What I Played Today: October 5

Saboteur, Coloretto, Space Hulk: Death Angel, Zombie Dice, Apples to Apples

Spent some time at the game shop tonight, playing a lot of quick, light games, and also Death Angel. Started with a rousing game of Zombie Dice while waiting for people to get their act together so we could play some games. I lost. Then I put Death Angel on the table and tried to explain the game as much as it needed to be explained, which my fellow players thought wasn’t quite enough. So, it was touch and go for a bit, and with one team getting tagged out early in room 2 (which is just unfortunate, luckily we were in a game shop so there were other things going on), we struggled in vain but eventually fell in the last room. Too bad, it seemed to leave a bit of a bad taste in the player’s mouth.

Then we got out Coloretto, which I had heard about but hadn’t actually played, and it’s not bad. It’s a light game where you do one of two things on your turn, draw a card and add it to a stack, or take a stack. Each card is one of seven colors, or wild, or just free points. When the deck finally runs out, you score three colors based on a Fibonacci scale, and the rest of the cards you have are worth negative points. It’s a bit clever, and the strategy required in larger games is a bit tense. We played a couple of games, and I think I won one, but I definitely felt like I was losing throughout.

The there was a game and a half of Saboteur, and against all the odds in the world, I was the saboteur every single round. Worse yet, I also lost every single round. I don’t know if we were playing it wrong last time but man was it all too easy for the good dwarves to dig their way to the gold. There just seemed to be a lot more straight and narrow cards…I doubt this is true, but maybe the decks were actually different? Naw, couldn’t be.

Then, as a mild sedative to end the night, we played some Apples to Apples, and the new player scored maybe eight greens, while everyone topped out at two max. He is a master of psychology, that one. There was a weird moment when the card to match was “Irritating,” and both the cards George W. Bush and Democrats hit the table. It was a bit uncomfortable because everyone at the table could count at least half the players as relative strangers, and everyone’s political alignment wasn’t exactly obvious. Luckily, the guesser took the high road and invalidated both of them. Still, a bit tense.