Before the weekend started our win totals were tallied and Bob had an eight game lead on the rest of the group with thirteen.
"THIRTEEN" wins for Bob while the rest of us were keeping each other company, tied with a grand
five wins. So things were a bit different this weekend.
The mission: win as many offerings as possible while limiting, or better yet eliminating, Bob's wins. Jennifer, Heather, and I (Greg) accepted the challenge and threw ourselves at it with all the courage we could muster -- worrying all the while about Bob's gaming prowess. We each succeeded in varying degrees, but collectively could not keep Bob from adding a few wins during this whopping
TEN-GAME WEEKEND. Right on to round one.
Here's a trick: withhold calories from Bob. This seemed to work very well with our first game as we decided to get to it before eating our yummy African sweet potato and bean stew for supper -- made by none other than our personal chef Heather. The game was
Catch Phrase. This electronic game offers 10,000 different words and phrases grouped into categories. We split into two teams of two with the couples pairing up. Our goal was to get our life partners to guess the word or phrase on the game screen and pass the electronic game unit on to the other team before the timer ran out. When the timer ran out, the team not holding the game was awarded 1 point. Conveniently, the game device seemed to run out of time consistently just as Bob was getting a turn, "Buzzzt" (poor partner Heather). The game would have ended without the Thaynes being awarded a single point if I hadn't accidentally used part of a phrase in an attempt to get Jennifer to guess it. Final score: Seven to One -- Wendts. Bob's win total: Zero!
Now it gets serious. After some calories we stepped up to
Caylus -- one of Bob's own games. We had a tough time learning this game the first time. We were in Mexico, and I remember a gaming session in an airport. Fun times.
NEWS FLASH -- While writing this post, an announcement is being made. Bob was awarded the prestigious "Microbadge Design Award" on
Board Game Geek. There is much cheering and many congratulations for Bob's rare achievement as I pause from my writing. For more details, see
Microbadge Design Award.
Back to the present and the challenge at hand.
Caylus is a medieval French themed game that poses each player as a master builder attempting to earn prestige by building parts of the castle, town, and resource acquisition locales. We play this game with a fairly traditional pattern. Heather starts the game with commanding lead. Somewhere along the way the rest of us start to catch up. The last time we played, there was no catching her. Somehow this time was different. Jennifer, Bob and I made a mad push at the end of the game and made this a raucous French battle. As usual, Heather got out to a good lead utilizing a strategy of only working on the castle. Bob and Jennifer looked like they were fighting for second most of the game. Eventually, Bob and Jennifer overtook Heather. The picture to the left was taken while I was trying to figure out how to become relevant. This is the last round. Note my black score piece on the bottom of the board is last while the green one is in first (that's my smart and very beautiful wife). It looked hopeless for me. Any of the other three looked well suited to win. It seems, however that I was able to sneak up on the whole group and surprise Jennifer who had made a final push by building a lot of the tower wall on the castle. Gold is always a difficult resource to acquire, both in real life and in Caylus. Somehow I was able to grab and then harness enough of this resource to construct the buildings necessary to become the most prestigious master builder and take a surprising "triumph." Bob's win total: still Zero!
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| This was a pose. I did this originally at the end of the game with a bit more surprised look. |
Time to relive our childhoods. For some of us it was the first
real playing of
Chutes and Ladders, but for Heather this was a reunion with a special link between her and her father. Each night, her patient and oh so loving father would consent to playing it with her. After this session, Heather gained an increased appreciation for her father's love and patience. As most undoubtedly recall, this is not a complex game, but it is full of opportunities to keep the game going on for longer than any of the GK Rhino's expected. We were playing a Dora the Explorer edition. Technically, this is Hayden's game, but it's on the list for love of a childhood memory. After moving along the path, climbing ladders, and sliding down chutes for what seemed like hours, Jennifer finally moved to the finish and won the game. Bob's win total: surprisingly, still Zero! (after playing Chutes and Ladders for longer than we expected, however, we were all happy just to see someone win.)
We got out our spy glasses, dectective notebooks, and our very suspicious attitudes as we set out to find Mr. Boddy's killer in
Clue Master Detective. This spin on the classic: Clue, offers basic rules similarities and familiar rooms, weapons, and suspects. Ultimately, there's more of everything, including the use of a pair of dice to make movement from room to room quicker. A nice little addition are spy glasses scattered throughout the common area to allow a player who touches that square to peak at a random card from another player's hand. Ultimately the player with the best notes, a little craftiness, and just a bit of luck can make an accusation of who took out Mr. Boddy, in which location, and with what weapon to solve the case and win the game. Our session had a nice mix of luck, good sleuthing, some missteps, and some great craftiness by each of the players to keep everyone guessing. Jennifer ultimately put together all the
Clues to solve the case and grab another weekend win. Bob's win total: Shockingly, still zero. O_o
Let's party:
Cranium style! Here's a game made popular around the same time that Starbucks was going global and completing their takeover of every city block in America. In fact the two made a bit of a team for awhile as Cranium products found themselves prominently displayed on Starbucks' shelves. Cleverly combining creativity and logic into a single game, Cranium became a popular way to encourage groups to gather and laugh at one another. It had been a while since any of us had played this one. So we had to refresh on the meaning of symbols and the fine points of the rules. We played as couples again. This time, Jennifer's and my roaring start never really made much noise. We missed our first attempt to answer the card's question and were forced to head down the "slow" track. Bob and Heather decided to make up for their rather nonexistent play during Catch Phrase. Not only did they get on the fast track, but they often rolled from purple, allowing them to jump to the next brain. Just as we thought we were starting to catch up, they would zoom on. In the end either their ability to work together, a bit of luck, the calories now in Bob, or a combination of the three were just too much. Bob and Heather took a well deserved victory. Bob's win total: now one. Mission: somewhat less successful. (We are not surprised).
A theme got underway as we unpacked a spin-off of the last game,
Cranium Hoopla. Here was an opportunity for everyone to get a win as Hoopla is played by the group against the clock. Faced with fifteen minutes, twelve cards, and the pressure that Bob had to hurry off to a hockey game, we got going. We started off well with each player able to get the team to guess a couple cards using one of four methods: alliteration, scribbling out a quick sketch, miming, or utilizing our understanding of what we learned in kindergarten regarding what is bigger and smaller than the item on our card. Unfortunately some of us were less prepared for the game style or the pressure and kept adding cards to the game. In the end, the buzzer sounded and we still had cards left. So instead of having winners, this game found a bunch of losers. Well, Bob's win total still remained one.
How about some more Cranium? This time in the form of a cute little card game called
Cranium Zigity. As with all Cranium games, it offers multiple ways to play -- in this case the goal is to be the first person to rid themselves of their hand of cards. It was looking like an even race. Players used cards to add to other players' hands and each person had managed to whittle their numbers down. I was down to 1 card when I was offered a set I could not play and had to add some cards to my hand. In the end, the leading gamer was able to pull off another for his count. Bob's win total, now up to two. Mission becoming less and less successful. But what could we expect.
Now on to one of our favorite games.
Dominion has a nice game play for strategy and luck along with a relatively short time requirement. The game is not named for dominance, as I first suspected when it was first introduced to our group. Rather, the idea is to grow a one's dominion or region of land. The game does have a downside. Many times, players find that the best strategy is to minimize action cards and simply fill their hands with cards representing purchasing power in the form of silver and gold. This time we had an interesting mix of action cards, and we all chose a different mix to gather our land. In the end, the run on mid sized land and two of the more favored action cards lead to such a quick game that Jennifer's strategy of buying land every chance she got paid off as she became the biggest land baron and won the game. Bob's win total: unchanged.
For our next game, we pulled out
Dutch Blitz. This is a Skipbo style game that has everyone playing at the same time to cause a great deal of stress and twitchy muscles as everyone struggles to get their cards on the right piles before someone else takes their spot. After a test run to get those less experienced up to speed (ish), we jumped in. Heather and I made a valiant effort to keep up, and each of us won even won a segment. Bob employed some quick moves and even a little stacking to push Jennifer. In the end, no one could match Jennifer's quick mind or reflexes. Bob's win total: Really, no change?! Wow.
Now for the final game: The Big. Which is otherwise known as,
El Grande. Ah, this is an old favorite of mine that was almost ruined for me by our drive to employ as many expansions as possible at once (some of which were not meant to be played together). That was a long time ago, and we have since seen the error of our ways. This was the unadulterated original (the expansions all stayed in the box). This is the one that got away. As we played the last round, it was clear that one player was going to take it away easily. I don't even remember all the details, but I do remember that I had a plan to play a specific sequence of cards, and got upstaged by the big man himself. Also, we all foolishly attempted to take the same region by placing all our
caballeros that were hiding in
el castillo into the same region. In effect, changing very little. So,
Senor Bob was able to control that last round and win
El Grande. Bob's win total: now Three.
It was a valiant effort, and the mission was somewhat successful. Bob ended with three wins. That's still more than either Heather or I gained. As it turns out, we have good weekends and bad weekends. After a weekend with zero wins, Jennifer claimed the most wins for this weekend with 5 of 10 total (and that includes the game that everyone lost, so really she grabbed 5 of 9 total wins). Great job, Honey! As for Heather and I, well, we're still hoping our weekends come along. With Jennifer's help, I came away with two wins and Heather added one with Bob's assist.
In the end, we're all still
Chasing Bob.
Written by Greg Wendt
