Games Gist

New Web Address for Me

2009-01-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

My web postings are now displayed at:

http://gmcdnotes.spaces.live.com

Moved

2007-03-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

I see that the "new" Blogger is as poor as the "old" one, so I've moved Games Gist to WordPress at:

http://geraldmcd.wordpress.com/

See you there.

Testing BGG Images

2007-02-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Testing BGG Images

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played January 27, 2007

2007-01-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had a limited time for games on Saturday afternoon, but enjoyed what we did play.

We first played Elfenland, which I have extended with additional player pieces to accommodate 7 players, but Joel elected not to play, so we had the regular 6 players. It was a fairly tight game, and I thought I had a chance to tie for first or at least finish second, but Dan and Katrina came on strong in the last round to pass me. Results: Dan first; Katrina second; me third; Kassi fourth (first time to play this); Sue and Mason (tied) last. We all enjoyed it, and I believe we will see it played more this year.

Next up was a new game – Loot. Katrina was driving Natalia to a friend’s house at this time, and Dan and I played a couple of 2-hand games of Loot, while the rest of the group was bowling on the Wii. I had played Loot with a friend and won both 2-player games. I later took the game to a local game group night, played it 4-handed, and lost terribly. I beat Dan in both of our 2-player games today, but did not do well in the six-player game. I guess I should only play this one with a single opponent. Results: Kassi first; Dan second; Sue third; Mason fourth; me fifth; Katrina last.

We finished the afternoon with a game of Hunters & Gatherers, with 7 players. This was Dan’s day for gaming, and he pretty well left the rest of us in the dust on this one. Results: Dan first; Mason second; Sue third; Katrina fourth; me fifth; Joel sixth; Kassi last.

Dan won two of the games we played and finished second in the other one. A great day for him.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to play and count family games for the next two weekends, and I’m looking forward to trying more of our new, un-played games. Guess I’ll have to wait a while…

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Summary of Family Gaming for 2006

2007-01-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

During 2006, our family gaming group of 8 players played 31 different games a total of 136 times. We only count the games that all 6 adults play (5 adults early in 2006, before Kassi joined us). There were other games played, but not counted, when one or more adults were not present. Here is a summary of our year.

32 plays: Bohnanza
25 plays: Settlers of Catan
9 plays: Carcassonne
7 plays: Around the World in 80 Days
5 plays: Flea Circus; Through the Desert
4 plays: Alhambra; Boomtown; Hunters & Gatherers; Nertz; Ticket to Ride; Trumpet
3 plays: Royal Turf; Station Master
2 plays: Cartagena; For Sale; Frank’s Zoo; Marco Polo Expedition; Pickomino; Tongiaki
1 play: Australia; Canyon; Catego; Dragon’s Gold; Elfenland; Fill or Bust; Hacienda; Hearts; Hoity Toity; Mississippi Queen; Oh Hell

Game wins, including ties:
Mason ------ 32
Katrina ----- 27
Dan -------- 26
Sue --------- 24
Joel --------- 23
Gerald ------ 14
Natalia ------ 7 (Natalia played only a small number of games)
Kassi -------- 5 (Kassi joined us in September)

Points for game finishes, as a percentage of games played
Joel -------- 20.8%
Mason ------ 18.3%
Katrina ----- 17.4%
Natalia ----- 16.9%
Dan --------- 16.6%
Kassi -------- 15.2%

Sue --------- 14.3%
Gerald ------ 11.9%

This indicates that although Joel won only 23 games, compared to 32 for Mason, he finished better in a higher percentage of the games he did not win than did anyone who had more victories than he did. It could be argued that he was the most successful game player in the group, although he did not play as many games as the adults. The same reasoning shows Natalia as more successful than Dan, Kassi, Sue, or Gerald, for the number of games she played.

Notes (wins included ties for a win):
Dan was the only winner of Catego and Fill or Bust. He shared with most wins in Alhambra; Frank’s Zoo; Hunters & Gatherers; and Royal Turf.

Gerald was the only winner of Canyon and Dragon’s Gold. He shared with most wins in Elfenland.

Joel had the most wins in Bohnanza; Carcassone; For Sale; Tongiaki; and Trumpet. He shared with most wins in Hunters & Gatherers and Pickomino.

Kassi shared with most wins in Frank’s Zoo and Hunters & Gatherers.

Katrina had the most wins in Around the World in 80 Days; Station Master; and Through the Desert. She shared with most wins in Elfenland; Flea Circus; Hunters & Gatherers; Royal Turf; and Settlers of Catan.

Mason was the only winner of Australia; Oh Hell; Cartagena (2 times); Hoity Toity; Marco Polo Expedition (2 times); and Mississippi Queen. He shared with most wins in Alhambra; Pickomino; Royal Turf; and Settlers of Catan.

Natalia had the most wins of Nertz.

Sue was the only winner of Hearts. She had the most wins in Boomtown; Hacienda; and Ticket to Ride. She shared with most wins in Elfenland; Flea Circus; and Royal Turf.

Two games had a 4-way tie for most wins: Hunters & Gatherers (1 game each) and Royal Turf (1 game each). The only time we played Elfenland, it ended in a 3-way tie. Katrina and Mason both won Settlers of Catan 6 times. Joel had the highest number of wins in one game, with 9 victories in Bohnanza. We counted Nertz 4 times, and Natalia won 2 of them.

It was a great year of games, and we are certainly looking forward to at least as much fun in 2007.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Catching Up - January 15, 2007

2007-01-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

So far in 2007, we have played 10 games that counted on our family records, but I did not post here the results of January 6, so this will only cover the games we played on January 13, in alphabetical order. Mason is off to a fast start, winning half the games we have played.

We played our usual 8-player game of Bohnanza. We have played this game twice this year, and Joel has won both times. There was a lot of trading in this game, perhaps more than in most of our other games, for some reason. Poor Natalia could not get anything going and didn’t have good beans to trade at the right time, so she had a terrible game. I don’t think most of us had any idea that Joel had as much gold as he did, and we were surprised that he won the game. Results: Joel first; Sue second; Katrina and Kassi (tied) third; me fifth; Dan and Mason (tied) sixth; Natalia last.

We played Pickomino for the fourth time, and Kassi won this one. With 8 players, it seems normal for several players to finish with no worms (zero score), and this was no exception. Kassi won with 6 worms, and Sue, Joel, and I finished with zero. Results: Kassi first; Dan second; Mason third; Katrina fourth; Natalia fifth; Sue, Joel, me (tied) last.

It had been a long time since we played Pick Picknic, and had never played with 8 players. It was a wild game, and we learned that we needed to deal only four cards to each player, rather than five or six. We began the game with five cards each, but had to switch to four during the rounds. As foxes captured bird cards, the draw stack got very small before the end of the game, with a high percentage of them being foxes. Next time, we’ll start and play with only four per player each round. Results: Dan first; Kassi and Mason (tied) second; Joel fourth; me fifth; Katrina sixth; Natalia seventh; Sue last.

Settlers of Catan is still a favorite at our table. Surprisingly, Joel opted out this time, to play some computer games, so we played with six players and the regular rules. After the first two rounds (two turns for everyone at the table), I had not received any resource cards from the dice rolls. However, I did manage to do some trading and buy a development card. It was a Year of Plenty. I also rolled a seven, so I got to steal a card, and with that I bought another development card, which was also a Year of Plenty. In the meantime, almost everyone else was building roads and settlements, and I was feeling pretty lousy about the state of affairs. One of my problems was that I had ended up with settlements on two #4 Ore hexes. Suddenly, 4 began coming up on the dice rolls, and I gradually made some progress. I had a settlement on an 8 and on a 6, and it was about three rounds into the game before either was rolled. I managed to make some decent trades and continued to buy development cards. Throughout the game, I purchased seven development cards and received this amazing combination: 2 VPs, 2 Year of Plenty, 1 Road Building, 1 Monopoly, and 1 Soldier. That was what kept me in the game. Near the end, it was obvious that Mason, Katrina, and Dan all had 9 points; most of the players did not realize that I had 2 VP cards and was at 7. During the last round, it seemed certain that Dan would win, but he was low on resource cards, did not get a lucky roll, and no one would trade with him. On my previous turn, I had bought a Monopoly card and was watching the resource rolls closely. On my turn, I rolled a 4 (I was holding 10 Ore cards at the time and was scared I would roll a 7), which gave me four more Ore, and Katrina received two, in addition to those she already held. I knew some other players had Ore, so I played the Monopoly card. I ended that play with every Ore card in the game in my hand (none left in the draw stack), a first in any of our games, I believe. With some trades, I managed to build two roads, a settlement, and upgrade a settlement to a city. That gave me 9 points. I was holding three Ore cards and doing my best to trade, so I could buy another development card (at the end of the game, we discovered that the next development card was a VP, so I would have won the game with that purchase). But, I couldn’t get the win. Katrina was the next player, and she was really whining about my Monopoly card play, because she was holding the winning resources, until I stole all her Ore. She was not able to pull out the win on her turn. By the time the dice got back to Mason, I had managed to do another upgrade and had reached 10 points, but there were still Mason, Sue, and Dan to play before me. I thought I had a possible win, but Mason had a perfect dice roll for himself and won the game. Everyone was very surprised to learn that I had 10 points, which put me in second place. Results: Mason first; me second; Dan and Katrina (tied) third; Kassi fifth; Sue last.

Another game we had not played for a long time was Take It Easy. Kassi had not played, so it was new to her, and everyone decided to play. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; Kassi third; Dan and Sue (tied) fourth; me sixth; Mason seventh; Natalia last.

At one point of the day, Katrina decide to pass on playing the next game, so we got out Hare and Tortoise and taught Kassi the game. It was a close finish, with Mason winning just before Dan, followed by Sue, me, then Kassi. I like that game, but Katrina doesn’t, so it seldom gets to the table.

We are off to a fast start on games in 2007, with five games played and counted on each of the first two game days. Now, I’m looking forward to bringing out one of our new games – which one to do first? My choices are Ave Caesar, Silk Road, Drakon, Loot, or Top Dogs. Also, I want to play Dragon’s Gold again soon. I’m leaning toward Drakon next time we play. Unfortunately, next weekend is busy for everyone on other activities, so no game day for us. So many games, so little time – what a nice dilemma.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played December 30, 2006

2007-01-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had a fun final day of gaming for 2006, playing six games (five different ones). Mason finished the year with a bang, winning three of the six games. Dan had hoped to catch Mason in total year wins, behind by only four at the beginning of the day, and tied with Katrina. But, Mason’s three wins sealed the title for him, and Katrina won a game (while Dan didn’t), so she finished second in number of wins for the year. And Kassi topped off the day with her fifth win since joining our family gaming group in the fall. It was a really neat day.

Here are our games played, alphabetically:

All 8 of us played Bohnanza, as we frequently do. We have played more games of Bohnanza than any other during the year, which reflects its popularity with us, as well as the fact that it plays great with 8 people. It looked like a fairly close game, until the very end, when Katrina pulled away from the group by a good margin. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; me third; Dan and Sue (tied) fourth; Mason sixth; Natalia seventh; Kassi last.

Carcassonne came out and was enjoyed much this year. Dan got on two large cities very early, but had terrible luck with them. One of them acquired two cathedrals and was connected to by Kassi and me, but we were unable to complete the city and got no points for it, while we each had two meeples tied up for much of the game. Dan’s other city was stolen by Joel, leaving Dan with almost no points for all that work. We played with The River II expansion, an item I received for Christmas, and enjoyed the additional small touches it added. I drew the river tile with pigs in the field and decided to take a chance on reaping some points with it. So, I placed a farmer on it immediately, a risky approach. Later, I added my own pig to the same field, and it was looking good, until Mason managed to connect a field he was on to it, and he had his monster meeple on his field, late in the game. I kept trying to connect two other fields, each with a meeple of mine, but could not get the final connecting tile before the end of the game. So, I had three farmers tied up for very little payoff. I didn’t do well, but Dan set a new low score record of 33. Oooh, bad day at Carcassonne! Results: Mason first; Katrina second; Joel third; Sue fourth; Kassi fifth; me sixth; Dan last.

A new game I received for Christmas was Pickomino. This game has been around for a while, but didn’t attract my interest until this year, when several people mentioned it as a good game for 7 players. It was fun! It played quickly, so we played it twice. Later, Natalia played it with Dan, Katrina, and Joel at their house, and she liked it, so we may be playing it with 8 players in the future. Game One Results: Mason first; Kassi and me (tied) second; Dan and Katrina (tied) fourth; Sue and Joel (tied) last. Game Two Results: Joel first (8 worms); Dan second; me third; Mason and Sue (tied) fourth; Katrina and Kassi (tied) last – with zero worms.

Royal Turf has long been a favorite of ours, and it was Kassi’s first time to play it. We play two races and total the money to determine the winner of a single game. Results: Mason first; me second; Katrina third; Sue, Dan, Joel (tied) fourth; Kassi last.

We finished the day and the year with our second most-popular game – Settlers of Catan. I finally got around to painting Kassi’s playing pieces purple, one of her favorite colors. The natural wood I had left them as originally looked very much like the white road pieces that Mason always uses, and it was a little confusing when their roads connected. I guess the paint job passed along some luck to Kassi. She managed to get the Longest Road fairly early, and no one got the Largest Army. With our special 7-player rules, we play to only a score of 7, so the game is fairly quick. I stole the Longest Road from Kassi, when her score was standing at 6, but she managed a great die roll on her next turn, re-took the Longest Road and placed another settlement, winning the game! Results: Kassi first; Dan second; Mason and Katrina (tied) third; Joel, Sue, and me (tied) last.

We had a great year of gaming. We modified a number of excellent games, to allow for 7-8 players, and we enjoy getting together almost every Saturday for lunch and games. What could be a more fun family tradition?

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Catching Up

2006-12-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We have been so busy since Thanksgiving that I haven’t had time to record our games. Well, maybe I’ve grown a little lazy, too. And, my memory isn’t what it used to be, so I’m not sure how many details from the last two weeks of gaming I can even recall. Perhaps I’m getting too old for this!

December 2, 2006

I’ll list the games we played, alphabetically, since I can’t recall the actual order in which they were played. Around the World in 80 Days is still one of my favorite games, and it is a lot of fun with 7 players. I do recall that it was an interesting finish. Sue had reached London just before me, with a total trip of 78 days. She, and almost everyone else assumed she had won, since everyone else had taken more than 80 days, and I was the last one coming in. I thought I might actually win, but too many Delay and Storm cards ate up my nice timetable. However, I managed to finish in 80 days, so I got second place, surprising everyone. Results: Sue first; me second; Katrina third; Kassi fourth; Dan fifth; Joel sixth; Mason last.

Seven-player Bohnanza is always a winner at our table. Results: Dan first; Joel, Sue, Kassi (tied) second; me fifth; Katrina sixth; Mason last.

We tried a new game -- Reiner Knizia’s game Catego just came to my attention, thanks to Mary (sodaklady on BGG). It’s a very simple dice game, and we gave it a try. It’s designed for 4 players, but (naturally) we tried it with 7. It needs a little tweaking for that many players. Mary had suggested playing with three dice, rather than two, and we believe that is a good idea. Next time we play this, we’ll use three dice and see how it works. In our first 7-player game, with two dice, the results were: Dan first (a runaway win); Mason second; me third; Joel, Katrina, Kassi, Sue (tied – no points) last.

We introduced Hunters & Gatherers to Kassi. It is a fairly quick game with 7 players, and we all enjoy it. Joel has always liked this game, and the results showed that. Results: Joel first; Katrina second; Sue and Dan (tied) third; me fifth; Mason sixth; Kassi last.

We got in a lot of games this day. Settlers of Catan was the other one. Dan and Mason continue their competition for the most wins of this game; today, Dan pulled ahead by one victory. Our modification of the rules and the addition of some components, to accommodate 7 players, is working well. Results: Dan first; Sue and me (tied) second; Joel, Mason, Katrina, Kassi (tied) last.

Wow, three last places for Mason – not his usual game day, although he did well in Catego.

December 9, 2006

Kassi’s daughter joined us today for one game, before going to her aunt’s house to help bake Christmas cookies. Andra is a delightful fifteen-year-old who fit right in with the group. Like her mother, she is a good card and game player. Of course, she was at a definite disadvantage, with 9 of us playing Trumpet, and this being her first time to play and to meet all of us. Trumpet is a good game for 2-9 players, and I think would be fine with 10. Results: Sue first; Kassi second; Dan third; Mason fourth; Katrina fifth; Natalia sixth; me seventh; Andra eighth; Joel last. It was a very tough game for Joel – the luck of the cards. He tied Dan’s record low score of being on the fourth space when the game ended. Of course, Dan is happy to have someone sharing his misery with that dubious honor.

After Andra left, we introduced Kassi to Carcassonne, a game we all enjoy. Results: Dan first (106 points); Katrina second (105); Mason third (88); Sue fourth (87); Kassi and me (tied) fifth (75); Joel last (73). It was a very tight finish, with Dan winning by one point; Mason and Sue were separated by only two points; and Joel just missed tying Kassi and me for fifth place.

We finished the day with Bohnanza. Results: Kassi first; Joel and Dan (tied) second; Mason and me (tied) fourth; Katrina fifth; Sue last.

December 16, 2006

We had time for only one group game today. We had a birthday party for Natalia and Joel at our house, following lunch. Joel turned 9 years old last week, and Natalia will be 11 next week. We brought out Hunters & Gatherers again. I think Kassi was interested in trying to improve her last-place finish in her first game of this, two weeks ago. Boy, did she ever! Results: Kassi first; Mason second; Dan third; me fourth; Sue fifth; Katrina sixth; Joel last.

After Mason and Kassi had to leave early, Dan, Katrina, Joel, and I played Scavenger Hunt for the first time. It is a funny game, with many similarities to Magic: The Gathering in play. But, the theme (scavengers fighting over animal carcasses) is quite unique. The mechanics work great with the theme, and I’m sure we’ll play this some more. It is designed for six players, but Sue has no interest in it, primarily because the theme turns her off. I could easily extend the game for 7 players, but I don’t believe there will be a need to do so. I think Mason would enjoy it, and maybe Kassi, too. We’ll find out some day. Unfortunately, I did not write down the order of finishing in this game, but I know Katrina won. Near the end, it appeared I might win, but Dan stole one of my carcasses, reducing my score. Then, it looked like Joel might win, and then Katrina. On the last round, Katrina grabbed a carcass and indicated she had won, but I interrupted her and played a Skullduggery card that made her return the carcass to the savannah, and we thought the game would continue. Then, Katrina played a Skullduggery card that allowed her to ignore my card, and she won the game! Quite a finish.

Finally, we opened Top Dog and tried it. After Dan, Katrina, Joel, and I played a game, Sue and Natalia joined us for another. As soon as I read the rules to this game, I immediately said to myself that it is very much like For Sale. Joel noticed the same thing as soon as we began playing. It is a fun, quick game, and I think we will play it as a filler, like we do For Sale. I will need to create another two decks of cards, to allow for 8 players, when I get time. Again, I didn’t keep a record of who won the games (I just know that I did not win either of them).

We acquired Scavenger Hunt and Top Dog (and Loot, which we have not played, yet) when Jason Little, of St. Louis, sold me his extra copy of BattleLore. I could not believe he was so generous as to include in the shipping box these three card games as gifts for us. What a fantastic surprise. And to top it off, he included the DVD movie Elf, one I had been considering purchasing. I think Jason is Santa Claus’s disguise in real life, but I don’t know how Santa had time to pretend to be Jason at this time of year. If you are reading this, Jason, we again thank you very, very much. We expect to get much enjoyment out of the card games and the movie, and Dan and Joel are certainly looking forward to opening BattleLore soon.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Thanksgiving Holiday Gaming

2006-11-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had the entire family at our house for Thanksgiving Day and for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, plus my wife’s mother was with us. Some years, we have convinced her to play some games with us, but she is 98 years old now, and she said she would prefer to watch. She is a very active, healthy, and sharp lady, and although she did not want to play our games, she did watch, ask questions, and even gave some advice now and then. We decided to play games that she knew or would enjoy watching, so our lineup included simpler card games, except we did play Settlers of Catan once.

Thanksgiving Day
We started with several wild games of Nertz. With 8 players, the large dining table is the center of a madhouse, with cards flying through the air in a frenzy. I was always at one end of the table, and it was virtually impossible to play on card stacks at the other end. It was not unusual to have as many as three players trying to play the same card on the same stack at the same time, which always brought howls of laughter and/or pain. With 8 players, the game is so chaotic that we choose not to count the scores in our records. It is simply a crazy, fun time that we all enjoy. Sue’s mother taught her this game when she was a young girl. Her mother (and we) later taught our kids (Katrina and Mason), and more recently, she (and all of us) taught our grandchildren how to play. I also learned the game when I was a teenager, so it is one that has a lot of family history for us, with Sue’s mother involved in passing it along to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. As we were playing today, she was sitting by me, and she occasionally pointed out to me that I had missed a play. Quite amazing for a 98-year-old!

We played two games of Frank’s Zoo. We do not play with the “lion” rules, but only with the basic rules. With 7 players, we have only a few cards in hand, and it is not uncommon to have singles only. However, Dan was the first player in the first game, and he had four elephants and three of something else. By playing those sets first, he was out (winning the game) very quickly. The second game was closer, with no more than two of a kind played at any time. Results of Game One: Dan first; Joel second; me third; Kassi fourth (her first time to play, and we didn’t even do a good job of explaining the game in advance – she is an excellent game player); Mason fifth; Sue sixth; Katrina last. Results of Game Two: Kassi first (she certainly learned this game quickly); Katrina second; Mason third; Joel fourth; Sue fifth; Dan sixth; me last (couldn’t get rid of a mouse).

The only other game we had time for was Bohnanza. Natalia chose not to join us, even for Bohnanza, which was a little surprising. Results: Joel first; Dan, Katrina, and Kassi (tied) second; me fifth; Mason sixth; Sue last.

It wasn’t our usual day of gaming, but it still was fun.

Saturday
We had a little more time for games today. We even went outside for a game of Bocce, before starting inside games. We again played Bohnanza, and again Natalia chose not to play. Results: Dan first; Mason and me (tied) second; Joel, Katrina, and Sue (tied) fourth; Kassi last.

We played three games of Circus Flohcati, counting the combined scores as one game for our records. Natalia did join us for this one, but she really wasn’t in a good mood for games. Results: Sue first; Kassi second (her first time at this game); me third; Joel fourth; Mason fifth; Dan sixth; Katrina seventh; Natalia last.

Settlers of Catan was our final game of the day, and we were testing our new revised rules, to allow for 7 players. The modifications worked well (at least I thought so, since I won). Results: Me first; Joel, Dan, and Mason (tied) second; Sue and Kassi (tied) fifth; Katrina last. Our rules changes for 7 players will be described in a future article here.

We are expecting to get back to our normal game day agenda next Saturday, and I’m looking forward to it.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

West Denver Gamers, November 16, 2006

2006-11-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Had a good time at West Denver Gamers last Thursday. Only three of us were available; we hope the crowd will expand after the Thanksgiving holiday.

I had never played Puerto Rico, as it is not likely to be popular with our family game group. Because it is such a popular game with the BGG crowd, I was interested in learning what it was all about. Iain brought it and willingly taught Reed and me how to play. We had both read the rules and other info found on BGG, so we knew the basics. It didn’t take long to confirm our information and start the game. I have to agree that it is an excellent design. I now know why it is a hit with so many people. Too bad it couldn’t be expanded to accommodate 7 players; I might be able to convince the family to give it a try in that case. I didn’t do well in this first game, but Reed did very well. I knew I needed to have at least one large purple building before the end of the game, but I never managed to buy one, which is reflected in my score. We hope to play again next week, to get a better feel for it. Results: Iain 47; Reed 45; me 36.

Reed had to leave after that game, so Iain and I played a 2-hand game of Through the Desert. Iain, not surprisingly, is an excellent game player, and TtD is a game he likes to play. I had played one game of TtD with two players, online. All my other games have been with 5 or 6 players, and I had forgotten to think “larger” with fewer players. Still, I felt reasonably good to lose by only 5 points.

We had time for a short game, and I had brought Station Master, which was new to Iain. I enjoy this game very much, but had never played with just 2 players. I am used to having five or six or seven trains to deal with all through the game, and having just two trains at a time threw me for a while. Iain got off to a very fast start. I believe he had over 50 points when I was still in the single digits; I was beginning to feel embarrassed. I gradually gained on Iain, connecting some negative-point cars to the trains where he had more passengers. At some point, late in the game, I managed to catch Iain, primarily by reducing his score, while maintaining mine. By the end of the game, I had pulled out the win, with a fair difference in score, so I didn’t lose every game of the evening.

We hope to see more folks at the next meeting, but with the Christmas holiday season coming up quickly, people may not have as much time to devote to game meetings for the next month.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played November 11, 2006

2006-11-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had a fun day of games on Saturday. Kassi wasn’t able to join us, since she was on vacation in Hawaii! We did finally play the last of our un-played games – Hoity Toity.

Hoity Toity is an interesting game. I think we need to play it at least one more time to get a real feel for it. With six players, there are a lot of “conflicts” each turn. Rarely did anyone find themselves alone in either the Auction Hall or the Castle. We did not pace ourselves as far as spending our money, so the game dragged to a close with everyone trying to steal collectibles from each other, and rarely did anyone risk an exhibit near the end. Results: Mason first; Dan and Katrina (tied) second; me third; Sue fourth; Joel last (he didn’t care much for this game and might not play it again, very soon.

Next up was Marco Polo Expedition. Mason OWNS this game in our group. Before today, we had played it four times in the past year, and he had won every game! Near the end of this game, Mason was trailing the rest of us by several spaces, but he had been hoarding cards for some time. We knew he was planning to make a run for the finish, and we were all trying to beat him to it. Finally, he started moving, leap-frogged us, and indeed won the game, again. Results: Mason first; Dan and Sue (tied) second; me fourth; Katrina last. Someday, perhaps, one of us will beat Mason at this game (maybe).

We hadn’t played Carcassonne for a while, and decided to bring it out today. Early in the game, Dan was on two cities, each with a cathedral, and the cities were growing well. I managed to connect and join him in one of them, while Mason did the same in the other. Fortunately, just before the game ended, I managed to complete the city we were sharing, and Dan and I scored a bunch of points. He and Mason did not get the other city finished, so they got no points for it, since it contained a cathedral. Although I led from about mid-way through the game, it appeared Mason would win, because he managed to grab almost all the trade goods (each of the three worth 10 points to the person with the most in them). On my final tile placement in the game, I was able to finish a city that contained a wheat, and managed to tie him for that item. That preserved my win, and in fact, when we counted the farmers/fields, Dan passed Mason. Results: Me first; Dan second; Mason third; Katrina fourth; Sue fifth; Joel last.

For a rare event, Joel decided to opt out of playing Settlers of Catan today, so we had a five-player game. I was first player and placed my first settlement on an 8-8-9 combination. That should have almost guaranteed me a win. We started out fairly evenly, but soon Sue and Katrina began edging away from the rest of us. When Sue stole the Longest Road from Dan, and Katrina got the Largest Army, it was just a matter of time. On the last round, both Sue and Katrina had 9 points, but Sue played before Katrina and managed to get the victory. Katrina had the required 10 points, but didn’t get the chance to play and win. Results: Sue first; Katrina second; Mason and me (tied) third; Dan last.

We ended the day with a 7-player game of Bohnanza. I thought I was doing okay, until we counted the gold at the end. In fact, I did do well, but so did everyone else. The winning amount was 12 gold (a 3-way tie), followed by 11 gold, and finally 10 gold (3-way tie). That was a very close game! Results: Joel, Mason, and Sue (tied) first; Natalia fourth; Katrina, Dan, and me (tied) last.

I am continuing to work on expanding games for 7-8 players. We need to test many of them, to be sure the modifications will work, and I’m looking forward to that. Now, we have no un-played games, so perhaps I’d better get busy working on a new purchase list!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

West Denver Gamers, November 8, 2006

2006-11-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

West Denver Gamers met for the second time, although it was an “interim” game night. The group has planned to meet two nights a month, but five of us were ready to meet between those weeks. We played two games and looked at and discussed five others, if I recall correctly.

Iain had asked me to bring Coloretto and Silverado; he brought Speed Circuit and Puerto Rico; and Glen brought I’m the Boss and Samurai. We didn’t get to Samurai, but did see the others. We had hoped to play Puerto Rico, but some time and tables were occupied in Barnes & Noble by an elementary school poetry reading, which didn’t finish until about 7:30. I brought out Coloretto. The other four had not played it, but it is an easy game to learn. We played three quick games: Reed won the first one; Iain won the second; and I can’t recall who won the third. Everyone caught on quickly, making good defensive plays even in the first game.

Iain explained Puerto Rico to the three of us who have not played it, and we hope to play it at the next session. I showed Silverton, which Iain was particularly interested in (and at his request). He and I both have an interest in the railroad history of Colorado and the Rocky Mountain area, and it is neat to see the small towns (some no longer in existence) on the mapboard. Silverton is primarily an economics game, based on railroads. It is a good solitaire game, which is the only way I’ve played it, but I expect it would be more fun with three or four players. Iain may decide to purchase it, and we hope to perhaps have the opportunity to play at least a 2-player game someday.

Iain also showed us his copy of the 3M edition of Speed Circuit, the one that has the racetrack board wrapped around the box. I had the football game made like that, and Reed had the golf game of the same style. It was a successful series of games. Reed had an uncle who worked for the 3M company at the time those games were produced, and he said they always got some of those 3M games for Christmas. Lucky guy!

Glen brought out I’m the Boss to end the evening. None of the rest of us had played it, so it was a learning experience for us. This is a negotiation game, with lots of “gotcha” opportunities. During the game, I drew most of the I’m the Boss cards, while getting hardly any other useful ones. Fortunately, that gave me many opportunities to stop other negotiations and be in the position of attempting to make deals in my favor. I was very surprised when we counted the money at the end of the game and found that Glen and I had tied for the win. It was a fun game, but I’m not sure whether it would be popular in our family group. I’m thinking it would get very chaotic with 7 players, although it would be easy to expand it for that size group.

It was a fun evening. I suspect that some of us may meet almost weekly, with the official game nights set for twice a month. It is already providing an excellent venue for learning about games I’ve heard about, but probably would not purchase or have the opportunity to play, otherwise. It appears that many of us have very different collections of games, although we mostly like the same types. It will be interesting to see how the group develops over the next several months.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played November 4, 2006

2006-11-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had a great day of gaming today. Joel was attending a friend’s birthday party in the afternoon, so he only played one game with us. Natalia played two games, so everyone was involved.

We started with Settlers of Catan. With six players, it’s a busy map. We had few good numbers on wheat or ore tiles, so there was a real shortage of those important resources. However, one of the ore tiles was an “8.” I was first player, so I placed my first settlement on that tile, which also bordered a “9” and a “10.” Those numbers paid off quite well for me (one being brick and one being wood). I also managed to place my second settlement on a “6” sheep tile, which did pretty well. Even with those locations, I got off to a rather slow start, with rolls of 11 and 4 coming up often. Fortunately, I was able to do some good trades early, which allowed me to begin buying Development Cards. I soon accumulated three Soldiers and grabbed the Largest Army card. During the remainder of the game, I purchased five more cards, receiving another Soldier, a Year of Plenty, a Monopoly, a Road-Building, and two Victory Points. That is one of the best sets of Development Cards I have ever had in this game. The game developed slower than usual. We were well into the game before anyone could upgrade a settlement to a city. Towards the end of the game, I suddenly realized that I had five settlements placed, the 2-point Largest Army card, and 2 VP cards, for a total of 9 points. I miscounted Katrina’s points, thinking she had only 8, but she also had 9. At that point, I acquired the Road-Building card and needed only one more card to be able to build a settlement, which would win the game. I acquired the necessary card in a trade, before my turn, so I was “looking good.” Then, Sue built a settlement at the only point where I could have built, and, alas, I had overlooked the fact that I had no more settlements to place, anyway. I had to upgrade to a city or acquire another VP card. I don’t believe anyone else realized I was sitting with 9 points (not knowing I had 2 VP cards). On my next turn, I managed to trade just enough to upgrade to a city and win the game. I was as surprised as anyone at the table. It was a good start for me, giving me three consecutive game victories, counting last week’s two wins. Results: Me first; Katrina second; Sue third; Kassi, Mason, Dan (tied) last.

Natalia said she would like to play Flea Circus (Zirkus Flohcati), so that was next up. Because it’s a fast game, we play three games, totaling the scores to count as one game. After the first game, I was in next-to-last place. In the second game, I managed to draw the card I needed, with only one more left in the deck, to complete a gala. This is not often possible, when playing with seven players, before the deck runs out. In the first game, Natalia had 9 of the 10 different colors when the game ended, just missing getting a gala. The gala points (we decided long ago that 15 is the best score for a gala) put me in first place for the two games. Naturally, whomever is the leader on the score sheet gets hit by the special “stealing” cards from other players, so I knew it would be difficult to stay ahead of Mason, who was trailing me by just six points. However, I managed to take a good card from his hand, and I finished with enough points in the third game to have first place for the overall game. Results: Me first; Katrina second; Natalia third; Dan fourth; Sue fifth; Mason sixth; Kassi last (this was her first time to play).

Next, I pushed to try a new game I received for my birthday – Dragon’s Gold. This is a fun game, and I expect we will play it some more. The colors on the score cards are not very clear; the gold looks like yellow and the red and purple colors are almost indistinguishable on the card, which was misleading for our first time to play. The adventurer groups always managed to agree on the division of the treasure, although I think the negotiation will be tougher in the future. I managed to kill one dragon by myself and collect 6 treasures, and I acquired two magic cards during the game. At the end of the game, there was one dragon with treasure on it, and the Black Diamond was in the dragon’s hidden treasure. Fortunately, I was in the group that killed the dragon, along with three other players. I offered to take only the Black Diamond and let the others split up the rest of the treasure, which was agreeable to all of them. It was a perfect deal for me, since I did not have a good variety of gems. I also had the most purple gems, and only one of my gems was wasted by the curse of the diamond. I had acquired quite a bit of gold and silver and three magic objects (red treasure pieces). When we added the scores, I came out on top. Results: Me first (41); Mason second (34); Dan third (31); Katrina fourth (30); Kassi fifth (26); Sue last (19).

There was just enough time for an eight-hand game of Bohnanza to finish the day. As always, there was a lot of wild trading taking place, and the game played quickly. I scored slowly at first, but managed to get some good collections of Black-Eyed and Soy Beans near the end. Just before the cards ran out for the second time, I was able to trade a Wax from my hand, giving me the opportunity to play two Soy Beans on my last turn. That trade put me in a tie for first place with Natalia. Results: Natalia and me (tied) first; Mason, Sue, Dan, Katrina (tied) third; Kassi seventh; Joel last (a very rare finish for him).

I couldn’t believe that I managed to sweep the group today – four wins (including one tie) out of four games. Since I won the two games we played last week, that made six consecutive victories for me in October and November. I still will not catch Dan, Sue, or Joel in wins for 2006, let alone Mason or Katrina, who have a good lead over the rest of us, but it does feel good to finally get some wins this year.

The only new game we haven’t yet played is Hoity Toity, and I look forward to trying it. I’ve spent some time this past week working on modifications of our 5- and 6-player games, to accommodate 7 players. Kassi won’t be with us next weekend (since she will be vacationing in Hawaii!), so we won’t be trying any of the modified games with seven players. I do look forward to trying them in the future, though.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

West Denver Gamers

2006-11-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Last Thursday evening was the first game night for a new group called the West Denver Gamers. I was one of nine people who attended, which I thought was an excellent turnout. "citizenk" (username on BGG) organized the group and found a good place to meet – Barnes and Noble at Denver West. Sue and I were with Natalia and Joel earlier in the evening, so I wasn’t able to get to B&N until almost 9:00pm. The group had already played Formula De and had just started Bohnanza. After that game, five of us decided to stay a little longer, and we played Through the Desert. Although I finished last, I definitely enjoyed the game. The group seems to be a very congenial collection of folks who enjoy games, and I’m looking forward to more game nights with them.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played October 28, 2006

2006-10-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We managed to play only four games in October that counted in our family records. It was a very busy month for all of us, on other activities, and it felt good to get back together and play two games this weekend, anyway.

I have begun giving serious thought to the challenge of modifying our Eurogames that are mostly designed for 5 or 6 players, to allow simultaneous play by our 7 or 8 regular players. It is an intriguing issue.

This week, I brought out Around the World in 80 Days. With one simple modification, it worked perfectly for seven players, although it was designed for a maximum of six. It was Kassi’s first time to play this game, but she learns new games quickly, and she did well for a first time. I trailed the pack throughout the game, until the last turn, sometimes by as many as four cities. However, I drew some good event cards, as well as travel cards, so I was able to make a quick run at the end. I had hoped to do better than I did. I was holding an Elephant card and was ready to move from Bombay to Calcutta, but Sue’s play just before my turn resulted in her drawing the Storm event card, so I had to discard the Elephant card and take a full 12 days for that leg of the trip. It appeared that Katrina had it wrapped up, with a total of 76 days, after Sue finished with 80 and Joel with 79. But, I was able to use an event card on the last turn that brought me to London in 75 days. Joel had just played the Express Train event card, and I was holding the Princess card, which allowed my to use his played Express Train in my turn. That saved me just enough days to beat Katrina. Results: Me first (75 days); Katrina second (76); Joel third (79); Sue fourth (80); Kassi fifth; Mason sixth; Dan last. I believe this will definitely be a game we all play in the future.

As (almost) always, we played Bohnanza, although Natalia chose not to play this time. I had no idea who might win, since many stacks of gold looked similar in size, so I was very surprised to learn that I won by beating Joel and Dan by one gold. Results: Me first; Joel and Dan (tied) second; Kassi fourth; Sue and Katrina (tied fifth); Mason last.

We expect to play more games next weekend, and I hope to have at least one or two more modified for more players by then. It was an interesting month of gaming for the family – of the four games that counted in our records, Katrina won two and I won two. I still trail everyone badly in wins this year (at least Katrina, Mason, Sue, Dan, and Joel), but it feels good to be winning a few, although it’s late in the year. At least I wasn’t completely shut out of wins in 2006.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played October 14, 2006

2006-10-15T15:30:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Mason and Kassi were not with us this weekend, and the rest of us had a busy morning visiting the Arborteum’s fall festival and pumpkin patch. We went to the Cavaliere home after lunch and played four games, before deciding we were tired and needed to go home.

We played Elfenland, first time with just four players. I do like this game, but could not get things arranged the way I needed them this time. Katrina scored very well in the first round, and no one caught up later. Results: Katrina first; Sue second; me third; Dan last.

Six of us played For Sale, and it was a close finish. Results: Joel first; Sue second; Dan third; Natalia, Katrina, and me (tied) last.

This was also the first time we played Station Master with just 5 players. That is a really neat game, with frequent (and often large) changes in scores. Sue was outstanding, finishing with a score of 337! Results: Sue first; me second; Joel third; Katrina fourth; Dan last.

The fourth game we played was Ticket to Ride. Joel really enjoys this game and always wants to play when Mason or someone else is not present for games, but he had some bad luck today. Results: Me first; Dan second; Sue and Katrina (tied) third; Joel last.

It was a fun day, although the results won’t count in our family gaming records. Sue and I will be out of town next weekend, so our next family gaming day should be October 28.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played October 7, 2006

2006-10-08T16:24:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We only managed to play two games on Saturday, but still had fun. It was my birthday, so we all went out to eat some great Chinese food. When we came home, I performed a short magic show for the family (which Natalia and Joel enjoyed), opened my gifts, and then we played two games. My gifts included two new games – Hoity Toity and Dragon’s Gold. I’m looking forward to trying them both, but it will probably be at least three weeks before we get them out. Mason will not be with us next weekend, and the following weekend, Sue and I will be out of town.

First game we played was Bohnanza, with all eight of us. It was our typical fun trading game. It was an interesting finish, because Natalia did not do nearly as well as she usually does, and Katrina won the game, with Kassi second. That was really neat. Results: Katrina first; Kassi second; Joel, Dan, and Sue (tied) third; Mason and me (tied) sixth; Natalia last. For only her second game of Bohnanza, I believe Kassi has caught on to the game very well!

The other game we played was, naturally, Settlers of Catan. Katrina won both games we played today, which is much better than she has been doing lately. At the end of the game, she had nine points, including a VP card, but couldn’t build or upgrade anywhere. So, she bought a Development Card at the last moment of her turn, and it was another VP card! She has won this way more than once. Nice finish. Results: Katrina first; Dan and me (tied) second; Kassi and Sue (tied) fourth; Mason last. Poor Mason! Both times we’ve played this with Kassi, Mason has finished last, and it’s his favorite game, one he wins about half the time.

We won’t be playing games next weekend that count in our records, and won’t play at all the next weekend, so our next planned full family game day is October 28. I’m looking forward to it, and hope to maybe play one of the new games.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played September 30, 2006

2006-10-02T19:40:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This was an unusual game day for us, but much fun. After we watched Joel’s last two flag football games for the season and ate great hamburgers at a Red Robin restaurant, we adjourned to the Cavaliere home for games. Mason surprised us by bringing and introducing his new girlfriend, Kassi. Kassi is a delightful person who fit right in with us all. The amazing news is that she knew what Settlers of Catan is and had even played a couple of games some time ago. Her brother really likes Settlers and had introduced her to it. Additionally, she is a great player of Nertz (her family, like ours, called this game by a different name, but the rules are essentially the same). Nertz, of course, is a favorite game of Natalia’s, so we played it to start the day. Since it was Kassi's first time to play with us, we didn’t keep score, but she was certainly doing better than several of us.

Naturally, I had taken Settlers of Catan for game day, since it appears to be Mason’s favorite game. Kassi indicated that she didn’t remember the specifics of the game, but was willing to join in. Since it accommodates only 6 players, Joel volunteered to “help” Kassi re-learn the game, and they made a formidable team. In fact, they won the game! Results: Joel and Kassi (team) first; Dan second; Katrina third; me fourth; Sue fifth; Mason last. Poor Mason, playing his favorite game, lost badly to his girlfriend and Joel.

Next, we decided to try Bohnanza with eight players. It worked great. I know there must be a limit to the number of players in this game, but we haven’t hit it, yet. Kassi caught on quickly, very quickly. Results: Joel first; Mason and Kassi (tied) second; Dan, Sue, and me (tied) fourth; Natalia fifth; Katrina last (new low record score of 4, and she also held the previous low score of 5). Looks like Bohnanza will be a game we can all play together and enjoy very much.

Since we were on a roll, we decided to try another game with eight players – Trumpet. Again, the number of players worked fine, especially for a game designed for a maximum of six players. Kassi is a card player, so she had no trouble learning Trumpet, although she didn’t finish as well in this game as in the others. Results: Joel first (three games in a row today!); Sue second; Dan third; Natalia fourth; Mason fifth; me sixth; Kassi seventh; Katrina last (maybe Katrina was just being a good host today).

After Trumpet, Sue and I decided to call it a day. It was a lot of fun, and we look forward to including Kassi in more game days, if she is available. She is a natural game player.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played September 23, 2006

2006-09-24T18:20:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Mason was out of town this weekend, so our gaming didn’t count in our family records. However, the rest of us had a lot of fun, playing a lot of quick games. We managed to play seven games of 5 or 6 players on Saturday afternoon. We usually get in maybe four, at most, but those are more complicated games that take longer to play. Alphabetically, these are the games we played.

All six of us played Bohnanza. Sue was one of the first of us to score gold, and she harvested enough beans for 8 gold in one turn! Wow! She won with a score of 13, while Katrina was last with 3. I do not recall a wider score spread in this game for us. Results: Sue first; Dan second; Natalia third; me fourth; Joel fifth; Katrina last.

Flea Circus is a very quick-playing game, and this was no exception. I usually do okay in this game, but really couldn’t get going this time. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; Dan third; Sue and me (tied) last.

We hadn’t played Hunters & Gatherers for a while, and Joel asked for it. He really likes this game and plays it very well; in fact, he ran away with it. On one of the very last turns, he managed to connect a valley where he had placed the “stonehenge” piece to a large valley where I had managed to outnumber Dan, when I had connected two of my valleys. Joel stole the huge valley from me, after I had stolen it from Dan. That pretty well eliminated me from being competitive in this game. Results: Joel first; Katrina second; Sue third; Dan fourth; me last.

We were trying to think of games we had not played for some time and games that did not take long to play. One of those was Pick Picknic, an extremely light and fast game. I have always enjoyed this game. It looked like Sue had wrapped up the scoring, until the last round. I managed to play a fox of the same color that Dan, Joel, and Katrina had played birds, so I collected the value of their cards, and barely won the game. Results: Me first; Sue second; Dan third; Katrina fourth; Joel last.

Joel really enjoys Ticket to Ride, but doesn’t usually get to play, since it allows only five players. Whenever one of us is not at gameday, he asks for TtR. This game played fairly quickly, and Katrina just whipped us all badly, with the longest train and a handful of completed tickets. Results: Katrina (high score of 143); Sue second (score of 113); Joel third; Dan fourth; me last (score of 84). Oh, that hurt! Also, in the family gaming records of games that count, I hold the high score of 142, and Katrina topped that (too bad it doesn’t count – whew!).

Trumpet is another reasonably quick game, especially with six or seven players. Natalia decided to join us, so we had six this time. This is a fun game, and I was very fortunate to be dealt Trumpet cards often and at the right time. On the last hand, Sue was three spaces from winning, and I was one behind her. On one of the first tricks, Dan played a Trumpet card to take a trick. I was sitting like the cat that ate the canary with two Trumpet cards in my hand and a couple of good trumps. I used a Trumpet card to leap over Sue, after having to follow suit and losing two tricks, leaving me with some good trumps and another Trumpet. I won the next trick with a high trump, and then led the last Trumpet to the final trick, to win the game. I had a good lead late in the game, but couldn’t draw a decent hand for several rounds. Sue passed me, and Dan and Katrina were gaining rapidly, before I got a couple of good hands. It was a tight finish. Results: Me first; Sue second; Dan third; Katrina fourth; Natalia fifth; and Joel last.

Another game we had not played in a long time was Vampire, the Kinizia card game. I have mixed emotions about this game, but I will play it when someone wants to. I really prefer it as a 3- or 4-hand game. Maybe it was a “senior moment,” but I totally forgot how to play this game, and had to be reminded of the rules. My play reflected my memory loss, too. Results: Joel first; Sue second; Dan third; Katrina and me (tied) last.

It was a fun day of family gaming, once again. Late in the afternoon, Katrina and Sue took Natalia to a friend’s birthday party and sleep-over, and then the two of them went shopping. That gave Joel, Dan, and me a chance to play Memoir ’44 for the first time. I purchased the game earlier this month and managed to play two times, solitaire. That’s not really too hard for me, with my poor memory. I can repeatedly switch sides of the table, easily forgetting the cards on the other side each time. I found the game to have lots of possibilities and looked forward to playing against an opponent. Dan and Joel are big fans of HeroScape, and I used to play wargames many years ago. The Memoir ’44 rules were easy for all of us to grasp quickly. Joel and I set up as the Axis, with Dan as the Allies side. After we set up the first scenario (Pegasus Bridge), I went through the rules at a fast pace. Both Dan and Joel frequently commented that many of the rules were very similar to HeroScape. I expected Dan to win the game, but thought it would be a good learning experience for Joel, with me to point out things on the cards as we went. Joel caught on to everything extremely quickly, based on his highly successful play of HeroScape. Very soon, he was suggesting which card we should play and how we should order the units, and I could seldom recommend anything I thought was better than his ideas. Fortunately, I left the dice-rolling up to Joel, and he has amazing luck with dice. It was not long before we won the game, much to my surprise, and primarily due to the dice rolls. Dan made no mistakes that I was aware of, but couldn’t get the dice rolls that Joel could.

We decided to play the same scenario, with the same sides, a second time. This time, Dan won, but (just for fun, of course) Joel rolled the dice that we had planned, based on the card we were going to play. His roll would have won the game for us, if Dan had not barely beat us.

Dan emailed me today that he and Joel played four more times today, using three other different scenarios, and Joel won three of the four, again with his dice rolls. I believe he understands the game well. We hope to introduce Mason to Memoir ’44 this year and play with two teams. I’m looking forward to it.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played September 16, 2006

2006-09-17T16:22:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

On our way through Broomfield CO, we stopped at TimeWellSpent and picked up our game order. Dave Jones is great to have a conversation with regarding games. I would guess that he has played most (perhaps all) of the games he sells, which is really neat. Sue decided to reserve Category 5 (6 Nimmt), Dragon’s Gold, and Hoity Toity for future birthday and Christmas gifts for me (October and December are not far away, so I think I’ll survive). That left Memoir ’44 and Elfenland. Well, Memoir ’44 will not be a game played by the whole family, although I’m looking forward to trying it with Dan, Joel, and Mason. So, the whole stack of new games boiled down to one new one to try this weekend – Elfenland.

When I first heard about Elfenland, I wasn’t too interested, because I didn’t think the family would enjoy the theme, but I was convinced otherwise by folks on BGG and after reading reviews and session reports about the game. The fact that we enjoy other games by Alan Moon was a major influence, too. I’m glad I decided to try it, because it went over very well. What really amazed me was how quickly Joel (age 8) picked up the rules, after I read them through one time. I think he actually got the idea of the game quicker than I did, but maybe that’s not saying too much. Anyway, we played it, enjoyed it, and agreed that we look forward to it again. Dave Jones had told me that he considered this game to be one of those rare ones that plays well with 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 players. We certainly enjoyed the 6-player game. I think that we are already fairly comfortable with the rules, and I am eager to go again. Results: Katrina, Sue, and me (tied) first (17 cities, no cards left); Mason fourth (15 cities, one card left); Dan and Joel (tied) last (15 cities, no cards left). That was a tight first game!

Next, we played 7-player Bohnanza. Natalia and Joel always do well at this game. Results: Sue first (14 gold); Joel and Natalia (tied) second (13 gold); Mason fourth (11 gold); Dan fifth (9 gold); me sixth (8 gold); Katrina last (7 gold). The scores were really spread out in this game.

Finally, we had time for a game of Settlers of Catan, as usual. This was a good game, with lots of jockeying for position. I believe the Longest Road card was held by three different people. Joel was almost the only one buying Development Cards and easily held the Largest Army card. Near the end, Katrina and Mason both had 8 points. Katrina earlier missed a play that would have given her the Longest Road, and that might have won the game for her. As it was, Mason had the Longest Road. It really looked like one of them would soon win. Then, Joel’s turn came up. He said, “I need a 9,” and immediately rolled that number. As soon as he did, he said, “I win!” We all couldn’t believe it. He had played seven Soldier cards, and we sort of assumed his eighth Development Card was probably a Soldier, but it was a VP card. His dice roll allowed him to build a road and a settlement, and that won the game for him. He had it figured precisely before his turn came around, and he played it perfectly. Great finish! Results: Joel first; Katrina and Mason (tied) second; Dan and me (tied) fourth; Sue last.

During the afternoon, we also went outside (except Mason, who was a bit sleepy and chose to rest) to play Bocce. I won both Bocce games, but unfortunately they don’t count in our family gaming records. Oh, well. . .

I have now removed the shrinkwrap from the Memoir ’44 box, but I’ve not taken the lid off it, until I have time to sit down and thoroughly enjoy going through it all. Maybe I’ll get a chance to do that this afternoon.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

New Games Order

2006-09-07T13:20:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

I finally placed a new games order. I held off until we had played all of the ones we acquired in late 2005, and that took us a while. We certainly can’t be sitting around with no new, un-played games on the shelf!

I have listed my criteria for new game purchases on an earlier blog entry.

Thanks much to Mary, Susan, and Dave for the great suggestions for some excellent family games that they added to my blog. I looked at each of those suggested and narrowed my list to about 8 or 10 games to research on BoardGameGeek (BGG). I read reviews, session reports, info in GeekLists, and comments posted in Forum threads, and I reviewed comments and reviews posted in a wide variety of game blogs. Finally, I checked several online game sources to see what was available and the cost. The game highest on my list was To Court the King, a new U.S. release by Rio Grande Games of Um Krone und Kragen, but its availability has been delayed. Guess it will have to wait for a future order. I have bought games from several online businesses, but prefer to deal with Time Well Spent, since the business is located about an hour’s drive from my house. I can pick up the order with no shipping charges, and because I plan to be driving through Broomfield, Colorado, next week, the timing was perfect.

My final order consists of just four games, but I think the family will enjoy these. I only buy games playable by at least six people (and not party games). I have read about 6 Nimmt (Category 5) for several years, and finally decided to buy it. All seven of us should be able to enjoy this game. We all like card games, and it appears to play fairly quickly, with simple rules.

Hoity Toity seemed to be a game six of us could have fun with, so it’s in the order. This is the Uberplay, 2004, version for 3-6 players. Scott Nicholson’s video review of this game was a big help.

Elfenland sounded like a neat game that is in line with our enjoyment of Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Around the World in 80 Days, and Hacienda. I know all these games are very different, but there is a somewhat common flavor to them, in my mind. I believe Elfenland may have some of that flavor.

Finally, I chose a game that is really designed for 2 players, but can be played by more. In fact, this game will not be one that the family plays together, because I’m sure Sue and Katrina will have no interest in it. Memoir ’44 is in the order because so many people have recommended it so highly. I come from a wargaming background, so this should not be difficult to pick up. Dan and Joel are very much into HeroScape, and I think this game will be even easier to learn, easier to set up, and challenging enough for them. I expect they will borrow this game a lot, but I also want to play against them sometimes. Perhaps Mason (who likes Risk) will find this an interesting game, and we can play 2-on-2.

So, that’s my pending order. I’ll pick it up at Broomfield next week, and will be eager to play some new challenges. However, I think one or two of these will be put aside as gifts to me for my October birthday or for Christmas. Well, if we play the others soon, I will just have to create another game order before Christmas! I know I’ll be looking for To Court the King, and if the re-release of Ave Caesar is available, that probably will be included in my next order. I would also like to get Diamant, someday. Fun times!!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played September 2, 2006

2006-09-03T10:45:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Another fun day with the family. Sue and I fixed a simple, but delicious, meal with a recipe called Lumbercamp Falls Skillet – a one-dish meal that we’ve enjoyed two times in the past year. I got the recipe several years ago from Midwest Living magazine, but only got around to trying it late last year. In a Dutch oven, we cooked some bacon (which was removed, drained, and crumbled for the topping), sliced potatoes, corn, onion, bell pepper, smoked sausage, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Along with a fresh salad, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, and a brownie sundae dessert, it makes a great and quick meal for seven people. Everyone ate a lot! Then, it was on to gaming.

We had played two games of Hacienda back in April, and we decided to try it again. The first time we played, with the symmetrical board, Dan and Mason tied for the win. The second time, with the asymmetrical board, Sue beat us all very well. In this third game, also asymmetrical, we were all a little more knowledgeable and played a little more defense, but Sue again took us to school in it. She claims to not really understand the game and asks questions during the play, and I noted that it sounded a bit like a “first-time” poker player asking whether having two of one kind and three of another was a good hand! Results: Sue first; Katrina second; Dan third; Mason fourth; me last. It appears to me that Sue is becoming a more aggressive game-player. In the last several games of Settlers, Through the Desert, and Hacienda, Sue has played more defense than I ever recall her doing in the past. She is also winning more games and placing better in the others. It has been an interesting recent change in her gaming style.

Next up was Through the Desert. In the past games, Katrina had two wins, Sue had one, and Dan, Mason, and Katrina tied for the win in the fourth game. With five players, the board fills up quickly, and the game ends fairly quickly. Three players were trying for the longest white caravan, so the camels went quickly. I managed to have the longest caravans in both purple and blue, which was a nice surprise, and I enclosed two small areas, but was blocked from completing two other areas. However, Mason enclosed two sizeable areas and won the game. Results: Mason first; Dan second; me third; Katrina fourth; Sue last. Sue prevented me from getting two additional areas enclosed, so she definitely understands this game. I did a lot of defensive playing last time we played TtD, and I came in last. Sue was last this time. I’m thinking that this game definitely rewards offensive, rather than defensive play, as many or most games do. I’m also thinking that I need to learn this game better – I’m the only one who hasn’t won a game of it!

Settlers of Catan was our next game, where Dan and Mason have a nip-and-tuck rivalry going for most wins. Luck definitely plays a role in this game. I have had good luck with the Development Cards in several games, but this was not one of those days. I bought 8 cards and received 7 soldiers and one Monopoly card. Dan bought two cards and got one Road Building and one VP! I did have the largest army, eight total points, and was beginning to think about winning this game, when Dan announced that the game was over. Results: Dan first; me second; Mason and Joel (tied) third; Katrina and Sue (tied) last. Mason and Dan are once again tied for most victories, with 19 each. They are hard to beat at Settlers.

We played our usual seven-hand game of Bohnanza toward the end of the day. Joel won with 14 gold, followed by Natalia, Mason, and Katrina with 13 – a close finish! Results: Joel first; Natalia, Mason, Katrina (tied) second; Dan fifth; Sue and me (tied) last (with 7 – Joel doubled our scores). Joel is a great game-player. I recently posted a photo of him on BGG with our completed Settlers game of last week. He and Natalia have each won more games this year than I have, as has everyone else in the family. But, that’s okay. I love playing all these different games, anyway.

We finished the day with four hands of Nertz, but decided not to keep score. Katrina won two hands, Natalia won one, and I won one, but I’m glad we didn’t keep score, because I believe my scores for the other three hands were all negative!

Next weekend, we will have visitors from out of state. I doubt whether we will play any games with the whole group, so I don’t expect to have a report next week. It is possible Sue and I will play some cards with her sister and brother-in-law, while staying at a cabin in Estes Park, Colorado, the following week, but we won’t have any game results to add to our family gaming records next weekend.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played August 26, 2006

2006-08-27T13:30:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We all attended Joel’s first flag football game (through the YMCA program) in the morning and then went out for a pizza lunch. Sue and I had a dinner to attend in the evening, so we only had time for four family games.

All seven of us played Bohnanza, as usual. Joel won with 14 gold, trailed by Dan with 12; Katrina was last with 8. This game was not as close as the last several we have played. Results: Joel first; Dan second; Mason and me (tied) third; Natalia and Sue (tied) fifth; Katrina last.

Of course, we played Settlers of Catan, as usual. Mason won, using both the Longest Road and the Largest Army. This is a very rare occurrence in our games. I had played defensively, blocking Sue’s attempt for the Longest Road and picking up the card myself. But, I didn’t hold it very long, before Mason snatched it from me. Sue paid me back by limiting my options for regaining the Longest Road, and we both finished tied in last place, with the other three players tied for second. Results: Mason first; Joel, Katrina, Dan (tied) second; Sue and me (tied) last. Mason once again leads Dan for wins in this game – 19 vs. 18 overall.

We played two games that haven’t been out for game day very often. The first was Marco Polo’s Expedition. We have played this game only 4 times since acquiring it in 2005. Mason has won all 4 games! He seems to have a winning strategy that the rest of us have not discerned. I’ll have to pay closer attention to his actions next time we play. Results: Mason first; Dan second; Katrina and Sue (tied) third; me last.

Finally, we took on Station Master. I enjoy this game, but have never done really well at it. This time, I managed a second-place finish, but Katrina won big-time, setting a new record for us with 318 points. One of the interesting facets of this game, especially with six players, is the rapid change in relative standings with each completed train. In one train completion, I moved from fifth to first place, but Katrina overtook me with the last train and won with a great score. With six players, it is difficult to develop any strategy, because a short train can be completed before the last player even has a chance to play on it. Katrina says it’s not one of her favorite games, but naturally, she’s won it more times than anyone, which seems to be a common result for her in games she “doesn’t really like.” Results: Katrina first; me second; Dan third; Mason fourth; Sue fifth; Joel last. Joel enjoys this game, but hasn’t yet figured out the winning strategy. No doubt, he’ll beat us all at this game one of these days.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played August 19, 2006

2006-08-20T16:34:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This was a fun day with the family. We finally have our house pretty well put back together, after all the remodeling and decorating work this summer, and we could have the family here again for lunch and games. After a great lunch of grilled marinated rosemary chicken breasts, lemon oregano potatoes, spinach salad and special dressing, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, and a fantastic fresh fruit/pudding/cake trifle, we cleared the table for games.

I had alerted everyone during the week that we were going to try Australia, and they were all willing to do so. We followed the suggestion in the rules and did not use the windmill scoring this first time out, which probably was a good idea. We did make a couple of errors, anyway, in placing and moving rangers, which we discovered and will correct next time. It was a really neat game, and we all enjoyed it. Everyone is ready to play it again, and eventually we’ll add the windmill scoring, which should make it even more challenging. We’re thinking of the windmill feature as being similar to an expansion to the basic game. Anyway, Australia was a hit, and it was the last un-played game in our collection. Now, I can actually get serious about a new game order. When I mentioned that, no one objected, which was a good sign. Australia results: Mason first (as he frequently is with a new game); Sue second (trailing by four points); Dan third; Katrina fourth; me last (typical these days, I fear). Mason beat Sue by having a lot more Australian dollars at the end of the game, and Katrina beat me for fourth place the same way. I’ll have to remember that next time.

What’s a game day with our family without playing Settlers of Catan? This was one of the longest games of Settlers we have played. The board was even more crowded than usual, with few building options available at the end. Both the Longest Road and the Largest Army cards were acquired early, and changed hands several times. Most of the VP Development Cards were acquired, but were split evenly around the table, which prevented anyone from getting a quick win. I believe that at the end of the game there were only a few places available for settlements, and only two people could have built on them. We all expected someone to win the game during the last two rounds of the game. It was pretty tense, because it was obvious that several of us were almost at 10 points. Finally, Dan got the right combination and won the game, with Joel, Mason, and Katrina tied at 9, me at 8, and Sue at 6 points (after she lost the Longest Road card, she stole the Largest Army card from me). Results: Dan first; Joel, Mason, Katrina (tied) second; me fifth; Sue last.

Natalia joined us for a game of Bohnanza, which seems to have become an automatic selection each game day, too. It was our typical fun game of “Beans.” Results: Sue first; Dan second; Natalia and Joel (tied) third; Katrina fifth; Mason and me (tied) last.

Because of the long Settlers game and taking time to learn Australia, we had time for only one quick finisher for the day, and decided to play For Sale, with seven players, which works fine by randomly removing two property cards and two check cards. Results: Joel and Dan (tied) first; me third; Katrina fourth; Mason fifth; Sue sixth; Natalia last.

Okay, now to get with it and place a new game order! We (at least Dan and I) have agreed to bring out one game each week that doesn’t get played very often, just to keep it in our memories, and to add to the variety.

One interesting thing happened this past week regarding gaming. Katrina and Dan are both middle school teachers. Katrina learned during a casual conversation that another teacher in her school plays Settlers of Catan in her family. Katrina said she will follow up on that information and tell her about all the other games we enjoy, and she’ll ask what else they play. That was quite a surprise, since we know of no one else among our neighbors, friends, or co-workers who enjoy Eurogames.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played August 12, 2006

2006-08-12T19:19:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This was a very relaxed day for us. Dan offered to grill his delicious, famous teriyaki burgers, while Katrina fixed two great salads, baked beans, and a fresh fruit/cookie pizza for dessert. After the lunch, we played a little ping-pong in their basement and then went outside for a game of bocce. Dan won the bocce game, barely beating Sue, and we went inside for some boardgames. First up was Ticket to Ride. I thought I was doing pretty well, but did not draw enough tickets to gain enough points; I had only three tickets at the end of the game. Dan drew tickets for the great east-west connections along the Canadian border, and no one contested him for the routes. I had a ticket for San Francisco to Atlanta, which I completed, but my other two tickets were for shorter north-south runs. Katrina had a long southern route. Mason was thwarted at several connections. He drew quite a few tickets, but was not able to complete two of them, for a minus 19 points. Dan easily had the longest train. Results: Dan first (133 points); Katrina second (98); Sue third (95); me fourth (93); Mason last (77). Mason has won this game four times, but also holds the record low score of 25. This was the first time Dan has ever won this game, which we began playing over a year ago. His score of 133 was very close to my record high of 142. It was a fast game today.

We have played Canyon three times as a group, with Katrina, Mason, and me the winners of those games. It’s been over a year since we all last played this together, and I brought it out today. We have modified the scoring of this game to a considerable degree. We firmly believe that trick-taking games like this one should offer people the same opportunity to score well, regardless whether they are dealt high or low cards. The important challenge is to be able to evaluate your hand and accurately predict how many tricks you will catch. We agree that if you bid zero tricks and catch no tricks, you are as successful as someone who bids four and catches them. Therefore, we do not believe that bidding and catching more tricks should allow you to move further down the river than if you bid low and catch the correct number. We allow each player to move his canoe four spaces, if he catches the number of tricks he bid. If he is off by one trick, he moves two spaces, and if off by more than one, he moves one space (essentially drifting with the current). Naturally, we also modified the movement within the rapids area. An accurate bid gives a player two spaces; otherwise, the canoe drifts one space, as indicated on the board. This has worked very well for us. Today’s game had a tight finish. Mason and I both were in a position to win the game on the last hand, but I got my bid and Mason didn’t get his. So, I pulled it out. Results: Me first; Katrina and Mason (tied) second; Sue fourth; Dan fifth; Joel last.

The next game was Bohnanza. This was one of our closer finishes in this game. With seven players, only three gold separated the winner from last place. Results: Natalia first (11 gold); Katrina and me (tied) second (10); Mason, Sue, Dan (tied) fourth (9); Joel last (8). This is now the most-played game in our collection, over the past five years, with 95 counted games.

Mason had to leave after Bohnanza, and Natalia wanted to play Inklings with us. Joel opted out, and we tried to select cards that had answers we believed Natalia would have a good chance of identifying. Results: Sue first (108); Katrina second (107); me third (97); Dan fourth (95); Natalia last (69). The game is fun, but it’s really not fair for a ten-year-old to try to compete with adults in this game. Natalia did a good job of writing her clues, but it’s hard for her to grasp some of our clues. Still, we all enjoyed it. I expect she will get better and better at such games as this, as she completes each grade in school. She certainly enjoys the challenge of word games, which is neat to see.

We plan to be at our house next weekend. We have not been able to have the family here for lunch for quite a while, because of all the work being done on our home. The last major contractor has finished, and Sue and I hope to have the furniture and everything back in place in all the rooms before next weekend. That will be very nice. Now, we have to decide what to have for lunch, and I have to see whether I have time this week to prepare to teach Australia to the group by next Saturday. (Here’s hoping.)

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played August 6, 2006

2006-08-06T18:59:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This is a very busy time of year for our family, and time for gaming is at a premium. We did not have the opportunity to game last weekend, and only had time for three games this weekend.

Our first game for the day was Settlers of Catan. It was another unusual game for us, with all but three of the development cards being purchased before the end of the game. I bought 10 of them, including one Monopoly card, one VP card, and 8 Soldiers. Joel bought 9 cards and got 3 VP cards in that group. In addition to being a great game player, he also has a good share of luck. My VP card acquisition rate was 10%, while his was 33%! I did manage to get and hold the Largest Army card, with all those soldiers. Sue grabbed the Longest Road card fairly early in the game, and held it until the last turn, when Katrina managed to steal it from her and win the game. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; Mason, Dan, and me (tied) third; Sue last.

I requested we play Oasis again, after a long absence from our gaming table. I like this game, but have not done really well for quite a while. I acquired a large number of green squares, but could never manage to grab even one multiplier chit for them, which was a major loss. I was building a pretty nice camel herd, but Mason managed to seal off my area, which hurt, also. I was certain I would be the low scorer, and possibly would set an all-time low. However, when the counting was done, I was most surprised to find myself in third place, although quite a ways back from second. Katrina just ran away with it, scoring 110 points, with Dan in second place, 20 points back from her. In fact, each place was about twenty points behind the one ahead of it. We were all surprised about the wide spread. That’s one of the interesting aspects of this game, in my mind – you never know who will win until the scoring at the end of the game. You can see what each player has on the board, but unless you have a great memory and can keep track of four other player’s acquisitions, you do not know how many of each type of the multiplier chits each person has. I had the fewest total number of multipliers, but still finished third, so that is not the best predictor of final scoring. Results: Katrina first; Dan second; me third; Mason fourth; Sue last (with a new low score of 43). It was not a good gaming day for Sue. Sue and I have won Oasis once each, while the other three have each won it twice in our gaming, since acquiring the game in 2004. I believe only Dan and I occasionally request to play Oasis, so it doesn’t get a lot of time on our table.

We wanted to play a game with the whole family, so we finished with Bohnanza. It has now been played by us 94 times in the past five years, tied with Trumpet for most popular game in our family. It, no doubt, will soon become the most-played game in our collection. With seven players, we use all the cards, and twice through the deck goes very quickly. Results: Mason first; Joel and Dan (tied) second; me fourth; Katrina and Sue (tied) fifth; Natalia last. The spread in scores was 6 gold to 11 gold, so only five gold separated seven players. We have had closer games, but even this range shows how competitive we are.

We had a fun time, as usual. We hope to be able to game next weekend, but our schedules are still quite busy and changeable. I think Australia will have to wait until things settle down, and we have more time to relax and learn a new game. Oh well. . . someday.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Family Gaming Records

2006-07-26T17:02:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We have been keeping records of our family gaming wins since January 1, 2001. At the beginning of 2004, we began keeping statistics for all finishes in our games, awarding 8 points for first place, 4 for second, 2 for third, 1 for fourth, and 0 for fifth, sixth, and seventh. We only count games played by all five adults, so our statistics are consistent.

Over the past four and a half years (795 games counted), Mason is our “winningest” player, by quite a bit. Our ranking is: Mason 24.5%, Dan 19.9%, Katrina 19.1%, me 16.2%, Sue 16.1%, Joel 3.3%, and Natalia 0.9%. It is important to note that stats for Joel and Natalia are not indicative of their actual performances. Natalia was only five years old when we began keeping statistics, and Joel was three, so they have only played a small percentage of those games, all in the past couple of years.

The stats for finishing places perhaps give a better idea of our relative game prowess. In this regard, for the 80 games counted so far in 2006, here are our standings: Mason 19.9%, Katrina 19.3%, Sue 16.1%, Dan 14.9%, and me 10.7% of the total points. Joel has played 59 games with us this year, and Natalia has played 21 games. Considering the fewer points they could have accumulated, their success percentages were better than the adults. Of the games each of them played, Natalia’s success rate is 21.9%, and Joel’s is 20.7%.

There are 55 games in our list of statistics, which we have played a total of 795 times. The most popular game has been Trumpet with 94 plays, followed by Bohnanza with 93 plays. Carcassonne is in third place with 68 plays. Many games have been played and counted only once or twice. Game leaders (those who have won specific games more times than other players, or who share that honor with one or more other persons) have these standings: Mason – 21 games, Dan – 17, Sue – 15, Katrina – 14, me – 6, and Joel – 1 (Tongiaki). Natalia just hasn’t played enough games to make this list.

When I complain about not winning games this year, Sue reminds me that she has always been at the bottom of the heap. But, so far this year, she has won 15 games, while I have won only 4 of the 80 we’ve counted. In total, I’ve won 129 of the 795 games recorded, while she has won 128 – we are virtually tied. Interestingly, Joel has won 12 games this year (playing in just 59), and Natalia has won 5 out of 21 played. Both kids have more wins than me, and I’ve played 80 games. This definitely is NOT my year for winning games!

In addition to these statistics, we also have noted record high scores for many games and record low scores for a few games.

What does all this mean? It means we love playing games, we enjoy competition, and we like to keep track of the results of our gaming. It adds to our overall enjoyment of family gaming.

Here’s the list of the 55 different games counted in our statistics, with number of games counted for each: Africa - 4; Alhambra - 4; Alibi - 2; Around the World in 80 Days - 8; Bidding Game {Oh Hell} - 33; Bohnanza (incl. High Bohn games) - 93; Boomtown - 4; Bugami - 2; Canyon - 3; Carcassonne - 68; Cartagena - 2; Cloud Nine - 4; Coloretto - 24; Cube Farm - 1; David & Goliath - 25; Democrazy - 3; Euchre - 2; Flea Circus {Zirkus Flohcati} - 52; For Sale - 3; Four Tricks {a card game I invented} - 1; Frank’s Zoo - 43; Golden Ten - 2; Go Wild! - 13; Hacienda - 3; Hare & Tortoise - 1; Hattrick - 9; Hearts - 32; Hell {Nertz} - 11; Hunters & Gatherers - 55; The Last Card - 8; Marco Polo Expedition - 3; Mexican Train - 1; Mississippi Queen - 8; Mu - 3; Oasis - 8; Office Space - 1; Phase 10 - 2; Pick Picknic - 6; Princes of Florence - 2; Rook - 1; Royal Turf - 14; Rummy 21 - 2; Santa Fe Rails - 3; Settlers of Catan - 59; Smarty Party - 2; Station Master - 3; Take It Easy - 12; Through the Desert - 6; Ticket to Ride - 17; Tightrope {Drahtseilakt} - 11; Tongiaki - 3; Trumpet - 94; Unexploded Cow - 4; Vampire - 14; Where’s Bob’s Hat? - 1. The 56th game, which will be counted eventually, when we finally play it, is Australia.

Of the 55 games, these are the ones we have played in 2006: Alhambra; Around the World in 80 Days; The Bidding Game {Oh Hell}; Bohnanza; Boomtown; Cartagena; Carcassonne; Flea Circus {Zirkus Flohcati}; For Sale; Hacienda; Hearts; Hell {Nertz}; Hunters & Gatherers; The Last Card; Mississippi Queen; Royal Turf; Settlers of Catan; Station Master; Through the Desert; Ticket to Ride; Tongiaki; and Trumpet. I hope to add Australia to this list soon.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played July 22, 2006

2006-07-24T13:00:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

While Mason was away to Seattle with some friends for a week, the rest of us played games that won’t count in our family records. We had a great time.

I was surprised that Joel and Natalia wanted to play Huggermugger. Katrina and Natalia were partners; Dan and Joel were partners; and Sue and I played separately. I love to play Huggermugger and have seldom lost that game. I started off quickly, finding the second letter of the secret word on my first turn, but things went to pot after that. I kept getting close to seeing another letter, only to fall just short (like being able to list nine words, when I needed ten). In the meantime, Sue only found one letter, also, and kept getting tough questions. The two teams began acquiring letters, until they both had several. I was beginning to get embarrassed, given my poor showing. Then, I hit a streak – I found that the fifth letter was a blank, so I didn’t have to go for the sixth one, since it would be a four-letter word. In one turn, I managed to get both letters numbered 3 and 4. I knew the word was –UBA, and tuba was the only word I could think of, so I took a guess and won the game. My record continues. It was fun to watch both Natalia and Joel on their team turns – both of them made some real contributions to their play. The problem for them is that the game is designed for people older than them, with lots of references to things they have never heard of. Still, they enjoy the challenge, and they very likely will be beating me on their own one of these days.

The grandkids love to play Nertz, so we played a six-person game of it to the score of 50. Results: Joel first, Natalia second, me third, Sue fourth, Katrina fifth, and Dan last.

I took Inklings to their house for the day, and the four adults played it. I enjoy that game, but only win occasionally. This was my day, although the scores were very close. Results: Me first, Katrina second, Dan third, and Sue last. Natalia got interested in watching us and asking questions about the game. She said she would like to try it sometime, so we left the game at their house. They should have some time to try it before school starts in August.

We hadn’t played Through the Desert for quite a while, so we played a five-player game of that. I was really doing well, leading in three colors and prospects for two very nice areas. But, as normal with five players, one color began running short very soon. It was one of the colors I was hoping to have the most of, so I had to keep choosing white camels almost every turn. Joel took the last two of them and “stole” the white caravan points from me (I finished with the most blue and purple, however). Joel is an amazing game player. Because I had concentrated on trying for the longest caravans in three colors, which was too much to expect with five players, I had ignored my potential high-scoring areas and never got any of them completed. I had also not jumped on very many oases early, so I had not accumulated many points during the game. Although I thought I would score well, I ended up in fourth place! Sue wrapped up a large area, uncontested, and won the game. Results: Sue first, Joel second, Katrina third, me fourth, and Dan last. Dan had started with many points from several oases and was well out in the lead. I blocked him in a couple of places, playing defensively which really hurt his game, but also didn’t really help mine. I certainly used the wrong strategy in this game! I look forward to playing it with six players again in the future – that is a very challenging game.

We had time for one more game, and Joel requested Hunters and Gatherers. The game went quickly, and it was difficult to tell who would be the winner, since we all had some good valleys and river systems. Results: Dan first, me second, Katrina third, Joel fourth, Sue last.

It was a great gaming day. We missed Mason. Next weekend, Katrina has a conflict, and Dan and Joel are going to a local HeroScape competition, so we may not do any gaming next Saturday. The following Saturday will find just Mason, Sue, and me available, so we haven’t made plans for that day, yet. After that, we should return to full family gaming, except for a weekend in September when Mason is going golfing in Arizona. I’m still looking forward to trying Australia – I wonder whether I’ll ever get to play it. . .

I’m holding off on a new game order until after we play Australia, so I need to find a way to get it to the table.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played July 15, 2006

2006-07-17T12:09:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had a fun day of gaming on Saturday. We got in five games, only one of which is a regular for us.

We started with the popular 7-player Bohnanza. Natalia and Joel always do well at this game, and today was no exception. What was exceptional was the fact that four of us tied for first place – very unusual. Results: Natalia, Joel, Dan, and me (tied) first; Katrina fifth; Sue sixth; Mason last.

We then decided to go with another game 7 people can enjoy, one we hadn’t played in quite a while. Flea Circus (Zirkus Flohcati) is a very easy, light, quick game. We play three games and combine the scores to count as one game. Results: Katrina first; Joel and Mason (tied) second; Sue fourth; Dan fifth; me sixth; Natalia last. Natalia usually does better than that at this game – must have been an off day for her.

One of Natalia’s favorite games is Nertz, so we tackled it next. We decided to play to a score of 75, and the game went quickly. It is a wild and crazy game, with 7 players at one kitchen table! We sit almost elbow-to-elbow, and still have trouble keeping up with all the fast-changing card stacks at the opposite ends. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; Mason third; Dan fourth; Sue fifth; Natalia sixth; me last. Many years ago, Sue and I were excellent at this game, but we’ve really slowed down, as we’ve gotten older. Not surprising. Natalia and Joel have been playing with a card or two handicap, so they do not have to get rid of 13 cards to win. However, they have become so good at this game this year that they now play with the same number as the rest of us, and they still do very well.

I suggested Around the World in 80 Days next, and we had a close game, as usual. I jumped out to a good lead, picking up bonuses for reaching cities first, and Sue was way behind most of the game, but also picking up bonuses for being last at each city. I was in the lead, with a reasonably small number of days spent, when I reached the Pacific Ocean. Then, I got stuck – could not get ship cards at all, and the detective began ruining my day-count. I still thought I had a chance, once I got to San Francisco. Mason hurried in, going many days over 80, but expecting to win by virtue of reaching London first, and hoping everyone else would also take more than 80 days. His strategy looked good for a while. Joel took a few days more than 80, and I took 81 days. Sue then reached London in 79 days, which looked like the winning time. But, Dan finished in 78 days for the win, and poor Katrina could not get the cards to even finish in the last turn. Results: Dan first; Sue second; Mason third; Joel fourth; me fifth; Katrina last.

We had a short time left for gaming, and Sue suggested Trumpet, which we enjoy with 7 players. The only surprise of the game was the fact that I managed to win, with Sue just one space away from the finish. In fact, she and I practically ran away with the game during the last couple of hands. Seven-player Trumpet can be a very nasty game, since it is not uncommon for all three Trumpet cards to be dealt in a hand, sometimes with two of them in the same player’s hand. Results: Me first; Sue second; Dan third; Mason fourth; Joel fifth; Katrina sixth; Natalia last.

It’s been a while since we played so many 7-player games in one day, and it was a lot of fun. Still haven’t gotten Australia to the table, and we won’t all be together for games during the next three weekends, so it will be pressing to get to try Australia by the end of August. I’m already researching my next game order and looking forward to making final selections.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played July 8, 2006

2006-07-10T09:47:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We managed to play four games today. Might have played one more, but for a long telephone call interruption.

First game up (again) was Bohnanza. This is a good game to begin the afternoon, because all seven of us enjoy it. When it is finished, Natalia usually goes off and does her own things for the rest of the day, unless we happen to pull out another one she likes. This was Joel’s day for games, and he easily won Bohnanza. Results: Joel first, Natalia second (she always does well in this game), Dan and Mason (tied) third, me fifth, Katrina sixth, Sue last. Although Sue didn’t do well this time, she holds second place for the most wins of Bohnanza, just one victory behind Mason, overall.

Next up was Boomtown. Although the rules say this is a game for 3-5 players, we’ve found that 6 can play it fine. Joel requested this game, and he won. In fact, he came close to the record high score (held by Sue – 89), with an 86. At the same time, I set a new low score of 26 (I also had the previous low score of 31). Obviously, I don’t understand how to play this game very well. Results: Joel first, Katrina second, Sue third, Mason fourth, Dan fifth, me last. Katrina complains about playing this game, saying she really doesn’t like it, but out of the four times we’ve played it, she’s won once, Joel once, and Sue twice.

Joel also requested Carcassonne. This was a slow game of Carcassonne, with some unusual battles for large cities. Amazingly, I managed to steal a very large city. Dan piled up bonus points with the most barrels and ribbons (cloth), and I made lots of points with several fields, as I had the last time we played. Last time, the final scoring brought me from last to fourth, this time, I led most the game and managed to hold on for the win. Results: me first, Dan second, Katrina third, Mason fourth, Joel fifth, Sue last.

Final game of the day was Settlers of Catan (no surprise). This, too, was a very slow-developing game (for us). Dan and Joel have been playing Settlers online this summer, and the scores reflected that. In fact, Dan simply ran away with the game. Results: Dan first (10 points), Joel – Sue – Mason (tied with 5 points) second , Katrina and me (tied with 4 points) last. Although the game started slowly, it ended fairly quickly. Dan zoomed ahead early and finished fast. Dan is just one game behind Mason, again, in wins of Settlers (18 to 17).

I decided this was not a particularly good weekend to introduce Australia. Unfortunately, I believe we may not all be together for games the next two weekends, so it looks like August may be the month to try Australia, unless we can manage it on the last Saturday of this month.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played July 1, 2006

2006-07-06T08:17:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Only had time for three games, again, but we had fun.

We started with Bohnanza, one of the games all seven of us enjoy. Natalia and Joel like this game so much, and they almost always surprise us with their play. It looked like a fairly close game all around, and no one could be certain who would be the winner. After counting our gold, Natalia actually won by quite a bit. We’ve played this game 12 times this year, and Natalia has won three times. I’m the only one who hasn’t won it this year. Results: Natalia first, Joel second, Mason and me (tied) third, Dan fourth, Sue and Katrina (tied) last.

We had played Carcassonne only four times this year, and decided this would be a good day for it. Joel had almost lapped me on the score board, before I had even scored. I had a very slow start. However, I managed to grab some worthwhile fields, and added my pig in one of them, plus I cornered the market in wheat tokens. Before the final scoring, I was far behind everyone, but with the fields and wheat bonus, I came in fourth, much to everyone’s surprise. This was our fifth game of Carcassonne this year, and Joel has now won three of them. In fact, he set a scoring record today of 204 points. Results: Joel first, Katrina second, Dan third, me fourth, Sue fifth, and Mason last (very surprising for him).

I always enjoy playing Mississippi Queen, and we hadn’t had it out for quite a while, so I brought it to the table. Mason and Dan took off like rockets, leaving the rest of us in the dust (or in the water, in this case). I soon passed Sue and Katrina, and managed to pick up one Southern belle in the process. I then built up steam and blew past Dan and Mason, but had to slow to get that last passenger on the last tile, just before reaching the finish. It looked like I had the game wrapped up, and we were talking about my third game win of the year, when suddenly Mason noted that at the end of the previous turn, he had been slightly ahead of me, which gave him the first move in the next turn, and that was all he needed to win the game. I don’t know whether he had realized it beforehand, but it certainly surprised me. Sue had been left way behind for over half the game, and it was looking very bad for her, but she came storming on at the end, and Dan barely edged her out at the dock on the last turn. Results: Mason first, me second, Katrina third, Dan fourth, Sue last.

This must have been “kids” day – the game winners were the three youngest in the family!

Because we had scarfed down three different stir-fry dishes that Sue and I prepared for lunch, just before starting the games, we were all slowing down a bit. The weather was great, so we adjourned outside for three games of Bocce. We play with a regular Bocce set, but not with a regular playing field. We just go back and forth on our front lawn, with the high scorer of each round tossing the target ball for the next round. Katrina or Sue keeps score, and Mason measures for the closest balls, and we just have fun. What added to the fun today was the sudden appearance of a little kitten, probably out on his own for the first time. We don’t know where he came from but he certainly had fun chasing our Bocce balls all over the yard, and even climbed our maple tree. We spent some time and energy keeping the neighbor’s cat away from him, and eventually that cat went home and sulked, while watching us. After we quit playing, the kitten came up on the porch and let everyone pet it, especially Natalia and Joel. We assume he finally went home. He had no collar, so we had no idea where he lived.

We had a great time gaming together, as always. Summertime brings lots of other activity opportunities to all of us. Mason went camping with some friends recently, and Dan is going biking at Winter Park this week, but fortunately we have generally been able to get together at least for an afternoon most weekends. Now, I need to go over the rules for Australia and bring it out for the first time. I don’t know whether to expect us to like it, or not, but I’m eager to try it.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played June 17, 2006

2006-06-21T08:35:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Sue and I were traveling for three weeks, and we certainly missed gaming with the family. So, we were happy to all get together again.

We had time for only three games, so we played some of our favorites. We started with Alhambra. The first two tiles I bought had no wall segments, and I figured I was in a good position, but (as usual) the tiles I wanted/needed were snatched up before my turn, consistently. Even so, I felt I was doing okay after the first scoring, but things deteriorated after that. Results: Mason first, Katrina second, Dan third, Joel fourth, Sue fifth, me last.

Ticket to Ride was next. My initial three tickets were long stretches from the west coast to the east coast (Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to Chicago, Atlanta, and New York City). I decided to keep all of them, planning to connect the west coast and run a quick line east, where I would split off for the connection cities. Unfortunately, my plans were destroyed early, as the other players had drawn short tickets, almost all of them with eastern city connections. Immediately, we were all jockeying for connections to NYC, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, etc. Having to constantly build alternate short routes in the east soon used up my trains, and I discovered it would be impossible to make all my needed connections. I managed to complete only one ticket, which was murderous to my score, although I did have the longest train. None of us managed to score 100 points, which is unusual for our games. Results: Sue first, Mason second, Dan third, Katrina fourth, me last. Man, what a lousy start back at gaming for me!

With time for one more game, we naturally selected Settlers of Catan. As is usual for us, the finish was close. The game was not overly long. We played several rounds before anyone bought a development card. During the entire game, I bought three of them – two Monopoly cards and one Road Building – wow. No one acquired the Largest Army, and no one challenged Sue for the Longest Road. It was a very different game for us. My Monopoly cards really paid off. I had very early built on a port with 2-for-1 Ore, and I was on an 8 Ore space. The dice rolls turned up 8’s fairly often, so I really benefited from that. As the game was coming to a close, it was obvious three of us were in a tight race. On my turn, I used the Road Building card and a massive hand of Ore I had accumulated during that last round, to build two new settlements and win the game. Mason had the winning hand (the third Soldier, for the 2-point Largest Army card), but it was not yet his turn, and I believe Sue, who played after me, might have won before Mason, had I not ended the game. Results: Me first (10), Sue second (9), Mason third (8), Dan fourth (6), Katrina last (5).

My win helped cancel the two ignominious defeats in the other games. Maybe my “luck” will turn, since I’ve just won my second game for the whole year! Unfortunately, we won’t get to game this coming weekend, but I do hope to break out Australia by the end of July. Then, I can begin prioritizing another game order. Yesss!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played May 20, 2006

2006-05-20T18:48:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Another fun family game day.

I convinced everyone to try Cartagena, for the first time. Well, Joel and I had played several 2-player games of this, and Dan and I had played a couple of times online, so only Sue, Katrina, and Mason were new to the game. It seemed to me that this could be a 6-player game, so I included some black dice as pirates for the sixth player. Of course, it took only a minute to explain the rules, and we were off to the races. I suggested that we play with only 4 pirates, each, since there were 6 players, and that worked out okay. It might even be better with 3, each, but we’ll see about that another time. With six players and 4 pirates, each, there were 24 markers on the board at the same time, at least for a short time. It was relatively easy for several or all players to get the first pirates to the boat, because of all the occupied spaces. As pirates made it to the boat, it became more difficult for the remaining markers, of course. I had some good cards and quickly got three of my four pirates to the boat, but I had trouble getting the right cards for the fourth pirate, and Mason just edged out the win. We decided it was best to continue playing until all but one pirate was in the boat, to determine the remaining places. However, we made that decision only after all of us had discarded our cards, so we just drew new cards in the same amount as we had been holding. Only Dan was hurt by this, as he drew worse cards than at least some of the ones he had been holding, which did not work well for him. Results: Mason first; me second; Joel third; Sue fourth; Katrina fifth, Dan last.

Since the game played so quickly, we decided to play another, before putting it away. Results: Mason first (I think he has a good grasp of this game, in only his first two times playing it); Katrina second; Joel third (again); Sue fourth (again); me fifth; Dan last (again). No one said too much about the game, either positive or negative. I’m sure we’ll play it again, especially when we need something quick to finish a day of gaming.

Naturally, we had to play Settlers of Catan, which seems to be a requirement of every game day. Surprisingly, Joel opted out, saying he was getting a little bored with this game. It was a very slow start for me, although I began on the numbers 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 11. You would think that was a good spread, but 2’s, 9’s, and 12’s came up fairly often, early in the game. After a couple of rounds, I was the only player who had not managed to build a single road. Most of the rest of the group had several roads, at least one additional settlement, and I think at least one city was on the board, before I built a road. How depressing! Eventually, I got rolling, collecting a VP card and even the Largest Army. On my last turn, I grabbed the Largest Army points and placed another settlement, which left me in third place, as Katrina won the game. Results: Katrina first; Mason second; me third; Dan fourth; Sue last.

Next, I pulled out Around the World in 80 Days. I really enjoy playing this game. It is an excellent game for 6 players. I started a little slowly, but accumulated some good cards. Eventually, I got rolling well, and was using fewer days than the rest of the group. However, people kept drawing the Delay and Storm cards, which moved us all along the “days” track more quickly than in any previous game we’ve played. I made it to San Francisco in reasonably good condition, and had nice matching train cards to get to New York, but things fell apart after that. I could not manage to get a second ship card with a small number that I needed, to finish under 80 days. Sue beat us all to London, followed by everyone else, except Dan and me. Neither of us could get ship cards, and kept losing days while cooling our heels in New York. I finally managed to move to London, but everyone went over 80 days, so Sue won the game. Results: Sue first (her first time to win this game); Mason second (notice a pattern here? first or second all day long); Katrina third; Joel fourth; me fifth; Dan last.

We finished with a 7-player game of Bohnanza. Once again, our son was at the top of the heap – unbelievable. Results: Mason first; Joel second; Katrina third; Dan fourth; Sue and me (tied) fifth; Natalia last (her luck has not been good, the last two times we’ve played this).

We have only one game remaining in our collection that we have never played – Australia. Unfortunately, it will be four weeks before we can get together again, and we probably won’t try that game until at least the end of June. By then, I will have a new game order in mind – wouldn’t want to run out of new challenges.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played May 14, 2006

2006-05-15T21:04:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Our normal routine was modified this past weekend. Katrina and Dan are both school band directors, and both of their bands were performing at the Six Flags Amusement Park in Denver on Saturday, so we moved our usual family day to Sunday (Mother’s Day). Natalia and Joel spent Saturday with us. We took them out for a pizza/pasta lunch and a round of miniature golf (won by Sue, although we give the kids a 1-stroke handicap on each hole). Later, Joel, Sue and I played a game of Boomtown, which Sue won.

On Mother’s Day, I grilled steaks, baked potatoes, made a special salad that is a favorite of the family, and created a new dessert by combining two separate recipes that we had not tried (cream cheese dessert wedges with a warm strawberry fondue sauce). The meal was a great hit. After Sue and Katrina opened their gifts, we adjourned outside for some bocce (won by Joel). Everyone had to leave earlier than usual, so we had time for only three table games.

We first played Ticket to Ride. It was an odd game, for us. We all drew north/south tickets, all in the east and central part of the map. Sue had a southern east/west route, but the entire northwest was vacant. It got very crowded very quickly in the east, with everyone jockeying for alternate routes, to finish tickets. In later ticket draws, only Mason got one along the west coast. Near the end of the game, I found myself in a very good position. I had one short ticket to complete, which required only two segments of track, each needing only two cards. On my last card selection, I had the exact four cards needed to finish the route, and I was sitting pretty, planning to use all my trains in my final two turns. Déjà vu, all over again ----- Mason played just after me, finished a long route and got down to two trains. That meant I could only finish one of my two required segments before the end of the game. I can’t believe I was so close to winning a game, again! {Well, I probably would not have won, anyway, because Mason finished way ahead of the rest of us.} Results: Mason first (very close to my record high score in this game); me second; Dan third, Sue fourth, and Katrina last. Not a good start for the females on Mother’s Day.

Next, all seven of us played For Sale. We removed two cards from both the properties deck and the check deck, without revealing which ones they were. With 7 players and 28 cards, there were only 4 rounds of bidding for properties and four rounds of selling properties for checks – a fast game. Results: Joel first, Mason second, Katrina third, Natalia and Sue (tied) fourth, me sixth, and Dan last.

There was just enough time for a 7-player game of Bohnanza, before the family had to leave. We play with all the cards, and the game still goes quickly, with seven people. Results: Katrina first, Joel second, Mason and Sue (tied) third, me fifth, Dan sixth, and Natalia last (very unusual for her in this game).

I took some time last week to prepare Through the Desert for 6 players. Because the game comes with extra caravan leaders in each of the five colors, and we don’t need them to identify who is playing which color, I took one of each color and used a permanent marker to make a black set of leaders. We will have to decide whether to play with four or three leaders, each, in a 6-player game. I’m leaning toward trying four, but reducing the number of camels of each color, since the board will fill up quickly (sodaklady suggested this, also). I’m looking forward to our first try with six.

I also scanned and printed two more marker cards for Coloretto, and we will try it with 6 and/or 7 players. We will have to adjust the number of cards below the end-of-game card in the draw deck, which probably will shorten the game length considerably, and will most likely require an adjustment in our usual strategies. It should be an interesting experiment.

Now, I just need to come up with a sixth set of trains for Ticket to Ride…………
--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played May 6, 2006

2006-05-08T16:36:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Okay, I’ve resigned myself to never winning another game for the rest of my life. ---------

I’ll just enjoy playing and serving as cannon fodder for the rest of the family. At least, I still like playing.

Alhambra is one of our current favorite games, although this was only our third time to play it. Obviously, Dan likes it; he’s won two of the three games. Results: Dan first; Sue second; Mason third; Joel and Katrina (tied) fourth; me last (wayyyyy back). Maybe someday I’ll learn how to play this game.

Another round of 7-player Bohnanza, and fun, as usual. Results: Dan first; Natalia second; Joel and Katrina (tied) third; Mason and me (tied) fifth; Sue last.

Nertz is the other game Natalia particularly enjoys, so we play it with 7 people and it’s a blast. Results: Joel first (with a score three times that of second place!); Dan second; Natalia third (only two points behind Dan, who used to always be last); Mason fourth; Katrina fifth; me sixth; Sue last. The last three of us ended with negative scores. Tough competition.

We all played Royal Turf, too. That’s three games with all 7 of us – very unusual. I really enjoy this game. Results: Sue first; me second; Natalia third; Joel fourth; Dan, Katrina, Mason (tied) last.

Final game of the day was (wait for it……………) Settlers of Catan [surprise!]. I think Mason believes it is not a game day, unless we play Settlers. It was a close finish, with three of us at 9 points for the last round – Dan, Katrina, and me. Dan just couldn’t get the cards he needed on his turn. Katrina played just before me. She rolled a five, which gave me the wheat I needed to convert a settlement to a city, which would win the game. Unfortunately for me, it also gave Katrina the wheat she needed to win the game. Déjà vu! She won Settlers in virtually the same way a couple of weeks ago, one dice roll ahead of my turn in which I would have won. It was so close, I could taste it, but close doesn’t count in Settlers. Results: Katrina first; Dan and me (tied) second; Mason and Sue (tied) last.

Except for Royal Turf, Dan had a great day – 2 firsts and 2 seconds out of five games. Nice going! Katrina kept pointing out that we were celebrating her birthday, but she wasn’t winning games – a third, a fourth, and two fifths, until she won Settlers. At least she won one!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Family Games for Six or Seven Players

2006-05-05T19:24:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Our family gaming group consists of seven people, in three generations. Finding good quality, challenging, and fun games for this group is a challenge in itself.

Before we discovered the current crop of Euro-games, we played Hearts, Nertz, Oh Hell, Mexican Train Dominoes, Yahtzee, Five Thousand, Fill or Bust, Sequence, Inklings, Anybody’s Guess, and Scattergories. We had fun, but did not know what we were missing. Then, we found Trumpet and began a journey into the modern age of games.

I’ve listed in a previous blog entry our favorite family games as of last month. Quite a different list from the above paragraph, isn’t it? A good number of those favorites are designed for a maximum of 5 players. We have 5 adults in our group, so that has been one of my criteria for game purchases until now. Our grandchildren are now ages 8 (Joel) and 10 (Natalia). Natalia enjoys only a few of our “group favorites,” and she plays them very well. Joel wants to play virtually all the games the adults play, and he plays them very well. As of today, I will only purchase games that can be played by 6 or 7 people, or games designed for 5 that I might be able to modify for play by 6 or 7.

Number of players is probably the most important criterion I use when considering new game purchases, but it is certainly not the only important one. There are many other factors that enter into my considerations.

Game Types We Are Not Interested In Purchasing

• Wargames
• Abstract Strategy
• Action/Dexterity
• Primarily for Ages Under 10
• Collectible Components
• Miniatures
• Science Fiction, Horror, or Fantasy Themes
• Themes with Fighting or Other Violence
• Memory Games
• Party Games
• Music Games (although the entire family is musical)
• Trivia, General Knowledge, or Primarily Educational
• Sports Themes, Including Auto Race Games
• Religious Themes
• Modern Political Themes
• Word Games (although some of these are acceptable)
• Games That Eliminate Players Before the End of the Game

Game Mechanics We Are Not Interested In Playing

• Acting, Singing, Role-Playing, or Other Performances
• Cooperative Play (we enjoy competition)
• Partnerships (we prefer individual competition)
• Voting
• Roll-and-Move

Things We Enjoy About Games

• Game Length: 60 – 90 Minutes, Maximum
• Negotiation/Trading
• Some Randomness, But Not Too Much
• Territory Management
• Connection Mechanics
• Set Collection (But Not Simple Rummy-Type Play)
• Tile-Laying
• Race Games, IF They Include Options or Complications (not just roll-and-move)
• Bidding/Auction
• Equal Competition for Adults and Intelligent Children
• Trick-Taking Card Games

Although an enormous number of available commercial games are eliminated by the criteria we don’t want to see in a game, a significant number of excellent games exist that meet the factors we enjoy (see our list of favorite games, listed in the previously-mentioned blog entry).

5-Player Games That Work Fine for 6 or 7

Some games designed primarily for 5 or 6 players can be played successfully by more players. Here are some examples.
• Bohnanza is a great game for 6 or 7.
• Boomtown works fine for 6.
• Trumpet is just as good for 7 as for 6.
• Zirkus Flohcati works fine for 6 or 7.
• David & Goliath plays as well with 7 as with 6.

Bohnanza --- The rules published with Bohnanza (from Rio Grande Games) include three modifications for 6 or 7 players: (1) remove the Cocoa and Garden Beans; (2) deal different numbers of cards, originally, to different players, based on seating; and (3) draw a different number of cards at the end of a player’s turn. NO, NO, NO! Forget those modifications. Play with all the cards and use the same rules as for 4 or 5 players. The modifications are completely unnecessary, except - exhaust the draw deck only two times. This is a great game for 6-7 players and is currently our family favorite.

Other Game Modifications

• Borrow a set of gray meeples from Carcassonne to play Hunters and Gatherers with 6 players. Use the builder and pig meeples (from the Carcassonne Traders and Builders expansion), or other different markers, for the two river huts. It works great.
• We have not tried this, but believe it would work: Remove, randomly, 2 property cards and 2 check cards from For Sale (leaving 28 of each) for a 7-player game.
• I am seriously considering purchasing/making a sixth set of “train” pieces (in a different color), allowing us to play Ticket to Ride with 6 players. We might have to experiment with ending the game when a player is down to 5 or less trains, because the available track routes will fill up quicker. I think playing with 6 would also modify game strategy, making shorter routes more valuable.
• Royal Turf could be easily expanded to 7 players, with the addition of a new color of four betting chits.
• I need to come up with a way to add 34 camels of a sixth color to Through the Desert! Probably will need to modify the game-end conditions, too, but, I’m working on it…
• I intend to print two additional “row cards” for Coloretto, so we can play with 6 or 7 players.
• I could print an additional player board for Princes of Florence, but I think it will take a lot of study and experimenting to learn whether the game is actually playable by 6 players. It may be too-tightly designed to allow modification for 6 players. Besides, I suspect it might make the game too long for us.
• I see no way to modify Hacienda, which is a shame, as I believe we would enjoy playing with 6 players.

Now, if I could just influence game designers and publishers to create more great family games for 6 and 7 players, that would be nice. At least, I wish they would include, or make available, expansions to their 4-player or 5-player games for 6 or 7 players (as they did for Settlers of Catan, with the 5-6 player expansion). In the case of Settlers, it required more tiles, more game pieces, and a modification of the rules, and it works beautifully.

So, I find myself reading about new games coming out, and the first thing I look for is the maximum number of players. If a game is designed for no more than 4 or 5 players, I’ll ignore it, at least until a 6- or 7-player expansion is issued, unless the game design appears to allow for house modification. I expect to miss out on a large number of excellent games because of this restriction, but we have too much fun playing games with the whole family to buy games we can’t all play together (designers and publishers, take note, please).

I am interested in any recommendations for games that meet our criteria and that we do not already own, as well as suggestions for modifying games to meet our needs.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

New Game: Bison -- Is It For 4 or 5 Players?

2006-05-05T17:24:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

A new game being released soon (in English) grabbed my attention quickly. Bison sounds like it has a theme and gameplay I would very much enjoy, but I may not be purchasing it.

I only want games that can be played by at least 6 players, or games for 5 players that I can extend to 6 players. Early information about Bison on two websites indicates that it is for 2-5 players, but the latest information on a third website says it is for 2-4 players. The first two sites are: BGG and Gamepack. The third is BoardGameNews. So, which is correct?
** Well, this is interesting. Within 5 hours after posting this blog, the article I read on BoardGameNews has disappeared. What's that about? **

To further complicate it, the database on BGG includes this list of box contents: “Contents: 21 game tiles, 32 Indians, 12 markers, 24 tents, 24 canoes, 4 displays, 16 energy stones, 1 start player piece, 1 rules booklet.” The items which would appear to be used by individual players are all divisible by 4, but not by 5, which indicates to me that the game is NOT designed for 5 players.

Anyone know the real scoop on this game?

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Favorite Family Games - April 2006

2006-04-30T15:11:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We have a fairly nice selection of games for 5, 6, or 7 players, and we try to play most of them at least a couple of times a year. Some games are played almost every weekend, and we still have two games unplayed (Cartagena and Australia). I have been thinking about which games seem to be most popular with the family, and decided to just do a survey. I typed up a list of 30+ games we play the most often and asked each person to put a check mark by their five most-favorite games. I also invited them to place an “X” by any that they would just as soon not play again.

The favorite votes tally was interesting. One game received 5 votes (out of seven people voting); two games received 4 votes; three games received 3 votes; four games received 2 votes; and five games received 1 vote. Nineteen games received no votes, but everyone really wanted to be able to vote for more than five. Natalia marked four games that she doesn’t care to play again (not surprising, since she isn’t a big-time game player in the group), and Dan voted to not play one game. No one else marked any games to never play in the future. Dan voted to not play Tongiaki again, and I know it’s not really popular with Katrina or Sue.

Here are the results:

Votes ----- Game

5 Bohnanza
4 Alhambra
4 Ticket to Ride
3 Around the World in 80 Days
3 Carcassonne
3 Royal Turf
2 Coloretto
2 For Sale
2 Hunters and Gatherers
2 Settlers of Catan
1 Boomtown
1 Circus Flohcati (Flea Circus)
1 Oasis
1 Princes of Florence
1 Through the Desert

The games we enjoy playing, but are not our top favorites are: Africa, Can’t Stop, David & Goliath, Frank’s Zoo, Go Wild!, Hare and Tortoise, Hattrick, Hearts, The Last Card, Mississippi Queen, Mü, Pick Picknic, Santa Fe Rails, Station Master, Tightrope, Trumpet, and Vampire. Tongiaki was on the list, as was Carcassonne – The Princess & the Dragon. There is some question whether we’ll ever play Tongiaki again, and I’m not too certain about The Princess & the Dragon.

These types of card and boardgames are popular with us: negotiation (Bohnanza, Settlers of Catan); tile-laying (Alhambra, Carcassonne, Hunters and Gatherers, Oasis, Princes of Florence); track-laying (Ticket to Ride, Through the Desert), races (Around the World in 80 Days, Royal Turf); card sets or rummy-types (Bohnanza, Coloretto, Boomtown, Circus Flohcati); bidding (For Sale, Boomtown). We also enjoy trick-taking card games, such as Hearts, Oh Hell, and Trumpet. In general, we like a good variety of games, but especially Euro-games.

One type of game missing from the above list is dice-based. We have played and enjoyed Yahtzee, Five Thousand, and Fill or Bust for many years. After seeing Scott Nicholson’s video review about Um Krone und Kragen, I am seriously considering adding that game to the collection. I believe the family would enjoy it more than the other dice games we’ve played, and I think it might even get a vote or two in a future family survey.

Hacienda was not on the ballot, because we had played it only once before the survey. Having now played it twice, I’m betting it might have received some votes.

When not all the family is present for game day, we sometimes play a party game (which doesn’t count in our records), such as Inklings, Scattergories, or Anybody’s Guess. Hugger Mugger is a game I enjoy playing anytime, but it is not strongly liked by most of the family. There are other games (card, dice, domino, party, and boardgames) that we will occasionally play, but the ones listed above are definitely our favorites at this time.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played April 29, 2006

2006-04-30T12:32:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This was an interesting family Saturday game day. Katrina had LASIK eye surgery Friday, and since we couldn’t be certain how she would be feeling/seeing, we volunteered to take a buffet lunch to their house, and I tried to select some games that would not be too stressful to the eyes. As it turned out, her surgery was excellent, and she had driven herself Saturday morning for a follow-up visit with the ophthalmologist, so she was fine for games. She even drove Natalia to a friend’s birthday party in the afternoon and picked her up later.

Before Natalia left for the party, she asked to play Zirkus Flohcati (Flea Circus). With seven players, this game takes a different strategy than with fewer players. It is very difficult to get a card of each color, for example, before all the cards have been drawn. It plays very quickly, even with seven players, so we played two games of it. Results of the first game: Dan and Sue (tied) first; Natalia and me (tied) third; Mason fifth; Katrina sixth; Joel last. Results of the second game: Katrina first; Joel second; Mason third; Sue fourth; Natalia and Dan (tied) fifth; me last.

When Katrina returned from taking Natalia to the party, we played our second game ever of Hacienda. The first time we played, we used the symmetrical side of the board, and we decided to try the asymmetrical side this time. It does alter the game. We have not played this enough to get comfortable with the strategies, yet, so we all allowed Sue to monopolize one corner of the board, including connecting all her land tiles into one very long string. She won the game hands-down, with the rest of our scores fairly close together, but way behind hers. Results: Sue first; Mason second; Katrina third; me fourth; Dan last. I believe we will be playing this game more often, now.

As usual, Mason wanted to play Settlers of Catan, so we finished the day with it. Mason loves this game and has the most wins (ahead of Dan by two at this time). Even though I managed to improve two settlements to cities on two different 8-value sheep hexes, and 8’s came up reasonably often, I still couldn’t manage to grow quickly enough. Amazingly, I bought seven Development Cards, in this order: Soldier, Year of Plenty, Year of Plenty, Monopoly, Year of Plenty, Soldier, Soldier. You would think I would have won the game with those cards, but I wasn’t even close. I didn’t have time to play the third soldier card, and no one claimed the largest army victory points before the game ended. Mason stole the longest road card from Katrina just before she would have won the game. A couple of weeks ago, Sue used a monopoly card to prevent Mason from winning, which allowed Katrina to win. This week, Sue used a monopoly card to prevent Katrina from winning, which allowed Mason to win. Sue figures it balanced out. Results: Mason first; Katrina second (9 points); Joel and me (tied) third; Dan and Sue (tied) last.

While Katrina was absent twice, for short times, the rest of us played several hands of Frank’s Zoo, but decided not to keep score. Also, before Natalia left for the party, we played several hands of Nertz, also without keeping score. Although we really enjoy keeping records of most of our games, sometimes we just enjoy the fun of playing without keeping score. It was a great family day!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played April 22, 2006

2006-04-30T11:28:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Mason and Natalia weren’t with us for this day of gaming, so the wins didn’t count on our records. The rest of us did, however, have fun.

Our first game was Ticket to Ride, which is very popular with our family these days. Results: Katrina first; Joel second; Dan third; Sue fourth; me last.

We had not played Canyon for quite some time, so I included it in the “game bag.” It uses essentially the same card play as Oh Hell (called The Bidding Game in our family), so we are familiar with that part of it. We modified the scoring mechanism to fit our style of play, however. We believe players should get the same credit for correctly assessing a hand of low cards as for a hand of high cards. So, we do not give more credit for bidding and winning more tricks. The important thing to us is bidding and catching the correct number of tricks. If a person is dealt low cards, he/she should have the same opportunity to move down the river as someone who got high cards. So, our scoring mechanism is this: Correct Bid moves 4 spaces; Bid Missed by One moves 2 spaces; Bids Missed by More than One move 1 space. In the rapids, our scoring is: Correct Bid moves 2 spaces. We find this makes the game much more balanced than the rules included with it. Results: Joel first by a wide margin; Dan second; Sue and me tied for third; Katrina last.

We almost always include a game of Bohnanza, and this was no exception. Results: Joel and Sue tied for first; Dan third; me fourth; Katrina last.

We had a limited time left in the afternoon, so we played two games of For Sale. Results of the first game: Katrina and Sue tied for first; me third; Dan fourth; Joel last. Results of second game: Dan first; Katrina second; Sue third; Joel and me tied for fourth.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Gaming with Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins

2006-04-21T15:02:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

By far, most of my gaming experience has been with family members, throughout my life. Certainly, I have played games with friends, co-workers, and strangers, but the majority of the time I have spent gaming has been with family.

The first game I can recall playing was Crazy Eights, which my parents taught me to play with a regular deck of cards when I was about 4 or 5 years old. That is also the only game I can recall playing with my parents, until after I was married, and I only remember playing it occasionally with them for a couple of years. My dad enjoyed playing Canasta in those days and joined a neighborhood group that played on a regular (weekly? monthly?) basis. I do not believe my mother cared much for playing games.

When I was about 7 years old, I was visiting, with my mother, with an aunt and uncle. They had two children who were several years older than me, but they were not at home at that time. Another aunt and her son, my cousin, who was two years younger than me, were also visiting there. My younger cousin and I noticed some games our aunt and uncle had, and we asked whether we could play with one of them. They got out Uncle Wiggly for us, and I embarked upon my first adventure with a boardgame. My cousin could not yet read the cards, but I was more than happy to do so for both of us. Because it was the first commercial boardgame I had ever seen, I was fascinated with it. What fun we had, teaching ourselves that game. I know that several times after that, when we both were visiting that aunt and uncle, we were allowed to play that game.

Not long after discovering Uncle Wiggly, my cousin and I were present when four of our older cousins were engaged in playing what appeared to be a much more interesting boardgame. It was Monopoly. We asked to join them, but were told we were too young to play with them. Of course, that just whetted my appetite to play it. Unfortunately, I had to wait until a neighborhood friend of mine showed me his family’s Monopoly game several years later, and he taught me how to play it.

I had three sets of aunts and uncles (my mother’s sisters) who loved to play games. I do not know why my mother seemed to be the only sister who did not enjoy games. The others always played games when we were at family gatherings. I had six cousins in those three families, two younger than me, and four older. There were a few games almost all of us enjoyed playing – croquet, horseshoes, and cards. There were two card games that were the mainstays of these gatherings – Pitch and Rook. I seldom played Rook, but Pitch became my life-long favorite card game. One of my uncles would play Pitch at the drop of a hat, and he was hard to beat. I learned a lot about that game from playing against him. He and another uncle would always split up and be partners with me and one of my cousins; sometimes, we played three-member teams, so six of us could play at the same time. They taught me many variations of Pitch, and I learned to like virtually all of them. I suspect that one reason I enjoyed learning Pitch was because my uncles were great to play with. They always played to win. They were tough competitors, but they always played fairly and had fun doing it. After a hand, they might explain what we had done wrong or could have done better, but they never blamed us for making a mistake – it was always a learning experience. It was always a positive experience, even in losing.

After my family moved away from the old hometown, I only played games with aunts, uncles, and cousins at family reunions or special holiday gatherings. I always looked forward to those opportunities. Since I had no siblings, and my parents were not interested in games, most of my gaming through high school was with friends, and even that was very limited.

Several years after Sue and I married, and my parents had retired and moved back to their hometown, they got more involved in playing games. I was quite surprised. Interestingly, my parents and the two uncles (and aunts) with whom I had played so much Pitch moved onto the same street, within a few houses of each other. They were all retired at that time, and they got together very frequently. Many of those visits involved playing one of two games – Yahtzee or Wa-Hoo (marbles, they called it – a form of Pachisi or Parcheesi). Here’s a photo of our Wa-Hoo board from those days. One of my uncles was so into game-playing that he made his own Wa-Hoo board, which they all played on. Whenever we visited my parents, we almost always played one or both of those games. That was the first time I realized that my dad actually enjoyed games very much. I don’t know whether he didn’t show so much interest earlier because he knew my mother did not enjoy it, or whether he felt he finally had the free time to play, after he retired. I believe he and I could have enjoyed many hours of games together, as I was growing up, but it just didn’t happen. Perhaps that realization contributed to my interest in playing games with our children frequently.

The uncle who was such a game-player even purchased an early electronic baseball game that connected to his TV, some time before we bought our Atari 2600 at home, for us and our kids. He was a major influence on my love of games. He managed a grain elevator, after many years of farming, and I’ve seen him work long hours at the elevator during wheat harvest, and then come home and be willing to play horseshoes or Pitch for a couple of more hours. I think his desire to play games was insatiable.

With three uncles, three aunts, and six cousins who loved to play games, it was natural that I would grow up to be a game-player. It was a most enjoyable way to grow up.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming
{Originally posted on Gone Gaming on April 18, 2006}

Boxes

2006-04-18T19:56:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

As I pondered the boxes on the shelves,
I felt emotions boxed within my soul.
There is challenge, contest, wonder to be had,
Within those wonderful cardboard containers.
Anticipation filled me and drew me closer,
And I felt a desire as yet unfulfilled.

A fictional island came to mind; a place
Not found in reality, only in the mind’s eye.
It is real enough for its purpose. And,
Its purpose is to present dilemmas, puzzles
Whose solutions are to be devised as best
One is able, while besting others in the race.

A vision of desert sands and the famous “ships
Of the desert” popped into my head, reminding me
Of times spent concocting victory plans so lofty
That they could not have been attained in the time
Available for completion. Many trials led to ruin
As there were not enough pastels available to me.

Walls, fountains, and fabulous buildings combined
In my thoughts of those times I was building the most
Elaborate of estates, with the best combination of
Colorful features. It is futile to elaborate upon
The memory; alas, I seldom succeeded in the contest.
Why do these memories seem so strong, as I stand here?

Steel-driving fantasies leap to the fore, as I recall
Straining my brain to make the fantasy roads become real.
Cities loom before me, calling for connectivity,
The set plans woven like cloth on a loom, showing
Where I must strive to build, quicker than my opponents,
All of whom appear to build rapidly with ease.

Primitive roads and towns, great and small, appear
Before me in a dream-like appearance that masks my
Memory of my careful attempts to solve the problem
Of placing problematic tiles as solutions to the puzzle.
Simple directions, but complex decisions, flavor this
Entertaining pastime that often gave me a complex.

Mark Twain would have enjoyed another of the boxed sets,
With river, boxed-in paddle-wheelers, and Southern belles.
The mysteries of the river channel, islands, and time
Made me channel my creativity to choose options wisely.
A race, yes, but an experience to savor, too, as I
Tried to experience victory after victory, to no avail.

As races go, another challenge was different by degrees.
Finish first if possible, but a different criterion
Determined the winner. Take no more than eighty days
Or risk losing to a more determined competitor. That’s
The rub in this fascinating trip. Watch out for the
Obnoxious detective, who’ll trip you up gleefully.

More boxes clamored for my attention, but I had not the time
To give attention to South America, Renaissance Italy, and
Wild western gold towns, among other attractions.
There were cards with circus attractions (fleas), vampires,
Dragons, and beans. Colorful chameleons startled me, as
Colorful dice rolled ominously on the tabletop of my thoughts.

Is this a hobby, an obsession, or a harmless social pastime?
The contests and dilemmas are harmless in reality, but
When I’m involved in the game, it becomes the center
Of my existence for a while. Perhaps too involved, I lose
Track of time. Still, I cannot avoid trying again and again
To be the best of the group. Maybe, next time, I’ll win!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Confessions of a Game Whiner

2006-04-18T13:05:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

It’s true, I’m sad to say – I’m a Game Whiner. {Sob}

I LOVE to play games – old games, new games, most games. I love themes in games; I like the artwork on the boards and cards, the background story or history the game relates to, the colorful pieces and fancy dice, the clever mechanics and scoring mechanisms, a bit of chance (but not too much); I enjoy talking about and reading about and writing about games.

But ------ I don’t like it when my “brilliant” plans go for naught because of someone else’s play just before me. Why do other players always seem to build roads and settlements exactly where I was planning to do so on the island of Catan? Why does someone else build the 6-card track from Los Angeles to El Paso, just before I was planning to? Why does another player draw the exact piece I needed to finish a great Carcassone city? Why did someone buy that 11-value purple Tower that I needed to add to my Alhambra? Why did another player add two camels to his caravan, blocking my beautifully-planned huge territory? How could you draw the “Storm” card, just as I was about to play the “Connection” card with the “Occasion” card and move from San Francisco to London in one turn? Why did you play the Queen of Spades on my Ace of Diamonds on the first Diamond trick led? Why do all you folks keep rolling a horsehead and moving the gray horse, when I have my (hidden) double-bet on Earl Grey? Is everyone reading my mind? Is my gameplay so transparent? Why have I won only ONE game of the 48 games we’ve played in 2006?!

Yes, I’m the whiner in our family game group. How can it be that I study the games, I read about them, I exchange information with others on the web, I research new games, I purchase the games, I teach the new game rules, and I have such love of gaming, but I never seem to win?

-------- Hmmmmm – maybe it has something to do with my whining, feeling sorry for myself. --------

{------ or maybe I’m just not a competitive game-player these days -------}

When I start whining in a game, my wife frequently takes a sticky note and writes “NO WHINING!” on it and holds it up in front of my face. Yeah, yeah, I get the point --- but I’m still losing and everyone’s picking on me, and, and, and, ………… {whine, and whine some more} --- "Want some cheese with that whine?" --- "Where’s my violin?" ---- Okay, okay. Very funny.

Well, I don’t know whether I can change my game personality. The family would probably think I was ill, if I weren’t whining during gameplay. Okay, I’ll TRY to cut down on the whining. I’ll take my lumps silently; I’ll simply adjust my plans when good plans are foiled; I’ll keep reminding myself how lucky I am to play these great games with a great family and how much enjoyment we all receive from the time spent together each weekend. I’ll try to work in a little bit of optimism with my normal pessimism. Now, wouldn’t it be something if that changed my “game luck?”

But, I’m not sure what I would do, if I wasn’t whining during a game. I wouldn’t know how to act! And, I think I’m part of the family’s entertainment when I’m losing and whining.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

A Different Rainbow

2006-04-18T11:36:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Compliments to Yehuda for his interpretation of meeple colors. My family is a little different from his descriptions.

From the time we began playing 5-player games with our five adult family members, each of us has used the same color of playing pieces for each game. Our favorite colors for games are red, yellow, green, blue, and black. Most 5-player games offer these colors. Occasionally, white or orange is substituted for one them, usually the black choice. In our 6-player games, we often see purple, and some games have brown or gray options.

Here is our lineup: red – Katrina; yellow – Sue; green – me; blue – Dan; and black – Mason. When Natalia began playing some games with us, she wanted to be red (like her mom), and Joel always wants to be blue (like his dad). So, for some games, Katrina and Dan have to remember that they are using substitute colors. Since Natalia rarely plays a game with color assignments, it is usually Dan who has to “sacrifice” his “lucky” color. He gets the gray meeples in Carcassonne and Hunters & Gatherers (borrowed from the Carcassonne game). In Settlers, he has brown. Poor guy has trouble with multiple game personalities, I think. But, he certainly wins his share of the games, so that doesn’t seem to be a major handicap.

If I consider the game-playing personality of each person, this would be our descriptions of the meeple colors.

-- Red: This game takes too long. Whose turn is it? {rhetorical question designed to induce play by someone else} I don’t think you mentioned that rule. Wait, I have to get my pieces arranged in the proper feng shui design. {and modify it as meeples are used} Oh, yes! I finally won that game!

-- Yellow: Now remember, I shared that city with you. Okay, I’ll play here, rather than block your track. Maybe we can work together in this area. I didn’t realize my play would harm you – sorry. Oops, did I do that to you, again? Don’t do that, or you’ll regret it. . . {and I WILL regret it} NO MORE WHINING!

-- Green: I can’t believe you took the exact card I planned to take! I can’t believe you built exactly where I planned to build! I can’t believe you put the robber on me, again! I can’t believe you won just before I would have won! Okay, okay, you won – let’s play something else. Oh no, not Settlers AGAIN! Let’s play a new game, please……

-- Blue: I like everything we play. I haven’t figured out the right strategy for this one (yet). I LIKE this game! Sure, I’ll play a new game – what have you got? I thought that strategy would work, and it did.

-- Black: {silence} {more silence} Is the hockey {football, baseball, basketball, golf, etc.} game on? I’ll sit here, so I can watch TV. Let’s play Settlers. {after he wins the majority of the games each day – more silence, but there is that sneaky little grin, like the cat that ate the canary}

That’s our family rainbow of meeples and the game personalities that match the colors.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; April 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played April 15, 2006

2006-04-16T19:19:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We enjoyed our usual family games on Saturday, following our delicious traditional Easter lunch. We played five games; Natalia played two of them, and Joel played four. Everyone won a game (including a tie in one game), except me. Guess I was a good host. Certainly glad I won at least one game this year…

We started with Alhambra. This was the second time we have played this game, and I think we will be playing it occasionally. This was Joel’s first time to play it, and he finished third, which again demonstrates his gaming talent. We all see Alhambra as a simplified version of Princes of Florence. It plays quickly, even with six players, and it doesn’t challenge your brain quite as much as PoF. Results: Dan first; Sue second; Joel third; me fourth; Katrina fifth; Mason last. Mason won this game the first time we played, but just could not get things going in this game. His winning score in the first game was 81 points – the same score Dan won with this time. Interesting coincidence.

We play Bohnanza almost every week, as we did this Saturday. It is one of the few games Natalia enjoys. I find it very interesting that both Natalia and Joel do so very well in this game. Results: Joel and Sue tied for first; Natalia and Dan tied for third; Mason fifth; me sixth; Katrina last.

The other game Natalia enjoys is Nertz (we call it Hell in our family). Seven people playing Nertz as quickly as possible around one table makes a chaotic scene, and we thoroughly enjoy it. Results: Natalia first; Joel second; Dan third; Katrina fourth; Mason and me tied for fifth; Sue last. Dan has really improved in this game; for years, he was always last. Sue and I have played since we were in high school, and we taught Katrina and Mason how to play when they were quite young, so we have had a lot of practice. We all taught Dan how to play the game, when he married Katrina, and he has been trying to catch up ever since. Looks like he has finally arrived. Natalia and Joel learned to play last year, when their great-grandmother (age 96 then) taught them how to play (the rest of us were helping, too). They both love the game and do very well at it, obviously. We’ve played this game twice this year, and Natalia has won both times.

We had played Hunters and Gatherers only once this year, so it was time for another round. Results: Mason first; Dan second; Joel third; me fourth; Sue fifth; Katrina last.

Finally, we played a game of (what a surprise!) Settlers of Catan. It seemed to be a rather slow-developing game this time, but once things got rolling, it came down to a tight finish. Our last several games did not include too many dice rolls of “7,” but this game was loaded with such. It was difficult to accomplish much early in the game, because of all the “7” results. In the last round of the game, Mason had a huge hand of resources and nine points. It was obvious he was ready to win the game. Sue’s turn was just before Mason’s, and she played a Monopoly card, taking most of Mason’s resources, and leaving him unable to win that turn. Big congratulations from everyone else around the table (except Mason), when she managed that coup! Dan played after Mason, then Katrina, then me. At the end of Dan’s turn, I had nine points and a hand of cards that would assure me a win. However, Katrina hit an excellent dice roll for herself, traded for some resources she needed, did some building, and had nine points plus three cards in her hand. She bought another Development Card, and yes, it was a VP card. She won the game! I would have won on my turn, next after her. I couldn’t believe how she pulled out that win. I won Settlers last week (my only game victory this year), and I thought I was going to make it two Settlers victories in a row, but it was not to be. Maybe next time… Results: Katrina first; Mason and me tied for second; Sue fourth; Dan last. It was an exciting way to end the games for the day.

We still have two unplayed games to try – Cartagena and Australia. They are on opposite ends of the complexity scale; it will be interesting to see which we play first. I hope to get both of them to the table in the next few weeks.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

I Won a Game!!! Hooray!

2006-04-08T19:42:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Yessssss!!! I finally won a game in 2006! The monkey is off my back; the dark clouds have dispersed; the jinx is broken; I’m off the hot seat; etc. ------ Okay, so I’m a little over the top, but after more than three months of not winning a game, it REALLY FEELS GOOD!

After a great lunch (if I do say so myself) that Sue and I fixed, we brought out the games. Natalia was attending a birthday party, so it was just six of us. I was a bit surprised that no one objected to trying a new game, for the second weekend in a row. I have really been looking forward to this – Hacienda. That is one great game, and I don’t think I heard anyone say they didn’t like it. Naturally, for the first time out, we were really feeling our way, and we certainly don’t have a good handle on this game from just one play. But, we all enjoyed it. Results: Dan and Mason tied first; me third; Sue fourth; and Katrina last, but the scores were quite close. I know we’ll play this one some more.

Our next game was 6-player Bohnanza. I thought Joel was going to wipe us out again, but I was very surprised when we counted the gold at the end of the game and found these results: Sue first; Mason second; Katrina third; Joel fourth; Dan and me (tied) fifth.

Mason said he had time for one more game before he had to leave. It looked like another day of losses for me, especially when he asked for (no surprise) Settlers of Catan. Sue and I have the fewest wins of this game, among the five adults. I felt like I was starting off slowly, but I had managed to get on both an “8” and a “6” wheat (quite surprisingly), and those numbers, naturally, came up reasonably often. I also snagged a 3:1 port, so I eventually got rolling. At the end of the game, Katrina and I both had 9 points, but I rolled the perfect number for me, gathered enough resources to build a road and a settlement, and won the game. Everyone was happy to see me finally win a game this year (probably so I won’t be whining so much), and Sue said she had a feeling that it was my day to get a victory. Now, I can relax. Results: Me first; Katrina second; Mason and Sue tied third; Dan last.

After Mason left, the rest of us finished off with two quick games of Fill or Bust. Katrina and Joel finished 1-2 in both games. A nice light way to end the day.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played April 1, 2006

2006-04-02T15:58:00.000-06:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

We had time for only a few games with the family on this day. Natalia had been invited to a friend’s birthday party, and Katrina had to drive her to it and then pick her up afterward, all during the afternoon.

No, I did not win a game, yet, this year. I hope I don’t go all year without a win!

We started with Settlers of Catan. Mason jumped out quickly and held the lead to the finish. Results: Mason first; Sue second; Katrina third; Joel and me tied fourth; Dan last. It is most unusual for Dan to be last in Settlers. Mason now leads Dan by one victory in Settlers. The competition continues.

I was a little surprised when I received no objections to playing Station Master again. I enjoy this game, although it is a bit chaotic. I led the scoring most of the way, which, of course, set me up for the fall near the end. Since scoring is continuous, as trains are completed, everyone knows the relative standings throughout the game. As the last trains are being assembled, players typically make sure the leader (or the top couple of scorers) get negative-score trains, if at all possible. Near the end of the game, I had two passenger tokens on an eight-car locomotive, and the score was looking good, until Joel played a yellow card that allowed him to move both my tokens off that train and onto one with a negative score building up. I dropped from first place to fifth! This is a real “gotcha” game. Sometimes, our family is not fond of this type of game, but sometimes the game transcends its nastiness. Joel probably enjoys the “defensive” plays as much or more than trying to score well himself. I do hope we play this more during the year. Results: Katrina and Mason tied first; Dan third; Joel fourth; me fifth; Sue last.

While Katrina and Natalia were gone, the five of us remaining decided to get in a game of Bohnanza, which Joel won bigtime! He and Natalia both do very well at this game.

After Katrina and Natalia returned, we had time for a short game and Joel suggested Trumpet, which we had not played recently. He must have felt some vibes, because he beat us by several spaces. Results: Joel first; Sue second; me third; Dan fourth; Katrina fifth; Mason last. I really thought I was going to pull out the win (and get the “loser monkey” off my back). I picked up my last hand and saw some great cards. I needed to win one trick quickly, change trumps to match my best cards, and then I had a good chance to breeze to victory. Joel never gave me a chance to win that important “change trump” trick, before he waltzed to the finish line.

It was a fun day, even though we didn’t get to play very many games. Perhaps I’ll win a game, again, someday…

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played March 25, 2006

2006-03-31T16:30:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Another great day of family gaming – well, except for one thing: I NOW HAVE THE DUBIOUS HONOR OF OWNING THE LONGEST LOSING STREAK FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY, SINCE WE STARTED KEEPING RECORDS OVER FIVE YEARS AGO!! Ahhh --- got that out of my system.

The good news is that we did play a new game – Alhambra. It went over very well; everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think it will see more playing time this year. I consider it a simpler version of Princes of Florence. When I mentioned that, Katrina suggested we should play PoF again. I know she won PoF the second time we played it (Sue won the only other time we played), but I didn’t realize she actually liked it that much. So, maybe I’ll pull out PoF soon. Back to Alhambra – we had no problems with the rules (assuming we didn’t misunderstand anything). We did have to remind ourselves at the end of the game that each player got points for his/her longest stretch of castle wall, rather than only one person getting the points, as in Ticket to Ride’s longest stretch of track. I’m glad everyone liked it; I think it will be a good game for the family. Results: Mason first place with 81 points; Katrina second; me third; Sue fourth; Joel fifth; Dan last. Dan usually either wins a new game the first time we play, or is in last place – one extreme or the other. If he doesn’t win it the first time out, he probably will soon be the winner. He has a good sense of game strategy. At the same time, Mason is just really difficult to beat at any game, and he often does well on the first time for a new game. He continues to have a big lead in overall victories in our family gaming records.

All seven of us played Bohnanza, with the usual fun time. Natalia finally won a 7-player game of this. She always does well, but has never been the winner before, so it was a neat victory for her. Results: Natalia first; Joel second; Katrina third; Mason, Dan, Sue, and me (tied) fourth. It was a very interesting finish. The two youngest players finished first and second, with Katrina right behind them, and with the rest of us tied for fourth.

Carcassonne remains a family favorite, with frequent plays. This time, it was a female game, with Katrina and Sue leading the way. The usual winners are Mason and Dan, but the women are gaining on them. Results: Katrina first; Sue second; me third; Dan fourth; Mason fifth. Mason very rarely finishes last in any game, so this was quite a surprise. What happened to the usual winners? Well, they each started building a city, and the cities were very near each other. Soon, they were connected, and the fellows figured they would build a huge metropolis and score bigtime. Unfortunately for them, their city was built around an empty space that needed to be filled in order to complete it. Guess which two players could never draw the right tile, while the rest of us drew those tiles often. Naturally, none of us gave any serious thought to finishing it for them. Because the city contained a cathedral (playing with the Inns and Cathedrals expansion, as we always do), the incomplete city garnered absolutely no points for them, and tied up meeples for both of them. Lesson learned, -- maybe…

An offer to play Nertz (the game we call Hell, because that’s the title we learned when we were taught this game) brought Natalia to the table again. This is one of her favorite games. Although she usually does well, she had never won a 7-player game of this. Ah, but it was her game this time. Results: Natalia first; Joel second; Katrina third; Mason and Sue tied fourth; me sixth; Dan last. Another challenging game with the two youngest players in first and second, and their mother third. Hmmmmmmm – what are the odds?

It seems we can rarely have a game day without Settlers of Catan, and this was no exception. Mason and Dan “own” this game – they each have won it 16 times; Katrina was in third place for victories with 6, while Sue and I have 5 each, and Joel has 2. I’m fairly certain this is Mason’s favorite game, and he really wants to pull ahead of Dan again in victories. So, he always wants to play Settlers. But, this was Katrina’s day to win. I was surprised to find I was in second place when it was all over; I didn’t think I was doing that well. Results: Katrina first; me second; Mason, Sue, Dan tied third; Joel last. Joel has won this game twice, playing against the adults, but it has been a while since he last won. He does enjoy the game, though.

I sort of forced everyone to play Tongiaki again. I like this game, although I haven’t studied it enough to know how to play it well. The first time we played (in February), Joel and Katrina tied for first. This time, Katrina finished last ------- but Joel won it again. Unfortunately, Katrina says she doesn’t really like this game, so it may not be on the “often-played” list for us. Oh well… Results: Joel first; Sue second; Dan and me (tied) third; Mason fifth; Katrina last.

The finishes were interesting. Mason won one game, which was unusual only in that he usually wins more than one. Natalia won two, Katrina won two, and Joel won one. Sue, Dan, and I could finish no better than second place in any game. The amazing news for Natalia was winning two games she had not won in the past -- great day for her. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t yet won a family game that counts in the records in 2006. Surely, surely this losing streak must end!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played March 17-20, 2006

2006-03-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Our family (except for Mason) went to Estes Park, Colorado, for the weekend, with the beginning of school spring break for Dan, Katrina, Natalia, and Joel. We stayed in a really neat cabin and had a great time, including playing a number of games. I managed to win two games, but they won’t count on our family statistics, since Mason wasn’t there. Oh, well…

Natalia is not our big game-enthusiast, but she did play For Sale (three times), Bohnanza, and Fill or Bust with us. Friday night was Natalia’s first time to play For Sale, and she had “beginner’s luck.” In the first game, she and Dan tied for first, Joel and Sue tied for third, Katrina was fourth, and I was last (not a good start for me for the weekend). The second game of For Sale resulted in Natalia winning outright, with Dan second, Joel and Sue tied (again) for third, Katrina was fourth, and guess who was last (again). We played the third game of For Sale two days later, and the outcome was quite different. Sue was first, Katrina and I tied for second, Natalia was fourth, and Dan was last (Joel didn’t play that time). I think Natalia will be willing to play this game whenever we are playing it. Too bad we can’t play with seven players, although I suppose we could take out a few property and check cards and make it work (I’ll have to think about that). We do find that many games designed for a maximum of five players can be fun with six or even seven, and we like to include everyone who is interested in playing.

Saturday afternoon, Dan, Joel, and I decided to take on Lord of the Rings Risk. Now, I am definitely not a fan of regular Risk, and I’ve not had an opportunity to play any other Risk variation, but I do find LotR Risk an okay game. Well, of course I like it – I won the game, with Joel second and Dan last. We played with the Ring moving to Mount Doom and ending the game when it reached there. Several times during the game, the Ring only moves if a die roll is 3 or higher. The Ring progressed steadily until it was ready to be destroyed at the end. Joel rolled the die each time for the Ring movement, and unbelievably he rolled a 2 three times in a row with the game ready to end, so we played three more rounds than we expected to. A lot of desperate battles took place in those three rounds, and I was lucky enough to be the last player of the rounds, so when Joel finally rolled something higher than a 3, I managed to win. By that time, we were all ready for it to be over!

We were expecting and got about 4 or 5 inches of snow Saturday night and Sunday, so we had planned to spend most of the day in the cabin. We did go outside, built a snowman, had a long snowball fight, walked along the river for a ways, and then returned to game playing. However, before we ventured out, Dan, Katrina, and Joel played Through the Desert. Results: Dan, Katrina, Joel. Joel has really gotten interested in TtD, although he has only played a couple of times. So, he and Dan played a game later, and Joel won 114-100. He is really some game-player!

After having fun in the snow, we played Ticket to Ride. I drew some lucky tickets, for a change, and managed to have almost no competition in the west. Dan and Katrina seemed to be constantly blocking each other in their efforts to complete tickets. Poor Joel had all kinds of problems making the connections he needed, and ended with a couple of tickets not completed, which really hurt his score. Results: I was first, Sue was second, Katrina was third, Dan was fourth, and Joel was last, and none of our scores were close; we were really spread out on the scoring track. Usually, we have much closer scores; you just never know how these games are going to end up, which keeps them interesting to us.

Natalia joined us for a 6-player game of Bohnanza. As usual, it was a wild game, with lots of constant trading going on. Talk about a tight game – Sue, Natalia, and Katrina tied for first, I was fourth, Joel was fifth, and Dan was last. What is this – a females’ game? It certainly was that time, anyway.

We’ve taken a liking to Boomtown (well, Katrina says she doesn’t like it that much, but she usually wins or finishes highly). Joel really enjoys it, and the results reflected that. Joel was first, Katrina was second, Dan was third, I was fourth, and Sue was last.

We decided to try Fill or Bust. It had been a long time since we last played it. Joel hit a 1-2-3-4-5-6 straight to end the game, although I almost managed to beat him on my last turn, before busting. Result: Joel was first, I was second, Natalia was third, Sue was fourth, Katrina was fifth, and Dan was last.

The last game I recall being played was a 2-player game of Carcassonne: The City, between Dan and Katrina. They both enjoy that game and play it from time to time. In this one, Katrina was the winner.

We didn’t all play the same number of games, and it was certainly not a sweep of victories for anyone. During the weekend, these were our finishes:

Joel – 3 firsts, 1 second, 3 thirds, 2 fifths
Natalia – 3 firsts, 1 third, 1 fourth
Katrina – 2 firsts, 3 seconds, 1 third, 3 fifths
Dan – 2 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds, 1 fourth, 1 fifth, 1 sixth
Sue – 2 firsts, 1 second, 2 thirds, 1 fourth, 1 fifth
Me – 2 firsts, 2 seconds, 2 fourths, 2 sixths

Everyone won at least 2 games, which was really neat. We are very evenly balanced in our game-playing, which makes our three-generation games lots of fun.

So, it was a great weekend, with good home-cooked food, fun in the snow, and lots of time spent reading and playing games. The last time we did this, most of us were sick for most of the weekend, so we were very happy that we all stayed healthy this time.

Okay, I need to get into the right frame of mind for tomorrow’s family gaming. If I don’t win a game tomorrow, I will own the worst losing streak in our family gaming history! I’ve been thinking about what game to suggest, to end my losing streak. The game I hardly ever lose is Hugger-Mugger, but there’s no chance of that one making the table tomorrow, since Mason is not a fan of it, and I don’t think Sue and Katrina really care too much for it. Oh, well, maybe luck will come my way in some other game…

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played March 11, 2006

2006-03-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

I have good news, and I have bad news.

The good news is that I FINALLY won a game in 2006.

The bad news is that it doesn’t count in our family gaming records. I won a 4-player game of Hearts, but since Mason had to leave early and didn’t play this game, it doesn’t count as a win for me. We only count games played at least by all five adults.

So, my unblemished record of losses continues. If I don’t win a 5- or 6- or 7-player game in the next two weekends, I will acquire the title of “Biggest Loser” of our family gaming history. Okay, now, this must be just a bad dream. I know, I’ll close my eyes and click my heels together three times, and everything will be fine ----- click, click, click. ------- Well, that didn’t work. I know – I must think positive thoughts. Every cloud has a silver lining; There’s light at the end of the tunnel; Things are never as bad as they might seem; Let a smile be my umbrella; Accentuate the positive; Keep a stiff upper lip; Things could always be worse. ------ Oh, yeah, that helped a WHOLE lot. {sniff, sniff, sniff}

I may not have won a family game yet in 2006, but I’m still having a good time playing. Yesterday, we got in five short games, since Mason needed to leave early. Alphabetically, they were: Around the World in 80 Days; Bohnanza; Hunters and Gatherers; Oh Hell (card game); and Royal Turf. Joel played all the games with us, except Oh Hell, so we played four games of 6 players and one of 5 players. We also got in a game of Coloretto, but not one that counted. Natalia had not played it and wanted to learn, so she, Joel, Dan, Mason, and I played three times, while Sue and Katrina visited and read some from their current books.

I enjoy Around the World in 80 Days more every time we play it. I would not change anything in this game. I read that someone thought the board artwork wasn’t very attractive. I can’t understand that comment. I think the paintings are delightful, very much in tune with the period of the story. It probably doesn’t hurt that I’ve enjoyed the book and the early movie, too. A few months ago, I set our family record best score with 75 days. Yesterday, Katrina set a new record of 69 days. I think that one will be very difficult to beat. And, she beat Joel by only 1 day! There is no question that he thoroughly understands this game, and I certainly expect him to beat us all soon. Results: Katrina, Joel, me, Mason, Dan, Sue.

We had a short time at the end of the afternoon, before Mason planned to leave, so we slipped in a game of Oh Hell. I’m not sure when Sue and I learned this game or from what source, and we have played it for many years, but we did not learn its official name until last year, when I found it on BGG. We have always just called it The Bidding Game. What was curious about the name of this game is that Sue and I learned to play a card game back in the late 1950’s, which was named Hell (according to the people – family members in Sue’s case, and neighbors in my case – who taught us the game). I have since learned (again on BGG) that our game of “Hell” is officially called “Nertz.” So, it is confusing when I write about either game. I have to remember to call them by their official names, not the names we learned many years ago and still call them in the family. Anyway, Mason won Oh Hell yesterday, with a perfect score of zero. That is only the third perfect score we have had in the past five years; Dan won the other two perfect games. Results: Mason, Sue, Katrina, Dan, me.

Bohnanza is currently one of the most popular games with our family, although Natalia declined to join us this time around. Sue noted that when we began playing Bohnanza, in 2001, usually the active player was offering trades and everyone else was reacting. Now, everyone else offers trades, and the active player selects the best offer. Our games of Bohnanza remind me of the films I’ve seen of the NYSE stock exchange floor. Results: Dan and Mason (tied for first place), Katrina, me, Joel, Sue.

We enjoy Hunters and Gatherers once in a while. To play with six players, we borrow a set of grey meeples from Carcassonne (using the pig and builder pieces, from the Traders and Builders expansion, as river huts). In my opinion, there is no noticeable difference between a 5-player and 6-player game of H&G. They should have included meeples for six and even seven players. This was one of our tighter-scoring games. Results: Dan, Mason, Katrina, Joel, me, Sue.

We have been playing Royal Turf for three years, and it’s still a quick, fun game for us. I was surprised to see on our gaming records that we hadn’t played it as a 5- or 6-player game for the past eight months. Maybe I’ll bring it out more often this year. Results: Dan and Katrina tied (first place), Joel, me, Sue, Mason.

We may or may not have Mason with us next weekend. If not, I won’t have a chance to get a win on Saturday. That would leave me with just one more weekend before I go down in history as having the longest losing streak in the family gaming records. If there is a game that I “always” win, I’d better bring it out…

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played March 4, 2006

2006-03-05T12:19:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

On Saturday, we were celebrating three family birthdays from the past week – Sue, Mason, and Dan. We went out for a delicious Chinese meal (P.F. Chang’s) and returned to the house for gifts and games.

My win streak for 2006 remains unmarred – ZERO wins! In fact, I finished dead last in the first three games we played yesterday. Either the competition in this family is getting tougher, or I’m just losing it.

We decided to let the birthday celebrants select the first three games. Dan chose Through the Desert, having just won online, for the first time, against three other players. Today’s game was very close, except for my finish. I got sidetracked early in the game, trying to create the longest purple caravan and enclose a nice area. I ended up with absolutely no territory enclosed and lost the purple caravan to Mason. It appears I played the game with tunnel vision, and my score reflected my poor play. Results: Mason, Dan, Katrina tied with 53; Sue – 50; me – 34. I suspect my score will forever be the record low in our five-player games. Terrible start for the day – but it didn’t get much better.

Sue chose Ticket to Ride for the second game. I still hold the record high score in this game for our family, but this was not my day to lay track. My initial tickets were for values of 4, 7, and 8 points – not a good omen. By the time I drew tickets later in the game, two of them were impossible for me to complete, and the third one was another short north-south line. I did complete all my tickets, and I ended the game by using all my trains, but almost all my lines were short ones, and the ticket values were very little help. Results: Sue – 128; Mason – 122; Dan – 114; Katrina – 106; me – 91. I didn’t even make it all the way around the scoring track!

Mason chose the third game, which was no surprise – Settlers of Catan. Mason and Dan have a real competition going in this game, and with Mason’s win, they both have 16 victories. Katrina has 6, while Sue and I have 5 each. On the last round of the game, Mason had something like 19 resource cards in his hand. Even if he rolled a seven on his turn, he still would have had enough resources to win the game. Dan was the next player in line after Mason, and he was ready to add The Largest Army to his Longest Road points and win the game on his turn. Results: Mason – 10; Dan – 8; Joel – 6; Sue, Katrina, and me – 5. Joel had a development card VP, which put him in third place. That’s better than his finishes the last two times; he may be coming back from a slump.

Natalia then joined us for a game of Nertz. I have played Nertz since I was in high school, but I have really lost interest in it in recent years. I generally will play, because it’s one of the few games all seven of us play together. I just didn’t have any interest in it yesterday, so I took some photos of the gameplay, while the six of them played. They didn’t keep score – just played several rounds for the fun of it. As I recall, Joel won the last three hands.

We had time for a short game of something to finish the day, and I mentioned that we hadn’t played any regular five–player card games in a while. We finally settled on Hearts. Because of the fairly short time limit, we decided that 75 would be the losing score. About mid-way through the game, I had a chance to run the hearts, so I gave it a try. On the last trick, my 9 of Spades was caught by the 10 of Spades, and someone else had saved a heart to put on the trick. I got 25, and someone else got 1. Later in the game, I had another chance for a run and took it. On the last trick, my 8 of Clubs was caught by the Jack of Clubs, again with one heart on the trick. On the very next hand, I once again had a chance, took it, and managed to run the hearts. By giving everyone else 26 points, that ended the game. I had not checked the scores beforehand, so I was surprised to find that Sue won the game by 4 points, even after adding the 26 to her score. She usually beats me at card games, and did so again. At least, I didn’t finish last in every game for the day!

We didn’t try any new games this time, giving everyone a rest from the pressure of learning a new set of rules. I may bring out one of the remaining un-played games next weekend. I am looking forward to all of them. Maybe I’ll get lucky and win my first game of the year; hope springs eternal…

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; March 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Carcassonne: The Wargame

2006-02-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

For those of you who think the original Carcassonne game is too simple, soft, slow, or whatever, here is a suggestion. This is actually an inadvertent variation that we have played for four years, simply because we did not understand one of the rules. The one rule change that causes Carcassonne to become a “wargame” is to allow a player to place a meeple on any field, city, or road on the tile he plays, regardless whether it connects to the same type of feature already on the board with a meeple on it. This allows players to constantly compete for the majority of meeples on those features, to win all the points of them, or even to share the points of a very large city or road or a field that touches many completed cities. It is especially cutthroat when played with both the Traders and Builders and the Inns and Cathedrals expansions.

Think of the meeples as paratroopers who drop onto a battlefield about which little is known, because of the fog of war. The soldiers are essentially mapping the area as they arrive and trying to hold or take control of the most valuable cities, roads, and land (fields). As battles are concluded (finished roads or cities), soldiers are returned to base and are available for future deployment. Engineers are available (Builders), as are production units (Pigs), and one paratroop group carries surprisingly effective weapons (the large meeple). Cities with valuable stores (silk cloth, barrels of wine, and grain supplies, as well as the political value of cathedrals) are the most precious targets. Cloisters are even more defendable than Monte Cassino – no other army can take one from you.

The analogy plays out well, especially in cities, where a number of troops frequently gather, to take control of a large metropolis. Valuable transportation systems (roads with inns on lakes) are also frequent targets for combat. Near the end of the game, troops are often dropped into strategic locations in open spaces (fields), to hold as much territory as possible for the final victory.

So, if any wargamers out there want a slightly different challenge, try this variation of Carcassonne, which can include some interesting strategic and tactical decisions. It is a much more lively, confrontational, challenging game, which requires decisions regarding when to avoid a conflict, when to initiate one, and when to call a truce (and allow everyone with troops on the feature to score the points). You can sometimes employ spies, sneak into a city and steal all the valuable stores, while others are battling for control of the city (complete a city, taking the cloth, barrels, and wheat, without having a meeple in it). It just takes a little imagination to make Carcassonne into a conflict simulation, of sorts.

I believe Hunters & Gatherers could become the Battlefield of the Tribes, by making the same rule change. Also, consider playing Carcassonne (or H&G) in teams, allowing team members to combine their troops in cities, roads, and fields (or forests, rivers, and valleys), to outnumber their opponents. There are some intriguing possibilities here.

If you try either game with this simple rule change, let me know what you think. In the meantime, don’t consider Carcassonne to be just a friendly family game. There is much opportunity for confrontation, back-stabbing, negotiating, diplomacy, and other fun, war-like activities waiting for your enjoyment.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006

aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played February 25, 2006

2006-02-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

It was an interesting family game day Saturday. Sue and I planned a soup lunch for the group, and we fixed four different soups – Tortilla Soup, Tortellini Soup, Baked Potato Soup, and Meatball Stew. All the dishes were big hits, and that was a good start.

Our gaming was a mixture of things from different types of gaming days. Some game days, we play just old favorites; sometimes we try new games; occasionally, all seven of us play a game together. We did all of those things on Saturday, plus we played a game by the correct rules that we have been playing with an incorrect interpretation of the rules, from the first time we played it.

We have been playing Carcassonne incorrectly for four years! Somehow, we misread, misunderstood, misinterpreted, or just missed the rule that does not allow a player to place a meeple on a road, city, or field, if the tile with that feature connects directly to the same feature on another tile on which a meeple already resides. We cannot imagine how we misinterpreted that rule, since it is quite clearly stated and has illustrations to explain it. We play Hunters & Gatherers with that rule, correctly, but we just never re-checked the Carcassonne rules to be certain we were playing correctly. So, we played it by the printed rules, and it became quite a different game for us. It was a calmer, quieter, less boisterous game, which I will describe in more detail in another article. Results: Katrina – first; Sue – second; Mason – third; me – fourth; Joel – fifth; Dan – sixth.

Natalia joined us for a seven-player game of Bohnanza. I am always surprised by Natalia’s play in this game. It’s one of the very few games she will play with all of us, although she does play other games with her parents and brother at home. She is a very quiet person who does not get loud in this game. She seldom competes aggressively for a trade, but does make and accept offers; she is not “pushy.” We hardly notice that she is quietly accumulating gold during the game. It’s fun for all of us, and we have begun playing it more often, because it is fun having everyone involved. Results: Dan – first; Natalia, Sue, me – tied for second; Mason and Katrina – tied for fifth; Joel – seventh.

The new game we broke out was Station Master. This game is fun, in my opinion. It accommodates six players, so Joel played with us. The rules are simple, but the gameplay is challenging. Railroad car cards (called carriages), which have different values, are added to locomotive cards, to form trains. The number on the locomotive indicates the total number of car cards which can be added to that train. When that number is reached, the train is complete. The train is scored, and the cards are removed from the game. When all the locomotives have been removed, the game ends. In addition to adding cars to the trains, with the same number of trains being loaded simultaneously as there are players in the game, players also may add passenger tokens to the trains (choosing to play either a card or a token in each turn). The tokens represent either 1, 2, or 3 passengers, with the number hidden by playing the token number-side-down. The number on the locomotive card also indicates the maximum number of passenger tokens that may be placed on the train. There are some special cards that allow players to move cars from one train to another, to move passenger tokens from one train to another, to remove cars from trains completely, to complete a train at any time (Caboose card), etc. Scoring is a simple matter of adding the positive and negative numbers on the various train cars and multiplying that result times the number of passengers each player has assigned to the train. Obviously, players try to build high-value trains where they have multiple passengers assigned and low or negative-value trains where they have no passengers assigned. The scoring is added continuously, as each train is completed, so players can see who is leading, which is usually the person for whom other players attempt to create negative-score trains. We noticed that the lead changed frequently, sometimes by major amounts. It is an intriguing game that plays very quickly – about 30 minutes for the six of us. I believe everyone enjoyed it, and I expect we will play it several times a year. Results: Dan – 203; Katrina – 186; Sue – 173; me – 167; Mason – 158; Joel – 141.

The fourth game we played was the old stand-by – Settlers of Catan. Hardly a game day goes by that we don’t play this game. We enjoy playing with six players, although the board gets congested in the middle, usually. I like having the development cards, among which a player may acquire some of the ten victory points required for a win, without the other players being aware of how close that player is to winning. Although the two victory points, each, for the longest road and the most soldiers (largest army) sometimes seem almost over-balancing, they are points that can change hands during the game. It’s a good scoring mechanic that works. It was a close game. Results: Mason 10; Joel, Katrina, me – 9; Dan, Sue – 8.

It was a bit of an unusual game day for us, but was fun, as always. The list of un-played new games in the house continues to diminish. I’m still eagerly looking forward to Hacienda, Alhambra, Cartagena, and Australia.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006

aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Following Yehuda

2006-02-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

On February 21, 2006, Yehuda posted a marvelous article on Gone Gaming – Session Report. His imitation of a wide variety of authors’ styles, as they might be applied to gaming session reports, really broke me up. He is a most creative writer.

I quickly wrote a comment to his article, but my off-the-cuff, brain-dead, response was so lame that I’m ashamed it is hanging out there, visible, in cyberspace. However, his fascinating piece ran around in my head overnight, and I woke up this morning with the germ of an idea for a more meaningful reply. So, Yehuda, (if you happen to read this) here is my ode to your wonderful article, with the application of much poetic license and a huge apology to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells.”

Catan

Listen to the offers, as they dip into the coffers
Of the cards so slyly hidden in their hands.
Excitement fills the air, while I sit and simply stare
At the lack of progress made upon my lands.
Oh, it’s sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep,
Sheep, sheep, sheep.
It’s the bleating and the fleecing of the sheep.
And it’s wood, wood, wood, wood,
Wood, wood, wood.
Oh, the hewing and the chopping of the wood.

I fear my clever plan to expand my hearty clan
Faces many bumpy hurdles on its way
To that perfect score of ten, which is what I need to win.
So, I must make more trades without delay.
Now it’s wheat, wheat, wheat, wheat,
Wheat, wheat, wheat.
See the scything and the grinding of the wheat.
Then it’s ore, ore, ore, ore,
Ore, ore, ore.
It’s the blasting and the smelting of the ore.

We seek to make a trade, but of this I am afraid:
He will beat me to that port upon the shore.
My plan, it may implode, if I cannot place a road,
And all I have at hand is lots of ore.
So, it’s brick, brick, brick, brick,
Brick, brick, brick.
It’s the shaping and the firing of the brick.
I need time, time, time, time,
Time, time, time.
It’s the hoping and the praying for more time.

My hand is now eleven; oh, please don’t roll a seven.
I can see the robber moving to my eight.
Yes, I know you get to pick; please don’t draw my only brick.
Why must you be so cruel, nasty Fate?
It’s a road, road, road, road,
Road, road, road.
It’s the playing and the laying of a road.
It’s a port, port, port, port,
Port, port, port.
It’s the taking and the holding of a port.

I must stay cool as ice, as I pick up both the dice,
For I need but one more sheep to buy a card.
This is getting creepy; I just drew another VP.
With one more point, my win-streak stays unmarred.
Build a city, city, city, city,
City, city, city.
See the placing, yes, the placing of a city.
Roll the dice, dice, dice, dice,
Dice, dice, dice.
It’s the tumbling and the rumbling of the dice.

At last, old Fate anoints my hand with all the points
That I need to reach the goal for which I yearn.
But, what comes to my ear? The words I so much fear.
You won before I got to take my turn.
Yes, it’s the sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep,
Sheep, sheep, sheep.
It’s the bleating and the fleecing of the sheep.
And it’s wood, wood, wood, wood,
Wood, wood, wood.
It’s the hewing and the chopping of the wood.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played February 18, 2006

2006-02-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

The whole family was together again for food, conversation, and games.

First game we played was an old card game we have had for many years – The Last Card. I wrote recently about this game, pointing out that we had played it by a different rule interpretation than the one described by Mike Schuller (mike86) on BoardGameGeek. We decided to start the games with this card game. We had played the game only seven times in the past five years, and not since December 2002. We played five hands, so each person dealt once, and the results were: Mason – 178, Dan – 177, me - 132, Katrina – 112, and Sue – 88. That was quite a spread of scores. Like most card games, you can play perfectly, but if you don’t have the right cards, you can’t make many points. Of course, probably no one plays perfectly, so there might have been some missed opportunities. As Mike indicated, there is more strategy to this game than appears on the surface. Katrina said she has always enjoyed this game, and she holds the record score for us of 260, while I have not enjoyed it and hold the record low score of 83. Perhaps that’s why she likes it, and I don’t. We do prefer playing with Mike’s interpretation and will do so in the future. I’m not certain it will see much playing time, because it just doesn’t compare in our minds with games like For Sale, Boomtown, Mu, and Hearts, but at least we will not toss it out of the house.

Speaking of Boomtown, that was our next game. Joel played this game last weekend with us, when Mason was away skiing, and he loved it. The box says it’s for 2-5 players, but the deck of auction cards totals 60 cards, and there are no markers or other restricting elements that prevent 6 players from playing it. We tried it with all six of us, and it was as much fun as with five. I really enjoy this game, although I have not done well in competition with the family. The results were: Katrina – 70, Dan - 63, Mason - 52, Sue - 46, Joel - 40, and me – 31. That is a significant spread for this game, I think. Katrina was more than double my score, as was Dan. Shame on me! I do enjoy playing it; I just need to get better at it. Katrina told Joel, after the game, that she has a winning strategy, which she whispered to him. The rest of us are still in the dark. I would not be surprised to see Joel win next time; I’m sure he will request that game next weekend. I haven’t developed a theory about how to win this game, yet. I can see that if a Saloon comes out reasonably early, it’s a good idea to select it, and the Governor can pay off well. I had a terrible start, with only two mines, both “3.” I also ended up with the New Vein card on one of them. I then managed to get the Telegraph, but did not play it when I should have. When I realized that I had missed at least one opportunity to change a die roll to get a “3” total, I then had to wait several turns before I could do so again. By that time, Joel had Dynamited one of my “3” mines, which cut down considerably the effect when I used the Telegraph. All-in-all, I was certainly not on top of my game for Boomtown.

Next on the agenda was Through the Desert. Out of three plays of this in our group, Katrina has won twice (and holds the scoring record), and Sue won the other game. Results: Katrina – 72, Mason – 58, Dan – 57, me – 56, and Sue – 49. Sue had some difficulty getting to some oases, which hurt her score. I started off with a long caravan of purple camels, and I figured I would have no problem scoring for the longest string in that color. However, by the end of the game, I had been boxed in, and someone else beat me by one or two in that color. The other color I tried for also got boxed in. I can see that I need to work to keep some spaces available for a longer time period. I was very fortunate to have the score I did, since I was the only one with no points for longest caravan. I made up for those, to some degree, with a good enclosed area and with lots of 3-value waterholes, as well as connecting all my caravans to at least one oasis. TtD is a fun, fast-playing game for five people. The board certainly gets crowded by the time the game ends, which makes it very challenging.

We finished the day with all seven of us playing Bohnanza. This can be a madcap game, with seven vocal people, each trying to outbid the others to trade for a bean card that the current active player has available. Some of the trades look odd, until the player making the trade plants on his next turn, but usually it makes sense at that time. This is one card game in which negotiating and trading can go far to overcome a bad card draw. There are frequently many opportunities to trade for cards you want, and at the same time, to get cards out of your hand that you do not want to plant later. We are also not reluctant to donate a bean card to someone else, if that card would be an impediment to future plans. We never purchase the third bean field. After doing so a few times, we found that the harvest return seldom paid for the field before the game was over (with seven players, it doesn’t take long to go through the cards twice). We do not use the suggested rules for dealing cards for seven players. We use the same rules as for five players, but add the coffee beans and take out the garden and cocoa beans. We deal the same number of cards to each player in the beginning, and the active player draws only three cards at the end of this turn. In our experience, this works as well for 6-7 players as it does for 4-5. The game moves very fast; it’s loud; it’s a little wild; there is some funny negotiating; and we all have a great time at it. It is one of the few games Natalia will play with all of us. Dan and Katrina say that when they play 4-handed at home, Joel and Natalia almost always win and frequently finish 1-2. I know the parents do not throw the games or go easy on the kids; Joel and Natalia are just very good at this game. Our results: Mason and Sue (tied) – 10; Joel and me (tied) – 9; Natalia and Dan (tied) – 8; Katrina – 7. Now, that’s a close game!

So, “a good time was had by all,” once again.

I didn’t push for playing a new game this week, although I’m really getting antsy to play one of the five new games we haven’t tried (Australia, Hacienda, Station Master, Alhambra, and Cartagena). Of course, I also really want to re-play several of our newer games, such as Tongiaki, Around the World in 80 Days, and Princes of Florence. Too Many Games, Too Little Time!

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Gaming with a Grandma

2006-02-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

I recently wrote about Gaming with a Grandson, relating some stories about my grandson. My wife and I were talking about gaming after that, and I mentioned remembering playing games with my grandmother. My wife suggested that might be the basis for another article, so here goes……

When I was in elementary school in a very small rural town in Oklahoma in the 1950’s, we lived a couple of blocks from one set of my grandparents (and across town from the other set). I walked to and from school, a route that took me past my nearby grandparents’ house twice a day. Most days, after school, I stopped at their house on the way home and stayed a while. Sometimes during these visits, grandma and I played games. They did not own any real commercial boardgames, and they did not play cards, but grandma taught me some games and some things about gaming.

The first game I recall learning from her was checkers. We played checkers a lot, although it has never been a favorite of mine. However, she taught me a checkers variation that I enjoyed very much. The game was called “Six Corner Kings,” and I believe she learned to play it a few years just before or just after 1900. I have looked for information about this game online, but have found no mention of it. If anyone reading this knows of a reference for this game, please let me know.

To the best of my memory, this is how Six Corner Kings is played. Using a regular 8x8 checkerboard, with a light square in the bottom right corner, both players place six checker kings on the board, in opposite corners. The kings are placed on dark squares in the player’s right corner, so they form two diagonal lines of three kings each, facing the same arrangement, diagonally, in the opponent’s right corner. The kings may move forward or backward, only diagonally on dark squares, normally one square at a time. A king may diagonally jump friendly kings (the same player’s kings) without removing them from the board, and multiple jumps are allowed. Kings capture (and remove from the board) opposing kings by jumping over them on a diagonal. Multiple jumps (with intervening open squares) may include both friendly and opposing kings, in any order, removing only the opposing kings. This allows some intriguing set-ups and trap plays. Jumps of opposing kings must be taken when available, including multiple jumps, but a player is not required to jump his own king, which may stop a multiple-jump move, if the player chooses. The object is to capture all the opposing kings.

Grandma was a whiz at this game; she probably played the game for over 60 years. We sometimes played many games of Six Corner Kings in one sitting.

She taught me dominoes, too. She only played a basic version, with scoring of combinations of 5 or multiples of 5. I had never seen dominoes played before she explained to me how to play this game. Interestingly, it was one of two games I played with my wife’s stepfather, much later in life, and he was a whiz at it, virtually always beating me. I also played with dominoes during lunch hours at work even later in life, playing a variation called “Shoot the Moon,” with six players on two teams. And, even today, our family occasionally plays “Mexican Train Dominoes,” but it was grandma who taught me the rudiments of dominoes.

The third type of game grandma played with me was one we made up (as have a great many people in this country, I’m sure) – States and Capitals. We each took turns naming a U.S. state, while the other person had to name that state’s capital. Oh, yes, there were only 48 states at that time. That game was a major reason for my long-term interest in geography, I believe.

Grandma’s game library and game interests were extremely limited, but we had many hours of fun playing those games together.

Beyond playing the games themselves, however, she taught me some things about gaming, not overtly, but subtly and by example. She did not play in a cutthroat manner, but played games for fun. I know she let me win a lot, until I realized what was happening and could compete well on my own. Then, she played to win, and any bad moves in checkers or missed scoring in dominoes had to stand. She laughed a lot during our game sessions, and the atmosphere was light and friendly, but still competitive. She would play checkers or dominoes anytime I suggested it, and she always congratulated me when I won. She displayed good sportsmanship (gamesmanship? gameswomanship?) at all times. She played until I was ready to quit, never indicating that she was too tired to play another game. She provided me with a gamer’s role model that could not have been better planned. I have realized only in recent years how much I learned about gaming from her, while playing only those two (or three) different games. I’ve also realized that she, even more importantly, taught me how to be a grandparent.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming
{Originally posted on Gone Gaming on February 15, 2006}

Genealogy and Games

2006-02-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

My wife Sue and I enjoy the hobby of family history, which includes dabbling in the field of genealogy. Because of our interest in this, we subscribe to Ancestry.com, an online organization that is a tremendous source of information about genealogy. As part of the subscription, we receive an electronic newsletter daily. Today’s newsletter included an article about quotes made by famous people regarding genealogy and family history. I enjoyed reading it, and a couple of them really got my attention, because they were listed as “taglines” for genealogist writers.

I recall not long ago that Coldfoot was trying to create a tagline for his writings about games. I believe he settled on: Boardgamers do it for hours. That is a clever tagline. So, when I saw the genealogist taglines, I remembered Coldfoot’s effort, and then I read one that totally took me by surprise.

Among the very clever genealogist taglines was this one: Genealogy is the marriage of a jigsaw puzzle to a Dungeons & Dragons game. Wow, I had never expected to see a cross-over reference between genealogy and gaming. Two of my hobbies joined in that line. Obviously, someone who worked jigsaw puzzles and had played or at least was familiar with D&D is working seriously in the genealogy field. Well, probably there are a lot of such folks, but I had never seen anything that confirmed that fact, until now. Gee, maybe my interest in a wide variety of hobbies is not so weird after all.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

How I Store Games

2006-02-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

I have read a lot of discussions about storing games, and I’ve seen some excellent photographs of the furniture and locations people use for game storage. Obviously, I’m not a “true” game geek, because game storage is not of major importance to me.

When we moved into our house almost 30 years ago, it had an unfinished basement. That was one of the reasons we purchased it. We wanted to be able to finish that space the way we wanted it to serve our needs. However, the walls of the separate rooms in the basement had already been roughed-in by the previous owner. After studying the floor plan and wall studs for a while, we decided that we basically liked the layout, so we did not change the arrangement. Over a span of several years, buying materials when we could afford them and doing the work on weekends, mostly, Sue and I eventually completed the basement to our satisfaction. The only two items we did not do ourselves were the plumbing in the bathroom and the laying of the carpet.

The first three rooms we finished were the bathroom, naturally, and the two rooms that have now become “my room” and “Sue’s room.” Sue’s room was designed to serve as a large bedroom, which it did for our son, when he out-grew his small room on the main floor, and until he graduated from college. My room, it appears, had been planned to be a small office. Both rooms had wall studs installed to form a good-sized closet in each. We decided to finish these “closets” into open storage areas. We installed wide wooden shelves, to hold quite a lot of things. The storage area in my room has held games, puzzles, photo albums, notebooks, paper and other writing supplies, and stationery. As we acquired more and more games, other things got pushed aside or moved to the attic, until almost half the closet was devoted to games. At the peak of our game collection, we had something over 200 games.

As we began purchasing more Euro-games, we found ourselves rarely playing our older games. Last year, I made the major decision to dispose of most of those games we had owned for many years. In all, I got rid of about 150 games. I traded groups of several games for a single new one in several cases, and the games no one wanted to trade for, I gave to a thrift store. We continue to purchase new games, and the space I had created by the “thinning” is beginning to fill up again.

After reading recently about some ways other people store games, I took a look at my storage pattern. While some people store games by publisher, by type of game, by designer, by box size, or some other criterion, it appears my storage is based primarily on the frequency with which the game is played. One area holds most of the games we did not eliminate in the “great reduction” last year. Most of these are seldom played, but were kept primarily for nostalgia purposes. Some of the them probably will never be played again, but we just can’t part with them. Some have been in our families since before we were married, and we will never get rid of them. Others are rather unique or out-of-print and are kept more as collectors’ items. Another area contains new games that we have bought in the past couple of years, but that only get played once a month or so. We enjoy them, but for various reasons, we just don’t get them out too often. One area holds the smaller card game boxes; they are easier to find when stored together. Then, there is the “active” game group. These are games that get played almost every weekend. They are front-and-center, easy to grab and easy to re-file. These are the boxes that are beginning to show the wear-and-tear of constant handling. This is also where the newest game gets stored, at least temporarily, until we discover whether it becomes one constantly-played, or whether it gets relegated to the “occasional-play” group. It appears that, by accident, my game storage has become one simply of convenience. This arrangement works well for us, so I do not expect to change it anytime soon.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Game Tinkering

2006-02-11T21:57:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Two events in the past week made me give some thought to the idea of tinkering with games.

When I joined BoardGameGeek in 2004, I uploaded a bunch of digital photos (all of too-large size, before I learned better) and information about a couple of games that did not then exist in the database. One of those games, with two photos, was The Last Card. This is a trick-taking card game. I cannot even recall where I purchased it or how I learned about it, but I acquired it in 2001. Our family group played it a number of times, enjoying it less and less, until we finally stopped bringing it to the table. I rated it “3” on BGG.

Last week, while I was reviewing and updating my games ratings on BGG (three cheers for me), I noticed that another person now is shown as owning the game – BGG username mike86. Not only does he own the game, but he has posted an excellent review of it, noting that it is one of his favorite card games (and this is from a serious Bridge player). Well, that got my attention, so I read the review to find out what he liked about it. It turned out that he and we had different interpretations of one of the rules, a key rule. After pulling out the game and studying the rules again, I could see how he arrived at his interpretation, but also believed ours was a reasonable interpretation. I wasn’t interested in debating which interpretation was correct; I wanted to find out whether his rules would make the game more interesting for us.

Four of us played two hands of the game this weekend, just to try the “new” rules. We did, indeed, find the game more interesting, although it was difficult for us to get our heads around the change. We had a lot of discussion about what cards could be played each round. In the end, we agreed that it would be worthwhile trying it with our full group (our son was off on a skiing weekend, so wasn’t there to try it). We will try it soon with the whole group, and it’s possible this old game might come out of the closet once again.

Later in the week, I noticed Coldfoot had posted an audio review of Carcassonne on his blog (although it is apparently far from being a favorite game for him). I have enjoyed his audio reviews, and Carcassonne is one of our family favorites, so I decided to see what he had to say about it. As always, he does an excellent job of clearly explaining a game, and when he mentioned the restriction of not playing a meeple on a road, city, or field on a tile you are playing that adjoins another tile that already contains a meeple on that road, city, or field, I was taken aback. I thought, “That can’t be right. I know that’s the rule in Hunters & Gatherers, but in Carcassonne, you are allowed to play a meeple under those conditions. That’s why we have so many battles over stealing or sharing cities, roads, and fields in our games.” Well, I pulled out the game and the rules and found, to my great embarrassment and consternation, that he was absolutely correct (no surprise there). We have been playing and loving Carcassonne for four years, with an incorrect understanding of a key rule. When I read the rule sheet, it was extremely clear about that point, with excellent illustrations to explain it. We cannot imagine how we not only missed that point when we learned the game, but also why we didn’t re-check the rules in Carcassonne when we acquired Hunters & Gatherers and found that same rule in it. We thought the H&G rules had made a change in the playing of meeples, which reduced very much the direct conflicts over ownership of the point-makers that we experienced in Carcassonne. It never dawned on any of us to re-read the Carcassonne rules. Amazing!

Well, we’ll give Carcassonne a try with the correct rules, but, as I told Coldfoot, we may unanimously decide to play by our unintentional modification of that rule. It may be that we enjoy the game so much because of that misinterpretation.

Hunters & Gatherers is very popular with our family group. We have liked it from the beginning. However, we enjoy it even more when we apply some suggested rules modifications posted on BGG. We play with the aurochs (according to Wikipedia, aurochs is both singular and plural) tiles and with the proposed changes that allow aurochs to “chase away” a tiger when the aurochs is played, plus the scoring bonus that makes deer in the same valley more valuable when an aurochs tile is played there. These changes have increased the challenge of H&G for us and made it even more fun.

I can recall a number of Forum and GeekList discussions on BGG about game play modifications. Some people (I would consider them to be game purists) believe a game should only be played according to the written rules. Others feel that if some modification of rules or other parts of a game makes it more fun, more challenging, more interesting, or more playable, they have no problem doing so (I would consider them to be game tinkerers). My family and I fall into the latter category. We always (attempt to and intend to) play a game by the printed rules. If it works well, we stick to it. If it doesn’t work well for us, we will consider changing something and experimenting with modifications. If it still doesn’t work well for us, or if we can’t come up with a good change, we will shelve (and probably dispose of) the game. Well, I didn’t get rid of The Last Card game, but kept it simply because I thought it might have a future with us, somehow (fortunately).

One game which we believe was much improved by two home modifications is Trumpet. When we first played Trumpet in 2001, it became an instant hit with us. After playing it almost every weekend for a couple of months (sometimes two or three games in the same day), we decided that (although we really liked it) there were two things about the game that did bother us a bit. We did not like the fact that a person who first reached the Change Trump space just two spaces back from the finish line could usually win the game, since that person could change trumps, take two tricks, and win. We decided to eliminate that unbalancing opportunity. We actually drew an “X” through that space on the board; it is still a usable space on the board, but landing on it does not allow the person to change trumps. We believe this better balances the game, allowing players farther back a better chance to catch up before the game ends. The other change we made was regarding the initial placement of trump designators on the board in the early stage of the game. The rules require that, until all six designators are on the six trump spaces, each succeeding Change Trump space landing causes the player to put on the next higher trump indicator space a color that is not already in play. This forces the person who places the final designator to have no choice; it is frequently not to his advantage to change the trumps in that case. After all six designators are on the board, the player who can make a trump change can exchange any two of the designators. We believed that a player who manages to land on a Change Trump space at any time during the game should always be allowed to name the top trump, so we modified the rules to allow players in the beginning stage of the game to move an already-played trump designator up to the highest available trump indicator space and place a new color on the vacated space. This allows the same opportunity for changing and designating trumps throughout the game. These two changes made the game virtually perfect for us, and we played that game to death. In fact, we wore out several decks of cards, and I acquired at least four additional copies of the game, just to have new decks on hand (expensive, since it was out of print by then). Although we don’t play the game too often these days, it is still one of our favorite trick-taking card games.

Another form of game modification which we have sometimes used is to give younger players a “positive handicap” that makes it easier for them to compete with adults. I did this as far back as the 1970’s, when our kids were young, in games such as Battleship, and we did it this weekend to make Scattergories more fun for our young granddaughter. We have not done this often, but sometimes it has seemed important to make the game playing-field more level, when adults play certain games with children.

In the case of Carcassonne, our “interpretation” of the rules was absolutely wrong, but it may have resulted in a game that we will enjoy more than if we play by the true rules. In The Last Card, the rules, I believe, can be legitimately interpreted in more than one way; finding which way makes a better game is the goal. For Trumpet, for creating handicaps for children, and for Hunters & Gatherers, the rules/board modifications we made have been deliberate, to make the game more balanced, interesting, challenging, or fun.

When we purchase a game, especially a relatively-expensive game, we want to enjoy it. If the rules are not as clear as they should be, or if a modification of a rule or something on the board makes it more fun for us, we will “re-interpret” or change the rule or make a board change without hesitation. If we unintentionally misread a rule, we will certainly correct our play when we learn of our mistake, although we may later decide to ignore the true rule, if we prefer playing with our misinterpretation. We only tinker with a game deliberately if we find the change makes it more fun for us to play.

Certainly, if I were competing in a game tournament or playing with strangers at a game convention, or joining a new gaming group, I would want to know and understand the true rules and play by them. For family gaming fun on weekends, that is not so important. Sometimes, tinkering with a game makes it better.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Games Played February 11, 2006

2006-02-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

This was another fun day of family gaming. Our son Mason was out of town for a ski hut trip, so the games won’t count in our annual statistics. Our grandson Joel knew Uncle Mason would not be here, so he asked to play Boomtown, Ticket to Ride, and For Sale. Ticket to Ride is limited to five players, so Joel only gets to play when someone is not here; we have all six played For Sale in the past, and it plays equally well with five; and I’m thinking Boomtown might be playable by six, but haven’t seriously looked into what would have to be modified (e.g., number of cards in the deck). Our granddaughter Natalia joined us for a three-team game of Sequence, and then Joel read some of his book, while the other five of us played Scattergories.

Joel (2nd grade) had not played Boomtown, but had watched the five adults play twice, and he already knew how to play. Yes, he definitely knew how, because he won by a large margin: Joel – 81, Dan – 71, Sue – 67, Katrina – 60, and me (last) – 52. One saloon card came up about mid-game, and allowed Katrina some gold, but the other came up very late. Dan chose it, and Joel eliminated it on the next round with dynamite. Joel did not end up with a Mayor, but had collected so much gold on production rolls (he had a 7 card with a New Vein card on it, so on a 7 roll, he collected 9 gold, three times). Katrina grabbed the Governor early, which really paid off for her. Joel selected both Holdup cards, but collected zero gold on one and four on the other. Katrina held the Telegraph until the final round and helped herself a lot. I played both the Card Shark and the Stagecoach Robbery, but they weren’t enough to help me catch up. I also had the Mustang card, but did not use it wisely. Should have held it longer. This is a neat game that I believe we will play frequently.

This was Joel’s second time to play Ticket to Ride, and, as usual, he came out well – second place, just two ahead of Katrina. Sue won big, and I trailed far behind. I had the Seattle – New York ticket and almost finished it, but Sue ended the game while I needed one card to complete the last link. That negative score really set me back, especially since I had only two other tickets, both short north-south runs. It’s a fun game that we all enjoy.

Katrina won both games of For Sale; we’ve only played four times. It plays so quickly that we want to play two games each time. The scores of the first game were: Katrina – 67, Sue – 53, me – 48, Joel – 43, and Dan 41; second game: Katrina – 54, me – 53, Sue and Dan – 51, and Joel 43. It is so easy to play and very light. At the same time, there are the decisions about when to bid and how much, or when to take the low value property and save the money. The two different types of auction mechanics in the same game make it interesting. We probably will play it several times during the year.

Natalia had not played Scattergories before, but wanted to learn it, so we introduced her to it. After playing one game of three rounds, we decided to play another, with a different set of categories. I suggested that Natalia (4th grade) be allowed to write answers with either of two letters, the letter rolled on the die and either the letter of the alphabet before or after that letter, so she had more opportunity to think of something to fit the categories. That handicapping helped her and allowed her to enjoy the game more. It’s a little difficult to play that game with a mix of adults and children, but the handicap helped.

The Sequence game involved three teams: Dan and Joel, Natalia and Katrina, and Sue and me. It was a fairly close game, with Joel playing a Two-Eyed Jack to win the game for his team. There is no game that he does not do well at!

The four adults also played a couple of hands of The Last Card. This is a little-known card game (as of last week, there were only two people who claimed owning this game on BGG). The other owner of the game had written an excellent review of it on BGG, which got my attention. Our family had not really enjoyed the game, and I rated it very low. However, after reading the review, we found that we had interpreted a rule differently than the reviewer, so we decided to give his interpretation a try. We think it works better than our interpretation, so we will give it a try with Mason and see whether the game makes it back to our table some more. If we do indeed like it better, I will update my rating of it.

No new games made it out this weekend, because we almost never open a new one when one of the adults is absent – don’t want to give one person a big disadvantage, since we count wins and finishes. I was hoping we might go with Tongiaki again, with five of us, but the group decided to go with the lighter Scattergories and Sequence, especially to get Natalia more involved. I’m still looking forward to our remaining unplayed games – Cartagena, Station Master, Alhambra, Hacienda, and Australia.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Missed the Boat

2006-02-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Today, I feel like a guy who had an idea for inventing something, but didn’t get busy and work on it, and when he began to get serious about it, he found someone else had just patented it.

Well, my situation is not quite so important as an invention. I had been thinking about how games come to an end, not the victory conditions, but what causes a game to stop. Of course, I’ve been too busy to really work on the idea. So, this evening, I logged onto BGG, just to see what was new, and there, right in front of me was a new GeekList posted on that exact topic. There’s something there about “missing a boat,” I think.

I believe I will still pursue the topic someday. I notice that most of the examples and discussion posted as of this time relate to newer, popular games. I would like to delve into the finer nuances of how games end, and deal with games throughout history. I think it will be interesting to note the development of more complex game endings through the ages, consistent with the development of a more complex world. Perhaps this will be my primary thesis.

The GeekList will be a good source of data for me. Given the fact that the list exists on BGG, I will not publish my findings on BGG, but probably will post it here, whenever I get around to researching and writing it. Now that I’ve posted this thought, I probably will miss the boat again, and someone will post a great article somewhere else. Oh, well, I will try to identify some unique additions to whatever may exist at the time.

Games Played on February 4, 2006

2006-02-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Today was a great family games day. We played Bohnanza (6 players), Carcassonne (6 players), Settlers of Catan (6 players), Through the Desert (5 players), and Tongiaki (6 players).

Our grandson Joel won Bohnanza, with me 2nd, our daughter Katrina and son-in-law Dan tied for 3rd, Sue was 5th, and our son Mason was 6th. Joel is simply amazing at trading cards to his best advantage. Once, early in the game, when he made a decision about harvesting vs. trading, I said, “Why would you do that?” Then, I said that I shouldn’t ask, and that was correct. Obviously, he knows what he is doing; he beat me by one gold. Our Bohnanza games play very quickly, with lots of trading going on at every player’s turn (if the player has anything at all to trade). We have begun donating cards more, to clear unwanted cards from our hands, as well as trading multiple cards for singles, to better arrange our hands and fields. We are doing much better at hand management in this game. We never buy the third field, because we do not believe it pays for itself before the end of a six-player game. We go through the deck only twice. So --- we’ve played Bohnanza twice in 2006, with our 10-year-old granddaughter Natalia winning in the seven-player game, and 8-year-old Joel winning the six-player game. That is so neat!

Joel also won Carcassonne (with expansions The River, Traders and Builders, and Inns and Cathedrals). In fact, his score was over 160, and he finished 29 points ahead of Mason, who was 2nd place. I finished 3rd, because of a lot of points for my farmers, including the use of my pig. Katrina finished 4th, with Sue 5th, and Dan 6th. Joel has become an excellent Carcassonne player, sometimes sharing a city, rather than stealing it (if the person is not ahead of him or near him in score), and other times stealing a large city. What really won the game for him today was his acquisition of the trade goods – he had the majority of both barrels and wheat, and tied for the most ribbons (cloth). That may be the first time any of us managed to do that. This was only the second time Joel has won Carcassonne, playing with six players, and both victories have come in 2006, and winning the first game by an even larger margin. In fact, he’s the only one of us who has won this game so far this calendar year!

Mason won Settlers, his first game win in 2006. It’s unusual for him not to have won more games than one in the past month. It was a close game, with Mason winning with 10, Katrina and Sue tied for 2nd with 9, me in 4th with 8, Dan with 7, and Joel with 6. Joel has beaten us all at this game twice, in 2005, and I expect he will do so again. In the meantime, Mason and Dan are the usual winners, with Mason having 14 victories and Dan having 16 victories since we began playing in 2004, with the rest of us not even in that ballpark. This was our second game of Settlers in 2006, with Sue winning the first one. Sue had the Longest Road and two VP cards in today’s game, while I had the Largest Army. Mason won without either of those two-point cards and with no VP cards – strictly with settlements and cities, which was surprising to us. As usual, there were some interesting dice trends. The game was almost over before a 9 was rolled, while 11 came up about 6 times, and 3, 4, 5, and 10 were as common as 6 and 8. Twelve was rolled twice, and 2 was rolled once, which is about what would be expected. Also surprising in this game was having only a small number of rolls of 7. The robber was moved as many times or more by Soldier cards as by dice rolls.

This was our second game of Through the Desert. The first game, played last weekend, was won by Katrina, with Mason in 2nd place. Today, Sue won with 62 points, Katrina was 2nd with 60 points, I was 3rd with 58 points, Dan was 4th with 53 points, and Mason was 5th with 47 points. Mason forgot to try for longest caravan in a color, which I am sure he will not forget in the future. Although Dan and I have played this game online, we finished 3rd and 4th in both of the two games we’ve played at the table. Sue moved up from 5th place in last week’s game to 1st this week. We all really enjoy it, and it plays quickly with 5 players. The board gets pretty crowded by the time the game ends. We had only one waterhole unclaimed. I had my rider camel of one color surrounded, with only one open space where I could have played a second camel in that caravan, at the end of the game. I expect to see us playing this game fairly often.

The new game this weekend was Tongiaki. I had read the rules twice before we played, so I could explain the game. Katrina said she was getting sleepy while I was reading and demonstrating the rules, and she wasn’t very enthusiastic during the game play, but when the scores were totaled, she and Joel had tied for 1st place, with 21 points. I finished 3rd with 19, Mason was 4th with 17, Sue was 5th with 16, and Dan was 6th with 12. Even if you take the time near the end of the game (which we did not do) to add up the points it appears people will have, it is difficult to estimate who will be the winner. The last play of the game can determine the winner and change all the relative finishes. We had no idea that Katrina and Joel would finish in 1st place. As it turned out, we created no Royal Islands, but Katrina was the only person with boats on three of the islands at the end of the game. Joel finished well by having boats on lots of high-value islands. What is really amazing to me is that Joel had never seen this game until I explained the rules at the table. He asked a few questions during the game, as did virtually all of us, and he managed to tie for the win – good grief, he’s only 8 years old! What will he be doing in four or five years at these games?! It isn’t just beginner’s luck, either. He analyzes the options and usually selects what appears to be the best move. He just has a knack for learning and playing games. The game was longer than might normally be expected, with the last two tiles left to draw from being one island and one ocean, when the final ocean tile was drawn to end the game. That is as long as a game can go, having one tile left un-played. I think we all enjoyed this game, and I expect we will play it several times this year. It will be interesting to see how our game play changes, after we get a better feel for it. To facilitate keeping track of how many islands and ocean tiles were in play and for scoring at the end, I downloaded an excellent player aid from BoardGameGeek in advance. I also modified it to better suit our needs, which worked well. I will post the modified file on BGG soon.

The results for the day: Joel – 3 wins (including one tie); Sue – 1 win; Mason – 1 win; Katrina – 1 win (in a tie). Dan and I have not yet won a game in 2006. So far, in 2006, Sue has won 5 games, Katrina – 4 games, Joel – 4 games, Natalia – 1 game (the only one she’s played with us), Mason – 1 game, Dan – 0 games, and me – 0 games. Not an auspicious beginning for Dan and me.

Since January 1, 2001, the results are: Mason – 176 wins, Dan – 144, Katrina – 136, me – 125, Sue – 118, Joel – 15 (he has only been playing with us adults and counting wins during the past year and has played only a small number of games with us, but has a high percentage of wins of those games he has played), Natalia – 3 (she has played very few games with the rest of us, but has done very well at the few she played).

Next weekend, Mason will be on a hut trip in the Rocky Mountains, near Crested Butte, Colorado, including cross-country skiing and spending a night in a mountain hut with friends (this seems to be becoming an annual event for them). So, we will not be counting game victories next Saturday, but the rest of us will have a good time playing games together, anyway.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Gaming with People Unmet

2006-02-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

Playing games with people you have never met in person can be an interesting pastime, and the gaming has a different feel to it than that of face-to-face games.

Shortly after I bought my first wargame (Afrika Korps), I subscribed to the Avalon Hill magazine “The General.” I then made the startling discovery that it was possible to play AK by mail and to locate opponents in the magazine. I was living in Virginia at the time and found a listing for another fellow living in Virginia who wanted to play AK by mail. I wrote to him, and over the next several months, we played a game of AK by mail. The process worked beautifully, and we were evenly-matched, both being new to the game. It was an eye-opening experience.

A year or so after my first PBM game, I purchased Diplomacy and found a thriving community of people across the country playing that game through the Postal Service. Playing Diplomacy by mail with six other people required a gamemaster and cost a small fee. I believe the first such game I played took over a year to complete. I was a co-winner of that game, because the other winner and I agreed to call it a draw after we eliminated the last of our opponents. The second time I played Diplomacy by mail did not require much of my time, as I was the first player eliminated.

Within this past year, I discovered online gaming. My first exposure was to BSW. I found that site to be intimidating and not worth the effort. In spite of an excellent online written guide and some helpful people who answered questions for me in real time, I just never enjoyed being there. I think it’s simply too big and complex for my tastes.

More recently, I was introduced to four other online sites – youplayit, spielbyweb, ludagora, and boiteajeux. Although the language barrier (for me) of ludagora and boiteajeux was an initial impediment, I learned to use Babel Fish to interpret enough words to allow me to navigate it and to play Through the Desert at the first and Torres and DVONN at the second. I have played Amun-Re at spielbyweb and Cartagena at youplayit. All of these sites provide excellent implementation of the games I’ve played. In December 2005, I purchased both Through the Desert and Cartagena, based, to a great extent, on my online experiences. The only reason I haven’t purchased the other games I’ve played online is that I do not believe my family gaming group would be interested in playing them. I will definitely continue to play these games online (well, perhaps not DVONN, as I’m not much interested in theme-less abstract games).

My most recent foray into gaming with an “unmet” opponent is a currently-ongoing PBEM (play by email) game of Afrika Korps, using Cyberboard software.

Playing games with people I have never met in person has been an interesting experience. I still have never met in person anyone I played against by mail, email, or online.

In face-to-face gaming, I pick up visual and oral clues about my opponent(s) which may either aid or hamper my play, depending on the astuteness of my observations or the degree to which I am misled or distracted by that input. Playing by mail, email, or online focuses my attention on the game board positions, the mechanics, and what I can infer from my opponent’s plays.

Face-to-face play is more social, involving more activity extraneous to the actual game play. Personalities play a strong role in whether the game experience is enjoyable or is a disaster. The environment also is a significant factor – the room temperature, lighting, relative comfort of seats and tables, distractions (family members, observers and kibitzers, pets), availability and quality of food and drink, the pressure of time deadlines, and the presence or absence of music or noise in the background are some factors that influence the enjoyment of face-to-face gaming.

Non-personal (not face-to-face) gaming removes most, if not all, of the above factors of gaming. There may be written or typed comments accompanying the moves, but that has a relatively minor effect on the play of the game. All of the environmental factors are strictly controlled to suit myself. This would seem to make it a more “pure” gaming experience, but the missing elements of the face-to-face experience also remove much of the “fun” side of gaming.

I am very much enjoying both types of gaming. I love the weekly face-to-face family gaming experiences I am fortunate enough to have available. I also appreciate having the opportunity to play games online or by email that I would not otherwise get to play. I would not want to give up either gaming method.

As neat side effects of my online gaming, I am enjoying an ongoing email correspondence (like an old-fashioned pen-pal arrangement) with the “unmet” person who introduced me to this contemporary gaming experience, and I am playing games with people living in other countries, an interesting experience which I am sure I would never have been allowed to enjoy, outside of online gaming.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Gaming with Co-workers

2006-02-03T17:58:00.001-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

When I graduated from college and joined the throng of the employed, my first job was in a large civilian government office on a huge military base in Oklahoma. Entirely by accident and good fortune, my immediate supervisor (who was the office manager) loved to play games. The game selection was thin – a variation of Pitch with a deck of cards or a Pitch-like game played with dominoes.

Like most of the people in the office, I brought my lunch each day. At noon on my first day of work, I was surprised to see a group of seven or eight people sitting around two large gray metal government desks that were pushed together. Six of the people, including my boss, had various lunch items in front of them or on their laps, while one or two people sat in chairs behind them, also eating lunch. When I saw cards being dealt, I pulled up a chair behind the group and took out my lunch.

I quickly realized the six main players were playing Pitch, but it was a variation I had never seen. There were two teams of three players each, seated in alternate chairs in the circle. The deck of cards included two Jokers, marked High and Low. That, of course, is common in many variations of Pitch; what was unusual was the way the cards were dealt. The dealer gave each player six cards face-down and then three cards face-up. Each player had a nine-card hand, with three of them exposed, and all the deck was dealt. It was a 10-point variation, with one point for each of these cards in the trump suit: High (always the Ace), Low (almost always the Deuce), Jack, Off-Jack (same color, different suit), High Joker, Low Joker, and the Ten; the Three was worth 3 points and was caught by any other trump except the Deuce. When the bidding began, each player could see the six cards in his hand and three in front of each player, for a total of 24 cards, almost half the deck.

Bidding was almost as structured as Bridge, but on a much simpler level. If a player could see in his hand and his partners’ face-up cards, the Ace, King, and Deuce of one suit, his bid was 8. An Ace, King, Queen was worth 9, and an Ace, King, Queen, Deuce was a 10 bid. If someone bid 7, they had some cards worth points, but couldn’t see cards worth an 8 bid.

Everyone knew the bidding scheme, but sometimes it took a good look (and maybe a little luck) to figure out which suit they were planning to bid. A game was 21 points, which normally took a minimum of three hands to complete. However, anyone could bid “Shoot the Moon” (or “Shoot It”). This bid was the same as a 10 bid, but was worth an entire game, win or lose. Each player was allowed only one bid, which had to be higher than previous bids, with the dealer bidding last. A subsequent “Shoot the Moon” bid would overbid a previous “Shoot the Moon” bid. When bidding was finished, and the high bidder named the trump suit, each player put his face-up cards in his hand and reduced his hand to six cards for the game, with the high bidder playing the first card.

I’ve never seen a trick-taking card game played so quickly. If a player hesitated for more than 2 or 3 seconds to decide what to play, someone would say, “Come on, we’re waiting.” All of this was done between mouthfuls of sandwiches, chips, pickles, cookies, soup, crackers, and swigs of coffee, tea, water, and soda. It was like a high school cafeteria environment. Probably 55 minutes of the lunch hour involved dealing and playing cards and eating. The other 5 minutes covered setting up everything and putting it away.

As the lunch hour drew to a close, more and more “Shoot the Moon” bids were heard, sometimes in desperation, trying to catch up in the “games won” column for the day. If “Shoot the Moon” was the final bid, and a player on the opposite team had either the trump Ace or Deuce (which was an automatic point for the team that played it), that person would casually toss it face-up into the middle of the table (ala Mel Gibson in the final poker game in the movie Maverick) before the high bidder could even lead to the first trick, thus defeating the bid and winning the game. This might occur several times, so the count of games completed could easily reach 20 or more each lunch hour.

Now, I had played different variations of Pitch for about a dozen years, but I had never seen anything like this game. Generally, the two teams had the same teammates every day. The seventh person I had seen observing the game was the “first alternate.” If any of the regular players was absent, the alternate sat in for that person. My boss noticed me watching the game on my first day and asked whether I played Pitch. When I answered affirmatively, I was designated the “second alternate.” Within about a month, after I had substituted in several lunch sessions, I was moved up to first alternate because I played faster than the other alternate, and speed was highly prized.

Before my first year was finished, our office was pulled from the base and moved downtown to form the core of a new government agency. A couple of the Pitch group members remained on the base, so the other alternate and I became “primary” members in the new office.

Soon after the office move, our same boss began introducing a Shoot the Moon game played with dominoes. The play was similar to Pitch, with the dominoes’ numbers being the suits. We played either Pitch with cards or Shoot the Moon with dominoes during most lunch hours for the next year and a half. As employees left and new ones were hired, we acquired new game group members. It was still going strong when I changed jobs and moved out of state.

I had no co-worker gaming experiences for the next four-and-a-half years. After I was selected as manager of an office in still another state, I soon discovered that one of my top employees enjoyed playing chess. We often played “speed chess” during the lunch hour, and when we happened to take a business trip together, I took along my travel chess set. I was very happy to have it in my carry-on during the trip that found us stranded in the Chicago O’Hare Airport, due to a blizzard in our home town of Omaha. We played a lot of chess during that day and night!

By the late 1970’s, I had discovered and purchased several Avalon Hill wargames, but with the exception of one play-by-mail game of Afrika Korps, I had only played them solitaire. When I moved to a new job in Colorado, I was pleasantly surprised to find four other guys in the same office who took an immediate interest in Diplomacy and Wooden Ships & Iron Men. For about a year, four or five of us would get together one night a week for a game of WS&IM, with an occasional game of Diplomacy. Once, when we had a couple of other guys visiting our office for a few days, we managed to have a full seven-player game of Diplomacy at my house one evening. Eventually, four of us began playing Diplomacy during lunch each day, continuing a game on successive days, until completed. Then, I moved to a new job in another agency.

Gamers somehow seem to gravitate to each other. I soon met a fellow who worked in the same building, who loved to play Cribbage. I had never played it before, but we were soon playing Cribbage almost every day during lunch in the cafeteria. He and I also bought our first home computers at this time – Commodore 64 – and began visiting at each other’s homes regularly to play text adventure games, such as the Zork series, and the famous Atari dexterity games. When our interest in those games eventually faded, that was the end of my gaming with co-workers.

It was an interesting experience, playing games with people whom I also worked with or for, or whom I supervised. I think there is a fine line to be carefully observed in that endeavor. If the individual personalities are not highly compatible, or if there is a perceived and undesirable “pressure” to participate (between supervisor and subordinate), the situation can cause friction in the workplace. It is also quite possible for co-workers who do not participate to believe that the gaming relationship gives inappropriate advantages to the employees who play games with the boss. Supervisors and subordinates who play games together should be aware of the potential workplace problems that could arise. Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, I never experienced any of those problems.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; February 2006
aka gamesgrandpa -- A grandpa who is a mile high on gaming

Gaming with a Grandson

2006-02-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

One key to happiness – GAMES

My Oxford American Dictionary defines gaming as “to gamble for money stakes.” Well, now, this definition needs some updating. The term, as used by the game geeks I know, generally has little or nothing to do with money stakes (except considering the cost of the game). Our “gaming” around here is strictly playing boardgames and card games for fun.

Warning to Readers: Grandpa Bragging Time Ahead --- My grandson, Joel, last month became 8 years old. He is a bright, polite, popular, friendly, handsome, talented boy who has a particular knack for mathematics and games. He is definitely on the geek trail. At about age two, he was playing Chutes and Ladders with us. He soon moved up to My First Board Games and Uno, among other games. Then came a breakthrough – our family discovered Euro-games (due to clicking on a link to BoardGameGeek).

We soon were playing Pick Picknic, Vampire, and Frank’s Zoo. By this time, Joel was three, and then four years old. That’s when we realized for the first time that he was progressing well ahead of his age in the area of mathematics (or at least simple arithmetic). During a game of Vampire, he casually mentioned that he had four more points than I did. My wife and I stared at him and at each other for a moment, quite surprised at this statement. From that time on, we quizzed him during games about our relative scores, requiring him to add and subtract digits in his head. His arithmetic skill grew by leaps and bounds, as did his ability in gaming. No, we can’t really take credit for “creating” his skills, but we subtly (or not so subtly) pushed him a bit to expand his abilities. We are firmly convinced that his desire to play games and figure out scores helped him considerably to reach the point where he is today. His second-grade teacher told his parents the other day that she loves being forced to come up with ways to challenge Joel in math at school. She said she was one of two teachers at a recent area meeting who could confidently say they had a student working well above his grade level in math.

Joel’s sister (Natalia, now age 10, who beat us all at 7-player Bohnanza last Saturday) became an excellent reader at an early age. Joel developed his math skills early, but we wondered whether he would concentrate on that, rather than on learning to read. We should have had no concern about that. Joel watched his dad and me play Magic: The Gathering for a while, often sitting on his dad’s lap and asking questions. He soon wanted to play the game, but that required reading and understanding the text on all but the most simple cards. In short order, he was doing just that, primarily so he could play that game. His reading skill has progressed to the point that he is now becoming our “rules lawyer.” He discovered this week that we had not been playing Bohnanza correctly (or at least not according to the rulebook variants) when we played with three players or with seven players. We had played the regular five-player rules in both cases. Ah, yes, a true geek!

He and his dad became very interested in HeroScape when it first came out, purchasing three master sets and all the expansions that have been released. Joel studied all the data cards for the figures, and essentially memorized them. Last summer, Toys R Us stores ran a promotional competition in HeroScape, and Joel and his dad signed up at the local store. Joel, playing against teenagers, won the competition and acquired several figures free. He even caused a bit of a stir by making a move which was questioned by his opponent. Joel practically quoted the rule that allowed his movement, and a check of the rulebook confirmed his accuracy. Definitely a rules lawyer.

Soon after we began playing Carcassonne, we acquired Hunters & Gatherers. Very quickly, Joel was playing that game (and beating us), and it became one of his favorite games. He now enjoys Carcassonne with us, too.

After watching the five adults in our family group playing Settlers of Catan for several months, he (at age 7) asked whether he could play a game of it with us. We all sort of hemmed and hawed, but finally agreed. I don’t believe he won the first time out, but it wasn’t long before he did beat us all at Settlers. He observes our play of a new game carefully, asks questions, and then proceeds to beat the socks off us. About a week ago, he asked whether he could try Ticket to Ride with us, and (as usual) he did very well at it, completing all his tickets in both games he’s played.

Last week, he and his sister spent a weekday night at our house, while their parents were out of town. Joel asked whether I would play a game with him (I virtually NEVER turn him down on that request), so I offered to teach him Cartagena (a game I acquired last month, but hadn’t introduced to the family, although my son-in-law Dan and I had played it online). We played one game with our hands face-up, so Joel could learn it. In the second game, when he won by getting all six of his pirates into the escape boat, I had only one of mine in the boat. Hey, now, I’m not exactly a slouch at this game, I thought – why, I’ve even managed to beat sodaklady once at Cartagena online! Okay, we play two more games the next day; he wins one 6-3, and I win one 6-4. This kid is a natural game-player. You have to understand, and believe me when I say, that I do not “throw” games for Joel, to let him win. He is so sharp and so competitive that he pushes us all at whatever we play.

This past Saturday, our family gathered at our house, as usual, for food and games. As we got out a few games to play, I included Around the World in 80 Days, a game I am fond of these days, but had only played twice. I noticed it accommodates up to six players, so I suggested Joel might want to join us. He had watched us play last time, so he knew the general idea of it. We explained the rules for him, refreshing our own memories, and played the game. Although Joel finished last, he made no mistakes and fully comprehended the game. I expect he will soon be winning it.

Over the past few years, Joel has beaten us (all as a group or in smaller groups or one-on-one) in the following games (these are the ones I can think of, at least): Pick Picknic, Vampire, Frank’s Zoo, Zirkus Flohcati, Fill or Bust, Trumpet, Bohnanza, Royal Turf, Hunters & Gatherers, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Cartagena, HeroScape, and Magic: The Gathering. I believe that is quite an accomplishment for an 8-year-old.

I have come to the conclusion that I own no game that Joel would not be able to learn and to compete well in, given a chance. After playing Cartagena last week, I told Joel that he is an excellent game-player. He responded with, “So are you, Grandpa, and you teach me these games.” Can you possibly imagine how proud of him I am and how pleased I am to think about the gaming fun we have ahead of us? ------ Okay, grandpa bragging is now concluded.

Hope this hasn’t been too boring for you. Whether it was or wasn’t, I’ll just say that I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my good fortune with you, and I wish for you as many happy gaming hours as I’ve had over the past half-century and longer.

Until another time (perhaps), this is one grandpa who is a mile high on gaming.

--- Gerald … near Denver, Colorado; aka gamesgrandpa
{Originally posted on Gone Gaming on January 27, 2006}