ObsessionsAndOccurrences

July and August Games

I haven't posted any entries in our family gaming log in quite a while, because of vacations and other happy events. I'm lumping July and August together, since August was a pretty weak month for gaming. Alex, Daniel and I played 26 different games, 19 of which were new to us.
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Lord of the Rings--The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers (new)
Yes, I purchased these 2 (the RoseArt versions) very cheaply on Ebay. Good thing because the games are pretty bad, at least in terms of having no strategy and no replayability whatsoever. But the components are so cool! Middle Earth sprawled out across our dining room table for the better part of a week while we popped in and took a few turns every so often. It's fun enough moving the different characters around the board and encountering all the dozens of event cards. But the part at the end where you have this big horde of orcs that you have to defeat, every single one of them in the same exact way, by rolling dice... Let's just say we killed a few and pretty much declared victory by boredom.
Ratings: Mom 5, Alex and Daniel 7 (cool bits!)

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Sing Sing (new)
This is an obscure little game I bought from a very nice gentleman in Germany who did quite a thorough job emptying my wallet a few months ago on Ebay. It's a kids memory game with a bit of a twist. The board shows an array of prisoners which are covered by a pattern of long and short colored wooden rods during the setup. Then one player puts on a blindfold (included with the game--black satin!) while another player removes one of the wooden rods. Then the blindfold is removed and the player must try to guess which rod was removed (color and length).
As you can imagine, this game gives a tremendous advantage to the kids over the adults. It's really not much of a game, but it's so unique that I don't imagine I'll be getting rid of it too soon either.
Ratings: Mom 6, Daniel 8

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Tally Ho
Always a favorite for Daniel...I think we may have tied on this one, although I do remember my hunters had an uncanny knack for pointing their guns the wrong way just as Daniel's bear had them cornered in the trees...

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Break the Safe
We had played this before and I had thought it too easy to beat the clock. This time, however, we made the fatal mistake of allowing the robot to be blown up before we had gotten the last key. We raced against the clock to get the right person across the board to defuse the final booby trap, but failed. We never knew how important that robot could be! This is a great game to bring out every now and then when you want to take a break from competition and get everyone working together.
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Formula Motor Racing (new)
Daniel and I played this one 2 player with one of the variants I found on BGG. We each took 2 colors and left the remaining 2 colors as "dummy" racers. Daniel pulled out the win by sacrificing his lead car in a crash in order to take out my car right behind him too! This left him to collect on his other cars which were all highly placed, while mine were languishing behind.
Ratings: Mom 7, Daniel 8

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Dragon Delta
Daniel and I played this one last time before trading it away. We confirmed that this is just not the game for us when I removed the bridge just in front of Daniel's pawn. He complained that "now I can't play the cards I had planned". I said "well, that's why I did it". Daniel concluded that trading the game away was a good plan.

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Queen's Necklace (new)
Alex, Daniel and I gave this a run-through. The scoring is a bit complicated for the boys, but they had no trouble understanding how to buy gems and figured out most of the special cards. Alex has that unique ability to figure out the most unusual strategy in a game and make it work to his advantage. He held onto all his gems until the very end of the game and cashed in for a huge winning score.
Ratings: Mom 8, Alex 9, Daniel 7

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Connect Four
The boys pulled this out and we all played a few rounds.

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Dragon's Gold (new)
Amazingly enough, this game worked for us. The boys enjoyed the negotiations and actually were working cooperatively a lot of the time, trying to make sure that no one was collecting the same color gems. We did have a bit of a problem in that people (who shall remain nameless) would try to grab gems before the division had been completely agreed upon, but overall, everyone was pretty fair about it. Funny thing though, Alex and I were so busy concentrating on colored gems and gold that we let Daniel collect most of the silver and he won!
Ratings: Mom 8, Alex 9, Daniel 8

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Pussy Cat (new)
Daniel and I. Cute little game. Not much to it, but it's got a few interesting elements and it looks good.
Ratings: Mom 7, Daniel 6.5

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Star Wars Epic Duels
Can you believe we haven't played this game in months! And it was pretty much an every night event for such a long time. (One can only hope that Yu-Gi-Oh will suffer the same fate eventually...). Daniel pulled this out and wanted to play with me. I don't exactly recall the characters played, but I know I was wiped out very quickly.
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Earthquake
Played this 4 player. Pretty much went over with Richard like a lead balloon. We're still trying to find the game to hook him!
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Justice League Mega-Clash
For a kids licensed character tie-in game, this is highly recommended. I played several rounds of this with Alex and with Daniel. There is quite a bit of thinking involved although the luck of the draw plays into it too. The kids' impulse is always to play whatever cards they can, so I have to keep cautioning them to hold onto their cards, otherwise they'll make it easier for the other person to finish off the stacks and win.

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Crazy Derby (new)
Played one round with Alex, who quickly grew bored. Daniel, for whatever reason, totally adores this game and we played it 2 player many, many times. I don't quite see the appeal, but it can't hurt and I make him add up his own score at the end!
Ratings: Mom 6, Daniel 10, Alex 5
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Batman - Gotham City Mystery (new)
I gave this game to Daniel for his 7th birthday in July. So far, the only time it's been played is by Alex and I. I played the evil villain and Alex played the heroes. I really wanted to like this game, but it fell pretty flat. I will try again with 3 players and maybe that will improve, but lots of holes in the rules and lots of rules which don't make sense in context to make this much fun. At least you get some nice superhero figures...
Holding off on the ratings until we play again.
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Gouda! Gouda! (new)
Alex, Daniel and I. This is a silly luck-based kids game, but it was a lot of fun. Alex kept getting within a space or two of winning, but then would get a roll to send him back a space. Next time we'll play with the special powers.
Ratings: Mom 6, Alex 8, Daniel 7

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Gold am Yukon (new)
A gift from my German friend to fill out his large shipment to me. A beautiful kids game and a clever mechanic of moving your trail of goldminers like a snake to surround the different claims. But there's not much more than that and the game got a bit dull. Probably good for younger kids. Currently winging it's way to "fluff daddy" in Fresno. Enjoy!
Ratings: Mom 5, Alex 5, Daniel 6

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Pig Pile (new)
On our first playing of this (we played by the newer rules posted on BGG), we ended up somehow in an endless loop which my darling oldest son refused to break by always playing the same cards in the same order. But the game was still interesting enough for them to want to play again. There is some depth here which will probably keep us coming back. Definitely similar to, but a step up from Uno.
Ratings: Mom 7, Alex 7, Daniel 6

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Ticket To Ride (new)
Well, we finally got around to playing this and were not disappointed. It's a very good game (as witnessed by all the great reviews it has gotten). Easy enough to teach, but not too easy to be good at. We played "open hand" for most of the game. Making the right plays to connect all your tickets was not always obvious to the boys. Also, I didn't have the heart to deduct all those points at the end when Daniel was so close to getting his last connection. We made a house rule about halfway through that you could throw away one ticket at the end of the game if you didn't make it. This will probably be the next game we try with Richard. With his background in layout, he ought to clean up.
Ratings: Mom 9, Alex 9, Daniel 9

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Coda (new)
So much for my "gifted" children. We tried this on two separate occasions. I did explain that there is only one of each tile--numbers 0-11 in black and 0-11 in white. So if someone already has a black 10, there won't be another black 10 anywhere, okay? So what does Daniel guess for Alex's hidden tile when he's already got a black 10 lying on the table face up in front of him? Yes, a black 10... This happened over and over with both of them with lots of other numbers. Do they make a remedial version of this game? Maybe we need to stick to Clue... On its way to "fluff daddy" in the same box with Gold am Yukon.
Ratings: Mom 7, Alex 2, Daniel 4
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Hit the Deck (new)
Could there possible be a game more boring than Uno? Yes! This is it. All the fun of Uno without the most interesting cards. Unfortunately, the boys will probably want to play this. Serves me right for falling victim to the "just throw one more cheap card game in the basket" syndrome during bouldergames Saturday sale.
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Thor (new)
This is a re-themed version of the Knizia game which is now sold as "Loco". Very simple to learn, but not obvious how to win. We have only played a couple of 2-player games and I suspect it gets better with more. We didn't play with the special powers cards and I don't know if we will. It seems to add too much clutter.
Ratings: Mom 6, Alex 7, Daniel 7
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Marco Polo Expedition (new)
This went over very well. I like how every move you have a different set of cards to collect, so there are interesting tactics regarding which cards to pick up. The boys enjoyed this very much.
Ratings: Mom 8, Alex 9, Daniel 8
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Five Crowns (new)
We played all the way through all 11 rounds of this. We played "open hand" so I could help the boys out with how to make the different sets and runs out of their cards. Everyone got the hang of it and seemed to like it while playing, though it was a bit long and the notion of getting "stuck" with (bad) points instead of "winning" (good) points troubles Daniel a bit.
Ratings: Mom 8, Alex 7, Daniel 6
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Carcassonne (new)
All right, can I say it now? I really don't care much for Carcassonne. I decided to make one sincere attempt at playing. I had played a couple of solo practice games and didn't really think much of it. Then I played one game of basic Carcassonne w/out farmers with Daniel and still didn't think much of it. So this time I threw in the Inns and Cathedrals expansion and convinced both boys to sit down and play the whole game. The boys did really well and I think they pretty much understood the game. Alex got bored about 2/3 of the way through, bit didn't hate the game and Daniel really enjoyed it. As for me, I still don't really see the appeal. It's kind of fun building the cities and connecting the roads, but it just doesn't grab me. Maybe if I played with adults? My plan now is to divest myself of all my Carcassonne's except The Castle, and I'll introduce Daniel to that one next.
Ratings: Mom 7, Alex 7, Daniel 9

June Games

We had 28 playings of 18 different games, 14 of which were new to us.
I'm going to start trying to put more of our own pictures in here instead of just ones I find on the internet, but it invariably happens that I get so involved with the game that I forget all about picking up the camera.

Terra
Once again we saved the world. I think the multiple ways to score in this game is what makes it fun. This time, I came from behind because I had hoarded a set of high value cards early on in the game. The boys are only now getting to realize some of the strategy in this game. Of course, with only 3, we can seldom solve a problem before it becomes a full-blown crisis. But they are starting to realize that instead of putting down a card which brings a crisis one point from solution, you may want to wait until you draw a higher card or you may want to save your cards for a combination you can hoard. I can see that we'll be playing this game more in the future.
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Yu-Gi-Oh!
Actually I didn't really keep count of how many times I played this. The most notable was when one of Daniel's friends came over and we played 4-handed with teams. Alex and I wiped out Daniel and Nicholas quite handily. I wonder if the game has ever been played that way. Interest in this game has waned a bit lately since the summer daycare center lets them bring their decks. They're pretty Yu-Gi-Oh'ed out by the time they get home. Thank heavens for small miracles!

One thing of note is that Alex (and since he must imitate his big brother--Daniel too) have started spending a lot of time creating their own Yu-Gi-Oh "cards". Actually 8.5x11 sized, but they are really very creative. We're going to work on putting them into binders and maybe trying to scan them into my blog.
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Sisimizi (x2)
Alex and I each won a game of this. He has gotten very anti-competitive lately, so he forbids any "intentional" blocking. That makes the game pretty much just multi-player solitaire, but hey--he still beat me once... And those little purple ants are so precious!

One thing I still haven't figured out is when the rules say for 2 players you have to connect the 5 central regions plus 2 diagonally opposite ones, do both players have to connect the same 7 regions, or could one person choose one diagonal and the other person choose the other diagonal? It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference, but it does change the game.
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Burger Battle
This is a simple game of brinksmanship, where you have to balance grabbing a burger before your opponents versus waiting "just one more round" so the burger is worth more points. Daniel suffered from an extreme fear of committment and only ended up with 2 burgers. Alex and I came in very close with Alex edging me out in the end.
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Password (new)
I picked up a cheap copy of a fairly recent edition of this on Ebay. We didn't really play as a game, but as more of an activity, since many of the words are too difficult for kids. Do they make a version of this for kids (or preferably for kids and adults together?). The boys really liked this activity and it made for good fun while I was cooking dinner.
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Break the Safe (new)
The concept of this game is fun. You play against the clock to overcome booby traps in each room and collect the set of keys which will stop the clock. We had a bit of confusion about when to use some of the special cards, but we did manage to beat the clock quite easily. We got lucky in that in several rooms, the person tripping the booby trap was the one who had the right card to defeat it. The boys liked this game so much they immediately took it back into their bedroom and played again...and lost 2 of the booby traps. Since they have to look uniform, I had to make a whole new set out of paper. Too bad, because the little pictures are cute. Somewhere in our house are killer bees and poison gas...or more likely, the dog probably ate them.

Rating: 9.5
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Arbos (new) (x2)
I bought this from the wonderful BGG Marketplace. It's a beautiful wooden dexterity game where you add leaves and branches onto a central tree trunk. I printed out the translations for the action cards and we enjoyed the game quite a bit. You can increase the "wobbliness" of the tree trunk at the start to make it nearly impossible, but we managed just fine with the trunk in its most stable postion. It's a great looking game and the action cards give it a nice element of chance. The first game was Daniel and I and he was able to empty his supply first, by managing to create some impossibly unstable structures which I subsequently knocked down on my turn. I won the 2nd game, I think due to the fact that Alex seemed intent on knocking things down so he could build his own little trees with his supply.

Rating: 7
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Sequence (new)
We've graduated from Sequence for Kids and now Daniel and I tried the older version. Call me juvenile, but I think I liked the cute little animal pictures better than the pictures of playing cards. It seemed very dry. Why doesn't someone make a version of the same game, but with--I don't know--space aliens? Or I know--how about Yu-Gi-Oh Sequence? Exodia's wild!

Rating: 7
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Star Wars Attack of the Clones Card Game (new)
This is actually the rethemed version of Knizia's Zirkus Flohcati. This is a huge hit! Another example of a game with multiple ways to score points combined with easy to learn rules (and, of course, Star Wars). Daniel didn't figure out until late in the game that it is better to save your 3 sixes which will score 18 points rather than lay down the set and score 10 points. (All right, I know I should have pointed this out to him. I forget he is only 6!). Alex immediately went the unusual route of trying to collect all 10 characters to end each round early. He was successful in 2 out of the 3 rounds and almost won the game, except that I got very lucky with lots of 7's in the last round.

Rating: a perfect 10 for lots of fun!
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Rome (new--we tried all 3 games)
After the huge success of Star Wars AOTC Card Game and other Knizia games (Tabula Rasa, Flea Circus, Dragonland, Jumbo Grand Prix, Gold Digger) I expected great things from this collection of 3 games. Well, we were disappointed in this one.
Hannibal vs. Rome starts off promising with the colorful little blocks arrayed around the Mediterranean, but just seems to degenerate into a quick and dirty slugfest.
I started off liking Imperium a lot, but it seemed too repetitive by about halfway through. It also seemed to suffer from a runaway leader problem. Daniel made a great play with his "Ear of the Emperor" card and Alex and I never seemed to have a hope of catching up.
Circus Maximus seems to get the best reviews on the Geek, but it didn't go over with the kids. They really didn't like when they would save their best cards for their last place chariot and then they couldn't move at all because it was blocked by someone else's (or worse yet, by their own) chariots.
Oh well, at least it will probably bring a decent price on Ebay!

Rating: 6.5
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Cityscape (new)
I had wanted to get this for quite a while just because it looked so cool. Daniel and I tied in the one game we played. I think it's quite hard to teach this game to kids. The concept of each row being scored based on how many buildings you can "see", plus the fact that you have to plan ahead of time how you are going to build each row is not easy to grasp. Add to that the fact that if you really play the game competitively, your plans will probably be ruined by your opponent several times over during the game and I don't know if this one will stick around long.

Rating: 6
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More S'Mores (new) (x2)
I got this and "I Scream" (below) as an impulse bid with some other games I was bidding on from the same person on Ebay. They are for very young kids (6 and up, but I think they could easily be played by 4 and up). In More S'Mores, the cards are graham crackers, marshmallows (nicely toasted or burnt) and chocolate bars (plain or ant-infested) and are dealt out to the players, except for 8 graham cracker which will form the bottoms of the s'mores. You start by placing one of the "bottoms" in the center and then the players take turns placing their top card onto the center pile. When someone plays a graham cracker "top", they get to take the pile and start with a new "bottom". That's it. When all the tops have been played, the scores are tallied with negative points for burnt marshmallows and ant-infested chocolate bars and positive points for the rest. There is absolutely no control over what card to play. The boys got fed up (pun intended) very quickly, especially after a round where I happened to get all the tops! But the thing is, the cards are so well done (they're really heavy stock and have sort of scalloped edges like graham crackers), I'd love to figure out another game to make out of them.

Rating: 5
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I Scream (new)
Another little kids game. This one can be played by 3-13 players and I can definitely see it would be a lot of fun for a large group of kids. The cards are 13 sets of 4, each a different ice cream treat. You use as many sets as there are players. In our case, only 12 cards. These are shuffled and dealt out so each person gets 4 cards. Then at the count of 3, everyone passes a card to the person on their left. When you get 4-of-a-kind, you yell "I Scream". The first person to win 3 rounds, wins the game. This was way to simplistic for just 3 of us, although we try doubling the number of cards to try to make the game last longer. In the end, we switched gears and found that the deck makes a great game of "Go Fish" (insert more suitable ice cream-related title here). "Daniel, do you have any banana splits?"... I think I'll try giving this one to the kids daycare and see if they can have fun with it in a larger group.

Rating: 7
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Quoridor (at least 3x)
Oh my gosh...this was an enormous hit with Daniel! And me too. It is just about the right speed for him and I highly recommend it for 6 and up. It is a bit confrontational, but when you block your opponent, it is usually easy for them to block you right back, and it plays quickly enough that you can play another game if feelings get hurt. Plus it just looks good. I'm sure if someone is really good at this type of game, they'd run me into the ground, but right now the 6 year old level is just about my speed.

Rating: a perfect 10
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Clue: Dungeons and Dragons
It's really just Clue with a D&D theme. And there are special squares you can land on to draw a monster card, roll the dice and maybe gain some extra power (or go to the labyrinth until you roll 5 or 6 or have someone use your character in a suggestion). But there is some delicious fun in saying "It was Tordek in the Chamber of Tricks and Traps with the Vorpal Sword"! My only complaint is that the character pieces, although really cool, are hard to tell apart in some cases. I still can't believe Alex won this game by coincidentally guessing the solution just as I was trying to make my way across the board, knowing the answer!

Rating: 7
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Stealth Chess
Another one bought cheap on Ebay. This is just chess where you can't see what your opponents pieces are. You can start in any arrangement, but you have to move each piece in its correct "chess" manner. I played it with Daniel and the boys have now taken it back to their room to play after story time at night. Just quick and kind of fun. I find you take more risks because you can't really know what you're up against. I suppose it would really burn your brain if you were very competitive, but that's not what we're about, so it is just light and fun.

Rating: 7

Gaming in May

May was a light month for games at our house, but we did get quite a few big hits on new games we played. We had 20 playings of 15 different titles, 10 of which were new to us.

Time to D-d-d-d-duel!
The Yu-Gi-Oh! craze continues unabated. I have now garnered a reputation as "the mom who plays Yu-Gi-Oh!". Now when I pick the boys up at CDC in the afternoons, I am surrounded by 8-year-olds wanting to "duel" with me...

I did actually print out the rules and we have played a few times trying to play by most of the rules. Heaven forbid they actually have to use math to keep track of the life points. Now I know why they sell those little Yu-Gi-Oh calculators. Anyway, we played this at least 5 times last month and yes, sometimes we do play 3-handed. Why not?

Alex was quite fascinated to read an article in the paper last weekend about the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Kazuki Takehashi. Takehashi-san said his intent was to create a world which anyone over 17 couldn't understand. Maybe that explains why I'm still confused about some of the rules...
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Open Sesame
This hadn't been out of the closet for a long time. If I had a better memory, I could clean up at this game. As it was, I put in a good showing, but Alex got the chance to steal my best treasure and run away with the game.

We give it a 7.
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Top Banana
Talked Alex into playing this with Daniel and I this time. This is a fun game and really gets kids to think. You could see the gears turning in Alex's head as he ended up with his monkey at the top of the hill.

We'll give this one a 9.
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Space Walk (new)
Daniel and I played this. He ended up winning with quite a bit of coaching. He got the hang of it mid-way through, but he still has trouble thinking beyond the current move. This game may have too much of a "screw your neighbor" factor to last long at our house. The whole object of the game is to get your opponents' spaceships to fall into the holes. I had to pass up several opportunities to destroy Daniel's ships in a motherly effort to avoid tears.

We give it a 8, but I can see potential for this to fall if we play more competitively.
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Die Glucksritter (new)(2X)
This was the surprise hit of the month and was asked enthusiastically for a 2nd playing. Players are trying to be the first to complete their castle by simultaneously selecting 2 out of 6 possible actions each round. For most of the actions, if more than one person selects it, it gets more expensive (things you want to buy) or less lucrative (money you receive). Only one action results in a dice roll-off if more than one person chooses it (the Black Knight) and then they get to steal money or castle parts from another player. We did play one rule wrong in that there is supposed to be a limit on the number of coins any one player can have. I forgot about this when explaining the rules, so money was unlimited. We still had lots of fun.

Lots of appealing things about this game. Great components, lots of variety and just enough interaction. Alex squeaked out the win over Daniel in the first game, with me a distant 3rd. The next game, I edged out Daniel, with Alex trailing due to hoarding his money and then getting blocked when he eventually tried to build. He now votes for playing by the correct rules next time....

We give it a solid 9.
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Terra (new)
Another hit. Alex won this card game about trying to collectively solve the world's crises. The kids really enjoyed the notion that the crises could get out of control and everyone would lose the game. I'm not sure they really understood the balance of individual vs. collective tactics in the game, but they had lots of fun.

Another solid 9.
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New York, New York (new)
This is an old Wolfgang Kramer game about laying tiles in numbered piles and trying to have your color end up at the top of each pile. Maybe a little too much for the kids to think about (that's not a bad thing...). All three of us played and Daniel ended up winning.

The boys were so-so on this one, maybe a 7.
I give it an 8 and will try to get it onto the table again soon.
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Sisimizi (new)
Such a cute game. All these colorful little ants crawling around trying to connect their anthills. Alex and I enjoyed this one a lot. We really liked the whole "build your own paths while trying to block the other person at the same time" thing. I managed to win just one move ahead of Alex. Daniel didn't care for the game as much. Again I think he had a hard time thinking ahead.

Alex and I give it a solid 9.
I think Daniel gave it a "negative 11"
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Tabula Rasa (new)
The three of us enjoyed playing this deceptively simple Knizia game. The tricky thing is that you are trying to get the highest number of cards on each pile, not the cards with the highest total numbers. And then there is that bonus for winning the lowest value piles...I think that's what won me the game! Daniel really enjoyed the game, Alex a bit less.

All together we'll still give it a 9
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Fish Eat Fish
Daniel and I tried this again. He can't seem to buy a break in this game. He just seems to want to use all his high value cards too early on. Then when we have two big stacks battling toward the end, he has no hope. I suppose I should predict this behavior and use my high cards up too, so he will win... Maybe next time.

We still give the game an 8 (if only for playing with stacking the fun little fishies...)
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Dragon Delta
Here's where we really got some big divergence in likes and dislikes. Alex absolutely hated this game and Daniel absolutely loved it. Alex said he didn't like the amount of "nastiness" where people could steal your planks so you couldn't move. Daniel took a while to get the hang of it, but liked everything about the game. Oh well, hopefully it plays well with 2 and I look forward to challenging my younger son in another game soon.

Daniel and I give it a 9
Alex goes for that "negative 11" this time
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Jumbo Grand Prix (new)
Another fun, simple game from Herr Knizia. I love how his games have such simple rules and yet are always a little tricky to play well. I tried to get tricky here and went for the 4-of-a-kind and spent most of the game in a pitiful last place. A made a bit of a comeback toward the end of the game, actually pulling 4 7's in the last hand! But Alex still made off with the victory by a wide margin. We all enjoyed this game.

We'll give it an 8.
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Kings in the Corner
Alex and I played several rounds of this. It's a lot of fun to play with mechanics just like solitaire. And I think I finally figured out the scoring, realizing that it doesn't really matter if you divide up the chips ahead of time. All you really need to do is keep them in a common pile next to the cards. I suppose one person could run out of chips, but probably not with 2 or 3 players.

We'll give it an 8, if only for the fun of building up the card runs.
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Starships (new)
I was expecting Daniel to really like this, since he loves Ogallala and this is basically the same game with a different theme and a board to build your cards on instead of just laying them on the table. Well, Daniel was not having a good day and unfortunately I did the bad Mom thing and attacked his starship... But I drew a card which I could only put in one spot and it finished my starship, so I had to attack. Well, I guess I didn't really have to... Maybe I can get Alex to try it later.

I give it a 7.
Daniel goes with his "negative 11".
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Star Wars Episode 1 -- Clash of the Lightsabers (new)
I gave this to Alex for his birthday back in March on the strength of reviews on BGG and we hadn't gotten around to playing yet. The boys actually wanted to play each other for the first game with Mom playing umpire. Alex won that game. Then I played a game against Daniel and he beat me soundly. I just don't get this game. No matter what I tried, he had plenty of ammunition to counter whatever I played. Oh well, they can play this without me...

I give it a 6.
The boys give it a 9.
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June will bring the end of school and no homework, so hopefully we'll get in lots of gaming..!!

April Games

April was a pretty slow month for games. Lots of other things to do. We managed 26 playings of 21 different games, 11 of which were new to us. I have started trying to bring out more of the games we haven't played in a long time, just to try to clean out some closets, so to speak.

April was also the month that Mom finally gave in and "learned" to play Yu-Gi-Oh (3 games). Of course, we play by the rules according to Alex (and the other Los Alamitos 2nd graders) which, after perusing the rulebook, only vaguely resemble the actual rules of the game. It's not a bad game (probably better if you play using the real rules) and I did manage to pull off a win. The benefits of playing by Alex's rules are 1) Alex can't get mad and say the game is stupid if he doesn't win and 2) he doesn't use Life Points, so we just play for a set time and see who has the most cards in their Graveyard. That way it makes a good game to play "until bedtime".

The other games we played:

Probe (new)
This is an old game (1964) which I don't remember from my youth, but probably would have enjoyed. Unfortunately with the boys it went over like a lead balloon. Or worse, like a plateful of brussel sprouts! It think it was partly the fact that the words had to be upside-down to someone (either the one guessing or the one creating the word) and partly the effects of the event cards (which unfortunately seemed to favor Mom). This one went immediately into the sell pile.
Ratings: Alex 6, Daniel 2, Mom 5

Secrets of the Deep (new)
Daniel and I played this game, which has great, high quality components. Each players job is to send their scuba diver down to the bottom to pick up treasure chests and bring them back up to the boat. The catch is that you only have a fixed amount of air to use or you have to drop the treasure chest and start over again at the surface. You augment the air you have by spinning numbers on the ship's wheel cleverly mounted on the board. You also have use of a dolphin who can help you and/or hinder other players. There are also "chance" cards which can help or hurt you, plus the fact that the boat moves across the surface as the game progresses, so you have to make sure you don't let it get too far ahead of you. The treasure chests are all worth different amounts, depending on their depth. This makes for a quick fun game with a lot going on. I look forward to playing again.
Ratings: Daniel 9, Mom 8

Roller Coaster Tycoon
Fun game with Alex, Daniel and I. I won the game by virtue of the fact that I was dealt both the wooden and steel roller coasters in the initial setup. Next time, we'll make sure to leave the 3 high ticket rides out of the initial deal. Alex made a fatal mistake early on by bidding way too high to win a double blind auction only to end up with a popcorn stand and merry-go-round. Won't do that again. Overall I really like this game, if only for the theme, but I can't help feeling it could be improved somehow...
Overall rating: 8

Spooks
One play of this. Don't recall the details. I think we're ready to try the advanced rules now to make it more interesting.

It's Mine! (new)
I had hopes for this real-time Knizia card game based on reading the rules, and it was kind of fun to play, but the lack of theme and the amount of time it took to calculate the score put it on the sell pile. (It sold rather quickly).
Overall rating: 7

Castle Lords
This game has been panned on the Geek, but we still enjoy it. The lead usually changes hands several times in the middle of the game, when Alex makes a big play for one of the high-value castles. Then it's a race to the end to see if anyone can come up with enough troops to displace him. Not this time, although I came close.
Ratings: Alex 9, Daniel 7, Mom 7

Zapp Zerapp
This used to be a favorite of Alex, but now Daniel seems to like it more. I, on the other hand, keep making dumb moves like keeping all my men close together so they can all get sent back to start in one swoop. I have to say, this game can only be played if everyone has the right attitude, because inevitably someone's feelings get hurt. Also, we've obviously now reached the point at which the bottoms tend to fall off the little shakers and that is very annoying. This may go on the sell pile, but Daniel insists on hanging on to it for a while yet.
Overall rating: 6

Kings in the Corner (new)
This is a simple multi-player solitaire game. I can't for the life of me figure out the intended scoring, so Daniel and I just played to the first one to get rid of their cards. I won kind of unfairly in that I saw a good move after I had ended my turn and invoked the house "one take-back" rule for myself. Bad Mommy!
Ratings: Daniel 8, Mom 6

Sequence Dice (new)
We enjoyed playing Sequence for Kids, but that is now on the sell pile. This version is lots of fun too, although it seems to have even less strategy than the kids version. Still good for some mindless fun.
Ratings: Daniel 9, Mom 6

Spy Web (new)
Played this 2-player game twice versus Daniel. It is a bit like Battleship in that you are trying to guess where your opponents' spies are based on asking questions. Each spy in the 3x3 grid is either pointing at, looking at or listening to their neighbors, so you ask your opponent, for example, "Who is Orca listening to?" and you can determine their relative locations. I won't say Daniel is good at this game, but he really enjoyed the process of trying to figure it out (and isn't that why we play games with our kids anyway?). I'm looking forward to the day when he can beat me!
Ratings: Daniel 9, Mom 8

Justice League MegaClash (new)
Another 2-player game, this one played 3 times versus Alex. This game says ages 6 and up, and while it is easy to play, there are plenty of tough choices and strategic plays. And of course it's Justice League...nuff said. There are 5 battlegrounds between the players, each with a start number and an end number. On each turn, a player can play as many cards as he can in numerical sequence up or down. The player who plays the card with the end number wins that battleground. Whoever wins 3 battlegrounds wins the game. I don't remember who won, but I know all the games were close (a good point of the game is that it's easy to control who wins). It's quick and fun, although Alex says he prefers to use the cards to play War...
Ratings: Mom 9, Alex 7

Top Banana (new)
Played this fun little game with Daniel. Each player has the same 5 cards numbered 1-5. You take turns moving your monkey up and down the pile of rocks. Whoever has the highest monkey after all cards are played wins a banana chip. The next round starts with the monkeys in the spot where they ended the previous round. First person to 3 banana chips wins the game. I seem to remember that I won the game, but Daniel had fun (which means it must be a good game). Plus the bits are great.
Overall rating: 9

20th Century Time Travel Card Game (new)
Played one 3-handed game of this which ended so fast no one could even get the hang of the rules. Alex dropped out and Daniel and I played another round. This one lasted almost through the whole deck of 100 cards! The cards are fascinating to look at and they game play is engaging enough, but I found the game didn't really justify the tedious scoring process. Also, I left out the 10-point bonus for going out first as it seemed a bit excessive.
Overall rating: 6

Flea Circus
Daniel still loves playing this. Good for a "just one more before bedtime".
Rating: 10

All-Star Baseball
We actually didn't get through more than a couple of innings because the spinner was being very partisan in favor of the home team (Daniel). This game has quickly lost its charm, so it may move to the sell pile soon.
Rating: 9

Fish Eat Fish (new)
Daniel and I played this game. This is a really fun game. It's easy to learn, but has several different elements to consider at every move. Unfortunately, it's not too easy for Mom to control who wins the game, so I kind of ran off with it at the end. I'm hoping to get a 3 player game in soon.
Rating: 8

Kerplunk
Of course it's fun. No need to comment further really. Who doesn't like the occasional game of Kerplunk? But it is such a pain trying to get all those sticks to go all the way through the cylinder.
Rating: 6

Vampire (new)
Played this with Daniel and he won by managing to kill Count Dracula for the big 10-point bonus. I didn't really think much of this game. Throwing garlic at vampires is great fun and the components are terrific, but it gets tedious after a while and I can't really find any strategy involved.
Ratings: Daniel 9, Mom 7

Battleship
Hadn't gotten this out in a while. Played it with Daniel. I don't think he had ever played before. It was close through most of the game, but he just couldn't find my small ship, so I won.
Rating: 7.5

Savannah Cafe
Haven't played this in a long time either. Got in a 3 player game, which eventually came down to who would be the first to draw the gazelle which would take them over the finish line. Lots of discussion in this game about who would choose to attack whom. At one point Daniel attacked Alex's lion just because Alex had attacked my gazelle. I really enjoy this game and should get it out more often.
Rating: 7.5

March Games

March was not a very successful month for gaming at our house. We got in 38 playings of 21 different games, 8 of which were new to us, but most of the new ones were pretty much duds. March has also seen a big resurgence in the Yu-Gi-Oh craze around our house, so it can be hard to lasso the boys into playing other games.

Here's how it went:

Star Wars Epic Duels
March saw a gradual decline in interest in this one. Played only 9 times and not much desire to play again. During the month, the boys were getting so good at the game that feelings were getting hurt on a regular basis. So we instituted a few house rules. No attacking on the first turn and no attacking the same person 2x in a row. Actually works quite well and makes the games last a bit longer. Mace Windu almost won once for a change!

Marvel Trivia (new)
Alex bought this game with his birthday money on sale. The questions are ridiculously hard, but at least the game is structured so that someone can still win even if no one answers a question correctly. If you get a question right, you get 2 points. If you get a question wrong, everyone else gets 1 point. We also ended up playing that you could have 2 guesses at the answer.
Ratings: Alex & Daniel 9, Mom 7

Rat-a-Tat Cat
Still one of Daniel's favorite choices for filling a few minutes.

All-Star Baseball Hall of Fame Edition (new)
This was one of our birthday gifts to Alex. Apparently this is a reissue of a game that has been around forever (1941 according to BGG). This one features lots of Hall of Fame players. It is very random (we haven't figured out the strategy disk yet), but still pretty fun and the "board" that looks like a baseball stadium is amazing. Alex won as the visiting team. Mom was the umpire.
Ratings: Alex & Daniel 10, Mom 8

Othello
Daniel and I played this while waiting for Alex to get out of the shower. Daniel wasn't really into it, so I won pretty easily.

Mole in the Hole
I like this game a lot. We played with a variant where you get to chose which movement disk to play instead of a random draw. In the past this worked well, but this time it really wasn't fair because Daniel ended up back at the top of his stack just as we got to the last level, so even though I had 3 moles left and he had only 1, he could automatically win because he could choose whichever move he needed to get the golden shovel!

Au Backe
Played 2x with Daniel. The more I play this game, the more I like it. Of course, it's a kid's memory game, but it's just different enough to make it interesting and the artwork is so cute!

Cathedral (new)
I had gotten a copy of this Mattel plastic version cheap on Ebay. We played it 5 times, I think 2x with Alex and 3x with Daniel. I rather enjoyed it, but it got old very quickly and Alex didn't like it at all. It went back up on Ebay and sold right away. I'd be interested in getting the new wooden version with world monuments, but not at the $40-$50 price tag.
Ratings: Alex 5, Daniel 8, Mom 7

Ghost Chase in Canterville Castle
Daniel played Max, the ghost, and was within one turn of escaping when he found himself boxed in. Alex takes the honor of catching him. This is a really fun game. I just wish the chasers could move a little more easily. There are just not enough doors in that old castle.

Doorways to Adventure (new)
I got this cheaply on Ebay too. It is a Sid Sackson game and we have enjoyed Can't Stop, Focus and Acquire, so this looked really interesting. It was quite a fun game, but went on too long to be a keeper. We really liked the "Trade a Treasure" and "Steal a Treasure with Fire/Water" cards, frantically grabbing treasures from each other to amass the largest sets. But after an hour of this and we hadn't gotten to the end of the tape, we called the game. Alex ran away with the victory by stealing 4 of my jewels at one time with "Steal a Treasure with Fire" cards to end up with $240,000 in jewels alone. Daniel came in 2nd and Mom trailed in last.
Ratings: 6 (it's up on Ebay right now)

Fist of Dragonstones
Our 2nd (and last) playing of this. We all really wanted to like this game. The bits were just so cool. But it was just too repetitive with one blind bidding after another, after another. I won this time, but I think it was only because the boys were too bored to care anymore. Sold on Ebay.

Schotten-Totten
Why can't I win this game?! Daniel won without any lenience from Mom. I have relaxed the rules somewhat in that you can still add cards to a stone even if you know you can't win it, just to get rid of your junk cards. We also just play that the winner is the one who wins the most stones with no special win for 3 in a row. But still, I'd love to win this someday!

Digging
I still can't figure this game out. It wants to be fun and the boys do like to use their bandits, but the luck of the draw just always seems to mess someone up. In this case it was Daniel who didn't get a single mine opening card the whole game, and couldn't get enough bandits to steal a mine no matter how hard he tried. One modification I want to try next time is that a mine can't be closed before there is ore in it. Since Daniel seemed to get all the mine closing cards, he pretty much closed everyone else's mine right away. I think I was the only one to actually get some ore in my mine before it was closed.

Earthquake
Played 2x, both 2-player. Not the ideal number, but mindless fun anyway. The Earthquake and Time Warp cards make this game.

Sindbad (new)
This is an older game (1990) with great components published by Flying Turtle Games. You each play Sindbad on his 7 voyages sailing around to different islands and ports trying to collect treasure and defeat dangerous pirates and monsters. I just played this with Daniel and it didn't go over well because he drew a bad card mid-game which forced him to abandon all his treasure. Daniel didn't deal with the bad turn of fortune very well. Still a skill not easily mastered in a 6-year-old. I persuaded him to finish the voyage we were on (I think it was the 3rd round), but it'll hard to get him to play again. I'll try though, because it is a fun game, just for the great artwork and little bits of treasure to collect.
Ratings: Daniel 2, Mom 9

Play Ball
One playing of this with Daniel. Once again, he was cursed with bad luck in the draw. Too bad, because this game is a nice light little filler.

Burger Battle (new)
Three playing of this older (1990) card game. You take turns placing ingredients of different point values onto a central burger until someone takes one of their 4 bun tops and grabs the burger (and all the points). You keep doing this until the cards run out. It is a constant game of brinksmanship...add one more ingredient to get more points or grab the burger now before someone else does. And don't forget about the flies which will ruin the whole burger! Plays well with 2 or 3. The only problem is adding up all those points, so we do it as soon as each burger is completed. If we wait until the end, it takes so long to add up all the burgers that everyone loses interest in who won. Which actually proves that it is a good game for us. We have more fun playing and don't really care so much about winning.
Rating: a solid 9

Quinto (new)
Another Ebay purchase on the strength of the Sid Sackson name. We played the easiest way where each number sequence had to be a multiple of 2, but it still boiled down to watching Mom do math. Sold on Ebay. No rating.

Restaurant (new)
I got this in a trade based on its being a Game of the Year nominee. You try to collect the most points by acquiring "orders" from different tables in one phase and then "serving" the best orders to your tables and the worst orders to your opponents tables in the 2nd phase. I won pretty much by the luck of the draw, followed by Alex and then Daniel. Everyone agreed that the game was okay, but nothing we'd want to play again. Up on Ebay right now.
Rating: 8

Dungeon
Yes, they actually got me to play Dungeon again. Not sure who won and I really don't know what the boys see in this game. Pick a monster and roll the dice to see if you beat it. Do it again. And again... Yawn.

Ghosts!
Nice quick game with lots of tension. Played 2x.

So, one good new game (Burger Battle). A couple that the boys liked more than I did (All-Star Baseball and Marvel Trivia). One that I liked and hope to try out again (Sindbad). And 4 that are fodder for Ebay (Cathedral, Quinto, Restaurant, Doorways to Adventure).

Now to April...

February Games

We love to play games!
February was dominated by Star Wars Epic Duels with 13 playings and no sign of slowing down. Alex and Daniel's play continues to improve and Mommy is often eliminated early in the game.

2 plays:
Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix
Alex and I have fun with this game. I wasn't able to pull off any wins and even had to ask Alex to help one of my cars finish the race.

Domination (new)
Daniel and I won one game apiece. Easy to learn and plays fast, but not so easy to win.
Rating: 9

Mancala
Something quick and easy.

Rat-a-Tat Cat
Still a favorite of Daniel's.

Escape From Atlantis (new)
Great new (to us) game! Amazing how ruthless Daniel can be! He was intent on dumping Alex and my Atlanteans into the ocean by sinking whichever bits of land they were clinging to. Even so, Alex managed to win both games. Great bits and exciting to play. This will come to the table often.
Rating a solid 9.5

Tally Ho
Still one of Daniel's favorites. He always likes to be the foxes and the bears.

1 play:
Acquire (new)
Played this for the first time, Alex, Daniel and I. Took a bit longer than I think the boys had patience for. This was partially because toward the end it took forever for anyone to draw any tiles which allowed the last couple of companies to get gobbled up. Alex won by having a huge majority in the largest, most valuable company, giving him over $100,000 bonus at the end of the game.
Rating: 8

Am Fuss des Kilimandscharo (new)
Played this with Daniel while he was home sick from school one day. It is a simple kids game, but I thought it would be promising since it is by Knizia, whose games we often like (Flea Circus, Gold Digger, Digging, Schotten Totten). Turns out this was way too simple and way too short. It's up on Ebay right now.
Rating: 6

Amazing Labyrinth
Why does Daniel always beat me at this???

Can't Stop (new)
Our first playing of this...just Daniel and I. I thought it was pretty fun, but Daniel busted on one turn and got upset I wouldn't let him re-roll. He went on to win the game, though, so maybe he'll be willing to try it again.
Rating: 9

Clue - The Card Game
Kind of an invalid game because Daniel overlooked a card he was holding, so Alex thought he had won and revealed the hidden cards too soon.

Dschungelrennen (new)
Alex, Daniel and I. They enjoyed the leapfrog effect and it was a good race. Very high luck factor. Mommy pulled off the win by a 1st place elephant and keeping the rest of my animals together for a couple of strong 2nds.
Rating: 9

Flying Carpet (new)
Daniel and I tried out this game. A bit tricky for him to understand all the possible moves (after all, the box says it is for ages 12 and up), but I helped him out a bit. A little too much, as it turned out, since he won by a mile! Let's just say he got the hang of it pretty quickly. He focused on staying low and using all his extra arrow tiles to move forward, while I tried to go high and kept getting blocked by clouds.
Rating: 9

Get the Goods
Alex, Daniel and I. Daniel won as usual. Why do I always come in last? I need revenge!

Ghosts! (new)
Another great new (to us) game! Very quick and easy, but each move is a tough choice. This will come to the table a lot.
Rating: 9

Hare and Tortoise (new)
Alex, Daniel and I. Another great game! Lots to think about. I can't believe Alex squeaked out the win on his first playing. Any game having to do with managing money (in this place, carrots), Alex seems to win. I had to sit and watch him hop by me because I had to sit and finish my extra carrots before I could finish.
I want my revenge on this too! Daniel didn't do so well because he kept wanting to land on the spaces where you roll the dice. I think he learned that this is not a good game for dice rolling.
Rating: 8

LEGO Creator
I remember it was a close game. It came down to everyone needing pieces that someone else had, so the first person to land on "steal a piece from another" was the winner. Don't know if it was Alex, Daniel or me.

Rack-O
Still a favorite way for Daniel and I to pass the time.

Schotten Totten
Daniel and my 2nd playing of this. This time I didn't give him any help...and he still won!

Spooks
Don't remember much about this one.

TransAmerica
This is always fun. Don't remember who won.

UNO
This was not fun as for whatever reasons everyone was in a grouchy mood and got upset whenever someone played a "Draw Two/Four" on them.

Ogallala
Daniel and I played this. Daniel just hates to finish his canoes, so was devastated when I finished a strong one of mine and wiped his huge one out.

Magic Hill
Daniel and I. Daniel still find this a bit tricky. He brings one goblin out at a time and doesn't get enough chance to land on other goblins and move up. I won by leapfrogging up on my own guys.

On to March!