HunterCon

I was able to spend most of the weekend at HunterCon. As always, I played some new games and some old favorites.

Friday:

Trias
Herds of dinosaurs outrunning Pangea...
Jim*, Tom, Hunter, Jamie

Keythedral
Hunter*, Jamie, Tom

Railroad Tycoon
Jeff*, Greg, Neil, Hunter, Jamie

Saturday:

To Court the King
Chris*, Jamie, Greg, Bruce Kevin

Struggle of Empires (abbreviated)
Dont' fall behind or you are out of it early
Hunter*, Bruce, Neil, Chris, Greg, Jamie, Jeff

Rails of Europe
Improvement on an already excellent game (Railroad Tycoon)
Jamie*, Greg, Bruce, Chris, Kevin

Carcassonne
Matt*, Bruce, Jamie, Marcus

Guillotine
Jamie*, Marcus, Matt

Sunday:

10 Days in Asia
Has no one ever played Racko as a kid?
Bruce*, Jeff, Jamie, Hunter

History of the World (incomplete)
Bruce (in a commanding lead going into the last epoch), Greg, Hunter,
Jeff, John, Jamie

Metro
Greg*, Jamie, Hunter, Lori, John

Bohnanza
Forrest*, Lori, Derek, Jamie, Greg, Hunter

Seafarers of Catan: New Shores with The Fishermen of Catan
Excellent combination. I will make sure we include Fishermen in my next game of Catan.
Jamie*, Hunter, Lori, Greg

13th Tribe (Indianapolis) Game Day March 8, 2008

I finally made it to a gathering of the Indianapolis 13th Tribe gaming group. Instead of writing up a bunch of details, I'll use the info from Adam's Geeklist. Much better detail than I would have done...

Here are the games I played:

Railroad Tycoon
Downfall of Pompeii
Guillotine
To Court the King
Cleopatra and the Society of Architects
Power Grid

In addition, over the Ian and I played an aborted game of Russian Rails, and two games of Axis & Allies Europe.

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.

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.

January 25 at Krystal Keep

Welcome to Bill & Heather, first time Game-Day participants!

To Court the King: Bill*, Heather, Jamie, Jeff

Broke out my copy of the game I just picked up from Amazon. Russ says I was guaranteed to lose, since it was my dice...

Citadels: Jamie*, Bill, Heather, Jeff, Russ

First time I have won this game in years!

Downfall of Pompeii: Russ*, Jeff, Jamie

Downfall of Pompeii: Jeff*, Russ, Jamie

Guillotine: Russ*, Jeff, Jamie

We need more folks to come out and play. Aren't you getting tired of seeing the same old faces in these game reports?

Guillotine, Settlers of Catan & Puerto Rico at KK

Two tables tonight at Krystal Keep. While Jeff, Russ & friends worked on Starcraft: the Board Game, I got 2½ games in.

First it was Guillotine, a well designed card game that can be played quickly. Always a good filler.

Players: Hunter, Jamie, Becky
Winner: Becky
Time: 30 minutes
Guillotine on Amazon
Guillotine on BGG

Next was a five player expansion of Settlers of Catan. I love the game, and appreciate the 5-6 player expansion so that others can join in. Unfortunately, with 5 or 6 players, the game slows down because of the "special build" phase.

However, the worst thing was that I was going to win on my next turn, and Hunter beat me to it!

Players: Hunter, Brian, Kim, Becky, Jamie
Winner: Hunter
Time: 120 minutes
Settlers of Catan 5-6 Player Expansion on Amazon
Settlers of Cata 5-6 Player Expansion on BGG

Finally, we played one of my all-time favorite games, Puerto Rico. Everyone else was new to the game, so because everyone was learning it took much longer than usual, and we were unable to finish. However at closing time, Kim was ahead in victory points.

Players: Brian, Kim, Jamie, Elizabeth, Brent/Eric (team)
Winner: Kim
Time: 120 minutes
Puerto Rico on Amazon
Puerto Rico on BGG