Short time lapse from the January Game Day, but February's a kind of hectic schedule for us. Good time, with more than enough for two games running in parallel, plus massive quantities of goodies put together / brought by Margie and her folks (and De, and Randy).
I'm stuffed.
OLD FAVORITES PLAYED:
– Tsuro of the Seas – Still not sure I like it better than the original.
– Betrayal at House on the Hill – Our current "at least once a Game Day" standard.
– Exploding Kittens – Our current pick-up "what do we play while they're playing that" game.
– Sushi Go – I've not managed to play this one yet.
– Settlers of Catan – First time this one's been out in a while.
– Guillotine – Always good for a quick play.
NEW GAMES PLAYED:
– Elder Sign — This one was new to me; Scott and Jackie brought it out last Game Day, I believe, but I was in the middle of something else.
This game took a massive amount of pre-explanation before we could start playing, but once we did it went along pretty smoothly. The window dressing on the system (investigating items / locations in the museum to avert the impending arrival of an Old One of some sort) was richly done, but ultimately the mechanic beneath it was a heck of a lot of dice rolling trying to match patterns in a way that was pretty but not meaningful. I'll likely play again if it comes up, but it won't be the first game I ask for.
– We Didn't Playtest This At All — It's sort of like Fluxx, only with less structure. Yes, less structure. Any given card could arbitrarily cause folk to win, or lose, which can be hugely entertaining or really frustrating depending on the crowd and amount of beer flowing.
– Colt Express — This is a western hold-up game, most eye catching for its cardboard-assembled train for the various bandits to make their way through. Putting together all the pieces took quite some time, but gameplay (once we read through the rules) was pretty understandable and reasonably enjoyable — "programming" a set of actions for your bandit to move around the train, punching folk, shooting folk, and robbing folk (with limited visibility of what the others players are planning to do), and then dealing with problems as the programming goes awry.
I'm pretty certain I saw descriptions somewhere of the game as "cooperative" with a "competitive" ultimate conclusion, but, no, it's all straight competition, with shooting, punching, and trying to foil the plans of others. That part remains fun, though, and foul-ups are frequent enough that when a plan does work out it's actually pretty exciting.
The main problem I had was the excessive time for setup to punch out and assemble a locomotive and six car train, plus some cactus and rocks. That';s a one-off issue, and all of it was very pretty and doubtless draws the eye at conventions, but much was simply ambiance / eye candy rather than assisting in play, and to be honest maneuvering the character tokens into and above the train cars, and dealing with purses and gems in the trains, was something of a hassle. A more schematic game board would have been just as pretty and a lot easier to use.
All told, though, a fun game — not my go-to, but one that holds pretty well (even for first time players) at the advertised 40 minutes, and I'm sure we'll be playing again.
IN SUM:
A great Game Day, with people old and new. I look forward to the next outing, theoretically in March (better start planning that).
[Pictures attached are from the Intertubes, not from our game sessions.]
Elder Sign is my least favorite of Fantasy Flight's Lovecraftian games. Eldritch Horror is much preferable, as the mechanics suit the theme a lot better. It's less finicky than Arkham Horror, and I like the globe-spanning scope of the game (AH is confined to one city, and ES to one building).
I'd like to try Colt Express. I prefer theme-heavy games, and that one looks to be dripping with theme. Plus I've heard only good things about it on the various podcasts.
I still haven't tried Betrayal. I've been on the fence about that one. How do you think it would play with three people?
+Scott Randel Colt Express is dripping with theme to the point of being distracting, but there's a good game at the core.
Betrayal plays better with larger numbers, I think. Since one player eventually becomes the Traitor, that becomes a hard road for the Heroes to travel to defeat them, though the game does try to scale.
Eldritch Horror looks good — but I'm reluctant to pick up 2-4 hour games, given how our Game Day gatherings go.