Board Game Session Report for March 15, 2004: Attika, Clans, Bucket King, Perudo, Electronic Catch Phrase


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Rob's SOG session. 3-player Attika, 5-player Clans, 6-player Bucket King, 6-player Perudo, 2-player Electronic Catch Phrase.

Mark bragged about his trip to France. To assert his uber-geek status, he brought back a bottle of Carcassonne wine, just because it's named after the board game.

Image: Carcassonne wine
Caption: Carcassonne wine.

Attika

Players were Mike, Rob, myself. I had the first turn.

Click here for an overview of Attika.

This game of Attika was close between Mike and me. Rob seemed to be cut off from victory in either respect during the game.

I was very close to winning when Mike cut me off and proceeded to win himself.

Afterward, I learned that I could trade to resources for one I needed, which I didn't know was true. I could've had a surprisingly quick victory had I know that. It's frustrating to miss rules like that, but it's the way it goes when I don't actually read and absorb rules on my own.

Overall, This game seems like Cave Troll, in the sense that it's purely tactical, acting on random draws each turn. It's a light game that seems to have permission to have a longer downtime that a card game of the same caliber. I wonder if that comes from respect for the designer, or a higher respect for board games than card games, or for the fact that I didn't choose the game. :-)

Game lasted 32 minutes.

Final scores were:

Click here to buy Attika at FunAgain.com.

Click here to learn more about Attika at BoardGameGeek.com.

Clans

Players were Chip, Marianne, Mike, Rob, myself. New players to the game were: Chip, Marianne, Rob. Marianne had the first turn.

Click here for an overview of Clans.

This game of clans seemed very friendly, with most people sharing points willfully. Rob was playing an aggressive game, but he mistakenly thought he'd get more points for isolating huts than he did. Because this is scored at the end of the game, he lost while thinking he was winning.

Marianne was sure she was losing, but ended up with a fair score. Perhaps people were helping her when she acted disappointed. Even though players' colors are secret, it becomes fairly obvious shortly into the game. Anyone who tries to cover up their color, seems to do badly as they help everyone but themselves (ala, Top Secret Spies.)

I was most worried about Mike winning, because he seemed to understand the game better than the other players. So it helped to know that it was his color ahead of mine on the scoring track.

This is a light game. Except for positioning regions to score higher at given times, it is more tactical than strategic. With more players, the game board changes a lot before a player gets a turn again.

In the end, I won.

Image: Clans
Caption: Clans end-game.

Game lasted 24 minutes.

Final scores were:

Click here to buy Clans at FunAgain.com.

Click here to learn more about Clans at BoardGameGeek.com.

Bucket King

Players were Chip, Marianne, Mike, Mark, Rob, myself. I was a new player to the game. Rob had the first turn.

Click here for an overview of Bucket King.

What can I say? This is a light game, with little in the way of strategy.

The main dilemma is whether to hold on to as many cards as possible and losing the smallest number of buckets at a time.

The final battle between Rob and Mark involved second guessing if the other had more of the lead color remaining.

Game lasted 33 minutes.

Final scores were:

Click here to buy Bucket King at FunAgain.com.

Click here to learn more about Bucket King at BoardGameGeek.com.

Perudo

Players were Chip, Marianne, Mike, Mark, Rob, myself. Marianne was a new player to the game. Marianne had the first turn.

Click here for an overview of Perudo.

Rob is on a quest to get a nice Liar's Dice bidding board for this game, but, for now, we use the simpler printout off BoardGameGeek.com.

I don't remember much about the game, except that Mike and Mark were left, and Mike made a bid that Mark couldn't possibly win at.

Game lasted 30 minutes.

Final scores were:

Click here to buy Perudo at FunAgain.com.

Click here to learn more about Perudo at BoardGameGeek.com.

Electronic Catch Phrase

Players were Rob, Chip, Mike, Vitas, Marianne, Mark.

Click here for an overview of Electronic Catch Phrase.

Poor Marianne felt embarrassed because she didn't know the context of many of the catch phrases, especially when she was trying to get the team to guess it. Mark did his diplomatic best to reassure her of how to play the game in spite of a lack of knowledge about the catch phrase.

In the end, my team lost. The other team seemed to have just the right rapport, while we had problems tuning in to the other players.

Fun was had.

Game lasted 40 minutes.

Final scores were:

Click here to buy Electronic Catch Phrase at FunAgain.com.

In Association with FunAgain.com

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Contents by Vitas Povilaitis
email to vitas@GracefulBoot.com