by Steph
In case you missed the others:
First weekend:
Off to Canada! Gaming with Mina @ Board Game Bliss! O Canada!!!!!! - andalittleconcalledthegatheringoffriends *** Photos!*****
Second part:
THE GATHERING PART II! SO MANY AMAZING GAMESSSSSSSSS. It Started last week- Zombie Steph Still Writes Blog after a WEEK of 24/7 gaming!
To finish up this epic week- Thursday morning I really wanted to try the Oceanos game again and teach a bunch of players. The Iello guys weren't around yet but I thought I could teach without issue. The rules were in French so that didn't help since there were a few clarifications. See the last post for the better review.
We did ok when we played 5p. I made one mistake In that the start player should always get 2 cards to choose from when it is their turn minimum.so Adam was going first last and everyone used their last fuel cards to hold them. It was my mistake, but I asked the guys later about that and he was supposed to draw up to two.
It was somewhat a rough start but it played quickly and everyone seemed to enjoy it. It really is just a 30 minute game when people get into it. It is very nice.
I made sure to up my fuel faster this game so I could keep more cards in the round. I did t worry so much about the fish as I had the first time. I tried to boost my general income of points too, but that wasn't as good as I had hoped.
I am thinking the more cards is the weakest of the parts to upgrade but I am unsure. Ron clearly destroyed us I this game. He had a huge collection of coral and a bunch of treasures to collect. I feel like I was last I this game as well since I just could get the cards I had needed but that is fine! Fast card games are great. I really enjoyed it.
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The next game on the table was another Iello game called Tem-Purr-A. New to me!
This was an adorable game I saw in their catalog and I knew Scott would have to play it. I showed m and he was super excited to try the cute cat game. It is really push you luck card game for a whole bunch of players. We played with 6 and it was good for a few laughs.
When it gets to your turn you have to play the matching car don't he stack or an action card that move it along to the next player. If you can't do that the. You can discard two cards that are the same from your hand to change discard the stack and start a new stack or you will count the numbers in the stack and draw that many cards for your hand. If you get the indigestion card then You take a token. More indigestion cards are added to the stack and everything is shuffled. The deck gets super small and crazy amounts of indigestion cards are present. First to 3 tokens loses.
I collected 2 pretty quickly and same with me and Ron. We were all on the same side of the table and needed to get it back to the other side of the table for some tokens. It didn't work out so much since Adam got a 3rd token pretty quick and the game was over.
I can't say I loved it but I didn't mind it. Not really thinking I will play it again but it is super cutes!!
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Scott had picked up a few years old Haba game called Tier auf Tier: Jetzt geht's rund!. New to me!
This is animal upon animal but you have to balance the. Rotate the board! It was super hard and not very balanced. We were playing with the ball bottom so it was super hard. With the flat bottom it will be more stable so I think.
We draft out starting animals and you want to be the first one to get them all placed. I don't know how Riley doesn't own this game yet but he should. It was great fun!
I totally lost. I nearly had it but I messed it up in the final animal. I let Bill win. How did I do that!! Totally screwed up.
I really enjoyed it and Scott got it super cheap. I am so jealous. Great game.
courtesy of Scott F
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I wanted to play a game with Will and Lexi so I suggested Happy Pigs. New to me!
How hard could it be? :P It was on the Iello stack. I guess it was a remake of the Chinese edition from 2013.
This is a very cute game. You are trying to collect, reproduce, grow your pigs so you can sell them off for top dollar. You want to have the most money at the end of the game. It is simultaneous selection and you know those are my favorite! I fell right in tune with this game. I didn't win but I understood it.
Only after half way through did they say all pigs would be sold at market value at the end of the game. I was try to just sell them off- I didn't know they would all just sell at the end. My mistake, I suppose. I was picking all of my actions that others were not. Ron and Lexi were "on the same schedule"- and Will was just taking command with his farm.
So at the end of each season- Which is turns = to number of players, I believe, you have to have all of your pigs vaccinated. If they are not, then they will die. :( If you hadn't sold them off by that point you had to keep them alive by vaccinating them. Mina commented that she didn't like that but if she played her cards right then she might not have to vaccinate them. Never know!
I found this game charming and I might have to get a copy. It has a lot of the features I like in it. Each season provides a different "benefit/penalty" which might mean the market value increases or decreases. Or if you have all types of pigs you get rewarded. It will be somewhat predictable once you play a few times but it won't be the same game. I really enjoy the simultaneous actions- one of my favs!
I ended up not winning- I don't think I lost either! I am pretty sure Will ran away with the game. We got a bit sidetracked half way through to go and wait in line for free bits! But we came back and finished. I think otherwise the game would move quick and nice. Might have to go on my wishlist!
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Since I promised Scott he said he was reading the rules to Mount Pingo. New to me!
As it turned out he was NOT reading the rules but assembling the game... mmhmm so I had to read the rules. How did I get stuck reading the rules? At least the rules were only 3 pages. It is a very simple dexterity game.
You draw a card from your stack and place it accordingly. The picture might be a seagull so you have to place the card board seagull on the floe. if it has baby penguins then you have to place in front of mama penguin. All the cards do different things.
If on your turn you make any cards fall off the flow you take them for negative points. I asked Larry to join us, little did he know that it was a dexterity game. He wasn't too excited about that. But he still played. He thought he was losing but I mad a HUGE error in judgement and made the whole thing topple over. FAIL!
So I was the epic loser. I think Scott might have won with no cards left and fewest cards fallen. I definitely lost though.
It was wicked adorable and the penguins are so cute. Fun little game!
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Ron and I got some lunch after and when we came back we were ready for a heavier game! I suggested we play Brew Crafters.
Ron was setting up and I was trying to recruit players. I managed to wrangle some in and I had Ron explain he rules. We also played with the local partnership moving to the other space vs the space for start player. It took a few turns but the new guys picked it up pretty quickly what they should be doing.
One guy was a complete start up spending money for buildings and helpers where he probably shouldn't have been. it didn't quite pay off for him. I was too focused on my techs that I didn't really make much brewing happen. I was going for big points in the batches and less so on the amount I was doing. I ended up getting a lot made but it wasn't enough to beat the Ron.
Ron's memory was he got around 82 and I was sitting around 70 and the other guys were less. This game does benefit from more plays. Ron still has played less times than me so maybe you just get better after the first play? Unless you are me. :D haha
This is such a great game! I can't wait to start playing with all of the extra bits and alternate set ups. I was so super fortunate to pick it up from the prize table this year and it is signed! :D Woohooo!! It was mine and Ron's first pick since we knew it would get played in our house. We both very much enjoy the game.
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Since we had a Tichu player at the table we tried to find a 4th for a game of Tichu! The Gathering is full of Tichu players it was awesome to see the game played so much. My only regret is that I didn't get to play it more!
We recruited a lady who was pretty newish to the game and didn't recall most of the rules. She was slow going but ended up playing well enough. We made Ron be her partner and help her along.
the game lasted longer than I might have liked but we still ended up winning the game. I got set once on the first hand- it was a rocky start but we ended up getting a whole bunch of great hands after it. The general problem where we call and then only make 105 points for the round. That seems to happen to me a lot! Need more points in game. That is something I have to work on. See the 10's eat them up.
My team ended up winning that game. Woohoo!! I was on a serious roll. that is like 3 games of Tichu in a row that I have won. I rock! Everyone should want to be my partner. Get in line!
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Next up I sat down to play with new friends Jasen and Michael and they taught me and another a game called Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße. New to me!
This is a card game with A LOT of text. Thankfully this game was totally upgraded to English. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to make this game in English, since it doesn't exist. I guess someone had posted files online of the cards with English text and this copy had nice quality cards printed for the purpose of having them in English. That is a full upgrade. It was nicely done!
this is a hand management deck building game. You essentially have 3 stacks/decks of cards that you are playing from when it is your turn. On your turn you choose the bottom most card in your stack and do the action. If the action in in red then you trash the card from your stack out of the game. If it is not in red then the card then moves to top of that stack. You goal is to get 25 points before anyone else can.
Points might come on the cards you get. You might use your resources to buy the cards from the center- but you have to find the correct action to get them. It can be quite a challenge to make it all work in your favor and get the cards you need.
There were some attack cards, which Michael put in since he likes a little take that in his games. I guess they could have been optional. I found them ok- but I was already losing a whole lot! I kept taking away everyone's gold. Mwahaha
It was an interesting game. I was having a very hard time getting an engine going. It was Super hard to buy any of the contracts on display. I eventually got a farmer that lets me gamble to try and get some wheat fields. It worked 1/2 times I got to try so I got a point from that.
It was a neat game and I would play again. I did manage to get up around 18 points by the end but I was still so far away from actually getting to 25 points. Jasen and Michael totally destroyed us newbies. Got owned! I would definitely play it again! Maybe I would do better next time... I would hope so!
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When I got back from eating I found Joe H and Michael about to play a game of Factory Funner. New to me!
Since I joined in on the KS for this one I was happy to try it. I have played the father game Factory Fun before and I heard it was quite similar. The differences only make it better in my eyes. The major difference that I can recall is that you can not move around the machine pieces once you place them. This allows you to just play the game and not recalculate everything all of the time. I get that it is fun for some gamers to do that. But when I want a 30 minutes puzzle game Factory Funner is a great fit.
My 3p game of Factory Fun lasted double the time since I was trying to figure out what to change and what not to change and it just overstayed its welcome. This is just the same without the recalculating. You just have to best optimize your options at the time of placement and that is it.
Very cool game. I was having a hard time even seeing the possibilities. I can't wait to test the waters against Ron in 2p mode. Should be quite interesting.
In our game this time was pretty challenging for me though. I still managed to make direct connections and I did ok. I still lost but the span of final scores was only like 10-15 points and I still managed to get 25 points. I was happy with that. I love all the bright colors and the updated graphics. I think it is fun and clever. I can't wait to get my copy so I can start playing!!
Really cool game.
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Since it was there and Joe was waiting around for another gamer to show up I convinced him to play a round of Animals on Board. I had Ron teach him the rules- cause why not.
I guess we weren't clear with a rule that you have to feed each animal you take when you take a group of animals. But, he was able to adjust and score super huge points. Joe managed to get a bunch of 5s and 2 sets of animals.
This game is adorable and wicked easy to play. The box is a bit big for the game itself but I would still play it anytime. It was a close match. I knew I wasn't doing very well when I only got one set of 4. Ron had 2 sets of 3 and Joe had 2 sets of 5 with better numbers around it.
Grr! I want to play again- I know I can outwit them. :P Cute clever game. Easy to pick up and play.
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After that I saw Ignacy demoing a game called Crazy Karts. New to me!
The table was almost done and I asked Ignacy if he would demo the game for me. He said get some more people in even number and come back. So I found 5 others and teamed up with Ron for this super fun racing game.
I hadn't heard much about it other than what Scott told me about it being pairs and working on racing through the board to try and get first place.
There are 2 rounds the "easy" first level and the "harder" second level. Lots of traps to work through and you might collect damage which will slow you down. In the game you nd your partner are working together to drive a race cart through the course. One is working on the speed of the card and how fast and far to accelerate and the other is working on how to power up and turn the cart.
It is a high speed game but not quite real time except when planning your hidden moves. You can not talk with your partner and just have to trust they will do the right thing.
It is a pretty exciting game. never really knowing what will happen. Another team might pull you backwards or push you into danger. You want to get initiative so you can do you move correctly. Each team has a unique power they can abuse to their benefit. It is a fantastically fun game and I can see a lot of gaming groups loving this.
I was excited we found 6 players. I think this works well with a big group of players. 8 players would even be hilarious still since it would be 4 teams racing. If you are at 4 players an d2 teams it might get kinda *shrug* but when there are more teams you are in for a whirlwind ride. It is a fast 45 minute game and it will be over before you blink.
In our game Ron was the gears and I was power ups and turning. we were in second when the first round of the race finished. We had a slow start to the second round but picked it up. We managed to screw up the other teams enough where we COULD HAVE won! Ron didn't think I could get enough initiative to go first BUT I DID! He didn't give us enough acceleration to cross the finish line though. He put no cards there! Really!?!?! We could have won!!! What was he thinking! Worst partner ever :P
We so had that win. That loss was totally on Ron. I did everything correctly to win! :shake:
Tons of laughs and so much fun- I know this will be a hit is many households. Very cool game.
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I saw an opportunity to mention Tentacles of Time so I took it. New to me!
In Mina's post I saw that she had played this new game from portal games. Ignacy had the game with him and he taught it to me and Ron. It is essentially the same game as Tides of Time but with a twist!
I really like Tides of Time but it can be a bit repetitive so it is nice they are making another one with a super dark Cthulhu theme. I really enjoyed this. The art is superb and gorgeous!
While it plays the same there are some cards with a madness boarder. Aft the end of the round you collect madness tokens = to the cards you have with that design. If you have collected the most you can choose to discard one of them or take 4 points. All the points in the world wouldn't matter if you go crazy! getting 9 madness tokens ensures you go crazy!
My game with Ron was a killer. He got 40 points in round 2 but he was collecting madness left and right. I was sure I could take him over in the final round. All the cards in your tableau count from round to round if you have the madness symbols. so you might not want to hang on to them. But, they might have a benefit as well so you might WANT to keep it. It can be iffy though since you don't really want to go crazy and lose the game. We tied for madness cards in the final round and he wasn't able to get rid of any tokens and I ended up winning because he went crazy. :devil:
Even though I had not many point he went crazy and lost the game. That is the only way I will ever win. I have been losing Tides of Time a lot since we got that game. I rarely win. This madness things brings a whole new level to the game- it is very cool. And I won!! Maybe I am bias but it is nice to play with because it gives bad players like me a chance at winning! :D
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The final game of the night was a head to head match against new friend Jasen in my fav Fields of Arle.
I had just played it the other night but was ready to play again with someone who knew the game. I asked if he wanted a recap but he seemed pretty sure of the game. He said he played mostly with his daughter so I was a bit weary.
I suppose I should have helped him a bit more with suggestions since he might have had the lowest score I have seen in any of the games. I did way better than the game I had played on Tuesday night since I wasn't focused on what he was doing as much as I should have been. I felt kinda bad. I think we were both getting really tired by late Thursday night from all of the constant gaming.
Next year he will challenge me sooner and win, I am sure of it. ;)
I think the major problem he had was not getting any shipping until round 5 or 6 and that is over half way through the game. You really have to get shipping before then. I got it on turn one as per usual and made it work to my advantage! I went hard for materials and got a couple 15 point building. I think I got 60 points on my farm. That's pretty dang good.
I got around 127 I think it ended up being. better than my normal so I was happy but poor Jasen got 75 or less... :( I should have went easy on him. :P
We were playing late and the game lasted about 2 hours a bit longer than I would like since we started so late. We were both so tired. But- that's ok! More Arle = more fun!
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Friday came and we spelt in a bit later than I might have liked but I was in major need of sleep! in the morning I saw that CSI had a pre order for the game called Piratoons. New to me!
Since it was a pre order and I wanted to know if I should pick it up I found a copy on the Stronghold table and started to read the rules. I read the rules!! once I finished the game seemed easy enough to teach and I recruited 2 others to play the game with me and Ron.
This game is adorable! You are trying to build up your pirate ship and get it filled with pirates and sails and cannons! There are 8 rounds and you are basically doing a fast paced round of placing meeples on tiles and trying to get the majority. This is all under the pressure of a sand timer that is going for about 30 seconds. You have to have a clear majority to win the tiles. The tiles up for picking are boat parts and the smaller tiles that have people or sails on them.
For any tiles with the clear winner they just get them. Then there is a closed fisted auction for other tiles. If you bid the same amount as another player in this portion then you are both out and get not remaining tiles. This is essentially the game in a quick minute but you are aiming to grow the fastest best looking ship you can to score the most points at the end. You get points for bigger sets of same type or different types. You also score negative for having the most empty spaces on your boat. So you might have a HUGE boat for some points but if it isn't filled up you might be losing a bunch of points.
It is a lighter game but I actually had a great time with this game. The rules are a bit harsh for those who are shaky or clumsy. If you knock another player off a tile you are fully out for the round and can not participate. So, as it happened in our game Ron was just a bit too fast and knocked my guy off. It was towards the end of the placement phase and he was winning a bunch of other tiles. Because he knocked me off he couldn't claim any of it. Perhaps it is a bit harsh.
For a 30 minute game I thought it was really cute. I ended up with the best score of 22 and directly behind me was the guy to my right with 21. Ron really lost this game hard since he had gotten almost all of the negative points.
I have to say I found it very charming. I would love to play it again and I will be on the lookout for a copy. It is just a fast little game probably gears towards kids and families. I am basically a kid ( :P ) so of course I would enjoy this! :D
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I kept giving Stephen owner and president of Stronghold Games a hard time for not playing Outpost with me. I kept saying "if Stephen won't play with me Who Will!?!?" We became pretty good friends throughout this con. I kept giving him a hard time. Maybe one of these years he will play a game of outpost with me.
As it turned out he was willing to play a game with me with his AWESOME Crokinole board. I was ready to get owned. I don't play this nearly enough to win against anyone with an awesome painted board such as this.
We were actually pretty evenly matched. I only managed to score 5 points but we had a few even rounds. I had some bad shots knocking his in instead of mine as I generally go. It was still so fun to play a game with him. He is a very cool guy and very dramatic. I loved every minute of losing to him in this game. I didn't see his Crokinole board get used at all in throughout the con so I was happy to help him out and use it for him. :D
Definitely one of the many highlights of the con for me. Super fun!
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Since it was there and I was then looking for another game to play Ron read the rules to West of Africa. New to me!
This was a game that looked to be a light engine building game. You have to plant the goods and ship them for lots of money and potential to place houses for points. It is a very fast game with card selection for your turns initiative and actions.
I am not going to ruin this game for anyone so I am not going to comment on this too much. We played 5 player and it just didn't work for us. Too many turns of I was going to do that and someone else doing it first and the other players getting hosed. There was no stopping the leading player and no one was really enjoying the game play.
I have read positive reviews so there are many that still enjoy the game and I hope they continue to do so!
For me it just wasn't there and I don't think I will be returning to playing that game again. But we gave it a fair shot and I like the mechanics but I think the board was a bit tight without many options, at least for a 5p game.
To no one's surprise Joe H won. :P On the plus side I am growing to think more and more like Joe H! That means I am *Smaht*! :D :P
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Dan and I found Hang on Harvey! to play. New to me!
This is a game from 1969- yeah, crazy! I don't play games with that much dust on them normally, but this looked like a crazy awesome dex game so I had to try it. The goal is to try and peg your way down without letting Harvey drop. My Harvey fell like 10 times before I actually got him to the bottom without falling!
But, as expected I totally kicked Dan's butt in this game. haha It was fun to play and I got really good at it by the end. :P
This is a crazy game and a bunch of fun. It is really only a 5 minute game. (unless you are very bad at it- i.e. Dan) and it is more of just a novelty game and not one you would play all that often.
I would certainly play it again, however. :D
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Since it was there, we played a 4p game of Apple Pop. New to me!
I would like to give a shout out to Scott for actually make Apple POp a game in the BGG database! Cheers!
I played this game with Dan, Joe H and Ron. It is very simple- but I still managed to be quite terrible at it.
This is a simple kids game to pop the apple and try to get it in the box field or better yet the basket below for an additional turn. You want to get the colors for your bin to match what you hit down.
The little raccoon is adorable and the set up was cool. It was a cute game. I was terrible but I did manage to get 1 apple down! :D I think Ron won. He is just too good at games. :P
It was very cute.
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I agreed to play one more game before Ron and I went out to get some food. Dan picked Face Chase. New to me!
This is a speed game to try and get rid of all your cards first. A card of a face in the middle and players have to apply matching cards picked from their hand of cards to match either the hair, nose, eyes, or mouth. First player to get rid of all their cards first wins.
Pretty simple card game. I actually got a copy from the prize table as an extra. It is fast and cute. I don't foresee playing it a whole bunch but it is a nice game.
I totally crushed Dan and Ron in this game. I would have won sooner if my last card matched anything! I think it was 3 faces before I could play my last card! :) I nearly thought I was going to lose, but be real this game was meant for me to win! :D
I think my mom will enjoy this. haha It will be a good family gathering game for sure.
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When we came back we got in a 3 player game of Le Havre.
I was happy to play this since I had recently played it on a Monday night and got owned. I needed to make up for the terrible play I had then.
This game I didn't realize I was playing against a pro. He was seriously owning. He was really winning all along but I thought I had it in the bag. I had all the major buildings and everyone was paying me to use them. I seriously had the best game I had ever played.
I ended this game with 250 points! It was so awesome. I have never played that well before. I had all the buildings. Cokery, Colliery, shipping line, wharf, some special steel something- I mean I was pumping out the buildings it was awesome. I don't know how but I made it happen.
Apparently I was not using the Colliery to the best of my abilities and I should have been. Perhaps it is the best building in the game and I should treat it better- maybe why I don't win this game very often. Anyway, I forget his name :( but he was able to turn all of his goods (which was a lot since he had the market place) in for points and he turns like 20+ Coal into Coke just like that and got a ton of points. He ended up winning the game with 270 points. I had never seen such a high score like that. I pretty much didn't believe it but I will just go with it. I still had my best game so I am proud. Either way Ron lost- sorry Ron! My turn to win! well- beat a Ron win, anyway.
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Next we found Lexi and Will for a fast game of Automobiles. New to me!
I never got to play the game Planes when that was around. It went away too quickly for me to try it. I was okay with the game Trains. I think this one is probably the best in the series even though I understand they aren't much alike. Well the first is a deck-builder and this is a deck- (bag)builder with cubes- so they could be compared that way.
This is a racing game and first one to finish 3 laps wins the game. There are cards to tell us what all the cubes do and the Cubes that we draw from our bag each time to figure out the best use for. Most cubes that aren't gear cubes can be used as $ and for buying other cubes to be added to your bags. The colored cubes would be used as actions if not the $$. Purple cubes might allow you to start thinning your bag and returning used cubes back into the bag. You only reshuffle when you are out of cubes- but not as HARSH as Hyperborea- you get to reshuffle immediately and draw your full number.
The gear cubes are used for movement around the track. A while cube moves in the while spaces and light gray in the light gray spaces, etc. The highest gear level you use you have to take wear tokens which are essentially garbage and all them to your discarded pile. That is really bad and you want to get rid of those or better yet, not take them. If you are drafting the other players.
It is a pretty light game and standard bag building aspect to it. If you have played bag building games before this will come naturally. We played with the more advanced board and it took a little bit to start going but it was easy enough to pick up and play.
I was unfortunately, relying on Will to not have any blue cubes on his board when it came to being my turn. That is the only thing that prevented me from moving further than I should. The blue cubes mimicked 2 of the same color in a row and you didn't need to have the cubes in play. But you have to be the person with the most blue cubes on the board vs the other players and their discarded cubes. Will had about a million cubes so it took him forever to work through his cubes. Most of them were wear tokens.
Needless to say I was in last the whole game. Ron ended up finishing first. Will was in the lead the whole game but finally when he had to mix his bag back he lost a lot of ground fast. We could easily catch up to him. I even managed to come in second crossing the finish line on the final turn but no where near passing Ron's finish.
I was happy it was over since I felt like I was having a very bad game. But in the end I actually did OK. I think I miscalculated a few turns where I could have used my Blue cubes and didn't so perhaps I might have won if I did that instead. It was a cute game and I would play it again. I don't think I am itching to play it again soon though. There are others I would play first. I can see this being a hit with families too, though. Cool theme and racing game but very light and perhaps abstract for some players.
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The final game of the night was 3p and Ron and I talked Scott into playing Argent: The Consortium.
We got to play with Scotts copy with the painted bottoms all sparkly and awesome. He didn't have the expansion mixed in. :( That's ok- that base game has plenty of replay value and we had a great time with it. The only thing I really missed was the bell cards. I really like having those bell tower card cycle through.
I was really happy to play this game again. For whatever reason I am highly addicted to playing this game! It is one of those hard to get to the table games so I am happy to play it when I get the chance.
This game I went for all the information I could gather! I got as many marks as I could and there happened to be a vote card for that- so that worked out in my favor!
I knew a lot of the information like 3/4ths of the information. I did very well with what I knew and managed to make it all work even though I didn't get the most or SECOND most influence. I gave up on the hope for influence but I managed to get a ton of knowledge and wisdom which were both goals.
I knew 3/4 of the colored supporters I needed and made 2 of them work.
It was a very fun game, for me! I walked away with half of the voters and won the game. Scott took a series of photos of me. I thought I would add them in since I thought they were fun! :D
Still wanting to play more. I told Scott he should get the expansion. :P Always happy to play this- with the right crowd...
courtesy of Scott F
courtesy of Scott F
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I wasn't expecting to get in much gaming on Saturday since there was a lot going on that day. The flea market craziness that people just set up shop and try to sell their games. I ended up getting some AWESOME deals: dungeon lords, city of iron, terra prime each at $5 and Through the desert which I had been looking for- for a while! dang those were good prices. I couldn't resist! There were a few hours in between but then there was an ice cream social and the prize table at night. I still managed to get in a lot of awesome gaming that day. I managed to play a lot of favorites only learning 1 new game!
We started the morning with 6p game of Diamant. I guess Joe H was looking to play a game at a certain time so had about an hour to kill. We played with Joe R, Lexi, and Will. This is a fast push your luck game. We used Scott's copy and it is so decked out! He had AMAZING treasure chest boxes- like wicked cool. Always play with Scott's copy if you can he does the best job pimping them about I am always pleasantly surprised!
If you don't know the game it is pretty much like Incan Gold. Or so I have heard. You try to escape with the most gems each round. You can drop out at any time but you get only so many gems. If you wait too long then you might lose because if two traps pop up that are identical then you lose.
It is a cute game. I really failed at this one. I dropped out too soon on too many occasions. I ended up with only 9 points. Joe R won that game, I believe with 19 points. I don't think I died once but I still lost badly! I guess I just needed to push my luck more...
Cute game and happy to play it!
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Joe R left us 5 to play a game of Die Sieben Siegel.
It had been a while since we last played this and I knew it was a game Joe H liked to play. It fit his time schedule. He had to explain the game to Lexi and Will but we got to playing really fast.
It was a fun game. I was doing SO WELLLLLLLLLLLLLL- I always do very well in this game until the last round. I got 0 for the first 3 round! That is the best possible score you can get in a round. You can only get negative from there. The 4th round I got one -3 token. The pressure was on to beating Joe H. I made a BAD call on which cards to lead and ended up getting HOSED with -6 points at the end of the final round. I ended up in second place to Joe H who was at -6 and I was -9. Boo!
I was so close to winning I just made a terrible call at the end. This is a wonderful game. I very much enjoy it! :D
This was the first time I had seen Steven Segal not be taken for 3 rounds in a row! Crazy! I guess we are all pros!
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They went off to play their game. Ron and I found a guy to play a game with. He was like I will play ANYTHING. Well that wasn't a challenge to fulfill. His name was Mike Young. I want to remember his name since he was very fun to play with and a VERY FAST game player. It is hard to come by very fast players so when I do I want to remember. It is very much appreciated!
Ron and I returned with Russian Railroads&Russian Railroads: German Railroads. He was Very pleased with our pick. He had recruited another to join us. Peter hadn't played German rails before but we threw him in to swim and he was fine. We ended up playing with the coal expansion since Mike hadn't played with it before.
This game there were no engineers for industry so I opted to not aim for that track. I went hard for the center track and managed to get out the white tracks to score. Since we were using the coal you have to play with one fewer rounds and that is really where it hurt me. I managed to catch up in the final end scoring but if I had that ONE MORE ROUND I really would have gotten a TON of points and would have won the game.
As it stood I didn't quite get enough but I managed to come in 3rd place. We all ended on the same side of the board within 40 points of one another- I'd say that is pretty damn good scoring for this game. I have seen huge spread of points before.
I am always happy to play this game I really love the new customized boards and I managed to try a new strategy this time and I got close. I really needed that extra round. I made one critical error when I took first player but I had no money to pay for the engineer I desperately needed! If I had that buck I would have totally won this game, I know it. Stupid mistakes. I am still happy I managed to do as well as I did. I never really push the white tracks but it was okay to try this. I am not sure I like the coal portion of the game play so much. I missed the final round. Awesome game.
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Since Mike was so cool I was mentioning Uwe games and asked if he would play Caverna: The Cave Farmers as a 3p with me and Ron. He Loved this game and totally wanted to play.
I was excited since no one seemed interested in Uwe games at this con and I was dying to play it!
This game of Caverna I went hard for pumpkins and wheat and got to planting right away! I managed to plant 2 of each and harvest them on the FIRST harvest. I am never that punctual in this game with the farming. I was impressed. I didn't have anything else going for me. I didn't have caves or adventure dwarves. I didn't have any buildings. I was sparse. I did get a bunch of gems at the correct time and those are always helpful!
I started the adventuring but I made a critical mistake midway. I wanted to get my second dwarf all geared up and I didn't have any coal... I ended up using 1 ruby as 1 coal. This was a critical error because I SHOULD have had 3 coal from when I went to the deep tunnel space I just forgot to take it. Ugh. I only remembered turns later when I went back to the deep tunnel space. Fail!
As it turned out I did very well regardless! I managed to come in second this game with 88 points. Mike was just ahead at 90 points and Ron doesn't want to talk about his game. I was very happy to play this. I did quite well and got 3 dwarves out. I am always impressed when I get more than 2 dwarves out. Mike got the dormitory and was making babies left and right. I needed Ron to keep taking first place from him but he only did that once.
It was a good game. I really would like to play this more. So cool! I only wish I was wearing my Caverna shirt! :D I had worn it the day before to try and drum up interest. There wasn't any interest. :(
I was thrilled I could play and I did an Ok job in this game. Mike won that game too. He is fast and a crazy good gamer. I will have to play more games with him next year. Cool guy! Poor Ron- but it is okay since he wins everything else anyway.
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Next up was a 5p game of Eminent Domain: Battlecruisers. I was teaching this game and I randomly picked from the rules a set up. I had all the players find the cards and explained the game quickly.
This was a very mean deck of cards I selected. I didn't mean to! :D I hadn't ever seen anyone go into the red zone before. The other games I played the winning condition was 15 points. This game was about as opposite as could be. It was player elimination- last one standing. I was the first one to lose all of my cards. I kept being the target to discard cards and ended up not having any cards to discard which meant automatically eliminated.
The next easy target was Jeremy since we were kind of targeting each other. So he was next to go since he already had fewer cards. wow! It was a crazy game.
It came down to Ron and James and the duel of the final cards. Ron kept being able to deflect the discarding of the cards by losing points and the card he played made James lose cards. It seemed to be a never ending battle but it eventually came down to Ron had the better cards remaining and took the crown.
That was a crazy game. Michael liked it enough where he taught another group later on how to play. :D Yay!
I think most everyone had a good time. It is always a good time when Steph loses first! :P
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Before we got kicked out of the room I taught the same player a game of Rolling America.
It was just a simple game. We were rolling badly as usual. It actually didn't hurt too badly. I still managed to get 11. I used up all of my special abilities by like round 4... maybe a mistake maybe not, it is unclear. Better to use them than to be found without having used them at the end of the game.
I can't recall if I won by it was close to winning. We were a bit rushed at the end. Everyone enjoyed it though! :D I am sure they will all be going to Target to pick it up!
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So, once everyone was kicked out there was a huge line for eth ice cream Social about to take place. They were running a bit behind but where we ended up standing the Dice Tower crew were setting up a game looking for an additional player. I joined in with Tom and Zee and new friend Jon on playing Port of Piraeus. New to me!
I was more interested in learning a new game than waiting in line- when there would still be more when we were finished.
This is a buy low sell high kind of game with the market changing at all times. It was a constant fiddly board and you could never sell at top dollar before the market adjusted its pricing. It was all sorts of whack. I think we may have missed a rule or something since it seemed rather off. We would adjust after the initial flop of cards then players would have to bid to buy or sell cards this round. It just didn't like up very well.
We ended up playing 3 rounds before we called it and got in line for ice cream. Ice cream was more interesting we concluded. Unfortunately, that was not a hit for this table. I just don't understand why there is a top of the track when goods could never be sold for top dollar. I would be willing to try it again to see if we might have missed anything but as it stood it was not a game for me. I think it was fiddly for the point of being fiddly.
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While eating ice cream I joined Dan and Dave for several rounds of Big Boggle. It is possible I was more interested in the ice cream and the boggle but I still tried. It was more of an excuse for how badly I was playing!
I still love this game. I used to play it all of the time and I was REALLY REALLY good. I loved playing it on the yahoo games site.
The first couple of game we played I managed to write down like 2 words. Really bad. As we continued I did better with 10-15 words and getting a bunch of points. I was still no where near winning any of the games but I still love the challenge of finding the words. We played like 10 games or so before we got in line for the prize table event.
I love me some good old fashioned boggle games.
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After the event I found Nick and a few others and taught them how to play The Grizzled.
We ended up playing 3 games of this because we were playing 5p and it was VERY challenging. We really failed in the second or 3rd round of the first game. It was hilariously bad. they were also just learning it. I think Bianca was getting a bit overwhelmed- it seemed like she was getting a bit stressed. It was loud in the hall so it could have been that as well.
The 2nd game we did better but after the first round we were basically hosed. With our names on the tomb. I think people were enjoying it a bit. I think 5p might just be crazy hard.
We played one more time and still with the traps. this was our best game yet! We still lost but we lost with style this time. Everyone had fully grasped how to play by then and were playing to the best of their abilities. We failed but it was not as hard as the other games we had started with.
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Next up was a 4p game with the same group to play Qwinto.
I was SO PISSED when my photo didn't come out and I played MY BEST SCORE!!!! I scored 90 points in this game of Qwinto! It was insanity!
Nick was rolling 16, 16, 18 Like crazy high values. I got my 18 points row filled in and it was purple so it also scored for 18 point Hex! It was AWESOME!!! I had never seen such high rolling. I guess I need to take Nick to the craps table more! :D
it was a very interesting and exciting game. I finished the game by completing two rows. Super cool! Always happy to play this one.
The FINAL game of the con was a 5 player game of Junk Art. I had wanted to play it again since playing it the other day.
The more players the crazier it is. I had made some critical mistakes in this game. I missed out on getting points in the first round since I made my structure fall at the final second. Everyone else was getting points based on the number of pieces in the structure so they had a bunch and I had none! booo
I made the points back up when we got to the round where you have to hand the player to your left 2 cards they choose to play one and you have to play the other. I am very good at that level. It is the one we had played the other day and was an asterisk game since we were missing the piece. This time around the piece had been found and there were no issued. I managed to take in 8 points which was awesome.
I still ended up losing this game but everyone had a great time and I think it was one of the best new games I played.
courtesy of Scott F
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The Saturday night of the Gathering a few hours is dedicated to the prize table give-aways. If you bring a game then you can put your name in the box to be drawn and you will walk away with a gift. Since Ron and I were new Alan let the new badges get another pick. We ended up getting a nice look haul from the deal I am psyched to play them all! So happy to have gotten Brew Crafters. That was my first choice since it is a game both Ron and I really enjoy. Very cool it is even Signed! :D
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Here is the short list of games I learned over the course of the week adventure to Niagara Falls
40 new ones!
1. Codenames Pictures: Wishlist
2. Micro Robots: Would play again
3. Dynasties: Heirate & Herrsche: Can't wait to play again!
4. Alan's Adventureland: Wishlist
5. Animals on Board: Would play again
6. King Chocolate: Not for my gaming group
7. Get the Goods: Owned
8. Unpublished Prototype- I can't talk about it. : Wishlist
9. Quadropolis: Wishlist
10. Blood Rage: Would try again
11. Far Space Foundry: Not for me
12. Glück Auf: Das grosse Kartenspiel: Wishlist
13. Mops Royal: Would like to play again
14. Ponzi Scheme: Wishlist
15. 7 Symbols, and 7 Nations: Wishlist
16. Junk Art: Wishlist
17. Flying Kiwis: Would play again
18. Tornado Ellie: Would play again
19. Oceanos: Wishlist
20. Happy Salmon: Owned!!! So fun!
21. Bomarzo: Want to play again
22. IKI: Want to play again
23. Colony: Will be a big hit- I am sure of it! Wishlist
24. Sea of Clouds: Wishlist
25. Imhotep: Want to play again with harder side
26. Tem-Purr-A: Cute but not for me
27. Tier auf Tier: Jetzt geht's rund!: Awesome! Want to play again
28. Happy Pigs: Wishlist
29. Mount Pingo: Would play again
30. Kashgar: Händler der Seidenstraße: Interesting and would play again.
31. Factory Funner: Owned!
32. Crazy Karts: Wishlist
33. Tentacles of Time (name subject to change): Wishlist
34. Piratoons: Want to play again- potential wishlist
35. West of Africa: Not for me
36. Hang on Harvey!: Novelty and would play again
37. Apple Pop: Not for me
38. Face Chase: Owned
39. Automobiles: Would play again
40. Port of Piraeus: Not for me
Sunday was the Ride home 7+ hours and Ron and I managed a simple game of Star Realms. I only mentioned it since it was the only game we could play that day and it was great since I won! :D yay!
I hope you all have a great week!!
Thanks for reading my epic adventure in Niagara Falls!
Until next week!
Happy Gaming!!!
-Steph