- I aimed for Temple 4 but we had a scoring round and were on the second time through the decks before I managed to fill it.
- Luck was on my side my first hand was (4, 4, 3, 3), ditto the second hand and the third hand also had a pair of 4s -- I didn't need a fourth hand.
- This was a much closer game I switched to Temple 1 fought over colours too.
- Back to Temple 4, Anne didn't get many 4s and it finished on the fourth hand.
- This time Anne won with a Temple 1 victory.
Monday 31 May 2010
Aton (30 May 2010)
Anne and I haven't played Aton for awhile. I like Temple 4 and Sunday's results show that:
Saturday 29 May 2010
Friday 28 May 2010
It was a dark and stormy night and five people sat around a table playing board games. As an antidote to the rain we set up business in Mongolia and played Oasis.
Oasis
It was interesting to see that by the time we had the game set up and I finished my high speed rules refresher, Moira and John had all their camels lined up in neat grid patterns. Andrew had 7 or 8 camels in a line leading out of a heap of camels, whereas Anne's camels were jumbled up in a heap. Andrew started the first camel herd, if you can call two, not quite adjacent camels, a herd. Not to be out done Anne arrived next door with a much bigger herd and once Moira, John and I had heard of camels Andrew was blocked in. But more troubling was his tendency to be #4 or #5 giving him poor choice of cards. John and I battled it out for control of the northern area, where John had the largest meadow. I quickly accumulated 4 Ovoos (the "multiplier" for stone plains), so was after every offer with a stone plain. John had lots of most things on the board but few "multiplier" tiles, while Anne's camel herd bred like rabbits - eventually 18 strong and winning her the game. Because the scoring depends on multiplication, the scores are often lopsided but with one exception we were relatively bunched.
Vegas Showdown
As compensation for loosing we let Andrew suggest the next game. He wanted to learn Vegas Showdown. The first three cards turned up were "No Bid" events, which forced people into harder choices early on than usual. John was very keen on yellow and blue rooms to boost his income. Anne was keen on the theatre. Unusually for me, I had to re-organise because I had walled off a corner of my Hotel end. Not to be out done John re-organised twice. All the three basic rooms ran out before the end, as did the large rooms. But the game dragged on for a couple more turns. In the final scoring Andrew almost caught Anne while John raced into a healthy lead.
Oasis
It was interesting to see that by the time we had the game set up and I finished my high speed rules refresher, Moira and John had all their camels lined up in neat grid patterns. Andrew had 7 or 8 camels in a line leading out of a heap of camels, whereas Anne's camels were jumbled up in a heap. Andrew started the first camel herd, if you can call two, not quite adjacent camels, a herd. Not to be out done Anne arrived next door with a much bigger herd and once Moira, John and I had heard of camels Andrew was blocked in. But more troubling was his tendency to be #4 or #5 giving him poor choice of cards. John and I battled it out for control of the northern area, where John had the largest meadow. I quickly accumulated 4 Ovoos (the "multiplier" for stone plains), so was after every offer with a stone plain. John had lots of most things on the board but few "multiplier" tiles, while Anne's camel herd bred like rabbits - eventually 18 strong and winning her the game. Because the scoring depends on multiplication, the scores are often lopsided but with one exception we were relatively bunched.
Anne 93
Ian 89
John B 81
Moira 78
Andrew R 58
Vegas Showdown
As compensation for loosing we let Andrew suggest the next game. He wanted to learn Vegas Showdown. The first three cards turned up were "No Bid" events, which forced people into harder choices early on than usual. John was very keen on yellow and blue rooms to boost his income. Anne was keen on the theatre. Unusually for me, I had to re-organise because I had walled off a corner of my Hotel end. Not to be out done John re-organised twice. All the three basic rooms ran out before the end, as did the large rooms. But the game dragged on for a couple more turns. In the final scoring Andrew almost caught Anne while John raced into a healthy lead.
John B 62
Ian 48
Moira 37
Anne 31
Andrew R 29
Sunday 23 May 2010
Friday 21 May 2010
We started the evening with 2 city building games: Attika and Metropolys. Attika has been played quite a lot on Friday nights recently, while Metropolys has been popular with a more select crowd.
Attika
In Attika there were an unusually high number of threats to win by linking two shrines. First Nasia covered the board in blue and nearly joined two shrines but she was thwarted, not to be put off she almost did it again only to be stopped again. Nigel tried and then Anna, but these were successfully countered and in the end it came down to whether Nasia or Anna would get all their pieces out first. Anna won beating Nasia, Anne and Nigel.
Metropolys
I (re-)taught John R. I had the statue goal, which I think is the trickiest. I couldn't decide which one(s) to concentrate on. Once I had a couple of pieces down (next to separate statues) I couldn't figure out how to finish either of them off. Meanwhile John avoided playing buildings and Andrew did a rush and got lots of Trendy locations while I settled for the first Metro. Perhaps I should have concentrated on highest in area, the Trendy regions, my colour and perhaps the Metro card. In the end Andrew was too powerful for us. John was struck by the agonizing decision.
After the city building Nasia and Andrew swapped seats and we moved onto a pair of more meaty games: Sylla and Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal
Anna played the connection game though not as successfully as Andrew and Anne, who concentrated on Elephants though Andrew did it better. Nigel also played. Unfortunately no one wrote down the scores.
Sylla
We taught Nasia. I led on the points track for the entire game, and lost lots of people (mostly slaves and another Christian). John saved his people, was Consol three times and controlled the events keeping the Slave Revolt and Christian Persecution going throughout the game. Nasia bought lots of stuff and lost lots of people too, but she also quietly collected lots of tokens, to win on début.
Frank's Zoo
Taj Mahal finished first and that end of the table moved onto Frank’s Zoo. Apart from Andrew who was rapidly heading for 30 no-one else seemed keen on reaching 18, so the game went on for 6 hands!
Null & Nichtig
I finally got to play my card game Null & Nichtig for the first time. I had been apprehensive about how this simple game plays. The deck contains five 13 card suits, numbered 0-11 with two zeros. Suits are irrelevant for determining what cards you can play or who wins the trick, but they are crucial for scoring. Tricks are won by the highest card played, between two equally high cards the first one played wins. The cards won are placed face up in front of you, one pile for each suit. Your score for the hand is the sum of the top card showing on each pile at the end. So you don’t want the last card you take in each suit to be a zero!
It was an interesting learning experience as we gradually picked up the principles of the game. Most obviously the last player to play on a trick is usually in the most powerful position. Also both low cards and high cards are powerful, while middle ranking cards can are a nuisance. I would class it as simpler and perhaps slightly more random than David and Goliath while slightly less painful than Stichlen. An interesting light filler of a trick taking game.
After most people had gone home Nasia and I played Null & Nichtig again, introducing Anne to this surprisingly nasty little game.
Attika
In Attika there were an unusually high number of threats to win by linking two shrines. First Nasia covered the board in blue and nearly joined two shrines but she was thwarted, not to be put off she almost did it again only to be stopped again. Nigel tried and then Anna, but these were successfully countered and in the end it came down to whether Nasia or Anna would get all their pieces out first. Anna won beating Nasia, Anne and Nigel.
Metropolys
I (re-)taught John R. I had the statue goal, which I think is the trickiest. I couldn't decide which one(s) to concentrate on. Once I had a couple of pieces down (next to separate statues) I couldn't figure out how to finish either of them off. Meanwhile John avoided playing buildings and Andrew did a rush and got lots of Trendy locations while I settled for the first Metro. Perhaps I should have concentrated on highest in area, the Trendy regions, my colour and perhaps the Metro card. In the end Andrew was too powerful for us. John was struck by the agonizing decision.
Andrew 39
Ian 24
John R 13
After the city building Nasia and Andrew swapped seats and we moved onto a pair of more meaty games: Sylla and Taj Mahal.
Taj Mahal
Anna played the connection game though not as successfully as Andrew and Anne, who concentrated on Elephants though Andrew did it better. Nigel also played. Unfortunately no one wrote down the scores.
Andrew
Anne
Anna
Nigel
Sylla
We taught Nasia. I led on the points track for the entire game, and lost lots of people (mostly slaves and another Christian). John saved his people, was Consol three times and controlled the events keeping the Slave Revolt and Christian Persecution going throughout the game. Nasia bought lots of stuff and lost lots of people too, but she also quietly collected lots of tokens, to win on début.
Nasia 77
Ian 70
John R 66
Frank's Zoo
Taj Mahal finished first and that end of the table moved onto Frank’s Zoo. Apart from Andrew who was rapidly heading for 30 no-one else seemed keen on reaching 18, so the game went on for 6 hands!
Andrew 3 8 15 21 23 26
Anna 5 9 11 13 17 20
Anne 4 2 6 9 8 12
Nigel 0 4 3 1 8 10
Null & Nichtig
I finally got to play my card game Null & Nichtig for the first time. I had been apprehensive about how this simple game plays. The deck contains five 13 card suits, numbered 0-11 with two zeros. Suits are irrelevant for determining what cards you can play or who wins the trick, but they are crucial for scoring. Tricks are won by the highest card played, between two equally high cards the first one played wins. The cards won are placed face up in front of you, one pile for each suit. Your score for the hand is the sum of the top card showing on each pile at the end. So you don’t want the last card you take in each suit to be a zero!
John R 38 65 87
Ian 24 58 82
Nasia 17 32 60
It was an interesting learning experience as we gradually picked up the principles of the game. Most obviously the last player to play on a trick is usually in the most powerful position. Also both low cards and high cards are powerful, while middle ranking cards can are a nuisance. I would class it as simpler and perhaps slightly more random than David and Goliath while slightly less painful than Stichlen. An interesting light filler of a trick taking game.
After most people had gone home Nasia and I played Null & Nichtig again, introducing Anne to this surprisingly nasty little game.
Nasia 30 72 95
Anne 27 52 95
Ian 38 69 93
Thursday 20 May 2010
Race Day (19 May 2010)
Anne had other plans on Wednesday so we could play games she doesn't like. It turned out we played race games all evening, starting with two that Anne doesn't like and finishing with one that I am usually less than keen on. Race games feel like straight forward theme for a board game but in fact it seems that it is tricky to get one that is: fun to play, invokes the feel of a race and requires skill to win. Perhaps race games should be real time (like the build, i.e. non-race, part of Galaxy Trucker).
Winner's Circle
Winner's Circle is a game of 3 races in each race 7 horses are competing and we, the players, get to both bet on 3 of the horses and jointly race all 7 of them. Each horse has a card with 4 symbols, with a number by symbol. Betting is putting your betting markers on 3 of the horses, while racing is throwing a die a die with symbols on it and choosing one the horses that haven't yet moved this round and moving it the number of squares corresponding to the symbol on the horse's description card. At the end of the race there is a payout for the people who bet on the horses who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with slightly more for horses that weren't popular.
I learnt the hard way the disadvantages in backing a horse by yourself. Everyone else has an interest in making sure your horse fails to finish in the first 3. You need other people to help your horse win but you also need to do better than other people! Which was beyond me.
Around the World in 80 Days
This race is not about how many turns it takes you to get around the world but how many days it takes, i.e. how efficiently you do it. The most controversial aspect to this game is the blue (bad) special cards. John R suggested that if you draw a blue card the effect is carried out but then you draw another card (this extra draw only happens once per turn). We agreed to this variant, but in retrospect I am not so sure because if you don't already have special card then there is almost no risk in drawing/buying one.
I stayed behind initially to pick up the rewards for arriving last and to try and improve my hand but I didn't get around to making the necessary acceleration to finish before the game. At one point I had 4 special cards in my hand but not a particularly useful combination. Lance also didn't finish, whereas Peter played the opposite strategy and raced to the finish, taking all the finish first rewards, grabbing the watch (start player) several times. Once Peter had finished Nigel panicked and rushed to London, followed more efficiently by John R, but most efficiently by John B.
Ave Caesar
Race I
Ave Caesar is a cute idea, chariot racing where everyone has their own deck of movement cards, a small hand to choose from each turn and tracks with choke points. But I think the luck of the start and the luck of the draw outweighs the skill in choosing your card and route. Though to be fair Lance does win more often than luck would account for. We usually play with 6 players, but Nigel and John B had gone home. Though even with only 4 there was plenty of blocking. I should have recorded the starting positions because it is interesting to see how much places you made or lost from the start positions, but unfortunately I didn't.
Race II
We flipped to the lesser played side (without the loop), and Lance won again. Actually this side is quite hard with a shorter finishing straight and more choke points.
Lance says that he is good at majority (or area) control games but it looks like he is good at race games too.
Winner's Circle
Winner's Circle is a game of 3 races in each race 7 horses are competing and we, the players, get to both bet on 3 of the horses and jointly race all 7 of them. Each horse has a card with 4 symbols, with a number by symbol. Betting is putting your betting markers on 3 of the horses, while racing is throwing a die a die with symbols on it and choosing one the horses that haven't yet moved this round and moving it the number of squares corresponding to the symbol on the horse's description card. At the end of the race there is a payout for the people who bet on the horses who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with slightly more for horses that weren't popular.
I learnt the hard way the disadvantages in backing a horse by yourself. Everyone else has an interest in making sure your horse fails to finish in the first 3. You need other people to help your horse win but you also need to do better than other people! Which was beyond me.
Lance 1450
Nigel 1350
John R 1250
Peter 950
John B 900
Ian 600
Around the World in 80 Days
This race is not about how many turns it takes you to get around the world but how many days it takes, i.e. how efficiently you do it. The most controversial aspect to this game is the blue (bad) special cards. John R suggested that if you draw a blue card the effect is carried out but then you draw another card (this extra draw only happens once per turn). We agreed to this variant, but in retrospect I am not so sure because if you don't already have special card then there is almost no risk in drawing/buying one.
I stayed behind initially to pick up the rewards for arriving last and to try and improve my hand but I didn't get around to making the necessary acceleration to finish before the game. At one point I had 4 special cards in my hand but not a particularly useful combination. Lance also didn't finish, whereas Peter played the opposite strategy and raced to the finish, taking all the finish first rewards, grabbing the watch (start player) several times. Once Peter had finished Nigel panicked and rushed to London, followed more efficiently by John R, but most efficiently by John B.
John B 66
Peter 72
John R 79
Nigel 84
Lance Did not finish
Ian Did not finish
Ave Caesar
Race I
Ave Caesar is a cute idea, chariot racing where everyone has their own deck of movement cards, a small hand to choose from each turn and tracks with choke points. But I think the luck of the start and the luck of the draw outweighs the skill in choosing your card and route. Though to be fair Lance does win more often than luck would account for. We usually play with 6 players, but Nigel and John B had gone home. Though even with only 4 there was plenty of blocking. I should have recorded the starting positions because it is interesting to see how much places you made or lost from the start positions, but unfortunately I didn't.
Lance
Ian
Peter
John R
Race II
We flipped to the lesser played side (without the loop), and Lance won again. Actually this side is quite hard with a shorter finishing straight and more choke points.
Lance
John R
Ian
Peter
Lance says that he is good at majority (or area) control games but it looks like he is good at race games too.
Saturday 15 May 2010
Friday 14 May 2010
Dschunke
Andrew and Anna taught Nigel the rules while I finished the washing up. Nigel might have been hyped about his week at work, because I overheard him being admonished for not paying attention. From the start Andrew and Anna were competing fiercely for the special cards. I was constantly low on commodity cards and so concentrated on getting crates down, taking the money action and being opportunistic in the blind auctions. Andrew and Nigel in particular always seemed to have plenty of cards. Despite this Anna was in the lead for the whole game, but when we added up the final scores Andrew had won beating her for probably the first time (though he came close last year). She claimed he must have cheated!
Expedition
Anne and Judith had arrived from the airport and so I went to find a six player game. This was my fiftieth game of Expedition (since my first game in August 2008), but not a good one for me. Andrew finished first but left a 3-way tie between Anne, Anna and Nigel.
Frank's Zoo
Playing this with six has been a mixed bag, but this session was a lot of fun with big scores being made by everyone (except me). Anne started with an outrageous score of 8, while Andrew started by going backwards. On the second hand Andrew recovered by showing that 8 wasn't such an outrageous score and jumping from last to second equal with Anna. But on the third hand Anna lost 4 points, while Anne extended her lead and Judith caught up with Andrew. The fourth hand should have been the last hand except that Anne stagnated while Andrew scored 9 to hit 20 while three of us still hadn't hit double figure, though Anna started on her come back. On the final hand Anna scored 8 but it only enough to give her share of third place. It was Judith's first game.
It was Andrew's night with two wins.
Andrew and Anna taught Nigel the rules while I finished the washing up. Nigel might have been hyped about his week at work, because I overheard him being admonished for not paying attention. From the start Andrew and Anna were competing fiercely for the special cards. I was constantly low on commodity cards and so concentrated on getting crates down, taking the money action and being opportunistic in the blind auctions. Andrew and Nigel in particular always seemed to have plenty of cards. Despite this Anna was in the lead for the whole game, but when we added up the final scores Andrew had won beating her for probably the first time (though he came close last year). She claimed he must have cheated!
Andrew 69
Anna 67
Ian 64
Nigel 31
Expedition
Anne and Judith had arrived from the airport and so I went to find a six player game. This was my fiftieth game of Expedition (since my first game in August 2008), but not a good one for me. Andrew finished first but left a 3-way tie between Anne, Anna and Nigel.
Anne 15
Anna 15
Nigel 15
Andrew 13
Ian 10
Judith 7
Frank's Zoo
Playing this with six has been a mixed bag, but this session was a lot of fun with big scores being made by everyone (except me). Anne started with an outrageous score of 8, while Andrew started by going backwards. On the second hand Andrew recovered by showing that 8 wasn't such an outrageous score and jumping from last to second equal with Anna. But on the third hand Anna lost 4 points, while Anne extended her lead and Judith caught up with Andrew. The fourth hand should have been the last hand except that Anne stagnated while Andrew scored 9 to hit 20 while three of us still hadn't hit double figure, though Anna started on her come back. On the final hand Anna scored 8 but it only enough to give her share of third place. It was Judith's first game.
Andrew -1 7 11 20 25
Anne 8 12 17 16 18
Judith 5 6 11 13 16
Anna 3 7 3 8 16
Ian 3 1 4 8 11
Nigel 3 6 8 9 8
It was Andrew's night with two wins.
Friday 14 May 2010
Frank's Zoo (12 May 2010)
We played Frank's Zoo at Peter's place for the first time. It was John's first time. I started at the back and stayed there. Nigel leaped in the lead on the 3rd hand and stayed there until the last hand when Anne and John jumped past. Anne won.
Anne 3 8 9 13 13 20
John R 4 4 7 11 15 19
Nigel 3 7 15 14 16 15
Ian 1 4 3 6 10 12
Sunday 9 May 2010
Sunday 9 May 2010
When I arrived at Wargames Supply, Susan and Raymond were playing a game of Three-Dragon Ante, they were kind enough to restart and teach me. Basically each round the players are playing to win the pile of gold in the middle, by having the highest value set of three cards. Obviously playing high value cards is good, but to balance this if you play a lower value card than the previous player you get to do the extra power written on the bottom of the card. There are other complications and the deck has 70 cards mostly illustrated with dragons. Susan had the dragon's share of the gold when Raymond ran out of money (and I wouldn't have been far behind).
Lucy joined us for a game of Stone Age. Susan tried the othodox green cards strategy (getting 65 points worth). Lucy went after tools. Raymond and I aimed for lots of people (ending up with 9 each). Huts and agriculture were popular across the board, and we all ended up on 5 on the crop track. I think this was my first Stone Age win, and possibly the first where the green strategy was not successful.
In the final few minutes Susan taught us all Merchants: Lords of the Sea (a Reiner Kniza card game with a box that looks like a PC game). It is a game to earn the most money playing cards to match the goods on your ships, but everyone else also earns for the goods that match your cards. Raymond and I helped each other but not enough to beat either Lucy (who came second) or Susan (who won).
Lucy joined us for a game of Stone Age. Susan tried the othodox green cards strategy (getting 65 points worth). Lucy went after tools. Raymond and I aimed for lots of people (ending up with 9 each). Huts and agriculture were popular across the board, and we all ended up on 5 on the crop track. I think this was my first Stone Age win, and possibly the first where the green strategy was not successful.
Ian 172
Raymond 164
Lucy 152
Susan 152
In the final few minutes Susan taught us all Merchants: Lords of the Sea (a Reiner Kniza card game with a box that looks like a PC game). It is a game to earn the most money playing cards to match the goods on your ships, but everyone else also earns for the goods that match your cards. Raymond and I helped each other but not enough to beat either Lucy (who came second) or Susan (who won).
Susan 55
Lucy 46
Ian 39
Raymond 35
Saturday 8 May 2010
Friday 7 May 2010
Frank's Zoo
Carl, Andrew and Anna were the first to turn up and we tried to get a game of Frank's Zoo in before the others arrived. Well we got two hands in, and terminated the game with Anna well in the lead.
Wars of the Roses: Lancaster vs. York
Carl was keen on playing his new game and it turns out that Andrew and Anna had met the designer in Brisbane. I got off to a good lead on turn one so all the others cashed in their French Aid for between 15-25 pounds each. I had no mercenaries and not much money so gradually lost ground. I ended up with lots of port but lost my ship to John. Carl went religious and also won the Captain of Calais every turn except the first. Carl caught me but never got more than 2 points ahead before the end of the game so my French Aid was pretty much worthless. Carl ended up with 3 bishop-cathedral town combinations earning 9 points per turn.
We did get the tie breaking rule wrong in the first half of the game, and Andrew and Carl both made planning mistakes putting troops in illegal places. John didn't like the game, whereas I found that the theme and components reminded me of Kingmaker (which seems like the obvious inspiration) but the mechanics were a combination of straight forward majority control with blind bidding style planning (but not quite as innovative as Wallenstein). I got an impression of a game with plenty of randomness (due to the blind bid style planning) . I'd be happy to play again though I don't think it is a game to be taken too seriously.
Attika
While we were refighting the War of the Roses the other went back to ancient Greece. Anna won the first game with an end-to-end victory. Nigel won the second game with another end-to-end victory.
China Moon
Anne taught Anna and Nigel this nasty no luck race game. Which Nigel won. Then Nigel, Andrew and Anna went to catch the bus.
The Kids of Carcassonne
Carl's other new game is a simplified Carcassonne with a twist that the meaples are placed only when a road is finished. The winner is the player to get all their meaples on the board first. I beat Carl, John B and Anne.
Attika
Carl went home and we finished the evening with a third game of Attika. This time I won by building all my buildings first.
It was a good evening for Attika fans.
Carl, Andrew and Anna were the first to turn up and we tried to get a game of Frank's Zoo in before the others arrived. Well we got two hands in, and terminated the game with Anna well in the lead.
Anna 5 12
Andrew 6 8
Carl 2 5
Ian 3 2
Anne -1 1
Wars of the Roses: Lancaster vs. York
Carl was keen on playing his new game and it turns out that Andrew and Anna had met the designer in Brisbane. I got off to a good lead on turn one so all the others cashed in their French Aid for between 15-25 pounds each. I had no mercenaries and not much money so gradually lost ground. I ended up with lots of port but lost my ship to John. Carl went religious and also won the Captain of Calais every turn except the first. Carl caught me but never got more than 2 points ahead before the end of the game so my French Aid was pretty much worthless. Carl ended up with 3 bishop-cathedral town combinations earning 9 points per turn.
We did get the tie breaking rule wrong in the first half of the game, and Andrew and Carl both made planning mistakes putting troops in illegal places. John didn't like the game, whereas I found that the theme and components reminded me of Kingmaker (which seems like the obvious inspiration) but the mechanics were a combination of straight forward majority control with blind bidding style planning (but not quite as innovative as Wallenstein). I got an impression of a game with plenty of randomness (due to the blind bid style planning) . I'd be happy to play again though I don't think it is a game to be taken too seriously.
Carl 126
Ian 116
Andrew 101
John B 100
Attika
While we were refighting the War of the Roses the other went back to ancient Greece. Anna won the first game with an end-to-end victory. Nigel won the second game with another end-to-end victory.
China Moon
Anne taught Anna and Nigel this nasty no luck race game. Which Nigel won. Then Nigel, Andrew and Anna went to catch the bus.
Nigel 14
Anne 11
Anna 8
The Kids of Carcassonne
Carl's other new game is a simplified Carcassonne with a twist that the meaples are placed only when a road is finished. The winner is the player to get all their meaples on the board first. I beat Carl, John B and Anne.
Attika
Carl went home and we finished the evening with a third game of Attika. This time I won by building all my buildings first.
It was a good evening for Attika fans.
Sunday 2 May 2010
Friday 30 April 2010
Frank's Zoo
Last week we planned to play this again.
I handed Anna 5 points in the first hand by playing 3 lions on Nigel's 2 lions. Anna played 3 Elephants and no-one could top that. So she got off to a good lead with 9 points. On the second hand Nigel jumped into second place and from there he caught up with Anna, dropped behind and caught up again, using a Hedgehog strategy (getting all the Hedgehogs on one hand). I pretty much ignored Hedgehogs and Lions, aiming to go out quickly but I wasn't overly successful.
This time Nigel did make up for previous games and won on the tie break (which is the player who made the most points on the last hand).
Rheinländer
We fulfilled another promise to ourselves by playing this again. I grabbed a lot of castles (again) and also tried for churches but Anne was always one step behind me and I was never Archbishop long enough to use the power. I lost 3 of my Dukes at the end. Nigel had by far the biggest Dukedom but size doesn't matter as much as how many Dukes you finish with.
We played again. This time I went for 3 and 4 point cities. There was quite a bit of aggression in this game, which Andrew survived the best. While Nigel went on a religious kick and became the unchallenged Archbishop and won the game. The scores were close this time.
China
China and Rheinländer are both 45 minute games where you play card(s) to get your pieces on to the board in order to gain majorities. In both games the cards have two uses: an obvious use and an alternative one. In Rheinländer you can play a knight onto empty space who's number matches your card, in China you can play in a province whose colour matches your card. Alternatively in Rheinländer you can use any card to extend a region, in China a pair of cards can be used as a wild card. In both games you end your turn by refilling your hand. In addition to the mechanical similarities both games have traps for beginners. In Rheinländer, unlike what the theme might suggest, expanding or attacking is more often than not counter productive. In China the importance and timing of Emissary placement is hard to get right.
I enjoy this quick area/majority control game, probably because it is more about opportunistic moves than deep strategy. I think most of the others had only played once before and need a rules refresher. The game started in an unorthodox fashion with everyone starting in a different region. When you start a region you only get to place one house in it, while on other turns you get to place two pieces. So often players are reluctant to start regions because it often helps the player to their left. Perhaps it is in the way I explained the game or may be it is better with fewer players but no-one else enjoyed it.
It was Nigel's night with two wins.
Last week we planned to play this again.
I handed Anna 5 points in the first hand by playing 3 lions on Nigel's 2 lions. Anna played 3 Elephants and no-one could top that. So she got off to a good lead with 9 points. On the second hand Nigel jumped into second place and from there he caught up with Anna, dropped behind and caught up again, using a Hedgehog strategy (getting all the Hedgehogs on one hand). I pretty much ignored Hedgehogs and Lions, aiming to go out quickly but I wasn't overly successful.
This time Nigel did make up for previous games and won on the tie break (which is the player who made the most points on the last hand).
Anna 9 12 13 17 19
Andrew 5 4 7 11 17
Nigel 2 8 13 15 19 (winning on tie-break)
Ian -1 3 7 10 10
Anne 2 3 2 4 8
Rheinländer
We fulfilled another promise to ourselves by playing this again. I grabbed a lot of castles (again) and also tried for churches but Anne was always one step behind me and I was never Archbishop long enough to use the power. I lost 3 of my Dukes at the end. Nigel had by far the biggest Dukedom but size doesn't matter as much as how many Dukes you finish with.
Andrew 41
Ian 32
Anne 27
Anna 25
Nigel 24
We played again. This time I went for 3 and 4 point cities. There was quite a bit of aggression in this game, which Andrew survived the best. While Nigel went on a religious kick and became the unchallenged Archbishop and won the game. The scores were close this time.
Nigel 33
Andrew 30
Ian 30
Anne 29
Anna 28
China
China and Rheinländer are both 45 minute games where you play card(s) to get your pieces on to the board in order to gain majorities. In both games the cards have two uses: an obvious use and an alternative one. In Rheinländer you can play a knight onto empty space who's number matches your card, in China you can play in a province whose colour matches your card. Alternatively in Rheinländer you can use any card to extend a region, in China a pair of cards can be used as a wild card. In both games you end your turn by refilling your hand. In addition to the mechanical similarities both games have traps for beginners. In Rheinländer, unlike what the theme might suggest, expanding or attacking is more often than not counter productive. In China the importance and timing of Emissary placement is hard to get right.
I enjoy this quick area/majority control game, probably because it is more about opportunistic moves than deep strategy. I think most of the others had only played once before and need a rules refresher. The game started in an unorthodox fashion with everyone starting in a different region. When you start a region you only get to place one house in it, while on other turns you get to place two pieces. So often players are reluctant to start regions because it often helps the player to their left. Perhaps it is in the way I explained the game or may be it is better with fewer players but no-one else enjoyed it.
Ian 38
Anna 33
Anne 27
Nigel 25
Andrew 24
It was Nigel's night with two wins.
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