|
|
| Tuesday, November 30, 2004 10:54 PM |
| When You Play the Game of Thrones… |
 by Fëanor |
...you win or die!
Well, I died.
But more on that later. First, some links!- Dilbert makes veiled comments on the recent wave of complaints and lame self-censorship, with hilarious results.
- ESPN hires some new employees who are a bit out of place in their new surroundings.
- And another Star Wars related link: Penny Arcade's latest comic. It also makes reference to a game I want, so it's doubly, or perhaps even triply, amusing.
As I said I would in previous posts, Sunday I had a day of games at my place to celebrate National Games Week. I expected maybe three or four people would show up. Well, ten people showed up, and we played lots of games and ate lots of food and had a lot of fun.
Attendees: Peccable, TrackerNeil, TrackerNeil's brother Sean, Sean's girlfriend, Sarcasmo, PinkHairedGirl, BabyRaven, Yagathai, and Dave.
To get back to the title and first few lines of the post: Peccable was good enough to bring a nice big box of games, which included the Game of Thrones boardgame, which I'd been itching to play for some time. It's a war/strategy/resource management game based on George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels. If you haven't read these yet, find copies and read them now. It's the best fantasy since Tolkien.
Anyway, the game is quite complex and difficult, full of painful decisions and strategical considerations. My experience with it was like my experience with most war strategy games--I found it interesting but frustrating, and I lost pretty badly. But it does a pretty good job of recreating the feeling of the books. Each player takes the role of one of the major houses from the first book, starting out in the areas that those houses occupy at the start of that book. Each house has the kinds of strengths and weaknesses that you might expect, and leader cards allow you to put the major characters from your house into play.
PinkHairedGirl sat quietly (well, except for an ocassional squeak) at the bottom of the map, gathering resources, picking away at the strength of the Baratheons (Dave) with occasional raids and attacks, and tricking the Lannisters with silent guile, until by the final turn she had come out on top.
Meanwhile, I sat at the top of the board as the Starks, flailing uselessly against the Greyjoys (TrackerNeil, who eventually came in the backdoor and sacked Winterfell, which was appropriate, but very shaming), and trying to protect myself from those damned Lannisters (Yagathai). I ended up not getting much of anywhere.
Sadly, I didn't get a chance to play Cheapass's newest release, the long-awaited Jacob Marley, Esq. But much gaming was had, a lot of which I was actually not involved in, as we were split into two groups most of the day. I understand the werewolves kicked butt in Betrayal at House on the Hill. There were also games of Acquire, Puerto Rico, and Modern Art, and some fighting on the GameCube with Soul Calibur II.
Also, Sarcasmo and I bonded. She seems to like the games that I love but no one else will play with me. We played a game of Diceland, and a number of games of Brawl. Good stuff.
There was also a deluge of donuts. Which is not a game, but occupied us for most of the day. I went and picked up two dozen donuts that morning, unaware that my guests were bringing a dozen more. It was hard work, but we managed to eat quite a lot of them.
At lunch, we descended on a local sandwich place in full force and demanded food stuffs. Later, we bowed before the King of Pizza. To finish the night off, poppy and I and all our remaining guests played a giant game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture edition, which features DVD questions for the wedges and for the win.
All in all, quite a good time. Sadly, that evening I started to get a sore throat. I was hoping this was just from talking and shouting a lot all day. But this morning it's even worse. Sigh. I guess winter is coming. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
