Nine hours, eight games.

For the first time in a long while I hosted a board game day. It was just a small affair that involved Buddy, the boy, Sam and I (originally it was just suppose to be me and Buddy but it evolved). Traditionally I prefer to play long board games like Axis and Allies or Twilight Imperium (you know long games that usually end up killing over half of your weekend) but this time we decided to try and fit in as many games as possible.

The day started around 10 AM when me and they boy sat down for a game of Monsterpocalypse. We had both been looking forward to trying out one of the new boards from the “Map Pack”. After my son begged me not to use the Martian Menace faction (“No more space ships Daddy”) I decided to use the Terrasaurs faction (“fine I’ll play with the Godzilla dinosaurs then”). He quickly decided to play with the Planet Eaters. Our early game was on the slow side and his shooting units dominated my hand-to-hand units. Unfortunately for him, I was able to close with my monster very quickly. Before we knew it I had slammed, thrown, bashed his monster through about six buildings (making roaring noises and doing my best Hulk Hogan pose the whole time… note to self do not go over board on taunting ten year old). His monster was finished off when I actually did 4 damage to his monster in one turn.

After about an hour of M-poc we moved on to New World (a variation of Carcassone). My son really enjoys the Carcassone line of games and was extremely excited to be playing it (despite his constant eye rolling as I talk about having fun with Meeples) . This was my first time playing a Carcassone game with only two players. It was still very enjoyable but the game actually takes longer to play than normal and man those tile piles are huge. The boy got an early lead and stayed ahead for the whole game. I did almost catch up with him at the end but he still won out (I had to endure many yells of “I won” and a very long victory dance).

By this time Sam and Buddy had arrived. I pulled out Rumis believing that it would be a game that my sister would enjoy. Rumis is basically a 3-D version Blokus, if that doesn’t help think of it as Tetris the board game (it’s more fun than it sounds…really). The four of us got in two quick games. I won the first game and Buddy won the second. Sam loved the game so much that she wanted to know were she could pick up her own copy (the answer is Target, On-line, or Barns & Noble). Sam had to go back to Tampa so Buddy and I got down to playing a war game.

Recently I decided that I needed some two player war games, since it is very difficult to get a large group together to play a good war board game. One of the games that I acquired for this purpose was Axis & Allies Guadalcanal. This is the game that we decided to play (War of the Ring and Memoir ’44 were our other available options). I played Japan and Buddy was the USA. It was only my second time playing and his first so we had to go over the rule book pretty well. We both kept the game close but I did win out. This game plays completely different from a normal A&A variant and is really a whole new game that simple uses Axis and Allies game pieces. In the end, we both decided that the game was very balanced and was fun. The only bad thing is we think that the game will have a limited replay value. After about playing 4 times or so this game will probable end up on one of my game shelves for a year or two. To be honest this game is a bit overpriced for a game that has limited replay value.

After this game the boy came back out from the computer room to join us in a game of Zombies!!! I’ve talked about this game enough so I’m not really going to go into it besides….shortest game of Zombie killing goodness ever. The cabin, the tile that you win the game on, showed up on turn 6 and the game was over within 10 turns or so after that. I won but the most memorable part was the boy getting stuck in the pet cemetery for the whole game (after I told him to stay away from it as I ran away from it). Buddy knew he would have to leave soon so after this game we quickly played another game of New World. Not a bad day of gaming, and we got it all in by 7 PM.

All night long....

I know that I haven’t posted in a very long time so I figured it was time to start up again. Last night we had our last gaming night at Nate and John’s Sandford apartment before they move out. I got to the apartment around 7 pm and the night was already in progress. Nate, John and Gilbert were in the middle of their third game of Magic the Gathering. I was desperately trying to get through the rules for Descent: Road to Legend but it quickly became obvious that it was going to take me an hour to get the rules down so we decided to play Zombies!!! 4: The End instead. After going over the rules with Tim and Gilbert we were off to kill zombie dogs! The Zombies!!! Series of games is a very fun “beer and pretzels” game that I have discussed here before. I suspected before that this game would be made better with the consumption of alcohol and now I know that this theory is correct (not to say that alcohol is required to play this game since I was stone sober). We finished the zombie game at about 10 pm and not wanting to start a game of Descent that late at night we decided to move on to Magic. We played “rainbow magic”, a special five-player variation of Magic, where each player has a different, single-color deck. You win by killing the two players playing the opposed colors to yours (i.e. a green deck wins if the black and blue players die). Everyone agreed that it was the best game of Magic that we had played in a very long time (I won with a white deck). That game took about 90 minutes so we decided to change colors and play again. Well this game took forever. I was killed pretty early and actually was falling asleep while Gilbert and John tortured Nate and Tim, both of which could do nothing against the blue and white decks being used by John and Gilbert. After that game I was waken up as Tim left. John had also gone to bed but I decided to play “one more game of Magic” with Nate and Gilbert. Well about 6 games and three hours latter it was 4 am and I went “crud, I have to be up in about five hours”. It was a good all night gaming session like I haven’t done in years. We did decide that we need to get together about every six weeks or so and try to play a Descent: Road to Legend campaign. It looks really fun. Well hopefully I’ll have more updates between that and the other hobby stuff that I’m doing currently.

Monday night Zombies

Yesterday John, Nate, and I sat down for another late afternoon of gaming. Right now everyone wants to be done playing by about 8 PM so that we can watch Heroes and Chuck. As a result, we’ve been trying to play more “light” fast games (also known as beer and pretzel games). Last night we gave Zombies!!! 4: The End a try (I've been avoiding zombie games for years, but I figured what the hell). http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/zombies4.php

Zombies!!! 4: The End is the forth in a series of games in which players run around an “ever changing map” trying to defeat “an always hungry pack of undead dogs” (100 ZOMBIE DOGS!!!). Players are attempting to make it to the “cabin” and perform a spell that would put an end to the zombie infestation. We played this game as a stand-alone expansion but it can be combined with any of the other zombie games for a larger more complex game (how can you not want to Send in the Clowns). Not to say that this game could ever be very complex, the game mechanics are relatively simple. In fact, After looking over the 4 page rule book I had my doubts about this game but after ten minutes we were all laughing, making smartass comments, and having a good time. We only had one rule question and that was about how many zombie dogs get removed from play when you die.

At the beginning of each turn players place one new game tile and multiple new zombie dogs. This mechanic slowly builds the game board. Next players get to move d6 spaces fighting zombie dogs whenever they come across them (Bring your “dog repellant” and “rolled up newspapers”). Finally a player gets to move d6 zombie dogs two spaces each (preferably away from you but next to your opponent’s guy). We likely played this game with a lot more of a co-opt style than it was designed (“I got your back Nate…you go first”). In fact none of our guys ever even died and by the end of the game about 50 of the zombie dogs had been moved in a corner of the board away from the cabin. Next time we will all likely play this game a lot more cutthroat. We all had a great time and plan on playing a zombie game the next time we meet. On a side note, my buddy Derek told me about this game around two years ago and I frowned on the idea of even playing it (“I’m not playing a zombie game”). Well I was wrong (I really should start keeping a more open mind when it comes to this stuff). This is a fun game and it will likely get a large amount of play at John’s and Nate’s apartment. Now if someone will just bring the beer and pretzels.