Work hasn't slowed down lately, which means there hasn't been much time to catch up on ye old gaming blog.  The nice thing about turning this into a group blog would be other people to pick up the slack when real life gets in the way of blogging.  As soon as Community Server 2 goes beta 2, I'll research the multi-author support here.  Until then, spotty posts will continue until this deadline is out of the way.

 

However, I don't want to completely forget all the games I've played in the last couple of weeks, so here are the one-paragraph session reports (sans pictures)

 

Fist of Dragonstones
I don't particularly care for blind bidding.  (I'm not a big Aladdin's Dragons fan, though the second round of For Sale is nice)      However, Fist of Dragonstones works for me.  I can't really explain why, since I detest trying to "guess" what other people will bid.  Illogical actions by your opponents can really throw the balance in bidding games, and I don't like having to plan for chaos.  (Though again, I really like this mechanism in Citadels.  Why?)  Regardless, Fist of Dragonstones was a nice little bluffing game.  The special cards that are bid on are interesting, and vary from turn to turn.  I like the difference between all the coins, and that some come back to your hand at the end of the turn.  I'd ask to play this one sometime.

 

Rating:  7

 

Descent
I owe an entire post to Descent, only because a game this large deserves a similar-sized review.  Suffice to say, this was a big hit with our group.  Eric, who I met at my first Die Macher play, purchased the game and brought it to one of our Friday night sessions.  He had familiarized himself with the rules enough for us to jump in relatively quickly, though I have a suspicion as players we were allowed to get away with a lot of things for the sake of time.  (so we didn't have to look up the rules)  We played the first scenario, which was ridiculously easy.  By the end, our characters were so über that most monsters were one-shot kills.  The boss characters played a little tougher, killing 3 of the 4 party members.  By that point, we had so many opportunities to resurrect that even a death or 3 wasn't much of a hindrance.  Still, everyone had a lot of fun, even if the game was a total munchkin-fest.  It was a nice introduction to the system.  I'd definitely like to play one of the harder scenarios.

 

Rating:  7.5

 

Robo Rally
The following week I invited my coworker Reagan, who has routinely attended our semi-monthly work game nights.  He had a friend (Justin) in from out of town, so they joined up with me, Joe and Jay for Friday night gaming.  Jay had recently acquired a copy of Robo Rally, and I was eager to let the other guys play since this was one of my first euro games.   We played with only one map and three flags, which seemed small but made for a very quick game.  Everyone grasped the concept quickly and we were off.  There were a couple of early mistakes that included people driving into pits.  In the mid-game several laser shots were fired, and Justin suffered our first locked register, getting a "Move 3" card locked.  He was able to shut down in a safe place.  Experience proved to be too much to overcome for the group.  I rode the conveyers to move around quickly and was able to score the last flag.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I hope we'll play again soon.  It's been too long.

 

Rating:  8

 

Havoc
After Robo Rally I introduced everyone to Havoc.  Jay had played a 3-player game with me and Brandon, but everyone else was new.  Everyone seemed to like it well enough, though I don't remember anything remarkable happening.  I haven't heard any negatives about this game yet.  However, I'm realizing it doesn't make for very interesting session reports!

 

Rating:  7

 

Saboteur
Our last game of the night was our first playing of Saboteur.  Joe had recently purchased this in our bulk game purchase.  We had to read through the rules as a group, which is always rough, but fortunately the game is relatively simple.  Our group has a great time with games that involve hidden treachery, so everyone was accused of being a saboteur multiple times.  It's nice that the game is played over three rounds, letting players have a shot at playing both sides (most of the time).  I had an especially fun 3rd round, as I had a terrible draw of cards as a miner.  I started playing them back towards the cave entrance, which apparently made Jay think I was the saboteur wasting card plays.  I tried to point out that I could have used the cards to steer away from the gold, but he was having none of it.  That made me think *he* was the saboteur, but then two other players started making obvious moves away from the gold card.  Everyone was confused, chaos ensued, and we had a great laugh.  This game is low on strategy, but high on humor.  Our group ate it up.

 

Rating:  8

 

High Society
Jay, Joe and I tried a quick game of High Society.  This is a similar game to For Sale, with quirky auction mechanics and a play time of less than half an hour.  It has an interesting victory condition that says the person with the least amount of remaining money at the end of the game, regardless of points, automatically loses.  With my terrible memory, I completely miscalculated how much Joe had spent, and proceeded to wind up spending more.  Jay was frugal, but didn't amass nearly the number of points needed to catch Joe, who eventually won.  This had interesting mechanics, but I definitely prefer For Sale.  I need to play this with 4-5 people for a fair evaluation.

 

Rating:  6.5

 

Attika
Christina and I played a Sunday night game of Attika.  This was heavier than what we've played before.  Our only previous tile-laying game was Carcassonne: The Castle.  She did well, and I placed my last tile about 2 turns before she could have played out.  She enjoyed the game.  At least, she said she did.  I sometimes wonder how much she enjoys the actual game mechanics themselves rather than just the act of sitting down to spend time with me while playing a game.  Anyway, I always enjoy Attika.  I've played it with just 2 players a lot, but I think I enjoy it more with 3. 

 

Rating:  7

 

Tonight we have 5 confirmed for Friday night gaming.  Joe, Brandon, Dave and I are heading over to Jay's place after work.  I was really hoping to play some of our un-played euro games (I brought Beowulf and Taj Mahal, both of which I'm eager to get to a 5-player table), but Brandon has requested another Ravnica booster draft night.  I think I've been outvoted.  Sadly, all of these great new games will have to wait for another night.