Game Night Wrap Up

Well another Game Night has come and gone (and thankfully there is more on the horizon) and it’s time to share with you the gory details.

Now for those of you who wonder, “Bob, why do you waste our time every other week writing about board games. Frankly I could care less about your stupid recreational pursuits,” it’s because I love board games. I have a great time fellowshipping with people and this is simply one of the best ways to do it. Besides, you might get curious enough to break down and try a game or two yourself.

We had a small group on Monday, but that’s never a problem as board games come in all shapes and sizes.

We began the evening by busting out some Coloretto by Michael Schact (Web of Power; Hansa; Industria; Paris, Paris; just to name a few). If you haven’t played this game yet, simply put, you must.

This game is one of the easiest to pick up and teach to new people and it’s a ton of fun. Coloretto breaks down like this:

In the center of the table you have pile cards (cards with a picture of 3 cards on it), 1 for each player. A pile can at most contain 3 cards (though it can contain less). On your turn you can draw and play a card or take a pile. If you take a pile you are finished for the rest of the round (that is until every player has taken a pile). No hand management, no whammy cards, just a fine balance between luck and skill.

The goal of the game is to collect as many cards of 3 colors as you can. Every other color that you collect are worth negative points (thankfully you get to choose at the end of the game which are your positive colors and which are your negative colors). Players draw a card and add it to a pile. When you see a pile that you want, you snag it on your turn. In addition to color cards, there are wild cards (which can be used for any color) and +2 cards (which add to points to your total score).

Cards are scored incrementally based on the number you have. 1 card is worth 1 point, 2 cards 3 points, 3 cards are worth 6 points, 4 cards 10 points, 5 cards 15 and lastly 6 or more cards are worth 21 points. The same holds true for cards that score negatively. So you have to balance out each pile you choose to see how it will help you, or your neighbor.

In the end, it’s a fast fun game that you want to pick up over and over again (up to 5 players).

Jon, Michelle and I started the evening and played through the first game (while we waited for Brian to show up). I managed to take this game by a huge margin and was feeling pretty proud of myself. We gave Brian the over view and dove into another game of this. This time things were a bit tighter, as Brian and I tied for 1st place.

This would be my last shining moment on this game night as I wouldn’t taste a win for the rest of the night.

From there we moved onto a game that none of us had played before, Mr. Reiner Knizia’s Taj Mahal.

This has been on my “must play” list for quite sometime but sadly I haven’t had the opportunity to play it until now. So I decided to strike while the iron was hot.

Taj Mahal is part of the Alea bookshelf series including such masterpieces as Ra & Puerto Rico (some day I will have Chinatown and my collection will be complete).

Taj Mahal is an interesting game of card management and decision making. On any one of the given 12 rounds there are 6 or more things that can be won. Each round players fight for influence in various provinces in India. On your turn you can play 1 or 2 cards or withdraw. Cards have a varying number of symbols on them that depict the different types of conflict. When a player withdraws, he checks his strength(s) in comparison to all other players and takes any rewards that he (or she) might have won.

This is one of the interesting aspects of the game, because after a player withdraws, his cards are removed from the current contest. This has a great potential to shifting the power between the remaining players. Brian might have been tied with another player, but now that he has withdrawn, they gain dominance. However, once a reward has been won for that round, it cannot be won again until the next province.

There are lots of different ways to score points, so there are many different approaches to winning. The problem that becomes on your turn you will only get 1, 2 or 3 new cards to add to your limited hand. If you waste 4 cards in a battle this round, you might only have 2 or 3 for the next. The best plan seems to be to score a few points each round and build over the whole game.

This was my down fall as I wanted to win every reward every round (that wasn’t going to happen) and as a result, I won almost NO rewards any round.

Michelle took the early lead by the 3rd province and I was certainly pulling up the rear (with 0 points). However, Jon managed to slowly place palaces in each province and got quite the chain going. By the 11th round, Jon was scoring as much as 11 points per palace (verses the normal 1 or 2 that everyone else was getting) because of his Ticket to Ride like string he had going on.

Jon took the game in the 10th round and there was no turning back. Brian gave it his best go, but there was no hope of stopping Jon. I managed to pick up how to play by mid-game, but it was too late to make any real showing. Michelle finished 3rd and I was happy to have rounded the first turn on the score board.

This game was awesome though, and I certainly want to play it again.

After that brain burner we thought we’d move to something a bit less taxing, so we broke out what we thought was less stressful game, China moon.

China moon at its heart is a leap frog game and collecting of flowers. Whoever gets the most points (through flower collecting) they win. On your turn a player must move 3 frogs. At least one of them must belong to another player. All frogs move 2 spaces. If the space is occupied they hop over it to the next free space.

This game gets pretty crazy though when you add springs, silly frogs and butterflies into the mix. But we all had a good mind bending time playing with rubber frogs.

However, there was no catching the leggy Michelle as she leaped across the finish line and beat me by 4 stinking points! A good time was had by all.

Having suffered the trauma of tiny frogs we went for the totally mindless LOCO! (also by Mr. Reiner K). We played two games, but there was no stopping new comer Brian who scored as much as 30 points in a single hand (which is pretty much the maximum you can score).

All in all it was a great time.