Bunker Project Log

The dizzle was set to start at 5, and I should have been turning things on, but was instead framing and hanging the pictures that Mrs. G had composed and printed as 18?x24? posters a year before. She had given me a rage-saturated earful about the fact that I hadn?t done anything with them since I first attempted to put them up.

What Mrs. G wants, Mrs. G gets, so they were displayed in all their glory, with about 5 minutes to spare.

Stub arrived first and waited for me to sync all my controllers to the new 360. Ingenious of me to forget that part. Within minutes Papergirl (who has been gallivanting in Redmond so long that I forgot her old nerd handle) arrived with her sister. Somehow I got those sweet innocent things to play a completely sociopathic round of Pain. The new movie studio environment didn’t seem to be a hit, although the Hoff model was semi-interesting.

By now everything was working and more dorks were arriving. It was decided that it was time to fire up Left 4 Dead.

As Pottse remarked, “This Bunker Party was weird”. What he meant by this was, there was very little Rock Band, no SingStar at all, and although the LAN got play, the showcase this time was the Analog room.

First up was a lot of San Juan. I had tried this out for the first time earlier this week, so was glad to introduce it to a few new players.

Of course Pandemic was played all through the day, with even Mrs. G playing. There was at least one win, but I don’t know what the final tally was. (I am aware of some flagrant rules violations, but the offenders will receive their karmic punishment eventually.)

Friday night, I went through a “medium” (five Epidemic card) game of Pandemic with Mrs. G and The Wall. Throughout the course of the game, we discovered that the St. Petersburg card popped up twice, which, if you know how the game works, is impossible.

I had heard at Boardgamegeek that there were possibilities of missing cards, but I figured it couldn’t happen to me. Upon further inspection, here’s what I found:

(And yes, my pictures are getting horribler. I blame the camera.)

As you can see, I have two St. Petersburgs, and no San Francisco. With the addition of some very stylish markerwork, order is restored.

So last week or so, Toys’r’us has this 50% off blowout on games, and for whatever reason they usually throw some non licensed-Monopoly type game in the mix. Last time I scored the Seafarers of Catan 5-6 player expansion, which really wasn’t a victory at all. This time they had Starship Catan (which I already own, love, and have been too lazy to review) and Settlers of the Stone Age, which I did not own, and desperately needed to get closer to closing the loop on the whole Catan series. So I ordered it for the a-mazing price of $15, and had it two days later.

I spent so much time playing board games that I never got any pictures. Thus, I was only able to capture the aftermath.

Beer:

The third game of Pandemic in a row (in which we got our asses kicked):

Besides the fact that there were a few people from BP’s of yore, there was the usual. Plenty of Blokus, but totally innuendo free (not enough drunk girls playing… just mature manly men.) There was some Singstar, but? I missed it. Lots of Rock Band. A screwed up game of Shadows Over Camelot (I lost 2 of the loyalty cards, which messed things up, and there was NO TRAITOR!)

For whatever reason, the four of us (excluding Princess NotCool, AKA, Mrs. G) who played TI last time, all had this romantic notion that we would have a great time playing it again.

For me it was the white whale. I was bound and determined to make it through this damned game, whether we enjoyed it or not.

So, did we enjoy it? I’m not sure. Did we finish it? Almost. Z thinks Red5 was headed for a win, but I had managed to Diplomacy Markus into the boredom zone, and he was breaking off… which could have led me to Mecatol Rex, which my Secret Objective was all about.

In a typical fit of diva-esque luxurizing, Mrs. G refused to play anything unless I made it possible for her to do so without getting her ass off the couch.

I don’t know if it is slavish devotion, or just pure will to play, but I managed a solution which involved moving my matching couch (don’t ask… these couches were her idea) opposite hers, and then clever placement of a card table. In the end, it worked just fine. (Except for the stresses of playing a board game from a supine position, since I am 6ft+. She, being about three apples high, had nary a problemo.)

This one was big, and I was all over the place, so I really don’t know what happened. Here are a few things I do know:

Rock Band was constant, although somehow the PS2 version got booted from the DDR room. I don’t know if it even got played past some n00b training.

Pandemic claimed another victim with the Blue disease outbreaking all over the place. I didn’t get the feeling the game was as well received by this group.

Much like Kyle Reese, I was in love with this game even before I played it. First, it is by Days of Wonder, which gives it a ginormous amount of points right out of the gate. Second, it is damn beautiful and oozes theme, which I have been needing lately. Finally, it is a co-op game, where my ineptitude and complete lack of luck will drag the entire group down, not just myself all by my lonesome.

Sort of.

You see, this game is mostly a co-op game, except for the traitor.