Great EndGaming
Jul. 20th, 2005 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aHad a great night of EndGaming tonight. I went really prepared to have some fun and play some great games that I really enjoyed, and I did.
It started out with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
christophera_ giving me a ride there, always a nice touch. I ended up gaming with him all evening, and he was incredibly accomodating in playing the games I was interested in because he knew things have been tough lately.
Turn out was surprisingly low at the start of the evening, and thus Chris and I were sitting around for a bit. I finally pulled out Fredericus which Mayfair sent me a review copy of a few weeks ago. It's a very clever little tactical game where you constantly move around cards and pieces to score points. Unfortunately the first time we played, last Thursday, it got really degenerative toward the end of the game and we spent the last several rounds spinning our wheels, making bets that nothing would happen, and waiting for the game to end.
This time, same deal. Very disappointing, and it unfortunately has to go back on the review shelf because I still don't know if there's a good endgame experience. We actually didn't finish the game because it was obvious we were going to spin for a long time with nothing happening.
Things picked up from there.
Second game was Basari, a simultaneous decision & strict negotiation game that I've been wanting to replay for a while. We did, and now I'm even more enthusiatic to German variant game Edel, Stein & Reich (which is sitting on my play table).
Next up was Tigris & Euphrates which I've been really enjoying since I got it in trade. I was benefitted a lot in this game by the person to my left being overly aggressive, which is a good thing for me because I usually don't end up being aggressive enough. That and a clever internal conflict to steal a monument I really needed did me well (though I didn't quite pull out a win).
Quo Vadis? was game #4. This was my second game of this, which is another one that had been sitting in my review pile waiting for another play. It's another interesting & quick negotiation game and I liked it even more this time, when I felt like I knew what I was doing more. Of course, I totally didn't because I got creamed.
Last game of the night was Web of Power. I've been playing the newer version of this majority control game, China, more recently, but I enjoy playing the original too, because of the theming. We had a bit of trouble getting started because we couldn't remember how many face-up cards you were supposed to have to draw from because it's different in the two games. We finally decided that the answer was two. Nope. Turns out that Web of Power is 3 and China is 4. Ah well. I lost this one due to insufficient advisor count.
I had a really good time despite losing everything. I would have won the Fredericus is we'd finished it, but I came in second in the Basari, a very, very near second in the Tigris & Euphrates (I think my count was 12/9/6/6 to the winning 10/10/6/6), a far last place finish in Quo Vadis?, and third of five in the Web of Power.
Other players were Chris, Bob, Mike A., Mike D. (collect the whole set!), Tom, Nathan, Eric V., and Dave G.
And tomorrow is Wallenstein. I must reread the rules.
It started out with
christophera_ giving me a ride there, always a nice touch. I ended up gaming with him all evening, and he was incredibly accomodating in playing the games I was interested in because he knew things have been tough lately.Turn out was surprisingly low at the start of the evening, and thus Chris and I were sitting around for a bit. I finally pulled out Fredericus which Mayfair sent me a review copy of a few weeks ago. It's a very clever little tactical game where you constantly move around cards and pieces to score points. Unfortunately the first time we played, last Thursday, it got really degenerative toward the end of the game and we spent the last several rounds spinning our wheels, making bets that nothing would happen, and waiting for the game to end.
This time, same deal. Very disappointing, and it unfortunately has to go back on the review shelf because I still don't know if there's a good endgame experience. We actually didn't finish the game because it was obvious we were going to spin for a long time with nothing happening.
Things picked up from there.
Second game was Basari, a simultaneous decision & strict negotiation game that I've been wanting to replay for a while. We did, and now I'm even more enthusiatic to German variant game Edel, Stein & Reich (which is sitting on my play table).
Next up was Tigris & Euphrates which I've been really enjoying since I got it in trade. I was benefitted a lot in this game by the person to my left being overly aggressive, which is a good thing for me because I usually don't end up being aggressive enough. That and a clever internal conflict to steal a monument I really needed did me well (though I didn't quite pull out a win).
Quo Vadis? was game #4. This was my second game of this, which is another one that had been sitting in my review pile waiting for another play. It's another interesting & quick negotiation game and I liked it even more this time, when I felt like I knew what I was doing more. Of course, I totally didn't because I got creamed.
Last game of the night was Web of Power. I've been playing the newer version of this majority control game, China, more recently, but I enjoy playing the original too, because of the theming. We had a bit of trouble getting started because we couldn't remember how many face-up cards you were supposed to have to draw from because it's different in the two games. We finally decided that the answer was two. Nope. Turns out that Web of Power is 3 and China is 4. Ah well. I lost this one due to insufficient advisor count.
I had a really good time despite losing everything. I would have won the Fredericus is we'd finished it, but I came in second in the Basari, a very, very near second in the Tigris & Euphrates (I think my count was 12/9/6/6 to the winning 10/10/6/6), a far last place finish in Quo Vadis?, and third of five in the Web of Power.
Other players were Chris, Bob, Mike A., Mike D. (collect the whole set!), Tom, Nathan, Eric V., and Dave G.
And tomorrow is Wallenstein. I must reread the rules.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 08:26 am (UTC)I haven't played Basari though. Are there any real differences in the rules?
I'm very interested in Knizia's Quo Vadis. I like negotiation games and I'm a fan of most of Knizia's work. It sounds like a departure for him. How long does it play? Is it possible to crock the game if one player stonewalls in the negotiations?
One of our gaming circle has Wallensteing but we've never got to play it. I think he bought it because he was intrigued by the Tower.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-21 05:18 pm (UTC)Yes, it's a simpler game. It only runs up to four players, and so there are only three actions: gems/points/die roll. There's also a board which determines the point/gem value for each player. The die roll action meanwhile helps you move around the board faster and also gives you some points. A round ends when someone makes it all the way around the board, and everyone who did gets +10 points. The die roll is replaced by the special cards in ES&R.
I'm very interested in Knizia's Quo Vadis.
It's a 30-minute game where you're negotiating with other players to get votes to move up in the hierarchy of the Roman Senate. I doubt a single player could mess up the game because they'd be at a severe disadvantage and pretty quickly everyone would start learning not to negotiate with them. Watch RPGnet; I think I'm going to review it for next Wednesday.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-22 09:50 am (UTC)