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Here's a copy of the full session report for your reference...
With the success of our game parties, I decided to try something more adventurous and hold a party at a Red Robin.
We were already pretty goofy after a few games of Quo Vadis?, so by the time we started Condottiere our humor had become hopelessly raunchy. Condottiere is not hard to teach at all - even to non-gamers - with the help of some BGG playing aids. However, things had gotten so silly that we simply raised our hands in guilt whenever thoughts strayed into the gutter:
"OK, so this little rod is The Pope and the other is The Condottiere, see? Just hold them at an angle, they almost looks like... well... uhhh..." (several hands go up)
"But wait... shouldn't the Black One be bigger?" (EVERY hand goes up)
It only took a few sample rounds and play began in earnest. The girls were playing tough and aggressive. In the second round, one of them noted the game seems to be about timing. I asked what she meant by that, and she said that it's all a matter of knowing when to stop playing cards. Now I knew that my misfortunes were not just bad luck...
Fortunately, one of the girls had to leave early, which saved us because she carved out some impressive territory in the North. Me and the other guy, however, were stuck with single territories while everyone else had three.
I was only familiar with the older version of Condottiere, and so I found the the Bishop to be a much needed addition that prevents the feared 10-Army cards from running away with battles. Fear of Bishops had everyone trying to sneak in armies just a point smaller than the biggest one, making all denominations very valuable. My tricks and traps had people giving me the "Evil Eye" a lot.
However, it was a hopeless cause: we would never be able to get linked territories nor get five. It would have helped to play with the rules that allow you to fight again for territories already won, but in retrospect, we guys lost because we spent too many cards trying to prevent others from winning. We didn't trust girls to stop whoever the leader was, and so we tried to do it all ourselves. With each round, their winnings grew until we were but irrelevant annoyances.
OK, OK, I'll come out and just admit it... we got spanked because we didn't give them the credit they deserved.
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- Edited Tue May 31, 2011 7:51 am
Posted Tue May 31, 2011 7:47 am
