An Interview with Grace

I can't remember the first time I talked to Grace about board gaming. She's a college classmate, a member of Chooks and a dear friend. To be able to play board games with friends is a long-term goal but I'm taking it slow. There's a notion about board games so I know my task would be arduous. So I was super happy when she agree to attend our 5th board game session last Mar 4. Officially, she's the 3rd friend I invited and successfully attend a board gaming session. Hehe! The first is Charry, then Judith. As for the opposite...well, I don't wanna recall failures. Hahaha!

She had her first session with us on a Sunday and has played 6 games. The highest number of games to be played first time in a session. Following are the games she had done playing:

1. Ticket to Ride USA          2. Ticket to Ride EU

3. Last Night on Earth        4. Payday

5. Clue                                  6. Pictureka

With Charry's help, I come up with this questionnaire for board gamers. Grace is the first one to answer it. See below for her answers.

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1. What is the first game you've played with us? 

ticket to ride (US)?

2. How was the experience? 

lingaw...like dli ko nahan maundang :))

3. What made you try board gaming? 

curious?gusto makabalo,was invited? :))

4.Did you played other board games before? What are they?

Boardgame ba nang scrabble?

5. What is your favorite game played here? Why was it your favorite?

Payday?ky murag mag anticipate ka if swertehon ka ba

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How about you? What's your answer on the questions above. Drop us a mail. :)

An RFTG+AL Session (BG-VI)

We had our 6th board game session last March, 24 at Migo's residence. I don't know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that only 1 player showed up, Victor. 

I wasn't up to gaming because I got tired of an earlier activity. I begged not to participate but Migo won't let me. I had no choice but to drag myself out of bed.

Migo asked Victor what he would like to play. He picked RFTG (Race for the Galaxy). Migo said it was a nice pick so that Victor's memories of the game will be recovered. He forgot the rules the last time he played with Migo and PJ.

As for me, I have developed a liking to RFTG already. It's no longer a problem playing it. Still, the confidence of being able to teach others about it is low. It took me about 5 games just to understand what I'm doing...a lot more to finally able to build my strategy...and a lot, lot more to be able to win. So you see, it'd be pretty hard to let others warm up to RFTG yet. I still lack the skills to convince them that it's worth the headache. Haha!

The first game was challenging. It was a comeback game for Victor. He won with a score of 52 with Earth's Lost Colony as the starting world and using Blue strategy. Migo came in second scoring 45 with Alpha Centauri as starting world. With a point less than Migo, I came in last with New Sparta as the starting world.

I don't want to accept my defeat so we had another match. I won at 35 points. Victor came in second with 31 points. Migo at 27 points. Later, I was in awe when I realized that I was using Victor's starting planet and his strategy from the 1st game. Because I win, I taunted Migo for losing. Migo wanted another match.

We reached 5 rounds of RFTG. Each round, we decided to use different starting world. Following are the details of each.

1

Player | Score | Starting World        | Win Strategy

Kring   | 44      | New Sparta            | 

July     | 45      | Alpha Centauri       | 

Victor  | 52      | Earth's Lost Colony | Blue

2

Player | Score | Starting World | Win Strategy

Kring | 35 | Earth's Lost Colony| Blue

July   | 27 | Old Earth              | 

Victor| 31 | Epsilon Eridani      | 

3

Player | Score | Starting World | Win Strategy

Kring | 34 |  Epsilon Eridani      | 

July   | 25 | Earth's Lost Colony| 

Victor| 17 | New Sparta            |

4

Player | Score | Starting World | Win Strategy

Kring | 38 | Old Earth

July   | 42 | Epsilon Eridani 

Victor| 27 | Alpha Centauri

5

Player | Score | Starting World | Win Strategy

Kring | 28 | Alpha Centauri

July   | 43 | New Sparta

Victor| 27 | Old Earth

Migo and I won twice. Victor won once. 

After RFTG, we decided to play another game. I picked Alien Frontiers. For me, AL is a game that can be matched to RFTG. Playing them requires extra effort. These games make you think a lot. They are such challenging games.

Victor and I tied at 8 points. Migo got 7 points. I wanted to play another round of AL but since I had funrun the next day, I choose to retire early. It was a fun session still despite the number of attendees. Haha! 

Thanks to Victor for playing with us. The 3 of us is still the perfect attendance players. Hehehe!

I Must Say

The first time I've heard about adults playing board games the first thing that popped-out into my mind was, "Isn't that just for kids?".  hahaha!  Well, you can't blame me.  The only board games that I have played are snakes and ladders, monopoly and other board games that are really for kids.  But after the first session that I attended, now, I can attest to the fact that board games are not just for kids.(the board games that we play)  I always have fun everytime we play that how I wish the night won't end so that we can play more games.  hahaha!  The first game that I played was Robo Rally.  The game can really make you confuse as to where is your left and your right side.  hahaha!  My favorite among the games that we have played so far are carcassone(I won the game on my first time playing the game; beginner's luck), ticket to ride(I really like playing this game even though I don't win and end up always at the bottom. hahaha...) and wits and wager(even if I don't know the answers of the trivia, I still earn lots of points that is why I like this game. hehehehe...).

Board Game Wednesdays I

Finally, the girls have their first board game night at CoffeeCat eBloc yesterday. They have fun playing Ticket To Ride 1910 for 3 rounds. The session started at 8:00 PM and ended around 11:00 PM. The attendees were Kring, Melinda, Grace, Charry and Peter.

Game 1

First game for Melinda and Peter with TTR. First game for all with 1910 expansion.

The Players

 

Kring played red. Melinda played blue. Peter played black. Green and yellow for Grace and Charry, respectively. 

The game was pretty tight. Charry was deducted 17 points for not completing her destination ticket, San Francisco to Sault Marie. She was blocked by Grace and Peter. Kring was deducted 2 points for forgetting to complete her destination ticket, Vancouver to Portland.

Uncompleted Destination

Melinda won for the over-all score of 105 but since Kring won by 1 point (Melinda's total destination ticket: 36 points) in the destination tickets (37 points), she got an additional 15 points added to her over-all score of 98. 

Updates: The Globe Trotter card additional points can only be added to the player completing the most tickets, not with the most points on tickets. 

In play

Final Standing

    

Points

Melinda - 105 | Kring - 98 | Grace - 92 | Peter - 82 | Charry - 50

Game 2-3

Melinda and Peter had other things to do so they left after the 1st game. Grace, Kring and Charry finished 2 rounds together. The girls switch colors for luck. Being bad luck at yellow for the 1st game, Charry opted to use red - winning color of the first round. Kring used the always losing color - yellow (I'm sure Albert would agree because he always use this color. Haha!). Grace picked blue.

 

Standings

  

Game 2 | Game 3

98 | 122       73 | 84         67 | 44

The girls are consistent despite the change of colors. Kring won. Grace came 2nd. Charry is still out of luck which can be attributed to the 2 uncompleted destination tickets. 

Better luck next time, girls!

Where to buy board games in Cebu

The board game selection in the big stores here in Cebu are pretty bland. It’s mostly composed of the traditional abstract games like chess, checkers (dama), and such. The mass-marketed games from Mabuhay Games, a local game publisher, to which their most popular product is Millionaire’s Game, a cheap knock-off of Monopoly. And lastly, the usual suspects from Hasbro and Mattel, like UNO, Monopoly, Scrabble, Pictionary, etc. So you can pretty much ignore these stores when looking for the modern board games that we are after.

Play 2 Learn is a toy shop located in Ayala Center Cebu. They have a bigger selection but still almost limited to Hasbro and Mattel. Some time ago, they had a copy of Settlers of Catan for sale, albeit priced steeply but still, that’s better than nothing, although, I only saw it once. It’s good to check this store from time to time, as you’ll never know, a gem of a board game might appear in their shelves.

A nearby FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) would be pretty awesome to have around as these are hobby-centric stores that caters to board gamers. The nearest to a FLGS here in Cebu would be Neutral Grounds at JY Square. However, Neutral Grounds only stocks Magic: the Gathering nowadays. As I remember, they used to have board games when they were still located at Mango Square a few years back. From time to time, they also carry the current popular CCGs (collectable card games) and miniatures, like Mage Knight, HeroClix, VS, World of Warcraft TCG & Warhammer 40K. But all throughout, their consistent seller has always been Magic: the Gathering. There is one glimmer of hope though, in that they do accept orders for board game which is shipped from the bigger branches in Manila, which carries board games. Hurray for this! To know what’s in stock, you can ask Rod, the owner of the store, or you can lurk theFacebook page of Neutral Grounds Philippines. As they don’t catalog the board games, it’s not that easy to search for the games.

There are some stores that I missed out, like Next Star Hobby Store, which I have never been to and just recently read about in a blog. I will write about them as I go along visit or discover these stores.

This pretty much sums up the local stores for now and as you can see, there is no way you can buy any modern board game right off the shelf anywhere here in Cebu, which is frustrating for any board gaming hobbyist out there. But nevertheless, I stil managed to acquire board games thanks to online stores, which will be the focus in my next blog.

Until next time, may you find ways to acquire that board game you’ve been dying to own.

Session V Report

Playing board games - that's how we spent our first Sunday of March. And it was a time well-spent. :)

We played 8 games and there were 10 people who joined the fun. Grace, a close friend at work joined us for the first time. I'm super happy she accepted my request. I'm exhilarated when she texted me that she had so much fun and will join again next time. Yohooo! The more, the merrier!

Welcome to the club, Mam Gracie!

We had the session at Kesner's place again. This was the 2nd session held at their place. Thanks to them for the yummy diner of lechon manok and liempo. The rest of us chipped in PHP 100 for the drinks, ngohiong, fish and pork belly. Games plus foods...hmmm...if this would continue every Sunday, then might as well make my exercise regimen rigid..or else...you know what I mean. Haha!

Thanks again, hosts!

As I've mentioned, 8 games have been played but that doesn't mean all of us managed to play all. See below for the details.

Apparently, it was a happy session (to me). :D Out of 6 games joined, I won thrice. I am improving. :)

The strongest player for that day is Victor for winning 3 out of 5 games played.

Congrats, Vitchtor!

And the weakest...if you asked me....

Boooooo Paul!

Hahaha!

Till next time folks! :)

Players & Board Games

Our board gaming activity has been active since the start of 2012. Fortunately, we just had our 5th session last Saturday. Wohooo! I’ve been lazy for the past days that I was not able to post something about each session. I’ll make up for the lost times by summarizing the events of the past 5 sessions. Weeee!

Players

Who have attended the most sessions?

Who are the new players?

When was their first play?

Who haven’t come back since the last time they attended?

Who have complete attendance?

Answers of the preceding questions can be found below. Note that this is only the sessions for 2012. I haven't tracked the sessions of 2011. BTW, we just started this activity last September 2011.

People who joined the first time is marked by a bold text.

Games Played

What are the games played each session?

How many games we have?

What are the games we haven't played yet for 2012?

Games played the first time is marked with a bold text.

Standings, winnings and losses for the next post. Stay tuned to know who have the most wins, losses and etc. :)