Seafarers of Catan

expansion to:

Settlers of Catan

Played on December 19th, 2008 with Bob, Terry, and Elliott (and sometimes Billy).

I really enjoyed this particular game.  I lost, of course, but it was still fun.  There are different variations to set up this game, and we only played one of them.  And instead of just a robber, there’s a pirate too – we played with friendly pirate/robber rules, which also made me happy.

There were islands!  And a pirate.  Anyone who likes the original Catan will like this expansion to the game as well.  I look forward to trying the additional variations included in this expansion pack – more islands.  I’m also  looking forward to trying the other expansion packs (hint hint Bob).

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot

Played on December 18, 2008 with Bob, Terry, Bill Sr., and Billy

I really enjoy playing this game.  I’ve played it many time before – too many for me to remember at this point.  The rest of the group hadn’t played before.

I think we had a good time, but the game lasted too long – over an hour – and it was late, so we ended up giving out the extra carrot cards instead of playing to the end.  A few modifications:

• Use only 12 carrot cards.  That way the game is just shorter.
• Get rid of the close the market cards.  At least at this stage of the game, all they do is prolong the game.
• Get rid of the minilith.  Until you use the later expansion packs, it’s too powerful.

I think everyone had a good time.  Hopefully we’ll add in the booster packs next time.

Chez Dork

Played twice on:  December 18th, 2008 with, Bob, Terry, and Bill Sr.

Premise of the game: collect stuff that your character is obsessed about.  Be the first to collect 25 points worth of stuff (including unicorn paraphernalia, dice, and goth-stuff).

Pros: It’s kind of fun, the rules are pretty simple.  Time to learn the game – 5 minutes or so

Cons: the internal turn order is a little complicated and takes some of the fun out of the game. You can only trade before you buy but after you collect your money, etc…  – all within your own turn.

Apparently, this game is based on a comic book which I’ve never actually read.  I don’t think I knew that when I bought it as an (early) Christmas present for someone (completely my fault – I was blinded by the sales going on in the store and didn’t read the package closely enough).  I expected it to be like Chez Geek but funnier.  Instead of role-based (like computer programmer, temp worker, etc), it’s character-based- from the comic book.  Which makes it more difficult to enjoy.

Additionally, each character has a special advantage and a special disadvantage (I am assuming that this is from the comic book as well).  Unfortunately, the advantages and disadvantages are unbalanced.  Matt is an overpowered character.  We didn’t use all of the characters, so there might be someone to vie with him, but generally, the other characters can’t stand up to him.

All in all, it was an enjoyable game because the company was fun, but I wouldn’t recommmend buying it to anyone else.

I attempted to write a review of one of the several games we played this weekend – and I barely got past the first sentence.    So perhaps “review” is a bad term.  I’ll update you when I have a better one.

In the meantime, I’ll  just record the games, not really criticizing them, and let you make the decision from that about whether or not you like the game.