Thoughts on Fluxx
We played this game last year. I didn’t like it any more, but I didn’t like it any less. I would describe Fluxx as a card game that wants to make it painfully clear that it’s a card game.
We played Zombie Fluxx this time. I won. As much as I want to like any game I win. I just can’t see myself – or anyone, for that matter – playing this game outside of an assignment about games. It’s definitely neat, it’s definitely cool that you can change the rules and win in all these crazy ways and lose in even craziers ways. Just not my cup of tea. 6/10.
Week 2 Games
Munchkin Gloom – 7/10
I thought this game was so cute. And I won. I think the idea of merging the art from one game with the, well, game of another is so epic. I’ve never played Munchkin, and I’ve never played Gloom. But now I feel like I got the best of each of them. I thought it was funny seeing how much we could damage our own players, and deciding when to lock in that damage to make sure they stayed damaged.
Two Princes – 5/10
I know that’s not what this game is called. But I kept singing that song while we were playing it, if you remember. And I won. Again.
I understand this is a class where we learn about how games work and how to create them. This game is a cool concept. But that’s all it is to me. And for that reason, I will likely never think of it ever again, and if I do it won’t be fondly. I will say, I had an almost supernatural knack for guessing my opponent’s cards. Even so, I think this game is a time-waster.
Week 3 Games
Tokaido – 8/10
Time. Waster. I’ll say it. But I liked this one. I liked the characters, I liked the art, I liked the board, I liked the pieces. I really did feel like I was on vacation. I think what I especially liked, though, was that this game played into my write-my-own-story-to-make-the-game-mine (and-ultimately-win) strategy. Because it was my vacation, and I got to choose how I spent it. Cute game.
Week 4 Games
Dominion – 8/10
I didn’t get to play much of this game. What I did get to play was pretty fun, though. And I can only see it getting funner. That’s rare for this class; a game that gets more fun the longer you play it. I’d love to play through it again with some of the more expensive and destructive cards in play. I think it’s the perfect blend of logic, luck and awesome destructive powers.
Takenoko – 4/10
Not much to like about this game outside of the figurines. I’m not totally sure the guy who made it even tried playing it. Realistically, you could end the game in, like, six turns. I wish I would’ve. I understand games are a product of surplus and leisure and there really isn’t a need for any game ever, but this one definitely doesn’t need to exist.
Bohnanza Thoughts
I enjoyed the game Bohnanza, but found the trickiest/most compelling part of it to be that your hand order is fixed, and you have to play the cards in the order you have them in. It made the game more difficult, especially in the early part where you only had 2 plots to grow beans in, but also helped to “ensure” there was more player interaction. Because we wanted to remove certain cards before we had to play them we were more enticed to trade and give cards to each other.
Thoughts on Carcasonne Big Box
- easy to learn, simple turns
- how does luck or RNG play a role? (tokens)
- table space needed
- if you run out of table, moving pieces can be difficult
- strategy to use specific tokens to shape towards or away areas; certain tokens give more or less points (farming vs roads)
Week 5 Game reviews
This week we played Splendor, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had played it once before and got my ass kicked, but this time I had an inkling of an idea of what I was doing. I think the fun in Splendor comes from both trying to get to your goals and also trying to guess (and stop, if you wish) your opponents from getting to their goals. From past experience, I knew the points mattered more than the nobles, so I was going after gem cards that could be used to buy nobles but that could also be used as points regardless. In this way, I ended up with the most points (9) by the time class ran out. I would 100% play this game again and would even buy it for my own collection of games.
Collecting Game Ideas and thoughts on “Bang”
1. Diced Up is a game where players compete to collect dice by rolling higher than their opponent. The winner is decided when no more dice are left in the pool.
2. Retyrant is a game where players use cards as money and compete to see who can retire with the most.
3. Stockpile is a game where players have to work together to get rid of all of their cards (collecting in reverse) while still remaining competitive by collecting other cards to avoid nuclear war.
4. Elevation Is a game where players use dice to collect cards, and the player with the highest stack at the end wins.
5. Amazing Trace is a game where players have to trace an original drawing in a limited time and vote on whose is best. The first to collect five “best drawings” wins.
Thoughts on “Bang”
The premise of Bang is a spaghetti western movie, which is a wild west themed movie produced in Italy or by Italian filmmakers. In this regard, the game manages to capture the spirit fairly well. Every card is written in Italian as well as English, and they are themed after old western films.
In “Bang,” Each player has a different role to play, and a different way to win. There is a sheriff, some deputies, outlaws, and one renegade. The sheriff wants to maintain order, so he and the deputies win if the outlaws are all killed. The outlaws want no law, so they win if the sheriff is killed. The renegade wants to be the new sheriff, so he wins if he is the last one standing when the sheriff dies. You kill other players by shooting them. This is accomplished by playing a “Bang” card on your turn aimed at them. Every gun only does 1 damage, but different guns have different ranges. The winchester rifle, for example, has a range of 5, meaning it can hit a player 5 spaces to the left or right of the user. When a player is out of lives, they die. There are also cards that can cause damage to one or more players, give them items, heal them, and more. All in all, I think Bang is a simple game with a lot of depth to it.
Week 5- Thoughts on “Bang”
I liked this game more than I thought I would. It was fun to see everyone try to figure out who was who as well as trying to kill the sheriff. I played with 5 people and I wonder If we played with more the guns would come in more handy. Some guns allowed you to shoot at certain distances but because there were only 5 you could pretty much shoot everyone with whatever gun you got. The mechanics of the game were pretty easy to follow and the instructions were easy to read and look back on if anyone had any questions about the cards. One thing I did notice was I found it odd that we used bullets as our lives when initially I thought we would use those to shoot other people. Otherwise, I felt this is a well crafted game where practically any age group could play and understand.
Bonanza review
- farming beans
- simple rules
- plant your beans in the order you get them
- most money wins
- can buy a 3rd field
- long game
- go though the deck 3 times
- can trade cards with other players
- must plant your beans
- first round is the longest
- last round is the shortest
- number of cards in the deck changes with number of players
- starting hand size changes with number of players
Week 4 Discussion and Game Discussions
Game Reflections:
- Dominion: Dominion first appeared like it would be a hard game to get the hang of, but I was surprised by how easy it was to learn. The game also had a great level of strategy to it, I had to be constantly planning out my next moves as well as dealing with unexpected circumstances such as pulling cards I didn’t need at the time or when other players would play cards that disrupted my hand. Overall a fun game that appears to have many interesting strategies that I would need multiple runs to learn.
- Carcassonne: Carcassonne was a game I have actually played a bit beforehand so I already knew some things going into it. I just had to be given a brief refresher on the rule and I was ready to go. I feel the game is easy to understand but there is still a lot of strategy and luck that goes into playing this game well. Overall the game was as fun as I remember it being and I’m sure this won’t be the last time I revisit this game.
5 Game Ideas
- Captain’s Lost Treasure: Captain’s Lost Treasure is a competitive card game in which players draw character, item or loot cards in order to be the first player to reach the Lost Treasure by defeating all other players or amassing the greatest wealth.
- Luck of the Flip: Luck of the Flip is a board game in which players flip a coin in order to move across the board, the amount of spaces they can move is equal to the amount of identical coin flips a player got in a row, the goal is to reach the end before the other players by landing on the most beneficial spaces and getting the best luck.
- Land Ho!: Land Ho! is a board game in which players amass an army before landing on an undiscovered island, the players then fight to take total control of the new land by destroying the other players armies.
Dominion and Carcassonne review
Carcassonne
- simple rules
- game ends when all tiles are placed
- get more turns with less players
- multiple ways to get points
- different tiles have different values
Dominion
- simple rules
- most green cards wins
- each player has there own deck
- build your deck as you play
- long game
- limited interaction with other players
- many different types of cards
- buy cards for your deck
- complex set up
Week 4 game reviews
Ronin, Delaney, and I played photosynthesis, the game about growing your trees to get points. It was a little strange at first, especially with the rotating sun mechanic, but I feel like it only took a round or two for us to get how the game worked. I had a lot of fun just trying to block the other two’s actions and generally planting my trees in annoying, obtrusive spots. Delaney grasped the objective pretty quickly and immediately went into gaining points. It was about 3/4 of the way through the game when we realized the rules said you could not use the same space in the same turn, which we had been doing. Despite Ronin’s monopoly on the four leaf square in the middle up to that point, Delaney ended up having the most points and winning. I of course had the least amount of points, but the greatest amount of ‘nyehehe’ energy.
Ames gave us a wee version of Carcassone to play afterwards. This one was really hard to understand because we didn’t have the rules in front of us, Ames kept getting pulled into other games, and we only had about 25 tiles. However, we did have fun collaboratively making a city in the shape of male genitalia before the game was over.
Week 3 Discussion and Game Ideas
Game Reflection:
Tokaido: Tokaido had an interesting premise of going on a journey and seeing and doing as much as your can before the end. While the game was not overly competitive, each of us playing still ended up slightly competing against one another as we started to reach the end of the game. Each of us also developed our own strategies on how to gain the most points, I ended up going for as many complete panoramas as I could get, this however did not lead to me having the most points. Overall the game was a relaxing and fun game that we still ended up bringing a competitive attitude towards.
5 Collaborative Game Ideas:
- Blind Trust is a collaborative game in which The Navigator, who gives simple directions, and The Saboteur, who gives wrong directions, with the goal of either guiding or misguiding the Blind Player to a destination by giving their directions.
- Card Flip is a memory/strategy game in which the players throw cards down onto the ground and try to determine what the last card in the deck is by analyzing the face up cards and knowing which could be left.
- Testers is a guessing game in which players must guess an object or edible item by blindly interacting with it and working together to guess the mystery object.
- Rock, Paper, Defense is a team game in which players must face the enemy team in games of Rock, Paper, Scissors with the goal of protecting their ‘base’ or destroying the enemy ‘base’ by beating each member of the enemy team three times and reaching their ‘base.’
- Circle of Letters is a memory game in which players gather in a circle around the main guesser and each of them take turns saying letters of the alphabet, the guesser must then guess what letter is not being said by carefully listening and determining the correct letter.