Game Day

Had a rousing, spur-of-the-moment Settlers of Cataan game with the guys. V, LI, BL, and KM were there. My strategy backfired and the dice failed to land on my numbers.. maybe fail isn’t the right word. Refused? For whatever the reason BL and I were the paupers of the board. Perhaps it was too humid and late for the dice to cooperate. In the end it came down to a sudden death play between LI and V for the win. LI would have had it with a largest army play but V managed to scoop the card up the turn before. In the end I , uh, well, threw the game to bring it to a close just before Midnight on Sunday evening. It only took trading LI for a coal resource so he could upgrade a city. Sorry – my bad. The residents of Cataan thanked me later because they had to plow the fields early Monday morning.

Note to self: Invite Mr. MA (emphasize the Mr. because there is a Mrs. MA too).

It was a dark and foreboding weekend in the land of New Jersey. Four bachelors, strike that, Three bachelors and a married dude gathered together in my bachelor pad to quest through the regions of Talisman in to gain the crown of power.

As with all my Talisman games, despite additional starting craft and a reduced craft/strength modifier, the game was slow in the beginning but then after a couple upsetting character deaths (like mine *grin*) it became interesting and ended in a glorious dash to the finish.

AM, BL, LI, and I were in attendance. LI suspended his character half-way through and BL swooped in the for the close win.

Carcassonne reminds me of Transport Tycoon Deluxe, I can’t say exactly why but I think it has to do with the geometry of the pieces and how everything fits together. Maybe I should introduce my friends to OpenTTD… hmmm…

Getting back to the game, it is a cross between The Settlers of Catan and Drakon. The board unfolds with each players turn to generate scoring opportunities. You have a chance to subtly coerce your fellow players and interact with them to make the game more interesting.

We played at the T’s place, RT, CT, and AM where there.

It is a fun game that I’d like to bring home during the holidays to play with my family. Not as intense as Risk or Monopoly but yet has a fun edge so even if you don’t try to over analyze each move you still feel like something was accomplished after each rotation.

Alhambra is a board game with the goal of building the best palace. Game play is fairly straight forward, the primary actions are; pickup coin, buy palace piece, or re-arrange existing palace piece. Each player has their own palace and the goal is to score the most points by having the most palace pieces of a specific designation. There are various rules about how the palace can be constructed which increase the level of complexity. The game is broke up into 2 scoring rounds with a final scoring round when all the palace pieces are in play.

Within 90 minutes we were taught the rules and had a very fulfilling first game.  By chance I did win but I assure you that has no bearing on my appreciation for the game *wink*. My only complaint is that it was perhaps too isolated between players. The only direct interaction between players in the game is when players are deciding what palace pieces to buy.

The game reminds me of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects but with less confusion.

In attendance was AM (game leader), RT, CT, and me.  It didn’t take long to grasp the finer points of palace construction but unfortunately the first game resulted in several gee-I-won’t-build-like-that-again moments. CT scored big in the end with a wicked long wall. RT was well rounded but stuck with several unusable pieces at the end of the game. AM had a fierce palace with some intricate but useless internal palace walls that tripped him up.  My green pieces and modest outside wall were decent scoring each round.

It lacks the fierce competition of a game like risk or the fun frivolous player interactions between turns but it is a decent family game worth playing.

Today was the day Drakon came out of her box! It was my first attempt to get some of my friends hooked on a game that has been a lot of fun for me. To sweeten the deal I cooked lunch. The afternoon was rainy and overcast so it was a perfect day to be indoors.

Have my friends warmed up to Drakon? I’m not sure, it will take another game to find out. LI, BL, VG and I were in attendance. The victory was almost mine until BL tripped me up which paved a way for LI to sneak in with the win. Beginners luck, this time :)