Session 36
| Date/Location | 4/23/2003 |
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| Attendees | Justin , Everett Proctor, David Solie, Chad , Sterling Wight, Bill Palecek, Russ , Ed McGlinn
, Josiah
, Mike O'Brien, Tim Achee, Eppie , Steve Mading |
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| Games Played | Queen's Necklace, Queen's Necklace, Traumfabrik, Trias, Zoo Sim, Die Fürsten von Florenz, Trans America, Thor, Hare and Tortoise |
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| Summary | O.K., I got admonished tonight for not keeping up with the session reports, so here you go. We had a good turnout tonight, despite missing some of our regulars (John was probably trying to get his family to play Great Dalmuti in Florida, and Todd, Joel, and Sara were all MIA). (And shame on Joel for standing Ed up for their game of Wilderness War.) However, Sterling's hand has healed and he was able to make the drive down. Thanks to everyone who showed up, it was a good time as always. Also, thanks to Mike for giving me a ride to work when I missed my bus. |
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| Queen's Necklace |
| Played By | Justin Everett P. David S. |
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| Summary | I picked up the newest Bruno Fadutti game, and was itching to give it a try. It has the legendary Fadutti feel, with a bit of randomness and chaos, but not as much as some of his other games. Each player is a jeweler, trying to collect gems to sell to the royal court. There are four types of gem cards, each worth one, two or three gems. Five cards are face up on the table for sale. On your turn, you have 10 ducats to purchase cards (which will normally get you one or two cards). The cards that you purchase are replaced from the deck, the cards that you passed up become cheaper for the next player. And of course there are special cards which have a variety of effects. When a Merchant card is turned up (three times per game), there is a sell. Each player simultaneously and secretly lays out the gems that they wish to sell. Whoever has the most of a gem type gets to sell their gems, the catch is, the gems that had the fewest played are worth the most. So you want to play the most gems of the type that was played the least. There are enough special cards to mix things up and keep you from getting a sure thing, but since 90% of what players will have in there hand is bought in the open, you should have enough information to make some reasonable guesses. However there is also a lot of luck in having the cards that you want appear at a time so that you can buy them at a reasonable price. |
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| Winner(s) | Everett P. |
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| Finish | 1-Everett P. (280) 2-David S. (190) 3-Justin (70) |
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| Ratings | Justin (6) Everett P. (7) David S. (7) |
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| Queen's Necklace |
| Played By | Everett P. David S. Chad Sterling W. |
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| Summary | This was our second game of Queen's Necklace. Chad gave it his average rating for card games, which he doesn't like that much. |
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| Winner(s) | Everett P. |
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| Finish | 1-Everett P. (120) 2-Sterling W. (110) 3-David S. (80) 4-Chad (20) |
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| Ratings | Everett P. (7.5) David S. (7) Chad (4) Sterling W. (6) |
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| Traumfabrik |
| Played By | Chad Sterling W. Bill P. |
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| Summary | With Sterling back, he had brought Traumfabrik with him, he taught it to Chad and Bill. This isn't my favorite Knizia bidding game, but since most of his others get an 8+ rating from me, it has a lot of tough competition in that category. I am kind of surprised that Bill gave it as high a rating as he did considering his complete lack of movie knowledge, but I guess that attests to the fact that it is a solid game even without the movie references. |
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| Winner(s) | Bill P. |
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| Finish | 1-Bill P. (106) 2-Sterling W. (91) 3-Chad (66) |
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| Ratings | Chad (6) Sterling W. (7) Bill P. (8) |
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| Trias |
| Played By | Everett P. David S. Chad Sterling W. Russ |
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| Summary | This was the second time we've played this tile-moving game. The theme is fairly weak, as the game feels more like an abstract game (a game about dinosaurs where you can't attack other players just ain't right, and it models the strangest continental drift you've ever seen). However, considering this, it is a pretty solid game. It doesn't really as much on strategy as it does short-term tactics and reacting to the changing game board. I scored a lot of points during the low-scoring interim scoring, and Sterling scored a lot of points during the final scoring round, but I had just enough to hang on to the lead by 1 point. |
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| Winner(s) | Everett P. |
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| Finish | 1-Everett P. (21) 2-Sterling W. (20) 3-Chad (17) 4-David S. (16) 5-Russ (15) |
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| Ratings | Everett P. (1) David S. (4) Chad (3) Sterling W. (2) Russ (5) |
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| Zoo Sim |
| Played By | Everett P. David S. Chad Sterling W. |
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| Summary | I finally got to play this game that I got with my Adam Spielt order back in February. It's a tile laying game, where players are trying to build the most popular zoo. Each season, which there are five of, five Zoo tiles, which each contain 2 of 5 types of animals, are auctioned off in a blind bid. The winner of each auction gets to add the tile to their zoo. At the end of the season, whoever ends up with the largest and second largest grouping of each type of animal in their zoo will score points. It's an o.k. game, but it is so fiddly, that it is a major drawback of the game. The people that you use to keep score tend to block the veiw of your animals, making it difficult to tell who is in the lead, and if you take the lead who's points you take from. We all agreed that the game would be much better with some sort of scoring track or some other method to make these things easier to keep track of. |
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| Winner(s) | Chad |
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| Finish | 1-Chad (130) 2-Sterling W. (105) 3-David S. (67) 4-Everett P. (52) |
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| Ratings | Everett P. (5) David S. (4) Chad (6) Sterling W. (5) |
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| Die Fürsten von Florenz |
| Played By | Bill P. Russ Ed M. |
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| Summary | Bill's notes: "There was some confusion over point value of the works, thus upwardly inflating scores, and creating disincentives for non-works ways of getting points." |
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| Winner(s) | Russ |
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| Finish | 1-Russ (95) 2-Bill P. (86) 3-Ed M. (73) |
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| Ratings | Bill P. (6) Russ (7) Ed M. (6) |
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| Trans America |
| Played By | Bill P. Russ Josiah
Mike O. Tim A. Eppie |
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| Summary | Tim: (in reverb) "Best. . . Train. . . Game . . .EVAR!!!"
I also heard some comments about Tim being the idiot savant of Trans America. |
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| Winner(s) | Tim A. |
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| Finish | 1-Tim A. (13) 2-Russ (8) 3-Bill P. (7) 4-Mike O. (6) 4-Eppie (6) 6-Josiah
(0) |
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| Ratings | Bill P. (5) Russ (3) Josiah
(2) Mike O. (8) Tim A. (9.25) Eppie (5) |
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| Thor |
| Played By | Justin Josiah
Mike O. Tim A. Eppie Steve M. |
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| Summary | Thor has been getting a lot of play lately as it fits the quick filler game that can handle a lot of players slot. |
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| Winner(s) | Tim A. |
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| Finish | 1-Tim A. (51) 2-Mike O. (47) 3-Justin (41) 3-Josiah
(41) 5-Steve M. (36) 6-Eppie (33) |
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| Ratings | Justin (7) Josiah
(7.5) Mike O. (7.5) Tim A. (7) Eppie (7) Steve M. (4) |
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| Hare and Tortoise |
| Played By | Justin Josiah
Mike O. Tim A. Eppie Steve M. |
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| Summary | The only thing I don't like about our board games nights is that there is almost always a game being played at the other table that I'm disappointed that I didn't get to play, no matter how much I'm enjoying the game I am playing. Such is the case with Hare and Tortoise tonight. This is one of my favorite games, and I'm sad that I had passed up this game for so long because of its seemingly children's theme. Tonight, Josiah ran away with the game, finishing several turms ahead of everyone else. Steve was the next closest to Tim, but ended up with too many carrots and had to sit a couple of turns eating them, allowing Mike to make a huge leap with 278 carrots to go from last place to finishing second. Justin's strategy of betting on the Hare spaces didn't work to well for him, but he finished ahead of Tim, who I think thought he was still playing Trans America. |
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| Winner(s) | Josiah
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| Finish | 1-Josiah
2-Mike O. 3-Steve M. 4-Justin 5-Eppie 6-Tim A. |
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| Ratings | Justin (6) Josiah
(8) Mike O. (8.5) Tim A. (7.7) Eppie (7) Steve M. (7) |
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