GAMING NEWS: No Stink'in Badges! (26 April 2006)

Hi Everyone,

Well, yesterday was A-1 Comics gaming night and we had quite a showing.

I'm not sure what the night's theme was, but it was probably Spaghetti Westerns again as we played Bang! three times. The law men were slain three times running, definitely a bandito day.

It was a quiet evening... everyone was a little tired and Crystal was having a "creative hair" day... The scent of love and allergies must have been in the air.

Check out an article on Yahoo News called:

"Soaring Pollen Counts Spur Worst Allergy Season in Years"
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter

"We have seen an early and aggressive allergy season, including seasonal pollens and mold spores," said Dr. Clifford Bassett, a Long Island-based allergist and vice-chairman of AAAAI's Public Education Committee. Shulan agreed.

"The buds have been ready to burst, and when we have these warm days, the pollen counts have been just wild," he said.

Sacramento is among the worst cities in the country (#8 of the worst 10) for allergy sufferers.

Present & Accounted For:
- Cary
- Clay
- Crystal
- Dave Story
- Dick
- Kimbo
- Maksim (me!)
- Mike O'Brien
- Nils
- Todd

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1. Tigris & Euphrates

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/42

Players:
- Dave: L.
- Dick: L.
- Maksim: L.
- Mike: WINNER!

This is an interesting little game... I am wondering how much of the game is skill and how much luck. While the characters (round tokens) can pull off some pretty nice coups... the winning player profitted most from what other players did for him... not necessarily through his own actions. Weird. However, I'm not begrudging Mike his victory as, what Dick calls: "Monarch of Mesopotamia!" Mazel Tov, Mike!

This is a serious picture of Dick looking "spic 'n' span" after a haircut without his crisp trademark purple shirt. It must have been a "Back In Black" day for him. The whole evening seemed a little sombre... several of us were suffering from Spring allergies.

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2. San Juan

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/8217

Players:
- Crystal: WINNER!
- Kimbo: L.
- Nils: L.
- Todd: L.

When Crystal plays for keeps, she DOES! Despite Kimbo's best efforts, she eeked out a SBD victory... Mazel Tov, Crystal!

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3. Robo Ralley

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/18

Players:
- Cary: L.
- Clay: WINNER!
- Dave: L.

Dave introduced the guys to this "oldie but a goodie" on a simple one-map game in which Clay took victory by pushing his robot to its utmost. Mazel Tov, Clay!

The above robot pretty much captures the "spirit" of the evening... low on energy and desperately sad.

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4. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: ?
- Dick: ?
- Kimbo: Outlaw - Victory!
- Maksim: Oulaw - Shot Down Like A Dog! - Victory!
- Mike: Deputy - Loss.
- Nils: Deputy - Loss.
- Todd: Sheriff - SDLAD!

OUTLAW Victory!

Here's a picture of Crystal and Todd not looking too energetic... I tell you, allergies must have been in the air... Of Course, with that eyes closed position, it might have just been Crystal plotting ways to beat the rest of us down and Todd not recovering from his last marital castigation.

Nils adds:

Bang #1: Todd was the Sheriff while Mike and I were Deputies. Unfortunately, we sat immediately to Todd's right so were very little help to him in the first turns of the game. Then I was jailed for my first turn.

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5. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: ?
- Dick: ?
- Kimbo: ?
- Maksim: Sheriff - Shot Down Like A Dog! - Loss.
- Mike: ?
- Nils: Deputy - Loss.
- Todd: ?

OUTLAW Victory!

It was an "Eat lead, lawman!" day and the outlaws "moidelized" the sheriff and his weak deputies again!

Nills adds:

Bang #2: I was Deputy again, but don't remember who the Sheriff was (Maks: I was.). It finally dawned on me that I had to pay attention to other people's play to determine if I should attack them or not.

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6. Bang!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3955

Players:
- Crystal: Deputy - Shot Down Like a Mangy Cur By Her Own Side! - Loss.
- Dick: Deputy - Shot Down Like a Dog! - Loss.
- Kimbo: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Maksim: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Mike: Outlaw - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Nils: Sheriff - SDLAD! - Loss.
- Todd: Renegade - Renegade Victory!

RENEGADE Victory!

In a remarkable turn-around, the Renegade pulled off a rare renegade victory! I have no idea who the renegade was since I was the first one turned into road kill... Mazel Tov, Renegade Man!

Nils adds:

Bang #3: I was Sheriff. Dick was a Deputy. Maks, Kimbo and Mike were all Outlaws and were all gunned down. It came down to Todd and Crystal, one being the other Deputy and the other being the Renegade. Both had played very well, but since Todd sat immediately to my left, I noticed him helping me more as Sheriff, so attacked and slew Crystal. She turned out to be the Deputy. Todd and I fought it out for a few turns, including me getting the right cards to strip Todd of all his cards, but he finally gunned me down.

Bang Variant: There was a discussion of how people can get killed early on in the game (Maks and Kimbo). On BGG, there are variant rules to allow the dead plays to continue to play as Ghosts and even affect the living players. Might be interesting to try. Here's the link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=14481

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7. No Thanks!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12942

Players:
- Cary: WINNER!
- Dave: L.
- Dick: L.

Cary must have been hot yesterday... a skillful victory! Every time I turned around, he had a new hand layed out. Mazel Tov, Cary!

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8. No Thanks!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12942

Players:
- Cary: L.
- Dave: WINNER!
- Dick: L.

Every dog (sic. Dave) has his day and this was his game! Mazel Tov, Dave!

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9. Saboteur

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9220

Players:
- Cary: ?
- Crystal: ?
- Dave: ?
- Dick: ?
- Nils: ?
- Todd: ?

This was the last game of the evening and I left before it ended. The saboteurs, narsty little barstards, seemed to be leading... and the map looked like a government contractor's job of tunneling.

Here's a picture of the gang playing Saboteur near the end of the evening when I pulled out my digital camera to snap a few shots. Nils has his legs propped up in the upper right corner of the shot, poor guy's baby daughter has been sick keeping him up late. In the upper left of the photo, you can see Dave in an "animated state." I think that Crystal was being irksome with him.

Nils adds:

Saboteur: Dave neglected to explain that you could discard instead of playing if you didn't have any card to help in tunnel building. Because of this key ommission, the first round was extremely erratic, with the new players (me included) thinking good little gnomes had to make bad plays because of the cards in their hands. This threw everyone's Saboteur sense totally off. The gnomes finally got the gold with the TLC unit being the saboteurs (Wow!, imagine that!). Second round, Dick played the Saboteur role extremely well, even to the point of making people thing I had said there was gold under a card when I had originally said there wasn't. Dave and ?Todd? were the other saboteurs. They ended up winning that round and since Dave was in the winning group both rounds, he won the game.

Saboteur Variant: Also on BGG, a Saboteur variant is discussed that allows only gold to be given to the good gnomes that aren't blocked by broken equipment. Sounds like this adds a bit of complexity to the game and makes it a bit easier for the Saboteurs to win since the good gnomes start fighting amongst themselves as the end of the game nears. Weird, the BGG link has disappeared since last night.

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10. Yinsh!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7854

Players:
- Clay: L.
- Maksim: WINNER!

Well, I said it about Dave and turn-about is fair play. Every dog (sic. Maks) has his day and it was my day!

Here's Clay with a somber smile. I swear he has the most slick, smooth poker face that I have ever seen. You'd never guess what he had just done.

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Have a great Thursday!

Special thanks to the TLC (Todd Loves Crystal!) unit for bringing fancy chocolate chip cookies!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).