Hive, Champagne, Hidden Beach and friends from years past.
Hive, Champagne, Hidden Beach and friends from years past.
Annie had Good Friday off, and I got all my work done so we did a little Victory 44 and ConHex for lunch. It took Annie a few tries but our third game was pretty competitive. I managed to block on the edge and then ride it up the side for the win.
We headed to my place and too full to play anything too long, we sat on my balcony and played three games of Hive splitting 2 and 1. This is a fun game that I should just carry around with me. Have a good Easter!
Abstract Games! (and a fat puss to boot)
So, I have always been intrigued by abstract games—I go through a Chess phase about every two years—but often I think they are too hard to break into because they’ve been around forever and the people who know the game clobber newbies. However, Ketchup is a game that has been recently invented (and by one of our own Ludocrat’s older brothers!!) so everyone is a newbie! I very much enjoy games played on Hex boards (see: Hex, Dominant Species, Hive, Keythedral, Key Harvest, Command & Colors?, War games?) so I thought I’d force Annie to play this with me between bouts of work.
Game rules can be found at Nick Bentley’s Abstract Game blog and can be played on the fabulous abstract gaming site IgGameCenter where my user handle is biscuits (for some reason?) First picture is a game we played on a big board in which I wall Annie off after she makes a size of 39 (object of the game is to have the biggest “group” of your colored stones) to ensure that I will win the day. Second is on the basic 5x5x5 board which I highly recommend to beginners. Again… I have won… I should have gone easy on Annie because the next picture is right after the opening to mid-game break happened and, spoiler alert, I won too. I now may have the highest Ketchup 4.0 ranking on IgGameCenter out of the 7 people who have played it! (Edit: Nick Bentley: 1625, Biscuits: 1597. So close)
Also pictured above is an abstract game with some awesome components Hive. I tried to play through a few rounds of this solo and I really am flummoxed as to what could possibly be a good move/strategy. I am looking forward to trying this one at various picnics/outdoor events. Challenge me in either!
