Game Night logs for April 2002

Ray and Don got an early start and played Lost Cities. They seemed to like the game but called a draw due to the fact that they had just learned.

Don had brought The Lord of the Rings, some of us had been waiting to play this. (as I have a copy that has never been played)

Over all everyone liked the game, Everyone except the ring bearer was out at step 56, but the ring made it to doom but was not destroyed.

Next up, Land Unter, as many of you know, we love this game! Ashley and Don had never played but that didn't stop them from getting a tie for second place!

For the closer, what else but Take 6. I think this may be the only game, of take 6, I have ever won! (Prich did come in second!) Ray lost due to the fact that he had to put a childs car together, but I guess he was doing poorly enough to begin with, so I don't think it effected his game much!

Lord of the Rings, the cooperative game made another big splash. It is easy to learn, time consuming but engaging, and leads to interesting interaction. I call it the "take one on the chin for the team, rah rah" game. You follow the path of the books, and the goal is to destroy the ring. So if everyone dies and the last person destroys the ring, you all win. How well you did is ranked by a score (mostly determined by how close you got, then by unused resources). The rank is recorded in the annals in the box. Very different approach (although coop games are not knew, one worth playing is new).

I took a few people on a boat trip with Cartagena, but I kept getting my butt kicked good. Christine dominated the second game. Don and Noelle played for the first time, and since we played 2 games, I assume they enjoyed it.

I have had no responses on Diplomacy, but by my count I have 5 of the 7 players required...

We got an early start before everyone came down stairs. I've been wanting to play Carolus Magnus for a long time, so we broke out a three player game. (I still want to try a 4 player game) After helping Ashley way too much, Prich made a critical mistake that cost him the game, I think we have all pulled this boner, at one time or another! Ashley gave me a run for my money and Prich did a good job of blocking me. It all came to naught when I took over one of Ashley's double islands.

As you know, everyone loves "The Pig Game", everyone but Jen! I don't think I have had a worst game of Land unter to date! suzanne did rather well for her first time. Ashley didn't fare as well.

Jen came out of hiding, but we know she hates "The Pig Game", so she split off to play Carcassonne. 9I want to play this with the River Expansion!)

We still had time while the others played Carcassonne, so we pulled out Rage, it's been a while. I'm amazed that Ray could pull himself out of the tar-pit, for that awesome score! he lost about every hand. On the flip side, I marked every round but one, I just about threw a 300 game!

When the others finished Carcassonne, they started a game of Take 6, it was aborted for some reason. The only thing they could say was "Don lost"

First notable, there is a 9th character so 8 people can play! This is a great thing. Notice we had 8.

Second notable, there are 9 alternate characters, one for each of the main characters. That way if the group becomes obsessed with one of the characters (as we were with the merchant), you insert the merchant alternate instead. In this case, the character did not get one gold per green district building. A huge change.

Third notable. Jenny noticed that the rules (NOW IN ENGLISH) say CHARACTER not PLAYER on card descriptions. HUGE HUGE difference. You assassinate the KING, not "ED". So, whoever is the KING gets killed. You are not sure who it is until they die! This makes the assassin and thief (same logic) VERY playable and cool. Plus, with the thief working this way, you are no obsessed with spending all your money each round.

Ok, so this game is now great. But alas, the downside... The game is always close. It was the only game we managed to play that evening. You do the math.

Citadels Winner Pat 34 - Noelle 28 - Ray 27 - Jenny 24 - John P. 24 - Ashley 22 - Ed 17 - Don 13

As for atmosphere, I made rum smoothies. Farmer Pat was drinking "woodchuck cider". We sat next to each other and since we were both drinking, our behaviour seemed normal. Finally, we noticed that we had quite a lot of, um, drink. We made fun of each other and yelled at anyone who forgot it was there turn (each other most of the time).

Ashley	Don B.	Ed
Jen	John P.	Ray

Ashley	Don B.	Ed
Jen	John P.	Ray
Steve	Suzanne

Ashley	Don	Ed
Jenny	John P.	Noelle
Pat	Ray