Thanks mainly to Yehuda – who hosted and publicized it – the Ra’anana Games Day took place at his Succah on 16 October 2011, the first day of chol hamoed.

There’s a detailed report at Yehuda’s blog, here.

The highlights for me included the appearance of my good friend Marcus, in Israel on a visit from the UK, and Ben and Omer beating up on one another in a game of 7 Wonders…

Shootout at Carson City

I only had limited time but managed two fun games. First up, and new to me, Carson City. This is a worker placement game with a cowboy and Wild West theme. Like many games of the same type, you have a limited number of workers and a greater number of actions. The winner is the player who best manages his resources in competition with the other players.

I took a first turn gamble and went for a bundle of easy victory points, but that was a mistake. Others concentrated on building, and that gave them a momentum of income that I could never catch up to. However, although I knew I was out of the running, it was fun to play. One of the weaknesses, I felt, might be the inability to haul back the leader. You can (gun)fight for choices – which depends on a 2d6 roll plus modifiers for guns you have – which I avoided. Perhaps a bit more aggression might have helped. Marcus, Nadine and Yehuda were engaging in lots of fighting, however, and the luck factor seemed high. For example, although Nadine won, I suspect Marcus or Yehuda only lost out by a gunfight. In other words, one dice roll from victory! Nadine played well, though, and I wouldn’t want it said she was lucky to win; luckier?

Looking back, this would definitely be a game I would play again. I suspect, however, it will take me more than a couple of plays to master, but it delivered a good, fun, enjoyable experience.

The Wonders of War

After the Wild West, I moved back in time to a six handed game of 7 Wonders. I like this game a lot, but am not sure about the balance between skill and luck. I did spot that Yehuda’s score rocketed with his plays in the final Age, especially as he had three cracking Guilds on top of a power allowing him to claim a 12 VP build.

I managed to build a reasonable resource battery and completed my wonder. I did well in the Science cards, but rubbish at everything else. Too often, I had to ditch cards for fear of passing them on. Also, Ben and Omer spent a lot of time waging war on one another. That was entertaining to watch, but it did rather restrict their chances of winning. I was impressed that Omer did so well, so maybe he wasn’t that out of it.

All in all, a fun time, and another first for me: a games day in a succah! Thanks to Yehuda and all who came.