Friday 5 March 2010

Andrew Rae had asked me to play test Dawn of Nations v0.2 so while we were waiting for the last people to turn up I put Dawn of Nations sheets on the table. I didn't teach the game, just let people read the rules themselves (the consequent quiet period felt strange). There were six of us to start with and John arrived and joined in during the second round -- which didn't put him at a significant disadvantage. Most people picked up on the rules without trouble. One had trouble with remembering to declare a goal before throwing. And there were a couple of questions that were answered by other players using info on the play sheet.

Having tried the War Divine-Favour Decline-and-Fall strategy last time I wanted to try the Exploration Trade Wonder-of-the-World strategy. I assumed that Trade would work better with more players. As it turns out my dice throwing was sub-par.

It seemed to scale up to seven as well as could be expected. Because Trade and War are popular and are interactive the down time is less significant than other seven player games.

Nasia was the only person to try for Divine Favour (unsuccessfully) and Anne was the only person to try to finish the game by finishing the Wonder of the World over 3 turns.

People were reluctant to talk about it afterwards except to say that it was a good filler.

Nigel  82 (mostly War with some Trade and Technology)
Anne   78 (mostly Exploration with Trade and the Wonder)
John B 78 (mostly War, Exploration and Trade)
Andrew 76 (mostly War with some Exploration)
Nasia  66 (mostly War with some Exploration)
Anna   66 (mostly War and Exploration)
Ian    52 (mostly Trade with some Exploration and Technology)

Then we split into two groups. Nasia taught her new game of Dungeon Lords to Nigel and John. This looked cute but bitsy. John won. I can't say much about it as I was busy playing Tichu at the other end of the table.

This time it was Anna and I against Anne and Andrew. They called and failed Tichu twice while we called and made Tichu seven times. Nobody called Grand Tichu and nobody made a 1-2. There were three bombs, including 2 six card straights, in one hand (#4 I think)!

Ian & Anna  Anne & Andrew
1)   205 T         -5
2) T 320           80
3) T 410          190
4)   550 T        150 T(failed)
5)   690 T        210
6)   705          295
7) T 870          330
8)   940          260 T(failed)
9)  1095 T        305

The other game was still going, so we played Frank's Zoo.

Andrew Anna Anne Ian
1)  1    5   -1   7
2)  6    6    2   9
3) 13   10    5   8
4) 18   14    4  11

We terminated Frank's Zoo slightly early because Dungeon Lords finally finished. We then decided on our last two games of the evening. At one end of the table John, Andrew and I played Metropolys. I mis-read what both of the others were going for while they picked my statue fetish up early on. The initiative swapped back and forth between us but John finished the game.

John B 36
Ian    35
Andrew 15

At the other end of the table they played Buccaneer and Anne tells me Nigel hogged big stacks which proved expensive and Anna got the best of the tokens.

Anna  99
Anne  87
Nasia 81
Nigel 78

Friday 19 February 2010

At lunch time Andrew Rae invited me to a lunch time play testing session in Frank Kitts Park. There were 7 of us so we broke into a 3 and a 4 to play v2 of Dawn of Nations. Jeff and I drew against Andrew with a War/Divine Favour/Decline and Fall strategy while Andrew tried a doomed Trade strategy. The new version of Dawn of Nations doesn't have the central sheet and the Wonder of the World scores negative if you fail to complete it (which put people off trying for it). Then we tried their new game, which is a real-time free form trading game against a timer. Where you are trying to collect the correct cards to match both public/shared goals and private goals. The designers watched 5 newbies play. We were too excited to put our cards down at the correct times. I won with a run of goals towards the end.

In the evening Anna, Andrew and Nigel all showed up together and I started putting 5 player games on the table. People were discussing what they wanted to play when John showed up, invalidating many of the 5 player games. Anne suggested we start with a six player game (as she thought it would be more social). John suggested Atlantic Star which John, Anne and I have played a lot (though not much in recent years). It was Andrew and Anna's first time and possibly Nigel's second.

John made the best decisions about what colours to go for (a quick yellow for a loan, and finishing as the only player going for blue, with minimal competition in between). I made some silly decisions like blowing 6,000 out of my last 7,000 on uselessly clearing the deck and going for green at the same time as two other people (who played before me). Experience counts in Atlantic Star and the scores bear this out.

Ian    47
Anne   46
John B 41
Anna   38
Nigel  26
Andrew 23

We then split into two threes. Anne and Nigel taught Anna Brass at one end of the table while John and I taught Andrew Metropolys at the other end. In the first game I felt I didn't have much control, though I did manage to get some of my pieces on the right colours and even some linked together. Andrew on the other hand seemed to do nothing wrong.

Andrew 36
John B 28
Ian    23

In game two John ran away with the game. I only got my 4 largest pieces on the board and Andrew only got 5 or 6 pieces. It was the most one sided result I've seen so far.

John B 34
Ian    11
Andrew  8

John went home and as Brass was a long way from finishing Andrew and I played Battle Line twice and still had time to watch the last 2 or 3 rounds of Brass. I won the first game with a break through against the run of play and won the second by winning the last flag with the last card in the draw deck. Nigel who, complained about how badly he was doing won Brass with a colossal score.

Nigel 174
Anne  167 (income 64)
Anna  167 (income 53)

Nigel had a tried to build his high tech cotton mills in the canal phase but failed to flip them, so he was lagging on the score track at half time. I think Anna built both her level 2 Ship Building Yards.

Friday 27 November 2009

Brandon was torn between playing games and sailing. It was a windy evening so we weren't expecting him to turn up to games. In fact we weren't expecting many to turn up and we were pleasantly surprised when there turned out to be eight of us.

Brandon, Anna and Andrew were keen on Tichu and John B joined them as a fourth (I would have if he hadn't). From the other end of the table it sounded like Brandon was teaching the others Auckland Tichu playing habits. Anna and John lead from start to finish with twice as many successful Tichus and Brandon finished with the flourish of an unsuccessful Grand Tichu. From the score sheet it seems like the final score was too embarrassing to record ("995 + lots" to "405 - 200 and who cares").

At the other end of the table John R said he would be interested in learning Vegas Showdown (a game he has previously spurned for thematic reasons). I (accidentally) chose a green strategy by building lounges and night clubs. This meant that my income was low (by half way through the game I was on 7 while the others were into double digits) and I was taking Publicity quite often. John bought lots of red cornered buildings which he rearranged twice (and which scored him 10 points twice). Lance was the restaurant king, while Anne despite her income lagged a long way back on the Fame track. It ended up with a very close race between Lance and John.

Lance  74 + $4
John R 74 + $1
Ian    52
Anne   34

Both games finished at the same time and we swapped around to play a couple of Reiner Knizia games: Taj Mahal and Samurai. I think only John B had a good grip on the strategy of Samurai and Andrew took quite awhile to win any conflicts. I felt I was bumbling along and I let Lance win a pair when I could have easily taken one for myself (though in the final scoring it would have made no difference). In the end only John had a majority. In Taj Mahal Brandon took an early lead but the others closed the gap and John charged passed at the end scoring 11 with his final cards (compared with 3 each by the others).

John R  47
Brandon 38
Anna    35
Anne    31

Brandon, Andrew and Anna went home leaving the rest of us to play test "Dawn of Nations" a prototype print-and-play dice game I offered to play test on behalf of the designer. John R made a break for an early finish by finishing Exploring and Trading quickly and moving onto try and build a Wonder of the World. He proved useless at throwing ones. While the rest of us went on to go to War with each other and eventually most people were trying to build Wonders too (with much better scores in other stuff). I was left out of the Wonder race because I had no-one to Trade with. So I tried for Decline and Fall instead. I could see John B was getting ahead of me while I was still trying to throw a 4. Anne ended the game by finishing her Wonder. We spent a time afterwards discussing the game's weaknesses to provide feedback.

John B 131
Lance  120
Ian    117
Anne   113
John R  89

It was a good evening if your name is John.

Dawn of Nations (20 October 2009)

Andrew Rea invited me to a lunch time play test of a prototype print and play dice game designed by a couple of his friends. It turned out to be a simple yet interesting dice game called "Dawn of Nations".

There were six of us and enough dice for each of us to have our own set of dice - each a different colour, which is a nice touch.

To play, choose one of 5 areas initially (2 others have pre-req's) and roll 3 dice, do re-rolls. Areas include War (roll off against another player), Trade (offer a player one of your dice), Favour of the Gods (try to beat the highest favour so far), Developments (gain an advantage).

It plays quick and contains a mix of strategic and tactical decisions. We gave the designers some feedback. Particularly on Favour of the Gods.

Then we broke into two groups of 3 and played again. Trade became a lot more tactical with 3 players with no-one keen on giving someone else the third Trade value.

This works as a print-and-play game in that it uses normal dice (a minimum of 3), some printed off bits of paper and pen or pencil. It made me think of Roll Through the Ages, while the theme is similar, the use of dice is different and there is more player interaction.