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Tag Archives: Kachina

Egizia & Kachina

Tonight we’re going to start playing a two-part Twilight Imperium game using the expansions. Because of this, I thought I should get last week’s game in here for the record books.

Once again we tried out Egizia. We liked the game the first time we played it. But now with one game under our belts, we wanted to try out our new strategies. Whatever strategy Mike was using, it was working. Throughout the entire game he had a very solid building force with lots of food, stone, and builders. We all we pretty sure he was going to win; all except Ben. Ben held out hope that he might pull off a victory. That’s not to say Owen and I were doing horrible in the game—we weren’t. We just didn’t seem to have the resources the other two guys had accumulated. The game ended in a titanic struggle for either Mike or Ben to win it all. After numerous recounts, lawsuits, and general unrest, Ben was declared the winner by one point. Ben had 138 points, while Mike had 137 points. I ended up with a respectable 129 points, with Owen one point behind me at 128.

Egizia is a fun game that plays quickly. Even for a bunch of “Turn Angst” players like my group.

We still had time for a short game and chose Kachina. Kachina is one of Mike’s favorite games and the rest of us like it too. It’s another game where “Turn Angst” can get you as you struggle to get the most points out of every play. Mike seems uncanny in his ability to score big points no one else sees.

For a while Mike and I were neck and neck, with Mike always taking the lead. I feel behind towards the end of the game and Ben replaced me as Mike’s main contender. Owen was just struggling to stay up with us for most of the game. But as usual, Owen’s big point surge came near the end of the game.

Mike did win with 70 points. Ben had 65 points. Owen had a surprising 64 points and I came in fourth (not last) with 59 points.

Chaos Steve

Ticket to Ride, Ingenious, & Kachina

On Monday night, Ben was King of the Games. Owen was gone on a trip through the tornado infested land of Mississippi, so it was just the three of us. Without Owen our gaming equilibrium was thrown off causing all kinds of strange things to happen; such as Ben being crowned King of the Games.

Our first game of the night was the Ticket to Ride card game. Mike and I could not stop Ben from continually placing many cards in his on-the-track card pile. (These are the cards you use to complete your destinations at the end of the game.) At the end of the game, both Mike and I had trouble completing all of our destinations. That meant negative points for us. Ben on the other hand completed all of his destinations; even the extra ones he had taken. He trounced Mike and I who were battling to not be in last place. It was close, but I was not last.

Next we played Ingenious, a tile placement game where your score at the end of the game is your lowest score within all your colors. Let me explain. The board is made up of hexes. The pieces are two joined hexes and each hex of the playing piece contains a different color. (Each color also has its own symbol, but we’ll just talk colors for now.) The idea is to score points by placing a piece such that the colors on it lie next to already-placed pieces with the same color. In our game, Ben once again was able to score vast amounts of points in all colors, nearly completing his entire score card. This time I failed to beat Mike and ended up in last place.

kachina
The last game of the night was Kachina, another tile placement game. This time Alex, Mike’s son, joined us too. Oh, what an awful game I played. I was in last place the entire game–usually way behind everyone else. Ben and Alex vied for first place most of the game. Mike got the biggest score of the night, nine points, which I gave him because of my previous tile placement. As the game drew to an end, Mike and I were scurrying to not be beaten by a nine-year old! Oh, the shame. Ben eventually won. Mike ended up tying the nine-year old and I came in last…behind the nine-year old. Well at least I was beaten by the best.

Chaos Steve

Rheinlander & Kachina

rheinlander

We’ve given up on ever seeing Owen again. He says he’s coming back to the states soon, but I’m beginning to doubt it. Undaunted Ben, Mike and I played Rheinlander. Rheinlander is another great game by Reiner Knizia. In it, each player is trying to create duchies along the banks of the Rhine River. You do this by playing knights in the numbered plots along the river. As you take over the plots, you also take control of castles, cities, and cathedrals–these score you points in the game. During the game each player expands and strengthens their duchies, or else they may be taken over by a neighboring duchy.  You can score points during the game by losing control of your duchies—yes, losing control of them–but you score significantly more points at the end of the game by holding on to them. This is a point I neglected to remember early in the game and it cost me a few points at the then…not that it mattered. I came on strong at the beginning, but the middle and all important end of the game belonged squarely to Mike. Mike beat us easily. I sight two reasons for this, Ben and Ben. I also blame my disastrous last place finish on Ben. As you can see, Ben was pretty busy during the game—picking on me when he should have been picking on Mike! It was too late when he realized his folly; that Mike was the real enemy. Mike was and is the real enemy. How many times must I say it!

kachina 

There was a clamoring to play Kachina again, so we did. This has quickly become one of our favorite tile placement games. The rules are simple, but the play is quite strategic as you try to score as many points as you can while not opening up any big scoring opportunities to you opponents. Once again Mike came on strong in this game with Ben and me lagging behind. He was also able to actually score some big points from the Hummingbird card—our personally least favorite card. As the end of the game drew near, it was apparent that Mike was going to be difficult to beat. I was steadily closing on Mike, but right at the end he jumped ahead by 9 points! It’s hard to get nine points with just a couple of cards in your hand.  Lady luck was with me though and I had saved just the two cards I needed to not only earn 9 points, but to earn just a few more and win the game.

Poor Ben was 10 to 15 point behind Mike and me. Some might call this poetic justice for his crimes during the previous game. Some might also say that such a devastating lost was too good for him. That only a sound beating with lead-filled games boxes would do. Some might clamor for his head! Some might be plotting right now to…well, we’ll save that for next time.

Chaos Steve