April 30th, 2018: Head to Fish Head

Crew Members: Kevin, Zevvy

There’s something relaxing about some one-on-one gaming, and that’s just what the doctor ordered.

Innovation

Although Kevin at all stages had more cards than me, I used Pottery to claim three early achievements while he had just one. The only resource I had more of was leaves, which protected my score pile. Kevin used Experimentation several times, searching for a useful level 5 card. By the time he got anything to score with I had four achievements, then used Industrialization to get Monument and control Factories. With no way to stop me, I grabbed the 6 achievement on my next turn.

Terra Mystica

My first time teaching this, but after a few actions Kevin was already planning every move (even before starting too actually). I was Alchemists though I never used my points-to-coins power. Kevin was Swarmlings, and his ability to upgrade to Trading Posts for free was huge boon in this 2 player game, allowing him to get power and posts without being near me. I got some power from him in the beginning by being near his Stronghold, as well as my own Stronghold one time boost, but later in the game Kevin dominated power while I had more coins than I needed usually. In the end we both got two towns, though I got my second one in the last round for 5 extra points. Kevin was ahead on the cult tracks except fire, but I connected all my buildings with shipping. The last round I claimed the 7 Coin power action before Kevin, which may have prevented him from building a third town. In the end I won, 148 to 121.

—

Terra Mystica even with two players was a blast. Because each move was back and forth, I was heavily invested in each decision my opponent made, and since it was just two of us, I didn’t mind if turns took a while, since moves could be planned with precision. Certainly a different experience than with four players, but still very enjoyable. For Innovation, I think next time we have four I will suggest the team game.

April 27th-28th, 2018: Take Your Time

Crew Members: Zevvy, Orit, Nechama, Zoe, Kevin

Next weekend I won’t be around, so we really crammed it in today…

Innovation

Not my favorite with 4 players, but Orit was willing to read and so picked up the concept pretty fast. I just barely grabbed the 1 and the 3  with Metalworking and Currency while Kevin got the 2 and the 4. Nechama drew a lot but lost her hand to Machinery. Orit also got Engineering and destroyed many castles. Kevin’s coin monopoly let him steal many things, but not before I snagged the 5 with pirate code. It was a tense race to the 6 but Nechama let me share Coal with her, basically handing me the win.

Isle of Skye

Zoe actually joined us for this Scottish themed game as she leaves behind her Irish heritage to join the Tribe. Scoring tiles were “Ship + Lighthouse = 3”, “1 per animal on and adjacent to farm”, “3 per 3-tile enclosed region”, and “2 per tile in largest enclosed lake. This last tile gave Orit and Nechama a lot of points, whereas I completed it only in round 5 for a smaller lake. Zoe left halfway through, leaving me as last player. Nechama caught up with Orit, but in the final round I scored a lot for my scrolls, ending up tied with Nechama at over 70, with Orit not far behind.

Power Grid

Nechama’s been wanting a re-match, this time we had Orit instead of Yehuda. She learned fast but by the end wasn’t as interested since some turns took a while…Nechama tried to stay behind the whole game to be able to get first dibs on resources and building but was unable to compete once we hit step 3. Orit relied heavily on coal and the last round coal got bought out, though she only had 16 powered buildings. Nechama still had 17 powered buldings but Kevin had 18, with the Hydrogen plant. I managed to get 19 buildings though, using oil and garbage, snagging the victory.

Machi Koro

Orit, Nechama and I played this while Kevin took a break. They both got Tuna Boats, leaving me in the dust. I bought more Red and Purple than usual, but my Business Center never went off, and Orit ended it just before Nechama would have, while I still had Radio Tower and Airport to build. Had my Tax Office activated I would have slowed them down.

Galaxy Trucker

As usual when teaching we ignore the time limit, but Orit still had trouble building her ship. Nechama built a ship with no exposed connectors, but learned that finishing first means dibs on the goodies during the adventure. If first player builds a good ship then they generally will get a lot more money than the others, but in longer adventures this is mitigated as first player loses days, yet there still being time for others to collect or overtake. We didn’t have time to finish the second adventure though.

—

While I still have a blast with Innovation every time, I may buy an expansion (or just shell out for the Deluxe Set), since it gets played a lot and I actually people who could handle expansion content. I do like the small box and table space though. I chose Galaxy Trucker to make an actual punishment for AP, but if players barely finish it’s not much fun for me, so I don’t mind…but maybe we should stick to un-timed tile games like Isle of Skye.

April 21st, 2018: French Economy?

Crew Members: Zevvy, Kevin, David T., Avi F., Nechama, Orit, Shlomo

Nechama, Orit, Shlomo and David played several games of Legendary, losing most of them until the final battle. Meanwhile, on the other half of the table…

Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game

I told Avi this would be a three hour commitment–it turned out to be four and a half. I tried to minimize the number of rules to explain before starting but it still took a bit. Fortunately, despite the opaqueness of the first couple turns, Avi stuck with it and soon was planning his Tech and expanding his British empire. The tiles he discovered actually created a complete water barrier around his territory, making his innate seafaring quite handy. Kevin as the French took a while to get his second city, but his first was a production powerhouse. As Egypt I though I would focus on wonders, but discovering the Ark of Covenant made me consider culture. So I dedicated my Capital to culture but halfway up the track realized I had the wonders that might even make a tech victory feasible. Though Avi did build up his military a bit, thanks to my tech I managed to appear powerful enough to defend. Avi had the Great Wall, so attack him was kind of pointless. However, once Kevin got going, he quickly went for economic victory, and got some great people to help him with that. While I probably should have rushed economic, I was one turn away from Tech Victory using Education and Isaac Newton, but due to turn order Kevin got his final coin just before Avi was ready to attack us and slow us down.

Innovation

Kevin and I actually played this while people ate desert, and Kevin kept grabbing the achievements just before me. I did get World, and finally over took him and got 6 and 7, but in the race to number 8 Kevin finally won out, despite me having some powerful 10s on my board.

Legendary

After Shabbat I also played a game of Legendary with David, it going much faster with just the two of us. We went against Galactus, but the Scheme required us to fill our decks with Maria Hill officers, slowing down his Spiderman combo. With rogue and a lot of blue cards I got some nice hits on Galactus, but the 6th scheme twist came too early before we could finish enough Maria Hill’s to buy more time. We continued playing anyway, and within two rounds would have finished off Galactus anyway, even as four out of five sites in the city were destroyed.

—

We all had a great time, and Avi said he’d happily play again sometime. Another friend who is a big fan of Space Opera got excited when I told him about Twilight Imperium, so when we have an entire day or something it may actually hit the table.

April 19th – 20th: 2018

Crew Members: Zevvy, David, Sarah B., Orit, Joan, Kevin

After the BBQ some folks played a game. Also on Friday some folks played a game.

Legendary

Loki was after the infinity gems, and four of them escaped before we could really start doing anything. But we managed to barely hang on, keeping the last couple gems out of his reach. Invisible Woman and Storm helped us K.O. the starting cards and draw more, while Luke Cage helped protect from Wounds and with Jessica Jones eventually did enough damage to start attacking Loki and take him down, despite some close calls with the Scheme Twist.

Sentinels of the Multiverse

Before the BBQ, David and I played against Kaargra as The Wraith, Fanatic, Mr. Fixer and Tempest. Tempest started as the healer, but soon changed roles to preventing the end of turn effects of the enemies, slowing their favor gain. Wraith was the main damage dealer, with some buff from Fanatic, and Mr. Fixer’s Dual Crowbars also earned a lot of kills and favor. We had more than enough favor but Kaargra had Chaos Lord, so hitting her played more cards. We got lucky and didn’t draw another Fickle Fans and were able to take her out a turn before she might have gotten enough favor to win.

On Friday, Kevin brought over some food and stayed for a game and a half. We faced Baron Blade, Fright Train and Friction as The Naturalist, Fanatic and Setback. The Naturalist tanked as Rhino for a few rounds while Fanatic and Setback took out Friction. Fanatic started with End of Days, immediately clearing the Villain’s starting bonuses. The Naturalist switched to Crocodile mode and with some heavy hits from Setback’s Looking Up and Karmic Retribution, we took out Baron Blade and Fright Train no problem. HP was actually kind of low, but the healing from Fanatic was a useful boon.

Second game was meant to be fast, so we faced Advanced Baron Blade in Rook City. Despite having Team Leader Tachyon, we just could hit fast enough to get past two Defense Platforms and Elemental Redistributor before drawing Consider the Price of Victory for a loss. I did play Freedom Five Absolute Zero which was able to lay on a lot of hurt and burn myself down to 1 HP, but Tachyon’s Lightspeed Barrage was just shy of flipping the Baron before his Lunar Impulsor Beam activated. Expatriette was also able to do some damage but not quite fast enough to stop the Baron.

One Deck Dungeon

David played as Caliana and I was the slayer, against Indrax. While we lost some time at the start, most encounters weren’t a problem. We lacked combat dice, but had more than enough magic and decent dexterity, making most traps a breeze. We did use a luck potion here and there, and the second layer combat requirement was tough until we each got a Charmed Panther. By the time we faced Indrax we both had four items and four skills, as well as a few potions to spare, and in two rounds he was neutralized, us without a scratch.

—

Since David only plays Co-op games we ran the gamut of our options (except Hanabi and The Kings of Israel…oh and Forbidden Island). Legendary sometimes feels to random to me, and One Deck Dungeon too easy. Though Sentinels has some potentially swingy villains, it’s still my favorite out of the co-op games we tend to play.

April 18th, 2018: Big Hero

Crew Members: Zevvy, Kevin, Shlomo

Today was a half day of work, so some folks were available in the afternoon.

Sentinels of the Multiverse

We faced off against Plague Rat with Omnitron X, Parse, and Bunker. Omnitron got a good combo going where he would take irreducible damage, but react with his Plating and then heal using Innervation Ray. Parse managed the Villain deck to prevent Infection from taking over too quickly, so we never flipped Plague Rat. Bunker did his building up until he went into Turret Mode and tore apart Plague Rat in no time.

Our second game was against Iron Legacy in Omnitron IV, with The Scholar, Guise, and The Visionary. As our hit points quickly disappeared, so did Legacy’s Ongoings thanks to Visionary. Guise and The Scholar were able to bring down Legacy’s health to 20 just as the Environment was starting to get rather dangerous (though Scholar’s Grace Under Fire was boosted nicely by all the targets). Visionary survived one more round thanks to her Decoy, but soon the Drones overwhelmed her before she could go into the Telekenetic Cocoon. Next they focused down Guise, who also managed to hold on a bit by copying Scholar’s Flesh to Iron, but soon went down as well. But since we had managed to get Legacy weakened by this point, he was the next target of the Drones and went down soon after, leaving our heroes battered but not defeated.

—

May we remember the true heroes, past and present, who endanger their lives so we can live in safety and security.

April 16th, 2018: To the Bitter End

Crew Members: Kevin, Zevvy, Yehuda

Back to our usual epic game night.

Arkham Horror

We were finally ready to face Cthulhu, I as Joe Diamond, Kevin as Mandy Thompson and Yehuda as Dexter Drake. Yehuda took out a bank loan and got an early Elder Sign, as well as a blessing. I spent my money on a +3 movement Ruby but never really needed to move that much. Kevin got a lot of clues early so we sealed two gates, but then hat to close a couple before Cthulhu awoke. Kevin unfortunately went insane, while I was just barely staying sane as I closed a third gate, and Yehuda used his Elder Sign on a fourth. This gave us some breathing room, but Yehuda had to sacrifice all his spells on a rumor and eventually lost most of his items just before paying off his bank loan. A few rounds of no gates appearing though gave us time to get clues and seal the last two gates no problem.

Pixel Tactics

Yehuda and I continued from Shabbat, with our previous leaders removed. He chose a leader for free recruiting and I chose free Movement and Corpse Clearing. This lead to many tactical decisions, but the freedom of movement was really what I needed to survive Yehuda’s onslaught. Eventually, his over-recruiting filled his unit leaving him inflexible. My unit was usually almost empty, but I could make use of the AOE damage spells. I got several hits before Yehuda finally hit back. As the decks ran thin, my leader was open to almost fatal damage, but Yehuda had to defend his own Leader as well. I drew up just enough cards to pull off a combo, almost with the +3 Scientist actions, but Yehuda still held on. Finally, using the last few cards in my deck, I broke open his defense just as the round switched, using my First Player move to squeeze in exactly the damage needed to finish off his Leader.

—

While we seem to have mastered Base Arkham Horror, Yehuda does have the Innsmouth expansion for us to try next time. As for Pixel Tactics, we’re just getting started. I definitely felt like I was planning ahead more now that I knew what cards were available in the deck.

April 14th, 2018: Not Friday the 13th

Crew Members: Zevvy, Kevin, Nechama, Yehuda

Now that we have long Shabbat afternoons, I’m able to bring out some of the longer games in my collection. Hopefully we’ll see you soon, Twilight Imperium…

Pixel Tactics

Yehuda and I finally got to play a round of Pixel Tactics. We just dove right in, he had a Leader that healed his flank 2 each turn, while I had a hero that damaged each of his heroes 1 each turn. We both opened with Homunculus guarding the leader, and Yehuda took out my Gunner. Though my Berserker damaged his attackers, he healed them up. Once I took out his Leader’s protection though, I got some heavy hits in thanks to my Scientist allowing Homunculus to attack. When Yehuda left his Leader open for another round, my combined Scientist and Doppleganger allowed me to do just enough damage that even his Vampire couldn’t save his Leader.

Powergrid

Yehuda mentioned that he saw this game and wanted to try it. This is one of those games I bought after playing it a few times but haven’t used my personal copy until now. Everyone got really into it right away, and we had some interesting moments where people counted on getting a future power plant only to have them remain in the future market longer than expected. By mid-game Kevin had a bit of a lead, but while Nechama started off slow in cities, she had two eco-power plants and quickly ramped up during Step 2. Yehuda struggled but by the last round was able to power fourteen, just one behind myself and Nechama. Kevin however had enough to power 16, and while Nechama could build more cities, Kevin ended the game just in time to snag the victory.

Innovation

Nechama picked this up pretty fast, and despite some back and forth point stealing, had four achievements while Yehuda had two and I only had one. Yehuda got a third, so Nechama focused on him while I snuck in and got the 8 and 9. While I was racing to empty the 10 pile, Nechama “accidentally” played just the right card to get the Empire achievement, ending the game. I had also played Fission as a contingency but didn’t have a chance to activate it.

—

Pixel Tactics is the first game I bought without having played it first, but it was definitely a good investment and I hope to play more. Power Grid is one of the few games I bought which I haven’t played with my copy yet, so I was happy to kill two birds this Shabbat. Even though today’s reading states one bird is supposed to be set free (Leviticus 14:4-7).

April 10th, 2018: Git ‘Er Done…in Space!

Crew Members: Zevvy, Yehuda, Kevin

Back to the usual, but with more games!

Galaxy Trucker

Finally have my own copy of Galaxy Trucker! Despite the real-time aspect, everyone liked this one, though the first game was a bit rocky for the newbies. Even for myself, no matter how well constructed I think a ship is, something will find a wear to destroy it. My third level ship core got hit, leaving me with a few engines to pull into the station. Yehuda’s profits were completely lost in the first two rounds by paying for broken parts. No planets in round two meant no goods, so the only way I made money was by being in first and defeating pirates. Still, after we completed three rounds everyone had more than $1, making us all winners. Yay.

Innovation

Yehuda claimed 1 and 3 early while I got 2, but after that my anatomy emptied his score pile and the game was a crawl for a while. Yehuda was constantly ahead in tech though, but my leaf dominance kept him at bay for a while. I failed to use physics like 5 or 6 times in a row…finally it worked but Yehuda had so many resources by then that I couldn’t do much against him. However, few scoring opportunities came up, and so we competed for the other achievements. I got empire and stopped him from getting Universe, but failed to get it myself. I finally managed to get the 4, but Databases kept draining my points. Once I had more Factories I could keep Yehuda slowed, but he was drawing all the 10s and getting their powerful effects. Finally, A.I. caused the activation of Robotics which activated Globalization which by then had gotten Yehuda 30 points and Universe, winning the game over my 26 points. We both had 4 achievements.

—

Galaxy Trucker was one of those games I was exposed to just before moving to Israel, but I’ve since got to play it quite a bit (mostly on the app), and I have to say it’s a nice change of pace.

Pesach 2018: Game Summary

Mostly played games with my sister, though I tried to teach Mottainai to my brothers, they weren’t interested. One brother learned Impulse and we had two good games. The first one, he didn’t send any ships to the sector core until I already had a head start there, and I managed to get six points from trading two Size 3 blue cards in one go. The next game, he built up a huge fleet and attacked me 7 vs. 3 but I had two reinforcement cards and despite the size of the fleet he was defeated. Still, he liked the game.

I played several rounds of Star Realms, and often times the overwhelming “base” strategy dominated, though Blob focus seemed to win a lot as well.

My sister did really well at Splendor, forcing me to even rethink how quickly I go for level 2 and 3 cards versus building up mines.

Our few games of Machi Koro were enjoyable, and usually pretty close, but still coming down mostly to luck of the dice.

We did okay in some rounds of Hanabi, and got 19 in a game with our third cousin who is used to playing only Chess.

The most interesting games were our Innovation games. In one of them, my sister and I were racing for final achievement, and she had almost 50 cards tucked and splayed on her board, using Industrialization to get Monument. Our game with the cousin, his first time, was also close with achievements, but as the 10s pile thinned, my sister pulled ahead in points. To prevent her victory I coordinated with the cousin to set off Fission, and after a few rounds picking up the few remaining cards, he actually won, 17 to 16 to 15.

We also played Spit, Rummy 500, and Set, as well as Sushi Go: Party with the base cards and one round with Menu, Eel, Fruit, Tofu, Onigiri, Uramaki and Tea.