The Gathering – Saturday Report

Shelley’s here (less time to blog), games played again, somenew stuff to try….

Shelley arrived Thursday night, so blogging hasn’t happenedas much.  That said, I’m getting abit burnt out on games, so breaks are needed.

We headed to Jeni’s to try the other gourmet place inColumbus and enjoyed some more good treats – Chocolate with cinnamon andcayenne pepper, along with Bourbon Butter Pecan.  Worth the trip.

On to the games:

(Repeats first)

Aquaretto:

I’ve enjoyed my subsequent playings of this one more than myfirst playing, and have now tried it with 3, 4 & 5.  Each number plays a bit differently,but I’m happier with this version of the game over Zooloretto primarily becausethe money comes into play MUCH more often.  Since you’re getting a coin every time you create a multipleof 3 of an animal type, you just get more $$ and therefore there’s moreinteraction between player boards (a good thing, IMO).  I also like the addition of the workers(received when you get multiples of 5 of an animal type).  They give you options for bonuses whichthen give you paths to follow for tile acquisition.

Hanging Gardens:

Meh…It’s fine, but just doesn’t do much for me.  Earl compared it to Alhambra, which Ican see to some extent, though I’d probably play Alhambra with 3 before gettingthis out again – and I haven’t played Alhambra in a couple of years.  Shel’s not good with the spatialarrangement of the cards, so she didn’t like it AT ALL.

Metropolys:

This one continues to be a maybe for me as well.  I like that it plays quickly and thebidding mechanism works nicely.  Ijust think that the secret bonus cards are wildly different in terms of whetherthey can be achieved or not and that can sour one on the game.

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries:

I definitely like this one, especially now that we’ve hadclarification that Alan Moon himself was teaching us the game wrong.  You DO use the double routes in a3-player game.  Shelley did quitewell at this one, but Lincoln and I were actually more in the running than shethought, since she was able to complete 8 SHORT tickets, while I completed 5longer ones, with one that I couldn’t make.  Tight board and fun.

NEW Stuff:

Golden Compass (NOT the movie tie-in cover, but the one thatmatches the book):

This one’s a race game that I enjoyed VERY much.  You each are attempting to get to theNorth Pole, but the spots onto which you move your pawn give you neededexperience points.  These allow youto fill goals that you obtain (3 in all) that must be achieved before you canwin.  The movement is one of themost interesting aspects.  At firstyou can use any cards (valued 1-3) to move.  However, all of the movement cards (Lyra cards, for those ofyou who have read the novel) are color-coated to the players’ colors.  Once you move past the Fens space, youcan only play movement cards in the colors of the players who are IN FRONT ofyou.   If you are in the lead,then you can only play YOUR OWN colors. Neat mechanism.

Drawing cards is also unique.  Turn order is established at the beginning of each round fromlast to first.  In a 4-player gamethe person in last place draws 4 cards, the next person 3, and so on to thelead drawing 1.  Then movementoccurs in clockwise fashion from the person in last.  SO, that means you have to figure out which colored cardsyou want to draw for movement (colors are in different piles).

Landing in destination spots gets you experience OR Pancards that give you either 1 movement OR a power.  Achieving a goal gives you a helper card for progressingalong the path.

Shelley wasn’t a big fan, but I really enjoyed playing thisone.

Ubongo das Duell

Yep, another Ubongo! This one’s a 2-player game where each player has a bunch of pieces andyou roll a d-20 to determine which 4 or 5 pieces to use.  Then you aren’t going against a timer,but instead going against each other. First one to win 5 head-to-head contests wins.  Cute and you could just play this with the sets of Ubongo orExtrem that you already have.  BUT,this one’s certainly travel-sized (the boards are fairly thin paper board.

Anno 1701 The Boardgame:

Scott Nicholson was kind enough to teach this one to Shelleyand me.  I’d wanted to try it andScott said a tweak (eliminate the random cards when one is sailing) would makethe game go faster.  It certainlyflew by in about an hour with rules teach!

The main board has slots for various tiles that you discoverby sailing.  These provideresources, gold, or items on three track that give VPs.  BTW, you’re trying to get rid of  5 “points” over the course of thegame.  You also have a personalboard that generates resources and tiles to build that lead to other tiles andVP removal spots.

Money is key in the game, as if you do not have at least 3,your people are in chaos, your 6 & 8 items don’t produce, and you can’t winno matter what.

This one’s good, but certainly not a must have, and givenMayfair’s prices, it’s not one I think I’d ever buy.