Monthly Archives: January 2006

Game Day 01/05/2006

Cheese fondue

I experimented and made some cheese fondue for tonight. It was made with Emmental and Gruyére cheeses.

Game #1

Ys

We spent some time trying to pick a game. With six people, we usually break up into two three player groups. John suggested playing this game since he hears that it is comming back into print. And why not with the current buzz and focus on their new game, Caylus. So I tought the rules and we played. John was able to pull a come back from behind move and tie me for first during final scoring. Nice play John!

Game #2

Caylus

Another playing of this hot new game. And one that was thematic as well since both games played tonight were Ystari games.

Lunch Time Tichuers 01/03/2006

We were robbed! Ed subconsciously gave the other team 100 points…


The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed
GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
Ed & MarkH AdamR & Dan
  -20   GT+
320
 
 
80
    420 T+
  105   T+
595
 
 
395
GT+   605  
  530 T+  
670
 
  550    
750
 
  750     650 T-
  770   T-
630
 
T+
930
    670  
  975   GT+
925
 

Disc Golf 01/02/2006

Jon throwing
Jon's disc

Another vacation day for me, another day with no rain, another unseasonably warm day, another round of disc golf. This time we did Cat Hollow with Chuy’s afterwards. Since there were only three people playing today, we didn’t do any teams. The first hole was even, but then I started messing up and I quickly fell behind the pack. So then I stopped counting shots. Which was a much more enjoyable experience. No stress, no worries, just be outside and have fun. Jon got to climb another fence for me to retrieve my disc. And John had a couple of lucky tree shots where the disc hit a tree but then ricocheted back on target.

At around the 15th hole, we came up apon a group of about eight disc golfers. Since they had so many people, they were slow. This gave us the opportunity to play P.I.G. at the previous hole while we were waiting. I wish we would do this more often as it noticabily improved our putts.

Lone Star Game Day 01/01/2006

Game #1

Forum Romanum

Hopefully, this will be a good omen for the year as I played my first game of the year after a wait of only ten hours! (I was not up to staying up late into the morning and also woke up later than usual). So I started off this late start to the morning with an old out-of-print classic called Forum Romanum. The game board is layed out in a seven by seven grid. Each player in a four player game has eight tokens which can only cover 65% of the board when placed. And yet the rows, columns, diagonals, and individual rectangles can only score when the item is full. So, after you are done placing your pieces, you pick up and move the pieces to other areas of the board. This can cause problems for people trying to score an area that they have majority in since it needs to be full before it scores.

Our group really discussed potential moves for everyone and their consequences. And there was deal making as well. So the experience was a little bit diminished for me. Still, it was a cool game with simple rules and a meaty feel.

Game #2

Railroad Dice 2

Fortunately for me, I was able to play another game on my “must play” list. And this game has potential for me after playing it. It has a slightly different feel than the original. The board is much smaller and the shares of ownership have been removed. You are only concerned with trying to connect to all the stations and transport passengers. The dice are still cool. And there are two different kinds of dice in play (although Anye did have three special brown dice that had one different face than the orange ones).

The micro-trivial awards:

  • Worst restaurant experience: Chabucas
  • Restaurant that I wanted to eat at but didn’t: Golden Palace
  • Most friendliest gamer: Kevin Nunn
  • Unknown to me game to me that made my must buy list: Forum Romanum
  • Cute unknown to me game that I regret not playing: Ark
  • Games I wanted to play but didn’t: Die Macher, Il Principe, Struggle of Empires
  • Game that I looked forward to playing against experienced players but didn’t play: Tichu
  • Game the had the best niggly bit: Forum Romanum wooden coins
  • Tournament I wanted to enter but did not (for the worst restaurant experience): 42
  • Con that I didn’t know existed until late in the year; was undecided on attending; but, in the end, glad I attended: Lone Star Game Fest
  • Thing I’m glad the hotel provided: free Wi-Fi