Roll Call: Bob C, Bob S, Bruce, Gary, Jeremy and Mark

For the second week in a row we were without Phil. It's a strange cruel
gaming night without Phil in it.


Ubongo: Gary, Bob C, Bob S and Bruce

I just rec'd this and wanted to break it in. I gave up my seat to late
arriving Gary so that it would be an all newbie table. I ran the show and
got a chance to show off my mocking skills as they inevitably struggled
from time to time. I think old Bob won our shortened game (Jeremy had
arrived midgame also). I purchased Ubongo with my kids in mind and hope to
try it out with them tonight. It's a cute game, even if the whole jewel
collection thing seems superfluous and wonky.


Medici: Jeremy, Gary, Bob C, Bob S, Bruce and Mark

I had to own the new (not quite so new, but new to me) French version
of Medici, not for the new artwork and production, but rather for the new
cards introduced. I know a portion of you are screaming "Why mess with a
classic?!?". Well as the French say, "Why not?" (only they say it in
French). I'm an inveterate rules tweaker myself so I have no problem with
the idea of mucking with just about any game (I've even messed with
Acquire! I can feel Dave B wincing from here).
There are 4 new cards that are shuffled into the deck and auctioned off
just like the standard cards. There's a wild 5-value card which can be any
good you wish. It goes without saying that it's a very cool card. Then
there's the extra ship capacity card, which allows you to carry up to 6
cards on your ship. (Note: of the special cards only the wild 5 counts
against your ship's capacity). This extra ship capacity card keeps thing
interesting even for the players that have 5 goods in the ships as if it
comes up for auction alone, or with a single other card it can be bid on by
them. Also very cool and a neat twist. Next is the "captain" card which
if you possess breaks all ties in your favor (for ship total value and on
the goods ladders). It doesn't sound very interesting but it actually was
quite handy and made a much bigger difference than you'd think. Finally
there's the Bruno card (Bruno Faidutti contributed to the this version of
the game). I don't know if Bruno actually had anything to do with this
card, but it seems like his handiwork. It's a re-auction card. When you
win it you can immediately choose any card in any player's boat to be
re-auctioned. The original owner is not allowed to bid on the card but
can match any winning bid to keep it. So guess what, you paid 20 for that
10 gold card? Well pay for it again.
I may be a variant lover but I disliked the idea of that card so much I
immediately pulled it out of the deck. I didn't even want to see how it
worked in action. I just couldn't imagine how it would add anything but
chaos to the game. I rethought this position after the game and it's
probably worth trying at least once and I'll endeavor to do so soon. In
short, I should've at least given it a shot. One tweak I came up with that
might make that card more palatable for me (and perhaps others) is that you
can only re-auction one of your own cards and you get to keep the winnings
of that auction. So it could be a way to rid yourself of a '0' card or
perhaps you might want to go for a little profit and auction off a card
that you know other players would find enticing (they need to break a tie
on a goods ladder, get into bonus points, etc.).
Okay, there's the special cards, but those crazy French weren't done
tweaking so they decided to change some of the existing rules too. The
auction's are bid until you drop instead of once around and the dealer
cannot flip more cards than *he* is capable of carrying (instead of any
player). Unfortunately we didn't get to try these changes out as I had
missed them when I looked up the rules (I figured they had just added the
cards).
All in all I really enjoyed the new cards! They added some neat new
twists and kept folks on their toes due to the new possibilities (bidding
when your ship is full being the most apparent). I'm willing to try the
new rules changes too and look forward to our next play.
Now to the bad part of this edition. Basically I hated the production
values. Gone are the wooden bits replaced by cardboard counters (when has
that EVER been a good idea?). To add insult to injury they used colors
like orange and red, purple and blue and the colors of the scoring markers
don't match up with the colors on the goods markers. Thanks for thinking
of us color blind folks! That's it from now on I'm calling em "Freedom
Fries". I liked the new artwork on the cards themselves and it matched up
well with the board. They could've made a bit more real estate available
though. Overall a big thumbs down on the production (especially given the
price). Maybe I can bastardize my Rio Grande version and make a decent
Franco-US version with the new cards, etc. I call it the "Lafayette Edition".
Also of note is FNG Bruce's behavior in this game. In the last round
he outbid my 3-bid(!!) for a '0' good coupled with the extra ship capacity
card just to prevent me from getting into the 10 bonus space on that good's
ladder. Mind you I was in last place, he had no interest in the good (he
was solidly stuck in third) and obviously the '0' added no value to his
ship. Thanks Bruce. Did I mention you're not invited back? ;-)
Young Bob ran away with the win.



Exxtra: Jeremy, Gary, Bob S, Bruce and Mark
Young Bob took off after his win in Medici, apparently unwilling to get
into the dice-fest known as Exxtra. At times Exxtra can drag, especially
as you add more players, but this session moved along quite nicely and
ended with 4 of us within spitting distance of the finish line. Only
Jeremy lagged behind (although he too threw himself under the bus at one
point to slow me down. There's a disturbing trend there). I believe Gary
took the win.


Lexio: Jeremy, Gary, Bob S, Bruce and Mark
After Gary introduced us to this lavishly produced Gang of Four lite
game a few weeks back I had to have a copy. His version is the black tile
version so I went and bought the white tile version (just to escape the
copy cat moniker). I like his better. He likes my white version better
but can't make himself part with the black version (one of those weirdo
collector types I guess). The tiles look a bit like Mahjong tiles in look
and feel, only they are a bit smaller. The game play is a simple take on
the Chinese "climbing game" (ala Tichu, Gang of Four, Frank's Zoo,
etc.). It's simple enough that I think I might be able to teach my two
older kids (9 and 12) to play it and I think my wife might even enjoy it
too. The production values are really gorgeous and add greatly to the look
and feel of the proceedings. The player aid card is in Korean, but is
really easy to follow. The only negative is the chips used for tracking
points are cheap thin plastic. We used my poker chips. We play a set
number of rounds which isn't the official rules but makes this game a nice
little filler instead of an all day affair waiting for one player to go
"tets up". I absolutely suck at it (evidenced by Adam's continual
thrashing of me and several others last Saturday) but I do enjoy it quite a
bit.
Anyone know where I can get the black tile version?


In previous weeks we've played ShowManager, Bang, Bean Trader, I'm the Boss
and many others I can't remember. Note: ShowManager really shines when you
have 2-value poker chips available. ;-) And I'm going to push Bean Trader
more often. Damn it I like that game!


Mark









"Sokath, his eyes uncovered"