It's been a while since I've written a session report, either here or to my local group's mailing list. I've just been busy lately, and I miss writing them. This is a little catchup. We've had a few Santa Clarita Boardgamer sessions, plus Bohnanza with my son last night. He loved it! Not only that, but the reason he liked it was the different choices/strategies/tactics in the game. All the boardgaming parents understand the significance of this--could it be that I can have a mini game group in my own family?! Hope springs eternal.
Working backward through some recent SCB sessions...
Last week we made a little more progress through our Essen order from Playme.de. Well, not really. We played Geschenkt and Oltremare, true, but those had been tried last week. Despite our group ordering three copies of Reef Encounter, we still haven't tried that. But we will. We wrapped up with an oldie but goodie, Razzia (the original, not the Ra revision).
Geschenkt
Waiting for a couple other SCBers to show up, we needed a quick opener. This fit the bill nicely. We had four players, two of us having played the week before. This time the bidding was better, tighter. There are times a card is painless or even beneficial to you . . . but you shouldn't take it at the first opportunity. As long as it's poison for the other players to take, you should try to push your luck, making them spend passing chips a round or two (or more) before scooping up your "gift." But pushing your luck too far can backfire, or at least spoil an opportunity. We play 3 rounds to give the luck a chance to even out a bit--seems like the sort of game that needs it. It's definitely short enough. I like it, just like I knew I would.
Oltremare
Hey, cool! After all the hype, I half-expected to be a little let down by this one. I wasn't! Ok, the box is as flimsy as the Abacus/Rio Grande card game boxes, the harbor tokens are too small, and I don't like the prestige point tracking with cards. Hell, I'll even mention that I wish the ship tokens looked like ships instead of cubes. But those are all nits for a game that works very well, both in the rules and the very well-designed cards. If they'd messed up the cards' graphic design (as many companies have done), we wouldn't be talking about this one. As it is, I hope it'll get more than just reprinted--I'd like to see a new production by a larger publisher. Our game was a full 5-player affair that lasted a little while. It'll play faster next time, no doubt. I'm very curious to see how it plays with just 2.
Razzia
I've owned and traded this game away. Twice. This most recent outing (with Ryan's copy) didn't make me want to go out and get it a third time, but I'm glad a copy exists in our group. It's a nice closer for when you've got a lot of folks. I think it plays up to 8 or something. And though I think they made some subtle but distinct improvements in the game with the closely-related Hick Hack in Gackelwack, the theming and production of this original is top-notch.
OK, I've got more games to mention, but this blog entry has waited three days already so I'm posting it now. More later, hopefully.
Mark
Looks like a nice session. Geschenkt really hit me as a superbly simple and evil little card game the first time I played it. Short playing time and yet every turn presents agonising decisions.
Oltremare was a game I played at Essen and instantly wanted a copy. It could so easily have been produced as a big-box version but credit to Mind The Move in getting something released that people were willing to take a chance on (as a cheap smaller company production), that I would be very surprised does not reappear with a bigger production.
Razzia is another nice closer of a game ( not to be mistaken with the new card-game version of Ra). I kept my copy of the game as it is a good example of the second-guessing simultaneous-play type. Hick Hack is definitely a slimmed down version of Razzia but Razzia is itself a derivative of the classic Adel Verpflichtet, one of my favourites still after many years of playing it.
Garry
Posted by: Garry at December 24, 2004 12:14 PM