Game on!

I've got a pretty full two days to cover.

Friday's game night at Great Hall found us playing:

• Wiz-War (two players, me and Bryon) [BGG or OOP: SOL!]
  
• Bang! (seven players, no expansions, played twice) [BGG or BUY ME!]
  
• Titan: the Arena, aka Colossal Arena (five players) [BGG or BUY ME!]
  
• Odin's Ravens (Ryan and Yari) [BGG or BUY ME!]
  

I brought along Ricochet Robots [BGG or BUY ME!] and Light Speed [BGG or BUY ME!], but we didn't play them. I believe that Ricochet Robots will become among the standard games that I bring out for the game group, but it still has the same playing-is-very-much-a-skill and practice-required and all that. Light Speed, is a real-time card game that requires a decent number of tokens to track damage and points.

Wiz-War I've mentioned before. I haven't played it with two in a long long while- possibly as long as high school, but I somehow doubt it. The fan Wiz-War pages allude to their having a weekly game of Wiz-War and having to create their own cards and boards. Remember, this game first came out in 1985 and has a fairly loyal following, and is now out of print. My ulterior motive is to bring it as often as possible until people start asking to play it.

Bang! went over very well, I'm pleased to report. Cutthroat games and player elimination go hand-in-hand, and I've heard reports of the game not going over well due to poor sportsmanship or just bad luck. Not the case this time. We got in two seven-player games during the course of the evening, and I think we will play many more. I plan to leave the Dodge City and Fistful of Cards expansions for at least the next few plays. I want folks to have a good grasp of the basic game before we start with the craziness of expansions.

Again, I've yet to play Odin's Ravens.


Dan, Dan, the monkey man held a birthday party today. Instead of everyone focusing their attention (and presents!) on him, he decided to hold a White Elephant Gift Exchange, something I've never heard of before. It works a little like a Secret Santa, with everyone buying a gift for a certain assigned someone, except in this case, people take turns opening gifts- and you can steal an opened gift instead of opening a new one. Dan also came up with cards for folks to have powers- plus German-translated rules for kicks. Seven people and couples participated, and we had fun with it. I sort of wish we had more stealing going on, though.

Here's the roster. Note that we had a price limit of $20. Margie Roper over there, aka Mrs. Monkeyman, may put up some photos for your amusement.

• Save Dr. Lucky plus the Moon Base Copernicus expansion, also One False Step for Mankind plus its One False Step Home expansion (I gave a Cheapass extravaganza!)
  
• Apples to Apples, the basic version
  
• Colossal Arena (Did I mention this went over well?)
  
• Inkognito: The card game
  
• Chrononauts
  
• Lord of the Rings: the Duel
  
• Travel Blokus
  

We played a round of Apples to Apples in order to determine who got to pick gifts first. After that, we split into two groups: one (including Cat and myself) played Chrononauts first, then Inkognito. The other group played Monkey Lab a few times, then two players split off for Blokus.

Basically, Chrononauts is Chrononauts- a Looney Labs game with a touch too much randomness and a shade too little table talk. I think the relative complexity works against it, leading to so-called "analysis paralysis." Inkognito is a deduction game for four that I haven't played in a very long time. The art is beautiful and it plays in about a half hour, maybe less. I'm good with the deduction but not yet the strategy.

Tomorrow morning, we drive to Bastrop, about a half-hour away. I have a lead on an agave stalk out of which I could construct my first didgeridoo, PVC notwithstanding. Exciting times!