Weekly open gaming report

Since last catching up on my game session reports, I don't want things to get as out of hand as before. Only a week late instead of months? Not too shabby.

Last Friday's gaming proved to be a very successful night, I think. We had a good number of the irregular crowd show up: Greg made an appearance, as did Ben and Kevin and their friend Jason; Steven and Lisa came by as well, and finally Marc showed the colors before the evening ran out. Plus the other half of the area taken up by the miniatures players and the Austin Boardgamers, players of heavier (usually railroad-themed) games.

Starting out the night, we played a quick four-player game of Loot (BGG, BUY ME!), Knizia's games of marauding pirates. Our players were Dan, Greg, Jason, and myself. I won by a nose at the end by capturing a sweet eight-coin merchant ship. Sure, you can pick this up at Wal-Mart for less than ten bucks. It's definitely worth it, but don't try to play with two. Four, five or six is much better, and the game says it can play with eight.

Next, I cracked the seal on Magdar (BGG, BUY ME!), a thinly-veiled Balrog-themed dice game. I had snagged this from a half-price table after having played it quite some time ago. The box says that it plays in 10-20 minutes, and even with four it still plays in less than twenty minutes. We missed a rule the first time around and had plenty of time to start over and play another round. It's a quick little dice game, sending dwarves to dig before the Balrog^H^H^H before Magdar destroys a tile. I can see how it would play different with less than four. I won, but it was close. There's some interesting strategies here, but the game plays so fast it's hard to grasp them at first.

You knew it was coming: Wiz-War (BGG, OOP BUT I CAN SELL YOU 5TH EDITION). Lisa and Steve had specifically requested that I bring this one, and I'm so glad I did. I wound up playing a full SIX PLAYER GAME. I don't know when (if ever) I played a six-player game of Wiz-War. My evil plan of getting people to play this slowly has finally paid off! This epic battle lasted an hour and a half of evil combo goodness. Players around the table: Me, Kevin, Jason, Steven, Lisa, and Dan. Jason and Kevin had never played Wiz-War before. I love this game because of the interactions of the cards, players, and the game environment.

This is the result of several layers of interactions. Steve had, in an effort to save his treasure, moved it into the corner. He had then created a wall and a pit to seal it in- you may not realize that a door can't be opened next to a pit, so you can get in to get the treasure, then you can't get out and have to bash your way through the wall in order to get out. He had also used the redirections to seal off his sector so you can only get in through two entrances. The next turn, Kevin had teleported Lisa into the closet. The other two wizards are Jason rushing to save his treasure before Dan dropped off his other one, killing Jason instantly (which wound up happening).

I won with a great combo. I moved three, played a five to go further, then a Pick Lock to finish the five movement through a door, then Power Run to burn hit points for movement. I dropped a second treasure on my home base, and pwn3d. Life is good. Here's to more games!

The last game of the night, the Great Space Race (BGG, BUY ME!). Ben pulled it out and we cracked the seal. Players round the table: Me, Marc, Yari, Ryan, Ben, and Kevin. I'm going to describe this game as a lightened cross of RoboRally (BGG, BUY ME!), Car Wars (BGG, BUY ME!), Nuclear War (BGG, BUY ME!) and pure chaos in a bucket. In the very first move of the very first game, we had three collisions. Now that we've played once, I'm looking forward to playing again; zany and evil and cutthroat. Plus it's IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!!


While we knocked around the galaxy, the others played Shadows over Camelot (BGG, BUY ME!). I plan to play at some point; read Kelly's thoughts on that night for details. Make sure to read the comments for more opinion.