June 23rd - 25th, 2006 - Game Weekend at Home

FRIDAY: What better way to start off a weekend of gaming then with a new game, War of the Ring.  Kathy really likes Carcassonne and Andrew was wanting War of the Ring so we (Kathy and I) bought War of the Ring and traded it to Andrew for Carcassonne and all of the expansions that Andrew has bought.

After sorting out all of the pieces for War of the Ring and there are A LOT of pieces, we got started. Andrew and I played the Introductory game with Andrew playing the Shadow player and I played the Free People of Middle Earth.  Go Hobbits!!  As Free People Player (FPP) I needed to control 2 of the Shadow Player (SP) cities or strongholds OR I needed to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom.  Andrew needed to control 5 FPP cities or strongholds.  In the Introductory game the Ring Bearers are not corrupted, if the SP finds the ring bearer (rolls a 6 on a Hunt die) he gets to move the Ring Bearer, away from Mount Doom.

As the game progressed the Ring Bearers were struggling to make it to Mount Doom.  The SP was slowly wearing down the FPP and an eventual SP victory was getting closer. My one bright spot as FPP was when Gandolf the White who was brought back in Fangorn forest rallied the Ents.  The Ents entered undefended Orthanc  and captured/destroyed Suraman (which reduced the SP dice by 1).  Neither Andrew or I had played before so neither of us knew what cards the other players had.  Saying that he was surprised was an understatement.

It was becoming obvious that the Ring Bearers were not going to make it to Mt. Doom, before the SP achieved a military victory, so I decided to go for a FPP military victory.  The 2 weakest  SP cities/stronghold that I had units near, were Angmar and Mount Gundabad in the North.  So I put all of my efforts into capturing these.  Andrew (SP) realized what I was doing but it was too late and I achieved a FPP victory.

War of the Ring sure appears to be a great game next time we are going to play the Regular game.

SATURDAY: Zac had come over so we let him pick a game to play first.  Zac picked Runebound for our next game.  We sorted out the cards, setup the board and randomly picked our characters.  Andrew got Bogran the Shadow, Zac got One Fist and I got Ispher.

The game did not go well for Zac at the start, he died about 3 time in a row while Andrew and I were completing adventures.  It was looking pretty hopeless for Zac but he finally began to complete the adventures.  Before we knew it he was taking on the Red adventures and in the end he won.  It sure did not look like he was going to get very far the way he started, so he sure surprised us.

We gained a couple more players, Steve and Andy for the next game.  It was Andrew’s pick and he picked A Game of Thrones.  Andrew and I both like this game but you need at least 3 players and 5 or 6 players are best.  Zac was reluctant but we needed him for 5 so he played.

Lanister (Steve) with Valerian Blade & Greyjoy (Andrew) Raven - Alliance

We drew the houses randomly to see who would play what.  Zac ended up with House Stark, Andrew - House Greyjoy, Andy had House Tyrell, Steve had House Lanister and I got House Barathon.  We setup our units in the starting positions and got ready to play.

Andrew (Greyjoy) was guiding Steve (Lanister) from the start.  They had formed an Alliance and without the threat of Lanister attacking him Greyjoy was free to throw all of his forces against House Stark (Zac).  Tyrell (Andy) pushed into the open areas in the South while Barethon (Tim) took the open territories in the middle pushing towards Lanister (Steve) and the towards the areas in the North Middle taken by Greyjoy (Andrew).

Barethon took all of the seas to the east and positioned a large fleet to help support Starks defense against Greyjoy.  Tyrell having taken everything in the south was pushing towards the middle.  He was getting ready to attack Barethon but Lanister attacked him so Tyrell struck back at Lanister instead.

Things had not gone well for Stark even with Barethons support.  Greyjoy ended up eliminating Stark in turn 5 and pushed down thru the middle.  With Lanister pressure in the middle against Tyrell and Barethon.  Greyjoy and Lanister both won several battles that had tied but because they were higher on the Fiefdom track.  Greyjoy was able to get enough cities and strongholds for the win a couple of turns after Stark was eleminated..

SUNDAY: It was my turn to pick a game.  We now had 7 players so I picked a new game that I picked up Shadows over Camelot, a cooperative game for up to 7 players.  Zac, Andrew and I had played this at the Board Game Barrister during a Saturday night Game session.  When I was in Appleton, I stopped by Chimera Hobby and they had a copy of Shadows over Camelot on the clearance rack (they said that it was in a shipment that was damaged).  I had been thinking of getting it since we played it, and the deal was too good to pass up.

Amanda, Zac, Emily, Andy and Steve (not pictured Andrew and Tim) playing Shadows over Camelot.  Andy just played another card to help complete the quest for the Holy Grail.

The last time that Zac, Andrew and I played we just had three players and we were all new so we did not play with the traitor.  During that game the 3 of us lost as Camelot was over run.

We played with the traitor card this time so there was a possibility that one of the nights was a traitor.  I found the Sir Bedivere that I had gotten in a magazine and printed the character card that I got on the Days of Wonder website.

The knights tromped the forces of evil and won 12 white swords to 0 black swords.  I was happy that the knights won but it was a hollow victory.  We played one rule wrong (a knight can not repeat the same action on his turn).  I know that Zac gave up several life on one turn to play multiple cards to get Excalibur.  I think that Andy did a simialar thing with the Holy Grail.  So we should not have completed these quests as easily as we did.

Amanda was the traitor but this was her first time playing so she was not sure what to do.  I know that on one occasion she actually helped the quests but this lead us all to think that she was not the traitor.  It was funny in a way because Andrew and I had talked about the traitor before the game and said it would be funny if Arthur was the traitor.  He was in this case.

If I were to play with new players again I would make sure that the new players got regular cards (loyal). I would then  mix the traitor in with the cards left and give them randomly to the more experienced players.  The new players have enough trouble figuring out the game without trying to figure out how to sabotage the other knights.

Amanda picked out the next game, Betrayal at House on the Hill.  This game only has 6 players so I sat out and played moderator.  Steve and Emily were both new players for this game.  When the betrayal occured the story was “Ghost Bride” and Andy was the traitor.  Andy ended up winning the game as the traitor in the end but it was close.

Amanda, Zac (moving his piece), Emily, Andy, Steve and Andrew

As we still had a large group I talked everybody into playing Bang with the Dodge City Expansion.  Andrew was the Sheriff and going around the table to the left it was: Tim - Outlaw, Amanda - Deputy, Zac - Deputy, Emily - Renegade, Andy - Outlaw and Steve - Outlaw.  The most memorable part of the game was when Andrew as the Sheriff, the first turn hit me with 4 Bangs to kill me.  Normally you can only play one bang on your turn but his character card let him play as many as he wanted.

I played the moderator again and answered questions and made sure the game kept flowing smoothly.  In the end the Sheriff and Deputies won.  I thought that the outlaws might win but no Deputies were dying and pretty soon it was 3 to 2 and then 3 to 1, and then the Good Guys won.

Everybody was leaving and it was soon just Andrew and me.  We got out War of the Ring and prepared for a regular game.  I again was the Free People and Andrew was the Shadow player.  It is my opinion that it is harder for the FP to win and if you do you have bragging rights.

I as the FP ended up losing as the Ring Bearers succumbed to the corruption of the ring, but they did make it to Mordor and were almost half way to Mt Doom.  The game played like a Story, I could imagine the scenes in the movie we were playing out.  The sequence of events are different then the movie so every game will be somewhat different.  Gimli died with the other dwarves in Erabor.  Legolis gave up his life to protect the ring bearers.

This game is RICH on theme and we had a great time playing it..