Downtown, & Race for the Galaxy

Previous:
Next:
Tags

Spent the afternoon at AW's in Hercules playing a first game of Downtown. I've been wanting to play this for ages, and now that I'm taking a mini-sabbatical, it was time to get it on the table.

Downtown is a complex game, at least to me. There are a lot of charts and tables, and while the turn sequence appears short, the subsequences are buried in the rules, adding to the complexity. After a first play, I'm calling it between OCS and EFS in complexity.

We played the first scenario collaboratively to learn how everything worked. This scenario, "Surfin' Bird" feature one flight of 2 A-4s and a flight of 2 MIG-17Fs. We went 6-8 turns with it, in a little under 4 hours. The later turns went pretty fast.

While the rules feel complex to me, I can see how once they're internalized, game play should be pretty smooth as there aren't that many counters on the map at any one time.

Race for the Galaxy

I've been having trouble figuring this one out on my own. Fortunately AW has a copy and is very good at it, so we played a couple of games. This really helped me get the hang of it better, but I'm still having trouble with the icons. Here's how the games finished:

  1. AW: 35, me 32.
  2. AW: 54, me 33.

I have a ways to go.

Star Realms

AW hadn't ever played Star Realms, so I taught how to play. Of course, he won! I was a couple of hands away from having some very big cards to play, but I just didn't get there fast enough.

All in all, a good day.

Previous:
Next:
Tags

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.