Games of Christmas 2011

It has become a tradition here at "Snippets and Wisps" to recap the games which were played over the long holiday vacation. (See 2009 and 2010)  [If this looks like a duplicate entry -- I apologize.  My scheduled post went earlier than I intended, so I had not completed it.  This is the real thing.]


This year, I will divide the list into games which were new to me, ones I have played before, and console games.


New to Me

 World of Warcraft: the Board Game - by Fantasy Flight Games.  This game is on long-term loan to Adam, and he had wanted me to try it for quite some time.  The games is based on the World of Warcraft MMO world, but it does not require a knowledge of, or experience with, the online game to play.  It is a game for teams -- one team takes the role of the Horde, and the other team takes the Alliance -- and the rules have some interesting concepts, with a few similar concepts to the computer game (leveling, respawning after death, the kinds of monsters fought, a "boss" at the end.) It is a very long game - it took us about 4.5 hours to play, and it requires a large space.  We used two long tables, pushed together to make about a 6-ft x 5-ft play area.  The photo on the right, above, gives you an idea. The board is larger than a Risk board, and there are far more pieces.   It is complex, and if you did not trust the opposing team to play by the rules, it would get immeasurably longer, because in order to have some efficiency, each team needs to be planning its next turn while the active team is rolling dice.  I had a good time.  I could not play this every week, but it's always nice to learn a new strategy/dice game in the fantasy milieu.

Imaginiff - This is another of those party games which is fun when you know the rest of the group pretty well.  "Imagine if were a doughnut - which kind would you be?"  That sort of thing.  We especially enjoyed the final question of the evening, pictured on the right, and asked about Sarah.  Realize that we were playing this game, with family and Paul, on New Year's Eve!


Played Before

Magic: the Gathering.  One of my joys this vacation was helping Leah learn to play Magic better.  I spent part of an afternoon explaining some of the key basic concepts about playing the game, and we played a "teaching game" so she could get the feel of making plans and decisions.  She won that game, with advice from her Dad.  It was great.  Then, of course, there were games with groups of us.


 Dominion. This is new since last year, but I have mentioned it before in this blog.  One of my goals during this holiday gaming season was to introduce this game to Paul.  He is always looking for new strategy games, especially games which can be played with two players.  I have never played a two-player game of Dominion, but it is designed for two-to-four.

I didn't technically get to play Dominion over the vacation, but Paul did, and that was good enough for me.

Settlers of Catan - It's been a long time since I played this with real live people (as opposed to the AI in the Yahoo version).  Though I started with a very good position, I did not win.  Adam did.  What a fun time!

Anybody's Guess.  At the Will Family Gathering, we decided to play a "party game."  This was it.   Trivia with a twist.  And a reason to laugh together.

Munchkin! Paul had never played this, so we played it.  It was fun.  Adam won.



Ticket to Ride Europe - We played one 5-player game, and later split up to play a four-player partner game while the new Ticket to Ride: Asia was being played (I didn't participate in that one, so I will wait to review it until I do.)  I still love this game, and it is definitely different playing against people than playing against the AI in the computer game.  It's also different playing with four opponents as opposed to one, which is my typical setup in the computer game.  I got lucky, and knew the card possibilities, so I got a very good score.  And Matt learned to play.  And so did Sherry.  Fun.


The Great Dalmuti - One of the games that is a tradition. New Year's Eve. It has to be played. It's not fair, but then again, life is not fair. And we all play for fun.  There were several people crowned Great Dalmuti, but I was not one of them, so I was always part of the crowd wishing the new leader: Huzzah!


Superworld - This is the traditional game of the holiday season, because we've been playing this Superhero Role Playing Game for over 20 years on or around New Year's Eve. Paul creates a scenario, putting someone or something in danger, or creating a mystery to be solved, and our heroes must take on the mission. This year, the group included Icebird, Foil, Solo, Toymaker, Phoebe, Phoenix (no, not that one) and Anastasia. Our heroes assisted in breaking a friend out of the lair of their nemesis. It was fun! Thanks to Paul for creating the adventure, and to my fellow Heroes for the bravery and awesome displays of superpowers.


Mad Gab - This one did not get played "for real" -- there were no winners or losers -- it was simply fun to pull it out and listen to people reading the clues.





Funglish was such a hit last year, we had to play it again this year.  Twice!  Really funny, as long as you're not too terribly interested in who wins.





Skip-Bo is an old stand-by and must be played every New Year's Eve. Mike was not here to partner with Sherry, so Leah did once,and Paul did once. We always have a great time with this game.

Yahtzee - Yes, we played Yahtzee.  Some of the crowd preferred trying it to playing Farkle again, so we did.  There were three (or four?) Yahtzees among seven players - a good night.  Sherry was the big winner.


Console Games

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  Though I bought it weeks before Christmas, it was only once Sherry and Leah were home that we sat down to play.  I am having an excellent time in this strange new version of Hyrule.  Some aspects are reminiscent of The Wind Waker, since there are "islands" to visit - albeit in the sky rather than in the sea - but it's unfair to make that comparison.

Skyward Sword has learned from other computer/console role-playing games.  Like Zelda's Twilight Princess, there are many, many things to collect, but now in Skyward Sword, there are game reasons to collect them.  There are recipes for improving equipment, very similar to other RPGs.  And the combat takes advantage of the Wii Motion Plus controller, so sword fighting is more like what we all hoped for when we first saw the Wii interface.  I like it a lot!  [By the time the vacation finished, I had gathered all of the "weapons" and all but one of the melodies.]

 MarioKart Wii.  Leah and I had one afternoon before Sherry was done with school.  We decided to play MarioKart, since Leah had almost never played it before.  We had fun.  Except that the computer "cheats" and since we, as the human players, are not very good, we never won a four-race grand prix. 





Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - I really enjoyed the first Uncharted game, despite my being horrible at video game gunplay.  I got a start on this latest installment one morning after Christmas when Leah wasn't awake yet to watch us play the new Zelda.  Sherry will watch this game, too, and suggested it (thanks, Sherry!)

I enjoy the fact that Claudia Black is the voice for Chloe, the woman involved in the caper.  This makes two PS3 games in a row, for me (she was also in Dragon Age: Origins.)

So, unless I've forgotten a game (or forgotten how to count) that makes 16 different games I played over the Christmas / New Year's vacation.   I can't count Dominion, since I only watched, or Ticket to Ride: Asia, since I didn't participate in that one.  But adding those two, 18 different games were played at our house.

But then again, I am confident Lucas was playing Angry Birds at various points.  And Leah played Sims 3.  Oh, and what about D&D: Heroes of Neverwinter?  Let's face it, there are too many to be absolutely sure I have a complete list.  The 16 or 18 above are the games played/enjoyed by multiple people -- and really, that is the goal of gaming over the holidays!