Justin Easley came over for a little two-player goodness Friday night and I introduced him to a trio of games. First up was BattleLore. Justin has played Battle Cry before, so he had the basics of the command and colors system under his belt already. I started us on Agincourt as a warm up so that he could get a handle on the slight differences between Battle Cry and BattleLore. I played as the French standards and Justin was the English (pig dogs) pennants. Through a bit of luck I smashed Justin 3-1 in the warm up. After he had the basics, we jumped to the first basic scenario incorporating lore - Wizards and Lore. Though off to a fast start, Justin used his lore to climb back into the game leading to a 5-5 tie. As we raced to the last point, I thought I had a very good shot with a lore card that would give one unit +3 dice for the round - and I had a Darken the Sky card (allows ranged units 2 attacks). I figured that putting 10 dice on a unit gave me a good shot at finishing it off. Unfortunately for me, Justin had the lore card to cancel mine and I had to put that plan on hold. My next lore card however was very similar - +2 dice and lore symbols were hits. It didn't matter. Justin demolish the last unit he needed for a win before we could "fight in the shade".
Justin next asked to try out Crokinole. As I don't get this off my wall as often as I should, I was happy to oblige. I explained how the game is played and also explained that I suck at the game (true). We played the alternate scoring (most points scored in a round is worth 2, ties are 1). We managed to spaz around back and forth the whole game and I managed to drop a 20pt shot on the last round to seal this game.
After spending a bit chatting, we looked for something shorter to end the night. Justin asked to try Ingenious. Again, this is a game I really like that I don't get to play enough, so I was happy to pull this one out too (despite it being buried in my stack of games). I explained the scoring and how to play and off we went. My experience let me take advantage of the baord, while Justin's lack of the same hurt him some. In the end, I had a low score of 9 to Justin's 6. He did enjoy it (as did I), so hopefully we'll get another shot at playing it.
1 comment:
what a great night of gaming. getting 3 games in that i've been itching to play for awhile. and i think i agree, Battlelore has an edge over Battle Cry. thank goodness for those lore defense cards!! crokinole - i can see that one becoming a classic in our house when the kid(s) are older. i'd be willing to play a round everytime i came over!! ingenious - solid abstract game with a bit of luck in the draw of the tiles...i really liked this game.
had my first play been with jerry one crokinole or ingenious, i think my initial opinion would have been greatly swayed.
hey jerry, flick the puck already!!
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