♫ ♬ "(Gaming) Memories...In The Corner Of My Mind" ♩♪

So, as you read this you'll probably be wondering...why is he writing about a game day that happened waaaaay back in September of 2015?

Welp, five reasons, offa the top o' my head:

1. My regular weekly gaming group really isn't an option for me anymore so I'll be dipping back into the archives more and more.
2. To ensure that I don't freeze and / or starve to death during the winter (and can finance a new vehicle that won't fly apart on the highway when it exceeds 60 kilometers per hour) I've been forced to take on more paying work, leaving me less and less time to game and write. And write about games. Such is "life" I guess. 
3. I always like to be reminded of a time when the world around me wasn't a cold, damp monochromatic hellscape.
4. I actually played some really fun games that day that are worth talking about. 
5. I want to give youze guys some tips for teaching these games to your own friends. 

This was actually the third annual "Quadruple B": I.E. the "Brother's Booze BBQ and Boardgames" event, which happened back on September 12'th 2015. Mark and Dawn were kind enough to throw their homes open to us yahoos for another full day of gamin', drinkin' and wantonly carnivorous behavior. 

As one of the resident "game masters" (I'm getting some business cards done up as we speak) I decided to kick things off with something lite: namely Click Clack Lumberjack, which I first spotlighted on the blog right hur.

Basically, the players are lumberjacks who are trying to strip the bark off of a tree without harming the core of the tree. I know, I know, that makes about as much sense as Willow flaying Warren alive in Buffy and then expecting him to be the Big Bad in Season Seven, but, hey, whatevs.

During their turn, players take two whacks at the plastic tree with their l'il plastic axe. Every piece of bark they strip off the tree is one point to the good. If the bark they just knocked off has a l'il grub sticker underneath it, that's worth another point, plus it gives you a free chop.

If you fuck up royal and shear a piece of the white core offa the tree then that's bad. Like real bad. Like "minus five points to your score" kinda bad.

Anyway I had a blast watching Cheryl, Sabina, Allison, Mark and Trevor cope with this one. Eventually people start to marvel at the tree's gravity-defying contortions. Mid-way through the game, the thing looks like a pine tree that's been "out on the bank" for the past one-hundred years.

In the end, Alllicene proved to be the most deft of hand. Here are the final scores:

Cheryl: -4

Me: -3

Sabina: -2

Mark: 0

Trevor: +3

Allicenne: +6

Everyone seemed to dig this one so I quickly re-racked it for another game. I get a kick out of watching folks discover sneaky tactics like cherry-picking pieces that are on the verge of falling off, using a flick action to knock back off the top tier or deliberately knocking the whole thing outta whack just to fuck with the next person. Good times.

Our overall score in game two was slightly better and my more-conservative strategy let me eke out a tie. Here, then, are the final scores from game two:

Sabina: -3

Mark: -2

Cheryl: +3

Me, Trevor & Allicenne: +4

Sorry, but I love this stupid game. It's a wonderful opener and / or a great wind-down closer at the end of the night. It's cat-nip for non-gamers and kids in particular. In a world where Jenga is the only dexterity game that people know of, this one is Campaign for North Africa in comparison.

Pro tip: I've house-ruled the "grub" rule ever so slightly. In the original game if you reveal a grub you get a free full two-whack turn but that's totes cray-cray IMHO, especially if you turn up several of them at once. So, in my games, I just limit it to a single bonus strike.

Next up was Dead Man's Draw, which I originally profiled right hur.

Dead Man's Draw is a press-your-luck pirate-themed card game. On a player's turn, they draw the top card on the deck and play it in their "run". There are ten different suits in the game and each card is numbered from two to nine. Each time a card hits the table it triggers a special ability that you can use to help your effort or screw around with your opponents.

Anytime you want to stop drawing cards you can. Cards you collect at the end of your turn are placed in a chest of "booty" in front of you, stacked in different suits with the highest value on top. Alternately, you can keep drawing cards as long as you want but as soon as you draw a suit that's already in your "run" you bust and all of your cards go into the discard pile. Bee-boo.

The game continues until the draw pile is exhausted. Players then count up the top deck value in each of their suit stacks and the highest total value wins the game.

This is another one that's a blast to teach to people. I'm so good at it now that I don't have to do any up-front rules dump, I just get the first player to draw their first card and I talk them through their options. The most important thing to communicate to them right off the bat is that, with ten different suits, your really start to flirt with the possibility of busting when you get up around three or four draws.

Here's how the score rattled out in this one:

Allicenne...16 points

Trevor...35 points

Me...48 points

Cheryl...60 points    

The same group stuck around for game two. Trevor and Allicenne proved to be quick studies and dominated the game. Here are the final scores:

Cheryl...34 points

Me & Allicenne...50 points

Trevor...57 points

Some tips about teaching this one to people: feel free to explain what the cards do and how they work in tandem, but always let your players discover the combos themselves. It's particularly gratifying when they figure out some crazy, Machiavellian plan all by themselves. "Hmmm, a Treasure Map. Let's see, if I use the Hook I just turned up to drag that Sword back into my run, I can steal your Key and complete my Chest / Key combo! Yis!"

Indeed, the best part of the game is discovering the synergy amongst different suits which you can use to rack up mondo points. It's not the deepest game in the world, but its another good, light, portable opener that makes your brain percolate.

Next up was Roll For It! which I've also previously covered here and here.

This one is a super-lite, odds-making, Vegas-style dice game. To start things off, three cards are randomly flipped up on the table from the top of the deck. Each one is a "blueprint" you're trying to fulfill with your six dice. The more dice required, the more it's worth.

On your turn you roll all six of your dice and dock 'em anywhere you like. Vis a vis you can split 'em up amongst several card, and that's a big part of the strategy. Do go all in on one card or hedge my bet among several and roll less dice?

Here, I'll give you an example. Say you've got a five-pointer on the table requiring three "3"s, just like in the photo below. On my first turn I roll two "3's" so I plop 'em next to that card. But then, my jack-hole opponent comes along and rolls three "3"s in one go. They can snipe my card, bump my dice back to me, and now they're well on their way to the 40 points needed to win.

Right off the bat I took the lead by going after some quick, low-value cards. Trevor scored a big 10 points but every time he started to invest in a new card, someone would just steal it away from him! Eventually he became obsessed with completing a juicy 15 pointer but this caused him to stall completely. Both Cheryl and Allicenne both tried to take a run at me but by then all I needed was another easily-acquired ten-pointer to put me over the top.

Final Scores

Trevor...10 Points

Allicenne...30 Points

Cheryl...37 Points

Me...41 Points

Whereas Click Clack Lumberjack is catnip for kids, Roll For It! is catnip for parents. It's quick, super-easy to teach and, hey, everybody loves dice! Just remember the following three important things when teaching the game to people:

1. Sometimes players will make the mistake of splitting their dice up while going for a 15-pointer. Be sure to remind them that they need all six dice on that one card in order to claim it. 
2. Get players to temporarily set aside any dice they just used to buy a card and then turn up a new card from the top of the deck. This gives the player a chance to allocate any of their remaining, unspent dice. In fact, with a particularly lucky roll, you can actually pick up several cards in one turn. Be sure to remind players that they'll get all of the dice they set aside back at the start of their next turn.
3. If players opt to take their dice back they can't cherry pick just some of them. They have to take all of them back but then they get to roll all six again. 

Next up we decided to play one of the better party games to come down the pike in a while: Konito?.  
To set things up, you construct a "race track" with a bunch of brightly-colored puzzle pieces. This alone is awesome enough since you can use all of the pieces for a 30-40 minute game or just half or three-quarters of the pieces for a shorter 20-minute game.

After everyone is divided up into teams, get them to pick a colored token and place it on the start space. Choose a team at random to start and then elect one member to be the first phrase-reader. An example of a phrase might be:

"May The Force __ ____ ___." 

Now if you've been living underneath a rock since 1977 and you had no idea what I was taking about talking about, I can then launch into word-association, songs, gestures...anything to get my team-mates to finish the phrase. Green spaces have three phrases per card, the orange spaces have four and the red spaces are the most challenging with five phrases per card. Each card your team clears in the allotted time is a movement point for your token around the race track.

Oh, one final thing: if you start your turn on a "Konito?" space the phrase-reader begins by drawing the top "Konito?" card and asking their team-mates "Do you wanna do 1, 2 or 3?". The random number they settle on corresponds to a particular stunt that your team must now accommodate for the upcoming turn. An example of this would be: "After each response, the answerer must give their first and last name". Typically these challenges make things slightly harder but also offer some sort of rewards if you succeed.

The first team token to reach the end of the track wins! 

The Teams

Team Blue: Angie, Cheryl and Allicenne

Team Black: Me, Chad and Trevor

Team Green: Angela, Claudia and Sabina

Since this was our first game, and a lot of the stunts are kinda humiliating, we decided to play 'em. As the game began we were getting our asses kicked. Angela, Claudia and Sabina were working in perfect tandem with one another. But eventually we started to settle down and close the gap by deliberately landing on the easier green spaces. Eventually Team Green got hung up on a tough Red spot just one space away from the finish line!

With Chad up, Trevor blew through the phrases as quick as possible and Chad's responses were unerring. So, right at the very end, we blasted by our rivals to claim the win!

This was one of my first times teaching the game to people so I goofed up one critical rule: everyone on the phrase-reader's team can answer. We were playing it so that the phrase reader and answerer kept changing and only one person could answer that round. This put people on the spot and made it a lot harder.

I.E. I can't slight the game for my grievous fuck-up. It's actually one of the better party games I've played in recent memory but, then again, I'm also a weirdo English major and writer who loves phrases. Full disclosure: I've taught the game to a lot of people and I've noticed that, for some strange reason, some Millennials have no sweet clue what a lot of these phrases are. So be sure to divide younger players evenly amongst the teams to make things are fair as possible.

Next up: one of my favorite press-your-luck dice games: Pickomino by Reiner "I Loves Me Some Numbers" Knizia.

In Pickomino (originally titled Heck Meck) players are mama hens trying to bring back as many tasty barbecued worms for their chicks to eat. They do so by rolling eight dice and keeping one matching set. For example, if my first throw was two "2's",  two "1's", three "4's" and one Worm symbol I could keep the three "4's" for 12 points. Now, I'm gonna hafta roll again 'cuz the lowest valued tile on the table is 21.

So I go again, and this time I throw one "1",  one "3",  four "4's" and two Worm symbols. Unfortunately I can't take the four "4's" 'cuz I kept 'em on a previous throw. But I can take the two Worms, which is a good idea for two reasons: they're worth five points a pop and I need at least one of 'em sitting in front of me by the time I stop. So I decide to take 'em and now I'm up to 22 points.

Now I can stop right there, take the "22" tile with a single worm on it and then pass the dice on to the next person. Every time I stop and keep a tile it goes on top of my stack. This gives the game another interesting wrinkle: if you roll the exact number on the top of someone's stack you can steal that tile away from them. Zing!

I can also keep rolling as often as I want, but if I can't keep a die result that's different from my previous throws I bust, my top tile goes back into the sequence and I flip over the highest valued tile on the table. This ensures that the the game lasts no longer than a half hour. The game ends when all the tiles are passed around and / or flipped and the highest worm count wins the game.

I introduced this one to Allicenne as well as Dawn's two friends Paula and Rhonda. Everybody picked up on it right away and pretty soon we were all rollin' as if our chick's lives depended on it. Right from the start I settled for a lot of low valued tiles but Paula proved to be particularly adept at pressing her luck. Instead of chickening out (seewutididthur?) she persevered and kept rolling long after logic (and sanity) dictated that she should stop. For me, such gambits never seem to pan out, but for her it really paid off.

Final Scores

Rhonda...0 Points

Allicenne...1 Point

Me...6 Points

Paula...8 Points

Game two played out in a similar fashion with me sniping the lowest valued tiles. This time it was Rhonda's turn to snap up those scrumptious high-worm tiles. I also suffered a bit from "game master" syndrome which dictates that if someone's gonna get a tile stolen from them, it's gonna be the guy who taught the game to people. Clearly he's the greatest threat! Yeah, um, no.

Here's how the scores shook out for game two:

Me...0 points

Allicenne and Paula...3 Points

Rhonda...4 Points

No matter how well you "elevator pitch" Pickomino to people, they'll typically just stand there and blink at you. So now I just throw it down on the table and tell people "YOU ARE PLAYING THIS GAME RITE NOW" in my best Dr. Klaw voice. Once it's down and people start chuckin' dem bones, they can't stop. It's like the "potato chip" of dice games, you just can't play one!

Next up: the smash-hit party game of 2015: Codenames.

Leave it to wonderkind designer Vlaada Chvátil to take a simple word-association party game like Catch Phrase and turn it into a super-cool spy-themed game.

Before I get started I just wanna say up front that the optimal number of players here is either four or six but it still technically works with three or two (kinda) or seven plus (decreasingly so). The game play itself is deceptively easy: players split into red and blue teams and nominate a "Spymaster" as their guide. It's the Spymaster's job to get their color-coded agents to rendezvous with affiliated spies in the field and keep them away from rival agents, the unwitting general populace or, even worse, the deadly Assassin. 

After a random, 5 x 5 grid of "code name" cards is laid out on the table, a "blueprint" is revealed to the Spymasters only. This instantly identifies where your field agents are as well as rival spies, Innocent Bystanders and the Assassin. The Spymasters are then given a moment to look at this grid and try to find as many links between their team cards as possible.

So as not to tip off their rivals with the movement of their agents, the Spymasters will alternate back and forth, giving their team a one-word clue and then a number which indicates how many code name cards they're referring to. For example if I'm the blue Spymaster and the secret blueprint tells me that three of my blue spies in the field are "GOLD", "SHIP" and "PLANK", I might tell them "PIRATE - 3". This tips them off to look for three pirate-related code name cards.

After talking among themselves, a team must eventually settle on a guess by physically pointing to it. Every time they guess right, you get to overlay one of your color-coded Agent tiles. If they get all of their guesses right, they can press their luck by taking take one more bonus guess, perhaps based on a previous clue they've been given.

If they screw up and pick a rival team's color, the enemy team gets to drop one of their team color tiles on the board and the turn immediately passes to them. If you send an agent to meet with an Innocent Bystander, then a neutral cards hits the table and your turn is over. But the worst case scenario is sending your agents to meet with the deadly Assassin. If that happens you immediately lose the game and the other team wins. In other words, if I didn't notice that "ISLAND" was the Assassin in the example above, I've just put my players in genuine peril with my PIRATE-themed clue! 
    

Game One Teams

Red Team

Spymaster: Me

Agents: Jeremy and Trevor

Blue Team

Spymaster: Andrew

Agents: Cheryl and Matt

Even though I'm usually the dude who comes in last on our first play of deep Eurogames, but I'm a real savant when it comes to Codenames. Sometimes you'll get lucky and there'll be plenty of blatant links between some of the cards, but in most instances, you really have to think creatively. Sure, you can give a clue linked to a single card, but that isn't going to get you ahead! You gotta gamble a bit by doling out clever clues that relate to two, three, even four or more code name cards at a time.

Things were still pretty close mid-way through our first game but then Andrew got a little gun shy. Even though some of the links were tenuous at best, I managed to press my luck and us nudge into the lead. This gave me a chance to deliver the coup de grâce in the form of a conservative one-word clue: "MacDonald" for "BRIDGE", which probably only makes sense if you're from Halifax.  

Winners: Me, Jeremy and Trevor.

Game Two Teams

Red Team

Spymaster: Jeremy

Agents: Me and Trevor

Blue Team

Spymaster: Matt

Agents: Cheryl and Andrew

No offense to Jeremy but some of his clues, such as the incredibly esoteric "ANGELES" (as is LOS Angeles), put us behind the eight-ball pretty quick. Conversely, Matt was laser-focused, bangin' out one 2 to 3-word clue after another. As such, Team Blue trounced us soundly by a score of 8 - 5.

Winners: Matt, Cheryl and Andrew.

Things were starting to wind down by then, with many of the remaining party-goers distracted by some sort of DVD party game that I had zero interest in. This gave Andrew, Cheryl, Matt and I a chance to bust out one of my favorites from last year: Splendor.

Since I've already talked about this one pretty extensively (namely here, here, here and here) I'm not going to re-hash it in any detail. I do want to preface the following account by telling you that Andrew had just come off a Splendor tournament. He's prepared for this by weight-training with the app so much that he claimed to be invincible. Naturally we took this as a challenge and Cheryl, Matt and myself promptly took up the gauntlet against him.

Unfortunately, Andrew's prediction proved prescient and he charted an incredibly streamlined path through the game. I did a reasonably good job picking up some Prestige but my choices were considerably less optimal. For the record, my Splendor skills have really improved since this last meeting and now I think I could really give him a run for his money.

Matt, sharp cookie that he is, grasped the rules very quickly but by the time he started to divine a clear strategy it was already too late. Cheryl, normally a super-sharp contender in Splendor, Cheryl spent way too long developing her base before collecting any Prestige Points, which, as we know, is what the game's all about! 

Final Scores

Cheryl...2 Points

Matt...4 Points

Me...9 Points

Andrew...15 Points

I've played Splendor so much now that it's the gaming equivalent of a warm, fluffy robe. It's comforting, cozy and reassuringly simple. I'd like to challenge Andrew once again, this time applying some recent epiphanies about the game which involve the creation of deep discounts for the most plentiful developments while exploiting reservations to the maximum.

Speaking of gaming comfort foods, our last match of the evening was Lords of Waterdeep, which I've already featured here and here. I only had the base game with me, but since it was getting late, I needed something with a quick set up time and fewer options.

This time I was the one on point, snapping up the primo quests, becoming a prolific slumlord and nailing people with irksome Mandatory Quests. Andrew, on the other hand, altered his strategy mid-game, killing his momentum in the process. Meanwhile Cheryl had a hard time picking up quests that dovetailed with her Lord's special ability.

Final Scores

 

Cheryl...131 Points

Andrew...134 Points

Me...142 Points

What can I say about Lords that hasn't already been said? To this day it's still one of my all-time favorite worker placement games. Even though I consider the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion to be de rigueur now every time I play it, there's something to be said about clean, elegant simplicity of the core game as well.

What I like most about Lords of Waterdeep is that it practically begs you to pay attention to the Buildings, the Quest spread and the Intrigue cards. Successful players will be the ones who juggle all of these elements in the most efficient manner.

***

By the time Lords of Waterdeep wrapped up it was around 11:30 pm and we'd been drinkin', gamin' and eating like kings for about eight hours straight. Ergo, it was time to pack it in. We thanked Mark and Dawn extensively for being such great hosts before heading out into the crisp, late-summer air. I drove home very happy, content in the knowledge that I'd presided over a few new gaming epiphanies, especially amongst valued friends.

Pity that my opportunities to game are becoming increasingly scarce. But, fear not! There's hope on the horizon! Stay tuned, folks, I've got a massive entry coming soon featuring a crap-ton of new games, some new reviews on deck, plans for a new video series and some exciting events on the horizon!

***

Wanna impress your friends with some cool, hipster-ish game knowledge? Well, click on any of the images below to learn more about the games we played and keep this blog on fleek!

The Best of One World - "HAL-CON Game Day"

In 2011 HAL-CON burst back onto the scene as the perfect replacement for my late, lamented Fleet Con. Unfortunately (or most fortunately depending how you look at it), the amazing guests the organizers keep securing has me looking at HAL-CON as an amazing sci-fi / fantasy convention first and a gaming event second. Here were my thoughts at the end of last year's festivities:
 
"A part of me wishes that HAL-CON could be split into two separate events: one just for workshops, Q&A's, autograph signings and costume contests and another for merchandise, board games and pre-registered RPG's. Maybe then my loyalties wouldn't feel quite so conflicted.

"For the sake of full disclosure, the HAL-CON organizers do run a few separate, day-long table top gaming events during the year. Odin-willing, I hope to be in attendance for one or both of these things next year."  

I missed HAL-CON's dedicated gaming day in 2013 but I sure as hell wasn't going to miss it this year. Sooooo, way back on June 8'th I popped down to the Lord Nelson Hotel on the corner of Spring Garden and South Park in beautiful and historic downtown Halifax, dropped my ten bones and then proceeded to marinate in gamey goodness for about eight hours or so.

As soon as I walked into the convention hall I could see that the organizers had done things right. First off, the Board Room Game Cafe was on-hand to sell and demo games:

Next up the organizers had gone w-a-a-a-a-y above and beyond the call of duty by providing a massive library of free-to-check-out games:

Not too shabby, huh?

And then, to make the things absolutely perfect, there were plenty of fabric-cloaked gaming tables for folks to spread their gamey bitz out on.

The onset of Spring really puts a dent into the time I have available for my beloved hobby and it only gets worse during the Summer. Just look how long it took for me to write this friggin' entry!

So, prior to that morning, I'd been through a protracted and thoroughly lamentable dry spell for gaming. As a result, I got right down to brass tacks, challenging Andrew to a few games of Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men.

GAME ONE

My Team:

Beast - Big Boy Blue

Colossus - Russian Bear

Cyclops - Slim

Gambit - Ace In The Hole

Professor X - Principal

Rogue - Anna Raven

Storm - 'Ro

Wolverine - Wildboy

Andrew's "Team":

Doctor Doom - Reed Richards' Rival

Doctor Octopus - Megalomaniac

Green Goblin - Goblin Lord

Loki - Trickster

Magneto - Former Comrade

Mystique - Unknown

Punisher - McRook

Venom - Eddie Brock

Basic Action Cards:

 

Power Bolt

Focus Power

Gearing Up

Smash!

This was pretty much a Davecon re-match with me fielding an all X-Men team versus Andrew's schizophrenic assortment of random nuts, Villains and weirdos.

Keen to get our heavy hitters out, we both invested heavily in Basic Action Dice. By the end, we'd snapped up all three of the "Gearing Up" Dice as well as two-thirds of the "Focus Power" dice.

Andrew soon parleyed these energy boosters into a pretty daunting army including three Doc Ocks, three Punishers, two Venoms, two Mystiques, two Dooms, two Loki's and one very pissed-off Magneto.

In stark contrast, I invested in low-cost characters early on including several Storms and Gambits. I used my initiative to chip away at Andrew's Life total while patiently waiting for my Basic Action Dice to provide the juice required to pick up a Wolverine, a Rogue and a Professor X.

On more then one occasion Andrew failed to roll a Character level or just couldn't muster the Energy required to Field all of his toughest dudes. On the last turn of the game he was faced with the unenviable choice of Fielding Doc Ock or the Punisher. In the end, Frank Castle was left to stir in Reserve limbo.

Just like our previous battles, the concept of "defense" was fleeting at best. In other words, we spent most of the game just whaling the crap outta one another. Even though Andrew was down to only a few Life points and, by all accounts, should have been on a purely defensive footing, he still attacked with Doc Ock and kept Magneto back as a lone blocker. I was forced to let Otto through, who knocked me down to four Life. 

On my turn I rolled an obscene amount of dice, including a Wolverine, Professor X, a Sidekick and a very timely Focus Power die. On my subsequent attack, Andrew used Magneto and a Sidekick to block Rogue and Storm but Wolverine got through for six points of damage, giving me the win!

GAME TWO

My Team:

Nick Fury - Mr. Anger

Captain America - Star-Spangled Avenger

Thor - Odinson

Iron Man - Playboy

Black Widow - Natural

Hulk - Anger Issues

Vibranium Shield - One Of A Kind

Andrew's Group of Misfits:

Gambit - Ace In The Hole
Doctor Doom - Reed Richards' Rival

Ghost Rider - Johnny Blaze
Doctor Strange - Sorcerer Supreme

Deadpool - Assassin

Colossus - Unstoppable

Wolverine - Wildboy

Thing - Ever Lovin' Blue-Eyed

Basic Action Cards:

 

Power Bolt

Focus Power

Gearing Up

Smash!

We went downright apeshit on the Basic Action Dice this time out, cleaning out all of the "Power Bolt" and "Gearing Up" dice while leaving only one "Smash!" and "Focus Power" remaining.

This generic energy boost gave Andrew the opportunity to snap up two of his three Colossus dice. Solid move, too, considering that this version of Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin receives a free Spin Up at the end of every freakin' turn! Needless to say, this guy was a real pain in my попка for most of the game, eventually pounding me down to seven Life.

But Andrew still had a hard time dicing up what he needed. Even though he used a Yellow "Focus Power" result to Spin Wolverine up a Level everything else was a complete bust. Even after a re-roll, his Blue "Gearing Up" die just produced more useless Energy and, more importantly, he failed to conjure up Dr. Strange as a potential blocker.

In stark contrast my Avengers worked together like a dream team, go figure. First off, my very own "Gearing Up" result provided two more valuable dice. The resulting "Power Bolt" allowed me to blast Andrew right in the mush for two points of direct damage. Then, bolstered by "Mr. Anger's" ability to field Avengers for free, I proceeded to flood the attack zone with the Hulk, Black Widow and Thor. Even though they were all Level-One Characters this was more then enough to overwhelm Andrew's beleaguered defenses.

I'm a huge fan of this game, to the point where I recently hosted a local tournament. Right now I'm anxiously waiting for the new X-men expansion to arrive! 
 
Just days prior I'd procured Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small so Andrew was kind enough to join me in an inaugural run-through. 

 
In this tandem game of animal husbandry, participants take turns placing one of three workers on the board during the course of eight rounds. At first, they'll be looking to gather up the construction material required to house a veritable menagerie of creatures. Victory Points are earned from total animals, by reaching certain population benchmarks as well as from upgrading your buildings and expanding your Farm.

There are four simple steps to a game round:

(1) Refill all of the Action Spaces (as indicated by the red arrows).
(2) Players alternate back-and forth placing three Workers apiece.
(3) All of your Workers come back home.
(4) If you have at least a pair of animals of the same type housed together they knock hooves and make a baby.

Wanna ready the full rules almanac? Then feel free to unclickify the link right hur.

***

Color Selection:

Me...Blue 

Andrew...Red

Andrew went nuts and immediately started partitioning off his entire Farm Board. He then invested in a single pet Cow which he insisted on keeping in the bedroom of his Cottage. Hey, I'm not one to judge someone's lifestyle choices. Next up he procured a small herd of Sheep which he promptly set loose in a fenced-off two-segment Farm space to the north. As these guys started breeding like larger, considerably-more-vocal rabbits he was forced to drop three more Fence segments right next to his Cottage in order to house all of these randy, fluffy bastards. Unfortunately, that pretty much tapped out his initial allotment of Fences.

After pointing out that Buildings came with pre-built Fences, Andrew took heed and constructed a Stall which he eventually upgraded to an Open Stables. He added a couple of Horses to this newly-minted structure and almost immediately they started gettin' it on. This was fine for a few rounds but pretty soon Andrew began to run out of space for his horny equine family.

Just in the nick of time he dropped a Worker on the Expand space and scored a small windfall of additional Fence pieces, two of which he immediately used to corral his overflow Sheep population up north. Coupled with the timely erection (?) of a nearly Stables, Andrew created an enclosed one-segment Farm space to house his latest foal. 

The Stables themselves became the default home for a pair of Pigs, but this was more of an eleventh hour afterthought. His addition of a single Trough was another example of too little too late. In a last ditch effort to wring a few more Victory Points out of the game, Andrew snagged a Storage Building for two Wood and a single Reed. Not only did this give him two Veeps for his four leftover Wood but it also filled out the last space of his Farm Expansion board.

As for me, I became totally obsessed with gaining the three Wood, two Stone and one Reed required to upgrade my Cottage to a Half-Timbered House. Even though gave me five Victory Points it did absolutely nothing to improve my ability to house animals. I then proceeded to ignore my own advice by propping up Fences to the north which I used to accommodate some early-game Sheep.

I also acquired some Piggies before properly thinking things through. In order to reconcile their incessant strumping, I was forced to take a quick Expand Action in order to acquire more Fence pieces. Oblivious to the potential power of the Troughs, I ended up taking this same action two more times, resulting in a conspicuously desolate-looking farm.

But at least I now had the Fences required to let my Piggies *ahem* make bacon. I placed a two-segment Fenced-off pasture to the West on my newly-acquired Expansion board. Just when I thought I'd gotten a handle on things my Sheep dropped their fleece and started going at it. Immediately I kicked myself for enclosing a single Farm space with three Fences since this prompted the hasty demarcation of a similarly-claustrophobic single space to the north. Mercifully I had the foresight to close this in with a Stall which only required the use of one additional Fence segment.

Time was running out and I was starting to panic. I didn't even have any Horses or Cows yet! I placed one Horse in the Stall and then added a freebie on my next turn by hastily hammering a Shelter together with two Wood and one Stone. I finally had a pair of Horses, who immediately started using the Stall as their own personal love nest, knockin' out a coupla kids before the end of the game. Unfortunately it wouldn't be enough to net me any positive Victory Points.

My end game was just a mad scramble to try and accommodate a bleating tsunami of newborn Sheep. I fenced off another one-space pasture, finally filling up one of my three Expansion boards. The freakin' wooly bastards kept a-comin', forcing me to use four Fence segments to block off two measly Farm spaces. The end of the game was almost a merciful relief to me.

FINAL SCORING

Total Animals

Me...20

Andrew...20

Sheep

Me...1

Andrew...0

Piggies

Me...0

Andrew...0

Cows 

Me...-3

Andrew...-3

Horses

Andrew...1

Me...0

FILLED-IN FARM EXPANSIONS

Me...4

Andrew...4

BUILDINGS

Andrew...8

Open Stables (2) Storage Building (2) Stables (4) 

Me...6 

Half-Timbered House (5) and Shelter (1)

FINAL SCORE

Andrew...30

Me...28

***

Some strategy tips to consider after that first game:

1. Cows are rare and Horses even more so. As such you may want to snag one early and then construct an Open Stables or a Shelter. This will pair two of them up early while improving your infrastructure at the same time.
2. Use the first few turns to collect all the resources needed to start accommodating critters A.S.A.P.
3. Troughs are ridiculously valuable. Put one in every one of your farm spaces of you can. Like, super-seriously. 
4. Try to avoid fencing off a single farm space since the max capacity for such a region (even with a Trough) is only four animals. 
5. If you can manage it, fence off larger pastures consisting of multiple Farm spaces and then seed each spot with a Trough. For example a Fenced-off, two Farm space pasture with one Trough per square doubles the capacity (2 x 2 = 4) and then doubles it again (4 x 2 = 8). In other words, if I'd placed Troughs in each space of my two-Farm segment pastures I could have housed sixteen freakin' animals in each enclosure. Gadzooks!    

I'm always on the hunt for a good two-player game and since I'm already a big fan of Agricola, buying this one was a no-brainer for me. Sometimes dismissively referred to as as "Baby Agricola", this one is perfectly engineered for two. Less punishing and easier to teach then its famous fore-bearer, Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small is a fantastic little worker placement game in its own right.

I loved it and so did Andrew. In fact, I think he rushed right out and bought it that same day or a coupla days later!

Next up Kris joined us for a quick hand of Dead Man's Draw.

 

Dead Man's Draw is a pirate-themed card game for two to four scurvy dogs. On their turn, players flip cards from the draw deck, hoping to chain together a variety of high-valued suits. In order to do this effectively, players need to leverage the card's special abilities in order to plunder the most booty.

Just like any other press-your-luck game you can keep flopping cards until you want to stop. However, as soon as you turn up a second card that matches a suit you've already drawn then you wash out and score no points. In the immortal words of Kenny Rog-ARRRRS a major part of the strategy is to "know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em". 

The game's enduring appeal comes from the myriad of different powers inherent in the cards. Successful players will be the ones who can chain these together to great effect.

Here's a breakdown of the different cards and their respective abilities: 

Anchor – Even if you bust you get to keep all the cards played prior to the Anchor.

Cannon – Blow the bejesus out of one of your opponent's saved cards.

Chest – Combined with the Key you can raid the Discard Pile for an equal amount of cards, effectively doubling your haul.

Hook – Play one of your saved cards. This is a great set-up for a cool combo.

Key – See the Chest card above.

Kraken – Forces you to draw two more cards.

Map – Draw the top three cards from the Discard Pile and play any one you like

Mermaid – These are just high valued cards, typically marked 4-9. Yowza!

Oracle – Peek at the top card in the Draw Pile then play it or fold.

Sword – Plunder one of your opponent's saved cards and then play it as your own!

The game ends when the deck runs out of cards. Players add up the top value in each suit stack and the highest score wins!

Lookin' to get the full scuttlebutt on this fine game o' chance? Then click on the followin' link to reveal the full treasure map o' knowledge!  

***

Never one to embody patience, Andrew kept pushing his luck to ridiculous extremes, attempting to collect five or six cards in one turn. Even when he had a string of decent luck he'd often come under fire from Kris and I, losing his top-valued cards at Sword-point or under Cannon-fire.

By game's end he'd managed to represent almost every suit but most of his runs failed to crack the five-point mark. Mercifully a few last-minute Mermaids did salvage his score somewhat.

For some reason this game clicked with me right away. At one point I managed to co-ordinate the all-powerful Key / Chest combo for a healthy little windfall. I also tried to avoid busting by drawing no more then three or four cards.  The only time I'd risk more is if I managed to weigh Anchor, which nicely insulated anything I'd played prior.

I also put Swords to good use, stealing what I needed from both Kris and Andrew while gleefully using Hooks to re-play Oracles for a risk-free peek at my next card. Unfortunately, I ran afoul of some mandatory Kraken draws which resulted in premature bustage. Man, I hate when then happens.

Bringing a practiced eye to the game, Kris used Hooks to play several cards in tandem. Also, unlike Andrew and I, he really exploited the power of the Map, which allowed him to pull pretty much what he needed right from the Discard Pile. As a result, the highly-lucrative Key / Chest lottery he hit not long after felt more like a mike-drop and less like a fluke of luck.

Although he also suffered a Kraken-fueled bust, he typically kept himself insulated with a few strategic Anchor plays. After using a slew of Cannons and Swords to batter both Andrew and I into submission he closed out a solid effort by reeling in some highly-prized Mermaids.

FINAL SCORES

Kris...49

Me...47

Andrew...31

Dead Man's Draw is a buy-on-sight game for me. Whatever retailer gets this on the shelf first is gonna have me shouting this in their faces. 

I loved, loved, loved this game.  From the whimsical art style to the Card Sharks-style game-play, this thing is easy to teach and compulsively playable. But what makes it truly remarkable is that you can use the card's special abilities to make your own luck.

Honestly, there's nothing more satisfying then using a Hook to drop one of your own Swords down to rob a Key from a rival and then use it crack open a Chest to double yer card take!  *Yarrrrr*, 'tis a fine play!

Until the game goes into wide distribution you can pick up a physical copy directly from Mayday Games or try out the fantastic iOS ap right here.   

Lastly we sank quite a bot of time into Café Melange.

 
Here's what Board Game Geek has to say about this obscure Euro-title:

"Café Melange takes players to Vienna in 1910, with prominent individuals such as Trotzky, Klimt and Freud meeting one another in the coffee bar "Central". The players work in the coffee bar and must use logic and deduction in order to place their guests next to these VIPs."

Confession time: sometimes a game's theme is so dry and dull that my attention span acts like a cross-armed neckless bouncer, refusing to unclip the velvet rope and allow the rules ingress to my oblivious brain. Such was the case with Café Melange.

We also borked up a couple of key rules so I'm not going to count this as an official play. That ain't such a bad thing since I came in dead last. What I will say is that the game's deduction mechanics felt rather unique and, as such, I'd actually be willing to try it again under better circumstances. Ideally while hooked up to a Redbull I.V. drip.

Clearly this was a sign that I was tapped out. I picked up a copy of Click Clack Lumberjack from The Board Room's vendor table and took my leave, feeling as if the day had been well-spent. 

***

HAL-CON Game Day is tailor-made for me. Granted the $10.00 entrance fee is a bit steep but I don't mind paying it since I know it's going towards a great local event. Once in, I've got plenty of table space, a vast library of games to test drive and a local retailer I patronize if I end up playing something that I really like. 

Honestly it's as if the organizers actually read my mind (or *GASP* my blogs?!?). No more divided loyalties: I'll spend HAL-CON proper checking out all of the panels and autograph session and get all of the card-floppin' and die-chuckin' outta my system on HAL-CON's dedicated Game Day. It's a win-win!

***

Wanna learn more about Marvel Dice Masters and / or Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small? Then click on the links below to get more info and help support this blog!

Additional photos courtesy of Kat Adams and Shawn Kehoe.