Games as a way of life

We dug out and old one to let my kids humble me. H beat me in a game (convincingly), then Z took a homework break and won a close one. then H really humbled me. I really like the game, but am not fast enough. My wife found some at Dollar Store for a buck, so we evangelized some. At least one game has proven a hit at some neighbors.

Then tonight, H and I logged on to BSW for some Dominion, then discovered a new one (to us) called Numeri. Checking it out on BSW, we learned it's from the 70's, but we couldn't find any for sale on eBay.

Labels: family gaming

I just squeaked out a Race for the Galaxy win over on the Genie server http://genie.game-host.org/main.htm.
Going into what looked like the last turn, my opponent had the lead, but no cards in hand. I had six cards, I think. There's no way that he could have known it, but I couldn't play enough points to catch him. I picked develop and settle which would get me close. However, he explored which gave me a nice planet instead of the low point one that I would have played.

In my opinion, he made the right play by exploring, hoping to play a card in whichever phase that I chose. In this case, it backfired. It's a little frustrating to be in the situation where you do the "right" thing in a game, but it proves not to be the case in that situation.

Larry and Kevin were just setting up Race for the Galaxy when we arrived, so Hanson and I jumped in. Hanson bailed after the first game, but we played another and were just finishing as Steve arrived.

I suggested Last Train to WensleyDale and no one objected, so I explained the rules and we were off. The goal is to deliver the most cheese, rock and passengers while retaining as little track as you can. It definitely puts a different twist on train games. So in each of four turns (with four players), you want to build enough track to grab the pre-game seeded passengers and cargo, then sell the track to one of the two major (NPC) companies. Each round there's an auction for influence in four areas; political, equipment and each of the two major railroads. The political determines who builds track first and is consumed when removing citizens opposed to trains. The equipment influence determines the order that players buy trains and pick up cargo. It is consumed to purchase the trains (each of which has a different capacity). The influence with the railroads is consumed to build into spaces where the railroads are and to convince them to take your track. Profit (or loss) each turn is calculated by goods shipped (two for rocks) minus total track owned by the player. After four rounds, players get a VP for each good and passenger shipped plus a bonus of two VP for each set of four. Then VP are lost for each link of track still owned by each player and the final profit (or loss) is added to the VP total.

I enjoyed it, but the others weren't sure about it. There is a lot going on and I think familiarity will make it more intuitive. I look forward to trying it again.

We finished with two more games of RftG. Good night of gaming!

Our company has installed some filters and unfortunately this site is filtered out. So it's harder to blog because I have to do it in the morning or evening now instead of while eating lunch.

The only new game since my last post was Halo. H enjoyed it, but I wasn't impressed. Friday I did get to play Race, Power Grid and Dominion at Kevin's. Hoping for some more gaming this weekend.

Ted Alspach's fall package arrived and I am really looking forward to Beer and Pretzels.