Season 3, Weeks 12, 13, 14, and 15: Cities, Citadels, and Wicked Hand Gestures.

I'm not Dead!!!

Sorry for not posting in a long time, but as a high school teacher and an adult, the holiday season can get pretty hectic, and some days when I could have been updating this blog, I chose instead to spend time with my family.  I also spent some time gaming, particularly delving into the world of H.P Lovecraft and the incredibly engaging game Mansions of Madness.  I'm not sure if I'm going to bring it in for the club to try out, as even a short scenario can last ninety minutes.  That said, it's a very fun game.

This update goes back a ways, covering the sessions for December and first session back for January.  Quite a few of the games are revisits of successful games from last season and earlier this year, although we did manage to break some new ground.

Week 12

Elder Sign

Last year I mentioned Elder Sign in some previous entries on this blog.  Here's what I had to say way back then:

Elder Sign (is) a great little cooperative game where each player takes on the role of a unique investigator with their own special abilities.  The investigators team up to explore a museum which is currently being invaded by the minions of an Elder God who are attempting to release an ancient evil upon the world.  The investigators fight monsters, search for relics, and open dimensional doorways by rolling special dice.  Like the other games mentioned, maintaining one's sanity is as important as keeping all of your organs in tact.  It's a fun game that still maintains the atmosphere of its larger cousins, but only taking an hour to play.  It also has an IOS version that plays nicely on the iPad (but not nearly as fun as playing with a group of people).

I decided that a return to Elder Sign would be a wise move, in that the club was attracting larger groups of players.  I'm a huge fan of the IOS Elder Sign, and it gives table top players a solid idea about how the mechanics work.  The issue we ran into is that although the game can accommodate larger groups of players, that doesn't mean it's a good idea to play with that many.  We had a group of seven, but in a one and a half hour to two hour session, an individual player isn't as invested in the experience as they would be in a three player game.  The crew won the game, but towards the end a few didn't care if they won or lost.

Between Two Cities and Pit

That was the Tuesday session.  For Friday's game day, I decided to grab a copy of Between Two Cities.  This is an incredibly smart and engaging game.  Between Two Cities is a semi co-operative drafting game, where tiles representing different building structures are passed around and drafted, similar to Sushi Go!.  The tiles are then used to build a 4x4 grid of buildings, such as parks, factories, offices, and houses.  Points are scored based on the relationship between these buildings.  What separates Between Two Cities from other tableau development games is that each player isn't building their own city; they're building two cities with partners.  Each player builds a city with the player to their left, and a second city with the player on their right.  This simultaneous engagement is a very clever idea.  There are no moments when a player is not actively considering their cities, especially since there are two other players counting on an individual to perform.  The scoring is rather interesting as well, in that a player's score is based on their lower of the two cities.  If this creates a tie, the breaker is the value of the players' highest cities.  This style of scoring forces players to carefully consider both cities, instead of placing their attention on one.  This was a very successful game, and we knew we would revisit it soon.

After Between Two Cities, a student introduced us to a game I had never played before, and was completely new to the entire group: Pit (also known as Trading Pit).  Pit is a set collecting game that mimics the trading floor of the stock exchange.  Players are dealt a hand of cards with a picture representing a commodity (cocoa, rice, cattle, etc).  Players attempt to collect nine copies of a particular commodity, and having a complete set scores points based on the value of the product.  A complete set of gold is worth more than rice for example.  Players swap and trade cards by grabbing 1-4 cards they don't want from their hands, and shouting the number of cards they are trading, but not what the cards actually are: "Two! Two! Two! Who needs two!?? I got three! Three! THREE!!!"  This trading happens simultaneously, so the game is a chaotic whirlwind of trading, yelling, and card management.  The set we were playing with had clearly taken a beating over time.  These cards get slapped down and thrown bout with reckless abandon, and yet with all of this chaos, it was a great deal of fun.  It's not for the player looking for quiet strategy or long, drawn out adventures, but it's easy to get swept up in the excitement of this rapid-fire set collecting.  I rather enjoyed the experience, the students had a great time, and the short burst of Pit was a nice contrast to Between Two Cities.

Week 13

Between Two Cities... again... and Star Fluxx

Once again we played Between Two Cities.  Once again, a person won, the same person who won on Friday.  She wins almost every game.  She's a brilliant strategist, and very clever.

After Between Two Cities, we had time for a few rounds of Star Fluxx.  I happen to be a big fan of Fluxx games, but I can see how they may not be for everyone.  I've had a single game of Fluxx last an hour, and some last one round and finish in about a minute.  If players are feeling silly and light-hearted, it's great fun.  If players want a seriously deep strategy game, Fluxx is definitely not for them.

For the uninitiated, Fluxx is a card game.  There are essentially three types of cards in Fluxx: Keepers which are items and characters, Goals which represent a combination of two Keepers the players need to win, and Rule Changes which can either be a spontaneous effect (like swap hands with another player) or lingering effects.  The core rules of the game are draw a card, play a card.  A lingering Rule Change might limit hand size, have everyone play two cards, everyone draw five cards, etc.  The fun...or problem... with Fluxx is that the rules and goals are constantly changing.  A player is never really at an advantage or disadvantage.  They may have four "excellent" Keepers in front of them, and are one card away from meeting their goal when, surprise, another players steals a Keeper, changes the Goal, and forces the player to swap seats with another.

Star Fluxx, like many of the Fluxx games, chooses to follow a specific theme.  In this case, Star Fluxx is dedicated to the science fiction genre, and the keepers and goals reflect Sci-Fi pop culture.  Fans of Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will find quite a bit to smile about in this game.  Some students enjoyed the game.  They got into the wacky spirit that was intended, however some players new to the Fluxx system found the whole thing frustrating.  One had cultivated a rather desirable set of Keepers, only to be forced to trade spots with another player, leaving all of their cards behind.  Personally, I like Fluxx.  It's a great light-weight filler.

Lost in R'lyeh and Rock, Paper, Wizard

Friday's session featured Lost in R'lyeh once again.  This is quickly becoming one of my favourite games.  It accommodates a large group of people, it's strategic, and yet really easy to pick up and play.  It's a great warm up or filler.

We also played Rock, Paper, Wizard.  RPW is unlike anything I've ever played before, or like something everyone has played before, depending on how you look at it.  The premise of the game is rather interesting; a group of wizards have just killed a dragon, and they are fighting over the dragon's hoard.  The game board is essentially a track with the pile of gold at one end (along with the corpse of said dragon), and the cave opening at the other.  The players cast spells at each other.  These spells can have a variety of effects; they can move opponents further away from the gold, move a wizard closer to the treasure, redirect spells, steal gold, and other interesting outcomes.  The spells, based on the Dungeons and Dragons IP, are cast through hand-gestures akin to Rock, Paper, Scissors.  Players simultaneously chant "Rock-Paper-Wizard!" while slapping a fist in their hands and making a gesture based on a series of cards in the center of the table.  These cards illustrate the hand gestures for the available spells that round.  Beginning with a first player, each spell takes effect in sequence with the player to the left.  This means the first player usually executes their desired spell, while each sequential player may have their spell redirected.

Rock, Paper, Wizard was an interesting experience, and the students enjoyed many aspects of it, but it did have some snags.  One's hand gestures have to be very clear.  We also found this game tended to encourage players to stand up, which is awkward at times.  There is also very little strategy.  Because spell redirection is so common, spells rarely land on the target you had originally token.  We found that we won each round almost accidentally. RPW is a neat and innovative filler, but it might be a while before it hits the table again.

Week 14

The following week we played Libertalia, Rumble in the Dungeon, and Junk Art.  There's not much to report.  We had fun, but we've played the games before, so there were no major surprises.

Week 15

Citadels 2016

I finally got my hands on this game.  After a session of Libertalia the previous week, Citadels was an easy game to play.  Citadels feels like a streamlined Libertalia, but instead of dubloons or treasure, players compete for city cards (which feel sort of like 7 Wonders), or coins.  In a given game there are only eight different roles (as opposed to the thirty in Libertalia), and everyone drafts cards from a common deck, so there are no ties when it comes to card effects.  Citadels 2016 is a definitive edition, in that it features many cards from previous expansions.  These multiple cards and potential set ups give this game a great deal of replayability.  The game comes loaded with suggested alternative set-ups based on the massive variety of cards.  This reminds me of Sushi Go: Party! and the multiple scenarios. 

We enjoyed the game, and once the club figured out the rhythm of the play style, it was easy to start building strategies.  It was great to play another engaging game that scales up to seven players.  Although we enjoyed the game, playing it so soon after Libertalia turned out to be a glass-half empty/full situation; easy to pick up and play, but so similar to Libertalia it didn't provide a vastly different feeling.  The students were preoccupied with the similarities and natural comparisons of the two titles.  In the future, I'll have to make sure there is some distance between the two titles.

Thanks for reading!  A new update is coming soon...no, seriously!

Appologies

Hey folks,

I'm not dead, I have not fallen into a hole, and unfortunately I was not abducted by aliens.

I've just been incredibly busy.  The life of a teacher is always busy, but with Final Exams, the new semester start-up, an Open House, and the fact that I started a second job teaching a night class for adults, my blogging has fallen behind.  The game club is still chugging away, and we tried some pretty neat titles.  Expect two posts quickly in the near future.  Each post will cover several weeks of gaming.  Expect our club's take on the following:

Citadels 2016
Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Rock, Paper, Wizard
Beyond Baker Street
Space Hulk: Death Angel Card Game
Mangaka: The Fast and Furious Game of Drawing Comics
Telestrations
Not Alone
Between Two Cities

... and more.

I appreciate your readership, and appologize for the lack of updates.  I'll talk to you all again SOON.

Season 3, Week 9, 10, and 11: Smash Up! Sushi! Skulls! Samurai! I ran out of "S" words!

Aaaaaand were back.  Here are the experiences from my Table Top Game Club from November 8th to the 25th.  It's going to be verbose!

Week 9

Smash Up

This week we tried our annual Smash Up Super Draft.  Since the last time we played Smash Up, we expanded the faction collection by adding the supplements It's All Your Fault (dragons, Greek mythology, superheroes, sharks, and tornadoes) and Cease and Desist (parody decks based on Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Transformers, and Star Trek).  This brought our total faction count to 34.  I made some handouts from a Smash Up wiki to give new players quick ideas about each deck.  We had seven players which allowed for two simultaneous games. 

After drawing names and allowing the students to pick, every student got the factions they wanted.  After the first round of games, some students went home.  This left us with four which allowed us to play another round.  I wanted to try Zombies and Ghosts, with both decks taking advantage of cards being played from the discard pile.  It was fun, but I lost both games.  One student won with Superheroes and Shape Shifters.  Copying his big heroes allowed him to bring in massive points in quick succession.  Another student tried Mythic Greeks and The Ignobles (the Game of Thrones parody deck).  The Ignobles had a steep learning curve.  Their technique of giving away minions only to take them back later takes finesse and experience with the game's mechanics.  The ultimate winner was the combination of Geeks and Dragons.  The student playing them figured out quickly how to use the dragons to spoil the bases, and she used the Geeks' rule-bending perfectly.  

 No gaming Friday due to the Remembrance Day holiday.

Week 10

Sushi Go: Party!

I never put too much weight behind Sushi Go!  Last year I treated it like a nice little filler, but with so many other drafting games out there, Susi Go! was off my radar.  When I saw Sushi Go: Party! on the shelf, I paid no attention.  I already had the base game, so I felt there was no need for another version.  Then two things happened: 1) I was overwhelmed by the dilemma of suddenly larger groups of players for my game club, and 2) Tom Vassal of Dice Tower fame released his list of the Top Ten Essential Games of all time (along with lists from Zee Garcia and Sam Healey).  At the top of Tom’s list was Sushi Go: Party!, so I decided to pick up a copy for the club.

I’m incredibly happy I picked it up.  At its heart, Sushi Go! is such a simple game with an easy concept to grasp; players draft cards, hunting for sets of certain types of sushi.  Sushi works like a suit, and points are awarded for matching up these suits into sets.  Some sushi scores at the end of the term, and others score at the end of the game.  Sushi Go: Party differs from predecessor by introducing new kinds of sushi and special cards, like spoons and sushi menus.  The game has several scenarios listed, so after players have tried one version of the game, a new scenario can be put together with new cards.  For a simple drafting game, the variety of the sushi cards keeps the game…pun in 3…2…1…fresh!  That’s right…just let that one linger for a bit…

The students loved Sushi Go: Party!  New players picked up on the rules almost immediately, and veterans were happy with the new variety of cards.  If things felt stale after a game or two, we swapped out cards and changed up the types of sushi.  It was a tremendous amount of fun, but we were finished our session early.  To fill the time, we played a brand new game for the club…Skull!

Skull

Skull is a neat little card game that was featured recently on Shut Up & Sit Down's YouTube channel.  Skull is a very simple bluffing game that can be made with a pack of cards or a stack of bar coasters.  Each player gets four round cards, three featuring flowers, one with a skull. The edition I found on Amazon featured artwork with an international flair.  One player gets a Japanese lotus with a samurai skull.  Another player's cards feature a viking skull with thistles.  Each player plays a card face down.  One by one players either add a card to their stack or make a bet.  Bets are based on how many cards they can flip (starting with their own), and not uncover a skull.  Each player can "raise", claiming they can flip over more flowers, or pass.  If the cards are flipped and the player does not uncover a skull, they score a point, and are halfway to a win.  If they turn over a skull, they get "bit", and lose one of their four cards, hindering their future chances.  The joy comes from making boasts about how many cards one can flip.  The bravado and daring is very enthralling.  Next comes the flipping of cards, which builds the tension nicely, particularly on big bets. Each flower means one step closer to success, but also one step closer to a potential skull.  It's a great dynamic, which leads either to one player cheering as they make their successful bet, or a round of jeers when the skull pops up.

The students loved this game, because everyone is on an even playing field.  There's a great deal of bluffing in the game, but unlike hidden role games like The Resistance or Avalon, this game is not language dependant.  The game is incredibly simple, but there are nuances and depth in the scheming and strategy.  Laying a skull down in front of your own spot and making a huge bet lays a nice trap, assuming someone will take the bait.  I have a feeling this game will make a return, as it's a great filler once a larger game is finished.

7 Wonders

Apparently I have been living under a rock; I've been a hobby gamer for two and a half years, and 7 Wonders has just recently hit my radar.  I've shunted the game out of my head for a while, due largely to another game.  Two years ago as I was building the collection for the game club, I was shown the game Among the Stars.  AtS was described as a "better version of 7 Wonders", but I didn't even know what 7 Wonders was to begin with, so knowing I supposedly had a "better" version kept 7W away from any attention.  However, with the larger turn-outs I've been having, I have been investigating games that play larger groups.  I've been looking for games with large player counts beyond party games, and through my investigation, 7 Wonders has emerged.  I picked up the game, along with the Leaders and Cities expansions respectively.  One of the members of my club was very familiar with the game (he has the 7 Wonders companion app on his phone for his home games), so I asked him to run our Friday session.  

It was tremendously fun, and I was impressed with the blend of nuance and simplicity.  7 Wonders is a card drafting game that combines elements of set collection (as seem in games like Splendor), the card drafting of Sushi Go!, and the historic nod to the ancient world as seen in Sid Meier's Civilization.  It was good to have a few experienced players for the session, because the icons and goals take some adjustment.  We did not play with the expansions, as half of the group were inexperienced players.  The scoring app helped keep everything organised, and I downloaded it later that evening.  This is a game I definitely want to play again, once I am more familiar with the rules and set up.  I'm glad it hit my radar, and I think it's a strong addition to the club.

Friday's session ended with a few rounds of Skull.  I knew this game was going to be a hit. 

Week 11

Coup

It wasn't that long ago that the club played Coup.  The large player count made it a solid choice for this week's session.  Almost every player was an experienced Coup fan from last year, so it was a fun session.  Like visiting an old friend, Coup was provided great opportunity for bluffing and strategy, and speed of the game allowed for multiple games in our two hour session.  There's not much more to report; the students had fun, and that's the goal of the club.

Samurai Spirit

Once again, Shut Up & Sit Down's YouTube channel drew my attention to a game I had not considered.  Once I learned the premise of Samurai Spirit, I ran out immediately and grabbed the game.  Based on the story of The Seven Samurai, the game has the players take on the role of a group of samurai defending a village from a band of raiders.  Players are given a samurai character designed to hold off a certain amount of bandits while defending the village, represented by a small board with tokens representing barricades, farms, and families.  Not only does each samurai have a unique ability, players can temporarily loan their ability to another player.  This gives players a chance to work as a team, devising the best strategies to deal with the waves of attackers.  Each game is played over three rounds, and each round stronger raiders are added to the waves of attackers.  To deal with the increased difficulty, each samurai has an animal spirit they invoke when they are seriously wounded.  It has an almost Incredible Hulk like feeling when you opt to take a wound knowing you can flip over your player card and release your animal side.  It's wonderfully thematic!

Samurai Spirit has several qualities that made it a must have for the club.  It has a large player count (7), is cooperative, and does not take too much time to play.  We had a massive seven player turn-out, and we picked up on the rules very quickly.  It's a game that tends to lean towards Alpha-gaming or "quarter-backing", but with so many players we did not have a single person dominate the table.  Unfortunately, we lost the game.  Like so many other cooperative games, there was one way to win, and several ways to lose.  Either way, it was tremendously fun, and I hope it hits the table again very soon.

For the third time in two weeks, we finished the session with a couple rounds of Skull.  

Thanks for reading folks.  In the next couple weeks, I'll post my top five picks for the holiday, as well as give a special report of how I've incorporated board games into my Creative Writing class.  Talk to you all real soon.

Season 3, Week 6, 7, and 8: Shadows! Trains! Small Worlds! Betrayal! Deception!

Week 6

Shadow Hunters

One of my first blog entries was a rather political piece about elements of racism in the card game (and dice chucking spin-off)Bang!  The issue I had was the representation of Aboriginal people, and the idea that they are a faceless savage hazard without character.  In a high school setting I have to be careful how we present issues associated with race and gender.  For this reason I don’t include Bang! in our repertoire of games, nor would I ever introduce the expansion for Flick ‘em Up called Red Rock Tomahawk, even though the original FeU is one of my favourite titles.  The problem with removing games due to their content is that you sometimes exclude games that are quite fun and engaging, so I was disappointed that Bang! was not something my group would enjoy... but then I met Shadow Hunters.

Shadow Hunters does exactly what Bang! sets out to do: hidden roles, deception, unique win conditions, and over the top wacky violence.  SH also features an intriguing looking board, four and six sided dice, wooden pieces, and some interesting cards.  Players secretly dealt cards indicating their role, Shadow (a creature of darkness), Hunters (warriors who fight the Shadows), and Neutrals (characters who are independent).  The Shadows win if they kill off the Hunters or the Neutrals, Hunters win if they kill of the Shadows, and each Neutral has a specific win condition for that character.  Roles are hidden at the start of the game, but an interesting mechanic called Hermit cards allows players to receive clues about the identities of their fellow gamers.  Players can attack each other, use special weapons or equipment, and attempt to heal themselves and teammates.  Once a player reveals their character, they often trigger special abilities as well.

The students loved this game, and even though SH features player elimination, it did not detract from the experience.  The few times players were eliminated they were eagerly waiting to see who won, especially if it was someone from their own team.  Interestingly enough, both games were won by Neutral characters, who managed to remain quiet and unassuming during each fray.  I think the best part was watching alliances form and crumble within minutes as each other as identities were revealed.  Both games were fun, and I think Shadow Hunters will hit the tables again.

My only major gripe with the game is the card art.  Prior to playing the game, I pulled a few cards and set them aside due to the presentation of women.  Agnes and Allie in particular are an issue, and the character Fuka appears to be dressed in some kind of fetish/nurse wear.  It is very representative of a certain Manga style, but similar to our experience with Blood Rage, I’m just not happy with having to discuss sexism and the presentation of women, especially when half of my club, including staff supervisors, are female.  It’s an easy issue to fix however, no one was the wiser, and the game-play didn’t suffer at all.

Week 7

Ticket to Ride, Small World, Small World: Underground

I decided this week to bust out two of the classics, Ticket to Ride and Small World.  Both game days were well attended.  There’s no need to review how the games are played.  I’ve covered them before, and most gamers are well versed in the two titles.  The students really enjoyed these games, TTR being the more casual of the two.  Tuesday’s session was well attended, and Friday’s session brought in even more students.  One group played Small World: Underground once they were familiar with the base game.

Small World: Underground, for those unfamiliar with the game, is a stand-alone sequel to Small World.  The core concepts are still there, but the game adds some interesting twists.  The “Lost Tribes” are gone, replaced by monsters.  Players can also get unique treasures or score unique locations that grant abilities.  The board is much more claustrophobic, and there are new hazards as well.  Luckily, one of the players is a huge fan of the game, and plays it frequently outside of the school’s club.  He talked the new players through the game, and even though he played as well, a new player won the game.  I find it incredibly rewarding when a student steps up to teach a game.  It lets me step back and be a player instead of a coach.

There’s not much more to report as each session went like clockwork.  People had fun, and playing these titles was like visiting old friends.

Week 8

Betrayal at House on the Hill/Widow’s Walk

Halloween week called for our annual tradition: Betrayal atHouse on the Hill.  The more I play Betrayal, the more an appropriate metaphor for the game begins to coalesce in my brain.  Betrayal is like walking into a massive smorgasbord/buffet restaurant.  At first, you’re amazed at the huge variety of food: pizza, sushi, salmon, Vietnamese spring rolls, Caesar salad, jello, etc, etc, etc.  It’s all immediately impressive, and your mind reels in delight at the sheer number of options… and then… you eat the food.  No one item is particularly amazing.  They range from decent to awful, but you know you might be back because there was no way you could have tried everything on your first visit.  In a nutshell, that’s Betrayal at House on the Hill.  Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s pretty rough.  There are other horror games that hit the mark in a stronger manner (Mansions of Madness, Fury of Dracula, Zombicide, Shadow Hunters), but Betrayal’s appeal comes from variety and never being sure which direction the game will go.  It’s like the buffet restaurant, only you’re served a random plate of food…enjoy!

For Tuesday’s session, I included all of the cards and tiles from the first expansion for Betrayal called Widow’s Walk, which adds new cards, new tiles, new haunt scenarios, and a fourth floor to the house.  The instructions for Widow’s Walk advocates simply incorporating the new tiles and cards into the game, and letting things play out.

Here is where I made a colossal error; I played the wrong "haunt".  We interpreted the chart incorrectly, and as a result, ran with the scenario called "Tentacled Horror".  As a fan of HP Lovecraft and all things Cthulhu, I was happy to oblige being the traitor.  Unfortunately, because we were playing the wrong scenario, the key item the players needed was buried so deep in the Omen stack that they would never draw it out.  They lost, but because we miss-read the Haunt chart.  Yikes... 

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, and chess converts become board-gamers

For Friday’s session, I decided to run a new game I picked up just the day before, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.  Deception mixes together the best parts of The Resistance, Clue, and Codenames into one easy to play and tense game.  It plays up to twelve people, and can be played multiple times in a session.  The game begins with players being assigned a role.  Most roles are hidden, and some are not used if the player count is too low.  The player who draws the Forensic Scientist essentially runs the show.  The rest of the roles remain hidden until the end.  Players can be Investigators, The Murderer, an Accomplice, or the Witness (the last two roles are optional). Once the Forensic Scientist has revealed their role, the rest of the players receive eight cards, four representing key pieces of evidence, four representing murder weapons.  Everyone closes their eyes except the Forensic Scientist.  The Murderer (and Accomplice if applicable), opens their eyes and points to one of their weapons and one piece of evidence.  If the Witness is in play, the Witness gets to learn the identities of the Murderer and Accomplice, but not which is which.  Once everyone opens their eyes, the fun begins.

The Forensic Scientist tries to get the Investigators to accurately deduce the murder weapon and key piece of evidence.  To do this, the Scientist places bullet tokens on cards that represent the condition of the corpse, cause of death, location, occupations, clothing, etc.  The Investigators begin building a scenario based on the clues, and take three rounds attempting to solve the murder.  The Murderer and Accomplice try to steer suspicion away from the Murderer, while the Witness tries to steer it back in their direction.  If no one successfully identifies the murder weapon and evidence, the Murderer and Accomplice win.  If the Investigators deduce the weapon and evidence, the Investigators and Forensic Scientist win.  The Murderer and Accomplice can steal the win if they can identify the Witness.

This game was very well received.  One thing I found interesting is that most bluffing/hidden role games do not favour EAL students (English as an Additional Language).  Because students struggle with the language, it’s difficult to master the art of bluffing and subtlety.  That’s not the case with Deception.  I think because of the iconic nature of the clues, and the fact that each player is given designated time to present their ideas uninterrupted.  There’s still time to debate the facts and theories, but the playing field is quite level.  Part of the joy is trying to figure out how these strange murders went down, based on the evidence.  How could a victim be poisoned by radiation, but leaving behind a mosquito as key evidence?  In a game as deeply morbid as deception, there’s plenty of room for laughter.

For the last few weeks, Friday sessions have had some extra visitors: chess players.  Every noon hour chess players descend on our library, and there are usually five or six games going at once.  A small, dedicated group like to play after school, but with the library closed by 4:00 on Fridays, the chess players have hung out in my room playing chess while we’ve run our board game sessions.  My fellow staff advisor decided to pitch a board game to the chess crew.  Once again, Ticket to Ride hit the table.  The chess crew really enjoyed the game.  After all, both games are about area control.  They might return to exchange their pawns and queens for meeples and dice.  We’ll wait and see.

Another verbose post.  Thanks to all of you for the positive feedback and readership.

Next week, it’s our annual Smash Up superdraft!

Season 3, Week 3, 4 and 5: Five Tribes, Codenames: Pictures, Camel Up!, Cosmic Encounter, Flick 'em Up!, Ra, and Lost in R'lyeh

This report will cover two and a half weeks of gaming.  The work of a teacher is never done (except in Summer), so my game reports have been a bit delayed.  My apologies.   And now....

Week 3: Five Tribes, Codenames: Pictures, and Camel Up! 

The original plan for Tuesday’s session was Camel Up, and Codenames: Pictures.  Our club attendance has been huge lately, so in anticipation of a large number, I had the Library Tech learn the rules for Codenames: Pictures and I was ready to run Camel Up.  Both games can accommodate large numbers, so if a swarm of players arrived, we would be prepared.  We had one person.

Perhaps it was a break in the weather, the pressures of school, or just an anomaly, but we only had one person show up (who also happens to be our most dedicated player).  I decided then that if our number was going to be small (one student, two staff), it was time to break out a four player game, one of my favourites… Five Tribes. 

Due to the large numbers we’ve been pulling in lately, games that max out their player count at four are just not on my radar.  The games I’ve been buying lately (Valeria: Card Kingdoms, Hokaido, Shadow Hunters) have been specifically because they can accommodate at least five people.  However, our small number let me revisit FiveTribes, a wonderful game combing elements of set collecting, auctioning, and a movement style on par with Chess.

Five Tribes is a difficult game to describe.  It’s a Euro style game played on a board of thirty randomly placed tiles.  Each tile is home to three randomly distributed meeples of five different colours: red, blue, white, green, and yellow.  These meeples are the primary source of power and resources.  Each turn, a player grabs all the meeples from one tile.  The player drops a meeple on sequential tiles.  When the last meeple is dropped, the player picks up all of the meeples of that colour.  Depending on the colour, different events or abilities are triggered.  Green meeples allow players to grabs sets of resource cards, red meeples are assassins, white are used to summon dijins, etc.  This mechanic for acquiring sets of meeples is clever, and one has to plan their moves carefully.  Seeing viable moves in order to grab certain colours takes on a strategy similar to chess.  It’s fun, challenging, but also susceptible to AP (analysis paralysis).  There are several features to the game that allow people to try different strategies.  Players can make a grab for territory, win through acquiring sets of resource cards, or win through powers granted by dijins.  Five Tribes has an intimidating amount of crunch and set-up.  Once the game starts, players grasp easily the core concepts, and it plays fairly smoothly. 

We had a great time.  The start of the session was a little janky as I had to remember and look up a couple key rules, Once we got the rules clear, we quickly got into the groove of the game.  It was competitive, and no one lost by too many points.  I'm definitely going to bring this out again in the next few months.

Friday had a decent turn-out of our regular players.  This gave us the opportunity to play Camel Up! And Code Names: Pictures.  The club has played Camel Up! before.  Here is what I said last year about the game:

The game actually has you playing as the spectators, playing bets on first camel, last camel, placing obstacles on the track, and advancing the race through rolling dice.  The dice are rolled via a pyramid you construct before you play.  Dice are dropped into the pyramid, and a neat locking mechanic allows one die to be released at random, changing the position of the camels.  When two or more camels occupy the same space, they stack up, with the "lead" camel being the camel on top of the stack. 

             

One criticism of the game is that it lacks any strategy, and the game is too random.  I found it to have plenty of strategy, especially when you're deciding whether or not to roll the dice.  Advancing the race grants you money, but also lets your opponents get a clearer picture of who is in the lead, and having the jump on your fellow players matters when it comes to betting.

We had a six player session of Camel Up!, and the new players really got into the experience.  One player did her best to convince other to refrain from rolling the dice so she could make all of her bets and desired plays.  This strategy of attempting to make the game last as long as possible worked in her favour as she scratched out the win. 

Next came Codenames: Pictures.  A few members of the group were familiar with the original Codenames.  Here is what I had to say last year about the original:

The game is incredibly simple to play, but it's also a game that rewards creative thinking and risk taking.  Players are divided into teams, and each team has a "codemaster".  Looking at a five by five grid of cards, (each card featuring a word) each codemaster tries to encourage their team into guessing certain cards representing operatives, all the while avoiding innocent bystanders and an assassin.We had fun, but there were some frustrating moments.  I accidentally nailed a perfect clue to scoop up two cards, but I mixed up the colours and scored two for my opponents.  "Table talk" on behalf of the Codemasters is forbidden, but the cross talk of the teams can steer the game into a particular direction that some might find manipulative and cheating.  Should players use the sand-timer that's included, and if so, how? The game was also a great challenge for our EAL student (English as Additional Language).  If you read my previous post I mentioned the challenge of the player I called "C" had with The Resistance when English is not her first language.  Codenames was educational, helped expand her vocabulary, but also put up some roadblocks in terms of her enjoyment.  It's a game that helps if you understand synonyms really well, which also happens to be a challenge for EAL speakers.

Codenames: Pictures Makes two changes to the original: the grid is five by four, and instead of words, the game uses pictures.  The pictures are not just public domain clip art; they are semi-surreal black and white pictures that contain a couple interesting ideas blended together.  A Volkswagen bug is both a car and an actual bug, for example.
 
For our EAL students, including the aforementioned “C”, the pictures came as a great relief.  Her English has improved tremendously over the last year, but the pictures put everyone on a more even playing-field.  It’s challenging, fun, and games turn over faster than the original due to the smaller grid.  The game can be combined with the original to add to the challenge.  One variation I might try is to use Dixit cards with Codenames: Pictures’ rules.  It might be interesting, but I might be biting off more than I can chew.

Week 4: Cosmic Encounter

This was a short week due to a teacher conference, so our Friday session was cancelled.  Tuesday's session, with its large turn-out, was a perfect excuse to break out one of my favourites: Cosmic Encounter.

As with the previous titles, this is a game many in the club have played.  I reported about it previously like so:
If you're an experienced game enthusiast, then Cosmic Encounter is on your proverbial radar. For the few of you who are not familiar with the game, Cosmic Encounter is a negotiation game of galactic conquest. The game plays up to five people out of the box, but I picked up two expansions that allow the game to accommodate seven players (more expansions are available and are quite pricey, but the game can be expanded up to eight). The game has some wonderful components. Each player gets five planets representing their home-worlds, and twenty plastic spaceships representing their armada and colonies. The ships are 50's inspired flying saucers that also stack like poker chips. That's a good analogy for how they are played; they're used by each player to represent an invasion force or defence, but since every encounter is a gamble, the poker chip feel is appropriate.

Each player in turn flips a card from a deck called the Destiny deck. This deck directs each player's target for conquest. Once a player has declared they are invading another player's territory, the attacker and defender lay down cards from their hands. The cards played will result in either a one sided victory, or negotiation for shared territory. As a result, due to the possible terms of the negotiations, multiple people can tie for first place. Attackers and defenders can also ask for help from the other players, making for some strategic alliances.

Even though the negotiation vs conquest mechanic is entertaining as is, the real draw of Cosmic Encounter is the massive selection of alien races included in the game. Each player selects an alien race that gives them an interesting power. These powers allow for bending the rules and give the game a massive amount of strategy and replay-ability. The game can easily be scaled down for a beginner gamers, or can be made quite complex for experienced gamers by adding optional decks of cards. We played several games of Cosmic Encounter this week, and I found it quite easy to teach. The core mechanics are simple to grasp, and the cards and alien races are labelled to allow for easily pulling out the more complex elements of the game.
This time, we experienced a new problem.  I had seven players, and fortunately had the necessary expansions for a massive seven player cosmic showdown.  The problem was that after an hour, a few players started to drop out.  Although I regularly stay for two hours, many of the players just couldn't stay past an hour and ten minutes or so.  When the game was completed, the original seven was down to a game of four, and two players negotiated a tie.  I still have high hopes for this game, but I have to find the sweet spot when it comes to the right mix of players and their commitment.  I'll try this game again in the Spring.

Week 5: Flick ‘em Up, Lost in R'lyeh, and Ra

In anticipation of another huge turn-out, on Tuesday I cracked open a game I knew could accommodate a large group of players, Flick ‘em Up!  F'eU is the great equalizer; regardless of strategy, reading ability, or capacity for Machiavellian scheming, none of it matters if you can’t flick a small wooden disk.  We played the game last year with great success.  At its heart, Flick ‘em Up is a hybrid of the flicking of crokinole and a miniature skirmish game, sort of like Imperial Assault.  Players are set in two teams, the Lawmen and the Outlaws.  Scenery and obstacles are placed on the table according to the parameters set in a book of scenarios.  The opening scenario is a simple shoot-out, while others have each side attempting to accomplish specific goals, like poisoning a water supply or rescuing a kidnapped victim.  Movement and the shooting of opponents are done by flicking small disks across a smooth table.  My classroom is perfect for the game.  The tables are the right size, and players can circle the “board” whenever the need.  We played through the opening scenario, with a win for the Law.  Our Outlaw team did more overall damage, but the Law claimed more confirmed kills.  Sometimes a bad flick leads to frustration, but the overall silliness and comradery of the game keeps the laughter going.  This is a game designed to inspire high-fives.

With Flick ‘em Up taking just over an hour, and a few players leaving early, it gave the remaining six of us a chance to play a little game that I think will eventually become a classic: Lost in R’lyeh.  Based on H.P Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu”, Lost in R’lyeh is an intriguing card game that attempts to capture a sense of madness, frustration, and desperate desire for freedom in a clever, elegant card game.  The cards are tarot sized cards, a much more comfortable option than standard or miniature cards.  There are two types of cards: horror cards that have a number or “horror-rating”, and event cards that trigger special abilities or change certain game conditions.  Players try to escape from R’lyeh by playing all of the cards in their hand, and eventually play cards that have been laid out in front of them at the start of the game.  Once these escape cards have been played, that player successfully escaped from R’lyeh.  Play continues until one player is left in the lost city.  In a rare twist, LiR is a game with no winners, just one loser.  The core of the game is like any game where players follow a suit, only in this case there are ten suits (the number on the horror cards).  Event cards can change suits, lock out certain players, or give the entire discard pile to a player to add to their hand, and delay their escape.

We really enjoyed the game.  It’s simple to play, but there are some clever little twists.  Playing multiples of a certain card triggers interesting powers and abilities, and the students picked up on the patterns and strategies.  The metaphorical stepping over other players in order to escape inspired some fun, spirited rivalries.  As a fan of HP Lovecraft’s work (I covered the topic in a previous blog), I love that the cards make reference to plot points from the short story.  This was a game we played later in the week as well.  It’s a great, simple filler that can accommodate six players.  It was also relatively inexpensive, so it’s a great buy.

I was ready to run Flick ‘em Up once more, perhaps trying a different scenario.  A low turn-out, five students, gave me a chance to try a new game in our collection: Ra.

Ra is a classy, elegant looking game, but is really a tense auction built around set-collection.  Ra comes with great components, including a massive amount of tiles and a small statue of the sun god himself.  Players take turns drawing tiles from a cloth bag, placing them on an auction track, and deciding whether or not to bid on these items or wait for something better.  In an interesting twist, I think what makes Ra so clever is how players bid.  Rather than use money, players are given three discs, each with a different value.  When a player makes a bid, they use a disc.  However, the winning disc they used becomes part of the prize in the following auction.  An immediate win for one player might turn into a long term benefit for another.  The students loved this game. Once they understood the scoring, players quickly figured out which strategy and sets they’re going to collect.  My only complaint with Ra is the images.  The current printing of Ra comes courtesy of Windrider Games.  The imagery is classical Egyptian, and the illustrations reflect the standard iconography of the region.  In an attempt to look authentic and capture the aesthetic of the ancient archaeology, Ra’s imagery if a little hard to decipher.  The tiles are small, and with five players huddled around a board, sometimes it’s difficult to make out the images.  The differences in the images are sometime subtle, so some clarification is needed from time to time to see if a tile is going to help finish a set, or if it’s a double of something one might already have.  However, that is nitpicking; Ra is a very fun game, and I suspect the student will want to play it again.  With time left after the game, we returned to Lost in R’lyeh to finish the day.

Wow…sorry for the verbose post folks.  The demands of the job got in the way of my reporting, but I plan on posting another update soon.  Next week, Shadow Hunters, Ticket to Ride, Small World, and Betrayal at House on the Hill!

Season 3, Week 2: Formula D, Splendor, and Junk Art!

The second week of the Table Top Game Club brought in large numbers once again.  I’ve decided that for the foreseeable future, featuring two games (one for larger groups and one for four or less) should be able to accommodate the turn-out of enthusiastic gamers.  This week we featured Splendor and Formula D.

Last year, we played Formula D in Week 27.  Here is what I wrote then:

 In anticipation of the bigger group, we were ready with another game featured on Table Top, Formula D, a racing game for up to ten players.  Formula D is a wonderfully tactile game, with tiny model cars and personal dashboards complete with moving stick shifts.  The game uses a very clever technique for movement.  Although it looks like a simple roll-and-move mechanic, different gears are represented by different polyhedral dice (fans of Dungeons & Dragons will recognize these right away).  The lowest gear represented by a d4 and the highest represented by a d30.  As players shift up and down in gears they get to roll different dice.  The dice are also numbered specifically to represent a range of numbers.  For example, unlike a typical d6 that is numbered 1-6, the d6 representing second gear is numbered 2-4 (2,3,3,4,4,4).  That way gearing up to higher levels guarantees a decent amount of movement (you’ll never roll a one on a d20 for example; its range is 11-20).  This simulates the anticipation and excitement of being able to open up the engines on straightaways, but as the saying goes, “speed kills”.  Turns on the track are dangerous.  Players must stop a prescribed amount of times at each turn, for overshooting a turn causes stress and damage on the vehicle.  In a one lap race there is no pit stop, so there is a great sense of risk and reward.  Open up the engines into a higher gear to speed ahead, or play it safe and let your opponents flame out before the finish line.

This week, the game was enthusiastically enjoyed by the players, especially our German exchange students.  A couple of the German students knew of the game from before.  Formula D has been a staple of European gaming since the 1990s.  There is something exciting about playing the game with a group of enthusiastic students from another country.  It seems fitting that a game about Formula 1 racing in Monaco inspires excited table talk in a variety of languages, giving our race a real international flair.  In the end team Germany finished 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd, with team Canada trailing behind.  Alas, but it was still a very fun session.

The other table had three students and our library-tech play a few games of Splendor.  I love Splendor.  I find the game scratches a similar itch as Ticket to Ride, and considering they both involve set collection, the comparison makes sense.  Splendor, like Ticket to Ride, is also a wonderfully tactile game.  The goal of splendor is to purchase sets of cards, each card featuring a gem (red, green, white, blue, and black).  To purchase the necessary cards, players collect gem tokens that are printed on colourful poker chips.  The poker chips have great “heft”.  They are solid, weighty, and since they must be organized quickly, they are also stackable.  Through purchasing certain gem cards, the players earn “prestige” which are the victory points of the game.  The early rounds of the game are very relaxed, but as the collections get bigger and the prestige points are awarded, the tension begins to mount.  It’s fun, challenging, and also plays relatively quickly, so multiple games can be accomplished in our two hour session.  The students really enjoyed it, and a couple had played it the year previous, so they jumped at the chance to replay an old favourite.

I knew Friday’s session would be sparsely attended due to a massive field trip for music students, so I took the opportunity to test a new game. There was six of us, so we decided to try JunkArt.  The game is a fascinating experience that is simple in its design, but very engaging in execution.  Junk Art comes with a massive selection of wooden blocks.  There are sixty blocks in all, fifteen shapes in four colours.  The shapes are designed to be stacked, but only if you have skilled hands.  These aren’t Jenga blocks or Lego.  Some look like tiny flowerpots, others like miniature barbells, etc.  The game comes with a deck of cards representing the pieces, and a second deck representing a number of cities.  Each city card features a set of specific rules for that round.  A typical game consists of three rounds, or three city cards drawn at random.  This is a clever mechanic to increase replayability.  The core mechanic of the game is to stack blocks and build sculptures on a small wooden base.  One round might have players draft cards and use corresponding pieces to create a sculpture.  Another round will have all the players building a common sculpture, eliminating one another through fallen pieces.  A great variant has the players start a sculpture, and then switch places to continue building on someone else’s work. 

It’s a fun game with the right players.  That’s the tricky part.  This is not a good game for players who fidget or are hyper-active.  Touching the table or fiddling with the pieces often results in toppled sculptures.  We had a couple instances of players losing in frustration and then tossing their pieces back into the pile, only to have them ricochet into another sculpture.  However, if everyone can keep their wits and energy in check, it’s a clever, fun, and engaging game.

Thanks for reading folks!  See you next week for our club's coverage of Five Tribes, Camel Up, and Codenames: Pictures.

SEASON 3, Week 1: The Return!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand we're back.

Hey folks!  It's been a while, but I have returned to update the blog.  Now that Summer is over, the school year has been underway for three weeks.  I held off restarting the club until we had our first full week of class.  Holding off on our first session allowed me to get my courses ready, but also allowed me to do a little advertising for the club.

This is the third year in a row I've been running the Table Top Game Club, so I'm going to call it Season 3.  If you're reading this and you want to review how my first and second seasons started, you can check out the Board Game Geek forum here for Season 1 and the start of Season 2, and look at this blog's archives for most of Season 2.

Season 3 brought some interesting challenges and changes.  Going into this season, we knew we lost only one or two grade 12s due to graduation.  A couple members from last year moved away, so I wasn't sure what the turnout would be like.  We also lost a staff advisor who is taking a year off to travel.  If our weekly turnout is large, I would need another staff advisor to teach games and oversee the operation of the club when I can't make it. 

In the first two weeks of class, word started to get around that the club was returning.  New grade 9s started asking me about when the club starts, and I realized that I may have an overwhelming number of players for just one advisor.  I also knew that the first couple of games we feature should be playable by larger numbers.  Lucky for me, an additional advisor arrived, courtesy of a retirement from last year.  Our previous library technician retired, which meant we had to bring in a new staff member.  As it turns out, our new library tech is a huge fan of board games, and offered to help out with the club.  Thank goodness, because the turnout for the club was big this week.  Luckily, we were ready; we featured King of Tokyo and Diamonds.

I'm not going to go into the specific details behind King of Tokyo.  Next to Catan and Ticket to Ride, King of Tokyo might be the most recognisable title in the gaming community.  I chose it because it has instant "wow-factor" (standees, big fun dice, monsters), it's a very easy game to play, and it plays six players.  The students who played were really into it, and I know when a game works when afterwards they're still talking about the game, and strategies for "next time".  I don't think I've ever encountered a player who hates King of Tokyo, and I'm eager to try the expansion King of New York: Power Up.  This expansion will add Evolution Cards to the KONY monsters, and allow them to be played in KOT!  I can't wait to show the club.

Diamonds is a fantastic trick-taking card game that has a nice twist on the suits and taking tricks.  Diamonds comes with a deck of sixty cards in the classic four suits (although there are no face cards).  The centrepiece of the game is the collection of gems, a nice pile of "diamonds" and "rubies" (five diamonds = one ruby).  Diamonds also comes with six cardboard standees called "vaults".  Each player has a vault that acts like a miniature shield, sort of like a tiny GM screen.  While playing and taking tricks, players either score points by grabbing diamonds from the pile, stealing diamonds from other players, or securing diamonds into their vault.  The game-play is elegant, easy to learn, and wonderfully tactile. For added flair, I purchased a large piece of black velvet for the gems to sit on, making them look like a display in a jewellery store, adding to the theme of the game.  Students like this game, as classic card games like Hearts and Kaiser are big in Saskatchewan.  The crew felt at home with the mechanics, and the diamond scoring system is brilliant.

Friday's open gaming session brought three surprises:

1. Germans!!!  This year, a number of students, veterans of the club, signed up to be partnered with German exchange students.  They brought the German students to the club, and big surprise....the students from the country that brought us Essen Spiel and the board game renaissance we are experiencing today LOVE board games.  Their enthusiasm, energy, and overall joy towards the games is an exciting addition to the club.

2. Citadels.  I know nothing about the game.  I don't own it nor have I ever played it.  I have heard positive rumblings about the 2016 edition due out later this year, so it is on my radar.  However, our library tech owns the game and offered to bring it to the club.  This is great, in that it allowed us to split the turnout into two groups, and she knows her game like the back of her hand.  An extra expert makes a game session smoother, and students can seamlessly move from one game to the next.  It also allowed me to focus on surprise #3....

3. Spyfall.  This game came to my attention this summer when I started listen to the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast. I picked it up because the podcast discussed game sessions they've had with the game, and that it accommodates up to eight players.  The rules are incredibly easy to learn, and it can expand from a single eight minute round to a longer session effectively.  Players can drop in and out to try the game once an eight minute round is over.

The game play is fairly easy to learn; the dealer hand out cards from one of thirty small deck.  Each deck features a location and occupations found in that location.  For example, the Hotel deck features occupations like a maid, a security guard, a guest, etc.  One card in each deck just says "SPY".  Players can look at their cards to reveal the location and their specific occupation, but their cards are hidden from everyone else.  The goal of the players with the location is to find the spy.  To do this they must ask each other subtle questions that only someone in that location would answer.  Say you are at the theatre, you might ask "So...Mike...How do you like your seat?"  Mike could respond, "It's great...and considering what I paid for it, it should be!"  Based on Mike's answer, you have a decent idea that Mike knows you two are at the theatre.  The spy, who has been listening to this exchange, might think the group is at the theatre...or...an airplane?...a train?  The group wins if they can identify the spy, usually because they answer or ask a question one would not make at a given location. For example, if the group is in a submarine, why would someone complain about the rude customers?  That person is definitely a spy!  The spy wins if they can guess their location based on people's questions and answers, or if no one is able to identify the spy by the end of the round.

We loved this game.  It was a great game in learning the art of subtlety.  The students had to really think about their words, and there were quite a few moments of a player (me mostly) stopping the clock, revealing they are the spy, and declaring with great confidence and swagger "I'm the spy, and we're at the circus!", only to have the students flip over their cards and raucously reveal that in fact we're at a corporate party.  It was tremendous fun, and a great exercise for our EAL students.

It's good to be back.  I bought a few new games for the club over the summer, and I can't wait for them to hit the table.  I'll do my best to keep up with the blog and weekly or bi-weekly reporting.

Thanks for reading!