It’s the holiday season! As there aren’t really any good “holiday” games, December 2012’s Gamegeeks games were all selected ad hoc from what the players brought.
Guests:
Sam “That movie was a 3/5” (@normallywho)
Derek “Paul always wins”
Jon “Can I play too?”
Paul “Really does always win” (@zandergil)
Bjorn “We’re all going to die” (@jabbernews)
ITGirl “Doom Doom Doomy Doom Doom” (@itgirlnet)
ALMOST Played: Doom
With only 4 of us initially gathered for gameday, I excitedly grabbed Doom out of my game cabinet. I almost never get a chance to play this one. And for a brief, shining (to me) terrifying (to all the others) moment, we started setting up to play the Doom boardgame. Alas, it was too good to be true. Minutes after we began setting up, the 2 latecomers arrived.
First Up: Incan Gold
Description (from BoardGameGeek.com): “Incan Gold is a quick, fun and tense game in which you and other adventurers explore an old Incan temple in search of gold and treasure. In each of the five rounds, you secretly choose if you want to continue exploring the temple in search of more treasure or retreat to the safety of your camp with your share of the treasure that has been discovered so far. Each time that an explorer braves new territory, more treasure or a danger appears. When a second card of the same type of danger is turned over, all exposed treasure is buried, leaving the remaining adventurers with nothing. Do you flee the dangerous temple with your portion of the treasure that has been uncovered so far or do you venture into the exciting temple in search of more hidden valuables? After five rounds of exploration, whoever has the most treasure is the ultimate explorer and winner!”
From the publisher: “You and your fellow adventurers travel to Peru to find a ruined Incan temple and its treasures: turquoise, obsidian and gold. There are also rumors of valuable Incan artifacts. Will you chance dangers like giant spiders, mummies and fire during your search, or will you escape back to camp and safety, carrying out your loot?”
Winner: Derek proved that Paul doesn’t always win by plundering the most treasure from the Incan ruins. You have to know when to stay and when to leave based upon what cards are drawn. Even then, there’s a good amount of chance that influences the outcome.
Second: Space Hulk: Death Angel
Description (from BoardGameGeek.com): “A cooperative game where the players attempt to clean out an infestation of hostile aliens from a derelict spaceship. Set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, players take on the roles of Space Marines pitted against hordes of Genestealers.
Players choose from six different combat teams, each consisting of two Space Marines with different abilities. Each player receives three Action cards for each of his combat teams. After all of the Space Marines have fallen into formation, prepare for the first wave of Genestealers.
Game play is quick and easy to learn. Each game is played over a series of rounds, broken up into phases. During the Choose Actions Phase, each player must secretly determine which of the following Action cards they wish to play on their Space Marines: Support, Attack, or Move + Activate. You can’t pick the same Action card next round, so choose wisely.
Action resolution keeps all players involved while the overwhelming odds inspire them to work together to survive. The Action Resolution Phase consists of each player revealing and carrying out their chosen Action. The lowest number card goes first, which means Attacks are resolved after Supports. Support tokens enable Space Marines to re-roll, so make sure to cover your fellow Blood Angels.
The Genestealer Attack Phase happens after all the Actions have been resolved, so hopefully you thinned out the swarms since you have to roll higher than the number of Genestealers in the swarm to successfully defend. Finally, an Event card is drawn to spawn more alien adversaries. Once all the Genestealers have emerged from the darkness, its time to move forward, drawing a new location card. And then it’s back into the fight!”
Winner: SWARM! SWARM! The genestealers overwhelmed our marines and eradicated us. We didn’t stand a chance against their hordes.
Third Up: Zombie Dice
Description (from BoardGameGeek.com): “Eat brains. Don’t get shotgunned. You are a zombie. You want braaains. More brains than any of your zombie buddies. Zombie Dice is fast and easy for any zombie fan to learn, even non-gamers. The 13 custom dice are your victims. Push your luck to eat their brains, but stop rolling before the shotgun blasts end your turn! Two or more can play. Each game takes 10 to 20 minutes, and can be taught in a single round.”
Winner: Braaaaaainsss… Paul defended his “always wins” title by finally winning one today! Hurrah! Now, we can all continue to conspire against him to keep him from always winning.
See Zombie Dice in action on Geek & Sundry’s Tabletop: Zombie Dice, Get Bit! & Tsuro: Ryan Higa, Freddie Wong, Rod Roddenberry. TableTop Episode 3
Lastly: Race for the Galaxy
Description (from BoardGameGeek.com): “In the card game Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by playing game cards in front of them that represent worlds or technical and social developments. Some worlds allow players to produce goods, which can be consumed later to gain either card draws or victory points when the appropriate technologies are available to them. These are mainly provided by the developments and worlds that are not able to produce, but the fancier production worlds also give these bonuses.
At the beginning of each round, players each select, secretly and simultaneously, one of the seven roles which correspond to the phases in which the round progresses. By selecting a role, players activate that phase for this round, giving each player the opportunity to perform that phase’s action. For example, if one player chooses the settle role, each player has the opportunity to settle one of the planets from their hand. The player who has chosen the role, however, gets a bonus that applies only to him. But bonuses may also be acquired through developments, so one must be aware when another player also takes advantage of his choice of role.”
Winner: We played 2 games of this since Jon arrived late hoping to get in on the gaming action. Derek won the first game. “Newcomer” Jon won the second game.