-
Rick Baptist
United States
Redlands
California
-
I love my game groups.
Every single one is different, with different friends and different tastes. I've grown to know them all quite well, well enough to know to bring Vikings to Kirk's house and Cycladesto Tony's. I have a group of friends that enjoys eurogames, a group that enjoys American-style games, a group that enjoys Fantasy Flight games, and one that likes just about everything. This pleases me, especially I work myself into the last one I mentioned -- I like just about everything.
This last Saturday I was fortunate to attend another gathering at Kirk's, who (again, fortunately) I live close to and to whom I consider to be an extension of my own family. They welcome my wife and kids as their own, provide dinner, and it's always a great time. I've also attended some of their music concerts and gone frisbee golfing with them, so it's nice to have things transcend away from the table as well. Awesome folks.
We played four games on this particular day - Tower of Babel, Web of Power, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, and Amun of Re. Whoops, got carried away with the "of's" there. Amun-Re. Oh, and I can't forget my morning adventure with my kids and Castle Panic, but that will get its own blog entry in due time.
Now of these four games, there's a clear winner. The only new-to-me game was Babel, and it was fair, but Ascension has been a favorite of mine ever since Drakkenstrike did one of his Components Breakdown's on it. It's funny because I'm not the biggest Dominion fan, and I haven't tried Thunderstone yet. But Ascension hit a home run for me right from the start. It's quick to set up, fast to play, and I like that you have unlimited buys and how you can 'juggle' the cards coming up in the middle. It's good 2 through 4, and we played a four-player version of it to cap the evening. It's funny - all the times I've played Ascension and I rarely try going with the "kill all the monsters" strategy. I amended that by going all-in from the second turn with militia. And wouldn't you know that I just missed out -- David beat me by two points with his Mechana constructs. And that was with me discarding two or three of them from the center so he couldn't have them! So it's probably a tough strategy to get working, but I'm going to try again.
The rest of the evening was pure euros, some better than others. Let's start with Amun-Re. Now, I WANT to like this game! I do. This was my second time playing. My first was a long time ago, and really, the flow of this game and strategies did not stick at all. That might be my first problem with this one -- I don't feel AR is intuitive at all. I get the feeling it's one of those games that you have to play 5-10 times before you get a good handle on strategy, and then you're supposed to play it 15-30 more times to enjoy it. But I'm not sure I want to be married to this particular game that much. Anyway, I think I hobbled in to a third-place finish. I'd like to play it again sooner rather than later. But I'm not sure I can give it more than a 6.
Tower of Babel was actually my game for a few months. I bought it new on the Amazon sale a while back, read the rules, and decided 'eh'. Kirk & family acquired it at my birthday "con" so I was happy to finally get a chance to play it. And I have to admit I was surprised! With such a themeless backdrop, the mechanics have to be good for me to like something -- and I did enjoy the game. The rulebook sucked, but once we figured out how to present our offers, the game worked. I'm a sucker for area control and this game does that quite well. The way to get your buildings out is close to genius. I finished fourth in a five-player game, and looking forward to another play.
The last game discussed for now is Web of Power. About a year ago, I picked up China and was surprised how similar the two games are. They're almost the same game, and then they're not. China is a nicer-looking game to me, and yes that matters! But beyond that, the rule changes that were made to China make the game flow better, in my opinion. I don't like the double-scoring of WoP, I don't like the purple region on the map, and I don't like the art. So there, WoP! China wins. Regardless, I rarely lose a game of China or WoP, but this time was one of those rare ones. I finished second place by two points. Either version I can recommend, though - I think it's a fantastic game and it makes me want to play more Michael Schacht games.
Well, my soon-to-be three-month-old just soiled himself (and is now laughing about it) so off to tackle THAT particular game. No link to "poopy diaper" in the tags, though.
|
|
