Saturday Night Settlers of America

 

I visited Sean today to play board games, emerging victorious at Railways of the World and Puerto Rico but losing very badly to Jeremiah Pitts at Settlers of Catan spinoff Settlers of America. Despite being confined to a static map of the lower 48 U.S. states, I think I enjoy Settlers of America more than the basic version of Catan, though not as much as that game's Seafarers expansion. Whereas the original Settlers encourages players to rack up points via building cities and roads, the object in Settlers of America is to deliver all of your goods to competitors' cities, a dynamic that requires a lot of planning and investment. "Go West, young man," is essential advice for winning this game - advice I could have used instead of building cities on the Gulf and east coasts. 

Of the three new games we tried today, though, I think Puerto Rico is my favourite. Sean's anniversary edition includes high-quality playing pieces (such as "doubloons" made of real metal coins) and gorgeous artwork on heavy card stock. The game's rules are elegant and easy to learn, requiring players to choose a role (settler, captain, mayor, prospector, etc.) each turn to develop his or her island and promote economic growth for the colony as a whole. More often than not, your choice of role will benefit your competitors as much or more than yourself, but if you're clever you can choose the right role at the perfect moment for yourself and the worst possible time for the other players. This is a gorgeously rendered, very rewarding game.

Sheep Trading

I taunted Jeff and Susan with promises of lamb, but I was only kidding; I pulled the wool over their eyes and handed it over to Sylvia. I had to keep my negotiating skills sheep-shape!

The Longest Road

For a time during last night's epic battle of Catan, Sean had the longest road, worth two victory points. Unfortunately his glut of rocks and my surplus of bricks and wood meant his possession of the coveted card was short-lived. Jeff and Susan captured the moment of Earlian triumph and Seanian rage.

Guests of Catan

Jeff and Susan are in town, so Sean came over tonight so we could all enjoy a round of Settlers of Catan. After some initial confusion setting up the board for five players, Jeff and Susan fought for first place while Sylvia and I battled it out for second. Sean, his skills a little rusty from disuse, placed last with an embarrassing two points. However, he emerged as the clear champion of building sculptures from the game pieces, creating an impressive Trojan horse and Lincoln Memorial.

Colonizers of Catan

Board Game Geek has announced that there will soon be a special Star Trek edition of Settlers of Catan. It'll be released in the spring, and I can guarantee that I'll be making a trip north to St. Albert's Mission Games to obtain a copy. Sure, it's the same game but with little Star Trek ships and space stations instead of wooden roads and houses, but I can pretend that I'm a hardy Federation colonizer of Sherman's Planet, growing quadrotriticale for the hungry masses.

The Promise of a Better Tomorrow

Sylvia and I rang in the new year by wearing these silly hats and playing two games of Settlers of Catan (Cities & Knights expansion). Both games were very close, and we won one each. Sylvia sure is competitive...

Things I'd like to do this year:

1) Finish "Journey to the Edge of Nowhere."
2) Visit friends in Vancouver and Victoria.
3) Write and sell something with my name on it.
4) Buy a recliner and/or sectional.
5) Relax on said furniture and read the Harry Potter books. (No spoilers, please!)
6) Watch the new Star Trek film in IMAX on opening night.
7) Host some board game/wine and cheese/bad movie nights at our place.
8) Work out. Seriously. It's getting ridiculous.
9) Build my bookshelves.
10) Post at least 100 times to this blog - hopefully with content worth reading rather than the usual filler.
11) Take a photography course.
12) Take a graphic design course.

I'll post when I accomplish each of these mighty quests! Not a bad project for 2009.

Settlering Sylvia's Hash

A couple of days ago I picked up The Settlers of Catan and its two expansion sets (Seafarers of Catan and Cities and Knights of Catan). Jeff and Susan introduced us to the game when they came out for Michael Snyder's wedding last year, and since playing again with the geek crew a couple of months ago, I've been jonesing for my own set.

So Syvia and I played a couple of rounds two days ago; I won each game, but by just one point each time: 10-9, 10-9. Building the longest road was key to victory each time, though in the second game I caught a lucky development card, building the market for 1 victory point.

Sylvia's very good at putting together cities, though. I'm a little nervous...

Worst Zombie Fighters Ever

On Saturday night, Pete, Colin, Mike, Jeff and I gathered for a relaxing night of board games. We started off with Settlers of Catan - great game - but the real story of the night was what must have been the most inept game of Zombies!!! ever played.

For those unfamiliar with Zombies!!!, the game attempts to recreate the plot and atmosphere of a typical zombie film. A group of desperate survivors stands in the middle of a city overrun with shambling, flesh-eating zombies; they must find a way to escape the city before they're devoured by the mindless but deadly creatures.

The players start off in the town square; each turn, a new section of the city is revealed, either a street or building of some sort. The last section of the city to be revealed is the helicopter pad. The first player to reach the helicopter escapes; the rest are left behind to their fate.

As it happened, I took the first turn. I dashed into the street to fight my first zombie. The odds of winning hand-to-hand combat with one of the game's zombies really aren't that bad; you roll a 6-sided die to determine your fate. If you roll 4-6, you win and add the zombie to your collection; 1-3, and you lose one of three bullets or one of three hearts. Once you enter combat with a zombie, you must continue until one of you is vanquished; if you lose your last heart, you die.

I promptly rolled between 1-3 six times in a row. Thus, I died right before the horrified eyes of my fellow protagonists only seconds into the game. In zombie movie terms, I had become the disposable character used in the opening moments to show just how dire the zombie threat is.

There was much laughter as I placed my token back in the starting square, symbolically introducing a new character to the game/film.

But I wasn't the only one short on luck that night. Defying all probability, each of us stumbled our way through the game, consistently rolling ones, twos and threes, with the occasional four or five mixed in. We hobbled from square to square, zombies feasting on our flesh at will. I died at least five times; most of us died three times. Mike held out the longest, but eventually he too would face the horror and humiliation of being forced back to the town square. It got to the point that I was crying with laughter, and my voice took on that high-pitched squeal of complete loss of self-control.

In the end, Jeff's third or fourth avatar managed to fight his way into the chopper and leave the rest of us sad sacks behind to a well-deserved fate. Were the story of that particular game indeed transformed into a film, it would have been as if the Keystone Kops or perhaps Pauly Shore and Carrot Top were fighting off the zombie hordes. Action heroes, we were not.