Beowulf
This game may look like a multi-player cooperative adventure game but in fact it is a push your luck game with a variety of auctions gentler than Taj Mahal to a script that is reminicent of Merchants of Amsterdam. Peter didn't give us a great rules explanation and we started with only 2 cards rather than 7, we didn't understand until near the end that we could use Risks during a round the table card auction. We were playing the simple rules but tried to play the gold auctions. Despite all these rule issues we still all had fun and while it looked like Lance and Andrew were going to win, they both faded at the end and my late run pushed me to the lead.
There is a lot of criticism of this game on the geek, especially over the Risk element. But I am keen to play the game again. This time with the correct and advanced rules. I would put it into the same category as Manila - a game where playing the game is exciting rather than serious and competition is secondary.
1503
Is another Settlers of Catan type of game. Peter had at least played this game several times before and not only could teach the rules but also had some idea of strategy. The turn is divided into 3 parts. Throw the dice and everyone collects resources (or deals with pirates or fire). Buy and sell reasources and build stuff. Explore islands with any ships you have. Islands give you good stuff. There is a money based economy and various ways to win the 3 victory points necessary for a win. This gives rise to various lines of strategy but you have to limit yourself otherwise you end up like Lance and I who persude too many strategies and came last.
It was a close finish between Luke and Peter and it was the luck of the dice rolls by me and Luke which gave the game to Peter rather than Luke.
Saturday 27 May 2006
Sunday 21 May 2006
Trains, Boats and Ox horns - 17 May
We arrived early and Peter was doing phone support. So Anne, Luke, Nigel and I played Hornochsen while we waited. This game was new to Nigel and probably Luke. My experience gave me the game. By the time we finished there were eight people ready to play. Luke, Peter, Jarratt and Andrew started a game of Jenseits von Theben while the rest of us were trying to pick a game. Peter was anoyed that we picked Manila!
The bids for the job of Manila's harbour master started high and went up from round to round. More often than not 20 pesos were paid for the privelege! John was the most agressive persuer of the office and the extra shares, so much so that he spent most of the game in debt. The pirate option was also popular and sometimes successful. Nigel had buckets of money for most of the game and not supprisingly won. I lost.
While we waited for the archiologists on the other table to finish we had a second game of Hornochsen (with John instead of Luke). I won again.
The final game of the evening was a 6 player game of Union Pacific. Peter suggested the unlimited Union Pacific shares varient, only Luke objected. The varient is designed to reduce the rush for Union Pacific shares in the standard game, which it did. The first score card must have been about card 24 in the deck because it took a supprisingly long time to come out. I grabbed an early lead with a good mix of firsts and seconds and a strong push to make the green company the biggest on the board. There was a battle over the ownership of the yellow company and some minor tussles over the other companies. Three people had 4 UP shares but they were later trumped by people when someone went to 5. Two of the scoring cards came out close together leaving me no opportunity to change my shareholding between them. Andrew won with 105 to my 100.
The bids for the job of Manila's harbour master started high and went up from round to round. More often than not 20 pesos were paid for the privelege! John was the most agressive persuer of the office and the extra shares, so much so that he spent most of the game in debt. The pirate option was also popular and sometimes successful. Nigel had buckets of money for most of the game and not supprisingly won. I lost.
While we waited for the archiologists on the other table to finish we had a second game of Hornochsen (with John instead of Luke). I won again.
The final game of the evening was a 6 player game of Union Pacific. Peter suggested the unlimited Union Pacific shares varient, only Luke objected. The varient is designed to reduce the rush for Union Pacific shares in the standard game, which it did. The first score card must have been about card 24 in the deck because it took a supprisingly long time to come out. I grabbed an early lead with a good mix of firsts and seconds and a strong push to make the green company the biggest on the board. There was a battle over the ownership of the yellow company and some minor tussles over the other companies. Three people had 4 UP shares but they were later trumped by people when someone went to 5. Two of the scoring cards came out close together leaving me no opportunity to change my shareholding between them. Andrew won with 105 to my 100.
Tuesday 16 May 2006
Temple wins - 14 May
Anne wanted to play more Aton. So we played four more games, all ending in a temple victory.
- I tried for temple 4 and Anne tried for temple 1. I won when the scores were 27-25.
- I tried for temple 3 and Anne tried for temple 2. She won when the scores were 4-8.
- I tried for temple 2 and Anne tried for temple 1. I won when the scores were 24-27.
- I tried for temple 4 again. I won when the scores were 2-8.
Sunday 14 May 2006
Carl and Bab's place - 12 May
Modern Art
When I arrived at Carl's place, Lance had almost finished explaining Reef Encounter to Carl, John and Travis (Matt was watching rugby again). But Reef Encounter is a four player game and they graciously switched to a five player game -- Modern Art. This is one of my favourite game though one I don't generally do well at it. All artists got some exposure, painting by at least three artists being sold each turn and by the end of the third round all artists were on the board and worth at least $30. In other words in the fourth round any artist that finished in the top three would be worth between $40 and $70 a painting. I bought a Gitter at the start of the fourth round for quite a lot of money but as that was the only Gitter sold that round I had thrown away my money. To make matters worse I had thrown it at John who won, Carl second, Lance then me with Travis being the only one not to have $300+ at the end.
Reef Encounter
Matt returned and as we couldn't agree on a six player game, Carl and John played Aton while Lance taught the rest of us Reef Encounter. I have played this game once before but this is a tricky game and I feel you need to play several games in succession to get the hang of the consequences of the various actions. Travis got off to a good start followed by Lance, Matt saved lots of orange for a big finish (as did Lance to better effect) and I just bumbled along. Travis came second to Lance with Matt and I trailing well behind but third equal.
Meanwhile Carl and John played three games of Aton. John winning the second and Carl winning the other two. In the final game John was on 34 going into the second scoring round with Carl on less than 20. Carl played second and restricted John to 3 points while gaining well over 20 himself to win! They then played a game of Caesar and Cleopatra.
Light Speed
Light speed is a real-time Cheapass game where you place your spaceships (cards) on the table. The first to finish calls the end of the game. Then comes the scoring which takes much longer. Experience tells in this game as all the ships have different capacities. Where in the firing order they are. What lasers they have and what shields. I ended up on one point after shooting too many of my own ships. Carl won.
When I arrived at Carl's place, Lance had almost finished explaining Reef Encounter to Carl, John and Travis (Matt was watching rugby again). But Reef Encounter is a four player game and they graciously switched to a five player game -- Modern Art. This is one of my favourite game though one I don't generally do well at it. All artists got some exposure, painting by at least three artists being sold each turn and by the end of the third round all artists were on the board and worth at least $30. In other words in the fourth round any artist that finished in the top three would be worth between $40 and $70 a painting. I bought a Gitter at the start of the fourth round for quite a lot of money but as that was the only Gitter sold that round I had thrown away my money. To make matters worse I had thrown it at John who won, Carl second, Lance then me with Travis being the only one not to have $300+ at the end.
Reef Encounter
Matt returned and as we couldn't agree on a six player game, Carl and John played Aton while Lance taught the rest of us Reef Encounter. I have played this game once before but this is a tricky game and I feel you need to play several games in succession to get the hang of the consequences of the various actions. Travis got off to a good start followed by Lance, Matt saved lots of orange for a big finish (as did Lance to better effect) and I just bumbled along. Travis came second to Lance with Matt and I trailing well behind but third equal.
Meanwhile Carl and John played three games of Aton. John winning the second and Carl winning the other two. In the final game John was on 34 going into the second scoring round with Carl on less than 20. Carl played second and restricted John to 3 points while gaining well over 20 himself to win! They then played a game of Caesar and Cleopatra.
Light Speed
Light speed is a real-time Cheapass game where you place your spaceships (cards) on the table. The first to finish calls the end of the game. Then comes the scoring which takes much longer. Experience tells in this game as all the ships have different capacities. Where in the firing order they are. What lasers they have and what shields. I ended up on one point after shooting too many of my own ships. Carl won.
Thursday 11 May 2006
Peter and Michelle's place - 10 May
Chinatown
Peter, Carl, Lance, Andrew and I played Chinatown and I think I must have played the worse game ever by coming fifth. I let things go too easily and also traded too early. Peter won dispite his game long protestations of loosing.
Variant
I did think up a variant on the way to work the next day which changes the luck of the bonus card to one of choice of bonus card (for those that think that there is not enought to negotiate).
My idea is that after getting tiles but before negotiations start, deal two bonus cards face up. After the negotiations finish and before placing businesses on the board the start player chooses which of the two bonus cards will apply this round. The other bonus card is shuffled back into the deck. The trick to make this work is that the start token becomes another item up for negotiation.
(My original idea was that there was an auction for the privilege of choosing which of the two bonus cards apply but I think that making the start token negotiable is more thematic than an auction).
Note: the start token passes to the left as normal between rounds.
Il Principe
The other game of the evening was Il Principe. I have never really got the hang of this game. I certainly didn't get much control of the roles (which is a very important way to score points from other peoples city building and also a way to improve your position). Lance, Carl and I were short of green cards for much of the game which seem to be vital for building most of the cities. In the last two rounds I got no yellow cards which were required for all the cities available at that time. I got another fifth place.
Peter, Carl, Lance, Andrew and I played Chinatown and I think I must have played the worse game ever by coming fifth. I let things go too easily and also traded too early. Peter won dispite his game long protestations of loosing.
Variant
I did think up a variant on the way to work the next day which changes the luck of the bonus card to one of choice of bonus card (for those that think that there is not enought to negotiate).
My idea is that after getting tiles but before negotiations start, deal two bonus cards face up. After the negotiations finish and before placing businesses on the board the start player chooses which of the two bonus cards will apply this round. The other bonus card is shuffled back into the deck. The trick to make this work is that the start token becomes another item up for negotiation.
(My original idea was that there was an auction for the privilege of choosing which of the two bonus cards apply but I think that making the start token negotiable is more thematic than an auction).
Note: the start token passes to the left as normal between rounds.
Il Principe
The other game of the evening was Il Principe. I have never really got the hang of this game. I certainly didn't get much control of the roles (which is a very important way to score points from other peoples city building and also a way to improve your position). Lance, Carl and I were short of green cards for much of the game which seem to be vital for building most of the cities. In the last two rounds I got no yellow cards which were required for all the cities available at that time. I got another fifth place.
Aton, Anne's second win - 7 May
Anne challenged me to some more Aton. The first game was won by me on points 51 to 30. In the second game I tried for a temple victory in the forth temple and was successful. In the third game it was Anne's turn to try for a fourth temple victory. The TV was on and we both got distracted and Anne missed a win. Then I missed a way to stop her letting her win in the end.
I won 2 games to 1 bringing my overall record against Anne to 8-2.
I won 2 games to 1 bringing my overall record against Anne to 8-2.
Saturday 6 May 2006
My games at Carl & Bab's place - 5 May
John, Sean and I arrived just as Matt, Carl and Babs were worried that no-one else was going to arrive. While Carl and Babs put the boys to bed we put games on the table. Oasis was chosen
Oasis
The first player token moved between Matt, Carl and Sean, while John concentrated on the green and yellow grass. Carl picked up a big pile of multipliers and built lots of stone. I seemed to get stuck with 3 cards or less and didn't get much of anything until I started to collect camels, and ended up with ten. Matt started off with a good camel herd before diversifying into just about everything. Sean got the biggest camel herd but like me not much of anything else.
John 120
Carl 108
Matt 103
Sean 69
Ian 63
California
Matt left to watch rugby and the remaining four chose California over Mexica merely because Carl hadn't played it before. John reversed his luck of comming last in his previous games by jumping out to a lead, and Sean followed both grabbing various bonuses. Sean kept the brown visitor for most of the game which meant a present each time he got a different visitor. John had a perpetual party with two or three visitors. Carl and I made much heavier work of it, both of us choosing to go after a bonus tile that John was two moves closer to winning with the obvious result. Unlike the rest of us Carl managed to stay out of debt.
Sean 21 + $3
John 21 + $1
Carl 13 + $2
Ian 13 + $1
Hornochsen
We finished California at half time and then looked for another 45 minute game to play during the second half. I suggested Hornochsen and Carl was enthusiastic. I made a slight omission when explaining the rules by not explaining that you could only put one +5 and one x2 on each pile. This game takes a couple of playings to appreciate the tactical options and I was at an advantage with three beginners. I ran out of cards first but made the mistake of keeping my +5 and x2 until the end so had to rid of them where other people could use them. Carl ended up picking up a fair bit of red stuff.
Sean 20 (4x5)
Ian 9
John 8
Carl -ve (I forget how much)
You're Bluffing
Sean left and the rest us wanted to play a short game. I suggested "You're Bluffing" which Carl and co. have been put off before by the children's picture book style artwork. This time I stress its similarity to "For Sale" (which might be dubious) and got it onto the table. We were all scared of the bluffing aspect and there was little trading before all the animals were auctioned. I only had three sets in front of me and kicked off the major trading by spending big to get a pair of donkeys from John. My next trade in dogs was unsuccesful and I lost my dog. I finally got the last pig to give me two sets and take me out of the game. At this point John had the most money and a pair of horses, with Carl holding the other pair. Gradually Matt worked up to two sets. Everyone had at least one goat and goats became the most traded commodity causing the fourth goat to rotate around the table with money moving from hand to hand in the opposite direction. No-one getting a significant money advantage over the others. Finally the sets sorted themselves out with the game taking considerably longer than advertised.
John won (Carl could provide the scores)
Oasis
The first player token moved between Matt, Carl and Sean, while John concentrated on the green and yellow grass. Carl picked up a big pile of multipliers and built lots of stone. I seemed to get stuck with 3 cards or less and didn't get much of anything until I started to collect camels, and ended up with ten. Matt started off with a good camel herd before diversifying into just about everything. Sean got the biggest camel herd but like me not much of anything else.
John 120
Carl 108
Matt 103
Sean 69
Ian 63
California
Matt left to watch rugby and the remaining four chose California over Mexica merely because Carl hadn't played it before. John reversed his luck of comming last in his previous games by jumping out to a lead, and Sean followed both grabbing various bonuses. Sean kept the brown visitor for most of the game which meant a present each time he got a different visitor. John had a perpetual party with two or three visitors. Carl and I made much heavier work of it, both of us choosing to go after a bonus tile that John was two moves closer to winning with the obvious result. Unlike the rest of us Carl managed to stay out of debt.
Sean 21 + $3
John 21 + $1
Carl 13 + $2
Ian 13 + $1
Hornochsen
We finished California at half time and then looked for another 45 minute game to play during the second half. I suggested Hornochsen and Carl was enthusiastic. I made a slight omission when explaining the rules by not explaining that you could only put one +5 and one x2 on each pile. This game takes a couple of playings to appreciate the tactical options and I was at an advantage with three beginners. I ran out of cards first but made the mistake of keeping my +5 and x2 until the end so had to rid of them where other people could use them. Carl ended up picking up a fair bit of red stuff.
Sean 20 (4x5)
Ian 9
John 8
Carl -ve (I forget how much)
You're Bluffing
Sean left and the rest us wanted to play a short game. I suggested "You're Bluffing" which Carl and co. have been put off before by the children's picture book style artwork. This time I stress its similarity to "For Sale" (which might be dubious) and got it onto the table. We were all scared of the bluffing aspect and there was little trading before all the animals were auctioned. I only had three sets in front of me and kicked off the major trading by spending big to get a pair of donkeys from John. My next trade in dogs was unsuccesful and I lost my dog. I finally got the last pig to give me two sets and take me out of the game. At this point John had the most money and a pair of horses, with Carl holding the other pair. Gradually Matt worked up to two sets. Everyone had at least one goat and goats became the most traded commodity causing the fourth goat to rotate around the table with money moving from hand to hand in the opposite direction. No-one getting a significant money advantage over the others. Finally the sets sorted themselves out with the game taking considerably longer than advertised.
John won (Carl could provide the scores)
Thursday 4 May 2006
4 games at Peter's place - 3 May
Hey! That's My Fish!
While people were arriving we played this cute filler of moving penguins and eating fish. The penguins were Peter, Nigel, Andrew and myself. This is one of those games where it is easy to see what you should have done once the next player or two have played!
I won despite letting one of my penguins get unnecessarily isolated.
Great Wall of China
Peter, Eugene, Andrew and Nigel went off to play at being archiologists. So the rest of us tried to find a five-player game that we all wanted to play. Some people were feeling a bit picky so it too awhile! Card games don't often get played at Peter's place but with John, Luke and I in favour of this game it got played.
Luke started with a power play that won him 3 tiles early on but left him short of cards in hand for the rest of the game. I wasted a lot of cards early on in battles where I came second or third and tried in the second half to use my cards more wisely. I was not alone in wasting cards, there were a couple of expensive battles. At the end I was left in a guessing game with Jarratt and Luke was left in a king maker position.
This is another game where you see the move you should have done once the next player or two have played! Jarratt is "off" Reiner Knizia at the moment and was feeling in the mood for something more baroque so didn't enjoy himself (not that there are any games that fit his requirements and his time limitations!).
Lance and I won with 30 each and the rest were close behind.
California
Jarratt left and with the other table still playing we brought out California to fill in time. Lance got off to a lead by getting the first present and the first bonus tile. The rest of us tried to play catch up. For the last three days Lance was looking for a green piece of furnature and John was looking for some green floor. Much to the amusement of the rest of us.
Lance won. Luke and I came second.
Hacienda
People left in droves and we were down to six people. Again Peter, Luke and Eugene grabed a game (The Ark) and headed for the other table. Lance, Nigel and I were left to choose a three player. We finally settled on Hacienda. This was my second playing of this game and Nigel's first. We played the 'random' side of the board in this game of claiming land and taking herds to market. It is a deceptive tile laying, hand management, money management type game with multiple ways of scoring points. I thought I played a lot better than previously but didn't reach enough markets.
Lance won by a substantial margin.
While people were arriving we played this cute filler of moving penguins and eating fish. The penguins were Peter, Nigel, Andrew and myself. This is one of those games where it is easy to see what you should have done once the next player or two have played!
I won despite letting one of my penguins get unnecessarily isolated.
Great Wall of China
Peter, Eugene, Andrew and Nigel went off to play at being archiologists. So the rest of us tried to find a five-player game that we all wanted to play. Some people were feeling a bit picky so it too awhile! Card games don't often get played at Peter's place but with John, Luke and I in favour of this game it got played.
Luke started with a power play that won him 3 tiles early on but left him short of cards in hand for the rest of the game. I wasted a lot of cards early on in battles where I came second or third and tried in the second half to use my cards more wisely. I was not alone in wasting cards, there were a couple of expensive battles. At the end I was left in a guessing game with Jarratt and Luke was left in a king maker position.
This is another game where you see the move you should have done once the next player or two have played! Jarratt is "off" Reiner Knizia at the moment and was feeling in the mood for something more baroque so didn't enjoy himself (not that there are any games that fit his requirements and his time limitations!).
Lance and I won with 30 each and the rest were close behind.
California
Jarratt left and with the other table still playing we brought out California to fill in time. Lance got off to a lead by getting the first present and the first bonus tile. The rest of us tried to play catch up. For the last three days Lance was looking for a green piece of furnature and John was looking for some green floor. Much to the amusement of the rest of us.
Lance won. Luke and I came second.
Hacienda
People left in droves and we were down to six people. Again Peter, Luke and Eugene grabed a game (The Ark) and headed for the other table. Lance, Nigel and I were left to choose a three player. We finally settled on Hacienda. This was my second playing of this game and Nigel's first. We played the 'random' side of the board in this game of claiming land and taking herds to market. It is a deceptive tile laying, hand management, money management type game with multiple ways of scoring points. I thought I played a lot better than previously but didn't reach enough markets.
Lance won by a substantial margin.
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