New Orleans, Louisiana
February 25 – 28 , 1999
At long last, my promised missive from the land of bayous and Bourbon St… (not that I saw much of either holed up in the La Quinta Inn Westbank playing board games for 4 days straight). It’s time to get all of this down on paper before I:
(a) forget some important detail, OR
(b) start making up things that didn’t happen… like listening to an elderly member of your family pine for “the old days”… (“When I was young, let me tell you, we didn’t have any of those fancy German games, no thank you… we played good old American games with CHITS… no, be quiet, your grandfather is talking and he did not use a cuss word… there were hexes and rules so thickly written you could use them knock the giant mosquitos away from the kerosene lanterns… and before that, we played with dirt and stones… and we liked it.”)
Anyway, enough with the preliminaries and on with the main event!
But first, let me set the mood. As many of you know, I’m the pastor of a VERY small but VERY innovative (at least we like to think we are) church here in Nashville. The night before my departure was our monthly weeknight service and I managed to speak in code during the announcements… badly enough that my wife and one of our other leaders called me on it IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. (I was saying things like, “When you guys get the thing from her, then we’ll meet after the other event.” Yes, I was the king of pronouns and indefinite references.) My only excuse… my brain had shut down all functions that were not necessary for:
(a) packing, OR
(b) dreaming about playing games
My only regret was that my long-awaited shipment of games from Manu (better known to some as Emaunel Soeding) had not arrived… not only did it contain a plethora of new games for us to play in New Orleans (“Would you say I have a plethora of games, Jefe?”) but also a new copy of Kohle, Kies & Knete for Ted (after I savaged the box cover of the copy I had borrowed from him). Amazingly enough, the yellow slip (to pick up a package at the post office) was in my mailbox Tuesday night… and I was at the post office when the door opened Wednesday morning. (More later on the contents of that package…) I spend the rest of the morning packing my suitcase and typing the rules to Palermo & DSCHUNGelrennen into the computer so I could run them through AltaVista’s Babelfish program. (The results were less than successful for Palermo… does ANYONE have an English translation of the rules? If not, could I send you my German copy – probably with typos – via e-mail and have someone take a shot at translating it?)
I picked up Chip & Buster from their homes (good friends and fellow gamers) and we hit the road to Jackson, MS, our interim stop on the way to Gulf Games III. Jackson is not only the capital of Mississippi, it’s the home of Ted Cheatham, the man with the dubious honor of having invited me on the “list”. We arrived to hot pizza and a fridge full of cold cokes… I want to once again say how incredibly hospitable Ted and his lovely wife Jane are. The three of us felt right at home.
STADT & RITTER
Upstairs, in Ted’s gaming sanctuary, Ted had already set up Stadt & Ritter for us to play (what a guy!) Buster & Chip are both big Settlers fans, so this was a natural choice for us.
Chip made a weak early placement, which doomed his game from the start. Buster & I vied for one corner of the board while I focused on building up my city (for lack of other constructive things to do). I don’t remember what Ted did, but I assume that he was a thorn in my flesh, which would be his usual playing choice. Late in the game, Buster had all his cities built and finally stole control of the Longest Road from me to take the win.
Stadt & Ritter is an enjoyable (if long for what it is…) game. As much as I enjoy Settlers, I’m not sure I’d buy it. A couple of things I’d read in other posts surfaced during our game? The basic uselessness of knights except in dealing with the barbarians and the tremendous importance of card play. After giving it a go, I prefer the Cheops & Seafarers variants. But Stadt would make for an excellent palate-cleanser between repeated playings of Settlers.
Rating: 6 (yes, this is down from my original 7… playing time is an issue)
Scores: Buster 13
Mark 8
Ted 6
Chip 5
TONGA BONGA
Tonga Bonga was the next game in our Gulf Games“Opening Days” session… I’d heard mixed press about this one and now understand it.
The game itself is simple… roll dice, assign them to other players ships, move. It’s an elegant system with beautiful components, but it just doesn’t seem to add up to all that much. With four wise opponents, each one of you is simply waiting for the others to have lousy die rolls. With a smattering of less thoughtful players (isn’t that a diplomatic way to put it), one or two players will be graced with more than their fair share of good die rolls. (Granted, I’m not against “roll & move” games… I love Project: CIA, Papau, and countless others.) Tonga Bonga just doesn’t seem to gel.
Rating: 5 (yes, this is down from my original 6… I don’t think I could muster up the will to play this one again)
Scores: Ted 149
Buster 132
Mark 112
Chip 92
PFUSCH
Not to be confused with Putsch, the game that took them what seemed like several hours to just work through the rules during GGIII… this is the odd game with wooden blocks (what do you expect, it’s German?!) and Play-Dough.
Each player enacts the role of a developer/slum lord, building structures on the board. Each turn (over 12 turns/months), you may add one block/story to one of your buildings. Then, all the players bid for the right (with a set of Raj-like cards) for the right to be the building inspector. The winner of this honor may stick the inspection device (read: toothpick) through one block in any player’s UNFINISHED buildings. At the beginning of the game, you have 9 wooden blocks, which are then used (or not) inside your Playdough blocks. If the building is “unsafe” (no wooden block in the story), the entire building iscondemned and set in front of the players building screen. The second time a player’s building is condemned, he must pay an unused block in penalty. (This happened to everyone but me… and it’s important to note that slum lord Buster paid the penalty and STILL managed to not use 6 blocks!) There are a couple of other special cards, but I can’t remember what they are. At the end of the game/year, players receive 100 pts for each story of building still left on the board AND 100 points for each wooden block still behind their building shield (unused… ie, you saved money).
This is a great filler game… or a game for families… and at 30 minutes, it was fun without being completely brain dead. This is an excellent example of length matching the enjoyment of the game… (as opposed to Civ, which is quite nifty but just doesn’t hold up at 8-10 hours).
Question: what does “Pfusch” mean? (Why is the game named this?)
Rating: 7 (I’d gladly play it again) Scores:
Mark 3 blocks unused + 8 stories built = 1100
Buster 6 blocks usused (slum lord!) + 5 stories built = 1100
Ted 3 blocks unused + 7 stories built = 1000
Chip 2 blocks unused + 7 stories built = 900 (this is the man you want to build your house…)
RAINBOWS
The hour grew late… and anticipation was growing for our early morning run to New Orleans and Gulf Games III, but that didn’t stop us from getting one last game in… Rainbows, by the illustrious country artist Alan Moon.
Along with Basari (which I played for the first time at GGIII), this game deserves a hallowed place in the Hall of Pasted-On Game Themes. What in the world do the leprachauns and rainbows have to do with the game we’re playing?! (I picked up Katzenjammer Blues after GGIII… while it’s theme is also pasted on, at least it’s executed with style and humor.)
Frankly, I don’t remember much about Rainbows except that (a) it’s a card game with a rainbow scoring track (b) it reminded me a little of Raj, but I don’t remember why (c) I won
I guess I’d play it again, but it didn’t provoke a strong reaction one way or another.
Rating: 5
Scores: Mark 125
Ted 115
Chip 110
Buster 95
Everyone crawled into bed at this point, with Ted promising to put Alaska in his “taking to GGIII” pile so I could finally play it. All in all, a very good night of gaming and a fitting beginning to an incredible weekend.
Letter From New Orleans – Day Two – Thursday
Late to bed and early to rise usually means I’m staying at the Cheatham house! Douglas & Emily (Ted’s kids… and quite enjoyable kids they are!) had to be up early for school, so they acted as my alarm clock. (This, of course, beats the last time I stayed at Ted’s, when Douglas, age 5, woke me up to ask where his dad was… having met Doug, I know have a pretty good idea of what Ted was like as a small child!) 🙂
Jane fixed us breakfast and loaded us up with sweet rolls & cake for the trip… then took off with Emily & Doug for work & school. This left the four of us with nothing better to do than… play a game while we waited for Eric Wood.
ALASKA
At long last, I was able to play the fabled Alaska… actually, at long last, I was able to be poked with sharp sticks by the other players. (For those of you who know the game, I had frostbite so many times I nearly asked Ted to turn the heat up in the house.)
The idea of the game is a trip. A lake takes up the majority of the board (marked in hexes). In the center of the lake is an island containing your expedition’s supplies. You have a truck that can carry one crate (wooden block – are there ANY trees left in Germany?). On your turn, you draw a card from the deck that allows you place ice on the lake (in 1, 2, and 3 hex sized pieces). Then you draw from a second deck which gives random events… frostbite (sends you back to your base WITHOUT any cargo), helicopter (fly anywhere), polar bear (blocks movement to an ice floe), steal someone else’s cargo, fog (stops theft)… did I miss anything? Then you move. Only 3 things (trucks & blocks) can be on an ice floe at one time. When the lake is filled up with ice, you begin reversing the process and thaw the lake out, removing ice floes. The person with the most cargo safely in their base camp wins the game.
The basic game idea is nifty… the ice covering the lake and then breaking apart again. (The whole collapsing ice thing is a great theme… note the Coleco classic Don’t Break The Ice or Bambus’ Nanuuk… in which the ice cracking is probably the best game mechanism.) The random deck is just TOO random. I think there may be a really great game in there somewhere… the pieces certainly warrant taking another shot at the rules and tweaking them.
Ted took a phone call mid-game, so Eric took over his spot (having arrived just as the lake was icing over). As you can see from the scores, it was a close race between the other 3 players while I guest-starred in the role as Mark the Human Punching Bag.
Rating: 6
Scores: Ted/Eric 13 crates
Buster 12 crates
Chip 11 crates
Mark 7 crates
To the Batmobiles…! We loaded up the cars and took off… I built dinosaur figurines in the backseat of my car while Chip drove… meanwhile, Eric & #38; Ted played the Terror Trax: Werewolves in New Orleans CD in Ted’s vehicle. (It is a bit disconcerting to pile out of the car at our rest stop and hear the two of them babble about heavily armed werewolves offing the mayor and his family.) 🙂
We arrived in New Orleans at roughly 1 pm, rested and ready to play! When we checked in, one of us asked the clerk where the game room was. She replied that they didn’t have one. “You do this weekend,” said Buster. 🙂
Around the corner and up the stairs to our semi-private gaming suites we went! (For those of you who weren’t there, we had two suites next to each other on a semi-private hallway.) As always, there were rows of tables bowing under the weight of many games…. and in the corner, the Mother Lode of GGIII, the pile of NEW stuff Jay Tummelson had brought with him.
Greg explained the bead system and handed out the monstrous registration packets (filled with schedules, puzzles, and umpteen brochures about stuff of local interest… Greg, once again, you outdid yourself.) About the beads… long beads (Mardi Gras style) were given to the winners of each game… as well, you got short beads for each new person you played a game with – an excellent way to encourage us to “mingle”. Jay T. pulled up his shirt to see if he could get more beads by showing us his chest… well, let’s just say he was not successful in acquiring more beads in this manner. 🙂
One of the true joys of Gulf Games is the friendships that develop around the gaming tables… so it was a blast to see Ty and Greg again. For the rest of the afternoon, games would stop as another gamer would enter to shouts of friendship… it was especially good to see Lenny and Tim & #38; Vicki again. (Especially Tim & #38; Vicki, who evidently got lost on the way into New Orleans!) As well, we had the opportunity to make new friends (Michael & #38; Shanna, Jay T.) and finally meet the ever-witty Jonathan Degann.
UNION PACIFIC
The first game I dove into was Union Pacific… Jonathan has done an EXCELLENT job of summing up the game, so I won’t even attempt that awesome task.
You need to understand that I am not a big fan of Acquire… it’s a little dry for my tastes… all right, I feel like someone needs to dump a bucket of water over my head while I’m playing so I don’t collapse into a pile of dust and blow away with the next breeze. Big Boss had cooler pieces but just more of the same… and I’d been interested in Airlines but avoided it because (a) it was goofy-looking graphically AND (b) it was ” Alan Moon’s homage to Acquire”
Union Pacific has some of the same systems (grabbing stock, expanding companies) as Acquire but feels totally different. First, the quality of the pieces, board, cards… all are 1st rate. Ty’s comment that you feel like a real live rail baron is right on target. Second, the game play is fast-moving… and agonizing. As in the best of Alan’s games, there are always x+5 things you want to do… and only the ability to do x (or ocassionally x-1)!
The scores of our game reflect Ty & #38; Eric’s experience with Acquire, I believe… there are some very definite strategies that still seem to escape me with these style of games. Still, even with my last place finish, I enjoyed myself very much. I found myself waiting one round of turns too long each time, with the scoring card being drawn just after I’d made the agonizing decision NOT to lay stock down. Eric, on the other hand, seemed to know EXACTLY when the card would be drawn.
One rules clarification that will be important… does the game end when the last possible extension of the rail lines are made (that’s the end Eric was playing for) or does it continue until the fourth card is drawn (which Ty and I were playing for… hoping to lay down more stock cards)? We ended up playing the first way, but it would have been nice to know that going in.
Jonathan made some insightful comments about the differences between Airlines & UP, and how to tweak UP. While I see what he’s getting at (that it can be difficult to close off a rail line), I think with repeated playings, a variety of strategies will emerge to stop the larger rails from expanding too quickly. Frankly, the Airlines number system (remember, I haven’t played it) sounds like I’d have LESS control of the game, not more. In a game where much of what happens is at the mercy of other player’s choices, I’m not sure I’d like that.
This is a coup both for Alan Moon and for RioGrande Games... and a very possible nomination (and win!) for SdJ. While enjoyed some of the other new games even more than this one, it is a tremendous 75-90 minute rail game and well worth it’s price ($40 list, right, Jay?)
Rating: 8
Scores: Eric 144
Ty 141
Buster 95
Mark 89
This is as good a time as any to thank Jay Tummelson for his willingness to teach rules and coach us through the games he brought with him. In many cases, there were NO RULES whatsoever included with the demo copies (Chinatown leaps to mind) and Jay taught them to us from memory. While this means there may be a couple of rules glitches we missed, overall Jay proved to be an excellent teacher.
As well, Jay regaled us with tales of his years at Mayfair (the Company That Couldn’t Shoot Straight)… and shared a good bit about his dreams for Rio Grande. I especially enjoyed the lunchtime I spent with him following our game of Union Pacific.
1870, one of the games we mentioned during that conversation (topic: how to produce a really beautiful game and not make money on it), is available CHEAP at THE GREAT Train Store in North Point Mall in Alpharetta, GA, btw. (Shari & I were there last week…) There are two copies reduced to $22.00… which, if I remember correctly, is LESS than it cost Mayfair to make the game! (Original list price: $45.00). I didn’t bother with them since I think 18xx is long & drawn-out & somewhat drier than Acquire. 🙂
BIG CITY
After some Chick-fil-A and good conversation with Jay T. (marketing strategy: DON’T get picked up by Toys’R’Us), we returned to play Big City.
Open the box and smell the plastic… cuz it’s chock-full of nifty molded bits! The board is a modular affair, consisting of 8 neighborhoods (each with it’s own card deck of 10 deed cards). Some neighborhoods have 9 sections + an extra deed (one of two factories or one of two parks) while others have 10 sections. Deeds are dealt out (one for each board in play at the beginning of the game = number of players), then the players in turn place a board adjacent to the already played boards, attempting to maximize the value of their deeds. The only other “board” is a scoring track.
Once the board is formed, players take turns placing buildings & scoring points. Residential & business sections come in 1, 2, & 3 space configurations, and are worth more points the bigger they are. Residential districts adjacent to the city edge (suburbs) score extra points, while businesses in the city center (not on an edge) score extra points. After spending deeds, they may draw replacements from any neighborhood deck they wish.
The majority of “special” buildings can not be built until the City Hall (worth no points) is built. At that point, players may choose to miss one turn and add a new neighborhood (board) to the city… or place a streetcar (in shiny silver!) or extend the streetcar line. (Streetcars 2x the value of residential & business districts built nearby.) There are also post offices, movie theaters, banks, and shopping centers (the Big Kahuna of points… but difficult to meet all the conditions… Greg managed this in his first game!) that can be built, provided the right buildings are adjacent to them.
Finally, there are two parks and two factories that do not require you to own the deeds that you place them on (though you do have to meet placement rules – which is sometimes difficult)… but they do affect the buildings that are placed next to them. Factories (ugly black monstrosities) cause buildings to drop in value, while parks (green verdant stretches) help them grow in value. Placing these gives you no points but can force another player out of their original plan. (Deeds run over by parks & factories may be traded in for new deeds).
The person with the most points when all possible plays are made (there are a limited number of each type of building) wins.
I know, I know, it sounds ridiculously simple… and it is. But it was a joy to play… you have some control over your own destiny (just don’t say that to Buster, who had a factory dropped RIGHT on top of his planned area of development), it plays very quickly (45 minutes), and would work well with 2-5 players. (The two player game would be much more strategic whereas the 5 player game is pretty reactive… ala Take 6/6 Nimmt.) The game varies each time… in our game, the streetcar line wasn’t built until near the end of the game, while the night before at WBG, it was one of the first builds. Lenny took a commanding lead that I was finally able to cut into (although not overcome) with the playing of Central Park down the middle of a neighborhood… in which I owned 4 out of the 6 bordering properties. An aborted attempt to bring the streetcar line to my longest free stretch of property actually cost me points, as the other players used it to cut me off from building a 3-length residential district adjacent to Central Park.
I’d call it a “non-gamer’s gamer’s game”… there’s enough strategy there to interest a gamer, while it’s beautiful to look at and offers enough small victories (the satisfaction of placing a building for big points) for non-gamers. Jay T. has said he’ll be writing some negotiation rules for gamers but I’m not sure that’s really necessary… but don’t let me stop you, Jay! As is, this is a solid MUST BUY in my book… great bits, fast play, lots of variety!
Rating: 8
Scores: Lenny 43
Mark 40
Eric 39
Buster 36
Ty 23
RA
From there, I jumped into a game of Ra mid-rules explanation… again, Jonathan and Mik have done a splendid job of explaining the mechanics of this game.
Ra has the once-around bidding of Medici, the intricate scoring of It’s Mine (things have to match up, can’t score this tile without one of these, need two of these to score this, etc.) and a lot bidding scheme that reminds me both of Medici (I can choose to stop adding tiles & start bidding on my turn) and Katzenjammer Blues (certain tiles end the lot and start the bidding). This game feels like a mish-mash of a number of Knizia designs… the one “new” feature is the limited number of bidding tiles (3 per person) which are held openly… and the way in which your winning bidding tile is exchanged for the winning bidding tile from the last round.
I’m not sure that all of these pieces add up to a cohesive whole… I think they each work individually in their “parent” games ( Medici’s once around lot auction keeps game pace up & gives the auctioneer some game control, while It’s Mine’s scoring system makes it difficult to card count) much better than they do in Ra. To it’s credit, the game is beautiful… the artwork is splendid and the theme works pretty well. It just didn’t add up for me.
Ted mastered the game immediately, while the rest floundered a bit. My collection of monuments (acquired accidentally in the first epoch) gave me the burst that put me in second place.
Rating: 6 (I wouldn’t NOT play it again, but I’m not sure I’d own it… I would like to give it another try now that I understand the scoring system) Scores: Ted 57
Mark 32
Jonathan 29
Shanna 25
Michael 22
EVERGREEN
I’d been looking forward to this game from the description and gifs I’d seen on the ‘net… and I was unfortunately disappointed. Yet another well-written description of gameplay exists penned by Jonathan.
The fact that a small hourglass timer is INCLUDED in the game should have been a clue… this one can bog down like my old Nissan in a muddy field. (But that’s another story…) The bits are nice (esp. the record/scoring devices) but without the timer it is an hour-long exercise in “OK, if I play this card, I help Shanna… but if I play this card, I help me… but then it’ll help Ted next turn… unless Michael plays to take it away…”… yawn. With the timer, you’d be forced to play by feel, without a lot of point counting and with a good bit of shouting & hollering… and it would only take 20-30 minutes!
One strategy tip: don’t blow all your cards and/or scoring opportunities out early… see my score for reference to this point!
Rating: 5 (without the timer… possibly better with the timer)
Scores: Ted 173 (are we noticing a theme here?… once again, Ted rushes in and begins winning every game he plays!)
Jonathan 144
Shanna 130
Mark 107
Michael 103
Dinner? What’s dinner? There are games to play! So, while the majority of people WIMP OUT and go feed themselves, :-), I remain to learn yet another new game with those returning from dinner. NOTE: thanks to Vicki, you could manage to stay in the gaming rooms and still be fed & “watered” throughout the weekend… Vicki, your servant heart is MUCH appreciated!
FOR SALE
For Sale has been on my “must try and probably buy” list for a long time… now we’ve confirmed that I must own this spectacular little game! (And not just because I won, thank you very much….) This is a gem of a game.
Each player has 15 chips (worth 1 million dollars each) with which to bid on homes, which are dealt up in lots of 4 (as we had four players playing…. 5 for 5 players, you get the picture). You bid as in poker, seeing or raising… until people beginning dropping out. The first player takes the least valuable home AND receives 1/2 rounded up of their bid back. The second & third player out do likewise… while the player who stays in gets the most valuable home of the set, but loses their entire bid. After all the homes are auctioned off, buyers appear with checks… again, dealt out in sets of four. Each player sets one home in front of him (ala Raj) and reveals them simaltaneously… the most valuable home gets the biggest check and so on. Repeat until all the checks all acquired… then count your checks + your remaining chips. Play 3 rounds. Simple, no?
Well, yes AND no… how hard do you push on your bids? Can I get a medium house cheap and force the other guy to pay big bucks? Will he use his big house now to pick up that check or will he wait for the BIG check? Each decision is agonizing… and wonderful!
I had a good first round… but my second round gave me an insurmountable lead. Finally, a win at GGIII… I wear my long bead strand with pride!
Rating: 9
Scores: Mark 58 + 68 + 52 = 178
Lenny 55 + 58 + 58 = 171
Shanna 59 + 47 + 59 = 165
Greg 49 + 47 + 51 = 147
One of my objectives at Gulf Games is to learn more games my WIFE will be willing to play… and the perfect people to experiment with are Greg’s wife, Gail, and his daughter, Lindsay. Both were kind enough to thump me at a variety of games during the weekend. 🙂
MAMMA MIA
All the buzz prior to Gulf Gameswas right… this is one nifty little game. Shame I can’t win the darn thing! (Including another play Saturday night against friends, I’m now 0-4.) Due to it’s shorter playing time, it’s more likely to get brought out than my much-beloved Bohnanza. Uwe has another winnner, as does RioGrande Games.
I managed to
(a) not draw enough order cards AND
(b) misplay the ones I did draw …for a grand total of one pizza in three rounds.
Gail snakes out a win over the rest of her family on the ingredients tiebreaker.
Rating: 7 (maybe 8… it’s awfully good… whatsa matta you, eh?)
Scores: Gail 4 pizzas + 5 ingredients
Lindsey 4 pizzas + 4 ingredients
Greg 4 pizzas + 3 ingredients
Mark 1 pizza (pathetic…)
CAFE INTERNATIONAL
More family gaming ensued as we lost Gail but gained Ty’s wife, Shay, for a round of seating the U.N. I thought I was doing quite well early on, but managed to slide to the rear as Greg edged out Shay. This is a nice little game, but I’m not sure why it was Spiel des Jahres. (What were the other nominees that year… Wadjet?)
Rating: 5
Scores: Greg 57
Shay 56
Lindsey 47
Mark 45
At this point, I’m done playing Lindsay for the night as she heads for home… tired of being stomped by people 1/3 my age, I proceed to be trounced by folks my own age.
KLUNKER
Yet another new card game from Uwe R (and Rio Grande)… I won’t EVEN attempt to describe it because I’m not really sure I ever understood what was going on OR how to score points. The artwork is so-so but I think if I ever got a handle on the game I’d enjoy it a great deal. I REALLY need to play this one again. Of course, it didn’t make me feel any better that Lenny won saying “I don’t know how I did it.” 🙂
Rating: ? (I think I said 7, but I’m VERY clueless on this one)
Scoring: Lenny 16
Shay 14
Eric 6
Greg 2
Mark 1
MONEY
Up till now, Greg and I had seen pretty much eye-2-eye on the new Rio Grande releases… but here our paths diverged. (And I took the road less traveled by… and that made all the difference… sorry, I was an English major.) Anyway… Greg found Money to be boring and mechanistic (is that a good description, Greg?) I thought it was subtle and interesting. Did we play the same game?
The theme is currency trading (yes, another one for the Pasted-On Theme Hall of Fame) and the cards are particularly nice… using the designs of a number of world currencies + numerically assigning each card a value. (if memory serves me correct, there are 3 20’s, 3 30’s, a couple of 40’s and a 60 in each currency, + Krugerands that are worth 10 each.) Two lots of four cards are dealt to the table… then each player lays down (ala Raj) a set of cards as a bid… their values = the amount of the bid. (There is an extra card that is worth 0 for each player to throw off his opponents as to how many cards he laid down… we didn’t use it much.) The high bidder chooses which lot he wants to take into his hand… the two lots of 4 laid out OR any of the bids of the other players. He then exchanges his bid for whatever he takes. If he takes a player’s bid, they become the highest bidder left on the table (by virtue of posessing the 1st player’s bid) and exchange it with whatever lot they wish to take… and so on. Ties in bidding are resolved by the serial numbers on the currency (a nice touch). The objective is to collect lots of value in one (or more) currencies, as well as collecting sets (3 of the same value) in those currencies.
Some strategies can emerge… holding certain cards valuable to your opponents out until later in the game, offering up your bid as an attractive trading option, giving away a card you need in order to retrieve it later… I found it fast-playing and enjoyable. It’s not Chinatown or Big City or Union Pacific... but it doesn’t claim to be. It’s a good solid bidding card game.
Rating: 7
Scoring: Mark 450
Eric 440
Ty 370
Greg 330
Lenny 250
TITAN: THE ARENA
I think it was Ty who requested this humdinger of a game… we picked up Greg’s copy and I taught Ty the basics. (Talk about your weird experiences… to open up someone else’s game box and find a copy of YOUR FAQ in their box… ooooo.)
A short 40 minutes later, Ty and I stood victorious… but we’d decided to use the “kill” variant (also posted on my website) in which tiebreakers are resolved by the number of kills you get (causing me to win). No, it’s not a great variant, since many times you want another player to do your dirty work for you, but when you only play one round, it’s a good way to resolve things. Eric managed to stand in the way of all the mean things the rest of us did… ouch. (Remember, kids, T:tA is best when you play 3+ rounds to even out the luck…. and don’t play with matches!)
Rating: 8
Scores: Mark 10 + 4 kills
Ty 10
Greg 8 + 1 kill
Eric 0
CAMPANILE
Last game of the night for me (excuse me, my brain is full), and I let Greg talk me into Campanile. Short review: Titan: The Arena with all the fun drained out of it. Oh, yeh, it’s supposed to be about building towers in Italy… but who cares? Eric got his revenge for the drubbing he took in T:tA.
Rating: 4
Scores: Eric 16
Mark 7
Greg 7
On that sour note, I bid the game room goodnight and headed for bed. (Just past midnite…)
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