Starship Troopers & more

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My usual opponent suddenly acquired Starship Troopers, but had not yet played it, so I hauled my copy out and we set up the first scenario. I took the Humanoids (Skinnies) side, he took the Terran Marauders.

We totally botched the rules, initially treating strongpoints as total defense strength of 9, which would allow the Terrans to curb stomp the Skinnie. Then, playing as Skinnies, I mishandled setup, putting infrastructure under strongpoints which makes it unwinnable for Terrans.

We'll play it again. I will probably do some setup analysis beforehand to ensure I get some notion of how best to cover the ground defensively.

Tantrix

This is my first recorded play of Tantrix. I've previously solved some of the easier puzzles, but I'm not counting those as played games. The rules are a little bit odd, in so far as players may place more then one tile on their turn, depending on the geometry of the game. This may or may not benefit the phasing player!

I'm up for playing this one again.

Zombie Dice

I actually won this game, I was surprised. We played the basic game with none of the expansion dice. Always good for a laugh! We should play this more often, and I should bring out with my LotR collaborator.

CMYK!

We actually played this correctly, I think. Or at least mostly correctly. I've played a few times solitaire to get a feel for how the tiles lay out, but this game felt pretty different knowing there was competition for tiles.

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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.