Sunday, January 14, 2007
A Swashbuckling Afternoon! 01/14/2007
Well, today's session again had fewer players than we had hoped, but it was still fun. I ventured to Sridhar's house for an afternoon of Pirates. Bart was tentative, and Andrew had said he might stop by, depending on the weather. Unfortunately for the gaming, the weather was wonderful, so he ended up having to do some painting. Maybe next time we'll get more to show up. I am aware how often I say that.
We played three games with varying parameters. The first game pitted my 63 point Pirate fleet against Sridhar's British. Sridhar learned a hard lesson about island placement when he placed my home island smack dab in the center of several treasure-laden islands, while I placed his home island 3S or so farther away than the farthest island. I got enough gold back home to win the game rather quickly.
The second game was my American ships and crew against a slightly modified version of Sridhar's previous British fleet. He used fewer crew and added a ship to his previous fleet. This time island placement was much more equitable. In the end, I won again, largely because I sent a pair of ships, including my most powerful warship, to attack and guard his home island. This whittled away at his ships and prevented him from delivering any booty home.
The last round was the longest. I reduced the number of ships I had deployed in favor of adding a few more crew (I kept thinking I had a Captain, but I haven't gotten any American Captains yet) which turned out to be less useful than I had hoped. Sridhar won the game, but not until after I had captured two of his ships and looted much of the treasure he was ferrying back to his home island. He got some good treasure draws, and I didn't take advantage and scuttle one of his ships when I should have. When he ferried the derelict ship back home, it dropped off its cargo and the game was his. Each of the first two rounds took an hour, more or less, but the last round took nearly three hours to finish.
Now that I have had some time to play Pirates properly, with sufficient variations to give me enough data for an initial review, considering that additional series are already announced and many features of the current series are still to be found by me, I have to say that Pirates rates 4 out of 5 pawns. The costs associated with a collectible game drop its rating a bit, but I REALLY like it so far.
With the afternoon dwindling away to evening, we finished up the day with a game of Ticket to Ride with Sridhar's wife and a friend/neighbor of theirs who dropped by. I won the game an the neighbor came in second, despite it having been his first time playing.
We decided to try again the last weekend in February. We hope to play lots of different games, at least one round of Pirates, and we also hope to have more people. I plan to start hitting folks up for a commitment as soon as I see them. Wish us luck!
We played three games with varying parameters. The first game pitted my 63 point Pirate fleet against Sridhar's British. Sridhar learned a hard lesson about island placement when he placed my home island smack dab in the center of several treasure-laden islands, while I placed his home island 3S or so farther away than the farthest island. I got enough gold back home to win the game rather quickly.
The second game was my American ships and crew against a slightly modified version of Sridhar's previous British fleet. He used fewer crew and added a ship to his previous fleet. This time island placement was much more equitable. In the end, I won again, largely because I sent a pair of ships, including my most powerful warship, to attack and guard his home island. This whittled away at his ships and prevented him from delivering any booty home.
The last round was the longest. I reduced the number of ships I had deployed in favor of adding a few more crew (I kept thinking I had a Captain, but I haven't gotten any American Captains yet) which turned out to be less useful than I had hoped. Sridhar won the game, but not until after I had captured two of his ships and looted much of the treasure he was ferrying back to his home island. He got some good treasure draws, and I didn't take advantage and scuttle one of his ships when I should have. When he ferried the derelict ship back home, it dropped off its cargo and the game was his. Each of the first two rounds took an hour, more or less, but the last round took nearly three hours to finish.
Now that I have had some time to play Pirates properly, with sufficient variations to give me enough data for an initial review, considering that additional series are already announced and many features of the current series are still to be found by me, I have to say that Pirates rates 4 out of 5 pawns. The costs associated with a collectible game drop its rating a bit, but I REALLY like it so far.
With the afternoon dwindling away to evening, we finished up the day with a game of Ticket to Ride with Sridhar's wife and a friend/neighbor of theirs who dropped by. I won the game an the neighbor came in second, despite it having been his first time playing.
We decided to try again the last weekend in February. We hope to play lots of different games, at least one round of Pirates, and we also hope to have more people. I plan to start hitting folks up for a commitment as soon as I see them. Wish us luck!
