Thus, my attention has been kept offline a little longer, but we did get in some gaming, which I hope to blog soon.
We also learned, as a family, what kinds of games we simply CANNOT play together due to group dynamics. 'Tis sad, really, but grand-scale geopolitical games, where one must negotiate trades and alliances, does not work for us. It is either "everyone gang up on dad" or becomes a 3v2 with much "negotiation" under the threat of invasion on the part of the older brothers vs the younger brothers. What kind of strategic monsters have I raised? Oh, heavens, that I do not own Diplomacy is no longer a melancholy dream.
We have, as five sons and a father, determined that we're best suited for games which rely on us competing individually or cooperatively. Any game that lends itself to negotiation is not going to work for us, unfortunately.
The game we attempted, barely getting in four turns before starkly realizing the problem, was Civilization by Eagle Games. This is a decade old attempt to re-create a boardgame from the PC version of Civilization. Seemed to be a nice game for the lads and I, when I bought it upon release.
We sat down to play the game on Saturday. The setup was straightforward, simple, and not too many pieces. Yet, the real need for monopolizing resources early cause two of my sons to immediately ally, while attempting to gain two adherents from my youngest two sons. This left the eldest and I in a bad spot and we conducted our own diplomatic efforts.
My youngest was attacked by the alliance, who then tried to use intimidation combined with a "we only want the wine and oil resources, but will leave you with the other territories-unless they have wine or oil." Seeing an opportunity, I pointed out that his best interests lay with not agreeing to such a deal.
This counter-diplomacy was not much appreciated by the alliance.
Even so, we went another couple of turns, which saw me take pre-emptive action against one of the members of the alliance. This gutted his nation, gaining me two settlements and splitting his territories in half, preventing him from easily supporting his scattered villages and towns.
At that point, we called the game, not even leaving the Ancient Era.
I have a few pics to upload, once I can retrieve them from my ipad.
We also played Bang (the Western card game) last week as it is a favorite of the lads'. My eldest ended up winning as the sheriff, meaning I also won as I was a deputy.
I am lacking personal wargames terrain, which limits playing at home in a substantial way. Hopefully, I can rectify the issue once I get paid from teaching this summer. I want to play more miniature games with my sons, and a variety of genres requires more than a few card buildings.
Great to here yo and your boys have been hard at it. Competition is always good but can sometimes prove difficult with siblings!
ReplyDeleteThe family that stays together usually slays the other members of the family but as Ray said still good to hear!
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