After a week of gaming with my son, and playing lots of Uno and Sorry!, it's awfully nice to play something heavy. It's so good to have Friday night roll around and get out the real thinky stuff with the adults.
This week, Dave had announced that the game night theme would be to try to play some of the Brettspiel Adventskalender 2016 games, so the list include games like Hansa Teutonica, Guilds of London, and Oracle of Delphi. Good brainy games for good brainy gamers.
So we start out with - why, Secret Code 13+4, of course!
There was actually a couple good reasons for that. We had four people, and about 10 minutes before the other two people showed up, and Dave had been reading the rules for this when we arrived. He wanted to learn it so he could use it when he tutors elementary school kids in math, and I play it with my son, so I said, oh, don't read the rules, I'll teach it. And it's one of those games where, by the time you've taught the game, you've played 1/4 of the way through, so you may as well finish, right?
So that decision made sense, right?
Then Steve and Devon arrive and we are six. Six is always such an awkward number for gaming, but in this case we were fortunate in our Advent calendar theme, as King of Tokyo was one of the games on the list. It plays six! And the Gingerbread Man is super silly! :)
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
Plus, Devon said that he had never played it with six before, so that was another point for it. We combined several people's promos with Christy's base set to have maximum choices. I grabbed Made in the Lab early to let me have first crack at the good cards - I was surprised to get it, actually, I was the third player and got it on the second round after at least two other people could have bought it and passed it by. I used it to snag Jets and then started hanging out in Tokyo, since I couldn't be hurt there now as long as I retreated. Devon had the card that lets you have a second life if you get killed, so finally it came down to just him and me. He was going for points, and I was trying to kill him. I think he was in Tokyo and was definitely going to win on his next turn. I HAD to kill him this turn or it was over.
I rolled one point short. People started to 'awwww' for me - but wait! I was Made in a Lab, I argued, I can still do the Hail Mary move and maybe maybe maybe the top card of the deck will be one that lets me do damage. Hmmm, not likely, but sure, go ahead and try right?
It worked :D
I bet I won't get to buy Made in the Lab so easily again next time...
Ok, so now we've played a couple light games, but we're still at 6 players. Dave offers to sit out so we can play a five player game. That's no good though! It sucks to host a game night and have to sit out. And we really still don't want to play two three-player games.
Fortunately, there's another promo for Saboteur.
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
Christy taught - it had been too long since we last played for the rest of us, but it came back quickly. I was a good guy all three rounds, but the saboteurs won too easily :( We never used the promo, which lets you place a dwarf figure to block people - it's really only a move you'd do if you were a saboteur, as far as I can see.
Although people would have thought I was a saboteur if I had played my stupid cards -
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
OK, so now we've played three pretty light games, and Stacy left so we are down to five. NOW we're gonna get out the big guns, right? Some big heavy thing that I'd never play with my kid, please!
But, we have to take care of one other thing - Chris said he was gonna show up and didn't. So we have to play the game he really wanted to play so we can text him pics and tease him about it, right?
Of course we do :) Which is why we end up playing Pandemic Iberia.
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image by deniseibase, on Flickr
Which I have to say is BY FAR the prettier Pandemic. And I love that it had variants! I'm trying to talk myself out of buying it, because I already have Pandemic, and I played SOOOOO much Pandemic Legacy that I really got burned out. But, it's SO pretty :) And I love the new roles and new ideas that come along - the nurse is brilliant, and so is the idea of the diseases having unique characteristics. And it's harder! We lost, but it was SO close - if we had had two more turns, we would have won.
That was pretty much it for game night - I stuck around to play The Blood of an Englishman.
![]()
image by deniseibase, on Flickr
but I knackered it up and Dave beat me twice. I thought at the time it would be a one-and-done sort of game, but it's growing on me, I want to give it another try now. We also tried Tides of Madness but I sleepily forgot that it was DIFFERENT from Tides of Time! Because of the madness and all! And ended up finishing the second round with eight madness AND a permanent card that gave me a madness, so I was hosed. I just went for points - and I would have won, too, 84 points if I just hadn't been so crazy!! :p
That was it for the weekend! I'll have some more kid gaming to report on shortly - we just got Paperback and I can already see where it's going to be a boost to the ol' fifth grade spelling. And in other news, I'm staying on at the game store after the holidays! Only one day a week, but it'll be fun and it'll give me a little mad money to spend on games - yes, I'm going to be one of those people who has a second paycheck that she spends at the store where she makes it :)
This week, Dave had announced that the game night theme would be to try to play some of the Brettspiel Adventskalender 2016 games, so the list include games like Hansa Teutonica, Guilds of London, and Oracle of Delphi. Good brainy games for good brainy gamers.
So we start out with - why, Secret Code 13+4, of course!
There was actually a couple good reasons for that. We had four people, and about 10 minutes before the other two people showed up, and Dave had been reading the rules for this when we arrived. He wanted to learn it so he could use it when he tutors elementary school kids in math, and I play it with my son, so I said, oh, don't read the rules, I'll teach it. And it's one of those games where, by the time you've taught the game, you've played 1/4 of the way through, so you may as well finish, right?
So that decision made sense, right?
Then Steve and Devon arrive and we are six. Six is always such an awkward number for gaming, but in this case we were fortunate in our Advent calendar theme, as King of Tokyo was one of the games on the list. It plays six! And the Gingerbread Man is super silly! :)
Plus, Devon said that he had never played it with six before, so that was another point for it. We combined several people's promos with Christy's base set to have maximum choices. I grabbed Made in the Lab early to let me have first crack at the good cards - I was surprised to get it, actually, I was the third player and got it on the second round after at least two other people could have bought it and passed it by. I used it to snag Jets and then started hanging out in Tokyo, since I couldn't be hurt there now as long as I retreated. Devon had the card that lets you have a second life if you get killed, so finally it came down to just him and me. He was going for points, and I was trying to kill him. I think he was in Tokyo and was definitely going to win on his next turn. I HAD to kill him this turn or it was over.
I rolled one point short. People started to 'awwww' for me - but wait! I was Made in a Lab, I argued, I can still do the Hail Mary move and maybe maybe maybe the top card of the deck will be one that lets me do damage. Hmmm, not likely, but sure, go ahead and try right?
It worked :D
I bet I won't get to buy Made in the Lab so easily again next time...
Ok, so now we've played a couple light games, but we're still at 6 players. Dave offers to sit out so we can play a five player game. That's no good though! It sucks to host a game night and have to sit out. And we really still don't want to play two three-player games.
Fortunately, there's another promo for Saboteur.
Christy taught - it had been too long since we last played for the rest of us, but it came back quickly. I was a good guy all three rounds, but the saboteurs won too easily :( We never used the promo, which lets you place a dwarf figure to block people - it's really only a move you'd do if you were a saboteur, as far as I can see.
Although people would have thought I was a saboteur if I had played my stupid cards -
OK, so now we've played three pretty light games, and Stacy left so we are down to five. NOW we're gonna get out the big guns, right? Some big heavy thing that I'd never play with my kid, please!
But, we have to take care of one other thing - Chris said he was gonna show up and didn't. So we have to play the game he really wanted to play so we can text him pics and tease him about it, right?
Of course we do :) Which is why we end up playing Pandemic Iberia.
Which I have to say is BY FAR the prettier Pandemic. And I love that it had variants! I'm trying to talk myself out of buying it, because I already have Pandemic, and I played SOOOOO much Pandemic Legacy that I really got burned out. But, it's SO pretty :) And I love the new roles and new ideas that come along - the nurse is brilliant, and so is the idea of the diseases having unique characteristics. And it's harder! We lost, but it was SO close - if we had had two more turns, we would have won.
That was pretty much it for game night - I stuck around to play The Blood of an Englishman.
but I knackered it up and Dave beat me twice. I thought at the time it would be a one-and-done sort of game, but it's growing on me, I want to give it another try now. We also tried Tides of Madness but I sleepily forgot that it was DIFFERENT from Tides of Time! Because of the madness and all! And ended up finishing the second round with eight madness AND a permanent card that gave me a madness, so I was hosed. I just went for points - and I would have won, too, 84 points if I just hadn't been so crazy!! :p
That was it for the weekend! I'll have some more kid gaming to report on shortly - we just got Paperback and I can already see where it's going to be a boost to the ol' fifth grade spelling. And in other news, I'm staying on at the game store after the holidays! Only one day a week, but it'll be fun and it'll give me a little mad money to spend on games - yes, I'm going to be one of those people who has a second paycheck that she spends at the store where she makes it :)