Seattle Cosmic Game Night, Saturday, 11 October 2003

The Big Game Sale Day

Seattle Cosmic met again on 11 October 2003 at 5:00 PM. Present in approximate order of attendance were Timothy_Higgins?, Marty_Hale-Evans?; Meredith_Hale? and Kisa_Griffin?; Dave_Adams? and Kathy_Kizer?; Steve_Vall\xE9e?; Alex_Rockwell?; Steve_Dupree? and Nat_Dupree?; Ron_Hale-Evans? (that's me); ChadUrsoMcDaniel; Kayne_McGladrey? and Jennifer_McGladrey?; Ben_Sklar?; the Kaldor family: Bob_Kaldor?, Josh_Kaldor?, Kendra_Kaldor?, and Nate_Kaldor?; Mark_Purtill?; Mark_Haggerty?, Eric_Yarnell,_ND?, and Dave_Howell?. I make that 23 people, which is either a record or close to it, outside of the Fourth of July LongGameDays we've had.

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Evo

Game: Evo?
Location: Kitchen
Time: 5:00-6:20 PM
Winner: Alex_Rockwell?
Prize: Gamer baggies

Scores

The first four attendees were finishing a pre-game-night activity when I arrived around 5:30. Meanwhile, the next four had started Evo?.

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Amun Re

Game: Amun_Re?
Location: Den
Time: 5:55-8ish PM
Winner: Ben_Sklar?,
Prize: Wooden backscratcher (Ben),

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Heave-Ho! (x2)

Game: Heave-Ho!?
Location: Card table in kitchen
Time: 6:00-7:45
Winner: Steve_Dupree?; Ron_Hale-Evans?
Prize: Styrofoam glider (Steve), chocolate casino chips (Ron)

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

The first round of game one was played with randomized decks for each player. After that we followed the rules for each player dividing the cards into piles for himself and his opponent. Whoever finished dividing first got huge advantages. Since I am more physically dextrous than Ron, I won those. The second game was played with random decks throughout. The advantages given to the dextrous are overwhelming - essentially deciding who will very likely win the tug of war. As such it changes the game from a card game to a dexterity game, with the card portion just playing out the inevitable result of the dexterity portion. However I would recommend one change if you choose to play without the dexterity portion, which is to alternate the starting player rather than always have the older player start. Another potential fix is to distribute the advantages from the dexterity portion around more evenly, for instance by letting the other person finish dividing their cards up, putting the barrel on their side and letting the first finisher get the first turn. Nat and I have played a few times since then and have found the game to be enjoyable using these more balanced approaches.

--Steve_Dupree?

Phoenix

Game: Phoenix?
Location: Kitchen
Time: 6:30ish-8:30ish
Winner: Alex_Rockwell?
Prize: Gamer baggies

Scores

Alex comments, "It's very mathematical."

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Settlers of Catan (with Cities & Knights)

Game: Settlers_of_Catan? (with Cities_&_Knights?)
Location: Dining room
Time: 6ish-9:20 PM
Winner: Kathy_Kizer?
Prize: Games Magazine August 2002

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Fury of Dracula

Game: Fury_of_Dracula?
Location: Living room
Time: 8:00-10:40
Winner: n/a

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

I think there is a lot to like in this game but it has a delicate mechanic: Dracula is essentially the game master in an RPG sense. If the Dracula player wants to be aggressive and leave lots of encounters around it will give the hunters plenty to do. On the other hand if Dracula wants to be evasive then the game can drag out without much interaction going on. One of the key properties that I associate with German games is that there is steady and known progress towards the goal and end of the game. In Fury of Dracula it's really hard to tell how much progress is made. This was my only play of the game so I can't judge how delicate this is but it does seem significant. I thought Kayne made it a fun game even as we went around the wrong parts of Europe.

--ChadUrsoMcDaniel

That's an interesting way of looking at it. Otherwise, Dracula's advantages seem too overwhelming. The one time I played this, we wandered around for a long while without finding anything, and then when we finally did corner dracula we found that he could easily just escape from combat and run past our cordons. It was too frustrating for my tastes.

--Steve_Dupree?

Nuclear War

Game: Nuclear_War?
Players: Ben Sklar, Bob Kaldor, one of the Bros. Kaldor
Location: Card table in kitchen
Time: 8ish-9:30
Winner: Ben_Sklar?
Prize: Gamer baggies

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Aladdin's Dragons

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Traumfabrik

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Chinese Checkers

Game: Chinese_Checkers?
Players: Mark Haggerty, Meredith Hale, Dave Howell, Eric Yarnell
Location: At the top of the stairs
Time: 2030-2100 h roughly
Winner: Mark Haggerty
Prize: a pat on the back

Scores

Mark & Dave did a much better job at building up their express ladders through the middle and exploiting them. Meredith was a novice player but still did an excellent job.

Really this is a good game, with a simple rule set yet complex strategy. I don't like it that much for reasons I can't grasp--maybe because I suck at it.

--Eric_Yarnell,_ND?

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Through the Desert

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

IIRC, I won this, and did so by touching a whole lotta oasises (oases?).

--Steve_Dupree?

Can't Stop

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Hearts

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

Medici x2

Game: ?
Players: ?
Location: ?
Time: ?
Winner: ?
Prize: ?

Scores

What happened during this game?

Comments from the players?

--Ron_Hale-Evans?

At one point in the second game, we threw away too many cards early in a round and we all realized that there wouldn't be enough cards for everyone's holds. Suddenly prices shot up like crazy and the bidding got out of control. I tried a strategy of getting whatever I could for cheap, but it worked very poorly. I believe Jay was trying the same strategy last night (in Tacoma) and it didn't work for him either.

--Steve_Dupree?

Apocalypse

Game: ?
Players: Mark Haggerty, Eric_Yarnell,_ND?
Location: Top of the stairs
Time: 2130 h roughly to midnight
Winner: Mark
Prize: An interesting experience

Scores

What happened during this game?

There was an immediate problem with this game--the randomized start conditions led to Mark's forces being consolidated in northwestern Europe and Eric's being scattered all over the place. Since consolidation of forces is the name of the game, Mark had a huge initial advantage, which he fairly quickly parlayed into a dominating position including taking and holding several nuclear missiles. By the time midnight rolled around, our preset time to leave, it was so obvious Mark was going to win there was no reason to continue. Oddly, Mark chose not to fire off any of his nuclear missiles. Eric was also dramatically more effective at guessing Mark's combat numbers than the reverse.

Comments from the players?

A war game at Seattle Cosmic? What is the world coming to? Ha ha.

The randomized start condition has got to go. A simple process of each player alternately choosing the starting cities, akin to setup in Risk, would easily compesate for this. Some other game mechnanics seem rather odd. For example, units cannot move unless they remain connected to the territory they left (ie one unit must always remain in a territory if others move out of it). Additionally, nuclear missiles can never move unless they are being fired. The combat method of the attacker choosing a number on a die then having the defender guess at it is intriguing but also really slows the game down, if one attempts to figure out the psychology of things. If definitely seems like it would be worth playing this game again without randomized start conditions, and then to tinker with some of the bizarre-seeming other mechanics. Perhaps they keep the game balanced, perhaps they are just weird. Only playtesting time will tell.

--Eric_Yarnell,_ND?

NEXT MEETING

Saturday, 18 October 2003, 5:00 PM at the house of Kisa_Griffin? and Meredith_Hale? in Tacoma. Come play for fun and FABULOUS PRIZES from the PrizeBag!

Remember, Seattle Cosmic Game Night occurs every weekend, in one of three locations: Kent, Mill Creek, or Tukwila. Email Ron Hale-Evans for a full schedule and directions. If you come, please bring a snack or drink to share (cookies, chips, soda, juice, etc.)

Supporting Seattle Cosmic and Games to the Rescue

GamesToTheRescue is a philanthropic project of the Center for Ludic Synergy and Seattle Cosmic Game Night. The aim of the project is to provide game equipment and a book of game rules to hospitals, for use by patients and visitors. You can support GamesToTheRescue by buying games via our Funagain affiliate program, buying Seattle Cosmic Gear, and in a number of other ways. See the GamesToTheRescue page for more details.

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