Board Game Session Report for November 18, 2002: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Shark (older edition)
November 24, 2002: Federation Space, Acquire
November 25, 2002: Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, Naval War, Bohnanza


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November 18, 2002

SOG session. 3-player Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, 5-player Shark (older edition).

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

Players were Rob, Lewis and myself.

Rob engaging in his usual strategy of fretting over how he isn't getting the rules and is falling behind, while taking advantage of every opportunity afforded to him.

Click here to buy your own copy of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers at FunAgain.com.

Shark (older edition)

Players were Mark, Rob, Lewis, Chris and myself.

I read that this game compares to Acquire, but I wouldn't say that. In a nutshell, it's about money and corporate take-overs, but makes more sense as such, because the share-holders of the corporation doing the take-over benefit and the share-holders being taken-over lose a little. Additionally, When a corporation grows, share-holders benefit.

This game could use more $1,000 bills. We kept running out during the game, which was annoying. It's a fun game that kept a good pace.

Game with instruction took about 55 minutes.

Click here to buy your own copy of Shark at FunAgain.com.

Sunday, November 24, 2002

Private session. 2-player Federation Space, 2-player Acquire.

Federation Space

Players were Paul and myself.

This is a starship war between the Federation and its allies versus the Klingons and its allies. It's been long out-of-print, but I found it on eBay for Paul because he had fond memories of it playing as a teen.

25 minutes to review instructions. Five hours to play. Ignored stacking rule, but ended up with small number of stacks that obliterated opponents. Ended early when Romulans joined the war. Without the stacking rules to limit ships in a hex, each turn becomes very predictable and is a simple dice-fest. Considering how long it is to play, that's a very tedious dice-fest!

Click here to buy your own copy of Federation Space (if it's in stock) at FunAgain.com.

Acquire

Players were Paul and myself.

Played with 100%-50%-25% payoff. I made a mistake early by investing heavily in corner corporation, which Paul kept denying expanding while I didn't get the tiles. Most of the game I had tiles that would either grow or take-over Paul's majority corporations, so I was playing a denial game as well. Eventually, Paul had to choose between buying two corporations when our cash was tied, and he chose the one that blocked me out from gaining the advantage.

Game lasted hour and 25 minutes with dinner break.

Click here to buy your own copy of Acquire at FunAgain.com.

November 25, 2002

SOG session. 4-player Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, 4-player Naval War, 4-player Bohnanza.

Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers

Players were Josh, Mark, Lewis and myself. Josh played for the first time. Game with instruction lasted about an hour.

Click here to buy your own copy of Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers at FunAgain.com.

Naval War

Players were Josh, Mark, Lewis and myself. Josh played for the first time.

Start with six ships with a variety of gun sizes. Draw a hand of cards that give ammo of various sizes. Draw a card. Play a card.

Game turned out to be quite dull. It could play itself with the basic strategy of destroying anything I could, never damaging ships to less than three points left, and always playing the cards that I always have to play immediately. Once a player is deprived of a variety of ships, he's bound to lose to someone who still has a variety.

Game with instruction lasted about 50 minutes.

Bohnanza

Players were Josh, Mark, Lewis and myself. Josh played for the first time.

Start with a hand, plant beans in one or two fields (two fields maximum), draw two cards and reveal them, plant them or negotiate with other players to take them (in exchange for other beans would be beneficial), all players plant beans gotten at this point, draw three cards, next player plays. At any time, a player can cash in their fields for gold. At any time, a player can buy a third field for three gold.

Surprisingly fun fast-paced involving game.

Game with instruction lasted an hour.

Click here to buy your own copy of Bohnanza at FunAgain.com.


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Contents by Vitas Povilaitis
email to vitas@GracefulBoot.com