Attendees (7+1): Michael, Barbara, Danielle, Troy, Andrew, Sharon, Andy and Matthew
We had everyone over to our house for some gaming this week.
Pick Picknic
Matthew (my 5 yr old son) was excited to get to play with some adults. Daneille and Troy joined my wife Barbara and played a quick game with him.
He and Heather both enjoy Pick Picknic and I would recommend it for a game to play with your children. The game consists of a deck of cards, 6 different colored tiles, cubes for feeding the birds in 3 colors, and 1 die for resolving some conflicts. Each player is dealt 4 cards during setup and then 1 or 2 each turn depending on the number of players. The feed cubes are drawn and placed randomly on the 6 tiles (one cube on each). Green cubes are worth 1 pt, Blue cubes 2pts, and Yellow cubes 3 pts. Everyone selects one card (or 2 with smaller # of players) to play face down in front of them and then they are revealed simultaneously.
Some cards will have colored birds on them along with a number, some will have colored foxes with a number, and some will have a colored bird that flew away with a -2 number. If anyone plays a fox card that matches the color of any of the bird cards played then the fox will eat those birds and the player who played the fox card will take the bird cards and get points worth the # on the bird cards. If a player plays a bird card of a color that no one else players then that player will get ALL of the feed cubes on that colored tile (this includes feed cubes that were left from previous turns). If more than one player plays a bird card of the same color then a conflict may occur. The players involved must either agree on a way to split up the feed cubes between them or they will have to resolve it by fighting over the feed cubes. A fight is resolved by each player rolling a die and adding the # of the bird card -- highest number wins all the feed cubes. Ties are resolved with roll-offs until someone wins. If multiple foxes are played then they will always fight over the birds (no negotiating allowed) with the winner getting all the birds in that color available. The -2 cards allow a player to take one green cube (1pt) before any other birds and in addition they count as -2 pts for any foxes that match that color and would normally eat a bird. The game continues in this manner for many rounds with more feed being drawn and placed and cards drawn and played until there is no more feed to be drawn. Then the player with the most points wins!
The game is great for teaching kids counting and recognizing different values for similar objects (ie 1 Yellow cube is better than 2 Green cubes). They learn that negotiating can get you to share points and that this can sometimes be a better strategy than just fighting and hoping on the die roll. Also, the game has enough luck that everyone has a chance of winning yet you get to make interesting decisions along the way.
Danielle (42) won followed closely by Troy (38) then Barbara (30) and Matthew (28).
Taj Mahal
I have been wanting to play this Knizia game again for some time and Sharon brought it so we got it to the table. Andrew and Andy joined us in visiting India and claiming palaces and influence. The game is played with cards as resources with an interesting auction/bid process. There are 12 different visits/turns during the game. Each turn there are 6 different "prizes" that players can win. These rewards have different types of benefits that help players score points or win future auctions. Players start with 6 cards in hand and n-1 cards face up on the table (where n is number of players).
The auction process involves playing a colored card (there are 4 different colors) with the option of adding one white card also. Play continues with players either playing or dropping out. To continue playing, you must play a card that matches the color that you originally played (it doesn't need to match opponent's colors) and again you may also add a white card (although you may not play a white card alone). When a player drops out they get to choose two of the face up cards to add to their hand (the last remaining player only gets one card). In addition, when a player drops out she gets to take any rewards for which she has a majority among all players still in the auction. So dropping out early when you have a majority in a few categories can be very strong since it saves your resources (ie cards) and gets you benefits. Finally, if a player skips the auction entirely (drops out without bidding) then they get an additional card from the draw deck along with 2 cards from the face up display.
The rewards consist of majorities in different icons: Elephant, Vizier(Green), General(Purple), Monk(Orange), Princess(Yellow), and Grand Mogul (Crowns). Elephants win commodity tiles which will generally have 2 different commodities on them. The others allow a player to take a token (ex Vizier token) and place a palace on the current province. Two matching tokens will allow players to claim special white cards that can be used each round until someone else claims them (with two matching tokens). These cards help with additional icons (General - Elephants, Vizier - Crowns), additional victory pts (Princess- 2 VPs), and the Monk allows a player to play one card that doesn't match his original color. Players place palaces when they claim a reward other than an elephant and must place their palace on a space not occupied by another palace, so players dropping early get more selection. There are some special tokens placed on fortress spaces that can be claimed by placing a palace on that space but these are usually not adjacent to other provinces so players must make strategic choices. Finally, the winner of the Grand Mogul reward gets to place a palace in ANY space in the region even if occupied by another palace, however he cannot take any tokens from fortress spaces with this palace.
Scoring in the game consists of commodities and palaces plus special tokens placed on fortress locations and the princess card. Commodities scoring is cumulative so if I have 2 tea and 1 rice and win an auction with 1 tea and 1 rice then I will score 3 pts for the tea and 2 pts for the rice or 5 pts total. If I also claimed a rice token through palace placement then I would get 3 pts for it. Fortresses score 1 pt for each region (not for each palace) but they also score 1 pt for each region that is connected by a chain of palaces to the current scoring region. At the end of the game players score 1 pt for each white or bonus card in hand plus a pt for each card in their longest color.
I was fortunate to get a bunch of bonus cards and hold onto them through the middle rounds of the game and this let me build a substantial lead. This scoring showed that an unchecked commodity or palace strategy can result in too many VPs and players must defend against these strategies (if possible). Michael (80), Sharon (44), Andrew (30), and Andy (22).
Elasund
Troy, Barbara, and Danielle tried building up the city of Elasund. I enjoy this game and can't get Barbara to play it with me so I was surprised to see that she played it. I like the changing tactics and interesting decisions that influence and building permits allow players to do in this game. I don't think she likes the aspect of building over other players and knocking them down in VPs but I think of it as a struggle (like the largest army or longest road) in Settlers. The game does have an awkward flow to the turn order but the reference sheet is excellent for this and once you "get it" the game moves along quicker. I do feel that the game tends to run a little long with four players and I would like to get it to the table more often. Scores: Troy (10), Barbara (8), and Danielle (7).
Caylus
We taught Andy Caylus after Taj Mahal. It ran a little late and Barbara took over for Andy late in the game. I was able to leverage the building favor track while everyone else went for the victory point track. Final: Michael (97), Sharon (82), Andrew (71), and Andy/Barbara (69).
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