Friday 25 June 2010

There is no satisfying some people. We get a new $5000 door bell, which actually works, and our visitors don't like it! They seem nostalgic for the old, dodgy one.

TransEuropa
Nasia had told me she would be late so we played this quick filler while we waited. She showed up and joined up in round two. Meanwhile Anna finished round one. On round two Nigel finished so quickly that he caught Anne so far from her destinations she ran off the end of the score track.

Ian    8
Andrew 7
Anna   6
Nasia  6
Nigel  5
John B 5
Anne   0

Beowulf
John and I taught Nasia this push your luck game. I pushed my luck to run out of cards on the Dragon Battle but with John trying to conserve his cards for the final encounter I won to get 7VP. If he had played from his hand rather than risking he would probably have ended up on 28. Nasia played a steady game, though with plenty of risk taking, to win.

Nasia  30
Ian    24
John B 23

Frank's Zoo
No evening is complete without Frank's Zoo. The consensus of opinion about Anne's game was that she was using a 6 player strategy.

Anne   4  3  7  6  8  7
Nigel  2  8  8 11 17 21
Anna   5  7 11 17 16 21
Andrew 2  5 10 13 18 22

Pompeii
This race game to save your people from the lava hasn't been played for awhile and Anne taught Andrew and Nasia. Nigel complained that his fellow players weren't screaming appropriately as their people went into the volcano.

Andrew 10
Nigel   7 (but lost fewer to the volcano than Nasia)
Nasia   7
Anne    6

Masters Gallery
I bought this game recently and have been keen to get it to the table. It turns out to be a quick filler and we learnt and played it twice while Pompeii was being covered in lava. This game is all about pumping up the value of particular artist's paintings by making them popular. Unlike Modern Art, there are no auctions. You play cards in front of you, some cards cause extra actions and people who diversify their portfolio get to add extra cards after the values of artists are known.

In the first game we used a lot of cards and had few left for the last round

John B 9  25  73 114
Anna  18  41  74  94
Ian   14  38  70  98

In the second game we conserved our cards until the last round

John B 7  14  50  90
Anna   5  27  68 136
Ian    8  23  58 132

Finca
After the Brooklyn Express left, Nasia taught us this cute and very colourful little game of picking fruit, finding donkeys and filling orders for fruit on Mallorca (aka Majorca). Like Pompeii how far you move your farmers depends on how many farmers are together on the same space. Also the quantity of fruit you pick depends on the number of farmers are on the space you arrive at. This simple arithmetic was often beyond our capabilities even though it wasn't yet midnight!

John B 50
Nasia  40
Ian    37
Anne   26

Friday 18 June 2010

TransEuropa
While we waited to see if anyone else was showing up Anne suggested TransEuropa. John joined in round 2 and started on 11 as a penalty (the other scores were 13,12,9 & 8 at that stage). Nasia had a passion for Scandinavia, while I got Florence three times in a row. Most people helped me at some point or other.

Ian    12
John B  8
Andrew  3
Nasia   1
Anne    0

Havoc: The Hundred Years War
Our second game, we taught Nigel and Nasia. We were all too busy recruiting to go to the first battle, and it was discarded (and everyone except Peacekeeper John had to discard a card). After Nasia won her first battle she immediately caught us on the hop by starting another. She built up a sizeable lead by the halfway point and John had avoided all the fighting so far. But once John (who had been collecting low value cards) joined in the war, he dominated the battlefields.

John B 27
Nasia  24
Nigel  21
Anne   14
Andrew 13
Ian    11

Wildlife
Nasia popped down to her flat to fetch this game specifically designed for six players. It tracks the evolution of six species over millions of years. Early on Crocs became the most intelligent species, while Humans eagerly paid plenty of food for opportunities to expand. Several species ignored their normal habitats. In particular Snakes stayed clear of the water, Mammoths largely ignored the plains, preferring the mountains and water. Mammoths were consistently the most evolved species, appearing everywhere except the desert. While Snakes and Crocs had the most abilities (Snakes favouring Food and Crocs Intelligence). Bears and Eagles had the biggest herd instinct.

Most cards were auctioned for over ten food and it was only in the last couple of rounds that the price dropped. Abilities didn't change hands much. I enjoy Wildlife, though in keeping with its theme it does seem to take a long time.

Crocs  (John B) 89
Eagles (Andrew) 79
Snakes  (Nigel) 63
Humans  (Nasia) 57
Mammoths  (Ian) 51
Bears    (Anne) 36

Change of Location (16 June 2010)

Peter was at a meeting so Wednesday games were at our house. Though with the games played and the people attending it felt more like Friday night games.

Frank's Zoo
Starting the evening with Frank's Zoo has almost become a habit. A six player game certainly means big swings in the scores. But Anna was in the lead until the last hand when John (and I) jumped ahead.

Anna   6 11 15 16 18
Andrew 3  7 12 15 16
Ian    5  6 12 14 21
John B 3  9 11 16 23
Anne  -1  3  2  9 13
John R 5  3  8 12 11

Havoc: The Hundred Year War
I bought this card game in a bunch of six games via TradeMe a few months ago. It turns out to be game of building up your hand of cards, choosing your battles (showdowns) and bluff. (Here and here is the story of the games design) We got two rules wrong: there should have been an extra recruiting round before the first battle and you can use any dogs from the battle (not just those outside the battle). It turned out to be a hit.

Anna   26 (winner on the second tie break)
John B 26
Andrew 19
Anne   18
Ian    16
John R 13

Friday 11 June 2010

Frank's Zoo
We started this game while we waited for Nigel to arrive. He arrived half way through the first hand and took over Anne's hand while she talked on the phone.

There is no stopping Andrew at the Zoo.

Anna   2  5 10 15 19
Andrew 4 11 17 24 27
Ian   -1  5  5  9 15
Anne   4  5  9 10 12
John B 4  7 10  9 10
Nigel  -  0  1  3  6

Attika
Anne got boxed in, in her original location and started another location. She and Nigel both tried for shrine to shrine victories but were stopped. Anna got all her buildings built to beat Nigel and Anne (who was one building behind).

Clippers
It's been a long time between plays. This game were players have incentives to take the routes to visit particular destinations is superficially similar to Expedition. But it involves much more thinking and taking into account the other player's potential actions, as the various shipping lines are much limited and number of points for a destination can vary between zero and 72 or more.

The red shipping line got sidelined to Hawaii, while the black line zig-zagged until it ran out mid-ocean and green got all the way across the Pacific. Attention then turned to white and purple. Finally red branched and restarted and blue took off for a run to NZ and Australia.

Following John's example we got all our ports down and Andrew and John even paid to move some ports to more valuable spots.

Andrew was initially confused by the choices but soon got into the evil shafting that makes up this game. The results were pretty close.

John   216
Ian    210
Andrew 208

10 Day in Europe
While the final clipper lines were snaking across the Pacific Anne and Anna each won a game, while Nigel whined and complained a lot!

Beowulf
Anna, Andrew and Nigel were all tired and left three of us. John wanted a revenge for his disastrous showing on Wednesday.

I started with an amazing streak of luck with my risks. But by the time we got to the swap 5 cards for 5VP I only had 7 cards (+2 specials) left. I rashly traded in 5 cards for 5VP and then 2 drinking horns for a scroll. I used my 5 card risk special card to put pressure on the others in Dragon's Rampage (both had large hands of cards). Anne got the Iron Shield. In Dragon Battle Anne and John still had a number of cards. I started with the Hides of Land (3 wild) but risked and lost to collect the double wound and two cards. Anne and John ran each other down to one card as they fought over the 7VP and to avoid the scratch. I had the most money for 7VP and my two cards beat the others so I could heal my third wound and avoid loosing 15 VP.

John managed to collect far more scrolls than Anne and I put together and we were close at the finish.

Ian  27
John 26
Anne 11

The three player game tends to make the competition sharper as there tends to be one very good reward, one very bad "reward" and a mediocre one in each major event.

Tichu (7 June 2010)

Anna and Andrew invited us for a game or two of Tichu.

Game 1
Andrew identified my tendency to avoid playing in the early rounds while I considered calling Tichu. But several times in the excitement of playing my first card and calling Tichu, I forgot the important bit -- calling Tichu!

Hnd Boys Girls
1.    50    50
2.   225    75 Andrew's Tichu
3.   295   105
4.   595   105 Tichu and 1-2
5.   895   105 Tichu and 1-2
6.   955    45 Anna failed Tichu
7.  1035   165 Anna's Tichu

Game 2
The second game was much closer, with the lead passing back and forth.

Hnd Boys Girls
1.    20    80
2.    90    10 Anna failed Tichu
3.   115   185 Anna's Tichu
4.    95   305 Andrew failed, Anne succeeded
5.   295   305 1-2
6.   295   605 Anne's Tichu and 1-2
7.   270   730 Ian failed, Anna succeeded
8.   500   700 Ian succeeded, Anne failed
9.   555   645 Anna failed
10.  580   820 Anna's Tichu
11.  880   720 Andrew succeed, Anne failed
12.  825   775 Ian failed
13. 1015   785 Andrew's Tichu

Princes of Renaissance (6 June 2010)

Once upon a time six Princes of Renaissance vied for control of Italy.

Despite our collective patronage of the arts, there are no pictures to record our exploits, and we rely on the failing memory and indecipherable scribblings of an old man for our knowledge of the treacherous deeds and battles of those turbulent decades.

These noble princes were:

Nigel Baglioni who seemed to have the ear of the military council in every city, regardless of the inferior nature of his army. He was of a religous persuasion, though some people uncharitably said that he merely had the Pope in his pocket.

Craig "son of gun" d'Este a successful general with no time for artists or religion he devoted himself to the art of war. He had an army equally formidible on attack and defense.

Iano Gonzaga, a patron of the arts and lost causes, who eagerly attacked and defended against the odds to loose battle after battle.

Cavalier Carlos Montefeltro, a peace loving prince who vetoed wars and collected art, a man of wide interests but overall the most astute investor in the cities of Italy.

John "money bags" Malatesta whose mechant empire spanned Venice and Milan and financed a decorative cavalry regiment and an art collection. In league with Ludovico Sforza (who did not believe in "Alea jacta est") he intervened to try and change course of battles.

Travis Bentivogli the greatest general of his time, despite his poor choice of investments, history will show him to be "Primus inter pares".

Player Tot City Wins Art Etc
Travis 43 = 15 + 21 + 3 + 4(most influence)
Carl   38 = 30 +  0 + 4 + 4(most influence)
Craig  34 = 19 + 15
JB     34 = 19 +  0 + 4 + 8(merchants) + 3(2nd cash)
Nigel  32 = 23 +  0 + 0 + 3(pope) + 6(most cash)
Ian    29 = 26 +  0 + 3

Die Macher (5 June 2010)

Its been about a year since we last played Die Macher and Peter and I were getting withdrawal symptoms, so as Queen's Birthday weekend was predicted to be wet we organised to get together for pizza and politics. John was keen on yellow, so I took blue (which confused me for the first hour or so, but not seriously).

Party Leaders

CDU   - Peter
FDP   - John R
Grüne - John B
SPD   - Anne
PDS   - Ian

Election Details
The first election (in Brandenburg) didn't attract a lot of attention from the parties (with the exception of Grüne). Grüne felt comfortable enough with the cash from their win to turn down a big donation and get a big boost in party membership and the some cash that way.

The next two elections attracted more attention with SPD and PDS romping away in Sachen and Rheinland being even more hotly contested. But the biggest prize was fourth election (in lucrative Bayen). FDP and PDS formed a coalition to see off the others, but everyone had a piece of the pie.

In Schleswig-Holstein FDP started to flex its muscles using an opinion poll to put paid to PDS's chances. Little Bremen was an anticlimax with only CDU and Grüne taking it seriously and only FDP took the last election in Saarland (with it potentially huge impact on National Opinion) as seriously as it should be taken.

Regional Summary

#  State             Seats CDU FDP Grn SPD PDS  Winners  and Media
1. Brandenburg        (28)   5  13  28  11   9   Grüne   (25 media)
2. Sachen             (46)   7   0  21  26  26 SPD + PDS (20 media)
3. Rheinland          (42)  42  42   6  32   9 SPD + CDU (20 media)
4. Bayen              (60)  54  60  54  42  60 FDP + PDS (15 media)
5. Schleswig-Holstein (32)  10  32   0  22   5 FDP       (15 media)
6. Bremen             (15)   8   0  15   0   6   Grüne   (12 media)
7. Saarland           (20)   9  17   9   3   4 FDP       (10 media)
Σ                          135 164 133 136 119

Nation Wide
Of course elections are not just about the regions. What about the party members, the secret donations and the national opinion? Unusually the parties seemed to care about their membership (especially Grüne which continually had the biggest membership).

As you might expect the National opinion favoured those who won the later elections. But only one opinion was secured.

Final Results

Parties         CDU FDP Grn SPD PDS
Mandate Σ       135 164 133 136 119
Media Points     20  40  37  40  35
Party Members    42  42  53  49  50
bonuses                 +10      +6
National Opinion 37  70  72  15  47
secured opinions     +5  +5      +5
Totals          234 321 310 240 262

Pundits Summary
Unlike previous elections there was little use of opinion polls to harm opposing political parties. Political observers noted that it had been a long time since the last election and perhaps the politicians had become soft. Against the trend FDP start using opinion polls aggressively in the last three elections. SPD was particularly upset with FDP in the Saarland election, saying it was "uncalled for".

Another trend the pundits noticed was the over use of Shadow Cabinet early, with very few kept until the last two elections.

In an interview with the press after the election the leader of the Grüne said:

I turned down 30,000 on round 1, (getting 5 dice, and launching me to the front of party membership for most of the game) and it was the only cash I did turn down - though I thought about doing so on round 2 as well, but decided not to because Ian was "certainly" going to do so, and could afford to turn down more than I - and not only did he not - but no-one did that round, and there was much [silent] gnashing of teeth on my side of the table!

The FDP government might not last long as there have been calls for an early election, possibly in July.

Friday 4 June 2010

Frank's Zoo
While we were waiting for John we pulled out Frank's Zoo. He arrived during the second hand and joined in the third hand once he knew the rules. Given seven players I expected pairs to be rare but we seemed to have plenty and even a few triples. Because the first player to go out gets 7 points the game can be over pretty quickly.

John R 3  9 14 21
Andrew 5 12 11 20
Anne   5  8 13 18
Ian    2  3  9 10
Nigel -2  3  6 10
Anna   5  4  6  6
John B -  -  4  6

Easter Island
Anne bought herself a game on TradeMe and was keen to get it played. I don't know much about this race game but I heard that of the first two finishers, the one with the most rocks in her/his head wins (naturally!)

Anne finished first with 26 stones (winner)
Anna finished second with 24 stones
John R finished last with 30 stones

Metropolys
Nigel stunned us by deciding to play a game he has hated since first playing it a couple of years ago. The other players were the usual suspects. I had gold and lakes and started strong but only got 2 pieces around each of two lakes when I lost the initiative. It bounced around the others. John surrounded one statue and finished the game when he noticed what Andrew had noticed earlier that placing his #13 piece gave him 3 single spots to get his last 4 pieces down, while we still had too many pieces yet to play!

John B 30
Andrew 28
Ian    21
Nigel  16

Attika
My set of Attika might get worn out before I next get to play it. John R got all his buildings down ahead of Anne and Anna.

Anna was aiming to catch a bus so the second game was played at speed and she won (also by getting all her building down).

Patrician
Looking for a short game I cajoled the others into learning this quick game of majorities. You have a hand of three cards and you turn consists of playing a card, building a bit of tower in the city matching the card and picking up the card next to that city. The trick is not only getting the majority in each tower but also picking up cards which further your aims. Some of the cards also have faces on them. A set of 3 of the same face also scores 6 points. Interestingly in the first 3 or 4 cities to be finished both towers were won by the same person.

Andrew 40
John B 37
Ian    32
Nigel  20

California
After Anna, Andrew and Nigel ran to catch the bus (leaving a couple of games behind), we played California. We needed to give John R a quick rules refresher. It is about shopping and interior decorating and the mechanics are easy to explain if you keep that in mind. The scores were close.

Ian    22
Anne   21
John R 20
John B 19