THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We’ve got until the 18th of this month to finish our work for the second Board-a-matic.  I think we’re doing pretty good so far.  Only problem is that I had to stay home a day this week to take care of the kids because the kid’s Day Care lady was sick.

So I roughed out the board revisions for Acts 2 and 4 a few weeks back. They weren’t anywhere near being finished.  It was just a rough pass so that Lance (the director) could give me a “yay” or “nay” on my fixes. I didn’t get to finish and those boards are what we are using as our official boards.  They aren’t even finished.  It’s very odd for me.  Everyone is just finishing up my roughs and maybe even reinterpreting  them.  I’m curious to see what it all will looks like in the end.

RANDOM SKETCH

Here’s a sketch that of some teddy bears that have absolutely nothing to do with anything I’ve written.   This was just me experimenting with the program Corel Painter IX.  I want to learn to paint. Maybe that way I can get a job doing development work.  Who knows. These drawings where fun to do.

BOARD GAMES

(All the photos below I got from Board Game Geek.)

Alright, so I’m going to write about yet another two player game.  This one is different in that, unlike the last three two player games I’ve written about, this one is considered “couples friendly”.  It’s hard to find two player board games that my wife likes to play with me.  As you’ve seen in previous posts, my favorite games are very thought provoking, competitive, direct confrontation games.  Not exactly the kind of games Alesha likes to play. I’ve found that Alesha doesn’t like games that directly attack an opponent because she takes it personally somehow, as if she’s being picked on. Indirect confrontation games work best for her. (I explain what I mean by “direct confrontation” and “indirect confrontation” in  my post: Baby shower. Ticket to Ride: Europe in the first paragraph under BOARD GAMES.) A game that she really enjoys playing thought, is the game Lost Cities.

What is Lost Cities?

Lost Cities is a two player card game where in you play an explorer who finances profitable expeditions to  lost cities (hence the name). By doing this you hope that your expeditions are more successful than you opponent’s.  The game is mostly played three times in a row in order to determine a winner as well as balance out the luck factor (although more games can be agreed upon. It’s up to the players).  The player with the most points at the end of the three games wins.   A game usually lasts about twenty minutes.

How do you play Lost Cities?

First you place the board that you will be discarding cards on between the two players.

You then shuffle the cards and each player is dealt 8 cards.

The rest of the cards are placed face down on the table near the players as the draw deck.

The deck of Lost Cities‘ cards is made up of five different colored “expeditions” sets.  Each “expedition” set is numbered 2-10 and each one has three hand shake cards.

The point of the game is to attempt to put down cards of the same color, from your hand, on the table in front of you, in ascending order so that the cards add up to twenty or more.  It’s  okay to have gaps in the numbers as long as they add up to more than twenty.

Why more than twenty?  The moment you put down a card on the table to start a new expedition, you are docked twenty points. In other words, you are “investing” twenty points.  In order for your expedition to make a “profit” you have to “buy back” the negative twenty points, by putting down the cards, in that particular expedition, in ascending order, so they will add up to twenty, and hopefully go over twenty.  Every point over twenty in an expedition, is a point for you.  So if you have a row that adds up to twenty four, the profit you gained is four for that expedition which means you get four points. If you fail to complete an expedition or if you don’t manage to have it add up to more than twenty by the end of the game, you subtract the difference between the number you managed to get, by twenty and then you  lose that many points. So for example, if your expedition only adds up to seventeen points by the end of the game, you get negative three points  (17 – 20 = -3) and you subtract that from you total points.

Thought the cards must be put in ascending order, once you put a card down, you cannot put down a lower card under a card you’ve already put down.  Once you put down a card you must put down a higher card down on TOP of  one you put down, not underneath.

The handshake cards are multipliers. They must be put down BEFORE you put down a number card.  If you finish an expedition with  one handshake card on it, your points are multiplied by 2 for that expedition.  If you finish an expedition with two handshake cards on it, your points are multiplied by 3 for that expedition. If you finish an expedition with three handshake cards on it, your points are multiplied by 4 for that expedition. If you fail to complete an expedition with a handshake on it, your negative points are multiplied by the appropriate number for that expedition.

So what do you do on your turn?

It’s really simple. On your turn you place a card and draw a card.

Your must place a card,  from your hand, in ONE of two places:

1. You may place a card face up directly in front of you, either to begin a new expedition or to continue putting a card on an expedition you have already begun, or…
2. You may discard a card from your hand, face up on the board between the two players. This card must be put on the discard pile of cards of the same color.

You then must take a card and put it in your hand. You may do this from two places:

1. You may take a card from the face down draw deck between the players or…
2. You may take the top card of one of the face up cards on the board between the two players.

The game ends when there is no more cards in the face down draw deck.  That’s it, simple.

Why do I like it?

Mostly because I like playing it with my wife.  Problem is, I lose everytime I play it with her. I don’t know why.  When I first got the game, I was really good at it.  I won all the games. Then Alesha started catching on to what I was doing. Which consisted of me seeing the cards that she needed and NOT discarding them to the center board until they where of no use to her or using them myself to make a expedition of the same color cards that she was trying to complete.  Once she realized that it was THE way to play and win the game, she used it against me and I haven’t won a game since.  She’s gotten much better at doing it than I have and she plays really smart.  We have a lot of fun playing the game.  There is a little bit of risk and reward in the game and when you play multiple games, you even out the luck factor.  It’s  really fun and the game plays fast too.

Last time we played, I lost the game session, after playing three games, 2 – 103. I  got 2 points because I wasn’t able to complete a three handshake expedition which gave me crazy negative points. I spent the next two games trying to dig myself out of the negative points.  Alesha just sat there and laughed at me. 🙁 We had fun though.

I highly recommend this game as a “couples game.”  It’s lite, non confrontational, fast, portable and fun.

If you want to try this game out for free to see how it plays, you can:

Click Here – for practice games against a computer AI or you can play people online.

Of course, it’s just not the same as playing someone live.  Oh, and as I’ve stated before in a previous post,  Lost Cities can also be played on Xbox Live.

Of course, it’s no where near as fun as it is when you play it “live” with your significant other or friend.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.