The whole last year passed without a single game of Mahjong! To fix the error, I got a group of people together to play a proper, long game. Ville, Laura, Robert and Ari heeded the call. I think five is a good number of players, even though Mahjong is very much of a four-player game. We used a system where the East player leaves the game to make room for the new player. That way everybody gets to play four rounds and then must rest one. It’s good to have a break every now and then, because the game lasts for several hours.
We didn’t play a full game of four times four rounds. I didn’t count, but I think we played something like ten rounds. When we counted points in the end, Ari emerged as a winner. I was 270 points or so below what I started with, so it was rather good we didn’t play for money (we talked about that when planning the game). It was good fun and a very social game event.
Before Ville and Laura arrived, I had another go with my new design. I’m still not completely satisfied with it… Next time, I’ll try something different. It’s quick to play and fairly entertaining, but something’s missing. When I get something satisfying out of it, I’ll let you know more.
After Ville and Laura left, Robert and Ari stayed for some more games. We started with Web of Power which I like a lot but haven’t played much recently. It was about time! I won, too, with my fairly thin but extensive advisor network.
For the last game of the evening, we played another sleeper. My previous game of Mexica was in July 2002! Since then it’s been in my closet, unplayed! What a pity, because it’s a really good game I enjoy thoroughly. Fortunately Robert had played just the other day and was able to teach the rules to Ari much faster than I could’ve. It was a pretty fast game, too: about 45 minutes. Robert won, hands down. He got a heavy lead in the first scoring and made it even larger, even though both me and Ari attacked his areas in the second round. Strange. Mexica must see more action, really! I like it a lot and it has been a shame I haven’t played it more.
5 responses to “Saturday Night Mahjong”
I am surprised you give Mahjong a 9 in your ratings. Is it really that good? Why do you like it?
It certainly has it’s flaws. Worst is probably the length — I guess I’m never going to play a full game.
However, the game has certain charm, which makes me give it the 9. It’s a combination of the fiddly rules and beautiful bits, really, with a reasonably working base mechanism to run it. I also like the inverse way when compared to some of the European Rummy games I’ve played — winner scores, not the loser.
Ah, thanks for that. Nice Majong sets certainly are attractive and the game read like it would work well.
I wonder if there are any better games that could be played with a Mahjong set or games that could be played with a Majong set and other components, like a board or cards?
I once wrote rules to an auction game (not unlike Ra) which is played with Mahjong tiles. I have never tried it, though. There are some other games, http://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq13.htm describes few.
Now that’s interesting. I hope you get to play your auction game at some point.
I am surprised there are not even more games designed for Mahjong tiles. There are so many of them and they are so good looking, it seems like a natural thing to do.
I don’t have a Mahjong set, but I may pick one up at some point. My aunt told me she would be intersted in playing, and I’ll do almost anything to convert my nearest and dearest to playing games.