Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Board gaming 2x

Earlier in the month, my friend Denise invited a few folks to her house to play board games. This was planned a couple of months ago right after we played at Ludo and we decided that it was a bit too loud (I lost my voice trying to shout the rules of each game to my friends).

When I arrived, there were still only four of us and I was the only one with games so we played Ticket to Ride, which I still find to be one of the easiest games to play and to teach. Once we finished that game, a couple more people arrived so we ended up playing Codenames. Most of us were playing this party game for the first time. While Codenames is a good game for us to play because it's a team game which means it works well with big groups, the difficulty is that you have to be sort of on the same wavelength as your teammates so they can figure out what you are trying to get them to guess based the one-word clue you have to give them. Clearly I think differently from everyone else as my team did not win any of the three rounds we played. This is clearly not my game LOL.

We followed that up with Sushi Go Party! which is like 7 Wonders but a bit simpler, at least from a scoring standpoint. Up to 8 players can also play it. I actually really enjoyed this game since it is quick to play and the artwork on the cards adds to the enjoyment. I am now planning to get this game, maybe from gaming library.

Sushi Go Party!

To end the night, we played Pandemic. This game is unique because it's cooperative - all players play against the board - and I actually thought we were going to win the game but as we were getting ready to achieve our winning conditions, we ran out of cards. Darn, we lost by one measly round! People were tired by then so we called it a night.

I organized our next game night which was held at Linden Suites and I invited two sets of my board gaming friends. As expected, it took a while for people to arrive so when there were four of us, I once again pulled out my Ticket to Ride game. My friends seem to have figured out how to do well at this game as the scores this time were higher and the game was a lot tighter than when we played it a couple of weeks ago (I won by a large margin the first time; the second time around, I still won but this time only by a hair with a 2-point lead). Once more people arrived, I pulled out my 7 Wonders so that many people could play.

We then played The Voyages of Marco Polo, a new game that Mike bought. This was very complex but since there were a lot of us, we decided to break up into teams. I felt that this game was almost balanced except for one player that had such a strong advantage. That player won, but I am happy that my team ended up in 2nd place and we put up a very good and strategic fight. The Voyages of Marco Polo reminds me of Concordia but I personally prefer Concordia even if it is ranked lower in Boardgamegeek.

The Voyages of Marco Polo

I ended the night playing another new game, Lords of Waterdeep. This worker placement game has pretty simple rules, you earn points by completing quests, and its simplicity and the relatively short playing time make it a good introductory game. I really enjoyed Lords of Waterdeep - maybe winning the game has something to do with it - but I decided to buy this game for myself so I can play it with my other sets of friends.

Lords of Waterdeep

My winning percentages has gone down a bit as expected but I still get to win a few times and I'm happy that I started October with a game win and I ended the month with another game win. I can't wait to play more games in November. :)

No comments: