Location: Michael and Danielle's House
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, Danielle, Kay, Mike, Dave
After our first foray into Illuminati, Danielle had expressed an interest in joining us for a game of it. Others expressed interest in repeating Iron Dragon again while the first game's learning was still relatively fresh. The thought was to put them both into the same day, expecting that each could be completed in a morning or afternoon.
After munching Munchers, Iron Dragon began the day. MichaelP, Steve, Kay, and Yoda played. The game went much smoother and faster than the previous game, since all had some idea from the start. Yoda won just before lunch. Kay was a close second. Steve and Michael claimed this was the expected result given the vast amount of experience those two had at the game.
Danielle returned with the baby and the pizza. Dave came over to watch the baby. Rules were explained to the Illuminati newcomers. A couple of examples were stepped through, and then we got down to business. Money was mostly located in little bowls in the middle in clear view to discourage pilfering. (Michael tried anyway.) The big 50 'bills' were off to the end near Steve and Danielle, and at some point someone noticed that they thought one of them was missing. We decided that Steve must have stolen it, so he became something of a feared target. Danielle had the group which gets to hide its winning condition, so we didn't know what she was trying to achieve. She did a good job of disguising her goal and pulled off a win that surprised all because we had no idea that she was close. (Transfer power Yoda sure she wanted. So sure no other goals watch did he.)
The abrupt end to Illuminati left us with a bit more time to fit in something short so we played a couple of games of Chronology. Mike had shown up late in the afternoon to meet Dave, and we enticed him to join the first game. And he won. He convinced Dave to join us for the second game. And Dave won in a squeeker. (Everyone but Yoda had nine cards and was ready to win with only one more card.) Maybe next time I should let someone convince me to play...
Showing posts with label Iron Dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Dragon. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
February 7, 2009 - The Voyage Continues
Location: Yoda's House
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, MichaelU, Nick
Ah, Munchers - a good way to start the day...
To start the day, Steve demoed his two new game acquisitions - Kingmaker and Talisman. Everyone perused the game boards and paraphernalia, asked questions both answerable and unanswerable, and agreed both looked interesting for future sessions.
Next, we started Iron Dragon. Yoda laid out the game and explained the rules (most of them at least : ), prior to getting started. Everyone else was a newbie to this game. This became apparent relatively quickly when a couple of people found themselves in the situation of not being able to deliver a load. Due to inadequate explanations and demonstrations, MichaelU didn't realize that he only got to make each specified delivery a single time and was stranded pretty quickly when he didn't have enough money to build track to make a second delivery. At this point, he became a source of a stream of disasters, as he would throw away his cards every turn and get new ones. Disasters eventually pushed Nick (and very nearly two others) into the same situation. Steve was the only player not to have a very close brush with complete disaster. Eventually MichaelU did get a card which allowed him to deliver something and was able to claw his way back into active play. Nick got money from someone using his track and became active again, so no one was forced to sit out for a really extended period. Networks extended, money came and went, and a remarkable amount of cross-track usage fees changed hands.
The first game ended up lasting until 16:30, as learning such a game leads to much discussion, as well as longer planning and replanning activities as events unfold. By the end of the game (Yoda winning), everyone except MichaelU had connected seven major cities with a network. Everyone understood the mechanics of the game much better by the end, and during cleanup there was a lively discussion of things learned and what different strategies to employ next time. Expect this one to make more appearances in the future.
Unfortunately due to short time remaining, not even a short game was able to be fit in post-Iron Dragon.
Once again, photos courtesy of Steve (this time with a real camera!).
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, MichaelU, Nick
Ah, Munchers - a good way to start the day...
To start the day, Steve demoed his two new game acquisitions - Kingmaker and Talisman. Everyone perused the game boards and paraphernalia, asked questions both answerable and unanswerable, and agreed both looked interesting for future sessions.
Next, we started Iron Dragon. Yoda laid out the game and explained the rules (most of them at least : ), prior to getting started. Everyone else was a newbie to this game. This became apparent relatively quickly when a couple of people found themselves in the situation of not being able to deliver a load. Due to inadequate explanations and demonstrations, MichaelU didn't realize that he only got to make each specified delivery a single time and was stranded pretty quickly when he didn't have enough money to build track to make a second delivery. At this point, he became a source of a stream of disasters, as he would throw away his cards every turn and get new ones. Disasters eventually pushed Nick (and very nearly two others) into the same situation. Steve was the only player not to have a very close brush with complete disaster. Eventually MichaelU did get a card which allowed him to deliver something and was able to claw his way back into active play. Nick got money from someone using his track and became active again, so no one was forced to sit out for a really extended period. Networks extended, money came and went, and a remarkable amount of cross-track usage fees changed hands.
The first game ended up lasting until 16:30, as learning such a game leads to much discussion, as well as longer planning and replanning activities as events unfold. By the end of the game (Yoda winning), everyone except MichaelU had connected seven major cities with a network. Everyone understood the mechanics of the game much better by the end, and during cleanup there was a lively discussion of things learned and what different strategies to employ next time. Expect this one to make more appearances in the future.
Unfortunately due to short time remaining, not even a short game was able to be fit in post-Iron Dragon.
Once again, photos courtesy of Steve (this time with a real camera!).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
January 3, 2009 - Inaugural Voyage
After some months of idle musings, the first Kansas Game Day was scheduled for January 3, 2009.
Location: Yoda's House
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, MichaelU
The day got off to a rocky start with the discovery that Munchers was closed, presumably due to proximity to the holiday. Yoda scrambled to procure alternate doughnuts while the other participants converged. Daily Doughnut filled the gap, but didn't stack up too well by comparison to Munchers.
Doughnuts consumed, the discussion of what to play commenced. Steve brought a LOTR themed game and Illuminati. Yoda's game cabinet was perused.
We started with the LOTR game. It was a game that we all win or lose together. Everyone has to avoid Sauron or everyone loses. In this case, Sauron won. Not having played before, we were figuring out things as we went along. We decided a number of things we might do differently if we play it again.
Pizza ordered for lunch. We played Chronology while waiting for it to arrive. MichaelP won. Steve professed his hatred for such a game.
After lunch, we embarked on a game of Illuminati. MichaelP schemed. MichaelU cheated. (Sometimes we stopped him, sometimes not.) Steve tried to cheat. (We did stop him.) As the time was coming to a close, Yoda took a shot and managed to win, barely.
Yoda brought out Iron Dragon and gave a brief description of the game to set the stage for its future appearance at Game Day.
Game Day photos, courtesy of Steve's iPhone.
Location: Yoda's House
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, MichaelU
The day got off to a rocky start with the discovery that Munchers was closed, presumably due to proximity to the holiday. Yoda scrambled to procure alternate doughnuts while the other participants converged. Daily Doughnut filled the gap, but didn't stack up too well by comparison to Munchers.
Doughnuts consumed, the discussion of what to play commenced. Steve brought a LOTR themed game and Illuminati. Yoda's game cabinet was perused.
We started with the LOTR game. It was a game that we all win or lose together. Everyone has to avoid Sauron or everyone loses. In this case, Sauron won. Not having played before, we were figuring out things as we went along. We decided a number of things we might do differently if we play it again.
Pizza ordered for lunch. We played Chronology while waiting for it to arrive. MichaelP won. Steve professed his hatred for such a game.
After lunch, we embarked on a game of Illuminati. MichaelP schemed. MichaelU cheated. (Sometimes we stopped him, sometimes not.) Steve tried to cheat. (We did stop him.) As the time was coming to a close, Yoda took a shot and managed to win, barely.
Yoda brought out Iron Dragon and gave a brief description of the game to set the stage for its future appearance at Game Day.
Game Day photos, courtesy of Steve's iPhone.
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