Talk:Moon Shot

Played with a couple of 16-year-olds last night to much laughter and acclaim. You have a keeper! Was a perfect change of pace between Pikemen and Penguin Soccer.

Tried unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes to Crack the Moon (by flicking the tree so the 3-pointer led the way). While it is clearly possible, acheiving a Moon Crack is appropriately difficult - I found that even if my aim was true, the 3-pointer "didn't go in, it just impacted on the surface" and bounced off. --Nycavri 11:01, 11 July 2007 (EDT)

• Thank (blame) Avri for that addition, not me! ;-) I know one has to "punt" the large to get any chance of Cracking, and it's made harder because you almost have to have the pyramid tip go into the tube first (i.e. the base is such a tight fit that only a perfect alignment will fit in and stay, unless maybe you get lucky and get a base corner to go in and stay). But as an alternate win condition, I love it: nice and desperate, for someone who's way behind! --David Artman 12:34, 11 July 2007 (EDT)

LOL. Nycavri? That's me Avri Klemer. . .

• See? This is why I gave up user handles a while back: too damned confusing (and I had more than one, depending on the web site). OK, then, blame yourself! Twice! *wink*

Didn't think my screenname was that obtuse. *grin*

Played a number of 4- and 5-player games last night, this time between games of Drip and my first (hugely successful!) attempt to teach IceTowers. Again, Moon Shot was very well received.

In each game that went more than a handful of rounds, the player who was having the hardest time making landings was the one who ended up making the colony. Although they didn't win, it greatly relieved any "I suck at this game" feelings!

We even had the first "in-game" attempts by a player to win by Cracking the Moon when she fell far behind. No success, but tense moments for the rest of us.

Is this playtested enough to add to BGG? I see that other recent games (Drip and Penguin Soccer) now have listings over there. --Nycavri 16:40, 13 July 2007 (EDT)

• I don't usually update anything at BGG, so that is up to you. Thanks for all the support! As for here at the wiki, between my own noodling play and your reports, I think she's done; I'm going to move off of Testing onto main games page(s). Thanks again! --David Artman 13:39, 16 July 2007 (EDT)

IGDC Feeedback - Andy Looney

From Andy's livejournal:

"Unfortunately, while it all looks great on paper, it just didn't play very well, at least not for us. We tried it twice and in both cases the initial reaction was very positive but the group quickly became frustrated and lost interest before actually finishing a game."

See, this I find a bit odd, because everyone with whom I've played it gets the hang of launching within about ten tries and then it's all Colonization timing strategy. I wonder if, perhaps, I need to speak more to "Launch Techniques" in the rules--perhaps my test group(s) were able to learn faster because they watched me do my own launches, while teaching, and copied my (highly refined and accurate!) style. :P

Andy, did your group use a "tap to tip" method, whereby you use the nail of a finger to tap the small (or medium, if trying to Colonize) JUST hard enough to tip the tree? Basically, it takes very, very little effort to send a small skittering a tube-length away (or three or five!); and it only takes a BIT more effort (and a lower tap point) to get the medium moving well.

Of course, Cracking the Moon requires a fairly violent "punt" of the large out from under the rest of the tree, so it is (intentionally) quite hard to do. But I've done it in practice (after, oh, fifteen tries... it's a HARD way to win, only for the desperate). --David Artman 13:27, 24 September 2007 (EDT)