Bohnanza

"Magtanim ay di biro, maghapong nakayuko."  For every Filipino, I know we are all familiar to that song.  That song is often sang or played in every Buwan ng Wika or on TV when people talked about planting palay.(pa konsenxa sa mag usik2x ug kan-on...hehehe!)  But I won't be talking about that here.  This post is all about my newly found favorite game.  Bohnanza.  Why?  I just like the idea of planting and harvesting.  hehehe!  But on the game, we won't be planting or harvesting rice.  It will be beans - coffee, Garden, Wax, Cocoa, Blue, Chili, Stink, Green, Soy, Black-eyed and Red bean.(I wonder, why there's no Mr. Bean...hahahaha!)

How to Play:(I won't explain too much on how to play the game.)
At the start of the game, the players will only have 2 fields.  The number of cards that they will get at the start of the game, depends on how many players who will participate.  For each player, on his turn, he can do the following: 1. Plant bean cards 2. Draw, trade & donate bean cards 3. Plant traded & donated beans 4. Draw new bean cards.

How to win the game:
Simple, by harvesting the beans that you have planted, you will get some golds, if you are the player who has the highest number of golds, then you win.

So far, I think, I never won any game.  But it is still my favorite game. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the boreds on Wednesday night... You can join our board game session! :) Naa ra mi pirmi sa Pan de Manila sa eBloc, IT Park! From 7 PM - 11 PM, usahay malapas! :P Dili ra mi malain if mu-try mu ug duwa... Ehehe! The more, the merrier! :D

No Thanks

Don't worry, I'm not talking about saying no to playing board game.  I am talking about the new game that I have recently played.  No Thanks.  It's a card game.  There are 33 cards but not all of the 33 cards will be used.  Before the game will start, 9 cards will be set aside, so that the cards won't be in sequence when distributed to the players.  After setting aside 9 cards, the remaining deck of cards will then be put at the center of the table, then the players will be given 11 coins.  The coins will be used during the game.  If the player doesn't like to get the card that he/she has picked out from the deck of cards, he/she will pay 1 coin.  That will go on until a certain player will get that card and the coins that all of them has payed.  Who will win the game?  The winner of the game is the person who has the lowest total of the cards that he acquired.  For example, if he got the cards 35,34,33,17,18,19,21.  Since 33,34 and 35 are in sequence, then we will just count it as 33 and for 17,18 and 19, that will be 17.  So the total for that collection of cards will be 71.  And he/she still have some coins left, we will subtract the number of coins to his/her card total.

The first time I played No Thanks, I won twice(if my memory serves me well...) but after that, I never won again.  hehehehe! Unlucky me.  But it is okay, as long as I had fun.  That's what I am really after for. :p

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the boreds on Wednesday night... You can join our board game session! :) Naa ra mi pirmi sa Pan de Manila sa eBloc, IT Park! From 7 PM - 11 PM, usahay malapas! :P Dili ra mi malain if mu-try mu ug duwa... Ehehe! The more, the merrier! :D

Surviving 'Survive'

Currently 'Survive' is on top of the list of my favorite games. I was actually considering replacing "Ticket to Ride USA" as my all-time favorite.

This game is about survival, as the name suggests. :P There is an island, Atlantis. Your task is to take your people out of the island before it completely disappeared. Taking your people out of the island is not that easy because you have to compete with other people who want to survive as well. And of course, there are perils. There are hungry sharks who won't stop at nothing to eat your people. Whales who are too eager to destroy your boats to make you vulnerable to sharks. Serpents who can destroy both your boats and people. And the one you should be most afraid of, the heartless players in the game who would do just about anything to survive without you.

This game is not for the faint at heart and vengeful people because if you take everything here seriously then you might end up hating your friend for killing 3 of your VIPs (people with 4,5,6 points) even if there are other moves than that.

This is how the board looks at the start of the game.
The colored ones are the people (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue).
Guarding the 4 nearby islands where your people can go to survive is a serpent.
There is a serpent at the center of the island too.
There are 8 boats.

Aside from the game play, I love how attractive the components are. When everything is set up like the above picture, it can surely catch anyone's attention.

Setup
1. Make 'Atlantis'. There are 3 kinds of tiles that would comprise the island. You have the freedom on how to form your island as long as it follows the outline on the board.

Each people of survive has a point.
The accumulative points will determine the winner of the game.

2. Put people. There are 4 players of the game. Each of them will have 10 people and will take turns in placing their people on the island. The 10 people has a point each (see above picture). There are 1 people with points 4,5 and 6. 2 with points 3 and 2. 3 with 1 point.

Note: No 2 people can occupy the same tile.

3. Put boats. Each player will be given 2 boats. You will place the boats on the island. Anyone can use the boat you place. You don't own the boat.


How to play


When all the pieces are setup like the above picture, the player who puts their people first will start his/her turn. Usually, the person who wins the previous game will get to be the first player.

On a turn, the following can be done in order:

1. Make at most 3 moves.
The moves can either be: Move a people to a tile, boat or to the sea. Move a boat. Move a swimmer.

Note: A swimmer is a people who is in the sea space. When your people become a swimmer, it cannot go back to the island anymore. You can only swim until you reach the safe corners. A swimmer can only have 1 move per turn.

2. Open a tile. The order of tile opening is as follows, open the sand(cream-colored) tile first, then the forest(green) then the mountain(gray).

3. Roll the dice. There are 3 components in the dice: whale, shark and serpent. When you roll a whale, you can move it at most 4 spaces. Shark for at most 2 spaces. Serpent for 1 space. You can only move the components if they exist in the board already.

That's it. I think I've blabber most already or at least the meat of the game. It's not complicated right?! Actually, this is just the base game. There are lots of game plays that we haven't played yet. There are components like the squid and dolphin too. We haven't played that yet. I will post about it when we played it soon.

Strategies


There are lots of ways on how to win the game. But it's not guaranteed to work every time. Well for this, you just have to explore on your own when your playing already. I'd be rubbing you off the fun if I tell you about it too.


I hope this post makes you interested to play "Survive"! BTW, I don't mind answering suggestions, comments and violent reactions. :)


Hope to hear from you! =)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For the boreds on Wednesday night... You can join our board game session! :) Naa ra mi pirmi sa Pan de Manila sa eBloc, IT Park! From 7 PM - 11 PM, usahay malapas! :P Dili ra mi malain if mu-try mu ug duwa... Ehehe! The more, the merrier! :D

The Curious Passersby

One time while we were playing "Survive", someone approach us and asked what we were playing. I answered "Survive". I thought it's a pretty lame answer. I should have told him something more and not just telling him the name as if he can't read that in the game box. But I was busy playing then. I couldn't just stop and entertain a curious passersby, right?

Wrong. I should have done something to make him interested. If I really want to create an awareness of hobby gaming in Cebu then I should go out of my comfort zone. I should learn how to keep a curious passersby's interest. I should be more assertive in convincing people to play. The problem is...I don't know how to do that. Most of the gamers today are my friends. Though it was also hard to bring them into this but the friendship we shared created a pass to make it easier. One time, I thought they're into this because I want them to (and because I'm a little 'kulit'). Later on, I realized they're not. They're really enjoying it. Maybe not as much as I do, but they are.

I still have more friends that have yet to join a board gaming session. I was thinking of giving each one of them the chance to learn and embrace something new. Now, I don't. I've realized that this is not for everyone. To love and appreciate this hobby, you need to have 'something' for it. And as someone said, this is not for the superficial ones. 

I still don't know how to keep this hobby amongst the people I've shared it with. I don't know if I can keep it myself either. Only one thing is clear to me as of this moment, I love playing...and as long as I have playmates, then I won't stop.

And maybe, I'll start being an advocate of this hobby already...so the next time another curious passersby approach us, I would be ready to tour him/her around. :)

If you know something how can I be the best advocate, don't hesitate to make an advise okay?!

Board Game Night VI

Migo warned me about bringing light(card & no bulky container) games for our session last night. I don't feel like bring too much stuffs so I just brought Citadels, No Thanks and Bohnanza.

They were all card games. No thanks was 1st played last session. The girls were really enjoying how fast the game is. For the first time, the record was broken. I wasn't crowned the Empress. Melinda got the crown. Grace also broke the lowest score of 5 to 3, of which I hold the title. Last night, I was hoping I could snatched the crown from Melinda. We all are. But Melinda proved to be a brave Empress. After 2 games, she managed to kept the crown. Well, there's always a next time, right girls?!

We didn't have the chance to play Citadels. Though I'm a little sad, we couldn't play everything, part of me seems happy for I'm still the Citadel's Empress. And for the record, I have yet to lose playing it. :D

Bohnanza was our new game for the night. I was a little hesitant to teach them how to play it because I only played it twice. It doesn't even count because the rules are not the same for 2 and more people. And didn't I mentioned I hate reading manuals?! The things I learned about the earlier games all came from Migo. He's always the one who learns the game first. But I don't have a choice. Playing Bohnanza twice was quite enjoyable and challenging so I couldn't make a pass by waiting for him to join our session and teach us. 

I'm glad we played it,  not because I was crowned the Empress again, but because I feel that they are enjoying it as much as I do. Sharing the same feelings of enjoyment towards a game is always intoxicating. I love it when we like the same thing. The clamor for dominance makes our board game nights more exciting! :)

Who will wear the crown next session?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the boreds on Wednesday night...

You can join our board game session! :)

Naa ra mi pirmi sa Pan de Manila sa eBloc, IT Park!

From 7 PM - 11 PM, usahay malapas! :P

Dili ra mi malain if mu-try mu ug duwa...

Ehehe! 

The more, the merrier! :D