Monday, May 26, 2003

Session Report: May 24th, 2003
Games Played: Set, Bucket King (2x), Bohnanza (2x)
Gamers: Matt, Justin, Karam, Sara, Chip, Ed, Marianne, Lou

At my sister's graduation party, I introduced friends and family to some new games.

SET
We played two quick rounds of Set while waiting for everyone else to arrive. I believe Matt (who had played before) won both rounds.

BUCKET KING (1:08)
Matt: 7, 14, 16
Karam: 0, 5, 15
Justin: 3, 10, 14
Sara: 6, 11, 11
Chip: 8, 8, 10

Matt, Karam, and Justin used to play Diplomacy together in high school, and they understood this game mostly in terms of attack and counter-attack (: Sara remarked that these games seemed to be more strategic as all players were trying to take out the leader. At one point, Justin asked Karam if he had a specific card, so that they could reverse the direction of play and take out one of Matt's key buckets.
This game was a big hit. So much so that they resisted my attempts to bring out another game, and insisted on playing it again. So we did.

BUCKET KING (1:38)
Karam: 1, 4, 11
Justin: 2, 7, 11
Sara: 0, 2, 10
Matt: 6, 7, 7
Ed: 2, 2, 2
Chip: 0, 0, 3

Adding a 6th player (my brother, Ed) considerably increased the length of the game. In the first game, I stopped each round after the first player was eliminated (contrary to the rules), but with 6 players we played until 2 players were eliminated.
I didn't do much better this time (in fact, I did significantly worse), but at least I managed to score higher then my brother!

BOHNANZA (1:00)
Chip: 16
Karam: 14
Sara: 12
Justin: 12
Matt: 11
Marianne: 9

Everyone caught on to the game quickly. In fact, Matt started a new type of trading which I'm not even sure is legal. He would offer trades like the following: I'll give you (active player) this bean, if you give this other bean to him (third player). Everyone planted the beans that they recieved as trades, but I'm not sure if this violates the "only trade with active player" rule. In a sense, they were trading through the active player.
Another type of unusual trading was based on future beans. In other words, one player would agree to give another player the next coffee bean he draws, in exchange for beans at the moment. Of course, there was nothing binding this type of agreement, except for the fear that other people wouldn't trade with you if you were perceived as dishonest.
I made a valient effort to bring Carcassonne to the table, but I was outvoted in favor of another game of Bohnanza.

BOHNANZA (1:11)
Justin: 14
Matt: 13
Sara: 13
Ed: 10
Louis: 10
Chip: 7

I am pleased and proud to say that my Dad, who has never been much of a gamer, is addicted to Bohnanza. He specifically asked me to bring these games ("Beans and Buckets") to the party, and has even started to recruit new players. Perhaps, someday, SOG will have to open a Northern CT branch (:
There were a number of times that my brother and I were growing the same bean fields and we each had beans in our hands. I tried to persuade him that making a one-for-one trade would benefit both of us, but he looked upon my offers with suspicion. By the end of the game, he was convinved that this was a good idea, but it was too late for my pitiful score.

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