Friday 26 June 2009

In last Friday's game of Louis XIV I didn't get the memo about scoring 41.

Louis XIV
Ian 49
Anna 41
Andrew 41
Craig 41

In Tigris and Euphrates Luke got 7 in each colour plus a white cube, while Brandon also got 7 in his worst colour but won with 10 on his next colour

We finished with For Sale where Anna was queen of the real estate market
Anna 49
Nigel 47
Brandon 45
Travis 43
Andrew 38
Ian 37

Friday 12 June 2009

Once Travis showed up we kicked off with Modern Art. Luke, Travis and I hadn't played this game in a long time and Jess and Moira hadn't played at all, so I did a quick rules refresh. Travis and The Man in Black (Jess) had a bit of a thing going pushing art to each other, though Travis thought I was lead member of the Luke Guyton benefit society for my fixed price auction of a pair of ChristinP's (one of which was Travis's).

Luke 430

Ian 424

Travis 406

Moira 271

Jess 267

Meanwhile the others arrived and decided on Oasis which Anne taught. Anna obviously "got" this game, hogging the multipliers.

Anna 101

Anne 63

Craig 47

Andrew 46

Nigel 45

Modern Art was followed by Expedition, where the yellow trip circumnavigated the globe in record time before plunging down the Atlantic to Antarctica and back up the other side of South America, to eventually run out (though the last couple of arrows where removed and repositioned a few times!)

Travis 16

Luke 14

Ian 11

Moira 10

Jess 8

The other table meanwhile went pirating with Seerobber, where Nigel showed everyone how to be a pirate king.

Nigel 81

Craig 73

Andrew 70

Anna 67

Anne 59

Luke, Jessie and I had a quick 3 player game of TransEuropa after Travis left. I didn't see any point in leaving the train shed. Luke building to my cities twice (Glasgow and Oslo), while Jess doing it once (Zurick) undoubtedly helped.

Ian 13

Luke 2

Jess -ve

Planet Steam (20 May 2009)

We played Planet Steam and were very poor all game, with low prices for goods.  Lance and I came bottom equal.

John R  644
Brandon 636
Lance   583
Ian     583

It is long and has lots of number crunching. It also felt a bit like trying to think through some game theory type problems (like deciding whether other people will sell or not). On the whole it was better than I was expecting, but my expectations were low (I knew about the length and the number crunching aspect). May be it is too early to judge but the game felt a bit narrow to me (narrow in terms of viable choices and interesting things to do). But I wasn't bored. I liked the market mechanism, even if it was a bit fiddly.  It is a better market than Power Grid and much better than Cuba's.  The manipulations remind me of Gigantum, even though it works completely differently.

Overall I would say Power Grid and Age of Steam more fun.  Which reminds me I need to re-rate a bunch of games on BGG.

Blog Resurrected

Over 2009 gaming at Hobson St has evolved from occasional special events and as an alternate venue for Peter's Wednesday night games, through to a semi-regular and now effectively regular Friday night (occasionally Saturday night) gaming. More recently I've been sending out results, sometimes with comments about the games. I decided to re-use this old blog to record these brief session reports and as a mechanism for publishing future reports.

November 2009

Mina -- femme fatale (28 April 2007)

London, 28th April 1907

Story confirmed story, the evidence was overwhelming.

Dracula was back!

The rumours were maddeningly vague or contradictory about his location. We couldn't ignore them any longer. We were scattered around Europe. Mina on the French coast, Dr Seward in Spain, Dr Van Helsing in Italy and Lord Godalming in Budapest. The hunt was on, we were ill equipped and had no idea where He was, so we moved randomly, looking for clues, and things that might be useful in our fateful quest.

Then a breakthrough, newspapers reported suspicious activity in Frankfurt. The trail was fresh. The hunters converged on northern Germany. Mina was closest and when she got to Hamburg -- Dracula stuck. How like that damnable coward to attack the weakest member of our team? But he underestimated her. The resourceful Mina had garlic and magic bullets, and proved more than a match for the lord of vampires. Lord Godalming arrived to protect our brave Mina and also managed to grapple with Dracula, inflicting more injury, before the monster fled to sea.

Unsure where he was heading three of the hunters spread themselves along the coast while Van Helsing investigated Dracula's back trail in Germany in case there were any vampires. Unfortunately he was struck by lightning which killed his dogs and left the veteran vampire hunter injured. Not wanting to give Dracula any opportunity to gain extra power Van Helsing refused to rest and recuperate and pressed on.

Where was Dracula's ship heading? Down the English Channel? Out into the Atlantic to land the undead Count in France, Spain or Portugal, or was he heading for home via the Mediterranean? While we were bickering among ourselves about Dracula's likely course, our spys were at work. Information arrived to say that Dracula had travelled to the Irish Sea, but was now on land. We pored over the map. There are only three ports to investigate: Dublin, Liverpool and the small port of Swansea. Mina found a fast ship and good weather and raced to Liverpool, but found no sign of vampire activity and Dracula had time to move on.

With both the doctors at sea and not due to land for awhile, Lord Godalming also had luck with the weather and reached London in record time. Luck was with the aristocrat and he found that Dracula was in London but encountering one of Dracula's minions he only had time to send a telegram to Liverpool. Where the redoubtable Mina chartered a special train to reach London and deliver the coup de grâce using a fresh supply of garlic and magic bullets.

Going though Dracula's personal effects we found his diary (yes, we too were surprised that he had such an English habit). In it we found evidence that his attack on Mina in Hamburg wasn't an accident but calculated decision to reduce the number of hunters by attacking the weakest (there was also an indecipherable reference to gaining 2VP). He also wrote of his intention to rest up and feed in Swansea but Mina's swift arrival in Liverpool changed his plan. He seems to have thought the hunters were having too much luck. We prefer to think of it as God's will.

Guatemala Café (21 April 2007)

For a change of pace Lance taught us his new game Guatemala Café. In this game you are buying coffee sheds, workers and ships and laying roads from the coffee sheds to the ships. The resources to buy are laid out in a grid with a path around the outside. A "Coffee buyer" walks around this path, and you can only access the resources on the row or column he is adjacent to.

The only way to get money in this game is to trigger a scoring in one of the brands of coffee instead of buying (this gives you $8). The brand that is scored is also determined by the where the "Coffee buyer" is on his track

Everyone who has workers and a shed of this brand score a point per worker. If they are connected to a ship of this brand as well that score is doubled (trippled for 2 ships and quadrupled for 3 ships).

This game is more devious than I've made it sound as Lance demonstrated at one point by taking advantage of my peniless state to force me to do a scoring in a brand that he had and the rest of us didn't!

As money is very tight throughout the game it is good to build one or perferably two medium sized plantations early (to score with) and worry about ship and road building later (which will bring big scores).

Lance 42
Ian   24
JohnB 19
Anne  11

Three new games - 3 August

I played 3 new games at Peter's last night (though only one is a new release).

Stephenson's Rocket - which reminded me a lot of Through the Desert (though more complicated), rather than Acquire or Union Pacific. It has a scoring system which is probably the complex I have come across for a Knizia game. Understanding what actions will score the most £s now and later is far from easy. Lance and Peter came first and second with very different strategies. Jarratt would hate this game as the scoring system is most of the game. I want to play it again, but still have no idea of a strategy.

Jericho - a quick card game with a "take that" element. I don't generally like "take that" elements but I'll make an exception for this one as it takes out the highest cards of a suit on the table regardless of whose they are (at one point I killed one of my cards and 2 of Peter's to my advantage). You are not directly choosing your victim - you choose the suit you are attacking instead. It is also only 10-15 minutes long, so if you get shafted it is over quickly (actually the scores were 18, 16, 16 in our game)

Big City - a city building game with numbered cards for the building spots (as in Chinatown) and prerequisites for each building. You score for what you build but also may create opportunities for others as you fulfil their prereqs. I didn't like this as much as the others, perhaps with 5 players it is rather chaotic. The bits are nice though.

On the other table Amun Re finished with scores of 45, 44, 44, 43!

Two new games - 24 May

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.

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.

Temple wins - 14 May

Anne wanted to play more Aton. So we played four more games, all ending in a temple victory.

1. I tried for temple 4 and Anne tried for temple 1. I won when the scores were 27-25.
2. I tried for temple 3 and Anne tried for temple 2. She won when the scores were 4-8.
3. I tried for temple 2 and Anne tried for temple 1. I won when the scores were 24-27.
4. I tried for temple 4 again. I won when the scores were 2-8.

I won 3-1 in this session and am winning 11-3 overall.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.