2006 Gaming Resolutions

by Susan Rozmiarek
Well, with January almost coming to a close, I guess I better make my Gaming Resolutions for a year. Personally, I think New Year resolutions are made to be broken, but I do find that having a goal helps me to focus better. While I don’t always achieve my goal, I at least make some progress and that’s a Good Thing.

First, I want to state what I’m NOT doing. I’m not going to track my games played this year. I have done this in the past and after a month or two it just feels like a chore. I thought that I’d simplify things a bit last year and record my games played at BGG but I totally lost interest in November and quit. I’m not the type of person who likes playing around with statistical data so keeping track really does nothing for me. I sometimes find it interesting to see when I last played a certain game, but usually the answer is depressing. I certainly don’t want to know my win-loss stats as that is always depressing!

The other thing that I’m not going to do is promise to buy fewer games which has been a common resolution in the past. What we (Ed and I) are going to do is make sure that we stay within our budget and not allow our obsession to hurt the progress of our current financial goals. This also includes traveling to game conventions. I’m not sure how many games or cons this will mean for us this year, but I’m no longer going to feel guilty about how much we spend as long as the above criteria is met. Gaming is something our entire family enjoys in some way.

So, what are my Gaming Resolutions this year?

1. We have a long list of unplayed games on our shelves, all of which were purchased because they are supposed to be good. Some have been languishing on our shelves for YEARS. Shameful! I would like to get as many of these played as possible. We now have a son who is willing to play just about anything so we no longer have to wait for game day to play some of these. The first ones on the list are the ones that cause me the most shame.

• Kings & Castles
• Ad Acta
• Titicaca
• Dampfross – at least Ed has played this one
• Shoko & Co.
• Mare Nostrum
• Tycoon
• Princes of the Renaissance
• Traders of Genoa
• War of the ring
• A Game of Thrones
• 1825 – I love train games and have never tried an 18xx game
• Gargon – just a little card game, but why did we buy it if not to play it?
• Nexus Ops
• Arkham Horror
• Im Auftrag des König – another little unplayed card game lost on our shelves
• Empire Builder/Russian Rails – I would have never discovered the “crayon rail” games if Mayfair hadn’t sent me a review copy of Lunar Rails. I thought they were long, boring and complicated. Wrong! My newly found love is worthy of its own post someday. These are two in the series that I own but haven’t played. I only wish I could convince more people to play them with me. :-(

I will have to average more than a game a month this year to get all those games played. This will be hard to do so I’ll be happy if I just knock a lot of them off the list. Remember being a child and getting a gold star for good work or behavior? Well, that is exactly what I’m going to award myself for playing one of these games! Look for gold stars in my session reports this year.

2. My other resolution is to start up a gaming group in my new neighborhood. Ed and I would like to get more gaming in than just our once-a-month group. We live too far from the other local groups to attend their game nights that often. We’ve lived here for six months and it’s time to get off my butt and just DO IT. Unlike many others, I don’t feel that playing games like these are perceived as being “geeky,” especially if you approach non-gamers with the impression of them being a fun ,family activity. At least, that’s been my experience. Many people seem to be looking for an excuse to pull themselves away from a TV or computer screen and socialize with other fellow human beings. The few neighbors that I’ve approached have shown interest. Even if we never play more than the simplest “gateway” games or dominoes or whatever, it will still be fun, I hope. Look for the results of my efforts in upcoming blog entries here.

Session Report for January 21, 2006

by Susan Rozmiarek
We thought that we weren’t going to have a very good turnout today as a few of the regulars couldn’t make it, but we were pleasantly surprised by a few unexpected folks – Jon made it after all and the ever busy Mike C showed up as well. We also had new guy, José and Helen, who used to be a regular back at our old house. Hopefully they had a good time and will be back.

GemBlo

As soon as we had six, we pulled out Gemblo. Wow! Was it ever cutthroat with this many players. I felt like I was fighting for an opening on so many fronts. It was painful choosing where to make my placements. Real estate disappeared quickly and I ended in the middle of the pack, score-wise. Mike pulled out an impressive win with only 3 gems left. I have a feeling that this game is going to be one of our top fillers for six players for a while. It plays quickly, looks gorgeous, and everyone seems to like it. I’m afraid Blokus is even looking more pale and anemic in comparison. The fact that Gemblo handles up to six players is such a huge plus.

Mike, Ed, John, Paul, Mark and Susan play a nice friendly (ya, right) game of GemBlo to start the day.

Mesopotamia

I got to play this game twice tonight, once with four players and another time with three. I am still really impressed with this game, but I’m going to have to get a few rule clarifications. A new low in juvenile humor was reached over the question of whether or not a player could hold his wood while increasing his population. ;-) Good grief, the things I put up with! At least that was clear in the rulebook. The real glaring flaw that we discovered is the fact that 20 rocks (as listed in the component list) are too few for the four player game. It encourages a rather vicious competition for them which I don’t care for, but even worse it makes it easy for somebody to eventually have no chance at all of winning the game. Not quite eliminated, because they can still go through the motions, but what’s the fun of that? I don’t quite understand why the number of rocks is not scaled equally for different numbers of players. This is easily fixed, however, because the game came with twice the listed number of rocks. Regardless of any official ruling, we plan to play with a pool of rocks equaling 7 times the number of players. This should still encourage a little competition for them and still makes it possible, but unlikely, that a player will get in the position of not having a high enough mana level to make all of his offerings.

Is Mike sleeping through Mesopotamia? John, Jon and Susan hope not.

Near the end of Mesopotamia.

Poison

We needed a fast filler while waiting for the Railroad Tycoon game to finish up and this Knizia game of brewing potions was suggested. It reminds me a lot of Too Many Cooks and little of Coloretto. I actually like both of those games better, but Poison is a pretty decent game too.

Il Principe

I had eagerly wanted to try out our shiny new copy of Hacienda, but I bailed when I saw Mike setting up his new copy of Il Principe. This game has gotten a lot of positive buzz and I wanted to see if I needed to own it. It turned out to be one of those games with a lot going on, making it hard to grok the rules the first time that you play. There are several different ways to score victory points and it is difficult to decide what to focus on before seeing how a game plays out. On top of that, we got some pretty big rules wrong that will completely change the game. Even so, I was very intrigued by it and I’m eager to play it again, this time with the correct rules. It packs a whole lot of punch into a very short playing time of about 45 minutes. Despite how soon the game is over, you actually seem to accomplish quite a bit. We will definitely have to pick up our own copy of this one.

Susan, Mike, Mark and Jose try out Mike's copy of Il Principe.

The Il Principe board and some cards.

The Hacienda players were all raving about that game so I’m just going to have to coax my kids into playing with Ed and me. I don’t think that I’ll be able to wait until the next game day.

Paul, Helen, Jon, John and Ed go south of the equator with Hacienda.

Paul, Jose, Mark and Ed relive the 1830s and fight it out to be the best Railroad Tycoon.

Hey! That’s My Fish!

Mike had only enough time for a short game so we pulled out this one, which seems to take longer to set up than to actually play. I’ll have to time how long it takes to explain the rules; they are so simple that I bet it took less than three minutes. My experience paid off as I was able to capture the most fish, but the scores were close. I think I liked it better with fewer than four, as you seem to have a bit more control, but it was still fun. And let’s face it; those penguins are adorable!

Susan (slightly hidden) teaches Jose, Mike and Helen how to catch fish in Hey! That's My Fish.

Hey! That's My Fish mid game.

I finished up a fine day of gaming with my second playing of Mesopotamia. I rarely want to play the same game more than once in a single evening, but this is one of those rare games that instantly hits a sweet spot with me.

Nobody But Us Chicks - Day 3

by Susan Rozmiarek
Well, this morning my timing wasn’t so perfect. I was running late because I had to backtrack and get my camera, which I had forgotten. There was no way I was going to go without it since today was the last day and the day when everybody would be there. So, when I walked in, Union Pacific was being explained to a full contingency of six players. Although I would have gladly watched, they decided to put it up and split into two groups.

Roads & Boats

This game is in my top five games of all time even though I’ve only played it a few times and those were spaced at least a year apart. I call our copy “My Precious.” It’s fiddly as all get out and can feel mostly solitaire (although certain scenarios can encourage some really vicious play) but it’s got some of the hallmarks of games I truly enjoy – puzzle-like turns, pick-up and delivery, building things, resource management, and a game story arc that Valerie aptly described as a “snowball.” It’s got way too many bits to keep track of, but I love fiddling with them and pushing them around. It’s played on a variable hex board with different types of terrain. You start out with a few donkeys, some boards and some stones. With these you start building things like sawmills and quarries to get more resources. Eventually you start building a network of roads and better transport to move your resources to other places to build more factories, mines to get gold, boats to travel the seas and build oil rigs to get fuel, etc. The goal is to have the most wealth at the end of the game. Wealth comes in the form of gold, coins and stock certificates as well as how many bricks a player has contributed to the “wonder,” a clever mechanism that drives the game to its end and is only partly under the players’ control. The game takes hours to play and builds slowly, but it is completely absorbing for me.

Sharon had played only once a long time ago and Anye and Valerie were new to the game. So, I chose a beginning scenario with a very symmetrical board that encourages a more peaceful game. Although the player order was challenged a few times to see who got to use a factory that turn, no walls were built or resources stolen the entire game. This game saw a lot of wonder bricks being built each turn, driving the game to an earlier finish. I had abandoned my brick building halfway into the game to concentrate on getting a gold mine set up with good transportation to a mint. I would regret this later. I had my gold in hand and was one turn away from starting to mint it into coins when I got caught by the game ending. Valerie had already been extracting gold from her specialized mine for several turns and easily had enough for the win. Sharon’s and Anye’s diligent wonder brick building put them in the middle two spots and I was at the bottom. Argghh!! I was so close! A few turns with that mint and I might have won! Oh, well. It was a lot of fun and I wish I could get it to the table more than once a year.

Just a light game of Roads and Boats with the girls.

The action at the other table: Robin, Mary and Debbie playing Jenseits von Theben.

Smarty Party

We wanted to play something that could handle the whole group and a party game was the only option there. So, Smarty Party was suggested. I’ve never played this game, but as I’m not all that fond of most party games; that’s not surprising. Since this is a trivia game, I was worried that I’d be totally clueless but I knew enough to scrape by. The person currently in last place gets to be the “reader” and pulls a card that has a list on it. Example: “birthstones” or “characters from the TV show Friends.” On your turn you have to guess an item on the list or you get points (which are bad). The person reading can subtract a few of their points by betting correctly whether or not the group will guess a certain number of items. The last person to guess correctly in a round gets the “Smarty Pants” and doesn’t count one of their point tokens earned by an incorrect guess that round. The “Smarty Pants” is one of the coolest game bits ever – a little pair of rubber pants. The game itself is okay, but just isn’t really my type of game. I had a great time though, but that was because I was playing with a fun bunch of players!

Big game of Smarty Party.

We took a break in the middle of the game for dinner and then finished it afterwards. I reluctantly decided to call it a night and said my goodbyes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m able to go again next year. Anye and Valerie have already chosen the new super secret location, but this time I’ll have to fly.

General thoughts and comments:

Valerie and Anye did a fabulous job putting this event together in a relatively short time. The little house they found was not much to look at, but it was very comfortable inside and roomy, at least for the gaming (I didn’t sleep there). The view in the back was fabulous. The place seemed well-stocked with the essentials and they even had a nice gas grill. I guess the biggest complaint that I heard was that it was a little far from the airport.

I don’t think I’ve EVER eaten this healthy at any gaming get-togethers, including my own! Fixing simple lunches and dinners is definitely the way to go if you have a kitchen available. It was certainly less expensive and less time away from gaming than going out to a restaurant, particularly since restaurants seemed far and few between out there. I think I actually lost weight instead of gaining from all the nibbling I normally do. It helped having fresh fruit available for snacking.

Who knew that there are so many game geeks lurking beneath the exterior of some very nice, “normal” women??!? Talk about blowing away a few stereotypes; did you notice the games played in my reports? I didn’t see a whole lot of “fluff,” not even in the piles of games brought. These women were into the serious stuff! It was great! And from a few snippets of conversation I heard, it would appear that a few of them didn’t even get into gaming until being exposed to games through their husbands. I wonder how many more of us are out there, waiting to get hooked? Maybe I’m not the enigma that I think I am. :-)

In conclusion, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to Valerie and Anye for all the work that they did. What a great idea! Thanks for allowing me to be a part of it. I hope to see the event grow; this was certainly a great start with a great bunch of women.

The "Chicks" - Me (Susan), Debbie, Robin, Anye, Valerie, Bree, Mary, Sharon

Nobody But Us Chicks - Day 2

by Susan Rozmiarek
Once again my arrival was perfectly timed as I showed up as Caylus was being set up and I was able to jump in as the fourth player. This time it was Anye’s turn to make the airport run, so in her place was Robin who had arrived the evening before.

 

Caylus

I had only played Caylus twice before and the first time it was with a few key rules wrong. I hadn’t really figured out any particular strategy and had spent those first two games just kind of reacting to my situation each turn with no real long term plan. I thought the game had promise, but I really was baffled as to what all the fuss was about. Since then, I had started to pay attention to online discussions about Caylus and picked up a few pointers while avoiding in depth strategy articles. I like to discover at least a few things myself. :-) So, this time I started the game with a plan, which was to try to focus on those favor tracks. My hope was to try to always grab that spot that grants a favor for a purple cube and a dollar. (Sorry, I don’t own a copy of the game and so don’t know the proper names of things in the game). Unfortunately Robin kept grabbing that spot before me so I was forced to go after my favors by putting all my efforts into building in the castle. I then used my favors to generate victory points and cash on those two particular tracks. And guess what?!?! It worked! I won my first ever game of Caylus, after losing my first two games horribly. I probably wouldn’t have pulled out a victory if the very experienced Valerie hadn’t been experimenting with a new strategy. After finding herself always a bit behind me in castle building, she switched to trying to collect gold cubes for victory points and it didn’t seem to work for her. Robin and Sharon pursued more of a “building” strategy, but Robin was more successful by focusing her early efforts on using those favors to move up the favor track with the buildings. She was able to get second place behind me. I really enjoyed the game this time since I had a better understanding of it. I STILL think it is a bit overrated but I do want a copy once it becomes available again.

Sharon, Robin, Valerie and Susan start off with Caylus.

Who says women only like to play light games? The other group (Debbie, Anye and Robin) was playing Jenseits von Theben and Keythedral.

Freya’s Folly

This game got a lot of positive buzz at Essen so when I spotted it in Valerie’s stack of games I asked if she would teach it. The game is themed around dwarves mining for jewels which are then used to create jewelry for points. Everyone has a set of dwarves to send into the mine depicted on the board and move to different rooms to collect the jewels there and return to the outside with them. The item of jewelry, the gems needed and the points for making it are depicted on cards that players may claim. Doing any of these things – moving, claiming cards, or making jewelry – take an action point and players only get two per turn. There are also some special cards that can be claimed and used to allow a dwarf to move more spaces, carry more, steal, etc. Once a player has completed six items the game ends. The game is very tactical and the movement of the dwarves reminded me a bit of Cartagena. Dwarves can jump over up to two dwarves for quicker travel. Spotting these possibilities and/or setting them up are key to winning.

Sharon started quickly fulfilling the requirements for some of the lower valued jewelry and created a panic amongst Valerie and me. We had both been greedy and gone deep into the mine to get goodies to fulfill the requirements for the more valuable jewelry. I got caught by the early ending and couldn’t get out with my valuable booty but Valerie managed a spectacular last move that tied her with Sharon for the win. I really enjoyed the game and would love to find a copy. Unfortunately, they seem to be scarce and very expensive.

Hey, That's My Fish!

We had only a short time before dinner, so we tried my new copy of Hey, That’s My Fish. This game was previously published as Pingvinas by Bambus Spieleverlag and is very pricey and hard to find. I was thrilled to hear that it was getting republished by Phalanx and Mayfair in a readily available and affordable edition. The game is a very, very simple one with rules that even a very younger child could understand. However, the tactics are a little more challenging. The board is composed of hex tiles that depict 1-3 fish on them. Players have several penguins on the board and are trying to collect the most fish. On each of their turns, players move one of their penguins to an empty tile, moving in a straight line without passing over any gaps in the board or through other penguins. They then pick the tile that their penguin had been standing on to keep as part of their “catch.” Players keep doing this as long as they have a legal move. Once nobody has a legal move, the game is over and players count their fish to see who has the most for the win. While it seems important to run around and grab the more valuable fish tiles, it is also important to not let your penguin get isolated on a small island with few legal moves left. Cutting off other players’ penguins is evil fun! While the game play feels like that of a typical, simple abstract game, the theme actually fits very well and adds a lot. The wooden penguins are rather cute. I am looking forward to playing this again.

Everyone now took a break from gaming to walk around outside and down to the lake, take pictures and playing with two very friendly dogs from next door. The weather was gorgeous as we are having an extremely warm and dry winter here in Texas. Valerie grilled chicken breasts while a few assistants helped make salads and mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. It was rather late by the time we finished dinner, so I decided to go ahead and drive back home. I hate long drives in the dark and the road out was very dark, curvy and hilly with lots of deer around.

The back deck.

Valerie and Sharon get wacky on the boat dock. If they keep rocking it like that, somebody is going for a swim!

Robin and Valerie catch some afternoon rays.

Look at that yummy, healthy home-cooked dinner! Are you sure that we're at a game con??

Nobody But Us Chicks - Day 1

by Susan Rozmiarek
Today was my first day at the first annual Nobody But Us Chicks invitational gaming get-together. The special thing about this gaming event is that it is for WOMEN ONLY. Yes, guys eat your heart out! An entire group of those ever elusive Women Who Actually Like to Game spending several days of serious gaming without any of you!

I arrived at the super secret location located in a remote, beautiful location on Lake Travis outside of Austin, Texas at around 11am. I was enthusiastically greeted by the event’s organizers, Valerie Putman and Anye Sellers, as well as a friend from Gulf Games, Sharon Madden. One of them was still in her pajamas but I won’t embarrass her by revealing her name. ;-) They had just finished up a game so my timing was perfect.

My friends and fellow gamers for the day, Valerie Putman, Anye Sellers and Sharon Madden.

Mesopotamia

This was high on my “want to play” list because the buzz surrounding it made it out to be a game with a mishmash of some of my favorite mechanisms. Action points, but never enough to do all you want, pick-up and delivery, resource management, exploration – this game has got all of that and beautiful components to boot. It also plays quickly in about an hour. I am concerned that we got a few rules wrong, but even if we did they weren’t anywhere close to being game breakers. This may knock Elasund off the throne as my current favorite if I have as much fun with my next playings as I did with this first go around.

Anye, Sharon, Valerie and Susan get the action started with a game of Mesopotamia.

Later in Mesopotamia.

Tichu

Anye is a big fan of this trick-taking game. I play it so infrequently that every time that I do; I have to re-learn the rules. It comes out occasionally at home, but we have some big fans of it in our game group who play it so much during lunch at work that it is hard to compete with them. Anye had a really good system of teaching the rules, so this time I felt that I had a pretty good understanding of them for a change. Still, experience is crucial to doing well at this game and I made a few blunders. I did manage to call Tichu and make it though. I should really play this game more often.

Getting ready to play Tichu.

Valerie had to leave to pick up somebody at the airport and I only had time for one short game before making the 50 mile trek back home so we decided to play a quick three-player game.

Palatinus

This is a new game published by Mayfair and daVinci Games. Their games sometimes have weird themes and mechanisms as well as confusing rules, so I usually approach them with a bit of trepidation. Even if they did publish one of my favorite fillers ever, Bang! Well, this game has a relatively common and benign theme of controlling areas of Rome, but a few things stuck out as not making sense theme-wise. Still, that’s not too bad of a crime in a Euro-style game. The rules were written fairly clearly although the end game scoring is very confusing until you actually play the game and see it. Players have three types of tokens, soldiers, farmers and merchants, that they are placing out on different terrain types surrounding hills that have point values. Most, but not all of them are placed face down so only the player knows what he placed. At the end they are all revealed. Soldiers may or may not capture and remove merchants or farmers in the adjacent hexes (depends on how many there are) for points. Remaining merchants and farmers are scored for influence on each hill tile to win the points. For merchants, points are based on adjacent people and for farmers it is based on surrounding terrain types. The game played very quickly, but we weren’t thinking too much about our placements because we hadn’t seen how the scoring would play out. I’m wondering if the game would normally bog down with analysis paralysis. Then again, since you don’t know what most of the other players’ tokens are, much of it is guesswork so maybe it won’t. Hmmmm. This is definitely one that I need to play again before forming an opinion on it.

Anye, Sharon and Susan puzzle over Palatinus.

As the weekend gets closer, more people will be arriving. I think we will have a total of nine gamers on Saturday. Stay tuned for Friday’s report!

Review: Barbarossa

by Susan Rozmiarek
I have posted a review of Barbarossa, a recent offering from Mayfair Games. This is a new streamlined edition of Klaus Teuber's 1988 Spiel de Jahres winner. It is a party game of guessing clay scultures and while not a fan of these types of games, I found this one to be enjoyable. It does have a few flaws, though.

Two Player Gaming - January 7, 2006

by Susan Rozmiarek
World of Warcraft, the online version that is, has entered the household via Christmas and wild horses couldn’t drag the Rozmiarek children away from the computer. So, it was Ed and I on our own to play games of the board variety tonight.

 

Jambo

This game is starting to approach the addictive qualities of Lost Cities for me. Especially since Ed won’t play Lost Cities with me anymore. :-( The more I play Jambo, the better it gets as I learn the special cards and how and when to use them.

Luck was not with me tonight at all. Ed had a killer sale that netted him 18 gold. Meanwhile, I was having a pretty dry spell of not being able to draw any goods cards. Finally, with the help of Supplies and Scales, I was able to get some and make a couple of quick purchases and sales to take back the lead. Too bad Ed was able to come back for a narrow victory.

Dynasties

I would have been happy to play Jambo again right away, but instead we decided to take this new two-player game by our friend Alan Newman on an inaugural run. Players are trying to control 5 different territories of Ancient China by having the most armies present in each. This is done in nine rounds with a blind bidding card mechanism with a scoring of the territories taking place every third round. What sets this apart from just being another blind bidding game are special cards that can be used in interesting, strategical ways.

Ed absolutely annihilated me during the second scoring round and I couldn’t recover. Now that I’ve seen how some of the cards can be used, I’m eager to try it again. There is also an “expert” version and a variant that I would like to try as well. The only thing that does disappoint me about the game is the component quality. The board is a rather ugly yellow color and it has warped pretty badly. The cards are of only so-so quality as well. The markers and cubes representing armies are nice-sized and wooden, however.

Good grief! Look at all of Ed's evil black armies in Mandarin! I think he's due for a Plague....

Review: Lucca Città

by Ed Rozmiarek
I have just posted a review for Lucca Città, an upcoming game from daVinci games being distributed by Mayfair Games. This is a light to medium weight set collecting game themed around building palaces in Renaissance Italy. This is one of daVinci's better efforts of late and I have enjoyed my playings. Check it out.

The Game Ranch Roundup - December 17

by Ed Rozmiarek
Caylust strikes Central Texas!
Wow, we set a new record today with 16 gamers and up to four tables going at once. We welcomed two new gamers to the group, Wendy and Scott. They have been hanging out on our Yahoo group for a while and were finally able to stop by this weekend. We hope they had a good time and will visit again soon.

This game day was unique in another way. We normally don't see the same game played more than once during a session unless it is a quick filler. However, today was the day Caylust struck the game group. While some people can't get a copy, we had not one, not two, not three, but four copies of the much hyped Caylus show up. And it seemed everyone wanted to play so we saw three games of Caylus played today.

Caylus

(reported by Susan)

Mike, Marty, Brian, Susan and Ed start off with the much hyped Caylus.

Well, I finally had my chance to bask in the glory of the gaming goodness that is Caylus. So, I took it. Good grief, this has to be one of the most over-hyped games ever. I purposely set my expectations a little low so I wouldn't be disappointed. It turned out to be very different than what I was expecting. I was expecting one of those heavy games with a lot of planning, the sort in which you lose yourself and come out two hours later immensely satisfied but with a ghastly headache - a Puerto Rico or Age of Steam or Goa. Instead, Caylus appears to be more of a tactical game of grabbing opportunities as they are presented. The only planning seemed to be collecting particular resources for a turn or two ahead. Afterwards I did read some discussions that indicate that there are some strategic paths, but I sure didn't see them as I was learning the game this first time. Also, it bothered me that the winner of the game, Brian, had a very solid lead fairly early and I could not figure out how he did it. Add a few significant rules that we (or just me) got wrong and it adds up to a game that I definitely need to play again. Another quibble I had was that at a little over two hours, it felt too long. I was feeling restless for the last 30 minutes. Long games usually need a more immersive theme than Caylus to keep my interest past the 90 minute mark. Still, the game has enough potential that I'm eager to play it again. I like tactical games and my opinion will probably rise with more playings.

GemBlo

(reported by Susan)
I had kind of scoffed at this game because it appeared to be a blatant rip-off of Blokus. (Or maybe Blokus is a rip-off of it?). Deep down though, the real reason I was avoiding it was because it sounded like, from some online reviews, that it was even better than Blokus. Now, I adore Blokus and I did not want to fall in love with a variation of a game I already own that is not only expensive but hard to find. But when Mike set up his copy of this huge, dazzling beauty of a game on our dining room table, I just couldn't say no. Sigh. My worst fears were realized. I was quite captivated by the game and thought the placements were a little more challenging than those in Blokus, although that is almost certainly due to the fact that I've played Blokus so much. Now I must own a copy of Gemblo, likely sending Blokus into the dusty, back corners of the game closet.

Café International

(reported by Ed)
I sat out of the second Caylus game, letting the people who had not had a chance to play give it a go. Susan started up an Elasund game but I passed on that so I could run something at the fourth table. With Lauren and Hap needing to go in an hour or so, I pulled out the Spiel des Jahres winner from 1989, Café International. Kevin also joined us for a round of seating patrons at the café.

Café International is one of the games Susan and I got early on after getting into Euro-games. We enjoyed it back then as a lighter game that you didn’t need to think too much about. We would even play it sometimes while watching TV. Several years down the road I still think this is a decent game for the family market. It is very tactical where you are just trying to maximize your tile placements each round. However, since the players’ tiles are face up, you can plan a little by watching the other players' tiles and see if you are safe in holding a tile or if you need to play it. You can also try not to play tiles that would set up another player for a bigger scoring opportunity. I'm not sure this game would win the Spiel des Jahres if it came out today, but it is still a pleasant way to spend 30 to 40 minutes.

Elasund

(reported by Susan)

Marty, Mike and Susan play the popular Elasund.

Since I just wrote a review of this game, I was rather tired of playing and thinking about it. However, Marty had not had a chance to play it and Mike was eager to play it again. Since I do really enjoy it, I was easily convinced. Marty grasped the rules and strategies pretty easily and Mike came out of the corner swinging, so a pretty tight game ensued. Marty snatched up most of the cheap wall sections early, but I was able to get one cheap wall victory point. We all went for the windmills, snapping them up early and advancing almost evenly up the Trade Point track. With those two VP options looking less lucrative, we all turned our focus toward buildings and the board started to fill up very quickly. A few church tiles were built, but the rest of the game was mostly jostling for the very limited space, with Mike raking in the most cash, enabling him to place expensive permits, both protecting his buildings and allowing him to use Marty and my permits to build. We couldn't stop him, but the scores were very close. This is such a great game and it plays very well with just three players.

10 Days in Africa

(reported by Ed)
The day's third game of Caylus was starting up at one table and the second game of Caylus was not complete yet so that left Susan, Jon, Kevin and I looking for a game. Thinking that the second Caylus would be done soon, we looked for something short. Having recently got 10 Days in Europe, the other 10 Days were calling out. I pulled out 10 Day in Africa and the four of us played travel agent in Africa.

Ed's comments:
This seems to be the hardest of the three currently available 10 Days games. Although, "hardest" is a relative term with these games since they all have the same basic mechanisms. I guess that not being too familiar with African geography makes it a little harder. In this game Jon was the first make the 10 card connection and take the victory.

Susan's comments:
Recently getting and playing the newly released 10 Days in Europe has re-sparked my interest in this game series. Africa is the hardest for me because I'm not very familiar with the geography. I adore all of the games in the series though and I always find myself not wanting to stop at just one game. I almost never win and I always seem to be only one location away from a completed trip when the winner announces he is done. Arggh! Let's try it again!

Ubongo

(reported by Susan)
Still needing to fill some more time since Caylus was still going on, we pulled out our recently received copy of Ubongo. I'm usually happy if I'm able to solve my puzzle at all before the timer runs out, but tonight I was possessed and able to win several rounds. Alas, I had to settle for second place since I wasn't able to pick the gems I needed, furthering my opinion that the method for their selection is flawed, flawed, flawed. I keep saying it and not doing it, but I really want to try a variant. What an addicting game, though. Getting to play this and 10 Days in Africa back-to-back put me in puzzle heaven.

Bohnanza

(reported by Susan)
This is such a great little game; I don't think that I will ever get tired of it. However, we played with 7 which is just too many players. The trading either bogs down or goes too quickly with some players not getting their offers heard. With so many there are also sometimes multiple identical offers, making it tough to decide which one to take.

König Salomons Schatzkammer

(reported by Susan)
We threw this game on an Adam Spielt order as a gamble, based on a few positive online comments but very little else. It was pretty cheap and looked and sounded rather neat. Wow. What an undiscovered gem. It seems to have flown under the radar of most gamers. First off, the components are fabulous with some of the thickest tiles I've ever seen. These tiles, which a depict treasures, nest in a very sturdy, thick plastic insert in stacks of four, forming a large grid of stacked tiles. During the game, these treasures are "excavated" and taken by players according to different configurations on cards that players receive randomly at the start of the game. The challenge lies in the fact that in order to play a card and collect the tiles, they must all be on the same level. Players can shift the tiles around to attempt to get them on the same level, but each shift costs gold. Players start off with some gold, but once this runs out they must use treasures that they've already collected. Since gold and treasure are victory points at the end of the game, the required tile shuffling makes for some painful decisions. There are also curse tiles which force you to pay gold when you take one, but award a lot of victory points at the end for having the most of them. There are scrolls which are worth nothing in gold but earn victory points for having a complete set of them. Finally, there are magical artifacts that can be spent to give some very powerful special abilities but yet if saved, will give out a lot of victory points at the end for having the most of them. Tiles collected are hidden behind player screens, which is nice because I can always play under the delusion that I'm actually in contention for the win. The game is very tactical and puzzle-like – just the sort of game I adore. Each turn presents a little puzzle for me to solve. Of course, this type does draw out the analysis paralysis tendencies in some players. Not me, of course.

Other games: Caylus (x2), Antiquity, Neuland, Pig Pile, Ra

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

Ed's 2005 Game Stats

by Ed Rozmiarek
For those who are interested, here are my gaming stats for 2005.

Games played: 381
Different games played: 201

These numbers pretty much sum up our gaming group. We tend to play a bunch of different titles and don’t tend to play the same thing over and over. The biggest exception on my list is Tichu, which is the current work lunch time card game of choice for 4 players. Also, although I only played it twice, Caylus-t has taken over several players in our group. It has seen repeated plays over the last month or two. This is much more than I have seen our group play a single game in such a short time.

Dimes:
Tichu (44 times)

Fives:
David & Goliath
Fairy Tale
For Sale
Palazzo
Pickomino
That's Life/Verflixxt
Ticket to Ride/TtR Europe

Four:
Boomtown, Control Nut, Diamant, Geschenkt, Maus Nach Haus, "Trump, Tricks, Game!", Wizard

Three:
10 Days in Europe, Backgammon, Call My Bluff, Caylus, Die Sieben Siegel, Elfenland, Frank's Zoo, Fredericus, Kreta, Lucca Citta, M, Niagara, Poison, Razzia, Red Planet Mission, Rheinlander, Saboteur, Shadows Over Camelot, Sticheln, Ubongo, Victory & Honor, Zirkus Flohcati

Two:
Around the World in 80 Days, Australia, Bohnanza, Igel Argern, Kupferkessel & Co, Money, Mu, Pig Pile, Ra, Robo Rally, Rome: Circus Maximus, Royal Turf, Santiago, Turn the Tide, Undercover

One:
10 Days in Africa, 6 Nimmt!, Age of Steam, Alexander the Great, Alhambra, Amazonas, Attacktix, Ave Caesar, Bang!, Big City, Billabong, Breaking Away, Bose Buben, Cafe International, Can't Stop, Candamir, Capitol, Carabande, Carcassonne, Carcassonne: The City, Caribbean, Carolus Magnus, Cartagena, Chess, Chessington, Cinq-o, Cityscape, Clans, Cloud 9, Cluzzle, Code 777, Coloretto, Colossal Arena, Crokinole, Cry Havoc, Deflexion, Der Feuer-Salamander, Der Fliegende Teppich, Der Prestel Schlossgarten, Der Untergang von Pompeji, Die Weinhandler, Doge, Doom, Drahtseilakt, Dschunke, Duell, Dvonn, "Easy Come, Easy Go", Einfach Genial, Elasund, Elfenwizards, Euphrates and Tigris, Evo, Exxtra, FarFalia, Favoriten, Fjords, Flandern 1302, FlaschenTeufel, Flower Power, Formula Motor Racing, Four Dragons, Freight Train, Fresh Fish, Go West, Goldbrau, Hansa, Hare & Tortoise, Havoc, Hispanola, Honey Bears, IQ 5, Ice Cream, If Wishes Were Fishes, Igloo Pop, In the Shadow of the Emperor, Ivanhoe, Jambo, King Solomon's Mine, King's Breakfast, Kuhhandel, Leap Frog, Lifeboat, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Lost Cities, Louis XIV, Mamma Mia!, Manila, Medici, Medina, Members Only, Memoir 44, Meridian, Metro, Mit List und Tucke, Moderne Zeiten, Nicht die Bohne!, Northern Trek, Nur Peanuts, Oceania, Octiles, Old Town, Olympia 2000, Palmyra, Paris, Paris, Pirahna Pedro, Piratenbillard, Pompeji, Princes of Florence, Pueblo, Puerto Rico, Res Publica, San Juan, Scream Machine, Space Beans, Space Walk, St. Petersburg, Starfarers of Catan, Strand Cup, StrataGem, Streetcar, Submarine, Tempus, Ten Days in Africa, Texas Hold 'Em, The Gothic Game, Thingamajig, Ticket to Ride: Lyon, Timbuktu, Tonga Bonga, Too Many Cooks, Toppo, Torres, Tower of Babel, TransAmerica, Traumfabrik, Trendy, Turbo Taxi, Tutanchamun, Verrater, Viking Fury, Viva Pamplona!, Von Kap Bis Kairo, Warhamster Rally, Wettstreit der Baumeister, Ys, Zigity, Zoff im Buffalo