Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
September 11, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games on the table:
Too many to list. With John, Todd, Everett, Tim, and Josh all bringing several games, we had over 30 games on the table. So unless someone really wants try to keep track of all of them, I'm not going to bother listing all of them when we have this many.

Players:
John, Everett, Todd, Sara, Joel, Tim, Steve, Josh, Stephanie, Bill, and Joshua.

Another good turnout, with two new people showing up. (Hi Josh and Stephanie!) John was still gathering information from students to make ourselves an official Student Organization. He also made up two awesome flyers for promotion that everyone got a kick out of. Bill took a couple to post in his Residence Hall. We may need a bigger room at the Union soon.

We got things started with two 2-player games.

Monad: John and Todd

It seems like Todd had been itching to play this one, so he grabbed John and started a game of this right away. They got started on it while 2 others of us played another game. John and Todd just considered this to be an intro game, and did not finish it as they wanted to join in the larger games once more people had arrived.

Scores: unfinished

Ratings: Todd 9, John 6

LOTR: The Confrontation:
First game: Josiah and Everett
Second game: Todd and Bill

This was the other 2-player game going on at the start. This is the game I had been itching to play, so I grabbed Josiah and taught him how to play. This game is one of my new obsessions, and I try to get in a game whenever I can, which unfortunately isn't very often. Todd also wanted to give this a try, so at the end of the night, he and Bill learned and gave it a shot.

Bill's comments - I'm nowhere near as big a fan of this game as Everett is- it mostly seems to comedown to who gets a better early game- and at times it plays kind of like Battle For France- if I do A, and he does B I win, but if he does C, I lose. And at those times, I would rather be playing Battle For France. Not bad, but not as good as some claim. Luckily, it doesn't take too long. My Gandalf wrecked house in this one.

1st game scores: Everett 4, Josiah 1
2nd game scores: Bill 4, Todd 2

Ratings: Everett 7, Todd 7, Josiah 6, Bill 5

Hare & Tortoise: Todd, John, Everett, Josiah, Sara, Joel

This was our first big game, chosen mostly because it could handle six players, and would be fairly quick in case more people showed up. Everett, John, and Todd were the three veterans; with Sara, Joel, and Josiah playing the game for the first time. John was chosen to go first, and decided to take the lead by jumping to the first lettuce space on his first move. Josiah and I decided to try to stay in the rear, and we both took a chance on a Hare space at the start, but we both rolled badly and we both lost a turn. The early game consisted mostly of Josiah and me fighting for 6th place, and the other four players slowly leap-frogging ahead. I got lucky and got an early "eat a lettuce" on a hare space, and with the massive number of carrots I was able to collect early on, I broke away from the crowd while everyone was still near the 2nd lettuce. Josiah and John were able to keep me in sight, but I was able to eat my last lettuce and win. Josiah may have been able to come in second, but he got a "this move was free" on a Hare space and had to spend a couple turns eating carrots. This let John come in second. Sarah had been shut out of all the lettuce spaces in the beginning, and she and Joel both had to spend a lot of turns after everyone else had finished getting rid of carrots.

Placing: Everett 1st, John 2nd, Josiah 3rd, Todd 4th, Joel 5th, Sara 6th.

Ratings: Todd 9, John 9, Everett 8, Josiah 7, Joel 4, Sara 4

The Hills Rise Wild: Tim, John, Steve, Josiah

Tim had brought this game and taught it to John, Steve, and Josiah. Steve's comments: Too much reliance on luck. Not balanced (attacking first has too much advantage). Turns take too long. I'm bored. John's comments: Scores reflect surviving members - game called on time. Luck played a big part. I took down Steve with some hot dice (twice rolling instant kills on previously unwounded characters) and Josiah and Tim facing off on the other side of the board. Josiah caused much Brutal Damage but Tim took advantage of Josiah's off turn (where he couldn't hit anything) and killed three of Josiah's characters. I had the seal to the mansion, but early Josiah was in a better position to move in, so I decided to eliminate some opposition first - probably good long term strategy, but turned the game into a slugfest (not that it wasn't naturally one anyways).

Scores: John 6, Josiah 3, Steve 2, Tim 1

Ratings: John 6, Tim 6, Josiah 5, Steve 2

Adel Verpflichtet: Todd, Everett, Sara, Joel

John had warned me before that I wouldn't like this game because it was a blind bidding game, but I had forgotten. However, I had to play it anyway because it's on the Internet Top 100 List, right? John was correct, I didn't like the game very much, but I played 2 games anyway. However, the other players, who don't have quite the aversion to blind bidding games that I have, did enjoy it and gave it high ratings. In the first game, Todd, the only veteran, creamed the rest of us, taking a huge lead and never looking back. The second game was almost as big a runaway, with Sara obtaining a huge, protected exhibition and being able to show it without fear.

Placing first game: Todd 1st, Everett 2nd, Sara 3rd, Joel 4th
Placing second game: Sara 1st, Todd 2nd, Joel 3rd, Everett 4th.

Ratings: Todd 8, Sara 8, Joel 6, Everett 3

Metro: Josh, Stephanie, Todd, Sara, Joel, and Everett

This game gets very mixed reviews in our group. I love it. John doesn't like the fact that it is easier to mess with other people than to help yourself. Joel finds it too hard to keep track of your tracks. So I don't get to play this one as much as I'd like. But today we had a lot of people who hadn't had a chance to try it yet, with Joel and myself being the only veterans, so we gave it a try. Stephanie took an early lead with a medium-length track that connected to the middle. However, after that, nobody let any of her lines go very far, so she did not get many more points. I did well throughout the game, being about 20 points ahead of everyone else when my last track was completed, with only 4 tracks left. However, the last 2 tiles gave Todd a long track that connected to the middle for a whopping 48 points and the win.

Scores: Todd 68, Everett 45, Sara 29, Joel 29, Stephanie 26, Josh 18

Ratings: Sara 8, Everett 8, Stephanie 6, Todd 6, Josh 4, Joel 4

Castle: Todd, Bill, Josiah, two others

(Comments by Bill) One of my favorite games. Play cards that get rid of other cards in the best combination. I won due to devious not-getting my stuff sent back. Like most games of Castle, it came down to be very close- many of the other players could have won on their turn had I not been able to play one of my cards.