I taught Hive to Scrabblette last night. It's an interesting game, but I can't escape the nagging feeling that there aren't many viable strategies.
In the first game she placed an ant as one of her first 3 pieces. As I expected, as soon as she was allowed to move it she brought it around to pin my bee using the One Hive rule. I did the same to her. From there it could have been a race to finish the game, except I knew I would lose so I had to do something else.
But what? Isn't it very difficult to defend against an opponent who pins your bee? I needed to build an alternate path to the ant and get the bee out, and what opponent is going to let me do that? As it turned out, Scrabblette made the mistake of surrounding me with all 3 ants, so the bee slipped out the side and pinned all of them to the hive using One Hive. From there my grasshoppers moved in for the kill.
In the return match I started, so I planned to have a free ant to pin the bee with. As it turned out Scrabblette placed an ant next to her bee, so I pinned the ant to the bee, removing the biggest threat to my queen while also blocking one of her bee's freedoms. Again, Scrabblette's inability to pin my bee cost her the game.
But is that all there is to this game? Pin the bee then send in the troops? I'm hoping there's more.
Showing posts with label Hive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hive. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007
They Have Some Really Good German Games In Germany (Part 4)
Paradux - this is an interesting 2 player abstract which uses apparently the same pieces as GIPF. Your aim is to get 4 of your balls in a row. However whenever you move a piece, you must move an adjacent opponent's piece as well. I have GIPF, so I suppose I can try it out.
Piraten, Planken & Peseten - Another pirate game about walking the plan which comes with a cute little pirate ship. I don't care how you play it, that is just *too cool*.
Popeln - A 2 to 4 player card game about picking your nose. The BGG description says "The best picker is the one who optimally uses length, width and angle to fish out the fattest boogers". How can I go past that?
Spinnentwist - A 2 player abstract about male spiders trying to cross a spider web to mate with a female spider without getting eaten. Don't I know the feeling, buddy. It seems to be an abstract with a great theme.
Sputnik - A Gigamic game with even cooler bits than all the other Gigamic games I'm already in love with. Apparently we're trying to blast off our rockets and avoid black holes and big bangs and stuff. The rockets are so cool... and I trust Gigamic to make a decent game.
Subulata - Another 2 player abstract about being grasshoppers. Maybe something like Hive with a board? I just noticed a lot of these games are abstracts - luckily my attraction to abstract games coincides with "games that have no text and so can be bought from Germany".
Piraten, Planken & Peseten - Another pirate game about walking the plan which comes with a cute little pirate ship. I don't care how you play it, that is just *too cool*.
Popeln - A 2 to 4 player card game about picking your nose. The BGG description says "The best picker is the one who optimally uses length, width and angle to fish out the fattest boogers". How can I go past that?
Spinnentwist - A 2 player abstract about male spiders trying to cross a spider web to mate with a female spider without getting eaten. Don't I know the feeling, buddy. It seems to be an abstract with a great theme.
Sputnik - A Gigamic game with even cooler bits than all the other Gigamic games I'm already in love with. Apparently we're trying to blast off our rockets and avoid black holes and big bangs and stuff. The rockets are so cool... and I trust Gigamic to make a decent game.
Subulata - Another 2 player abstract about being grasshoppers. Maybe something like Hive with a board? I just noticed a lot of these games are abstracts - luckily my attraction to abstract games coincides with "games that have no text and so can be bought from Germany".
Sunday, July 16, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
A Long Weekend
In our part of the world we've just finished a three day weekend, during which I played a lot of games. That's what life's all about, n'est-ce pas? Here's notes on a few of them.
Gulo Gulo - I was sitting around at BIG wondering what to play next, and there was a little girl wandering around too. I got Gulo Gulo out of the car, grabbed non-cyber-Kevin, and we played three games. Kevin won all three games, which wasn't very nice to the poor little girl! Anyway she said this game was much better than rolling the dice for Dad, and I promised to bring it again next time which will be in August as the kid and I are going to ConVic next month.
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontration - The kid surprised me by suggesting a game of this at BIG. We played, and I remembered what a truly excellent game it is. I won as the light. The kid remembered why he didn't like it. I played another two times against Ozvortex the next day, and it was still great. I upped my rating on BGG to a 10, I love this game. BTW, Ozvortex and I both won as the light, with Frodo slipping through both times.
The Adventures of Harley - played twice with the kid and the niece and the nephew. We lost both times! OK, not as simple as I thought. We might even try it again.
Hive - Ozvortex brought his new Hive over to show us, and he and the kid and I played each other. The kid defeated me, Ozvortex defeated the kid, I defeated Ozvortex. I quite like it, and the bits are magnificent. It's a bit disturbing that there is no board, but it gets you thinking. I like the grasshoppers, and don't like the spiders. Funny story - the kid hates grasshoppers. I had him sweeping the back deck and a real grasshopper jumped off the broom onto his leg causing a major panic screaming attack. I took it off him and while he gasped for breath told him that Wayne had brought along a nice game about insects that we were going to play...
Give Me the Brain! - Another one Ozvortex showed us. Pretty silly, but not too silly to play. I'll have to get the colour version. When my nephew can read he'll love it.
Make'n'Break - I have been looking at this one for a while. Pauli has a copy, so we played that. It's a pretty decent dexterity game, better than I thought it would be. I think I'll buy it as a present for someone.
Memoir '44 - The kid and I had a game using the winter board. He had a lot of Finnish ski troops whom I blasted fairly quickly. Must get the Pacific expansion.
Gulo Gulo - I was sitting around at BIG wondering what to play next, and there was a little girl wandering around too. I got Gulo Gulo out of the car, grabbed non-cyber-Kevin, and we played three games. Kevin won all three games, which wasn't very nice to the poor little girl! Anyway she said this game was much better than rolling the dice for Dad, and I promised to bring it again next time which will be in August as the kid and I are going to ConVic next month.
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontration - The kid surprised me by suggesting a game of this at BIG. We played, and I remembered what a truly excellent game it is. I won as the light. The kid remembered why he didn't like it. I played another two times against Ozvortex the next day, and it was still great. I upped my rating on BGG to a 10, I love this game. BTW, Ozvortex and I both won as the light, with Frodo slipping through both times.
The Adventures of Harley - played twice with the kid and the niece and the nephew. We lost both times! OK, not as simple as I thought. We might even try it again.
Hive - Ozvortex brought his new Hive over to show us, and he and the kid and I played each other. The kid defeated me, Ozvortex defeated the kid, I defeated Ozvortex. I quite like it, and the bits are magnificent. It's a bit disturbing that there is no board, but it gets you thinking. I like the grasshoppers, and don't like the spiders. Funny story - the kid hates grasshoppers. I had him sweeping the back deck and a real grasshopper jumped off the broom onto his leg causing a major panic screaming attack. I took it off him and while he gasped for breath told him that Wayne had brought along a nice game about insects that we were going to play...
Give Me the Brain! - Another one Ozvortex showed us. Pretty silly, but not too silly to play. I'll have to get the colour version. When my nephew can read he'll love it.
Make'n'Break - I have been looking at this one for a while. Pauli has a copy, so we played that. It's a pretty decent dexterity game, better than I thought it would be. I think I'll buy it as a present for someone.
Memoir '44 - The kid and I had a game using the winter board. He had a lot of Finnish ski troops whom I blasted fairly quickly. Must get the Pacific expansion.
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