Game Day Report for March 11, 2006

by Susan Rozmiarek
We were quite worried at one point that we were not going to be able to pull off this game day. At mid-week several of our regulars had declared themselves unable to attend and we had only gotten just one other RSVP. Just as we were about to cancel, we got a slew of affirmatives that included several newbies and some not-as-regulars, giving us a good crowd after all.

Fettnapf

This is a cute little memory card game. I’m not sure exactly what the theme is, but it has something to do with islands. During the game, you add numbered cards to the table, hoping that the total doesn’t equal the number on island cards that other players have in their hands. If the new total does match, the player holding that card smugly announces that fact and you get a card with what looks like a footprint in a pile of vomit. And that’s bad, because the person with the fewest of these “vomit” cards at the end of the game wins. Numbers on island cards that you hold in your hand or that haven’t been drawn yet are safe. Players draw more island cards during the game, always showing the other players what they pick up so it gets harder and harder to remember what everyone has. Mark always thought I was bluffing when I played a card while stating that I THOUGHT it was safe. I was bluffing a few times, but usually I really didn’t have that card in my hand and so really wasn’t sure. So, I suppose that I was really bluffing about bluffing. Or something like that. I usually have problems with memory games because I have a bad one (memory, that is), but apparently this game didn’t tax me too much because I actually won!

Mark, Susan, Kevin, Mike C (not shown) and Ed start off Fettnapf while waiting for the other gamers to shown up.

Flower Power

The brave and foolhardy diehard gamers scooted off to fumble through Die Macher for the rest of the day and night, leaving Ed and me alone to amuse ourselves with a two-player game until somebody else showed up. We chose this old favorite and were soon planting our colorful gardens. Ed tried a new strategy of planting many small beds instead of going for the larger ones. I was a little worried at the start because he was filling his space in a very organized and methodical fashion while I was tossing out my flowers all willy-nilly around my garden. (Which just so happens to mirror how we approach gardening in real life!). His strategy almost worked. In the end though, some lucky tile draws completed some big gardens of mine and I was able to capture the win by a few points. By-the-way, whoever pointed out to me that one of the flowers looks like a very personal part of the female anatomy, “thanks” a lot. Grrrrr.

Hacienda

I’m sure the flame will burn out eventually, but for now my torrid love affair with this game continues unabated. We played on the asymmetrical side and I’m going to have to side with the legions of gamers who prefer it to the symmetrical “dog bone.” The dog bone works, but it is downright boring compared to the other side which is deliciously brutal, especially with five players. You can forget about rolling in money with lovely, long land chains ‘cuz it ain’t gonna happen on this board! I went with my usual strategy of trying to connect to as many markets as I could right away as well as getting out at least one hacienda before the first scoring. Plunking down watering holes just before scoring is another one of my tried-and-true strategies but it was hard to do in this cash-strapped game. I actually had to harvest one of my land chains which I had never done in previous games. It also quickly became apparent that staking out claims on the board early even with only a single land tile was necessary if you wanted to be able to have any hope of connecting to certain markets. Newcomer Kat proved that she wasn’t shy at all and almost completely blocked me from one market early-on. Curses! When the scores were being tallied at the end it looked like Ed was going to hand me my first Hacienda defeat ever but I actually won with tiebreaker, having a measly two pesos over his zero. Whew. I remain undefeated in about five games, including both online and face-to-face.

The non-symmetrical Hacienda board is much more meatier that the symmetrical side.

Tycoon

I bet this poor game was wondering if it would ever get dusted off and played after getting plucked off the prize table in the second round at Gulf Games several years ago. I’d read the rules before but there are a few vagaries that had me puzzled. Fortunately, not only had Tim played it before, but he’s one of those rare gamers (at least in our group) who are willing to make up house rules on the spot and happily move on.

Tycoon is an older business game by Wolfgang Kramer about flying to different cities and building hotels and factories in order to have the majority there when a payout occurs. Buying the plane tickets and buildings cost money of course, which is extremely tight. So much so in fact, that it reminds me a little of Age of Steam where you have to start the game out borrowing heavily and then spend some time sweating until you eventually manage to get your finances back in the black. Just as in real life, this sort of situation causes me no end of stress. Fortunately, this was only a game because I never did quite manage my loans very efficiently. I’d be living under a bridge in a cardboard box by now if this had been real life. Unfortunately, this game devolved into one of group-think among a few participating tycoons with much discussion and advice being doled out on other players’ turns, dragging the game out to horrific lengths. Heh. Otherwise, I think it is a rather interesting game, even it does feel a bit outdated. I think I’d like to play it again and include Mark, who tyrannically insists on everyone playing their own game and would crush such table talk with an iron fist. Anyway, at least I took my turns rather quickly without encouraging comments. This obviously had quite a negative impact on my score, I’m sad to say. I’m too ashamed to reveal my paltry earnings other than to say they put me in a very, very distant last place. Hey, at least I paid off all my loans!

Long time no-show Seth and Rikelle play Tycoon with Tim and Susan.

That’s Life!

We needed a short final game for Seth to sneak in before anyone in his family noticed that he’d started playing another game. So it was Kramer again for me with this light luckfest. This game reminds a bit of Parcheesi in that you roll dice and move your pawn down a path and try to protect them in some cases by not leaving them by themselves. It’s very tactical and luck heavy with the simplest of decisions but it is pleasant enough for a light filler game. I won, but only due to some last minute lucky charms. My little victory at least soothed my bruised ego at being the Worst Tycoon Ever, but not much.

Seth ponders his fate during That's Life with Kat, Dan and Susan.

Early on during That's Life.

Ad Acta

You’d think a game with ugly components, one of the most boring themes ever, and extremely confusing rules would never come off the shelves unless it was to go to the trade pile, right? Wrong! This odd sounding game appealed to me for reasons unknown back when it came out and I was determined to play it eventually, even it took years which it obviously did. Dan and Kat were persuaded to join Ed and me in giving it a whirl. Newbies to the hobby are great because they often don’t know any better and are willing victims.

Ad Acta has the very exciting theme of filing folders in an office. Yes, you read that correctly. This is a game about the tedious office duties that many people have to deal with on a daily basis. I guess that is why many gamers were turned off. Fortunately, I was not similarly prejudiced as the tedium in my old day job involved microscopes and Petri dishes. To make matters worse, the game play is even drier than you’d expect with that theme and the mechanisms are very hard to wrap your head around at first. At least Ed and I had the foresight to stumble through the confusing terminology in the rules and play a few trial turns earlier in the week.

The goal of the game is to get your file folders, represented by cards in your player color, filed into a central filing cabinet for points. Different folders earn more points depending on which partition in the filing cabinet they end up in, if they manage to get filed at all. Players have a nearly identical set of these file folder cards and on each one there are icons at the top indicating which players have to “process” it before it can be filed. Players have a mat in front of them representing their inbox and outbox. At the beginning of the game players receive an equal number of file folders (a mix of theirs and other players) to be placed in their inboxes. They then spend a limited number of action points on their turn to process files and place them in their outboxes. They indicate this by placing a real paper clip over their icon on that card. This bothers a lot of people who can’t stand to see cards in a game abused in such a way, but I thought it was clever. Players can also use action points to make another player process a file folder. At the end of a round, a messenger comes around and collects all the file folders in outboxes and redistributes each to the next player who must deal with it, putting it on the top of their inbox, or files it in the filing cabinet if it is done. The key in all this is that things must be kept and done in order from top to bottom, including the order in which the messenger picks up and distributes file folders. Also, the partitions in the central filing cabinet only hold a fixed amount of cards and the partitions are filled in order. There is a little relief to these restrictions, however. Players can also spend action points to play special cards that rearrange the order of file folders in various ways amongst other things. Playing these at the right times seems to be key to doing well. The very hard part of the game is visualizing where folders will end up. It is very hard to orchestrate getting a file folder completed and filed in a certain partition that scores it a lot of points. By the end of the game my head was about to explode trying to thing things through.

Okay, if you were able to get through my boring explanation of the game then you should immediate go out and seek a copy because this game is for you. If your eyes glazed over by about the third sentence, then steer clear. I was rather intrigued by it though, mainly because I’m not even close to mastering it. I adore puzzle-ly games and this was certainly one of those. I definitely want to play it again. At least it didn’t bomb with everyone which was a real possibility. Ed won, but the scores were very close.

Kat ponders the work from her inbox during Ad Acta with Dan, Susan and Ed.

Ed's Ad Acta "desk" with lots of work sitting in his in box. Typical manager.

Ad Acta did me in for the evening but I was thrilled to not only get in six games today, but to also knock two off my unplayed list. There is hope yet!

A few of the other games played today:

The meaty, long game of the day, Die Macher. Paul, Mark, Jon and Mary plan their moves.

Mary teaches Three-Dragon Ante to Mark, Jon, Paul and Curt.

For more pictures from this gaming session and others, see our Gaming Picture Gallery.

Posted by susanroz at 4:13 PM | Comments (7)

Two New Reviews - Hey! That's My Fish! and Palatinus

by Susan Rozmiarek
Despite a busy month, I've managed to write a couple of reviews with a few more on the way:

This is a great little filler that is worth checking out.

 

 

daVinci Games publishes some very original games and this one is no exception. Unfortunately, it didn't click with me at all.

Clash of the Alien Rubium Miners

by Susan Rozmiarek
Our oldest son Kevin injured his ankle at a track meet, destroying our weekend plans which involved watching him playing soccer and going to the Austin Nature Center and on a little hike afterwards. This turn of events had a silver lining though, in that we were able to get loads of chores around the house done with some time left over to play a game. We chose one of the unplayed games on our shelves, Nexus Ops. Unfortunately, we couldn’t talk Shea into playing although he did provide us with up-to-the minute Academy Award updates.

Nexus Ops

When you open the Nexus Ops box, your nose is immediately assaulted by a strong chemical odor emanating from the figures that come with game. Despite the smell, these are pretty neat translucent minis of men and alien monsters in bright neon colors. I swear though, I expected us all to be “high” by the end the game. P-yew!

The game is a light, territorial wargame battling over rubium mines on a moon of a distant planet. At the start players explore the moon, flipping up chits on the hexes as they enter them, possibly revealing mines and free alien units to place on the board. Controlling the mines is important because they get you income to buy more units, but the game is won by earning 12 victory points from achieving secret missions and for winning battles over single hex spaces on the board. The secret missions include a variety of things like winning a battle with a certain type of unit surviving or controlling the most hexes of a particular terrain type, etc. You add a new secret mission card to your hand every turn, so you always have several to choose from. A neat thing balancing mechanism in the game is the Energize cards which can do all kinds of nice things when played – put a free unit on the board, add to die rolls, add extra movement to units, etc. The loser of a battle gets to draw one and you can also get them by controlling the central Monolith on the board. Combat is simple with creatures attacking in a certain order and with various chances of hitting, creating some important decisions when trying to set yourself up for success. The result is a game with LOTS of conflict and dice rolling because aggression is the only way to get victory points. Because of the short term nature of the secret missions, you often start battles that don’t seem to make sense for the long term, but actually may achieve a short term goal that gets you victory points.

I felt pretty unlucky at the start because I couldn’t discover any mines and was very cash-strapped the entire game. I was able to place several free Rock Striders and take control of the Monolith which I held for at least half of the game before being booted out by Ed’s fat Lava Leapers. Those Energize cards were the only thing that kept me in the game. Kevin and Ed both raked in big bucks every turn and built up good-sized armies. Kevin bought a few Rubium Dragons early which he mostly used to annoy Ed and to keep me from entering his territory. My poor men got tired of being on the receiving end of their bad breath. After having an early lead, I gradually fell behind. However, there was a big surprise ending. With both Ed and Kevin one turn from winning, Kevin fumbled a key die roll and lost a battle that would have won him the game. It was now my turn and I managed to come from behind and get four victory points thanks to some nice Energize cards and lucky die rolls. I had been trying to set myself up for this but I didn’t think I’d get the chance. We were all pretty stunned when I managed it. Talk about a close and balanced game! Anyway, it was (fairly) fast, furious and fun and I’d happily play it again.

Ed, Kevin and Susan play a nice "friendly" family game of Nexus Ops.

Ed's poor humans provide a tasty snack for Kevin's Rock Striders.

President's Day Gaming at Great Hall Games

by Susan Rozmiarek
I’ve gotten very behind on my blog posting in part due to a sore finger that made it difficult to type. Yes, that’s a real excuse; I’m telling the truth here! I now have several posts backlogged in my brain to make in the coming week if my memory cells hold up. I’ll give it my best shot.

First up is an afternoon of gaming at Great Hall Games on President’s Day. Marty was off from work and suggested it, and Mark, John and I were more than happy to take him up on his offer. Lauren came down during her lunch break to play a few games, and Ed even stopped by for a visit. I must say, Great Hall sure knows how to take care of their customers! They have expanded the gaming area into two good sized rooms with plenty of tables and chairs. They’ve painted the walls to recreate a “Great Hall” in a castle and it really looks cool. With lots of demo games, a clean bathroom, a vending machine and even a microwave, you probably won’t find a more comfortable public place to play games anywhere. I forgot to bring my camera so no pictures, but you can see a few of the facilities at Great Hall Game’s website.

Lexio

Mark brought this trick-taking game that uses very nice bakelite tiles similar in size and thickness to some of the Mah-jongg sets that I’ve seen. The game is a ladder climbing game, similar to Tichu, and I found it very difficult to grok. The main problem I had was the fact that “2” was the highest valued number, followed by “1” and then “15” on down to the lowest number, “3.” There was also a hierarchy of trump between the different suits. For some reason, I just couldn’t get used to this and so would look at my hand in confusion, unable to evaluate it. I think I only got the lead twice during the game and came in dead last. I am just getting to where I am somewhat confident playing Tichu, so I think that I’ll just stick with that and pass on the pretty, pretty Lexio tiles.

Hacienda

Next up was a second playing of Hacienda for me, and it is definitely a game that I can’t get enough of right now. And not just because I remain undefeated. :-) Fortunately there is a play-by-web version. The game reminds me a little of Ticket to Ride and is only a few notches up in complexity, making it a nice “gateway” game, I think. Unfortunately, this time around the game moved….way….too….slowly. One player seemed to have a hard time with the game and was asking a lot of questions. Toward the end, we were giving out advice to speed the game up, much to the irritation of Mark, who is opposed to such help. Actually, in theory, I am too but my patience limits had been reached and I wanted to get another game in before I had to leave. Regardless, I still enjoyed the game a lot and I want to try it on some new maps. I think it will get pretty boring eventually without some map variety. Also, while I was waiting for one of my turns I found a copy of Ice Lake on the clearance shelves for half off so that was nice.

Ostia

I enjoyed my first playing of this with a different group of players, but this time it fell flat and seemed rather dull. Okay, VERY dull. I’m not sure why. I guess there is really not all that much new in this game and it is too long and repetitive. Another frustrating thing for me was that everyone seemed rather confused with my rules explanation although I’m not sure how I could have explained it differently. Marty and Mark thought the ship card that divides your hand confusing and pretty useless although I only partly agree. Anyway, I guess I need to play it at least one more time to cement my opinion of it.