Kill Dog

Matt decided that the Meta game would be a game of Kill Dog. So we played one practice game. Not a bad game. No one got in the mood and acted like a criminal. The game would be better with real money and plastic squirt guns filled with water.

Tichu

Yay! Another game of Tichu! Sadly, I have gotten to the state where this is the only enjoyment that I get out of Russcon. I’m flawed, I know.

Exxtra

This game of Exxtra royally sucked for me! There were two new gamers playing this game and they did not make their own decisions. For example, at the beginning of the game, I had rolled a 7-3 and placed it on the 4 (leaving the 5 open). Play continued around the table until the person on my right’s turn. He rolled a 7-6. Everyone started shouting to knock me off and he grinned and did it. So instead of getting 5 points for himself, he chose to take 3. Sure, during the game you knock off the leaders or people who you are competing with. But at the beginning of the game when we are all still at 0? Make your own decisions and don’t listen to other people and help them win at your own expense.

Of course I was knocked off repeatedly during the game and came in last.

Igloo Pop

This is a cute, somewhat quick, game where you are racing against others to guess how many Eskimo children (a.k.a. beads) are in igloo huts (a.k.a. small plastic containers). When you start, you quickly grab a hut and shake it. If you can guess with some confidence how many beads are in it, you can put your token on the hut and place it on a card. There are cards on the table (10?) that have either one, two, or three numbers on it. You then quickly grab another one and try again. Soon, all are claimed or no one wants to guess any further. Then, we go around the cards and see if the guesses were correct. If you are the correct and the highest number on the card, then you get your marker back, other people’s markers who guess incorrectly, and the card. If you are correct but your number is lower than another person who correclty guess higher, you get your token back but they get the rest of the tokens and the card. If you are incorrect, you loose your token. Play continues until someone runs out of tokens.

I was at one with my inner Ice Giant and I won the game. It is a fun game when it is played with the right people.

Submarine

This is the new Colovini game where you try and pick up treasures from the bottom of the sea. I didn’t like the first playing. It was a brain burner of a game that seemed to drag on far too long. Perhaps other playings can redeem the game for me.

Breaking Away

This is a good that that simulates a bicycle race. I always like playing this game. Although tonight I raced poorly. It also played differently than previous times. Adam jumped ahead quickly and stayed ahead the whole game (usually a biker has one burst of speed and then is out of the race). I tried to keep my bikers in a group to support one another but was unable to. So I quickly lost steam in all of my riders. Still, its an interesting game.

Control Nut

Marty brought this game to Russcon and I jumped out of the group that was starting Modern Art to play this game. This is a trick taking game that was self published and given out at the Gathering Of Friends. It is a partnership game that consists of 4 suits of 13 cards and 8 special power cards. At the beginning of the round, 4 of the special power cards are randomly drawn and then auctioned one at a time. Each player will have one bid where they must choose 3 cards from their hand and use them to bid for the card. The player with the highest total will then pass the three cards to the other three players. This happens for all three cards and who ever has the most special cards (or received the special card last in the case of a tie) determines trump.

So, there are already a number of interesting features of the game. You are given some knowledge of the cards in everyone’s hand. You are given better cards from the winners of the bidding. And there are an unequal number of cards in people’s hands.

The special cards are played during the game instead of a regular card (like Wizard where you can play the special card instead of being forced to play the lead card). Some of the special powers are always wins the trick, change the trump, and bonus points.

The play stops where both people on one team cannot play cards any more. The score is the number of stars taken (1s have 2, 3s have 1, and 7s have 1) times the number of tricks taken plus 5 points for each special card taken plus any bonus points from special cards.

Marty and I scored rather poorly this game. It definately requires some play to determine the best strategy.

Tichu

Truely a classic partnership trick taking card game and my favorite of that genre. My partner for this game played rather horribly (like they have never played a trick taking game before). For example, with the following cards remaining: KK337, he led KK and then led 33 which lost and went out last because no single card lower than a 7 was played. On another hand, he played a Phoenix on top of a queen when there were aces and the Dragon still out there. We lost.