Gaming Session: The State of the Wolf

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

Strategicon: Gamex 2012 Day 1

I've been looking forward to this gaming convention, some members of LMB came this time so it was fun being in a group here. Caleb came again, but this time we didn't get a hotel. We arrived in LA about 1:00 PM and got right to it. We sat down at Steve Jackson games and tried the first thing we saw:

NINJA BURGER: Generally I do not play many Steve Jackson games, as they are very random and require little skill. Ninja Burger is no different as you make dice rolls against your ability scores to overcome obstacles to deliver burgers with ninja stealth to difficult places. The theme is cute and Caleb had fun, in fact he won our game and got a prize, Cthulhu Dice. We had to end the game early because, well, it wouldn't end quick enough.

FRAG: Our day was not starting out well, as instead of playing Carcassonne, we played another SJ game Frag, that is all about just killing your opponent. You move around the board, collect items if you can, and fire on opponents all based upon dice rolls. Whether you got new items all depended upon if you could roll a 4,5,6 on a d6, which of course I couldn't. You could get the best gun, ammo and position to shoot, and your opponent could just play a "Miss" card and you missed. This game was random and the closest to Candyland that I have ever played. To make it worse, our group of 4 played with an ex-marine dude who was aggro and a jerk to play with. He was "too" into it and it got heated. I hate not finishing a game, but the arguing of some players left a bad taste and I walked away from it. I could imagine the game might be cool, but it was too random and one of the worst experiences ever.

FLASH POINT FIRE RESCUE: I had been looking at this game and found some one to teach us and it was fun. It is a cooperative game that was published through Kickstarter funding, and I had almost contributed to it. We played the basic game and kicked its butt, rescuing all 10 victims of the fire (you only need 7 to win) and left no flames in the home. We were showed the advanced game and saw how much more challenging it was, it seems like a fun game with general appeal. I'd like to get it.

Caleb contemplates putting out the fire.

LAST WILL: I had just learned this game last night, so I got into the tournament at the con. It was even better learning more strategies, but I must admit I was more scared of buying properties and just relied on the one strategy I know of finding one activity and maximizing it. I advanced to the finals, but really blew it there by not trying new strategies and came in 4th place. Each play so far gets better and I would like this in my game rotation.

WITS & WAGERS: I've played this party game before, and we played it just to relax and take a break. Betting on trivia.

WIZ-WAR: This game was just recently re-released (8th edition) so we checked it out from the game library to learn to play it, another mistake. First of all it was really late, and we didn't read all the rules, so our attempt to play was poor. The game is that you are a wizard protecting two treasures, and the one that gets two of either the treasures or killing a wizard wins. Its basically capture the flag without a team, choose to go after a wizard or his treasure, or protect yours. You special abilities and spells are all based upon cards that you drew each round. It was similar to Frag in how random it was, and how in the luck of the draw one card made the difference. Hated it.

I had a fun day, but hoping to have a better game selection tomorrow.

Game Session

I was limited in my time for this game night as my boy had a baseball game. The group had already played Shadow Hunters, So I played a few rounds of JAB boxing. We then divided into two groups, one playing Small World and I tried out a new game, Last Will. It's a pretty cool game, kind of like the movie Brewster's Millions. You have inherited a portion of an uncle's estate in 19th century England, but according to your uncle's will, the key is you must spend your inheritance in order to gain the full millions that he had. The first player to go bankrupt ends the game, and the winner is the one deepest in debt. Its a great idea, and in many ways goes against the general goal to winning games. You spend each turn by going on boat rides, eating fancy dinners, going to the theater, etc. But you can also bring companions along that spends more money, and even make real estate investments and run them into the ground (buy high, sell low). It has great action selection mechanics, with many interesting and significant decisions. Last Will is not too difficult to learn, and ther theme I think has a general appeal. I really like this one and hope to play it again.




Shadow Hunters
W- Nate J, Jared
L- Matt F, Tim R, Tyler H, Matt N, Josh D, Charles G

JAB
W- Brett H, John S, Dallin E, Tim R
L- John S, Brett H, Charles G, Charles G

Small World
1- Lauren T, 2- Tim R, 3- Dallin E, 4- Mike H

Last Will
1- Brett H, 2- Tyler H, 3- Josh D, 4- Matt N, 5- Nate J