Quick games night recap...

Had a blast last night at UW's board games night. Played some great old Euros and a new one while in the other corner half the guys spent 6 hours playing Space Alert. They made it to the 7th tutorial but never got to the full game! Weird game which I'm not sure I want to try. In order, we played:

Fossil (1998):

Great, simple little game that managaes up to six people. Move stones, collect different types of fossil pieces, and score big when all of that type is taken. Easy rules, but more than meets the eye. Lags a little at the end but still fun and so easy to teach.

Endeavor (2009):

Okay, the hype is worth it. A wonderful, complex game with relatively simple rules. This has been getting great press and it deserves it. The theme is about world conquest but the play is surprisingly abstracted. And yet, this game is a ton of fun and the interaction is fierce! It has been compared to Puerto Rico but after having played it, the resemblance is pretty minimal. Pick up chits with symbols, move corresponding rows, and place markers on cities on the board. This is the game Knizia never made in the last 10 years. If you loved the depth of a game like Tigris & Euphrates and didn't mind at all the utter abstraction of the theme, then this one will be a hit with you. Can't wait to play again so I can write up a review.

Basari (1998):

A game I brought back from BC this month. And boy was it missed. This strange mish-mash of bartering, majority, and second-guessing is an absolute blast. I would say it is like Adel Verpflichtet's younger, cooler brother. It's so easy, fun, and quick that you forget how god-awful the artwork is. It even has dice-rolling! I think this one is out of print since Edel, Stein, & Reich came out which is sad because it is a classic, classic Euro.

Mamma Mia (1999):

I finally got people to play this game from Uwe Rosenberg, the designer of Bohnanza, and they were all happy I did. Best memory game out there, in mind. Basically a game of making pizzas but one must remember the order of ingredients in the pile and throw their recipes in at just the right time to claim those ingredients. I'm awful at this due to my awful memory and attention span. And yet I still find it thrilling when the ingredients get laid out at the end of the round. Way more fun than it sounds and an extremely clever design.

Coach Ride to Devil's Castle (2006):

We ended the night with this 8-player deduction game. And boy, was it weird! Everyone is given a card from one of two secret factions and you want your faction to gain control of three items. Unfotunately, you don't know who is in which faction and you can't tell who has what items until you attack or trade with them. This little card game was VERY complex due to each item having some weird power to warp a game rule. In addition each player also has a unique occupation that can screw things up as well. I think if the English translations were better written on the cards, this would have made more sense but the first 30 minutes for me were utter confusion. It doesn't help that I dislike deduction games - they always feel like puzzles to me more than games, this one included. But I'd like to give it another try, definitely wouldn't buy it, though.

As you can see, it was a GREAT night of games. Can't wait for the next week....