by Tim Schmitt
Ketchup mechanics are not wanted around hereIf you need to see a ketchup mechanic, take a look here:https://i.redd.it/q040ua2pgsq11.png. I haven't yet succumbed to the need for her services. I continue to maintain my own ketchup.
This fully utilitarion post gets me caught up through October.
Games on Tim's Table
Tuesday October 16th: Diversions Game Night
Side Effects
New to me!
Overview/Impressions: A card game in which you have psychological/psychiatric conditions to be treated. Your conditions can have a negative impact on the game for you (each one is different)... and most treatments have as potential side effects other conditions. So: Play treatments on your own conditions, and/or play new conditions on other players who are vulnerable to them (thanks to the treatments they've played previously), or simply trigger relapses of other players' conditions. Be the first to treat all your conditions.
The art is pretty good; the game is just okay (at best). The luck of the draw plays a big part.
This session: With Glen, Dave, Eric, Drew, and one other whose name I don't remember. Glen taught. Eric joined late, but he had the cards to win it quickly.
My starting conditions: madness, depression, and a gambling addiction. Good thing poker wasn't on the table.
Mostly treated
Caverna: The Cave Farmers
New to me!
Overview/Impressions: When all is said and done, this is kind of a classic worker placement game. You are a dwarven farmer. Place your workers to acquire resources and build more locations in your caves and farms. Get points. Admire the awesome thing you've created at game's end.
For me, the cards in Agricola were always incredibly AP-inducing, and the way the game kind of forced you to develop everything meant that there was limited ability to get anywhere with really divergent strategies. The need to feed your workers was also harsher in that game. So all in all, Caverna is kind of a more relaxed Agricola.
I sort of expected not to like Caverna all that much; something about it being a sandbox-style game... but at the very least, I much prefer it to its predecessor.
This session: With Drew & Dave; Drew taught (it was his new acquisition and he didn't really know it very well) and I could help from my knowledge of Agricola. Also Glen helped a lot from the next table. I didn't play very well, but at least got some points with rubies and ore. Drew won by adventuring a lot. There were a couple of things we did incorrectly. I'd like to try again sometime. Drew 64 - Dave 62 - Tim 57
Drew is checking something out
My demesne near the end
Thurssday October 18th: High Noon Games!
Quadropolis
Game overview here.
This session: I taught Dan, Marina, and Aaron; first play on my copy. All enjoyed it, and Aaron won. I came in third.
Quadropolis happening!
Final scores
Sunday October 21st: Solo Session
Friday
New to me!
Overview/Impressions: Friday is a deckbuilder in which you are Robinson Crusoe's assistant Friday, teaching him the skills to survive and get back home. You are both culling your starting deck and adding cards to it, using cards drawn from the deck to defeat the challenges that add more cards. Every now and then you are forced to add a negative card (representing aging) to the deck. You work your way up to the point where you have to defeat two pirate ships to win.
It's a complex and interesting puzzle.
This session: A learning game. I did horribly. The pirates barely noticed I was there.
Ready to play
Tuesday October 23rd: Diversions Game Night!
Bohnanza
New to me!
Overview/Impressions: Uwe Rosenberg's famous bean-trading game! You plant beans in the three "fields" (groups of cards) in front of you; beans score differently based on the variety and the number of them in your field when you harvest. You get beans by trading, and by taking what you've drawn (unless you trade it). You have to be willing to trade to make your sets worth more. Sometimes you're forced to harvest a field before you really want to. And the trading is kind of an "anything goes" free for all. It's fun.
This session: With Ryan and Jeffrey. Ryan and I were both new to the game. I'm happy to finally erase one of the major gaps in my gaming experience. (Also, I enjoyed it.) Good game, and I won! 30-25-23
Look at my hill o' beans!
Rumpelstiltskin
New to me!
Overview/Impressions: An interesting two-player hidden role game (sort of) in which you are trying to determine the goblin that resides at the bottom of your opponent's deck. Each goblin you play allows you to either manipulate a deck (yours or your opponent's) or do some other small thing and then make a guess. Cards/goblins you've played go face up on the table, so they reduce the possibilities for the card you're trying to hide.
It's kind of fun and I would play it again.
This session: Jeffrey taught. We played two rounds and I won both.
Rumpelstiltskin in progress; the honorable Jeffrey presiding
Tuesday October 23rd (continued): Binga's Wingas
Several of the Diversions Crowd went over to Binga's when the game store closed; we sat under TVs, cheered for the Red Sox in World Series game one, and played Contact.
Contact x8
Overview/Impressions: A folk game in which A player thinks of a word and announces the first letter. Then there's kind of a guessing free-for-all, where other players think of something that begins with that letter, and ask "is it (definition for the word they're thinking of)? If the person with the original can come up with the word they're thinking of, play goes on. But if another player thinks of it first (or at least thinks they thought of it!), they shout "contact"; at which point they and the other guesser count down from five and on zero simultaneously say their words; if they are the same, the original word-holder must reveal another letter of their word. This goes on until it is guessed and then someone else comes up with a word.
This session: Not much to say after the description above. From my session notes: "After Diversions game night, We played a bunch of rounds over dinner during game one of the World Series." With Drew, Josh, Zack, Crystal, Britney, Derek, Travis.
No photos available
Wednesday October 24th: High Noon Games!
Race for the Galaxy x2
With Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm
Game Overview here.
This session: Two-player session with Aaron. Game 1: I had a couple of juicy options at startup and went with Doomed World; I had a good 5 cost/3VP world (I think brown) to settle in my starting hand. I was able to get a lot of good worlds, Merchant's Guild, and several bonus tiles (world color diversity, production worlds, phase bonus diversity, first to play a 6-cost dev) and hummed along for the win over Aaron's very good blue produce/consume engine (He started with Earth's Lost Colony). 47-45. Game 2 I was Damaged Alien Factory against Aaron's Old Earth. I played a lot of cheap worlds to get four of the bonus tiles (most blue/brown, first to 3 yellow, first to discard, something else too), but I never found ways to build a lot of points into my tableau; Aaron's array of 6-cost devs beat me. 43-32.
Galactic civilizations on the table
Aaron can play RftG without even looking at his tableau!
Monday October 29th: MaineTabletop Game Night!
I hadn't been able to get a game night together on a Friday in the prior cycle, so in desperation I planned it for a Monday. It worked well enough that I'll be trying that again. Now the goal will be one Monday and one Friday every month.
Mission Red Planet
Overview/Impressions: Hidden roles for area control. Each role can help you get astronauts to Mars, or move them on Mars once they get there... or sabotage other players in some way. Each of the regions on Mars give you resources if you have a majority there during a scoring round. There's a thematic countdown of the numbers corresponding to the different roles; when your chosen role's number is called, you take that role's action, if it's still possible. There are public and secret objectives to give it some variety.
I really like this one.
This session: With Amy, Rachael, Attila & Ern. It was a game of extremes: Attila scored around 60 points, I had 17. Ern was second with a score in the 30s; I don't remember where Rachael & Amy finished but they were both well ahead of me. I think the next lowest score was 24 or 25. Attila hadn't even played before, so kudos to him!
Blast-off!
Colonizing the red planet. Ern (yellow) dominates... one Northern region.
I'm the first to send a dude to the dead zone! Woohoo!
Through The Desert
Game overview here.
This session: With Rachael, Amy, Attila & Ern. My first play with my own copy of the game; maybe also my first time playing with five (which proved to be pretty chaotic). None of them had played before. I did well, but Attila did better. It was his night. Attila 61, Tim 57, Amy 57, Rachael 54, Ern 35.
Messy game in progress
My ending points
postgame discussion
Tuesday October 30th: High Noon Games!
Quadropolis
Game overview here.
This session: With Marina, Aaron, and August (his first time playing). I went with a public buildings strategy this time, and it paid off. I won.
My city develops
August & Marina setting out the next round's tiles. (Aaron is either praying or looking at his phone.)
My city develops some more
Final scores. I won!
Tuesday October 30th (continued): Diversions Game Night
Betrayal at House on the Hill
with Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widow's Walk
New to me expansion!
Overview/Impressions: Explore the haunted house by adding tiles, collect items (mostly useful ones), read cards for events and roll dice, modify your character attributes based on roll results. It's very thematic. At some point "the haunt" will happen; between the base game and the expansion there are about 100 haunts. Usually somebody becomes the traitor at that point; the traitor and the rest of the party each read separate overviews of what they know and what their objectives are, and then the second phase of the game commences. It varies quite a bit.
It's silly thematic fun. Often unbalanced, wildly varied in play time,,, but fun. There was a period when my daughter really enjoyed playing this with me.
I don't go out of my way for games like this, but it's fine once in a while.
This session: With Derek, Andrew, Jeffrey, Mike, Britney. We had a funny expansion haunt where we were sucked into a box, and we had to start the game over... and over... and over... until we ran out of time. And lost. There was no traitor for this particular haunt (unless you count me for rolling the dice and triggering it).
Exploring the house
Yellow girl (me) all alone in the basement kitchen
Deception: Murder In Hong Kong
Game overview here.
This session: With Derek, Britney, Drew, Mike, Jeffrey. Maybe one other person too. For this one I was the murderer, with Drew as my accomplice. Jeffrey was the clue-giver. I chose rats for the means of murder with the hourglass found at the crime. Mike made the accusation to get me, and I incorrectly guessed Derek as the witness (It was Britney). Drat!
(image credit: [user=JollyThinkers]JollyThinkers[/user])
Dead Last x2
Overview/Impressions: Using cards, Simultaneously vote with all of the other players to decide on who gets eliminated. EVerybody who votes with the majority is okay. Everyone else is eliminated. The one who was most voted on as the target is only okay if he/she voted "ambush" instead of another player. If you're one of the last two remaining, engage another game theory competition to grab loot.
Not at all my cup of tea, but I suppose it is a pretty pure distillation of the form, and works for the people who like this sort of thing.
This session: With Ryan, Crystal, Mike, Eric, Britney, Derek, Drew. I lost very quickly both times. Derek won the first game; I think Crystal won the second.
(image credit: [user=W Eric Martin]W Eric Martin[/user])
Tuesday October 30th (continued): post-Diversions at Seadog Brewing
After Diversions closed, a contingent of gamers went over to Seadog for food, beer, and...
Werewolf
Overview/Impressions: I have previously described One Night Ultimate Werewolfhere. This is basically the same game, except with a human moderator instead of an app.
This session: Drew moderated. I was the seer. The first two nights I correctly guessed Crystal and Eric as werewolves before I died... but I didn't know how to convey the information. The villagers lost. Derek was converted to a werewolf by the alpha wolf (Crystal), so he won (I don't remember whether Crystal did too. I'm pretty sure that Eric was eliminated by the villagers before they lost.
Roles for the round
Keep on gaming!
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