MVUUF

Made it game night at MVUUF for the first time in months. Only had time for a couple little games with Ian, Gwen and John:

Downfall of Pompeii
Guillotine

New Faces at Krystal Keep

Three new folks tonight, and a total of nine attending, and two new games for me.

The first was a game called "Treehouse". No, that is not a tube of toothpaste, but the actual game container, from Looney Labs.

Amanda*, Katie, Mike, Jeff, Jamie

Another new game for me was Zooloretto; winner of the 2007 Spiel des Jahres

Mike*, Amanda, Katie, Jeff, Jamie

There's always time for a quick game of Guillotine. Katie and Amanda won a rare tie.

Katie*, Amanda*, Mike, Jeff, Jamie

Everyone was dizzy after playing Metro, a swirling maze of tracks in the Paris subway system.

Mike*, Katie, Amanda, Jeff, Jamie

Finally, Amanda proved herself to be a chip-off-the-old-block by stealing the King from her Dad, Jeff, in To Court the King, making her the big three-time winner of the evening!

Amanda*, Jeff, Jamie, Katie, Mike

In addition, Charlie, Greg, Dave and Russ were playing a game of 1830. I am not sure if they played to a conclusion.

Hamburgum

Jeff introduced us to the newest "rondel" game, Hamburgum. The "rondel" is also used in Antike and Imperial. In this game, players produce beer, sugar and cloth and sell these goods with their ships overseas, then use their profits to make donations towards building new churches in the town. Players earn "prestige" (victory points) for these donations.

Jeff beat Jamie and Garry in two games (but we got a little closer in the second...)

Guillotine

From Cartophilia:

Guillotine: "The revolutioniary card game where you win by getting a head."

From the back of the box: "This irreverent and humorous card game takes place during the French Revolution. Players represent rival guillotine operators vying for the best collection of noble heads."

This has become one of my favorite card games. This simple game can usually be played in 30 minutes. Just the right kind of filler in between longer, more complex games. Appropriate for ages 12 and up (just don't think too much about the theme).

Players use a variety action cards to rearrange the order of the nobles as they wait their turn... Marie Antoinette and King Louis are worth 5 victory points, while governers, generals, and the Archbishop are worth 4. My only objection to this game is that the Royal Cartographer is only worth 1 point! Surely he is more important than that! Even Robespierre is worth 3 points!

An important part of the charm of this game are the humorous illustrations by Quinton Hoover and Mike Raabe.

Game Day at the Arsenal

I had the pleasure of spending a day of boardgaming at The Arsenal Game Room & Cafe, in Indianapolis. It is a delightful little shop that offers boardgames for sale, good food, and plenty of space for boardgamers and role players to get together. They were a good group of people, and I had fun teaching some of my favorite games to the participants; many of them new to boardgaming.

Games played:

To Court the King x2

Guillotine x2

Ticket to Ride

Settlers of Catan x2

Downfall of Pompeii

The only new game for me this day was Heroscape. The store owners were kind enough to open a new copy so that Ian and I could try it out. It was pretty fun. I liked it much more than I thought I would.

Some gaming at Matt's

Keythedral



To Court the King

Ingenious

1960 The Making of the President

On this day before Super Tuesday, is there a better time to play a boardgame based on a presidential Election?

When I was a kid I played a game called Landslide from Parker Brothers. Players rolled dice, moved around the board, and attempt to get the most votes in each state. The player with the most electoral votes from those states is elected. While the game was fairly simple, it cemented in my mind fairly early how our electoral college works and the importance of winning in the all-or-nothing large states.



Over the weekend I played a new game based on a U.S. Presidential election. 1960 The Making of the President is based on the down-to-the-wire race between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.



Produced in 2007 by Z-Man Games, this game uses a card-driven system, "all the major events which shaped the campaign are represented: Nixon’s lazy shave, President Eisenhower’s late endorsement, and the 'Catholic question' are all included as specific event cards. The famous televised debates and final election day push are each handled with their own subsystems. Candidates vie to capture each state’s electoral votes using campaign points in the four different regions of the country. At the same time, they must build momentum by dominating the issues of the day and attempt to gain control of the airwaves."

Because the actual election was so very close, each player has an opportunity to win.

I enjoyed this game. It didn't take long to figure out the mechanic, and just like real campaign managers, I was forced to weigh the relative value of campaining and spending political capital in states that I could win, and concede the states that I could not, while trying to hit that magic number of 270. In this, my first, game, I played the Richard Nixon campaign, and did only slightly better than reality. I lost 292-246, whereas in the real election, he lost to JFK 303-219.