3/7/06
We were five this evening: Charlie, Kris, James, Ted, Tony
Grand Slam Baseball
Charlie arrived a little early and we looked for a quick filler. This one fit the bill. We played only 4 innings when Kris arrived, so we wrapped up as James was coming in. Ted had the hot bat for the evening at 4 to 2 after two innings.
Ratings: Charlie 6.5, Ted 6.5
This is a cute 15 minute filler that is well worth the $7 retail. It is a kind of chicken/press your luck set collecting game. You have a mechanic that you place a token and it is moved as other people add. At the end of the round, you collect cards based on your final location and are trying to make the best movies (ie biggest with best stars). You should check this out in the 15 minute filler category. James proved to be the most adept movie mogul.
Ratings: Kris 6, Charlie 7, James 7, Ted 7
Fury of Dracula
With Tony’s arrival, Kris wanted to try his new version of
the old GW title. We had recently played
my older version at Halloween last year, but all of us were more than willing
to see the changes and the new presentation. Kris took on the role of the count as the
fearless vampire hunters scoured the country side gathering goodies to take him out once we found him. This one is really scotland yard with a combat
element added and some great flavor. Needless
to say, since I am writing this, we found the count in
The question was, is there enough there to warrant acquisition of the new version? I think the answer is no. First my rating was the lowest of the set. It is a fun ride game for once a year. There are some interesting changes and I kind of like the day/night idea and the timer in the new game. But, I did not feel it was really that different to warrant the money since I have a workable version of the game and have already printed out my Mina Harker expansion that was on the net several years ago so that I can play 5.
Ratings: Tony 7.5, Charlie 7.5, James 7, Kris 8, Ted 6.5
Taj Mahal
Off to
Ratings: Charlie 8, Kris 6, Tony 7, James 9, Ted 7
Children of Fire
The children of fire went down in flames! This game was way too long and did not seem to flow very well. On initial play it also appeared that the powers were not balanced well. We all had the impression we were just not playing the game right. Now the rules are not the greatest, but I think we go the game exactly right in the way we played it. I am not sure our strategies were what was intended. People amassed stones and there was not a lot of back and forth on the character movement. I think I really must play it again and see what happens next time to see if it hits the trade pile. But, it is looking that way.
Ratings: James *, Charlie 4*, Tony 5, Kris 3, Ted *