Destin, Florida
October 21 – 24, 1999
A very hard thing for me to write, as most of the games I played were mine. But I did get to try a few new ones:
Vinci: We played with a couple of incorrect rules, the most foolish being that each player gets a final turn when someone tops 100VP’s. That and figuring out where you can start a civilization is very vaguely written. However, the game plays a lot like Cosmic Encounters meets History of the World. Great game-I give it a 9. The only thing that the HotD game has on this one is the nice historical theming. It is more fun to play “the Romans” than play some mysterious tribe that has zillions of troops. But I would still rather play this.
Palermo: An intersting game of gangsters racing around a city trying to collect money from their protection rackets. The city is built from tiles–somewhat similar to Fresch Fisch. The actual race, requiring the bulk of the game, is actually pretty easy and with few choices. Which does not hurt the game as light entertainment. The real twist in the game is that you can burn moves to collect victory points, but when you pick up a money token, you also increase your speed. Clever, and I’ll at least order a copy.
Papua: Silly game of running rom cannibals. A strange movement system requires players to wander the jungle in groups. This plays just a bit like a simple and more streamlined version of Flusspiraten. Groovy game, and I would buy it (if I didn’t already have a copy.)
Twitch: I finally got to play this stupid game. (Our gaming groups after hearing the rules decided to avoid it like the plague.) I approve quite highly, and will have to force some people to play it at chainsaw point. (We don’t keep guns around the house. Knives, swords, nasty looking axes, and pole arms are ok. No guns.)
Zug Nach Westen: Not great. This is a pretty fluffy race game where you have a prospector who can turn tiles, and a train which can move as many spaces as possible. The downside is that the game devolves at the end into a Magalon-like, if I block him…..then he can block him…. This is lessened by the random die roll for moving the prospector. This one is probably a borderline keeper, because I like the rest of the game enough to put it on the pile to possibly fix sometime.
Nessie: Got the Swedes roped into a game of this. You place plastic templates representing your observers and cameras on a map of Loch Ness. Nessie appears randomly, and some people get evidence cards. Get so many points of evidence cards, and you win. Throw in some event cards, and cash flow issues (you have to pay to keep all of the cameras and sensors working.) and you have a REALLY fluffy game. Completely pointless, with no real decisions, and a complete waste of time. That said, I thought it was rather cute, and will happily play it again. I wish I could figure out why.
The rest of the games, I had played before. I didn’t get around to Kalahen, which is the one game I brought that I REALLY want to try. So I’ll finish out with some favorite moments:
Favorite Win: A tie–1. Taking Lenny Leo out in the first round of Liar’s Dice when I had 2 dice and he had 5. 2. The Carabande game. I lapped two people in a 2 lap race on a very long track.
Most fun in a game: Playing Twitch with Ariel Douds. She nearly freaked out every time she had to play a card.
Most evil person at GG4: Vickie Watson. While she was nice enough to pick up the demented sand timer and give it to me for bringing odd games, she is still evil. I saw the timer on the table and went into a “SQUAWK! Pretty bits!” rampage. And asked her where she found it. She went through a long description of where it was in a nearby souvenir store, including dragging me out on the balcony to show me exactly where the store was located. All the while knowing that I’d have this one in a few minutes. Evil.
Most surreal game I’m bringing to GG5: Bunny Bowling. You have no idea……