Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas Gaming 2011

Over the Christmas period I played games with Wendy Alan and Lewis and as a small task beforehand I asked them all to nominate a game that they would like to play. They each gave me two which made my task easier. The games we played I hope to review over the next week, but as a small appetiser here were their choices.

Lewis  . Duck Duck Go and Vikings
Alan . Stoneage and Kingsburg
Wendy . Egizia and If Wishes were Fishes
Kevin . Meltdown and The Christmas Game

Sadly Stoneage and The Christmas Game did not get played, however instead we did play Scalextric, Ace of Aces and Satanix.

I had also done a little quiz as a filler, four sections were pictures only and as I cannot attribute the sources I will not reproduce them here, so you are left with the first seven sections. Wikipedia was only one of the many sources used for this quiz. Feel free to try your luck, answers will be published in 2 weeks time.

The sections are :-

1.      Music – 1pt each except 8 (2 pts), 6, 9 & 10 (2 pts) 1 for the song & 1 for the artist
2.      Fictional Places – 1 pt each.
3.      Alias’s and pseudonyms – 1 pt each
4.      Literature – 2 pts each, one for the book and 1 for the author.
5.      Loosely Sporting – 1 pt each except 42 (3 pts) and 45 (2 pts)
6.      Pot Luck – 1 pt each
7.      Games – These are games which you probably have played or are at least on display in Alan’s house or at Kevin & Wendy’s. – 1 pt each.

MUSIC

1.      What shape is the body of a Balalaika?
2.      Which land did Puff the Magic Dragon Live in?
3.      The washboard and tea-chest bass are normally associated with which musical genre?
4.      After the Beatles which is the biggest selling group ever?
5.      How long is the Camptown racetrack?
6.       What is the best selling UK single with 4,865,000 sales?
7.      Who has the most No 1 singles in the UK?
8.      What was George Gershwins one and only Opera called? For a bonus point what was the title of its opening aria?
9.      “It’s close to , there’s something evil lurking in the dark” Is the opening line to which song? (1pt each for song and artist)
10.  “ Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, All that junk inside your trunk.” Is the opening line to which song? (1pt each for song and artist)

 FICTIONAL PLACES

11.  In which series of books does the building “Hogwarts” appear? 
12.  In which TV series does the residence “
31 Elm Tree Avenue
, Purley” appear?
13.  Blandings Castle appears in many books by which author?  
14.  32 Railway Cutting’s, North Cheam appears in which series? 
15.  Honolulu Heights, Barry, Wales appears in series 3 of which TV programme, now filming series 4?
16.  Which family lives at
1630 Revello Drive
, somewhere in America?  
17.  742 Evergreen Terrace, appears in which American TV series?  
18.  Which family lives at 368, 12th floor, Nelson Mandela House, Dockside Estate, Peckham, London? 
19.  Burgh Island in Devon is the real name of an island that inspired the setting of a best selling book that was serialised in the Daily Express in 1939. Who was its author?
20.  Ambridge is the village setting of which series?

BY ANY OTHER NAME :: The following are the birth names of famous people; who are they better known as? To help a little, I have added in which century they passed away where applicable.

21.  Costadinos Contostavlos (Singer)
22.  Gnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (d 20th) (Nobel prize winner)
23.  Roy Harold Scherer Jr (d 20th) (Actor)
24.  Ellis Bell (d 19th) (Writer)
25.  Eldrick Tont Woods (Sportsperson)
26.  Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Singer)
27.  Eileen Regina Edwards (Singer)
28.  Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili (d 20th) (Politician)
29.  Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (d 20th) (Spy?)
30.  Tiziano Vecelli (d 16th) (Painter)

LITERATURE :: The following are the first lines from popular / famous books. Book and author required, 1 pt for each.

 31.  “If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.”
32.  “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.”    
33.  “At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.” 
34.  “You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”  
35.  "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
36.  “Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug."
37.  “The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn."
38.  'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast."
39.  "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
40.  “Marley was dead, to begin with."

 LOOSELY SPORTING

41.  Which Jamaican holds the world record in the Mens 100Metres, achieved on 16-9-2009 in Berlin Germany?      
42.  On February 8th & 9th 2011, He played for 25 hours against 604 players, winning 580 (97.35%) of the matches, drawing 16, and losing 8 thereby gaining a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the most simultaneous games. A point each for his name, discipline and nationality.  
43.  The Superbowl has the winners of which two “leagues” going head to head (acronyms accepted)?
44.  This sport is judged on accuracy where a final position like the hand of a clock scores best at to the competitor. Sometimes judging from the side is required where for example, an angle from the ground of 84 degrees is better than 68 degrees. What sport is this?    
45.  Gholamreza Takhti (27/8/30 – 7/1/68) won 1 Olympic gold, 1 Asian Championship gold  and 2 World Championship golds between 1956 and 1961. He was most famous for his attitude to sport, an example being when he heard that his opponent Alexander Medved had an injured right knee. Not once during the match did he attack this weakness. He lost the match but showed that he valued honourable behaviour above victory. What discipline did he win his golds in? 1 extra point each if you can name the discipline he was a world reknowned practioner of and his home country.
46.  What sport made its debut as a demonstration sport in the 1988 Olympics; again was a demonstration sport in the 1992 Olympics, missed the 1996 Olympics but then gained official medal status in the 2000 Olympics?   
47.  Svetlana Masterkova holds the Womens World Record set on 14th August 1996 in a distance for which the 6th May 1954 is a landmark date. What is this distance?
48.  In which sport do 5 Shimpan watch proceedings?    
49.  In which sport does a “Mark” get rewarded with a “Free Kick”?     
50.  Past champions include Chris Anderson, Helen Thorpe and 14 year old Jo Guest. It is a British sport with at least 200 years of history behind it, taking place over a 200 yard course with speeds of up to 70mph. What is the name of this sporting event?       

POT LUCK

51.  Using their atomic numbers only, add Boron, Carbon and Nitrogen; multiply the result by Helium and then finally add Hydrogen. What number do you end up with?
52.  What is this symbol commonly known as   ?            
53.  What is any of various lateen-rigged sailing vessels, typically having a raised poop, a raked stem, and one or two masts, used along the coasts of the Indian Ocean  called?
54.  Wuhai, China & Valdivia, Chile; Christchurch, New Zealand & A Coruna, Spain. What do these two pairings have in common?          
55.  What is a Steam Calliope?
56.  Although its authorship is in question, who is the “Book of Lemmas” (or at least its contents) generally attributed to? 
57.  What were the 2 gangs in west side story (1 point for each)?
58.  In Computer engineering what does VLSI stand for?
59.  Halley’s Comet will next make an appearance during which year? 
60.  A unit of mass equal to 200mg is more commonly called what?

GAMES :: These are fairly well-known games. I have selected a tell-tale rule or two from the game which may be slightly altered to avoid too easy an identification. All you have to do is name that game. ~x~ refers to words taken out of the clue – you do not get them that easy.

61.  A chain containing 11 or more hotels is safe and cannot be taken over by another chain.  
62.  The Judge picks a green ~x~ card from the top of the stack, reads the words aloud, and places it face up on the table. / For a more leisurely and thoughtful game, allow everyone except the judge to play a red ~x~ card in each round.
63.  After players have decided whether they will jump out or stay in the ~x~ ~x~ , the ~x~ pilot must decide what he or she will do.
64.  Moving back to a
Tortoise Square
costs nothing.
65.  A player cannot sink a green hill piece before all the yellow lowland pieces have sunk.
66.  Then turn the crank clockwise in the direction of the arrow and watch the action.
67.  Mounted Indians cannot enter or pass over the squares marked with trees, boulders or battlements. / General Custer with his 2 guns, is allowed 2 shots (at the same or different opponents).
68.  When a player draws a card, he looks at it and may either keep it or pass it on face down to any player who does not already have an Empire card. / A player must not look at an Empire card passed to him until all players have received one.
69.   Escape Equipment cards are obtained in a similar way to the Escape Kit, but by placing two POW’s in each room where the required equipment symbols are shown.
70.  You may only build a settlement at a tile intersection and only if all three of the adjacent intersections are vacant.

Friday 2 December 2011

Martian Dice

Martian dice is a simple fun game designed by Scott Ames and produced by Tasty Minstrel Games. It is new this year and is aimed at ages 8 and over (though the rules can be understood by a 6 year old). It is for 2 or more players. but I would not go much above 8 because of the downtime between turns, with large groups you tend to get 2 or three players who run the game whilst others socialize/chat giving a nudge to other players when its their turn, strategy is limited to your own turn so knowing what others have done is not really important.
The tube it all comes in
The container is small yet still too large for the game, it could easily have been sold in something a third its size and even more annoying it is a tube. I have a thing against tubes because they are a pain to store, they just do not stack properly with other games or tubes and each company seems to pick completely different sizes to sell their products in, they also leave gaps round them on shelves. Still they are better, only just mind, than blister packs which some small games come in and which have no discernable stacking shape at all.
The Rules
The game consists of one sheet of rules and 13 dice. Each die is a normal 6 sided die with five possible faces. A chicken head (yellow), a human head (blue), a cow head (white), a human tank (red) and a laser canon (green) which is shown on 2 of the faces. The aim of the game is to score 25 points over a series of rounds, when someone achieves 25 or more points at the end of their turn the round is completed and victory goes to furthest past the post.
The 13 Dice
On your turn you throw all the dice, put aside all red faces (these are the evil defending Earthlings) and all the dice of one other colour having done so you may re-throw the remaining dice and likewise collect all red faces and one other colour. Other than the laser canons (green) you may only collect the remaining colours once in a set of throws. i.e. Yellow, white and blue
– the abductees – you are a Martian after all, all chickens cows and humans are strange creatures to be examined and questioned at length later back on Mars. You may stop whenever you want and score up and if you have a turn where you cannot collect any non-red dice because of the above restrictions your turn will end and you may score up.
The possible faces
Before you score there is a pre-requisite and that is that your laser canons (green) must equal or exceed the number of defending evil Earthling tanks (red), if successful then you may score the other coloured dice – your abductees. Each scores 1 point per die and you get a bonus of 3 if you have all 3 different abductees represented in your collection. The dice are then passed on for the next player to have their turn.

Gary shows complete contempt for the puny Earthling forces - and all for 2 points!
I would like to thank Sally of Spirit Games http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/ for introducing this game to me.On the whole it is a quick simple filler game, lasting about 3/4 minutes per player. I have played it with a number of groups and each have enjoyed the game.  It is fun but requires little in the way of pre-planning or forethought in that you just do the best with what you have got, there are decisions to make, but not big ones so I can see it sliding to the back of the shelf after a while for me, though it may remain a sticker with some groups.