Ludocracy Now

So… not my best day as a photographer [and after re-reading this draft, not my best day as a writer either]… I was too busy thinking about my Trajan moves to give the photography due diligence.  And there are already a million Crokinole pictures on this blog.

Anyway, I wrangled up three Ludobrats for some gaming and after warming up with a few games of Crok (Christina and I took on Erik & Jake and forced sudden death boards but fell, inevitably) we “Fab Five”-d our choices for the next game.

I am not sure who originated the “Fab Five” but this is how it works (normally reserved for choosing where to eat).  Everyone involved writes his or her top five choices for what they want to play.  Then, after all the suggestions are gathered, one person gets to cross off one suggestion from the compiled list.  Then the next person crosses one off and this continues until there is one choice remaining.  Consider that if the same game is picked three times, it will have a better chance of surviving than one suggested only once.

I should maybe have fellow internet celebrity strangeprawn feed that description through his “Armstrong & Primrose” translator because I can barely parse it for sense.

Our Fab Five procedure produced Trajan as our choice (although Container was a close second).  Since I know Jake and Christina are Burgundy lovers and Erik and I had (incorrectly) played the game before, I felt it was a good choice for the evening.  Obviously a four player game took much longer than the two player game but I would wager that a higher player count benefits this game.  There is real tension in the senate, actual blocking in the building sections and fiercer competition for the best shipping lines.  This is much different than Burgundy which collapses under its own weight with four players.

I took a building strategy and was in last for most of the game until I popped off two sets of four building tiles for 40 points in end game scoring.  I vaulted ahead of the pack and crossed my toes & fingers thinking maybe I had done enough.  Jake counted his bonus points… and fell short.  Christina barely had any bonus points… and Erik slowly moved his green scoring marker farther and farther up the track, to fall one point in front of me and notch the win.  Well played, good sir.

I enjoyed the game but I would not say it’s one of my favorites.  Those present liked it but we will see if they ever request the game again.

To close the evening after Christina left, I forced Erik & Jake to play IceTowers with me.  This is a simultaneous action game of slapping towers on top of each other and hoping you get the rules right.  We played four games in a good fifteen minutes and had a decent time.

I’m relieved that we got some good honest gaming in and that Crokinole can live harmoniously with my strategic games.  I’m not sure if I’ll get much more gaming in this week but maybe a GenCon preview is in the offing… (I wouldn’t bet on it).

Welcome to the arches of Trajan!  Also known as: Castles of Burgundy 2: The Mancala or Game Just as Likely as Troyes to be Mispronounced!

A little over a week ago, Erik was commenting to me at a karaoke bar that he hadn’t been ludocrating in far too long.  We agreed to set up a time to duel over some colorful cardboard and last night was that night.

He was up for anything and the Trajan box was on the table as I had punched and sorted the day before.  I knew the general gist of the rules so we set up and crawled along… often forgetting to move forward the time track but slowly getting a handle on our action boards.

We played two games with Erik winning on a tiebreak the first and me on the second but, sadly, both games are invalidated due to my under reading of the military rules.  Let’s just say my version hyper inflated that action’s value to the point of breaking the game.  But, hey, learning games!

But yeah, this game is a lot like Burgundy: managing a bit of chaos to make the best of situations with mini-breaks after a few rounds to reset the board.  They both also have yellow bonus tiles that multiply scores for end game bonus.  They both also have a shipping goods action… I’d wager that they both have a place in my collection but currently I’m giving the slight edge to Burgundy (because I’m obsessed).

Erik did say he’d play this one again and I am anxious to play with the real rules so hopefully Crokinole (when it comes on Tuesday) doesn’t crowd all other gaming out of the picture.  Until next time!