Performance Reviews - Nov 26

Tonight was a pretty rad game night. Even with me showing up nearly an hour late, we had a pretty good turnout. Chris, Jeff, John had The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac set up and ready to go as Jeremy and myself walked in the door.

The Adventurers: The Temple of Chac is an amazing little game that works very well in small doses. The lava room can be "gamed" if played to often, so infrequent doses of the Adventurers keep this game a hit in our group. Sadly, there were no spectacular deaths like the last time we played, ten months ago:

@sippisteve wrote:

Not my night at all. The Walls got me this time. Then the boulder sealed me and @Sagrilarus in. #Adventurers hates me. pic.twitter.com/O1LVGaFb

@sippisteve wrote:

Poor me. @Sagrilarus and @01999operator looking on as the boulder smashes me into jelly. @alderac #Adventurers pic.twitter.com/canMe8UG

Chris did manage to die a hot fiery death, so that's something.

Speaking of Chris and hot fiery death, we finished off the night with FIVE games of Ogre. I am so glad I backed the Designer's Edition of Ogre on Kickstarter. It's a game I vaguely remember from my early days of gaming, and we've been having a blast with it since I got it two weeks ago. We've only messed around with the very basic Mark III scenario. The Mark III has won every game so far, which I'm not really too surprised about. We haven't had much chance to dive into any of the other scenarios yet, but that's coming.

Chris, being the glutton for punishment that he is, "allowed" me to steamroll him three times tonight.

We've also instituted the house rule that every Ogre must be named.

Anyhow, on to the Performance Reviews!

First game up was Hive. Chris and Jeff played the first game, while Jeremy and I watched and refreshed ourselves of the rules. Jeff and Chris are old Backgammon buddies, so the know how to get in each others heads while playing abstracts. Chris ended up winning their round.
Jeremy and I then played two games, which we split at a win apiece. Having actually purchased Hive back in 2008, this was actually the very first time I have ever played it. I loved it. Hive is such a great little abstract, that scratches that thinky itch without taking forever like Chess or other abstracts. I'd definitely play this one regularly.
Verdict: Hive gets to keep its place on the shelf.

After a few games of Hive, Chris and Kyle broke off and played Pizza Box Baseball. I received this copy from Erik Smith himself at Origins in 2009. I played a handful of games there, and at home. I was able to introduce it to some people at our board game night we used to do at the local game store, and I know they still play it rather regularly still.
It took Chris and Kyle a few innings to get into the game, but by the 5th or 6th inning we could hear them cheering over their various victories and defeats... They seemed to enjoy it.
Verdict: Pizza Box Baseball also gets to keep its place on the shelf. John requested it show up at our next session so him and I could give it a go.

John, Jeff, Jeremy, and I were left with Infinite City. In Jeff's words "It's a good game, but not a great one." I think I feel "meh" about it because I demo'ed the mess out of it for AEG for a couple years at GenCon and might have burned out on it a bit. It actually wasn't bad at all. I seemed to remember it being a bit more cutthroat in the past, but everyone managed to have one massive district in the end. It could have the tile draw. I feel like there is definitely a game here, but I'm still a bit lukewarm on it.
Verdict: Infinite City will need further review. We will have to revisit it in the future.

So, thus ended the first night of our little project. John assures me that he finished up his list, so our stack of 3 x 5 cards will grow again. John has a lot of war games and other games that are different from our normal fare, which I never mind playing. However, they rarely saw table time due to other folks' taste. I'm hoping our project gets them the table time they deserve.

Chris, Kyle and I drew games after Jeff, Jeremy and John left, but I think they will be happy with next sessions selections.

Next time: Cartagena, PitchCar, and Imperial 2030

 Cross-posted on BoardGameGeek.com @ the Board Room on 27 Nov, 2013

Performance Reviews - the General Idea

Welcome to the Board Room, my new blog where we discuss various gaming topics (board games, card games, and role playing games; pretty much any game that can be played on a table top). The focus for the Board Room, in addition to general discussion about games, will be our "Performance Reviews."


Performance Reviews will look something like this: At the end of each game night, we will randomly draw one or more games from the stack of 3 x 5 note cards. We have all agreed that the games drawn will be played during the next gaming session. After the games are played we will conduct discussions, ultimately deciding if the game says in our collections or goes.

At this time, we have cataloged Chris' and my (Stephen's) collections onto 3 x 5 note cards. We are currently sitting at a little over 220 games between the two of us. I hope to add Jeff's and John's collections in the coming weeks.

The idea is to bring out those games that haven't hit the table in a while, that would otherwise linger in board game collection limbo. Hopefully, the couple plays that these Performance Reviews facilitate will help us get rid of games we no longer should keep, and find those hidden gems that we forgot were collecting dust on our bookshelves.

Next weeks games up for Performance Reviews: Hive, Infinite City, & Pizza Box Baseball

Cross-posted on BoardGameGeek.com @ the Board Room on 20 Nov, 2013