Valerie Putman: Crossed off the to do list
If only I could be this successful at getting my to do list of projects around the house done. Last week I listed a slew of games that I wanted to try this weekend at Gulf Games and I am happy to report that I have a bunch of new-to-me games logged.
Blox The board is a random grid of 4 different colors. Towers made of blocks of the same 4 colors are distributed around the board. Players use cards that also represent those 4 colors to do one of 5 things: move a pawn onto the board, move a pawn to another square on the board, tear down a tower, build a tower, or eliminate another player’s pawn. If a player doesn’t like those options, they can trade in their hand for new cards. Players earn points when they tear down towers, build towers, or eliminate another player’s pawns. The game moves fairly quickly and it’s a fun little abstract. Most people who tried this SdJ nominee at Gulf Games seemed to like it.
Tribune I have no idea what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it. Depending on the number of players and the length of game you’d like to have, players are given cards with a list of goals and you must complete some number of them to win. This is accomplished using a set collection mechanism. There are a variety of ways to earn more cards and earn items that move you towards the different victory conditions. These options are encountered in a Pillars of the Earth, start at one end of the board and resolve each one in a particular order, kind of way. I liked the game, but definitely this is one that I would prefer to play twice in a night. It was about halfway through the first game before I realized all of the things I had done wrong.
Monastery Even though I was on the short end of the “we got rules wrong and someone got screwed” stick, I liked this one better than any of the other people I played with. Players place tiles and use their monks to build parts of the monastery. This earns the players a resource (time? money? blessings?) that can be used to earn more monks or letters used to finish a Latin phrase (worth victory points). We had to abandon the game before we finished, but I am hoping that I can find other people who liked the game enough (or want to learn it) so that I can play it again.
Nefertiti Ok, so it is another auction game with a pasted on Egyptian theme. But it is different enough from the other vaguely Egyptian auction games that if novelty of theme doesn’t matter to you (which is true for me), then there is something new here worth exploring for a few plays. After that, it will likely fall into the happy-to-play-it but unlikely-to-be-requested-by-me category.
Ming Dynasty I kind of liked this Web of Power meets Elfenland set collection game. There are a few different ways to get victory points (family members in cloisters, family members that stay in the city, and family members that go back to the districts to earn more chits for set collection in future rounds). Until someone shows me that one of these methods is clearly better, I look forward to playing this again and trying to answer that question myself.
Tinner’s Trail This wasn’t new to me this weekend, but it was new to a lot of people that tried it at Gulf Games. I played it for the 3rd time this weekend and it was my favorite game of the convention.
Say Anything I am strangely successful at choosing answers to bizarre questions. (What is the worst thing you could say when you catch your partner cheating? How about, “Can I join?” Silly me, everyone else thought it referred to partners in a game!) I won this game twice and apparently my answers kept some people at the table entertained. I couldn’t wait for the torture to end. I’m just not a party game girl. Sorry.
Cash-a-Catch Warning, the game has a bell. This isn’t very popular in a big room of gamers—especially early in the morning. One player flips over fish cards until someone rings the bell and buys the lot. Players are trying to collect fish that they can then sell for a profit. (Gosh, I seemed to play a lot of set collection games this weekend!) This game would be perfect for a weekend with the in-laws, but it’s not a game night game.
Next week I’m at the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA. Hope to see you there!
I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman
Posted by Valerie Putman on Aug 3, 2008 at 01:00 AM in Columnists, Valerie Putman / 1398
Comments:
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Re: Say Anything hah! I’m not a party game person either, but for some reason, Say Anything and Apples to Apples are VERY enjoyable with my family and inlaws (just not with my regular game group though).
Re: Monastery
Posted by Robert Ramirez on Aug 3, 2008 at 12:58 PM | #
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Based on two games with five other players, I am still the only person in my groups that like Monastery. I’m not sure if I like it, but I am intrigued enough that I want to play it more! I’ve only gotten one play of Ming in. In addition to the games you mentioned, it seems a bit like Taj Mahal, too. Nothing directly, but the whole, what I do here will matter in a couple turns for a different reason. Posted by Scott Russell on Aug 3, 2008 at 10:49 PM | #
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I like Tribune better with the score cards. That way, you can’t just think of the victory conditions, which just act as a mechanic to end the game, but you have to take into account the amount of points it nets you. Posted by Surya Van Lierde on Aug 4, 2008 at 07:20 AM | #
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Monastery-we got the rules all wrong, but I am intrigued enough to try it again. I think this was the general feeling of 2 of the 3 groups that I know played it over the weekend at WCMF. I’m not sure what the 3rd group thought.
Posted by Lorna Wong on Aug 4, 2008 at 10:54 AM | #
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Humorously, I just added Monastery to my Want to Play list on BGG, so I’d love for you to school me - er, teach me, Valerie! Posted by Nathan Morse on Aug 4, 2008 at 03:04 PM | #
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My understanding of the Tribune rules (taught to me by the designer) is that the scores matter whenever the game ends due more than one player having the right number of goals (their number and kind depends on the scenario used) at the end of a round; they are the tie-breaker. Since, with good players, I expect more than one player will usually hit the required number of goals on the same round, points will then matter anyways, even if you are not using the score cards explicitly. In the first game I played, I managed to keep both Karl and another experienced playtester (from HiG) from winning on the fourth round, so that I could then achieve four goals along with them on the next round—however, they both had considerably more tie-breaker points than I did… Posted by Tom Lehmann on Aug 5, 2008 at 09:27 PM | #
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That is correct, Tom, but a variant states that the game ends when one player gets to X amount of goals, but the goals aren’t counted, only the points. Offcourse, having achieved more goals gives you a bigger chance of having more points, but still… Posted by Surya Van Lierde on Aug 6, 2008 at 03:41 AM | #
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