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Games revisited
One of the priorities on our holiday was to stock up on board games because they are so very expensive here. I ended up doing quite a bit of running around to find many of them and later found some at local stores (to where I was staying). Â Below is a list of games that filled our luggage on the homeward journey.
- Agricola-This was my top priority because it’s so expensive. I kind of wished I had ordered it by mail order because it was fairly expensive to buy in store. Also I had to make two trips to Dallas for this one because it wasn’t in stock the first time…and I later found it locally. Even though we’ve been home two and a half months, we still haven’t played this one. I’m sure it will be fine once we get going but because it’s supposed to be long and the instructions are rather complicated, we have put it off so far.
- San Juan- this is the card game version of Puerto Rico. It was fine but we didn’t like it nearly as well as Puerto Rico so have only played it once so far.
- Ticket to Ride Europe- This was another priority game and I found this the first time I ventured off to the board game shop in Dallas. So far we really like this one and have played at least four times. The really nice part of this game is that Lego Lover is able to play somewhat competitively and really enjoys it.
- Apples to Apples- I found this game just about everywhere I went and got it very cheaply in some place like Target. This is a very popular game for the family and it doesn’t take very long to play. This is one that is more likely to be chosen when it’s late and we don’t want to start a long game. Lego Lover may not have the knowledge of some of the pop cultural references but he’s been able to win this one at least once.
- Travel Blokus-I found this at Target and got it because it was ideal for our plane travel. We only played it once in-flight but it worked really well.
- Spongebob Monopoly-This was a had-to-have for Lego Lover, who also loves Spongebob. I played this with him while we were there and the family played again this weekend and it was a fun variation on the Monopoly game.
- Thurns and Taxis- I didn’t know much about this game but found it by chance in a hobby shop that also sold board games. I found the shop thanks to a coupon (20% off) and an article in a local advertising catalogue. We tried to play this once but it became obvious early on that it was another complicated and long game.
- Killer Bunnies Remix- I found this heavily reduced at Barnes and Noble just before we came home and debated about getting it. It’s a sampler of various versions of the game designed to be an introduction. The name sounds a bit violent but I’d heard this was a very funny card game. I bought it and we have kind of played it once and didn’t quite get the right idea about it. I’m sure it will be better with further study of the instructions but we haven’t revisited it yet.
- Eco Fluxx-I think we mostly just have the regular version of this available here but I found there were at least three or four variations in Texas. Lego Lover and I played a few times while travelling and enjoyed this but we haven’t tried it out as a family yet.
I’m not too worried that we haven’t played all these games yet. It’s a bit of a stretch to think we could learn them all and be playing competently when there are so many of them.
Another reason that I bought so many games overseas was the lack of access to them in local shops. We’d been purchasing games by mail order from the east coast because it was cheaper and included free shipping when we spent enough money. So lo and behold, we discovered a new shop called Mighty Dice getting ready to open in a brand new shopping center near us. It’s not that there aren’t games shops around. There is one independent store in Perth that is okay but they were unreliable the one time I tried to order something that was out of stock. Also, it’s a hassle going into the city just to visit one shop. There used to be quite a few stores from two different chains that sold games but they have been gradually disappearing over the past few years and one just closed in one of the local malls. That one was more expensive than anyone else so we never bought anything there so it wasn’t really a big loss.
Mighty Dice opened early in August and we’ve dropped in quite regularly as it’s where we now do most of our food and grocery shopping. The shop sells Warhammer, board and card games and some trading card games. We’ve already got started playing Magic the Gathering, thanks to an interest by Game Fanatic. I only just tried playing this past week and have a slight grasp of what I’m doing. We’ve also bought a couple more games -Alhambra, which we haven’t played yet and Munchkin, a card game which we have played and liked. The shop includes tables so that people can compete in Warhammer and other games while in store. I’ve noticed groups playing Magic the Gathering about half the times we visit, usually in late afternoon. It would seem a nice little community of game players is forming just down the road from us.
And as if these games were not enough, Pokemon the trading card game has been one more addition to the family games library. Lego Lover wasn’t interested in Magic TG and is still a bit young for it. Pokemon has become the alternative and plays similarly to Magic (but is easier).
I guess it would seem we are rather overwhelmed with the task of learning new games and I don’t think we’ll be adding anything new to our library of games for quite a while.
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Games, games and more games, part one
As mentioned in the Australia Day post, we have some new board games at our house. Games Paradise, a retailer from the eastern states, had sale on during January for 15% off everything until stocks ran out. I ordered two games earlier this month: Blokus and Smallworld. The latter is a game wanted by Game Fanatic for quite a while now. He’d found out about it in some roundabout way through his favorite website, TV Tropes, and was obsessed with getting it. He also had various other games or dvds he wanted and still hadn’t gotten a copy by Christmas. Blokus was an extra to push up the total enough to get free shipping.
Blokus
Blokus has turned out to be incredibly easy to learn and lots of fun to play. For my part, it is also a game I seem to be be reasonably good at playing, so there’s a decent chance I will win the round. The game consists of four sets of playing pieces, in different colors. Each set is comprised of all differently shaped pieces. There is a square, tiled board where the pieces are placed so that same colors only touch at corners. The goal of the game is to to play the most number of pieces of all the players. We’ve played quite a few rounds and the lowest score so far has been 2 pieces left. The nice thing about this game is its playing time is short enough (about fifteen minutes) that it’s not necessary to block off several hours of an evening to play. The only drawback is that you really need four players for a decent game. It just doesn’t work very well with anything less.
Smallworld
We’ve only played Smallworld a few times so we are still learning the ins and outs of the game. There are a lot of pieces in the game, but not all of them are used for each game. It looked really overwhelming when we first started and it takes a bit of time to set it up. The game is a sort of world domination sort of game…a bit along the lines of Risk but seemingly less complicated from what I can tell. There are a number of different races(dwarves, elves, humans, etc.) that each player eventually will choose from. The races are paired with a power (e.g., berserker, heroic, etc.). These are paired in a random order before the start of the game. The first player must choose a pair to start the game and this influences how many playing pieces are received by the player to use on the board. I will also point out that different boards are used, depending on the number of players. It gets bigger, the more players involved. The first player must place all the units on the board strategically before the next player starts. There are ten rounds (I think) in the game. The first one is essentially a setting up phase. During subsequent rounds, the object is to conquer as much of the territory as possible, based on the game rules. At some point, a particular player may lack the ability to do much more so has the option of going into decline. This leaves certain pieces on the board for the original combination to claim territory and allows the player to start again with a different race/power combination the following round. A player can go into decline as often as they like within the ten rounds of the game. Points are scored each round, based on how many territories are controlled by the player.
The first game went kind of slowly so that we ended up reducing the number of rounds so that we could finish before it got too late. Everyone was enthusiastic at the beginning but Lego Lover lost some interest after awhile and wasn’t active in the latter part of the game. On Australia Day, he’d been ready to give it another go but the game had to put away due to delays in getting started. The game claims its age range is 8+ but I think it’s a bit complex for younger kids to play with any chance of being competitive with older players. I might have judged it more appropriate for a ten year old.
We’re enjoying playing the board games so much, I ordered more games last week and they arrived Friday afternoon. I will write more about those in another post. I think one of our next games will probably be Ticket to Ride. We played this once at a friend’s house a few years ago and really enjoyed it at the time. Game Fanatic is also keen to get a player expansion for Settlers of Catan so he can play with his Dungeon’s and dragons group. There’s been discussion about mixing it up a bit and having regular board game days instead of the usual D&D, so he’s keen to share some of the games.
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Australia Day, 2010
It was a fairly low-key day for us this year. We stayed home and had a picnic in our backyard instead of going to a park or beach. By staying home, the anxiety levels were kept down for Game Fanatic and his only compromise was eating outside.
Our meal was very international this year:
cornbread with three varieties of chillies from our garden. I used a couple jalapeños, a couple Thai chillies and one habañero. The habañero didn’t quite live up to its reputation. We thought the cornbread would be quite hot but it didn’t cause that much grief in the end. I used a recipe I had found online and it came out really well except it was too sweet. I had already halved the sugar so will probably cut that down to less than a quarter cup. I also reduced the butter to less than half and the texture was quite alright.
Sliced tomatoes, fresh from the garden. Aside from half a tomato I ate a week ago (the lower part had blossom rot), these are the first tomatoes I’ve harvested. They tasted pretty good…in fact, they actually taste like something. I’m feeling a bit more motivation to keep at the garden now that there’s been some fruits of all the labor.
The Scientist also barbecued peri peri chicken for all of us and lamb burgers with coriander for himself and Game Fanatic.
Earlier, I brought lamingtons and vanilla slices from a local bakery, so there was a bit of traditional Aussie fare in amongst all the rest. The Scientist also made a trifle, which he’s been craving for several days now.
After dinner, we played Blokus in front of the tv while a cricket match between Australia and Pakistan was finishing up. The plan had been to also play our other new board game, Smallworld, after that finished. We had it all set up and had just started the first round when the phone rang. The disruption was rather lengthy so we opted to put it away and play another time. Instead, Game Fanatic put on a video game that we’ve all been watching him play and continued through a few more chapters of the story before the Scientist retired for the night.
Overall, it was a very relaxed day that I believe was satisfactory for all family members.