Games Played: Formula Motor Racing, Sticheln
Gamers: Jeff, Luke, Josh, Marianne, Chip, Chris
Thanks to Luke for hosting!
FORMULA MOTOR RACING (0:53)
Luke: 13
Josh: 11
Chip: 10
Chris*: 9
Marianne: 5
Jeff**: 1
We started with four players and added Chris after round one, and Jeff after round two. This is a pretty quick and simple racing game with plenty of opportunities to target other players. Anything that hurts others helps you.
Josh seemed to spend most of the first two games with both cars in last place and only scored one point until the final round. Luke also made a big jump - after not scoring any points in the first round, he was first in the second round. A player can place third consistently in every round and still lose to a player who comes in first once and spends the rest of the races in last place.
Even so, this is a fun quick game, and I'd be happy to play it again.
STICHELN (2:10)
Chris: 73
Jeff: 47
Mariane: 19
Luke: 11
Chip: 8
Josh: -3
Josh suggested Sticheln and 6 Nimmt! as games for six players, and we selected Sticheln. It's a trick-taking (and trick-avoiding) card game in which each player has a "pain" suit which causes them to lose points equal to the value of each card. All other cards taken are worth one positive point each.
I spent most of the game competing with Josh for fifth place. Chris played incredibly well, scoring double digits (up to 22 points) almost every hand. Neither Marianne nor Jeff lost points in a round, but they didn't gain points as quickly as Chris. Luke's alternated between gaining and losing points, while Josh and I just tried to get our scores back to zero.
There were a number of times when the last player in a round had a chance to either save the current leader (on that trick) or punish him/her. In almost all cases, that player was "merciful" and took the trick away, usually netting six positive points. While it's fun to consider the possibility of really screwing a player over, with six players it's generally better to improve your own score than to hurt another player (which helps everyone else, relatively speaking). In other words, greed overrules cruelty.
Of course, if taking the trick isn't desirable, players will try to make it as painful as possible for the player who ends up with the cards. At one point, I played the highest card in a trump suit, reasoning that the pain I would sufffer was limited by the highest pain card in the remaining player's hand. And, of course, he turned out to have the highest pain card in the deck, and I suffered greatly.
This is another fun card game. I never really had a chance to win, but at least I beat Josh (:
posted by FlyingSheep @ 11:05 AM
0 comments
