We tried out 51st State for the first time tonight, it was packaged as a typical American game: small print, incoherent rule book, a bit tedious. It took awhile to really understand the game and the flow. It is essentially a card game set in a post-apocalyptic world on the east coast. Each player is a group of survivors trying to establish the 51st state out of the ruins. Each card you can raid for spoils (immediate benefit), negotiate a contract to earn a benefit each turn, or build it as a location to send workers to it for resources and skills. Many decisions to make, and each group has its own advantage. There is a card auction each turn, collection of resources, playing of cards/locations as actions and then totaling victory points. The game was longer than it should have been, but ended up good. I would play it again.
A bunch of people showed up so played Werewolf, and the games seemed to go really good and were lots of fun with 15 people. I was Moderator for both games as we had newbies, but that's fun too. We closed out the night pulling out a cool game from last year, Last Will. That's the game where you try to spent all your money, who goes broke first and the furthest in debt wins. I had an advantage playing with new players, but they caught on quickly. I was able to stay with them and actually used a farm property (I usually avoid/am scared of properties as they remain an asset too long). In the end I was able to pull out the win by just two pounds (its played in old England).
Ratings (Fun/Strategic/Interaction):
51st State: 6~8~4
Werewolf: 5~5~8
Last Will: 7~8~7
Today I took my boys Jonathan and Caleb on "Opening Day" for the new movie about Jackie Robinson, "42". His jersey number is the only one to be retired for all of baseball, but that doesn't keep my boys from wearing it. Caleb has worn it every year in all-stars, and it is his regular season number in Juniors this year. When Caleb was young, Robinson was the subject of one of the first book reports that he did, a small book I had in my collection. On April 15th, 2007, the 60th anniversary of his rookie year, we went to Dodger stadium for the game. He has always been one of my favorite baseball players. The movie was really good, though a bit 40's cheesy at points, but very accurate at least according to my knowledge of baseball history. I even teared up a few times over the great triumph that he had in his life. But I am also known to tear up in other baseball-related moments (World Series win in '88, visit to Cooperstown and getting a custom bat made, heck I even teared up on opening day this year as Sandy Koufax came out to throw the first pitch at Dodger stadium). The movie even referenced one of my favorite episodes of Jackie Robinson's life outside of baseball when he was in the army and nearly court-martialed that I posted HERE. It was great to share the movie with my boys, it made us proud to be Dodgers and baseball fans. 42 lives on.
