May 28th, 2005 |
Scott held a BBQ, and so after eating our chicken, brats (veggie and otherwise), and steaks, we had a few drinks and set up for three new games.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | * |
| Annie | 4 back | 2 | * |
| Mike | 5 back | 3 | * |
| Scott | 6 back | 4 | * |
| Karla | 15 back | 5 | * |
Notes: Karla had always liked the idea of Gulo Gulo, which I would delight her with whenever I saw the game at Pegasus. I had always wanted to buy it, but it was too steep ($38), especially as it was a children's game. To top it off, fairplay games doesn't keep it in stock (it has to be ordered). So, a 20% sale at Pegasus later, I had it in my greedy paws.
The game is much more fun than it should be, sort of like Midnight Party. It's a fun, semi-strategic race game. The end game is a little haphazard and lucky, but it's very fun.
Dan won the first game, though a lot of us were close. Karla told Dan to stop licking his fingers (like Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles) before grabbing the eggs. Dan stopped, but I think it knocked him off his game, as he didn't win again (though he was close).
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | |
| Annie | 2 back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 2 back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 2 back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Amy | 7 back | 5 | * |
| Scott | 15 back | 6 | |
Notes: We immediately played a second game when Scott's friend Amy showed up, and it was another good, tight affair, as Annie took 2nd for the second straight time. Dan had had to pull out 4 straight eggs in the first game, so it was a bit anti-climactic when I only had to draw 2 - and the purple egg was right on top.
Also, Scott started doing a pinky finger flick, which we deemed illegal. Basically, he would try to get his pinky on the egg he needed, push it against the side of the bowl, then chuck it out of the bowl. Dan for once agreed with me that this was against the spirit of the rules.
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Karla | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | |
| Scott | 2 back | 2 | |
| Amy | 3 back | 3 (Tie) | |
| Mike | 3 back | 3 (Tie) | |
| Dan | 4 back | 5 | |
| Annie | 7 back | 6 | |
Notes: One last time before I put a stop to it (to prevent burnout). Annie had vowed that we would play until she won one, but Dan devoted much of his effort not really to winning, but to setting Annie up for setting off the Egg Alarm. He did a great job, though he did knock himself out of the race late.
Scott recovered to take second after a very poor effort in our second game, when he genuinely got pretty flustered and set off the Egg Alarm probably three straight times. I did all right, but Karla was in a better position to win and did so.
By the end of the game everyone was spouting off variants - use your left hand, etc.
| Saboteur |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Amy | 7 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 5 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 5 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Dan | 5 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Karla | 3 | 5 (Tie) | * |
| Annie | 3 | 5 (Tie) | * |
Notes: I had played this game at the Madison Board Gamers Wednesday night group, and I liked it enough to buy it. I'm always looking for passable games that can host a goodly number of players, and as Saboteur boasts that it can handle up to 10 (and it was very good with 8), I picked it up.
The first round, people didn't really listen too well to the rules and kept asking what the special cards did, which kind of confused me, because they're incredibly straightforward. Still, Annie and I were obviously the saboteurs and we managed to hold them off for quite some time, but a broken lantern stopped me (and my vast amount of dead end cards) in my tracks while Annie did as much as she could with some collapse cards. We were eventually overwhelmed, though, and they managed to find the gold after the deck was depleted anyway.
In the second round I was a miner, and it seemed like Dan and Scott were the saboteurs, especially when Dan helped Scott by fixing his cart. Scott, though, suddenly started helping us, and within a few rounds we had found the gold. We discovered that Dan was on his own.
The third round was very similar, but Karla was the lone saboteur. She managed to last a little longer though, as I thought that Scott or maybe Amy were saboteurs and spent some effort on slowing them down. We drained the deck, and had to go on a pretty elaborate journey from the north piece of coal to the south piece of gold. Frankly, I was surprised Karla was alone, because it seemed like both Scott and Amy were placing pieces that weren't too helpful.
We added up our gold pieces and Amy won, mostly from finishing first in the last round, when she received 3 gold pieces. Scott also won all four times, but he only managed 5 points.
| Monsters Menace America |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Megaclaw (Mike) | Beat Gargantis and Tomanagi | 1 | * |
| Tomanagi (Scott) | Lost to Megaclaw | 2 | * |
| Gargantis (Dan) | Lost to Megaclaw | 3 | * |
Notes: The game actually started with Annie playing, who had Konk, but after a few moves, some vain attacks against Gargantis, and a very bad dose of alcohol sickness, she ducked out in favor of lying on the floor, shivering, and trying to get some sleep.
The game was kind of herky jerky. Gargantis had the west coast to himself and had a nice mix of infamy points (at first), health, and mutations. Megaclaw focused on the south, though I managed to get him to Texas and Arizona after not too long. Scott directed Tomanagi to the Northeast and Annie sent Konk into the northern Rockies after starting near Nashville.
Gargantis was doing great until Mecha-Monster showed up under Scott's guidance. Mecha-monster hassled Dan for about 4 rounds. I had a lot of infamy points and Dan had to use a few up to fend off Mecha-monster and to deal with a military research card I played. Annie, as I mentioned "Konk"ed out (nyuk nyuk nyuk) and Scott managed some health, but the northeast was pretty well defended. He also had the "Berserk" card ready to play for the monster challenge.
Dan started the challenge, and Megaclaw, with his nuclear missile appended armor, was too tough to kill, Gargantis missed with all three attacks, and before he could attack a second time, Megaclaw cut him to ribbons with his big, orange claws. (Karla enjoyed how I made the claws clamping motion. Once, I scooped up a jet unit I had destroyed and pretended to crush it a big claw.) Next up was Tomanagi, who also never had a chance to attack as I hit with every roll and used all my infamy points (I started with 7) to make sure the big lizard never had a chance to breathe his fire on me. Megaclaw was the winner!
...sort of. Scott and Dan thought it was too short, that they didn't really have much of a chance to build up their monsters. The reason it felt this way was because I was letting the attacker roll first, even if he wasn't a monster! This is completely wrong. The monster always attacks first. This makes building up a powerful military more useful. We used a lot of head on attacks even with just one or two units. That strategy is foolish when you play it the correct way. Also, the monsters are in better shape when the challenge comes. When it arrived, I had 8 health, Gargantis had 15, and Tomanagi had about 7. The correct rules will keep the monsters tougher.
Also, I neglected the rule about changing the challenger. Once the challenge has been initiated, the players get a chance to reach a challenge spot. The first monster to reach the challenge space becomes (immediately) the new challenger. Being the challenger can be a huge plus.
We also took forever to deploy our military units. This, I trust, will change with time. We got the rules so gunked up and Scott and Dan were kind of confused, so Megaclaw's victory won't go on the chart.