3/11/06

Twilight Struggle and mystery night.

Twilight Struggle

I had been dying to try this new GMT game by gaming buddies Jason Mathews and Ananda Gupta. Kris invited Charlie and me over on Saturday to give it a go. We played twice in a row.

The first game, I, as the Russians took on Kris and Charlie as the USA. By turn three I was at 16 points and ready for the win. Fate was cruel as I played the Olympics headline at Defcon 3. Unfortunately for me, USA played a headline that went first and lowered the Defcon to 2 before my Olympics. Thus, when my card came up, the USA boycotted the Olympics (those pigs) pushing us into all out nuclear war and causing me the loss. Isn’t it just like the US to mess things up when they don’t get their way?

The second game...since the first ended after three turns...Charlie took over USSR and Kris and I decided to hammer him. USA jumped to an early lead in victory points and never really lost the lead. In turn eight, we managed to play a victory card for the win.

Anyway, this is a very nice two player game. It is a tad long, but filled with neat themes and ideas. And, once you get the hang of it, it seems to play very smoothly. Great job to Jason and Ananda.

Charlie’s comments:

Ted, Kris (from our group) and I played Twilight Struggle Saturday. We
had a great time and enjoyed it a lot. The cards do bring back the
history of the cold war. In the first game, it was Ted (Russian)
against Kris and I. Basically, we decided to let Kris make the
decisions the first 2 turns and I would do the next 2, since I had not
read the rules. Kris is a good gamer but he misplayed a couple of
cards and Ted was killing us!!!! He had 19 VP after 2 turns. You need
20 to win. Yes, he needed one point. My first event was higher than
Ted's so I played it first. I forget what it was but the event dropped
the DEFCON to 1. Ted's event was Olympics. We declined to participate
which automatically drops DEFCON one more space. That space was
NUCLEAR WAR. Since Ted played the card that caused the destruction of
earth, he lost the game.  Pretty funny.
The next game I played Russia against the two of them. I did not get
off to a very strong start. They got one or two VP each turn and it
stayed that way for a while. I think I got them back to 2 VP as the
mid war started but they pushed out to 10 or so. I managed to get a
few points back through the space race but I think they won with 4 VP.
The late war was tough for the Russians. Almost every card I had
helped the Americans.

Anyway, I liked the flow of the game. There is a history lesson in
there but you can play the game with no knowledge of history. (It
would be very sad, but you could do it.) I liked the cards and
decisions about playing an opponents event just to get the operation
points. Preparing for the regions to score seemed to dominate Ted's
thinking. He (and Kris) won, so maybe I should have studied that part
of the game more. I give it a strong thumbs up. Rating 8


--
Charlie Davis

Roma

Waiting for dinner, Charlie and I broke out this two player game of Roman domination. The more I have played this one, the more I like it. Yes, it is light, subject to some score swings and has dice, but it is still pretty fun. You cannot and should not attempt to play this game without the cheat sheets. It makes all the difference to keep this game moving quickly as it should be a very fast game. Charlie took the victory by one point.

Inkognito

Back to my house for the evening, we got into mystery night. Turns out, Charlie and I were partners and pretty much smacked down on Emily and Doug. They were both pretty surprised to find out the game was over.

Murder in the Abbey

Next up was more mystery and we searched for a murderer in the abbey. Charlie managed to be the best sleuth this time.

Zendo

I still think this game is very well done. Nice deduction game that plays very quickly.

Zug Nach Western

Charlie and I decided to finish off the night with a quick two player train game. I like tile games and train games...this one is just not quite as good as I want it to be. Still needs another play.