Session Report: May 27, 2003
Games Played: Medieval Merchant, 6 Nimmt!
Gamers: Mark, Don, Josh, Sara, Chip, Lewis
Thanks to Mark for hosting, and thanks to Lewis for giving Sara and me a ride.
MEDIEVAL MERCHANT (1:35 + 0:15 rules and setup)
Josh: 36
Lewis: 35
Chip: 32
Mark: 31
Sara: 26
Don: 26
This was an interesting city-settling game. I tend to enjoy games with connected nodes, and this game even had weighted edges, so I was biased towards the game from the start. My strategy, set early on in the game, was to use up all of my money and settle cities in as many regions as possible. I tried to get the majority in odd-numbered cities and use even-numbered cities for income.
I didn't think there was much player interaction, although other players disagreed. Perhaps I was simply lucky enough not to be directly affected by other players.
At the end of the game I discovered that the exchange of money for victory points was more important than I had realized. I did score 14 points for being in 7 regions, but I did not score any victory points for money. I think a better strategy would put a higher priority on having some cash at the end of the game.
This was an interesting game, and the downtime was not as bad as I was afraid it might be (even with 6 players). I'd like to try it again sometime.
6 NIMMT! (1:20)
Mark: 73
Lewis: 93
Chip: 93
Josh: 99
Sara: 125
I suggested we play a quick game of 6 Nimmt! We decided to play to 100, instead of the official 66. As it was, we played 7 rounds. If we had played to 66, we would have only played for 3.
Josh and I were doing pretty well for the first 5 rounds, and then things went downhill from there. Our mistake was probably saying, "Gee, I've never won this game before."
I look forward to playing this game again.
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.
