Game Session

We had a big crowd for game night, which led to more socializing than playing. But we did get to play some smaller card games that were enjoyable, like Bang! and Coloretto. Bang! definitely needed more players, four just didn't cut it and was way too easy for the sheriff and deputy to win. Coloretto uses a unique mechanic that is the basis for Zooloretto, a game of the year winner. In it you either draw and place a card in a row, or take a row. There can only be a maximum of 3 cards in a row, and they are generally chameleons of 7 different colors. In the end you score from only 3 colors, and the rest count against you. So you must decide when to take a row before you are forced to take colors you do not want. The two big games that were played were Power Grid, which had an intense (and long) 5 player game, and the other was Tobago.
Tobago  is a very ingenious and unique game of finding buried treasures on an island. Cards are played based upon island features that narrow down the location of treasures until it can only be in one spot. Not only does the finder get treasure, but also anyone who contributed a clue card to its location. There are many decisions and strategies as you can work on four different treasures at a time. You also must move your Jeep to pick up amulets and get to the treasures. I have never failed to have a good time playing this. The game came down to selecting treasure cards, and Mike H bluffed me into passing a good one and I ended up losing by one point!

Mike contemplating his move in Tobago

Our Tobago island configuration, courtesy of Lexi

How to whittle down the location of the white treasure . . .

We ended up the evening playing a few games of Werewolf, which many had not played before. We'll have to try it with a bigger group of people next time.



Bang! - W - Nate J, Charles G; L - Tim R, Brett H

Coloretto - 1 - Brett H, 2 - Nate J, 3 - Tyler H, 4 - John L, 5 - Lauren T

Power Grid - 1 - Daniel S, 2 - Dallin E, 3 - Joseph J, 4 - Charles G, 5 - Tim R

Tobago - 1 - Mike H, 2 - Brett H, 3 - Cristina G, 4 - Lexi H

Werewolf
W - John, Dallin E; L - Charles G, Tyler H, Mike S, Lauren T, Nate J, Tim R, Daniel S; M - BrettH

W - Charles G, Tyler H, Nate J, Lauren T, Tim R; L - Dallin E, John; M - Brett H

Gaming Session

A completely epic gaming night, and we played some great titles. We started quickly with Shadow Hunters and it ended up being no contest as Stephen was a neutral Charles and was able to get everyone in the same place and blast them all with a machine gun, meet his win condition, and end the game quickly. Probably the shortest SH game I've ever played. We then divided into two groups where one played Egizia (one of my favorites), and I taught Small World with two players new to it. I am still having difficulty getting my timing down with declining races, but it was again fun, there is great variety in the game. 

After our ping-pong/ pool half-time, one group played Power Grid and my group tried a new game, Ninjato. Its a game of 7 turns & 3 scoring rounds where you have three actions each turn represented by nifty wooden shuriken (throwing stars). You can train at the dojo to get cards used for other actions, learn skills from the sensei, attack clan houses by defeating guards to obtain treasures, and then use those treasures to either bribe envoys or collect rumors. Each element fits together nicely, and you see how important your choices are in the scoring rounds. You can't do everything, so there are interesting choices to get the most honor points. I kept setting off alarms at the clan houses and could never fully defeat them. Tyler jumped to large lead early and we couldn't quite catch him. I did get to throw one of the shuriken at Nate though, but it didn't stick.

Josh is either worried about Nate, or how late it is

Check out the cool shuriken markers!

We decided to start using points and keep track of our placement in each game to make things a bit more interesting. I'm calling it the LaMont Boardgamers (LMB), and here are the LMB standings criteria:

A. For games that have a positional finish, points depend upon the number of players:
3 (9, 5, 2); 4 (10, 7, 4, 1); 5 (10, 7, 5, 3, 1); 6 (10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 1); 7 (10, 8, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1); 8 (10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 1); 9 (10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1); 10 (10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0)
B. For games with only a winner or group of winners, the winners earn 7 points, others get 3.
C. An LMB member's points are then divided by the number of games played to arrive at their standings score.
D. To qualify a member must have played a minimum of 1.5 games per group session.         

Shadow Hunters: Winner - Stephen; Losers - Brett, Tyler, Garrett, Josh, Nate, Tim
Egizia: 1st- Josh, 2nd- Nate, 3rd- Tyler, 4th- Dallin
Small World: 1st- Brett, 2nd- Garrett, 3rd- Stephen, 4th- Tim
Power Grid: 1st- Dallin, 2nd- Garrett, 3rd- Tim
Ninjato: 1st- Tyler, 2nd- Brett, 3rd- Nate, 4th- Josh

So after this last session, here are the standings so far:
March sessions: 1
Brett H: 3,10,7 (20) = 6.7
Tyler H: 3,4,10 (17) = 5.7
Stephen M: 7,4 (11) = 5.5
Garrett S: 3,7,5 (15) =5.0
Dallin E: 1,9 (10) = 5.0
Josh D: 3,10,1 (14) = 4.7
Nate J: 3,7,4 (14) = 4.7
Tim R: 3,1,2 (6) = 2.0

GAMING SESSION

Good times again on a Thursday evening. We played our current favorite group game of Shadow Hunters, my first time actually as a Neutral but the Shadows dominated. We also pounded out our first play of Power Grid, 6 players and all newbies. A good auction/resource & growth balance game that has high ratings and a good reputation. We finally got into the flow and it plays well, it will definitely be called back to the table.