Ludocracy Now

Erik returned from his western sojourn to take part in my Abstract Game Awareness Project (not a thing) and some other games.

Slither has been called “the single greatest abstract strategy game ever invented (objectively speaking)” so I figured I should give it a try considering my predilection for Hex.  I’m glad we played on a 13x13 board so we both had chances to make egregious mistakes.  Mine proved to be less egregious but not by much.  The game is still a cloud of fog for me but I do want to get more of my abstract-minded ludocrats to try it.

We then piled on the theme with perennial favorite Caylus.  I have never used the gate or the royal favor space so much in a game (or built so little) but my three prestige buildings and point favor track (which I have used exclusively in the last five or so games) gave me a three point win in the end.  It is insane to me that two people pursuing two divergent strategies can end up so close in final scoring (see also my birthday this year where Erik and I tied).  I love this game.  I’m sure I’ve never said that before on this blog.

Adding even more theme we played our first game of Summoner Wars in over a month (sacre bleu, I know).  Erik’s Sand Goblin dice rolled nothing but 1s and 2s all game and a late Archangel summon by yours truly proved too much.  I can’t wait to deck build Raechel Loveguard out of this deck.  Part of me wants to like champs with an attack value of 1 because there’s probably some subtlety I’m missing but… as soon as Goodwin’s Blade shows up I think I gotta give the nod to Leah Goodwin.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is nigh upon us so there is nothing but Cribbage, Euchre and Wits & Wagers in my immediate future.  It’s up to you to play the Euros I’ll be missing.  But don’t fret—Essen goodies are hitting the table next week as well as my first multiplayer Game of Thrones LCG game.  It’s great having something to look forward to.

A less ambitious but no less fun day of board gaming with some very upstanding ladies.  And one very fat cat.

First off, these games were played while attempting to home brew some beer.  Some Irish Red Ale to be precise.  Brewing beer takes a long time and I’m pretty sure I botched it but! we will see in four weeks.

Anyway, Annie and I played a game of Summoner Wars with two factions we hadn’t played with yet: Mercenaries and Cave Goblins.  Annie zerg rushed her goblins with her seemingly endless supply of event cards but Rallul and my Stone Golems held their ground and the crest of the goblin wave was broken on their walls.  Both factions were great fun to play.

Annie transubstantiated into Christina who obligingly played a game of Hex with me.  A game that was unnecessarily close considering I’ve read a book of strategy about it.

We then played Caylus which had been absent from the table too long.  I took the Points track on the royal favor table and Christina took the Building favor.  I managed to pop out three prestige buildings over the course of the game and force tower scoring before Christina could turn in a batch.  The smell of boiling malt and hops was e’er overwhelmed by the aroma of my victory.

This has certainly been a gaming week for the ages so far: A Shut Up & Sit Down video match report and back to back evenings of classic board games.  I am counting my blessings and I will see you next time.

Caylubration continues!  Yesterday Erik Tom and I celebrated Syttende Mai and Caylubration with some Aquavit and Caylus!

After refreshing Tom on the rules, I got off to an early start by building right away and batching twice.  Erik decided to forgo batching in the dungeon section to amass a staggering amount of cubes.

I was in the lead for the whole game until the final turn when Tom built the 25-point prestige building to win by four.  The game ended before Erik could make good use of his resource hoarding.  “This game always ends quicker than I want it to.”  I, on the other hand, would have liked to see one fewer round since I never deigned to pick up gold.

Brekke and I played a quick round of Fjords to end the day.

Caylus is a great game, I’m thankful for Caylubration for giving me an excuse to get it to the table.  Plus, Erik said he wouldn’t play Burgundy until he played Caylus again so maybe we’ll finally play it!  Until next time.

Erik and I celebrated Caylubration with two games of Caylus last night.

First game: I took the building favor track and Brek took the point track.  I think we were both warming up, I monopolized the gold space to build the only prestige building which helped secure the win.

Second game: I took the point track, Erik took building.  I have a hard time adjusting to anything non-building track since that’s what I normally play—out of my 15 games of Caylus, I think I’ve taken the point track twice or three times.  Anyway, Erik and I finished the game and we both had exactly 100 points.  He had one resource left over and I had one ducat.  The rules prescribed a shared victory.  How apposite.

A dessert of ConHex.  I promise Erik played much better in the second game (he was unclear on the rules in the game I took a picture of—hence the goofball board situation).  More Caylus to come after a Twilight Struggle interlude!

On Friday, Jake said he was available for some afternoon gaming and I leaped at the chance, naturally.  He said he wanted to warm up with the ‘catsup’ game and, correct me if I’m wrong, I think I may have lost to him in at least one of our Ketchup games.  It’s good to let people win once and a while so they keep coming back.

I then presented a variety of games and Agricola was Jake’s choice.  We, of course, played the family version and finished 38-33 with me taking the lead.  Excellent first play by Jake, I must say, to break 30, however.  He liked it and wanted to play again but I steered him toward Innovation since I knew he knew how to play.

I got Code of Laws early which I think allowed me to basically splay every pile.  I then got three special achievements pretty easy and then added score upon score to win the game in the sixth age, I think.  Jake did nab a fair amount of achievements but with all the splaying I had going on, it was difficult for him to do much of anything.

He left with a promise to come back later, and as the evening fell, Erik showed up for a low-key night in.  We played some heads up Carcassonne, Biblios (my Biblios winning streak continues), and TZAAR while waiting for Jake to return.

When he did, I strongly suggested Troyes.  I gave a better (I hope.  At least more sober) presentation of the rules and we gave it a go.  Definitely chalk this one up as a learning game as most of the game felt like just trying out mechanics.  I did win, however, with 40some points.

Scyler then returned from dinner with Grandma to play a little bit more Carcassonne before Jake whisked himself away, again.  We played with Inns & Cathedrals and I spent the majority of the game working on one 18 tile city with a Cathedral.  I finally got the tile to close it off…and Brekke sabotaged.  What a dick.  I got lapped by nearly everyone.

11pm was rolling in…  Many hours of gaming already behind me but I figured we might as well play Caylus.  I had to avenge my one point loss to Brekke on my birthday AND he had just ruined my 60 point City in Carcassonne…

I wasn’t feeling too confident after taking a -3 during Wall scoring, but I was the only one with enough gold to build prestige buildings and I built two in the last round for 30 points.  I squeaked out a win and put the long marathon day of gaming to rest.

A post about yesterday’s successful Abstract Gaming day will follow tomorrow—I have apparently broken Jeff’s camera with all my board game pictures so sadly you will all have to deal with the crappy iPod camera again…

So!  My Birthday!  Was a roaring success.  I think 9 separate hungover people came over to partake in more champagne and board games.  Annie got here first and demanded a play of Caylus which I was more than happy to oblige.  Scyler also wanted in!  The last time you may remember him as a Ludocrat was during a game of Founding Fathers.  Caylus is certainly a step up from that…

…but of course he won.  Now, I’m pretty sure he won because both Annie and I were giving advice and Brekke showed up mid game and started helping him exclusively.  But, really, he should have let me won.  It was my birthday!

As Charles and Tyler also showed up near the end of the game our numbers became six.  I held up Liberté and Carcassonne as my two French games that would work with this number.  Discretion said Carcassonne should be played so I added in the gray meeples and described Carc with just road and city scoring and off we went.  Much fun all around!

For our second game of Carc I introduced the Inn & Cathedral tiles (thanks, Ma!) and Farm scoring.  A touch more complicated but still very fun (more fun than I remember Carcassonne being, actually).  After two games of Carc, Tyler and Charles headed off to a Ham party (whatever that is), Annie left with basically anaphylactic shock (she is allergic to cats but could not stop harassing Puss), and Tom showed up.

Thus began a very sad presentation of the Troyes rules to the three remaining revelers.  I could hear myself explaining the dice, the buildings, the event cards, the character cards, the influence track, the tradesmen, again referencing the character cards, and I knew it was making no sense to anyone.  Thankfully, Christina showed up and I figured we should just abort mission and play Carcassonne again.  Scyler left to shower (finally), Nate and Jake showed up.  Nate with a birthday present of French cheeses and Jake with a birthday present of a hug.

Again, a six player road and city only game was started and I finally got my first and only win of the day.  We then, again, added in Farms, Inns & Cathedrals and near the end Nate and Jake took off and Charles and Tyler returned to take their place and we finished the game.

Now it was Charles and Tyler’s turn to demand that we build King Philip the Fair’s Caylus Castle so I dealt the remaining five of us in for one last game of the evening.  Brekke ruined my birthday by beating me by one point.  The provost wreaked havoc on many a good plan and the chaos of a five player game meant low scoring.  I did take a video of all the players Caylus reactions but I look and sound like a drunken fool so I will spare everyone from that.

Very successful birthday but I’m hoping I can learn how to explain Troyes better and get that to the table ASAFP.  Until next time, when I head off to the inaugural Minneapolis Abstract Gaming day!

Pictures from yesterday’s gaming.  Write up tomorrow.