Game Session

A new month in May! New standings in our gaming to redeem many from last month. For our large group game to start off, we played Saboteur (the first version), a great little card game with a traitor element. Essentially you a building as a group of dwarves tunnels to get to gold, but the secret saboteurs are trying to get you off track. We played a large game with 10 people, and the saboteurs lost every time - it was difficult. While some played Thunderstone, I played another bigger game of 7 Wonders. I always think I am doing bad in that game, but end up having a pretty good score.

I then played a small filler game of Hey, That's My Fish!, one of my favorites. Its a simple game of chess-like movement and the disappearance of the playing surface which happens to be ice-floes and you are penguins collecting fish. It often takes as much time to play as to set it up. That game was the closest I have seen, with all 4 players scoring 26 or 25.

After a food break, the late game was Troyes, another game that is growing on me. It is also a game where I have no solid idea of how good I am doing, so there is tension. Each time I have played there has been variation, but I must admit, the archers are powerful! I ended the game with a cool combination of getting yellow dice (commerce) for free, turning them into red (military), and using them either for the archers to take out black cards or spending favor to turn them into money.

Saboteur
1- Tyler H, Matt N; 2- Charles G; 3- Creela H, Jeremy, Mike C; 4- Tim R, Brett H; 5- Nate J; 6- Amber J

Thunderstone
1- Tyler H, 2- Nate J, 3- Tim R, 4- Matt N, 5- Creela H

7 Wonders
1- Brett H, 2- Dallin E, 3- Mike C, 4- Nate R, 5- Jeremy, 6- Charles, 7- Erika

Hey, That's My Fish!
1- Dallin E, Nate R, 3- Brett H, Erika

Troyes
1- Brett H, 2- Tyler H, Tim R

GAMING SESSION: eight player flavor

It can be difficult to find decent games that eight players can play without dividing into two groups (preferred). A couple of simple card games we tried tonight worked well with mixed ages.

Incan Gold is a great little game (originally created as Diamant, now in its second edition as the incarnation Incan Gold) where all players are explorers in a ruin. You collect gems in the ruined temple, and decide each turn whether to return to camp. If you do you keep all the treasure you found. If you stay you can get more treasure, but also if you experience two of the same hazards while there you lose everything you found. For a basic game it has great tension and decision making, especially with  eight players. This is a top quick game for the younger folk in my family to pull out and play.

Saboteur is another small card game, my wife bought it for me four or five years ago and it can take up to ten players. All participants are either miners who try to build a tunnel by laying cards (in a Water Works-like fashion) to a hidden gold mine, or saboteurs who try to prevent that from happening, As nobody's role is known unless revealed through actions, it is a very interactive game of 'whose on my side?' It begs for multiple plays as gold is received each round you play and roles change.

Both of these games satisfy the 6-8 player range, play very quickly, and require some thought and decision-making that keep it interesting.