What a fantastic night at CBG. Such a variety of games being played, from the classics like Labyrinth to the hottest new release Everdell Silverfrost!
The Quest for El Dorado
Distilled
Coffee Rush
The Crew
SETI
Deep Regrets
Sprit Island
Labyrinth
Dungeon Mayhem
Ship Shape
Guillotine
Wingspan
Queue
River Valley Glass works
High Society
Kingdom Rush
Everdell: Silverfrost
Tonight I finally got to try out SETI, and what a game it is. Mel organised the game for us ahead of time using Aftergame, so we were booked in and ready to go. Our fourth play called in sick, so Michelle stepped in, and we were off in our Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. With the Monty Python and Uranus jokes out of the way early we set out to build our engines and make every turn count. With only 5 rounds in a game of SETI the race is on to score the most points from the point buffet on offer.
Mel and Tim had a slow start with only expensive cards in their draw and limited Mega Credits to spend, Michelle and I on the other hand had several free or cheap cards we could play in our opening hands, giving our engines a kick start in the early game.
Tim was determined to find intelligent life and instead found the most dangerous alien in the universe. An alien that while offering great points and resources also has the player accrue Danger. The player with the most danger at the end of the game loses 10% of their score. My catch phrase soon became “Go Hard or Go Home” … I had fully committed to these new aliens, that Tim had discovered, becoming my new overlords and by the end had so much danger it wasn’t even worth comparing to see if anyone else was close.
Mel worked hard on collecting data in different sectors and had a massive catchup in scoring once those expensive cards were played. Unlocking different technologies to the rest of us and showing the table how the engine building of the scan action can really make a difference. Allowing Mel to do several things in one turn and maximising the out of action things like launching when scanning to save credits and turns.
Michelle had a great time collecting cards and completing missions. By the end of the game having a large tableau of missions out. Michelle also found us our second alien species, awarding herself and Mel with new cards and potential combos. Almost hitting her 15-point bonus triggers awarded by the species.
SETI is a fantastic heavy engine builder with resource management and action selection. It is a fantastic heavy Euro game with a theme that is engrained not only in the art and cards but in the feel of your actions. I highly recommend watching a video or two before play but once you start doing things the mechanics of this game can vanish, and the crunch and Seach are all that remain.
Thank you again Mel for the teach and bringing this amazing gem along to CBG. I can’t wait to get it to the table again.
