Game Nights

The respective game nights of the past 2 days have been a great way to distract myself from real world memories. Lots of new stuff getting to the table. I'm trying to be more of a "type A gamer", as coined by Valerie Putman.

Lord of the Rings: Friends and Foes: I played this solo (2 Hobbits) 2 weeks ago and died in Isengard. I played it last week with 2 players, and we died in Helm's Deep. Last night we played a 3-player game, and died in Shelob's Lair. This expansion is really kicking my ass. I've won the base game more than lost playing solo with Sauron at 12. I think we need to start Sauron at 15 until we get a better feeling for how to change tactics with this expansion. Very cool though.

Sleuth: I love deduction games. I've owned Sleuth for years, but didn't get it to the table until tonight. The 3-dimensional nature of the information does make for a more interesting and complex game than Black Vienna. The choice of cards and who to play them on is really nice. You can play a card with a single attribute and get a public count, or you can play a card with 2 attributes and get a public count but also see the actual cards secretly for yourself. In our 3-player game, I was able to deduce the hidden gems with only about 6 questions per player. I'm certain I could have done it sooner, but I was learning how to record the information and changing my mind on the fly. Another hit.

RoboRally: Another game I've owned forever and never played. What a shame. This was a real blast. I laughed at myself even when I made mistakes. The one unexpected thing was that players with severely damaged bots might have only 1 card to play. This means they are starting the timer immediately. If you are in a complex situation, you really don't have time to think, much less factor in what the other players might do. But it's really ok in this game, and makes it even more fun!

Lifeboat: A couple more players showed up. Now we had 6. Fortunately I had thought to throw Lifeboat in the game bag. It was the first time for everyone, including myself. My description of the rules did not seem to impart as much understanding as normal. It took almost the whole game before people were getting into the flow. There were a couple of very interesting fights. The final scores were 20-20-16-15-14-13, with no one dying. I think the next game will be a little more nasty. I have quite a few questions on game play for BGG, if I can just remember them all.


RoboRally image by kilroy_locke