games day

[cellio]

Today our friend Pam hosted a fun day of gaming. We had ten players, so tended to split into two games at any given time. I played the following:

Carcassonne: I sometimes think I will just never get the strategy of placing farmers.

Swashbuckler (first time for most of us; Dani just got a copy): simulates a bar-room brawl; fun idea with mechanics that are sometimes a bit tedious. As with Robo Rally, you plot out your sequence of actions somewhat in advance and then execute all the orders in sequence. Observed: throwing chairs can be very effective; throwing daggers and beer mugs didn't do much; tipping over tables (onto people, or with people standing on them at the time) seemed like it would do more damage than it did; swinging from the chandeliers never came into play; losing half the hit points in your body hinders you but being down to one hit point in your head makes no difference (you weren't using your head for much anyway, I guess). Cute game; would play again.

Quoridor (approximately): played on a 9x9 board; you start in the center of your side and are trying to move your piece to the other side. Of course, so is everyone else. On your turn you can either move or place a two-space-long wall (barrier). Tends to create one-space-wide corridors, hence the name.

Vinci: we misread the rules on conquering territories and thus saw faster turnover of civilizations than we should have. Our five-player game was very close most of the way through.

A two-player card game, name unknown. You play with 26 cards, 2 through ace in red and black, drawn from two visually-distinct decks such that all the red cards come from one and all the black cards from another. Deal five cards to each player; you look at your cards and place them in a row face-down, in order (black lower than red of the same number). To play, draw a card and look at it. You can either add it to your sequence (face-down) in the proper place or use it to attack. To attack, you point to a card and guess its value. (Remember that you already know its color.) If you are right, your opponent has to turn it up and you can guess again. If you're wrong, you have to place it face-up in your own sequence and your turn ends. Starting off can be kind of slow (lots of wrong guesses), but between the information you know about your own cards, the information you learn in play, and the limited option space, you can rapidly bring logic to bear on the question. Interesting and quick game.

I have the vague feeling that I played something else, but I can't think what it was if so. It was kind of a long day, though fun.

This session tended toward shorter games. I'd like to try out Age of Imperialism soon; we recently received it as a gift and haven't yet been able to play it. Maybe we'll host the next games day and do it then.

Comments

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

My WHOLE strategy in Carcassonne revolves around farmers. And I usually win. Maybe next time we're up in Pittsburgh, we'll play a few games and you can watch a master-farmer-placer at work.

Or, gee, you know, you could come down here for a fantabulous Purim Seudah and eat, drink, play Carcassonne and be merry! (it's worth a try, you know)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I just have to say, the appropriate game for a Purim seudah really has to be Guillotine :-).

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

"Oooooh.... Piss Boy!"

[magid.livejournal.com]

*giggle*

[cellio]

Oh yes! That's perfect!

[cellio]

Or, gee, you know, you could come down here for a fantabulous Purim Seudah and eat, drink, play Carcassonne and be merry! (it's worth a try, you know)

That does sound like fun. How does Purim being on a Friday interact with Shabbat? I mean, besides the fact that I'd need to impose for Shabbat and not just Purim. Don't you have to cut off the Purim festivities early so that you can prepare for Shabbat (including getting sober and hungry for dinner)? How does that play out? If I'm only going to make it down there once every several years, I want to choose wisely. :-) Recall that Purim is basically new to me, so I have little direct experience.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

yeah, we've got to end it a little earlier to sober and hungry up for Shabbos.
I think the way this year is working is we're starting with some dairy delectables at my house around 10ish, and then heading down to Harold's (2 blocks...we're not going to be THAT drunk by then!) around 11 or 11:30 for a standard fare seudah. Then everyone will collapse for a couple hours and we're going to all do shabbos at Harold's (almost like Seudah Part III!) before everyone passes out until Shabbos morning.

Shabbos lunch is up in the air.

But yeah, it's complicated since it's erev shabbos, but that also means that we get to have a whole weekend of eating, drinking, gaming, (probably filking for you filkers out there), and being merry!

Personally, I think this is a FABULOUS year for you to come down. We're supposed to have a "planning meeting" of sorts to hammer out the details this week or next. I'll keep you posted. Should I tell Harold to maybe possibly count you in?

[cellio]

Ooh, this does sound like it could be a good year to come down. I will keep my options open by recruiting someone else to read torah that week (it would have otherwise fallen to me). I'd be interested in hearing more as things shape up.

Note, though, that I'd have to impose on someone for probably two nights of crash space (Thursday and Friday). I'm not really hot on night-time driving, so if the weather was shaping up to be awful Saturday night, I might have to stay until Sunday morning. That's a lot of imposition. Alternatively, I could recruit a driver (at the cost of one extra body for Purim and Shabbat). I could certainly try to get Dani to come (gaming and filking might compensate for all that religious stuff ;-) ), but I don't know if he'd come.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

It is not an imposition. I'm sure between the Felds and the Cohens we can provide suitable accomodations for three nights. That's not so much. And besides, we wouldn't be trying to get you to come down if we didn't want you! (Note, we did KNOW, of course, that you would require crash space!)

I'll tell Harold that you're a definite MAYBE! That's a huge improvement from the last time he and I talked about it. :)

off-topic

[magid.livejournal.com]

Would you say hi to Harold for me?
(I don't know if he knows my LJ alias, but he should remember his last year of law school chevruta :-)

Re: off-topic

[cellio]

*zing*

Ok, my world just shrank again. :-)

Re: off-topic

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin*

We really do have to meet in RL someday :-).

Re: off-topic

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

So far as I can figure, everyone knows Harold.

Re: off-topic

[cellio]

Oh sure, everyone knows Harold -- but Harold probably doesn't know everyone. :-)

Re: off-topic

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Done and he said hello back. Feel free to email him at hfeld [at] mediaaccess [dot] org.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Farmers are why I find the Hunters and Gatherers version of Carcassonne easier to play; my brain can count animals better than continguous cities, somehow.

[cellio]

What trips me up is not so much counting cities as counting the competition. I've only played Hunters and Gatherers once, but I don't recall it being significantly different for me there. That is, either way the question comes down to "how many other people do I have to share this bounty with?", and tracking that over time poses a challenge.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

OK, both you and (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=estherchaya) estherchaya (http://www.livejournal.com/users/estherchaya) need to come out to LA for gaming.

And, BTW, are either of you on BoardGameGeek yet?

[cellio]

Well, I could argue that since there are two of us and one of you, it would be more expedient all around for you to come to our side of the country. :-) (She and I can then dicker over city.)

I've heard you mention BoardGameGeek, but I haven't followed the references yet. I assume it's a repository of knowledge about all things board-gamey? Sounds useful.

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Go take a look: www.boardgamegeek.com

They have a database of games, lists of games, journals, you can record the games you have, trade games, buy and sell games, write session reports, articles, useful files, etc.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I've poked around boardgamegeek, but haven't done much with it. Never seem to have the time.

I'm all for Monica's suggestion that since there are TWO of us on this side of the planet, you should come here! And since Seth's here and he's a gamey person far more than I, it should be in DC. No fair playing the Dani card, Monica... you had your chance and I call dibs on using the spouse as an excuse!

[cellio]

I don't need to use the spouse as an excuse. Did I not just write about a games day with ten people? And that doesn't even include a lot of the people we usually invite when we host (our house is bigger than Pam's), like ralphmelton. Surely you want to be kind to your friend Ralph and accept that Pittsburgh is the logical center of gravity for such an event. :-)

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Ralph's been down here before. And we have LOTS of gamers in DC. :-D

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

come to think of it... we were in Pittsburgh more recently than Ralph OR you were down here in MD, so it's your turn!

[cellio]

Ok, if you're going to argue over a three-week difference three years ago... :-) (I think you were last in Pittsburgh three weeks after I last visited you.)

But if I come down for Purim, that means it'll be your turn to come up here for the cahwyguy game-fest. :-)

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

But if I come down for Purim, that means it'll be your turn to come up here for the cahwyguy game-fest. :-)

Not if you're using Ralph as the excuse. We've been to Pittsburgh twice since he was last down here. :)

Also, not if we could convince cahwyguy to come out here for Purim and have the game fest then! ;)

[cellio]

I had switched over to "general travel parity" without being explicit about it. So while Ralph is a factor (that is, he'd be invited to the local gathering), he's not the only factor. :-)

But you've got a good point: we need to get cahwyguy to go to Silver Spring for Purim and gaming. What do you say, Daniel? There's just enough time for you to get an affordable plane ticket. :-)

[cahwyguy.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I call dibs on the child. It is my daughter that plays games with me, not the spouse, and I can't easily get her out of school until the summer. Monica doesn't have the kid problem, and yours is young-enough to travel without missing school.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I can't take my child out of state. So there! :)

[cellio]

Not at all, or not without paperwork? What would happen if you needed to visit an out-of-state relative in a hurry (serious illness, death, that sort of thing)?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

sshhhh!

Technically, at this point we could legally take him out of state, but we'd be putting ourselves in a weird position (unless it were, say, Northern VA or some such thing).

As for what we'd do if we had to visit an out-of-state relative in a hurry, we'd probably leave him with his grandparents.