Madison Board Gamers Session Report,
October 30th, 2002
written by Everett E. Proctor

Games Played:
LOTR: The Confrontation, Pacal, TransAmerica, Web of Power, Lord of the Fries

Players:
John, Everett, Todd, Joel, Tim and Mike

The day before Halloween, and I think we've hit a mid-semester slump. Our student members have been MIA the last few weeks. (Where are you Dave, Dale, and Matt?) We still had a fair turnout, with most of the other regulars showing up. I must admit that I was hoping to play something a little more "meatier" than the games that I got to play tonight, however most of the games where good games, albeit short and/or light.

LOTR: The Confrontation: Joel and Everett

Joel and I were the first ones there, so we played a game of what has become our default 2-player game. (Even though I've recently purchased a few other two payer games that have yet to be tried: Flagship, X-Bugs,and Fightball.) Despite complaints on r.g.b. or spielfrieks to the contrary, I find that both sides are fairly balanced. I've seen streaks where one side wins 6 or 7 times in a row, but then we figure out how to counter whatever it was that was giving that side an advantage, and things even out again. Right now, I'd say either side has about the same chance of winning in our group. I did well in this game, winning with both sides, which is probably due to having played this game about ten times more often than Joel.

Score: Everett 9, Joel 3

Ratings: Everett 8, Joel 7

Pacal: John and Todd

John and Todd came in while Joel and I were playing LOTR, so they started up their own 2-player game. They only played one hand, not a full match, and John says that he still not sure that he knows how to play it yet.

Results: Todd won (one hand)

Ratings: Todd 6, John ?

TransAmerica: (take one) Everett, John, Todd and Joel

We wanted to play a quick game, in case any one else showed up, so TransAmerica got the call. Joel was the only one who hadn't played before. John had an excellent game, connecting first in the first two rounds, and only missing by one rail on the last round. Todd, on the other hand, had a not so good game, being short by 6, 6, and 7 rails. I was close behind Todd, with Joel making a decent showing for his first game.

Scores: John 12, Joel 6, Everett 1, Todd 0

Ratings: John 7, Joel 7, Everett 7, Todd 7

Web of Power: Joel, John, Todd, and Everett

Joel had never played Web of Power, so we decided we had to correct this injustice. I picked this up last week as it is going out of print, and I would kick myself if I never got a copy of it. It packs a lot of good gaming (tough decisions, good balance of luck and skill, and a good mix of strategy and tactics) in a short time. Two other games like for the same reasons are Samurai and Through the Desert. This was a very close game, with only 5 points separating the high and low scores.

Scores: Todd 49, Everett 48, Joel 46, and John 44

Ratings: John 9, Joel 8, Todd 8, Everett 8

TransAmerica: (take two) John, Todd, Everett, Tim, and Joel

Tim and showed up and wanted to play TransAmerica, so the rest of us enjoyed it enough to play it again (after all, it's a short game). Todd once again was having horrible luck with this, leaving 9 rails during the first round, and 5 rails on the second round. I was the lucky one this time, only leaving one rail on the first round and winning the second round. Joel rated this game one lower than the first time we played, as it's not deep enough to be played a lot.

Scores: Everett 12, Joel 11, John 9, Tim 5, Todd 0

Ratings: Tim 9, John 7, Todd 7, Everett 7, Joel 6

Lord of the Brain: John, Mike, Todd, Everett, Tim, and Joel

Mike showed up, and besides TransAmerica, which we had had enough of, and Zombies, which I'd rather gnaw my leg off than play, this was our only other 6-player game. It's a typical example of a CheapAss game, with the usual mix of good humor, but with a few flaws. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, it is basically a rummy game, with the theme being that each of the players are zombies in a fast food restraunt, trying to fill orders. The cards represent different food items, and each turn you are trying to play a meld of cards that match a chosen order. (my favorite = The Old Man and the Sea, three sodas and a fish) If no one can fill the order on the first go around, then the customer gets less picky, and you can try to fill the order with one less card. (Yes, I'll have the hamburger without any meat.) One of the flaws with the game is that after about 3 or 4 deals, the game really starts to drag (each player is supposed to deal once, so with 6 players, that's 6 deals.) This can be solved by just limiting the number of deals to 3 or 4. Another flaw is that if you get a bad hand, it is very unlikely to get any better. The winning strategy seems to be to fill the first order and get lucky and roll a complicated order so that you get passed a lot of cards and can continue filling orders as the game goes. I had a really horrible set of hands, and ended up playing the last round just to try to break even. John led for most of the game, but Mike had a huge last round, scoring 59 points and taking the lead. Overall, it's a humorous game, but took too long. In fact, it made me miss my bus, but Todd was good enough to give me a ride to work. (Thanks Todd!)

Scores: Mike 153, John 131, Tim 101, Joel 84, Todd 31, Everett 1

Ratings: Todd 6, Tim 6, Mike 5, John 4, Everett 4, Joel 3