can plan his move. The second player has a decent chance of guessing what the first player does, after that, it’s pretty much a crap shoot. The last player just has to guess and hope he has enough rocks to keep Pedro out of the water. The game play is OK and I don’t mind playing as a light game, but it’s just too random for me to want to buy a copy.

Maus nach Haus

Cute as a button Allison Vander Ark got me, Susan and James “Control Nut” Miller into a game of this mouse flicking game. Another kids game that I wouldn’t buy because it would never see the light of day with our group, but it was short, silly fun. I saw it played several times during the week.

Ra

Leon Hendee pulled a group together and we decided on the classic auction game Ra. We all knew the game and were able to jump right in. I am usually fairly conservative in bidding but decided to be a little more aggressive since initially I got the middle bid tiles (6-11-12). This worked in the first round as I was able to get some Pharaohs and Nile tiles along with a flood to score them. However, I was left with the 1, 4, and 5 tiles going into the second round. I knew I had to call Ra every chance I got to either pick up some tiles with my low tiles or make the others spend their bigger numbers. It worked fairly well as I was able to pick up a large number of Nile tiles (with a flood) and a couple more Pharaohs. I was the points leader going into the last round, but Eddie Bonet had a big collection of monuments that was going to score well. In the third round I was able to pick up even more Nile tiles and a god. The god tile allowed me to pick up a flood late in the round to make sure I scored my Niles (I think I had able 10 or 12). I was also able to score the Most Pharaohs again and a picked up few monument points. It was enough to hold off Eddie Bonet’s late monument charge for the win. Always a fun game.

Der Feuer-Salamander

I spent some time walking around talking to people and taking pictures. I wandered over to a table where Frank Branham was trying to decipher the rules to one of his older games. Frank always brings some interesting unknown games. Some are unknown for good reasons but some are pretty fun and worth seeking out. While taking pictures of this game, Frank realized that the game would probably be better with four. We me standing there and an open chair, Dale Yu stated that I just signed up to play the game so I sat down with him, Frank and Sandi West to try it out.

This game was a type of deduction game where you tried to created groups of three cards, one of each of the three components. However, you only have two cards (at most) in your hand so you needed to figure out at least one of the other player's cards. You did this by moving around a small track on the board. If you landed in front of another person’s house, you could ask them a yes or no question (“Do you have an earth card?”). They told you the answer secretly. Once you have a set, you tried to race back to your own house to make the guess. However, the player’s turn is controlled by three 4 sided dice. This gives you your movement and also forces you to draw new cards. If you draw a card, you must discard one since your hand limit is two. So, if you figure out another player’s card and they are forced to draw a new card, they can discard the card you just discovered.

The game had some other interesting mechanisms, but all in all, we didn’t see a lot in the game. In fact, we jointly decided about halfway through to call it quits since it was progressing very slowly and there didn’t seem like there was much more to discover in the game play.

Manila

I hooked back up with Susan and got into a game of Manila, another game we both wanted to try before we bought. Here’s an instance where waiting paid off. Neither one of us liked it. Too much randomness and betting for me. I can see where some people might like it but it didn’t do anything for me. Good thing Susan didn’t like it either so there will be no fights over getting this one. Too bad because it has such nice bits.

Turbo Taxi

Jay Tummelson had a selection of the new Queen games Rio Grande will be distributing. Looking for something short to round out the day, Susan wanted to show me Turbo Taxi, the release of Friedemann Friese’s Flickwerk. This is another timed puzzle game. However, I didn’t like this one as much as I had liked Ubongo earlier in the day. The variability in the play did not seem as great. There definitely were patterns to the solutions and some were easier than others. Not a bad game, I just don’t think it will have much staying power. Unfortunately this was the only one of the new Queen games I got to play. I missed playing Rat Hot, Roma and Architekton, all of which I was hoping to try.

Susan's Gulf Games Report Part 1

by Susan Rozmiarek
It’s Monday morning and I’m so tired that I could hardly drag myself out of bed. I have a pounding headache. Fortunately, it is only gaming hangover brought on by spending five wonderful days in steamy New Orleans playing games and sightseeing.

We arrived Monday evening after an exhausting ten hour drive, about five of which were just getting out of Texas. We live in the middle of the state and yes, Texas really is that big. We weren’t really planning on playing any games that evening, but Greg Schloesser offered to teach us Der Untergang Pompeji and Kevin, Ed and I jumped at the chance to get starting on our gaming for the week. Michael LaBranche joined us. Pompeji turned out to be a good choice for weary travelers as it only required enough concentration to tickle the brain a bit.

Der Untergang Pompeji

This game had gotten a lot of lukewarm reactions from people, but I always thought it sounded rather appealing. The game has two parts. In the first part, players are populating the buildings of the city by playing cards and placing their pawns. Then the volcano erupts and players are scrambling to get their people out of the city. It would be a pretty boring game though, if all you did on your turn was move some pawns. Luckily, however, you also get to draw and place a lava tile on the board, pitching any pawns in the way into the volcano. Greg made sure that we made appropriate victim screaming noises. A little role-playing enhances any game! While the game was very light and tactical, it was also very fun, and reminded me a lot of Survive!, another “save your pawns” game. I tried to place my people near the city gates and that, combined with a little luck, helped me along to victory.

Tuesday was our sightseeing day, and we spent most of it at the air-conditioned aquarium and IMAX theater. We did walk around the French Quarter a bit, but it was awfully hot and a bit too tourist-y for us. We did enjoy beignets at the famous Café du Monde. That night was the big group dinner where I stuffed myself with local cuisine, including some gumbo, jambalaya and blackened alligator (yup, tastes like chicken).

Wednesday was the official start of Gulf Games and our first day of non-stop, glorious gaming. I was thrilled to see both my kids jump right in and play boardgames all day, completely ignoring the usual TV set up in the corner for video games.

Verflixxt!

Like everyone else who follows the German Spiel des Jahres awards, I wanted to try this nominee. It’s by that dynamic designing duo, Kramer & Kiesling. I figured it had to good, even after hearing all the complaints that it was just a light family game with few real decisions. Well, I happen to a have a family that includes two kids, so that description does not scare me away at all. I like to play a mixture of light and heavy stuff, anyway. Greg Schloesser was kind enough to teach it and play it with Shea, Ed, Michael Adams, and me.

I’m not really sure what the theme of this game is, but it has really cute art. It’s a race game of sorts. Thirty-two large tiles of amazing thickness are randomly laid out in a continuous line to form the track, with a starting tile on one end and a finish line at the other. The tiles either depict positive or negative points, along with several “lucky” tiles that show a four-leaf clover. Each player has two pawns and on his turn he rolls a die and must move one of his pawns or one of several neutral “guards” that don’t belong to anyone. If a pawn is the last pawn or guard on a tile and is moved off of it, the owner must take the tile. After all pawns have reached the finish line, players add up the points of the tiles they have taken. Each “lucky” tile taken turns one negative tile into positive points. The player with the highest total wins the game. There is not a whole lot to think about here; you are merely making the best move you can with your roll. Still, it is rather pleasant with lots of maneuvering and both my boys really liked it. Plus it handles up to six players and is short enough for a lunchtime game. We picked up the English version, That’s Life, from Ward, who got a shipment in towards the end of the week. This game is definitely an excellent light family game, making it a worthy Spiel des Jahres finalist.

Maus Nach Haus

Little Allison Vander Ark, who I swear gets cuter every year, taught Ed, James Miller and me this silly children’s dexterity game. You have a set of little wooden mice. On a player’s turn, he/she spins a big wooden ring in the middle of the table and everyone simultaneously tries to flick their mice toward the ring so that they end up within the ring when it stops spinning and falls over. Given my skill at flicking games, naturally I lost. I lost twice, in fact, as Shea made me play it a second time with him. I noticed that this game was in action for most the week.

Lineage II

I’m always interested in checking out a game from Frank Branham’s massive collection as it’s bound to be unusual. Not necessarily good, mind you, but at least interesting. That’s how I discovered my beloved Gothic Game. Lineage is a Korean game based on an old computer game that I’ve heard of, but have never played. Frank, Sandi, Greg, and Tyler Putman were my competition.

It’s essentially a dungeon crawl, where you roll the dice, move your guy and fight monsters. The first player to reach ten victory points wins the game. Fighting monsters gets you items to buff up your character, or to sell at a town for money. Money buys you the services of mercenaries to help you lay siege to and defend keeps. There are several keeps on the board and holding one over several rounds gets you more money and eventually victory points. A cool mechanism in the game is that when a player challenges another’s keep, the rest of the players can join either side by committing their own mercenaries to help out. Being on the side of the victor and/or committing the most mercenaries to a battle are yet other ways to get a victory point. Combat is decided by dice, however, so luck does play a big factor, although the number of mercenaries participating affects the odds. There are also some goal cards that get you victory points for defeating different sets of monsters. I rather liked the game, although the fact that I narrowly defeated Tyler for the win by helping him defend a keep probably bolstered my opinion a bit.

Ra

This is an old favorite that I’m always willing to play. We play it a lot at home and all know each other’s playing style well, so it is a treat to play it with different players and have to adjust to their differing styles. I came in third, just one point behind Eddie Bonet, who was second. Ed won the game. My other fellow players were Leon Hendee and Patti Adams.

Turbo Taxi

This is one of the new Queen games that Rio Grande will be distributing here in the USA. It’s actually a newly themed version of an older Friedemann Friese game, Flickwerk. I was drawn to it like a magnet after hearing that it was a puzzle game. Joe Huber taught it to Tyler Putman, Maria Batty, and me. Players each have an identical set of tiles depicting streets in various configurations. Two taxis and two matching houses (destinations) are placed around a central 3X3 grid. A road tile is flipped and placed in the center. Now players each simultaneously work the puzzle in front of them, trying to be the first one to place their road tiles such that they can get each taxi to its destination.

My spatial skills were not up to this task, and I had to be satisfied with just solving the puzzles at all. Joe smoked us, seeming to solve his just as quickly as he could move the tiles into place. I did play the game later with Ed and Shanna LaBranche and started improving my time with the practice. I enjoyed the exercise, but I thought Ubongo to be a better game of this type. The problem with these timed puzzle games is that they aren’t competitive unless everyone is of the same skill level, which is rarely the case.

Palazzo

Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games brought a pile of his new stuff, including this Reiner Knizia game from Alea. After my first playing, I knew that this was going to be the hit of the week for me. I simply love games where you get to build your own thing in front of you, which is probably why I’m a big fan of Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico and Alhambra.

In Palazzo, you are building towers (palaces, actually) in front of you out of numbered story cards that you purchase. At the end of game you’ll get points based on the height of your towers and the numbers of windows in each, with bonus points for towers composed of stories that are all the same color. The tiles are numbered and while your tower stories don’t have to be consecutively numbered, each successive story must be of a higher number than the one below it.

The game actually reminds me a lot of Alhambra with an auction thrown in as a way to purchase tiles. Warning: There are a lot of auctions in this game! On your turn, you can either take money from a display or purchase (directly or through an auction) tiles and build them. Does this sound a bit familiar? What’s nice is that all players get to take money when a player chooses that option. The player whose turn it is gets first choice and takes two cards while all others just take one. Money comes in one of three colors and purchases and bids must be made with money cards all of the same color. For more options, there are low-valued wild cards and you can play a set of differently colored cards of the same number value which is worth 15 points.

The option of purchasing and building tiles is where the feel of the game departs from that of Alhambra and takes its own clever twist. There are five big region tiles (I think they are quarries) which comprise the common board for all players. Four are placed in a circle around one in the center. A Master Builder pawn is placed on one of the outer quarries. This builder will move along the outer quarries. The story tiles are placed in three facedown stacks. When a player chooses this action, two tiles are drawn. One is placed in the center region and the other is placed on a particular quarry determined by how many windows the tile shows, a clever way to keep the locations stocked with tiles. The player can either buy one or two tiles outright from the center region, or advance the Master Builder one quarry clockwise and auction all tiles there as a set. All tiles bought or won must be built by the player immediately. The neat thing about buying tiles from the center is that the cost of each tile is based on the number of tiles there, the price going down with more. Single story towers score negative points at the end of the game, so you can’t just amass tiles without planning on how you are going to use them.

There is a third action a player can take, which is also similar to Alhambra. A player can tweak his towers, burning a turn to either remove or add a tile to a tower.

There are five tiles mixed in the last pile that form a mural. As these are drawn they are set aside. When the fifth is drawn, the game ends immediately. Some people were complaining that the game ends just as it is getting interesting, but I don’t agree at all. I think the length and ending threat make it extremely tense.

I came in last in my first game with Joe Huber, Michael Green, and Tyler, but it’s a game that awards experience and I came in second when I played it again with Ed, David Vander Ark and Paul Cortazzo. That darn Ed pipped me by one lousy point. I just needed one more turn!

Manila

Jay taught this to Michael Bland, Robert Wood, Ed, Jay Bloodworth and me. People seem to be polarized into two different camps about this game; they either love it or hate it. Its gorgeous bits and the loud praises from its fans have kept my eye on it for quite a while. Boy, am I ever glad I got to try it before I pulled the trigger and bought it. Put me in the “hated it” camp. I can’t remember how long it took but it seemed like forever. It was only fun for the first half hour. After that, it got really repetitive, with each round progressing very similarly to the previous one. The locations on the board seemed to always get grabbed in roughly the same order. For a betting game, there was just too much chrome and fuss here. So, I saved some money by playing it first. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

For more comments see part 2, covering plays of Kaleidos, Ubongo, Diamant, St. Petersburg and Louis XIV.

Gulf Games pictures

by Ed Rozmiarek
We recently returned from New Orleans where we attended Gulf Games 16. We were lucky to get invited to our first Gulf Games about 3 years ago now and the trip has become a highlight of the year for us and something we really look forward to, even the kids. We hope to write up reports on our trip and the games we played, but that will take some time. Until then, you can browse the pictures from our trip in our Gulf Games 16 photo album. Enjoy.