What I Played Today: November 24

Apples to Apples, Dixit

I mostly drove today, but once I got there, I got to play a couple of party games with the family. They went exactly the same as they alwasy do. Everyone seemed to enjoy them though, so that's nice. Although a weird thing about the game of Apples to Apples, once I won, they said I was required to make up a little story with the cards I had won. Now I didn't want to do this. This seems like a stupid requirement, and I don't suggest you force people to do this.

What I Played Today: October 18

Piece of Cake, Elder Sign, Apples to Apples

I didn't go to the regular game night, I went to the supersecret game night. There were padlocks involved! There I played Piece of Cake again, and won again, even though I'm not exactly supersure what I'm ever doing. So I divide this cake and then I take pieces? Okay? But somehow I won, so I guess I'm good at this.

Also played a game of Elder Sign that went really well! Like stupid well! I think we added a single doom counter to the monster before we got our 12 elder signs and won. I think it was the characters we had, that made rerolls really common, but we just seemed to get the rolls we needed more often than not. We were also overly cautious and made sure that we never got into a situation where we were devoured, so that helped. It really improved my impression of the game somehow!

Also a couple of rounds of Apples to Apples. I rarely have anything to say about this game!

What I Played Today: April 17

Apples to Apples, Sid Meyer’s Civilization: The Board Game

A game party at game party place, in which a couple of games were played. First was a starter game of Apples to Apples, which is always worthy of no comment.

Then I somehow convinced three people that they wanted to play Sid Meyer’s Civilization: The Board Game, which went pretty well considering the complete lack of explanation I provided. After the really long set-up and basic overview of the rules, we managed to start playing like champions. It was still slow, but it came together really well, with everyone figuring out how to play at pretty much the same speed.

The game still took hours though. It just is not a fast game to turn around, and then we had only about two hours of playtime left and we were just then ramping into the midgame, I was concerned that the game wouldn’t end. But it did, with an economic victory from the player to my left. I still am not a big fan of the economic victory, because it just feels supercheap and uncounterable, and obviously what you should start building towards, because there is nothing to really slow you down if you dabble in all three of the other fields. I spent some time on the net digging around what people are suggesting, and the consensus seems to be one of two things; yes, the economic victory can come out of nowhere and we should modify the game slightly to make it less desirable; or you all are big old whiners who can’t appreciate that this game is perfect. One of the simplest suggestions I heard that I’m perfectly fine with is just change the maximum coins that can be placed on the growing techs to 3 instead of 4, which should delay the game long enough to let the other victory conditions catch up. Other suggestions were a bit crazy, like adding more technologies that somehow made things better. Not sure if I’ll ever play enough to require implementing these, I just don’t like how unstoppable the condition feels.

What I Played Today: December 4

Apples to Apples, Dixit, Rock Band, Kinect

It was a day with friends, and we did friend stuff; ate some food, played some games, talked about dildos. We also played some Apples to Apples, which went about as well as it usually does (satisfactory but a little dull), although someone stated how in one game somebody played Hiroshima – 1945 with the adjective Clean. Which is interesting because I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that example before, and not from him, which means pretty much everyone I know has a dark sense of humor, or they’re all assholes, one of the two.

Also hooked up the Kinect at a friend’s place to show it off, and while it was entertaining, it’s not really a system that works in a group situation. For one it required a bit more room than we had, so we ended up pushing a couch out of the way, and there was not a lot of places to be to watch. Also, whenever anyone walked between the sensor and the player, the Kinect freaked out, so eventually everyone felt trapped. So, after everyone got their fill, we switched to Rock Band. Not everyone really felt like playing, as we eventually dropped down to one guitar, one keyboard, and various vocalists. But it was still fun, as I got to sing a couple of old favorites, and some people who hadn’t hit the mike got a chance to sing.

Then a game of Dixit with teams, because that was the easiest solution that didn’t leave anyone out. People seemed to pick up on the game pretty well, and we only had one case where everyone or no one got it, when somebody made a veiled but obvious reference to the Truman Show in connection to the card that looks like a blatant ripoff of the ending. Otherwise, everyone seemed to get it and had fun. Working in teams had a weird dynamic; the person I was partnered with picked a card and left it to me to come up with a phrase, after I explicitly told her I was terrible at the game. But I thought of a couple of good ones, like “Spanish Fallings” for one that heavily featured rain. We eventually won after a good last round in which our card was chosen as the match by almost everyone but us.

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.