Larry Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
Way to go, Bubba.
-
I have owned this game for about 13 years. Originally, my wife and I played it quite often but then we had kids, which drastically cut down on our gaming with other adults. The kids were too young to play, so this game drifted to the unplayed list. In fact, we had only played it once since 2002 and that was in 2008.
My wife Melissa mentioned the other day how much she liked this game and that she thought the kids, (ages 9 & 8) were old enough to play it now. I agreed so we decided it would be our game for our Friday Family Game Night.
My son was immediately taken by the theme as he loves all things Science and has been reading a bit about genes and mutation/evolution. My daughter didn't have the same interest in the topic but thought the game was pretty and she was also interested in playing. I spent as little time as possible explaining the rules and then we got started, talking a bit about each phase in the early rounds until everyone grasped the game.
Our strategies, from worst to first:
Daughter: She bought Defense early, but the game proved to be non-confrontational until the latter portions of the game, so it was never used. By the time Struggle for Survival entered the game, she had already discarded Defense. The middle of the game saw her using a combination of Parasitism and tentacles but she frequently had fewer amoeba on the board which ultimately cost her. Final Score: 29.
Melissa: My wife went primarily with a tentacle/substitution strategy. She was doing well and contending for first until she lost all of her BP during a turn in which my daughter used Parasitism on her 4 different times. The following gene defect phase hammered her when she was unable to pay the difference with BP and lost her tentacles. She didn't recover from that turn and fell behind and stayed there. Final Score: 34.
Larry: Early I went for a movement/speed/spore strategy to spread across the board and I used my moving ability to get to fertile feeding grounds. My strategy faltered about two thirds of the way into the game when I lost movement and there were no more fertile feeding areas to be found. I think switched to Struggle for Survival and brutally attacked the other amoebas, which got me right back into the game. But for one amoeba dying on the last turn, I would have won. Final Score: 40.
Son: My son went for streamline/movement, later upgrading to movement 2. This combo gave him extreme flexibility in his movement and enabled him to get in front and stay there. He lost several amoebas to Struggle to Survival until he added Defense to his combo. In the end game, I was gaining fast on him, but he had just enough left to cross the finish line first. Final Score: 41.
The game ran a bit longer than I liked but it was due to two new players learning how the combos worked. I thought both kids played quite well with no coaching after the first two rounds. I think this may be my son's new favorite game so we will be playing again soon.
-
Melissa Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
-
The daughter's parasite was brutal and since for whatever reason I was hooked up with her, I was her main victim.
 Oh well. I certainly wasn't prepared for the game to turn confrontational there at the end. I was relieved to find that I liked the game as much as I remembered, although we never really played it more than once or twice because we didn't like the two-player version.
-
Léon Planken
Netherlands
Unspecified
Unspecified
-
Thanks for your nice session report :-) One idea that occurred to me, though:
Larry Welborn wrote:
Son: My son went for streamline/movement, later upgrading to movement 2. This combo gave him extreme flexibility in his movement and enabled him to get in front and stay there. He lost several amoebas to Struggle to Survival until he added Defense to his combo.
Seeing as he had Streamline and Movement 2, wouldn't Escape have been a more logical choice? (Get away in whichever direction you want, for free.) Or were those all taken?
-
Larry Welborn
United States
Anderson
South Carolina
Way to go, Bubba.
-
oliphaunt wrote: Thanks for your nice session report :-) One idea that occurred to me, though: Larry Welborn wrote:
Son: My son went for streamline/movement, later upgrading to movement 2. This combo gave him extreme flexibility in his movement and enabled him to get in front and stay there. He lost several amoebas to Struggle to Survival until he added Defense to his combo.
Seeing as he had Streamline and Movement 2, wouldn't Escape have been a more logical choice? (Get away in whichever direction you want, for free.) Or were those all taken?
Frankly I don't remember if Escape was available. I agree that it is probably a better choice with the combo he had. I don't have the game handy, is the price and mp the same for escape and defense?
-
Léon Planken
Netherlands
Unspecified
Unspecified
-
Larry Welborn wrote: Frankly I don't remember if Escape was available. I agree that it is probably a better choice with the combo he had. I don't have the game handy, is the price and mp the same for escape and defense?
Just checked, yes they are. There's even one more Escape available in the four-player game (2 Escape, 1 Defence).
-
|
|
