Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Garrett's Games & Geekiness 125

I had to pick Shari up from the San Jose airport... so while I waited, I hung out with Doug & Shelley and played a couple of games. Of course, Doug brought out the podcasting equipment at the end of the evening and what follows is my personal show notes for the broadcast. (You can hear it at Garrett's Games & Geekiness.)
  • Yes, that's right - no hands-free phone. There's really two reasons for that: (1) we're cheap. (2) Shari doesn't like us talking on the phone while driving. (As the last & worst accident I've had happened while I was talking to my aunt on a cell phone, I think she has a point.)
  • Shelley was VERY nice about playing Galaxy Trucker... because she REALLY doesn't enjoy it.
  • Meld puzzle-building with random events and you've got Galaxy Trucker... but you need to understand how brilliant the production is (it's gorgeous) and how silly the gameplay is (it's a "hoot & holler" game). I'm in love.
  • I mentioned Dungeonquest... if you haven't tried it, you need to. (Let me once again say that Fantasy Flight needs to give DQ the Fury of Dracula treatment.) If you don't mind the randomness of Galaxy Trucker, you'll do just fine with DQ.
  • I also mentioned Downfall of Pompeii - which is another game where you're fighting other players AND the game system.
  • Can someone send Doug a set of loaded dice? (Not that it will help... my guess is that Doug will roll badly EVEN with loaded dice.)
  • I still think that this is better than Pillars of the Earth...
  • I've modified my opinion of Stone Age a bit since we recorded... I'd like to play again and see if it's one that needs to be in my collection.
  • I didn't end up playing Monastery... but I did play Tinner's Trail.
  • I also talked about Manoeuvre... which I'm still willing to try again.
  • Braeden and I are STILL playing the Heroscape battle I mentioned... battle results will come later.
  • Seriously, Doug is a VERY good cook.
  • Finally, NO tag? Doug... you disappoint me.

As always, thanks to Doug for letting me play with the microphones!

2 comments:

ironcates said...

Hey mark, I have a correction. You mentioned dice games take longer with low rolls. Kingsburg is just 5 years with 4 seasons. Low rolls will just mean less buildings. With Yspahan sort of the same deal, 21 turns whatever happens happens.

Stone Age just has the timer that the game is over when you run out a stack on the huts. If people don't go for it and/or the rolls don't allow for players to get them, the game will go longer.

ironcates said...

On manoeuvre, Mike and I played a 2-player Vassal game in about an hour. I read the rules and took some sample turns on there before hand but, 3 1/2 hours kinda shocked me. It doesn't seem like the computer would speed this game up a whole lot, just the inital shuffling cards is the only thing I can think of.