Thoughts of a Flying Sheep

Session Report: May 3-7
Games Played: Bohnanza (2x), Space Beans, Dvonn, Carcassonne:Hunters and Gatherers, The Bucket King, Lost Cities (sort of), Magic, Torres
Gamers: Marsha, Jim, Sara, Chip, Matt, Penny, Cheryl

Sara and I went to Rochester to visit with her parents and friends. Gaming ensued.

BOHNANZA (1:20)
Sara: 21
Chip: 20
Jim: 18
Marsha: 17

Bohnanza continues to appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. Jim, who is not generally into games, talked about Bohnanza during our entire stay, and I was able to use this to talk him into playing The Bucket King later.
Sara and I each bought a third bean field. We did a lot of wheeling and dealing, and I even managed to get two green beans in exchange for a single green bean (my proudest Bohnanza moment to date).
Incidentally, Sara and I saw a board game based on Bohnanza at the local gaming store. Has anyone tried it?

SPACE BEANS (0:52)
Marsha: 37
Sara: 26
Chip: 26
Cheryl: 19

If Bohnanza is Sara's bean game (and it is), then Space Beans is Marsha's bean game. We introduced this game to Cheryl who had a string of bad luck and was forced to harvest unripe beans almost every turn.

BOHNANZA (1:13)
Sara: 21
Chip: 20
Matt: 19
Penny: 19

Over dinner, we got into a discussion of "German games" with Penny, who has travelled to Germany a few times. She brought out the only german game she has purchased and, lo and behold, it was Bohnanza! We opted to play with our english version to make the trading easier. Sara traded away half of her hand during the last turn to win the game by one gold piece. Again.

DVONN (0:25)
Chip: 16
Marsha: 12

This is a great game. I'd teach it to anyone who'll hold still for more then 5 minutes.

CARCASSONNE: HUNTERS AND GATHERERS (2:00)
Chip: 151
Marsha: 128
Sara: 114

Yup. A two hour session of Carc. It's probably a record. We did play in a very relaxed manner, though, while eating breakfast and solving a crossword puzzle.

BUCKET KING (1:27 + 0:15 rules)
Marsha: 9 - 10 - 20
Chip: 6 - 7 - 15
Sara: 4 - 5 - 15
Jim: 0 - 0 - 0

We went to Millenium Games near Rochester, and picked up the Bucket King. Millenium is the biggest gaming/hobby store I've ever been to, and I'd recommend it to anyone in the area.
I thought this game would be easier to explain then it actually was, so the first round was a little rocky. We played a sample game with 3 buckets and about 5 cards each, and I think that helped. We played with the equals varient - if you put down cards which equal the previous amount, the direction of play reverses. Everyone seemed to enjoy the variant.

LOST CITIES (0:20 for 2 rounds)
Marsha: 7, 41
Chip: -40, -4

We didn't have a copy of Lost Cities, so we played with a deck of cards (removed the Aces, treated face cards as investers and suites as colors). Marsha picked up on the rules quickly, and I overextended myself in the both rounds.

MAGIC (0:30, 10 turns)
Sara: 9
Chip: 2

(0:19, 11 turns)
Sara: -3
Chip: 7

(0:06, 6 turns)
Sara: 31
Chip: -1

Sara and I drafted a set of cards that I've recieved the Pillow Fairy, who brings me three new cards every night. We each played 3 color decks, and I had serious mana problems in the first and last games. My favorite card was Wing Snare (Destroy target creature with flying), and Sara's favorite was Spirit Link (gain one life for each point of damage enchanted creature deals).

TORRES (0:54)
Chip: 30, 102, 208
Marsha: 26, 108, 200
Sara: 20, 81, 195

This is the closest game of Torres we've ever played. Marsha usually ends up at least 50 points behind, but she was leading after the second year, and would have won if I hadn't talked Sara out of a move which would have benefited Marsha considerably. I enjoyed this game a lot, and will happily play it again.

MAGIC (0:03, 5 turns)
Sara: 15
Chip: 20

(0:17, 9 turns)
Chip: 2
Sara: 0

Sara was playing a green/blue deck with a lot of fading creatures, and I was playing a black/blue deck with a lot of bounce and creatures with "comes into play" abilities. Sara quickly conceeded the first game when she wasn't drawing the right types of land. I won the second game by bringing Rathi Fiend back into play via Dreams of the Dead.

DVONN (0:09)
Chip: 42
Sara: 0

(0:14)
Chip: 20
Sara: 3

(0:16)
Sara: 18
Chip: 13

During the third round, I offered Sara some strategic advice, which she used to win a very close game.

posted by FlyingSheep @ 3:03 PM 0 comments

Session Report: May 1
Games Played: Dvonn, Dungeoneer, Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Magic
Gamers: Vitas, Laurie, Chip

This is a session report for the increasingly misnamed "Thursday Night Poker".

DVONN (0:25)
Chip: 23
Laurie: 18

Laurie and I started off with a quick game of Dvonn. She hadn't played before. I continue to enjoy this game.


DUNGEONEER (1:15 + 0:15 rules)
Chip (Roderik level 2): won by eliminating other players
Laurie (Tanin level 3): second eliminated
Vitas (Thorn level 1): first eliminated

Vitas introduced us to Dungeoneer, a tile-laying dungeon crawl game. There's a lot of symbols on the cards, but after a few rounds the game becomes pretty clear. This particular game consisted mostly of Vitas and I trying to convince Laurie to attack the other player, with various levels of success ("I can't attack him now, he'd die!", "Laurie, that's the point of the game..."). I was able to finish off Laurie just before she would have finished her last quest, so it was a close game.
I enjoyed playing this game, and the fantasy theme quenches my occasional RPG thirst. It seemed to go a bit slowly, but that's probably because of the two newbies.

CARCASSONNE: HUNTERS + GATHERERS (1:00)
Laurie: 140
Chip: 68
Vitas: 56

Laurie, who was new to the game, managed to claim a large forrest and an even larger meadow (which meandered over most of the board) to win by a large margin.
I'd like to throw in my two cents regarding the recent debate over the length of Carcassonne. I'd say I'm probably right in the middle of the playing speed spectrum, although I often play with people who enjoy considering every possibility before moving. For example, my most recent session with this game took a leisurely 2 hours to play. I could see a two player game of Carc with experienced players taking around 30 minutes. With three players (including one new one) pre-drawing tiles, an hour seemed to be about the right pace. I'm curious how they came to 45 minutes as the upper limit printed on the box.
In any event, I enjoy this game at any speed, and will happily play it again.

MAGIC (0:09, 7 turns)
Vitas: 5
Chip: 19

(0:13, 9 turns)
Vitas: - something
Chip: 14

The first two duels, Vitas played a White/Red deck with Winter Orb against my Green Groundskeeper/discard deck. This deck tried to discard land and other cards to reach threshold quickly, and then use the groundskeeper to return lands to my hand. I had some success with it, and I'd like to try some more games with it to see if it really works.

(0:28, 13 turns)
Vitas: 1
Chip: 24 (4 poison counters)

I brought out my Armadillo Cloak deck to make this last duel quick. Due to an early mana shortage, this game lasted much longer then I expected! I was afraid I would be poisoned to death before I could get my creatures past his regenerating blockers and Ice Floe. Fortunately, I was able to prevail.

posted by FlyingSheep @ 2:07 PM 0 comments