December 23, 2005 |
| Gulo Gulo |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Rakesh | Found the Baby Gulo | 1 | * |
| Mike | 3 Back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Lee | 3 Back | 2 (Tie) | |
| Arman | "3 Back" | 2 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 12 Back | 5 | |
Notes: For the first game of the night, after setting up Lee and Rakesh singers on our Karaoke Revolution Party Disk, we played some Gulo Gulo. Arman had played it before with me, and he played well that first time, but tonight he was too wired or worked up or something and reached into the dish as if trying to pull out a tooth: rough and quick. Every time it reached him he knocked over the egg alarm and (of course) he got frustrated. We tried to get him to go more slowly but he was in his "I'm a frustrated non-listener" mood. I still get in those moods, so I can't blame him.
Near the end, we started letting him get two turns in a row (as he was feeling down for being so far back). Rakesh made it to the end first and managed to pull out 3 other eggs and then the purple baby egg to win the game.
Arman wasn't really that happy for him.
| Igloo Pop |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 18 | 1 | |
| Lee | 13 | 2 (Tie) | * |
| Karla | 13 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Rakesh | 12 | 4 | * |
Notes: Arman was going on and on about puzzles, and when I said all I had was games, he was a bit disappointed...until he saw Blackbeard. He wanted to play that. He couldn't have picked a worse game...but I lied and told him I didn't know the rules to it.
Karla wanted Villa Paletti, but Arman, in his Go Go GO! mood was only going to knock the tower over really quickly. So I picked Igloo Pop. Arman didn't want to play it anyway, though he was sorely tempted by the noisy igloos.
I had a great game for the first time ever. My days of getting skunked at this are long gone. I managed to hit the solo "9" card in the first turn and scoop up some easier cards, then got lucky and found the "2" igloo when the single "2" card was available (and also got the "4" solo card). Rakesh started slow then improved, as did Karla, while Lee had a quick start and slowed down. (This game is all about waves of productivity and non).
In the end, my awesome pile of 3 eskimo cards won the day despite Karla's late, mad rush.
| Ricochet Robot |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 6 | 1 | |
| Lee | 5 | 2 | * |
| Karla | 1 | 3 | |
Notes: Dan had called and announced his imminent arrival while Rakesh and Arman left, after a big hilarity fest when Rakesh let Arman design his Karaoke Revolution character, giving him a blue mohawk and an elvis outfit. As Karla (as Rakesh's character) and Lee sang "Dust in the Wind" together on stage, Arman and Rakesh laughed their asses off.
After they left, we were down to three, and I thought Ricochet Robot would handle the time well. It did. Lee caught on really quickly, and after some early one-robot movements, we settled in to some good 2 or 3 robot movements. Karla finally managed to get one after I had called 8. (She lowered the bid to 7 and pulled it off.) There was some controversy as I forgot one of my movements at one point, but I eventually remembered it.
Near the end it was 5 to 4, Lee's lead, but I managed the last two to squeak my way to victory.
| Cartagena |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 6 | 1 | |
| Dan | 3 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 3 | 2 (Tie) | |
Notes: *Sigh* How many games am I going to get the rules wrong to? I may start a "Mike's Wall of Shame" list on my website to keep track. Cartagena provides another example. We've been playing that everyone gets 1 turn. In reality, you get from one to three turns (though why you wouldn't want to use all three is probably incredibly rare.
Anyway, I managed to get all six of my pirates on the escape ship, though Dan made a furious late rally, hopping past Karla's to get three other ones within the last four spaces. Karla had two that were still only halfway in, though pirates were making big jumps via the Pistol and Bottle spaces.
| Metro |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Scott | 79 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 77 | 2 | |
| Dan | 71 | 3 | * |
Notes: Karla took a break to eat so I pulled out Metro, a Xmas gift to myself. I promoted it as "Tsuro on steroids." It turned out to be that to a T, and both Dan and Scott liked it.
I don't remember much how it went, except that Scott went for some big routes early, but lost a few trains to some hose manuveurs. Dan never really got big trains, but didn't get hosed too often either. I lost a few train tracks early on but made a big run late with two big tracks still available. Scott cut them off before I could overtake his lead, though, and he held on for victory.
Scott thought that it was important to get to the double point areas in the middle ASAP. This resulted in a 6 point track, which really isn't that great. That was when he went, "Ahh!" and started making windy, twisty tracks.
| RoboRally |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan (Trundlebot) | 4 flags | 1 | |
| Scott (Twonky) | 3 flags | 2 | |
| Karla (Zoombot) | 2 flags | 3 | |
| Mike (Hammerbot) | 1 flag | 4 | |
Notes: My luck in this one was so rotten it was unbelievable. First, I quickly hit the first flag, then spent the rest of the game wandering beyond all the flags.
I chose a map that placed all the flags on the near side of the board. So the only reason to go beyond the near side was to avoid everyone or not go off the end of the board. I wandered around there the whole time.
The other three zipped around, chasing each other from flag to flag. Dan took a bit to get going (after a lot of turning on his first turn), but then he got to the second flag first, and there was a furious race to the third, which Dan won also, just beating Karla, who had to manuveur around some walls, conveyor belts and turning gears...getting too hung up and being just one space away from flag #3 all game. Then Dan, with a turn's head start, zipped toward flag #4. On his way, he happened to find a shutdown Hammerbot (all 1 flag reached of him) sitting all forlorn and shot him 3 times on his way over.
As if my game hadn't been bad enough, that was the cincher. Dan then spent a turn hubristically zapping Scott rather than winning, and, had Scott had a high enough priority card, it would have cost him the game! As it was, Scott didn't have a high enough priority, and Dan beat us all despite his hubris.
| Samurai |
| Results | |||||
| Player | Buddhas | High Hats | Rice | Place | First Time? |
| Mike | 3 | 2 | 6 | 1 | |
| Dan | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Karla | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Scott | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 (Tie) | * |
Notes: I figured we could play Samurai, so pulled it out. Dan doesn't like or get this game and every time he placed a tile he said, "I guess I'll do this." I find this game very simple and strategic. Place your tiles so that you get a majority in something and getting stuff you don't absolutely need as quickly and with as little expense as possible.
The big thing, though, is to get a sole majority, something only I accomplished, which garnered me and easy victory. Dan tied Karla in High Hats, and Scott in Buddhas. I thought that Karla would get the high hats and Dan the Buddhas while I had to fend for rice with Scott, but around mid-game Dan stopped going for Buddhas and Karla stopped going for High Hats. Scott played pretty well, and may have won if he hadn't opposed me in Rice.
Scott made some nice hose moves and Karla also made a good one or two against Dan, which frustrated him (probably because he doesn't like the game anyway and he assumed that I was leading). As far as good strategy games go that finish in about 40 minutes, this one is top notch.
| Talisman |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan (Satyr) | Crown of Command | 1 | |
| Scott (Leprechaun) | Killed | 2 | * |
| Mike (Valkyrie) | Admitted Defeat | 3 | |
| Karla (Ranger) | Suicide | 4 | |
Notes: For some reason that escapes me, when Dan said "We should play Talisman," an impish urge arose in my belly that not only carried me into my room, but also brought back this game. For the next three hours, we played it...in all its excruciating frustration.
Really, it wasn't too bad, and Karla called it "Speed Talisman," as I was forcing everyone to go at a breakneck pace, and we were playing without the City or Dungeon (though the Dungeon might have sped it up). The Satyr kept stealing our followers, which was a pain in the butt, so I made sure to draw cards on the other side of the board from him.
Scott managed to get the magic wand, which he really enjoyed. I like the Leprechaun a lot, because of his Teleportation, but Scott only rolled one "6" the entire game...until the last few turns.
Both Karla and Scott were turned into toads, at which point Karla gave up and killed herself by fighting some monster or other. The Satyr had more craft (thanks to followers and magic items) than you could shake a stick at, and I, as the Valkyrie, had a nice midgame push that was going to propel me to victory...until the Chinese dragon defeated me and took away my Magic Ring, relegating me back to the second tier of heroes.
The game began to drag, though Scott was still in high spirits, so I made a deal with Dan so that he might be able to fight the Pit Fiends (his strength was only about a 4, so he needed all the help he could get). I traded him the mercenary for a follower and a Talisman (which I tacked on at the end of the deal). He agreed...relucatantly and with much complaining. This was a bit odd, as he didn't need a Talisman (he had two or three) and I gave him a real shot to win the game.
In the end, he got there, commanded me to surrender (which I did after a pitiful attempt to get through the Mines in the inner level) and then, after about 10 or 11 turns, he finally got Scott to lose all his lives.
It was almost fun, but I think I'll only play it again if the following conditions are true:
#1) There are no more than 4 people present;
#2) We've already played at least 4 or 5 games;
#3) It's late, but not too late (say 10:30 or 11);
#4) I'm drunk or heavily buzzed;
#5) We play with the Dungeon.
I think the dungeon would have sped things up.
It was a fun game night, all in all, with lots of different hours. I thank everyone for coming and give big raspberries to everyone who didn't come, though I apologize to Jamie for playing Talisman without him.