Once again I find myself bumping into the next week before I have time to discuss game night.  I've been busy, so I'll do my best to remember some details about what all happened... 

Puerto Rico [BGG]

Puerto Rico's time with the Hypermind Boardgamers has come.  Three games of it were played this week, and it's probably the odds-on favorite for GotM! for April.  I started the evening off with a teaching game for three new players, and thankfully was able to not embarass myself by pulling off the win.  The game went on for quite a while (for Puerto Rico's standards, anyway) because all of us were pretty new, and no one was really pushing towards a game-ending scenario.  When it finally came about (due to two of us filling up our city spaces), I had managed to build two of the VP buildings and do lots of other stuff, while David and the other players had also managed to get some decent things underway.
 

I'm sure I won't see stuff like this once we all really know how to play... 
Later on in the evening, Sceadeau, Tom and I had a rematch from our game last week.  I had somewhat more of a plan, trying to go after a shipping strategy.  Maybe I was sort of duped by the length of my earlier game, but I basically had a really solid engine underway... which would have finally paid off 5-10 turns after the game was over (If you check out the stats below, you'll see that this 3-player game was almost 1/3 the time of my 5-player game from before).  I'm sure a lot of people are like this, but the main thing I'm still not catching on to is the pace and timing of the game.  It's like I feel the need to get too much infrastructure into place before flipping the switch on my machine, so by the time it gets going, the game is over.

Time: 82 and 27 minutes
Game 1: Me 74, David* 61, James* 55, Michelle* 38
Game 2: Sceadeau 43, Me 27, Tom 25
Ratings: Sceadeau 10, Me 9, David 9, James 9, Michelle 8, Tom 9

Puerto Rico is a truly great game, and I can't wait to continue to explore it more and more over the coming weeks and months.

Shake 'n Take [BGG]

I pulled out Shake 'n Take once again to fill in some time between games this week. While most people still had a great time with it, there was a bit of a dissenting opinion among some players as well.  It's definitely all party game, and a pretty freaky and unique one at that, but I still like it quite a bit.  If you missed it, I posted a full review of it last week as well.  

Time: 5 and 7 minutes
Game 1: Sceadeau* - Win; Chris*, Cody*, David, James*, Michelle & Me - Lose
Game 2: Sceadeau, Cody, David, Michelle & Me - All winners just for playing (didn't write down who won...)
Ratings: Sceadau ?, Chris 3, Cody 10, David 9, James 2, Michelle 9, Me 8

Basari [BGG]

We had a little more time to kill later in the evening, so I suggested that Sceadeau, Tom, Cody and I try out Basari.  If you don't know anything about Basari, it's a really interesting little roll-and-move game where everyone moves around a market trying to put together majorities in the four colors of gems.  What makes it cool is that every player hasas identical set of three action cards, and after moving to a new space, everyone secretly chooses one of the cards.  If only one person picks a card, they just do the action.  If 3 or 4 people choose an action, no one gets to do it.  But if two people choose it, both players take turns "bartering" for the action, where they make offers of increasing numbers and values of gems until one person takes it and lets the other have the action.


I think it's a solid little filler with some interesting choices and a cool second-guessing mechanic, but it's certainly not perfect or anything.  The bartering can be a little laborious at times, and I don't think that all of the spaces on the board are really balanced, so the roll-and-move aspect of the game can definitely swing the game in favor of one person or another.  But again, for the time and weight, I think it has a lot to offer.

Time: 32 minutes
Score: Tom* 75, Sceadeau* 74, Me 68 (Cody* - had to leave)
Ratings: Tom 6.5, Sceadeau ?, Me 7 

Witch's Brew [BGG]

To finish the evening, we started up a 6-player game of Witch's Brew using the special powers from one of the expansions.  We played exactlhy one round, during which Kenny was able to choose 7 cards (instead of the normal 5) and get a significant lead.  And since the 6-player game was already long enough, we didn't want to continue adding the extra time for the special powers as well, so we all conceded the game to Kenny and started over.

In the new game, I really sucked badly, partly from being a little too greedy and not using "so be it" and from getting totally owned in my card selection over and over and over again.  Several people looked like they were doing well, but Adam managed to rise above everyone else and get the decisive win.   

Time: 10 and 44 minutes
Game 1: Kenny - Win; Sceadeau, Chip, Adam, Tom & Me - Lose by concession
Game 2: Adam 32, Tom 23, Sceadeau 22, Chip 22, Kenny 18, Me 17
Ratings: (as a 6-player game) Adam 7, Tom 7, Sceadeau 4, Chip 7, Kenny 7, Me 7

We all pretty much agreed that 6 players is a little too much for Witch's Brew.  Not only does it add some extra time, but it also makes the role selection part of the game a lot more chaotic and unpredictable.  And, of course, the special power variant from the Treasure Chest expansion is just way too much with probably more that 3 or 4 players.



Other Games Played

Cities
Time: 13, 12 & 15 minutes
Game 1: Shawn 55, Chris 50, Sceadeau* 51, Cody* 47
Game 2: Chris 58, Sceadeau 53, Shawn 49, Cody 29
Game 1: Shawn 60, Adam 54, Tom 46
Ratings: Shawn 9, Chris 8, Adam 6.5, Sceadeau 6, Tom 7, Cody ?

Factory Fun (all expert boards)
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 80, Chris 73, Chip 56, Kenny 34
Ratings: Sceadeau 9, Chris 9, Chip 8, Kenny 8.5

Fresco
Time: 150 minutes (???)
Score: Shawn 85, Adam 83, Cody* 81, Tom 78
Ratings: Shawn 9, Adam 8.5, Cody 10, Tom 8.5

Incan Gold
Time: 18 and 10 minutes
Game 1: Adam 41, Kenny* 28, Chip 23, Shawn 19, Tom* 11
Game 2: Kenny 20, Shawn 11, Chip 0, Adam 0
Ratings: Adam 8, Kenny 8, Chip 8, Shawn 8, Tom 7.5

Puerto Rico
Time: 51 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 46, Kenny* 32, Chip 27, Chris 27
Ratings: Sceadeau 10, Kenny 8, Chip 7, Chris 8.5

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 14 minutes
Score: James 54, Chris 49
Ratings: James 10, Chris 10

Trans America (with Vexxation)
Time: 33 minutes
Score: Cody 7, Chip* 4, Sceadeau 4, Chris 2, Adam* 0, Shawn* 0
Ratings: Cody 9, Chip 7, Sceadeau 7.5, Chris 8, Adam ?, Shawn 7

Yspahan
Time: ?? minutes
Score: Adam* 90, Chip 84, Kenny* 43
Ratings: Adam 7.5, Chip 8.5, Kenny* 7.5

* First play for that Person