Garrett's Games and Geekiness
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Garrett's Games and Geekiness

Garrett's Games and Geekiness 113

Mark Jackson joins me on the microphones for a wide-ranging discussion about games.  We discuss games entering and leaving our collections, along with some of the games we played over the course of an evening, many of which he had never played before:
R-Eco
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries
Aquaretto
Tal der Abenteuer
Deluxe Camping
Saba

We also end the current contest SPONSORED BY GATEPLAY.COM, so tune in and see who won!


Played: 323 | Download | Duration: 00:51:00

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Garrett's Games and Geekiness 112

Shelley and I discuss the Origin Awards FINALISTS (announced this week with an interesting addition), along with our enjoyment of the newest acquisition - XBOX360!  If you are interested in playing a game of Carcassonne or Lost Cities, I'm garrettsgames on XBOX Live.

This is also the last week of our contest - Sponsored by www.gateplay.com - so make sure to get your entry in by Thursday, May 8, to win a game from Gateplay.com's excellent site.

Played: 408 | Download | Duration: 00:18:43

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Garrett's Games and Geekiness 111

Shelley and I recorded a quick episode that's comprised of 2 main parts:
1)  My rant and incredulous feelings about some of the titles nominated for Origins Awards
2)  A NEW CONTEST that involves our sponsor, gateplay.com

Tune in, then if you have comments, join in on the rant or send me your thoughts on the Origin awards, awards in general, and other such thoughts.  Should we attempt to 'fix' the nominees if we can?

Send your answers to the questions to garrettsgames@mac.com...and win a game!

Doug


Played: 508 | Download | Duration: 00:22:45

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Garrett's Games and Geekiness 110

Shelley joins me on the microphones for a discussion of some of the Gathering games we enjoyed (or didn't).  Aquaretto, Big Points, Golden Compass, Anno 1701- the Boardgame, Hanging Gardens, and Ming Dynasty all get discussed.

Make sure to check out our sponsor, Gateplay.com at www.gateplay.com.  Good games, good prices.


Played: 573 | Download | Duration: 00:42:52

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Garrett's Games - Heading Home From The Gathering

The Gathering – Heading Home

Early flights (no delays), Prize Table acquisitions, A finaltrip to Denise’s for ice cream

Shel and I got up VERY early to catch the first leg of thetrip home – Columbus to Chicago, and I’m writing this on the plane from Chicagoto San Jose.  No delays yet, andgiven our bad luck with planes in the past year, I’m happy so far.

The Prize Table (of which I have a few audio snippets onthis week’s podcast) went quite smoothly this year, as they speeded up theprocess.  First picks were forgames such as the Risk Black Ops game, a Carabande with Action Set, the specialFunkenschlag that John and Scott mention on the audio snippets, and the Ticketto Ride Nordic Countries game that you still can’t get over here.  The “official word” is “NO COMMENT”about it getting published stateside. We’ll just have to wait and see what Days of Wonder does…

The game itself, as I said before, is quite solid and fairlynasty.  I would have taken one asmy first pick if one was still available (all 3 were taken in the first 10picks, however).

Funniest moment: Dale Yu’s name was called in a group and heSPRINTED to the front, snatched up the last Funkenschlag, and just keep onrunning, holding the box in the air triumphantly.  VERY fun, even when repeated to show how everyone shouldreact with enthusiasm.

What did we get off the table? well, I was about middle ofthe pack in the name draw, while Shelley was ¾ of the way through.  I was surprised that Aquaretto wasstill available when I heard my name, so that was acquisition #1.  I will be sure to report on what acombined playing of Zooloretto and Aquaretto is like soon. 

Shelley sent me up when her name was called and I’d had myeye on a copy of Big Points, the game with some Tutankahmun-like qualities thatShel and I had enjoyed.  It wasplaced on the tables late, and I think people hadn’t seen it when they perusedthe games.  Also (and a bigsurprise) it was placed on the 2 for 1 table, meaning you got two games off thetable at the time of your pick. Well, I took that and an old copy of Reiner Knizia’s Mole Hill (a cute2-player which I think is out of print). I would have been completely satisfied with my choices if they stoppedthere….

But we each got a second pick – running back through thenames called in reverse.  I snaggeda copy of Fischmarkt (haven’t played it, but Rick Thornquist says he enjoyed itlast year when it was a new Essen release).  It’s a Clementoni and hasn’t made it into an English version(I think).  Finally, for my lastpick I found a used copy of In The Shadow of the Emperor.

Scott Alden was able to get his desired copy of the Japaneseversion of Loopin’ Louie.  He’sright, the box is quite cool and the stickers are different.  No, I’m not feeling the need to seek outthis version too!

Other memorable prize table items: Someone had created Femoclay animals for Agricola, there were coasters for glasses with meeples oneach, a copy of We The People, a copy of Agricola delivered as soon as Zev haspublished it, etc.  BTW, we broughta shrink-wrapped copy of Thebes, a copy of Kunst Stucke, and a copy of JKLM’sScottish Whisky Race (all of which were taken on the first pass through thenames).

One final trip to Denise’s for ice cream was all we had timefor (Shelley hadn’t been yet).  Ienjoyed a cup of White Gold (butterscotch ice cream with cinnamon/caramelswirls) and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Then it was back to the room to pack for travel.

A fun Gathering overall.  I enjoyed the games, the people, and the blogging andpodcasting.  In fact, except forthe great time had with friends new and old, I’d say I enjoyed the podcastingand blogging more that the games at times.  Maybe I’m getting old, grumpy, and set in my ways, but Ijust wasn’t impressed by many of the new crop of Nuremburg games thisyear.  Maybe the companies aresaving more games for the Essen push and publicity, but when the best game ofthe convention is a prototype that’s now scheduled for an Essen 2008 releasefrom Eggertspiele, I may need to just fall back on familiar titles.  

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Garrett's Games and Geekiness 109

A short episode (it's been a long week) with small tidbits left over from The Gathering.

I walk the room and mention many of the games available to play.
The Gathering's Prize Table is discussed, and some of the first picks are done play-by-play
John Palagi discusses his Gathering favs and desired first pick (which he gets!)
Scott Alden discusses Prize Table strategy (which unfortunately fails to pan out).

Enjoy!



Played: 472 | Download | Duration: 00:22:52

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The Gathering - Saturday

The Gathering – Saturday Report

Shelley’s here (less time to blog), games played again, somenew stuff to try….

Shelley arrived Thursday night, so blogging hasn’t happenedas much.  That said, I’m getting abit burnt out on games, so breaks are needed.

We headed to Jeni’s to try the other gourmet place inColumbus and enjoyed some more good treats – Chocolate with cinnamon andcayenne pepper, along with Bourbon Butter Pecan.  Worth the trip.

On to the games:

(Repeats first)

Aquaretto:

I’ve enjoyed my subsequent playings of this one more than myfirst playing, and have now tried it with 3, 4 & 5.  Each number plays a bit differently,but I’m happier with this version of the game over Zooloretto primarily becausethe money comes into play MUCH more often.  Since you’re getting a coin every time you create a multipleof 3 of an animal type, you just get more $$ and therefore there’s moreinteraction between player boards (a good thing, IMO).  I also like the addition of the workers(received when you get multiples of 5 of an animal type).  They give you options for bonuses whichthen give you paths to follow for tile acquisition.

Hanging Gardens:

Meh…It’s fine, but just doesn’t do much for me.  Earl compared it to Alhambra, which Ican see to some extent, though I’d probably play Alhambra with 3 before gettingthis out again – and I haven’t played Alhambra in a couple of years.  Shel’s not good with the spatialarrangement of the cards, so she didn’t like it AT ALL.

Metropolys:

This one continues to be a maybe for me as well.  I like that it plays quickly and thebidding mechanism works nicely.  Ijust think that the secret bonus cards are wildly different in terms of whetherthey can be achieved or not and that can sour one on the game.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries:

I definitely like this one, especially now that we’ve hadclarification that Alan Moon himself was teaching us the game wrong.  You DO use the double routes in a3-player game.  Shelley did quitewell at this one, but Lincoln and I were actually more in the running than shethought, since she was able to complete 8 SHORT tickets, while I completed 5longer ones, with one that I couldn’t make.  Tight board and fun.

NEW Stuff:

Golden Compass (NOT the movie tie-in cover, but the one thatmatches the book):

This one’s a race game that I enjoyed VERY much.  You each are attempting to get to theNorth Pole, but the spots onto which you move your pawn give you neededexperience points.  These allow youto fill goals that you obtain (3 in all) that must be achieved before you canwin.  The movement is one of themost interesting aspects.  At firstyou can use any cards (valued 1-3) to move.  However, all of the movement cards (Lyra cards, for those ofyou who have read the novel) are color-coated to the players’ colors.  Once you move past the Fens space, youcan only play movement cards in the colors of the players who are IN FRONT ofyou.   If you are in the lead,then you can only play YOUR OWN colors. Neat mechanism.

Drawing cards is also unique.  Turn order is established at the beginning of each round fromlast to first.  In a 4-player gamethe person in last place draws 4 cards, the next person 3, and so on to thelead drawing 1.  Then movementoccurs in clockwise fashion from the person in last.  SO, that means you have to figure out which colored cardsyou want to draw for movement (colors are in different piles).

Landing in destination spots gets you experience OR Pancards that give you either 1 movement OR a power.  Achieving a goal gives you a helper card for progressingalong the path.

Shelley wasn’t a big fan, but I really enjoyed playing thisone.

Ubongo das Duell

Yep, another Ubongo! This one’s a 2-player game where each player has a bunch of pieces andyou roll a d-20 to determine which 4 or 5 pieces to use.  Then you aren’t going against a timer,but instead going against each other. First one to win 5 head-to-head contests wins.  Cute and you could just play this with the sets of Ubongo orExtrem that you already have.  BUT,this one’s certainly travel-sized (the boards are fairly thin paper board.

Anno 1701 The Boardgame:

Scott Nicholson was kind enough to teach this one to Shelleyand me.  I’d wanted to try it andScott said a tweak (eliminate the random cards when one is sailing) would makethe game go faster.  It certainlyflew by in about an hour with rules teach!

The main board has slots for various tiles that you discoverby sailing.  These provideresources, gold, or items on three track that give VPs.  BTW, you’re trying to get rid of  5 “points” over the course of thegame.  You also have a personalboard that generates resources and tiles to build that lead to other tiles andVP removal spots.

Money is key in the game, as if you do not have at least 3,your people are in chaos, your 6 & 8 items don’t produce, and you can’t winno matter what.

This one’s good, but certainly not a must have, and givenMayfair’s prices, it’s not one I think I’d ever buy.

 

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Garrett's Games Gathering Supplemental #4

Stephen Glenn, Ted Alspach, Greg Schloesser, and Zev Shlasinger join me on the microphone for more commentary from The Gathering.


Played: 514 | Download | Duration: 00:28:27

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The Gathering Day 5

Day 5 at The Gathering:

Breakfast with friends, most games (and it's only 4PM), Shelley's on the way!

Michelle and Earl came in last night, and our usual Gathering excursion of breakfast (minus Shelley) happened at 9:30AM.  That meant an earlier bedtime last night (probably a good thing), but not before I played a couple of more games.

Hanging Gardens (second play):
it's light, it's fairly quick, and it's not bad...but not that great either.  I talked about this in my first blog, and if I were to get it cheaply, it MIGHT make it in to the collection, but I'm not sure I need this one.  The luck is somewhat high as to how the tiles you're collecting come out, many never make it out of the draw pile, and the added luck of what cards you use to "build" your grouped buildings means there doesn't seem to be much control.  Meh.... as my students would say.

Ming Dynasty:
OK, MAYBE I was too tired, or MAYBE we missed something in the rules... but I don't think so.  YUCK!
Each player takes 5 wooden people into his/her hand at the start of a round.  These are then placed one at a time in turn order into the 'provinces' which are in a column along one side of the board and are color coated.  THEN, in turn order, players draw EXACTLY 5 cards for movement of a 'prince' pawn around the board  these cards can only be drawn from the space if you have a person in the adjoining province.  The main part of the board, by the way, is separated into regions of a particular color that are further separated into 3 districts.  The cards allow for movement between districts where you attempt to establish majorities to gain chits for scoring OR place into cloisters, etc.  Only 1st & second majority moves into the 3 city buildings in each district,  which gains you those chits (2 for first, 1 for second, or 1 & 1 if there's a tie).

So you move your prince pawn around the board, and then place people (0-3) from the province of that color into the district in which the prince stands.  Scoring happens after Rounds 2, 4, and 6.  Those are too convoluted to discuss here...

If we read the rules correctly, we seemed to be playing this right and I was about 20+ points ahead of second place...but we decided to abandon the game after Round 4 since it was so tedious!  I MIGHT try it again, but yuck!

Change Horses:
This one's cute enough...and the goal is to come in LAST (like Leste Kamel (I think that's the name, but The Geek is currently down...I'll tell Scott)).  The horses with jockeys are very nice.

Everyone gets an identical set of 15 cards that correspond to his/her jockey.  Everyone also is secretly assigned a horse color. You also get 2 cards that allow you to mess with the current situation (more on that later). Each round you choose 3 of your 15 cards (which have 2 horse colors on them), lay them out face down, turn them over when everyone has their choices, and then in turn order (last in previous round becomes start player, then you shuffle turn cards for everyone else) you pick one of your 3 cards and place it in the middle of the racetrack.  Everyone places, then again, and now there are 2 cards from each player in the middle.  Now the horses move.  If there are an odd number of a color out, it moves that many spaces.  If there's an even number, the horse doesn't move.

That's it...except for the cards that allow you to mess with the situation.  You can switch horses, move the two furthest behind ahead two, switch lanes, and one other thing.

Light, probably better with its full contingent of 5 than the 3 that we had.  I wouldn't refuse to get it, but it's not one I'll seek out.

Big Points:
If you've played Tutankhamen or Verflixxt, you have the general idea of how this game works.  Lay out a single-file line of wooden circle flowing away from a step-ladder at one end.  The steps on the ladder are labeled 0-4.  There are 5 colored pawns in the game, but 7 colors of wooden circles.  The pawns are placed at the opposite end of the line from the steps.  On a turn you move a pawn (any color) to its next wooden circle of the same color.  Then you take either UNOCCUPIED wooden circle on either side of that pawn into your hand.  As pawns get to the end of the row, they climb to the top-most unoccupied step.  Therefore, the wooden circles that correspond in color to the pawn on the top step earn 4 points each at the end of the game...and so on.  The white and black circles are different.  Black circles allow you to move AGAIN on your turn, but you can also move BACKWARDS.  They are not worth anything at the end of the game, except in relation to the which circles.... White circles earn a point for every different color circle you have.  So that means I can earn up to 6 points per white circle (other colors + black) if I have circles in each of those colors.

This one's quick and fun, so I can see picking it up and playing it at school with the kids, or with non-gamers at a dinner party

Panda, Gorilla, and Co.
New, odd titles are always on the tables around The Gathering, so I tracked this one down and had to try it.  It sounded a bit Carcassonne-ish, and the tiles you use to construct the zoo must fit together in a Carcassonne fashion (roads match, light and dark green cannot be next to each other, even diagonally).  You can then (like Carcassonne) claim a spot on the tile you place.  However, the tokens are small, medium, and large - corresponding to small, medium and large animals who take up 2, 4 and 6 spaces respectively.  Only one person can have a particular size in any particular area (unless, like Carc, two areas join together).  When an area is surrounded (with road, lake, or wall) you see what animals fit in the area from big to small.  Bigs score 5, Mediums score 3, Smalls score 1.  Interesting, but anticlimactic.  I'd like to try it again now that we've played it once, since I'd have a better idea of how everything comes together.

And Finally - Trapper:
From Kramer, this one's a light discovery game where you don't control any ONE pawn, but have cards that could influence the movement of ANY of the 4 pawns in the game.  You lay out an 8x8 grid of tiles, remove the middle 4 to randomize (and set up starting spots for the pawns).  Then the tiles around the pawns are turned over and oriented in a particular way.  Players then play cards (initial hand of 6) to move any 1 pawn on their turn.  2 cards of one color equal one of another color.  You can move as many times as you are willing and able.  The only restriction to movement is that you can't cross through water (so a pawn can be blocked and then moved ANYWHERE on the board for a next move which is something you want to plan for).

What are you collecting?  Well, you have animal-specific canoes that hold 1-3 animals, plants and mushrooms.  You want to fill your canoe with the proper animals with bonuses for mushrooms and plants (one per canoe of each is allowed), and those must be in the canoe BEFORE it fills with the needed animals.  As soon as a canoe is filled, you add up its points, double them, and that's how much $$ you receive.  You also earn a bonus chit for final scoring that equals the value of some of the higher-value canoes.  Animals/plants/mushrooms that aren't in a canoe at the end of the game are negative valued (turn in $$ equal to the value on the tile) and canoes that are empty are minus however many animals they were supposed to hold.  Incomplete canoes score, but aren't doubled.  There are those bonus chit which provide a 12/8/5/3/1 bonus.

It's quick, fairly fun, but definitely luck-based given the discovery aspect of the game.  I enjoyed it, but don't know that I'd have to buy it.

OK, that's a less-than-quick rundown of what's up for today.  Hope you're enjoying these!

Doug

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Garrett's Games Gathering Supplemental #3

The guys from North Star Games join me for a conversation about their games - Cluzzle, Wits and Wagers, and Say Anything - then we discuss some of their favorites.  I also tagged on a short 'roving reporter' recording that I did one evening as well.

Enjoy!


This podcast contains explicit content | Played: 486 | Download | Duration: 00:37:02

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