Game(s) Played:
Chronicle
Citadels
The Resistance
Dixit Odyssey
Saboteur
I can’t really believe that the blog is already 7 years old today. Granted that I only made 4 posts in the first year of the blog and took a break for the entirety of 2009, nevertheless it still feels like it took only the time needed to make a bowl of instant noodles and suddenly I'm a salaried, married, father of one. I guess this is one of the drawbacks of chronicling the past, you always feel a little old at the end of it. The blog hitting 10,000 view counts is another cause for celebration! A big thank you to those who follow the blog, as petty as it sounds, not realizing you're an audience of one is a nice feeling. Coincidentally enough, my first post on boardgames was on the 14th of November 2010, tomorrow would then mark an amazing two year journey in the Euro saga of my boardgaming hobby. I grew up playing boardgames and asking for new ones for Christmas (even new editions of ones I already had) but my boardgaming experience was limited to Toys ‘R Us titles like Monopoly, Cluedo, Game Of Life, Scrabble & Pictionary with a smattering of wonder from titles like Titan & Advanced Heroquest which I could only play on occasion with the people I knew who owned them.
We've come a long way since this game
I must say that I caught on to euro boardgaming at an interesting time and have been privileged to witness the "coming of age" of the hobby in my country. Dozens of boardgame cafes have opened up in the last two years alone, gamestores don’t just stock titles that came out two Essens ago anymore and boardgames have adapted to become more friendly to the non-hardcore gamer and still remain a tonnes of fun for everyone. I don’t indulge in my hobby as often as I would like these days and now that I don’t, I realize boardgaming was a very big part of keeping my siblings and I close as well as helping me establish friends outside of the normal circle of schoolmates, officemates & churchmates. The hobby in itself has undergone such tremendous change in recent years, with iOS & Facebook versions of games now being available, having live coverage from Essen, more and more GameCons around the world, kickstarter giving power to the people in terms of overfunding goals, the advent of brilliant deck based boardgames like Dominion & 7 Wonders and online play being available through sites like Board Game Arena.
I’m technically still on a hiatus, but was asked to be a… I suppose you could call the role to be that of a boardgame facilitator at my Young Adults Camp just this weekend: to bring along some games and teach the rules to get some people to socialize together over a boardgame. Here’s how it went:
Session – Chronicle
Player(s):
Jimmy
Justin
Louanna
We thought nobody was coming when it was just us at 4pm, so I taught Jimmy & Louanna how to play Chronicle. We drew the minimum Green Allies History Card and Jimmy was quick to pick up using the card powers to achieve his objectives once he saw how I did it. I think we put poor Louanna in a spot by making her win the first few meetings and she was a bit lost as to how to lead strategically.
We managed to finish one round when Mercy, Jacky & Gideon showed up and Jimmy joined them to start a game of Citadels.
Time Taken: 15 minutes
Results Of Game
Winna – Justin (Zero Green Allies)
Second – Jimmy (One Green Ally)
Dead Last – Louanna (Many Green Allies)
Rating: 8/10
Comments:
I feel that Chronicle works best when you have Players of equal skill just wanting a quick filler but wanting their neutrons to keep going at auto-cruise, sorta like how chinese housewives can play mahjong whilst describing their neighbour latest slight towards them in minute detail.
Session – Citadels
Player(s):
Gideon
Jacky
Jimmy
Mercy
Gideon showed up whilst Mercy was checking out Citadels and thank goodness Gideon has played it a couple of times before, including the one time at my place. He grooved right into the games facilitator role seeing as he is also a proper boardgamer in his own right whilst I wandered off to the next table to try and set up my first try of The Resistance.
Explanation of rules is underway
Already Mercy turns on her assassination eyes
They must have had a good time because I heard lots of laughter from their table, understandably from Mercy's double assassination of Gideon twice in a row. Later, Michael replaced Jimmy who went to arrange for the tele-matches and apparently Michael owned everyone else at the table. Michael could be the closet boardgamer we, nor he, ever knew.
Comments:
I maintain my stand that this is probably one of the best gateway games out there that is received particularly well with newcomers to the scene.
Session – The Resistance
Player(s):
Evelyn
Jaclyn
Joel
Justin
Meng Hong
Meng Yoe
Ray
Zach
I had high expectations for The Resistance but they kinda fell flat to be honest, maybe because for some reason I ended up being a Spy every single round that we played it. We played the first few rounds without the Plot Cards and added them in our last two rounds of play. The score: Resistance 0 - Spies ∞; we won every single game. I understand there is a tendency for the Spies to win but this was ridiculous, even with the Plot Cards, it never felt like the Spies could win. It wasn't even as if the Spies were collaborating despite us not playing the hidden Spies variant.
That's me explaining the rules to everybody
Guess which one of the smiling faces is the real spy?
This spy was quite obvious
I think lying must be in my nature
I think one of the drawbacks of our session this time was that the Leader's role was not checked or influenced often enough. Each round, we'd pick a Leader and they would just assign out the Mission Cards and we'd put the issue to a vote without any chance to influence either the Leader or other Resistance Members' / Spies' votes around the table. Still, I think we had a good enough time that we played it at least 5-6 rounds despite the Spies' winning streak. Hopefully I'll be able to pull this off better the next time.
Session – Dixit Odyssey
Session – Saboteur
I wasn't present during any of these games though I did pass by just to have a quick look. A noteworthy item is the fact that all the Players for both games were female, I think. I'm not sure if this was because of the general demographics of the Camp or that the hobby is seeing a changeover to female dominance? Nevertheless it sounded like everyone had a good time and it was certainly a good way to get to know a few new people and break the ice a little bit. All in all, a little boardgame evangelism was spread today and good fun was certainly had by all.
I must have been wrong, looks like there was a dude at the table. To be fair, that's his girlfriend next to him
Sneaky, I think Ian can see Yi Chieh's cards from this position
I'm still waiting for the pics from the official camerawoman, once I have them I'll update them to this post.
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