The Eminent Betrayal from Whitechapel
Due to some delays at work and then just, well, the capricious nature of little girls, I was especially late to game night this week. And since I took off last week to go to the State Fair (which was a total blast with Gwen and Samantha), I practically had tremors from the ravages of game withdrawal by the time I finally rolled up into Hypermind. Thankfully, I didn't have too long to wait before I was able to set up and teach a game of...
Betrayal at House on the Hill [BGG]
As I've said before, Betrayal at House on the Hill is a really great "experience" game, especially here at Halloween time. There are a lot of balance issues, but it's usually a fun and thematic experience, and I'm really glad that I got in at least one game this October. The "Seawns" were new to it, so I did the best I could at remeberating the rules (which I probably haven't read in a year or two), and then we set to exploring the haunted mansion.
As we walked around, we found a lot of Omens early, and just barely missed triggering the Haunt twice in the first 7 or 8 turns. Sean fell down the Coal Chute early on and started stumbling around the basement, while Shawn took the main floor and I headed up to the 2nd floor. Chris moved around a little, and found a lot of items and Omens that boosted his stats. In fact, I commented on that fact and how bad it would be for him to become the traitor just before he triggered the Haunt and, of course, became the freaking traitor.
Chris, Shawn, and Sean as we explore the haunted house...
Early on, it looked really bad for us when the Mummy rolled incredibly well and then dealt 12 points of physical damage to Sean's character. Thankfully, he just stole the girl (which he needed for his win condition) from him instead of dealing the damage, so we had a little more time. I found the Laboratory upstairs, and when Shawn found the book a little later, we began to see a light at the end of the tunnel. On the last round (just after Chris was one movement point away from winning), we managed to discover the Mummy's name in the Lab, hand the book off to Sean who researched the spell, and then have him cast the spell on the Mummy to destroy it and win us the game. It was the closest game of Betrayal that I can remember playing and a lot of fun.
Time: 43 minutes
Score: Heroes (Norton, Shawn* & Sean*) - Win; Traitor (Chris) - Lose
Ratings: Norton 7.5, Shawn 7.5, Sean 7, Chris 7.5
Even though my review of it is 4 years old, I still pretty much agree with all that it says, so head there for more thoughts about Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Slaying the Mummy!
Eminent Domain is going to be another of those games. You know, the ones that move so quickly, keep me involved all the time, and totally distract me from taking any freaking pictures of it. In fact, I was pretty consumed for most of the night and barely took any pictures at all... (sorry 'bout that)
But anyway, even though Chris and Shawn were new to the game, I felt like we really rocked through it all game long. I started off going for a heavy military strategy, but then (for some reason) sort of melded into a more balanced approach throughout the game. Chris was all about Research, though, and I don't even know how many he ended up with by game end. I can't remember anything particular about Sean's and Shawn's approach, so I'm guessing they were pretty balanced as well.
In the end, Chris managed to tie me in points, but I pulled out the tiebreaker due to my attempts at producing and trading in the late game.
Time: 56 minutes
Score: Norton 21+, Chris* 21-, Sean 17, Shawn* 15
Ratings: Norton 8, Chris 8, Sean 7, Shawn 7.5
What I like about Eminent Domain is that playing it feels a lot more like Puerto Rico than Dominion. The deckbuilding thing is a factor, of course, but it feels more like a natural or organic outgrowth of the action-selection part of the game rather than the main element of it. There's enough card drawing in the game (from dissenting during other players' Role phase), ability to manage your hand (due to the selective discard at the end of the turn), and openness to choose any action that the game feels far more strategic than most "deckbuilding" games. There's still a good element of randomness, but I still feel like I have a lot more control for the most part.
So, I'm still definitely a fan of Eminent Domain and want to give it more and more plays.
Letters from Whitechapel [BGG]
It was getting late by this point, but especially after missing last week, I really wanted to get in a game of Letters from Whitechapel. Thankfully, Keith, Kenny and (my nemesis) Josh were up for it as well, and Josh took the role of Jack. (And once again, refer to this image of the board if you want to track the locations I mention below).
On night 1, Josh delayed for one turn and then made his first killing at location 99. From there, we tracked his trail to location 100 and then systematically checked the 8 adjacent locations to find that he went to 140 next. We continued out thorough, methodical approach to eliminate possibilities from there, eventually determining that he must have gone to location 180 (the only spot we hadn't checked yet), so we closed in even more and were discussing what his next moves would have been and how we were all over him like white on rice. The Jack we were chasing was in a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, the actual Jack in this game had doubled back after hitting 140 and was somewhere else entirely, and then got home just after we discovered no clue at 180 and realized our folly.
Still, due to our intensive investigation of the southwest corner of the map, we had at least ruled it out as a possible location for Jack's home.
On night 2, Josh again used doubling back as a nice tool starting at 158 and moving first straight north to 143 and 102, then back to 143 and west to 125, then up to 126 and back to 125 before heading home through 100 to 99 (yes, his first murder happened at his home location). We were pretty misled once again, and even though we found clues at 143, 102, 125 and 126, we didn't really know the order in which he left them. The trail could have either been heading west or north, and we certainly didn't have a clue which was right.
On the 3rd night, Josh had a plan. Since it was the "double event" night and there would already be a lot of confusion surrounding where he was, he decided to make a one-move trail. The spots he chose were 21 and 84, and obviously, he committed the one at 84 second. Unfortunately for him, though, we got to move first, and one of the investigators moved to the square immediately north of 100. He could still get home in one move, and chose to do so, but it also gave away a lot more information that he meant to.
So, as we were heading into night 4, we assessed what we did know. Obviously, Jack's home was adjacent to either location 84 or location 21. There are 5 locations adjacent to 21 and 8 adjacent to 84. But, due to the placement of our investigators on night 3 (and the fact that Jack can't walk through us), only one of the spots adjacent to 84 was available, #99. So, our plan was to completely blocade 99 with two investigators (since there are only 2 points of access) and then to do our best to get in Jack's way if his home was actually near the other crime scene.
As it turned out, after 11 turns of shifting around and arresting strategic locations around the eastern spot, we arrested Jack in location 100, adjacent to his actual home (#99) but unable to get there due to our unyielding blockade. Josh was hoping that we would lose our resolve and send an investigator to help with the other spot, but we weren't even considering it.
Time: 130 minutes
Score: Investigators (Keith, Kenny & Norton) - Win (night 4); Jack (Josh) - Lose
Ratings: Keith 9.5, Kenny 9.5, Norton 10, Josh 9
Once again, we had an absolutely terrific time playing Letters from Whitechapel. We have more evidence that the game may be tilted in favor of the investigators, but we certainly didn't feel that way for most of the game. It came right down to the wire, and it was only through sound deductive reasoning, an insightful intuitive leap or two, and then stubborn resolve not to question our conclusions that we were able to pull off the win.
And, if you'll notice, I also decided to bump my rating of Letters from Whitechapel up to a 10. If you know me and how serious I take game ratings, you'll know this is a big deal. In fact, I only rate 3 other games (Pandemic, Puerto Rico, and The Princes of Florence) as 10's. But as we were talking about it afterwards, I couldn't get away from the fact that I just can't imagine what else I could really expect from the game. As Keith mentioned about himself as well, I have never in any play of the game noticed how long it was running. I'm always filled with excitement and tension, I always feel like I've been challenged by the other players, and most importantly, I always have a metric crap-ton of fun when I play.
So, not only has it climbed into my top 10 (as I thought when I redid my top 100 games recently), it's also now in my top 3 or 4 games of all time.
Other Games Played
Ascension
Time: 48 minutes
Score: Sean 73, Shawn 72, Alton 64, Chris 61, James K 55
Ratings: All 10's
Blue Moon City
Time: 30 minutes
Score: Chip 6, Alton 5
Ratings: Chip 9, Alton 10
Catacombs
Time: 138 minutes (with a significant delay in the middle)
Score: Heroes (Shayne, Josh, Keith & Chip) - Win; Catacomb Lord (Kenny) - Lose
Ratings: Keith 9, Chip 8.5, Kenny 9
Martian Dice
Time: ?? and 10 minutes
Game 1: Ken 27+, Keith 27, Shayne 12, James 10
Game 2: Shayne 25, Ken 19
Ratings: Ken 7.5, Keith 6, Shayne 8, James 7
Ninjato
Time: 73 minutes
Score: Chris 135, Sean 102, Alton* 83, Shawn* 59
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Sean 10, Alton 8, Shawn 7.5
Parade
Time: ??
Score: Chip 13, Keith 13, Ken 20, Shayne 55
Ratings: Chip 7, Keith 7, Ken 8.5, Shayne 5
Roll Through the Ages
Time: 25 and 17 minutes
Game 1: Ken 18, Alton 5, Shayne 3
Game 2: Chip 24, Alton 20
Ratings: Ken 8, Alton 7.5, Shayne 8, Chip 7
Unspeakable Words
Time: ??
Score: Ken - 1 win, Shayne - 1 win
Ratings: Ken 8, Shayne 6
* First play for that Person
Posted by Chris Norwood at 10/27/2011 3:46 PM 
Categories: Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Betrayal at House on the Hill Letters from Whitechapel Eminent Domain
Categories: Gaming Weblog, Hypermind BoardGamers
Tags: Betrayal at House on the Hill Letters from Whitechapel Eminent Domain
I think at the end I had four or five Research cards in my deck (not counting the development card that could generate two "bulbs" should I choose to use it as such), plus help from one of my planets. I distinctly remember being able to grab a 5-bulb development via following, which from what I could tell from my only play so far seems a little insane.
Sean was pretty much pure military. Shawn looked to be more balanced.
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Oh, and my streak of being the one responsible for triggering the Haunt continues. It's almost like that's my birthright or something.
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Sean did quite a bit of researching as well, if I remember correctly. Personally, I think I would have been better off to use my research cards to clear out old Colonize or other Research cards by the end of the game. I was so close to setting up a big Produce/Trade engine...
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