Thoughts of a Flying Sheep

So, there's an ad on FlyingSheep.com now. Just one. See if you can find it, and let me know what you think.

posted by FlyingSheep @ 10:00 AM 0 comments

Session Report January 3-5th
Games Played: Set, Driveway Deals, Stratego, Elfenland, Pointblank, Quiddler, Culture Shock.
Players: Sara, Marsha, and myself.

Sara's mom was visiting for the weekend, and she's an avid gamer, so we got quite a few games in. Unless otherwise noted, all three of us played each game.

Quick Summary for those interested in what games we played and how long they took.
Sara won Set (0:25)
Marsha won Driveway Deals (1:05)
I won Stratego (1:05)
I won Set (0:15)
I won Elfenland (1:50)
Marsha won PointBlank (0:05)
No one won Quiddler (0:10 - incomplete game)
I won Culture Shock (0:40)
Sara won Culture Shock (0:28)

DRIVEWAY DEALS

Driveway Deals isn't my favorite game, but I think I'm starting to warm up to it. The objective is to go to a bunch of yard sales and purchase your 5 secret items and then return home. I bought the game for the theme, without knowing anything about the game play.

My main complaint about the game stems from moving around the board. You can move in either direction, and there are enough intersections that, if you roll higher then a 1 you will have at least 4 squares to choose from. Although there are "punishment" squares on the board (Lose a turn or pay 5 dollars, for example), they are never actually used. Most choices are on the order of, "Do I want to collect 20 dollars or 15 dollars. Hmmm..." If you roll a 5 or a 6, you're almost guaranteed to have a path to any type of space on the board.

I will admit to being mistaken about the Driveway Deal cards. The first time I played this game, the only cards that came up had identical effects as squares on the board. As punishment squares are easily avoided, I decided that the Driveway Deal cards were not worth acquiring. However, Sara picked up a card that allowed her to change positions at with any player. This card had a very interesting effect at the end of the game.

Once we all had our required items, we started heading back to the finish line. However, Marsha and I both knew that if we got too close, Sara would swap places with us and take the victory. We were in a race to be second. Eventually, Sara realized the game would never end this way, so she headed for the finish line as well. In the end, it was very very close.

STRATEGO

Players: Marsha and I.

I haven't played stratego in years, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I have an older version of it, where the lower numbers are more powerful (I believe they changed this in a more recent printing of the game).

Early in the game, I was able to find and elimiate Marsha's 2, but her spy was able to eliminate my 1 in return. From then on, she had the upper hand, as her 1 could defeat my 2. However, I was able to use my spy to keep her 1 at bay, and I sent in my 2 and an 8 (miner) to destroy any defenders and bombs around her flag.

After the game, we discovered that we had started out with slightly different sets of pieces. I think two pieces that should have been bombs were 9s instead. I don't think this would have had any impact on the final game.

If I were to play again, I would surround my flag with bombs. I thought it was more useful to sprinkle bombs around the field. When Marsha only had one miner left, I realized that if I had surrounded my flag with bombs, I could win (or at least stalemate) by hunting down the remaining miner.

ELFENLAND
Here are number of tokens gathered at each phase, per player

Chip 6 6 6 1
Marsha 5 6 5 3
Sara 6 8 2 2

In the end, Marsha and I each had 19 of the 20 tokens, but I had more cards in my hand, so I won. Sara had only one less token then the two of us, despite playing a perfect second round.

As we improve in this game, the path that we take becomes more important. When the game is decided by 1 token, it's more painful to have to backtrack across the map to pick up one left behind a few turns ago.

Sara believes that you should plan your entire trip before the game begins. I think that it's best to deal with one thing at time: pick your tiles based on your hand, then lay out the tiles based on where you want to go. During the tile selecting phase, I have no idea what my path will look like. It's nice watching a travel route develop (and devastating when it doesn't!).

Having said that, I thought a lot last night about optimizing a travel route. Here's what I'd like to try the next time I play:

1: Travel north by river twice, then take the forests south back to the starting place, then head south east, then west through the mountains.
2: Take the rivers west, head up through the mountains and forests, hit the northermost cities and then head south into the desert.
3: Leave the desert to do the foresty towns, ending with the one that only has one path into it.

CULTURE SHOCK

The first time we played this game took almost twice as long due to some rules confusion. The printed rules have some vague areas and, although Sara and I share the same interpertation, we didn't quite make it sufficiently clear to Marsha. Especially troublesome was the phrase "except on your first turn" and "You can only fly at the beginning of your turn." To be fair, the restriction on flying does seem arbitrary.

The optimal play is to fly to an international city in an area you have not marked yet, and then walk 5 spaces to an international city in another area you have not marked yet. Doing so, you'll be able to leave 2 markers each turn. Of course this depends on getting the right cards and not being blocked off by other people (or their markers).

I think Sydney is a city to be avoided, as you can not fly to it and end your turn on another international city (they are too far away). There may be other cities that share this property.

posted by FlyingSheep @ 11:24 AM 0 comments