HunterCon and 3rd Sunday Gaming

This weekend I gamed more than I have in a long time.  Friday night and Sunday were both great sessions.  Saturday was spent with the Scouts, orienting the new boys coming in, so the whole weekend was pretty tiring.  No gaming with the Scouts, but the list of games I played Friday night and Sunday follows.

Promotional Image from Z-Man Games

I will start with Sunday, since it covers a game we have played and I have talked about before.  There were only four of us from the group who could make it.  I started to teach 7 Wonders, but I really wasn’t prepared.  After a few minutes of fumbling around, I put the game away.  Teaching a new game well is so important that I didn’t want to keep stumbling forward.  Instead, we pulled out Pandemic, and let it beat us up some more.   (For those of you who are new to this blog, I reviewed Pandemic last week.)

We took six beatings.  Pandemic is a really difficult game to win with four players.  We were so close in two of them, but then this game always seems to be close to me.  It is one of the things amazes me with this game.  The good news is that we really learned some things about the various roles, and so should play better next time.

Friday night I was invited to HunterCon.  This is “house convention”, in which someone has an invitation-only event.  I am not sure how many were actually invited, but at least several dozen people were on the list.  Friday night there were only a little more than ten attending.  Considering I had only met our host once, and no one else, smaller was probably better for me.  The entire group was very welcoming, and I felt at home right away.  These good people confirmed what I have seen in the board gaming hobby community at large; they are a caring and helpful group of people who love playing games.  I am glad to be one of them.

Image by Ender Wiggins

I learned two new games Friday night.  The Resistance is a game for up to ten players, playing in 30 minutes or so, in which all the players are part of a resistance group going on missions.  A portion of the players, however, are traitors to the Resistance, secretly sabotaging the missions.  The object of the game is for those who are loyal to the Resistance to successfully complete at least three of five missions; the saboteurs are trying to prevent it.  Each side wins or loses as a team.  After only one play, I will say this would be a good family or casual game for older kids and adults, but keep in mind that I have only played it once!

 

 

Image provided by Surya Van Lierde

The second game was Battlestar Galactica, which is based on the newer TV series.  (For a plot synopsis, go this Wikipedia article.)  This is once again a semi-cooperative game with traitors, but is more elaborate than The Resistance, since it creates a narrative that parallels the TV show.  Up to six players are on the Galactica attempting to get to the planet Kobol to win the game.  Some of those players secretly act as Cylon agents attempt to stop this.  Players win or lose in teams.  The game we played had elements of some expansions in it.  Since this was my first time playing it, (even though I own the base game!) I wasn’t exactly sure which rules were from what.  Nonetheless, from playing and from reading the base game rules, I think this game is probably longer (3+ hours) more involved than many people would enjoy.  I am pretty sure there are those in my 3^rd Sunday group who will have fun with it.  For casual and family play, I have to give this one a thumbs down.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend spent playing great games and meeting new friends.  Games tend to provide an opportunity to make friends, since we can get to know each other while having fun.  This is one of my favorite things about the hobby.

If you played games this weekend, I would love to know what you played.  Drop me a line, or put a comment at the bottom of this post.

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