M:I've been dreading this day. Your father isn't coming home.
S: Why mommy?
M: You remember when your brother entered the church to become a friar?
S: Yes.
M: Well, in exchange of your brothers admittance, we had to take a plague cube. Your father happened to be of the first generation and since time drifted past the bridge, he choose to sacrifice himself.
S:sobs
M: But don't feel to sad, he will always be remembered in the village chronicle.
S: So
M: Ummmmmm.......
Pirate Fluxx
I got a bit forgetful this month and missed taking some pictures of a few games. Sorry.
While waiting for other to show up, Rhonda suggested killing time with Pirate Fluxx. I was surprised a few of the players had never played Fluxx. The rules are so simple that we started playing after a brief overview. At one point, we had to talk like pirates to draw extra cards and Rhonda got the Captain's Hat and we could only refer to her as Cap'ian. The game ended quickly as a forced goal play caused another player to win.
Fluxx will always be a humorous distraction to me and with all the various themes, there is surely a Fluxx for you.
Playtime with rule explanation = 15 minutes
Shawn-Won; Chris,Rhonda,Zach,Jerry and Kearn-Lost
Maharani
Maharani was taught to Chris and I by teacher extraordinaire, Tom. The game is just a simple tile laying game where you score points for your meeples and tiles. In the begining, the game was very close point wise as each of us looked for the optimal play with the available tiles. As you can see above in the picture, I (yellow) started off placing tiles in the area closest to me. I was so focused on majority in that area, I missed placing any tiles or workers in the quadrant directly above.
Once I figured out my folly, I tried to work my way into the other areas of the board. Unfortunately, I was too late and Chris ran away with the remainder of the game. I did manage a narrow finish in second but a whopping 20+ points behind first. So what did I think of my first play? I liked it. The whole time I was playing, I kept thinking my wife would really like it. There is tile placement and meeples which are similar to her favorite Carcassonne.
I really enjoyed the wheel which changed the orientation of the tiles. You had to decide to place the tile as is in the quadrant it was adjacent too or use one of your 4 coins to place it in a different quadrant or forgo a meeple and turn the tile in a different direction. Maharani is an enjoyable quick light game that looks spectacular when it is finished. I can see this being a good couples game and I will report how it plays with two in the future.
Playtime with rule explanation = 1 hour
Chris-98,Tom-69,Kearn-76
The Resistance
Zach talked all of us into trying a game of the Resistance. I had always been curious about the game and was eager to try it. The rules are simple but the the meta game, Whoa! The tension was almost instantaneous as every one eyed each other. The first mission went off without a hitch, the second had a fail. What!?! We had a spy. Now the fun revved up, new people were choosen and failed. Then another fail, the third try passed and the assembled team went on the mission. Another fail card!
I was the last to pick the team and I thought I had it all figured out. Wrong! I drafted the two spies and we lost. NOOOOOOOOO! The game was fun and strangely addicting. I enjoyed trying to deduct the spies by watching for tells.
Playtime with rule explanation = 30 minutes
Shawn and Rhonda-Won; Zach,Jerry,Chris and Kearn-Lost
Alien Frontiers
More people finally arrived and I joined Eric and his son Liam for a friendly game of Alien Frontiers. Pairs eluded me for several turns, so I started collecting ore and alien tech cards. A few nice dice manipulators and I was on my way to adding more dice. I have a particular pattern of colony spaces I prefer to grab. Liam preferred to pick on his father which I tried to take advantage of but Eric is just too crafty of a player.
I managed to take a lead in points and solidified my controlling interest in certain territories. I was about one turn away from winning when Liam played his last colony sooner than I thought he would and instead winning himself. Alien Frontiers is not for people who like little to no interaction. You will be constantly cursing your opponents names as they block out space stations you need. I personally love sweating out where to put my dice each turn.
Playtime with rule explanation = 60 minutes
Liam-10,Eric-9,Kearn-8
Defenders of the Realm
After last months play of Defenders, I wanted to try again now that I understood what we did wrong. The game started off slow with none of the generals moving and minor minion placement. We kept the minions in check and each of us kept going for rumors at the inns. Sapphire moved twice is a row and several minions tainted several locations. The easy manageable game became a nightmare. Eric and I fought Sapphire and defeated him but emptied our hands of our cards. Liam cleaned up a few minions that looked menacing and once again the board looked manageable.
Balazarg fell next and we were on our way to fighting Gorgutt after a recharge of cards at an inn. Then the bad luck sunk in. One location became overrun and a chain reaction of minions and tainted land ended our run for victory. The game was more challenging this time but I still think it is manageable with the right characters and of course good dice rolls. I am not burned out on co-ops yet and Defenders is a solid game with great retro art.
Playtime with rule explanation = 100 minutes
Eric,Liam and Kearn - Lost; The evil - Win
The Speicherstadt
I had become the odd man out and was waiting for two 5 player games to finish. Thankfully I was waiting long as 2 new people showed up and we decided to play a shorter game while waiting for the others to finish. The Speicherstadt fit the bill. Ken (owner of the game) taught us the rules and we started bidding. I had a simple strategy, I wanted to stay competitive with firemen and avoid the negative points when the fire cards showed up. My second goal was to make everyone else pay more if they really wanted the cards for auction.
For those of you unfamiliar with Speicherstadt, there are cards with show firemen, shipps with goods, contracts and buildings. You use your meeples to bid by placing the meeple above the card you want. When everyone is done, the auction begins. The price you pay is equal to the number of meeples on the location. You either pay the price or pass, once passed the next player gets to decide. This continues until all the cards are resolved and then a new set comes out. Watch out for the fire cards, too few firemen and you take negative points. Goods on ships are used to fulfill contracts which are worth victory points at the games end.
Back to our game, Ken and Bill always seemed to have more money than me, but a few key cards slipped into my hands at low prices. The auctions were tight and from my point of view, we all seemed evenly matched for endgame points. The game ends with the last fire card and Bill and I scored our points while Ken suffered the negative points. Points were added up and we ended in a tie. I had more money left over and won the tiebreaker. I played Speicherstadt before and enjoy its simple mechanisms. The real fun is in the placement of your meeples and driving the prices higher for your opponents.
Playtime with rule explanation = 35 minutes
Ken-31,Bill-25,Kearn-31
Village
Our final selection of the night was the Village. I have been curious about the game since I watched an Essen video about it. Tom taught us the rules and it seemed pretty straightforward. The game seemed to be like many other worker placement style games. The main difference would be the time element and the numbers on the meeples. I started off placing a worker at the wedding and adding more workers to the farm. It always seems to me, that more workers are a must. I am not 100% sure if they are as necessary in the Village.
The game moved right along with everyone gathering cubes and goods. I focused on the Church and marketplace storing up VP chits for the endgame. I also kept sacrificing my meeples at key moments to fill the book and hopefully score lots of points in the end. What I failed to do was use the Travel section of the board. A grave mistake since there are lots of points to be made up there. Tom and Ken seemed to be doing good most of the game while Bill and I seemed to be chasing them all game. It ended close with Tom scoring the most points.
Overall, the Village doesn't change to much from the typical worker placement model of games. The generational aspect of the game makes for some interesting choices of when to sacrifice or keep them for a life cycle longer. Also this has to be the first euro game with workers I have played where food is of little to no importance. Your choices are plenty which means multiple paths to victory and repeated plays.
Playtime with rule explanation = 95 minutes
Ken-53,Bill-29,Tom-54,Kearn-46
The End
We had competition this week from MichCon, but still managed to have a nice turnout. Other games played were Innovation, Core Worlds x2, Black Gold, Natulius and Pret-a-Port. Until next month, keep gaming and remember to have fun.
