Eat the Germans!

Yesterday we (me, Scrabblette, the kid, and Sammy the puppy dog) went to visit our friends Marianne and Ronja, because it was Marianne's birthday. At the left is a photo of Sammy greeting Ronja at my front gate when she came to visit once. Sammy and Ronja like to hang out together, complaining that we won't let them inside. When we do let them inside they get very excited and run around knocking things (like people) over.

Anyway, Marianne has a lot of German friends, so the party roughly consisted of two groups - the English-speaking gamers, and the game-speaking Germans. In the afternoon we united for a game of Werewolf, capably moderated and explained by CyberKev (who deserves a medal for always moderating and rarely getting to play). There were 15 of us all up, making it the biggest game of Werewolf I've played, and the maximum size supported by my deck. We had two werewolves, a seer, and 12 villagers.

Of course, I got to be a werewolf. I was kinda looking forward to relaxing on the deck, eventually being eaten and having a quiet afternoon, but the luck of the cards meant I'd be prowling the streets all night and having to shave twice in the morning.

On the first night the werewolves awoke, and my co-lupine was Nina, one of the German people. I knew from experience that killing someone I knew to be a threat was bad, for example, my kid usually makes life difficult for me in Werewolf, but killing him would throw suspicion on me, so he had to live. I didn't know who Nina knew, so we couldn't easily choose a German person for the same reason. However there was a guy who was neither a gamer nor German, so we killed him. Poor guy.

Morning came, and I instantly adopted my villager attitude. Working on the same theory that I'd used to avoid killing the kid, I asked who knew the guy who had been killed. Wolfgang immediately jumped on me, saying "you're asking a lot of questions, maybe you're the werewolf!" which of course was very true. I think though if I'd been a villager I would have done the same thing. Luckily, though, the rest of the group responded with "you're very quick to accuse, maybe YOU'RE the werewolf!". I decided to keep my mouth shut and see what happened.

Eventually the group had 8 votes to lynch Wolfgang (an unfortunate name for this game - it means "he who goes (hunts) like the wolf"), including Nina but not including me - I didn't need to be seen to be murderous, and they strung him up. Night came, and when Nina and I opened our eyes she suggested one of the German guys, so I agreed. Morning came, and I just quietly watched. Nigel and Marianne were leading the discussion, and was working on theories involving the people sitting near the dead people - Lucia, Hubertus and Nina. Again the tall poppy syndrome struck, and Nigel was lynched. It was dangerous to say anything in this game! It's not really like me to be quiet in Werewolf, but I might have been even if I was a villager, with this crowd.

Hubertus suggested Nina may be a werewolf. I wasn't clear where he'd got that idea from - maybe he was the seer? I kept him in mind. Hubertus is easy to trust, and was a potentially dangerous adversary. I didn't want to speak out against him though, so I had to see which way the village was leaning. I think they lynched Lucia next (this time, because she was too quiet). As Marianne had been throwing some accusations in the completely wrong direction, Nina and I ate her that night - best to give those suspicions some sustenance :-). Sorry, birthday girl! For some reason though, the crowd turned against Nina again. Hubertus pointed out that she had been quick to jump in on some of the bandwagon votes, which I'd noticed was true, so maybe she'd been a little careless. I'd been very careful about that - only voting to lynch Nigel when the day was really dragging on and we had to lynch someone to progress the game. Anyway, on the second and final vote to lynch Nina, I voted with the villagers. Sorry, partner! I even joined in with the cheering when we discovered she was a werewolf.

That was just in time for the village - I think we were down to 8 players now, and if two of them had been werewolves that would have been terribly difficult. The village was still in with a chance, with only me standing between them and victory.

I was still trying to figure out who the seer was. Hubertus didn't obviously have any information he shouldn't have. Someone did ask what the seer knew, and Scrabblette gave an awkward answer, so I suspected her as well. However I thought if Scrabblette was the seer she would have checked me out, and she hadn't been speaking against me, so I wasn't sure. I did have the feeling though that the seer was in the group of three to my right - Scrabblette, the kid, and Newman - so I killed the kid. It wasn't him.

With the noisy people out of the game the quiet people were forced to talk more. DrAnnalog is always very quiet, Miss Jane started to speak up, Werner started to speak up. Suspicion was still aimed at the German end of the table though, and the villagers chose to lynch Lucia who'd been under suspicion for a while. She was not a werewolf. Overnight, I killed Scrabblette who was indeed the seer, and had only checked out innocent people, most of whom were dead now.

With only 6 of us left, the argument boiled down to "who voted to lynch Nina?" and "who didn't vote to lynch Lucia?". I was on the villager side of both of those votes, so there was still no suspicion on me. At this point I was working with DrAnnalog and Hubertus to figure out which of Werner, Jane and Newman was the remaining werewolf. That was a good position for me to be in. It was clear that all of us were on the right side of one of those votes, which didn't help at all. In the end we decided to kill Werner. There was no good reason to, but that certainly didn't worry me! It was someone else's idea so I went with it!

Overnight, I killed Hubertus, leaving DrAnnalog, Newman and Miss Jane in the game. I completely trusted DrAnnalog, but I was suspicious of Miss Jane and not sure about Newman. At this point I was playing a fairly active role as a villager, which is of course what a werewolf needs to do. DrAnnalog was looking at Miss Jane, and that was whom I was hoping to lynch as well, so when Newman indicated he would agree, we strung her up.

With Miss Jane died the last hope for the village. Overnight I ate one of the remaining villagers, and woke the other up in the morning and ate them as well because I'd run out of cereal. A glorious victory to the werewolves!

Nina, despite dying played a fundamental part in the wolf victory. She helped some of the early bandwagons get rolling, and my betrayal of her was an important factor in the victory. For example, when Miss Jane was defending herself, her argument was "I voted to lynch Nina, so I'm not a werewolf", to which I responded "I voted to lynch Nina too, so you have to die."

The closest I felt I came to being caught was right at the very beginning, when Wolfgang accused me. Good work to Wolfgang, but I was luckily able to retreat and let him become an example to others. It was an excellent game, though stressful and tiring. BTW, Germans are crunchy.

Kutschfahrt

One of the games I've been most looking forward to, Die Kutschfahrt Zur Teufelsburg, has arrived in CyberKev's collection and been played (by me) twice now. I rate it a 9.

The first time we played was with 10 players which was a little unwieldy as any venture with 10 people will be. The second was 6 players and was much smoother. Eight players might be good as well.

So here's what happens: there are two secret societies and half the players are in each (I don't know what happens with an odd number of players). The societies are so secretive that you don't know who else is in them until this particular coach ride to Devil's Castle. There are also some items with various powers. Some of the items are objects which are sacred to your society and your team (secret society) is trying to collect all of those. But you don't know who's on that team.

On your turn you can trade an item with someone or attack someone. If you attack other players support the attacker or the defender. Whoever gets the most support wins and may either steal an item from the other player or look at which secret society they're in. When you trade an item you offer an item to another player and they may accept or reject. If they accept they give you something in return. Trading is assisted by the fact that some items have special powers like "when you trade this away you draw another item" or "you must trade if this item is offered to you".

On your turn you may also declare victory by nominating enough members of your secret society that all have sacred objects and have at least 3 of them between them. In that case the whole secret society wins (or loses if you're wrong, Evil Count). Thus you want to (a) determine who the other members of your secret society are, (b) get the sacred items, (c) let the other members of your society know if you have the items.

A typical sequence of play goes like this. I'm in the Brotherhood of Open Secrets which needs 3 keys to win. I attack the Evil Count. Everyone rushes to defend him. I lose. He looks to see what secret society I'm a member of. On his next turn he offers to trade a key to me which suggests he doesn't mind if I have the items needed to win... so I guess he's in the Brotherhood as well. As the game proceeds you make similar linkages to other players.

I was particularly happy with the conclusion to the game I played this evening. I'd determined that the Evil Count and Minotower were in the Brotherhood with me. I had a "secret bag". The power of the secret bag is that when you give it away you get to draw an item, and when all items were drawn that secret bag turned into a key. On my turn there was one item left and I had the secret bag so I offered it to Minotower. He took the bag and gave me a key. I drew the last item so his bag turned into a key. He had a fistful of items and on his turn he declared victory, claiming that he had two keys and I had one key. Woohoo!

Kutschfahrt reminds me a lot of Werewolf but with more analysis and less emotion and lying. I like the analysis and deduction, and the cards are very pretty, so this game is a winner for me. With experienced players I could see the opportunities for deception increasing, and that's attractive to me as well. I need my own copy.

All Games can be Improved by the Addition of Special Powers

Well, so says CyberKev. Personally, I think special powers would ruin Nacht der Magier - whoever got the Anti-Gravity power would easily win. But I was thinking about special power cards and how they could be used in Werewolf. Of course each special power card could have different powers for the different roles, and you only get to use the one you actually are. Here are my ideas (so far):

• Persuasion (all roles): use this card once only. You get 2 votes in a lynching.
• Far Sight (seer): if you identify a werewolf, you get to check another person straight away.
• Clouded Moon (wolf): during the night, show this card to the moderator and swap your role card for a spare villager role. You are still a wolf but if you get lynched you will appear to be a villager.
• Infectious (wolf): rather than killing during the night you may choose a villager to be infected and they become a werewolf.
• Lucky (all roles): the first time the wolves or the villagers try to kill you you reveal this card and manage to survive.
• Peeping Tom (villager): once during the night you may peep at the werewolves. If they catch you they kill you automatically.
  

OK, that's all the stupid ideas I have right now. Your contributions are welcome.

A Long Unexpected Party

Some readers will know that it was my 40th birthday on Tuesday. Tuesday was actually a pretty miserable day with the pressures of parenthood precluding any chance for relaxation until the kid and I went to watch the fire dancers at Shorncliffe in the evening. Even then the kid wanted to go home while I wanted to stay. But anyway, my darling sister had booked me for a birthday celebration on Saturday night. I knew she was planning something, but I didn't know what. So when I got to her place and found a good swag of my game buddies on her back deck, I was pretty surprised.

Let's make a list of them so I can forget someone and offend them forever. CyberKev & Mrs CyberKev, Critical Mass, Bertie Beetle, Badhoe Lapdance & Mrs Lapdance, the evil Count von Walduck and the countess, Smee and two baby Smees, Mikey, not to mention baby sister and Cuddly Pete, Uncle Scott, the Elsom Horrors and Speedy. When I arrived a game of Apples to Apples was in progress, and after a while we switched over to Werewolf moderated by Critical Mass (villagers won). Throughout the evening we played Make'n'Break, The Great Balloon Race, Poison, and Ca$h'n'Gun$. Some of the guys not involved in one of the games played Coloretto as well. Sister and I played Deflexion which an abstract strategy game, and conditions were not good at all for that sort of game - I don't deal well with small children climbing on the table when I'm trying to think. I moderated a game of Werewolf (wolves sister and niece won), then sister moderated a game (wolves Cuddly Pete and Bertie Beetle won). The evil Count and I played a couple of games of Hive very late in the evening as well. To anyone who wasn't invited: I would have invited you, if I'd been asked!

It was a pretty amazing evening. The kid couldn't make it as he was off with his mum, and boy, he'll be cranky when he finds out. I received a nice selection of pressies, including Hive and I'm the Boss, so Saturday was much more birthday-like than Tuesday was! Thanks to sister for organising everything, and to CyberKev and Critical Mass who advised her, and thanks to everybody who came along and made it a great time.

Arrrroooooooo!!

We had seven players at Cyberkev's house last night. Seven is the worst number for gaming (after one) because there are very few games that take seven, but the group is small enough that you don't really want to split into two groups. Besides, whenever we split Cyberkev and I end up being in separate groups and then I can't beat him.

But we had a go at seven player Werewolf - one moderator, one wolf, one seer, four villagers, werewolf kills on the first night. That means the first lynching is five players and the second is three players. With five players there is not really enough to go on, and with three players the game is on the line it's all very intense.

We played five games, but I will just tell you about two of them. In the first of them, I was the werewolf. On the first night I killed Mark for practically no reason whatsoever. Also he had been involved in the intense end of the previous game, and the killing might have been seen as revenge. I noted during the lynching debate that killing Mark made no sense whatsoever. It is somewhat traditional with this group to lynch Trevor simply because he's a bloodthirsty loose cannon, and that was where the villagers were looking. I spoke out in his defence though, because if I was a villager I would have thought he was innocent. We ended up hanging Justin instead, which was good because Justin is far too clever. The next night I killed Ann because she also was harmless - if I was after big noisy targets I would have taken Trevor or Kevin. That left me, Trevor and Kevin to do the final lynching. Kevin made a very convincing case that he wasn't a werewolf, but I told him I had to vote for him. I managed to convince Trevor to join me, and I won the game. It was very intense, doing my best to look like a good villager while lying through my teeth. (note to other players: did I get that story right?)

In the second last game, I was the seer, and came out during a lynching to protect someone I knew was innocent. Justin claimed that he was the seer, which of course told me he was the werewolf, and I grilled him and he couldn't handle the pressure and we got him. So then in the last game, when we woke up on the first morning and Cyberkev secretly winked at me, I guessed he was the seer and had confirmed I was a villager. We debated for a while, with Dave suggesting that either Cyberkev or I was the werewolf. I decided to take a gamble, and claimed that I was the seer, and that I had in fact checked Cyberkev out and he was innocent. The plan was that although I might be killed for being the seer, Cyberkev would have another chance to find the werewolf. Dave said "I'll buy that for a dollar!" so I knew then that he wasn't the werewolf. With three known innocents, we had to choose one of the others as the werewolf. I chose Ann, and managed to convince the guys to vote with me, and we killed the werewolf on the first lynching. Woohoo!

I really enjoyed that game. I got right into it and I was thinking the whole way through. Werewolf is often a negotiation game, and so isn't my style, but maybe I am getting to know these players well enough to be able to read them a bit. I'd actually like to play more until I have the balls to be able to claim to be the seer when I'm the werewolf, to see if I can pull off the ultimate bamboozle.