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

Meet and Greet Part 1

Fortunately, because we've been together almost every lunch and snacks time, me and my best bud here run out of things to talk about today. I remember about the game session this Saturday so I talked about it. I ended up telling her about my current favorite: Ticket to Ride. I told her about this blog too. :)

And it was positive. She got interested to play Ticket to Ride. But I wish she would be interested in other games too. Hehe! But then telling her to scour the net for the game play of all the other games would be too demanding of me so I have decided to make an overview of all the games.

So here it is...

The games as of this time based on my classification.

Kring's Choice (Manager's Choice!)

I highly recommend these games for starters. Carcassone and Ticket to Ride are simple yet super fun competitive games. Let's face it, board gaming is not YET mainstream in Cebu (there's a board gaming event in Manila). People have this twisted idea about it. Board = Bored! I was one of those people before. Glad my converter is patient. Eventually I embraced the activity wholeheartedly.  Today, I look forward to every game sessions. Isn't it fun to meet with friends and play rather than talk about other people's mess the entire time?! Hmmm!



Classic

I hate these games at first. You see I I have this thing about memory so remembering things overwhelmed me. But as soon as I had the grasp of what the game is all about, I was hooked. They're definitely one of the games I love to play over and over and over again. These competitive games are timeless.

Up Next:

Detailed overview of Carcassone, Ticket to Ride, Race for the Galaxy, Alien Frontiers and Survive.

Experience: Ticket To Ride

[image source: gateplay.com]

Among the games that comprises batch 2, I like Ticket to Ride most. It is not because RFTG is super mind-boggling nor was it because LNOE was a little tragic (and boring). I like it because I never get tired of playing and winning. Haha! Plus it's really super easy to learn. No qualms learning it at all. Trust me!

I hate to lose and playing TTR gives me an equal opportunity to win. The entire game play is simple. Actually, everything in it is simple but surprisingly fun. I think new board gamers out there can easily appreciate and will surely love it on the first game. I hate to admit that Carcassone is no longer my favorite.

So without further ado, let me take you to a one-on-one trip with my new favorite, Ticket to Ride!

How to Win?

Most people start with the game play but I'm not most people. Haha! I'm mostly interested on winning so when a new game is introduced, I always asked how to win it.

Winning is easy but about how you'll do it, depends on your luck (train ticket) and strategy (destination ticket). You only have to accumulate the most points among your opponent. This can be played by at most 5 players.

How to Play?

You can actually read the game manual but I'll just assume that you're like the lazy me who's easily overwhelmed by manuals. Let's take a short cut.

note: boardgamerscebu is transferred to this blog.

Per turn, each player can only do 1 action. That action can either be any of the following:

1. Get a train ticket.

note: boardgamerscebu is transferred to this blog.

There are 8 colors of train tickets as shown above. You will use these tickets to claim a route (action no 3). There is one special train ticket, the multi-color. This can be any color you want it to. For example: If you like to claim a route that needs 4 pink train tickets and you only have 3 pink, you can use a multi-color to make it 4.

In getting the train tickets, please note the following:

(a). You can get all the 2 tickets from the train ticket gallery or train ticket pile or a combination of both.

(b). In getting a ticket from the gallery, you must replace that ticket from the pile. If in opening, the ticket is multi-colored, you cannot get the 2nd ticket anymore.

(c). If you get a multi-colored ticket from the gallery, you cannot get a 2nd ticket. If not follow (b).

2. Get a destination ticket.

note: boardgamerscebu is transferred to this blog.

At the start of the game, you will be provided with 4 train tickets, 3 destination tickets and 45 trains. You can keep the 4 train tickets but you have an option to discard 1 destination ticket. Destination tickets are your goals. If you're able to complete the route, it will be added to your score, subtracted otherwise. So you must not commit if you're not sure whether you can finish the route. You will use your trains to connect to your destinations.

3. Claim a route.

As stated above, you will be given 45 trains. You will use that to reach your destinations. Each point or places comprises one route. You can only claim 1 route per turn. See the colors on the board? Each of them match up to the colors of the train tickets. If you want to get a four train length of route with a color of pink, you need to have 4 pink train tickets (or see 1).

You will given a point in each claim.

I think that's all for this game. Tell me if I miss something out. :D Hope you can play ticket to ride soon. It's really a cool and nice. It's worth every penny if you buy one! Hehe!

You can check the following sites too for a review and some stuffs about ticket to ride.

http://gamesbyjohnny.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/ticket-to-ride/

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&objecttype=boardgame&q=ticket+to+ride&B1=Go

Found it while searching for TTR pics. Pictures here are courtesy of the above sites. I just add a little extras.

Bye bye!

Till the next game!

Race for the Galaxy: The Understanding

"Don't judge a book by a first read!"

Migo told me after our 5th Race for the Galaxy game last Wednesday when I told him I think I am enjoying it already. I have my first last Friday before we left for a trip to Northern Mindanao. It was a disaster. I didn't understand what I'm doing at all, so I told him I might not be playing it again. He was devastated so I withdraw my words. I told him I will try my best next time.

We arrived from the trip Tuesday. I have a video shoot so I went to office early and in return, went out early. Since Migo is on leave, he urged me for a game session. It was not a game session actually but a Race for the Galaxy session. I can feel Migo's perseverance for trying hard to make me appreciate the game thus I also tried my hardest to understand it. The first game was still like my first try. I didn't know what I was doing at all. I told him maybe I was not really cut out to play it. I wanted to quit. Migo won't allow me. We had another. I don't know if it's luck or just my cards, I actually loss to Migo by 2 points only. Migo was of course exhilarated because I finally understood the game. Actually, I still didn't but something's changed. Losing to Migo by a slim points awakened my competitive side and give me a new will to completely understand everything about RFTG.

I first knew about RFTG last month when Migo decided to buy the game. He wants me to check it out too. He doesn't want to buy a game I wouldn't think of playing. Reading the reviews overwhelmed me. I told Migo I might not like it. He asked me to re-consider. In the end, I was as excited as he is to play the game. On our first session with batch 2, we were not able to play the game because we were having a hard time understanding the game play. The overwhelmed feeling was back.

Yet after playing RFTG for 5 times, I think I have misjudged it. It was not really that difficult at all. At first, you will really feel it's difficult due to a number of things to remember but as soon as you familiarize everything then that settles it.

I'm not pro yet but I wanted to be. I want to beat Migo. I understood the game now but I can't transfer my knowledge to someone else yet. I still need time to fully and confidently understand everything. I'm taking my time. :D

Experience: Pandemic

The long overdue blog. I almost forgot I miss this if not for Migo's reminder. :D Read a detailed and fun pandemic review here.

What I like about Pandemic is that it can be very challenging and thrilling at times most especially if I'm in top condition to play, which means I'm not sleepy and is playing at my own choice. Haha! You see this is really Migo's hobby and though I learn to love it already, there are those times that I didn't really want to play but still does because he likes it. This occurrence is just rare though because often times Migo is considerate, which makes me love him more and support whatever he likes.

I've played Pandemic for I think 10 times already. Win some. Loss some. Most of those are played with only 2 players, Migo and me. I noticed that without the role "Medic" in play, there's really less chance of winning. Without it, you need the exact number of actions to eliminate disease cubes in a city. If all disease cubes are used, you will lose so you really have to monitor the usage. A maximum of 3 disease cubes can exist in a city, in excess creates an "outbreak", which can infect all connecting cities and increase the "outbreak" count. Only 8 outbreaks are allowed. If you reached the 8th outbreak, you will lose. Aside from the cube and outbreak count, another area to look out for is the epidemic rate, which will determine the number of infection cards to draw. Your epidemic rate increase if you draw an epidemic card. The number of epidemic cards exist in the deck is considered the difficulty of the game. There are 6 epidemic cards.

Migo and I always played with 5 epidemic cards. We played with 6 once and lost. We have yet to conquer it. 

The object of the game is to discover the cures for all disease. You must not forget that. At times in play, you will be very busy cleaning the infected cities that you'll lose sight of it. 

Pandemic is a cooperative game that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as playing Carcassone. I like to do things on my own. I hate the collaborating part because almost always my moves are not entirely my own. :D

Experience: Carcassone

Among the 3 treasures Migo acquired so far, I like Carcassone the most :)

Why? Because I love the idea of getting scores from putting thieves on the road, monks in cloisters (churchs), farmers in farms and knights in Cities. The connection of the tiles amazed me so much. I always love to take a picture of the final map we ended having after every game. I wanted to collect every possible map we can form using the 72 tiles :D I'll post the maps we have so far soon. :)

Also, I love that the game is fast-paced. Migo and I can finish a game play for less than 15 minutes. With this game, I think I have more chances of beating Migo that's why I love it so much :D You see, I'm pretty competitive :D Pandemic and Forbidden Island are both cooperative so I cannot display my competence :D I always make Migo do the decisions :D I'm just a supporting character :D But with this, I had the chance to be the main character :D

I'm excited because Migo will buy the expansions soon. He talked about it last night. There were 5 expansions. Uh-uh, sorry I cannot chatter much about each expansion because due to Migo's long talk last night, I have forgotten almost everything about the expansions. I only remembered a few like there were 2 river expansions, additional big meeple, cathedrals, hotels and inns, and pig in farm which would double the farms value. I would convinced Migo to write in detail about this soon. I hope he will. :)

I'll talk about Carcassone playing experiences next time :D

This game is really cool when the players are really competitive :D Anything can happen :) Hehehehe! 

Ayt Bert, Mr. Road Developer? :D I hope Migo's friends can read this cause they can surely testify how it's like to play Carcassone. :D

Experience: Forbidden Island

At mehmento, I posted about our first game session with Forbidden Island. If you want a thorough review, go to this site. 

What I like about Forbidden Island?

Hmmmm! I like it because you can play it in a short span of time. The game play is quite simple, though I'm having a hard time understanding everything at first. I'm glad I have a geeky boyfriend to make things easier :D I never read the manual, Migo does. He just direct me what to do. That keeps everything fine to me. :D

Since it's a cooperative game, I sometimes find it boring. I love competition. :D

We haven't been into this gaming thing full time yet but when we will be soon, I'm sure we can find ways to make playing with Forbidden Island a little bit challenging. :) Or if you've been playing with it, then you find something worthy of sharing, share it to us :)