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

Tue Aug 15 15:16:21 EDT 2017

I'm glad everyone could make it. It was the best turnout we've had all
year, I think!

I come from a family of foodies and feeders, it's a genetic compulsion to
make sure everyone eats well.

*William WulfLunaria, Ltd. Consultingpsyque at gmail.com
<psyque at gmail.com>410-428-0070*

On Tue, Aug 15, 2017 at 2:55 PM, Deb Kapke via Gaming <gaming at fspazone.org>
wrote:

> Agreed. Great report! Thank you, Wulf! And thank you for hosting and the
> yummy food!
>
> (Yeah, winning Cthulhu Fluxx was purely by chance. On a side note, I came
> in 666th place at Pinburgh this year. Should I be worried? Well, it was
> worse than my first year, so I'll worry about that.)
>
> Welcome to the list, Steve!
>
> Sara and I can't make this weekend, but other weekends going forward
> should be better for us this year than last.
>
>
> Deb
>
>
>
> On Aug 15, 2017, at 2:27 PM, Stephen Jonke via Gaming <gaming at fspazone.org>
> wrote:
>
> 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 <(410)%20428-0070>*
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