The counterpoint to my previous entry about the Gathering of Friends is to talk about the fun I've had with some local gaming. Also, one of the comments made about that previous entry made me realize something: part of the reason I can live without the Gathering is because I have such good game opportunities at home. Namely, weekly Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions and occasional SoCal Games Days. I've made it to two SCB sessions and one Games Day since back from the GoF.
Since I missed almost all of April for the Santa Clarita group due to the Gathering, I very nearly missed out on New England as Game of the Month. I'd only played NE once before, and was pretty unimpressed by it. But I heard that it's notably better with the free, not fixed setup, and wanted to try that. I finally got my chance, and was pleased to find my opinion of the game rise considerably. Not so much that I want my own copy, but at least I won't head for the other table when someone suggests it.
Let's see, what else have we played? Well, Wurmeln, one of the very few Alex Randolph games I enjoy. Although I respect the man's accomplishments a great deal, I just haven't enjoyed many of his games. Oddly enough, I used to say they're too abstract for me. Now that I'm getting into abstracts, though, can that still be the reason? Hmm, better check into that. Anyway, Wurmeln is a blind-bidding game about worm racing, with simple but delightful components. Uberplay should've licensed this for one of their new small-box games.
Another week at SCB we almost went overboard on push-your-luck dice games. Nur Peanuts is our Game of the Month for May, which we followed up with Lucky Loop and Exxtra. I think they all have their place, especially if you're a little tired of Can't Stop. We finally tried Die Sieben Siegel in there, too. Trick-taking card games are a struggle at SCB, between some players who don't care for them and another who feels most fall short of the familiar classics (e.g. Whist, Hearts). I like trying just about all of them for the novelty alone, and some of them I'd be happy to play semi-regularly (Mu, David & Goliath, Auf Falscher Fahrte, Canyon).
At Games Day I got to try Dos Rios again. It had about the same outcome--half the players were disappointed by the endgame, but I was surprised to enjoy it all the way through. It really does need everyone to try to keep the game moving, though. There's a real danger of analysis-paralysis here. And I still need to try it with only three players (probably its best number). On a similar note, I got to play the same designer's Big City, which also plays best with three due to the changing game-state. My astonishing win-loss record with the game continued (I'm not much of a winner at anything), helped undoubtedly by the fact that I was up against three newbies. At least I didn't forget any rules to tell them this time.
Blokus is a game that had managed to elude me so far. No one in my circle of friends owned it, and I wasn't so sure that I was going to order one myself. I'm into attractive abstracts, but that mostly means wood. Blokus is plastic, and big. It probably wouldn't live on any coffee table at my house. But I'd played some games on the downloadable Palm version (free trial), and more important my son had, too. He kind of liked it, so I wanted to see what it was like in person (and up against a human opponent). It liked up to its reputation, and I bet I could lure my kids with the color pieces and snap-in grid. This will be in a future game order, I expect.
Rounding out the evening were another try at Exxtra, one last farewell to Volle Hutte, and a first try for Flusspiraten. Exxtra went over notably better, probably because a big game party is the right setting (it helps to have cheers, taunting & boos). Some other folks tried my copy later, and that also was popular. I heard some people saying they were going to look for a copy. Too bad it's kind of hard to find.
Volle Hutte was part of a 3-game sale I was making, so this was my last chance to try it. I'd heard good things from people I trust, but the game really disappointed the two times I'd played it before. It did this time, too. The theme is so fun, and the mechanics sound like they'd work well, but it's less than the sum of its parts. Our opinion, anyway. Clearly some people like it quite a bit, so maybe I'm missing something. Though we looked through the rules closely to make sure I wasn't screwing something up. (Er, I have a history of doing that.)
That other game, Flusspiraten, is a new kids' game from designer Gunter Baars. This designer often works the box itself into the components of the game, which for some reason I find charming. This is sort of the boardgame version of that amusement arcade game where you shelves littered with coins are continually pushed forward by mechanical doohickies, and you try to plop another coin where it will cause a cascade of other coins that you collect. The components work just like they're supposed to, it's a clever little package (inexpensive, too--at least from Germany), but the scoring and strategy is too simple for adults. That doesn't bother me, as I'm happy to play around with it, kids or no kids. But it probably won't make it out with an adult-only crowd again.