Games Played: high Society, Frank's Zoo, Catch Phrase, Samurai, Alhambra
Gamers: Mark, Rob, Josh, Lewis, Chip, Marianne, Rob, Chris
Thanks to Rob for hosting.
HIGH SOCIETY (0:15)
Mark: 16
Josh: 9
Marianne: 5
Mike: 0
Chip: 10 (eliminated)
Josh taught us High Society, a quick bidding game with various bonus and penalty cards in addition to values 1-10. When Mike arrived, Rob gave up his seat to see to various hosting duties.
I'll refrain from judging a game on a single play, but it seems to me that I'm particularly bad at setting values on things. I've seen this trend in Modern Art and other bidding games; I'm sure I'd do horribly at The Price is Right.
FRANK'S ZOO (0:12)
Mark: 6
Rob: 5
Josh: 4
Mike: 3
Marianne: 2
Chip: 1
We opted to play Frank's Zoo as it took 6 players and Chris (who has vowed never to play this game again) wasn't around to object.
I don't really have a handle on this game yet. It seems light and quick enough, but I haven't grasped any strategy yet - if I can play, I do. I don't find myself making decisions and getting feedback on those decisions. Still, it's not a bad game, and I'd play it again.
We played a single hand during which Chris and Lewis arrived. Now with eight players we decided to break into two 4 player games.
ELECTRONIC CATCH PHRASE (0:24)
Chip, Marianne, Rob, Chris: 7
Mark, Rob, Josh, Lewis: 5.5
Continuing our course of appetizers, we played a single round of Electronic Catch Phrase.
Memorable moments: Lewis was prompted with "Push Button" and mistook it for an instruction from the game rather than a phrase to be guessed. I was particularly happy with my own clue, "Word Chekov couldn't pronounce correctly in the Star Trek movie" for "vessel".
The randomness of the "hot potato" aspect of this game still irks me. It seems that every time this game is played there's at least one disagreement regarding who was holding the game when the buzzer went off. We usually agree to not award any points in this situation, but it's still annoying.
SAMURAI (0:42)
Marianne: 5
Rob: 3
Chip, Josh: eliminated
Josh taught us Samurai - Rob had played once years ago, and Marianne and I were new to the game.
The mechanics are appealingly simple and the game seems nicely balanced. Josh did an excellent job of explaining the most complex (and more important!) part of the game - the scoring.
I lost all track of which player took which tokens, and I think that worked against me. I'd be willing to try it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.
ALHAMBRA (1:00)
Mark: 98
Lewis: 102
Marianne: 71
Chip: 127
Marianne and I lobbied for Land Unter!, but I couldn't resist the call of Alhambra. After a quick review of the rules (and a not-so-quick history lesson from Professor Towler), we began.
I started off with an abundant lead in gardens, which I retained for most of the game. Mark concentrated his efforts on Towers, and Lewis and Marianne split most of the rest. I paid more attention to building a long wall, occasionally building separate sections and then tying them together. This hard work paid off, as I ended the game with a wall of length 26.
This game is still on my purchase list. I like it a lot and will play it at the drop of a hat.
posted by FlyingSheep @ 12:17 PM
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