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.

San Juan Sunday

Gillian and I pulled out San Juan by Rio Grande for a Sunday-night game. San Juan (published in 2004) is a card adaptation of another Rio Grande game, Puerto Rico, which was published in 2002 and is the top-ranked game at BoardGameGeek. I bought San Juan in February 2007 (at Amazon, for $28.60). Gillian and I were taking a cruise in March, and I wanted to get a quick, easy and portable game that we could play in the airport, on the plane and/or on the ship.

The game is all of those things and is often recommended as a "girlfriend" game -- having a minimal amount of conflict. In fact it's sometimes criticized as being multiplayer solitaire. Unfortunately, while that makes it a good girlfriend game (and Gillian considers it one of her favorites), I find it a little boring. We've only played it about a half dozen times since the cruise (mostly with just the two of us, but once with Al and Linda). This was the first time we'd played it since last August.

The rules are online, for anyone who wants to check it out. There's also a free online Java version that allows you to play against up to three AI (computer) opponents.

Certain card combinations can generate big victory points in San Juan, and one of my favorites is to combine the Smithy, that reduces the building cost of production buildings, with the Guild Hall, that gives extra victory points for each production building. That's the combo that I was able to build tonight, giving me 12 bonus points and a total of 34. Gillian's favorite strategy is to build the Chapel, which can also produce a number of bonus points. She wasn't able to get it built in time, however, so she finished with 25 points.

Long(er) Shot

We gave Z-Man Game's Long Shot another try Friday night. In addition to the boys and Teresa, Gillian was back home, and Dennis made a surprise appearance.

Dennis won with $270. He bought the winning horse, bet $20 on it and held onto a pile of cash. Andrew was a close second (with $240), followed by Teresa ($175), Gillian ($160) and Patrick ($130). Mom and Non decided to sit out, and I was the banker.

The boys and Tersa still enjoy it, and Dennis seemed to have a good time too. Gillian said that it was "cute." I haven't actually played it since the first go-around, but I can see why it's popular as a party game. It's easy to learn and fairly quick-moving.