Game Day

Saturday Jan. 12, 2008
Steve Wicklund stopped over with his kids in an effort to get a little gaming in and to let our kids run around a bit. Mission accomplished. We started with some BattleLore. Steve had not yet played with lore and it had been a while since we played, so we setup the Wizards and Lore scenario (the first lore scenario in the base set). I played the French to Steve's English army and used my familiarity with the system to race out and best him 6-2. Steve managed to keep me from using any lore effectively, which was probably for the best. After feeding the munchkins, we switched side. Steve noted that I only needed to kill three armies to win on both sides. I killed his third army after we tied 2-2, so we called it there. Steve had a little time left before he had to take off, so I pulled out Babel, which I had received in a math trade last year. This is a two player game that I knew nothing about. Basically, each side is trying to build temples using a hand of cards to "pay" for the temple levels as well as for their special abilities to steal or harm the opponent's temples. After one playing, we both said it was ok. I beat Steve and it was obvious that one major flaw was the game's randomness (due to the cards). Oh well, probably just end up as a trade sweetener now.