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Thursday Night Boardgaming
Apr. 2nd, 2004 04:15 pmLast night was the typical Thursday night of boardgaming. We had one drop-out at the very last moment, and that left us with 4, and so we got to play some of the four-player games that we often don't have few enough people for.
Attika was first and last. It was part of an order back in January, so I was very pleased to finally get to try it out. (I'd been hoping to get some two-player play out of, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kimberly_a has been pretty game-adverse since her anti-socialness started really notching up in December, then January.) As noted, we played it twice.
It's an enjoyable, quick connection-building and resource-allocation game that has some issues with analysis paralysis and screw-the-winner syndrome, but beyond that it plays well. I can see why it got a lot of hype last year, and though I definitely don't think it's the second coming, it was well-worth playing and nicely strategic given the short timescale. That we played it twice says a lot for the strategic basis: we all made terrible decisions the first game through, and just mediocre decisions the second time. I love a game that has that much opportunity for learning and tactics.
The first game went to MB who managed to sneak in a shrine-to-shrine connection (a classic beginner's mistake, according to the net), while I won the second by getting my 30 buildings out quickest.
Cosmic Encounter was what we played in-between--specifically the current Hasbro/Avalon Hill version. This was somewhat contentious, as there was a lot of griping over the massively overproduced pieces and over the fact that it can't support more than 4 players given the setup. I can only shrug at the pieces: they're very toylike, and clearly an attempt to get the game out to the mass market, and they didn't increase the price too much over what I'd expected--though I think a perfectly good game could have been released for $30 rather than $40. The limitation to 4 players, however, is quite annoying, as is Hasbro's apparent decision not to further support the game. (This copy of CE belonged tochristophera_, one of a couple of CEs that has hung out at my house over the years, yet wasn't mine. Between the huge box, the lack of supplements, and the 4-player limitation, if I ever get myself a copy of CE, it'll be a Mayfair or Eon edition, not this one.)
The game was enjoyable, though I think some of the players took it more seriously than CE is intended. It's a light & fluffy game, and needs to be played that way.
michaelarick won this one, and I had fun with my second place finish. It's probably been 5 or 7 years since I'd last played Cosmic Encounter! (Well, other than a playtest or two of the online version before it was released.)
[And why am I accomplished? Because I've finished the account creation system I was working on at Skotos, and still have time to get a few other things done before signing off from work for the day.]
Attika was first and last. It was part of an order back in January, so I was very pleased to finally get to try it out. (I'd been hoping to get some two-player play out of, but
kimberly_a has been pretty game-adverse since her anti-socialness started really notching up in December, then January.) As noted, we played it twice.It's an enjoyable, quick connection-building and resource-allocation game that has some issues with analysis paralysis and screw-the-winner syndrome, but beyond that it plays well. I can see why it got a lot of hype last year, and though I definitely don't think it's the second coming, it was well-worth playing and nicely strategic given the short timescale. That we played it twice says a lot for the strategic basis: we all made terrible decisions the first game through, and just mediocre decisions the second time. I love a game that has that much opportunity for learning and tactics.
The first game went to MB who managed to sneak in a shrine-to-shrine connection (a classic beginner's mistake, according to the net), while I won the second by getting my 30 buildings out quickest.
Cosmic Encounter was what we played in-between--specifically the current Hasbro/Avalon Hill version. This was somewhat contentious, as there was a lot of griping over the massively overproduced pieces and over the fact that it can't support more than 4 players given the setup. I can only shrug at the pieces: they're very toylike, and clearly an attempt to get the game out to the mass market, and they didn't increase the price too much over what I'd expected--though I think a perfectly good game could have been released for $30 rather than $40. The limitation to 4 players, however, is quite annoying, as is Hasbro's apparent decision not to further support the game. (This copy of CE belonged to
christophera_, one of a couple of CEs that has hung out at my house over the years, yet wasn't mine. Between the huge box, the lack of supplements, and the 4-player limitation, if I ever get myself a copy of CE, it'll be a Mayfair or Eon edition, not this one.)The game was enjoyable, though I think some of the players took it more seriously than CE is intended. It's a light & fluffy game, and needs to be played that way.
michaelarick won this one, and I had fun with my second place finish. It's probably been 5 or 7 years since I'd last played Cosmic Encounter! (Well, other than a playtest or two of the online version before it was released.)[And why am I accomplished? Because I've finished the account creation system I was working on at Skotos, and still have time to get a few other things done before signing off from work for the day.]
