Vacation is running out of time to be used. So we might as well use it on gaming. Ed and Susan brought new games with them which effectively rendered my large collection useless. We started with a new Alea game about collecting ingredients to build potions and score them. Unfortunately for me, this is a blind guessing game. Everyone selects 5 cards from a hand of 12 roles. Then the roles are individually revealed. If no one else picked your role, you lucked out! If they did, the first person very likely to be screwed. The second person must decide to let it pass and get less of the result or try and take over the first person’s role. If you are the last person in the chain, the decision is a no-brainer: screw the first person! Otherwise, you must decide if the people downstream of you are likely to have the card.
This type of mechanic immediately puts this game in the the light-weight category. Sure, you might be able to guess what people are likely to go for. But not entirely and not with any surety. Definitely not one for my game collection. And not one to play again any time soon with all of the choices out there…
Next up was a game with more of a perfect information, no luck based design. Thematically, it is set in the gold-rush Old West. It has two major phases: building up your pieces and abilities, and tearing down what you previously built up. The key decision in this game is deciding when to switch from build-up to tear-down. Because you cannot go back!
It was my favorite of the night. And one I would be willing to try again.
Ahh, a two-sided game. Good versus Evil. Or, in this Sci-Fi themed game: Humans versus Cylons. You start off the game as everyone being Humans. Or at least claiming to be Humans. There are secret identities that are dealt out. One at the beginning and a second during the halfway point in the game. So, you could start out as a Human only to discover that you are actually a Cylon sleeper agent! Neat. This means that you have to play the game on the edge of a balanced agenda. You don’t want to help the Humans out too much because you just might be doing the wrong thing.
Chapel was playing Gaius Baltar, and he had the first move in the game. He plays a card that allows him to look at Susan’s (playing Laura Roslin) secret identity. He then loudly declares that Roslin is a Cylon! Hrm, how interesting. It wouldn’t make sense that one Human says that another Human is actually the enemy. Or that one Cylon would out a co-conspirator as an enemy. That would mean that either Baltar is a Cylon or Roslin is a Cylon. But who do I believe? And that is the real dilemma here. Susan was pretty quiet so I leaned towards believing Mike. But, as a group, we did nothing. However, Mike’s constant accusations did force Susan’s hand. She declared herself as a Cylon, switched sides, and started working to help the enemy.
In this game there are two Cylons and three Humans. Who is the second one? And would we have to wait until the second half of the game to find out? But it turned out that Jon was indeed an early Cylon. He declared himself and switched sides as well. Unfortunately, we could do nothing about it.
The Humans at this point were in a world of pain. Critical supplies such as food, fuel, and population were running out. We fought the brave fight, took many risks to try and reach Earth, but, in the end, we failed…
Nowadays, there are many choices for cooperative games where someone (or some group of people) is a traitor. I am not a fan of owning them all, so I would have to pick one. And this one would be it. I like the Sci-Fi theme and the mechanics just fine.