Ticket to Ride

Apparently my "Art of Disappearing" post was spot on. I put the poem up and then promptly disappear. I blinked and missed the week. Or completely ignored it. Today I took ten minutes away from my book and realized that it's been almost a week since I last posted anything. Which is a bit amazing because I've kept gathering topics on little post-its all week.

But the first thing I have to tell you about is the game that Jeff and I have been addicted to all week. Last Saturday I wasn't feeling great (due to stupidity on my part) and spent most of the day lounging around the house. I napped, I watched TV, and I annoyed Jeff (so not a terrible day ;-) ) After spending most of the day indoors Jeff wanted to know if I would go out with him to the games store. We had a gift card that was apparently burning a hole in his pocket. That sounded great to me.

We browsed the shelves of strategy games like kids in a candy store. I haven't played a ton of the strategy games but I've enjoyed every one I've gotten the chance to play (okay mostly...Primordial Soup just wasn't my thing). It came down to a choice between Shadows Over Camelot (thanks Keith) or Ticket to Ride (thanks Vicky). The only reason we went with Ticket to Ride is that it allowed for two player games. Jeff and I brought the game home, cracked it open and after reading up, played our first game. Then played another. And another. The next night we broke it out again for a couple more games. Last night we took it over to my parent's house to teach them. To say that we're addicted is a bit of an understatement.

Ticket to Ride is a train strategy game. At the beginning of the game you draw routes across the US and Canada that you are supposed to try to complete (New York to El Paso, Montreal to Vancouver, Duluth to Houston, etc). Each of those routes is made up of smaller city connections like Chicago to Omaha or El Paso to Phoenix.  To collect a route you need to save the appropriate number and color of train cards and then when you have enough you lay your own colored train cars down to claim the route. Routes between cities can be anywhere from a single car to six cars. For each train car you put down you get points and for each route you complete you get points. And in the end the longest continuous route gets points.

While not as strategic as Agricola or as difficult to win as Pandemic, this game is addictive. With 30 something long routes and numerous ways to make the connections you are constantly planning. Jeff and I enjoyed the game with just two but having four made it a bit more challenging. You can play as aggressive or as defensive as you like. But in the end you come away planning how you could have done things better or marveling at a route that came together at the last minute. My coworker Vicky mentioned it as a fun game. It'd go farther. I'd say it's my current favorite game.

Games Weekend

This past weekend was my birthday and one of my friends from Minneapolis came down to help me celebrate. He arrived on Thursday and hung out with Jeff and I until Monday (which is why I didn't get any posting done). It was an incredibly relaxing weekend. We left the house for meals but otherwise it was a quiet weekend at home with plenty of tea, movies, games, and talking. It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday. Thanks Jon!

We watched a ton of interesting movies and television but the biggest hit for me was the games. Jon had brought down some of the games from his collection and we played something almost every night. Our first evening was the game I'd asked for by name, Cleopatra. This game has each player acting as an Egyptian architect building a palace for Cleopatra. You must collect the resources needed to build each piece of the building, which gives you money. But some resources also give you corruption, which you must avoid. The player with the most corruption is sacrificed to the crocodile god and the others are left to figure out who made the most money. An interesting strategy game with plenty of fun little pieces to play with.

One of the games that we played regularly was Chronology, Jeff's favorite game. This quick game requires players to figure out where things happen in a historical context. You start the game with one card which sets your baseline year. The next turn you are read a historical event without the date. You have to figure out whether the event took place before or after your baseline year. Each card after that also needs to be put into chronological order. You win when you have 10 cards all lined up in their spots. It's not a game I'm good at (I'm terrible with dates) but we had a great time.

On my birthday we played Apples to Apples with the family. This silly game has quickly become my favorite game although I'm terrible at it. One person reads the words on a Green Apple card while the other players find the red card in their hand that they feel fits the words. Then they turn them into the reader and the reader decides which they think fits the best. It's subjective and silly and a lot of fun. We laughed a lot and talked a lot and had a wonderful time.

The last game we had was the most complicated and ended up being my favorite one for the weekend. Agricola (pronounced A-grick-ola) is the latin word for farmer. In this rather involved game, players start a farm. On their turn they must decide how they will allocate their resources (crops, animals, home improvements....) and with limited turns it is all about finding food fast and building up your reserves. This game had us talking long after we'd finished. There are limitless strategies for ways to win and we each had plans for how we would win the next time. I focused on grains and bread and did well. Jon focused on animal production and easily blew both Jeff and I away. It was a great game though. A wonderful weekend filled with games and laughter and fun.

Lovecraftian fun

This post (my 200th, can I really have posted 200?) is for Jon, who I'm sure will be out buying this game before the end of the day. :-)

I have a confession to make. I'm a little ashamed of this but here goes: I consider myself a geek, yet I've never read Lovecraft. There I've said it. I'm familiar with the stories of Arkham, Massachusetts and the Cthulhu mythos but I've never actually sat down and read some Lovecraft. I consider it a failing in my upbringing and I look forward to rectifying the situation soon. In fact over this past weekend I borrowed a collected works from my dad and will start them as soon as I finish with my two library books.

What got me thinking again about H.P. Lovecraft was a game my brother brought with him this weekend. His kids are on spring break so they have come down to Des Moines to hang out until Thursday. It's been a lot of fun to hang out these last two days and each night has ended the same way. We all sit down at the dining room table, break out the board, and play Arkham Horrors.

Now I'm a gamer from way back. I love board games, role playing games, and video games. Even my current WoW addiction is nothing compared to my love for board games. Absolutely nothing makes me happier than sitting around a table with friends or family and a board game. Snacks don't hurt either. And this one is one of the more interesting games I've gotten to play. Each character is given an investigator who will go out into the streets and locations of Arkham to fight back the monsters and keep the ancient ones from spawning. The investigators, who have been pulled directly from the stories, have different occupations, different possessions, and more importantly different levels of sanity and stamina. At the beginning of the game the ancient one is chosen. The characters then travel around the city gathering clues and closing gates to the other worlds. During that whole time you have to keep track of your sanity (which you can lose easily) and your stamina. Those are the things you will use to fight the ancient one when it awakens

This picture was blatantly stolen from Board Game Geek because I forgot my camera last night.

We played last night with seven people and that might have been too many. The game is a complex turned based game. Each character, led off by the first investigator, starts first with a movement turn, then encounters turns for people in Arkham, then encounters turns for people in other worlds, then monster movement turns, then new gates opening turns and status updates for the ancient one. That is the end of the first turn. Then it is repeated until the ancient one spawns. We played from 8 last night until nearly 11 and weren't even close to finishing. Be prepared for a long evening. But this is a great game. Each turn is very different and the monsters that spawn keep the investigators jumping around the board. And with the game set in the Cthulhu mythos, there is an interesting level of horror. Cards include direct quotes from the stories and Cthulhu himself may be awoken. The game was interesting and definitely one of the better thought out games I've played in a long time. But even better they make me want to read some Lovecraft.