Game Day (Saturday's Post)

"A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself" (Robert Kiyosaki) 

 Well everyone went home for the weekend, either to go run errands in their hometown or visit family so I was left with the responsibility of looking after the Animals. So of course what do I do but go and throw a board game party! A well catered one at that!

   I was somehow able to set a new record for least time spent in the kitchen making delicious food, which was especially surprising since I made two things I hadn’t made before. The first was a Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie recipe that I took from my ‘How to cook everything’ cookbook. I already have the basics of making cookies down to a science and I’m discovering different types of cookies are basically just variations on the same theme. I had to substitute shortening in for butter again but they turned out great (or at least my guests thought so when they were snacking on them). 

   For those of you who don’t know, How to cook everything is a great (if large) cookbook that is not only full of recipies but also has many, many instructions on going through the basics of cooking. Grouped by category, each section will start with a few intro tips on how to either prepare that group or some sort of technique. For example at the start of the ‘Vegetables’ category it spends a page going through all the ways you can prepare vegetables. The book has a Vegetarian edition and a book called ‘How to cook everything: Basics’. I’m not sure what would be in the basics category since many of the recipies in the main cook book are pretty simple. It’s a great buy for anyone who wants to get into cooking but doesn’t know very much (and you can always google the rest) 

Because this book will only take you so far, and is also the saddest book ever. Not only can you only cook via Microwave, you're also lonely!

   After the cookies were done I followed the instructions for easy to make oven baked potato fries. These are different from regular fries in that they are potato I cut myself and then drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme. They are nominally healthier than store bought fries because they don’t have batter but are still just as delicious. Taking inspiration from my Dad I threw a few cloves of garlic on the pan. While the potato fries bake, they absorb some delicious garlic flavour, and once they’re done the baked garlic makes an excellent complement to the fries. All around awesome! Plus once again the guests liked them too. 

   Finally I anchored the meal with my classic meatloaf. If there is one thing that I had to say I made the best, it would be that. I have yet to offer a non-vegetarian/vegan meatloaf and had them not like it. It is so elegant in its simplicity, but it’s deliciousness makes it one of my favourite meals as well. You just throw down some ground beef, toss some celery, oatmeal, an egg, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and some salt and pepper and you’re good to go. You can add a sauce based top but I never bother, as the loaf alone is great. 

I was able to cheat because I have an abundance of frozen vegetables in the fridge that can be microwaved/boiled to preparation. I simply waited for guests to arrive at picked based on consensus. The consensus ended up being green beans because they’re amazing.

Not that kind of Meatloaf, unfortunately the first 5 images of google image search disagreed.

   Once the group showed up we were ready to play. One of them arrived earlier than the other so we played a quick game of dice Catan. It’s essentially like regular catan but smaller and played with dice. You roll 6 dice (with pictures of the five catan resources: Wheat, Sheep, Brick, Ore and Wood) and build things with the combinations. You can roll up to three times before you score; if you can’t build anything after the 3^rd roll you get -2 points at the end of the game, which is awful. The game goes for 15 rounds while you build up your little Catan map on game provided pieces of paper. Gameplay for two people lasts about twenty minutes as is an excellent game to bring for travelling. I have the deluxe edition so it came with an awesome dice rolling cup.

   Once everyone showed up we broke out the Puerto Rico. Published by Rio Grande games puts you in the position of a plantation owner trying to make the best of his landholdings in Puerto Rico. The objective of the game is to grow crops and ship them back to the mother country, which depending on the time period you might think yourself playing it would be Spain or the USA. This places it in the hard to sell category of games that ‘sound super boring but end up being really interesting once you know how to play them’. 

This category contains games like Agricola because trying to explain them goes like this: “So you’re playing as a plantation owner shipping crops back to Spain, but here’s the thing, you get to PICK your crops, and you have to chose wisely. All the crops are worth the same victory points but have different money values, so you have to figure out what the best points/money mix is… wait, where are you going? Don’t leave it’s really fun once you get to know it!” It’s like being the homely cousin in a Disney movie, you know you have inner beauty but not of the characters can get past the frumpy outside.

What it is sometimes like to get people to sit down and listen to you describe a board game

   I enjoy Puerto Rico because it has roles that you get to pick each round, but everyone benefits from them. So you have to ask yourself ‘is this role going to benefit me more than everyone else combined, or can I wait for someone else to pick it. It leads to some very Machiavellian thinking and can make it very combative. Nothing is more satisfying however; than watching everyone pick the roles you wanted them to pick leaving the most optimal move for yourself. This is possible because board games are a social creature, if you want someone to do something; you just have to open your mouth and try to persuade them to do it. 

   We finished with Starfarers of Catan, which is basically Catan but in space. This theme is extended with the five resources of Space Wheat, Space Ore, Carbon, Fuel and Trade goods. This means that it is everything you love about Catan but in space, which according to the rules of geekdom makes it at least 2x as awesome.  It was also three steps away from being a 'Once upon a time' scenario with my old gaming group. It lasts much longer than a standard game of Catan, clocking in at about 2 hours for a 4 player game. What makes it worth it though, is that your space ships that move around the board are represented by a massive space ship each player owns that you physically modify as you upgrade. Plus you can fly them around when it’s not your turn going ‘skew skew skew’ and if that doesn’t convince you I don’t know what will… 

Seriously, who wouldn't want to play with that :P

…except for the fact that every turn before you move your stuff, you have a chance of having a random space encounter. What makes these great is that while there are only 5-6 scenarios, the outcomes for them are randomized enough that you never know what is going to happen. ‘You’re approached by a merchant; do you give him goods (0-3)? Oh you gave him 1 good, you get nothing. You give him 3 goods, he was a stingy merchant and he gives you nothing, 2 goods; it turns out they were SPACE PIRATES and they try to make off with your goods and now you have to have a SPACE BATTLE.

According to google, this is the 'Most awesome science fiction picture' but it should be a picture of a ship flying through space carrying canisters of space wheat and fuel while battle pirates and making friends with aliens. If that picture does exist then some artist needs to GET ON THAT.

   If that doesn’t convince you, there is also a fame mechanic, every two ‘fame’ rings being worth a victory points. This means that games can be won or lost based on your strength in the galactic future version of American Idol, a mechanic one of the players used to rush to victory, and I suspect will never let us live it down for the rest of our days. 

   I really enjoyed the whole afternoon/early evening of board games party concept. We may have played one more game but one player had to go home and study. I think it shows age progression. Gone are the days where I invite people over at lunch time and board game until the wee hours of the morning. I am now satisfied inviting people over for a half dozen hours, entertaining them, feeding them with hand crafted food and schooling them (or being schooled) over a few board games. Is this what adulthood is supposed to feel like?

   So it just goes to show that if you leave me alone in a house full of animals, I will… call all my friends over and play board games all afternoon/evening. My rate is $20 day and I can be there by next Saturday.