Dagrim's Tales

I played Dos Rios with foms and ragnhildr today. I hadn't really had a chance to play it before, but had gotten started once. We played two games, one won by foms, the second by ragnhildr, and the second one was very close with all of use having a decent chance of winning in the last turn or so of the game. ragnhildr really liked the game, I liked it, and I think foms liked it, too. I'll want to play it again, definitely.

gabriel_le's friend Ric came over this evening -- it was going to be gaming and climbing or gaming or climbing, but he'd donated blood this morning which kind of left out climbing. So, gaming it was. We played a good game of San Marco, with a fairly close finish won by me, then a game of Jenga (lost by me), a few games of Fluxx (with various winnders) and a game of Tsuro won by Ric.

That's four days with gaming in a row! Woot!

Had a both productive and fun day today.

gabriel_le's father brought over a couple chainsaws this morning, and we sawed up the pile of wood that's been sitting in my backyard waiting to be turned into firewood for a while. I ran one, he taught gabriel_le how to use the other one, and worked with her. We fed him lunch, a nice beef curry that I cooked up (with some help from gabriel_le, like pushing more vegetables in), then he wandered off. After a bit of "we should, but I'm tired" from both of us, we went out and I split what needed splitting and we stacked it all in the garage. Yay.

Then, we had a game of Iron Dragon, some snuggling, and then wandered over to scubajim's and played a game of Thurn and Taxis, before I wandered home again. I think I like Thurn and Taxis better 3 player than 2, and think 4 might be even better -- or, maybe, comparable to 3.

With still more gaming planned for tomorrow, it has been a GOOD weekend.

Did you know there was a place you could play daily Quiddler puzzles? Yup, at http://www.setgame.com/quiddler/puzzle_frame.htm .

We had a small group this time -- just 4 of us (me, arndis, tchang and donnav) in total. And, we played 4 games, Tikal, two games of Tsuro, and a game of Puerto Rico. Thanks for coming by.

I had a good crowd, total 9, though some came late.

Attendees included concordantnexus, gabriel_le, ragnhildr, Ric, me, and ansfrid; with iclysdale, arndis, and Jason showing up later.

We started with a game of In The Shadow of the Emperor which gabriel_le gave me for my birthday many months ago but we haven't played yet. Just 3 of us, gabriel_le, me, and ragnhildr. I had thought the game would play best with 4, and after playing it with three, I continue with my feeling that it will work well as a 4 player game, but probably not worth playing with three. I won this game.

Yesterday, I also picked up Tsuro and St Petersburg, both of which have been on my list to buy for a while. We played 2 games of Tsuro, with 6 of us, both won by concordantnexus. It is a nice tile-laying path-making game, and works will with about 4-8 players, with 2 or 3 it is still ok (I played a couple 2-player games as well), but not as fun.

Then, we started a game of Traders of Genoa, a favourite of both gabriel_le's and mine. ragnhildr kindly volunteered to sit out, since it was only a 5-player game. (She joined the 2nd table when it formed.) I narrowly squeaked a victory, by the smallest clear margin (5 ducats) over Ric.

At the, now created, 2nd table a game of Pirates of the Spanish Main (table-top miniatures I think) was won by Ian, followed by a quick game of Devil Bunny Needs a Ham won by Jason, though it is not clear it was properly won since they were accidentally playing with averaging 6-siders (2,3,3,4,4,5 rather than 1-6).

Then, we went out to Pho, and were joined by, or joined, depending on the intent order or time order, raynedaze and commodorified. (Though, lost ragnhildr who decided it was time to go home.)

I think, on the whole, a good time was had by all. And, as an extra bonus, Ric is going climbing with me tomorrow!

And, gabriel_le reminded me to post to thank ragnhildr for bringing goodies that kept us fed -- as did much left-over trail mix and other trail food from gabriel_le. And, gabriel_le kept us well supplied with tea, coffee, and other hot beverages. Yay her!

When I play games at cons, and at other people's houses I tend to like to play games I haven't already played or at least not played very much and especially games I don't own, in order to figure out if I want to own the game or not.

Current list of games I'd like to own/buy:

[edit bought St Peterburg]
St Petersburg - 2-4 players, have seen it played a bunch, played it just recently and enjoyed. They said it played well with 2 & 3 players, too.

Medici - played well with 6 players, without taking forever to complete. That's a nice thing to have, give more gaming choice and flexibility. An auction game.


Jungle Speed - a pattern matching and reaction time game. I played many hours of this at a con, and enjoyed -- and it plays well with a large group, too.


Ra - another interesting set-building/auction game.

[edit bought Tsuro, very elegant game]
Tsuro - up to 8 players, and played well at the 5-8 numbers, but still quite quickly (about 30 minutes). By Wizkids.

Possible, worth further trying:

Caylus - played one game and enjoyed it, but not sure of depth of play.

Had a nice day -- an afternoon of lunch and snooker with thatguychuck and renniekins interrupted by a phone call from gabriel_le. Unfortunately, it was a very short phone call as she was using a borrowed phone, but it was both a great surprise and wonderful, to hear from her. She is well. Then, I join M and some friends for a bit more gaming, playing a couple games of Bang! and a couple games of Medici. I died quickly in both games of Bang!, and was a solid middle of the pack in both games of Medici -- but since I'd never played before, and several of them were fairly experienced with the game, I'm ok with that. Medici plays with 2-6, and we played with 6, and it played well at that number.

Yesterday was a nice spring day.
Today, or at least this evening is Brrrr-fucking-Brrrr. Yes, winter came back.

Another game to get: Jungle Speed.
Also: Ra and St Petersburg.

I intend this to be an ongoing catalog of my games, with a few notes on each -- including the listed number of players and playing time, as well as my feeling as to the actual values that are reasonable for each. This is primarily for reference when planning gaming, rather than a review section.

Settlers of Catan (two sets)
Seafarers of Catan
Cities and Knights of Catan
Iron Dragon: 2-6 players, 4 hours. Biggest/longest of the crayon rails games, you won't get out in under 5 hours for 4 people, more hours with more people.
India Rails: 2-6 players, 3 hours. Looks like a smaller/shorter crayon rail, 3 hours still seems quick. First game (6 players) took almost 7 hours. Learning new map and routes probably extended that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Game: 2-5 players. Not a bad game, for a mass-market (Milton Bradley) game.
Unexploded Cow: 3-6 players, Cheapass game.
Witch Trial: 3-7 players, Cheapass game. We don't play this one quickly.
Carcassone: 2-5 players, 30-45 minutes. Tile laying game, plays decently two-player, closer to an hour.
Torres: 2-4 players, 60 minutes. Plays well with 3 or 4. Longer than 60 minutes.
El Grande: 2-5 players, 90 minutes. Don't think it would work well 2 player. Longer.
San Marco: 3-4 players, 75 minutes. Seems longer. Has balance issues if one player weaker (has a divide/choose mechanism -- if one player divides badly, will give an unfair advantage to the chooser paired with them).
The Princes of Florence: 3-5 players, 75-100 minutes. Played well with 4.
Puerto Rico: 3-5 players, 90-150 minutes. Times look pretty good. A favourite.
King's Gate:2-4 players, 20-40 minutes. Maybe closer to an hour, plays ok with 2.
Tigris & Euphrates: 3-4 players, 1-2 hours. Usually longer, some pretty complex analysis in this one.
Tikal: 2-4 players, 90 minutes. Plays well with 3 or 4, haven't tried 2. 90 minutes seems a bit short, 2.5 hours.
The Traders of Genoa: 2-5 players, 60-120 minutes. Very good, bid for actions is fun, and keeps all players involved all the time. Seemed to run close to the 2 hours for first game. Doesn't work well with 3 players nor (I expect) 2.
Samurai: 2-4 players, 45 minutes. Plays well with 3 or 4, ok with 2. Longer than 45 minutes.
Fluxx: Many players, 30 seconds - unbounded. Card game with dynamic rules and victory conditions, almost any number can join/play, and players can easily join an active game.
Bang!:multiplayer card game.
San Juan: 2-4 players, 45-60 minutes. Card game based on Puerto Rico. Good, but not as good as Puerto Rico - though definitely shorter. Nice trade-off of shorter playing time for complexity as compared to Puerto Rico.
Kingdoms: 2-4 players, 20-40 minutes. It was shortish, and fun. Plays reasonably well with 2.
FBI: 2-5 players, 30 minutes. Card game, didn't play very well with 2 players, but would probably play better with more.
Apples to Apples: 4-10 players, 20-30 minutes. A good party game, but not a strategy game. Does player fairly quickly, and can be quite fun.
Gloom: 2-4 players, ? minutes. Seems about 30-60 minutes.
Gloom: Unhappy Homes: Adds 5th player and more cards to Gloom.
Trans Europa: 2-6 players, 30 minutes. Played well with 4-6, time was fairly quick, even with 5-6 players. (Shouldn't get longer with more players.)
In The Shadow of the Emperor: 2-4 players, 90 minutes. Played once, rules a bit finicky.
Ricochet Robots: 2-infinity players, 30 minutes. 30 minutes seems a bit short, but is reasonably time limitted, will possibly get longer with multiple players, but shouldn't get much longer, and really is unlimitted in #. Well, number of people to be able to clearly see the board would be a limit. A fun competitive puzzle game (rather than strategy/tactics).
Maya: 3-5 players, 60/60-90 (side says 60, bottom says 60-90) minutes. 60-90 seems reasonable after one playing.
Dos Rios: 2-4 players, 70 minutes. Haven't played to completion. (Started at a convention, but didn't get to finish, enjoyed it enough to buy it, though.)
Pirateer: 2-4 players, no time given. Haven't played.
Jungle Speed: 2-80 players (yes, that's what it says), no time given. Really, it's best with a mid-sized group, about 4-10. This is a pattern-recognition and reaction-time game that is fast and fun. Probably 5-20 minutes per game.
Jenga: Any number of players, no time given. Hand dexterity/steadiness block removal and stacking game.
Saint Peterburg: 2-4 players, 45-60 minutes. Time seems about right, and this is a solid game, not too complex a set of rules, but some depth to the play. Plays well with 2 as well as more.
Thurn and Taxis: 2-4 players, 60 minutes. Time seems about right, at least for 2 players. Seems to play decently with two, haven't tried it with more yet.

More "classic" board/war type games:

Multiplayer older games:
Diplomacy: 2-7 players. Long. Even the rules make it clear that 7 is best. 6 is almost ok. Less just isn't worht it.
Titan:2-6 players, 2-12 hours. Wow, that's honesty on the game length. Still a great game.
Naval War - multiplayer card game.
Axis and Allies: 2-5 players. I have both the Nova Games version (cardboard counters) and the Milton Bradley version (plastic figurines). It is, really, a two player game -- but for more the two sides are sub-divided.
Star Fire: And it's two expansions. Original version of Empires, not the re-released one.
Star Fleet Battles: Well, early SFB, not all the extended Commander's Edition and ongoing stuff.
Kings and Things - A Tom Wham game, bit silly but fun.
Amoeba Wars: 2-6 players, 1-3 hours, Avalon Hill.
Spies - SPI.
Divine Right: 2-6 players. TSR Games.
Demon's Run:2-4 players, 2-3 hours. Yaquinto.
Car Wars:any number of players, very variable length. Steve Jackson Games. I've got lots of Car Wars stuff.
Starfall 1-4 players, 2-6 hours. Yaquinto.


Two-player "traditional" war games:
Insurgency Heritage Models, Inc.
Ogre: Metagaming.
G.E.V. : Metagaming.
Asteroid Zero-Four: Task Force Games.
Kursk: SPI
Robots!: Task Force Games.
Stellar Wars: published by author.
Galactic War: Tabletop Games and Heritage Models, Inc.
A House Divided: 30min - 3hours. GDW. American civil war -- good game, nice mechanics.
Alexander the Great: Avalon Hill.
The Major Battles of General George S. Patton: House of Games (Waddingtons).
Mech War 2: SPI
Dragon Pass: Avalon Hill, primarily 2 player.
World War 3 1976-1984: SPI
Richtofen's War: Avalon Hill
Nomad Gods: Chaosium
Starlord: 1 hour. Gamma 2 Games.
Hitler's War: 2-3 players (really 2), 1-5 hours. Metagaming
Dimension Demons: Metagaming.
StarForce 'Alpha Centauri': 4 hours. SPI


Traditional or Ancient Board Games
Wari
Go also known as Ba-duk (Korean) and Wei-chi (Chinese), with those names approximate anglicizations.
Chess