[Gaming] 2017-08-12 FSPA Gaming Group meet-up notes and results

Tue Aug 15 14:27:34 EDT 2017

This report puts the rest of us to shame. Very nice.

Steve

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 1:50 PM William F. Wulf II via Gaming <
gaming at fspazone.org> wrote:

> Contents:
>
> Location
> Attendees
> Announcements
> Next Meeting
> Games played
> Game analysis
>
>
> Location:
> "Talisman Annex" William Wulf's townhouse in Columbia
>
> Attendees:
> Andy W. Rich A., Max B., Steve and Emmett J., Deb and Sara K.
>
> Announcements:
> We're really trying to meet more often than we have, so anyone who is
> interested in hosting should speak up!
> *     EDIT: New Member Steve Peck is offering to host in MD on August
> 19th.*
> New Member Mike Wycoff has created a Slack
> <https://fspazone.slack.com/apps> group for the FSPA to chat. Wulf has
> created an FSPAGaming channel for gaming discussions. If you haven't seen
> the invite or need one, please let the list know.
>
> Next meeting:
> To be determined.
> *     EDIT: New Member Steve Peck is offering to host in MD on August
> 19th.*
>
> Games Played:
> The first game played was Attack the Buffet, which everybody won by
> consuming mass quantities of grilled Italian Sausage, homemade Pulled Pork,
> Grandma Wulf's German Potato Salad, popcorn, and fudge brownies. Good Job
> everyone!
>
> The second game played was 7 Wonders
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/68448/7-wonders>, which balanced
> well for the 6 players at the table at the time. I placed first with 57
> points, followed by Steve with 49 points, Max with 47 points, Rich with 37
> points, and then Andy and Emmett tied for last with 35 points.
>
> After that we played Munchkin
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1927/munchkin> with only the
> original set. It came down the wire with everyone at level 9, but Max
> pulled off a victory by first stealing a level from Steve, the only other
> cleric at the table, then used tthe card Divine intervention.
> Deb and Sara arrived at the end of Munckin, so we needed games that could
> handle 8 players.
>
> We chose one of Steve's games, 6-Nimmt!
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/432/6-nimmt>, which is played in
> rounds until one person loses.
> Deb managed to rack up the necessary 66 cow heads in only two rounds to
> end the game! Therefore, Emmet came in first with only 5 heads, followed by
> Steve with 15 heads, Rick with 17 heads, myself with 21 heads, Sara with 22
> heads, Max with 32 heads, Andy with 60 heads, and Deb actually managed 73
> heads!
>
> We followed that up with a rousing game of Cthulhu Fluxx
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/122159/cthulhu-fluxx>. Due to the
> meta-rule, *Cult Clash*, that allots victory in the case an Un-goal is
> met to the player with the most doom Counters, when the un-goal *The
> Dunwich Horror* was completed (6 doom counters and Yog-Sothoth), Deb won.
>
> Steve and Emmett had to leave after that, so with only 6 players and less
> than an hour left in the night, we decided to finish up with King of Tokyo
> <https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70323/king-tokyo>. Andy won on
> Victory Points (20), after I, Sara, and Max were knocked out of the game,
> in that order.
>
> Congratulations everyone, there were no dominators that ran away with the
> victory count this time!
>
> Game Analysis:
>
> 7 Wonders continues to be a crowd favorite, since there are no turns and
> everyone plays at once. It paces well at 6 players, even with one player
> being completely new and several others having to refamiliarize themselves
> with the rules--or to consult the voluminous icon legend.
> I won by buying only resource-production early on in the first age, and a
> little military might. In the second age, I was able to buy my Wonder up
> all the way, sacrificing science cards, without relying on buying much in
> the way of resources from my neighbors, while earning from them because of
> the spread of resources I could produce. This prevented Rich from taking
> advantage of his Wonder's extra Science card and running away with a
> Science-related victory. In the Third age, I sealed my military dominance,
> then took advantage of some rather fortuitous guilds. Military victories
> totaled 17 points, and I got 17 points from the two guilds. Beyond that, a
> fully built Wonder was worth 10 points, and I also had two monument (blue)
> cards for 9 points, and enough gold to net me a four points. I had no
> points from science (green) or commerce (yellow)
> Steve played a more balanced strategy, gaining points in all categories,
> though he went light on science with only 1 point. Max loaded up on
> monuments (blue) for 21 points, and had a smattering of points in other
> categories, but not much science and he didn't complete his Wonder. Rich
> loaded up on sciences because his Wonder granted him a freebie, and
> completed his Wonder, but wasn't able to get any guilds or run away with
> the science score, and suffered 3 negative points from military losses
> (red). Emmett tried for a military strategy but wasn't able to bolster it
> with many points other than his completed Wonder. Andy lost a lot in
> military losses, and had no sciences, so his wonder and monuments weren't
> able to carry him very far.
> Strong Sciences still seem to be the dominant strategy in this game,
> though guilds always have the chance of turning things around. I am not
> confident that my strategy would have held out had I not cut out sciences
> from Rich's choices before passing on the cards. More Sciences would have
> helped Steve, who sat just beyond Rich, as well.
>
> Munchkin:
> There isn't much in the way of strategy to be applied in large games of
> Munchkin. Instead, it's a combination of luck, and the ability to con the
> other players. Max won with a clever combination of cards, but he won
> because everyone else had spent their instant effects to prevent previous
> players from winning, often at his prompting.
> Basically, the best strategy I can recommend in Munchkin, is to not be the
> most hated person at the table at any given time--but don't let yourself be
> a pushover either.
>
> 6-Nimmt!:
> With fewer players, 6-Nimmt is best played by counting cards and weight
> risks vs. rewards. However, in an 8-person free-for-all, it is very very
> difficult to strategize or count cards. The best one can do is try to play
> a card that is only one digit higher than one on the table, and to
> constantly try to take piles that are not full by playing lower value
> cards. Even these relatively safe methods of play can be spoiled by the
> sheer randomness of that many players.
>
> Cthulhu Fluxx:
> Unlike other variants of Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx is designed to mimic the
> Lovcraftian stories from which it is derived, by driving the players mad
> and preventing anyone from winning. Without the Cult Clash meta-rule, this
> means that many games end with no victory. However, it is like all the
> other Fluxx variants in that every game is unique.
> In this case, no strategy could have changed how Deb won, which was to
> receive all creepers from the card, *The Crawling Chaos*, which shuffles
> all Keepers and Creepers together and distributes them randomly to all
> players.
>
> King of Tokyo:
> The Six-player variant has room for two monsters in Tokyo, which means
> there is a lot more damage being dealt all around.
> I was knocked out of the game early and quickly, because I failed to curb
> my enthusiasm in attacking. Staying in Tokyo after taking damage in the
> early phase of the game really cost me, and I got so little in the way of
> victory points in return I regretted it a lot. I think that if I had
> concentrated solely on getting energy early on and forwent attack value, I
> might have lasted longer, or been able to buy some Enhancements that could
> have mitigated the early flood of damage.
>
>
>
>
>
> *William WulfLunaria, Ltd. Consultingpsyque at gmail.com
> <psyque at gmail.com>410-428-0070*
> _______________________________________________
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>
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