A Day at the Races!

Last night I hosted my annual January meetup group event A Day at the Races! I had a poor turnout this year with several last minute cancellations but I still had a total of 6 jockeys ready to put on their silks and race for the finish line! Except we did not play any horse racing games...

The first game on the agenda was Jamaica, a light hearted filler that we decided to play 4 player until the laggards showed up. This game is based on being a pirate and racing around Jamaica, and since we were already wearing silks, it seemed a natural fit.

Tom rocketed out to an early lead but was soon shot full of holes by the blackguards John and Bruce, losing his treasure and his food. John took over the lead shortly thereafter and never looked back, I lead from that point forward until the very end, being chased and shot at twice by the villainous Tom. The game took about 45 minutes and by then the final two players were there, so we decided to play a six player game. Everyone liked the game and they really liked the graphics as it is a very pretty game.

That game was Giro d'Italia: the Game, a bike racing game that is a branded reprint of Leader 1. This is David's game and he brought it along because he always wants to play it, not that I blame him, it is a good game.

The track had only one hill and several rises but was mostly flat so everyone, but David, who took a leader, took a rouleur, as they do better on flats than anyone else. The peloton went two rounds around the table before David decided to break away from the pack, a decision that would cost him later, as almost immediately he fell and was pulled back into the peloton.

Bruce, Brenda, Jay and Tom broke away next but they only stayed slightly ahead of the peloton for until the race was about 2/3rds over. Brenda decided to break away from the breakaway group and poured it on, this forced Bruce and Tom (who had been providing a wind break for everyone) to break with her, along with the rest. David and I decided to go along or risk being left behind. This meant I had to change bikes as the one I was using looked something like this:
We all gave chase and Jay and I caught Brenda on the last turn before the sprint to the finish, David ran out of energy and was pulled back into the peloton, while Tom and Bruce fell off the pace. Brenda, Jay and I all finished one turn ahead of Tom and Bruce and David finished in the Peloton. The final order of finish was: John, Jay, Brenda, Tom, Bruce and David. The commentary surrounding this game was "I really like this game" and "That was alot of fun".

The third and final game we played was that classic, Fearsome Floors. It was decided David looked most like the monster, so he went first. It is tough to describe the game as it is a series of ups and downs. First you fall down, then you get eaten up...

We raced around randomly, and everyone tried to hose each other (which is the way it should be played) and I was in position to win my third game in a row when Brenda and Jay teamed up to get two of my guys eaten by Furunkulus, knocking me out of the winners circle. Bruce squeezed out the win when Furunkulus's movement card was a Kill One which allowed two of Bruce's guys to waltz in. There was some discussion about whether this was a race game, but I think it is, so I include it.

We played three games last night and of the three, three had played Jamaica, two had played Giro d'Italia, and three had played Fearsome Floors. This means several players were taught new games (always a good thing) which means that there is a better chance of getting them out more often.

Last games night until fall

I had 7 people show up and we played 6 games. The first people showed up at 7:30 and we set up for a game of Dominion, but by the time the explanation was done, the rest had shown up so I moved over to teach San Juan and Tim played Dominion with Lenora, Robert and Brenda. Brenda won a long game that took about an hour, with no one getting the revenue to buy the provinces.

Meanwhile, I taught San Juan to Brennan and Scott. San Juan being one of my favourite games. I took my time and explained it well and they caught on, with Scott finishing the game with 12 buildings about 25 minutes later. The final scores were John 30, Scott 24 and Brennan 21.

While we waited for the slow pokes, Brennan and I taught Ingenious to Scott. Ingenious is one of the best gateway games, it is simple to teach, easy to score and quick playing. I won in a very close game with Scott and Brennan blocking the yellow from scoring with that as their lowest colour. Final scores were John 11, Brennan 6 and Scott 5.

We switched tables around and Brenda, Lenora Robert and I played Poison with the others playing Ticket to Ride. I was leading Poison with 6 points until the (disastrous) last turn when I scored 16 to finish last, Lenora won with 11, Robert was second with 12 and Brenda finished third with 16.

I not not know the scores in Ticket to Ride but I do know that Brennan won.

Brennan had to leave by then (something about work) and we switched to a game of Bang! Scott was the sheriff, with Tim as the renegade, Lenora as the deputy and Robert and I as the outlaws. Robert and I managed to remove the deputy and the renegade which left us mano a mano with the sheriff, who mowed us down in quick order…

For our final game of the night we played Ca$h n Gun$ and the less said about that the better… Scott won again, and I died in the third round from lead poisoning.

Game night!

On April 11th I hosted my (more or less) biweekly game night and we had 10 players that played a total of 5 games. I had forgotten (or was too lazy, you decide) to do an update on what we played, so you will only get a barebones update!



Nicole, Bryan, Simon and I played Power Grid, on the French map. In an intensely close game, particularly surprising when you realise that Bryan and Nicole played for the first time and this was Simon's first game., Nicole won. I was disheartened...



David, Anthony, Lachlan and Tim played Primordial Soup with David, the only one with experience in the game pulling off a win.



Colin and Michelle played Ingenious twice, with Colin winning one and Michelle winning the other. Michelle and Colin are both new to the game group, with this being her first visit and his second.

David, Lachlann, Simon and Tim all left early so we finished with a game of Chrononauts. Everyone but Nicole and I were new to the game, and even then our "experience" (I had played once before) didn't help as Bryan won the turn before I could.

Finally, another game night update

On March 21st I hosted only my third game night of the year. I missed most of Feb due to a trip to Mexico. We had ten total players and we played 6 different games.

First off, as new people were arriving, I set up Carcassonne: The Discovery for 5 players, Emily won by 15 points over a close packed bunch. As the game was finishing up, we had more players arrive so we broke into multiple groups.

David needed to refresh his memory of Arkham Horror so he roped 5 others in to play this along with the Dunwich Horror expansion, we had a 6 player, 4.5 hour game which culminated in Machine Gun McGlen killing Ithaqua with a sword. We were exhausted by the end, but also exhilarated.

Emily convinced Lenora, Brenda and Colin to play her latest addiction, Dominion. They managed to get two plays in, with Emily winning the first player game and Lenora winning Big Money.

Emily had to leave, and we were still on the track of Ithaqua so the three of them played Poison, the game of witches brews. Brenda won, but I am not sure of the scores.

The next game they played was Ingenious, still my favourite Knizia and Colin took home his first victory of the night.

Lastly, they played Formula Motor Racing (another Knizia, hmmm) and Colin started slow and won by the whole shebang by the end of the third race.

Next is my perspective of Cal-Con, the convention I was at over the weekend.

The end of the world!

And the power to do it...

Last night was my second games night of 2009, and it was a small but dedicated group. We had six players and we played two games.

The first was a six player game of Power Grid. We played the United States map, with the Northwest (purple area) out of play. Chris set up shop in the Southwest part of the map, Brenda along the Southeastern part of the US, Krista went into the Eastern seaboard, Brian was in the central north with Cory directly below him and I was in the Southern US. The game ended at 15 cities, rather then 14 because three players were able to build to 15. I beat Brenda by 8 Elektros (22-14) Cory finished third with 15 cities and no Elektros. It was a close tense game that lasted about 2 hours, which was surprising for a game with 2 new players, 1 player that had played once, one player with three plays and Brenda and I.

Cory had to leave to pick up someone from the airport, so we finished up with a 5 player game of Nuclear War. I have Nuclear Proliferation, Nuclear Escalation and the booster packs so the deck of cards is pretty big. The game played the way it usually does, with both Brian and I losing our first turns due to secrets played by Brenda. We traded propaganda until Krista dropped a Scud on Chris, she did no damage but the war was on! I had started the game with only 21 million people and Brian had taken 10 million from me in the propagaganda round, so I responded the best way, by using a Stealth Bomber to kill 16 million! He was surprised...
Chris played Super Vinny and he was the most dangerous of all, he whittled everyone down (except Chris who had a Super Serum) and he eventually wiped out Krista, Brenda, Brian and myself. Our final retaliations weakened Chris so Brian wiped him out as he lay dying from the plague. Once again, Nuke War shows no one is a winner when it comes to this.

I had a great time, and I think the others did too. The next game night should be in 2 weeks.

Grab your crash helmet and your racing silks

Game night went racing!

January 10th I ran my first game night of 2009, I ran it with a racing theme. I had a pretty good turnout, with 11 players and we played 4 different games.

The first game of the night was Formula D. Chris had brought along his copy, so I got him to teach it to everyone else. There are some subtle differences between it and Formula De, the largest ones being cosmetic, but it does allow you the option of Street Racing as well. Chris won that game, a turn ahead of everyone else.

While people were showing up I played Formula Motor Racing with 2 other players. We played a 3 race series, with me winning 2 outright and winning the overall series 24-17-11.

The Really Nasty Horseracing Game was next on the list, I taught it to 5 other players, who seemed to grasp the game far better than I... Rick won by betting 55,000 pounds in a 12:1 longshot in the final race, beating Shawn by 15,000 pounds. Shawn also bet on the horse, but only bet 50,000... I wound up broke and having to sell my stable of nags... One of the highlights was Shawn's number 6 horse galloping home to win the 4th race at 50:1 odds, too bad no one bet on him.

While we were trashing each other's horse on the track, the other 5 players played Grand Prix: Detroit Cleveland. Lenora won this one.

The previous game was faster, so they wound up the night with a game of Formula Motor Racing. Brenda won this one.

I have been considering a Formula De constructor series of games. Here is a link to a condensed copy of the rules.

Game night, what again, so soon?

Last weekend I held a second consecutive weekend game night, mainly because I forget that the previous weekend was a long weekend. So I did it two weeks in a row.

I had seven players show up for gaming, and the only returnee was me (was it something I said?). We wanted everyone to get a chance to play, so we started with Bohnanza, a nice light bean trading game. I was wiped from walking in the relay for life the night before, and then I had two glasses of wine with supper, and 5 beer, so I was playing and not doing very well. I won... I finished with twelve dollars, Brenda and Thushy finished with 11, Tim had 10 and Laura had 9, the last two refused to tell me their scores.

One player had to leave after that so our second game was Frank's Zoo, a trick taking card game. This was ended short of a final victor but I was leading so I claimed victory again!

Two more had to leave (something about working at 6 AM) and we wrapped up the night with a 4 player game of For Sale. I must admit, I love playing this game, it is fast, has tension to it and is just plain fun to play! I didn't win, Brenda slayed us all, beating second place by 20,000.

I had a great time, and if there is anyone reading this blog that is interested in coming out, drop me an email at bgamegeekATgmailDOTcom, or leave a comment below. I am not sure when the next game night is, but I am guessing it is either the 14th or the 21st of June. Does anyone have a preference?

This saturday is Commands & Colors Day, I have 6 signed so I do have room for a couple more.

Still in the planning phases are: another big game day, and another Power Grid A Mania! If you have a preference for a game, let me know.

Gaming on the long weekend!

I forgot this was a long weekend when I planned game night so we only had a small contingent show up. There were five of us and we played 6 games over the course of the night.

The first game we played was Ticket to Ride: Europe, the second in the famous Ticket to Ride series. I ended up winning it, by completing both the longest trip and by building the tunnel between Sweden and Russia for 21 points. The game was fairly close, with 4 players at 100 or more and last place missed 100 by only one point.

We played Vegas Showdown as our second game. I tried a new strategy. My previous strategy was to crank up my income and then outspend everyone. The object of Vegas Showdown is to amass the most fame, so I only purchased a couple of slot machines and always tried to purchase things that gave me fame. I won, but only by 4 points, I was always starved for cash and had a hard time purchasing anything but my strategy did work. I actually finished last in both income and population.

Will and Cory had to leave as Will was a little tired, but Al stayed and the three of us played cards (yes cards, like in normal none boardgames stuff). We played a couple of hands of 9-5-2, a game for three players. John (the other one) decided he did not want anyone winning so he deliberately lost it. Al had enough of this so for the second game he killed us both.

Al taught us a new three player bidding game he called Mexico. It uses the cards from 7-A of all suits. You deal out the cards to everyone except 2, which go to the side as kitty. The bidding starts at 5 and the dealer can call "My Five" and to outbid the dealer you must go to 6, the bidding is similar to Kaiser but instead of taking the bid you can still overbid the dealer. There are also Low (take no tricks, can be outbid by an 8 or higher bid) and Mexico (take all ten tricks, go down in score by 10, all others go up by 10).
Scoring goes as follows; everyone starts with 31 points and the goal is to get to -1. Every trick you take reduces your score, but if you fail to make your bid, you go up by that amount. If one of the players fails to take any of the tricks, they also go up by the amount bid. The Low bid is the exact opposite, if the Low bidder does not take any tricks, they go down seven and everyone else goes up by 7.
Ok, enough explanation! We played twice and I won twice. The final game I won by setting Al twice, once when he was at 0 and only needed to make one trick to win.

I enjoyed the games, and I am glad Al taught us Mexico.

Remember, game night is also this weekend, as many were gone for the long weekend.

Have a fun time!

Post Cuba Game Night Review

The attendance was low for, not surprising for a nice Saturday night. There were a total of four of us and we played two games.

The first game we played was new to two players, but one I have played about 25 times, Ticket to Ride. The game started out with Rick taking an early lead and me sitting at zero as I collected more and more cards. I took over the lead about halfway through the game and never looked back as I completed three trips and finished with 145 points, Brenda being second with 107. It was not to set the tone for the next game.

Game two was Grand Prix: Detroit - Cleveland, and I leapt out to an early last place by bidding high for my car and finishing 4th. Laura won the first race, and the second race but only through collusion of all the other players did she finish in sixth in the final race. Rick won the final race and with that finish plus doing well in the other two he beat Laura by 10,000 dollars, 570K to 560K. I barely broke 350K and finished well behind everyone else.

Don't forget, the Calgary Entertainment Expo is in two weeks!

Next game night will be May 17th.

Pre Cuban game night

Well it was our last game night before we head to Cuba and we had a relatively small turnout with 7 people playing a total of three games.

The first game for the night was Mall of Horror, a game of negotiation and throwing people under the drooling teeth of the undead. Amanda "I won't eat your eyes" winning out over everyone else by keeping two of her people alive and whacking everyone else.

Game two was Ca$h n Gun$, a game that I won with 80,000 dollars compared to everyone else's 70K, well and the cooling corpses of Tim and Shawn...

Shawn, Amanda and Tim all left which meant we then broke out Railroad Tycoon, which Leah (aka Cornelius Vanderbilt) won in dominating fashion, hammering out an eight point win over 2nd place. Brenda finished in third, one point out of second place. The game was close until Leah completed both her Tycoon task and then got the card that allowed her to take five points for completing Washington and New York City. The game went in an odd direction, since there were only four players. Leah built in the NE starting out of New York City. Brenda built in the SE in the Raleigh area, Rob built in the NE as well, forcing competition between him and Leah. This allowed me to build in the Midwest (conveniently enough I had the Tycoon card that allowed me to get two points per Chicago link). Leah and Rob were both several small routes, with Leah's being the smallest and Rob having the most links, but less track. Brenda was from New Orleans to Richmond, Rob was in the NE and then added some tracks in the Ohio area. Rob and Leah were both first timers to the game and really enjoyed it. They are now prepared to play when they head back to Morse.

I don't know when the bext game night will be as I am away the weekend of the 19th of April and the Calgary Entertainment Expo is on the following weekend. This leaves me with only the 12th of April for a games night. I put a poll on the right side to see yeah or nay for that date.

Saturday game night

Saturday night was game night, and we had 11 players show up and we played 5 games total.

We started the night with 5 player Vegas Showdown on one table and Ingenious on the other. Brenda squeaked out a close win of 2 points in a low scoring game. She finished with 19 points and 5th finished with 14 in a tense low scoring game. Meanwhile, on the Ingenious table, Robert took everyone to school with a crushing display of abstractedness.

The final two players arrived as the games were ending and we switched to Puerto Rico at one table and Bohnanza at the other. I made a mistake late in the game which cost me certain victory (I blame the cold I have) and allowed Brenda to win by 6 points over me 59-53, third and fourth were both within two points of me as well, scoring 52 and 51 points. The less said about fifth place the better...

Bohnanza was another close affair with Rick squeaking out a win over Robert by holding more cards in his hand at the end of the game, as they were tied in coins.

Rick and Laura left and that meant the others played Grand Prix: Detroit - Cleveland, or at least a shortened version thereof. Lenora won it, by winning the only race that was run.

The next game night is March 22nd, the final game night before we head to Cuba!

There is still a week to vote on the game you would like to play on long game night, remember, if you vote and are planning on showing up, send me an email to bgamegeekATgmailDOTcom so I can send you a copy of the rules.

Cause it's game night

or at least a review

I didn't expect many to turn out for Saturday night games due to the weather but I was pleasantly surprised by because we had a total of nine show up and played 5 different games, with 5 different winners.

We started the night with two different tables, the first being Ingenious, won by that ingenious fellow Rick over three others. The other table had Formula Motor Racing which I won and Tim finished last with one point in three races (I will get back to Tim later).

We switched tables around and had a four player game of Carcassonne: The Discovery (Brenda's favourite) which she narrowly won by 18 points... The zombies in the group kept chanting "Brains!" and played Mall of Horror which Lenora won after Tim got all his people eaten.

We wrapped up the night with a nine player one lap race of Formula De' and we finished the race in about 2 hours with the the night's whipping boy Tim winning handily. He led wire to wire and finished a full turn ahead of the rest of us. The important thing is that we all finished.

My suggestion for next game night is the 16th of Feb, it is the Saturday of a long weekend and I am gone the weekend after that so the only choices are the 9th and the 16th. Any preferences?

Game night in Tuscany

I tend to bring light games to Tuscany as I never know who is going to show up, but most tend to be learning the game for the first time. This time we had a grand total of 12 show up, with 9 originally and 3 stragglers.

Mark took 4 over to one table to play Princes of Florence, a game I have never played, so I will not describe it.

I took the other 3 over to a different table and taught/learned Formula Motor Racing, a quick race game that is more about card control and light strategy then actual racing. I liked the game in my first play of it, and it looks like others did as well, as it showed up as a filler for the PoF group after they had finished. I was leading until the final round and then all my cars exploded and I finished last.

The second game we played, now with 7 players, was Bang! This game was new to 3 of the players as well, so it was another teaching session game. The game went well, with 4 of the players being new. The sherriff was in an enviable position, with the renegade to her left and the deputies both to her right. The Sherriff win, with only the Sherriff and a Deputy surviving until the end.

We switched to another card game, Bohnanza, with one player dropping out to join the other group. Something about his wife being in the other group... Bohnanza was a close fought game with the final scoring being 14-14-13-13-12-10.

Formula Motor Racing was the first game played by the PoF group, switching to Fiji, which made their brains bleed, and San Juan when they were down to four players.

Our table had a couple of more players leave, so Brenda and I taught Poison to Greg. He is not big on math games, but I think he enjoyed it just the same.

Game night, a review

Last Saturday was our monthly game night and it was attended by 9 different players, who played 10 different games.

The first game of the night was one I had purchased earlier in the day, so I quickly read it and taught it to a group of five. Everyone seemd to enjoy Formula Motor Racing, a quick auto racing game by Reiner Knizia. Tim Andretti won over his four competitors.
The other table hosted a game called The Really Nasty Horseracing Game, and I am sure Brendan would agree, as his horses finished twice in 6 steeplechase events. The idea behind the game is to make the most money while crippling your opponent's chances of winning. Brenda "The Fixer" won this by easily outdistancing the rest of us.
The main table hosted For Sale which was won by Real Eastate Magnate, Robert. They then switched to a four player game of Munchkin Cthulhu, and by continuously shrieking:
"That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons even death may die"
during the other player's turns, Brett "I wish I was in R'lyeh" won.
At the quieter, less cultist table we played a game of Fiji, a game where you use cheap beads to impress the natives into giving you head... Shrunken heads from other less successful visitors. Brenda "I used to be a fixer, now I just lop off their heads" won her second game of the night.
The Cultists were still chanting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn", so we started a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe, which Tracey had never played. She learned the hard way that Brenda "Train to zone!" was a master of it as she beat the second place finsher by over twenty points.
One of the problems that plagued us all night was that we could not cross people from table to table due to our disparate finish times, so our table opted to play Ingenous while we waited. Unfortunately I could not find it immediately so while I was searching Brendan and Tracy played a quick game of Le Passe-Trappe which Brendan won in about 3 minutes. It took me five to find my copy of Ingenious, and Brendan, following in the tradition of Brenda, schooled us in, it.
When we finished we noticed the chanting had stopped and they we playing a game of Mu und Mehr, won by Lenora "I don't mark the cards, now play that Ace you have!" over her three opponents. Now that Brenda and Brendan had gotten tired of beating on us, Traci and I played a game of Loco!, which I taught and subsequently beat her at.

Next game night is October 27th, close enough to Hallowe'en that we have a themed game night, horror games! So bring out your horror games (the word is HORROR, not WHORE!) and I hope to see you there.

Thanks to Tim as well, whose Sentry Box coupons were used to purchase the Cthluhu expansion Munchkin Cthulhu: Call of the Cowthulhu and Formula Motor Racing.

Game night August 11th in review

The night started with four of us so we learned Fiji a quick 2-5 player filler. Shawn won in a game that was not difficult to learn but was difficult for all of us to wrap our heads around. It is an interesting game but I do not think it is for everyone.

Meanwhile at the other table the stragglers played a game of Fearsome Floors, Jay was the winner in a 6 player game. While we waited for them to finish we played Bohnanza, a five player game that was won by Brenda in a close scoring game over Lenora.

We swapped tables and the glass table had a game of Munchkin using the 2nd and 3rd expansions. Brett won using the Paul Rubens defence (he wore a raincoat). The kids table played Grand Prix: Detroit & Cleveland. I won by winning the first two races and finishing last in the final race. Grand Prix finished before Munchkin so I taught a few 2 player games to Tracy, Robert and Brenda.

First I did, then Brenda, then Tracy laid a whipping on Robert in Le Passe-Trappe, micro edition, Tracy and Robert played Deflexion, now called Khet: The Laser Game. Robert won 2 of the 3 games. Brenda and I played Hive, a game of insect tile laying. I mis-explained a rule and won on a technicality.

We had a total of 11 players and played 8 games a total of 12 times.

The next game night will be the 29th of September as I am probably working the weekend of the 15th

FallCon is on September 21st-23rd this year and I will be running the BattleLore tournament on Sunday. There are loads of games to be played and the players are low key and eager to teach new games. The fee for the entire weekend is 30 bucks, but you can play only Friday or Sunday for 10 bucks or all day Saturday for 20 dollars (this includes the auction...)

Gamin' and Grillin'!

Last Saturday I invited the group over to game and grill. We started the BBQ about 5 and started the gaming about 7.

We had 11 people show up all told, but 2 left before gaming and one arrived about 7:45. We played 7 different games, with 3 of them being new to game night, and one of those being new to me.

While we had 8 players, we split into 2 groups. One group played Vegas Showdown, with Rob, the Ricky Rat Reject winning over three other Kenny Rogers wannabes.

The other table played Ticket to Ride: Europe. T2R:E has not hit the table nearly enough, with only one play a year since 2005, but it is a good solid evolution of the original. In the game I held a strong lead of 10 points throughout the game but not until the very end did I realise that I had confused Wilno and Wien, which caused me to lose 11 points and finish second behind Brenda.

The other table was still playing Vegas Showdown so we tried RukShuk, a game of rock balancing. This is where I really came to the fore (ok I beat 2 people and finished third). Brenda won this as well in a very convincing fashion. She was 30 points ahead of second place.

The Vegas Showdown game ended and we mixed the groups up, with table one playing Winds of Plunder and table two playing another game of RukShuk.

I won the Winds of Plunder game by 4 points over JC, and there were only 10 points between first and fourth. I like this game, there is some goofiness and there are some decisions you have to make. The only downside is the cannons, which can be combatted by card play. All in all, I find this an entertaining pirate game.

Rukchuk had 4 players in it, and this time it wsa won by Brendan, over a field of three others.

Several of the players left for the night so table two started a game of Munchkin while we were finishing up Winds of Plunder. This meant that there were groups of 4 and 2. The group of two played several different games. First we cracked out Le Passe-Trappe a light dexterity game that takes about 10 minutes to play. I was crushed by Tim. Our next game while we awaited was Acquire, a game of business. Tim crushed me again, so I kicked him out...

The Munchkin game finished about 30 minutes before Acquire with Brendan winning his second game of the night.

I am unsure if there will be a game night, I am hoping to schedule one for August 17th, but I don't know my availability yet.