Had a giant game night for a joint bday celebration on Sat.
We started off with a smaller group for Gears of War. I played with the 3 guys I play the video game campaign with, which was cool since we're all fans of the video game. Damn that game is hard with 4 players, too long too. It maximizes the enemies on the field without providing an individual extra cards or anything. You really have to work as a unit and tread lightly, which is the exact opposite of what we do in Gears of War. I would rather run around and be an asshole. 1 guy left on the map? Of course I'm going to use the Boomshot grenade launcher on him. I find the sweet spot for this game at 2-3 players, because you can run around and be an asshole with minimum risk. With 4 you actually have to be careful meaning less fun to me. The minis for this game are awesome but the 4 playable characters are really hard to distinguish. I'm currently painting the 4 guys now but am leaving the enemies alone because they're easy to identify already, and I'd rather spend the time to paint 4 minis but not 32.
After Gears and dinner, we came back and split into groups. 1 had Wasabi and Hey That's my Fish, another had the Resident Evil DBG, and I was with a group of 4 for Survive Escape from Atlantis. I was with some players who are notorious for playing recklessly (1 more so than the other) but it ended up being the 1st time player winning, I was dead last with a bunch of my guys eaten by sharks. I love that game but I heard the Giant Squid expansion is broken and unplayable. Has anyone tried it?
After that, 2 groups combined for 2 games of Cranium while the other group continued with Resident Evil. I love Cranium but it's hard to adhere to the no symbols rule when drawing; just about everyone does it and it's unfair when 1 player doesn't and wins because the other player did and adhered to the rule. Ah well, maybe we should just house rule it to allow symbols.
After Cranium, we finished out the night with at least 4 games of Werewolf, there were either 14 or 15 people, I can't remember. The game was mostly a hit with people comparing it to The Resistance for the most part, which is our regular game but we had 10+ so Werewolf it was. I like them both and am glad to play both. Acting, deceiving, and deduction in either game aren't strong points for some of our group though, and it ends up with half of the group not really participating and especially being outspoken when they try. Power players were prime targets regardless and unfortunately I was killed as the Seer not because I was being suspicious, but because I'm a strong player and they wanted me out. When I revealed my Seer card it was a complete surprise bonus for the Werewolves.
As a gift, I got Shootin' Ladders: Frag Fest. This is a game where the Gingerbread Men from Candyland hate that game so much, they escape to the next game over which is Chutes and Ladders. They're so enraged over how much Candyland sucks that they go on a Deathmatch rampage and start fighting each other, FPS style. It tries to play like FPS multiplayer with Team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc, but everything has a candy theme like M&M16's, Dessert Eagles, and C4reos. Am looking forward to playing for the inevitable lolz; hoping to get the recklessness I crave from Gears in with this game.
Was a great time, I wish we could do this every weekend. I plan on buying a house within the next year which will help accommodate better, currently we have 1 table but people have to squeeze by to get to the kitchen, some floor space, and a coffee table. The 14-15 people we had was probably max capacity.
TL
R: Had multiple games going. Gears of War is harder and takes longer than I want it to with 4 players. Got Shootin' Ladders: Frag Fest as a gift.
