Monday, September 8, 2008

The board game party in September 2008

Last weekend, I went to a board game party which was held at a restaurant in Paris. I was a little bit afraid that I could understand the rules of the games in French in this party. When I got into the restaurant, one of the organizers explained in French what to do during the party.
They brought a lot of board games.
Each time we chose a new board game, an instructor explained how to play the game in French.




The first game I played there is "Keltis". This game is said to be "Lost Cities" for 3 or 4 players", but it looks a little bit different to me. Playing Lost Cities, you can guess what cards your opponent may have, but when I played Keltis, it was hard. I played this game like playing Lost Cities and I lost. There are many things which make the game different from Lost Cities. The number tiles which give some points to the player, the wishing stones which give the points at the end of the game, the clover leaves which allow a player to advance any one of his pieces by one. I should play this game more to get a better strategy.

French skills: If you know some French words used in card games, such as "piocher" which means "take a card from the pile", it is not so difficult to grasp the rules of the game.

The next game we played is "Big Points". I played the game with 4 French people. This is a short game and the rules seem simple. But looks like we all misunderstood the rules... Each player can move any colored pawn, but everyone chose a pawn in one color and moved the same one. I need to play it again to review...
French skills: It is not supposed to be difficult to grasp the rules, but as I wrote above, we (including 4 French players!) all misunderstood the rules. Why???????




The third game we played is "Jamaica". This is a game of the pirates. The captain rolls two dices and each player chooses the actions at the same time. The players need to think what they want; move the ship, food, gunpowders or doubloons? The pirating in the game is not an easy job. There are lots of things to do. A race, a treasure hunting, battles and paying doubloons to the banks in the islands.
French skills: The spelling of some French words used in this game are the same as English, but they sound different, like a "pirate". There are many rules in the game, so a little difficult to understand. Playing this game a couple of times may help, I think.

Tribune: Actually, I couldn't understand the rules of the game at all.......
French skills: This was so complicated game for us. There are many rules and so many French words related to the Roman Empire which I don't know so much. I just copied what other players did and still didn't know what I should do. Even 4 other French players sometimes got confused by the complicated rules. This game was the most difficult one we played that day, but I want to play this again and hope I will see what to do next time.

Sagaland:
This game is so fun. The rule is simple and the theme of the game is quite good. There are 13 trees in the forest. A treasure is hidden under each tree. Each player rolls two dice and move his pawn from the village to find out the treasure which is shown on the top card of the deck in the castle. When a player finds which tree the treasure is hidden under, he goes to the castle to tell the king where the treasure is. If it is correct, the player can take the card from the deck. When a player roll a double, he can use a magic; move his pawn next to to a tree to peek at, move his pawn to the gate of the castle or change the card of the pile. If a player's pawn lands on another pawn, the landed pawn is transported to the village. The combination of those rules makes this game so funny. When a player rushes into a castle and rolls a double, he then moves his pawn to the gate of the castle. But then another player rolls a double and his pawn is kick out from the castle to the village. And another player rolls a double again!! It is said this is a good game for kids, but I really enjoyed as so many things happen during the game.
French skills: It is easy to grasp the rule in French, but don't miss how many cards you need to win a game. (A. 3 trois)

The last game we played is "Igloo Pop". The players shake the igloos and guess how many beads are inside. Each player places the igloo with a chip on a card showing different numbers. If the number of the beads inside the igloo is same as the number shown on the card, the player takes the card the igloo is placed on. If it is incorrect, the player loses the chip he bet. The game ends when one of the players lose all of his chips. We needed only 5 to 10 minutes to play this game. Actually, we played it three times, and it was always me that lost all of the chips first.
French skills:I don't remember how the instructor said the "beads" in French, but I easily understood what to do.


Summary: I talked to some people and they all speak French, but I might have found someone who speaks English because there were about 40 ~ 50 people joining in the party. . I didn't feel alone when I was playing games, but during the lunch time there, I wished I could speak more French to the people.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The café or restaurant where you can play goard games in Paris.

When I googled, I found some cafés or restaurants where they play board games once a month. When I visit there, I found some have been closed, apparently they have changed the restaurant though. So, for now I could visit just a couple of restaurants. I should visit more cafés or restaurants to review them. There are tons of people who review the restaurants in Paris about DISHES, but is there anybody who has reviewed them about playing board games???