Ludocracy Now

Last night saw Ludocracy Now reach the tipping point where we become incredibly popular!  We had a group nine strong at our largest.  What follows is an unauthorized account of the fun we had.

We began as four and I brought out Hey, That’s My Fish and all of the snagglepuss imitations I could muster.  A brief kerfuffle between Nate (Play your damn penguin already!) and Jake (I want to place it well. If that’s a problem with you I’ll quit!) demonstrated how mean this game can really be.  Katie let me have open access to a large block of iceberg which netted me 28 fish and the win.

Kyle showed up and was eager to demonstrate his ability to Ludocrat and since we were still waiting for Christina I suggested Carcassonne.  I managed to get last, of course, as you can see in the picture all of my meeples are stranded. “Oh, you basically don’t have to worry about stranding your meeples in five player Carc…” turned  out to be bad advice that I gave to myself/everyone.  Kyle won!  Beginners luck, obviously.

With Christina, we were eight people.  I had been suggesting to Erik (who was also part of that Carcassonne game) that even though he thought Red November was the least fun game he has ever played, that we should give it another try.  With a full complement of gnomish sailors we set off.  The first few events saw repeated Respites which… pedagogically was not the best thing as I had taken the “Learn the game by example” teaching track.  Anyway we made it about half way through the time before the ship overheated and we all died!  Not a moment too soon as Erik repeated his sentiment that “This is the worst game I’ve ever played.”

Lindsay, another new Ludotzarina, showed up and after asking two typical Ludocrat questions: “Where do you even find these games?” and “How many do you have?!” we set up team Small World!  Again, my teaching abilities mounted to repeating “oh, It’s simple, you’ll be fine” and “new people go last in the turn order and just figure it out.”  (I was a couple of grogs in, at this point).  Christina and I took wealthy Giants first and conquered the set of three mountains on the bottom side of the board.  We remained unmolested for quite some time.  We then had the luck to snatch up merchant skeletons.  Even Tom’s 19 point round could not stop our might!  I’m pretty sure we won?

Thus concludes our most popular and populous session of Ludocracy Now.  We are Ludocrats, We are Legion.

Another Ludo”crazy” Now! session that saw the premier of a heretofore unplayed game: Red November.  Now, this game is about a sinking submarine and uses grog/vodka as a game mechanic.  A sure thing, right?  Well, Brekke commented that, after his character had fallen over drunk and missed a few turns, the game was actually pretty boring.  Also, we pretty easily won the game.  However, I think the game can be salvaged if 1) We play the correct rules (part of me thinks that we let people sit in rooms that were engulfed in flames too long) and B) people know the game so turns go quickly.  Perhaps this one will see the table when we’re feeling cooperative and Russian.

Then off to everyone’s* favorite game, 7 Wonders.  I won a game with 55 and then lost a game with 36.  One time using a green strategy, the other using no strategy and also my neighbors refused to be helpful preferring to sack cards instead of pass them to me.  That’s what happens when you’re the champ.

*Jake and I could take or leave this game.  Nate and Brekke are mental for it still.