World Cup ... Again

A third game this afternoon of The World Cup Card Game. This time Andrew led Germany to a PK victory over the US. My Netherlands squad beat the Ivory Coast in the consolation game.

World Cup Rematch

With Andrew back in town, the boys and I tried out a three-player game of The World Cup Card Game. Andrew piloted Spain to the Cup, with a 4-3 final against France. (Germany beat England 4-1 in the Round of 16 in our card game, just as they did in today's actual game.) Andrew's Cameroon lost to Patrick's Algeria in the consolation game.

There's enough luck in the game to cause the occaissional upset and keep it interesting. But the better teams do have a slight advantage under the game's mechanics. Each team's card has a small number of icons that affect the game play to reflect their relative rankings. (Note that this is very primitive -- the game is not at all in the vein of a typical Strat-o-Matic or APBA game.)

Each player controls multiple teams, meaning that you have to make choices regarding which teams to "support" with the limited number of stronger cards. I may want to play my best cards to help the US win its match, but if I also control Germany, I may want to instead play the best cards for Germany -- figuring that they have a better chance of going all the way to the finals. It's a nifty mechanic that gives the better teams an advantage beyond what's printed on their cards.

The game is very enjoyable, but it is tied to its theme. Thus, while it's a blast to play this summer during the World Cup, I can't imagine pulling it out much once the World Cup is over (sort of the same way that Christmas music just "feels wrong" once the holidays have passed). The game's rules could certainly be applied to the Premiere League, for instance. And I'm hopeful that the game's creater, Shaun Derrick, will do this (once he's recovered from today's game).

Wonder Bred Wins by a Nose

Friday night at Mom's meant another round of Long Shot by Z-Man Games. Andrew is still at the Missouri Innovation Academy in Springfield (Missouri), and Non sat out, but the rest of us had one of the closest races ever.

Patrick continued with his strategy of only placing bets -- without ever buying a horse. It worked this time, as he won the game with $240. Dennis bought the race winner, Wonder Bred, and finished with $215. Gillian and Mom tied for third with $190. Gillian owned the second-place horse, Sure Lee, but Patrick had more money bet on the horse, which is why he was able to win. Mom owned the third-place horse, Rex in Effect. I finished with a mere $70, and Teresa finished with only $50.

In the seven weeks since I bought Long Shot, we've played it five times at Mom's. (We took one week off and played The Adventurers once.) I think it qualifies as a success.

World Cup Action

The 2010 World Cup is in full swing, and I'm loving every minute of it. I like international soccer a lot more than US Major League Soccer, and this year's World Cup seems to be full of drama. It's also nice because both boys are really into soccer this year. We spent much of the spring playing FIFA 2010 World Cup for the Wii.

A few weeks ago, I ran across a description of The World Cup Card Game from a British Company, Games for the World, at BoardGameGeek. The game's designer, Shaun Derrick, created a World Cup boardgame in 2006, that allows gamers to recreate the 2006 World Cup. (Gamers can also buy expansion packs that can be used for virtually every World Cup from the 20th century.) This year he adapted the game to a simpler card version for the 2010 World Cup. The game won the Best Cardgame award at the 2010 UK Games Expo.

The game isn't available (directly) in the States, but I was able to order it from the publisher using Paypal. I ordered the game on June 12, 2010 and the Royal Mail was able to get it to me on the 21st. The game cost $13.35 (including shipping, after conversion from pound sterling).

Patrick and I were able to give it a try today. The US won the Cup, defeating Germany in the final. (Italy and Spain took third and fourth.) The scores were completely realistic -- with most games finishing 0-0 or 1-0, with the occaissional 2-1 or 3-2 game. The biggest blowout was Ghana defeating Australia 4-0 in group play.

I'll write a more thorough review once I've had the opportunity to play it a few more times, but our initial impression was very positive. The game consists of 64 cards -- one for each World Cup team, plus 32 action cards. The photo (taken by Nic Chilton) gives some idea of what the cards look like.

More Long Shot

More of Z-Man Game's Long Shot last night. Andrew is still at the Missouri Innovation Academy in Springfield (Missouri), and Teresa had to leave early, so we were short-handed.

Gillian bought the horse Eight is Enough, and the horse ended up winning by about eight spaces. This, combined with some well-placed bets, gave Gillian the win with $310. Patrick tried out his new strategy of not buying any horses, but using all of his money for bets. He had $25 on Eight is Enough, but that wasn't enough, as he finished second with $265. Mom had the second-place horse, Six Gun, and finished with $205. Non had the third-place horse, Slow Jenn, and finished with $200. I was far behind with $110.

Everyone but me finished with more money than last time, and most folks feel that we're understanding the game better than before. Dennis is supposed to get off of work early next Friday, and he has requested that we play Long Shot.

Eco Fluxx

Patrick and I played five games of Eco Fluxx this weekend. The Fluxx series is published by Looney Labs, and all of the games have the same basic mechanics. (I ordered the game from Amazon on May 19th, for $15.99.)

The game starts with two required actions on each player's turn: (1) draw a card, (2) play a card. Players try to collect (and play in front of them) cards called "keepers." The names of the keepers vary depending upon the particular Fluxx game. For example, in Eco Fluxx, the keepers are items from nature (such as plants and animals); in Family Fluxx, the keepers are things like cake and presents. (Other Fluxx games include Martian Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx and Monty Python Fluxx.)

In addition to keepers, much of the deck is composed of "goal" cards. These cards give the combination of keepers that a player must have in order to win. For example, in Eco Fluxx, a player may win if he or she has the keepers bats and caves. Another goal allows a player to win if he has fish and any player has worms. Every time a goal card is played, it replaces the previously-played goal card. Thus the victory condition may change 20 or 30 times during a game.

Other cards change the rules mid-game. For example, a player may play a "new rule" card that allows players to draw four cards each turn. Later, a player may play a card that changes the draw to three cards (and the draw-four-each-turn card is placed into the discard pile). Finally, "action cards" add more chaos -- allowing players, for example, to steal a card.

Mya (aka EmeraldYam) has posted a Playmobil Legions Review of the original Fluxx game at Geekdo. The comments below her review will give you some idea of the mixed emotions that Fluxx generates. The uncertainty and randomness don't appeal to everyone. Patrick and I enjoyed it.

I had never heard of Fluxx until I listened (a couple of months ago) to Episode #31 of Game On! with Cody and John. Since then, two Looney Labs games (Fluxx and Chrononauts) are our most-played games of the year.

Friday Night at the Races

Dennis came to Mom's for dinner tonight, and he had requested that we play the horse-racing game Long Shot, by Z-Man Games. Just like last time, Dennis bought horse #4, Slow Jenn, and led her to victory. But he didn't end up having enough money bet on her, so he came in second in the money with $155. Mom owned horse #6, who came in second. In addition to the purse for coming in second, Mom had $20 on the horse, paying 5-1 to place -- she ended up winning the game with $250. Horse #7 finished third, and so did Patrick, with $130. I finished with $65, and Non finished with $40.

Trivia Answer

The answer (of course) is that Haney quit his job to spend a year on the Costa del Sol (with a stack of reference books) writing questions for Trivial Pursuit. According to the Wikipedia entry, the game was released in 1982 and sold over 20 million copies in 1984. The game's rights were purchased by Hasbro in 2008 for $80 million.

I remember that it seemed as though everyone I knew received the game for Christmas in 1983. I never really enjoyed it that much -- although I did appreciate all of the various incarnations and knockoffs. I also remember creating a set of questions one week in the mid-1980s for a game night at my mom's house -- the categories were all about our gang of friends.

Trivia Question

Chris Haney passed away last Monday at age 59. Haney was born and raised in Canada and was a photo editor at the Montreal Gazette until he quit in 1980 to pursue a business idea. What was the idea?

The Adventurers!

We celebrated Patrick's birthday tonight. Number one on his wishlist (other than a Thierry Henry jersey) was a 2009 game by Alderic Entertainment Group (AEG) -- The Adventurers. Each player in the game represents an Indiana-Jones-like explorer making his or her way through a Mayan Temple. The adventurer's goal is to gather as much treasure as possible, while avoiding traps such as rolling boulders, lava pits and rickety bridges. The traps are built with 3-D plastic pieces -- similar to the 1963 Ideal game Mouse Trap (although not as elaborate).

The game was nominated for The Dice Tower's awards for Best Family Game, Most Innovative Game and Best Production Values. Tom and Melody Vassel also have a video review at YouTube.

Teresa was able to pick a lock (on her second try) to get a 9-treasure-point card near the exit, and that was the difference, as she ended up winning with 19 points. Gillian came in second with 15 points, I had 10, Patrick had 7. Andrew had 24 points, but was run over by the giant boulder before he could reach the exit. At one point I made the mistake of ending my turn on the rickety bridge. Gillian decided to try to cross the bridge at the same time, and only some lucky rolling prevented our combined weights from causing the bridge to collapse.

Dennis, Non and Mom sat out, but everyone who played it liked it. Dennis requested that we play Longshot next Friday night.