Friday 22 July 2011

Age of Steam: Korea
My second play of the Korea board. There seemed to be plenty of goods to go around, though the planning is slow due to the need to take into account the changing destination colours as cubes are moved out of cities. Two important points about the Korea expansion are:

• firstly cities have no colour (even New Cities), they are destinations for the cubes they contain,
• secondly New Cities arrive on the board pre-populated with 2 cubes from the Goods Display (which are immediately replaced).

John, Anne and Andrew started around Seoul and that area emptied of cubes almost immediately. Nigel started to the south of the others and I started in Busan (in the south western corner). As John and I joined Nigel, the area south of Seoul also emptied out. Andrew built north and Anne west. The cube shortage was intermittent, until the last turn when most of the board was empty (except one blue and red in each city in the south west - damn US troops).

I led on the share track until I cut back on shares, track building and bidding for turn order (I still had plenty of cubes). I remained on the old 4 link train technology while others had moved onto 5 links (which cost me in the final turn). Nigel issued far fewer shares than anyone else. John and I were neck and neck on the income track but he had fewer shares. On the last turn I lost a point in track due to John's hint to Nigel and another 2 points due to Anne's Urbanisation.

John B   66
Nigel    63
Ian      62
Anne     54
Andrew P 53

Frank's Zoo
We finished the evening with a few hands of Frank's Zoo. Nigel claimed this was the first 4 player game he had played and certainly the number of triples around the table caught some of us by surprise. The hedgehogs loved John.

Nigel   3  9 11 17
Anne   -1  2  9 13
Ian     3  2  4  7
John B  5  7  6  5

Brass on Wednesday 20 July 2011

We played another game of Brass on Wednesday, this time with Jarratt. We discussed the King Cotton and port strategies and Jarratt decided to try a port strategy. He mostly built ports and "burnt" stuff in his first few turns, while I concentrated on "burning" and then building cotton mills. I was so fixated on cotton that I missed an extremely obvious ironworks (which Jarratt then built), this wasn't the only ironworks opportunity I missed. Anne built ironworks (all 4 by the end of the game) coal mines (she had run out well before the end of the game) and shipyards (3 by the end of the game) with a few cotton mills and ports.

Jarratt's early ports had little affect on Anne or I in the canal phase and at the beginning of the rail phase I built 2 ports in Liverpool as a safety measure. We decided that a port strategy should be opportunistic in the canal phase (remember you can't build more than one building per town in that phase) and more determined in the rail phase. Anne's coal mines worked well to fund her shipyard building. Jarratt, at the other extreme, built no coal mines at all and lagged on the income track.

At the end of the rail phase I wanted to build 2 mills and 2 ports but didn't have the right cards for the 2 mills so built a shipyard in Barrow and Furness instead (and an opportunistic port which no-one flipped :-( ). In the end Jarratt's cotton mills were more valuable than mine, his port strategy had morphed into a King Cotton strategy. Both Anne and I had over forty pounds left at the end of the game which means that we failed to build enough rail (even though coal cost £5 by then it was still cost effective to spend £25 on two rail rather than £10 on one rail).

Anne's score of 181 would probably have been a winning score two years ago, and my score of 194 was possibly the best score I have seen except for Jarratt's winning score of 218!

Jarratt 218
Ian     194
Anne    181

Friday 15 July 2011

Frank's Zoo
This week we managed to start while we waited for the late comers. In the second hand Carl took Andrew Parr's place. Each hand is scored separately below.

Ian      6    8
Anna     4    3   
Andrew H 1    2
Anne     3   -2
Sharon   1    3
Andrew P 7    -
Carl     -    5

Once Nigel and John had arrived we abandoned Frank's Zoo and split into two groups.

Glory to Rome
This time Anna came first, followed by Carl, then Andrew H and Nigel last. Meanwhile...

Traumfabrik
Sharon (mass producing B-movies) was starting on her 6th film before I finished my first film! But on the other hand I finished all of my movies by the penultimate party and cruised to the finish (to collect 35 points worth of awards).

Ian      86
Sharon   67
Andrew P 64
John B   56
Anne     52

Citadels
Carl had brought along a bag of games including this nasty little card game.

Andrew H 32
Carl     19
Anna     18
Nigel    15

Patrician
I felt that I got stuck with too many purple cards and ended up in only 3 cities! I think we were all a bit tired and didn't concentrate enough to make the best of this game. It is also one of those games that you get more control with fewer players (so might be best with 3 players).

John B   37 (played fewer bits which is the tie-breaker)
Andrew P 37
Ian      32
Sharon   29
Anne     15

No Thanks!
There was a massive spread of scores in this game!! (Remember low score is good)

Andrew H  3
Anna     18
Carl     47
Nigel    80

Modern Art
Nigel did OK despite some excessive bids, like paying more for a card than it could possibly be worth. At first glance it looks like you shouldn't pay more than 50% of the expected value of a piece of art but this isn't true (as explained here).

I did badly as usual.

Andrew P $384
Andrew H $370
Nigel    $361
Anna     $345
Ian      $273

Tichu
We couldn't finish the evening without the obligatory Tichu game. This time Carl and John versus Sharon and Anne. The boys clawed themselves back into the game.

Hnd Cd+JB SH+AM
1.     0   300
2.     0   500
3.   150   550
4.   195   505
5.   295   505
6.   265   535
7.   335   565
8.   515   585
9.   715   585
10.  765   635
11.  840   760
12. 1000   700

Friday 8 July 2011

Six of us were about to play Frank's Zoo, but before we could sit down Sharon turned up after catching red lights all the way down The Terrace, so we split up to play Tichu and Glory to Rome.

Tichu
Sharon and Anne got off to a good start with a snappy Tichu 1-2. But in the next hand I called Grand Tichu on a Dragon, Phoenix and an Ace. I picked up another Ace and Andrew kindly gave me a third and then backed me up to make it a 1-2 as well. In the third hand Anne and I both called Tichu -- I made it. With the score on 525 to 275 the Boys were half way home, but that was as good as it got. We failed Tichu in the next 3 hands while they made Tichu over 4 consecutive hands. In the 8th hand no-one called Tichu but Sharon and Anne made 100 points to win 1005 to 395.

Hnd IA+AP SH+AM
1.     0   300 Sharon's Tichu 1-2
2.   400   300 Ian's GT 1-2
3.   525   275 Ian's Tichu, Anne fails
4.   465   435 Anne's Tichu, Andrew fails
5.   420   580 Sharon's Tichu, Andrew fails
6.   365   735 Sharon's Tichu, Ian fails
7.   395   905 Sharon's Tichu
8.   395  1005 Sharon & Anne make 100 points

Glory to Rome
I was too busy getting thrashed in Tichu to pay much attention to what was happening during the rebuilding of Rome, but I have it on good authority that Andrew won, Nigel was second and Anna third.

While we were playing Ceedee and Rob turned up and played a game of Jaipur on the coffee table before joining Anna, Andrew and Nigel to play...

Rheinlander
Which was another new game for Ceedee and Rob.

Anna     41
Ceedee   38
Rob      37
Andrew H 33
Nigel    30

John B arrived in time to play one hand of Coloretto before we reconfigured to play Taj Mahal at one end of the table and Vegas Showdown at the other.

Vegas Showdown
From what I could see Andrew P had a significant lead for most of the game so I was surprised to learn that Sharon won. Unfortunately no scores were recorded.

Taj Mahal
Ceedee's first game and she led from start to finish, playing an opportunistic strategy, having the Princess card for a few rounds and mostly avoiding big fights. Andrew went after the King and connections, while the rest of us (Anne most of all) went after the elephants, leading to some bruising fights. Ceedee demonstrated yet again why we shouldn't teach her new games.

Ceedee   53
Andrew H 50
Anne     44
Ian      34
Anna     22

Friday 1 July 2011

Carl came to dinner and afterwards I taught him Jaipur (a 2 player trading game).

Jaipur
Jaipur is a largely tactical card game where taking advantage of your opponent's proximity to the hand limit and situations where all the cards in the market are camels is the name of the game. There is also a game of chicken over holding out long enough to get a set of 5 in order to get the 8-10 point bonus tokens.

I won the first round, but Carl came back in the second round with a score of 85 (70-5 is more normal). I took out the third round, to win 2-1.

7 Wonders
Ceedee and Rob arrived with a stack of games including: First Train to Nuremberg, a shrink wrapped Hansa Teutonica and 7 Wonders (which Carl hadn't played). Ceedee taught Carl while Rob and I set up the pieces during it which felt like the start of a Tolkien novel as people arrived in ones and twos until there were ten of us. Andrew, Anna, Sharon and Anne decided to play Tichu, leaving 6 of us to play 7 Wonders. I sat between Rob and John. I decided to go after green and military cards. I thought I had enough access to resources but by the third era I found myself often unable to build. and I also allowed Rob to out build me in military a couple of times.

I don't have the final score sheet but I think Carl won.

Tichu
Sharon and Anna proved too good for Andrew and Anne winning two games of Tichu: 1180 to 520 (in 9 hands) and 1015 to 95 (in 8 hands). I suspect Anna's creative scoring penalized Anne and Andrew 190 points in the second game!

Princes of the Renaissance
Instead of doing the sensible thing and splitting into 2 threes, people started suggesting 6 player games. Princes caught Rob's imagination and Ceedee was happy to give it a go. I taught the game in a somewhat chaotic fashion, though roughly working backwards from the main sources of victory points through to the actions, what the various tiles are and the details of fighting battles. With the game under way Carl, John and I possibly handed out more advice than was welcome. Then again Ceedee's strategy of doing the opposite of the advice offered stood her in good stead.

Andrew had first pick of the family tiles and choose Baglioni (the warmonger), Rob chose d'Este (the gunner), Carl chose Bentivogli (the treacherous) as a self imposed challenge, I chose Montefeltro (the art collectors), Ceedee chose Gonzaga (the other art collector) and John was left with Malatesta (the treacherous). The Cavalry were snapped up quickly by the first few players (though Rob was persuaded to invest in Artillery instead). I followed my usual practice of auctioning off popular city tiles to entice people to spend cash and commit to cities. Wars broke out early on and Venice (red) gained in status while Naples (yellow) dropped to the bottom. There was plenty of treachery, for instance in one war Carl bribed my only troops to go home so that neither of my bonus tiles (which would have given me +3 on defense) were valid.

Ceedee was attracted to merchants particularly the yellow/Naples ones, and also to the Pope. Carl despite not having a discount on bidding for attack or defense was winning wars all over Italy. Andrew despite having a discount didn't win any wars but astutely bought into Venice. I bought art and initially invested in Naples and Milan. The first decade ended with everyone short of cash, no-one rushed the event tiles so each decade had its full complement of wars and gave everyone plenty of time to buy city tiles. The final decade saw Venice in an untouchable position on the status chart with Naples rising fast. Other than Venice the cities were close together but I tipped the balance in favour of Florence (green) because I thought I could get some Florence tiles (there were no Naples left).

At the end of three decades of war, investment and treachery Ceedee showed us how the merchant strategy plus good choice of city tiles works wonders (53 is a very good score).

Ceedee   39(Cities) +  8(Merchants) + 6(money)     = 53
Ian      21(Cities) + 14(Artists)   + 4(influence) = 39
Andrew P 36(Cities) +  3(Pope)                     = 39
Carl     14(Cities) + 21(Laurels)   + 3(money)     = 38
John B   29(Cities) +  6(Laurels)                  = 35
Rob      13(Cities) +  6(Laurels)                  = 19