Death of the Lost Star Quarrior from Macao Homestead
Time really flies by sometimes. Heck, who am I kidding? I barely blink and another freaking week has slipped away and I've barely even sneezed in the direction of my blog. So now I find myself a full week behind in reporting about game night and details are leaking out of my brain faster than all the Small Markets get bought up in a game of Puerto Rico.
Well, rather than drag it out and staying perpetually behind a week or more, I'm just gonna pull off a Glee-style mash-up and stick both last week's and this week's report into one super-awesome, "special episode" of GamerChris.com...
Last Week -
Lost Worlds [BGG]
Even though my time of arrival was less than perfect last week, Chip had experienced similar issues and was also free soon after I got there. He hasn't had quite the same background with Lost Worlds as several of us have, but we still pulled out a few books and took swings at each other.
Our first game was really close, but my mighty tail whip made the difference in the battle of the heavy hitters. In the second game, I decided to throw my dagger first thing, which did like 6 points of damage and really put him behind the 8-ball. He had swung low at extended range (thinking that would be rather effective when fighting a halfling), but if he had swung high, he would have actually dazed me and dealt 7 damage to me instead. But the game wasn't really close after that point, as I whittled down his last 6 hit points and took the win.
Time: 10 and 9 minutes (single games)
Game 1: Norton (lizard man w/sword & buckler) - Win, Chip (gargoyle with scimitar) - Lose
Game 1: Norton (halfling w/sword, shield, & daggers) - Win, Chip (samurai) - Lose
Ratings: Me 8, Chip 7
I really like Lost Worlds, but wonder how relevant a full review would be for a game that is mostly just available on ebay and other secondary markets. Any opinions?
Macao [BGG]
Macao was my Favorite Game of the Year for 2010, but I haven't had much opportunity to play it lately. For some reason, it really called to me last week, so we pulled out Stacy's virgin copy and gave it a ride.
In my first few cards, I saw some synergy between things like the Residence, the Master Builder, the Pawnshop and a few other cards to really focus on Buildings both to generate money (which I could get some extra benefit from using the Embassy to get +2PP for paying tribute) and to score points at the end of the game. Unfortunately, it took a little bit of time to get my cubes in order to activate things, so I actually took 2 penalty chips, one from having a turn with no action cubes and the other for having more than 5 cards on my tableau.
I also managed to pick up all three Lacquerware tiles, but dern Alton totally hate-frafted the Lacquerware Storage card to rob me of 10 points. I later added the Palace (+2PP at game end per card with a "Game End" condition) and another end-game scoring card (the Meeting Room, maybe?) to get a really nice last-turn bump anyway.
Stacy did a great job all game long of managing his cubes and tableau, but points-wise was hanging around near the back of the pack. He was building up a lot of cubes for the last turn, so we all knew it would be big, but we had no freaking idea that he would end up scoring more than 55 points in that one ridiculous turn to sweep past me and take the lead. Thankfully, my end-game scoring was enough to bump me back past him for the way-too-close 3-point win!
Time: 120 minutes
Score: Norton 84, Stacy 81, Sean 58, Alton 53
Ratings: Norton 9, Stacy 10, Sean 7, Alton 9
Macao is just so good. Why the heck haven't I written a review of it yet? Maybe I'll try to correct that really soon, though.
Wok Star [BGG]
As I mentioned in a recent game-night report, I'm pretty disappointed in Defenders of the Realm. I was so disappointed, in fact, that I put it up for trade and ended up getting a copy of Wok Star in return for it. I was a little shocked at how small it is (because the image of the box art on BGG is really deceiving), but was also excited to get it to the table and see if all the good press its received was really warranted.
Most of the time in cooperative games, the "easy" setting seems mostly intended for families or really dumb people because they're so easy. So it only made sense to me that we'd start on the "normal" level. But about halfway through the game, we realized that our restaurant was on a slippery slope into financial ruin, so maybe "easy" would have been more appropriate for us this time.
Anyway, just in case you're not familiar with it, Wok Star is a cooperative game about a family trying to effectively run a Chinese-food restaurant and make enough money to pay off its debt that comes due after six turns ("nights"). The real twist that sets it apart from most every other coop game is that it's mostly real time, where you have to turn over a sand timer before revealing a new customer card. Before the timer runs out, you have to serve their requested dish by spending certain ingredients that are tracked on a central board. But if you're out of an ingredient, someone has to prepare more of it by allocating dice (which you roll once per turn) to preparation cards.
We seemed to do okay for a few nights, but then started to run into trouble in getting ingredients made once we added in more recipes and customers. While we did make it to the 6th night, we ended up turning away enough customers due to missing ingredients that the bad publicity caught up with us and made us lose, but we also only made $52 of the $80 we needed to win.
Time: 58 minutes
Score: The Bill Collectors - Win; Poor Wang Family (Brad*, Chip*, Kenny* & Norton*) - Lose (only $52 and 9 bad publicity)
Ratings: Brad 7, Chip 7, Kenny 7.5, Norton 7.5
Wok Star is pretty crazy. It's chaotic, frenetic, challenging, and thankfully, a lot of fun. But it's also really hard (Gwen and I tried it over the weekend on the easy level and lost once again), so I hope that I'm able to get it back to the table pretty often to see if I can build up more "skill" in managing the orders, ingredients, and the necessary communication between players.
This Week -
Quarriors! [BGG]
Shawn had mentioned on our guild that he picked up Quarriors!, so getting in a game of it was definitley a priority for me this week. The general buzz about it has been rather ridiculously excessive, but I've heard more and more of the podcasters and other gamerati be less thrilled with it.
So anyway, as we started playing (and like all deckbuilding-ish games), play was slow due to lots of reading of the various cards/dice in the middle of the table. Eventually, I picked up a Defender of the Pale and when I managed to score it along with one Assistant on one turn, I jumped into a noticeable lead. I wanted to pick up another DotP, but they were all gone before I managed to roll enough quiddity. So instead, I invested a lot from then on in Ghostly Spirits and made a point of not culling any basic quiddity dice when I scored. Eventually I was at 10 points with a Ghostly Spirit in play, so the other guys didn't have any ability to kill it enough times to prevent me from scoring, and I won. Time: 43 minutes
Score: Norton* 12, Keith* 7, Kenny* 5, Shawn 5
Ratings: Norton 6.5, Keith 6, Kenny 6, Shawn 8
I've only played once, so everything I'm about to say should be taken with a grain of salt, but first of all, I just don't see why so many people are all crazy about this game. I mean, in general, Quarriors! is pretty fun and definitely deals with the "continual shuffling" issue that real deckbuilding games have. But the "randomness squared" issue of both needing to draw the right dice and then having to actually roll the face you need to pull off your cool plans makes it definitively a light and rather shallow game.
I'm really not convinced that there's a lot of choice to make in the game at all, because it almost always seems to make the most sense to just buy the highest-cost die you can each turn, and then once you roll, there's not really any choice about how you play out your turn either. The limitation of only buying one die per turn is partly to blame, though, because it just seems stupid to buy a 3-cost creature or spell when you roll 6 quiddity and could get something bigger. But if, instead, you could pick up two 3-cost dice that might advance the strategy you're going to try, it would be a much more interesting game.
And I've heard several people mention that the game seems to end too quickly, but I'd totally have to disagree. Even by the end of our game, Kenny basically passed his last turn because (due to rolling only quiddity except for an Assistant or two all game long), he had absolutely no chance to compete for the win. Getting into and then out of this game in something like 30 minutes would be a lot of fun and I'm totally willing to do that from time to time, but stretching it out to 2 or 3 times that length would get really painful really quickly.
Space Hulk: Death Angel [BGG]
I almost brought my copy Space Hulk: Death Angel with me this week, so when Kenny and Keith were talking about it, it seemed "meant to be" that we should play it. We had a full complement of 6 players running 12 Space Marines, and at the start, things went really well. Chris used his heavy flamethrower to blow away 5 genestealers and push us on to an easy win in the first stage.
The second stage was a little more difficult, but still, we made it through with only one casualty. But then, in the Teleportarium, things went awry. We all focused on activating the teleporter and getting to the nest stage instead of actually attacking genestealers. So when we moved on (losing a Space Marine in the process), we were left facing a huge number of aliens and the two brood lords that showed up in the last area. We didn't have any real chance at that point, and Marines started dropping like flies.
Our last hope was for Kenny's Sergeant Lorenzo to make a final stand with his power sword. All he had to do was roll something like 27 or 28 skulls (which is a 50:50 shot each) in a row. He nailed the first two, but then stumbled and was promptly eaten, sealing our mission's doom.
Here's Kenny's last stand and the odds he faced...
...and here are his two successful defense rolls. I didn't bother to record the unsuccessful roll or the carnage which ensued afterwards.
Time: 88 minutes
Score: Genestealers - Win; Space Marines (Alton*, Chris*, Norton, Keith, Ken & Sean*) - Lose
Ratings: Alton 7.5, Chris 6, Norton 7, Keith 7, Ken 7, Sean 6
I like Death Angel quite a bit, but I don't really think that 6 players is ideal for it. It's a little too long, and worse than that, it's just too easy for both of a player's maries to get killed and be eliminated from the game altogether. I much prefer it either solo or with 2 or 3 players, where you get to control 4 or more marines each.
Homesteaders [BGG]
For one reason or another (mostly bad timing), I've never found my way into a game of Homesteaders before this week (despite it being played pretty often at game night). When that happens, it sort of becomes a barrier to me even wanting to play, because I sort of feel like I've been "left behind" by the group with regards to that game. But thankfully, I really didn't have a choice this time around since it's what everyone else still at game night wanted to play.
Homesteaders is a surprisingly complex game, with lots of different resources and various buildings to make them. There's also a market that you can trade with pretty freely, except that you must have a trade token (which is yet another resource/currency) for each transaction that you perform. You need to work at building an infrastructure to make money and resources and then eventually translate that into some sort of Victory Point engine.
Since it was my first game, I was playing a lot more slowly than usual, reading all the buildings and trying my darndest to figure out some sort of strategy. I went with making gold a lot and eventually investing in the railroad to score 3 buildings that gave VP for each track you had built. I actually ended up doing pretty well, maybe in spite of feeling sort of clueless most of the game.
Alton, Keith, and Kenny playing Homesteaders...
Time: 99 minutes
Score: Alton 72, Norton* 49, Keith 44, Kenny 38
Ratings: Alton 9, Norton 8, Keith 8, Kenny 9
Homesteaders is the kind of game that I could end up liking a whole lot. It almost feels like an advanced version of Peloponnes, where you have auctions for tiles that give you resources and then various special abilites. But there's certainly a lot more depth and variety in this game, especially with including the worker-placement element and indirect scoring.
I don't know if it's completely good or bad at this point, but the main impression that Homesteaders left me with is that feeling that you can't really do much of anything directly. It's the kind of game where you have to get 1 or 2 resources so that you can build a building that lets you convert yet another resource for VP. I see a lot of potential in it for sure, and for now, I'm definitely looking forward to my second play, I plan on looking up some player aid that lists the buildings to get more familiar with them, and it's going on my wishlist for when the second edition comes out.
The auction board
Other Games Played
AscensionTime: 50 minutes
Score: Chris 117, Sean 103, Stacy 71, Alton 67
Ratings: Chris 10, Sean 10
Battletech Combat Book Game
Time: 23 minutes
Score: Chris (Griffin) - 2 wins, Kenny (Warhammer) - 1 win
Ratings: Chris 8, Kenny 8
Carcassonne
Time: ?
Score: Alton 111, Brad 100, Josh 78
Ratings: Alton 8, Brad 7, Josh 8
GrimoireTime: 37 minutes
Score: Jon the Z-Man Guy* 32, Chip* 28, Brad* 24, Ken* 19, Chris* 18
Ratings: Chip 7, Brad 7, Ken 7, Chris 7
Kachina
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Ian* 61, Ken 59, Chip* 50, Chris 43, Brad* 41
Ratings: Ian 7, Ken 7, Chip 6.5, Chris 6.5, Brad 7
Memoir '44
Time: 45, 45, & 100 minutes
Game 1: Alton 5, Josh 4
Game 2: Alton 6, Josh 4
Game 3: Stacy* 5, Ian* 2Ratings: Alton 10, Josh 10, Stacy 9, Ian 9
Ninjato
Time: 102 minutes
Score: Chris* 111, Ken* 92, Stacy* 90, Sean* 85
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Ken 7.5, Stacy 8, Sean 8
—-
Ascension
Time: 75 minutes
Score: Josh 83, Alton 66, Ken 65, Sean 63, Chris 59, Shawn 58
Ratings: Josh 8.5, Alton 10, Ken 8, Sean 10, Chris 10, Shawn 10
QuarriorsTime: 25 and 37 minutes
Game 1: Chris* 19, Shawn 6, Alton* 0
Game 2: Alton 13, Shawn 11, Chris 9, Sean* 3
Ratings: Chris 8, Alton 8, Shawn 8.5, Sean 8
Star Fluxx
Time: 13 and 31 minutes
Score: Chris* - 2 wins; Alton*, Josh* & Sean* - no wins
Ratings: Chris 7, Alton 8, Josh 7, Sean 8
* First play for that Person
Posted by Chris Norwood at 9/1/2011 4:06 PM 
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Lost Worlds Macao Wok Star Quarriors Homesteaders Space Hulk Death Angel
Categories: Game of the month, Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Lost Worlds Macao Wok Star Quarriors Homesteaders Space Hulk Death Angel
I don't remember the one die per turn rule from Gencon, and we played with both a designer and a tester. I could be wrong, though. I'll go back and reread the rules. I'm hoping to play with a group this weekend!
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nope, you are right. it's only 1 die per turn. so it will always be the strongest, unless you are behind and don't want the game to end so you can catch up!
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Woo hoo! Another Chris!!!
But anyway, I haven't actually read the rules myself, but "buy one die a round" was how I was taught. I'd definitely be more interested if that's wrong, however (in Quarriors!, of course).
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we were only able to play one game of Quarriors on saturday, but I enjoyed myself again. The game is really simple to learn, but it seems like there is some built in nuance that makes the game fun. One of the new players was lamenting the fact that he had no glory, while i was at 6, and on the very next round, he was able to get four creatures out and swoop out to an 8 point lead!
There is a ton of luck involved, but that's never really bothered me. I'm happy with the game, and love the fact that you can play it in 20 minutes if you are familiar with the rules, which you should be by the second game.
Hopefully, my group will want to give it another go. The two noobs in our game seems to enjoy it.
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Yeah, again, 20 minutes seems like a great investment for Quarriors! And if my continued experience is along those lines, it'll be something I'll be happy to play.
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Well, I'll try to remember to let you know how my play goes this weekend. i remember the demo was fun enough for me to shell out $50 for it, and it was easy enough to play with my kids, but that could have been the old "gencon fever". I also bought "bears!" from the company that makes castle panic, so maybe i'm just goofy for dice!
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Man, you guys are playing some great games lately. I STILL have yet to play Macao, and it has been at the top of my list since MACE last november. Space Hulk: Death Angel is still on there, as well, as is Wok Star. I can't believe you got that for Defenders - I mean, I can't believe you traded Defenders, but that's a whole other conversation.
I really enjoy Homesteaders, and I'm looking forward to the 2nd edition. It will be nice to have a new version with the added quality that's been provided by TMG lately.
Oh, and on a somewhat-related note: It took all my willpower not to buy Letters from Whitechapel at Sci-Fi last week. I got Alea Iacta Est instead - but it was a good choice. We are really enjoying the games we've played this weekend.
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Yeah, I was a little hesitant to trade Defenders for Wok Star as well, considering that it's a huge, $80 game. But the reprint for Wok Star has been delayed until sometime in 2012, and with the changes at Z-Man, I just didn't want to risk waiting for who knows how long to get it. On ebay and other places, it's been going for $80+ a lot of times, so I overall felt pretty good about it. Of course, when I actually got it and saw how little it was, I freaked out a little more, but I'm over that now. And as far as the game goes, I enjoy it a lot more than I did Defenders, which is a steaming pile of plagarized sh... well, you know what I mean.
And you really should give in to Letters from Whitechapel. It's giving The Lord of the Rings LCG a run for its money for my Game of the Year right now. Will you be able to make it over to Burlington any time soon? I can be sure to pack it...
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You really are playing some good ones. I am looking forward to Wok Star and more Letter From Whitechapel. Chris K. I have Macao now so anytime you want to play say the word. I would like to play Alea is on my list.
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Yep, I've almost picked up Alea Iacta Est (maybe even that very same copy over at SciFi Genre, in fact) a number of times, so I'd like to try it as well.
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Lost Worlds "mostly just available on ebay and secondary markets"??? Flying Buffalo is the official publisher of Lost Worlds. You can buy new copies of about 50 different Lost Worlds books from our web page at www.flyingbuffalo.com - just sayin'
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Wow. I knew that Flying Buffalo was making some new books, but had no idea that the reprints of the old stuff (and even Ace of Aces and other games) were available! Maybe I'll have to write a full review after all since it seems to be a lot more available than I thought!
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