Monday, January 21, 2008
Games are on once more!
Well, after many, many months of failing to get any gaming going, I had been just glomming onto Rick's Game Night, the third Friday of each month. This is a GREAT, regular event, and it's much easier to latch onto a well-established, regular event someone else manages than to manage your own.
However, we are going to do the gaming thing again! This coming Sunday, January 27th, 2008, we will be gaming at the Borders on Six Forks Road and Strickland. Woo Hoo! Post a comment if you are interested.
However, we are going to do the gaming thing again! This coming Sunday, January 27th, 2008, we will be gaming at the Borders on Six Forks Road and Strickland. Woo Hoo! Post a comment if you are interested.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Game Session - March 3, 2007
The gaming did happen! A few folks were no-shows, some due to personal hardships and some just didn't show, or call, or answer their phone. Oh well. Life happens.
I was a tad late, and Sridhar and Andrew were finishing a game as I arrived. Trish arrived seconds before I did. Lunch was ordered (pizza), and we started out with an instructional demonstration of Pirates for the uninitiated: Andrew and Trish. That went well, but while I got my son set up with some videos and food (and a clean diaper), the rest, including Nita, play-tested a game Andrew is developing. I got a chance to play a bit and it shows a lot of promise, but needs a little tweaking for flow.
The first real game of the day was a five player round of Ticket to Ride. Some were new to it, and I think I may have shown a few folks a different side of myself than they had seen previously. I KNOW that I made at least one person angry and looking for revenge next time. Sorry about that, but it should keep things interesting for a while.
The next game we played was Puerto Rico. A lot has been said about this game, mostly positive, though not by me. I don't dislike the game, but I find that the complexity of the mechanics and the sheer number of different pieces to keep track of take away from the enjoyability of the game. I realize that there are probably quite detailed strategies that can be used, but only if all the players are well-versed in the mechanics and don't have to constantly refer back to the rules. The latter describes our little group accurately.
By the time we finished Puerto Rico, it was time to go. We had just enough people to make the games last, but not enough to break up into multiple game groups. I hope we can get more folks to show up next time. All present said that they had fun, and seemed interested in something a bit more regular. I hope that bears out.
I was a tad late, and Sridhar and Andrew were finishing a game as I arrived. Trish arrived seconds before I did. Lunch was ordered (pizza), and we started out with an instructional demonstration of Pirates for the uninitiated: Andrew and Trish. That went well, but while I got my son set up with some videos and food (and a clean diaper), the rest, including Nita, play-tested a game Andrew is developing. I got a chance to play a bit and it shows a lot of promise, but needs a little tweaking for flow.
The first real game of the day was a five player round of Ticket to Ride. Some were new to it, and I think I may have shown a few folks a different side of myself than they had seen previously. I KNOW that I made at least one person angry and looking for revenge next time. Sorry about that, but it should keep things interesting for a while.
The next game we played was Puerto Rico. A lot has been said about this game, mostly positive, though not by me. I don't dislike the game, but I find that the complexity of the mechanics and the sheer number of different pieces to keep track of take away from the enjoyability of the game. I realize that there are probably quite detailed strategies that can be used, but only if all the players are well-versed in the mechanics and don't have to constantly refer back to the rules. The latter describes our little group accurately.
By the time we finished Puerto Rico, it was time to go. We had just enough people to make the games last, but not enough to break up into multiple game groups. I hope we can get more folks to show up next time. All present said that they had fun, and seemed interested in something a bit more regular. I hope that bears out.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Gaming off for the 24th
We've had a death in the family as well as multiple illnesses. As a result, the day of gaming has been rescheduled for March 3rd. Same location. Hope nothing else comes up and lots of people can show up to play.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Next Session Set for February!
Plans are afoot for a new gaming session in late February. The weekend of the 24th is the current target. Gaming will be hosted at Sridhar's house. I will send directions out to interested parties. Please leave me a comment and let me know. We would obviously like as large a crowd as we can handle - at least enough to have multiple 3- or 4-player games running simultaneously.
The list of games will include (but not be limited to):
Clans
Robo Rally (original and reprint boards as well as Crash & Burn)
Carcassonne (with pretty much all the expansions)
Puerto Rico
Ticket to Ride (with USA 1910 expansion)
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Gardens of Alhambra
Vino
Mama Mia!
Bohnanza (with Bohnaparte expansion)
Kung-Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island
Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom
Settlers of Catan (with Seafarers of Catan expansion)
and...
At least one cribbage board with cards
At least 2 people with WizKids Games' Pirates CSG equipment
Whatever new games people bring (Show up! Bring games!)
The list of games will include (but not be limited to):
Clans
Robo Rally (original and reprint boards as well as Crash & Burn)
Carcassonne (with pretty much all the expansions)
Puerto Rico
Ticket to Ride (with USA 1910 expansion)
Ticket to Ride: Europe
Gardens of Alhambra
Vino
Mama Mia!
Bohnanza (with Bohnaparte expansion)
Kung-Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island
Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom
Settlers of Catan (with Seafarers of Catan expansion)
and...
At least one cribbage board with cards
At least 2 people with WizKids Games' Pirates CSG equipment
Whatever new games people bring (Show up! Bring games!)
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!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Gaming begins again! 01/07/2007
Well, after a significant dry period, we were finally able to play some games last weekend. Some old friends resurfaced and dropped by the Borders to play games and catch up on things. Bart showed up first, and while he and I waited on the rest, I showed him Pirates.
Pirates
Pirates is an interesting collectible game I was shown the day before at a local game shop. I've avoided collectible card games (CCGs) such as Magic The Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and numerous others primarily because I feel as though these games encourage players to spend more to play better. I don't like the idea that someone can spend their way to a win. Pirates is somewhat different, I feel, because while it is still true that people can go to eBay and buy individual rare or very rare equipment (typical Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare distribution applies), Pirates includes enough in a single pack for two people to play a minimal, but still entertaining game.
The series that have been released thus far are as follows:
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Pirates of the Crimson Coast (added forts)
Pirates of the Revolution (added events)
Pirates of the Barbary Coast (added Barbary Corsairs)
Pirates of the South China Seas (added Chinese Junks)
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse (added Sea Monsters)
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands (added Mysterious Islands - islands with random events/actions that occur when explored, Mercenaries)
Pirates is a collectible card game, but the cards aren't played as cards. I'll explain that for the unfamiliar. Pirates is described by the maker (WizKids Games - the makers of HeroClix) as a Constructible Strategy Game (CSG). Constructible comes from the fact that each card either contains pieces of a ship, an island, treasure, or crew, and the pieces of the ships are assembled
so that they can be used in a miniatures type of game. Some ships are larger than others. Some only take a single card, upon which is detailed the name of the vessel and vital information such as the number of masts, the number and range of cannons, speed/move range (range for both is shown in terms of S or L - S meaning the white short side of the card, and L meaning the red long side of the card), and any special abilities or properties that the ship has or bestows. For larger ships, all of the vital details are still on one card, but the others (some ships take 2 cards, some take 3) only have pieces. Each pack contains a minimum of two ships, at least one crew, at least one card with treasure, an island, rules, and a tiny little die. I've seen smaller dice, but not many. They are small enough that I will likely get more practically sized dice later one, but for now they are just fine. The early series used black dice, but later series used brown, green, and red.
The strategy comes from using these details to the player's advantage while trying to explore islands and gather treasure. It may be that during the course of exploring or gathering treasure, that another player's will use some or all of his or her ships to attack. Ships don't attack islands, but rather one another's ships. Some series contain a fort or sea monster in lieu of one of the ships in a given pack, but as yet I have not seen any of those.
The demonstration went well, and while Bart was intrigued, he did not seem overly taken with the game, unlike Sridhar was when I showed him. I will post my rating of Pirates after I have had a chance to play a bit more. Too soon to tell for now.
So, with the demo over, Bart and I continued to wait for the rest of the group to show up. We played a round of Carcassonne. We used the Cities and Cathedrals expansion, but that was it. We weren't certain how long we would have to wait for more people and didn't want to keep them waiting as we finished up the game.
Once Heather and Barbie showed up, we moved on to Ticket to Ride for four. Bart had to leave after the game was finished, so the ladies and I played a round of Clans, followed by a round of Carcassonne with Cities and Cathedrals. Unfortunately, that was all we got to do
because Heather and Barbie had to leave. So ends another gaming session.
Pirates
Pirates is an interesting collectible game I was shown the day before at a local game shop. I've avoided collectible card games (CCGs) such as Magic The Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and numerous others primarily because I feel as though these games encourage players to spend more to play better. I don't like the idea that someone can spend their way to a win. Pirates is somewhat different, I feel, because while it is still true that people can go to eBay and buy individual rare or very rare equipment (typical Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare distribution applies), Pirates includes enough in a single pack for two people to play a minimal, but still entertaining game.
The series that have been released thus far are as follows:
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Pirates of the Crimson Coast (added forts)
Pirates of the Revolution (added events)
Pirates of the Barbary Coast (added Barbary Corsairs)
Pirates of the South China Seas (added Chinese Junks)
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse (added Sea Monsters)
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands (added Mysterious Islands - islands with random events/actions that occur when explored, Mercenaries)
Pirates is a collectible card game, but the cards aren't played as cards. I'll explain that for the unfamiliar. Pirates is described by the maker (WizKids Games - the makers of HeroClix) as a Constructible Strategy Game (CSG). Constructible comes from the fact that each card either contains pieces of a ship, an island, treasure, or crew, and the pieces of the ships are assembled
so that they can be used in a miniatures type of game. Some ships are larger than others. Some only take a single card, upon which is detailed the name of the vessel and vital information such as the number of masts, the number and range of cannons, speed/move range (range for both is shown in terms of S or L - S meaning the white short side of the card, and L meaning the red long side of the card), and any special abilities or properties that the ship has or bestows. For larger ships, all of the vital details are still on one card, but the others (some ships take 2 cards, some take 3) only have pieces. Each pack contains a minimum of two ships, at least one crew, at least one card with treasure, an island, rules, and a tiny little die. I've seen smaller dice, but not many. They are small enough that I will likely get more practically sized dice later one, but for now they are just fine. The early series used black dice, but later series used brown, green, and red.
The strategy comes from using these details to the player's advantage while trying to explore islands and gather treasure. It may be that during the course of exploring or gathering treasure, that another player's will use some or all of his or her ships to attack. Ships don't attack islands, but rather one another's ships. Some series contain a fort or sea monster in lieu of one of the ships in a given pack, but as yet I have not seen any of those.
The demonstration went well, and while Bart was intrigued, he did not seem overly taken with the game, unlike Sridhar was when I showed him. I will post my rating of Pirates after I have had a chance to play a bit more. Too soon to tell for now.
So, with the demo over, Bart and I continued to wait for the rest of the group to show up. We played a round of Carcassonne. We used the Cities and Cathedrals expansion, but that was it. We weren't certain how long we would have to wait for more people and didn't want to keep them waiting as we finished up the game.
Once Heather and Barbie showed up, we moved on to Ticket to Ride for four. Bart had to leave after the game was finished, so the ladies and I played a round of Clans, followed by a round of Carcassonne with Cities and Cathedrals. Unfortunately, that was all we got to do
because Heather and Barbie had to leave. So ends another gaming session.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
No Updates - What's up?
Well, if there is anyone actually checking out this blog, you will have noticed that there has been a distinct lack of updates for the last couple of months. If you enjoy this blog, you may be wondering if it died or if I decided to stop updating it. Thankfully, neither is true. Life has simply gotten in the way, as it is wont to do.
Work has been exceptionally busy since this summer and as a result, we have not been able to do much (read "any") gaming. There was a death in my family, and we are still trying to handle all the gorp that goes along with such an occurrance. The net of all that is that gaming has simply had to take a back seat. I'm hoping to break through the interference, but alas, it looks like that may not happen until October, possibly later.
I will try to review a couple more games (possibly online versions), when time permits, and I will certainly do my best to find the time to take a break and actually play some games. Until then, however, keep checking back. I don't plan on giving up on this blog... at least not yet.
Work has been exceptionally busy since this summer and as a result, we have not been able to do much (read "any") gaming. There was a death in my family, and we are still trying to handle all the gorp that goes along with such an occurrance. The net of all that is that gaming has simply had to take a back seat. I'm hoping to break through the interference, but alas, it looks like that may not happen until October, possibly later.
I will try to review a couple more games (possibly online versions), when time permits, and I will certainly do my best to find the time to take a break and actually play some games. Until then, however, keep checking back. I don't plan on giving up on this blog... at least not yet.
