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World Without End & Back to the Future Card Game

This week we played Ken Follett’s World Without End. It’s the follow up to his Pillars of the Earth game. World Without End is a resource managing game played over four chapters each with 6 game rounds.  At the end of each chapter you must pay a certain number of resources: two food, two piety markers, and from 2-5 pieces of gold. With that in mind you also want to gain victory points. You do this by supplying building materials to various construction projects and by helping the victims of the McNeal plague. The beginning of each round also has an event that must resolved and gives everyone the opportunity to gather more income or resources. There is a dazzling array of high quality bits that come with the game. We like bits.

The game box says the game should run about 90 minutes. Ours ran about two hours. One interesting dynamic of the game is how you choose your action each round. You have 12 actions to choose from and each round you must choose one to preform and one to discard—meaning you won’t be able to do the discarded action even if you want to later. This happened to all of us in the last chapter of the game. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

For most of the game, Owen and I led, while Ben and Mike lagged behind a bit–Mike lagged a little further back than Ben. This changed as we came down to the final chapter. Ben moved up to challenge Owen and I for the lead, while Mike moved up into our same scoring zip code. As the game ended Owen was able to hold on to the lead with 58 points, I came in second with 55 points. Ben was nipping at my heels with 53 points and Mike turned in a respectable 48 points.

Next we played the Back to the Future card game by Looney Labs. In the game you play one of the descendants of one of the characters from the movie. Someone is messing with history again and you need to stop them before you are wiped out of existence. The “someone” is all of the other players. In the game you get an ID card stating who you are and what the timeline should look like for you to win. After you get the timeline looking like it should, you’re last act is to go back and un-invent time travelling.

The timeline (rows of cards) include linchpin cards and ripple points. Linchpins are significant moments in time that affect the ripple points associated with it. By changing the linchpin (flipping the card) the ripple point cards associated with it flip also. The game is filled with all kinds of cards allowing you to travel back in time to change these linchpins—maybe too many cards. The game is supposed to run from 20-60 minutes. Ours went 90 minutes and we were glad when it finally ended. Not so much because the game wasn’t fun, but because over and over again you would get close to you goal only to have some other time traveling nincompoop (another player) ruin it for you.

Next week is the finale of the Pirates game that Ben has been running for us.

Chaos Steve

Pirates Game 8/10/11

Excerpt from Nickolas’ Diary…

We descended into the deep today. Climbing!! So much climbing… We must be at least a thousand feet down.

My feet were already sore after trudging through the jungle, but I am soldiering on; but then I am not a complainer. I have sand in every nook and cranny. Wonder if there is any clean
fresh water down here for a bath?

Getting those feelings again when I see Elizabeth, but think it is best to push her away when she inevitably succumbs to hers; Buck is a nasty piece of work. She does look very ravishing with… arrggghh!! I must keep it together.

It is pitch black! Apparently we only brought one lamp with us. Could have sworn we came with more. It’s as though some malevolent being is watching us – no! Guiding us to our doom….. We cannot avoid our fate.

We entered a cave – great, more sand! No suspicious sounds can be heard, but we trudge slowly and carefully. Buck scouted ahead, but despite a stealthy approach, is surprised by
a giant crab that emerges from beneath the sand! It is huge!! It must have some unearthly ability to detect Buck – he is a quiet, cunning bugger, make no mistake.

As the rest of us hurry to his aid, with me protecting our rear, the sandy floor shuddered all around us! Hundreds of little crabs emerge from the sand! They climb all over us, snipping every piece of our body with their claws – it’s as though they can’t miss. I don’t know what came over me – a “bloodlust” perhaps, it’s all new to me – but I was like a wild mad. I Stamped and threw punches at the crabs until they scuttled away. I must of killed 30 or so. They were merciless and killed one of the crew. It appears I am braver than I thought. I am sure I caught Elizabeth watching me, a side of me she hasn’t seen before – she must think I am a madman now.

As the crew and I are being overwhelmed by small crabs, Buck has dispatched the giant crab and climbed up a rock, no doubt anticipating further trouble from below the sand. He must of dozed off though, as he is surprised by a humongous – a King! – crab that also emerges from the sand. It has time to lift its giant bulk – must be at least two tons – from the sand and climb up the rock and attack before Buck realizes what’s going on. Luckily, he avoids being clawed to death. Yet more proof of the unearthly detection abilities of crabs.

Several more of those giant crabs emerge and Duncan (and Desmond? I feel sorry for our friend Duncan. He thinks his brother Desmond is with us. Perhaps he suffered some sort of trauma as a young boy? Perhaps we should get him some help the next time we are in
port…I will talk to the Captain) valiantly holds all but one off of us. Thomas’ dog (never did catch his name) unfortunately tries to stop the other, but those crabs are too big and powerful – we will never see his tail wag again.

A shot rings out and a giant crab goes down! Thomas has brought his musket to bear on the fowl creatures. Another shot rings through the cave as Thomas fires again and the king crab takes a shot in the head (in what I assume counts as his head). Pieces of it fly off as it gingerly climbs up to the ceiling of the cave. I must remember to serpentine if I ever piss him off.

Before Buck can finish off the King crab with a couple of daggers to the eyes, it makes a successful attack on Thomas, almost killing him!! He does, however, manage to avoid its
immense body as it comes crashing down. Now that I think about it… perhaps it was me that killed the crab??? Who knows what I am capable of when the bloodlust takes over….?

As usual, I am relied upon to put us all back together after a fight; certainly no way I could have talked us out of this one. Only Thomas is seriously injured, but I am easily able to get him back to his sharp shooter best. Not even a thank you as usual.

Looks like Buck is ready to move out again……where’s that lamp?

GenCon Boardgames

So just wanted to officially note, I’m kicking Steve’s ass at boardgames this year. I won 2 Roll Through the Ages games on Wednesday, 2 Ra the Dice Game on Friday and 1 Catan two player card game on Friday. Mike 5 Steve 0. One of my best GenCon performances ever.

No comments about how it was just Steve, as I’d like to bask in my victories a little longer. :)

Update: played a new game today called “Unspeakable Words”. I lost. Twice. To Steve. On a word game. But it had a chaotic factor to it so I don’t count it.

On the plus side, we played two more games of Ra the dice game, and I won both of those. :)

Savage Star Wars Game 5

Written by Grace McNeal

The Lost Worlders started out at Worfs funeral with tears and cries.

Where at that funeral Yoda intruduced them to there replacement, WD-40.

Whom he will help track down Darth Mysteria. After there meeting, James Bonder had found out that Darth had recently visited Sy and Obi-Ones home. Also at the funeral they had found Polo’s relitave. He told them he knew where Sylon Brasier was they decided to meet up in a week to go see him. During that week they decided to head to Sy and Obi-One’s village to see if she’d done anything. When they got there they saw it was still damaged and destroyed. They decided to look around when mercinaries attacked. The mercinaries had also wanted the droid. The Lost worlders defeated them all except the leader who had cowardly ran away.

Road Kill Rally

Harken back with me to the days of “Death Race 2000” where the cars had weapons and where pedestrians were points. Road Kill Rally is a racing game with guns and three types of pedestrians:  The elderly, kids, and run-of-the-mill office workers. The game play is simple. Move and run over pedestrians to earn points. Then shoot at the other cans (and pedestrians) to score more points. Speed is kept in check by Crash Checks. The faster you go the more severe the Crash Check is going to be. You soak up the damage from crashes and from your opponent’s weapons by discarding Rally Cards. Rally Cards can also be played to help you during the game. The track is random as you move along which helps make every game a little different.

The game moves pretty fast and we enjoy the various special track sections. We were well into our first game when we realized we made two major rule plunders. Frist was that you get to roll again any double-hit you roll on the dice and secondly that when you damage an opponent any Rally Cards discarded go to the attacker. (I had just happened to look at the back of the FAQ sheet that had a list of common first-time errors.) Since the game flows pretty fast, we decided to just start over.

Most of the game Ben and I were fighting for first place. (You get big points for a first place finish.)  Owen’s car was tailor made for mowing down pedestrians, so he chose the slow-and-steady approach. Mike just had awful luck and was crashing often. By the close of the game all of us, except for Owen, had a car full of wipeout tokens that prevented us from attaching any new options. It was obvious that Ben was going to grab first place, so both Mike and I tried the all-or-nothing last ditch effort to beat him. We failed. The guys will have to comment on this because I don’t remember who actually won the points battle. I believe Owen still came in first with 360 points. Ben had 350 points. I had only 170 points. (I had a hard time mowing down pedestrians.) Mike came in last with an undisclosed amount of points.

Chaos Steve

La Havre

A couple of weeks ago we play Le Havre. I’m pretty sure the game’s name translates into “You’re Screwed” because that’s how I felt most of the game. That’s not to say we didn’t like the game, because we did. It’s just that your turn can be very frustrating at times.

Since it’s been a few weeks, I’m sure I have more than the usual number of game terms wrong. There are 7 turns in a round that get split up between the players. Since we had four players, someone would only get one turn each round, while the rest would get two. On your turn you can either take resources or use a building (buy moving your token into the building.) You finish your turn with a buying and selling action—basically buying things you need, like buildings. We hardly ever sold anything.

One of the basic “screw” points of the game is planning. Maybe you’re planning to build a building or to use a building to further your plans. Odds are that build won’t be available when it comes around to your turn or you were forced to use your resources for something else so your plans crumble to dust. Also, food became a major resource as you needed more and more of it at the end of each round.
Everyone seemed to struggle during the game except Mike. He cruised through to an easy win with 96 points. Owen and I were fighting not to be in last place. Owen won that battle—just barely. Ben came in second with 59 points. Owen got the coveted third place finish with 54 and I was 1 point behind him.

One last point, it may sound like I didn’t like the game. That’s not true at all. I did like the game. We’re planning on playing it again soon so we can crush Mike…or better learn the game. I forget which.

Chaos Steve

Savage Star Wars – James Bonder Background

Alex typed this up for me. I thought I would share it.

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born on tattowine the young james bonder hated his life there parents owed money and he dided have many freinds at the age of three he stowed away on the ship that anaikin skywalker was on when he was to become a jedi he sliped off at courosunt and he found him himself in the presence of pythos urganice he sensed a great matter  of the force in him so he went with him to the jedi council and he was to be trained

5 years has past and james sensed that his family has been in trouble he told his master and they flown to tatowine they found there dead body as james about burst with fury pythos said fear leads to anger anger leads to hate hate leads to suffering as james takes a deep breath and says ill never go to dark side but ill always love these people i wonder who or what  killed them he said

Star Wars Game 4 – The Death of Worf

Worf – Wookie (Lee)
Elderkin Something – Padawan (Steve)
Sy (Orion) Kentaurus – Padawan (Shawn)
James Bonder – Padawan (Alex)
R4-GMM – R4 droid (Grace)
Obi-Wan – Padawan (Ben)

The Padawans made plans with their Jedi Masters regarding the information they had learned about R4 and decided to meet with Polo Muerde, a Mon Calamari Jedi Master. After a brief inter-system discussion Polo invited them to his droid building and training facility on a nearby planet. The Padawans arrived with no difficulty and landed at the space port. Polo’s facility was easy to find but when they arrived, the doors were open but no lights were on and apparently no one was home.

Polo’s quarters were at the back of the facility and they had to travel through the training facility to get there. James decided to check out one of the observation booths and as as the Padawan’s were going through the facility he spotted a body on the floor. Elderkin was first on the scene and administered first aid, but he was too late. The body was Polo and he was gasping his last breath as they all looked on…”It’s a trap!” Just then all the doors in the training facility slammed shut and droids lined up in Polo’s quarters as 3 Reborns (undead Sith) lined up at the entrance.

Worf bravely stood in front of the doors to Polo’s chambers, ready to pounce as soon as the doors opened. James engaged the Reborn from his position in the observation booth. Elderkin dove for cover as Sy and R4 tried to open one of the side doors. The droids opened the door and came charging in blasters blazing! Worf miraculously took only 1 wound and then engaged two of the deadliest droids in combat. He also took three droids out with a grenade. But it was to be his last stand as the two deadly droids chopped him to bits.

James had taken out two of the Reborns but the third entered the arena as someone announced over the loudspeaker, “give us the R4 and you will be spared”. Our brave Padawans were not about to give up on their flawed R4 unit and Elderkin used the force to obscure Sy and the R4 unit. Elderkin, Sy and Obi-Wan went into full fight mode and cleared out the remaining droids while James took care of the rest of the Reborns. Unfortunately, too late they saw a Sith Lady clearing out the records from Polo’s chambers and destroying his computers. She made a quick getaway while the Padawan’s were busy.

As the Padawan’s sifted through the wreckage in Polo’s quarters they found evidence that Polo had been using an off site backup service so there is still a chance his computer files can be recovered. Additionally the Sith Lady was in such a hurry she did not notice that a piece of paper slipped fell out of her hands. The paper mentioned other Muerde family members.

The Padawans informed the Jedi council about what had happened. The council told them to return Worf’s body to them for a proper Wookie funeral. Many Jedi were saddened this day, by the falling of a dear friend, boon companion and fearless ally.

7 Wonders

Owen brought us a new game last night called 7 Wonders. We LOVED it! It’s basically an enhanced card game with some nice dynamics and various ways to earn victory points. Four guys, who deliberate over each action for a  l o n g  time, can finish a game in under 40 minutes. AND the game can handle up to seven players! We all liked this game. Especially the guy that won two out of the three games we played. Even the guy who came in dead last in two of the games (Mike) liked it.

Our first game lasted an hour as we sorted out just what we needed to do each turn. I made a tremendous blunder during my last action of the game. I was expecting to complete my wonder and garner some victory points. Then I realized that I didn’t have the resources to complete it. I was the only player not to complete his wonder. Ben won the game with 63 points. Owen was second with 55. I still got 49 points and realized that completing my wonder wouldn’t have changed my standing. Mike came in very last with 40 victory points.

Our next game found me in a similar state during the closing actions of the game. I needed papyrus. My kingdom for papyrus! Because of my lack papyrus AND my neighbors lack of it—I could have bought some from them—I couldn’t take advantage of several great cards that came my way. This game ended with Ben and me tying at 51 points and Mike and Owen tying at 44 points. The tie breaker was gold. I was loaded with it and won the game. Owen has more gold than poor Mike so Mike was sent to last place again. This game took less than 40 minutes.

Our last game found us all getting points from different areas of the game. This made it hard for us to tell just who was in the lead or who was doing well. I finally completed a wonder during a game. It’s probably why I won with 55 points. Ben was second with 48. Mike narrowly got a third place finish with his 44 points. Owen was last, just one point behind Mike, at 43.

We will definitely play this game again.

Chaos Steve

Pillars of the Earth

This week we were the pillars of the earth. Or rather we played Pillars of the Earth, a game about building a cathedral. Ok, not some much about actually building the cathedral as much as the events the go on around building the cathedral. Events such as currying favor from those in power, mining of ore and gathering of timber, poking fun at Owen when he blurts out “I’m an idiot!” Things like that.

I like games of resource gathering that you then turn around and use the resources to garner victory points, although I do seem to have a problem with that latter part—the garnering of victory points.

Mike started out with a good solid lead, using the straightforward “Gain victory points–win the game” strategy. The rest of us struggled behind him. Poor Owen could barely muster a single VP in the early stages of the game. That soon changed. Mike continued to lead the pack but the rest of us were gaining on him. Owen picked up several great Craftsmen cards that complimented each other and enabled him to generate a goodly amount of Victory Points. He soon caught and passed Mike. Ben had plots inside of plans all bound by shadowy machinations. He worked very hard for his third place result. I had my plans thwarted at every turn–if not by the other players, then by me. I lost three Victory Points simply because I misunderstood the sequence of events on the board–the board where we had already gone through those events a few times and the board where Owen kept saying, “Steve, why don’t you take that card and get three Victory Points?”  (I think this is where I thought in my head, “I’m an idiot.”) Three Victory Points doesn’t sound like much, but it would have been the difference between coming in last (as I did) and coming in second.

In the end Owen rocketed ahead and won with 51 Victory Points. Mike came in second with 39. Ben had 37 points and I had 36.

Chaos Steve