Against my Better Judgement

I never listen to myself eh?  Well at least I'm still sticking to the budget.

I bought and played a few games recently.  Here's some simple thoughts:

Bunny Bunny Moose Moose - As others have said... it just doesn't work.  There's all of 2 times a year you could play this.  The last day of a game convention.  Then you'd have gamers that care enough to follow the confusing ass rules.  But they'd be tired enough to be loopy to enjoy it.  It just isn't going to work in any other environment.

Vasco da Gama - It's okay.  Sequencing your actions is fun.  The limited way to score points just isn't.  I was hoping the logistics made up for it.  They just don't really in a 2-player game.  I still should try it with 4 players to see how the tighter board works out for me.


Until next time!

Musings on Nothing

So I got a chance to play my pimped Acquire.  It was actually quite enjoyable.

The big clay hotel markers were a blast.  I forgot to get an in game shot, but here's a snapshot of them being formed:

They were very easy to see.  The colors matched the stocks just great.  It as easy to read their name.  And the size let us know stock prices without using the reference sheet.  (Small is "N", medium is "N+1", large is "N+2"; all up to 6 large)

Funny enough, I saw someone post a spreadsheet that is supposed to be run on a laptop at the gaming table to help you calculate merger payouts in Acquire.  I suppose it might save a *tiny* amount of time.  But really, it's not that hard of a game to calculate.  I understand calculators for some of the 18XX style games, but I think you're just getting lazy with Acquire.


Of course, I also make my own large & legible payout sheets and drop the units back to $1 so it's not annoying as piss to do the math.  I suppose if you wanted to leave everything in hundreds I could handle the calculator better.


Anyway, off to a fun weekend of friends and gaming.  Got gobs of painting done around the house, so I'm glad to be done for awhile.

Kneading Clay is Danged Hard

Can barely type.  Kneaded 7 globs of clay into custom hotels for my pimped out Acquire.

I went with logs for the cheap ones.  "L" shapes for the medium priced.  And just big square blocks for the expensive ones.  I plan on printing off some labels and sticking on the side for super easy identification.  Wish me luck!


I'm also probably going to place a game order for some Steam maps and Vasco da Gama.  Vasco passes most of my buying tests.  People are still playing it a year later.  Nobody here has a copy I can try out.  It seems to have different ways to get ships if not really different ways to score VPs.

I don't really like worker placement, but I've finally realized it's more of a auction in disguise.  Mainly due to being able to "outbid" somebody on an action just by risking a harsher price on the action.

Anyway, prolly give into that order today.  Will still put me in the black next week on the budget.

6-Players with cards

6 players is just such a mushy number.  For most game days, I'd much rather split 3 and 3 than play 6 player something er-other.

But at lunch time with the card crew, it just doesn't make sense to do that.  We all love playing with partners way too much.  So instead we play some double-deck bid Euchre.

And I've just decided that double-deck big euchre ends in a blow out a little too often for my tastes.

Spades is probably the opposite end of this.  A team is seldom completely out of a game of spades.  Our lunch games go nice and tight.


So... are there any better trick taking games for 6 players out there?  I know tichu *says* it will play six, but that just sounds odd.  Maybe pinochle or something?

Revisiting Yspahan

Got in a play of an "old" favorite.  Yspahan

Yea, I know it isn't really old.  It's only old to me since it was among the first game I bought.

My wife still loves the heck out of this game.  Me?  I enjoy it.  I don't really like it a bunch anymore.  For the most part, it just feels too worn out.  There are multiple strategies to try... well, sort of.  There's maybe two.  Getting the big buildings fast and spamming souks.  Or getting on the caravan in a big way.

The problem is that the caravan is pretty damn good when you work it right.  If you can throw two guys up there per turn and generate two cards while doing it, that's just a nearly insane number of point.  (I'd say 9 points conservatively.)

I suppose you could generate that much with a solid souk strategy, but it would be difficult.  Hrm hrm hrm.

Maybe I should try it.

See, now I've got myself talking into it being more open than it feels.

Alright, Back on the Wagon

Woot!  Exam is over.  How'd I do?  Heck if I know.  It was a six hour written exam.  They take some time to grade those suckers.  (Should know around mid-July)

So what have I been doing since Friday?

Well first I've been reading a bunch.  I don't let myself read fiction while studying.  I'm reading the Percy Jackson series now so I can stay caught up with my younger sister.

I've also been pimping out an old copy of Acquire I got.  What have I been doing to it?

Well first I re-did the board to give it 4 distinct quadrants.  Then I re-did the number and lettering so that each quadrant replicated the same letters and numbers.  Now when you have a tile, you have 4 places to put it.

This was how the board was made in a version very briefly published in 1997.  I really wanted to try it out, so away I went.

Next I've got some colored clay to form into hotel markers and bake.  I *really* liked the different sized hotel markers from my 1999 version and just don't think I can live without them.  I've never done back-at-home clay though, so who knows how the hell this will turn out.

I sure don't!

More gamin' soon.