Games

My gaming experiences.

Day 308: Steampunk Rally

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Steampunk Rally.

While I love science fiction I’m not the biggest steampunk fan. After playing Steampunk Rally tonight, though, I might have to take a closer look at the genre; for gaming purposes steampunk was awesome.

Steampunk Rally looks like a simple race around a track, but it’s much more than that. Each player builds a contraption to get around the track. The card drafting and dice rolling mechanics give everyone lots to do on each turn, with plenty of options to re-roll dice or play special event cards.

With all of the dice and cogs and cards it seemed a bit overwhelming, but after a few turns it was easy to get into the swing of things. I missed a few opportunities to build a better contraption and I had bad luck with my movement, but I did get to play a “ray gun” card that put a ton of damage on my opponents. Even though it had no effect on the winner (who seemed to be way ahead throughout the game), it was hilarious to play the card.

If you can’t beat ’em, might as well ray gun ’em.

Day 294: DungeonQuest

Just a few turns and I'm almost finished. Dungeonquest is brutal.

Just a few turns and I’m almost finished. Dungeonquest is brutal.

I didn’t do anything special for Back to the Future Day, but my gaming group did do a little time traveling tonight. We split into two groups and my table did some space colonization in Tiny Epic Galaxies before we went back to the time of dungeons and dragons in DungeonQuest.

When I was in junior high I played D&D, but I grew out of it as I entered high school. DungeonQuest isn’t a role-playing game, but it has all of the fun aspects of D&D: different characters with special abilities, monsters to be fought, and treasure to be gained.

And, of course, a big ol’ nasty dragon to wipe out you and your fellow adventurers.

I quickly learned that DungeonQuest is a brutal game. Getting to the dragon was hard enough and the various monsters, traps, and what-not could easily take you out. My first action resulted in my near-death and the other two players bit the dust within a few turns. We used a house rule that regenerated our characters and extended the game, but there was more death to come.

It was a lot of fun strolling through a dungeon again. And as long as the house rules permit multiple lives, I’m happy to do it again.

 

 

Day 291: The Force Awakens

Star Wars The Force Awakens

Star Wars The Force Awakens

Wasn’t I just talking about Star Wars?

As much as I’ve tried to contain my excitement about The Force Awakens, I find myself not doing a good job of it. I watched and live tweeted the original film for the umpteenth time. I finished reading the famous Thrawn trilogy.  I started playing the tabletop miniatures game.

And thanks to my local comic book store, I bought my tickets to an early screening of Episode VII.

Two months ago.

I’ve stopped trying to play it cool, so I was fired up to see the new poster for The Force Awakens today, even if I was disappointed in two things:

  1. No Luke. Is he doing an Obi-Wan-like sacrifice? Or is he already gone and only appearing in flashbacks?
  2. A new Death Star. Or what looks like one.

I don’t mind No. 1 at all. The nostalgia of the original cast is great, as is all of the practical and non-CGI effects, but the story needs to move forward as it pays tribute to its past.

It’s the new-ish Death Star that bothers me. Perhaps it’s a small part of a larger weapon or ship or I don’t know what. I know J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, et al, were smart enough not to rehash a tired gimmick, right? I guess it’s a minor quibble. Give me Death Star 3.0 over Jar Jar Binks 2.0 (or 1.0) any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

On a positive note, Kylo Ren continues to look cool and menacing and … well, I’ll quit while I’m ahead.  I said the same things about Darth Maul and we all know how that turned out.

Day 289: French Friday

Carcassonne.

Carcassonne.

There wasn’t anything particularly French about today, but my wife and I played Carcassonne so that gave me a chance to use the alliterative post title. After an early dinner we watched Book of Life (good animated movie), went out for ice cream, and came home to play the game.

Carcassonne is a city in the south of France that I’d love to visit one day, if only to see the actual landscape that inspired this modern classic board game. In my mind it’s a mellow place since that’s the feeling I get whenever I play. Draw a tile, play the tile, place a meeple if you want, and score points if possible. Simple, relaxing, and I have no idea why I let it sit in storage for years before actually playing it.

Day 287: Takenoko

Takenoko

Takenoko

I was excited to finally play Takenoko. It seemed like something I would like from the get-go and it was. With its mellow tile-laying and set-collecting gameplay all wrapped up in a cute theme featuring a hungry panda and a hard-working farmer, it’s hard not to like this game.

I think it’s safe to say that I’m an Antoine Bauza fan. I’ve enjoyed Hanabi, Tokaido, 7 Wonders, and now Takenoko.

Day 280: Star Trek Catan

Star Trek Catan.

Star Trek Catan.

I’ve now played three of the most popular gateway games, thanks to my local gaming group. I’d played Ticket to Ride and Carcassone (also with the group a few weeks ago) and Catan was the last one on my list.

I was somewhat familiar with the game and actually own a copy (a birthday gift), but hadn’t played it yet. Tonight the first game the group put on the table was Star Trek Catan. The basics are the same, but the added “helper cards” featuring the Star Trek characters were fun.

The rest of the group was familiar with the game and each player seemed to prefer Star Trek over the original. I loved the theme and I’ll have to see how it compares to Catan. Somehow trading brick and lumber while avoiding the robber won’t seem as exciting as trading Dilithium and Tritanium while avoiding the Klingons.

Day 276: Random Saturday Thoughts

Tastykakes from the freezer are the best!

Tastykakes straight from the freezer are the best.

A few random thoughts on a Saturday night:

  1. Tastykakes: They’re an East Coast treat, but over the years I’ve seen them more frequently in Southern California. My local grocery store was having a 2-for-1 sale and I couldn’t resist the power of the Tastykake.  I LOVE the peanut butter Kandy Kakes, which taste like a Reese’s peanut butter cup in mini-cake form. They’re even better when frozen.
  2. Dodgers: The good news is they won the NL West again and are going to the playoffs. The bad news is long-time organist Nancy Bea Hefley is retiring after this season. I hope the Dodgers don’t get rid of the organist position; as much as I love the snippets of today’s pop music during a game, there’s something very soothing about being at Dodger Stadium and listening to the between-innings notes from the organ.
  3. Jeopardy!: It’s always fun to see a player dominate on my favorite game show and Matt Jackson’s five-show run has been terrific. I liked this first-person account from one of his vanquished opponents.

Day 273: Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter

The September heat wave is nearly over, so it was the perfect opportunity to fight off the cold … and an unending wave of zombies.

Actually, it was another warm night, but my local gaming group got into a cold-weather mood and played Dead of Winter. I enjoyed it despite having one of my characters die immediately, thanks to a horrible first roll of the die. It happened so fast I forgot her name, but I did miss her search skills for the rest of the game. My lone survivor was the ninja and he proved quite adept at slicing and dicing zombies.

Dead of Winter is a terrific co-operative game with a traitor element. The theme is outstanding if you’re into zombies and the tension level ramps up quickly as characters try to scrounge up food, fuel, medicine, and weapons. The traitor managed to complete his mission (it was between me and him and I was expelled since I was going to die of frostbite anyways) as we all succumbed to our lost morale.

Day 271: I Slay the Dragon

I Slay the Dragon

I Slay the Dragon

This has been in the works for the past few weeks and I’m happy to announce that I’m now part of the team at islaythedragon.com, “a collaborative blog about games, gamers, and those who tolerate them (namely, gamers’ spouses and families.”

I’m captaining the helm of The Village Square, where you’ll find the latest and greatest board game news from the interwebs. My first column went up this morning and I’m excited to be working with such fine folk. Stop by the site and slay dragons with us, take on the Empire, and boldly go where no one has gone before!

Day 266: Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill

I made my first trip to the House on the Hill tonight, thanks to my local gaming group. Five of us braved the haunted house and one of us did the betraying, which resulted in a fantastic gaming experience.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is like a role-playing horror movie with the brilliant addition of the traitor, which ratchets up the suspense. I somehow managed to survive as old Professor Longfellow and my fellow survivor and I were able to outlast the traitor and the house itself, which was slowly but surely killing us. Two of our group weren’t as fortunate.

Even though this was my first time playing BAHOTH, I loved it. The role-playing aspect of it was fun and gameplay ran smoothly (I liked the tile-laying mechanism and it helps a newbie like me to have four veterans explaining things). After skimming through the rule books, I found so many scenarios that there seems to be a lot of replayability built into the game.  I can’t wait to play it again and I just added it to the top of my Games Wish List.