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

Saturday 5 March 2011

On Saturday Babs and Carl were hosting games at their place partly in celebration of their birthdays and also as one of their new regular fortnightly Saturday games nights. We arrived as Craig and Sean and their kids were leaving. T and K had been given a couple of Chinese terracotta soldiers. But to make them more interesting they were each encased in a clay brick. Each brick came with little bamboo scraper and small brush to give the feel of archaeology. Judging how far the boys got in the first hour these bricks could keep them busy for days (if they don’t get bored and frustrated first). Overall a cute idea that I’d expect to see in gift shops at heritage sites around the world.

Expedition
We kicked the evening off with Expedition. The red route curled in tight loops around North America until we got bored with it. The blue route petered out very quickly in North Africa while the yellow route went around the world. I made a mistake of not going to a destination one link away from the one just got to, but luckily recovered to win.

Ian  18
Carl 17
Anne 10

Wyatt Earp
Carl then taught us Wyatt Earp, a Rummy game which in terms of its mechanics is part of the Mystery Rummy family of card games. Anne hadn't played Rummy before so the basic concept of pickup, optionally meld (create or add to a set of cards on the table) and then discard was new to her. In Mystery Rummy games the deck is divided into "normal" and "special" cards, with the special cards making up a quarter to a third of the deck. Each turn a player may meld or play one special card (in addition to melding normal cards). In Wyatt Earp most of the special cards relate to the scoring of sets, though the commonest special cards (the multi-use Wyatt Earp cards) can be, and often are, used to allow the player to draw more cards.

The theme of the game is hunting outlaws in the wild west. Each outlaw has a bounty which starts at $1,000. There are 7 suits (one per outlaw) with 7 identical cards in each suit. Melding 2+ cards in a suit increases the bounty on that outlaw by $1000 times the number of cards melded minus one. Some special cards can be added to melds of a particular outlaw that also increase the bounty. The cards played also indicate how much "knowledge" a player has of that outlaw (normal cards are worth 2 points). At the end of the hand the bounties may be paid out, but only if the total "knowledge" of all players is at least 8. If a player has at least 5 "knowledge" more than any other player they get the whole bounty otherwise it is share among the players. Unpaid bounties accumulate from hand to hand. I have been interested in this game for awhile as it has a sort of stock market idea.

At the end of the second hand I got to $24,000 but in next hand Carl prevented me from getting any more cash with a well timed Hideout card. Anne and I are keen to play Wyatt Earp again.

Carl  $27,000
Ian   $24,000
Anne  $24,000

Tichu
By this time the boys were in bed and Carl was keen for Babs to learn Tichu. As it was after 10pm I suggested that we just play a couple of hands, but it turned out that we played a whole game. I felt that I had consistently poor hands (I must learn how to make the best of such hands).

There were very few Tichu calls though plenty of 1-2s, and on two hands the points were shared 50-50. Babs and Carl were ahead through the mid-game but in the final two hands we scored 105 and 95 points.

Hnd IA+AM C+BdV
1.   200     0  1-2
2.   200   200  1-2
3.   215   385  Carl's Tichu
4.   265   435  50 points each
5.   315   485  ditto
6.   315   685  1-2
7.   515   585  our 1-2 & Carl fails Tichu
8.   560   640
9.   860   640  Anne's Tichu 1-2
10.  965   635
11. 1060   640

Friday 4 March 2011

Tichu
On Wednesday night, Jarratt was keen on playing Tichu again, so I taught Andrew. We played with Anne and I versus Jarratt and Andrew. They got off to a good start with a Tichu 1-2. This was a portent of how the game was to go as we spent much of the time with a negative score. Finally we had a success but it was too little, too late. All very embarrassing.

Hnd IA+AM AP+JG
1.     0   300  Jarratt's Tichu 1-2
2.   -90   390  Anne fails Tichu
3.   -55   455
4.    15   485
5.   -60   560  Anne fails Tichu
6.    50   650  Ian's low scoring Tichu
7.    55   745
8.    55   945  Andrew & Jarratt 1-2 again
9.   180  1020  Anne's Tichu

Tichu
On Friday night, Jarratt and Andrew were both keen on playing Tichu again. Anne and I agreed (we had to avenge defeat on Wednesday) on the understanding that we would stop if Nigel (or someone else) showed up.

We got off to a good start with a Tichu 1-2 but then things went into a holding patten on our side of the score sheet while Jarratt practiced his Tichu 1-2s. Then Andrew got in on the act. It was an evening of freaky hands. Including a hand where I had 6 consecutive pairs (which Jarratt bombed).

Hnd IA+AM AP+JG
1.   300     0  Anne's Tichu 1-2
2.   375    25
3.   375   325  Jarratt's Tichu 1-2
4.   375   625  ditto
5.   285   715  Ian fails Tichu
6.   365   635  Andrew fails Tichu
7.   365   935  Andrew's Tichu 1-2
8.   460   940
9.   460  1140  Andrew & Jarratt 1-2

Louis XIV
There are far more 4 player games in my collection than games for any other number and that number is swelled by the 5 and 6 player games that are better for 4 than for 5 or 6. After a lot of suggestions we settled on Louis XIV.

Anne tried my usual pro-shield strategy while I tried the more orthodox get-lots-of-missions strategy. Anne did better than I did, while Jarratt did better than anyone. Anne and I got 6 missions, Andrew got 7 and Jarratt got 8. There were an unusual number of draws for most shields of a type.

Jarratt 54
Anne    49
Andrew  45
Ian     42

10 Days in Europe
Looking for something quick to finish the evening we encouraged Jarratt to play this frustrating game. I won the first 2 games (though Andrew was very close in game 2) and Anne won the third game.

Saturday 19 February 2011

We started the afternoon with Andrew R, Andrew H, Anna, Carl, Jarratt, Anne and I. On one table Andrew R, Anna and Anne make some films in Traumfabrik. Anna won with over 100 points and Andrew lost. He says that there are several rule difference between Traumfabrik and Hollywood Blockbuster. In particular he says the rule in Hollywood Blockbuster for choosing tiles at the party involves counting the number of stars on actor and guest start tiles, also he says that Hollywood Blockbuster has different end game awards. This interested me but I couldn't find any references to this on BGG.

Meanwhile on the other table Carl and I took on Jarratt and Andrew H at Tichu. As is often the case we started cautiously without a Tichu call on the first hand (and A&J slapped us 80-20). After that Carl got his confidence back and called Tichu the next two hands, with a 50% success rate that put us back in front. The lead swapped back and forth and either side could have won. The game climaxed with a pair of Tichu 1-2s in the last two hands.

Hnd C & I A & J
1.    20    80  
2.   235    65  Carl's Tichu
3.   185   115  Carl failed to make Tichu
4.   220   180 
5.   220   480  Andrew's Tichu and 1-2
6.   280   520
7.   425   575  Carl's Tichu
8.   425   475  Carl and Jarratt failed Tichu but we scores all the points
9.   565   435  Carl's Tichu and Andrew failed
10.  570   530
11.  760   540  Carl's Tichu
12.  760   840  Jarratt's Tichu and 1-2
13. 1060   840  Carl's Tichu and 1-2

Overall Carl called Tichu 7 times in 13 hands and only failed twice. On the other hand I was way too cautious to call Tichu; while Andrew and Jarratt were more balanced calling twice each. The joke of the game was that whenever Carl called Tichu it meant that I had the stronger hand, this turned out to save our bacon at least once!

While we continued to play Tichu the others played a hand of Coloretto which Andrew Rae won before he hurried back to his family. Andrew P took his place and won a couple of games of Attika against Anna and Anne, with shrine to shrine victories.

Anna and Anne who had been jealous of our game of Tichu challenged Andrew and Jarratt to a game. The boys started off with a rush with 3 successful Tichus. After a couple of quite hands both Anna and Andrew called Tichu and both failed. Finally Anna and Anne started their come back.

Hnd A & J A & A
1.   165    35  Jarratt's Tichu  
2.   360    40  Jarratt's Tichu
3.   505    95  Andrew's Tichu
4.   575   125
5.   655   145
6.   600   100  Andrew & Anna both failed Tichu
7.   600   400  Anna's Tichu and 1-2

The game was abandoned because Jarratt had to go and cook dinner, amid protests from the others!

On the dining table I tried to teach Havoc to Jim, Margot and Carl. Unfortunately this turned out to be one of my less successful teaching efforts and Carl in particular ended up with the wrong idea of how to play a battle. I obviously need to brush up on my teaching technique. Andrew P beat me on the tie-break.

Andrew P  30
Ian       30
Margot    26
Jim       22
Carl       9

After Jarratt left, Anna and Andrew H taught Anne Glory to Rome. Anne played a military strategy but was weak in other areas.

During the dinner break Jim, Andrew H, Carl and I learnt my new game of The Bottle Imp and played one hand. I'd now like to try a full game of this odd trick taking game.

After dinner Andrew and Anna taught Carl Glory to Rome. But I was busy teaching Jim and Margo On the Underground. Which was draw between Jim and Anne.

Jim    48
Anne   48
Ian    41
Margot 38

By 10 pm everyone had gone home and after we tidied up Anne and I played a final game. Jaipur is our current two player game of choice. I won 2 out of 3 rounds.

Ian  54 57 86
Anne 89 49 72

Overall it was a pretty successful day even though I only played in 4 of the 11 games.

Tichu (18 September 2010)

More Tichu with Anna and Andrew. Anna was disappointed with her Tichu calling on Friday night and was eager to redeem herself. After a promising start, we failed twice in a row, while Anna and Andrew surged ahead. When I called Grand Tichu I felt confident with the Dragon and four Aces, but not so confident by the time the third bomb was played against me! Anna and Andrew cruised to victory only going backwards once, and making three 1-2s.

Hnd IA+AM AJ+AH
1.   160    40  Ian's Tichu
2.   200   200  Andrew's Tichu
3.   270   130  Anna fails Tichu
4.   170   330  Ian fails, Anna and Andrew 1-2
5.   120   380  Ian fails
6.   120   580  Anna and Andrew make 1-2 again
7.   385   615  Ian makes Grand Tichu against 3 bombs
8.   385   915  Andrew makes Tichu and 1-2
9.   545   955  Anne makes Tichu
10.  520  1080  our only points were the Pheonix!

In game 2 we were almost even after the fourth hand, but we stagnated soon after that and were well beaten. I think Andrew and Anna are well practiced for their Brisbane trip.

Hnd IA+AM AJ+AH
1.    30   170  Anna's Tichu
2.   130   170  Anne fails Tichu but we made 1-2
3.   325   175  Ian's Tichu and lots of points
4.   245   255  Anne fails Tichu
5.   245   455  Andrew and Anna 1-2
6.   315   385  Anna fails Tichu
7.   410   490  Anna's Tichu but not many points
8.   445   555
9.   445   855  Anna's Tichu and 1-2
10.  415   985  Ian fails Tichu, Andrew makes Tichu
11.  415  1285  Andrew's Tichu and 1-2

Anne and I had discussed passing strategies earlier but such things are tricky to put into practice. We probably didn't swap Aces as often as Carl and I had the night before but apart from that I don't think the agreement helped us very much.

Friday 17 September 2010

Carl showed up first, followed by Anna and Andrew. We had decided to play Frank's Zoo when Jarratt rang the door bell, so we dealt him in while he came upstairs. We gave him the fastest rules explanation we could and got underway. But we only managed one round before John and Nigel showed up.

Frank's Zoo
Nigel joined Anna, Anne and Jarratt to restart Frank's Zoo. Jarratt wanted to stop playing after the first round, and perhaps he should have. Nasia joined in at the third hand and challenged Jarratt for third place. No surprises about who won.

Anna    2 8 15 24
Anne    4 7  8 11
Jarratt 7 7  9  8
Nasia   - -  5  7
Nigel   0 2  1  3

Clans
I've been keen to play this game again since I noticed the similarity between this and Metropolys. Both being essentially abstract games with secret missions. It's been a couple of years since I last played this, and longer since Carl, John or I last played it regularly. It was Andrew's first time. Unfortunately for Andrew and I, in the last third of the game we got into the rhythm of he and I being forced to set up situations where John and Carl could make villages (which they did). This was partially due to the seating order, which was: John, me, Carl, Andrew.

The early part of both games is the least important and the initial moves are not obvious. The mid-game starts as board position becomes interesting, and the end game is where choices become more limited and more critical. The obvious difference between the two is that in Metropolys the end game is about keeping the initiative whereas in Clans it is about giving away as few opportunities to your opponents (in particular the player following you) as possible.

John B   49
Carl     47
Andrew H 43
Ian      43

Andrew Rae arrived in time for the next set of game choosing. We had ten people and lots of indecision. We probably should have split into two five player groups as there are plenty of good five player games available. But we didn't.

Tichu
Carl hasn't played for awhile and was initially worried that we weren't strong enough for Anna and Andrew and the first two hands suggested he was right. But then Carl and Anna went head to head for the first of three times. The seventh hand turned up an interesting situation I called Tichu but Carl also had a good hand and ended up in a position to go out before me, controversially he choose to go out, leaving me to finish second for 200 minus 100 points. If he had not gone out, his final card would have been something like a 3 ruling out a 1-2. A Tichu would have given us more points but also have given Anna and Andrew points.

Grand Tichu calls are rare in our games, but on turn 9 Andrew called Grand Tichu and made it! But while Anna and Andrew were making a come back it was too late.

Hnd IA+Ql AJ+AH
1.    25    75
2.    85   215 Andrew's Tichu
3.   280   120 Carl makes Tichu, Anna fails
4.   345    55 Andrew fails
5.   450   150 Carl makes Tichu
6.   600   100 Carl makes Tichu, Anna fails
7.   700   100 I fail, but Carl and I make a 1-2
8.   875    25 I make Tichu, Anna fails
9.   800   300 I fail, while Andrew makes a Grand Tichu
10.  810   390
11.  830   570 Andrew makes Tichu
12. 1030   470 Carl makes Tichu, Anna fails

Nuns on the Run
Engrossed in Tichu I didn't pay much attention to what was happening at the other end of the room.

Nasia taught this deduction game that she had brought with her. It is like Scotland Yard in reverse, instead of one player being hunted by everyone else, one player hunts everyone else. She said it went OK, but none of the novices managed to get their secret wish and return to their cells. So Abbess Nasia won.

Pompeii
Rumors from Pompeii talk of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Amid destruction and disaster Nasia had fun, Andrew went crazy and found time went quickly.

Andrew only had cards for unplayed areas and John just kept on playing the same card after him for more relatives. John had 22 on the board to Andrew's 14. Driving Andrew crazy. Still it was to his advantage because he didn't have to worry about so many guys and got them all but three out. Andrew won, Nasia lost, with John in the middle.

Nexus Ops
Jarratt loves Nexus Ops but Nigel hasn't had enjoyed his previous experiences, while Anne hasn't played often. Jarratt did the rules refresher but forgot the easily forgotten rule that you can sell unwanted cards. Jarratt followed the standard strategy getting early control of the Monolith and fighting many battles. Nexus Ops is a game of winning battles but not wasting too many troops defending territory.

The experience didn't improve Nigel's attitude towards the game, but Anne wants to play again.

Jarratt 15
Anne     8
Nigel    6

California
John suggested we try this two player but neither of us checked the rules differences for two players until I had filled my house. Then Jarratt read that we should have finished much earlier, so we stopped at that point when I was one point ahead. If we had played by the real two player rules we wouldn't have scored as many present points (which would have hurt me more than John) and the game would have ended earlier with John probably winning.

Ian    36
John B 35

Tichu (4 September 2010)

Another evening of Tichu with Andrew and Anna. Game one got off to a quiet start until I started to call Tichu. By the sixth hand Anna and Andrew were on 10 points, but then they pulled finger and made 995 while we lost 195.

Hnd IA+AM AJ+AH
1.    55    45
2.   100   100 (a quiet start)
3.   275   125 Ian's Tichu
4.   425   175 Ian's Tichu
5.   495   105 Anna failed Tichu
6.   690    10 Ian's Tichu while Andrew failed
7.   590   310 Andrew's Tichu and 1-2 while Ian failed Tichu
8.   510   490 Andrew's Tichu, while Anne failed
9.   495   705 Anna's Tichu
10.  495  1005 Anna's Tichu and 1-2

Game two got off to a faster start, by hand 4 we were even but after that Anna and Andrew accelerated away from us.

Hnd IA+AM AJ+AH
1.    20   180 Anna's Tichu
2.   320   180 Ian's Tichu and 1-2
3.   335   165 Anna failed Tichu
4.   250   250 Anne failed Tichu
5.   250   550 Andrew's Tichu and 1-2
6.   305   695 Anna's Tichu
7.   455   745 Ian's Tichu 
8.   480   920 Andrew's Tichu 
9.   535  1065 Anna's Tichu

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

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

Tichu (11 November 2009)

This was the first game of Tichu for either John and game #3 for Carl and I. John R and I played against John B and Carl. John B and Carl started strong, while John R and I experimented with going backwards. Around hand 8 John and I got the hand of things. It felt like an epic game and included a bunch of interesting scenarios such as making enough points to offset a Tichu penalty, and 4 bombs played consecutively - but no-one brave enough to bid Grand Tichu.

(Scores below are given John R and I first, followed by John B and Carl)

Hand 1: -70, 70 (John R declared Tichu unsuccessfully)
Hand 2: -110, 10 (both John R and Carl unsuccessfully declared Tichu -- I can't remember how that happened!)
Hand 3: -65, 165 (Carl successfully declared Tichu)
Hand 4: -120, 210 (I unsuccessfully declared Tichu)
Hand 5: 80, 210 (John R and I do a 1-2)
Hand 6: 80, 510 (not be outdone John B declares a Tichu and he and Carl pull off a 1-2)
Hand 7: 80, 810 (Carl declares Tichu and he and John pull off 1-2 again)
Hand 8: 380, 710 (John R declares Tichu and we make a come back with a 1-2)
Hand 9: 370, 820 (John B and I declared Tichu, he succeeds while I don't, on the other hand John and I make 90 points to offset the failure)
Hand 10: 475, 815 (no Tichus, but John and I make 105)
Hand 11: 585, 805 (no Tichu, even more points)
Hand 12: 785, 705 (Carl's unsuccessful Tichu and 1-2 to John and I)
Hand 13: 985, 705 (1-2 again)
Hand 14: 1085, 705 (John R and Carl both declared Tichu, John R succeeded but we made no points! Whereas Carl and John got 100 points to offset the 100 point penalty!)

Tichu declarations:

Ian: 2 failures
John R: 2 successes out of 4 declarations
Carl: 2 successes out of 6 declarations
John B: 2 successes out of 2 declarations

1-2s:

John and I made 4,
John and Carl made 2

Friday 30 October 2009

Andrew, Anna, Carl, John, Anne and I were unpacking Age of Steam when Nigel arrived. So we split into two groups. Anna, Andrew, Carl and I decided to play Tichu again. John, Anne and Nigel played Brass again.

Anna and I rushed to 200 points and then back down to 45, continuing to oscillate between there and 215 finally settling on 100 while Carl and Andrew made their way to 505 by the sixth hand before rushing up to 1000 over the last 2 hands. Tichu was called by someone almost every hand. Andrew had a spectacular hand with a double bomb.

I+A C+A
125   75
200  100
120   80 
 45  255
215  285
195  505
195  805
100 1000

Brass was still going so we taught Anna and Andrew Tinner's Trail. A game about tin and copper mining in Cornwall. There was a lot of water in the initial mines and I foolishly only bought one mine in the first turn. I compounded this foolishness by taking the adit, so by my next turn all the other developments were gone. Because of the abundance of water (the drier mines had already been worked out) people were spending good money on building mines in unknown territory without waiting for the prospecting. This turned out to be a dubious strategy. Those people who bought lots of mines early had time spare to acquire useful developments to improve their mines.

Tinner's Trail has cute bits and some interesting mechanics. For instance the cost of mining is proportional to the amount of water in your mine, but extra water flows into your mine proportional to the time spent mining rather than amount of ore extracted (which gives a payback to extraction improvements). None of us like the money track (we would prefer coins or even paper money), and the buying of Victory Points seemed clumsy.

Carl      113
Anna      108
Andrew     80
Ian        58

Only a week after opining that Brass was 'too complex' Nigel and Anne pandered to John's urge to play again. During the canal phase Nigel built coal mines for both Lancashire AND Africa, John burnt tiles with the enthusiasm of a dedicated arsonist, and Anne's just-one-more-mill greediness meant that she was left with 2 unfipped mills at the end of the round. The rail phase had John building high value cotton mills and attempting to dominate all the railway exits from Manchester, Nigel attempting to build the rest of the rail network, Anne abandoning cotton for shipbuilding and everyone forgot to take a final loan which meant they couldn't capitalize on some of the available points opportunities at the end. Nonetheless John and Nigel both scored 180 points which (we think) is a record for local Brass, with Nigel winning with the greater income. Anne trailed in their wake with 122.

Friday 23 October 2009

For several years Carl and I have been keen on playing Mü again and Andrew and Anna own this but have never played it. Moira was interested in seeing what the fuss was about.

For those that don't know Mü is a trick taking game primarily for 5 players where you bid for the right to name trumps by revealing cards. The highest bidder names the top half of the trump suit and the 2nd highest bidder names the bottom half - e.g. trumps can be the Green suit followed by the Blue suit or all the 6s followed by all the Greens. The highest bidder chooses a partner from one of the other three players while the second highest bidder and the other two players form the opposition.


Carl explained the rules. I was the first and only unsuccessful Chief (6s/Green), which pushed me down to -1. Anna was the next Chief (Black/Blue), Carl was the third Chief (Green/Yellow) finally Anna again (7s/Blue). The two part trump suits were difficult to get used to, especially when one half was a number, and I think we all reneged at least once!


My score suggests that not only was I no good at picking trumps, I was also no good at winning tricks either (though Andrew accidentally trumped me illegally at one point).

Anna 210
Moira 112
Carl 93
Andrew 92
Ian 3

Anna and Andrew then taught Carl and I Tichu. Tichu is a climbing game played in partnerships, with lots of bells and whistles. You play higher ranking card(s) than the previous person or pass, once three players pass the last person to play wins those cards and leads. The aim is to run out of cards first, though some of the scoring comes from the cards you win. Carl and I were keener on calling Tichu than our teachers, though I failed to make it once.

Ian and Anna 790
Carl and Andrew 410

We terminated the game early so Anna and Andrew could make a run for the bus.



At the other table Anne and John Rees taught John Bingham Brass. This was Travis's second game. Anne said afterwards that she thought there were more empty building spaces at the end of the game than she had seen in recent 4 player games. The second half of the game was characterized by a lack iron and coal. Travis built 62 points worth of railways (compared to Anne and John R who built 20 each). John B built two ship building yards. Travis was the victim of over building by Anne and John B (though he said we would have preferred to have built over John R), while Anne took two of the building sites he was counting on in the last turn. He was "royally screwed".

Anne 133
John R 128
John B 118
Travis 109