Session Report: December 18, 2003
Games Played: Bohnanza (x2), Password
Gamers: Joe, Darren, Marianne, Sara, Chip, Geo, Motor, Jimmy
Legends, in Maynard, hosts a boardgaming (and Magic) night each week on Thursday night. Space is a little limited, but only until the younger Magic players go home (:
This week, I was only planning on staying for a hour or two, so I only brought Bohnanza and Password. I should have brought more, but it worked out okay.
BOHNANZA (1:00)
Chip: 18
Marianne: 16
Sara: 15
Darren: 13
Joe + Geno*: 12
Joe had to leave about halfway through the game, so Geno took up his hand for the rest of the game. I tried to pay more attention to which beans were being planted, and I think my heightened awareness paid off. Joe was very generous to Marianne early in the game, giving her two red beans for a single fairly common bean.
PASSWORD (0:23)
Geno + Sara: 42
Chip + Marianne: 18
I brought Password instead of Electronic Catchphrase as the token "word game" for the week. There was a lot of careful consideration on everyone's part, which slowed the game down a bit, but not too much. Geno and Sara took (and maintained) an early lead, winning 6 of the 8 rounds that we played.
Memorable rounds: The clues, "Shake", "Bow", and "Uncontrollable" made me guess "Shiver". Of course, as soon as I said it, I realized the correct answer was "Quiver". Sara tried to use "suntan lotion" as a clue, but I'm pretty sure that clues can only be one word long.
I like this game, but it's slower then Catchphrase. Perhaps next time I'll bring Taboo.
BOHNANZA (0:43)
Jimmy: 16
Chip: 15
Motor: 13
Marianne: 12
Geno: 12
Motor has wanted to get in on a game of Beans for a while, so we decided to play again. This game went much more quickly as everyone had played before, and we pushed each other a bit to keep the game moving.
Jimmy had the good fortune of harvesting all 6 of the garden beans, 4 of them in a single turn. At the end of the game, Marianne and I traded a red bean (each) for the beans that he flipped over. In retrospect, the bean that I got from him did not earn me an additional gold, so this was a mistake on my part. During the final turns, I should really be more selfish.
Bohnanza's a really good card game, and I'm yet to find someone who doesn't really like it. The scores usually end up pretty close, which helps to keep people from being discouraged. Obviously, luck does play a role in this game, but I think it's pretty minor. Good planning and negotiation have a much bigger impact on the game.
Got your christmas shopping done? Only one weekend left, you know.
The Jedi Princess and I are going to be making cookies, virutally with her mom. In other words, her mom is going to make cookies at her house, and we will make cookies at our house at more or less the same time. We will communicate by phone during the day to talk about our progress.
So, if you're ever on Jeopardy, here's what you should do. Instead of reading the entire clue, just look for keywords that you recognize, and buzz in. For example, if, in the category "Democratic Keynoters", the clue were,
"In 1988, this Texas state treasurer was on the money as a keynote speaker."
Well, if you remember who was the keynote speaker in the democractic convention in 1988, or if you know your state treasurers from Texas, you should buzz in when seeing those keywords, rather then reading the whole clue.
Introduced my sister to the Star Wars universe last night. She saw her first movie ever (episode 4, of course).
She liked it, although she knew the big spoilers. I did manage to convince her that Han Solo was going to die before the end of the movie. Well, okay, maybe not convince, but she did look a little worried for a while.
Session Report: December 15, 2003
Games Played: Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation, Torres, Frank's Zoo
Gamers: Josh, Chip, Mike, Lewis, Marianne, Chris, Jeff, Justin
Thank to Chris for hosting.
LOTR: THE CONFRONTATION (0:18)
Marianne (good): won
Chip (evil): lost
Neither of us had played before, but I read through the rules quickly and Josh offered strategic advice during the game (and prevented us from inadvertently breaking the rules).
I thought that I was in a good position when Marianne had only two pieces left (to my four). However, I underestimated the true value of Frodo's "retreat sideways" ability, and Marianne zipped him off to Mordor for the win.
I liked this game, and would like to try it again sometime soon.
TORRES (1:28)
Justin: 228
Chip: 216
Marianne: 204
Jeff: 153
By that point, we had eight players, so we split up into two groups, one playing Industria, and the other player Torres. I taught Justin this game at a previous SOG session, and he beat me soundly at it. This time wasn't all that much different.
We played with the variant that the trailing player gets to select the starting player for the next round (rather then start the round him/herself). Jeff chose Justin as the starting played for the second round, and then himself as the starting player for the final round.
I think I placed too many knights at the start of the game, and underestimated the value of getting a good start. Instead of concentrating on the most valuable castles, I tend to look for tricky or clever plays, and I think this worked to my disadvantage. I should also point out the Justin is very good at this game, and is careful to not leave his opponents with easy scoring opportunities.
I like this game. It has more variety than I initially imagined.
FRANK'S ZOO (1:08)
Josh: 24
Chris: 20
Mike: 19
Marianne: 17
Chip: 15
Lewis: 14
The Industria game finished at about the same time, we regrouped for a game of Frank's Zoo (despite Chris's objections). I'm glad that we got a chance to really play a full set of rounds (last time we only played two rounds), as I think we got a better grasp of the complete game.
Despite finishing third in every round (which should, statistically speaking, be slightly better then average), I had the lowest score for almost all of the game. I didn't manage to capture any hedgehogs or lions which kept my score low.
I like the fact that the junior partner can ask for help. When I was partnered with Lewis, who sat two chairs down, I tried to play cards that might lead to his asking for cards that I had. Of course, there are too many possible paths to predict this accurately, so it didn't really work out.
I enjoyed this game, although I still don't get it completely. I'd like to try again.
So, I'm checking the weather on a daily basis. It was supposed to snow tomorrow, but it looks like that has been upgraded (downgraded?) to rain. Yay!
