Valerie Putman:  25 new games played

Since school let out May 14th I have played 25 games that were new to me (and over 50 different games in total).  I turned in my final grades May 16th and hit the road that afternoon for a two week trip visiting friends, attending two game conventions, presenting at a psychology conference, putting over 1600 miles on the new car (including 24 hours of driving in one 36 hour period), getting a traffic violation ticket (a less expensive speeding ticket), and gaming nearly every day.  I fell in love with a few games, finally played some games I’ve been wanting to try, and encountered a number of duds.  I just thought I’d spend this week summing up some of my opinions of the new games I played during my trip.

Games from Essen and earlier that I finally tried
- Mermaid Rain:  While I don’t plan to spend the money to try and buy a copy, I did enjoy the game.  I enjoy hand management games and the exploration and collecting mechanisms felt different enough from other games.
- Indonesia:  I definitely need to play this one again.  The rules weren’t difficult, but by the time I had my a-ha moment where I felt like I knew how to play, it was too late to really execute any sort of plan.  I did find it frustrating to have a company (shipping or production) that I had been building and nurturing taken away from me.  But I did like that players who focused on production could end up turning over all of their profits (and even some of their own money) to the players that shipped their goods.
- Mission Planete Rouge:  Simultaneous secret selection.  Bleh.  Of course, that’s one reason I’ve been avoiding the game, and I must admit there was more fun in the game than I was expecting.  Just don’t plan on planning and enjoy the ride.
- 1829 Mainline:  This is my second play of an 18XX game and it was much better than my first attempt.  The first time I learned an 18XX game it was with one other newbie and two very experienced players.  The two experienced players couldn’t seem to just let us make our own mistakes and practically played our games for us.  This time I played with four other players who each had 0 – 2 18XX games under their belts and we all made lots of mistakes and had a great time in the process.  The group agreed to play again within the next few months while the rules are still pretty fresh in our minds and I can’t wait.
- Byzantium:  This game is clever and interesting and thoroughly engaging.  But I find the theme so distasteful (propagating war) that I’d really rather play something else.

Newer games and games I hadn’t heard of before
- Nacht der Magier:  Play it in the dark.  While I’ve been told that it can be a good tactical dexterity game in the light, I think that it’s the glow in the dark game play that makes this so much fun.
- Mykerinos:  I think that Ystari has another hit.  While it’s no Caylus, Mykerinos is a nice lighter game with an interesting twist on end game scoring.  Players vie for area control in order to collect cards that give them special abilities and to have the opportunity to place cubes in good position for end game scoring.  You have to choose your battles carefully because collecting more cards can help you win future battles, but all of your efforts are wasted if you don’t improve your scoring opportunities before the final calculation of victory points.
- Carrousel:  Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  As soon as my husband played this at the Gathering he knew I would love it.  It is a speed puzzle game (like Ricochet Robot, Ma Ni Ki, Set, and Turbo Taxi).  I love speed puzzle games.  This immediately jumped to the top of my “must purchaseâ€? list and, in fact, I already ordered three copies.  Players are manipulating the order of horses on a carrousel in order to match their scoring cards.  The first player to match 10 cards wins.  There are only 4 basic moves that you are permitted in order to rearrange the horses and you must be able to score after each move.  You can’t combine three or four moves to get the order you need.  But other players are moving the same horses and you have to be able to jump in when you see a move that will score for you.  Can I say it again? Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
-Vitrail: After falling in love with Carrousel, I was pointed towards another speed puzzle game.  This one is almost as good.  Each player has four clear cards with red, yellow, green, and blue dots.  When the clear cards are stacked, many of the dots will line up and cover each other.  A deck of target cards has arrangements of dots on one side and points on the other.  A card is placed in the center of the table and the first player to stack their four clear cards so that the dots match the target earns the card.  The game plays until someone earns 10(?) points.  Definitely another must buy.  In fact, since Carrousel and Vitrail were both Asmodee games, I was able to order them both from the same French website.

Kids games
-Monte Rolla:  I knew that Chutes and Ladders and Candyland were not the best that kid’s games had to offer.  I’ve enjoyed a few Haba games before.  But I was blown away by the Selecta games that I played with Chris and Ryan Yu, Dale Yu’s children.  Ryan’s favorite is Monte Rolla--a much, much, much better option than Chutes and Ladders.  It is still a roll and move, but each player has 2 marbles to move, so a child can learn to plan ahead and actually make decisions about which piece to move when.  The board is propped up by a cardboard base down the middle, so when your marble lands on the stream, it actually rolls back or speeds forward, depending on where you are on the board.
-Nino Conillo:  This Reiner Knizia might be the best first game for a child that I’ve seen.  It only requires color recognition, not counting.  The game is gorgeous and the bunnies are adorable.  And it was fun.  Mercifully short, random, bunny rescuing fun.  Instead of wearing out it’s welcome like most kids games, I was happy to play 3 or 4 times before we picked another game.

Duds
-Hunting Party:  If the rip off from Clue (trying to find out which weapon, which location, and which…something else… you need for the final battle by asking the player on your left to show you his cards) was integrated better in the overall game play, I might have found something to like.  Instead I’ll just go play Clue.  You needed the right cards to be successful in battles and I was unsuccessful at getting the right cards.  Not that I think that mattered in the overall lack of fun factor for me.
-Cincinatti:  It was fitting that I played the game in the city it was named after (or in a nearby suburb if you want to be exact).  This is another dice rolling, press your luck, trying to make poker hands game.  There was nothing novel or interesting in the game mechanics and the nice looking leather dice rolling cups smelled like dead fish.  The entire group agreed with the assessment, “Nice pips and smelly bits.â€?  Hmmm, that was funnier when I was drinking.

And that’s only half of the new games I played.  There were quite a few more kids games and a few that were fairly forgettable.  For example, I would be happy to play again but wouldn’t suggest Top It, The Way to Draconia, Castle Merchants, or Tsuro.  I did really like Cornhole, an outdoor, horseshoe-like game we played Memorial Day weekend that is popular in the Midwest.  I was happy to see that it was listed on the Geek with official rules and links to sites with directions for making my own set.  Overall, though, as these gaming trips always demonstrate, the best games had far more to do with who I was playing with and less about what we were actually playing.  Thanks to all of my friends, especially those who were generous enough to let me stay in a guest room for a night or two.  It was a great trip.

Next on the itinerary:  Oasis of Fun and Origins.

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

© 2006 Valerie Putman

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Comments:

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” - Byzantium:  This game is clever and interesting and thoroughly engaging.  But I find the theme so distasteful (propagating war) that I’d really rather play something else. “ My exact feelings about wargames...and gracefully put.  My favorite genre: designs inspired by wargames, but without the reminder of nightmares past. Posted by Jared Scarborough on Jun 4, 2006 at 12:20 PM | #

A few thoughts on some of the games you mentioned… - Carrousel: I’ve played this with a lot of people and almost everyone likes it.  A very nice simultaneous puzzle game.  Asmodee should do this one in English. -Vitrail: I’ve yet to play this one.  I missed playing this at the Atlanta Game Fest, but I hope to try it in a few weeks. -Cincinnati: I’ve yet to play this one as well.  I’m a bit relieved that you didn’t like it too much - I was about to get it in an order from Germany but then dropped it in favor of Hart and der Grenze (which, while silly, can be fun).  It would have pained me if you thought it was great! Posted by Rick Thornquist on Jun 4, 2006 at 10:48 PM | #

Carrousel was the hit of the gathering for me as I also love race puzzle games and being small enough to tote along to most places is great! Posted by Lorna Wong on Jun 7, 2006 at 11:30 AM | #

Based on Valerie’s exuberance—dare I say ecstatic excitement—over Carrousel, I resisted my better judgment and ordered 2 copies, one of which is destined for the Gulf Games prizes table).  I am admittedly hesitant, as I tend NOT to like speed puzzles.  Still, when Valerie is THAT excited over something, I just gotta try it! Posted by Greg Schloesser on Jun 9, 2006 at 10:24 AM | #

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