At FenCon, one of the things I was looking for was a game for Tracy and I to play, that could also be played by more than two people. Perry and Melissa introduced me to Munchkin, but it really needs three or more; the Settlers of Catan card game (which I love) is a two-player only game. But then, I stumbled across Unexploded Cow, by Cheapass Games. Europe. Summer. 1997. You have discovered two problems with a common solution: mad cows in England, and unexploded bombs in France. In Unexploded Cow, you play a savvy entrepreneur who wants to help solve the world's problems, by blowing up lots of cows. You'll round up a herd of mad cows, give them a stirring pep talk, and march them through the French countryside. In doing so, you will clear fields of leftover ordnance from long-forgotten wars. And you'll make a few bucks doing it. There are two decks of cards (a City deck and the Main deck, full of cows and events), a load of counters representing francs (100, 200, 500, and 1000 “notes”) and a six sided die. You start the game with 5,000 francs and three cards. Each player antes 500 francs, and you determine the first player randomly. (We rolled the die, highest roll wins, re-rolled ties.) On each turn, you:
You can download a “free” version of this game, at http://www.cheapass.com/node/48. I say “free,” because in order to use this, you'll have to print out & make your set. The “deluxe” version I bought was well worth the $25 MSRP, if just for the artwork and the high-quality counters. When we were done playing Unexploded Cow, we tried a game that I'd been given quite a while ago. “Ascension: The Apprentice Edition”. This is a “deckbuilding” game, in which you start out with just a few cards, and you expand your deck through play. The game set we own is complete, but the instructions are fairly lacking, in my opinion. The instructions were also printed on the back side of the play mat, which meant to look at the rules, one had to remove all the cards and counters off of the mat – poor design, I think. Anyway, we were about halfway through the game before we became confident on everything. We may be playing it wrong, but at least we're fairly confident about the way WE played. Tracy won this game, fairly easily, but it was moderately fun. The version of the game we own is a two-player version... I don't know if there's a version for more than two players, but I don't see how it would work, if there is one. Grab some dice (and some cards)... we're leading the way, FCAPT Tank Clark, SFMD Team Leader, 33rd STARFLEET Rangers
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Commodore Tank ClarkCommodore Clark has been the Team Leader of the 33rd STARFLEET Rangers for several years. His monthly articles about games (usually Role-Playing Games -- RPGs -- but sometimes about other tabletop forms of entertainment) appear regularly in the Regulator Charge!, the ship's newsletter. Archives
September 2017
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