Free Comic Book day is on May 4, 2013. I plan on going to Atomic Empire this year and checking out some of the things they have there. I am also supposed to meet Sean and play some games while we are there. If you like comics check out Free Comic Book Day at a store near you!
When I arrived at game night this week, I met Sean and his wife Tina and we decided to play Ticket To Ride Map Pack #2 – specifically the Switzerland map.
Tina did not fair very well in the game and just barely got over the 50 point mark. I unfortunately for her, blocked her from a few routes she was trying to complete.
Sean on the other hand had some very lucky draw of route cards and managed to win with over 120 points. I fell in second place just around 110 points myself.
We then broke out the 10th Anniversary Edition of Carcassonne. Sean and I have not played this game in a long time, and I almost forgot how much fun it is, especially with more than 2 players. Tina needed a refresher on the rules herself.
There were some strategic plays being made, but Sean and I actually could not pull out a win and Tina was therefore victorious in the end.
We decided to call it a night, even though the night was still pretty early. I’ll have to remember to bring Carcassonne along more often. It was a lot of fun.
Shizzle is a fun little family game that uses a device to dump dice on to the table. Each of the dice has a unique color and number combination. An example of this is there is only one green 4 out of the 6 dice.
Components: 1 Twist and Tumble Dice Cup, 6 Shizzle Dice, 14 – 5 Point Square Chips, 30 – 1 Point Circle Chips, 1 Rule Book.
You score points based on how many dice you can out together before you “Choke” or roll a set of dice that do not work in the combination.
Each die that is in your combination is worth one point unless you get a 6th die in that combination (Called a “Shizzle”).
As long as you are adding dice to the combination you may keep rolling or you may stop at any time and score what you already have played.
In order to add dice to what you already have, you may add a die that is the same color or number of the previous die.
There are 4 things that can happen on a roll of the dice:
1. Choke – None of the dice you rolled will match the color or number of the previous die
2. Shizzle – All 6 dice are used. You can score 6 points or make another player lose 6 points. The last die you played becomes the 1st die for your next turn which happens immediately.
3. Flicker – A line of 3-5 dice.
4. Fizzle – The longest line you can make is 2 points (2 dice). A Fizzle can only happen when you roll 5 dice.
The winner of the game is the person who has the most points once all the points have been taken from the cup.
This game retails for $11.99 and can be found on the PatchProducts.com website.
Overall this is a fun little dice game for the entire family. Although the cup is not needed, it adds a nice little way to roll the dice as well as storage for the dice and chip counters.
Meet The Meeples would like to thank Patch Products for sending a review copy of Shizzle to the team.
I have not done a “Games People Play” post in a long time and I decided it was time to brng it back to the website.
On Tuesday April 2, I attended our regular weekly boardgame night only to find an old friend at the store named Joe. He has not gamed with us in quite a while. I told him Sean and Ben were going to arrive around 6PM. So we waited until they arrived. At that point I pulled out a new game to us. It was Ticket To Ride – Legendary Asia. Several of us had played the original Ticket To Ride, but never the map pack 1.
During our play I was starting to see that things were blocking my way pretty quickly on the Long Route that I had (Which is required for each player). So, I started to concentrate on getting that route marked as completed. While doing that I failed to notice that Sean was getting pretty close to triggering end game. Unfortunately Sean did hit the end game and that left me with two route cards unfinished by one set of destination points of two trains. If I had completed both of them, I would have won the game by 8 points. Needless to say this dropped me almost 30 points and made me come in last place. Next time I will pay a little closer attention to how many trains are left for each player.
The next game we decided to play was King Of Tokyo. At this point Stacy joined us for a 5 player version of the game.
Unfortunately I was eliminiated from the game pretty quickly due to Joe playing the evil claws on me. Anyway, even though that happened, it was fun to watch as the other 4 players played a few more rounds. Eventually due to some very lucky dice rolls Stacy won the game. I really did not see that happening because usuaully the dice gods are not in favor of that perfect type of roll.
The last game we played for the evening was Settlers Of Catan.
We decided to set the Tiles up in a completely random order and also the numbers that go on the tiles in a rando order as well. This made for a tricky game to play due to the layout being awkward. It was still a lot of fun to play this way, because you really had to manage how you traded to get what you needed to win the game. At the last minute Ben made a trade with Joe which gave him the game by one point over Sean. As soon as Sean and I saw the trade being made we both just sat there shaking our heads because we knew the flip of the last card he had was going to be a 1 point victory card.
It was a lot of fun, and I am still going to try to figure out a way to teach Ben this game and some strategies. He tends to do some bad trades which results in great stuff for the person he is trading with. I’ll let you all know how the teaching is going at a later date.
Even though I have been posting to the Meet The Meeples site for a couple years, it did not have it’s own domain and hosting services until last year in March 2012.
There were several reasons I wanted to have a domain name and hosting server for the site. The biggest reason of all was because of the name and a dot com. I wanted the name MeetTheMeeples.com and it was available so I jumped at the opportunity to own it.
The name came to me when I got involved in Modern Board Gaming. I discovered the term Meeple and what it represented which I got from the Carcassonne Wiki Page.
I thought that would be a cool name for a web site but it needed to be more than just Meeple. So, I thought, what would I like to do with the website? That’s when it hit me.
I said this site will share thoughts/opinions/reviews with folks about modern boardgaming. So, with that in mind I wanted you to “Meet” the different boardgames and components of those games, through pictures and words.
Granted, I can not cover all the boardgames that are available to the public. If I did, I would have to somehow talk my way into every gaming company sending me the latest games for free or spending way more money than I would like to spend.
Since I have started writing these postings on the site, I have been listening to many podcasts and reading many other sites postings on games to enhance my knowledge as well. I have many favorites including Boardgame Reviews By Josh, Dice Hate Me, and GamerChris just to name a few.
Anyway, look for year 2 to be even better and with more content. I promise to update more often!
Thanks to all the fans that come back and take a look at my site, and thanks to all the new folks who are just learning about this site. You are why I do this!
-Shawn-
Farmageddon, by 5th Street Games, is a card game for 2-4 players and plays in about 30 minutes time.
Components: 45 Action Cards, 60 Crop Cards, 3 Planting Field Cards, 10 FrankenCrop Cards, and rules.
The play starts by putting the 3 planting fields in the middle of the players. Then shuffle the Action Cards and Crop Cards (Separately). Each player is dealt 2 Crop cards and 3 Action cards. The remainder of the cards are placed face down so that they can also be reached easily by each player.
At the start of a turn, the first player draws 2 Crop cards, then the player has options of which actions he would like to do from the following:
To plant a Crop card, the player will take a Planting Field (as long as one exists in the middle) and place it in front of himself. He then takes a Crop card and places it face up on the Planting field. All Planted fields must be Fertilized.
So with that being said, the player then takes any remaining crop card(s) and places them face down on the planted field to represent fertilizer. If a player does not have a planted field, he must place a crop card as fertilizer on another players planted field. If a planted field has enough fertilizer no more is added.
A player may also play up to 2 Action cards and discard them after the action, unless the card states otherwise.
A player may also Harvest their crops as long as enough fertilizer is placed on the crops to satisfy the requirements. Note: Players may not plant a crop and harvest their crops in the same turn. They must wait until their next turn to harvest, and they can only harvest fully fertilized crops.
Once a crop has been harvested, players take the crop and place it aside to score the victory points that are listed on the crop card at the end of the game.
Overall Impression: This game is a great game to pull out at parties or also can be a great filler game when you are waiting to play something a little more in depth. It’s easy to learn, quick to play, and leaves you sometime laughing at some of the plays that are even made during the game.
The artwork is really well done, and appears comedic at times on some of the cards.
Players fromages 8 to adult will enjoy this game and it is easily put into your pocket to take with you on the road.
Overall I rate this game an 8 out of 10. The game has a retail cost of $15.00 and can be bought directly from the publisher or it can also be ordered through your local gaming store.
Thank you to 5th Street Games for sending a review copy to Meet The Meeples. This will be in our bag of games that gets a lot of play time.
Hey you peeps who follow the meeps, there will be a couple articles on some games coming out this week. Look for an in depth article on Star Wars – X Wings Miniatures and also I will be talking about a game that I recently am starting to demo from Eagle and Gryphon games called “I’m The Boss – The Card Game“.
I also have these for direct sales through me for $20.00 (Brand New in Shrink Wrap from the Manufacturer). MSRP is actually $25.99 (so if you are local to me you can get a copy for $20.00 (No tax and no shipping!). Email me directly if you are interested. If you are not local, I can ship these to you for about $6.00, so your total would be $26.00 (Which is still saving you tax and shipping from other sources).
Anyway, look for these articles later this week or early next week.
Don’t Rock The Boat by Patch Products is a dexterity game where the object is to place a Pirate Penguin on the ship without tipping the ship and knocking off any of the other already placed Pirate Penguins.
Each player gets four Pirate Penguins, unless you are playing a two player game and then each player would receive eight Pirate Penguins.
As play progresses, the player takes one of their Pirate Penguins and places it on the ship. Then the play passes to the next player.
As long as the ship does not tip over and knock any Pirate Penguins over (either on the ship or overboard), the play continues to pass back and forth in the same manner.
Once a player places and at least one Pirate Penguin and another Pirate Penguin falls over the game is finished and the last player who was successful to place a Pirate Penguin without knocking another one down wins.
This game is ideally suited for a younger audience, although it can be played by adults as well. I would recommend this as a great game for younger audiences that may not necessarilly be ready for a game with a lot of different rules. The game also does not require a lot of tim to play, and therefore would keep the attention of a younger audience as well.
The game is at a suggested retail price of $16.99 and can be found online at the Patch Products Website.
I would like to thank Patch Products for sending a review copy to MeetTheMeeples.com.
It’s only 5 days away until the MACE 2012 convention in Charlotte, NC. This is the second year that I am attending this convention. Last year it was in Highpoint NC. Since then they have moved it due to some logistical reasons. It’s a little longer trip, but still should be very exciting.
This year I am also GMing a game called Fleet. My time slot that I will be running this game for others to play will be Saturday Morning from 10AM-12PM. I have also talked to Eagle/Gryphon Games into sending me a copy to give away to the winner of the game. I’m not sure if the copy will arrive before then, so I may have to get the winner’s information and ship it to them once I get my hands on it.
I also have some other “SWAG” to give out to the players while there. That is one thing about conventions, people love “SWAG”. I’m hoping to score some from other people as well while I am there.
This year, I will also be rooming with one of my good friends from our local game club. I’m looking forward to that, since last year I roomed alone.
Anyway, if you are in the Carolina’s and can make it to the con, it’s not too late to sign up. You can even sign up at the door for a few bucks more.
Hope to see you there! Happy Gaming!
You can help us raise money to heal kids in the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Here is how you can help.
1. Visit our web site to learn more: http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=30547
2. Watch my video and I will tell you more
Thanks for your help!