Session Report & Review 25.09.2003

Session Report & Review 25.09.2003

Author: Moritz

at the table: Loredana, Andrea, Peter, Moritz

on the table: T-Rex, Star Wars – Epic Duels, Bluff

1. T-Rex

   For some reason this game gets good replay in our group – it is a clever little card
   game with good mechanisms (that take at least 1 game getting used to – the game confused
   me as well when I first played it!). Each player tries to gather dinosaur eggs in
   different colors, even better: of the SAME color, as their net worth will be squared (so
   3 eggs of the same color give 9 points).

   Each turn two eggs are revealed randomly, the player who played the highest card in
   the final round of card play gets the first choice of “egg”, the second gets
   the remaining one. The LAST player will be able to alter trump OR losing suit for the
   next round. In a 4-player round, the 3rd player will get nothing, which is usually to be
   avoided, as the ability to change trump suits is actually pretty important in the end
   game.

   Each player has exactly the same number of cards, numbered 1-15, but in 5 colors (so 1
   color has the 1, 6 and 11, another color has the 2, 7 and 12 and so on). There are also
   two special cards (more about them later).

   You start with only a selection of cards, the others come into play through drawing
   additional cards from your private draw pile, to which about half of the cards you will
   play enable you. The brown “8” gives you 3 new cards for example. The other
   half of the cards are “comet” cards: these start the last round of card play,
   starting from the player who played them (this last round will determine the
   “winner” of the current turn), but only until somebody plays a HIGHER comet
   card, which starts a new round. So it is possible to prolong the last round a lot of
   times, which is usually what happens. Playing the same card as your predecessor actually
   beats his/her card. But as you never really know when exactly the round will end (players
   might also play one of the special cards, the “super comet”, which beats all
   other comets) it will also be in your interest to play a card that is the highest in the
   current round. And if you played the highest comet you also have to play an additional
   card for your final play – if it is also a comet, it could prolong the current
   round…again!

   

   Decisions, decisions….

   For this problem you can use the “chameleosaurus” card, which enables you to
   imitate the card you play it on, without copying its comet or card draw abilities. If
   yellow is the trump color you could first play the 11 comet card (which is the highest
   yellow card), and then, as the final card play, the chameleon, which is again the yellow
   11, but doesn’t start the new round.

   Another mechanism makes the game interesting: After one round is finished, each player
   either removes the visible card of his discard pile, or an unknown card from his draw
   pile. The discard pile is then turned over and placed under the draw pile. Therefore you
   have to memorize your cards, as they will reappear in exactly the same order. You’ll
   also have to memorize the cards the other players lose, as they will determine who is
   leading in one or the other color.

   The game ends when the number of available cards reaches a certain limit, the player
   with the highest net worth in eggs wins.

   The challenge in this game is to judge when you start the “final” comet
   round: sometimes, if your hand is better than the other player’s hands, you should
   push early to exploit this advantage, if you have few cards, you might play the
   “card draw” cards first. But you might miss the end of the round, which
   sometimes comes earlier than you think, when players refuse (or are unable) to play
   higher comet cards to continue the round. Very often an unexpected card play of your
   neighbor can ruin your best plans!

   view/add comments

   “T-Rex” is a challenging and interesting card game – it takes time to get
   used to, but it is definitely worth the effort.

   Westpark rating: 7.33

2. Star Wars: Epic Duels

   

   Peter and Andrea played Emperor and Count Dooku (their favorite combo), Loredana and
   me poor Mace Windu and Yoda. As was to be expected the dark side had a big advantage by
   stripping Mace of his carefully collected cards. They concentrated their efforts on Mace
   early on, which enabled Yoda to hold back a little and collect useful cards. Although
   Mace was able to damage Count Dooku considerably he couldn’t prevent being killed –
   sadly the clone troopers didn’t fare better. Yoda was able to give Dooku the
   finishing blow, but Dooku’s robots had survived and annoyed the hell out of Yoda with
   sneaky shots from the distance. In the end Yoda was only able to scratch the emperor (who
   simply healed himself again and again), and succumbed to the concentrated use of the
   emperor’s “3 damage cards”.

   Westpark rating: 7

3. Bluff

   Both games were nearly exactly alike and resulted in victories by Moritz – ’nuff said
   ;-)