GNOIF #6 Recap — GNOIF And Punishment (Crime/Corruption Theme.)
Games That Got Played: Cards Against Humanity, Guillotine, Rocketville
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Family Business, Gloom, Mr. Jack (travel and full-size) Mystery of the Abbey, Pirate’s Cove, The Worst Card Game Ever, Revolution
The hit of the evening was Cards Against Humanity. Visualize Apples to Apples, only make it R-rated, and make the object to be funny rather than to have similar/evocative meanings. In our case it evolved into “how foul can you be?” As one player said “There are some of these words and phrases that I’m not sure that I want to admit that I know what they mean.”
Full disclosure: I HATE Apples to Apples. Quoting a guy from the boardgamegeek forums:
Apples to Apples isn’t really a game. Even by the standards of party games, it’s not really a game. The problem is that WHAT you do has no bearing on HOW you do, and HOW you do doesn’t matter.
I contend that if neither your actions nor the outcome matters, then you don’t have a game.
I think the reason that Cards Against Humanity worked better is because the object was only to be funny. That, and because we’d all had some beverages, and the game itself is so over the top sometimes. Looking at the boardgamegeek page, we also happened to hit the sweet spot on the recommended number of players (6-8).
Perfect crowd, fresh/new material = lol funny… some people were about falling out of their chairs.
GNOIF #5 Recap — GNOIF, Trains, and Automobiles. (Transportation theme.)
Games That Got Played: Star Fluxx, Forbidden Island, Lost Cities, Poo, Rocketville, Ticket To Ride Card Game
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Starship Catan, Robo Rally, Ticket To Ride – Europe
Rocketville was the big surprise hit of the evening — we hadn’t played it before a quick cram session earlier in the day, and the boardgamegeek reviews are Not Good. We had a lot of fun with it though. In brief, it’s a fairly simple card based bid/auction game where you’re trying to campaign to become the mayor of Rocketville. The premise really doesn’t have much to do with anything though… I think thesetwo reviews line up with my take on it pretty well. The reviews are titled “Blame Avalon Hill (defending Rocketville)”, and, “Not Nearly As Bad As They Say”. Rocketville is recommended for 3-5 players. As one of the reviewers states: It’s probably a better game with three players rather than five, which would decrease the impact of luck on the outcome. It’s also a game that you don’t want to pay full price for — $10-$15 is about right; there’s not enough in the box to justify thirty-five bucks. None of that sounds too encouraging, but I’ll say it again, we *did* have a lot of fun with it!
The other surprise hit was a game that was purchased fairly recently — Poo: The Card Game. The premise is that you play as a monkey, and you throw poo at the other monkeys until you’re the only reasonably clean monkey left. There are Poo cards and Clean Cards. And cards like “Buddy’s Face”, which allows you to to interpose your buddy between you and the primate flinging poo at you. It’s a fun game with cute and silly graphics and tiny card text.
I’ve gotta quit scaring people away from Robo Rally if I ever want to play it again…
The boy cat was *very* excited with Rocketville. (He really thinks he fits in that box?)
The tables below show the builds I’m using for Modern Warfare 3, Domination Mode. I did this post when I was new to the game. Now I’m on my 7th Prestige. The new information is really different from the old stuff.
The idea is (still) to skulk around corners and shadows, and to ambush as many unsuspecting players as possible. This isn’t about having “fair fights”. It’s about shooting them when they’re not looking, if possible. The builds feature Blind Eye and Assassin, to be invisible to enemy air support and invisible on the mini map. I always use a Silencer when available for maximum sneakiness. (Plus, when I whiff it takes them longer to figure out where I’m shooting from.)
For assault rifles I would suggest the SCAR at level 6, then the G36C and the ACR at higher levels. The G36C has a little more punch, the ACR has more accuracy.
The MP-7 is the best submachine gun in my opinion, though it’s not available until level 74. Otherwise I would use the P90 or PP90 (grease gun). I generally prefer accuracy, so I use the P90 at lower levels.
Level
Perk 1
Perk 2
Perk 3
4 to 9
Sleight of Hand
Blast Shield
Stalker
10 to 19
Blind Eye
Blast Shield
Stalker
20 to 26
Blind Eye
Hardline
Stalker
27+ first capture
Blind Eye
Hardline
Stalker
27+ remainder
Blind Eye
Assassin
Stalker
I use the Grenadier class until level 4, when the custom builds become available. I settled on Stalker because it allows me to scope and strafe around corners at nearly full speed. The player that is crouched and scoped when the shooting starts has a big advantage.
Level
Strike Perk 1
Strike Perk 2
Strike Perk 3
4 to 19 (Support)
UAV
Counter UAV
(none)
20 to 26 (Specialist)
Quickdraw
Sleight of Hand
Blast Shield
27-38 first capture
Assassin
Quickdraw
Sleight of Hand
27-38 remainder
Quickdraw
Sleight of Hand
Blast Shield
39+ first capture
Assassin
Scavenger
Quickdraw
39+ remainder
Scavenger
Quickdraw
Sleight of Hand
During the first flag capture I use Hardline to get to Assassin, that way the Assassin kicks in after that first capture, and I basically get double the capture xp too. *After* that first capture Assassin is used to stay off of the minimap.
I use Bouncing Betty and Portable Radar for the Lethal and Tactical Slots. If you can tolerate the SCAR, I would take the Radar with the first Prestige, the Betty with the second Prestige, the ACR with the 3rd, then take the bonus custom build slots for the next five Prestiges. Personally though, I would take the ACR first, then Radar, then Betty. I hate getting outgunned.
First off, a fun animated look at Doc Ellis’ “chemically altered” no-hitter. Thanks to M for the link.
Next, we have a guy who gets *very* upset on day one of the Diablo 3 launch. So upset, that he tries to jam his collectors item Soulstone into his head at the end. Almost 700,000 views in 3 days! The language is NSFW.
I’m not buying D3. It has DRM, which for me is a nonstarter. And you have to be connected at all times to Blizzard’s server to play — if you get disconnected, tough nuts, you’re redoing the content. Part of the reason for the “online only” is because they’re doing a real-money auction house and keeping a significant part of the sale price. (Like 30% in some instances from what I’ve heard.) In theory the “online only” will allow them to avoid dupes (which would make all in-game items worthless from a money standpoint, can’t have that). Of course, I’m not one of those people, so to my mind they completely missed the mark. The best part of D2 was hooking a couple (or more) computers together and playing with friends. Not. An. Option. The other “best part” was the random loot drops. Every kill had the potential to be “Christmas”. The auction house (the “gold-you-get-from-drops” one, not the “real money” one) has made it so that players can use in-game gold to buy better gear than they might find as drops, completely negating that aspect of the gameplay. Keeping my money, thanks.
Finally, a bonus animal picture!
Female in the foreground. Male in the background. I like the composition. It also pretty well nailed her "don't mess with me" face. She gets that way sometimes. He's keeping a healthy distance.
GNOIF #4 Recap — GNOIF: You Are My Density (Trying for a “Back To The Future” Theme. Note the Star Fluxx, Rocketville, Omega Virus, and Robo Rally… that was the big idea anyway..)
Games That Got Played: Agricola, Flash Duel, Star Fluxx, Magic The Gathering, The Omega Virus, Ticket to Ride Card Game, Ticket to Ride Europe.
The white boxes are Dominion and Magic The Gathering.
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Caesar and Cleopatra, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Lost Cities, Mr. Jack (pocket), Robo Rally, Rocketville.
We’re now getting to the point that people who learn games at one GNOIF can teach them to people at a future GNOIF, and as more people get more comfortable with more games it makes the games themselves go faster too. Ticket To Ride Europe required no introduction and wrapped up pretty quickly; even something as complicated as Agricola didn’t need host involvement to get going. Good progress!
Early in the evening I played a few games of Magic The Gathering. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy M:TG — I haven’t played it in ages, but we trotted out some of my decks from 1999 and had a good time. I could have played more.
Guests brought The Omega Virus, a “talking” electronic game from 1992. It’s a timed game, so it’s fast paced and kind of hectic, and we all had a good time. Ultimately JC was able to pull out a win at the last minute. (Which was much better than the “computer” winning…I’ve never been called “Human Scum” before, but now I think I’ve been insulted that way about fifty times.)
An action shot of The Omega Virus.
I’d be interested to hear what everyone thought of what they played. Thanks for playing all!
Recommended Game: Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 3.
Specifically, the Team Deathmatch mode, since most shooter campaign modes bore me. (Except for Borderlands’, which needs it’s own writeup.)
An impossibly busy staged "scene" -- if it wasn't staged then in about two seconds there'd be one guy left.
Why I like It: Multiplayer Team Deathmatch pits two teams against each other in a race to get to 75 kills of the opposition.
The thing is, the game’s leveling system encourages running around like crazy, shooting everything in site and getting shot frequently in return… but if I did that I’d lose every encounter to some tween jacked up on Red Bull and pixie sticks (with a liberal assortment of other recreational stuff tossed in.)
As a fossil, there’s really one way to compete with a Twitchmaster 2000 — skulk around corners and wait for them to run into your sights. Then blast them with a silenced weapon. Skulking has the added advantage of allowing for more precise aiming; weapons inherently become more accurate when you’re not moving much.
The reason this strategy works is because whenever anybody fires a non-silenced weapon they show as a red dot on the minimap, so they can often be seen coming and prepared for. That, and opponents are often so impatiently charging around that they don’t bother to check corners — they’re just rushing to the next highlighted enemy on their map, so they’ll just cruise right on by if you’re reasonably concealed and quiet.
The silencer is essential to the strategy for two reasons:
1. It hides your location on the map, so the opponents don’t see a red dot and sprint to your spot. (It’s one thing to show up on the minimap when you don’t plan to be there ten seconds from now, but since skulking involves moving a lot more slowly, so it’s essential to keep a low profile.)
2. It often allows for multiple shots at an enemy before they figure out where the shots are coming from. That’s a good thing too, since it’s hard to hit a sprinting target sometimes.
Note that this is not considered an “honorable” way to play. Etiquette says that you’re supposed to run around like everyone else and not be a buzzkill crouching in the shadows. The slow, stealthy approach irritates the hell out of the Twitchmasters. (I know, because I hear them bitching when they’re not muted.)
…and it’s part of the reason I enjoy the game.
———
The essential parts of the build:
Type 95 Assault Rifle – Red Dot Scope and Suppressor. (Use “Attachments” to allow for both.)
Perks – Blind Eye, Assassin, Steady Aim.
This build is invisible on the minimap. The Type 95 is a high accuracy burst fire weapon — it forces me to not “spray and pray”. The burst fire encourages me to be more accurate, and I’m able to stretch the ammo a little further, which is important since I’m not dying much. The 95 also hits hard — it’s a two-bullet kill at close range, so I can deal better with goofballs with (short range, high damage) submachine guns. The Steady Aim helps in close quarters, and in situations where one or both parties are surprised and not scoped — I hate losing shootouts just because I walked around the corner at the same time as somebody else who is using a better short-range weapon; Steady Aim and the Type 95 help to even that playing field. All around, it’s a build with few weaknesses, and it has the benefit of stealth. Hard to beat.
[Edit after I’d written the rest of this post: The Catan Card Game was discontinued in 2010 and replaced by The Rivals For Catan. From everything I’ve read the new game is easier to learn and is most likely the better game. The new game is also faster, clocking in at 45-60 minutes rather than 90 minutes.]
The version of the game that you can actually find in the store.
Title: Catan – Card Game
Game Type: Resource allocation – Euro “building” game.
Number of Players: 2
Complexity of Rules: Medium
Time to Play: 90 minutes
The Concept: Each turn the players roll a die and collect a random resource such as brick, ore, gold, or wood. Another die is rolled which represents a random “event”, such as a Brigand Attack or Year of Plenty.
The resources are used to purchase structures including new roads, villages, and cities — as well as expansions and improvements like trading fleets, sawmills, churches, garrisons, and knights. Some of the structures and expansions contribute one or two Victory Points to help the player win the game. Other purchases help by making the principality more productive, or by protecting it from attacks.
The first player to twelve Victory Points wins.
Why I Like It: The Card Game allows a lot more control over my destiny than the Board Game. The Card Game allows me to make moves and play cards that have a *much* larger impact upon my opponent.
I think the Catan Card Game is “tighter” than the original board game. The game moves at a faster pace — there seems to be less futzing around, at least in part because there’s very little trading in the Card Game, and trading is basically what the Board Game is all about. (And of course, by the time you get five people yapping at each other, rather than two.. the Board Game features a lot more downtime between turns.)
The Catan Card Game offers a lot of different ways to try to win, but there isn’t necessarily a “right” answer. The random Event each turn can compromise any “optimized” strategy; it ultimately leads to every game taking a different path to the finish.
Boardgamegeek page for The Rivals for Catan here. The discontinued Catan Card Game page is here.
Hello to everyone who got here through the Gary’s Games And Hobbies Facebook page!
Obviously, our principal focus here isn’t just games — it’s sports, food, and beer too.. it’s all the Good Stuff. You like all those things, right? (At least the games, food, and beer part anyway.)
A couple of minor site changes: I’ve added a Recent Comments section to the right hand column, and I’ve added a new page describing our GNOIF — Game Night Of Indeterminate Frequency. (See the tab at the top for how we host our game night. It seems to work pretty well.)
Anyway, poke around, and we’d love to hear from you.
And speaking of beer – I believe we may be going to Chuck’s this weekend. Iron Chef Leftovers is a regular customer there and says it’s a great place.. I haven’t been yet, somehow.
The Concept: The Island Is Sinking! The players must work cooperatively to gather four treasures and escape the island before it completely sinks into the abyss! The island is composed of 24 tiles; as the game starts the tiles slowly begin to sink into the ocean. As the game progresses the tiles sink faster and faster. Each turn a player has the opportunity to move around the island, shore up sinking island tiles, and/or transfer a treasure card to other players. Treasures can be claimed when a player has four of the same treasure card and is standing on a tile that is named for that treasure. And each turn, the island sinks a little more…
The gray-blue tiles are "submerged". The missing tiles have sunk!
Why I Like It: It’s cooperative, which is a nice change of pace. It’s fairly easy to teach and learn. The game is well executed and features a very visceral concept. Each player has a unique ability, and each game the abilities are randomly assigned, so every game is different. Everyone needs to play with a good sense of urgency to avoid going down with the island. Players actually cheer when they win — Forbidden Island seems to make people more “excited” than about any other game we play, from the beginning all the way through to the end.
GNOIF #3 recap: GNOIF Just Wants To Have Fun (Ladies choice of games)
Games That Got Played: Dominion; Gloom; Forbidden Island; Agricola; Ticket To Ride – Europe
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Mr. Jacket (Pocket); Ticket To Ride (Card Game); Starship Catan; Monty Python Fluxx
The big hit of the night was Forbidden Island, though both Agricola and Ticket To Ride (Europe) got a lot of post-mortem conversation.
We won the Forbidden Island game that I played in. The concept of the game is that the island is sinking, and that you and the other players team up to try to gather four treasures from the island before it completely submerges beneath the sea. The island is represented by 24 tiles, and in the game that I played we had two tiles that were still above water when we escaped the island.
The other group lost their game when a key tile sank early on, splitting the group in two. Eventually a critical treasure tile sank, ending the game. Had that tile not sank they would have won on the next turn!
FlatbreadGarden 