Archive for the ‘Fun’ Category

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The 5 Hows: Kingdom Builder

Jan

26

2017

This is a guide for how to play the game Kingdom Builder. It’s a fun, slightly involved board game.

image of Kingdom Builder game
Now I have played it a few times and explained it a few times and so I will attempt to explain it here.

1. How do I win?
You win by having the most points at the end of the game.

2. How do I get points?
This is a tricky question. Big picture answer: you get points by fulfilling the conditions of the goal cards. Now what the goal cards are depends on what was dealt. There are many goal cards, but you randomly choose a few of them to be in play. So your goals and tactics will change from game to game.

3. How do I fulfill the goal cards?
By building houses. The game board is a set of land tiles (similar concept to Settlers of Catan, but different execution) and each turn you get to place a number of houses on the board. Everyone gets the same minimum number of houses per turn – there are no coins or resource to collect in order to buy houses – but you can earn an extra house or two per turn depending on what extras you have unlocked.

4. How do I unlock these extra thingies?
There are a few special locations on the board tiles. If you build a house next to one of these spots, you earn its ability (which is usually either moving or adding a house).

5. How does the game end?
You play until someone runs out of house tokens. Then you finish the round so that everyone has the same number of plays. Then you total up your points.

There, now go play Kingdom Builder.

See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To build and to plant.

Jeremiah 1:10

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The 5 Hows: Machi Koro

Jan

24

2017

This is a guide for how to play the game Machi Koro. It’s a fun, involved card game.

image of Machi Koro card game
Now I have played it a few times and explained it a few times and so I will attempt to explain it here.

1. How do I win?
You win by being the first player to build all your goal cards.

2. How do I build goal cards?
By buying them with coins.

3. How do I get coins?
You earn coins based on what business cards you have, combined with what was rolled on the dice.

4. How do I get business cards?
By buying them with coins. You start with a couple of businesses, and those can earn you coins. The more coins you get, the more businesses you can buy, which in turn lets you earn more coins.

Each card has a value (what it costs to buy the card) and a rank (what number must be rolled in order for you to use the card).

5. How would you describe this game?
It’s a cross between Settlers of Catan and Dominion. It’s like Settlers in that your prosperity depends on what numbers you and the other players roll on the dice. But the game is easier and quicker than Settlers. And it’s like Dominion in that you advance by gaining cards and those cards have different capabilities and you can choose what characteristics you prefer.

There, now go play Machi Koro.

Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed And founds a town with violence!

Habakkuk 2:12

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The 5 Hows: Sushi Go

Jan

19

2017

This is a guide for how to play the game Sushi Go. It’s a fun, simple card game.

image of Sushi Go card game
Now I have played it a few times and explained it a few times and so I will attempt to explain it here.

1. How do I win?
You win by having the most points at the end of the game.

2. How do I get points?
By having played cards that earn points

3. How do I play cards?
Everyone has a hand of cards. You pick one you want to play in that hand and turn that card face up. You do that several turns and when you’re done, you have a bunch of face-up cards. Those are your points.

4. How do I know which cards to play?
The cards have different point values. You’ll want to pick things with higher points. There are some combinations that earn higher points, so look for those.

5. How is that hard?
Because each time you play a card, you pass your cards to the left. So you can’t plan much because the set of cards you have changes each turn.

There, now go play Sushi Go.

So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me now a man who can play well and bring him to me.”

1 Samuel 16:17

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Another Accent

Nov

22

2016

In case you have a need to sound French or just want to waste a few minutes, go try to speak with a French accent.

The site works like the game Mad Gab, for those who are familiar with that. If you’re not familiar with it, just type in a phrase, click the button, and read the result without thinking about it.

Just read it.

Out loud.

As written.

If you can’t think of a phrase, try entering some of these into the generator:

  • Your mother was a hamster.
  • This will never work.
  • There is a time to laugh and a time not to laugh, and this is not one of them.

That’s probably good enough for now.

In case you missed the link, go to Accenterator.com and click the French button.

nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you;

Ezekiel 3:6

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The 5 Hows: Splendor

Apr

7

2016

Continuing my series of how to play board and card games, I now present Splendor.

I don’t have this game yet, but was introduced to it by my brother-in-law. And now it is on my birthday present wish list.

1. How do I win?
You win by being the first player to reach 15 points.

2. How do I get points?
You get points by buying cards with point values on them. Not all cards have point values, but you might have to buy some of those in order to afford more cards. There are also a limited number of Nobles available, which you can win by having certain combinations of cards. So the pointless cards can help you get points that way.

3. How do I buy cards?
You buy cards with gems. Each card displays its gem cost. You pay that combination of gems and you get the card.

4. How do I get gems?
You draw them. On your turn you can either draw 3 gems or buy a card. If you don’t have enough gems to buy a card, then your choice is simple.

Another thing to note: the cards you buy not only have a gem cost but they also have a gem value. You may pay 4 gems for a card, but then that card is worth a gem later. Gem chips are drawn and paid – the chips physically move from the bank to your hand and back. But cards count as gems and do not leave your hand. As you accumulate cards, you accumulate their gem values and can thus afford higher-worth cards.

5. How do I play defense?
I simplified the rules earlier. On your turn you can do one of three things: draw gems, buy a card, or reserve a card. If you think someone is going for a particular card and you want the thwart them, or maybe you want the card but can’t afford it yet, you take the card without buying it. This has the added benefit of giving you a piece of gold (a wildcard when it comes to gems). It has the drawback of costing you a turn, since you must use one of your later turns to pay for the card. Or you can hold it in reserve indefinately, in which case it never counts toward your hand. You could consider that a draw-a-wildcard-gem turn.

Not related to the question, but related to the simplification of the rules: on your turn you may draw gems – either 3 gems if they are different colors or 2 gems if they are the same color. But you are not allowed to draw 2 of the same color if that will result in there being less than two of that gem in the bank.

There, now go play Splendor.

Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen; and you must hurry and bring my father down here.

Genesis 45:13

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How to Shorten a Game of Settlers of Catan

Dec

1

2015

Settlers of Catan is a fun game. It can get involved though, which is another way of saying lengthy. And when you’re playing with a 6-year-old, it can be too long.

So, between me and Gamma, we came up with a few ways to make the game go faster. If you’re not familiar with SoC, then this won’t mean anything to you.

House Rules for Settlers of Catan

  • At the beginning, draw cards for each of your initial settlements, not just the last one. So you start with 6 cards.
  • The minimum distance to build is 1 road segment, not 2. So you can build close together.
  • You can build a city by itself – it does not need to replace a settlement.
  • Rolling a 7 has no effect until the first city has been built. Just pretend it didn’t happen and re-roll.

It does reduce some of the strategy involved, but there had to be some tradeoff.

Now their settlement extended from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the hill country of the east.

Genesis 10:30

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The 5 Hows: Dominion

Oct

8

2015

This is the next installment in my series of The Five Hows

Dominion is an interesting card game my sister and brother-in-law taught us. It has a variety of money cards and victory-point cards and action cards. The learning curve is a little steep, and it took a couple of hands to catch on, so I thought it would be a good candidate for an explanation here.

1. How do I win the game?

You win by having the most points at the end of the game.

2. How do I get points?

You get points by buying the point cards with the money cards.

3. How do I get money cards?

You get money cards by buying them with money cards.

4. That doesn’t make sense. Won’t I end up with the same amount of money I started with if I use my money to buy money?

That’s not a How question.

4. Ok, how do I get more money if I have to spend my money to get money?

That’s better. And this is a key part of understanding the game. Whenever you play a card (either spending money or effecting an action), you don’t lose those cards. You discard them after use, but your discard pile gets shuffled and you keep those cards to play later (when your draw pile is depleted).

In other words, with each round your hand of cards grows. You play cards until your draw pile is gone, but then you shuffle your discard pile and it becomes your draw pile again. “Spending money” isn’t really the right term for the money cards, since the money stays with you. It doesn’t go to a bank or another player. But “spending money” or “buying money” is what everyone ends up saying since it’s close enough.

5. How does the game end?

There are piles of cards to be drawn from during the game. The game ends when a certain pile of victory points is gone (i.e. enough people bought them that there are no more left). Or when any two piles of action cards are gone. When that happens, each person counts the number of victory points in his hand and the highest number wins.

And that was The Five Hows for the game. It didn’t delve into the mechanics of playing, like how many cards you start with and when you shuffle and stuff like that, but that you can get from the game’s instructions. This was the big-picture view.

This game is fun, and it went pretty fast because we trusted each other. There’s a lot that can happen each turn, so if you don’t trust your opponent and try to verify that everything he’s doing is legal, it could take a while. So don’t play this game with cheaters.

For he had dominion over everything west of the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings west of the River; and he had peace on all sides around about him.

1 Kings 4:24

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