A friend of mine is into desktop wargames. I once played his son at the Battle of the Denmark Straight. He was the Bismarck and Prinz Eugan. I was the HMS Hood and the HMS Prince of Wales. I seem to recall the Hood being repeatedly hit and losing speed so much that the Germans got away. Also an early fluke hit on the Prince of Wales knocked out the forward turrets and I could only engage with the rear turret. I got a few insignificant hits of the Bismarck but nothing special. So I lost. However I did better than the Royal Navy in the genuine encounter. We then did the Battle of the River Plate. I did quite well at the start and managed to get close enough to launch torpedoes (all missed). Then the Graf Spee blew up all three of my ships.
I like all card games, pretty much. Classic or new, I don't really care, but I agree the best games are those that involve three or four players. That's why I suppose Spades is my favorite game, though it has a reputation as a prison house game.
I enjoy many card games, especially hand & foot (var. of canasta) And I have enjoyed the command and conquer series for the PC - especially Generals for some reason. But I think my favorite games (not counting more physical sports?) are the board games: Stratego Nine Men's Morris Pente Go Monopoly and Risk are classics I must play when family gathers Without games, the world would be a much more serious place
Play a lot of cribbage still. I played a lot of Euchre in college and Pitch when visiting wife's family in Ohio. They also play a lot of Peanuts as well.
Hi there Rob, Spades eh? Now that's a game I didn't play long enough to learn properly, although I did play maybe 30-40 games before stopping. I know it's amazingly popular, but it just wasn't for me. I'm glad I spent the time understanding it better, but I used to enjoy pitch, hearts, or cribbage more. Funny you should mention the place you did in relation to spades, and maybe I can quickly relate a story about spaders. The site I played on had a bunch of people who only played spades, even though many other games were also available. It was really interesting to see a LOT of em were real jerks, especially compared to other members who preferred games other than spades. Yeah, I know it's hard to believe, but a bunch of em were just plain nasty. They'd do things like be mean to new members, both in the lobby and in games. Some wouldn't even play with new people, which I hated. Eventually, most of the spaders went somewhere else to play, but it was extremely weird to see so many of one card group act as they did. Anyway, I obviously don't associate you with them in any way.....just thought you'd find the story sorta bizarre. Martin
ahhh Stratego... I need to buy that one for my nephew. I remember playing that one when I was little and loved it.. I bought him Battleship non electronic version. It took him a year or so till he was old enough to figure out how to play it correctly. He used to just call out random numbers even repeating ones and never marked when his ships were hit...
Hiya, You play pitch? Really? Man, that used to be about my favorite card game. I used to play almost every week with three other guys, after we played some darts. Yeah, we'd play partners, which was ok. Heh, sadly, a few of these guys weren't any good, but at least it was a game. When the smart one died in 2002, I stopped playing with the others. There's a site I can suggest if it's pitch you wanna play online. It's a small place, but you can usually get a game without much trouble. There's a bunch of nice people who play pitch, and almost everyone's very friendly. The place is called www.freeverse.com and it's free to download and try before a one time fee of $20, which pays for the game. No fees at all after that, even if you stay 5 years or longer. The graphics are very good, and the caliber of play is all over the board. There are some very sneaky members (mostly women....heh), and the playing level is anywhere from new to expert. Ok, that'll do it, Martin Oh, they offer euchre also, except no one ever plays it. Spades, hearts, and bridge are some others available. Cribbage is there, but it's only available if you have a Mac. All the games are free to try before deciding to buy.
That doesn't surprise me at all. Spades came about as a simplification of Contract Bridge during the 40's, and got popular with soldiers during WWII. That much is fact. What's part of "urban legend" though, is that it got popular in Brooklyn during the 70's among certain gang members who would challenge other gangs to Spades tournaments in order to settle disputes non-violently. This carried over to people playing it in prison and back on the street, and it spread to urban areas all over the country. When I was growing up, in certain places people only played Spades or Dominoes, as it was a staple of urban culture. It doesn't seem as big now as it was 10-15 years ago, but when it was really popular I saw some crazy, violent stuff take place at house parties and whatnot. There's all kinds of different rule variants, like Brooklyn style and Jail style. There's also Prison, Bronx, New Jersey, and West Side or West Coast style and if you don't know what type of game you're getting into, playing the wrong trick or throwing out the wrong card at the wrong time could get you beat down pretty quickly. I was at a party once when I was about 15, and if you remember the basics of the game, four players pair off and you're supposed to work together with your partner in throwing out a high enough card to take the book. So common sense will tell you that if your partner threw out the Big Joker, which is the highest card in the game, there's no need for you to throw a trump card down because you and your partner have basically already won the book. That's called "cutting" your partner. Well, this particular night a new player was partnered up with an experienced player, and kept cutting the more experienced partner. This guy tells the new guy that if he cuts him one more time, he was going to cut him. Sure enough, the new guy trumped his own partner yet again, and the other guy pulls out a butterfly knife and slices open the other guys cheek. That's the kind of crowd that flocked to Spades back then, and that's what helped to give the game a "thug" image. The game has more widespread appeal now, but there's still a vast majority of people that grew up playing it back when it was known as "ghetto poker". That such a crowd has transitioned from playing on milk crates behind 7-11 (don't ask) to the internet doesn't surprise me.
I used to love playing cribbage with my Dad when I was younger - he even taught me all the old sayings... "15 two, 15 four, and the rest won't score" We do not play a lot of games really, but if we do it is mainly board games like Pente, checkers, or Cluedo. James.
I learned playing with my folks and a few relatives. It was some of the best fun I've had in my life. Remember: "15 two, four, six and the rest won't mix"?
Killer Bunnies! Haven't had a game in quite a while though. My wife and I play a lot of Skip-o, UNO, and Phase 10.
Cribbage here too. I started playing when I was about six. By the time I got to college I was pretty good. While working as a photographer at the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament in Greensboro, NC, back in the late 70's I played a best two out of three against Nick Pond, the organizer of the National Cribbage Championship held annually in Raleigh. After I took hi out three straight he said I was the best player under the age of 40 he had ever seen (I was 20) and invited me to play in the National Championships. Unfortunately I had to turn him down as it took place in the middle of the summer and I had to work a Summer job several states away to earn money for school. I wish I had more opportunities to play these days.
+1 on "Apples to Apples" but you do have to throw the hammer down on people some time. How about Risk? When I was in college we used to play that all the time over a few beverages before the night festivities.
