Games Played: Rack-O, Clans, Labyrinth Card Game, 6 Nimmt!
Gamers: Eric, Mark, Sara, Josh, Chip, Lewis
Thanks to Mark for hosting.
Thanks to Lewis for giving Sara and me a ride.
RACK-O (1:00)
Josh: 315
Lewis: 225
Chip: 220
Sara: 135
Rack-O has a simplicity and clarity that appeal to me. There's not a lot of strategy to it, but it is quick to play and there are some interesting choices to be made (mostly a question of being greedy or not). At one point, Sara choose the top discard to increase one of her runs instead of the top face-down card from the deck. Had she chosen the other card, she would have completed the rack, but as it was, Josh took the round instead. We didn't play to the limit of 500, but quit after 6 rounds instead.
I was initially skeptical of this game, but I've played it four times in the last week, and I'm not sick of it yet. I think the 2-player version works best - neither player can win the round without a run of at least 3 cards. I think this type of game deserves its own category, not quite beer and pretzels, but maybe tea and cookies.
CLANS (0:30 + 0:10 rules)
Josh: 64
Chip: 61
Sara: 57
Lewis: 42
Clans is unusual in many respects, not the least of which is that it accurately lists the playing time on the box! I really like the mechanic of moving little huts around to make villages. The spread of the initial configuration is important, and the setup ensures that each player will have an equal footing at the start of the game.
However, it is very easy to get caught up the analysis of this game. Once you've identified some moves that would be best for your color, you have to consider which ones would possibly reveal your identity. Also, if you were playing for money, you'd want to carefully examine each player's move and compare it to all of their previous moves to try to determine that player's color. Then the game would slow down to a crawl and not be very fun for anyone.
Having said that, I enjoyed playing the game quite a bit. I would encourage players to play this game fast and loose, so that they could play two rounds of it in less then an hour. I'd love to play again.
LABYRINTH CARD GAME (0:22)
Josh: 11
Chip: 11
Sara: 9
Lewis: 8
There's not much to this game. I think we all agreed that the board game is better. It's possibly a good kid's game - a good introduction to tile-laying games in general. There are some choices to be made occassionally, but there's no overall strategy.
This isn't a game that I would outright refuse to play again, and I would play it with younger kids, but otherwise I wouldn't go out of my way to play it again.
6 NIMMT! (0:47)
Chip: 31
Eric: 42
Sara: 53
Mark: 58
Josh: 58
Lewis: 73
I did it! I finally won at 6 Nimmt!
posted by FlyingSheep @ 11:35 AM
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