Two "Dumbs" don't make a "Smart" (Zombie Fluxyx, Space Alert x3, In the Year of the Dragon)

Taste is a funny thing.

Obviously, everyone has their preferences. When it comes to games, I personally enjoy a pretty broad spectrum of types of games: Strategy, thematic, silly, wargames, party, light/ heavy...

and...

cooperative/ competitive

With the exception of Lord of the Rings, the cooperative genre is relatively young. LOTR has been a polarizing game for us, as it has been in the larger gaming world. I love it, Kozure, Bharmer and Luch like it well enough (I think), and Shemp hates it. Now that cooperative and semi-cooperative games have become fashionable, it seems that we've had a chance to determine how the group *really* feels about the genre. Reactions have been mixed, but generally speaking I'd say it's not been terribly successful.

We've played LOTR, Shadows over Camelot, Pandemic, Battlestar Galactica and, this week, Space Alert (I've also played Red November, though not with WAGS). Of these, Pandemic has been the most successful at pleasing everybody. LOTR and Battlestar Galactica was well liked by approximately half the group, Shadows over Camelot I got rid of because after a few plays I lost all interest.

Shemp summed his feelings rather well when he mentioned that in most games he looks forward to the interaction of the various play styles of each player. The gameplay of cooperative games ultimately revolves around efficiently managing incoming crisis, which in turn largely defines the kind of reaction you can take. For this reason they are more about sharing a common experience, muting individual play style and eliminating a certain type of player interaction. It's worth noting that Shemp is also not a big fan of non-cooperative games that have little interaction, for much the same reason (Race for the Galaxy and Agricola have been two recent examples).

Still, because it's so peculiar, I had no idea how the group would react to Space Alert... it turns out the answer was "meh" from Shemp and Kozure (the jury is still out on Bharmer or Luch's reaction since they weren't around).

Me? I really liked it.

Space Alert

Space Alert is a cooperative game that places the players in the unfortunate role of a hapless crew tasked with the responsibility of defending a spaceship, the Sitting Duck, for 10 minutes while it maps an uncharted sector of space. It's worth mentioning that he setting is nicely integrated into the rule book, which is quite humorous and reminds me of old "Paranoia" material. To defend the ship, the players have a number of laser cannons, rockets, battlebots and shields. However, the guns and shields need power, and managing and distributing power is crucial to ensure that *heaven forbid* the shields run out and the guns fail to fire.

The "gimmick" is that the game literally lasts 10 minutes... players listen to a CD which informs players of the various threats that appear (and when). It also tells players when the different phases start and end, etc. During that time, players must program their character's actions RoboRally style (a combination of "move around the ship" and "push this button" instructions) in an attempt to counter the threats and prevent them from destroying the ship. The problem is that the time limit, the cards dealt, the logistics required to make things work and the inherently inefficient nature of oral communication makes this a rather chaotic and difficult endeavor. After the 10 minutes are up, the programmed cards are revealed one by one to see what really happened, and to discover if the crew succeeded... or if the ship has been destroyed.

Thankfully, the game is designed to ease players into the chaos through several introductory scenarios that gradually introduce the various functions of the ship, and the rules of the game. The first two we played were only 7 minutes long, asking us to program 7 actions in that time. In both cases, 3 threats appeared. Guns and shields are in play, but none of the other subsystems are. We did alright: We lived through the first scenario and narrowly failed he second.

Our last play was also an introductory one, but slightly more advanced. Rockets are introduced. We discover that the ship has a screen saver which needs to be toggled frequently to avoid interruptions to other important subsystems (like, umm, lasers). Advanced threats are now placed in the mix. Damage is no longer represented by generic cubes, instead replaced by chits that identify damage to specific components of the ship (which, of course, means that they will malfunction). Oh, and we now have 10 minutes to program 13 actions.

We got pasted.

Please keep in mind that because we were only 3 players, we had to control an "android" which is essentially a fourth player that we all share in programming (we named it "Luch"). Since we were not particularly skilled in programming our own actions, managing an extra player was difficult.

We screwed up many times. On one occasion, I screwed up twice and they ended up cancelling each other into a good move (though we still came to the conclusion that two dumbs don't make a smart). Other times, we weren't so lucky.

When I play the game, I find the planning period to be tremendously fun. I like attempting to coordinate a number of actions under the time pressure. I like that I never really have a sense that I know what's going on (for example, because I haven't had a chance to read the descriptions of the incoming threats). I like that I'm planning with other players to accomplish specific tasks, but that I'm not sure it will work out even if the plan itself is solid (this could happen either because a player miss-programmed their actions, because a part of the ship took damage and part of our plan becomes impossible due to malfunctioning equipment, etc). It follows that since I like the planning phase due in part to the unpredictability, I like witnessing how the actions play out (just as in RoboRally). I feel satisfaction when the plan (or dumb luck, or more likely a combination of both) comes together, and I find it funny when things screw up.

When it's over, whether we win or not I immediately want to play again and try to do better. It's very nice that the game ramps up the difficulty over time, because it keeps the game challenging and frantic.

Anyway, as I said Shemp and Kozure weren't wowed by it. They found that the programming cards too often limited your actions, that too often you just couldn't do anything coherent with what you had. I suppose their is nothing stopping us from introducing a variant where players get more cards every phase, or maybe that each player starts the game with a preconstructed deck of actions

Zombie Fluxx

I had never played a fluxx game before, but it sounded novel, silly, short and easy to play so I thought I'd take a chance on it. Fluxx games are all similar in that they start with just a few simple rules (draw a card then play a card) and no goal. Over the course of the game, as cards get played, new rules get added and goals are introduced. For example, you mighy play a card which says :"New rule: Draw 3 cards instead of 1". From then on, all players draw the new amount of cards. Similarly, if a Goal card is played a winning condition is added to the game... for example "The first player with 3 zombies wins". Only one goal card can be in play at a time, though, so the goal will change over the course of the game. The game therefore goes on until a combination of cards played lines up with the goal on the table.

I purchased the Zombie version because it seemed more fun to me, but now I wonder whether the theme might turn off the type of people I'd be likely to play this with. I think Shemp and Kozure thought it was... fine. Shemp's wife, Hilaria, doesn't often play games with us but did play a hand of this. Not sure what she thought of it (though I didn't get a sense she was a big fan). I thought it was decent, and can definitely see enjoying it over beer when looking to just kill time.

In the Year of the Dragon

We haven't played this in a while, and that's really a shame because I truly enjoy this game. It's definitely my favorite new pure euro that I've played in quite a long time. In the past I've done quite well at the game, but this time I struggled to keep up on the people track so the early lead I got in VPs was quickly eroded. Kozure, who managed to stay well in the lead on the person track throughout the game saw his strategy pay off about 3/4s of the way through the game... surpassing me and winning with a convincing lead.

Great game.

Off to India (Maharaja, Taj Mahal)

Just as fast as Bharmer returns... he is gone.

But before he left, he dictated we play two games he felt hadn't been on the table recently enough: Maharaja and Taj Mahal.

Maharajah

We played another session of "the game Bharmer always wins" and, well, he won. We did our best to stop him, though... in fact I'd say we did a much better job of spreading out and working the whole board than we usually do (as opposed to collectively going from one scoring city to another). There were lots of people who struck out on their own to claim the central palaces in non-scoring cities while manipulating the maharaja track to maximize the scoring opportunities. Still, Bharmer managed to always be in the right place at the right time: Always grabbing the cheap third place scoring when it was available, always sneaking in to get first or second when it really mattered, always somehow ahead of the pack in palace construction. Luch did manage to give him some competition by keeping up with the palaces, but when Bharmer finished the game by building his last two Luch was nowhere near ready to do the same.

This type of game is normally right up my alley, but I simply can't wrap my head around it to find a winning strategy. I certainly see the possibilities, but not fast enough. I'm starting to feel like there would be a way to succeed at Maharajah that would be primarily based on denying other players their actions, but I'm just guessing.

Taj Mahal

This is a game that I often win at, but it seems that tonight was not going to be my night. I started out decently enough, but seriously floundered in the end. If memory serves, I didn't do anything at all in the last 2-3 palaces!

I prefer Taj with 4 players, and this week's game cemented that for me. One less player makes the game shorter, and players are much less likely to get completely shafted in the auctions.

I think Shemp won the game, with Kozure just a few points behind (but it's pretty fuzzy in my head, so I could be wildly off on that)

Welcome to 2009 - CYLON!

Introduction

Herein lies a twisted tale of deception and surprise. Enter if you dare.

Third game of Galactica for me, Agent Easy and Luch, but Bharmer and Shemp weren’t around for the introduction in December. The three of us who have played before feel pretty comfy with the rule set and strategies, so after what I think is a pretty concise and clear rules explanation, we set up and begin a five player game.

First player is determined. It’s one of the new players, "Bharmer". He’s never seen the re-imagined show, though he’s familiar with the rag-tag fleet concept from the old one. He picks Gaius Baltar. I open my mouth to say something, but then I think - ‘this will probably make it more fun for him’, so I close it. Political leader category down. He stares at the picture of everyone’s least favourite ladykiller for a little bit and says - ‘he’s a pretty good looking guy. Sorta looks like me.’ Surprisingly, this is pretty accurate.

Next player, "Luch" takes Chief Tyrol. Good: safe and important support role is covered.

I ("Kozure") take Starbuck. I’ve previously played Apollo and Tigh, but I gravitate towards pilot types anyway and I figure we need one.

Next player takes Saul Tigh. "Shemp" hasn’t played before and has seen neither the old nor the re-imagined series. He asks whether the Battlestar and the Vipers are intentional Star Wars rip-offs or if it’s just a coincidence. I explain in as short a time I can the whole Star Wars - Battlestar Galactica - Star Trek: The Motion Picture relationship. Short story, yeah, they’re rip-offs. Curiously, he takes Tigh because "he looks like John McCain," which is funny because Shemp’s political views are almost diametrically opposed to McCain.

The choice of categories is pretty wide open for the final experienced player, "Agent Easy". I figure it would be best to take Roslin so that the newbie won’t have to make the political decisions, but I try not to influence people about their character choices unless there’s an obvious hole in our skill card set. There isn’t, really - we’ve got piloting covered with Starbuck, tactics with Starbuck and Tigh, engineering with Tyrol and Baltar, politics with Baltar and Tyrol, leadership with Tigh and Starbuck. We’re a little weak in politics and leadership, since Baltar is more likely to "go toaster", but I figure we can handle it. Agent Easy picks Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii. I’m a little surprised, since that makes for two people with higher chances of being the cylon, but whatever. Easy says he wants to try his hand at piloting, so I don’t argue.

Turn order, in case you’re keeping track, is: Baltar > Tyrol > Starbuck > Tigh > Boomer. I make a comment that the seating and character choices may end up being very problematic if Baltar and Boomer turn out to be the cylons.

Loyalty deck is shuffled and dealt. I’m a toaster. Frak me. Well, I’ve only been one once before, so this should be fun. Tigh is the Admiral. Baltar is President.

Skill cards are drawn, board is set. We’re good to go.


Act I - "Uh, I think we should jump now."

The first few turns are pretty typical. I jump into a viper to fight off the raiders doing my best to be a good little human. Unfortunately (or fortunately, from my point of view) the first three crises we draw are green-yellow, and we whiffle on them all, despite the fact that I’m actually contributing greens when I can so as not to draw suspicion. I’m doing a little mental happy dance that the pathetic survivors are getting pummelled so early on, but the skill card draws seem to show (inconclusively) that someone else is sabotaging. It could just be poor initial card draws as well, so I’m not convinced there’s another cylon yet.

We’ve lost morale and food, but we’re not doing horribly. A jammed assault puts more contacts on the Dradis, but we... er... the humans are holding their own despite the onslaught. We’re slowly advancing the jump track, a few more crises with a mixture of successes and failures. By the time we reach the -1 jump, there are a lot of raiders in the air as well as heavy raiders and both basestars. It’s starting to get hairy. Good... good.

It’s bad enough that there is general consensus we should try the early jump. I offer to throw in a card to add +2 to the die roll. The jumping player rolls an 8 so he would have made it anyway without my card helping. There’s the usual relieved sighs as the board is cleared. We jump to a deserted system (jump progress 2). Safe... or so the puny humans thought.


Act II - "Toga Party on Colonial One!"

After the jump, someone draws a Virus crisis, so we have a boarder. My turn’s up next. I say, truthfully, that the boarder is a threat but we should also get some CAP out there. There is grumbling around the table. I shrug and say "OK, I’ll hit the Armory, then." Unluckily, I roll a 7 and kill the cylon boarder. Frak. I figure that should throw some of the heat off me, though.

Everyone is suspecting Baltar quite a bit, mostly for some slightly odd behavior before the first jump. There’s a little suspicion on me, for reasons I can’t make out, since I’ve been almost choirboy-innocent for every action - I haven’t even tried to sabotage anything yet. A player turn or two later though, I actually screw up trying to sabotage a crisis check being conducted by Tigh that would probably make me stand out like a neon light if he had actually counted the cards he put in.

Tigh asks me about which cards I put in. I say I put in leadership cards. He says "card..s?" emphasizing the ‘s’. I realize in a heartbeat that I actually only put in one piloting card and the only other pilot, Boomer, has curiously abstained from the check after I threw in, but to correct myself would be doubly suspicious, so I say as earnestly as I can "yeah, two cards." There is a single piloting card as well as two other cards which sabotage the check. Tyrol had also abstained, so all of the leadership cards must have really come from Tigh or the destiny deck, and there were too many for all of them to be from the destiny deck.

I see a moment of suspicion flash over his face, but curiously he gathers up the cards and puts them in the discard without comment. The rest of that portion of the game is mostly quiet as players gather cards and scout, and the next jump happens without much incident. I use my Destiny ability to bury a pretty tough morale crisis (though I know there are worse coming, I don’t complain when a consensus is reached that we should do it anyway). We do lose a few points on morale and food, but population and fuel are where we’d expect. At one point, something happens, I can’t recall what, which tips suspicion on Baltar into the red, and he gets brigged. He makes some initial pathetic attempts to get out, but fails. The only thing that stands out in my mind is we failed a few times as a result of piloting cards that I didn’t put in, so I’m guessing that Boomer is the other cylon. At the same time, Tigh strangely jaunts over to Colonial One on the pretext that we’ve been doing poorly on Political checks, so he wants to pick up some cards there. Strange. Tigh is spending maybe one turn in three being drunk. He announces jokingly that there is a toga party on Colonial One. Another stand out is two Riot crises in a row, which is hard to cope with.


Act III - "Secret Cylon would be a good band name."

Coming out of the next jump into a cylon ambush (now making our jump progress 5) ["Thanks, Admiral," we chorus], I immediately want to get out into space again to fight my (fellow) Cylons to put on the best possible show of loyalty. The loyalty cards are dealt in the Sleeper Phase and Boomer is brigged per her character card (there is some confusion during the sleeper phase when I realize I put the sympathizer card in when I should not have. We resolve it by removing Tyrol’s revealed sympathizer card and giving him the remaining loyalty card).

I launch, but Tigh is after my turn and I note, out of the corner of my eye, that he and Boomer exchange glances for a moment as if agreeing on something. On Tigh's action, I’m brigged - it’s almost futile for Starbuck to try to avoid being brigged by Tigh, but I have to do something. No one helps me stay out. I guess I haven’t been convincing enough and Tigh and Boomer have decided I’m a toaster. Them being right doesn’t make it any less annoying.

Another cylon attack crisis. The Galactica takes damage but is quickly patched by Tyrol. Starbuck, Boomer and Baltar are in the brig. A launch raiders icon comes up in one Crisis, a second cylon attack in the next. The Galactica has a mass of contacts on her starboard front quarter - this is literally the most raiders, heavy raiders and cylons I've seen on the board, ever. Suddenly, Boomer reveals on the second turn of her internment and offs herself, popping up cackling on the Resurrection Ship.

With tonnes of raiders on the board and Cylon-Boomer puppeting them from the Cylon Fleet, things hit the fan quickly. We lose three Civvies in short order with only redshirt vipers out there - two of the Civilian ships turn out to be the double resource ones. We have three damaged vipers and one destroyed, the rest are in the air. Once again, I’m cackling internally, all the while playing the innocent injured party. Morale is at "2" - all the other dials except population are also in the red - 3s and 4s.

President Baltar finally manages to spring himself from the Brig using a combination of high skill cards and the card that reduces the target difficulty. Starbuck is the only one left in the brig.

Then we have a crisis check. I put in my card which would help the humans, just so that it would be apparent that I’m still innocent and would have time to put in the coup de grace at just the right moment. The revealed Cylon-Boomer has already spent a bunch of his skill cards in other crises, so he doesn’t spend any on this check. We should pass.

The cards are revealed. Three spoiler cards. Crisis failed. Sabotaged again.

I’m gob-smacked. I’m the only other possible cylon other than Boomer, but with the cards distribution as it turns out (I can’t remember the distribution or the participants), the only possible culprit is Tigh. I figure someone frakked up royally and played the wrong colour, but no-one owns up. I say nothing.

Finally, we get to a point where the next crisis will kill us if it hits morale, the fleet is being decimated and we’re nowhere near jumping. It’s my turn. I languish in jail, claiming to be unable to spring myself (entirely true, actually). Tigh’s turn the crisis card flips - it’s the one that is a -2 morale hit if failed. Somehow it gets around to me and I’m the only one who can help it succeed. Obviously I deep-six the check with a high off-suite card and the humans surrender due to morale being in the toilet.

I look up. There are five confused faces. I flip my loyalty card. Cylon...obviously. Boomer is already revealed, but dutifully shows two "you are human" and one cylon card. Baltar flips. Both human. Tyrol flips. Human. Tigh flips... Cylon.

I blink. There are one too many cylons.

I reach over and grab Tigh’s card. Yup. We read it right. Boomer’s card we saw earlier. Mine is right too.

Baltar says, in a wounded voice, "Uh, I thought there was only supposed to be two cylons."

I am baffled, "So did I," I say apologetically.

We never do figure out how it happened, but apparently I somehow shuffled an extra cylon card into the initial deal. This is especially baffling (and galling) to me because I thought I took extra care with preparing the Loyalty deck because the first four-player game we had with a different guest player-teacher, he accidentally left a cylon card out, and we were missing a cylon as a result.

Nonetheless, the evidence is there: I obviously frakked up the Loyalty deal somehow. Three of the five players had been cylons from the very start. The humans never had a chance.