This week's game night was another huge success!  We had four different gaming tables going at once, with 17 or more people being involved.  If we see our normal summer bump in attendance, then I just don't know where we're going to put everybody!

The Hypermind Boardgamers in action!!!
But anyway, there were 19 different games played this week, 6 of which I was able to participate in.  The first one was definitely the "new hotness", Matt Leacock's...

Forbidden Island

Graham was expressing much frustration that he has been unable to find a copy locally, so we pulled out my copy (okay, technically it's Gwen's copy, but we're married so it's all the same) and gave it a try.  We went with the "normal" difficulty, and had a very convenient central placement of the Fool's Landing helipad tile.  Keith played the Messenger, and his ability to give anyone a card led us to discover the treasures very quickly.  Overall, the game went very smoothly and we won with little problem.


Escaping from Forbidden Island... and Graham carries the torch of victory!

Chip had arrived at some point in the first game, so we decided to try it again immediately with four players.  This time, the helipad was on a corner, and we had to make some choices all game long about which areas to protect.  Generally, we saw whole patches of land sink into the ocean just as soon as we were done with them, and by the end we only had 4 tiles remaining.  We won, but it was a lot closer, and we definitely felt like the game was on our heels the whole time. 

Time: 23 and 26 minutes
Game 1: Explorers (Graham*, Keith* & Me) - Win; Forbidden Island - Lose
Game 2: Explorers (Graham, Keith, Chip* & Me) - Win; Forbidden Island - Lose
Ratings: Graham 8.5, Keith 8.5, Chip 8, Me 8

My opinion is still the same as it was from the weekend.  More than anything, I need to step up the difficulty a notch or two , just to see how well the the game can kick my butt.  But I love the theme, and the gameplay is fun and light.  

Maybe I'm just getting caught up in all the buzz and excitement here, but with its simplicity, cooperative format, level of challenge, gorgeous bits, and Gamewright's established distribution channels, I think that Forbidden Island could be poised to be the next great crossover/breakthrough game even for the non-gamer family market.  Because it has all the same things going for it that something like Ticket to Ride does, but carries a freaking $15-16 price tag!  Time will tell, but jumping to #1 on the Amazon toy and game sales chart is a good initial sign.     

In the Year of the Dragon

From there, we had a big shuffle involving most of the group.  Based on the success of Macao, several others were suddenly interested in the other Stefan Feld Alea designs.  We played Notre Dame last week (prompting Chris to pick up his own copy), and I had a full table for In the Year of the Dragon this time. 

It's been a ridiculously long time since I'd played, and while I did well remembering the rules, I totally sucked with strategy.  I made a bit of a bold move in picking up some Scholars early on, but they never paid off for me at all.  The "research" action was always tied to something else in demand, and so all I did was fall behind both on the person track and in terms of preparing for upcoming events. 

Ben and Adam, however, picked right up on how to play.  Ben went first and grabbed a big privilege, but was then able to get a tax collector and recoup his money well before he needed it.  Meanwhile, my last-place turn order really screwed me when all of the Warriors were taken before I could get one, since two Mongol Invastions had come up within the first 5 months.  Keith fell behind early in points, but racked up in the final scoring by holding onto 8 people in his palaces.  Tom started pretty strong, but then fell behind just a little throughout the game.   

Time: 74 minutes
Score: Ben* 107, Adam* 91, Keith* 79, Tom* 78, Me 71
Ratings: Ben 9, Adam 8, Keith 8, Tom 8, Me 7.5

In the Year of the Dragon is all about controlling the bleeding.  You can't succeed in everything, and you will lose people.  In this game, I made some mistakes early that put me in a hole too deep to climb out of, so I didn't have as much fun as I'd had before.  But that was due to my stupidity rather than any failing in the game, and I definitely want this to see some more play in the near future.

Cthulhu Dice

While we were waiting for some other groups to finish up, we pulled out Cthulhu Dice to give it a try.  The only problem is that it's really too short to even be considered a filler.  And while Ben and I won our two games, "winning" has nothing really to do with any skill or choice, so I don't know if it mattered at all. 

Time: 5 minutes (for 2 games)
Score: Ben* - 1 win, Me* - 1 win, Adam* & Keith* - no wins
Ratings: Ben 4, Me 4 (8*), Adam 5, Keith 5

The game was not a success.  My overall rating for it as a stand-alone game was a 4, but I did see a glimmer of hope for it.  In the role as a way to determine start player for your "real" game, it could be pretty good.  And it has a really cool die that can come in 3 or so different colors.  So it may still be worth picking up a copy if you like the "theme", especially if you also own Unspeakable Words and can use its little Cthulhu miniatures for sanity instead of the little green glass beads.  

Dominion

So even after wasting some time with Cthulhu Dice and waiting for the other groups to finish up, my same group ended up playing a game of Dominion just among ourselves.  I was more than surprised to find that none of them had played before, so we used the "first game" setup (which I have definitely grown tired of).  They all did well in picking up on some of the inherent combos of the action cards, but then lost their way a bit in tending to just plain buy too many of them.  I kept it pretty focused on Village/Smithy/Moat/Mine cards and money, and won by a large margin. 

Time: 45 minutes
Score: Me 42, Adam* 21, Keith* 17, Ben* 12
Ratings: Me 8, Adam 8, Keith 8, Ben ?

As I've made clear on my wishlist post, I definitely think that it's time to add an expansion or two to my Dominion mix.  And I simply need to play it more.  'Cause I really think that there's a significant number of non-RftG-addicted gamers at game night now who are interested in playing it with me.  We'll see, anyway.

Witch's Brew

Continuing with the Alea-a-thon (prompted also by my purchase of the Treasure Chest recently), I then pulled out Witch's Brew for a quick play.  I wanted to try out some of the expansions, but Keith was totally new to the game, so we kept it basic (except for using the raven tokens, which make it much more obvious when the game is nearing an end).

I did pretty well in navigating through most of the game, and rode a big last turn into a one-point victory over both Brad and Adam. 

Time: 39 minutes
Score: Me 23, Adam 22, Brad 22, Keith* 14, Tom 13
Ratings: Me 8, Adam 8, Brad 8, Keith 8, Tom 7

As a filler, I don't think that I can play this enough.  The combination of crunchy hand-management and fluffy social stuff like bluffing and reading people is fantastic, and I love the game. 

Ca$h n' Gun$

Sort of as a counter-point to Bang!, I've been bringing this to game night off and on for a few weeks.  This was the first time that I've been able to get it to the table, however, and it went over rather well.  I was able to control the meta-game a little bit to deflect attention from myself, and ended up getting another narrow victory.  There were a few tense moments, like when, after I shouted "big hairy cajones" in one of the "run away" phases, I found Tom pointing his gun in the general direction of my actual... dude parts, shall we say.  But he was bluffing, so it was all good. 

Time: 20 minutes
Score: Me $110k, Keith* $100k, Brad* $95k, Beth* $50k, Tom* $50k
Ratings: Me 6.5, Keith 8, Brad 8, Beth 8.5, Tom 8

For whatever reason, Ca$h n' Gun$ leaves me a little empty.  I want to like it, mainly because it has some potential for solid psychological interaction.  But it just never seems all that tense or interesting when I actually play it.  Maybe it's because you can't get much real tension from having an orange foam gun pointed at you, or because the whole thing is just too silly or "gamey" to be taken seriously.  If you had more connection to your "character", then maybe you'd care about whether or not you got shot.  But as it is, I just don't know if that can happen for me.   


Other Games Played

There were a ton of games played.  I really wish that I could have been in on a game of Tobago or the first play of Chris' Notre Dame, but it wasn't in the cards for me.  I also need to get back in a game of Pandemic soon, and have resolved to play the Bio-Terrorist as soon as possible!

Blue Moon City
Time: 36 minutes
Score: Alton 5, Charles* 3, Chris 2
Ratings: Alton 9.5, Charles 9, Chris 9

Cthulhu Dice
Time: ?
Score: Graham* & Charles* - 1 win each, Michelle* & Ken* - no wins
Ratings: Graham 5, Charles 6, Michelle 6, Ken 6

Escalation!
Time: 9 minutes
Score: Graham 7, Michelle 12, Ken 13, Beth 23
Ratings: Graham 7.5, Michelle 9, Ken 7.5, Beth 10

Lost Cities
Time: 8 minutes
Score: Adam 30, Ben 8
Ratings: Adam 7, Ben 7.5

Masons
Time: 48 minutes
Score: Ken 84, Charles* 83, Alton 82, Chris 77
Ratings: Ken 8.5, Charles 8, Alton 8.5, Chris 8

No Thanks!
Time: 29 minutes (for 4 hands)
Score: Alton 115, Beth* 130, Ken 190, Charles* 254
Ratings: Alton 8, Beth 8.5, Ken 8, Charles 6

Notre Dame
Time: 56 minutes
Score: Chris 51, Shane* 42, Brad* 40, Melody* 30, Tom* 20
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Shane 9, Brad 7, Melody 9, Tom 8

Pandemic
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Humans (Charles, Chip, Josh & Ken) - Win!; Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Charles 7, Chip 9, Josh 8.5, Ken 9

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 25 minutes
Score: Alton 54, Chris 48, Charles 43
Ratings: All 10's

Roll Through the Ages
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Graham 30, Michelle 22, Ken 10, Beth -2
Ratings: Graham 8.5, Michelle 8.5, Ken 8, Beth 8.5

The Settlers of Catan
Time: 48 minutes
Score: Graham 10, Josh 6, Chip 6, MIchelle 5
Ratings: Graham 8, Josh 8, Chip 8.5, Michelle 9

The Stars are Right
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Charles 10, Michelle 9, Ken 3
Ratings: Charles 8, Michelle ?, Ken 8

Tobago
Time: 35 and ??? minutes
Game 1: Michelle 36, Ben* 35, Josh* 29, Adam 20
Game 2: Chip 42, Josh 32, Beth* 23, Alton 12
Game 3: Chris 37, Shane* 33, Brad* 25, Melody* 20
Ratings: Michelle 8, Ben 8, Josh 7, Adam 4, Alton 7.5, Beth 7, Chip 8.5, Chris 8.5, Shane 8, Brad 7, Melody 9

Toledo
Time: 47 minutes
Score: Chip 20, Alton 19, Josh 11, Charles* 3
Ratings: Chip 9, Alton 9.5, Josh 8.5, Charles 6

* First play for that Person