Are these people having fun?

"The comfort you demanded is now mandatory! Be happy!" I was listening to the Ice T song "Be Happy" while cleaning this photo of Saturday's game session up and the quotation seemed, well, synchronicitously appropriate. These people really are having fun, though, aren't they? Guys? Guys?

Pictured left to right are Luke "Mycophile" Meyers (our newest member), Paul "Master Driver" Unwin, and the mighty throbbin' hand of John "Winner of Saturday Night's Game of Acquire" Braley. Also present Saturday but not pictured is Ron "Also Present Saturday But Not Pictured" Hale-Evans.

Saturday night we played a quick game of Fluxx, which I, Ron "A.P.S.B.N.P." Hale-Evans, won. No applause, please; there's a lot of chance in Fluxx (hence the name), and a lot of the strategy comes from knowing the right combinations of Keeper cards to have in front of you -- which, since I own a Fluxx set too (we were playing with Luke's), I did. The winning goal proved to be "Milk and Cookies".

Acquire, now -- a great strategy game. I lost big. Really big. John "W.o.S.N.G.o.A." Braley played thoughtfully and won really big, with a huge fortune, and Luke came in a close second. Paul fell somewhere in the middle this time. I'm not going to give a play by play, as I evidently really didn't understand the game all that well... But I'm going to be practicing, guys, so keep your financial skills honed. To be honest, though, you'll probably have more to worry about from Karl Erickson, another Seattle-Cosmic member and avid, long-time Acquire player, who said he'll join us next time we play the game. (John's fabulous prize was a copy of the novel The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse -- which he happened to be reading at the time, producing a library copy from his backpack as evidence!)

I haven't seen the old Acquire boards outside of photos, but Karl tells me they're kinda cheesy. The new board and game equipment are really slick, with 3D markers for each corporation that make the whole board look like a multicoloured skyline.

BTW, we are going with the plan of Cosmic every other week. Since we played Fluxx and Acquire last week, we'll be playing Cosmic Encounter and something else this week. Luke wants to play Icehouse; I'd like to play Icehouse too, if everyone else can bear it -- remember, a game only take 15 minutes. And we can probably fit something else in too.

Speaking of both Cosmic and snazzy boards, check out the photo below of the new Hasbro/Avalon Hill Cosmic Encounter from www.cosmicencounter.com. No more tokens -- little 3D spaceships instead. No more Cone -- instead a 3D mothership. And look at the "hexes" -- they're little pod-things! Four are pictured, but rotate them a little bit and you have room for six around the Warp. Kinda cool, eh? The initial release will have only 20 aliens, and the card backs have changed. (Bummer.) I don't know if I'll ever play with it, at least until the expansions are released, but I'll probably buy one, if only to ensure further support from Hasbro for the game. (And they're using Eon flares, not Mayfair!) Hasbro/Avalon Hill may be an effective monopoly (they even own Monopoly), but man! -- Diplomacy, Acquire, and now Cosmic -- great stuff!

Well, sports fans, that wraps up this week's Seattle-Cosmic report. See you Saturday!

P.S. for WWW version of the newsletter: The above photo of the Cosmic Encounter board was taken without permission from www.cosmicencounter.com. It was originally mailed out privately to about ten people, which I believe constitutes "fair use". However, if Hasbro would like me to stop advertising their game, I will of course comply with their request and remove the photo.

NEXT MEETING:

Saturday, 15 April 2000, 8:00 PM at Ron and Marty's in Kent.

Remember, game nights at Ron and Marty's are every Saturday at 8:00 PM. Come play for fun and FABULOUS PRIZES!

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All photos on this page copyright © 2000 by Ron Hale-Evans except where otherwise noted.