Thoughts of a Flying Sheep

Session Report: January 13, 2003.

Thanks to:
Josh, for hosting.
Lewis and Chris, for providing transportation.

Games played: Falling, Java, Dvonn, Magic: the Gathering

FALLING (0:08, 0:06)
Players: Gary, Don, Josh (dealer), Vitas, Lewis, Chip, Chris
Winners: Gary won the first game, and I won the second.

I feel I may be in the minority with this opinion, but I enjoyed this game. I think it's very light, fluffy, fun, and quick. My friends who enjoy Lunch Money would probably enjoy this game as well. I'm going to try to pick up a copy as soon as possible.

JAVA (0:20 rules, 1:52 playing)
Lewis: 96
Don: 93
Vitas: 93
Chip: 83

I liked a lot of things about this game, but I disliked a few aspects as well. I enjoyed the fact that the rules were very elegant and the cheat-sheet card made the rules transparent to playing. Despite the simplicity of the rules, there were still interesting and challenging decisions to be made. The scoring (before the endgame) was immediate, which eliminated the headache of keeping track of who played which tile. The immediate scoring also provided feedback on how each player was faring. Compared to Torres, for example, in which you only have a vague feeling about how well you are doing until the scoring occurs at the end of the year.

I had two main complaints about the game, however. The first is the length. Two hours is a long time to play a game that's has a strong puzzle-solving slant to it. The second is the endgame scoring.

In the last round, each player added almost as many points as he had gained during the rest of the game. I was left with a feeling that the first hour and 45 minutes had as much of an impact on the final standings of the game as the last 15 minutes of the game. It's worth noting that the eventual victor was in last place for most of the game.

I think that Java would be an excellent game if the end conditions were different. First, the game would end when half of the tiles were used (theoretically making the game take about half the time), and there would be no scoring round. That way the players would get to enjoy the elegance of the rules without experiencing the frustration of the end scoring round. Without this, or some other varient, I'd avoid playing this game again.

I may not have been clear in expressing my feelings on what went wrong with this game. I'd be happy to discuss it in more depth with anyone so inclined.

DVONN (0:10 x 3)
(starting player listed first)

Chip: 5
Vitas: 35

Vitas: 2
Chip: 28

Chip: 24
Vitas: 0

DVonn continues to fascinate me. I still haven't figured out a good strategy for winning (or even a losing strategy to avoid). I found, in a few games, that I had to actively resist the temptation to just make pretty patterns with the tiles. Of course, without a well-formed strategy, why not just make nice-looking patterns?

I try to look a few moves ahead, of course. Obviously, putting one of your tiles on top of one of your opponent's piles is adventagous, and cutting off large piles your opponent controls (sweeping them off the table with glee) is also fun. If you can surround one or more of your opponent's tiles with your own, then you can determine when he gets access to those tiles. I managed to do this in the second game, and I felt like it helped me win.

I look forward to playing this game again.

Magic (0:32)
Chip: 33
Vitas: 0

Vitas played a black "P" deck (all cards other then basic lands begin with the letter "P") that I constructed for him, and I played a green/white "A" deck.

Vitas started out well, getting the Peat Bog into play for quick early mana, and brought a Primeval Shambler into play.

However, I was able to bring in two copies of Armadillo Cloak, my new best friend. This creature enchantment gives +2/+2, trample, and a Soul Link (when the creature deals damage, its controller gains life). The first went on an Amphibious Kavu, whose bonus when blocked by black creatures was obviously a benefit in this duel, which wiped out most of Vitas's creatures early on.

I was able to get Aurification into play, but the it didn't have much of an effect on the game, so I'll have to wait to see if it's really as cool as it seems.

I'll play Magic anytime, anywhere (:

posted by FlyingSheep @ 4:56 PM 0 comments

Session Report: January 12, 2003.

Games played: Cave Troll, Mage Knight Dungeons (incomplete), Magic: the Gathering

CAVE TROLL (0:21)
Chip: 72
Vitas: 46

This game has some interesting elements to it. It's fairly easy and quick to play, and the rules are pretty simple. The different character types allow for some interesting choices.

I think the scoring system could use some work. Scoring is done at three times through the game, the first two times are determined randomly (when a player flips over his/her Scoring tile), and then again at the end of the game.

In this session, Vitas flipped over his Scoring tile before any characters were on the board. As a result, the only other scoring tile before the end of the game was under my control. So, I always made sure all my characters were in scoring position before flipping a tile. I also went through my tiles more quickly then Vitas. As I was the first player to go out, I also determined when the final scoring took place.

The end result of Vitas flipping over the scoring tile early in the game was that I determined when the other scoring rounds would occur. This gave me a huge advantage.

Towards the start of the game, I placed my Cave Troll in a high-scoring room (5 gold), and placed a treasure chest in an adjacent room. I gaurded the chest with my barbaian (who counts as two adventurers) and a knight (which prevents other characters - with the exception of knights - from entering the room). With that combination, I was able to maintain a stranglehold on that room for the entire game.

Then Vitas brought out a dwarf. The dwarf doubles the value of whatever room he occupies. However, I put in an adventurer and followed the dwarf from room to room. If there is an equal number of characters in a room during scoring, no one gets any gold from that room. Thus, as long as my long character stuck to the dwarf, Vitas couldn't use him to score big points.

However, he did manage, later in the game, to send a knight in to accompany his dwarf. This combination locked out my adventurer, and Vitas was able to double the score of one of the rooms for the last scoring phase.

I'd play this game again as a quick filler game, more for the fun of the theme then the challenge of the strategy.

MAGE KNIGHT DUNGEONS (0:41 setup, 0:39 play)

In the time it took us to set up this game, we could have played another two rounds of Cave Troll (: I enjoyed this game, although I think I was at a disadvantage, caused by my own greed.

At the start of the game, each player chooses characters to make up a party. I went for the higher-costing characters and ended up with a party of 3, whereas Vitas took 4 lower-costing characters. The number of characters in your party, however, determines the number of activations (things you can do) each turn! If I used all three activations to move the dangerous creatures towards his party, he could move all of them back and still have an activation left over.

With that in mind, the player with the most characters, albeit weaker, has much more say in what the monsters do. Taken to extremes, I would imagine this to be a game-breaking advantage.

I look forward to playing this game again. The gameplay rules made it easy to get started, and the reference charts smoothly added a good level of complexity.

MAGIC (0:36) 17 turns
Chip: 10
Vitas: 0

I played my white/green B deck, and Vitas played my "Theft of Dreams" blue deck. I made that deck for the card "Theft of Dreams", that Sara got me for Christmas. This sourcery allows you to draw a card for each tapped creature that your opponent controls. The rest of the deck (obviously) focuses on getting your opponent's creatures tapped and then killing them off (albeit slowly) with Giant Oyster. This deck could be sped up a bit with some black cards that kill tapped creaures. Death Stroke, Royal Assassin, and Stalking Assassin would be good additions.

posted by FlyingSheep @ 2:03 PM 0 comments