Card Games at EGO

Mar 19 2017

Tags

Some five player games today in Oakland. We kicked off with Republic of Rome. The factions were represented by myself, JS, RE, AH and MW.

This is an interesting game to be sure. I seems to support five people fairly well. On first play, it seems to be intricate, but not overwhelmingly so. We played six or eight rounds, and MW accumulated enough "influence" and voting power to declare himself dictator and winning the game. This is not a surprise, he's played it more than anyone else, along with being a good, competitive player. For me, I liked the game ok, but it's not something I'll pick up for myself. I won't mind playing it again in the right circumstances, but it's not a game I feel I'll be seeking out much in the future. I do believe it's a very good game though, despite not being precisely to my taste.

Our next game was Pax Porfiriana. We got a late start, around 4 or perhaps shortly after. RE and JS had never played it before. MW won this one as well, but he's been playing this online a lot lately.

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.